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5 Jun 2014

Scotland referendum: ‘Independence or 280 hot dogs?’

The Treasury has left Scottish voters insulted and patronised by using Lego models to suggest how to spend £1,400 if Scotland remains in the UK, says the SNP.

The Treasury is facing allegations it has insulted and patronised Scottish voters by using Lego models to illustrate how a calculated £1,400 windfall could be spent if Scotland remains part of the UK.

Twelve suggestions posted on the official gov.uk website include scoffing “280 hotdogs at the Edinburgh festival” and having “one haircut a month for over 3 and half years”. Others include: “Watch Aberdeen play all season with two mates – with a few pies and Bovrils thrown in for good measure.”

The SNP Treasury Spokesperson Stewart Hosie dismissed the article as “silly nonsense” adding that the Treasury’s original figure of £1,400 was “bogus” and had been “roundly discredited”.

“This is the kind of patronising attitude to Scotland we have come to expect from the Tory Treasury- presumably the establishment elite think we spend all our time eating fish and chips and pies. The Treasury figures have been roundly discredited, so this is just adding insult to injury.”

She added: “Real figures are that £300 billion of North Sea tax revenues have flowed from Scotland to the Treasury over the last 40 years… but all we get in return from Westminster is bogus figures and silly nonsense.”

The article, hosted on the official gov.uk website, has been ridiculed online.

Playing games?

The release of the Treasury workings behind the promise of the £1,400 independence windfull generated some scepticism.

Last week Patrick Dunleavy, the influential economist whose analysis underpinned the Treasury’s case for Scotland remaining part of the UK, claimed his calculations had been manipulated to make the one-off expense of setting up a new government appear as much as 10 times larger than it would actually be.

A Channel 4 News FactCheck concluded that there are “too many unknown quantities to make a definitive prediciton of the economic health of an independent Scotland.”

Read that FactCheck in full: will an independent Scotland be better or worse off?

A Treasury spokesman told Channel 4 News it was “relatively relaxed” about the Lego representations, which was originally posted as an article on Buzzfeed as part of the government’s move to engage young voters.

“It’s a light-hearted take on the issue and should be treated as such,” he added.

The annual £1,400 UK dividend – which effectively represents the government’s figure for the cost of independence – is calculated using a number of components.

The majority of the dividend, by its analysis, comes from higher public spending in Scotland and lower onshore tax revenues at present and by 2016/17.

While many Scottish voters accept the calculations, it is the tone and treatment of the latest article that have been accepted less favourably. Especially when the final one is: “You’ll still have enough left over for endless hugs with everyone to celebrate being in a United Kingdom.”

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