Pork barrel independence with ...

... the SNP.

... higher pensions

... better childcare

... roll-back housing reforms
 
... pay less tax

... who will say no, how can you argue against the lip smacking list ?

BBC link.

Nothing tangible about currency, just the old chestnut that it will be better for the continuing UK to remain Scotland's lender of the last resort, I'm not sure if middle Britain will be carried along with this argument. I think it best let Salmond and Sturgeon burble on whilst we get next years street party ready ......... Salmon has won the argument with the little people with little more than pocket money.

There is a soft belly in the Independence argument, the isles [Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland] would like to be devolved away from Edinburgh, will Westminster be able to counter Salmond with Scotland's Viking heritage, could the Secretary of State for Scotland counter Salmond with the Isles ?

There is one aspect of today's white paper that I find nauseating,  Sturgeon said today the SNP government of Scotland hadn't introduced an improved childcare because the British Treasury would have benefited through greater tax take, when I heard her words she confirmed my feelings that politics is rarely about what will benefit the little people, its about what benefits politics.

The GR8 DB8, wk1, and it ...

... is being used by Scottish Nationalists to dignify the sordid process of separation.

When Alex Salmond second in command Nicola Sturgeon spoke to the Scots, reported here, she said "you'll retire earlier with the SNP than you will remaining with Britain !"

The SNP closed the door on honest debate and confirmed to the electorate, that the candy behind this particular game is "humbug".

A few facts ...

The SNP government-commissioned Fiscal Commission also recently concluded that Scotland will soon have more pensioners per head of working age people than the UK. It reported: “It is projected that without action, Scotland’s dependency ratio will increase more rapidly compared with the UK – reflecting the particularly sharp increase in Scotland’s pension age population.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said “Pensions spending per head is already higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, and in future, Scotland will have a higher proportion of elderly people. But by pooling our resources, we won’t need to rely on volatile and declining North Sea revenues to pay the pensions of Scotland’s elderly.”

The truth ...

10% of the population of Britain, that includes Scotland, have 60% of the countries wealth.

90% of the population of Britain, that includes Scotland, are unlikely to ever earn much above the median income of £20,000.

The likelihood of these figures changing through separation is zero.

Blue smoke and mirrors, so who gains through this sleight of hand ?
.

Countdown - 64 (working) days to ...

... I day !

... and in Scotland the separatist agenda continues too play to the gallery, play to the crowd, perform to get the approval of the audience.

Give separation a chance and we will abolish ....

• rules on under-occupancy
• take housing benefit out of Universal Credit

... nothing that describes a brave new Scottish world, just Deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon  highlighting unpopular measures that might or might-not be changed by a future SNP government if the peoples of Scotland vote for independence next year !

With less than 13 working weeks before retirement I was reminded by a brother that I need to plan to fill my time in the future ....

walking the dog
fly fishing (once again)
baking ( bought "100 cakes and Bakes" by  Mary Berry for the Kindle this week ).
having a beer in the evening
not working until midnight

... and try to be a help sometimes.

Today I am taking into work a few Devonshire Splits (recipe) ...

It's a real pain being a diabetic, making but not eating ..............

... when a Salmon(d) and Sturgeon greet ...

... the other leaders of devolved Britain you can be sure that the Scots have a crisis in mind, constitutional or otherwise.  My guess is "Jowles" Salmond will use the meeting to create a wish list that our Westminster Government will find hard to accommodate without being seen to favour devolution over non-devolved administration, a list too far in Salmond's walk towards separation.

Crown Estate control must be high on the list, each of the devolved administrations have a geographical relationship to this pot of taxation, particularly the separatist elements.

Corporation tax, the crackpot politicians have an idea that there should be differing rates of tax depending upon geography, look what you are missing out on Carwyn ...... corpulent Alex will whisper.

Whatever the other devolved administrations eventually call for, Carwyn needs to consider how his electorate will react to further separation within the Union, because if Salmond achieves his published aims a constitutional rift will become a reality,  as sure as the sun rises in the East the wishes of the electorate in Wales are not the wishes of the North of Hadrians Wall separatists.

There is too much to do in Wales Carwyn, little time to join Salmond fiddling on castle walls.