A particularly mendacious lie by Danny Alexander puts the institutional start-up costs of Scottish Independence at £1.5 billion. That is a cool half billion pounds cheaper than Scotland’s share of the costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars, even on the Westminster government’s blatant under-estimate of the war costs.
So Scotland can afford criminal invasions killing hundreds of thousands to ‘bring freedom’, but cannot afford the smaller cost of its own freedom!!!
The £1.5 billion estimate is mendacious in two ways. Firstly, it is a simple recycling of a Canadian lie at the time of the Quebec independence referendum, apportioning with no argument 1% of GDP to startup costs.
Secondly, as nearly all the money will be spent in Scotland it is not a loss at all, but actually an increase to GDP, as any but the most nutty neo-con would be forced to acknowledge. And it would be the precursor of government money spent annually in Scotland rather than England for ever thereafter.
Thankfully Alexander won’t have a job much longer – and if he thinks a penny of Scottish public spending is going in future to support his huge arse and deceitful mouth, he is very wrong.
Here he is at his most masterful last night. NOT. To think he has had a big say in the grinding down of the people over the last four years.
Watch Danny Alexander Confronted By Lib Dem Activist Over European Election Misery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMJ1Ug2_5hU#t=64
Why does he always make me think of that old feather cushion that needs ‘plumping up’ a bit?
Hugh Kerr says Danny Alexander looks like a worried man!
Given how the cost of the Scottish Parliament building went up from an estimated £10m – £40m to £414 million, £1.5 billion might be being hopefull.
On the plus side, if you divide it by the same 300 odd years the Union has lasted, and assume the nation-state world order lasts that long…
Well said Craig… And Mary enjoyed you Para Re Salmond vs Dimblebore, as Craig also Points to above –
” Last night Alex Salmond told Dimbledore that there has been a bias for UKIP by the BBC in their reporting of the Scottish elections and that a complaint had gone in.”
Dimblebore went a bit red and laughingly said, ‘Complaints to BBC Glasgow then Mr Salmond’ to which Salmond said ‘No. That’s the trouble. It is being controlled from London’. Dimblebore shuffled his papers and quickly moved on.”
Some more on the Dirty tricks Mob…From Wings Over Scotland…
” Having spent the last few months pleading poverty and pitiful-underdog status, “Better Together” this week appeared to have suddenly remembered that £500,000 cheque it got ages ago from Tory oil tycoon (and friend of genocidal war criminals everywhere) Ian Taylor, and started spending some of it…
” 12-page colour inserts in newspapers like the Daily Record and Guardian don’t come cheap, and hundreds of thousands of Scots found themselves looking at a small booklet which didn’t identify its source until the very last page, and could have been taken by the unwary to have been a production by the newspapers themselves.
(Especially given the little pale blue “sticker” on the front using what looks very much like the Guardian’s own typeface).
But that was the least of the dishonesty…
” Even the Financial Times acknowledges that “an independent Scotland could expect to start with healthier state finances than the rest of the UK”, so why would there need to be more cuts when we’re both richer and spending less anyway?…
” “All the information in this document comes from impartial experts, economists and employers. “
A barefaced lie. Very few sources are actually cited, and almost all of the ones that are are UK government bodies like the Scotland Office, ONS and OBR. Where there are quotes, they’re highly selective and/or wildly out of context.
But we’ll get to those as we go along…
Full piece @
http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-lies-you-get/
Je
Re Scottish Parliament costs – remember New Labour were in power at the time. Probably more spent on backhanders than on building materials.
I personally think Alexander is a particularly obnoxious twat.
So what will the institutional start-up costs of Scottish Independence be?
Res Diss
£821,427,538.99, obviously.
But the point is, that whatever the precise figure it will be a welcome Keynesian stimulus. The money is not lost. In fact it will have a substantial multiplier effect.
Je
No true Scot would allow the cost to soar like that.
“£821,427,538.99, obviously.”
RD really likes his facts, unless he has to go looking for them.
Be careful Craig or he’ll publish that figure as fact and cite you as the source.
As you say, the money will stay in Scotland and create jobs, which in turn will create more jobs.
I can’t wait. It’s the most exciting thing to happen in my lifetime.
Danny Alexander, or, as I’m sure he’ll be called sometime after the next UK election “Lord Alexander” is as much to blame as Clegg is. He should resign.
Western “freedom” and “democracy” is for export only. They don’t like to practice such nonsense in the western countries.
