| Topic: Reform Scotland |
|---|
| 81. Author: jake89 Date: Tue 26th May 2026. 19:44 Tenruh, Tue 26 May 12:26 But the Scottish Government IS doing a good job by comparison. Reply |
| 82. Author: NMCmassive Date: Tue 26th May 2026. 22:30 jake89, Tue 26 May 19:44 It’s actually not though. From its own stats 2024-25 we’re running a 12% deficit. If we were independent, that would be the highest deficit in Europe. Our deficit has moved between 8-14% in recent years but we’ve always been higher than the UK average. Basically the countries revenue was £91.4 billion incl North Sea oil and we spent £117.6 billion. Without North Sea oil our deficit would be over £30billion - about 14% Makes me wonder why we’re so against developing North Sea oil further. The indyref argument was we could milk it for what it’s worth for our own betterment. The whole just transition policy is almost a 180degree turn away from that. COYP Reply |
| 83. Author: jake89 Date: Wed 27th May 2026. 18:45 But Scotland can`t run a deficit. It has a set budget. It`s using it to full effect and has far lower child poverty rates, a better run NHS and hasn`t seen as extensive public service cuts as there`s been in English councils. That sounds like a decent job to me. Reply |
| 84. Author: NMCmassive Date: Wed 27th May 2026. 21:24 You’re right Jake. Thankfully we take from the UK budget rather than our own otherwise we’d be running at a huge deficit. You can get all this from the GERS figures that Holyrood put together and produce - if you didn’t know. They’re showing for 2024/25 Scotlands expenditure exceeded it production. For context the UK as a whole has a deficit of 4.3% COYP Reply |
| 85. Author: jake89 Date: Wed 27th May 2026. 22:44 Sounds like Westminster should kick Scotland out then. Reply |
| 86. Author: red-star-par Date: Wed 27th May 2026. 23:06 jake89, Wed 27 May 22:44 Yep, definitely. What`s the point in england subsidising Scotland? They need to kick Scotland out and go it alone. I`m sure england would be much better off without Scotland Reply |
| 87. Author: wee eck Date: Wed 27th May 2026. 23:26 When the annual GERS figures are published it`s seldom mentioned that separate figures are published for the three devolved nations and nine regions of England. Traditionally the only ones which show a `surplus` are London and the South East. I wonder why that is? Of the others Scotland usually performs relatively well. These figures show revenue and expenditure for Scotland as part of the UK which wouldn`t necessarily be the same if it were an independent country with its own government, making its own decisions. Reply |
| 88. Author: NMCmassive Date: Thu 28th May 2026. 09:13 I agree Eck they wouldn’t necessarily be the same but it doesn’t mean they’d be better either, likelihood is they’d be worse for a concerted period of time which goes back to my point, if we want independence we need to show competence in government and have a clear plan for the economy post split. We’re clearly failing on both fronts because Reform isn’t an accident. Nigel Farage wouldn’t have a leg to stand on up here if we were atleast performing well socially and financially. There’s to much he can talk about, he doesn’t need to tell lies. We are not heading in the right direction and the longer it keeps going, the worse it will get. Eventually Reform/Restore or whoever will be a strong political voice in Scotland. COYP Reply |
| 89. Author: wee eck Date: Thu 28th May 2026. 10:07 I`m not convinced Reform is as big a threat in Scotland as they are in England. They`re doing well because the Tories are in disarray but the Tories have had no electoral success in Scotland since the 1950s so I think there`s a limit on what progress Reform can make up here. We now have three devolved governments with aspirations of independence. Westminster will try to frustrate them but acting together they may be able to force WM to change its stance. Reply |
| 90. Author: NMCmassive Date: Thu 28th May 2026. 10:55 Right now they’re not. Between the tories and reform they took around 28% of the vote when generally they’ve been a lot closer to 20%. Reforms rise isn’t insignificant and to be perfectly honest, I’m blaming Holyrood 100% for it. I’m actually starting to think Rupert Lowe will end up stronger than Farage down there because things like this £5million from a crypto guy in Thailand just doesn’t work. COYP Reply |
| 91. Author: 87Par Date: Thu 28th May 2026. 23:15 Andrew283, Fri 8 May 22:19 Hmmm. Look at the goblins we got eh. Reply |