The Independent newspaper on September 21 included a post Scottish independence referendum analysis.

A journalist, Harriet Sherwood, visited Devizes. She spoke to people in the Lamb Inn and interviewed a couple of other people including David Dawson, director of Wiltshire Museum.

I was born in Wiltshire and grew up there but have spent most of my adult life living in Scotland.

The atmosphere in the pub was one of “resentment that others were getting a bigger slice of the financial and democratic cakes.”

David Dawson suggested Wiltshire, like Scotland, was sparsely populated and “If the same amount was spent per head in Wiltshire as in Scotland, we’d be a lot better off. We’re being taxed to pay for health and social care in Scotland.”

Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland (GERS) produces figures compiled by statisticians and economists in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser of the Scottish Government.

GERS is an accredited National Statistic publication, which means that it has been independently assessed by the UK Statistics Authority as being produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The information source I had available to me before the referendum used GERS statistics from 2011-2012.

Whilst it is true that spending in Scotland was £1,215 higher per head than the UK average, tax raised in Scotland was £1,687 higher per head than the UK average.

In 2011-2012 Scotland had 8.4 per cent of the UK population, it generated 9.9 per cent of UK revenue and incurred 9.3 per cent of UK spending. Scotland is a net contributor. Scotland has generated more tax revenue per head of population than the UK average since 1980, and there is no reason to assume it would not continue to do so. It is not true that people living in England are subsidising Scotland.

At present Scotland does get a high spend per head compared to the average for the rest of the UK. However, Scotland has a population of 5,254,800 at the most recent census and has an area of 30,414 square miles (32 per cent of the UK land mass). In comparison, the South West, of which Wiltshire is a part, has a similar population of 5,288,935 and an area of just 9,300 square miles. Wiltshire has a population of 470,981 and an area of 1,346 miles.

It costs much more to provide services to the much more dispersed population in Scotland than in rural Wiltshire or the South West. When I last visited Wiltshire, I did not notice mountains or many islands where people live and who need services in the same way as everybody else.

It is not the case that Scotland has so much money it can have a whole load of freebies like free prescriptions and free tuition fees. The Scottish Government has prioritised these things and has made some very difficult decisions in order to protect them. Instead of being angry because those living in Scotland have these things, people should be thinking about what it is about Westminster that means these things are not a priority for those living in England.

Any anger should be directed at Westminster rather than Scotland.

Helen Chandler, East Linton, East Lothian.