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Scottish independence: let's have an honest debate (P2)
Continuation of: Scottish independence: let's have an honest debate
Dare_Allan wrote: »The United Kingdom has STILL not signed a contract to buy aircraft for HMS Queen Elizabeth. You can't fly conventional aircraft from a carrier. Therefore there are no aircraft owned or ordered for this carrier.
And as already stated, only one of the ships - Queen Elizabeth will ever be operational and when its in for service, there will be no carrier cover for the United Kingdom from the Royal Navy, the Prince of Wales will be mothballed, permenantly as soon as the contractual build is complete, which will be before it is completed Fitting Out. I.e. we are paying £3bn for a ship which will never be used and left to rust.
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Obviously the future is never transparent but we're into very unlikely scenarios to think the rump UK would cut their own throat, ruin their economy and bankrupt themselves in order to lash out at Scotland. Possible but unlikely.
They promised a Council Tax freeze and they delivered. The reform to Council Tax is a reserved matter and while they indicate they would like to get change on some reserved matters in their manifesto I think it would be unfair to count this as a election promise.
You are right about the referendum promise from the Minority government. Outside of this they have actually delivered - and to the surprise of most.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10693317/UK-faces-crippling-tax-rises-and-spending-cuts-to-fund-pensions-and-healthcare.html#disqus_thread
"UK faces 'crippling' tax rises and spending cuts to fund pensions and healthcare
Britain faces tax rises within two years equivalent years to more than 17pc of GDP, says Institute of Economic Affairs"
continues
"In a stark warning, the think-tank said Britain faced tax rises within just two years equivalent to more than 17pc of GDP – more than £300bn - in order to meet all future spending commitments. This is larger than the entire annual NHS budget and would increase taxes from 38pc to 55pc of national income."
Mainly this is to due to the cultural side of the Union. Salmond's idea that instead of continuing with the BBC in its very special independent role for the successor states, he wants a Scottish Broadcasting Company. For me the BBC is by far the best thing Britain has going for it - a unique and truly excellent national asset.
An SBC scares me dramatically, Scottish media is incredibly parochial and horrifically nepotistic, the programming is often more stereotypical and racist than one could ever accuse the BBC of providing to Scotland. The entire industry is run by a handful of individuals particularly focused on the "Gaelic Mafia" created by putting in a requirement for Gaelic Language speakers in the television industry.
The SNP is even more committed to this dead minority language - never spoken by more than 20% of the people of Scotland, now spoken by a handful but heavily promoted as a Scottish language. We see in Wales how a country is ruined when education focuses on reviving a dead language (over half of Welsh children now receive their education primarily in Welsh) and now Wales has the worst education system in Western Europe.
Finally BT seems to compeltely ignore the TeamGB bandwagon, something many indedependent minded Scots are immensely proud of and will miss greatly.
Lets mislead people and scare them - that's how our politicians approach things, And as the AV referendum showed - it works!
I think tho post has just made a No voter of me. Who would have thought it?
LOL - Scotland has a bigger demographic problem than the rest of the UK - you are certainly not immune.
The BBC has announced it is closing BBC 3, but making it an online service.
I wonder if it has anything to do with this?
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/26/scottish-independence-bbc-broadcaster-snp-white-paper
Scottish independence: BBC would be replaced by new broadcaster
• SNP proposes Scottish Broadcasting Service as a joint venture
• Shows such as EastEnders, Doctor Who, Strictly still available
They'll lose money without the Scottish licence fee money coming in so maybe it is an implication. A Britain minus BBC3, another example of the good independence can bring to both countries.
It was just a debating point. There is no need to rely on SNP policy in a post independent Scotland. Yes there would obviously be a high likelihood of 5 to 10 years of SNP government but that doesn't mean they can do everything or even if they could, do it all at once.
Splitting the BBC (the most likely way of creating an SBC) is not likely to be a high priority. I wouldn't expect it for several years and that might allow for some proper rethinkink. And tbh, maybe its better to do what the Irish and Dutch do - watch the BBC and get all the benefits of the BBC without paying a penny. Not a bad way to go really. Part of the Uniqueness of the BBC means they could actually save themselves, if they decide to continue to cover and work for all parts of the former UK they can and I'm sure they would have ways of drawing in public support for this.
There would be no real control over how STV chooses to operate and likely ITV would be virtually unchanged, the same for any other commercial broadcaster.
While the SNP say they intend for a Scottish IOC in Rio de Janeiro there is absolutely no historic precedence for a new IOC to be ready to compete in an Olympics in a 12 month time scale - think of the Commonwealth of Independent States, it took about 4 years to transition to individual IOCs for the Soviet Union's successor states.
In reality Scotland will compete at Rio as part of TeamGB. And there is nothing in the Olympic Charter to stop Scotland continuing as part of TeamGB - indepdendent countries already do (Isle of Man, Channel Islands, several Caribbean countries).
Nothing stops Scots in a post independent Scotland from demanding a "charter referendum" and decide what institutions to keep and what to seperate. Pick some of the big decisions, put them in a referendum, see what people think.
As for Gaelic, this is the biggest mis-step the SNP ever took and I still don't understand it. I suspect it was originally to try and expand SNP support into the Gaelic areas. But they are so small and it failed anyway - they still vote in independents and Liberals almost every time.
I suspect a lot of the Gaelic motivation will drain out the SNP after Independence. The continued example of Wales and how destructive this sort of thing is should be enough of a warning to stop any expansion of it in Scotland.
Economists know how to solve Demographic Time Bombs (its one of the very, very few things Economists do know with certainty).
How? Immigration.
The SNP supports immigration.
The UK has racist immigration policies.
How does that help if you remain in the EU? - we have seen with the Asylum dispersal program that immigrants tend not to remain in Scotland, they migrate to England - mind you a lot of Scots do the same so you cant blame them.
covered here..
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00434502.pdf
What's to understand? They SNP have a legal obligation under EU law to protect Gaelic as an endangered language. End of.
Kids in Gaelic medium education out perform kids in English speaking schools. Bilingualism, in whatever language, is something to be encouraged not held back.
I hope the SNP continue to support Gaelic and increase funding for broadcasting, particularly up north in order to create broadcasting work in island communities. Gaelic definitely punches above it's way culture wise in music, art and drama etc. After independence I expect to see it nurtured to a greater extent.
it has nothing to do with the SNP..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe.
United Kingdom ratification : 27 March 2001
All languages are ratified as applicable to the territory of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, except Manx, which is ratified on behalf of the Crown dependency of the Isle of Man.
Cornish
Irish
Manx (ratified on behalf of Government of the Isle of Man)
Scots in Scotland and Northern Ireland (Ulster Scots)
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh
It appears difficult to keep Scots living in Scotland:), how does the SNP propose to make Scotland attractive in an affordable manner?
If you've got the skills, we've got the country.
The SNP haven't delivered their promises and like most parties, rarely do. The only thing politicians are driven by is to be in power.
Crystal ball time again TMHS? Still receiving the visions:)
Huge numbers of us leave to work abroad every year. One example, there's no nursing jobs in Scotland but plenty in England, so Scots trained nurses head south.
Never realised my Scots was protected? Where's all the funding for that going then, I demand Scots roadsigns.
There is a huge difference between protecting a language and promoting it. Policy has extended Gaelic into places it has NEVER been spoken. Scots is protected, I don't see any Scots medium education on offer. There is no Glasgow Scots School, despite it being the historic language of Glasgow, there is a Gaelic school despite it never being a native language there.
No, kids in SELECTIVE schools outperform those in non-selective schools. And in secondary education gaelic medium education is selective. But when your prescribe it and you roll it out so that your children are educated in it, a language of no economic use, you destroy your education system and the future of your young people.
This is already happening, in Wales.
I wouldn't like to see the BBC go either myself.