Comment
National Statistics have revealed that in every year since devolution in 1999 there has been a shortfall between total revenues and total expenditure in Scotland, rising from £4bn to more than £11bn.
In 2004-05, even including all oil revenues, the shortfall still amounts to £6bn, 4.8 per cent of Scottish gross domestic product.
£2.25bn – almost the entire science, universities and industry budget for Scotland.
The SNP wants to gamble Scotland’s future on the price of a barrel of oil. These are revenues that are notoriously volatile, in decline and predicted to be largely gone by 2030. The Nationalists know this, yet they advocate an oil fund, claiming it could amount to £90bn in 10 years’ time. In truth there would be no oil fund. In an independent Scotland, all the oil revenues would be required to plug the gap that would be left by abolishing the union dividend. Moreover, this ignores the need to fund the additional costs of SNP plans for abolishing council tax, reducing business and corporate taxes, higher education debt write-offs and additional universal pension entitlements. Beyond this are the costs of establishing a new state.
Wishful thinking is no substitute for the facts.
