Wings Over Scotland

SNP policies not shortening life expectancy at same rate as rest of UK. Scottish pension crisis looms. SNPBAD

Unfortunately, for all the interested thousands who follow Wings there is a healthy cynicism regarding what remains unsaid by the media – it is the others I fear for, ultimately.

These people are truly immoral.

Who would want to live long with Theresa May in the offing?

At least when we become an independent self governing nation.

I can say at least I lived!!!!

Not stuck 85% of my life until I’m 100 with the Westminster establishment. PRICELESS for me!

Somewhat ironic given that it’s the pensioners keeping us in this travesty of a union.

Perhaps he too is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

The Scottish Government have their shoe laces tied together and one hand tied behind their back.

Literally most things, including critical benefits, working conditions, quality of jobs, retirement age, state pension, minimum wage, etc etc are controlled by Westminster. These impact on health.

When we are living in iScotland criticism should be rightly laid at the feet of our fully empowered government in Edinburgh.

Prior to Indy, it is more than likely that any woes Scotland has should be attributed to Westminster.

When the UK figures are bad, and the Scottish figures are not quite so bad, what does that tell any sane minded person? My deduction would be that without the cold dark hand of the Union, Scotland would improve.

Life expectancy in Scotland has stalled, well that’s SNP good then if it’s going backwords in England it’s Tories Baad

So really the SNP is good for your health

Re-spun (is that a word?)

****Alternative Headline****

“Demands for WM government to REDUCE retirement age due to life expectancy drop”.

Oh wait…..that makes sense…!

There are so many determined unionists who seem to spend their lives with their fingers in their ears singing ‘LaLaLa’ very loudly. It doesn’t matter whether the story is good, bad or neutral, the interpretation is SNP BAAAAD.

Keep leaving copies of well-argued articles on buses and public places which debunk all the outright lies to get the truth out.

Arbroath 1320 at 458pm,

Absolutely true. Of course the reason I think the unionist nutters of Scotland still persist in lying in this way, is because it always used to work in the past.

Prior to the internet getting really well established, for decades, if not centuries, London and its Scottish stooges (unionists) had their own control of information. When Westminster lied about Scotland, the only resource we had was either to read hansard (in paper form, in London, and at great cost), or the newspapers, which are all pro London (and mainly owned and controlled there), or of course the blatantly biased anti-Scotland broadcasting corporation.

This is the reason successive Labour and Tory Government were able to repeatedly lie to the people of Scotland regarding the oil wealth in the 1980’s and 90’s. Indeed, it has has now been admitted by the former Labour chancellor Dennis Healey that when he was in the LABOUR Government, they deliberately lied to Scots about the oil and made them believe it was worthless – in case we decided to become independent.

It seems the unionists just cannot cope, now that their lies are being shown up for what they are. The lies used to work, yet now they don’t. Year by year, more and more Scots are starting to see just how duplicitous London has been and still is towards Scotland. They and London have treated Scotland shamefully and with utter contempt for many, many decades. This isn’t a peaceful ‘union of equals, oh no, instead England is merely a parasite feeding off Scotland’s wealth, whilst all the time pretending Scotland is bankrupt.

When this union is finally torn up and put in the bin, Scots will finally get to learn just how nasty, deceptive and manipulative London has been. Scotland at present is treated as a colony, but with a few trimmings to disguise the fact.

We need independence from these Westminster liars ASAP.

Neatly done Rev.

In case the the ‘very odd’ yoon is reading this thread? Personally I’m long past giving a shit what your media say about the SNP and as for ‘some arsehole’ from twitter?

Take a wild guess.

For the undecided, or those with a more open minded attitude, well worth reading and learning.

Like I said earlier…

WoS – keeping the NEWS REAL:

link to imgur.com

On life expectancy, I would just like to say that I have outlived both my parents by many years, almost 10 years on the old girl and 17 years on the old boy. Now I have reached the ripe old age off ** and benefiting from the pittance of a state pension but I am still capable of walking for miles and last year I made it to the top of our highest mountain although it took me ten hours for the round trip.

How dare you, irreverent Stu? The brave media =ahem= are simply trying to reveal the truth =cough= that it’s a typically devious SNP plot to hasten independence by accelerating the elimination of all the old dears who will rightly never ever vote for divisive separation, even if casually at the cost of collateral damage to one or two doddery misguided malcontents, the divisive SNP swines.

Have I mentioned divisive yet, I forget…?

