Are Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland

[soaps]

independent countries? or are they subsidized?

[karenmac60]

Aw don't you start......

[anneasquith]

is that you annie ?

[soaps]

I have seen the other threads and I really don't know "how it works" I'd really like to know!

[sandyRoe]

Scotland subsidized the entire UK for years with its North Sea oil and gas. Northern ireland is heavily subsidized. Don't know about wales, but in the past their coal helped pay their way

[MarkRae]

England and Scotland are countries, Wales is a principality and Northern Ireland is a province.

[anneasquith]

soaps,, not yet !

[soaps]

Thanks Sandy, I think I get it now, The oil really belongs to the Scotts, but the English moved in and took over, It sounds like the Scots may be DONE ?

[soaps]

HAVE^

[boxtops]

They are all part of the United Kingdom.

[soaps]

Boxtops, if they are all part of the UK, why are they being subsidized?..why do they get all the free-bees ?
The way i see it's guilt". why else would they be sub them? I think NI was a bad investment for them, they're losing out there.

[Nini74]

for goodness sake, haven't we seen this argument enough today already? england is not subsidising any other country in the UK. Wales & Scotlands' governments have devolved powers to allocate their monies as those governments see fit, and have seen fit to provide free prescriptions (for example) - this decision was not made for england. that does not mean that england is subsidising anybody else. England have other benfits that the Scots and Welsh don't get.

Where your suggestion of "guilt" comes from is anybody's guess, and I have no idea what your getting at with your comment about NI being a bad investment "for them"???

[boxtops]

Nobody's subbing anyone, they collect their own taxes for the budgets which they have devolved to them from central Government. Who's subsidising what? Separate NHS, separate local Government, separate local laws etc.

[karenmac60]

Thankyou nini - the voice of reason :)

[karenmac60]

How come I'm still a jelly man at the top of this thread...?

[soaps]

Nini, from what I was reading on other threads it seemed like Scotland /Wales and NI were be subsidized! No? why all the animosity then?

[karenmac60]

I think that is just Koode, soaps - he seems to have a bit of an anti-Scottish chip on his shoulder as well as being a budding conspiracy theorist.

[Red_John]

Scotland doesn't own the north sea so that's bowlocks Sandy So It's not their oil. It is well known that that Scotland is subsidised by England, a Scot get's 115% of what an Englisher gets spent on them, end of.

[chakka35]

There's no need to get heated about this. Best just to look at the facts:

The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly do not collect their own exclusive taxes from their citizens, and if they did they would not be able to support themselves unless those taxes were unacceptably high. I don't like the word 'subsidised' but the fact is that England contributes to the running of those countries because this is a United Kingdom.

There is no such thing as 'Scottish oil and gas': it is British. If Scotland ever becomes independent then what part of the North Sea would become Scottish waters would be a matter of international debate and decision. Very likely, the sea boundary would continue the land boundary and go from southwest to northeast, leaving a huge chunk of the North Sea as UK waters, with a northern slice as Scottish.

[ixion]

The fact is the SE of England is advantaged over all other parts of the becoming less united kingdom due to the preponderance of government posts there.