Leah, you're spot-on when you write this "This dismal record exists because Holyrood was created and is controlled by Westminster which retains the major powers of the state - the economy, international affairs, and defence. Only minor powers were devolved. Even the Scottish civil servants are chosen by Whitehall. If the Scottish administration deviates from the UK’s neoliberal privatisation agenda, it will be shut down, so it stays in its designated lane."
In a submission to Richard Murphy's taxresearch blog (https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/06/13/the-english-parties-are-both-right-wing-and-autoritarian/) I wrote this "...all the devolved nations are bound into the UK economy as dictated by the ruling party in Westminster. All tax revenues of the devolved nations, except Council Tax, go in the first instance to HMRC/the Treasury and then trickle down to the devolved governments via the Barnett formula, which is driven by UK Government spending in England. The outcome is vividly seen in the Scottish Government’s Budget, where the Tories’ policy of austerity reduces the Block Grant (particularly crippling in times of high inflation) and forces ScotGov to reduce its mitigation of UKGov tax and benefits policies. Similar impacts will be affecting the budgets of the Welsh Senned and the Stormont in N Ireland. The devolved nations haven’t moved to the right: they’ve been sucked to the right by the policies and funding structure of Westminster.
Currently there are no Scotland-specific data collected/available for c95% of its economy, so, under the existing scheme the real nature of Scotland’s economy will only become apparent once Scotland is independent and all tax etc revenues flow into the Scottish Exchequer." Ms Stephenson is undoubtedly aware of these facts but chooses to ignore and deny them, as indeed do the media who publish her fact-free ideological claims. Ignorance is bliss!
Hi Ken I have no problem with acknowledging the despicable actions and abuse of our colonial masters and the stranglehold they have over policies and finance , but TBQH I am sick of politicians using the big bad unionist WM govt as the get out and excuse for all the ills that affect us , I know that your comment is not in that vein, we have had decades of Liebour corruption and lies where every promise that they made was reneged upon by LYING Liebour politicians who effectively worked AGAINST Scotland and Scots, we even had a numpty and chancer FM who returned £1.5 billion pounds to the exchequer because he couldn't think of anything to spend it on in Scotland, THAT chancer was rewarded by a lairdship
Then we had Salmond who ran a fairly competent govt BUT failed to EXPOSE the enormous amounts of money being STOLEN by WM , he signed off on every GERS report giving credibility to the SUBSIDISED Jocks meme , instead of producing the REAL Scottish figures , Salmond,Sturgeon,Useless and now Swinney have done nothing , nada ,zilch to EDUCATE and INFORM the electorate of the vast resources we have and the benefits that can be accrued and utilised if we were independent, it has been left to ordinary grass roots independence supporters like Colin Dunn aka Zarkwan and others to produce online printable and downloadable sheets of information and educational posters to EXPOSE the despicable ongoing theft of our resources and the REAL beneficial finances which could be used to better Scots lives
WM is our enemy but so are politicians who play by their rules instead of being radical and challenging , Salmond used a flawed franchise for the 2014 Ref and was surprised when our independence was SCUPPERED , he has stated categorically that the same flawed franchise will be used for any further constitutional votes , as the saying goes, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity
Leah, you're spot-on when you write this "This dismal record exists because Holyrood was created and is controlled by Westminster which retains the major powers of the state - the economy, international affairs, and defence. Only minor powers were devolved. Even the Scottish civil servants are chosen by Whitehall. If the Scottish administration deviates from the UK’s neoliberal privatisation agenda, it will be shut down, so it stays in its designated lane."
In a submission to Richard Murphy's taxresearch blog (https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/06/13/the-english-parties-are-both-right-wing-and-autoritarian/) I wrote this "...all the devolved nations are bound into the UK economy as dictated by the ruling party in Westminster. All tax revenues of the devolved nations, except Council Tax, go in the first instance to HMRC/the Treasury and then trickle down to the devolved governments via the Barnett formula, which is driven by UK Government spending in England. The outcome is vividly seen in the Scottish Government’s Budget, where the Tories’ policy of austerity reduces the Block Grant (particularly crippling in times of high inflation) and forces ScotGov to reduce its mitigation of UKGov tax and benefits policies. Similar impacts will be affecting the budgets of the Welsh Senned and the Stormont in N Ireland. The devolved nations haven’t moved to the right: they’ve been sucked to the right by the policies and funding structure of Westminster.
Currently there are no Scotland-specific data collected/available for c95% of its economy, so, under the existing scheme the real nature of Scotland’s economy will only become apparent once Scotland is independent and all tax etc revenues flow into the Scottish Exchequer." Ms Stephenson is undoubtedly aware of these facts but chooses to ignore and deny them, as indeed do the media who publish her fact-free ideological claims. Ignorance is bliss!
Hi Ken I have no problem with acknowledging the despicable actions and abuse of our colonial masters and the stranglehold they have over policies and finance , but TBQH I am sick of politicians using the big bad unionist WM govt as the get out and excuse for all the ills that affect us , I know that your comment is not in that vein, we have had decades of Liebour corruption and lies where every promise that they made was reneged upon by LYING Liebour politicians who effectively worked AGAINST Scotland and Scots, we even had a numpty and chancer FM who returned £1.5 billion pounds to the exchequer because he couldn't think of anything to spend it on in Scotland, THAT chancer was rewarded by a lairdship
Then we had Salmond who ran a fairly competent govt BUT failed to EXPOSE the enormous amounts of money being STOLEN by WM , he signed off on every GERS report giving credibility to the SUBSIDISED Jocks meme , instead of producing the REAL Scottish figures , Salmond,Sturgeon,Useless and now Swinney have done nothing , nada ,zilch to EDUCATE and INFORM the electorate of the vast resources we have and the benefits that can be accrued and utilised if we were independent, it has been left to ordinary grass roots independence supporters like Colin Dunn aka Zarkwan and others to produce online printable and downloadable sheets of information and educational posters to EXPOSE the despicable ongoing theft of our resources and the REAL beneficial finances which could be used to better Scots lives
WM is our enemy but so are politicians who play by their rules instead of being radical and challenging , Salmond used a flawed franchise for the 2014 Ref and was surprised when our independence was SCUPPERED , he has stated categorically that the same flawed franchise will be used for any further constitutional votes , as the saying goes, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity
well said Leah