Amazingly, there seem to be only two Scots in the cabinet – Liam Fox, who is detested in Scotland, and the hapless Danny Alexander in the ghetto of Scottish Secretary – a token position devoid of power. Have I missed anyone? How many times have there been this few Scots in a Cabinet since 1707?
I had already noted that the election result and the Lib-Con coalition will be a great boost to Scottish independence. This puts the seal on it.
Craig E – “I am a bit surprised (Aye Right!) at the tone of some of the commenst above and their anti Scots remarks.”
Are you ? Do you live in Scotland, by any chance ? The Scots conversations, understandings, of this are way, *way* ahead of what you’re likely to hear in England; the above samples are not unrepresentative of the sort of things I hear, when I raise it (which I do. I’ve been seeing this for the last several years, and it bothers me). The language above may be cruder, being as the people I talk with are, of course, naice people (irrelevant-selfmockery alert), but the sense is, they have not even begun to think about it and dislike the suggestion that they should have to. What I tend to hear is that they read the SNP as a regional variant of the BNP, Scots nationalism means hating the English, kind of thing. The next step is to notice that losing the Scots influence would weaken things that they like in currently-the-UK – permanent English Tory majority, etc (who knows how that might go, now ? I’m guessing there could be all kinds of strange splits among the parties. But, another thread for that) – and conclude that they’re against Scots independence because it would be bad for England. And, regardless of how much we agree on pretty much anything else, I can’t seem to persuade anyone that from the POV of those considering their own independence, this is *really* not a convincing argument against it; or that that matters.
It does seem to be becoming more and more likely (mostly by default, south of the border), and if it does come about, I have no idea what “the English” will do when it finally sinks in. Maybe they’ll continue to not want to think about it and shrug their shoulders. I hope.
@Duncan McFarlane,
Before I saw the footage I had thought the ‘bigot’ event was probably a setup. Having seen the footage of it though there’s nothing at all surprising in that it got picked up and went out live accidentally.
Brown was talking to her in the open right next to the car. Immediately after they stop talking he waved at the crowd (I think) and stepped into the car. That he still had the microphone on him is not surprising – it was filmed a photo-op. Then before the car drives off (or just as it is starting to) you hear the ‘bigot’ bit.
The remarkable part is that this seems to be a case of someone who was not deliberately Murdoched.
It’s interesting that a ‘popular’ story like the bigot one should get so much attention. Yet Brown seems to have got away with deceptive two-faced positions like the following with no media comment.
“No one on this side of the Atlantic ?” arguably no one on earth except Alan Greenspan – bears as much responsibility for this crisis as Gordon Brown. In 2004 he told an audience of bankers that “in budget after budget I want us to do even more to encourage the risk takers”(16). In 2007 he boasted that the City of London’s success was the result of the government “enhancing a risk based regulatory approach, as we did in resisting pressure for a British Sarbannes-Oxley after Enron and Worldcom”. Even as analysts warned that a crash was due, he continued to deregulate the City and appoint its villainous bosses to government committees and quangos.”
[http://www.celsias.com/article/uks-gordon-brown-has-decided-bankers-wont-be-regul/]
Richard (5:27 PM)
I’ve thought about it, can’t see what all the fuss is about actually.
My one opinion would be that the Scots would be mad to base their economy on oil (which is all you ever seem to hear about down here from the nats etc). You need something better, mainly because the price of oil is so volatile (making it hard to budget and a chaotic way of governing).
Having said that, Scotland wants independence, NP as far as I’m concerned.
Gove is a Scot
Chris – the sums on the economy, I have no idea. But I’m sure there would be people demanding to see the hard detailed work before the case could be made to do it.
I don’t even have much idea how much oil is left under the UK sectors of the north sea.
Hi Richard
I don’t know how much oil is down there either (and if I was brutally honest, it was something I forgot to think about until you mentioned it).
I think I was coming from a diff direction, in a previous thread Craig said “Spending in Scotland has never exceeded Scotland’s hydrocarbon revenues.” I did query that, but it was an old thread so he probably didn’t see it. It does seem to perpetuate the belief amongst many that Scotland could survive on it, but it is way to unstable to rely on IMHO.
Looking at the HMRC figures, oil/gas revenue for 08/09 was just short of 13 Bn, in 09/10 it was actually 6.5 Bn, how can you possibly plan for that sort of fluctuation.
Now, if I was in charge up there (you’ll probably be glad I’m not when you read this 😉 ), I would say that all normal public spending must be met by non-oil taxation. The I would plough all that oil money into:
a. Manufacturing (mainly in the centre to East of the Country).
b. Build loads of world class ports on the East coast, especially near to the border.
c. Build highly efficient (Government owned) merchant shipping, thus ensuring that you can keep the transportation costs of the goods you produce to a minimum (and work for the ship yards up there as well).
In other words, Scotland has a long term advantage that should really be utilised (an Eastern sea board providing a gateway to Europe).
Chris – at first glance, that seems sensible, but I don’t have time to think. It’s a nice, big, thing to think about and I slightly regret my judgement in starting it just now, being as how I’ll be away for pretty much the next fortnight, so I have to drop it now. Family holiday in honour of big parental birthday, then off to the Orkney Folk Festival (Which Of Course Is Not Scotland … I shouldn’t have said that either, should I ? If anyone else happens to be up there, I’ll be the one carrying the clarinet case with the “Pict” sticker. Or that …), back after that.
Fades away, leaving only a cheerfully evil grin. Have fun.
You have fun up there 😀
With only 1 Scots Tory MP it could have been worse.
I doubt if 9 out of 10 Scots could tell you anything about Liam Fox let alnne hate him.