Scots are better off in the Union

This referendum business has stirred up a lot of vitriol between unionist and nationalist factions among the Scottish. As one of many Anglo-Scots mongrels, I'd like to think I'm an independent outsider here.

There is, no-one can disagree, quite a lot of gerrymandering in the SNP's offices. Wanting to hold the referendum on a seemingly arbitrary date that, coincidentally, lies on the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn is fishy. So too is wanting 16-year-olds, probably more impressionable to blind patriotism, to be included in the vote.

The SNP and its supporters claim that Scotland 'holds up' the rest of the UK, and would do 'better' (poorly defined, but let's go with 'financially better') by itself. After poring over data from the Scottish Executive for hours, it becomes apparent to me that this claim may be no more than a tub-thumping exercise.

Factually, the Scottish make up 8.4 per cent of the UK population, 8.3 per cent of the UK's total economic output and 8.3 per cent of the UK's non-oil tax revenues - but 9.2 per cent of total UK public spending.

Figures from the Scottish Executive show that for 2009-10, spending per capita in Scotland was £11,370 - 10 per cent higher than the UK equivalent.

Looking at revenues, figures show that Scottish non-oil tax revenues came in at £42.7 billion in 2009-10, or £8,221 per head, which compares with total public expenditure attributable to Scotland of £59.2 billion, which adds up to £11,370 per capita.

This accounts for other unusual types of costs that usually don't crop up in figure publications, such as defence or financial leverage. This would mean that Scotland had £16.5 billion more in UK public spending in 2009-10 than it contributed to total UK revenues, or a 'subsidy' of over £3,000 per head. Never mind the £500 per head figure that the SNP quotes for Scots if they go independent.

The SNP usually use the fact that these are non-oil tax revenues, claiming it changes the story. It does not, if one uses proportions based on Scotland's population. The SNP can't take credit for Scotland's 90 per cent ownership of this oil either – HM Treasury decided this back in the 70s.

In addition, the Republic of Scotland would have to take its share of the Britain's national debts. Calculated on the 8.4 per cent proportion of the UK population we used earlier this works out at about £80bn of Britain's £940bn debt pile. This problem would be further accentuated by the country having no choice but to adopt the euro as its currency.

Why should a largely unfounded hatred of the English override fiscal sense? I'll probably never work it out.

If all of that doesn't convince you that Scots are better off in the Union, I'll leave you with the sign-off that Alex Salmond gave in a May 2007 letter to Sir Fred Goodwin, then chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, as he endorsed the bank's bid for Dutch financial group ABN Amro. This just a year before RBS's colossal debts necessitated a bail out, refinanced with £45.5 billion of British taxpayers money:

“Yours, for Scotland.”