Londonomics holds Scotland back

Leaving aside the small-­minded squabble that the “negatives” have dragged the independence debate into, the serious news, that Britain’s monetary policy is again likely to be adjusted to suit the economic situation in Greater London, should concern us all.

Whatever one’s views are on the Yes/No debate, events are moving on apace and it is increasingly obvious that in a long, narrow island like 
Britain, where the weight of population and economic pull is concentrated in one corner, there is a desperate need for a second strong 
economic hub to be established in an area near the other end of the island, where there is a nucleus of population and infrastructure to build it on.

Of course, that kind of thinking is anathema to the London-based political parties who think Manchester is the North of Britain, but a strong economic hub based on the Glasgow/Edinburgh axis would be the seed-bed for growth in the North of England as well as in Scotland.

It is a bitter truth that the presently constituted Labour Party in Scotland has degenerated to such an extent that it is no longer interested in Scotland or Scotland’s economics.

Its sole purpose is to elect Members of Parliament to support their party at Westminster, and if dragging the closing stages of the independence debate into the gutter helps achieve that then that is a sacrifice they seem quite prepared to 
make.

But future generations 
of Scottish people will 
curse us for centuries to 
come if we let this just and noble cause be destroyed for such a tawdry reason when it so obviously has so much to offer.

Irvine Inglis

Reston

Berwickshire