Letter: National interest

Any effort to ask a serious question of the SNP, or to elicit a serious answer to the many points of detail surrounding the policy of separation, usually results in the rubbishing of the questioner.

And one very serious question of detail surrounds the question of whether a newly independent Scotland would automatically on independence day become a member of the European Union.

Membership of the EU confers very significant advantages, not least in the area of trade and economics.

Membership also confers on all EU citizens the right freely to travel, live and work wherever they choose within the EU. Outside the EU, for however long it might take to negotiate entry, this right would be lost. What would be the status in this situation of Scots nationals living and working in the rest of the UK, which would become a foreign country?

Or for that matter nationals of the rest of the UK working in Scotland? It seems to me well worth asking the question, as it would directly affect the lives of many thousands of people.

Perhaps this is yet another area of detail we are not supposed to know about. Perhaps people are supposed to vote yes without knowing what the consequences will be. On the other hand, it is high time we started getting serious answers to serious questions.

John Walker

Caiystane Drive

Edinburgh