Why would you believe London? World through a looking glass

Sir, – London is well known as a world centre for pochling money: tax evasion, tax avoidance, money laundering, offshore bank accounts, dodgy hedge funds, dark money from crime, you name it... they’re in it.

So how can anybody take seriously financial statistics, calculated in London, for a Westminster Government with a clear interest in showing Scotland’s economy in a bad light.

Oil was discovered in the Norwegian North Sea and the Norwegian people are now wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Oil was discovered in the Scottish North Sea, at the same time, yet Scotland is now a basket case.

Other medium-sized, independent, northern European nations are among the richest and most successful in the world, yet Scotland in the union is dependent for funding on the charity of our southern neighbours.

Does anybody really believe this stuff?

Les Mackay, Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.

Sir, – Confronted by the GERS figures which show that independence would plunge Scotland into a decade or more of super-austerity, the SNP, led by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, say the figures actually show the need for independence.

We have entered a looking-glass world where no matter how poor Scotland would be after separation – with no currency, no currency reserves, no central bank, a hugely negative rating on the money markets, a massive deficit, severe cuts in public expenditure, in pensions, and in salaries of public sector workers,

“Vexatious activists will be able to dial 999 and accuse someone of stirring up hatred and the police may have no alternative but to investigate