Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
...as a step to abolition, yes. So you'd decrease NI by a 1/5th each year, over a parliament, and increase IT to match.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
You'd need (politically) to have a separate basic rate for pensioners. So that the poorer pensioners don't pay more - just those on £50K or more.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I would work towards integrating Income Tax, NI and CGT. It would also have the benefit of streamlining HMRC, so a civil service cut as an added benefit.
If the Government want to introduce an additional tax, I would suggest a Churnalist Tax. Journalists to pay 90% of their earnings, with a 70% discount if they can actually prove they have carried out original research, rather than repeating stuff they have read on X.
On topic, pretty obviously a requested communication from ourside - nice to see national soft power being expended in Labour's party political interest
Surely Labour has trashed all our soft power... or did I misunderstand?
Also, is there a budget for soft power, that it mustn't be used in case it runs out?
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
Perhaps but that's how the debate has been framed for three or four decades. Direct taxation can only go one way as raising taxes is akin to selling your grandparents.
After the July 2024 election, I argued for a 25p basic rate, a 50p higher rate but with the unfreezing of thresholds increasing them by 2xRPI in year one and then 1.5xRPI In subsequent years as a little bit of carrot to go with the stick.
Raising the thresholds gives room for the basic pension to rise but still be outside tax but none of that obviates the need for spending cuts but as usual those calling for them have little or no clue where the axe should fall. Border protection and defence seem sacrosanct currently and the Conservative waffle about £23 billion on spending cuts was long on generalities and short on specifics.
We also have the option of a property-related tax (to replace Council Tax) which has been floated at 0.5% of value - we could call it Land Value Taxation perhaps.
I would argue it's not "death by a thousand taxes" - it's "death by a hundred unpopular decisions not taken". The Conservative administrations after 2015 were notorious for avoiding taking decisions and being in thrall to poll ratings. Labour won a huge majority in 2024 - they should have been radical from day one - yes, they'd have ended up as unpopular as they are now, perhaps even more so, but they'd have had something to show for it.
As an aside and whisper it quietly but I suspect many pensioners might be happy to accept a reduction in their lifestyle for the promise of adequate and timely health and social care when they really need it.
They might even be less unpopular.
If they'd genuinely grasped the nettle of planning reform, and immediately broken their promise on taxation and put up income tax, I might even have been tempted to vote for them next time around.
I don't disagree but they were as timid and perhaps stunned by the size of their victory as were the Blairites in 1997. Of course, the economy then was in a very different place and by signing up to Clarke's spending plans for the first two years, Labour effectively neutralised any challenge from the Conservatives.
The failure to take advantage of a huge majority is what will haunt Starmer and his administration - they could and should have gone in with both feet but the OBR precluded a quick Emergency Budget (which didn't happen for Osborne in 2010) but even so a radical tax-raising budget in the latter part of last year would at least have shown Labour meant business about reducing the deficit (though you could equally argue the pay awards, a trap laid by the departing Conservative administration of Sunak) meant they either had to pay up or face a season of damaging strikes from workers likely to enjoy considerbale public support.
It was a poorly laid trap if the polls are anything to go by.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Glasgow!
Not quite. Remember that the M8 through Glasgow sliced through districts being demolished anyway and along a disused canal. The Edinburgh plan basically demolished a ring of spectacular buildings not being demolished for any other reason.
That's rubbish. The M8 smashed through one of the high points of Victorian/Edwardian Glasgow, Charing X, the remnants of which can still be seen. The shittier places the motoway barrelled through became further enshittified, and only now are some of them recovering.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
We should be investing more. I've seen the impact of cuts to youth services in my own neighbourhood. School funding remains under pressure too. There is a growing epidemic of mental health problems among young people. We risk a lost generation if we don't act quickly, IMHO.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Glad to see all the hostages released and returning to their families. A real success for Trump to get this far, hoping that the rest of the deal follows as well and Hamas can be defeated by all of the local factions who do seem to be putting up a lot of resistance.
BIB - Apart from the ones who died in captivity, of course.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
If Reeves is stupid enough to reverse the Osborne inheritance tax cut, I predict Labour will be fourth in the polls by the New Year. Behind not only Reform but the Tories and LDs as well. With the Greens also snapping at their heels.
I don't think she is that stupid though, a wealth tax on expensive homes and increase in CGT more likely
I'm hoping she goes bold and finally takes on reform of council tax and local government funding and is the one to at last kill the Triple Lock bung.
But I am thoroughly expecting none of that to happen and we get a load of technocratic tinkering here there and everywhere to somehow scrape together the $20b or two she is short of.
There is a case to abolish the 7 year rule on IHT
Can't, else there'd be a lot of deathbed transfers? Unless you mean extending it or changing it to CGT on all intra-family transfers?
A good friend of mine signed over nis entire assets to his wife during his terminal illness, closing down bank accounts etc., but that was to make life easier for her, no need to deal with banks etc., and it would have been exempt either way anyway. The executors still had to do the IHT400 or whatever form was needed to prove to HMRC that no INT was due.
OTOH a relative of ours transferred her estate to her daughter, who subsequently re-married then several years later sadly died of cancer, leaving the estate to her alcoholic 2nd husband. The mother is now in council-funded care with no assets of her own.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Indeed during the 50 or 60 years when Labour and Tories raped and pillaged Scotland's money to rebuild London and southern infrastructure. Your blind Tory bias is pathetic.
But it does indicate that Trump has told them to play nice with us for now.
Starmer's be nice to Trump strategy has actually paid off, also the fact that Trump is substantially more British than many millions of the people who live here, gives him an inherent fondness of the place. But like a petulant child that could change as his mood changes.
So ‘Britishness’ is qualified by blood? I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth, but I wouldn’t say they’re a huge cultural strand, and not generally admired characteristics.
My B-i-L is Gàidhealtachd. He has two brothers - Angus and Angus. Easier to remember.
I hope they have nicknames which is a big cultural strand in the outer isles.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
The problem of somewhat inadequate maternity provision is not novel to the North of Scotland.
My wife had our 2nd little one on Thursday night. It was a quick labour - she felt a bit sick eating her tea around 7pm (hardly unusual when heavily pregnant!), and decided she had "coming and going" sick feelings at 8.37pm (I have the timestamp as she messaged me to come upstairs!) I summoned the baby sitter for son no1 shortly afterwards. Baby sitter was with us in 20 mins, and we left 10 mins later (after my wife had thrown up fairly spectacularly!).
I then did the journey to the hospital in 28 minutes, which is an all time record - fortunately the roads were quiet and I was able to press on rather over the speed limit, as by then it was obvious that she was getting quite advanced in labour. When I wheeled her into hospital and they got her in the delivery room, son no2's head was already visible, and he was born 41 minutes later.
As it was, this all worked out fine. Had this all occurred starting at 7.30am on a weekday, we wouldn't have made it to the hospital - the journey can be well over an hour in peak traffic. Given my wife tore quite badly despite an episiotomy, had I delivered the baby in the car, there would have been a real risk of things going very wrong indeed. Indeed, even at hospital, there was a point shortly before the episiotomy where baby's heartrate started noticeably dropping, and I could sense the midwifes going from fairly chilled to "we need to get this baby out pronto".
Our town had maternity provision at our cottage hospital when I moved here, 13 years ago - but the NHS decided economies of scale were the future and closed it. Since then the traffic has got lots worse, and it wasn't great then, and our town has also expanded by 25% with new housing, without any additional medical provision (you can't get on the books of a private dentist within 15 miles, never mind an NHS one). Unfortunately I don't see things changing locally - if we go for another baby (we need another 0.4 of one to hit replacement rate!), I think we'll probably be asking for a home birth - ironically, although there is a no maternity suite at the cottage hospital, there are still loads of midwives based there!
Congratulations and I'm glad all went well in the end.
I would certainly receommend a home birth if you did try for another. My second was born at home and provided there are no obvious complications ahead of time it is well worth it - much more comfortable and quiet at home once the excitement is over.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
On topic, pretty obviously a requested communication from ourside - nice to see national soft power being expended in Labour's party political interest
Surely Labour has trashed all our soft power... or did I misunderstand?
Also, is there a budget for soft power, that it mustn't be used in case it runs out?
On the contrary, if it's not used at all then it's more likely to disappear.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
Feck all to do with SNP, they are just following what labour and Tories did for 60 years. They at least are trying and managing to do some parts, previously the London Tosser parties did F all. Given they only have the pocket money grudgingly given out of Scotland's money they have done reasonably well. If only our money was not squandered on southern infrastructure and London projects.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
The inner ring would have blasted right through our neighbourhood. It's a terrifying thought. There's a long barrier-like block of social housing nearby that was built as a kind of wall backing onto the proposed motorway - quite revealing in its own way about the mindset of urban planners at the time - which demonstrates exactly where the road would have been. I think they would have torn up the railway line to Victoria and Blackfriars to make way for it too. What utter madness, thank God for the oil crisis!
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
I fear your prediction of an SNP-SLab coalition/c&s after May will be oot the window. Anas has proved to be just TOO crap.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
The problem of somewhat inadequate maternity provision is not novel to the North of Scotland.
My wife had our 2nd little one on Thursday night. It was a quick labour - she felt a bit sick eating her tea around 7pm (hardly unusual when heavily pregnant!), and decided she had "coming and going" sick feelings at 8.37pm (I have the timestamp as she messaged me to come upstairs!) I summoned the baby sitter for son no1 shortly afterwards. Baby sitter was with us in 20 mins, and we left 10 mins later (after my wife had thrown up fairly spectacularly!).
I then did the journey to the hospital in 28 minutes, which is an all time record - fortunately the roads were quiet and I was able to press on rather over the speed limit, as by then it was obvious that she was getting quite advanced in labour. When I wheeled her into hospital and they got her in the delivery room, son no2's head was already visible, and he was born 41 minutes later.
As it was, this all worked out fine. Had this all occurred starting at 7.30am on a weekday, we wouldn't have made it to the hospital - the journey can be well over an hour in peak traffic. Given my wife tore quite badly despite an episiotomy, had I delivered the baby in the car, there would have been a real risk of things going very wrong indeed. Indeed, even at hospital, there was a point shortly before the episiotomy where baby's heartrate started noticeably dropping, and I could sense the midwifes going from fairly chilled to "we need to get this baby out pronto".
Our town had maternity provision at our cottage hospital when I moved here, 13 years ago - but the NHS decided economies of scale were the future and closed it. Since then the traffic has got lots worse, and it wasn't great then, and our town has also expanded by 25% with new housing, without any additional medical provision (you can't get on the books of a private dentist within 15 miles, never mind an NHS one). Unfortunately I don't see things changing locally - if we go for another baby (we need another 0.4 of one to hit replacement rate!), I think we'll probably be asking for a home birth - ironically, although there is a no maternity suite at the cottage hospital, there are still loads of midwives based there!
Congratulations and I'm glad all went well in the end.
I would certainly receommend a home birth if you did try for another. My second was born at home and provided there are no obvious complications ahead of time it is well worth it - much more comfortable and quiet at home once the excitement is over.
My wife would disagree with you. Horses for courses I suppose. As a Doctor her preference was to be within spitting range of as many qualified people and expensive equipment as possible.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Logical thing to do (so as not to shaft working pensioners too hard overnight) is to cut NI and raise IT by a couple of points a year every year until NI is zero - at which point it can be abolished.
A world with fewer taxes in it, but with the ones remaining at higher rates to recoup the revenue is almost always going to be a improvement.
See also my (and others) proposal to bin SDLT, IHT and council tax, and charge property owners 1% pa of the value of their holdings instead. You replace 3 taxes that are somewhat avoidable, very unpopular and fairly economically damaging with one simple, fair tax that's going to be very hard to avoid.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Today is history in the making and Trump has to be given the praise for this deal, though many will remain cherlish
As far as the header is concerned it does not surprise because Trump wants Blair to succeed and Powell will have played a big part in that
However, China gate is a different story with the CPS and Simon Case accusing the government of collapsing the Chinese spy trial with the spotlight falling on Jonathan Powell
I have no idea if he was involved, but it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny including by the select committee on foreign affairs and they will no doubt establish the facts
Sky saying all the living Israeli hostages have now been released which has to be celebrated
The government line (which has a certain amount of logic to it) is that the alleged offence took place under the previous government, and that at the time China was not designated a hostile power. To do so now in order to allow the protection to proceed has an element of retrospective legislation to it, which could perhaps be argued as a defence to any charge.
I'm not entirely clear on the precise law surrounding this case, but I'm pretty certain that's also true of 99% of those professing strong opinions about it (whether pro, or anti-government).
There is, of course, the purely pragmatic point that formally detonating China as a hostile power now will have significant economic repercussions.
A (edit) penultimate point is that Simon Chase's own credibility is not entirely copper bottomed.
Finally, it's "churlish" not cherlish.
I agree and it is upto Parliament and it's committees to find out the facts, though with this controversy and the Chinese London Embassy in the spotlight the government will have to tread a very careful line with China on trade
Me and my spelling sometimes disagree with each other !!!!
I spent a lot of my 13 years in Parliament on all-party committees. They do an excellent job when the issue is essentially non-constroversial, as they have the time and resources to analyse an issue in depth. They are a bit rubbish on issues of party controversy, as most members feel obliged to take partisan sides.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Today is history in the making and Trump has to be given the praise for this deal, though many will remain cherlish
As far as the header is concerned it does not surprise because Trump wants Blair to succeed and Powell will have played a big part in that
However, China gate is a different story with the CPS and Simon Case accusing the government of collapsing the Chinese spy trial with the spotlight falling on Jonathan Powell
I have no idea if he was involved, but it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny including by the select committee on foreign affairs and they will no doubt establish the facts
Sky saying all the living Israeli hostages have now been released which has to be celebrated
The government line (which has a certain amount of logic to it) is that the alleged offence took place under the previous government, and that at the time China was not designated a hostile power. To do so now in order to allow the protection to proceed has an element of retrospective legislation to it, which could perhaps be argued as a defence to any charge.
I'm not entirely clear on the precise law surrounding this case, but I'm pretty certain that's also true of 99% of those professing strong opinions about it (whether pro, or anti-government).
There is, of course, the purely pragmatic point that formally detonating China as a hostile power now will have significant economic repercussions.
A (edit) penultimate point is that Simon Chase's own credibility is not entirely copper bottomed.
Finally, it's "churlish" not cherlish.
I agree and it is upto Parliament and it's committees to find out the facts, though with this controversy and the Chinese London Embassy in the spotlight the government will have to tread a very careful line with China on trade
Me and my spelling sometimes disagree with each other !!!!
I spent a lot of my 13 years in Parliament on all-party committees. They do an excellent job when the issue is essentially non-constroversial, as they have the time and resources to analyse an issue in depth. They are a bit rubbish on issues of party controversy, as most members feel obliged to take partisan sides.
I agree but these days the more controversial committee hearings are televised and media scrutinised
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
I fear your prediction of an SNP-SLab coalition/c&s after May will be oot the window. Anas has proved to be just TOO crap.
LOL. Actually, I don't think you can really blame Anas to be fair. And SLAB did out-perform expectations at that by-election, whenever it was. But yes, my prognosis looking less sound now. All the same, still some way to go.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
The problem of somewhat inadequate maternity provision is not novel to the North of Scotland.
My wife had our 2nd little one on Thursday night. It was a quick labour - she felt a bit sick eating her tea around 7pm (hardly unusual when heavily pregnant!), and decided she had "coming and going" sick feelings at 8.37pm (I have the timestamp as she messaged me to come upstairs!) I summoned the baby sitter for son no1 shortly afterwards. Baby sitter was with us in 20 mins, and we left 10 mins later (after my wife had thrown up fairly spectacularly!).
