I WOULD rather Scotland remained as part of the United Kingdom and find it hard to understand why the Scots think they have been badly done to by successive Westminster governments.

For more than 30 years, thanks to the Barnett Formula, Scotland has received more than its fair share of the national budget. On top of this, there are other special arrangements which give Scotland vast sums when money, such as the massive spend on Crossrail, is allocated to London – hence the second Forth Road Bridge currently under construction.

If Scotland had been ignored by successive Westminster governments as much as the North-East has been, they really would have cause for complaint.

Now the Scots are being promised all sorts of sweeteners to stay in the United Kingdom, but we already know whatever the outcome of their referendum and whichever party is in power, we in the North-East will continue to be the poor relation of the UK. Why?

Because the Tories have always ignored the needs of the North-East, and Ed Miliband has already promised the Scots that he will not scrap the Barnett Formula (Echo, June 28).

We need our MPs to fight for the scrapping of the Barnett Formula and to address the strategic needs of the North-East’s transport infrastructure, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt if we will ever see that happen.

Tom Pattinson, Kip Hill, Stanley

IT seems to me that the voters in Scotland need to be saved from themselves.

They are lunatics if they really do want to be independent from the rest of the UK.

Recent polls show that about 50 per cent of Scots are in favour of separation; perhaps David Cameron should change the rules of the referendum so that 75 per cent need to be in favour to change the status quo.

The Scots should be careful of what they wish for.

Malcolm Dunstone, Darlington

IF Scotland votes to remain in the Union and accepts all the bribes being banded about, will the English be offered anything at all, like the scrapping of the Barnet Formula and the stopping of Scottish MPs voting on English matters? As if.

If Scotland votes to leave the Union and rejects all the bribes being banded about, will the English be offered anything at all to compensate for the loss of the United Kingdom? As if.

M Hawkins, Langley Park

I WONDER how all those brave Scottish soldiers who died fighting in the trenches in Europe and elsewhere over the last century, defending the freedom of UK citizens and others, would have voted in this referendum?

The SNP wants Scotland to turn its back on the UK. It plans to remove the UK’s nuclear deterrent, which has been a cornerstone of maintaining peace in Europe for nearly 70 years, from Scotland.

Questionable decisions have been made about other conflicts, like Iraq, but these islands have not been under threat for many decades now, thanks in no small part to the recent sacrifices made by thousands of Scots.

Did all those Scottish soldiers make the ultimate sacrifice just to see an SNP government take Scotland away from the United Kingdom and to abandon the deterrent that has kept the peace, and their families safe, for so long?

To see their beloved Scotland become an insignificant military power that will no longer make a serious contribution to the security of these islands, or of the world?

Would the soldiers of so many proud Scottish regiments have been quite so proud in fighting for Scotland in two world wars, if they had known the future isolationist defence policy of an SNP Scotland?

I suspect not.

Frank Boyes, Durham

DEAR Scotland, in the event of you gaining independence from London, would you consider adopting the North-East of England?

Yours hopefully

Helen Jeffery, Hunwick, Crook