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impeachblair

Listed below are comments made by impeachblair between Saturday, 18th October 2008 and Tuesday, 28th October 2008.

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HBOS and the theory of moral sentiments 7:46pm on 28 Oct 2008 1. At 1:46pm on 28 Oct 2008, Neil_Small147 wrote:
“2007 he did not want further regulation”

I am fairly sure I remember when this particular red herring entered the political debate.

I believe it was a london reporter who in full entrapment mode, asked AS and I paraphrase:
“If the UK has to run the FSA with a cost of £250MpA (now over £300MpA), how could Scotland afford to do it.”

AS responded in the way others have correctly recorded, but the comment was directed at the cost of the operation not its remit.

Years ago the DTI and BoE used to regulate all insurance and banking companies, I know, I had on occasion to visit their offices and explain our company’s performance, risk position and capital adequacy. It was a rigorous operation run by sharp minded civil servants within a not particularly complicated legal framework.

I would beg to suggest it was cheaper and a good deal more effective than the FSA we now have and who have admitted their recent failure to properly regulate the banks.

Of course the real failure was the dimantling of the supporting legal framework by the US and UK Governments in their headlong rush to deregulate.
Silencing the analysts 2:01pm on 25 Oct 2008 62. At 11:38pm on 24 Oct 2008, oldnat wrote

Thank you oldnat, not come across this before. A very well written piece, enough to back me blink back the tears
Superman or Clark Kent? 5:51pm on 19 Oct 2008 213. At 4:53pm on 19 Oct 2008, rabbiehippo wrote:

#207 Impeachblair ...Rolls Royce have an engine service facility at East Kilbride. Also bear in mind that if Beardie's (Branson) space project 'takes off' no pun intended then Scotland will have joined the Space Race abeit in a small way. That famous quote from the film Armageddon springs to mind ' have they found oil on Uranus' lol.

Actually that is only one of several Rolls Royce sites in Scotland, Inchinnan being probably the biggest and most highly skilled.
Superman or Clark Kent? 5:33pm on 19 Oct 2008 215. At 5:16pm on 19 Oct 2008, Anaxim wrote

Well that is a nice constructive comment to add to the debate.

I suggest you go back and follow the thread and you will see what I said in context. The person it was addressed appreciated the posts even if you, in your ignorance, do not.

I also suggest you read some of my posts on my user profile. I had referred to the Life Sciences and to Nano-technology among others,
and if you think pumps, pipe laying, or operating at increasing depths are low tech or no tech I also suggest you do a bit of research.
Superman or Clark Kent? 4:53pm on 19 Oct 2008 211. At 4:34pm on 19 Oct 2008, gedguy2 wrote

Well said sir
Superman or Clark Kent? 3:56pm on 19 Oct 2008 process and will evolve to suit the needs of Scotland.
203. At 2:43pm on 19 Oct 2008, Planejock

Isn’t it pleasant to have a discussion and debate without rants, insults and juvenile put-downs?

England is after all, by population, 11 times bigger than Scotland. So the scale of industries is generally bound to be larger.
That is certainly true for agriculture. However, if the s*** were to really hit the fan Scotland being self sufficient in quality food and able to export it is a very good thing!

The same is true of energy production and oil exports. Remember too that renewable energy really has blessed us too, particularly in tidal, wave and hydro; there is huge potential here in production, but also in the design, engineering and building of it.

I didn’t mention aerospace as it is represented in both countries, Rolls Royce has a major manufacturing facility in the West of Scotland, and I believe some of the Airbus work is also done here. Add to that that the nascent space industry is also well represented in both countries.

Scotland is also a world leader in a number of technologies, like Nano-tech, life sciences, medical physics as well as the afore mentioned petroleum engineering etc so we are certainly not only an agri/energy economy.
Superman or Clark Kent? 1:25pm on 19 Oct 2008 198. At 12:22pm on 19 Oct 2008, nursebill

I suggest you look at my 114 above. In theory the GERS report takes all the taxation and revenue and works out the Government income and expenditure for Scotland. There are various assumptions in it necessitated by Scotland’s continuing integration in the UK.
Over the years it has steadily improved in its accuracy as economists, academics and accountants have challenged various aspects of it, and the civil servants who prepare it have accepted these challenges and amended the methodology. It is still very much a work in progress and is only a statement of Government taxes and expenditure.

To address your concern the last GERS showed Scotland could be independent with the existing tax regime and be about 8% better off than it currently is in the UK. The next one should show an even better picture.

Clearly when we are independent the tax regime will be the subject of the democratic process and will evolve to suit the needs of Scotland.
Superman or Clark Kent? 12:30pm on 19 Oct 2008 179. At 00:48am on 19 Oct 2008, Planejock wrote:
cynicalHighlander #146

”….I remind you, your 44:
Quote
Scotland has a more varied economy base and if markets fail the impact will be far less severe.
Unquote”

Just noticed your post, hope cynicalHighlander won’t mind me making just a few suggestions:

The place of farming in Scotland’s economy, whilst relatively small, is still very much different to that in, specifically England. We export £4-5Billions in foodstuffs every year, mostly to the rest of the UK.
England has a substantial agri-sector but it is swamped by the size of the population, so they have to import most of their food.

