The SNP remain committed to taking Scotland to Hell. Problem is, they can’t even afford the handcart. I have previously described the SNP as: “a political turkey which spends its time praying for Christmas. It contains within its policies the seeds of the destruction of Scotland.” They perpetuate the myth of an economically independent Scotland against all evidence to the contrary.
By some measures, Scotland is not poor. Between 2014-2018 Scotland’s per capita GDP was greater than England’s. They remain close but England’s per capita GDP is now greater and it should be noted that when GDP figures for Scotland are quoted they include what is referred to as a geographical share of offshore oil and gas output. This is because an estimated eighty to ninety percent of the oil and gas which is off the UK coast comes under the jurisdiction of Scots Law.
Indeed, strike up a conversation with a Scottish nationalist and—if you can get a word in edgeways—ask them how they will survive in an independent Scotland; you won’t have to wait long for the hubris. Near the top of their list of survival strategies are North Sea oil and gas or Scottish oil and gas, as they like to describe it.
Such reserves have undeniably contributed to the Scottish economy, but with the country pursuing zero carbon policies and pressure on Vladimir Sturgeon to end oil and gas production in Scotland, it seems unwise to depend on them much longer; particularly as the remaining fossil fuels in the North Sea are not only beginning to run out, but are also increasingly harder to drill. Already fiscal returns for Scotland from North Sea oil and gas are plummeting; last year to just over £700 million.
It is worth noting that the Scottish revenues from oil and gas are two orders of magnitude below that Flying Scotsman of a gravy train called the Barnett formula, whereby £32 billion of revenue raised in England was given to Scotland last year for no other reason than it is there. The other sources of revenue that your average Scottish nationalist will point to are whisky and tourism, but the revenues from these to Scotland are just over £5 billion and £12 billion respectively.
The sum of the oil, whisky and tourist revenues is still outstripped by the Barnett formula. Ironically, most jobs related to the whisky industry are located outside Scotland, and the neglect of the Scottish port towns means that they employ few people and raise little revenue as an entrepot. The 2021 Scottish budget deficit was £36.3 billion compared with the total UK budget deficit of £327.6 billion.
Therefore, Scotland with only seven percent of the UK population creates twelve percent of the UK budget deficit. In terms of driving up our borrowing and inflicting the economic misery on the population that is required to keep the budget deficit within manageable limits, Scotland is punching well above its weight.
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