Public spending in Scotland in the last financial year totalled £68.6 billion. Taxes levied in Scotland amounted to just £53.7 billion, a difference of some £15 billion. Were Scotland an independent country, it would have a budget deficit of around 10 per cent of GDP, among the highest in the world. But Scotland is not independent and these are just figures compiled under the so called Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) statistics. They were introduced by the Conservatives in the 1990s before devolution to demonstrate the importance to Scotland of continued membership of the UK. Never has the point been made more starkly.

In a Union, it should not matter that one constituent part has higher spending and lower revenues than another. Fiscal transfers from wealthier to poorer areas are crucial to national and social cohesion. However, the Scottish National Party does not wish to be part of this Union, even though the Scottish people voted two years ago to stay in. There have been mutterings from the SNP about a second referendum following the UK-wide decision to leave the EU because Scotland voted to remain. But the GERS figures show this to be utterly fanciful. Scotland could not survive on its own, certainly not with the levels of expenditure it has now.