Brexitdistraction

Climate change, poor productivity, ageing population, falling education standards, mass migration, energy security and cyber threats are all examples of the many problems that our society faces.

After years of debate and a referendum, there is still no clear evidence or majority of opinion that remaining in the EU would solve any of our “real” problems. The same can be said for leaving the EU, whether it be under the negotiated “deal”, no deal, EEA, Norway or Canada-style with various plusses.

While we and our politicians devote most of the national debate to arguing over Brexit little progress is made on tackling the issues we really care about. However, the Brexit genie is already out of the bottle and we only get one wish – with every option involving further distraction, negotiation and disunity.

Whatever your views on Brexit, one thing that should be obvious to us all is that any attempt to add Scotland’s separation from the UK into the mix would be irresponsible folly. It would simply add to the distraction with no clear notion of which of our problems it is supposed to address.

There are three post-brexit scenarios. It could be a success for the UK – in which case why would Scotland want to separate? It could be a disaster – in which case why would Scotland want to repeat and compound the error by separating from its biggest trading and

cultural partner? Or it could be somewhere in between – leaving us wondering why we spent so much time and energy on it when we should have been concentrating on what really ails us.

Let’s resolve Brexit one way or another and then get on with making the UK the best it can be.

MARK OPENSHAW Earlswells Road, Cults, Aberdeen