I have much enjoyed your recent spat re the costs of an independent Scotland. It's always nice to see old friends trotting out old arguments even when they have been repeatedly knocked down. I enjoyed particularly Alex Gallagher's comments re the fiscal deficit that Scotland is currently running - almost £12bn by his own party's calculation, I believe. He used the undoubted truth of the argument that there is considerable dubiety re the SNP figures on our deficit/surplus as a reason that we should avoid voting for these snake-oil salesmen, while trumpeting to the world Labour's minutely-costed and absolutely aston-ishing fiscal incompetence as a reason we should vote for it. Am I the only one bewildered at a party claiming its competence to govern on the mandate of a yawning fiscal deficit and manifest economic underperformance?
Or perhaps we should applaud Labour's heroic attempts to stimulate the Scottish economy by creating a state sector so bloated that even the old eastern bloc economies are dwarfed by comparison. Labour has been the dominant force in Scotland for decades. And there are many good people in the Labour Party. Unfortunately, presumably appalled by the incompetence of those left behind, they have got on the road to Westminster as fast as they can leaving behind a legacy of economic underperformance and bureaucratic overgovernance.
If I might paraphrase Cromwell's comment to parliament and direct it to Labour: "You have sat here too long. In the name of God, go." And will Labour be campaigning in England on its self-proclaimed fact that every man, woman and child in that country is subsidising us to the tune of £240 a head? I thought not. I wonder why?
Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Ltd, 10 Newington Road, Edinburgh
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