GORDON Brown’s pop up on the EU election in Scotland is a mixter-maxter of utter incoherence. After his post-Vow humiliation and belittlement in 2014, where he was used by David Cameron and then “dumped” unceremoniously, he squeaks again. But squeak it is, as he loses the plot once more. A political has-been, a man who now roams on the fringes and mutters.

After the treatment Scotland has endured from Westminster and this Precious Disunion where powers from Holyrood are going to be clawed back by the Tories if they continue in power, we must move on from 2014 and become a full independent nation alongside the 27 where we can realign, have the power of veto in the EU, association of equals, not a devolved entity in the incorporating Union in North Britain aka Greater England.

Looking ahead, the increasingly dysfunctional Westminster, the demise of the duopoly and a future in a Parliament lurching to the extreme right with a bloated, unelected, privileged House of Lords which outstrips in numbers the elected House of Commons, does not fill most Scots with delight.

Full-blown independence in Scotland will also mean England’s freedom from the Union, where it can resolve its own inner tensions. We will reorientate our society untrammelled by English concerns and their branch parties.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs