An alert reader sent us a piece of interesting follow-up info to yesterday’s piece on NHS Scotland costs. Because comparable figures for NHS England are available too, and they make for surprising reading.
These are the Scottish figures for medicine costs at list price, ie before any negotiated discounts that the health service is able to obtain:
The population of England, at 55 million, is just over 10 times that of Scotland (5.4m). So one would imagine that its like-for-like costs would come in at around £12 billion.
The BBC front page headline for this is actually just the alarming-sounding “Scottish prescription costs rise by 25%”, without even the qualifier about the timespan.
It’s probably overdue that we start collecting these together. So here’s Sir John Major on the Andrew Marr show yesterday, explaining why a “once in a lifetime” referendum should in fact be held again because its outcome was determined by something that turned out to be untrue.
Which is, of course, totally different to Scotland being told to vote No in 2014 in order to stay in the European Union, because [REASONS TO FOLLOW AT SOME POINT]
The entire Scottish media has today leapt like starving dogs at a tin of Chappie on a new “study” by right-wing flag-crazed imperialist nutjobs T***e I*****s, which claims to prove that an independent Scotland would have a BLACK HOLE!!! of infinity squillion pounds and all the crops would wither in the fields and stamps would be £5000 each and we’d be invaded by space monsters and all the usual stuff you’d expect.
(In all seriousness for a moment, it genuinely tries to flog the “fiscal transfer” myth and the “Scotland would have to join the Euro” myth and a bunch of other Better Together Greatest Hits that were utterly debunked old hat half a decade ago, and in order to make its economic case work it basically pretends that Brexit isn’t happening.)
But at the bottom of its article the New Statesman offers to link its readers to the full extent of the author’s professional economic expertise and well-argued case, and in fairness if you click the link they do exactly that.
Credit where due, it’s an uncanny likeness of the gloomy wee fella.
Labour MP Stella Creasy, explaining to Sarah Smith on today’s Sunday Politics why she backs a so-called “People’s Vote” on Brexit because voters should have the right to change their mind about a referendum if circumstances change.
The Daily Record’s politics lead story today is a slightly underwhelming poll that shows 41% of Scots believe the Tories are carrying out a power grab against the Scottish Parliament, against 34% who think they aren’t (and 25% who have no idea).
Which seems a good time to round up the last results of our own most recent poll, and some slightly disturbing revelations about the Scottish public’s grasp of devolution.
In the light of David Davis’ resignation last night and the continuing shambolic chaos that is UK politics, it seemed a pertinent time for these findings from our latest poll.
Alert readers may recall that a few weeks ago we revealed how an independent Scotland could reduce its budget deficit by billions of pounds a year – by renting out the Faslane naval base to the rest of the UK to keep their nuclear weapons in.
Voters in England, we learned, were more than happy to pay Scotland £5bn annually – and perhaps even more – for a Trident submarine park during the decades that it would take to build a replacement base south of the border.
Of course, that plan is only any good if the people of Scotland would accept it too.
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “The great thing about every revolution is that it can never be finished. There will always be backsliders, or faint…” Aug 1, 10:56
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “A trifle harsh, Wally. I’m convinced my comments continue to improve. Any chance you could change your handle? We already…” Aug 1, 10:41
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Nobodies: “Further “Colonial Victimhood” (sic) from Bill Rolston, emeritus professor at Ulster University: BILL ROLSTON: IRELAND, COLONIALISM AND THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION…” Aug 1, 10:28
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “You’re the only “Whopper” round here, Fatso. 🙂” Aug 1, 10:21
James on The Nobodies: “Just what this site needs; yet another Tory Whopper. Jesus wept.” Aug 1, 09:59
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “Very true. This whole left wing inspired “Colonial Victimhood” is truly nauseating, childish, monotonous and frankly offensive misappropriation.” Aug 1, 09:53
william G Walker on The Nobodies: “I do enjoy the opening sentence of Wally’s message! Wally Jumblatt says: 1 August, 2026 at 8:47 am The articles…” Aug 1, 09:13
Wally Jumblatt on The Nobodies: “The articles are always articulate and compelling, but the comments get worse and noisier. Colonies and Freedom, you’ll never get…” Aug 1, 08:47
Anthem on The Nobodies: “Ah, so that’s why BP bought up all those natural energy licences and about to pump £bn’s into it. They’re…” Jul 31, 21:21
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Because the Scottish government is even keener on Nutt Zero than WM. Because the Scottish government has committed Scotland to…” Jul 31, 19:51
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Strange as it is for me to be sticking up for Confused, he does have a point. I am willing…” Jul 31, 19:43
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “It’s doable if we get the towel heids to do all the hard bits. No doubt that’s the part of…” Jul 31, 19:32
Insider on The Nobodies: “Anthem @ 6:05, You’re having a laugh, aren’t you ?” Jul 31, 18:53
Anthem on The Nobodies: “A little off topic, but why can’t the Scottish government purchase the oil & Gas from BP? It would make…” Jul 31, 18:05
Jay on The Nobodies: “Thank you Agent x” Jul 31, 17:16
Minceheid on The Nobodies: “To be fair they did have a few clever ideas back in yer Golden Age, but sadly it all went…” Jul 31, 16:59
100%Yes on The Nobodies: “The words coming out of your mouth started Nazi Party in Germany. But its only joking, its a same that…” Jul 31, 16:26
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “Occam’s Razor suggests they did invent zero. They needed to put something on the measuring stick to record their cultural…” Jul 31, 15:25
agentx on The Nobodies: “Headline: “Craig Murray unveils Scottish independence plan – that could trigger war” ———————————– Read the full fantasy proposals here: https://archive.ph/okGN0#selection-1235.0-1235.72” Jul 31, 15:18
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “All very true, Northy, but on an Indy supporting site like this one, you omit (I’m certain accidentally 🙂 )…” Jul 31, 15:12
Confused on The Nobodies: “spain invaded by 49 BILLION potential workers to boost the ECONMYUNTHENETZERO (ursula never done lyin was down there, taking line…” Jul 31, 15:01
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: ““Black Skin, White Masks”, eh, Alf? If only we could fathom what that might be about, we could deduce how…” Jul 31, 14:59
Alf Baird on The Nobodies: “A highly informative paper, Fearghas. I especially noted the following, although there is much more in the paper to explain…” Jul 31, 14:40
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “MSM now reporting 60,000 migrants. The usual population of Ceuta is approximately 84,000. This is the second mass invasion. The…” Jul 31, 14:38
Northcode on The Nobodies: “Ceuta is land-joined to North Africa and is not a part of mainland Spain. Most of the 49,000 migrants walked…” Jul 31, 14:28
Captain Caveman on The Nobodies: “Well, I don’t think the Italians are best pleased with Spain’s hopelessly lefty government right now. Not at all. Not…” Jul 31, 13:59
Minceheid on The Nobodies: “Captain Caveman says: 31 July, 2026 at 12:52 pm I love the way the BBC described these 49,000 as “500…” Jul 31, 13:32
Hatey McHateface on The Nobodies: “@Captain Caveman says: 31 July, 2026 at 12:52 pm ‘I love the way the BBC described these 49,000 as “500…” Jul 31, 13:31
Young Lochinvar on The Nobodies: “HMcH In yer haste tae respond you missed the opportunity to quip about the face that launched a thousand boats…” Jul 31, 13:19
