Listen to industry

Carole Ford claims (Letters, 1 July) that our relative underperformance compared to the rest of the UK can have no other cause than the constant threat of a second independence referendum.

I don’t think economic problems can be studied with such simple conclusions. Firstly, decline in the Scottish economy has been steady since the seventies. As a result, we react more quickly to declining confidence than many parts of UK.

The news for the UK as a whole right now is that we have just become the slowest growing of the G7 advanced economies.

One reason is Brexit is causing inflation which affects consumer purchasing power – thus reducing profitability and confidence of firms.

Real household income in the UK has fallen 1.7 per cent in the first few months of this year. Falling wages in the UK has become a long-term trend. Poorer trade opportunities at home and abroad have affected industrial efficiency. UK industrial productivity levels during this period have been very poor.

Declining oil prices and the knock-on effect on business confidence has been a very Scottish story, but nevertheless our economy is part of a larger UK unit.

So we should listen to the concerns of industry (and right now industry is very concerned about Brexit) – rather than just assume that simple hypotheses can address complex issues.

ANDREW VASS

Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh