The SNP are desperate ...

... for a debate ...

... between Cameron and Salmond, but Cameron knows that if he put a toe into the referendum pond the SNP would probably get a swing to independence, as Cameron said, the referendum is between the Scots;  the currency and EU will sink Salmond, unless he gets Cameron on camera ..... poor fools!

Consider the [Scotish] question ...

... found at para 483, page 535 of Scotland's White Paper on Independence.

Question.

Will we have the power to reduce VAT on repair and maintenance work to dwellings in an independent Scotland?

Independence will enable the Scottish Parliament to explore a reduction in VAT on repairs and maintenance work to homes as part of wider taxation priorities.
Powers over VAT, currently exercised by the Westminster Government, will transfer to the Scottish Parliament as a result of independence. The tax system in place immediately before independence will be inherited at that time. Thereafter decisions on the tax system and all specific taxes – including tax rates, allowances and credits for VAT and other taxes – will be made by the parliament and government of an independent Scotland.

The answer from Salmon and chums is Yes-No, we can but we cannot, we might but might not ...

The White Paper is a gift to the "Better Together" campaign, do they realise it ?

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.

Salmond's threat ....

.... reported in The Times

A threat by Alex Salmond yesterday that an independent Scotland could walk away from its multi-billion pound share of UK debt if Westminster refused to let it use sterling, has been rejected by one of  Britain’s leading economists.

The First Minister yesterday issued an ultimatum that a separate Scotland would refuse to accept its liabilities if London ruled out sharing the Bank of England and entering a sterling zone with Edinburgh. He insisted such a move would not be tantamount to defaulting on debt.

Salmond’s threat to walk away from national debt | The Times
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article3771533.ece

I wonder how the electorate of the "continuing UK" would feel about Salmond's threat, might it be best to end the union with Scotland today ?

... thinking of poverty.

David Cornock's blog had an interesting comment today,

Comment No. 45. by  paul80  "Poorer parts of the UK should receive more funding. Makes sense. The UK is a sinlge country after all."

I don't think he is right, "why should a poor part of any country receive government funds because it is poorer than other areas ? "

Two questions, both linked, spring to mind, "who would receive the funding, and, who would decide how it would be used ? "

If, for example, it can be demonstrated that an area has such poor literacy that its inhabitants are unable to attract good, well paid, employment, then government might address educational needs of the area.

If, for example, health issues can be linked to poor sanitation, then government can intervene, much like London of the 19th century.

With this in mind, should Westminster fund various regions of the UK as it does, should Scotland receive more per head than Wales, should Wales receive more per head than the East of England, per head ?

I don't think so, funding should be equal across the UK as a whole, based upon population, but a new approach to funding societies deficiencies wherever they are found.

Trump card or will democracy ...

... have its way?

Will Donald Trump be able to subvert the wishes of Scotland's democratically elected administration, will he be able to divert the plans to generate enough electricity to power 68,000 UK households each year; or will he demonstrate to the Scottish people that it doesn't matter who has political power, it is the power that wealth brings that determines how the world spins.

Donald Trump challenge to Aberdeenshire wind farm to begin

Lang Banks says .... "It would be a great pity if Donald Trump was in any way responsible for frustrating Scotland's ambition to generate clean power and green jobs."

I say ... remember the bankers who brought about the most recent economic depression, remember the power companies that treat the little people as milch cows.

Democracy should show Trump the door to Scotland ... but I wonder, how will democracy sit with the lawyers at Scotland's supreme civil court today.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent ...

wrote Calum when he left a comment at Gerry Hassan .

Hassan is of course talking down Westminster to talk up Holyrood. 

Everything bad that has dropped into Scotland is of course the responsibility of Westminster, whilst everything that is good is conveniently ignored, well that's the preferred option of the separatist agenda in Scotland, a similar programme of attrition is a constant state in Wales, our First Minister must cry into his cocoa at night trying to juggle his loyalty to both the Welsh Assembly and Westminster, because for sure, Westminster has been at the birthing of many good attempts to level society.  The scorn Hassan throws at Westminster is equal to the scorn thrown by those opposed to separation, and the upshot is, both campaigns are in fact negative despite attempts by the SNP to project a brave new world that would surely follow separation.

There should be no doubt that Scotland could separate, and, from day one, function as a new state; at a domestic level pensions would be paid, people would continue to work and pay taxes, oil revenue would underpin a proportion of government spending, just as it does today. 

Internationally there is no certainty, no guarantee the early entry to the EU would happen, no automatic invitation to join NATO, in fact it is only politicians that wish to belong to such clubs, for sure, they are political clubs for political animals, the reality is it wouldn't matter, not on day one, not for many years, so discourse on international matters are blue smoke and mirrors, to what end only the SNP and the separatist agenda understands.

