No need for subsidies

Sir, – My late father, Robert Ovenstone, worked from leaving school in 1941 at the age of 14 years old till he retired at the age of 65 years in 1992 and presumably paid his tax and national insurance when in employment.

However, according to your correspondent Jill Stephenson it is the English taxpayer that funds Scotland’s “free” services.

She appears to suggest we should be more grateful for their generosity here in Scotland.

Unfortunately for Jill Stephenson the HMRC usually send each taxpayer, of which I am one, a breakdown of how the taxes they pay contribute to national spending.

Sadly that will include helping to pay for things I don’t particularly want to pay for such as nuclear weapons.

Therefore, it is not just English taxpayers that help to fund Scotland’s “free” services but businesses and individuals here in Scotland.

Countries such as New Zealand and Norway somehow manage to run their own countries from contributions from their own taxpayers.

Despite this fact, the implication from the letter of Jill Stephenson and other unionist letter writers is that Scotland, with a larger population than either country individually, needs to rely on the English taxpayer to “subsidise” Scotland.

We don’t need to rely on English taxpayers.

In fact we have elected to make a positive contribution to the United Kingdom of Great Britain – including those who elected to vote for Scottish independence, something that unionists do not seem to be prepared to recognise. Peter Ovenstone. 6 Orchard Grove, Peterhead.

The great thing about a national institution like the Kirk is that it is, by its definition, a ‘broad church’