Jarrod Gilbert interviews Bill English:
Earlier in the day I attended the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand presentation where English had launched data that identified youth who are at-risk.
With his back as straight as a headmaster’s rod, he addressed the bureaucrats in a humming monotone. The thing most at risk in that particular room was consciousness.
But if the delivery was dull, the content was important. Using the new Integrated Data Infrastructure, which stores multi-government-agency information, Treasury had identified four risk factors linked to poor social outcomes: CYF reporting abuse or neglect; reliance on a benefit since birth; having a parent in prison or on a corrective sentence; and having a mother without formal qualifications.
For example, only 50 per cent of kids who experience all four factors will go on to gain school qualifications compared to 78 per cent who have no risks. Twenty per cent of children with all the risk factors will end up as a sole parent on a benefit, whereas just 2 per cent of luckier kids will.
One of the first targets were the families in and around gangs. English wanted to reach into these families in an effort to steer young people away from crime.
One of the reasons he was keen to target youth was because it has proved hard to fix adults. Since 2011, reoffending by released prisoners has reduced by 8 per cent, a long way off the target of 25 per cent that Corrections hoped to reach next year.
English finished his presentation. The first hand in the air belonged to one of those people who makes a series of statements and never asks a question.
She rambled on and then chided English for using the terms “at risk” and “broken” to describe families.
English was polite but unapologetic: “Some families are broken.”
And he is right.
Some are very very broken.
English has reached his political ceiling. He has no desire to have another shot at the leadership. He is as high up the ladder as he wishes to go. He doesn’t have to make a fuss to make his mark.
And more than that, the complex social policies he favours can be easily derailed by the passions and politics that surround debates on crime.
One reason the “lock ’em up” message became so successful was the ease with which it could be understood. To explain the approach favoured by English will require more than a news soundbite. The Government’s new direction has to be carefully managed.
At first blush, reaching into families and fixing them may sound a bit too Labour-like for many of the National Party faithful, but English makes it sound a conservative manifesto. “In a sense what you’re trying to do is make the basic unit more functional and less dependent on government and in the long run that’s how you get smaller government – I’m a fan of smaller government.”
And government spending as a percentage of GDP has fallen a fair bit under English. He hasn’t shrunk government, but he has restrained its growth so the economy is growing faster than the government. That’s how you shrink ir proportionally over time.
Claire Trevett reports:
The report points out New Zealand benefits from it more than it gives – for every report the SIS handed over to other agencies it received 170 back and for every report the GCSB gave it got back 99. It notes that Five Eyes offered New Zealand much more than it could do on its own – half of the SIS “leads” came from foreign powers.
This reminds me the Greens want NZ to pull out of Five Eyes. Worth remembering this when they demand we do so.
“Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If the government provides the funds required by taxing the citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on the one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other. If government spending is financed by borrowing from the commercial banks, it means credit expansion and inflation. If in the course of such an inflation the rise in commodity prices exceeds the rise in nominal wage rates, unemployment will drop. But what makes unemployment shrink is precisely the fact that real wage rates are falling.”
– Ludwig von Mises
The quote of the week is brought to you by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. To support the Union’s campaign for lower taxes and less government waste, click here.
The misery rate or index is the combination of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. A country that has high inflation and high unemployment is in misery, while low unemployment and low inflation is the aim.
So of the 33 countries, only 9 have a misery index below 6%. NZ is 7th best at 5.1%.
We are better than Australia, US, UK and Canada at 5.4%.
The OECD average is 7.5%, EU average 9.2% and Euro zone average 10.6%.
The worst off is Greece at 23.9%, Spain 20.2% and Turkey 20.0%.
France is also very badly off at 10.2%.
Sunday morning and a great sunrise over Lake Manapouri.
Farewell to Moturau Hut.
The final day is an easy six km walk on the flat to Rainbow Reach. You can go further to the Lake Te Anau Control Gates, but as I had an afternoon flight back to Wellington, we got picked up at Rainbow Reach.
The sun starting to come through the trees.
Out in the open.
A walkway to a great viewing platform.
This waterway is hidden away – most people would have no idea it is there.
The penultimate bridge.
Great views looking back.
The Waiau River.
And the final bridge over to the Rainbow Reach Carpark.
Very different to other other Great Walks. The views of the lakes from high up are spectacular. Was more challenging than most of the other Great Walks (on a par with Heaphy) but nothing too bad. Great to have completed my 7th Great Walk.
Stuff reports:
Rachel Rypma celebrated her 40th birthday last August, but is adamant she does not want a 41st.
At 24, the Christchurch woman discovered she had the neurodegenerative genetic disorder Huntington’s Disease.
At the time, she lived in Sydney with her partner, Gabe Rypma, pregnant and full of hope.
Today, she lives alone in a care home in Christchurch and wants to die.
She wants people to know what it is like for her, and hear her plea.
As Rypma makes her way to a small living room she clutches her walking frame and struggles to keep her body on task.
Some people argue the alternative to euthanasia is palliative care. But not everyone is dying of terminal cancer.
Huntington’s destroys the brain and the body. It is sadly a sentence of hell on earth where you could spend many years physically unable to even feed yourself, and also with no mental ability.
Under the current law the only way to avoid this is to commit suicide with no help. But this means killing yourself possibly years before you have to, rather than the alternative of being able to have assistance to do so once your disease gets to a certain point.
Her limbs, torso and head are in constant motion, wildly flailing in different directions.
The disease has taken control of Rypma’s body and speech, but her mind has so far stayed intact.
Eventually, she will probably slide into dementia.
With her mother, Denise Forbes, by her side, Rypma concentrates to string the words together.
“I’m not happy, and I want to die.”
And for the sake of humanity she should be allowed to.
Most of her food has to be pureed and fed to her by carers, but eating is still hazardous. She often chokes or vomits at meal times.
Tall and willowy, Rypma recently opted to shave her light brown hair. A large gold and orange medallion hangs around her neck. Throughout the interview she pauses to smile for the camera.
It is a reminder of her former vitality.
After the diagnosis, Rypma and her then partner, Gabe, made the painful decision to terminate the pregnancy.
Gabe Rypma said his former wife was an advocate for euthanasia from the time she was diagnosed.
“She said, ‘let’s go and have an amazing life’, but when the dignity is gone and I can’t walk, then I want the choice to end my life.”
Yet our law denies her such a choice.
In 2007 Rypma returned to Christchurch on her own.
She had reached a low point and suffered from depression, Forbes said.
After moving in to the care home three years ago she tried to run away and tried to take her life twice, Forbes said.
She supported her daughter’s position on euthanasia.
“I believe someone in Rachel’s situation should have the right to choose.”
Forbes knew of another woman with Huntington’s Disease who starved herself to death, an agonising process that took nine weeks.
Truly terrible.
Rypma had a “living will” that specified she would not take medication if she was to fall ill. Forbes said it was likely she would succumb to an infection this winter.
The disease was progressing rapidly. She had lost 14 kilograms over the past six months because of her constant movement.
Huntington’s Disease nurse Jeanette Wiggins said 80 per cent of patients died when they accidentally inhaled food or drink and it lead to pneumonia.
So our compassionate society means we have to leave them to choke to death or hope they get pneumonia.
Eric Crampton blogs:
Greg Mankiw proposed a height tax as a bit of a reductio on the efficient tax literature. You can’t adjust your height; height predicts income. So tax height and incentives around income remain clean. Ta-dah!
Work in the BMJ suggests that the height-income link is causal from height to income and works through genes – but mostly for men. A standard deviation (6.3 cm) increase in genetically predicted male height is associated with a £1580 increase in income. Obesity matters too, but for women. A standard deviation increase in genetically predicted BMI reduced women’s household income by £2940.
Of course you can not choose your gender or choose your height. Within reason, you do choose your weight.
Now we hear all the time that we must have gender equality in pay – that women on average must be paid the same as men on average, regardless of what actual jobs they hold, whether FT or PT etc. We have scores of headlines about the gender pay gap.
So why not the same publicity and campaigning on height equality in pay? If shorter man get paid on average less than taller men, why is this form of inequality deemed less worthy than gender inequality in pay?
Anthony Hubbard interviews Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn:
Gwyn has begun a series of inquiries which ask dangerous questions about both the SIS and the other intelligence agency, the GCSB.
Gwyn herself is a controversial figure, a former Marxist activist who would once have been of great interest to the spies.
Gwyn is a modest character with a lawyer’s precision and a sense of humour. The traditional face of intelligence is an ageing robot – spy-master, spy-watcher or politician – telling the public to mind its own business.
