The Indisputable Thievery of the UK Union!

I tasked myself with writing this blog post because of how far one of my tweets on Scottish finances went this past week, the tweet has generated over 46,000 impressions in 3 days. I have blogged on this before, but I wanted to specifically source every piece of information.

I’m hoping the excellent Colin Dunn might take up the challenge of creating some graphics based on this blog post.

The tweet in question I sent out was linked to a blog post I created called The Cost of the Union. The tweet read;

SINCE 2001, SCOTLAND HAS RAISED OVER £907,000,000,00 IN TAX RECEIPTS FOR THE UK TREASURY. SINCE 2001 IT HAS GENEROUSLY BEEN DONATED 49.7% BACK, OR £447,000,000,000. THE UNION HAS “SPENT ON OUR BEHALF” £460,000,000,000. IMAGINE IF WE SPENT ALL THAT OURSELVES ON OUR OWN CHOICES.

I’m sure many of you can appreciate the challenge in this blog post, as the UK ONS just doesn’t want to break down a lot of this, instead they leave it so clouded and muddled that it leaves it open to s many interpretations. But I will provide you with sources to every single figure I use.

So, let’s batter on. (p.s. I suggest you carry on reading to the end).

Let’s look at the tables for total tax take, total budget and the remaining value (spent on our behalf).

TOTAL TAX RECEIPTS RAISED
Year	Amount (£)
1999	£28,200,000,000 *3
2000	£29,800,000,000 *3
2001	£30,900,000,000 *3
2002	£31,360,000,000 *3
2003	£31,620,000,000 *3
2004	£34,030,000,000 *3
2005	£36,439,000,000 *3
2006	£49,915,000,000 *3
2007	£52,511,000,000 *3
2008	£55,236,000,000 *3
2009	£48,132,000,000 *3
2010	£53,128,000,000 *3
2011	£56,900,000,000 *3
2012	£53,147,000,000 *3
2013	£53,954,000,000 *3
2014	£53,443,000,000 *3
2015	£57,748,000,000 *3
2016	£57,952,000,000 *3
2017	£59,957,000,000 *3
2018	£62,708,000,000 *3
Total	£937,080,000,000

BLOCK GRANT FROM UK GOVERNMENT
Year	Amount (£)
1999	£12,900,931,000 *1
2000	£14,706,379,000 *1
2001	£15,472,944,000 *1
2002	£18,179,079,000 *1
2003	£19,300,000,000 *1
2004	£21,389,384,000 *1
2005	£20,935,930,000 *1
2006	£22,890,002,000 *1
2007	£25,009,735,000 *1
2008	£24,862,101,000 *1
2009	£27,163,862,000 *1
2010	£27,274,452,000 *1
2011	£26,984,655,000 *1
2012	£31,178,566,000 *2
2013	£31,956,931,000 *2
2014	£32,644,274,000 *2
2015	£34,090,523,000 *2
2016	£33,790,869,000 *2
2017	£34,708,594,000 *2
2018	£36,060,588,000 *2
Total	£511,449,799,000

SPENT ON OUR BEHALF (Revenue Raised minus Block Grant)
Year	Amount (£)
1999	£15,299,069,000
2000	£15,093,621,000
2001	£15,427,056,000
2002	£13,180,921,000
2003	£12,320,000,000
2004	£12,640,616,000
2005	£15,503,070,000
2006	£27,024,998,000
2007	£27,501,265,000
2008	£30,373,899,000
2009	£20,968,138,000
2010	£25,853,548,000
2011	£29,915,345,000
2012	£21,968,434,000
2013	£21,997,069,000
2014	£20,798,726,000
2015	£23,657,477,000
2016	£24,161,131,000
2017	£25,248,406,000
2018	£26,647,412,000
Total	£425,580,201,000

