Another tragic victim
Yesterday we brought you news of the Scottish Mail On Sunday’s deep concern that the new Scottish budget might cost wealthy old people cashing in a £600,000 pension pot as one lump sum as much as £3,000 in extra tax. It was a heart-rending tale, but today we have one even more harrowing.
That’s our old Scotland In Union pal Merryn Somerset Webb writing in “the UK’s best-selling financial magazine” Money Week, and she was furious.
She started off with a tear-choked plea on behalf of people who were barely making ends meet on just six times the national average full-time wage – people like the Prime Minister, who currently gets only £150,402 (plus perks):
But then she decided the seriousness of the situation needed more emphasis, so she doubled up just to really drive the point home.
In case you’re not quite sure what you just read, that was someone claiming that a family on an annual income of £300,000 might leave Scotland in a fit of piqued injustice because their earnings were no longer enough to afford a nice holiday.
And the reason they’d do so is that two successive years of vile SNP tax changes have left them in a situation where that level of income had been effectively reduced to the barren pittance of just £296,452 a year (or a barely-survivable £5,701 a week).
(Heavens, just imagine how hard they must work, unlike some useless scrounging layabout nurse, teacher, firefighter or train driver on less than £33,000 pa, let alone a minimum-wage cleaner or shop assistant or office worker that barely even bothers getting out of bed for their two-hour commute.)
We hope readers aren’t too traumatised to carry on. We should probably have issued a trigger warning at the start of the article. But the weird thing is that not too long ago Somerset Webb was urging the Scottish Government to do exactly what she’s just attacked it for – use its new tax powers to raise extra money for public spending.
It’s a puzzler. But in a week when the Guardian related the tale of a family who’d only been able to eat because they’d been invited to a funeral, and as Universal Credit rolls out across more and more of the UK, bringing Victorian levels of destitution with it, we hope readers will spare a thought for the poor skiers.
Oh the humanity! why is Sturgeon doing next to fuck all to support winter sport.
Please feel free to join the rest of us on our Skiing Holiday Merryn, And realy at not much cost, All you require is an auld pair of Trainers and Snow sloped Hills (We have many of those in Scotland)And go for it,, A Couple of Small branches may come in Handy for Ski Poles 😀
Whats worse is that a skiing holiday in Scotland is so expensive for the poor dears. I mean the cost of petrol in the Range Rover from Great King Street to Aviemore is more than a couple of Ryanair tickets to Davos.
What is the world coming to when a couple earning 300 grand is expected to fork out a little bit more for the needy. It’s not as if they CREATED the needy by, say, voting Tory, or not paying their employees a living wage. No, the needy just sprout out of the earth to suck the lifeblood from poor hardworking millionaires – well millionaires anyway. Bastards – let them starve! Oh wait – that’s exactly what the UK government is doing, isn’t it? Merry Christmas, Mr and Mrs Scrooge!
Ms. Webb a total arse, enough said ?
Britnat bile. Just when you think these Britnats can’t get any more pathetic…
This is well put Stu you speak for tge many. As a retired teacher I worked hard saved hard and managed 3 ski holidays in 20 years for a family of 5.
I have no sympathy for such scare mongering press.
Scotland could do fine withoit sone of those £290k plus a year people.
If they chose to stay well and good paying for there priviledgea is a duty.
Well stap me vitals old chap. Dashed bad show what. Can’t afford the skiing holiday, bad form indeed.
Well madam Somerset Webb, welcome to the real world where some poor souls are unable to afford to eat, never mind skiing holidays. What a sad, sad person you are. So boo feckin hoo to you and all your ilk, you sefish, arrogant pillock.
I think I’d better just stop now as the steam is just about to come oot o’ ma lugs.GRRRRRR>
I cant believe the shitty SNP wont guarantee to ring fence these trips to Valdeser & Cortina , dirty rotten bastards. These poor hard working folk on 5k a week lives will just disintegrate. Honestly Merryn Nottingham Pleb is just an arsehole.
They could always flee doon Stoorie Brae on a Younger’s Tartan Special beer tray 🙂
The woman is off her trolley. Why the feck would one move to Newcastle? The cost of commuting would wipe out any tax savings and make life a misery of eternal trains and cars to boot.
If this is the level of her understanding of human needs and nature then her advice is not worth the paper it is written on. A classic Tory that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Work, family, schooling, a home are all part of the life’s deal. Simply upping sticks and moving to God know’s where to save tuppence when it would take a life time to regain all losses associated with the move is just insanity. I suspect those on £300,000 are not as foolish as she is. They will weigh up the home, the free university tuition and other soft benefits and say “you know what, moving is not worth it”.
I’m surely not the only one who thinks :
“Good, if you’re that selfish then you vote Tory and would vote No in #indyref2 anyway so domicile yourself in England then”
If you are on the electoral roll in Scotland then you pay tax in Scotland…..
But she conveniently ignores the bumper effects of QE on the same type of people.
That saw the government pump money into the stock exchange raising the value of their assets by around 20%.
I didn’t think Somerset-Webb actually lived in Scotland. If she does, and this makes her move away, I’ll try not to cry too much. Next on the list, make sure wealthy second home owners who don’t actually live and pay tax here are taxed until the pip’s squeak on those. Oh, and bar anyone who’s registered as “an English taxpayer” from being allowed to vote in Scotland, especially in the next referendum.
Can I play the devil’s advocate?
Merryn might not be the shallow, grasping, callous, reactionary, over-privileged, Scrooge-in-A-Barbour-Jacket suggested by today’s article. (And every other article in her career.)
She may, perhaps, just be putting on an act. Trying to please the shallow, grasping, callous, reactionary, low-rent speculators who read her magazine. (And so pay her salary and keep her in regular trips to Chamonix.)
Yes. That’s a much better explanation.
Oh. Haud on. Wasn’t she also a director of Scotland In Union…?
Youse lot just dinnae get it!
This poor family on an annual income of £300,000 have got school fees to pay, private health care AND that mortgage on the second home on Skye. Making ends meet is such a challenge these day.
Surely this is a spoof account. Nobody could be that divorced from reality.
Or is this tumbril talk.
Signed
Madame Defarge.
What kind of world does she inhabit? How utterly remote from the experience of most peoples’ lives you’d have to be to even consider using that “one less skiing holiday” argument? May she bugger off back to England pronto: one less Edinburgh English Tory colonist.
She’ll soon be claiming that only evidence of an annual skiing holiday is sufficient ID proof that you are entitled to vote.
http://archive.is/yfpF7
What kind of absolute scruff goes on a family skiing holiday that only costs three grand?
Anyway Mackay may have stolen hedge fund Henry’s skiing holiday but progressive taxation gives him something more valuable – the right to walk down the street and look people in the eye.
Even if they don’t have to give up all of their skiing holidays they’ll certainly need to cut the number down by one. Sad!
Stupidity knows no bounds, especially if it is steeped in the tory ethos. The extremely fortunate family with a combined income of £300k would be worse off south of the border once they took into account free university tuition fees, free subscriptions and the like. Is she for real or just an idiot?
A complaint to ofcom on the basis of factual inaccuracy would be justified, but why bother, there are a multitude of such inaccuracies, lies and omissions in our garbage press and media on a daily basis. Wake up Scotland. Lets get out of here!!!
Thanks Rev
For pointing out the hypocrisy of the unionist horde for year crying why don’t the Scottish government us it powers and when they do condemning that action
I doubt very much that the people whom the article mentioned above is aimed at would waste their time reading such rubbish due to their financial advisers advising against it 🙂
I do hope that an interviewing ‘journalist’ might one day ask Merryn why 99% of the population should pay for skiing holidays for the top 1%.
Anyone on Twitter may wish to ask Merryn similar question. *Odd Priorities*
How to get the rich to pay…
Scotsgov…”Here is your tax bill, non negotiable, WE DECIDE what you are paying, no special advisors etc…”!!
Big business (starbucks etc)…..”if you make us pay tax we will move our HQ out of Scotland..then you won’t get..errr…ANYTHING”
Scotsgov….”fine, but no tax = no EARNING money in Scotland, shut ALL your shops and get tae fuck.
Big business….”but what about our workers..ha”!!
Scotsgov…”we will encourage small independents to fill the clear gap in the market after you leave, or invite big business who WILL pay our tax bill”
These fuckers need to remember they actually SELL STUFF to make profits.
No tax, not allowed to operate.
Dear ms m s Webb ( what no hyphens?- what’s the world coming too?)
Have you heard of terms like
Greedy
Selfish
Self-centered
Avarice
Grabbing
Guzzling
Grasping
Or just a greedy Tory b**sterd!
I use to have a subscription to money week but during the run up to the referendum I had discussions whith Merryn regarding Scottish independence and decided that as she was clearly pontificating on subjects she had no understanding of, I cancelled my subscription.
Further thoughts of Chairwoman Merryn
Same day –same magazine
http://archive.is/xCb4j
Now it might be easy to laugh at the appeal to her of violent, criminal entrepreneur, Magwitch!
But Ayn Rand says it all.
http://archive.is/4V0FZ
Her support of Scotland In Union is really a fear that an independent Scotland would expose all the economic bollocks being inflicted on the English and Welsh by her kind.
Merryn Somerset Webb is one of the ‘default’ unionist ‘experts’ that the BBBC hauls out of the troll cupboard when an episode of ‘Question Time’ is lacking a unionist ‘fount of all knowledge.
From Wikipedia:-
“Merryn Somerset Webb (born 1969/1970) is the Editor in chief of UK personal finance magazine MoneyWeek, writes for the Financial Times, the Sunday Post and Saga Magazine and is a radio and television commentator on financial matters.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merryn_Somerset_Webb
Her political viewpoint can be seen from the clip at this page (I won’t archive, because archive.is won’t capture the video).
The headline is,
Peerage for ‘committed’ Nigel Farage is ‘an EXCELLENT idea’ admits Question Time panellist
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/733645/Question-Time-Nigel-Farage-House-of-Lords-excellent-idea-Merryn-Somerset-Webb
More odd framing of financials in this article. The Rev seems unaware that there is £120k+ of tax being paid by this scenario. Surely disincentiving these jobs ( through folk leaving, but more likely through less job creation) is a genuine worry and downside risk of this tax policy. Inverse snobbery re ski holidays is still snobbery
“And the reason they’d do so is that two successive years of vile SNP tax changes have left them in a situation where that level of income had been effectively reduced to the barren pittance of just £296,452 a year (or a barely-survivable £5,701 a week).”
Cancel the skiing holiday or move to Newcastle?
Neither just go to Fort Bill, they are doing cracking deals in some of the hotels, season ski pass x 2 adults still way cheaper than abroad. If the snow is lean there’s plenty more things to do, like supporting the local economy. Perhaps she could ski at London’s premier ski resort at their “mighty mountain” Primrose Hill.
Oh Dear Nae Snaw.
So Ms Webb can go and do one. Smile and “mind the gap”
Morgatron@7.05 she can’t be an ar*ehole, as ar*eholes are useful.
Last i checked, the rich get one vote in elections, just like the poorest.
That must really annoy them (the rich)…especially in a country which has roundly rejected WM unionist policies aimed at the rich.
Trouble is, that was alright when we still got those unionist policies, but now the penny is finally dropping, we can get rid of them, and all it costs is one wee ‘X’ in the Box marked YES.
Scotland may have poor people, they may be vulnerable and they may be downtrodden, after centuries of oppression by the WM elite, but with one simple act of democracy, they can be uplifted from poverty, shake off the yoke of forced servitude and roar like proud Scottish lions.
Vote Yes, let your Scottish lion roar proudly.
The surprising thing about debates on Scottish tax policy is that lessons do not appear to have been learned from the devolution of stamp duty. Much of the same ‘tax the rich, they have thousands of pounds lying around’ rhetoric was getting chucked around two years ago, but the actual impact of the policy was the reduce tax take and have a neagative impact across the market.
https://www.rsmuk.com/ideas-and-insights/weekly-tax-brief-27-june-2017/lbtt-the-law-of-unintended-consequences-in-action
A tweet I saw the other day:
1d may not seem like very much to you and me, but to a millionaire it’s a very great deal indeed.
How true.
I’ll just type that my last (and only) “skiing holiday” was in early 1968, when, as a component of a weekend spent at Bearfaulds Lodge, with the paramilitary wing of the church of Scotland (the BB), my Saturday was spent skiing down the nuresy slope at Glenshee, then clambering back up to repeat the process; all day…
No’ as much fun as sledgin’ doon an icy pavement, to be honest. But different – and gave me a taste for ‘the high life’, to which I still aspire.
My heart is bleeding for her.
How will she survive without her skiing beano to Val d’isere?…
Bless.
Sorry folks a wee serious O/T
Commiserations to our southern cousins for getting TOTALLY PUMPED at the cwicket. HAAAAA HAAAAA
Christmas came early ya dancer.
If they can’t afford to ski they can always visit the private island her husband owns.
https://www.ft.com/content/ae49a38a-f8f8-11e6-bd4e-68d53499ed71
Sounds as if the poor soul has had a hard life!
It really isn’t about the Scottish governments policies, it’s all about finding ludicrous ways of attacking the Scottish government, anyway they can.
It wouldn’t matter how good the policies were, SNPBAD, is all that matters.
There are a lots of Scots who have emotional ties to the United Kingdom even though it doesn’t or ever will benefit them financially.
I wonder how many of these individuals feel when their UK ‘fellow travelers’ go on like this, which really boils down to reverse class-envy, especially when most of the benefits from these tax-raises will help them in their day to day lives?
Bloody Hell, I’m going skiing in January as it happens, Easyjet Geneva under a 100 quid then self catering. I’ll send her some advice.
But seriously, move from Edinburgh or Glasgow or just about anywhere in Scotland to Newcastle just to save enough to go skiing. She’s bloody bonkers.
And her kids can find 9 grand a year for university fees. This woman is seriously stupid.
Cath Ferguson:
“Oh, and bar anyone who’s registered as “an English taxpayer” from being allowed to vote in Scotland, especially in the next referendum.”
Excellent point.
And to anyone threatening to move away because of this, don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out.
People like her have lived their lives in a privileged bubble,
through elite private early schooling then up to Oxford or Cambridge,
then straight on to a media/academic/political career surrounded by the same privileged types they grew up with,
these people have no conception of hunger,fear,struggle,lack of basic amenities,they are the establishment born to lord it over us plebs,
she cannot help her nature,the same as a tapeworm,both must follow their natural calling.
Incredibly distasteful and insulting from this smug, posh lady.
Disabled benefits cut, growth in foodbanks, rough sleeping and folk actually dying trying to exist.
She should be ashamed of herself.
People with any class never flaunt what they earn in order to score points, or makes others feel inadequate.
Skiing is the last thing on the mind of majority of Scots.
Wow. You have to laugh or you would cry. I laughed at the skiing bit, how terribly unfair of Nicola Sturgeon to clip the wings of the rich like this! I know what I would do with their ski’s and it would not be pretty.
Newcastle? Really? Really? Has she been there lately? I have family there, and they tell me that crime is huge, unemployment is huge and my cousin just had their wages cut by the Labour council by er, 40%! The council leader took a 20% pay RISE, nice. So as care workers they might just be er, looking to move to Scotland in fact.
Some people need to watch a modern day scrooge, on a loop, eyes kept open forcibly. Sorry I know it’s condoning torture, but these people are happy to see our poorest and most vulnerable really suffer, really go hungry and have nothing to fall back on. The UK media, Britnats and their dodgy pals are a load of squalid, parasitic, inhuman swillers.
They make me sick. Watch you don’t choke on your turkey, gits.
My God! Are we really in a union with people like this????
This is my first post,
off, but close, to topic.
The following article appeared in the Harrogate Advertiser edition of 14 December 2017.
“Local democracy reporters appointed
The owner of the Harrogate Advertiser Series of newspapers, Johnston Press has been announced as one of the media organisations to employ local democracy reporters as part of the Local News Partnerships.
The BBC’s Local News Partnerships have created a pool of reporters to cover council and public meetings across the UK.
Johnston Press is among a number of media organisations to now receive funding from the BBC to cover the reporters’ employment costs.
Once recruited, stories written by the democracy reporters will be shared with more than 700 media organisations that have signed up to be part of the Local News Partnerships scheme.
The landmark partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association also includes a Shared Data Unit, and a facility allowing local news providers access to relevant regional BBC video and audio content.
Ashley Highfield, chair of the News Media Association, said: ‘The ground-breaking Local News Partnership between the NMA and the BBC is now becoming a reality which will benefit the BBC, local media and, most importantly, local communities.
The initiative has moved the whole relationship between the BBC and the local media sector from confrontation to collaboration, and key benefits will include 150 new journalists on the ground holding public institutions to account on behalf of their readers. Managed by local media and funded by the BBC, the Local Democracy Reporters are just a part of a slew of collaborative initiatives that will see local media get access to BBC’s local video and data journalism.’
A total of 150 local democracy reporters will eventually be employed across the country once all contracts have been awarded.”
f/m and the best bit is she really believes her heart rendering tale resonates with the rest of us.
Different planet dear ,your so detached from ordinary people they must have to make an appointment to look at you .
The French had the right idea off with the feckers heads . that confused Google spell check no end .
What’s as much to the point, is how many of those £150,000 + jobs in Scotland, just can NOT move down south to escape a realtively trivial tax increase? Would they seek another job – and leave vacant a job which could perhaps be offered to someone at a lower salary?
Everybody would win – apart from the clowns moving away for the sake of a measly to them, £1,174, probably about the same as the annaul saving living in Scotland on on the water bill for their sprinklers if you’ll pardon the expression, paying by the cubic metre. I’d say if it means that mauch to them, well, sprinkle or tinkle off.
Mmm, that told them.
In this mess of figures don’t forget the so called JAMS people who like me work very hard
For less than the living wage and have to look for more hours to survive there people on 150k plus need to seriously take a hike if they’re not happy about paying a couple of pence more to take a few bricks more of our shoulders
Just posted on the previous page about this.
Lady in her seventies sits in front of halogen heater in sleeping bag to keep warm and won’t use central heating because she’s frightened of the cost. And this creature, Merryn double barrelled heartless waste of space, has the audacity to accuse Nicola Sturgeon of theft.
Give me one minute in a room with her. (Merryn that is!)
Skiing holiday ? I just need to step out my front door just now to have all the skiing I want. Ice everywhere.
Council refuse to grit our road as it is not adopted. I have to do it myself. We just get on with it, though I am not getting any younger.
The lady sounds rather vile and self obsessed. There are too many like her and Katie Hopkins for my comfort.
Evil ridiculous Unionists totally detached from the huge amount of suffering being heaped on ordinary, usually fully employed folk.
That’s it I’m off to get my pitchfork.
yesindyref2 says: 18 December, 2017 at 8:44 pm
Going a bit o/t.
There are instances where £150+K renumeration is justified for a job position. However, in certain circumstances like managerial type ones, couldn’t the responsibility for a £150+K be split between two or more individuals and obviously the £150+k salary split between them?
Obviously this will create more jobs as well as progression opportunities but it could also help get rid of the macho personality driven culture we have in our society where too much decision making is held in a few hands that results in bad decision making?
Very simple, Merryn is terrified the SNP tax scheme catches on in England.
If anything this episode had been good for exposing just how much some people earn and just how grasping your average Tory is.
Lets be brutally honest here.
Anyone able to command a six figure salary is not stupid enough to fall for the utter guff spouted by the ridiculous Somerset-webb types.
Say what you like about the wealthy, but they like staying wealthy.
Her pish is aimed at more…simple types, types who earn rather less than ever being in the position to move away to “save” themselves from the SNP tax policy.
This hypocrisy and propaganda is unbearable. Suggestion – every time a piece-of-keech article like this is highlighted by WoS we bombard the Twitter feed of the ‘journalist’ with the link to the Rev’s expose.
