Needless despair

I am surprised that Marjorie Ellis Thompson (Letters, 29 March) feels “despair” at Douglas Cowe’s sensible comments (Letters, 28 March).

I’d have thought she might have felt genuine despair at the home truths Scottish nationalists were told by Professor Mark Blyth, economist, of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, at a “Scotonomics” event last

weekend.

Ms Thompson repeats the usual SNP mantras about other countries that Scotland should emulate, perhaps unaware that Prof Blyth’s view is that “Nationalist circles like to say that Scotland is a small, open economy like the Nordic economies. That’s a bit like saying ‘I’m a supermodel simply because I have legs’. It’s simply not true when you really think about it.”

Another of Ms Thompson’s repeat mantras is about “Scotland’s natural resources”. Prof Blyth’s riposte is: “You don’t own any of that. You don’t own your energy infrastructure… I don’t do fantasy economics. I’m too old for it.”

This comes from someone, Mark Blyth, who sympathises with separatists: “I fully understand the desire to be separate, but, you know, the idea that it isn’t going to hurt… ooft!

You can’t really say that Brexit is the worst thing ever and then commit the biggest Brexit of all time, which is literally what this is.”

If nationalists like Ms Thompson started telling the truth about the problems a separate Scotland would face and the hardship it would entail, perhaps some of us who know that this is the truth would have some respect for them.

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh