It’s time to kill off the GERS figures. They are nothing more than a political tool designed to be used by opponents of independence to rubbish Scotland’s economic prospects and to scare the public off the idea of Scottish independence by painting a false picture of a supposedly financial basket case of a country which is hopelessly dependent on a transfer of funds from a benevolent Westminster. The heat and noise deliberately generated by GERS hampers any realistic discussion of the finances and economic potential of an independent Scotland. That’s not just my opinion. It is also the opinion of Professor David Simpson, formerly a professor of economics at Strathclyde University and a founding director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, that same economics think tank which is always cited by the BBC in order to give credence to the claims of some Tory that in an independent Scotland we’d all be left living in mud huts with nothing to heat us but a hatred of the English.
Professor Simpson explains why the GERS figures need to be scrapped in an article for The National on Sunday. Link here : https://www.thenational.scot/politics/19868114.gers-continuing-myth-fiscal-deficit-scotland/
The GERS figures have served opponents of independence well, providing them with annual headlines which scream the supposed poverty and inadequacy of Scotland and opportunities for friends of Neil Oliver to draw multi-coloured graphs which purport to prove that Scotland has by far the greatest fiscal deficit in Europe. The apologists for British nationalism are aware of just how useful the GERS figures are to them, and are fiercely protective of them. This is why the likes of those who tout prettily coloured graphs of Scotland’s supposed fiscal deficit attempt to discredit any attempt to question the GERS figures or to examine their methodology critically as nothing more than “GERS denial” as though the politically motivated GERS figures were some sort of objective scientific consensus like climate change or the efficacy of vaccines in order to portray those who disagree with their contention that Scotland is a financial basket case as cranks and conspiracy theorists who can be dismissed out of hand.
The value of Professor Simpson’s intervention is that it’s much harder for them to do that when the attack on GERS comes from a respected economist who was a founder of an economics think tank that they themselves are fond of citing.
The essential problem with the GERS figures which Professor Simpson identifies is that it allows opponents of independence to dominate discussions of the Scottish economy with their claims of Scotland’s supposed “fiscal deficit”. The problem, as Professor Simpson points out, is that the “fiscal deficit” as measured by GERS does not correspond to how “fiscal deficits” are measured in any other country, yet opponents of independence frequently cite Scotland’s GERS defined “fiscal deficit” and compare it unfavourably with the fiscal deficits of other countries as though they were measurements of the exact same thing, when in fact they are not.
As the professor points out, in every other country in the world a fiscal deficit is defined as the shortfall in the expenditure of a government when its expenditure exceeds its revenues. Professor Simpson writes : “If Scotland’s fiscal balance was compiled according to recognised standards of national accounting, then the expenditure side of the balance would show expenditure by the Scottish Government. Since the Scottish Government is obliged by the devolution settlement always to balance its budget, Scotland’s fiscal deficit in the proper sense of that term is zero every year.”
However the GERS figures do not just allocate spending by the Scottish Government to the expenditure side of Scotland’s balance sheet, they also include spending by the British Government which is deemed by that same British Government as being spending on Scotland’s behalf. Professor Simpson notes : “So far as I’m aware, no other country in the world publishes statistics that attempt to measure expenditures according to their supposed ”benefit”, for the simple reason that such measures are necessarily arbitrary and subjective.”
This spending includes Scotland’s allocated share of spending outwith Scotland, for example Scotland’s notional share of UK defence expenditure which is disproportionately spent in the South of England where it generates jobs and economic activity which is then apportioned as revenues from the south of England, so Scotland is lumbered with the expenditure but doesn’t get the credit for or benefit from the economic activity and consequent tax revenues which that expenditure generates.
Scotland is also allocated a share of UK expenditure which an independent Scotland would neither want nor need, such as bearing a part of the cost for the UK’s eye-wateringly expensive nuclear weapons system. Yet if you were to believe the likes of Labour’s Jackie Baillie, the entire purpose of Trident is to generate sufficient economic activity on the Clyde in order to keep open a medium sized Tesco Express in the Greater Helensburgh area. Yet even if that was indeed its purpose, and not to act as viagra for the imperial fantasies of an impotent and much diminished former global power that is incapable of reconciling itself to its true standing in the modern world, it would be a shockingly inefficient and wasteful means of doing so.
