Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

IveSeenTheLight

Generali wrote: »

So we see from that map that London basically pays for the UK.

Check out the interactive link I provided.

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc220/index.html

Looking at the latest dataset, there are loads of areas outside London which contribute more than the UK average, including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Nottingham, Derby, Leeds.

That's not to detract that the share of the economic activity could be more evenly distributed around the UK

Inner London West is by far the anomoly and one could start to be concerned that we are too reliant on that region

kabayiri

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

...
What could be done to distribute the economy more evenly

It's already happening on a more progressive basis. Manchester councils will now have more control over spending.

IveSeenTheLight

Generali wrote: »

So we see from that map that London basically pays for the UK.

Actually, looking at these stats, London and the South East only make up 37.1% of the UK GVA total, meaning, they need Scotland and the East of England as the next highest GVA per head to make the share above 50% (53.4%)

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IveSeenTheLight

kabayiri wrote: »

It's already happening on a more progressive basis. Manchester councils will now have more control over spending.

It would appear to be starting, but seemingly only because the people of Scotland united to show their concern.

This is why Scotland got a devolved parliament and we are now seeing proposals to devolve powers to English regional councils.

I dno;t believe that would have happened without the political change we have seen in Scotland.

The thing is though, that these proposals are still severly limited and defined from a London Centric basis.

Why not have each region have full Fiscal Autonomy and pay a "housekeeping" percentage of gdp for the UK wide services?

kabayiri

Using 2013 figures is not a good idea.

Can anybody guess what the oil revenue was in 2013 compared to what it is now?

Does anyone believe the oil industry up in Scotland, and all the ancillary companies, are in the rudest of health?

It's stupid to slag off Westminster and Londoners when their contribution is needed just as much as ever.

kabayiri

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

It would appear to be starting, but seemingly only because the people of Scotland united to show their concern.
...

Nope.

Manchester airport was council owned for many years, and has been one of the success stories, growing into one of our key airports.

We have shown we can manage our own budgets and even thrive.

IveSeenTheLight

kabayiri wrote: »

Using 2013 figures is not a good idea.

Can anybody guess what the oil revenue was in 2013 compared to what it is now?

Does anyone believe the oil industry up in Scotland, and all the ancillary companies, are in the rudest of health?

It's stupid to slag off Westminster and Londoners when their contribution is needed just as much as ever.

I tend to prefer to use the latest figures rather than be selective.
It's true that 2014 may still be favourable and that 2015 will likely be far worse, but then we could look at the previous 34 years as favourable.

However, it does make me wonder how reliant we are on certain industries and wonder why each area is not encouraged to diversify and spread the load more evenly.

Look at what happened in Sheffield when the pits closed.

We live in a global society, but seem to be very centric and reliant on one city. Surely we need to think about alternatives that benefit the bulk of the UK

IveSeenTheLight

kabayiri wrote: »

Nope.

Manchester airport was council owned for many years, and has been one of the success stories, growing into one of our key airports.

We have shown we can manage our own budgets and even thrive.

Ok, I trust your opinion on this, yet I also hear that Manchester already has an available capacity for a further 32 million travellers per year, yet investment is looking to expand Heathrow / Gatwick as opposed to encouraging use of Manchester airport

chewmylegoff

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

It seems I keep having to defend SNP, Barnett Formula, Scottish Contributions etc, but I'd like to get away from all that and ask an open question that I've been trying to gain focus on to no avail.

So lets forget about all that for a moment.

My questions is: -

Why does the UK have to be so London centric?

Take Germany for example, a country often lauded for having a great economic base.

The capital is Berlin and that is where their Parliament is, yet Berlin only contributes 4% to the German economy.

What could be done to distribute the economy more evenly in the UK

Well in order to emulate the Germans I suppose we could start a massive global war, be conquered by a coalition of enemy forces who bomb the country back into the Stone Age, have our capital permanent divided by a wall for many years and have the South East and half of London placed under the control of a puppet regime acting as a vassal state to a communist state whilst the rest of the country is allowed to prosper as a capitalist country and rebuild itself using money given to it by its conquerors.

That would probably rebalance the economy quite effectively but I am not sure it would be my first choice.

IveSeenTheLight

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Well in order to emulate the Germans I suppose we could start a massive global war, be conquered by a coalition of enemy forces who bomb the country back into the Stone Age, have our capital permanent divided by a wall for many years and have the South East and half of London placed under the control of a puppet regime acting as a vassal state to a communist state whilst the rest of the country is allowed to prosper as a capitalist country and rebuild itself using money given to it by its conquerors.

That would probably rebalance the economy quite effectively but I am not sure it would be my first choice.

Not my first choice either and hugely facetious if I may say so .

Open to any sane suggestions on what could be done to change the direction on the path we are currently on or do you think we should continue down this London centric route?