Fake news: a case study
The term “fake news” has become somewhat devalued from overuse recently, and often translates simply to “news I disagree with or don’t like”. But this, from today’s Scottish Daily Mail, is a bona fide sighting:
Let’s just break that down.
TIME EVENT IS DUE TO BEGIN: two years from now
TIME EVENT IS DUE TO CONCLUDE: four years from now
DATA ON WHICH STORY IS THEREFORE BASED: none
NUMBER OF PEOPLE QUOTED EXPRESSING SUCH “FEARS”: none
We really can’t emphasise that last one enough. Nobody – not even one of the usual line-up of Unionist rentahonks whose answerphone messages contain pre-recorded generic “SNP BAD” quotes in case they’re out when the papers ring – has actually said they fear the target will be missed.
So this is a “news” story about something that hasn’t happened, isn’t due to happen, can’t possibly happen for four years and which nobody has actually said will happen. As such, it has exactly the same journalistic validity as a piece headlined “FEARS ANDY MURRAY WILL BE EATEN BY A SHARK WHILE SKYDIVING DRESSED AS A GIANT PURPLE ROBOT LIZARD DURING WIMBLEDON WEEK” when all the tennis star had in fact said was that he might fancy doing a parachute jump some day.
And that story would at least have the saving grace of being politically neutral and just stupid, rather than a deliberate, malicious attempt to subvert democratic governance. Perhaps we should send the Mail an anonymous tipoff.
BT Open Reach are in charge of installing all fibre optic lines. I lived in Invergarry from December 2012 till February 2017, I paid my account to BT (not open reach) by Online Banking to BT England. That was the name on their account in the banking world. Maybe the Daily Mail should try research before they print anything.
It would be funny to see how easy or difficult it would be to become a ‘source’ for some of these papers?
Call yourself Dr David Little from the NHS wanting to remain anonymous sending from his personal account 🙂
Become the Daily Mail or Express ‘Deep Throat’ for a whole summer!
(Caveat to that – i wouldn’t actually do that though – just a funny thought)
“Maybe the Daily Mail should try research before they print anything.”. My,that would be a first.
Wotherspoons have over 1000 pubs in the Yookay and each is instructed to show only the EBC noos.
Same old lies. But there are, unfortunately, a lot of people out there who will believe this tripe. And, of course, there are those who are happy to have it to confirm their anti-indy, anti-Scottish, anti-SNP bias.
They really, really, really do not care a fig about truth or honest journalism.
In short, they are wee shite bags.
I’d rather send them a, unanimous fuck off!
I’d rather, send them an unanimous fuck off!
Latest daily mail news *EXCLUSIVE*
‘Sky diving Andy Murray in fancy dress encounter with man-eating shark…’All that was left was his racquet’ says indyref fearing unemployed Scottish Fisherman, suggesting it may actually have been a giant sturgeon”
That’s not a newspaper that thing.
It’s laughable and yet scary how anyone could buy, and give credit to the Cretans who own, and write for propaganda rag.
I must inform you that a number or reliable sources, some at Westminster, The Palace, and No 10 all report that the Daily Mail will continue to lose readers and go bust by 2020.
The BBC will take up any slack by launching 10 new Digital Propaganda Channels, so everything will be fine for Non Dom Owner
With regard to BT and Openreach, they are abysmal at what they do
I worked with them for a short time and I was astonished at how pathetically bad Openreach were.
BT, as owners, are not allowed to contact them directly when they make major errors on a new installation, as it may show bias against other providers, so when your client demands to know when and how things will be fixed, you cannot answer them, as no contact is allowed?
You all have to twiddle your thumbs until Openreach deem fit to contact the client with another date, but if no one turns up, you just have to wait again.
Its a licence to print money monopoly that needs to be smashed into little pieces to help our economy.
In another capacity, I need to hook into another client’s broadband to provide him with some support services.
He is not far from Glasgow City Centre, and yet Openreach have come up with excuse after excuse after excuse since August last year, with a connection finally being established in June.
What’s 10 months between ordering and operating Broadband when
you have no one else to go to.
More self referential. The reporter is the one who fears that the 100% target might be missed. Same as shotgunning FOI requests ensures that many will be rejected on the basis of being irrelevant wastes of time allows them to then report that FOAD (Fuck off and Die) level as being too high. It does rely on calculations based on those where the desired information was returned and reporting refusals based on there being either no information or no right to it as failures.
The shear desperation mounts as the piece goes on though,
It climbs from properly assessing how to achieve the target and holding off investing on to failing to meet a level of speed that’s well above that you’d have got in some local networks under a decade ago. It then moves on to moaning about lack of choice which is entirely due to lack of interest on customers. In general unless it’s fibre to house broadband is provided by Openreach. Other suppliers then take over at the exchange. Only if there’s enough profit to justify it.
There’s going to be some areas where cut price G5 mobile might be cheaper than physical cable. There might even be an advance on the technology allowing broadband over electricity.
The daily mail obviously has a crystal ball and can see into the future.
I thought telecoms infrastructure was a reserved matter…?
The weasel words are ‘… less the 30mbps’ i.e. (some of) these premises do have broadband access ‘up to’ 30mbps which, for someone who started out in the on-line world with a 1200bps (bits not megabits per second) modem, is not bad. OK. I know. There are places in Scotland which do not have fixed line broadband because, possibly, their telephone exchange is not yet equipped and, to do so, involves a lot of expensive civil engineering putting fibre optic cables in the ground.
Two summers ago the roads round here were clogged up with OpenReach vans as fibre to the cabinet broadband was rolled out with green cabinets appearing here and there alongside the road. In two years’ time some of the remoter parts of Scotland will get this treatment which could make the north500 route, with nose-to-tail campervans waiting at yet another set of traffic lights, a fairly tortious experience. Why do these vehicles have such oxymoronic names – Rapide, Swift, etc?
Uhm, isn’t communications a reserved issue too and that this would, therefore, be the fault of the Tory government in Westminster anyway?
(Apologies if I’m wrong, the Daily Heil doesn’t warrant me actually going and looking something up. They don’t, so why should I?)
“30 mbps (megabytes per second)” ?
That’s 240 megabits/sec. I’ll have some of that.
Or perhaps the Mail’s Scottish Political Editor doesn’t know his MB (MegaBytes) from his Mb (Megabits).
That is very fake news in fact it’s a fairy tale.
Forgot another favourite tactic of these wankers,
Report a figure and claim it as a failure without reference to what it means and also without reference as to whether that’s an improvement on previous figures or not. The way trains are reported springs to mind.
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/7734-is-scotland-at-the-90-superfast-broadband-coverage-level is about the most accurate figures (IMHO) you’re going to get.
Its important to note that the reasons why BB coverage in HIE (Highlands & Islands) is so bad are many and varied.
For example there was the “Connected Communities” wifi nonsense on Lewis – tremendous idea mounting microwave dishes where you get 80-90mph winds every year and stupendous amounts of rain! That meant BT had to stay out of that area for ADSL for years. It wasn’t the whole island though so some areas got ADSL and some didn’t.
There is only one answer for HIE and its FTTP (fibre to the premises). Put it in the drainage ditches at the side of the roads and unless someone digs it up then its bulletproof. If they do then its quick to fix – not like you have to remake hundreds of copper connections like now. Its also not going to blow down every winter or develop dodgy joints due to water ingress. It costs bugger all in rural areas to trench fibre conduit and saves a fortune in maintenance.
IMHO urban Scotland has got a lot more of the funding pie than it should have, given commercial rollouts and for that, yes the SNP have to take partial blame. The Welsh govt engaged much better with the BDUK funding process and hence are much further along the FTTP path.
I don’t for one second think that 100% “superfast” speeds (30Mbps or better) will happen in Scotland in 4 years other than through satellite broadband, which nobody in their right mind wants. 95% I’m prepared to believe but not 100%
Did someone say its summer or is it my imagination after reading this claptrap?
The longer Moray and Gordon have poor internet connections the more likely it is they’ll vote in Tory MPs.
Let there be net-light.
Could not let this one pass by I wonder what the woman now thinks of her MP and the rest of the women who voted for him.
So this photo is from before the election. Did Tory MP for Moray, Douglas Ross add his support to yesterday’s Early Day Motion on WASPI?
No he did as he was told Hypocrite
Even the P&J has a picture of him and a article don’t tell me they are going to ditch the tories.
The front page of the National’s true
The media and BBC are wrecking Scotland by their constant carping about non existent Baad news leading to possible slow down of inward investment (remember the Chinese deal) and refusal to print or report the actual news
Which is generally quite good news
Long live Alex Salmond in his new role as business Ambassador for Scotland as he makes his way to Brussels (I just made that bit up but wouldn’t that upset them)
BT privatisation that left the network in the hands of one (already established) provider ought o have been criminal. A really botched privatisation.
Privatisation is not always bad, but to privatise the infrastructure grid in the hands of one of the providers is hardly level playing field territory.
The open reach split off should have been there from the start. I’ve recently switched from BT and the sky didn’t fall in. Worth taking a look at ‘The Big Deal’. Caveat emptor. It won’t suit everybody.
There’s been a lot of talk about reforming the Barnett Formula, and it’s something the Unionists try to hold over the heads of Indy supporters “You’ll lose the generous Barnett subsidy”. While of course at the same time, some of them also want to actually scrap the Barnett – typical of the Unionist who wants their cake and eat it – or spit it out.
But the original intention of Barnett, and the intention of any reform of it, is to allocate resources of the UK on a needs basis. So where providing a service is more expensive, more funds would be made available.
And this is where it comes completely unstuck, and probably why there has been no serious attempt to reform it. And the reason? I think perhaps it’s because, once the basis was clearly laid out, and the forumla reformulated, Scotland and Wales, and possibly Northern Ireland, would actually receive MORE funds than currently, not less.
It’s very simple really. Where you have a concentrated population, providing a service – like broadband – is realtively cheap. But to provide the same quality of BB so that every UK citizen has the same access to services as every other one, it’s geography and population density are the factors, so to provide superfast broadband on Coll or Eigg, would clearly cost way more than on even the Isle of Wight. Same for NHS, roads, other services.
Now here’s the thing. Since 1978 when the formula was designed, the population of England has increased, whereas the population of Scotland has been relativeluy stable. So the population density of Scotland has decreased relative to England. It is roughly one-quarter, but if that’s decreased, the ratio of resource to allocate to Scotland compared to England per capita should probably have increased – which it hasn’t.
Give us back our missing billions!
It’s rubbish like this that we must be able to challenge and response be given the same prominence, so we can reach the ordinary people who have no access to social media. If the ordinary people could have something concrete to compare the rubbish the Press and media spout out, then independence would be a sure winner .And that’s why we have crap like the Mail carrrying these type of stories.
Bogus articles such as this makes you wonder who in Scotland actually buys the Daily Mail, or the Express for that matter.
Both shit rags are anti-Scottish in my opinion. Does it follow that, the purchaser’s are in essence anti-Scottish? Ill informed? Or just plain old stupid?
You may call me pedantic, but I prefer to be accurate. mbps doesn’t mean megabytes per second, it means megabits per second, and I wish journalists would take more care to get their technical stuff right. I expect there are over 5 million people in Scotland who can’t get 30 megabytes per second. Still, compared to the rest of the BS in this article, this is small beer!
Dr Jim says:
I am totally convinced that many of societies problems can be laid at the media’s very smelly feet.
People throughout the UK have believes and perceptions which are not rooted in their personal lives and experiences – then are notions implanted by the media. All sorts of negative and nasty stuff.
The media should report the news and reflect society. Instead they fabricate news and manipulate society.
What is Michael Blackley’s background to enable him to spout this rubbish? Political Editor my bahookey.
The only credit I’ll give him is that he allowed Fergus Ewing to counter his rubbish. Not many SNP opponents (are you listening BBC, Scotsman, Herald?) allow this.
Well done Fergus, tell your colleagues how you achieved this please.
The truly lamentable state of the UK’s broadband is all thanks to Thatcher’s lust for privatisation and a free market economy.
We’re lagging about 10-15 years behind on fibre rollout because BT’s plans for fibre infrastructure in the 80s were thought to be a potential monopoly and cancelled.
And what do we have now? A stagnant communications infrastructure monopolised by a corporation that has little interest in putting future investment over profits, nor giving competitors equal footing. Bravo.
OK – needs checking, but here’s the population figures for census years 1981, 2001 and 2011.
England
1981 – 45.978 million
2001 – 49.139 mn
2011 – 52.012 mn
Scotland – with percentage of England’s population
1981 – 5.035 million – 10.95%
2001 – 5.062 mn – 10.30%
2011 – 5.295 mn – 9.99%
So between 1981 which is 3 years after Barnett, Scotland’s population density compared to England’s has dropped by 8.77% (the land masses are nearly the same!!).
But has the Barnett uplift, which is based on England’s spending, to cater for the extra cost of services per capita, risen by the corresponding roughly 9%? I don’t think so!
@yesindyref2
Think I’ve got Barnett wrong, or you have.
The point is to provide sufficient resources to ensure everyone in the UK gets the same level of services. As you said population density reduces per capita costs in more densely packed regions. Assuming that overheads remain the same.
With devolution the budget allocation, it’s not a sodding block grant, is calculated at the level it would be if all the decisions were made by Westminster.
So there’s nothing as contradictory as unionists who want both to cut Barnett and at the same time keep Scotland in the Union. There’s a point where even the most ardent supporter will have to admit that we’re being robbed if funding is cut.
Obviously the myth of denser population leading to cheaper provision of services doesn’t hold if rates and wages are significantly lower in the less densely populated areas. There’s bound to be places in Scotland where the much vaunted UK wide pricing is actually making things more expensive.
When I say the land masses are nearly the same, I mean that Scotland and England, bar a bit of coastal erosion or in the case of Tentsmuir, coastal increase, are the same as land just don’t get up and walk. It don’t “separate”. Not in just 3 decades, anyway.
More Scotlandbaad britnat rubbish. bbc just as corrupt as the daily mail
Didn’t see the Scottish Daily Mail – just home via Heathrow. Mind you, I’m up on European and US affairs as WH Smith stock Le Figaro, Die Welt, El Pais and even the city of New York’s NY Times. Scottish papers? Nope, not one.
@orri
I think we agree, it could be the way I worded it in a fairly long posting!
Ah yes, I get it, I say the point is to allocate on a needs basis, and this what they’re saying now, not then. But really the original intent of Barnett was similar, just not perfectly done.
I’ll try to knock up a shorter clearer version of the Barnett thing, it’ll take a while and the right frame of mind, shorter always takes longer than long versions. It’ll soon be time to tackle some of those postings with “You’ll lose the Barnett subsidy”.
The short answer though is that the SG already provides its own equivalent of Barnett subsidy to sparsely populated areas of Scotland in terms of service provision. With Independence all resources of the State will be available to do better. And it’s not “altruism” to do so, all areas are part of the overall economy of Scotland, and contribute to our GDP – and revenues that make the state run smoothly.
Lets hope wee Wullie Nobody and his colleague Swinson jump on this.
For years the Fib Dums expert on FK All Fanny Alexander promised faster broadband up here in gods country, what happened under his watch? SFA, a bit like the dualling of the A9.
SNP Aye.
From ‘BBC Mission and Values’:
“Our vision
To be the most creative organisation in the world.”
effigy at 1.31.
You do islanders from Crete a gross misrepresentation. Few if any Cretans would read or support the Daily Mail.
That is a role reserved for cretins and there are, sadly, more than a few around.
Fake News for Fake Tits.
Saw something on Facebook about a new YouGov poll putting Labour ahead of SNP in Scotland – usual caveat is that it is a sub sample.
Scot Goes Pop has an article on it
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
Rare sighting of the elusive BBC red tits:
http://imgur.com/a/IFJKd
Legerwood
There is that sub-sample for Westminster, then there is the reality of SNP winning in the Council elections, the SGE and again in the GE.
https://caltonjock.com/2017/07/07/afghanistan-thousands-of-young-soldiers-killed-and-maimed-at-four-times-the-rate-of-the-us-forces-i-asked-why-but-never-got-an-answer-does-anybody-know/
belter of a fake news headline at STV. Headline reads “Royal Hospital for Children ward closes over lack of staff”. as usual the last paragraph gets to the real story. a planned two week closure because of lack of demand in the holiday season.
Anas Sarwar said: “This is unbelievable. what a diddy he is.
Very important news – spread the word
https://twitter.com/GAPonsonby/status/883226132455337984
Pushing this garbage all day and every day must sap the soul, Depression on a daily basis gloom and a hopeless future for all ,it is all these people have, half the country laughs at this junk the other half are probably getting a bit fed up with the constant catastrophic warnings that they personally are not seeing, At lot of people are doing ok , but they disregard who or what is making this happen, they either don’t know or don’t care if the SNP are working hard to shield them from Westminster , Maybe it’s time they started to feel some pain and be confronted with exactly what it means to see the end of the SNP government and install a Tory party in all it’s glory .
If it wasn’t for the fact it would cause hardship to supporters and friends of the Independence movement I would say f/k them all , every bloody one of them , Starting with these rich landowners and farmers who are very suportive of this Tory regime, Tax them until they squeal . Squeeze them
Stoker @ 5.54 pm
Tried your link but was told I did not have permission to see them.
Some hint of what the important news is might be useful.
Listening to the Andy Murray match on the radio just now – sounds for all the world as though the BBC wants the other guy to win.
I thought the media had been told buy the Tory government to be more patriotic – ha ha.
Heard Liam Fox saying he was disappointed to hear the way the BBC was reporting Brexit so negatively! He never thought he would find himself accusing the BBC of being so impartial – you couldn’t make it up!!
Legerwood
Try this!
GAPonsonby:? We hope to launch the appeal to fund full time monitoring of BBC Scotland’s political news output this weekend. Spread the word folks. https://twitter.com/GAPonsonby
I’ll definitely be donating to GAP’s appeal.
Shock, horror,
The daily mail caught lying again.
Still the paper sells to it’s dwindling market.
Roll on it’s demise.
@yesindyref2 says: 7 July, 2017 at 2:55 pm:
” … But the original intention of Barnett, and the intention of any reform of it, is to allocate resources of the UK on a needs basis.”
Err! no it is not, yesindyref2. There are NO, “Needs Basis”, involved in the Barnett Formula calculations. At least not since Devolution began and the claims that it is based upon, “Needs”, is the reason there are so many myths, lies and false claims about it by the Yoons.
First of all it is NOT English Taxpayer’s money that finances the Block Grants of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, (in that exact particular order). It is United Kingdom Taxpayer’s money and we all pay tax on the same basis and on the same tax banding. In other words we all pay the same tax rates to the UK Treasury. It is NOT English Money.
Secondly that exact order of percentage is due entirely upon the different levels of devolved functions that Westminster has devolved to N. I. Scotland and Wales. N.I. has most devolved functions, Scotland comes next and Wales has the least devolved functions.
