Timely reminder

Yesterday the annual GERS numbers were to be revealed and no doubt there will be the usual bunfight about their rel

evance to the constitutional debate.

If I might take a different tack...

The SNP administration is to be congratulated on its determination to publish these figures annually. Not every political party would persist in publishing economic data which has the potential to destroy its raison d’etre. In a sea of misinformation and spin, GERS stands out as a beacon of truth and accuracy.

When we are told that Scotland is doing so much better than the rest of the country on Covid-19 deaths, but the statistics show different, we still have GERS to restore our faith in objective facts.

When the first serious outbreak of Covid-19 in the country is in Edinburgh but the First Minister forgets to tell us about it, we have GERS to remind us that some uncomfortable truths can still make in into the public domain.

When we are told that Ministers have no say in infectious patients being discharged into care homes but official letters show different; when the Education Secretary endorses an equation that seriously disadvantages working class pupils; and when the same Education Secretary does aU-turn on his equation and claims that makes it all right; when Cabinet Secretaries deny that fiscal transfers happen while demanding the continuation of the UK furlough scheme; when the First Minister says we have extra Covid testing capacity but people from Glasgow are told togo to Belfast for a test, GERS is an important truth that we can hold to, a shining light in a murky forest of obfuscation and incompetence.

And when we have a succession of Finance Secretaries whose economic qualifications seem to be the possession of the requisite numbers of fingers and toes, it’s nice to know that some competent people are actually keeping the score.

So, when we are told that ‘independence’ transcends everything and that all routes through‘ independence’

would lead to a prosp erous sunny upland, the SNP’S own GERS publication is there to remind us – and themselves, if they have the wit and honesty to admit it – that such a view is the acme of economic illiteracy and, in the wise words of a prominent Nationalist politician, stupidity on stilts. ALEX GALLAGHER

Labour Councillor Ward 8, North Ayrshire Council

Phillips Avenue, Largs