No reason Scotland could not succeed

Sir, – I was struck by recent research on the London School of Economics blog contrasting Scottish independence with the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic’s ‘Velvet Divorce’.

In the years postindependence, the Czech Republic substituted its exports and imports away from the Slovak Republic and vice versa, both in favour of Germany. For the economically smaller state, the Slovak Republic quite quickly substituted away from its much larger export partner to a much smaller partner.

That is to say, the Slovak Republic’s exports to Germany were nearly three times less than to the Czech Republic in 1993, but as of 2019, they were nearly two times greater than

to the Czech Republic.

While the majority of Scotland’s trade is with the rest of the UK, exports to the EU grew by an average of 4% over five years, and since 2010, growth to the EU outpaced the rest of the world and UK.

Scotland is not only becoming more economically integrated with the EU but also with non-EU partners.

Our historical economic performance has been strong, which bodes well.

With modest population growth alongside good GDP growth, supported by stable participation in international trade, it seems Scotland is in a far better initial condition than either the Czech or Slovak Republics, and can therefore expect similar (if not better) post-independence outcomes.

Considering Scotland has all the necessary machinery in place to become independent,

there are no obvious reasons why Scotland would not succeed economically.

Alex Orr. Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.