Only in Scotland

[Bernard Common]

I hate everyone does that count?

[expat]

England is subsidising Scotland

You forgot to include the bit where you come up with some evidence for that.

Oh wait, Ken Livingstone said so when he was standing for election in London, and the Evening Standard agreed with him. Right.

[Flubster]

You forgot to include the bit where you come up with some evidence for that.

Oh wait, Ken Livingstone said so when he was standing for election in London, and the Evening Standard agreed with him. Right.

Before you get carried away, I don't agree with the arrangement, and am not English.
But, to give a real example....

There are more obese smokers in the North (inc Scotland) so the Scots are/will be a bigger drain on the NHS. however...the clue is in the title. It is a National Health Service, funded through the common wealth of all the Nations subjects, regardless of health and waistline. Next you'll be picking on the Welsh sheep farmers...

[expat]

Before you get carried away, I don't agree with the arrangement, and am not English.
.....
Next you'll be picking on the Welsh sheep farmers...

Not to my taste, thanks.

And I have been carried away before you were born, young fellow.

[BoredBloke]

Back to the story though - So it can produce heat/leccy on the 2 fine days scotland gets which laughingly gets called its summer. For the rest of the time you have a series of under road pipes filled with water which obviously are not going to ever break and so need the road constantly dug up.

[hattra]

You forgot to include the bit where you come up with some evidence for that.

Oh wait, Ken Livingstone said so when he was standing for election in London, and the Evening Standard agreed with him. Right.

Last I heard the subsidy ran to about £3000 per head of population in Scotland - IIRC that was in the Times about four years ago.

[expat]

Last I heard the subsidy ran to about £3000 per head of population in Scotland - IIRC that was in the Times about four years ago.

Which subsidy is that then? You might mean the often-quoted Barnet formula for distributing funds to local government.

The point about this fallacy (that England supports Scotland) is that in general the outgoings are analysed (and indeed performed) by region, but the incomings are not. So the payments to Scotland are visible, but the much larger income from Scotland is invisible.

Or even attributed quite wrongly: e.g. oil tax income is listed as an English contribution to the government coffers, because the oil companies' offices are in London and pay the tax there. That doesn't, or shouldn't, make it London's oil.

[expat]

Back to the story though - So it can produce heat/leccy on the 2 fine days scotland gets which laughingly gets called its summer. For the rest of the time you have a series of under road pipes filled with water which obviously are not going to ever break and so need the road constantly dug up.

LOL. No, pipes never freeze in the north of Scotland...

[IR35 Avoider]

England will steal it all in a repeat of the North Sea oil plunder.

I saw an international law expert on TV news a few years ago, who said this was a myth. Even if Scotland were completely independent, something like half the North Sea oil would still belong to the remainder of the UK.

[expat]

I saw an international law expert on TV news a few years ago, who said this was a myth. Even if Scotland were completely independent, something like half the North Sea oil would still belong to the remainder of the UK.

Freedom never came at a cheaper price. I'll take it, you can have all the oil.