Bonnie Scotland?

I read this article this morning, and saw that apparently spending cuts will “will have a £1bn knock-on for the Scottish budget.”

I’m not convinced.  Once again, the BBC have bandied around a headline figure without citing any source or giving any data to back it up.  Is this really unbiased reporting?

Secondly, what does a "£1bn knock-on” look like?  The media love telling us how much the government is spending (or not) on this that or the other, but there’s more to life than a headline figure.  What would this £1bn otherwise be spent on?

There is an implied logic in the fascination with figures like this which would suggest that if I am foolish enough to spend £20k on a car for which you paid £12k then I am on to a good thing.

Thirdly, Alex Salmond is always bleating on about how Scotland doesn’t need Westminster.  So whatever the effects of the budget cuts, why should the SNP worry?

 

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