Questions To Which The Answer Is No
Posted on
February 09, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We know we were all traumatised at the time, but how on Earth did we miss this?
“Just three days before D-Day they vowed to extend the Barnett formula, whereby Scots get £1,600 per head more from taxpayers than people in England, worth £4.5 billion a year, or £45 billion over the next decade. So much for ‘austerity Britain’.
And for good measure they promised more home rule for Scotland – without bothering to consult anybody. Cynics called it a bribe.”
We urge you to click the pic and read it all. We’ve got nothing.
🙂
The Daily Mail is such a sad rag. Love the first comment though. Holyrood has a 178 MPs. That paper is a lightning rod for stupid.
read it, recognised it as the start of the inevitable “let’s fuck over the stupid sweaty jocks” campaign by those joyous souls at the daily nazi, ignored it.
The BTL comments are priceless eh? Now I’m a thug, lol.
They hate us yet we love them. Stockholm Syndrome on an international scale.
Did anyone actually believe that they would ever deliver on promises. They are Westminster politicians after all!
I blame you Stu, surely its us as pays you to read this garbage so we don’t have to 😀 Just having lost the Referendum is no excuse
Better late than never and you can always further blame it on the stress of attempting to bully and scare NO voters out of doing what Gordon look into my eyes my eyes Brown wanted!
Said it at the time.
Its just very creepy neofascists UKOK style, presumably trying to get England going over so many possible new SNP MP’s coming to Westminster in May and that will never do. Know your place scrounger sweaties.
This headline is great though
“Madonna, 56, takes to the Grammys stage for yet another cringeworthy performance as she simulates sex with her male dancers”
By COLETTE FAHNY FOR MAILONLINE
Meeow neofascists, she looks fantastic.
Speechless.
Two things about this mythical £1,600. Yes, it is technically correct in terms of identifiable public expenditure. However, it takes zero account of central government expediture. What benefit is there to London from having £billions spent to support central government services? What about the military, what about foreign affairs? The cost is allocated across the UK, but the economic benefit accrues to London and SE. Secondly, it takes zero account of revenue. Does the tax raised from economic activity in Scotland cover ALL expenditure? The firm answer to that question is YES. Don’t forget, our spending comes VIA London at the moment, not FROM London…..
I still haven’t found an adequate answer to the question: if we’re such a massive drain on Britain, then why did Britain fight so hard to keep us?
This wasn’t just Cameron, Clegg & Miliband. It wasn’t even just the Tories, New Labour & Neoliberal Democrats (or UKIP: even with their subsidy-junky garbage, they too fought to keep Scotland in the UK). It was the Queen. The civil service. The BBC. The print media. The big businesses. The retail giants. Hundreds of celebrities, musicians, actors. Commentators from left, right and centre.
Much as the Daily Mail try to prove otherwise, this wasn’t just a few ministers pushing some idealogy. This wasn’t just the government. This was the entire British establishment coming out in force, with a scale and unity of purpose unseen in peacetime. All for a country that’s apparently going to cost the rest of the UK £45 billion over the next few years.
Why?
WHY?
There’s been a few more “rogue” polls recently. The Mail will be overjoyed! Their readers will be even more foaming at the mouth now. Shame.
Notice too how Scotland isn’t in “Britain”. Otherwise how could we “cost Britain £45 billion”? Completely bonkers.
The Daily Mail is a horrible publication since it hovers its views so delicately on borderline racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia and classism while sprinkling it all with a good dose of objectification – especially towards (much) younger women. What makes it so horrible is that it gets away with it and people eagerly lap it up.
🙁
O/T
David Clegg, the Record, has been nominated for UK political journalist of the year. Yep, you read that right folks. Doncha just feel proud that we have our own homegrown Woodward & Bernstein rolled into one? Davie’s unsure though whether he’s going to be able to accept the award in person, if successful. He’s having difficulty extricating himself from Jim Murphy’s back passage…
What Taranaich said!
