Scottish Referendum / Independence - Vol 8

[Order66]

57 Chevy said:

Seems they really don't like people deciding things for themselves...

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construct...

We are suffering from this locally with the bilge-spewing Bothwell Incinerator that the local council refused and residents are very much against (for good reasons, not just NIBMY excuses), but the SNP got a back-hander and overruled. They are coming back for a 2nd bite of the cherry and the local council will refuse permission again, then I can guarantee SNP ministers will overrule again:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/new-h...

[Starfighter]

That is not just a Scottish issue. We had the same in Gloucestershire and the over rule came from Westminster.

[57 Chevy]

Starfighter said:

That is not just a Scottish issue. We had the same in Gloucestershire and the over rule came from Westminster.

The difference is you don't have a party in charge who's raison d'etre is that decisions are best made locally and not by a government miles away who apparently don't understand local issues

[ASA569]

Expert warns Curriculum of Excellence is "dumbing down" education but Swinney says he's wrong Expert also states there is a fear of criticising the government for fear if losing research grants. So yeah, we'll give you money but only if you tell us what we want to hear.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-pol...

There are so many points in that story that make me mad not least that they are more than probably widening the current gap between the educated and uneducated whilst telling everyone they are making Scotland an equal society. Stronger for Scotland my arse. They should be done by the advertising authority for that slogan

[Sylvaforever]

Order66 said:

57 Chevy said:

Seems they really don't like people deciding things for themselves...

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construct...

We are suffering from this locally with the bilge-spewing Bothwell Incinerator that the local council refused and residents are very much against (for good reasons, not just NIBMY excuses), but the SNP got a back-hander and overruled. They are coming back for a 2nd bite of the cherry and the local council will refuse permission again, then I can guarantee SNP ministers will overrule again:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/new-h...

Backhanders at the highest level? I will say that the Argyle and Bute council HAVE listened to the objections BUT as soon as one set of proposals are turned down more turn up courtesy of Dawnfresh lawers.

http://lochetive.org/dawnfresh.html

Note the profit margin.


With Etive there are special and singular conditions which mark out the topography of the Loch as scientifically unique.
Unfortunately this has the effect that at the bottoms of the three "basins"the water does not get re oxygenated for some 18 months if not YEARS....

http://lochetive.org/benthic.html

http://lochetive.org/sealice.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/0...

"I last heard Staniford talk in London in 2012, when he gave a lecture at the National Geographic Society, calling fish farms “toxic toilets” and warning that diseases were rife, waste was out of control and the use of chemicals was growing fast. Not only were fish farms getting bigger, he said, they were also becoming reservoirs for infectious diseases and parasites. It was a shocking, revealing talk. I did not know that farmed salmon were fed partly on fishmeal and fish oil, often derived from ocean fish such as anchovies, herring and sardines. Despite industry claims that industrial aquaculture feeds the world’s poor, it seemed that the big farms were adding to the pressure on the depletion of the oceans."

[wc98]

Sylvaforever said:

Backhanders at the highest level? I will say that the Argyle and Bute council HAVE listened to the objections BUT as soon as one set of proposals are turned down more turn up courtesy of Dawnfresh lawers.

http://lochetive.org/dawnfresh.html

Note the profit margin.


With Etive there are special and singular conditions which mark out the topography of the Loch as scientifically unique.
Unfortunately this has the effect that at the bottoms of the three "basins"the water does not get re oxygenated for some 18 months if not YEARS....

http://lochetive.org/benthic.html

http://lochetive.org/sealice.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/0...

"I last heard Staniford talk in London in 2012, when he gave a lecture at the National Geographic Society, calling fish farms “toxic toilets” and warning that diseases were rife, waste was out of control and the use of chemicals was growing fast. Not only were fish farms getting bigger, he said, they were also becoming reservoirs for infectious diseases and parasites. It was a shocking, revealing talk. I did not know that farmed salmon were fed partly on fishmeal and fish oil, often derived from ocean fish such as anchovies, herring and sardines. Despite industry claims that industrial aquaculture feeds the world’s poor, it seemed that the big farms were adding to the pressure on the depletion of the oceans."

all industrial scale salmon farming is a joke.around 5 kg of wild caught fish is required to produce 1 kg of farmed salmon. etive has a far higher number of parasites in the wild fish population than i have seen anywhere else , though i don't know if that can be attributed to the fish farms.
i once spoke to a bloke that reckoned there were huge amounts of antibiotics, initially intended for use on pigs of all things , going into farmed salmon and i understand there are advisory limits for human consumption levels .
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=... this may well be out of date, but personally you could not pay me to eat that crap ,though wild fish are not much better taste wise ,imo. give me smoked sea trout over salmon any day of the week.

