Bill Brown (Letters, June 10) suggests resources would be allocated from the UK to Scotland on a population basis, in the event of independence. This is incorrect. If Scotland were independent control of all the resources within her land mass and internationally recognised areas of control of the surrounding seas would revert to her. Money held by London would be a matter for negotiation.  Oil and gas revenues from the relevant areas of the North Sea and North atlantic would flow to the Scottish treasury. Some believe the alterations to boundaries in the seas carried out by Westminster some years ago are sustainable post-Scottish independence. They are not. The International Law of the Sea will apply and if an English Government were to attempt to deny this, Scotland would have recourse to the International Court which could do no other than rule in her favour.  Equally, despite the fact that the revenues from the single most profitable UK export, whisky, flow to Westminster, the day after independence they would flow to Edinburgh.  There is no mechanism for a state to leave the EU and none has ever wished to do so.  Finally, I have to re-state the obvious. Mr Brown claims Scotland would be weeping for a return to Westminster administration in a week  if she became independent. If so, why are Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia or New Zealand not pleading to be allowed to join a larger neighbour? Why is Eire, one of the countries worst affected by the financial hiatus, not asking to be governed from London again?  Councillor alan Grant,  Deputy leader, Perth and Kinross SNP Group,  2 High Street,  Perth.  The Herald got it right:  The issue is more complex than a straight choice between independence and the status quo   ( appetite for real debate abut Union recognised , The Herald, June 10).  Complexity is at the very heart of the debate, made more challenging with the inherit ambiguity in Scottish politics. This creates the conditions for a nuanced subtle debate. Shouting yes or no or perhaps yes and yes might simply become crude (and expensive) political and intellectual graffiti.  It was Dennis Canavan while commenting on The Claim of Right in 1989 who posed the classic ambiguity question: is the first loyalty of Scottish MPs to the British state or to the people of Scotland? That is a critical question to those who will join David Cameron.  The other element of complexity surrounds the formulation of an independence definition. We should be discussing independence as a process towards greater sovereignty; an incremental continuum rather than a single act of settled will.  The scholar and distinguished constitutionalist Sir Neil MacCormick posed a challenge with this subtle classification of independence:  The members of a nation are as such in principle entitled to effective organs of political self-government within the world order of sovereign or post-sovereign states; but these need not provide for self-government in the form of a sovereign state.  We must hope the debate will recognise and respect the necessary elements of complexity as we proceed in this vital discourse on Scotland s future.  Thom Cross,  64 Market Place,  Carluke.  Bill Brown claims that a  small poor country  like Scotland is unlikely to be able to join the EU.  Scotland is the third richest part of the UK per capita after London and the south-east of England and if one were to take London with its financial centres out of the equation it would be the richest of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.  In terms of international comparisons, Scotland would likely be one of the world s 20 richest countries per capita and richer than the majority of other EU countries, including many in western Europe.  Iain Paterson,  6 Methven avenue,  Bearsden.  It does not surprise me in the least that the anti-independence campaign is boasting how much money it is attracting ( The Union fights back , The Herald, June 10). Scotland is a rich prize well worth hanging onto, not just for its oil and renewable energy resources but even more so for its water.  The south-east of Britain is experiencing more and more problems of drought and envious eyes are looking northwards to see how out plentiful supplies can be brought under control. already two of the Unionist parties in Scotland, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, have expressed a willingness to privatise this most precious of resources and thus give away control of how it is used.  What puzzles me is how this desperation to hang on to Scotland can be squared with the message churned out by the London media, that Scotland is a basket case made viable only by the generosity of English taxpayers.  andrew M Fraser,  Cradlehall Cottage,  Caulfield Road North, Inverness.  Bill Brown reiterates the canard that on independence Scotland would have to apply to be a member state of the EU. If that were so the principle would also apply to England (with Wales and Northern Ireland). The UK would no longer exist.  Like many, he seems to be unaware that UK membership of the EU and the UN does not consist of England alone.  John Scott Roy,  42 Galloway avenue,  ayr.  Bill Brown paints a desperate picture of an impoverished Scotland once the Scots had taken the bold step of gaining  independence, and because of being a poor and small country it would be unlikely that Scotland would be accepted as a member of the European Union.  Last year the Office for National Statistics claimed that