“BIG BOOST TO CONFIDENCE AND A ‘YES’ VOTE”

  The Scottish National Party welcomed the publication of the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report for 2011/12 – which shows that Scotland is financially stronger than the UK as a whole to the tune of £4.4 billion, or £824 per person.  In 2011/12, Scotland generated 9.9 per cent of UK tax revenues with 8.4 per cent of the population – in return for 9.3 per cent of spending.

Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MP, Angus MacNeil said:

“Whenever people wrongly say that Scotland is a subsidised part of the UK, I will merely quote that we are ‘8.4% of UK population, paying 9.9% of the UK taxes’, which is more than our share.  Yet we still have to suffer the indignities of the Bedroom Tax from a government we did not elect at Westminster.

“Of course, as in Norway these figures include oil, but in Norway oil is a greater proportion of Norwegian wealth than Scotland.  However, Norwegians also have an earning from oil they extracted in past years, while we only earn from this year’s oil revenues.  This is why Norway has an oil fund of $660 billion and Scotland has an oil fund of precisely zero for future generations.

“The report shows that Scotland’s finances are stronger than the UK’s as a whole to the tune of £4.4 billion – or £824 for every man, woman and child.

“While the No campaign tries to talk Scotland down – and oddly argues that having access to billions of pounds of oil tax revenues is somehow a bad thing for Scotland but a good thing for Westminster – these figures give a big boost to confidence in Scotland, and to a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum.

“We have a downturn in the UK economy and with a Westminster Government recklessly choosing austerity which is damaging the economy just now and for the future.  Instead we should be using our wealth for jobs in the present and infrastructure assets to benefit Scotland’s future and increase economic capacity.”

ENDS

Note: The GERS report can be accessed here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/GERS