STUART Smith (Letters, July 22) says Scotland's share of oil and gas reserves if it became an independent country would be "subject to negotiation".

This is true as Scottish and UK governments' views on where the oil border should be different and each has some basis in international law, but Professor Alex Kemp of Aberdeen University has said that "from the economic point of view, it does not make much difference because there are just a handful of fields, and not very important ones now, between the median line and the line north of Berwick". Either way, Scotland would get all the major oil fields and the vast majority of the revenues.

A paper by Dundee University academics similarly found that, even if Westminster took a hard line in oil negotiations, Scotland would still get the vast majority of the oil reserves.

Gas reserves are far less valuable and so who gets them makes less difference.

Scotland's share of UK assets and debts could be negotiated but the established principle in international law is that seceding states get a share of assets and liabilities, each equal to their share of population. If the UK Government refused to give Scotland its fair share of assets the Scottish Government could simply refuse to take on its share of UK public debt.

Mr Smith claims that, if we remain part of the UK, our pensions, welfare and access to NHS services are guaranteed. That will be news to NHS staff who have seen creeping and, more recently, racing privatisation under Labour and Conservative governments. It will also be news to all the people whose unemployment and disability and housing benefits have been cut or withdrawn entirely under UK Government welfare "reforms".

UK Pensions Minister Steve Webb told Parliament in May that pensions would continue to be paid to Scottish pensioners after independence, just as they continue to be paid to British expatriates who have moved abroad, and that "citizenship is irrelevant. It is what you have put into the UK National Insurance system prior to separation".

Duncan McFarlane,

Beanshields, Braidwood, Carluke.

IT'S revealing that Neal Ascherson (Letters, July 22) has to go all the way back to May 2011 to find a poll that supports his claim about English "indifference" to the Union.

That might have been the case before September's referendum became a reality, but a glance at the whatscotlandthinks.org website shows a steady decline in that indifference in the three years since. Indeed, the most recent poll in February this year found that a decisive 74 per cent (excluding don't knows) wanted Scotland to remain as part of the Union.

David Torrance,

138/9 Calton Road, Edinburgh.

YET again Tony Blair sticks his nose in where it's not wanted ("Blair says No campaign has done enough to save Union", The Herald, July 22).

His assertion that the leaders of the No campaign have done enough to persuade Scots to stay within the Union is presumptive and may be far from the truth.

His intervention is unhelpful and coming from a man whose reputation is in shreds after Iraq and a failed attempt as Middle East Peace envoy, it would be best if he kept quiet and left Scotland's future in the hands of the people living here.

Bob MacDougall,

Oxhill,

Kippen,

Stirlingshire.

COLETTE Douglas Home compares the independence debate to one about a union of another sort ("Voting for independence is, to me, like getting married", The Herald, July 22 ).

I've been happily married for many years; it still seems like yesterday, but tomorrow we can cancel it.

That's the difference.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

THIS week I attended the Scottish Government's Q&A session on the independence White Paper in Ayr Town Hall.

I asked the International Development Minister, Humza Yousaf, about the future of the 500 Department for International Development jobs at East Kilbride after independence.

He admitted that the development budget in an independent Scotland would be around 10% of the current UK budget but then astonishingly claimed we might keep a civil service of 400-500 to run it. The UK has the second highest aid budget in the world and Scotland would aspire to manage one-tenth of that with around 50% of the current total UK staff. Is that best value in how we spend our aid money?

Alastair Osborne,

4 Park Court,

Symington.

I HAVE the following requests for Alex Salmond: please don't make the Commonwealth Games political, and leave your wife's handbag at home.

Alan Stephen,

15 Beechlands Avenue,

Glasgow.

IT is of interest that some of our star athletes representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Games live and train in England. I assume that means they cannot vote in the referendum. If so, how absurd?

Max Murray,

21 Ledcameroch Road,

Bearsden.