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Ryan Henson,
What do the English members make of this charmer

[msn.com]

Moravian 8 Aug 4
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0

You might as well say that London is subsidising the rest of the Kingdom

MattHardy Level 7 Aug 6, 2019

Yup, Money laundering capital of the world.

1

In very basic terms, Scotland has 8% of the UK population and provides between 10-12% of the UK income depending on oil revenue.
Each person in Scotland requires around £400 extra to be spent on them compared to English & Welsh citizens due primarily to geography - namely a more dispersed population.
The problem with arguing who does what in the Union is very messy as for almost five centuries the 'UK' has been coming together into a singular entity. Thus, pulling it apart will make Brexit look easy.

Sofabeast Level 7 Aug 4, 2019
0

Scotland has been underfunded and under-developed by UK governments for decades. The situation is not helped by major absentee landowners (there are occasional good ones, I'm told).Sotland needs land reform and major investment and will not get that from a Conservative UK government.

CeliaVL Level 7 Aug 4, 2019

Very true. Land ownership has long been a contentious issue up here.

@Moravian Some of the first acts from the Scottish Parliament began to deal with these issues.

1

Probably vice versa I would suggest!

0

It is absolutely true that funds from central government under the Barnett formula, mean that each person in Scotland (also Wales and Northern Ireland) gets well over £1000 extra as compared to England - a table is given here, showing the continued imbalance.
[en.wikipedia.org]
It is also true that Scotland is running a budget defecit of 7.9% of GDP compared to UK overall of 1.9% (2018 figures) and that the financial position of Scotland continues to be weak.£10.3 billion. That means extra borrowing of £1,885 per person in Scotland, on top of the £600 being borrowed by the government for every person in the UK .. detailed in this report
[ifs.org.uk]
So it is absolutely true that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are being subsidised by England.
Scotland decided not to leave the union in their 2014 referendum; no-one in England was asked if we wished to continue supporting them.
In political terms - it is in the tories best interest that Scotland gains independence; their party has few seats in Scotland, little chance of becoming dominant in Scotland, and hence are weakened by Scottish MPs voting in the UK parliament. Scottish independence means tories gain more parliamentary power.

A very simplistic argument which takes no account of the revenue put in to the exchequer by Scotland, Wales and NI and why more is spent by central govt there.
If I was living in one of the English areas outside of London I would be more aggrieved at the amount spent there which Is much more per capita than in Scotland.

@Moravian Look at the two reports - On average ach Scots person compared to English pays about 85% of income tax, 96% of VAT - in the details it shows Scots do contribute greater than the average English person in taxes for alcohool, tobacco and fuel.
London does also piss me off - as does Yorkshire, with same population as Scotland, not having a parliament and other boons given Scotland

@ShadowAmicus Home rule for Yorkshire !!!!

@Moravian why not - Yorkshire people have a great indomitable 'just get on with it' attitude and had a better team at the olympics than most countries

@ShadowAmicus Or at least some sort of federal govt for those regions away from the south east

@Moravian noooo - full independence of Yorkshire from the useless London pussies

2

He is a jingoist, Machiavellian, power hungry upper class twit of the year.

3

I’m Scottish...but I’m going to comment anyway ( try and stop me!). This view is widely held, I believe, by certain people south of the border, and needless to say it angers me in its distortions and lies. It comes as no surprise to me to read what this arrogant and ill informed Tory wrote about the Scots, and I’m sure Boris Johnson’s own opinion of Scots and Scotland is probably quite similar. Neither the Tories or Labour have a notion of what makes the Scots tick...we are basically like chalk and cheese. There is a progressive, compassionate mindset in the Scots, who prefer social justice policies over hard nosed economic ones. We welcome immigration, understanding that without it our industries and infrastructure would grind to a halt. Our national bard Rabbie Burns had that feel for the common man that seems to run through the veins of all Scots...”a man’s a man for a’ that” he wrote. This Tory MP is right though, in one respect, we’d be better off if we were on our own, making our own decisions based on what was good for Scotland. Not being dragged out of the EU for instance.

3

I'm not English, but I'll answer anyway...

Henson seems like a bit of an idiot and is apparently unaware of the huge contributions the Scots make to Britain as a whole, and how much money their tourism industry brings in. He's probably done an enormous amount of damage to the Conservative Party with these comments (so at least some good comes of it) as the very few Tories left in Scotland aren't going to be terribly impressed, but he may have done Scotland a big favour: since the Brexit referendum, it has looked increasingly as though Scotland would be a great deal better off without England and the rest of the UK, and comments such as these might have a great influence when they next have an independence referendum.

Jnei Level 8 Aug 4, 2019

Henson, luv it, a total primordial Muppet lol

@LenHazell53 Very apt...hadn’t made that connection! 😂

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