Readers' letters: Scotland cannot prosper in the UK

It’s not in Ian Murray’s interests to be honest about Scotland’s prospects in the UK (News, 21 April). He’s the sole MP for Labour’s northern branch, and no doubt sees himself swapping jobs with Alister Jack should Labour win the next election. He’ll be fine, but Scotland won’t.

Nicola Sturgeon has stated her intention to hold a second independence referendum by the end of next year

Scotland can never prosper in the UK because the UK’s wealth is concentrated in the southeast, mainly London. Capital cities tend to be wealthy because they host the government, international embassies and attract business headquarters.

On average, EU member state capitals are 50 per cent wealthier than the rest of the country. But London is a whopping 590 per cent wealthier than the rest of the Uk.

The City of London, whose wealth was funded by exploiting Scotland’s oil and gas resources, benefits short-term banking interests, not the long-term interests of Scotland’s economic development.

The National Grid is incentivised to provide cheap electricity to densely populated London and the southeast. meaning energy producers in the north of Scotland pay ten times more for grid connection than their southeast England counterparts. And Scots pay more for energy as a result, a travesty given Scotland’s status as a net energy producer and exporter.

As a UK region, Scotland can’t structure its economy to benefit its people. With its enormous resources of land, water and energy, a global reputation for innovation, a skilled workforce and top universities, Scotland should be thriving.

Independence would give Scotland the power to pursue social as well as economic development, invest in and nurture home-grown businesses and make its own decisions, not be dictated to by Westminster.

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

Missing documents failure in ferry fiasco

No great surprise to hear about the missing documents regarding the latest SNP fiasco, the unfinished ferries.

As the Scottish public awaits answers on why the two ferries are years late and countless millions of pounds of our tax money over budget, FM Sturgeon says she is disappointed that these documents are lost.Oh well, that’s OK then, nothing to see here and sorry to bother you First Minister. This is going down similar lines to last year’s Salmond inquiry. The committee waited months for vital evidence to be produced for them to analyse and when it eventually arrived, pages and pages of it where heavily redacted, rendering it pretty much useless.The problem we have here is that Sturgeon and the SNP think they are untouchable and they can pretty much do as they please and get away with it. Everything they touch is usually a monumental disaster.

The opposition parties in Holyrood have to get moving, even if it ends up with some sort of coalition with Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems. They have to work harder to get this message across to the public before the next election.

I have been impressed with Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar since he took over as leader, let’s hope he can help Scotland to get the trustworthy government it deserves.

David Smith, Prestonpans.

Better doctors

I've a simple solution for GPs who are feeling stressed and undervalued - start seeing patients properly and stop all the nonsense of having to phone at 8am then wait for a doctor to call you back before you can be seen. Maybe then GPs would see how people are coping.

My sympathies lie with the receptionists who have to deal with patients in the first instance and who earn considerably less than a GP!

Sylvia Wilson, Edinburgh.

Write to the Edinburgh Evening News

We welcome your thoughts. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. Click on this link for more information.