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.
No way they are ever going to give up their total veto of Scotland , Wales , etc.
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.
The Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour, Scottish LDs, Scottish Greens are all guilty of trashing the country?
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.
The Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour, Scottish LDs, Scottish Greens are all guilty of trashing the country?
Obviously. They attack the SNP. To attack the SNP is to attack The People Of Scotland.
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.
I quite liked the Labour under Corbyn proposal to abolish IHT and instead tax as income for beneficiaries.
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.
Are people allowed to pop in and register in advance, or do you need a boarding pass to register?
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.
Why is it OTT
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
It was OTT for two reasons:
It isn't the BBC News's job to go round praising and gloating but to report, give depth, analyse and draw attention to whatever it is that power, money and influence doesn't want you to know or to care about.
The sort of hanging around waiting for man to get off plane and talking repetitiously may be suitable on the day when a clear, full and final settlement of the middle east is done, dusted and signed, borders and forms of government agreed, peace and security guarantors all in place, all factions surrendered and disarmed and an economy and reconstruction deal in place. But that ain't today.
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.
"Nigel Farage blames Keir Starmer as Reform UK council leader, 19, ‘attacked in the street’ George Finch, 19, claims a suspect branded him ‘racist and fascist’ and assaulted him while he was out with a female friend"
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.
Happily London doesn't decide where our money is spent...
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.
Why is it OTT
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
It was OTT for two reasons:
It isn't the BBC News's job to go round praising and gloating but to report, give depth, analyse and draw attention to whatever it is that power, money and influence doesn't want you to know or to care about.
The sort of hanging around waiting for man to get off plane and talking repetitiously may be suitable on the day when a clear, full and final settlement of the middle east is done, dusted and signed, borders and forms of government agreed, peace and security guarantors all in place, all factions surrendered and disarmed and an economy and reconstruction deal in place. But that ain't today.
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.
Are people allowed to pop in and register in advance, or do you need a boarding pass to register?
I assume the latter.
Today’s queue to be honest is only partly down to the new system. It’s more an example of the flight arrivals lottery in European airports, especially the smaller ones like Geneva. If you come in just after a jumbo jet from a non-EU origin then you’re going to be waiting a while.
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.
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’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.
Are people allowed to pop in and register in advance, or do you need a boarding pass to register?
I assume the latter.
Today’s queue to be honest is only partly down to the new system. It’s more an example of the flight arrivals lottery in European airports, especially the smaller ones like Geneva. If you come in just after a jumbo jet from a non-EU origin then you’re going to be waiting a while.
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.
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.
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.
Why is it OTT
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
It was OTT for two reasons:
It isn't the BBC News's job to go round praising and gloating but to report, give depth, analyse and draw attention to whatever it is that power, money and influence doesn't want you to know or to care about.
The sort of hanging around waiting for man to get off plane and talking repetitiously may be suitable on the day when a clear, full and final settlement of the middle east is done, dusted and signed, borders and forms of government agreed, peace and security guarantors all in place, all factions surrendered and disarmed and an economy and reconstruction deal in place. But that ain't today.
East Kilbride reprise to account for electrification and the new Hairmyres station and passing loop Kilmarnock to Troon in that direction Thornton West to North junctions (Edinburgh to Leven trains via Dunfermline - I did the Leven branch going via Kirkcaldy in June 2024) Larbert eastward curve in the Edinburgh direction
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
Does, since 2014, show a shift from equally S & B to more S than B to just plain S - but there is no line for the 'British only'.
The love that dare not speak its name outside Orange Lodges. I suppose the first graph is a very rough proxy for this, a markedly downward trend in the last couple of years for whatever reason.
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’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.
Does anyone believe this new system will do anything to stop illegal immigration re the EU, or is it just about making life more difficult for the law-abiding?
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
No 55% Yes 45%
Thank goodness we voted for continuing membership of the EU, lower energy & food prices and economic & political stability. Bullet dodged!
Those higher food prices in full:
That’s what happens when the biggest food producer on the continent ends up having to fight a war.
Ending the war would be a good starting point to getting food prices back down, but it’s not going to happen immediately, there’s sadly a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done first in Ukraine. You can’t farm a mined field.
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.
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.
