A clean and profitable break from the failing Union is Scotland’s for the taking

Gina Davidson (Perspective, 24 August) references claims that Covid has crushed the independence argument. This is wrong. Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland(gers) is an accounting trick imposed by Westminster to hide the truth from the Scottish people about how our wealth has been squandered by a profligate UK government over many decades. GERS does not reflect an independent Scotland’s finances, but rather the finances and costs that Scotland pays as a region of the UK. It shows Scotland with a false deficit arising from several hidden mechanisms within GERS for systematically removing Scotland’s wealth, one of which is debt loading or PSDI.

The Public Sector Debt Interest (PSDI) expenditure line in GERS is the sixth-largest outlay of the Scottish Government

and is the interest Scotland has been paying on a population share of the UK’S ballooning debts. PSDI has added £3.241 billion per year to the cost of running Scotland. Since GERS reports began 39 years ago, Scotland’s accounts have been loaded with £126bn interest on debts that Scotland did not generate, nor benefit from. Without that huge cost, Scotland’s finances would be in surplus. An independent

Scotland would have either invested this money to grow the economy and/or put it into a sovereign wealth fund, similar to Norway’s. The good news is that upon becoming independent, Scotland will inherit none of the UK national debt, something London has conceded.so we would start our life as an independent nation with a clean slate.

Scotland is a wealthy country and an energy powerhouse, with fossil fuels and more importantly, abundant renew ab les. It has robust export industries, a solid industrial and agricultural base and a highly educated population. Scotland is in a strong position to weather this crisis at least as well as other small European nations are doing.

Finally, against Scotland’s wishes, the UK is on the brink of leaving the most successful supranational trading bloc in the world. For what? A US trade deal that will lower food, environmental and labour standards, increase living costs and sacrifice the NHS so private US firms can profit.

The only argument that has been crushed is the one saying Scotland must stay trapped in a union that impoverishes us. A clean break from this failing union is ours for the taking.

LEAH GUNN BARRETT Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh