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.
Thank you Peter Strachan for linking to your articles.
It is palpable that the elephant in the room is not about borders, low prices or possible new deposits being found, but the whole sale proposals for fracking that has resulted in the latest Opec spat.
Unless Saudi Arabia has conspired with the US, who is alright really for some time , but its a high end user. Russia could also have been a target in this resource cartel war, but the connections need to be exposed, for they will give people the impetus to become frugal with energy, to save more than they ever had.
Since today, euphoria reigned, now, the Governments chief scientific advisor Mark Walport has come out to equate the risks to those of asbestos and thalidomide, which when we look back, were ‘manageable’, a small hint as to what he will say about fracking.
What would be your analysis of these risks, given that the hydrology of our underground strata can at best be assumed and that our risk assessments depend solely on pilot wells and/or Doppler resonances from underground explosions?
Can you suggest a way forward for Scotland’s energy potentials that is safer, more reliable on strong sea currents, hydro, tidal energy, and wave power, a decentralised grid that breaks up Monopolies?
After Grangemouth has now announced a controlled coal burn energy policy underneath the whole delta.
Resident dissident,
Thank you for your response:-
” Courtnenay
I don’t think you will find much of a take up here for a campaign on Turks and Caicos – which from the smells emanating from that direction is I fear a real life example of a conspiracy rather than the large scale overruling single conspiracy with which many here are obsessed.
If you want a reaction might I suggest you try the estatblishment right wing blogs such as Guido, Iain Dale, Conservative Home, Spectator and Telegraph. I do know that whenever I raised the issues of Turks and Caicos, Belize and funding by a certain bank back in 2008 and 2009 in such places as “toryboysnevergrowup” a prompt response was pretty much guaranteed. Some of the debate was then picked up by the Independent.”
I seriously doubt that the Tory party is going to attack the Tory party at its most moneyed source.
How do you reason that – unless you are suggesting that I embrace – total spin?
CB
CB
Just suggesting if that if you want to get traction on what is going on in Turks &Caicos this is the not the place to do. You have to take them on their own territory – there are more independent journalists who pick up on such arguments, especially if you start to provide frim and new evidence.
Guano, I think strike is too strong a word to describe the action Unite is taking. It’s a kind of work-to-rule to ensure that minimum disruption takes place even though this article, and the one in todays Financial Times describes it as a strike.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-28/news/41538740_1_motors-owned-jaguar-land-rover-pay-dispute-castle-bromwich
I did not know that jaguar land rover was based at Castle Bromich, it used to be at Lode Lane, Solihull.
Resident Dissent,
Just repeating:-
“I seriously doubt that the Tory party is going to attack the Tory party at its most moneyed source.”
The system tries to interact – but it simply does not seek to redress.
CB
And Resident Dissident,
When you say:-
” especially if you start to provide frim and new evidence”
But isn’t the evidence there already – and – wasn’t it always there even before Sir Robin Auld was appointed to head the Commission and then afterwards ignored the “old evidence”?
You tell me – the Tories surely won’t.
CB
Today is St Andrew’a Day. Agent Cameron is flying the flag at No 10.
Mr Cameron said the Saltire would be flying above 10 Downing Street, as he described how he was “just one of the millions of people who were relieved, proud and delighted that Scotland decided to stay” in the independence referendum.
He added: “There was one big message at the heart of our campaign: We can have a strong UK and a strong Scotland – with its own identity and achievements to celebrate. That’s what St Andrew’s Day is all about.
“As we celebrate St Andrew’s Day, we celebrate Scotland, this great nation of culture and enterprise, of pride and passion, whose countrymen and women gave the world the steam engine, the television, penicillin, James Bond, Harry Potter – even the Higgs boson.
“Today, Scotland’s national day, the world shows its admiration for those achievements, and the bagpipes will ring out from the islands of Argyll to the streets of New York.”
!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_the_Apostle#Scotland
As well as being St Andrews Day, 30 November was the birth day in 1667 of Jonathan Swift, who described well a Cameroonian conservative: “A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.”
Lee Rigby murder: Were we told the whole truth? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/lee-rigby-murder-were-we-told-the-whole-truth-9893247.html
Were we told any truth? It stinks.
It’s called chutzpah.
‘Plebgate’: Andrew Mitchell to stand again in Sutton Coldfield
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30260111
Mods @ 7.43
‘Two other commenters remain on pre-moderation, deliberately, and assorted socks remain unclaimed at lost property.’
Ha ha very funny!
The Weir Group, or Weir Pumps or locally known as Weir’s O’ Cathcart did not in the fifties and sixties have the toxic reputation many employers in the west of Scotland had (and some still have) though did have quite a turnover of apprentices who at the end of their ‘time’ were turned loose, i.e. not offered continued employment with the company.
The media and unionist parties paniced trumpeting of the frankly vacuous outcome of this commission of omission, which amounts to nothing and is non-binding, is a wonder to behold, most however in Scotland have become immunised the constant stream of lis from these sources. The BBC and other zombie outlets such as the floundering Daily Record, Scotsman and even the establishment Herald are in free fall, in credibility, in trust and in audience. It feels as if – combined with the long-term decline of the one-way, transmit only model of these atrophied organs – they and the despised Labour party they worship have been sacrificed, consumed entirely, so Scotland’s wealth can continue to support rUK for just a short time longer. This smacks of utter desperation, that such assets for their future command and control of the populace became necessarily expendable, they must, it can be assumed have some backup or fallback means of effecting the same conditioning, but it is looking, pleasingly, as if nothing can stop independence now, every trick of disinformation, lies, libel, myth and deceit, looks worn and tired, as does the unionist case itself: Better Together … for whom?
An aspect of the immigration issue not explored much in the recent articles and their comments, was of course the destabilising effect on countries such as Poland of the restarting of ww2 by the UK and US, aided and abetted by the EU, with far right modern day nazis, fortified by a half-century of western run anti-Russian crude agitation, squaring up with blitzkrieg weaponry to their eastern neighbours, it’s no wonder peple would want to get as far away from that as they possibly could. Hitler dreamed of a germanic Crimea, Poland at the same time eyed Galicia/Western Ukraine with unconcealed covetous desire, even in utter peril, aggrandisement was not completely foregone. And then another aspect, the guilt, the holocaust industry has tainted Poles with complicity for the concentration camps located there, when they were every bit as much victims of that system, as sub-human as the next sub-human in the eyes of the presumptuous master race. It is difficult from a position of pride in resurgent Scottish national identity, to cynically look on Poland as an entirely artificial construct, its creation out of nothing but folk memory, a further iniquitous humilation of Germany resultant from the Versailles outrage, where if anywhere guilt for kicking off world war one, should have been laid jointly at the the doors of France, Russia, Serbia, Britain and lastly if at all with Germany or Austria. The persistence of Polish national identity is actually something to be celebrated, it disappeared from existence as a nation state under Russian domination, in the same era when attempts were made to expunge Scotland entirely, to subsume it under English domination notoriously as North Britain. Perhaps Scotland and its people are more sympathetic to modern-day Poland’s lingering identity crisis, they must be as disgusted with their present government as Scotland is with Westminster for their repellant Washington-run neo-con warmongering agenda.
Brought to you with inspiration from Chopin’s Waltz in E-flat, Opus 18 ‘Brillante’
Courtenay.
Re Turk and Caicos Islands fiasco.
It seems you have discovered another boundary beyond which enquiring minds are to be discouraged from straying. Thanks.
It joins the US / EU coup in Ukraine and it’s continuing brutal aftermath and the half-baked official narratives explaining the events of 9/11, etc.
I notice you still have no response to your polite and reasonable request to our host.
RD has sent a couple of little warning shots across your bows.
“I don’t think you will find much of a take up here for a campaign on Turks and Caicos – which from the smells emanating from that direction is I fear a real life example of a conspiracy rather than the large scale overruling single conspiracy with which many here are obsessed…”
“Just suggesting if that if you want to get traction on what is going on in Turks &Caicos this is the not the place to do…”
IOW, run along now and play somewhere else before you get exposed and laughed off the blog for being of being another foil-hatted conspiracy theorist.
Here’s how it works, kind of… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q
Craig,
Muddled comments. You hate Smith but you’ll take it. You’re appalled by Labour but you’ll enjoy the fun. And reality – ‘sordid, sordid’ – but then reality was never your strong point was it Craig?
You simply don’t understand – the real danger to the independence drive is the rise of the North. The referendum has, rather skilfully, been used to force the North into demanding similar powers. A strong North will stuff separatism. It will just be too easy to stay with the UK and merge enterprises.
Westminster, like the UK in relation to the old Empire of the 1950’s, is broke. The Empire had to go – the same is true now for the whole of the UK. Here ‘going’ means regional self government – raising your own revenue which is now politically impossible for Westminster because the debt is too great.
Craig, you are analytically naïve. You’re just too emotional.
TonyM. 9 32am
Even though my brain still hurts I want to ask for more, especially on para 3*.
How can a person fit a book into 20 lines of text? Magic!
You hit a whole flock of nails on the head there. Food for thought as I head out into meat-world on this fine autumn morning.
Go raibh míle maith agat!
*Don’t think I haven’t noticed you are following my intructions and using paragraphs now. Keep them coming!
http://www.weir.co.uk/about-us/board/board-of-directors includes Lord Robertson. Enough said.
The biographies say it all.
Wow…No Need for Ze calculator Blessings.
Tis a glorious Sunday…must go to the Highlands with Camera…But first –
THANK YOU Red Labour ..and Jackie Bird –
How The BBC Stole The Referendum
” The importance of the interview cannot be overstated. Reporting Scotland is the most watched TV news programme in Scotland, commanding a total of almost one third of TV viewers. In January 2012 the evening news programme was watched by over 900,000 people.
Bird had anchored the programme for almost twenty five years. Both the presenter and the programme are trusted by its legions of regular viewers.
But Devo Max, as Jackie Bird well knew, was not on offer. The truth was of course that Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems had consistently rejected Devo Max. Indeed at the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement which legitimised the referendum, David Cameron had specifically ruled out Devo Max as a third option on the ballot paper.
Two weeks after the referendum result, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson confirmed this when she demanded Devo Max be removed as an option from the commission chaired by Lord Smith which was to examine what new powers might be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
There’s no doubt the injection of the term into the prime-time interview was misleading. Given her role as a newsreader and presenter of many years, Jackie Bird would have been all too aware of the effect her choice of words would have. It is therefore a distinct possibility that the BBC Scotland presenter deliberately sought to mislead viewers by describing powers being offered by the No campaign as Devo Max.
Darling, in refusing to deny Bird’s suggestion, was a party to what amounted to an act of deception. The interview raised further questions relating the role of the BBC in the final days of the campaign.
Darling’s interview, coupled with Brown’s ‘Home Rule’ speech, ensured that pledges made by senior Labour party figures dominated the news agenda in the final days of the campaign. Both promises – Home Rule and Devo Max – were presented to the public as though fresh new offers from the pro-Union camp.
Nine days later the entire Scottish media joined the act of deceit.
No one is absolutely sure who was behind ‘The Vow’. What we do know is that two days before the independence referendum the leaders of the three Unionist parties appeared together on the front page of the Daily Record newspaper in an apparent joint declaration to the Scottish people.
On September 16th the newspaper published on its front page what appeared to be an official document which it said had been signed by all three UK Party leaders. It bore the signatures of Ed Miliband, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The document pledged “extensive new powers” for the Scottish Parliament which would be set out by “the timetable agreed”.
http://ponsonbypost.com/index.php/comment/6-how-the-bbc-stole-the-referendum
Ankara succeeded in rounding up its darling Daesh through Kobane’s Turkish gate.
Israeli Screwdriver left their bases in Turkey in full black costume to plant a car bomb in Kobane from the Turkish side.
