Chaos in Scotland.

[FD2]

Scope for more Border Reivers maybe?

[ricardian]

Billy Connolly gets it right!

[FD2]

Well said, Billy.

[BenThere]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm on the record as supporting Scot independence if that what the Scots want. To reduce it to a matter of its economic impact, to me, is a reduction of honor. Either you want independence to make your own way or reject it in consideration of the relative benefits. So far, my take has been that if Scots truly want to make their own way and let go of the UK, I can't argue with the sentiment other than cautioning about the downsides, they should vote and decide and get on with it. If they like being part of the UK they should vote and get on with it.

Scots are a great culture and people who have given much to the world in thoughts, technology and innovation. I think they have an adequate heritage, culture and outlook to sustain an independent nation.

[llondel]

I think that what a lot of us don't understand is why they want independence only to immediately sign it away by trying to rejoin the EU. If it was just a case of being their own masters and attempting to go it alone in the world then fine, I can understand that, it's a bit like what the UK as a whole is attempting to do in leaving the EU. They are a more socialist nation than England, although I suspect more on the Scandinavian model than the Soviet one, but when they have to foot their own bills it might get a bit sticky for a while, especially as a lot of what they think is their oil is not (what's left of it), according to international law (the England/Scotland border is heading NE as it hits the coast and so projects out to sea along the same line). The fact that it all arrives on land via Aberdeen does give them the opportunity to tax it, provided they keep the levels low enough that it's not cheaper to divert it elsewhere.

[G-CPTN]

How many employees are there within HMNB Clyde (Faslane and Coulport)?

Wee Jimmy wants 'away with it' . . .

How dumb would that be?

[CharlieOneSix]

Looks as though I may have to maybe get a new TV remote - the mute button on mine has gone intermittent (seriously!) with using it so much recently to stop that Sturgeon woman wittering on about something or other.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

It's very interesting living with a bunch of Scotsmen who emigrated over a hundred and fifty years ago - That would be Jimmy MacDougall who lives on MacDougall Road in MacDougall (I am not making this up). They keep certain elements of the culture, but they don't do the petty rivalry crap. It was similar when I lived in an Irish ex-pat bit of PEI. The style is still very Irish, and it's still there in the accent, but there's no spite. Ditto the Acadians, who it seems the Quebecers don't like and the Metropolitan French don't like either, mainly because their language here is about 1/3 English-adopted words and phrases. We all get on, even with the Welsh guys
None of them like Government, but the way they react is still ex-pat typical. The Irish lot resist government by heading to the meetings after a long session in the pub, and having a blazing row, whilst the Scots just ignore them completely and have secret meetings. With the Acadians, when two minor apparatchiks proposed amalgamating to form a municipality, they found their car tires slashed the next morning. The idea was dropped the same day.

[ian16th]

Looks as though I may have to maybe get a new TV remote - the mute button on mine has gone intermittent (seriously!) with using it so much recently to stop that Sturgeon woman wittering on about something or other.

They are so cheap that you should buy 2!

[Capetonian]

I would be wary of buying these very cheap remotes on line. They may work when you get them but being of poor quality they will usually stop working after a short period, and will invariably let you down at the worst possible time. The solution is perhaps to always carry a spare and hope that works ... but is it worth the aggro? If it's a TV remote it doesn't really matter but if it's a garage or external gate one then it's a bigger problem.

[barkingmad]

Maybe this would assist stress relief on noticing Wee Krankie, Kier Starmer, Diane A, Gina Miller or any other of the Horror Show characters who infected and will continue to infect the TV screens these days?

[ian16th]

I would be wary of buying these very cheap remotes on line. They may work when you get them but being of poor quality they will usually stop working after a short period, and will invariably let you down at the worst possible time. The solution is perhaps to always carry a spare and hope that works ... but is it worth the aggro? If it's a TV remote it doesn't really matter but if it's a garage or external gate one then it's a bigger problem.

I've bought these for my Sony TV and they are identical to the Sony original, even the Sony logo! I suspect that these maybe supplied to Sony.

Yes I bought 2, as the delivery time is so bad here in SA, but the spare has been unused in a draw for ages.

