The Equivalent

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

In 1707 the English Government paid £398,000 to Scotland under the terms of the Treaty of Union.

This sum of money was called "The Equivalent". The terms of the treaty that resulted in this payment had been agreed by a special commission that had been set up to negotiate the Union.

According to Wikipedia "the purpose of The Equivalent was ostensibly to take account of the contribution which Scots taxpayers would thereafter make towards servicing the English national debt, and as transitional mitigation of the effects of higher taxes on the Scottish economy".

So The Equivalent was a sort of early "no detriment" clause.

In 2015 another special commission, the Smith Commission, agreed a new basis for devolution to Scotland within the Union. The new arrangement was to incur "no detriment" to the parties involved. However, in recent weeks, during negotiations between the Scottish and UK Governments, it has become clear that the transfer of powers involved may be detrimental to Scotland by an amount somewhere between £3 Billion and £7 Billion.

Consider also that Scottish taxpayers are paying for a UK national debt despite Scotland having been consistently in surplus, in a way reminiscent of the purpose of The Equivalent.

By a remarkable coincidence, the value of The Equivalent in today's money (depending on how you calculate it) is somewhere between £3 Billion and £7 Billion.

The Detriment to Scotland today (approximately) equals The Equivalent paid to Scotland in 1707.

If we give them back their money, shouldn't that mean we are Independent once more?