The facts speak for themselves over SNP housekeeping

It will come as no surprise to readers that I strongly disagree with Gerry Parker’s letter [Advertiser, October 5].

His assertions are merely unsupported rhetoric, devoid of any facts or statistical information.

The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures, recently issued by the office of the chief economic adviser of the Scottish Government, showed a Scottish deficit for 2015-2016 of £14.9 billion.

This is not just poor or even bad, it is an appalling deficit and smacks of SNP incompetence.

Scotland has a population of approximately 5.35 million adults and children which means that for each and every person, whether economically productive or not, the deficit is almost £2800.

It appears that members and supporters of the SNP are lacking in numeracy. For each and every Scot, the Barnett formula provides a grant of approximately £1400, which would immediately disappear should Scotland ever become independent of the UK.

On the topic of finance, I cannot understand why the SNP wishes to drag Scotland from the UK. Scotland exports four times more to the rest of the UK than to the whole of the European Union, so while the EU single market is very important, of much greater importance is our existing UK single market.

Last August, SNP MP George Kerevan said that “painful cuts” would face an independent Scotland. Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, admitted when questioned about this remark: “I think it’s incumbent on politicians of all persuasions to accept that not everything is going to be easy.” That, I believe, is an understatement of huge proportions!

It appears to me that the SNP wish a divorce from the UK no matter the cost, putting party political dogma before that of the Scottish populace. They should be governing for the benefit of the people of Scotland – the job for which they were elected – not constantly distracted by independence.

Have you ever wondered why the SNP always vote in unison? In the spring of last year, the SNP banned MPs from criticising the party. Standing orders now state that “any MP must accept that no member shall within or outwith the parliament publicly criticise a group decision, policy or another member within the group”. That sounds Stalinist to me!

With “big brother” now about to be responsible for the wellbeing of your children and grandchildren, is it a surprise that such dictatorial policies have resulted in Nicola Sturgeon’s popularity waning?