Tiresome Tories

Although concluding that the “economic case for the Union is stronger than ever” (Perspective, 16 October, p27), Murdo Fraser advances little evidence to support this assertion. His party in government spent the last ten years telling us that nothing could be worse than saddling the next generation with debt and therefore austerity and all its deeply unpleasant consequences could be justified. Now, the same party is in fullon reverse, set to burst its own

fiscal rules and ramp up debt by £100 billion per year. No doubt after a successful election, the same old arguments for austerity will be advanced yet again.

It is a simple fact that the major economic and financial levers of government are controlled by Westminster, not Holyrood. It is also a simple fact that the UK economy is skewed in favour of London and the south-east of England. Another fact is the damage caused across the country by Brexit, a monumental act of self-harm with worse to come, all due to a Conservative Party which put its own interests before those of the people.

So in the absence of any economic case for the Union, Fraser gave us a tired litany of “SNP bad” criticism – including a ridiculous one about immigration, which surely everyone knows is also a matter reserved to Westminster.

Apparently, he tells us, nothing is clear about the plans for independence, a cheap shot from the party of Brexit which must surely set the gold standard for lies, uncertainty and confusion. If the difficulties of Brexit tell us anything, it is not about the road to Scottish independence but the patrician smugness, mendacity and incompetence of Murdo Fraser’s fellow Conservatives. ROBERT FARQUHARSON

Lee Crescent, Edinburgh