Shelve Indyref2

Before the 2014 Scottish independence referendum there was clear public support to have the vote and cross-party backing for it.

With neither of these the case today, it is surely perfectly reasonable for the UK government not to agree to a second referendum just now. We should at least wait until we can see the real impact of Brexit rather than take a view based on the ever more nightmarish vision Nicola Sturgeon keeps trying to conjure up as she hopes it will somehow benefit the SNP.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Borders

Martin Redfern is right to point out Nicola Sturgeon’s hypocrisy with regard to ‘Little Englanders’ (Letters, 27 July).

Not a few nationalists are in the same Caledonian category, demonstrated not least by their unwillingness to learn even a smattering of important European languages. It’s sometimes cringeworthy listening to them on holiday abroad; Rab C Nesbitt in Spain springs to mind.

Yet what is one’s nationality? When asked, I reply: “Fifer.” There’s no contradiction in having a globalist outlook and having a “Heimat”, as the Germans say. It’s time to reject the EU’S centralist tendencies and Balkanise Europe.

If someone formed a Fife National Party, I would join.

GEORGE MORTON Gauss Str, Stuttgart, Germany

In the midst of his telling the new Prime Minister that he would be the last of the UK, SNP MP Ian Blackford asked if the £14 billion Barnett money for Scotland would be safe.

A rather peculiar question for a man desperate to be independent and therefore must have all the levers in place to manage without the taxpayers of the whole United Kingdom’s help.

However, would this be an opportunity for the new administration at Westminster to visit the Scottish finance secretary and do an extensive audit of the use of Barnett and the billionpound black hole in the SNP books?

I think the people of Scotland would welcome the findings.

DORIS M H DUFF Belmont Gardens, Edinburgh