Semi-detached is a quintessentially British concept in housing, and by some form of osmosis it has embedded itself in David Cameron's stance on Europe.

He seems hedged in to thwart the electoral challenge of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and to appease those extreme factions in his own party thrashing around in the death throes of British imperialism.

The much-vaunted referendum asserts the "let the people decide" diktat of democracy in action, and this moral high ground approach is seen as convenient rhetoric for addressing the enigma of Europe and as a bulwark against the Argentinian clamour over the Falklands.

How strange, then, that the same democratic consistency becomes less even-handed on the prospect of a detached or even semi-detached Scotland.

George Devlin,

Rosebank,

6 Falcon Terrace Lane,

Glasgow.