Readers' letters: Why the GERS figures are so misleading

Every year the deceptive calculators of this report trot out their doom and gloom figures regarding Scotland's financial position.

They always fail to say that these figures are based on Scotland as a devolved region of the UK rather than an independent country that could make different spending choices than Westminster.

Taking about deception, the extent of Scotland's wealth after the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s was so big that successive Labour and Tory Westminster governments hid it from the Scottish people for decades.

When a 1975 study for the UK Government by economist Professor Gavin McCrone was made public in 2005 after a Freedom Of Information request it found that an independent Scotland would have been in a better financial position than England.

Within days of its receipt at Westminster in 1974, Professor McCrone's report was classified as secret. It was buried for the next 30 years.

It should be made known to the architects of the GERS report that being part of the Union for the last three decades has left Scotland worse off than it would have been as an independent country.

Jack Fraser, Musselburgh.

Don’t vote for the WPL parties in May

Edinburgh and Glasgow councils have made no secret of their hatred of the motorist and their intention of introducing the Workplace Parking Levy.

Will they introduce the WPL and charge their own staff over £400 a year, since they mostly live outside Edinburgh and Glasgow?

Other councils are delaying the decision until after the 5 May elections, since showing their intentions would lead to a cull of the SNP and Green candidates.

Therefore, those against the WPL must get out and vote for anyone other than the SNP and Green candidates. They should only use one vote since otherwise the SNP and Greens could sneak in the back door on the proportional representation system.

Clark Cross, Linlithgow.

One referendum was enough, Nicola

The First Minister informs us, via a TV talk show, that if the SNP lose another referendum, ‘’this time,’’ she intends to step down and let someone else lead the nationalists in Scotland.

Is she not being a little presumptive? The fact first is that as things stand there could never be a legal and binding second referendum, let alone a third.

I can see a Canada-style situation arising in Scotland where people, no matter how much in favour they may be, simply become so sick and tired of the constant grievances and upheavals brought on by nationalists, they give up.

The Canadian separatist movement is the perfect example and is now dead for exactly that reason.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

Wisdom of children

Having our nephew to stay and the inquisitiveness that comes with a five-year-old we introduced him to Siri on my iPad. How many animals in the world? Chickens -18 billion; sheep/cows- 1bn; horses - 500m.Country with biggest land area? Russia, Canada, China.And so, with the wall to wall coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war I tried to explain simplistically about soldiers,tanks and refugees etc. He asked “Why, when you are the biggest country in the world do you want more land?”

Paul Fitzsimmons, Edinburgh.

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