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Scottish independence is off the radar says Sturgeon – politicalbetting.com
Scottish independence is off the radar says Sturgeon – politicalbetting.com
As leader of the SNP Nicola Sturgeon won eight elections in a row. But her failure to find a path to Scottish independence looms over her. Over Lunch with the FT she talks scandals, falling out with Alex Salmond — and why referendum pressure will return https://t.co/v6kJdzANPD pic.twitter.com/4uGKpju1yL
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This is actually one of the government's better policies.
As an added bonus, it might lead to localised for trinity pricing, which would massively benefit the entire UK electricity market.
That they're starting to do it within the first year of taking office, suggests they might not be quite the sclerotic dinosaur of PB conventional wisdom.
Now they don’t even want to do what they raised all that money for…
State school pupils in England may have to drop GCSE Latin after funding pulled
DfE urged to delay ending funding of popular programme so that hundreds of students can complete their courses
State school pupils taking GCSE Latin may be forced to drop the subject or even have to teach themselves after the government ends funding for a popular programme that has increased the numbers learning Latin across England.
School leaders, scholars and authors are urging the Department for Education to offer a reprieve to the Latin excellenceprogramme, to enable hundreds of students to complete their GCSE courses and allow schools time to find additional support.
The DfE announced shortly before Christmas that it would end funding in February for the programme, which supports Latin lessons for more than 8,000 pupils at 40 non-selective state schools, as part of the government’s cost-cutting drive to stabilise public finances.
The cuts mean the programme will no longer be able to fund Latin teachers in schools from the end of next month, leaving some without qualified staff.
Tom Holland, the award-winning author and host of The Rest Is History podcast, said he supported continued funding for the programme, launched in 2021, arguing that Latin should not be abandoned to “posh ghettoes” within private schools.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/12/state-school-pupils-in-england-may-have-to-drop-gsce-latin-after-funding-pulled
To paraphrase Wells,
...across the gulf of the border, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regard this union with envious eyes, and slowly and surely draw their plans against us. And early in the twenty first century will come the great disillusionment...
But yes, I'm not betting on it.
Then again, they are always absolutely mental.
Very few people think independence is the priority. Our priorities, like the rest of the UK, are our failing state, whether that is a collapsing health service, a collapsing education system, a complete inability to deliver necessary infrastructure or even ferries for the Western Isles. We have a state focused on the minority that work for it at the cost of everyone else. It is simply not sustainable but it is not a uniquely Scottish problem and very few believe that somehow independence would make it any better.
It provides a fitting epitaph to her leadership.
Probably not.
Watch at https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1
For those wondering, Starship launch is now not before Wednesday.
For example if Scotland, which had the good sense not to privatise water, has to fork out to subsidise the affluent SE of England if Thames Water goes broke.
And our debt is relatively short term compared to many major economies, so that feeds through fairly quickly to spending forecasts.
And Trump's presidency might see rates push higher still, as the US has rather more influence in the markets than does the UK Treasury.
However good or however crap the Chancellor is doesn't do much to change that.
A monopoly on launch services isn't a particularly good thing.
Until the SNP finally come up with plausible answers to questions like which currency an independent Scotland would use or who would be the lender of last resort then I cannot see Yes winning.
Was it just wishful thinking from remainers - and it made it less likely, or did it really make it more likely (but still just unlikely in the scheme of things)?
you spent most of the election arguing with me that cuts were impossible,
Now they're on the cards. And the debt position is pretty much the same.
The only bit of good news is Reeves is so crap she's having to cut now rather than next year.
I can help her out by saying anything involving Ed Miliband should be cut immediately.
Yes some competition is welcome, although the ESA and the Chinese will continue to do their own thing for political reasons. The old days of NASA giving Big Space a blank cheque are definitely over though, the reductions in cost from SpaceX and Blue Origin are orders of magnitude.
But I do have a half written thread on this.
I shall try and finish it soon.
It is confusing but a pleasant surprise that more Germans than Britons have listened to the latest podcast episode. Not sure why this is.
Hoping to get the next, which will be looking at predictions based on the betting market, this week. NB no tips (the turn around time and fact I almost always tip just before an event makes it unfeasible generally).
🔴 Join America 57% (+20)
🔵 Don't Join 37%
@PatriotPolling
| 1/6-11
https://x.com/OpenSourceZone/status/1878576691401920571
NB: Quite q dodgy pollster, but a more reliable Danish pollster also has a majority of Greenlanders wanting to join the USA. At the same time, some polls show Greenlanders wanting to join the EU...
Whatever the case, it looks like they will vote for full independence from Denmark ASAP
All that will happen is the Latin teachers will move to private tutoring, so those who can afford it can still do the exams while those who can’t lose out, despite two years of studying towards them.
Greenland 50k
Faroes 50k
Iceland 400k
Azores 236k
Madeira 250k
Saint Helena et al. 5k
Falklands 4k
SLS is best at wasting money.
