Energy figures

You have to congratulate the SNP on the efficiency of their spin machine. The Office for Statistics Regulation formerly published the Oil and Gas bulletin on a regular basis – twice, for example, in 2013 and once in 2014 just before the referendum when, coincidentally of course, oil revenues were healthy.

Since then the bulletin has been published only once – in 2015. Now the SNP tell us it is to be axed completely (The Scotsman, 21 April). Surely this can have nothing to do with the fact that oil revenues have since plummeted – on occasion even into the red.

The Scottish people, it seems, are entitled to the facts only when they appear to support the argument for independence. Concurrently, having castigated the Tories for their involvement with Cambridge Analytica, Nicola Sturgeon is engaging in a dogged coverup of the identity of the person who represented her party’s involvement with this firm.

When the facts and the truth are taken prisoner it really raises a smile when emotionally-motivated supporters of independence claim that amongst the goals they hope to attain through independence the main one is “freedom”!

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh