Zen and the art of Scots fiscal maintenance

THERE is a famous Zen Buddhist problem whereby a Master presents his student with a glass bottle containing a familiar object, say a wooden shoe, that is clearly far too large to have been inserted through the bottle’s neck, and asks… “how can you remove the shoe, without breaking the bottle?”

Of course, the correct answer is: “By the same method with which it was inserted.”

George Shering (Letters, 13 April) presents a similar answer to the question “where would the money come from to pay for the £7.6 billion black hole in Scotland’s income that would accompany full fiscal autonomy?” He writes: “The simple answer is the same place as before.”

Ah – the general election has reached the realm of existentialism a week or so early. From now on the debate will take place in a Zen world that only politicians occupy and understand. Unfortunately, George, once we turn our backs on the Barnett Formula, and with swingeing reductions in oil revenue, there will be no “same place as before” – there will be a new, and a little threadbare, financial “place”, and we will have to make it work.

Don’t get me wrong, although a socialist I made my mark for independence, and shall again, but I can’t help thinking that we need be in no particular rush now… wait perhaps until the Barnett differentials are not so extreme (which is bound to happen now that Wales and Northern England are howling for some of London’s funds), and the oil tap is turned on again. Then, I think, it will be “game on”.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh

IT IS interesting that a professional academic, Dr Scott Arthur (Letters, 13 April), would provide such a politically subjective view of Scotland’s finances.

What Nicola Sturgeon confirmed on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, and what Gordon Brewer appeared to struggle to get his head around, was that in the same manner that the UK government would use borrowing to meet any shortfall in covering its currently estimated annual deficit “black hole” approaching £100 billion, the Scottish Government, as and when full fiscal autonomy were to become a reality (still many years away given the lack of commitment to true Home Rule by the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties), would also borrow to meet any shortfall at that time. 

However, with increasing control of economic as well as welfare powers in the meantime the First Minister anticipates any such shortfall to be significantly less than current estimates, which are still relatively comparable with UK levels even allowing for continuing low oil prices (which financial analysts are predicting will rise within the next two to three years).

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

WITH regard to the Labour Party telling us that there would be a massive hole in the SNPs plans. This reminds me of what Helen Liddell MP said in 1998. She said that Scotland was being subsidised by the English to the tune of 15p in the pound.

My main complaint about what Ms Liddell was saying was the fact she was doing so almost with pride. So I wrote to her asking what Labour intended to do to remedy this outrage and pointed out that if her party did so it would no longer be able to use it as an excuse to stay in the UK. Indeed, by repeatedly making such a point, it would seem she was campaigning for the Scottish National Party. I did not get an answer.

But here we are, 19 years later, and we get the same old story, with Labour failing to explain what it would do to rectify the situation. So again the only party in Britain that has the incentive to rectify this apparent inequity is the SNP. Is Ed Miliband, therefore, campaigning on behalf of the Nationalists?

Bill Croall

Valley View

Kirkcaldy, Fife

NICOLA Sturgeon’s increasingly desperate defence of her plans for full fiscal autonomy is further proof of the intransigent bullying tactics of the SNP in the face of disinterested professional advice. Has she consulted her colleagues individually about this? Are they unanimous in agreement?

Ever since the Glorious 18 September (G18) the First Minister has been trying to kick democracy into the long grass. If she succeeds, as she very well may do, she will lead Scotland into oblivion.

Peter Laidlaw

Bramdean Rise

Edinburgh