I know the Mail has embarked on a campaign of vilification against Scotland so that voters return to the red brick estate that is Labour, but could the disreputable rag be trying to divert attention from the corruption of HSBC – and all the billions it managed to shift out of the UK to Swiss banks, money that ought to have been gathered in as taxes?
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/hsbc-fu/
@Grouse Beater
Grouse that article is dated 21/Sept 2014
No “borderline” about it, Erin: it IS racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia and classism. It is actively hateful and does real and measurable damage to human beings.
Erin T
The Mail thrives on prurience disguised as moral guardianship.
If we didn’t know better you would swear these Unionist Newspapers were determined to start a war with all this Anti English Anti Scottish rhetoric, trouble is the daft English believe this crap they know no better and really who can blame them, they actually think the Media reports the news and tells them the truth, nightly on the BBC.. ITV and SKY they dedicate special reporting time with so called experts to re-report and analyse what the stupid papers mean as if any of it is of any importance anyway, but the poor sods the English love a good gossip so it must be true, and the unfortunate thing for society is, once again, Big Media,like Big Tobacco or Big Pharmaceutical creates the Agenda and decides the direction of the country and the thinking of the Bewildered
Thow Shalt Have no other God before me (Rupert Murdoch)…used to be Robert Maxwell..The names change, The method never does
All of course aimed at the armies of low information voters south of the border. Quelle surprise?
Man in Jar: That article is dated 21/Sept 2014
Man, you’re right – it’s in the tiny print.
Its maybe just the revolting Dacre having a pop at the just as revolting Murdoch, even though Rupert said vote NO at the end of his idiotic gamesmanship with our country. Both are usual far right tax dodgers with troubling interest in very young girls in their swimming costumes along with Daily Heil readers comments such as NBL from Sunderland, a typical Mail reader and YES vote “tacticts”
“NBL, Sunderland, 4 months ago
I think the pro independence voters or at least the thugs who intimidated those planning to vote NO have to take the can for this frankly. The YES voters thuggish tacticts meant that NO and undecided voters put up a smokescreen to hide their true intentions and only revealed their hand in the privacy of the polling booth on the 18th. A very wise move and one that shows that whatever the intimidation, the truth will out as the pen is mightier then the sword.”
Capella says:
“Notice too how Scotland isn’t in “Britain”.”
Indeed.
Britain is synonymous with England for most of the inhabitants of these isles, whether we like it or not. They quite rightly recognise that we Scots are now not part of their Britain/England. We are outsiders.
However what a lot of rUKers don’t seem to appreciate is their Imperial Masters want Scotland to stay because of our oil and our strategic/military importance. Well, they wanted us to stay and now they all have to accept the consequences. And although this DM article is essentially bollocks, it does recognise, in it’s own twisted way, the complete instability of the current situation we all find ourselves in.
For heavens sakes, give us either FFA/DevoMax or let us chose full Independence without external scaremongering and deceitful interference in the process.
Ach same shit different day! I’m getting awfi bored with this “Great British” forelock tugging, arce kissing fucking establishment with its over inflated sense of self importance. How much longer is this pish going to drag on for, how much longer do we have to put up with these arce-wipes? Lets just get tae fuck out of it.
This reminds me of a story my grandfather used to tell, of how the ‘man from the daily mail’ came to interview him in the 3 roses pub in Kishkeam in County Cork in what must have been April or May in 1920 after he and his supporters had essentially defeated the British Army in Munster and he had been elected to the 2nd Dail.
The man from the Daily mail asked him ‘How do you Irish believe you can really rule yourselves’? My grandfather thought for a few moments and then asked the young fella what was his experience in life. The young fella replied that he had an Oxbridge degree in classics or some such.
My Grandfather then turned to the other men in the bar and asked them to give an account of themselves.
A guy called O’Rourke told how he had made his fortune in the Clondike and 2 of his sons ran businesses in North America and how he had returned to Ireland and helped his relatives buy out their English Landlords and improve their farms.
