Blame Westminster for Scots austerity

Sir, – The Scottish Government budget has been cut by 5% in real terms this year. This is austerity by the Westminster Tory colonial dictatorship.

As a result these cuts are reflected in the Holyrood budget.

As per usual the unionist preachers are all over the media spinning that the cuts are not from Westminster.

They get away with this by relying on the credulity of dimwitted indoctrinated unionist fanatics. These dullards are not aware of how devolution works, what is devolved and what is reserved.

Westminster has control over fuel duty, oil and gas receipts, capital gains tax, national insurance, corporation tax, VAT, alcohol and cigarette duty, inheritance tax and UK income tax. All of these are run by the Tories, none of it for the benefit of Scotland.

The utter foolishness of unionists is exposed by the fact they are apoplectic about £20 million in the budget for an independence referendum.

Yet they were silent when the Tories spent £37 billion on a failed test and trace system.

Whether unionists like it or not there exists a mandate for an independence referendum in 2023.

Unionist parties ran on opposing a referendum and lost. They now have the same view on the outcome of democratic elections as Putin or China.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund from North Sea Oil is over £1 trillion. The Scottish equivalent is zero. That is because Scotland is an exploited colony of Westminster.

Not only are unionists pleased with this, they actually contend that oil would be a burden for an independent Scotland.

To be a Scottish unionist is to not only deny reality but to be against reality.

Alan Hinnrichs. Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.