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The UK

A Nation of Equals?

The Scots, Welsh and N Irish Nationalists constantly complain that the UK isn’t a Nation of Equals

That’s actually very hard to be when England makes up c85% of the population of the UK

Let me show you how unequal the UK really is

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- Income -

The disparity in income across the UK is quite large. Here’s a dataset which shows the income for the 4 home nations from 1999 to 2019

Although Scotland’s income per head is higher than England’s since 1999 that’s only because of past oil revenues

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You can see that Scotland’s income has fallen behind England’s in the last 5 years. Wales and NI are an economic disaster. England is now keeping the entire UK going with its higher income levels and we should be grateful for that

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- Spending -

It’s even worse for spending. You can see that England has the lowest spending per head of all the 4 home nations over every single year of the last 20 years

Wales is next lowest, then Scotland and NI

England doesn’t even complain about it either

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- Deficits -

You can see that England runs the lowest deficits in the UK. A deficit or surplus is the quickest way to see just how well or badly an economy is doing

In the last 4 years England’s deficits have fallen massively whereas the rUK’s deficits have stayed very high

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- Fiscal Grants -

Because England has the best performing economy in the UK, due to the vagaries of the Barnett Formula, it then results in England
giving massive fiscal grants to the rUK

Over 20 years these have totalled £378 billion

England not only has to borrow

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this money to give out these fiscal grants but it also pays the interest on them as well. This has resulted in England giving away around £500 billion from 1999 to 2021

That c£500 billion or so is added to England’s debt pile

The money is totally free for the rUK nations

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- Debt -

From 1999 to 2019 the UK ran up debt of £1,335,051m

Despite the rUK only making up just under 16% of the population, the Scots, Welsh and N Irish ran up over 44% of all that debt

Once again, England performs best on debt per head. Massively so, in fact

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Finally

- The UK. A Nation of Equals -

From the above datasets you can clearly see that the UK isn’t a nation of equals

England earns the most money per head but spends the least

England get a raw deal, never complains, but gets constant criticism from the rUK

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Maybe it’s time for the English to grasp the opportunities available and get rid of the dead weight of the constantly moaning Scots, Welsh and N Irish

All they do is suck up England’s cash then complain that their subsidies aren’t enough

English Independence Anyone?

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There’s a very easy way to calculate the fiscal grants from England to the rUK without calculating if for the separate countries

You need

The UK deficit
England’s deficit
England’s pop % share of the UK

For 2018/19 these were

£41,372 deficit
£4,954
84.26%

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You take 84.26% of the UK deficit (£41,372) = £34,860

Take England’s deficit away from this sum

£34,860 - £4,954 = £29,906 Fiscal Grants to the rUK

It’s that simple!