If we are such a basket case, why do they want to keep us?

MY goodness, what an apocalypse awaits an independent Scotland, at least according to Struan Stevenson (“The breakup of the UK will damage Scotland, Britain and the special relationship”, The Herald, April 15). Post-pandemic economic meltdown, geopolitical catastrophe, devastated savings, public sector cut to the bone, eye-watering levels of taxation, soaring mortgages, plummeting pensions, sea of debt, bankruptcy, Joe Biden pacing the Oval Office in alarm … Well, there’s much to alarm President Biden, but I don’t think the prospect of Scottish independence will be top of his list.

I invite Mr Stevenson to put his crystal ball to one side and take part in a thought experiment. Imagine that England held a referendum resulting in English independence. That is not at all fanciful, considering Scotland’s reputation as an economic basket case. Why would she not dump this millstone round her neck? Now I invite Mr Stevenson to become Scotland’s First Minister. I can’t second-guess what his policies would be, but I imagine he might say, as I would say, that Scotland is a country abundant in natural resources, chief among them the ability, ingenuity, wit, and resilience of the populace. An independent Scotland can prosper. Everybody knows this.

Yet, I do agree with one of Mr Stevenson’s assertions. He says that the removal of Trident to an English port “would require enormous political will to overcome inevitable strong local opposition”. Funny, that.

Dr Hamish Maclaren, Stirling.

STRUAN Stevenson writes of “governments which … flounder around in a hotbed of incompetence, sleaze and scandal”. Only one winner of this prize, and it isn’t Scotland.

Scotland’s economy is to face “meltdown” he asserts, yet we are also told (in a KPMG report) that Scotland will grow faster than the UK. Eight thousand jobs will go at Faslane, but most of these “jobs” are service personnel, and that’s the thing – if the Tories had not removed refitting the submarines at Rosyth (off to Plymouth, for electoral reasons), Scotland might have something to lose from Trident moving from Scotland. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States stated fairly recently that they preferred the UK to lose its WMDS and concentrate on conventional armed forces.

Mr Stevenson also asserts we spend £15 billion more than we raise in taxes, but unless the Treasury opens the books we don’t know that at all. Like his chums at Westminster, Mr Stevenson seems to have difficulty understanding Scotland and our place in the scheme of things, but recent articles published by the London School of Economics (Dr Geoffrey Chapman/dr Richard Scott); Cambridge University Bennet Institute for Public Policy (Philip Rycroft/prof Michael Kenny/jack Sheldon); and Prof Ciaran Martin of Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government could help with his comprehension.

Don’t stereotype SNP voters

I AM routinely amused, but mostly irritated, by reading descriptions of SNP supporters such as myself in your Letters Pages. I am neither fanatical nor blinkered about the SNP’S governance of our country and am certainly not afraid to challenge when necessary. I do not rant on social media or engage in anti-social behaviour. I am a retired academic, busy grandmother and wholly peaceful in pursuing my political beliefs.

Like many thousands, I joined the SNP after the referendum in 2014, sickened by the contempt of the fake united opposition’s “pledge” to Scots which disintegrated within 24 hours of the No result.

My support for the SNP is maintained by the many improvements to Scottish life achieved by the Scottish Government but also by the howling injustices of Brexit and by being governed by a Westminster highly-privileged elite for which my country didn’t vote, and whose policies are so far removed from any reflection of my own values and beliefs as to be almost alien. The UK Conservative Government has repeatedly shown itself to be mired in distasteful hypocrisy, displays a brutal and continuing disdain for the least advantaged, and has positioned itself above meaningful scrutiny and accountability. Any support for it must surely require abandoning any belief in decency. Scotland does not deserve to be tarnished by this shamefulness under global scrutiny. In Scotland, we at least know how to hold our leaders to account.

So, a request to detractors. Please do not assume you know or understand, or can easily typify my support for the SNP. We are a very broad movement with at least one common belief – that an independent Scotland has the knowledge, skills, resources and passion to look after our affairs and to flourish in, and make a significant contribution to, a fairer world.