I then did the journey to the hospital in 28 minutes, which is an all time record - fortunately the roads were quiet and I was able to press on rather over the speed limit, as by then it was obvious that she was getting quite advanced in labour. When I wheeled her into hospital and they got her in the delivery room, son no2's head was already visible, and he was born 41 minutes later.
As it was, this all worked out fine. Had this all occurred starting at 7.30am on a weekday, we wouldn't have made it to the hospital - the journey can be well over an hour in peak traffic. Given my wife tore quite badly despite an episiotomy, had I delivered the baby in the car, there would have been a real risk of things going very wrong indeed. Indeed, even at hospital, there was a point shortly before the episiotomy where baby's heartrate started noticeably dropping, and I could sense the midwifes going from fairly chilled to "we need to get this baby out pronto".
Our town had maternity provision at our cottage hospital when I moved here, 13 years ago - but the NHS decided economies of scale were the future and closed it. Since then the traffic has got lots worse, and it wasn't great then, and our town has also expanded by 25% with new housing, without any additional medical provision (you can't get on the books of a private dentist within 15 miles, never mind an NHS one). Unfortunately I don't see things changing locally - if we go for another baby (we need another 0.4 of one to hit replacement rate!), I think we'll probably be asking for a home birth - ironically, although there is a no maternity suite at the cottage hospital, there are still loads of midwives based there!
Congratulations and I'm glad all went well in the end.
I would certainly receommend a home birth if you did try for another. My second was born at home and provided there are no obvious complications ahead of time it is well worth it - much more comfortable and quiet at home once the excitement is over.
My wife would disagree with you. Horses for courses I suppose. As a Doctor her preference was to be within spitting range of as many qualified people and expensive equipment as possible.
I've sympathy with that point of view, and I think my preference would be for a hospital birth for that reason. The problem is that whilst a hospital birth trumps a home birth on this basis, a home birth also beats a delivery by dad in a bus stop in the A6 on the same score, and trying for another hospital birth for us probably comes with a 10% risk of the latter. Both our kids have come fairly quickly, and it seems to run in the family (apparently my mother in law delivered my wife after around an hour in labour, and she was her first child!).
The UK may well have had a crucial role in the Gaza peace settlement, as one of the few governments able to deal with Israel and the Arab nations on an equal basis, and trusted by both sides.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Glasgow!
Not quite. Remember that the M8 through Glasgow sliced through districts being demolished anyway and along a disused canal. The Edinburgh plan basically demolished a ring of spectacular buildings not being demolished for any other reason.
That's rubbish. The M8 smashed through one of the high points of Victorian/Edwardian Glasgow, Charing X, the remnants of which can still be seen. The shittier places the motoway barrelled through became further enshittified, and only now are some of them recovering.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
The problem of somewhat inadequate maternity provision is not novel to the North of Scotland.
My wife had our 2nd little one on Thursday night. It was a quick labour - she felt a bit sick eating her tea around 7pm (hardly unusual when heavily pregnant!), and decided she had "coming and going" sick feelings at 8.37pm (I have the timestamp as she messaged me to come upstairs!) I summoned the baby sitter for son no1 shortly afterwards. Baby sitter was with us in 20 mins, and we left 10 mins later (after my wife had thrown up fairly spectacularly!).
I then did the journey to the hospital in 28 minutes, which is an all time record - fortunately the roads were quiet and I was able to press on rather over the speed limit, as by then it was obvious that she was getting quite advanced in labour. When I wheeled her into hospital and they got her in the delivery room, son no2's head was already visible, and he was born 41 minutes later.
As it was, this all worked out fine. Had this all occurred starting at 7.30am on a weekday, we wouldn't have made it to the hospital - the journey can be well over an hour in peak traffic. Given my wife tore quite badly despite an episiotomy, had I delivered the baby in the car, there would have been a real risk of things going very wrong indeed. Indeed, even at hospital, there was a point shortly before the episiotomy where baby's heartrate started noticeably dropping, and I could sense the midwifes going from fairly chilled to "we need to get this baby out pronto".
Our town had maternity provision at our cottage hospital when I moved here, 13 years ago - but the NHS decided economies of scale were the future and closed it. Since then the traffic has got lots worse, and it wasn't great then, and our town has also expanded by 25% with new housing, without any additional medical provision (you can't get on the books of a private dentist within 15 miles, never mind an NHS one). Unfortunately I don't see things changing locally - if we go for another baby (we need another 0.4 of one to hit replacement rate!), I think we'll probably be asking for a home birth - ironically, although there is a no maternity suite at the cottage hospital, there are still loads of midwives based there!
Congratulations and I'm glad all went well in the end.
I would certainly receommend a home birth if you did try for another. My second was born at home and provided there are no obvious complications ahead of time it is well worth it - much more comfortable and quiet at home once the excitement is over.
Congratulations. Hope mother and child are still doing well.
Home births are fine much of the time, but there's always a BUT. If something goes wrong mother and child have to be transported by ambulance to a suitable place. Then you've got the traffic issues, even with blue lights.
I have a tangential interest in the A9 as I used to use it a lot on the way to Elgin from London. Long journey but became more pleasant after Newcastle. But why wasn't the job done when there was all the proceeds from North Sea Oil plus the revenues from privatisation and the sale of council houses. No fixing of the roof while the sun was shining.
There is a long history of politicians pissing away the wealth of the nation on ideological projects. And the blame must lie at the feet of those that put them into power.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Indeed during the 50 or 60 years when Labour and Tories raped and pillaged Scotland's money to rebuild London and southern infrastructure. Your blind Tory bias is pathetic.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
Feck all to do with SNP, they are just following what labour and Tories did for 60 years. They at least are trying and managing to do some parts, previously the London Tosser parties did F all. Given they only have the pocket money grudgingly given out of Scotland's money they have done reasonably well. If only our money was not squandered on southern infrastructure and London projects.
You must be joking, malc. The cash has been blown on middle-class freebies like free uni tuition fees, free prescriptions, etc. And then the malign influence of the Greens during their ill-starred time in Govt. It wasn't Westminster that screwed up the ferries, and repeatedly promised to improve the roads. 18 years in charge, malc, 18 years.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
An acquaintance of mine teaches in an FE college. He's very sorry for that cohort of his pupils who are trying to pass GCSE Maths and English, and are unable to do so, although they're more than adequate at other subjects. We have a great-nephew whom we fear will fall into that cohort, although he's apparently very good indeed at Art.
But it does indicate that Trump has told them to play nice with us for now.
Starmer's be nice to Trump strategy has actually paid off, also the fact that Trump is substantially more British than many millions of the people who live here, gives him an inherent fondness of the place. But like a petulant child that could change as his mood changes.
So ‘Britishness’ is qualified by blood? I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth, but I wouldn’t say they’re a huge cultural strand, and not generally admired characteristics.
"I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth".
The 45th and 47th President of the USA springs to mind.
I have a tangential interest in the A9 as I used to use it a lot on the way to Elgin from London. Long journey but became more pleasant after Newcastle. But why wasn't the job done when there was all the proceeds from North Sea Oil plus the revenues from privatisation and the sale of council houses. No fixing of the roof while the sun was shining.
There is a long history of politicians pissing away the wealth of the nation on ideological projects. And the blame must lie at the feet of those that put them into power.
Too far from London to benefit the decision makers. See also: 2025.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
In principle I think all taxes should be low, but I think this is definitely a least worst option to raise money. I also think that when a Government is elected that turns the economy around, income tax reductions will mean more, as it will benefit everyone in lock step.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Who are these people who are doing the continual trashing of the country and her people? Curious.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
At a guess it would be the distinction between those held in a manner which is analogous to a criminal act and those held in a jurisdiction where people cannot be detained without the opportunity of legal representation and appearing before a court in a jurisdiction which upholds the separation of powers. But, another guess, there will be powerful arguments and facts to suggest that I am wrong in every detail.
