KATE Forbes is now promising to give Scotland an alternative to GERS as did Derek Mackay before her, but says we need to wait until after the pandemic.
Scotland does not need an alternative to GERS. GERS is not a useful economic analysis, it is political propaganda. Most of the GERS figures are estimates, very few of them are sound statistics with real relevance to the Scottish economy as it currency operates, and they are quite irrelevant to an independent Scottish economy.
What Scotland needs is not a rival propaganda publication, but a real, objective statistics-gathering agency which relates directly to the Scottish economy. This has been SNP policy for some time, but nothing has been done about it. It desperately needs attention now.
READ MORE: Kate Forbes 'committed' to producing pro-independence GERS data after pandemic
An economy without a good and effective agency collecting and collating statistics is like a submarine without a periscope. Moving around in the dark unable to see where it has been and where it is going.
Anyone who is serious about Scotland’s future, particularly a future which involves economic independence, will need to have the objective data in order to make intelligent judgements about the economy. This work, much delayed by the Scottish Government, is now urgent, not in order to show that the GERS figures are nonsense (most thinking people already know that), but much more importantly to help us direct our asset-rich economy into a sustainable and successful future.
Now I know that the pandemic is a good excuse for claiming that we can’t do things, but I do not believe it stops people from thinking and planning. I can’t understand why Kate can’t pay attention to this idea now and get the civil servants working on it.
Life has to go on in spite of the pandemic, and as far as I know it does not inhibit thinking and planning, so wait no longer Kate, give this subject the serious consideration it requires and let us know what you intend to do about it.
Andy Anderson
Saltcoats
HERE we go again. Every year the GERS roadshow slides into town, and the BBC trumpet the calls of the Brit Nat establishment who regale in telling Scotland how we’re too wee, too poor and too stupid to run our own country.
They always neglect to mention that the vast majority of economic powers still reside at Westminster – so if anyone is to blame for their made-up GERS figures then surely it is those with the power to do something about it!
But no, yet again, it’s Scotland that’s building up a massive black hole in the country’s finances – even though the Scottish Parliament and government have to balance the books, so how can we create such a massive debt?
READ MORE: George Kerevan: Why this year's GERS numbers are more problematic than ever
The answer is obvious – GERS is a piece of party political fiction, made-up figures simply to make Scots feel bad about themselves! If we are such a burden, why don’t the Brit Nats let us go? After all, the Tory government wouldn’t allow people to have a spare bedroom, o why have a country as part of the UK which – according to their figures – is such a massive drain on resources?
The answer is simple. GERS is made-up nonsense. It’s time we produced our own figures and highlighted to the public just how much Scotland subsidises the rest of the UK. It’s time to take control of our own resources. That will only come with independence.
Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley
GERS 20-21 should be called “UKGERS”. Most of its figures, many estimated, come from UK Government data. Much of the expenditure and revenue in it are controlled by the UK Government. GERS has been published since 1992. GER Northern Ireland, GER Wales and GER England have never been published. What is the UK Government hiding by this non-publication?
E Campbell
Newton Mearns
IT is misleading and irresponsible for commentators and some politicians – who should know better – to persist in referring to Scotland’s “budget deficit”. The devolution settlement that set up the Scottish Parliament expressly provided that the Holyrood Parliament was legally prohibited to spend more than it receives from Westminster. Thus the Scottish Parliament cannot – by law – have a deficit. When people refer to Scotland’s “deficit”, they mean Scotland’s population share of the UK’s deficit. But this has been incurred by the Westminster government and Scotland has not contributed to it because we are not allowed to overspend by law. When Scotland becomes an independent country again, it’s possible that we might accept part of this deficit as a gesture of goodwill, but let’s not continue to encourage this myth of “Scotland’s deficit”.
Peter Swain
Dunbar
THE SNP saying they will have indyref2 after the Covid pandemic has played into Unionist hands big time. They will thrive on lies and deceit, and spin the truth into any form they choose to.
Glen Peters
Paisley
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