tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34013250947215923862024-03-05T20:47:22.267+02:00Albannach Thall ThairisPhil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-87499727788040086102022-04-28T14:12:00.002+03:002022-04-28T21:40:44.254+03:00Lies Exist in a Vacuum<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">At the weekend an acquaintance of mine posited that Vladimir Putin would never have dared undertake the Ukraine invasion if Donald Trump was still in the White House. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">My response to this preposterously naïve statement was very simple. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">The election of Trump in the US, support for Brexit in the UK, the election of Boris Johnson as UK PM and other ridiculous acts of political self-harm all proved to Putin that <b>ANYTHING</b> – no matter how outrageous or distasteful – can be easily accepted in this day and age. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">In essence Putin felt unimpeded due to the West’s decline into post-truth and he saw that he could leverage the very same tools to legitimise his savage actions – Trump, Johnson and Brexit were all proof positive that everything is tolerable with spin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunw0BdOVBfp4l0fEWj3rsHkAR_A7I1NB6UQAPG1I35lLtVqw3VjeWznxt4bW61f3EBDCE0GR6PDYcUsgNUJlDxTinFl6R3Iy1rFMgDhxjaeuxpXvECuSNRYJgB3Yqjlv73Ww6YESV2No6oE7qforRZ3BC8MuO_mv754LUrJYqPmFPSJ0s-_9aoKnBHQ/s460/aAxzbyg_460s.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="460" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunw0BdOVBfp4l0fEWj3rsHkAR_A7I1NB6UQAPG1I35lLtVqw3VjeWznxt4bW61f3EBDCE0GR6PDYcUsgNUJlDxTinFl6R3Iy1rFMgDhxjaeuxpXvECuSNRYJgB3Yqjlv73Ww6YESV2No6oE7qforRZ3BC8MuO_mv754LUrJYqPmFPSJ0s-_9aoKnBHQ/s320/aAxzbyg_460s.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">As the whole bloody affair plays out it has become abundantly clear that the Russian population must be totally firewalled from the real world to inure them from reality. This job has been done remarkably efficiently with all dissenting voices swept up into police custody as soon as they appear. Support for the war on the Russian street is solid. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">There is no “cause and effect” in the traditional sense of events evolving. Instead, the Russian media audience is fed “effect and cause” from the point of view that actions are justified by post-event, post-truth vindications chosen from a lengthy but predictable playbook. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-GB">Interviewed by Piers Morgan on 26 April on the new right-wing <i>TalkTV</i> station, Johnson asserted that, </span><span lang="EN-GB">“</span>Given the massive Russian backing for what he is doing, given the apparent obliviousness of the Russian media about what is really happening in Ukraine, the paradox is that Putin has far more political space to back down, to withdraw<span lang="EN-GB">.”</span> <span lang="EN-GB">Really?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">Johnson seems to be wholly detached from the reality that the Russian audience does not see any genuineness whatsoever. What Putin does or does not do is occurring in an information vacuum with convenient propaganda. We can foretell a 2022 version of the 1991 Iraqi “Mother of All Battles” where truth is utterly divorced from reality and we have a new player from the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the personage of Dmitry Peskov as a modern-day Comical Ali. Diverting Dmitry perhaps as a spokesmouth for Vile Vlad? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">When push comes to shove, poor outcomes in the military and foreign policy spheres – as in every other sphere – are ignored or airbrushed. There is no paradoxical “political space” to act in as, by necessity, it does not exist. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: medium;">Putin will dare to do whatever Putin decides to dare to do as he operates outside the rules and beyond the influence of any idiot in the White House or any buffoon in No. 10.</span></p>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-74647211802735480162015-04-07T13:30:00.000+03:002015-04-07T20:26:09.195+03:00Keeping the Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” Andy Burnham was being interviewed on NHS issues. At the end of the piece Sarah Montague asked him if Labour were not due an apology to Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP for the manner in which the party had used the “leaked memo” as a mode of attack. Fundamentally his reply when broken down into its key aspects was:</span></div>
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1. No.<br />2. If any apology is due it’s from The Telegraph.<br />3. We responded in good faith.<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline !important;"><br />4. Anyway, it’s an election campaign.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was particularly struck by his repeated use of the “it’s an election campaign” line of justification and that exact quote, “we responded in good faith,” is just about as hypocritical as it gets when it is now known that Labour was briefed on the Telegraph piece before it was released.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So by Andy’s logic it is OK to smear someone and continue to do so even when the basis has been wholly discredited; the only apology is ever due by the the originator of a smear and not by those who would wilfully continue to parrot it days after that discrediting as they are not responsible; you can repeat ANYTHING that you hear “in good faith”; all is fair in an election campaign.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that’s Labour’s election campaign modus operandi firmly established then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to admit that up until this morning’s interview I regarded Andy Turnham as one of the more decent of Labour's leading lights and I told someone exactly that only a couple of days ago. More fool me...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But let’s return to what politicians do in the name of good faith. US President Martin Van Buren declared, “The United States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the Indian tribes,” so whatever Andy Burnham might consider an apt definition is <u>not</u> a new corruption of civility.</span></div>
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Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-37931969082445823522014-08-04T16:53:00.000+03:002014-08-04T16:53:58.880+03:00Better Together = Bad ScienceMost of us are aware of the system of beliefs known as
Creationism, particularly prevalent in the USA, which attempts to discredit
evolution and explain mainstream science from the point of view of the Bible –
it's a movement which has as one of its main aims the deconstruction of
empirical evidence through pseudoscientific methods.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you are at all sketchy here is a potted version:<o:p></o:p></div>
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God is the Intelligent Creator who made all things and therefore by definition mainstream scientific theories, especially evolution, are heresy. There are
different shades of Creationism which attempt to deconstruct science from various
angles. Young Age Creationism insists that our world and the entire universe is
less than 10,000 years old and has developed on the biblical timeline from
Genesis – God created the Earth with the appearance of age so that it seems
much older than it really is. At the other end of the spectrum Old Earth
Creationism holds that the Earth is billions of years old as mainstream science
contends that it is but that the Biblical "days" of Genesis etc. are
not days as we know them but longer periods of time or "ages" – some
so-called Day-Age Creationists argue that we are currently living in the
seventh day of God's Creation (Genesis 2:1-2:3). Really? What a benevolent
deity we enjoy. There’s even a branch known as <span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Neo-Creationism
which sees ostensibly </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">objective </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream#In_science"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">mainstream science</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> as a
dogmatically atheistic </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">religion</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. <span style="color: #1c1c1c;">Neo-Creationists also argue that science, as an
"atheistic enterprise," lies at the root of many of contemporary
society's ills including social unrest and family breakdown. So science is characterized
as a threat to Christianity and must be overcome in the same way as paganism or
Satanism.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Regardless of how mainstream science may regard Creationism
the movement has a very strong reach in the myriad groups of Christian
Evangelicals in the US and soft support from other Christian communities. This
came to the point where the teaching of evolution was banned for a period in US
public schools. A competing dogma of Intelligent Design (ID) was created and
promulgated. In many schools today ID is taught as an academic discipline –
Creation Science.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the key elements to the spread of Creationism and ID
has been that their proponents are only eager to argue on single issues in
isolation of other contributing or mitigating factors. Take a single strand of
science and strip it back to its basics, create doubt as to how the theory was
formed, shine a blinding light on that doubt and introduce fabricated
inconsistencies. Then create consistency through highly tenuous and profoundly
subjective application of Biblical teaching and, hey presto, the world is
explained in Creation Science through scripture. But Creationists despise
joined-up thinking. That's too much information to subvert and re-rationalise
in one go. Joined-up thinking is the Great Satan of the Creationists as it
tends to tear down their flimsy suppositions that have been painstakingly
constructed at elaborate length.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a highly religious society such as the US where
Evangelicalism is now the single largest branch of Christianity it can easily
be understood how the rise of Creationism and ID in the public consciousness
has been totally disproportionate to the credibility or "truth" that
lie behind them in juxtaposition to mainstream science. This has unsurprisingly
been assisted by the rise of elected Evangelical lawmakers at all levels of US
political society.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY5LWYW8PkfvP_qq2Oi0q7c3up6PCL-l6vmJRASuBWXDEWU4JwYvdnltA3fRrphrgnCCRPnnDdTrkE2YBI8Z4TqpKeG3lNb-nn6ceK2I2WoAL_WXndxHXL7C06xkxVV6sQKFoyz1k3L4oO/s1600/creationist's+logic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY5LWYW8PkfvP_qq2Oi0q7c3up6PCL-l6vmJRASuBWXDEWU4JwYvdnltA3fRrphrgnCCRPnnDdTrkE2YBI8Z4TqpKeG3lNb-nn6ceK2I2WoAL_WXndxHXL7C06xkxVV6sQKFoyz1k3L4oO/s1600/creationist's+logic.jpg" height="337" width="400" /></a></div>
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What might be regarded as "mainstream" in a
religious sense has been turned on its head in the past 50 years and our
accepted paradigm of what Protestantism actually is in Western Europe is
nowhere close to that existing in North America. So, in a Christian sense,
Evangelicalism is just about as close as you can get to the religious
mainstream in the US today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So how does this all relate to the Scottish independence referendum?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Better Together as a political movement has so much in
common with Creationism – it's a campaign of Political Creationism which has as
its main aim the deconstruction of empirical evidence through pseudoscientific
methods. Regardless of the body of argument backed by facts and expert
testimony from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b> the Political Creationists jump into action and chisel away
at fact in the name of preserving the broken Union.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Better Together’s main tactic is to take a single strand of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b>
policy and strip it back to its basics, create doubt as to the basis on which
the policy was formed, shine a blinding light on that doubt and introduce
fabricated inconsistencies. Then create consistency though highly tenuous and
profoundly subjective application of Unionist pseudo-facts and, hey presto, we
are all Better Together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Political Creationists of Better Together are a smart
bunch – they know that dealing with joined-up thinking is highly dangerous so
they avoid it to the point of cancelling debate. Better Together? Not really,
Better One Issue At A Time would be more accurate! Just as with the religious
fundamentalist Creationists the BT Creationists can’t handle a well constructed
body of evidence when presented as interlinked components.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So what tactics do the BT Creationists use to combat the
Great Satans of Salmond, the SNP and independence? Here are a handful of the
tools of their trade:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Double Standards</b>:
BT Creationists will insist that the pro-independence position “prove” every
one of its claims, but BT Creationists themselves never affirm that they need
to prove anything. Similarly, BT Creationists argue as if every difficulty
faced by the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b> campaign is a clear and irrefutable indication that
independence must be wrong, but they apply no such standard to themselves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bad Science</b>: BT
Creationists creates forums and “grassroots” groupings where they talk to each
other. BT Creationists are again, and again, and again, wrong on the facts when
they try to refute independence. This would be very tiresome if it were not for
the fact that affirming false facts can always sound impressive to people who
do not realize that what is being affirmed is false. Mark Isaak’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Counter-Creationism Handbook</i> makes
very clear just how often Christian Creationists make claims that themselves
depend upon preceding false claims. Needless to say, such a practice is a clear
sign that what one is defending is a very weak position.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Logical Problems</b>:
Given all of the effort that BT Creationists put into arguing against
independence, one gets the sense that they think that showing that something is
not the case proves that something else has to be the case. This, however, is
plainly false. Showing that I am not Phil Mickelson does not establish that I
am Phil Lawrence. I would have to give independent reasoning for the latter
conclusion. BT Creationists, however, suggest that the only alternative to this
or that version of thought on independence would be to conclude that unionism
is the only truth; and that is clearly false.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Glancing back to the Evangelical Creationists, I pointed out
that in contemporary US religion they have become the mainstream. The most
common use of the word "mainstream" in independence referendum
parlance refers to the mainstream Scottish media or MSM. The MSM has positioned
itself, almost exclusively, at the beck and call of Better Together. To this
end the BBC, STV, radio, newspapers have almost all become mouthpieces and
fellow travellers of Political Creationism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Scottish Government published the 650-page White Paper
“Scotland’s Future” last November 26th. Even for the most rabid <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b>
supporter this is neither an answer to every question nor the be all and end
all of political modelling for independence. But what it most certainly can be
seen as is a huge and all-encompassing exercise in joined-up political and
economic thinking, the likes of which have scarcely if ever been seen in the
modern political arena.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, by being transparent and all-embracing, the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b>
campaign has left itself open to systematic attacks from BT Creationists who
can strip out single issues in isolation and then deconstruct these isolated
points as if each one is the fulcrum for the entire economy of an independent
Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the first things that we were treated to on November
26<sup>th</sup> itself was the astonishing revelation that the High Priest of
BT Creationism, Alistair Darling, can absorb the essence of books and documents
by simply touching them. A matter of 30 minutes or less after the White Paper
was published he was able to assert that the Scottish Government, <span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"haven't answered any of the fundamental questions to which
Scotland wants the answers." He seemed to be able to give the impression
that he had read the entire 650 pages and was able to confidently refute it in
its entirety. However the MSM was not too assiduous in pinning down the High
Priest. He was able to get off with the Double Standards tool without being
tripped up. He was not required to be specific on any policy at all – </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BT Creationists will insist that the
pro-independence position “prove” every one of its claims, but BT Creationists
themselves never affirm that they need to prove anything</i>.<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Similarly Johann Lamont and Willie
Rennie had given their critiques before the day was out without any need to
justify to the MSM but Mr. and Mrs. Double Standards had neglected one thing – </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BT Creationists argue as if every difficulty
faced by the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yes</b> campaign is a clear
and irrefutable indication that independence must be wrong, but they apply no
such standard to themselves</i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Early in 2014 the retiring President of the European
Commission, José Manuel Barroso, was fairly blunt that Scotland would not be
welcomed into the EU with open arms but the Scottish Government and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b>
asserted that he was bluffing on the basis of clear advice that they had
received from around and from within the EU. When Jean-Claude Juncker was
nominated to succeed Barroso there was some hope of a truer picture but when in
his acceptance speech he declared that he was not keen to see “new expansion”
of the EU the BT Creationists were all over this as a full and certain final
avowal that Scotland would not have early entry to the EU. The MSM fellow
travellers in Political Creationism splashed it over every front page, webpage,
news bulletin etc. However within a matter of hours President Juncker’s own
staff had explicitly and unambiguously declared that “new expansion” did NOT
refer to Scotland<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> and that he personally, “would not want Scotland to
be kept out.”</span> Nevertheless that did not make the front pages – the
continued line was that Alex Salmond’s EU trump card was a busted flush. But as
pointed out earlier in Bad Science – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">affirming
false facts can always sound impressive to people who do not realize that what
is being affirmed is false</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there was the amusing interlude of Vote No Borders
which was characterised as a grassroots non-party political movement that
turned out to be a partnership between a fund manager who has donated six
figure sums to the Tories, a colleague who is a senior employee at the Bank of
England and a PR consultant. Vote No Borders then made a cinema ad that was
designed to demonstrate the policies of this grassroots movement by showcasing
young people in Scotland. This was certainly not untrue as several of the
policies of Vote No Borders were decided upon by the actors on the set of that
ad! Democracy in action, eh? In the end Vote No Borders was narrowed down to
approximately three core members with perhaps half a dozen individuals offering
support. The BBC and The Guardian were particularly effusive and unchallenging
in their coverage of Vote No Borders, underlining its grassroots credentials
before expanding on the aims and claims of the “movement” (?) but let’s not
forget in the realm of Bad Science – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Creationists
make claims that themselves depend upon preceding false claims</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The BT Creationists argue passionately that the White Paper
pledge of 30 hours of free childcare for every child to assist 100,000 women
back into the workforce is do-able now. Well, yes. It is do-able now from a
technical point of view as it falls within the responsibilities of Holyrood. But
there is no budget to make it happen without stripping £700 million from
somewhere else. Alex Salmond regards the policy as “transformational” but
because he doesn’t action the policy instantly then it’s clearly defined as impossible
from the point of view of a BT Creationist Logical Problem – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">showing that something is not the case
proves that something else has to be the case</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In fact in any number of cases the BT Creationists assert
that the Scottish Government has the power or the ability to immediately enact
various things that are part of their short-, medium- or long-term goals following
independence. However by choosing not to do them at the time or bidding of the
BT Creationists the Scottish Government has proven, as a Logical Problem, that
the policies are unenactable or that there is no will to enact at any future
date– <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the only alternative to this or
that version of thought on independence would be to conclude that unionism is
the only truth</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But the Creationist myths continue. This week we have the release
of two leaflets in Scotland – one is from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b> and one is from BT. So how do
the respective items stack up? The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b> offering is a positive message
which takes independently sourced information and uses that to reasonably cost the
future. The only part of BT’s message that is certain is that Scotland will
indeed keep the pound if the vote is No. The other main arguments – cheaper
energy bills, more jobs, more support of public services and a guarantee of
more powers for Holyrood are pure supposition – at best wishful thinking and at
worst complete hokum. But the BT Creationists are not required to explain how
their pledges are achievable. What will the rUK think of the specific promises
to Scotland which must inevitably come at a cost to some other sector in the
Union? That is entirely irrelevant of course and it is only someone with
something to hide who would ask such a question…. Do you get the idea now?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Just remember the following Political Creationist construct:<o:p></o:p></div>
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BT = prosperity, comfort, ambition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i></b> = angels and demons in a spinning, bottomless vortex.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Whatever may happen please keep in mind that bad science is
always bad science and double standards are always double standards. In light
of what is discussed above take a look at some recent First Minister’s
Questions and re-examine a few BT press releases. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">modus operandi</i> of the Political Creationist is plastered all over
the place but you just have to know what it is that you are looking at. Taking
the BT stuff as a body of work and now armed with the key to decoding it all you
can pretty rapidly see the common thread.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When religious fundamentalists come knocking on our doors
their underlying implicit aim is to scare us into heaven. The Political
Creationists of BT are trying to scare us to remain in the Union. But are you
ruled by fear or by hope? Choose good science, choose hope, choose <b><i>Yes</i></b>.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-37219158136164697222014-07-25T11:52:00.001+03:002014-07-26T20:08:15.782+03:00Taxing Times: A fair tax model for iScotland.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">I was drawn to a statement made by my friend Iain Lawson, the former member of the SNP’s National Executive, on his Facebook timeline recently:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">“Accountants are unhappy about the Scottish Government tax proposals. I can understand this, what would happen if we had a simplified tax system without hundreds, if not thousands of loopholes?</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14pt;">“</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">Let me tell you from my experiences in Estonia, accountants have to find new ways of making money other than devising tax avoidance schemes.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">“Companies have to pay the true tax based on their true profits. What's not to like?</span></i><i><span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">”</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">This set me thinking again as I have put quite an amount of time and thought into considering future models of a Scottish tax system and it prompted me to try to crystallise the better part of 2-3 years of musings into some semblance of order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">A fair and transparent taxation system is a relatively straightforward thing to devise and implement whilst a complicated and opaque system is symptomatic of an arrangement pandering to vested interests in a scatter-gun approach with a certain lack of joined-up-thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">So here goes…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #2a313d; font-family: Helvetica;">Corporate Tax<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">A great deal of column inches have been written about Corporate Tax (CT) so let’s begin there. The arguments have been pushed along by HMG up to now by my way of thinking and not led by Holyrood. What do I mean by that? Well, the main thing that is talked about in terms of lowering the CT rate is that it will cost the economy in terms of lost revenue. Yes, that is true if you let that isolated fact stand alone but if you then consider the grander purpose of lower CT then that argument is rubbished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">In plain and simple terms, if CT is lower then, all other things being equal, there is the creation of an incentive for inward investment to generate new employment opportunities. These new opportunities see people in work whose salaries attract personal income tax (PT) and national insurance (NI) plus the logical local spend of this newly created wealth. This leads to downward distribution to retail business – among others – and a corresponding entrenchment or expansion of earnings and existing jobs in that sector with corresponding CT, PT and NI enhancements from these secondary businesses. It’s a very simple “trickle-down” progression which need not have a logical end as long as we can establish interconnectivity between the various elements of the economy. Of course there will be spillage in that our Scottish economy will not be hermetically sealed! But the fiscal drivers will be domestic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">This type of scenario is what has driven the Irish economy along. Don’t put all the blame on the boom and bust of the property bubble and the economic crisis as that was a universal phenomenon which just happened to be exacerbated in the Republic because, to a great extent, much of Ireland was starting from a far lower base than most of Western Europe. The CT rate of 12.5% has been a huge success story with so many foreign companies flooding into Ireland to take advantage of a light fiscal touch and an educated workforce. There is also a fallacy abroad about Ireland in terms of CT which needs to be cleared up. The 12.5% rate only applies to trading income – non-trading income is taxed at 25% so Ireland is an unsuitable place to park so-called offshore assets as there is no advantage to doing so. Or more precisely there is no advantage to the Irish state as this type of income does not offer trickle-down benefits to society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">There are plenty of models out there in the EU which are attractive and pro-business. The Estonian model gets a lot of mileage for its 0% rate on undistributed corporate profits. But there is also the 5% flat rate on profits under ca. €290k for the so-called Lithuanian "micro company" – a very competitive small business vehicle. This model is already being marketed beyond Lithuania’s borders as a tax-efficient holding for businesses with a quasi-transnational footprint – crucially once a business has been taxed for CT in one member state of the EU then there is no remaining liability for further taxation in another member so paying 5% in Lithuania is a better choice than some other jurisdictional levies. This suits Lithuania today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Luxembourg has several attractive business formation models and it's no accident that an increasing number of multinationals lodge their IP there with a sub-6% income tax rate on royalties arising. It's a hoot when HMG and HMRC squeal about Luxembourg VAT on things like Amazon but at the same time fail to tax the big boys at anything like statutory rate – just witness Pfizer's eagerness to become UK domiciled. Luxembourg has cleverly switched its company regulations in a rather fluid manner as EU legislation develops and will undoubtedly continue to do so. For anyone not familiar with Luxembourg Ville, a huge financial zone has been built in an entirely new part of the city on the plateau of Kirchberg. This is a purpose built quarter which houses a great many international banks, accountancy firms, auditors and insurance companies along with conference centres, EU institutions and retail centres. All of this in a zone that conveniently reaches towards the airport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Maltese corporate taxation could teach us a thing or two with what is, at face value, a high CT jurisdiction – 35% – but with rather generous rebates for legitimate operators that can be reduced to a very palatable 5%.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Personal Income Tax<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">If there is one area of government policy that is guaranteed to get virtually everyone excited it is personal taxation. This is an area fraught with dangers at election time for any potential leader of HMG and many a UK General Election has been won and lost on personal taxation policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">But, in principle, PT need not be such a thorny issue. It is the very complexity of the system as laid down by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and administered by HMRC that creates such electorally charged issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">A flat rate PT regime as a jumping off point for iScotland would be a very pleasant culture shock to my experience. There are various schemes in operation throughout Europe and although some are very attractive such as 0% in Bosnia we need to have some form of realism about what taxation is actually collected for. If we wish to have a healthy state sector then we require healthy input and that starts with realistic PT.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">If a future Scottish Revenue Service (SRS) would pursue a fundamentally flat rate scheme it would offer so much clarity but the key point to the layman would be that when an employer tells you that you will earn £X per week or per month then you will be able to calculate with some degree of certainty what your take-home will be – something quite unimaginable with HMRC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">This is an area of taxation where clarity should be welcomed by all-comers. As Iain suggests it is the accountants who are the winners with the opaque regulations of a tax system that runs to 11,000 plus pages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Then the flip side of the coin might be offered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Are you sure that your accountant is as well versed in absolutely up-to-date HMRC regulations as he needs to be to offer you a full service? I am not sure if that question can be universally answered with a “yes” by all of us. I had the personal experience of a fairly young and generally go-getting accountant who was on the staff of a leading Aberdeen law practice a number of years ago. He was well versed in saving clients’ money through judicious financial planning of estates and trusts. But at the same time he was costing his own employer thousands of pounds every month, as was pointed out to him one evening, because he was not up to date on the latest allowances for company cars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The silly stuff is in the detail and that is the largest part of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">So, as a wise man once said, KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">National Insurance<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">We don’t look at NI with anything close to the same keen gaze as we do other forms of deductions. It’s just there. It comes off before tax and that’s that. It doesn’t seem to hurt so much. But NI is just a PT by any other name. Only in this case it looks after a narrowly defined area of benefits which are closely attached to the person such as pension, healthcare, unemployment cover etc. Therefore it is impossible to calculate a gross rate of deduction without factoring in NI. In some jurisdictions NI is not levied separately and the PT figure is indeed the gross deduction but that varies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Whilst I would argue for flat rate PT I would, conversely, argue for a sliding scale of NI. This proceeds from the premise that some of the different elements in the NI payment might be permitted to be comparatively less steeply increased but pension provision can never be enhanced enough if the individual concerned can afford the contribution. Private and employer pension provisions are other beasts entirely but an affordable and properly funded state pension to the individual can be something new that iScotland gives as a reward for a productive working life, something that is impossible to imagine with HMRC and the DWP at the helm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">As the author of the 2010 Conservative Party Manifesto and the Chancellor of the Exchequer-in-waiting George Osborne made an explicit pledge to raise the threshold for Inheritance Tax (IHT) to £1 million in the UK. He reaffirmed later in 2010 that the increase would take place “in this Parliament” but despite that this promise has completely disappeared without a trace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">IHT is a tax on death. It is a tax imposed on the survivors of those people who have done reasonably well in life and salted enough away to leave something to their kids and their grandkids. It’s not adding insult to injury, it’s adding insult to death!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">This is another political football that is kicked around at Westminster election time but the net result never seems to be anything too radical and the threshold has crept up well below the numbers indicated as appropriate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The primary employment costs are similar to those as described under NI, namely pension, healthcare and unemployment contributions although this can and does vary from one country to another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The levels of employer contribution can be fairly light in some tax regimes and the flip side of Estonia’s 0% CT on undistributed profits is a social security contribution of 33% over and above an employee’s gross income. As an example an annual gross salary of €10,000 paid to an employee in Estonia would see the employer actually make gross payments of €13,300. Other examples of employment costs are 31% in Hungary and 23.75% in Portugal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">So that’s the main components of direct taxation. From the point of view of indirect taxation we should consider mainly VAT.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The case of VAT in the EU is a little different from the main direct taxes. Variability of rate of VAT is limited in that the lowest regular rate is 15% with reduced rates available in various sector down to as low a rate as 0%. The application of reduced rates and the sectors in which they can be levied are dependent upon negotiation but as things stand currently the UK has the highest number of zero-rated categories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The current issue of using low VAT jurisdictions for e-business and mail order invoicing purposes, such as Amazon out of Luxembourg, is set to change soon with the burden of VAT becoming fixed by the address of the purchaser and not the vendor. So there will be no accrued advantage in operating from a low VAT base as the invoice will have to reflect the relevant VAT rate at point of delivery of the goods. For instance a package of new books shipped to Ireland from inside the EU will attract a 0% rate commensurate with the Irish exemption but the same package delivered to Denmark will attract a rate of 25%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">These new regulations will iron out a few bumps in the VAT system and point companies squarely towards CT advantages. So we can look forward to far less VAT-vectoring in transnational trade within the single market in the future as there will be no distinct advantage unless the local VAT rate alone offers justification for business location.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">A Scottish Revenue Service<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">I am convinced that the future SRS should be a fairly light touch organisation. By this I do not mean that they should be lax with regulation. What I do mean is that the level of transparency should be such that only a fair-to-middling level of accounting competence would be needed to be able to see all businesses report to full satisfaction with no need for clarification and cross-referencing with the SRS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">When the taxation regime is built in a fundamentally simple and straightforward manner with concrete rules and minimal exceptions then the possibility to be “creative” disappears. If the rules are foolproof then even a fool should be able to get it right by definition. Also if errors are made then the offender should be admonished or punished accordingly in an “across the board” manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Potential Tax Model for iScotland<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">What follows now proceeds from what I have written above and is only <u>my own persona</u>l model for a taxation structure in iScotland. This bears no relation to the Scottish Government’s White Paper, Scotland’s Future, and can be ripped to shreds at will if anyone so desires. I’m not going to try to tackle Capital Gains Tax and the issues of Excise and Duty payable on fuels, tobacco and alcohol etc. These subjects will be returned to in later separate articles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">1. Corporate Tax</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – I see the need for a benevolent CT system to attract foreign investment and jobs to our country. I also see a benevolent CT regime as an enticement for undecided parties to reaffirm their commitment to Scotland as a place to do business. To this end I would suggest something of an amalgam of the examples that I described earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">I would take the Lithuanian micro company model and impose it as a workable analogue across the board. Let all companies have their first £250,000 of profit – distributed or otherwise – taxed at 5%. Further to that I would impose a continuing CT rate at 5% above £250,000 on undistributed profit without ceiling and have distributed profits taxed at a rate of 15%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">2. Personal Income Tax</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – We need to be realistic in our assessment of what is both viable and fair in the PT rate for iScotland. I would favour a flat rate with a reasonably high initiation point. I suggest a taxation threshold of £15,000 with everything under that level of income being 0% rated. All income above £15,000 should be taxed at a flat rate of 22.5%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">There is the question of allowances for married couples or civil partnerships. I would replace this with a unique “pooled allowance” which might permit any two permanently interlinked individuals to enjoy a joint taxation threshold that is substantially higher than the single person’s allowance. This pooled allowance could offer a 0% taxation threshold of £25,000 across the two incomes in a relationship. This may not sound astoundingly generous but if the scenario sees, for instance, one person working and the other staying at home to look after children then the working partner will enjoy a further £10,000 of income at a zero rate which, if the salary is equal to or more than £25,000, will equate to £2,250 more in the pocket every year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Furthermore I would offer a revolutionary incentive to those on a pension – I would make pensions exempt of all PT for a period of at least 10 years. That’s right, completely abolish taxation on pensions for the time being. In the intervening period there can be a debate on how best to address the issue of taxation on pensions but I would favour a pledge of a high threshold and shallow entry such as nothing taxable below £30,000 and even then only at a rate of 5% with a step up to 10% at £50,000. The vast majority of pensioners will be unaffected by any return to taxation and those who will eventually be taxed will be those best able to afford the contribution. As an example someone with a pension of £40,000 would only pay an annual amount of £500 in PT and in the case of a pension of £60,000 that figure would be £2,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">3. National Insurance</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – As I mentioned earlier I would tilt NI contributions in the direction of pension provision, but that should not be at the expense of other sectors that the payment is intended to provide for. My base NI threshold would be at £12,000 – let the first £1,000 every month be free of contribution. At £12,000 the rate of NI would be 4%. At £15,000 when PT kicks in I would see NI rise to 5%. Then at every £5,000 increment from there upwards I would add 1% to the NI rate – 6% at £20,000, 7% at £25,000, 8% at £30,000 etc. – up to a maximum contribution rate of 15% at an income level of £65,000 and above. All contributions up to 8% would be split as required between the different sectors that NI is designed to provide for but anything beyond 8% should be explicitly ring-fenced as supplementary state pension provision. The entry to this NI system is not nearly as steep as the UK version. The cost will dig deeper but only on the basis of affordability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">The current UK system kicks in at an income level of £153 per week or £7,964 per year at a rate of 12% but then drops to 2% at a level over £805 per week or £41,860 per year. Unfortunately that level of NI contribution sees both too steep an entry point and too shallow a rate reduction. The earner is penalised too abruptly at too low an income but when he or she can most afford it the rate is relaxed. This will always create deficits in the key areas of public spending that are most critical to us all at our times of maximum vulnerability – old age, illness and unemployment. A graduated and increasing NI burden has the potential to secure better provision for our times of need,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">4. Inheritance Tax</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – More revolutionary stuff here with IHT and follow the lead of Australia and New Zealand – scrap it completely. It can fairly easily be argued that the means of collecting IHT would be at least as costly as the actual tax take. Scotland is not the Home Counties after all and the number of qualifying estates is relatively low by comparison. It can also be fairly easily argued that by having accumulated an estate sizable enough to attract IHT then the person concerned was likely to have been taxed more than adequately whilst building that estate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Therefore remove IHT completely and do not tax the dead!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">5. Employment Costs</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – This is a difficult one as we need to be fair and equitable to society in general without scaring off employment opportunities. At the same time we need to recognise that there must be a reasonable level of contribution from an employer. In the tax year 2014/15 in the UK the rate is 13.8% for all earnings above £7964 with a few exceptions. Bearing in mind the CT benefits as specified above I would levy a flat rate of employer NI contribution at 20% from an entry level of £12,000 – the same threshold as for employee NI contribution. This is certainly higher than the existing UK system but is more than compensated for by other allowances in the general system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">6. Value Added Tax</span></b><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;"> – VAT is of course a transactional or consumption tax that is indirectly collected and disbursed along the supply chain of products until eventually being levied upon the end user. The system is fairly standardised within the EU in terms of its administration although not, as pointed out earlier, regarding its levels. I would argue for the lowest headline rate of VAT as permitted by the EU at 15%. I would also argue for the retention of the UK’s zero-rated sectors on what are regarded as essential items. The reduced rate can be as low as 5% and that would seem to be a reasonable level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">Summing Up<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">So that’s where we are at just now and that’s where I see us going in the near future with iScotland. We should aspire to a highly transparent and completely linear system of contributions which create scenarios that are easily read by the contributor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">When it comes to arguing the features and benefits of such a system it is very important to treat this model as a whole and not to separate out the different components as doing that simply creates obfuscation. Westminster has skilfully managed to separate employment costs from the taxation equation and stand them up as separate and problematic issues, or more accurately, in my honest opinion, the Scottish Government has not offered a persuasive, inclusive narrative for reconciling taxation and employment costs in a joined-up manner. As Westminster drags each issue away from the body of the whole it is quite easy to interrogate one element as unsustainable but that is all about contextualisation and the boys from London are the undoubted experts in this form of misleading subjectivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">I think part of the blame for this is not through any fault of the Scottish Government getting hauled off-message and nor do I think it is because of a lack of consideration of the issues. Instead I feel that it is in some part down to John Swinney’s more cerebral approach to his portfolio. He’s not a Bullingdon brawler like George Osborne or as combative as Ed Balls. Instead he attempts to argue reasonably and rationally with no aggressive attempt. By trying to tell the truth in an inclusive and rounded manner John Swinney has not made the sound bites that the media crave and the electorate hang onto. This is not a criticism of the Finance Secretary as he has been singularly successful in getting to grips with the big picture of Scottish finances with one hand tied behind his back and the other in a boxing glove!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">So maybe I need to contradict myself here. Maybe we need to cherry-pick some of the good stuff out of the whole and rub it into the faces of the media until a little of it sticks and they pop their heads out looking for more. Whatever it might be it should create a media and Unionist feeding frenzy. But that is good. Then we can bring in the heavy hitters of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon to underline the interconnectivity of the entire system.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">When Michelle Mone and her ilk bump their gums there is a lot of irritation but some uncertainty as to why she is totally wrong. She is NOT totally wrong. Yet! The inclusive narrative has not been presented coherently. When it has been presented coherently then we can all be certain that she is the stooge that we feared all along.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #3d4452; font-family: Helvetica;">I would ask everyone to be interactive here and offer as much criticism as you like. The model outlined is only my model. Tell me how to improve it!</span></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-89654594919977319592014-05-28T12:52:00.002+03:002014-05-28T12:55:42.676+03:00The CyberNat is Dead - Witness the Rise of the CyberNOT!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">For such a
long time the CyberNat has been regarded with disdain, even disgust, and I am
no great supporter of anonymous online abuse in any form as that is utterly
gutless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">However we
are all aware of the far more poisonous mirror image of the the CyberNat -
let's call this particular animal the CyberNOT.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Every pro-Yes
article that is published attracts the CyberNOT troll with a
vengeance and the level of debate drops to sub-basement level immediately.
The CyberNOT is far more insidious than anything I've come across in
the mainstream media and, frankly, is almost Talibanic in its quest to
obfuscate in any way beyond reason. The quasi-religious zeal in which Yes arguments
are attacked and scorned is beyond anything that I have witnessed or been party
to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I bring this
subject up as I have found myself the target of CyberNOT abuse simply
for having the temerity to express an opinion or two in an open and transparent
manner on a public forum. Cut-outs - anonymous temporary Facebook accounts -
will happily send obnoxious private messages and then disappear as fast as they
arrived on the scene. Brave behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">There are
other silly little things as well which are not necessarily conducted by
cut-outs. Last October my Yes Tallinn account was messaged by someone with the
following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">"What
is your real interest in Scottish Independence? My husband works much of the
time in Estonia and has not heard of you." </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Well, let's
set out a few simple facts. Estonia is a country the size of Switzerland.
Tallinn is a city with the population of Edinburgh, Bristol or Belfast. Is it
incumbent upon me to go out and make myself known to every foreigner who turns
up in the country? As a Scot I am familiar with the supposed tiny nature of my
own country: <i>"Oh you're Scottish? You must know Jimmy. Where's he from?
Scotland of course. I don't know the town but it's Jimmy. You must know him.
Red hair..."</i> Sound familiar? No, I do not hang out in the ex-pat bars in
the square mile of Tallinn's Old Town and I visit that part of the city
probably less than half a dozen times a year. It's like imagining that someone
who lives in Edinburgh MUST spend all their time down the Grassmarket if they
would really exist to the wider world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">As it was
this particular messager was not abusive, but doubting someone's motives or
ambitions simply because her husband has not heard of me is less than
substantive as an argument. I am not going to name that messager as that is a
pointless exercise which stoops as low as the CyberNOT Instead I
openly engaged that person with a selection of information but sadly (or
predictably?), up to now, she remains silent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">So brothers
and sisters of Yes, I implore you to be lucid, transparent and reasonable in
all that you write, disseminate, or otherwise share. Keep it clean and keep it
honourable. Engage the CyberNOT But always, always, always be better
than the CyberNOT He is scared, his arguments are built on sand, his
only defence strident voices and he will always try to shout you down. We are
better than the CyberNOT We have the arguments to win the battle. It
is for this very reason that the CyberNOT is on the rise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'll say it
again and again until I'm blue in the face (saves on saltire face paint, eh?)
keep it clean. Keep it concise. Don't invent stuff just to sound clever. State
your source whenever possible. Remain reasonable, even in the face of the
CyberNOTic Taliban, If you are at a loss you could do a lot worse than go back
to first principles and read McCrone again - that will re-energise you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Get out there
and engage and always remember that if we stay out of the gutter then we will
always be better than the CyberNOT. Always. 100% of the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3QQh7PjSTqoT0TsrMHL3gNm9RePpNpqKX8br6TPq5y8eJRbDvmhJfDSpbfRj4TpAXz3255k0kqIGT6uz-wfCk-j63VE9FLcZYGVLHIqgUmut_rDmJKuKOXooqTFx3N0X9rIk2uxJlGip/s1600/1525319_10152081643885358_240591917_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3QQh7PjSTqoT0TsrMHL3gNm9RePpNpqKX8br6TPq5y8eJRbDvmhJfDSpbfRj4TpAXz3255k0kqIGT6uz-wfCk-j63VE9FLcZYGVLHIqgUmut_rDmJKuKOXooqTFx3N0X9rIk2uxJlGip/s1600/1525319_10152081643885358_240591917_n.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>The face of intolerant Scotland - public enemy no.1! Aye, on the left...</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">But if that's
not enough to bear I hear only this morning that Iain Lawson has had a run in
with the uber-CyberNOTs – the CyberStasi. I'll leave it him to explain:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">"Just
been "moderated," polite word for censored, by the Herald for merely
pointing out that the two academics involved in the Treasury document have now
accused the Treasury of grossly misrepresenting their work and that therefore
the Treasury paper can no longer be classified a serious research paper and
should now be classified as propaganda and that responsible media
organisations, like the BBC and others should report it as such. Such is life
in Soviet Scotland these days. Postcards from the gulag later."</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This must be
seen to be rather sinister as Jim Naughtie openly mentioned this on the Today
programme on Radio 4 this morning and although probably not as incisively as
Iain he laid it out that there would be refutation and a case of "he said,
she said." Why would the Herald need to try to gag something which is
already out in the open? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-62601346612564847642014-05-17T11:37:00.000+03:002014-05-18T01:20:57.440+03:00With 4 months to go Westminster has blinked...The subtle change in the narrative was almost imperceptible. The new weasel words sounded just the same as the old weasel words emanating from the unelected chamber of the privileged.<br />
<br />
But it was there. Undeniably it was there. And all of a sudden the genie has been released from his bottle.<br />
<br />
The House of Lords was finger-wagging about how Scottish MPs would not be permitted to take part in matters relating to the post-referendum independence settlement. <br />
<br />
Just step back for a moment and consider that again. The Lords considering scenarios following a Yes vote on September 18th.<br />
<br />
This is completely and utterly epoch-making. The narrative has changed irreversibly.<br />
<br />
The Lords go on to point out other matters of legality between the point of a Yes vote and the preferred date of independence, 24th March 2016. Further to that they stress that the rUK government would have no obligation to meet that timetable if it was not in the rUK's interests to complete negotiations by that date.<br />
<br />
Wow! This is sensational stuff.<br />
<br />
OK, you may say that it is dry, procedural, yawn-inducing nonsense which as Angus MacNeil MP rightly points out is offered up by an, "undemocratic anachronism stuffed to the gunnels with over 800 peers of the realm who answer to no electors and are often there because of privilege or patronage."<br />
<br />
But the key point here is that the undemocratic anachronism has seen something of the writing on the wall and realises that it is the organ of state that has to start considering the implications. Westminster blinked first.<br />
<br />
This is the UK's upper house openly discussing the terms of what will or will not be acceptable should the "unthinkable" happen.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrRdBd8Uq1_GKeoOhcy5voH6Z-6qlE0xY4s-IzUYM63-boJUlCvjSNJB_X1T-ifMdQZBFDQbwJG6mZ5NYgmZ047ndNsodepKKpud2N9mEzSZpG4PHqhwzOClBYSfLxWzACBNjRDKL1sHAz/s1600/29906170001_3404167885001_368b05780e6a4d2c859b1437cb0a2777-mp4-high-vs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrRdBd8Uq1_GKeoOhcy5voH6Z-6qlE0xY4s-IzUYM63-boJUlCvjSNJB_X1T-ifMdQZBFDQbwJG6mZ5NYgmZ047ndNsodepKKpud2N9mEzSZpG4PHqhwzOClBYSfLxWzACBNjRDKL1sHAz/s1600/29906170001_3404167885001_368b05780e6a4d2c859b1437cb0a2777-mp4-high-vs.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Westminster inflicts more T-O-R-T-U-R-E</b></div>
<br />
As I say, the genie's been well and truly released from his bottle.<br />
<br />
Let's go back barely 6 months. Last Christmas could you have imagined Parliament discussing procedural matters following a Yes vote before a single ballot has even been printed? Not on your life.<br />
<br />
But why? Is it because the House of Lords is a reasonable and democratic institution which always attempts to seek out the considered wills of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom? Is it hell!<br />
<br />
Or have they got the wind up? Was that secet poll result so damning that there was no alternative other than to consider the distasteful concept of a split?<br />
<br />
We may never know the true answer to that but it is, at the same time, interesting to note that this unelected chamber is keen to extinguish the mandate of elected Scottish members of the House of Commons.<br />
<br />
Angus MacNeil again, "To be lectured by them about timetables and for democratic processes is something that could only happen in Westminster.<br />
<br />
"It will be elected representatives who will lead Scotland's transition to independence – not some elite club whose members can still turn up for just half an hour's work and get a £300 daily allowance."<br />
<br />
But whether or not the Lords actually have the right to rule, advise, pontificate, finger-wag or otherwise it is not what they actually do that matters, it is that they have done anything at all that marks the sea-change. In one fell swoop they have recognised, without really realising what they have done, that the game's up and the clock is now ticking towards 10pm on September 18th. I'll be on Rose Street. Where will you be?<br />
<br />
As for political dynamite this week, David Cameron's visit to Scotland to tell us all how lucky we are and Dougie Alexander's intervention to tell us all how lucky we are – completely consigned to the back-burner when we have the lawmakers of the Lords stumbling into this minefield all by themsleves.<br />
<br />
An almost imperceptible shift but it's done now and they can't go back from here. The genie's out and he <u>will</u> cause mischief.<br />
<br />
<br />
P.S. I had to chuckle at the BBC News website's reporting on the House of Lords matter when they stated that, "This would prevent MPs who represent Scottish seats negotiating for the rest of the UK on the terms of independence, scrutinising the UK's negotiating team or ratifying a resulting agreement, the committee argued. Those affected would include politicians such as Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury."<br />
<br />
Aye, not past next May though!<br />
<br />
<br />Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-45171847716284578882014-05-15T17:32:00.002+03:002014-05-15T21:57:08.581+03:00What are little boys made of?What are little boys made of?<br />
What are little boys made of?<br />
Slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails,<br />
That's what little boys are made of.<br />
<br />
What are little girls made of?<br />
What are little girls made of?<br />
Sugar and spice and all things nice,<br />
That's what little girls are made of.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwhwdoXrVCu1HrDB4tAPj6UT7qLD8jMeCMeZpurQWy1YfDoX5k0XXusBqwCiRK993JHh1gMoHlX6FgorFLCCMP0zd-fyCHd5-PNjZhGNGIaWL7MegzjFe1NDe-rv5WqMmSiAYLeB7rYDK/s1600/boysgirlsmadeof_brooke.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwhwdoXrVCu1HrDB4tAPj6UT7qLD8jMeCMeZpurQWy1YfDoX5k0XXusBqwCiRK993JHh1gMoHlX6FgorFLCCMP0zd-fyCHd5-PNjZhGNGIaWL7MegzjFe1NDe-rv5WqMmSiAYLeB7rYDK/s1600/boysgirlsmadeof_brooke.gif" height="295" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
What are No voters made of?<br />
What are No voters made of?<br />
Austerity,<br />
Zero hour contracts,<br />
Part-time jobs,<br />
Food banks,<br />
EVPs,<br />
Benefit cuts,<br />
Exorbitant utility prices,<br />
Highest petrol prices in the EU,<br />
20% VAT,<br />
The Bedroom Tax,<br />
The democratic deficit in Scotland of an unelected Tory government,<br />
David Cameron hiding polls that tell the truth,<br />
Child poverty reaching heights not seen since the Victorian age,<br />
Standard Life coming out with the same crap they came out with in 1979 to scare people,<br />
A Chancellor who lies through his teeth at every turn, <br />
The natural resources of Scotland being used to make billionaires in London,<br />
Tax avoidance schemes made to benefit the big corporations being let off with billions of tax so Tories can sit on their boards,<br />
Inheritance tax threshold frozen as it was only a Tory campaign promise to raise it after all,<br />
The likelihood of another coalition government but this time between the unelected UKIP and the unelected Tories in Scotland,<br />
Pensioners freezing their butts off in winter because Westminster doesn't care,<br />
The Royal Mail being sold to the Chancellor's buddies for a fraction of its true value with 85 % of MSPs opposing it in Scotland,<br />
Nuclear weapons based less than 20 miles from our largest city,<br />
<b>That's what No voters are made of.</b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-19313781398140317092014-05-14T16:12:00.000+03:002014-05-15T11:08:27.194+03:00Scottish Labour Legalises Prostitution<div class="MsoNormal">
Wendy Alexander initially appeared to have the potential to
be the "great white hope" of Scottish Labour and she seemed to be
really ready and willing to engage on the issues and not just lap up the party
line à la London. Her "bring it on" exhortation gave momentary belief
that the lines of political communication might be open and Scotland might be
able to engage in a unique debate. That candle of hope was snuffed out after
only a very brief flicker as normal service was resumed by Gordon Brown
announcing three days later that she was not, in fact, offering Labour's
support for an immediate referendum. I still genuinely believe that Wendy
Alexander came from a position of best intentions - or at least as good as that
can get from Scottish Labour.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Iain Gray was almost so perfectly named. A rare beast in
modern Scottish Labour in being someone with a good experience of the real
world having had an education in physical sciences and then working as a
teacher before extensive charity work. But oh so dull.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A complete personality vacuum. He had no
ability in debate and looked more and more cross as arguments eluded him. His
final humiliation was the infamous Subway incident when he failed to handle a
band of hecklers at Glasgow Central Station, during the 2011 campaign trail.
Instead of addressing the group he turned tail and ran. That was that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the slaughter of the Scottish Parliamentary Election
of 2011 Gray jumped ship and the paucity of choice was there for everyone to
see.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Johann Lamont floated to the top of the murky pond of what
remained of Scottish Labour's Holyrood talent. One glance at her CV and only a
brief listen to her oratory will confirm to anyone that she is a return to the
world of the old Labour "apparatchik" with no frills and no skills
other than being able to rally the votes of the comrades. That she also looks
the part is a bonus! But she undoubtedly remains in the ranks of the
apparatchiks and clearly not in the "nomenklatura" as she has been
outmanoeuvred by almost everyone on the SNP front bench since her appointment
as ScotLab Commissar-In-Chief, so deftness in argument or debate is certainly
not her forte.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lamont can be seen as someone who is the policewoman of
party policy in Scotland and the person to wield the stick with which to
attempt to beat the SNP at every turn. "Attempt" is the operative
word here as Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney et al are nowhere near
as leaden-footed as Ms. Lamont and if she has managed to inflict even a
glancing blow of late it has been through accident and not any great skill.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How ironic that Lamont was elected on the back of a speech
in which she told party delegates that, "We must listen and learn, show
humility and seek again to talk for and to people's ambitions and concerns. Our
real challenge is that we in Labour lost our way, lost our confidence and lost
Scotland." Since 2011 Labour in Scotland has exhibited the same failings
and that is in no short measure due to the conduct of Johann Lamont and her
closest cabal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These are people who have no sense of political decency. You
ask a question to Lamont or her ilk and you need not expect an answer. Now that
is not uncommon for politicians as we all know but Johann Lamont has been
repeatedly asked for her views on nuclear weapons on the Clyde since her
ascension to party politburo boss, coloured by her outspoken views against
these WMDs when she was a junior politician. The silence is deafening. Utterly
deafening. She doesn't even have the decency to turn round and say, "OK,
I've sold my principles down the river for the greater cause." Some might
even respect her for that in a perverse way but she doesn't offer that
opportunity as she is from the school of Scottish Labour that does not sanction
cross-examination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her acolyte, Jackie Baillie, is another of those who will
not be questioned. She is quite happy to jump to her feet at Holyrood and spout
smug falsehood after smug falsehood in her attempt to score points for ScotLab
when she just, in fact, comes across as clueless and out of her depth. Others
in the opposition team are too nameless to bother with as there is no depth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Enter stage left one Douglas Alexander, brother of the
aforementioned Wendy. I don't know what it is but I instinctively want to like
Douglas. He is reasonable, he is conciliatory, he is thoughtful.... <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh hang on, that's the whole point isn't it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPX1DaJCX_zaPVK4LfeMM5WESA_iPtGyIGaciYJHCC2u5MqU5-H-3S8K5M9XHu76qqxi1TQZ44vFSLbUmHw3093-myBE1WPnuxv8KA4RJUU6O06y6enDYDgZT7XpPrrMmaiZPpsLtrfAfF/s1600/Douglas-Alexander-_1398775c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPX1DaJCX_zaPVK4LfeMM5WESA_iPtGyIGaciYJHCC2u5MqU5-H-3S8K5M9XHu76qqxi1TQZ44vFSLbUmHw3093-myBE1WPnuxv8KA4RJUU6O06y6enDYDgZT7XpPrrMmaiZPpsLtrfAfF/s1600/Douglas-Alexander-_1398775c.jpg" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>That nice Douglas Alexander</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alistair Darling has been so negative and damned useless
that the next Tory placeman has been called up. And let's not dress it up in
any other way. Douglas Alexander is the new Tory spokes-spiv in Scotland.
"Wanna buy a pair o' nylons love?" A purveyor of soiled goods. He
will dress it up in any way that we might be expected to be able to swallow it.
