Scottish Independence and the Scottish Economy — 2 Nov 2022 at 18:50

That this House regrets the economic damage the Government has caused since the mini-budget on 23 September 2022, with the pound hitting a record low against the dollar, mortgage rates at their highest level since the financial crash and inflation at a forty-year high; calls on the Government immediately to reinstate the bankers’ bonus cap, increase benefits in line with inflation and protect the pensions triple lock; considers that Scotland cannot afford to be part of the failing state of the UK and must be independent for economic stability; and welcomes the publication of the Scottish Government’s independence papers series, Building a New Scotland and The Economic Opportunity for Scotland from Renewable and Green Technology by David Skilling.

“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”

“The risk would be that the currency would come into being and then quickly devalue…That would have an effect on people’s income”.

“not the right option for Scotland”.

“We are waiting with trepidation about how the Chancellor will fill a £50 billion black hole”,

“No estimate of the fiscal starting point for an independent Scotland’s finances is included in this document.”

“GERS is the authoritative publication on Scotland’s public finances.”

“This report uses data published in the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue for Scotland (GERS) report.”

“This report uses data published in the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report.”

“The most recent GERS demonstrates that Scottish public finances ran current budget surpluses in each of the three years”.

“It is highly likely an independent Scotland would need to make bigger cuts to public spending or bigger increases to tax in the first decade following independence ”.

“It could be because you think the government should have a lender of last resort. It could be because you realise they have no economic plan for Scotland. It could be because they failed to come up with answers on trade or borders. It could be because the whole thing is utter pish. Pick your reason, but for God’s sake get off this mad, mad bus”.

“it skirts around what achieving sustainability would likely require in the first decade of an independent Scotland: bigger tax rises or spending cuts than the UK government will have to pursue…Scotland’s public finances are therefore expected to weaken relative to the rest of the UK… Experience from recent weeks suggests the markets may not look favourably on fiscal plans built on the uncertain hope of a substantial future boost to growth.”

“We do not want to go back in. We want to make Brexit work.”

“it seems hard to block”

“The Scots, being a historic nation”-

“with a proud past, will inevitably resent some expressions of this fact from time to time. As a nation, they have an undoubted right to national self-determination.”

“thus far, they have exercised that right by joining and remaining in the Union.”

“Should they determine on independence, no English party or politician would stand in their way, however much we might regret their departure.”

“‘Once in a generation’ was not a legal commitment, believe me…It’s just a slogan.”

“inconsistent with the role that an independent electoral commission plays in a healthy democracy.”

“But pith and power, till my last hour,

I’ll mak’ this declaration;

We’re bought and sold for English gold-

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!”

“if we in Scotland are removed from our family of nations against our will-against our clearly democratically expressed view-independence will be our only route back…I am asking you to leave a light on so that we can find our way home.”

“To see ourselves as others see us!”

“Behind the lurid headlines, however, is a deeper story of decades-long economic dysfunction that holds lessons for the future.”

“But strictly by the numbers, Britain is pretty poor for a rich place. UK living standards…have fallen significantly behind those of Western Europe. By some measures, in fact, real wages in the UK are lower than they were 15 years ago, and will likely be even lower next year.”

“Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, markets were deregulated, unions were smashed, and the financial sector emerged as a jewel of the British economy. Thatcher’s injection of neoliberalism had many complicated knock-on effects…When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, it hit hard, smashing the engine of Britain’s economic ascent. Wary of rising deficits, the British Government pursued a policy of austerity-"

“fretting about debt rather than productivity or aggregate demand. The results were disastrous.”

“Take out Greater London-the prosperity of which depends to an uncomfortable degree on a willingness to provide services to oligarchs from the Middle East and the former Soviet Union-and the UK is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe.”

“skirts around what achieving sustainability would likely require in the first decade of an independent Scotland: bigger tax rises or spending cuts that the UK government will have to pursue.”

“I think this paper lays out a policy that would be disastrous for Scotland.”

“the report is incoherent as it refuses to acknowledge exceptional circumstances and necessary trade-offs.”

“Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?

Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner

To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ where in September another

Sitting there and resting and gazing around

Sees not only the heather but blaeberries

With bright green leaves and leaves already turned scarlet,

Hiding ripe blue berries; and amongst the sage-green leaves

Of the bog-myrtle the golden flowers of the tormentil shining;

And on the small bare places, where the little Blackface sheep

Found grazing, milkworts blue as summer skies;

And down in neglected peat-hags, not worked

Within living memory, sphagnum moss in pastel shades

Of yellow, green, and pink; sundew and butterwort

Waiting with wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey;

And nodding harebells vying in their colour

With the blue butterflies that poise themselves delicately upon them;

And stunted rowans with harsh dry leaves of glorious colour.

‘Nothing but heather!’-How marvellously descriptive! And incomplete!”

“We have generation after generation who cannot cook properly-they cannot cook a meal from scratch-and they cannot budget.”-[Official Report, 11 May 2022; Vol. 714, c. 185.]

“you have to understand,

that no one puts their children in a boat

unless the water is safer than the land”.

“I do not wake up every day worrying about the welfare of people who have entered our country illegally”.-[Official Report, 31 October 2022; Vol. 721, c. 660.]

“report they can’t afford to keep their accommodation warm-an increase of 13% since last December”.

Debate in Parliament |