I also bought 'Mazda' car remotes, but these were empty shells, and I had to move the electronics across.

[Capetonian]

I can only speak based on my experience, we had two for the gates which were installed by a cheapskate owner to the lowest bidder. He built the support columns out of brick with no reinforcement, they were just hollow square columns. One collapsed within two weeks. We had two remotes. One stopped working after a week, and the other just crumbled within a month.

[ian16th]

Sometimes common sense comes from the most unexpected sources!

[barkingmad]

So what has changed since this report?

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ma ... -the-worst

Are there comms between Earth and Uranus where the Krankie lot appear to have taken up residence?

[om15]

I see that Ms Sturgeon's latest complaint of the day is that Scotland doesn't have its own immigration policy and visa scheme. This nutcase fantasy is brought about by the declining birth rate and lack of people moving to Scotland.
The UK as a whole is vastly overcrowded, the SNP might take a moment to reflect on why it is that people wish to live in England and not in Scotland. Introducing swingingly high income tax levels, breathalysing the motorists every five minutes and reducing essential services such as health, policing and education to levels enjoyed by Venezuelans might have something to do with it.
Scotland is a lovely place, there must be a reason why no one is moving there.

[Capetonian]

The weather?
Apart from that, I love Scotland and the people. I have English and South African friends living there who love it.

[om15]

I think that Andrew Neil may have put his finger on the problem,

The BBC Presenter posted a thread on Twitter detailing the latest Index of Social and Economic Wellbeing that showed Scotland has plummeted down the world rankings of developed countries in ranking of national wellbeing. The report, compiled by a leading Scottish economist, showed Scotland has fallen five places, from 16th to 21st, in the list of 32 countries who are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The ranking relates to tests on a string of measures including income, life expectancy and education.
The report found Scotland, which now sits in the bottom half of the list and is on par with Slovenia, has “underperformed” in many fields since Scots voted for devolution in 1997.

John McLaren, of Scottish Trends, found only Scotland, Greece and Finland had fallen in their overall scores on the index, which looked at economic growth per capita, educational ability, life expectancy and employment across the 32 countries between 2006 and 2018.
The report laid out how Scotland scored 2.08 in 2018, a drop of 0.5 since 2006.
It ranks number 21 in a list topped by Switzerland (3.38), Norway (2.01) and Japan (3.00).
The average life expectancy, which stands at 79 years, was noted as Scotland’s weakest area of performance.
Education was also cited as an area of concern.

Discussing the report on Twitter, Mr Neil wrote: "Scotland has suffered one of sharpest falls among developed countries in ranking of national wellbeing and is now on a par with Slovenia. Scotland fell five places into bottom half of 32 OECD nations across range of measures including income, education, longevity and inclusivity.

"The Index of Social and Economic Wellbeing report said that Scotland had underperformed in key areas during the two decades since devolution. Scotland had dropped to 21st place."
Mr McLaren, who started the index in 2017, blamed Scotland’s low ranking on Holyrood’s lack of accountability.

The economist said: “There is a lack of being held to account over policy decisions, in other words too little scrutiny and proper evaluation of the actions of the Scottish government.

“This is down to a variety of shortcomings, including a weak committee system in the parliament, a lack of academic involvement, a dearth of think tanks, poorly funded political parties and a declining and underfunded media presence.”
He also said badly funded opposition parties at Holyrood has led to the inhibition of alternative policy ideas: “Outside of the SNP, Scotland’s political parties are either small operations or in effect branch operations of UK parties and in both cases poorly funded.”

Full article here,
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... dex-report
I have a feeling that BJ will not be a soft touch with Sturgeon and we can expect rather a fierce resistance to SNP aggression in the coming months.

[barkingmad]

Here's 10 minutes on this topic;



Also some other useful snippets of info from J T.

[barkingmad]

Apologies for this info source but at least the text doesn’t fade into exhortations to subscribe or else I won’t be able to read the rest of the content like the paper press articles;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- ... s-50852115

It should be an interesting year north of the Solway to Berwick-on-Tweed “jockstrap”. Especially when their sea fishermen get wind of being sold out again against EUSSR pressure on Westminster.