That’s not Gwyn.
As a young law graduate and freezing worker she belonged to the Socialist Action League, a far-Left group closely watched by the SIS.
Now recall Gwyn was hand picked by John Key to be Inspector-General. I can’t imagine any other PM doing this. But he picked her because he wanted a robust highly reputable watchdog who would make sure the intelligence agencies acted within the law.
Key has been responsible for more transparency and openness around intelligence activities, than any predecessor – by a country mile.
Gwyn would like the agencies to disclose what actual powers they have. Historically spy legislation is “pretty opaque”.
Former CIA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures, showing the agencies scoop up enormous quantities of digital information, had led to a “really important public debate about what powers do the agencies have”.
SIS head Rebecca Kitteridge called Snowden a traitor. “I didn’t say he was a traitor,” says the Inspector-General.
Gwyn says there’s a gap in the intelligence world. Snowden revealed how closely the international spy agencies work together, but their oversight agencies can’t do this.
“How do I know that what the [Kiwi] intelligence agencies get from other jurisdictions is lawfully and properly sourced?” she asks.
“[And] how do we know what use other jurisdictions put our intelligence to?”
The ultimate solution, she says, would be to allow, say, the Inspector-General of the CIA and her to carry out a joint inquiry.
Watchdogs of the world, unite.
Not a bad idea.
I believe intelligence agencies play a very valuable role in keeping us safe. But I also think they have a history of over-reaching in some areas, and this is why you need robust independent watchdogs.
A poll in the Australian about whom Australians think has been the best Prime Minister since 1972. The results are:
I’d agree with Howard and Hawke as the two two. I’d put Keating third. My list would be:
This is based on Reserve Bank data and shows that interest rates have never been lower since records began in 1964. This is only to February. The latest drop is not factored in. You can in fact get many mortgages for under 5% now.
And what does this mean for a family with a mortgage. Median house price is $460,000. Say you borrow 80% or $370,000.
A 20 year term mortgage would see the following weekly payments:
So the difference between 5% and 10% for a family with a median mortgage is $260 a week. Massive.
Stuff reports:
NZ Post boss Brian Roche has emerged as an early frontrunner to take over as State Services Commissioner when Iain Rennie steps down in June.
Roche, 60, has been chief executive at Post for more than six years, managing the state-owned company through a difficult transition as letter volumes collapsed, it moved to alternate delivery days and shed hundreds of jobs from its core postal business. At the same time Kiwibank has become an increasingly important part of the company.
Roche, nicknamed “Rocky” by his former colleagues at accounting firm PwC, would neither confirm nor deny his interest in the top civil servants’ job, only saying: “It’s no secret my contract is coming to an end after six and a half years at NZ Post.” …
He was mooted as a contender for the top job at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2012, although he had not been in the NZ Post role long at that stage and the job eventually went to Andrew Kibblewhite.
Roche, 60, also headed the 2011 Rugby World Cup’s business arm and has experience in top public sector roles including education, housing, transport and Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
When Roche was appointed chief executive at NZ Post current Labour leader Andrew Little – then a union boss – said he was hugely talented with a balanced approach protecting the bottom line but also thinking about people.
Other names in the running for the State Services Commission job include Ministry of Education chief executive Peter Hughes, who has not ruled out putting his hat in the ring.
Both Roche and Hughes are highly respected and talented. If they both apply, I wouldn’t want to have to choose between them, but good to see that the Government will have several good candidates to choose from.
Stuff reports:
Labour leader Andrew Little has called for banks to be “stiff armed” into not forcing dairy farmers off their land, warning that could see more farms fall into overseas ownership.
His call came amid calculations by the Reserve Bank that in a worst case scenario up to 15 per cent of the $40 billion in dairy farm debt – equivalent to more than $5 billion – could be lost to the banks.
What does Little mean by stiff armed? Send troops into their offices to take them over? To threaten government retaliation if they don’t write off debt?
I can’t think of a single act that would destroy investor confidence in New Zealand that a Government strong-arming banks. Also recall one of the factors of the Global Financial Crisis was banks being over-extended with loans that they could not get repaid. Little seems to want a repeat.
“We expose more New Zealand farm land to the risk of overseas ownership and I think that is a matter in which there is a national interest the Government should be alert to, and take action on.”
So what is it Comrade? Nationalise the banks? Or just force them to do what the Government demands by secret blackmail?
Little said the Government’s approach was “cavalier”. A summit should be called and dairy cooperative Fonterra should be at the table. Farmers needed to agree on a long term plan for the cooperative to move its products up the value chain, even if that meant taking less cash out once the immediate crisis was over, to allow Fonterra to invest to generate better long term returns.
Beware politicians who talk about moving the products up the value chain. This is code for “I know better than the entire industry, what is good for you”. You get this in forestry where politicians demand we sell finished products such as tables, rather than logs. But this is supreme arrogance by politicians who think they know where the global demand is better than the hundreds or thousands of businesses actually selling and exporting. If more money can be made from selling tables to China rather than logs to China, then there would be businesses doing exactly that. So in dairy, Little is saying forget about milk and milk powder, but instead sell chocolate!
Government assistance should be provided to get farmers over the crisis, in a similar way to the help offered during drought, but it did not need to be any more than that.
This is rich coming from Labour. Labour have spent the last decade demanding dairy farmers be taxed more and penalised more. They have demanded dairy farmers pay for the methane emissions of their cows, that they pay more for water, that they be fined for pollution etc. Their rhetoric over the last decade has been that we need less dairy in NZ, not more.
And to top it all off, they are opposing the TPP which would see the NZ dairy sector gain hundreds of millions of dollars in increased exports.
So instead of helping dairy farmers export, their policy is to bully boy banks into not collecting money owed by farmers – a policy which would guarantee no bank in NZ would ever lend again to a farmer!
Their level of economic incompetence is at an all time high.
Stuff reports:
Labour announced its policy in December last year, to establish a fund based on the Cancer Drug Fund in the UK.
The UK example however, has begun dominating headlines in that country with massive budget blowouts and academic reviews citing the numbers of lives saved may not be living up to expectations.
A study of the six-year-old fund, by York University, found that if the NZ$484m spent on the Cancer Drugs Fund between April 2013 and April 2014 was instead spent on its wider public health system, it could have added more than 17,800 “quality-adjusted life years” – the measure that they, and Pharmac, use which assesses both survival and quality of life.
The study estimated that the Cancer Drugs Fund added less than 3,400 during that time.
So Labour’s policy is to use a model where a proportion of funding is set aside for drugs which are less than one fifth as effective as other drugs. Great policy.
Saturday sees an early departure from Iris Burn at 8 am. Forecast was for rain so wanted to avoid it, if possible. It did rain for most of the day, but only lightly in the morning. Enough to put a rain cover on the pack, but not on myself!
Start off with a walk through the bush.
Then next to the river.
And across the river.
This is the scene of the Big Slip in January 1984 that wiped out a huge section of the landscape. It is slowly regenerating.
Due to the Big Slip, you spend a couple of kms in the open.
Then back into wonderful forest.
A bridge to help with a crossing.
Around halfway along is a shelter – Rocky Point. But it is infested by sandflies, so we didn’t stop there.
We did stop here and this robin took a liking to my poles.
The nice thing about rain is it makes the forest even greener.
This is near the end, getting close to Lake Manapouri.
And finally hit Lake Manapouri.
A final walk along the coast of Lake Manapouri.
And we make it to Moturau Hut. Took five hours (guidebook says six) so got there at 1 pm for lunch.
Beautiful views of Lake Manapouri from the Hut. We were glad to be there early as later in the day it started to rain quite heavily. But overall still only around 1 cm on rain compared to 15 cm on the Mildford Track that day!
Sunday is the final day, with a short walk out. Today was long, but fairly flat and easy. However legs were pretty sore from the day before, so was glad for the lack of big hills.
The Herald reports:
Metaphorical mud-slinging in court is not uncommon but rarely does it become literal.
On Thursday though, Auckland District Court Judge Anne Kiernan found herself on the end of more than just a verbal tirade.
An 80-year-old man flung faeces at her.
Police said it was understood to be horse manure but could not confirm its exact origin.
Court security staff scan everyone coming into the courthouse for metal items but the Ministry of Justice said “organic matter is very difficult to detect”.
The man was swiftly arrested but a spokeswoman said he was released later on the same day.
The man, who is known to police, will appear in Auckland District Court next week charged with assault with a weapon.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said Judge Kiernan, who has nearly 15 years’ experience on the bench, was unharmed by the attack.
