WHAT a delight, pleasure and joy it was to read in The National and indeed view the German Interkart company’s post-Brexit map of Europe with their vision of the EU in 2019 (EU 2019 map shows independent Scotland, The National, February 24).

There it was, Scotland as an independent member with Ireland, alongside the post-imperial Brexitania of England, Wales and Northern Ireland!

Indeed, Britain and the British Empire will finally cease when Scotland once again takes its place in Europe and the world as an independent nation.

While independence brings responsibility and commitment, it also brings joy, freedom and the excitement of achieving our full potential in an explosion of creativity. With rich human and material resources, Scotland needs to have faith in itself as a nation.

To those Scots who lack the vision of Scotland’s future, the words of Hugh MacDiarmid come to mind: “We ha’e faith in Scotland’s hidden poo’ers ... The present’s theirs but a’ the past and future’s oors.”
Grant Frazer
Cruachan, Newtonmore

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Khan has shown his ignorance of Scottish politics

IT was incredible to see Sadiq Khan being completely ignorant of Scottish politics but willing to put his foot straight into his mouth without passing Go or collecting his cash payout.

Last year, I met a friend in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, for a pint on the day Sadiq was elected London Mayor. My friend was furious, barely able to contain his anger, and immediately launched into a prolonged rant.

What had upset him so much was sitting a table’s width away.

It was a group of southern English tourists who were discussing how the country was being taken over by Muslims and it was time to have a clear-out. All this bile was bawled out at the top of their voices, with their protagonist cheerleader looking around to gain as much attention as possible. I had missed the main part of the show but caught enough to get the general idea.

My friend went into full attack mode, talking even more loudly about how their racist opinions were not welcome in Scotland and that their boorish, self-important and self-righteous comments were the product of ignorance and a small-minded imbecility that we would see explode in Middle England a year later.

His rebuttal was delivered full throttle in a broad Yorkshire accent and I agreed in my best Liverpool accent. The unwelcome guests stood up and put their various fleeces and hats on and walked out without saying very much at all.

Explain that, Sadiq.
Ian Greenhalgh
Edinburgh

AS a non-nationalist, mixed race, former Labour SNP supporter, I cannot say how sorry I was to read of Sadiq Khan’s comments on Scottish nationalism. Mainly because I believed him to be someone with political savvy and intelligence. In short, someone the Labour Party desperately needs as it follows Corbyn down the rabbit hole.

All I can offer in response to his ill-informed, misguided comments about Scottish nationalism being akin to racism is this. I am a mixed-race grandmother who – for reasons some will regard as obvious – does not have a nationalist bone in my body. I was also a long-time Labour voter, supporter and even city councillor.

I voted SNP when I moved to Scotland. I will vote SNP again.

I voted this way because the SNP are clearly and loudly and consistently saying what Labour should be saying.

If Nicola Sturgeon finds a way to get this haven out from under the toxic dump that is Westminster and salvage something for the small population up here from the carnage of Brexit, that will be a bonus.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

DID Sadiq Khan come up here with the intent of insulting a large percentage of the Scottish electorate at the Scottish Labour Party Conference or was he badly advised by his hosts ?

Presumably someone in Scotland supplied the information written into Sadiq Khan’s speech and he made the critical error of failing to have it checked out by an independent person or at least one who had some idea of what is happening in Scotland before handing it to the media.

Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour fully deserve the fall-out that has overshadowed whatever it was the Kezia Dugdale was going to reveal in her keynote conference speech.

Had Sadiq Khan not released his speech in advance there probably would have been little harm done, as he was addressing a gathering in Perth that had about as many people in the audience as were on the pitch at Murrayfield.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry

IAN Murray, Labour’s only Scottish MP, says the SNP have no mandate for a second referendum. The 56 SNP MPs elected to Westminster by the people of Scotland say differently, as does a near majority at Holyrood.

Another Labour delegate, Anne Dean, says she could never put a cross in the Yes box for independence and if Scotland won independence vote, would leave Scotland for Sweden or Denmark: two countries who gained their independence and are doing very well with less resources than Scotland has at its disposal (Labour member ‘absolutely sickened’ by the demise of her party, The National, February 25).

I, like her, would like to see a Labour/socialist government. But the only time I will put my cross in the box for a Labour candidate again will be in an independent Scotland. And only if the Labour Party have candidates who are capable of forming a competent and able government.

So instead of running off to Sweden/Denmark, Anne Dean, stay and support Scotland. Help to make it a prosperous country where all its citizens are treated equally and social justice prevails. But do learn Swedish/Danish, as we will in an independent Scotland have a lot to give and receive from each other.
Norman Henderson
Clydebank

SO, Jeremy Corbyn, we Scots have to just sit back and accept Brexit? How out of touch you are with the real world. The Scottish people won’t just sit back and accept everything the Tories hit us with.

Labour backed the nasty welfare cuts on our poorest, now they back a hard Brexit. Only the SNP are holding their feet to the fire. We have two options: either accept decades of Tory rule and cuts and austerity and thousands of jobs going, or we get together, reject the racist hard-right and anti-EU views and choose our own course of independence.
Stevie, Motherwell
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