No, Mr. Quinn - Scotland isn't an economic basket case
The UK, however, is
I sent this to The Herald yesterday in response to a confused letter from James Quinn of Lanark.
James Quinn (Herald letters July 17) claims Scotland has large structural fiscal and trade deficits so could never be a successful independent country. Nonsense.
In 2021, Scotland had the largest trade surplus - £20.9 billion - of all the 4 UK nations and the UK as a whole. This was achieved despite Brexit which has depressed Scottish exports. Imagine what Scotland could achieve if free trade with the EU was restored.Â
The UK stupidly sold off its national assets to foreign corporations, destroying the social welfare state and impoverishing the population. It stole Scotland’s oil worth hundreds of £billions and is repeating the theft with renewables. It’s an absurdity that Scots suffer from fuel poverty when they should, in the words of Octopus’ Greg Jackson, be enjoying the cheapest electricity in Europe.Â
You need only to look at European countries of a similar size to Scotland to see how the UK has held Scotland back. They all enjoy higher per capita GDP and productivity and lower poverty and inequality. It’s because they’re independent. They, not another nation, are in control.Â
By contrast, the UK dictates foreign affairs, international trade, fiscal and monetary policy, most taxation and social benefits, pensions (the lowest of any developed nation), the minimum wage, financial regulation (or lack thereof), immigration, energy policy, employment legislation, the media, and telecommunications regulation. Scotland, rather than controlling its destiny, is at the mercy of its larger ‘partner.’
Only a fool could claim the UK is succeeding. It has failed not only the people of Scotland, but those of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland would be doing the other UK nations a favour by being the first to head for the exit door. Â
Well said Leah! It is amazing how msny people in Scotland still believe this story that,Scotland could not survive without help from a beneficent English government in London! The reason is, of course, that that lie has been told to us for many years and we do not have our own media to refute it!
In fact the opposite is true and England would be in a worse state than it is, without Scottish energy flowing south, out taxes and the money from our expirts, such as whisky.
I hope the Herald print your reply so that a few more people can learn the truth. Thanks for your efforts.
100% spot on Leah! Mr Quinn obviously thinks GERS is a serious accounting/economic exercise, when it is neither by a country mile. With the "GERS season" approaching, I wrote to the First Minister and Finance Secretary after the recent SNP leadership changes to ask why they persist in publishing (and presumably financing the production of) GERS year on year when it is so transparently obvious that it is a work of fiction designed to undermine Scotland (a fact not denied by the originator, former Tory Scottish Secretary Ian Lang). Here's the response from an economist in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser:
"The GERS publication is a statistical publication. It is produced in line with the Code of Practice for
Statistics to ensure that it is providing users with statistics that have public value, are high quality, and
trustworthy. The methods it uses have been agreed in consultation with users, and are similar to those
adopted in the Office for National Statistics Country and Regional Public Sector Finances publication,
which is available at: Country and regional public sector finances, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Further information on the Code of Practice for Statistics is available at: Code of Practice for Statistics (statisticsauthority.gov.uk). The GERS report was last assessed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2014. The report is available at the link below:
Statistics on Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland – Office for Statistics Regulation
(statisticsauthority.gov.uk)"
I got a similar brush-off when I wrote to the then Finance Secretary Derek MacKay was in office. It's the classic Ombudsman get-out: "all procedures were followed" without any consideration of whether the procedures were fair or made any sense. In other words 'procedures were blindly followed'. Years ago I did a study of GERS contents based on auditing concepts and found that c4% of all the data had a clear audit trail that led back verifiable figures. The other c96% is derived from estimates and allocations largely based on population size. The bitter fact is that UK Governments and the Treasury have never attempted to gather critical data (eg taxes raised, exports, imports etc) by nation and have instead gathered them at UK level. Hence the overwhelming obfuscation of key data. Another factor that can never be forgotten is that the Civil Service in Scotland is run by Whitehall and not Holyrood.
As far as I can tell there is no statutory requirement for the Scottish Gov to produce GERS statements, so why does it persist year on year in making a rod for its back and issuing enormous amounts of almost entirely unproven anti-Independence propaganda for the Unionist media?