Door swings both ways. If such folk wanted to leave to enjoy the benefits of living elsewhere in the UK…
… oh wait.
Ms Webb is trolling and not very well.
Thank Christ I earn below the average Scottish wage so I won’t be taxed out of going on that skiing holiday I was considering next year.
Do feel a bit sorry for the hugely well remunerated though.
Will the erudite lady have to miss out on the odd safari as well?
SNP Scottish rotters.
Pacman @ 8.18
I am thinking along the same line’s Pacman.
And the bit that hasn’t been said yet….
What if Scotland didn’t or COULDN’T address the income inequality?
Make enough people desperate enough and they will have no choice but to do whatever they can to feed their kid’s.
The social contract is a two way street…this Countries wealth must be shared to meet everyone’s needs.
Otherwise it could break down.
And the first to feel the effects will be the “just about managing” when it’s their kid who can’t leave their new bike down,when they return home to a ransacked home,when you need a pair of attack dog’s just to use a cash machine!!
Now the affluent may eventually!! have their gated communities but would it be at less cost than a wee tax rise???……Do these so called educated people no see this!!
It’s { The Prince } 101.
Most people just want,a home,to be fed, reasonable health care, a holiday in the summer and a half decent Christmas.
Most are not the so called “go getters” and no Country or society could function if everyone were!
This is actually fortunate,infact, for the very wealthy.
Because it is entirely doable in a Country like Scotland.
When even they …the very wealthy…could remain so!
What exactly is their problem,and why do they seem to have support from people who could benefit from curtailing their greed?
Doesn’t it just sometimes make ye wonder where their (the ordinary people who just identify with the UK) head is at?
Can they no see that they don’t have to take this kind of life…..the kind that Westminster are offering?
Everything is there and available to build something better.
Right here and right now!
All we have to do is make sure that we don’t stick with this system.
Somerset, sumthin and her kind are only defending the right to steal all the resources,and then some!
But let the hungry or the dispossessed attempt to take from the pot!!!!and THEN it’s a crime!!
There is a great deal of wisdom in the concept (canny mind from where)….them that divvies up the food eats last.
Because right now it’s them that divvies up that are eating first.
And this has to change…. which is exactly the whole point of bringing your Government within Slapping distance!
But we’ll get there, and right soon… and when we do…
I’m betting
Mrs Smallaxe will Unbann the computer,for an hour or two
So shoulders to the wheel then Wingers…!
I thought that you paid tax on your earnings from your employer no matter where you stayed, from the way it is being protrayed if I’m employed in England & stay here I’ll get the best of both worlds,
lower tax & all the benefit of this wonderfull country if I’m at the top end of earnings. so taking it further of I’m employed here I’ll pay tax here no matter if I ( God forbid) move down south. Why on earth would anyone thnk that is a way to do anything.
…what kind of accountant has this couple got…an honest one?
On a serious note…how can people like Webb be so oblivious to the reality of life in 21st century UK.
Oh for the good old days when you could put it all in a pension pot tax free, then they cut it to 40k pounds a year limit and then reduced it even further to 10k/year for those earning over 150k a year and then limited the lifetime pension pot to one million pounds. Compare this to the new pension pot for kids who after a lifetime of contribution will have a pot of 60k which will cancel out the current benefits leaving them not ONE PENNY better off.
I fortunately will be OK and don’t mind paying extra tax…but why are more than half my fellow Scots still supporting Webb’s rotten Union?
@Bill Glen says: 18 December, 2017 at 6:47 pm:
“Please feel free to join the rest of us on our Skiing Holiday Merryn, And realy at not much cost … “
Seems the gyte wumman, (I hesitate to use the term silly lady), in case it offends her obviously rather tender feelings), has never heard about the several rather good ski resorts in the Scottish Highlands. Several of which can now guarantee to have snow on the slopes as announced last week.
https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/0/17808/weather-snowmaking-underway-scotland-big-blizzard-moves.page
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scottish-ski-season-open-for-business-5v3sdhw7k
https://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-islands/glencoe-mountain-the-first-of-scotland-s-ski-resorts-to-open-1-4626613
And here’s a video for all you DIY experts on how to make your very own version:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_mdDbt_1Vc
Valerie 8.38pm. This “thing” is anything but a lady.
Jockeying for a place in the Tory cabinet me thinks?!
Gordon
I think she is vying to take Katie Hopkins place as the Mail’s purveyor of tasteless, insensitive drivel.
Aye that is the real reason for the likes of MSW being a Scotland in Union BritNat @sandra says at 8:14 pm
“If they can’t afford to ski they can always visit the private island her husband owns.”
http://archive.is/gwTjR
Like Dan ‘The BritNat History Man’ Snow they are shit scared that their vested financial interests may end up being taxed appropriately for the benefit of the people of our country.
Offshoring their assets, investing tax free in land/forestry and paying a small fortune annually to Tax Accountants to minimise what they contribute to society via personal tax.
Parasites who fear paying their dues, especially if a Land Tax is introduced.
About 7 or 8 comments on the original article and I am pleased to report that nobody had a good word to say about her or her story
This woman moved to Scotland around 10 years ago from London with her stockbroker husband, a former Tory candidate for Shetland. Is she contemplating buggering off back down south so she can afford her holiday?
Look out Tom Gordon!
There is a crazy woman out there after your job for what it’s worth
But here’s the thing – Somerset Webb will totally and truly believe she has suffered a great injustice.
She just doesn’t ‘get’ it.
When she reaches the Hall of Ma’at and her heart is weighed by Osiris she can always console herself in thinking she will be admitted into the Afterllife because it might not be lighter than a feather but it’s a bit lighter from having left those skis behind.
What a truly despicable human being. And yes, Somerset Webb – in spite of what you may have haerd about BTL commentators n Wings Over Scotland, I do actually see you as a human being. And that is why I feel so very sad for you.
Maybe nae, 7 bedroom Georgian Townhouses tend to be a bit more expensive.
She says…
Everyone earning over £33,000 will now pay more tax in Scotland than in England. That’s 45% of the working population…
… is it really?
Think I have sussed out why this “journalist” is so upset and it has nothing to do with the fact that her “friends” are only earning £300,00 (combined) per year. It is in fact all to with the fact that her £300,000 “friends” in Scotland have to pay for:
1) all medication at £8 per item
2) student fees at around £9,000 per year
3) all bus travel for their elderly relatives
4) all personal care for their elderly and disabled relatives
5) all bridge tolls
6) all eye tests
7) all dental check ups
8) school meals for their P1 – P3 kids
9) child care for their 2 – 4 year old kids
Oops!
I got confused there for a second. I thought she was bitching about her “friends” problems because they live OUTSIDE of Scotland! 😀
These folk won’t move away, well not back t the SE. They simply couldn’t achieve the style of love no they can up here. It’s simply cheaper to live here.
That’s the point
I remember many years ago, John Lennon was asked, is it true the beatles are skint, yes he said, its awful, i’m down to my last 50 thousand…. heh heh heh
*love no * – living!
Liz g @ at 9:34 pm
Staying on topic with what I originally said. It has occurred to me for a while that the only way to stop tax evasion in todays global economy is to decrease wages at the top to the point where it isn’t feasible to do it.
This could be done with what I had mentioned of decentralising power structures and the associated wage structures so both power and wealth is shared by more. Rather than having a top 10% in society who can spread their wealth around the world to avoid tax, that top 10% could become the top 20% or 25% where it is a lot more difficult to do the same thing.
The other thing is to encourage co-operatives and even flat management structures like Suma where everybody in the company gets paid the same wage and have to work in every function of the company both at the top and at the bottom.
With these things, it is easier for governments to manage and maintain their tax bases. It isn’t a moral thing to do but a necessary thing that governments may seriously need to look at.
The status quo simply isn’t sustainable. As I had previously mentioned, wealth is more concentrated and easier to avoid tax. Those who can’t move their earnings about or aren’t mobile to move from country to country will find themselves trapped with ever increasing crime and other social ills.
The idea of fencing oneselves off from this in gated communities is appealing to some and may be sustainable for a while but what life is it when you have to keep watching your back?
An independent Scotland could result in a carbon copy of Westminster but it could inspire changes that not only creates a more fairer society but also a more efficiently run one.
Of course this needs to be looked upon with a pragmatic realism but it doesn’t mean you can also hope that something better can happen.
Its absolutely awful, i just don’t know how i can possibly afford my 12 holidays to florida next year, i think there is only one solution to this, could some kind person please look after two kids for me, i actually have 16, but i can only afford to take 14 of them with me, well, some of us have to make sacrifices, no point in everyone losing out on a nice holiday, now how much spending money will i personally need, i think 10 grand a day should be enough to get bye on
beans on toast for 14 kids for a week, yes i can just manage that ( own brand beans btw ) do you think i’m made of money . heh heh heh
Unfortunately Scotland doesn’t have the full economic levers of Ireland and can only use its limited Income Tax powers.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/irish-economy-surges-to-double-digit-growth-1.3328529
O/T Does anyone have Virgin Media TV. It seems their new “on the Go” App only gives BBC London and ITV London programs and no Scottish “opt outs”.
I have complained before but, as in parcel deliveries,we should get same level of service as those living in South East of England.
Is any MP going to embarrass them in Parliament.
It will be interesting to see if there is more articles like this.
It may be that people like MSW are scared that a more progressive tax regime seen in the budget could work and it will cause more south of the border to want the same there.
If that happens, then their tax dodging days are numbered.
Show me these folk who are prepared to up sticks because they are unwilling to stop the social fabric of the nation unravelling further and I’ll happily carry their monogrammed luggage to the border.
Meant to post this earlier. Tumbril talk – when people self identify as a member of an aristocratic class and make insensitive observations on their petty suffering and minor inconveniences while others starve.
http://www.christopherbellew.com/tumbril-talk-part-one/
These people amaze me…..they should be transported to some place where their hypocrisy is better spent….like england
@Gary45%
You’re quite right Gary. She’s not an arsehole.
More of an arsehalf in my book.
I am unable to stop fretting about her ability to safari.
Will Merryn still be able to safari?
If not, I shall require next time to vote Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party through guilt and solidarity.
@exile
`Local authorities will be held to account by a team of 150 “local democracy reporters” created under a landmark deal between the BBC and regional news organisations.
The BBC will make £8m a year for 9 years (£72 million) available for local newspapers to hire journalists to cover council meetings and scrutinise public services,`
seems Scotland gets more than its fair share of BBC paid local democracy journalists 22 out of 149 ,wonder why ?
The State run BBC controlling the hiring of local journalists for the local rags does not sound very democratic in fact it sounds close to totalitarianism.
https://tinyurl.com/y83s5n4x
Folk like her are just pretending suffering a cash grab, they are not going to really miss the price of a few coffees every week.
They have a political agenda and push the SNP bad mantra at every possibility along with their like minded associates.
Even if independence comes very few will leave Scotland to take on the financial burden of Housing costs , tuition fees and the rest.
Are we worried? Thought not!
————————————————————-
PS:
Radio 5 Live:
Just hearing that ‘Britain First’ has had it’s twitter account suspended / deleted / banned being one of a number of right wing groups. Trumps tweets on there all gone now!
One hopes when next Miss Somerset Webb and friends visit any Ski resorts in Scotland the largely but diminishing since Brexit immigrant waiting and bar staff on low wages will welcome her accordingly in the usual manner that bar and waiting staff do when confronted by abnoxious guests and that our taxi drivers offer the service renowned in Scotland when presented with attitudes of this type
Do enjoy your soup coffee and other refreshments at our wonderful Scottish Ski resorts miss Somerset Webb and friends
Haste ye back
Always excellent welcoming service in the licenced trade for all people who are pleasant and civil
Coffee Miss Webb?
The upshot of her MoneyWeek article is that it moves me towards agreement with The Times’ Kenny Farters Son that maybe the Scottish Government didn’t go far enough in their fiscal redistribution.
We’re getting there though.
So, most people in Scotland now pay less income tax and less rates than most people in Tory England.
Surely that was reported on the BBC?
O/T
According to Sky News Press Review…..The new aircraft-carrier is leaking….oh dear.
Abandon ship!
@ Dr Jim
Is that no incitement?
I`m sure there are many if not thousands of the 400,000 English white settlers living the good life here in Scotland who are embarrassed by Webb`s comments,
to make your nest and be welcomed in a foreign country then attack that country,is an immoral abomination,
Scotland is an open country accepting of all immigrants and refugees whether posh red trousered English or war torn Syrian
and in return we should hope for some acceptance of our unique culture and our inherent willingness to help those less fortunate.
Merryn Somerset Webb, well-known QT heidbanger, is not like us Scottish scum. There are no words in God’s own language to itemise her effortless superiority. Yet she tries to do this frequently in her pisspoor articles, even outside the hallowed portals of MoneyWank.
I invite you to read her article on moving to Edinburgh at ft.com (dated 30 Jul 2010, “Nesting not Investing”) as well as her Spectator article (dated 2 Nov 2013, “How to Make Money from the Scottish Referendum”). If you can get to the end of them you’ll need to take a shower to clean yourself of upper-class condescension. It’s never a great look to find yourself sounding like some tattooed bovver-boy (remember them!) but I really wish she would fuck off back to wherever she came from…
I’m afraid Merrilegs writes utter shite sometimes.
Shame really she seems such a nice ‘gal’ but she’s got in with some seriously bad company.
If everyone earning over £150,000 is really that stupid, then the quicker they leave, the quicker the void left will be filled with competent aspirational up and coming fresh talent.
Good.
Ms Webb and her husband apparently own a house and farm on Shetland – for holiday rental – and an island off the west coast of Shetland – Vementry. She warns others of the perils of owning a Scottish island – the major gripe is that Scotland has a right to roam legislation and that means a scruff just might wander on to your ‘property’. Nice. She suggests a starter island for those who saved their ski-ing money for offers over £450,000 off the coast of Argyll.
She is on BBC Question Time a lot when they come to their Scotland region, probably to show us that we get exactly the tory zoomers Dimbelby thinks we deserve up here.
Anyway, three grand’s peanuts in the cost of conveyancing, tax, even removal van and man charges, the wealthy pay of their lovely big houses all over Scotland, at over a million quid and up, well up. Maybe if the wealthy hate Scotland that much with SNP Scots gov, it is worth it. Lucky old Newcastle!
@Merryn Somerset Webb
Are you so wedded to neo-liberal spivery and greed, that you are unable to comprehend the damage your team has done to civil society? Do you care?
http://www.asatheory.org/current-newsletter-online/what-is-critical-realism
https://centreforcriticalrealism.com/about-critical-realism/basic-critical-realism/
https://understandingsociety.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/morphogenesis-and-realist-meta-theory.html
Tip for MSM journalists such as Tom Gordon or Merryn Somerset Webb, RT is running a journalism boot camp in Moscow from 29th Jan to 16th Feb. Opportunity to hone your skills, or even acquire some.
Don’t know if Mr Putin will be presenting a module but the chance to visit the Kremlin will surely be on the curriculum. Catch some winter skiing too.
https://school.rt.com/en/
Some ARSEHOLE moaning about not being able to afford a skiing holiday if a couple earn £150,000 each per year is an arsehole when much of the public are relying on foodbanks and even committing suicide.
People like MWS don’t care about that, they love to Ski!
You know what we’re lucky to have Wings, maybe now not enough read it and the message isn’t getting through but it will eventually.
Your the messenger so get it out there cos I’m sick of their bile.
The frightfully wealthy of Scotland, trying to raise their crushing nattax,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLo7tHDHgOc
This doesn’t work at all but its still funny.
The pnr @ 12.45
Could not agree more.
The UK is going down the tubes so we HAVE to get out of this ‘so called Union’ to save Scotland. ASAP.
The pnr @ 12.45
Totally agree.
This woman is seriously deluded…been on question time more times than I’ve had hot dinners to peddle the ‘Scotchland in Poverty’ myth….Her condescending tone and ‘one nation’ rhetoric gives me the heave….well done joanna cherry on outing her on qt as a better together/Scotland in union advocate , loved that….maybe the irn brew snowman will scoop her up and drop her by the angel of the north or the Tyne bridge and take the hint…
@Still Positive
Thanks, I realise you understand how angry this guff makes me feel. Your response is appreciated despite my poor grammer 🙂
heedtracker
I don’t know Heed, I thought that was pitch-perfect social commentry.
https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/socialjusticecriminaljusticeweb.pdf
The desperation of appearance over reality Westminster style.
From FT. https://archive.is/0sFTU
‘…British negotiators wanted to announce a low headline estimate for the net cost: around €40bn-€45bn, rather than the commission’s €50bn-€60bn. … using front-loaded payments in January-April 2019, the last three months of Britain’s membership, to lower the headline exit bill. That alone reduced the EU estimates of the bill by €4bn-€5bn, according to officials involved in the talks. “We don’t mind if they pay early,” joked one senior EU diplomat.
Just pathetic.
Aww, clever Merryn.
What an asset to the Indy campaign =)
Scot Finlayson @ 11.52 pm
Excellent comment.
Merryn might even embarass some of her SIU pals too.
What a gem she is.
The pnr @ 1.23
Thank you for your support.
As a retired English teacher I have read many pupils’ work mis-spelled and with poor grammar and I have understood it.
I’m not in the least bothered about yours or anybody else who has poor grammar or spelling. The most important thing is that we understand what you are saying.
I should also have said in my last post that I did not detect any poor grammar.
Re. the change in culture that New Labour introduced into UKOK social policy. A bit paternalistic and discriminatory, IMHO. Well, they were targeting Tory voters in key marginals in the south of England, New Labour’s “southern discomfort”….
http://usir.salford.ac.uk/12778/2/CREEPING_CONDTIONALITY.pdf
For those poor impoverished people on £150,000 a year if alone or £300,000 a year if a couple a great saving can be made by no longer purchasing Right wing rags like these there money saved for holiday Simples.
OT. Michel Barnier being horrible to London again. No privileges. No cherry picking.
“There is no place [for financial services]. There is not a single trade agreement that is open to financial services. It doesn’t exist.”
It’s not a complicated formula for Brexit negotiations; the EU says what’s going to happen, then the UK nods its head. But man alive, the UK’s ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) really pads out the process and makes it needlessly complicated and tiresome.
I’m off to Ladbrokes to bet next years skiing holiday money that the UK will be outraged anew when Michel Barnier suddenly asserts there will be no Trade Deal for the UK which doesn’t respect all of the Four Freedoms and which the EUCJ cannot legislate over.
Maybe we will get shot of some of those no voters who moved to Scotland when selling up their three bedroom ex council houses in London for £350k and buying up old croft houses driving up house prices in the Highlands to the point locals can’t afford to get on housing market, of course we will miss any no voter who chooses to return south because this SNP fellows are hitting them in the pocket now ?????
Move to Newcastle? Where property is more expensive, prescriptions are not free, tuition fees are £9000, care for the elderly is not free, council tax is 15%+ higher… yeah… makes sense hen! And she writes for a financial paper? Surely the editor will have read that and thought “Did you do maths at school ya torn faced bint?”
Merryn S W is an EOS.
The woman’s quite right.
If I were English from the ‘Home’ Counties, I’d sell my gaff in Surbiton for three or four million, move up to the Northern colony, where we Londoners have managed to produce through good Imperial Brit Nat policies a peasant stock of three or four million. Lots of nannies, housekeepers and stable boys.
You can buy and Edinburgh Townhouse for the ridiculously give away price of a million, million and a half tops, and lord it over the Scotch scruff on an income as little as £150k pa.
Beats being a white settler in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe any day.
You couldn’t even get a First Time Buyer mortgage back in the City on £150k a year.
One Bed Flats Back Home start at half a mill, after all.
Tumbril talk, right enough.
Well, sorry to disappoint, but we Scots are a patient and peaceful lot.
We do it through the ballot.
We shall be free of this woman and her hundreds of thousands of insurgents soon enough.
