No guarantees

Andrew Collins (Letters, 18 April) thinks I am confused about the timescale for negotiating Scotland’s entry to the EU.

As I said in my letter (16 April), we are talking about negotiating 35 chapters of the treaty, unanimous approval of all 28 other member states, each with their own agendas, and the acceptance of the application by the majority of the 700-plus members of the European Parliament.

Of course it is entirely possible that Professor Armstrong of the Chair of European Law at Cambridge University is wrong and Andrew Collins is correct – not a possibility I will lose much sleep over.

Let me put this into context for the SNP party line followers. It took Sainsbury three years to get planning consent for a supermarket in Haddington on  a site that had already been identified in the local plan for supermarket development.

Sainsbury was dealing with one local authority which was in favour of the development. It was pushing at an already open door.

It could take years for  Scotland to be accepted and there is no guarantee of it  happening at all.

Donald Lewis

Gifford

East Lothian