It makes you laugh. No, not the whisky, the notion that Scotland’s economy is in any way too weak for independence. I’ve covered this several times already including:
The Scottish Government is now part-funding with Douglas Laing & co., a new distillery at Pacific Quay. That’ll be handy for the BBC News team as they drown their sorrows after another piece of good news about Scotland they’ve had to qualify in some mean-spirited (good eh?) way. Here are the UK’s top 10 food and drink exports:
Whisky £895m
Salmon £186m
Chocolate £155m
Cheese £145m
Beer £139m
Wine £133m
Pork £109m
Gin £108m
Beef £106m
Vegetables £97m
Source H&M Customs and Excise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40090366
You’ll notice the top two are almost entirely Scottish produce, further investment in whisky distilling means confidence is high and we might expect that top figure to hit £1 billion before long. Most of the gin is produced here too.
The new distillery will also create 38 new jobs more than doubling the Douglas Laing workforce. Douglas Laing currently exports to more than 50 countries around the world.
The water will be piped from Loch Katrine and the barley will, of course, all come from Scottish farms.
Slàinte!
http://www.insider.co.uk/news/douglas-laing–co-announces-10888615
Talking-up Scotland 
Should that title be ‘Scotch Whisky’?
LikeLike
yes. Scotch is an registered Appellation in EU. Scotch whisky is not made, pure British Spirit is made, which if produced in a proscribed manner and matured in oak casks of a certain for 3 years in Scotland is entitled to the Appellation, Scotch. We need to change definition to include bottling in Scotland. Maybe that is in pipeline
LikeLiked by 1 person
But to say Scottish whisky is like saying Scottish salmon so not completely wrong?
LikeLiked by 1 person
prescribed
LikeLike
plain British Spirit
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somehow the Spirits exports seem very low to me
SWA figure indicate the following
01 May 2015
Exports generated £3.95 billion for the UK balance of trade.
Exports earned £125 every second.
38 bottles were shipped overseas each second.
99 million cases (12 70cl bottles at 40% vol) were exported worldwide.
LikeLike
Thanks, got a url source?
LikeLike
http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/what-we-do/facts-figures/
say £4 a bottle gets a good corelation. No mention of bulk Scotch exports
SWA hides that figure by incorporating it into bottle equivalent figures, I think?
LikeLike
Don’t forget that most whisky is exported via English ports and is recorded as an English export.England exports more Scotch than Scotland,
Scottish salmon, 50,000 tonnes a year are flown from Heathrow per annum making it Heathrow’s largest export, by weight. English export
LikeLike
Are Scottish goods which are exported via ports from the rest of the UK counted as international Scottish exports?
Yes. The ESS publication measures the destination of goods exported from Scotland regardless of the port from which they leave the UK.
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/Exports/ESSFAQ#_Are_Scottish_goods
Do you still have doubts?
I have no strong view
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes but these are Scotgov estimates, an interpretation of raw data
LikeLike
I’ve always thought That Scottish Goods exported through English ports counted as English exports. However Gordon MacIntyre Kemp adressed this point in an article and said they don’t count as English exports.
LikeLike
Bugger, thought I’d read somwhere we still got credit for exports going out through English ports or airports?
LikeLiked by 1 person
We take that credit for ourselves
LikeLike
On C & E statistics no, but economic analyses try to tease out the specific figures. Vat goes to where Co is registered, often England, and C & E says impossible to split, same with NI contributions so again an estimate can be taken.Treasury doesn’t do double entry book keeping and works with estimates (guesses) so they, allegedly start with the result they want in Gers and work backwards. Rather like a Doctorate thesis?
LikeLike
A moment’s thought and it becomes obvious that we are not the economic basket case the Unionists paint us as.
If we were we would have been cast adrift to fend for ourselves by Thatcher.
LikeLike
I think, between 1 third and 1 half of all N Sea oil never touches Scotland and goes direct elsewhere. Theoretically it should be ascribed to Scotland’s accounts but….I hae ma doots
LikeLike
Agreed!
LikeLike
Bugger, How about writing a piece on this? I’ll happily host it. Best wishes, John
LikeLike
Let me think about that??
LikeLike
OK
LikeLike
Amazing readership variation on my blog – got 9707 on 20th July (Ruth and Kezia sob did it), 228 today?.
LikeLike
John yours is a great blog and very informative and positive , unfortunately as others have pointed out there are only so many hours in the day and so much to read , but I for 1 am grateful for ALL the pro indy sites and scribes , just think how demoralising and undermined Scotland would be if we only had britnat hacks to rely on for the truth. HE’LL FREEZING OVER springs to mind
LikeLike
Cheers for cheering me up
LikeLike
Bzzzz, buzz, bzzzzzzz = 20 000 readers a day 🙂
Okay,,, I can’t actually PROMise that, but,,,,
It’s Saturday, everyone is out taking walks in the rain, or busy getting their glad rags on. Only saddos like me want to read about whisky and oil on a Saturday evening. Evening?! Where did the day go??
Good info Panda (do you mind if I call you panda rather than bugger?), even a sketchy article on exports would be really really informative. It’s like devolved/reserved issues, really hard to get it straight in your head what is what, and the media obfuscates the issue making it very difficult to put opinions and reports into perspective. You say they export salmon bulk from Heathrow, which makes me wonder how it gets there? What are the transport costs, pollution caused etc, and wouldn’t it be cheaper to be flying or shipping it out from Scotland? ,,, I’m not saying you should write about that – just that any nice simplified, as though I was still at primary school simplified, consideration of how goods are exported from Scotland and who accounts for what and where ,,, – I am not selling this, am I? Your comments are fine, and good for helping get things in perspective!
LikeLiked by 2 people
shucks
Maybe with John Robertson?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely, John seems to be interested in all that stuff, he’s certainly not inclined to take up the cause of bumblebees (which he is about to get really sick of hearing about,,,, about NOW 😀 ), and I find that any insight on these complex subjects helps me analyse anything I read with better perspective. I think we all forget that each of us knows about different things, and assume everyone else must know the same things we do – but they don’t! Each to their own interests. I may not understand it all fully but can usually pick up enough. John is great at putting things succinctly & I find his blogs easy to read, so will pick up more things from them.
I am fine with understanding the principles of quantum physics, but economics, social stuff, tax, ugh pensions, are a nightmare to get my head around. Unfortunately, I have found that not many people want to chat about quantum physics, and even I have difficulty making it relevant to Scottish independence (managed it with bumblebees though), so it is a bit of a dud skill here. But I still like to share 🙂 . ~~~ we had that great debate about entangled photons and spooky action at a distance, remember that? Ah, those halcyon days ~~~
LikeLike
If I give you ma Bee plus will that satisfy you?
LikeLike
a Bee plus not ma Bee plus
LikeLike
Hmm, I’ll think about it,,,
If you stop with the bad jokes maybe that’ll be worth it! So, is that me getting a B+ in an MA in interesting anecdotes? but that is far too low a score, not happy with anything less than 95%, so bee puns there won’t convince me 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK I award you all PhD in Propaganda Studies
LikeLike
Pd B
nytpl
LikeLike
Ph D
Monday night is market and music night here.
I apologise in advance
LikeLike