End of the UK

[expat]

Exactly. We've been funding these 3rd world neighbours of ours way too long.
Once the break up is complete, we should cut them off and let them float away.

It's now 40 years since Schumacher pointed out that the Germans would be saying the same things about Denmark if they had succeeded in annexing it. And pointing out how Denmark couldn't survive economically on its own.

Instead, if you now ask a Dane whether they wouldn't prefer to be German, I think you'd get a different view.

As Schumacher said, larger countries rarely subsidise their smaller neighbours: usually they exploit them under the guise of an accounting system that makes it look like subsidy.

This is exactly the case with England and Scotland. You point to the Barnett Formula advantages to Scotland but miss the fact that tax flows from Scotland to the UK more than cover that. You point to greater GDP and tax income from SE England than from Scotland, conveniently ignoring the fact that this naive calculation (for example) shows all oil profit and tax as being generated in London (because that's where the oil companies' accountants and tax offices are), somewhat unrealistic by any standards.

[AlfredJPruffock]

It's now 40 years since Schumacher pointed out that the Germans would be saying the same things about Denmark if they had succeeded in annexing it. And pointing out how Denmark couldn't survive economically on its own.

Instead, if you now ask a Dane whether they wouldn't prefer to be German, I think you'd get a different view.

As Schumacher said, larger countries rarely subsidise their smaller neighbours: usually they exploit them under the guise of an accounting system that makes it look like subsidy.

This is exactly the case with England and Scotland. You point to the Barnett Formula advantages to Scotland but miss the fact that tax flows from Scotland to the UK more than cover that. You point to greater GDP and tax income from SE England than from Scotland, conveniently ignoring the fact that this naive calculation (for example) shows all oil profit and tax as being generated in London (because that's where the oil companies' accountants and tax offices are), somewhat unrealistic by any standards.

It's time Expat - It's Time

Robert Burns on the Union of the Crowns


Fareweel to a' our Scotish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel even to the Scotish name,
Sae fam'd in martial story!
Now Sark rins o'er the Solway sands,
And Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark whare England's province stands,
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

What force or guile could not subdue,
Thro' many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few,
For hireling traitors' wages.
The English steel we could disdain,
Secure in valor's station;
But English gold has been our bane,
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

O would, or I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,
Wi Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I'll mak this declaration;
We're bought and sold for English gold,
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

[expat]

It's time Expat - It's Time

...
We're bought and sold for English gold,
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

I'll just add for those who may be unfamiliar with this, that it is Robert Burns's condemnation of those who sold out Scotland's independence for the lure of English Gold: notably, the "parcel of rogues" that Burns condemned were the Scots who sold out, not the English.

I take the point as applied to the present day.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I'll just add for those who may be unfamiliar with this, that it is Robert Burns's condemnation of those who sold out Scotland's independence for the lure of English Gold: notably, the "parcel of rogues" that Burns condemned were the Scots who sold out, not the English.

I take the point as applied to the present day.

The Love of Money is the root of All Evil