So that this breed of rentiers/ smug self satisfied exceptionalist SE can spout such rubbish ,hundreds of thousands of Scottish citizens will starve and/or freeze this winter. Meanwhile this woman will use her appearance money from BBC to get her Xmas Bevvy in.
They really are the most heartless bunch of over privileged Bar Stewards.
She knows what she’s doing of course.
A talentless air-head who has an opinion on everything and knowledge about nothing.
The more folks on here who threaten her with tar and feathering, the more her public persona rises.
Some may call her a no talent hack.
I couldn’t possibly comment.
Come the Revolution, I bags the display cabinet in her plush Edinburgh pad as we, the Great Unwashed storm Holyrood and begin the Reign of Terror proper.
Aye, right.
The usual load of shit from one of the particularly annoying Brit Shit Stirrers in our midst.
She won’t be missed when she joins the 400,000 of refugee Colonists and Settlers trudging back down the A1 pushing their handcarts and Grandfather Clocks.
Aye, right.
What an odious little woman.
People are dying of English Parliament engineered poverty to maintain this inbred class of Yoon debauchery.
She is a dung beetle feeding of the pile of festering crap forced upon us Scots by her pals in London.
May the hairs on her head turn to drum sticks and beat some sense into her.
While even one child dies of state engineered poverty, this horrible woman considers this attempt at whimsy a right laugh.
Fuck off.
In the rest of the UK they do not raise enough for public services. They spend £Billions on the Tory slush fund. HS2, Hinkley Point, Heathrow and Trident. Cutting £Billions from NHS, Education and welfare. Starving vulnerable people to death. Taking £Billions from Scotland because of Westminster mismanagement. On Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion.
According to the zoomer Press putting up taxes will stop immigration. Instead of Brexit. A disaster. They should have just put up taxes in the south.
There is no mention of the 70% who will be paying less taxes. More important.
When Merryn Somerset Webb writes an article, I’m already bored by the time I’ve reached the end of her name.
Scott Finlayson @ 11.13 pm
Thank you for picking up my post at 8.42 pm, and for your link. It’s the word “collaboration” which worries me most, and prompted me to post for the first time.
Your link makes me even more concerned about BBC Local Democracy Reporters. The YES movement and the SNP should be extremely concerned too.
Your link has “BBC Local Democracy Reporter Allocation” pdf. Pages 12 and 13 give details for Scotland – media group name, relevant councils, number of reporters. Can’t link, but basic information is
Aberdeen Journals 3
P & Journal 1
Stornoway Gazette 0.5
Unallocated (Orkney Islands Council) 0.5
Shetland News 0.5
Helensburgh Advertiser 1
Fife Free Press 3
Herald & Times 4
Edinburgh Evening News 4
Ayrshire Post 4
I’m a non-tech-y pensioner Scot living in England. So, please YES-ers, spread the word on BBC Local “Democracy” Reporters and share Scott’s link!
Always good to hear Jeane Freeman even on radio shortbread.
Concise and confident and putting the record straight here and there regarding the next batch of the 11 new powers starting next year.
Were moving on now, Scotland distinctly different in their approach to social care compared to the rUK.
Won’t be a doddle but worth it in the long run as more folk affected will see fairer and just system supporting them.
The usual suspects will quibble it’s not enough or it’s taken to long etc but that’s hard they do. 🙂
The article there does show the complete failure of the 4th Estate, they don’t check the constitutional position of Scotland, they would only need to do it once, but that would leave them with nothing to write.
Or they do know it but are making up stories, straightforward propaganda.
My grandad used to buy the Reveille magazine and Titbits for the jokes and funny stories as there was nothing worth reading in the papers, I think it was the right approach and he was ahead of his time.
Jings… What they do. Mobile ???
Well we can expect propaganda from someone who is a regular pick on Question time. Especially Scottish editions.
Prior to 2014 I had a subscription to money week, until they were taking an anti Indy line, they started slipping a number of comments in that we would suffer if we said YES, a sneaky drip drip.
I particularly remember that they predicted that houses in the Edinburgh New Town had already started to fall dramatically on the lead up to the Indy vote. Their point was obvious, people with money were already leaving.
On checking I found the opposite, they were rapidly rising in value.
So it was a Unionist hope rather than a fact, what is known as a lie.
I revoked my membership telling them in strong manner just why.
I have never renewed and never will, they are anti Scottish, and like many from down south they want to hold us tight never to see the sunshine of Independence.
They look on us as their possession, what’s new!
@ exile
So the BBC are paying the running costs of unionist rags in Scotland? They will never go under if subsidised by the British State. This is an amazing move by the BBC and needs to be shared as widely as possible!
I have been a supporter of The National through a subscription to the on-line edition since Day 1 but was surprised and disappointed to read an absolute howler in today’s edition where Andrew Learmonth states that ‘62% of VOTERS supported Leave in the 2016 Referendum’.
Anybody got some spare gaffa tape and blue tac to plug some holes in the yooncraft carrier 😀
Links
Scottish companies say Brexit already making it hard to find staff
http://archive.is/mMt6l
Scottish Affairs Committee meeting on Immigration and Scotland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ9B-p4WjII
https://angusmacneilsnp.com/2017/12/18/mod-passing-the-buck-on-hebrides-range/
https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/12/18/glasgow-herald-stupidly-sneakily-base-report-attacking-snp-tax-policy-on-labour-stooge-and-cant-tell-difference-between-their-left-and-their-centre/
http://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/exclusive-interview-mhairi-black
http://uk.businessinsider.com/iain-duncan-smith-british-business-eu-trade-learn-to-get-by-brexit-2017-12
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2017/12/18/dwp-ordered-to-publish-another-set-of-secret-universal-credi
https://www.elnacional.cat/en/politics/reprisals-prison-jordi-sanchez-meeting_222138_102.html
There aren’t enough people who’ll pay more tax being heard. Everyone I know who’ll pay more tax is fully supportive of the changes. Like most cases the Unionist press “stands up for” people by warping the situation of those they claim to represent to their own ends
http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-dirty-food-deal-1-5323947
lol
http://archive.is/piHbG
Will not archive
http://www.independent.co.uk/helpahungrychild/help-a-hungry-child-food-poverty-rickets-diet-deficiencies-vitamins-balanced-eating-children-a8116306.html
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/if-wales-doesnt-stand-up-14054759
Theresa May Accused Of Refusing To Explicitly Rule Out Scrapping Paid Holidays Right
http://archive.is/k7FRe
http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-war-cabinet-meeting-1-5325353
Trident may be removed from MoD budget, MPs told
http://archive.is/kb4IV
Comes with a health warning – Blood pressure may rise considerably watching this
Scotland in Union Dinner in London – with Dan Snow & Tom Holland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy0YPWsGW48
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/13/theresa-may-just-negotiated-away-the-united-kingdom/
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/quarter-people-voted-brexit-believe-duped-leave-campaign/21/08/
Britain faces Brexit dilemma over ties with rest of the world
https://www.ft.com/content/f9b57fca-e415-11e7-8b99-0191e45377ec?segmentId=a7371401-027d-d8bf-8a7f-2a746e767d56
http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-is-about-the-rich-rees-moggs-of-britain-not-anyone-else-1-4896702
Good morning Croompenstein, I might have some polyfilla in the shed. Do you think that would help?
Morning Nana every little helps 🙂
OT Queen Elizabeth holed below the waterline…
Navy spokesman said the ship is scheduled for repair and the fault does not prevent it from sailing again early in the new year.
According to the Sun newspaper, HMS Queen Elizabeth has been taking on up to 200 litres of sea water every hour because of the fault.
@ Royal Navy.
Save yourselves a few quid shipmates, and send a helicopter to Machinemart for a Clarke PSP 125-puddle water pump. £105.59 including the VAT, and pumps 125 litres a minute. In fact, get two. Then you have a spare, and can keep the clean one for inspections.
The Tories have always been good at demanding the Scottish government use the powers it already has.
But when the Scottish government does dare to use those powers, it gives the Tories their opportunity to condemn it for making the better off pay a little bit more in tax than their counterparts in England are paying.
Of course as they see it is a win, win situation for them, provided no mention is made of how they have made the low paid, vulnerable and disabled pay the price for their austerity measures while the rich enjoy tax cuts.
Nana says:
This caught my attention …
“One in five Leave voters said they no longer believed that the contribution given by the UK to the EU – estimated to be £350m – would be given to the NHS after Brexit, having believed it when they voted.”
Which means that four out of five, the overwhelming majority of Leave voters STILL believe that vast sums will be sunk into the NHS from Brexit ‘savings’.
That is very very scary! It shows huge swathes of UK voters still don’t have a scoobie about what Brexit actually means.
Rancid despicably mean Tories taking a hammering on Call K withan E this morning re. Baby Boxes
Nana says:
19 December, 2017 at 9:18 am
http://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-dirty-food-deal-1-5323947
Thanks Nana!
Been tellin’ ya for ages. Once the UK drops EU standards for US standards, and it will as part of a US Trade Deal and associated deregulation, the UK economy will set itself on a divergent path from the EU food standards and the EU will not countenance a Trade Deal on foodstuffs. Not just the foodstuffs themselves, but processed foodstuffs which may contain traces of GM or contaminated product. Not only will there be no Trade Deal, but you will have given yourselves a major obstacle with a Customs Union being able to function too.
Be afraid Scotland, be very afraid. Unionists and Brexiteers everywhere, please wake up.
“When Merryn Somerset Webb writes an article, I’m already bored by the time I’ve reached the end of her name.”
I laughed at that one, Breeks.
She’ll be one of those who tell you YOU have an accent but SHE doesn’t. There was a whole excruciating discussion on accents on Pravdasound4 yesterday with A.L. Kennedy (whose mammy wouldn’t let her have a Dundee accent) and others. They love their little markers of class, don’t they, ablow the dyke?
Simply gwoosome, my dear.
This Morning from Pravda Quay
with Jackie Kim Ono
https://imgur.com/a/9hLVG
https://imgur.com/BmPdglH
I moved house, family & job from the Isle of Scalpay to Greenock just so I could save £4.95 on shipping two pillow cases from Manchester.
OT
Just listened to R4 reporting on HMS QE2 leakage of seawater.
Started off at 6am as 100 tonnes per hour, at 7am it had reduced to 100 litres per hour, just ONE tonne per hour, by 8 am they had on the engineering expert telling about the problems of the Seven Metre diameter seals.
A quick search on the web tells me , from RollsRoyce, the maufacturer of the whole package that the propellers are 7 metre diameter, 2 per ship. but the hollow shafts are in fact only One metre diameter.
Accurate reporting from the BBBc, I don’t think.
Shades of the QE bridge but without the negatives, no mention of the 2 ships being a French design, or that the aircraft for them will be £100million each as delivered, plus the installation of UK systems, and not available until 2021.
Talk about sending the boys into harms way with no bullets.
You couldn’t make it up and sell it to the BBBc as a script for a comedy.
My baby box has a leak.
BREAKING MoD statement from Pravda Quay
with Jackie Kim Ono
https://imgur.com/a/ru8kE
“My baby box has a leak.”
You sure is the box and no’ the baby?
“You couldn’t make it up and sell it to the BBBc as a script for a comedy.”
In my day they had “The Navy Lark”, dave.
I’m sure Yon Sturgeon will have had a hand in this chaos.
O/T but super and right on the money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVy7faNKEtM
For those of a sturdy disposition the same outfits “D*gging” presentation is hilarious
@Nana
What have you done? I now feel sick, a serious case of the boak. That Scotland In Union yew choob video was horrendous, I couldn’t take my eyes off it and couldn’t turn it off either.
When Tom Holland said that “Scotland in Union has actually put a smile on the faces of people in Scotland that want to stick up for the Union” I almost threw up.
Dan Snow & Tom Holland are the very definition of the cringe, they certainly had me cringing. Every ordinary No voting or doubtful Scot should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch that. Yes would get 80% support in any future referendum.
I can’t read any more links right now in case there is something even more horrible lurking there. I feel for those that will be shelling out £40 a head for their “Robbie Burns” night.
On reflection I don’t feel for them at all, they deserve everything they get. I need to go lie down before I fall down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy0YPWsGW48
Just posted this on my fb page.
Is the UK turning into a Fascist State?, according to a Dr. Lawrence Britt who has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. There are 14 defining characteristics common to each.
IMO The UK has several characteristics which could be construed Fascist, another one came to my attention today.
6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/local-democracy-reporters
Ah Pnr I’m so sorry [not really lol]
I mean why should I be alone in my misery!
As you know I like to share.
I believe ginger is very good for the boak xx
The Donald will send a load of Gorilla tape to patch the leak the bestest tape in the world of tape lol.
@ Thepnr Uve a stronger constitution than me i lasted all of 3 mins .
Pathetic!
They’re not scraping the bottom of the barrel any more.
They’re all the way through and poking about underneath it.
There’s nae barrel left, they’re sooking on the stain where the barrel used tae be.
Ironic!
“Theresa May’s former advisor urges Tories to tax rich MORE to fund poor”
Health warning, it’s from the Express.
https://archive.is/faRCK
Pathetic
Whats Truly Pathetic is low life being allowed access to the Media
Says more about the media than the twisted ones who contribute to the chipping away at society in general everything’s for sale if it dosent return a profit its discarded , post office . library’s , local banks , swimming pools , local sports centres.
A future in hands of a tory party really dosent bear thinking about , its like darkness gradually enveloping everything and sapping peoples souls , Gloom and food banks everywhere .
Merry f/n Christmas everyone .
Merryn Somerset Webb and people like her disgust me. Selfish, arrogant, unaware and uncaring. I know it’s wrong to paint an entire nation with the same brush, but she and others like her are among the less desirable of our imports from England.
We have all met them. They think they own our country, and us too. I have a neighbour like that, albeit with less money than Somerset Webb, and the sooner we, hopefully, get independence, then the better the chance we will have of getting rid of them.
I should add, that I have another neighbour who is English, and she couldn’t be nicer. We do need to get rid of the Somerset Webb types though, so that we can make a fresh start with our country.
In regards to Barnier saying “no privileges or cherry picking” @Breeks says at 5:47am
See if you can catch BritNat Propagandist John Humphrys on iPlayer BBC R4 approximately 07:35hrs this a.m.
I didn’t catch who he was speaking to but he was practically begging the Irish over Financial Services having Single Market access post Brexit.
Lines like Ireland should “help its old friend” and “you have a veto” delivered completely irony free by old John.
Red,White and Blue pigeons coming home to roost.
😉
@ Lenny Hartley,
14 pointers to Fascism.
Came across that during indyref1, have to say that britnatdom ticks all those boxes, and is frighteningly, seems to revel in it.
Trumpet ain’t giving out good trade deals no more..no sirreee…yee-ha…’mur’ca first yeeawwl.
The orange one said yesterday…
“Previous US leaders “negotiated disastrous trade deals” that brought “massive profits” to foreign nations” says @realDonaldTrump
………
Oh dear…special relationship indeed !!
The horror…
https://imgur.com/a/ZEFFZ
Over the last week we have had well publicised examples of horrific threats being made on-line to those Tories who voted against the government.
Surprise Surprise – we are now getting reports of even more disgusting threats being made against Leave supporting politicians.
Can I suggest, although I cannot personally prove it, that the latter are a classic example of Fake News probably originated by certain obvious contenders in the metropolitan media or the Security Services. There is definitely a suspicious smell around these.
@Croompenstein says: 19 December, 2017 at 9:13 am:
“Anybody got some spare gaffa tape and blue tac to plug some holes in the yooncraft carrier ?”
Och! Croompenstein, Don’t be sucked in by the Westminster Establishment propaganda. This, “leakage”, is quite a normal occurrence when new-build ships are on, “shaking-down”, time.
I don’t know the present situation since the Royal Dockyards are now privatised but I long ago lost track of the number of sea-trials I took part in that the main Prop shaft needed attention. Granted that it was more usual the attention was because the main-Shaft bearings were of too close a tolerance, too tight, and were getting over hot. Thus they needed the soft metal bearings scraped down to size.
It was not unusual for the ship to heave to and the Dockyard Engine Fitters use engineers blue to find high spots and scrape them down to a better fit before the ship got underway again to continued with sea trials. The only real way to detect and bed down such tight bearings is under actual sea going conditions.
Apparently this particular leakage is due to a main prop shaft bearing with a too wide tolerance. This, during shake-down, is at a cost to the contractors – it is a fairly normal occurrence but trust the propaganda merchants to point an accusing finger at the competence of Rosyth Dockyard workers.
If these so called journalists were 1/1,000 as bright as they imagine themselves to be they would know that new-build ships on shakedown, more often than not, need on site adjustments to things that cannot be properly tested except under sea-going conditions.
They probably have no idea of the sheer severity of the shocks and vibrations an RN vessel suffers under even normal sea-going conditions.
Put it this way, there is very good reason why they have sea-trials with both the RN crew and the builders of the vessel on board and it isn’t to give the builders a freeware jolly little holiday trip. Believe me such sea trials are sometimes very miserable and hard working events.
On one such sea-trial I had to climb the ship’s main mast because the main RADAR antenna had developed a problem. Unfortunately for me the destroyer then hove-to in order to scrape an overheating main prop shaft bearing while I was still up that mast. The already very hazardous job up that mast became instantly very much more dangerous.
A slim naval ship that has to heave-to in heavy weather develops a strange sort of wallowing motion and I found myself, (equipped with safety belts and harness), on top of the main mast, that due to the wallowing of the ship, actually swung far enough to port and starboard to dip me into the freezing cold North Sea as the mast hit the high waves to both port and starboard as it wallowed up and down the peaks and troughs of some very rough seas.
When I eventually got down, (still at least alive), I had to report to the Ships Surgeon Commander who had me wrapper in shiny heat reflective stuff and put in sick-bay in a sleeping bag. He also prescribed a generous tot of Naval Rum, (The rum didn’t cure the hypothermia but it did make me much happier to suffer it).
Such were sea-trials – sometimes they were relatively uneventful but sometimes you worked your socks off in not too great working environs.
People like webb do not surprise me in the least, you see people like her actually think they are worth the money they are paid, they never seem to realise that they don’t actually contribute anything to society, in fact they leech off of society, i mean a man who works in a shipyard is earning his money, her kind sit and write a few words here and there and really think they are something, imagine if this parasite was sent out to do a job on the minimum wage, how would she keep her big house and fancy car going then, she is a greedy bitch and allways will be, how do we combat people like her, its so easy, never pay good money to anything she is involved in, if she writes for money week, don’t buy the bugger, its a load of crap anyway, telling people with money how to make more or how best to invest what they have allready, there are a lot of great financial mags for ordinary people, good common sense mags for the real workers, you know the people i mean, yes the people who do make the wealth of any country instead of people like webb who live off the sweat of the real workers
Over the last week we have had well publicised examples of horrific threats being made on-line to those Tories who voted against the government.
Surprise Surprise – we are now getting reports of even more disgusting threats being made against Leave supporting politicians.
Can I suggest, although I cannot personally prove it, that the latter are a classic example of Fake News probably originated by certain obvious contenders in the metropolitan media or the Security Services. There is definitely a suspicious smell around these.
The reason for my suspicion is the fact that it was only 2 or 3 days after the threats to the rebels were publiciised that we now now get the alleged counter threats.
DMH
Funnily enough I just watched the d—ing one yesterday and the even ruder but seasonally appropriate (sort of) Christmas Song.
Caution, contains swear words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56R0TCJXfzQ
Commented on Ms Somerset Webb on the previous thread so apologies but going O/T
Hope someone in the SNP gets mileage out of the leak in our new aircraft-less aircraft carrier that’s cost many, many ski-ing holidays!!!
Something mentioning the word ‘snagging’ and asking for a statement as to how long it will take to repair 5 days, 10 months or more and at such a cost to the taxpayer… plus how do we protect ourselves from a Russian attack without out this great vessel patrolling our waters!
