Thursday 29 July 2010

To Think Again

No more free personal care for the elderly in Scotland. No more free prescriptions, or free eye an dental treatment. Not even any more free bus travel for the over-60s, which there is no plan to abolish in England. Oh, and a ten per cent cut in each public service's workforce.

Which should come first after all of that? The SNP's attempt to secure re-election? Or a referendum on further devolution?

15 comments:

  1. Was not aware there was going to be a referendum on further devolution. Both Tories and Lib Dems stood on implementing the Calman Report - as did Labour and the SNP want the additional powers - well maybe not the specific powers over income tax.

    Any attempt at a stitch-up over a referendum will not go down well in the Scottish Establishment or much of the public.

    "No more free prescriptions, or free eye an dental treatment."

    Er there are no free presciptions in Scotland son beyond those who qualify for them. Charges are at £3 - in Wales and NI they are abolished. There is no free dental treatment. Well do you get this drivel?

    And the 10% cut in jobs is by 2015 - by natural wastage if possible. Nice in time for the UK general election.

    Can you read son?

    Anyway, what's your beef about Scotland. Why the hatred? Why the hatred?

    I am sure you are ranting "Flodden!, Homildon Hill!, Neville's Cross!" Snarling away!

    I await your sock puppets!

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  2. Oh, you are desperate, aren't you?

    Utterly swingeing cuts in public spending (well, you have it to cut), followed by the Holyrood Elections. The Tories and the Lib Dems weren't going to win, anyway. Leaving only one party that could have done so if it had had no parts in the cuts.

    A Labour overall majority? Why not? And they certainly won't push the Calman agenda. The Lib Dems would have done before they became a governing party at Westminster. So might the Scottish Tories, though with no central backing or even attention. But none of the three will now. Why would they? Calman (a lot of people didn't like him, but I always did) will be gathering dust on some shelf for ever.

    "Natural wastage"? I ask you! Welcome to the real world, from which you have been cushioned for thirty years. Not any more, you are not. And look who is in office - in Government, as it is the first to insist - when the cushions are pulled away.

    First international disgrace as the most corrupt petro-statelet on earth. And now this. The SNP is finished. You only keep on your present, basically Unionist, Leader because you have no one else.

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  3. Flower of Scotland29 July 2010 at 17:03

    The anger of people like Don Roberto is hilarious. All spoilt children have to grow up sometime, and it is Scotland's turn now.

    We were once one of the most innovative countries in the world. But we have turned into a place that demands the same level of public spending as a neighbour with 10 times as many people. Well, no more.

    Our profligate, second rank politicians, even the SNP sends the best to Westminster, have spent all the money. It looks like another bailout from London is on the cards. After our banks, our public services.

    Will they dare insist that our levels of spending therefore must not exceed the UK regional average? Plenty of people in Scotland would punch the air with joy if they did.

    There was never a majority of the eligible vote for devolution. It would probably never have gone through if only taxpayers had been able to vote.

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  4. "A Labour overall majority? Why not? And they certainly won't push the Calman agenda."

    It was Labour who initiated it and nurtured Calman ala Alexander and Murphy you arrogant thicko.

    Indeed Labour is on the steering committee.

    Course cuts like everywhere else are coming. They have just been delayed till next April.

    Talking about steering committees, Swinney set up one today with the other parties to look into where there should be cuts. So Labour gets the rap as well if the Scottish budget is not popular.

    Why the hate son? Why the hate?

    "First international disgrace as the most corrupt petro-statelet on earth."

    Compared to what? Nigeria? Other West African nations? The Gulf States? Colombia?

    You really have lost your marbles!?

    Why the hate, why the hate?

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  5. Kenneth McAlpin29 July 2010 at 17:10

    Lindsay at his Scot-hating worst again.

    He obviously knows little about the land of his forbears. Still in some sort of imperialist la-la land.

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  6. "It was Labour who initiated it and nurtured Calman"

    They'll very conveniently forget about that. They have probably already done so. Opposition to AV is now official Labour Party policy. Look out for opposition to any consideration of further devolution. That is what Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs want, and they are who the new Leader is most likely to ask for an opinion.

    There are certainly votes in it in Wales, and the very tone of your response indicates that you know that there are now votes in it in Scotland, too. How very long ago the devolution referendum, or even the last Holyrood Election, now seems.

    "Talking about steering committees"

    Don't. That's rather the point of such things.

    "Compared to what?"

    Compared to anywhere you like. Nowhere else has ever let out its worst ever mass murder (his guilt or innocence, like anyone's else's, is for a court, not a politician, to decide) merely because a multinational oil company commanded it.

