Make mind up

Leah Gunn Barrett says “Scotland is not a failed state because it is not a state but a region of the UK” (Letters, March 2).

Yet, in other correspondence, she is very much to the fore in claiming that Scotland is a nation. This is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-glass”, when Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." Please make your mind up.

She praises the SNP for all their bribes to the people of Scotland, paid for out of the largesse of Westminster’s Barnett Formula. The people of England do not benefit from this, of course, yet Nicola Sturgeoncansplashhugeamounts on freebies, but not on eye hospitals; on Prestwick, but not on Bifab; on ferries, but not on nuclear power.

Why, though, is she not doing something about encouraging business? Scotland needs to encourage investment, especially from the rest of the UK. Instead, we find people are reluctant to put their money into Scotland when we could end up an even worse basketcase with streets full of mobs of flag-waving numpties who believe separatist propaganda. SNP economic propaganda is drivel.

Scotland is, indeed, fast becoming a failed state because it lacks worthwhile leadership. So bad is the situation that the man who has done most to cause the economic woes that plague Scotland has actually confirmed that fact to a Holyrood committee. Does Ms Gunn Barrett not watch the news?

ANDREW H N GRAY Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh