August/September 2014
Hi folks,
Welcome back to my little corner of the Web,for the latest rant from yours truly.Holiday time fast approaching,looking forward to a wee break headin' off for a wee sail "roon the Med" in a big boat,a wee bit different from years ago when it was sail "doon the watter"to Rothesay or Tighnabruigh.. Mind ye,that was big event when you were only a kid,a day trip down the Clyde. Even a bus trip to Ayr or Portabella,or Girvan..Aye even stopping on the "Electric Brae" and the bus went back up it on its own ...Magic!!..And those day trips doon the Clyde,i can still see all the shipyards we passed,the smell of the sea,and the rusting hulks of old ships eternally parked up along the way. And in the distance you would always see a big tanker sitting motionless, miles Away out at sea,it really has a certain magic all of its own ....The Sea...... Talking about the sea,on the 18th of Sept we could see a sea-change in Scotland Referendum Day,do we stay in or do we come out of the United Kingdom?...For over 300 yrs Scotland has been part of the Union,now we have a choice to be Independent...yes ok ,,but only from Westminster...not from Politicians..We will still be ruled from somewhere...Leopards don't change their spots,neither do Politicians..Is it a genuine bid for Independence? or are some Politicians on some sort of ego trip,a sort of cross-border Gamesmanship./ Bluff...Scotland is very small country of roughly 5 million people,but with a very proud history,and a strong bloodline running thru' the veins of this Union.Whether it be,Explorers, Soldiers,Inventors,Industrial Inovators,Medicine,Literary,Philanthropists,.etc... The list really is endless.now if this referendum was say,at the start of the industrial Revolution,would it be a yes or no..i would say it would be a definite NO.. Why?....because it was a joint venture..yes, a load of scottish inventors were involved,but it was funded by people south of the border when it came to fruition. All of the union benefited,and most of the civilised world as well..we are only a small Nation ,but at that particular time the Scots did supply a lot of the brainpower. But in reality it was a team effort,with Scots at the forefront in their own fields.. That in effect sowed the seeds for a modern United Kingdom,which in turn made for A Very strong economy,which in turn led to an Empire....lets fast track on a wee bit Because of the Strength of the Union of the United Kingdom This country managed To defeat Germany in Two World Wars.In The 20th Century(albeit with the help of the Marshall Plan of the USA post ' 42)...but that saved Europe from the Nazis.. The United Kingdom was on it's own,and a lot of Scottish Soldiers died for their country Do you think if we had lost the war and we were a wee independent country, Hitler would have treated us any different,from say Poland or Austria or France.. Somehow i don;t think so,,,,Unity was strength..not forgetting a lot of men from the "Empire" at that time also fought and died with the United Kingdom....Right that has sort of roughly set the case for a wee bit of the history of the Union.... Lets move on to the modern day....ok. Do you think Scotland should be an Independent Country?
Independent and independence are two different things in my book..... We will NEVER independent from the rest of the United Kingdom... Our Institutions,our Markets,our Finances are so intertwined... You know the old saying ,if it aint broke why fix it ?..... Do we need MORE levels of Government to sort out what will be one Almighty mess,to disentangle ourselves from the present arrangement... Whats the set up costs?...who pays for it? English,Welsh, Irish?..no chance!
The Queen will still be our Sovereign....ok...i'll go with that... After all she still owns a few houses up here...nice for the holidays We will still use the B.B.C...ok...old Rupert won't be too happy tho' We will be nuclear free!...eh wait a second...did you not also say we Will be members of N.A.T.O.....yes that's correct!........... But we signed up to be part of the nuclear Alliance,with a Base at Rosyth.. We will move the base south of the border.....but what about the 4K+ jobs? They will be replaced with other facilities...eh like tossing burgers! We will keep the pound Sterling...(it's our pound as well).. But surely if your an independent country you should have your own currency No we can share it.......but they said you can't.....they won't let you! ok if they insist on not sharing we will default on our national debt. But if you default on our commitments,your credit rating will suffer And the country will find it hard to borrow cash for the set up costs .. We will cross that bridge when we get to it.... That about sums up the financial arrangements for an independent Scotland,without going into the meat and bones about fiscal monetary Arrangements,and pensions,and welfare ...that's the part they don't want Anyone to know,because to be honest they haven't a clue themselves.
Notwithstanding this....if their is a yes vote it more or less condems The English to have a Tory Government until the cows come home.. So we are going to get clobbered by the Tories right left and centre.. Remember they will be controlling the purse strings,the power base in the case of a yes vote moves from Westminster to Threadneedle Street.
Also a yes vote means we apply to join the E .U... and also the "bail out queue" Spain.Portugal,Italy,Ireland.Greece. Mrs Merkel is sure to love that.....NOT.
At the end of the day i don't have any love for any politician..but After the 18th Sept..either Cameron or Salmond will be a lame duck leader. They have both taken a gamble...funnily enough it might not be a bad thing Consider this...two of the most right wing Socialists can't agree on who to back Sheridan goes for YES..and Galloway goes for NO... That for me proves it about Politicians,them two are two peas out the same pod too extreme for their own parties,why would they back someone they both despise? Is it the cause? or is it the limelight....you decide!
Thanks for dropping in See you all Soon..
Your's Aye,
Terry