Does England subsidise Scotland?

North sea oil is owned by the UK, not Scotland.

Who decided that?

Is the fish off the cornwall coast jointly owned by Scotland?

Trouble is the Scots really believe the English are ripping them off:(

...like Northern Rock for example?

McK.

Depends which figure you use for comparison.

In terms of the block grant he is probably right.

However, the block grant is supposed to pay only for devolved services and expenditure. There are a number of non devolved expenditures that are paid for by the UK Exchequer directly and are still enjoed by the Scots including:

Defence Border control. Diplomatic services Pensions and benefits (biggie) Customs and Revenue services The cost of Westminster government. The UK Civil Service DEFRA Department of the Environment Coastguard Fisheries Protection Motor vehicle and Driving licence registration. Air traffic control Highways Agency Transport Regulation.

Add in the pro rata cost of that little lot and his argument will be nowhere near so convincing.

Sotland will need to make provision for virtually all of these were in to become independent.

Much of which of course these days relates to non-UK-wide matters.

Ditto.

No, this is a devolved area

As is this.

And this.

And (most of) this.

Sorry, I missed fisheries protection, which is also devolved.

It's all here:

If Scotland was independant then they could be free from the EU therefore their waters will be theirs.

Skirtwearing very good. Been Morris dancing recently.

Maybe they can rename Britian "ængland".

And how much will they spend on a navy to protect them ?

If England will be better off without Scotland and given there are more pandas in Scotland than tory MPS then why is Cameron against a split.

Because he is the Prime Minister of the UK and not of England. As such he is committed to preserving the integrity of the UK. He will not be Prime Minister of the Uk for ever any more than the Tory party will win every UK General Election from now on.

This is not a party issue. The Tories, Labour and Liberal Democratic parties are all pretty much in accord and will share a platform when the time comes.

Because there is no way Scotland could sustain it's current standard of living without the union. We'll see a slow exodus of Scots into the rest of the Union (but primarily England) which will cause enormous social problems. It's enlightened self interest.

I feel sorry for Scottish folk who feel "dictated to" by Westminster. But overall Scotland has done well out of the Union, something that will become painfully clear if real[1] independence is ever granted.

[1]The more the Scots crow about being "independent" the harder it will be for English politicians to justify any state of affairs where it is *perceived* that money is flowing from England to Scotland.

but if Scotland were an independant state the median line would mean that most of the oil would have been Scottish.

Robert

I would like to see DC asking the rest of the union if we want Scotland to remain part of the UK, might take the wind out of the sails of Alex Salmond if we vote to kick them out, no need for him to have a referendum.

Lets have our say first, make it easy for him, then as the costs of running Scotland mount up, and they have to raise taxes to pay for it all, he can have his "finest hour"

The problem is, if the UK did expel Scotland, their standard of living would fall faster than Weimar republic Germany. We'd have an unbroken line of refugees heading for England, with the associated civil unrest that implies.

No one I have spoken with seems to have mustered any firm opinion on the subject in the same way they don't really have any firm opinion on whether they should use cross-head or slot-head screws in building the Mars rover. With the exception of a couple of Scots colleagues. They are against independence, and have a surprisingly low opinion of Mr. Salmond.

Yes!! Why on earth should it be left to the Scots? Surely we have a say too?? It is OUR Union too!

I am living in Scotland and expect HUGE tax rises before long:( Salmond is keeping us sweet atm with free this and free that. It won't last and we will have to pay for it hugely when he gets the power he wants.

I think the Scots are more canny than that ... I suspect Salmond is jockeying for the "devolution plus" option, hence his fury that Cameron has suggested a straight YES/NO referendum.

There is some truth to the view that Scotland is like a teenager, still living at home (in the UK). They want their own space, but forget who's paying the bills, washing their clothes, and providing them with meals.

Yeahbut the point is that Scotland would decide what Scotland wants. I'm sure they don't want much of the UK's defence nonsense ;-)

The issue of a Scottish direct and indirect taxation system has been alive and ignored for years - it's when the totals of what they get and what they think they want are seen that the answer to this question (gain/lose) will become clear.

However, what price freedom? ;-)

Rob