Reeves' London-centric "Growth" is disastrous for Scotland
Printed in the February 3rd and 5th editions of the Edinburgh Evening News.
So, Rachel-from-accounts Reeves has made her big ‘growth’ speech and there’s no mention of Scotland - why would there be?
She’s merely continuing the UK government’s centralisation of control to London and the SouthEast of England that started after WWII.
She claims that building a 3rd Heathrow runway will boost exports of Scottish salmon and whisky. The question to be asked, as even clueless Angus Robertson recently did, is why should Scottish exports have to go through Heathrow at all? It’s more costly and wastes time for Scotland’s exports to go via London to reach the rest of the world.
Why not use Scottish airports or seaports? Oh, that’s right - we don’t own our airports or seaports - hedge funds and asset strippers like BlackRock do.
Reeves wants Scotland to look like an economic basket case. Exports that pass through England are recorded as English revenue, not Scottish, and perpetuates the lie that Scotland is too poor to live without Westminster handouts.
England has always brought Scotland to heel through economic pressure or by imposing sanctions outright. It’s how Scotland was forced into the Union. The Alien Act of 1705 threatened that unless Scotland agreed to union with England, Scottish exports to England would be banned and Scottish estates in England would be confiscated.
Anti-unionist David Black wrote in 1706:
England affords us but little of what is necessary, yet they drain us more than any nation. (David Black, Essay upon Industry and Trade, p. 25.)
Not much has changed.
Forcing Scottish exports through England is how the UK controls and takes credit for our salmon (£1.25bn), whisky (£5.6bn) and renewables (£6.1bn), reducing the UK trade deficit. Scotland is the UK’s export powerhouse, but you won’t hear this from a unionist.
As for our shrinking industrial base, there’s no UK investment. Scotland once had a burgeoning electronics export sector. In 2002, electronics exports were £5.6bn, 28% of Scotland’s exports. By 2014, that had fallen to £1.1bn, 4% of exports. Yet Reeves is lavishing Oxford and Cambridge with money to construct a “Silicon Valley” near London. It’s a safe bet that any investment in AI won’t stray out of the SouthEast.
Meanwhile, Grangemouth is closing with the loss of hundreds of jobs because £60m couldn’t be found to invest in a new hydrocracker.
GB Energy is a con foisted onto Scots by sleekit Starmer and Viceroy Murray.
Our renewables are owned by private corporations and foreign governments and are flowing south to England with no compensation.
Pylons are being imposed onto the Highlands despite strong local opposition, spoiling Scotland’s natural beauty.
Nuclear subs spew radioactive waste into our rivers and seas, and nuclear power plants riddled with cracks are forced to stay open, exposing local populations to the risks of cancers and reactor meltdowns.
English Labour got just what it wanted last July - 37 out of 57 Scottish MPs, not that this makes much difference when pitted against 543 English MPs.
Scotland can be safely ignored and treated as the colony it’s always been, ripe for exploitation and politically and economically neutered so that it presents no threat to the “precious union.”
To change our vassal status, we need a way out.
Demanding that our MSPs put the UN ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) into Scots law to give the Scottish People the right to Self-Determination and Direct Democracy is a first step. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to sign Petition 2135 (it has over 4,400 signatures to date) and share it widely.
Thanks Leah. It's enough to make you weep, sometimes I find it almost impossible to read about how Scotland is so scammed, thieved from massively by the English administration to the deitriment of Scotland and the people of Scotland. :-/
Scotland is hardly even given English region status nevermind nation status...and as for the north of England, well they have always been shafted, kept poor, and the poorer they get the more the far right wing parties like 'Reform' will gain even more ground there, it's all part of the divide and rule tactics, make sure the sheeple fight amongst themselves.
Where Scotland is concerned the English administration has every intention of taking control of the Scottish parliament in 2026, by hook or by crook. Scotland's getting ideas above her station and that poses a huge threat to the Brit/Eng state and their dodgy pals abroad. We can't let that happen, so it's crucial that groups, organisations and the independence movement do not allow any interlopers to sow seeds of doubt and use division tactics, as has been done already, and it's all by design.
The next fifteen months or so are crucial to Scotland's wobbly democracy being retained. The form of D'Hondt system forced onto Scotland by the EngGov, is very confusing for people, that needs serious consideration when the campaigning starts.
All hands on deck! :-)
Thank you, Leah! This is an excellent article and certainly explains well the crux of Scotland's problems. England steals everything from Scotland & leaves us with a dribble of our own revenue & resources & expects us to work as a fully independent country, which we are not. But to which we must aspire! People are dying - the elderly through hypothermia, disabled & health problematic people who depend on benefits that are being systematically cut & a quarter of our children are starving. They're not getting help so they too are going to DIE. CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND DYING! When we are such a rich country?? It's appalling! Time to call it quits & tear up the ToU. Thank you for explaining why, so clearly!