A vote for Scotland

SIR – If there is to be a second referendum on the separation of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom (Simon Heffer, Opinion, March 5), then all of us in the UK should be given a vote, not just the Scots. John Brandon Tonbridge, Kent SIR – Simon Heffer calls on Theresa May to forestall Nicola Sturgeon’s constantly threatened second independence referendum by setting a date for one herself. Tempting, but it would be a mistake.

For valid historic reasons, Scotland as a nation (with a population not much greater than that of Yorkshire) is super-sensitive to any hint of condescension or control by its much larger neighbour.

If a referendum were to be called by the Westminster government it would be all too easy for the SNP to portray it as overbearing interference in Scotland’s affairs.

Mrs May has set the correct course – friendly and co-operative, while remaining absolutely unyielding and firm – and she must not allow herself to be wrong-footed. No more devolution: the demands would be endless.

In the meantime, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives’ leader, being Scottish herself, is less vulnerable, and can be safely left to continue savaging her opponents. She is good at it, and appears to enjoy it.

The SNP’s influence is clearly ebbing, and its incompetence in implementing its own ill-thought-out policies of nannying micromanagement, centralisation, and robbing the Peters of E Band and above Council Tax payers in the NorthEast to pay for the support of the SNP-voting Pauls in the Central Belt is bitterly resented.

The SNP’s own arrogance and self-contradictory policies will eventually scupper it, and if Ms Sturgeon is forced to summon up enough courage to call another referendum, it will happen all the sooner. John Duff Braemar, Aberdeenshire