Scotland’s 5.3 million population represents only one twelfth or just 8% of the UK’s total population of 65.6 million. From January to September 2017, UK food and drink exports increased 11.0% to £16.1bn against the same period in 2016.

http://www.fdf.org.uk/exports/ukexports-2017q3.aspx

Scottish food and drink exports rose to £4.3 billion in the same period. This suggests Scotland produced 26.7% of the UK’s food and drinks exports with only 8% of the population.

https://news.gov.scot/news/exports-continue-to-grow

This alone indicates a very sustainable basis to underpin the economy of any independent country especially one that already has a long-standing overall trade surplus, massive renewable energy production and, oh, a few billion barrels of oil currently selling at over $60pb. These are just the ‘overseas’ exports from Scotland but how much do we ‘export’ to the rest of the UK? We do know that Scotland’s overall exports to the UK are around £50 billion and that 4.8% of that was food and drink. So that would be £2.4 billion’s worth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38743532

If we can export a total of £6.7 billion’s worth of food and drink, I suspect that we are more than self-sufficient should we need to keep it all in some future crisis. I know, we’d be a bit drunk too if we had to keep all the whisky for some reason. However, see this UK government table showing its massive trade deficit in food:

3.4 UK trade in different food groups, 2016

Note that in 2016: ‘[T]he value of imports was greater than the value of exports in each of the broad categories of food, feed and drink except ‘Beverages’ which had a trade surplus of £1.35 bn, largely due to exports of Scotch Whisky.’

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-statistics-pocketbook-2017/food-statistics-in-your-pocket-2017-global-and-uk-supply

So, given the UK’s massive need for imported food and drink, it looks like our £2.4 billion’s worth of mostly salmon, beef and whisky is quite a small, if tasty, contribution to a hopelessly unsustainable economy.

(c) GETTY/Daily Express

The current legislation allows foxes to be flushed from cover and then shot but, in many cases, this relatively humane approach is either flouted or mismanaged with a Scottish Government review suggesting that around 160 foxes are brutally killed by the hounds out of the total of 800 killed altogether, every year.

The SNP national council has now shifted their policy to make the practice illegal and to limit the number of hounds to two. This may be a sensible and humane response which does not require a complete ban on hunting foxes as suggested by the Green Party. While I’m sympathetic to the Green Party’s plan, I’m not sure if a complete ban is required. You may know more than I do about this so do contradict me and explain why.

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/countryside-alliance-accuses-snp-%E2%80%9Cworst-examples-political-prejudice%E2%80%9D-after-party#.WiqEBYRizg0.twitter

In England, the Tories plan a free vote on repealing the ban of hunting with packs of hounds altogether:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3520507/theresa-may-pledges-to-hold-a-free-vote-to-repeal-the-fox-hunting-ban-if-she-wins-the-general-election/

Is this just another of the many small ways in which Scotland is different and different enough? See this for a reminder of some of the others:

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

 

The above graph shows, to the end of September 2017, the trade deficits of every other part of the UK and Scotland’s now long-standing surplus.  Further, Scotland’s exports increased to the end of June, by 20%, while those of England increased by only 14%, suggesting the gap in the overall economic performance of the two countries is widening.

At the same time, the UK’s overall trade deficit widened to £8.9 billion reflecting increased imports. You can see from the above graph that this deficit is long-standing

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-overseas-trade-in-goods-statistics-october-2017

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/june2017

You’ll see from previous reports detail of the nature of Scotland’s booming export industries and the role the Scottish Government has played in supporting this trend:

Scottish food and drink exports still booming so is it still only 28% of the UK’s food and drink exports? We’re still only 8% of the population

13% increase in Salmon farming jobs as Scottish salmon sales help UK exports hit record high

After 45% increase in Whisky exports to China, they cut the tariffs by 10%. Eh?

26% increase in Scottish pharmaceuticals exports in just five years.

Scottish Government grants to further boost Scotland’s food and drink industry which already produces 28% of all UK exports

The unavoidable conclusion is that Scotland continues to be saddled with debt she has not incurred yet which is used in the GERS figures to suggest falsely that Scotland’s economy is weaker than it really is.

Footnote: N Ireland has (small) trade surplus for the first time in years.

(c) digit.fyi

Funded by the Scottish Government via Scottish Enterprise and Subsea UK, in association with the Nippon Foundation, the research will focus on two major themes:

‘One of the programme’s two themes will be subsea digital oilfield technologies, including real-time underwater communication, inspection, monitoring and control, sensors, robotics and artificial intelligence. The second theme of subsea oil and gas innovation will focus on well productivity, intervention and design, low-cost drilling, decommissioning, subsea factory development, remote monetisation and developing challenging fields.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/australasia/157903/scotland-japan-link-get-15m-research-fund/

Regular readers will know that Scottish expertise in oil, gas and renewable energy generation is now as valuable as the actual raw material resources in our seas. See these earlier reports:

Scotland’s expertise in renewable power generation now worth billions

Scotland’s oil and gas expertise earned £11.4 billion in 2015/2016 supported by Scottish Government investment

Scottish subsea expertise to the fore again

Almost a year ago, I could report that Scottish businesses were advising in more than 40 countries including the government of Japan, providing cranes to build wind farms in Morocco and South Africa and working with the World Bank in Chile.

Happy New Year Story: Scotland’s ‘renewable energy expertise’ in demand worldwide, says new research. At least 14 news agencies report it but BBC Scotland, STV?

