So the First Minister ignored the publication of the annual GERS figures in favour of adding yet another attention-seeking Edinburgh Fringe Festival appearance to her showbiz CV. Meanwhile, in an elegant coincidence, Adam Tomkins in his column today (“This is not the first time Sturgeon’s mask has slipped”, The Herald, August 24) cites Nicola Sturgeon’s “love of reading”. One of the too-infrequently noted features of that love of reading is that Ms Sturgeon appears to have read a great many books but learned nothing from any of them. Now we can add her own Government’s account of how much of Scotland’s public finances are dependent on redistribution from London and the south-east of England to that tottering pile. After all, the lesson which she and all nationalists ought to learn from GERS is so simple surely only the infantile could miss it: even if they want independence, Scotland cannot afford it. Peter A Russell, Glasgow.
