Lewis interconnector

Sirs,

Ada Campbell's sour letter (12th March) accuses our MSP Alasdair Allan of "a decade of fence-sitting" over the inter-connector. She must surely know that he has always been in favour of the inter-connector and to suggest otherwise is grossly dishonest.

Ms Campbell wants to know how the inter-connector can be built if England doesn't pay for it.

Simple. The inter-connector will carry electricity generated by windfarms built on Lewis. The electricity will be sold to consumers throughout Scotland, England and Europe, and the inter-connector will be financed by electricity companies from revenue generated by Lewis windfarms plus subsidies raised by taxpayers throughout Britain.

In pretty much the same way that Scottish taxpayers will have to pay £7.6 billion for the HS2 railway to be built from London to Manchester at a cost of £80 billion (133 times more than the inter-connector).

Letter: Lewis windfarms will pay towards interconnector

13 March 2017

The crucial difference being, of course, that England will benefit enormously from our inter-connector with cheap electricity while Scotland won't receive a single penny of benefit from HS2. Once again, Scotland is being ripped off by the Labour Party's Conservative comrades in London.

There is nothing wrong with independent countries investing in each others infrastructure projects. China has invested billions of pounds in Britain, but nobody is suggesting that Britain should be part of China.

Ada Campbell has made the perfect case for Scottish independence.

Dr David Wilson

12b Tolsta Chaolais

Isle of Lewis