Fall was foreseen

Rejecting claims that the SNP tried to con Scots before the 2014 referendum, Nicola Sturgeon told journalists that “nobody, not myself nor any of the opposition parties or you guys foresaw the decline in the oil price”. She described it as an unforeseeable change in circumstances that happened after publication of figures in the infamous White Paper and claimed, the White Paper figures “were based on the best available evidence at the time”.

Just to put the record straight, the German weekly Die Zeit published a realitybased account of the economic prospects of an independent Scotland as early as 2011. I know it, because I wrote it. The then SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who since the loss of his Westminster seat in June appears to devote most of his time to his Twitter account, reacted with an irate private letter to the editor-inchief, asking to be given the opportunity to counter my “travesty of an article” with a piece penned by himself. He also demanded that I would not be allowed any longer to write any articles on Scotland in the run-up to the referendum. The SNP’S “Operation Con” had even an international dimension.

REINER LUYKEN

Polbain House Achiltibuie, Ross-shire

Clearly, Stan Grodynski (Letters, 25 August) thinks those

of us who voted for Brexit were influenced by the tosh that Ukip put on the side of a bus. Indeed, that seems to be the view of many other, selfdeluding “Remoaners”.

The facts which clearly annoy Mr Grodynski and other believers in Scexit are just that. They are facts. GERS figures are official – and they emanate from his beloved SNP administration, so he cannot dispute them. Nigel Farage’s figures had nothing to do with official figures, as the Government was as pro-eu as the SNP still are.

Cue, then, an attack on London and south-east England, which the SNP cordially loathe because it helps the whole country pay for the excesses of the Scottish banking sector, actively encouraged in their takeovers by none other than Nationalist cheerleader, Alex Salmond. Maybe Mr Grodynski remembers that?

Suggesting that an aircraft carrier is pointless in dealing with illegal immigrants or terrorists fails to acknowledge that newly independent states in Europe run the risk of internal conflicts being engineered by our old friends in Russia (remember the Ukraine?) and the SNP defence proposals would have been utterly ineffective in the face of that threat too.

It is long overdue for Mr Grodynski and his Nationalist fellow travellers to recognise that their plan for Scotland to be run by Germany is over. They need to start living in the real world.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh

Isn’t it amazing that every time clear evidence appears, such as the annual GERS report, of the deficit challenge that an independent Scotland would have to climb, SNP ministers, and supporters such as Stan Grodynski, trot out the old canards of “we wouldn’t have the cost of Trident or the aircraft carriers and we could grow the economy to close the deficit gap”. In fact, the annual

running costs of Trident will be around £2 billion a year, and £200m for the new aircraft carriers.

Based on population, Scotland’s share of this will be less than £200m out of a total spend of £71bn, the equivalent of two cigarettes (80p a week) per inhabitant, or six days of

the annual £13bn NHS budget. And as for trebling on economic growth to get our deficit down from 8.5 per cent of GDP down to the EU entry benchmark of 3 per cent, it would take almost 35 years on current growth rates to treble the size of our economy, or ten years at 11 per cent, a levpening

el which only China and India have achieved.

ALLAN SUTHERLAND

Willow Row, Stonehaven

Good news, especially on the economy, is always welcome and the GERS figures released this week indicated that Scotland’s public spending deficit had reduced, which is good news for us all.

Added to that news was the announcement that the largestemployerinmyconstituency (Falkirk), Alexander Dennis Ltd (Bus Builders), had signed orders for some £44 million, a great boost to the local and national economy.

It did not end there; more announcements on the job front followed when airline Jet2 announced the creation of 200 jobs between their operations at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.

Unemployment in Scotland is currently below the UK average and this, coupled with this week’s announcements, are a vote of confidence in the Scottish economy, something very welcome amidst the uncertainly of the Brexit negotiations.

CATRIONA C CLARK

Hawthorn Drive Banknock, Falkirk

Fraser Grant tries to compare the Norwegian economy with what an independent Scotland could be (Scotsman, 24 August), but disingenuously looks at the past and not the present or future.

Yes, Norway has a Sovereign Wealth Fund and the UK does not. That is because in the 1980s and 1990s, the Conservatives used the oil money to halve income tax for the rich and pay benefits to the 3 million they made unemployed. The same Conservatives whom many Scots voted for a few months ago and whose Scottish MPS are keeping Theresa May in power, hurtling towards a hard Brexit.

Fraser Grant gives the impression that all is well in Norway, but completely ignores what is actually hap-

now. In the last few months the Norwegian prime minister has said that the people of Norway must be prepared for some belt tightening, that the longterm decline in the oil sector is putting Norway under strain. Some 50,000 oil jobs have been lost, and growth is slowing. For the first time, Norway is taking money out of the Sovereign Wealth Fund instead of putting it in.

Norway has a big welfare state paid for by high wages, high productivity and high taxes. The Norwegian model may be fine for the SNP supporters willing to pay 38 per cent income tax and £10 for a pint of beer, and likely more as an independent Scotland will start with an enormous budget deficit – but please count the rest of us out.

PHIL TATE

Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh