I AM getting a bit sick of people constantly having a go at Lovina Roe (Letters, January 9) for her views on the EU, many of which I and others share. She was quite right to assert that the EU would crush states which do not accept its political ideology, ie that big states matter and multinational corporations matter. Scotland in the EU would be just a small country trying to find alliances with other small countries.

One elephant in the room is the question of qualified majority voting. True, small countries can band together to stop having something foisted on them against their will, but again, it is horse trading, and is not the main reason we want full independence for Scotland the fact that we are constantly outvoted by England, denying our democratic voice? It seems to me that the EU is not much more democratic than what we have.

Another is the advent of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. This has been brought in at the behest of the EU with little oversight from the European Parliament, but it is not to benefit us, the people, it is to benefit multinational corporations that wish to maximise their profits. We hear little from the EU about the Investor State Dispute Mechanism, whereby national governments are fined if they defy the interests of multinationals.

As was pointed out by George Kerevan last month, the hands-off approach of the EU to Spanish violence in Catalonia is at odds with the EU’s own actions in other countries (Catalonia still has faith in the EU – but can that faith really be justified?, The National, December 17). He points out that the European Commission and European Central Bank were instrumental in interfering in member states by removing democratically elected governments in Greece and Italy in order to placate the god austerity. He continues with: “The Helsinki Accords declared that territorial integrity is trumped in international law by the right of self-determination when a state denies civil and human rights to a national minority,” so the EU’s bland assertion that the vote was illegal and it is an internal matter is false. The Spanish constitution made it impossible to have anything other than a technically illegal vote. There has also been a convenient veil drawn over the fascist near past of Spain, and it is easy to see from Catalonia that Rajoy’s party is the successor of its fascist past. Lastly, he points out that there is nothing in the EU treaties allowing the EU to expel groups of people already within its borders. Remember the threats to Scotland? Do you think they will be silent next time? The EU backs Spain over Catalonia and would back the UK over Scotland.

The EU’s own treaties permit, even demand, action. Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty allows the EU to suspend certain of the rights deriving from the application of the treaties to a member state if there is a serious risk of a breach of Article 2, which states: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.” The EU is thus not powerless to act, as it claims.

I do wish people like Jim Taylor would stop sneering at people like me who voted to leave the EU. I did so not because of Farage, Banks, Johnson, £350 million a week or anything else they assert we were stupid enough to decide our vote on.

I am not uneducated or xenophobic, but view the EU as worryingly undemocratic, or at least deficient. Remainers would be better taking a long hard look at the failings of the EU. I believe an independent Scotland would decide to re-enter the EU, but it is worth having that discussion another time and realistically look at the alternatives. Despite the Scottish majority in favour of EU membership, there is a sizeable proportion of the SNP’s own membership who do not want to remain, probably explaining why the SNP is somewhat lukewarm on attempting to stop Brexit.

Julia Pannell
Friockheim, Tayside