Dundee SNP

Reflecting on 20th anniversary of the poll tax, an Dundee SNP spokesman said:

“The Poll Tax was one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever foisted on an unwilling Scottish population by Westminster.

“It was foisted onto Scotland a year earlier than England, with the Scottish people essentially being used as guinea pigs, by a Conservative government which had no mandate in Scotland.

“It was an outrage against democracy and it transformed the case for a Scottish Parliament from a good idea into an absolutely necessary one, so that never again could such a democratic outrage be perpetrated on the people of Scotland.

“In the same way, being dragged into an illegal war in Iraq by a Labour Government in London, Westminster demonstrated the case for the Scottish Parliament to have the full powers of independence. More than ever Scotland needs full economic and financial powers so that we can take action to recover from recession.”

SNP Treasury Spokesman Stewart Hosie MP has described the latest revelations of the lengths to which both Labour and Conservative Government’s went to keep Scotland from her oil wealth as showing the level of “deceit and desperation” in the UK Government.

New archive material in today’s Times reveal plans to delay devolution, to manipulate the politics of Shetland and Orkney and to redraw offshore boundaries.

Commenting on the papers Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie said:

“The UK Government has conspired to keep Scotland from her oil wealth and her independence for over 30 years.

“These new revelations of plots and plans to change the border, delay devolution and manipulate the position of Shetland and Orkney expose the lengths to which successive UK Governments have gone.

“There is now a long list of deceitful steps taken by the Labour and Tory Governments that have deprived the Scottish people of years of future wealth.

“Where we now see a UK Government dragging Scotland into recession and cutting Scotland’s funding to pay for their record levels of debt, Norway’s oil fund is worth over £200 billion and is not just supporting Norway’s economy but is helping Norway support its neighbours.

“That Gordon Brown is now being advised on the financial crisis by one of the mandarins behind these plans only adds to the bittersweet irony of these revelations.

“It is no wonder there is less trust in the UK Government than in Scottish politicians.

“As recent figures have shown an independent Scotland with her oil and gas reserves would move from being Europe’s 10th wealthiest nation to Europe’s third wealthiest nation.

“As Labour and Tory politicians knew at the time – Scots could have seen income 25-30% higher over the last 30 years.

“We should not let the deceits and desperation of Labour and Tories in years gone by stop Scotland standing up and claiming what is rightfully hers for the future.

“That’s why the SNP Governmment will bring a referendum bill forward and the Scottish people must be given their opportunity to vote for independence in 2010.”

Those who claim that the current financial crisis undermines the case for Scottish Independence seem oblivious to the fact that these dire financial circumstances are occurring within the existing UK constitution, says Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie.

Mr Hosie, Treasury Spokesman for the SNP group at Westminster, speaking after the SNP Conference in Perth at the weekend, said: “It has been particularly depressing to see the Labour Party attempt to use the current economic circumstances to return to the failed narrative that Scotland is too small and too poor to be independent.

“They hope that this will deflect attention from the fact that it is the former Chancellor now Prime Minister who has presided over the massively rising debt, poor regulation – and a failure to act decisively – which have created the crisis in the first place.

“Not content with trotting out the same tired argument that an Independent Scotland would somehow be uniquely incapable of better organising its own affairs, he has now resorted to insulting other small independent European countries.

“This cheap political point-scoring will damage the strong relationships which Scotland has built up with our close neighbours in Europe.

“It is also wrong. Ireland took decisive action to secure its financial sector and remains 40% more prosperous per head than the UK.

“Iceland, a country of only 320,000 people, has reinvented itself before and is capable of doing it again.

“Norway has not been mentioned by Gordon Brown because it remains a small and highly successful and prosperous nation. No banks have failed there because the Norwegian government ushered in tough regulations in the 1990s and dealt with the crisis 15 years ahead of the rest of the current difficulties. Norway has proved that small countries are capable of big moves when it acted quickly and announced £35 billion of government bonds to boost the security of banks’ funding operations.

“The Norwegian economy is protected by an oil fund of £200 billion, something that an Independent Scotland would seek to emulate.

“Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are all projected to keep growing while the UK slips into recession.

“No-one claims that an Independent Scotland would be immune to the turbulence on the world markets but the reality is that the more levers of economic power a nation has, the better able it is to respond to the opportunities and the difficulties. And Scotland, with the full powers of Independence, an oil fund to protect its economy and a competitive corporation tax rate, would be well-placed to take early and decisive action.

“The lesson is clear: it’s not about being part of a small or big country; the right issue isn’t size, it’s how smart we are that matters.”