REGARDING last Wednesday’s article “EU says: ‘We are willing to listen to Scotland request”, the message I took from Michel Barnier’s reply is that while they would like to do something similar, they are stymied by their practice of only using recognised states, much like Lego bricks, to build their structures.

The chances of the UK Government giving the required agreement to a new arrangement to the benefit of Scotland are as unlikely as their agreement to a Section 30 request.

The cynical among us might well think that the very public initiative by the experienced former FM Henry McLeish was announced in such a way as to be deliberately designed to fail.

READ MORE: Scotland and Wales boycott Brexit talks after extension refused

Would a better approach be to simply press for the agreed exemption for Northern Ireland be extended to include Scotland? This would give us of the benefits of renewed membership, including a barrier to chlorinated chicken.

As well as being to our economic benefit, it would be much more difficult to refuse. Westminster has continually reassured the DUP that they wouldn’t mean a hard border between NI and GB. They can hardly now claim that the same arrangements would now mean a hard Anglo-Scots border without both looking silly and alarming the DUP.

The earlier Westminster agreement to the treatment of NI gives the EU the necessary precedent for them to be disposed to accept the enlargement as a logical development with which they are happy, rather than an innovation which makes them nervous.

I think that the only objection Westminster could make to it would be that it hampers them from bargaining away Scottish vital interests to protect English ones.

No change there, most of us may say. It does help remove the mask over their intentions to the undecided on independence, possibly even including one Henry McLeish.

David Rowe
Beith, Ayrshire

JOANNA Cherry’s article “Racist policies show black lives don’t matter to Tories” (The National, June 11) is perhaps a little too politically parochial in its outlook.

I wonder how many people who watch the TV advert that shows a young African girl collecting “dirty” water, pouring it into a plastic container, strapping it on to her back to carry it back to her village and wonder how is it allowed to happen in the modern world.

When working with Unesco in Nigeria in the 1970s I witnessed a similar situation where women walked about three miles to the banks of the River Niger, dug holes in the sand and collected water in buckets which they balanced on their heads for the trek back to their village.

The reason for digging the holes was the women were using the sand as a primary and only filter available to them.

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I was invited on the day that clean water flowed for the first time into stand pipes in the village. The sheer joy of the villagers is something that I shall never forget and realise how privileged I was to be invited to witness such a momentous occasion.

If black lives “really matter” then we in Scotland should make every effort to improve this dreadful situation.

For many years water engineers in Scotland have been involved in many such schemes to provide drinkable water to villages in the Developing World but alas they seem to get very little credit for their work. I am also aware that at least one of Scotland’s universities has been involved in similar type schemes to bring electricity to villages in Africa.

I appreciate that Foreign Aid is not a devolved matter but may I, with respect, suggest to Joanna Cherry and her SNP colleagues that they widen their focus and highlight what Scotland has to offer in the struggle to make the world and better place and how we plan to address such issues when we become an independent nation.

It is perhaps worth reflecting on Winston Churchill’s words: “Of all the small nations of this Earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.”

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

KEVIN McKenna’s article in Wednesday’s National on the demise of the Labour Party was amusing and his assessments of Kezia Dugdale and Richard Leonard pretty much to the point (“Tory infiltration the only explanation for Labour Party’s abject failures”).

However, he spoilt it somewhat by making needless “catty” remarks about Keir Starmer, describing him as “… a millionaire knight of the realm.”

READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: Why Tory infiltration is the only explanation for Labour’s failures

I suspect this is to give the impression that Mr Starmer is one of the favoured elite. In fact, his “working class credentials” are probably in line with Mr McKenna’s (Jeremy Corbyn is a better fit for “silver spoon” assertions).

I’m no fan of the Labour Party, but I’ll try to judge them on what they do – or don’t do – rather than perceptions about their status or background. If I were to describe Mr McKenna as a “former executive editor of the Scottish Daily Mail” and give no further details, it might well convey a certain impression of Mr McKenna. I don’t think he would be amused.

Douglas Morton
Lanark

AFTER taking a short 10-minute walk to and from our Royal Mail depot, I can say with some confidence that the two-metre distancing rule is dangerous. I had to step off pavements on three occasions, at very short notice, in order for that rule to be observed.

Consequently, with the number of new infections daily being at new low levels, I would say that there is now more risk of death by jaywalking than by contracting coronavirus.

Alan Adair
Blairgowrie