At least we still had the old bridge to use and the work was completed in 4 days, not 10 months… charlatans.
Anyway, i hope there is a huge stooshie in the media about it and the government is duly roasted – unlikely.
I also notice that the Lib Dem’s have been fined for breaching electoral spending during the EU referendum but still no public announcement where the huge donation to the DUP Brexit spending came from and and no judgement on it’s legality.
Twisted system.
Aargh! Sorry Rev. forgot the http: removal on that last link.
Dan Snow
You are a rich white guy complaining about loosing his privilege. Do you support the principle of universal human rights? It doesn’t appear so.
@Tom Holland
Your ontology is mince ya colonialist dick.
Vote YES.
A tip that was told to me, a lot of people read only the first lines.
So if you have something important to say, say it at the start and keep it as short as you can to get the point noticed.
Very worrying development you have highlighted @exile says 18 December at 8:42pm regarding “Local Democracy Reporters Appointed” as @Scot Finlayson points out 18 December at 11:13pm this stinks of a totalitarian move and as @Lenny Hartley confirms 11:12 am “controlled mass media” is a keystone of a Fascist State.
https://tinyurl.com/y83s5n4x
This is a real move against democracy in the UK as a whole never mind just here in Scotland.
They obviously plan locally targeted propaganda campaigns (like the ones which removed Salmond and Robertson) for every election, referendum and in general to gently massage acceptance of Brexit and NeoFacist BritNat views/policy as well as their favourite of EssEnnPeeBaad.
£72 Million over 9 years (£8 Million a year) of UK taxpayers money to prop up the dead tree press while 120,000 people in England and Wales alone have died as a result of Tory Austerity enabled by the FibDems and Labstainers.
This if anything proves they have lost the online propaganda war and are doubling down on control of and message delivery by the old media which is still the go to source for news for many.
A few more links
Scottish electoral reform proposals set out
http://archive.is/owHH2
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/united-kingdom-takes-delivery-10th-f-35-128-go/
MoD failure to provide F-35 cost estimate is unacceptable, say MPs
http://archive.is/CNOR9
Britain’s problem is not with Europe, but with England
http://archive.is/V37kX
Just read the “Sun’s” report on HMS QE2 leak, seawater pouring in at 200 litres an hour, wow, did a quick Stu arithmetic check on this, it works out at 0.06 litres a second, now that’s a big pour, or 3.6 litres a minute.
Since the ship weight is 65,000 tonnes, and displacing the same , it might take some time to sink if the water isn’t pumped out of the bilges, say around 5 years to get unstable.
The wetted surface of the hull at 280 metres by 60 metres is around 17000 square metres, sitting in water at 5 degrees centigrade, the inside will be sweating much more than 4 litres a minute, my single glazed windows produce condensate at a similar rate per square metre.
The crew produce more urine in a day into the heads.
If you remember the ship in Glasgow, City of Adelaide, she just sat on the bottom at her berth.
So no real story, oh look there’s a squirrel.
So to help out the media, It’s the Scottish owned 10% of the ship that’s leaking, not the englandland part.
Laugh
BBC Impartiality, a number of programmes have been reported to Ofcom but they only report on one of them because it has a SNP bad connotation.
But the programme is not specifically about Scotland, don’t know if it is even physically made in Scotland and is not broadcast by a Scottish broadcaster. So what motivation would they have to report this and not other Ofcom investigations, including ones about BBC Scotland.
Forgive me if I have missed anyone posting a link but can someone give me a link to the debate between Stephen Paton and that fellow Clews of Scotland in Union last night. I would love to hear the embarrassing contortions of ‘Proud Scot Buts’.
From a critical realist perspective, Dan and Tom appear to represent the interests of counter-evolutionary metastasis. They seem to be wholesome and reasonable but are, in fact, a couple of reactionary Tories, IMHO.
during ww2 American Peanut Farmers decided to do something to help the poor starving British children.
The packed the worst of their crop, which usually went for pig food into jars and sent it to Britain where the children fed it to their pet pigs. After the war these same farmers thought they would be on a bonanza and put tons of the same rubbish on the market thinking that British kids loved the stuff.
Peanut butter never really took off in Britain because the kids hated it. After Brexit are we going to rely on this type of farmer for our food.
One of my mates was telling me about his old dad, who was all packed and ready to go off on a caravan holiday, but wanted to fill up with fuel before setting off. There was a petrol station about 50 yards from his house, but it was charging about 1.5 pence per litre more than the one at the other end of town. So, given his Somerset Webb mentality, he drove to the other end of town and, while attempting to manoeuvre into the forecourt, he scraped and dented his caravan against an innocent-looking brick wall and landed himself a £470 repair bill.
@Bill McDermott
you should find it here, just scroll down the page
https://www.facebook.com/thenationalnewspaperscotland/
Beat me to it. This link takes you straight to the discussion.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1841260402830659&id=1419943011629069
I haven’t read all of the above comments so it’s possible it has already been said, but this country missed a trick back in the 18th century when the oppressed people of France decided enough was enough. It’s not too late of course, and I can’t for the life of me imagine a hell that would be hellish enough for the likes of Ms Somerset-Webb and her ilk in the form of Reece-Mogg and the tory establishment. Heads on spikes time methinks.
Now we know why the report on royal navy recruitment being down was leaked.
Pro Independence supporters are not having an easy time of it in getting the message across in Catalonia. From the National.
Diary from Catalonia https://archive.is/eFqIR
jfngw began his post at 12:57 pm:
“BBC Impartiality, a number of programmes have been reported to Ofcom but they only report on one of them because it has a SNP bad connotation……….”
EXACTLY,it’s BBC Scotland rubbish news.
This is from STV on-line yesterday:
“……A spokesman for Slainte Media said: “This is an investigation by Ofcom into a single complaint in relation to tweets and messages used on the first edition of The Alex Salmond Show.
“It is worth noting that the same Ofcom bulletin, which includes this investigation also lists nine other investigations into other broadcasting organisations in a two-week period, including into BBC and ITV programmes.”
He added: “In addition, there are 18 other specific complaints to Ofcom listed concerning the BBC which have yet to complete the BBC’s internal complaints process.”……..”
@Tinto Chiel says: 19 December, 2017 at 10:00 am:
“I laughed at that one, Breeks.
She’ll be one of those who tell you YOU have an accent but SHE doesn’t.”
Somewhere in my vast collection of video clips I have one in which a Cockney stallholder in a London Market tells my late wife that she spoke, “funny English”. My late wife who spoke excellent, and grammatically correct, English replied to him in her best Cockney impression, (she was also a very good mimic but the guy was far too dim to realise she was taking the Michael), and he told her she could speak good English if she really tried.
These people really are not aware of how stupid and English/British nationalistic they are. He also, BTW, tried to give her only 19 shillings in the pound for her Bank of Scotland notes and was surprised when he got her would be purchases back on his stall. I also noted the volume of his voice went up when he spoke to non-Englanders. The thing is they don’t even realise they are doing so.
He seemed rather taken aback when I explained to him where the term, “Cockney”, was derived from or perhaps he just didn’t believe me.
The media wouldn’t be bias would they? Short video on the Catalan elections this Thursday.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-12-19/catalonia-s-post-crisis-election-video
@proud cybernat.
Loving your Imgur posts..brilliant stuff!!
Nana, re your link to Scottish electoral reform..
If Holyrood 2016 were ALL FPTP the SNP would have won 104 seats out of 129.
Based on % of constituency seats won, extrapolated over 129 seats.
SNP won 81% of constituency seats (59/73)
81% of 129 = 104 (rounded down from 104.45)
Would be a bit harder claiming Scots support for the SNP is ‘waning’….
Now, i am not saying we should use FPTP, as it IS NOT a democratic relection of the electorate voting.
However, if it is good enough for Unionists in England to lock out smaller parties…it is good enough to shaft Scotlands small parties ..like the tories..labour…lib dems…!!
Even the suggestion wouldn’t half put the wind up them.
How could they scream “unfair” when the same system suits them in Elections down south ?
Worth it just for the entertainment value alone..
Listened to the discussion.
He was irked that Transport Police was devolved.
Pointing to the border on his organisations logo he said it was ridiculous there would need to be a handover.
He constantly said he could only see things in a UK spectrum.
Which probably explains why he could not see that by devolving Transport Police from a Scottish spectrum, Police Scotland would be ready for when Scotland becomes INDEPENDENT.
“Cabinet agrees to push ahead with demands for bespoke Brexit deal”
Laugh or cry?
Either, the Tories genuinely don’t understand that the UK is in no position to demand anything, or …. they are talking nonsense just to save face in front of the millions of voters they have been lying to over what Brexit actually means.
Now I’m wondering, just how long before they realise/admit that the best they can get is an off the shelf ‘Canada’ deal covering trade in goods only, if they continue to insist single market membership is out?
The answer should be days. I suspect however it will be about six months.
The other scenario, which must always be considered. It’s all a ruse to crash out and blame EU intransigence!
I have no real worries about Brexit, or what the final outcome is.
However, I am deeply worried that Scotland won’t escape from the madness!
starlaw says:
England will! Let’s just hope we manage to bail out first and get strict border controls on food imports from England in place!
I’m making a serious point. It has oft been said that our Achilles Heel in IndyRef2 will be a hard border with England. The more I hear about US food standards and talk of a UK/US Trade Deal which dumps EU food regulations, the more I think a hard border will be a positive policy for Indy!
Thanks Nana -for the link to the unionist persons view of the world .
I think after about 2 or 3 minutes i started to get a buzz in my head , Christ what a bloody depressing f/kr hes is .
The main post headline suites this character perfectly .
Another Tragic Victim .
Merryn Somerset Webb-Of-Deceit
This is truly gross, we need some of these figures for the Tory leading lights, Johnson, Gove, Davis, Rees-Mogg and May for starters.
Definitely a best seller, crowdfunder anyone LOL.
https://archive.is/du0J4
@geeeo
The SNP proposing a uniform voting system across the UK hence cementing the Britishness of the UK, how could the Lab/Cons vote against it. It would be worthwhile having the vote, it would currently be defeated, just to have the these parties vote against a system they approve of at WM.
Evil-ution
If the powerful don’t take from the passive how are the powerful to survive
Just to add, the current voting system was devised so that no party ever had outright control. But its most important aspect was that the SNP would never be in control as Lab/Cons/LibDems would always be the largest parties. The Scots voters screwed up their cunning plan.
She gives fruit-loops a bad name…elkie.
” Brexit Britain faces a reality check on trade “
Good overview of potential trade deals.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/19/opinions/brexit-trade-reality-check-cer-opinion/index.html
@jfngw 4.41pm.They would not even notice the utter hypocracy.
Jaiky Burd telling us the leaky bit or the non aircraft carrier was built in Scotland..!!
What a surprise huh ?
@geeo 6:58pm
“Jaiky Burd telling us the leaky bit or the non aircraft carrier was built in Scotland..!!”
If correct then good! Shows what the Scottish workforce thinks of QE and the royal navy.
@Geeo at 6.58pm
Doesn’t surprise me with Jacky Burd. We all knew it would be reported as Scottish built by BBBC.
That’s why I stopped watching BBBC Misreporting Scotland.
Hell mend them.
@Geeo at 6.58 pm
Doesn’t surprise me that Jacky Burd and BBC misreporting Scotland would come out with this nonsense.
It’s what we have come to expect. That’s why I stopped watching Misreporting Scotland.
No truth comes out of any of them.
Hell mend them.
Talking about another tragic victim, are Scottish farmers really backing Brexit? What about the loss of the Scottish brand? Do Scottish farmers still support the Yoonion?
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2016/12/01/a-soft-brexit-is-the-only-viable-strategy-in-a-post-liberal-world/
https://cereals.ahdb.org.uk/press/2017/october/11/new-report-models-possible-impact-of-brexit-on-uk-farming%E2%80%99s-bottom-line.aspx
https://ahdb.org.uk/brexit/documents/Horizon_BrexitScenarios_11oct17.pdf
Good news from the Irish Times:
Unionist politicians have accused Tánaiste Simon Coveney of being “clumsy”, “unhelpful” and “aggressive” in his handling of Northern Ireland issues.
The charges came after Mr Coveney, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, raised the prospect of the British and Irish governments making decisions for Northern Ireland in the absence of a functioning powersharing system.
Mr Coveney, who has repeatedly said London-only direct rule would not be acceptable to the Government, said on Sunday that the Belfast Agreement “is where the rules are set”.
Noting that the Democratic Unionist Party “looks forward” to meeting Mr Coveney in due course, DUP MP Gregory Campbell said: “There is a lot of straight talking to be done. It has been regrettable that the positive relationship which existed under the Enda Kenny and Charlie Flanagan administration has been undermined in recent times.”
Mr Campbell rejected Mr Coveney’s declarations that Dublin and London were required to hold inter-governmental conferences on Northern Ireland if the Stormont institutions were not restored. “For the [Republic’s] Foreign Minister to suggest some role for his Government in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland ignores the constitutional reality.”
Honeymoon period
Mr Campbell said that despite a lengthy honeymoon period, Mr Coveney’s time in office as Minister for Foreign Affairs has been marked by “unhelpful comments which have been totally counter-productive”.
He said the DUP wanted to have a good relationship “with our nearest neighbour”, but the North’s place within the United Kingdom must also be respected.
“If Simon Coveney is so clumsy with diplomacy relating to his nearest neighbour, one wonders how he handles diplomatic matters in countries with which he is even less familiar.”
He also said the Government needed to repair its damaged relationship with the DUP following last week’s Brexit deal.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Robin Swann MLA urged Mr Coveney to “step away from the microphone if he wants to repair relationships with unionists”.
“This is the season of goodwill and we would like to show some goodwill towards Simon Coveney, but every time he claims he wants to repair relationships with unionists he puts his foot in it.
“Let’s be very clear. There is nowhere in the Belfast Agreement that permits joint authority or joint stewardship. As much as he and others may wish it to be different, it is simply not catered for.”
Mr Swann said Mr Coveney’s remarks, including that he hoped for a united Ireland during his political lifetime, undermined “the very basis of the Belfast Agreement – the consent principle”.
“The sooner he realises what he is messing about with and gets back to basics, then the easier it will be to repair the relationships which he claims he wants to mend.”
TUV leader Jim Allister MLA said Mr Coveney’s comments were “another manifestation of the aggressive attitude of his Government towards unionists and go well beyond the scope of the Belfast Agreement”.
Direct rule
However, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood agreed with Mr Coveney’s intervention, saying that “there can be no return to British direct rule”.
His intervention was “entirely consistent with the logic and the spirit of the Good Friday agreement”, Mr Eastwood said.
“In the absence of local institutions the only way to achieve that balance means a structure in which both the Irish and British governments hold joint authority.”
Sinn Féin MLA and national chairman Declan Kearney said his party was committed to getting the political institutions back up and running .
“This requires the British government to implement previous agreements and to end its support for the DUP’s blockade on rights which citizens enjoy everywhere else in these islands.
“In the face of the continued failure of the British government and the DUP to meet their commitments and agreements it is essential that the Irish Government acts decisively.”
Reading that article by Somerset Webb reminded me of a story one of my mates told me about his old dad, who was about to set off on a caravan holiday but was keen to make sure he had a full tank of petrol before starting his journey.
There was a petrol station about 50 metres from the old guy’s house, but the price was about 1.5 pence per litre more expensive than at the other end of the town, so he headed up to the other end of town to get the cheaper petrol. However, as he was manoeuvering his vehicle into the forecourt, he scratched and dented one side of his caravan on an innocent-looking brick wall, causing over £450 worth of damage.
Unionists seem to measure the value of everything in terms of money: they don’t seem to realise that there are people here in Scotland who would gladly live on bread and cheese for the rest of their natural life rather than bow to the political insanity of UKIP and the tories.
It’s what we have come to expect. That’s why I stopped watching Misreporting Scotland.
No truth comes out of any of them.”
Try BBC r4 Today show, now 6am to 9am vote tory chat, no opposition lefty progressive stuff at all. Since Nic Robinson’s taken over that beeb gimp vote tory farce, its got rather scary to listen to very hard core right propaganda.
Beeb Today show tory propaganda spectacular, Brexit’s great, Mrs May’s a hero, Irish are to blame if/when City crashes out of Brexit EU and Orange Hitler’s are really great world leader, all just some of Today’s vote tory running order today.
If we cant get anything like balanced radio and tv news from practically the only broadcaster in tory teamGB, there’s nowhere else. Brainwashing doesn’t come anywhere close to this level of tory propaganda. And there’s not a thing anyone can do about it.
Poor Scottish shipbuilding
Now I wonder why they’re saying that
Penny dropping yet?
Poor Scottish shipbuilding
If that giant hulk of Labour party/Gordon Brown wildly insane borrowing frenzy sank tonight, I’d probably have my first heart attack laughing, all the way to the Tower for UKOK treason, treasonable laughing at spectacular and great, teamGB warmonger hubris.
https://www.facebook.com/will.glen.338/posts/505296093186709 Where’s they navy seal when they’re needed LoL.
@ free Scotland who wrote “Unionists seem to measure the value of everything in terms of money”
That’s the effects of 30-40 years neo-liberalism. Everything in life has been reduced to “economics”, “finance” and “banking” and “the bottom line” – which no ordinary person knows anything about or is remotely interested in learning anything about beyond managing personal finances.
Anything that moves or doesn’t move has been nailed down and commodified, with a price put on everything. Yet even the mastercard ad says there are some things that are beyond price!
Besides neo-liberalist faux economics there is nothing else to support Unionism as a political philosophy.
I’ve yet to hear “a positive case for the Union” – no matter how hard I listen.
All free Scots know something more is out there, just waiting for us to stretch out out hands and seize it!
SNP New Year resolution don’t take anymore crap from BBC MSM start fighting back and call out Tories,Lab and libs they have been to soft for to long.
PS The Liberal Democrats have been fined £18,000 for breaking spending rules in last year’s EU referendum.
Will they pay up and have they paid the Scottish Police yet.
It seems that free speech is now a criminal offence in Northern Ireland, welcome to Britain Today, the land where people can kill and murder your children but its illegal to say it
Poor Jackie Turd – tonight’s Misreporting Scotland had to lead on the Cameron House fire meaning that today’s SNPbad attack on the NHS was demoted in the running order.
Still, they will have something else lined up for tomorrow while the dead tree scrolls continue with their sensational reporting on the Great Alex Salmond Show Tweets Scandal Inquiry by OFCOM following a SINGLE complaint.
Just imagine if every single complaint against The BBC had similar hysterical coverage – there would no no room for anything else in the papers.
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/07da670f-7878-4dc8-aabc-0702d062c2d1
This Committee debate was ostensibly about the need for transparency about the election donations given to the DUP to promote Brexit in London. But in fact, it was about preserving the £1billion Tory-DUP alliance.
The Tories won 9 votes to 8 in favour of keeping the details secret.
In the Tory world, transparency is achieved through secrecy.
And Another Thing – Jackie Turd EOS couldn’t help but mention that the part of the white elephant which is leaking was built at Govan.
While that may be true I would suggest that the prop shaft, gland etc will have been installed after assembly and installation of the engines at Rosyth.
Re. Brexit. Here’s a thread giving a graphic representation of the British government’s “red lines” and subsequent and ‘evolving’ Brexit ‘strategy’. Don’t worry peeps, English cultural exceptionalism will see you right. 😉
https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/943067653341696000
There are always teething problems with any new ship. OK they’re having problems with the stern gland leaking around 200 litres per hour. 200 litres is about a bath full of water. They will repack the gland with new seals and that should do it. The media are making a big thing of very little as usual.
