tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47330741806764607232024-03-08T04:42:05.532-08:00Grahamski's ReferendumbEverything you wanted to know about separation but couldn't be bothered asking....Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-8366002460680611182014-04-10T04:07:00.000-07:002014-04-10T05:48:06.468-07:00Polls schpolls....I see her majesty's Daily Record has a new indyref poll published today which gives slightly different results from previous polls. <br />
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Those clever wee monkeys on both sides of the debate who care about such things have welcomed the findings as good news for their side. Quite clearly they can't both be right; however they can both be wrong. And if they read too much into these polls I think they are.<br />
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As a simple footsoldier in the great national separation rammy I don't pretend to be an expert in opinion poll methodology or accuracy. However, I have been out campaigning since the turn of the year and have asked literally hundreds of my fellow bairns how they intend to vote in the referendum and I've got to say that not even a quarter of them are saying they'll vote YES.<br />
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We've been here before of course. <br />
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In 2011 our canvass returns of Labour Party supporters suggested that our vote was holding up and we were on course for victory. A combination of perhaps the poorest campaign in Labour Party history and voter apathy conspired to give us the kicking we deserved and deliver an unfettered nationalist administration.<br />
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This is different. <br />
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We're not just speaking to Labour Party supporters in this campaign but to everybody. I've gone down whole streets and failed to find one person who say they will vote YES. I genuinely can't find the 40+% YES vote identified by the opinion polls.<br />
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On Sunday we were out in a solid, well-maintained council estate in Falkirk and I spoke to an elderly lady who we had identified as a Labour supporter. I asked how she intended to vote in the referendum. She became quite coy and was a wee bit embarrassed saying that she 'wisnae really sure' OK, I replied I'll put you down as an undecided. 'Och, I'll probably vote no..' she said. Great said I, we're going to be campaigning throughout the summer for a no vote. 'Och, I'll definitely be voting no' she laughed 'I jist didnae want tae say no to you, son..' <br />
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Anecdotal I know. <br />
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I just wonder how many respondents to the opinion pollsters 'didnae want to say no' to them too...Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-7695504929411036642014-04-09T07:00:00.001-07:002014-04-09T07:06:58.615-07:00Why can't we just play nice?Nicola was spitting feathers again yesterday. <br />
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She was not a bit happy.<br />
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Apparently some old guy had said something about separation with which she had taken exception. <br />
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And boy, did she give him both barrels.<br />
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The freedom phasers were set to 'outrage': flared nostrils, narrow eyes and an appetite for retribution that would have an Old Testament prophet blushing. It was all there, from personal attack to the "what gives you the right" routine - why Nicola was so enraged that she even forgot to deploy the mid-sentence chuckle.<br />
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Yep, she was THAT angry.<br />
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She didn't actually address any of the points raised, of course. <br />
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She was too busy ripping the poor guy's throat out whilst simultaneously whining about being bullied and insulted. <br />
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It's a neat trick and one which has served the SNP well.<br />
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It doesn't serve the debate well and the aggressive victimhood punted by the SNP, along with their support of vicious pro-separation websites is poisoning this debate and will result in a divided and embittered country post-referendum regardless of the result (which will be no, obviously).<br />
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There is a direct link between every cybernat polluting the internet and every hissing and jeering indy debate audience member with the tactics adopted by the SNP for this campaign.<br />
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They should consider what kind of country they really want before they continue with their destructive campaign. Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-21555107670521742502013-08-06T01:33:00.004-07:002013-08-06T01:46:12.729-07:00What if...A long time ago in an alternate galaxy far far away...<br />
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A few Labour Party members give up their party membership in order to join the SNP. After they join they set up a "Nats for the Union" group and claim that Mr Salmond is a big fat idiot and the SNP should abandon separation. <br />
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The media see through this clumsy ruse immediately. They ask obvious questions like, 'How long have you been a member of the SNP?' and 'Who's funding you?'. In this alternate universe the senior Labour figures who supported these dirty tricks are taken to task for undermining the debate. They are rightly pilloried for dragging the referendum campaign into the gutter. <br />
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Meanwhile celebrity Labour supporters who joined the "Nats for the Union" sham group are treated with contempt for being complicit in such an obvious fraud. Their bleating excuses about how they really would support the SNP if only they would change their leader, membership and policies are met with the derision such a lot of old cobblers deserve.<br />
