What a Bunch of Numpties

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There is an excellent post today on Wings Over Scotland in which Stu Campbell does what he does best – debunking nonsense unionist statistics.

London “think tank” Europe Economics has published some research which “non-think tank” Scotland in Union is publicising. WoS has ripped this shoddy piece of work apart in a matter of hours – but there was one incredible claim that jumped out at me.

Basically, the terms of reference for this report were to – yet again – try to show that Scotland, without the largesse of the UK, would be an economic basket case and would run the most massive of massive deficits in the history of time (as no doubt Neil Oliver will be pointing out in his next series).

The following paragraph states one of the reasons for this gigantosaurus rex of a deficit:

“2.7 – LOST TUITION FEES FROM THE REST OF THE UK

If Scotland had become independent and became a new Member State of the EU, then it would become forbidden, under EU rules, for Scotland to charge fees to students from the rest of the UK as is done by Scottish universities at present. That is because under EU law “any person holding nationality of an EU member state is entitled to move freely and reside in another member state and in doing so should not face discrimination from the host member state”. As Scottish students do not pay fees and neither do students from other EU countries, students from the rest of the U.K. would also become entitled to study free of fees in an independent Scotland.

The fee income received by Scottish Universities from students from the rest of the U.K. has been estimated at £150m.”

It would appear that both Europe Economics and Scotland in Union have forgotten the little matter of Brexit and that the UK will no longer be an EU member state.

What a bunch of numpties!

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