A maths problem

John Swinney at his party’s conference has again been drawing attention to Scotland’s paying 9.7 per cent of the UK tax total but getting back only 9.3 per cent of total expenditure, carefully avoiding giving actual figures. As far as I can ascertain, for 2011-12 the second figure was more than £9 billion greater than the first.

Should we thank Mr Swinney for warning us of the potential adverse financial consequences of independence?

Dr A McCormick

Dumfries