I shouldn’t…I really shouldn’t…but damn it, I will. I’ll say what I think many are thinking. I’m losing patience with Unionist tinkering with the constitution. Didn’t they throw away their chance to claim they have the answer when they said No to a second question? Wasn’t that the time to step forward with an alternative and put it to the people for a mandate in the referendum?
Where have Ming and Gordon been all this time? (Sorry, I forgot, Gordon has been jetting around the globe business class earning over £900,000 for his “office” but not for himself, oh no, not like the man he stabbed in the back and tried to fire – Alistair – who at least spends the £170,000 a year he earns on top of his MP’s salary and expenses)
How many formulations of powers, responsibilities and services can we take, let alone assimilate? Why has it proved beyond them – those who can so enthusiastically club together against Scotland – to sit down and agree a precise and detailed option they all agree on…Ben Thomson at Reform Scotland managed it within weeks of the SNP winning the election. It is this total failure to come together to be constructive that is the least convincing part of their case. If they can’t do it now, what chance they will agree in the horse market of Westminster with angry English backbenchers demanding Scotland be told to shut up or it loses the Barnet Formula?
The Liberals won’t win the next election so we can pretty much discard their offer. It is highly unlikely either Labour or the Tories will win outright and whatever line-up we have in power they will be confronted by an angry mob who have had enough of the Scottish question and in no mood to back “concessions”. As you can see from the BBC website under today’s New Powers from Brown and Campbell story, the southern punters are already talking about appeasement by which I think they mean enhanced powers.
I will always accept the best Scotland can get if it’s less than independence but in order to persuade Don’t Knows I think they each need a guarantee from their London leaderships on the minimum powers to be in a manifesto and to have a done deal ahead of a General Election with red line issues no matter who forms a government or coalition. That is the question to be put to them. Does the London leader back this in the manifesto and is there agreement between all the Unionist parties (minus UKIP)? After all, they were able to bury every disagreement between themselves on the economy, on poverty, welfare, privatisation and every other divisive issue in order to present a united front against change so why not in support of change? So although I’m always interested in ideas and alternatives but this is a bellow from the elephant’s graveyard. Not so much a call to arms as a retrospective plea for mercy. I think Scotland has moved on and they haven’t noticed.
Why wasn’t this the thrust of their approach for the last two years, with public meetings, published reports on policy areas, open debates on what kind of devolution in addition to the commissions? Has Johann actually asked her party members what they want? Her MSPs? Her constituents? Don’t be silly. This is Labour where they like nothing better than a darkened corridor and the smack of Stalin. Mind you, I haven’t noticed the party membership making demands either apart from LFI. Are they comatose, intimidated or silently waiting to vote Yes…
And is there something just a bit cringe-making about Johann always sitting behind other people? She’s behind Gordon and behind Alistair and behind Ed (either of them). I thought leaders were supposed to, erm, lead.
Derek Bateman Broadcaster1 
The fact is Derek, if all the unionist parties agree that jam in whatever guise can be dolled out. They could do it right now with a huge majority in the commons, end of story.
That’s the only Guarantee worth a jot, anything else is “Yeah ,Yeah, I’ll get round to it.”
Exactly. They could start doing it before the referendum.
They could finish doing it before the Referendum.
you mean sort of like the Scotland Act 2012 that is going to give extra tax raising powers in addition to the powers the Scottish Government already has but refuses to use…
What a daft argument. The tax raising powers are meaningless as if they are brought into play they will only be cancelled out by a cut in the Barnett formula. Effectively that means that Scots will be paying more tax for Westminster spending.
Who on earth hates their people so much that they want them to pay more tax than the rest of the UK population to fund London coffers ?
Real fiscal power is being allowed to keep the taxes you raise and deciding how you spend it.
C’mon McMad tell me:If we remain in the UK,
What will the pension rate be in 2020 ?
Will will still be in the EU ?
Is Trident definitely going to be replaced and at what cost ?
What rate will Corporation Tax be ?
What will happen to the Barnett Formula ?
How much will HS2 cost the Scottish taxpayer ?