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In this alternate galaxy when the broadcasters receive a press release for the sham group's 'conference' they file it away with the rest of the schoolboy pranks they receive on a daily basis. They most definitely do not report it without mentioning the fact that this group is not a bona fide SNP group nor do they fail to mention that the majority of this so-called SNP group don't actually support the SNP.<br />
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Meanwhile back in our own galaxy...Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-11431407994816199142013-07-30T03:59:00.002-07:002013-07-30T04:01:43.223-07:00Sincerest form of flattery or a cynical counterfeit?Just when you thought the Scottish separation debate couldn't sink any lower or get any more depressing along comes an example of the kind of cynical dishonesty which disgusts and disillusions people in equal measure. <br />
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The SNP know that they cannot succeed without the kind of support enjoyed by the Scottish Constitutional Convention: a broad-based campaign which had support across Scottish society - from churches, community groups, trades unions and business groups - all undeprinned by the democratic authority of (most) of our political parties. <br />
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There is one serious impediment to the SNP's plans to emulate the convention. Where devolution had the overwhelming support of the vast majority of Scots, separation remains very much a minority interest. What to do? <br />
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Those clever wee monkeys over at SNP HQ have come up with the answer. If the real Labour movement won't give its support for separation then just fake one that does. <br />
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There was the SNP claim that a 4,000-strong CWU branch backed separation. That fell apart almost immediately when it was revealed that rather than the thousands claimed, the vote for separation wasn't in the thousands, or even the hundreds for that matter, but in the dozens. <br />
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Their sham Labour Party for Independence is going the same way. Its launch looked like a badly-organised stunt, senior SNP figures have been caught impersonating Labour supporters and its website is a mix of mysogyny, bile, paranoia and swivel-eyed grievance-fuelled bampottery. In fact the only link to the Labour Party seems to be the logo they've stolen. <br />
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The cynicism and dishonesty in presenting a fake grouping as bona fide, complete with support from senior SNP figures, is a new low in an already shabby campaign for separation. LabourForIndy is a cheap knock-off; it's a con; and the SNP are clearly behind it. <br />
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The mystery here is why the media are so reluctant to report the deception...Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-64105431573766240912013-07-17T07:53:00.002-07:002013-07-17T07:53:31.802-07:00ALEX SALMOND IS A BIG FAT IDIOT and other observations...<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; color: #333333; font: 1.09em/15px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 15px 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
On BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme Alex Salmond claimed: </div>
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“There are pretty fundamental reasons why it is not going to be the case that they would refuse a formal currency union" </div>
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<em><strong>Hmmm..there's a pretty fundamental reason for believing that they would; like they've already said as much. In a UK Treasury report published this year this statement was made: "In the event of Scottish independence, the economic rationale for the continuing UK to enter a formal sterling union with another state is not clear" and George Osborne - you know, the guy who will dictate the policy of the UK in the unlikely event of a yes vote - has said a formal currency union is unlikely...</strong></em><em></em></div>
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Undeterred the bold Alex blunders on: "sterling is as much our currency as it is George Osborne’s"</div>
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<em><strong>Wtf? The Bank of England is wholly owned by the UK Government and has its targets set by the UK Treasury. If we leave the UK we leave its currency and lose the protection of its central bank.</strong></em></div>
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Mr Salmond finished with this doozy: “We will get the formal currency union..because they can’t claim sole title over the assets to the United Kingdom, unless of course they want us to accept no share of the liabilities of the United Kingdom”</div>
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<strong><em>Oh right, so we're back to threatening to walk away from our responsibilities are we? And presumably we'll retain our triple AAA status even though we would be a state who refuses to pay its debts. This is AAA buffoonery even by Salmond's own exceptionally high standards.</em></strong></div>
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This year has been a harrowing one for supporters of separation. It has been made infinitely worse by the the first minister who has blundered from one disaster to another and from one crackpot announcement to the next ludicrous assertion.</div>
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We go into the summer holidays comforted with the knowledge that the UK is safe as long as Alex Salmond plays a leading role in the campaign to break it up....</div>
Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-75780885499036989292013-05-02T01:01:00.000-07:002013-05-02T02:05:14.321-07:00Who's laughing now?The online attacks on Susan Calman by the self-appointed guardians of Scotland's dignity should surprise nobody who has been paying attention to the separation debate.<br />
