Who Won The Big Debate?

[threegee]

I can only tell you who lost - the BBC Scotland moderator who might as well not have been there!  An utter shambles of a "debate", where 99% of the audience had obviously already made up their minds and weren't in an way interested in what anyone else had to say. The glee in the ScotNat camp when Darling said Scotland couldn't be prevented from using the Pound was telling - the Nats weren't at all interested in any of the follow-on gotchas.

 

As for the participants, it was a contest between two socialists as to who could better waste other people's money - in Salmond's case the same money several times over (must have been taking lessons from Gordo there).

 

On an issue which stirs such passion North of the border you'd have though there would be some passion in the debate.  But, Darling was clearly reading the script most of the time, whilst Salmond was transparently following instruction from his spin doctor coaches. When he walked away from the podium jaws dropped - until it became clear that it was a pre-planned, spin doctor inspired, ruse to "psychologically embrace" the questioner.  I hope the fees for all that coaching on presentation are going into English pockets.

 

Could the whole thing be a cunning plan by Tory Central Office to permanently eliminate fourth or fifty Labour MPs from Westminster?  If so the plan was likely doomed from the moment they failed to secure the services of Scotsman Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to champion the No cause!  From then on a dead sheep could top the poll for the No campaign - and likely will!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Way too stage managed!

[threegee]

I'm told the Beeb guy was Glen Campbell, but he didn't even get to Perth let alone Phoenix, and certainly never to the point. He was Gentle On Salmond's Mind though! No True Grit in evidence at all, and it sure wasn't a Southern Night!

[keith lockey]

So was it "Salmond's enchanted evening."

[threegee]

I'd have put  money for the proposition that there'd be no connection whatsoever between that song and Glen Campbell, but... in the weird world of music, and way back in 1967, it seems...

 

http://www.forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/glen-campbell-as-a-session-musician.161053/ 

 

How did we ever get by without the internet?

 

But.. if we are moving to South Pacific it certainly wasn't Happy Talk on the night. The ScotNats might think he's A Wonderful Guy, but he's simply A Cock-Eyed Optimist because his estimates of oil revenue are so Bali High!  He thinks the electorate have Got To Be Carefully Taught, but we all know he'll end up in a duet with the fat lady - singing This N-e-a-r-l-y Was Mine!  If I'd paid a bit more attention to Scottish history at school I'd probably have been able to work Bloody Mary into this too!  Though a prize should be offered to anyone who can hang Younger Than Springtime on either of the deadly(boring) duo! That said, I do detect an uncanny resemblance between Darling and Honey Bun - by way of said dead sheep!

 

Oh.. and almost missed the show-stopper number: There Is Nothing Like A Dame - especially when you appoint them yourself, and then they report exactly what you want them to, when you refer yourself to them!   Canny lot those Scot Nats; know exactly what they are getting themselves into - I expect!

 

 

http://antioligarch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/the-shame-of-britain-its-not-the-olympics/

[keith lockey]

You're just a Cockeyed optimist, Threegee. (or as me and my brother used to say in our younger days ...:a cockeyed octopus!!!)

[threegee]

You're just a Cockeyed optimist, Threegee. (or as me and my brother used to say in our younger days ...:a cockeyed octopus!!!)

 

You've hit on one of life's great conundrums:  If octopi have only eight legs how on earth do they mange ten tickles?

[threegee]

[Brian Cross]

What is happening with the Scottish referendum about leaving the Union,is it a concern or doesn't any one give monkeys ?

[threegee]

What is happening with the Scottish referendum about leaving the Union,is it a concern or doesn't any one give monkeys ?

 

Yes and no!   Malcolm doesn't seem to agree with me, but I think it matters a great deal for us here in the S. E. Northumberland.  But - like many of the big issues that do matter - no one seems to "give a monkeys".

 

IMHO leaving the UK would be a disastrous mistake.  Salmond is a snake oil salesman, and will blame the UK for the disaster he himself brings on.  He's acting like the UK will agree to all his demands, when in fact any UK politico who doesn't play hard-ball with a Scotland that has turned its back on the UK won't last very long.  The matter is out of party politics, and he'll get more or less the same treatment from whoever is in power.

 

He's also a proven liar, and his gentlemanly undertaking to accept the poll result will be rapidly forgotten.  He will continue to moan and blame the rest of the UK whatever; it's a no win situation for the UK!

 

On the other hand Northumberland would greatly benefit from an independent Scotland, and if - as looks likely - the Scots don't buy Salmond's snake oil, he'll drain us of even more resources.

 

So:

Whole UK:  A no-win situation.

Northumberland: A win with Salmond : A (bigger) lose if Scotland decides to stay.

Scotland:  A disaster with Salmond (will take a while to become evident) : A win if they stay (but will moan even more)

Salmond Personally: He won the instant he secured the referendum!

 

Other views?

[threegee]

Is it really possible that Snake Oil Salmond can con (and intimidate) enough people to vote for "an Independent Scotland"?  Well it's looking like the Scots may just return to form, allowing their jealousy, greed, and envy to overtake their common sense.  There's quite a number of telling examples of this on the history books; one quite new to me was the Darien Scheme which featured in a fairly recent TV documentary.

 

Salmond's whole proposition is predicated on their being sweetness and light between his loony-left-nationalist Scotland and the rest of the UK following a break up - he and his more-free-stuff party will get all their own way.  It's not going to happen my friends (and ancestors) over the border!  No UK government can be seen to be playing less than hard-ball, that would spell electoral disaster.  There are massive UK votes in saying the obvious: enough is enough, and it's your choice that we are not bailing you out any more!  The acrimony and bitterness that will be stirred up here will last centuries.  Even a No vote is going to cause resentment (both ways) as Scotland is seen to be getting an even more unfair slice of the UK cake; one for which it is forever ungrateful.

 

Two things are for sure: a No vote won't end the matter in the slightest, and a Yes vote will turn out to be a financial disaster North of the border, and an even bigger disaster for relations in our island.  Who will rid us of the moaning macks?  Certainly not Alex Salmond!  Whichever way this thing goes there will be nothing at all to celebrate and one should dread the result.

[Symptoms]

Scare stories in the rags this morning about border checkpoints if the Jockos up sticks.  Reports that Miliiiiband is suggesting that the new Jockoland, maybe being a new member of the EU, will have to have 'open' borders with the rest of the EU due to the Schengen agreement resulting countless hordes of immigrants decending on the place.  As England (currently the UK) isn't a signatory to this treaty it would mean checks at Berwick and similar places along the whole border to prevent the free passage of these Jockoimmigrants into Blighty ... "You're papers please!".

 

Something like this perhaps:

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2014 by Symptoms

[threegee]

Watchtowers with haggis deflecting screens - well planned! 

 

I caught Milipede on the radio extorting Scottish voters to vote no - because - wait for it - only Labour would freeze their electricity bills.  Well... not exactly freeze, delay any recovery of increased charges for a while.  Haven't we been there on a much grander scale before?  The Prices and Incomes Policy I think it was called.  Yeah, that was really successful!

 

From 1960 to 1979, Prices and Incomes Policy ("PIP”) was central to Labour and Tory attempts to manage the economy. Since 1979, no Government has attempted direct controls on wages or prices.

 

So there you have it Scotland: a short term loan of someone else's £200 against your national sovereignty for all-time.  A really difficult call that one.  And remember, there's the alternative promise of loadsa stuff from the more-free-stuff party - if it turns out they can afford it.  Take the money or open the ScotNat Pandora's box?  But first... the yes-no interlude!