Time for the unionists to answer the questions they’ve been throwing at the Yes campaign.
tf.
1 impossible to answer, but if UK economy keeps growing will be no less than now in real terms.
2 yes, cameron will get what he wants. he has the backing of the germans now and the EU won’t want to lose the future largest economy in the EU.
3. yes, after what is happening in russia/ukraine and the china/japan and pakistan/india situations and also the iranians and the Israelis to unilaterally give up trident when everyone else keep there nukes would be very foolhardy. in overall budgetary terms trident is affordable. total disarmament is a nice dream but very unlikely.
4. probably about the same as now and if the economy continues to grow
5. it will probably remain in some form or another, surprised to hear a nationalist who claims we are so wealthy being concerned about this.
6. yes it will cost but it will also move economic activity to the cites of northern england and eventually it will come to scotland. it will be cheaper to build a railway from leeds than london and after all a main nationalist gripe is about economic activity being centralised in london so its a bit odd to complain about something that will spread economic activity.
since your keen on looking to the future perhaps you can answer those questions from a pro indy perspective. after all you’re movement is the one trying to sell its independence dream and you need to get people like me to vote for you. i will hazard a guess at your answers
1. less than if we stick together, the SNP has overestimated the oil revenues and the scottish financial sector is going to decamp to northern england when the currency zone does not happen.
2. probably, but under worse terms than now.
3. will be gone and so will the jobs, and not just at the nuclear bases but at all the naval dockyards as well.
4. might be lower, but doubt we could afford to slash it. swinney didn’t even know what a 3% cut would cost!
5+6. irrelevant.
and bonus question, what currency are we going to use?
“6. yes it will cost but it will also move economic activity to the cites of northern england and eventually it will come to scotland. it will be cheaper to build a railway from leeds than london and after all a main nationalist gripe is about economic activity being centralised in london so its a bit odd to complain about something that will spread economic activity.”
Where is your evidence to back up this? It will “eventually come to Scotland”, prove it then and tell us when. All we have heard about Scotland are vague jam tomorrow promises that it shall probably happen at some undefined future point, i.e. this is not worth the paper it is written on as it is in the hands of future UK Governments over who we can have no idea how they shall view the issue. How you can then argue that is a definite and then use it as a stick to attack the Yes campaign is beyond me.
At present the current evidence that we do have, the FOI request done by BBC Newsnight (https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1UfgDwFzopS-iYKXrf0–nmqw982BHn-bhBXMK5c#rows:id=1), clearly shows that far from spreading economic activity this project shall damage outlying areas and as it permits London to suck in even more resources. Where is your evidence that this shall spread economic activity?
While you are at it you might want to post up all the other evidence you have for all your assertions and claims. Interesting how all your views of what the UK can do are positive but all your views on what Scotland can do are negative. It is shame that you seem to have such a low opinion of people here but such a high opinion of the British establishment given their track record of greed and failure.
Ir
I note you didn’t try to answer any of the other questions, especially the bonus one. I also like how the new nationalist mantra is to call any proposals for after a no vote as “jam tomorrow” You do realise that the entire white paper is what you would call “jam tomorrow”. From cover to cover it is nothing but uncosted claims and assertions, it is the definition of something that isn’t worth the paper it is written on. Yet curiously you believe very single word of it without question, even though some of it’s key claims on the EU and currency have already been shown to be nonsense.
Ps. As Adam Tompkins said last night Westminster has already delivered on the Scottish parliament, the welsh assembly, the Northern Ireland assembly, the Scotland act 2012 and the independence referendum so it has a proven track record on devolution.
Mr McMad, I know a certain other McMad who is going to be very cross with you. As for the Tax powers they are a crock of “sh!t” as you know it, any money raised here in Scotland is sent straight out of Scotland in the form that money is then reduced from the budget. They used to say beware Greeks bearing gifts, they had never met the crew of crooks in Westminster, oh and some of their poor wee minions in Holyrood.
John MacMad:
1 Impossible to answer. Referendum not an election.
2. Yes. Members already, shall probably require some form of negotiation. Only way to get a confirmation is for UK to ask but interestingly they refuse to do that.
