Tim Worstall

The Barnett Formula

The Scots get lots more public money than the English while the English pay much more in tax than the Scots:

Current estimates put the extra spending this year at £11 billion, with
£1,503 more being spent on public services per person than in England.

Clearly this rip off should end.

Only 17 per cent of voters said the system should
continue because Scotland still needed extra money. Among English
voters, 70 per cent want it scrapped.

Among Scots, the findings were the opposite: 74 per want the extra funds to continue.

Funny that isn’t it?

In

3 responses

  1. neil Avatar
    neil

    Yes, an unbelievable Scotland vs. England divide on thinking on that one.
    If we remove the outdated, ridiculous Barnett formula from the equation, how much diparity is down to Scotland having a relatively low population density compared to England and it costing more, per person, to provide public services to a widely dispersed rural population?
    It would be interesting to see the per capita spend on Scots inside and outside the crescent of Glasgow, central belt, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. Just as much as to compare Bristol with say Somerset and Wiltshire, or Newcastle with Northumberland….

    Reply
  2. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Och, no youse an’ a…

    Reply
  3. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    The Sunday Times went into this in depth on 28 May:
    “Britain’s northern ‘soviets’ swell on Brown’s handouts: The growth in public spending in northern areas of Britain is so rampant that it is resulting in the ‘sovietisation’ of swathes of the country, new figures show. Gordon Brown, the chancellor, has pushed up national public spending beyond the levels of former communist countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
    “The dependence on the public sector of the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has grown so sharply over the past year that many areas are now significantly more reliant on public spending than countries such as Sweden, known for the bloated size of its welfare state.
    “The new figures, compiled by analysts at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and to be released in a report tomorrow [29 May], show that between 2001-02 and 2005-06, public spending grew from 38.9% to 43% of gross domestic product.
    “The national increase over the past year, from 42% to 43%, disguises the fact that in southern regions dependence on the state has barely risen, while in northern areas it has jumped sharply.”
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2200150,00.html

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Tim Worstall

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading