Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Economic ignorance

Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 01 October 2008
Andy Kerr's remarks that sovereign wealth funds have less buying power as a result of the credit crunch (Burning Issue, 29 September) shows his blatant ignorance of world economics.
As a former finance minister of an oil-producing nation, Mr Kerr should know better than most the huge benefits oil has brought to the countries blessed with black gold in their territories.

To quote the McCrone report, hidden by senior Scottish Labour Party figures, oil has made several countries "rich beyond their wildest dreams". That is, all oil-producing countries except Scotland.

If Mr Kerr and his colleagues were not so eager to hide Scotland's oil wealth and to tell Scots that an independent nation would be bound for failure, he might realise that it should be a Scottish oil fund investing in infrastructure rather than offering opportunities to other oil funds.

Instead of continuing to champion the Private Finance Initiative, therefore encouraging a further debt splurge (at a time of exorbitant credit costs), Mr Kerr would be advised to consider working with the First Minister to encourage a wide and diverse range of investors to Scotland.

CALUM MACKENZIE

Littlejohn Avenue

Edinburgh





Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 30 September 2008 8:55 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Sierra Foothills Scot,

Diamond Springs 01/10/2008 02:23:32
There are many valid reasons for Scotland to be independent. One is financial. For more than 30 years the UK government have been deliberately lying to the Scottish people about the true financial situation of Scotland. Through machinations such as the Barnett formula they have implanted the myth that Scotland is being subsidised by the rest of the UK in the minds of the English, Welsh, Northern Irish and, sadly, also most Scots.

All tax proceeds from North Sea business are funneled into a classification called Extra Regio Territories, which the UK government invented specifically to prevent Scotland from getting its legitimate share. The UK government conceived this fictional contrivance when Professor RGL McCrone presented his report, ‘The Economics of Nationalism Re-examined’ in April 1975. This report, classified secret and suppressed for 30 years, is now available at tinyurl.com/3sdrdg.

The UK government have been deliberately misallocating Scotland's revenues and expenses – to Scotland's serious disadvantage – for many years in its ‘Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland’ (GERS) reports. GERS 2005 (available at tinyurl.com/5kau8o) showed in Table 5.2 that Scotland had a £6.0 billion deficit even if it received 100% of North Sea revenue.

Niall Aslen, a respected professional accountant with 33 years experience who specialises in forensic accounting, analysed GERS 2005. He used the UK government’s own figures to expose the misallocations. Mr Aslen’s restatement showed a £4.7 billion surplus even if Scotland received only 95% of North Sea revenue. Mr Aslen’s reallocations are fully explained in ‘The Great Deception’, 22 March 2007 (available at tinyurl.com/69df5h). The UK government’s variance was £10.7 billion. If a plc had cooked its books half as egregiously, its directors would be jailed.

The Scotland Office, the Scottish Executive and the Scottish press attempted to suppress Mr Aslen's analysis. Thanks to the internet, many people becam
2

Sierra Foothills Scot,

Diamond Springs 01/10/2008 02:24:12
The Scotland Office, the Scottish Executive and the Scottish press attempted to suppress Mr Aslen's analysis. Thanks to the internet, many people became aware of it in time to influence the May 2007 election. The new Scottish Government directed that the next GERS should be developed by civil servants who were not under the influence of any political party. The result was GERS 2006-2007, published in June 2008 (available at tinyurl.com/5kc7sp).

GERS 2006-2007 presents three scenarios for the allocation of North Sea revenues to Scotlsnd – a zero share, a per capita share, and an “illustrative” geographical share of 83%. The “llustrative” scenario shows that Scotland has a £0.8 billion surplus. “Illustrative” is in quotes because the UK government and/or the Calman Commission are likely to consider it the actual share, which it definitely is not.

GERS 2006-2007 is an improvement over earlier editions, but Mr Aslen noted that it is heavily based on estimated figures and contains some serious allocation errors. Using HM Treasury’s actual cash flows, he showed that Scotland’s surplus was £10.8 billion, not the £0.8 billion presented in the report. The £10.0 billion variance is similar to the GERS 2004-2005 variance of £10.7 billion. These discrepancies were noted, corrected and fully explained in Mr Aslen’s paper, “The Great Obfuscation”, completed on 29 August 2008 (available at tinyurl.com/6h57dh).

The £10.0 billion variance in GERS 2006-2007 means that every man, woman and child in Scotland’s approximately 5.1-million population has been short-changed by roughly £1,961 million.
3

Linda,

Edinburgh 01/10/2008 07:39:11
A great idea from SNP and this must be put in place to-day to save HBOS from further meltdown.

I hope those journalists and politicians who mocked Alex Salmond for saying an independent Scotland could not save HBOS (at an alleged figure of £100 billion) will now apologise.

The Irish government has guaranteed all (100%) deposits in Irish banks and all money borrowed by the banks from other financial institutions to the extent of £320 billions.
4

Linda,

Edinburgh 01/10/2008 08:02:39
Where is the press coverage for ALMOST half of young people in Scotland believe the country would be better off as an independent nation, according to a survey of 6000 youngsters by the Scottish Youth Parliament.

They found 47.3 per cent supported independence, compared
to 25 per cent who opposed it. However, 27.3 percent of the 6000
people asked said they "weren't sure".

The parliament will be reporting their findings to the Scottish
Commission on Devolution. They have produced a manifesto, "Our'
Scotland", setting out their hopes for the future.

What will the Calman Commission say about that?
5

Alastair the First,

01/10/2008 09:02:15
The words "Andy Kerr" and "ignorance" in the same sentence. Never seen that before. Well, not since yesterday.
6

Calum10,

01/10/2008 09:38:06
Andy Kerr gets paid to talk down Scotland. If you are a Scots with aspirations then you will be attacked by the Labour movement, be it Labour politician, union leader or Labour hack.

Scotland doesn't need enemies when it has the Labour party.
7

G,

dndy 01/10/2008 10:24:08
If we would be so well off as an independent nation, why isn't this the SNP's priority ?

Apparently, according to Linda (but be careful of her figures), there is some support for independence in Scotland. Where is the referendum??
Why are the SNP so scared to push their only policy?

8

G,

dundy 01/10/2008 12:48:34
If the Lab leader is guilty of economic ignorance, what about the SNP idea that we should follow the incredibly expensive Irish model of guaranteeing all bank accounts?
Considering that in the UK up to £ 50 000 PER ACCOUNT is already guaranteed it seems that the SNP favour committing huge amounts of taxpayers money to guarantee that the rich (and/or the very dim and very rich)can sleep more peacefully.....

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.