Scotland’s Referendum – Joe’s big dream!

I have blogged this before but the more it continues the more annoyed I become and determined about Scotland’s Referendum.

On a daily basis more companies, institutions or experts get in line to tell the Scots that going it alone is fool hardy and will end in financial ruin and hardship.  I am mindful that this is the way it is ‘reported’.  I am very sceptical of the report itself.

We saw yesterday that in an independent Scotland our deficit increases by a £1Bn to £13Bn for two years then begins to decrease until about 2018 when we are about £5Bn down.  Put it another way we are then down by less than the amount the NHS loses in ‘fraud’ per year?

Contrast this with the UK as a whole whose deficit is vastly greater.  They recover following a similar profile and go £5Bn positive in 2018.  £5Bn?? are they for real, the NHS budget is more than £200Bn and their debt, as it stands, is more than £1.2Trillion?  Surely, this is small change and certainly does not paint a picture of financial ruin in Scotland.

Alex Salmond counters this argument saying that the oil companies are investing tens of billions in development – presumably to increase their revenue streams and bring in more receipts for the Scottish Government.  That’s a fair assumption.  I wonder if the UK figure factored in the ABSENCE of North Sea oil and gas revenue with their prediction.

Let’s suppose Scotland is a basket case propped up by Westminster handouts and a deep sense of altruism.  Basically, Scots are the UK’s Benefits Street!  So here’s a thought:

Joe Blogs is on benefits and has been for ever, like the rest of his family.  One day, he wakens up and says to himself, ‘that’s it, I’ve had enough of the handouts, no more charity for me – I will get a job, pay my way in the world and support my family’.  With a renewed sense of self-worth, Joe heads off to the Benefits Office (you’re probably getting there before me!).  ‘I want to come off benefits now’ he declares with a sense of pride.  The Benefits Officer is taken aback.  After a while he tells Joe ‘ You mustn’t come off benefits.  How will you and your family survive? We want you, no insist, that you stay on benefits.  We have a long history of you on benefits and we don’t think you should change that.  Now, go away and stop being a silly boy.  Oh, and by the way, if you stay with us we will increase your benefits soon as a token of our love for you!’

At this point Joe wakens up and realises it was all a dream – so far from reality it should even have been rejected by his ‘dream controller’.

But, hold up?  There are lot’s of Scots still stuck in Joe’s dream.  What can they do?  What can we do to help them?  Let’s all shout together as loud as we can:

WAKEN UP!  IT’S A DREAM, IT’S ONLY A DREAM!