Global and domestic woes are more important than squabbles over separatism

Scientists studying the latest coronavirus renamed the new strain Covid-19 when they saw that its development and risks were significantly different from previous versions.

The media, most politicians and commentators have been slow to adopt the new name, thinking that either we can’t handle the change – or because they didn’t want the name-change to cause alarm.

And so, too, with Scottish independence.

This has changed beyond recognition from what was fantasised in the lead-up to the 2014 referendum.

Brexit has shown us how difficult it is to leave a union, causing delay and distraction from dealing with existing problems

The Sustainable Growth Commission, the drop in the oil price and a potential European

Union-united Kingdom border at Berwick highlight the economic risks and the stated intention of leaving the United Kingdom to re-join the European Union contradicts the very definition of independence.

Of course, the SNP are content with the name and its implied romantic and heroic connotations. They would not want a name-change to alert people to the different circumstances and risks. It’s surely now time to call the movement “separatism” and its supporters “separatists” – with all the risks that implies.

In the face of a climate emergency, possible health pandemic, global economic slowdown and domestic woes from health education and homelessness to prisons and policing, it would be an act of selfharm to allow Holyrood and Westminster to spend valuable time squabbling about separation.

MARK OPENSHAW Earlswells Road, Cults, Aberdeen

As one of those hoping for Scotland to rejoin the world as a normal, independent country, using its ample human and natural resources to look after our own people and contribute usefully to the world, I welcome the letter from Allan Sutherland (28 February) in which he anticipates an SNP majority in the Holyrood elections and an unanswerable demand for Indyref2.

I regret that he fears this situation and would like to reassure him that pensions and social services are likely to improve with independence and be comparable with the prosperous and independent countries of Scandinavia.

DAVID STEVENSON Blacket Place, Edinburgh