Taxpayers paid out £2,313 per head on health and social care in Scotland compared to just £1,915 in England in the financial year 2006 to 2007.
Daily Telegraph 10.06.08.
The Government spent £4,523 per head in England in 2007 and 2008 compared to £5,050 in Wales, £5,676 in Scotland and £5,684 in Ulster.
Labour’s top think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research warned of “tension” over differences.
The Sun 08.08.08
There are other uncomfortable figures like this that suggest English income tax would be able to fall if Scotland went its own way. There are also the hidden subsidies - like virtually all of the MOD nuclear budget being spent in Scotland and the cost of Scottish hydro-electricity.
So why are you so keen to hang on to us then?
An eminent MP once said in response to a question about breaking up the union and bemoaning the loss of Scotland "If Scotland were to be independent tomorrow, England would only lose a stubborn, grumpy lodger, but she would gain a warm, helpful and welcoming neighbour". That for me, encapsulates the spirit and the truth of independence.
On the subject of Britishness I have yet to hear someone from England, for example, state emphatically that they are not English, but British.
On the subject of Britishness I have yet to hear someone from England, for example, state emphatically that they are not English, but British.
I tend to say that I'm British.
One of the problems of fragmentation of the union is that Wales and Northern Ireland will want to follow suit. And the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles. And of course Australia and Canada will want to break their ties to the United Kingdom. It will be a swift transition from British Commonwealth to European Union and you will then have to put up with different more diverse landlords.
Will they be forced to join the European Union if they leave the British Commonwealth?
If Scotland and Wales leave the United Kingdom they will have a choice as to whether to continue as members of the European Union. If they do not, trade between England and Scotland or Wales will be a nightmare to legislate and administrate. If they do, as things stand at the moment, they will have equal rights to a veto of all European legislation and Welsh will become an official European language.
...and Welsh will become an official European language.
I'd love to see that happen :D
So why are you so keen to hang on to us then?
The numbers are a possible response to the suggestion you made that Scotland has been bled dry ... the evidence seems to point to the possiblity that Scotland has been kept afloat by the rest of the Union.
I have no personnal view of course, Mordor is a long way from either of you.
While I have no public position on the question of Scottish independence, it is interesting to note that Scotland has quite a significant brain-drain (with England being the receptacle into which the brains flow). Should Edinburgh break away from London, that situation might well change; I hope it would, for Scotland's sake.
It is also interesting to note that out of a population of roughly 5 million,
only 163,000 Scots make a net contribution to the Exchequer (that is, they pay more in tax than they receive in tax credits, subsidies etc).
I don't quite see how Scotland has been bled dry .. I always had the impression, like Father G, that England supported Scotland far more than the other way around? Either way I don't much care tho .. if you want to be independent then go for it.