Moral question

David McCarthy says that greater devolution need not involve the rest of the UK and the precedent is the 1997 vote (Letters, 7 September). Legally perhaps but, morally speaking, demanding more powers for oneself is inconsistent with membership of a union.

For example, it can be legitimate to be in a political, personal or business relationship and say “I want to stay” or “I want to leave”, but it is not legitimate to say “I demand more powers, some of which will affect you negatively. Oh, and by the way, you will have no say over this, but we will stay together anyway.”

Many of us believed this was the morally illegitimate posture adopted by Scotland at the 1997 referendum. To the extent that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament within the Union negatively affected our Union partners, then its establishment was illegitimate in a moral sense.

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Some of its actions remain so today to the extent that, within the Union, they impact negatively upon the English, Northern Irish and Welsh, and harm the trust which binds the Union together.

If a significant proportion of Scottish people really think we can demand even more unilateral devolution, continue to ignore our partners, and still stay within the Union, then we are sitting on the fence in a state of moral error. We need to come down on one side or the other.

Alistair McConnachie

Bath Street

Glasgow