I think we can now see why Nicola Sturgeon has been so leery of demanding an independence referendum in the wake of her “stunning mandate” in the May Scottish parliament elections.
The GERS gap between what was spent on public services in Scotland last year and what was raised from taxes ballooned to £36.3 billion – not far short of the entire Holyrood budget. Scotland's national “deficit” more than doubled to 22.4%, compared to 8.8% in 2018/19.
This apparent overhang of debt would not have been an auspicious curtain-raiser to a referendum campaign. There has been radio silence on Indyref2 recently, despite all the grand talk in May about taking the UK government to court, passing illegal referendum bills and appealing to the United Nations and Brussels over Scotland's right to self-determination. Money talks.
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