Scotland's skint

[Bodie80]

Perhaps the OP can answer Why is a country that has produced such huge surpluses for decades skint? Surely all those revenues were reinvested in the country to make it an economic powerhouse? Or is the OP happy that for decades we were bled dry to build up The City of London in to an international powerhouse?

It's done, get over it. You cannot go back in time.

Why is this old and boring chestnut brought up aall the time ?

[Bodie80]

And thank everything and abody that we had the sense to vote no in 2014 because we would be truely up sh1t creek without a paddle if we hadn't

[stewarty27]

Leaving aside the GERs figures are used as a political tool by WM. ?These figures have absolutely no relevence on how an Independent Scotland would fair, None whatsoever !
GERS shows how Scotland fares as part of the Union! (Depending on how Westminster decide to produce the figures.)
Soulution - Leave the Union!

If anything they strengthen the need for Independence

[Bodie80]

It's amazing how people see things differently Stewarty. To me and the many people I've talked to think it strenghens the fact for us to stay in the Union and weakens enormously the case for Independence

[stewarty27]

It's amazing how people see things differently Stewarty. To me and the many people I've talked to think it strenghens the fact for us to stay in the Union and weakens enormously the case for Independence

This has always been the problem Bodie. Always two sides to every story. Most folk in Scotland get their news from the MSM which is undeniable pro Union. None of these news outlets ever ever do a detailed forensic examination of these GERs figures.

Try and get your head around this analysis.. tricky I know but it make very valid points.

Scotland’s budget deficit remains at a little under £15 billion. As with last year, don’t expect a single news outlet to go one single step further with the story than that. Except maybe to say that oil revenue has dropped from £1.802 billion last year to just £60 million this year.

So what’s happened? Why hasn’t Scotland, which is “totally dependent on oil”, completely collapsed now that oil revenues have basically dropped to zero?

Last year, total revenues dropped by around £500 million on 2013-14. This year, total revenues have INCREASED by £181 million. In fact, total revenue is higher than it was in 2012-13 when we received some £5.3 billion in oil revenue.

It’s also worth noting that if you only look at GERS 2015-16 then it looks like our deficit has increased by a couple of hundred million in the past year but if you look a bit deeper, and compare the numbers to previous GERS reports then something interesting happens.

In GERS 2014-15 our deficit was recorded as £14.8 billion but in GERS 2015-16 the 2014-15 deficit has somehow dropped by £622 million to £14.3 billion. Essentially, this shows one of the limits of GERS in that it is based on sometimes highly speculative estimates which get revised over time. It may be five years before we finally know the “true” accounts figures for this year. This accounting adjustment is extremely significant compared to, say, our “budget underspends” but unless you’ve read it here I expect it to pass entirely unnoticed.

Now, what about our all hallowed GDP? It’s down by 0.45% from £156.784 billion in 2014-15 to £157.502 billion in 2015-16 (with non-oil GDP having increased by over £2.2 billion, the highest it’s ever been).

For me Bodie this tells me the Scottish despite low oil revenues (which are beginning to rise) is in pretty good shape.

[Buc]

Bang on Stewarty.
But nothing you say will change these locked minds.. they will never see the truth about gers figures ..

They believe in WM and the unionists front page headline without looking more deeply into what truth these headlines miss out..

The small print.it won't be a no the next time. Thank God for that.
Scotland will be free of Westminster shackles tick tock.

[Bodie80]

Bang on Stewarty.
But nothing you say will change these locked minds.. they will never see the truth about gers figures ..

They believe in WM and the unionists front page headline without looking more deeply into what truth these headlines miss out..

The small print.it won't be a no the next time. Thank God for that.
Scotland will be free of Westminster shackles tick tock.

I would argue that your mind is locked though Buc and you cannot see the truth about how bad Scotland's finances are.
There is two sides to every story and I firmly believe the one that we are much better off in the Union, no ifs no buts.

It most certainly would be a no if there was a referendum now and the no vote would be even greater. My opinion. And I say thank god we did vote no in 2014 or Scotland would be going tick tock just now as we would be going bust

[stewarty27]

OK Bodie you tell us Scotland is in a dire financial state, In a resource rich Scotland perhaps you can tell us how we have become so poor. I really would appreciate an answer as I'm really struggling to understand this myself.

[Bodie80]

We don't have the income from the people or resources to sustain what the SNP are spending therefore we are up to our eyes in debt.
We would be in a worse situation than Greece if we had voted yes.

[stewarty27]

We don't have the income from the people or resources to sustain what the SNP are spending therefore we are up to our eyes in debt.
We would be in a worse situation than Greece if we had voted yes.

Absolutely ridiculous statement !! WORST THAN GREECE Are you serious !! not even the daily mail would come out with such nonsense, There are other countries with far far bigger deficits and not obviously bankrupt. The UK has a deficit of £1,8 TRILLION !!

It really disappoints me there are people like yourself Bodie who have absolutely no faith in your fellow Scots to take care of themselves and run their own affairs. The general consensus is Scotland has the people and the resources to be a successful Nation. Even the Unionists conceded that.

What you have to remember Bodie if Scotland is such a "basket case" this has all happened under Westminsters rule/control.