Oil revenue risk

Several letters recently have highlighted the fall in oil revenue to around 10 per cent of that used in the SNP budget projections prior to the referendum.

One of the platforms on which the SNP is contesting the general election is to achieve full fiscal autonomy or home rule.

If the polls are correct and effectively it holds the balance of power, it may be able to negotiate this as one of the conditions for supporting a minority Westminster government even though its mandate is likely to be based on less than 50 per cent of the votes cast.

The Scottish electorate requires information on the financial impact of fiscal autonomy, otherwise we are being asked to vote blind.

The SNP has been forced into promising new oil revenue predictions but that in isolation is not sufficient. It is incumbent on the SNP to produce a fully costed budget assuming fiscal autonomy prior to the election, showing how it intends to balance the books after allowing for the drop in oil revenue.

Is it tax increases, cuts in spending, borrowing or simply to increase the assumed rate of economic growth from that used in its white paper?

Many SNP supporters are not interested in such figures and, to achieve their goal, are quite prepared to rush over the cliff into the financial abyss like lemmings.

That is their right but I object to being made to jump as well!

Raymond Paul

Braid Farm Road

Edinburgh