Oil or nothing?

id ground in highlighting the risks. The European Court of Justice exists to enforce EU laws and this is just one example of how the Brexiteers’ fixation with avoiding its rulings can damage our land. At the moment, as an EU member we face no tariff or other barriers to trade inside the single market and we can appeal to the court if there is any discriminatory trade action against us. With Brexit we will have no such avenue and as a farmer I have experienced these nontariff barriers in the past and no doubt will in the future.

STEVE MITCHELL Bagbie, Newton Stewart

It is clear that defeating terrorism needs international co-operation. There is simply no room for refusing to cooperate with other countries’ police forces if they have information which could prevent a terrorist attack in Britain, or if we have pieces of the jigsaw which could stop a French or German city going through the same agony as Manchester. However, this is exactly what Theresa May threatened Europe with in March, if she didn’t get her way in Brexit talks. Everyone gains if we co-operate. This Conservative government is both unwilling and unable to do so.

LUCY GRIG Roseneath Street, Edinburgh Strangely, Donald Lewis thinks it is a good thing that the UK economy is so skewed that London and the South East of England subsidises every other region or nation (Letters, 1 June). London also gets a disproportionate amount of government infrastructure investment compared to the rest of the UK. The main levers over Scotland’s economy remain at Westminster, whose mishandling of Scotland’s oil revenues over the 30 years when it subsidised the UK Treasury is no advert for Team GB. Today, Norway gets far more in taxation from each barrel of oil extracted in the North Sea than the UK Government collects in revenues.

Scotland had a record-breaking year for foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2016, and kept its position as the top location in the UK outside London, with FDI increasing by 2.5 per cent compared to 2015. Therefore the biggest threat to Scotland’s economy is the turbo-charged austerity that will follow a Tory hard Brexit. Theresa May is already preparing for this by cutting pensions and other benefits that the less well off rely on, while National Insurance and other taxes will increase after the general election.

FRASER GRANT

When asked about the performance of Scotland lagging behind that of England on Radio 4 yesterday, our First Minister’s amazing reply was “… if you ignore the contribution to the English economy made by London and the south-east, the performance of Scotland is better than that of England”. This truly reveals the fantasy league of economics that the SNP inhabits. MALCOLM PARKIN Gamekeepers Road Kinnesswood, Kinross