As part of the annual tradition of GERS report day, this morning Scotland's Unionist politicians have all been taking turns to step into the limelight and claim the figures should totally banish the mere thought of Scottish independence until the end of time.
Obviously Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson couldn't resist jumping on the bandwagon and, after retweeting a thread from Better Together's very own Blair McDougall on why the data is so troubling, she posted something to Twitter herself.
READ MORE: GERS report – everything you need to know about today's figures
Firstly, the Tory MSP compared Scotland's deficit to three other European countries. The only difference of course was that those countries are already independent and therefore comparing them like-to-like would be pretty unfair. But that didn't matter to Ruth who went ahead and did it anyway.
Official figures show Scotland is running a 7% deficit - the highet in Europe. The next highest are
— Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP) August 21, 2019
Cyprus - 4.8%
Romania - 3%
France - 2.5%
And the overall UK's deficit has been brought down to 1.1%
For the SNP to pretend a 7% deficit is not an issue is criminally negligent.
Then, Davidson wrote: "For the SNP to pretend a 7% deficit is not an issue is criminally negligent."
What's that? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's an elephant in the room.
For a Tory to make such a suggestion the very week that a document showing the true extent of the damage a No-Deal Brexit would do to the UK was leaked is shameful. To call a government "criminally negligent" for its lack of concern over a perfectly normal deficit, while the leader of the Tory Government is allegedly "hell-bent" on forcing the UK out of the EU with no agreement, is an embarrassing move from Davidson.
We weren't the only ones to see the issues in her post.
One comment read: "You're basically telling the world that unionism is not working for Scotland, because all those countries are independent. Thank you for the marvellous contribution that you make towards Scottish independence"
You're basically telling the world that unionism is not working for Scotland, because all those countries are independent. Thank you for the marvellous contribution that you make towards Scottish independence 💙
— WG Saraband 🏴🇵🇹🏳️🌈 (@wgsaraband) August 21, 2019
Another pointed out the problem with suggesting the deficit is solely a result of Scottish Government policy.
For @RuthDavidsonMSP to claim the deficit is solely due to SNP is criminally negligent. To ignore the fact that Westminster spends and borrows & generates disproportionate deficit to Scotland for things we don’t want (Trident) or won’t benefit from (HS2) is criminally negligent.
— Lesley Cameron (@Elsee29) August 21, 2019
And of course Brexit didn't go unmentioned.
Scotland is not running a deficit. It is not allowed to as a colony. These figures are highly contestable. The criminally negligent policy is the Tories brexit but you are silent on this.
— Stuart Farquhar (@StuartSFarquhar) August 21, 2019
Scottish Secretary AlisterJack and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard have also spoken out against the GERS report.
READ MORE: This is how Scotland's politicians reacted to the GERS resport
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