Good old Humza Yousaf: the one-man walking cure for imposter syndrome. Scotland’s First Minister was out making the case for independence this weekend, telling a Scexit rally that ‘the people of this country are not suffering from a cost-of-living crisis, they’re suffering from a cost of the Union crisis.’ When asked by reporters to justify his claim, Yousaf – the thinking man’s James Dornan – ignored such trivialities as the Barnett formula to claim that:
This cost of living crisis is actually a cost of Westminster crisis. The suffering that you’re having to endure with high energy bills, being fuel poorer in an energy rich country like Scotland, that is entirely linked to the fact that we are not independent.
So, is he correct? The answer, shockingly, is no. Unit rates for electricity – the most significant factor in energy bills – are substantially higher in Ireland than in Scotland. As Sam Taylor of These Islands has pointed out, Scots currently pay a unit rate of electricity of 30p every kilowatt hour compared to 35p every kilowatt hour in Ireland. The average costs for both North Scotland and South Scotland are moreover lower than the average costs across Great Britain.
What about standing charges? In Ireland, urban households pay the equivalent of £260 per annum while rural households stump up £326 a year. The average standing charge in Scotland will be 61p/day from next month, which equates to £222 per annum. Therefore standing charges for electricity are also substantially higher in Ireland than in Scotland.
What about Denmark, so often the nationalists’ preferred model? In the second half of 2022, Danish households with ‘normal consumption’ of between 2,500 – 4,900 kilowatt hours a year were paying 51p every kilowatt hour. The British government’s energy price guarantee meant that, from last October, the average unit rate in Scotland was about 33p every kilowatt hour with the average standing charge being 51p a day.
Based on a typical consumption of 2,900 kilowatt hours, this meant a total blended rate of 40p every kilowatt hour. Therefore electricity bills for those with a typical consumption were substantially higher in Denmark than in Scotland during the second half of 2022. In short, independence would not in itself guarantee the cheaper energy bills that Yousaf promises.
Still, to a hammer everything looks like a nail – and our Humza certainly isn’t the sharpest tool in the box…
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