The Scottish Sun’s grammatically incorrect but politically correct and helpfully blunt assessment of GERS

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Here’s what the Scottish Sun said:

‘It’s been complied [sic] for the best part of a quarter of a century, since it was invented by Tory Scottish Secretary Ian Lang as a stick with which to beat the SNP. He wanted to create a set of figures which would prove there was no possible economic case for independence and, quite frankly, he didn’t care how he did it. Back in the good old days GERS included everything, right down to Scotland’s share of running the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square because that’s a “national” resource for the benefit of everybody while the National Gallery of Scotland is just a little local outfit for the Jocks.’

It’s spot on politically as long as you stop reading there. The vampirish Lang did do just that but the GERs figures are of course compiled and not complied. Mind you, there’s a wee Freudian possibility there in that Lang was complying with his English masters’ wishes in arranging to compile the figures….complicated, complementary, complete fn tosh?

Here’s some really useful stuff on GERS the Sun didn’t (couldn’t) cover:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/08/24/25-of-the-26-gers-income-figures-are-estimates-and-not-the-real-figures/

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/08/25/gers-is-this-why-it-always-says-the-scottish-deficit-is-so-large/

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1479567/snp-website-gers-numbers-figures/

I’m not suggesting here that the Sun’s writers are any more thick than those at BBC Scotland when it comes to making sense of GERS or the above criticisms from Prof Richard Murphy. So, well done the Scottish Sun? A for effort, E for grammar/spelling.

10 thoughts on “The Scottish Sun’s grammatically incorrect but politically correct and helpfully blunt assessment of GERS”

  2. Bugger (the Panda) August 28, 2017 / 10:31 am

    In the original versions of Gers, e. g. 2005 it included all the costs of Trident.

    They’ll try that one again, just nuanced.

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. John August 28, 2017 / 11:19 am

    Major and Laing another pair of Tory conmen !

    Liked by 1 person

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      • Bugger (the Panda) August 28, 2017 / 6:03 pm

        Did you see the reference on the Scottish Democratic Alliance webpage, reporting his death, regarding his analyses of the Scottish GDP since the Union. Not one deficit except when we paid for Fort Augustus, a no doubt the Wade roads.

        Liked by 2 people

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