Here is the true set-up of how Block Grants are calculated :-
When Westminster devolves a function previously carried out by a United Kingdom Ministry they must necessarily also devolved the funding to carry out that particular function as the devolved administrations had no tax raising powers and thus each devolved function carries with it a transfer of funds from the UK ministry to the Devolved administration.
First of all, even within the functions being devolved, there were different levels of powers devolved to each devolved administration. Thus funding could not be calculated simply on the basis of per capita percentage in the different devolved administrations because each devolved administrations had different powers within that particular devolved function.
So the fist part of each devolved function’s calculation was the cost of whatever powers each individual administration had. This was then calculated on a per capita basis as each devolved administration had different population levels.
Then there were functions that were not devolved to all three devolved administrations. All this had nothing to do with, “Needs”, being taken account of. That is nothing to do with the demographics, (such as distance apart of population clusters). Just what levels of power were devolved and for the number of heads in that devolved administration’s area.
That is the entire function of the Barnett Formula:-
To calculate the different number of powers devolved from the UK Ministry to each devolve administration.
To calculate the different levels of powers devolved within each devolved function.
To multiply the above calculations by the number of people in each different devolved administration’s area.
There are no other, “needs”, taken into account and there are no subsidies from England to any devolved administration.
It actual truth there is subsidy but the subsidy is from Scotland to every other country in the Union.
Here’s how – The Scottish Per Capita GDP, (Gross Domestic Product), is, on average, usually higher than any other country in the United Kingdom.
To put that into simple terms – The Per Capita GDP of any given area is calculated by dividing the total revenues to the Treasury from that given area by the head of population in that given area. The result is the average contribution of revenue per head of population in that area.
As Scotland’s per Capita GDP is consistently higher than that of England, N.I. and Wales then each Scot pays in more revenue than any other UK country’s peoples. It follows, as Scotland gets less back than Scotland contributes, that Scotland is subsidising the Union.
Furthermore, the sole reason that there are different levels of per capita Block Grant in each devolved area, (and also in that area that gets every penny of it’s funding as United Kingdom Funding via the United Kingdom’s Ministries), is due entirely to the differing levels of devolved functions.
Nothing whatsoever to do with what you attempt to imply as, “Needs Based”.
Do not take my word for it, yesindyref2, go check it out for yourself. There are more myths on that subject than there are in the Grimms Brothers Fairy Tales.
Will be delighted to help fund G A Ponsonby’s appeal.
The BBC has long been the only effective opponent of the independence movement in Scotland.
Disappointing that even some in the indy movement accuse you of tinfoil hat lunacy if you dare criticise auntie beeb.
Part of the cringe I suppose.
Can we also start bombarding them with FOI requests? For every one they send to our overstretched and underpaid public services we send them 10,000. They’ll apply their foi exemption but they’ll still have to process them. ?
Donald Anderson 1.18pm. Yeah i emailed eurosceptic tim Martin (wetherspoons) asking him how he though Brexit would affect his pubs in Dublin. Never got an answer.but no doubt he won’t pull out.money is money to these corporate f****s.
I noticed Brewery was on GM Shortbread this morning with Gary Rubberheid.
I reckon Rubber has a picture of Brewery above his bed, Brewery has a picture of Brillo above his and Brillo has a picture of himself stuck to the inside on the lid of his casket.
For some unearthly reason you seem to get the feeling Brillo is the goal they aspire to. WTF?!
Los tres arsholes
G A Ponsonby’s appeal.
I dont know what can be achieved by monitoring Bbc , this has been done by Prof John Robertson for a number of years , even a Holyrood Committee discussed Bbc bias to no avail .
Ive long since said the only way to bring Bbc to a halt in they’re bias is to take them to Court for Breach of they;re Royal Charter & there’s plenty of examples in that clear bias .
There’s a bonus in winning a Court Case forby bringing Bbc Scotland & Worldwide into disrepute , their would be plenty People both north & south of the border grateful as it would put a stop to any Court cases for Non Payment in Scotland .
Stoker @ 6.44
Thank you. That link worked. I find that quite a few Twitter links that people post end up with the message that I don’t have permission to access them. Don’t know why.
On Barnett, a few things always to remember (this taken from a Northern Ireland Assembly briefing: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/Documents/RaISe/Publications/2012/finance_personnel/0412.pdf ):
“The House of Lords Select Committee on the Barnett Formula in 2009 criticised the decision making relating to Barnett Consequentials for being opaque. In particular it noted that if expenditure is classified as ‘England only’ then a Barnett Consequential is triggered.
However, the Select Committee observed that the asymmetric nature of devolution in the UK (i.e. some things are devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland, but not to Wales, for example) means the system is “inherently complex.”
“Building on this point, the Select Committee reported that:
‘There was general agreement from all our witnesses, except the United Kingdom Government, that the application of the Formula is unclear.’
It goes on to record that the Select Committee noted:
‘On every funding decision the Treasury is judge in its own cause (my own key take-away point!), including whether to bypass or include any expenditure within the application of the Barnett Formula. We recommend that before decisions are made on whether the system is bypassed or create a ‘consequential’ there is a clear process and open consultation with the devolved administrations.”
This proved to be particularly controversial at the time over London Olympic funding.
“The decision to have a single ‘UK’ Olympics funding stream saved the Treasury money, helped control some risks and made administering a complex project a bit easier. It wasn’t, in that sense, a bad decision. But it was a bad decision because it illustrated the arbitrary nature of the Treasury’s power over the block grant and formula system, and how it acts as both judge and jury in its own cause.”
Does anyone know if anything has changed?
Scotland gets governments it doesn’t vote for and which have near complete decision making control over what proportion of the taxes we pay are returned to Scotland via Barnett. And if we don’t like it, we can pay more in PAYE without the powers to stop leakage of these revenues to either England or a tax haven. Better together!
Ledgerwood
If you refresh your browser you should be able to read those tweets that you can’t access…works for me 😉
Testing testing
Interesting info on who funds the Fraser of Allander Institute, and its neoliberal goals for Scotland.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Fraser_of_Allander_Institute
Superfast thinband! They’ll be coming up with that one next.
Back in the city, the party city, ra City of Glasgow.
Trnsmt main band on stage now till finish.
Remember, “the world is changed!”
And SO must Scotland.
Move with the times.
