Once again Doug Maughan attempts to fire broadsides into his opponents, (April 9). He maintains that the SNP is "under serious scrutiny, its inconsistencies, fallacies and dodgy arithmetic being laid bare".

On these particular failings, may I recall a recent statement by him in your columns, while defending the status quo of local taxation?

He had asserted that the "UK Treasury pays out £381m direct to councils, 18% of total tax". In a reply, Stewart Graham had stated: "Given that local authorities receive between 85% to 95% of their funding from a central source, would it not be sound sense to make the figure 100%?" Some discrepancy here, surely?

Mr Maughan is an airline pilot, and no doubt a highly efficient one. Mr Graham is a retired collector of taxes. I know who my money would be on for an accurate statement on that particular subject.

Distorted facts, such as the one I have described, form much of the basis of the present Labour assault on SNP policies. Perhaps they admire the philosophy of the late Joseph Goebbels, that master of propaganda, who was certain that if a lie was to be told often enough, in due time the populace would accept it as the truth.

Frederick Jenkins, The Lodge, Burnton, Kippen.