Border split is a passport to disaster

I live in Scotland, but was born in England of English parents so what do I get as “nationality”?

My daughter, on the other hand, lives in England, but was born in Scotland of English and Scottish parents.  So, what does she get as  “nationality”?

It would appear that every day we get yet another instance of the concept of “independence” not really having been thought through.

The vote is but 15 months away, not long in government terms, and still we are under-informed – or ill- informed – about the full  implications of the split, should it occur.

Certainly there are precedents of countries sharing islands with other sovereign states, but the intellectual, economic and now so many other practical implications do not really seem to have been considered.

Like snow comes as a surprise to the railways, and Christmas often seems to catch the post office off guard, the full implications of independence seem to be a constant surprise to this  government.

Can it be that Mr Salmond is having doubts, or, indeed, never really thought that in his wildest dreams his  personal ambition would carry him this far?

David Gerrard

Spylaw Park

Edinburgh

Home Secretary Theresa May was quite right to state that if independence happens it is for the UK government to decide who can have a UK passport and whether dual nationality is allowed. Many democracies do not allow dual nationality.

However, once again, the SNP seeks to bully Westminster. A currency union with Scotland, whose government has objected to nearly every Labour, Conservative or coalition policy apparently on principle, would be a disaster for the rest of the UK.

An open border with a country that has stated that it will be relaxing immigration controls would also be a disaster and a cause of friction.

If the vote is Yes then  Scots who hold a UK passport may have to decide whether to have a Scottish or a UK passport.

It would be perverse if an independent Scotland had a majority of those resident being citizens of its neighbour to the south – a recipe in history for friction and  eventual conflict.

(Dr) Roger I  Cartwright

Turretbank Place

Crieff

Although my daughters and I were all born, bred and educated in Scotland, we are not to be allowed to vote on that country’s future, because we now live in Wales and England respectively.

When we moved south we assumed, naively, that we were still in the same country and not “emigrating”.

We still regard ourselves as Scottish and certainly are seen as so by our spouses – but obviously not Scottish enough for Mr Salmond, who perhaps sees us as renegades, or traitors for “deserting” Scotland.

And yet the vote is to be given to the 16-year-olds. As a group they have many good qualities, but sustained, rational and, above all, educated argument is not prominent amongst them.

(Incidentally, as a macro-economist I also find the economic argument for independence quite suspect).

FJ McKie

Bayston Hill

Shrewsbury

The very real suggestion that Scots in a separated country would lose rights to a UK passport is logical and more than likely. Going by past events, we now know the next moves. Alex Salmond or Nicola Sturgeon or some leading SNP spokesperson will give in answer an assertion that it is all scaremongering and instead this or that will happen.

A committee, hand-picked by the SNP, will look into  the matter and conclude, lo and behold, as with pensions, that Alex Salmond & Co are correct and it is mere scaremongering on the part of those who wish to retain the UK.

The fact that a broken-off Scotland, if the people chose to separate, will have no say of any kind whatsoever in decisions of a UK government and what it will or will not do seems so logical that it barely needs repeating.

The polls would suggest the vast majority of those making the decision next year have reached this  conclusion also and are no longer fooled.

Alexander McKay

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh

Dr John Cameron (Letters, 11 June) refers to the Union flag waving all over Scotland last summer and it was, indeed, almost impossible to buy any piece of merchandise which did not sport the Union flag.

T-shirts, tea pots, tea cakes – the brain washing was relentless.

However, waving flags does not solve the problem of Scotland having only one Conservative MP, but being lumbered with a Conservative-led government and a Conservative Prime Minister.

Nor does it excuse why Westminster governments “misled” the people of Scotland 40 years ago over the value of oil in the North Sea.

Dr Cameron writes about the Facebook generation’s “global horizons”.

Next year Scotland has the opportunity to reach out and contribute to global horizons as an independent nation, along with all the other normal, independent countries in Europe and the world.

Ruth Marr

Grampian Road

Stirling