@Robert Peffers: “First of all it is NOT English Taxpayer’s money that finances the Block Grants of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales”
I never said it was.
The BBC is hypocritical over FOIs. As a licence fee payer (?) try asking them how much they have spent in the last four years on sport in each of the nations of the UK and they hide behind commercial confidentiality.
Might be an idea to ask how many FOIs they have submitted to each of the governments in England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland over each of the last five years. On population basis 85% should be to Westminster.
I wish GAP every success in the proposed monitoring of the BBC and coverage of their political bias.
At least it’s doing something while we wait around for another referendum. Well done you for this initiative, I like positive action of any kind. I’ll be sure to help GAP out as well.
@Robert Peffers
The “official” description of how it works is contained in this document:
https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldbarnett/139/139.pdf
For a relatively quick look, start at page 16 thru 18. This is the crunch thing though on page 19:
“This new arrangement injected into the process the concept of gradual convergence.”
which is partly what I’m getting at, though I’m basing it more on the decline in relative populations making services more expensive per capita in Scotland than England, than it was in 1978. So as I say “We’re being robbed of billions” IF the idea is to allow for different geography and population density but give equal services, which is of course what a truly representative government, in this case the UK one, should do.
The UK Government doesn’t even do it in England though, the North-East of England for instance is really robbed, yet when it suited the UK, provided coal, ships, cars, paint, chemicals, and much other needed resources and goods. If it hadn’t been for oil, we in Scotland would be far worse off than we actually are.
Use this to counter yoon fake news on education.
https://www.snp.org/facts_colleges_unis
Ref tax payers money paying for scotland,england etc. Tax payers money doesn’t fund anything whilst a state issues it’s own currency.
It is a tool primarily to drive the currency and to control inflation.
Reserves are created by the central bank on behalf of the treasury. The reserves are then packaged in savings accounts to guarantee return. They are called bonds.
All the money issued eventually is taxed back over time. You pay your income tax; you buy goods and pay VAT. The shop you bought it from is taxed etc etc.
Tax is completely different in a currency using state like scotland for example which doesn’t have a central bank.
Tax then becomes a funding mechanism..
Is it a full moon ra night Scotland…?
Look up, look out.
YES it is.
@Andy-B
Ref organisations like the fraser of allander institute. This for me is our major problem. Organisations like that, the IFS, OBR etc are wheeled out time and again by the bbc as respected think tanks.
The other problem is that the SNP also refer to these groups when the analysis favours them. It’s counterproductive to say the least.
They are not biased as such but preach an eonomics which is based of fantasy (too much to go into here).
You can’t use bad economics one day and dismiss it the next and this where YES and the SNP are going to have look elsewhere and there are plenty of progressives around.
We will find it hard to win economic case for indy by accepting neo-classical economic ideas as having any basis in fact.
I used to be a teenage werewolf but I’m all right nowoooooooowwwwww
The funny thing is back in the early 1980’s British Telecom was banned by the Tory government from rolling out optic fibre to end user customers because it would have given British Telecom an unfair advantage over the competition! At the time that was Cable & Wireless (Mercury) which was,just like British Telecom at the time, mostly owned by the UK government, along with some other foreign government owned companies that were given access to the British Telecommunications network. I worked in the telecommunications industry from the early 1970’s until a few years ago, so I was involved at the time. Did you also know that optic fibre was actually invented in Britain? No I thought not!
Having got on egg on their face over the economy they had to dredge-up something else. We are currently having our fibre brought to us and I was told by ‘The Contractor’ that there is just not enough qualified ‘jointers’ in the whole country to join all the lengths of fibre together – I offered to do it for him and found myself almost kidnapped.
Auld Rock
“The BBC is hypocritical over FOIs. As a licence fee payer (?) try asking them how much they have spent in the last four years on sport in each of the nations of the UK and they hide behind commercial confidentiality.”
They’ll hide behind their arts and journalism shite.
However, sending FOI requests to the 4 Governments may get results.
Sorry quoted the wrong bit. Should have been:
“Might be an idea to ask how many FOIs they have submitted to each of the governments in England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland over each of the last five years. On population basis 85% should be to Westminster.”
@scottieDog
It might all get there in the end. Scotland kind of invented economics and banking, perhaps iScotland the 2nd can do a better job!
My current hobby horse is foreign reserves held in the form of actual banknotes, or at lrast transmutable into such. What a total waste of money!
I say spend it all on public capital expenditure, so for instance the Scottish Pound is backed by the Forth Road Crossing, the completely dualled A9, the 3 lane M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the dual carriageway A75, fibre to every part of Scotland including all the islands, inhabited or not, a fleet of ferries, railways, stock and all.
So if people holding the quite large issue of scrip of iScotland want to get their money back, they’re welcome, if all else fails, to strip the railway lines at their cost and transport it away to wherever they might be able use it. FRC? Fine then, ship it over to Sydney. The ferries? Sweden might be interested, bit big for their internal needs maybe.
That’s the way to do it, no waste, no idle money or “reserves”. It’s backed by a rock solid country full of rock solid assets, with a rock solid economy. And then there’s the rock itself for building, a bit of granite, sandstone, trees, unfracked shale oil. Population then of around 8 million, all worth on average about iS£500,000 each for a further iS£4 trillion.
Scotland would have foreign currency reserves of around iS£20 trillion! Don’t spend it all at once, d’ye hear?
yesindyref2 11:13pm I used to have Mad Cow Disease but I am alright Moooooo
yesindyref2 is right.
How ye doing bro.. long time since 04/07/14
The Newsroom, Edinburgh.
Ah’ve still got 6 of 12…
Cheers @hood.
U still here buddy?
Scotland.
Love it.
Love her.
Aooowwwwwww!
Matthew, mark, luke & duck…
Name zat film Scotland..?
Mel knows.
I seem to be in that kind of weird mood tonight so here goes
Land Reform
This really is very easy. First assess the proportion of a state’s total revenue / expenditure that is expected to be generated from land. For the sake of argument it’s 50%.
Then if a landowner owns 10% of the land of Scotland, he or she is expected to pay revenues of 10% of that 50%, every year to the exchequer. Allowance can be made of course for indirect revenues like income tax, NI, VAT, corporation tax, other profit tax, and indeed, capital investment allaowance at the full 100% spend in the year on improvement for the benefit of increasing revenues on that land or valid deductible expenses, but the sum total must be 10% of that 50%, every year.
