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Scottish Independence Model Is Dead


Stuart Dickson

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The figures are pretty clear. Last year in the UK non state pension related welfare cost us all £111.1Bn, Healthcare cost £134.1Bn and Education cost £84.3Bn. Interest repayments on our National Debt cost £46.1Bn. Our annual budget deficit is forecast for 2016 to be £69.5Bn.

Assuming we sold all of the state owned property - all the hospitals, all of the schools, and all of the residential properties owned in each of those sectors - to the new private suppliers market we'd be creating its quite clear we'd eradicate the National Debt at a stroke. Lets make an assumption that covering the National Debt is all that we do and we don't make any surplus that we would make interest on and just work with the figures above our annual budget would now be in surplus by £305.2bn per annum. Distribute that money equally to every UK resident and it means £4,761 per person - paid regardless of age, employment status, health etc. If we assume that the average family has 2 parents and 2 children that would mean the average UK household being paid £19.045 per year BEFORE any employment income is factored into the equation.

Think about the family life cycle. You leave home to set up on your own, you're getting £4761 per annum. You don't need an education so all of that money can be saved for a time when you may need private healthcare treatment. Now you meet a lady you love and you move in together. Neither of you need an education so you're now saving £9,522 per annum for any healthcare needs you might have. You have children. The first child won't need education until they are 5 years old so for the next 5 years you are now saving £14,283 per annum and when you have a second child they also are not going to need an education until they turn 5 so now you're getting the full £19,045 per annum and you've still got nothing to spend it on.

A private education at one of our more modest establishments currently costs around £7,000 per annum. So even when both your kids are at school you are still going to have £5,045 available to provide for any health care needs. And when your children are grown up and have left home, you and your partner will continue to receive £9,522 per annum for the rest of your life. And because all of this is not absolute and is instead a percentage of the UK national budget based it's all going to be inflation proofed with proportionate increases occurring as wages increase.

You can go further too. I called this payment a UK Resident UK Citizen Dividend. In other words you only receive your payment if you are a UK citizen, immigrants would have to wait until they were awarded residency and citizenship before becoming entitled, and you could even factor in an element where the courts could withdraw your entitlement to your dividend as a punishment for any crimes that you commit - certainly your £4761 would be used to cover part of the cost of any custodial sentence if that was ever applied.

By moving everything into the private sector we;d be encouraging competition. Parents could choose education establishments based on affordability and on exam results. The best teachers would be in demand as schools would look to improve their education offerings and more importantly because parents are paying for the education themselves they'll take far more interest in it and demand better standards than they do currently.

I can't see any downside, but then of course from the age of 8 onwards I lived in a private estate in a four in a block house paid for by my wealthy electrician father.....:rolleyes:

Edited to add: If you also scrap the state pension element of the welfare budget, and lets face it why wouldn't you, that would mean an extra £1,800 per annum per person.

Blah blah blah. Just name one successful implementation of your ideas to prove that you have not overlooked something.

Drew suggests Chile but that failed.

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Blah blah blah. Just name one successful implementation of your ideas to prove that you have not overlooked something.

Drew suggests Chile but that failed.

How do you invent anything, how can you be innovative if you always need to see what you are trying to do work elsewhere?

There are countries that have had outstanding successes with elements of what I'm proposing, but there's none that I am aware of that have implemented the full thing. Sweden have been issuing educational vouchers to their school kids for a couple of decades now. They've got one of the best education systems in the world although I did notice some left wing rags trying to claim that the voucher system was now hampering the progress over there because parents were taking kids out of the less successful state schools and putting them into the much better private schools with the effect that the shite schools were finding they were now struggling with a funding shortfall - hell mend them I say.

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Pretty clear? You never even mentioned the national debt. Interest on the debt and annual deficit, but not the debt.

Or maybe you did, I got really bored after about 6 lines and started skimming.

Anyway, if it was that simple, why hasn't it been done?

Because it appears no-one in the UK is that bothered about the debt. Austerity appears to be a vote loser, particularly in Scotland, and if anyone suggests tampering with the NHS the left wing media clutch their handbags much closer to their chests.

It would be an immediate solution to our National Debt. It would wipe out any deficit, save us huge levels of interest repayments and put the country on a footing where the population could have a genuine universal credit that would actually benefit them. But regardless, looking at our NHS and our failing education system do you think your household is getting value for money from your £19.045 per annum?

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How do you invent anything, how can you be innovative if you always need to see what you are trying to do work elsewhere?

There are countries that have had outstanding successes with elements of what I'm proposing, but there's none that I am aware of that have implemented the full thing. Sweden have been issuing educational vouchers to their school kids for a couple of decades now. They've got one of the best education systems in the world although I did notice some left wing rags trying to claim that the voucher system was now hampering the progress over there because parents were taking kids out of the less successful state schools and putting them into the much better private schools with the effect that the shite schools were finding they were now struggling with a funding shortfall - hell mend them I say.

Oh i understand the innovation bit. I also understand the risk involved in such a radical move. The chances of disaster are so high that some form of proof or trial would be required. However we can simply short circuit all of that by dismissing your idea out of hand as lacking credibility. You havent thought it through as we discussed at length the last time you brought it up. Within minutes of your "manifesto" appearing, several of us pointed out the huge miscalculation you made on the basic arithmetic. Its typical of a loose cannon that you should have simply ignored the errors and continued to plead that only you out of 7 billion humans can have the true answer to society's problems.

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I thought he might have been advocating Sweden's high taxes to pay for it. No?

I am just struggling to understand why he thinks Sweden has one of the most successful education systems in the world.

Thats before we talk about tax.

Where are all the global Swedish success stories which make that investment worthwhile?

Where are all the billion dollar companies driving innovation?

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Guest TPAFKATS

Virgin Trains are running every hour via Kilmarnock and Dumfries too. Takes longer however.

Lamington sounds like a lucky escape.

I did momentarily wonder why a Virgin train passed over a bridge in borrheid the other day.
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