IN January 2020, just before the world was transformed before our very eyes, I attended an event at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe where around 100 people, most of whom voted Yes in 2014, tried to make sense of a General Election which had just returned the highest Conservative majority since 1987. That night, a fairly homogenous panel of guests discussed the primary landmarks of that election. Inevitably, Brexit was the pinnacle around which much of the discussion coalesced.

One panellist stated her aversion to those who voted to leave. “I would not like to dwell long in the mirky mind of a Brexiteer,” said she with tangible venom. When the conversation inevitably transferred to the audience, I was first to raise my hand.

As one of those in attendance who voted for Leave in 2016, I objected to the remarks which I said had more potential to make enemies of our greatest allies with whom we will need to stand alongside to achieve the grand vision of independence.

As a result of these encounters, I have often wondered if there is any demographic more misunderstood in Scottish politics than those whose support for independence extends to independence from the European Union.

This was again the case when, in last week’s edition of the Sunday National, the “studiously neutral” David Clarke (Backwards-looking Brexit has made time stand still, June 20), wrote us off as a homogenous bloc who were “hoodwinked into voting Leave…” No David, we weren’t.

As highlighted by Lord Ashcroft polling, the inconvenient truth remains that 36% of those who transported the SNP to its biggest electoral victory at a Westminster election in its history in 2015, also voted to leave the European Union a year later.

To ever achieve independence, we will need a significant chunk of those one million who voted Leave and who also support the concept of Scotland’s political and economic sovereignty to vote that way in a future referendum. We are allies, not your enemies.

However, this reality is currently in peril as, in April, our First Minister ruled out holding a referendum on EU admission in an independent Scotland. Instead, she stated her intention to publish a “detailed prospectus” ahead of a second Scottish independence referendum, which would ultimately weld the concept of EU entry to the notion of independence.

This not only puts those of a “double out” persuasion in a tricky position but also imperils the whole potential of ever achieving independence.

It is a gift for the Unionist side and is an unnecessary pothole to place on the path to independence. If the Scottish Government are confident about Scotland’s love for the EU then why not put that prospectus to a democratic test? Is it because any EU deal would inevitably involve being welded to a weaker currency, make us incapable of signing a free trade agreement with our biggest trading ally and lead, according to our best economists, to 10 years of austerity before even submitting an application?

Fellow supporters of independence tell me we need to get independence first and then concern ourselves with the EU but Ms Sturgeon’s prospectus does not afford those of us who believe in true independence that option. And for what reason precisely should we return to our vacated chairs at the European table?

To posit the same question Anne Enger astutely asked in 1994 when she led the “No to EU” campaign during Norway’s referendum on the subject – “To what problem is the EU a solution?”

Will the people of an independent Scotland want back into the European Union and, if so, why not pledge to ask them?

Ewan Gurr established Dundee Foodbank and is the former head of The Trussell Trust in Scotland. Separately, Ewan is a non-executive director for a Scottish Government agency and the national organiser for Restore Scotland. This article is written in a personal capacity