She did not want to comment on the incident but it was confirmed yesterday that she took no time off work.
The poo thrower was not scheduled to appear in court on the day but it can be revealed he and the judge have history.
Just over a year ago she found the octogenarian guilty of assaulting a prominent New Zealander.
Judge Kiernan fined him $400 and ordered him to pay court costs of $130.
A quick google shows only one person fits that description – Castislav ‘Sam’ Bracanov.
Hopefully for this incident he’ll get something more serious that may deter him.
Stuff reports:
The last-minute cancellation of a major Chicago rally by Donald Trump on safety grounds has pivoted the attention from Republican party infighting to the increasingly violent tone at his rallies and the extent to which Trump encourages it.
Scuffles and fights broke out between pro- and anti-Trump protesters as thousands waited in a stadium at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the candidate, who was a no-show. Instead columns of police filed into the stadium, attempting to separate the factions as announcements were made that Trump had cancelled.
Amidst chaos, it became clear that unlike the usual mix of a dozen or so protesters among Trump’s thousands of rally attendees, as much as half of the crowd crammed into the UIC stadium were there to protest against Trump.
Trump blamed on Saturday organised “thugs” for the protests that shut down his Chicago rally and said the incident had “energised America.”
“The organised group of people, many of them thugs, who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energised America!” Trump said on Twitter.
Sadly he’s right. This will play to his base and energise them. I suspect this is exactly what he wanted. He is provocative for a reason.
The Herald reports:
The nurse who threw a dildo at Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce has struck again.
Josie Butler brought a similar squeaky sex toy along to the Government’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) roadshow in Christchurch yesterday.
She tried to present it to chief TPP negotiator David Walker but was stopped by security staff.
“David Walker, I am here today on behalf of the vast majority of New Zealanders to present you with the New Zealand Dick of the Year Award,” she said.
Meeting moderator Sean Plunket told her: “No, you’re not.”
A security guard took the microphone away from Ms Butler. He and two other security staff members then escorted her out of the meeting at the Rydges Hotel.
Outside, Ms Butler used a water pistol to squirt an official attending the road show. She was led away by police.
Ms Butler posted a video on Facebook after the incident saying she had been “kicked out” of the meeting.
She said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade official then tried to talk to her about the TPP. He pleaded not to be squirted with the water pistol.
“He spun me some absolute bulls*** so I said to him, ‘Mate, that’s not good enough’ and squirted him, a lot, in the face.”
She said police were “heavy-handed” but she was not charged.
She’s now harrassing public servants. Because she got away with her antics at Waitangi, she now thinks she has immunity.
This must be coming close to bringing her employer into disrepute
The Dom Post reports:
The “mystery” surrounding the amount of ratepayers’ money being spent on Wellington’s professional sports teams has some city councillors feeling uneasy.
More questions about the growing level of council funds being spent on pro teams were raised on Wednesday as the council gave the green light to a $550,000 budget overspend, to allow two fields at Martin Luckie Park in Berhampore to be upgraded to an elite training level.
Two full-sized sand-based fields will be built at the ground. It is expected the Wellington Phoenix football team will use Martin Luckie Park as a training base.
The vote was 8-6 in favour of approving the money.
Many of those opposed were uncomfortable with fact that grants for professional teams were currently decided by a handful of councillors only, leaving most in the dark as to how much they were getting.
Councillor Nicola Young said she was totally opposed to ratepayers funding professional football in any way, calling it a rich man’s game that was not the responsibility of ratepayers.
“I’m concerned about how much money we give to sports, and the fact we don’t know know how much money we give them … there’s a lot of mystery wrapped up in this.”
Most people support the Council providing sporting grounds for community teams to play on. This is a core function.
But giving great wads of money (or in kind) to professional sports teams is another matter. Why should ratepayers fund (for example) professional rugby teams?
Even worse these deals are done in secret, with the Council hiding behind commercial sensitivity. They’re giving the public’s money away. If a sporting body insists the details remain secret, then simply say “Well, no money then”.
The Dom Post reports:
A new civil case over the police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000 was not an attempt to “go after” the shooter, Senior Constable Keith Abbott, a lawyer says.
Wallace, 23, was shot in the town’s main street after breaking shop windows and attacking a police car with officers in it.