So if everything functions domestically, what will change for the little people, the people with little influence except maybe on polling day ?

Alex Salmond speaks of taking decisions for Scotland in Scotland by people who only consider Scottish issues (international and domestic), a clever tack for a stumbling campaign, but will the outcomes be any different.

Nothing will change, real decisions will be taken by people beyond the reach of Holyrood; do the cogs of Holyrood know exactly who the decision makers effecting Scotland are? When Scotland votes next year, many people will hope for a "yes" result, myself included, because a "no" vote will be nothing but a postponement for a future separation.

In the grand scheme of things ...

Two individuals may both believe that many of those around them are poor and deserve help, but this knowledge may lead only one of them to decide to actually help the poor (Kierkegaard). 

 ... in the world today politics has created the "deserving poor" and the "undeserving poor", next September nothing will change, except a yes vote will empower Scottish politicians to decide who are deserving poor (or otherwise) in Scotland.

Wee Eck, "Mr Hypothetical", ...

... is living up to his reputation, skilfully creating a political void that only Cameron can fill, unable to answer questions that the electorate are asking about a future Scotland Salmond and political clan chiefs are leading the Scots towards, he does what he does, he creates a blue smoke and mirror crises, he sends a challenge to shift the question from "Scottish Independence" to "Westminster is not our government ! ".

Salmond has said Mr Cameron's government was "central to the entire referendum debate from the perspective of the No campaign", and voters had the right to know the details of the prime minister's alternative constitutional arrangements to independence.

Wrong on the first count,  "Westminster is central to the entire referendum debate from the perspective of the YES campaign", without a stick to beat Great Britain Salmond cannot win.  He needs to try harder and inject a degree of honesty into his campaign.

Wrong on the second count,an alternative constitutional arrangements to independence would only be designed with the approval of all the devolved administrations and Westminster (Commons and Lords), the future of the UK is not for Salmond to decide.

A simple question that Salmond should answer is ...

... "exactly how would your Scotland be a better place to live than the United Kingdom?"

He could carry Scotland with him with the right answer, but has he the courage ...

The GR8 DB8, wk2, and toy throwing ...

... is on the cards north of the border.


Alex Salmond, Wee Eck to the faithful, wants to debate the forthcoming referendum with the PM, naturally the PM has deferred to Alistair Darling  the leader of the Better Together cross-party group that are campaigning for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

Wee Eck is, naturally, a tad put-out that Cameron doesn't fall into line and give the Scots separatists an advantage; and an advantage it would be, no illusion, no smoke and mirrors, for Cameron to debate with the separatist leader would give him an extra 10 points in the opinion polls.

The SNP propaganda machine has littered the referendum path with promises that need not be kept, promises that in all probability would be nigh impossible to honour, these promises are like much candy scattered on a path to the infamous gingerbread house, but whereas the bread scattered by Hansel and Gretel disappeared, was eaten by birds, the separatist candy is recorded for posterity.  In the short term the promises are probably impossible to dispute except with extensive rebuttal, unfortunately in the 21st century the average elector doesn't have the time for university styled debate, they need sound-bite rebuttals.

So Cameron has declined the invitation, Alistair Darling should do likewise, stick with a political machine that is guaranteed to deliver your message, not become subsumed by the rhetoric of Wee Eck, because like it or not he will shout positives, and the Better Together group cannot prove a negative, and in live debate everything said by the Better Together group will be called negative.

The Better Together cross-party group need to produce positives for the future within the union, sound-bites that call time on Salmond's separatist quest, Salmand's wish to go down in history as a father of the Scots, a modern day Bruce, for certain not a modern day William Wallace’, because he was betrayed by his own ...

It only remains to be seen whether Wee Eck stamps his foot so hard it becomes embedded in the floor - temper, temper ...........
.

Where angels fear to tread, a battleground ...

... David Cameron knows not to enter, he knows better than to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Salmond, to travel north of the border to debate the forthcoming referendum would be to run a gauntlet created during the Thatcher years, irrelevant in the 21st century, but having a bitter taste that has crossed generations.  Why would Cameron gift an opportunity to Salmond, rightly he judges the debate should be between equals, and scottish equals at that.

Of course, Cameron is no angel ... but neither is Salmond, both are deft at dealing a very dodgy hand of cards.

BBC report.
.

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 ..............

Why Salmond and Cameron ...

... must never meet in a debate about Scotland and the intentions of the separatist agenda ...

BBC story here

... it's is simple, Cameron is not a Scot, my advice David ...

