Devolution is the problem - end the union

This appeared in the January 14th edition of Scotland on Sunday and is my response to a letter by Les Reid in which he places the blame for Scotland’s budget crisis on the SNP government.

Les Reid (January 7) blames Scotland’s woes on bad spending decisions by the SNP government. He misses the big picture. 

As a devolved UK nation, Scotland must subsist on its Westminster block grant, which has been shrinking in proportion to UK benefit and public service cuts. This block grant is a portion of the money Scotland turns over to the UK Treasury. The UK retains nearly half, including money Scots pay for VAT, and most of what Westminster keeps isn’t spent in Scotland. Add to that a 27% increase in food prices in the last 2 years that has hit the poorest households hardest and a stagnant economy, and the result is huge pressure to protect the most vulnerable on a finite budget that must be balanced annually because Scotland has no central bank. 

Consider also that the UK government gets the inflation windfall from increased VAT revenues and fuel duties, as much as £30 billion last year, but doesn’t share this with the devolved nations. If it did, the Scottish Government’s budget problems would vanish like snow off a dyke. Scotland pays an ‘inflation penalty’ for being a UK region. 

Because English Labour has vowed to continue the UK’s plundering of Scotland, the only way to end the suffering is for the sovereign Scottish People to end the failing union and take back their nation.