Fatal defects

Published on 18/08/2012 00:00

“Widening the number of options to be put in front of the voters in a referendum may at first sight be an attractive proposition, but it 
suffers from a number of fatal defects,” says a report by the Scottish Affairs Committee into the potential referendum on Scottish independence.

My grandson e-mailed me the following comment: “Key issue: ‘Fatal defects.’ I can imagine the carnage at voting booths, bodies lying in piles outside the primary school, people turning up to vote in bullet-proof jackets and helmets, the news reporting: ‘Thousands dead in voting 
catastrophe.’

“How ‘fatal’ can this really be? God, I hate the Scottish Affairs Committee.”

Alan McKinney

Edinburgh