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That the debate online has descended to this level is hardly surprising when the behaviour of the SNP leadership and party machine is considered. You need only read the increasingly churlish and chippy press releases produced by SNP HQ and its front organisation YESnp Scotland to see that angry wee nat syndrome is not confined to the outer reaches of cyberspace bampottery. <br />
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Furious wee men ( for it is usually men) are employed to churn out ever more bitter and petulant nonsense. They spend their time hissing that they don't need to take lectures from the bastard English. That whoever has contradicted their masters are a disgrace and should be ashamed of themselves. That those who disagree with them are anti-Scottish. That they and Scotland are synonymous; so an attack on them is actually an attack on Scotland and every single one of us. And as they poison the debate with their venom and spite they continue to peddle the lie that they are unrelentingly positive...<br />
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This is shenanigans: it is cheap, shallow and divisive politics and it diminshes us. <br />
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Every time we see our First Minister enraged not at the iniquities in our society but at something like a magazine making jokes he shames us. Somebody should tell him as gently as they can that when he goes off on one he is not protecting Scotland's reputation, he is making a fool of himself and embarrassing us - he may be a chippy, angry, pathetic wee man but we are better than that.<br />
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Whenever a person has to endure the kind of online abuse Susan Calman was subjected to it should be remembered that those patriots twirling their virtual claymores and shrieking abuse don't exist in a vacuum - they are merely an online extension of the ugly, nasty and snide nature of the failing and increasingly flailing campaign currently being waged by the SNP.Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-51883454611524709682013-02-04T05:17:00.000-08:002013-02-04T05:17:04.923-08:00A genuine question for the SNP.<br />
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Ever since their assertion that a separate Scotland would have automatic EU membership was blown out the water the SNP have been arguing that they would now negotiate membership from within the UK between 2014-2016.<br />
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I may have got this wrong but haven't they been told recently that the EU would only negotiate with member states?<br />
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The SNP state that Scotland will be still be part of the UK until separation negotiations conclude supposedly in 2016.<br />
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So my question is this: who in the EU has agreed to change their position regarding negotiating with anybody other than member states?</div>
Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-67027446029131704592012-11-19T01:11:00.001-08:002012-11-19T09:52:34.848-08:00It's time the Scottish media took Holyrood (and wee Salmond) seriouslyIt started within a year of a minority SNP administration being elected in 2007 when some in the SNP made the ludicrous claim that they had done more in the first eight weeks/months than the previous lot had managed in eight years. The response from the media, had they been doing their jobs, should have been simple: prove it. Instead the bombastic boasts of wee Salmond and his cohorts were allowed to go unchallenged.<br />
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And this has continued throughout wee Salmond's second term: his propaganda chief forged a letter from an academic for him to read out and when rumbled claimed it was 'an honest mistake', in a TV interview he was asked a direct question and answered 'we have, yes' then claimed that any fair person would take that to mean 'we haven't no' and just last week we had him claiming he was increasing college budgets when in fact he was cutting them.<br />
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If any of this had happened at Westminster then a resignation would have followed.<br />
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Why don't we in Scotland hold the Holyrood administration to account and expect the same honesty as that expected from our Westminster government?<br />
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Why is wee Salmond's buffoonish antics and egotistical boasting laughed off or ignored by our media?<br />
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The answer is a simple one: we don't take Holyrood as seriously as we take Westminster. We can see it in the respective turnouts when half our fellow Scots can't be bothered to vote in the Holyrood elections and we know fine well that the office of first minister doesn't bring with it the responsibilities of that of prime minister. The media seem to believe that as long as wee Salmond is good for a laugh his particular brand of bravado, egocentric bombast and mountebankism will be indulged and anyway what harm can he do?<br />
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However, as we approach the referendum it's time for our media to ignore the first minister's buffoonery and start taking him seriously - and that means looking behind that smug Salmond chuckle and start challenging his baseless assertions ...Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-79290522288852035602012-10-27T04:38:00.001-07:002012-10-27T05:58:09.027-07:00The week the referendum debate lost its innocence...After the dust settles from another hectic week the two sides in the separation debate are left glaring at each other like a pair of punch drunk boxers reeling from a bloody encounter neither of whom are quite sure where they go from here.<br />
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Those in the Better campaign need to devise a strategy which allows them to engage with an opposition who refuse to be bound by normal conventions, like speaking the truth for example. The separatists need to try and figure out if their tactics of bold assertion and repetition really is the best way forward.<br />
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But the events of this week have the whiff of a turning point about them.<br />
