WITH Nicola Sturgeon now being ''threatened'' with full fiscal autonomy (FFA) for Scotland, perhaps we should look at what this could be telling us about the UK today.
By Unionist calculations FFA for Scotland will involve a massive '' black hole'' in Scotland's budget that would require the Scottish Government to impose even bigger cuts than presently threatened from Westminster. Better for Scotland to stick with being ''subsidised'' by Westminster through the Barnett formula.
The UK is made up of the following geographic areas: the nations of Scotland, England and Wales plus Northern Ireland. England has eight recognised regions, most bigger in population than Scotland.
We hear a lot about government expenditure in Scotland; and argue a lot about government revenue from Scotland. We hear nothing about how Wales, Northern Ireland and the various regions in England would individually perform economically in this respect.
I have no way of actually knowing for sure since the figures are not published, but I strongly suspect that, if such a budgeting exercise similar to that being applied by the Unionists to Scotland were to be carried out for all the geographic areas mentioned above, you would find out that Wales, Northern Ireland and seven of the eight English regions would also appear to have massive '' black holes '' in their theoretical budgets. I suspect that only London and the south-east would be shown to be paying its way.
Could it really be the case that three-quarters of the UK are subsidy junkies?
Nick Dekker,
1 Nairn Way, Cumbernauld.
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