If he or she is unable to pay up that revenue, then he or she (or they) must sell off part of that land to meet the revenue bill, at the prevailing market value for that land. Special circumstances can be considered, like restructuring, temporary declined markets, but overall it must be 10% of that 50%.
It really is a dawdle.
With one notable exception Scottish newspapers are basically unionist leaflets, the front cover, with pages attached.
There was a peaceful town called Rockridge..
Where people lived in harmony.
There was no hate or kinda trouble.
There was no place of misery.
2nd verse:
Behind ra bar stood A’nold Johnson.
He always kept things nice and clean.
Burp!
Yes!
“The world is changing…”
Actually…
“Dare was no HINT of misery”
The sheriff is near…
LSX.
ronnie anderson wrote on 7 July, 2017 at 8:06 pm
Re; G A Ponsonby’s appeal.
“I dont know what can be achieved by monitoring Bbc,”
Awareness, it’s all about creating awareness and providing the evidence for the footsoldiers to get the message out. To discredit the mouthpiece at every opportunity, very much in the same way as WOS does with the newspapers.
Difference being that newspapers are privately owned commercial enterprises that can say whatever they like. On the other hand, the BBC is supposed to be unbiased and accurate and quite a large percentage of our population still believe that to be the case.
It is our place to educate them and show, with evidence, that the BBC is anything but accurate and trustworthy. Well done to The pnr and all others who will be supporting GAP’ initiative. It’s extremely important that we all get behind it and do our bit to help expose the BBC for what it truly is.
Legal action, in my opinion, would only result in the outcome being twisted in some warped way in favour of the BBC. Cold hard evidence presented to individuals cannot be fogged over and it would plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of those easily fooled by the BBC’ corrupt anti-independence games.
We need a reliable BBC monitor as much as we need WOS. We need to use every single tool at our disposal if we are to win. Let’s hope every independence supporter gets behind this project.
https://twitter.com/GAPonsonby
Cactus
Away and sit on one and give us peace from your ramblings.
I see BBC scotchland are promoting Jo Swinson , lib dem. In her quest Fo no referendum . Never never never.
Considering the decision has already being taken by the Scottish Parliament maybe she should return home to her MP hubby in darkest England and just shut up.
We love you Hamish100!
Ahhhhh hahaha.
Ramble on.
Yesindyref2 @ 11.55
I am in an even funnier mood….Sooo Let’s
Get the inheritance law’s fixed as well.
Take back control…if ye like!
We should stop the ability to inherit more than 1 acre of land around a dwelling.
Things like land,water and mineral rights belong to Scotland,if you didn’t make it or cause it to be there,you should not be able to dictate what happens to it after you die.
EG If you buy land from the Scottish government (the people of Scotland) then you have bought the right to use, enjoy and to make as much money as you can from it.
But with the exception of a house and garden why should you be able to keep passing the land it self on to individuals?
Who have done nothing to earn it other than be born into the right family.
If you have made enough money and if you’re kid’s have or are also doing well for themselves,then they surely can buy it in their own right.
All land should belong to the Scots and no one should be able to buy it forevermore.
The Scottish government should only be able to sell a “Life Time Title”which should revert back to the people of Scotland on the death of the owner.
Then the government should have to put it back on the market for someone else to try to make their money from,same with the Water and.mineral rights….
Can’t see it happening in my lifetime, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the way it should be done for a modern Scotland.
Cast this current method of the natural resources of Scotland being kept for a few families only, into the dustbin of history.
The land water should be for all the people to benefit from and we also all have a stake in looking after it too.
Good grief…no wonder we scare the establishment!
On the subject of Fake News and the BBC and msm.
I do not believe we can ever get them to change their output and give the SNP and the Yes movement fair coverage. We are insurgents to them. We are a threat to their “country”.
The idea of monitoring their output to highlight their paltering bias has great value, but only if this is communicated widely. Destroying their credibility will be an effective way of neutralising their effect.
In my opinion, the highest priority of the Yes movement should be to leverage technology to bypass the BBC and msm. A priority should be the harvesting of email, Facebook and Twitter ids. And then start to USE them.
The SNP and Yes movement must have my email id. I sign things, I’ve sent them money. Apart from the initial response, I hear nothing.
Nobody reports SNP press releases.
I would be delighted to receive SNP press releases. I would be even more delighted to be sent colour graphical multi media documents highlighting the case for independence. Start doing this via email mass mailings. If these also contain an easy opt out, no one can complain. I get about 5 emails from Amazon every time I buy a packet of paper clips. This is about marketing. Employ I/T literate marketing people. Produce 21st century professional material that will make the reader think if this is the quality of the SNP / Indy stuff, maybe independence might just work.
Getting the vote out.
Nobody sent me an email reminding me to vote, or explaining the importance of voting given polls showing a Labour resurgence. My DOG gets an email reminding us that his vaccinations are due. My RESTAURANT sends me regular updates. No wonder we didn’t get the vote out. It was absolutely lashing and even I hesitated. 10,000 majority, is it worth the soaking?
The branch had no money and few volunteers.
I got several Tory leaflets via the post. A couple from Labour via the post. And a couple from the SNP. A least one of the SNP was hand delivered by some unknown hero.
The SNP leaflets didn’t tell me how to donate. They didn’t even include a snail mail address for donations. This is a key contact with SNP pensioners who are not online. I personally wanted to donate, but not via the Internet . The Internet is monitored. I am an insurgent or so they say.
Send the leaflets by email.
If the SNP had a harvested list of IDs, the unknown hero’s time might have been used better elsewhere.
The TV Press Reviews Don’t cover the Scottish Papers.
And they certainly don’t cover the Scoittish Online media. Every harvested email could be sent a Weekly Press Review covering Wings, WGD, Calton Jock, Newsnet, Scot Goes Pop etc, with links. It would be extremely interesting for most folks. No SNP voter would return to Labour after they discover Wings. I’ve met a number of SNP voters who have never heard of Wings.
This way the SNP can propagate Wings, without supporting them, if that is a concern.
Focus on the mobile user.
Internet use from mobiles is now much higher than from computer. Indy websites need to be mobile friendly. I had a 60% increase in hits and follow through, after making my site module friendly. I believe mobile access to the Internet is about 3 times that from computer. I saw accurate figures somewhere recently.
Create an Indy app
We need a good mobile app to distribute pro Indy material. I hope Nicola covered this with the Apple fellow.