Iraq, like Libya was an Arab example of socialism and prosperity.” Now, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan have become part of Stone Age – thanks to western greed and so-called “existential threat” to Israel. The next on line for regime change, are Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Somalia.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/05/18/libya-and-western-humanitarian-mess/
“Secondly, as nearly all the money will be spent in Scotland it is not a loss at all, but actually an increase to GDP,”
and
“As you say, the money will stay in Scotland and create jobs, which in turn will create more jobs.”
_______________________
On that basis (increased GDP, more jobs), would you recommend that the UK govt should create lots of new institutions in the non-Scottish UK?
It does not represent an increase in GDP it’s a diversion of funds which will not then be available for other projects such as schools and hospitals.
How much of the money will remain in Scotland is open to debate, they had to hire foreign contractors to build the Edinburgh Tramway, another mismanged project that went way over budget.
Craig
Digging holes and filling them up would be a Keynesian stimulus – it doesn’t mean that the cost shouldn’t be identified and compared with alternatives which may have better multipliers and outcomes – my guess is that a lot of the start up costs will end up in the pockets of Edinburgh lawyers and IT suppliers. Or will an independent Scotland be run on some alternative model?
As an aside I think Danny Alexander reached the peak of his abilities when he was in charge of PR for the Cairngorms but I’m afraid quoting a figure probably provided to him by a civil servant hardly constitutes a particularly mendacious lie. Another example of playing the man rather than the ball I’m afraid.
Tag team is here.
My congratulations to Original Troll Mary for not yet having inserted Israel/Palestine into this thread.
Keep it up!
As I said, tag team is in.
Will [possible] Scottish independence one day be/come the antidote for the Broken Window Fallacy?
Danny Alexander:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beaker_(Muppet).jpg
Mr Scorgie
Good mornng to you, nice to see you up and about. Since you have time to post about Danny Alexander you’ll no doubt have time to provide the various answers you own me from yesterday and the day before, won’t you Doug?
Try again
Danny Alexander:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaker_(Muppet)
Expect the US to interfere soon in the Yes/No debate.
Undoubtedly on the side of the No campaign.
“U.S. remains a wild card in Scottish independence vote”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/us-remains-a-wild-card-in-scottish-independence-vote/2014/04/12/6afb39f3-96d2-487a-ab4f-cde8de596424_story.html
‘Dysfunction in Nigeria’ thread is closed. For info:
U.S. Trains African Commandos to Fight Terrorism
WASHINGTON — United States Special Operations troops are forming elite counterterrorism units in four countries in North and West Africa that American officials say are pivotal in the widening war against Al Qaeda’s affiliates and associates on the continent, even as they acknowledge the difficulties of working with weak allies.
The secretive program, financed in part with millions of dollars in classified Pentagon spending and carried out by trainers, including members of the Army’s Green Berets and Delta Force, was begun last year to instruct and equip hundreds of handpicked commandos in Libya, Niger, Mauritania and Mali.
/..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/world/africa/us-trains-african-commandos-to-fight-terrorism.html?ref=world&_r=1
‘Unpleasant and nasty’. Pot. Kettle.
UKIP ‘not the answer’ to 21st Century issues says Blair
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27585260
Almost makes you wish you voted for UKIP.
The treasury and Alexander have been guilty of gross incompetence.You can hear the lack of conviction in his voice.Simply a talking head for this coalition of minority parties.
It has been a Schadenfreude to see Clegg et al squirming at their total failure.Small revenge for his reneging on tuition fees.Long may that be remembered.
The lies about Scottish Independence are dropped like silent farts and cause an untold stink.
When the lies are caught out and debunked,never an apology or a retraction from the MSM.The stink is allowed to linger.
None of the (old) big 3 parties grasp that there is a growing revolt to the revolving doors and gravy train for the boys.There is deep resentment to the EU and the powers that they’ve got.The EEC had the peoples support.It’S a friggin no brainer,but no-one wants to go back there.
The more centralised things get ,the more corrupt they get and the less people power there is.And that is the ultimate goal.To empower the people,because as has been shown in the latest elections,they are not competent to vote the way they should.
Syriza is a breath of fresh air in Athens.We need more of it and less of the knee jerk to the right.
DoNNY Darko
“Syriza is a breath of fresh air in Athens.”
________________
This seems like one of the usual lazy platitudes (Craig said something similar).
Here’s a challenge : expand on that, with particular reference to the practical impact Syriza has had on political and economic developments and on the political and economic landscape in Greece over the past year or so.
He knows he’s had it. Clegg that is. As the song said, You can feel it in your fingers, you can feel it in your toes….’
Before https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXJCp0cedFazcMHV2Q5YL-vWJAn-3l16S9c_PdY1y7_bo_U6nQjA
After http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75108000/jpg/_75108785_75108329.jpg