WHAT THE ECONOMIST ACTUALLY WROTE ABOUT SCOTLAND

(Skint? Us? Think again Engloaned)

On 14 April 2012, The Economist produced an article, about independence for Scotland, which contains a lot of useful factual information.

According to the article (The Scottish play):

1. "Scotland could probably go it alone now".

2. In 2010-11 Scotland produced about 10% of Britain's GDP.

Yet it has only 8.4% of Britain's population.

Website for this image

3. The export value of Scotch whisky rose by 71% between 2006 and 2011 to £4.23 billion ($6.72 billion).

Over the same period food exports have risen by a similarly impressive 65%. (Could luxury exports help finance independence? )

Oil revenues, in 2010-11, amounted to £8.8 billion.

In 2010-11 Scotland’s GDP was £145 billion.


Scotland by indigo_girl

4. "North Sea oil and gas would have made Scotland rich ... Declassified documents show that, in the 1970s, Treasury officials reckoned Scotland could comfortably have paid its own way."

Oil and gas prices are soaring.

The average oil price was $62 a barrel in 2009; in 2011 it was $111.

A ... bet for continued growth is oil services. There is already a thriving hub of technical firms around Aberdeen.

Alex Salmond in the USA

Of course, The Economist article contains a lot of spin.

It tries to tell us that SMALL countries are VULNERABLE.

The Economist does not mention that Ireland and Iceland, in spite of their banking difficulties, are still today much richer than Britain.

And, it is the small countries that are still the richest in the world:

Luxembourg (which has no oil)

Singapore (which has no oil)

Norway

Qatar

Macau

Liechtenstein

Bermuda

Our main worry is that AN 'INDEPENDENT' SCOTLAND WOULD NOT BE INDEPENDENT.


Scotland by cessna152towser

"Alex Salmond rightly points out, Britain is hardly in surplus right now - for every £6 Osborne (UK economics minister) spends, he has to scrounge £1 from the international debt markets...

"So now is not a good time for London politicians to say that a country which can’t balance its books is not a viable country.

"The UK has not balanced its books for ten years now, and probably won’t for most of this decade."

The right-wing London based 'Spectator' magazine admits that an independent Scotland could pay its own way


On 15 April 2012, in The Herald, columnist Iain Macwhirter comments on The Economist's recent article on independence for Scotland.

(Skint? Us? Think again Engloaned)

Macwhirter points out:

1. "Scotland would be one of the six wealthiest countries in the world if it became independent tomorrow."

2. The Economist dismissed oil as a spent resource.

But, "there is still 40% of the black stuff under the North Sea worth at least £1 trillion.

"Scotland's oil and gas industry is set to generate a revenue stream of £379 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCooper's analysis in November 2011."

3. Scotland has "25% of Europe's offshore wind and tidal energy potential."

4. Scotland has five of the world's top universities, more than much larger countries like France.

Scotland produces more graduates per head than any country in Europe.

5. Tourism and whisky exports bring in more than £8bn a year.

"Even the financial services sector is still pulling in cash."

Despite the banking crash.

6. The capital of Great Bankruptland is Loandon.

~~

THE ECONOMIST ON RON PAUL

Doctor Ron Paul - Caleb O'Connor painting (Caleb O'Connor : Fine Artist.)

On 31 December 2011, The Economist, read by top people worldwide, mentions Ron Paul.

Among the Directors of The Economist are Sir David Bell, a trustee of Common Purpose, and Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

The Economist's opposition to Ron Paul suggests that Ron Paul must be one of the good guys?

Ron Paul and wife

According to The Economist (The Republicans Into Iowa):

"The best organised campaign, by all accounts, is that of Mr Paul...

"His unstinting advocacy of much smaller government and sounder money goes down well with local Republicans.

"His calls for an end to foreign entanglements and the legalisation of drugs are popular with the young.

Ron Paul

"At an event on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, throngs of giddy students leap to their feet when he appears and drown out most of his rambling stump speech with rapturous applause...

"But his isolationist foreign policy makes many Republicans wary.

"It puts off evangelicals in particular, according to Steve Deace, a prominent Christian radio host, for fear that it might undermine Israel’s special place in God’s scheme."

According to The Economist, recent polls show Obama an average of two points ahead of Mitt Romney, eight points ahead Ron Paul and nine points ahead of Newt Gingrich.

Book signing

The columnist 'Lexington' has written about 'Ron Paul's big moment' (in The Economist)

According to Lexington:

Ron Paul, the 76-year-old libertarian from Texas, has "a worldview so wacky and a programme so radical that he was recently discounted as a no-hoper.

"Even if he wins in quirky Iowa, Ron Paul will never be America’s president.

"But .... a substantial number like a man who wants to abolish the Federal Reserve, introduce a new currency to compete with the dollar, eliminate five departments of the federal government within a year, pull out of the United Nations and close all America’s foreign bases, which he likens to 'an empire'...

"During the candidates' debates of 2011, Mr Paul won plaudits for integrity...

"Mr Paul insists on the rule of law and civil liberties and due process for all...

"Mr Paul has no great love for the Jewish state, even though this hurts him with the evangelical voters of Iowa.

"He opposed the Iraq war from the start and wants America to shun expensive foreign entanglements that make the rest of the world resent it...

Ron Paul

"Born in 1935, he remembers the tail-end of the Depression..."

He has "a preoccupation with the money supply and a lifelong conviction that governments must be prevented from debasing the currency.

"Not all of Mr Paul’s positions are unpopular. Like other conservatives, he defends the God-given right to keep and bear arms... He is pro-life, which he believes begins at conception. He champions home-schooling.

"But only he combines a general dislike of the overweening federal government with a particular, obsessive hatred of what he considers the corrupt system of money at its secret heart..."

He "has come to see the operations of the Fed - indeed the entire banking system, with its reliance on paper money no longer backed by gold - as a dangerous confidence trick.

"The Fed has 'ominous powers that Congress barely understands,' he says. 'Trillions of dollars can be created and injected into the economy with no obligation by the Fed to reveal who benefits.'

"Though ending the Fed would take time, this is his panacea: it would end dollar depreciation, remove America’s ability to fund endless wars and stop the growth of government...

"He has served a dozen terms in the House of Representatives, failing to find allies for his radical measures.

"He cannot expect actually to win the nomination, let alone become president.

"His real aim appears to be didactic: he wants the widest possible hearing for his ideas...

"Though the nomination may be out of his reach, he has dedicated supporters and the ability to raise lots of money through small donations.

"That could ... perhaps give him enough delegates to shape August’s nominating convention in Tampa.

"Or he could run as a third-party candidate.

"But that would help Barack Obama...

"It is true that in recent years Mr Paul has stuck to his core principles: sound money, small government, individual liberty and bringing the troops home...

"In the end, Mr Paul’s obsession with the Fed is an anti-government conspiracy theory.

"And in America, anti-government conspiracy theories attract a lot of wingnuts..."

Photo by Jason Bell - Official Website