GERS cannot be a template
HUGH Andrew (Letters, August 27) castigates Nationalist correspondents for their comments relating to GERS figures.
He accuses them of missing fundamental points and goes on to explain what these may be. Among these is that London is “a world supercity whose huge tax revenues and base subsidise much of the rest of the UK”. Mr Andrew talks of the “continuous pump of UK expenditure at a high level” being “one of the reasons why Scotland has recovered steadily from massive post-war de-industrialisation into one of the most prosperous parts of the UK outside of London”.
We must assume therefore that without these massive subsidies Scotland would be an economic basket case, unable to emulate similar first world countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the like, though why this should be is not elucidated.
In his final sentence Mr Andrew says: “I simply offer these few simple truths to your more moderate readers in the knowledge that many of your correspondents seem locked in a selfreinforcing world beyond the reach of reason.” This “world beyond the reach of reason” is that which is presumably inhabited by such as world-renowned economists Andrew Hughes Hallett and Nobel prizewinner Joseph Stiglist.
Professor Hughes-Hallett spoke of the naive economics of those who use the GERS figures simplistically without attempting a reconstruction of an independent Scotland’s economy. To put it briefly, one cannot take a percentage share of UK deficit and apply it to an independent Scotland. Mr Hughes-Hallett undertook a reconstruction which resulted in a considerably smaller deficit than that used by Unionists in their application of the GERS figures.
Mr Andrew should also be aware that London’s wealth is contributed to by the considerable amounts of unidentified public expenditure as detailed by English economist Fred Harrison and his American colleague Michael Hudson, funding which does not appear in government figures.
Finally, Mr Andrew, who describes himself as a managing director, will understand that if you have five businesses and you pump disproportionate amounts of investment into one at the expense of the others, then it should be no surprise that one will outperform all the others. That one is the “world super-city” whose virtues he extols. Roger Graham, 23 Cullen Crescent, Inverkip.