Scotland has between 65-70% of the remaining fishing capacity in the UK; one of the reasons that the SNP wish to lead Common Fisheries negotiations with the EU as other regional governments do elsewhere in Europe. Add to this too the substantial shellfish industry on the West Coast which exports all over Europe.

In both farming and fishing the UK Government have taken unilateral and cavalier decisions that are damaging not just to these sectors in Scotland but also in NI and Wales. Why? Because in a UK context, where large scale industrial farming and the free market are admired, food security and food-miles comes well down the priority scale.

It should go without saying that our oil and gas sector is a big difference between us and the rest of the UK, not just in extraction, but in exploration technology, sub-sea technology, pipe-laying tech etc. Aberdeen is used as the base for most non-US oil development; it is English speaking and now has a huge indigenous skill base.

Our electricity generation is another area where Scotland and, again specifically England differ. We currently export, mainly to England about 25% of our generation.
England imports electricity from France and us.

Tourism as a share of the Scottish economy is also much larger than in England, and it should be larger still. The examples set by Austria, Switzerland and Ireland show that we could do much better. Austria in particular, a country always consider poor and backward by Germany and Switzerland, was trumpeting two years ago, that they had overtaken Germany in per capita wealth. While the ill concealed animosity is not something to be admired, their dedication and hard work to build their economy, particularly around tourism, is definitely worth admiration.

Just a few suggestions, there are others I could post on but that should be enough to be going on with.
Superman or Clark Kent? 4:57pm on 18 Oct 2008 Good to see people quoting the GERS report, which whilst still well short of perfect is a reasonable starting point.

It has to be remembered that it was started by Sec of State Scotland Lang back in the Tory years as an attempt to undermine the independence argument.

Prepared as it is by civil servants it gave the appearance of independence that the Government needed. However, as it was challenged over the years by genuine independents, the allocation errors and inappropriate assumptions that have come out have largely favoured Scotland; the latest two, last year and this, being £800M and £1000M in Scotland’s favour.

Various points came out of the last GERS the principal one being (as clearly shown in the conclusion).

The First point:

If oil revenue were allocated on a geographic basis (as it would be if we were independent) Scotland would have had a budget SURPLUS of £0.8Billion in 06/07. This when the UK had a budget DEFICIT of over £30Billion. Hence the obvious conclusion to anyone other than a rabid Unionist that Scotland is subsidising the UK. To be in the same position as the UK the report should have shown a deficit of £2.7Billions (9% of the UK), so we were better of by £3.5Billion. (2.7Billions and 0,8Billion)

For the avoidance of doubt I quote the relevant passage below:

“In 2006-07, the estimated current budget balance for the public sector in Scotland was a deficit of £6.7 billion (6.4 per cent of GDP) excluding North Sea revenue, a deficit of £6.0 billion (5.5 per cent of GDP) including a per capita share of North Sea revenue or a surplus of £0.8 billion (0.7 per cent of GDP) including an estimated geographical share of North Sea revenue.”

When 07/08 is published it will show a surplus of at least £4-5Billions, as Grant Thornton the Accountants reported a few months ago. Taking the subsidy to the UK to about 7-8 Billions in that year.

The Second point:

That there are allowances in it where Scotland pays for the services provided for it, predominantly in London, on reserved areas e.g. contributions to the MOD HQ op, Trade, Foreign, and Westminster etc.
It is very unlikely, if Scotland were independent, that we would continue to fund our share of these operations in London. The work would be done in Scotland, and the taxes these civil servants pay would be paid into a Scottish Exchequer i.e. more jobs not less and more taxation income not less.
Superman or Clark Kent? 1:56pm on 18 Oct 2008 It is very disappointing to see the negative posting on Ireland’s economy; these are after all our friends and allies in the EU. Add the schadenfreude that after years of 6-8%pA growth they are finally in recession and the comments becomes vile and distasteful.

As I have posted before it is an easy and patronising piece of nonsense that their prosperity is all down to EU subsidies received since they joined.

Some (real) facts may help:

Ireland joined the EU in 1973 with Denmark and the UK, 35 years ago.

Up to last year they had received a net total of around 40 Billion Euros. At current exchange rates that is about 32Billion pounds sterling, but at average exchange rates over the period it is closer to 28 Billion sterling, i.e. they got about £800 Million on average a year.

Naturally the amount and the % to GDP varied in this 35 year period, it is now around 1% of Irish GDP, in 2000 it was just lest than 2%. And at its highest it reach almost 6%, though this was back in the late 70's.

The reason for this modest support was, of course, because their economy was starting from a low base. As they grew their economy the net amount has shrunk, and they will shortly become a net contributor.

It is interesting to compare the above experience of Ireland as a sovereign state in a loose Union like the EU, and their parlous state in what was often a repressive Union with Great Britain.

To put these amounts into context, they are dwarfed by the subsidies Scotland has been making per annum over the same period from the taxation on her natural resources - to the greater good of the UK Treasury.

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