[Sylvaforever]

wc98 said:

Sylvaforever said:

Backhanders at the highest level? I will say that the Argyle and Bute council HAVE listened to the objections BUT as soon as one set of proposals are turned down more turn up courtesy of Dawnfresh lawers.

http://lochetive.org/dawnfresh.html

Note the profit margin.


With Etive there are special and singular conditions which mark out the topography of the Loch as scientifically unique.
Unfortunately this has the effect that at the bottoms of the three "basins"the water does not get re oxygenated for some 18 months if not YEARS....

http://lochetive.org/benthic.html

http://lochetive.org/sealice.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/0...

"I last heard Staniford talk in London in 2012, when he gave a lecture at the National Geographic Society, calling fish farms “toxic toilets” and warning that diseases were rife, waste was out of control and the use of chemicals was growing fast. Not only were fish farms getting bigger, he said, they were also becoming reservoirs for infectious diseases and parasites. It was a shocking, revealing talk. I did not know that farmed salmon were fed partly on fishmeal and fish oil, often derived from ocean fish such as anchovies, herring and sardines. Despite industry claims that industrial aquaculture feeds the world’s poor, it seemed that the big farms were adding to the pressure on the depletion of the oceans."

all industrial scale salmon farming is a joke.around 5 kg of wild caught fish is required to produce 1 kg of farmed salmon. etive has a far higher number of parasites in the wild fish population than i have seen anywhere else , though i don't know if that can be attributed to the fish farms.
i once spoke to a bloke that reckoned there were huge amounts of antibiotics, initially intended for use on pigs of all things , going into farmed salmon and i understand there are advisory limits for human consumption levels .
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=... this may well be out of date, but personally you could not pay me to eat that crap ,though wild fish are not much better taste wise ,imo. give me smoked sea trout over salmon any day of the week.

Etive is a magical place: any industrialisation MUST be opposed, people perhaps don't understand how FAR even just sound travels over the Loch... As for the chemicals, the last thing we need are genetically mutated spider crabs around the place...

[r11co]

ASA569 said:

Expert warns Curriculum of Excellence is "dumbing down" education but Swinney says he's wrong

Swinney will point to the fact that the SQA have been instructed to lengthen all the National 5 level examinations for 2018 as an indication that they are 'toughening up' rather than dumbing down education, but that is of course bullst as the SQA have been consistently tinkering with grade boundaries for decades now to keep pass levels at a politically acceptable level and will continue to do so. The content of the N5 courses are now crap (with many containing factual inaccuracies) and the course specifications have been rewritten this year to make marking as mechanised as possible so that unskilled or semi-skilled individuals can be paid a pittance to do the marking. The process is now so rigid that many correct answers given by students will be rejected because (a) only content specified in the course spec. will be given credit and (b) the people doing the marking haven't sufficient knowledge of the subjects they are marking to make a judgement where the answer doesn't match the marking scheme exactly. As a result teachers will be forced to coach students to peform to the exam, thus making a complete mockery of the CfE ethos.

The whole system is now a disaster because millions of pounds were hosed up the wall dismantling a working system and replacing it with one that doesn't work, and now there isn't the money to return things to even a semblence of what they were so everything is being done on a shoestring.

Edited by r11co on Sunday 3rd September 16:16

[r11co]

Expect the Nationalists to blip on the radar again today. Nicola is setting out her legislative programme for the next session and is promising the "most ambitious" proposals yet.

Not as bold a claim as it sounds considering they haven't passed a legislative bill for 2 years and 4 months now.

Expected headlines:

• removal of the cap on public sector wage rises (meaningless as the settlements for this year have already been announced and are within the cap)

• removal of local authority control on schools

• pointless virtue signalling about retrospective pardoning of historic homosexual offences

• whitewash about climate change (while lifting the fracking moratorium)

[csd19]

r11co said:

Expect the Nationalists to blip on the radar again today. Nicola is setting out her legislative programme for the next session and is promising the "most ambitious" proposals yet.

Not as bold a claim as it sounds considering they haven't passed a legislative bill for 2 years and 4 months now.

Expected headlines:

• removal of the cap on public sector wage rises (meaningless as the settlements for this year have already been announced and are within the cap)

• removal of local authority control on schools

• pointless virtue signalling about retrospective pardoning of historic homosexual offences

• whitewash about climate change (while lifting the fracking moratorium)

You can add

• Phasing out of all ICE vehicles from Scotland's roads by 2032 (let's see how well the infrastructure copes with the remote parts of the country)

• "Bottle Deposit Scheme" where we get paid for recycling plastic and glass bottles - with nothing to stop cross-border trips to claim the money

• Increase in income tax for people earning between £40k and £100K - unsurprisingly the Greens' Patrick Harvie has supported this saying "high earners should pay a fairer share for the public services we all benefit from". .

[Murph7355]

Finally they're using their tax raising powers.

