Forget media spin. Read Theresa May’s actual unvarnished words. In Glasgow today she notified Scotland of a specific intention for Westminster to intervene in devolved areas to “improve outcomes” in Scotland. There is no other possible logical analysis of the following long passage:
But the devolution of powers across the United Kingdom must not mean we become a looser and weaker union.
We cannot allow our United Kingdom to drift apart.
For too long the attitude in Whitehall has been to ‘devolve and forget’.
But as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I am just as concerned that young people in Dundee get a good start in life and receive the education they need to reach their full potential as I am about young people in Doncaster and Dartford.
I care as much about the dignity and security of older people on both sides of the River Tweed or the Irish Sea.
The economic prosperity of the UK as a whole depends on young people in all parts of the UK having the skills they need to reach their full potential.
And people who have worked hard all their lives and made a contribution to society are everyone’s concern.
It goes back to the fundamental unity of the British people which underwrites our whole existence as a United Kingdom.
We are all diminished when any part of the UK is held back, and we all share in the success when we prosper.
In Government that principle is called ‘collective responsibility’.
We need to build a new ‘collective responsibility’ across the United Kingdom, which unites all layers of government, to work positively together to improve the lives of everyone in our country.
As the Government serving the whole United Kingdom, formed in a Parliament drawn from the whole United Kingdom, the UK Government exercises a responsibility on behalf of the whole UK that transcends party politics and encompasses all aspects of our national life.
While fully respecting, and indeed strengthening, the devolution settlements and the devolved administrations across the UK, we must unashamedly assert this fundamental responsibility on our part.
So in those reserved policy areas where we govern directly for the whole United Kingdom, we will explicitly look to the interests of the Union – both the parts and the whole – in our policy-making.
And in policy areas where responsibilities are devolved, we will look for ways to collaborate and work together with the devolved administrations to improve the outcomes for everyone.
The meaning could not be more clear, especially following a long litany of claims that SNP rule in Holyrood had failed in every area of devolved power. You can read the full text here.
May seems to be suffering an extraordinary degree of hubris; she sees the Tories having achieved very slightly over half of the SNP vote at the Holyrood elections as a sign of mass popularity. She is laying down that Unionism means Unionism just as purely as Brexit means Brexit. Devolution is only represented in her speech as an evil that must be guarded against.
It is perhaps unsurprising that May did not mention anywhere that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, and did not mention any possibility for special provision in Scotland’s future relationship with the EU. But that she did not even pay lip service to the notion of devolution as a good thing is surprising, and I am frankly astonished that she boldly asserted an intention for greater Westminster interference in current devolved areas.
This is a colossal act of hubris from a woman confident she faces no serious political resistance. That she adopts in Glasgow the false Thatcher like voice and rhetorical style that goes down so well with UKIP leaning Tories is indicative of the shallowness of her experience and the depth of her misjudgement.
Theresa May’s declaration of war on devolution today will come to be seen as a key moment in our path to Independence.
I’m too tired to comment at the moment, so for anyone interested, and pertaining to Craig’s post, ‘Song For Insane Times’…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2AtJsi3ZIQ
Sorry, RobG, gave it 30+ seconds but much preferred my earlier link… ‘New England’ – Billy Bragg’s version rather than Kirsty McColl’s. Hope you are tired through pub activities rather than work!
Enjoyed it last week too!
I don’t know how anyone can take seriously a woman who places her husband like a cross between a Kafka woodlouse and a Scottish terrier a few paces diagonally behind her. Body language says more than words. He should either be next to her as a partner, or not at all. Mrs May has been chosen by the Tories for her superlative control instincts, whereby husband or devolved political partner are content to be kept in place.
But that’s not going to last long. Mrs May has been given a few seconds breathing space by Brexit from having to deal with the her other foreign policy headaches which are, self-made by her predecessors, an out of control Afghanistan, a victorious Iran in the spat the USUKIS created between Shi’a and Saudi Arabia, an out of control Libya, an out of control China, an out of control vortex round Syria. In the face of this bucket of faeces swilling around in the back of the Brexit lorry in which she is travelling, why not take a swipe/swing at one her oldest retainers, Scotland?
I’m sure she feels better for it, and she can’t afford to take a swipe at her Foreign Secretary while he is busy mopping up the legacy of neo-con poo. The Celtic destiny is Independence. That is the starting point for a country that oppressed its neighbours first, before spreading its tentacles of Imperial oppression to the far ends of the world. Take this small pill crunched up with jam first, and make yourself ready for large injections in the buttocks later on.
Get your ears ready, this may help..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0TkuCjucL0
‘Treeza’ is a complete psycho. Just like the American President, she has a kill list every week. These are extra-judicial executions carried out by drone strikes.
This is going on right now, right in your face, but the sheep just go along with it.
Baah, baah, baah! The twerrorists are coming to get us.
I mean, just how fecking stupid can people be?!
“I mean, just how fecking stupid can people be?”
How about stupid enough to think they are somehow superior to everybody else because they allow their minds to be filled with stupid fears that the less paranoid wouldn’t even consider worrying about?
If you don’t understand what’s going on at the moment I can only suggest that you are brain-dead.
RobG
Zed: ” they allow their minds to be filled with stupid fears “.
There always have been techniques for finding out what’s going on by spying, but as Craig has long maintained, these techniques end up creating a market for gobbledygook generated by fear and pain.
All governments are now equipped with the ultimate spy technology, including Assad’s, and any opposition to that insidious power always ends up looking like a replica of the dictatorial regime, which is what Al Qaida looks like to the Syrian people and Hamas to the Palestinians.
In effect, knowledge is power, but that power is very similar to the power Satan has, to eavesdrop and whisper suggestions, while Satan himself is accursed for not respecting the human being. Government power, Union power, Mosque power or Corporate power although intellectually opposed to eachother all become equally oppressive and eventually combine.
All this spying-based human power is essentially Satanic, and opposite to the concept of religion where one submits to an all-powerful supra-Being. There is a much greater human power , which is possessed by those who submit and refuse to spy and control other human beings.
I would say that your speculations, based on your subjective observations of the world, are a process of comparing your conscience with the reality, without engaging with any spying. Those who possess the instinct for Satanic spying, who collect information about people, can always dismiss speculations as being ungrounded in facts. Maybe, but their “facts” are ungrounded in conscience.
I have always said on the discussion forum, from the very first, that I don’t possess any facts about the secrets of political agents. Obviously they are secret. I have a conscience. My conscience informs me about discrepancies and dishonesties exercised by political agents, in government, corporations, Mosque, or Socialist commitariat.
I might be fecking stupid, but I am not Satan.
My suspicion is that all Tory claims that devolved powers will be respected deserves the same respect as every political leader’s statement that some member of the team commands his/her complete confidence – clearly the equivalent of the “Black Spot.”
Amid all the evidence of this Tory government’s mismanagement, we shouldn’t overlook its shambolic management of the UK economy. They constantly tell us that they’re the only party that can be trusted to run the economy, but Ian McConnell’s demolition job of their policies and stewardship in yesterday’s Herald is right on the money (pun intended) and worth a read:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/15130613.Ian_McConnell__Budget_unlikely_to_deliver_for_ordinary_people_or_the_flailing_economy/
“we shouldn’t overlook its shambolic management of the UK economy”.
These psychos (who are far worse than the Nazis) have trashed everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Prpk5KKfBA
“These psychos (who are far worse than the Nazis) have trashed everything.”
Heck, and there was I, like so many others, who think that Tony Blair, like the Nazis, trashed everything? Don’t I remember seeing Craig at a rally in London to stop Blair’s wars?
The usual two party bollocks, to keep the plebs enslaved.
*Yawn*.
Well yes, of course it’s the same old two-party bollocks, otherwise people would realise that they really have no choice. Like here, we have Craig crying about how May has now come out with the iron fist; surprise surprise “we gave you some freedom and you started making waves so now we are taking it away”….
Now why didn’t Craig see that coming? He worked for the FCO long enough.
If you are going to be yawning all the time, which is very rude in polite company, why don’t you be a good boy and make us all a cup of coffee?
Like the business rates, the government says it has a billion spare cash from the recent hikes to iron out any injustices. The extra cash from small shops will come in nicely for the big High Streets.
If we lose the next referendum on independance (If we ever have one that is ) Nicola Sturgeon will probably stamd down, the SNP will be severely weakened and the payback from Westminster will be DRACONIAN to say the least. God help is if we loose a second referendum. Never again will we have an opportunity like this where our argument is so strong and justified.
Oh do go on; quiver with fear; have you ever considered maybe going out, away from the computer, on a Friday night? Sort of getting a dose of reality?
Completely agree. A second No vote is a nightmare scenario for Scotland. Those able, and reading the situation, will leave the country, just as there is flight from the south at the moment.
If there is a No next year, that works well to be placed into the Great Repeal Bill, dissolution of Holyrood, or the removal of the pittance we have. There will be more asset stripping, diversion of income, like incentives to businesses to move south. The threat of Land Reform will be removed, for benefit of their friends, and fracking will be back on the agenda.
Any ‘freebies’ we enjoy now will be removed because that’s a huge bone of contention, and anyway, privatisation of health has to move forward.
Make no mistake, just as this is our almost certainly final shot at independence, if we vote No, that is the green light for Tories to begin.
Project Fear.
And just for the record I want to say that everything the psychos at GCHQ are doing, and all their fellow psychos in the other intelligence agencies, is being carefully noted. These total traitors and scum will be held to account in a real court of law.
Mark my words.
Oh yawn! This year, next year, sometime, NEVER!!!
I bet you also believe that nice guys get all the girls? ROFL
Actually, for someone who is too tired to comment, you sure are doing a whole lot of commenting.
What about these psychos?
https://www.rt.com/news/379365-mass-infant-grave-ireland-catholic/
Have you nothing to say about psychos who kill children?
If May’s comments had referred not to Scotland but to Northern Ireland in the 1920’s-60’s and the ‘malign neglect’ re Stormont , she might have had a point
It is a threat, which is always the Tory fall-back position when their hyposcrisy and lies fail to gain traction. Let them do their worst.
Scotland ‘obsessed’ with independence, should remain part of UK: May
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2017/03/04/512891/UK-May-Scotland-EU-Brexit-indyref-sturgeon
What a disgraceful woman!
Although if Scotland really want independence, you need to put ALOT of more effort on every front possible.
Theresa May’s speech was arrogant in the extreme and inflammatory. I hope that Scotland gains its independence, away from self-serving, duplicitous, Westminster. At least one part of the UK would be have a chance at being properly governed!
The Tories misjudgement did not stop there, they forgot what happened last time they removed housing benefit from the 18-21 year old’s, poor muts can’t think further than the last tweet.
So we will see more young people on the streets sleeping rough, more young people getting into prostitution and more young people succumbing to drink and drugs.
I suppose they have got to have some spare cash for their supporters at the next election.
As for devolution, it was never anything else but a Westminster controlled affair just as was offered to Norfolk Cambridge and Suffolk, accept our choice or have none at all. The sound of pink panther hobnail slippers are abound.
Housing benefit is a massive scam to transfer wealth from the taxpayer to the landlord class. It should be abolished in order to let the market decide how much rent tenants can afford.
This “woman” has lost the plot altogether. She has turned into a meglomaniac that should be locked up for our safety.
But enough about Nicola.
I have heard that Nicola is being worked by Alex Salmond, it is him who is pushing right now for Indeyfer2, not Nicola, she knows the S. N. P. will loose.
Will loose what?…Hell upon the unionists?
That Nicola, does not think she could pull off Indyref2, that’s why she is bottling it.
[ Mod: Use a proper handle, please, not a phrase. ]
—
Interesting. In London yesterday, the Evening Standard reports “Scotland is to get more powers” – probably another false promise. The PM says the SNP are “playing a game” currently – a bit like about projecting your own faults onto the Other. What “game” are the Tories playing then? She says there is nothing as great as this “family of nations” (does anyone really buy this garbage?) What a repellent worldview Tories have. To extend the metaphor a little though, Scotland is ready to “grow up”, behave in and adult fashion, and leave this “dysfunctional family”.
Presiding over chaos across the English public sector – we’d wonder if it’s a result of Tory incompetence or Tory callousness. Whichever it is, Scotland needs to free itself from these awful people if it is to flourish. Implying that Scotland’s better managed public services needed help with governance was clearly further hubris – or else living in obstinate denial, having serious blind spots or just plain bad judgement. They know the mood and the position has changed post-Brexit – and they are clawing at granite, clinging onto Scotland by their fingernails.
We also learned yesterday that Clydeside is (supposedly) to get a shipbuilding boon, and be awarded contracts of over £1bn. The timing is interesting, since they know a referendum must be imminent. Hopefully Scots can see through this and won’t be duped, as it could be yet another false promise. “Fool me once…etc”. The Standard article also mentioned opening up the potentially lucrative Indian market to the Scotch whisky industry (as if this was in their gift ! – Scotland has it’s own marketing professionals !) – if so, why wait until now to show the distilleries such “largesse”? They must be clutching at straws.
The sooner Scotland votes itself beyond the rule of these incompetents, and strikes out on it’s own the better.
So this is the enhanced position for Scotland in the United Kingdom that was promised by Better Together if we voted No.
Pulled out of the EU when a clear majority doesn’t want it. The beginning of the scrapping of meaningful devolution. With right wing neoliberal government which Scotland neither wants or needs being foisted on us.
With Labour out of the front lines now it’s a clear choice between an internationalist social democratic Scotland and a Scotland powerless, exploited and downtrodden by a far right brand of arrogant and xenophobic Toryism.
It’s a choice between virtual independence within the UK or complete dependence on Brussels.
It’s a choice between an independent Scotland as a full EU member and a Scotland ruled by a system that is democratic in name only.
The EU is not going to force an independent Scotland to scrap free health care. A power jealous Westminster will foist the scrapping of NHS Scotland because it despises free health care and despises devolution.
Holyrood will be so shorn of power that Westminster will succeed in imposing student fees on our young people. Which the SNP has managed to resist so far. But with May’s vision of fake devolution no Scottish Government will have the power to prevent it.
With independence in the EU Scotland will have double the number of MEPs and a turn at the EU presidency. That’s real influence. Stay in the UK and Scotland is just told what’s been decided on our behalf.
Scotland in the EU means staying in the single market. Scotland staying in the UK means the opposite.
May and the Tories have no sense of compromise where Scotland is concerned. That’s why it’s going to be a straightforward choice.
Scotland as a member of the EU and in the European single market. Scotland with a seat at the UN and our own foreign office representing us properly to the world. A parliament in Scotland that can make social, economic, cultural and environmental decisions that suit the people of Scotland. We can remove Trident if we decide to and London can do nothing about it.
Stay in the UK and we’ll be a downtrodden backwater of a half nation where young people will be forced to leave for other places.
It’s the clearest choice. The confusions and fog that were around indyref1 have lifted.
Not often you see rats clamouring to get back onto a sinking ship.
The EU is still developing and Scotland can play a part in that.
The UK is just festering and Scotland would fester if we stayed.
The UK is doing rather well actually. Economy on the up, record low unemployment, exports increasing.
Are you just going to whinge every time you get a government you don’t like?
Such as “Scotland didn’t vote for this. Scotland did not want this. This is being imposed on Scotland.”. All we hear about is Fucking Scotland.
Honestly it gets boring mate. If you can’t vote to leave then stop fucking complaining.