Even the fiscal fantasists who fetishise the GERS figures are forced to admit that they tell us little that’s useful about the economy and finances of an independent Scotland. After all the entire point of independence is to give Scotland the ability to make different tax and spending decisions and different decisions about international trade deals and relationships from the decisions made by successive governments in Westminster, decisions which have consistently, and over many generations favoured London and the South East of England over Scotland, Wales, and the English regions. Yet apologists for Anglo-British nationalism continue to cite the GERS figures as supposed “proof” that independence is unaffordable.
They do this because generating fear and doubt about the fiscal position of Scotland are grounds on which they think they can gain traction in the independence debate, because they have no real answer to arguments for independence based upon democracy, governmental accountability and giving the people of Scotland the ability to determine the path this country takes, and no interest in more realistic assessments of Scotland’s economic potential.
The fiscal fantasists who fetishise the GERS figure continue to sow their scare stories and threats, without concerning themselves with the immense damage they are causing to Scottish national self-confidence. They are hell bent on perpetuating the psychic wounds of the infamous Cringe, because it’s all they have got left.
It’s long past time that the GERS figures are seen for what they really are, fairy stories told to Scotland in an attempt to scare us and make us doubt ourselves.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
Spot on. I think the public don’t listen on GERS anymore anyway. It’s been too overplayed, the numbers are getting too ridiculously fantastical, and, let’s face it, nobody believes for a second the Tories would subsidise Scotland to the tune of billions.
Most Scots, rightly, think we pay our own way, bringing in ‘the same or more tax’ (50% in DK, 64% ex DK) than the UK average.
https://tinyurl.com/ycxxdrb6
They also have much more faith in the economic competence of the Scottish government:
https://tinyurl.com/mu4xu7bv
And e.g. they think Scotland would be better off being outside the UK in the EU, and that was before the full impact of brexit has started to hit:
https://tinyurl.com/kwu4k4ur
Brexit has basically trashed the economic case for the UK. That’s now in tatters. It just took a wee while as people did wait to see how it would work out. Now the shelves are emptying, the queues of lorries are stretching as far as the eye can see, and real wages are crashing, voters can see all the warnings were correct.
Incidentally, London is now getting the most ‘public spending’.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04033/
And the revenues from the North Sea are going to be eyewatering. Oil price is back up to levels not seen since 2014, with gas recently hitting record highs.
I am sorry to disagree with the premise that the public don’t listen to GERS. In every conversation I have had with Unionists and undecided they state we can’t afford it. The deficit is proof that we spend more than we earn. I have even been told that we would have been “gubbed” by Covid if not for the broad shoulders of WM! I truly think this is the most important topic to be tackled efficiently and in the simplest of terms during the upcoming Referendum campaign. Once you get the undecided to realise we can more than pay our way, you are more than half way to getting a YES.
I would keep the idea but make it GERSS, the expenditure of the elected Scottish government, leave the fantasy made up Westminster figures out of it and let them publish these distortions themselves, it would then possibly be obvious how distorted they are.
We know how much per head the Scottish government receives, which is based on similar spending per head in England for the areas of ScotGov responsibility. The UK government would then be left to explain why so much of their spending is allocated not just to Scotland but also Wales & NI.
According to them, the last time I seen their allocation, England would be in surplus if it wasn’t for their generosity of subsidising us, if you believe that well you will believe anything.
Hi WDG😁 I regularly send out details of HMRC disaggregated tax and NIC receipts report released December 2019. HMRC advised that they will not be making this report which has been released annually since 1999/2000 as it is too expensive for the public purse. The other report I send out is HMRC block Grant transparency report released June 2021, again this is an annual report. These reports show SG block Grant has been reduced by £3Bn since 2018. Plus there is £16Bn retained by Westminster gov’t these are taxes raised in Scotland. Kindest regards Craig
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Craig – are these reports available to read? on a Gov website perhaps? I’ve read that the block grant has been reduced but it’s difficult to come by hard evidence of what’s happening.
The £16 bn retained by Westminster sounds quite modest. Last I read we raise £65 bn in taxes and received £35 bn in “grant”.
This makes me laugh when I think about the ‘medalled’ graph boy and his pathetic GERS based claims. His pretence is that he’s sone kind of expert when in fact he sells dog food and did a bit of under graduate economics at Strathclyde uni (as did quite a lot of us). I wonder if he’d care to engage with Prof Simpson and will we now see a happy end to his tedious and spurious graphs. I live in hope.
