Wendy Alexander Negates Labour's case

[More cracking letters from the Herald. JOE]

POOR old Wendy Alexander, MSP. She really ties herself in knots in her valiant efforts (March 6) to discredit Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett's earlier reasoned case for Scottish fiscal independence.

Her concluding statistical point about Scottish GDP per head surely negates the whole anti-independence case that she and her Labour colleagues are seeking to present in the run-up to the May election. For if it really is the case that Scottish GDP per head (which is an estimated $29,263) is actually higher than that of a quartet of the richest G7 countries on earth and including Japan, Germany and France, this single fact in itself makes a nonsense of Labour's boring mantra about an independent Scotland being an "economic basket case".

Against this background Ms Alexander has a clear responsibility to explain to the Scottish electorate exactly why she and her Labour colleagues - virtually alone among the parties represented at Holyrood - continue to resist the commonsense case for the Scottish Parliament to have complete control over all of the taxable sources of Scotland's obvious wealth.

Ian O Bayne, 8 Clarence Drive, Glasgow.

WITH the assuredness of a cat on a devolved roof, Wendy Alexander uses GDP per capita (ie, per human being) to paint a nuanced picture of Scotland's position in the EPL (Economic Premier League) being comparable with G7 countries such as France and Germany. This takes no account of the cost of living there, which would give a better picture of relative disposable wealth - the money one could actually spend for the betterment of one's self and family.

May I counter Wendy's Peter Pan argument using my own economic guru? Lemmy of Motorhead was recently asked why he, the archetypal British rocker, has now permanently based himself in the United States. His paraphrased response was: "Are you kidding? The weather's nicer, the service is nicer, the girls are nicer and everything is half price compared with Britain."

There is, I would contend, more to success than generating wealth for the City of London.

Paul Cochrane, 10 Grants Way, Paisley.

I CAN'T seriously believe Wendy Alexander, MSP (The success story of Scotland's GDP per head, March 7), wants us to believe that, because the GDP per capita figure for Scotland is allegedly a few dollars more than Germany and Japan, the Scottish economy is now suddenly a raging success.

I could be wrong, but I haven't actually noticed that Scotland is now in possession of a Siemens, a Volkswagen or a Porsche-type company, nor for that matter have I spotted the sudden emergence of a Scottish Sony, Panasonic or Toyota.

Such figures are, of course, utterly useless unless they are broken down properly, and I would suggest that in Scotland's case they are skewed heavily because of the increasing dominance of the financial services sector. Having one or two banks producing profits in the tens of billions in a country as small as ours makes for an imbalance in the calculations and Wendy should know that and stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes. It doesn't become her.

Dick Winchester, The Old Schoolhouse, Old Rayne, Aberdeenshire.