Independence can boost Scottish jobs - your views

" Scotland’s sole Labour MP should reflect on the reason his party is so irrelevant”

Independence can boost Scottish jobs

Ian Murray (Opinion 29 April) forgets to mention that David Phillips, head of the IFS, said Scotland is a wealthy country which can afford to become independent. The Union deficit is a testament to Westminster’s mismanagement of Scotland’s economy.

The STUC have backed an independence referendum, but by refusing Scotland the right to choose its future, regardless what the voters decide, Anas Sarwar and Labour prefer to sit back and leave Scotland’s future in the hands of Boris Johnson.

The IFS also stated that the SNP policies on tax and benefits have created a fairer, more progressive system than is in place in the rest of the UK. Scotland needs the serious leadership of Nicola Sturgeon to guide us out of the pandemic, and into recovery including £33bn planned for infrastructure projects supporting 45,000 jobs and delivering a further 100,000 affordable homes.

Fraser Grant, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh.

Borders can be our friends, Ian

Ian Murray says that a border between Scotland and rUK would be a bad thing. Doesn’t he know that independent nations, even friendly ones, have borders?

What he gets wrong is that today’s borders are soft, managed by technology and cooperation, not the hard borders of the past. One need only look at how the 1000-mile border between Norway and Sweden is seamlessly managed.

And Emma Harper was right when she said Scottish jobs will be created. Former HM Customs and Excise executive Bill Austin has pointed out that Scotland controlling its own borders means establishing the organisations to do so, and that will create new and higher skilled jobs in rural areas, at our ports and along our coastline that can also enhance our revenues.

For example, a Scottish Customs office could concentrate on recovering billions lost in customs and excise duty rather than follow the UK approach of being hostile to immigration.

Relocating the civil service from London to Scotland will be a net gain to our new nation. Under the UK system, Scotland pays civil service wages but gets neither the tax, national insurance or economic benefit of having those skilled jobs based here.

Because Scotland already has the infrastructure in place, we can easily accommodate the estimated 6640 highly skilled jobs that will be gained from moving these roles to Scotland.

Rather than oppose Scottish self-determination, Scotland’s sole Labour MP should reflect on the reason his party is so irrelevant.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh.

Fueling tax debate

I filled my car with 31.57 litres of petrol at a cost of £39.12. The receipt showed this as £32.60 plus VAT £6.52. Every litre of fuel attracts 57.95p fuel duty so I contributed £18.29, so I gave the government £25.71.

Motorists contributed £27.57 billion in fuel duty taxes in 2019/2020 plus VAT, so where will this come from when petrol/diesel vehicles are banned and replaced by electric vehicles which only the rich can afford?

Petrol stations should show fuel duty as a separate item and once the motorists see how much they are paying every time they fill up there will be well-merited demonstrations. Meanwhile, the rest of the world drives 1.2 billion vehicles.

Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.

Irritable vowels

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Dvd J Mcky, Gldhs Plc, Ednbrg.