I HAVE read much to convincingly discredit last week’s GERS figures as being both inaccurate and irrelevant to Scotland’s economy. Accurate

or not, they reflect the current position of Scotland within the UK. Not anything for Unionists to celebrate as an endorsement of the benefits of the status quo.

I was most interested, however, by the comments from Kate Forbes, our Finance Secretary, that she would not be publishing alternative, more accurate figures. Instead she stated that they showed the unsustainability of Scotland within the Union. She said independence was the logical solution.

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: Steve Barclay claims crisis shows 'strength' of Union

Unionists will not accept this, of course, so they have two options as the way forward. They can either continue to “subsidise” to existing levels or they can cut funding. Doing the former will allow them the annual publication of GERS to sustain their arguments as “a hammer blow to independence”, which can be used as their prime argument in their Project Fear. However, this perceived continuance of biased support for Scotland will not go down well in many of the disadvantaged areas of England.

Cutting funding, on the other hand, would be popular within England but with the double whammy of Brexit could well drive support here for independence from the current mid-50s to the 60s, giving even the most conservative in the independence movement confidence in a new referendum.

There is, therefore, great scope for attacking whichever path is taken by Westminster. Either within Scotland, if our economy is further wrecked by cuts, or in England to increase the pressure to cast Scotland adrift to end a perception of bias.

It’s win-win for the argument for independence and indyref2.

Campbell Anderson
Edinburgh

THE non-political pro-indy groupings need to up their game. While many have a good social media presence, they need to engage with the main newspapers and broadcasters to reach those who don’t get involved in the social media bubble.

With the publication of GERS, a raft of small anti-self-government groupings, often with many of the same people in each of them, deluged the press with their usual claims that Scotland is so poor that we couldn’t possibly run our own country better than the UK, which is the worst performing economy in Europe, in OECD and in the G7.

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Organisations like Bella Caledonia and Business for Scotland are doing sterling work in producing a positive case for independence, particularly with Business for Scotland’s excellent booklet “Scotland The Brief”, but their case is hidden from the mainstream media and broadcasters. Why is that?

Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid press briefings illustrate how effective it is to get a message over when it is not misinterpreted by hostile newspaper reporters and broadcasters that see everything from a London perspective.

Scotland must be the only country in the world with its own parliament (supposedly the strongest devolved institution in the world!), without a weekly TV debate on current affairs or a daily current affairs and newspaper review programme on any of the main TV channels. The Nine doesn’t count, as it was designed to fail on a minor channel when it was scheduled up against the peak popular TV shows, and is no substitute for a Scottish Ten news programme on BBC1.

Fraser Grant
Edinburgh

WHILE I wholeheartedly agree with Carolyn Leckie’s clarion call for “an optimistic vision” to galvanise Scotland as we prepare for a new independence campaign, I was surprised at the implication that this vision is yet to be formulated (A Yes movement with bold ideas next year could be unstoppable, August 29).

Carolyn must surely be aware of Common Weal’s new Resilient Scotland proposals, which offer a clear and urgent set of policies for a new economic model which puts a Green New Deal at its heart.

READ MORE: Carolyn Leckie: The bold ideas we need to make the Yes movement unstoppable

While there will undoubtedly be a more conservative strand of opinion within the Yes movement which will consider Andrew Wilson’s Growth Commission plan to be preferable, it seems to me that the change needed by Scotland and the rest of the developed world is much more radical and equitable.

Resilient Scotland is not a complete blueprint, but it is a bold, inspiring document which I sincerely hope Carolyn, the SNP leadership and the rest of the Yes movement will adopt, expand and use to provide the vision Carolyn and the rest of us need.

Matthew Zajac
Glasgow

GOOD to see the return of Carolyn Leckie, whose latest article was very interesting. However, she made a slight error by attributing the NHS to Nye Bevan. It was actually the Liberal Lord Beveridge who proposed it in 1942, during the war, although Nye Bevan did introduce it into parliament and managed to fight off the doctors in the private sector who were against it.

Hamish MacQueen
Glasgow

I AM writing to you with reference to the article about Sandra White not standing for re-election in 2021 (Farewell to fierce feminists who fought for Scotland, August 30). It is a shame that the article fails to mention the vile antisemitism she shared a few years ago.

READ MORE: Farewell to fierce Holyrood feminists who fought for Scotland

White is being deservedly applauded for the many examples of her outstanding work during her time in Scottish politics. We mustn’t, however, fall into the trap of sanitising our politicians’ legacies. It is therefore important that her sharing of an antisemitic conspiracy, to her wide following on social media, is not forgotten.

The excuse given at the time, that the material had been shared in error, was very weak and disingenuous at best. Were these actions repeated by a Labour party politician today, their political and party position would rightly be untenable.

Jonathan Manevitch
via email