Westminster’s role in economy

Madam, – We should be indebted to Jill Stephenson for reminding us of the significantly poorer growth of Scotland’s onshore GDP compared to the rest of the UK and that the Scottish economy is now smaller in real terms than it was 10 years ago, (An anaemic performance, Courier, May 10).

As responsibility for the Scottish economy is not a devolved matter, responsibility for these significantly poorer economic performances can only lie with the Westminster government.

These statistics give no credibility to her argument for remaining within the UK but, rather, strengthen the case for an independent Scotland, the government of which would have the full range of economic instruments at its disposal.

She also omits to state that OBR forecasts expect oil revenues, while currently poor, to double to £2.2 billion by 2024.

As the newest fields to come online in the north North Sea and to the west of Shetland would lie within an independent Scotland’s territorial waters, we could expect a significantly higher share of this revenue than we can currently expect. Murray S Duncan. Larachbeg, 5a West Huntingtower, Perth.