Inflicting democratic deficit on rUK

ALLAN Sutherland (Letters, August 14) suggests that there should be a “workedout plan agreed with the UK and other stakeholders” prior to any referendum on separation from the UK. This would be fine if this detailed agreement could somehow be magicked into existence.

A plan that “resolves major issues like pensions, currency, debt, transition timescale and cost, borders and trade”, to name just a few of the issues, would require negotiations more complex and costly than the Brexit negotiations that distracted our politicians and civil servants for so long. To inflict this on the entire population of the UK at the behest of less than 50 per cent of Scotland’s adult population would be a fine example of a “democratic deficit” – a term often used by the grievanceseeking SNP.

Mr Sutherland is right to highlight the fact that a referendum without the voters knowing exactly what it is that they are voting for is farcical. Six years after the Brexit referendum, many who voted to leave the EU are disappointed to find that it has not turned out quite as they hoped – with many issues still unresolved.

There are far more pressing problems that we need our politicians to be focused on without creating another. Perhaps the suggestion of a need for a Clarity Act to be included in all party manifestos might at least help people to realise the complexity and risks associated with separation – especially if accompanied by an exhaustive list of issues that would need to be negotiated. Mark Openshaw, Aberdeen.