IS it just me, or might the Scottish independence movement about to become turbocharged in a way nobody has yet realised? Whatever the EU result, our own indyref2 hopes may be approaching a win-win situation. If so, perhaps it is an idea to start preparing for a 2017 re-run of the 2014 plebiscite sooner rather than later? Get ready now, to ensure a second Scottish referendum returns a resounding yes?

The EU logic is compelling. Very soon, on June 23, we will know the UK-EU verdict. Anyone studying the polls could do worse than follow psephologist Matt Singh. He was the one who called the correct result of the 2015 Westminster General Election before anyone else. All the UK polling organisations indicated a hung UK parliament last year. Matt projected the unthinkable: a small Tory majority.

So with delicious irony surrounding the number “45” to all Scottish Yes voters, Matt’s projection for the EU referendum are: 45 per cent voting for Remain and 45 per cent voting for Leave. Too close to call. This is important.

The likely EU result declared on June 24 will be such a tight win for Remain or Leave that England is likely to be looking at Scotland in a way that may well help us gain independence. More irony. Bear with me.

If the UK votes Leave then Westminster will attempt to drag Scotland out of the EU against her wishes. Result: an inexorable demand from Scotland for indyref2. Nicola Sturgeon has been very clear on this. All of Scotland and much of England know that this circumstance is likely to trigger indyref2.

However, what has not been studied in detail are the unintended consequences of a very narrow UK-EU Remain win. Matt Singh is predicting this as a very likely scenario.

Just think about such an outcome for a moment.

If, say, 47 per cent of England voted Leave, and 45 per cent Remain, yet England’s wishes for Brexit are thwarted by Scotland, then prepare for fireworks that Guy Fawkes would be proud of.

Scotland will get the “blame” for keeping England in the EU against its wishes. The EU result can only go in one of two ways: Leave or Remain. Leave and we get IndyRef2. But a narrow Remain verdict and we will probably get asked to leave the UK by half of England!

It has been widely reported in the UK press that Scotland’s oil industry is gubbed. For the first time in history, the UK taxpayer has just rebated Scotland’s oil sector £39 million, instead of us sending the UK Treasury a £6 billion oil-tax cheque. So it would be fair to characterise Scotland as being no financial use to England now that our days as a cash-cow for Westminster chancellors are at an end.

Add this to the 18 months of horrendous anti-Scottish rhetoric spewed forth by the mainstream media since indyref1 (especially in papers sold in England) and it takes little leap of the imagination to see a highly inflamed anti-Scottish media screaming headlines of: “Scotland Keeps England In The EU”.

Flowing from the above will be calls from half of England to get rid of Scotland so that the EU referendum can be re-run and England, without the rebellious Scots, can then get its Leave campaign to work.

The UK media love the idea of England leaving the EU. If Scotland is proven to have kept England in the EU against its wishes, then I can see the Evel Tory Westminster MPs voting to give Scotland indyref2.

So for those in Scotland, who, like me, just want our democracy to be run by politicians we elect and not Westminster Lords and Barons that Governor General David Cameron sends up to his Scottish Raj, is it not an idea for us to start preparing for indyref2 and the Yes win, a lot sooner than many of us expected?

Russ McLean
Carnoustie

Children’s chances of learning are affected by home life

PAT Kane makes a strong case for supporting children’s natural desire to play in their early years, rather than imposing formal education on them before they are ready (Kirsty may be best served by Estonian education model, The National, May 28).

However, just because Finland and Switzerland have both less inequality and kindergarten pre-school systems, that doesn’t mean the latter contributes the former. 

What is needed in terms of evidence is a clearer understanding of the mechanisms by which children do or do not learn, and whether their home life undermines what they are taught in class. This isn’t simply a matter of poverty, but also one of parenting style.

Simon Campbell
Dundee


THE story of Olivier Monongo’s treatment by the Home Office is described in The National as a farce. It is not. It is a Kafkaesque nightmare for this intelligent man (Another home office farce, The National, May 28).

It is also sheer insanity, and the clearest indication yet that the British asylum has been taken over by the inmates. Let’s escape from it and its maladministration as soon as we can.

Peter Craigie
Edinburgh


IT’S high time these sponge-for-brains at Westmonster kept their noses out of Scottish affairs. Immigration should fall under Scots law; the 1707 Act of Union (that they keep hitting us with) states our law is kept separate. The despots in Westmonster should butt out. 

Paul, Irvine
via text


WE should be concerned about French Government plans to change the labour laws to stay “internationally competitive”. If French workers allow this to happen to themselves, you can guarantee that the British Government and many others will follow like a British poodle behind its American master!

Let me assure the British Government here and now that any attempts to do this will probably be met with a level of violence (and no, I am not promoting or condoning this) that would make the London and poll tax riots look like a nursery outing.

Steve, Aberdeen
via text


IN his speech at Hiroshima, President Obama said, “Death fell from the sky, and the world was changed”. Wrong.  Death didn’t “come from the sky” It came from the belly of the Enola Gay, a B 52 bomber piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. This, the greatest single-act war crime in history, was blessed by the Catholic Chaplain, George Zabelka, who later raised a cry from the soul “My God, what have we done? 

 It was not the obliteration of Hiroshima, but the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on August 8, that ended the war. When Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki was asked on August 10 why Japan needed to surrender so quickly, he explained, “The Soviet Union will take not only Manchuria, Korea, Karafuto, but also Hokkaido. This would destroy the foundation of Japan. We must end the war when we can deal with the United States.” For the Americans, the A bomb established dominance over the Soviet Union. It was the spectacular opening move in the new Cold War.

 In 2009, Obama promised to help “rid the world of nuclear weapons” and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I still have a campaign badge with the “O” of his name designed as a CND symbol … boy, was I wrong! 

No American president has built more nuclear warheads than Obama. The US plans to spend at least $1 trillion over the next 30 years to modernise all aspects of its nuclear arsenal. 

While Obama was speaking, at a discrete distance behind, there stood an official carrying the infamous bag containing the codes to launch global nuclear war. For all his fine words, he is ready to do the same again – and infinitely worse.

 This is a painful paradigm of 

our age. It is precisely and solely because we live in denial about Hiroshima that we are prepared to repeat this atrocity, and unimaginably worse. Unless we repent and ban all nuclear weapons, there is no hope of human survival.

Brian Quail
Glasgow


Letters I: Charge against Brexit-backing MSP is not fair


Carolyn Leckie: Alex Salmond has the courage to stand up to racism of the Brexit brigade


George Kerevan: Vote Leave and you risk playing into the hands of the right wing