sadly NOT in the Berwickshire News of April 23rd 2009 

Scotland has what it takes to be Independent

Dear Sir

Derek Marshall (Letters 16th April) makes an inflammatory claim that English taxpayers subsidise Scotland’s public expenditure. As Scots know all too well, we pay taxes and these taxes are charged in Scotland with every bit as much vigour as in England. All of Scotland’s taxes are paid to the HM Treasury in London, which then allocates a block grant to the devolved Scottish Government, under its annual Comprehensive Spending Review.

Under the Scotland Act, the Scottish block grant is linked in scale to expenditure levels in England through the ‘Barnett formula’, to fund Scottish Government responsibilities, including health, education, transport, environment and rural affairs, economic development, and local government. The UK Treasury retains a proportion of Scotland’s taxes to fund areas such as defence and national security, foreign policy and our embassies, constitutional affairs, energy policy, and broadcasting and management of the Macroeconomy.

A study by Oxford Economics in 2007, on behalf of a Scottish newspaper, explored the myths around Scotland’s funding and highlighted that only Londoners contribute more, per head, in taxation than do the Scots. The newspaper stated that “Revenues from the capital add up to £10,947 per head, nearly £1200 more than spending in the city. Scots pip residents of the south-east counties to come second, with total taxes, including North Sea oil, of £9593 per head. The north-east of England, for the record, contributes least, at barely £6000 per head, just a few pounds less than Northern Ireland. Both regions, along with the north-west of England and Wales, are considerable net beneficiaries of income transferred from the richer parts of the United Kingdom to the poorer.” Accountants Grant Thornton reached a similar conclusion indicating Scotland may have a small surplus.

The latest ONS publication, Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland, indicates that expenditure in Scotland or by the UK Government on behalf of Scotland amounts to £49.9 billion. All non-oil revenue from Scotland in the same year was £42.4 billion. However, including Scotland’s geographic share of total oil and gas revenues derived from Scotland’s area of the UK continental shelf, in 2006/07, raises Scotland’s tax revenues, by £7.6 billion, to £49.9 billion after rounding. Under international law, that revenue would be attributable to Scotland if independent. Given that, in 2007/08, oil and gas revenues attributable to Scotland rose by a further £4 billion, and that since 1975 Scotland’s contribution through oil has been in excess of £250 billion in today’s prices, I would ask Mr Marshall to reconsider: who is subsidising whom? Unlike Norway, which has a £200 billion oil fund, Scotland’s wealth has been plundered and, according to the BBC, was used to build the Channel Tunnel and the M25.

I sympathise with Mr Marshall that services in the North East need further investment, as the region has suffered for generations, but he must look to Whitehall for the solution and not to bashing the Scots. It is Whitehall in its infinite wisdom that has decided to spend more than £9.5 billion on the two week long London Olympics in 2012, starving Scotland and the North East of much needed lottery funding.

Of one thing we can be sure, our near neighbours are not subsidising the Scots, but neither are they being fairly treated. He will also have to come to terms with the fact that with devolution we are entitled to do what we will with our own money. Scotland and all who live here have what it takes to be an independent country, both in terms of resources and talent. With independence we can resume the normal responsibilities of a normal country, and put an end to ill-informed comments from outside about Scotland and her people.

Yours faithfully

Paul Wheelhouse

SNP Westminster Candidate

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
 

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