Just a quick report on the recent trade figures. Scotland remains the only part of the UK with a strong trade surplus and has had the biggest increase in exports in Q1 of this year.
Look at the massive trade deficits in London and the South. Now remind me why we’d want to join the UK if we weren’t already caught up in it?
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/RTS/Pages/default.aspx
Talking-up Scotland 
It is my understanding that these trade figures are not accurate in that they do not allow for the Scottish exports that leave from “the non-Scottish parts of the UK”. The true figures would therefore be higher for Scottish exports and lower for English ……they are claiming some of ours as theirs!
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I’ve heard that but couldn’t find sources.
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Johnston Press was a fairly solid, rather dull but long-standing Scottish local newspaper company. It came under the attention of the ‘wizzards’ of the City of London and was transformed (smoke and mirrors) into a leading ‘media’ player with an inflated value. The Executive pirates then had themselves piped aboard and turned the initial mild looting process into a veritable feeding frenzy. Recent pirate in chief CEO Ashley Highfield (ex beeb guy) was finally forced to walk the (very plushly upholstered) plank this week. Highfield’s executive pension arrangements were truly eye-watering. The ‘ordinary’ pensioners of JP may not be faring quite so well – edit from HoldThe FrontPage:
Regional publisher Johnston Press has confirmed that is in talks over a debt refinancing deal that could see its pension scheme offloaded to the pensions regulator.
The company has been in discussions since last November over ways of refinancing £220m worth of debt that becomes repayable on 1 June 2019 – just under a year from now.
Last night it confirmed that one of the options being looked at is a restructuring mechanism known as a Regulated Apportionment Arrangement or RAA.
Such a deal would allow JP to detach itself from its pension scheme, which would then effectively come under the control of the Pensions Protection Fund, a ‘lifeboat’ scheme operated by The Pensions Regulator.
Meanwhile old Ashers – far from seeking refuge in the ‘pensions lifeboat scheme’ has found himself a new and rather comfy billet with Oyster yachts (check out the prices of Oyster yachts – seven figures and upwards – and that’s in pounds sterling).
Former Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield has joined the board of a luxury yacht firm along with an ex-Formula One racing boss.
Ashley formally stepped down as CEO as JP at Tuesday’s annual general meeting after nearly seven years in the role, to be replaced by chief financial officer David King.
Now he has been appointed as a non-executive director of Oyster Yachts, which describes itself as “one of the world’s leading manufacturers of premium sailing yachts.”
Ashley has joined the Oyster board along with Eddie Jordan, who ran the Jordan Grand Prix F1 team in the 1990s.
I reckon any pensioners of Oyster yachts better start checking out their policies right now.
Good People of Scotland – we need to cut ourselves adrift from HMS Britannia and her piratical crew ASAP – or this stuff just keeps happening over and over and over again. Indy 2 Now – You know it makes sense.
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The Scottish export figures are correct only in the sense that it shows Scotland as a net exporter. It doesn’t allow, as pointed out by Diane Davidson, for Scottish goods and services exported under the guise of English exports. Probably the most glaring elephant in the room is oil. Even at its lowest value 2015/16, HMG Treasury reported £10 billion of refined and a similar amount of crude as exports.
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I expect the two comments above about “disguised” exports from us going out via an English export route are likely to be true. Trouble is the same is very likely to apply to imports. So though I’m always heartened by these HMRC stats, I never know how useful they actually are. They must be saying something valid about our overall trading situation but what? Perhaps they are just telling us that Scotland’s overall trade balance is unknown. That’s another argument for setting up a proper Scottish Statistics Agency as proposed by Craig Dalziel : http://allofusfirst.org/library/scotlands-data-desert-the-case-for-a-scottish-statistics-agency-2018/
Richard Murphy has also delved into this whole area. EG on imports/exports he writes: “… what of Scottish imports and exports? Let’s be blunt: no one has a clue what crosses the borders from Scotland to England and Northern Ireland. These numbers are literally made up in that case.” (http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/?s=scottish+statistics ) I think that’s an example of he calls CRAP statistics whee CRAP = completely rubbish approximations.
In his proposals to Holyrood’s Economy Committee, he outlined a more detailed list of what is needed to produce much more accurate Scottish government income reporting, ( http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/09/10/my-proposals-for-improving-scottish-economic-data-suggest-there-could-be-life-after-gers/ )
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Thanks for this useful information and good proposals.
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