The next guy had been a Texas Ranger then had studied law and ultimately served in the Texas Supreme Court and at the time was sitting in the Sinn Féin Courts that had replaced the official courts in the county.
The next guy ran a sawmill employing a large proportion of the local population.
The next guy had been an engineer in mines in South Africa and had fought with the Boers against the British and had been out with my Grandfather in the abortive rebellion in 1916 in Cork and had both played a part in the subsequent guerilla campaign and was now (I think) the roads engineer in Cork County Council.
He slowly worked his way around the bar and there was’nt a man in the bar that had did’nt have more real-world experience than the man from the Daily Mail.
Not to be out-done the bar maid then chipped in and spoke about how she had campaigned for womens votes and how when the Black and Tans and the RIC came to assassinate Countess Markevitz (the first woman MP) she had donned Markevitz’s distinctive hat and cloak and allowed herself to be arrested while the real Markevitz stole off the platform and made off on horseback over the fields and hedges behind the village and managed the pub and rleated retail business.
The man from the Daily Mail went home with his tail between his legs and the rest is history.
From that date to this in Ireland, ‘The man from the Daily Mail’ has been a source of popular derision – even up to the current day – try googling songs called ‘the man from the Daily Mail’
🙂
@Grous Beater
Could have been written yesterday.
“Same Shit Different Day”
See David Bowie is named as one of the tax dogers in the HSBC scandal
Was it not him who told us we were to poor to make it on our own
Capella,
“Notice too how Scotland isn’t in “Britain”. Otherwise how could we “cost Britain £45 billion”? Completely bonkers.”
Thank goodness this article has been published after Robert Peffers’ bedtime.
Expect some lengthy British history lessons tomorrow morning.
Keep it up Daily Mail!
It’s nasty stuff like that that will alienate sooky, forlic-tugging Scots into shifting their opinion. Imagine aping up to the Uk and then getting your nose rubbed in it? If i was a No voter I’d be pissed off by that.
On a positive note labour just might be dead – I had my nightly comedy visit to Margaret Curran’s facebook page and it’s all restricted. AARGHHHH But it’s a good sign, grasshopper!
ErinT,
“The Daily Mail is a horrible publication”
“What makes it so horrible is that it gets away with it and people eagerly lap it up.”
Even more horrible than The Daily Mail are the middle class bigots who buy, read and believe it.
http://www.douglasalexander.org.uk/latest-news/local-news/news.aspx?p=102598
Apologies for direct link (tech duh-my), the basis of this crap is being put through doors today.
Check the lack of detail and date.
Jeezo !
@ geeo
https://archive.today/qds0E
I hope that’s your link archived correctly. Best of luck getting rid of him.
Btw… what’s up with the SNP website today)(well, yesterday)? It has been off-line for hours then not updated this evening… Gremlins from Britstate’s Kremlin?
http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/finance/the-biggest-banking-leak-in-history-how-hsbc-helped-royals-entrepreneurs-and-david-bowie-hide-millions-in-switzerland/9730.article
telegraph referendum
David Bowie might live abroad, but he still represents the best of British
Bowie was attacked on Twitter and Facebook by the “Cybernats”, a technologically active wing of the independence movement, with posts telling him to “–— off back to Mars”, among other insults too crude to mention
For he’s a reminder that the United Kingdom is not simply a tired legacy of “colonialism”; it’s also about the alchemic fusion of different identities into something original and exciting that can capture the imagination of the entire world. And in that sense, Bowie is very British indeed.
anyone with a subscription able to get me full text of this
https://archive.today/BiIED ?
i just remembered thinking it was weird at the time
Take a drop of comfort here….
Daily Mail Audited Circulation:-
2011 – 2,136,585
2012 – 1,945,496
2013 – 1,863,151
2014 – 1,789,565
2015 – 1,688,727
Simple question: Based on this arithmetic decline does anyone care to hazard a guess what year the Daily Mail will go bankrupt and that hate filled preacher of lies and bile boss Paul Dacre will be getting his jotters?
