The Spectator

Letters | 9 March 2017

Also in Spectator Letters: Remainer readers; private schools; Rod and the elites; Queen Camilla; Islam; sheep worriers; and mumbling

On Scottish independence

Sir: Alex Massie writes of the order permitting a second Scottish independence referendum: ‘Having granted such an order in 2014, it will be difficult to refuse Mrs Sturgeon’s demand for another’ (‘Back into battle’, 4 March). Surely that is precisely why Mrs May should refuse another? It was the SNP who described the 2014 vote as a chance in a lifetime.

The only thing way in which Brexit could have changed matters is if it had been a fundamental and unforeseeable upset. Alex Massie, from this and his previous writings, clearly believes it was. But the Conservatives, at the time of the Scottish vote, had promised to hold a Brexit referendum if they won the 2015 general election, so Brexit was certainly on the cards. Furthermore, Mrs Sturgeon had been told that if Scotland left the UK, it would have to reapply if it wished to rejoin the EU and accept the single currency. It did not seem to trouble her then.
Tim Hedges
Panicale, Italy

Vote for continuity

Sir: In last week’s piece on Sturgeon and Indyref 2, Alex Massie seems to have overlooked the fact that a million Scots opted for Brexit in the EU referendum. That is a quarter of the entire Scottish electorate. Nor should anyone assume that the 1.6 million who voted to remain in the EU were the foot soldiers in the van of a secessionist movement. On the contrary, most probably voted for reasons of continuity within both the UK and the EU. The two million Scottish voters who voted ‘No’ to independence in 2014 make that sufficiently clear.
Donald Thomson
Aberdeen

A Spectator reader writes…

Sir: I do wish Matthew Parris wouldn’t address ‘Spectator readers’ as if we were all Leave zealots (4 March). I voted to remain in the EU, and I think Brexit could be a disaster, but I still subscribe to and read your magazine because it provides different points of view.

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