EXCELLENT letter from Graeme Goodall this weekend (Oil and gas should have changed this country forever, Letters, October 21). In September 2014, in the final week of campaigning, I was helping to man the local Yes office when a chap who worked in the oil industry came in and we started talking about oil. He told me that days before, he and some of his co-workers had been talking about oil’s future in Scotland with their American boss.

The American explained that Scotland has an abundance of oil reserves yet to be developed, and that the US company for which he was a top-ranking executive had no problem whatsoever with independence, leaving those workers with the impression that all those so-called “experts” were lying through their pearly whites at worst, and completely under the influence of Better Together, and Westminster and Whitehall (undoubtedly the latter rather than the former), at best.

The point that Graeme Goodall makes, and with which I absolutely agree, is not that renewables are not the way forward, albeit that oil still has a role to play in Scotland’s future, but that we were lied to and cheated by manipulative mandarins in Whitehall and mendacious politicians in Westminster, not to mention the usual sycophantic cabal in Scotland who take great pride in running down their own country’s potential. That is the point. That shows just how much we matter to Westminster and the future of the UK, just as the McCrone Report burial operated in the same way. That makes it plain to all with eyes to see and a single operating grey cell the real reasons (add in Faslane and Coulport and sundry other must-keeps, such as the fishing industry and farming, our Scottish territorial waters, whisky, etc.) why we will not be allowed to remove ourselves quietly and with dignity from the UK fur-lined manacles.

If Westminster/Whitehall had even the remotest sense, or understanding of reality, they would have set the ball rolling for devolution in England and a four-part new British parliament with parity and fairness built in to it. That they have no intention of allowing Scotland – or, indeed, any other part of the UK that is not England – to secede from the Union, simply proves how duplicitous they are in keeping the status quo. It suits the largest part of the UK to have this disparity and inequity at its heart – or, at least, it suits the ruling elite who proffer even to their own citizens the fallacious impression that Scotland is a financial burden (GERS) when the truth is actually, in reality, the precisely opposite case.

Next time, we absolutely must get this across to our citizens, whether they hail originally from Scotland or from elsewhere. This cosy UK consensus – which derives from imperialism and colonialism, and to which so many in our midst adhere unthinkingly – must be exposed to the chill winds of reality and its naked form clothed with the vestments of that reality. That this will necessitate a cold-hearted exposure to the political elements of reality, too, for long-held delusions, becomes inevitable and, in the longer term, a kindness. It might just save us from a future in a Tory (or Labour, or coalition) hell that will come, as the moon follows the sun, post-Brexit.

Lorna Campbell, via email

IT’S a mistake to constantly go on about North Sea oil & gas. That boat has floated off — if Scotland gains independence then yes, there will be revenues from current/future fields. Bonus. However, past gains/losses by Westminster should be pushed aside. The real future of energy production, long term, must surely be renewables. Scotland has plenty potential for this; way more than the rUK. If common folk (like me) are to be persuaded towards indy on the back of energy promises, look to the future; don’t blame the past.

Andrew Morgan, via thenational.scot