Road to Fascism ?

[stewarty27]

See the Tories are to force Companies to reveal how many foreign workers they employ under government plans to shame bosses who fail to take on British staff. Jezzo min scary stuff. maybe they will get the poles et al to wear badges on their shirts next.

[Pacman1903]

The government do it Angola, rigs and FPSOs have to be so much pecentage national wether they are qualified or not. There are alot of boneheads on board as you can imagine

They have just binned the Sparrows (expat) deck crew to up the percentage. One of the new national riggers was the steward 2 trips ago. I sh@t you not, thats bonkers

[donsdaft]

I always remember, from the world at war series, a Dutch guy talking about the early days of the Nazi occupation.
Apparently there was a lengthy form to fill in.
One of the questions was whether you had any Jewish blood in your family.
Not having any Jewish relations he thought nothing of it and just "ticked the box" NO.

After the war he realised that even by answering the question he had helped in the extermination of so many people.

It was quite a moving scene, that such a fair minded and intelligent man felt he had played his part in such a tragedy.

Be ever vigilant

[EintrachtFrankfurt]

Road to Fascism?

Pretty much another reason for Scotland to get out of this godforsaken "union" of unequals before its to late!

[sancho_panza]

Road to Fascism?

Pretty much another reason for Scotland to get out of this godforsaken "union" of unequals before its to late!

It's only been two years since the last referendum, but the arguments have already changed pretty substantially. The political case for independence has become much stronger, not only because of Brexit, but because of the general deterioration of the UK's party system into one electorally successful (but horrific anti-immigrant and populist) party in the shape of the Tories, and a load of completely unelectable parties that can't provide credible opposition.

On the other hand, the economic case for independence is now much worse. In 2014 if you read any of the Yes campaign material you'd probably have seen a figure stating that we generate 9.9% of UK revenue but receive only 9.3% of UK spending. That was a figure based on numbers from 2011-12. The equivalent figure today is 7.9% of UK revenue and 9.1% of UK spending. I don't care how strongly in favour of independence someone is, you'd have to be sticking your head in the sand to avoid acknowledging that's a worse set of figures to build the case on.

And Sturgeon knows that so I expect she's going to drag it out until the figures improve and the situation is more favourable (she's also probably aware Brexit is going to drag on until after 2019 - there's a two year limit on negotiations once Article 50 is triggered, but the deal they actually sign could well put several months or even years of a transition period on top of that). Plus if you think Brexit will be a mess and prove unpopular once reality kicks in, which I do, then you might as well sit it out and watch opinion shift. Personally, I think Scotland will vote for independence, but probably in the early 2020s.

[Buc]

Yeah we need to time the next one right and there will be a next one then strike.
But for me 10 years would be about right.

[stewarty27]

On the other hand, the economic case for independence is now much worse. In 2014 if you read any of the Yes campaign material you'd probably have seen a figure stating that we generate 9.9% of UK revenue but receive only 9.3% of UK spending. That was a figure based on numbers from 2011-12. The equivalent figure today is 7.9% of UK revenue and 9.1% of UK spending. I don't care how strongly in favour of independence someone is, you'd have to be sticking your head in the sand to avoid acknowledging that's a worse set of figures to build the case on.

.

Of course your right Sancho and Im sure its the first thing Project Fear2 will throw at Independence. But it has to be remembered Scotland's economics are those within the Union. The whole point of Indy is to do things different and more tailored to our needs.

An independent Scotland could borrow for a start - https://en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of...ries_by_public... - this shows public sector debt across the world. Economic performance can go up as well as down. The GERS figures make certain assumptions (worth asking SNP MPs to delve into these reserved matters for more clarity?) - e.g. Scotlands 'share' of UK infrastructure and defence costs for example, the Police Scotland VAT discrepancy. The biggest bill is the Social Protection but as this becomes more devolved it can be made more efficient. 'Accounting Adjustments' and 'Public Sector Debt Interest' may look a lot different as well. Also GERS only covers public sector revenue and expenditure - not the whole of the Scottish economy. AND CERTAINLY NOT WHAT AN INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND WOULD LOOK LIKE !! It does look challenging but it's well within the means of an Independent Scotland to manage.

[stewarty27]

PS and indeed prosper

[stewarty27]

Yeah we need to time the next one right and there will be a next one then strike.
But for me 10 years would be about right.

Not sure if we can afford to wait 10 years Buc.

[Buc]

Not sure if we can afford to wait 10 years Buc.

You could be right Stewarty . Maybe 6 years from now not sure if we'd get it going for it now.
Whenever it is we will have even more foot soldiers out fighting for the cause well we know we won't get backing from the press or indeed good old Westminster backed BBC.. again