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To recap, the First Minister was asked a direct question, "Have you sought the advice of your law officers?", he was going to give a typically slippery answer but was interrupted by Andrew Neil before he could insert his sneaky wee caveats. So we're left with the First Minister of Scotland answering a direct question thus: "We have, yes - in the terms of the debate". That was the end of the answer to that question. <br />
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From that answer any reasonable person would think wee Salmond had admitted that legal advice on EU membership had been sought from Scottish law officers. Mr Neil certainly did and when he asked "What did they say?" he moved the interview from the subject of seeking legal advice (which had been established ) to what that advice actually was and it was in answering this question that wee Salmond tried to sneak in his caveats.<br />
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Wee Salmond maybe didn't mean to lie but that's exactly what he did in that interview. Remember the old Yiddish proverb, Alex: 'A half truth is a whole lie'<br />
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One thing is for sure, things will never be the same again. Everything that is now claimed or asserted by the SNP must come with a huge health warning: in trying to be cute wee Salmond has shown himself to be too sleekit for his own good and in trying to protect him his party have shown themselves to be cynical opportunists whose much bragged about reputation for probity and competence now lies in tatters. <br />
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A high price to pay to dig wee Salmond out of a hole into which he so arrogantly swaggered.<br />
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<br />Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-49086055915880738602012-10-24T07:00:00.002-07:002012-10-24T07:00:34.734-07:00Groucho Salmond asks: Who do you believe, me or your own eyes?Question: <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">"have you sought advice from your own law officers"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Answer: "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">we have, yes..."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">There is video footage of this question being asked and answered.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">The fact that the SNP are now seriously trying to suggest that we should believe them rather than our own eyes tells us all we need to know about the desperation at the heart of this SNP administration.</span></span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-17092866929786865312012-10-19T11:10:00.001-07:002012-10-19T11:10:31.573-07:00They're having a laugh....OK, what's going on?<div>
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The SNP Party Political Broadcast has just aired on BBC1.</div>
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It started with wee Salmond saying there was a really important decision to make in two years time.</div>
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Then a funky jazz band started playing a funky version of 'Let's Stick Together'.</div>
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For Joan 'Bonkers' McAlpine, she of the abusive relationship jibe, here's the first verse:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">"And now the marriage vow is very sacred</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">The man has put us together now</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">You ought to make it stick together</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">Come on, come on, let's stick together</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">You know we made a vow not to leave one another never"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #676767; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 21.333332061767578px;">I can hardly wait for their next broadcast which I'm sure will be wee Nicola Sturgeon belting out 'The Union Forever' followed by Alex Salmond dressed up as John Bull singing 'Land of Hope And Glory'...</span></span></div>
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Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-13867869873083684212012-10-18T00:03:00.001-07:002012-10-18T00:13:07.667-07:00NATO - do the nats know what it's for?NATO does exactly what it says on the tin, from its website: " As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance". NATO exercises a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy when it comes to the nuclear capapbility of its warships and submarines entering a NATO member's territorial waters.<br />
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The SNP leadership's idea of a separate Scotland in NATO but refusing to pay for or control nuclear weapons (or wappons, as the nats like to call them - well it shows they are more Scottish than you) is as breathtaking a piece of hypocritical cynicism since their last piece of breathtaking hypocritical cynicism.<br />
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I look forward to hearing SNP MP Agnes Robertson explain why he's all for having nuclear wappons in Scottish territorial waters as long as they are not paid for or controlled by a separate Scotland.<br />
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McBonkers...<br />
<br />Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-16722450141950763002012-10-17T13:19:00.001-07:002012-10-17T13:23:24.401-07:00Jesus. Suffering. Christ.<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">Alex Salmond quoted in the SNP conference </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">Handbook: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">"Scotland is daein a fell lot we can be prood o."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 18px;">For that alone he deserves to lose the referendum.....</span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-6885335348671004392012-10-16T00:24:00.001-07:002012-10-16T00:27:07.780-07:00The referendum - made in Scotland, regulated by LondonSo, the great day has come and gone; wee Salmond was talked out of wearing his tartan onesie with his Lion Rampant cape and "Call me Dave" did his best not to smirk.<br />
