You have probably all seen this already, but it made me laugh so much I just had to post it. The Labour Party brings up Jack Straw and 100 fellow troughers from Westminster to make a grand demonstration for the Union, and their efforts are negated by the brilliant mockery of two lads on a rickshaw.
A great example of the nimbleness and popular authenticity of the Yes campaign on the street, outwitting the Noes ponderous and expensive efforts.
Interesting to compare this to yesterday’s genuinely spontaneous scenes in precisely the same location yesterday. See the last thirty seconds of the first video – that No “demonstration” was given massive coverage by the BBC. Now look at this yesterday, which was not shown on the BBC at all.
Finally that full Jim Sillars interview on the BBC. I agree with every single word he said. The BBC only showed a 30 second extract after the live interview, and presented it as a “blunder”. Plainly not only were the BBC shocked at Sillars’ lack of neo-con orthodoxy, they could not understand that others might actually agree with him too.
One of the funniest moments of the campaign. Every timed I’ve watched, I end up laughing.
You can see some of the MP’s thinking, ‘what the hell are we doing up here?’ 🙂
Beware the Debt Star and Sarth Invader!
Could all those criticising, rightly in my opinion, how corporate taxes have been cut in the UK please explain why cutting them even further in an independent Scotland would be justified?
Two student union types on a rickshaw shouting ”imperialists” every 5 seconds and the pally solidarity scarves gave the game away. Just the usual jeering mob of professional protesters you get at every rally up and down the land, usually doing the Tory cuts routine around Trafalgar Square. I only watched for 12 seconds so I didn’t get to hear “fascists”, but I’m sure it’s in there.
Perhaps the rickshaw boys forget how their Scottish masters were among the keenest and most brutal proponents of the British Empire.
Strange that one of them couldn’t answer a direct question as to whereabouts they came from in Scotland.
“Strange that one of them couldn’t answer a direct question as to whereabouts they came from in Scotland.”
Yup, intriguing. Probably bussed in from some SU you down Sarth.
Res Dis
The big corporations like Google,McDonalds,Coke,Starbucks pay next to nothing in corporate tax now. I would imagine that an iScotland would make them pay their fair share.It cant be that small business is punished with high corporation tax and the big fish & banks escape “Scot” free.Using the Irish model to attract business would make perfect sense.We used to have the Highland Development program that did much the same thing.Unfortunately it was misused and it caused more harm than good in the end.
ResDis / Anon1, You really ought to spend some time in Scotland.
You could hear where they were from,there was no need to ask.
That top vid is genuinely hilarious. Interestingly the humour I have seen from the No side has either been along the lines of personal attacks on Alex Salmond for his supposed dictatorial qualities, or a belittling of the capabilities of an independent Scotland (see https://ahdinnaeken.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/just-say-yes-poster-6.jpg as an example). Somehow though getting kicked from above is less funny than the people at the bottom kicking upwards.
“Using the Irish model to attract business would make perfect sense.”
Oh you mean the one Google take advantage of so as to avoid tax in the UK.
“ResDis / Anon1, You really ought to spend some time in Scotland.
You could hear where they were from,there was no need to ask.”
Perhaps I do – and I’m afraid Scottish accents are somewhat infectious. So where do you think that they were from? Norfolk?
Watching the Establishment threaten economic armageddon in the event of a vote for independence, I’m transported back in time to a long ago land where there was a Labour Party, and such threats were a Tory staple of general election campaigns.
Now? NuLab parrots the Tory line.
Do it Scotland, vote “Yes,” not just for yourselves, but for all the rest of us in the UK who’ve had enough of neo-liberal bullshit.
Could all those criticising, rightly in my opinion, how corporate taxes have been cut in the UK please explain why cutting them even further in an independent Scotland would be justified? (Resident Dissident)
It’s a good question, RD. I don’t claim to speak for anyone else, but – We’ve heard the announcements from corporations who claim that business would be harder for them, poor things, in an independent Scotland. Possibly this has something to do with the inefficiency, and, let’s be honest, blind-eye-turning by the Revenue snd other regulators. Cutting corporation tax below rUK rates would be a strong incentive to stay where they are.