Oh, and it’s all the fault of the awful SNP that the weather has been so terribly inclement over the Forth this winter. It was never as bad as this in my youth when Labour ran everything in Scotland and the Tories ruled in London…

I don’t whether anybody else caught the admission from Gordon Brewer in yesterday’s Sunday Politics over the Spanish ‘veto’ that he didn’t know that the whole thing had been a unionist ruse since 2014. He said about it that Mike Russell had been clear for a long time that their was no veto but that he ” wasn’t sure whether anybody else knew about it”.

I thought BBC journalists were supposed to be wordly wise.

Here it is at 1hour 10 minutes and 38 seconds in.

link to bbc.co.uk

Glasgow was named “Second City of the Empire” in the 19th/20th Century and to go with that we had the worst slums in Europe.

Scotland is paying the price for many decades of under investment.

Time for change.

These folk are absolutely despicable.

Terrifying old folk in Scotland thinking their life expectancy has dropped.

Seriously they are evil

WOS archive links for the remainder of September 2013 now on O/T.

FFS when are they going to get over this….

Dear Croomp,

Yours sincerely,
James Deeny
Managing Director
The London Mint Office

O/T

Today’s on-line Torygraph has an item near the top of the page titled:-

‘Don’t Go To Scotland’

and underneath

’28 Tourists Who Will Never Go Back To Scotland’

Clicking on that takes one to 28 of the most ludicrous TripAdvisor comments.

Methinks the Yoons are starting to see the writing on the wall and are desperately trying to whip up hatred and apathy in their disciples.

Well that will be rock bottom hit playing on the big bogeyman of death.

Oh no under the SNP you will all die sooner or maybe later(to be honest we have no idea so we just make this up to sell papers but you can damn bet we will be blaming the SNP for it and everything else,now how can we pin global warming on them)

The cuts in social care in England led to a higher number of unexpected elderly winter deaths. 300,000? An Oxford Report. The Tories are killing off their voters.

Before WW2, people in poorer classes were at considerable disadvantage due to the effects of bad housing, lack of educational opportunity and inadequate health care.

Those born during the war or after were the beneficiaries of the new NHS, attempts to replace slums with healthier environments and better educational opportunities. This was the generation that felt that they could advance their social status and live better than their parents’ generation.

The immediate post-war generation who benefited from these benign changes are now those in their sixties and seventies whose life expectancy had been extended. That it is now seemingly stalled, might well point to the effects of the pulling back of many of these social advances – the gradual destruction of social welfare systems due to idealogical decisions feeding into population outcomes.

In other words, right-wing ideaology is bad for your health and chances of living to a secure old age. Sadly enough, often those who were the beneficiaries of greater social equality are now content to see regressive policies increase the likelihood that younger generations will not enjoy their hard-won advantages, won for them by their parents’ generation.

So relative to England our life expectancy for pensioners has increased.
A sign of progress.
And BTW, Terry Combes on twitter, pure genius.

@One-Scot : 6.33

1 tweet, joined April 2017. Obvious fake purporting to be Indy supporting. Content abominable. Made up Unionist propaganda weapon.

I hope no one rises to this hate that is quite likely criminal. Any tweeters care to take this on and get it taken down?

We are up against some really vile people.

DerekM says: 3 April, 2017 at 6:41 pm:

” … now how can we pin global warming on them”.

Oh! That’s an easy one to answer, DerekM.

Scotland has all that oil and because that Scottish oil is the wrong kind of oil, the CO2 from burning Scottish oil is far, far worse than any other country’s oil at generating CO2.

So it stands to reason that it must be Scotland, and the SNP’s, fault that Global Warming is so bad.

This, of course, is why those nice people at Westminster tried so hard to hide the value of Scottish oil from the Scots with the McCrone Report.

Well done to you Mr Campbell. What on earth will you do when this is all over!
Still depressing seeing daily mail figures. I get bloody angry when I see see folk pick up that rag

The fundamental causes of health inequalities are well known. They are the unequal distribution of wealth,power and income in society. The more of these assets you have the longer you will live.

link to gov.scot

To re-distribute wealth,power and income most effectively, Scotland needs control of the economy and of welfare policies.

link to healthscotland.scot

Scotland and UK life expectancy was mid-league up to the 1980s. It is the policies carried through by Thatcher and successive governments that has lowered life expectancy and kept it low. The Scott-Samuel research is scathing.

link to pcwww.liv.ac.uk

Research is turning to the rich rather than the poor to account for health inequalities.

link to academia.edu

Dr Simpson is an ill educated boor when it comes to the health of the poor.

But Rev, why aren’t we all immortal demi-gods? Surely that’s the SNP’s fault? Eh? EH?

When I worked in the NHS the ‘glasgow effect’ was a well known problem. Expensive healthcare 33-35k per patient per year still gave life expectancy of a 3rd world country.

