Scot-free Brexit

The SNP Government’s recent estimates of GDP losses under different post-brexit scenarios, which are over inflated, badly presented, poorly contextualised and not a required addition to official statistics, do at least remind us that they are far lower than the actual deficit we have been running since the independence referendum. The figures are £4 billion, £9bn and £13bn, compared with an average annual deficit of about £14bn over the last three years (and that is an official statistic). The generous way we are funded by the rest of the Union means we don’t run up debt as such in Scotland, by continually running with such a massive deficit. This generous funding methodology, which means we are able to spend more than 20 per cent more per head in Scotland than the rest of the UK, is not in itself threatened by Brexit as far as I am aware.

We literally get off Scot free in this sense, and if the SNP GDP loss figures were meant to alarm us, they must be considered alongside the benefits of being in the Union.

Two further thoughts: if we really are facing these losses – £4bn, £9bn or £13bn – on top of our existing £14bn deficit, surely that would be too big a financial mess to risk going it alone outwith the UK and hoping that rejoining Europe would recover this as well as the certain losses from leaving the Union?

And were we not anyway going to be leaving Europe if we had voted Yes in 2014?

JONATHAN DAVIDSON

Galashiels Road Stow, Scottish Borders