READER I Easton, (Letters, August 3) asks, as did Iain Bruce the previous day, what course of action our SNP government is going to take or advise on November 1. Surely the answer is that it is just not possible to know what the conditions will be on that fateful day.

So far no-one has been seen to do so, but I will stick my head above the parapet and say that on November 1 I think we will still be in the EU. Right now everyone seems hell-bent on taking Boris’s word for it that we will be out. That has been his trick for years; shout something often enough and loud enough and people take it as fact. Even some correspondents to this journal are believing it.

At the end of the day I don’t think that the House of Commons will allow a No Deal – just fall out of the EU – to happen, unless of course the Labour party benches make a terrible mess of it.

If we are still in the EU on that date there is no saying with what chaos we will be surrounded. Disintegrating political parties at Westminster; in the throes of an upcoming General Election; a further extension to the leaving deadline beyond October 31 in agreement with the EU; who can tell?

The one certain fact in all of this mess is that there just isn’t sufficient time between now and the end of October for all the necessary things to happen. Take off the hols now in progress, and the time which will be wasted – as seen by most ordinary voters – on party conferences, and there just are not enough days left to get the shortest of legal jargon through parliament as required. Even all these shiny new recruits positions for Border Force staff will not be filled, let alone trained, in time!

Next deadline when? Or cancellation of Article 50?!

George M Mitchell
Dunblane

IN his letter (Aug 1), Christopher Bruce felt that my previous effort on UDI had been dangerous and that I presented all-embracing statements as facts. I wonder, if I were to furnish more arguments to support my statements, will I become less dangerous? An unfortunate consequence indeed!

Christopher bemoaned my lack of examples of failed UDIs. I could simply list them all but Biafra – where a war of liberation was unsuccessfully fought in 1967 within Nigeria, which in turn regarded the conflict as a civil war – provides a fine though brutal example. In 2017 Catalonia declared UDI and that has failed. Crimeans declared independence from the Ukraine in 2014 and that conflict goes on. Just as successful revolution begets legality, only an ultimately successful UDI begets independence.

Paul Simon, the diminutive musical wonder of New York, opines that there are 50 ways to leave your lover. That is highly arbitrary and contentious numerical projection in my humble view so I will not say (for fear of upsetting Christopher Bruce and others) how many different routes to freedom are available to us, but there are many and I truly don’t care what ultimately succeeds so long as it’s peaceful.

England can kick us out, we can use a referendum or UDI, we can have a Velvet Revolution or a Velvet Divorce. It could happen by accident when everyone is looking the other way. We can go to the opera one evening and leave en masse early singing arias of freedom as happened in Belgium in 1830. It truly disnae matter. Let’s just get on with it and stop the unproductive bickering.

David Crines
Hamilton

I GREW up in England and like Alan Taylor found some things to admire but now wonder if they were actually myths (What happened to England?, August 4). I found it very tolerant ... as long as I learned not to roll my Rs or celebrate Scotland’s (admittedly rare) sporting achievements too openly. I can still just about pass myself off as “norf London”.

There was a basic insecurity with the loss of Empire ... I think it’s got more pronounced. Things that were suitable for gently taking the mickey out of themselves are now deadly serious. I don’t think it would be possible for something like Dad’s Army to be commissioned today – it doesn’t fit with “The Great British XYZ” template.

I really worry about what the reaction will be when there are real consequences (food and medicine shortages) for this “lark”. I think it will be ugly.

Douglas Deans
via thenational.scot

THE more we buy electric cars, the more there will be a need to produce more electricity. Has anyone calculated how much additional kWh will be required? Has anyone thought about how this sizeable additional amount is going to be produced? Will the various green sources that we have be able to cope with this increase?

Or, will we also need to continue using a mixture of fossil fuels? Will this drive for electric means of transport affect our ability to achieve our target of zero-carbon emissions by 2024?

George McKnight
West Calder