Removing useless labour mp’s and hopefully their councilors in May – might be part of the solution, but unless we can re-construct the economy of glasgow the physical and mental health issues are gony stay with us.

For me that’s why we can’t get tired and give up. When yer out chapping on doors and getting grief from nawbags about nato, immigration, currency an pensions – there’s three wee words that get me through:

I. Daniel. Blake.

Scotland has been treated historically as a population laboratory that WM has been given unfettered access to. This has been to the detriment of Scotland’s population. The learned Danny Dorling expands on this theme in a talk that he gave in Glasgow recently,

‘In late 2016 we learnt that life expectancy is no longer rising in Scotland. For the first time (outside war-time) since records were published in 1861 life expectancy for both women and men did not rise. After 2012 it appears to stall at 81.1 years for women and 77.1 years for men. This is part of a wider trend seen across the UK, and in the USA, but not in other countries in Europe or elsewhere in the world. There is now mounting evidence of falls in life expectancy taking place for particular groups in our societies. Why have things become worse here?

The talk these words summarise described recent trends in inequality and health in affluent countries and suggest that the UK and USA have become very unusual compared with global trends – with Scotland suffering as a result. There are signs of hope that people in these two, no longer very united, states are now beginning to realise that the growth of inequalities has caused, and is still causing, widespread harm. Signs of hope from elsewhere in the world where inequalities in many other places are much lower and/or falling were also explored.

What is happening in the UK and the USA is the exception, not the norm and that in some ways it is the end of a forty-year experiment to test the supposed benefits of promoting inequality, in which we (and especially people in Scotland) have been the guinea pigs. The experiment is unlikely to end well as those who have most benefited from it seek to preserve as much inequality as they can.”

link to dannydorling.org

Professor Dorling’s presentation slides;

link to gcph.co.uk

He suggests that some solutions to the rising levels of inequality are;

‘Taxing at the normal European level
Spending on education & health normally
Having housing laws that are fair to tenants
Working towards a basic income for all
No sanctions and student loans for the young
Introducing a fair system of voting (PR)
Not allowing the 1% who take a 7th of everything every year in the UK – to also run political parties, newspapers, companies, even university building programmes unchallenged. This is best done by reducing their income/wealth – and that can be done in many ways – which they are aware of’

But these logical and intelligent suggestions will not be found in the policies of the current UK Gov who are not interested in a blueprint to alleviate suffering and disadvantage. Those who are ‘outraged’ and ‘appalled’ by the mortality stats for Scotland should reflect on who has always had a vested interest in maintaining poverty levels and the inequality gap and why? It is not the SNP.

Croompenstein,

‘…the Angel of Mons who is said to have protected the British soldiers during the war.’

Sounds like propoganda to me, he clearly didn’t do a very good job. Maybe he should be the patron saint of SLab.

‘But these logical and intelligent suggestions will not be found in the policies of the current UK Gov who are not interested in a blueprint to alleviate suffering and disadvantage. Those who are ‘outraged’ and ‘appalled’ by the mortality stats for Scotland should reflect on who has always had a vested interest in maintaining poverty levels and the inequality gap and why? It is not the SNP.’

No indeed they will not Phronesis.

When you read this from this from The Highland News from just 2 days ago, it makes you despair and confirms your opening paragraph:

‘Scotland has been treated historically as a population laboratory that WM has been given unfettered access to.’

And when you read the reply from the DWP at the end of this article you know you are dealing with heartless bastards.

‘Life on universal credit – no food and relying on hand-outs’

‘Inverness MP Drew Hendry says more than 100 people have come to his office with worries over universal credit.

A NEW benefits system has sparked a spate of cries for help from people left in desperate hardship in Inverness.

Tearful residents have flooded one MP’s office with harrowing tales of life on the new universal credit – including one toddler’s parent who was left without money, electricity and food after they were cut off for six weeks without explanation.

Delays to payments have also forced others to sell beloved possessions, visit food banks and rely on hand- outs from family, neall while grieving for a spouse.

And there are fears that many more people are suffering in silence, unaware that help may be available.

Inverness was one of the few places in the UK picked to trial the full universal credit roll- out, a single benefit to replace Jobseeker’s Allowance, employment and support allowance, income support, child tax credit, working tax credit and housing benefit.

The controversial system has been blamed for people losing their homes after they had their benefits frozen for something as simple as reporting a change of address.

All new claims or changes in circumstances spark an automatic six-week freeze which can continue even longer if there are problems processing the application – leaving some penniyless and unable to feed their children or pay their rent.

