Wings Over Scotland

Makes you proud to be Bri… No, me neither.

Brilliant Chris. Put this on a billboard.

Is THIS the UK people voted to remain with in 2014?

They get away with all that they do because of oil
.
I would be happy to pay more, if they would just stop killing brown people for it.

There is no excuse for that bitch,she has access to ours.
And while I know it’s an oversimplification,there is and always has been enough in the North Sea for this whole Island.

While there can be no excuse for dealing with this regime,the fact that they do cannot even be mitigated by claiming to need to keep the lights on here.. Disgusting.

Talk about a picture saying a thousand words….well done.

Oh, that’s a hard hitting one this morning Chris. Well done!
The true butchers of Baghdad, eh! Where’s her butchers apron btw?

Revolting – great work Chris

Oh Chris.

I was jolted by that one.

Mr Cairns is becoming one of the best political cartoonists ever. I expect that one to be widely seen across Europe and the world.

I’m glad he is on our side.

Wow what a cartoon, a grovelling prime minister on her knees before despots.

How low can you go Mrs May?

I posted her speech during the visit on the previous thread.

WM asset stripping used to be done discretely.

A few more decades and there will be “nowt” left.

Ask an ABZ Fairmer what “nowt” are.

Excellent cartoon.

I wonder what Ruth Davdison, who courts the female and gay/lesbian vote, thinks that HER party leader, is scuttling across the middle East seeking money from countries with the most appalling human rights records.

This last week, Ruth Davidson’s boss, Theresa May, has been meeting to forge ‘new relationships’ with Saudi Arabia (where homosexuals are beheaded), the United Arab Emirates, and other gulf countries, where gay people are invariably lashed hung beheaded or other wise jailed for life if they are lucky.

Likewise those countries have the most appalling attitude to women. Just last week, a women dared to post a picture of herself in the street not wearing a burqa, and is now facing the real prospect of being prosecuted, with many men publicly calling for her to be killed.

Those are the kind of countries that Ruth Davdison’s Tory party now dances with. As for Theresa May, any woman, who gets on their knees to the leaders of these barbaric countries does women everywhere a big disservice.

Aye, brexit isn’t red, white and blue, just blood red.

link to amnesty.org

link to amnesty.org

Belter

Chris,

I was going to say that your efforts this morning are fitting of the great Charlie Hebdo itself but on second thoughts i’ll go one better than that – yours is far superior.

Hebdo tends to have nondescript characters quite a lot but the detail in your characters can be worthy of a good portrait artist. Once again, thank you and well done.

Have a great and safe weekend troops!

Chris

Once again a stark and disturbing image brilliantly executed.

Lets free ourselves from the butcher’s apron once and for all!

It’s a cracker Cris the best yet I think.

There is something blackly comic about Boris actually being spot on about politics in the Middle East and PM’s office saying it is not UK policy to support such a view (despite it being the truth).

I’m amazed that the Saudi’s would touch a Pig!

Peace Always

In Tory World, there is only one God, and he comes in various guises such as £, $.

Human beings don’t matter, morals don’t matter, the truth is irrelevant and must be kept from the commoners at all costs.

It’s for their own good, well just after their own Tory good.

Mass murder by bombing areas packed with innocent civilians
is fine, if they buy the Bombs from English Tory companies
after all its just another way of ensuring that the Elite
in the country stop the plebs from taking their lucre and control of their country.

So much easier than Welfare Sanctions, Austerity, Bedroom Taxes-Royal’s Excluded but Disable people included.

Hired hands such as ATOS just take so long to kill off those not making the Tories money.
Maybe Boris could discuss bombing our Council Estates while over in the Middle-East?

If a picture paints a thousand words… Says all that needs to be said about this vile regime, and the Saudis. Well done.

Just heard oor Donalda MacKinnon telling listeners to radio Scotland that it has not been proved that the BBC was biased during the referendum…… So we’re going to get the same old.

Also said that while a lot of people in Scotland are not happy with BBC coverage …….. NOT EVERY LISTENER was unhappy with The BBC in Scotland.

Need to get the Billboards up and get the 50,000 DVD’s made and distributed (with the message to pass on after viewing)

Heard Labour MSP MacDonald on the radio this morning arguing against any more referendum (on anything I think). Apparently they incredibly divisive.

I think what he means is “every time we have a referendum Labour loses 15% of its vote”.

