What the failing UK doesn't want Scots to know
That we have heavily subsidised the failing UK for well over 120 years
Richard Murphy in his column for The National, referenced this piece on June 6th, 2024. It was also published in The Herald, June 7th.
I wrote this in January of this year (it was published in the February 2nd edition of the Edinburgh Evening News), but I’m republishing it because some of my newer subscribers may not have seen it and it blows out of the water the unionist lie that Scotland is subsidised by England.
During last night’s so-called ‘Leaders’ Debate,’ neither man mentioned Scotland, underscoring how we are viewed within this faux union. Please feel free to share widely and refer to it if you’re told Scotland is too poor to survive without Westminster’s largesse.
The sleekit Michael Gove was caught with his pants down at the Covid Enquiry in Edinburgh. After charging the Scottish Government with political opportunism, KC Jamie Dawson brandished Gove’s Cabinet paper, delivered just before Johnson parachuted into Scotland, where he said the UK’s primary concern during the pandemic was the risk of Scottish independence. Gove’s recommendation to the English cabinet? Wait for it – to politicise its response in Scotland by strengthening its case for the union.
The supine BBC Scotland omitted any mention of Gove’s paper. Scotland’s secession from the failing UK is England’s worst nightmare. It will do anything – lie, steal, obfuscate and even politicise!! – to prevent an independent Scotland.
Without Scotland’s wealth and resources, this sham of a union is toast. Scotland has buttressed the UK economy not only since the discovery of North Sea oil, but for well over 120 years.
From 1900-1921, the UK government produced a set of accounts, Revenue and Expenditure for England (including Wales), Scotland and Ireland (the reports are available at the National Library of Scotland - see below). During this period, Scotland provided the UK Treasury with £762.3mn and received back just £211mn, or 27.7%. Converted from 1911 prices, this is equivalent to £2.5bn a year, more than the £1.5bn oil-rich Scotland sent to Westminster between 1979-97.
The UK government ceased publication when Ireland became independent, not wanting Scotland to get any ideas.
Gove and the UK establishment including Starmer’s Labour in Name Only (LINO) party are keen to keep Scots in the dark about their wealth and how it is keeping a sinking UK above the water line. It’s time we opened our eyes. We’re being robbed blind.
Here’s how to access the data: If you have a National Library of Scotland membership (it’s free), go online (NLS.uk), login and and click on Eresources. Under ‘Browse by resource title’, go to the letter U and type in UK Parliamentary Papers. Scroll down and click on the hyperlink to access the papers (https://auth.nls.uk/eresources/goto/36). Then in the search bar type, “Revenue and Expenditure (England, Scotland and Ireland) 1901” or any year up to 1921, and you will get a link to the parliamentary papers. From here you can download the pdf of that year’s report. There’s no composite set of accounts for all 21 years, so you need to go year by year. I’ve included some screenshots below for the 1910 report, showing total revenue collected and the contribution by each nation to ‘Imperial Services’.
An excellent paper which is even more pertinent today than it was back in January. Thanks for republishing it and for the inclusion of the Conclusion of Gove's paper to the Covid Enquiry, which confirms what we've experienced throughout the last three years: an endless MSM & political undermining of everything about Scotland from sports to economy, to politics, to governmental competence, to education, to health, to languages, to culture, to our identity. There's been a clear and concerted effort to denigrate every aspect of life in Scotland. It's now up to the Scottish people to put our country's existence and future prospects first and vote for independence. The disarray in English politics means that the time has never been better to show we can do it. It's of prime importance that our politicians in all the indpendence-supporting parties can work together to avoid splitting the pro-Indy vote. The time for separate parties to follow their own political paths comes when we achieve independence and hold our first Scottish Parliamentary Election.
Further congratulations on getting your paper published by Richard Murphy today and I look forward to your future contributions on his blogsite.
Regards,
Ken
Another thing which requires immediate action from the Scottish Government is to call a halt to the annual nonsense of GERS. It's a pseudo-report pretending to be an accounting document, when in fact very few of the figures cited in it are actual, probative data; most are 'estimates and apportionments' of UK data (some of which are themselves unreliable). Many years back I did a study of the data based on auditing principles: could the GERS data be tracked back to original data which itself could be proven to be accurate. My findings were that c 4% of the GERS data passed that test; the rest were estimates/apportionments. If, as a trainee accountant, I had presented such a set of accounts for approval by the partner-in-charge, I'd have been ridiculed in no uncertain terms and possibly shown the door.
But that's not all that's wrong with it: it uses single entry accounting and there is no balance sheet. This means that the fundamental concept of double-entry accounting - every debit requires a credit in order to balance the books - does not exist, so costs can be added and income reduced without evidence in order to produce the desired outcome: Scotland too wee, too stupid, too poor and too incompetent to be independent of the UK. There are plenty of other technical faults, but you the message: GERS is used to weaken and slander Scotland, its people and its governance. It costs money to produce (which will be marked as being a cost devolved to Scotland) and there is no statutory requirement to publish it, so why does the SNP Gov continue to issue it?