What would an independent Scotland’s public finances look like? ‘Good, actually,’ says the SNP as they present their ongoing case for independence. They like to claim that, discounting the rest of the UK, Scotland was in surplus for ‘four out of the last five years’ — it’s Westminster, not Holyrood, that can’t manage the public’s money.
Which would be a powerful argument were it actually true. You see, the SNP are talking about the ‘current budget balance’, which excludes the £6.4 billion a year that Scotland
spends on capital. When you include that spending — according to the Scottish government’s own figures — there
has been a deficit for every one of the last five years.
The SNP’s ‘surplus’ boast is also based on Scotland receiving a generous share of the North Sea oil and gas revenues. It’s based on a ‘geographical share’, meaning that the
Scottish government gets everything inside the dark blue patch on the map to the right, which happens to generate around 91 per cent of total revenues.
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