Unionists got very excited last week when the Office for Budget Responsibility once again downgraded its long-term North Sea oil revenue forecasts (which in 2011 it was predicting at £131bn) to just £2.1bn over 20 years. The new figure was as usual treated as a gospel fact and deployed to attack both independence and full fiscal autonomy by proving that Scotland couldn’t afford to run its own affairs.
We and others pointed out the numerous flaws in that argument, but of course those are just points of view. We could all debate it all day and all night and never achieve a consensus. There is, however, an easy way to settle the matter, by which supporters and opponents of independence and FFA alike can both put their money where their mouths are and everyone will be happy.
The first five words of “The Vow” – the solemn pledge made by all three UK party leaders on the eve of the independence referendum – are “The Scottish Parliament is permanent”. This is what happened in the House of Commons this evening when the UK government was asked to make good on that pledge.
With scarcely a moment’s pause for breath or reflection, the Unionist polity and media has seamlessly switched its focus to the elusive beast that is “Full Fiscal Autonomy”.
(The SNP thankfully seems to have swiftly dumped the silly and short-lived attempt to rebrand it “Full Fiscal Responsibility”.)
Having deemed the anti-independence “Project Fear” strategy a success because it won the referendum – seemingly oblivious to the fact that what it actually achieved was to turn a 30-point lead into a 10-point victory, at the cost of the annihilation of Unionist MPs in Scotland – the exact same tactics have been deployed against FFA.
And the main problem with that is that there are in fact two FFAs. And the Unionist side is fighting against the wrong one.
So first of all there’s this (click pic for full story):
…in which the figures appear to show that Iceland’s policy of imposing justice and imprisoning the greedy bankers who caused the world financial crash – rather than just shovelling money at them and letting them carry on robbing everyone – actually saw its economy recover at least as well as anywhere else’s.
The Daily Mail, having unaccountably failed to notice the slew of Unionists who tried to blame the SNP for Charles Kennedy’s death before the body was cold on Tuesday, suddenly remembered to look at its Twitter timeline again today.
There’s an unmissable piece in today’s Guardian about the last days of the general election campaign, as seen from inside the headquarters of the Labour Party.
The reason it’s fascinating isn’t because (as it claims) it provides an insight into why Labour lost the election, but because it reveals how the party’s most senior staff, by pathologically avoiding any non-stage-managed contact with actual voters, lost all grip of reality and sleepwalked into their most crushing defeat in decades.
This is Robert Hutton – UK political correspondent for Bloomberg News and author of the book “Would They Lie To You?” – and former Labour spin doctor Damien McBride on Radio 4 this morning, discussing the fate of Alistair Carmichael.
An alert reader today drew our attention to a detail we’d missed in a recent article in the Shetland News. It concerned Alistair Carmichael’s leaking of a false memo in order to smear Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP while the Orkney & Shetland MP was still Secretary of State for Scotland, and took the form of a quote from Carmichael’s Holyrood counterpart Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland:
Spartan 117 on Believers In The Ruins: “An appalling post stuffed full of ignorance and bile, aside from the closing point about the BBC and the Western…” Aug 16, 13:20
Southernbystander on Believers In The Ruins: “TURABDIN, If there is irony there it is covered in too much of the blank variety, and so has become…” Aug 16, 12:53
Confused on Believers In The Ruins: “er, the point I was making about “things can always get worse” – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz977nxww1jo the main reason people hit the…” Aug 16, 12:24
TURABDIN on Believers In The Ruins: “THE SCOTTISH ANTISYZYGY PARADOX AND PHYSICS. Understanding Oppositional Forces in Physics Fundamental Principles In physics, the concept of “opposites attract”…” Aug 16, 12:01