3. No. See Whitepaper
4. Impossible to answer. Referendum not an election.
5. Irrelevant
6. Irrelevant
I notice that you still do not provide any evidence to support your assertions, yet continue to criticise, what do they call that, misdirection?
You have also avoid the question I asked you. Can you please explain why you seem to have such a low opinion of people here but such a high opinion of the British establishment given their track record of greed and failure?
Funny they can come together to ‘ban’ us from using the Pound (even though they can’t) but cannae agree what the No offer will be.
I notice that the not in anyway pompous Sir Ming, aside from saying the only elected majority Govt in these islands is ‘totalitarian’ has also said Alistair Carmichael should summon all parties within 30 days to discuss what powers should be granted.
One has to ask why they couldnae have done so in the 1000 odd days of the referendum campaign BEFORE the vote, perhaps because the voters might assume that it was a genuine commitment and make it harder to slide back from ?
I’m losing patience with Unionist tinkering with the constitution. Didn’t they throw away their chance to claim they have the answer when they said No to a second question? Wasn’t that the time to step forward with an alternative and put it to the people for a mandate in the referendum?
Yes to both questions.
How many formulations of powers, responsibilities and services can we take, let alone assimilate?
Unionists in Scotland have come up with so many variations of devolution that their heads must hurt.
Poor old Ming Campbell thinks the SNP/SG are “totalitarians” or some such sort. Can he see his long coveted prospective ermine jacket in the House of Lords on a shoogly peg? Shame…
You’re right – just where have these guys been all this time ? Why could’nt Gordon have done something about his brill ideas when he was PM? Methinks GB by name and GB by nature!
They are all dancing around the constitutional issue which is that WE the people of Scotland must have the democratic right to decide what we share and with whom and not have it imposed from London.
The referendum gives us that possibility but only if we vote Yes.
Thanks Derek
What gives the LibDems a wedgie is that they have espoused the sovereignty of the people of Scotland, but …err….only if the people of Scotland choose federalism. I had a wee rant on the subject here: http://wingsoverscotland.com/no-place-like-home-rule/
I liked your wee rant. I voted for the bams for 20 odd years, whilst being a missionary in Herts and Beds. Finally saw the light and voted Green in the last GE!
It is all a bit reminiscent of Alec Douglas Home and his empty vacuous promises
As Sir Ming said on GMS, “of course there’s no time frame for a consensus”. The Lib Dems have already spent a century on their home rule/federalism consensus-building and have achieved nothing. And here’s Sir Ming giving them carte blanche to spend another century on the project….
I feel curiously sorry for the LibDems. What mental block do they have which prevents them from seeing that the only way to work towards federalism is from a position of power? And they have more chance of power inside an independent Scotland than in any amount of consensus building among Westminster MPs, who have been giving them two fingers for decades….
You can promise anything when you know you will never be in a position to deliver it.
Do not feel sorry for the Liberal Democrats. Apart from PR (and they gave that up with the AV fiasco as well), they do not believe in anything. Their supposed policy of federalism is a sham, they are as Westminster centric in their thinking as the Tories and Labour. Campbell, Bruce, Wallace, and the rest are only interested in their continuing self preservation and careers in London. When do any of them talk about poverty and inequality? They don’t, and this is because they are only interested in themselves, and remaining part of the Westminster Club. The Scottish unionists are utter chancers and political spivs. Ming Campbell and Gordon Brown are the new Alec Douglas Home’s.
The problem is unionists want power to reside at Westminster by default, and only devolve powers where necessary. So unless a case can be made for a power to be devolved, it will remain at Westminster. If there’s a No vote and we’re to stick with devolution, then that needs to change so that Holyrood becomes the default, and powers are assumed to lie with Holyrood unless a specific case can be made to reserve them to Westminster.
In short, the question needs to change from “is there a reason to devolve this power?” to “is there a reason not to devolve this power?” But doing so would mean a complete reversal in thinking about the primacy of Westminster, and so it will never happen.