It's interesting how the planned capabilities of both rockets has decreased over time. SS is nowhere near the planned 100 tonnes to orbit, and NG is well under its target of 45 tonnes (figures from memory; may be wrong).
(*) As far as we know, given neither is currently operational.
I suspect Musk will be told to stay in his lane working with Ramaswarmy on the government efficiency project, and stop compromising international relations with his obvious lack of knowledge of other countries’ political systems.
Hopefully Elon will be happily distracted by the upcoming Starship launch and Tesla’s new Model Y.
To be fair to him, Tesla and SpaceX have worked together to deploy dozens of “Wifi Cybertrucks” across Los Angeles over the weekend, giving internet access to the areas affected by the fires.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1878548886962212964
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1878571458093314161
I have the feeling Berlusconi (unlike Trump and I suppose Putin) never quite believed his own cult of personality; he was always in it to save his own skin and carry on with the bunga bunga parties.
Cuts very much happening here and one or two slightly bullish noises about growth at the end of the year but all a bit vague and a lot of concern about policy changes from the incoming Trump administration.
I sense a holding pattern until the inauguration when no doubt Trump will aim to hit the ground running with Presidential decrees aplenty in the first few days.
Separating rhetoric from reality is going to be the main game in the next 10 days - as is often the case, magnanimity is going to be in short supply from the victors in the short term.
As has happened in the UK, I suspect Trump will lead on foreign policy with Rubio simply his master’s voice or left to deal with those areas and issues with which Trump can’t be bothered. Both New Zealand and Australia will be watching keenly for any changes with regard to Sino-American relations and any increase of tensions in the west and southwest Pacific.
Even for a narrow-minded loather of knowledge and learning, slicing in half a course to learn something and get a qualification because "Latin = bad" is just vindictive.
So bugger the country, it’s all about the electoral cycle. And all parties are bad on this.
Maybe we need ten year gaps between elections to allow longer term thinking.
BBC Shortbread & Ferry News has sent their chief news editor on this voyage; I foresee breaking headlines of no black pudding on the breakfast menu and toilet paper of insufficient softness.
Back to work!
"The carbon footprint of a long-delayed new "green" ferry will be far larger than the 31-year-old diesel ship that usually serves the route between the Scottish mainland and the island of Arran."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy87e72yg3o
I do agree a volte face every time a Government changes is far from helpful but as we’ve seen here with the Interislander ferries, pulling out of contracts can be financially punitive.
There's a fair amount on the stokes & ready to roll, if the Trump critics are correct.
Locating them isn’t the problem you stupid twats, it’s having resources other than a guy with a load of used chewing gum to fill in those holes.
Inflicting it on ourselves for a decade would be national suicide.
Good morning, everyone.
See today’s BBC article with politicians complaining that the biggest problem with the new digital communications law, is that it doesn’t go far enough and that speech should be more restricted than it is already.
(The "looting decriminalised" claim is a lie.)
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1878173512885580222
Having cancelled one in July.
You couldn't make this rubbish up.
She's attacking not only every reform the last government made, but those they did too.
Our average sovereign debt maturity is more than 14 years, compared with 6 in the US and Germany, 8 in France and 7 in Italy.
See here.
https://prosperitydata360.worldbank.org/en/indicator/WB+CCDFS+avglife
We pay over the odds for debt precisely to be somewhat insulated from short-term market fluctuations.
OGH spent many years arging that the EU didn't matter to voters based on the 'importance polling'. And then suddenly we had Brexit.
The biggest issue seems to be that Scottish people are buying fat cars
Streeing, Rayner, Darren Jones I “get”. Not so Phillipson.
Not sure how likely that is.
I saw a graph of US debt maturity and it was very heavily loaded to the next few years and after that very little.
I just think she's been totally captured by the progressive educational lobby and its paymasters.
I fully expect to see England slip down the education rankings by the end of this parliamentary term.
Then they could have spent some time actually thinking through the tinkering proposals, aiming to simply and streamline various systems, rather than doing what they’ve done and upset several well-organised groups of people.
LOL.
$34trn in debt, 125% of GDP and growing by $1.7trn a year, the US federal government spent 25% more than it raised in taxes last year.
It’s only their status as the global reserve currency that keeps the dollar strong. The incoming administration has one hell of a job to do, if they want to reverse decades of over-borrowing.
A pizzeria is imposing a £100 'fine' to deter customers from ordering a Hawaiian pizza because they loathe the combination.
@susannareid100, @edballs, @toryboypierce, @kevin_maguire debate the 'controversial' flavour.
What do you think?
https://x.com/GMB/status/1878698882953015588
I don't know why Phillipson is spending so much time on schools when higher education is the one in absolute meltdown.
It was about hating "foreigners"
Much easier to cancel a GCSE for thousands of state school kids.