Letter: Arc of prosperity

As a party apparatchik, Joan McAlpine (Comment, 27 October) must churn out the SNP line, but she is wrong in claiming that those pointing out the very real problems facing small countries in a severe international recession get pleasure in doing so.

Her comparison with "Paddy bashing" and the Reverend Paisley for merely stating facts was particularly offensive.

Ms McAlpine misses the point completely. It was her leader's hyperbole in praising the "arc of prosperity" and suggesting that Scotland should strive for membership - to be quickly followed by an icy shoulder when it all fell apart - that was being attacked.

No-one in their right mind could get pleasure or make political points out of a small country's economic plight. What was being attacked was her leader's hypocrisy and her party's unstinting, uncritical praise of Iceland and Ireland without being honest and stating the downside of being very small and very vulnerable in critical times.

Alexander McKay

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh

Colin Wilson (Letters, 27 October) asserts that the European Union has provided greater security and prosperity in a century which saw two world wars. This is a dubious assumption, to say the least.

As a long-term supporter of independence, it is certainly news to me that the SNP now favours Scotland's membership of the EU, against the background of the fact that the people of Scotland have never had the opportunity to vote in a referendum for membership of the EU.

If Scotland recovers its independence, the SNP will have a responsibility to hold a referendum to decide whether Scotland should apply to become a member state of a bureaucratic body with no democratic authority to legislate for Scotland, or follow the admirable example of Norway in retaining its independence.

(Dr) David Purves

Strathalmond Road

Edinburgh