FlyTheNest

It's official then.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... or-MP.html

RogerOThornhill wrote:It's official then.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... or-MP.html

Yep, the spectre of two political heavy-weights attempting to get into Parliament, one is nigh on a shoo-in, sadly the other one isn't too far behind either.

Here's an interesting talking point that I don't think has arisen, but which I was introduced to by a good friend recently as we walked from Craster to Dunstanburgh castle.

At the moment, English students going to Scottish universities have to pay fees, as per England, due to the Holyrood ruling based upon rules covering regions (England is effectively a region in the UK, I'm given to understand). If Scotland votes 'yes', then England (and Wales and N. Ireland effectively become another, separate country, and thus, if my friend is correct, English (Welsh/Irish) students will get free education in Scotland, in the same way that French, German and other EU member state students do.

Can someone confirm whether my mate's correct in this? If he is, then I rather suspect that some of the more virulent advocates of the 'yes' vote are going to have to do some pretty nifty explaining to their fellow Scots 'yes' enthusiasts.

Happy birthday AAW, and my thanks to Dan and Paul for sorting the site out. Just so as people know, I was meant to be at the meet up in Huddersfield yesterday evening but ended up being A Good Daddy to our little piranha whilst mummy sorted out a huge pile of council work. Bah. Thanks anyway fellahs; we will meet up soon, I hope.

Is it alright to ask forum tech questions here or better to have a separate thread ?

Am trying to download an avatar from my computer pics but all my own photos seem to be too 'big'.
Not pixel size but file size. For example the one I want to use from my digital camera is 1.47MB, the maximum allowed on the forum avatar download is 6.00 KiB.

Any ideas on if it possible to shrink one's pics down to less than 6 kib?

yahyah wrote:Is it alright to ask forum tech questions here or better to have a separate thread ?

Am trying to download an avatar from my computer pics but all my own photos seem to be too 'big'.
Not pixel size but file size. For example the one I want to use from my digital camera is 1.47MB, the maximum allowed on the forum avatar download is 6.00 KiB.

Any ideas on if it possible to shrink one's pics down to less than 6 kib?

As I recall, GIF format is considerably smaller than JPG/jpeg, so if you have an image editor program of any variety that's worth its name, then the 'save as' option should enable you to save it in that format. Also, GIMP is a freeware Photoshop lookey likey that enables you to cut down pictures (obviously reducing the file size) and then, further, to save a copy and reduce the granularity/detail as you do it, and you get to choose the percentage reduction. Very useful for posting large pictures, such as even a half decent phone will now produce. Most phones and cameras pump pictures between about 4 - 12 meg, so the tricks above can have quite a majorly profound effect on file sizes.

yahyah wrote:Is it alright to ask forum tech questions here or better to have a separate thread ?

Am trying to download an avatar from my computer pics but all my own photos seem to be too 'big'.
Not pixel size but file size. For example the one I want to use from my digital camera is 1.47MB, the maximum allowed on the forum avatar download is 6.00 KiB.

Any ideas on if it possible to shrink one's pics down to less than 6 kib?

Hi Yahyah
Try converting picture from JPG to GIF it worked for me.

By the way congratulations on the new site. I feel safe to post again.

Temulkar wrote:Anatoly, as a pro union non Englishman, I am stunned at the anglocentric London press and their coverage. It's not Salmond driving this it is the impact of corruption in Westminster which Labour is a part of.

Darling paid thousands by NHS privatisation firm. Says it all about Labour.

http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/sc ... on-company

Bloke out of government for 4 years, who shows no sign of going near the Shadow Cabinet, did one speech to a private equity group and got £10k. Yep, says it all.

The 37 Lords with private healthcare links isn't quite as impressive as it sounds either. Someone who works with an insurance firm, for instance, is counted as having private healthcare links. Even the appalling Mandelson's culpability amounts to working for a bank.

It also forgot to mention that only one Lord, Lord Warner, voted for the Lansley Act.

