SNP coming up short

We must all consider the Growth Commission report, we are told. Why? The SNP had its chance in 2014 with the Scotland’s Future White Paper and came up well short.

Four years on and they put out a tinkered version and we are expected to take it seriously? Forget it. It’s still No. Jo BucHANAN, Edinburgh. The Growth Commission is being treated like it is the holy Grail of Nationalism when it is simply another set of guesses and assumptions.

Nothing in it, not even Gandhi quotes, tempts me to try a decade of austerity with a very strong chance of the country being flat broke at the end. JIM FRASER, Perth. AS the legendary US football coach Yogi Berra once exclaimed: ‘It’s dejavu all over again!’

The latest referendum mark 2 prospectus from the SNP is perhaps less fantasy-riddled than its first, but that is the best that can be said.

It is frightening to think how much of our taxes was spent on this latest project – money that could demonstrably have been better spent elsewhere.

No one seems to have told the Nationalist authors that we already had a referendum on independence back in 2014 – a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance their leaders memorably declared – and, with every possible advantage, they lost.

What is it they do not understand about that result? When will they start thinking about all of the people of this country rather than their zealot fringe?

AlExANdER McKAy, Edinburgh. The SNP’s Growth Commission experts admit that the first decade of Scotland being separated from the rest of the UK would involve tough restructuring of our economy to make it sustainable.

Growth is hoped to eventually save the day, but no detail is given of how high taxes might have to go, or how deep spending cuts would be – meanwhile, we are forced to manage without sharing resources across the UK.

Nicola Sturgeon ducks the issue by saying ‘this isn’t about the when and how… it’s about the why’.

Those who believe in independence at any cost will not care, but the rest of us will wonder just how likely it is that the SNP – which has mismanaged our schools, hospitals and police – would somehow pull off the economic revival set out in this latest view of where Nicola Sturgeon wants to take us. KEItH HowEll, west linton, Peeblesshire. The SNP’s blueprint for independence runs to 354 pages. Newspaper reports have highlighted one very revealing statement.

It will take 25 years for an independent Scotland to match the GDP per capita of other small advanced nations. however, the figure that should send out shockwaves is that Scotland’s existing public sector deficit is £13.3billion – the equivalent of 8.3 per cent of GDP.

The Growth Commission calculates that this will fall to £9.45billion, 5.9 per cent, by 2021-22, but this seems highly improbable.

Reducing the deficit to £4.1billion, 2.6 per cent, by 2031/2032 is pie in the sky economics.

We should not be surprised, since so many of the Scottish Government’s pledges and forecasts have not come anywhere near fruition.

clARK cRoSS, linlithgow, west lothian. TWo points about the Growth Commission report. Firstly, why did it take so long to appear, given that a key part of it was cut and pasted from a ten-year-old New Zealand government document?

Secondly, if labour is so scarce in Scotland, why not investigate the phenomenon that was reported last week – of there being 150,000 adult Scots who have never been in paid employment?

JIll StEPHENSoN, Edinburgh. The SNP’s blueprint for an independent Scotland glosses over the most difficult issues.

how would the process be funded when the current budget is overstretched? What about trading relationships with the UK and eU?

There is the matter of currency. The preferred option is to continue with the pound, initially. Wouldn’t this result in the Bank of england being in control of monetary policy? Yet the SNP claims Scotland must have control of all economic levers.

The blueprint suggests a timescale for deficit reduction but fails to offer an alternative solution if this doesn’t materialise. Presumably Scotland would go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout with all their strings attached – such as determining fiscal policy and public spending.

Report author Andrew Wilson, like the SNP, is an enthusiastic supporter of the eU. But joining would be at the mercy of Scotland achieving both the required entry conditions and a positive result from a future membership referendum. And would the eU offer membership to a small country with a currency tied to a past member? Probably not.

GRAHAM wyllIE, Greengairs, lanarkshire.