Energetic debate

Ian Moir states Humza Yousaf’s claim that Scotland has “extraordinary resources” such as higher education and renewable energy “does not stand up to economic analysis” (Letters, 10 January).

Mr Moir mentions a cut in “the cash for tertiary education for the second time”. With the UK Government’s austerity economics policies deliberately reducing public spending since 2010, expenditure only being cut twice in Scotland despite this is an amazing achievement.

He says “just over 50 per cent of students attending Scottish universities are home based compared with 74 per cent south of the Border”. However, 2021 statistics show 72.2 per cent of pupils in Scotland continuing in education. If almost 50 per cent of students are not home based that is not due to low numbers of homebased students but due to high numbers of foreign students attracted by the internationally recognised high standard of Scottish education, with three of Scotland’s universities in the top 100 in the world. So our higher education does seem to be an “extraordinary resource”.

Regarding energy, according to National Grid statistics up to 3.5 gigawatts of electricity can be transferred between Scotland and England, 90 per cent going from Scotland to England, closely related to wind production. There are also proposals for a power line from East Lothian to County Durham. Eastern Green Link’s website indicates “EGL1 – Will be able to transport up to 2GW of renewable energy from Scotland’s rich renewable energy reserves, particularly offshore wind, to consumers in the rest of the UK. That’s enough energy for two million homes.” This surely indicates Scotland’s renewable energy is an “extraordinary resource”.

Sadly, energy being a matter reserved to the UK Government, it is not being used to the maximum benefit of Scotland. Also, being an internal transfer between UK nations it does not show up in Scotland’s financial export figures. Jim Stamper

Bearsden East Dunbartonshire