So Farewell then Scottish Independence.....

[Stuart Dickson]

1 hour ago, The Real Zippy said:

Tony - the COUNTRIES across the North Sea (Denmark and Norway) aren't f**ked because they aren't wedded to a Union thst squandered an asset to assist illegal wars, a so called nuclear deterrent that will never5 be used and London centric projects that don't benefit the people of this country.

Norway unaffected eh Zippy? I guess their highest levels of unemployment in 10 years and rising aren't worthy of mention then? And we should ignore plunging consumer confidence, and their lowest growth rate in 6 years. Their currency is down 20% since 2014 because of the falling value of crude. But you think their economy is OK, and the UK's is f**ked. Buckled Natsi....

Edited August 25, 2016 by Stuart Dickson

[Stuart Dickson]

5 minutes ago, TopCat said:

Scottish independence is finished. Those figures are absolutely devastating news for separatists.

I would like to thank all my fellow no voters from saving Scotland from bankruptcy. We did the right thing, and thank goodness!

Yes, well done Top Cat. You are a national hero 

[oaksoft]

3 hours ago, Stuart Dickson said:

Sorry what? 

It's not been caused by falling tax revenues from the oil industry? What has it been caused by then? 

 

Well there is a HUGE surprise - you have no idea where the deficit has sprung from.

No way am I doing your research for you.

Is there anything you know about at anything other than a superficial level?

[salmonbuddie]

[The Real Zippy]

Reaorting to personal abuse now I see Stuart. Deflecting from the fact that Scotland isnt solely dependent on oil........

[salmonbuddie]

[salmonbuddie]

Am I the only one who thinks that it's so, so appropriate that this Unionist propaganda is called 'GERS'?

[salmonbuddie]

Stolen from yes to an Independent Scotland

A challenge for our Unionist audience in light of #GERS.

Instead of gloating over (to use your own terms) how dependent on subsidy Scotland is and how SNPBAD everything is how about this:

Present a plan for getting Scotland out of deficit which can be implemented within devolution.

You won in 2014 so everything that's happened since then is in your court. It's your problem to fix. Or, if you can't do this, will you instead admit that the UK is a busted flush?

[Stuart Dickson]

Well there is a HUGE surprise - you have no idea where the deficit has sprung from.

No way am I doing your research for you.

Is there anything you know about at anything other than a superficial level?

I know exactly where it's come from. It's you that is struggling. Spending per head of population has always been slightly higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK but Scottish tax receipts have fallen through the floor. All your previous post did was prove you don't understand the Barrett Formula.

Sad really.

[Stuart Dickson]

Stolen from yes to an Independent Scotland

A challenge for our Unionist audience in light of #GERS.

Instead of gloating over (to use your own terms) how dependent on subsidy Scotland is and how SNPBAD everything is how about this:

Present a plan for getting Scotland out of deficit which can be implemented within devolution.

You won in 2014 so everything that's happened since then is in your court. It's your problem to fix. Or, if you can't do this, will you instead admit that the UK is a busted flush?

Oh that is simple. As a country Scotland can survive and thrive staying in the United Kingdom. Get rid of those who undermine our economy by threatening to break up our most important Union and confidence and investment will return.

I said it in 2014 the SNP were killing Scotland with their obsession with destabilisation and independence. They need to chuck it now, or focus on working with the rest of the UK to improve the opportunity for Scots. We need to be as good as England

[Stuart Dickson]

Go on, provide the actual proof of that. [emoji23]

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn04033.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjelpr80t7OAhVHfhoKHbeHAAwQFggbMAA&usg=AFQjCNGxWOa3wwXhMYyt4mtVNMMjeL8lrA&sig2=RbLI_mE7LQwMyRFuDH_E1g

[salmonbuddie]

Oh that is simple. As a country Scotland can survive and thrive staying in the United Kingdom. Get rid of those who undermine our economy by threatening to break up our most important Union and confidence and investment will return.

I said it in 2014 the SNP were killing Scotland with their obsession with destabilisation and independence. They need to chuck it now, or focus on working with the rest of the UK to improve the opportunity for Scots. We need to be as good as England

Explain these, then

[Stuart Dickson]

Explain these, then

You want me to explain Natsi propaganda to you?

