High tax cost of independence

Sir, – It is normal to have separatists appear in print, uttering such nonsense as

the UK without Scotland would continue to finance the newly independent nation’s pensions.

It is quite something else, however, to see an SNP MP totally mislead the readership of the Courier (Letters, February 10) by claiming that those Scots who have made contributions are being let down by the UK Government.

The UK Government (it is not the British government) can’t renege on paying out pensions when the system has always been that today’s contributions pay the recipients of pensions tomorrow.

There is no pot of money being used to pay your future pension, which I am sure Douglas Chapman MP will be well aware of.

Misleading the public in this manner is preposterous but one does have to ask yourself why he would do so.

Is it perhaps because he is aware that if the electorate considered the true picture of a Scotland that does not have enough working

taxpayers to fund the pensions of our citizens due to the demographics, they will vote no?

The working age population would face astronomical tax increases to fund pensions at their current level in an independent Scotland. Who knows what the taxation level would have to be to double the state pension as the SNP claim they will do.

Perhaps Mr Chapman might like to explain to us why he thinks that independence means relying on your previous partner to maintain the

lifestyle to which you have become accustomed.

You can’t move out of a shared home but insist on still being allowed back to use the washing machine. That’s not independence, is it now, Mr Chapman? Jane Lax. Craigellachie, Aberlour.