Speaking With Forked Tongue

Donald Tusk, the former European Council president has indicated that Brussels feels "empathy" towards an independent Scotland joining the European Union.

Donald Tusk Says One Thing
But Sometimes Means Another

Cue, delighted shouts from the diminutive leader of the devolved Scottish government .... cry freedom, and raise the clans!!

Double The Fun

I have long been an advocate of the UK but England in particular, adopting double summer time aka Single/Double Summer Time (SDST).

Even Les Miserable Scots .... Accept That The Sun Is Better Than The Darkness ....

This would mean that instead of the majority of us only seeing daylight from an office window during the week, it would in fact only be on or around the winter solstice that the sun would disappear at 17:30pm.

Scottish Blackmail Artists

Scotland, or rather the Scottish National Party, have adopted the ludicrous view that their devolved regional government of around 5 million British citizens, has the same powers and rights as the UK government of over 60 million citizens .....

The Gun Is Always Against Our Heads

.... that in fact a small Scotland, has the same political weight inside the United Kingdom as England, in what they persist in calling 'a partnership of equals'.

Scottish Independence - Unanswered Questions

So here we are, less than a week away from the Scottish Independence vote .... so what are the questions the voters should wrestle with?

Well here's a few that would be on my mind if I still lived in Scotland:

Currency: If not the £Pound Sterling (GBP), then what? A well explored question, but hardly definitively answered by Alex Salmond who has simply waffled on about:

(a) 'We are entitled to keep the Pound.'
(b) 'They can't stop us using it.'
(c) 'We will cry, and not pay our debts if they stop us using it.'
(d) 'Maybe we can use the Pound like the Panamanians use the US dollar?'
(e) 'Using the Pound doesn't make us a colony!'

Politics: What sort of politics would an independent Scotland be going to have? The Scottish Conservative party will simply be wiped out, or totally irrelevant - even though they attract about 14% of the devolved election vote (SNP 45%, Labour 32%, Libs 8%), and up to 17% of the Westminster election vote (SNP 20%, Labour 45%, Libs 19%). Which just leaves Scotland with three left leaning parties .... a very strange type of politics, where the Scottish Labour Party may be the least left-wing party?

European Union: Someone is going to have to apply to enter the EU, and apparently it won't be the rump UK (which is a pity as it would solve the problem of the EU referendum, because we would never vote to join again), but that means that even if 'fast-tracked', for at least 18 months Scotland would be outside the EU and not guaranteed to be allowed in ..... something it really needs to stay solvent (EU subsidies to replace lost UK funds).

Borders: If Scotland is outside the EU, then England has to put up border crossings and start applying immigration controls .... it has no choice, that's EU law. This also means that there will no free movement of goods and money between Scotland and the EU (including the rump UK).  However even if the SNP manage to get some sort of waiver on the border issue, while awaiting entry into the EU on some sort of fast track, what many fail to realise is that Scotland's exit from the Union, would make the likelihood of rump UK leaving the EU itself in a referendum, all the more likely, thus reintroducing the questions of borders again with Scotland in the EU and rump UK now out.

Passports: What passport will Scots now use? They can't carry on using UK/British passports, so will need a new one issuing immediately, before the Scots can travel anywhere. Then the questions arise, who qualifies for these passports? Anyone living in Scotland on a certain day, (including Poles and English etc living there), or will there be racist policies to discriminate against non-Scottish residents and only give them to those 'born in Scotland' .... but then what about those Scots living in England, or their children? This is one of the most tricky of the unanswered questions, as the SNP have already *disenfranchised all Scots resident in England from the independence vote, but presumably can't do the same for passports?

*Of the 26-man Scotland football squad named for the Euro 2016 qualifier against Germany on the 7th of September, only four players are eligible to vote in the referendum ... ironically even Gordon Strachan, the Scotland manager doesn't qualify. There are estimated to be 830,000 Scots living in the rest of the UK who are not qualified to vote, and who will like the rest of the players, go from living in our country – Britain – to being a foreigner, a Scottish person in rump UK. This situation will equally apply to the 400,000 English living in Scotland ..... there is also whiff of borderline racism in the background to this debate, as an anti-english streak has always been inherent in Scottish society, and this has been stirred up again in the current campaigning.   

The Big Questions Not Answered

There are no doubt many more such questions, but these are enough to make me wonder about the anti-independence campaign led by Alistair Darling, because of these questions, only the Pound has been exploited .... dumb. Personally I think we are stronger together than apart, but eventually we will now split, because the SNP's deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon has already said that they will just keep asking until the Scottish public 'get it right' with another vote in five years time, and then again until they win.

Ah well, ultimately its up to the Scots, and only the Scots ... oh, and all the other residents of Scotland, but not the Scots living elsewhere, so we shall just have to wait and see. Lets hope that Mr Darling and his team don't later rue not questioning Mr Salmond, on the other issues outside of the pound.

Scottish Jig Speeds Up

With the vote on Scottish Independence very rapidly approaching, Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalist party has already had rows with UK politicians, and the men from the ministries ... with claim and counter claim about the benefits, or costs that Scotland will incur or gain, if they vote for or against independence.

Essentially the SNP claim everyone in Scotland would be £1,000 better off each year, and the Westminster Parties have said they would only benefit by staying in the UK, and by £1,400 per annum.

Alex Salmond's Dance Of Political Expediency .....

Who knows the truth of these claims, certainly not me  .... both sides are making claims, but they are essentially dancing to the same political expediencies i.e. Saying whatever is needed to win the vote.

I won't even bother to wade through the claim and counter claim, but I will pick on another subject ..... Money management. On this, there are some irrefutable facts, which the Scottish people should really consider before that X goes onto the ballot paper.

I lived in Edinburgh for 5 or 6 years, and there were numerous wastes of tax payers money while I was there ...  but here's a few historical instances for consideration:

The Parliament Building: Scheduled to open in 2001, it finally did so in 2004, more than three years late, and with an estimated final cost of £414 million, many times higher than initial estimates of between £10m and £40m.

The Edinburgh Tram System: Construction began in June 2008 and the first tram ran on 31st May 2014, but on a system only half the original planned track length. The scheme was costed in 2003 at £375 million. In May 2008, when contracts were signed, this had ballooned to £521 million. However, once extra interest payments are factored in, the final cost is expected to top £1 billion, although officially it still stands as £764 million. The trams will run at an operating loss over the next 15 years and need an initial start-up loan of up to £3m and they will have to be subsidised by the formerly profitable bus service.

The Colony of Darien: Ironically of course the last time Scotland was independent it went bust through an imprudent colony scheme, at Darien in Panama. The colony they named 'Caledonia', and the town they called 'New Edinburgh', but the costs were enormous, as the colony had been funded by public subscription, with between a quarter and a half of the available wealth of Scotland invested into the scheme.

Within nine months of setting sail from Leith, most of the colonists were dead. A second fleet sailed in 1699, not knowing that the colony had already been attacked and burned to the ground by the Spanish, and abandoned by its few survivors, and so the Scots were bankrupt. Despite claims by nationalists, that somehow the English sabotaged the colony (as if England should help Scotland set up a rival colony), the truth was that it was a massively ill conceived idea for such a small and poor country on the northern edge of Europe. They then joined the Union with England and Wales, and the English Parliament bailed out the Scottish debts in return for the political union. Scotland thrived as part of the new British Empire with Glasgow becoming the second city of the Empire.

And my view of Scottish Independence? .... well I believe that the argument should be that:

'United we are strong, divided we are both weaker. No 'Devo Max', you don't try to bribe your partner to stay in a relationship, as it always ends in tears later on. So go or stay, its Scotland's choice, but the decision should be because that's what you want to do. But lets make the break clean, if break we must .... No shared currency. Independence is all or nothing.

Zombie Politician

All former 'Big Beast' politicians try to come back from the dead at some time ..... its just inherent with the territory. So its perhaps no surprise that perhaps the most vilified British Prime Minister in modern UK history, Gordon Brown, has made his bid to have weight again.

His arena, the forthcoming Scottish Independence vote ... an area that he has previous on, as he was a signatory of the "Scottish Claim of Right", in 1988 .. he then led the pro 'devolution' clan in New Labour - one assumes they thought it a wheeze to keep Labour in permanent power in Scotland, but which has in fact resulted in the SNP rise.

