Courts may have to decide on Scotland

WITH reference to the debate on whether Scotland should be granted another independence referendum, my first reaction was to say ‘no’, as the last one was supposed to be for ‘once in a generation’.

However, I fear this is not going to go away and the Government may have to resort to the courts for a decision, of which the outcome is by no means certain.

If we recall the last one, it was the combination of the three main Parties (Conservative, Labour, Lib Dems) and the timely intervention by Gordon Brown, that swung the vote against independence, but due to the propaganda put out by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP it may be a little more difficult this time.

Should a second referendum be granted, a strong defence of the Union must be put forward once again by those three parties and the consequences of leaving the UK put to the people of Scotland in plain language.

It must be made quite clear that an independent Scotland will no longer have any of the resources that they now enjoy in the way of trade, defence, monetary union, subsidies and that there will almost certainly have to be a ‘hard border’ between our two countries; also, the idea that they will happily be accepted into the EU and adopt the Euro is by no means a certainty, as that particular organisation has enough problems of its own with the other 27 countries requiring attention.

This Government, if combined with the other main parties (except the SNP of course!) have the power and the arguments to persuade the Scottish people that leaving the Union for the unknown is a very risky venture indeed, and put an end to the posturing of Sturgeon on the SNP for good, but they must work together.

Paul Mercer Tavistock