I'M ALL RIGHT JOCK
A report in The Scotsman newspaper in December last year highlighted recent figures which demonstrated the scale of the English subsidy to Scotland, which is the third wealthiest region in the UK.
The amount spent in Scotland in 2002-3 was £40.9billion, whereas the amount raised in taxes was only £31.6billion. The shortfall, 11% of GDP, had grown by £1billion from the previous year.
The shortfall totalling £9.3billion was paid for by the English.
The report also revealed that the amount spent on public services is £6,579 per head in Scotland compared to only £5,652 for the UK as a whole. Spending on the NHS in Scotland was 113% of the UK level and 116% of the UK total for ‘social protection’ (ie welfare).
This has been primarily brought about by the Barnett formula, which fixes the expenditure on services in Scotland at a higher rate than that for England.
But the real impact of the £9.3billion needs to be properly examined. Scotland cannot pay its own way when only accounting for internal expenditure. Therefore who pays for the UK membership of the EU, for Defence, Foreign Aid and the cost caused by so-called asylum seekers? None of that expenditure is paid for from Scottish taxes, which are already insufficient to pay for internal Scottish expenditure to the tune of £9.3billion - and that deficit is increasing.
The answer is the English pay for all this.
To add insult to the injury, we English then have all these Scottish MPs and ministers telling us how to spend our money. As if the English are incapable of spending their own money.
But matters get even worse. The Conservatives believe that the Barnett Formula is insufficiently generous to the Scots, and intend to supplement it with a block grant. This matter will be examined shortly.
The amount spent in Scotland in 2002-3 was £40.9billion, whereas the amount raised in taxes was only £31.6billion. The shortfall, 11% of GDP, had grown by £1billion from the previous year.
The shortfall totalling £9.3billion was paid for by the English.
The report also revealed that the amount spent on public services is £6,579 per head in Scotland compared to only £5,652 for the UK as a whole. Spending on the NHS in Scotland was 113% of the UK level and 116% of the UK total for ‘social protection’ (ie welfare).
This has been primarily brought about by the Barnett formula, which fixes the expenditure on services in Scotland at a higher rate than that for England.
But the real impact of the £9.3billion needs to be properly examined. Scotland cannot pay its own way when only accounting for internal expenditure. Therefore who pays for the UK membership of the EU, for Defence, Foreign Aid and the cost caused by so-called asylum seekers? None of that expenditure is paid for from Scottish taxes, which are already insufficient to pay for internal Scottish expenditure to the tune of £9.3billion - and that deficit is increasing.
The answer is the English pay for all this.
To add insult to the injury, we English then have all these Scottish MPs and ministers telling us how to spend our money. As if the English are incapable of spending their own money.
But matters get even worse. The Conservatives believe that the Barnett Formula is insufficiently generous to the Scots, and intend to supplement it with a block grant. This matter will be examined shortly.
posted by erc @ 12:22 pm
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