Letter: Time for change

Independence is a misnomer. We now live in a very interdependent world, demanding, at the same time, self-government with shared sovereignty. This is what the overwhelming majority of the Scottish people want.

I have lived in England for 40 years and in Scotland for 45 and found that nine out of ten in England think that Englishness equates with Britishness and it leads them astray. Their imperial past still blinds them to the yearning of others for real democracy to replace the elected dictatorship.

That is why the Conservative Party has only one MP in Scotland and the Labour Party in London imposes policies focused on the Tory marginals in the South-East on a quite different political culture in Scotland. So, after 60 years supporting Labour, I have changed my allegiance.

Fortunately, the SNP is now left of Labour and no longer follows a chauvinistic nationalism. The English have rejected federalism so the only course of action is to demand negotiations of the many complex issues of self-governance for a referendum in 2014.

Ray Newton

Buckstone Way

Edinburgh