Really? No-one commenting on tonights debate?

[pete]

Latest figures are, Scots currently get £1632 or 19% more identifiable public spending per head than England under the Barnett formula.

Any apparently the fomula will not change on a NO vote. Seem to recall there was mounting pressure for reforming it too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... dence.html

You obviously read the article differently from me

I read "No plans to change Barnett formula if Scots reject independence" - (my emphasis).

Not even that he wasn't intending to change it, just that he had made no plans to. Some of his colleagues had voiced the opinion that it should change though, although they too had made no plans to actually change it.



At the end of the day no-one is going to win this referendum.

[Rosssco]

If the UK government wants to continue to retain Scotland as part of the UK, I would suggest significant reform to the Barnett formula such that it left future Scots worse off, would only feed nationalist sentiment up here further, hence I would doubt it would be politically advantageous for them to do so...

Ultimately, its no more of a guarantee than any of the stuff that the nationalist propose.

[scott_e]

You obviously read the article differently from me

[tonyg]

I made a point of not watching it because i knew what would happen, childish name throwing, point scoring and blame dodging.

Those of us who are old enough to have voted in the first Scottish referendum will remember that the Scots voted for it with no information whatsoever on what was going to be run in Scotland and what was still going to be run by Westminster.

What did we get? - a parliament building that was originally going to cost "around £10 million" came in at over 40 times that. More hot air being spoken by more politicians than before and more bureaucracy .

Why would anyone be stupid enough to think that it would be any different this time?

Always remember Rule 1 -

Government is NOT for the benefit of those who are governed.

[Scotty C]

if you were to give the Scottish government a £10m budget to build an office and they spend £414m. What chances do we have of them controlling the country finances.

[GBOBM]

if you were to give the Scottish government a £10m budget to build an office and they spend £414m. What chances do we have of them controlling the country finances.

Maybe we should give the government and councils another chance. How about a transport project like the trams........oh wait a minute.

[Dominic]

if you were to give the Scottish government a £10m budget to build an office and they spend £414m. What chances do we have of them controlling the country finances.

Maybe we should give the government and councils another chance. How about a transport project like the trams........oh wait a minute.

That's just Edinburgh - things are better in the west.... M74 extension delivered early and under budget.

[GBOBM]

That's because they quoted eleventy gajillion pounds to start with.

[Lazydonkey]

Imagine the overspend if they replace every single government body we have. We could be paying for it for decades.

[Mikie711]

They will all pale into insignificance once Aberdeen council finish the WPR. The cost over run on that will dwarf every other government project by some considerable margin.

[tut]

Do you think that if I voted Yes we would finally get an Aberdeen Bypass, or even a Motorway North of Perth?

Can you imagine England's third largest City not having a Bypass around it, never mind a Motorway which they all have?

tut

[GregR]

Can you imagine England's third largest City not having a Bypass around it, never mind a Motorway which they all have?

tut

Must compare apples with apples.

Birmingham 1.074m people;
Aberdeen: 274k people

[neil]

Do you think that if I voted Yes we would finally get an Aberdeen Bypass, or even a Motorway North of Perth?

No chance. Just like Westminster can't see north of Birmingham, Hollyrood can't see further north than Queensferry

[tut]

Come on, we are worth at least a four to one ratio to them.

tut

[Mikie711]

Remember the volume of traffic on the Sunday we went to the chunnel. When have you ever seen that much traffic on the A90 on weekday never mind a Sunday.