It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Is she taking a leaf from Gordon's book and raising them just prior to expecting to lose power so she can bleat about them and blame the other parties when they're reversed?

[FN2TypeR]

Fingers crossed that the fracking moratorium is canned, purely for selfish reasons - I know a couple of green voters that will be raging at the prospect, I can't wait

[steveL98]

Murph7355 said:

Finally they're using their tax raising powers.

It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Is she taking a leaf from Gordon's book and raising them just prior to expecting to lose power so she can bleat about them and blame the other parties when they're reversed?

I bet this is how it'll go for us Scots next year..

For £11k to £43k, tax rate up from 20% to 30%, and £43k upwards 50%..

Public sector will (as indicated UK wide not just Scotland) will move off the current 1% pay rise. This will put some over the £43k threshold and as such will pay more tax possibly reducing their net pay further when combined with the added 30% increase..

Scotland seriously needs a Tory government, with low taxes to attract wealth and business. I can see this proposed taxation driving them away instead, but that's the socialist thing isn't it? Handouts and subsedies instead of hard work and enterprise..

Edited by steveL98 on Friday 8th September 10:03

[B210bandit]

steveL98 said:

I bet this is how it'll go for us Scots next year..

For £11k to £43k, tax rate up from 20% to 30%, and £43k upwards 50%..

Public sector will (as indicated UK wide not just Scotland) will move off the current 1% pay rise. This will put some over the £43k threshold and as such will pay more tax possibly reducing their net pay further when combined with the added 30% increase..

Scotland seriously needs a Tory government, with low taxes to attract wealth and business. I can see this proposed taxation driving them away instead, but that's the socialist thing isn't it? Handouts and subsedies instead of hard work and enterprise..

Edited by steveL98 on Friday 8th September 10:03

Back to direct rule, I think. It's clear that Scots can't choose correctly when deciding who should govern them and need England to sort this out.

[Order66]

steveL98 said:

For £11k to £43k, tax rate up from 20% to 30%.

That will never happen. The exodus to south of the border would be huge and their total tax take would collapse.

[r11co]

This article by Bill Leckie sums things up perfectly.

The SNP are a busted flush with even the Current Bun deserting them.

The opening to FMQ's yesterday was very interesting, with Nicola unable to prevent herself resorting to the 'Tories bad' rhetoric that proved so costly to her at the last General Election. With the independence movement as good as dead she's trying to hold on to the feckless (I won't flatter them by calling them socialist) voters. With Scotland not exactly awash with top-earners any tax take increase will have to hit the majority of net earners, and the 'champagne socialists' (or should that be Prosecco) don't exist in anything like the same numbers in Glasgow and Edinburgh as they do in the Home Counties so they will not be shrugging their shoulders and giving in to the greater good.

Bottom line is if she convinces enough of the feckless that the SNP is a leftie party by increasing tax it will split their vote between the SNP and Labour, with the working/earning class not happy with the tax increases finding Ruth Davidson's 'Tory light' approach increasingly attractive.

Scotland was traditionally a conservative country, and the principles that underpinned that are still present IMO.

Edited by r11co on Friday 8th September 12:04

[B210bandit]

Scots are also smart enough to see through the pretence of local democracy that places like Holyrood (and Stormont and the Welsh Assembly) represent. Municipalities in Finland and provinces in Canada have more powers than these pointless assemblies. The UK is founded on centralised administration by London; local government is really just for rubbish collection and the like.

[AstonZagato]

B210bandit said:

Back to direct rule, I think. It's clear that Scots can't choose correctly when deciding who should govern them and need England to sort this out.

B210bandit said:

Scots are also smart enough to see through the pretence of local democracy that places like Holyrood (and Stormont and the Welsh Assembly) represent. Municipalities in Finland and provinces in Canada have more powers than these pointless assemblies. The UK is founded on centralised administration by London; local government is really just for rubbish collection and the like.

Are you saying this to get a rise? Or do you really think this?

[B210bandit]

No point in half way houses. Either you are self-governing, or with a high degree of autonomy (e.g. the Azores within Portugal) or you give up the charade and avoid pointless argument and expense. Whatever, Holyrood can be ignored completely by London, so it's neither here nor there in the big scheme of things. The UK's constitutional structure is probably the most centralised in the Western world (with the exception of tiny nations like New Zealand.) Of every £1 in taxation, 91 pence is allocated by central government. Why encourage people into a false sense of local government when it is patently a fraud?

[technodup]

B210bandit said:

Scots are also smart enough to see through the pretence of local democracy that places like Holyrood (and Stormont and the Welsh Assembly) represent.

I only wish we were. Fact is people voted for it, which in turn boosted the SNP to the point where they very nearly broke us off completely.

They might be seeing it now but it's a bit late. I wish we could get rid of it and fk the SNP good and proper.