THE intervention by Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, into the Scottish parliamentary election campaign was rather unwise, given his status as a public servant and the need to remain politically neutral.

Putting this issue aside, we must remember that Mr King is governor of the Bank of "England", whose former governor, Eddie George, famously commented that unemployment in the north was a price worth paying to help the south.

High interest rates, preventing the housing market in the south-east of England from overheating, have led to the loss of tens of thousands of Scottish manufacturing jobs and by 2010 it has been estimated that the number of Scottish manufacturing jobs, vital to our economic well-being, will have halved since 1981.

Comments by Gordon Brown, endorsed by Mr King, that 127,000 jobs in the financial sector could be at risk due to independence, and that the future lies in "open markets and not closed borders, " were childish scaremongering, and exhibited the worst elements of narrow nationalism.

While Scotland's Union with the rest of the UK involves 60 million people, our open single market established with the European Union involves more than 500 million people and allows for the free movement of goods, capital, services and people across that Union, something of which Adam Smith would undoubtedly have approved.

Sadly, it appears that the Chancellor has not moved on since the days of Adam Smith, and while we live in a 21st-century global economy, the Chancellor still inhabits an eighteenth-century timewarp.

Alex Orr, 35 Bryson Road, Edinburgh.

THE Bank of England announces that Adam Smith is to be on its GBP20 banknote. Things must be getting bad for the Union as the bank heralds the first Scotsman ever to appear on its banknotes so loudly. However, it should be noted that the Bank of England is merely belatedly following the Clydesdale Bank which perhaps has had a higher regard for Adam Smith by placing him on its GBP50 notes for quite a while.

The Bank of England governor, meanwhile, seems to have a higher regard for Ireland than Scotland as he has never challenged the wisdom of Ireland's independence or different monetary situation.

Good thing, too, as Ireland has economically outperformed those "experts" in London over the past decade. In fact, only last week a major financial firm was considering moving from London to Dublin. They don't mock "Paddy" in London any more.

Perhaps if the governor of the Bank of England is genuinely concerned with economic prosperity he could explain why, over recent years, Ireland's growth has been double to treble that of the UK and that Ireland now trades with the UK more than at any point in its history, despite, or more likely because of, different governments.

Also, while a former governor of the Bank of England has said that unemployment in Scotland is a price worth paying for economic stability in the south-east of England, no such penalty has had to be paid by prosperous Ireland.

Could it be that independent Ireland has shown that free of the plodders at the Bank of England and free from their ill-designed monetary polices, the words of Mervyn King are mere rhetoric that stif les comparative advantage and real prosperity?

Angus Brendan MacNeil, MP, 31 Bayhead, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.