I assure Isobel Lindsay that, while I could accept membership of Nato for an independent Scotland, on a similar basis to the Nato membership of Norway, we should not accept nuclear weapons based in Scotland or our waters (Scotland should play to its strengths, Letters, August 26).
I would not wish the SNP to change its opposition to the basing of nuclear weapons in our territory, and I do not believe it will do so.
Neil McKie dislikes SNP "U-turns", which are an invention of SNP opponents. It is not a U-turn to continue a discussion on Nato membership. The SNP has never been a republican party, so saying the Queen will still be our head of state after independence is restating current policy. After independence we can debate the topic. The Bank of England is the state bank of the UK so we are part-owners of it – to propose continuing to use it for a time is hardly revolutionary.
David Stevenson
Edinburgh
Dave McEwan Hill states: "Independence is the natural condition of a nation." Perhaps he's unaware of the First Nations of Canada and the Native American nations in the US. Those nations have considerable autonomy within the federal states they're located in, but members of the nations remain citizens of their state, Canada or the US, and there is little demand to change that status. As in the UK, most people are happy to enjoy multiple identities within families, bands, tribes, nations and the state.
The issue here is that the Nationalist offer of Scottish "independence" is now no such thing; it is essentially devo max. In an inter-dependent world, that's entirely sensible, but let's be honest and accept the vision of full independence has quietly evaporated as the Nationalists try to find a combination of policies that will win them a majority in the 2014 referendum.
Doug Maughan
Dunblane
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