Posted on 10/08/2012 2:01:42 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Almost nine out of 10 Scottish households take more from the public purse than they contribute in taxes thanks to a “rotten system” of state patronage, the Tory party conference will hear on Monday.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, is to highlight official figures showing that only 283,080 households north of the border – 12 per cent of the total – pay more in tax than they receive in public services.
She will tell delegates that, because the public sector is seen as the key provider of everything from housing to employment, state spending now accounts for more than half Scotland’s wealth.
She will blame Alex Salmond, the SNP First Minister, and his Labour predecessors for nurturing a “corrosive sense of entitlement” among voters that has prevented her party making a comeback in Scotland.
Miss Davidson will argue this Left-wing “stranglehold” suits Labour and the SNP but has made it difficult for the Tories as so many voters are reliant on the public sector for their household income.
But the Nationalists described it as her “Mitt Romney moment”, in a reference to the Republican presidential candidate’s comments that 47 per cent of Americans pay no income tax and are dependent on the state.
According to the most recent figures, Scotland contributed 9.6 per cent of Britain’s tax take and accounted for 9.3 per cent of public spending.
Her strongly worded attack on state patronage follows David Cameron’s warning. But Miss Davidson will tell the conference that Scotland’s “staggering” and “frightening” reliance on the public sector must be taken into account.
“The rotten system of patronage, which denies so many people real choices in their lives, has created a corrosive sense of entitlement which suits its political gang masters,” she will say. “Only 12 per cent
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If it wasn’t for James Watt, we’d still be sailing under canvas.
Thank God Carnegie came here as a boy....or the city I live in, love, and call home would be a minor trading post on the 3 rivers.
That would be one of the side-benefits I suppose. I found it particularly galling when the last Labour government use Scottish MPs to ram home health and social healthcare legislation that only applied in England and Wales. That has got to stop, whatever happens. In a post-devolution Britain, Scottish MPs should have no say on legislation that only applies to England or England and Wales...
That would be one of the side-benefits I suppose. I found it particularly galling when the last Labour government use Scottish MPs to ram home health and social healthcare legislation that only applied in England and Wales. That has got to stop, whatever happens. In a post-devolution Britain, Scottish MPs should have no say on legislation that only applies to England or England and Wales...
Isn’t socialism grand?
I don’t recall seeing anything in Devo-Max that would preclude Scottish MPs from going to Westminster and voting on English matters.
God give her strength.
“If it wasn’t for James Watt, we’d still be sailing under canvas.”
Actually, that is nonsense. If he didn’t invent a practical steam engine, someone else would have. Technological advancement doesn’t rely on any one technical genius, it is more about the pre-existing technological foundation being there to allow the innovation to take place.
This is illustrated by the fact that the electric lightbulb was invented at almost the exact same time by Englishman Joseph Swann and Thomas Edison in the late 1870s...
It is never wise to anger a Scottish woman. It will not end well for those who do
It's illogical to consider govt spending as "wealth".
The Left has swept my good people away.
never tell a Scotsman he is british. you may think it true but trust me it is not
Several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave are also dependents...
Been listening to a Teaching Company course on the Tudor-Stewart period in history and its legacy.
The Act of Union when it was passed gave the Scots more representation than their tax base percentage, gave them the trading advantage that England held for its home ports with the related advantage in taxes and commerce, and picked up a lot of the Scottish debt including big missteps in trying to set up a port/trading company in Panama. It was why the Scotts went for it and the country profited by having the English economy subsidize them for many years dispite taking a second class status in many regards.
They were somewhat sold out for bribes as the landed debt holders in Scotland came out the best (along with the Presbyterian Church).
Interesting course.
Yeah, I know.
Willi Messerschmitt and Frank Whittle came up with the jet engine within days of each other.
But don’t rain on my grand flow of history, K?
;-)
This is the argument the pro-separation forces are using -- and, by all accounts, the numbers are accurate. And, recently, a FReeper used it to to challenge my assertion that Scotland is a welfare-dependent country.
There is wealth in Scotland that could support its welfare state. But it's wealth that is concentrated in a few highly-political sectors: banking and North Sea oil as examples.
Scotland has a very unbalanced economy. A large underclass and a very few large, politically well-connected, profitable industries. I don't know that it can sustain itself without England's political clout and fall-back economic support.
Wallace didn’t fight for the right of individual Scots to be free, a concept that didn’t really exist at the time.
He fought so Scots as a nation could be free of domination by foreigners (the English.)
By that definition. as such, North Korea is a free nation.
Wallace was a brave man, though the movie was about as historically inaccurate as it could possibly be.
But Wallace wasn’t fighting for the Scots’ inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Not to mention the phone. Elisha Gray and Alex Bell.
Johann Philipp Reis in 1861, actually. Though later improved upon by Bell et al.
While the Scottish public may be a net drain on the U.K.'s public finances, I'm not sure Scotland is. Don't forget most of the North Sea oil in the U.K.'s territorial waters and economic zone would go with Scotland. Were it not for the North Sea oil, I suspect the Tories would be (at least covertly) backing the SNP's independence push.
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