If it is possible to see events through rose-coloured spectacles with a tartan tint, John Harris achieves it in his inability to see the truth of Scottish so-called independence (Scotland’s case for splitting away is easier to make than ever, 29 April). Harris laments Brexit, but the arguments used by Scottish nationalists for breaking up the UK are the exact mirror of those employed by English nationalist Brexiters for leaving the EU. It is the same poisonous mixture of grudge and grievance, economic illiteracy, inflated rhetoric, outright lies, empty promises and deliberate “othering”, with added flags and appeals to emotion over reason. In one case the EU is the ogre, and in the other the UK.
The Scottish people rejected “independence” five years ago. Whatever Harris may believe and SNP politicians might say, they are not about to change their minds. Harris also fails to recognise that the economic damage to Scotland of leaving the UK would be much worse than that to the UK of leaving the EU, not mention the cultural and other consequences of destroying a 300-year-old union with our fellow islanders. Whatever it might become, an “independent” Scotland would not be a land flowing with the milk and honey, nor indeed human kindness.
As for Brexit, the solution to threat is not to meekly kowtow to the forces of nationalism, whether English or Scottish. It is to counter and defeat the falsities and the weaknesses in the case made by Brexiters, just as the falsities and weaknesses in the case for Scottish independence were exposed and defeated in 2014.
Alex Gallagher
Largs, North Ayrshire
• I am always slightly bemused when journalists make occasional and fleeting visits to Scotland and then tell us Scots how lucky we are to live in such a progressive and liberal country, courtesy of the SNP, when the reality is much different. Our once proud Scottish education system is failing, teacher shortages are causing real concerns, and Scottish students are, as a result of roll-capping in our universities, losing out to foreign students who pay fees. People are waiting much longer for hospital appointments, some rural areas have no GPs, and local authority budgets have been decimated, resulting in a dramatic decline in local services.
Scotland, as a result of the Barnett formula, receives £1,600 more than England for every man, woman and child, a fact Nicola Sturgeon never acknowledges when she makes her rallying call for independence to her Trumpian-like base. Sadly, Ms Sturgeon has set Scotland once again on a path where the language of division, conflict and discord will dominate the national conversation.
Maureen Henry
Glasgow
• John Harris is right to say that Scotland should “leave behind the current wretchedness” of Brexit “and find something better”. But in saying that there’s “a great mess of unresolved disagreements within England”, if anything he underestimates the problems facing his homeland. The future global economy will be dominated by three superpowers: the US, China and, potentially strongest of all, the EU. To some extent, a post-Brexit UK will inevitably be cut off from and shunned by the European economic colossus.
Tory home counties post-imperial fantasies will add to England’s economic woes. Like Ireland, an independent Scotland would suffer greatly from its nearest neighbours’ reduced circumstances. Scots should seize the moment, cut themselves free from English complacency and seek to stay at the heart of the EU.
Joe McCarthy
Dublin, Ireland
• The usually perceptive John Harris has a blind spot about the question of Scottish independence. He does not consider the SNP’s failure to properly address the difficulties of breaking up the UK, including the near-permanent austerity that would result. He does not grapple with the fact that in 10 years in power, the SNP have presided over declines in health and education without remotely threatening to use the devolved powers they already have. He advocates for a Scottish exceptionalism as untethered from reality as the English exceptionalism that has fuelled Brexit. Our current politics gives a clear example of the dangers of major constitutional change undertaken on the basis of incomplete facts and driven by jingoistic expressions of national superiority. Scottish independence at this time would be an order of magnitude more destructive and destabilising than even our current predicament.
Gerard Scott
Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne
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