And every Highland Council tenant who claims universal credit has now fallen into arrears, leaving the local authority with an budget hole of more than £700,000.’

link to archive.is

‘

I’m one o’ yon folk who dinnae sleep very well and was up this am at 5.20am. I often get to watch a lot o’ yon stuff. All day the bbc has been touting the ‘naybody gets aff their bums’.
Since this am it’s been – ‘worst N W England 47%, followed by Ireland 46%, Wales & the N E England 42% and Scotland on 37%. Bad enough but no as bad as some.
Tonight on the ‘news where they are’, the same figures in the same order, but no mention of Scotland. Scotland – omitted out of a UK wide survey? – same as bliddy usual.
I then decided to watch shortbread this evening and lo’ and behold, would you guess it? 1.6 million sofa whelks, huge number, no context, so went in search of ‘the truth’.
Imagine my surprise (not) to find this:

KLAXON CAN’T ARCHIVE
link to bbc.co.uk

The things you learn to do on this site – the checking, no the archiving!

Sometimes I try to put myself into the Unionist frame of mind… What would possess me to argue for or against the Union on the basis of life expectancy of pensioners? I mean, who actually thinks like that??? How would I feel about saying more pensioners in England would die sooner if the Union was finished? Surely you’ve got to have a mind that’s in a dark and desperate place to think like that, no? Healthy normal people don’t think like that, do they?

YES arguments are like little rays of sunshine that brighten your day and give you hope. If we’re talking about the doom and gloom of dying pensioners, then I’m guessing we must be in a conversation started by a Unionist.

Such creepy and morbid arguments have no place in a debate about constitutional sovereignty. The thought I would vote for Independence because our pensioners would live longer is such a contrived and absurd argument to make, you can’t avoid drawing the conclusion that Unionism has nothing to offer and is scraping the barrel.

It IS appalling that Scottish life expectancy is so much poorer, but it’s just one piece in a big jigsaw of appalling things Scotland has to live with in the Union. But hopefully, we can begin to address and conquer these problems when decisions about Scotland are made by an independent Scottish government which actually cares, and who’s first instinct is to make Scotland a better place, not merely how to keep the natives subdued and feeling hopeless during the next few decades of their joyless exploitation.

What’s next Mr Unionist? All our cats and dogs will all have fleas if we vote for Independence? Our kids all have rickets? Our cars will rust quicker and we won’t get parts? We’ll get fewer hours of sunshine and our wild birds will stop migrating here? Ya bore me silly with your claptrap!! Even the small % that’s actually true is still a load of shite. You’ve a cloud ready for every silver lining don’t you? I even remember Flipper Darling saying we’d have to do without British music!! What an arse!

At least when you’re banging the big bass drum, and marching off to war with Spain we can see ya comic’ and at least have a giggle at your tragic stupidity. Wha’s like us? No you, and for that may the Lord be thankit!!!

Scotland’s motor has been up on bricks in dry dock for far too long.. now we almost have all of our wheels back in place:

N/S/R – Scotland voted in SNP for Westminster
O/S/R – Scotland voted in SNP for Holyrood
N/S/F – Scotland voted Remain in the European Union

O/S/F – Scotland to vote in SNP for the Council Elections…

If we can do that, we drive to freedom, iScotland is our final destination.

The spare wheel was successfully repaired and remains ready for deployment.

Yes We Can!

I’m 65 this month.

All that running and it still looks like I’ll be donating my body to medical science sooner than I thought.

And I thought the big downer of the day was this technical look at our new gigantic oil discovery.

link to archive.is

Tomorrow’s “National” twitter page:

link to twitter.com

Cmon Stu , stoap it , at this rate we’re gonna have half the engerlish aged population movin up here for longer life and ther’l no be any hooses left for the rest o us and we’l no have any pensions or free prescriptions or free bus passes ,and yil end up stoppin aw they yoonyoonist erses fae emigratin tae brexitland when we’re independent

PLEASE

if anyone sees the BBC mis-reporting this story

send it to http://www.informscotland.com

I’d love to think the Scottish Government were enterprising and proactive enough to run a covert euthanasia programme in order to expedite our Independence,I really would.

In reality the SNP are just not Bad enough to do this so will just have to sit tight.

I have suspected for a while that due to farming methods and increased exposure in general to carcinogens that the life expectancy curve might take dip.

Maybe there is a god after all.

@ Thepnr who said “my younger brother died two years ago aged 54 and I doubt I’ll see 65”.

very sad comment – Thepnr didn’t say what his brother died of (absolutely no need to) but I think we all agree poor housing, food,medical care, hard work from a young age, poor education etc all lower life expectancy

However what emerges from ThePNR’s statement is something that is often overlooked – genetics.
Barring accidents or fatal diseases which will inevitably shorten lives – some of us have longer telomeres (which means we live longer) and some have shorter.

In my own family one uncle and aunt died before they reached 60 and their only son died at the same age. Other relatives stretching back in time and to the relatively recent present reached their late 80s to early 90s.

It’s the luck of the draw which telomere we get – so here’s looking to you Thepnr to reach your century!!!!

Just think you’ll get a telegram from her madge – but not if we’re Independent first!

@ Robert Peffers

lol Robert maybe we should not give them ideas they are mad enough to try.

Anent the “Glasgow Effect,” Glasgow’s middle-class largely live beyond the city boundary in a ring of suburbs whose people work in the city but commute, this doughnut effect is artificial & figures for the city are therefore slewed. Maryhill, for example had a low life expectancy while the adjoining Bearsden & Milngavie is amongst the highest. The problem is money & the poor are less likely to reach pensionable age, saving the UK Government billions!

Upon getting a telegram from Her Maj I think I would return it to Buck House marked, “Not Known at This Address”.

Try Postcode : SW1A 0AA c/o Rt Hon Theresa May MP. PM.

Dr Jim says:
3 April, 2017 at 10:17 pm
Stand on the Pier at Peterheid in winter withoot yer shirt yer life expectancy’s aboot 20 minutes
It’s too cauld fur fire tae burn

Why its the Bluetoon Doc?

I believe the life expectancy of the Daily Record, The Herald & The Scotsman is now lower than it has ever been, since records began.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Thanks xaracen, bookmarked 🙂

Fred @ 22:59:

Glasgow’s middle-class largely live beyond the city boundary in a ring of suburbs […] this doughnut effect is artificial & figures for the city are therefore slewed.

The same applies to school stats (which is part of the story, I suppose) but with a double whammy, because some parents within the city boundary export their kids to state schools out in the “doughnut” besides, and of course some “go private” instead.

So much for stats.

Our local school had a sharing arrangement with a nearby private school for some subjects, and so a small group of our kids found themselves going to the “posh” school part-time. The private kids were initially rather apprehensive, fearing that they were going to be hosting a bunch of very dangerous toughs, only to discover instead that they were all among the smartest in the class.

I guess the moral of this story is an old one: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

remember, when they talk of North Sea oil running out, West of Shetland isn’t the North Sea

The only thing keeping me going now is that I will live long enough to see Scotland free of London Rule.

@Wingers ~

Met many of yous for da first time at Glasgow’s Counting Hoose… 3 ago years today, remembers? I got the photograph 🙂

1 week is a lang time in politics
2 weeks is a generation in politics
3 weeks is a lifetime in politics

Today is a special day, see y’all some weeks in May.

“It’s a beautiful day”

Sing it Freddie.. 🙂
link to youtube.com

Here we come.
X.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a work of art.

This is even better.. try this one on for size:

Dedication to ‘The Press’ ~ How Bizzare
link to youtube.com

Oh well Cactus, if we are dedicating songs to the press, may I offer this?

link to youtube.com

Peace Always

Sing!

“Y Viva Espana”
link to youtube.com

Looks like it’s just you & me on this night-thread Smallaxe?

Though, there may be another 300 hunner odd thousand watching..?

Let’s get wired in.

Skipping along through me play list and along comes the perfect..
link to youtube.com

GnR are excellent for BGM.

IMHO.

Anyways, let’s keep it in context.

EU FOR YOU, EU FOR ME & EU FOR EUROPE.

Our excellent international neighbours!

Let me lay my hat there.

Scotland is HOME.

Je concur, we’re not bothering anyone, are we?

Smallaxe dude,

Have we got the border posts manned for the Easter break?

Tis a lang way tae..

Listening to ‘Love Walked In’ by Thunder.

Ra now.
X.

Dio’s just kicked in on the airwaves with:
link to youtube.com

Medieval Rock.

Get that stuff playing on in a Scottish castle..

Oh yeah.

Come and join us..

Night.

Macart my Friend, never a truer word was spoken.Thank you.

Peace Always

I know we have to discuss the rubbish that’s going about, but this did make me laugh out loud, you see health falls into the category of your own affair
I know people like myself who lead a quite healthy lifestyle, and i know a lot more people who do the opposite, now my take on it is this, some people like to enjoy themselves smoking, drinking, eating the wrong stuff, but that is their choice, it makes them happy so good luck to them, and some people have just not got into the smoking and drinking culture, and some have given that lifestyle up
There is allways a funny side to things, a guy once said, giving up smoking will not make you live longer, it will just feel that way lol
And another thing, if a bus runs over the top of you, it won’t matter what kind of lifestyle you where leading, just enjoy life, appreciate every day, life is good, to good to worry about some labour supporting doctor blaming a government for people’s lifespan, did you know that doctors have the highest rates of suicide in the professions , some of the doctors i have had i can believe it, some right miserable buggers i have had the misfortune to be doctored by, one told me i did not have problems with my back, and he was sitting looking at the x-ray when he said it, i said, do you think i am telling lies about my lower back problem, what a bloody idiot he is

