Sent to the Herald: 12 December 2006. Not published.
Sir
If Scotland really is in fiscal deficit, as Labour claims, this is a shocking indictment of their mishandling of the economy over the past ten years. If the figure really is £16bn, then this is not far off the speculated likely cost of the London Olympics, or the replacement of Trident. If Labour is trying to argue that Scotland would be worse off as an independent country, this can only mean that they think there is no-one in Scotland capable of making a better fist of government than the current mediocrities filling ministerial desks in Whitehall and Holyrood. The SNP, and the other parties who support Scottish independence, believe that the peoples of Scotland are capable of governing themselves – and free from financing white elephants such as Trident and the Olympics, may actually put our enormous wealth to work for the whole population rather than a select few. What Labour’s present hysteria represents is nothing more than a re-hash of the arguments and scare-mongering heard throughout the 1980s and 1990s about the danger of devolution. Voters in Scotland were not fooled then, and they will not be fooled now. Independence is the biggest and best idea in Scottish politics, the key that will unlock our potential to radically transform lives and make a difference on the world stage. To deliberately ‘engender fear’ in voters is to insult them. If the unionists can make a positive case for the union, let them.