I will repeat for the umpteenth time, the food and drink sector, especially as it would rapidly evolve after independence, is more important than oil to the rUK.
Unfortunately the deliberately manufactured accounting smoke-screen successfully obscures that fact and makes it virtually impossible to get it out there into public knowledge.
Even the majority of Scottish farmers have been inexplicably duped by the Westminster/Whitehall propaganda machine although the finding, allegedly, that levels of numeral and textual dyslexia are, for whatever reason, inordinately high amongst the farming fraternity may help explain that.
Take some comfort, Daily Mail Audited Circulation figures:-
2011 – 2,136,585
2012 – 1,945,496
2013 – 1,863,151
2014 – 1,787,565
2015 – 1,688,727
Sincere apologies for the double posting on Daily Mail circulation figures. My computer ate the first post, but somehow WoW managed to recover it.
The Daily Mail is quickly overtaking the Daily Record as the worst newspaper in Scotland. My Auntie used to collect the back issues ring marked and indexed between my visits, especially remarks about the SNP, Scottish Independence, the Low Paid, the Unemployed, the Disabled ect. The Daily Record might use Propaganda to brainwash it’s readers how to think, and who to vote for, but the Daily Mail is simply taping into the well of human hatred and bile that exists among certain individuals like my Auntie, who probably hold more extreme right views than even they would dream of printing in this day and age. If the Daily Record shapes how it’s readers think, then, in contrast, the Daily Mail is shaped by how it’s readers think.
Bunch of fucking skid marks.
Stephen.
The British Establishment is synonymous with secrecy.
In recent UK history since the 1970’s,
beginning with the McCrone Report,
it is questionable whether any statement
about Scotland by the Westminster Government
has been true.
But there is one exception.
It happened in 2014 and it wasn’t a statement of the usual kind.
No, in the days leading up to the Independence Referendum,
Westminster panicked.
Having just heard that the most recent poll
had Yes in the lead by 2 points,
the Westminster Government spoke the truth
by an act of panic.
The truth which the panic revealed
is that Scotland was, and continues to be,
indispensable to the British Establishment.
England can’t live without Scotland’s support.
England always said that Scotland could not survive without England. Most English people still believe that.
The YouGov poll for the Sunday Times on September 6 2014
put the Yes Campaign in the lead for the first time,
and provided the first realistic and credible idea
that the Union might actually be broken.
Looking into the abyss of the consequences of a Yes result,
Westminster reacted in panic, let their defences slip,
and thereby revealed the true status of Scotland,
which they had tried, successfully,
to hide for at least forty years.
Revenue streams from Scotland to England,
were keeping England afloat.
With the truth out, so also was the 40 years
of continuous lying to the Scots about Scotland.
Since September 2014, the Establishment have returned
to doing what they do best. Lying again.
This time about the Vows. And it continues to this minute.
But, it is too late. Everyone knows the truth now.
The genie, as they say, is out of the bottle,
and cannot return.
The good times for the Establishment are over.
Things will never be the same.
By discovering the truth about the English partner in the Union,
Scotland has been released from the Great British Lie,
to travel the path of Independence.
Everything we see, hear and read from the Unionists now,
is grief in slow motion.
Soon to be followed by weeping and wailing, fury and rage.
It won’t be long – late April perhaps, before it bursts out
uncontrollably.
You reap what you sow.
Cardogan Enright – tremendous.
The man from the Daily Mail does us a wee favour everytime he puts pen to paper.
o/t
Sincere condolences to the bereaved in Bath who so tragically in a similar tragedy to Glasgow lost loved ones.
I remember this story from the time. I’m wondering why we need to dredge this up when there are examples of this practically every day from the Daily Mail. Here’s one from Alan Massie, published only two days ago, in which SNP supporters are compared unfavourably to Stalinists, Maoists, Fascists and the Stasi. https://archive.today/HjtwN It can only get worse, as they begin to realise that it wasn’t a rogue poll after all.
