A prominent SNP figure has claimed that the only way for Scots to get over the cost-of-living crisis is through independence, and conveniently did not mention her own party’s financial issues.
The nationalists deputy Westminster leader Mhairi Black ranted about the fact the Bank of England’s chief economist told Brits to just accept that they are poor.
Huw Pill told a US podcast earlier this week that people in the UK need to accept this or prices will continue to rise. He added there was a “reluctance to accept that, yes, we’re all worse off.”
Inflation is at record levels across the UK, and was at 10.1 per cent in the year to March. It did dip from 10.4 per cent but food prices are still rising.
Ms Black claimed that the only way for the economy to recover and for Scots to get richer, would be if the SNP managed to succeed in breaking up the UK.
Writing in pro-independence newspaper The National, she said: “The Bank of England’s chief economist told people in the UK earlier this week to just accept they are poorer. A historic drop in living standards and the advice is to just get over it.
“For an extremely well-paid former banker to lecture people on our declining standard of living is the perfect example of exactly what is wrong with the UK.
“People in Scotland continue to suffer as a result of a hard Brexit we never voted for and a Tory-made cost of living crisis driven by nothing but greed. The answer to solving Scotland’s financial burdens does not, and will not, start with any Westminster government. It will begin with us gaining the full powers of an independent nation.
“The already unrealistically high food prices people are experiencing in the UK are predicted to continue to soar due to both Brexit and a UK Government which ensures records are smashed every year when it comes to food bank usage.
“…We should never accept being poorer or being worse off due to the incompetence of the people running the show. What the UK Government should accept is the will of the people of Scotland.
“They should accept the democratic mandate that we possess to hold an independence referendum. They should accept that we want a choice to make life better for ourselves. That choice that we do not currently possess – to never accept being poor or worse off.”
But while lecturing the UK Government on finances, Ms Black did not mention the fact that her party is also going through financial difficulties of its own.
The Westminster group she is deputy leader of could be about to lose out on £1.1m of public Short money due to the fact that they have not managed to hire auditors.
Johnston Carmichael quit their decade-long role in September, with the party needing to install a replacement before May 31. This is the House of Commons deadline for accounts to be submitted and if an audited certificate is not produced, then the money is withheld putting jobs at risk.
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