Scotland can follow Irish route to success - your views

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Scotland can follow Irish route to success

When David Smith (letters, December 24) writes that Scotland does four times more trade with the UK than the EU, he should study the case of Ireland, which as an independent country in the EU now has a higher GDP (wealth) per head than the UK.

When Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973, 55 per cent of exports went to the UK. This has since dropped to nine per cent, while the EU now accounts for almost half of all Irish exports.

Instead of queues and red tape at Dover, Ireland has established numerous ferry routes to France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal whereas Scotland relies on three sailings a week from Rosyth to Zeebrugge.

HM Treasury figures show that even with a free trade EU deal, Scotland’s wealth will be reduced by six percent and that’s before Boris Johnson’s Covid economic disaster.

Scotland’s chance to become a wealthier nation sits with independence and not with staying tied to the self-destructing UK economy, and a Brexit that we didn’t vote for.

Mary Thomas, Watson Crescent, Edinburgh.

Petty point scoring over Nicola’s mistake

As expected, the way some tabloid journalists reported the picture of Nicola Sturgeon without a mask in a pub, did succeed in whipping up unfair criticism from their less discerning readers.

Although she did break the guidelines she has been preaching about on a daily basis, I couldn't help but feel sympathetic, when on a couple of occasions, I did something similar when I momentarily forgot to put on my mask before walking into a supermarket. I'm sure other readers must have made the same mistake.

Some who appear to be guided only by party politics have had their bit of fun, but on a more sensible note, Ms Sturgeon was invited back to a pub for a cup of tea after a funeral. She took off her mask to drink her tea then mistakenly forgot she was maskless when she stood up at her table to chat to some ladies a safe distance away. If she had remained seated she wouldn't have broken the guidelines apparently.

She did the right thing by apologising at First Minister's Questions.

Jack Fraser, Clayknowes Drive, Musselburgh.

Russell must justify his Brexit figures

One does question Mike Russell’s figures of the cost of Brexit, (News, December 26) which seem to have an ethereal quality, lacking detail and possibly detached from reality.

In contrast is the likely cost to Scotland of independence, which he appears not to have specified -the loss of the £multibillion subsidies from the UK Treasury, the70 percent of our trade, anduse of the pound Sterling.

Elizabeth Marshall, Western Harbour Midway, Edinburgh.

Housing cash wasted on vanity projects

A total of 22,368 homeless applications were still live on 25 December last year and involved 12,467 children and 25,823 adults.

The SNP came to power in Scotland in 2007 but instead of reducing this ongoing and sad problem over the years they instead concentrated on other matters.

Prestwick Airport, Ferguson Marine, BiFab, the Edinburgh Children's Hospital, the Named Persons Scheme, the Hate Crime Bill and many other vanity projects – the tens of millions wasted on these would have been better spent on building low cost housing for homeless families and easing fuel poverty.

Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.