On the whole I think the BBC do well over Israel/Gaza; less well in covering the growing terrorist gangster state in USA. (Where it feels like they are under orders to go very soft).
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Who are these people who are doing the continual trashing of the country and her people? Curious.
Sarwar, Jackie Baillie, DRoss, Russell Findlay, Rachel Hamilton, Annie Wells, to name a few.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
Me four, and I'm 75. As someone said downthread, at pension age one is mainly concerned with adequate care for the last bit of life, and paying more tax on higher incomes would be OK. It's nice to have money to go on lots of holidays etc. but hardly a priority.
But it does indicate that Trump has told them to play nice with us for now.
Starmer's be nice to Trump strategy has actually paid off, also the fact that Trump is substantially more British than many millions of the people who live here, gives him an inherent fondness of the place. But like a petulant child that could change as his mood changes.
So ‘Britishness’ is qualified by blood? I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth, but I wouldn’t say they’re a huge cultural strand, and not generally admired characteristics.
"I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth".
The 45th and 47th President of the USA springs to mind.
Lest we forget, son of Mary Ann MacLeod of Lewis.
Err, yes, that was what I was referring to, hence the mention of blood. I see no sign that Trump is culturally British, Scottish or Hebridean. I think his attachment to Scotland is golf (the home of), a big part of his identity.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
In principle I think all taxes should be low, but I think this is definitely a least worst option to raise money. I also think that when a Government is elected that turns the economy around, income tax reductions will mean more, as it will benefit everyone in lock step.
It will hit the self-employed very hard, especially if accompanied by rises in taxes on dividends, and through them the most dynamic and enterprising part of the economy. That's about 4.4 million voters. So with pensioners and landlords we'll soon see if Labour can poll in the single digits and Reform above 40%.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
Today is history in the making and Trump has to be given the praise for this deal, though many will remain cherlish
As far as the header is concerned it does not surprise because Trump wants Blair to succeed and Powell will have played a big part in that
However, China gate is a different story with the CPS and Simon Case accusing the government of collapsing the Chinese spy trial with the spotlight falling on Jonathan Powell
I have no idea if he was involved, but it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny including by the select committee on foreign affairs and they will no doubt establish the facts
Sky saying all the living Israeli hostages have now been released which has to be celebrated
The government line (which has a certain amount of logic to it) is that the alleged offence took place under the previous government, and that at the time China was not designated a hostile power. To do so now in order to allow the protection to proceed has an element of retrospective legislation to it, which could perhaps be argued as a defence to any charge.
I'm not entirely clear on the precise law surrounding this case, but I'm pretty certain that's also true of 99% of those professing strong opinions about it (whether pro, or anti-government).
There is, of course, the purely pragmatic point that formally detonating China as a hostile power now will have significant economic repercussions.
A (edit) penultimate point is that Simon Chase's own credibility is not entirely copper bottomed.
Finally, it's "churlish" not cherlish.
I agree and it is upto Parliament and it's committees to find out the facts, though with this controversy and the Chinese London Embassy in the spotlight the government will have to tread a very careful line with China on trade
Me and my spelling sometimes disagree with each other !!!!
I spent a lot of my 13 years in Parliament on all-party committees. They do an excellent job when the issue is essentially non-constroversial, as they have the time and resources to analyse an issue in depth. They are a bit rubbish on issues of party controversy, as most members feel obliged to take partisan sides.
They do seem toothless though. Take the example which I am heavily involved in and which you know about Nick. That had all party support and the NAO and PAC found in our favour and wrote damning reports. Yet the Tory government ignored the findings as has the new Labour Government. Then nothing happens. There is no follow up. The ministers are not held to account.
I do agree they have time and resources to analyse the issue in depth, but only some of the MPs on the committees do so. Others are useless. One of our biggest frustrations is MPs who ask questions fed to them but who don't understand the issues then get replies from ministers who also don't understand the issues, so when they get a nonsense of factually incorrect reply they don't have enough knowledge to challenge it. It is so frustrating to watch. Like watching two idiots having an argument. We (and another MP) briefed one MP on PAC for the best part of 2 days. He had his list of questions and to one answer there was an obvious killer response. Nope nothing. He hadn't grasped the issue and consequently the opportunity. I was there watching. I wanted to leap up and respond, but I suspect two hefty security guards would have escorted me out of parliament.
I and the rest of us involved have lost faith in the system. You tend to when you know a lot about an issue and watch people arguing about it who haven't a clue.
Oh and just to make clear I am talking about stuff that is factual, not opinions and if you think this is maybe a one off we have witnessed 2 parliamentary debates where exactly the same happens.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Israel is a state actor, and Hamas isn't.
Probably detained while in commission of an act against the IDF vs kidnapped while at a pop concert might also work.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
An acquaintance of mine teaches in an FE college. He's very sorry for that cohort of his pupils who are trying to pass GCSE Maths and English, and are unable to do so, although they're more than adequate at other subjects. We have a great-nephew whom we fear will fall into that cohort, although he's apparently very good indeed at Art.
Yes. Which of us would get anywhere if we were judged on the things we are no good at? It is a huge discrimination against millions of the people we rely on in our society to get stuff done.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Israel is a state actor, and Hamas isn't.
As far as the British government is concerned, isn't Palestine also now a state actor ? (But you're correct that we don't recognise Hamas as that.)
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
Surestart cuts were a terrible decision, the analysis is that money spent on early years intervention pays off several times over after 5-10 years. Early years intervention, nannying initiatives to improve the diets and exercise of the middle-aged and reduce obesity and driving enforcement to reduce RTAs are all areas where real cost-savings can be achieved on Govt expenditure.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
In principle I think all taxes should be low, but I think this is definitely a least worst option to raise money. I also think that when a Government is elected that turns the economy around, income tax reductions will mean more, as it will benefit everyone in lock step.
It will hit the self-employed very hard, especially if accompanied by rises in taxes on dividends, and through them the most dynamic and enterprising part of the economy. That's about 4.4 million voters. So with pensioners and landlords we'll soon see if Labour can poll in the single digits and Reform above 40%.
Self-employed, pensioners and landlords already don’t vote Labour.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Israel is a state actor, and Hamas isn't.
As far as the British government is concerned, isn't Palestine also now a state actor ? (But you're correct that we don't recognise Hamas as that.)
We should do (and, yes, those held by Israel deserves more interrogation (though I'm sure plenty are wrong'uns).
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
Although I agree with a lot of what you say, it doesn’t help those of us who fundamentally believe that Scotland should be an independent nation.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
Surestart cuts were a terrible decision, the analysis is that money spent on early years intervention pays off several times over after 5-10 years. Early years intervention, nannying initiatives to improve the diets and exercise of the middle-aged and reduce obesity and driving enforcement to reduce RTAs are all areas where real cost-savings can be achieved on Govt expenditure.
How about IHT rates based on weight? Lose pounds to save pounds.
Glad to see all the hostages released and returning to their families. A real success for Trump to get this far, hoping that the rest of the deal follows as well and Hamas can be defeated by all of the local factions who do seem to be putting up a lot of resistance.
BIB - Apart from the ones who died in captivity, of course.
I'd hope all bodies will be returned so that 100% are acounted for.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
Surestart cuts were a terrible decision, the analysis is that money spent on early years intervention pays off several times over after 5-10 years. Early years intervention, nannying initiatives to improve the diets and exercise of the middle-aged and reduce obesity and driving enforcement to reduce RTAs are all areas where real cost-savings can be achieved on Govt expenditure.
I think UKRI could happily be suspended completely and the quango dispanded.
