Letter: Unionists brought us European benefits

Since both Scotland and England are unions of smaller, disparate kingdoms which, in their day, provided greater security and prosperity for its people, just as the United Kingdom has done to far greater effect, I find it remarkable that Colin McAllister believes that anonymous "Unionists claim that Scotland is too small to go it alone" (Letters, 26 October).

It was unionists who brought the UK into the European Union, which again strengthened our security and prosperity in a century that saw two world wars emanating from Europe.

As I write, the SNP is in favour of the EU, presumably because it redistributes funds from the richer countries within, to the poorer ones, and few would argue against that.

Unless Mr McAllister desires the break-up of Scotland and the EU, he is surely as much of a unionist as the rest of us.

Colin Wilson

Arnothill Court

Falkirk, Stirlingshire

Buried on page 15 of Monday's Scotsman is yet another report showing how the UK has fallen behind "the world's most developed countries", registering below the top 20 in terms of health, education, safety and security.

In a table of relative prosperity it trails in at number 13, while Norway - which husbands its oil as the UK squanders ours - tops the list. No surprises there.

But what's this? In the table of prosperity the UK is also beaten by both Ireland and Iceland!

The report makes no comment on this. Surely these are not the same countries which Unionists call "the arc of insolvency"?

The Ireland and Iceland which are used by Unionists as a worst-case scenario to scare Scotland off independence?

Clearly we are not being told the whole story.

Mary McCabe

Circus Drive

Glasgow

I was intrigued to read Stuart Winton's letter which derides me for using GDP per capita as a means of measuring economic wealth (26 October).

This is, however, a common measure of economic prosperity as identified by most major international agencies such as the OECD and the IMF.

That aside, the 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index recently revealed that Britain is ranked 13th in a list of the most prosperous countries in the world, with little prospect of getting into the top ten, and is trailing badly behind the world's most developed countries in health, education, safety and security. In these areas it is registering below the top 20.

Norway came out as the most prosperous country, with Denmark in second place and Finland in third.

Of the 12 countries ranked above the UK only the US has a larger population and six out of the top 12 have populations of less than 10 million, including Ireland and Iceland.

I am not denigrating the UK as Mr Winton claims, and have full confidence that on Scottish independence it will be able to survive as an economic entity, but it is rather intriguing to note that on a variety of measures it is the smaller nations that seem to be the most prosperous.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh