By Steve Bargeton, political editor

A BOOKLET produced by the Scottish Government is costing the taxpayer a staggering £183 per copy, it was revealed yesterday.

Choosing Scotland’s Future: A National Conversation—which opposition parties claim is simply SNP propaganda—was produced last year at a cost of £48,000 and retails at £10 a copy.

But ministers have been forced to admit that just 262 copies have been sold.

In a written parliamentary answer to Labour’s Jackie Baillie, deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon said, “To date, 172 copies of Choosing Scotland’s Future have been sold by Blackwell’s bookshops.

“About 90 further copies have been sold via wholesalers, and at the Edinburgh Book Festival.”

A further 3000 free copies have been distributed to “key stakeholders” and public libraries.

The cost of producing and translating the book was £35,000, its distribution cost £5000, and the cost of the launch event £8000—a total of £48,000.

The book sells for £10, meaning that sales have totalled just £2620—£45,380 less than it cost to produce.

According to the Scottish Government Choosing Scotland’s Future lays the ground for the exploration of the concept of independence and other constitutional possibilities.

But Labour has blasted the book as a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money.

“On this evidence there’s no danger of Choosing Scotland’s Future topping the bestsellers list,” Jackie Baillie said.

“It’s hardly flying off the shelves. But once again it demonstrates just how much taxpayers’ money the SNP are wasting on their so-called National Conversation.

“Tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been thrown away to produce a document that no one wants to read, and no one wants to buy.

“The public purse should not be used to subsidise the SNP’s misguided political agenda, especially when the public, as the feeble sales of this document show, aren’t remotely interested.”

Scottish Tory deputy leader Murdo Fraser claimed the booklet was one of the most expensive “blethers” in history.

“Separation is a minority aspiration from one of Scotland’s four minority parties,” he said.

“This must be one of the most expensive big blethers in Scottish political history, and one that has no parliamentary mandate or authority.”

However, a spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond claimed the book had been an outstanding success. “All the opposition parties have been forced to support more responsibilities for the Scottish Parliament, and we’ve had Labour’s extraordinary series of U-turns on an independence referendum.

“As well as sales and free copies to libraries and elsewhere, the white paper has been downloaded or read online 40,000 times, and there have been nearly 400,000 hits on the National Conversation website.

“By contrast, the London parties’ commission is using public resources, but deliberately excluding the option of independence, which recent polls indicate is the most popular option of the Scottish people.”