England's NHS was found by Nuffield to be the best of the four home health systems in 2011.

http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/f ... report.pdf

I'd have thought that said a fair bit about Labour and health, but perhaps it's not as important as Alistair Darling making a speech.

And if you think they're shilling for privatisation, in 2014 they reported the gap narrowing.

I can't take Matthew Goodwin's UKIP articles too seriously, if he wrote about the nuances of other parties fair enough, but he's earning his coin specifically by writing about them, so has an interest in making them credible than the idiots actually are.

RogerOThornhill wrote:It's official then.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... or-MP.html

Would love it if they selected someone local.

If they select Johnson, there might be a bit of an opening for UKIP.

ErnstRemarx wrote:Here's an interesting talking point that I don't think has arisen, but which I was introduced to by a good friend recently as we walked from Craster to Dunstanburgh castle.

At the moment, English students going to Scottish universities have to pay fees, as per England, due to the Holyrood ruling based upon rules covering regions (England is effectively a region in the UK, I'm given to understand). If Scotland votes 'yes', then England (and Wales and N. Ireland effectively become another, separate country, and thus, if my friend is correct, English (Welsh/Irish) students will get free education in Scotland, in the same way that French, German and other EU member state students do.

Can someone confirm whether my mate's correct in this? If he is, then I rather suspect that some of the more virulent advocates of the 'yes' vote are going to have to do some pretty nifty explaining to their fellow Scots 'yes' enthusiasts.

Your friend is quite correct. At present non-Scottish UK students pay tuition fees whereas Scottish and EU students don't. (Scottish students studying at non-Scottish UK universities pay the fees - as my son found out to my cost)!
If Scotland leaves the UK, but rejoins the EU, then the rules say that English/Welsh/NI students will have to be treated the same as Scottish students - ie all pay fees, or none pay fees. Salmond has said fees will remain for rUK students only - and, of course (in his eyes), he's right and everybody else is wrong!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-28927064

daydreamer wrote:Here's one for Tubby (our resident HS2 supporter)

http://www.barnsley-chronicle.co.uk/new ... investment

I don't think there's any argument it wouldn't be good for Barnsley. London journeys down from 2.27 to 1.44m, and Birmingham down from 1.41 to 1.14.

Not sure about the argument building the Leeds bit first. The timetable as things stand is based on the bit with the smallest capacity (London- Birmingham) being built first. But there's a decent argument that South Yorkshire and other bits with deeper economic problems could be done early too.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

Temulkar wrote:Anatoly, as a pro union non Englishman, I am stunned at the anglocentric London press and their coverage. It's not Salmond driving this it is the impact of corruption in Westminster which Labour is a part of.

Darling paid thousands by NHS privatisation firm. Says it all about Labour.

http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/sc ... on-company

Bloke out of government for 4 years, who shows no sign of going near the Shadow Cabinet, did one speech to a private equity group and got £10k. Yep, says it all.

The 37 Lords with private healthcare links isn't quite as impressive as it sounds either. Someone who works with an insurance firm, for instance, is counted as having private healthcare links. Even the appalling Mandelson's culpability amounts to working for a bank.

It also forgot to mention that only one Lord, Lord Warner, voted for the Lansley Act.

England's NHS was found by Nuffield to be the best of the four home health systems in 2011.

http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/f ... report.pdf

I'd have thought that said a fair bit about Labour and health, but perhaps it's not as important as Alistair Darling making a speech.

And if you think they're shilling for privatisation, in 2014 they reported the gap narrowing.

There are three major SNP-supporting sites whose sole purpose is to publish fact-free or highly-spun articles denigrating pro-union supporters - newsnetscotland, businessforscotland and wingsoverscotland.

Thanks Ernst & rearofthestore for the pic tips.

Eric_WLothian wrote:

ErnstRemarx wrote:Here's an interesting talking point that I don't think has arisen, but which I was introduced to by a good friend recently as we walked from Craster to Dunstanburgh castle.

