Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Covid-19

I was born of a strong proud Scottish family so I say this with some sensitivity of that is possible on a forum in the iinterweb.

Does Scotland contribute to or benefit from the overall balance of the UK economy. As she makes local decisions does she write the cheque? That’s not a jibe it is a serious question as I am not educated in these matters. As it happens I agree it was a bit early to open the gate in my personal opinion. Unless your goal is to get the herd thing underway and not get the blame for it 🤭

Mark Drakeford (First Minister of Wales) has adopted a sensible and particularly cautious approach in any changes, and in the main has total support from sensible individuals/residents who would wish to see a marked decline in the present statistical measurements; that being infections, hospitalisation and regrettably deaths.
I have no doubt that the economy will recover, now is not the time to put at risk all the sacrifices that the general UK people have made and indeed those in the NHS and Care Organisations!!!
As someone has said before, the beaches, beauty spots, hills and mountains will still be there for everyone to enjoy once we are through all this, and for all on TM we can visit them in our beloved Mogs.
IMHO I believe BJ has made a poor judgement in both changing the slogan for England (Which has not been adopted by devolved Governments) and suggesting unlimited travel is ok, neglecting to mention that both Wales and Scotland have different rules, and his decision applies to England only!!!!
John
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2011 Plus 4 (Marty)

This might answer your question Alistair.

The Scottish Government raised £941 million less than expected in devolved income taxes in 2017/18, new figures from HMRC reveal today.

Scotland’s economy grew more slowly than the rest of the UK, hitting tax receipts and leaving the Scottish Government with a shortfall in funding.

Because of the risk sharing mechanism in the jointly agreed fiscal framework, the shortfall will be offset by a £737 million increase to the block grant funded by the UK Government. It means the Scottish Government will have to manage a reduction in funding in 2020/21 of £204million.

Scottish ministers are responsible for deciding how to respond. They have powers to borrow up to £1.75billion and a £700million reserve to smooth funding pressures across financial years.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss said:

The 2016 Scotland Act was a major new act of devolution that helps make the Scottish Parliament one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world.

This helps to realise all the benefits of the Union as it provides Scottish ministers with substantial powers over taxes and spending for Scotland while still being supported by the broad shoulders of the UK.

But with those new powers, Scottish ministers should take responsibility and focus on the decisions necessary to get Scotland’s economy growing faster to avoid shortfalls in tax receipts.

Calculating the figures is a part of a new annual process called ‘reconciliation’. It was jointly agreed by the Scottish and UK Governments when a new fiscal framework was created alongside the Scotland Act 2016. 2017/18 is the first year in which powers over income tax rates and thresholds were fully devolved to the Scottish Government so this is the first time the reconciliation has operated.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission currently forecasts reconciliation over the first three years will see a c.£1 billion reduction in funding for the Scottish Government, although this is a much larger shortfall than the Office for Budget Responsibility currently expects of around £300million.

Alongside this, public spending statistics published today show spending in Scotland rose to £10,881 per head in 2017/18 from £10,606 the previous year. This compares to the UK average in 2017/18 of £9,350 per head.

Has anyone seen a realistic graph of deaths or infections per capita of population. Last one I saw showed the USA as one of the lowest despite at the time having the highest no of deaths. I am surprised that these figures are not used by the politicians as to me they would make more sense than just showing deaths.

Thanks TMG. Difficult to see the uk in the graph, but at least the data is being collected.

Click the checkboxes on the left to see the countries you want highlighted, e.g:

Thanks the prompts were not obvious on my phone. Very interesting graphs. It will be interesting to see how & why some countries are getting high numbers especially as places like Brazil catch up. Wonder who’s graph I saw about 4 weeks ago that looked a bit different.

The extent to which the government and its advisers is out of touch beggars belief sometime. From this morning's briefing we get the gem:

"I can’t imagine a child would ever want to eat something from another child’s lunchbox “.

SMH.

Dear God...
What world do they live in?
Were they never kids?