DECISIONS made in Downing Street are responsible for skyrocketing prices, energy bills and the highest rate of inflation in the G7, the Scottish Greens have claimed ahead of the release of the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue (GERS) figures.
Speaking ahead of the controversial estimate of the Scottish fiscal position – which has often faced criticism over the manner in which it is calculated – Scottish Green finance spokesperson Ross Greer MSP commented that “huge damage” is being inflicted to the Scottish economy by “a Westminster government that simply doesn’t care about the consequences for ordinary people and which won’t give Scotland the powers we need to make different choices.”
Greer said: “Whether it's their reckless and ruinous Brexit, the runaway inflation and soaring prices we are seeing on supermarket shelves, or the skyrocketing energy bills that are plunging hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, the Tories have demonstrated yet again that the UK is governed in the interests of the rich and powerful, no-one else. The rest of us are now dealing with the worst consequences of Downing Street’s terrible decision-making."
Greer argued that Scotland’s “vast” nature resources and supply of talent was being squandered by an “incompetent and cruel” Tory government, and that only with the powers of independence could the country break from Westminster’s “failed economics.”
Greer added: “Basic powers, like the ability to raise the minimum wage and make corporations pay their fair share of tax, would finally sit with the Scottish Government rather than corrupt Tory governments we did not elect.
“The Tories will wheel out the same tired warnings about GERS and independence, but these figures show the reality of a Scottish economy suffering from twelve years of their failures and mismanagement.”
Writing in The National this week, the political economist and campaigner Richard Murphy also hit out at GERS, calling for the 2022 report to be “the last in its current form” and arguing that next year, in anticipation of a second independence referendum, the Scottish Government public a new estimate based on the income that it might raise with existing tax rates if it were to have control of its own tax borders.
