Government made losses of £5m running Fort Regent since 2020
'Discounted memberships'
Staff costs during the pandemic came to £1.2m per year while income dropped due to discounted memberships and refunds.Officials said the site reopened in 2022 with income rising to more than £1.1m.Staff costs also fell to £702,503 because the opening hours reduced.In 2023 income dropped to £379,058 because gym and fitness services moved to Springfield but the centre still cost the government almost £900,000 in running costs.In 2025 the centre is expected to cost more than £600,000.
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Times
27 minutes ago
- Times
Whining about Scottish ‘austerity' is baseless, absurd and idiotic
Like Christmas and birthdays, the annual GERS festival seems to arrive sooner than you think. Has a year really passed since the last edition of the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures was published? Why, yes it has. This year's numbers are remarkable, best accompanied by an indecently large dram of cask-strength liquor. For public spending in and for Scotland amounted to 52 per cent of Scottish GDP last year. That is lower than in France, Finland, Belgium and Austria but higher than in every other European country. Public spending in Sweden and Denmark, for instance, equals 48 per cent of GDP. In Norway, the figure is 46 per cent. Further afield, other countries with which the Scottish government sometimes likes to compare Scotland contrive to thrive with a much smaller public sector. Public spending in New Zealand is 42 per cent of GDP. This is the context in which to understand the claims made by Scottish government ministers that Scotland is once again enduring some form of 'austerity'. And the thing to understand about this whining is that it is baseless, absurd and idiotic. This is a country of Big Government. If government departments and other agencies struggle to meet their obligations despite this obvious largesse it is because they are inefficiently or incompetently run and because ministers lack the courage to say 'No' to demands for more and more spending. Mercifully, Scottish taxpayers are not required to pay for all of this. In 2024-25, £91.4 billion was raised in taxes in Scotland but government spending amounted to £117.6 billion. This is a notional deficit — notional because Scotland is part of the United Kingdom — of some £26.5 billion. That is equivalent to 11.7 per cent of GDP. John Swinney should pray to the ghost of the late Joel Barnett every night for it is his eponymous formula that grants Scotland its privileged place within the United Kingdom: a relatively wealthy part of the realm funded as though it were a poor one. By way of illustrating the scale of Scotland's deficit, it may be worthing noting that last year Zimbabwe ran a deficit equal to 10.4 per cent of GDP. Indeed, according to data compiled by the International Monetary Fund, the only independent countries running real deficits greater than Scotland's notional one are East Timor, Kiribati, the Maldives and Ukraine. At this point nationalists will customarily enter the chat to say that, look, GERS only tells us about Scotland's current fiscal position and of course an independent Scotland would do things differently. This is true. GERS offers a snapshot of the position from which an independent Scotland would begin life and GERS also makes it very clear that many things would have to be done very differently in an independent Scotland. To start with you would begin with something like £10 billion in tax increases and around another £10 billion in spending cuts. That would still leave Scotland running a deficit like most countries but it would be a manageable one of around 3 per cent of GDP. That, you will also recall, is the price of admission to the European Union. Every existing tax would doubtless be increased and new taxes created (on this front, if few others, Scotland's political class is endlessly resourceful). But to give an indication of the scale of tax hikes required, £10 billion is about half of total income tax receipts in Scotland last year. Swingeing tax increases of this sort would almost certainly encourage capital flight of a sort this country can ill afford. Just 5 per cent of Britain's top-rate tax-payers live in Scotland which is one reason why although Scotland has 8 per cent of the UK population it contributes just 6.8 per cent of income tax revenue. Tax increases of this sort, however, would only get the job half done. You would still need to cut £10 billion of public spending. That is roughly equivalent to 50 per cent of the NHS budget. Good luck winning an independence referendum on that manifesto. • The facts of life are demanding chiels. It is too often and too easily forgotten that in the years after the 2008 financial crisis Scotland's notional deficit was broadly the same as the UK's real one and, in some years and thanks to buoyant oil revenues, Scotland's relative fiscal position was marginally healthier than the UK's. This was unusual and atypical but it allowed Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon to sell independence as a financial opportunity, not, as it obviously is now, a giant leap into an enormous fiscal black hole. Even then, all lilies had to be gilded. As Sturgeon relates in her new memoir, oil prices were then high but Salmond 'spent a lot of time persuading the government economists to push their projections higher, raking them to the outer edges of