5 days ago
Gers figures give anti-indy press something to write about
IT'S Gersmas Day, when British nationalist Santa puts supporters of Scottish independence on the naughty list and the anti-independence Scottish media, which is to say almost all of it, crows triumphantly about how much of an economic basket case Scotland supposedly is.
That's thanks to the annual release of the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures, which purport to show Scots the extent to which they depend on the largesse of the UK Treasury.
Apparently, it's a testament to the success of Westminster rule that a literal power house like Scotland is incapable of supporting itself financially. It's an odd definition of success, but with the GERS figures we long ago passed through the mirror into the topsy turvy world of Westminster Wonderland.
Gersmas Day has been going on so long that it has developed its own rituals. The Scottish Secretary makes an announcement about the cash amount which each individual Scottish person allegedly benefits from Westminster's munificence. This year it's £2669.
Oh goodie! Can I get mine in National Lottery scratch cards please? You've got a much better chance of financially benefiting from a lottery ticket than you do from the Westminster government.
Meanwhile anti-independence campaigners who view GERS as Holy Writ denounce heretical "GERS deniers" who have their own Gersmas ritual, which is the temerity to point out that the GERS figures tell us absolutely nothing about the finances of an independent Scotland.
As financial services consultancy Deloitte noted in 2017: "Commentators suggested that, under these conditions [the global slump in oil prices that year], Scotland would struggle to operate as an independent country. However, GERS data is produced for Scotland as part of the UK - it does not model scenarios for an independent Scotland in which the Scottish government would be enabled to make its own fiscal choices."
Independence supporters also point out every Gersmas that this annual charade was instituted in 1992 by then Conservative Scottish Secretary Ian Lang as a tool to use against his political opponents who were arguing in favour of greater Scottish self-government. 33 years later the figures are still performing the same job. In a leaked memo written at the time Lang wrote: "I judge that [GERS] is just what is needed at present in our campaign to maintain the initiative and undermine the other parties. This initiative could score against all of them."
The campaign to which Lang was referring was the campaign for the creation of a Scottish Parliament which the Conservatives vigorously opposed, mounting a scaremongering campaign which alleged that the creation of a Scottish Parliament would lead to massive tax rises and the decimation of Scottish public services. Decades later, the Westminster parties are still deploying scare stories from the same playbook to argue against greater Scottish self-government.
The reality is that the GERS figures have long since ceased to make a credible or meaningful contribution to Scotland's constitutional debate, opponents of independence still view them with veneration as though they were chiseled on tablets of stone by God himself and handed down to his faithful on Mount Sinai, while supporters of independence see them as discredited political tools which only distort and mislead the debate, but we continue to go through this annual farce every August as it is politically useful to the Westminster government.
It also supplies the anti-independence Scottish press with something to write about during the silly season when there's otherwise a dearth of political news.
Vacay Vance scheduled to infest Scotland
Vacay Vance, the American Vice President who is now on his sixth holiday since taking office in January, including a trip to Ohio during which Vance had the Army Corps of Engineers raise the level of the Little Miami River in order to improve his kayaking experience, is currently in the UK, staying at a luxury mansion in the Cotswolds, and is reportedly scheduled to infest Scotland later this week.
All that performative cruelty and milking the public purse is exhausting and the poor dear needs a break.
Vance is only following the example of his boss Trump, who has spent approximately a quarter of his time since taking office in January on golf trips. While Vance takes one holiday after another paid for by the American taxpayer and inflicts costs on Scottish taxpayers too, who have to foot the not inconsiderable bill for his police protection, his Republican party colleagues in Missouri have just voted to strip any rights to sick leave from workers in the state.
The US is the only OECD country without a nationally mandated minimum standard for paid employee leave. On average US employees get just ten days annual leave, many get less than this and millions have no paid leave at all.
As an Ayrshire resident I am starting to suspect that the county is cursed. We were inflicted with Donald Trump and his spawn at the end of July, and now Ayrshire is due to become the latest stop off in Vance's perma-holiday with Vance and his entourage staying at the luxury Carnell Estates near Hurlford, which played host to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie when Pitt was in Glasgow filming the zombie horror movie World War Z in 2013. Vance is also expected to pay a visit to Trump's golf estate at Turnberry.
The visit has once again highlighted Vance's lies about Scotland earlier this year when he falsely claimed that Scotland's abortion buffer zone laws criminalise Christians praying privately in their own homes. Today, the annual US State Department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, also hit out at what it described as 'serious restrictions' on freedom of expression in the UK.
The report specifically said laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, pointing to 'safe access zones' curbed expression, including silent protests and prayer.
Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay – who spearheaded the abortion buffer zones legislation said: 'JD Vance has made a career of spreading misinformation and sowing mistrust in order to gain power and influence. The Vice President's absurd lies haven't just been about eating cats and dogs in Ohio; he has lied about Scotland.
'Earlier this year, JD Vance made false claims on an international stage about Scotland's buffer zones law, which prevents harassment and intimidation of patients outside abortion clinics, a bill proudly passed by the Scottish Greens.'
She added: 'Now, whilst his extremist government is attacking LGBTQ+ and women's rights, illegally arresting innocent civilians on the streets, arming Israel's genocide in Gaza and wrecking our climate, he thinks that he can peacefully run away from it all to enjoy a holiday in our country.
'Let's set this clear: the toxic misinformation of JD Vance is a threat to democracy and freedom around the world.'