Wars are won by the side with the best technology.
This is especially true of the 21st Century War of Scottish Independence. We are being carpet bombed daily by BBC / msm, whilst we stay in our trenches discussing the faults of the opposition generals. We are not responding, apart from a highly effective V1 weapon called Wings over Scotland and a few others.
I completely disagree with people who say we should wait for the actual independence campaign before we do anything. They fear it will cause negative comment in the Msm. We get that in spades anyway. They have a massive on going campaign. We need to mobilise now.
As I say, we seriously need to tech up as a priority. Our only advantage is our case for independence and our troops on the ground. They need to be given modern I/T weaponry to fight effectively and economically. Everybody in the SNP has a mobile and most have tablets. We should be using them.
(Apologies if I’ve been talking at times out of turn here. I’m not in the SNP, so have no visibility of what is happening internally. I appreciate some of this may be happening. I hope so.)
Scotland.
Cactus
Yay Scotland
Happy Trails,man…..
Love everything.
Love all.
Love Hamish100..
Scotland AYE!
@ Black Donald at 1.42
That slightly surprised me; I’m not a member of any political party, but I have donated to the 2 most recent general SNP fundraisers and am now getting regular e-mails, ostensibly from Nicola Sturgeon, though I’m sure she doesn’t personally press “send”. Their frequency is increasing, and they do contain press-release-style information.
That, perhaps, explains why you have not also received all the same messages as I have. You may have given them your contact details at some point, but it may be that the most efficient way of getting onto a mailing list is to donate on-line. I do understand why you are reluctant to do that, though.
It’s possible to register your support here, without joining the party: https://www.snp.org/joinus – that triggers e-mail updates. I didn’t do it that way, so I don’t know if what you would get is exactly what I am receiving.
The most recent e-mail I receieved included this statement:
plus a link to :
http://www.mobilise.scot/?mc_cid=efd1bde5de&mc_eid=806dc33474
You could try that; I think you’d probably get e-mails then – no need to donate. There’s also space to contribute ideas, such as the ones in your post here.
@Hamish100 ~
Thoughst has challenged thee my friend…
What can I do for ye…
Independence is good..
Ye intae it?
HOMEbound.
HOME.
Hey Liz g x
We good.
It’s
Saturday…
Who’s it gauna be..
Chris or Lorna?
Dedication:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSfqo4nY6Fg
Ramble on.
That’s what I do.
Sing along if ye ken the words.
D&B.
@Yesindyref2 11.13pm
Steady now. 😉
BT was given the exclusive contact to expand Internet coverage in the UK by Westmininster. £2Billiion. It was considered BT has the necessary knowledge and expertise to carry out the work. (Graft and corruption?) BT workmanship was found wanting. Botched up jobs and complaints etc. It was fined by the regulators. The CEO was operating an (illegal) subsidy in Italy – losing £Billions. BT was fined. The CEO was not dismissed. Still there? Heavily criticisised. Losing £Billions of taxpayers money. There were reports the Contracts were to be opened up to completion. So the work would be done more diligently and be more cost affective, £Billions have been lost and the taxpayers fund the bill.
The Barnett Formula controlled by Westminster has lost Scotland £Billions. Misappropriated and mismanaged Scottish affairs. Deliberately brought in by Thatcher/Lang/Forsyth to hide mismanagement and misappropriation of of the Scottish economy and the Scottish Oil revenues. Hidden under the Official Secrets Act. the McCrone Report etc. The Oil revenues were secretly kept off the books/accounts. Fraudulent accounting.
Thatcher used the resources to build up London S/E. Built Canary Wharf and Tilbury Docks. . Centralised the transport system through London. Now completeky and utterly congested. Uneconomic. Taking jobs away from other parts of the UK. Gave the Funding to fraudulent ‘loads of money ‘ fraudulent bankers who funded the Tory Party. Fraud and corruption. To make herself and her cronies multimillionaires. She and her cronies Lang/Forsyth etc told a pack of lies about the economy and cut the Scottish budget to the bone. ‘this must be kept secret’ written by Thatcher on the documents. Telling a pack of lies.
Every unionist Party have had a hand in it. Lie after lie after lie. Still at it. So they can line ther and their cronies pockets with misappropriated public money. especially from Scotland. Thatcher left over 3million unemployed. A higher average in Scotland and interet rates at 15%. With the repeated interest rates rises, to try to control excessive borrowing, many people lost their homes. Especially in Scotland, where unemployment was even higher because of Tories policies.
Labour were no better using Oil revenues for illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Blair and Brown should be in jail. The corrupt politicians and their cronies never go to jail in the UK. For crimes against humanity. So there is no deterrent. They are no charged with crime or corruption. It just gets swept under the carpet under the Offical Secrets Act. That is how they get away with it.
LibDem backed up the Tories causing all the malicious present policies. Their hypocricy is sickening. Lecturing others, The nerve. What a cheek. Backing up Cameron/Osbourne destroying the UK/world economy. Causing unemployment in Scotland. Scotland could have had full employment and been in higher surplus. With even more to invest in the economy from fundng raised in Scotland. Not having to fund more (pro rata) borrowing and spending in the rest of the UK. Sanctionig and starving vulnerable people. Welfare cuts costing even more. Cold, hungry worried peopke get sick. More people can’t sleep and develop mental health problems.
The lame duck Westminster Gov is trying to destroy the world economy. How anyone can vote unionist in Scotland is a mystery. It could be down to lack of broadband cover in some places,
280,000 households to go. Some can access it elsewhere. At work/social or education institutions. Libraries efc. The Scottish (SNP) Gov has put extra funding into it.
Scotland loses on average £20Billion a year to the Union. if different policies were implemented in Scotland, in line with what the majority in Scotland want. Not wasted by Westminster. Illegal wars, financial fraud, tax evasion and ilegal and unfair taxes. Mismanagement and misappropriated Scotttish Fubds. Losing £Billions and thousands of jobs in Scotland. Westminster unionist lies and corruption. Most of them should be in jail.
Scotland Independent in the EU. Is the only solution. For an even better, fairer, happier more prosperous country.
This broadband expansion. Just shows how corrupt Westminster and BT can be. Losing £Billions of taxpayers money for a botched up, totally inadequate, ineffective, inefficient job.
