Letter: Borrowing trap

Pragmatism rather than dry theory is probably more instructive. Thus those in favour of greater financial powers for Scotland are advocating lower corporation tax, VAT and fuel duty to stimulate growth, while the tartan-tax debacle and the council-tax freeze demonstrate that some politicians are unwilling to raise other taxes. At the same time, they are offering various costly policies such as free medical prescriptions and heavily subsidised further education.

Therefore, perhaps the key is in borrowing powers, yet we all know what happened to western economies (such as Ireland) where rapid growth is fuelled by public-sector debt.

The whole creaking edifice eventually comes tumbling down when the reality dawns that boom is still followed by bust. Likewise, what does this say about academic theories regarding fiscal accountability?

Indeed, Scotland has enjoyed its fair share of debt-fuelled growth based, to a large extent, on public spending, but the long-term effects of this are arguably detrimental rather than beneficial to the nation's wealth.

Moreover, the devolution experiment so far inspires little confidence. An addiction to spending to the benefit of their subsidy-junkie cronies seems to represent the zeitgeist of Holyrood's denizens, with those promoting financial autonomy to promote "fiscal responsibility" surely employing an oxymoron.

Personally, I couldn't care less who runs the country, but none of our current tiers of government - local authorities, Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels - inspire much in the way of confidence.

Indeed, isn't it ironic that many of those currently promoting the soundbite of greater financial powers for Holyrood to "grow Scotland's economy" are the selfsame people advocating ceding monetary policy to Frankfurt via the euro, a move which has helped cripple the economies of several member states?

On the other hand, things have perhaps gone a bit quiet as regards that particular Holy Grail.

Stuart Winton

Hilltown

Dundee