Aye, it never ceases to amaze me that Ian Lang’s creation in 1992 to stymie Devolution should have been repurposed in Indy favoured times with tweaks and refinements to reflect a parallel universe to our own lived experience – From Wikepedia, “In a leaked memo the then Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Lang wrote “I judge that [GERS] is just what is needed at present in our campaign to maintain the initiative and undermine the other parties. This initiative could score against all of them”
I do not for a second believe London did not know then nor do not know now every single penny of Scotland’s finances right down to the tenth of a penny, for every day for every person in the UK their information could probably tell you your shoe size, your favourite dessert and precisely how much (if any) spare funds you have.
At 30 years old GERS has to be the longest con in history ever and should be retired ungraciously to the nearest bin.
Ian Murray, Douglas Ross, Alister Jack etc being older will doubtless follow shortly….
GERS is not the longest con in history. The UK union is.
the wealth of every country is produced by it’s people, they need natural resources to provide the country’s wealth, The main ingredient the people need to grow wealth is fuel. Since the industrial rev. for the next few century’s the main source of fuel was the coal that provided the factories shipyards etc. Scotland produced around 12/15% of top quality coal to the UK, The coal was replaced by oil and gas and for the last 50+ years, Scotland provided 90% of the UK’s oil &gas. The other resources needed for the future is clean energy, wind, water, wave, solar, and hydro power, as well as good farming land and plenty sea for a healthy fishing industry. We would then need to produce a currency (money) to measure the wealth produced, we can call that currency what ever is decided. Scotland in my opinion could be developed into one of the wealthiest and evenly divided countries in Europe. GERS is a con.
Surely we refuse to recognise the current system and develop a better one?
That was the plan a couple of years back, dropped because of COVID
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18160170.mackay-plans-pro-independence-alternative-official-gers-report-finances/
Mackay promised an alternative GERS and the establishment went after him to prevent it, nothing at all to do with Covid which was to follow later.
Derek Mackay’s homosexuality was pilloried via the media, and I doubt any in Scotland doubted what they saw as a stitchup of a naive man yet again by the men in grey.
Kate Forbes has begun that process again, and the men in grey can’t pull the same homosexual stunt, so what will it be, a early years Brownie with a passion for cannabis laced chocolate cookies ?
From what I can tell the alternative figures were still being worked on until February 2020 and then stopped in March 2020 once COVID really hit.
At least there is a commitment to produce them once the pandemic is over.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19521299.gers-kate-forbes-committed-pro-independence-alternative-figures/
“On 5 February 2020, the Scottish Sun alerted the office of Nicola Sturgeon about a story they were planning to run revealing Mackay had sent a 16-year-old boy messages via Facebook and Instagram in which he described the boy as “cute” and offered to meet up with the boy in person. The paper told the BBC they had been approached by the boy’s mother who had become aware of the messages in the week prior” – Wikipedia.
The Covid saga was yet to unfold, that was my point.
As to the importance of an alternative GERS, I suspect the majority of Scots are tired of caring…
People tend to be made to look at the obvious numbers like GERS, tax receipts, borrowing levels, deficit and all these sexy looking headline grabbing numbers trotted out whenever the Unionists want to make their points, but they never like to talk about the actual amounts of money sloshing around within Scotlands economy, that’s because that number tells an entirely different story, because Scotland is a £200 billion economy, Ooh now that puts a different perspective on it doesn’t it
Dr Jim,
Indeed. Especially sweet that it was on a BBC programme that broadcast that Scotland’s economy made a £200 billion contribution to the UK’s GDP.
Included in that no doubt will be Scotland’s exports of around £83 billion (excluding oil & gas). Proe-Brexit the exports to the EU were growing apace helped no doubt by the trade hubs opened by the SG in various European capitals.
Then the £66 billion or so in tax receipts that wing their way south.
And after all that Scotland gets £30 billion or so of it’s own money back.
We even subsidise the BBC via the TV licence. Of the TV licence fees raised in Scotland only around 65-70% is spent in Scotland the rest – around £100 million disappears into BBC HQ in London.
It’s particularly grating when the UKGov launches into all sorts of ventures which are of no visible benefit to Scotland whatever (eg. a Royal Yacht?!) and about which we have no say, yet for which we could accrue a share in the dreaded GERS regardless.