The Tories themselves realise that they have no constituency in Scotland so
Labour allow one of their brightest to be co-opted to the cause for the
duration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any port in a storm for Dougie Alexander. He is undoubtedly
a capable political operator and he has a very convincing way about him. He
sounds so plausible... <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hold on! We're at it again!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Better Together have taken a guy who comes across as so
sincere that he looks like he is about to burst into tears at any moment because he feels your pain. Are
we supposed to like Dougie boy because he's sweet and lovely or are we supposed
to buy into his Labour/Tory doublespeak?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all know what the so-called oldest profession in the
world is reputed to be. ScotLab is providing a procession of professionals who
pretend with one side of their face to be deeply concerned about Scotland but
at the drop of a hat sell themselves to Conservative Middle England. Enough of
this shameless harlotry! There is nothing honourable in dancing with the devil.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6bI9fA6s0Iz3RGfU_lbhd-57UIi3dhUNi4LSru1Z-zKDhK8CG216x5Vy04O_SJQ5Ug5UZRGORVDs27fdawaOMTGKySngSRONQi17NvUom94q5WC75WkH1xLAGC4kL6py6cBmlkvre42N5/s1600/D9Y9CD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6bI9fA6s0Iz3RGfU_lbhd-57UIi3dhUNi4LSru1Z-zKDhK8CG216x5Vy04O_SJQ5Ug5UZRGORVDs27fdawaOMTGKySngSRONQi17NvUom94q5WC75WkH1xLAGC4kL6py6cBmlkvre42N5/s1600/D9Y9CD.jpg" height="173" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>ScotLab and London Tories discuss issues of mutual interest</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scottish Labour is prostituting itself to Tory Mammon and
that is one liaison too far. So, to Douglas Alexander, Alistair Darling, Gordon
Brown, Jim Murphy and the rest of so-called Labour's Tory placemen, if you wish
to sell yourselves then that is entirely up to you, but please do not expect
Scotland to sell its soul for the sake of your careers. You have lost any
credibility that you had and the miracle is that so many in Scotland have not
seen through you all yet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scottish Labour, the lie that just keeps on giving. Time for
a quickie love? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-89205530072845323032014-05-10T15:42:00.001+03:002014-05-10T15:42:33.309+03:00<a href="http://www.hypersmash.com/dreamhost/">www.hypersmash.com/dreamhost/</a>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-45439435950680456232014-05-09T05:49:00.000+03:002014-05-09T05:49:37.278+03:00We Don't Need No Education 2014<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">For many, if not most, politicians and political
commentators south of the border Scotland has been more likely to feature as a
source of annoyance than anything else. The most prevalent opinion has been
that the Scots are at worst a bunch of scroungers or at best simply ungrateful
for the largesse of the Union generally and England specifically. Now that the
referendum is just over the horizon the chattering classes south of the border
are prepared to resort to any lengths to put the kybosh on this whole independence
thingummy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Alex Salmond has been acutely aware that we Scots needed
a bit of education on what our status is in the Union and what our status would
be if we would go our own way. He didn’t rush for the first available date and
instead chose to stick to his declared guns for the plebiscite as promised. He was
aware that we needed education as to the benefits of freedom of choice in
setting our own policy goals in an international context. He was aware that we
needed education as to the true potential of our industry and resources to be
able to raise funds for the nation through taxation. He was aware that we needed
education in the opportunities afforded to small nations in the modern world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">However Alex dared not use this “E” word as that might
very well have come across as condescending. And if there is one thing we Scots
cannot abide it is condescension! Instead he had to lead us down a path where
we witness by the evidence of our own eyes and ears the possibilities and
certainties that many Scots cannot yet even imagine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPN26PUAEeRbBxIvPLxPk1ujf4zVwrHC1lvSU5a6V6sol1xXX21w2RyQXxq-hYhOXMiPNZYEnUGemvPtzOO5lwJel4AvvbTGiiXAgB13eSalAaYZzvjae_aQr_I9BZ6WSXPbdpEP4dXN_p/s1600/alex+laughing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPN26PUAEeRbBxIvPLxPk1ujf4zVwrHC1lvSU5a6V6sol1xXX21w2RyQXxq-hYhOXMiPNZYEnUGemvPtzOO5lwJel4AvvbTGiiXAgB13eSalAaYZzvjae_aQr_I9BZ6WSXPbdpEP4dXN_p/s1600/alex+laughing.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><b>Unfortunately Alex can't help absolutely everybody</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">So why is education such a key aspect? Well firstly
those very opinions of what Scots actually are, permeating from England about
us all being ungrateful scroungers may be dismissed with one hand but if this
type of propaganda is repeated often enough it can leave a stain or even a scar
on the psyche in terms of how we view ourselves. Secondly, this is reinforced
by our local Unionist politicians telling us how essential it is to preserve
the Union as we wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of lasting five
minutes out there. Anyway, where would we go? The EU wouldn’t want us and
nobody would want to bail us out when we fall flat on our faces. These slurs
against the competence and self-respect of our very being needed to be
addressed, dissected and put to bed once and for all to be replaced by new
positive reinforcements of who we are and what we are capable of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Let’s look at the different aspects of our education
in understanding ourselves. We need to be clear, regarding our status, that the
vast majority of the population of the Union treats us as second-class
citizens. The English are not intrinsically a bad bunch and I think that we all
know that. However they are finding a nascent sense of Englishness with the
Cross of St George and all that. They look at us with some sense of indulgence
as one would for an errant young nephew who really just will not learn. As long
as the SNP were in a minority at Holyrood this was all well and good. Now, all
of a sudden, this errant young nephew has been left a rather large inheritance
and everyone in the family wants to tell him how to invest it or, even better,
become his trustee until he is old enough to understand how to spend it wisely.
Let’s make no mistake here; we are nobody’s nephew. We are full partners in a Treaty
of Union which is as valid today as it was 304 years when it was formalised.
Under international law the treaty is a live instrument and the partners are at
liberty to revise it as and when they see fit. We are not locked into this
Union and we are at liberty to challenge our status without a trustee or
guardian insisting upon our conduct.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Scotland is currently little more than a bit-part
player in the world of international affairs. For better or for worse we are often
characterised as that bunch who let the Libyan bomber go free. How that affair
is read depends upon where you are rooted. Hawks might say that we are a
soft-touch whilst those with a more all-embracing nature might say that we are
compassionate. Quite frankly this is an irrelevance. We are being judged on
something that was decided from a point of law. There was no pay-off, there was
no dividend, there was no back-scratching done. But as the government in
Westminster was less than willing to be frank or in any way clear on the matter
we had to stride the international stage as a government with no Foreign
Ministry. Westminster made no attempt to assist in that and it was a perfect
opportunity for London Labour to try to leave Edinburgh high and dry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">That we were able to get any message across at all was
remarkable in itself. The SNP has a highly professional team of front bench
talent in Holyrood and as we saw accusing fingers pointed at Kenny Macaskill
and Alex Salmond from the hawks in the US and from within the Union a valiant
and tidy rear-guard action was fought. Some were convinced that this issue
might come back to bite the SNP but the results of last week of the 2011 poll are
proof that this has become a non-issue for most Scots. Nonetheless we need to
see for ourselves how the impressions and misrepresentations of others can
affect our international persona. Our ability to present ourselves on the
international stage is not helped by the status quo at Westminster but we need
to demonstrate this for all to see on the domestic front.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">We Scots have been some of the greatest innovators in
science and commerce in the history of the modern world. This goes back to one
key issue — education. We were the first country to offer universal education
to everyone regardless of class or position. This great advantage was readily
seized upon by the British Empire in its time as we were the most numerate
society of the age, so the fact that the administrators and managers in the
colonies were predominantly Scots was no coincidence. When the Industrial
Revolution came along Scotland, as well as supplying many of the ideas and
processes, embraced the new age with vigour and foresight. The great industries
of the Central Belt were forged from Scottish iron and steel smelted on
Scottish coal. Times have changed since the great days of the Industrial
Revolution and the heavy industries have died or declined to a vestigial level
compared to their pomp. But we tend to forget that New Lanark is still in the
essential travel guide for Japanese tourist coming to the UK. We may have
forgotten a great deal of our industrial background but they want to come and
see where it all started from their point of view in the crucible of
sustainable, compassionate industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">But what of our current industry? Some would scoff
about whisky, picture postcards and shortbread but let’s not get sidetracked.
The whisky industry as it stands today is a massive contributor to the
Exchequer. The taxes, duty and excise raised by Scotch whisky are the envy of
many countries in Europe. This is a massive shot in the arm to Scotland’s input
to London’s tax pot. Or is it? Well actually no, generally it is London itself
that inputs the whisky numbers as the companies that own the distilleries are
registered in London so therefore it is English whisky funds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Oh well never mind, the oil and gas sector contributes
billions and that does certainly come from Scotland doesn’t it? Well no,
actually it doesn’t. The energy sector is also mostly London based. For all the
endeavour that goes on in the North Sea and for all the roles that Aberdeen,
Peterhead and Shetland play it is once more London’s input.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">So that’s two of the major industries in the UK
economy almost exclusively operating in Scotland but with their financial
returns reflected as English. No wonder we would feel inadequate if we imagined
that the best of our industries were being tallied in the big bean count as our
own but we still came out so poorly. We need this financial obfuscation to be
cleared up and complete transparency to reign.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">“But Scotland is too wee and too poor to survive on
its own.” If I had a pound for every time I have heard that in my lifetime I
would be very well off thank you very much indeed. This is a lie peddled by
those who have no coherent argument beyond the nonsense they are fed by the
Unionists. For the past 21 years I have lived in Tallinn, Estonia which is a
country of less than 1.4 million inhabitants. Now if that’s not a country that
was too wee and poor to go it alone then I do not know what is. When I first
visited Estonia in December 1992 I found a tatty little country lacking for
most of the things that we take for granted but the one thing in no short
supply was self-respect. The country had only shaken of Soviet rule 16 months
earlier and was finding its way but the people were optimistic. The
undercurrent of enthusiasm and the can-do attitude of people I met prompted me
to settle in Tallinn for a short spell in March 1993 but that short spell has
now become, as I say, 21 years. I am not going to try to convince anyone that
Estonia is some kind of heaven on earth but what I will say in the clearest
terms is that when I settled in Tallinn there were so many things that we
simply accept as part and parcel of modern living that were unavailable. I recall
having a dinner party in 1993 and I ended up having to visit eight different
food shops before I had all the ingredients for a relatively simple menu. When
I put fuel into my car I always had a nagging fear that there might be dirt in
the petrol which could block the fuel system — it happened to me more than once
and it happened to others frequently but we learned which pumps to avoid. These
are two simple aspects of everyday living that we take for granted in that one
will find food in the shops and one will be able to use the fuel that one buys
without fear of breakdown. These are only exceedingly minor issues but this is
just an illustration of what the population of Tallinn and other cities, towns
and villages of Estonia had to put up with on a day-to-day basis for some
considerable time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">But it wasn’t just Estonia. It was Latvia and
Lithuania as well. It was Slovenia. It was Slovakia. These are all now full
members of the EU and four of them are in the Eurozone as well. These countries
had none of our advantages and yet they have all claimed their place in the New
Europe with enthusiasm and pride. And lest we forget Croatia, Montenegro,
Macedonia, Kosovo and the Czech Republic. All of these far less fortunate than
Scotland but none too wee or too poor. OK, not all of these are perfect
societies yet but they have chosen to be apart from something else that was no
longer fit for purpose and to invest their effort in being what is their
essence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">For us Scots to take on-board all of the above
overnight is nigh on impossible. We needed time to catch our breath and to make
some form of understanding of what we have achieved so far and what that means
for our future. This is where the education process started. We needed to know
who we are, what we are, what we have as our right, where we are going, who we
are going with and who we are going to meet. We need to know why we are going
there and what we will receive in return. We need to know how we are going to
get there. The question of when we can go needed to be carefully weighed up
against all these whats, whys, wheres, whos and hows. At the juncture that we understood
the reasons then we would know that it was time. That is the education that we needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">It was completely disingenuous for the supporters of
the Union to insist that a referendum must be held at the very earliest moment.
Did David Cameron put every campaign pledge into action in the first 90 days of
his Prime Ministership? Don’t be daft. Indeed David Cameron’s own jibes on the Scottish
“never-endum” can be leveled back at himself with his 2015 General Election
bribe of an EU in-out vote. One of the key Tory manifesto pledges which appealed to Middle England's blue-rinse brigade in 2010 was the raising of the Inheritance Tax threshold to £1 million "in this Parliament" but that has gone south like a lot of other promises. A lot of effort has been put into "sexy" policies which <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
deflect from austerity but the net dividend is that at a local level the Tories are seeing mass desertion of their traditional pack-mule pensioner envelope-stuffer, cum leafleter, cum canvasser.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Alex Salmond and the SNP clearly stated again and
again ad infitum that the referendum would be called in the second half of the
new Parliament. The pledge was clear and unambiguous. The promise was kept. Naturally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">I have confidence in Alex Salmond and the SNP; I know
where we are going. I feel it is my duty to share with as many others as
possible in finding that same route so that we might all know exactly why we
are on it. And I am so looking forward to the thrill of the journey. A one-way
family ticket please.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-46630796045056012552014-05-08T11:51:00.002+03:002014-05-08T21:22:13.580+03:00Split Personalities AKA the Politics of Deceit<div class="MsoNormal">
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For me the critical thing to emerge from the referendum preamble
is the entirely schizophrenic nature of the so-called major political parties –
how they represent themselves to a UK-wide audience and then how they offer a
completely altered image in Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Conservative Party really doesn’t try very hard at
all in Scotland as they know that the less said the less collateral damage
caused. They realise that popping up north of the border is counter-productive
and David Cameron himself is running scared when it comes to the matter of
debate with Alex Salmond. <i>“But it’s a matter for the people of Scotland”</i> smiles
Cameron refusing to be drawn into the debate but then spreading bad faith
wherever he ventures and denigrating the Yes campaign at every turn. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported on December 31<sup>st</sup> that "<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Great Britain is extremely
interested in the support of Russia, as holder of the G8 presidency, in two
vital areas in 2014: the Afghan pull-out and the Scottish independence
referendum.</i>" The Russian journalist added that although the referendum
might "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">look like a UK domestic
matter</i>", it had, according to his UK Government source, the potential
to "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">send shockwaves across the whole
of Europe"</i>. The Sunday Herald published an article about this on
January 12<sup>th</sup>. This story has been attacked by BT supporters as
unsubstantiated but the BBC News website referenced the story on January 19<sup>th</sup>
and there has been no official denial from London. Taking into account many other
reports of UK diplomats being tasked to drum up support for the Union abroad to
the detriment of the Yes campaign then we have to consider that Itar-Tass is
accurate – David Cameron is more inclined to connive off the record on Scotland
with Vladimir Putin than he is to debate on the record with Alex Salmond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626;">But of course it is Alex Salmond's conduct that is microscopically examined and condemned by all and sundry. The Unionist bloc smile and say of the Itar-Tass report, "</span><i style="color: #262626;">It didn't happen...</i><span style="color: #262626;">"</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shocking!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The LibDems posture with an amazing degree of arrogance on
the Scottish stage which is pretty amusing for a party that will, in all
likelihood, finish 5<sup>th</sup> in Scotland in the May Euros. Danny Alexander
pretends to be an economic colossus when in reality he might have just,
possibly, been an adequate Scottish Secretary. He was promoted way beyond his
pay grade very early in the life of the ConDem government. He seems to be an
affable enough chap but let’s not mistake geniality for competence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Michael Moore has been seen off with Alistair Carmichael now
as the third Scottish Secretary of this government and on the basis that you
can only stretch a limited number of MPs in so many directions he would seem to
be the last one for the time being. That’s fine. He’s a gift. Bob Smith's a genuinely nice bloke but he's recently had to face up to health issues so I doubt that there will be any role for him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But as a party they pretend to still be relevant in Scotland
when that ship has long since sailed. In the UK context they are fumbling from one
mess to the next but in Scotland they are this bullish group, not discernible
in any way, shape or form, from their Tory sugar daddies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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However the Tories and their coalition pets are a mere
appetizer on this menu of political schizophrenia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Labour Party.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ed Miliband and his acolytes pitch themselves to England as
a progressive liberal party of the centre but in truth they are barely
discernible from the Conservatives. The so-called Bedroom Tax, a staggering assault
on the poorest in society, was not opposed by Labour and, in fact, many Labour
MPs did not even turn up for the vote at Westminster. This is the party that
promises to follow the Conservative line on benefit caps. This is the party that
will now not rule out an in-out referendum on EU membership because the Tories
have promised to have one. This is the party that pledges to continue George
Osborne’s austerity rout.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Move north and cross the border into Scotland and we have
the same Ed Miliband telling the party faithful that Labour will outflank the
SNP as the true party of social democracy. Make up your mind Ed. Are you going
to punish the most vulnerable in society or are you going to be their saviour?
Or are you really going to offer this split personality model of Labour and
hope that nobody notices? The tame media have never been too quick to pounce on
Labour’s inherent hypocrisies so the party might believe that they can get off
with this one for a while. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At the end of April Alex Massie writing in The Spectator described
Miliband as some sort of PG Wodehouse composite character and arrived at the
conclusion that he is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Clever enough in a droopy kind
of way but, ultimately, a gawd-help-us kind of fellow.”</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PSlIk-CuSl4cUuv4mhbLCjtEGHFQKkhB5VzhzoWvwRDyxh8tAFpk21l7vS_HJqaQFYlMSNfjPn6FN4zXjTaIKBMZPyHE6vEvd4rjThH3TqzUn8dCV_b9-OB3Cf6pxhqn5KhfmPtku2Wh/s1600/MillibandFinkNottle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PSlIk-CuSl4cUuv4mhbLCjtEGHFQKkhB5VzhzoWvwRDyxh8tAFpk21l7vS_HJqaQFYlMSNfjPn6FN4zXjTaIKBMZPyHE6vEvd4rjThH3TqzUn8dCV_b9-OB3Cf6pxhqn5KhfmPtku2Wh/s1600/MillibandFinkNottle.png" height="160" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626;">A couple of gawd-help-us kind of fellows</span></b></div>
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Ed, we’ve noticed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Massie continues, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">I dare say Miliband’s belief
that Scottish independence would be a bad idea – for Scotland and the rest of
the United Kingdom – is sincere. That this belief is in his own narrow,
strategic, sectarian interest is beside the point. And, sure, we all know that
Labour-minded voters in western and central Scotland are a vital constituency
in the referendum campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">“But
I rather approve of Miliband’s <s>simpering,</s> no, thunderous warning that an
independent Scotland might be the kind of rogue state in which taxes were cut.
