Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

Tromking

I noted that Andrew Neill announced today that the English education system had now overtaken the Scots one as regards performance. Damning for the SNP if true.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

It'll be interesting if Westminster call their bluff. It's not just the Nationalists that can hang about waiting for a presumed majority before calling a referendum.

I don't think there's any need.

As the increasingly dire state of an iScotland's finances becomes clear over the next 5 years support for indy will fall off a cliff.

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Nonsense.

Here's the Scottish government's own figures.



In real terms, so adjusted for inflation, the Scottish budget has increased every year for the last 4 years and is now back to the previous record high of 2009.

There is no Austerity in Scotland.

Just an SNP government misallocating funding.

Hmmm yes, Andrew Neil had a bit of a difficult time with those figures on Twitter earlier. It seems he was twisting them quite a bit. Or at the very least, not being completely honest about what he was referring to. Say what you like about Wings. But he does a good job in breaking things down. Like others I was a bit puzzled about how the Conservatives could claim all these cuts and 'reducing the deficit' etc etc.. Yet Scotland remain completely and merrily unaffected by UK wide departmental cuts. Was never really going to be the case was it.

The sum depicted in the graph as the “total” budget comes in two chunks. The larger of the two is the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL), as we noted, which accounts for roughly 85% of the total. DEL is allocated by the Barnett Formula, and the Scottish Government can choose to spend it however it wants. AME is the rest, covering spending funded directly by Westminster (eg public-sector pensions) and spending by councils financed from council tax or business rates.


In short, DEL is all the money the Scottish Government controls and has any say over spending, and reductions to that are therefore what the likes of Fiscal Affairs Scotland mean when they say the Scottish budget has been cut.


AME is not controlled by the Scottish Government, and is not allocated by Barnett. The Scottish Government cannot move money from AME to, say, fund the NHS – any policy decisions Holyrood makes have to be funded wholly from the DEL....


...Andrew Neil is telling us that’s extra cash for the Scottish Government to spend. But really it’s just money which used to be paid directly to recipients by the DWP, but has now been given to the SPPA to pay out instead. Not a single extra penny will come into Scotland. All that’s changed is the postmark on the envelope.
But that one-off paper transfer of responsibility for police and firefighter pensions is enough to conceal a real-terms cut of £1.2bn in the amount of spendable money that the Scottish Government has in its coffers.

http://wingsoverscotland.com/fiddling-the-figures/#more-76979

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Nothing.

They'll flail around in impotent rage waiting for a miracle in oil revenue that ain't coming.

Then they'll spend the next 5-10 years desperately trying to avoid another indyref while at the same time telling their voters they desperately want another indyref.

And finally they'll get voted out of office for a generation when the public tires of watching them blame Westminster for things that are 100% within their control.

Like the NHS.....

Oh Look !!! Heres the 'NHS Crisis' bang on cue in time for next year's election. Straight after the 'NHS Crisis' that blew up just before the last one... then disappeared. Did Jackie Baillie appear in the comments ?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Hmmm yes, Andrew Neil had a bit of a difficult time with those figures on Twitter earlier. It seems he was twisting them quite a bit. Or at the very least, not being completely honest about what he was referring to. Say what you like about Wings. But he does a good job in breaking things down.

Tee hee.

Knew you couldn't resist the siren call of everybody's favourite rat keeping Bath resident for long...

Shame his sophistry on this point is being noticed elsewhere.

“In September 2013 the Scottish Ministers announced that following the creation of a unitary Scottish Fire and Rescue Services for Scotland with effect from 1st April 2013, the administration of all the current and new 2015 Schemes for the Fire Pension Schemes in Scotland would transfer from the current regional administrators to the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) by 1st April 2015.”

This suggests the pensions were transferred from Local Authorities (not DWP) to SPPA. I checked the Scottish Government website (the White Paper!) – they say that in 2013 Police and Firefighters had an “Unfunded scheme supported by Scottish DEL” and managed by Local Authorities (not DWP).

It therefore appears that the rise AME and fall in DEL may, at least in part, be due to the actions of the SNP and has nothing to do with the DWP

https://drscottthinks.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/i-may-be-wrong-but-i-think-stu-campbell-is-talking-crap-again/

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I don't think there's any need.

As the increasingly dire state of an iScotland's finances becomes clear over the next 5 years support for indy will fall off a cliff.

Yes, it's almost as if the last 4 or 5 years of other parties pointing out the dire state of an iScotland's finances 24/7 has completely killed any SNP support off stone dead, or at least, it's bound to happen soon...

Keep crossing those fingers. Today's EVEL, rightly or wrongly, just bumped SNP and independence support up another few notches. Scottish Labour voters must be in despair. One MP left, and he can't even vote on equal terms with his English colleagues. It's almost as if.... there's no point being there.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Oh Look !!! Heres the 'NHS Crisis' bang on cue in time for next year's election. Straight after the 'NHS Crisis' that blew up just before the last one... then disappeared. Did Jackie Baillie appear in the comments ?

You do realise Audit Scotland is a Scottish Government entity?

What political motive do they have for releasing this report, or as you seem to be insinuating, fabricating evidence for electioneering purposes?

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Tee hee.

Knew you couldn't resist the siren call of everybody's favourite rat keeping Bath resident for long...

Shame his sophistry on this point is being noticed elsewhere.


https://drscottthinks.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/i-may-be-wrong-but-i-think-stu-campbell-is-talking-crap-again/

Dr Scott.. thinks ? I barely read past the huge graphic proclaiming "GARBAGE BREATH TRASH TALKER" before realising it was just a rant filled blog post by an unknown. He didn't even refute that the rise in AME and the fall in DEL was fully down to the SNP. He said it may be 'in part'.

In other words, the fall in DEL and the rise in AME, means the spending Holyrood gets to actually spend on things like the NHS/Education etc.. Has fallen. And hasn't remained flat. It's been cut. So that means Andrew Neil, was in fact... wrong.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

I barely read past the huge graphic proclaiming "GARBAGE BREATH TRASH TALKER" .

Well he was talking about Rev "I lie through my teeth" Stu, so a statement of fact.

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

You do realise Audit Scotland is a Scottish Government entity?

What political motive do they have for releasing this report, or as you seem to be insinuating, fabricating evidence for electioneering purposes?

Exactly. Why would the SNP do that ? There's interpretations, and then there's what's in the report. Targets are set by the SNP, and they're high compared to what they used to be. All are within 5% of their targets. There's more staff than ever, and despite a 10% cut in Scottish departmental spending ( DEL ) via the Barnett formula. Spending on the Scottish NHS is only down 0.7% and is going up to 12 billion this year. Oh and they spent money building a big new hospital in Glasgow, to replace some of the aging and out of date ones, on budget and on time.

Areas for improvements yes. Isn't there always in the NHS in all UK areas. An NHS at breaking point ? A full blown 'crisis' ? Yet again ? Stop me if you've heard this one before... in every single newspaper in Scotland, the BBC and STV, on the same day. It's almost as if it's co-ordinated somehow ? It even bumped down EVEL today to barely a mention.

And as far as I know there aren't any junior doctors out on the streets protesting just yet, in Scotland anyway.