News story: Source www.gov.uk/Scottish Independence Referendum {this is an official document}

Scotland. The UK. 10 Myths. 10 Facts.

BUSTED!

(The Westminster Busted Myths are Busted – in red)

Organisation: Scotland Office Page history:  Published 6 May 2014 Policy: Informing the debate on Scotland’s constitutional future Topic: Scotland Topical event: Scottish independence referendum   What would happen to Scotland if we became independent? Read the myths, and realities, of the Scottish independence debate. 1. Myth: Our global relationships won’t change   Fact: Scotland would be a new country. We wouldn’t inherit all the international deals the UK has struck over many years, decades, and even centuries (everything from extradition and trade treaties to the International Declaration Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons). So we’d have to start from scratch, negotiating to join everything from the UN to Nato. Source: Scotland analysis: devolution and the implications of Scottish independence, February 2013

Busted!  First of all, I think you will find we are already dealing with the balloons.  We are told to watch out for phony publications etc given away by poor spelling or grammar, notice Nato? Actually NATO.  Given our position – at the moment – with Trident, is the UN and NATO about to kick us out?

PS we’ve left Trident off the coast of Germany for uplift at your convenience.

2. Myth: We’ll still play the National Lottery and share much-loved national institutions with the UK

Fact: It’s called the National Lottery – not the International Lottery. You can’t buy a ticket in France, so why would it run in an independent Scotland? The same goes for everything from the Met Office to the benefits system. We’d have to spend millions setting up new institutions. Source: Scotland analysis: devolution and the implications of Scottish independence, February 2013

Busted!  The purpose of the National Lottery in the UK is to fund UK charities and projects etc.  Why would an independent Scotland buy a UK lottery ticket to fund charities and projects in the rest of the UK – charity begins at home, and all that!

3. Myth: We’ll be an EU member (and inherit the same terms and conditions that the UK currently enjoys)   Fact: We’d have to apply as a new state and negotiate entry – it’s hard to imagine it would be an easy process (look at how long it took Croatia to join – almost eight years), and even harder to imagine that we’d be given advantageous terms (like the UK rebate or opt-outs, including from the Euro). Source: Scotland analysis: EU and international issues, January 2014

Busted!  How long did it take East Germany to join the EU when the Berlin wall came down? 8 weeks.  Under EU convention we Scots are EU citizens and that cannot be taken away from us – fact.  The EU would not even throw out Greece for lying and cheating – I expect WM think we are much worse than that.  More importantly, whether we remain in the EU is a matter for the new Independent Scottish Government that may not be SNP and therefore would not be subject to SNP policy.  In any event, would the EU want to exclude a people who had been part of the EU for 40 years, was hugely rich in energy, renewables, fish, innovative genius, educations& research, financial services, etc, etc and we have THE  nuclear base … (for now).  The base will certainly stay as the centre of Scotland’s Defence System, but the future of Trident is very much in question.  

4. Myth: We’ll keep the UK pound

Fact: Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems have all made clear if we leave the UK we’ll also leave the UK pound. A currency union would not work for Scotland or the rest of the UK – it will not happen. Sources: Scotland analysis: currency and monetary policy, April 2013, Scotland analysis: assessment of a sterling currency union, February 2014

Busted!  First of all, sharing currency was not the idea of SNP or YES but the Fiscal Commission Working Group from the Council of Economic Advisors who saw currency sharing to be in the best interests of rUK.  So here’s what happens; if we did just continue to use the pound – which is as much Scotlands currency as rUK.  1.  We do not get to influence the Bank of England.  We don’t at the moment and any disadvantageous changes would impact England far worse than Scotland.  E.g. We were not consulted when Harold Wilson devalued the £ in 1967. 

2.  We can’t print notes? Really, saves us the cost, you can have that one if you want to be petulent? Just watch this decision slam into reverse after a YES vote

3.  We can’t issue bonds.  As an Independent Scotland we’ll issue our own – and with Scotland’s wealth this will be a great investment.

 

5. Myth: We wouldn’t have to bailout our banks – international investors bailed them out before

Fact: During the last crisis the UK taxpayer shelled out £66 billion to bail out the banks – more than £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK. Including guarantees, UK taxpayers gave more than £320 billion of support to Royal Bank of Scotland alone. Could we really afford these sorts of sums on our own? Source: Scotland analysis: financial services and banking, May 2013

Busted!  Scotland could affort to bail out our banks. However, it was deliberately, lax’d UK Financial Regulation that got us and the rest of the world to some extent, into this mess.  Scotland, as a centre of financial excellence, would never allow this to happen ever again.