UKRI grants are awarded specifically on the basis of whether a project advances the cause of DEI. That fosters division in society - it's effectively the Government sponsoring ungovernability. In the longer term, it would be interesting (though not necessarily essential) if UKRI invested in commercial opportunities, or those that consciously fostered universal values, togetherness and social cohesion. But in the short term, even it's absence would probably benefit society as well as the Exchequer.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
The SNP would be much happier in opposition. Governing is compromise, and many of their supporters hate that word.
One of the things I love about Scotland is that the patriotism isn't oppressive as it can be in England (cf flagshaggers). But it gets oppressive when the SNP demand you must be FOR SCOTLAND and vote for them - because a vote against them means you aren't patriotic.
I honestly believe this is one of the factors driving their support away and their vote down. Its what many of my Scottish neighbours tell me - they actually like much the government is doing but hate the social effects of the SNP ramming partisanship down their throats. And they value independence less than an economy and public services that work for them. And no, "independence" isn't an answer for them. Hence the SNP going -40% last year and already at -25% in the run up to next year's election.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Who are these people who are doing the continual trashing of the country and her people? Curious.
Sarwar, Jackie Baillie, DRoss, Russell Findlay, Rachel Hamilton, Annie Wells, to name a few.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Who are these people who are doing the continual trashing of the country and her people? Curious.
Sarwar, Jackie Baillie, DRoss, Russell Findlay, Rachel Hamilton, Annie Wells, to name a few.
I think you will find they are all as patriotically Scottish as you. Suspect they just also take a little pride in being British, and don't share the view that independence is the answer to Scotland's challenges.
If they are trashing Scotland's people, as you suggest, they are trashing themselves, which is a strange thing to do.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
Bit of a straw man here. The state massively invests in the young. Most of it is via schools. If you add up schools, opportunties in sports and arts, FE, apprenticeships, support (too limited) for HE, and benefits payments (not enough for the poorest blessed with +2 children, which we should encourage) directed at parents/carers for children, it is a gigantic part of state/LA funded activity. There is also a huge voluntary sector.
Youth clubs is a bit of a red herring anyway. Half-a-dozen kids playing table tennis weren't the ones you'd worry about anyway. The trouble is the Thatcher government saw a lot of jobs vanish and the Blair government raised the school-leaving age from 16 to 21 so instead of gainful employment, unacademic older teenagers are asked to choose between delinquency or crime.
Surestart cuts were a terrible decision, the analysis is that money spent on early years intervention pays off several times over after 5-10 years. Early years intervention, nannying initiatives to improve the diets and exercise of the middle-aged and reduce obesity and driving enforcement to reduce RTAs are all areas where real cost-savings can be achieved on Govt expenditure.
How about IHT rates based on weight? Lose pounds to save pounds.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
Glasgow!
Not quite. Remember that the M8 through Glasgow sliced through districts being demolished anyway and along a disused canal. The Edinburgh plan basically demolished a ring of spectacular buildings not being demolished for any other reason.
That's rubbish. The M8 smashed through one of the high points of Victorian/Edwardian Glasgow, Charing X, the remnants of which can still be seen. The shittier places the motoway barrelled through became further enshittified, and only now are some of them recovering.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
In principle I think all taxes should be low, but I think this is definitely a least worst option to raise money. I also think that when a Government is elected that turns the economy around, income tax reductions will mean more, as it will benefit everyone in lock step.
On the whole the headline rates of tax are 'low', given that total state managed expenditure is over 44% of GDP. VAT, basic rate IT, NIC, student loan rate, are all 'low' by this measure.
Taxes that stand out tend to be different. IHT stands out because of the 40% headline rate; Council tax stands out because it arrives as an annual large bill. Stamp duty stands out because a huge sum (for some) jumps out at a single punch.
As Colbert said: 'The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.'
IHT is especially interesting. It rases little, is avoidable by many rich people, and generates a good deal of hissing.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
The trams are tbf a good thing in principle and in actuality - but building them to exceptional standards more usually seen in a Chieftain tank, and leaving construction to the Labour/LD admin on Edinburgh council to administer, were not, in hindsight and at the time in foresight, [edit] great ideas. It also meant even more work dealing with centuries of utilities and just plain holes and cellars under the roadway lest a tram does a nosedive. Though one hopes the robustness will pay off in the long run.
I guess so, though as I think you have remarked previously, Edinburgh’s existing bus system was already great. It’s an example of an uncomfortable environment that were even more mired in today than we were in 2007, that several things can be good but we can’t afford all of them, and voters are resistant to accepting this.
Also a bus service the local middle classes use much more than in other conurbations. But then the city doesn't really have a suburban or metro railway any longer (apart from that developing along the Borders Railway and ECML lines) - it badly needs one drilled north/south through the central crag and tail of the Castle-Holyrood line. As begun many, many years ago for the line north from Waverley via Scotland St to Trinity pier (Later Granton) for an integrated transport system to Fife. It needs to be extended south and up the gradient into Midlothian, as also proposed c. 200 years ago for the ECML.
Imagine what Edinburgh would have been like with its proposed urban motorway network!
The inner ring would have blasted right through our neighbourhood. It's a terrifying thought. There's a long barrier-like block of social housing nearby that was built as a kind of wall backing onto the proposed motorway - quite revealing in its own way about the mindset of urban planners at the time - which demonstrates exactly where the road would have been. I think they would have torn up the railway line to Victoria and Blackfriars to make way for it too. What utter madness, thank God for the oil crisis!
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
Although I agree with a lot of what you say, it doesn’t help those of us who fundamentally believe that Scotland should be an independent nation.
Indeed it wouldn't.
To me there's only one way of salving the desire for independence without actually getting independence, and that would be a Council of the Isles that was convened to decide upon the core strategic issues like the military and major infrastructure that are currently the province of the UK PM using the powers of the King.
The Council would be a voting chamber with five voters, the UK PM, someone nominated for England (probably voted in by the ranks of English MPs), the Scottish FM, the Welsh FM, and the NI FM. That would mean that the collective votes of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland could outweigh those of the UK and England. Because it would be a council of nations, Scottish nationhood would be recognised and respected with no penalty for its lower population. But it would not be a law-making body, just have the power to tell the UK Government to go back and think again.
This is obviously a constitutional innovation, and maybe it's a step too far. But I do think it would work based on most independence supporters I've spoken to who have given it a hearing.
Trump beaming as the Knesset stand and applause and cheer him
He deserves credit but it will grate with many
I never thought I would say this, but thank you Donald Trump. Ungrits teeth.
Can't help thinking this is all very over the top considering how many more v hard steps to a lasting peace there are.
Hope I'm wrong.
My thoughts too. If Hamas are not in control in Gaza, who is?
And how are they going to get Hamas to disarm?
Judging by the wide number of international leaders gathering for the signing ceremony in Egypt a peace force is the likely outcome and the US has already said it will have 200 troops on the ground
I think it is time for all of us to get behind this movement and be positive for the sake of ordinary Israeli and Palestinian people who deserve nothing less
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
If Reeves is stupid enough to reverse the Osborne inheritance tax cut, I predict Labour will be fourth in the polls by the New Year. Behind not only Reform but the Tories and LDs as well. With the Greens also snapping at their heels.
I don't think she is that stupid though, a wealth tax on expensive homes and increase in CGT more likely
I'm hoping she goes bold and finally takes on reform of council tax and local government funding and is the one to at last kill the Triple Lock bung.
But I am thoroughly expecting none of that to happen and we get a load of technocratic tinkering here there and everywhere to somehow scrape together the $20b or two she is short of.
There is a case to abolish the 7 year rule on IHT
Can't, else there'd be a lot of deathbed transfers? Unless you mean extending it or changing it to CGT on all intra-family transfers?
A good friend of mine signed over nis entire assets to his wife during his terminal illness, closing down bank accounts etc., but that was to make life easier for her, no need to deal with banks etc., and it would have been exempt either way anyway. The executors still had to do the IHT400 or whatever form was needed to prove to HMRC that no INT was due.
