Missing billions

Dr Richard Dixon claimed that “MPS are ignoring reality about oil and gas industry” (Perspective, 5 February) but he in turn refuses to face the reality of the cost of his own proposed policy.

He failed to point out that the phasing out of gas over the next decade will be an annual £18 billion hit to energy bills in Scotland. Hence, forget about a £1,137 energy cap as household bills rocket to over £4,000 a year or the £3bn hit to the NHS. How many wards does he reckon will close to accommodate a 25 per cent hit to the NHS budget ?

Note also that there is no mention in his article of the £120bn debt to provide the plant to generate the energy lost through the ban on gas.

Dr Dixon does not appear to have talked to Scottishpower regarding the proposed ban on fossil-fuelled vehicles. A spokesman has declared that the system capacity would have to treble to provide the energy to recharge the millions of batteries. Again, no mention of a £500bn debt made worse if a Yes vote at any Indyref2 means the demise of the UK grid. That results in the loss of 92 per cent of the cost being paid by English consumers – a savage blow to the 35 per cent of Scots living in fuel poverty, especially as Holyrood has broken its pledge to the Scottish people to eliminate such poverty by 2016,

IAN MOIR Queen Street, Castle Douglas