Faslane and oil in their grasp

After gaining independence, not one of the former crown colonies, from Canada and Australia to the most minute island states, has applied for a renewal of London rule.

Nor can I recollect questions being asked about their ability to survive economically or doubts being cast on their future defence policies.

The countries which emerged from the dissolution of the USSR, including the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine have shown no inclination to re-embrace rule from Moscow. They seem very happy to be independent and Ukraine is an interesting case, as Russia was able to decommission a much larger naval installation than Faslane in a matter of months, without fatuous claims that it should remain Russian territory.

Is Scotland a very special case that tenuous questions and vacuous threats are posed about the very idea of her independence – Scotland, the oldest Kingdom in Europe? Or, is it all based on the words of the Speaker in Westminster, in 1707, who boasted: “We have catched Scotland, let us clasp her tight!” Faslane and the oil to be clasped tightest?

Joseph G Miller, Dunfermline