But isn’t this a race with two horses? Yes, it is. There’s the strong suspicion that by threatening to leave, the corporations are seeking to pre-empt the decisions Scotland will have to make on taxation, and secure favourable terms without the hassle of removing their brass plates. Even you will agree that the businesses concerned are multinational octopi, not corner shops, and loyalty to any one base country is secondary (or tertiary) to their share price at the end of the trading day. That’s the global economy for you. The one all the UK parties cheer for. One option is to encourage them to shift their instantly collapsible tents to your bailiwick and bleed an unearned, automatic income from every transaction undertaken there. But trade doesn’t stop even if it isn’t owned by seventeen layers of management-stuffed cutouts, on the top of which is a pot of gold sunning itself in the Caymans. There are other options.
Great interview by Jim Sillars.
As a German, I feel ashamed that Deutsche Bank is part of this fear mongering campaign. Sadly it’s hardly surprising considering all the shameful and illegal things they’ve done in recent times.
I am really hoping for Yes to win the referendum and defy Westminster with their contemptible alliance of money and media. I think all these big companies will be the first to regret and revoke their rash statements. They will be happy to do business in a prosperous Scotland. And if some do want to leave, I’m sure others will be happy to take their place.
Sillars is also right on account of the EU. An independent Scotland not being or becoming a member is absurd and contrary to everything the EU stands for. Let the rest of the UK leave if they want to. I guess it would be bad for everyone economically, but life would become much easier for the remaining members. 😉
DonnyDarkSide
“Res Dis
The big corporations like Google,McDonalds,Coke,Starbucks pay next to nothing in corporate tax now. I would imagine that an iScotland would make them pay their fair share.”
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If the above is correct (and that’s a big if), what makes you think that those big corporations would relocate to, or stay in, Scotland?
And what is a “fair share”, in your opinion?
That’s two questions, off you go.
DonnyDarkSide
“ResDis / Anon1, You really ought to spend some time in Scotland.
You could hear where they were from,there was no need to ask.”
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So would you enlighten us, please? Where were they from?
Thanks.
Ba’al Zevul
Yes there are other options rather than a race to the bottom – perhaps we should have a look at the USA where big fines are common for those who use transfer pricing and similar ruses to avoid payments to the IRS or perhaps we should work with those holding similar views throughout the EU and OECD to change the place of residence rules and model tax frameworks which allow so much of this to go wrong. Of course Alex Salmond may see Scotland as a version of Cayman Islands – but perhaps he should be aware that there is now quite a lot of competition to be the tax haven of choice, and if John Swinney’s corporate history is anything to go by I have my doubts that this is a battle of brains that he will win.
RD –Salmond may see Scotland as a version of Cayman Islands – but perhaps he should be aware that there is now quite a lot of competition to be the tax haven of choice, and if John Swinney’s corporate history is anything to go by I have my doubts that this is a battle of brains that he will win.
I share your reservations to some extent. But I don’t think Salmond sees favourable tax rates (if he’s incorporating them) as central to a long term strategy, which should involve building indigenous production. Something the UK has manifestly failed to do since Thatcher levelled the industrial playing field before deciding to play golf with finance and the service sector. They wwould undoubtedly be helpful in the short term, and, pace your views on Swinney, Salmond was a professional economist, and unlike the one in the UK government, Vince Cable, is not going to be overriden by a hostile coalition partner at every turn.
Re competition with the Caymans, obviously that’s a no-brainer. But re hanging onto the status quo ante for as long as it takes to establish the status quo post, cutting taxes looks to me like a sensible approach.
“Something the UK has manifestly failed to do since Thatcher levelled the industrial playing field before deciding to play golf with finance and the service sector.”
Perhaps you could point me to the relevant section for an independent Scotland’s business strategy in the Wee Blue Book – there seems to be little other than references to a debateable level of surplus arising from the oil reserves – as to how it will be used there is precious little – although I am aware there have been some noises about promoting the finance and Tourist (service) sectors. I’m afraid distilleries and farming won’t do much in terms of employment – as for all those UK govt departments relocated to Scotland, probably best to assume they will be outsourced to the cheapest supplier.