The Labour voter is not towing the Party line….at least not in Cardenden where I am an SNP Councillor. Cardenden was in the cockpit of the old Communist power base and while that faded there is still a strong tribal Labour vote. On saturday past YES Cardenden, including myself, had astreet stall and were handing out newspapers and engaging the voters. Now we did have No voters refusing to engage but those that did were voting No on the grounds they hated Alex Salmond…ha, one guy was just out the chemist clutching his wee poke and said “what has Salmond ever done for me?” to which I said…he paid for that packet. Lots of ground looking and shuffling feet! Anyway, the vast majority were taking a paper and no joke….two seperate cars stopped….tooted and called over for a paper! Now I have fought for Indy since I joined the SNP in73 and never had that response before. So it seems folk in Labour areas are engaging and on Saturday the great majority were volunteering they were for it. The minority who refused to even talk and growled (always a growl) were perhaps the hard core Labour voters/members. I know one was for sure. Another wee touchstone that Gordon is too late….last week Ballingry had a Yes public meeting….over 60 attended! This where Willie Clarke is still a Communist Cllr. Willie himself is a YESSER and in fact spoke on a Yes platform I invited him on. But,its others in the SSP and Left left who have coalesced around SNP Labour votes there. So again Broon, who is generally well regarded in Fife….(if he is an idiot he is oor idiot!!) has missed the boat on this and as you say if they were serious then why oppose the Devo question for the ballot. No, they know, despite the opinion polls, they are losing this, at least in the schemes if not the leafy suburbs. Like your blogs Derek and always repost them to FB. Btw passing through Selkirk…..I believe your hame toon….I bought an excellent Selkirk Bannock from the wee bakers behind the statue….I come fae Hawick so didn’t tarry!
Ian Chisholm
Thanks Ian People will take heart from that. I tried to express my doubts about Gordon but I think you get the prize for he’s an idiot but he’s oor idiot! The bannocks nice with an eggy breakfast. Regards Derek
Sent from my iPad
>
Thanks for that, Ian. I have never been a member of any political party, never leafleted/canvassed in my life, but here I am trailing around the streets of North Lanarkshire trying to do my bit for the Yes campaign. And you know what, without me starting off the conversation, people at their houses, and in the street, seeing my newspaper are giving me encouragement with their postive remarks. I can only hope that this is the way forward, that the opinion polls are wrong, once again, and that we can achive victory in September.
“Why wasn’t this the thrust of their approach for the last two years, with public meetings, published reports on policy areas, open debates on what kind of devolution in addition to the commissions?”
Answer: because they thought there was no chance of a YES Vote. These are Westminster North Britons, who believe they are the chosen elite and the people have no role other than as fodder for photo-ops, though that didn’t go so well for GB when he last tried it. Every word they utter brings more YES votes!
Fool me once ( Wilson,Healey response to McCrone Report ) Shame on them
Fool me twice( More devolved powers after a No vote) Shame on me
Only a YES vote will deliver a modern democracy for Scotland.
Back in the summer of 1976 I had a run in with our dearest Ming in the Sheriff court in Fort William where I was trying to prove that Keith Schellenberg had been harassing me, my wife and family of three young boys to get us out of the house we stayed in on the Island of Eigg [Kildonnan]. This was a nasty wee extra to the said Schellenberg’s ongoing legal proceedings to evict us not only from Kildonnan but from the entire island. As you can imagine the build up to this court appearance (from the autumn of 1975 to this point) was a desperate time for us and going into court for the first time ever was for me hugely stressful.
The local Fort William lawyer Sandy Hastings had earlier taken out an order on my behalf to prevent the ongoing harassment by Schellenberg’s new “team” whom he had brought in during 1976 to force me out of both Kildonnan House and the craft workshop I had put together in the farm buildings there, and where I had run courses for the community two nights per week over the winter of ’75/’76. The new “team” (a favourite expression of the big S) simply took the workshop apart, for starters, as soon as the courses were finished.