It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos. The creation of this organisation would be to limit the power of parliament in favour of what is effectively a quango. But I think in this instance it could be justified on the basis of the unique nature of the UK and the need for a voice for the nations of the UK within the constitution. It would need careful safeguards to ensure it didn't become an expensive quango with its own staff, glossy offices and lobbyists swarming around. My idea would be a relatively short meeting in some stately pile somewhere, a different nation hosting each time.
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.
I quite liked the Labour under Corbyn proposal to abolish IHT and instead tax as income for beneficiaries.
On the face of it, an estate of an Irish tax resident that pays out to a British tax resident beneficiary, would entirely escape either version of inheritance tax, but I assume there's a rule that prevents such a dodge, otherwise I'd expect to see a lot more wealthy elderly Britons with second homes claiming tax residence in Ireland.
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.
Part of the price of Trump's involvement in anything like this is that he gets to strut.
As an alternative to a potential genocide, a day of the BBC's cooperation in that is a very small price. As long as they regain their critical faculties, I'm not going to complain.
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.
It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos. The creation of this organisation would be to limit the power of parliament in favour of what is effectively a quango. But I think in this instance it could be justified on the basis of the unique nature of the UK and the need for a voice for the nations of the UK within the constitution. It would need careful safeguards to ensure it didn't become an expensive quango with its own staff, glossy offices and lobbyists swarming around. My idea would be a relatively short meeting in some stately pile somewhere, a different nation hosting each time.
We do have the Council of the Nations and Regions, too, but of course that's rather different from what you propose (plus for one thing, UKG vice EG is the superior layer to the English mayoralties included).
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.
Part of the price of Trump's involvement in anything like this is that he gets to strut.
As an alternative to a potential genocide, a day of the BBC's cooperation in that is a very small price. As long as they regain their critical faculties, I'm not going to complain.
Sky have been broadcasting live all day with no adverts
Trump is still in the Knesset and yet he is due in Egypt for the bigger peace conference so the coverage is likely to continue throughout today and tomorrow
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.
It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos. The creation of this organisation would be to limit the power of parliament in favour of what is effectively a quango. But I think in this instance it could be justified on the basis of the unique nature of the UK and the need for a voice for the nations of the UK within the constitution. It would need careful safeguards to ensure it didn't become an expensive quango with its own staff, glossy offices and lobbyists swarming around. My idea would be a relatively short meeting in some stately pile somewhere, a different nation hosting each time.
Goodness, Lucky, be careful old chap. That's a slippery slope. Before you know it you'll be out on the streets demanding the return of the Sustainable Development Commission.
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
Record keeping becomes a nightmare - every gift you have received in your lifetime becomes taxable. 7 > 10 years sure. I doubt it would raise much though.
Finally out. So my first EES experience was 1 hour 20. Am I the first on here to go through the process?
And at the end of it all, rather an anticlimax as they still stamped my passport.
It'll do wonders for the holiday trade along England's South Coast. And, perchance, the Channel Islands.
And non-EU countries. Go to Albania for sea and sunshine, they don't even stamp your passport.
Since my retirement in 2009 until 2019, when covid and now age related issues stopped our travel, we went round the world multiple times and Estas and their equivalent were needed and simply we had no problem with them
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.
It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos. The creation of this organisation would be to limit the power of parliament in favour of what is effectively a quango. But I think in this instance it could be justified on the basis of the unique nature of the UK and the need for a voice for the nations of the UK within the constitution. It would need careful safeguards to ensure it didn't become an expensive quango with its own staff, glossy offices and lobbyists swarming around. My idea would be a relatively short meeting in some stately pile somewhere, a different nation hosting each time.
Goodness, Lucky, be careful old chap. That's a slippery slope. Before you know it you'll be out on the streets demanding the return of the Sustainable Development Commission.
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.
Does anyone believe this new system will do anything to stop illegal immigration re the EU, or is it just about making life more difficult for the law-abiding?
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.
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.
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only 22% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
@HYUFD does not speak for the Scots and if Holyrood has a majority for independence then another referendum is a question for democratic legitimacy and will happen
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.
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only 22% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
@HYUFD does not speak for the Scots and if Holyrood has a majority for independence then another referendum is a question for democratic legitimacy and will happen
It does not follow it would win though
It won't, Starmer flatly ruled out allowing indyref2 in the last general election campaign even in the unlikely event the SNP won an outright majority of MSPs.