I haven’t encountered any division in my day to day life in Scotland. Working in Glasgow what strikes me is how few strongly No voters I ever encounter and how many were actually Yes. So much so I sometimes wonder how we lost.

Ooft!…that’s a belter Chris.

Oooft. Brilliant depiction of the situation Chris. You have enormous talent at taking a complex story re politics and morality and encapsulating it on one sheet of paper.What skill.

I need say no more

“Working in Glasgow what strikes me is how few strongly No voters I ever encounter and how many were actually Yes. So much so I sometimes wonder how we lost.”

Given what has happened since IndyRef#1 who would ever now actually admit to having voted NO? (The loony loyalist cult excepted).

Dorothy devine 9.07am. Re rs mcolls Dorothy,down here in Dorset they are refusing to take Scottish banknotes. So i don’t give them my custom.

To bloody acutely painted to be funny, how many people were beheaded when she was there.

Disgusting person. As for Boris he could not care less, his remarks were calculated to cause her harm, to remind everyone what a jolly good chap he is, not like May, so next time vote for him. Not bloody likely.

Happy Christmas

link to m.youtube.com

Conan – that snpout blog reads very much like one Andrew HN Gray’s grovelling style. A regular contributor to the Scotsman’s “letter” page for many years – no I’ve not read for 5 years! The author of the most grovelling letter I’ve ever seen – he sent it to the H of C…. (fill in the spaces)Scottish affairs committee a few years ago! MInd you there are a fair number of grovelers on the unionist side – it could be any one of them!

great cartoon Chris, but struggling to work out why so many people are even mildly shocked by it…….perhaps some people have been living in a cave for the last 15 years.

Great cartoon. Ghoul britannia indeed.

Mike d @ 10:33

Time to boycott RS McColl perhaps?

Bill whoever he is his lack of self worth is pathological, the child needs a psychiatrist. His pain is perhaps from some darkness in his soul brought on from a terrible episode in his childhood.
So as much as I hate his crime, I as a human must feel pity for him and his family, I will light a candle for him at Mass, say a little prayer, in fact I will have his name read out so we can all pray for him in his hour of shame and embarrassment.

When you’re right, you’re right.

Neatly done Chris.

Andrew McLean – hear hear to that Andrew. I crossed swords with him many times years ago in Scotsman letters page and found his letter to H of C on Google incredibly pathetic in it’s grovelling embarrassment at being a Scot(it’s still there). Eventually I began to feel more sorry for him than contemptuous – I believe his self contempt is more than enough. However i’ll draw the line at “praying” for him!

Chris

Thank you!

You lift our spirit.
You shine a light into the dark corners of Westminster.
You achieve more with one weekly cartoon than the combined unionist propaganda manages daily.
An amazing artist and an outstanding political critic.

Ian B

on YT numbers, my money is on them being manipulated downwards….there is precedence for this on YT.

just another one of the ARSE KISSERS of the House of Saud.

Watch oot Chris you’ll be oan Boris Johnstone’s christmas card list noo, NAILED IT.

Dorothy Devine

The McColl family, “Toffee Bob” McColl started the business with his brother Tom, has not been involved in the business for over 40-years.

It is just another retail group, no family involvement.

You could go as mad as a tory, trying to work out UK/Saudi relations. Iraq and Iraqi Baath party were destroyed for 9/11, Bin Laden and his team were Saudi’s, House of Saud is extremely close to House of Windsor, who never go near Israel, House of Bush had or have strong finance ties with Bin Laden,

link to denverpost.com

“In 1978, Bush and Osama bin Laden’s brother, Salem bin Laden, founded Arbusto Energy, an oil company based in Texas.

Several bin Laden family members invested millions in The Carlyle Group, a private global equity firm based in Washington, DC. The company’s senior advisor was Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. After news of the bin Laden-Bush connection became public, the elder Bush stepped down from Carlyle.

Interestingly, on Sept. 11, 2001, members of the Carlyle Group – including Bush senior, and his former secretary of state, James Baker – were meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., along with Shafiq bin Laden, another one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers.”

Ruthie: “I agree with Boris about the Saudis… I’m not part of the government.” – BBC R2 news.

Ruthie trying to place some red, white and blue water between herself and T.May. More faces than Big Ben.

Theresa May must be a really friendly woman she’s got her lippy all over those guys

Remember the British government’s love in with the Saudi regime whenever you hear some Tory going off on Irelands ww2 neutrality.