HOW THE UK MANAGES SCOTLANDS FINANCES
Year	Block Grant	Spending	Balance
1999	£12,900,931,000 *1	£25,350,000,000 *5	-£12,449,069,000
2000	£14,706,379,000 *1	£27,270,000,000 *5	-£12,563,621,000
2001	£15,472,944,000 *1	£28,820,000,000 *5	-£13,347,056,000
2002	£18,179,079,000 *1	£31,770,000,000 *5	-£13,590,921,000
2003	£19,300,000,000 *1	£33,850,000,000 *5	-£14,550,000,000
2004	£21,389,384,000 *1	£36,810,000,000 *5	-£15,420,616,000
2005	£20,935,930,000 *1	£38,350,000,000 *5	-£17,414,070,000
2006	£22,890,002,000 *1	£41,690,000,000 *5	-£18,799,998,000
2007	£25,009,735,000 *1	£43,720,000,000 *5	-£18,710,265,000
2008	£24,862,101,000 *1	£46,310,000,000 *5	-£21,447,899,000
2009	£27,163,862,000 *1	£48,650,000,000 *5	-£21,486,138,000
2010	£27,274,452,000 *1	£51,710,000,000 *5	-£24,435,548,000
2011	£26,984,655,000 *1	£52,350,000,000 *5	-£25,365,345,000
2012	£31,178,566,000 *2	£53,100,000,000 *5	-£21,921,434,000
2013	£31,956,931,000 *2	£53,960,000,000 *5	-£22,003,069,000
2014	£32,644,274,000 *2	£54,060,000,000 *5	-£21,415,726,000
2015	£34,090,523,000 *2	£54,950,000,000 *5	-£20,859,477,000
2016	£33,790,869,000 *2	£56,170,000,000 *5	-£22,379,131,000
2017	£34,708,594,000 *2	£57,320,000,000 *5	-£22,611,406,000
2018	£36,060,588,000 *2	£59,030,000,000 *5	-£22,969,412,000
Total	£511,499,799,000	£895,240,000,000	-£383,740,201,000

As you can see from the above table, over the years Scotland has spent more than it received in the Block Grant. This isn’t Scotland’s deficit, it is the total spending on Scotland, where the balance is what is spent on our behalf because Scotland can only legally spend the amount it gets in its block grant.

HOW SCOTLAND WOULD MANAGE SCOTLANDS FINANCES
Year	Revenue Raised	Spending	Balance	% Balance
1999	£28,200,000,000 *3	£25,350,000,000 *5	£2,850,000,000	10.1
2000	£29,800,000,000 *3	£27,270,000,000 *5	£2,530,000,000	8.5
2001	£30,900,000,000 *3	£28,820,000,000 *5	£2,080,000,000	6.7
2002	£31,360,000,000 *3	£31,770,000,000 *5	-£410,000,000	-1.3
2003	£31,620,000,000 *3	£33,850,000,000 *5	-£2,230,000,000	-7.1
2004	£34,030,000,000 *3	£36,810,000,000 *5	-£2,780,000,000	-8.2
2005	£36,439,000,000 *3	£38,350,000,000 *5	-£1,911,000,000	-5.2
2006	£49,915,000,000 *3	£41,690,000,000 *5	£8,225,000,000	16.5
2007	£52,511,000,000 *3	£43,720,000,000 *5	£8,791,000,000	16.7
2008	£55,236,000,000 *3	£46,310,000,000 *5	£8,926,000,000	16.2
2009	£48,132,000,000 *3	£48,650,000,000 *5	-£518,000,000	-1.1
2010	£53,128,000,000 *3	£51,710,000,000 *5	£1,418,000,000	2.7
2011	£56,900,000,000 *3	£52,350,000,000 *5	£4,550,000,000	8.0
2012	£53,147,000,000 *3	£53,100,000,000 *5	£47,000,000	0.09
2013	£53,954,000,000 *3	£53,960,000,000 *5	-£6,000,000	-0.01
2014	£53,443,000,000 *3	£54,060,000,000 *5	-£617,000,000	-1.2
2015	£57,748,000,000 *3	£54,950,000,000 *5	£2,798,000,000	4.9
2016	£57,952,000,000 *3	£56,170,000,000 *5	£1,782,000,000	3.1
2017	£59,957,000,000 *3	£57,320,000,000 *5	£2,637,000,000	4.4
2018	£62,708,000,000 *3	£59,030,000,000 *5	£3,678,000,000	5.9
Total	£937,080,000,000	£895,240,000,000	£41,840,000,000	4.5