Anyway, Peace and Love and puppy dogs tails

Who is this old codger Dr Richard Simpson? Oh yes, yet another Yoon Uniiversity Professor accusing ‘the EssEnnPee’ of cutting hospital beds, reducing midwifery places, and now killing off pensioners and newborns.
Old crabbit idiot.
It has nothing to do with the overpaid Chief Executives and Chairpersons of our Health Boards, or the ridiculously salaried and pensioned Chief Executives in Care and Health in our tired old Yoon Councils.

It’s all Nicola Sturgeon’s fault.

BTW when is she going to go ’round the streets of Govanhill picking up all those abandoned mattresses and sofas from the pavements?
There is a pattern emerging. Our universities, headed almost exclusively by Yoon Placements have become hotbeds of Better Together propaganda.
Richard Simpson washes his hands, and the corrupt and lazy local Executives in Health, Education, and Social Care, of the 50 year in the making social and economic destruction of Scotland at the hands of a SE Westminster Oligarchy, one of whose compliant monkeys the good Professor certainly is.

This from a synthesis report by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, NHS Scotland, the University of West Scotland, and University College London explaining the 5000 a year excess mortality rates in Glasgow, West of Scotland, and the Scotland in general.
It is reported that 5000 more citizens per year die in Glasgow than comparable cities like Newcastle or Liverpool which suffered the same industrial and economic vandalism imposed by 50 years of Tory and Labour Westminster Governments.
It is argued that Labour Councils in Scotland, even during the Heath Thatcher Major years did nothing to resist the Right Wing tidal wave that closed industries, attacked trade unions, began the privatisation of health, utilities, and public services. Indeed under the New Labour neo conservative Blair Brown regime our Labour Local Authorities were enthusiastic neo liberal cheer leaders. Think PFI, think the pseudo privatisation of ‘Arms length’ contracts in care for the elderly, car parking, building, and social work.
Dr Simpson is an unreconstructed old Tory Blair New Labour Red Tory dyed in the wool elitist Yoon.
What the hell is happening in our Universities?

Why am I not surprised that BBC Radio Scotland GMS failed to mention the HoC cross party committee’s call for Theresa May to respond formally as a matter of urgency to Scotland’s demands for a besopke deal as reported in The national this morning.

BBC did cover the report and had Hilary Benn and some Tory on to discuss it but ignored the Scottish dimension.

@Roland Smith

65 was set as the retirement age originally since the mass of working men could expect at most a couple of years of retirement before popping their clogs.

The phenomenon of the retired living on for 10, 20 years sucking at the public teat is relatively recent and this is behind both the pensions blowout and the need to increase the age.

In addition people have not just been living longer but healthier lives (NHS helps a lot here) meaning plenty of 65 year olds could work on for a bit.

Your point about the stalling of ever increasing longevity is a good one but you have to think like a government. Fred and Mary living for 15 years post retirement before Fred pops off but Mary goes on for another 10 is a government nightmare. It was never supposed to be like that.

I suspect the regular ‘excess’ deaths are due to so many being kept going with multiple overlapping conditions. They are one crisis away from catastrophe. IF this is the case then it explains the non decline in Scotland.

One of the reasons an elderly person on multiple drugs reaches crisis is by not taking one or more of their meds, perhaps due to penny pinching. In Scotland we do not pay for prescriptions, in part to forestall expensive crises in such cases. So this may very well be the SNP’s fault, they are keeping Nana and Grandad alive for the weans. Bastards.

Smallaxe and Cactus , I am about to enjoy all your musical choices – thanks.

Just had a Tory leaflet through the door with the bold statement that the chap is ‘working for Glasgow not for Independence’ – obviously he can’t multi task.

So my message to this lovely Tory chap , backed by the redoubtable buffalo rider , I will vote as Macart suggests for those I trust and who have done me and Scotland no harm.

O/T

For those who thought that the site was dead bbcscotlandshire sprang to life yesterday with a brilliant spoof program schedule for Donalda’s proposed new TV channel.

gus1940 says:

brilliant spoof program schedule

Excellent. Thanks for highlighting. And it’s not so far from the truth!

link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk

With regard to voting in May. My preference will be for pro-independence candidates. Is it also important therefore that I rank the no to independence independent candidates and unionist partirs candidates in order of preference, to ensure that the three main unioniist party candidates remain at the very bottom of my order of preference to make their chances of grabbing a seat as difficult as possible?

