The latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report, GERS, came out this week. Within it lies a fiscal trap that will hit Scotland in future years as the UK ramps up spending on the military.
Still spinning plates: the 2025 Scottish Budget
“There aren’t even any mathematical reasons (if anything, Council Tax reform and a land tax would have made it easier to win progressive votes in Parliament for the budget). There aren’t any objections from their members (indeed, quite the opposite, by not enacting those reforms the SNP are running directly against motions passed overwhelmingly at recent conferences) There is only the lack of will from the Government to make it happen.”
Strangled by the purse strings
Unless, of course, the point is to keep that firm grip on the purse strings to actively prevent too much Local Authority autonomy – a view that has been expressed to me as a “good thing” by too many in political circles (including elected office) especially when the voters in a particular Local Authority had the temerity to vote for the “wrong” political party.
Scotland needs its own currency
‘Post-independence, your plan makes as much political and economic sense as unilaterally adopting changes to the financial regulations of Singapore.’