We built them a boat
It just would nae float,
It leaked like a sieve so they say
Wi nae planes to fly
The news folk on Sky
Declared this a very sad day
Those Scots they have failed
This new boats not sailed
It’s lasted for less than a week
Perhaps they don’t know
Because they are slow
The chief engineer is to blame
He’s rough and he’s gruff
Incredibly tough
And Hamish we call him by name
CameronB Brodie says:
Yup, that is exactly what millions believe – it will be all just fine in the end because good old Blighty holds a special place in the hearts of the Gods.
Read a poll the other day which implies 4 out of every 5 leave supporters still believe the NHS will get its £350m a week. The reality is taking a long time to filter though all that exceptionalism!
Well O didn’t think they would twist the leaking ship story round to blame the Scottish bit for the leak – and there was me thinking T May and co. would get a rare roasting over essential snagging…
Of course, someone could have made some minor alterations to the Scottish work when they were fitting out other, later bits.
Seems the firm responsible will have to pay for the repairs – so, discredit Scots shipbuilding and try and bankrupt the yard at the same time – It’s getting nasty now.
John H
It’s not quite water that’s the prob here, but would repacking Jabbas stern gland be that easy too ?
—————————————
Saw someone up thread yesterday mention being orf to Geneva for the powder. Snap. First week of the year, up yer actual French Alps, courtesy of well off, hard working friends owning a gaff that I went over to project manage and fit out for them. Booking flights well ahead made it affordable for me +3. Just.
Happen to know they pay shed loads of tax, and would happily cough the extra it would take to start building a fairer, warmer society. Clever peeps, who take the long view & know a win/win when they see it.
—————————————
Seen a lot of unflipped Daily Heils, Express and Hootsmons on news stands when out and about recently. Not good enough peeps.
You know the drill.
1. Cover offending headline with The National, which will be on the bottom shelf,flat and tucked behind the Morning Star, which is tucked behind the Racing Post.
2. No National = Flip to Sport.
No excuses. My hammer is real, not virtual like Stu’s. 😉
Oh dear bad news for wealthy emigtants as Council Tax in England going up by 6% next year.
Just looking again at the BBC infiltrating local news papers,
`As part of its Charter commitment, the BBC is investing up to £8 million annually in the Local News Partnerships during the next nine years to the end of the Charter in 2026.`
the BBC are providing 150 Local Democracy Reporters to the likes of Johnston Press who get 30 reporters,
that is a yearly salary of £54,000 per reporter guaranteed for 9 years,
apart from the whole thing stinking of State control of the media,is £54,000 normal for a local hack ?
https://tinyurl.com/y83s5n4x
John H…..10-23pm
“…having problems with the stern gland leaking!”
How awful! Nothing worse than an outbreak of haemorrhoids at Christmas.
Another day another Rep Scot SNHS is rubbish story. As Scotland has some of the best figures in the UK I was expecting to see the same daily coverage of NHS England on the news, but strangely I don’t.
The weekly percentage figures are useless without some context, I need to know the totals also. 86% of 10,000 is more people than 95% of 5000, without this info it’s just a number, no idea of how many are being seen within timescale.
Meanwhile MSM are hoping that anyone working on the carrier is or has been a SNP member. The headline is just waiting.
BBC’s support for the Dead Tree Scrolls in action.
http://archive.is/zLy0G
Scott Finlayson that figure of £54k p.a. is probably the total cost of employing a reporter, as well as Salary the Employer has to pay Their National Insurance and Pension Contributions as well unless thing have changed since I was working Payroll Tax . So it all mounts up, also there will be a provision for at least a inflationary provision on all costs of around 3% per annum for 9 years.
Tom Newton Dunn on SKY news informing us of how all this bad hate speech and incitement that Twitter and Facebook and all that internetty stuff allows is really terrible for society so much so Tom reckons those people should be “taken out and flayed alive”
So it’s OK when Tom Newton Dunn says it, no hate speech or incitement there then
Andrew Pierce says the Mail is “robust” and wont stop printing what it wants and no one’s going to tell them differently, certainly not a load of jumped up lefties
Sigh
Council Tax hikes announced for England.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/19/local-authorities-given-power-raise-council-tax-104-average/
“Sajid Javid, the Local Government Secretary, on Tuesday announced that councils will be able to raise bills by up to 6 per cent to help ease pressure on local authority budgets, the biggest hike for 15 years.”
Scott says:
“Liberal Democrats have been fined £18,000 for breaking spending rules in last year’s EU referendum.”
Despite claiming to be skint, they managed 2 leaflets through every letterbox at the snap election. Who paid for that?
@John H
Yay! Man after my own heart. A £17.95 bilge pump can punp 1600 litres of water an hour, which means for the 200 litres the QE is letting in, the pump would go on every 5 minutes for less than 1 minute to clear the bilges. Automatic float switch and plastic piping extra cost.
Bearing in mind that many of us identify the MSM and the BBC as the main obstacle to Independence it seems to me we should be all over these reports with scorn and derision, as a classic and “non-Indy” example of the pathetic, inaccurate and sensational reporting standards of both.
The QE is sinking! Right …
Check out Classic FM advert for concert celebrating British classical music concert. Advert starts with rather sad piece of Scottish music, think it’s supposed to be Flower of Scotland then it breaks into “stirring” Brit Imperialist stuff. Point made!
Links
https://consult.gov.scot/elections/electoral-reform/
http://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/15773780.Farm_science_funding_cuts/
https://www.snp.org/delivering_superfast_broadband_for_all_homes_and_businesses_in_scotland
https://itisintruthnotforglory.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/the-reality-of-blood-and-soil/
Since 2010, David Mundell has claimed over £1,200,000 in MP expenses alone. This does not include his salary.
https://twitter.com/BlogAlba
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/posh-residents-fitted-trees-anti-bird-spikes-bid-protect-expensive-cars-droppings-outraging-environmentalists/19/12/
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2017/12/19/someone-counted-many-right-wingers-appear-bbc-sunday-politics-bloody-hell-tweets/
Stench of corruption
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dup-425000-donation-brexit-owen-smith-chloe-smith-a8118966.html
Tories reveal eye-watering 6% Council Tax rise that would add almost £100 to the average bill in 2018
http://archive.is/PghxV
https://www.politico.eu/article/michel-barnier-financial-services-excluded-from-brexit-trade-deal/
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-kingdom/2017-12-19/theresa-mays-brexit-dilemma
https://www.socialeurope.eu/alignment-convergence-symbolic-brexit
https://reportuk.me/2017/12/19/uk-more-likely-to-suffer-economic-disaster-than-eu-countries-after-brexit/
http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-day-unicorns-cried-deal-on-phase-1.html?m=1
http://www.france24.com/en/20171219-jailed-or-exile-leaders-wrap-surreal-catalan-campaign?ref=tw_i
POWER CORRUPTS, BUT RUPERT MURDOCH CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY
Amid all the giddy excitement about the Disney deal, Tamara Holder reminded us what matters most: this man’s companies wreck lives
https://www.byline.com/column/68/article/1982
Dr Jim at 12.45am
We got 13 – yes, THIRTEEN – LibDem leaflets through our door, four of them personally addressed attracting full postal charge. I think we all know the LibDems couldn’t possibly have paid for them
Here’s to Wings readers for a happy festive period with friends and family, or whatever makes this time worthwhile.
Am on a two week Cairntoon break, so here’s my gift to Wings: https://wp.me/p4fd9j-mfk
yesindyref2 6.11am.
You’re quite right. Every ship has a well at the stern gland, and occasionally the well has to be pumped out. Small leaks are common, and on a 65,000 ton 17 deck ship a leak this size is hardly worth a mention. Unless you are a sensation seeking journalist.
Whether the ships should have been built at all is another matter. Though they have provided much needed work for the shipyards. I’m more concerned about the damage to Scottish workers reputation, deliberate or not.
Tam the Bam. says:
19 December, 2017 at 11:58 pm
John H…..10-23pm
“…having problems with the stern gland leaking!”
How awful! Nothing worse than an outbreak of haemorrhoids at Christmas.
……….
I’m sure there will be a few leaky stern glands this Christmas Tam. 🙂
John H
Right enough! I remember my old father telling me as a very young Merchant Seaman during WW2 he was regularly sent to pack said gland whilst at sea, and of course being prey to enemy submarines. Not a job he liked as no chance of escape!
http://www.queenelizabethcruises.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hms-Queen-Elizabeth-aircraft-carrier-construction-progress.jpg
The lower stern portion including the bit where it’s leaking was built in Portsmouth.
Now the bearing and engines might have been fitted at Rosyth but that would depend on the hull section being built to spec.
Not to mention once the whole thing was afloat there would be a period of settling while even a ship that massive moved to it’s final shape.
Or that the leaking seal is, according to some, inflatable so it might simply be a case of RTFM so stop it leaking.
The upper stern was built in Rosyth but given that bit isn’t meant to be underwater it’s kind of ridiculous to pin the blame on that.
Hard to imagine people being taken in by the garbage spun by Pravda quay. All Ships and boats, and I include submarines,like bridges, are built flexible, ships have bilges to collect the seepage, yep even submarines have Leaks. If they don’t flex, they won’t stay afloat long in heavy weather.
BREAKING from Pravda Quay
with Jackie Kim Ono
https://imgur.com/a/vkzTs
@ Grousebeater
A funny thought made me laugh this morning when I was eating my oats.
I guess you could call it a porridge snigger.
‘Frozen out: Brexit set to lay waste to Edinburgh’s financial services industry.’
‘SCOTLAND’S financial industry is set to be hit far harder than London by Brexit after European chiefs ruled out giving firms a special arrangement to trade freely in the EU once the UK has left the bloc.
The prospect of major damage to thriving insurance and banking firms in Edinburgh and Glasgow follows Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator rejecting any bespoke deal for the sector if Britain pulls out of the single market.
In an interview published yesterday, Michel Barnier made clear he was not open to a free trade agreement including financial services, which Theresa May and Brexit Secretary David Davis have called for.
“There is no place [for financial services],” Barnier said. “There is not a single trade agreement that is open to financial services. It doesn’t exist.”
Describing the position as a result of “the red lines that the British have chosen themselves”, he stated: “In leaving the single market, they lose the financial services passport.”….
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15782589.Frozen_out__Brexit_set_to_lay_waste_to_Edinburgh_s_financial_services_industry/
jfngw @ 11.59pm
If the NHS Scotland figures that you are referring to are the
weekly figures released yesterday then this is the summary from the ISD Scotland web site:
“” During the week ending 10 December 2017:
There were 25,840 attendances at Emergency Departments across Scotland.
86.9% of people attending Emergency Departments were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours.
450 (1.7%) patients spent more than 8 hours in an Emergency Department.
107 (0.4%) patients spent more than 12 hours in an Emergency Department.””
Although weekly figures are released and grab the headlines the monthly, and quarterly ones, are more accurate because some departments do not manage to get all of their figures in on time for the weekly collection. The report containing the figures usually contain a note to that effect.
The ISD Scotland publishes a whole raft of reports every Tuesday on various aspects of NHS Scotland’s performance if you are interested.
http://www.isdscotland.org/publications/
NHS England collects their stats for A&E slightly differently and may publish at different times. I think the body responsible for stats relating to NHS England is NHS Digital
‘Indy Scotland must have a ‘triple lock’ on going to war.’
‘….Macdonald (defence expert and policy consultant) also suggested that simply by virtue of becoming independent of the UK and breaking free of its Middle East foreign policy, Scotland could face a lower terror risk.’…….
‘Macdonald highlighted defence co-operation with countries such as the Republic of Ireland, Norway and Denmark as the new state sought to work closely with new allies. He said negotiations between an independent Scotland and the rest of UK would determine which defence assets would be transferred physically and which would be transferred as an asset value instead.
Operating on the basis of zero physical assets transferred, he estimated the asset value of Scotland’s share of the UK’s defence assets would be around £10 billion – and these resources could act as a start-up fund from which to create the new security organisations with an annual operating cost of around £1.8bn to £2.5bn.
New institutions would include a Scottish intelligence agency, an army, air force and navy, an expanded Police Scotland and a Scottish customs agency. A Scottish National Security Centre would act as a co-ordinating body to ensure a joined up approach’…..
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15780451.Indy_Scotland_must_have_a____triple_lock____on_going_to_war/
It’s a mystery to me that someone as well-educated and qualified as Merryn Somerset Webb can be so crass.
You’d have thought she’d have picked up some worldly wisdom and a sense of her part in civil society, but she writes and speaks as though her CV were false.
‘Scotland’s £2.5bn space industry now outstrips defence sector.’
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15780486.Scotland__39_s___2_5bn_space_industry_now_outstrips_defence_sector/
………………………..
‘How much does Brexit costs UK? Around £350m per week, analysts find.’
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15780447.Brexit_costs_UK___350m_a_week_say_analysts/?ref=mrb&lp=38
As Nana says
Tories reveal eye-watering 6% Council Tax rise that would add almost £100 to the average bill in 2018 IN ENGLAND
http://archive.is/PghxV
So much for Scotland being highest tax place in UK.
Good article by Iain MacWhirter in Herald on Independent Schools.
I know teachers have a very difficult job but several of my acquaintances in state sector have the time to earn extra money by coaching pupils who attend fee paying pupil to pass exams.
to proud cybernat
Don’t ask BBBC or BBCscot for a FOI request.
Would you believe it, they are exempted by law.
A request for actual viewing figures was rejected on grounds that they didn’t have to say as they’re exempt.
democracy in action
Snippets from the National’s letter page.
‘Letters: Surely the English deserve a parliament and a broadcaster of their own.’
There are striking similarities between the state broadcaster and the state. We have BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Wales but no BBC England. Similarly we have the Scottish Parliament and the assemblies for Wales and Nothern Ireland but no English parliament.
Why should English people be disenfranchised? I’m all for an English Parliament that has fully devolved responsibility for education, environment, health and so on — they really are missing out.
Perhaps there is a glimmer of understanding about this anomaly when tuning in to the Great British Broadcasting Breakfast News. After the state broadcaster’s programme ads, there is a short attempt at subliminal Unionism during the continuity Christmas jingle that promotes “togetherness” and “oneness”.
So far so good, but we are then fed a diet of English news and English sport. To be fair there is a three-minute opt-out at the end of each half hour for the regions and nations where there is ample time for the headlines and weather.
There is no BBC England and there is no English parliament, it is in effect Unionism in name only aided and abetted by Aunty Beeb. The three Celtic nations are unwittingly taking part in the Great British Unionist con game. As in all successful confidence tricks, it only works if you don’t know you’ve been conned, but there is an increasing number of people who are seeing through it. And then you have the Scottish Labour party’s continued attempt at flogging the dead horse of federalism.
How so when there are only three administrations and a British parliament? It might work if there was an English parliament as well and then there would be four state governments and a federal government. I wouldn’t put my house on that ever happening.
There is one glaring option open to us all: let’s just get the heck out of this non-Union.
Mike Herd
…………………………….
ALEX Salmond was roundly criticised by the Tories and Labour for agreeing to produce a television show for RT, the Russian state television propaganda network. They angrily alleged that he was degrading the office of First Minister by taking Putin’s shilling and lending legitimacy to an authoritarian, undemocratic regime.
Oddly, there was deafening silence from these very same Tories when it was revealed last week that ex-Prime Minister David Cameron is to lead “a new UK-China bilateral investment fund”, thereby presumably degrading the office of Prime Minister by taking Xi’s shilling and lending legitimacy to an authoritarian, undemocratic regime.
Labour’s own Tony Blair, meanwhile, continues to be an exemplar of the morally upstanding former leader, becoming a multi-millionaire by advising dictators and despots in Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Rwanda and Egypt.
Perhaps their manufactured outrage would be more convincing if their hypocrisy were not so blatant.
David Kelly
Dunblane
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15780439.Letters__Surely_the_English_deserve_a_parliament_and_a_broadcaster_of_their_own/
LIVE from Pravda Quay
with Jackie Kim Ono
https://imgur.com/a/5jeYK
Breaking News –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42426542
“EU says Brexit transition to end by 31 December 2020”
Wonder if Scotland will be an independent country and a member of the EU from the 1st January 2021.
Actions have consequences
https://caltonjock.com/2017/05/23/ross-thomson-mp-his-marriage-civil-partnership-has-ended-and-ex-dougie-is-in-a-happy-relationship-with-a-new-partner-effective-august-2017-charlatans-both-surely-the-scottish-electorate-will-rejec/
BREXIT is indeed about regaining control . . . . Yeah The Tories regaining control of their serfs.
In Monday’s National Gove and pals wanting to ditch the EU directive that limits the maximum hours workers can be forced to do.
It’s back to the 70’s and “Rip of Britain”. Where Brits had to work much longer to pay for a car than their European neighbours.
since we joined the EU we’ve slowly caught up with EU quality of life, the reversal of these gains has already started!
Could easily be soo bad that it’ll bring on Independence. But we need to maintain a majority for independence at Holyrood
Amended post
https://caltonjock.com/2017/05/23/ross-thomson-mp-his-marriage-civil-partnership-has-ended-and-ex-dougie-is-in-a-happy-relationship-with-a-new-partner-effective-august-2017/
This morning’s latest press release re Brexit
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-5342_en.htm
Commission proposals for a negotiation mandate in the next phase of Brexit talks now online. (The details are in the annex). Some thoughts 1/
https://twitter.com/StevePeers/status/943440151501565952
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/brexit-negotiations/negotiating-documents-article-50-negotiations-united-kingdom_en
Catching up. Slow news day in Scotland.
The Guardian even: But not accurate..in Scotland… Oh Well!
Families across the UK could see their bills rise by up to £100 a year as a result of the announcement, which will also see councils increasing the charge without holding local referendums.
Council tax bills could rise by £100 a year as government relaxes cap
https://archive.is/p5zVN
@Nana
Thanks for the link to the EU press release, I particularly liked this passage:
There should be no “cherry picking”: The United Kingdom will continue to participate in the Customs Union and the Single Market (with all four freedoms). The Union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a Member State. Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.
Although the above applies to the transition period we can be certain that final any deal involving say services would have to include free movement of people.
When will the Tories and Labour get this into their thick skulls?
No cherry picking! which mean accepting all 4 freedoms if they wan’t a deal. Looking more and more like “No Deal” everyday.
You’re welcome Pnr, I’m afraid Barnier’s simple statements are far too complicated for Westminster thickos to understand.
A few more links while I’m waiting for a parcel delivery
https://barrheadboy.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/a-yellow-ribbon-might-just-save-your-democracy/
https://scottovoce.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/who-cares/
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/financial-sector/opinion/house-commons/91600/ronnie-cowan-mp-why-we-shouldnt-let
http://www.catalannews.com/news/item/19-dec-17-tv-news-campaign-draws-to-a-close
Ot I voted to leave the eu I am 79years old and I have always voted against being in it only big business gains by it cheap labour from all over the eu coming in and keeping wages low and over demand on our services T.May is a remainer yet she is in charge of negotiations to get us out so the losers are representing the winners it’s like a cup final where the losing team collects the the cup on behalfe of the winners crazy a 2 year transition period is only to allow big business to keep cheap labour for as long as possable and why Scotland thinks being ruled by 27 other nations is independence is beyond my understanding
Don’t take the bait, peeps. Just scroll on by.
Because Blair . . . It’s tge only way we are going to get Independent this time of next century
Please someone write an article on all the good things that come of us being in a union which is happy to see us blown to hell with Trident
Anyone making the mistake of watching PMQs , a warning , dont expect adult behavour from any tory or any questions put ,will actually be answered by this tory PM .
I think this farce should be renamed ,
PMs Snide answers to all questions put .
This tory PM has just uttered what i believe is a lie , she stated people in Scotland earning over £26000.00 will pay more tax than those in England , is this just a play on words or a downright lie ? .
Blair Paterson says:
Probably because the EU 27, will not be near as deceptive, and corrosive to Scotland as the greedy, asset stripping,, immoral perverts who currently govern us.
Prefer Britannia all you want, but this “union” seriously needs binned. We can vote on the EU, Nato, and all other things that are important to US, after Indy.
