Can we afford it?

Yes, we can certainly afford to be independent, given all the underlying strengths we have in our economy. In fact the question should be, given all we have as a country, why isn’t life easier for families like yours?

Scotland is a wealthy country – taking all our national wealth, Scotland is the 8th richest country in the world in terms of wealth per head of population. With independence the benefits of this wealth would be felt more directly.

• We make up 8.4% of the UK’s population and in 2011/12 we generated 9.9% of UK taxes but received only 9.3% of UK spending. This included our share of UK debt payments, defence spend and the net cost of the bank bailouts.
• This means Scotland’s financial position is stronger than the UK’s as a whole – to the tune of £4.4 billion, or £824 per person
• Through different decisions, just think how an independent Scotland could use £163 million saved each year by scrapping our existing nuclear weapons, (£250 million if we include the cost of new nuclear weapons).
• The latest Scotland Act gives the Scottish Parliament control over only 16% of the economic levers to improve our country - while independence would provide control over 99% of economic levers and tax powers