LAST week Labour MSP Michael Marra described how “sad little men in their bedrooms” were “savaging” GERS and that this “started in the dark corners of the internet”. I wonder how Mr Marra knows this? Is he god? Can he spy into our homes? Seems there are no large, jolly men and absolutely no women “savaging” GERS!

Rest assured, Mr Marra is not god. Thankfully, he has no idea what we do in the privacy of our own bedrooms, and if there is anything that is “sad” and “little”, it’s the limits of Mr Marra’s imagination. It seems he can’t imagine there might be both men and women happily taking on GERS. Perhaps he thinks only a male brain can cope with big numbers. I wonder what tasks he thinks the female brain is better suited to – making the tea?

It might be helpful for Mr Marra to watch Harry Enfield’s “Women, Know Your Limits” on YouTube, because his comments say more about himself than anyone else. What is “sad” is Labour demonising people who dare to speak truth to power.

READ MORE: GERS critics are 'sad little men in their bedrooms', says Labour MSP

But I wonder who is rattling Mr Marra’s cage? Might it be The National’s own regular columnist, Professor Richard Murphy of Sheffield University, co-founder of the Tax Justice Network, founder of the Fair Tax Mark, founder of Tax Research UK, founder-director of the Corporate Accountability Network, creator of a method used to identify tax abuse by multinational corporations, awarded top media influencer by Institute of Chartered Accountants, and of course a GERS myth-buster? Is this who is rattling Mr Marra’s cage? Surely not!

If it is, then as Michelle Obama says, “when they go low, we go high”; because when Mr Marra is belittling others, it really means he’s got no good arguments left and can’t engage with the data. Let’s face it: what facts and figures have Labour got to talk about?

A war without popular support with about a half a million dead. A banking crisis with £137 billion spent on bank bailouts. Its former chancellor, Gordon Brown admitting he made a “big mistake”, didn’t understand the risks, a soft touch when regulating and prosecuting criminal bankers. The Vow. Or Labour’s English school academy system with its uncontrollable CEO salaries up to £455, 000 per annum. Or Labour, the second fiddle in the orchestra of UK politics, with the Tories in government for 70% of the time since 1979. Vote Labour get the Tories + austerity + Brexit + poverty + threats to rights + “devolution reversal” + GERS.

READ MORE: Richard Murphy: What the next first minister has to do about GERS

The fact is there are no “sad little men sitting in their bedrooms”. No, there are many men and women, north and south of the Border, who get that nothing will ever change, Westminster is captured by the super-rich. GERS is another corrupted system designed to retain power, deny us access to trustworthy and accurate data on Scotland’s economy.

But perhaps Labour wants to keep us stupid. As the French revolutionary Robspierre said: “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant”. If so, it must be galling that Professor Murphy is a respected columnist for The National, and a financial social media influencer with 230,000 Twitter followers.

Thanks to the work of many people like Professor Richard Murphy, and the Scotland the Brief folk, we’ve got an alternative to the Union’s dishonesty. Genuine data and people we can trust. The genie’s out the bottle now, and it won’t ever go back in. We understand Scotland is wealthy, and would be just fine as an independent country. I am grateful to people who are prepared to share their time and expertise, so that more and more of us can know what all this adds up to: quite simply, Scotland can’t afford the Union.

Pamela McLeman
via email