At the moment, English students going to Scottish universities have to pay fees, as per England, due to the Holyrood ruling based upon rules covering regions (England is effectively a region in the UK, I'm given to understand). If Scotland votes 'yes', then England (and Wales and N. Ireland effectively become another, separate country, and thus, if my friend is correct, English (Welsh/Irish) students will get free education in Scotland, in the same way that French, German and other EU member state students do.

Can someone confirm whether my mate's correct in this? If he is, then I rather suspect that some of the more virulent advocates of the 'yes' vote are going to have to do some pretty nifty explaining to their fellow Scots 'yes' enthusiasts.

Your friend is quite correct. At present non-Scottish UK students pay tuition fees whereas Scottish and EU students don't. (Scottish students studying at non-Scottish UK universities pay the fees - as my son found out to my cost)!
If Scotland leaves the UK, but rejoins the EU, then the rules say that English/Welsh/NI students will have to be treated the same as Scottish students - ie all pay fees, or none pay fees. Salmond has said fees will remain for rUK students only - and, of course (in his eyes), he's right and everybody else is wrong!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-28927064

From the linked article:

"The Scottish government believes access to education should be based on the ability to learn not the ability to pay. The key reason we enabled universities to charge students from the rest of the UK tuition was to protect places for Scots-domiciled students.

"Had we not, the introduction of fees of up to £9,000 per year elsewhere in the UK could have dramatically reduced the available places for Scots-domiciled students."

This is simply a pile of dingoes kidneys. So English, Welsh and Northern Irish students have to pony up on this flimsy basis? If it's so important for Scottish students to be able to get places, why are other EU students not charged for access to Scottish universities? Methinks Wee Eck is going to have to tie himself in knots justifying that one. At least if there is a 'yes' vote and Salmond insists (and very probably against EU court ruling) that the fees must continue but not for other EU students, then it becomes pretty clear exactly what the true motivation behind the fees is.

Don't lots of EU countries reciprocate with free tuition?

Something here on Western Germany, which has increasing numbers of Lander with free tuition.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/f ... 68.article

At the moment Welsh students only have to pay the first £3,685 of their fees anywhere in the UK, the Welsh goverment pays the rest.

Not sure that would continue if Scotland goes independent.

& according to the Guardian Welsh students get the most financial help overall, with cost of living grants etc
http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... al-support


That's one of the reasons I get hacked off with Salmond posturing Labour are the same as the Tories. He ignores a lot of what Welsh Labour do.

Horrifying report about child abuse (mostly by Asian men) in Rotherham.

This is the bit from the Executive Summary that will be quoted everywhere.

Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.

This might be true, or could just be an excuse that incompetent staff hide behind.

Other issues identified include the usual over reliance on "community leaders" who turned out not to have any idea what was going on.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:Horrifying report about child abuse (mostly by Asian men) in Rotherham.

This is the bit from the Executive Summary that will be quoted everywhere.

Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.

This might be true, or could just be an excuse that incompetent staff hide behind.

Other issues identified include the usual over reliance on "community leaders" who turned out not to have any idea what was going on.

& as Sunny Hundal has pointed out women from the Pakistani community where not consulted.
''Community leaders'' are usually men.

BNP and UKIPers are making hay over it, unsurprisingly.

Your heart goes out to those who were abused.
Put through hell and hardly anyone in authority believed what was happening to them.

Followed a link to a new site called Note my Vote. It's aiming to poll registered users & use the results of those polls to inform user's MP's of their opinions.

It might not amount to much but given that we all complain loudly that our MP's don't listen to public opinion, it might be worth engaging with.

http://www.notemyvote.co.uk/how-it-works

(Late to the proceedings but happy birthday AAW )

Temulkar wrote:Anatoly, as a pro union non Englishman, I am stunned at the anglocentric London press and their coverage. It's not Salmond driving this it is the impact of corruption in Westminster which Labour is a part of.

