Thread by @jdmanjohn

"Maybe Bloomberg would care to find someone who actually knows something about Scotland because this…" — jdmank disq.us/p/23lx7gr

unless my response has been removed for pre moderation it has dissapeared each time I've added it so I'll put it on here where they cant remove it!

anyone know how to use unroll?

@threadreaderapp unroll
(1)Maybe Bloomberg would care to find someone who actually knows something about Scotland because this tome is riddled with inaccuracies,

"Tories have long complained about tax transfers to Scotland and the so-called West Lothian question"

@threadreaderapp whats a "tax transfer"? gibberish

West Lothian question? laws decided for English constituencies have a direct impact in the shape of Barnett Consequentials for Scotland meaning if a reduction is made to a budget in England it also has a direct negative impact on the same budget

@threadreaderapp in Scotland!

(3)"In recent years, Scottish independence has been predicated on the country being a member of the EU. But if it had to rejoin the bloc after Brexit, Spain might have reservations about setting precedent that might be seized upon in secessionist Catalonia."

@threadreaderapp Do you HAVE any researchers at Bloomberg?

(4)Spain have repeatedly said that the constitutional setup in the UK is an entirely different animal to Spains and should Scotland leave the UK legally Spain would have nothing to say on the matter and CERTAINLY wouldn't interfere in

@threadreaderapp Scotlands accession to the EU (should it so choose)!

(5)"There is also disagreement over whether and when Scotland would have to join the euro,"

Again absolute nonsense

do you even understand the requirements of a countries wish to join the euro?

@threadreaderapp (6)1st a country must have its own currency (which Scotland currently does not have)

2nd a country voluntarily chooses to join the ERM exchange rate mechanism

(note the word voluntarily)which it must remain in for 3 years or more

then it finally joins the euro,

@threadreaderapp (7)none of these steps are mandatory and no country can or would be forced to join the euro against its will,

but in reality there are no riots on the streets of Scotland demanding we do not join the euro!

"In reality, Brexit cuts both ways in Scotland. Devolution – the process

@threadreaderapp (8)of giving more powers to local assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – hasn’t produced the great policy innovations many hoped,"

Do you seriously think that is because of a lack of imagination on the part of the devolved governments?

@threadreaderapp (9)The Smith Commission determined the nature of the devolved powers Scotland has and the unionist parties overruled any attempt at devolving the necessary levers for Scotland to grow its economy, and the powers they did agree to devolve are just enough to paint Scotland into a

@threadreaderapp (10)corner without the means to get itself out, a very neat trap set by the unionist parties, we can for instance vary personal income tax but thats it, we have no control over corporation tax or any other tax other "normal" countries have at their disposal!

@threadreaderapp "Many of the thorny questions that were raised in the last independence referendum – like how to secure Scotland’s future defence needs or its credit rating post-independence "

This is getting boring!

Scotland would have a right to 10% of the UK forces hardware (minus the huge

@threadreaderapp (12)cost of Trident) which means we would start our new forces with an adequate deterrent force of several surface ships aircraft and other military hardware, currently there are NO capital ships in Scotland let me repeat that we have exactly no capital ships in Scotland,

@threadreaderapp (13)all of them are based on the south coast on England!

Currently Scotland is "charged" 3.5 billion for its "defence" a country of our size can have a perfectly sound defence for less than half that amount!

@threadreaderapp (14Standard and Poors assessed an independent Scotlands credit rating a AAA+ a figure arrived at in 2014 whereas the figure for the rUK was determined as A-
I wont even waste my time on the cost of setting up the departments required for an independent country because we already

@threadreaderapp (15)have 80% of them under the UK

what I will say is this,

if Scotland even did have an 8% deficit, under who's watch was it incurred?

hardly a good reason for us to stay in the UK but further to that, can you point to me a country that DOESN'T operate a deficit?

@threadreaderapp I suppose you could mention Norway but that wouldn't be a smart move!
" But in an independent country, the left-wing SNP’s big-spending ways will be a problem."

You have really excelled yourself with that one,
can you tell us what big spending ways the SNP have? we're all ears!

@threadreaderapp (17)and as for "left wing"? meet the British Labour party!

but just so you know, when the UK government "spends" on "national infrastructure projects such as HS2 a high speed rail link from London to Leeds Crossrall, or the London sewerage system upgrade,

@threadreaderapp (18)all of which cost billions of pounds Scotland is expected to anti up 10% of the cost of those projects out of its budget, in spite of the fact it gains precisely nothing from them!

@threadreaderapp In short Theresa this garbage is a classic example of someone writing about a country far away of which she knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!