Comments on: Scotland loses most from independence

By: Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:38:09 +0000

Scotland can continue to print Scottish promissory notes as it does now. They will have the value that can be attached to the Scottish banks concerned. They can’t print sterling backed by the BoE that’s called counterfeiting!

By: Robo

Robo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:00:55 +0000

Bob, that is crazy. The FT was referring to recent performance. While Scotland may be doing better than a number of regions in the UK the bottom line is that in terms of absolute value Scotland is tiny. There is no way Scotland can be financing a single English region when Scotland relies on the UK to cover the shortfall between Scottish revenues and Scottish state expenditure. As Richard rightly points out, the Tories would be major winners should Scotland become independent, so I wouldn’t say Cameron is fighting ‘tooth and nail’ as you suggest.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:02:15 +0000

Since according to the FT last week, Scotland is the third most prosperous area outside London and South East, then 77% (7 of 9) of English regions are financed by taxpayers north of the border. Why else would the PM fight tooth and nail to keep Scotland exactly? Edinburgh would also be down there with Oslo and Copenhagen in size; capitals of small countries way above UK in GDP per capita and quality of life.