Pensions remain toxic issue for Sturgeon and pursuit of independence

Sir, – It is unkind of me to laugh, but Douglas Chapman MP (Letters, February 10) really has got egg on his face. He says it “would be an act of gross contempt if the UK did not pay out pensions to those Scottish taxpayers who had made contributions to the UK (pension) scheme in good faith” and if “the British government reneged on paying out pensions” to Scots.

Nicola Sturgeon has effectively admitted Ian Blackford had been wrong to make that claim last week and she had been wrong to endorse in parliament his words about RUK paying pensions to inhabitants of an iscotland.

Ms Sturgeon told us – incorrectly – that her position had not changed since before 2013, when her own white paper had stated clearly (p144) that the payment of pensions to Scots would transfer to the new Scottish government on separation.

Ms Sturgeon said: “It is for a Scottish government to be responsible for the payment of pensions but the historic liabilities and assets around pensions, as around other things, will be a matter for negotiation at the time of independence.”

It would all depend on a negotiation with an adversary from the country and government Ms Sturgeon and her party had spent many years insulting and abusing. Not a great start to a negotiating process.

Your correspondent Nick Cole (Letters, February 10) asks why I think we would not pay tax in a separate Scotland. Perhaps he could point out where I said any such thing.

Alistair Ballantyne (Letters, February 10) accuses me of “flying a kite” and various other fancies. I have stated the facts as they are.

He perhaps doesn’t know about Ms Sturgeon’s volte-face, nor about the statement by the Pensions Minister Guy Opperman, who said at the weekend that RUK would not expect to pay pensions to Scots after separation.

Your correspondents demonstrate unmistakably the untruths told by Mr Blackford and endorsed by Ms Sturgeon and others, and their unmasking as untruths, reveal that the SNP still regards the pensions issue as one that is toxic for them and their cause.

And so it should be.

Jill Stephenson. Corstorphine, Edinburgh.