A prime example is the UKGov’s continuing perception of an English need for a new generation of fission nuclear power stations, when Scotland has an almost unlimited supply of clean renewables available to tap, as the latest SG announcement made manifest. As matters develop though, instead of receiving revenue from our burgeoning electricity surplus, we could instead be saddled with “our” {ahem} share of England’s nuclear debt:
https://www.believeinscotland.org/nuclear-energy-financing-bill-to-force-consumers-to-pay-for-expensive-and-dangerous-nuclear-power
There was a period when UKGov insistence that nuclear be commercially self-suffficient meant that no-one would touch the cursed thing with the proverbial bargepole, but now we seem to be heading back into subsidy wonderland again. And GERS, if allowed to persist, will inevitably duly reflect that.
To your “we could instead be saddled with “our” {ahem} share of England’s nuclear debt” I would add future.
The south of England is a net sink for everything and has done precious little to conserve any of it – They are out of electricity, out of gas, out of water, and insisting it’s everyone else’s fault.
These idiots slag off the French despite depending on them to to provide 230v with an acute to maintain their lifestyles
Even when(if) Hinkley comes on stream SE England is in deep doo-doo it simply cannot cope with the multiple desalination plants that will soon be required, hence the move to nuclear expansion, with fusion at best projections 20 years into the future even if it turns out as feasible.
Much as the swan in England, the elegance above the water disguises the feverish panic beneath..
It is not simply historic nuclear debt Scots are expected to subsidise.
And remember Boris Johnson spent £900k on a feasibility study for his distraction of a bridge between Scotland and Ireland that he never intended to build, so that’s £900k for some fake newspaper headlines
So the answer is a better and a more reflective system that shows the benefits to England of Consulates based in London, their dividend from the bbc tv licence receipts, the fact they take all oil and gas receipts, hq businesses based in England claim monies earned in Scotland is theirs etcetera.
Time to change it now.
The great and powerful Prime Minister of England and the UK *calls on* the Scottish government not to continue with preparations for Indyref2, calls on? calls on? that translates into common Scots parlance is “gonnae no dae that, jist gonnae no” in a whiny wee snottery voice, not what we’d expect from the great and powerful Boz is it
Its EXACTLY what I’d expect from Bodger the Bawbag.
And the answer is “naw”
The GERS figures are as believable as Johnson’s contention that Downing Street was a party-free zone during Lockdown !
An um ur gonnae dae it ya f…
That was meant as reply to h100.
Thanks awfully, toodle pip.
Every single Unionist MSP and their parties bitterly fought the last Holyrood election on the platform of asking the voters of Scotland to vote against the SNPs divisive referendum plans, “vote for us and we’ll stop Sturgeon” they said, they lost and lost badly and now they dare to oppose not just the SNP not just the Scottish government, they now oppose the voters of Scotland who voted for the SNP promise of a referendum overwhelmingly
The Unionists of Scotland have zero credibility and none of us should have any tolerance for them, the brass neck of these English branch offices in Scotland daring to include in their manifestos *No more referendums if you vote for us* only to lose and still demand to be heard is a breathtaking abhorrence against democracy and an example to us all as to why they and their chosen English government cannot be trusted on a word they say and if I had my way they’d be hounded out of Scotland for good
They disgust me
It always intrigues me when UK Gov ministers say it’s impossible for them to calculate Scotland’s ‘contribution’ to anything because they don’t keep Scotland specific figures. Given the massively increased budget for the Secretary of State for Scotland’s ivory tower, workforce expenses, advertising – I think it’s time we had a quarterly accounting of what goes in and out of the UK Government in Scotland ‘department’ and a cost benefit analysis of what Scotland and its peoples gain materially from this ‘department’s’ activities. We should also see their proposed budget for the next 5-10 years and all of its accounts should be presented in the chamber at Holyrood on a quarterly basis so that we can see, as a for instance, what was gained from Alister Jack’s trips to the USA, what the purpose was, what the gains versus the expenses were, what the salary provision is for Jack’s ‘advisors’ and what the gain is to Scotland from employing those advisors etc.
Alister Jack and his ‘department’ supposedly work ‘for’ Scotland. We should have detailed oversight of its activities and monies.
Purely to determine if we get value for our buck!
Absolutely right, Sandra. The whole set up as far as Scotland is concerned is a disgraceful racket designed to try to maximise control by operating in the background with multiple hidden agendas, the strings being pulled by another country.