Absolutely brilliant. I love how a couple of lads stuck it to the corrupt sleazy British establishment
You couldn’t get away with that in the USA though you’d be tasered and jailed in “the land of the free”
Perhaps you could point me to the relevant section for an independent Scotland’s business strategy
Perhaps you could point me to the UK’s business strategy set out truthfully in a document of record. It’s making it up as it goes along.
“Perhaps you could point me to the relevant section for an independent Scotland’s business strategy
Perhaps you could point me to the UK’s business strategy set out truthfully in a document of record. It’s making it up as it goes along.”
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Translation for Captain Komodo’s troops : there isn’t such a section.
Ta!
“Perhaps you could point me to the UK’s business strategy set out truthfully in a document of record. It’s making it up as it goes along.”
This may be true – but all we seem to have for Scotland is a reduction in the rate of Corporation Tax to attract Murdoch and his friends. Talk about a wing and a prayer. Add that to the double talk about Nato, becoming a republic, and the currency post independence etc. etc. – to say nothing about the slippery nature of Salmond, Sturgeon and Co then this really has the makings of Darien II.
Habba
“This is your imperial masters” – clearly not something he picked up in a Scottish school – unless standards there have declined rapidly; or perhaps it was just a racist take on how rickshaw drivers in the former colonies?
@Rich
“You couldn’t get away with that in the USA though you’d be tasered and jailed in “the land of the free””
talk about unmitigated garbage
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=street+protests+in+the+usa&biw=1680&bih=843&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=IsUVVJreH4vb7AbOlYDIDw&ved=0CFoQsAQ
This may be true – but all we seem to have for Scotland is a reduction in the rate of Corporation Tax to attract Murdoch and his friends. Talk about a wing and a prayer. Add that to the double talk about Nato, becoming a republic, and the currency post independence etc. etc. – to say nothing about the slippery nature of Salmond, Sturgeon and Co then this really has the makings of Darien II.
These are familiar objections, RD. Your hidden assumption is that unconditional pandering to ultimately unproductive and speculative financial players – the basis of any recognisable UK policy – at the expense, always, of the majority of the population, should automatically be preferable to an attempt to start again on a different basis.
Planning, eh?
With the collective expertise of the UK financial establishment, the crash of 2007/8 was simply not foreseen. Indeed the behaviour leading to it was actually encouraged by the UK government,in the context of regulation being removed earlier, to the hearty cheers of both sides of the Commons. The UK is still borrowing like a country that borrows a lot simply to service its debts, the taxpayer is lumbered with non-voting shares in RBS (whose possible departure is intended to concern us) which will be lucky to break even when it is flogged off again for less than its value to foreign-based hedge funds, as Royal Mail was. The taxpayer doesn’t even have the certificates! *You* lecture *us* about planning?
What you fail to see, yet, is that the Scottish independence movement is not simply an emotional outburst. It’s a growing realisation, not just in Scotland, that the UK system takes no account of the people living there, and every account of the parasites who have inserted their feeding tubes into every aspect of public and private life.
If that’s the plan, and it seems to be, then let us have less of plans, and more of humanity.
“With the collective expertise of the UK financial establishment, the crash of 2007/8 was simply not foreseen.”
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This talk about the financial crisis not having been foreseen is frequently as a stick with which to beat bankers and politicians.
I cannot personally recall either than anyone foresaw the following (although the subjects were much more in the public domain):
The fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Evil Empire (Soviet Union and Communist block)
The fall of apartheid in South Africa
The development of China along full blown capitalist lines.
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Habbabkuk for Unknown Unknowns!
..is frequently USED as a stick…”
Ba’al Zevul
While I certainly don’t buy into the Coalition’s economic strategy such as it exists, that doesn’t mean that I buy into the incoherent witterings of a former oil company economist or the former head of strategy of a failed Scottish insurance company. Look how the thinking on the currency was destroyed by Krugman in a couple of paragraphs. The reality is that in such a vacuum that the divide and conquer games of the City will become a lot easier (like it or not the connections between the English and Scottish economies and the souces of finance will still be pretty deep going forward – as single coherent opposition is really the only hope going forward.
Just to frighten the Unionists properly. That’s a big crowd in Glasgow. But every Scottish town had its own street party that day. Almost all independence supporters were elsewhere.