 

6. Myth: The answers are in the independence white paper and it all adds up     Fact: The white paper does not answer the key questions. Many of the independence plans, for example on currency and EU membership, are in the hands of foreign governments who would be acting in the interests of their own citizens ahead of Scotland’s. And the white paper does not add up – the plans to cut taxes and extend childcare need £1.6 billion of additional funding. Source: Unfunded commitments in “Scotland’s future” HM Treasury, December 2013

Busted!  First of all the SNP Government did not produce the White Paper – it was produced in consultation over 4 years with the people of Scotland, from ‘The big conversation’ – so condemning the White Paper is also condemning democracy and the people of Scotland – and that comes with a price!

More importantly, do the Lib/Lab/Con manifesto pledges for the 2015 election add up?  What, they have not produced them.  Even when they do, their manifestos are plans, not commitments. 

When a party gains power they do the things they always planned to do (but may not have revealed) and then try to square that with their manifesto and the public they have just conned.

 

7. Myth: There would be tax cuts and more spending in an independent Scotland   Fact: Scotland spent £12 billion more than it raised in taxes last year (that’s from the Scottish Government’s own figures, including North Sea revenues). So it’s hard to see how we’d be able cut corporation tax and air passenger duty on one hand but still spend more on benefits and create an oil fund on the other. Source: The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland 2012 – 2013(GERS), Scottish Government; March 2014

Busted! Scotland is massively wealthy and with all the ‘snouts removed from the trough’ will immediately benefit from cost avoidance and total retention of its principal revenues.  It will claw back control of its squandered assets such as fishing, and re-evaluate Defence spending and energy as a saleable commodity.  With its own hand on the tiller Scotland can cut corporation tax, for example, to retain and attract businesses just as Ireland did; so successfully.  I’ll stop now because I can hear squealing! But I could go on!

 

8. Myth: Westminster won’t devolve more powers     Fact: More powers were devolved in the Scotland Act 2012 (the largest devolution of tax powers in the UK’s history). As a result we now set even more of our own laws, from motorway speed limits to regulating air weapons. Plus, all 3 main UK parties have promised more powers will be devolved in future. Source: Scotland Act 2012

Busted!  The Government has made a promise and it will stick to it?  Labour and Liberal have also made the same pledge?  Mathematically, 3 x 1 Liar = 3 Liars.  First of all only 1 party will get in; so discount the other 2.  In the event of a coalition, disregard all 3 – evidence, the current coalition – just ask students?  Governments of all flavours have only been completely consistent across the board in one area; telling lies, they have lied and lied and lied and go on lying.  Accredited to Einstein, (strictly Rita Mae Brown) the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result.

Footnote: 75% of our Laws are set in the EU – but yes, WM has managed to bring the discharging of projectiles from balloons under control – but it has failed to control over 600 balloons sounding of in the UK Parliament

9. Myth: You can’t trust unionists, they’re just negative     Fact: The union has been a huge success story (from joint sporting glory to the amazing scientific collaborations that created Dolly the sheep!) for more than 300 years – that’s why the rest of the UK doesn’t want us to leave.

Busted!  Actually, the Welsh Independence movement mainly Plaid Cymru, have been growing in strength since 1925, or 90 years, and Scottish Independence would give them a massive lift. The Union has been a massive success(for WM).  They have grabbed £1.5 Tn from North Sea revenues without as much as a motorway to Aberdeen to show for it.  They have dragged Scotland into an illegal war costing the lives of 1,000,000 Iraqis, mainly civilians against the will of the Scottish people and they have subjugated Scotland by dismantling most of its industry and infrastructure – but at least we have Dolly the GM sheep to rejoice in?  Baaaaaaa!

 

10. Myth: Remaining North Sea oil and gas is worth £1.5 trillion – and at least £6.8 billion in Scottish tax revenues in first year of independence   Fact: The Scottish Government assumes that oil and gas can be produced at zero costs (so rigs and pipelines can be built and run for free, and oil workers don’t need to be paid), despite the remaining oil being further off-shore and deeper under the ocean, so it costs more to extract. Over the last 2 years, taxes from the North Sea have been £3 billion below the Scottish Government’s most pessimistic forecast – that’s the same as our entire education budget. Sources: Oil and gas analytical briefing, Scottish Government, March 2013,Statistics of Government revenues from UK oil and gas production, HMRC, April 2014

Busted!  As the easy oil becomes exhausted the cost of extraction becomes more investment dependent and new fields are opened – so how easy it is to ‘manage’ the revenue?  We know that the Firth of Clyde  is a major oil field but denied exploitation due to MoD Faslane exercises.  Oil extraction is aligned to world prices and extraction costs and drops in extraction is not a reliable indicator of residual reserves.  The cost of the assets such as platforms has been recovered hundreds of times over and as ‘second hand’ goods, outwith the North Sea, would have a scrap value based on weight of metal.  Removing these assets would be seen as vindictive as they have not other functional value and this would impair other negotiations between close neighbours.  With a lack of cooperation Scottish supplies of energy to rUK could be compromised.  Scotland and rUK have everything to gain through mutual negotiation.