Using the above table, if we kept the level of spending we are told we spend by the UK, but as an independent country, over the past 20 years we would be £41,840,000,000 in surplus and only 7 years would we have been in the red, overall we would be 4.5% in the black and easily able to afford our current spending demands with plenty left over (based on current spend within the UK).

Looking at all of the above, I have put together a table showing a comparison of the revenue retained by Westminster as “spent on our behalf” and how that compares to the global revenue economy. In this respect I looked at the revenue retained by Westminster versus a global country for any given year in which Scotland’s retained by Westminster revenue could have funded the entire revenue economy of said country.

Year	Country Revenue Funded	Global 2018 Rank
1999	Bolivia *4	77
2000	Nigeria *4	79
2001	Kenya *4	76
2002	Sri Lanka *4	80
2003	Ethiopia *4	82
2004	Panama *4	81
2005	Kenya *4	76
2006	Morocco *4	65
2007	Bangladesh *4	64
2008	Luxembourg *4	63
2009	Slovenia *4	70
2010	Croatia *4	66
2011	Luxembourg *4	63
2012	Slovenia *4	70
2013	Slovenia *4	70
2014	Slovenia *4	70
2015	Oman *4	68
2016	Belarus *4	67
2017	Oman *4	68
2018	Croatia *4	66

And, just for laughs, the total retained and “spent on our behalf” value of £425,580,201,000 over the last 20 years could have funded the entire revenue economies of Russia, Finland, Croatia and Cyprus*4 COMBINED for 2018.

In conclusion, Scotland’s revenue which is retained by Westminster and “spent on our behalf” every year on things that Scotland doesn’t need, e.g. trident, wars, refurbishment of Westminster, aircraft carriers, austerity and bank bail outs could have funded (on average) the worlds 71^st largest economy by revenue (as of 2018) EVERY SINGLE YEAR and still fully fund Scotland in the same year. The worlds 71^st largest economy by revenue as of 2018 is Bulgaria*4.

In other words, since devolution, Scotland’s tax take as sent to the UK Treasury every year could have funded the whole of Scotland and Bulgaria*4 for the past 20 years, or alternatively if Scotland had saved the past 20 years’ worth of revenue as taken by Westminster, we could have, last year funded the entire revenue economies of Russia, Finland, Croatia and Cyprus*4 combined.

Scotland is legally obliged to stay within budget. The whole concept of pooling and sharing our resources is a one-way street. The deficit that Scotland “has” is completely and utterly false because it is based on the premise that Scotland gets more than it puts in. The reality is of course far from that. Scotland has no choice in accepting to fund reserved matters which is has no real say over, and it is forced to pay for shared items that it has no real say over. You cannot have a meaningful say with 59 out of 650 MPs. You cannot have a meaningful say when you are ignored.

If Scotland were independent and maintained the same levels of spending as it currently does and takes the same taxes in as it does, it would be in surplus, and over the past 20 years would be £40,000,000,000 in surplus. And, what’s more, since the first independence referendum, we would never have gone into the red even with current levels of spending and tax take.

So, there you have it. The “pooling and sharing”, the “turbo austerity for decades” and the “how will you afford things” slogans are nothing more than slogans designed to stop you asking questions and finding the truth.

This is literally subverted theft on a country economic scale.

Now you all have the truth, and now you can all share it with those who should know i.e. SCOTLAND!

Now get back in your box Scotland, you are far too poor to be independent and far too incompetent to go it alone unless, of course, you are being lied too and are actually able to fund yourself and the worlds 71^st largest revenue economy every single year.

Sources

Source *1

Source *2

Source *3

Source *4

Source *5

Advertisement