In response to Mairis request I am re-posting my rebuttal of the leaflet Kirsty got through her door. 10 reasons why Falkirk is Better Together. In response to a leaflet popped through my door from Better Together entitled Falkirk Parents Say We are Better Together with 10 reasons to vote NO. 1. We want the best of both worlds. A Scottish parliament with more powers an opportunities of being part of one of the biggest economies in the world. With all the main parties supporting bringing more decision making to Scotland. RESONSE. Torys are not a main party in Scotland. We have more pandas than tory MSPs. The main parties last week were adamant they would not have tri party agreement on Devo Powers, this week they are jumping in bed together. The house of Lords have just secretly stripped Scotland of its right to issue Scottish Renewable Obligation certificates, Gordon Brown wants to remove our education powers and place them under Westminster. AAlastair Carmichael states that the only powers guranteed are those already in the Scotland Act. No more powers. The UK are rated the 16th wealthiest nation in the world. An independent Scotland would be placed 14th (and that is without oil). So, a bigger economy alone than together. 2. Higher public spending. As part of UK Scotland will have £1400 to spend per head to spend on public services. RESPONSE George Osbourne has vowed to cut public spending in Scotland initially by £4 billion with a further £25 billion to come. 3. Influence and Impact. As part of the UK we are on the UN Security Council and we have 270 embassies worldwide helping Scots companies and travellers.. We are one of the big nations setting the agenda, and the UK has been voted the most culturally influential nation on earth. Response. Scotland will remain part of the UK until 2016. During this time we can and will establish neccessary embassies and consulates to serve the needs of Scots abroad. There is no suggestion that Scotland cannot sit on the UN Security council. And truly, do we need to. It has been shown time and again NATo and the security council are all but powerless. Having no sanctions from the UN, the UK took us into an illegal war. Watch the news and see the consequences of that one. Many other independent countries form the UN security Council Why would Scotland be different? 4. More security and a force for good in the world. The UK armed forces are the best trained in the world. As part of the UK we are protected by an army, navy and air force far bigger than we could pay for on our own. RESPONSE. Between 2000 and 2010 Ministry of Defence personnel in Scotland were cut by 27.9%. This is much higher than the equivalent UK cut of 11.6%.. From 2002-2008 there was a £5.622 billion under spend on defence forces in Scotland. Scottish taxpayers put in much more than is spent in Scotland. The 2011-12 Scotland contribution to UK defence spending was £3.4 billion. Countries of a similar size to Scotland have effective military units which are sustained at far lower cost than the Westminster model. As of 2010, Denmark spent 1.4% of GDP on defence. Norway spent 1.5% and Finland spent 1.6%. 5. A Scottish NHS and the specialist treatment you need. We make the decisions here in Scotland about our NHS but we also benefit from cost free access to specialist treatment anywhere in the UK. RESPONSE NHS has always been an idependent entity from NHS England. We have always applied for treatment elsewhere as and when needed, the same as any other european country does. This would NOT change after independence. It is NOT cost free, it is paid for by NHS Scotland and would coontinue to be. 6. Lower fuel bills and more jobs. Scotland has massive green energy potential. The cost of building wind and wave generators is shared across 26 million households.... Ill halt that one here. RESPONSE Answered their own argument there. SCOTLAND has massive green energy. BT has just contracted to buy all its energy needs from Scottish renewable energy. Wind generators are not made here, they were invented here, but refusal to invest by Westminster means we have to source that technology from Germany/Denmark. Lets not allow that to happen to other renewable energies being developed here. 7. More Jobs and more customers. Scotland sells twice as much to the rUK than the rest of the world. Exports to UK total £47.5 Billion with £25 billions worth of exports to the rest of the world. RESPONSE Why would this stop? we have the product the rUK need it. Its called supply and demand. much of Scotland exports to the rUK are energy based with the rUK purchasing 3/4 of our gas and at least 25% of our electricity. So the rUK would have a massive energy deficit with up to 35% of its long term energy requirement (and a higher % of its renewable energy requirement) either unmet (leading to electricity rationing in England) or subject to self imposed trade barriers. If trade barriers are imposed by Westminster, remember, they expoert £49 billion in goods and services to Scotland. TOUCHE 8. Investing in Scottish Universities. With around 8% of the population we get over 13% ofall UK research funding. This means that Scottish ideas and inventions can continue to change the world. RESPONSE Again shot in the foot. Why would investers stop investing in worldclass research? Such as the fantastic work being done by the Centre for Regenaritive Medicine in Edinburgh. (which attracts LOTS of European funding) Lets put it to bed. This comes from a statement by Sir Paul Nurse head of the Francis Crick institute (discovered DNA double helix) that research funding would be reduced after independence. Lets ask one of the research funders, Cancer Research Uks director of affairs Craig McNie in response said. Like any other organisation we are constantly looking out for and assessing potential changes to our operating environment, and then planning accordingly. Scottish independence is one of many such issues we give consideration to. As an organisation that actively maintains political neutrality, we will not be taking any position with regard to the referendum, which is a matter solely for the people of Scotland to decide upon. As we fund research in a number of Scottish Universities and there is an enormous amount of public support for our work, Scotland is an integral part of our charitable activities. It is in everyones interest to see this research continue, regardless of the referendum outcome. Decisions around cancer care in Scotland are largely taken in Scotland. We currently work closely with the Scottish Government on these. 9. Interest rates are lower as part of the UK. Impartial experts at the national institute for Economic and Social Research estimate that independence would put up interest rates as much as 1-2%. What would a 1% rise mean for your finances. RESPONSE. This is in fact pure speculation. This all depends on a number of things, but mainly a currency union. The rUK says this will not happen. Last week the three parties said there will be no tri party agreement on devo max. When agreeing on the referendum wording rUK said NO to devo max on the ballot. They are back tracking on everything else, why should we believe there will be no climb down on a currency union. HOWEVER, no currency union, no share of the debt. Books balanced There are a number of examples of small independent countries that have lower interest rates that Scotland does as part of the UK. And finally 10.Lower shop prices for scottish families. It costs more to transport a tin of beans to Stornoway than it does to Manchester. However everyone pays the same price in big supermarkets meaning our shoppin bills are lower as part of the UK. RESPONSE The one element of truth in the story is that it does cost more to distribute goods to Scotland. But it costs more now whilst Scotland is part of the UK, the supermarkets know this, and they also know that if they differentiate prices then consumers will go to the supermarkets that keep their prices down to gain market share and show loyalty to Scottish customers no matter the way they choose to vote. Markets not geo-political boundaries set supermarket prices. Devolution didn’t raise prices so why should more political autonomy when it includes the retention of a currency union and common market? Neither Asda nor Morrisons said they had any plans to raise prices in an independent Scotland. The No Campaign has claimed that doing business in Scotland may require higher costs and therefore may lead to higher prices at the till. This, they claim, is due to the more dispersed nature of Scotland’s population and geography in comparison to the UK as a whole. It’s difficult to tell who actually supports this view. Tesco has already distanced itself from the story and not a single supermarket chain has backed it up.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:06:13 +0000
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