Anon1
“All we hear about is Fucking Scotland.”
You said it!
Maybe the rats will follow Pied Piper May back onto the sinking SS Britannia but I doubt that very much, they know when they are well off.
Craig must be getting very “precious”about this discussion board. I posted a well thought out article which never made it past his “moderation” process. It detailed quotes from yesterday’s London Evening Standard, discussed the announcement of a £1bn plus contract for Clydeside shipbuilders, the offer of whisky industry expansion in India, and various others, mostly pro-SNP views. Curious – because I thought this was a forum for open discussion. Seems not. Anyone else had a similar experience? Perhaps Craig should reflect on how he condemns MSM yet edits out as it suits him.
Sometimes posts get deleted because they are lower in a thread than a post which is deleted. There is no way to remove a post without removing the replies to it and replies to the replies.
LMPG: Fred’s absolutely correct here. Try reposting it, if you have a copy.
It’s always worth making a copy of something you post, in case something like this happens. Well thought out original posts do not get deleted here, as a rule. I’d suggest some of the whiners here try making one once in a while, just to relieve the tedium for the rest of us.
What are you waiting for?
“The UK is doing rather well actually” Only if you read the Daily Fail and the BrexitExpress. Meanwhile those of us who actually talk to real people in a real world know differently. Post-Lemmingsit it will be different. But probably not in the way that the pro-status-quo cliff-jumpers believe.
The U.K. is doing better than most of those in the Eurozone
The U.K. Is in fact doing very well, leading several league tables of EU countries.
Worst Health stats of any major EU economy.
Worst Pensions in the EU.
Worst suicide rate of people after state benefits are cut.
“The UK is doing rather well actually. Economy on the up, record low unemployment, exports increasing.”
Thanks to cannibalism: any gains by the “economy’ are being made at a time when living standards and wages in particular are declining in real terms. In fact the British worker is doing worse than any others in Europe, with the exception of Greece.
Poor old Anon 1 all in favour of Brexit (he’s right there but for the wrong reasons) but so wedded to saying what the bosses want to hear that he will defend the neo-liberalised economy, even id foing so boosts the EU.
“Stay in the UK and we’ll be a downtrodden backwater of a half nation where young people will be forced to leave for other places”
Join the EU and you’ll be a downtrodden backwater of a half nation where young people will no longer have the automatic right to move England for employment.
We’ll be in the EU, so lots of other European countries Scots can move to for employment.
But Bath wouldn’t be in any of them.
https://stv.tv/news/politics/1382250-prominent-pro-independence-blogger-accused-of-homophobia/
“We’ll be in the EU”
Fingers crossed. Suppose Scotland leaves the UK then finds that its application to join the EU is turned down? Independence would then be thrust upon you. Panic stations.
You can’t be in the E.U. after we have Brexited because you will be in the U.K.
It’s as if they’ve calculated either that they’re in a position of strength so can and will do this with impunity, or that the Scottish people don’t and won’t care enough to oppose it. But we can now be very clear what the battle lines are going o be.
Thos the Gods wish to destroy, first the make mad
Not normally a fan of Paul Joseph Watson but this is an outstanding video
The Deep State War on Trump
https://youtu.be/NBTMKLmdpho
If you like schoolboy political videos.
Hence why I’m not normally a fan, but he’s spot on Re Trump and the Russia hysteria.
Not normally a fan of Paul Joseph Watson but this is an outstanding video
=
Not normally a fan of Paul Joseph Watson who is an influential editor at Prison Planet website which I normally slag off as being a refuge for deranged conspiracy theorists but this is an outstanding video because it lends support to my particular brand of hate politics therefore it is thoughtful and perceptive.
=
Hypocrite.
No I am entirely consistent.
In this case the deranged conspiracy theorists are the ones alleging that Donald Trump is the head of a vast Russian conspiracy to take over America.
Doh!
He is a terrorist. I am a freedom fighter.
He is a deranged conspiracy theorist, I am a free thinker and definitely not a hypocrite.
bizarre comment
I hope that Treeza in her eyrie has been made very well aware of the massive march today in London protesting at the dismantling of OUR NHS and its privatisation since 2012.
It is being covered live on Sky News but there is nothing on the BBC of course.
https://twitter.com/NHSMillion
Theresa May is a fervent member of CFoI. Has she heard of the dystopian hotel, the Walled Off, right up against the Wall in Bethlehem which has been opened by Banksy? She and other CFoI members, said to be 80% of the parliamentary Tory (Nasty) party, and the Israelis themselves will not welcome it.
‘There are also statues chocking on teargas, a painting of Jesus with a laser target on his forehead, a trophy wall of security cameras and an exhibition dedicated to the wall, that features art made by Israelis and Palestinians.’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/banksy-opens-dystopian-hotel-near-181332525.html?
and
https://www.yahoo.com/news/banksy-opens-walled-off-hotel-bethlehem-135703451.html
Excellent action by banksy, I hope that FoI will be excluded from staying there, as there is no need to have the Hotel wrecked by lunatic cheats with split loyalties.
It’s just another manufactured NHS crisis whipped up by the NHS cultists on the left whenever the Tories are in power. It’ll all be forgotten tomorrow.
