baldysblog.co.uk

One of the most amusing questions I have seen lately on a web comments board was asked by an American lady who enquired as to why when reading British Press reports on the Beijing Olympics, athletes in Team GB were referred to as “Scottish, Irish or Welsh” whilst the English were referred to as “British”.

This immediately sparked some fierce debates about, Devolution, Political Correctness, Celtic Whinge, The Cross of St George, National Anthems at Rugby matches, BBC bias, The Barnett Formula and ‘Our Oil’. So nothing new there but then…

On Devolution…

I personally feel that the United Kingdom is better in being just that – united but nobody should feel a prisoner bound to the UK against their will as the UK is to the awful EU. However the half baked job that Labour started with their failed dream of Scottish and Welsh dominance for all time via Devolution cannot be simply undone because once given, it is hard to take away, however useless, it is in reality, it becomes “ours”.

In this respect one of the best political operators in the UK currently is Alex Salmon of the SNP who has very successfully stirred up English resentment over the “Barnett Formula” in order to create a ‘divide and divide’ theme to build up resentments on both sides of the border. He is a smug little git but, is good at what he is doing but then again, within Scotland he has hardly any real opposition. But all that said, both he and the SNP ambitions must be sunk by conventional means.

Call His Bluff

Starting with Scotland specifically but also relevant to both Wales and Northern Ireland must be a realistic demonstration over time of the real costs of being an independent small country in terms of population. So in order to ‘disprove’ the words of the SNP and however ‘odd’ it may seem, the best way is to increase rather than decrease devolution so that at the local level, the individual can see and feel the real cost in the pocket of what people are proposing.

However this approach goes way beyond “defeating nationalism” within the UK, it has to do with a logical change of emphasis in the terms of Government generally because if nothing else since 1997 we have learned that “Big Government” just doesn’t work properly. Whilst central government should take on some crucial roles such as Defence and Foreign Policy and lay down ‘standards’ for things such as Health, Education, Policing and so on, most likely, those things should be both funded and delivered at a local level.

Regardless of a nationalistic agenda, there is a financial and democratic motivation to change the way that we look at both national and local government and just how that is funded. This by itself would lead us to a ‘Federal System’ as in the US where there are both Federal and Local taxes to consider.

Dealing with “Our Oil”

Ultimately it all comes down to money which is the best way to deal with it. The much touted “our oil” argument by whoever says it, is daft. In the 1970s one of the biggest complaints of the Arab oil producers was that Western countries made far more out of their oil than they did by a very wide margin, it is still the same today.

The “golden bonanza of Scottish Oil” is a mirage even if as is likely, the price per barrel makes other known fields economic to exploit in the coming decades. The reality is that the main advantage to the Scottish economy was/is the jobs it created within Scotland relevant to exploration and extraction rather than ‘landing’ the stuff whether it comes from the Scottish, Norwegian or English area of the North Sea.

In fact in terms of economic potential, Central Wales beats the North Sea hands down. Given its annual rainfall, the potential for a combination of hydroelectric generation + drinking water, is astounding and all on dry land. The type of investment required to extract oil from under the sea directed into Wales would produce far greater returns all around. However even here you need to think again:

There would initially be both “Construction and Maintenance” jobs but how many Welsh people would be suitably qualified for these in the beginning ? Ultimately, a Welsh Government could “sell licences” to exploit and develop the Welsh water resources but, it would be down to the probably international companies who did the investment to determine ‘sales prices’ and, Almighty God as to how much rain there is year on year.

The actual income to a Welsh Government would be, License Fees, Planning Permission, Income Tax on both workers and local businesses associated with it all. Corporation Tax ? Hmm.. probably not that much when you consider the amount of investment required with a ‘local company’ having borrowed it all from it’s International ‘Parent/Holding’ company.

How it Actually Works…

Imagine England and Scotland separated and there being no Union:

When Scottish distilleries export bottles of Scotch they do so free of local (Scottish), taxes. When they cross the border into England, the English Government slaps a 700% (?) sin tax on every bottle and this applies to all other countries to a lesser or greater extent. Something similar happens to oil entering England and regardless of whether it came from the North Sea or the sands of Arabia.

Now Scotland can do this within Scotland itself but with England alone having 10 times the population and therefore a greater tax base, guess who would make most money from “Scottish” oil and whisky or Iranian oil and Russian Vodka ? This is a highly simplistic example and we are not talking about trade barriers here because it would be English Taxation (local taxation) rather than import duties of which we would assume nil both ways.

Moving On

The solution lies in increasing devolution to all three Celtic Nations and modifying the current system to something more akin to a Federal System including “UK Taxes” and Local Taxes with a central project based grant system. This to apply not just to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland but also to England via Local/Metropolitan Government we do not need silly regional English Parliaments, local councillors are elected and can be held to account by local people.

It would probably make sense to decide that people elected to the Welsh Assembly, Stourmont and the Scottish Parliament are also elected to Westminster with the UK Parliament sitting say 3 days a week at Westminster and the other two as the “English Parliament”.

The UK Taxes would deal with the major costs of Central Government like Defence and Foreign Affairs plus likely “Standards Bodies” to set the standard for various activities such as Health, Education and so on, central government would advise but not deliver these services as they would be devolved. At the devolved local level, local taxes would have to be raised and a percentage of locally raised Income/Payroll Taxes would be rebated from central government to the local level.

Yes, there are lots of details to be worked out, the above is just a pen sketch but I hope the objective is clear which is to create a totally transparent funding system so that down to individual citizen level, people can see whether the economic advantage lies in remaining united or going our separate ways, my bet is on the former because whilst politicians will lie to you, the money in your pocket doesn’t so, restructure and give it 10 years all round is my view.

2 Responses to “Devolving the UK-Leaving the EU Accepted”