handyman wrote:
Yeah good post Jasbar, I am in agreement with most of your comments, except that the SNP MAY help our situation here in Scotland. Eg we would not have the horrific bedroom tax if we were an Independent nation. And also we would not have troops being sent out to fight other peoples wars for them in Iraq and Afghanistan - our young men would not have to die for these dubious causes. And as you say money is being pulled from everywhere to fund the excesses of the Square Mile and Wall St - who can do whatever they like - except WE should not have to pay for it. Fred Goodwin wanted to be like the Americans with his own private golf course and all, and then threw good banking sense out the window and gambled away the entire RBS. When any small business needs help from a bank they are given the cold-shoulder, and larger companies go under because of extortionate fees.
Scotland is potentially a great nation and we should believe in it more - why don't we give Independence a chance. Why do we keep hearing so many scare stories about how bad everything will be if Scotland goes independent. At least we would escape the Tories once and for all.
I agree with your point that Scotland is a great nation and we should believe in it a bit more. But not with "Independence", and I'll explain this in a moment.
Let me say first that to me, being a Scot is a state of mind. It's about equality, humbleness - we're all Jock Tamson's bairns,its about accepting other cultures, embracing them and learning from them, for the common good. And I don't need an artificial boundary which excludes others for me to feel good about being a Scot.
And it's not really "Independence" anyway. Anyone who watches International News in the media, surely has to realise that globalisation renders us all subjects of International financial interests. No nation is any longer "Independent".
And failing to understand this is a folly that can only increase our bureaucracy exponentially, as we busy ourselves trying to replicate in Scotland every government institution that already exists in Westminster - a vast cost at a time when we're already in financial meltdown, and our priorities should be to help those who need help. Because that's what a true Scot would do.
Now, two aspects that really concern me.
First, the SNP. I well remember the SNP chair of the Regulatory Committee, Colin Keir, saying to Gordon MacDonald - who had told the committee that he had been refused being able to work for City Cabs because he had applied for his own taxi licence (the members must be truly proud of such conduct to support it), and that he needed the application to be granted because he was now out of work, unemployed - that the committee members were not there to consider MacDonald's "employment prospects". How caring was Keir? How caring is the SNP?
In short, the SNP are a party who don't care about individuals. Or their families who bear the brunt of their policies. And they care less about free market enterprise. They only care about power. About lording it over Scotland's minions. us.
Keir is a scumbag. And the only conclusion that any reasonable person can draw, is that the party who promoted him into the coven that is the Holyrood Parliament, well they have to be scumbags too. Do you want to live under the yoke of a scumbag totalitarian SNP?
Now, having established the SNP's despicable credentials, would you want them to dictate to you? Consider now how it will happen.
Scotland's Parliamentary system is immature. Unlike other democratic countries, our Parliament has no revising Chamber. The US's checks and balances are in its tripartite system - Congress, Senate and Presidential office. Westminster has the House of Lords. Most other countries have inbuilt checks on those wielding power.
We don't.
Perhaps the reason is that when our Parliament system was being designed, the electoral system was shaped so that no single party would ever have a majority. The checks and balances would be within the body of the Parliament as the governing minority party would have to seek approval from elsewhere within the chamber to pass any legislation.
But with the collapse of the Tories, and discredited Labour, and the duplicitous Libdems, and the Greens little more than an annoyance, the SNP have been able to form an electoral dictatorship.
And that's why we have such wonderful policies as the iniquitous rights denying smoking ban (Unworkable as it is because even cabbies smoke in the cab); Cigarettes stupidly hidden from view in drawers in supermarkets, but not in minor stores (doh!!!); attempting minimum pricing of alcohol, when alcohol is sold cheaper in other countries without the social problems we have; Medical fascists relishing their new found "expert" influence to control our life decisions; and all while the very fabric of our society is being assaulted by our Tory government and while SNP politicians say nothing.
Who wants to live under the jackboot of an SNP dictatorship?
Scotland is not ready for self dependence. I hope it never will be.
I don't want to live in a parochial nation, denied my right to enterprise, by politicians I know have breached my rights, and have breached the rights of taxi trade workers for the last 13 years and more. If the council suspended or revoked YOUR licence, they breached your rights.
And I want them, and the electorate who don't really involve themselves enough to hold our politicians to account, to pay through the nose.
This is where we're heading. An illusory Scotland "Independence" is of no consequence.
And, from those I've spoken to, it is going to be voted down. End of. Hopefully, the end of the SNP.
