We should only be discussing the Essentials of Independence....

Today's discussions on the radio have been focussing on the costs and timescales of removing the Trident submarine base from Faslane. This is as a result of a report out today by the Royal United Services Institute which seems to say that the No Campaign had over-estimated the costs of re-locating the base. They say the timescale may have to be longer but that the whole process would not be impossible.  I had previously thought it might be as there are only two deep water access points to Scotland on the West Coast and I wasn't sure that these submarines could come into for example the South of England .... but who am I to say ! I'm sure they know what they are talking about !

Ref : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11032878/Yes-vote-Scotland-would-be-stuck-with-Trident-until-2028.html

However it seems to me that yet again we are talking about specifics which are not entirely "CORE" to whether we are Independent or not. This seems to me to be specific policy. And along with such things as the childcare issue, they are very much personal opinions and are current SNP policy.

But there must be many people who believe in Independence and who also believe we need a nuclear deterrent, and vice versa !

So when are we going to separate out those things which will definitely happen on Independence from those things which would be dependent on the government of the day ?

What new powers are we definitely going to gain by Independence and what things are policy of the government on the day ?  For example, with Independence, Scotland would have full control over fiscal policy, with full powers on taxes, spending & borrowing. This compares with the current situation where the Scottish Parliament is responsible for just 7 per cent of taxes raised in Scotland.

So that is a definite GAIN of power.

Something such as the childcare issue, which I personally do not agree with, could be said to be government policy and in fact could be modified today even before the vote.
I would sum up my own idea for the care of children as that each child should have some funding attached to it and this could be used to either subsidise parents to look after their own children in the first few years, which I believe is the best for the child. however if people wanted to use the subsidy to put it towards nursery or childminder fees so that they themselves can carry on working then they could use it for that. This would put both of these families on an equal footing. Currently the only families being subsidised are those with two working parents. These subsidies can be quite a lot at times and are required particularly as whole nursery salaries need to be found from somewhere, particularly if parents are on low wages. (I wont touch on the finances of single parent families here). However the whole system is creaking and vast subsidies go to some families and single earner familes who care for their own children, whether on low salaries or higher salaries are currently vastly penalised and in some cases are contributing a huge percentage of tax.

Anyway as you can see I get diverted !
But the fact is that I am leaning towards voting for Independence but on certain things like Childcare, Defence etc I am not necessarily in agreement with the government we have at the moment.  If we gain Independence I really think the first election after that is the one where we will find out the direction the electorate would like to see the country moving.  And I would also like to see a new re-named party maybe slightly to the right, to represent our businesses, farmers and industry in Scotland. Perhaps a modernisers party or progressive party.... there was a move in the Conservative party recently for something like this and I think it is needed to balance the debate out. After all Scotland used to have quite a high Conservative vote - where has that gone at the moment ?

Anyway let me know what you think ?

Undecided's Understand All Too Well !

Don't Knows Fight Back !

Listening in to the Call Kaye / Morning Call phone-in this morning on BBC Radio Scotland about the Scottish Referendum and the Obama comments.  Certainly on the phone-in Obama did not sound too certain about the point of view which he was expressing.

Heilan Coo - Undecided - which way to go ?!

However I took slight umbrage (huff ?) with one of those phoning in, who happened to be a "definite No" voter. I got the feeling from him that he was thinking that us Undecided or Don't Know voters just don't understand the debate.  However I would say that us Undecideds understand it all too well !

And in fact we are being asked to weigh up many things that are as yet undecided and will not be decided on the 18th September.
For example just on the aspect of the EU, we don't yet know if there will be a referendum in rest of UK or the UK on EU membership. It seems likely that that vote might sway towards leaving the EU. On another aspect, many of the MEPs that were recently voted in are in anti-EU parties, so we may well see reforms in the EU.
So already on just that one issue look how many aspects there are.....

And....some people are going to be directly affected in one way or another by the decision. We might hope for a strong, modern "new" European looking Scotland.....but ....... for some people there are going to be immediate affects ...   Farmers who have large EU subsidies on their farms, People working for English companies in Scotland or for companies with EU subsidies etc etc   These people could well bear the brunt of the vote for a Yes.  Whereas if you are working for a council then I suspect you would see things carry on as they are, certainly in the short term, so there is much less risk for you.
But again there has been talk of some sort of a transtition period of 2 years so I will try and find out more about that...........anyone got a good link for that ?

