Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear David Cameron,

Your strategy of addressing the West Lothian question is the correct one.  No drama, no glamour, no hype – just asking the sensible questions.  Alex Salmond has made some fairly inflammatory remarks this morning.  He may well be right about Scotland becoming considerably richer should they have control of their own oil, but this is no cause for concern.

There are two ways of looking at this problem, both of which support your stance.  Firstly from a financial point of view, England would probably suffer in the short term if we lost control of oil revenues.  However, North Sea oil has not got more than a few decades of revenue left and when it dries up, we do not want to be anywhere near the situation because it will collapse whichever economy is in control of it.  Secondly from the perspective of the union, this does not have to cause any ruptures or strain between England and Scotland – in fact, I think handing them the North Sea oil while rebalancing the Barnett formula in favour of England (if not making Scotland financially autonomous) will probably improve relations between us.  Matthew Elliott and the Taxpayers Alliance are the people to speak to about the sums of money involved, so use their expertise and knowledge to your advantage.

Stick to your guns, Mr Cameron.  Alex Salmond will fight to the death for Scottish interests, but always remember that English and Scottish interests may well turn out to be one and the same thing.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory