Tuesday 20 October 2015

SNP Energy Spokesman admits No huge Income from Oil for Scotland ...Ever.

The chickens are finally coming home to roost for Alex Salmond and the SNP's grossly over optimistic "False Prospectus" white paper called "Scotland's Future" .  A nation might have expected it's senior Politicians to have produced  an honest document for a nation to base its decision about its future direction on with perhaps a little bit of "gloss" attached but what it was actually produced was no more than  a fantasy using over optimistic Oil "spot" prices, over optimistic Oil revenue growth figures and over optimistic industrial growth predictions while there really was no good economic evidence for doing so.

They were produced for one reckless reason and one reckless reason only ...to try and  impose the SNP's  singular idealogical reason for existing... Independence. It can now clearly  be  seen  too, if what was for all purposes merely a reckelss gamble, meant risking ruining Scotlands economy for decades and the entire whole economic wellbeing of it's people for their life terms then that for the SNP seniors clearly can be now seen to have be of little primary concern. First and foremost the SNP aim was to win Independence and therefore economic competence and responsibility was the first sacrifice thrown to the wind. Any economic fallout from failure of course wasn't going to hurt highly paid MP's, MSP's and other highly paid members of the SNP political new Scottish establishment near as much as ordinary hard working people, hard working people who with a failed SNP economic plan would have to work harder for longer and pay higher levels of income tax to help bail out the Scottish economy while supporting the SNP failed plans engineers and so called "visionaries" wages and comfortable pension plans.

If the vote had been a YES and Scotland's economy and its people's livelihoods were  headed like Lemmings over the cliff of financial ruin what might have Alex Salmond then said ? Well for this we may be able to look to past History because Alex Salmond did actually play more than a bit part in the ruin of the massive and powerful Royal Bank of Scotland by actively encouraging Fred Goodwins reckless behaviour during the takeover of ABN bank just prior to the financial crisis that happened in 2008 (an event strangely that SNP supporters like to blame on Labour) his words were " With Hindsight he would have done things differently" does the man have no shame  ?  See more here   Would he perhaps have used the same phrase and simply walked away into the shadows with a shrug of his shoulders when Scotlands economy had went into meltdown after the massive fall in Oil revenues had left Scotland  with a huge spending deficit to fill... its currently about £8-9 billion which if we had voted for Independence would have meant an additional 16% income tax on top of what we already pay or a 14% cut in Welfare support and other spending (including hopefully Gaelic roadsigns but with SNP priorities one never knows) or combinations of both including taking on crushing debts in the money markets for our Children and Grandchildren to have to pay for in future Generations (Think of Greece's experiences recently) This would have been the reality of a YES vote.

Thankfully because the nation voted NO..we really did "dodge a bullet" and our now precarious financial state will effectively be baled out by the larger UK government using the "pooling and sharing " arrangement that we benefit by from being part of the overall Union of the United Kingdom, this essentially means that the Westminster Government will continue to fund our over extended Scottish budget spending deficit thus saving us from hugely painful income tax rises and spending cuts that would have made anything the Tories had inflicted up till now feel like Christmas every day.   
If you want to learn about the Scottish economy and how "pooling and sharing" works... watch  Kevin Hagues excellent video's here http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/chokkablog-videos.html

Newspaper Article extract on this subject is below
"The SNP’s energy spokesman Callum McCaig has admitted that the Scottish Government will never see the “huge income” from oil revenues that were predicted as the cornerstone of an independent Scotland’s economy.
Aberdeen South MP, Callum McCaig, insisted the industry was still “fundamental” to the country’s fortunes, but that it was now in a “different stage”. 
His comments – which will cast major doubts on the economic case for independence – came as the Chief Executive of Oil and Gas UK admitted estimates that 65,000 jobs would be lost in the sector now seemed “conservative”.
Last night, Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said Scottish people would be “breathing a sigh of relief” that they did not vote Yes “based on the false promise of a second oil boom”."
Mr McCaig told a fringe meeting at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen yesterday: “We are probably at a different stage in terms of taxation.  
Despite admitting that tax revenues would never be what they were predicted to be, Mr McCaig said he was confident the industry would bounce back from its current downturn.
He said: “We are in a different stage in the industry now.
“The exact make-up of that is to be resolved over the coming months as the exact oil price is worked through.
In June, the Scottish Government dramatically downgraded its estimates of oil revenues, with the lowest estimate being slashed by 80% compared to pre-referendum predictions.
North East MSP Mr Johnstone said: “Everyone remembers Alex Salmond saying there was ‘little doubt’ Scotland was on the cusp of another oil boom, but the truth is, it was one of the SNP’s biggest cons during the referendum campaign.
For months they’ve avoided publishing their own projections, because they knew they were vastly wrong and now we have one of their own MPs admit that fact.
A huge amount has happened in the oil industry over the last year, not least the massive drop in oil price. Scotland will be breathing a sigh of relief that we didn’t vote Yes based on the false promise of a second oil boom.”
Deirdre Michie chief executive of Oil and Gas UK said: “In our report, we estimate a reduction of jobs in the sector of around 15%. Since the publication of the report we have seen more job losses and we now know that figure is likely to be a conservative one.
It is always important to remember that these people (losing their jobs) are real people with mortgages and families to support.”
=====================================================================
Alex Salmond was also caught out lying  another time during the Independence Referendum notably on the issue of having obtained "legal advice " on Scotland being able to re-join the EU...see text from article below:-
"On almost every critical point raised during the debate about Scotland’s future, Salmond was deliberately misleading. I’m not just thinking of his claim that he’d received legal advice reassuring him that an independent Scotland wouldn’t need to reapply for membership of the European Union. When the Information Commissioner ordered the Scottish government to respond to an FOI request to disclose the advice it had received, Salmond’s ministers spent £19,452.92 of public money appealing the decision, only to admit later that the ‘advice’ was a figment of Salmond’s imagination. So the First Minister misled the Scottish people on this point and spent taxpayers’ money to try to conceal the fact.Then there were the SNP’s fictitious claims about the economic impact of independence — and I’m indebted here to the blogger Kevin Hague, who has devoted years to unpicking the SNP’s rhetoric. For instance, there was the assertion that Scotland sends more money to Westminster than it gets back, thanks to North Sea oil.
If you factor in its share of oil revenue, Scotland has been a net contributor to Britain’s coffers in three of the last 15 years. For the other 12, oil hasn’t been sufficient to offset the fact that the Scottish government spends £1,450 more and raises £250 less per person than the rest of the UK. This makes Salmond’s claim, repeated ad infinitum, that ‘oil is just a bonus’ and Scotland could get along perfectly well without it, even more absurd. If you add the £1,450 and £250 together, you get a per capita gap of £1,700, which means that, without North Sea oil, its deficit would be £9.1 billion higher than it is as part of the UK. It turns out that oil revenue is critical to offsetting the deficit gap, which is presumably why Salmond wildly over-estimated it in the SNP’s white paper on Scotland’s future. In it, he claimed that revenue from North Sea oil in 2016/17 — the first year of Scotland’s independence — would be between £6.8 billion and £7.9 billion. In fact, it’s likely to be around £600 million.
If you deduct the £600 million from the £9.1 billion, that means Scotland would be facing an annual deficit gap of £8.5 billion in its first year of independence and there’s no reason to think that would change over the next ten to 15 years. In order for Scotland to be better off out of the UK, oil revenue would have to increase by several thousand per cent, or the Scottish economy would have to grow by a faster amount than the rest of the UK — around 15 per cent faster. For Scotland to wash its own face would mean massive public spending cuts. Far from imposing austerity on Scotland, the British government is saving Nicola Sturgeon from having to find Greek levels of savings. Who would have thunk it?
The SNP is, by some margin, the most dishonest party in Britain."
For whole article click here 
======================================================================

During the recent SNP conference Andrew Neil of the Daily Politics TV programme interviewed Stewart Hosie and asked him what the SNP would have done to fill the now existent £8-9 billion deficit gap if they had won a returned YES vote at the Independence  Referendum....watch here how Stewart Hosie tries first to bodyswerve from providing any answer on this issue and when cornered produces a lie by trying to blame Westminster (yet again) for having higher Oil price prdeictions than the SNP did, this is a lie that can easily be seen by checking the SNP manifesto yourself. Watch him squirm and lie here  

The well respected economist David Smith from the Economist also produced  an article on "Scotland dodged a bullet"   the whole article can be read by clicking here 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

 
 

































































































 

Monday 12 October 2015

The SNP simply doesn't believe in real true democracy but actually believes in minority rule.

I found this article today that holds many quotes that ring true with me about the SNP and what i feel are is its singular simplistic pursuit of political Power for only its own leaders benefit in pursuing a Single Party State (not that uncommon with Natzism too wasn't it ?) while saying it pursues "Pro Business" policies and yet claiming it is a "grassroots" party "led by the people for the people" there are many i think would would consider the two statements there an oxymoron in their own right. Interesting words quoted here though in reference to a book by David Torrance which clearly demonstates the hprocrisy of the SNP where the party's own leaders often state restrictions and vetoes that they want to impose on other organisations ideas that it actually opposes being applied to similar policies of its own...the SNP is duplicious and self-serving yet likes to promote itself (in its own inward looking eyes) as "progressive", it's leaders cannot see their own hyprocrisy in their own observable and widespread behaviour.

"Ms Sturgeon has proposed that Scotland (or Wales or Northern Ireland) should be able to veto a majority vote in an EU referendum. But she applies that only vetoing a vote to leave; she doesn’t want anyone to veto a vote to stay in. Torrance argues against that idea. He claims that’s the same logic as if England, Scotland or Wales should have had a veto over the Scottish vote in the 2014 referendum.
But surely the point is that no part of the whole has the right to overrule the whole. No minority has the right to veto a majority decision. Democrats believe in majority rule; the SNP believes in minority rule. The whole British people have the right to decide the major constitutional questions of national unity and national independence, whether we are to stay united or be divided and whether we are to be in the EU or not.
As a nation we believe that an overall majority of the votes cast across Britain as a whole should decide whether we leave the EU. In March 2015 a survey by a team from Edinburgh University found that people across the UK oppose Sturgeon’s call for multiple vetoes on a British exit from the EU. Clear majorities in England (68 per cent), Northern Ireland (60 per cent), Wales (64 per cent) and Scotland (55 per cent) disagree with the Scottish first minister.
Sturgeon and Salmond have constantly asserted that “Constitutional referendums are once-in-a-generation events.” So SNP policy is that we have no right to have a referendum on the EU. It thinks that the 1975 referendum was too recent to be repeated.
However, Sturgeon and the SNP believe that the 2014 Scottish referendum is not too recent to be repeated as soon as next year. The SNP has not ruled out promising another referendum in its manifesto for the Scottish parliamentary election of May 2016. If the SNP won that election, it could call another referendum before the end of 2016.
A generation is a short time in SNP politics.

Read the full article (from a surprising source) here :
https://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/unsustainable-policies

















































Press censorship and paranioa now exists in Scotland, a pitiful sign for Scotlands future


Press censorship has begun in Scotland , how long till the Black Shirts are seen on the streets ?
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/press-censorship-begun-scotland/ 
=======================================================================

BBC conspiracy bias is a Nationalist delusion
http://stv.tv/news/politics/1361970-nicola-sturgeon-must-tackle-anti-media-paranoia-in-snp-says-andrew-collier/
========================================================================
Yes Campaign Chief says BBC referendum coverage was not biased 
http://stv.tv/news/politics/294071-yes-campaign-chief-says-bbc-referendum-coverage-was-not-biased/



http://m.heraldscotland.com/politics/14692107.Journalist__quot_gagged_quot__by_broadcaster_after_pressure_from_SNP/ 

Despite the SNP apparently not enjoying too much being compared to the Facists of the past the SNP's leader Sturgeon today made another jackbooted step forwards in trying to exert absolute control of the SNP's hoped for Single Party State in Scotland despite the Nation itself voting a clear NO in the Independence Referendum in September 2014.
.
The "Dear Leader" (not) of the SNP cult seperatist political party today tried to make out she is speaking for all of the Scots nation when attempting to wrest control of BBC Scotland and its assets away from National control and into the SNP's grubby interfering, indoctrinising and controlling hands.

As with most would be Dictators she too knows that control over a countries media would allow you to brainwash, indocrinate and run roughshod over the will of a nation, whether or not the controlling Political Party ever won a mandate to do so or not at the Ballot box. This must be stopped for sake of Scotland and its nation, enough is enough, there are enough failures within Scottish Government alreadly without allowing this too happen as well.

SNP Seperatist Party Control of the BBC Scotland must be avoided at all costs ..why is it that Political Parties that don't like being called Fascists behave like...well Fascists really ? Have they become so blinded by their own ideaology that they can't see what their own actions actually is the real behaviour of ?

This is yet another example of the SNP attacking something it loathes to try to gain power and control over something whenever it doesn't get it's own political free will, the SNP bullied, blamed ,attacked and criticised the BBC and its Journalists throughout both the whole Independence and General Election Campaign's. Just because BBC Scotland doesn't become your puppet and agree with and publicise the SNP parties political propaganda for its own ends doesn't mean that it is the enemy to be worked over until submission to be used as a Seperatist Party Political tool.
Just because the SNP Seperatist Political Party tries to assert that the BBC is biased against it, that does not mean that it is actually fact ! The SNP has an obvious self interest in trying to spread this accusation for its own political ends.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some examples of why the SNP must never be allowed to interfere or gain control of the BBC in Scotland

Lord Steel of Aikenwood said broadcasters have told him that “SNP heavies” contact them so regularly trying to influence their coverage that it is verging on “intimidation”.
He said he has also been informed the Nationalists make more complaints to journalist news rooms than all the other political parties combined.
The former Liberal leader and Scottish Parliament presiding officer delivered the extraordinary attack during a House of Lords debate on the Government’s plans to devolve new powers to Holyrood.
more info see.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9111652/Lord-Steel-compares-Scotland-to-SNP-totalitarian-state.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scotland's previous First Minister Alex Salmond compared Ric Bailey, the corporation's chief political adviser (CPA) in London, to a Nazi bureaucrat for vetoing an appearance as a pundit ahead of the Calcutta Cup rugby match on February 4 in which England beat Scotland.
He complained he had been booked by Carl Hicks, editor of BBC TV Sport, but the corporation made it clear that the first contact came from the First Minister.
The SNP leader had also tried to feature in BBC Scotland’s rugby coverage and to set up an interview for himself on Radio Five Live.
The BBC said it rejected all three offers as the match was “not an appropriate setting” for Mr Salmond to appear if the corporation was to retain its neutrality, especially given the current debate over independence.
Mr Salmond called Mr Bailey a "gauleiter", a Nazi Party regional leader, and accused the corporation of acting like a “tinpot dictatorship”.
A similar suggestion that the First Minister might take part in BBC Radio Scotland's rugby coverage had already been declined. Radio Five Live also turned down the offer of an interview with the First Minister following advice from the CPA.”
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, said: "So, now it appears that the BBC is a 'tinpot dictatorship' populated by 'gauleiters' simply for saying no to the First Minister as he shamelessly hawks himself from programme to programme demanding unfettered access to the nation's airwaves."
John Park, Labour MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said: "The SNP had us believe that an invitation from the BBC had been withdrawn. Now it transpires that it was actually Alex Salmond who demanded to get his face on the TV in the first place.Our national broadcaster is not there to give him free publicity.” For more information see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9071523/Alex-Salmond-tried-three-times-to-gatecrash-BBCs-Six-Nations-party.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



















































An SNP "Scottish" Currency Lie ? : Hiding the True Facts and Dangers of an Indy "Yes" vote ?

An SNP "Scottish" Currency Lie ? Hiding the real facts and Dangers behind an Indy "Yes" Vote ?

The SNP's insistence on its Indy Manifesto fronted by its head illusionist Alex Salmond that the "Scottish Pound " would be the currency if Scots voted for Independence was merely a "smoke and mirrors "untruthful attempt to instil the idea in Scots voters minds that Voting for Independence would mean that very little would really change apart from not having a Tory Government in Scotland any more and that Scots lives would stay much the same or even improve from what had been beforehand.

The truth is really that it was for one reason only and that was to stop Scots thinking for themselves of what other real unmentioned situations might come to pass and to stop them from even questioning the SNP's manifesto for Independence as being in any way whatsoever "risky" , "reckless" or " unwanted " in their own lives.

Salmond can claim of course he wasn't actually blatantly lying at the time because immediately after the Indy Referendum in the event of a "YES" vote the currency would by default still been the Pound, but thats where the story ends.

With the splitting up of UK assets between two Sovereign nations both parts required 2 basic things :-
1: An individual currency, and 2 : A powerful "national bank of last resort "

The reasons for this are that any government with its own fiscal budget and individual political policies regarding taxation and welfare spending programmes needs to be able to control its own fundraising (ie its own Goverment bonds issued in Financial markets), its own interest rate and the control of the supply of its own currency in circulation.

What you cannot ever have is two completely seperate European Governments of two Independent sovereign nations with different Political viewpoints running two completely different Fiscal spending plans , different Welfare policies and differing Taxation plans with one shared currency that only one country has responsibility for maintaining the stability of . That is only a recipe for disaster beacuse it would allow the other country to hold the other one to ransom or run the other into ruin by introducing poor taxation , spending plans and taking on loans in the money markets that could destroy the value of a currency in the money markets that they themselves have absolutely no responsibility for maintaining, it simply would never work.

Of course Alex Salmond knows this very well too and certainly knows also that two countries CAN share a currency but one would have to hand over sovereignty to the other that actually owns the currency to manage overall Fiscal policy and Currency control and that the actual solution already has a name "Devolution Max" so when the SNP were campaigning for "Independence" was this what the SNP really had in mind throughout the whole process if the Statement to share the pound was really a truthful one ?

More info on this issue here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-miles/memo-to-alex-salmond-inde_b_5074697.html

There were another couple of options the SNP could have adopted but of course were not discussed at all with the Nation most probably as one was unworkable and very costly even if physically possible and the other one would have been deeply unpopular with Voters and would no doubt have returned a clear NO vote on Independence.

Other than Devo Max the second option would have been a completely new currency (with its own exchange rate) and while this is a "real" option on the table it really would have been too ridiculous to contemplate, it would have meant Scots having to exchange money while crossing the border going out the country (even to England) and vice versa when anyone came into Scotland. It would be another problem for Tourists coming to the UK having to have carry two different currencies to vist England and Scotland and probably would hit the Tourist industry in both as many Tourists may just find it simpler just to go to Europe instead (visit multiple countries and use one currency only). A new currency would also create more red tape for Industries both in Scotland and all its trading partners and reduce Competitiveness and Profits by increasing costs (due to currency conversion costs). So therefore a complete non-starter and would be quickly ruled out.

The Third and most likely the very real SNP unspoken and unwitten plan if it truly wasn't lying to Voters that it had wanted "Devo Max" rather than true and real Independence can only have been a plan to adopt the Euro as the "new" Scottish currency, the reasons for this is that it would solve two of the SNP's biggest problems at a stroke.
1: It would provide the large established and powerful European Central Bank as the Scottish "Bank of Last Resort".
2: An available and widely used Currency , the European Bank alreadly owns the Euro, an existing currency that already is used widely in Europe, already traded on the World money markets and alreadly accepted all over the World for International Business transactions.

George Soros's view on a Scottish Currency http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/10692558/George-Soros-Scotland-sharing-the-pound-after-independence-is-impossible.html

Another Youtube Video presentation on options for "A Scottish Currency" is here ...while viewing this video its very important to remember clearly what has happened to interest rates in Russia and other countries that have and are dependent on Oil as large parts of their GDP , Government budgets and therefore spending plans for their nations. World Financial commodity shocks can and do cause countries to have long periods of high interest rates to protect their currencies which has been implications for Mortgage holders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBC0mLFz91o

So what "evidence" exists that the real unspoken and unpublished plan that the SNP had for Scotland's New currency all along in fact was the Euro all the time ?

1: Well the SNP has said all along that Rejoining the EU would be a priority for it and all other recent new membership Countries of the EU have had to adopt the Euro as a Currency as well, this is a very unpopular issue with Voters in Poland but they wanted to join the EU and were simply not allowed to join without signing up to adopt the Euro as part of that sign-up. (They have agreed to change to the Euro when some of the debt issues in the EU have been resolved)
see here for more info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_and_the_euro

2: Is there evidence that the SNP itelf has shown as Policy willingness to adopt the Euro ? Well yes there is , the SNP is very pro-EU and sees further integration with Europe as the future. In a past speech to the European Centre for Policy Studies Alex Salmond speaking as leader of the SNP not only supported Scotland joining the Euro but actually attacked the pound that he tried to say Scotland would keep after an Indy "YES " vote , can this man be trusted at all to ever be telling the truth ? He described the Pound as "''a millstone round Scotland's neck'' and challenged the euro's supporters to launch a more aggressive debate against the new currency's critics.
Salmond then went on to say "''I think that being outside the euro area is already penalising the Scottish economy. In the medium-term, the longer we stay out, the more damage will accumulate. The euro is an example of why Scotland needs membership status so that it can take a decision on entry into the single currency,'' and also said "'Scotland is a trading nation and our main trading partner is the EU. At present, over 60% of our manufactured exports are to the EU and it is to Europe that we must look to secure Scottish prosperity and Scottish jobs,'' he told his audience of European officials and diplomats."
See more here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12207577.Salmond_in_call_to_dump_millstone_of_the_pound/

The Euro has also been highlighted as a Scottish currency at other times too.
"Alex Salmond and his ministers know there are other options, not least because they used to champion one of them.Not so long ago the Scottish National Party was a fan of the European single currency.As recently as 2009, at the SNP's annual conference in Inverness, the party's former treasurer, Ian Blackford, argued that being "tied to sterling" after independence would mean Scotland having to, "pay the price in higher interest rates while being exposed to a currency that has a history of suffering from wild fluctuations".

see more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26168002


So it appears that Alex Salmond was speaking with a forked tongue with the backing of the rest of the SNP while deliberately trying to deceive Voters on what any potential Scottish currency would ultimately be ? The SNP has talked down the Pound in Scotland as a currency openly in Public several times now in the past while it can also be seen that it has often said it sees the benefits of the Euro over the Pound as a currency many times.

So why was then was the SNP so afraid to put it on the Indy manifesto ? Is it simply because it knows the Scottish electorate would quickly reject that policy and return a massive "NO" vote and therefore the SNP set out a deliberate plan of deception to win a YES vote by presenting a a false and untruthful manifesto to the whole nation instead ?
What does that really say about the SNP's trustworthyness and of it's need to exert "control" over the nation by deceit ?


Of course one avenue may have been to use one of the SNP's most favoured tactics, just go ahead and offer a hugely populist but completely unrealistic plan to the electorate to gain political power and then when the "ridiculous proposal" is rejected by the rest of the UK government that your trying to divorce yourself from, you can then produce your "policy of greivance" Joker card ,blame Westminster for not accepting your own wonderfully credible original plan and use "your mandate" you say the Scottish electorate gave you to default the Scottish electorate into the deeply unpopular Euro against the will of a nation. Job done, the SNP and Alex Salmond get what they have openly wanted for years and the UK government gets the blame for it.

We know the SNP would blame the UK Government for this as everything is always the fault of Westminster and not ever the fault of the SNP.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

















How Scotland dodged a Bullet ....Oil would NOT "just be a bonus" but an essential part of its economy



"How Scotland dodged a Bullet" , Is a written article and facts on our lucky escape by a respected economist David Smith on how the SNP tried to fool us by providing deliberate over optimistic Oil revenue , deliberate over optimistic Oil price predictions per barrel and deliberate neigh impossible to achieve National business growth projections to fill Scotlands £9 billion and growing Budget spending deficit (potentially now more than £11 billion and still rising with falling Oil tax revenues).

"The Scots, of course, voted no, by 55.3% to 44.7%, to my considerable relief and I hope theirs. In doing so, they gave us a Scottish version of The Great Escape. They dodged a bullet. Had Scotland voted for independence, its economy would be in deep trouble. Nicola Sturgeon, its first minister, would not be attacking George Osborne’s austerity but announcing more of it in an effort to prop up Scotland’s chronically weak public finances."

"Why was it such a lucky escape for Scotland? The main reason, and the biggest change since the independence vote, has been for North Sea oil. The Scots were promised a future of high oil prices and rising production. The reality has been plunging prices and a crisis in the North Sea. The Scots were told that Westminster was keeping secret from them the true picture of future North Sea riches. If anything was being kept secret, it was how bad it would be.
A few numbers illustrate the point. In June the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) issued its latest long-term “fiscal sustainability” projections. As far as North Sea tax revenues are concerned, their conclusion was that it would be wise to plan for nothing from 2020 onwards. Total North Sea revenues will be just £2.1bn in the 20 years from 2020, it said, equivalent to a single year’s revenue in a bad year now.
Nor is there any sign of things getting better. Oil & Gas UK, in a report a few days ago, said that 65,000 jobs have been lost in the North Sea since 2014. Exploration is at its lowest since the 1970s and investment is plunging. Even last year, when the plunge in prices was not complete, “more was spent on UK offshore oil and gas operations than was earned on production”.
The response of the Scottish government to this has followed a well-worn path. The North Sea was only ever a “bonus” for Scotland, not the lifeline. The trouble is, at least as far as the public finances are concerned, it is not true. The latest official figures, Government Revenue and Expenditure Scotland (GERS) show that without North Sea revenue, Scotland had a Greek-style budget deficit of 12.2% of GDP in 2013-14. With that revenue, the deficit came down to 8.1% of GDP, still higher than the overall UK deficit of 5.6% of GDP.

Such is the weakness of Scotland’s public finances that it is a very long way from the balanced budget Armstrong says it would be required to follow. Allowing Scotland to borrow on the markets to give it more flexibility would, because of its fiscal weakness “and clear intention to borrow and spend more” attract the attention of the ratings agencies and possibly affect the UK’s credit rating as Scotland’s ultimate backstop.


See the whole article here
=========================================================================
Pay attention to the words above "Greek-style budget deficit " in particular and think carefully about what the population of Greece went through some months ago, because in an Independent Scotland this potentially is the same territory that the carefree and shameless SNP is wanting to get us into, carefree with their willingness to take on National debts rather than cutting welfare or increasing personal income taxes to balance the books, carefree with gambling on Your, your Children and your Grandchildrens financial futures.. all for what ? Absolutely nothing but Personal political power, high salaries and the big ego's of a group of people with a Utopian ideology which only they have a desperate need to fulfill ...but to whose benefit and long term cost really ? Not mine thats for sure, the financial facts of the Scottish economy expose all Alex Salmond's and his henchmen's financial promises of riches in an post Indy world as a complete utter sham.

We have seen a well worn pattern by the SNP now, particularly since the Independence Vote (that they have already lost..as a reminder ...seeing how they seem to have forgotten that fact.) when they fail in anything or get caught out lying they either simply try to pin the blame on Westminster or attempt to completely ignore the issue pretending it simply doesn't exist. Well they cannot blame the over-optimistic data they produced on the Independence Manifesto "Scotlands Future" on anyone at all other than themselves and its about damn time the population of Scotland woke up to the fact that the SNP simply tried to fool the nation with ridiculous promises of future wealth whereas the reality actually looks the polar opposite ...pretty bleak ahead indeed if they lead us into either FFA or Independence.
Are the SNP themselves facing up to this reality, no ...not at all, the fairly recent new SNP brainwashing attempt of "Oil is only a bonus" is supposed to placate anyone from thinking about how the budget deficit with be met, however "Oil is only a bonus" it is simply yet another SNP lie ...another stalling tactic while they attempt to hang on to power from continuing to feed the faithful with never ending hopes of another Independence Referendum (which the SNP seniors know very well they will lose again) in exchange for Votes in the Holyrood Scottish Elections in early 2016 so that they can once again hang on to personal political power for another session. Why should the SNP seniors worry about the Scottish economy ? After all in the Indy World that they seek they WILL be the new elite, the new Imperial masters we will all have work for to keep them in the style they have become accustomed to living in, better salaries with much less political responsibility that most UK politicians have ...now i'm begining to wonder who really are the fools in this whole situation ?
But only tonight we have Salmond again preaching that if another Indy Ref were run today that it would return a YES result , does this man have no shame ? On what ridiculous idea does he arrive at that conclusion or is this once again merely an another pitiful diversionary tactic to feed the unquestioning faithfull and keep them onside rather than tackle the real problems of the Scottish economy..reminds me of Nero fiddling while Rome burnt. Isn't it really time that Scots woke up to the childish antics of the SNP and disposed of them ? http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamieross/alex-salmond-scotland-would-vote-yes-if-another-referendum-w?utm_term=.syJq3jEEWg#.evNO9BdAD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" A yes vote would have plunged Scotland into a deep depression"

"The first anniversary of the Scottish referendum on independence seems a useful point at which to take stock of the economic issues that would be facing an independent Scotland if it had voted ‘Yes’ in the referendum. There were two key strands to the Scottish National Party’s economic strategy which indicate that a Yes vote would have resulted in austerity in an independent Scotland the likes of which has been rarely seen in a developed country and which would have plunged the country into a deep depression."