Just for those of you weren't aware of what this declaration contained .... here's a flavour 

"We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount.”
"We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:

• To agree a scheme for an Assembly or Parliament for Scotland;
• To mobilise Scottish opinion and ensure the approval of the Scottish people for that scheme; and
• To assert the right of the Scottish people to secure the implementation of that scheme."

It looks like he then spent his entire career ensuring that this came true .... because nothing else explains why he effectively wrecked the UK economy, and oversaw the SNP gaining power in Scotland. If the Scots do leave the Union, then he will have been one of the architects of the break up of the British state.

Zombie Politician

In my opinion he can't be trusted on this anymore than any other issue ... and even the current craze for zombies doesn't make anyone want this politician to come back from the dead .... 

Salmond Run In Scotland

Alex Salmond has pronounced that Scotland can "more than afford' to be a successful independent country. He said this, while waving a little blue book entitled 'Scotland's Economy: the case for independence', which lists the nation's key economic strengths.

Scotlands Economy the case for independence

He claimed that rising inequality under Westminster and consistent economic mismanagement by successive UK governments was costing Scottish jobs and depressing Scottish growth. He finished off with the battle cry that "Scotland has a strong onshore economy and vast offshore potential, as well as a highly educated workforce and world class technology and research. But despite all of these inherent economic strengths, Scotland's long-term economic growth has lagged behind that of comparable European nations, many of which do not have the natural advantages we do. The explanation for that rests in the fact that Scotland's economic strength is not yet in Scotland's hands".

The opposition have said that his paper was "long on grievances about the past, but it is very short on Scotland's future. What was billed as an economic framework for independence has turned out to be a list of objections with barely any mention about how leaving the UK would have any impact on them".

I would suggest that the truth is much more simple ...... Socialists (either Labour, New Labour or the Scottish Nationalist Party), have run Scotland since the 1959 General Election (The last Conservative 'win' in Scotland was the 1955 election). I would further suggest that in fact 58 yrs of unrelenting Socialism is what has held Scotland back for the last half a century, and that a further eternity of unrelenting Socialism will do the same for the foreseeable future.

No Country For Englishmen

A recent discussion in the media on the forthcoming devolution debates in Scotland prompted a comment from a member of the audience (presumably 'pro' the independence idea), that 'Scotland is the only stateless nation in the world and its time for it to make a decision on it's own as it chooses'. Now obviously there are many Basques and Catalan's, who would argue with this Scots centric view of 'statelessness', as indeed would the dozen of other putative states in the world such as the Palestinians, or Karen land in Burma, Somaliland, the Kurds across the Middle East, and even the Corsicans, who are all crying out for statehood .... there is even an argument for Crete and Cornwall to have their own states!

But putting aside the fact that there is such a long list of peoples, regions and countries wanting 'independence', the fact is that Scotland has its own Parliament, its own laws and courts, its own education system and a large input into supra national bodies such as the United Kingdom and the European Union.

We Are The English!

No, in fact its the English who are the most downtrodden in this UK arrangement ..... England has,

• No Sovereign Parliament, 
• No National Broadcaster and 
• No elected head of state

... all bodies that represented the English have been subsumed into the greater body of the UK, while the Irish, Scots and Welsh have been allowed to brandish large degrees of 'independence' in the face of the English.

Imagine if these independence siren calls were by the English, wanting to be independent of Scotland and the rest? Who would be shouting 'little Englanders' or even 'racist' the loudest? Why the very same peoples who are currently telling everyone how downtrodden or oppressed they are under the English imperial heel ..... oh and the real architects of Scottish Independence, the Scottish Labour Party.

So by default, if the Scots do leave, then this will provide an opportunity for some of this repressed 'Englishness' to re-emerge .... but our neighbours may not like what develops, these pendulums tend to swing hard when they swing back!

Labours Love Child Comes Of Age

Remember when the New Labour party under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and their strategist Mandelson introduced 'devolution' in to Scotland and Wales, and swore blind that it wouldn't ever lead to 'Scottish Independence' .....


The First Leader Of An Independent Scotland?

.....  in fact they privately laughed, and said the mixed election method they had introduced would ensure that the Scottish National Party, could never get an overall majority.