Scotland Going Nowhere

The surprising thing is that anybody was surprised that Scotland decided that it is better to stay in Britain but it was all a bit of an anti-climax really.
The Yes vote did well to get the 45% they did but it was always only ever the slightest glimmer of an outside chance once the economics of a break away was spelt out to the voters.
Some part of me wanted the Scots to vote Yes and then watch the start the long process of disentangling themselves of 300 years of partnership with the English, Irish and Welsh, it would have been interesting.
It would have turned nasty especially over the oil which we both seemed to be claiming but it has been settled and Scotland will bob along as previous, subsidised by the rest of us by taking more from the pot than it puts in.
The biggest loser is obviously Alex Salmond who has now resigned as First Minister but not far behind him is Andy Murray, who the English have never really warmed to, who came out in favour of Independence (surprising how many Scots who live elsewhere was keen to have an opinion on the country they left at the first chance they got) but now faces making his living in a country he wanted to break away from which may make Wimbledon interesting next year.
Anyway, now the Scots had their go, when is the referendum for the other Brits to see if we want to break away from Scotland?

Last Day For Scotland In Britain?

Tomorrow could be the last day that the Scots can call themselves British as they vote whether to stay with the English, Welsh and Irish or go it alone.
The polls do seem to be very close, much closer than i expected them to be so credit to the 'Yes' campaigners  who seem to have turned things around up there and even i am starting to think that possibly they might just pull it off and we may wake up Friday to find the top part of the country now ends at Northumberland.
The poll of polls which collects the information from all the other polls gives the No camp a 2-4 point lead    over the Yes campaign but considering that the No campaign was 16-20 points ahead at the start of the campaign it is closer than any thought it would be and narrow enough to still swing either way.
Interesting to hear the oil rich Shetland Island off the coast of Scotland announcing that if Scotland vote yes but the islanders vote no they will seek independence from Scotland and take their oil wealth with them which will blow an enormous hole in any plans of a new Scottish Government which would already face financial upheaval as Westminster pulls the plug on them. 
I don't expect Scotland to go independent, the bottom line of it costing them too much and heralding price and tax increases across the board will scupper the Yes campaign but if it does sneak over the line it will certainly be make for interesting times as Scotland extricates itself from the rest of us.
The timetable is Polls open at 7am and close 10pm with the result announced between 6.30am and 7-30am Friday morning. 

Don't Do It Scotland

By the end of this month either Scotland will still be part of the United Kingdom or it won't and i have to go along with the vast majority of English who don't really care one way or the other.
When i wake up on September 20th, if Scotland has voted to go independent then it won't make any difference to me, or so you would think.
I was largely ignoring the politician on the television who was setting out reasons why Scotland should remain with us, economic, politically, traditional and historical all bypassed me but his parting shot was that it would make the right wing Conservative Party favourite to win every election afterwards.
That pricked up my ears and giving it some consideration, that makes sense because a well worn joke is that Edinburgh Zoo has more Pandas (2) than there are Conservative members of Parliament in Scotland.
Without Scotland, the field of electing our Government will change and Labour will lose the seats it gains from Scotland leaving the Conservatives to win all the elections for the foreseeable future.
As it seems unfair that the Scots can rid themselves of the nasty party and we get stuck with them for the next few decades, i am suddenly firmly in the 'Stay With Us Scotland' camp and as the most recent poll showing
64% want to remain in the UK against 36% wanting to go it alone, i think they will do the right thing and not consider the ultimate sin, giving us English a right wing Tory Government for the next 30 years.

Aug 23 1305 - Are You Sure He's Dead?

A post taking real life incidents from this day in history and my view of them as if they were happening today and what my honest view would have been then on that day ignoring hindsight or knowledge of how it ended

To be killed once is unfortunate, to be killed twice is unlucky so i'm not sure what that makes William Wallace who was hanged, then was relieved of his bowels and then his head in London today.
A real pain in England's side, the killer of forty thousand English at Stirling had been captured after seven years on the run and has certainly been dispatched.
A once proud Scotsman, his head can be held up high, and it doesn't get much higher than where it is now,  on top of a spike at the Tower of London!  

Haggis Ban

The UK government is making a fresh bid to overturn a US ban on Haggis from 1971.
That is Haggis containing sheep's heart, liver and lungs encased in the animal's stomach.
As appetising as that may sound, i think Americans should give thanks to whoever it was that banned it in the first place and hope that the ban stays in place.

