Scotland's Quest For Independence

Scotland’s Quest for Independence Since the 16th century Great Britain has had control over the economic welfare of Scotland. Some of the economic levers that Great Britain controls is currency, finances, oil sales and debt. This control over the years has caused a lot of friction and in 2014 the first vote for independent was made. This first referendum was voted down due to the people thinking that Great Britain provided a safe blanket and felt Scotland was too weak to stand on its own economically. Now under the leadership of Minister Nicola Sturgeon, which is the leader of the Scottish National Party is seeking a second referendum for independence in 2017. The reason for this second referendum is due to “Britain leaving the EU’s single …show more content…
With the fall of oil prices Scotland’s budget deficit fell to “10%, which equates to around 150 billion pounds” (Kottasova and Petroff 2017). This is just the current debt it owes to the UK based on Scotland’s population. First looking at the net borrowing. In a number calculated in 2009/2010 by the Scottish government. That number is around 19.3 billion pounds, which is around 17% GDP. This number reflects “per capital share of oil revenues” (Ball 2017) of the North Sea oil. The second option is “geographical share” of the oil revenues. This would cause Scotland’s net borrowing to “14 billion pounds or 10.6% GDP” (Ball 2017). These numbers reflect the amount that Scotland makes based on the North Sea oil revenues. This huge deficit and the amount of debt owed to the UK would cause the world to lower Scotland’s triple A rating for bond yields, which would cause a higher interest rate adding more to the current …show more content…
The more people that are employed the more GDP you will have. During the global recession, Scotland was hit just like every country in the world. After four years of recovery the 2016 employment rate is “73.6%” (Scotland Office 2017). The unemployment rate in 2016 is “4.9%” (Scotland Office 2017). If you compare the current US unemployment rate of 4.5%. Scotland has a strong employment force, which if given independence could use that work force to boost the amount of exports. This revenue would then be given back to the Scottish people and not skimmed by the UK. Above is a chart that compares the UK to Scotland in employment and unemployment. This chart shows that Scotland, which is a considered part of the UK. Is still on par with unemployment even though Scotland workforce is based on UK fiscal policies that don’t have Scotland’s interest at