Union ultimatum

Bill Jamieson (Perspective, 
4 July) speaks of the “discomfort” felt by some at being obliged to choose between Scotland and the UK in the referendum. It was the UK government that enforced this stark choice. The Scottish Government was content to have a middle, 
“devo-plus” option – precisely in line with majority preference in Scotland.

The national movement in Scotland has long cherished the social links with England. Pre-war, the aim was dominion status. The SNP called for an association of British states in the 1960s. Kenny MacAskill wrote, ten years ago, that there was no need for a separate Scottish Commonwealth Graves Commission or Ordnance Survey. Alex Salmond, who describes himself, quite genuinely, as 
Anglophile, emphasises the continuation of the Anglo-Scottish social union. Crown, currency, European Union and Nato links would continue.

Strangely, it is the unionists who wish to smash all aspects of the Union should there be a Yes vote – English border posts, separate currencies, Scotland to be expelled from the EU and Nato and to be treated as a “foreign” country (Ireland is expressly “not foreign” under the UK’s Government of Ireland Act, 1949), Scotland to forfeit its rightful 10 per cent share of UK government property. All just pre-negotiation positioning, of course, but a nasty, quite unnecessary, all-or-nothing unionist ultimatum for Scots.

The unionists even created the present Scottish Question through their failure to promote UK-wide economic equality and allowing a separate, global, London bubble to detach from the rest of us.

Councillor Tom 
Johnston (SNP)

North Lanarkshire Council