I just don’t care about, the Daily Mail or it’s readers. We are on a journey, a journey to freedom, freedom from this bile and the freedom to mould this nation of ours, into a fair society for all, no matter of ability, place of birth, religion or any other differences; differences the likes of the Mail use to divide and poison their readership and fellow travelers.
john king says:
10 February, 2015 at 6:02 am
o/t
Sincere condolences to the bereaved in Bath who so tragically in a similar tragedy to Glasgow lost loved ones.
I just heard about this, very tragic, my sympathies to all touched by this accident.
Chris McGregor
Fuck off you cheeky cunt.
Slightly o/t, but I see that Murphy’s cheerleaders in the media are talking up a new TNS poll which shows Labour will only lose half their seats. Interesting that the Scotsman goes for spin: “Scottish Labour cuts SNP poll lead by half” whereas the Guardian leads with “SNP set to double its vote in general election, poll finds”. Severin Carrell even comes close to presenting a balanced analysis. I guess we all knew this was coming. The Labour bounce, I mean, not Severin being reasonable.
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/
always check out Scot Goes Pop on polling.
It appears the Daily Heil is promoting a hate campaign against Scotland, but then hating is kinda what they do for a living.
I do wish the mail et all in England would make up their mind, first they vilify us for wanting to ‘separate’, now it’s because weare part of their ‘family of nations’
Stu
Did you archive that article because I’m late to this thread & clicking on the picture just gets me Internet Explorer Cannot Display Page. Perhaps it’s been taken down
I would note that although our hackles are raised, UKIP voters are their target audience. These silly articles are unlikely to be much read in our constituencies, other than by people who are already of that mindset. If anything it may undermine support in Scotland, as the racism is so often so glaring that even their readers must see it.
As in the Yes campaign, those south of Gretna don’t get to vote here. There is no need to even engage them in conversation about Scots politics.
And Capella is right. Scot Goes Pop is the poll expert, not any of the selective reporters in the dead tree press.
CURRAN in today’s Shitesman “The choice at this election is clear: the largest party will form the Government and either Labour or the Tories will be in Downing Street” Grrrrr
Anybody else having problems downloading the National today, again?
@ Bobby McPherson
Ms Curran may want to take her brain out of neutral once in a while. She’s basically slapping both the electorate and democracy in the face by saying ‘you plebs have no choice, you can have blue tory or red tory, nothing else is important’.
Don’t know about anyone else but Ms Curran and both tory parties can go take a flying squirrel to themselves. I’ll vote my conscience and no pretend socialist will tell me what way to vote or how to think at any time. I CHOOSE to vote for a representation which will stand for my country’s rights and interests. I CHOOSE to vote for representation which has formed capable, strong government in Scotland.
I may not agree with everything the SNP have done, but they are by far and away the closest thing to a parliamentary party that still has a conscience, a sense of duty and care for the electorate and knows how to play well with others for the public good. They certainly don’t wander around the F***ing countryside insulting and robbing their own electorate whilst attending £250 a plate dinners with the arms industry.
Stairheid can stick that in her pipe an’… etc.
The Guardian this morning has a story about Labour being more interested in a deal with the DUP, rather than the SNP.
The story is illustrated with a picture of one of the DUP leaders, proudly wearing his own (rather than his father’s) sash and on march with like-minded people.
Just how is Jim Murphy going to sell such a tie-in to the rest of the Celtic Family?
I kind of expect the Daily Hate to bandy misleading, inaccurate and outrageous figures about. However, the gov.uk site…run by the UK Govt for the UK …had this to say just before the Referendum. Point 4 is incredible. Yet again, the UK Govt spins a story that Scotland gets extra. Yet again it gets away with it.
https://archive.today/vps6a
The so-called facts originated from the Scotland Office… No doubt a unionist quango not run by the SCOTTISH Govt.
Never mind rogue poll costing Britain £45 billion.
The bow down vow cost Scotland her future happiness and prosperity.
