Westminster pumps £5 billion ($10 billion) more than is raised in [Northern] Ireland by taxation. More than a third of the 770,000 people in jobs there are directly employed by the public sector (which accounts for nearly two-thirds of economic output). Half a million people are officially classified as inactive. Part of the problem is the scarcity of private-sector investment, which is crowded out both by the huge state economy and the black economy that “peaceful” paramilitaries on both sides of the religious divide control. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) produces an annual calculation that shows public spending in the UK by region as a share of regional gross domestic product (GDP). The biggest beneficiary is [Northern] Ireland, receiving a massive third of its income as subsidies from UK taxpayers. [Northern] Ireland pays tax worth just 27.7 per cent of GDP generated by its six counties, while the little statelet receives a net subsidy of 29.4 per cent of GDP, the largest of any UK region. Its defecit is also the largest in the UK, about 40% (-39.3%). By contrast, Scotland, which is seeking independence from Britain, needs NO net subsidy. Recently David Cameron criticized the cost of the “peace lines” that divide Protestant and Catholic communities, most noticeably in Belfast. He put the price at £1.5 billion per year. But what are those peace lines? These walls running for miles, rising up 25 and more, are simply the physical manifestation of Englands traditional formula for power: Divide and Conquer. Dividing communities in Ireland has been cultivated by Britain for centuries as its key to control.The fact is, peace is not compatible with the British formula for rule. So, lets get this story straight- Tiny Northern Ireland, six counties, is the smallest country in the United Kingdom (5345 sq/m)- about the size of Natrona Co. Wyoming (5375 sq/m, Co. seat, Casper) or Okanogan Co. Washington (5315 sq/m, Co. seat, Okanagen). This miniscule country, heavily subsidized for nearly 100 years by Britain, where thousands of British troops were sent in, billions spent, and thousands killed in a 30 year dirty war by a major world power to crush a movement by its own UK Catholic citizens for democratic civil rights- this tiny statelet-within-a-country, having won that war, now claims that the huge financial and military crutch provided by Britain is still not enough, and actual British police and perhaps troops are necessary to keep this fine example of British democracy afloat. Meanwhile, the country as a whole- Ireland, the majority 26 counties in an island about the size of Indiana, just announced it is emerging from its own economic recession. WTF?? republican-news.org/current/news/2013/11/british_police_to_patrol_irish.html
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 19:51:02 +0000
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