The reality is that the Tories are spanking ever increasing amounts of money on the wasteful NHS to no effect because the whole model is wrong and needs drastic reform.
If you knew anything you would realize that it has been reformed more or less out of existence. Just like the education system.Do you have links or evidence on what is actually “Wasteful”? Apart from the huge sums paid to senior managers, and out-sourcing to mates of Tories.
Assume the poster @ 13.48 has health insurance so has no worries about the disappearance of the NHS. Remember though that the doctors working in the private sector were trained by the state and in the NHS.
250,000 march in London to support NHS
4th March 2017
http://news.sky.com/gallery/250000-march-in-london-to-support-nhs-10790679
and
‘Sir Bruce Forsyth has returned home from hospital after his life was reportedly saved by NHS doctors.
He spent five nights in intensive care at St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey, his manager Ian Wilson said.
“Sir Bruce Forsyth is scheduled to return home from hospital and would like to thank everyone for their good wishes,” Mr Wilson told the Press Association.
“He and his family would also like to say a special thank you to all the NHS doctors, nurses and staff at St Peter’s Hospital for their kindness and care.”
According to reports, he developed a severe chest infection, and a source told the Daily Mirror his life had been saved by NHS staff.’
http://news.sky.com/story/sir-bruce-forsyth-home-from-hospital-after-life-saved-by-doctors-10789275
PS The hospital is actually part of the Ashford St Peter’s NHS Trust and is based in Chertsey.
Didn’t THEY do well!
Just the same bunch of placard junkies, bussed in from around the country, with Jeremy the student protest leader at the helm.
Says it all really.
https://twitter.com/flashgrim/status/618167396398968832
No it doesn’t. It would need a much darker shade of red around Faslane. Anyway, I thought you were bored of all this chat about Scotland, despite the current article being on this matter?
May is acting with devious consistency – just as in the days of the British Empire:-
https://www.sott.net/article/344228-Its-time-for-UK-children-to-learn-the-very-ugly-truth-about-British-Empire
“May is acting with devious consistency – just as in the days of the British Empire:-”
Exactly! Yet Craig, who worked for the FCO for years, is somehow surprised when it happens???
Your attempts at deviation are pitiful.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of London, to protest about the future of the NHS.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/thousands-join-london-march-against-nhs-cuts-35502037.html
Geez, I knew the arse had fallen out of Sterling and that Brexit will turn huge areas of Britain into economic wastelands. Now the English NHS, which is in its death throws, has suddenly become a focal point for the public to fight for. Is it too little too late? Probably, will the Tory government listen to the people? Probably not.
English NHS RIP.
“Britain could exit the EU without paying a penny if there is no post-Brexit deal, the House of Lords report has said in a report.”
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/uk-could-quit-eu-without-paying-a-penny-if-no-brexit-deal-is-agreed-a3481571.html
Out the EU, and into the WTO, without access to the Single Market, would make Britain a even bigger economic basket case, than it’s set to become. Still the Tories, would relish not paying a exit fee, any knock on suffering would be passed on to the taxpayer as usual, and those who are disabled or on a low income.
“Boris Johnson is to become the first foreign secretary to visit Russia in half a decade to pressure the Kremlin into abandoning its involvement in Syria and Ukraine”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/04/boris-johnson-will-travel-moscow-high-level-talks-coming-weeks/
So the clown prince of Westminster, is heading out to Russia, to coach them on ethics and morals. The buffoon, of a Foreign secretary represents a country that sells Cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, as well, as around £3 billion worth of other weapons.
Add in the weapons sold to Bahrain, used to murder and suppress citizens from that nation as well, add in
Britian’s covert role in Yemen, and you soon realise that the British government don’t have a moral leg to stand on.
If I were the Russian minister meeting Johnson, I’d quickly tell him to get on his bike. However don’t be surprised if the Tories are reaching out to create secret trade deals with Russia, in the face of a hard Brexit. I put nothing past the British government.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s claim that he’ll spend billion of more dollars on defence, China has decided to raise its own defence budget by 7%.
However neither nation is in my opinion financially in good health. China is suffering a slow down, and is desperately trying to stop the haemorrhaging of capital flight from the country.
The USA’s national debt at the end of FY 2017 the gross US federal government debt is estimated to be $20.1 trillion, according to the FY17 Federal Budget.
However , it doesn’t include state and local debt.
And, it doesn’t include so-called “agency debt.”
And, it doesn’t include the so-called unfunded liabilities of entitlement programmes like Social Security and Medicare.
Federal Debt per person is about $60,971.
http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us
One could also make the case, of the insanity of the British government, that will spend billions on renewing nuclear weapons, whilst the likes of the police forces and NHS, in England and Wales, are teetering on the brink of collapse.
China has also got the largest speculative housing bubble, some 1.5 million apartments that are empty, pure speculative property.
meanwhile at any one time some 30.000 people live underground in Shanhai, who knows about Bejing.
China has got huge problems, but it is showing commitment for all its worth, shutting 100 coal fired power stations this year.
7% is steep and it mirrors the tension that exist in that area, not just from North Korea or the US but also India which was reminded today That the visit of the Dalai Lama will have grave consequences.
