Nicola Sturgeon has complained that No voters had in 2014 jeopardised Scotland’s place in the EU. First, Scotland is not a member state, the UK is. Second, Sturgeon knows very well that, if there had been a vote to secede from the UK in September 2014, Scotland could potentially have been outside the EU for a whole year as a result of leaving a member state on 24 March 2016, its “Independence Day”.

The party that would have left Scotland in a position where it would have been outside both the UK and the EU (and Nato, for that matter), makes “being dragged out of the EU against its will” its reason for demanding another referendum. You could not make it up.

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh

Wouldn’t it have been better to ask the people of Scotland in the 2014 independence referendum if they “wanted to remain a part of the United Kingdom if the UK pulled out of Europe?”

It would have saved all this division.

David Mitchinson

North Yorkshire

Now isn’t the time

Theresa May has told Nicola Sturgeon , “Now Is Not The Time” in relation to the proposal to hold a second Scottish referendum, however it seems that that we are rushing headlong into our exit from Europe regardless of the economic implications this has for our country at the present time.

Key public services across the country are struggling to deliver services because of a lack of funding. Education, social care, police and prison services are all in a critical state.

Our withdrawal from the European Union could not have come at a worse time as it will create years of uncertainty and actually cost us a great deal of money. Of course the Brexiteers will claim we will save on the money we pay for our membership whilst failing to acknowledge the financial gains we receive from the EU.

Yes, the referendum was in favour of us leaving Europe but our leaders didn’t fully understand the implications (and still don’t) so how could we as electors make a balanced and informed decision?

We can’t afford to leave the EU and someone needs to be brave enough to come clean and tell the electorate that “Now Isn’t The Time”.

P Carswell

Cheshire

Burkini

Hannah Fearn argues that the burkini is about a woman’s right to choose (Why exactly did Macron and Le Pen waste so much time talking about the burkini?, 22 March).

If this were the case, then the beaches of Saudi Arabia would be heaving with women wearing bikinis, or regular swimsuits, rather than the obligatory head-to-toe cover-up.

We don’t see men wearing “men-kinis”, or whatever the (non-existent) male equivalent would be.

The burkini, along with the hijab, niqab and burka, are symbols of oppression and should be viewed as such, not lauded as some kind of benign lifestyle choice.

Rob Prince

London

Martin McGuinness

The death of Martin McGuinness is a timely reminder that, had politicians had the courage to acknowledge the need for political change in Northern Ireland back in the 1970s when they were told that a political solution was the only way, then twenty years of carnage would have been avoided.

How many other conflicts are in progress because politicians are defending the indefensible?

Joanna Pallister

Durham

Thank you so much for writing that Martin McGuinness’s funeral will be happening in Derry City, when other media outlets have apparently abandoned its policy of referring to the city as Derry/Londonderry. They are now just using the latter name in their reporting where his burial is to occur.

Alistair Vincent