I’d like to believe in it a little more than I do. Time – and hard learning –
might bring us to that point but not before an awful lot of expensive mistakes
had been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Massie goes on to point out that, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Miliband’s position is spectacularly incoherent.”</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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What Ed fails to highlight is that the specific tax cuts
being considered are in the corporate realm – to make business more competitive
and to help create jobs. Does anyone in Luxembourg or Ireland or Estonia agree
that lowering corporate tax rates is somehow defining of a rogue state? If that
would be the definition then Estonia is the rogue state to end all rogue
states with 0% Corporate Tax! To quote dear Margaret Curran, “Drivel!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ed, we’ve noticed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Labour claims to be the party that offers answers to all the
ills of the UK. The ills that have been heaped on the country by cruel,
uncaring governments. But in the past half century there has been coalition
government for 4 years, Tory rule for 22 and Labour themselves have had the
longest run at power with 24 years in charge. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and
Alastair Darling trashed the economy. That’s the same Alastair Darling that leads
Better Together, that’s the same Gordon Brown who last week came north to
preach on pensions. Are we so stupid as to be duped by these people? Again? The same people who claim to have all the answers in Opposition have held the reins of power for the longest period of anyone in the last half century and have spectacularly failed to deliver... anything!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ed, we’ve noticed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This is the
party that at a local government level is delighted to form coalitions with the
Conservatives just to keep the SNP out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Ed, we’ve
noticed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqv0y5WICHuw_wb_7s7e1XOj0ANsA7aIB98xknWo0RJg5y0IQloc_8vHTEoFtMrfOyl7cqzbANYphRue_pO0DiZop93Vc6LR9YVu1P1FpYGBV2aH3Q8zVxA5GK7HQR275RTIevCcve8WDw/s1600/cameron-miliband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqv0y5WICHuw_wb_7s7e1XOj0ANsA7aIB98xknWo0RJg5y0IQloc_8vHTEoFtMrfOyl7cqzbANYphRue_pO0DiZop93Vc6LR9YVu1P1FpYGBV2aH3Q8zVxA5GK7HQR275RTIevCcve8WDw/s1600/cameron-miliband.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Spot the difference - answers on a postcard please</b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The
schizophrenia within the Labour Party is tilting towards certifiable insanity.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The level of deceit from Labour is abject and utterly craven.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let me affirm here and now. We are not that stupid. We <u>have</u>
noticed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The parties of Westminster have blurred into differing shades
of the same basic colour. There is nothing to define them as any one being
different from the other. Yet in Scotland they claim an entirely different
reality. Enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-72571744036274445032014-05-07T01:19:00.000+03:002014-05-08T18:40:50.633+03:00Let Them Eat Electric Cars...<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Some have forgotten how Philip Hammond was spared his blushes back in October 2011 when he was remarkably chucked up a level to MoD. But let's look back to that shall we not?</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
In a remarkable twist of fate Philip Hammond as Transport Secretary had his “Marie-Antoinette moment” almost completely ignored by the mass media and before you can catch breath he is promoted to Defence Secretary. Outstanding luck for another of the Tory grey men.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
As reported by Auto Express Hammond was speaking at the launch of a privately funded network of electric charge points and said, “You can’t force people out of their cars or place drivers on the naughty step, as our predecessors did.”</div>
<div class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
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I’ll let the motoring mag take up the story here: When Auto Express suggested prohibitive fuel prices appeared to be doing exactly that, he shirked responsibility and instead blamed oil suppliers: “The increase in fuel prices is a function of global oil prices, it’s not driven by policy.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Motorists pay 80 pence in tax for every litre of petrol they buy, according to the AA, meaning almost 60 per cent of your fuel bill goes straight to the Treasury.</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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When Auto Express asked Hammond what the Government intended to do to help reduce fuel prices, he suggested that motorists switch to electric cars. “People should look to new technologies. Electric cars are very cheap to run and allow motorists to drive guilt free.”</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Let them eat cake, eh?</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9PVDTkC65Q5blkwfud2PkbvOddFCDo7EhB3S3wBlbe1UXsT3ZDQXaPh-XrVTEb3iqU-HFzX41oz0F-Mqi5reaPnU9MLFP5KhFbHwzfsN0UHXJ0XMZQFnU4GiYkNoizpBLZTfy-QvUkzE/s1600/marieantoinette460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU9PVDTkC65Q5blkwfud2PkbvOddFCDo7EhB3S3wBlbe1UXsT3ZDQXaPh-XrVTEb3iqU-HFzX41oz0F-Mqi5reaPnU9MLFP5KhFbHwzfsN0UHXJ0XMZQFnU4GiYkNoizpBLZTfy-QvUkzE/s1600/marieantoinette460.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;">
<b>Hammond and M-A share a lot</b></div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
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What next? Replace the army with ICBMs? They are very cheap to run compared to several divisions of infantry, cavalry and armour after all and will allow us to defend ourselves guilt free. How about embracing defence as part of the Big Society. Armed militias raised on a county by county basis. Oh, hold on a moment, that was where the old model started and that went wrong according to the bean counters. Local regiments so that the provinces actually feel that defence is inclusive and relevant to them? Nah, not this time.</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Or even better, the UK government can contract out defence entirely. Give the contract to the highest bidder. Hammond can complete the work of Dr. Fox by handing the keys of the MOD to the Pentagon.</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Philip Hammond is a huge accident waiting to happen and we should all be very afraid. If ever there was a case of someone being promoted way beyond his pay grade it is Hammond but this is merely indicative of the paucity of talent inhabiting the Tory benches at Westminster. Even with the GlibDumbs padding out the Cabinet the Tories still cannot cobble together a front bench that comes across as anything other than confused, angry and pompous. I thought the Labour administration was limited in the last Parliament but these jokers take the biscuit.</div>
<div class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Or should that be cake?</div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-6263823934767169122014-05-06T09:32:00.000+03:002014-05-06T21:40:31.758+03:00Fear and Loathing in Tallinn<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Taking part in a debate on the implications of Scottish
independence for the British Isles last Wednesday at Tallinn University’s
International Relations Society I was struck by two things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Firstly the promised filming of the event was cancelled on
the night of the event, as there was a serving diplomat participating. She was
declared as being there on a personal basis and therefore it would be “unfair”
to record her participation. More likely it would be embarrassing to record
what in fact did ensue on behalf of the Union. But, as a tactic, salting the
battlefield BEFORE hostilities commence is classically effective! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly the main speaker for the Union ultimately didn’t
really try to win the argument on matters of independence but instead went down
the George Robertson route of calamity, although admittedly in a more coherent
manner, by suggesting that the renaissance of the nation state in a potentially
fragmenting Western Europe becoming reminiscent to the preamble to WWI was
somehow a threat to world peace and therefore playing into Vladimir Putin’s
hands in his plan for global domination. Utter tripe, but at least a better
constructed bucket of utter tripe than George Robertson’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDN_sRhtDYbO_QUvnZxUjddaOQ_3IsjRyinB_DJdgDO0XC0IWtimovTsScWDeZ-kpqONmUwlJaFguka7w9z2qWS_1oEESZq8dRcFNn1ZkUjtUH61XvrX1F1raq1C4_MQC2sRCKPMDdaWK4/s1600/676835847_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDN_sRhtDYbO_QUvnZxUjddaOQ_3IsjRyinB_DJdgDO0XC0IWtimovTsScWDeZ-kpqONmUwlJaFguka7w9z2qWS_1oEESZq8dRcFNn1ZkUjtUH61XvrX1F1raq1C4_MQC2sRCKPMDdaWK4/s1600/676835847_orig.jpg" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Scottish Independence likely to cause Europe-wide outbreak of trench warfare </h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Once our speaker had laid the fear on the room he then
played to the nationalities present and hinted that Scottish independence would
be bad for Estonia and all the other brave wee nations of Eastern Europe who
deserved their freedom as they really knew what subservience was – Scotland
after all has always enjoyed “freedom” and any claim to the contrary is paranoid
nonsense.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Then after making a great noise about the Yes campaign’s
insistence on “playing the man not the ball” by “dissing” characters in Better
Together he launched into a shouted attack on Alex Salmond and the Putin
affair. Never mind that I had predicted this as our Unionist friend writes a
blog which has recently been based around fear of Putin and I had printed the
text of the Salmond interview in readiness. Our neutral moderator ruled that an
intervention or redirect on the subject would not be permitted as I had already
made my case to the audience. Really?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Plainly and simply, our Unionist friend pandered to a young,
primarily Estonian and European ex-pat audience with images of Russian
intervention as some imagined corollary to Scottish independence. No attempt to
win the debate on the issues at the outset but only to influence the room with
lowest common denominator spreading of trepidation. Oh dear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But back to our diplomat. She was willing to “confirm” many
facts and appeal to reason in a very diplomatic way but then she denied two
undeniables – or at least one matter that’s pretty much up in the air and one
that’s utterly incontrovertible through it's unambiguous public declaration by a leading UK Cabinet minister.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The first was the case of the Itar-Tass story at the end of
December which was eventually reported widely in January, that Downing Street
had expressed serious concerns about the “shockwaves” Scottish independence
would send through Europe. Apparently it never happened according to “No” and
was just a Russian story. Although I see some vague references to the
possibility of a denial I still seek an outright and attributed disavowal from No.
10. Can anyone assist? I can’t find it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The second denied undeniable was on currency union and the
assertion that Philip Hammond’s, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">“You
can't go into any negotiation with things that are non-negotiable,” wasn’t
relevant. The Osborne-Alexander-Balls Pact was trotted out verbatim even though
I pointed out that Hammond and the other unnamed, but widely cited, cabinet minister had already supplanted
that argument. No, not relevant. Oh dear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">But never let the
facts get in the way of a good story, eh?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I shall be writing to the diplomat concerned for
clarification on the points raised as I think that we are all due clear answers
if a serving staffer of the FCO tells us that we didn’t really see what we know
we saw…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-41526442949403094112014-05-05T11:41:00.000+03:002014-05-05T11:49:38.503+03:00Cataclysmic George<div class="MsoNormal">
I was invited to make a presentation in a debate on Scottish Independence and its implications for the British Isles at Tallinn University last Wednesday evening (April 30th). I'm not going to publish my presentation in its entirety as that is a wee bit too much for one sitting but if you will permit me to I'll address some subjects over the next few days.</div>
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Here's the first bit from Tallinn.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnD9yDKv73IYyNkVCz8ZtjnDhg7SGY_0nUsOZ7Uc-lX-RtCGLMiCnYaKMzIgqfVJ_JKVy9TU6LhesImzN_-eZjQCiG7GZjIv5yfMrMCItsrSJHFu1_GJNHKL6zznv-N6_Tf82DbRUloV1P/s1600/_1672152_robertson_putin_ap_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnD9yDKv73IYyNkVCz8ZtjnDhg7SGY_0nUsOZ7Uc-lX-RtCGLMiCnYaKMzIgqfVJ_JKVy9TU6LhesImzN_-eZjQCiG7GZjIv5yfMrMCItsrSJHFu1_GJNHKL6zznv-N6_Tf82DbRUloV1P/s1600/_1672152_robertson_putin_ap_300.jpg" /></a></div>
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Let’s consider George Robertson, SecGen of
NATO from 1999 to 2004. In a remarkable speech to the Brookings Institution in
Washington DC delivered on April 8<sup>th</sup> this year he contended that:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #272727; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The loudest cheers for the
breakup of Britain would be from our adversaries and from our enemies. For the
second military power in the West to shatter this year would be cataclysmic in
geopolitical terms.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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He then goes on to talk about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forces of darkness</i> and other such abstract concepts straight out of
the playbook favoured by George W. Bush and his loyal servant, Tony Blair.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But let’s look beyond the bluster a little bit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, I’m not going to criticise the UK armed forces in
themselves as they are some of the best examples of fighting men and women and
equipment anywhere on the face of the earth and a sizeable contingent of that
is drawn from Scottish participation and industry. However I <u>am</u> going to
criticise the Ministry of Defence and with very good reason.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Which maritime "power" of the north-western European
fringe has, 1. scrapped its aircraft carriers with all attendant ability to
project air power transnationally, 2. withdrawn cover of meaningful surface
vessels to the far southern fringe of its own territory, 3. downsized its early
warning capabilities to the extent that it required warning by Twitter that a
Russian capital ship was nearing its northern approaches and 4. scrapped all
maritime reconnaissance aircraft?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Let's be clear for the sake of Lord Robertson that this is, in
fact, the UK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Now, on the other hand, which government’s white paper sets out
a defence policy that would ensure the gaps above are substantially filled with
a meaningful surface fleet such as offshore patrol vessels and frigates (page
239) plus reestablishment of an airborne maritime patrol capability (page 242)?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Again for the sake of Lord Robertson that would be the Scottish
Government's white paper "Scotland's Future."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">It strikes me, as I stand here a mere 200km from the Russian
border, that the joined up defence policy belongs to those who would propose to
patrol and defend their portion of the North Atlantic (the NA part of NATO
milord) as opposed to those who ignore a great part of their Treaty obligations
(the T in NATO to be clear) by putting cost-cutting contingencies ahead of
their obligations to their partners in the Organisation (and that's the O).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Scottish independence and subsequent enactment of the provisions
of the white paper's defence policy will clearly and actively head off the
impending cataclysm caused by the UK government's own - don't laugh! -
"strategic" defence planning. Strategic defence planning… hmmm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">The stark truth is that creaky old Britannia does NOT rule the
waves any longer and successive UK governments have shaped a defence policy
that is counter-intuitive to the needs of NATO and hopelessly inadequate for
our geographical and geopolitical realities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">In the case of that Russian capital ship, the aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov, approaching the waters of the Moray Firth the response was
to send HMS Defender to shadow the intruder. Defender was dispatched from
Portsmouth. To give this room some sense of context that is the seagoing
equivalent distance of Tallinn to Hamburg. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Tallinn to Hamburg for God’s sake! How would the good people of Estonia
feel if their maritime security would only be guaranteed by vessels which had
to sail from Hamburg to investigate any incident?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">And it’s not just naval shortcomings. As of this spring that
Central European powerhouse the Swiss army overtook the British army in the
number of battle tanks that it can field. Or more accurately the British effort
contracted due to MoD spending cuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a313d; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">September 18 will be the day that Scotland can resolve to avert
the cataclysm and not add to it.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s the same George Robertson who turned round and
argued, on April 17<sup>th</sup> with a straight face and no sense of irony
that <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the recent troubles in Ukraine
and Crimea should not be a bar against Russian membership of NATO. Russia? In
NATO? Really? I am quite prepared to bet that more than one or two people here
this evening are rather disturbed by that notion.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
As a footnote to George Robertson’s cataclysmic speech, it
was self-evident that it was couched in terms to appeal to an American audience
as well that in the UK. Exactly NONE of the mainstream US dailies reported the
story at all – New York Times, Daily News, Washington Post, New York Post, LA
Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald. None of them.<br />
<br />
Seems that the
US mass media can see right through George and the drivel he peddles.<o:p></o:p></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-38290604333845710282014-02-13T19:12:00.000+02:002014-02-13T23:07:15.379+02:00Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)<div class="MsoNormal">
Phil Lawrence, Tallinn, 13th February 2014</div>
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<br /></div>
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So it’s official. All the Queen’s horses and all the Queen’s
men have decided that Humpty Dumpty (AKA Oor Eck) should have a great fall
and unlike in the nursery rhyme they will be the perpetrators, not those
rushing to the aid of the afflicted. Gideon, Edward and Danny have closed ranks
and decided that we are not worthy of continued use of our own currency.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Giddy George delivered his message today with relish and a
self-satisfied smirk as his blood brothers from the other Unionist parties
regurgitated potted versions on his theme.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Barely had the hot air subsided when no less a figure than the
Research Director of the esteemed Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, was waxing
lyrical on the benefits of using the currency without formal agreement pointing
out that, <span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">“An independent Scotland that used the pound as its
base currency without the English government’s permission, with banks
continuing to issue notes privately and private citizens free to choose any
currency they wanted, would probably have a more stable financial system and
economy than England itself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Bowman then noted, “It’s up to Scots to
decide whether they want independence, but the Chancellor’s announcement today
should be seen as a feature, not a bug.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">What? Wow! That wasn’t in the script! Who are
these upstart Adam Smith chappies? Well they just happen to be the Libertarian
think tank that largely sculpted a great deal of Thatcherism, especially in
privatization policy, and a big chunk of Tony Blair’s populism. OK, that’s not
the best recommendation north of the border but if one thing’s for sure it’s
that the Adam Smith Institute knows what will fly and what won’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">So we should have the pound without the benefit
of policy input. It’s the same way that some Latin American countries use the US
dollar and a number of European states outside the EU have adopted the euro.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This is a good option for any country looking for short- to
medium-term stability WITHOUT having to spend in shoring up the value of the
currency. If there is a run on sterling – and there will be – then Scotland can
detach itself without drama or fanfare and then our commodity-backed currency
(Scottish Crown, Merk, Pound or whatever) will find its own par at the
inevitable higher level. Look out NOK!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I just always saw the currency union as a bit like Devo-Max –
a halfway house measure that was neither fish nor fowl. I'm not unhappy to see
it being undermined but I suspect that this may have been the idea all along...
You have to smoke out the objections as early as possible. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Along the way several major Yes policy announcements have
stunk to high heaven from my standpoint but they have been seen to be tactical
markers thrown down that Project Fear should skip around. Of course they don’t
do that and just steam right through the middle thereby proving that Bitter the
Gither is completely reactive with not one proactive notion in their combined
head. They don’t predict, they only lash out. They don’t get subtlety and can
only bludgeon. That’s ideal for Yes as they can set the agenda. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even subliminally?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider this. It is only in recent weeks that the Yes
campaign has ramped up currency union as probably the prime issue. Was this all
about timing? Was this designed to get the Unionists fixated on the Sterling
Zone and cause them to shoot their bolt? Alex Salmond is not just the best
parliamentary debater alive in the entire UK today, he is probably the
best long-term strategist as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The more I think about it the more I hear the playground
chant, “You fell for it! You fell for it!” Did Gideon et al fall for it? I’m
inclined to suggest that this may be the case.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some more smoke and mirrors I also can imagine that what
we saw today was pounced upon by the Unionists for another altogether different
purpose. I smell a rat and his name is Nigel. This is not just all about Scotland.
The Establishment is closing ranks to save their skins in England. This is
designed to appeal to Middle England as UKIP look likely to win the Euro
elections in 3 months time. It seems directed at one audience but resonates
with another. Tactically, at face value it might be regarded by some as smart.