What I will say is that Alex Salmond was more than happy to use GERS figures when it showed Scotland paying it's way.

[salmonbuddie]

As usual, no answers. Thought so.

[oaksoft]

4 hours ago, Stuart Dickson said:

 

I know exactly where it's come from. It's you that is struggling. Spending per head of population has always been slightly higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK but Scottish tax receipts have fallen through the floor. All your previous post did was prove you don't understand the Barrett Formula.

Sad really.

 

So nothing to do with oil then and everything to do with what money we had been given by Westminster.

Well done. You are very slow but you finally got there.

[oaksoft]

3 hours ago, Stuart Dickson said:

Oh that is simple. As a country Scotland can survive and thrive staying in the United Kingdom. Get rid of those who undermine our economy by threatening to break up our most important Union and confidence and investment will return.

I said it in 2014 the SNP were killing Scotland with their obsession with destabilisation and independence. They need to chuck it now, or focus on working with the rest of the UK to improve the opportunity for Scots. We need to be as good as England

Given that the UK got us into this mess I would like to hear exactly how they intend to get that deficit down.

[DougJamie]

I think SD makes a great fisherman, he just drops the hook and reels in the usual catches.

 

 

[salmonbuddie]

As long he keeps repeating his spurious pish we'll keep pointing out just how spurious it is, DJ. Some people have been taken in by lies like his...

[RickMcD]

1 hour ago, DougJamie said:

I think SD makes a great fisherman, he just drops the hook and reels in the usual catches.

 

 

I agree with you. He might well be an idiot but he either has a lot of closet fans, or he's taking the piss out of a lot of guys who give him the oxygen he craves. Why don't they all agree to put him on ignore for even a week and see what happens. I wonder who would crack first?

[antrin]

2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

Given that the UK got us into this mess I would like to hear exactly how they intend to get that deficit down.

The UK is not "they".

You are part of the UK.  You participate in and enjoy its democracy, successes and standard of living.

What is this existential crisis you are trying to convince us of?

You are part of the big UK picture.  Enjoy. 

[Stuart Dickson]

Exactly Antrim there is no mess because thankfully 55% of the voting Scottish electorate heroically voted for the nation saving us from traitors who would have bankrupted us.

Oaksoft is far too stupid to understand this but we have record levels of employment, a great standard of living and we - the UK - are the 5th richest economy in the world.

If the SNP want to convince us Scotland can do better they'll need to pull their socks up. All these years of them in charge has seen Scotland go from an economy that paid it's way to a country reliant on subsidies.

[The Real Zippy]

The report must have been commissioned by some halfwit on Rangers Media, SB. Given the content it just as buckled as some of the f**kwits on there.

[The Real Zippy]

Meanwhile the so called report has missed 3bn of whisky exports as because these have been exported via English ports. And another 39.8bn of 'unknown origin' oil exports are added to Westminster's figures. Meantime, clowns like Antrin and fatty are willing to suck Andrew Neil's propaganda boaby like there's no tomorrow

[Guest TPAFKATS]

The UK is not "they".

You are part of the UK.  You participate in and enjoy its democracy, successes and standard of living.

What is this existential crisis you are trying to convince us of?

You are part of the big UK picture.  Enjoy.  [emoji4]

Indeed chingy, although 'enjoy' is maybe pushing it a bit [emoji6]

You will recall though that most of those you are referring to don't wish to be part of the big UK picture.
Och, you know this already ya pesky fisherman.

[salmonbuddie]

I didn't sit and type this, copy & paste is a great thing.

Two Questions every Unionist must answer (but I won't hold my breath)

1. Why does Scotland, within the Union, have a deficit far larger than every other comparable nation in Europe despite our wealth of resources?

2. If Scotland was independent today with an economy similar to those nations and joining this Union would LEAD to that deficit, would you vote to join?

The mainstream press are falling over themselves to point out the size of the financial deficit that Scotland has as part of the United Kingdom. From this, unionists conclude that Scotland cannot afford to be an independent nation and that it shows how much we need the UK to subsidise us. Putting aside that remarkable lack of respect and ambition for Scotland there is, however, a question the press are not asking.

