White Paper has 670 pages, but only three really matter

The economic data - Gross Domestic Product per head, tax revenues (both North Sea and land-based), national debt apportionment - are all derived using data from 1980 to 2011/2012, when oil tax revenues and oil output were at their peak, so favouring the case presented.

I have no difficulty in accepting that the apportionment of the national debt between a separate Scotland and UK should be based on the accumulating annual net balance of tax revenues and public expenditures.

But three matters arise.

First, it is not explicit that the public expenditures side has been factored into the national debt apportionment.

Second, owing to the policies and associated fiscal transfers pursued by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson and former Scottish Secretary Willie Ross, Scotland ran a larger public deficit per head than the rest of the UK up to 1980, starting from a position of rough parity in the early 1960s. Yet this period is ignored, presumably to insinuate that 'Scotland's oil' has for 30 years been pinched by the UK.

Third, the analysis is founded upon the 2013 edition of Government Expenditure And Revenue In Scotland (GERS), whose hydrocarbon revenues data of 2011/2012 have since been overtaken by a dramatic slump in oil output and tax revenues, as the Institute Of Fiscal Studies points out. There just are not enough revenues each year for the foreseeable future even to pay Scotland's current bills, never mind for Mr Salmond's promises in the rest if the document.

I hereby predict that, as in the early years of SNP control after 2007, the Scottish Government will find an excuse not to publish an up-dated GERS in 2014 in the run-up to the referendum.

From the above analysis, the document's claim that the value of North Sea oil output boosts an independent Scotland's GDP per head figure to 120% of the current UK average is bogus. Most of this output value pays wages and salaries, materials costs, capital interest, profits and dividends flowing to people and companies based largely elsewhere. Only a few Scotland residents around Aberdeen, some workers on the rigs, Edinburgh fund managers and local shareholders get any additional personal income, and they are already receiving it.

This document is trying to sell us a pig in a poke. Everything in it is based on the plausibility of what is a false prospectus for the better life. In truth, little would change much, and for some would become more disrupted under independence. It is not worth the candle.

Richard Mowbray

14 Ancaster Drive, Glasgow.

Now that the Scottish Government's White Paper has comprehensively answered so many referendum questions, there must be a multitude of citizens, like me, holding their breath for the No Campaign to reply to one simple query: what additional powers will come to Scotland if the people vote No?

I would vote 'No' in a minute for two simple guarantees:

1. Full fiscal autonomy for Scotland, with the oil revenues shared on a geographical basis, in accordance with international law.

2. The obscenity of Trident, with its American-controlled weapons of mass destruction, to be removed forthwith.

But, can we hold our breath that long waiting on their reply? I doubt if Houdini or even a puffer fish has that capacity.

Joseph G Miller

44 Gardeners Street, Dunfermline.

Your Leader article (SNP set out their stall for a Yes vote, The Herald, November 27) rightly asserts that the much-anticipated White Paper on independence goes some way to filling the vision vacuum that has thus far dogged the campaign. This "some way" theme is echoed by a number of your notable contributors who acknowledge that the First Minister's assertions about the way forward for so many of the big issues remain not proven.

It is, therefore, somewhat disconcerting at this critical long-awaited juncture that clarity on so many key matters is still lacking with the Scottish Government apparently expecting us to take so much on trust.

I would contend that the First Minister has failed to present the evidence and full costs to underpin what independence will really mean. The answers to the 'Why not' independence questions remain much more compelling and reassuring across the broad tapestry of issues.

Ronald J Sandford

1 Scott Garden, Kingsbarns.

The Spanish prime minister's remarks regarding a separated Scotland's entry to the EU in whatever form should be required reading for every voter in next year's referendum. Spain has an EU entry veto. No dissembling or assertion or assumption can cover or amend the Spanish leader's stark choice of words and it is surely evident Belgium and others would feel exactly the same.

To brush this off merely confirms the suspicions of many that the SNP considers the factual truth of this, as well as post-separation sterling and Nato, too painful to accept and pass on to the Scottish electorate.

Alexander McKay

8/7 New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh.

Why focus on taxation? It is disappointing but not unexpected to find the debate on the funding of a new Scotland focussing narrowly on taxation. It highlights the fundamental lack of vision displayed by all political parties in how society should be structured. Even the proposed child care policy, which essentially involves paying one woman to look after another woman's child whilst they work, is non-sensical. Would it not be better for all concerned, especially the child, if the mother was paid to care for her own child?

A once in a lifetime opportunity is open to the Scottish people to radically alter the basic structure of society and its distribution of wealth is being squandered. What difference will it make to the majority of Scots if the 10 individuals who own 10% of Scottish land all become foreigners after Independence? We are not being offered fundamental change but a re-jig of the same system that is grinding towards its inevitable demise. Where are the measures to stop the top 1% of society awarding itself 35% of the rewards of the nation's labour? All the talk of "controlling the nation's economic levers " is just what it is, talk. Pete Townshend was spot on with "meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss".

David J Crawford

131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.

The SNP Government is well-known for its admiration of all things Nordic. It is clear its new child care proposals for an independent Scotland are being influenced by what happens in Scandinavia.

In Sweden mothers are expected, Soviet-style, to abandon their children to daily care by the state as soon as their children reach their first birthday, and return to work.

Universal state child care may have economic benefits for the nation, but what effect does it have on the children? One Swedish expert reports that psychosomatic disorders and mild psychological problems are escalating among Swedish youth at a faster rate than in any of 11 comparable European countries. Such disorders have tripled among girls over the last 25 years.

Education outcomes in Swedish schools have fallen from the top position 30 years ago to merely average amongst Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development nations today. Behaviour problems in Swedish classrooms are among the worst in Europe. Much of this is being attributed to the fact that, by being encouraged back into the labour market, parents do not have sufficient time, energy and opportunity to build close and healthy relationships with their children.

Rather than extending state-sponsored child care, an independent Scotland should give tax breaks to parents who make the sacrificial choice to be at home to care for their own children during the vital pre-school years.

This would also have the added benefit of freeing up jobs for young people, who are finding it so difficult to get on to the employment ladder.

William W Baird

Rossnowlagh, 2 St Clement Avenue, Dunblane.

The partnership of Cameron and Clegg has made many serious mistakes,but surely replacing Michael Moore with Alistair Carmichael as Secretary of State for Scotland must rank as one of their most serious errors of judgement. To get it so badly wrong is indicative of just how little they know and understand Scotland. How the No campaigners here must wish the clock could be rolled back and the formidable and indomitable Willie Ross placed back in the Scottish Office.

Alan Clayton

Westfield, Letters Way, Strachur, Argyll.