The Scottish Government

I think scotland should be independent as the republic of ireland .

Kev Edinburgh
I do not believe most politicians
They are great at talking but ignore the people who put them there.Or common sense as many have never done a days work in thier lives or have any idea of the real world
As far as oil is concerned the budget Scotland gets includes oil share.
Please see the Scottish government expenditure and income acoounts which are online.
Scotland benefits greatly in its share of taxation and gets more per head than the rest of the UK fact.
Most of the wealth creation of this country is where communication is easier.
Scotland as great tracks and areas of land that is not suitable for food production and also the season is short the further north you get..
At this time our agriculture is subsidised to the equal ammount of production.Paid by the EU Agricultural fund that is taxpayers from all the EU .Just one instance if Scotland did not or be allowed to Join the EU where would this support come from.

My point once again is that the polticians say they cannot manage Scotland on what they get now,what do they need?
%.2 million people with around 1.8 million of working age,take out unemployed, sick and disabled ,students etc what is left to produce wealth or taxes.
Oil will not last forever?Our power policy is a mess,not enough forward planing.
It goes on ???? and no answers

264 Kev - Edinburgh


I do generally read posts all the way through but I did fall asleep half way through yours and didn't pick it up again until after I replied to the first part of your, naturally, inaccurate diatribe. I should have been aware that a person who can't remember that we have had a referendum or two on devolution, and that having a referendum when popular vote for independence is 3 to 1 against, would actually forget the inaccuracy in his opening remark was still there when he later stated the actual situation without correcting his initial entry. Now you can rectify the rest of your errors for future submissions, or will you?

While it is true that politicians are elected to serve us, it is also true that they will look after No 1 while doing the best for us. No political party is free from individuals who will push the envelope as far as they can to serve their own interests. That being the case there has to be a limit to the number of public servants we can support so the idea that we can have public servants ‘serving’ the public at every local level as you suggest is just not on. Do we really need 50 (?)MPs, 129 MSPs and 32 local authorities to look after our needs, I doubt it. So when are we going to get the true cost of running an independent Scotland, (See posts 261 &265)?

Dode1

267

"who the politicians say "

And you believe them Graham!

"Can we feed ourselves?"

Bit melodramatic that one

"I have never said give our money to our neighbour,it seems to me we recieve more from them."

"Scotland" the region, the London Government tell us, "benefits hugely out of the Union because we give you more money per head than we give ourselves" they prattle on (forgetting that London gets more per capita than Scotland, but let's not spoil that argument Graham. Meanwhile, GERS (Government Expenditure and Revenues Statistics) leaves North Sea oil revenues out from the Scottish account ,but Oil companies corporation tax is credited to London. And it puts the entire cost of Trident IN the Scottish account

"Our MPs and MSPs are no different to any other in the UK,they all fish in the same pond"

Then you are happy with our UK Mp's salaries, work ethos remember they get more holidays than pre-school toddlers and there Expenses!! you could feed a few of Scotland's impoverished with those sums Graham.

Ref #267

If I read you correctly, we, who are domiciled this side of Hadrian's Wall, live beyond our means and rely on handouts from our friends and neighbours in England to maintain us in the style we are accustomed to.

If correct then, I for one, can well understand why there is growing resentment being voiced on the floor of Westminster by representatives from the English shires and by others through the internet. see #548 (your voice heard) May 18 2009.

With unemployment in some regions of England topping 9.8% they are entitled to argue on the basis that 'Charity begins at home', therefore why should English cash be used to subsidise us Scots.

And with New Labour and the conservative opinion converging on the perennial issues surrounding the Barnett formula they may not have long to wait before their cries of 'foul' receive a more sympathetic hearing at Westminster.

As a firm believer of 'To Caesar that which is Caesar's' I would be happy for Scotland and England to do just that, shake on it, and go our seperate ways.

read #40 and #66 (A Bill proposing a referendum in 2010), #

Kev Edinburgh
You miss the whole point.
Does Scotland have the means to run its own econemy?
5.2 million people who the politicians say we cannot manage on 34 billion plus about another 12 billion for pensions and social payments plus many more things we would need.A ageing population and only about 1.8 million between the ages of 16 and 65.How many of these actually produce wealth.
To nationalise any industry is not the answer either.
Can we feed ourselves?our agriculture recieves around the same payments in aid as it produces.Included in the 34 billion but comes from CAP fund.EU
Forget the EU as we would not be members of that with independence so no aid from there either.
Currency would it be a new Scottish pound or whatever and what would exchange rates be.It could be nearly worth less on international markets over night.
I know all about budget deficits and that Scotland would have to pay its portion of the national dept
Who would lend Scotland the money needed.Would you as a sound propostion?I would not if I had the means with the present people who manage us and our money.
I have never said give our money to our neighbour,it seems to me we recieve more from them.
Our MPs and MSPs are no different to any other in the UK,they all fish in the same pond

265.

Graham you are obviously unaware and each and every country in the Western world runs there country with a budget deficit.

However the one country in Europe than has currently serious problems is your UK.

"BBC News channel this morning reports that the UK of GB&NI has national debts proportionately greater than that of Greece.

Greece has had her international credit worthiness downgraded such that if the same happens to us then repayments on an average mortgage of £150,000 will increase by £200 a month"

To keep it simple for you using your little shop scenario, The UK likes to fill up its shopping basket with billions spent for illegal wars, WoMD and paying its "honourable" Mps bogus expense claims.

Again to quote you, giving all our money to our neighbour is "Very blind and not good management of Scotland's money."

Re my question 261
If no one knows these answers how can any one go for independence.
If I go into a shop I know how much things cost and what I can afford before I buy.
Just as we all do I hope.
If these questions are not answered it is like going into the same shop puting all your money on the counter to pay and saying if there is not enough I will go and borrow it and hope it works out and not sure if you can ever afford to pay back..Buying blind and it could be broken or unworkable,who knows
Very blind and not good management of tax payers money.
I did ask our local MP these questions the reply back was.
We do not know and we do not know what problems there could be
I was also under the impresssion that he wanted to evade this issue with me.
I wonder if that is a intelligent answer.We cannot just have pie in the sky it is a very important choice that effects us all.

260 -

Dode, I will save you the bother of reading, the original question/point was....

"It is time for politicians to realise the serve us ,they are not there to rule us.
Every region /country in UK should have fiscal autonomy and be accountable to the local people.
Local solutions for local problems, if Westminster stay as is ,mark my words the UK will break up into several pieces in a very few elections

If you truly believe that by merely replacing Labour with a Tory majority is going to make life better I would suggest you are deluded

graham hewitt - Moray

Your question will not be answered as our income will not be declared positively because we just don't know. True, we do have potentially the capacity to produce enough electricity to meet our own needs but ddo not have the means to store it, and being 100's of miles from the British National Grid, will lose a high proportion of what we produce by the voltage drop over the distance, hence the higher connection charges. The value of the oil production barely equals the total bloc grant on a yearly basis, so can someone out there come up with the facts?

JW