Keeping the UK Afloat

The UK needs Scotland’s resources and revenues

Douglas Ross giving economic advice to Scotland is lunacy. We’d be crazy to let the Tories continue their wrecking ball policies by electing even more of them in Scotland. This is the party that brought us over a decade of austerity that has gutted public services, increased poverty, exacerbated inequality and ejected us from the world’s largest single market, making the UK the economic basket case it is today. 

Sadly, Labour won’t act differently since it has adopted the same execrable policies. And both parties are adamantly opposed to Scottish self-determination because they know that freed from the UK’s shackles, we would prosper, just like our independent Nordic neighbours. 

The UK needs Scotland’s resources and revenues. We’ve not only propped up the UK economy since North Sea oil was discovered, but have been doing so for over 120 years. 

From 1900-1921, UK government produced accounts, Revenue and Expenditure for England (including Wales), Scotland and Ireland. Publication ceased when Ireland became independent. During this period, Scotland provided the UK Treasury with £762.3mn and received back just £211mn, or 27.7%. Converted from 1911 prices, this is equivalent to £2.5bn a year, more than the £1.5bn oil-rich Scotland sent to Westminster between 1979-97.[1]

Ross and the UK establishment are keen to keep Scots in the dark about their wealth and how it is keeping a sinking UK afloat. It’s time we opened our eyes because we’re being robbed blind. 

Leah Gunn Barrett
Published in The Scotsman, Herald and Edinburgh Evening News

31/08/23

[1] National Library of Scotland http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/fulltext/fulltext.do?area=hcpp&id=1921-024407&pagenum=1&resultNum=24&entries=215&source=config.cfg&queryld=./session/1396536265_7793&backto=RESULTS