Conservative leader David Cameron visited Swindon on July the 11th 2008 as part of his 'Cameron Direct' campaign.
This clip sees David discussing the 'Barnet Formula': The main source of finance for the Scottish Parliament is still the block grant from the Treasury. This is worked out according to the 'Barnet Formula', named after the Treasury Minister who devised it in 1979. This allocation of money pays for all the spending programmes for Scotland, such as health and education. Because of the 'Barnet Formula', Scotland receives a proportionally greater share of the money available - more than the share received by the regions of England. Some consider that the historical level of deprivation in Scotland justifies the amount.
accountants on amphetamines. So it's a safe bet that we're not dependent on subsidies from Westminster after all.
thehappyhacker1 6 days ago
If Scotland was indeed hopelessly dependent on UK handouts, Westminster would publish all the figures in glorious technicolour and upload videos to YouTube, and there would be a 10 part BBC documentary all about them. This would pretty much kill the independence debate stone dead, as Scots would be able to quantify those so-called Union benefits in precise detail. But instead finding out how much Scotland pays into the Union and how much we get back takes a crack squad of industrial strength
thehappyhacker1 6 days ago
A recent study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) think tank, based on official tax and spending figures, concludes that Scotland's North Sea oil and gas revenues, with other taxes, means it gets no net subsidy from the rest of the UK. And this is based upon shonky Westminster figures, which allocate a notional share of "UK national expenditure" to Scotland even though the money is actually spent in the South East of England.
thehappyhacker1 6 days ago