The Great Deception - GERS 2005

The Great Deception - GERS 2005

By Niall Aslen

In May 2000 I wrote the original article called ‘The Big Lie.’ It was an exercise to establish the truth of the often repeated claims of the British Government that Scotland was too economically weak to stand on its own two feet. In fact the claim has been made that the English Taxpayers are subsidising the Scots. After months of painstaking research the results were astonishing to say the least. The reverse was actually true, it was Scotland that was substantially subsidising the rest of the UK.

However this Big lie is still repeated by the Scottish Executive and Labour Politicians, both in Holyrood and Westminster in the form of the GERS report and accordingly I have been retained by an Independent policy think tank and the newly formed Scottish Enterprise Party to verify the truth or otherwise of the GERS report. According to the GERS Report, Scotland is an economic basket case which requires £11.2 Billions annually from the UK exchequer to balance the books. My remit is to establish the truth or otherwise for this claim.

The British Government have made vast improvements in the online services available for researchers using the Internet over the past 5 years Most of the data is now online. The one major source of information has been http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/ links from this website give additional information. I am using the UK Governments own statistics for comparison with the GERS report and where interpolation has been required the figures err on the conservative side giving the benefit of any doubt to the UK statistics.

In my original article North Sea Oil revenues were difficult to track down as the UK Government regarded these as special resources of the UK (Extra-Regio Territories) and not Scottish, even though the Oilfields are in Scottish waters, are policed by Grampian Police and supported by an Infrastructure, at NE Scottish Ratepayers and Council Tax payers expense without any financial support from Westminster. Following this UK Government convention, the GERS report compilers have done likewise, thus North Sea Revenues are EXCLUDED from the allocation of revenues received from Scotland. The UK government have created a new country named Extra Regio Territories in order to conceal the Oil revenues from the Scottish account. Accordingly I have ignored this new creation and included the North Sea Oil revenues in the comparitor.

2Mac Said" If there was nothing to hide why do they go to extraordinary lengths to confuse the information. The London civil service know exactly what they are doing. It is excellent to see someone use their talent to remove the spin from the facts. 

My view is simple. Scotland should look after Scotland for the Scottish. England should look after England for the English. Each country should take responsibility for their own problems and come up with their own solutions. England can be our close friend along with the Irish and the Welsh. They just do not need to be our Landlord.

The imperialists in London have still not realised the world has changed. Let us concentrate on our own door step. Manage our own resources and set our own targets. Independence for ENGLAND.