chokka blog

SUMMARY Full Fact have concluded that senior SNP politicians have been guilty of making false statements to suggest that Scotland is close to self-sufficient in renewables (see here  and here ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/11/scotlands-renewable-energy-statistics.html

Recent actual and future forecast increases in Ofgem's default energy tariff cap levels are genuinely shocking and have rightly led to widespread calls for government action to deal with an impen...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/09/ofgem-price-caps-and-scotland.html

Every year the Scottish Government's Chief Economist publishes the Government Revenue and Expenditure Scotland (GERS) report and every year the SNP's spin machine goes into over-drive. This year ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/08/gers-2022-here-we-go-again.html

Despite the fact that recent opinion polls (eg. here and here ) show that less than a third of Scots actually want it, Nicola Sturgeon has today announced that we are to be treated to a "pretend...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/06/why-not-scotland.html

The Scottish Government has just published (under the headline "First Paper in new independence prospectus") the remarkably verbosely titled "Building a New Scotland - Independence in the Modern ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/06/we-need-to-talk-about-scotland.html

SUMMARY Some Scottish nationalists correctly recognise that an independent Scotland would have to fund its own State Pension ... but then incorrectly claim that Scotland's National Insurance co...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2022/02/scotlands-ni-contributions-and-state.html

The SNP appear to have decided they would try to use the payment of state pensions in an independent Scotland as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the rest of the UK if Scotland were to sece...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2019/02/independence-by-gaslight-pensions.html

A few days ago I tweeted about the lack of serious analysis from Scottish nationalists when it comes to the question of what it would cost to replicate the costs of our currently shared machinery...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/12/what-devolution-of-dwp-functions-tells.html

Every year the Scottish Government's Chief Statistician provides an updated analysis of the state of Scotland's public sector finances by publishing the GERS report ]. This really shouldn't ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/08/gers-2021-so-what.html

I'm writing a serious blog on GERS and really don't want it to get bogged down by engaging with the frankly bonkers claims made by the perpetually baffled GERS-denier in chief, Richard Murphy.  ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/08/richard-murphy-on-gers-perpetually.html

Anybody who read my analysis of Sturgeon's last four TV interviews  could be forgiven for feeling a weary sense of déjà vu if they watched her being grilled by Andrew Marr yesterday   1...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/04/sturgeon-on-andrew-marr-250421.html

> SOPHISTRY /ˈsɒfɪstri/ > noun: the use of clever but false arguments, especially with the > intention of deceiving.  >  > SOPHISM /sofˈi-zm/ > noun: a plausibly decep...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/04/sophists-choice-how-sturgeon-dodges.html

I've just caught up with ITV News’s Peter Smith's interview with Nicola Sturgeon. It's worth watching the full 15 minutes here  - it's a masterclass in deflection, evasion and misdirection. ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/04/analysing-sturgeons-stv-interview.html

TL;DR The FT recently published a figure of £1.8k per person pa. as the tax rises or spending cuts an independent Scotland would need to achieve sustainable deficit levels. By failing to quanti...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/04/mind-gap-critiquing-fts-fiscal-gap.html

In yesterday's Financial Times, Andrew Wilson (Chair of the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission) made the following sweeping statement: > “Scottish tax revenues cover the equivalentÂ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2021/01/whats-7-billion-between-friends.html

I'm conscious that I haven't posted here for a while - so I thought it might be useful to collate here stuff that I've written elsewhere: Herald Article : GERS figures don't lie, despite what (s...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/12/in-other-news.html

The Scottish Government's economists yesterday published their latest Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures. I'll publish a more complete analysis on this blog soon, but the b...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/08/apples-and-pears-gers.html

The National today published a 1,000 article rather hilariously labelled as a "Fact Check" which amounted to little more than a personal attack against me. The entire piece is predicated on thei...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/07/fact-checking-fact-check.html

At the time of writing, in the 24 hours since being posted this tweet from Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has received around 4 thousand retweets and likes > Of the c. £30 billionÂ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/07/kate-forbes-grievance-dissected.html

To understand what is going on when we talk about IMPLIED FISCAL TRANSFERS between different parts of the UK (as discussed here ), it's perhaps easiest to think of what happens when we split the...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/02/deficits-deficit-gaps-and-fiscal.html

In a few weeks time I'll be chairing a conference in Newcastle - These Islands: Our Past, Present & Future The conference will feature an impressive array of speakers and panelists including: D...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2020/02/pooling-and-sharing-english-regions.html

This meme is frequently shared by independence supporters as if it's some kind of "gotcha!". The quote comes from a radio interview  I did with the perpetually confused Richard Murphy. He ...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2019/12/what-gers-can-and-cannot-tell-us.html

TL;DR  More spending occurs in Scotland than tax revenues raised by Scotland. In fact, more money is spent in Scotland than the sum of tax revenues raised by Scotland plus Scotland's pe...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2019/12/how-much-of-scotlands-tax-revenue-does.html

TL;DR Nicola Sturgeon keeps trying to mislead people by repeating a demonstrably false assertion. The truth is that if the SNP's Growth Commission recommendations had been applied to the conditio...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2019/12/dissecting-deception.html

The SNP's Ian Blackford recently made the following statement (presumably to Adam Boulton) on Sky News : > "But the simple fact of the matter, Adam, is that if you look back > ove...

https://chokkablog.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-snp-living-in-past.html