Determining the realities

Sir, – Perusing letters to the editor and editorials are a highlight of my daily breakfast reading, although some of the contents are often politically fictional and misleading to anyone not fully conversant with the facts surrounding many issues.

A recent Courier editorial highlighted Mhairi Black MP’s comments on Westminster (Courier, August 6).

It suggested they were merely a soundbite and claimed that she, along with any like-minded colleagues, should simply endeavour to address what they perceive as anomalies.

This would be a straightforward strategy were it not for the fact that any SNP MP, or indeed any co-operation of Scottish MPs, is routinely vastly outnumbered, whatever the issue, making democracy in this Parliament a perennial joke where Scotland is concerned.

This was, to my mind at least, clearly the purpose of Miss Black’s comments.

Meanwhile, Joseph G Miller (Letters, August 8) highlights, at long last, the now centuries old problem Scotland has in developing our economy.

Given Scotland is the last colony of the British Empire we have suffered continuously from the loss of the country’s assets since Culloden.

This, as Mr Miller

correctly asserts, includes the larger employers together with the brain drain of our more able citizens and families.

The underlying year on year activity can only be described as asset stripping, but is never recognised as such and Union supporters never address this problem.

While I clearly agree with Mr Miller’s comments I would respectfully wish to clarify, in line with the premise of this letter, that the full facts are not represented correctly.

It is worth noting there are around one million Scottish-born citizens living in England (none of whom was allowed to vote in the independence referendum), while there are just under half a million English-born residents in Scotland, together with a sizeable population of non-UK residents, all of whom were permitted to vote and was shown to skew the outcome.

On the other hand the EU referendum denied the vote to non-UK residents.

Why was this?

Hugh Cameron. 33a Thomas Street, Carnoustie.