Strategically it is a disaster.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Am I giving Oor Eck too much credit? Did the stars just
align themselves all on their own? Or was there a wee boost somewhere?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So at the end of today where do we stand? The Unionists have
probably been enticed to blink way, way, way too early with the Adam Smith
Institute – one of the leading free market research establishments on the
planet – patting Scotland on the back. Add to that the previously stated view
of the US Federal Reserve on “borrowing” a currency being that we will, “<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">consequentially have far more prudent and stable financial systems than
if they were part of a formal currency union.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #161616; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">All in all not too bad when the media
were waiting for Gideon to tap in his open goal. Hmmm, maybe cricket’s his
game. Or maybe he’s a wet bob? (That’s public school jargon for a rower, don’t
you know?)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I am inclined to believe that Eck is less Humpty Dumpty and
more Little Jack Horner – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he put in his thumb,
and pulled out a plum!</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All the cloak and dagger stuff in the past 48 hours has made
me think again and again of card-playing analogies. Here’s a few commonly used
terms and how they apply today:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
George Osborne – the Dealer (who oddly lays all his own cards
out face-up!!!)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ed Balls – the perennial Joker<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Danny Alexander – the Busted Flush<o:p></o:p></div>
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Perm any 2 from those 3 – a Low Pair<o:p></o:p></div>
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Alex Salmond – Full House<o:p></o:p></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-68992556692615202202012-06-05T13:05:00.000+03:002012-06-05T13:06:24.120+03:00Musings on the Scottish sports media<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">I've been reading a few of the legal blogs that have sprung up since the RFC affair occurred. It's disappointing to note how blasé the Scottish media are, almost in their totality, in failing to indicate or predict outcomes and eventualities on a proactive basis. Instead they prefer to be reactive when, in actual fact, there is so much information in the public domain that can be utilised to get b</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">eyond the "Green says, D&P say, Regan says" level of coverage.<br /><br />I was seemingly several days of ahead of all the media when I simply took a look at the Articles of the SFA and noted the relevant points about not reverting to courts and the various mentions of the CAS. Now, I'm not paid to keep abreast of matters legal but I'm damned sure that there are people at all the media outlets who have that in their job description. Why then is it that each twist in the legal tale is of a revelationary nature - a bomb chucked into the mix from goodness knows only where? This is just lazy journalism.<br /><br />I'll flag up another piece of lazy journalism. The much touted expulsion from the Scottish Cup sanction is almost certainly a red herring. Yes, the SFA can expel a club from the cup but, in principle, the competition needs to be underway before an expulsion can be made. Therefore to talk about this sanction in June is moot as the competition is not due to commence for several months. This was flagged in one of the blogs but has nobody else picked up on that yet? Mr. Green is very deliberately focussing all his attentions, and those of Rangers followers, on a penalty that is as valid as the transfer ban. It's not going to happen and well he knows it! But why would the media be proactive and look down that avenue?</span>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-12022664383471079142011-12-11T19:19:00.001+02:002014-02-12T13:04:11.184+02:00Euro-Verbals<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">by Phil Lawrence 11/12/2011</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px;">There have been some
wonderful quotes emanating from all angles following David Cameron’s veto of
European Treaty reform. The UK media has been fairly congratulatory but Europe
has been almost universally condemnatory.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So what’s the flavour?
From Cameron himself, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"I said before
I came to Brussels that if I couldn't get adequate safeguards for Britain in a
new European treaty, then I wouldn't agree to it. What is on offer isn't in
Britain's interests, so I didn't agree to it."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well that’s all fairly straightforward isn’t it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And the old pals across in Europe were fairly
kind in their reactions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Nikolas Sarkozy came back with, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"We would have preferred a reform of the
treaties among 27 (nations). That wasn't possible, given the position of our
British friends. And so it will be through an intergovernmental treaty of 17,
but open to others."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">José Manuel Barroso followed the same line with,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"We would have preferred, of course,
a unanimous agreement ... This was not possible, because this required
unanimity, so I think the only alternative that was left was to do it through
this kind of intergovernmental treaty."</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Angela Merkel meanwhile preferred to concentrate
on matters which DC seemed to be oblivious to, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"We have made good progress, especially with regards to the debt
brake for all states that will be part of this new treaty and more automatic
sanctions."</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KZxgqVgTef0EHA-nA4F5YsyAWcrUGEnoM51Da9cB9i0sxhVw_i-7_fvJii8Tv4i7cpzPal0cdErbkklFA8AWRwShKgm6O80XEmf3_Hmxwwx03ZhvIzVr-Bqmq7wRAlQYAeEgyih8_CNJ/s1600/schrank-discipline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KZxgqVgTef0EHA-nA4F5YsyAWcrUGEnoM51Da9cB9i0sxhVw_i-7_fvJii8Tv4i7cpzPal0cdErbkklFA8AWRwShKgm6O80XEmf3_Hmxwwx03ZhvIzVr-Bqmq7wRAlQYAeEgyih8_CNJ/s320/schrank-discipline.jpg" height="250" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela Dominatrix</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Darling David has stuck to his vaguely hypnotic
mantra that he was “protecting” the City but this seems more and more
disingenuous as every moment passes and the implications of separation from
mainstream Europe become less appetizing for the financial sector. He reminds
everyone that the EU, Frankfurt and Paris are jealous of the City but Lord
Heseltine put it all into perspective with his own succinct putdown, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"In saying he wanted to protect the
interests of the City, there is no way you can protect those interests by
floating off into the Atlantic, frankly."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m not inclined to agree with Tarzan too often
but he has nailed it here. The UK needs to be inside Europe and not on the
outside looking in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another one that I am not too inclined to agree
with – no let’s rephrase that, one that I NEVER agree with – is Douglas Alexander
with his assessment, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"The roots of
Cameron's fateful decision lie in his failure to modernise the Conservative
Party. He promised to leave the European People's Party, and ever since he has
been following his party, not leading it."</b></i> That is pot calling kettle
black as the Labour Party is the long-time master exponent of weather-vane
politics as so brilliantly championed by Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. However
Alexander has speedily cut to the nitty gritty here and what we see now is a
Conservative Party leadership being chivvied along by the Eurosceptic
backbenches. Suddenly the City is not the relevant factor and it is the MPs
stacked behind DC in the Commons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But what about other views from Europe? The
Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann is quite kind with his, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><i>"The British Government is called upon to
compromise and to represent their own country. But to simply present conditions
and to say either/or, that's a blatant contradiction to the spirit of the
European Union,"</i> </b>and that’s a pretty common thread although the level of
dissatisfaction varies quite a lot.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A less charitable tack is taken by Franco-German
MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"Cameron is
a coward,"</b> </i>whilst German CDU MEP and European People’s Party foreign
policy spokesman, Elmar Brok, led with, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"If you're
not willing to stick to the rules, you should keep your mouth shut."</b></i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Make no mistake, 26 EU members see Cameron’s
intransigence as one of the grandest betrayals in modern history. His
constituency in Europe has evaporated overnight and we can be certain that the
White House is silently fuming as they wanted the Euro issue put to bed to give
Barack Obama the chance to take centre stage as the 2012 US election campaign
cranks into action in the first week of the year. Obama’s initial summing up of
Cameron upon their first getting acquainted is sure to become common currency
before the dust settles. And for those with short memories that line was, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>“What a lightweight!”</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Back to London and
Lord Oakeshott opined that, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"He went to
Brussels with a set of impossible demands. He wasn't there to negotiate; he was
there to stage a walk-out. LibDem leaders must stop Cameron kowtowing to the
Tory right and force him back to the negotiating table."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He is backed up by
Tim Farron who chips in with, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"The idea of
this being any kind of victory for us is just madness. We have lost massively.
It was a lose-lose situation and unsurprisingly we lost, while making ourselves
isolated from our colleagues in Europe."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m not one to give the LibDems credit for
anything at the moment as they sold themselves and the country down the river
in an unashamed power grab in May 2010 but this pair are not entirely dumb. If
Nick Clegg really is as disturbed as he privately makes out that he is then
this is his moment. He can bring down the coalition by withdrawing his party’s
support immediately and calling a confidence motion in the Commons at the first opportunity.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course that is unlikely to happen as he is far too
comfortable with his feet wedged firmly under the Cabinet table at No. 10 but maybe Nick might grow a bit of backbone. Who knows?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyway back to the
words that matter and Foreign Secretary William Hague assures everyone that, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"We're not separating ourselves from the European
Union."</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well it does not look like that from the
continent. Cohn-Bendit insists, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"Now
we must put pressure on the British and force them, by implementing tough
regulations on financial markets, to decide if they want out of the EU or if
they want to stay inside,"</b></i> and EPP vice-chairman, Manfred Weber, helpfully adds, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>"You can't be a little bit pregnant,"</b></i>
which nicely sums things up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So what of the
implications of this in the sphere of Scottish politics and the debate on
independence? In The Independent Jane Merrick points out, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>“</b></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>Some believe that
Cameron's isolation in Europe could make it even easier for Scotland's First
Minister, Alex Salmond, and the Scottish Nationalist Party to secure
independence – and eventually, perhaps, to join the euro.”</b></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> She then quotes a ‘senior’
LibDem as saying the following<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, <b>"So
Scotland walks away and joins the euro and leaves the Little Englanders having
finally got their Little England. The Little Englanders think we will be like
Switzerland, but with nuclear weapons. Actually, we'll be like Norway, but
without the oil."</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An Upper Volta with
rockets for our generation! Classic! Who said the LibDems have no sense of
humour?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-83845641003220897422011-12-09T20:01:00.000+02:002014-02-12T13:18:19.612+02:00Going Green? It's a Gas - Hydrogen That Is<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">by Phil Lawrence 09/12/2011</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">The commitment to green energy on the part of the SNP
and its leader, Alex Salmond, is a commendable line in the sand drawn as a bold
and progressive policy. The target of generating 100% of Scotland’s energy
needs from renewable sources by 2020 is an unprecedented ambition. But is it a
realistic aim? And will the benefits really be there when virtually every
commentator pours scorn on the vision of the nationalists?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Scotland has oil and gas aplenty so why in the name of
all that is sacred would we need to look to a mega-industrial scale version of
the life pursued by Tom and Barbara Good in their Surbiton semi? Why indeed. As
the informed gentlemen of the press continually tell us the oil and gas will be
gone in 10/20/100 (delete as appropriate) years so there is no point in basing
an economy on depleting resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Well OK, that sounds reasonable but how about if we
use those depleting resources hand-in-hand with resources that are sustainable
and renewable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Hold on a minute, that’s not in the script! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">And how about if at the same time we lessen our
reliance on the depleting resources so that the likelihood is that they will
last even longer than anticipated?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Now that’s just plain cheating!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Yes, we are a right bunch of cheats aren’t we?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">The long and the short of it is that Scotland has a
rather unique position in Europe in that we are jutting out into the North
Atlantic at the mercy of the wind and the tides but these two massive forces of
nature are destined to become our very best friends. By reasons of geography
and connectivity we are best positioned to exploit the potential of these
gifts. The technology to best harness the wind and the tides is improving month
by month and subsidiary technologies are developing hand in hand with
this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">As one example there is a green brains trust tucked
away in Luxembourg working on various renewable options but their particular
Scottish option is a giant battery. This is something on the scale of a 20ft
container attached to a small wind turbine. The turbine generates electricity
when there is adequate wind and keeps the battery charged. When the wind goes
down the battery takes over and provides mains power until such a time as the
wind rises again. This scheme is designed as a replacement for diesel
generators for our islands so that small communities can become energy
self-sufficient. Can you imagine it? Batteries that can belt out mains
electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Take a look to Methil and we have the Hydrogen Office.
This test-bed demonstrates that wind power can look after the generation of
electricity and excess capacity can be used to hydrolyse water to create
hydrogen gas. This stored hydrogen can then be burned in a heating system or
syphoned off and used to power vehicles. The beauty of hydrogen of course is
that when it is burned with oxygen the sole byproduct is water. Pure simple
water. From water to water with all the power in between.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">When we gaze to the hillsides north of Dunblane as we
drive up the A9 and see the turbines stacked on the slopes as wind-farms we
only imagine the electrical power that they can send into the grid but we do
not contemplate what else they might be doing. Hydrogen farms? Why not? We
certainly have no shortage of water on those hills! Hydrogen farming might not
be as daft an idea as it sounds if we consider the common objection to
wind-farms that electrical transmission efficiency is not always suitable from
the more inaccessible locations in which they are located. Gas storage and
pipeline technology have their own limitations but not when it comes to moving
the product to a convenient distribution point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Fuel cells continue to be prohibitively expensive and
this seems to be a non-starter in the motor vehicle stakes in any short- to
medium-term solution so this use for hydrogen is very limited. However burning
hydrogen in a modified orthodox internal combustion engine remains a clean and
efficient propulsion method. A “grid” of hydrogen stations across Scotland, fed
by local wind-farms, could offer an alternative to short-range rechargeable
vehicles with hydrogen-powered cars capable of traversing conventional motoring
distances without the need for an interim charge or a switch to petrol power to
complete the journey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">This connectability of a network of a renewable
resource is a quantum leap from the analogical thinking of hydrogen as a
difficult to handle fuel. Yes, granted, that can be the case if hydrogen has to
be delivered by tanker to point of sale but if production is localised then
this major objection can be overcome to a very great degree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">I have to unveil my true colours here. I am no
crusading super-green in any way shape or form. In fact in questionnaires I
tend to test as the polar opposite of that model of the modern 21st century
clean citizen. On the other hand I, like the vast majority of us, am feeling
the bite in terms of fuel bills and I am left slack-jawed by the impunity with
which consecutive UK governments lie to us about the true level of inflation.
