i keep seeing “yeah but what are the positive reasons for Scotland to remain in the UK?” tweets, so thought i’d have a go at creating my personal Top 10 …. #thread.

RT @DanNeidle: Tax policy is important. @ZiaYusufUK should take it seriously, and read the documents he cites.

RT @staylorish: Roughly half of the civil servants employed by the Scottish Government in its core directorates are “managers” or “team lea….

me, every time i hear an SNP politician claiming that full fiscal autonomy would protect public services in scotland “because levers”

no mention of the European Union’s excessive deficit procedures?. weird that.

RT @juliamacfarlane: @LauraEWebsterr This war didn’t begin in 2023. Have you been to Gaza, or even the region ever? Extremely odious to be….

the narcissism of small differences writ large.

this has to be a parody “think tank”, surely?

3. countries with higher revenue per head achieve that through a combination of better GDP *and* higher taxes. so of course economic growth (better GDP) is the priority, but in comparison to other countries neither our level of spending nor our rate of taxation look high

2. in absolute spend per head terms we see a similar picture - we do not spend more than comparable countries on public services, but we do raise less revenue per head …

i like graphs, so here’s a story in three graphs: does this make sense to people?. 1. as a proportion of our GDP, the UK is a relatively low tax, low spend country (=> if there’s a problem with public services, perhaps it’s not because we spend to much on them)

RT @staylorish: 1/ SNP complains block grant won’t grow as fast as average UK Gov dept. But average includes DESNZ & Defence, both growing….

RT @alexmassie: Marvellous to see wee Pete objecting to the thesis outlined in this column while confirming it in *the very same tweet*. ht….

RT @JohnFerry18: Higher rates of income tax in Scotland don't pay for the additions Lorna lists here. The dramatically higher spending per….

i’ve been working on something that looks at fiscal comparisons between EU OECD countries and the UK - looking at this graph, who thinks the UK has an unacceptably high tax burden?

RT @staylorish: Mairi Gougeon says the SNP believes the military is very important, but criticises the UK Government’s lack of principles i….

RT @staylorish: 2/ Which is pretty bonkers. But not as bonkers as this. Despite pursuing full fiscal autonomy “the Scottish Government has….

RT @staylorish: The profits @LesleyRiddoch seems to believe are being stolen away from Scotland are quite small relative to the huge capita….

elite sport at it’s finest @holland_tom.

i don’t post much on here these days, but watching these two manoeuvre a buggy on Trump Aberdeen today and i just had to share it …

RT @staylorish: John Swinney, refusing to state Scot Gov’s position on zonal pricing. Its genuine position is opposition, but he won’t say….