... stay south of the border and keep your mouth firmly shut, the Scots must defend their Scotland isolated from the vagaries of Westminster, you might like to send a memo advising MP's of all parties that this is a fight amongst 21st century Scottish clans, not a 21st century Bannockburn in which Salmond is in a battle with the rest of the United Kingdom.

A final word David, you do not have a Scottish accent, remember this very small detail.......

,

To have and to hold in Wales, ...

... but not as much as in Scotland or Ireland:

Westminster plans to spend an extra £531 million in Scotland this year, boosting that department’s Expenditure Limit by nearly 2%. It plans to spend an extra £327 m in Northern Ireland, boosting the Limit by 3%. It plans another £107m in Wales, a rise of 0.7%.

Two questions ....

...why is Wales receiving a disproportionate increase compared with Scotland, proportionately the amount should be £189 million (per head of populatin ?

more importantly ....

... why the extra spending at all when so many have tightened their belt in the extreme ?

... I wonder how Jack would read this ?
 

... take note, the word of the future is "union", so said ...

... the president of the European council,

... who has intervened in the Scottish independence debate, claiming that nothing will be gained from breaking up the UK. Herman Van Rompuy, who would chair meetings to discuss if an independent Scotland could join the EU, said the move for separatism was a thing of the past.

Van Rompuy, who will still be president of the council in 2014, when the independence referendum is due to take place, was asked his views on Scottish independence during a recent Q&A session broadcast on YouTube. "Nobody has anything to gain from separatism in the world of today which, whether one likes it or not, is globalised," he said. "We have so many important challenges to take and we will only succeed if we can pool forces, join action, take common directions. The global financial crisis is hitting us hard. Climate change is threatening the planet. How can separatism help? The word of the future is union."

A source close to the president said Van Rompuy would not be campaigning against Scottish independence. "The president would never involve himself in a national dispute. However, Scotland will need to reapply for EU membership and he could chair the meetings where that is discussed," he said. Van Rompuy's term will finish at the end of 2014.

"I can imagine some nations would make that a difficult meeting – Spain, Cyprus and Belgium. His own view is that separatism is as described on that video. He voted, for example, in favour of devolution in Belgium, but not independence for Flanders."

The comments will be a blow to Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, and emerge after the UK government reiterated that an independent Scotland would have to apply to the EU to become a new member state.

Salmond has claimed that Scotland would not have to leave the EU and even erroneously claimed to have had EU legal advice on the issue. However, it has since emerged that no such advice had been sought and a former Whitehall mandarin has been asked to conduct an independent inquiry into whether Salmond misled Holyrood and so breached the ministerial code.

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, entered the fray last week to declare that Salmond's statements on Scotland getting automatic membership of the EU "has no basis in fact".

Clegg said Scottish nationalists "don't want to face what might happen to Scotland's influence on fishing quotas or agricultural policy or the regulation of the banks. They don't want reality to bite. So they've gone into denial, preferring political assertion to legal advice."

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has dismissed SNP claims that an independent Scotland would automatically join the EU as "fantasy island". On a visit to Scotland, Miliband said leaving the UK would leave an independent Scotland "in limbo in Europe".

He claimed there would have to be "detailed and forensic negotiations" between all the current member states before Scotland could be admitted, adding that the addition of a new nation would affect the relative wealth of all other EU countries.

He also said it would have an impact on the voting weight for each country in terms of the relative influence of their MEPs – factors that would have to be reflected by an adjustment of EU rules.

"The final part is that you have to get agreement of all 27 countries, soon to be 28, of all ministers, and then it has to be ratified by each country," said Miliband. "France has said that any enlargement of the EU will require a referendum in France." (Source The Observer 4 Nov 2011.)

To the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party and its by-blow Plaid Cymru), Herman Achille Van Rompuy has given a profound judgement on the separatist agenda (Salmond and chums), Europe doesn't want separatism in its march towards a united Europe ...

The further up the flagpole you climb ...

... the more of your ass is exposed, words of General later President Eisenhower, so my guess he knew all about leadership, its ups and its downs.

So for the errant Plaid AM, consideration might be given to a valuable Eisenhower quotation ...

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both

Back down to earth and there is ...

Gerry Hassan (15 October 2012) wrote an open letter to Alex Salmond the Scots pretender to its political throne, the title ...

'Independence is about cultural and societal transformation'

... might generate a soupçon of interest from the political pundits scattered around the various halls of government, but to the little people the closure of Hall's of Broxburn meat factory in West Lothian has real interest, particularly the fact that the Scottish SNP led administration were unable to influence the decision making process of the Dutch owners Vion.  Impotent in the face of international business interests.

