Scottish Government moving the goalposts

[islaydarkblue]

The country would save close to 200 million each year if they binned trident though.

What deterrent do suggest having in place against the leader of North Korea or Iran. The White Flag.

[islaydarkblue]

Gordon Brown, leader of Better Together, said the UK would be a federal state within 2 years, plenty folk voted No because of lies like this and lies about staying in the EU. You really need to stop being so myopic and do some basic research.

That would be the same Gordon Brown who caused the banking crisis by scrapping well run Profit Sharing schemes and replacing them with bonus schemes.

[islaydarkblue]

The Brexit vote was a democratic vote although that was in doubt for some time as the Establishment didn't want it.
I don't see the point of voting for independence, then being ruled by the EU.
The EU have shown their true colours already, the fiasco regarding the Irish border and the remarks from Merkel and Macron regarding the British vaccine program, and still no apologies from either.

Merkel and Macron will never apologise as it is beneath them to do so.

[islaydarkblue]

It shouldn't be framed as a vote for independence, it should be framed as a choice between rejoining the EU or staying in isolation with pariah state England. Quite possibly the Brexit deal will be ripped up soon and it'll be No-deal Brexit by default. The Irish border issue is all down to Brexit and Boris Johnson, can't spin that one away.

The British electorate never got the opportunity to vote in a referendum in favour of the U.K. joining the new European Union in November 1993.
The mainland EU leaders have never liked the U.K. Parliament as all they wanted was our money to prop up other ‘lame duck’ EU countries.
Now the remaining 27 countries are having to increase their annual contributions and they are not happy about it.
Good riddance to them.

[islaydarkblue]

Bit confused here G.
Has the UK in the last 7 years became "the most successful union the world has ever known" which under cameron/may/Johnson I find incredible and absurd.
Or
7 years ago you wanted to leave "the most successful union the world has ever known" which does seem strange.

I've no problem with anyone changing views over different periods of time or different parties/leaders governing but I do find it unusual to see anyone have such a change when it's the same party governing, and you were like me a big indy supporter. I usually vote for the individual my as the parties imo are all ****. My preference wud be independence with a Labour gov with a John Smith type in charge.

If Scotland became an independent country the SNP party would disappear and mot of their supporters would go crawling back to vote Labour.
We would be stuck with the Labour Party in power for ever more and taxed to the hilt.
Be very careful what you wish for.

[islaydarkblue]

Read interesting comment about Scotland Act. It was not thought that any party would ever win an outright majority which is why there is no second chamber to review legislation. Maybe Westminster should review the arrangements? The way the SNP have acted to frustrate the Salmond Committer enquiries might be justification. Not sure that Westminster is any different but at least the legal set up is separate.

We have enough incompetence MSPs at Holyrood without introducing a second chamber which would be full of incompetent retired MSPs.

[islaydarkblue]

Good to see your support for a 2nd referendum given so many have changed their minds since 2014. Oil could provide so much more for Scotland's econony, unfortunately Salmond chose not to venture down that path, instead just concentrated on the price of a barrel rather than seeking to explore the Norway model, for example.

If Salmond had adopted the Norway model concerning the income from the taxation on a barrel of oil how was he going to raise that loss of taxation. It takes years to build up a large annual income.
Salmond could of course have adopted the Norway Government’s taxation policy on alcohol which would have doubled the price of a pint of beer. There would certainly have been no need to introduce minimum pricing as the price of the cheapest 70cl bottle of spirits would have been a lot dearer than it is at present in Scotland.

[islaydarkblue]

Norway currently investing billions in hydrogen technology, we're building windmills everywhere. Zero carbon just means planting more trees.

Here is something for you to investigate. In November 2019 I discovered this information by accident whilst during the internet.

https://www.whiskyadvocate.com/most-...kies-peatiest/

[islaydarkblue]

The slogan Scotland's Oil probably reached about 20 people in 1974, the SNP were hardly front-page news.

Too bad, $1trn of Scotland's money spent on London, another $1.5trn still in the ground.

ah well, the tories will still love us when it's gone, won't they.

When the price of oil collapsed to about $20 er barrel in 2015/16 Nicola Sturgeon begged the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce the tax rate on a barrel of oil in his next budget. He did as she wished but that means that th taxation received on a barrel of oil is less than it was in September 2014.
The SNP would have to recalculate the taxation that they would receive from a barrel of oil coming out of U.K. waters.
Of course they could just reissue their ‘fantasy land’ White Paper Scotland’s future.

[islaydarkblue]

improved technology means we can access more of the reserves rather than simply abandon and decommission. We're pulling oil and gas out now that we wouldn't have had access to ten years ago and are exploring further and deeper to locate new fields.

There is a future in decommissioning for Scotland but it needs to run in parallel with the construction of new wells and the continued production of resources from these and existing wells that were considered close to abandonment but are now still capable of profitable production.

Nobody’s mentioned what would happen if the residents of the Orkney and Shetland isles voted to go it alone and declare independence from Scotland. I have read recently that the residents of both islands are fed up with the centralisation of everything by the SNP controlled Scottish Government in Edinburgh.
As a result of the income from oil landed on both islands they would be very wealthy.
Meanwhile it would knock a hole in the SNP calculations for income from taxation especially as the oil from North Sea oil pipeline into Grangemouth is not flowing to the same extent as previously.
Why have there been so many rigs sitting tied up in the Dundee harbour front if oil production is booming in he North Sea.