From the warm embrace of passionate citizen activism, Scotland’s future passed to the cold hands of hardened political hacks in closeted rooms. It is a physical impossibility that all 14,000 submissions from the public received by mid-October were even read, led alone properly considered. I am willing to bet most were not even opened.
No, this was the very worst kind of deal-making by callous political operatives, where party interests came first, second and last. I do not give a fig for the result. Income tax devolution is of minimal use if other major taxes are set from London and most income still comes from a Westminster “grant”. Revenue from oil and whisky will still be treated in government accounts as “UK” rather than arising in Scotland. It is far short of the quasi Federal powers which No voters were promised and the Lib Dems pretend to believe in.
Actually, I do not give a fig for the Smith Commission. I want to live in a country where the Westminster establishment does not send our children to fight and die in illegal wars, and which does not harbour weapons of mass destruction. I want a country where governance is decided by citizens and not cooked up the way of this sordid, sordid deal.
That is not to say we should not take advantage of any minor opportunities for increasing social fairness in Scotland that may accrue. But given the continued Westminster stranglehold on overall funding levels, they will be minor indeed.
Nor will I disdain the amusement afforded by the total intellectual mess into which the Labour Party has landed itself. If non-Scottish MPs in Westminster cannot vote on Scottish levels of income tax, it would be absolutely wrong for Scottish MPs to vote on English, Welsh or Northern Irish levels of income tax. That is unanswerable, yet the Labour Party cannot bring itself to acknowledge it. This should be fun.
For those wanting a detailed analysis, we have the excellent Stuart Campbell.
Mr Murray, does anyone have it in writing that Gordon Brown is actually going to stand down as an MP? This pathetic, conniving coward is capable of putting out rumours so that the SNP might not put the strongest candidate forward in his constituency. The revolting psycopathic bully did not get where he is today by playing fair, you know!
A fair question to which the answer appears to be no.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30167158
So far he himself has said nothing so it would appear that Mr Murray is being premature in accusing him of running from a fight.
Tune for our times “Year Zero”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyGes9YL0z0
Nice, Thanks for Stuart Cambell breakdown Too Craig
RepublicofScotland …
” Glasgow Scotland largest city is only roughly 30 odd miles from Faslane, a “Ground Zero” incident or something of a similar nature would be catastrophic for Scotland as a whole.”
Yes its just on 30 miles to the City.. and as you say, two more of the things ( Subs ) heading our way.
But within a much shorter Distance from the WMD’s are Five Large towns, at distance of 2 / 4 Miles from Faslane … Dumbarton at around 6 /7 miles should be in my list too,,as it;s on the Clyde coast.
then there are numerous smaller places contained in this same area…all adding to a population of around 150,000 people, within these few miles from Faslane
The Lower Clyde Coast ( NOT Showing Faslane, but it’s a couple of Miles North west of Helensburgh )
Not the Large Towns of Port Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock, Helensburgh, Dunoon, all within 2 / 3 miles from Faslane…Dumbarton just a wee bit further east…A LOT of Souls –
http://chris-upson.com/2010/Gourock/GourockBike.jpg
NOTE The Large Towns Of…
“Scum, indeed, Ishmael, whatever it is you’re talking about. ”
I’m talking about the tacit threats and antagonism of people obviously trying to form legal cases against Craig for his writing, twisting the points etc. It’s not like it hasn’t already been tried and it seems to an ongoing agenda.
Who runs this hit squad? It’s clearly immoral and if it is legal, well so was about everything Nazi Germany did.
I’m not particularly in touch with everything on this blog. But I get the feeling this it just what’s going on and it kind of shits in the face of any notion of democracy. Clear enough for you.
and it seems to be* an ongoing agenda.
With the psychotic psychopathic people who run this gore fest, why is the idea violent revolution such and anathema? The elite don’t give a monkeys about violence, it surely could already be legitimate self defence. It’s only that the people under the boot don’t see it yet.
I’m really not for it, but it’s getting to the point where I really think those in power (as if they don’t already) pose a serious threat to everyone’s safety.
Bollock-ticks. Best cure is to wash them from time to time. I don’t smoke so I don’t have cigarettes to burn them off with and anyway that is probably illegal under Health & Safety Regoulations in most pubic to lets today.
WaccyBaccy
Bollocks-ticians, the bollocks-tickle mind, is able to change even the purest of ideas = such as socialism – into nationalising all property for the benefit of the ruling classes, or the purest of creeds such as Islam into an excuse for raping innocent citizens:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article185732.html
“During the occupation of Iraq, the United States officially relied on Turkey and Saudi Arabia to rebuild the country. The policy was then to provoke civil war and conduct systematic massacres, of mostly Shiites and Christians. As explained by the former adviser to the White House for Homeland Security, Richard A. Falkenrath, this policy was designed to encyst jihadism, use it on the spot and make sure it does not come to the United States [5].
