A deluded Scot in Berwick-upon-Tweed
Brian Barbour writes in today’s Scotsman from his perch in England to say that Scotland’s trade with rUK would suffer should it choose to restore its sovereignty and anyway, Scots are too bright to vote to leave the UK.
Nonsense on both counts.
Scots are bright, certainly brighter than their dimmer cousins in the south who voted to leave the EU. The result? UK GDP is expected to be 4% lower than what it would have been within the EU. This equates to £3bn in lost public revenues for Scotland. The average UK person is £2,000 worse off and there are 2 million fewer jobs overall.
Between 2021-23 UK goods exports to the EU plummeted 27% and EU imports into the UK were 32% down on where they would have been had the UK stayed in the EU.
And the economic carnage will get worse. A Cambridge Econometrics study predicts that more than £300bn will be wiped off the value of the UK economy by 2035 and more than £60bn wiped off the value of London’s economy.
Small and medium sized businesses have borne the Brexit brunt. They can’t afford the bureaucratic red tape they’ve been forced to deal with. These non tariff barriers to trade - customs checks, product inspections and certification processes - have meant these businesses have given up on even trying to export to the EU. And because product standards between the UK and EU have diverged, this piles on more expensive compliance checks. 44% of Scottish businesses facing export problems have blamed Brexit.
Despite Brexit, Scotland remains the UK’s export powerhouse. In 2021, it had a trade surplus of £20.9bn vs a UK-wide trade deficit of £28.1bn. Imagine how much more Scotland could export if it regained access to the EU market.
The UK lost access to a network of over 40 EU trade agreements covering 70 countries that allowed tariff free or reduced tariff trading. The few tiny trade deals the UK has managed to negotiate like the one with Australia will increase GDP just 0.1%. Meanwhile, the EU has continued negotiating agreements like the one with Canada in 2017. The UK didn’t have a Canadian trade deal until 2021.
Brexit also means Westminster has grabbed power back from Scotland. UK Ministers are bypassing the Scottish Parliament and spending money in devolved areas.
The UK is an isolated little island nation that most of the rest of the world shuns, for good reason. It’s one of the poorest and most unequal countries in Western Europe.
Because Scots are bright, they know they can never prosper inside the failing UK. They know to do so they must restore their rightful place in the world as a free and sovereign nation.
Ah yes England's Brexit, a massive democratic deficit if ever there was, given two nations in the 'UK' voted to remain in the EU. I do really hate reverse psychology stuff, a form of gas lighting, it's what abusive relationships are based on, a classic tactic to keep the people doubting themselves and their own worth and abilities.
I've noticed some shops near us in Edinburgh that have recently closed down, ones that were reliant in fact on imports, not necessarily exports. Each day there seems to be more small shops have closed down. Could be forgiven for thinking there's a wee UKnotOK recession going on, oh and food etc prices seem to be very flexible shall we say.
SNP Gov need to make a huge song and dance about how Scotland was dragged out of the EU against the will of 62% of the people, every Scottish constituency voted to remain in the EU.
SNPGov need to talk money, money money and how Scotland's revenues and resources are taken by the country next door, and how Eng's Brexit has meant massive losses in even the measly crumbs England sends back to Scotland once they have helped themselves to Scotand's cash etc.
It will get 'worse', that's the reality, and again Scotland will lose many of their young folk who will be forced to seek a better life elsewhere.
Looks like EngBritNat project fear, and typical Brit state manipulation by way of gas lighting the people of Scotland, has already begun. No thanks.
Proud-Scot, Brian, reads like an automated message from the NO Campaign of 2014