I UNDERSTAND the forthcoming elections are going to be taken as a rain check on independence.

As a Brit (I refuse to identify myself as “English”), I support Scottish independence – go if you want to. Given a vote, I would vote SNP – however dysfunctional they appear to be at the moment.

You have never seemed to accept rule from London since the time of Mary Queen of Scots (a particular interest of mine, having visited places associated with her – Loch Leven, Edinburgh, Carlisle and Fotheringay).

But before you judge me too harshly, let me write that I love (correction, “have loved”) Scotland having holidayed no less than four times there (no mean feat for me living 350 miles from even the Border). Not bad for a Sassenach. I’ve visited the Border country, Edinburgh, Perth, Aviemore, Loch Leven, Inverness, John o’ Groats, Oban, Skye, Lochs Ness and Lomond, Cairngorms, Glasgow, Ayr and everywhere in between, but never again. As a Brit and a “Unionist”, I don’t feel welcome anymore in Scotland.

So, have your independence. Of course, we’ll have to order the Queen to sell her beloved Balmoral because we couldn’t provide sufficient security (armed or otherwise) for her in (what will be by then) a “foreign” country.

Her Majesty will, however, have many willing buyers for such a desirable place (starting with Donald Trump – how do you fancy that?), so it won’t be left empty and derelict!!

We’ll have Britannia back though – it will nicely complement the “Cutty Sark” at the Maritime Museum, Greenwich in East London or alongside HMS Belfast in The Pool of London.

You can keep Holyrood – the Queen will have no need for that for future State Opening of your Parliament so you could maybe convert that in to a five-star hotel.

We will, of course, have to close Faslane and relocate that at Plymouth or Portsmouth (with the consequent loss of Scottish jobs that will make the SNP happy) but it wouldn’t be right to have such an important military facility in a “foreign” country. You will also have to establish your own navy, if only to protect your fishing industry...

And then we’ll have to tackle the question of the Border ... that will make Northern Ireland look like a walk in the park!!

And what about the pound? You can obviously continue with your Scottish pound notes but what about the fiscal control of your (new) economy?

You can’t rely on our Bank of England and English fiscal control. You can of course try to rejoin the EU and the euro, but with no direct trade or ferry routes and reliant on custom controls over the Border, good luck with that!! And do you really fondly think the EU want yet another problem?

But above all, I am angry and resentful about the Barnett Formula. The extra subsidy you receive per capita from that enables you to have better life and living conditions than us “down south”, where we don’t have such as free prescriptions, university fees, hospital car parks and much much more besides.

Why should you receive those extra benefits when we don’t? You gaining independence will release millions of pounds for us.

Bring it on!

I fully accept and recognise you might feel “remote” from decisions made in Westminster 400 miles away but I tell you, I live 20 miles from Westminster and I feel equally disconnected with decisions taken there but that’s democracy!!!

So as I say, let’s do it. Let’s lance the boil that’s always been there since the Act of Union (enacted ironically under the Scottish King James VI) and go our separate ways.

R French

Brentwood

Essex