Why Scotland's Not Going Anywhere

The rhetoric for the case for and against Scottish independence is increasing as we draw closer to the vote on 18 September but it all seems academic to me as anything other than a vote  to stay in the Union will come as a surprise.
The overriding reason why i think we will be waking up on 19 September and finding the blue stripes still in the Union Flag is economic, leaving the UK will cost the Scots.
The Treasury has already stated that each Scot will face a £1000 tax rise if they vote for independence because at present, Scotland gets more out of the UK treasury then it puts in.
The basic facts are that Scotland adds 8.3% (£42bn) to the UK bank account but receives 9.2% (£59bn) of UK public spending.
To put a pound sign on it, Scottish Executive figures show that spending per capita in Scotland was £11,370 per head of population versus £10,320 for the rest of the UK, hence the £1000 shortfall that will have to be made up by the newly independent Scottish population to maintain the current level of spending.
On a personal level, i don't much care which way Scotland jumps but if they do go there own separate way, England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be £17bn a year better off but i strongly expect the thought of a huge rise in tax and a sharp cut in public services will be a strong incentive to the Scottish population to stay with the UK for the foreseeable future.

Scottish Independence

It seems that the pretence that Scotland may vote for independence is carrying on with Alex Salmond setting out what he would do if Scotland committed suicide and voted to leave the union.
Not perturbed by the treasury pointing out yesterday that independence would mean a raise in income tax of £1000 per Scot, Salmond has done his own maths and come up with the sum that each person in Scotland would be £600 better off.
He has also promised the freshly independent Scottish nation would join the EU and NATO, cut corporation tax, extend free childcare and increase the minimum wage, keep the pound and the Queen, drop Trident nuclear weapons, the Union Flag and the BBC.
I don't think for a second that the Scottish will be shortsighted enough to vote to go it alone next year, it would be be broke within a week and begging for the BBC and the likes of Dr Who and Qi when they are forced to watch endless repeats of Rab C Nesbit and Take The High Road.
That said, if Scotland does vote for independence and waves goodbye to the English, Welsh and Northern Irish, we will really miss...erm...give me a sec...damn.

Carry On Scotland

I have always been of the view that if Scotland wanted it's independence then we should let it go. Not out of some romantic view of a country trying to free itself from under the shadow of a stronger, more powerful neighbour, but because Scotland doesn't actually bring anything to the United Kingdom table which benefits us.
I was quite happily getting ready to wave the Jocks goodbye and then Alex Salmond said something that stopped me in my tracks and got me rethinking the whole 'Quick, before they change their minds' idea.  
First minister Alex Salmond has said that if Scotland was to gain its independence, we couldn't keep our nuclear weapons there.
Being the kind and caring people that we are, England keeps all its most dangerous weapons in another country, that country being Scotland and if Scotland goes it's own way, England will have to keep all our weapons of mass destruction in our own country.
Hmmm. Was a tough choice between keeping Scotland and having somewhere to store all our dangerous weapons or let them go and have to find somewhere here to stash them and then i realised that we still have Northern Ireland and Wales just sitting there. Sorted.

Scottish Independence Vote

Finally a date has almost been set for the vote for Scottish Independence.
I especially enjoy the way it has been conducted so that the Scottish think that they have a chance of escaping from the English while actually i think they will find that it's our chance to get rid of them.      
In an effort to maximise the Yes vote, the referendum is to be held around the time of the 700th anniversary of Scotland's (rare) military victory over the English at Bannockburn, allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote and just after the Scotland based Commonwealth Games in 2014.
I also enjoy seeing Sean Connery as the loudest mouthpiece for Scottish Independence, supporting Scotland breaking away from his home in the Bahamas.
William Wallace may have been hanged, drawn and quartered and his body parts displayed in various English cities after fighting for Scottish independence, but only about a third of all the Scots polled wanted to break away from the United Kingdom so they Scottish National Party may have a tough job on their hands to convince their citizens that going it alone is the best thing for them.
I say if they vote in 2014 to stay in Great Britain, we English get a vote to see if we can break away from them. Only fair.

Waving Scotland Goodbye

Kingdoms are run by kings, empires by emperors and now Scotland is hoping to be a country which means, ironically enough, it will be run by Alex Salmon who is looking to wrench the cold and wet bit at the top of Britain away from the rich bit down the bottom.
I'm all for Scotland going it alone, i will be waving it goodbye as it removes the Union Flag and hoists the Saint Andrew's Cross in its place, hopefully just as they realise that they might have made a bit of a boo boo.
As an independent country, we would have a perfect excuse to send back all the Scottish languishing down here taking all our jobs, claiming benefits etc etc.
Rod Stewart, you can have him back and the Krankies. Andy Gray can pack his tartan suit case and Billy Connelly, Ewan McGregor, Alan Hansen and Annie Lennox can all clamber back onto your side as well. David Tennant can stay if he likes though.
We can also say goodbye to having to listen to the Scottish football scores because we really care that East Stirlingshire beat Berwick Rangers and it solves our problem of having to shoehorn in 4 Scottish players into our British Olympic football team.
No more of those god awful Scots Guards bagpipe tunes so yep, it's a win win for us except for now having to store our own Weapons of mass destruction somewhere, hang on, we still have Northern Ireland so problem solved. Cya Scotland.