Scottish Referendum / Independence - Vol 7
Discussion
Edinburger said:
Don't be blinded by anti-Scottish rhetoric on this forum. Scotland has a heck of a lot going for it.
You are doing it again 'burger. Pointing out that the SNP are ruining Scotland is NOT anti-Scottish rhetoric. Quite the opposite in fact, so you are either being deliberately obtuse or lack the interpretative skills to understand that. Which is it?Edinburger said:
Would it be significantly better or worse if we were governed by a different party? Think about it.
The argument of last resort of a failed government.Independence is becoming less and not more likely under the SNP's tenure because they are demonstrating on a daily basis that they cannot manage what proportion they are in charge of, so cannot be expected to be able to look after the whole lot (and even 'means to an end' erstwhile SNP supporters are waking up to that). The damage they are doing the meantime is now what the majority of posters in this forum are concerned about.
Can we now have your response to the PISA education stats issue?
Edited by r11co on Wednesday 14th December 14:08
Edinburger said:
A.J.M said:
So they can open a gateway?
But can't get trains to run properly...
Got an answer to the shocking decline in schools burger since you are on and up for defending stuff.
Scottish trains are unreliable but that's a UK wide issue. But can't get trains to run properly...
Got an answer to the shocking decline in schools burger since you are on and up for defending stuff.
Today my friend, her partner and their 4 year old tried to go to the Christmas events in Edinburgh.
Cost a fair bit to get the tickets.
3 trains cancelled and the 4th stopped at Bathgate. Day ruined and she's wishing she took the car.
Interesting how you neatly side stepped the school decline question.
Does having such a massive drop in standards go against the SNP orders to not discuss it.
Or does it not register that the cause of this is landing straight at wee nippy and pals incompetence.
It's pathetic how they have gotten away with this shameful effort for so long.
Edinburger said:
Alpacaman said:
ellroy said:
Don't worry they'll be along shortly with a squirrel.
Edinburger said:
That's the Edinburgh Gateway interchange (which we've discussed here several times) open on time and to budget.
I am sure that's great for you if you travel through that part of Edinburgh, but would you care to comment on the state of education in this country and how it seems to have got far worse under the party that is supposed to be "Stronger for Scotland"? I would also assume that the fact that project is on time and on budget would be far more to do with the contractors and how they priced the job and little or nothing to do with the Scottish Government.
If the project was not on time and was over-budget then - according to you lot - that would absolutely be the fault of the SG / SNP / Ms Sturgeon.
And don't try to deny it.
Come on here post some random link as if it proves somehow the SNP/ Ms Sturgeon are doing a wonderful job and then, when it is pointed out it is probably very little to do with them, you try and blame the people posting on here. The fact is the SNP/Ms Sturgeon are forever trying to claim the glory for anything that goes right and blame the Tories/Wastemonster if anything goes wrong, but of course to you that is different. And don't try to deny it.
And don't think I didn't notice you carefully avoided the question about Scottish education.
And as for anti-Scottish rhetoric, as has been pointed out to you many times anti-SNP does not equal anti-Scottish, despite what Nicoliar says the SNP do not speak for Scotland. So stop getting your SNP y fronts in a twist.
Edited by Alpacaman on Wednesday 14th December 17:43
Edinburger said:
simoid said:
Welshbeef said:
simoid said:
I wonder if they'll get rid of the c. 60% marginal tax rates for people earning £43k or whatever it was.
It's 62% and it's £100-122k range "Furthermore the SNP is deeply disingenuous when it asserts that it is simply not passing on a “tax cut” as every Scottish tax payer in 2017-18 will endure an increased tax burden on their earnings between £43,387 and £45,000 per annum due to increases in National Insurance. Indeed the marginal tax rate in Scotland will be increased to 52 per cent in this band. Whilst this might seem a narrow anomaly today by 2020 this 52 per cent marginal rate will cover about £4,000 of income between £46,000 and £50,000. The tax changes in George Osborne’s recent Budget were a package, so on the one hand the threshold for higher rate tax rose but on the other so did the ceiling at which 12 per cent National Insurance continues to be paid. In net terms English tax payers enjoy a 10 per cent fall in their overall marginal tax rate whereas the Scots suffer a 10 per cent increase."
http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14440951.dis...
Presumably there's people turning down overtime, reducing Scotland's productivity, because they don't want to earn £100 and give £52 to the government.
simoid said:
Welshbeef said:
Scottish budget tomorrow
So what are we expecting to see?
It seems it's Thursday for the budget? MSPs are debating income tax presently.So what are we expecting to see?
t day I've had today could really have done with a bottle or two of red tonight watching this farce to cheer up a testing day. Edinburger said:
Don't be blinded by anti-Scottish rhetoric on this forum. Scotland has a heck of a lot going for it.
You seem to be blinded into thinking there's anti-scottish sentiment on here.And yes, Scotland does have many things going for it. Trouble is, the SNP isn't one of them.
Edinburger said:
No this will be the inevitable outcome from banks telling their customers for years that "you don't need to visit your branch to set up a standing order/make a transfer/order a new bank card/cancel a direct debit/pay your credit card/order foreign currency/open a new account* Mrs Smith, you can do that online / over the phone now."(*delete as applicable)
I worked for RBS for almost 6 years up to July 2007, branch-based, and even in that time I noticed a decline in customer numbers as the new banking options were
Less traffic across the doormat = less sales opportunities at the counter ("Can I just ask, when was the last time you had a customer service review carried out on your accounts?") = less targets achieved.
