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Only certain answers required 100

Posted on March 08, 2014 by

Last weekend, Scotland on Sunday ran a major story entitled “Scottish independence: Pension funds seek answers”, the theme of which was self-evident.

“Pension funds will step up calls for clarity over the implications of independence this week as the industry’s leaders gather for a key conference in Edinburgh.

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has warned that more answers are needed if its members are able to make informed decisions ahead of September’s referendum.

‘I’m not sure we’re any further forward in getting answers to our questions,’ NAPF chief executive Joanne Segars told Scotland on Sunday. ‘It’s not for us or our members to tell people in Scotland how to vote but our members face a lot of issues around ­regulation, compensation schemes and scheme funding.’

‘But it is the funding of cross-border schemes that most urgently needs to be addressed‘, she added. Under European Union law, pension schemes with members both in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK would need to be fully funded at all times. In the November report, NAPF said such a regime would result in more final salary schemes closing.”

(Our emphasis.) Since then, of course, there have been some developments.

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Category analysis, comment, media, scottish politics

Loving Britain 177

Posted on March 07, 2014 by

Some Friday-night entertainment, courtesy of an alert reader.

Remember, folks – a No vote in September is a vote to give UKIP a major influence over your life. A Yes banishes them forever. Your decision.

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Category comment, scottish politics, video

Nationalist of the week 109

Posted on March 07, 2014 by

From the Norwich Evening News, 4 March 2014:

“‘It is ridiculous that independence for Scotland is even being given consideration at all.

Much blood was spilled over centuries to bring the home nations together.

It’s disrespectful to the honour of those that suffered to think that a cross on a ballot paper can undo that. National pride and patriotism is what being a Scot is all about, and there is not a nation in the world that has more of it than Scotland. We don’t need economic independence to prove it.’

Blair Ainslie is managing director of Great Yarmouth-based offshore firm Seajacks. He hails from Dunbar, East Lothian and moved south of the border in 1979.”

That one’s making our head spin.

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Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics, wtf

And now the weather 91

Posted on March 07, 2014 by

It’s a really slow news day today, so here’s an extended report from the Met Office.

The outlook in the event of a No vote: this is as good as it gets.

Category comment, scottish politics, video

Sticking to the script 217

Posted on March 06, 2014 by

Johann Lamont attracts a considerable amount of criticism – largely, it ought to be conceded, from SNP and Yes supporters, but also from the media – for her inability to deviate from her prepared text at First Minister’s Questions when the FM’s answer isn’t what she was expecting it to be.

neilfindlay

But she’s not the only one in her party with that problem.

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Category analysis, comment, scottish politics, transcripts

What you didn’t read this week 147

Posted on March 06, 2014 by

Remember about ten months ago, when there was a great big five-alarm hoo-ha in the Scottish media about pensions, based on the EU law that pension schemes operating across national borders had to be fully-funded at all times, which we were told would cause all sorts of dreadful chaos if Scotland was independent?

timebomb

We ask because the Scottish media has now had two full days to pick up on a story which appeared on the website of The Actuary magazine this week, but oddly hasn’t.

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Category analysis, media, scottish politics

A slight change of emphasis 47

Posted on March 06, 2014 by

Here’s a story on the front page of the Guardian website.

guardfp1

Below is the headline you see when you actually click on the link.

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Category comment, media, scottish politics

Mightier than the sword 87

Posted on March 06, 2014 by

As we noted last week, Eton- and Sandhurst-educated Sir Norman Arthur, figurehead of the No campaign’s latest high-powered grassroots fundraising drive, has a very impressive military record – Commanding Officer of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Commander of the 7th Armoured Brigade, General Officer Commanding of the 3rd Armoured Division, General Officer Commanding of Scotland and mentioned in despatches during the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

nopopery

It’s just lucky the IRA didn’t have Twitter, or things might have been different.

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Category comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics

They said, he said 125

Posted on March 05, 2014 by

Here’s a “Better Together” spokesman on Alex Salmond’s New Statesman lecture:

“Alex Salmond seems to have ditched his plan to be best pals with the rest of the UK and has instead decided to tell the English, Welsh and Northern Irish people how rubbish they are.”

We were there. Want to know what he actually said about England?

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Category comment, culture, scottish politics

All your ducks in a row 160

Posted on March 05, 2014 by

We’ve been known to remark from time to time that “Better Together” often has a little trouble getting its scare stories straight. “You won’t be allowed into the EU!” somehow manages to co-exist with “You’ll have to join the Euro!”, while “You wouldn’t be able to bail out the banks!” runs right alongside “All the banks will leave!”

So we take our hats well and truly off to all concerned for helpfully jamming them all together into one big mad super-scare today.

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Category analysis, media, scottish politics

The declaration of aspiration 210

Posted on March 05, 2014 by

So we’re just letting this one slide, are we?

“[David Mundell], who next year will mark 10 years as the only Tory MP in Scotland, says, if there is a Yes vote, the First Minister’s declaration of Independence Day will have no legal status and be merely an aspiration.”

The Edinburgh Agreement seems increasingly not worth the paper it’s written on.

Category comment, disturbing, scottish politics

A tried and trusted strategy 96

Posted on March 04, 2014 by

Does any of this sound familiar, readers?

“Federalists [the opponents of Quebec independence] argued that the Yes campaign’s undertakings, such as those on using the Canadian dollar and joining international organisations, were, to a greater or lesser extent, dependent on the agreement of the rest of Canada, on other countries or on international organisations.

The assertion that Canada would immediately assume the obligations and rights of all Canada’s treaties and conventions was particularly controversial. The US, Canada and Mexico all stated that Quebec should not assume that entry into NAFTA would be automatic.”

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Category comment, history, scottish politics, uk politics, world

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