Brain drain

Former SNP leader Gordon Wilson (your report, 5 March) rightly highlights the catastrophic loss of population by Scotland. Those who migrate are invariably the youngest, ablest, most skilled and talented. They are also those who progenate – so Scotland loses twice over.

This explains why Scotland has an ageing population profile, which can seen be most in areas such as North Ayrshire, where I grew up; Renfrewshire; Glasgow; Argyll and the Western Isles.

Continued failure by Conservative and Labour governments to invest in Scotland’s infrastructure has caused a massive reduction in the industrial base, huge job losses and large scale migration as people are forced to move south to where the jobs are.

UK economic policy is entirely dominated by the needs of London and the South-east, and Scotland is viewed as a distant and peripheral UK region but an outstandingly good oil-based income generator.

The haemorrhage of young Scots will continue until an independent government is established. It is the only option that will provide Scotland with the fiscal levers to develop its own economic strategies, invest in infrastructure, stimulate industrial and commercial growth, build more homes, create jobs in Scotland and retain its people.

Bob Hamilton

Dunkirk Road

Southport