OTOH a relative of ours transferred her estate to her daughter, who subsequently re-married then several years later sadly died of cancer, leaving the estate to her alcoholic 2nd husband. The mother is now in council-funded care with no assets of her own.
In Scotland there is *some* compulsory provision for close family members, especially if there is no will - but this would be prima facie obviated by transfers in life anyway, even now.
There's also the question of when someone is compos mentis enough to both know and understand that one is on the way out. Doesn't happen to all of us, alas. And the moment one becomes incapax then it's illegal to transfer assets away (except in sales etc.) - the trustees would be acting againstd the interest of that person.
Trump beaming as the Knesset stand and applause and cheer him
He deserves credit but it will grate with many
I never thought I would say this, but thank you Donald Trump. Ungrits teeth.
Can't help thinking this is all very over the top considering how many more v hard steps to a lasting peace there are.
Hope I'm wrong.
My thoughts too. If Hamas are not in control in Gaza, who is?
And how are they going to get Hamas to disarm?
Judging by the wide number of international leaders gathering for the signing ceremony in Egypt a peace force is the likely outcome and the US has already said it will have 200 troops on the ground
I think it is time for all of us to get behind this movement and be positive for the sake of ordinary Israeli and Palestinian people who deserve nothing less
I’m in the queue for the new EES system. Just happens that my first trip during the roll out is to Geneva, which is in Schengen but not the EU.
Slow moving. But so is the other, non-EU non-EES lane, which is largely made up of Turks.
Hopefully it will get faster as people get established profiles, at least that's what I understand will be the case.
It should do. Annoyingly my next experience of it is likely to be at the Chunnel at Christmas with the family, so my own registration won’t help with the queuing then.
Trump beaming as the Knesset stand and applause and cheer him
He deserves credit but it will grate with many
I never thought I would say this, but thank you Donald Trump. Ungrits teeth.
Can't help thinking this is all very over the top considering how many more v hard steps to a lasting peace there are.
Hope I'm wrong.
Agree. R4 Today this morning was totally OTT, as are lots of others.
It was quite bizarre for a radio news programme to be ditching all other news/any discussions to be waiting to report on a man getting out of a plane. I could understand them live covering Putin and Zelensky meeting live at the Vatican for example but the coverage was OTT.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Indeed during the 50 or 60 years when Labour and Tories raped and pillaged Scotland's money to rebuild London and southern infrastructure. Your blind Tory bias is pathetic.
"Scotland's money" - how is this defined?
The money that flows to London, ie all Scotland's revenue , etc and only a fraction comes back.
Not an especial fan of the IFS (ever since they criticised an Osborne budget for cutting benefits, when said change would be less employment benefit due to more people being in work...) but here's a BBC ramble about the still far-off Budget, based on IFS views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
What were they asked to do - identify the most politically stupid tax increase possible?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
They really did tie themselves in with their promises on income tax, NI and VAT. Raising income tax would have pretty much no negative economic impact. Not a fan of raising tax, would prefer budget cuts, but if you are going to do it, that is where you do it. 2p, 4p 5p? And then VAT, wholesale removal of exemptions. The last one of course politically impossible and inflationary.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I like the idea of raising income tax and cutting national insurance by an equal amount.
Raises about £4bn per point too. Cut NI by 5% and increase income tax by 5% and that's £20bn raised from landlords and pensioners with little to no impact for working age people and because of the higher income tax threshold introduced by the last government people who only receive the state pension or have low private pension income will be minimally impacted.
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
Unusual PB bipartisan agreement there. I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Me three.
In principle I think all taxes should be low, but I think this is definitely a least worst option to raise money. I also think that when a Government is elected that turns the economy around, income tax reductions will mean more, as it will benefit everyone in lock step.
On the whole the headline rates of tax are 'low', given that total state managed expenditure is over 44% of GDP. VAT, basic rate IT, NIC, student loan rate, are all 'low' by this measure.
Taxes that stand out tend to be different. IHT stands out because of the 40% headline rate; Council tax stands out because it arrives as an annual large bill. Stamp duty stands out because a huge sum (for some) jumps out at a single punch.
As Colbert said: 'The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.'
IHT is especially interesting. It rases little, is avoidable by many rich people, and generates a good deal of hissing.
But Colbert's point is a political one, not an economic one. Whether or not the goose hisses, it is still going to get too cold in winter if overplucked. That money is still missing from the wealth-creating economy having been nicked by the state.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
The SNP would be much happier in opposition. Governing is compromise, and many of their supporters hate that word.
One of the things I love about Scotland is that the patriotism isn't oppressive as it can be in England (cf flagshaggers). But it gets oppressive when the SNP demand you must be FOR SCOTLAND and vote for them - because a vote against them means you aren't patriotic.
I honestly believe this is one of the factors driving their support away and their vote down. Its what many of my Scottish neighbours tell me - they actually like much the government is doing but hate the social effects of the SNP ramming partisanship down their throats. And they value independence less than an economy and public services that work for them. And no, "independence" isn't an answer for them. Hence the SNP going -40% last year and already at -25% in the run up to next year's election.
To get anywhere with Indy, the SNP need to go back into opposition, when it will be much easier to blame all Scotland's ills on Westminster. Then wait for the next turn of the electoral cycle and the possibility of a 2011-type result. That's possible given how febrile politics has become and the near-impossibility of meeting expectations while in government.
They just won't be able to achieve lift-off while occupying Bute House.
A split Unionist opposition, while good for SNP careerists who enjoy the trappings of office, is bad for the "cause".
Today is history in the making and Trump has to be given the praise for this deal, though many will remain cherlish
As far as the header is concerned it does not surprise because Trump wants Blair to succeed and Powell will have played a big part in that
However, China gate is a different story with the CPS and Simon Case accusing the government of collapsing the Chinese spy trial with the spotlight falling on Jonathan Powell
I have no idea if he was involved, but it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny including by the select committee on foreign affairs and they will no doubt establish the facts
Sky saying all the living Israeli hostages have now been released which has to be celebrated
The government line (which has a certain amount of logic to it) is that the alleged offence took place under the previous government, and that at the time China was not designated a hostile power. To do so now in order to allow the protection to proceed has an element of retrospective legislation to it, which could perhaps be argued as a defence to any charge.
I'm not entirely clear on the precise law surrounding this case, but I'm pretty certain that's also true of 99% of those professing strong opinions about it (whether pro, or anti-government).
There is, of course, the purely pragmatic point that formally detonating China as a hostile power now will have significant economic repercussions.
A (edit) penultimate point is that Simon Chase's own credibility is not entirely copper bottomed.
Finally, it's "churlish" not cherlish.
I agree and it is upto Parliament and it's committees to find out the facts, though with this controversy and the Chinese London Embassy in the spotlight the government will have to tread a very careful line with China on trade
Me and my spelling sometimes disagree with each other !!!!
I spent a lot of my 13 years in Parliament on all-party committees. They do an excellent job when the issue is essentially non-constroversial, as they have the time and resources to analyse an issue in depth. They are a bit rubbish on issues of party controversy, as most members feel obliged to take partisan sides.
They do seem toothless though. Take the example which I am heavily involved in and which you know about Nick. That had all party support and the NAO and PAC found in our favour and wrote damning reports. Yet the Tory government ignored the findings as has the new Labour Government. Then nothing happens. There is no follow up. The ministers are not held to account.
I do agree they have time and resources to analyse the issue in depth, but only some of the MPs on the committees do so. Others are useless. One of our biggest frustrations is MPs who ask questions fed to them but who don't understand the issues then get replies from ministers who also don't understand the issues, so when they get a nonsense of factually incorrect reply they don't have enough knowledge to challenge it. It is so frustrating to watch. Like watching two idiots having an argument. We (and another MP) briefed one MP on PAC for the best part of 2 days. He had his list of questions and to one answer there was an obvious killer response. Nope nothing. He hadn't grasped the issue and consequently the opportunity. I was there watching. I wanted to leap up and respond, but I suspect two hefty security guards would have escorted me out of parliament.