Darling paid thousands by NHS privatisation firm. Says it all about Labour.

http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/sc ... on-company

Yeah, the London media's coverage of the referendum (and Scottish affairs more generally) is crap. Who knew

Same as their treatment of everything outside their own bubble, then.......

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

Temulkar wrote:Anatoly, as a pro union non Englishman, I am stunned at the anglocentric London press and their coverage. It's not Salmond driving this it is the impact of corruption in Westminster which Labour is a part of.

Darling paid thousands by NHS privatisation firm. Says it all about Labour.

http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/sc ... on-company

Yeah, the London media's coverage of the referendum (and Scottish affairs more generally) is crap. Who knew

Same as their treatment of everything outside their own bubble, then.......

Their coverage of London isn't very good either.

yahyah wrote:At the moment Welsh students only have to pay the first £3,685 of their fees anywhere in the UK, the Welsh goverment pays the rest.

Not sure that would continue if Scotland goes independent.

& according to the Guardian Welsh students get the most financial help overall, with cost of living grants etc
http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... al-support


That's one of the reasons I get hacked off with Salmond posturing Labour are the same as the Tories. He ignores a lot of what Welsh Labour do.

I believe that last night Salmond was trying to identify Darling with the Tories, and implying as far as he could that a 'no' vote was a vote for the Tories, in effect. If that is the case, then that is massively insulting, not just to Darling, but to all Scots and non-Scots who can't abide the Tories, but who may well feel that Scottish independence is so fraught with potentially extremely serious problems as to make it a non-starter in their minds.

I find that Salmond's glib assertions concerning what Scotland will do and what the rest of the UK and the UK government will do to be pretty insulting and bombastic. The whole thing, to my mind, founders on two main issues - currency and business.

All three UK national parties have said 'no chance' to the SNP over the issue of having a currency union, and rightly too, as it's not in rUK's interests. That Salmond is insisting this will be so, when his mandate doesn't and can't run south of the border to another state (as we would be), seems to me to be pure fantasy. The only sane solution would be a separate Scottish currency, but that requires a central bank and reserves. The insanity of refusing to take a proportion of the UK's debt as the price of getting at assets is so 'heads I win, tails you lose' as to defy belief. I somehow don't see on day 1 of iScotland, with or without the pound as currency (a whole world of pain) that the new Scottish government aren't going to get anything other than a hearty 'fuck off' when they try to raise money - as they surely would. No track record, except their act of reneging on a debt. That's going to work out brilliantly.

Allied to that is the issue of business. Scotland does a shedload of business with the rest of the UK - far more than with the rest of the EU - and its wealth is in large part down to this. It's really not going to thrill too many companies domiciled in Scotland if Salmond decides to start acting as he already has towards the British government. It would be insane not to up sticks and relocate over the border to a far safer bet - indeed, were I an institutional shareholder, I would be asking this of any company with extensive Scottish holdings or a HQ there. Let's face it, the British economy is rather larger than that of Scotland, so in the case of any economic or commercial backlash, there can be only one loser. Given also that the financial industry in Scotland employs about 200k people, how many of those would be relocated to Leeds, London, Manchester, etc? I suspect more than the Nats would care to admit.

And, of course, out of the Union means, AFAIK, out of the EU, and admission to the EU would most likely be blocked by rUK, but even if it didn't, then iScotland would need that central bank I mentioned earlier, a separate currency and a stable economy, none of which looks that likely.

Brrrrr! Those 'yes' campaigners are pretty brave if they can think through all that and still exhort people to vote for independence

pk1 wrote:Followed a link to a new site called Note my Vote. It's aiming to poll registered users & use the results of those polls to inform user's MP's of their opinions.

It might not amount to much but given that we all complain loudly that our MP's don't listen to public opinion, it might be worth engaging with.

http://www.notemyvote.co.uk/how-it-works

(Late to the proceedings but happy birthday AAW )

Will have a look!

Is that you, ParrotKeeper as was???

yahyah wrote:Thanks Ernst & rearofthestore for the pic tips.