Rather than reversing its policy of Tibetan extinction by enforced Han Chinese settlements, China can not afford to deny its own base religion, hence the tetchy responses every time the Dalai Lama says something, it should acknowledge and savour its Buddhist past and integrate it into their capitalist orientated communist fabric of society, it would reduce tension , pressure on resources and state finance, as well as re instate Tibetan life to a certain extent. China will have to live with his Uighurs and Tibetans, it will have face up to increasingly more violent Independence moves in future.
Scotland has only 8.3% of the UK’s population. 8.3%! Remember this important figure… 8.3%
But we DO have…
32% of the land area
61% of the sea area
90% of the fresh water. (There is more fresh water in loch Ness than In England and Wales combined!)
65% of the natural gas production
96.5% of the crude oil production
47% of the open cast coal production
81% of the untapped coal reserves
62% of the timber production
46% of the total forest area
92% of the hydro electric production
40% of the wind wave and solar energy production
60% of the fish landings
30% of the beef herd
20% of the sheep herd
9% of the dairy herd
10% of the pig herd
15% of the cereal holdings
20% of the potato holdings
…obviously 100% of the Whisky industry.
We have a…
17 billion pound construction industry
13 billion food and drink industry
10 billion business services industry
9.3 billion chemical services industry
9.3 billion tourism industry
7 billion financial services industry
5 billion aeroservice industry
4.5 billion whisky export industry
3.1 billion life sciences industry
Scotland still has 350 million pounds worth of textile exports
We have 25% of Europes wave and wind energy potential.
And finally we are blessed to have 1.5 trillion pounds – £1,500,000,000,000 worth of oil and gas reserves.
All of this, yet only 8.3% of The UK’s population…
IGNORANCE…
If you hear anyone saying “i don’t like Alex Salmond” or “I don’t like the SNP”…This vote is about Scotland’s right to elect it’s own government… It has nothing whatsoever to do with Salmond or the snp. Don’t let political ignorance ruin this opportunity.
Do you know… This is the UK’s legacy of success in our history of being better-together:
The UK has the 3rd lowest pensions in the 34 OECD countries of the world
The UK has the single most expensive childcare in the European Union
The UK has the second lowest-paid economy in the entire developed world
The UK has the 3rd longest working hours in the EU
The UK has the lowest number of holidays in the EU
The UK has the 8th highest gender inequality pay gap out of the EU’s 28 countries
The UK has the highest likelihood of poverty in disablement in the EU
The UK has the highest rail prices in Europe
The UK has the second highest housing cost in Europe
The UK has the highest fuel poverty rates in Europe.
The UK is the 4th highest country of wealth inequality in the entire planet!
Surely these awful figures should not be possible when you read the Scottish statistics above…
Finally, did you know that in all of the UK elections for Westminster ever!… Not one vote cast in SCOTLAND has ever mattered! Because of the Westminster numbers, whatever government England votes for, the UK gets. So we have no democracy here!!! 4 decades of tory rule that we voted against is proof enough, and our defiance was punished by the closure of all the mines; closure of all the steelworks; closure of all the shipyards losing thousands of jobs. The term used by Thatcher when these industries needed some assistance was “let the markets decide”. Funny how when the greedy banks collapsed everywhere they were bailed out to the tune of over a trillion pounds of our money… Not a mention of “let the markets decide”.
FACTS:
Fact: Scotland has an oil boom waiting to happen on the West Coast, but Michael Hesaltine signed a cessation of any form of oil exploration in the entire area in the 80’s to make way for nuclear submarines which Scotland doesn’t want!
Fact: Scotland has shown its revulsion time and time again to nuclear weapons but they place them here against our countries wishes. A recent contingency report was carried out about the feasibility of relocating them in Portsmouth. The report stated that it was unfeasible because the detrimental risk to the area of an incident was too high. (Ok for the Clyde though)
Fact: Scotland, with only 1 Tory MP, was forced to take the shocking attack on the poor & disabled called The Bedroom Tax, even though Holyrood voted to utterly reject this awful tax on the poor. Westminster gave us it anyway!
Fact: We are led to believe that the oil in our waters is finished and its a dying industry. Yet 13.5 billion has been invested by oil companies in the last 2 years alone!
Fact: The Clair Oil Field is about to open it’s 3rd phase, and on its own has over 650 million barrels which will be extracted over 20+ years with production reaching a hundred thousand barrels a day!
Fact: Scotland gives more to Westminster than it gets back. Do you really think they’d be so keen to keep us if we were being subsidised like they’d have us believe?
Fact: Westminster has amassed over £1.3 trillion debt and still growing at nearly £6000 a second. Thats another £516 million today alone which YOU will have to pay for.
Fact: Of the 178 countries that have gained their own independence across this planet, not one single one of them has ever asked to reverse this independence.
Iain Halder.
Well said. ?
Iain Halder.
Epic post. All of it correct.
Good propaganda. Correct but not telling the whole story. The Clair Oil Field might well produce 100,000 bbl per day at some stage but production has declined by three MILLION bbl per day since it’s peak in the late 1990’s and continues to slide. Find another ten Clairs every year for the five years and you might be getting somewhere.
10% of the pig herd.
These people mean business.
Near total domination of the oatcake industry as well.
n Well said indeed, Halder and kempe’s response means very little as oil is unsustainable, whilst wind, wave and sea currents will always be there.