For me renewable energy is an opportunity to bring down costs to more
manageable levels for the average punter at home in Buckie, Ballachulish or
Baillieston. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2rtEXJ5gRMozJR31-8ernQGbXZXMV4VL_LsXnlAd-9PF8CpQ-CH7J-4Iyo1x-PPeebmPzkBDOYtsLZuG0Kp_UzaWauJv_oje1SfrRkgh3FmJ1bBo1vNg72CzmN7e7vx8RfP7_L61PXex/s1600/j-edward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2rtEXJ5gRMozJR31-8ernQGbXZXMV4VL_LsXnlAd-9PF8CpQ-CH7J-4Iyo1x-PPeebmPzkBDOYtsLZuG0Kp_UzaWauJv_oje1SfrRkgh3FmJ1bBo1vNg72CzmN7e7vx8RfP7_L61PXex/s320/j-edward.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0000f6;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">A novelty double act</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">We are currently being wrung dry by Westminster and
the plain truth is that the tipping point where tax income starts to drop due
to fuel prices reaching a level where consumers will no longer buy with gay
abandon has passed. Already gross fuel duty income to the Treasury has started
to drop because fuel buyers simply cannot afford to buy the same amount of
petrol or diesel that they once could. This is a unidirectional trend as we
have been induced to be prudent and we will not be heading back towards profligacy
anytime soon. The answer from Osborne and Alexander — a veritable fiscal
Jedward — is to only promise to slow the inexorable fuel duty rise and even
this can only be accomplished as they have made a tax grab at source on the oil
producers in the North Sea and the East Shetland Basin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Whether or not the people of Scotland choose to
separate from the UK at the upcoming referendum we need to consider the
long-term fix right now. We need to explore all avenues to make the 100% goal
by 2020 a realisable target. Nae-sayers in the mainstream media bombard us with
headlines stating the implausibility of the renewables target but the arguments
are almost universally thin and rarely if ever coherently constructed: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">We can’t achieve a 50% target in renewables let alone
100%.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;"> Why not? <i>Because.</i>
But really, why not? <i>Because I said so.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">That is truly the sole scientific legitimacy of some
of the stuff that is printed in our national newspapers. It’s like a game of
“he said, she said” but unfortunately there is no robust player in our media
willing to counter this disinformative claptrap. The smear campaign being
insidiously leaked into the national consciousness is that green is loony, the
SNP is green, ergo the SNP is loony. If you do not buy that then take a look at
recent archives of The Scotsman and there is quite a head of steam being built
up in that direction — unattainable targets, untested technology,
unrealistic results and all with a political slant. It’s as if having an open
mind to renewable energy in Scotland is tantamount to tearing the Union
asunder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">This slander must be addressed in a robust manner and
a joined-up renewables strategy has to be presented to the people of this land
to underline that pervasive fuel poverty is not an inevitability but merely the
side-effect of an imposed Westminster policy which might as well have been
dreamt up by Jedward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">We have the power to decide
our own destiny in the palms of our hands or more accurately we will have it
through the nib of a pen in a few short years time but now is the time to act,
to coherently compose an energy roadmap which can only enhance the simple
buried truths of McCrone and give us confidence to declare that we are big
enough, we are clever enough and we have simply had enough!</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-29870409836467450102011-12-04T12:01:00.001+02:002011-12-09T20:04:21.176+02:00Taxing Times<div style="font: 17.0px Cochin; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Friday's Scotsman includes a remarkably blinkered critique of the Scotland Bill and Holyrood’s opposition to the lack of tax-raising powers incorporated therein with particular emphasis to Corporation Tax by Graham Gudgin. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/cartoon/graham_gudgin_taxing_issue_of_a_bill_for_scotland_1_1990141"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.scotsman.com/news/cartoon/graham_gudgin_taxing_issue_of_a_bill_for_scotland_1_1990141</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr. Gudgin is certainly something of an expert in Stormont affairs and is held in some high regard for that but his assertions that what is good for Northern Ireland will be detrimental for Scotland are based on some rather tenuous premises that do not stand up to anything like close scrutiny and finally fall into the category of Unionism for its own sake. That may be all well and good working on an agenda pushed by Peter Robinson and the DUP but that is nothing like the same dynamic that drives the SNP’s desire for fiscal powers.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He takes the view that for every 1% cut in the rate there would be a loss of 2,000 public sector jobs. He also takes the view that this reduction would create new private sector jobs at a net rate of 500 per year per 1% but doubts where the funding income gap might be closed in the “long run” with no vision as to what that term really means but the implicit threat that the public sector jobs would go very quickly indeed. His further assertion that new jobs would be created “mainly in new non-Scottish companies” misses the entire point of the argument for a reduced Corporation Tax rate — the entire proposal is intended to attract business into Scotland as well as easing the burden on existing companies. He deliberately couches the upside in woolly uncertainties whilst emphatically delineating the downside in explicit certainties.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Subjective stuff if ever there was. There's more than one way to skin a cat and surely Dr Gudgin knows that. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are varying degrees of what a tax rate can mean in terms of how profits are treated. Taking a straight cut off the top of all profit is the accepted way of doing things in this country and it seems that no other formula is worthy of discussion. However there are practical examples in Europe of subtle adjustments which are fundamentally pro-business and offer different opportunities. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For instance holding companies can be permitted to be the vessels for intellectual property as long as they do not engage in commercial activity — the company holds copyright, trademark etc on behalf of commercial companies and as it is not commercially active it pays no tax. There is no coincidence here that so much copyright is lodged in Luxembourg where this is very big business indeed. So that is a scenario where a specific type of company benefits from an exemption. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Estonian government introduced a 0% Corporate Tax rate over a decade ago. This sounds like madness at first hearing but the reality is a 0% rate on undistributed profit. If profit is kept in the business or, even better, reinvested then the rate is 0%. If the profit is distributed as dividend, bonus or whatever then it becomes liable for taxation at regular state rates which are set on an unambiguous flat tariff. When the tax regime was introduced the nae-sayers were flabbergasted that the Corporate Tax take went UP in the first year compared to the previous system. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Wall Street Journal hailed the bravery and farsightedness of the Estonian government in having the guts to do something that almost every "expert" said could not work. There has been virtually no talk in the intervening years of changing the 0% system as it has attracted foreign investors and created jobs. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Scottish Corporation Tax based on a similar model to that of Estonia — I say similar not identical — would mark out this land as being open for business and pragmatic enough to realise that industry needs to be encouraged to grow, not flogged to death by punitive taxation. Ally that model with an enticement to lodge intellectual property in Scotland through a specific new type of holding company and all of a sudden we are firmly in the game. Maybe not quite an entrepôt but certainly a modern pro-business jurisdiction.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dr. Gudgin’s belief that new jobs will be “mainly in new non-Scottish companies” is a complete red herring as Scotland is already a cosmopolitan modern community with transnational employers well established for decades and cherished by all players in the political spectrum.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If we are to be led to believe that foreigners coming into Scotland to create jobs for Scottish workers is suddenly a bad thing then, quite frankly, the Unionist arguments have just plumbed new depths of contempt by trying to legitimise this economic pseudo-science.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.hypersmash.com/dreamhost/" id="GA785">dreamhost coupons</a>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-78762317965607056362011-10-16T14:44:00.001+03:002011-12-05T17:48:08.004+02:00Let them eat cake!<div class="p1">
In a remarkable twist of fate Philip Hammond as Transport Secretary had his “Marie-Antoinette moment” almost completely ignored by the mass media and before you can catch breath he is promoted to Defence Secretary. Outstanding luck for another of the Tory grey men.</div>
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As reported by Auto Express Hammond was speaking at the launch of a privately funded network of electric charge points and said, “You can’t force people out of their cars or place drivers on the naughty step, as our predecessors did.”</div>
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I’ll let the motoring mag take up the story here: When Auto Express suggested prohibitive fuel prices appeared to be doing exactly that, he shirked responsibility and instead blamed oil suppliers: “The increase in fuel prices is a function of global oil prices, it’s not driven by policy.”</div>
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Motorists currently pay 80 pence in tax for every litre of petrol they buy, according to the AA, meaning almost 60 per cent of your fuel bill goes straight to the Treasury.</div>
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When Auto Express asked Hammond what the Government intended to do to help reduce fuel prices, he suggested that motorists switch to electric cars. “People should look to new technologies. Electric cars are very cheap to run and allow motorists to drive guilt free.”</div>
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Let them eat cake, eh?</div>
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What next? Replace the army with ICBMs? They are very cheap to run compared to several divisions of infantry, cavalry and armour after all and will allow us to defend ourselves guilt free. How about embracing defence as part of the Big Society. Armed militias raised on a county by county basis. Oh, hold on a moment, that was where the old model started and that went wrong according to the bean counters. Local regiments so that the provinces actually feel that defence is inclusive and relevant to them? Nah, not this time.</div>
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Or even better, the UK government can contract out defence entirely. Give the contract to the highest bidder. Hammond can complete the work of Dr. Fox by handing the keys of the MOD to the Pentagon.</div>
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Philip Hammond is a huge accident waiting to happen and we should all be very afraid. If ever there was a case of someone being promoted way beyond his pay grade it is Hammond but this is merely indicative of the paucity of talent inhabiting the Tory benches at Westminster. Even with the GlibDumbs padding out the Cabinet the Tories still cannot cobble together a front bench that comes across as anything other than confused, angry and pompous. I thought the Labour administration was limited in the last Parliament but these jokers take the biscuit. </div>
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Or should that be cake?</div>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-30539436992627948722011-10-16T12:39:00.001+03:002011-10-19T18:37:23.984+03:00Coalition ministers to flood Scotland in SNP attack? Bring it on!<div class="p1">
The SNP government is developing a Scandinavian style society where those less able are offered certain social guarantees - healthcare, education, transport, housing etc. Danish sociologist Gøsta Esping-Andersen notes that this particular adaptation of the mixed market economy is characterised by universalist welfare states (relative to other developed countries), which are aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy, ensuring the universal provision of basic human rights and stabilising the economy. It is distinguished from other welfare states with similar goals by its emphasis on maximising labour force participation, promoting gender equality, egalitarian and extensive benefit levels, large magnitude of redistribution, and liberal use of expansionary fiscal policy. All commendable aims and all a very decent fit for modern Scotland.<br />
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The Tories are looking across the Atlantic to an American GOP model where it is, to a very great measure, sink or swim depending on the strength of your bank account. The so-called Big Society is nothing more than a cloak behind which to hide sustained cuts. The big difference in this case is that whilst the Republicans crave small government with laissez-faire policies, the Tories crave big government with micro-managed cuts. This just does not work as economic impetus is stripped from the national machine.<br />
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The LibDems have lost the right to comment on anything of relevance as they have turned their back on everything they claimed to stand for in a cheap grab for a share of power. Alistair Carmichael's "bring it on" reference demonstrates that the LibDems are out of ideas altogether and have to quote recently forgotten Labour failures.<br />
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And Labour itself is a rabble scraping around for any straw at which to clutch. They forced the UK economy headfirst into the ground and now have the effrontery to question the SNP's fiscal policies. <br />
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The SNP ship is sailing along a rocky shore but that is all that it can do just now what with the constraints of funding imposed by an entirely unsympathetic Whitehall which is desperate that the good ship Holyrood should founder. That John Swinney can somehow balance the budget and sustain some form of growth is remarkable in itself and well beyond the comprehension of Geordie and Danny, the Treasury Twits.<br />
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But the real "bring it on" for my money is that these posturing, preening non-entities such as Carmichael really believe that they have anything valid to say about the future of Scotland. Let them come and let them preach - the more often the better I say. Let the people of our nation see on a repeated and regular basis that the coalition in London is completely out of touch with 21st century Scotland.<br />
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Scotland does indeed have two governments - one looks out for this nation's interests and one looks out for the interests of London. But let both governments state their case to the people of Scotland and then we'll see who is smiling.<br />
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Now that's "Bring it on!"</div>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-85399851478013746172011-05-09T14:00:00.004+03:002014-02-12T18:39:19.167+02:00We Don't Need No Education - Oh Yes We Do!<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:JA;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:JA;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style> <br />
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For many, if not most, politicians and political commentators south of the border Scotland has been more likely to feature as a source of annoyance than anything else. The most prevalent opinion has been that the Scots are at worst a bunch of scroungers or at best simply ungrateful for the largesse of the Union generally and England specifically. Now that Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party have delivered the election result of a generation on our side of the border the chattering classes in the south seem to have woken up to the ideal way to put the kybosh on this whole referendum on independence thingummy — force that referendum as early as possible. </div>
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That sounds eminently sensible from the point of view of anyone determined to preserve the Union. The easiest way to torpedo an independence vote would be to prevent the Yes campaign from building any momentum by getting the plebiscite over and done with in the shortest timeframe possible.</div>
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Alex Salmond is acutely aware that we Scots need a bit of education on what our status is in the Union and what our status would be if we would go our own way. He is aware that we need education as to the benefits of freedom of choice in setting our own policy goals in an international context. He is aware that we need education as to the true potential of our industry and resources to be able to raise funds for the nation through taxation. He is aware that we need education in the opportunities afforded to small nations in the modern world. </div>
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However Alex dare not use this “E” word as that might very well come across as condescending. And if there is one thing we Scots cannot abide it is condescension!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead he must lead us down a path where we witness by the evidence of our own eyes and ears the possibilities and certainties that many Scots cannot yet even imagine.</div>
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So why is education such a key aspect? Well firstly those very opinions of what Scots are permeating from England about us all being ungrateful scroungers may be dismissed with one hand but if this type of propaganda is repeated often enough it can leave a stain or even a scar on the psyche in terms of how we view ourselves. Secondly, this is reinforced by our local Unionist politicians telling us how essential it is to preserve the Union as we wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of lasting five minutes out there. Anyway, where would we go? The EU wouldn’t want us and nobody would want to bail us out when we fall flat on our faces. These slurs against the competence and self-respect of our very being need to be addressed, dissected and put to bed once and for all to be replaced by new positive reinforcements of who we are and what we are capable of.</div>
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Let’s look at the different aspects of our education in understanding ourselves. We need to be clear, regarding our status, that the vast majority of the population of the Union treats us as second-class citizens. The English are not intrinsically a bad bunch and I think that we all know that. However they are finding a nascent sense of Englishness with the Cross of St George and all that. They look at us with some sense of indulgence as one would for an errant young nephew who really just will not learn. As long as the SNP were in a minority at Holyrood this was all well and good. Now, all of a sudden, this errant young nephew has been left a rather large inheritance and everyone in the family wants to tell him how to invest it or, even better, become his trustee until he is old enough to understand how to spend it wisely. Let’s make no mistake here; we are nobody’s nephew. We are full partners in a Treaty of Union which is as valid today as it was 304 years when it was formalised. Under international law the treaty is a live instrument and the partners are at liberty to revise it as and when they see fit. We are not locked into this Union and we are at liberty to challenge our status without a trustee or guardian insisting upon our conduct.</div>
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Scotland is currently little more than a bit-part player in the world of international affairs. For better or for worse we are characterised as that bunch who let the Libyan bomber go free. How that affair is read depends upon where you are rooted. Hawks might say that we are a soft-touch whilst those with a more all-embracing nature might say that we are compassionate. Quite frankly this is an irrelevance. We are being judged on something that was decided from a point of law. There was no pay-off, there was no dividend, there was no back-scratching done. But as the government in Westminster was less than willing to be frank or in any way clear on the matter we had to stride the international stage as a government with no Foreign Ministry. Westminster made no attempt to assist in that and it was a perfect opportunity for London Labour to try to leave Edinburgh high and dry. </div>
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That we were able to get any message across at all was remarkable in itself. The SNP has a highly professional team of front bench talent in Holyrood and as we saw accusing fingers pointed at Kenny Macaskill and Alex Salmond from the hawks in the US and from within the Union a valiant and tidy rear-guard action was fought. Some were convinced that this issue might come back to bite the SNP in the 2011 poll but the results of last week are proof that this has become a non-issue for most Scots. Nonetheless we need to see for ourselves how the impressions and misrepresentations of others can affect our international persona. Our ability to present ourselves on the international stage is not helped by the status quo at Westminster but we need to demonstrate this for all to see on the domestic front.</div>
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We Scots have been some of the greatest innovators in science and commerce in the history of the modern world. This goes back to one key issue — education. We were the first country to offer universal education to everyone regardless of class or position. This great advantage was readily seized upon by the British Empire in its time as we were the most numerate society of the age, so the fact that the administrators and managers in the colonies were predominantly Scots was no coincidence. When the Industrial Revolution came along Scotland, as well as supplying many of the ideas and processes, embraced the new age with vigour and foresight. The great industries of the Central Belt were forged from Scottish iron and steel smelted on Scottish coal. Times have changed since the great days of the Industrial Revolution and the heavy industries have died or declined to a vestigial level compared to their pomp. But we tend to forget that New Lanark is still in the essential travel guide for Japanese tourist coming to the UK. We may have forgotten a great deal of our industrial background but they want to come and see where it all started from their point of view in the crucible of sustainable, compassionate industry. </div>
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But what of our current industry? Some would scoff about whisky, picture postcards and shortbread but let’s not get sidetracked. The whisky industry as it stands today is a massive contributor to the Exchequer. The taxes, duty and excise raised by Scotch whisky are the envy of many countries in Europe. This is a massive shot in the arm to Scotland’s input to London’s tax pot. Or is it? Well actually no, generally it is London itself that inputs the whisky numbers as the companies that own the distilleries are registered in London so therefore it is English whisky funds. </div>
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Oh well never mind, the oil and gas sector contributes billions and that does certainly come from Scotland doesn’t it? Well no, actually it doesn’t. The energy sector is also mostly London based. For all the endeavour that goes on in the North Sea and for all the roles that Aberdeen, Peterhead and Shetland play it is once more London’s input. </div>
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So that’s two of the major industries in the UK economy almost exclusively operating in Scotland but with their financial returns reflected as English. No wonder we would feel inadequate if we imagined that the best of our industries were being tallied in the big bean count as our own but we still came out so poorly. We need this financial obfuscation to be cleared up and complete transparency to reign.</div>
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“But Scotland is too wee and too poor to survive on its own.” If I had a pound for every time I have heard that in my lifetime I would be very well off thank you very much indeed. This is a lie peddled by those who have no coherent argument beyond the nonsense they are fed by the Unionists. For the past 18 years I have lived in Tallinn, Estonia which is a country of less than 1.5 million inhabitants. Now if that’s not a country that was too wee and poor to go it alone then I do not know what is. When I first visited Estonia in December 1992 I found a tatty little country lacking for most of the things that we take for granted but the one thing in no short supply was self-respect. The country had only shaken of Soviet rule 16 months earlier and was finding its way but the people were optimistic. The undercurrent of enthusiasm and the can-do attitude of people I met prompted me to settle in Tallinn for a short spell in March 1993 but that short spell has now become, as I say, 18 years. I am not going to try to convince anyone that Estonia is some kind of heaven on earth but what I will say in the clearest terms is that when I settled in Tallinn there were so many things that we simply accept as part and parcel of modern living that were unavailable. I recall having a dinner party in 1993 and I ended up having to visit eight different food shops before I had all the ingredients for a relatively simple menu. When I put fuel into my car I always had a nagging fear that there might be dirt in the petrol which could block the fuel system — it happened to me more than once and it happened to others frequently but we learned which pumps to avoid. These are two simple aspects of everyday living that we take for granted in that one will find food in the shops and one will be able to use the fuel that one buys without fear of breakdown. These are only exceedingly minor issues but this is just an illustration of what the population of Tallinn and other cities, towns and villages of Estonia had to put up with on a day-to-day basis for some considerable time. </div>
