The 354-page, 14-member panel, Growth Commission report and its 50 odd recommendations was completely destroyed. In just a few hours work. By one Unionist blogger. The kind of rare praise you just have to retweet.
The blogger, in question, Kevin Hague’s quickdraw analysis featured him playing around with the countries used by the report for international perspective and complaining about something said on a BBC Question Time episode. This was the initial response.
He then complained some more when the report’s chairman Andrew Wilson didn’t engage with him on a lengthy twitter thread/Unionist pile on to discuss Kev’s amazing point about what countries are suitable for inclusion in the analysis.
Wilson, being stalked by an angry, crank and called all kinds of names was probably thinking he had no obligation to humour a crowd like that. That, maybe, Kev’s embarrassing behaviour, shouldn’t be encouraged and that, anyway, it could only be a massive waste of time.
Hague then became extremely upset at the idea that some people (including Andrew Wilson) might view him as ‘entrenched and partisan’. His reponse to the GC seemed to be floundering. Turning into the usual twitter nonsense, which he promptly began retweeting. He probably fell asleep that night knowing he’d totally owned Andrew and no mistake.
For context:
- Kev has accused the SNP of using Neuro Linguistic Programming to literally brainwash voters and tweets out anti-SNP tactical voting guides.
- Kev, apparently lacking confidence in the strength of his arguments, appeared on a short BBC Breakfast tv debate segment during the indyref and resorted to claiming he’d immediately move a petcare supplies warehouse to England in the event of a Yes vote.
- Kev is the man behind the Pro-Union, pretendy, think-tank ‘These Islands’ -‘a forum for debate that stands unabashedly for the view that more unites the people of the United Kingdom than divides them’.
- Kev, who claims his support for the union (and his donations to ‘Scotland in Union’) is based on objectivity and numbers, has said that if independence made Scotland much richer it would be ‘selfish‘ to pursue it.
- Worse, Kev has suggested people support independence because they are anti-English and likened a pro-independence blogger to the Nazis. On Holocaust Memorial Day.
But don’t dare call him entrenched and partisan. In, old school, Unionist commentator fashion he’s very keen to be seen as a purely neutral and analytical contributor while portraying his opponents as something else. Let’s say, having an agenda.
Predictably, Kev accused The Growth Commission report of being ‘extremely optimistic’. He then accused the IFS of being ‘rather generous’ in their analysis of it. The IFS.
Yet the Growth Commission report has: used GERS figures, without qualification (despite the well known limitations), suggested a £5bn pa UK debt payment (despite the UK’s successor state position), ignored North Sea oil and has a conservative approach to growth estimation.
In actuality the report is strikingly cautious and conventional- that’s kind of the point. It is cautious and conventional and uncontroversial and it still points to independence being a better model than remaining a half nation half region within the UK with international comparison to illustrate that point. Unionists, like Kev, hate international comparison.
Of course, Kev didn’t really ‘completely destroy’ the Growth Commission findings and the hard core Unionists who make daft claims like that seem to be deliberately missing the big picture.
The Growth Commission report was soon followed by an updated Scottish Social Attitudes Survey showing a remarkable increase in the confidence people have for the prospects of an independent Scotland’s economy.
For the first time since the question was asked more Scots thought the economy would fare better with independence than as part of the UK.
With a decade’s worth of, Conservative Government, austerity having had little effect on a growing national debt. The worst wage rises in Europe, and, now, the worst growth, shows how badly the UK is struggling. The huge mess of a Brexit Scotland didn’t vote for is a year away. Companies are moving HQ’s out of the UK. Plenty of warehouses too.
Places like Dublin and Frankfurt are struggling to provide enough office space for the migrating business. Meanwhile places like Aberdeen are forecast to be hit hardest by Brexit.
The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey shows the key Unionist message that Scotland is a uniquely incapable place is, not before time, beginning to fall apart.
Of course, in response, flustered Unionist bloggers will always refer back to GERS. The GERS figures show Scotland as part of the UK, they do not show an independent Scotland. When we compare the numbers to other similar, but independent, countries we can see how the Union isn’t working.
These countries would laugh at the idea of ceding their political independence and control of their own economy to London in return for a, Barnet style, fiscal transfer (which is below the level of their public spending anyway).
As he is fond of telling his followers, a lot of time and effort goes into Kev’s efforts to show the benefits of the Union. The argument for independence doesn’t need any spurious accountancy exercises. It is obvious, clear and all around us.
To the west, in Ireland and Iceland. To the east, in Norway and Denmark. And in the other examples used in the GC. They show independence as using all the important measures, a demonstrably superior model to our strange Union set up.
REAL GROWTH in the UK
There hasn’t been much population growth in Scotland as part of the UK. Emigration was high for a long time. A bit odd if the Union has been as beneficial as we are constantly told.
Indeed from its creation there were people like Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun warning about a London dominated Union would be bad for Scotland. Today the UK is the most unequal and centralised of all comparable countries.
When he was UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable said “London is becoming a kind of giant suction machine draining the life out of the rest of the country, and I think more balance in that respect would be helpful.”
Ruth Davidson has said “We also need to spread the benefits of the union fairly and equally around the nation. The UK is still too London-centric.”
But some are still happy to parrot lines about ‘pooling and sharing’. Unionists, like Kev, should, instead, explain how the future will be different, in this regard, from the last three centuries.
