UK is holding back Scotland

Madam, – Colin Blair’s letter (Is independence affordable?, Courier, October 8) cites among other concerns about affordability.

Poverty in Scotland is such that, with less than a tenth of the total UK population, current use of foodbanks is just under a third of the whole UK.

The same issue of The Courier reported the Scottish Government’s establishment of a Social Justice and Fairness Commission to tackle poverty and a separate move to prepare for a possible no-deal Brexit.

The obstacles to these moves are in London.

Whether composed of actual Tories or of the Labour Party’s imitators, the Westminster government deliberately creates poverty by replacing adequate wages and adequate pensions with meanstested top-ups, thus encouraging and subsidising low-paying employers.

The proposed gradual rise in the minimum wage to £10.50 by 2024 will by that time be eaten up by inflation.

And the government is currently making things worse with Universal Credit, which affects employed and unemployed people alike and has significantly increased foodbank use.

Then there is Brexit, which Scots rejected by a larger majority than they rejected independence, and which, according to the above-mentioned report, will have a “detrimental impact on the people and economy of Scotland” even if a deal is reached, but which independence would enable us to avoid.

Finally, even the limited moves the Scottish Government can make are under threat from Westminster’s plans to reduce devolution and ultimately to abolish it.

Given these obstacles to tackling poverty in Scotland, the more apt question would be ‘Is Scotland’s continued membership of the UK affordable?’

Katherine Perlo. Radical Independence Angus & Mearns, 66 South Street, Forfar.