Indy prospectus idea ditched

Duncan will support and, even better, move to have their own local phone boxes reinstated.

The deadline for response to BT from a community council or individual is September 4.

And here’s hoping too that those we pay handsomely at regional and national level to strategise on our onceupon-a-time ‘public services’ will take a long hard look at themselves and consider, with courage, their personal relationship with the term ‘integrity’.

How lucky they are to be in a position to show some to great effect, and help us in deflecting this latest threat among threats.

Joyce Nicol. Melville Road, Ladybank.

Sir, – Several months ago, Derek Mackay, as finance secretary, announced that he would present, in tandem with the annual Gers figures, an annual prospectus of his own which would demonstrate the ‘economic case for independence’.

This year’s Gers figures show that Scotland’s deficit is growing and that, therefore, any case there ever was for Scexit is diminishing.

Next year’s figures will be dreadful, after the financial ravages of Covid-19, which will weaken any such case even further.

Accordingly, Mr Mackay’s successor, Kate Forbes, has signalled her admission of defeat by shelving the plans for such a prospectus.

Mr Mackay’s objective was to ‘publish an equivalent analysis of what we could do with independence’.

‘Equivalent’ means ‘of equal value’.

Would an SNP crystal ball produce an analysis of equal value to the Gers and the commentaries on it by authoritative experts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Fraser of Allander Institute, who have shown that a separate Scotland would be significantly worse off than Scotland in the UK? Jill Stephenson. Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.