North Sea tax revenues plummet to negative for the first time in sector's history

[scooterscot]

Scottish independence is not looking so financially viable now is it...

Why? The retort is like an old record that refuses to die.

Scotland, as a small country, is completely financially viable. Of course it is.

The UK as a whole is the one that's not looking so financially viable, and now looks like it might take Scotland down with it.

[MrMarkyMark]

Why? The retort is like an old record that refuses to die.

Scotland, as a small country, is completely financially viable. Of course it is.

As you have said before, to be financially viable, it would require a complete public sector re-organisation and severe cutbacks in spending.

I think that's the bit the Scottish public don't understand, they would have to make do with a lot less.

[scooterscot]

As you have said before, to be financially viable, it would require a complete public sector re-organisation and severe cutbacks in spending.

I think that's the bit the Scottish public don't understand, they would have to make do with a lot less.

The concept is understood, certainly amongst my family and peers. Saying that not many of my family work in the public sector, most are independents or working for private firms.

I'm royally naffed off with the gelatinous orb that is the public sector, sucking the life blood out of the country. I saw a dustbin lorry chap driving through our neighbourhood yesterday here in Munich. Only him. He got out, mounted the bins on the lorry, emptied them and returned to the cab to drive on. One person! Last I was in Edinburgh there was five of them doing the same job moaning for the earth at the same time.

[WTFH]

Is it England/Wales/NI's fault that tax from oil is down?


(Just want to see if Salmon/Sturgeon/Trout have spun that one to you yet)

[MicrosoftBob]

As you have said before, to be financially viable, it would require a complete public sector re-organisation and severe cutbacks in spending.

I think that's the bit the Scottish public don't understand, they would have to make do with a lot less.

As Scotland loves a command and control economy they can have Comrade Corbyn, it's match made in Venezuela

[SlipTheJab]

As Scotland loves a command and control economy they can have Comrade Corbyn, it's match made in Venezuela

Too true, he'll fit right in with his 'keep trident but get rid of those nasty nukes' policy...

[scooterscot]

Too true, he'll fit right in with his 'keep trident but get rid of those nasty nukes' policy...

Better that than the love bombs that get sent our way come referendum time.

[seanraaron]

Future Scottish money will be on the back of selling water to the English as chronic drought becomes the norm in the summer months in the Southeast of England. Oil never had a future, so it's better to face this reality going in, but regardless both votes SNP come May.

Re: the original poster £ vs US$ is also sad to look at; I can't remember the exhange rate being this bad and I'm planning a summer holiday there, ugh.

[Lost It]

But the fallback plan for Scotland if they gained independance was always going to be that the rest of the UK bankrolled them when they went bankrupt. The nats wanted their own cake and the right to eat as much as they liked.

If they had wanted full independance, nothing from us, no financial back up, well that's a different boiling vessel of haddock.

[seanraaron]

Using the currency isn't really financial back-up and is also a non-argument. There are several countries using currencies they don't control; risky, but not impossible. Personally I think an independent Scotland would be better off in the eurozone, but I suspect that wouldn't be something we'd have a choice about if we wanted to join the EU post-independence.

Let's not kid ourselves though, the Union has no future without a serious constitutional rethink. The population is way too imbalanced to pretend this is a union of respected equals in its current form.