G.E.R.S v Fiscal Fantasy

[islaydarkblue]

There was an article in last week’s Sunday Times headed GERS gives us true picture instead of fiscal fantasy.
This article was published before the GERS figures were published last Wednesday and the information in the article has proved to be correct.
There has been little mention in the media about the GERS figures for the year ending 5th April 2020 but if they had been good you can be sure that Nicola Sturgeon and her Finance Secretary Kate Forbes would have rammed it down our throats.
Even Ian Blackford who is normally quick to say pass a comment appears to have lost his voice.
Perhaps the ‘penny has finally dropped’ and all three realise that their independence dream for Scotland is finally over.
The figures only cover the first two weeks of the Coronavirus lockdown so it cannot take the blame.
In fact the GERS figures for the year ending 5th April 2021 are likely to be far worse.
Oil revenues have fallen again to about one tenth (10%) of the Scottish Government’s 2014 predictions for the ‘first year of independence’ which was 2016.
The deficit of GDP we now know is 8.6% versus less than 2% for the UK.
The Scottish Government has raised less income tax than forecast as there are fewer well paid jobs than expected. In my opinion this will get worse as a result of RBS changing its name to Nat West Bank. The former RBS management head office jobs at Gorgarburn Edinburgh will migrate south to England leaving RBS with a branch network in Scotland and not much else.
Scotland receives “fiscal transfers“ from the rest of the country to make up for poor income tax income.
Holyrood spends more than 25% above equivalent English levels.
Some 21% of Scotland’s workforce are in the public sector. 8% more than the rest of the UK. There are about 135,000 extra public service jobs in Scotland.
For the SNP in 2014 oil was to save the day. More recently the party’s fiscal commission planned to keep on borrowing until something turned up.
This crazy idea accounts for Kate Forbes the Cabinet Secretary for Finance wanting to borrow £500 million to allow the Scottish Government to spend its way out of the current pandemic.
It used to be that North Sea oil was the SNP’s great saviour and now it appears that borrowing on the ‘never never’ is the answer to all their ills.
Instead of dreaming about Scotland becoming an independent country Nicola Sturgeon should get on with the job of running the country or hand over the mantle to someone else.
I enclsev full details of the latest set of GERS figures for the year ending 5th April 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/u...on-in-scotland

[BCram]

Islay, independent is a dream for those who want it. Facts have no bearing. You need to concentrate on finding an alternative dream. Scotland as part of the U.K., thriving businesses trading all over the world unfettered by the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Europe. Scottish controlled fishing, quality farming etc.

[islaydarkblue]

Islay, independent is a dream for those who want it. Facts have no bearing. You need to concentrate on finding an alternative dream. Scotland as part of the U.K., thriving businesses trading all over the world unfettered by the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Europe. Scottish controlled fishing, quality farming etc.

There are a lot of delusional pro independence supporters throughout Scotland who think that all their problems will be solved when Scotland becomes an independent country.
Thanks to the GERS figures for the year ending 5th April 2020 that illusion has been kicked into touch even for the most fervent pro independence supporters unless they want to see their public services cut to the hilt and taxes greatly increase.
The previous year’s GERS figures were shocking but as as usual Nicola and her fellow finance minister Derek MacKay just ignored them.
Yesterday afternoon at 4pm I went to my paper shop to purchase my Sunday Times (Calmac emergency ferry timetable is the Winter timetable). The lady who served me in the shop is a rabid SNP and pro independence supporter who is quick slag me off about my Unionist views and often waves the National newspaper in front of me stating that I should purchase the National newspaper instead of the lies printed in the Sunday Times.
Yesterday she was strangely very quiet and said nothing.
I paid for my Sunday Times and never mentioned the last GERS keeping them up my sleeve for the next time she is ‘shooting off’ her pro independence views.