ONE of the effects of the Covid-19 crisis has been to push the price of oil to a record low last seen in 1870. It is therefore worth recalling that in 2014 the SNP repeatedly insisted that oil revenues would be the passport to a new, prosperous and independent nation. Had Scotland voted for independence in 2014 our economy and our public services would now be in ruins.

By being part of the UK, Scotland has benefited from a massive Covid-19 support package amounting to £3.4 billion – and still rising. Only last week the UK Government delivered a further £155 million for Scottish local government. This is money that should be urgently handed over to our struggling councils.

These lifelines come in addition to the billions of pounds being given by the UK Government to Scottish workers who would otherwise have lost their jobs or incomes as a result of the Covid-19 economic shakedown. Other support includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, the deferment of VAT and income tax payments, and a statutory sick pay relief package.

Additionally, the British Army has been drafted in to assist with the response and relief effort.

This unprecedented intervention was only achievable because it rests on the strong shoulders of the Union. The reality is that an independent Scotland would have buckled and collapsed had it faced the Covid-19 crisis alone. With tough times ahead, it would therefore be catastrophic economically for Scotland to go it alone by cutting itself adrift from the UK, which is the sixth-largest economy in the world.

Even before the current Covid-19 crisis, the 354-page Growth Commission, led by economist and former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, predicted, in 2018, that independence would cause years of austerity for Scotland.

While therefore the SNP remain entitled to make an emotional case for independence, even its most diehard supporters must now concede that they have lost the economic argument.

The Covid-19 crisis reinforces the point that independence remains an SNP pipedream which Scotland simply cannot afford.

Tim Jackson, Gullane.

HOW very sad that we are in a position where the UK cannot speak as one during the coronavirus crisis and factions have opened up – all leading to confusion and exacerbating our already-fractured society.

We should have one source of advice from the Sovereign Government and forget about petty political point-scoring.

Douglas Cowe, Newmachar.

HOW sad to see the pandemic stats from other countries similar to our own and realise that their death toll is a fraction of what we have here.

If only we had been a bit braver at the referendum, how many lives could have been saved.

Robert Drummond, Glasgow G66.

IT is disappointing that a politician of the stature of former Labour MP for Maryhill, Maria Fyfe, should seize upon the distortion by some sections of the press, who took out of context Nicola Sturgeon's reply to a question about whether she would consider closing the border between Scotland and England; Ms Sturgeon replied "I don't have the power to close borders, but these are discussions of course we want to continue to have with the UK government", referring to the UK's international borders (Letters, April 29).

It is understandable that Ms Fyfe and Labour in Scotland should feel sore at the SNP; Ms Fyfe's former seat is now represented by an SNP MP, as indeed is every constituency in Glasgow, and Labour holds but one seat in Scotland; however it only has itself to blame for the mortifying mess in which it finds itself. As for Ms Fyfe's suggestion of a Scottish version of The Thick Of It, may I suggest that given its showing in recent opinion polls in Scotland, there could well be a Labour version in the making of And Then There Were None.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

EAST Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill speaks of "dark forces’’ being behind Alex Salmond’s trial ("Macaskill says ‘dark forces’ were at work in Salmond trial", The Herald, April 28). Presumably he is not referring to the usual culprit of those nationalists so concerned, MI5, but the factions in the burgeoning SNP schism that are pro-Nicola Sturgeon.

As Mr Salmond’s faithful and long-serving servant, we know which side he is on.

For those of us in Scotland who wish to see the end once and for all of the division and self- destruction of nationalism, it is a welcome sight.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh EH6.