That’s a true depiction of the sort of person we have at the helm in tory led WM. FFS.

When she scraps the human rights act in the brexited island of her great britain Scotland better be independent, or else.

This image should be in the Graun, but they demonise those who would stand up for democracy and human rights these days.

link to caltonjock.com

In an ever deepening Brexit crisis, the UK would be better run by The Monster Raving Loony Party.

Tories are infinitely more raving mental. Some BBC propaganda on new tory gov surveillance. They now watch and record everywhere we go online but the actual problem isnt assorted tory spooks, tory nut jobs, hard core Core swilled eyed loonies like May but cybercrime, hacking into their data collecting, y’see.

link to bbc.co.uk

@ heedtracker 1.04 Kevlar is the new black this season she’ll hiv ah matching jaikit as well.

Brutal and revealing.

I believe that at one time in the UK’s past you would have been hung for that cartoon. If the UK keeps heading down this path we’re on then it’s likely that you could be hung for such a cartoon in the future.

They just don’t get it..
The ‘British’ state are still despised by more people than they are loved by.

Many countries have learned to live as non offensive equals with their neighbours, each celebrating their similar but unique identities.

Not England, not yet. Still war war war…

OT this would be better on the previous thread as it made me think of the London Calling film. On the Wikipedia entry for Robert the Bruce

‘Contemporary accusations that Robert suffered from leprosy, the “unclean sickness”—the present-day, treatable Hansen’s disease—derived from English and Hainault chroniclers. None of the Scottish accounts of his death hint at leprosy.‘

An early example of propaganda perhaps 🙂

Thepnr,
Speak for yourself I am well hung already,

I’ll get my coat.

🙂

@ gus1940 says at 2:20 pm

UK is 4th largest arms exporter in the world behind US (1st), Russia (2nd) and China (3rd).

Saudi Arabia is the 2nd largest importer of arms globally, behind India who are largest importer.

Total Exports from the United Kingdom (not just arms exports) amounted to US $460.1 billion in 2015 but I can’t find a break down by country or just for arms exports.

Two-thirds of UK arms exports go to the Middle East though.

@ahundredthidiot –

Update on London Calling:

Between 10.30 and 11.23 this morning the YT version added 6,017 views.

Between then and now it has had 222.

???

Current total – 22,542

Meanwhile and Every time you UKOK look. Hard core virtual yoon Cons of Scotland flock to this idiot, who says he/she’s “at” the Uni of Aberdeen.

link to archive.is

“What if a wealthy Scottish woman who was disappointed that Scotland had voted to leave the UK took the case to the High Court. It’s hard to imagine that such a case could not be heard. What about the precedent? Moreover, the SNP could hardly complain, because they had already taken part in a similar case.”

So much dumb, for such a big country, Scotland.

heedtracker says:

link to archive.is

What a load of bollocks.

“We had a legal referendum last June, but since then we have had continual attempts by those who were disappointed by the result to prevent the UK from leaving the EU.”

That character clearly isn’t following what is going on. Or, is pretending not to understand. There is no attempt to “prevent” that I am aware of. So WTF?

The High and Supreme court cases have been all about who gets to make the decisions – is it May dictatorially or is it Parliament democratically? And now, should devolved admins have a say too.

What is going on is that various factions, including our own SG, are trying ensure a soft Brexit takes place. The problem is there are elements who actually want a hard Brexit and I presume the writer of that blog is one.

All academic, I hope. Because Scotland will be forced to take her own route. Thank heavens!

The Tories lose at every election in Scotland and have been rejected by the people of Scotland for years
Why does Ruth Davidson keep wanting another go why will she not respect the will of the people when it’s clearly no by a huge majority
Can’t Ruth Davidson abide by the decision and stop obsessing over these constant attempts at divisive behaviour and get back to her day job

What is her day job BTW, Oh aye, OO kit girl

@ mike d 10:33am You should go into rs mcolls pick something up. open it and start eating it. when you offer to pay for it and you only have Scottish Money on you. They will take Scottish Banknotes then ? if they don’t you have gotten something for nothing.