Captain Caveman on Believers In The Ruins: “@Alf Well, there’s only one person around here “in perpetual darkness of their Colonial Echo Chamber®”, Alf – as you…” Aug 16, 11:46
Jay on Believers In The Ruins: “Hi 100%, i typed in all those characters but youtube and this tablet do not communicate. Was keen to see…” Aug 16, 11:39
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “I think Burnham shouldn’t have been daft enough to threaten people flouting the disposable barbecue rule with prison. Even if…” Aug 16, 11:20
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Odd hoo mony times I post tae Northy and you reply, Alf. Or vice versa. Here’s an echo I just…” Aug 16, 11:11
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “We can all see and understand those cases where a cold blooded killer is arrested, charged, tried and sentenced, and…” Aug 16, 10:46
100%Yes on Believers In The Ruins: “@ alurker and everyone else link to this conversation. Lets say for arguments sake, that Scotland doesn’t exist anymore just…” Aug 16, 10:34
Alf Baird on Believers In The Ruins: “Here is a wee bittie licht for yersel an ithers Hatey, in the perpetual darkness of your colonial echo chamber:…” Aug 16, 10:22
Alf Baird on Believers In The Ruins: ““These must be English elections in Scotland seeing as the English parliament was not dissolved 3 hundred years ago.” True,…” Aug 15, 21:59
Aidan on Believers In The Ruins: “For once I have to agree with James, there are no jurisdictions to my knowledge where the death penalty is…” Aug 15, 21:42
James on Believers In The Ruins: “Well said, Grace. “…When are we going to bring back the death penalty…” they wail. If they could, they could…” Aug 15, 21:20
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Civil servants in Scotland comprise two groups, those working for the devolved government, and those working on reserved function, I.e…” Aug 15, 18:10
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Any evidence that TA is the paedo stronghold? It’s quite a claim really, although perfectly aligned with the historical tropes…” Aug 15, 17:44
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “A resonance chamber collapse is greatly preferable to a chamber pot fracture. If I were to be serious, I’d say…” Aug 15, 17:38
sam on Believers In The Ruins: “@ alurker Thanks for the link further up the thread.” Aug 15, 17:34
Hatey McHateface on Anatomy Of A Grift: “Arday is dead. But as Northy’s post shows, pseudo-intellectual, pretentious gobbledegook lives on. I’m confident my claim will resonate with…” Aug 15, 17:29
aLurker on Believers In The Ruins: ““Who says what and Why? “…Scotland is a nation and voluntarily entered union with England as a partner and not…” Aug 15, 16:44
Aidan on Anatomy Of A Grift: “I doubt it, they’ll probably make you drink “James’” bath water.” Aug 15, 15:12
Northcode on Believers In The Ruins: “Here’s another observation following on from my last comment that folk might find interesting… or not. A resonance-chamber collapse is…” Aug 15, 12:12
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: “@Northy Well, if the “chamber has collapsed” as you put it, maybe look to your own personal culpability in that,…” Aug 15, 12:10
Confused on Believers In The Ruins: “question on all our lips : did black einstein FAKE his own death? – he faked everything else … NB…” Aug 15, 11:56
Captain Caveman on Anatomy Of A Grift: ““That’s it, off to the gulag for you CC, reckon you’ll get 5 years hard labour” Ooh, well, I’m quaking…” Aug 15, 11:54
robertkknight on Believers In The Ruins: “Much wringing of hands shall follow. Any death by suicide is tragic – to feel that you’ve no option other…” Aug 15, 11:29
Northcode on Anatomy Of A Grift: “This comment trail is mildly interesting in terms of online space behavioural patterns. Here’s my analysis. Dan’s reply: the mature…” Aug 15, 11:13
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “Aye, Sam, hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists prop up Scotland’s economy every year as they flock to visit our…” Aug 15, 11:03
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “The new Floyd? £20 says that’s where this will go next.” Aug 15, 10:37
Hatey McHateface on Believers In The Ruins: “FOFA as the yoof say. Spend years and every available billion in foreign aid on raining down rockets on the…” Aug 15, 10:33