But it’s those so called Scots who participate in this farce, those diehard Unionists embedded in other political Parties and those outwith, business leaders, the media and so forth of whom there are so many, who, as Dr Jim says above, disgust us.
Time to drop the cringe – for Burns Night?
Singer Iona Fyfe lends support to Nil by Mouth helping kids use Scots language
https://archive.fo/cpxjJ
As I’ve noted before, there is no such thing as a ‘Scottish cringe’. Just like sectarianism, it is a British thing; namely being ashamed at being a British ‘Jock’, rather than the preferred English Brit. That or shaming jocks about not being the latter.*
Scots don’t suffer from it. I work in the energy industry, historically oil & gas, and Scots are known across the world for their excellent engineering skills (offshore pioneers we were, and highly sought after for senior engineering roles) with their accents/language (Doric in particular) loved. My overseas clients talk about ‘Central Scottish Time’ when setting up Teams meetings. 🙂
There is no Scottish cringe, just a bigoted British cringe towards the Scottish people, their culture and languages. The BBC is included here with its shortbread and irn bru caricature of our country.
—-
*
https://archive.is/GWUHr
OCH aye Dougie ‘up in Elgin’, it’s the New Jockrusalem! It’s a land of milk and honey you’re building up there in Scotland, you wee lightweight jock laddie.
It is not coincidence that the engineer recruited to keep the Starship Enterprise’s engines ticking over as it boldly went where no other spaceships had gone before, was a Scotsman. (Och, I know, SS, Scottie was played by an Irish actor.)
‘Ah cannae get any more oot o’ these engines, captain!’
he pleaded almost every episode, yet, in true obdurate doggedness, he managed to keep the stellar Vital Spark spluttering and puffing through space, the final frontier.
“Stop the world, Scotland wants to get on”. Winnie Ewing.
Happy Burns Nicht, Duggers.
To Johnson:
“Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!”
In the name of God, Go now.
The National is certainly having Burns festival today. Take your pick of articles. But pity the poor European deprived of his/her haggis today. It’s a type of wurst.
Brexit is hitting haggis fans in Europe hard this Burns Night
https://archive.fo/P2FJ5
I heard a strange comment yesterday on radio Tay, ‘Scottish Haggis’. Don’t think folks require the ‘Scottish’ element, haggis is a done and dusted repast courtesy of the bonnie land.
The queues of lorries came first, next it’s the queues of passenger cars. The UK has already taken a hit by forcing Europeans to require a passport to visit when many just have an id card; this is the next hit to its tourist industry.
https://archive.is/ragqZ
Brexit checks to cause delays for tourists driving to Europe unless deal is made, warns Port of Dover boss
New Brexit checks will cause vast delays to tourists entering the EU unless a new agreement is brought in, the head of the Port of Dover has claimed.
Doug Bannister, CEO of the Port of Dover, said UK tourists should expect significant tailbacks when new rules come into force in the autumn.
While a new system is being discussed between the British and French governments, Mr Bannister warned no new infrastructure or technology has been implemented at the port.
From the autumn, Brits travelling to the EU will be required to provide biometric data.
Unlike airports, there is no electronic system to check passports and biometric data as well as scan faces upon entry at ports.
This morning we see and hear more more complaints about Nicola Sturgeon and her draconian *restrictions* over the wearing of face masks, who knew all those years ago when face masks were first adopted as a first line approach to infection control in hospitals dentists and indeed every medical or research situation the world over that todays right wing media and press in the UK would be citing Scotlands FM as a draconian leader for retaining their primary use to *protect* against infection
What’s next from the Tories, ointment, penicillin, unnecessary guide dogs?
Joke of the day
How do you keep Boris Johnson out of a party? tell him it’s a COBRA meeting
How do you keep Ruth Davidson out of a party? Tell her that its her constituency surgery.
Come on, Duggers. Fill your boots and add your own @How do you keep?’ one liners.
The report from Sue Gray in to “partygate” will not be published this week and could be delayed for many weeks because the Met have changed their mind and decided now to launch their own investigation. This might also mean that the full report cannot be made public in case criminal charges might result from the police investigation.
Labour are to ask an urgent question in Parliament this afternoon on when the Sue Gray report will be published.
Ha ha ha ! – I said on the previous thread that the best option might be BJ staying in post while a long investigation drags on – and on – and on…😱
One Cressida Dick of the metropolitan police gave a press briefing about investigating NO 10.