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  7. Kenneth McAlpin, I am not afflicted by the tragic insularity that has afflicted Scotland since, and as a result of, devolution, no. Well, you are now about to be dragged back into the real world. Kicking and screaming, evidently.

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  8. Er what would the Scottish government gain from doing a deal from BP, have you actually thought this through?

    What is your logic behind this claim?

    How does the Scottish government or the SNP benefit from doing a deal with BP?

    Again what is the logic?

    Also it is a bit arrogant of you to claim how the Scottish Labour hierachy thinks. Have you such psychic/telepathic powers?

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  9. Scottish Labour MP29 July 2010 at 17:24

    It is always good to read you hammering the Nats. They think that only they are Scots. They have just had the most disastrous result, but it cannot make them see reality. They think that everyone who voted for anyone else was resident English. Seriously, they do.

    The photocopying boys and typing pool girls in the SPLP might want a policy in favour of Calman or what have you, but you are right that nobody is going to ask them. They lost to the SNP, we beat it. Any Labour Leader will take us more seriously. He will know us, he will not know them.

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  10. Don Roberto, the SNP is the political wing of the Aberdeen oil industry. It is only too happy to help, and quite possibly seeks for no reward. However, look out for Alex Salmond's oily directorships when he retires.

    BP sprang this man from jail. Either that decision was made at Holyrood, or it was made at Westminster. Either Holyrood decides these things in Scotland, or Westminster does. Which is the SNP's position?

    Scottish Labour MP, what do you mean "he"? It might be "she". Seriously, though, try not to enjoy all of this any more than is quite seemly. Ed Miliband (with any luck) should be persuadable to insist on the forty per cent rule for further devolution.

    Where Wales in concerned, there is also the requirement that any primary legislation enacted by the devolved body have to be approved, like a Measure of the General Synod of the Church of England (also the primary law of the land), by a resolution of both Houses of Parliament and by Royal Assent. Prior to that, approval by the majority of MPs from Wales. How could the Tories vote against that?

    And would it be possible to make the MPs from Scotland Holyrood's second chamber? Probably not now, but you never know. Holyrood's and the SNP's stock are both about to hit rick bottom.

    Of course, you already know all of this. As, I am told, does he. As, again, you know.

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  11. Malcolm Tucker29 July 2010 at 17:54

    You are right about Ed. A real chip of the Brown block, feels we are stuck with devolution and Europe but would do nothing to help either of them and would definitely oppose anything further. Ed Balls is the same. Brown, again.

    How could the Tories vote against the 40% rule, or against the sort of roles for Westminster that you propose? But Westminster where Scotland and Wales are concerned means Labour, no one else would turn up much to debates or votes on those affairs.

    I think I am right in saying that this blog was the first place ever to suggest that the Welsh Assembly, if given primary law-making powers, should have them on the same basis as the General Synod. That idea has definitely attracted attention. You probably knew that already.

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  12. Well, make sure that get Ed Milband elected, so that that amendment can be tabled to the Welsh Devolution Bill that Cameron is for some reason determined to bring forward.

    As you say, how could his party vote against either it or, in both the Scottish and Welsh cases, the forty per cent rule? Or even against giving the Scottish MPs at Westminster revising and delaying powers in relation to Holyrood?

    After all, there will certainly be enough No voters in Wales to deserve to have considerable safeguards written in, while Holyrood has not exactly covered itself in glory even before the cuts programme comes on stream.

    On the next Labour Leader and the EU, there will be a future post. There is much merriment to be made, and an awful lot of good to be done in the making of it.

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  13. Keep socking it to them. Either the SNP did BP's bidding over Lockerbie or they don't decide these things, either these cuts will be made by the SNP or they don't decide these things, which is it? Do they decide these things or not? Are they "the Scottish Government" or not?

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  14. Another idea for Wales is to give the Welsh Assembly the same standing as the London Assembly, with the Welsh regions performing the same function as the London boroughs.

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  15. Alas, you are probably stuck with what there already is, just because it is already there.

    But on the question of giving Scottish MPs the powers of a second chamber in relation to Holyrood, remember that they include a sizeable proportion of Lib Dem MPs, and those mostly from areas where enthusiasm for devolution as it actually exists has never been very pronounced.

    Now that the Lib Dems are a party of government at Westminster, their MPs are about as keen on any sort of federalism as their constituents are. The more power for Westminster, the better, as far as they are now concerned.

    A greater role for Westminster is really very easy to sell, since it would give Scottish and Welsh MPs something to do all day. Who could object to that?

    As for the GLA and the London Mayor, what on earth are they for? What little is not done by central government quangoes in London is done by the Borough Councils.

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