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A fair assessment 382

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

Mark Steel in the Independent, 16 October 2014:

“Maybe one way they can reverse this is to try a more forthright approach, and to start with they could say: ‘If the Scottish are so daft as to believe our vow, maybe that proves they’re not fit to run their own country anyway, the idiots.'”

Craig Murray said something quite similar recently from the other side, as it were, and at the moment we’re finding it quite tough to disagree with either of them.

Tags:
Category comment, media, scottish politics

Where it matters 151

Posted on October 17, 2014 by

The Evening Standard, 16 October 2014:

“George Osborne was today named the most influential person in London as the Chancellor topped the Evening Standard’s The 1000 power list, with Mayor Boris Johnson in second place.

The Evening Standard panel decided Mr Osborne is London’s most influential person because of his willingness to invest in the capital despite pressure for the Treasury to spend the money in other parts of Britain.”

Nice to know he’s looking after your money, isn’t it?

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

Spoiled for choice 133

Posted on September 10, 2014 by

George Monbiot in the Guardian, 10 September 2014:

“If Scotland becomes independent, it will be despite the efforts of almost the entire UK establishment. It will be because social media has defeated the corporate media. It will be a victory for citizens over the Westminster machine, for shoes over helicopters.

It will show that a sufficiently inspiring idea can cut through bribes and blackmail, through threats and fear-mongering. That hope, marginalised at first, can spread across a nation, defying all attempts to suppress it. That you can be hated by the Daily Mail and still have a chance of winning.”

We could have picked almost any paragraph. A tour de force.

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Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

The great surrender 70

Posted on September 07, 2014 by

Owen Jones in the Guardian, 7 September 2014:

“New Labour’s surrender to the underlying assumptions of the Thatcherite crusade gave the independence movement its greatest opportunity. Yes, the Blairites could not entirely purge Labour’s traditions, and so the minimum wage was introduced (albeit at too low a level), poverty was reduced and public services were invested in.

Yet they illegally invaded Iraq with Conservative support, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and 179 British military personnel before handing much of the country over to fanatics. They punished aspiration by introducing tuition fees, saddled public services with long-term debt through the colossal rip-off of PFI, and began privatising our NHS – laying the foundations for some of the pernicious policies of this coalition as they did so.

They allowed the living standards of millions of working people to begin falling years before the crash, even as the coffers of corporate Britain prospered like never before. They failed to solve an ever-worsening housing crisis, leaving 5 million languishing on council housing waiting lists. They cut taxes on corporate Britain while indulging in entirely destructive gimmicks such as scrapping the 10p tax rate.

Many Scots look at the Britain built by this political elite, they don’t like it and they want out.”

Seems to pretty much cover it.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

On moving to Yes 182

Posted on September 04, 2014 by

Bill Leckie in the Scottish Sun, 4 September 2014:

“I still have a list of nagging doubts, not least over who emerges to lead this new state. It’s just that… well, whereas not so long ago these doubts were what held me back, today they somehow seem exciting.

Will it turn out a Yes vote? Don’t ask me. I’m still too busy trying to work out exactly what it was about that conversation [with my son] that changed my mind on the most important collective decision we will ever make.

Today, I can still only offer this guess. That when all is said and done, maybe it just feels better to believe in something that could be amazing than to settle for what can never be better than OK.”

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

More lying nationalists 147

Posted on August 19, 2014 by

Remember, readers, saying the Scottish NHS is in danger from Westminster attacks on the English one is just a despicable and outrageous Nat scare story.

unisonnhs

Alistair Darling and Alistair Carmichael wouldn’t lie to you, after all.

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

Hobson’s Choice 64

Posted on August 10, 2014 by

The Telegraph, 10 August 2014:

“Policy Exchange, a think tank with close links to the Conservative Party, will later this month publish a report calling for the government’s £26,000 benefits cap to be lowered outside London to reflect the lower cost of living.

Labour has previously made a similar suggestion and the Conservatives are being urged to consider making the proposals part of their manifesto for the General Election in 2015.”