"Clearly the level of austerity facing an independent Scotland would be unprecedented and unsustainable resulting in a classic currency/ financial crisis with the Scottish economy being plunged into a deep depression that in all likelihood would be generational in length.
To put it into context – the current austerity programme pursued by the Conservative government across the UK would be seen as a picnic compared to the retrenchment of the state and the loss of tax base facing an independent Scotland. Since the government of an independent Scotland would in all probability have to monetize its debt this would add an extra layer of pain."

This full article can be read by Clicking Here

































Saturday 10 October 2015

The best webpages around for honest data, Nat meme busting and opinions on the Scottish economy.

The first of them (and the "most technical" if you choose to dig deeply) is Kevin Hagues  "Chokkablog" presentations of the figures on the Scottish Indy Manifesto Financials without offering any judgement or personal suggestions of how a vote should have been cast at that time. (Bear in mind this presentation was prepared some months ago so the figures given will have become worse due to the ongoing falling Oil price issues.)
His presentation starts with a quick overview video and then follows up with a more detailled
and enlightening set of presentations on the figures regarding Scotland long running fiscal deficit and how that figure would affect "FFA" (Full Fiscal Autonomy) , its affect on Independence as well as how any financial shotfall might possibly have to be dealt with and the possible potential time periods involved to balance Scotlands large financial deficit.
Clich here for the Video's Click here to start Kevin Hagues excellent video presentations

Kevin's Chokkablog Homepage can be found here http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/

The "Gers" figures which are trustworthy Scottish national statistics compiled by the Scottish Government itself are explained again here
http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/gers-deniers.html

What is FFA ? http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/full-fiscal-autonomy-for-dummies.html

These texts are all the work of Kevin Hague who has a very wide following from people on both sides of the Independence arguement.
(See the long list of "endorsements" from Economists and Yes supporters on his Blog here http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/praise-for-chokkablog.html)

Kevin produced a commissioned report worth reading called     The Price of Independence with data links to Scotttish Governments own financial data.

(Kevin can be followed via his Blog or via Twitter. Help to inform as many other people by highlighting Kevins videos to them too.)
========================================================================
The second is Fraser Whyte's Blog https://whytepaper.wordpress.com/ which contains some great dissection of SNP political doublespeak and those often repeated false Nat memes (good articles here particularly on "The Vow" and "WingsOverScotland" false information Nat memes )
========================================================================

Third up is the "Live Red, White and Blue Book" written by a previous SNP voter whose "Introduction include's   "I was startled by the cynicism of such an obviously manipulative and deceptive ploy by the SNP, a party that I voted for at Holyrood, and I feared for the consequences of our country when false hope turned to anger and despair.
http://rwbblog.blogspot.co.uk/?view=flipcard

Open the link and scroll down the page for the texts
Lots of good recurring subjects often used by Nats to falsely argue the case for Independence are commented on and are explained in full very well.
=================================================================================
Another is  https://ahdinnaeken.wordpress.com/ I have no idea who writes this but all the articles are well informed, well written, wry and guaranteed I reckon to appeal to all Unionists.
There are lots of "Wings articles" on past lies and abuse here https://ahdinnaeken.wordpress.com/?s=Wings
================================================================================
And don't forget of course  http://scottishpatriots.blogspot.co.uk/  

With some other Specific subjects here http://scotsnationalistliedestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/  
=================================================================================
There are two other useful pages here  http://mspfailureshighlighted.blogspot.co.uk/  

and here    http://snpuselessmps.blogspot.co.uk/  


Please share these as much as you can , the more brainwashed Nats they reach the better as there is only so much "evidence" they can continue to deny when its put before them.
==============================================================================