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Kevin Hague

@kevverage.bsky.social

1.9K followers 960 following 1.4K posts

Investor/chair of a couple of Scottish businesses; chair of constitutional think tank These Islands; keen analyst of Scotland’s economic data (particularly “GERS” #fml); occasional political commentator; runner, hill walker & dog lover - views own, obv

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · Sep 7

to be like any other normal European country, a fiscally autonomous Scotland would have to significantly increase taxes and/or severely cut public spending - this is the simple truth that much of the SNP’s rhetoric around GERS seems designed to obscure

www.these-islands.co.uk/publications...

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 9h

good thread this 👇

Sam Taylor @staylorish.bsky.social · 9h

1/ In today’s Mail, @stephendaisley.bsky.social mentions a conversation we had about the SNP’s energy policies. Short 🧵 with sources and a little bit of additional explanation…

Yet this abject nonsense is the SNP's policy. I discussed this over the weekend with Sam Taylor from the think-tank These Islands. He has made himself the personal scourge of the Scottish Government's fanciful energy policies.
He points out the government's renewables analysis is based on the assumption that while Scotland's wind energy demand will rise to 6,000 megawatts over the next decade, its wind capacity will increase to 49,400 megawatts.
Yet to assemble that capacity would mean installing turbines on an unprecedented scale, at unprecedented cost, and benefiting from the UK-wide energy market - from which the Scottish Government otherwise wishes to secede.
Taylor notes that SNP ministers' favourite example, Norway, while a non-nuclear renewables success story, has struggled to generate sufficient energy in the recent past and has often had to rely on neighbouring Sweden, with its nuclear power stations.

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 1d

and i know there are GERS-deniers out there - people who attempt to undermine the integrity of the Scottish Government’s own figures (and the statisticians who compile them) - but they are surely best left to angrily shout at the clouds?

a cartoon of homer simpson is holding a newspaper that says old man yells at cloud

ALT: a cartoon of homer simpson is holding a newspaper that says old man yells at cloud

media.tenor.com

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 1d

and for those who care about such things: the difference between the 9.2% of UK public spending Scotland currently benefits from and 8.0% of UK spending (ie if we only got back the same as the share we “put in”) is £14.2bn, aka the fiscal transfer

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 1d

so my question is this: does it matter that a large swathe of the electorate favour the idea of breaking up the UK because they believe a demonstrably false grievance - and if so, how do we fix that?

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 1d

been watching lots of focus groups - clearly many young Scots believe we “send all our taxes to Westminster but get only a fraction back”

but Scottish Government’s own National Statistics show we consistently benefit from 9.1% of UK public spending while contributing less than 8.5% to UK revenues 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 2d

😮

PermaConfused @permaconfused.bsky.social · 2d

www.designboom.com/technology/p...

power lines shaped as animal sculptures supply electricity across austria

www.designboom.com

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 2d

highly recommended - but be prepared for a chilling, depressing and deeply unsettling read
www.ft.com/content/1377...

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 3d

Sunder is a consistent, measured voice of reason and he shows admirable calm in dealing with appalling attacks like this - this is more than “worrying”, it is shocking and outrageous

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3d

A very worrying escalation of online harassment.

Somebody has used a video of me saying "racism in football is a game of two halves" + put a fake voiceover on it saying "what I would say to the girls of Rotherham is it is a game of two halves"

x.com/EuropaIneffa...

Europa Ineffable on X: "In a recent panel at what looks like Labour conference, Sunder Katwala, wearing an England shirt, appeared to compare the R🦍 GANGS to a football match: "it's a game of two halves" 🥴 https://t.co/b5YNKyaQtu" / X

In a recent panel at what looks like Labour conference, Sunder Katwala, wearing an England shirt, appeared to compare the R🦍 GANGS to a football match

x.com

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 3d

this is just awful Sunder, i’m appalled to see what you are having to face up to

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 7d

that’s how we like it 🫤

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 7d

autumnal mornings are the best

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 11d

*it was 10 years ago (looking through some old photos)

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 11d

i went shopping in Ningbo, China* - saw this and thought of you …

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 12d

or his grasp of issues like the fact that HS2 investment (for infrastructure spending outside Scotland) triggered Barnet consequentials which directly *increased* Scotland’s block grant …

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 12d

unless commitment to the union is framed as being about “solidarity” with fellow UK citizens - between old mining communities of the Rhondda and Lanarkshire, former shipbuilding heartlands of Clydeside and Tyneside, etc?

Reposted by Kevin Hague

Matt Owen @mjowen174.bsky.social · 15d

If you could please do us a favour and RT (or whatever it is on here) my writing CV I would be extremely grateful. I am a very capable writer of words, mainly “humorous”’ and if you have some PROPER paid work for me, please DM me. Thank you for your time www.mathew-owen.co.uk

Home | Matt Owen | Freelance Writer

I offer a broad and diverse range of writing services. Get in touch!

www.mathew-owen.co.uk

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 16d

and for the record: i’m against those who try and persuade people to support breaking up the UK by deploying fallacious arguments and false grievances

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 16d

the renewables investments in Scotland that are supported by subsidies (contracts for difference) paid by GB bill payers as a function of the integrated GB energy market - those ones?

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 16d

and let’z not forget the Yes case was to assume £6.8 - 7.9bn a year of oil revenue for an indy Scotland … a figure that turned out to be massively over optimistic

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 16d

and breaking up the UK - forcing Scots to bear massive spending cuts and/or tax rises while also dismantling the GB energy market upon which the Scottish renewables industry depends - don’t forget that bit 👍

Reposted by Kevin Hague

These Islands @theseislands.bsky.social · 17d

The most serious failure of the SNP’s latest independence paper is that it completely ducks the question of how an independent Scotland would get its public finances onto a sustainable footing.

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 17d

bonkers

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 17d

Big development on our July storyabout a dodgy tax relief claim by Dundee United and tax firm ZLX.

The club made a huge claim for R&D tax relief which said that 24% of the players' time, and 80% of the chef's time, was spent on "research and development".

Not credible.

Reposted by Kevin Hague

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17d

I assume Jenrick will be asked to confirm if he has a similar position on burning Bibles in public - it may be offensive but it should not be illegal.

But would he really pretend he would attend the court case to show solidarity & support to a Bible burner too? He surely would not.

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Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 18d

i have muted the person you’re responding to and will now do the same to you (“Macnaughton”) - pointless interacting when you are so resolutely opposed to simple economic facts getting in the way of your heart’s desire to break up the UK

👋

Kevin Hague @kevverage.bsky.social · 18d

i am resolutely positive about the values of unity and solidarity and the importance of informed debate - you only perceive me as being negative because i vocally oppose those (like you, it seems) who resort to misrepresenting economic facts in their desire to promote the separatist cause