Category: "News & Politics"

It's Not The End Of The World...

March 15th, 2020

Just a few thoughts on the coronavirus situation that we face at the moment. We've just had Matt Hancock the Health Secretary suggest that people over 70 self-isolate. I'm guessing that's in addition to the ones that are already self-isolated due to the austerity cuts the Conservatives imposed on them.

Then we have Richard Branson asking for a £7.5bn taxpayer handout for the airline industry. Private companies once again expecting the taxpayer to fund their losses with our money, how about f*** you and take the hit yourself. You keep the profits and you avoid paying the tax so don't come to us for a handout. You can't have it both ways.

Then we get to the panic buyers. I have never seen anything as selfish as what I am seeing right now. People panic buying toilet paper, pasta, flour, cleaning supplies etc. Supermarket shelves stripped of basic essentials, depriving the people who need it the most from getting the supplies they need.

We have people complaining about disrupted holiday plans. Complaints about flights being cancelled, complaints about hotels being cancelled etc. How about this for an idea why don't you just contact the airlines, contact the hotel and rebook your holiday to later in the year. It's not that difficult some airlines are offering free flight changes or refunds online without even speaking to anyone. Hotels that have no obligation to honour non-refundable bookings are offering to reschedule bookings. It's just a holiday.

However, the coronavirus has also brought out the best in people. People helping each other, shops donating supplies to the elderly and infirm, neighbours looking out for those who more vulnerable than ourselves. Retired health service workers coming back to volunteer, offering their services for free. So let's be positive as well.

The coronavirus is spreading fast and needs to be contained, so let's just chill out a bit and think about those who have lost loved ones during this outbreak and stop being so selfish.

This unwelcome disruption to our day-to-day life won't last forever and hopefully, everything will soon be back to normal, whatever that is...

Andy

Unfair taxation and FREE Stuff in Scotland!

March 8th, 2020

After the recent budget in Scotland, social media and the media have started the usual selfish complaining about Scotland (again). Mostly it's just headline clickbait without any substance about getting all this free stuff while paying more tax etc But its' the selfish comments that I find interesting.

Some of my favourite comments about the so-called unfair tax system in Scotland are similar to this one :
"I pay 21% tax and all I get is free prescriptions (which is usually a pack of antibiotics every 2 years or so..) And a free eye test every 2 years if needed. How is that fairer? It’s pish."
"I only need x and y so the tax system is unfair" is a pretty common theme.

Personally, I don't need the education system for myself, I don't need personal care (yet), I very rarely need a prescription. I don't need a baby box, I don't need lots of things that are funded through taxation but I am happy for example, to contribute towards making sure that my elderly mother (and everyone else's) can get the care and medication they deserve.

How many parents and grandparents would no longer be with us now if we were all as selfish as some people seem to be? Prescriptions funded by taxation remove some of the strain placed on the NHS by making sure that people are getting the correct medicines. By removing the initial financial costs people are more likely to take the medication prescribed thus removing pressures on frontline services.

The term free should be removed. We don't say we get free police, free fire fighters, free street cleaners,free primary schools, free secondary schools etc, they are funded by taxpayers money. We don't say we have free hospitals. Hospitals are funded through taxation in the same way that, in Scotland, elderly care, prescriptions, baby boxes, elderly bus travel etc are all funded through taxation. These services aren't free but the value to those people who benefit from them is well worth the cost.

We now live in a society where austerity has given people a stark choice between eating food or heating your home. Imagine making that decision to either die of hunger or die of cold. Then imagine adding to that the cost of a prescription. What would you choose? would you choose to eat?, would you choose to heat your home? or would you choose your medication? Which would you choose to do without?

Free childcare for Under Fives isn't free either, it is paid for through taxation. This allows parents who are struggling to make ends meet due to wage stagnation to go out to work, to contribute to society and to put back in what they take out.

Employees who get sick will not only lose their first 3 days of sick pay (around £200 on minimum wage), they would then have to consider the costs of any medication if required to get them back to work sooner. In Scotland, you don't have that additional worry but in rUK you are now going to have to find over £9.00 per item. Do you choose to be off work longer or do you choose your medication?

Although higher earners in Scotland pay a bit more, those on lower incomes pay a bit less than or the same as in rUK. If you look at the rest of the UK, the income tax system does not include prescriptions, elderly health care or higher education etc so if all of that was to be paid for through taxation, taxation in the rest of the UK would have to rise. Scotland already budgets for these things in its tax spending.

Andy

Making Sense Of How Big The UK National Debt Is.

February 23rd, 2020

At the time of writing the UK debt was just over £1.8tn (trillion). £1.8tn is such a massive number that is really difficult to imagine. So when they mention it on the news it has no real perspective to it. All we know is that it sounds like a really big number.

So, in terms that make sense, how big is it really? We are all familiar with millions, for example, £1m = £1,000,000 etc but when it comes to billions and trillions then the size of the numbers get crazy. So let's make some more sense of big numbers by converting them to something that we can measure, for example, time, which will make sense later.

Large Numbers Represented As Time
SecondsDaysYears
1m1,000,000 = 11.6 OR 0.03
1bn1,000,000,000 = 11,574.1 OR 31.69
1tn1,000,000,000,000 = 11,574,074.1 OR 31,688.09
1.8tn1,800,000,000,000 = 20,833,333.3 OR 57,038.56

As you can see from the table above, large numbers get a bit crazy really fast. Who would have guessed that 1m seconds was only just over 11 days but 1bn seconds was over 31 years? Now the National Debt figures starts to look a little bit out of control.