Whether the UK is selling arms to the Saudis, the National Grid to the Chinese, or High Tea and Biscuits to the Japanese, you can’t get away from the sober reality that Westminster has for decades been plundering the U.K. for assets it can sell off at knock down prices, based upon the lie that such things were a burden upon the state. BT, British Gas, Jaguar, British Steel, Coal, Rolls Royce, England’s NHS, Water, Electricity, British Airways, British Rail, BP, (and let’s not even mention the criminal squandering of Scotland’s oil), …Gordon Brown even sold off 400 tonnes of UK’s gold reserves, plundered the Nation’s pensions for its cash, and all the time, UK property is epically overpriced, with every street in every town throwing away it’s hard earned cash into some faceless mortgage company, and yet for all the tax and interest on such “valuable” commodities changing hands, the country is bankrupt.

If we’d been buying up all these National treasures, then we’d have some excuse for being up to our necks in debt, but at least we’d have some substantial assets to show for our investment, which we could I am sure make pay for its own upkeep. But we have nothing. Not a crumb. These treasures belonged to all of us, and they’ve been sold, and yet all the proceeds have disappeared into some mythical black hole, while the country blasts through more cash than a merchant banker sparko’d oot his nut on crack cocaine.

Never, ever, throughout History, has any country, ever, been so profligate and breathtakingly reckless with its own economic welfare and prosperity. It’s stupidity beyond measure. It’s not about banks being too big to fail, it’s about boundless rank stupidity that’s too big to comprehend. The cynical harvesting of a throwaway Nation simply for its wealth.

It cannot end well. There is no coming back from this, not in decades, not centuries, perhaps never. It is THAT big a catastrophe.

I’m sure Scotland, if we check under our seat, with luck we will find a big handle with yellow and black stripes and a warning label that says “Pull to Eject”. What the feck is it we’re all waiting for???

When does this NeoLiberal wet dream start to make any money? At what point will there be enough to go around? It is ALL a con. It’s a grift. It serves to move the money from your back pocket and into the back pocket of a privileged minority of the super wealthy. That’s it. That’s the end of the formula. There is no ying and yang law of equilibrium going to sort out any imbalance.

Neoliberalism does not enrich your economy, it ruthlessly exploits it, siphoning off all the wealth and removing it from a Nation’s economic formula, leaving the country having to do more and more for less and less, with ever fewer resources to support them as they try. If people fall off the treadmill or are lost, they are of no longer of any consequence.

There has to be a better way than this.

Brilliant Chris, the Brit Nat conservative voters must have their heads stuck firmly in the sand.

How can anyone with a conscience vote for these folk

On the subject of Scottish banknotes.

There are a number of examples of them being refused down south. A chain of chemists around the south west hit the Press, after an outcry. They gave a BS excuse about counterfeit Scottish fivers.

I shared a story on Twitter from a guy, proper name etc., describing being refused in a Canary Wharf Costa. He told the Assistant, no bother, ill use my bank card. He proceeded to order 6 items, they got it ready, and he told them to shove it.

I think there is an active campaign, OR, perhaps it’s Scots making sure the story gets out. I heard Kaye Adams say on her show, she daren’t offer Scottish notes to London cabbies, because, of course, she is up and down there every week.

She had a good laugh about it.

Breeks @ 4:45

Well said.

The ‘God’ of neoliberalism is the only ‘guide’ these Tories hypocrites worship,YES there is a better way,we just need to look to our Nordic friends (e.g. public trusts for natural resources (oil in Norway’s case),excellence in the management of government bureaucracies etc.etc.).

In these times of global carnage,ranging from mass poverty and inequality,to climate change deniers,to unchecked war mongerers,it is time to make stand and the only way to do that, is for Scotland to be Independant….of that,there can be no more doubt.

@Breeks
Post of the year.

Nothing in it most of us did not know already, but tied together beautifully.

I’d love to here Peter Mullen read it on a YT.

RE;Valerie@5.09pm

Funny I have been getting lots of those new (including dead animal ingredients) Bank of england five pound notes this past week or so, certainly more than the Scottish five pound notes. I try to get rid of them asap but just seem to get more next day, no thanks!

So Callkaye thinks it’s funny. So if shops here start refusing english notes, will she still be laughing or will she have a britnat rage phone in.

Straight to the point as always Chris, well done.
Not to sound toooo political, a wee Star of Dave on her lapel would have finished it off.
Arty Hetty@6.00, I started refusing English notes in my change a while back, I know two wrongs don’t make a right, but if it’s OK for the Scots to be treated as second class, then FU*K them.
As for Call K fae the valleys, bring it on.

WOS archive links now over on O/T.

David Mudell walked in front of my car twice today in Glasgow. His trousers were too short up round his ankles and he takes very small steps. Just sayin’.

