SEVERAL letters correspondents to The National have apparently conceded that Scotland would have to share a portion the UK’s national £2 trillion debt on independence.

I disagree.

The UK is really England by virtue of the fact that we are governed by the English Westminister Parliament in which Scottish MPs are outnumbered by a factor 10 to 1. This means that Scotland cannot ever hope to influence or agree to anything in that parliament, including handing over all our GDP to England for England to decide what we get back. England calls all the shots, all of the time.

Of course, by calling it the “UK” Parliament, the English establishment creates the impression that Scotland is part of a partnership, “a family of nations,” but nothing could be further from the truth. The UK is England and England is the UK. The only “home” nation that is Better Together in this arrangement is England, because, under the guise of the UK, Scotland, a very wealthy small country, is effectively being asset-stripped for the benefit of London and the south-east and the pet projects of successive English governments.

As someone who was born in England but considers himself a Scot, I can only appeal to all Scots to wake up to the reality that Scotland is no more than a peripheral region of England. Scotland will never truly reach its obvious potential whilst tied to an increasingly chaotic English agenda. If Scots really care about their country, they simply cannot afford to throw away the next opportunity for Scotland to become a successful sovereign nation governed in her own interests by people who care most about Scotland, people who actually live and work here. Scotland has had to sacrifice its own true potential for decades in order to subsidise its bigger neighbour whilst being treated as if we were the subsidy junkies! It’s time to put Scotland first.

Peter Jeal
Dalbeattie

BY 2020 Ireland will have the sixth richest economy on the planet, yet so-called powerhouse Britain won’t make the top 10. This really shows what a drag the Union is on Scotland, holding us back from growing our own country.

Stevie, Motherwell
via text

I MUST agree with Alyn Smith that a hard Brexit is now inevitable for the UK. The question now uppermost for all the UK is what happens after Brexit as non-EU migration continues to rise, and the ethnic nationalist Brexit voter feels betrayed, and other Brexit voters succumb to austerity max.

The “Full Rees-Mogg Brexit”, aka “the Dog’s Vomit of Foolishness”, is clearly and demonstrably already unpalatable to the people of Scotland, and with Johnson now highlighting the dangers of being forced to have austerity max imposed upon the UK by the EU as punishment for a hard Brexit, and Fox having already highlighted the need for more red tape after Brexit, matters would now appear to have materially changed since 2014, and irreversibly so.

Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

I DO not understand the statement of Ian Richmond in his letter of August 25 – he states “I was as confused as Keith Brown in his interview on Friday”. I read Keith Brown’s interview and there was nothing confusing about it.

He also stated “the SNP is the largest political party for independence but is not the only one”. Mr Richmond feels we should all get together and allow every candidate to push their own agenda, which would bring chaos. The SNP was formed to get Scotland’s independence, and it is only with a unified party that this can be done. During the 2014 referendum I spent a lot of time with workers of the Green Party, and had no problem. The Greens’ primary aim is the environment, not independence. There was briefly a Labour for Yes movement but that did not last for long.

What Mr Richmond wants is a broad Yes campaign, which is what the SNP also wants; his statement that a party cannot win an election in three weeks with unknown candidates is exactly what happened in 2017. That was a Westminster election, and the Westminster Parliament had passed a law that there would be five years between elections. Mrs May went walking in the Welsh hills, worrying about her majority, called a snap election, and lost her majority, leaving her dependent on 10 DUP MPs which cost the taxpayer a cool billion.

The UK is in a shambolic state due to battles within the Tory party, and a weak and ineffectual Labour party. Scotland regrets that we did not win for Yes in 2014, due to lies and fabrications from Better Together, and they’re still at it.

Jim Lynch
Edinburgh

READ MORE: Letters, August 25

JIM Fairlie in his frequent letters to The National is very strong on full independence; according to Jim this means that an independent Scotland must have its own currency and not be a member of the EU, particularly as this means obeying EU regulations.

Fair enough, but this would seem to mean that iScotland could not consider joining EFTA/EEA or anything like it as this would mean conforming to EU regulations like Norway, paying for the privilege but having little say in their creation.

It is clear what Jim does not want, but I could give Jim’s arguments more credence if he were to say how he envisages an iScotland going forward as a small country completely on its own. I would worry that this would mean having to set out to make our own deals around the world according to World Trade Organisation rules. Perhaps Jim could reassure me on how he sees Scotland’s place in the world going forward free from the rule-makers of both the UK and the EU.

Tom Crozier
Ayr