The Herald

Sturgeon cannot escape shambles of her party’s new prospectus

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THE quotation marks in your headline “Sturgeon ‘forgets” cost of Scotland going it alone” (The Herald, June 9) are well chosen. Anyone who has read the First Minister’s own Growth Commission report knows that the figure was £450 million, indeed I was shouting the number at the TV screen while the FM was so convenient­ly “forgetting” it. Ms Sturgeon had two years to read her report, I had a few days. Rather than managing to “forget” the number the FM was obviously trying to avoid revealing it, because the figure of £450m, while more than the £200m she favoured in 2014, is still ridiculous­ly inadequate.

The Scottish Government has just spent £200m designing an IT system to vary benefits payments in Scotland and £180m on a system of farm payments. Ms Sturgeon is well aware of these facts. To even consider that £450m would meet the costs of the vastly greater and infinitely more complicate­d task of setting up an entirely new country is just plain silly. To publish the numbers in a report that you yourself commission­ed and then to “forget” them when challenged in an interview is beyond belief. Unless Nicola Sturgeon didn’t really forget the numbers, she was just embarrasse­d by their stupidity.

Brexit is such a shambles that Theresa May is unable to publish her economic framework for fear it splits her party. Ms Sturgeon has actually published her economic prospectus but the document itself is such a shambles that she is unable to defend it in public. When and how did Britain get and deserve such an inadequate level of political leadership?

Alex Gallagher,

Labour Councillor North Coast and Cumbraes, North Ayrshire Council, 12 Phillips Avenue, Largs.

IRMING the wellestabl­ished preference­s of the party faithful is a typical role of a political party conference, and the SNP spring conference was no exception (“Sturgeon tells faithful: Stop obsessing on date of second referendum”, The Herald, June 11). The danger of course is that all the mutual reinforcem­ent of the party line, simply ignores very relevant issues. So as the SNP sets out on a summer campaign to try to win over people to support independen­ce on the back of grievance over Brexit, it might be rather missing the point.

If the unconvince­d are more concerned about their place in the UK than the EU, no amount of agitation over Brexit is going to make any difference. Plus of course, even some of the SNP’S own core support question the sense of leaving the UK, only to seek to rejoin the EU, in the process looking to return all those powers that have been the source of so much manufactur­ed grievance.

Given Nicola Sturgeon has spent the last year reframing the independen­ce debate into a stark choice between the UK or the EU, her own Growth Commission has now rather burst that bubble. Its conclusion­s effectivel­y make plain that an independen­t Scotland would not be in a fit state economical­ly to even start the process of seeking EU membership for a decade or so. With a lengthy period outside of any economic union being an unappetisi­ng prospect for Scotland, Ms Sturgeon perhaps realises that she has got to prepare her core support for a very long wait indeed.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshi­re.

RATHER than being “indecisive” as labelled by Alan Roden (“We need a bold First Minister, not one paralysed by indecision”, The Herald, June 11), Nicola Sturgeon is being consistent. Ms Sturgeon is a canny politician and although Mr Roden contends that on the issue of a second independen­ce referendum she has “marched her troops to the top of the hill” and remains there, I would point out that a wise general knows that being on top of the hill is a good position; it allows you to keep an eye on your foes below.

However, Ms Sturgeon is not only on top of the hill, but, as Mr Roden admits, her party is also top of the opinion polls, and after 11 years in power is on course to win a fourth term at the Scottish Parliament elections in 2021, suggesting that the voters appreciate the progress that is being made by the First Minister and her Cabinet under very challengin­g circumstan­ces.

As Theresa May flounders towards the Brexit rocks, and Jeremy Corbyn sinks under his popularity rating of minus 30, Ms Sturgeon continues to steer a steady course towards her destinatio­n. And Ms Sturgeon has not only opinion poll ratings on her side, she has the support, confidence and trust of her members. The rapture with which members greeted their leader to the platform last Saturday was matched only by the comments I heard as I left the SNP conference after her speech; time and again I heard the phrase “we are so lucky to have her”.

Going by the opinion polls, Scotland thinks so too.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

WITH respect, there are three fundamenta­l flaws with Pinstripe’s analysis of the SNP’S Growth Commission (“Three key reasons why growth report fails to add up”, Herald Business, June 11).

1. If an independen­t Scotland is liable for its share of the UK national debt then it should be entitled to a share of the UK’S worldwide assets.

2. As the UK has the lowest economic growth in the developed world there is every reason to expect Scotland, with the full powers of a normal country, would have the expertise to match the growth of Denmark and other small European nations.

3. As for being forced to use the euro, Pinstripe is obviously unaware of Sweden which signed up for the euro 24 years ago and has no plans to replace the krona in the near future.

To equate Scotland’s use of sterling with Zimbabwe is insulting and negates any presence that the article is an unbiased contributi­on to the debate by “a senior member of Scotland’s financial services community”.

Scotland can be economical­ly successful after independen­ce and it is up to us to then elect a government that makes sure this happens.

Fraser Grant,

61 Warrender Park Road,

Edinburgh.

● Have your say:

The Editor, The Herald, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB; e-mail: letters@theherald.co.uk

FIRST I was branded a small minded, swivel-eyed racist bigot.

Then I was a half-witted gullible ignoramus who had no idea what I was voting for; now I am a manipulate­d Russian stooge.

When will Remainers accept that like many other Leavers, I am a fairminded, free-thinking, knowledgea­ble individual who believes that the EU is a centralisi­ng and economical­ly protection­ist cartel, which sucks the democratic free will out of all within its sphere of influence; and that the only way forward for a progressiv­e, democratic­minded country with economic ambition is to leave.

Paul Lewis,

99 Guardwell Crescent,

Edinburgh.

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