Austerity hope
Ken Currie claims the SNP is scared of the Sustainable Growth Commission findings but they are holding a series of assemblies where delegates can debate it and help form policy (Letters, 4 June).
The Growth Commission clearly rejects austerity and if its spending plans had been applied over the past ten years the £2.6 billion real-term budget cuts from Westminster would have been completely wiped out. Also, even if independence didn’t lead to higher growth, the deficit inherited from Westminster could be dealt with within five to ten years without austerity.
Last weekend’s Westminster Brexit doomsday scenario follows the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s prediction of tax deficits, the London School of Economics estimation that Scotland will be £30billion worse off after Brexit plus the Bank of England report that incomes will be £900 a year less. All these analyses predict dire consequences if Scotland remains as a part of Brexit UK.
With Labour at Westminster hopelessly split on Brexit, the only way out of this mess is for Scotland to vote to become a normal modern European self-governing country.
Scotland has all the ingredients to be a successful independent nation and then it will be up to voters in Scotland to decide on the best economic policies, our place in Europe and our social priorities.
MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh Apparently the Growth Commission’s report is off the agenda at the forthcoming SNP conference. Why? Surely its publication was timed to enthuse conference delegates, demonstrating the SNP administration is no way soft on independence? The SNP plans to showcase it around Scotland – why not road-test it first amongst core supporters?
Could it be that Nicola Sturgeon can’t risk the report being publicly chewed over at the conference? The prospect of many years of austerity as a price worth paying for independence is already playing badly with some vocal dyed-in-the-wool separatists.
It seems Ms Sturgeon is keen to avoid overt criticism of this pivotal report from those who were once so unquestioning of her and the rest of the SNP establishment.
MARTIN REDFERN Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh Nicola Sturgeon claims the SNP Growth Commission report will sway No voters, yet she is surely whistling in the dark. There can be little chance of it having any significant impact on those who oppose Scotland leaving the UK when some of the SNP’S most ardent supporters are so openly and strongly criticising the report. KEITH HOWELL
White Moss West Linton, Peeblesshire Brian Monteith’s excellent article (Perspective, 4 June) does not go far enough. Nicola Sturgeon will meet opposition at this week’s conference.
The long delay in publishing Andrew Wilson’s Growth Commission report was the final catalyst suggesting it was flawed.
This report, of which the First Minister and her closest supporters seem to be the only ones who see nothing wrong with it, was the final straw. We are all experiencing, right now, the inability of the SNP to get everyday policies like health, education, the emergency services and the economy to work.
Most of these policy failures affect the core SNP supporters as well as those voting for other parties. When you cannot get a GP appointment, you don’t blame Westminster any more. These supporters are fast vanishing and the Growth Commission’s poor outlook for Scotland’s future has been noted by most.
The fact that only 10,000 marchers turned up at Dumfries only a few weeks after 35,000 were out in Glasgow suggests the Growth Commission has dealt a life blow to the independence movement who bus people in from all over to swell their ranks. This malaise will be reflected at this week’s SNP conference where the mood will be anything but confident. Not even Ms Sturgeon’s renowned political skills can breathe life into a dying idea. (DR) GERALD EDWARDS
Broom Road, Glasgow