SNP stance on economy

SIR, – Callum McCaig, the SNP’s energy spokesman, recently admitted that the oil and gas slump has made it harder to achieve his party’s goal of Scottish independence.

What is not so reassuring is his claim that excluding oil and gas revenues from the SNP’s economic argument for independence might make sense. Really?

The fact remains that Scotland spends £1,200 per head more than the UK average and raises £400 less per head in tax. This accounts for our budget deficit of almost 10% of GDP.

One way out of this is higher taxes and lower spending, or borrowing on a Corbynista scale. Nor has the SNP given any indication of the currency an independent Scotland might use.

Nicola Sturgeon also continues to promote the notion that because 1.6million Scots voted to remain in the EU, this is equivalent to Remainers wanting to separate from the UK. Most, doubtless, voted for reasons of continuity within the UK and the EU. The 2million Scottish voters who voted No to independence in 2014 make that abundantly clear.

And then, of course, we also had the Brexit Scots – 1million of them, a quarter of the entire Scottish electorate – whose view accords with the UK-wide majority.

Donald Thomson, Salisbury Terrace, Aberdeen