credibility'. In other words, the Yes campaign suborned officials to present a fantastical vision of the riches an independent Scotland would enjoy. This is something worth remembering. The SNP are doubtless happy to win without lying but why take that risk when untruths may buttress the liberation cause? Economic self-interest does not always prevail and voters may cheerfully vote for their own impoverishment but, even so, this year's GERS festival is a reminder that the appeal of independence is for the time being strictly notional and hypothetical. That imaginary Scotland is a comfortable place to dwell but the nature of today's fiscal realities is such that even SNP politicians might be wary of asking the national question again. This is why, in the end, they are comfortable not asking it, for no amount of creative accountancy can make these sums add up.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
MoD refuses to say if Chagos deal counts toward defence spending
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The Sun
27 minutes ago
- The Sun
Savvy shoppers race to Claire's for ‘closing down' sales where earrings cost a PENNY as company file for administration
SHOPPERS are racing to get their hands on a piece of their childhood, as a wave of bargain hunting takes over social media. Following the news that Claire's has collapsed into administration, a frenzy of viral videos shows customers swarming stores to grab heavily discounted items. 2 One such shopper, TikToker Shivani Khosla, who is known as ' khoslaa ', shared a video of her rushing over to the high-street store, which was a staple for many Brits growing up. While explaining how she got her ears pierced at Claire's when she was five-years-old she filmed the inside of her local Claire's and challenged herself to see what she can get for £10. Shivani discovered that "right now, there is a sale. If you buy three items, you get the fourth one completely free." Her video gained 597.1k views and 491 comments after just two days of being shared. One person wrote: "Guys we need to save Claire's." Another TikToker who is known as ' toosexc4diswrld ' revealed that they even got a pair of earrings for a penny. Her video gained 2.6 million views and 866 comments after three days of being shared. One person wrote: "I'm going to miss this store." Nostalgic 90's retailer files for bankruptcy after chain misses rent payments for June and July The beloved high-street brand officially collapsed into administration, but all 306 stores across the UK and Ireland are set to remain open, with no jobs lost under the current plans. However, a number of changes will impact shoppers directly. Online orders have been suspended, and any outstanding orders that have not yet been shipped will be cancelled. Customers who placed these orders can expect to receive a refund. Meanwhile, orders that have already been dispatched will arrive as usual. In a further blow to customers, Claire's is no longer processing refunds for returns. Shoppers who have items to return may need to contact their credit or debit card provider to see if they can obtain a refund. Consultancy firm Interpath has appointed Will Wright and Chris Pole as joint administrators to manage the struggling company. 2 Mr Wright said: "Claire's has long been a popular brand across the UK, known not only for its trend-led accessories but also as the go-to destination for ear piercing. "Over the coming weeks, we will endeavour to continue to operate all stores as a going concern for as long as we can, while we assess options for the company. "This includes exploring the possibility of a sale which would secure a future for this well-loved brand." The current situation follows the Claire's parent company's second bankruptcy filing in the US this month, having previously declared itself bust over unpaid loans in 2018. Global presence Although Claire's has a global presence with 2,750 stores across 17 countries, reports suggest that the UK branch is not expected to find a buyer. A senior insolvency expert noted that potential buyers, such as Hilco Capital, have recently withdrawn their offers upon realising the severity of the chain's financial issues. Claire's UK division has faced financial difficulties, incurring losses of £25 million over the last three years. In the year ending March 2024, the company recorded a loss of £4.7 million, a slight improvement from the £5 million loss reported the year before. During the same period, its turnover declined to £137 million. How to look chic on a budget Fashion stylist Gemma Rose Breger, and beauty journalist Samantha Silver revealed how you can make your outfits elevated without spending hundreds of pounds. Don't ever spend on designer denim: River Island ''always has such a great selection of fashion-forward jeans that follow the current trends''. The high street retailer offers a great range of sizes to fit UK 6 - UK 18, and three leg lengths - and prices start from an affordable £25. There are no rules for jewels: ''Pick up something at a car boot sale, or charity shop, scroll on Vinted & eBay, snap up something from the clothing section in your local supermarket when doing the food shop or check out high street clothing stores.'' Don't forget the pre-loved sites: With a rising number of second-hand sites, such as Vinted and Depop, there's no excuse for not buying - or selling - pre-loved garments. Gemma, for instance, has managed to get her hands on chic Chanel sunnies for a mere £17.