Yes, I second that. Thanks guys. A bit of a grainy pic converting to GIF, but it does work.

You know the back peddling the Buffoon is famous for, saying something only for weeks, months, and yes years later to a complete about turn, well expect another one.

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2014/ ... it-on.html

James Bloodworth ‏@J_Bloodworth 1h

Liberals really need to learn from the sickening Rotheram episode. People didn't act because they feared being branded racist. Why is that?

Rotherham! Hotbed of liberals!

Always good to see people supposedly on the left write stuff like this. Incompetent social workers (who are of course totally reliable when they blame managers who might have called them racist), budget problems etc all magicked away on Twitter.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... -transport

"Low cost home transport -a disaster waiting to happen"This may have been mentioned here,apologies if it has,I know,as some of the comments state Private Eye has been covering for some time.

Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

Sky News in fairness isn't half bad, they had a piece on last week about kids going hungry in the school holidays, the BBC had the story of Lidl's venturing into clothing, says it all.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too.

HindleA wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... -transport

"Low cost home transport -a disaster waiting to happen"This may have been mentioned here,apologies if it has,I know,as some of the comments state Private Eye has been covering for some time.

The service was introduced earlier this year across three London boroughs, Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea,

I'm shocked etc...never would have thought it of them...

Thankfully H&F are in different hands now and might be able to pull away from the other two.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:You know the back peddling the Buffoon is famous for, saying something only for weeks, months, and yes years later to a complete about turn, well expect another one.

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2014/ ... it-on.html

That's an excellent point about Heathrow. But he'll probably be able to shrug it off, like everything else.

Don't expect his buses to make an appearance in Uxbridge though.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too.

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

Evening all. New forum looking very nice... just one quibble. Needs more smilies

ErnstRemarx wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too.

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

I agree.

It's made the No people look pretty negative and repetitive and they might lose some support for that. But it should be a banker that make victory safe.

yahyah wrote:At the moment Welsh students only have to pay the first £3,685 of their fees anywhere in the UK, the Welsh goverment pays the rest.

Not sure that would continue if Scotland goes independent.

& according to the Guardian Welsh students get the most financial help overall, with cost of living grants etc
http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... al-support


That's one of the reasons I get hacked off with Salmond posturing Labour are the same as the Tories. He ignores a lot of what Welsh Labour do.

I think the EU rule is simply that whatever your own students pay, that must apply to all EU students. The problem is that there's no rule against discrimination internally within an EU member state. I would assume that an EU student in a Welsh university would be treated the same as a Welsh student?

Salmond has the luxury of speaking for a single party (he ignores the Greens and far left parties who are also pro-independence). Darling, on the other hand, speaks for a diverse pro-union group who only agree on the single issue - a situation which Salmond takes advantage of, despite having said that the question of independence is not party political.

ErnstRemarx wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too.

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

I've been expecting to see badges and tee shirts emblazoned with ''In Alex we trust'' haven't watched last nights debate but apparently he had 3 plan B's, if there wasn't this cult surrounding him he would have been laughed out yonks ago.

ErnstRemarx wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too.

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

Agreed -saying "You'll have to trust me that we can work something out" isn't good enough for something so fundamental to everyday lives.

They should have either got an undertaking from the Bank of England or have a plan B which people know what it is.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

Sky News in fairness isn't half bad, they had a piece on last week about kids going hungry in the school holidays, the BBC had the story of Lidl's venturing into clothing, says it all.

Hello letsskip - excuse my ignorance - but who is the person in your new avatar? (I'm probably going to cringe in shame when you tell me ... but curiosity is stronger than my shame instinct).

And this is also to see if I have succeeded in loading an avatar for myself .....

Apparently Darling and Gordon and have now 'ended their feud' to share a platform in Dundee tomorrow. Strange, I thought the 'feud' ended quite a while ago, still makes good hay for cyber-nats to chomp on.

