Unemployment in Scotland has dropped below 200,000 and stands at 7.3%.
Meanwhile unemployment in the rest of the UK is as follows:
UK: 7.9%
London: 8.9%
England: 8.0%
Wales: 8.2%
N. Ireland: 8.4%
Further good news is that the Scottish economy grew by 0.5% while figures UK wide, due later this month, are expected to show a contraction, meaning the UK economy may have fallen into its third recession in 5 years...the triple dip.
These figures are only a glimpse of the situation, and of course, the real power behind the Scottish economy is still in the hands of the London government.
But this kind of news gives lie to the notion, so beloved of the Cameron government, and particularly Bubbles, or Greeting Gideon as he's unaffectionately known at Munguin's Republic, that the uncertainty of the future of Scotland due to the referendum, would mean that no company would want to invest here, leading to economic decline and to greater unemployment.
Wrong ...AGAIN.
Imagine if Edinburgh had the power to bring forward the work that our country so desperately needs doing, the "shovel-ready" projects, how many people we could put to work, and how much more companies would flock to Scotland.
I posted this over on Rev Stu's site earlier today Tris and seem to have lit the blue touch paper. As I've just explained to the Rev I had no intention of starting WW III but thought that as we are regularly being told to look at Iceland and Ireland (because of their "membership" of the arc of prosperity) for reasons NOT to go independent that actually looking at their OECD ratings might be a reasonable counter to that argument. Well I think the facts speak for themselves:
ReplyDeleteUK unemployment UP to 7.9%
Scots unemployment DOWN to 7.3%
UK Economy CONTRACTS by 0.3%
Scots Economy GROWS by 0.5%
As a wee aside to this I found this information as well.
According to OECD table of GDP per Capita UK is listed at number 16 Iceland, remember them, are listed number 15
According to OECD currency table UK is listed at number 18 Iceland, remember them, are listed at number 15
I have just ONE itsy bitsy LITTLE question.
WHY are we Better Together?
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_GDP_per_capita
Ireland, another country that some may remember, is currently listed as being number 8 in the OECD table of GDP per Capita table. I think everyone will agree that this position is somewhat HIGHER than the good old UK’s position of 16, even higher than Iceland sitting at number 15.
When you look at the second OECD table, listing countries by currency exchange rates we find this absolutely AMAZING situation, Ireland is listed at number 11. Again I think everyone will agree that this position is HIGHER than UK’s lowly rating of 18 and also that of Iceland who are at number 15.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_GDP_per_capita
There has been a post by Tartanfever over on Rev's site that links to another website that gives yet ANOTHER reason as to why we will be better as a small independent country.
As Tartan says in his post:
The reports take into account the following factors:
Health,Education,Income,Inequality,Poverty,Gender,Sustainability, Trade, Economy, Income, Innovation & Technology.
Currently some interesting rankings:
Ireland: 7
Iceland: 13
Norway: 1
Denmark: 15
UK: 26
http://www.hdr.undp.org/en/data/profiles/
It’s a site worth bookmarking.
In my uneducated view all these tables point to one thing....an INDEPENDENT Scotland would definitely be better off rather than remaining part of UK.
Apologies for my weird ramblings on this one Tris. :-)
Arbroath 1320, I am glad you did post it. Keep going lad. Ignore the trolls.
ReplyDeleteBravo again Arbroath... No point in telling you not to apologize, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIt's all good information. Thanks. And Yes, I'll be bookmarking that page.
Inevitably, you conclusion seems to be correct. Even with only partial control of our economy we are better off as a small country. If we stopped paying for all the idiotic tra la las of the UK, massive military, WMDs, massive parliament (second biggest in the world), massive royal family, silly number of embassies and consulates at MASSIVE expense, when they could easily be shared, and a load of other stupid spend, and with our oil and gas income, we could be up there at 1= with Norway.
We might as well be the same country as Norway; there's ony a little bit of water between us.
I don't know what the fuss is Marcia, but I reckon here, I'm not the only one with something interesting to say...
ReplyDeleteIf folk come along with more, better or just different information, I think everyone has the right to know.
I'll maybe get over to Stu's later and find out...
No trolls here ... (please!)
Tris
ReplyDeleteWhile the figures appear on the face of things to be positive and should be welcomed. However, I often wonder what type of jobs have been created. Are they full time or part time / volunteering. How many people are in receipt of sickeness benefit, how many young people are not being counted etc.
The figures have been so messed around by various parties at westminster that they can't be trusted anymore, sadly I think they are probably way off.
I thank Arbroath for the figures above but again these type of figures are subjective and therefor difficult to trust. We have seen over the last few years that figures have just not been accurate at all from the IMF to the OBR.
I would much prefer that these figures were collected and collated independently and then I might have more trust in them. I would suspect that the UK has been in a triple dip for some time and I also agree with you that the sooner we control our own economy the better, certainly the devo plans of the Scottish branch of Labour look like they could actually make things worse, only Labour and Lament could come up with that. They will fight to keep Scotland until the Oil runs out and that is the fact. Oil keeps our heads above water, and while not being the reason for a YES for me it is however what the 3 tory parties will fight tooth and nail to keep.
Bruce
Please sign if you agree that 'Dirty Money' is well dirty.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fair point that all government figures (probably from all countries) are to be mistrusted, Bruce.
ReplyDeleteThe unemployment figures have been fiddled since Adam was a lad, I suspect, but at least, all the figures are from the same fiddled source, the DWP of the UK government. So although they are fiddled...no one over 60 is counted; no one on one of their dubiously legal slavery beaks is counted; etc, etc, at least the figures for England, Scotland, Wales and NI are the same kind of fiddled...
My real point here was that, despite what the doom and gloom merchants of the London government said, we according to their own figures, appear to be attracting jobs and investment here, better than the other parts of the UK, for which, we would assume form Darling's prattlings, there is no risk... the economy is in the safe hands of Bubbles the Chancellor!
Done CH :)
ReplyDelete