Ups and downs

Eric Cartwright (Letters, 18 
October) may not be doing himself and supporters of a No vote any favours by indicating that he presented an erroneous figure in attempting to make the equally fallacious argument that support for independence has 
not grown “over the past several decades”.

While Brian Wilson (Perspective, same day) and others attempt to deflect attention away from the predicament of Gordon Brown and signatories of the “vow” as well as others who over the decades have misrepresented Scotland’s capacity to successfully govern itself, many have started to see through the misinformation that previously they would have accepted without question.

As with Mr Cartwright, Mr Wilson does himself no favours by grasping at the straw of today’s oil price to support his peculiarly myopic views when Nicola Sturgeon herself sought to stress that the price of oil was volatile and that this was one of the reasons an oil fund would still be desirable to balance “ups and downs” over the long term.

Of course, whatever the oil price is today is irrelevant to what Scotland’s economic position would have been on becoming independent in 2016, or later, just as is the fact that the recent drop in the estimated value of Scottish companies is now more than 50 times greater than what was indicated following the poll suggesting a Yes victory and what some selectively informative pro-Union politicians chose to highlight as indicative of financial disaster should Scotland become independent.

The debate is not over and hopefully more facts and greater objectivity will lead to the good governance the people of Scotland deserve.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry

East Lothian