Scotland - A Failed Socialist Experiment

Scotland another failed Socialist experiment 

Had the SNP achieved its stated ambition of ‘independence day’ in the spring of 2016, what would it be doing now? We don’t have to imagine. This week, the Scottish government published figures for its national finances. They show that the Scottish government spends £127 for every £100 it raises in tax — a ratio unequalled anywhere else in the developed world. It can do this because so much extra money is sent up from England. For every £100 spent per English head, £120 is spent on a Scottish one.

Greece, Italy, Albania — no country, no matter how economically distressed, has such a mismatch between state spending and tax collected. Scotland’s deficit — at 10.1 per cent of GDP — is now twice as big as the next-worst country (Japan). No independent country could afford to run a deficit of Scottish magnitude: to borrow on world markets, you need a semblance of fiscal respectability. Even to join the European Union, Scotland’s deficit would need to be below 3 per cent. So an independent Scotland would right now be facing a choice: state spending down by 15 per cent, taxes up by 19 per cent, or a combination of the two.

The cuts are certainly doable. The Scottish government machine is vast, and at times the whole enterprise looks like an attempt to recreate East Germany. Nicola Sturgeon could certainly propose a rapid slimming-down of government, and say that this is a price worth paying for secession. But as her own government figures now make clear, she could not pretend that an independent Scotland could sustain current levels of largesse

 http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/the-proof-that-scotland-is-better-off-in-the-uk/

7 comments

A typical article from The Spectator. 

Any suggestion of a different world view from that of the Conservative Party, and it goes into attack mode.

had scotland been able to keep most of the revenue from their north sea oil, there would be a very different picture today.

i agree barak, conservative papers like the spectator, the guardian and the times print only right wing propaganda.  even the bbc is now rubbish.


So whatever is printed in so called "right wing" papers is called propaganda. Hmm...what do we call the propaganda printed in "left wing" publications??

They all print "propaganda" when it suits their purpose.

I guess so, but I see a lot fewer "left-wing" publications. Every Murdoch publication can be truthfully labelled "right wing", and that's the majority of our publications in Australia.

Scotland is estimated as still having 1.5 trillion in gas and oil reserves all of which is going to the UK which has already squandered all that they have already taken  from Scotland. Scotland should have been much better off than they are, if the profits had been treated as Norway did with their gas & oil reserves.

The SNP’s case for separation has always rested on three pillars: that the black gold in the North Sea would transform the economy, that Scotland’s priorities are irreconcilably different from those of England, and that Scottish government always means better government. Each of these three pillars has now collapsed. The North Sea dream has ended: jobs and expertise have already shifted to the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. As to the second pillar, the British Social Attitudes survey, the largest of its kind, shows Scots growing ever closer to the English in their outlook to politics, culture and society.


And better government? The SNP has now had nine years to prove its theory that decisions taken by officials in Edinburgh are better when it comes to schools, hospitals, transport and the environment. But even Nicola Sturgeon cannot claim that the NHS is better in Scotland than in England. Or that Scotland’s state education system is more progressive than England’s. On the contrary, a poor Scottish teenager is now half as likely to get into university as a poor English one. The merging of regional police services into Police Scotland has been a disaster.

Now and again it is argued that the EU referendum has made Scotland more likely to vote for independence. While it’s true that only two in five Scots supported Brexit, this has hardly transformed the desire for independence. The basic economic reality is stark, and undeniable: an independent Scotland would be a Scotland embarking on the most ambitious austerity programme attempted by any western country in peacetime. There may well be a case for this. But as of this week, the SNP can no longer pretend that separation and sado-austerity would not come hand in hand.

And the case for the Union? North Sea oil revenue has all but vanished — but there has been no national hammerblow as a result. Instead, more Scots are in work than ever before. Scottish pensioner poverty is lower than ever before. Scottish household wealth is higher than ever before.

By being plugged into the larger economic network of the United Kingdom, Scots have not just been shielded from the oil slump, but have been able to achieve more than ever. The pooling of resources works. Scotland and England are now, more than ever,better together.

The big oil and gas hubs were in the Shetlands not Scotland . The Shetlands never wanted to break from the UK they enjoyed the English investmen

When I lived in Scotland the Shetland Isles were part of Scotland.....did they have a war?

A leading Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP has demanded Shetland be given the option of independence if the SNP again try to force the break-up of the UK.

In a blistering attack on the government’s record, Tavish Scott said islanders should have the chance to choose “self-determination” in the face of “arrogant central belt government”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has suggested a UK-wide vote to leave the EU in June could trigger a second referendum on Scottish independence.

But Shetland MSP Mr Scott told his party’s spring conference that such a move would force a “real debate” on the “constitutional future” of the northern isles.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/islands/846551/msp-calls-for-real-debate-on-independence-for-shetland/

Future oil and gas reserves are in England not Scotland .
England is embarking on Fracking which has made the US not only independent but an exporter .

Scotland's population 5.2 m about the same as Sydney

7 comments



To make a comment, please register or login

Preview your comment