IAN McConnell’s recent article on Brexit (“Two years on, Brexit ebullience is gone and many are wake up to grim reality,” The Herald, 30 December) discusses recession, sterling collapse, travel restrictions and how this A reduction in taxable income that is hard to understand what is happening now.
However, while all this was predicted before the referendum, most of the UK population appeared to be more affected by the bus side than many experts’ economic statements.
Scottish fishermen, for example, would have liked to be able to fish in all British waters without competition from Europe. But they forgot that they need to sell to someone, and someone is Spanish or French. Others are convinced that we can keep it to ourselves for our own benefit, instead of the inefficient French farmers and “our” taxes that fund the Common Agricultural Policy. was doing.
We seem to have a hard time listening to experts when it comes to economic predictions that contradict our intuition. Other examples include the consequences of Liz Truss’ actions when she became Prime Minister. She was warned by Rishi Sunak and others before her vote that her intended action would destroy the UK economy, but she and the majority of her Conservative MPs fell on deaf ears. . So the UK economy fell off a cliff, the pound crashed, and the Bank of England had to take urgent action to support pension funds as she carried out her plan.
Unfortunately, there is another potential behavior driven by emotion, which experts say will lead to financial catastrophe. There’s a lot of talk about how it would be better if we were independent. Scotland will become the “Saudi Arabia of Green Energy” and instead of being diverted to London where the British Parliament will not act in Scottish interests, oil and gas interests will stay in Scotland and fund our own decisions. Westminster has plenty of pick-ups (as in Holyrood), but does intuition overcome the reality the experts suggest?
If our largest market now exists across borders seamlessly, the economic arguments for Scottish independence (even if we are in the EU but outside the UK) should reflect the above sentiments of the heart. Will it work better than the one it contains? Or will you be captivated by the sunlit highlands of independence metaphorically shown on the side of another bus?
Colin Gunn Glasgow
this is what we were able to win
50 years ago this week, the UK and Ireland joined the EEC. In 1973, Ireland had a weak economy and relied heavily on wealthy Britain for most of its trade. How have the times changed? Through EU membership and longstanding trans-Atlantic ties, a small (Scottish-sized) independent Ireland blossomed and now ranks first in the world with exports to the EU and the US accounting for 60% of the country’s $20. It has become the 27th largest economy. billion total.
Ireland also plays an important role on the world stage. From 2021 she will be a member of the UN Security Council until 2022, sending more troops to UN peacekeeping operations than the UK. Since 1973, Irish trade with Britain has fallen to less than 20% of hers, and this decline continues thanks to her Brexit.
At the beginning of 2023, the economic positions of the two countries could not be more different. According to World Bank data, Ireland’s GDP per capita is the highest in the world ($100,000) and low compared to the UK’s $46,500, making this confident, Lucky for the Connected, a healthy 3.2% in 2023. In short (and despite having fewer natural resources than Scotland), Ireland has succeeded in decoupling its economy from Britain, and has a bright future ahead.
See Scotland and cry.
D. Jamison Dunbar
Red wall voters run our council
Reform Scotland’s call for an elected mayor in favor of Gordon Brown (“Meeting with FM regularly”, Calling on Council to get directly elected mayor, The Herald, 29 December), Scottish It’s just a perfectly predictable unionist strategy to undermine U.S. government. political progress.
The Scottish Parliament is viewed by the public as the main political body. Union Reform Scotland’s task is to undermine the organization by curtailing its power.
“Scotland is a rarity internationally in terms of weak local government,” says Reform Scotland. Unlike all other countries, Scotland’s parliament is not busy with economic, defense and tax policy, carefully omitting that these are run from outside Scotland.
Cosla is the agency that speaks on behalf of the local government and is in constant contact with Holyrood.
A true farce in Scottish local democracy is the London Labor Headquarters’ order to explicitly ban Scottish municipal labor groups from forming coalitions with SNP groups. This is because UK Redwall voters may shy away from the Labor Party due to perceived associations with his SNP in Scotland. (Remember that British Tory election poster showing Alex Salmond with a tiny Ed Miliband out of his breast pocket?)
The sensitivities of Lancashire and Yorkshire voters will determine who Labor Councilors will work with in Scotland’s local councils, where a coalition of Labor and Tory parties is now common.
Trustee Tom Johnston (SNP), Cumbernauld
Holyrood is not fit for purpose
I don’t think there is any dispute that the state of the NHS is one of, if not the outstanding, crises afflicting Scotland and causing great public concern. But there seems to be no urgency on the part of the SNP administration to discuss it at Holyroodhouse. Instead, the MSP spent his final two days (and nights) before Christmas at Holyrood pushing the non-urgent gender identity reform bill at unsightly speed. It didn’t help the NHS or those arguing the merits of self-ID.
The ruling party also plans to put Scotland’s Brexit issue on the agenda for the first debate of the new year. why? What is the urgency about this? Even if you can’t write a compelling prospectus, we all know what SNP thinks about it.
It is clear that Holyrood is entrusted only with cotton candy issues of concern to minorities, and the major undertakings of health, education, housing and transportation have fallen into decline with ministries doing little and accomplishing little. I’m here. Is this how democracy should work?
Jill Stevenson Edinburgh
Bold Living Wage
Your report on the Labor Department’s analysis of the annual census of Scottish workers (‘Workers losing £1.9 billion in unpaid overtime’, The Herald, 2 January) contains two interesting figures. was At an hourly wage of £13.49, public sector workers earn an average of £17.71. ”
In other words, public sector workers were paid, on average, 30% more than private sector workers. They also benefited from a good pension system, essentially wages paid after retirement, and job security.
In the current cost of living crisis, I sympathize with those who work below minimum wage in the private sector. There are unscrupulous employers who do not even pay the legal minimum wage. Of course, many low-wage people add benefits to their income. Taxpayers subsidize employers who don’t pay people a living wage.
The National Living Wage will be raised from £9.50 to £10.42 an hour in April. Less if you’re under 23, now just £6.83 if you’re 18 to he’s 20. The figure of £12.50 an hour for all goes some way to alleviating the worst poverty at work. It rewards employees more fairly for their work and reduces reliance on benefits.
Sir Kea Sturmer goes on and on about ‘people at work’. He used the phrase 24 times in one speech to the TUC. It was great to see his audacity, and I urged him to commit to raising the living wage to at least a realistic amount of £12.50 an hour should Labor return to power in Westminster. I think that I want to do it. It will stand up for people who really work.
Doug Morgan Dunblane
Read more letters: UK health minister urgently needs to discuss NHS
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