Scotland can thrive with independence

SIR, - Your correspondent, David Philip, says Scotland would need an “economic miracle” to become a self-sufficient country.

Actually, it only needs one thing – independence.

With full control of our taxation and spending, not only would we be able to stop sending billions to London only for it to be spent on vanity projects such as Trident, we would also be able to save million of pounds that is currently spent trying to fill gaps caused by bad UK Government policies, such as the bedroom tax. Scotland already generates enough money to fund the things we need – it just needs to be spent better.

The Growth Commission report David mentions looks at 12 successful independent countries, such as Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

None of these countries have anything that makes them inherently more likely to succeed than Scotland, except for one thing: they are independent, and therefore able to make decisions that are tailored to their own needs.

Independence would bring challenges, but as Brexit has highlighted so clearly, so too does not becoming independent.

The difference is independence allows us to deal with those challenges in our own way, instead of having to rely on a UK Government that can’t even deal with challenges in its own leading party.

Scotland is coming to a crossroads, dependency versus independence, and neither path offers complete certainty.

We can continue being dragged along to whatever nightmarish destination the UK is heading towards with little say over what happens; or we can go our own way, making our own choices.

There would seem to be a remarkable ignorance of history in the ranks of unionists in the long and the short term which ignores the Clearances, two world wars, Korea, the Falklands and, of course, the illegal Middle East fiascos which perpetuated the false premise that this tiny island could maintain its empire status.

Over the last 50 years of my working life, I have watched successive Westminster governments, steadily and cynically, erode standards to the point that it is no great surprise that hardworking families, our youth and our senior citizens alike feel disenfranchised.

Unfortunately, I agree with the boss of RBS that it is inevitable that another financial crisis will occur and, although he may feel that the banks are ready for this, I consider that the immediate costs of this Brexit fiasco will be peanuts compared to the crisis to follow.

At this time, I can see no reason to change my long-term belief that independence from the UK is the best option and being part of the European Union preferable to being tied to the coat tails of the USA for another 60 years.