We have got so used to the GERS figure, which show Scotland's financial position, being published each year showing a generally bad picture that we are tending to blank them out.

The media reports get shorter. The figures may be bad but the sky doesn't immediately cave in so we shrug and carry on.

This is a bad mistake.

The latest GERS figures are intended to show a snapshot of Scotland's finances within the UK. The SNP Government rightly says that the actual figures would be different if Scotland were a separate country because we would make different choices. They are entirely correct except they fail to point out that the choices would be bad and the available outcomes awful. Instead they pick out one item – this year it was defence – and try to say we are being cheated and the figures are wrong.

In fact the figures, which are compiled in Scotland not London, are broadly right. They show the uncomfortable position we are in as part of the UK and excruciatingly difficult position we would start off from as a separate country.

The GERS figures are especially useful because they show Scotland's figures compared to those of the UK as a whole.

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