Setting the record straight

Sir, – May I please reply to the question posed to me by your correspondent Les Mackay (Courier Letters, June 19) in which he continues to assert the economic dominance of small countries such as Norway, Iceland and so on over the UK, quoting the World Economic Forum analysis, but omitting to provide any detail?

In fact, the current figures from the World Economic Forum are rather different from the proposal of Mr Mackay.

In the economic performance ranking placements, the UK places seventh, Luxembourg 20th, Iceland 27th, Denmark 12th and Finland 10th.

Additional to this is the fact that these countries have long-established political and economic management histories.

A newly-independent Scotland would be an unknown factor and, on the basis of what we see of SNP fiscal management, the economic perspectives for an independent Scotland would most likely push us down the world economic rankings to an equivalence of third world basket-cases.

It is economic and political stability that encourages inward investment to a country, not the wild dreams of nationalist ideologues.

Why is it so often the case that the SNP and its most avid supporters are consistently so economic with the truth and deliberately ignore the realities and associated costs of building an independent Scotland from scratch?

This week, the UK Government is pledging a windfall fund transfer to Holyrood to support Scotland’s NHS.

Where is such support likely to come from were Scotland to foolishly vote to break up the United Kingdom?

And why do we never see any published summary of benefit from being part of the UK instead of the constant emotional spin deliberately focused by the SNP upon vote catching rhetoric that has nothing to do with reality in an increasingly fractured and unstable world order?

Then we have the theatrics of SNP performance at Westminster... a sure way to gain enemies and lose influence in our sovereign government which in itself cannot be good for Scotland.

The Scottish National Party nomenclature is not the equivalent of the Scottish Independence Party, and surely, after 10 or more years, it is time for the SNP to drop its daft independence quest and focus instead on its day-job, which is leading a minority government

to do its best for the Scottish nation. Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.