Once the Magreb is at peace, something the oil and gas magnates will try and prevent at all costs by using yjeir political puppets to fan the flames of war, the potential for a network of Concentrated solar power stations could generate all of Europes energy.
Mr. Trump meanwhile has to find a method of making bread from coal, cause nobody but himself wants it anymore, equally gas and oil, their use will be superseded by electric energy from all that moves, shines and flows.
Add to that that it’s nothing like as light as Brent crude, costs more to refine into anything useful, and the geology is far from easy, and the field looks even less of a moneyspinner. Quite apart from the faint possibility that someone, somewhere will realise that burning fossil fuels is not healthy for the planet and actually do something about it. Though not, we can safely say, Trump.
Now, if it were proposed that Scotland reshape itself as a world leader in renewable energy design, technology and deployment, rather than dumbly following global worst practice, there might be some hope.
” 47% of the open cast coal production ”
Not any more.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/14902843.Opencast_operator_Hargreaves_to_speed_up___3m_closure_of_Scottish_mines/
Scotland’s last (Spanish owned) coal fired power station closed last year anyway.
Great fun picking these propaganda stats apart one by one.
In fact it’s so good that all the best Scots leave…
Fact: We held a referendum and the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the UK.
Fact: the referendum was held in 2014 and this is now 2017. There will be another referendum, if the majority of the electorate vote for parties who can deliver this. If the majority of the electorate vote for unionist parties, there will be no referendum. The electorate will decide, either way.
Forget the unionist nostalgia about the 2014 vote. Many people voted No thinking it was the way to keep Scotland in the EU. Things have changed so much since that vote and not just Brexit. Scotland’s relations with Westminster have deteriorated drastically.
Scotland wasn’t voting for Brexit in 2014.
Scotland didn’t vote for Brexit in 2016.
Scotland is entitled to call another independence referendum to make a straight choice on which political grouping of countries we wish to go with.
A powerless Scotland in a crass and unfair UK.
Or a new era for independent Scotland forging good relationships with other countries including the other nations of the British and Irish Isles. All done as a full EU member with all the benefits that come with it including the EU single market.
The same single market that this time last year Theresa May, Ruth Davidson and David Mundell were telling us was vitally important to remain a member of.
Everyone knew in 2014 that there was going to be a referendum on Europe and poeple could vote to leave. It wasn’t a secret.
However a lot of people voted Yes believing an independent Scotland would be oil rich with Brent Crude at $110 a barrel.
A lot of people voted Yes believing rUK would pay for their pensions.
http://rwbblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/foi-request-putting-zombie-pensions.html
“Everyone knew in 2014 that there was going to be a referendum on Europe”
They didn’t. It was part of the tory party manifesto in 2015 but no-one else’s. If the tories hadn’t won that election there would have been no EU referendum.
More people voted NO scared shitless that the UK wouldn’t pay their pensions in an independent Scotland.
Ruth Davidson said loud and clear ” Vote No to stay in the EU” and she’s a Tory.
A vote for the Scottish Conservatives is one to support reform in Europe and oppose separation from the UK, leader Ruth Davidson said today.
At the launch of the party’s campaign for the European elections on May 22, she reaffirmed the backing for an in-out referendum on Europe in 2017.
That’s in May 2014. They made it quite clear they were planning a referendum on Europe.
http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2014/05/yes-change-europe-independence/
“96.5% of the crude oil production”
Which is the only real advantage Scotland has. But it’s a dying industry.
“60% of the fish landings”
EU will have that.
“9.3 billion tourism industry”
Pffft. The UK’s tourist industry will be worth £257 billion by 2025.
65% of the natural gas production
96.5% of the crude oil production
(True, according to Scottish Government site) Estimated sales value £13.4 Bn. Note that this is not the profit, or the revenue obtainable by the government. From the same post: …Yet £13.5 billion has been invested by oil companies in the last 2 years alone!…and is declining, with production costs, as uneconomic wells are shut down. Incidentally, there’s a cleanup issue with abandoned wells, which I gather the EU is anxious to resolve.
47% of the open cast coal production
Latest figure I can find is for 2014 (BGS): Scottish production of saleable opencast coal 2,497,014 tonnes: total UK production ditto, 7,870,270 tonnes. 31.5%.. And as Kempe says, this is about to be reduced enormously. If an independent Scotland is to be environmentally responsible, it will stay that way, too.
81% of the untapped coal reserves
Very hard to verify. Particularly if you factor this in, although actually mining it is probably not an option – you might have to revise your gas estimates too…:
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/drilling-date-set-north-seas-6896191
But once again, a clean Scotland wouldn’t be able to exploit coal unrestrictedly.
62% of the timber production
Still mostly pulp wood for paper making, severely constrained by the limited fertility of everywhere north of Perth. The pulp processing industry in Scotland is marginal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-32492629
46% of the total forest area
Granted. What else can you do with uncongenial soils? England has 100% of the vineyards and hop fields…
92% of the hydro electric production
Granted. But there is very little if any room for expansion of this, and it doesn’t supply enough to export for profit. We can set against this, if we’re in a pissing contest, how much warmer most of England is anyway.
40% of the wind wave and solar energy production
Wind: disputed. Around 27% in 2015 – source for 2016 welcome.
