Things ‘are better in Scotland’ precisely because we are part of the Union

A number of people have written to the media along the same lines recently, including Mary Thomas (Letters, 14 December), about how things are “better in Scotland”, implying that independence is the way forward.

The irony is that things are better in Scotland precisely because we voted No in 2014 and because we remain in the Union.

Things are better, says Ms Thomas, and we are in the Union. Brexit may be affecting how people think as if some great doom lies ahead, but it’s not directly relevant to our current deficit.

The deficits we have run up since 2014 – an average of £14 billion each year and a total of nearly £60bn since then – have remained notional, as Yes voters like to put it.

Immediately we go independent it’s no longer notional! We would actually have to find this money or borrow it.

The Union premium is immense. Mrs May may be under immense pressure and Brexit may be angersome to many, but the moment we go independent we are staring down the barrel of a massive deficit – that’s not hypothetical.

We raise about £14bn in income tax and council tax together very roughly in Scotland. Our deficit is of the same order of magnitude as our two main personal taxes in total. Derek Mackay would have to carry out another 42 income tax hikes to reach this amount.

And now Ms Sturgeon is saying Brexit will add another £9bn to our woes – so? – what then our starting position if independent applying to rejoin the EU would be a deficit of over £20bn? Scotland alone rejoining the EU is not going to fix that.

To push for Indyref2 is a very cruel thing to do for those in Scotland who rely on healthcare, welfare, social services and so on, and they must not be cut off from the Union dividend.

JONATHAN DAVIDSON

Galashiels Road, Stow

Advocates of a second referendum claim that we now have facts that were not available earlier. But do we? We’ve been bombarded with opinions repeated so often and so confidently that some have believed them to be facts.

But no nation has yet left the European Union so there are no precedents. To claim that one knows how other parties will behave in the future, and what the consequences will be, is to assume the powers of a clairvoyant.

We need discernment to separate fact from wishful thinking, and realism seems to be in short supply in our attempts to circumvent the Brexit impasse.

GEOFF MILLER Glebe Cottage, Newtyle,

Blairgowrie The most troublesome thing in the Brexit negotiations with the EU has been over the border between north and south Ireland.

Does our First Minister, should her lifetime ambition, her raison d’etre, come to pass and Scotland becomes an independent state seeking entry to the EU, have a Plan A, or even a Plan B, on how to deal with the border between Scotland and England?

A A BULLIONS Glencairn Crescent, Leven

The government wishes to seek reassurances from the EU that the Northern Irish back stop won’t last for ever. But this is our problem, not theirs.

How can the backstop be revoked if we have not found ourselves a solution to the Irish border?

Two trading blocks with an open border cannot trade on equal terms without a joint customs arrangement and agreement on free movement of people.

Brexiteers brush this problem aside, talking vacuously about “technology”.

Well, trade with goods is one thing, but unless we all agree on some miraculous and invasive technology whereby we all carry a microchip inserted into our bodies that can monitor our movements, how on Earth do we know who is coming and who is going?

TREVOR RIGG Greenbank Gardens, Edinburgh