After the UK SC ruled Westminster and the UK government have the final say on indyrefs it may well be no UK PM ever allows another indyref again. Losing the EU referendum ended Cameron's premiership the next day, now all UK PMs know losing an indyref would do the same for their premiership with an even worse historical legacy as the PM who in history books for generations lost a 300 year old Union, never mind a 40 year economic union with the EU.
Nationalists were lucky they got their 2014 referendum when they did, as Madrid has shown some nations governments can refuse independence referendums outright even if nationalist governments win and take very authoritarian measures to stop them. Nats like Wings are already aware of this and think Swinney is a wet blanket and the only alternative is UDI (though even that failed in Catalonia), SNP elite are happy mainly with SNP power at Holyrood and won't push independence too hard now, SNP voters who think otherwise are deluded.
At most they would hope for the Canadian model of a second referendum after 15 years but that was very close, less than 2% in it for Quebec to stay in Canada and no Canadian PM has agreed another such referendum since
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.
I quite liked the Labour under Corbyn proposal to abolish IHT and instead tax as income for beneficiaries.
On the face of it, an estate of an Irish tax resident that pays out to a British tax resident beneficiary, would entirely escape either version of inheritance tax, but I assume there's a rule that prevents such a dodge, otherwise I'd expect to see a lot more wealthy elderly Britons with second homes claiming tax residence in Ireland.
You lose the (for couples) double residence nil rate band in the UK, though, if you claim that your Irish pad is the primary residence, no? Though if you have lots more than 350K in Irish assets, it could become worthwhile.
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only 22% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
@HYUFD does not speak for the Scots and if Holyrood has a majority for independence then another referendum is a question for democratic legitimacy and will happen
It does not follow it would win though
It won't, Starmer flatly ruled out allowing indyref2 in the last general election campaign even in the unlikely event the SNP won an outright majority of MSPs.
After the UK SC ruled Westminster and the UK government have the final say on indyrefs it may well be no UK PM ever allows another indyref again. Losing the EU referendum ended Cameron's premiership the next day, now all UK PMs know losing an indyref would do the same for their premiership with an even worse historical legacy as the PM who in history books for generations lost a 300 year old Union, never mind a 40 year economic union with the EU. Nationalists were lucky they got their 2014 referendum when they did, as Madrid has shown some nations governments can refuse independence referendums outright even if nationalist governments win and take very authoritarian measures to stop them.
At most they would hope for the Canadian model of a second referendum after 15 years but that was very close, less than 2% in it for Quebec to stay in Canada and no Canadian PM has agreed another such referendum since
You cling onto your anti Scot rhetoric, but ultimately if the majority of Scots elect a government on an independence manifesto then it will happen despite an Englishman trying to take away their right to democratic legitimacy
Could the Treasury arrange for them to give private tuition ?
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.” https://x.com/NobelPrize/status/1977672594330435860
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.
I quite liked the Labour under Corbyn proposal to abolish IHT and instead tax as income for beneficiaries.
On the face of it, an estate of an Irish tax resident that pays out to a British tax resident beneficiary, would entirely escape either version of inheritance tax, but I assume there's a rule that prevents such a dodge, otherwise I'd expect to see a lot more wealthy elderly Britons with second homes claiming tax residence in Ireland.
You lose the (for couples) double residence nil rate band in the UK, though, if you claim that your Irish pad is the primary residence, no? Though if you have lots more than 350K in Irish assets, it could become worthwhile.
Is inheritance tax charged on the assets held in Britain by people tax resident in another jurisdiction?
Reform's programme of deciding that Rome was not built in a day continues. Part of their tricky tightrope act of being both populist and a possible government. Tice explains that their 2024 manifesto was tosh. Tax cuts will have to wait until after the cuts, like the ones Reform LAs are so good at finding.
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.
Does anyone believe this new system will do anything to stop illegal immigration re the EU, or is it just about making life more difficult for the law-abiding?
It's simply to make EU passport holders smug - very smug.
"Nigel Farage blames Keir Starmer as Reform UK council leader, 19, ‘attacked in the street’ George Finch, 19, claims a suspect branded him ‘racist and fascist’ and assaulted him while he was out with a female friend"
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only [edit] 23% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
Also, someone who felt Scottish and British might also conclude that he was better off in an independent Scotland. I feel British and European (and English), but still concluded I would be better off in the UK were independent of the EU.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only 22% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
@HYUFD does not speak for the Scots and if Holyrood has a majority for independence then another referendum is a question for democratic legitimacy and will happen
It does not follow it would win though
It won't, Starmer flatly ruled out allowing indyref2 in the last general election campaign even in the unlikely event the SNP won an outright majority of MSPs.
