“We don’t need a white paper to have a chat.”
The Labour MP Frank Field, writing in the Telegraph, predicts that the conversation the leader of the minority Scottish adminstration, the SNP’s Alex Salmond, wants to have could be ominous for the Union if Gordon Brown doesn’t pay attention.. but, as the BBC report points out, Labour, Conservatives and the Lib Dems are all opposed to Salmond’s desired outcome which leaves the Observer report seeming closer to the reality – in that publishing the white paper can be portrayed as fulfilling a manifesto pledge but that the call for a national conversation is a distraction from what would be “a bitter defeat” in the Scottish Parliament.
What was the result in aberdeen ? The Scottish political pages website seems to be updated about every 3 years……………
KMcL
Your clearly exposed chip on each shoulder is leading you to the point of paranoid delusions mate.
Do you really think in the two years I have been posting here as a former Derry man I have in fact been cleverly disguising the fact that I am actually English just so as when a post on Scottish independence arose I could suddenly emerge from my sleeper cell to unleash my Daily Telegraph, Home Counties anti-Scottish prejudices on an unsuspecting Slugger O Toole? You’re losing the run of yourself chum.
Just for the record, whilst I will not divulge personal details that would reveal my true identity (I still have loved ones living back home) I have never felt the need to lie on this blog about any aspect of my life or personal beliefs.
Could you now have the deceny to retract your disparaging remarks about me being a liar? I don’t expect anyone to agree with my viewpoint but personal allegations regarding my honesty I do take very grave offence at.
PE
No I was never a Brit! Come on mate you can do better than that.
If a protestant from East Belfast rejected the stifling bigotry of his background and developed a visceral hatred for lumpen headed loyalist terrorists and adopted a more open minded attitude to Irish unity would you congratulate him or accuse him of secretly having joined the Provisional IRA?
I do love George McDonald Fraser (have I spelt that right? I’m away from my office just now, is it “Mc” or “Mac”, “Fraser” or “Frazer”? You know how sensitive Constable McLoughlin of the Scottish Names Spelling Police is). He is one of the greatest living Scots and aside from his Flashman novels I would recommend his memoirs of his time fighting in Burma in WW II “Quartered Safe Out Here”, it makes a great read delivered with all his customary sharpness.
http://www.alba.org.uk/
I apologise most profoundly to Scottish Politics pages – a wonderful site. To those psephological amongst us looking at the detail don’t think the scots quite got the hang of STV yet. Not that many transfers.
Funny enough when I was thinking about you when typing about that small victory, i knew you would get a kick out of it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6949128.stm
No figures as yet, but a pretty safe Tory council seat falls to the SNP bandwagon.
>>No I was never a Brit! Come on mate you can do better than that.<<
Pretty feeble stuff I agree! A mixture of my nose bothering me and genuine bewilderment led me to that totally wild and scurrilous guess, profuse apologies! Ignore me I’m just being nosey. Yonks ago i responded to you a few times using stuff from the books that only dedicated readers of the flashy books would know, you never deigned to respond though. I reckoned that true to form(like flashy himself) you were being hoity toity or just bluffing it.
I will look up that book pdq. I don’t like GMacF later flashy offerings(maybe maturity) *shrugs* but I did enjoy a book based on his time in N. Africa shortly after the war, the name escapes me but it was about a blundering smelly Glaswegian called Macsomething. Quite humorous.
Great link Dewi!
I didn’t refresh due to Mick’s info yesterday and missed your posting. Those figures show that both the Lib-Dem and labour supporters are only too happy to transfer to the SNP on the STV system. It is not obligatory to give transfers either Dewi.
BTW, wonder who the loonie was that gave a transfer to the Tories from Tommy Sheridan’s Solidarity party. Whit????????
DK
Interesting links, thanks.
Harry
I’m not so sure Scottish “independence” is a matter of “put up or shut up”. I think we’ve gone beyond that in the modern era.
There are all kinds of difficulties around the very word “independence”. Firstly, it could be argued that Scotland is independent – it has its own parliament, legal system, education and so on, it merely chooses to opt into the UK. Secondly, even if it did not so choose, it could be argued that it isn’t independent – in the modern world is any country truly independent, when we are all affected by US house prices, Mid-East oil prices, North Korean weapon prices? Thirdly, in many cases “independence” is a gradual thing, for example in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and so on – there was no single day any of those attained “independence”, and some would argue the process is still incomplete (given the shared Head of State).
In the context of the EU, will it matter an awful lot by the time the oil runs out? If further powers are transferred to Edinburgh, and then defence and taxation powers get harmonized in Brussels, where precisely does London fit into the governance of Scotland? Or Northern Ireland, for that matter…
PE
I recall the post you refer to, you remarked on my fondness for Scottish ladies like the bonny Elspeth (in truth I did actually go out with a Glasgow girl for six years when I was a bit younger, great girls but Jesus don’t get on the wrong side of their bad temper!), I wasn’t being hoity toity, it’s just that I thought we’d run the course of the discussion somewhat by then, a bit like now I fear.
I agree that the later Flashmans aren’t the best, his offering last year was a bit formulaic but we should cut GMcDF some slack he’s already past 80 and still his writing is better than men half his age.
You’re referring to the Private McAuslan trilogy of short stories, very enjoyable mostly autobiographical I think about his time post war but also somewhat written towards one hour long tv dramas I thought (he’s also a screenwriter).
IJP
Point well taken about the evolutionary nature of independence especially in the British dominions though I don’t really see that is what most Scottish Nationalists are looking for right now, I might be wrong but I think they seek a clean break “within Europe”.