Don't worry, there's plenty of other f
k-ups out there with the SNP's signature all over them 
but nice try.Edinburger said:
It's part of the issue of living in a rural area - you have to deal with travel but on the upside you have amazing countryside on the front door. Ditto people in Cornwall Wales Irish Free state.
SE England vastly less so
Huzzah - some positive news for the SNP - and all Scots.
'She is the well-mannered yet rampant lioness and we are her lucky cubs.' - Alan Cumming
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4025150/Sh...
'She is the well-mannered yet rampant lioness and we are her lucky cubs.' - Alan Cumming
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4025150/Sh...
A.J.M said:
Edinburger said:
A.J.M said:
So they can open a gateway?
But can't get trains to run properly...
Got an answer to the shocking decline in schools burger since you are on and up for defending stuff.
Scottish trains are unreliable but that's a UK wide issue. But can't get trains to run properly...
Got an answer to the shocking decline in schools burger since you are on and up for defending stuff.
Today my friend, her partner and their 4 year old tried to go to the Christmas events in Edinburgh.
Cost a fair bit to get the tickets.
3 trains cancelled and the 4th stopped at Bathgate. Day ruined and she's wishing she took the car.
Interesting how you neatly side stepped the school decline question.
Does having such a massive drop in standards go against the SNP orders to not discuss it.
Or does it not register that the cause of this is landing straight at wee nippy and pals incompetence.
It's pathetic how they have gotten away with this shameful effort for so long.
t since the dutch took over; it would bad enough just with the reduced service provision(loss of peaktime express services and many of the remaining services reduced from 6 cars to 3) but the chronic unreliability and skipping stations to make up time on delayed services are the stty icing on a st cake. Quite something that people are becoming nostalgic about when FirstGroup ran Scotrail.hidetheelephants said:
The Helensburgh-Edinburgh line has been utter st since the dutch took over; it would bad enough just with the reduced service provision(loss of peaktime express services and many of the remaining services reduced from 6 cars to 3) but the chronic unreliability and skipping stations to make up time on delayed services are the stty icing on a st cake. Quite something that people are becoming nostalgic about when FirstGroup ran Scotrail.
There's a Helensburgh to Edinburgh service?!?!?!?t since the dutch took over; it would bad enough just with the reduced service provision(loss of peaktime express services and many of the remaining services reduced from 6 cars to 3) but the chronic unreliability and skipping stations to make up time on delayed services are the stty icing on a st cake. Quite something that people are becoming nostalgic about when FirstGroup ran Scotrail.I live 15 miles from Edinburgh as the crow flies but have to drive 9 of them to get to a train station.
The ironic thing is that a railway line runs about 150ft from my front door but I can't catch a train on it.
Troubleatmill said:
Huzzah - some positive news for the SNP - and all Scots.
'She is the well-mannered yet rampant lioness and we are her lucky cubs.' - Alan Cumming
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4025150/Sh...
So pleased that a'She is the well-mannered yet rampant lioness and we are her lucky cubs.' - Alan Cumming
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4025150/Sh...
hole is behind the SNP.So, one of the most-leaked proposals in the Scottish Budget statement is the increase in higher-band council tax bills accompanied by the breaking of the link between local council accountability so that the money raised can be redirected to education in areas deemed as needing to 'close the attainment gap'.
The problem is though that more money is not what is needed to fix what is wrong with the Scottish Education system. The SNP have already wasted a decade pissing money up the wall implementing a flawed curriculum and assessment model, so the idea that pouring more money into a scheme that was tried and abandoned in three other countries will somehow magically make it start to work in Scotland is madness, yet typical of SNP arrogance and mismanagement.
When I hear the statement 'Curriculum for Excellence has been abandoned' then there is a chance they are on the right track, but that would be a massive admission that they got something horribly wrong and the hundreds of millions spent on steering committees and pages and pages of aimless boilerplate had been wasted.
PS. Message to 'burger - this is not 'talking down Scotland'. The PISA statistics pretty much speak for themselves, and once again I await your response on this issue.
The problem is though that more money is not what is needed to fix what is wrong with the Scottish Education system. The SNP have already wasted a decade pissing money up the wall implementing a flawed curriculum and assessment model, so the idea that pouring more money into a scheme that was tried and abandoned in three other countries will somehow magically make it start to work in Scotland is madness, yet typical of SNP arrogance and mismanagement.
When I hear the statement 'Curriculum for Excellence has been abandoned' then there is a chance they are on the right track, but that would be a massive admission that they got something horribly wrong and the hundreds of millions spent on steering committees and pages and pages of aimless boilerplate had been wasted.
PS. Message to 'burger - this is not 'talking down Scotland'. The PISA statistics pretty much speak for themselves, and once again I await your response on this issue.
Edinburger said:
Would it be significantly better or worse if we were governed by a different party?
On the single of issue of education - yes, absolutely, because a different party could wholeheartedly reject the policies of this government rather than the country having to tolerate an education secretary clinging to a failed model for fear of losing face.Edited by r11co on Thursday 15th December 10:27
r11co said:
The problem is though that more money is not what is needed to fix what is wrong with the Scottish Education system.
The problem is all parties believe the solution to any problem is more money. Even the ones who might not really believe it know it's what a lot of people want to hear- I'm thinking Tories matching Labour's NHS spending for example.'More money' is irresistible to politicians. Even better if it is 'other people's (i.e. 'the rich') money. They get to dog whistle the plebs and preside over a bigger budget, all the while not really having to achieve anything because after all 'they' put more money in so they've done their bit.
The sooner someone comes along and says money isn't always the answer, that individuals need to change their ways, that public organisations need to act more business like or that actually having multiple pointless layers of government is an obvious drain on 'more money' the better.
While I wait for that I suppose I'll have to stump up the extra.
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