Sandy took out an action for breach of interdict and so we ended up in court. But the brave Schellenberg had looked to his high powered Liberal friends (Schellenberg had himself earlier stood for parliament as a Liberal candidate) and Ming was brought in to do his thing. At an earlier stage Ming had appeared unannounced in court and succeeded in restricting what we were allowed to talk about in court to one single incident of the many.
If all this sounds like some mean Wild West big bully movie scenario I can assure you it felt just like that to be in the middle of it. The full power of civil authority on the island was in the hands of a special constable called Angus McKinnon and we were a long way from the mainland. “Schellenberg Rules Ok” could well have been the island motto.
However in spite of the machinations of Ming the mighty we still managed to get a “Not Proven” verdict and Schellenberg had to pay his own expenses that day in Fort William. I had a second action going against Schellenberg for breach of contract which he eventually settled out of court.
Why am I telling you all this. Well this was just a wee Glesca fullah against the combined power of that section of the establishment, and the establishment didnae win. A lesson there fur us aw mibbie in the present campaign? It also shows the lengths these kind of people will go to to get their way. This is what we are now up against only on a much, much bigger scale – but in microcosm it lets you see how they operate.
For younger folk for whom the whole Schellenberg/Eigg thing in Scotland’s recent history means nothing check out this link below. I was down in London for a week in 1999 as a witness for the Guardian at the High Court when Schellenberg got his sweet comeuppance and the islanders rejoiced – so here again it shows that you can win against the establishment. Incidentally, Schellenberg had an action going against the BBC and the Sunday Times as well as the Guardian at the point in 1999!
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/20/jamiewilson1
Wow,what an eye-opener Dunkie.It makes me wonder whether anything similar exists today.
I remember the Eigg victory. What a horrible man and well done you and the people of Eigg.
I should add to the above the fact that the people who really stuck by us through our worst times on Eigg were almost all English.
This was at a time when the people who had lived through the nightmare eccentricities of earlier owners of the island were still desperately wanting to believe In Schellenberg and therefore reluctant to be identified with us in spite of the success of my evening classes and the goodwill we had built up through them. With us coming originally from a Glaswegian background, right from our arrival in fact we were made very welcome – the Gaelic folk had so many connections with “the dear green place” and fond memories of it.
However, the polarised divisiveness within the Eigg community that resulted at that time grew quickly out of the long tradition of fear of the owner and the power he had over people’s lives – going all the way back to the Clearances nae doubt. Newcomers to the island like us could always leave but if your family had been there for generations where were you to go? We understood that well and knew the difficulty they were placed in but it wasn’t until over three decades later and whilst visiting an old (Kiwi) Eigg resident in New Zealand that we learned the full fear among the Gaels that we had stirred up by standing up to Schellenberg.
Think of the divisiveness that is being deliberately stoked up in Scotland right now and you can see how the powerful are well trained in these dark arts of divide and rule. The divisions based on fear on Eigg then can be seen again as a microcosm of what our struggles is now.
I’ve been reading about the Eigg situation in Lesley Riddoch’s thought-provoking book, Blossom. She demonstrated in her book how the powerlessness of the Scottish people before landowners is something which urgently needs to be addressed after independence, to begin to roll back the inequity in land ownership in Scotland.
She writes convincingly that this is not just because of the injustice but because of the insidious way in which this lack of power has sapped the hopes and aspirations of generations of Scots. Your own experience eloquently illustrates why reform is necessary and shows how difficult the present system is to overcome. But despite the struggle, you did admirably overcome. Well done.
Thank you for sharing this.
The one thing we must never countenance except by gaining our independence is to loose or give up our right to referendum to determine our own future, we must never let it be put in Westminster’s grubby and soiled claws. The people of Scotland must control Scotland destiny.
They didn’t want a third question because in the event of a no vote they haven’t promised a thing and in their minds have killed the independence question stone dead .
The more you get into this campaign the more you realise that the scots have been sleep walking I mean why would we allow the likes of Trident
‘As you can see from the BBC website under today’s New Powers from Brown and Campbell story, the southern punters are already talking about appeasement’
I took a brief look at the BTL comments on that report and gave up pretty quickly.