Looking very uncomfortable. The excuses for delay are not tenable.
If the Met had done its job properly we wouldn’t need an inquiry by a civil servant who must be in her 10 draft. Every time she finishes her report another party pops up.
The evidence and reports were there for all to see.
The Met and Dick kept a low profile hoping it would go away. It hasn’t. More to come I suspect.
Dick may also be a casualty- she really has been useless with all the other issues the Met has been up to. The out of court payment to a women, arrested, stripped and abused when she was trying to help someone announced just yesterday is just disgraceful.
Maybe Dicks announcement is just more news management at deflection.
Aye, the met must have known about the parties as they were standing outside these.
Why did they not go in to disperse the crowds, making arrests for breaches as required? They did this to plenty ‘plebs’.
My wee bro got married with just a couple of witnesses; forced into going ahead without family and friends because the English were threatening to deport his fiancé from Scotland in the middle of lockdown. If only we’d known we could all have had a huge boozy bash to celebrate in a nice beer garden!
The best option for Johnson if he wants to remain PM might be to instigate a vote of no confidence in himself now before any Sue Gray report or police investigation is published. Without any direct evidence of his personal involvement in these parties and other law breaking activities inside No 10, he has a better chance of winning a VONC than after all the details are revealed, proving beyond any doubt he was up to his neck in breaking the rules.
If he wins one now, then he is safe for another year from a further VONC and would then need to be forced to resign “voluntarily” if they decide they want rid of him.
[…] Source […]
The cost of living debate yesterday in HOC thanks to the SNP.
Members of the BT tag team DRoss and Ian Murray used it as yet ANOTHER opportunity to slag off the Scottish government and moan about independence………DRoss had to be telt by Deputy speaker that debate was about cost of living and NOT about a possible referendum in Scotland…..which DRoss was well aware of but as a agitator for the Union he needs to expend a majority of his time and energy as a Tory Unionist politician deflecting away all of the bad from his own political party and projecting it onto another political party as in the SNP….Ian Murray worked in tandem with DRoss just as he , Murray, also works in tandem with Alister jack when tis weekly Scottish Q’s in HOC…..or rather a weekly SNPBAD session.
Get Brexit done and Make Brexit work is their respective parties message to Scotland….the same Scotland that did NOT vote via a majority for Brexit but instead voted via majority to Remain in the EU….the same Scotland that elected only ONE MP for Labour (lost 6 seats) and deselected SEVEN Tory MP’s to reduce their number to SIX in 2019 GE…and the same Scotland that elected 48 SNP MP’s in 2019 GE AND same Scotland that in Holyrood election 2021 elected 62 Constituency seats to the SNP with only 5 to the Tories and 2 to Labour……as in SNP the democratically elected political party via a majority by Scots in Scotland.(and t’others who choose to live in Scotland too).
However we are in the ridiculous position of both the Tories and Labour thinking that based on these above election results that they somehow have the authority to hijack a debate on the cost of living , instigated by the SNP, to deviate from the subject of the debate and dictate what THEY constantly see as another excuse to harp on about SNPBAD and independence bad……as if THEY and THEY alone speak for Scotland’s voters via a majority……..where truth is they are, via their respective political parties, the political minority in Scotland in Holyrood and via MP’s elected in Scotland to WM.
Perhaps Now Is The Time to ask them….. as in DRoss and Murray …….if they think that the people in Scotland are thick or gullible or both …….as the people in Scotland seem to constantly vote, via a majority, for the SNP in what they, DRoss and Murray as Unionists , say is the worst NHS, Education , poverty etc…. all of which is because of and generated by , according to DRoss and Murray, the Scottish government…the same Scottish government that Scots in Scotland have elected via a majority for many a year …… Confucius says ‘that would only make sense in a warped mind using warped logic that is infested with Union uber alles’.
So those of us who LIVE in Scotland seem oblivious to all of the mess and chaos that THEY, DRoss and Murray, say exists…….I mean they MUST think we are thick and gullible because if THEY are to be believed then we, in Scotland, as voters seem to be, according to them, constantly voting for a party that is detrimental to every aspect of our lives….from education to Health…….perhaps they both actually think it is more #ScotsPeopleBad……
Also lately the polls for independence in Scotland do not seem to be showing a constant majority support for their Union, as in Dross and Murray’s side, so perhaps those of us who actually live in Scotland do not really see Scotland and those we vote for via a majority, as in the SNP, as being the ACTUAL problem or rather as those that we , the Scottish voters, deem to be bad for Scotland……..perhaps DRoss and Murray should now ask themselves….Are we the baddies ?