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Apart from that it was all a bit underwhelming. When it came down to it nobody really believed the nats when they claimed they didn't need a Section 30 order and nobody believed the Tories when they said they might withhold it.<br />
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The nats gave up their favoured second question and perhaps even more important were forced to accept that the UK Electoral Commission would play a key role in regulating the referendum. The Tories let the SNP decide on the timing and gave them the chance to try and find a way of giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote.<br />
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None of these things are likely to affect the result.<br />
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The most significant part of the day for me was when, within hours of signing this agreement,wee Salmond declared that if you vote against separation you'll lose your free bus pass.<br />
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And that tells us the spirit in which this debate will be conducted by the nats: nasty, scaremongering and mean-spirited. <br />
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The sooner this is over the better...<br />
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<br />Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-24782139742848161712012-09-20T14:24:00.000-07:002012-09-20T22:28:05.362-07:00Saturday's SNP demo: A Scottish homage to Catalonia or a tartan
Clochemerle?Last weekend almost a hundred thousand folk took to the streets of Scotland to celebrate Team GB. It was a demonstration of affection and pride in our athletes who contributed so much to the success of Team GB at London 2012.<br />
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Nobody organised buses for them and there were no political parties urging their supporters to attend, nor twitter or facebook campaigns to whip up support: just normal Scots demonstrating their appreciation for the athletes of Team GB.<br />
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So, you would imagine that with all their resources and their boasts about the slickness and efficiency of their digital campaigning the SNP will be able to match these numbers at their demonstration in Edinburgh this weekend.<br />
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In fact, if the SNP are to breathe life into their moribund Yes campaign then it's critical that they do exactly that. However, as Saturday approaches the organisers are beginning to realise that the numbers at their celebration of separation - dubbed GirnStock by nat-watchers - are going to fall well short of those who came out to support Team GB.<br />
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However, it is not just the lack of numbers which is giving the nats a headache; it is the pressure of ensuring that those who do turn up manage to subdue their more outre prejudices and whackjob conspiracy theories and behave themselves - 'Scottish Not British' banners and anti-English chants will sink them and the SNP highheidyins know it.<br />
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Already, the SNP have demanded that a small group of tartan trots with a taste for flag-burning and armed insurrection stay at home. However, for every excommunicated wild-eyed trot there are scores of SNP members who will quite cheerfully describe the union flag as a butcher's apron and declare their hatred of all things British: shamefully, that goes for plenty of SNP MSPs too.<br />
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And that should be a worry for them.<br />
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The SNP should be very concerned that their planned family-friendly day of fun and tartan celebrities on Saturday could very quickly degenerate into a demonstration of all that is bad with nationalism: bitterness, bigotry and blind prejudice.<br />
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So far the SNP have successfully gagged their lunatic fringe - but for how much longer can the nats rely on the silence of their bams?Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-31192392632097933562012-09-05T10:14:00.001-07:002012-09-05T11:01:42.381-07:00Don Salmondo and his soft shoe shuffleProof that there's a shit-storm heading towards the NHS in Scotland came today when Nicola Sturgeon - wee Salmond's golden girl - was moved out of Health to take control of the SNP's stalled and discredited campaign for separation. And in a move right out of The Godfather Wee Salmond's one time rival, Alex Neil, was handed the health brief. "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer" whispered Don Salmondo.<br />
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Make no mistake, having this job can seriously damage your political health. Poor wee Alex Neil, one of the more entertaining pantomime dames at Holyrood really should have noticed the smoke billowing out of the health brief and as for that ominous ticking sound...now it's only a matter of time before we hear that Alex Neil is sleeping with the fishes. </div>
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And moving quickly along from political whack jobs to out and out whackjobs; what about poor wee Johnny Swinney on Newsnicht last night?<br />
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Reduced to stuttering bluster and lying through his teeth when asked to explain why, if independence was the solution to all Scotland's woes, didn't he want the referendum to be held sooner. </div>
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This is the man who the nats want to have responsibility for a separate Scotland's finances: somebody who looks like a constipated rabbit caught in the headlights when asked a question he can't answer and and who blurts out lies when he gets flustered. </div>
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Good choice, Bravehearts!</div>