There is a lot going on in the UK and as others have commented before, Project Fear has wound up the wrong folk.
A lot of our southern neighbours believe we are subsidy junkies and they pay for our ‘freebies’ via the Barnett Formula.
That and the proposal for a currency union has had a lot of them going appoplectic, now according to the polls a majority in the south are against a CU.
So the biased reporting from the BBC and the MSM has had an effect which will not disappear soon.
I’m not sure if they realised just how much resentment would be created between us.
Also Dunkie what a terrible time that must have been and I’m glad you and your family won through.
As you mentioned the support of your English neighbours – if our southern cousins had been told the truth about how much we contribute to WM in the form of taxes, there would be a different attitude coming through as I think they feel genuinally aggrieved.
That is the result of the power of divisiveness that the elite have released into the present debate. Remember how Schellenberg’s Rolls went up in a puff of smoke and how the islanders were united in their ignorance of the cause. People power can win for sure in quite dramatic ways.
The Unionists are in a real mess, they cannot agree about anything, well one thing and one thing only, to stop all thoughts of Scottish Independence. er Somehow!
Noticed on BBC News Scotland tonight, the old Bird was in the studio going on about the C/Games, directly right of her head was the Union Jack, both sides of that were C/W flags which still have the Union Jack in them. Her head was surrounded by the subliminal put, but not shyly, Union Flag.
I particularly looked but I could not spot a Scottish flag anywhere. This will become another Unionist platform, I see it starting already. Of course, they are not biased!
Frankly I don’t believe any of them.If the polls were showing 70% no this wouldn’t even be on the talking shop agenda.You can predict their campaign strategy as some of us did.First we pretend to be cordial with the Edinburgh agreement..yes placate them first as we are not really taking this seriously.Then we must bombard them with abuse to lower self esteem.As that wasn’t as successful as we thought let’s do the love in thang! Hang on these jocks are actually considering this independence thing.How dare they back to the abuse boys.But still the polls are narrowing…squeaky bum time.Right lads I think if we offer them more powers they will go for that..let’s see.
Remember these unionist politicians have no integrity whatsoever.
Sir Menzies reveals Brown’s secret talks on pact to deny SNP power
They threw away the chance to put forward a second question and declared it a victory quite loudly as I recall. Salmond cowed, Salmond’s back up plan undone etc etc. Mind you that’s when they thought that a thirty point lead was unassailable. Nowadays not so much.
We should discount Ming on the grounds he’s clearly and completely out of touch not to mention utterly dishonest. Neither he nor any other parliamentary Lib dem would recognise federalism or home rule if it jumped up and bit them on the arse. Two of them in the same room couldn’t agree o a definition, so getting their entire party behind any of Mings proposals would require biblical amounts of motivation.
No my personal ire is reserved for the ultimate hypocrite Mr Brown. Credited with being a driving force in the creation of oor parly even when Blair was agin it, what kind of powers were envisaged by Mr Brown as a young Labour candidate do you think? How about back in the late eighties, early nineties just as Labour’s star began to rise? Or when he was chancellor did his ideas change, lessen, grow? As the devolution bill and parliament came into being did it not occur to him to say ‘hold on a minute, I’ve just had a thought on the odd alteration to the constitutional agreement’? When he was PM did the powers he’s now pontificating upon simply slip his mind when he had the position and the authority?
Now however the Westminster party system, the UK state machine itself is under threat and pegs in the Commons cloak room are extremely shoogly. Coincidence that talk of further devolution is rife amongst all parliamentary parties? Mibbie no eh? 😉
Their obsession is with saving the union, not asking what is best for Scotland. It was always thus. The constitutional convention was the same, independence was not to be considered, not even in the abstract.
Their focus is wrong.
Brian Taylor seems convinced by Brown.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-26522012
Brian Taylor would be convinced by a photo of jam with 2050 written beside it.
Too little, too late. We all knew this was going to happen, especially as the polls start to close up.