(OA) Pensions have been kept low deliberately. This has led to a top up means tested benefits system which is full of bureaucracy and difficult to run, more is spent in adminstration than the top up fund. Ie (Gov) Pensions would have to be £180 a week at least to cover all expenses. (As per the top up) to bring it up to sustainable levels out if reach of poverty levels. That is less than half the average wage which is £520 a week. It is in fact approx 1/3 of average earning.

In many cases for many reasons pensioners can’t work. Health, caring duties,availability of employment etc. The UK Gov is operating a means tested top up scheme of bureaucracy. That is more expensive than giving the pensioners (ie senior citizens) the extra money that they need to be taken out of poverty. The senior citizens who have more than done their bit for society. Bringing up and nurturing the next generation often in difficult circumstances. They should and could be respected. Instead of living in means tested poverty.

Pensioners who have the means (a small extra annuity) also still pay tax, ie they are still contributing to society. In some cases that is why so do not work pass pension age. If they can find suitable, available, employment. They would just pay it it tax, it wpukd not be worth the effort.

It is the old conundrum. If the UK Gov spent less on illegal wars, tax evasion and financial fraud. There would be enough public funding to give pensioners the proper support and sustenance and the respect that they deserve. Still helping out their families and their communuties. Not wanting to be a burden. The dignity and thanks they deserve.

The UK (Tory) Gov destructive and disrespective policies towards Scotland and the rest of the world. Ensures pensioners and senior citizens do not get the respect, support and remuneration to live out their lives in contentment, happiness and peace that they deserve.

Many older people do not like change. They can be fearful of it. It is a psychological aspect of aging. Life changes. People are draw to what they perceive for comfort. They can be susceptible to propaganda and misinformation having had less of a comprehensive education. That does not mean they can’t be persuaded over with care help attention and respect. Especially as they realise their needs and care will be more fully met. Using fear and false manipulation on vulnerable older people is despicable beyond contempt. Especially is it means the outcome is their means and aspirations will not be met. They are everyone’s parents, grannies, granddad’s, aunties, uncles cousins. With respect, kindness, humour explanation and information they can be persuaded if the advantages of Independence and self determination. Even if they can’t the demographics are changing in any case. So give it a rest. Low pension rates are because of the bad decisions that Westminster Unionists make. That is an indisputable fact.

Robert J. Sutherland says:
4 April, 2017 at 9:20 am
Ken500,

Pardon me, but your hobby-horse is showing (yet again).

We can do without splitters in the independence movement, thanks.

This is the issue about Green voting. Why did SNP Scots gov fall to minority Holyrood last GE?

Green’s got massive boosting from all tory BBC led media, for last Scots GE, as did tiny fringe left RISE, its not by chance.

Green’s are nice tories. In Aberdeen, Green’s opposition to AWPR held it up for at least a decade, double construction cost, with the whole N. East region losing economic boost.

Green’s have been Nae to every single SNP Scots gov Holyrood vote.

Who’s the actual enemy against Scotland’s democracy Green’s, as that tory sock puppet straddles cows and tank barrels, and rages at Scots, WATP style.

@Macart says: 4 April, 2017 at 3:44 am:

“Conservative, Labour, Libdem politicians. The same folks and system of government who have had the run of the UK economy and the trust of the public for literally fucking generations.
They did this and NO ONE else need apply for responsibility.”

Very well described, Macart, but you did not make one fact very clear.

These unionist parties are like one of those USAsian Prairie Ghost Towns from the, “Old West”.

You know the type of thing I mean. Log built single story buildings with at least a two story high false front. The bat wing doors on the saloon false front disguising the truth that what lies behind is a single story, earth floored, den of iniquity.

Westminster is a false fronted establishment and behind the false front of democracy with three parties, with claimed different policies, lies the squalid den of iniquity of, “The Establishment”.

It is of no real consequence which actual party has won the election for the Members are all on the same MP’s pay rates and they all get the same access to the perks. The only ones who are on higher incomes are the Cabinet Ministers and most of the committee chairs are cross-party as are the Committee members.

Most alert readers accept that the three unionist parties are different coloured Tory parties but fail to realise the overall unionist ethos is not actually Tory but is, “The Establishment”, and that includes much more than the members in the Houses of Parliament.

For almost my entire life we have been ruled by, “The Establishment”. Labour swept to power in 1945 but almost instantly they threw in their lot and joined, “The Establishment”.

Since that day they have done what the Establishment is designed to do – undo the work that the 1945 Labour Party had done. At this point in history they are part and parcel of an Establishment, hell bent on dismantling such things as the NHS.

