Dear Orkney News,                                                                                                                                          

The Tories told us there would never be a Scottish Parliament. There is. 

The Tories told us there would never be an SNP led Government. We have had both minority & majority led Scottish Governments. 

The Tories told us Scotland could never be trusted to take its own decisions. It can.

The Tories have obsessed over the powers of a devolved Scottish Government and tell that Scotland, alone among the world’s small Countries, could never govern itself. It can. 

Recovery from the Covid 19 emergency, Damaging Hard Tory Brexit and focussing on a Green Energy Recovery will be challenging & difficult for everyone, but not impossible.

Scotland is surrounded by an arc of prosperous independent Countries in all directions. Ireland, Norway, Denmark and Finland have similar populations to Scotland while Sweden’s is twice as large. Norway, Finland & Ireland gained their Independence over the past hundred years & have never looked back. They are not constrained or held back by Westminster, so how do they compare. One figure to use for comparison is the GDP.

The following GDP comparisons are in US dollars but could easily be converted into GB pounds.

Ireland ;  388 billion dollars.   Norway;  403 billion dollars.  Denmark ;  350 billion dollars.   Sweden;  531 billion dollars    Finland;  269 billion dollars.

A 2021 Independent Scotland;  estimated at 205 billion dollars.

Going by the evidence Independence looks like being a good thing as Ireland & the Nordic Countries tell us.

There are other measures such as the quality of their Education or Health services, the quality of life enjoyed, the average life span for men & women, the quality of their lives etc. The Nordic Countries all out perform Scotland with its present fairly limited devolution by all the measures available. They have all worked hard to get to where they are over the past 100 + years. They are still forging ahead, particularly in IT & Greener Futures.

“Stop the World, Scotland wants to get on board” was a famous quote by former MP, MEP & MSP Winnie Ewing, alias, Madame Ecosse which is even more true, still,  in 2021.

Meanwhile the self serving Westminster Tories have turned their backs to UK’s closest friends, neighbours & trading partners as they look inwards & sadly no longer outwards to  Europe & the Wider World.

Yours, John Mowat, Orkney