Economy
Can Scotland afford to go it alone?
Author / Creator: Ruth Strachan
Media type: Article
Date published:
With every passing election, Scotland seems to move closer to independence. Investment Monitor explores the obstacles the country would face should it leave the UK.
A Guide to the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) Report
Author / Creator: Fraser of Allander Institute
Media type: Academic Paper
Date published: 2021
GERS does not present a balanced view of the Scottish economy. The possible financial costs and risks, or savings and opportunities, of implementing a new constitutional framework are, naturally, not considered in GERS. Similarly, it does not report on the effects of faster or slower economic growth in an independent Scotland.
Where does Scotland’s wealth go?
Author / Creator: Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
Media type: Web site
Date published: 2013
When you compare the map of where the wealth ends up with a map of where the UK’s wealth is generated, the union drains wealth from Scotland.
Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland 2020-21
Author / Creator: Scottish Government
Media type: government report
Date published:
Estimated total 2020/1 expenditure for the benefit of Scotland was £99.2 billion. Spending increased by 21.0%, reflecting the costs of the health and wider economic interventions in response pandemic. This is equivalent to 9.1% of total UK public sector expenditure, or £18,144 per person, which is £1,828 per person greater than the UK average.
HS2 will not cost Scotland £17 billion
Author / Creator: Full Fact
Media type: Fact check
Date published:
There is no evidence for the claim that HS2 will cost Scotland. In effect, all money spent by Scotland on HS2 is returned through the Barnett formula.
The political economy of and practical policies for inclusive growth—a case study of Scotland
Author / Creator: Donald Houston
Media type: Academic Paper
Date published:
This indetifies four key policy areas for ‘inclusive growth’: skills, transport and housing for young people; city-regional governance; childcare; and place-making.
What Does Good Green Infrastructure Planning Policy Look Like? Developing and Testing a Policy Assessment Tool Within Central Scotland UK
Author / Creator: Max Hislop
Media type: Academic Paper
Date published:
The policies champion the different functions performed by Green Infrastructure and stress the need for early and ongoing involvement throughout any development process with funding for long-term stewardship post-development.
The Transformation of Scotland; the Economy since 1700
Author / Creator: T M Devine
Media type: Book
Date published: 2011
There are issues, such as the distribution of income, which merit particular attention in Scotland's case. There are also contradictions in explanations of Scotland's economic performance that have to be addressed.
How Scotland suffers most from Brexit
Author / Creator: Believe in Scotland
Media type: News Media
Date published:
Brexit is just the latest and most obvious example of the democratic deficit which makes the Union so damaging to Scotland and renders it impossible for the people of Scotland to have any control over our country’s future.
The truth about the annual GERS figures.
Author / Creator: The National
Media type: News Media
Date published:
There is no set of official accounts that tells us how an independent Scotland’s economy would fare, nor what its finances would look like.
Was Britain's economy already broken or will Brexit break it?
Author / Creator: The National
Media type: News Media
Date published:
The economic situation has been made even worse by the unfolding disaster that is Brexit. Scotland's view has been ignored by the Westminster government.
How Scotland’s been tricked into thinking it’s too poor.
Author / Creator: The National
Media type: News Media
Date published:
A poll for Prospect Scotland found that 75% of Scottish voters would vote for independence if they felt that the economic plan for an independent Scotland meant we would be better off.
Contercast
Author / Creator: David Jamieson
Media type: Podcast
Date published: 2017 -
Conter is a site of Scottish anti-capitalist thought. It aims to develop a radical, anti-capitalist class politics in Scotland fit to intervene into the crisis of the British state, the global order and Scottish society.
Thinking Outwith the Box, GERS 2020-21 and the SNP conference Agenda
Author / Creator: Craig Dalzell
Media type: Podcast
Date published:
What the latest GERS figures mean (and don’t mean) for Scotland, independence and the post-pandemic recovery.
From ‘I’ to ‘We’: Changing the narrative in Scotland’s relationship with consumption
Author / Creator: Iain Black
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: December 2015
Studies have shown that having a positive relationship with our families, friends and community, as well as having good health, are the things that matter most to us. The job of government is to re-establish the link between that narrative and our idea of what prosperity is.
Scottish independence referendum: why the economic issues are quite different to 2014
Author / Creator: Graeme Roy
Media type: Review
Date published:
Scotland has a successful economy. It has challenges - inequalities, ageing population, and less dynamic businesses than competitors. The engaged population will demand facts and figures rather than political persuasion.
Response to latest [2020/1] Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) estimates
Author / Creator: David Phillips
Media type: Assessment report
Date published:
The large debts shown by the 2020/1 GERS are temporary and not structural. They do not indicate that Scotland cannot afford to be inedpendent.
Beyond GERS: Scotland’s fiscal position post-independence
Author / Creator: Craig Dalzell
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: 2017
GERS (Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland) is not a good guide to the position of Scotland post independence.
Revealed: The Accounting Trick that Hides Scotland’s Wealth (2020)
Author / Creator: Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
Media type: Assessment report
Date published: 2020
The UK Government has diverted Scotland’s wealth to the UK Treasury to pay off its debts. Thus it creates 100% of Scotland’s supposed debts and 100% of its phoney deficit. This is the impact of Westminster’s debt loading alone, and upon that accounting trick, rests the entire economic case for the Union. Would an independent Scotland have to pay the rUK a population share of the UK’s historical debt? No – there is in fact a very strong case for Scotland to be compensated for having already paid more than it’s “fair share” of the UK’s debt
The Barnett Formula Myth Destroyed – It does not subsidise Scotland
Author / Creator: Gordon Macintyre-Kemp
Media type: Assessment report
Date published: 2019
The Barnett Formula will withhold from Scotland, over the five years covered by the spending review, enough money to have hired approximately 7,955 additional NHS medical professionals. That is not a bonus – it’s a smoke and mirrors mechanism that aims to reduce the Scottish Government’s spending power in real terms.