Dundee according to the Telegraph is one of the most pro-unionist areas, 7-1 in favour of No, or Naw. Or if you live around here, nuh.

rebeccariots2 wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

Sky News in fairness isn't half bad, they had a piece on last week about kids going hungry in the school holidays, the BBC had the story of Lidl's venturing into clothing, says it all.

Hello letsskip - excuse my ignorance - but who is the person in your new avatar? (I'm probably going to cringe in shame when you tell me ... but curiosity is stronger than my shame instinct).

And this is also to see if I have succeeded in loading an avatar for myself .....

You have succeeded, and what a gorgeous Pointer you have, is that the one you rescued? My avatar is the composer Shostakovich, he of the Stalingrad siege and so on, he may change later on, depending on my mood?!

RogerOThornhill wrote:

ErnstRemarx wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

Agreed -saying "You'll have to trust me that we can work something out" isn't good enough for something so fundamental to everyday lives.

They should have either got an undertaking from the Bank of England or have a plan B which people know what it is.

Indeed. I've yet to find out from the 'yes' camp just how they're going to force another sovereign state into a currency union when said state has already said it ain't gonna happen. What's Salmond going to do? Use harsh language? Call them Sassenach bastards? The rUK government will shrugs its shoulders, and watch the carnage.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

James Bloodworth ‏@J_Bloodworth 1h

Liberals really need to learn from the sickening Rotheram episode. People didn't act because they feared being branded racist. Why is that?

Rotherham! Hotbed of liberals!

Always good to see people supposedly on the left write stuff like this. Incompetent social workers (who are of course totally reliable when they blame managers who might have called them racist), budget problems etc all magicked away on Twitter.

I think this is the issue that could perhaps net UKIP an MP in Rotherham.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

I love that "move on" line.

Cameron used it when Ashcroft was revealed still to be a tax exile. Blair did it a lot too

The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

I agree.

It's made the No people look pretty negative and repetitive and they might lose some support for that. But it should be a banker that make victory safe.

Trouble is, Salmond conflates using the pound with having a currency union. There has never been any doubt that Scotland could use the pound (or, as Alistair Darling said, the dollar, the yen, the rouble...) The SNP misdirection appears to have been successful, judging by the response of their acolytes last night - cheers when AD said "of course Scotland could use the pound", as if it was some sort of breakthrough.

Of course, if we use it without a union, the ScotGov would have to build up reserves, either by borrowing or cutting services, in order to underpin the Scottish financial industry (and the first £85,000 of savings accounts).

Only 3 levels of quotes allowed - apologies if I've mucked them up!

Spacedone wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

James Bloodworth ‏@J_Bloodworth 1h

Liberals really need to learn from the sickening Rotheram episode. People didn't act because they feared being branded racist. Why is that?

Rotherham! Hotbed of liberals!

Always good to see people supposedly on the left write stuff like this. Incompetent social workers (who are of course totally reliable when they blame managers who might have called them racist), budget problems etc all magicked away on Twitter.

I think this is the issue that could perhaps net UKIP an MP in Rotherham.

Yes, it could well do. Though this was around in 2012 when Sarah Champion (who is absolutely untainted) easily won the by-election, replacing an MP who'd (perhaps a bit unfairly) been sent to jail.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:

rebeccariots2 wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Faisal Islam tried to ask Salmond about the currency issue on Sky News earlier, only to be told to move on, by Salmond, no change there then.

Sky News in fairness isn't half bad, they had a piece on last week about kids going hungry in the school holidays, the BBC had the story of Lidl's venturing into clothing, says it all.

Hello letsskip - excuse my ignorance - but who is the person in your new avatar? (I'm probably going to cringe in shame when you tell me ... but curiosity is stronger than my shame instinct).

And this is also to see if I have succeeded in loading an avatar for myself .....

You have succeeded, and what a gorgeous Pointer you have, is that the one you rescued? My avatar is the composer Shostakovich, he of the Stalingrad siege and so on, he may change later on, depending on my mood?!

