No money to fight Covid-19 in indy Scotland

Sir, – Surely if any further evidence were needed, the effects of the coronavirus make it very clear that Scotland is far better off being within the Union, than being outside and independent.

If Scotland were independent today, from where would it find the huge sums of money presently being raised by the UK Treasury required to support society?

Furthermore, recent events have shown that the old SNP policy on which it based its economic persuasions (Scotland’s oil) was always a fallacious means of obtaining votes.

We have all seen the Brent crude oil price drop spectacularly, showing up the fallacy of building a national economy on a volatile commodity whose value is not within national control, and therefore neither are the taxes derived from it.

At the same time, the publicity given to the independence campaign turns away the investment needed for jobs and wealth due to the perceived risk to any such investments that the independence issue causes.

The SNP in government tries to make up for this by concentrating on public services. But brushes under the carpet the fact that public services must be paid for and there is insufficient tax-take to sustain such a strategy.

I also see that fruit farms are now, at long last, advertising for local berry pickers.

For far too long the focus has been on importing foreign workers as a cheap and easy alternative.

But now foreign workers are banned from travelling by their own governments, there is no alternative than to bite the bullet.

How nice it would be if, within our current generation, we could have less grandstanding on selfish issues, and a bit more social reality and truth. Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.