So what advantages would we lose? (From Worcester News)

So what advantages would we lose?

3:31pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Read

SIR – I was born and bred in Worcester and have had the pleasure of living in Scotland for the last 20 years or so.

I am only able to read the Worcester News when I visit, but find what I read of great interest.

I believe I must comment on the letter from Will Richards ‘A dis-united kingdom will leave us weak’ (Worcester News, January 30).

The Scottish people have a parliament to which they democratically voted a Scottish political party into a majority.

Alex Salmond is the leader and is voicing the opinions and aspirations of that party.

The SNP advocates and practises transparency, unfettered by strings held at Westminster and is inclined towards socialism, in its proper sense.

Perhaps there being no democratic socialists left at Westminster, since Tony Blair and company defected, followed by the Liberal Democrats more recently, the Scottish people preferred to trust their own.

If anyone can identify any advantages which Scotland presently enjoys within the union, which will not be available to them after independence, I am sure those who live and work in Scotland and who will be the only ones to determine their own future will be pleased to hear.

Incidentally, Scotland enjoys free university education, free prescriptions and free care for the elderly, amongst other benefits.

No doubt Mr Richards would prefer if we reverted to the same as in England.

Please don’t mix up a rant which suggests all that is unacceptable starts at the English Channel, with the honest endeavour of a small, but viable neighbouring country with so varied and committed an ethnic community as your own.

BERNARD EVANS
Turriff, Aberdeenshire