@breeks You know, when the privatisation thing started with Thatcher’s ‘share owning democracy’, I thought it was a great idea & like many others, took up my wee allocation in British Gas, etc.

The reason I thought it was a great idea, was that – since the point of owning part of a company is to have control over how the company’s run – an army of small shareholders could help to keep the company honest (more honest than when it could blackmail governments for cash).

That didn’t work out – because, of course, that’s not how capitalism operates. Takeovers, mergers, foreign buyouts…the small shareholder disappeared (often just bought out). Just look at the history of the de-mutualised Building Societies….vanished into the maw of the banks.
The final straw was RBS and the shafting of shareholders, Scottish business, and the idea of socially-useful banking – all in pursuit of one man’s ambition, which it turned out no one could control.

And, as it turns out, the UK govt, in its pursuit of cash at any price, is now the one in danger of being shafted, as the assets which we all used to own are bought up in their turn by Chinese corporations whose interests, like it or not, are not the growing prosperity of UK citizens.

There are other ways of doing things…

@Roughian –

David Mudell walked in front of my car twice today in Glasgow

Ken McDonald walked in front of mine at Silverburn today and I started rolling the window doon to shout “Ken tell Kez to shove her new act of union right up her arse!” but the wife went aff her nut at me so had to compromise for the sake of xmas and that…

Great post Breeks.

You can add Royal Mail as the most recent misappropriation of assets by UK Gov.

And the Yoons just lap it up and think their betters in Westminster know best.Gullible and subservient to the bitter end.

By the way one last point any cash raised from these endeavours is normally spent on keeping taxes for the richest low.

What a kin joke.

Ask not who owes the debt but who owns it.

My grandfather worked for the GPO. They built telephone infrastructure for generations until the Tories sold it to the stock market..it wasn’t Thatcher’s to sell in the first place.

Successive governments have sold things that belonged to all of us to enable others to profit, an utter disgrace.

A billion quids worth of student fees got sold to “investors” lately. Or rather student loans worth almost £1billion have been sold to a debt collecting agency in the latest Government privatisation.

Planet toryboy also wants to sell off at least £40billion student loans, out of its total £90+bn, to the City. Big bucks.

Just in case any defaulters out there, Torygraph roasters say its all johnny foreigner types, so lets get em!

link to archive.is

Sorry to see Sunday Time critic AA Gill has died. Good writer and he had a nice piece in the Sunday Times supporting Scottish independence before the 2014 referendum:

link to imgur.com

“The Republic will be 100 years old in eight years, and if they had a referendum and were asked “Look, you’ve had a century of this, wouldn’t you rather come back and be part of the UK again?”, do you imagine there would be a single vote for yes?
Because whatever happens, it is always better to be yourself.

And when you ask, “Will it be different the morning after?”, well, everything will be different and how fabulously exciting will that be? And if you have a vote how will you be able to turn to your grandchildren in years to come and say: “Well, I did have the chance to right an old wrong, but actually I couldn’t be bothered. I was a bit scared.”

Wow Chris. Just … Wow. Bril.

That is communication and we have a problem; Murdoch wants complete control of Sky. Imagine the anti-independence equivalent of Fox News coverage of Trump pumping out / communicating the non truths of Westminster in Indyref2! Do we need to resurrect Radio Free Scotland? Can we take over STV? Chris’ cartoon blown up on billboards will not be enough.

Onwards, your post reminds me of the words of Thomas Pain

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

Let’s fight for Scotlands future today. So our children can be free!

Blue, white & bleu.
X.

Brexit came out of the blue, its pretendy promoters turned white and now the UK will go ever deeper into the red.

@Proud Cybernat says: 10 December, 2016 at 10:31 am:

“Just heard oor Donalda MacKinnon telling listeners to radio Scotland that it has not been proved that the BBC was biased during the referendum……”

I’m playing catch up again and it strikes be many here have missed the real telling point in the Donalda MacKinnon statement.

The bit about her pledge, “To spend more licence fee funds raised, “North of the Border”, on programmes produced in Scotland”. She states that in 2015/16 only 55%of the cash raised in Scotland was spent on local and Scottish network content. Her stated ambition was to see the amount spent, “better reflect”, what is collected.

Now that ambition seems to have fooled some of you but, do what the Rev Stu always tells you to do, read what is actually being said.