After the UK SC ruled Westminster and the UK government have the final say on indyrefs it may well be no UK PM ever allows another indyref again. Losing the EU referendum ended Cameron's premiership the next day, now all UK PMs know losing an indyref would do the same for their premiership with an even worse historical legacy as the PM who in history books for generations lost a 300 year old Union, never mind a 40 year economic union with the EU. Nationalists were lucky they got their 2014 referendum when they did, as Madrid has shown some nations governments can refuse independence referendums outright even if nationalist governments win and take very authoritarian measures to stop them.
At most they would hope for the Canadian model of a second referendum after 15 years but that was very close, less than 2% in it for Quebec to stay in Canada and no Canadian PM has agreed another such referendum since
You cling onto your anti Scot rhetoric, but ultimately if the majority of Scots elect a government on an independence manifesto then it will happen despite an Englishman trying to take away their right to democratic legitimacy
If a majority of Scots want to leave the union then no democrat should stand in their way. Same with Brexit (including rejoining).
I think there is a case to be made for suggesting that you can't just keep asking the question to see if you get lucky once. The last time the question was asked the answer was pretty clearly 'no' to Independence. That was just 10 years ago and many believed that a generation ought to elapse before the next go.
Now you can argue that Brexit made an existential difference and thus a new vote ought to be held. But the polling in Scotland doesn't really reflect that there is a huge demand for Independence. And the SNP both know this, and use the idea of the nasty Westminster parliament in the way that Ukip used the EU.
I think its really interesting just how similar UK vs EU and Scotland vs Westminster is. And it amazes me that pro-independence people looked on in horror at a smaller state leaving a big trading block and all the hassles with borders and then imagine leaving the UK, creating a border with England and all will be easy.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
I guess in the coming months the IDF troops will sit around drinking coffee, while an international force takes their place on the battlefield trying to destroy Hamas.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
The waking up bit of the world doesn't include our Government, partying like it's 2009.
I guess in the coming months the IDF troops will sit around drinking coffee, while an international force takes their place on the battlefield trying to destroy Hamas.
Could the Treasury arrange for them to give private tuition ?
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.” https://x.com/NobelPrize/status/1977672594330435860
Here's an overview. It's creative destruction via 'useful knowledge'. So not Arts degrees.
Could the Treasury arrange for them to give private tuition ?
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.” https://x.com/NobelPrize/status/1977672594330435860
Here's an overview. It's creative destruction via 'useful knowledge'. So not Arts degrees.
...It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos...
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.
China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
Reform's programme of deciding that Rome was not built in a day continues. Part of their tricky tightrope act of being both populist and a possible government. Tice explains that their 2024 manifesto was tosh. Tax cuts will have to wait until after the cuts, like the ones Reform LAs are so good at finding.
Reform voters are absolutely clear that: 1) Foreigners will be sent home. Quickly. How broad that definition is remains TBC but the pledge is already up to a million and we're 3.5 years out from the election so hopefully millions plural by then 2) Benefits will be cut from scroungers. All foreigners are scroungers but they are going. Next we get rid of benefits from the fakers and cheaters and single mums. Scroungers. 3) Taxes will go down. For me. And money will be spent in my community.
Reform will only be able to blame foreigners for so long when they fail to deliver their promises*
*Read X. I have paraphrased what fukers genuinely seem to expect...
...It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos...
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.
Part of the price of Trump's involvement in anything like this is that he gets to strut.
As an alternative to a potential genocide, a day of the BBC's cooperation in that is a very small price. As long as they regain their critical faculties, I'm not going to complain.
Sky have been broadcasting live all day with no adverts
Trump is still in the Knesset and yet he is due in Egypt for the bigger peace conference so the coverage is likely to continue throughout today and tomorrow
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
On that Trump is arguably right to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, just as the EU and Canada have done.
His problem was he hit everyone else with tariffs though with his deals with the EU, UK, Canada and Japan etc he seems to be rowing back on that to focus on China
...It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos...
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
Yep, the less we buy of anything from China the better off we will be. Its taken a long, long time for free trade fanatics to get there, some are still on their way, but its a fact.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
...It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos...
But David Starkey articulates things very well and places the movement within its broader historical context.
