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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Time to back Maria Miller as next out of the cabinet?
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Time to back Maria Miller as next out of the cabinet?
Over the weekend stories emerged about Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, being criticised by parliamentary standards officials for claiming mortgage repayments and other expenses associated with a large detached property in south London.
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I work near Basingstoke, and the opinion of most people I've spoken to is that she should have been bloody well capable of commuting from there, like plenty of people around here do.
What we have here are resignations forced by being caught.
[and, face facts, you don't get to be an MP by being principled, but by being duplicitous, treacherous and conniving]
(I've not followed the details so I've no opinion myself, by the way.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26220638
Didn't catch Salmond's speech. Did he deconstruct Osborne's various points on currency union, or did he gasp in horror, aghast that an Englishman expressed an opinion which was unhelpful?
http://www.ukip.org/newsroom/news/1169-european-human-rights-regime-stopping-record-number-of-foreign-criminals-from-being-deported
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/02/alex-salmond-attacks-campaign-rhetoric-with-a-george-tax/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=alex-salmond-attacks-campaign-rhetoric-with-a-george-tax&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Short version; "I'm right, you're all wrong, and what's more he's English. Oh, and if I don't get what I want I'm not paying my bills."
Masterpiece of statesmanship and diplomacy.....
You were expecting him to set out the nineteen precedents where successor states and seceding states entered long term currency unions?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/14/goldman_sachs_on_oligopolistic_mergers.html
'Given the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis, is Salmond really expecting anyone to believe that a small transaction cost for the small share of business going across Hadrian's wall is worth the huge financial risks of a currency union for every business in the country?'
Given that Salmond wants an independent Scotland to eventually join the EU (however long that takes) & new EU members are forced to join the €uro,business in rUK will get the transaction cost anyway.
Lender of last resort concerns?
The requirement for stringent fiscal limits, which would be contrary to a spirit of independence?
The fact it would require the agreement of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but all the major parties are opposed?
Also, was there any suggestion of an alternative policy? Because the current position appears to be "We can vote to be independent and then dictate to the country we just left that we'll share their currency". That's not necessarily entirely consistent with reason.
Last day of school term in London boroughs appears to be Friday 4th April - I imagine they'll be doing everything they can to have the line open in time for that.
I asked a straight question about Salmond describing Osborne as 'English', complete PB body swerve thus far.
To have Westminster politicians lecture the Scots on what London will permit just drives home the point. It would certainly encourage me to vote for Independence, had I the vote.
Whatever the outcome of the IndyRef, will the result be a trigger for electoral and constitutional reform for the UK/RUK
'Ah, the PB Unionist universal translator, Babblepish. Wonderful the strange constructions it comes up with.'
Was Jim Sillars description of a currency union as 'stupidity on stilts' a split in the Yes camp or just Babblepish?
But there will be a currency union.
'Surely if there were no currency union English importers into Scotland'
Don't you mean exporters.
You're winning!
If you propose to me an arrangement whereby you and I set up a joint bank account, I regret that I will decline the suggestion.
Is that really lecturing you?
So you keep telling us, Mr Observer. You don't seem too keen on repeating why there should be such a Union. Perhaps you would care to give us an insight into your reasoning.
Then perhaps you can tell me who 4 days ago re. No position on currency union said: 'This is entirely political and of course consistent with the unionist campaign. This is negative, it is about spreading fears and scare stories. What we require from the unionist parties is a bit of statesmanship and quite frankly their behaviour so far falls well short of that.'
I'll give you a clue, he's currently voting No.
If you PM me I'll tell you where to send the bottle of vintage Scotch. Thanks.
Even if Scotland remained in NATO, would the organisation want to have their only ship-to-shore bombardment range in northern Europe, and the only place they can land live 1,000-pound bombs, in a country that is in half a mind to leave?
I suspect that most Scots, remember the nats represent a minority, understand why we are saying these things now rather than allowing uncertainty to develop as the referendum nears.
(1) have a currency union on the rUK's terms; or
(2) do not have a currency union and come up with an alternative that will allow Scotland to pay its agreed share of the UK's debt.
And that's it.
