I REALLY need to respond to the author of the long letter in Wednesday’s National.

The logic behind this letter in my opinion is flawed. Clearly anyone who supports an independent Scotland but not in Europe has the right in an EU election to vote for a party which does not support Remain. But to vote for the Brexit Party leaves me rather aghast. They are in my view a protest vote but this does not ignore the fact that their ethos and membership have political and economic views of the right if not the far right.

If your issue is No to the EU then perhaps a vote elsewhere or an abstention would be more appropriate. I would hope that any SNP supporter would always vote SNP. May I remind those – and I believe there are a number – who do say No to Europe that after independence it will be up to the party which wins the first post-independence election to offer the people the opportunity to decide whether they wish membership of the EU or not, unless the party which wins have it up there in lights in their pre-election manifesto.

The suggestion that we should honour the Brexit vote as a party to placate our masters down south simply because it was a UK vote is in my view illogical. Personally the position of the rest of the UK concerns me not in the slightest. It is not for the so-called UK to dictate to the Scots when we should hold a referendum and all that is important is that our Nation tells England/UK that in our country we support Remain to the tune of 60+%. We should not find ways of ingratiating ourselves to get a Section 30. It is not “vague EU waffle” to wish to remain in one of the world’s biggest free markets (customs union/single market).Our economy will continue to thrive in such a market. This EU election. even it was regarded as a re-run of 2016. is NOT a victory for the Leave vote. If anything it reinforced the Remain vote of Scotland and increased the Remain vote in the rest of the UK. In reality it has continued the stalemate in the UK.

Finally, it is a reality that Scots. and in fact a number of SNP voters. have and will continue to vote for Leaving the EU. Some will do so with a fervent belief that the UK should strive towards the creation of GREAT Britain once again, in my view an illusion. Others perhaps choose this

path on the grounds that independence in Europe is the same as independence in the UK, and many of these voters are SNP members and sympathisers.

All I would say is put your vote for Scottish independence before your desire to leave the EU. By staying in the EU I believe we will never lose our independence, and there is little doubt such a decision to join Europe will be a decision for the first post-independence party which wins and the first post-independence election.

All who believe in our right to be a free sovereign nation stand fast!

Dan Wood
Kirriemuir

JULIA Pannell puts forward credible reasons for being an SNP supporter and a Brexit voter, but her argument is flawed.

Whatever its faults, the EU will provide an independent Scotland with the recognition, credence and support we’ll need during our early years because, make no mistake, our immediate neighbour will not release us from the Union graciously. Anticipate obstacles, dirty tricks, malice and hostility from the government south of the Border.

In the face of such anger, derision and bitterness, Scotland will need powerful friends and immediate trading partners.

The EU needs to change, but so does Westminster, and Scotland, as a European state member, has more chance of influencing change in Brussels than we will ever have as a very unequal UK partner in the House of Commons.

Pauline Taylor
Elgin