So respect the Undecideds and don't just see us as people who need to have their minds changed ! Maybe some of the Yes or No camp should start listening to the Don't Knows !


Scotland Questions : Referendum : Undecided : Don't Know : Voter : Voters : Obama

EU - Did You vote ?

Well we have had some time now to get used to the European election results.
I was away for the weekend in a highland cottage so only managed to pick up the results bit by bit via radio announcements !

The first thing is we have lost an experienced LibDem MEP George Lyon who had served the Scottish farming community well I believe.  And we have gained a UKIP MEP !
I wonder if UKIP expected that. Had their party machine detected their candidate was likely to get in?
The UK are one of only four countries in the EU to vote regionally rather than nationally.
If we had been voting nationally then all the votes for the Greens would have led to more MEPs.
If the vote had been national and seats decided nationally then this would have been the result, which would have better reflected voters intentions :

UK-WIDE
UKIP - 27.49% of vote - actual seats : 24   if voting nationally : 19.2

Labour - 25.4% of vote - got 20 seats but if voting nationally : about 18

Conservative 23.93% - got 19 seats if voting nationally : 17.5

Green - 7.87% - got 3 seats but if voting nationally : 5.5

LibDems - 6.87% - got 1 seat but if voting nationally : 4.8

SNP - 2.46% - got 2 seats but if voting nationally : 1.82

BNP - 1.14% - got 0 seats but if voting nationally would have : 0.8

PC - 0.71% - got 1 seat but if voting nationally : 0.5

I imagine the reason the MEPs are divided into regions is so that they can represent those regions at EU meetings. I wonder if they have been doing this well.... must find out if we can find out more about their voting records etc.

For SCOTLAND alone this seems to be the final results based on numbers voting for each party :

BRITAIN FIRST, 13,639 (1.0%)
BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY, 10,216 (0.8%)
CONSERVATIVE PARTY, 231,330 (17.2%)
LABOUR PARTY, 348,219 (25.9%)
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS, 95,319 (7.1%)
NO2EU, 6,418 (0.5%)
SCOTTISH GREEN PARTY, 108,305 (8.0%)
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY (SNP), 389,503 (28.9%)
UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY (UKIP), 140,534 (10.4%)

Rejected papers 2,184 (0.2%)
Total votes cast 1,345,667
Electorate 4,016,735

Turnout 33.5% 

To see a breakdown of your own region have a look at :

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2014/may/25/eu-election-results-live

Most are fairly predictable eg SNP and Conservative fighting it out in Aberdeenshire, and Labour winning Glasgow. The LibDems are still popular in rural areas and the SNP are popular in the heartlands of Perthshire and Stirling etc.

The turnout was disappointing at around 33% and even in Scotland, where we are all supposed to be enthused about the future of our country, the turnout was 33.5% (Ref :  http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/1560/scottish_results_of_european_elections_announced)

Edinburgh has reported a turnout of 41.6% -  The final official vote for Scotland will not be declared until Monday lunchtime, when the Western Isles vote is counted. It is not counted on a Sunday for religious reasons. 

This guide from the BBC shows where in the UK people voted for particular parties : 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27576104

and the Guardian had results from across Europe analysed as they came in at :http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2014/may/25/eu-election-results-live

Sunday Herald

Well that was interesting yesterday when the Sunday Herald came out in support of Independence. And with a fantastically illustrated cover by Alasdair Gray, the artist and writer who lives in the West End of Glasgow and is famous for his artwork in Oran Mor.

I felt that this came at a good time to redress the balance after there was a poll which came out during the week in support of a No vote.
So it feels to me like its back to more of a 50/50 again.

And here is an opinion piece in the Telegraph !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27201675

I feel I am definitely back to my Don't Know stance, perhaps with a marginal Yes vote likely. Part of my apprehension now is fuelled by the Tories and the likelihood of a vote to come out of the EU by those in England, where enthusiasm among the media seems to be very anti-EU.