Would be weird if the ruling party were ruling an independent country that it thought should be part of a union wouldn't it? specially as the other side of the the border wanted a union as well
Not surprised that she was in favour of press controls, journalists asking silly questions about her interesting expense claims.
To date the best observation has been Ed Balls' why would we want a CU with a country which is trying to leave it to join another CU ?
The SNP should definitely finance a film with that name, subtitled Winning the YES campaign one hot voter at a time!
*Except for where the border suddenly darts south into England for a short distance, , goes east-ish, and then disappears back north into the middle of the river. Apparently a Scots and an English village used to play the mediaeval or post-m equivalent of footy, and the winners 'owned' the pitch till the next year. And it just so happened that the Scots won the last game ... no idea if it is true but I like the story!
PS. Do I win the 'new and original comment' prize?
Scotland leaves the UK, but the EU withdrawal referendum doesn't happen. Scotland, desperate for a currency union, bends over backwards to accommodate UK concerns, as per Southam's scenario. An agreement is done where Scotland is under strict revenue and expenditure limits, approved yearly by a body where 90% of representation is from the UK. This is a much more rigorous system than the Eurozone, which continues to find it politically impossible to pass the much needed reforms. Scotland also manages to hang on to EU membership. In such a situation, you would have two currency unions within the EU, one working much more effectively than the other, especially as the sterling zone is likely to have higher growth. In such a situation, would other countries start becoming more interested in the sterling zone than the eurozone? Notably Ireland, which is already in a free passport area with the UK and Scotland...
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2014-02-14/Currency union.png
The English and Welsh have thought about this and they've decided they don't like the idea. None of the main three political parties is going to give way on this point.
Or what about border controls? If Scotland goes and is on the waiting list for EU then it will be a non-EU country and we'd all need passports to cross the border.
Why doesn't Scotland already have its own Olympic team? It's a country, and plays independently in pretty much every other sport of any note. Maybe if it did have all this rigmarole could have been avoided. I mean Team GB? What's that? We don't have it in rugby, football or cricket.
The point is Devo Max isn't being offered and WILL not be offered after a No vote. I bet not even a PB Libdem could tell me what the LDs recent Devolution paper consists of, and Labour and Conservative offerings will be no less diaphonous. If a semi-realistic Devo Max option was on the ballot paper this referendum would be over bar the shouting.
He will get devo-max (and a currency union if there is a Yes vote, which of course there won't be). It is just a shame that he has to impose a whole referendum on Scotland to get it but perhaps he wouldn't have got it otherwise.
It is a perfectly acceptable strategy except for his disingenuousness in as you say not trusting the Scottish people to understand the implications of a currency union. And of course he can't afford to tell them what is involved because aside from a few more saltires here and there, the difference between No with devo-max and Yes with a currency union is immaterial.
Hockey, netball, rugby league, golf.... Pretty much most team sports??
http://www.iea.org.uk/brexit
This might help the SNP form an independence scenario that doesn't rely on EU membership.
The winner will be announced in April.
I am not saying independence would be a bad thing at all. I can see its attractions. But it strikes me that, unlike the likes of Sillars and Harvie, the SNP leadership is not telling Scottish voters what the reality will be. I can understand why: they don't trust Scots to vote Yes if the full story is told and Yes is the be all and end all. Nothing else matters.
Joins Brown in the "heavyweight brilliant political operators" of the Scottish left camp who when it came to the crunch weren't up to much.
I havent done a sport-by-sport analysis but my guess is that in most Olympic sports Scottish athletes tend to compete in GB / GB + NI / UK teams. It is certainly the case in the biggest / most important Olympic sports (athletics and swimming).
More generally the IOC is pretty strict about the definition of countries that can compete. I am sure there are other examples but the main case I can think of where team / national boundaries dont coincide is GB / Ireland (which is different from UK / RoI) and even then the Northern Ireland athletes are entitled to choose between the two teams.
To what extent should the MPC be forced to consider Scotland's economy vs, say, London or the Welsh economy?
And why?
By responding to everything that happened in the last week, Salmond is pretending last week never happened. http://better.tg/1chaimo #indyref
I agree that the major unionist parties are not being honest about the chances of a currency union. But then the Salmond and Sturgeon are not being honest about the consequences of one. Both sides are as bad as each other.