How would an independent Scotland have fared during the pandemic? We found out this week on the annual release of Gers, which adds up all Scottish spending and taxes and states the size of the gap. This year it’s estimated at about 27 per cent of GDP, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which would make it the worst-hit country in the developed world. It’s unlikely that a small country could sustain a deficit of this size even in a pandemic: the UK has been hit bad, but we have the pound and the Bank of England’s QE to lower the cost of issuing debt. For a country of five million to run a deficit of 27pc would be far, far harder.
The choice of an independent Scotland would be far more tax, or far less spending
The UK deficit has been pushed up by the furlough scheme and other pandemic measures: paid for by the ability to borrow from markets at an incredibly low rate of about 0.2
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