I’ve never really been all that bothered about politics, I never trusted any politicians really and I guess that is something that many people feel/felt as the turnout for elections, traditionally has been low. One thing that this independence referendum has done is bring me personally into politics and my eyes have really been opened. I mean this is my country and we have been completely asleep. Well not any more, I firmly believe that we will vote yes as the more people get interested in the referendum the more information they find on the net, then the more they come over to yes. We scots are not too stupid and we are now finding out that we are not too poor and being wee is really something good!
Broon and Ming would still need an unlikely Tory to come forward with proposals (but there’s also a chance of other Labour and LibDem voices to muddy the waters further) before we embark on Calman 2. How long before they come to a watered down consensus and how long until anything is delivered, another 8 years?
Brown just cannot get it into his head that his day is done. After snarling at Blair’s back for years he eventually was given a go at the top UK job. He lost it through indecision. And now he thinks he can shilly-shally with our future……?
The maddening thing is that there are still people out there who will see these ‘promises’ of more powers as a reason to put their cross in the NO box.
As you said Derek, the government made sure to rule out a third question on the paper which leaves us with only one of two SURE outcomes: Independence or not.
Any promises pre referendum should be treated with a pinch of salt since even if it were written in a manifesto, the tuition fees debacle has shown us that even manifesto promises are movable.
I really do not understand how such further devolution can be delivered. As it stands, Westminster and only Westminster what powers it chooses to devolve and how.
Westminster can give and it can retake under devolution. Future Governments at Westminster are not bound by decisions of earlier Governments. Only Scotland can take back independence and nothing else. Everything is within the “gift” of Westminster.
The Referendum, later this year, will be followed in 2015 with a Westminster GE and a Holyrood GE.
There are just to many uncertainties from the NO but Jam Tomorrow religious sect. How can they guarantee any such proposed mibbees would be enacted or even could be enacted.
Jam Tomorrow is the proverbial Pampas Grass into which to kick the Scottish Question until it bubbles back up (mixed metaphor but you know what I mean)
Westminster proposals should bear the Hallmark of Disnyworks UK.
I wonder what the psychological/gerentological psychologists (made that one up too) profiles of the two dodderers.
My mother was fond of the saying “Live old horse and you’ll get corn”, and then at school i read about the fate of Boxer in Animal Farm. It seems the Westminster political classes love nothing better than an old, tried and tested trick. After all it worked in 1979 so why not now? Aye right!
The Barnett formula must be asked about time and time again because the people have to realise that it is on the way out and could result in the Scottish block grant being reduced by 4billion on top of the cuts that are already in the pipeline.
“I know I’ve been bad. I know I’ve cheated and lied and stole from you.
But honest, I’ll change, stick with me, I’ll get help, I’ll do it as soon as I’ve got enough money.”
I was watching Jeremy Clarkson and co on their journey through Burma last night BBC2 7 pm. and at the end he mentioned Scotland. Very weird I thought. He likened Burma to Scotland in it’s relations with another bigger country. Burma being part of this country but wanting to be separate at the same time. His tone was dismissive about Scotland and to the country so similar to ours, Burma (tongue firmly in cheek). He is after all an conceited Englishman, rich to boot on his haverings. Must get out more, there is nothing to watch on the EBC theses days.
I saw that as well. For reasons that are beyond me J Clarkson seems to be taking it personally and has made snide remarks about Scotland at various times.
Before the indy ref raised it’s head, he was always praising Scots for our inventions.
He is a close friend of Call me Dave, so maybe that’s why – he is however just coming over as a fool – even more than usual.
He lives in the exclusive enclave where one finds, Ms Brooks of retired Metropolitan horses, Davis Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson fame.
I am told that their dinner soirees are legendary in the Shires.
I think that quite a bit of Leveson was redacted, Derek Bateman would certainly have more tittle tattle than us mere non buyers of newspapers
Beware ex-Scottish PMs bearing gifts.
I remember my mother being swayed by Alec Douglas Home’s intervention. She felt that she could trust him! I didn’t. This could be a generational difference leading to Scotland at last shaking free from the establishment. Having fallen for the promise of something better if you vote NO once, surely we will not fall for a repeat!