I and the rest of us involved have lost faith in the system. You tend to when you know a lot about an issue and watch people arguing about it who haven't a clue.
Oh and just to make clear I am talking about stuff that is factual, not opinions and if you think this is maybe a one off we have witnessed 2 parliamentary debates where exactly the same happens.
Yes, the US example of committees with teeth is enviable, though of course it needs good committee members to work properly. What normally happens on British committees is that the full-time staff think up questions (with the chair) and interested members say "I'd like to ask Qs 7 and 8", with unclaimed questions ending up randomly distributed, probably with the effect you describe. The ones that got claimed usually have intelligent follow-ups and the staff will certainly respond to any requests for issues to be pursued.
Where committes work well is where they're going with the flow - advocating something that a Minister half-fancied anyway but didn't have the arguments to push through. If you like what a committee proposes it's more than half the battle in getting it done. It's not ideal, but you really have a better chance of getting something done than by raising it in the bear-pit of Commons questions.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
Although I agree with a lot of what you say, it doesn’t help those of us who fundamentally believe that Scotland should be an independent nation.
Indeed it wouldn't.
To me there's only one way of salving the desire for independence without actually getting independence, and that would be a Council of the Isles that was convened to decide upon the core strategic issues like the military and major infrastructure that are currently the province of the UK PM using the powers of the King.
The Council would be a voting chamber with five voters, the UK PM, someone nominated for England (probably voted in by the ranks of English MPs), the Scottish FM, the Welsh FM, and the NI FM. That would mean that the collective votes of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland could outweigh those of the UK and England. Because it would be a council of nations, Scottish nationhood would be recognised and respected with no penalty for its lower population. But it would not be a law-making body, just have the power to tell the UK Government to go back and think again.
This is obviously a constitutional innovation, and maybe it's a step too far. But I do think it would work based on most independence supporters I've spoken to who have given it a hearing.
A good go at a suggestion, but whether it happens would also be a severe test of attitudes in Westminster.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Indeed during the 50 or 60 years when Labour and Tories raped and pillaged Scotland's money to rebuild London and southern infrastructure. Your blind Tory bias is pathetic.
"Scotland's money" - how is this defined?
The money that flows to London, ie all Scotland's revenue , etc and only a fraction comes back.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Indeed during the 50 or 60 years when Labour and Tories raped and pillaged Scotland's money to rebuild London and southern infrastructure. Your blind Tory bias is pathetic.
"Scotland's money" - how is this defined?
The money that flows to London, ie all Scotland's revenue , etc and only a fraction comes back.
And are you including any money from North Sea Oil and Gas in that? That's the usual sleight of hand.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
Who are these people who are doing the continual trashing of the country and her people? Curious.
Sarwar, Jackie Baillie, DRoss, Russell Findlay, Rachel Hamilton, Annie Wells, to name a few.
I think you will find they are all as patriotically Scottish as you. Suspect they just also take a little pride in being British, and don't share the view that independence is the answer to Scotland's challenges.
If they are trashing Scotland's people, as you suggest, they are trashing themselves, which is a strange thing to do.
Oh dear , Scotland's problem highlighted in that list of carpetbagging , London ( British ) butt licking , self seeking donkeys.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
Although I agree with a lot of what you say, it doesn’t help those of us who fundamentally believe that Scotland should be an independent nation.
Indeed it wouldn't.
To me there's only one way of salving the desire for independence without actually getting independence, and that would be a Council of the Isles that was convened to decide upon the core strategic issues like the military and major infrastructure that are currently the province of the UK PM using the powers of the King.
The Council would be a voting chamber with five voters, the UK PM, someone nominated for England (probably voted in by the ranks of English MPs), the Scottish FM, the Welsh FM, and the NI FM. That would mean that the collective votes of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland could outweigh those of the UK and England. Because it would be a council of nations, Scottish nationhood would be recognised and respected with no penalty for its lower population. But it would not be a law-making body, just have the power to tell the UK Government to go back and think again.
This is obviously a constitutional innovation, and maybe it's a step too far. But I do think it would work based on most independence supporters I've spoken to who have given it a hearing.
I would be happy with that, in conjunction Devo Max. It would be up to the English to decide whether they wanted to devolve powers to the English regions or continue with power concentrated in London.
Just catching up with PB over last couple of days and I feel incredible strongly about this issue that Big G NorthWales brought up. Its a bloody disgrace that the A9 and the A96 from Inverness to Aberdeen remain such dangerous roads, add to that the amount of pregnant women who have to travel both roads to give birth when in labour in all weathers. That is now on the awful and incompetent SNP Government of the last eighteen years, most of whom don't live anywhere near these areas!!
FPT. Big_G_NorthWales said:
» show previous quotes We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth . Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK ______
The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
For me the roads are a prime example of how the Scottish government is all mouth and no trousers. Yes, the odd big project gets built - the A90(notM) Aberdeen Western Peripheral as an example. But the rest? Nothing but excuses.
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
It doesn't really go through Forres. That section is fine.
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
I've only used the A9 north of Perth a handful of times - but if this is an example of how Edinburgh spends that lovely Barnett formula bounty I'd say it's doing quite well. Fast and efficient - you rarely drop below 50mph, so well engineered is it for trucks; anything which slows the trafgic down like right turns and local access separated out - with passing opportunities every ten minutes or so - yet proportionate to the relatively light amount of traffic which uses it. But maybe I've just been lucky.
Careful, you’ll have your PB SNPbad certification withdrawn.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
Hmm. My recollection, as a very regular user of the A9 and A96, is repeated promises to dual both roads. Happens before every election. They don't say "because the trams cost so much, we won't be dualling - perhaps they should have?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
What Scottish voters need is a centre right pro independence party. Tartan Tories if you like. Many Scots are pro independence but only vote for the SNP as, apart from the Greens, they are the only pro independence party. I am one of them. I vote for them through gritted teeth as, though I disagree with many of their urban central belt based policies, at least they stand up for Scotland, and don’t continually trash the country and her people.
But you don't actually need an independence supporting party for that, you just need a Scottish Party. The DUP do an excellent job of standing up for Northern Ireland, but they do not support the province breaking away from the UK.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
The SNP would be much happier in opposition. Governing is compromise, and many of their supporters hate that word.
One of the things I love about Scotland is that the patriotism isn't oppressive as it can be in England (cf flagshaggers). But it gets oppressive when the SNP demand you must be FOR SCOTLAND and vote for them - because a vote against them means you aren't patriotic.
I honestly believe this is one of the factors driving their support away and their vote down. Its what many of my Scottish neighbours tell me - they actually like much the government is doing but hate the social effects of the SNP ramming partisanship down their throats. And they value independence less than an economy and public services that work for them. And no, "independence" isn't an answer for them. Hence the SNP going -40% last year and already at -25% in the run up to next year's election.
As long as London decide where our money is spent and what pocket money we are allowed then we will never prosper. They are focussed on the 86% in England and the puppets they have in Scotland are worse than carpetbaggers.
I wonder how the BBC came to their definitions of ‘hostages’ (Israelis randomly captured and imprisoned in Gaza) and ‘detainees’ (1700 Palestinians randomly captured and imprisoned without trial in Israel)? The BBC dictionary is a wondrous thing.
Israel is a state actor, and Hamas isn't.
As far as the British government is concerned, isn't Palestine also now a state actor ? (But you're correct that we don't recognise Hamas as that.)
Trump beaming as the Knesset stand and applause and cheer him
He deserves credit but it will grate with many
I never thought I would say this, but thank you Donald Trump. Ungrits teeth.
Can't help thinking this is all very over the top considering how many more v hard steps to a lasting peace there are.
Hope I'm wrong.
Agree. R4 Today this morning was totally OTT, as are lots of others.
It was quite bizarre for a radio news programme to be ditching all other news/any discussions to be waiting to report on a man getting out of a plane. I could understand them live covering Putin and Zelensky meeting live at the Vatican for example but the coverage was OTT.
Hilariously they killed Jeremy Bowen's analysis of why Trump had succeeded and not Biden, to provide commentary on an aircraft door opening.
Comments
If Labour are truly on the side of working people then they should introduce this policy.
If the Government want to introduce an additional tax, I would suggest a Churnalist Tax. Journalists to pay 90% of their earnings, with a 70% discount if they can actually prove they have carried out original research, rather than repeating stuff they have read on X.
Also, is there a budget for soft power, that it mustn't be used in case it runs out?
The local papers are full of reports of accidents and fatalities.
Whether that will have electoral consequences come next May, no idea. Perhaps not. The split in the Unionist vote, in any event, very likely to lead to SNP holding many constituencies on a reduced vote share and their MSP return holding up very efficiently. John Swinney is certainly looking more chipper than he was a few months ago.
This:
https://www.glasgowhistory.com/charing-cross.html
v.
this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/1iyj75n/this_view_of_charing_cross_is_very_glasgow_isnt_it/
https://www.roads.org.uk/ringways
I would certainly receommend a home birth if you did try for another. My second was born at home and provided there are no obvious complications ahead of time it is well worth it - much more comfortable and quiet at home once the excitement is over.
I'm probably much closer to pension age than either of you, and I agree.
Given they only have the pocket money grudgingly given out of Scotland's money they have done reasonably well. If only our money was not squandered on southern infrastructure and London projects.
My wife would disagree with you. Horses for courses I suppose. As a Doctor her preference was to be within spitting range of as many qualified people and expensive equipment as possible.
A world with fewer taxes in it, but with the ones remaining at higher rates to recoup the revenue is almost always going to be a improvement.
See also my (and others) proposal to bin SDLT, IHT and council tax, and charge property owners 1% pa of the value of their holdings instead. You replace 3 taxes that are somewhat avoidable, very unpopular and fairly economically damaging with one simple, fair tax that's going to be very hard to avoid.
The problem is that whilst a hospital birth trumps a home birth on this basis, a home birth also beats a delivery by dad in a bus stop in the A6 on the same score, and trying for another hospital birth for us probably comes with a 10% risk of the latter. Both our kids have come fairly quickly, and it seems to run in the family (apparently my mother in law delivered my wife after around an hour in labour, and she was her first child!).
Home births are fine much of the time, but there's always a BUT. If something goes wrong mother and child have to be transported by ambulance to a suitable place. Then you've got the traffic issues, even with blue lights.
There is a long history of politicians pissing away the wealth of the nation on ideological projects. And the blame must lie at the feet of those that put them into power.
It wasn't Westminster that screwed up the ferries, and repeatedly promised to improve the roads. 18 years in charge, malc, 18 years.
I think.
The 45th and 47th President of the USA springs to mind.
Lest we forget, son of Mary Ann MacLeod of Lewis.
On the whole I think the BBC do well over Israel/Gaza; less well in covering the growing terrorist gangster state in USA. (Where it feels like they are under orders to go very soft).
I see no sign that Trump is culturally British, Scottish or Hebridean. I think his attachment to Scotland is golf (the home of), a big part of his identity.
The 'Scottish Values' Party could clean up, by not proposing the upheaval of independence, but still capitalising on Scottish feelings of Westminster politics and the table being tilted against Scotland.
I've recommended before that the Scottish Tories break away from the English Party and try to fill this space.
I do agree they have time and resources to analyse the issue in depth, but only some of the MPs on the committees do so. Others are useless. One of our biggest frustrations is MPs who ask questions fed to them but who don't understand the issues then get replies from ministers who also don't understand the issues, so when they get a nonsense of factually incorrect reply they don't have enough knowledge to challenge it. It is so frustrating to watch. Like watching two idiots having an argument. We (and another MP) briefed one MP on PAC for the best part of 2 days. He had his list of questions and to one answer there was an obvious killer response. Nope nothing. He hadn't grasped the issue and consequently the opportunity. I was there watching. I wanted to leap up and respond, but I suspect two hefty security guards would have escorted me out of parliament.
I and the rest of us involved have lost faith in the system. You tend to when you know a lot about an issue and watch people arguing about it who haven't a clue.
Oh and just to make clear I am talking about stuff that is factual, not opinions and if you think this is maybe a one off we have witnessed 2 parliamentary debates where exactly the same happens.
(But you're correct that we don't recognise Hamas as that.)
Early years intervention, nannying initiatives to improve the diets and exercise of the middle-aged and reduce obesity and driving enforcement to reduce RTAs are all areas where real cost-savings can be achieved on Govt expenditure.
He deserves credit but it will grate with many
UKRI grants are awarded specifically on the basis of whether a project advances the cause of DEI. That fosters division in society - it's effectively the Government sponsoring ungovernability. In the longer term, it would be interesting (though not necessarily essential) if UKRI invested in commercial opportunities, or those that consciously fostered universal values, togetherness and social cohesion. But in the short term, even it's absence would probably benefit society as well as the Exchequer.
One of the things I love about Scotland is that the patriotism isn't oppressive as it can be in England (cf flagshaggers). But it gets oppressive when the SNP demand you must be FOR SCOTLAND and vote for them - because a vote against them means you aren't patriotic.
I honestly believe this is one of the factors driving their support away and their vote down. Its what many of my Scottish neighbours tell me - they actually like much the government is doing but hate the social effects of the SNP ramming partisanship down their throats. And they value independence less than an economy and public services that work for them. And no, "independence" isn't an answer for them. Hence the SNP going -40% last year and already at -25% in the run up to next year's election.
Hope I'm wrong.
If they are trashing Scotland's people, as you suggest, they are trashing themselves, which is a strange thing to do.
Taxes that stand out tend to be different. IHT stands out because of the 40% headline rate; Council tax stands out because it arrives as an annual large bill. Stamp duty stands out because a huge sum (for some) jumps out at a single punch.
As Colbert said: 'The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.'
IHT is especially interesting. It rases little, is avoidable by many rich people, and generates a good deal of hissing.
To me there's only one way of salving the desire for independence without actually getting independence, and that would be a Council of the Isles that was convened to decide upon the core strategic issues like the military and major infrastructure that are currently the province of the UK PM using the powers of the King.
The Council would be a voting chamber with five voters, the UK PM, someone nominated for England (probably voted in by the ranks of English MPs), the Scottish FM, the Welsh FM, and the NI FM. That would mean that the collective votes of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland could outweigh those of the UK and England. Because it would be a council of nations, Scottish nationhood would be recognised and respected with no penalty for its lower population. But it would not be a law-making body, just have the power to tell the UK Government to go back and think again.
This is obviously a constitutional innovation, and maybe it's a step too far. But I do think it would work based on most independence supporters I've spoken to who have given it a hearing.
Slow moving. But so is the other, non-EU non-EES lane, which is largely made up of Turks.
I think it is time for all of us to get behind this movement and be positive for the sake of ordinary Israeli and Palestinian people who deserve nothing less
There's also the question of when someone is compos mentis enough to both know and understand that one is on the way out. Doesn't happen to all of us, alas. And the moment one becomes incapax then it's illegal to transfer assets away (except in sales etc.) - the trustees would be acting againstd the interest of that person.
It is a moment of world history that is going to dominate the news for days to come
Everyone should endorse this day 100% and pray that it is the start of something special and long overdue
They just won't be able to achieve lift-off while occupying Bute House.
A split Unionist opposition, while good for SNP careerists who enjoy the trappings of office, is bad for the "cause".
Where committes work well is where they're going with the flow - advocating something that a Minister half-fancied anyway but didn't have the arguments to push through. If you like what a committee proposes it's more than half the battle in getting it done. It's not ideal, but you really have a better chance of getting something done than by raising it in the bear-pit of Commons questions.