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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

    • Big Jock on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The UK is a trap. They are openly admitting it. A normal government would go to the UN , as…” Sep 1, 00:52
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “SB I don’t knock hot pot, or food from the slow cooker. Tasty, and be honest now; it’s not really…” Sep 1, 00:44
    • Saffron Robe on The Shortest Day: “A forced marriage is, by its very nature, illegitimate, because it is entered into without the free consent of one…” Sep 1, 00:30
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “HMcH Aye Hatey, it’s being so cheery that keeps ye going isn’t it? One baleful benediction after another tonight, and…” Sep 1, 00:30
    • Mark Beggan on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “In short; Carrots!” Aug 31, 23:51
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “Chas There’s no guarantees in this life. Even sitting on your hands scared and so holding with the status quo…” Aug 31, 23:44
    • Aidan on The Shortest Day: “Yes, no it isn’t James. Alcohol duty is not levied on exports, so there isn’t a specific duty to accrue…” Aug 31, 23:35
    • Northcode on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The Record doesn’t even come close to making a valid point… or any point at all. This is the Record’s…” Aug 31, 23:35
    • Young Lochinvar on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “100% Yup. Why not 70%, 80, 90 or any of the above over who knows how many years before we…” Aug 31, 23:23
    • Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: ““After years of simply stalling on the pursuit of independence, the SNP now appears to be in full headlong retreat,…” Aug 31, 23:07
    • Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “LC Very good! However you forgot to mention the bribery, offers of position and rank and overall subterfuge with a…” Aug 31, 22:58
    • Hatey McHateface on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “A disappointing but perhaps not unexpected reversion to type, Northy. The Record View makes a valid point, not that any…” Aug 31, 22:49
    • duncanio on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The Daily Record’s ‘suggestion’ is merely an effort to make British Labour relevant again in Scotland so that they can…” Aug 31, 22:46
    • Spartan 117 on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Well, quite. Lard Foolkes and his ilk would happily do away with elections permanently, makes things much easier for them…” Aug 31, 22:41
    • Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “Naw, Spartan. Exhibit W.” Aug 31, 22:35
    • Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “That’s the Spandau gonna be well and truly cocked now!” Aug 31, 22:33
    • Spartan 117 on The Shortest Day: “QED, Exhibit A.” Aug 31, 22:18
    • Northcode on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “By George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock’s – Born in Shropshire and educated privately at The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School…” Aug 31, 22:14
    • Mark Beggan on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Anyone for a carrot! It’s feeding time at the zoo.” Aug 31, 22:02
    • James on The Shortest Day: “So say the English Nationalists. Fuck off.” Aug 31, 21:57
    • James on The Shortest Day: “Ah. “…Naw it isnae….” The usual. Dan kindly provided the relevant liknk. https://wingsoverscotland.com/true-faith/ Read it, and weep, Yoon.” Aug 31, 21:54
    • Effijy on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “With all financial levers controlled by Westminster these 300 years and debt spiralling up to £3 Trillion and the first…” Aug 31, 21:44
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The reality is the more and more people voice that Independence is their preferred option to the union. The more…” Aug 31, 21:40
    • Alf Baird on The Shortest Day: ““Maybe you could start one of the ‘democratic legitimacy’ processes yourself!” 20,000 sovereign Scots already have: https://liberation.scot/” Aug 31, 21:37
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “This is all because the SNP membership has grown a back bone and got upset about not being being able…” Aug 31, 21:29
    • Mike Fenwick on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “For info, my contribution in The National today. Tommy Sheppard writes in The National as to ” Why a de…” Aug 31, 21:28
    • Cuphook on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Not that we’re going to get one due to our current political emasculation, but we’d lose another referendum unless the…” Aug 31, 21:26
    • 100%Yes on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The simplest solution is for Westminster to transfer the Constitutional authority to Holyrood for good and allow the Scots to…” Aug 31, 21:19
    • Spartan 117 on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Interesting indeed.” Aug 31, 21:14
    • Spartan 117 on The Shortest Day: “And often with a load of abuse heaped in, along with Grrr Bloody English racism. The Siol nan Gaidheal members…” Aug 31, 21:09

  • A tall tale



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