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But it wasn’t just Estonia. It was Latvia and Lithuania as well. It was Slovenia. It was Slovakia. These are all now full members of the EU and three of them are in the Eurozone as well. These countries had none of our advantages and yet they have all claimed their place in the New Europe with enthusiasm and pride. And lest we forget Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and the Czech Republic. All of these far less fortunate than Scotland but none too wee or too poor. OK, not all of these are perfect societies yet but they have chosen to be apart from something else that was no longer fit for purpose and to invest their effort in being what is their essence.</div>
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For us Scots to take on-board all of the above overnight is nigh on impossible. We need time to catch our breath and to make some form of understanding of what we have achieved so far and what that means for our future. This is where the education process starts. We need to know who we are, what we are, what we have as our right, where we are going, who we are going with and who we are going to meet. We need to know why we are going there and what we will receive in return. We need to know how we are going to get there. The question of when we can go needs to be carefully weighed up against all these whats, whys, wheres, whos and hows. At the juncture that we can understand the reasons then we will know when. That is the education that we need.</div>
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It is completely disingenuous for the supporters of the Union to insist that a referendum must be held at the very earliest moment. Did David Cameron put every campaign pledge into action in the first 90 days of his Prime Ministership? Of course not. Will Labour action every policy in Wales immediately? Don’t be daft. </div>
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Alex Salmond and the SNP clearly stated again and again ad infitum that the referendum would be called in the second half of the new Parliament. The pledge was clear and unambiguous.</div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SAfont-family:"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I have confidence in Alex Salmond and the SNP; I know where we are going. I feel it is my duty to share with as many others as possible in finding that same route so that we might all know exactly why we are on it. And I am so looking forward to the thrill of the journey. A one-way family ticket please.</span>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-72090113056426791112011-03-01T16:35:00.003+02:002011-03-07T23:55:59.520+02:00Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width<p>The media coverage of the popular revolts in the Middle East has been pretty in-depth up to now with all the major news outlets covering every aspect of the unravelling political landscape. Or have they?</p><p>I would contend that far from analysing the breaking stories they have instead favoured an approach akin to sports commentary where the correspondents report what they see with little thought given to analysis. The main culprits here have been TV and radio with some of the more serious newspapers taking a slightly more academic approach to their examination of the events.</p><p><img style="float: right;" title="NewImage.png" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_FVIDTInaFms/TW5IB_LNL9I/AAAAAAAAAIE/EulGb_fJOHY/NewImage.png?imgmax=800" alt="NewImage" border="0" height="171" width="304" /></p><p>Having been in the UK for much of the time I have been subjected to observing things through the prism of BBC News and Sky News with the occasional referral to CNN, Al-Jazeera and Russia Today among other sources. As for radio I have listened mostly to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service.</p><p>Let's deal with the TV stations first and in reverse order. The first order of business is to be clear that Russia Today is not a news channel. It is a mouthpiece for sources close to the Kremlin to further Russian interests by points-scoring from any and every adversary. On one bulletin last week whilst highlighting the suppression of anti-government protesters in Libya the rolling ticker at the bottom of the screen was delivering the single message that the security services were using British made crowd control "machines" on the streets. This intrigued me until I eventually twigged that they were really talking about "vehicles" and obviously the copy had been translated directly from Russian language in which the word машина (mashyina) is commonly used. Anyway it was interesting to note how the Russians were spotlighting the possible lineage of the police vehicles but there was no mention of the MiG, Sukhoi and Mil aircraft raining death from the skies which all coincidentally share a common origin. Russia. Go figure.</p><p>Al-Jazeera was quite interesting as they have a rather no-holds-barred approach to their reporting. They tell it like it is, warts and all, but do tend to get a little ahead of themselves in reporting speculation and rumour with little or no verification. Having said that the quality of studio expert has been excellent with plenty of texture and context added to unfolding events. I would have watched more of Al-Jazeera but they do tend to focus on single events for a bit too long to the extent that if you are looking for a rolling news update you can sometimes be disappointed.</p><p>CNN has huffed and puffed and made out that its coverage is serious and highbrow but once we get beneath the skin we have a fairly safe and uncontentious package to deal with. In its defence CNN is pretty unlikely to announce a story until it is double-, treble-, quadruple-, and quintuple-checked. This is commendable in many ways but it also means that CNN is most often the network which is last out with the story.</p><p>Sky News has come a long, long way since it started out but it is still the TV equivalent of The Sun newspaper. It's all about headlines and dramatic statements but once you get beyond that the content is flabby and superficial with a general lack of journalistic talent and a total lack of meaningful analysis. The studio experts are maybe experts at being studio experts but they add very little to the understanding of what has been unfolding.</p><p><img style="float: right;" title="NewImage.png" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_FVIDTInaFms/TW5I2z5ZOMI/AAAAAAAAAII/4Ps8PEgm2Gw/NewImage.png?imgmax=800" alt="NewImage" border="0" height="171" width="304" /></p><p>BBC News has thrown an inordinate amount of journalistic power at the Middle East in the last weeks to such an extent that there have been complaints of overkill by some licence-fee payers. It was noted by one complainant that near the end of the demonstrations in Egypt there were no less than 14 TV and radio correspondents representing the BBC in that country at the same time. I would hold that this is no bad thing as, until the Libyan uprisings started, the anti-Mubarak phenomenon was certainly the biggest story of the year and if a news network does not have a duty to report the news comprehensively then what duty does it really have?</p><p>The BBC coverage has been light years ahead of CNN and Sky and whilst Al-Jazeera has made a good effort I must come down in favour of Auntie Beeb. As mentioned before Russia Today is not a news channel so it does not deserve a rating here at all.</p><p>But where all the networks have missed the boat is in the almost complete absence of contextualisation and analysis in the wider sense. There has been an almost complete lack of understanding of the role of Pan-Arabism and the assertion therein that the Arabs are one nation from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.</p><p>The previous existence or attempts to exist of the United Arab Republic, the United Arab States, the Federation of Arab Republics, the Arab Islamic Republic and the United States of North Africa demonstrates a complete and utter lack of understanding of the historical common thread that runs through the Arab world. That so many attempts have been made or mooted to unite Arab states is a clear indication that there is a lot more to the idea of Pan-Arabism than merely the hangover from Nasser's years in Egypt. Virtually every country in the Arab world has been involved in one or more of these schemes and it has been more the chauvinistic attitude of individual ruling cliques that has caused the lack of any success in this direction as opposed to any will of the people.</p><p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="NewImage.png" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_FVIDTInaFms/TW5JgwdCedI/AAAAAAAAAIM/bz5UBAfoiM4/NewImage.png?imgmax=800" alt="NewImage" border="0" height="306" width="600" /> Leaders such as the late Hafez al-Assad of Syria embraced Pan-Arabism but profoundly on their own terms. The list of pragmatic Pan-Arabists is almost endless but chauvinism under the guise of protecting national interests always rules the day — or at least it has up till now. These events in the Middle East have been prompted and undertaken by the underclass in society to whom Pan-Arabism is a far more important component than it was to their erstwhile rulers. The Arab League has been one more international talk shop up to this point but that may change if we see some real people power in the region.</p><p>And what of the Ba'athists? It is as if they do not exist anymore. But they do. The regime in Syria which has ruled under Emergency Law since 1963 is led by "the leading party of society and state" — the Ba'ath Party. There are Ba'athists sprinkled throughout the region in different guises and strengths. I am not suggesting that this is a renaissance period for the Ba'athists (that would be ironic as "renaissance" is what Ba'ath means!) but they should be considered from the point of view of analysts, even if to be dismissed. But some would say that today's Ba'athists are those best prepared to benefit from mayhem in the Arab world and much more so than Islamic extremists who have been caught entirely on the hop.</p><p>This is the stuff that the news networks should be researching and telling the viewing and listening public about. It is not at all as sexy as Ashley Cole shooting someone with an air rifle or who wore what at the Oscars ceremony but<br />could certainly have much more of an impact on all of our lives in the coming weeks, months and years as the <img style="float: right; border: 0px initial initial;" title="NewImage.png" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_FVIDTInaFms/TW5KpKuHuRI/AAAAAAAAAIY/QMsILa1k4Qs/NewImage.png?imgmax=800" alt="NewImage" border="0" height="127" width="226" /> oil price heads inexorably upwards with each new piece of uncontextualised drama reaching the airwaves from the Middle East.</p><p>We surely deserve better in what we are fed as news by the networks out there and in the UK we are not too badly off compared to some countries believe you me, but evidently in the words of the two tailors of 60s-70s sitcom fame, we should "never mind the quality, feel the width!"</p>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-74913815965509485332010-11-18T14:39:00.000+02:002010-11-18T18:42:17.661+02:0021st Century Russia 1.0.1I have been asked for my own perspectives about what I blogged on last time regarding Russia and the Russians. What follows is my own reading of the situation but it is based generally on first-hand experience with as little anecdotal input as possible.<br /><br />In my own experience I think that there is something to be said for the concept that Russians are rather lost in the modern world. Russia has bossed an empire unquestioningly from the Kremlin for hundreds of years and it has been the norm to impose Russian values and culture on other nations.<br /><br />Now the boot is on the other foot somewhat with Western, particularly American, values imposed on Russia as part and parcel of the process of democratization. The Soviet population saw the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Party itself by extension as a simple continuation of a culture of blind obedience which originated with the concept of the "God Tsar" as an infallible guiding eminence in every facet of daily life.<br /><br />Suddenly in 1991 the peoples of the former empire were forced to think for themselves. In most of the European non-Russian republics of the USSR the people had been thinking for themselves for many a year and had never bought into the Russian fantasies so the possibility to regain independence was a welcome salvation and deliverance from a tyrannical occupier. But for the Russians themselves there was a massive cultural vacuum to be filled.<br /><br />The idea of the free market was an alien concept but in principle it sounded easy so many average Russians gave it a go. Within a short time there were many sole-traders all over Russia and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) with tables or rudimentary kiosks set up at garden gates and on street corners selling goodness knows what. These budding <span style="font-style: italic;">byiznyesmyen</span> and women were shocked to find that the general population were not particularly interested to buy their wares and were in fact not beating a path to their doors.<br /><br />What they had failed to grasp was that there is no point in selling off all your old bits and pieces to a market which already owns those very same bits and pieces, usually from the very same source by the same manufacturer - the Soviet model saw supply as being of moderate importance, NOT variety. These small traders were completely disappointed by this turn of events as they had not picked up on the idea that the market craves uniqueness. They themselves aspired to earn money to buy nice things but they could not comprehend that every other individual shared the same aspiration and was equally at a loss to fulfil that ambition.<br /><br />It was the few as opposed to the many who saw what was required and made contacts in the West to bring cheap goods to the East that would make a quick profit for the speculator ready to take the risk. From the other side some Western businessmen saw the potential in the East and moved rapidly to fill the gap or even perceived gap.<br /><br />I met many a sharp operator from Western Europe in the bars of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius in the early 90s - these were chaotic and certainly interesting times. What do the citizens of the new countries of Eastern Europe need urgently? Why, it has to be casinos and Spanish time-share. I kid you not! Guys from London and Edinburgh and Leeds who saw the main chance and jumped in with both feet, took the money and skipped off at great speed to the next location in Montenegro or Romania or Albania or somewhere equally naïve and ready for the BS. This was the story from the Baltic Sea to Valdivostok.<br /><br />Then there was the influx of exiled nationals who came back to their homelands. This was repeated all over the FSU but the general outcome was that the exile was only too willing to come back to the land of his birthright because he or she was not especially competent at home but his new kinsfolk would probably take some time to work that out. This especially reminded me of the old acronym as taught to me by a former member of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force who was fulfilling a valuable role for a shipping line. FILTH - <span style="font-style: italic;">Failed In London Try Hongkong</span>!<br /><br />This was a huge phenomenon and I saw it unravel in Estonia particularly to such an extent that ex-pat Canadian-Estonians were virtually universally shunned as dangerous dilettantes who would be guaranteed to screw things up! But this happened all across the FSU as foreign "experts" craved to give their input. The dividend of this today is that the locals who were "educated" by these fools are now equally dumb and mistaken in their beliefs so the dilettantish culture still pervades.<br /><br />But enough of the FILTH and charlatans and onwards with locals.<br /><br />There were of course sharp operators at a local level throughout the FSU and these boys quickly rose to the top of the market. The term "mafia" is bandied about very generously when referring to any form of criminality in Russia in particular and Eastern Europe in general but in my experience the word is grossly over-used. Yes, there were boisterous groups who would think nothing of drawing blood from their opposition but these were more small-time players than most Western observers would imagine. There certainly were turf wars but the big league criminals were not so concerned with the provinces and concentrated on making money out of such things as dismantling the Soviet military or gaining control of natural resources.<br /><br />I have met a few local bandits in my time and on one occasion I was in a meeting with the head of a company which distributed Philip Morris cigarettes in Estonia. I had brought along two high-ups from an international consultancy firm who were looking for reasonable propositions in the Baltic States. The guy came right out and said that his boys had taken care of the opposition so there was no threat to his company's position in the market. He then bemoaned the lack of choice in the local retail market for clothes and said how much he wished for a Marks and Spencer in Tallinn. He will have seen his wish granted now if he has lived this long. But his office was located above a boxing gym and to get upstairs to the modern suite we had to negotiate the gym and a small army of back-clad Russian crew-cut types wearing the archetypal 9mm suit - a black Italian double-breasted affair with the jacket baggy enough so that a shoulder holster could be worn unobtrusively. These were serious people but they saw things from the point of view of legitimate businessmen in a dangerous business. It may seem quite odd to someone sitting in Tamworth or Tallahassee but to the Tallinn mentality it was nothing abnormal.<br /><br />Then there was the Afghan dairy owner who had made his money in Kabul after the Soviet invasion of his country and had then sought out the fleshpots of Minsk in preference to Afghan locales..... but I digress.<br /><br />People like the cigarette vendor marked out their territory all the way across Eastern Europe and the FSU and from that point onwards regarded themselves as respectable and worthy of praise for a job well done. This was the <span style="font-style: italic;">modus operandi</span> for the New Russians - elbow, claw and if necessary shoot your way to the top. Of course this is only a very tiny minority of people but they grabbed the majority of the wealth and their empires are still intact in most cases if they have not been already been sold off as going concerns to a genuine commercial operator.<br /><br />So economic opportunities had revealed themselves to those who were prepared to seize them and that was all well and good for those who had done the seizing. But what of those who were not so motivated to use their elbows?<br /><br />I can best illustrate this with a true story from the summer of 2003.<br /><br />A business colleague of mine was visiting from Benelux and a female friend of his from Belarus was due to meet us in Tallinn for the Midsummer festivities. The girl arrived but my colleague and I had to attend an important bank meeting. She would be quite happy she said if we would drop her somewhere that she could do a bit of shopping, somewhere with decent boutiques. The bank's head office was located just next to a fairly high-end Finnish department store so we ushered her in that direction before heading to our meeting.<br /><br />Upon meeting our Belarusian friend again she complained that the Stockmann store was not quite what she had in mind. She had been looking for Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Christian Dior and other similar boutiques as she could shop in at home in Minsk. From this point of view she was sadly disappointed with Tallinn.<br /><br />The following day we were heading to a Midsummer barbecue party at a friend's house and we stopped at a newish supermarket to buy some beer, some wine and a couple of toys for the host's kids. Now this place really took our Belarusian friend's breath away. The idea of going shopping in a regular supermarket with all staple goods under one roof with self-service from the shelves and no requirement for queuing just blew her mind. "We have nothing like this in Minsk," was her comment. I can hear her as clearly as if it was yesterday.<br /><br />What is the point of this little tale? Well, the retail situation in Minsk was the same as many and any city across the FSU and Russia. Plenty of opportunities to buy overpriced designer nonsense but no chance of being able to go out and do the weekly shopping in one place. The population at large were entirely ignored at the expense of the new rich who needed their baubles on a regular basis. And where would they shop for the basics in life? They wouldn't need to as somebody would do it for them if they couldn't get across to Helsinki, Stockholm or London this week or next.<br /><br />And that's not an idle throwaway line. From the early 90s onwards the best shops in Helsinki and Stockholm would have Russian language signs in their windows and Knightsbridge followed only a short time afterwards.<br /><br />The New Russians had everything and the Old Russians had nothing.<br /><br />More to follow...Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401325094721592386.post-37619378730287415792010-11-02T19:00:00.000+02:002010-11-02T19:09:25.669+02:00Who is North Korea?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLAVHnaS5-IiXLRUtv-JninnhLytHhzBkgPFGrjb-1C7iXwAB_YheT4JZpOyc1QqgGVybYQknYkr70Q2ZTzXOHnfwu-dRqkFQfNAcYxZHVIVniaIRQlr0hNn8tsKWVrH9cgUwCIBPjmvsr/s1600/Kim_il_sung.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 194px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLAVHnaS5-IiXLRUtv-JninnhLytHhzBkgPFGrjb-1C7iXwAB_YheT4JZpOyc1QqgGVybYQknYkr70Q2ZTzXOHnfwu-dRqkFQfNAcYxZHVIVniaIRQlr0hNn8tsKWVrH9cgUwCIBPjmvsr/s320/Kim_il_sung.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535000229936867074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Part 1: Kim Il-sung up to the Sino-Soviet schism.</span><br /><br /> <style>@font-face { font-family: "MS 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "MS 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }.MsoPapDefault { margin-bottom: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps before examining what is to be done with North Korea it might be valuable to explore the characters who have shaped the Hermit Kingdom from its earliest days to the present and to appreciate their influences.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A quick question for all and sundry. Who is the President of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea? Kim Jong-il? No, he is only the Supreme Leader. The post of President is reserved for his father, Kim Il-sung. There is nothing wrong with that as such until one realises that Kim Il-sung died in 1994! But by constitutional revision in 1998 Kim the elder was enshrined as Eternal President. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This one snippet from North Korea surely gives even the most casual of observers the basis to wonder what goes on in the corridors of power in Pyongyang.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To understand the DPRK it is first essential to understand the cult of personality that was built up so thoroughly around Kim Il-sung that it seemed more expedient after his death to let it perpetuate rather than transfer it wholesale onto someone else’s shoulders.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Kim Il-sung was born in 1912 and at a very early age his family moved to Manchuria. Whilst at school he developed an interest in Communism progressing from membership in a Marxist cell to joining an anti-Japanese guerrilla army led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Kim was a political commissar and coincidentally ended up associating with a number of senior party members who were close to Mao.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="file:///Users/phillawrence/Desktop/Kim_il_sung.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Kim became leader of a division (only a few hundred men in reality) and he skirmished with the Japanese in North Eastern China and across the border into Korea until he was eventually forced to flee with his remaining men across the border into the Soviet Union in late 1940. At this point he was sent to a camp to be retrained by the Soviets along with other Korean Communist fighters and was awarded the rank of Captain in the Red Army. His political development was now in the hands of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in the summer of 1945 the Red Army’s progress to Pyongyang was surprisingly easy and the need for someone to head a puppet regime became acute. Stalin had Lavrenti Beria handle this task and it was Kim who Beria settled on. There were undoubtedly better qualified candidates but Kim had no connection with the indigenous Communist movement and that was ideal for Soviet needs. There is also much speculation that Kim was something of a blank canvas who was capable of being manipulated by his handlers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Whatever the truth in this there is no escaping that Kim had spent only his very formative years in Korea and the eight years of formal education he had undergone were in China before receiving indoctrination in China and Siberia. He was described by one of his MVD handlers as essentially “created from zero” and furthermore his Korean language was poor. The MVD had to coach him through speeches and he was far from the ideal figurehead from this point of view but a very rosy picture of his anti-Japanese war record preceded him and for this reason he was popular with the population.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are rumours and counter-rumours about who the real Kim was. Some Soviet sources later suggested that the Kim who reached Pyongyang was a replacement for the “real Kim” who had been killed in action earlier. Whatever the truth of that might be the reality is that the man we know as Kim Il-sung was installed as the head of the apparatus in the fledgling Soviet satellite by Stalin’s MVD and by September 1949 when the DPRK was proclaimed he was unassailable.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Korean War came and went and Kim Il-sung survived to be the Great Leader of his people who had repelled an anti-communist attack from the south when in actual fact it was Kim who attacked the south but was then driven back right to the Chinese border before China saved his bacon by invading to drive back the UN forces as they feared invasion of their own territory. But why let a little thing like the truth get in the way of the cult of the personality?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This fraternal saving of Kim’s bacon gave him a new and endearing appreciation of China and the CPC. When Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s purges to the CPSU in 1956 several of the less mainstream and more idiosyncratic Communist regimes around the world felt less inclined towards the Soviet leader and saw Mao as a better role model. Kim was unimpressed by Khrushchev and turned increasingly towards China in much the same way as Enver Hoxha did in Albania. Curiously Kim only had contempt for Hoxha but the two men and their regimes were so much closer than either might have been willing to admit.</p>Phil Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12929452799095590860noreply@blogger.com0