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Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-90975861886319647812012-08-07T00:26:00.002-07:002012-08-07T06:55:29.151-07:00The Olympics and the Nouveaux Brits of the SNP.<span style="font-size: large;">It's not the fact that they've spent the last few years whining, girning and greeting about it which makes the</span> <span style="font-size: large;">SNP's new found enthusiasm for the London Olympics so nauseating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's not the fact that they and their supporters have never missed the opportunity to shriek their outrage at every imagined slight on the road to the Olympics or trumpet every petty grievance which makes their new found support for it stick in the craw.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's not the fact that they've taken almost half a million pounds from our schools and hospitals to pay for what amounts to a gang hut when they could have had accommodation for free which disgusts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's not even the way that they've tried to deny their antipathy to Britain. They've gone from Brit-hating butcher's apron burners to born again <em>Nouveaux Brits</em> without as much as an acknowledgement of this embarrassing <em>volte face</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's the fact that they thought nobody would notice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's the way they think that our heads zip up the back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is the total and utter contempt in which they hold the people of Scotland to arrogantly peddle this nonsense and imagine they'll get away with it.</span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-30546956131203392862012-06-26T01:03:00.002-07:002012-06-26T03:25:45.470-07:00Better Together, better campaign, better message, just plain better...<span style="font-size: large;">Better Together launched yesterday with the dignity, determination and a decency that you would expect from an organisation headed by Alistair Darling. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where the SNP had a disgruntled ex-MSP and a wild-eyed trot, the Better Together campaign had representatives from across Scotland's political spectrum. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where the SNP had a few foreign-based luvvies telling us how much they loved Scotland, the better campaign had real Scots who actually live here telling us why they believed it was better for Scotland to remain within the UK.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where the SNP campaign was brash, hectoring and bombastic the better campaign was understated, pragmatic and honest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was a handful of SNP activists milling around outside the launch of the Better Together campaign yesterday. They had a few flags and had attached some scraps of old cardboard on which they'd scrawled slogans to a fence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">All in all it was a pretty unimpressive and uninspiring </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">demonstration from a campaign which has already stalled and is now mutating into an ill-tempered, negative blame-fest.</span><br />
<br />Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-79689154946782582852012-06-20T12:49:00.000-07:002012-06-26T00:20:41.027-07:00Three crows and you're out....<span style="font-size: large;">With less than a week to go before the launch of the multi-party, broad-based campaign against separation it appears that the SNP have pretty much thrown in the towel.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />We've already seen them give up any pretence of having an independent currency, monarchy, monetary policy, fiscal policy, defence policy, energy policy and foreign policy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />The SNP front organisation, 'Oh, yes please', has stalled with the Greens jumping ship and Margo giving it a wide berth leaving the narrow campaign with just the swivel-eyed loons of the SNP and the wild-eyed trots, splitters, entryists, opportunists and deluded dreamers of the Peoples Front of Alba (Foxist-Leninist) supporting it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />If that wasn't bad enough, in the last week we've seen the SNP go from a would be latter-day William Wallace to a two-faced Caledonian Peter denying everything in which they once believed:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Independence? Don't mention that word warns a SNP psycho-babble expert.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Nationalist? Don't call me that, bleats the SNP campaign director.<br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />"British?" Shriek those who used to sneer at the 'butcher's apron', "You'll still be British and you'll still live in the UK".<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br />So many denials, it's enough to break your braveheart.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br />And this is BEFORE the Yes UK campaign even launches...</span><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />It's not so much the sound of a cock crowing which follows the SNP these days, it's the cluck cluck clucking of a chicken...</span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-36402395258388224652012-05-31T05:24:00.001-07:002012-05-31T05:24:12.146-07:00Blinkin' 'Eck! Not such a sterling effort after all...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It started off with Nicola Sturgeon repeating the ludicrous assertion that a separate Scotland would be able to nominate a representative to sit on the Bank of England's MPC and continued today at FMQs with wee Salmond claiming that a separate Scotland would have the same kind of relationship with the Bank of England as the UK.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are these people really this ignorant?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bank of England have already made their position absolutely clear: It is not for the Bank Of England to decide on the conditions of allowing a separate Scotland to use sterling - it will be up to the UK Parliament.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Apparently Lord Coe is still waiting for an apology from SNP campaign chief, Angus Robertson MP, for smearing him on twitter and the separatist campaign's wabsite is already discredited with its multiple false members and signatories on top of their fraudulent claims that every person who follows them on twitter are supporters.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #262626; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The campaign to break up Britain, which started with a whimper, has ground to a halt in a quagmire of misinformation, myth and dodgy, discredited websites...</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #262626; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wee Salmond's campaign is turning into the longest car crash in British political history...</span></span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-62515416308190524002012-05-26T00:37:00.001-07:002012-05-26T00:47:02.177-07:00Four foreigners and a trot...Holy Moly fatman, your historic launch of your historic campaign wasn't exactly the historically most important historical event in our history. <br />