Scotland should be grateful they are attached to London and not the really odious former Caliphate.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11262748/Kobane-attackers-came-from-Turkey-claims-Turkeys-main-Kurdish-party.html
One of Lee Rigby’s murderers had been tortured in an attempt to turn him into an agent:
From Mary’s link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/lee-rigby-murder-were-we-told-the-whole-truth-9893247.html
So the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, has to go down to London on the 10th of December to be sworn into Old Droopy Chops, Queen Lizzie’s Privy Council, from then on the FM will be known as one of, Droopy Chops, “Special Advisers.”
A begging your pardon Mam, but just how much money are you hiding, through your bank of England Nominees, which was set up in 1977 to hide your vast fortune from the public.
Stewart Hosie and Tommy Sheridan both speaking today, in Dundee.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1657808241112418/
What is the meaning of “intelligence” in the paragraph I quote above? Is it not simply that MI6 knew that Adebolajo had been tortured by Kenyan police? It was this fact that they intended to use, not anything Adebolajo had said while being abused.
Knowledge of abuse: “Always useful”.
There are several other links to that effect Clark.
MI6 faces inquiry into ‘torture’ of Woolwich killer
The Times – 3 days ago
David Cameron announces investigation into claims that MI6 was complicit in the ill-treatment of Michael Adebolajo while he was detained in …
MI6 to be Investigated for Alleged Complicity in Torture of Lee Rigby’s Killer
Breitbart News – 2 days ago
MI6 faces inquiry into ‘torture’ of Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo
The Times – 3 days ago
More news for was michael adebolajo tortured
Woolwich suspect’s friend arrested after appearing on …
http://www.theguardian.com › … › UK News › Woolwich attack
The Guardian
May 24, 2013 – Man detained after claiming on television that Michael Adebolajo was tortured in Kenya and harassed by MI5 agents.
The Cutting Edge: Exclusive – Woolwich suspect tortured “at …
http://www.nafeezahmed.com/…/exclusive-woolwich...
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
May 28, 2013 – Akunjee said that his client told him that Michael Adebolajo had been tortured in Kenya under the orders of Britain’s security services. He added …
‘UK refused to help Adebolajo after Kenya torture’ – ITV News
http://www.itv.com/…/uk-refused-to-help-adebolajo-after-kenya-torture/
ITV
May 26, 2013 – Michael Adebolajo was tortured in Kenya and his family informed the British government who would not help, his brother-in-law has told ITV …
~~~
What did you do at work today Daddy?
I tortured someone.
What’s tortured Daddy?
live Trident Demo Faslane.
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/FaslaneDemo?origin=stream_live&mixpanel_id=1424dccc6d46c-03bbf05714b5f78-7e6a1335-13c680-1424dccc6d691&acc_id=7808159&medium=email
Needless to say, there is no report of the Faslane protest on the BBC Scotland page.
A look at the political failure of a man, that is Gordon Brown.
http://www.newsnetscotland.scot/index.php/scottish-news/9857-the-legend-of-gordon-brown
Mary, it’s the brutal simplicity that’s so evil. It’s not about finding out what the subject knows; that’s just the official excuse, apologia. It’s about what the subject can be made to say and do: “always useful”.
A teenage boy working at Buckingham Palace revealed he was groomed and sexually abused by a VIP paedophile ring there.
The lad was also assaulted at the Royal Family’s Scottish retreat Balmoral, according to shocking Home Office files, reports the Sunday People.
In a heartbreaking note, the boy – then just 16 – told how he was the victim of “exploitation of the highest order”.
The chilling claims could now be the subject of a police investigation into historic allegations of child sex abuse in the 1970s and 80s – linked to MPs and powerful figures.
The disturbing account was passed directly to the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan but he ruled it was “not practical” to investigate.
Campaigning Labour MP Tom Watson said: “I’m sure the Palace will want to co-operate with any inquiry.”
A Palace spokesman said: “The Royal Household takes any allegation of this nature seriously and would act to address any specific allegations or investigate specific information.”
______________________________________
Old saddle bag face Queen Lizzie won’t be pleased about this, nor will her genetically defunct brood for that matter.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/vip-paedophile-ring-abused-teenage-4721479
“Craig, you are analytically naïve. You’re just too emotional.”
He isn’t the only one.
Brent crude $70 and falling.