Ah - now I don't feel so bad about not instantly knowing who it was. Interesting choice - and interesting photo.

Yes, that's our rescue pointer - our Spanish lady 'Musica'. She has adapted to the gorgeous west Wales landscape very well - as you can see. Two things I love in one photo.

ErnstRemarx wrote:

RogerOThornhill wrote:

ErnstRemarx wrote: The whole currency thing - in itself - is enough to doom the 'yes' vote in my opinion. If you can't tell Scots, about three weeks before they vote, what the currency's going to be, you're on a very sticky wicket.

Agreed -saying "You'll have to trust me that we can work something out" isn't good enough for something so fundamental to everyday lives.

They should have either got an undertaking from the Bank of England or have a plan B which people know what it is.

Indeed. I've yet to find out from the 'yes' camp just how they're going to force another sovereign state into a currency union when said state has already said it ain't gonna happen. What's Salmond going to do? Use harsh language? Call them Sassenach bastards? The rUK government will shrugs its shoulders, and watch the carnage.

Am I right in thinking that such a currency union would have to go to a referendum? Good luck getting the British public to agree to the principle of bailing out a country that just seceded.

Eric_WLothian wrote:
Trouble is, Salmond conflates using the pound with having a currency union. There has never been any doubt that Scotland could use the pound (or, as Alistair Darling said, the dollar, the yen, the rouble...) The SNP misdirection appears to have been successful, judging by the response of their acolytes last night - cheers when AD said "of course Scotland could use the pound", as if it was some sort of breakthrough.

Of course, if we use it without a union, the ScotGov would have to build up reserves, either by borrowing or cutting services, in order to underpin the Scottish financial industry (and the first £85,000 of savings accounts).

Only 3 levels of quotes allowed - apologies if I've mucked them up!

Indeed, it's about the Bank of England, not the pound. But I think enough people understand that and the problems.

It's been a bizarre muck up. Nationalists used to point (quite rightly) to Denmark as small country doing well. It's got its own currency, stayed out of the Euro etc.

Surely a Scottish currency was a perfectly plausible plan B?

ErnstRemarx wrote:
Indeed. I've yet to find out from the 'yes' camp just how they're going to force another sovereign state into a currency union when said state has already said it ain't gonna happen. What's Salmond going to do? Use harsh language? Call them Sassenach bastards? The rUK government will shrugs its shoulders, and watch the carnage.

"What's Salmond going to do?" Easy - shout very loudly over any reply he doesn't like. (It worked yesterday).

Somebody on Twitter noted that the Rotherham case had reminded them that we still don't have a chair appointed to the panel investigating the historic abuse allegations re the 'Establishment'.

Quite.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

Eric_WLothian wrote:
Trouble is, Salmond conflates using the pound with having a currency union. There has never been any doubt that Scotland could use the pound (or, as Alistair Darling said, the dollar, the yen, the rouble...) The SNP misdirection appears to have been successful, judging by the response of their acolytes last night - cheers when AD said "of course Scotland could use the pound", as if it was some sort of breakthrough.

Of course, if we use it without a union, the ScotGov would have to build up reserves, either by borrowing or cutting services, in order to underpin the Scottish financial industry (and the first £85,000 of savings accounts).

Only 3 levels of quotes allowed - apologies if I've mucked them up!

Indeed, it's about the Bank of England, not the pound. But I think enough people understand that and the problems.

It's been a bizarre muck up. Nationalists used to point (quite rightly) to Denmark as small country doing well. It's got its own currency, stayed out of the Euro etc.

Surely a Scottish currency was a perfectly plausible plan B?

It would but if they came out and said it then I think they'd immediately be asked what that would mean to the country's credit rating and its ability to borrow money.

Moodys have already stated that they think an independent Scotland would have a lower rating than the rest of the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-27247870

However, the report noted that Scotland would risk starting off with a speculative-grade rating - commonly referred to as "junk" - if the independence vote triggered protracted, acrimonious talks between London and Edinburgh.