Vote SNP – It does what it says on the tin.
https://www.facebook.com/events/779063018851870/?pnref=story
@bugger (the panda) 8:08
Trying to download national yesterday and today, failed. Gets in as far as “retrieving page data” then hangs up.
However yesterday I could open it up on my PC. iPad fails. Will try pc again later.
the comment at the end stating there had been many polls around the 50/50 mark caught my eye given that unionists (at the time) claimed the yougov poll was an outsider.
Unfortunately the Daily Mail is read by very many women typified by the notorious Better Together political broadcast who aren’t political but get the hysterical anti SNP / Indy headlines.
Meanwhile in The National to-day Labour / Smith Commission’s Welfare proposals ripped to shreds by voluntary sector expert.
Also letter praising the South Edinburgh Yes Cafe and Willie Macrae play 3000 Trees.
@Socrates McSporran
Regarding Labour and the DUP. Thats one to keep an eye on it could prove very useful.
Got a link? 🙂
The Man in the Jar:
Try this:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/10/labour-snp-coalition-ulster-unionist-leader-dodds
For a bit of fun watch Britains bloodiest dynasty its well erm all about England
2010 – Labour election campaign in Scotland was all about ‘Vote SNP, you get Tory’ and the only way to ensure Labour government was to vote Labour
The result was Scot’s voted Labour and ended up with Tory Government
2015 – Labour election campaign in Scotland is all about ‘Vote SNP, you get Tory’ and the only way to ensure Labour government was to vote Labour
Margaret Curran even states that to end Tory rule you have to vote Labour
Total number of MP’s = 650
Total number of MP’s from Scotland = 59
Surely Scot’s cant be THAT stupid to fall for the same crap?
Is anybody else having trouble downloading the National?
Devorgilla
I have problem downloading The National to-day but it seems my subscription has expired. Only 50p at all good newsagents.
“Nigel Dodds said that he believed some Labour MPs have told him they would prefer the support of his party”.
He *believed* some Labour MPs told him that? Couldn’t he work out what they were saying? Must have being talking to Curran or some of the even more obscure ones like Donohoe, Doyle, Gilmore, Docherty or Banks.
Sept’14
“Deutsche Bank has compared a possible Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum to the mistakes which led to the Great Depression of the 1930s.”
Feb’15
“Scotland, Flanders and Catalonia are among the European regions that could be better off going it alone, says Deutsche Bank”
Who’d have thunk it?
@Devorgilla.
No, I have just read the national online.
The daily mail and its readers are putrid.
Gives me diabetes.
Beyond toxic.
Could open the National no problem. Well worth it!
Caledonia – the irony of David Bowie saying ‘stay with us Scotland’ when he himself had fucked off for tax reasons 🙂
Lies, damn lies and Daily Mail articles.
@ Devorilla
Just downloaded the National. It did require a second request before it downloaded but otherwise fine.
Before the referendum “Stay with us we love you”. After the referendum “You horrible sweaty socks are stealing English taxpayers money”.
We really need to get away from these lunatics and closet xenophobes/racists asap. Better Together? Aye right.
C’mon is this a slow news day. It’s already 10.23 am, and we haven’t had a new Murphy announcement!
To all the Daily Mail readers and all our cousins in the South…
Thank you for all your hard earned tax, paid out to us up here in scrounger Scotland.
You wanted us, we apparently voted to stay, and here we are!!
Hopefully the Holyrood government will spend all your money in the manner to which we have all become accustomed. With a bit of luck, a reduction in duty for alcohol served in the pubs would be nice. And if we get too hung over, well, the headache pills are free thanks to your generosity.
Oh how I love this pooling and sharing. You share only your money for us to sit by the pool. GREAT!!
And the best bit?
For decades we have sent MP’s down to WM, and they vote on issues affecting just you, keeping you in your place while ensuring that we benefit financially more than any other country in the Union; and we contribute very little, in fact next to nothing by way of taxes.
And you can’t do anything about us, because we have Holyrood.