Westminster/Unionists mismanagement and misappropriation of £Billions of public funding. The job, expansion programme could have be completed faster and more efficiently, for less. The typical Westminster unionist botched up job. It could have been completed faster for less. Instead of wasting £Billions of taxpayers money. Illegally by BT. No wonder line rental is so expensive. Trying to recover costs. A total catastrophe. The usual Westminster unionist mess. Losing £Billions.
@yesindyref2
It’s funny you are actually describing many post war economies, including the UK where the govt proritised the people. Free health, education, full employment – all at a time when money was far more constrained than it is now. I say constrained because we were still attached to a gold standard until 1971.
Now there is simply no reason our kids can’t enjoy the same privileges since money is created as fiat via double entry book keeping. Sadly many of the generation who benefitted from the post war policies want to deny their grand kids the same rights. Shame on them.
Folk are punching the air about scolands growth figures but the sad fact is if we do enter recession we simply don’t have the economic controls to come out of it. That’s down to who controls the money supply.
I agree, we need a currency and we should be implementing it now. Parallel currencies can help counteract the business cycle. Control of some tax powers cannot.
The setting up of the Welfare State had nothing to do with benevolence the establishment were afraid of the homecoming armies and had to give them something for their efforts.
At the end of WW1 Empires collapsed and Communism surged. In Britain it was a close run thing Ireland became independent and serious trouble threatened the rest of the country.
Establishment and Media caused and assisted the rise of the Labour party to divert the commoners away from communism, It worked and the Welfare State prevented a repeat, it was coming regardless who was in power, now the people who fought WW2 are dying off the Establishment feel its now safe to dismantle the Welfare State.
The first WORKING fibre-optical data transmission was demonstrated
by Manfred Borner at Telefunken Research Laboratory in Ulm in 1965.
Time to get serious about the SNPBAAAAD fake news epidemic that is damaging our country.
You know what to do, folks.
Print out copies of the Wings article, pop along to your local newsagents and slip them inside as many Daily Mails as they have left on the shelf. Do it soon – right now – before any more of this poisonous propaganda is sold to unsuspecting consumers.
and . . . where are the billboards? Where are the info posters in peoples windows, in cars etc?
Tallking to each other here or in groups on Facebook is great for morale and swapping ideas, but we need to counter the endless onslaught from the media – Stu realises this is the no.1 priority, and is doing a brilliant job – what can we do to spread this to where it really needs to be heard?
Oh yes, and wear your badges! Had a brilliant response fronm a checkout operator yesterday to my ‘Is that true or did you read it on the BBC?’ badge. It strikes a chord with more people than you might realise, and wil help to fan those wee sparks of protest.
I name this ship BBC Scotland. May God bless her and all who sail in her.
Bless.
Stoker 12.37 I didn’t put that post up re GA Ponsonby without due thought Bbc bias has always been used to Promote British Propoganda & nothing has changed ( or likely to in the near future ) thats why I suggested more Direct action ie Court Action ( re they’re abuse of they’re Royal Charter) . As you will remember Prof John Robertson managed to get his Bbc Bias report before a Holyrood committee but hears the thing Not in a Visual or Audio presentation ( written format only ) nothing further became of that report .
A Court Case would be more challenging for the Bbc ( other broadcasters would be covering & reporting the case ) & would be in the Public arena , more so than now .
Awareness as you say I’ve been engaged in direct action against the Bbc since 2013 & the last Bbc Bias demo ( re Rev’s comment Loonies shouting at windows ) & my reply We fight in many Ways . Im still of the same opinion, but still challenging Bbc in open Court would be more productive, as many notice on WoS SNP wont challenge the Bbc directly nor as most on here would hope to see to Promote a Scottish Broadcasting Service.
Btw in case there’s any doubt . I respect GA Posonby’s contributions in the cause of Independence. As I said previously We all fight in many way’s.
ScotsRenewables
“Oh yes, and wear your badges! Had a brilliant response fronm a checkout operator yesterday to my ‘Is that true or did you read it on the BBC?’ badge. It strikes a chord with more people than you might realise, and wil help to fan those wee sparks of protest.”
——————-
How about posters/billboards/badges etc. with:
(Something positive/article/Report/headline)
“This is true, did you see it on the BBC”
“This is true, did you see it in the Herald”
“This is true, did you see it in the Scotsman”
“This is true, did you see it in the Daily Wreckord”
Graf Midgiehunter & Scott’s renewables..@ 11.59
While I don’t know how legal it would be on badges,the biggest success I had with debunking the MSM was…..
Dropping into the conversation that ” The Daily Record had a reading age of 9″,the head’s were nodding like “well doesn’t everyone know that”.
Within a couple of weeks,three adults in that conversation claimed never to have read it!!!
I believed them to oblige them, because that’s the sort of yes voter I am.
And as a bonus they have repeated that phrase like they owned it on a fair few occasions…..jist sayin!
Mega merrilees 6.39pm 7th. I was on a coach travelling to France on the 10th June,when it was announced by the driver that Murray had lost his match. Big cheer went up from the all English travellers on board. Has the penny dropped with you ‘proudscotbuts’yet? They f*****g despise you. Grow a backbone ffs.
Should be Meg. Bloody subtext. Lol.
@Liz g
There’s merit in that, considering that much land “ownership” was granted for services given in the cause of killing people, why should that ownership continue for generation after generation when the whole face of “politics” has changed utterly?
I’d probably go for 10 acres though, it would be a start, and allows smallholdings, subsistence farming, a few tups, even a paddock for those who can afford a horse! Later it could be followed by a need to actually use the land.
@Macart
I’m all right now ow ow
@ScottieDog
Interesting idea to actually make a start now to our own currency, no idea if that’s allowed or practicable. We already have a “local” currency though in terms of the 3 bank banknotes – backed 1 for 1 by giants and titans in the Bank of England in “foreign currency” – the £ sterling. Those banks already operate in a substitute fashion for the current traditional central banks, they are the commercial equivalent for Scotland’s scrip. I’d actually like to see Scotland going for that arrtangement, rather than the normal central bank – it was done back in the early 1800s before the Bank Act of 1858 or some such year. That and a currency board to regulate the commercial bank asset holdings.
We also have an optimal currency union with the rUK – as Carney pointed out himself. Which implies that was have standing as a state to actually take part in a currency union, which implies the possibility indeed of doing more with our own local currency.
Plus I think the SG do have the power to issue bonds, and should whatever else, do so as urgenly as they can to get our credit rating going.
There’s a lot can be done, and it really is the time to do it.