I see the Herald did a quite good news story on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation findings on poverty in Scotland:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15701129.Scotland_boasts_lowest_levels_of_poverty_in_the_UK/

Maybe they’ll go large and generous on this one too? BBC Scotland News? Hmmm…not so sure.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney is leading a delegation of 21 senior staff from Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions to Mumbai and Delhi as the impending Brexit deal and the home office’s hard-line (see below) threatens the flow of EU students, endangering the viability and reducing the influx of talent to our universities.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/06/home-office-wants-eu-students-crackdown-brexit-leak-reveals

There are currently 1 300 Indian students studying in Scotland and they are generally considered to be of high quality bringing both fee income and, when allowed to stay, often become involved in cutting-edge profitable research here. See for example:

Scottish university research to help developing nations remove arsenic from water supplies

Scotland’s world-leading expertise to the fore again in India and Bangladesh

As India’s population surges beyond 1 billion and as its middle class grows quickly, the demand for good quality higher education will grow exponentially and well beyond that which can be provided in India. There is a real opportunity for our quite large and well-respected HE sector to meet some of that demand, to the mutual benefit of both countries. Scottish Higher Education is relatively big for the size of the country, generating a great deal of wealth, so this initiative in particularly important. Scotland’s HE sector employs 38,450 people, supports over 142,000 jobs in the Scottish economy and creates £1.3 billion of export earnings from outside Scotland. Scotland has 15 universities while Denmark with roughly the same population (5-6 million) has only eight. As with the recent Scottish Governments initiatives to forge stronger trade links with the Arctic, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, in informed anticipation of damage to our trade after Brexit, this is an example of a government doing what it should be doing to protect and nurture our economic and cultural links. See this on these new links:

SNP leadership on hectic northern hemisphere mission, from the Baltic to Canada and a’ pairts atween thaim, to save Scottish Economy from Tory incompetence

See this on the almost certainly disproportionately severe damage to Scotland’s economy from Brexit:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/no-deal-brexit-would-cost-scottish-economy-30bn-over-5-years-1-4594589

https://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/scotlands-universities-welcome-india/

Looks like a no-brainer for our brainier colleagues.

‘In England, the proportion of children reaching a good level of development at age five has increased, but the attainment gap has remained fairly constant at 20 percentage points. The attainment gap remains fairly constant through primary school, meaning that the difference in attainment between those from richer and poorer backgrounds remains around 20 percentage points at age 11. This gap widens through secondary school, to around 28 percentage points by age 16 and 25 percentage points at age 19.

In Scotland, children aged five living in the most deprived areas were 16 percentage points less likely to reach the expected standard in reading, and 14 percentage points less likely in numeracy than those living in the least deprived areas. By age 11, these gaps increased to more than 20 percentage points. They remained at this level in the results of school leavers (age 16), having fallen from 33 percentage points in 2009/10.’ (P87)

I’ve taken out the Wales and N Ireland figures from the above long paragraph, to simplify the reading of this. It would have been better in a table but, what is clear, first, is that the attainment gap is only the same for 11-year-olds (difficult early adolescent boys) in both countries at 20% but the gap for 5-year-olds is only 16% in Scotland compared to 20% in England and for 16-year-olds the gap in Scotland is only 20% compared to 28% in England. Second, note the massive fall in the gap from 33% to 20% in the period of SNP Government.

 

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017

(c) goodtoknow.co.uk

‘The proportion of people eating the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables each day varies across income groups. Over a third (39%) of people in the richest fifth of the population eat the recommended amount, falling to only 15% of those in the poorest fifth. There are no significant differences between England, Wales, Scotland and NorthernIreland.’ (P79)

See, English comedians, and some Scots too?

 

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017

 

I think some eye-catching points got lost in my large piece of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Poverty in the UK, so I’m re-posting excerpts:

 

Looking at a summary of trends in mental health care over last 20yrs, we read this somewhat minimalist statement for the poorest fifth of the population:

 

Adult physical health (UK, working-age adults) – Worse

Adult mental health (England) – Worse

Adult mental health (Scotland) – Better

Young people’s mental health – No change (P9)

I know there’s an awful lot left to be done here but the context is at least encouraging.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017

I think some eye-catching points got lost in my large piece of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Poverty in the UK, so I’m re-posting excerpts:

 

‘Across the four countries of the UK, Wales has consistently had the highest poverty,

only slightly lower than London and similar to the North East. Scotland has generally

had the lowest poverty but has seen a rather different pattern to the rest of the UK –

poverty rose slightly between 1994/97 and then remained constant to 2013/16.’ (P29)

 

Poverty ‘remained constant’ in the face of central Tory austerity cuts? So that’s a wee plus for the Scottish Government?

 

‘However, in the latter part of the 2000s, the picture began to diverge. Scottish pensioners

began to experience slightly lower poverty rates than the other nations and, from 2010/11, Welsh pensioners began to see significant increases in poverty rates.’ (P64)

 

Labour-led devolution in Wales, SNP-led devolution in the latter 2000s in Scotland.

 

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017

 

(c) sdi.co.uk

I think some eye-catching points got lost in my large piece of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Poverty in the UK, so I’m re-posting excerpts:

 

‘The proportion of working-age adults with higher education qualifications has nearly

doubled in England, Wales and Scotland; 45% of working-age adults in Scotland, 38% in

England and 35% in Wales have these qualifications.’ (P5)

Clearly comparable, 7% more likely to have HE qualifications in Scotland.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2017