£281 surcharge on every English Taxpayer

Via the Campaign for an English Parliament and reported in the Scotsman.

It seems that Scotland's annual subsidy from England has doubled since Labour came to power, up to a record £2,200 a head, according to the Scottish Executive.

Official figures have shown £45.3bn was spent in Scotland in 2003-04 but only £34bn recovered in taxation. This puts Scotland in a rare club of countries where state spending is more than half of the entire economy, and leaves an £11.3 billion gap, which has to be filled by tax collected in England, as Wales and Northern Ireland are also heavily subsidised.

Granted the figures exclude North Sea oil tax, but for the year in question, only £4.3bn was collected from North Sea revenue. If every penny had gone to Scotland , it would still have left a £7bn gap that still equates to a £281 surcharge on every English taxpayer.

This outrageous state of affairs is brought about by the grossly unfair "Barnett Formula" which is perpetuated by Westminster’s "Scottish Mafia", itself famously disowned by its own author "it has become increasingly unfair to the regions of England. I didn’t create this formula to give Scotland an advantage over the rest of the country when it comes to public funding."

But until Blair and Brown are voted out, it seems the English will continue to foot the bill for the Scots while English kids are burdened with crippling debt for the privilege of a university education.

Here's a festive little ditty on the subject from Gareth.

Category: England_