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It was more a bunch of foreign-based actors telling us that Scotland's biggest problem was ....foreign-based folk meddling in our affairs.<br />
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The SNP had an American citizen flown in from New York to lecture us on how to vote in an election that he, as a US-based American citizen, has no right to vote in.<br />
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There were also a few minor policitcal figures muttering about how things were in their day and a swivel-eyed trot who promised us that separation will deliver a Socialist Republic of Scotland.<br />
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The two Tams didn't show up - one wasn't invited and the other couldn't be trusted not to behave like a tartan Prince Philip... however, a fax purporting to come from Shir Sean was read out by a luvvie who loved Scotland so much that he moved away.<br />
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Then a couple of guys sang a sentimental song about Scotland.<br />
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You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh in their stupid faces...Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-84122353864717326792012-05-08T23:46:00.002-07:002012-05-08T23:46:48.965-07:00We're all devolutionists, now...*The SNP continue to make convincing arguments against separation. <br />
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So far they have said that it makes no sense to separate Scotland from the UK's currency, monarchy, fiscal policy, income tax rates, DVLA, energy policy, HSE, embassies, central bank, broadcaster and very soon its defence policy.<br />
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They are edging ever-closer to ditching full-blown 'independence' in favour of a turbo-charged devo max option. This is a perfectly respectable position but I just wonder when the more (ahem) enthusiastic SNP members notice that their core policy has shifted from freeing us from the tyranny of an evil empire to embracing it. <br />
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I jokingly made up the slogan 'Independence in the UK' a year or so ago to highlight the absurdity of the SNP's position where they claim to be independent but still cling to the security of the UK. <br />
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Now, far from being absurd, it pretty much accurately describes the SNP's position.<br />
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*Apart from Jim Sillars and a handful of deluded cybernats who are too dim to get with the programme..Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-68578713846161069082012-03-06T23:55:00.005-08:002012-03-06T23:55:53.582-08:00Chess board, ironing board, mortar board...Just plain bored.<br />
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This blog is taking a wee break.<br />
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The tedium of watching the dear leader fly one kite after another is too much for even the strongest of stomachs.<br />
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Will be back in May when the Scottish Executive finally announces some of its plans.<br />
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Until then we'll watch in amusement as the SNP desperately attempt to convince their members that independence means staying in the UK.Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-43053289639414741082012-02-27T00:31:00.001-08:002012-02-27T00:31:22.299-08:00Dancing to Rupert's tune...The Scottish Executive's response to SSE's warning that uncertainty threatened investment was to announce they wanted to delay the referendum for a year longer than necessary.<br />
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They announced this not in our parliament but through the pages of a newspaper.<br />
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What a kick in the teeth to our people and our democracy.Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4733074180676460723.post-88994556810751641182012-02-25T02:07:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:27:59.416-08:00Separatist claims look less powerful by the day......<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consternation at SNP HQ over power company SSE's response to the consultation processes being conducted by the UK government and the Scottish Executive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In their submission the company seem to confirm the fears of the Citigroup report regarding subsidies from the rest of the UK in an independent Scotland. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They also make the reasonable point that the longer the uncertainty continues over the referendum the more uncertainty continues over investment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is pretty self-evident but bizarrely it's a point that the SNP have consistently tried to refute. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Name one company who say that the uncertainty the referendum brings will affect investment in Scotland, several nat bigwigs have asked. </span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step forward Scotland's second largest company and champion of the SNP's renewables revolution.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "Right, apart from them" splutters Young Master Pringle as the cybernats set their freedom phasers to 'smear'..</span></span>Grahamski, Falkirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08051949553219258559noreply@blogger.com42