Let's imagine for a moment that all debt interest is frozen and that we agree to pay back the £1.8tn at

  • £1 per second, this will take 57,000 years. (£86,400 per day)
  • £10 per second, this will take 5,700 years. (£864,000 per day)
  • £100 per second, this will take 570 years. (£8.64m per day)
  • £1000 per second, this will take 57 years. (£86.4m per day)

Now if you add to that the debt interest then it's obvious that the debt appears impossible to clear. At best, all we can do is service the debt to stop it rising BUT the Conservative Party have doubled the UK debt in just under 10 years without scrutiny or comment from the media. With a majority of 80 in Westminster and another 5 years in power, how much more will the Conservatives borrow in order to make it appear that Brexit has worked?

And worse yet, how much will they borrow to bribe Scotland into staying in the Union?

Andy

A New Scottish Conservative Leader.

February 15th, 2020

It doesn't matter who the Scottish Conservative leader is. The serious issue is Westminsters' control of the purse strings as we head towards the 2021 elections. With a massive majority in England and now having full control of the treasury, the Conservatives are free to spend and manipulate without opposition.

The Conservative head office in England will strangle Scotlands economy in order to undermine the Holyrood elected Government and to promote the Conservatives. We've already seen the start of that by delaying the UK budget which impacts local government budgets in Scotland, closely followed by veilled threats to directly fund them from Westminster bypassing Holyrood altogether.

The Scottish Conservatives didn't waste any time trying to capitalise on the UK budget delay by saying they would support the Scottish budget as long as they didn't raise taxes. More than likely just trying to protect high earners from paying more.

Westminster has the money to fund these services in Scotland above and beyond what Scotland can do with the pocket money they give us. They also have full control of the UK media to fuel their propaganda. You can almost read the headlines now about how Westminster provides better services to Scotland than Holyrood.

The Conservatives have all of the UK resources at their disposal to make Scotland look like it is failing and that taking control back to Westminster is the only answer.

Westminster has promised the Union Jacking of everything in Scotland that has been financed by Scotlands own money but "funded" by the UK. B.Johnson said "We make sure - with every policy we pursue, with every investment we make in Scotland, then we put a Union flag on it." and in regards to the COP summit in Glasgow in Nov 2020 he said “I guess I don’t mind seeing a Saltire or two on that summit, but I want to see a union flag...". I guess you don't mind... really, how much more patronising can you get. I couldn't print what I really wanted to write here but I'm sure you'll be able to guess.

The re-branding of Scotland has been underway for years now. A slow, deliberate removal of Scotlands identity. Take a look at the items on your supermarket shelves as the Saltire gets replaced with Union Jacks. Scotch Beef, which had geographical protection under EU regulations is now British beef with a Union Jack attached. The full implementation of the Jacking of Scotch Beef shouldn't take too long to complete. It's a phased approach so you hardly notice it's happening at all. They mix a few Jacked lines in with the Saltires so you won't really notice once the Saltire is removed.

It would be interesting to find out who is funding the businesses to Jack these items. Its not just meat, its on everything we consume, fish, fruit and veg, whisky and eggs etc.

So back to the main point about the new Scottish Conservative leader. It doesn't matter who it is, they are effectively English Conservatives sitting in a Scottish parliament pretending to care about Scotland while doing what they are told by their Westminster leaders.

If Scotland is waiting until the 2021 election results for independence then it'll be too late. We might as well give up now. The collective might of rUK and the media will have destroyed Scotland by then. A one year, tax payer funded £5m pro-union / anti-independence campaign is about to start and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Our tax money is being used against us to tell us we are too small, too poor, too stupid etc well if we let that happen then they're probably right.

Andy

A 'once in a generation' Independence Referendum

February 10th, 2020

The tired old 'once in a generation' excuse for not allowing Scotland another referendum is really wearing thin. "Once in a generation" was a personal opinion even though it was mentioned twice in the document "Scotlands Future" to emphasise the importance of the event.

Once in a generation was not policy nor was it mentioned anywhere in the Edinburgh Agreement, section 30 order OR in The Scottish Referendum Bill. The Smith Commission Report after the referendum stated :

18. It is agreed that nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose.

Alex Salmond interview.

[Watch Alex Salmond interview in a new window]

The Edinburgh Agreement [ The Edinburgh Agreement (pdf) ]

The Scottish Referendum Bill [ The Scottish Referendum Bill (pdf) which received Royal Assent on 17 December 2013]

Scotland Act 1988 Section 30 [ Scotland Act 1988 Section 30 ]

The Smith Commission Report [ The Smith Commission Report (pdf) ]

Scotlands Future [ Scotlands Future (pdf) A blueprint for an Independent Scotland]

The phrase once in a generation is used to emphasise the importance of an event. It is not a time limit or restriction on that event happening again.

UPDATED [7 Aug 2022] :  Ciaran Martin, architect of the Edinburgh agreement clarifies the "once in a generation" slogan. 
"I think the assumption seems to have been that the issue would go away rather than resurface. And there was this reliance on a slogan of once in a generation, but that was just that, a slogan. It's got the same constitutional standing as the £350,000,000 for the NHS per week on a bus".

 
[ Watch the video in a new window ]

Links to all the legal documents are listed above so whenever you hear the battle cry, "once in a generation", either link directly to this page or use it as a reference to find the documents quickly to end the argument.

Andy