I’m so tempted to say “As you sow, so shall you reap”, but that would be churlish.
Ok I’ve finally found the article online by googling the authors name but every time I try to ‘archive today’ it returns IE cannot display page. Any suggestions as to how I save it for posterity.
OT: I see on the BBC that the British Chambers of Commerce is calling for as soon as possible EU referendum, A Tory source said “We’ve said we’d hold a referendum by 2017 but if it is possible to hold it earlier that would be fine”. https://archive.today/J3y6m
So good news for Scotland leaving the evil & corrupt Westminster is getting nearer by the day.
The Daily Fascist supported Hitler pre-war, it has form for backing losers.
I am not sure who is at fault here, the British media and establishment for conning Scotland, or the Scottish public for believing their crap.
Lollysmum
get rid of internet explorer its f&^%$£g crap you will need another search engine
download torch. firefox .googley.anything but i.e
The rubbish that the daily mail is pushing will be counter productive to their ends. If new polls are showing a genuine move back to the unionist parties then that is simply sad. Anyone with any sense knows the game that the unionist parties and the MSM are playing and anyone who is being influenced is choosing to be influenced. For the sake of our own morale we have to avoid being carried along on a wave of enthusiasm only to feel let down at the end. I don’t know what is going to happen any more than anyone else but I wouldn’t be surprised if the SNP vote stays solid and I wouldn’t be surprised if the move forward was halved. The antics of the Mail and others are just decoration and background noise in my opinion. The undecided will make their individual decision to vote for hope or fear. We have to continue to explore and articulate the prospect of a better life and encourage others to join us in our efforts to make it happen.
“Thank goodness this article has been published after Robert Peffers’ bedtime.”
Aye but he will wake up to it at breakfast time.
OT but it’s tail-end and a Tuesday.
The Union, Separation and Independence
The key role played by the use of the word ‘separation’ in IndyRef.
A role which it will surely play again,
but next time to the advantage of Scotland and not England.
In IndyRef, Better Together made great play on the word ‘separation’.
Separation is a very complex and emotive word,
but also a very sensitive word to several groups of people
– like the elderly.
Better Together presented separation in a very limited,
but astute way –
as a big loss and a huge mistake –
as something very regrettable.
They then milked the ‘sadness’ and ‘loss’ aspects of it to the full.
And, toying with the emotions of the electorate,
BT helped 2 million voters to say NO to separation,
while totally ignoring, not only, all the positive aspects
to Independence and self-determination,
but also the extent to which serious levels of ‘separation’
already exist and have become established throughout UK Society.
One need only think of the separation,
between rich and poor
north and south,
England and Europe,
geographical separation on racial or ethnic grounds,
not to mention the countless examples of
divorced and separated people in the UK.
Scotland and England are not twins or siblings.
The two countries comprising the Union
did not come into being as a united pair.
Instead, they were politically and economically ‘married’.
Listening to Better Together , you might think Scotland and England were joined at the hip.
Being an arranged marriage
between two very unequal partners,
problems were never far away.
Never more so, than with the arrival
of the Thatcher era in British politics
and her total conversion to neo-Liberalism.
Fundamentally insecure, but superior in attitude,
Mrs Thatcher succeeded in making separation
a necessary component in the rise of the rich
to complete dominance in the UK.
Unfortunately, the poor had to be left behind,
while the wealthy charged everything
to the poor taxpayer’s account,
and devised ever more devious ways of transferring
the nation’s wealth to the private hands of the already wealthy.
So began the Great Separation between rich and poor in the UK.
There are Laws for the rich, and laws for the poor;
Taxes for the rich, few, minimal and usually offshore,
while the poor are taxed to the hilt.
The wealthy are given every kind of benefit,
support, discount, bonus, share option, subsidy,
grant and exemption imaginable.
The rich dine in luxury while the poor have foodbanks.
But, still, it’s not enough.
Well Scotland has had enough.
Separation from rUK is a natural and inevitable result of the right to self-determination and the desire for Scottish Independence.
