Enjoyable game of ‘buzzword bingo’

Sir, My thanks to Alastair Redman (letters, March 3) for giving me a most enjoyable game of buzzword bingo.

‘Separation’, tick. ‘Worse off than Greece’, tick. ‘Get over your loss’, tick. ‘Sovereign will of the people’, tick. ‘Huge uncertainty’, tick. ‘Get on with the day job’, tick. The only phrases he missed: ‘we’re too wee, too poor and too stupid’.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research is a right-wing, unionist think tank. And not a very good one if it compares Scotland with Greece. To choose Greece as the comparison – rather than Finland, the Netherlands, Austria or Belgium – betrays its desire to portray Scotland as having the same fundamental problems as Greece, with only the Union keeping us from turning into a basketcase economy. In 2015, the per capita GDP of Greece was $26,391; Germany’s was $40,952; the UK, including Scotland, $41,187 and the calculation for an independent Scotland $43,410. Too wee, too poor?

There’s another country they said was too wee and too poor to survive if it became independent from the UK. Step forward Malta. In 1959, The Times thundered: ‘Malta cannot live on its own. The island could pay for only one fifth of her food and essential imports. Well over a quarter of the current workforce would be out of work and the economy of the country would collapse without British Treasury subventions. Talk of full independence for Malta is therefore hopelessly impractical.’

Malta has a population of less than 450,000 and has nothing like the natural and economic resources of Scotland. But since taking the gamble of becoming independent, Malta has undeniably become a wealthy and successful country. Well regarded among the other independent countries of Europe, as Scotland already is, she currently holds the joint presidency of the EU. Perhaps it’s Mr Redman who should stick to the day job.

William Crossan, Campbeltown.