In the first place, if only 55% of the licence fee collected in Scotland comes back to Scotland, then that means 45% of it went to Westminster.

However, that is not the real story either of if Ms Donalda MacKinnon is going to spend more of it in Scotland, yet claims there is no BBC bias, then there thus needs be no change in BBC Jockland programming policy.

So the real story is that she intends to, Spend even more of the money raised from Scots on biased programmes and Westminster Propaganda against the Scots than the BBC spends already.

The Yoon Goons are about to use even more of our Scottish money on biased and anti-Scottish propaganda.

Am I wrong in my analysis?

@Robert Peffers –

The BBC can make all the pledges it likes about spending in Scotland relative to the amount it ‘raises’, but we don’t know how much they raise because they point-blank refuse to divulge how many households have simply stopped paying the licence-fee.

And under no circumstances will that particular stat be revealed – if it turns out that, for argument’s sake 100,000 Scottish addresses are unlicensed, that will precipitate a deluge of others saying ‘they’re no payin’, and they’re no goin’ tae jail, so why should we?’.

Poor Auld Auntie, caught between a rock and a hard place. What’s a new broom tae dae, eh?

How deep is ur love..

For Scotland?

X.

@Robert Peffers –

PS. I didn’t answer your question, sorry.

No, I don’t think you’re wrong. But I don’t believe the amount spent on anti-Scottish/indy propaganda bears any relation whatsoever to the amount raised via licence fee in Scotland.

Even if no-one in Scotland paid, we’d still be subjected to the same torrent of shite, day-in, day-out. It would be small consolation to know that our friends and kin in RUK are paying for it, but we’re surely at or near the point where paying that ‘tax’ is an open admission of full BTUKOK allegiance.

Someone on Twitter said to me earlier than he pays the licence fee because he enjoys the sport, specific game shows etc etc provided by the Beeb. That won’t wash as an excuse for funding blatant bigotry and hatemongering – far too many options available now, many of which are completely free after the initial lay-out on a wee plug-in, all perfectly legal.

Michael mcabe 4.30 pm. I actually done that the 3rd mcolls shop i went in,by opening a bottle of sparkling flavoured water and having a swig out it.. my Scottish fiver was reluctantly accepted.

I could not resist it.

‘Phoned BBC complaints to give off about the lack of irony in their reporting on the CIA having an investigation into Russian interference in US election.

Is there any country in the world where the CIA has not interfered in elections? And how many military coups followed when they did not succeed?

Indeed, how do we know this investigation is not the CIA interfering in the US elections and preparing for a coup?

Breeks @ 4.4.5 –well said.

The current structural economic stagnation has its origins in ‘free market’ capitalism- when floundering is free to plunder state assets- and has delivered thus far concentrated wealth for a few and income inequality for the majority, a vanishing social contract, high levels of indebtedness, financial fragility and the future generation defined by its social immobility and precariat class.

Thatcher’s legacy and for all those devotees who followed is an anathema to the neoliberal dream.

‘The United Kingdom improves its performance across the board, but not enough to keep up with its peers, slipping down one place to 10th position. The country has created a good set of conditions for its vibrant service sector to develop and for London to become the epicenter of the European tech and start-up scene. It boasts solid public and private institutions (14th), strong property protection rights (5th), and an efficient judicial system.

Thanks to its capacity to attract talent from abroad (4th) and some of the best universities in the world, the United Kingdom can count on a well-educated workforce, contributing to high levels of technological adoption (9th) and ICT penetration (2nd). Although still recovering from the global financial crisis, the UK financial market remains one of world’s best developed, able to provide venture capital and equity financing to start-ups and entrepreneurs. In the long run, the country will have to continue efforts to improve its macroeconomic environment (108th); the government deficit is still very high (5.7 percent of GDP, ranked 118th) and its public debt has doubled since 2007, now accounting for almost 90 percent of GDP (123nd)’

link to reports.weforum.org

Of course the report will be amended to reflect Brexit- London will no longer be an epicenter of the global financial scene.

Scotland as a viable independent country which is resource rich can adopt alternative economic models e.g. Nordic Capitalism. We need not take any lessons from successive UKOK administrations that have led us to crisis of economy with stagnation, weak investment, inequality and wealth concentration and a democracy in disarray.

Get down, n’ gerrup!

OT
Two Scottish scientists have just been awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, for their work on topology. – I could explain but I would only confuse you.
Actually it is something to do with thin films and is said to be important for future computing and new materials.