Better Together?

I still haven’t decided how I’ll vote in the referendum on Scottish Independence.

Partly, that’s because I have yet to examine the issues properly and come to an informed decision. Partly though, I think I’d like to know what I’m voting for or against. It’d be a help if I knew what the question was and if there is to be one or two questions.

The Yes campaign, trailed as a multi party effort, was launched a few weeks ago. High profile fellow travellers like the Greens’ Patrick Harvie and independent Margo MacDonald have since jumped ship because they say the SNP is dominating the campaign.

I’m truly shocked by that.

Who’d have thought that the SNP would be positioning themselves at the forefront of such a campaign?

Anyway the Yes campaign launch had actors Allan Cumming and Brian Cox there and of course Sir Shshawn is a long term supporter.

Yesterday “Better Together” (i.e. the No lobby) launched their campaign.

It is fronted by Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer who, lets face it, presided over the best period of growth and stability worst banking and financial crisis the UK has experienced in 300 years.

The bold Alistair said yesterday, obviously referring to the Yes campaign launch:

“I don’t think people are impressed when you line up actors, no matter how good they may be, who have flown in from the other side of the Atlantic to tell us what to do.
“This campaign will be decided in Scotland by people living here.”

This roughly translates to:

“We couldn’t get any actors”

Mind you, the campaign song is a snappy one:

As well as such luminaries as Nick Clegg, Ruth Davidson and Michael Moore, the BT team paraded some ordinary Scots who let their feelings be known.

For example:

I cast my mind back to 1971 and the days prior to the liquidation of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders.

Edward Heath, the Prime Minister of the day, stepped in and with his government saved the yards from the risk of closure by pumping investment into them refused to give UCS, who had a full order book and projected profit for the following year, a £6 million bail out to allow them to continue.

Only after a widespread trade union and civic campaign did the Heath government relent and put some money in.

But really, I do wonder about the whole campaign thing. The SNP seem to be even more afraid of the “I” word than anyone else and seem to be spending most of their time telling folk how they won’t really notice much difference. We’ll still have Pudsey Bear, Michael McIntyre and Alan Titchmarsh on the telly and the Queen adorning our currency and opening our parliament.

Kind of makes you think, er…what’s the point?

Will the Eurozone crisis and the resultant fall out not be much more relevant to Scotland’s future than any referendum?

As I say, I haven’t made up my mind on how to vote but knowing Scotland as I do, I just can’t see a yes vote being achieved from this vantage point. To do so would require the independence lobby to have a massive majority at this stage because there will inevitably be a shrinkage in that vote as the time draws near. They haven’t and what support they do have seems to be ebbing already.

The SNP is the only cohesive and remotely plausible political party in Scotland just now. It is going to take all of their skill and powers of persuasion to win the vote.

I don’t think they will, and that is nothing to do with “Better Together”.

It is because to persuade others of your case you have to be 100% certain of it yourself.

The SNP just don’t give the impression that they are.

Mind you, Brave hasn’t been released here yet……..

 

When Thieves Fall Out

I noticed with no little amusement this article from the Metro regarding Alistair Darling’s new book.

Then I recalled two previous postings from this very journal firstly this one:

And then this one:

To be kind one would just have to say that Al’s memory is playing tricks. The less kind amongst us may say he was being less than frank on at least one occasion.

If he was being entirely honest with his opinions, then I have to ask:

Could it be that a blogger who plays the moothie and likes a dram but alas has no financial or political experience whatsoever, had a better handle on what was going on than the Prime Minister or the Chancellor?

Only asking.

Vat’s Wrong! (2)

I wrote here about the temporary VAT reduction to 15% in November 2008. I said that “This is not the time to reduce VAT even by the allowed 2.5%. The result of this would inevitably be a hike to 20% or even 25% in the future.”
The Tories promised during their election campaign that they would not increase VAT but unless I’m very much mistaken they look as if they are going to do that very thing.
The economic situation for many businesses is much worse than it was in November 2008 and now they will be saddled with this increase.

Cue inflation and a sharp rise in unemployment.

So Farewell Then

So farewell then Alistair “Blink” Darling

“I’m very sorry” – that was your catchphrase

And quite apart from the recession, you had much to be very sorry about.

You introduced tougher, some might say draconian, penalties

For those submitting erroneous tax returns

Or claiming for things that that they shouldn’t have

You seemed to think that your penalty for such a “mistake”

Would be a “sorry” and a repaying of what you wrongly claimed

Sadly it looks as if it will be rather more tough, some might say draconian, than that.

EZ Fiddle (BLFP poet in residence)

Here is a link to an aricle by Linda Prestonseven signs you are being lied to

“BLINKING. A person who is lying will blink a lot,as blinking seems to correlate to the amount of mental stress we are under. In a normal conversation where a person is attuned to you, he will blink at roughly the same rate as you, often at moments when you pause in your speech. Be wary of someone who is blinking frantically as they speak with you.”

With that in mind, watch the first 15 seconds of the above video. I counted 16 blinks.

The Budget

Oh! Sch...........!

Blimey he’s at it again!

That’s Alistair Darling I’m talking about.

He said yesterday in his speech that the economy would shrink 3.5% this year but somehow bounce back and grow at 1.25% in 2010 and to an astonishing 3.5% in 2011.

How the MP’s on all sides laughed.

Alistair is the very man for your wild predictions you know.

I feel I must reprise my posting of January 5th this year.

Alistair Darling

Doo-Doo the clown

The tax increase for those earning £150,000 or more is akin to taking a key and scraping it along the side of a Rolls Royce. Everyone on modest incomes gets a wee glow for a while but in reality it doesn’t mean much.

This measure will raise about £3 billion pounds for the exchequer but the truth is that over 100 times that is needed over the next three years.

To put that in perspective the £384 billion that the government intends to borrow over the next two years is more than all governments added together have borrowed since the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694.

Darling has repeated his VAT trick of last year too with the car scrappage scheme. Pointless tinkering that will cost the exchequer but will have no lasting benefit to the economy.

It also further guarantees the inevitable.

Future tax rises.

Why should the car industry be a special case? Every business selling goods is finding it tough and all the scrappage scheme will do is divert much of the disposable income that people are prepared to part with into cars at the expense of the wider economy.

I suppose that whatever was announced yesterday would really be tinkering and hoping and so it proved.

Of course the only alternative UK government is Cameron’s Conservatives.

They are now the government elect.

It’s a matter of time.

How will Scotland respond?

You’re so wrong Darling

(Thank you to Introducer Today)

No, not over the fact that he has been claiming thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money for his family home in Edinburgh while living rent free at number 11 Downing Street.

And not because while he was claiming this cash he was pocketing the rent from a London flat he owns and rents out.

Both of which are within parliamentary expenses rules.

So what has the man in charge of the country’s finances got wrong?

Well, this time he’s failed to do his job properly and has underestimated the severity of the recession.

He defended his failure by claiming that no one else saw it coming either. (!!!!)

“The downturn since last autumn has been far deeper than people expected in any part of the world,” (!!!!) he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Sounding almost defeatist, Mr Darling added: “I think there is some way to go yet. A lot really depends on actually how much other countries do.”

But taxpayers can rest assured that prime minister Gordon Brown won’t lose sight of his role.

His focus will be on more important issues than MPs’ expenses – i.e. the economy and terrorism.

Which begs the question, where is Osama Bin Laden?

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Really Darling?

From yesterday’s Sunday Times:

David Smith and Isabel Oakeshott

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, has admitted that he and his Treasury officials got it wrong over the length and severity of the recession and that he will be forced to tear up his economic predictions.

He will slash his growth forecast in the budget and warn that there will be no economic recovery until the end of the year, dashing hopes that last week’s G20 summit will be followed by an early upturn. “It’s worse than we thought,” Darling said this weekend

From the Ben Lomond Free Press 5/1/09

Deep Doo Doo

Not Much

To say today except that the VAT reduction prediction turned out to be true. When major retailers are holding pre Christmas sales with reductions of 25% and more, just what will be stimulated at 19p being taken off the price of a CD?

Do you really think it will go down from £8.99 to £8.80?

Do you think holiday companies who have already taken deposits and have glossy catalogues will reduce bills by 2.1% on their gross price from Monday?

Do you think that shops will be feverishly paying overtime to staff to reconfigure their EPOS systems and have them going around with ticketing machines reducing prices?

YOU DO?

You’re Alistair Darling aren’t you?

I Just Don’t Know Anymore!

The financial stuff is now leaving this humble blogger bemused. I honestly don’t know if yesterday’s measures, to take control of a large section of the banking sector will work or not. Do these guys know what they are doing? or are they like some compulsive gambler having lost his wages and the housekeeping, putting the house and holiday money on a good tip on the last race at Plumpton?

It was Harold Wilson who said that a week is a long time in politics but a few short weeks ago who would have guessed at the events that have unfolded. Yesterday Gordon Brown compared himself to Churchill and Roosevelt and there was hardly a snigger. Never in the field of global crisies can one man’s career have had such a boost.

The reason that nobody laughed at Broon’s comment is that we’re all shit scared. Shit scared for our jobs, houses and pensions. A siege mentality/ wartime spirit is now evident. And yet…..and yet……although shares in general recovered yesterday, the three banks (HBOS, RBOS and Lloyds TSB) continued to plummet. HBOS ended up 27.5% down.

Gordon Brown says a condition of bailing the banks out is that mortgage lending must return to 2007 levels. Hang on! isn’t that at least partly what landed us in this mess in the first place?

As I say, I’m a humble blogger. I just don’t know anymore.

Irony R.I.P

You’re always losing things darling!

Following on this week's story that two cd roms containing the personal details of 25,000,000 child benefit claimants are missing, Chancellor Alistair Darling is to appear with Kirsty Young on Radio 4 tomorrow.

The programme? DESERT ISLAND DISCS!

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