Am I the only one pissed off by the SNP?

[Valmy]

They have Oil...

Sort of.  It is out in the North Sea.  How much would be the UK's and how much would be Scotland's has not yet been determined.

[Tamas]

Grumbler I am fairly certain that any challenges an independent Scotland would face will be blamed fully on England.

Has anyone made the math to see if Scotland is a net beneficiar of the UK budget, or they would be better off financing themselves?

They have Oil...

Not as much as international success story Venezuela, so that ain't guarantee for nothing

[Grey Fox]

Has anyone made the math to see if Scotland is a net beneficiar of the UK budget, or they would be better off financing themselves?

I thought it was common knowledge that they are a huge net beneficiary.

Any figures on that subject are not trustable both sides has an agenda to promote.

[Valmy]

Any figures on that subject are not trustable both sides has an agenda to promote.

Seriously?  Tax in versus government spending on.  How is that hard to figure?

[Sheilbh]

I thought it was common knowledge that they are a huge net beneficiary.

It depends.

It's worth remembering we have a budget deficit. So we're all net beneficiaries in that if you calculate English, Welsh or Scottish revenue per head and spending per head there will be a substantial gap.

If you look at just revenue and spending then Scotland receives more spending than she pays in revenue - about 9% of spending to about 8% of revenue. Part of that is that Scotland has slightly higher unemployment and worse health.

But that excludes oil. It's dropping as a part of revenue but is still £6 billion a year and the SNP argue that 90% of that should be considered Scottish because about 90% of the oil is what would be Scottish territorial waters. If you add in oil then Scotland contributes more revenue than she takes in spending.

It's also worth remembering that an English average hides significant disparities. Scotland receives less spending per head than, say, London or the South-West. The Midlands and the South-East on the other hand receive significantly less than the English average.

I've talked to a lot of Scots over the years, both friends and relatives, and one of the primary gripes of SNP-leaning Scots is that Scotland gets so little attention in the national media; try coming from the North of England I tell them

Scotland is a separate country though and I remember from when I lived there how annoying it was to see the media (in the UK or abroad) referring to 'England' and the 'English' when they meant Britain

[Richard Hakluyt]

Grumbler I am fairly certain that any challenges an independent Scotland would face will be blamed fully on England.

Has anyone made the math to see if Scotland is a net beneficiar of the UK budget, or they would be better off financing themselves?

They have Oil...

Oil production is costly and falling, though there is great expertise in offshore skills etc

I think their best asset is whisky. It is not a depleting asset and every year, as the world grows richer, the number of consumers grows. They exported £4.5bn of the stuff last year, that is a tremendous amount for a country of only 5 million.

[Sheilbh]

God bless the Chinese nouveau riche and their taste for luxury consumer goods

Edit: I wonder if Scotland's tried to market tweed to China yet?

[Valmy]

It's also worth remembering that an English average hides significant disparities. Scotland receives less spending per head than, say, London or the South-West. The Midlands and the South-East on the other hand receive significantly less than the English average.

Well of course.

But that excludes oil. It's dropping as a part of revenue but is still £6 billion a year and the SNP argue that 90% of that should be considered Scottish because about 90% of the oil is what would be Scottish territorial waters. If you add in oil then Scotland contributes more revenue than she takes in spending.

The oil is not in their territorial waters.  It is in the claim by the UK which has not been negotiated between Scotland and the UK.  If it was in their territorial waters it would all be within 12 nautical miles of their coastline.

[Valmy]

Scotland is a separate country though and I remember from when I lived there how annoying it was to see the media (in the UK or abroad) referring to 'England' and the 'English' when they meant Britain

Viper does this all the time and man it is annoying.

[Valmy]

I think their best asset is whisky. It is not a depleting asset and every year, as the world grows richer, the number of consumers grows. They exported £4.5bn of the stuff last year, that is a tremendous amount for a country of only 5 million.

The Kingdom of Booze they shall be known.

[Sheilbh]

One other thing is that Scotland GDP per capita is more or less exactly the UK average. Only the South-East and London are richer.

Scotland's roughly somewhere between Ireland and Finland in terms of population and GDP.

[Viking]

Halliburton and Schlumberger are Scottish?  Well I guess they should be ok then.

I was confused there for a second. Schlumberger is also the name of an Austrian producer of Sekt.

The name of the company is actually a family name from alsace-lorraine. The Schlumberger brothers were ethnic germans living in alsace after it was returned to france after ww1. The were in the business of electrical prospecting for water when they found out they could use the same process they used to find water to find oil. Their big break through came in teh 30s when they used resistivity measurements to find oil in romania. During the fall of france in 1940 they packed up their files and technology and fled to the us, where they bulk of their activity was.

[Grey Fox]

Any figures on that subject are not trustable both sides has an agenda to promote.

Seriously?  Tax in versus government spending on.  How is that hard to figure?

If my local experience is any indication. Very hard.

[Valmy]

One other thing is that Scotland GDP per capita is more or less exactly the UK average. Only the South-East and London are richer.

Scotland's roughly somewhere between Ireland and Finland in terms of population and GDP.

Then where is all this neglect driving them to independence?  This makes it sound like they should have no grievances at all.

[Viking]

One other thing is that Scotland GDP per capita is more or less exactly the UK average. Only the South-East and London are richer.

Scotland's roughly somewhere between Ireland and Finland in terms of population and GDP.

Then where is all this neglect driving them to independence?  This makes it sound like they should have no grievances at all.

It is a feeling of alienation from government and a non-inclusion of englishmen in the scottish feeling of who "us" is.