Numbers add up for indy side

Sir, – I don’t know which World Economic Forum table Derek Farmer quoted (Letters, June 23) but the 2018 figures have the UK sitting in 21st place, with Norway and Iceland first and second.

His assertion that Scotland would suffer as an unknown factor runs contrary to the credit agency, Standard and Poor’s view, that an independent Scotland would attract a very high credit rating.

And his complaints of the Scottish Government’s poor fiscal management are just as spurious, with recent figures showing Scottish growth outpacing the rest of the UK and foreign investment in Scotland at unprecedented levels.

Mr Farmer’s plea, that a pledge of a windfall fund transfer should cause us to be grateful for London’s beneficence, rather neglects the many fund transfers which have headed south, with the recent sale by the Crown Estate, of Kinnaird Park in Edinburgh, taking £167 million out of Scotland.

We can add the £190 million farming convergence uplift payments that the EU granted Scottish farmers being purloined by Westminster and, unforgivably, the use of Scottish North Sea assets to feather bed the south east of England while

“Norway’s profit from its oil fund generated $131 billion in 2017, dwarfing the budget Scotland received from Westminster

Scottish investment was systematically strangled.

Underlining this mismanagement is the frustrating knowledge that Norway’s profit from its oil fund generated $131 billion in 2017, dwarfing the budget Scotland received from Westminster.

Mr Farmer believes it is “daft” to pursue independence. History shows it would be daft not to.

Ken Clark. Thorter Way, Dundee.