@Robert Graham
It looks like anyone earning over £26,000/year will pay more income tax relative to the UK. This varies between £0 and £70 more at £33,000.
Of course, this takes no account whatsoever of all the benefits that living in Scotland bring.
See the table on page 2 below for more details of the differences for the various annual salaries.
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00529309.pdf
It’s a downright lie, robert.
Why not lie, when you know that nobody will hold you to account ?
It’s the ukok mentality.
There is a world of difference between more tax (ALL taxation) and more income tax.
6% rise in English CT is much more than in Scotland. Twice as much, % wise.
@Blair Paterson 12.23pm
The search for cheap labour won’t stop after Brexit. Bye-bye Working Time Directive?
Question for Blair Paterson.
In the upcoming indyref, will you vote Yes for independence, knowing that we will probably be looking at continued EU membership ?
Yes or No..?
Robert Graham @ 12.49pm
So, Mother Theresa has lied to Parliament on the subject of how much some Scottish tax-payers will pay.
Lying to Parliament, if proved, is normally a resigning issue, so, should the SNP MPs force the issue, or let her be, in the knowledge, if she is shown to have lied and has to resign, even though its a very long shot – the Tories just might elect someone competent to replace her?
It’s a sair fecht indeed.
As you cannot believe most things from WM or our Media, go with your heart. Not what you see or hear beamed at your head.
Vote YES
geeo: “In the upcoming indyref..”
Whit?! When?
@Petra
That was a great article in the National. Before it’s either been detail like “We’ll have 4 frigates” or scant “We’ve got a lot of water and airspace”. That article was a good summary, and the beauty of it is, no errors in it! Just calm and an outline, and the suggestion that it’s a starter for debate.
Dave McEwan Hill
Regarding all the leaflets from the lib Dems during elections. Didn’t help them as I think your Councillors got elected and MP . Most libdem votes will go Tory I think.
Shows the effectiveness though. The Tories visiting care homes etc is much more lucrative for them. For the price of a tunnocks tea cake and a cup of tea they can get 10 – 15 postal votes at one sitting.
Ot on a McGills bus free Tory metro to read. How come? A public paid service promoting Tory policies shouldn’t be allowed.
I did leave a National though on the pile and ended up being well read by a young lady.
Re. Brexit. Scotland will hopefully have noticed we lack effective political voice in Westminster and appreciate how that can cause serious social harm. Otherwise, Scotland will almost certainly become another tragic victim of ‘British’ imperialism.
https://politicsismoralpsychology.com/4-2/
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2015/12/31/euroscepticism-in-the-conservative-party-the-role-of-nationalism-and-electoral-pressures/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2315/abstract
Thepnr- Thanks for the Info – her statement is like a Philadelphia Lawyers smart comment , while being technically correct it fails to take into account the overall Tax being paid by Scottish people ,
By focusing on the narrow point of this tiny increase in this one band , while making no reference to other benefits Scottish tax payers enjoy , twisting the facts to promote a political side swipe , the kind the tory party are well known and despised for.
Its these type of shenanigans that this PM constantly uses to try and twist the answer she gives , that makes her and her government the worst in living memory , they aint fooling anyone . And they think they are so smart , so smart they are in danger of cutting themselves . Bstrds every one .
Catalans head to the polls tomorrow and I really don’t like what I’ve just read, here’s a few snippets but well worth reading the whole article.
“The Spanish government is seeking to allay fears of fraud in Thursday’s Catalan election by announcing a slew of measures to limit the spread of false reports ahead of the official results.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government announced the steps after Spain warned the European Union of a cyber campaign of “disinformation and manipulation” being conducted from Russia and Venezuela.”
“With electronic counting banned, polling stations will inform a private firm tasked by the central government of their individual manual count by phone.”
“The government’s official count will begin on December 24, with final results to be announced within three days.”
“Unlike in other elections around the world, there will be no exit polls.”
“An official from the separatist ERC party, whose leader Oriol Junqueras is campaigning from behind bars, said there would be “an exhaustive follow-up of all the polling stations”.
But Rajoy’s government said only the electoral commission in Madrid had the authority to conduct an official audit.”
https://archive.is/bMMv3
The Spanish government have already banned International observers from the count. This all sounds pretty worrying to me, who knows what pro-indy supporters in Catalonia must think about all this.
Westminster has asked all the councils in England and Wales to put £1 per month on all council tax payments.
Is this new! I thought Councils set Tax to suit each council and not the dictat’s from Westminster, this could be the thin edge of a very thick wedge.
#Blair Paterson
“…why Scotland thinks being ruled by 27 other nations is independence is beyond my understanding.”
The ’27 other nations’ are independent.
Do Scottish Conservatives really not see Brexit as likely to harm Scotland’s public well-being?
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1095
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12327/abstract
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/163133.html
@Ledgerwood
I wasn’t commenting on what is published regarding NHS figures but what is reported by the BBC. If they give a report about a percentage change then the total actual figures for each measurement needs also to be reported. Few news watchers will go to he government site to look these up.
If the totals are similar then there is an issue that needs addressed, if it is a peak because of say bad weather and a higher then normal total attending A&E then it is less of an issue.
It’s really about reporting the context rather than the Rep Scot cheap red top headline approach.
The pnr
Anyone earning up to £33,000 won’t be paying more tax, many will be paying less.
@Robert Graham
I totally agree, people living in Scotland have the lowest taxation when taking into account council tax. Charging for prescriptions is a tax on the sick, fees for attending university is a tax on education, bridge tolls are a tax on motorists.
It doesn’t matter what name you give it, these are stealth taxes made by Westminster on those in the rUK.
The Scottish taxpayer overall is far better off due to these additional benefits yet we hear the oft repeated mantra “Scotland is the highest taxed part of the UK. Total bullshit.
“Bstrds every one”
Couldn’t have put it better myself 🙂
@Brian Powell
You are correct, no one earning less than £33,000 will be paying any more tax than they did last year.
However it doesn’t change the fact that those earning above £26,000 will be paying more tax “relative to the UK”.
It’s worth looking at the table on page 2 of the link I provided, this Fact sheet published by the Scottish government explains the differences and clearly shows that someone on an annual salary of £33,000 will pay £70 more in tax for 2018/19 “relative to the UK”.
Here it is again: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00529309.pdf
Typo in that post, “last year” should have read “this year”.
Nobody in Scotland ever at any time voted to join the UK
Pnr
What about the extra tax on electricity being distributed from Scotland or the Council tax increases over the past 10 years in England, prescription charges, water rates etcetera
@Hamish100
“or the Council tax increases over the past 10 years in England, prescription charges”
Maybe you should have read my earlier post at 3.30pm 🙂
Scots have a moral obligation to themselves and future generations of unborn Scots, to reject English exceptionalism driven by right-wing, populist, dogma and propaganda.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-fear-brain-study-finds
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167212439213
Can we stop authoritarian populism? | Crystal Cordell | TEDxSciencesPoCampusMenton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1sLwvRo2IE
@reluctant nationalist.
That will be the indyref after the deal is known around early october 2018, but before march 29th 2019.
When it has always been planned.
Christmas:
Tis the season to show war films Tra la la la la la la la lah
Every Christmas and New year since I was born and I’m still not British, but do they stop trying to make me British? Naw!
Mibbees they huvnae realised we’ve worked out the off switch or the channel changer thingy
And Naw! they’ll never make me
wull2 says:
20 December, 2017 at 1:41 pm
As you cannot believe most things from WM or our Media, go with your heart. Not what you see or hear beamed at your head.
Vote YES”
BBC r4 Today vote tory show today, had huge thing about their tory decision to have much more religion on the BBC.
We all know God is a tory so it makes a lot of sense to have a lot more religion on God’s BBC, as Nic Robinson kept explaining, 1 in 4 Brits believe in angels, 90% of humanity is in a religion, a Radio Times poll says Jesus H Christ was probably English. Which one of that three is not a beeb thing from this morn?
I UKOK shit you not, this is what the Beeb gimp network considers flagship shit news, for three hours, Dec 2017, Trump’s giant tax cut for the super rich corp owners is really lovely and Nic is going to have more God on the show.
With God on their side, the tory freakshow is truly blessed. Also, Brexit is really great too, because God is British.
On balance and to be fair, since Nic Robinson took over the beeb r4 gimp network news, there is never a Labour anyone, ever on his Today show, ever. Its all just tory gimps, chatting. Nic is that intolerant of any opposition to the reign of UKOK planet toryboy. All they do now is emulate the BBC Scotland creep’s trick, “critics say.” Critics say Trump’s new tax handout will cost a trillion dollars, on the US debt mountain, Critics say, City banksters will ofcourse, not have all their EU trade dumped out of the EU.
A. Who are the “critics say?” just ask bottox Bird up in Glasgow.
B. So a quarter of all Brits believe in angels and a quarter of all Scots vote for the Colonel Ruth party…see where this is going?
Me neither.
@Thepnr says: 20 December, 2017 at 3:39 pm:
“You are correct, no one earning less than £33,000 will be paying any more tax than they did last year.
However it doesn’t change the fact that those earning above £26,000 will be paying more tax “relative to the UK”.
Oh! Stop doing Westminster’s propaganda for them, Thepnr.
Your claim, and that of the unionists, is false.
Like any equation you must include all parts on both sides of the equals sign. Nether you nor the other unionist claims do so.
The simple fact is that the falsehood is being promulgated by not showing all forms of taxation, direct and indirect, local and UK wide, on both sides of the equation.
You must include all direct tax, all indirect tax and that from both UK tax take and local council tax take including the costs of such independent organisations as NHS and Education where Scottish systems are independent from the rest of the UK.
Council tax, for example is part of the overall tax that a person must pay. However, the figures should also take account of such as the necessary costs involved in such things as education, child care, the added cost of National Grid Connection Charges and many other things that differ between the kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland.
Simple little everyday differences such as bridge and road tolls – (are there any non-private sector toll roads in Scotland)? Congestion Charges and so on that must be paid in the south but are not required in Scotland.
Scotland is decidedly NOT the highest taxed part of the United Kingdom when all tax is included. Income tax and other direct tax has been of relatively less importance since Labour decide to move to indirect taxation. Yet for some reason the general public remain fixated upon direct taxation. Think about this – even a babe in arms is subjected to indirect taxation as it is levied upon both goods and services and everyone depends upon both goods and services yet they are officially classed as non-taxpayers.
Aye!
Richt!
Non-Taxpayers who are subjected to a 20% tax rate on almost everything both goods and services.
Thepnr says:
20 December, 2017 at 3:39 pm
@Brian Powell
You are correct, no one earning less than £33,000 will be paying any more tax than they did last year.
However it doesn’t change the fact that those earning above £26,000 will be paying more tax “relative to the UK”.
………..
Will they, people on £26,000 in Scotland, be paying more tax, in 2018/19 than someone on the same income in rUK? By my calculation people in Scotland would be paying less compared to run.
In 2018/19 the personal allowance increases to £11,850 across the UK. Therefore everyone on £26,000 after deduction of the tax free allowance is left with £14,150 which is liable to tax.
In rUK this will be taxed in 2018/19 at 20% giving a tax bill of £2830
In Scotland, if the draft budget is passed as is, then the new starter tax of 19p will be applied to £2000 of the £14,150 leaving £12,150 to be taxed at 20% giving a tax bill of £2,810 which is £20 LESS than for those on an equivalent income in rUK and that continues right up to £33,000
Or are my calculations wrong?
Thepnr 3.05pm. I suppose rajoy’s underlings will take the ballot boxes away to be “counted”. Haud oan till i pull that zip further up ma heed.
We know Scotland is a great place to tap for spare dosh. For example, how much of the eyewatering billions for the Elizabeth line tube upgrade and Crossrail can be traced back to our taxpayers? Of course it’s all for the benefit of UK plc whose largesse we ingrates, if we play nicely, may one day enjoy. All kowtow!
@Robert Peffers
Opening your big gob again without reading all the posts.
1. Read the effing link I posted from the Scottish Government that shows above £26,000 you will start to pay more income tax relevant to the rest of the UK. This is FACT.
2. I already effing posted about Council Tax ect ect and the additional benefits you wittering on about.
GO READ MY POST AT 3:30pm
YOU should get your facts right before starting your ranting.
Awe fek aff , they’ve discovered mair stauning stanes oan Calanish unner the peat, kin they no hud aff tae efter Independence then we don’t need tae put up wie the pish fae the LangHaired wan .
In rUK this will be taxed in 2018/19 at 20% giving a tax bill of £2830
In Scotland, if the draft budget is passed as is, then the new starter tax of 19p will be applied to £2000 of the £14,150 leaving £12,150 to be taxed at 20% giving a tax bill of £2,810 which is £20 LESS than for those on an equivalent income in rUK and that continues right up to £33,000
Or are my calculations wrong?
Yes I’m afraid your calculations are wrong.
There is an “intermediate rate” of 21% for earnings between £24,000 and £44,273. This results in £2000 of the salary being taxed at 21%. This completely negates the savings made from the lower rate of 19%. The impact on someone earning £26,000 “relative to the UK” is precisely 0.
In fact the Scottish Government Fact Sheet shows exactly that. Third time today posting this link.
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00529309.pdf
The State owned BBC is supplying much needed cash (£72 million guaranteed) to the chronically failing newspaper industry and there-by propping up the voice/propaganda and misinformation of the establishment,
The Herald owner Newsquest gets 37 reporters = £17,759,889
The Scotsman owner Johnson Press gets 30 reporters = £ 14,399,910
The Daily Record owner Trinity Mirror gets 63 reporters = £30,239,811
population averages say Scotland should have 12 of these BBC paid reporters but gets over 21,basically there to prop up Unionism and attack SNP and any form of pro Scottish independence,
this is nothing more than Astoturfing by the State,pretending to be local grassroots reporting but in actuality controlled by the State/establishment.
Following up on a post earlier in the thread. Some analysis of the “local democracy reporters” planned by the BBC.
London (pop ~8.8 million): 13 reporters
North West of England (pop 7 million): 19 reporters
Yorks & Lincs (pop ~6 million): 16 reporters
Scotland (pop 5.5 million): 21.5 reporters
Seems like Scotland needs more “local democracy” reported by the BBC than other parts of the “UK”.
Can’t think why the BBC would want to do this…
Nana style links here.
Brexit threat to the Highlands.
http://archive.is/FbGQY
Brexit threat to the Working Time Directive
http://archive.is/3aT6V
Mr peffers
Further to thepnr’s valid points, VAT does not target babies as most consumables that they use are zero VAT rated.
https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates
Good stuff from Max Kaiser. Worth wide distribution
http://www.facebook.com/truthandclarity/?hc_ref=ARSyqlhF–arsmRVf7aClzIm1UXHwaGhySRgvCNo-lBexCBPW-J8lgIQhlGWnoyXBn0
Thepnr says:
20 December, 2017 at 6:25 pm
Or are my calculations wrong?
Yes I’m afraid your calculations are wrong.
There is an “intermediate rate” of 21% for earnings between £24,000 and £44,273. This results in £2000 of the salary being taxed at 21%. This completely negates the savings made from the lower rate of 19%. The impact on someone earning £26,000 “relative to the UK” is precisely 0.
In fact the Scottish Government Fact Sheet shows exactly that. Third time today posting this link.
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00529309.pdf
—————–
I had in fact looked at the link you posted earlier and have repeated in your reply to my post at 5.52 pm
It does come out at 0 if £2000 is taxed at 19p; £22,000 at 20p; and £2000 at 21p. But where does the tax free personal allowance figure in this? If it is a tax free allowance is it not deducted before tax is calculated?
O/T. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PvNHWbVW98
@Gfaetheblock
Yes, VAT is not how the Westminster Tory government have chosen as a means to tax babies. They’re more blatant than that with those least well off.
Families with more than two children will not receive tax credits or housing benefit for their third or subsequent children under a fundamental change to the welfare system.
The controversial “two child policy” has been championed by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who wanted the Conservatives’ £12bn of welfare savings to change people’s behaviour rather than salami-slice his budget.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-2015-live-emergency-uk-benefits-to-be-cut-for-families-with-more-than-two-children-10376015.html
Now where did that £12 billion cut go to I wonder? Well at least £1 billion of it went on Inheritance tax cuts, £6.2 billion has been used to pay for the Aircraft Carriers and I’d guess the rest will be needed to buy the planes.
https://archive.is/g0sRc
What of the £3.7 billion removed from the disabled in cuts, where has that gone or where will it go?
Possibly as a down payment on Trident renewal, the Tories definitely have their priorities right. If that is to make the already wealthy richer and steal food from the mouths of babies that happen to be born to poor parents.
Thepnr
I am no Tory apologist, but benefit cut for over average sized families is different to universal tax on consumption. Two different arguments, one is how we spend tax, the other on how we collect it. Sanitary product VAT is the national disgrace re VAT.
Salary = 26,000 in Scotland
Tax free allowance = 11,850
Taxable Income = 26,000 -11,850 = 14,150
Tax paid at 19% = 2000 x 0.19 = 380
Tax paid at 20% = 10,000 x 0.20 = 2030
Tax paid at 21% = 2000 x 0.21 = 420
Total tax paid on a £26,000 salary in Scotland for 2018/19 = £2830
Total tax paid in rUK on 26,000 = (26,000-11,850) x 0.20 = £2830
Overall result, there is no difference in taxes on a salary of £26,000. The tax free personal allowance is in both calculations, hope this helps.
Actually a nappy tax could be a great idea. Tax environmentally bad disposable nappies, a ‘luxury’ product that only parents buy, use this to support children from poor families so those without children don’t need to pick up the cost.
Sorry typo, 10,000 should have been 10,150, tax of 2030 is correct for though for 10,150 so the final figures remain the same.
BREXIT is indeed about regaining control . . . . Yeah The Tories regaining control of their serfs.
In Monday’s National Gove and pals wanting to ditch the EU directive that limits the maximum hours workers can be forced to do.
It’s back to the 70’s and “Rip of Britain”. Where Brits had to work much longer to pay for a car than their European neighbours.
since we joined the EU we’ve slowly caught up with EU quality of life, the reversal of these gains has already started
Brewer talking absolute brown stuff today claiming Alex Salmond described Scottish off shore wind as a Saudi Arabia of renewables.
Alex Salmond was talking in particular about the potential for tidal energy which is in fact Saudi Arabia like in that the tidal stream potential in Scotland relative to our generation requirement is just about the best in the World.
Scotland, because of deeper waters, has nowhere near the potential off shore capacity of England’s share of the shallow Dogger Bank.
Also omitted was the vastly greater generating cost of off shore compared to on shore which is costing UK electricity users billions on their electricity bills or through taxation.
And of course there was absolutely no mention of the, at best, token on shore deployment of on shore in England which would conversely save billions in generating costs.
The first time I ever heard the term ‘Saudi Arabia’ in connection with wind power was from the CEO of Europe’s largest turbine manufacturer who had set up a fabrication plant on the IOW only to have to close it again because English NIMBYISM meant the expected orders were never forthcoming.
He described it as being ‘like a Saudi Arabia that refuses to drill for oil.’
I hear Trump is now threatening to withhold financial aid to poor countries if these poor countries do not accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Really getting serious now. Westminster britnats will approve nae doot.
In all this ‘noise’ we should not lose sight of the ultimate goal. It is essential we have another independence referendum before Brexit is set in English concrete. The interests of Scotland and England are ultimately simply not compatible. England seems set on returning to the age of freebooting adventurism. The ghosts of the London coffee house culture are stalking the political street. We should have none of this alien and alienating retour en arrière. Our country would most certainly be a powerless bystander and that its citizens have been for too long.
The Tories banned turbine in Emgland. Fracking in England is tax free. Oil & Gas sector in Scotland is taxed at 40%.
