IN 2014 the UK Government said that if Scotland voted for independence we couldn’t share the pound in the form of a currency union. The currency and the Bank of England are an asset. Therefore if UK Government policy is that Scotland cannot have a share of the assets of the UK after independence, why would Scotland accept its share of debt built up by the UK Government that defends those assets? No shared assets, no shared debt. Simple. Scotland needs a clean break from the UK.

In the GERS figures published this week, £9.1 billion is included as expenditure on debt interest (the interest payments are also included to pay for pensions in an independent Scotland).

If Scotland won’t get a share of UK assets, why would we take a share of UK debt?

READ MORE: It’s bizarre for Unionist politicians to gloat about GERS

Without UK debt share, Scotland’s deficit based on GERS was 4.7%. And this still includes Scotland’s share for things we know we wouldn’t spend money on – such as the £205bn projected to be spent on the renewal of Trident weapons of mass destruction.

The deficit for the whole UK is 5.2%, but just as Unionists like to tell us what Scotland will and won’t have if independent, we should be clear that the UK deficit would be higher than this – well over 6% – because it wouldn’t include Scotland’s substantial oil revenues which it currently includes as UK revenue.

That means that Scotland would start life as an independent country with a smaller deficit than the UK deficit. In the years to come we can also expect substantial revenues from our renewables bounty.

READ MORE: What is the GERS report and how is it calculated?

But of course deficits are relative. There’s nothing wrong with running at a deficit in any one year if you plan for different assumptions in other years.

UK Government net debt as a share of gross domestic product in 2023 sits at over 95%. An independent Scotland that gets no shared assets so no shared debt would begin its journey as the world's oldest new country with 0% net debt as a share of its GDP.

Therefore it does beg the question, considering the rest of the UK would have a higher deficit than an independent Scotland that took zero share of their debt, added to the substantial amount of debt the rest of the UK would retain as the successor state, can rUK afford to be independent of Scotland?

Chris McEleny
Inverclyde

ALTHOUGH published by Scottish civil servants, the vast bulk of the notional GERS figures are based on UK Government estimates of Scotland’s poor position in a London-dominated Union.

Several reports mistakenly refer to record oil revenues, as GERS strangely only goes back to 1999 in relation to Scotland’s share, which is just after the last Labour government transferred 6000 square miles of Scotland’s territorial waters to England prior to devolution through the back door using a House of Lords Order and not debated in the House of Commons.

READ MORE: Richard Murphy: Why GERS reflects badly on the UK - NOT Scotland

The highest oil revenues were in the years 1984 to 1986, worth some £41 billion each year in today’s money, and it is instructive to compare how Norway with similar oil extraction has prospered since then compared to London’s control of our economy.

Under GERS, Scotland is charged £9.2 billion as our pro rata share of interest on UK’s national debt of more than £2500 billion caused by Brexit, mismanagement of the economy, a failed energy policy and inflation. The Scottish Government has to balance its books and can only borrow £300 million so can’t undertake the infrastructure projects required to grow our economy.

The GERS estimate is our annual reminder of how Scotland badly fares within the UK compared to other similar-sized western European nations. The government in Ireland, without £9.4bn in oil revenues, spends roughly the same amount per head of population but expects to raise £102bn in taxes this year thus creating a government surplus.

Given Scotland’s highly educated population and vast energy resources, why is our GDP per head £33k, while Norway’s is £80k, Denmark’s £55k and Finland’s £42k? Under London rule our standard of living is falling, while theirs is rising.

Mary Thomas
Edinburgh

IT’S tempting to dig out GERS letters from past years to avoid rehashing the reasons why this set of “accounts” is given the slightest credence in Scotland. They are made-up numbers with no basis in reality and are another example of the lies the UK Government spews about Scotland to keep us locked in its death grip.

Because if Scotland stays in the Union, what remains of our wealth will be siphoned off, our population will fall further and our national identity, embodied in our languages and culture, will continue to erode.

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GERS day is like a broken record. The obedient colonial administration that is the Scottish Government persists in publishing this rubbish each August, giving the Unionist media another stick with which to beat us.

Meanwhile, the prosperity of our Nordic neighbours is a constant reminder of what Scotland could be if only we had the confidence and will to break free of this prison.

Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh