DEAR England and Wales.

I’m what you call a Millennial. Part of what Time magazine ignorantly dubbed the “Me Me Me Generation”. A 28-year-old trained scientist who found his way into journalism.

I lived in and reported from Glasgow throughout indyref for the bulk of the UK’s national papers, which were vehemently against the notion of us Scots breaking up the Union.

All through my school years I had never really considered the thought of Scotland going it alone. But then one day it became our nation’s official pursuit, and I was doing the legwork for the Daily Mail.

I thought long and hard, and tried to remain as neutral as I could in order to hear both sides of the argument, for and against. As a former geologist with much of my family working in North Sea oil, I weighed up the volatility of the oil price and decided that, in 2014, I did not feel Scotland had provided me with a strong enough reason to pull out of the Union.

It was almost flattering, how during indyref us Scots were begged to stay in the Union, being told we were Better Together and that it was the only way we could still be part of the EU. I did my undergrad degree in Leicester, and my masters in Cardiff, and spent my sixth form years just outside London. I had experienced the value and richness the UK had to offer, and so I chose to vote No. I’ve never been a nationalist anyway, in any sense of the term.

We were told we could only stay part of the EU if we voted in favour of remaining in the UK. For many, including myself, that was a key factor in our decision.

But now I feel betrayed, along with my family and friends. Thanks to the demographics of the England and Wales Brexit voters, the elderly and the baby boomers have decided that their anti-immigration fantasy must come to fruition, ignoring the fact that their children and grandkids will be the ones paying the long-term cost: a tanked economy, reduced social mobility, fragile social security, increasingly privatised healthcare, and a reduced and privatised education system.

I haven’t felt this angry in so long. Why have people who reaped the benefits of the EU for decades decided to take it away from those of us who have our whole lives ahead to experience it for ourselves?

I was so lucky to grow up with a passport that let me freely travel across the most socially mobile region in the world without hindrance or cost. Whether we can guarantee that will remain in a post-Brexit Britain is a matter that we will not get to decide.

Now, I half want to watch baby boomers queue for a visa to visit the Costa del Sol and the south of France every summer, complain about the terrible rate of the pound and fret over how their pensions dropped 31 per cent in just five hours.

“We didn’t vote for this. What an inconvenience. They (Project Fear) never said this would happen” they’ll say. I’m calling that now.

But the UK has made its bed. Now we must watch the country democratically tear itself apart, as Scotland rises up with renewed vigour for indyref2 and Northern Ireland seeks away from England too. What a shame, Little Britain, what a shame. And for what?

Bravo, You got your country back from the “undemocratic bureaucrats” in Europe. Now you can let the unelected in the House of Lords and a divided austerity government take things from here. The sun is finally setting on the “British Empire”.

I now firmly and openly back independence for Scotland. A future I was very much against. But this was the proverbial straw – too many broken promises and the difference between us is so much greater than you or I could ever have anticipated.

Alexander Lerche
Stonehaven


WHY have I switched from No to Yes? Being a graduate of an interpreting and translation degree, and currently studying my MSc in the same field (at Heriot-Watt), it is hard enough to find meaningful employment as it is. Withdrawing from the EU serves only to plunge young people such as myself into even more uncertainty, and limits our career prospects considerably. We live in a time of global turmoil, where extremist activity aims to divide and conquer us. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk reaction to this by 51.9 per cent of the UK population has opened the door to further conflict, separating us from those who are our closest allies. Finally, economically speaking, the volatility which we will now experience in the coming days, weeks, months or even years will be an incredible hurdle. Less than a decade after the last economic crisis and we now stand at the precipice, staring in to the potential loss of our AAA grade. Marc McPherson Edinburgh


JK ROWLING has tweeted that Scotland will move to independence after Brexit. It is revealing this is the first reaction of a commentator and activist for Better Together from the indyref1 era to the result. Interestingly, one recalls JK Rowling saying that 2014 was not yet the time for Scotland to go for independence from the UK and a more appropriate time in the future would be advantageous, though she did not elaborate precisely on conditions or situations or triggers. Now it seems there is a change of perception, and this may well be mirrored in other reactions to the unanimity across all local authority areas of Scotland for Remain. How the present Westminster Unionist branch parties react to the democratic decision of the Scots is another matter. The divergence between Scotland and England in particular was most marked, and points again to the democratic deficit in Scotland where we are being denied as a nation the right to follow our own path within Europe and the EU. We are now encumbered with an ever more right-wing-leaning neighbour south of the Tweed displaying increasingly xenophobic tendencies among large sections of its population from north to south. Earlier indications of this were the increase, ironically, in the number of Ukip MEPs from England at the last European elections in 2014. John Edgar Blackford


ISN’T it ironic that the larger farmers who had huge bales with “No Thanks” and fields ploughed with “No” down the A90 during the indyref all based on the fear that Scotland would be expelled from Europe if it voted for independence are now having to face up to the fact that that is exactly where they now are – OUT of Europe and likely to see half of their EU subsidy income slashed. Most of Scotland voted to Remain and would have been OK with the EU farming subsidy policy to continue. I doubt if Scotland and its farmers will see much of this £350million/week that will no longer be paid to the EU, after all it was over-pledged to support the NHS, defence, and lots more than the yearly £10 billion could ever have funded. It is also interesting to see that the youth of Scotland, and for that matter the UK, were in favour of staying in. It has yet again been the older generation who voted to leave who have dashed the hope and aspirations of the young. The youth are obviously much more outgoing, engaging, accommodating and willing to move Europe forward as one, but instead we in Scotland are now condemned to the English shirt tails and the “Little England” mentality of them and us. Scotland has always been outward-looking: the very fact that wherever you go you will find Scots who have relocated, integrated and thrived for the good of that country is testament to this. On June 23 it was not, as Farage said, “independence Day”, not for Scotland – that day is still to come and hopefully it will in the near future. Roy Bertram Kemnay


MY source in the palace tells me the Queen was purring over her hot milk on Friday on learning that Ca-Moron was stepping down! Steve Cunningham Aberdeen