Wave, barely off the ground anywhere, so to speak.
Solar: heavily subsidised across the UK, to the delight of the Chinese who make the solar panels.
60% of the fish landings
What’s your opinion of the Common Fisheries Policy when you look at the total tonnage rather than the percentage?
30% of the beef herd
20% of the sheep herd
9% of the dairy herd
10% of the pig herd
15% of the cereal holdings
20% of the potato holdings
To be continued, except…
…obviously 100% of the Whisky industry.
Not quite:
https://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/
Unlike the major blends and many of the Scottish malts, this one isn’t owned by a multinational conglomerate, either.
Did You det this from..or are you Robin
Farage called out by a kid, well done little girl.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/837721103174889475
Theresa May mentioned in her speech something called “the fundamental unity of the British people”.
So Scotland votes to remain in the EU and this mythical fundamental unity is invoked to justify Scotland’s majority being ignored.
What if, as had been speculated on during the EU referendum campaign, England had voted to leave by a very narrow margin but remain votes in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales had given remain an overall UK majority?
In that case UKIP, the tabloids and their readers and the Tory right would not have been talking about the fundamental unity of the British. They would have been wailing about England not getting her democratic wish. The same people who are dismissive about Scotland’s democratic choice.
It’s the same mentality that thinks that at Westminster there should be English Votes For English Laws but every single SNP amendment to the Scotland Bill can be voted down with English votes.
So when Theresa May talks about the fundamental unity of the British people she really means dominion status for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A particularly degraded type of dominion status at that.
I’d like to start a new independence movement. Plainly, Tunbridge Wells should be allowed to secede from the Union (and Kent) and remain in the EU:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36616172
Hit one, hit all…
Iran had a conference on Palestine recently:
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/03/04/letter-from-tehran-trump-bazaari.html
The Iranians have no worries about Trump, they say, because he is a trader, meaning he will eventually come to a political accommodation!
In the Middle East the impossible becomes the possible:
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/03/04/drastic-changes-middle-east-happen-unbelievably-fast.html
A moderate analysis of Trump’s address to Congress from former Indian diplomat Melkulangara Bhadrakumar:
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/03/03/trump-can-good-for-world-peace-if-only-he-his-way.html
Trump is full of contradictory messages, especially if you don’t have a feel for what to take seriously and what not to take seriously. He gives a lot of bluff, and although part of the ignorance and foolishness may be for real, I suspect most of it is bluff – intended to put his many opponents off the track. Several analysts have also suggested some of his racist/misogynist/anti-islam speech is also bluff. Only time will tell what he is really all about. I am personally convinced he is extremely intelligent, and I think (and hope) he has a master-plan that is way beyond the thinking of his opponents, as suggested in an article I recently posted ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/trumps-world-of-intrigue-twists-and-turns-of-the-michael-flynn-resignation/5575828 ). Maybe Trump is taking the most dangerous of the neocons for a ride they will regret when they finally realise he has conned them – draining the swamp! One thing that seems sure is that he has several times _appeared_ to be emphasising that America has to stop interfering in the affairs of other sovereign states. I hope so.
Downing Street is ‘deeply worried’ about police probe into election expenses that could threaten Theresa May’s Commons majority
Up to six by-elections could be forced if prosecutions proceed, it is claimed
Downing Street is said to be ‘deeply worried’ about police fraud probe
It centres around allegations of overspending which was not declared
The Tories deny wrongdoing in marginal seats including South Thanet
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4280950/Downing-Street-deeply-worried-police-probe.html#ixzz4aNfPek3D
She would have to call a general election?
If the Conservatives were not really the legitimate Government, because they cheated in 52 possible constituencies, six will just not be credible enough anymore, why should they be able to have another chance in a GE?
How would this party be observed in such an election, will the Electoral Commission be beefed up ( no chance) and will their funding be decoupled from the Government of the day, giving it its Milk teeth so to speak?
I for one would not want to fund a GE that is contested by parties that are not punished for their blatant fraud, just allowed to do something similar, again.
The courts should/could order a switch of Government and undo all that was decided between the last GE and now.
Anybody for a referendum on EU Membership? or should something like that be banned and requiring a 80% of all representatives, after they offered this to the electorate for a mandate to do it in the first place.
“The courts should/could order a switch of Government and undo all that was decided between the last GE and now.”
It’s desperate for you isn’t it. Labour tanking in the polls mid-term so you have to look for ‘other avenues’.
Tory election fraud. If you’re clever enough to do it ? Do it !
Unfortunately they’re not clever enough to fund the Police enough not to get caught.
why don’t you just admit to loving banana republics with as little law as possible?
BBC Non Reporting Scotland
Andy Murray beats Verdasco in Dubai Final. Not mentioned on the BBC’s radio station in Scotland.
Up to time of this post.
Very briefly mentioned at about 5.47 on BBC TV news. Not long after a similar half-minute report on the London demonstration in support of the NHS. Didn’t see what the headlines were. Maybe summat about Trump.
God how awful.
Have to agree with you there – can’t believe someone thinks this is relevant. Perhaps if Andy won another open, then that would be news worthy… at the end of the real news. PS. Hibs get through to the semis – can they retain the Cup?!