Economic 'argument' against Scottish independence is pathetic
I am enjoying the various reactions to Wendy's U-Turn, check out this from the Scotsman:
Also the blogs are pretty unanimous in their laughter/delight.
Unfortunately I noticed this rather sad contribution on John Redwood's blog (not his comment, one of the follow ups) and I felt moved to reply.
‘David Burch’ said:
“What has not been explained is to the Scots and the Welsh is without English support through taxcation they weill be weaker than England. No fair well as from my English point of view it look fine but I am not sure that point has been laboured.”
Oh it’s been ‘laboured’ all right and it now sounds very laboured indeed. I find it very amusing that anyone in England actually believes this. Seen the price of oil lately? What does that mean for the relative post independence economic positions of Scotland and England?
The highest public spending in the UK is in London and NI. Scotland has the next highest, however Scotland also has a small population compared to the rest of the UK. This means a per head analysis looks artificially higher than it actually is.
We also pump up the British treasury through North Sea Oil and this more than covers any perceived financial deficit. If we had become independent in the 70’s (according to BritGov’s own secret research) we would have had the hardest currency in Europe. Oil is projected to run till at least 2035.
Our general economic growth is considerably less than the rest of the UK at the moment. Independent analysis suggests however that with the right tax regime Scotland could be potentially one of the most successful countries in Europe!
So please credit us with a little bit common sense. Labour tried the doom ‘n’ gloom approach last time and it failed. The sky didn’t fall in with an SNP Government and it won’t fall in with independence in Scotland or Wales.
Scotland isn’t a colony yet why do people seem to think that both Scotland and Wales can be treated like one? It won’t wash. If England believes it can ’survive’ independence (and I’m sure it could) don’t pretend we can’t. It cheapens the whole debate and shows contempt for your supposedly ‘equal’ partners.
We'll see if my reply gets in. I've had a few contributions blocked by the Telegraph and Daily Mail whose crystal ball is seriously faulty:
A pity they don't allow a genuine debate, particularly on grossly biased sh*te like this.
The hootsman might be generally rubbish but at least it allows comments (well apart from from me that is as I've been barred for my campaign on the right, though I stil manage to get the odd view in there all the same). :)
1 comment:
Have you read this tosh from that b*astard who called all those who support the cause of independence racist? Read it here:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/james_grant/2008/05/dreaming_of_england.html
I see he's dropped the racism allegations.
Methinks a few letters to the guardian are called for...
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