In September 2013, hundreds of jihadists from the Free Syrian Army (supported by France and bearing the flag of the French colonial militia), supported by elements of Al-Nusra Front (Syrian branch of Al Qaeda) arrived in Turkey to take the village of Maloula, raping its women, killing its men and desecrating its churches. Maloula offers no strategic military interest. The attack was only a way to visibly persecute Christians of whom Maloula has been the Syrian symbol for nearly two thousand years.”
Nevermind
Given the under-lying, under-lie-ing reality of the political mind, the best way to deal with the political nutter class is to avoid them or ban them, whether it be UKIP or Political Islam. Don’t give them the opportunity to wave their lovely slogans of decency and respect in order to gain a toe-hold in power and wreck the lives of ordinary citizens.
Psychopaths the entire class of them, waving the slogans of populist grievances. Mr CanSpeccy is one of the top standard bearers of the populist, racist movement that UKIP says it will defend.
Fiscal = Tax = Power. A sovereign nation does not allow another nation free access to its fiscals. ‘Just checking for ticks’
“Also, alcohol duty is collected at source.”
Not on exports.
Fred says “The Nationalists were hoping that Westminster wouldn’t give Scotland tax raising powers like they said they would so they would have an excuse to keep harping on about another neverendum.”
The whole thing is a scam, Fred. Any money collected by raising taxes is deducted from Scotlands block grant. So we get no extra money, and higher taxed folk would just move to England. Nothing but a con.
And most of the suggestions from Smith will never pass Westminsters time with it.
“The whole thing is a scam, Fred. Any money collected by raising taxes is deducted from Scotlands block grant. So we get no extra money..”
_____________
I thought that Scottish independence was all about democracy and a greater political responsibility and morality, not something as sordid as “getting extra money”…..?
Same old, same old!
A word to the wise:
You may have noticed that a commentator whom you had assumed to have evaporated has returned. This is because CM’s URL has changed: it’s now secured. To re-obliterate the carping fool, close this page, and then find ‘Add-ons’ from whatever list of options your version of Firefox deigns to provide. Click on ‘Greasemonkey’ and select ‘Habbabreak’ > Options >Script Settings > Edit This User Script. The line in the top box (http://www.craigmurray.org.uk) should be altered to ‘https://www.craigmurray.org.uk’. Click OK, close all that and reload this superb blog page. The friendly legend ‘Habbabreak Options’ should now appear in its usual place at the top of the page, and presto! No more grumbling psychopath misery!
It’s been a pleasure, don’t mention it.
NAFEEZ AHMED dumped by the Guardian
http://www.patreon.com/nafeez
Oops. Cancel that. The site switches between http and https, apparently. You need to add another ‘include’ line to the script itself, to get both accepted by H’break. A little PC-experience – but not much – will be needed for this fix and I won’t detail it, as those who can will have worked it out already. Afrend, over to you to adjust the default settings in your excellent script.
A comment I put on the Trident Test thread.
Lethal junk.
24 November 2014
Two submarines to stay in Plymouth – two go to Faslane
HMS Torbay HMS Torbay will stay in Devonport until it is decommissioned
Living next to a nuclear graveyard
Nuclear submarine visits Portland
Submarine returns after 11 months
Two submarines earmarked for decommissioning will remain in Plymouth while two others will move to Faslane, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
HMS Torbay and HMS Trenchant, are to remain at the naval base at Devonport until they are decommissioned.
HMS Talent and HMS Triumph will move to Her Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde at Faslane, by 2020.
The MoD said this was another step towards HMNB Clyde becoming home to all of the UK’s submarines.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-30184864
~~~~~
Read what this young mother thinks about living with the danger.
2 October 2014
Devonport: Living next to a nuclear submarine graveyard
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-28157707
The ‘crass insensitivity’ of Tower’s luxury dinner for arms dealers, days after poppy display
Event was held just days after ceramic poppy display was focus of Great War commemorations
Thursday 27 November 2014
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-crass-insensitivity-of-towers-luxury-dinner-for-arms-dealers-days-after-poppy-display-9888507.html
There is this story about a £240 per dinner in the Tower for arms dealers.
Usual chutzpah – “In our judgement, the decision to host an event by the London Chamber of Commerce is consistent with this policy.”
Was Dannatt there?
What a very sick country we are living in.
@ Brian Fujisan
Faslane is not the only ground zero site in Argyleshire, and the most devastating fact is that any nuclear fall out is most likely to be spread all over Scotland by the main wind direction which is blowing SSW on 272 days/year, something to be considered when it comes to discussing the time span for its removal, i.e. yesterday….
