Homecoming

American friends who visited Scotland for the Homecoming and the Gathering thought their visit worthwhile. No doubt they contributed to the £10 million which, we are told, the event generated for the Scottish economy (your report, 25 June).

While it is unhelpful for unionist politicians to use it as a stick with which to beat the Scottish Government, it is deplorable that some private firms and individuals, who helped to make the Gathering possible, have been left out of pocket. 10m worth of business will have given rise to perhaps 1m of taxes, most of which will have gone to the UK Treasury.

If Scotland enjoyed sovereign independence, or even fiscal autonomy within the UK, the taxes would have stayed in Scotland and a proportion of them could properly have been used to compensate those who lost out in the generation of that revenue.

I hope we see another successful and profitable Homecoming in 2014, having learned from both the positive and the negative aspects of the recent event.

DAVID STEVENSON

Blacket Place

Edinburgh