I think it's a thing that's been going on for some time, but it's only now that I've noticed it: I can only date things that I know about. I agree with a lot of what Starkey says on constitutional/historical matters (but not on other things: he can be poisonous), but I also suspect that he will be very keen to keep courts and quangos that agree with him.
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.
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
So less than 50% of Scots see themselves as Scottish only not British, little different to the 45% who voted Yes in 2014.
Thus no further indyref needed
Given that there were only 22% SnB in 2014, there's (as usual) something wrong with your HYUFDomathics.
@HYUFD does not speak for the Scots and if Holyrood has a majority for independence then another referendum is a question for democratic legitimacy and will happen
It does not follow it would win though
It won't, Starmer flatly ruled out allowing indyref2 in the last general election campaign even in the unlikely event the SNP won an outright majority of MSPs.
After the UK SC ruled Westminster and the UK government have the final say on indyrefs it may well be no UK PM ever allows another indyref again. Losing the EU referendum ended Cameron's premiership the next day, now all UK PMs know losing an indyref would do the same for their premiership with an even worse historical legacy as the PM who in history books for generations lost a 300 year old Union, never mind a 40 year economic union with the EU. Nationalists were lucky they got their 2014 referendum when they did, as Madrid has shown some nations governments can refuse independence referendums outright even if nationalist governments win and take very authoritarian measures to stop them.
At most they would hope for the Canadian model of a second referendum after 15 years but that was very close, less than 2% in it for Quebec to stay in Canada and no Canadian PM has agreed another such referendum since
You cling onto your anti Scot rhetoric, but ultimately if the majority of Scots elect a government on an independence manifesto then it will happen despite an Englishman trying to take away their right to democratic legitimacy
There is nothing anti Scot about it, at most it would be anti Nat.
Legally and constitutionally even if the SNP won 100% of MSPs the UK government could still refuse indyref2 (though at that point a UDI might be possible), Starmer knows as much as any UK PM allowing an indyref2 is gambling with ending the union and their premiership. So they likely won't
Reform's programme of deciding that Rome was not built in a day continues. Part of their tricky tightrope act of being both populist and a possible government. Tice explains that their 2024 manifesto was tosh. Tax cuts will have to wait until after the cuts, like the ones Reform LAs are so good at finding.
Reform voters are absolutely clear that: 1) Foreigners will be sent home. Quickly. How broad that definition is remains TBC but the pledge is already up to a million and we're 3.5 years out from the election so hopefully millions plural by then 2) Benefits will be cut from scroungers. All foreigners are scroungers but they are going. Next we get rid of benefits from the fakers and cheaters and single mums. Scroungers. 3) Taxes will go down. For me. And money will be spent in my community.
Reform will only be able to blame foreigners for so long when they fail to deliver their promises*
*Read X. I have paraphrased what fukers genuinely seem to expect...
One would expect taxes to go down somewhat if less money is spent both on recent newcomers and home-grown scroungers. That is not a fantastical scenario.
Of course, the level of our indebtedness gets in the way of that. But you would expect some money to be redeployed, as well as spent on debt repayment. Apart from anything else, as the current Government are finding, tax hikes, and even the threat of them, are having a disastrous effect on rates of growth, which has a corresponding effect on tax revenues. So it's logical that lightening the tax burden strategically could have a positive impact.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
I saw some interesting speculation that the reason they've held off chucking their weight around, until very recently, is that they had deep strategic dependency on the west - and particularly the US - in a few critical sectors.
One, obviously was high end chips; but now they have a domestic industry which is almost complete all the way up the manufacturing chain, and is perhaps three or four years behind the west at the high end.
The other, curiously, was helium, which is surprisingly important for a lot of stuff other than party balloons, and for the supply of which, until quite recently, the US had a virtual monopoly. They've now, after a LOT of state effort, second sourced about 95% of their annual demand.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
Mining isn't the problem.; there's plenty of the stuff in the ground, and a fair amount is already mined outside China - but most of it is processed there. Processing them to the required degree of purity for industrial use is where the Chinese virtual monopoly lies. Replicating that commercially, which is genuinely urgent, is probably half a decade away.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
I saw some interesting speculation that the reason they've held off chucking their weight around, until very recently, is that they had deep strategic dependency on the west - and particularly the US - in a few critical sectors.
One, obviously was high end chips; but now they have a domestic industry which is almost complete all the way up the manufacturing chain, and is perhaps three or four years behind the west at the high end.
