This week’s Spectator cover piece is written by our readers. Here are some more letters to Scottish voters, explaining why our United Kingdom should stay together.
I come from the Isles of Scilly, which is as far away from Scotland as it’s possible to get whilst remaining in the UK. Flung out into the Atlantic ocean, 28 miles off Land’s End, I have always thought of my islands as part of the great Celtic fringe of this Kingdom.
All I can do is plead with the people of Scotland to look beyond an opportunity to ‘shake off Tory rule’ and to consider instead how fortunate it is to be born British, and how much Scotland means to the rest of this country. I plead with them to look around the world as the forces of nationalism and division take their toll and to reject them in favour of something far sweeter, far greater: a peaceful, prosperous and beautiful United Kingdom.
Christian May, Scilly Islander in London
Of course Scotland can be a very successful independent country again
But before the ties are severed please answer a few impertinent questions from an ignorant Englishman. Just what is so wrong with the Union? How has the Union stifled Scottish ambition and progress? And why is a state based on nationalism, even in its Scandinavian form, better than the multi-national one we have now?
No one can deny that there are serious deficiencies in the governance and indeed the democracy of the UK. But these deficiencies are correctable and they are not in any case intrinsic to the Union. Please stay and help us all build something better for all of us.
David Birley
I could write you a letter soaked in statistics and pished in percentages, but I won’t: my Britain can’t be replicated in a spreadsheet.
My case for the Union is unashamedly based in emotion.
Our little island has a seat on the UN Security Council, real clout in NATO and a strong voice in Europe. British regiments fight for girls to be allowed an education, and British companies provide employment from Mumbai to Singapore.
So please, please: do what I wish I had the opportunity to do, and vote to keep us together. Not just for Scotland, not just for Britain, but for the rest of the world too.
Mhairi Fraser, a Hong Kong-born Scot in London.
Apparently a popular slogan among the Yes campaign has been ‘no more tory governments ever’. Well, I speak for myself, and the 16 and 17 year olds voting in this very referendum, when I say we haven’t had an outright Tory government yet.
This is a way of saying that if there is one factor Scots should not vote on, its what party in government they think they will get
Politics change. But independence would be forever.
Carter Brace, Surrey.
Britain is my adopted country, where I work, live, will soon marry and start a family. I may be Nova Scotian, but I’m also British (I have the paperwork to prove it). As such, the Scottish independence debate saddens me, because it means such a significant part of our society do not also view themselves as part of Britain. In my eyes, someone may be Scottish, Welsh, English or Northern Irish, but I always saw them as British too.
I hope the people living in Scotland realise they are indeed wanted as a part.
Matt Connor.
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