Yesterday the three UK party leaders all came to Scotland to “campaign”. None of them would appear in public or be interviewed on TV, speaking only to small crowds of invited supporters before scurrying south again. Nevertheless, their fleeting presence north of the border meant that the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions was conducted by substitutes. Standing in for David Cameron was William Hague.
So that’s all a bit clearer now.
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comment, history, scottish politics, uk politics
We’ve long argued that whatever the small print, when it comes to an independent Scotland’s membership of the European Union common sense and realpolitik will prevail, because nobody wants Scotland to be out of the EU for even a day and it’s in nobody’s interests for it to be.
Of course, we’re just some idiots with a website and nobody should listen to OUR opinion about anything. But it seems as though people like Graham Avery (Honorary Director-General of the European Commission), Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, (the former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN) and Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, (author of a book on EU constitutional law and professor of European law and human rights at Oxford University) ought to have a pretty good inside track on Europe stuff.
And if all those still aren’t enough, how about the esteemed Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament? He ought to know what he’s talking about, right?
Category
comment, europe, scottish politics, uk politics, video
First Owen Jones’ stinging rebuff to the odious fauxcialist John McTernan, now this:
As another famous Unionist might say: Oooft!
Category
comment, uk politics
The alert readers of this site have encountered currency trader Alpesh Patel of equity company Praefinium Partners before. We were more than a little bit scathing about a previous appearance of his on the BBC News channel back in February, on which it seems fair to say that he nailed his Unionist colours very firmly indeed to the mast.
So this clip from the same channel this morning was interesting.
We don’t think his words need any comment from us, save perhaps that we commend Mr Patel for having learned from his previous errors when it comes to assessing the attitude of businesses to the prospect of Scottish independence. Anyone can make a mistake. The key is to not keep repeating it when the evidence proves you wrong.
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comment, scottish politics, uk politics, video
Save it from what, exactly? Democracy?
(More here.)
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comment, culture, media, scottish politics, uk politics
Here’s what George Osborne actually said on today’s Andrew Marr Show:
“You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland. More tax powers, more spending powers, more plans for powers over the welfare state.
That will be put into effect – the timetable for delivering that will be put into effect – the moment there is a no vote in the referendum. The clock will be ticking for delivering those powers – and then Scotland will have the best of both worlds.”
(From 32m 40s.) It’s not actually very hard to follow.
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analysis, comment, scottish politics, uk politics
New YouGov poll tonight. Yes 51 No 49 excluding Don’t Knows. Interesting.
The Observer’s front page splash is the No camp’s last-ditch Hail Mary – a new devolution talking shop. They just don’t get it. This is about tomorrow, not yesterday.
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analysis, scottish politics, uk politics