@ Dreolin. Removing Nafeez from the Guardian, a man who has more knowledge about terrorism and how the mechanism s work, is another indication on the path this paper is being directed on. I very much like and used his books for my dissertation, a decade ago,.
It is a tragic loss to the Guardian which is clearly dropping into the nationalist danger zone.
add ‘than the BBC’s Frank Gardener’ after mechanism work,
The odious Agent Cameron is sounding off about migrants on both News channels. All choreographed as they put up graphics to match his words.
He is speaking at the JCB factory where the alarms went off a little while ago. That did not discomfort him one bit. He started telling some anecdote about speaking in a car factory against the noise from the production line.
JCB is Bamford owned. One of his donors of course.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-cameron-faces-questions-over-1365095
Lord Bamford now.
http://news.sky.com/story/1123153/jcb-boss-sir-anthony-bamford-made-tory-peer
“The whole thing is a scam, Fred. Any money collected by raising taxes is deducted from Scotlands block grant. So we get no extra money, and higher taxed folk would just move to England. Nothing but a con.
And most of the suggestions from Smith will never pass Westminsters time with it.”
No it isn’t a scam, the SNP are a party of conspiracy theorists who label everything a scam.
Take a look at the news this morning, Alex Salmond accusing the government of manipulating the figures by including the black economy. All the evidence has been there for all to see since Cameron went to Europe that the last thing he wanted was the black economy included in the figures yet tin foil hat Salmond insists it was a conspiracy against the Scots.
Brent crude down to $71 this morning, thank God we aren’t one of those countries with 16% of GDP dependent on it.
Last night the Constitutional scholar Bogdanor wss interviewed on the BBC about this. He said that for the UK to remain a single country, certain things like Foreign policy and Defence have to be centralised. Which devolved taxing powers that is consistent with is a matter for debate. My understanding is that the Smith commission was advisory only, and its work is now finished. The next government will have to make the decisions, which will need to give the Scottish electorate (not the same thing as the SNP) enough satisfaction to prevent any future campaign for Scottish independence from having any real chance of success. I wish them luck.
fred 28 Nov, 2014 – 10:42 am : “No it isn’t a scam, the SNP are a party of conspiracy theorists who label everything a scam…. Alex Salmond accusing the government of manipulating the figures by including the black economy …. yet tin foil hat Salmond insists it was a conspiracy against the Scots.”
I can’t find any reference to Salmond claiming this was a conspiracy against Scotland. Can you supply a link for your claim? Otherwise it looks as though you are just making things up to suit your agenda.
Otherwise it looks as though you are just making things up to suit your agenda.
Come, come. You can believe anything Fred tells you without any supporting evidence whatever. It’s not as if you have to go to a (gag) free Scottish university and learn how to think for yourself: regurgitated Barclay Bros* opinions are good enough for the likes of you, surely?
http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/alex-salmond-free-university-vow-writ-in-stane-1-3608685
*The Daily Telegraph’s owners. £6Bn and counting. Buy other peoples’ businesses for a living. Despite the name, English.
Now we know:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/26/uk-mideast-crisis-qatar-syria-idUKKCN0JA1C220141126
Moderate rebels my eye!
Isis is US
(try saying that after a pint or five)
off topic
BBC radio 4 news.. interview with a friend of Andrew Mitchell.
He blames Mitchell’s language on his bike! Apparently, according the friend, that’s why they have ministerial limousines.
“I can’t find any reference to Salmond claiming this was a conspiracy against Scotland. Can you supply a link for your claim? Otherwise it looks as though you are just making things up to suit your agenda.”
So can you find where Alex Salmond accuses the British government of manipulating the statistics by including the black economy?
“Come, come. You can believe anything Fred tells you without any supporting evidence whatever. ”
Considering Salmond’s accusations and the Statistics Agency response is in all the papers this morning I didn’t think anyone would be daft enough to try an deny it.
“So can you find where Alex Salmond accuses the British government of manipulating the statistics by including the black economy?”
Yes, and I agree with him, but that’s not the issue. If you can’t supply proof that Salmond also claimed it was an anti-Scottish conspiracy, everyone on this blog will be forced to conclude that you’ve been telling porky pies.
Why not Google it yourself, Fred? You probably need the practice.
His comments drew an angry retort from UK Statistics Agency chairman Sir Andrew Dilnot who accused him of undermining public trust in official calculations* and called for a public retraction and official correction.
*Not in the least compromised. Even when Osborne makes them up on the fly. And – (this might be trickier to find, although the Torygraph did carry it, so just this once, for you, Fred) – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/illegal-drugs-and-prostitution-boost-britains-economy-by-11billion-9764998.html
Salmond was right. K?