HIs family say he was deprived of the right to life and investigations so far have been inadequate, lawyer Graeme Minchin said at the High Court in Wellington on Thursday. Justice Brendan Brown has reserved his decision on the Police Commissioner’s application to stop the case now.
The Wallace family won’t give this up. They blame the Police for the actions of their son. If you threaten am armed police officer with a baseball bat and advance towards them, you’ll probably be shot. Today with tasers that would be an option that would be worth trying, but this was not an option in 2000.
After police decided not to charge Abbott – a decision the deputy Solicitor General confirmed – the Wallace family took a private prosecution charging Abbott with murder. In December 2002 a Wellington jury acquitted Abbott who had said he shot Wallace in self defence.
Abbott has been cleared by a Police investigation, by Crown Law, by the IPCA and by a jury.
Wallace rampaged like a man possessed. Leaving golf clubs at various scenes he smashed and beat windows and cars. 3 cars were damaged. A taxi with passengers, a private car with 6 youths in it, the third car was a police patrol car. It has been said that night Wallace was intent on killing either himself or someone else and that the Senior Constable was an unwitting pawn in his game.
Collecting his pistol from the police station, Senior Constable Keith Abbott arrived at the scene of destruction. Beaten cars and 140 smashed windows a testimony of the Suspects State of mind. Steven Wallace began to aggressively advance on Abbott armed with a golf club and a baseball bat. Negotiation with the man proved fruitless. Wallace was warned that the policeman was armed and a warning shot was fired. With still no sign of the danger of the attack lessening Abbott withdrew 50m but was circled by Wallace and was cut off. When he reached 20m away Wallace threw the golf club at the Constables head causing him to duck and continued advancing with the softball bat. Abbott shot four shots before the man fell at 5-6m from the constable.
I also covered the IPCA report here.
The Crown said the family’s claim had no hope of success and it should be struck out.
The circumstances had been investigated three times – the trial, coroner’s inquest, and an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation, Gunn said.
If it was allowed to go ahead the Crown wanted assurance that a contribution could be made towards its costs, conservatively estimated at just under $50,000 for a two week hearing, in the event the Wallace family lose.
The family are fighting to get legal aid to pay for the case.
No, no and no.
Stuff reports:
Several people connected to embattled Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay’s electorate have been approached by police for interviews, while Parliamentary Services has confirmed it has also spoken to police.
Three resignations in Barclay’s Clutha-Southland electorate since the start of the year have raised questions about the MP’s relationship with his staff and party members, and the involvement of the police could put his position under further threat.
Swan told the Otago Daily Times that police had arranged a meeting with her, but that it had been postponed and she had “no idea” what it was about.
Swan would not repeat her comments when approached by Stuff.co.nz, referring enquiries to Parliamentary Services.
However, it is understood that police have made contact with several people in the electorate as part of their enquiries.
The police involvement is believed to centre on a complaint about the “employment issue” which led to Dickson’s resignation – understood to relate to unproven allegations of a secret recording made by Barclay.
This seems weird.
I don’t know if any secret recording was made. If so, I would make the comment that secretly recording your staff is not a great idea unless you have strong reasons for doing so. But again, this allegation is unproven.
But even if true, I don’t see how the Police are involved. It is an offence to secretly record two people, if you are neither of them. It is not an offence to do it, if you are one of them. Maybe the allegation is the office was generally bugged, but that seems bizarre.
The Telegraph reports:
Scotland last year ran up a £15 billion deficit that was proportionately twice the size of the UK’s, according to “devastating” official figures that prompted a sustained attack on Nicola Sturgeon’s honesty about independence.
David Cameron said the figures demonstrated that Scots would have faced tax increases on whisky, petrol, income and homes if they had voted to leave the UK. Alex Salmond’s preferred ‘independence day’ was March 24 this year.
Holyrood’s opposition parties said the Scottish Government statistics demonstrated the scale of the “con” Ms Sturgeon tried to sell Scottish voters during the referendum by vastly inflating the future value of oil.
They went on the attack after the First Minister published Government ExpeScotlnditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures for 2014/15, which showed Scotland was in the red to the tune of 9.7 per cent of its GDP compared to 4.9 per cent for the UK as a whole.
This was the second highest figure on record after 2009/10, during the depths of the recession and the banking crisis. In contrast, the rest of the UK’s finances have improved every year since the end of the downturn.
Scotland is on a spending spree Greek style.