Unable to demonstrate real time leadership in 2012, what chance these very same politicians will be able transform Scotland's culture and society ...

.. absolutely zero !

Scottish independence is political in the narrowest sense, it has no benefit for the little people whose life will continue as before, in a 21st century serfdom with much the same masters !

 

When Scotland's former Auditor General Robert

... Black asks the question " ... is providing the current range of free public services sustainable", the Scottish National Party administration in Scotland said ...

The Scottish government said it remained committed to the council tax freeze, free prescriptions, free bus travel and its public service reforms.

... neatly sidestepping the question with a predictable sound-bite, but ignoring issues surrounding the big ticket items on societies agenda, items such as ...

Free personal nursing care.

When those schemes were set up in Scotland there was no hint given that the costs of those would be rising as quickly as they are now.

... projections relating to the seemingly minor concessionary travel scheme show costs could reach half a billion pounds by 2020s.

The Auditor asks the question ...

"... were the Members of the Scottish Parliament aware of that when they launched the policy?"

... and provides a frightening answer ...

"I suspect the frank answer is not. So to that extent I think I am on safe ground by saying the affordability of some this has to be questioned, we do need to revisit it. Every pound that goes on bus passes for well off older people is a pound that is not available for other things."

... he continues ...

"MSPs have become too cut off from the way services are delivered in local communities. He argued they should spend less time on passing unnecessary laws, to free up more time for budget scrutiny."

Robert Black believes that ...

"... political and media focus on the independence issue is leaving little space or opportunity to address the great challenges which we are facing. 

There is clear leadership on the independence debate, but on many of the other big issues, it can feel as if the politics of Scotland hasn't fully come to terms with the challenges we are now facing. 

No one party or leader is prepared to take the risk of being the first mover in re-thinking policies, whether it be penal reform (or) reshaping the health service.Consider the growth in police numbers from 6,900 in 1949 to more than 17,000 now, despite the use of technology for policing, and without any politician asking why the higher numbers are necessary. 

He said scrutiny of public services is "episodic and patchy" and mostly conducted at Holyrood, remote from the localities where the services are delivered".

Why would I write about devolved Scotland ?

Its because the conditions that exist in Scottish politics are mirrored in the politics of devolved Wales, I would say every word used by Robert Black is equally applicable to the machinations in Cardiff Bay.

It is time our politicians took time out and considered what it is to be like the little people who rely on the services delivered by government ...

... and to ask the little people very specifically whether propositions are acceptable  and to act in accordance with the wishes of the people.  

With a mouth like ...

... this :

... the expression "...... keeps me humble," just doesn't ring true.

Although when he said ....

 "The problem with Alex Salmond is that he wants to destroy Scotland with his ridiculous ................ everybody knows he's a disaster.,"

... he was of course referring to the Salmond windmills,  not the Salmond and the Edinburgh sideshow this weekend.

..... you cannot help warming to him, well that's an exaggeration......

Catalan separatists and Scots ...

... and the other disparate groups in European Union, a message ...

... there is no open door.

The recent march and rally in Barcelona used the slogan ...

"Catalonia: a new European state". 

But a European Union spokesman in Brussels pointed out that, were Catalonia to secede from Spain, it would have to leave the EU and could rejoin only if it met the economic criteria and if other member states voted unanimously in favour of its membership. (The Guardian, 10 Sep 2011).

... yet another lie by the separatist agenda debunked.

So the message to Alex Salmond is "... the list of your lies grows ever longer."  No honesty for the Scots people.

Scotland, Salmond and a strategy ...

... that will send the Scots into a brave new world, and not a shot fired.

The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) are the traditional minnow in a large pond, unable to compete in the philosophical battles found in the larger Westminster arena, the only future is to create an illusion in the seemingly larger political pond an independent Scotland would bring.

Reflecting on the strategy towards independence, Salmond and chums have played a blinder .......

The strategy ...

Too few Scots want independence, less than 40%, so ...

Increase the voting population, the young are easily influenced, voting age reduced to 16 for the referendum.

Ignite an underlying conflict ...

Scottish sporting celebrations that will be dominated by the old enemy, the Commonwealth games will precede the referendum, good timing.

Salmond's coup de grâce, the finishing blow ...

An option that cannot be given without UK wide approval ...

... devo-max, fiscal federalism, the UK wide electorate will not underwrite a constitutional change that gives preferential treatment to one part of the Union.

Westminster says "No", the votes go to Salmond, game over ...

Salmond wins, 
       the party begins !

Say hello to our new flag ...

... minus the Scots Saltire ...