ONE of the main topics in the early part of the election campaigning has been about how we recover from the pandemic. It is a Unionist ploy to frame the debate in that way and so steer as far away as possible from acknowledging the damages inflicted by Brexit.

Recovery from Covid-19 is a matter of public health and personal responsibility. Recovery from Brexit is a matter of economic management, something that UK governments have been singularly useless at, hence poor rates of investment in industry, low rates of productivity, obsession with balancing the national books like a household, and austerity, all resulting in poor performance against indicators of wellbeing and equality.

READ MORE: Scotland's Covid recovery may be swifter than UK but some sectors could struggle

A sensible response for Scotland may involve the following aims. Create a taxation system to support the social and economic aspirations of the country. Improve international relations with countries across the globe, including possible entry to EFTA or the EU. Create a banking system that supports businesses and households and produces real value, rather pure financial gain for the wealthy few. Ensure effective regulation over the financial market and businesses. Control and support renewable energy generation and market, retaining maximum added value in Scotland. Direct welfare benefits to the needs for our citizens, released from Tory ideology. Seek to achieve a more equal society, while reducing child poverty. Improve the relative value of the state pension.

The current constitutional settlement (itself under Tory attack) hinders such a response. None of the above can be delivered by a Scottish Government without the full economic and social security levers of independence.

We can either agree with the Unionists and place our future prospects in the hands of a government in Westminster, for whom we haven’t voted in decades, or aspire to an independent future in which Scotland has the powers to achieve what is in our best interests. Independence is not irrelevant to recovery, it is a prerequisite.

Roddie Macpherson
Avoch

THE opposition parties as, their main Holyrood election mantra, constantly suggest that the SNP and Scottish Government should set aside their “independence ambitions and concentrate on a post-Covid pandemic recovery plan”, particularly the ever voluble Douglas Ross, who is clearly exposed in Richard Walker’s “Top four arguments against indy – debunked” (April 1).

It really is a rather flawed, pointless argument as they are not mutually exclusive. In fact both are complementary to each other because without BOTH , Scotland will not be in charge of its own economic and social recovery.

Without independence, Scotland will be at the mercy of a Westminster government hell-bent on destroying Scottish devolution and implementing its right-wing post-Brexit agenda. Already everyone can see falling exports, an increase in bureaucracy in trading with Europe and issues round the Northern Ireland border in the Irish Sea. There is no rescue from “new” world markets; China and the USA are quite clear that trade deals will be hard to come by.

Add to this a UK with a deficit of £2.2 trillion, a Covid bill of £350 billion this year and a further £250bn and rising next year, high levels of unemployment and when furlough ends massive redundancies as firms shed their labour as they will be unable to meet these costs. ALL of this lies at the door of the Tory government in Westminster.

To arrest the economic decline post-Covid, rest assured Rishi Sunak and his Treasury colleagues will be forced to raise income tax and introduce draconian cuts on expenditure on the NHS and other public services, in particular social security. It will make the financial disaster of 2008 look like a picnic and the ensuing austerity a disaster. They are already doing this. Capital investment in Scotland is already being drastically cut. The Holyrood budget will year after year be decimated as this Tory British national government funds Scotland directly from Westminster, bypassing our ever-smaller devolved status, into EXTINCTION.

It really is a straight choice! Watch as the Tories dismantle and short-circuit our parliament and devolution. Watch as all economic, legal and social policies are taken by Westminster. Watch as our attempts to create a different, caring, responsible social democracy wither on the vine. Alternatively look closely at what the Scottish Government has achieved for our people from the young to the aged in our society. The list is impressive, believe me. At NO time have the Tories, Labour and the LibDems, having criticised the drive for independence, indicated in any shape or form what staying in this Union can do for Scotland. They all know the time is up for this delusional, broken, bankrupt, stuck-in-the-past, debt-ridden UK/England-dominated Union.

With our independence we can achieve much more. With ALL the economic levers we can achieve the caring outward country and society we all crave.

Dan Wood
Kirriemuir