Indyref2 trumped

It has been a long and lonely journey via the Letter pages of The Scotsman until, at last, vindication was given by Kenny Macaskill, MP, that climate change policies trump those of Indyref2 (Scottish Perspective, 20 August ).

The first fissure in Indyref2 was delivered by the First Minister when she endorsed the Growth Report, thus accepting that independence would inflict years of austerity to eliminate a £5 billion GERS deficit.

The second crack in the edifice came from the deafening silence from Dr R. Dixon in response over a plea from a reader (2 October, 2019) that the claim that the economy of an independent Scotland could not afford the £400 billion infrastructure costs of a green revolution must be incorrect.

The next breach came when, after the First Minister declared a climate emergency, she failed to respond to the claim that as renewable energy was too expensive, the cost must be passed to the taxpayer.

Note that such a silence will lead to penury for 1.5 million Scots living in fuel poverty – a situation that Holyrood pledged to eliminate by 2016 !

The beginning of the erosion of Indyref2 foundations resulted from the promise by the Economic Secretary to implement the recommendations of the green revolution report. Her silence over debt repayments of the £150 billion costs demonstrated that the economy after independence, ravaged by years of austerity, would reduce 2.4 million Sottish taxpayers to penury.

The vindication that climate change trumps Indyref2 will allow Richard Leonard, Willie Rennie and Douglas Ross to point out to Greta supporters, Green advocates and the Scottish youth that the May election is a binary choice between a vote for Indyref2, with decades of austerity and no cash to implement COP26, or a vote for a Unionist party to Save the Seas, Save the Planet and Save Lives.

IAN MOIR Queen Street, Castle Douglas