Letter: Foreign affair

I COULDN’T resist responding to Jennifer Dempsie’s latest flight of fancy (Perspective, 3 April). This week she writes of a Scottish “FCO”. An independent Scotland would certainly need a Foreign Office – but Foreign and Commonwealth Office?

Or is it now the SNP policy to claim a share of those countries that gained independence from the British Empire and set up a separate Scottish commonwealth?

She goes on to outline an elaborate plan by which Scotland could share “the diplomatic and consular load… particularly since Scotland has a share of the UK overseas properties”.

There is, of course, one way in which Scotland could gain access to 100 per cent (not just a share) of Britain’s embassies, consulates, contacts and existing networks – and that is by remaining within the Union.

Peter Lewis

Greenhill Place

Edinburgh