Scotland raises more tax pro rata. £54Billion. Rest of the UK raises £45Billion pro rata. Scotland is the highest taxed part of the UK. Westminster imposed a higher tax regime on Scotland.
Scotland pays £Billions for illegal wars, loan repayments on money not borrowed or spent in Scotland. No minimum pricing costs £Billion. Trident £1Billion. Lost Oil & Gas revenues because of Westminster mismanagement. Scotland can’t borrow to invest in the economy.
Brexit will cost Scotland £Billions. Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion costs Scotland £Billions.
My calculation was based on the taxable income not being ‘over £24,000’, which is where the Intermediate rate is supposed to kick in. Usually the ‘over’ would be £24,001 The 20p basic rate is described in the link (table on page 1)as 20% Over £13,850 – £24,000. The intermediate 21p link is described as ‘over £24,000 to…
When the £2,000 at the starter rate is deducted then the remaining taxable sum is £12,150 which if you add the Personal Allowance comes to £24,000 so I assumed since it was not over £24,000 then the £12150 would be taxed at the basic rate of 20p as described in the table on page 1 of the document in your link.
Clearly not. The document needs to be clearer on where the actual cut off points are because the way it is written, and apparently interpreted and applied, then £24,000 is both the upper limit for one tax band and the start point for the new intermediate band.
My last words on the tax changes. Between earnings of £24,000 and £26,000 you will pay £20/year LESS relative to the rUK if you earn £24,000, £10 LESS for £25,000 and no difference at £26,000.
Between £26,000 and £44,273 you will pay more relative to the rUK at the rate of £10/year for every £1000. This is due to the new “Intermediate Rate” of 21%. I don’t see what people are getting excited about when those that earn the most are being asked to contribute a little more for the sake of all.
Overall this is good, it allows Holyrood to show they can do things differently from Westminster for the benefit of the majority. I know many might not be happy but for the additional benefits these small tax rises on the largest earners bring that ALL of Scotland then enjoy then I see it as very positive and a good thing for our country.
Especially keeping tertiary education free, in fact I’d probably increase taxes a bit more and reinstate grants for students. I got a grant, so too did the likes of Blair and Brown why shouldn’t our youngsters get the same? It all has to be paid for though eh.
The money can only be raised through GDP growth resulting in increased revenue or taxes. Scotland has next to no powers to influence growth while still a part of the UK. We need to distinguish ourselves even more than we are attempting to do now from the UK by forging our own path where we can.
That’s why we need Independence, all the levers are necessary.
By the way, I’ll also expect to be paying more tax next year and it’s right that I should.
Damien Green finally falls on his ‘sword’..(oh err…)
Damian Green resigns from cabinet
https://archive.is/1Gk8x
@geeo
Snap!
The pen..is mightier than the sword.
ronnie anderson @ 7.19 pm
Cheers Ronnie ,ye just put ma blood pressure sky high.
Everybody in Scotland should what this.
@Legerwood
The table clearly states “Over” and last time I went to school £24,001 was “Over” £24,000. So quite clear to me that extra £1 will be taxed at 21%.
Your like a dog with a bone and I give in fighting over a bone with you, so little time and so much to do.
@call me dave –
Poor auld Damian.
Let’s not be too hard on him…
😉
@Ian Brotherhood
Indeedy! He was going to be hard on the retired ‘constable’ who gave an interview last week about what he knew.
Going to sue him he was. (Yoda)
Then David Davis said he would resign if he, (Green), were to go.
Yes lots of coming and going in the Tory Cabinet. 🙂
Many thanks to all for the information and work done in explaining and trying to make some sense of the dubious claim from Mrs Mayhem regarding Cross border Tax differentials , For those who don’t know,Today in reply to an obviously planted politically motivated side swipe aimed at the Scottish government she stated Scots because of the actions of the SNP Government , she said Scots would be the highest Taxed part of the country , while focusing on a very narrow Tax band she probably was just about technically correct , Just.
The point I was trying to highlight was the relative ease this Tory PM drifts into deception, and answers that sometimes are barely bordering on the truth .
Also the way she snidely spits out a sometimes incoherent reply to any question as if in total defensive mode , she is incapable of replying to any question without this distinctly distasteful habit of trying to score a point, a truly disgusting PM and probably the worst in living memory .
Theresa May often appears in public wearing a dirty great chain round her neck. Any significance?
@Robert Graham
Without doubt Theresa May is the most incompetent PM in living memory and this current Tory cabinet the same. State of Davis and Damian Greene PM Deputy now toast. Hahaha who’s next for the chop?
I really hope Davis does as he promised and resigns right NOW.
Totally and absolutely useless the lot of them and I didn’t even mention Johnson and Gove, now get back in your box sweaties LOL.
Just reading a bit on Wiki about Damain Green, can you believe this?
“Green is Chairman of Parliamentary Mainstream, a vice president of the Tory Reform Group and is a vice chairman of the John Smith Memorial Trust.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Green
Now I’m a fair bit dubious about this claim regards the John Smith Memorial Trust, the reference given there has no link to such a claim nor can his name be found on the website of the John Smith Memorial Trust.
http://www.johnsmithmemorialtrust.org/about-us.aspx
What I don’t know worries me a lot more than what I do know.
Come on Mr Davis put your resignation where your mouth is, or was this just another example of Davis BS. Of course maybe he is going to claim he was talking about Damien Greene, not the same person in his opinion.
Laura Kuenssberg describing what a great loss this upstanding politician will be. Mrs May will no longer have access to his penetrating forensic abilities.
Another lying tory barstewrd gone. What will it take for Scotland to cut itself free from this shower of excrement.
C’mon Mr Davis you did say you would go if Damien went. Howzabout it?
Thepnr – Yep will Davis follow through with his gracious threat of removing himself as well , and hopefully this will signal Mayhems government demise, and the whole lot will get out of our sight once and for all, and before this lot cause any more lasting damage to this country .
I wonder who in the government orchestrated all the bile directed at the brave police officer, who brought this to everyone’s attention only to have his reputation well and truly trashed in order to protect Green , I doubt if there is anything the Tories won’t do when cornered .
“The talent pool is diminishing in the Tory party for cabinet candidates” says expert professor on Big Auntie’s Radio 5.
Green sacked = asked to leave = resigned for a needless lie!
Alignment, Convergence And A Symbolic Brexit- or Bewitched , Bothered and Bewildered
‘A plausible meaning of ‘alignment’ is that it contains elements of both harmonisation and approximation. Its use in the joint report does not mean that the UK has agreed to stay in the EU customs union and single market. It may, however, be read as a commitment by the UK to keep its laws and regulations in line with those of the EU’s internal market after Brexit. This is likely to be how the EU understands the term in the coming negotiations.
The UK may end up agreeing a bespoke customs union on goods, similar to the one between the EU and Turkey, along with an FTA containing elements of the Ukraine association agreement and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (‘CETA’). If the Ukraine agreement is the model, the future EU-UK FTA is likely to contain legally binding requirements for the approximation of laws. If that is the case, ‘alignment’ will be another way of saying ‘de facto convergence’…
the EU is going to insist that, during this transition phase, the UK is fully bound by internal market rules as they evolve, and that it will continue to be fully subject to the jurisdiction of the CJEU. The UK will also be fully subject to the ‘four freedoms’ of internal market law, including free movement of persons. The UK is signalling that this transition phase should last no more than two years but it will most likely take longer than this, possibly up to a decade, to negotiate an FTA…
If, as seems likely, this commits the UK to de facto convergence of its laws with those of the single market, it will not be in a position to do deals with third countries which depart from EU laws and standards. Thus, it will not be able to agree an FTA with the United States, for example, which is premised on the convergence of UK standards with those prevailing in the US, or even one which provides for mutual recognition of US and UK standards, as this would undercut the commitment to EU-UK ‘alignment’
http://www.socialeurope.eu/alignment-convergence-symbolic-brexit
Not entirely O/T as some other posters have mentioned the Catalan election tomorrow.
Let’s wish the people of Catalonia all the best as we share their hopes that they get what they want
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/catalonias-big-day/
What, a porn watching Tory who lied, then admitted lying when presented with the evidence?
Surely not, they go away if you present them with the evidence?
Where’s my copies of the McCrone report and back copies of WoS we can get rid of the whole cabinet…result.
Of course, very good luck to Catalonia tomorrow.
I hope the Spanish Government behaves just this once.
@ben madigan
Yes, tomorrow is a very big day, not just for Catalonia but for the whole EU. Will democracy prevail or will it be crushed?
“Eight years, four months and seven days ago, Arenys de Munt held a referendum on whether Catalonia should secede from Spain. Of the town’s population, 99.6 per cent turned out to vote, and out of that 96.2 per cent voted “yes”, 2.3 per cent “no” and 1.1 per cent left the ballot paper blank.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catalonia-catalan-election-vote-regional-spain-arenys-de-munt-carles-puigdemont-rajoy-a8120886.html
Dan Huil@8.16
Trump is a Zionist along with the rest of the so called ruling elite.
Zionism is the reason the world is in turmoil in the past/present time.
Everyone on wings should have a wee look at Zionism on the internet, before the Zionists close down anything relating to what these murdering bastards get up to.
The News
Donald Trump the President of the United States has seen his policies create hundreds of thousands of jobs for the american people, if that is seen as a bad thing, then i will gladly give out the address of my local specsavers lol
Regime radio 5 live the scandal of Damien Green just shows how tough and moral Theresa May is.
Is shows how basically decent the Tories are.
Thank gord we have nice moral Theresa May looking after us stupid jocks.
I honesty don’t think the bad SNP would have sacked Green…because they would not have had him on board in the first place.
@Gary45% –
Aye, totally agree, and more power to ye for bringing it up – any significant internet restrictions (in the West at any rate) will surely be at the behest of Zionist sympathisers/lackeys. The level of general knowledge about what the IDF and/or settlers get up to on a daily basis is light years away from what it was even a decade ago.
I don’t do FB but, for folk who want to find out more straight from the combatants themselves, Twitter is a great way of monitoring what the various groups (on all sides) are up to 24/7. (It can also be seriously shocking, so newcomers should be wary.)
May, as PM and her other ministerial posts, has survivrd more cast iron sacking ‘incidents’ than any other politician.
Makes you wonder why? don’t it?
@Thepnr
Thanks for that article from the independent. It was very interesting and I’ve added it to the list of Refs
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/catalonias-big-day/
http://www.21stcenturywire.com can be illuminating about Israel’s shit at times, despite its obvious pro-Russia tone.
@Chick McGregor
She also appointed Damian Green as Minister for the DWP in 2016, no wonder Universal Credit and Pensions are in such a state when the man in charge is watching porn at Westminster on his computer rather than “getting on with the day job” as Ruthie would say.
Total disgrace, May and Ruthie need to go too. All are incompetent.
Still listening to Regime radio 5 live.
Revenge of th Plebs continues.
Former senior police officer from darn sarf just opined police officers and retired police officers should not disclose matters they have uncovered in the course of their duties regarding politicians as the misconduct is a matter for the employer. I.E. the political party’s.
No chance of course of a cover up there then.
I see the former police boss’s point, because if the police officers revealed all they knew about the Tories and Labour there would not be many left in Westminster.
What about getting the trains to run on time, David?
Can we stop authoritarian populism? | Crystal Cordell | TEDxSciencesPoCampusMenton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1sLwvRo2IE
Jason Smoothpiece – all the fine upstanding ex policemen who pissed on the officer who outed Green and generally trashed his reputation should be prosecuted for assisting and enabling a coverup, they knew they were lying, they impeded an investigation .
As usual it isn’t the Act it’s self, it’s the coverup and actions afterwards that often lead to criminal behaviour, just like Watergate it wasn’t the original act that caused the impeachment of Nixon , it was everything that followed trying to cover it up . The same applies in this case .
The Tory lot are being kept in power by very powerful people, any other government would have fallen by now , no event , no scandal, that has enveloped this lot seems to matter , nothing short of televised murder can move this vile cabal of crooks .
All that’s happened and Corbyn still can’t land a bloody blow on them, a useless opposition presented with so many open Goals anyone else would be spoiled for choice . Mayhem must laugh every time dear Jeremy presents his chin for her to smack ,a useless old relic that belongs in the past, he is not the messiah he’s a bloody imposter .
Robert Graham- I agree fully I was being a bit tongue in cheek about agreeing with the former Police boss’s point.
Let’s be honest police officers covering for Green and the many others who haunt Westminster for that’s what happens I’m sure with some regularity.
The police know some of what goes on but the political party’s know more particularly the whips offices.
I am sure the Tory party knew full well what Mr Green was up to and I don’t think the whips would have kept that from strong, stable and moral Mrs May the whole place stinks.
Fallon,fallen
Green,gone
I presume these ex `Right Honorable` Members of the UK Government are still Tory backbench MP`s,
Brutish Values.
Glad Green has gone. Wouldn’t hold my breath on Davies following him.
I watched some of the debate in HoC today ( now yesterday ), Ken Clarke was the voice of reason, as he has been in the past, and backed up by Ian Murray MP for somewhere in Edinburgh.
These two unlikely characters are standing up for what Scotland needs – to stay in the Single Market.
Although staying in the SM means indyref is off the table.
Definitely against Scot indy.
@Dan Huil
May has already said this: “We disagree with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement. We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-statement-on-us-decision-to-move-embassy-to-jerusalem-6-december-2017
Took her a few days though.
Theresa May could be caught with a complete S&M kit lashing all the Male members of the cabinet (excuse the pun) and it still wouldn’t bring down the Tories right now, they’re protected no matter what they do or don’t do until this thing’s over then they’ll set about screwing Scotland followed by revenge on the DUP for their blackmail of the ruling classes
I don’t know how team Scotland’s going to get us out of this but whatever they come up with it’ll need to be good and quick before the Tories start changing laws left right and centre to make sure Scotlands locked up tighter than a drum, who knows maybe they’ll even take a leaf out of Spains book and start making new laws of it being against the UK constitution which they’ll have to invent by the way to prevent Independence and arresting Scotlands politicians who would dare speak of it
Coz if there’s one thing we know if it’s anything to do with the UK “economy” we’ll get no help or recognition from anybody and that includes our own people
Everybody knows Scotlands worth, even the ones who won’t admit it and that’s the problem, we’re a smart country, unfortunately with the backbone of milk
The News
I can’t say i am particularly interested in income tax, in fact i never have been a supporter of the said tax
It was actually thought of a long, long, time ago, way before i was born, but it was actually brought in as a little stop gap, and was never meant to be ongoing, but ofc the bright sparks of the day, said, wow, this is a good way of bleeding the workers, lets keep this going, and so it came to pass, that its been kept going ever since, now there are taxes for everything from a babies pyjamas to a nuclear submarine, and ofc, we have the dreaded road tax, that’s the tax that is charged every year, and i often wondered why our roads are not paved with gold, as it was about 33 billion a year about 25 years ago, but ofc the answer was, they only spent 3 billion on the roads, now is that not a good wheeze, and a right bleeder of a tax, and that’s before they take most of the cut from a tank of petrol
Anyway, as a businessman, i avoided taxes at all costs, don’t get me wrong, i had to pay my fair share over the years, which i was quite happy to pay, and i did ok, well i did retire early and have lived a very comfortable life ever since, now at my age i have decided to look at ways to take it with me, but let me tell you, if i don’t find a way i’m not going lol
Re. Brutish values, e.g. the idea of instilling a new “British Innovation Principle” into law. To do so would almost certainly undermine public health and safety, encourage inequality and undermine environmental protection and sustainable practice. This is unadulterated neo-liberalism, which would almost certainly empty public policy deliberation of vital ethical consideration and undermine the protection of human rights. This is what Brexit is largely about, IMHO.
http://sehn.org/wingspread-conference-on-the-precautionary-principle/
https://www.sehn.org/ppfaqs.html
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14747731.2016.1228783?src=recsys
So the Tories want to get rid of the Precautionery Principle? OK, it isn’t perfect and can cause unintended harm, but it is scientifically cautious and tries to take account of the inter-relationships and functions within complex biological systems.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03605310490500509
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news/140214-gm-foods-and-application-of-the-precautionary-principle-in-europe/
Re one of Nanas links earlier above where the SG are asking for responses to electoral laws which they will become partly responsible for e.g. the proposed term of office for the SG ,the proposed term of office for cooncils,the eligibility of voters and more .
Would it not be poss rev Stu to do a post on this subject explaining the benefits of one form or another , commenters can also put forward their preferences and their reasons
We can all gain from others opinions ( some more than others ) and would maybe explain the pitfalls of preferences
This is a very serious undertaking for our future and I would ask as many people as possible to take part and highlight this consultation to as many people as possible
My preference is for SG term of 3 or 4 years not 5 to allow twats to be got rid of, council term of same , eligibility of vote GE and Council minimum 5 years residency , eligibility of referendum vote 8 years , holiday homes no eligibility, students council vote only , these are examples
Twathater,
Why Students Council vote only?
Re. encouraging voter participation. Sorry for the length of this post, which is a fraction of a very instructive article, published in 2015 in the Journal of Brazilian Cardiovascular Surgery. It’s the full bhuna, IMHO, or at least it’s ethically enlightened.
Democratic participation is a step towards inclusive social development. That’s why the New Right hate it so much.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4389531/
More lies from May. 70% of people in Scotland will pay less tax. Public sector workers pay will increase. The Tories – unionists – are a bunch of total liars. Most of the Westminster crooks should be in jail. Just a bunch of lying criminals. Tax evaders and fraudsters. They are taking £Billions of Scotland. Independence can’t come soon enough.
How much longer can May cling on? Green gone. Another one hits the dust. What a bunch of useless ignorant incompetents. Sanctioning and starving the vulnerable. Cameron now in charge of the Tory slush fund, Embezzling from the public purse. Hinkley Point,HS2, Heathrow and Trident. A total waste of public money, with no business case. There are cheaper, safer alternatives. A waste of £Billions of public money while essential services are cut. They are a disgrace. Brexit is costing £Billions. A total shambles. The Westminster crooks could not make a bigger mess.
Bring back FPTP is Scotland. Get rid of the lot of them. The electoral system was changed without authority in Scotland. More unionist abuse.
Willy Young and Crooket. A couple of crooks. Vote them out and they are still there. An absolute disgrace. Ruined the City. 9 Labour idiots destroying the City. £1.2Billion in debt. Wasting £200Million on a grotesque monstrosity of no value. No one wanted. Cutting essential services. Aided by the unionist Dundee Thomson Press. Ruining the City Centre and the local economy.
Links
https://news.gov.scot/news/current-trade-bill-unacceptable
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/fresh-blow-for-leask-as-kremlin-backed.html
Exports rise ‘lifts expectations’ for Scottish firms
http://archive.is/Fo5Md
Business for Scotland Brexit survey results
http://www.businessforscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/BfS-EU-Survey-4.pdf
https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/scottish-government-launches-project-create-single-online-identity-verification
https://calumcashley.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/there-was-some-eejit-on-twitter-asked.html
http://rbs.postach.io/post/out-of-touch
https://theconversation.com/the-eu-turned-scotlands-highland-region-into-a-model-of-economic-success-will-brexit-reverse-that-89168
Residents of the rural town of Scotland, Connecticut, are becoming lords and ladies in the United Kingdom country of the same name.
https://apnews.com/39b61683dfd045da9cde16491b8dcf2c
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/james-cusick/northern-ireland-electoral-commission-in-new-bid-to-honour-transparency-la
Too late, Theresa: Brexit offer to EU citizens leaves many cold
http://archive.is/OvJJl
May clashes with CooperMP over cameras and the Irish border at a Liaison Committee in House of Commons.
https://twitter.com/RTUKnews/status/943536486439297025
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/12/20/brexit-all-that-s-left-for-may-to-get-through-is-the-unyield
http://uk.businessinsider.com/nih-lifts-ban-on-flu-mers-sars-virus-gain-of-function-research-2017-12?r=US&IR=T
http://www.dorseteye.com/south/articles/look-who-s-bankrolling-the-tories-folks
Thought I would post this to make people aware, that Sovereign Debt is becoming a very big issue and we are entering dangerous times from many view points.
