Fiscal Autonomy Is Needed to Give Scotland's Government a Set of Normal Economic Tools
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Summary
IAIN McMillan, the CBI Scotland director and arch-unionist, once again peddles the hoary old chestnut that Scotland's economy can only survive with massive annual handouts from the London Treasury (Letters, March 20). I thought this theory had already been thoroughly discredited in your letters page over recent years.
From the Gers report for 2003-04 Mr McMillan quotes government revenue from Scotland as GBP34bn and expenditure in Scotland as GBP45.2bn, and gloats over the "massive fiscal deficit" of GBP11.2bn. But if North Sea oil revenues (GBP6.9bn) are included and non-Scottish costs charged by London (GBP8.1bn) are excluded, the corresponding figures become revenue GBP40.9bn and expenditure only GBP37.2bn. Lo and behold, the massive fiscal deficit has turned into a surplus of GBP3.7bn, and Scotland is self-supporting after all.See the full content of this document
Extract
Fiscal Autonomy Is Needed to Give Scotland's Government a Set of Normal Economic Tools
The spokesman for Scotland's business leaders also claims "that fiscal autonomy would result in substantial cuts in public spending, ...
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