Nice to have a range of democratic options about punishing the poor, isn’t it, Britons?

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

Between friends 146

Posted on August 06, 2014 by

Phoebe Arnold on BuzzFeed Politics, 6 August 2014:

“If you minus Scotland’s total tax receipts generated per person since 1980 from the average for the UK, they’ve contributed a surplus of £222 billion in today’s prices (again, counting Scotland’s geographical share of North Sea oil and gas).”

(Source fullfact.org. Our emphasis.)

£222bn divided by 33 years is £6.73bn a year. No biggie. Don’t mention it.

Tags:
Category scottish politics, stats

Betting on a sure thing 173

Posted on August 04, 2014 by

Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill, in the Financial Times, 4 August 2014:

“I have spent the past six years as chief executive of a company whose 17,000 employees work in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and throughout the world. Businesses are accustomed to dealing with different tax systems and employment regulations in the countries in which they operate. This rarely causes real difficulties.

And they know that national governments tend to collaborate where there is a mutual economic interest – indeed, they expect nothing less.”

Those voices of common sense just keep mounting up, don’t they?

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics

The mouths of convicts 52

Posted on August 04, 2014 by

Chris Huhne in the Observer, 3 August 2014:

“If Scotland goes, it will be in everyone’s interest to have a ‘velvet divorce’, as the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia was described. A nasty and messy separation would damage both sides. London will want early certainty, and for Scotland to be an EU member alongside the rest of the UK.

The result on 18 September may rewrite history, but not geography. We will all still share the same island. Their mess will be ours, both sides of the border. So we will all have an interest not to make a mess.”

Isn’t it weird how an MP has to be “disgraced” before they can tell the truth?

Tags:
Category comment, scottish politics, uk politics

More empty threats at your expense 159

Posted on August 02, 2014 by

The UK government is about to put another taxpayer-funded leaflet through every door in Scotland, laden with dire warnings about the consequences of independence.

Boiled down to just five bullet points – one of which is the meaningless “best of both worlds” – it presents the case for the UK as amounting to keeping the pound (which Scotland can do either way), higher public spending (omitting the fact that Scots pay over the odds for said spending), jobs with UK companies (which would be unaffected because EU law demands freedom of employment) and lower energy bills.

onshorewind

The latter is based on the oft-repeated claim that fuel bills would rise in Scotland because the rUK would no longer pay to import subsidised Scottish renewable energy. But an article in The Ecologist this week, by two respected academics from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, blows that argument out of the water.

Read the rest of this entry →

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Category comment, debunks, scottish politics

The best of all possible worlds 99

Posted on July 28, 2014 by

The Stevenage Advertiser, 22 July 2014:

“‘Lessons must be learned’ from the death of a Stevenage diabetic who could not afford electricity to keep his insulin cool after his benefits were stopped.

Former soldier David Clapson died aged 59 at his home in Hillside from fatal diabetic keto-acidosis, which the NHS calls ‘a dangerous complication of diabetes caused by a lack of insulin.‘

His jobseeker’s allowance of approximately £70 a week – on which his family says he was reliant – had been suspended three weeks before on June 28, for missing meetings.

According to his family, Mr Clapson was found “alone, penniless and starving” a short distance from a pile of printed CVs, with nothing to his name but £3.44, six tea bags, a tin of soup and an out-of-date tin of sardines.

The coroner found that David – a former BT engineer of 16 years, who had served two years in Northern Ireland with the Royal Corps of Signals during The Troubles – had nothing in his stomach when he died.”

We can’t do any better than that. Vote No, everyone. UK OK!