There is credibility and then there is incredibility……what message do Unionists like DRoss and Murray think they are promoting in saying Scotland has the worse public services of all of the nations yet the people of Scotland keep voting for the political party that both DRoss and Murray say is instigating this…….which then AGAIN becomes…… there is credibility and then there is incredibility……and then there is also a point when Scots need to ask why they, DRoss and Murray, constantly need to promote a negative message that is clearly the OPPOSITE of what those of us who live in Scotland think is a reality……well their, DRoss and Murray’s, answer would be Scots must be mas*chists surely to inflict all of this upon themselves constantly…..and they (we) are doing it deliberately too !
Of course fear does that to some people i.e. Unionist politicians….when they know the games up they only have lies left to offer …..happens a lot when you know you will LOSE……as in they ARE losing the argument and also in doing so they are also losing their ultimate quest as in their seemingly ONLY raison d’être as far as Scotland or Scottish matters are concerned ….to maintain their (non) Union .
“‘The Party(s) told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”…………that’s where we are at again…..it’s where we are always at with the likes of DRoss and Murray……and their respective Unionist political parties….in this (non) Union.
As to the debate yesterday…where were all of the Labour MP’s and indeed the Tories ?…..both of their benches were near empty……quelle surprise……NOT……..perhaps they both thought this was to be a topic NOT as presented i.e. not a debate on Cost of living BUT instead another #SNPBAD circus and Scotland Sh*te fest via their respective party’s minority of Scottish (in name only) representation in HOC……leave it to the Jocks in their party to fight among themselves…..for the preservation of Union against those other jocks who support independence……rinse and repeat….sorry not working.
It’s irrelevant what the Sue Gray report says, it’s irrelevant what the Met Police say after their investigation, I expect nothing honest from them. The public understand what the truth is regarding degenerate Johnson and by association any Tory that backs him up or stays in the party whilst he is leader. They are all tarred by the Johnson corruption.
If there seemed to by continuous parties at Downing Street during lockdown what exactly went on there when there is no lockdown, no wonder there was a PPE shortage, all too pissed to do their work it would seem.
What a sigh of relief there must have been from Sue Gray, when Cressida saved her bacon!
This is now going to be a protracted ‘Establishment-together’ whitewash, so that we lesser beings can be put back in our boxes, and told our leaders are so great.
We need out of this corrupt union, yet this same ‘Establishment’ will never condone it – and therein lies our problem.
It’s too late, Doris the Boris has got himself a war which will give him the chance he’s always craved, the chance to extol and pontificate threaten and be magnanimous all at the same time, and the English will forgive him all his transgressions against them because well, war innit and we need a brave bold Churchillian idiot at the helm and by God England has the doozy of them all in Doris
We’ll throw cake at them on the beaches
Nicola’s assertion that England’s infection rate was over 20 % higher Scotland upheld by the chair of the UK Statistics body. I’m sure Nicola will accept Rennie’s apology.
https://fb.watch/aLPoQ5reYw/
Cheers Golfnut, for anyone who can’t watch the video on Facebook, here’s the Scottish Parliament tv link of the FM handing out a spanking to naughty wee Willie Rennie 🙂
https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/meeting-of-the-parliament-january-25-2022?clip_start=14:31:00&clip_end=14:32:56
Cheers Alex and Golfnut, I cannot help but wonder who set Mr Teflon up in pursuing this and leaving him out on a limb….
ACH, another day at the office eh…..
That was a tonic 🙂
Indeed it was. Just a pity that the FM has to keep wasting her precious time correcting misinformation or just lamentable pig ignorance from a parliamentary nobody of no account angling for an (ultimately uncorrected) headline.
What Scotland desperately needs, clearly, besides a fully-sovereign government, is a properly-functioning opposition. And the latter doesn’t even require a referendum.
Just checked the Lib Dem’s web page and their press releases. No mention of the issue. Removed from their site? I think the Presiding Officer should make Rennie apologise to the Parliament for bringing Parliament into dispute and wasting civil service time.
In case there’s nothing on TV – Eddi Reader’s haggis is now being piped in to her Big Burns Supper in Dumfries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChPF0Zyeqcs