Little remains now of The Electricity, Gas and Water Boards. No British Road Services or British Rail remain.

The GPO was first split up then it also went private. Now even the NHS is set to go private. Yet the facts are that the public are still subsidising the private companies that replaced what they once owned. Even BOAC and British Air are now in private hands.

Westminster is, and always has been, a false fronted edifice, fronting a den of Establishment iniquity dedicated to maintaining an elite ruling class that first began in Britain with the Roman Empire and has remained situated in Londinium ever since.

Unionists hypocrites and the wider population than the greens in bigger numbers. In the secrecy of the Ballot box vote for Independence. Some Unionist Party members and their supporters vote for Independence. The hypocrisy. They do not say as they do. The unionist Parties have few members. A really low membership. The Greens have even less for good reason. A single issues unpopular interest pressure group. Their policies in the main are ridiculous, The are not held to account and just get away with their duplicity and greed.

The hardship, waste and unnecessary economic hold up they have put on communities and regions cannot be disputed or denied. Total unreasonable undemocratic hypocrisy .Ruinig the economy and putting undue stress and strain on the majority of other people’s lives. The infrastructure failing to meet the needs of society. Massive waste anxiety and stress at their completely incompatible behaviour. Often for their own selfish gain of public remuneration and office. Using assets and public money for wilful destruction of gainful economic activity. The public have to pay.

You have been warned. The Greens put off more than they gain. Demographically less promotion of the green hypocrites and their renege of green policies can lead to bigger gain for Independence support.

WGD says ‘Brexit is founded on lies and Racism’.

That sums it up brilliantly.

gus1940 says:
4 April, 2017 at 10:03 am
WGD says ‘Brexit is founded on lies and Racism’.

That sums it up brilliantly.

But watch out, if you say that to any Leave vote!

@David Caledonia says: 4 April, 2017 at 5:29 am:

“I know we have to discuss the rubbish that’s going about, but this did make me laugh out loud, you see health falls into the category of your own affair.”

Aaaah! You are sensibledave and I claim my £5!

A nice piece in the National again about the fundraiser.

Well done the Rev and all Wingers.

I hear what everyone is saying but I put the Greens in the same category as the other Unionist parties and will have to hold my nose to vote for them after the fiasco of the Holyrood election.

Don’t know if I can do it but will see what Scot goes Pop, James Kelly says nearer the time.

@stu mac
==========

I should have said that of course politicians (and big business) use the “average wage” (mean) to make out most folk are getting better paid than they really are as most people don’t earn as much as the so-called average.

Feels like stating the obvious, but the Greens are green! It’s the environment which commands their loyalty, and it’s because Scotland is a progressive, innovative place with a ring side seat in Europe’s renewable energy prospectus for the indefinite future which earns us their support. An Independent Scotland is going to be an Earth friendly part of the planet, and that’s good news for the Greens.

But what they are not, are SNP candidates with a green bunnet and scarf on. You might not like that, but you shouldn’t forget it either.

If we want to earn support from the Greens in our Independence aspirations, then that means keeping our Independence agenda a Green Party friendly agenda; that doesn’t mean caving in to the Greens agenda, but it probably does mean meeting them half way on a number of issues. Oil springs to mind…

Please don’t launch grapeshot condemnations of the Greens, because YES is not about alienating anybody. In some respects, you might even excuse some Greens having Unionist sympathies because while their job isn’t quite done in Scotland, we are broadly heading in the right direction. Yet there are other parts of the UK who are channelling money into Nuclear power and liaising with anti-renewable NIMBY’s and Climate Change deniers in the USA. “Greenness” is an international concern that hurdles national boundaries; but it is not the same thing as Unionism.

Keep that in mind. If Scottish Independence fails, then a vocal beacon of hope and a pristine example for a Greener philosophy in life will fall into the plundering clutches of a bankrupt Westminster. Find me a Green candidate anywhere who is prepared to argue that as a positive result.

Find a little empathy and respect for people who might not see the world the same way we do, but share our path for the next wee critical part of the journey.

By all means strive for SNP dominance in the Council elections, but play it fair, be progressive, positive and straight, and then we can all live with the result, whatever the result may be. Be constructive and resourceful so there remains a platform for co-operation and mutual respect which we can all embrace. It is Scotland that will benefit the most. We may or may not need Green support for a Holyrood majority, but whatever happens we can overcome it. We definitely will need everybody on the same side and pulling together for ScotRef.

One thing that concerns me about James Kelly’s ‘rank all candidates’ advice is what would happen if a large swathe of indy-minded folk rank ALL candidates (with the yoon candidates at the bottom end of course) but yoon-minded voters rank ONLY yoon candidates?

Thoughts anyone?