This is an excerpt from a large financial company in America,this morning.
“The big problem: Government debt is already simply too massive. It can never be repaid. It would be financial suicide for investors to continue loaning their money to Tokyo, London or Washington; insane to throw good money after bad.
And so, governments — including our own — will simply run out of lenders, and then … run out of money.”
Another huge reason that the UK will do anything to keep us bound. Also yet another huge reason we need to get out and distance ourselves from them.
Nana
And for those EU citizens who are applying to stay it will get much worse when Brexit bites get deeper. Apart from anything else the British are subjects in the UK not citizens. Then they will be expected to join in the scapegoating of the Muslim community, who will become a major target.
Maybe I need to apologise to Ruth Davidson as I have obviously being mishearing her, the Tories are getting it on with the day job. One little word clarifies all my misunderstanding.
Nana says
“the phase one deal agreed twelve days ago, which requires ‘full regulatory alignment’ with the single market and customs union on issues affecting the Good Friday Agreement and the all-island Irish economy. This rules out not only Canada-plus but any Canada-style deal at all … The only ‘plus plus plus’ deal on offer is Norway: the EEA, plus agriculture, plus customs union, plus membership of various EU bodies – and minus formal representation.”
While this logic is hard to fault, it doesn’t take into account the objectives and persistence of Euro-skeptics / hard Brexiteers / UKIP.
A ‘Norway’ outcome will, from their perspective, mean nothing of consequence has changed! The campaign to leave the EU will continue. Nothing will really have been resolved!
Completely off topic but a valid complaint about the Commonwealth Games. At the time of the Glasgow Games i pointed out to many unionists that the funding was entirely from Scotland and that Other Games Had had “UK” finding.
I was of course a “wingeing jock”, and that Scotland had no parliament before.
But because Birmingham won the competition i looked to see if the funding was local or national.
The Birmingham Mail states that “What we do know is that the Government is paying 75 per cent of the cost – that is about £560 million which will be invested in Birmingham and the West Midlands.”
So simply put What’s your you pay for, what’s ours we all pay for.
@Les Wilson
There are more qualified commenters on Wings regarding `Money and debt`,
my understanding is Governments through their Central Bank can make money out of thin air,
called `fiat money` fiat is Latin for `Let it be done`
too much money in circulation causes inflation,
too little money causes recession,
when you can make money `debt` doesn`t really mean anything
all the rest is just rich folk and their accountants trying to grab and keep all the money Govs produce instead of it trickling down to help us plebs.
I don’t think the Scottish Government’s budget was intended to troll unionists and provoke them into making total arses of themselves in public – but if it had been it’s succeeded enormously.
@David Caledonia says: 21 December, 2017 at 1:41 am:
“I can’t say i am particularly interested in income tax, in fact i never have been a supporter of the said tax.”
And that shows that you are an extreme right wing supporter.
There are several basic rules of taxation but the two most basic are that any democratic government needs to levy taxation in order to pay for the needs of a civilised society.
The second is that if taxation is to be fair it must be mainly based upon direct taxation. i.e. It must depend upon mainly taxing the wealth of those members of society best able to pay and that can only be achieved by direct taxation of income and personal wealth. Furthermore it must only be levied upon a disposable income of what remains after a decent level of a living wage is laid down and you cannot do that when the main taxation is levied upon goods and services.
Indirect taxation must always stop short of being the main source of government revenue or the well known effects that now beset the United Kingdom will ensue and those well known effects are that indirect taxation, unless strictly regulated, will result in the poorest and most vulnerable members of society bearing the greatest burden of taxation while those with most personal wealth will increasingly see their personal wealth grow while those with little or no disposable income will become increasingly more poverty stricken.
Which exactly describes the present situation of the United Kingdom under all Westminster unionist political parties. It was under a Labour Party that the swing towards indirect taxation began, it then continued under a coalition party government and accelerated dramatically under the present far right Westminster Tories.
Let me illustrate this starkly for you.
The first thing the Tory Government did upon gaining power was to increase the basic level of VAT and other indirect taxes, then to bring more things under VAT taxation and to increase the tax breaks for both big business and those with higher incomes and wealth. All this while preaching the all too obvious lie that, “We are all in these austerity measures together”.
Yet before and after those increased moves to indirect taxation the most wealthy members of the United Kingdom society were increasing their personal wealth and only the poorest were affected by the imposed austerity measures.
Thus indirect taxation was doing exactly what the Westminster Establishment knew full well it would achieve – increasingly picked the pockets and purses of the poorest and most vulnerable and transferred it into the mainly off-shore bank accounts of the richest members of society where it mainly benefitted the tax haven governments while the United Kingdom national debt shot up at an accelerating rate not even achieved in the Dickensian England of Ebenezer Scrooge.
At least in Dickensian Britain they had the Poor House, Work House and forced deportations to the colonies. Without these dire organisations the United Kingdom is proven to be actually starving poor and vulnerable people to death, freezing them to death by forcing them to rough sleep on Winter Streets and die by neglect of their health and well being issues.
That, David is exactly what you state on Wings, “i never have been a supporter of the said tax.”
Indeed neither have the rest of the Tories, LibDems and Red Tories of the Westminster Establishment that you support.
Indirect Taxation breaks the basic taxation rule that you should only tax what remains after a basic, “disposable Income”, is set down and you cannot do that when you mainly tax goods and services.
If Damien Green is forced to resign for lying to Parliament about the porn on his computer, when will Theresa May be forced to resign, for that tiny lie at PMQs yesterday about how much tax some Scots will now have to pay?
What d’you reckon to this, David Caledonia?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt1umirFdY4
The Tories and Labour have always taken every opportunity to make great play over how the Scottish Government in an independent Scotland.
Could possibly deal with the what they claim would be £150bn debt it would inherit from the UK without for example cutting services or hiking up taxes.
I have yet to hear both Labour or the Tories explain how they intend to reduce and eliminate the massive growing UK government debt without further damaging the economy, cutting services, reducing people’s’ living standards, or hiking up taxes.
BREAKING from Pravda Quay
with Jackie Kim Ono
https://imgur.com/a/VvR1S
@Dr Jim
It already exists.
All matters pertaining to the “Union” are the preserve of Westminster”. It’s not actually lawful to be pointing at it, far less discussing independence and as for trying to hold a referendum on the matter or achieving a break up of the Union in any way shape or form… the Crown will take a dim view of it’s Subjects (or is that Citizens?) No, definitely Subjects.
With Parliamentary Sovereignty supreme and the passing of ex-post facto laws now frequent; You may even get your collar felt for voting in 2014.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law
The Law won’t help you either.
A simple piece of ex-post facto legislation designated under “National Security” and perhaps unlawful subversion of the “Union” or somesuch, will do the trick.
“The decision in CCSU v Minister for the Civil Service (GCHQ) [1985] AC 374 expressly excludes matters of national security from consideration of the prerogative by the courts (per Lord Diplock). Lord Roskill said the courts “have also been obliged to recognise that in some fields that barrier [against inordinate claims by the executive] must be lowered and that on occasions, albeit with reluctance, the courts must accept that the claims of executive power must take precedence over those of the individual. One such field is that of national security.”
It was a case unrelated to the “Union” but ironically about unions; the upshot is that ‘Security remains a political issue and not a legal one, it is not to be determined by a court’
Well, at least that’s what the UK government “believes”
You may make your own mind up…
Brian Powell , believe we changed to Citizens in Bliars reign. Although there appears to be nothing in the Great British written a Constitution, passport says we are Citizens.
BBC there saying that Damien Green made ‘inaccurate statements’.
If he had been an SNP MP it would have been ‘lies’.
This is the benefit of having the unionist media in your pocket.
The day we make these corrupt and biased news outlets irreverent cannot come soon enough.
@One_Scot
BBC are supplying 150 reporters to the mass/manky media costing us citizens £72,000,000,
BBC propaganda and misinformation is going to be delivered not only through the TV but through the letter box with your local rag.
Is Ruth Davidson still an MSP? She seems to have disappeared from view. Has she been inspired by Kezia Dugdale’s foray into the world of entertainment?
Robert Peffers says
21 December at 10.37 am
I have paid a fortune in income tax, what some people have to remember is this, when people spent their money in my business that money had allready been taxed if they where working or not
So the government had taxed that money twice, don’t let my simple grammar and flippant attitude here fool you, i know a lot about all kinds of tax, and most of it is geared up to take as much out of the working man and the business man as possible, i never avoided paying my taxes, in fact i can within reason say i have paid a hell of a lot more than you in my time, because i will assume you never ever started and run a successful business as i had done, George Harrison wrote a song called Taxman, have a listen to it and you will realise why there are so many tax avoiders and i mean legal tax avoiders that use all the means they can to stop getting bled dry by stupid and greedy governments, businesses are going to the wall every day, good solid businesses that are being taxed out of existence, lets give an example of what happened to a good friend of mine, he had a big shop, doing ok, not a lot of money going about, but he was making a living, along comes the council pushes his rent up, he notifies the council that he will be closing his shop as the rent increase is not sustainable in the present financial climate, that shop closed with the lose of his rent to the council, they eventually had to knock it down as it was unrentable, its now a carpark, yes the lunatics are running the asylum now
Oh, and i forgot to mention, it cost a lot of money to demolish the shop, it was a large shop, and it paid its way every year with rent, the car park is free and does not bring in any money to the council, and btw, its allways been a labour run council, and its allways been in debt until they lost the housing stock and the new housing association started with no debt and now we have some lovely houses being build here, hundreds of them , all we need now is an SNP administration and life would be just lovely
@David Caledonia
gonnae try paragraph breaks please,
ta.
@Peter McCulloch
What debt do you speak of. I think it was established in the run up to the 2014 that Scotland didn’t have any debt as they couldn’t borrow any money and Westminster was wholly responsible for all UK debt.
Salmond said we could take our share of any debt but also should claim / recover a share of all non-fixed assets which we had helped to pay for since the 1706/1707 treaty of the Union.
I know folk who just looked at me in amazement at this as well as other things like…
UK Westminster will still pay for your existing Pension after independence only younger ones will be our responsibility
96.5% of oil/gas will belong to Scottish Government to deal with
(even if it’s worthless 🙂 Aye right! )
Funny old world init! But they still vote NO!
etc etc.
@Socrates MacSporran says: 21 December, 2017 at 10:45 am:
“If Damien Green is forced to resign for lying to Parliament about the porn on his computer, when will Theresa May be forced to resign, for that tiny lie at PMQs yesterday about how much tax some Scots will now have to pay?”
Ah! But! Socrates, it is again that old Westminster Establishments long, (pardon the pun), established propaganda method of, by the strange usage of the English language, to fool most of the people most of the time.
Like their bland assumption that now has most of the people, most of the time, assuming that the terms, United Kingdom, Britain, Great Britain, The country, The Whole Country and England all refer to the same entity that is factually not a single country nor a single kingdom but a bipartite political union of two former independent kingdoms that, between them, contain four countries and do not actually contain four other non Westminster controlled British legislatures.
This form of Westminster Speak has been with us for as long as there have been written historical records from around 56BC.
When Theresa says, tax she only means tax on income and wealth and ignores all other forms of both local and central government methods of extracting revenue from the people and I include business and public bodies in that raising of government revenues.
When I think of taxation I think of all the, often hidden, ways Westminster extracts cash from our purses and pockets. For example the fee to park a vehicle on a city street levied by a town or city council is a revenue raising tax just as surely as is income tax or VAT.
Not to mention such as the surcharge levied upon Scotland of the National Grid Connection Charges upon generators that increases the further the generator lies in relation to London. Furthermore not mentioning the hidden subsidy paid to those generators that are situated in and around London itself. There are many such Westminster scams specifically designed to extract revenue for government from, mainly, Scots living in Scotland.
So when Theresa speaks of, “tax”, she is referring to only the tax upon incomes and held wealth and is ignoring all other revenue raising methods.
The stark truth is that it costs considerably more in government revenues to live in London in particular and England in general than it does to live in Scotland and this is entirely due to the Westminster Austerity alleviating measures of the current SNP Scottish Government.
I could reel off several other, “Nice little Earners”, employed by succeeding Westminster administrations and business’. Only yesterday I read that Scots paid an extra £36 Million for delivery charges than other parts of the
DisUnited Kingdom.Sign the petition against such charges here:-
http://fairdeliverycharges.scot/
Scotland has been the cash cow of the Kingdom of England since at least 1707.
The way most government borrowing works is via the issuing of Bonds. Those are issued in the currency of the state. Failing that the borrowings they make are also in that currency.
The whole point about Greece and being part of the Euro was that by doing so they lost control of one tool in dealing with national debt.
If you have large reserves of foreign currency or resources or produce that can be converted then as your debt is in your own cash you might be able to devalue.
Ideally you only do so if you’re not over reliant on food or other essential resources bough from abroad. Otherwise your electorate might suffer enough to resent what you’ve done.
Another method might be to issue essentially junk bonds and force your central bank to accept them in exchange for cash. Quantititative Easing in other words. If markets lose faith in the government then as those bonds are part of the assets backing the currency then the value of the currency drops. It also becomes harder to persuade anyone to buy further bonds.
The bit that needs skill and bravado is to arrange this in such a way that you can pay of your national debt.
The curse of an oil backed economy is that it’s difficult to engineer a fall in your currency.
Tory philosophy is that as direct tax is avoidable then the only way to raise money for government is on purchases. The obvious flaw in that argument is that that taxation fall more heavily on the lower paid and poor.
The fuss about the narrow 53% tax band highlights something the Tories might wish they hadn’t mentioned. In reality there’s only 10% difference between an upper band and lower band Tax payer once NI is taken in to account.
However it’s also true that the employers contribution makes it preferential to them to employ more lower paid workers on low hours and there comes a point where fewer higher earners are preferable. Ideally they want to be the only employer or the primary so as to minimise their NI liabilities.
@Gfaetheblock says:20 December, 2017 at 7:07 pm:
“Further to thepnr’s valid points, VAT does not target babies as most consumables that they use are zero VAT rated.
https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates“
Laughable pish, Gfaetheblock.
You, and those you seek to defend, seem to presume that babies, and other children, do not share in the heating, lighting and other normal costs of running the home, vehicles and other charges homes and families must pay towards.
Such as, for example, the Council Tax, possible parking charges and the excess delivery charges on purchases made on-line from the rest of the UK.
As a member of the family, babies, like children and pets, are taxed by sharing the normal running costs of a household they do not contribute to but use.
Scot Finlayson says:
Your main contention is that it is all the fault of the fiat monetary system, and in that you are right to a degree. Fiat currencies are ones that basically have no other value than the paper their are printed on.
Most countries at one time were backing their currency with gold.
However after the ” Breton Woods” meeting in America, that all changed. To being a promise by respective governments to “Pay the Bearer”. Truth is a promise, and is all it actually is, it is backed by nothing of value.
However governments, particularly western ones have used this system to spend and spend, then spend some more.
However, they also borrow to service a lot of what they buy, meaning they have debtors to pay. All the way round governments
rely on the circulation of debt to finance everything.
Yes they can and do, print more money, however over the longer term that devalues their currency, making their real debt harder to pay back.
No fiat currency has ever survived, and what they do have, has no real value.
It is a real problem if the levers of government do not bring in enough tax for example. As then,they start to cut back, we have seen a lot of that in recent years.
The elites will be ok, they have money and assets at their disposal, and will have escape routes in place.
However that will be after all our bank accounts have been raided, and ATM’s go blank.
The ordinary people? well, the government does not give a hoot about them, just their own survival.
This could all have been avoided had currencies be backed by something real,and redeemable. As it is. fiat money can only exist until people do not believe in it’s worth anymore, and that day may not be far away.
Ironically, another tragic victim of Brexit, is the Conservative’s organic world view. The standing UKOK government are not conservatives, they are radical, New Right, authoritarians intent on monetising every aspect of human existence. To support them is to be complicit in their illiberal extremism.
N.B. The welfare state has pretty much already been pruned to resemble a bonsai tree, there’s nothing much left to trim and no strategic plan for a sustainable, democratically pluralist, alternative. Only the private sector and corporate decision making.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-referendum-and-social-policy/
http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/2017/09/05/the-cost-of-brexit/
Scotland voted against Brexit!
The voice of Scotland’s environment community
Brexit information
http://www.scotlink.org/work-areas/brexit-information/
@call me dave says:
21 December, 2017 at 12:00 pm
I am well aware that the £1.8 trillion debt is Westminster’s.
What I was highlighting is the argument the Tories, Labour and Libdems put forward in their attempts try to and frighten people away from supporting independence.
They argue that as an independent country, they claim Scotland’s share of the UK debt would be £150Bn and ask how for example cutting services or hiking up taxes. .
As I stated they are very good at asking how an independent Scotland would manage without for example cutting services or hiking up taxes.
But Labour and the Tories they aren’t so good a providing a coherent explanation as to how they would reduce or eliminate the massive UK government debt without further damaging the economy, cutting services, reducing people’s’ living standards, or hiking up taxes.
Reluctant Nationalist
Nice one, that’s the game. 😉
Sanity appears to be another tragic victim of Brexit, or perhaps, more specifically, simple honesty and the Ministerial Code of Conduct? Determining policy without the benefit of impact assessments and consultation with the Treasury, appears a bit odd to me, frankly.
Given the importance of the EU’s CAP for Scottish farmers, are they really supporting Brexit? Or is it perhaps an influential minority of them who identify Brexit as an opportunity?
http://fortune.com/2017/12/13/uk-brexit-transition-deal-eu/
https://ieep.eu/uploads/articles/attachments/d7d7514a-49d9-4a12-bb26-dcba65e931ca/IEEP%20Brexit%20scenarios%20report%20-%20final%20280817.pdf?v=63671395644
https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120671/our_projects/1753/the_implications_of_brexit_for_rural_scotland
Peffers
Charming as ever.
By your logic, all tax hits babies then. So are you proposing my son, who is dependant on my wife and I’s income for sustenance, has just been hit by an income tax rise by the SNP. Are you suggesting that the SNP are taxing my five year old and all others kids of those hit by the proposed income tax changes?
The News
That charming lady Mrs Thatcher and her government put vat on children’s clothes
And it’s still there to this day, and long before she reached the shoddy height’s in downing street, she took the kids milk away from them in the school’s
Now i must apologize to the gramma police as it seemz i have committed a heinous offence to the engerlish langwage by knot worreying about the wordz and paragrafs, dotz an commaz, and consentraiten on the basik constrktion of the pointz beeing maid lol
I don’t think it was anything other than large blocks of text being challenging to read for some, David.
Thatcher definitely was a nasty peace of work but her narrative suited the time of crises she inherited from British Labour. Her administration used PR agency spin to sell a brand of narrow and divisive utilitarian rationality and an intolerance of poverty, ethnicity and difference in general. Her pitch was snappy and matronly and she was confident there was no alternative. As such, authoritarian personalities throughout Britain, sought shelter behind her populist blend of economic neo-liberalism and authoritarian nationalism/colonial imperialism.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346769800000032
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue66/BuchHansen66.pdf
http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/40993/1/18019982_Whitham_thesis.pdf
Nana – I hope your link to the population of Scotland, Connecticut getting “titles” free of charge is intended to highlight the disputed nature of this claim and the practices employed, highlighted by Andy Wightman in his excellent blog:
http://www.andywightman.com/archives/4152
The company, Highland Titles Ltd., is allocating only 0.01% of its land holdings in this area of Scotland to this marketing exercise in the hope of internet publicity, intending to reap millions from future sales.
It appears to be is merely a marketing ploy to gain publicity – don’t help this Channel Islands tax haven company exploit a romantic link to this country.