I REFER to your article ‘It’s a simple fact’: Top EU chief on Scotland having no big obstacles to EU entry (June 21).

This is perfectly true. There are no major obstacles to Scotland joining the EU or EFTA after independence, if her people so choose.

But it is to be noted that independence has to be achieved first ... and that itself depends on fighting the case for independence on “the broad general case for independence” as Nicola has previously said, and not posing it as a way of staying in the EU. The campaign for independence needs to be able to unite both Yes Leave voters and Yes Remain voters.

We need every indy vote to win independence. It’s surely in the interests of Yes Remainers to realise that, since without independence they will be trapped in a Brexit UK.

So, since it’s clear that Scotland can have the choice as an independent nation on whether to join the EU or EFTA or not, since it is clear that it can ONLY do that as an independent nation, and since it would only be basic democracy to put the question to the Scottish people in their own referendum based on the arguments and circumstances of the time, why oh why doesn’t the SNP leadership state simply and unequivocally that an independent Scotland will have its own referendum on EU, EFTA or not, if Scots vote for independence at the next indyref?

Such a vote could be held in the lifetime of the first Scottish Parliament of an independent Scotland.

It satisfies the demands of democracy and realpolitik. It satisfies the idea of independence being about choice. And it clears the cognitive path for independence, giving both pro-EU and EU-sceptic voters a good reason to back indy because they know everyone will get their democratic say on the matter once indy is achieved. With the EU issue disentangled from the indy question, but a democratic choice on the matter promised AFTER indy is achieved, independence would begin to rise inexorably in the polls.

The alternative is to risk losing the next indyref by giving the impression that a vote for indy is a vote for the EU.

And surely the SNP are not going to propose that an independent Scotland can or should join the EU or EFTA without a ballot of the people first?

Steve Arnott

Inverness

THE argument for Brexit was for us to take back control of our affairs from the European Union. What price our having control now that MPs have been sidelined in matters relating to our country’s relationship with Europe?

By emasculating MPs in determining the course of Brexit, and even whether the final “deal” is in our interests at all, we who elected our representatives effectively now have no say through them in the future of the nation. Isn’t this the real democratic deficit?

Aren’t we living through the most extraordinary and preposterous period in our parliamentary “democracy”, with powers repatriated from the EU being transferred to our Machiavellian Tory government?

The truth is that the UK has been politically hijacked by vested media-led interests who are determined to drive through the insanity of Brexit irrespective of common sense and logic.

More than three million EU citizens are to be granted “settled status” and it will take considerable resources in time and money to process each individual’s application, to bring them to a status quo they already enjoy through our membership of the EU.

We should not underestimate how the shambolic, undemocratic machinations of Westminster will impact on the minds of those who will vote in the next independence referendum. Nor should we forget how Scotland has been ignored in the process.

Let’s not forget the political mess we are in on referendum day.

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

PETER Bell (Website Comments, June 20) hits the nail on the head when he says there are people “who simply cannot understand why anybody would challenge the authority of the British state or question the efficacy and desirability of British governance”’

The way some people in Scotland see it, if we carry on with a war against Westminster we’re in for a hard beating. It’s the worst kind of fatalism, that kind that makes you give up before you’ve even taken a chance.

They are in every walk of life, including inside our own parliament. And they all think of themselves as patriots, although it’s a strange kind of patriotism to act against the interests of your own country.

As Peter says, to many people, “the British ruling class is a natural phenomenon, much like the winds and the tides”. The Scottish people, for far too long, have been surreptitiously subjugated by our larger neighbour to the extent that they now see Scotland as part of the UK, not a country in its own right.

Because of this outlook, one of the things that influences many of these people is a sort of pessimism. When victory seems to them to be impossible, they want to settle for the sort of defeat that they think will go down least hard on them.

It’s a kind of surrender on terms. Thanks to the British media, they see Westminster steamrollering its way across (subjugated) Scotland and they reckon nothing can stand up to it.

Some see it as a certainty and think that as a matter of sheer practicality we need to swallow our pride and accept what is coming from Westminster.

The deal Westminster is offering is very tempting to these people: leave Brexit and governance to Westminster and the UK can have Scotland’s resources and anything else that’s up for grabs.

And this is why the Scottish Government, the pro-independence parties and supporters (with the invaluable help of this newspaper) must fight, with one voice, the mass-media message to remove that sort of pessimism from the people of Scotland.

Dennis White

Lanark