Looking after No 1

Donald J MacLeod (Letters, 27 February) asks the leadership of the Better Together campaign to explain why Ukraine would be welcomed into the European Union but Scotland would not.

I would have thought his question would have been better addressed to the EU, but perhaps he will make do with an answer from a humble punter.

The official EU answer would no doubt be that Ukraine already exists as a nation state, and her membership of the EU would not upset any existing member. Whether upsetting Russian president Vladimir Putin is a wise move is a matter that must remain to be seen.

Scottish membership, however, would be seen as interfering in the internal affairs of the UK, and all/any other member states that have separatist issues at home.

The unofficial answer is that, like all bureaucracies, the EU’s primary function is to protect itself and its featherbedded functionaries. Once they are paid, expensed and pensioned, attention turns to the wellbeing of the established member states, and then, finally, to the citizenry.

Support for separatist movements is seen as disruptive, so therefore does not happen.

Rules and regulations will be created, altered, ignored or implemented according to what is perceived to be in the best interests of the establishment at any given time, and cynically changed the next day if expedient.

I dare say if rUK decided to leave the EU, Scotland would be fast-tracked into membership before you could blink.

I suspect Mr MacLeod knows all this already.

Graham M McLeod

Muirs

Kinross