Interesting TV and Radio Programmes

I don't know what I would do without Radio 4 - my favourite programme ! I would keep it even if they took away my telly, which I hardly watch now !
Although I couldn't do without my internet either now !

Anyway here was a good programme this weekend - Landward - well worth watching - it has a piece about Red Deer Farming - if I was a farmer I'd definitely think about getting into this...Although they do look quite tricky to handle. And I am not a great one about killing animals for meat. Although I can see the argument that at least if we can make sure they are well cared for and have a reasonable standard of living.... The programme then goes on to look at a massive forestry operation on the A82. Very interesting !  And it finishes with the best bit - whisky tasting ! And some real connoisseurs appreciating some old malts and a visit to one of our favourites - Glenlivet Distillery.  I think the programme starts with a piece about the new John Muir way which has been laid out near the Campsies area north of Glasgow, but I missed the beginning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0421ttj/Landward_2014_2015_Episode_5/

And then this morning there was a really interesting programme Start the Week which was talking about the Future of Capitalism on Radio 4.
Well worth listening to. Although the interviewer let one woman speak too long in my opinion and then butted in over two crucial and important points where I was really wanting to hear the end of the sentence !
Very interesting the idea that we are now away from the Gold Standard since 1971 so we now just have to trust that money is worth what is written on it. And when governments start printing money its when they are trying to have a war....mmm !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b041vvvf

St George's Day

Today is St George's Day so cue a flurry of announcements from our politicians !

And to accompany our blog post here is the wonderful statue of Saint George and the dragon from St George's Cross in Glasgow. The statue was presented to the people of Glasgow by the Cooperative Wholesale Society in 1897 and stood on the old Co-op building at the cross until the building was demolished in 1985 at which time the sculpture was saved and it was given its new site in 1988.

So lets wait and see what Alex Salmond has to say today about links between the North of England and an Independent Scotland when he visits the Borders.  And playing for the other side today we have David Cameron making a plea as well ! More later !

And we still have to digest (and read in the first place), Gordon Brown's announcement yesterday about pensions and whether an Independent Scotland can afford the public sector ones.

And did you watch What Women Want last night on BBC2 with Jackie Bird ? It was quite interesting about whether women vote differently, do we take longer to ponder the opposing arguments or do we just want the answers and haven't yet been given them ?
And this morning Morning Call is discussing those same issues on Radio Scotland - did you hear me speaking to Kirsty Wark in the introduction to the programme ?

Brian Taylor's Big Debate

Just back from being in the audience at Brian Taylor's Big Debate, a BBC Radio Scotland Programme !

Some interesting questions and an interesting panel.  And pulling it all together with humour is Brian !  Take the chance to get in the audience if it is ever recording near you.

Issues which came up with regards to Independence included firstly the energy issue. An audience member explained that Scotland's oil is not mostly in foreign ownership, the companies are merely licensed to remove the oil and have to re-apply every seven years and pay a large license.  This sounds like he knows what he is talking about, but does anyone have some references or useful links about this ?  Also on the same point someone mentioned about how much Scottish land is actually in Scottish ownership. Fiona McLeod, SNP MSP said one inspiration that originally took to coming into politics was from the 7:84 theatre company who took their title from the fact that 84% of our land was in only 7% of people's hands.  But generally the fact that we have a variety of sources of energy was mentioned, and also the fact that no energy comes freely, the all need some sort of subsidy or investment, but also Patrick Harvie the Green MSP mentioned how we should also take climate change into account when making energy decisions.

Further issues raised included the Europe question and there was a general feeling in the room that we should be in Europe, whether that was in an Independent Scotland (which, as someone said, might be the safest bet if we want to be in the EU) or from the UK, which is currently a definite Member State of the EU. However it is by no means certain that England wouldn't vote to come out even though Scotland would stay in.  A UKIP audience member then was asked to comment. It was unclear really what his comment was but he was certain he was being censored, even though he was invited to continue his point three times ! And for a party with currently no representation in Scotland this seemed pretty fair !!

You can listen in to the debate here, where the other issues raised included parent's being best educators of young children / childcare and also the Red Road Flats / Commonwealth Games opening ceremony issue: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03zdxvs