Tags:
Category comment, uk politics

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  • Recent Comments

    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Excellent point, Alf. I guess the UN can chuck the UK out of the UN once they’ve been told the…” Nov 8, 23:00
    • Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “As James Che rightly points out below, there is no reason to hold a referendum on leaving a ‘United Kingdom’…” Nov 8, 21:47
    • CatalogueTrewsers on Vibecoding A Better World: “John Main is a Shitebag ! An his Maw was a Shitebag anaw !! He gets paid to. I don’t” Nov 8, 21:42
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “But he didn’t lose, or even loose, his shit, did he? The two of them debated seriously and respectfully and…” Nov 8, 21:20
    • CatalogueTrewsers on Vibecoding A Better World: “When a cool cucumber like Robin looses his shit during a discussion. It tells me more about him,than it does…” Nov 8, 19:52
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““you’ve got them worried” Be reasonable, 100%, it’s to be expected that Scots want to know when the UN is…” Nov 8, 19:18
    • Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “lol “rigged” take off your tin foil hat. If the 2014 referendum was rigged, then any future referendum will also…” Nov 8, 19:10
    • 100%Yes on Vibecoding A Better World: “Alf, you and Salvo keep up the good work, you’ve got them worried.” Nov 8, 18:53
    • James on Vibecoding A Better World: “So, Adrian, the legitimate route, according to your ‘wisdom’ is via another rigged UK referendum? What a surprise.” Nov 8, 18:21
    • Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: ““…had been annexed decades and in many instances centuries before [1945].” My comment was about the legality of annexation before…” Nov 8, 17:51
    • Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: ““It was only after 1945 that Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibited annexation by force under international law.” The…” Nov 8, 15:03
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “Ah, c’moan noo, Willie. We a’ ken it’s Tel Aviv.” Nov 8, 14:31
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““The issue is annexation which is unlawful and without consent” Ooo, tough shit, Alf. Any reasonable observer is gonna interpret…” Nov 8, 14:28
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: ““Scotland is a catalyst Country to the freedom of just about every other Country” Havers. Ukr**ne is a catalyst country…” Nov 8, 14:20
    • Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: “Even if Scotland had been annexed pre-1945 (it wasn’t), it wouldn’t have been illegal under international law. Before 1945, annexation…” Nov 8, 14:16
    • Willie on Vibecoding A Better World: “Who is taking down comments Rev, the second they are posted. Gremlins on the line?” Nov 8, 14:02
    • Willie on Vibecoding A Better World: “Looks like Tommy Robinson of the English Defence League is having fun in Ireland. ” I’m just about love bro,…” Nov 8, 14:00
    • Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “““Independence without consent” The issue is annexation which is unlawful and without consent.” Nov 8, 13:43
    • Northcode on Vibecoding A Better World: ““… you and your tribe plan for Scotland to be steam rollered into Independence…” Perhaps the mission statement for both…” Nov 8, 13:19
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “We have to think of a larger picture before becoming independent as much as we would pay attention to details…” Nov 8, 12:10
    • Aidan on Vibecoding A Better World: “It is 180 degrees the other way 100% yes. The “Westminster” route did produce a pathway to independence in 2014…” Nov 8, 11:51
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “When Scotland is recognised as independent it will effect and have a affect on every other Country around the world…” Nov 8, 11:50
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “The approach from the Countries of Ireland and Wales towards the influx of migration and high taxes from Englands parliament…” Nov 8, 11:35
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “You write an enormous screed to explain why the obvious solution is impossible, 100%. Found a plebiscitary party, establish plausible…” Nov 8, 11:27
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “It would be of Great advantage to other nations and populations around the world to ensure that Scotland is recognised…” Nov 8, 11:20
    • Hatey McHateface on Vibecoding A Better World: “That’s your opinion, Alf, and that of a few supporters. It’s almost as if you don’t know us Scots at…” Nov 8, 11:11
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “100% yes. Your reasoning is sound up to the point where you suggest that we can perhaps do UDI, or…” Nov 8, 10:51
    • Alf Baird on Vibecoding A Better World: “Excellent summary. The role of independence leaders is to unveil their oppression to the people. The SNP elite has never…” Nov 8, 10:29
    • James on Vibecoding A Better World: “Excellent post, 100%. Well said indeed.” Nov 8, 10:15
    • James Che on Vibecoding A Better World: “Hatey, The system is not just tragic for Scotland, but for Ireland, Wales and England. Long ago I realised that…” Nov 8, 10:12

  • A tall tale



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