Debate deserves a balanced view

EVER since the SNP formed a majority government at Holyrood, Scotland on Sunday seems to have adopted a consistently critical stance towards the party’s promotion of independence. Headlines such as “Scotland to face pension timebomb after independence” (7 April) and “Alert over passports following Yes vote” (14 April) are, I think, not untypical. Then there’s Brian Adcock’s wickedly funny cartoon, pillorying Wee Eck on an almost weekly basis.

Of course, it is only right and proper to issue caveats re the downside of something as momentous as independence. But largely to omit, at the same time, any mention of ­potential benefits must raise suspicions of partiality, and may in the end prove self-defeating.

Prior to the reconvening of the Scottish parliament, there were naysayers and doom-mongers aplenty, predicting that devolution would prove an expensive disaster for Scotland. Where are those voices now? Similarly, should enough Scots vote Yes in the referendum to secure independence, then perhaps those fears presently expressed by the No campaign too will turn out to be illusory?

Ross Laidlaw, Dunbar