Yes vote is the only way Scottish business can be sure of EU access

Scottish businesspeople are worried that despite an overwhelming desire to stay connected with our European partners, voters beyond our borders will remove Scotland from the EU against the democratic expression of Scotland's business community and wider public. This threat may persist no matter what the result of Mr Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague's ongoing negotiation on the terms of membership with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On this issue, as with many others, Westminster opinion does not represent the democratic will of all the constituent parts of the UK. It seems likely that all major political parties with a chance of being in government after the 2015 West­minster General Election will commit to holding an EU refer­endum. This prospect of a dangerous, metropolitan media-driven referendum on EU membership creates great uncertainty.

Scotland may no longer be part of the UK at the time of the EU poll and an independent Scotland's approach to negotiating continued EU membership (which experts have said there will be an obligation to have after a Yes vote) will ensure continuity of membership and effect. We note in particular the recent positive comments of No campaign policy adviser Professor Jim Gallagher regarding an independent Scotland staying in Europe and its ability to successfully negotiate key opt-outs.

Indeed, the Scottish people must now see that there is far more uncertainty over Scotland's continued access to the common market if we vote No in the independence referendum on September 18. A Yes vote is the only way to guarantee that Scottish-based companies can continue to trade in a UK and European common market for the free movement of capital, goods, services, trade and people.

Marie Macklin, Chief Executive, Klin Group,

David Cairns, Executive Chairman, PrismTech,

Tony Banks, Founder, Balhousie Care Group and board member, Business for Scotland,

David Urquhart, Managing Director, David Urquhart Travel,

Michelle Thomson, Founder and Director, Your Property Shop,

Ivan McKee, Director, Greenfold Partners,

Laurie Clark, Managing Director, ASC Group,

Sandy Adam, Chairman, Springfield Properties Plc,

Les Meikle, Managing Director, Wise Property Care,

Dan Macdonald, Chief Executive, Macdonald Estates,

112 George Street, Edinburgh.

RICHARD Mowbray (Letters, January 17) is mixing up the separate issues of whether Scotland should be an independent country and whether it - or the UK - should be part of the EU. Undecided voters should not be confused by this.

If a majority of Scots vote for independence we can still hold a vote on whether to be part of the EU or not after that.

SNP policy is certainly for an independent Scotland to remain part of the EU. However, you don't have to vote for the SNP to vote Yes. I don't vote SNP but will be voting Yes, as will many others who vote for the Greens, the Labour Party, smaller socialist parties and independents.

Once we are independent we can vote for whichever parties we want - and under the Scottish Parliament's election system our votes will actually count. Under the backward Westminster's first-past-the-post system with its sad "safe seats" there is effective disenfranchisement of the majority of voters, whose votes simply don't count under it.

The Scottish Government can decide how to spend what funds are granted to it by the Westminster Government. However without independence the UK Government can continue to control much of the funding and many "reserved" powers such as defence and nuclear power, dragging us into wars most Scots oppose, wasting our taxes, cutting taxes for the super-rich and cutting benefits for the poorest.

It's not the EU, for all its many faults, which is letting the bankers, the energy companies and the privatised train companies rob us all - it's one UK government after another that's done that.

What good is Richard Mowbray's boast of protecting "sovereignty" for the UK if it's the same UK that our votes don't count in and in which there is no chance of any reform of the electoral system so they would count? How about some democracy through independence instead?

Duncan McFarlane,

Beanshields,

Braidwood,

Carluke.

William Hague in a speech in Glasgow said: "I think it's a more dramatically and immediately uncertain world if Scotland were to vote to separate itself from the UK this coming year". He really should think before he speaks. Scotland is not voting to separate itself from the rest of the United Kingdom, Scotland is voting to become independent. If Scotland votes yes, the United Kingdom becomes dissolved and ceases to exist. If Scotland becomes independent, so too does England (along with Wales and Northern Ireland).

The precedent has already been set. When Czechoslovakia was dissolved, both Slovakia and the Czech Republic became independent. The same logic would therefore apply to Scotland and England. Interestingly, if William Hague is correct and Scotland has to apply for entry into Europe, then so too does England. We could, therefore, have the situation where Scotland gets accepted into Europe (and given its huge strategic importance, why wouldn't it?) and England gets rejected.

Andrew J Beck,

Andrew Crescent,

Stenhousemuir.

AS we move into serious debate on the independence referendum the field starts to clear. As the scaremongering diversions of the Better Together campaign are negotiated and left behind the real issue becomes ever more apparent.

In September the Scottish people will face the actual question; do you believe that a nation as able as any other with natural and human resources many other nations would die for should take responsibility for itself and for its future?

That is all.

In the final analysis those who have a vested interest in the status quo will be joined at the ballot box by those who have been persuaded, in defiance of all the evidence of a world hugely enhanced by clever and able Scots, that Scotland is uniquely stupid and that the eighth-richest country in the world is being subsidised by a debt-ridden country which occupies 17th place in the same table.

There are of course those who have a genuine affection for the UK. With them I have no problem and they have my respect .

I have a problem however with intelligent commentators who peddle what they know to be false. What sort of prospect will these face when Scotland opts for independence?

The last week must have given a lot of people pause for thought. The announcement about UK debt sank the preposterous notion that Scotland would be refused a sterling currency union and the absurd notion that Scotland would be put out of the EU is now under water. We won't be, but it'll take a long time, is the new position as Better Together retreats on all fronts.

Is it just possible that we might be seeing the start of respectful debate?

David McEwan Hill,

1 Tom Nan Ragh,

Dalinlongart,

Sandbank, Argyll.

AS an English Unionist, I was naturally interested in the First Minister's statement that he is both Scottish and British ("'We're not going to solve all of Scotland's problems'", The Herald, January 17). However, if Mr Salmond wins his independence referendum, it is unclear as to what will happen to your country's Unionist citizens and parties.

On leaving the political structure of the United Kingdom, will the Union flag be taken down from all public buildings - a mirror image of the Sinn Fein policy in Northern Ireland? Will individuals who fly the flag be officially discouraged from doing so? Will the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, or indeed Labour and the Liberal Democrats in Scotland have to change their names entirely, as surely these UK parties will be somewhat stranded in the new political waters? And what of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, or the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - or indeed, email addresses which end in .uk? How British will Scotland be after secession?

Stuart Millson,

52 The Rocks Road,

East Malling, Kent.