THE dream of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP is to split from the UK and board the EU bandwagon as an independent member state.

But they haven't thought things through. They seem to think that the Eurocrats will be only too delighted to offer Scotland membership of the EU in its own right.

But this is far from guaranteed – in fact it's high on the cards that Scotland would not be accepted into the Brussels club.

Any country applying for membership has to receive the unanimous approval of all member states – which, for a breakaway Scotland, could be a big, big problem.

Spain, for example, already has huge problems with the Catalans and Basques, who have long been struggling for independence – and the Spanish government (for one) is hardly likely to recognise an independent Scotland and approve its application for membership – knowing that in doing so, they would be sending a message of encouragement to secessionist groups in Spain (and in other EU states) to increase their demands for autonomy.

In any case, it is surely a contradiction in terms for the Scots to demand independence – while at the same time seeking to become part of a European Union for whom the independent, sovereign state is anathema?

Scotland as part of the United Kingdom has, and will have, far more freedom and independence than it would as part of an EU whose avowed aim is an increasingly federalised European super state.

Sturgeon and the SNP really do need to wake up and take a really good sniff at the coffee.

ROBERT READMAN

Norwich Avenue West, Bournemouth