NICOLA Sturgeon has declared yet again that Scotland needs more immigrants to boost the county’s economy. She links this to membership of the EU and, of course, independence. (We need immigrants, therefore we need the EU, therefore we need independence. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add up.

A county’s economy stands or falls on its trade balance with the rest of the world. Jobs and growth within its borders are good, but these are part of the internal economy. They contribute nothing to the trade balance. Right now, Scotland has an annual trade deficit with others, including the rest of the UK, of about £12 billion. Although this is in no way a good thing, as a devolved part of the UK, we can live with it without hurting too much, but as an independent country, it would be a simple debt, which has to be paid off like any other debt, or serviced in a sustainable way which takes into account ever-accumulating interest. This is entirely about the balance of export to import. If it cannot be managed, the standard of living in an independent Scotland would inevitably plummet.

Ms Sturgeon has once again justified the migration of people from abroad by asserting that they, with their much-needed skills, work and pay taxes and so contribute to the economy. However, under the EU “open borders” requirement, migrants cannot be selected to meet national needs; whoever wants to come may do so, and, understandably, will come while they can obtain a better standard of living here than at home.

Apart from some valuable trained specialists, NHS staff in particular, only those working in export industries, or industries that compete with importers, farming for instance, contribute to the national balance of payments. The rest, as in the service industry, are part of the internal economy, but still as consumers require imported goods, making a further impact on the wrong side of the trade balance. The fact that they work hard and honestly pay their taxes does not change this.

Whether we are in the EU, or out of it as part of the UK, it would obviously be foolish to turn away skilled people from abroad who want to work in Scotland. Unrestricted immigration, on the other hand, would just accelerate the trade deficit, and therefore the country’s debt. The Scottish Government should bear this in mind when it proposes opening its arms to any and all from the EU.

Jim Robertson,

25 Benbecula, East Kilbride.

THE tone of various of your correspondents (Letters, January 10) suggests they are at one with the First Minister’s plan to generate as much grievance as possible over Brexit, as a forerunner to another run at seeking independence from the rest of the UK.

Yet as your report on Sir John Curtice’s latest research on attitudes to Brexit indicates (“Most Scots want to curb EU immigration after Brexit”, The Herald, January 10), the majority in Scotland are unlikely to simply fall into line with a rationale that says if the SNP leadership does not get the type of Brexit it is happy with then a second independence referendum should follow. Comparing what the SNP wants with what the EU and the UK could feasibly agree to, it is clear that Nicola Sturgeon has already decided in advance that she will not be satisfied. Meanwhile, attitudes to Brexit in Scotland are far more nuanced than the First Minister and her colleagues like to suggest, and indeed on many central issues are more aligned with the rest of the UK than the EU referendum result might IMPLY.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton.

AT the last General Election Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson trumpeted that a vote for the Tories would silence the call for independence and that the new group of MPs would champion Scotland’s interest at Westminster. That was quite a claim and as we now know, completely and totally wrong. Poll findings show a slight increase in the desire of many to see Scotland operate as any normal country and run its own affairs, and it now turns out that the Scottish Tory voice has been ignored by Westminster with no amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill despite, as Tory MSP Adam Tomkins notes, being led to expect this would happen.

Maybe this will be a wake-up call to those who are under the mistaken belief that Scotland’s Conservatives have any clout down south. The obvious answer to Scotland’s way ahead is to allow Scotland to be in charge of its own decision making. As the Tory reshuffle shows quite clearly, the PM is as weak as ever and with her Government’s mismanagement of Brexit assuming even greater levels of incompetence than anyone imagined. I only hope Scotland can find a way out of this quagmire very soon.

Graeme Finnie,

Balgillo, Albert Street, Blairgowrie.

THERESA May’s shambolic shuffle (“May’s focus on diversity after ‘shambolic’ reshuffle jibe”, The Herald, January 10) had only one major error in key decision making: she did not replace herself.

The Prime Minister has demonstrated on several occasions that she does not possess the intellectual capacity to effectively manage a Conservative Cabinet under the current context. Furthermore her post-election political authority has been so critically, indeed strategically, undermined that “lame duck” is her current default power status.

Thom Cross,

18 Needle Green,

Carluke.

IN light of a debate in the House of Commons at the end of last year, I am sure one of the items on the desk of the new Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey will be the issue of women born in the early 1950s and their state pensions (or the lack of it). In an opposition day debate the SNP brought forward the case for those women, highlighting the WASPI group (Women Against State Pension Inequality) and their ongoing campaign for justice. This debate and subsequent motion received overwhelming cross –party support with a vote of 288 votes to nil, this vote included MPs from the DUP and the Conservative benches supporting the SNP motion for compensation for those women. Surely Ms McVey and the Government must respect Parliamentary democracy and to that end we await Ms McVey bringing forward the Government’s response to that vote which saw no Conservative MP support their own Government’s policy on this matter.

Catriona C Clark,

52 Hawthorn Drive,

Banknock,

Falkirk.