But sad and regrettable?
For the poor – not in a million years.
For the rich – not before time.
Mandandboy – beautiful post about separation – I hadn’t thought of it in those terms before.
I’m a little confused about the wording here. How can it cost Britain £45 billion, if Scotland is part of Britain?
Do they not mean England?
Hurrah for the Blackshirts! Need I say more?
@Taranaich says:9 February, 2015 at 10:58 pm:
“I still haven’t found an adequate answer to the question: if we’re such a massive drain on Britain, then why did Britain fight so hard to keep us?”
We are back again to what I explained about the functioning of Barnett and the real reason Scotland apparently gets more per capita funding.
If the sums are done properly and both sides of the equation are correctly addressed then the totals prove that not only is the Scots per capita GDP higher than the UK average, (that is we pay more per capita to the treasury), and the mythical, “extra” per capita funding we receive back from Westminster is due to the, “extra”, funding to cover the “extra costs”, of the “extra”, devolved functions that only Scotland has to pay for.
Did you imagine they transferred the powers formerly carried out, and funded, by Westminster without also transferring the funding? The real question should have been – did they transfer ALL the funding costs to cover the devolved functions granted to Scotland or did they once more cheat us?
Answers on a post card to The Rt. Hon. Gideon Osborne.
@Capella says: 9 February, 2015 at 11:03 pm:
“Notice too how Scotland isn’t in “Britain”. Otherwise how could we “cost Britain £45 billion”? Completely bonkers.”
Yeah! You got it in one. This is exactly what I’ve been banging on about for ages now. Once the eyes and ears get attuned to this blatant propaganda the abuse of the English language terms becomes so easy to see and hear. Believe it or not the Southern Establishment has been at this since the Romans left South Britain.
It was the reason for all those, “North British”, Railway Hotels all over Scotland, the proscribing of wearing Scottish National dress, Playing the pipes and the punishment of Scottish School children for speaking either of Scotland’s own languages. The use to this day, (are you listening Gordon Brown), for the use of the term North Britain in Scotland.
Just listen to any Cameron statement and it is littered through with these abuses of English terms. Just by chance?
Aye! Richt!
Re separation;
Using my 80 year old no voting Ma as an example. In “her day” you stuck with a marriage even though it was destructive, for whatever reason. I have tried to explain that nowadays if a marriage is not benificial for both parties you separate, stop the destruction and maybe eventually find a new partner. But due to customs in “her day” I don’t think she is entirely convinced.
Incidentally I bore her to tears with stuff I learn on Wings and lies/bias/propaganda I’ve now learned to spot on TV and in MSM. I think I am grinding down a life long low information Labour voter. No offence Ma. I hope she lives long enough for Indyref 2. I may have a convert. It’s been hard work.
@The Man in the Jar says:9 February, 2015 at 11:37 pm:
” … How much longer is this pish going to drag on for, how much longer do we have to put up with these arce-wipes? Lets just get tae fuck out of it.”
There has been a elite Establishment based in the South West Corner of the British Mainland since the Romans landed in 54BC. These Elites have changed their names but the Establishment has remained much the same and the Royals, aristocracy and wealth they stole from the natives has remained travelling in much the same direction – South West.
You cannot expect Scots, who have only now realised their nation has either been fighting these elites off, or has been suffering under their rule, for around 2069 years, can turn things round in a day or so. After all most of them have only found out the truth since the referendum campaign began. It might take a wee while yet unless those of us who now know the truth can not only enlighten them but rally them to the Scottish cause too.
The odds are getting better all the time – I’m guessing the 55%/45% figures have changed a wee bit recently.
@caledonia says: 9 February, 2015 at 11:53 pm:
“See David Bowie is named as one of the tax dogers in the HSBC scandal. Was it not him who told us we were to poor to make it on our own.
Aye! Caledonia, and just how many of those on that list were Love Bombers telling Scots they loved us and were begging us to stay with Old Mother England? A haggard old thieving harridan if ever there was one.