It’s a small question, one that’s not difficult to understand, in fact I would say it should be the first thing out of the mouth of any self respecting journalist looking at GERS and having just received a quote from a sycophantic Westminster politician about black holes. They should simply ask “how come”? They could even use the shorter version “Why”? Why, when Scotland is a country with an embarrassment of economic advantages that any small to medium-sized independent country would give their left arm for, do we have a financial deficit greater than any other independent n against?

Why, when being run from Westminster is supposed to be such an advantage, does GERS (the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland) report clearly demonstrate that it isn’t. Look at benchmark nations, ones with a similar-sized population to Scotland that coexist in the same Western European geographic, economic and political environment, but are independent. According to GERS all Scotland’s benchmark independent EU members (and Norway) are financially better off than Scotland – how come?

Those nations would love to have Scotland’s oil and use it for the good of their own citizens, Norway is far more reliant on oil than Scotland, but it has been saving up for a rainy day and can increase investment to stimulate growth and save jobs by investing from its oil fund when the best the UK government did for Aberdeen was a city deal that involved less cash per head than Manchester, a city that by comparison is booming. Sure the UK Government gave big tax breaks to the big corporates that run the oil industry but the jobs still melted away, as always they help the big corporates and not the people.

Denmark would love to have a national drink that generated £120 of exports per second, that generates massive tax takes in the locations it is sold throughout the UK. Scotch whisky companies would gladly sell you a bottle of whisky for £4, the rest you pay is the UK tax.

A packed out Royal Mile, the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, adds £261m to the economy
Sitting in Edinburgh the city is alive with the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival attracting 500,000 visitors and adding £261m to Scotland’s economy. Belgium would love to have such a tourist attraction, never mind the beauty of wild Scotland or golf tourism.

Ireland would kill to have Scotland’s online gaming industry which has grown over 600 per cent – GTA the world’s best-selling game is made in Scotland and industry experts claim the gaming sector could grow to be worth more to Scottish economy than oil ever was.

Sweden would like to match Scotland educationally, (according to the Office of National Statistics) the adult population of Scotland is the most educated in the whole of Europe. Forty-five per cent of people in Scotland aged between 25 and 64 have experienced tertiary education – including university degrees and further education. Luxembourg, Finland and Ireland (all benchmark independent nations) vie for second place as the only other countries to get more than 40 per cent.

Finland must be massively envious that Scotland possesses 25 per cent of the EU’s entire tidal and wave energy potential, a source of energy that doesn’t pollute, won’t run out and, given Aberdeen energy sector leadership, we are better placed than anyone else to create a world centre for renewable energy, but no – Westminster prefers nuclear.

We got lucky with oil and now again with renewables lets not make the same mistake and see either the sector under-invested in or milked by Westminster. As part of the UK billions that should have been invested in Scotland and the North East were siphoned away when we should have been investing in, diversifying and strengthening our economy instead of paying off UK debt – Westminster and the unionist media never said thanks for all those years when Scotland bailed the UK out with our surpluses, but now we have two years where our figures are worse than the UK’s apparently we are the basket case.

The simple fact is GERS figures tell us nothing about how Scotland would have fared as an independent country under the same circumstances, as we would have implemented bespoke economic policies, had different tax rates and with either a sovereign oil fund or massive capital investment – we would have a radically different fiscal starting place.

It does tell us that our core onshore economy is strong, growing £1.9bn in tough conditions. But to see how Scotland would fare as an independent nation look at every benchmark country and ask how, when added together they can hardly match Scotland’s economic advantages, do they somehow manage to have smaller financial deficits than Scotland.

The difference is they get to make decisions for themselves, the people who choose economic strategies and investment policies are those closest to the problems and opportunities of the country and with their country’s best interest at heart.

Just for fun ask a Swede or a Norwegian, a Belgian or Dane if they think they would be better with a distant, dysfunctional, disinterested government from a larger nation that neither cares about nor understands their nation and its economy, making all their decisions for them.

No one would ever join such a union.