The Cost of the Celts: Barnett Formula has cost £200 billion in 23 years
The Tax Payers Alliance has released a new publication on the Barnett Formula. Before anyone dismisses the TPA, all figures are sourced in footnotes within the publication, drawing on government provided data.
Now, I knew it cost a lot...but hadn't realised it was that much. (I guess thats just one of many long term costs of having a Labour government!)Now it doesn't bother me too much - most developed countries around the world will invest greater sums in the poorer areas, and with the de-nationalisation of many unprofitable industries under Thatcher; it is understandable that her government would want to continue spending more in the areas that were hit the hardest.Just over the last two decades (since 1985-86), higher spending in the three devolved territories has cost UK taxpayers a cumulative £200 billion (£102 billion in Scotland; £43 billion in Wales; £57 billion in Northern Ireland).
But to continue it now? Its a relic of the last century, and if our Celtic fringes want to act out illusions of independence let them start with paying their own way!
Now, of course, the main issue with this will be the Braveheart-fuelled nationalism of the SNP. The usual rhetoric of the SNP is that its Scotland's oil lying in the North Sea and so it balances out the extra money they recieve. Some would even go as far as to say that they are worse off in the UK than they would be out of it. This is where the report gets interesting:
Infact, over the past 23 years, Scotland has received £26 billion above what their oil revenues would have provided. This works out an average historic cost to the rest of the UK of over £1.1 billion a year since 1985.North Sea Oil has not funded the Scottish spending gap, despite Scottish Nationalist claims to the contrary. In only five of the last 23 years have North Sea Oil receipts exceeded the cost of higher funding paid to Scotland. Even with current high oil prices, the income from the Scottish share of North Sea Oil only just covers the spending gap, and North Sea Oil output is projected to fall by 50 per cent by 2020
So Scottish oil would not have paid for the extra spending they have recieved. With North Sea oil supplies declining, it appears that even recently inflated prices would not continue to support the current level of spending they are currently benefiting from.
So SNP, pay us the £23 billion you owe us for the last twenty-odd years, then you can start talking about fiscal justice and independence. And when the North Sea oil runs out...just don't come running back...
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Originally Posted by Pallantides
! I pay for it anyway thorough taxes! And I have to pay again and more? But a Pole can waltz in for free...outrageous, stabbing a bro in the back there.
