Letters to the Scottish press special, 15/06/22: IndyRef2 – Here We Go Again

Letters to the press, 14/06/22: “Sir John Kay – sometime economics adviser to Alex Salmond – tells us in a new book that a separate Scotland “would begin independent life carrying a pro-rata share of UK debt in the region of £180 billion”. Scotland would also need to borrow, he adds, to cover its budget deficit of between £10bn and £20bn, every year. This raises a few points…”

SNP urged to ‘come clean’ about second independence referendum – The Guardian

Letters to the press, 24/05/22: “We’re missing the point on Nicola Sturgeon’s retraction from her “Closing the attainment gap” aim. She has realised that being poorly educated and thoughtless is a major attribute to fortifying the numbers of her followers. So perhaps her next promise will be to close all private schools, so increasing the chances to achieve a zero attainment gap at a mediocre level, providing more fodder for the Indyref2 machine”

What Scotland can learn from Irish independence: it won’t control interest rates and inequality will widen – The Conversation

Letters to the press, 20/05/22: When former principal teacher of social subjects Jenny Gilruth became transport minister in January she said it was an opportunity to “help Scotland become a world leader in achieving our goal to become net-zero by 2045″. I’m not sure if she was meaning carbon emissions or ScotRail journeys.”

The Case for Scottish Independence Is Weaker Than Ever – The National Interest

Letters to the press, 17/05/22: “The Scottish Government urgently needs to change its direction. The fact is that the political parties supporting the Union received far more votes than the independence supporting ones in the recent election. This was true also in 2014, with a huge turnout and in reality, this has not changed ever since”

Letters to the press, 27/04/22: “One of Nicola Sturgeon’s arguments in defence of the Ferguson Ferry fiasco is that the £245 million spent in the seven years since the contract signing in 2015 saved 300 jobs. In fact, without this contract, the SNP could have used the £35m per year to employ 1,130 people on the national average wage of £31,128”