RUTH Marr (Letters, September 30) thinks it would be easy for an independent Scotland to join the EU because “leading EU politicians have repeatedly made welcoming comments at the prospect of Scotland coming back into the fold”. If only it was so simple. There are strict economic rules (The Copenhagen criteria), and Legal and Administrative rules (The Aquis criteria) for a country wishing to join the EU.

Meeting the economic Copenhagen criteria means demonstrating good governance of monetary policy, so if you don’t govern monetary policy, interest rates or the ability to influence your exchange rates then it is literally impossible to meet the Copenhagen criteria. The SNP's current plan to share the UK pound and have no central bank for an indefinite period disqualifies compliance with the economic criteria.

The Aquis is a list of 35 legal and administrative criteria, each of which is negotiated and signed off separately, a process that can take years, even decades. Montenegro signed off some Aquis criteria in 2012 and is not expected to become a member before 2025, if then. Even if all the criteria are met, unanimity from all member states is required for an agreed accession. Any member state can veto any applicant and the similarities between Scotland and Catalonia make it likely that Spain would use its veto.

Ms Marr may not be aware of these criteria but the Scottish Government certainly is. It commissioned a report into the Copenhagen and Aquis criteria and, after first denying that it existed, released it in a highly redacted form. Clearly the Scottish Government has much more information on an independent Scotland’s potential to be in the EU than it has shared publicly or is willing to release. Maybe instead of blithely stating how easy EU membership could be, based on throwaway comments from transient officials, Ms Marr could encourage the Scottish Government to publish the un-redacted version of the Copenhagen Report. Then we could all make up our minds on the basis of the facts and the evidence.

Alex Gallagher, Labour councillor, North Ayrshire Council, Largs.

WHEN the Internal Market Bill is passed, any Westminster Cabinet minister, whose responsibilities previously stopped at the border, will have the power to overrule any Bill passed by our democratically elected Holyrood parliament, and instigate their own directives. Michael Gove may dismiss concerns as “stories to scare children”, but the contents of the bill are known and concerns are based on the authority that bill gives to Westminster ("Labour MSP tells Gove: ‘Internal Market Bill will pave the way to independence’", The Herald, September 30).

David Hartley MP helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to end the War of American Independence (it was signed in Hartley’s hotel room). Here is a quote from Hartley which might help Mr Gove understand. “You gave them no alternative but independence or unconditional submission”. Mr Gove is a fool if he thinks Scots will be content with a situation where a political party which cannot win elections in Scotland, overrules democracy by diktat from England.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

ROBERT IG Scott and William Loneskie (Letters, September 29 & 30) certainly have an indignant yet plaintive feel to their letters as they reflect on a North Britain long gone.

Let us be clear that Gaelic signs are absolutely nothing to do with the SNP. Bilingual road signs were first approved in the time of the Scottish Office when Donald Dewar was Secretary of State. Other authorisations followed through the Labour/LibDem Scottish Executive, notably in 2003.

But those correspondents’ gloom extends further than bilingual signs and suggests the impossibility of Scotland rejoining the EU which Ruth Marr (Letters, September 30) very clearly corrects. They seem to have no confidence in Scotland whatsoever, for which I feel quite sad.

By contrast, I’ll do my research which makes me realise just how bad things are in the UK, especially for those over 50 with the prospect of gaining a state pension which the OECD tells us is actually second worst of the 50 countries surveyed in the developed world at 29 per cent, of average income whereas the EU average is 63%. Relatively speaking, our state pension is around 40% of that in countries of a similar size to Scotland, such as Slovakia and Denmark.

Please don’t believe the suggestion made that the UK Chancellor is giving us money to fight the pandemic; the money was ours in the first place. Other countries have managed fine without the imperialistic UK that is being hailed in these letters and so could we. By contrast again, I feel pride and confidence in Scotland and will work with bodies like Constitution for Scotland and others in shaping how the country could be governed.

John C Hutchison, Fort William.

STEPH Johnson (Letters, September 30) has pretty much highlighted all the reasons why Great Britain and the Union deserve to be dead in the water.

The claim that Scotland’s reputation has been brought down by a "party whose representatives ... claim to speak ... only for their own party" is false. Recent elections have proved that the majority of the electorate in Scotland is in support of the Scottish Government, while unionist parties continuously fail here as their numbers plummet.

Your correspondent's shame for the First Minister is also based upon misinformation. Ms. Surgeon's daily updates on TV and radio are there to inform and advise the public based on medical evidence and have never at any time been used as any kind of political broadcast.

William Loneskie's letter on the same page takes a different tack, insisting that Great Britain and the Union Flag are things to be proud of, ignoring centuries of genocide, colonisation and slavery. Perhaps Mr Loneskie should attend an EDL demo, an Orange parade or an independence counter-demo to see how this "symbol of freedom" is used to send a message of "hope against extreme nationalism".

The extreme nationalism he should be referring to is British nationalism, that of persecution of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, whose only crimes are fleeing bombs and guns, many of them manufactured here in his beloved UK, while a huge number of the population suffers poverty, starvation and the disastrous handling of a global pandemic

Kevin Orr, Glasgow G64.

MY local MP, Mhairi Black, said in the Commons this week (September 29) "Since 1939, 62 countries have gained independence from Westminster, and not a single one has asked to come back." She omits to mention none was ever given the chance at the ballot box.

In June 2011, Jamaica's Gleaner newspaper published a shock poll saying 60 per cent felt they'd become worse off since independence. When the poll was retaken again in August 2017, twice as many Jamaicans said they wished to return to being a mere colony – an appalling indictment of the manner the "international community" turns its back on every new nation with meagre exploitable resources.

To exchange one callously indifferent ruler for ones closer to home is no "freedom" for the majority at all, as Ireland discovered. Ms Black herself seems only to remember Paisley and Johnstone exist when the locals object to their tots being read thinly veiled indoctrination by a cross-dresser, and only then to tell us off for being "bigoted". As for the villages to the west like Lochwinnoch, they may as well be on the moon for all she cares.

All my life I've wanted an independent Scotland, but the antics of the SNP under the current Nicola Sturgeon/Ian Blackford clique leave me convinced they'd doom it to a feudal despotism of woke middle class cosmopolitans, wilfully divorced from a native population from which they ill-hide a contempt as deep as the very Westminster they purport to replace; and who would make it the plaything of back-of-a-lorry "entrepreneurs", sectarian bullies and tuppenny gangsters in return for "donations". The cure would be deadlier than the disease.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone.

IT will come as no surprise to many that the Holyrood inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair seems to be grinding to a farcical halt because of "lack of evidence and obstruction ("Holyrood inquiry into Salmond affair put on hold amid claims of high-level ‘obstruction’", The Herald, September 30). Reminiscent of some of the characteristics seen in the former Soviet bloc countries, the concepts of accountability and transparency seem to have been replaced by duplicity and self-preservation, resulting in a level of public trust in the Scottish government bordering on zero.

This supposed exercise in finding out the truth was doomed from the start as there were too many conflicting interests involved. To reach any meaningful conclusion, any inquiry should have been led by a Supreme Court judge with the full backing of the law. As it stands, the present lot might as well pack up and go home.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen.

Read more: Internal Market Bill: Row over claims SNP walked away from EU talks