Giving and Taking and Shifting Ground

Right, class. Welcome back and I hope our day off didn’t wash away all the interesting things we were talking about the last day. Now I say ‘all the different things” but actually we were talking about only two things: how much money the British government gives us each year, and how much money we give the British Treasury back in the form income tax, corporation tax and so on. And you’ll remember that it the British Treasury was a slippy little customer, for before the money allocated to us got to us, several chunks had been sliced off for various other matters. Likewise when calculating what we gave back to the British Treasury, a number of sources of revenue were conveniently by-passed. In short, who can tell me two key points from last day?../ Ah, Virginia. What would like to say?  That the amount of money we get is overestimated – well done, very good –  and the amount of money we give back is underestimated –  good girl, you clearly have been listening and I hope the rest of you have been listening as carefully as Virginia.

Now today I want simply to stress a single point: it’s called Reaction.  What do I mean by that? …No, Cuthbert, I’m not referring to a song sung a long time ago by a lady called Diana Ross. Yes, Cuthbert,  it was a very good song, very good indeed, but it’s not the Reaction we’re talking about here. We’re talking about how some people react when you point out these two matters: we get less money than people claim, and we give back more money than people admit.

There a variety of reactions which I’ll maybe go into on a later day, but the most popular Reaction is to shift ground. No, class, we’re not talking here about shovelling earth or getting in a digger. We’re talking about the way some people shift ground. You’re talking to them about the here and now, what’s the financial situation  regarding the block grant and the money we pay back, and they react by talking about how daft a united Ireland would be…No, Cuthbert, I don’t think it’s daft, I don’t think it’s daft at all. But if we start talking about it, we’ll have shifted ground, won’t we? Instead of sticking to the here and now, and the vagueness and sometimes contradiction of some Treasury figures, and the clear signs that rather than us getting a  net sum of over £10 billion, we’re probably getting around £5 billion, what do these people do? They start talking about how many jobs would be lost in a united Ireland and how it’ d cause social upheaval and maybe violence.

Don’t let them do that, boys and girls. Stick to the point: The calculations show the British government doesn’t give us £10 billion but £5 billion. Once we get agreement on just how financially profitable we are as a part of the United Kingdom, only then will we be able to go on and judge how things might be in a united Ireland. For now, let’s stay with the financial life-support system that the British Exchequer provides for us; only after we’ve taken a clear and verifiable reading of the size and nature of that life-support system should we go on and consider what would happen if the life-support system was slowly switched off.