SO, WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Here's a wee Quiz for you courtesy of the SNP. I'll print the answers tomorrow and trust you to mark yourselves!

1. Scotland has 8.4% of the UK’s population. What percentage of the
UK’s overall tax take comes from Scotland?

a) 4.2%
b) 7.4%
c) 8.4%
d) 9.6%

2. According to the International Monetary Fund which of these
countries has the lowest wealth per head?

a) Iceland
b) Ireland
c) Norway
d) United Kingdom

3. According to Professor George Walker, Professor of Financial
Regulation & Policy at Glasgow University, what percentage of the bank
bailout would an independent Scotland have had to pay?

a) as little as 5%
b) a population share of 8.4%
c) as much as 50%
d) they are Scottish banks so 100%

4. According to the latest official statistics how much of Scotland’s
overall tax take is spent on things like the state pension and welfare
payments, compared to the UK?

a) 45% for Scotland to 35% for the UK
b) 60% for Scotland to 20% for the UK
c) 40% for Scotland to 42% for the UK

5. At the moment, UK government statistics exclude the North Sea from
Scotland’s economic accounts. If the wealth in Scottish waters is
included, how does Scotland compare to the UK, in the league table of
wealth per head for developed countries?

a) 34th for Scotland to 5th for the UK
b) 21st for Scotland to 3rd for the UK
c) 6th for Scotland to 16th for the UK

6. At the moment, the Westminster Parliament has the final say over
all laws in the United Kingdom, including the right to pass laws even
in devolved areas. What percentage of its current legislators are
directly elected by the people of Scotland?

a) 25%
b) 11%
c) 9%
d) 4%

7. True or false? Scotland ...

For our size, has more highly ranked research universities than the
UK, the US or Europe: TRUE or FALSE?

Is the EU’s largest oil producer?: TRUE or FALSE?

Has 25% of the EU’s offshore tidal energy potential: TRUE or FALSE?

Over the past 30 years has had a budget SURPLUS over the UK of £19
billion: TRUE or FALSE?

EVEN MORE...

It appears that John Major backs Mr Cameron’s intention to increase foreign aid. The ex-prime minister has endorsed the government’s announcements regarding the increase in funds going to North Africa and the Middle East. He says that our involvement in this should make us proud. What tosh, Mr Major. I’m the first to back helping people who, for all the inadequacies of funding in the UK, are a thousand times worse off than we are, because of the unhappy accident of being born in a region with an horrific climate, dangerous animals, geological faults, etc. And of course I see the advantage of helping to fund a move to democracy in the Arab-Spring countries. I’ve been to some of them. The people are warm and welcoming, friendly, fun.... and downtrodden. But why is it that one of the poorest countries in the West is paying the biggest proportion of its GDP towards this? And why are we still helping to fund countries which, it could be said, would more appropriately be sending funds to us. Go back to your cricket, John, and stop interfering.

The Daily Telegraph did a fine job of outing the thieving and the benefit cheating that was going on in the palace of Westminster. Whilst keeping a watchful eye on these people (because I’m sure that the minute the heat is off they will be at it again), it might be an idea for the paper to turn its investigative expertise to Brussels where it appears that members of the European Commission feel free to live like emperors at our expense. Trips to exotic locations. lavish dinners, gifts for guest speakers including jewellery from Tiffany’s.... and Kate Ashton, if you please, demanding a private jet so that she can pretend to be important. No, it has to stop. Only by ridiculing the situation in a reasonably serious paper, is anyone likely to take notice. (So butt out Daily Mail.)

One of the things I look forward to all week is Radio 4’s “News Quiz” (Friday 6.30 pm/Saturday 12.30 pm), so it was with some amusement that I noticed that it had made the front page of the Mail this week. It appears (I haven’t heard this week’s programme yet) that the show’s host, Sandi Toksvig, who is Danish, made a joke, approved by BBC management, which made use of “the most offensive word in the English language”. (Needless to say that in the recounting of the tale the Mail found it necessary to give the details of this offensive word not once, but twice.) She said that “the Tories put the “n” in the word “cuts”. So Sandi didn’t actually SAY this offensive word (which, after all is only a word). She actually (and this is good for a foreigner) made a very typically English seaside postcard reference. Kenneth Horn was doing it in the 50’s and Carry On was doing it in the 60s. It was Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill’s stock in trade. If she had actually said it, it would have been different... Still the story should sell a few papers to people who are dying to be shocked but too seldom have the pleasure of it. There are old people worried about whether their care home is going to close, Mail. Worry your pretty little heads about that. The Daily Mail: the paper that put “R” into “donkey”.

Talking of which, I’ve never thought it was a good idea to privatize services which should be run as public services. It never works properly. Buses are now run for the good of shareholders who wouldn’t be seen dead on one, and who, therefore, don’t give a damn about how badly they are run, as long as the dosh keeps rolling in. Care of the elderly is not a profitable business. Brits don’t want to look after their own elderly, unlike the southern Europeans who are shocked at the way we push them off into homes. But we also don’t want it to cost us a fortune. So why have all the costs PLUS a margin on top for profit? Rather like the banks, although for different reasons, we cannot allow these companies to fail, so once again we will end up taking their losses and covering their donkeys (with “r”s). When will we ever learn?