This topic didn’t half change for original post
Sorry jdfc. I think the truth is to be found by looking at both sides of any discussion. £41bn may well be the biggest grant ever but what happens if costs rose by more than the increase in funding?
I am beginning to despair of the level of competence being shown by all politicians of every party.
I'd like to see if there are figures that can be agreed as facts and find out what is really happening. It isn’t the case of Tory bad, SNP good or vice versa.
If Swinney is putting out the begging bowl to Westminster how is an independent Scotland going to manage when that £41 billion disappears.
No doubt the pro independence supporters will say that they can borrow the money but these borrowings have to be repaid. If an independent Scottish Government cannot balance their books they will have to go ‘cap in hand’ to the IMF for help. The IMF will curtail their spending and insist that the Scottish Government raises their taxes as part of any bail out.
Before using emotive language about begging bowls and quoting figures of £41Bn coming back from Westminster via the Barnet formula etc. you need to consider what's going from Scotland to Westminster. Simple question, how much more or less does Scotland give to Westminster than it receives back? Money that would not be Westminster's if Scotland was independent and there was no Barnett formula feeding it back.
You've been asked this before and, true to form, have deflected. try answering it this time.
I think that there will be more than just Islay who should be asked to supply the answer to this question. My understanding it that VAT, income tax and national insurance and inheritance taxes paid by people living on Scotland do not cover the £41bn that is the grant from Westminster.
Since you seem to know the answer why don't you kick things off with your facts
I don't know the answer.
What I do know however is that there's more to it than individual taxation. Corporate tax, import / export tax for starters and with three particularly valuable resources in oil, gas and whisky forming part of our GDP that has to be substantial. These are among the things that people forget - the point of export is the port from hich it leaves and that port would be at a Scottish border not a UK border. We'd be exporting these things to UK as well as the rest of the world.
Surely part of the money going to Westminster is used for the armed forces, mind you Scotland wouldn’t need the armed forces as everyone loves us
There's no "we" Deeranged, the nationalists have broken Scotland, "we" will always be a divided region and people now......bitterly split ........Nicoliar claiming Truss saying she would ignore the authoritarian man hating witch is an " attack on Scotland".....she's not Scotland, even though she thinks she is .
I am Dundonian British I hope she ignores her.......actually I hope she exposes her.
The nutcase minority nationalists dont even use the word Scots now, it's "people living in Scotland"
They give me the dry boak.