Scotching The Myth

The Labour / Tory smear campaign portraying Scotland as economically dependent nation has been exposed as a major lie by The Herald Newspaper.

English Tory tabloids such as The Sun and The Daily Mail had repeated the Labour lie that Scotland received more than we paid into the UK treasury thus making our country economically dependent on England.

English Tory MP, Graham Brady, asked in the House of Commons why his English constituents should pay more tax to provide the Prime Minister's Scottish constituents with free prescriptions?

However, The Herald investigation shows that Scotland receives almost exactly the same amount of grant from the UK Treasury as we contribute in tax.

The same survey showed that London was the area of mainland Britain that received the highest level of public spending.

The comparator figures are,

The table scotches the myth that Scotland is subsidised and enjoys special status in the UK. Scotland's tax take for the UK treasury also demonstrates that the Scottish economy is alive and well able to support independence as the figures do not include North Sea Oil or Gas.

A number of regions of England show considerably less paid into the UK coffers, North West England - £6913, North East - £6829, Yorkshire - £6524, East Midland - £7174, South East - £9397, South West - £7373, West Midland - £6998

The figures also confirm that with the addition of 75% of North Sea Oil and Gas (90% lies in Scottish Waters) this would elevate an independent Scotland up to 3rd richest nation in Europe behind only Ireland and Luxemburg.

Falkirk's prospective parliamentary candidate, Cllr John McNally said,

"In the campaign for Holyrood Labour claimed that after ten years of Labour rule Scotland was a basket case and that we received £5,000 per head more than we raised.

These figures demonstrate that Scotland is financially very strong indeed and would thrive with independence as we would not be contributing to expensive and illegal foreign wars nor to the renewal of the obscene Trident weapons system. "