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Bob Lyddon, founder of Lyddon Consulting Services Limited, believes Boris Johnson should end the Nicola Sturgeon hoax by offering to let the nation go to see how it fares on his own. And he predicted that after independence, today’s high levels of public spending would fall well below the current UK average level. Mr Lyddon has written two separate analyzes examining the subject of Scottish independence, ‘Why Scotland should keep the pound and why it can’t’, published before the 2014 referendum, and ‘The Smith Commission: Buying the Great SNP Bluff ‘, published in 2015, referring to the later published document aimed at offering Scotland more delegated powers.
In these documents, Mr Lyddon laid out the key reasons why he believes Scotland is ill-equipped to go it alone.
And with recent polls suggesting high levels of support for Scottish independence, he cautioned that those living north of the border must think very carefully about the way forward.
Mr Lyddon told Express.co.uk: “Westminster’s stance towards the SNP – appeasement – has failed.
Instead, it has strengthened the SNP’s patriotism and its apparent popularity with Scottish voters.
“All the SNP has done during the coronavirus crisis is stoke the divide with the rest of the UK, demand more money and become more popular.
Boris Johnson should call Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff, said Bob Lyddon (Image: GETTY)
North Sea oil and gas reserves have declined dramatically (Image: GETTY)
“If they are so brilliant in everything we should offer to let them loose and immediately.
“We paid Danegeld to make the Danes disappear, and they didn’t. We paid Scotsgeld to keep Scotland in the UK and they don’t want to.”
“Let’s try a new version: Scotland can go if they want, but without Scotsgeld.”
Mr Lyddon said Scotland currently makes extensive use of Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) to rack up huge debts which he warned will inevitably fall on the UK taxpayer.
Furthermore, the North Sea’s oil and gas reserves, something that the SNP has placed great emphasis on in its defense of independence, have been largely depleted.
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Nicola Sturgeon with the then President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker (Image: GETTY)
If they are so bright in everything, we should offer to drop them and immediately
Scotland also benefits from a higher level of public spending per capita than any other UK region except Northern Ireland: £ 11,247, £ 2,000 above the national average, according to figures from the Country Public Sector Finance report. and Region of the Office for National Statistics. for 2018-19.
Mr Lyddon, citing Government of Scotland Revenue and Expenditure (GERS), an annual estimate of the Scottish economy as part of the UK, said: ‘Scotland is an economic basket case that has escaped the austerity imposed on the rest of the UK United.
“It has barely reduced its deficit compared to 2014, when the UK as a whole cut it by 75 per cent.
“The UK’s deficit in 2019 was only one percent the size of its economy when Scotland’s was seven percent.
“Scotland’s superior public services come from the transfer of the ‘Union dividend’ from the rest of the UK. In 2019 it was almost £ 2,000 per person, or £ 10.6 billion.
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Scotland benefits from above average per capita spending (Image: Kevin Hague / These Islands)
Nicola Sturgeon, Prime Minister of Scotland (Image: GETTY)
“Scotland’s annual per capita economic output is £ 600 lower than the UK average, but public spending is almost £ 2,000 higher.
“After independence, Scotland might not be able to pay per capita public spending, even the current UK average or £ 11,865, 14 percent less than what the SNP can spend now.”
Lyddon said the SNP’s financial projections had also failed to take into account the inevitable exodus from its financial services sector that would happen as a result of independence, and that he said it would radically expand the gap between any decision to leave the UK and actual independence. .
He added: “Scotland’s financial services sector is primarily about managing English pensions. No English saver would allow their money to be within the reach of the SNP.
“Scotland’s need for new tax revenue after independence would be desperate: what better target to loot than the English pension funds that are run in Scotland.”
Pro-independence activists in the 2014 referendum (Image: GETTY)
There was also no guarantee that an independent Scotland would be allowed to join the European Union, Lyddon said, especially since it does not have its own independent currency.
He explained: “Scotland’s economy does not even meet the EU eligibility criteria – GERS figures show that it does not have ‘sustainable public finances and external accounts’.
“Contrary to the SNP’s claims, Scotland would need a prolonged period of painful adjustment before entering the EU.
“Then it would be forced to converge with the euro, and its economic indicators are even further away from the criteria of the euro. Another decade of pain to wait.”
Scotland has no currency of its own (Image: GETTY)
Mr Lyddon said: “We must start tracking Scotland’s disproportionate contribution to the increase in national debt, not just now, but since the financial crisis of 2008.”
“If Scotland can be removed from the payroll in a year or two, maybe we can let them take on a portion of the national debt prorated to the people of Scotland, although that would be unfair to the rest of the UK.
“Scotland has suffered zero impact from England’s bailout of its banks in 2008 – all that burden fell elsewhere.”
Express.co.uk has approached the SNP for a response to Mr Lyddon’s comments.
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