The other, curiously, was helium, which is surprisingly important for a lot of stuff other than party balloons, and for the supply of which, until quite recently, the US had a virtual monopoly. They've now, after a LOT of state effort, second sourced about 95% of their annual demand.
I think we're properly fucked now.
A lot of our discussions from recent years about tax and spending and all the rest are going to seem very petty in the face of extricating ourselves from our dependence on China - or accommodating ourselves to China politically to avoid having to do so.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
Yep, we all need to be doing deals with friendly nations.
China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
The UK might be better off encouraging them to build battery manufacturing here.
...It is also a test of my own evolving political attitude. I am very much behind the idea that power must be restored to parliament and away from courts and quangos...
But David Starkey articulates things very well and places the movement within its broader historical context.
I think it's a thing that's been going on for some time, but it's only now that I've noticed it: I can only date things that I know about. I agree with a lot of what Starkey says on constitutional/historical matters (but not on other things: he can be poisonous), but I also suspect that he will be very keen to keep courts and quangos that agree with him.
He doesn't give me that impression. He wants laws that agree with him as we all do, but he wants courts to apply the law, not make it.
I guess in the coming months the IDF troops will sit around drinking coffee, while an international force takes their place on the battlefield trying to destroy Hamas.
I'm sure when an international force made up largely of Muslims from countries opposed to Hamas are killing Hamas fighters the Gaza mob will find a way to blame it on "the Jews" and be out protesting every weekend as usual.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
I saw some interesting speculation that the reason they've held off chucking their weight around, until very recently, is that they had deep strategic dependency on the west - and particularly the US - in a few critical sectors.
One, obviously was high end chips; but now they have a domestic industry which is almost complete all the way up the manufacturing chain, and is perhaps three or four years behind the west at the high end.
The other, curiously, was helium, which is surprisingly important for a lot of stuff other than party balloons, and for the supply of which, until quite recently, the US had a virtual monopoly. They've now, after a LOT of state effort, second sourced about 95% of their annual demand.
I think we're properly fucked now.
A lot of our discussions from recent years about tax and spending and all the rest are going to seem very petty in the face of extricating ourselves from our dependence on China - or accommodating ourselves to China politically to avoid having to do so.
We face a balancing act between China, the US, the EU, India, and others. It's living by ones' wits. Something England did fairly successfully in the past. We weren't always a big empire.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
Developing the Greenland rare earths just got more urgent.
Yep, the less we buy of anything from China the better off we will be. Its taken a long, long time for free trade fanatics to get there, some are still on their way, but its a fact.
Labour are in lockstep with China, to the point that they are going to approve the mega embassy that any sensible person would have declined 100x already.
The new Chinese export controls include advanced battery tech, along with rare earths, of course. BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing. All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here. https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
After three decades of slowly boiling the frog, the World is finally waking up to the fact that the frog is dead.
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
I saw some interesting speculation that the reason they've held off chucking their weight around, until very recently, is that they had deep strategic dependency on the west - and particularly the US - in a few critical sectors.
One, obviously was high end chips; but now they have a domestic industry which is almost complete all the way up the manufacturing chain, and is perhaps three or four years behind the west at the high end.
The other, curiously, was helium, which is surprisingly important for a lot of stuff other than party balloons, and for the supply of which, until quite recently, the US had a virtual monopoly. They've now, after a LOT of state effort, second sourced about 95% of their annual demand.
Yes, they’ve been working hard and quietly behind the scenes, to get rid of any dependency they had for Western products, and they’re now at the point where they’re ahead in many areas and want to keep it that way.
They’ve been playing the long game since we let them into the WTO, and this is the end they’d planned for since the beginning.
Comments
It isn't the BBC News's job to go round praising and gloating but to report, give depth, analyse and draw attention to whatever it is that power, money and influence doesn't want you to know or to care about.
The sort of hanging around waiting for man to get off plane and talking repetitiously may be suitable on the day when a clear, full and final settlement of the middle east is done, dusted and signed, borders and forms of government agreed, peace and security guarantors all in place, all factions surrendered and disarmed and an economy and reconstruction deal in place. But that ain't today.
I get the impression that Xi kicks Putin around like an old tin can, when they meet.
George Finch, 19, claims a suspect branded him ‘racist and fascist’ and assaulted him while he was out with a female friend"
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-reform-uk-george-finch-attack-nuneaton-b1252603.html
Today’s queue to be honest is only partly down to the new system. It’s more an example of the flight arrivals lottery in European airports, especially the smaller ones like Geneva. If you come in just after a jumbo jet from a non-EU origin then you’re going to be waiting a while.
So far 50 minutes and counting.
https://x.com/ScotCen/status/1976217537357508818
Interestingly the last efflorescence of Brit love was around 2014, perhaps you guys need another referendum to encourage another flowering of yoonery.
Of course Putin is rapidly reaching the stage where he depends on weapons and men from China and North Korea.
Yes 45%
East Kilbride reprise to account for electrification and the new Hairmyres station and passing loop
Kilmarnock to Troon in that direction
Thornton West to North junctions (Edinburgh to Leven trains via Dunfermline - I did the Leven branch going via Kirkcaldy in June 2024)
Larbert eastward curve in the Edinburgh direction
I suppose the first graph is a very rough proxy for this, a markedly downward trend in the last couple of years for whatever reason.
https://x.com/PastGlasgow/status/1977141552213614780
And at the end of it all, rather an anticlimax as they still stamped my passport.
Ending the war would be a good starting point to getting food prices back down, but it’s not going to happen immediately, there’s sadly a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done first in Ukraine. You can’t farm a mined field.
Incidentally, saw a rather nice write-up for Alderney the other day. Can't recall where, now.
Thus no further indyref needed
On the face of it, an estate of an Irish tax resident that pays out to a British tax resident beneficiary, would entirely escape either version of inheritance tax, but I assume there's a rule that prevents such a dodge, otherwise I'd expect to see a lot more wealthy elderly Britons with second homes claiming tax residence in Ireland.
As an alternative to a potential genocide, a day of the BBC's cooperation in that is a very small price.
As long as they regain their critical faculties, I'm not going to complain.
He won't.
Trump is still in the Knesset and yet he is due in Egypt for the bigger peace conference so the coverage is likely to continue throughout today and tomorrow
1. The Barnett formula is only about expenditure, not income.
2. It's also the most misunderstood thing in British politics. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/barnett-formula
It does not follow it would win though
https://x.com/Kaos_Vs_Control/status/1977508619278061983
Trump: "Literally, you walk over from Iran to Qatar. You can walk it in one second. You go, boom, boom, and now you're in Qatar."
https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1977487118239666260
After the UK SC ruled Westminster and the UK government have the final say on indyrefs it may well be no UK PM ever allows another indyref again. Losing the EU referendum ended Cameron's premiership the next day, now all UK PMs know losing an indyref would do the same for their premiership with an even worse historical legacy as the PM who in history books for generations lost a 300 year old Union, never mind a 40 year economic union with the EU.
Nationalists were lucky they got their 2014 referendum when they did, as Madrid has shown some nations governments can refuse independence referendums outright even if nationalist governments win and take very authoritarian measures to stop them. Nats like Wings are already aware of this and think Swinney is a wet blanket and the only alternative is UDI (though even that failed in Catalonia), SNP elite are happy mainly with SNP power at Holyrood and won't push independence too hard now, SNP voters who think otherwise are deluded.
At most they would hope for the Canadian model of a second referendum after 15 years but that was very close, less than 2% in it for Quebec to stay in Canada and no Canadian PM has agreed another such referendum since
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”
https://x.com/NobelPrize/status/1977672594330435860
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLGimwJSqfA
BAE is one of the UK companies on the restricted list.
Gotion announces it has made breakthrough in full solid state battery & it is in the midst of building a 2 GWh production line.
Currently, this 350Wh/kg 金石 battery is under testing.
All the major battery makers are making great breakthrough here. Why China started export control on 300 Wh/kg batteries. It wants to keep its edge here.
https://x.com/tphuang/status/1977693738492170653
China doesn’t care about anyone else, only China, and they think decades ahead. The World is now dependent on China, so they’re imposing their own terms on trade.
I think there is a case to be made for suggesting that you can't just keep asking the question to see if you get lucky once. The last time the question was asked the answer was pretty clearly 'no' to Independence. That was just 10 years ago and many believed that a generation ought to elapse before the next go.
Now you can argue that Brexit made an existential difference and thus a new vote ought to be held. But the polling in Scotland doesn't really reflect that there is a huge demand for Independence. And the SNP both know this, and use the idea of the nasty Westminster parliament in the way that Ukip used the EU.
I think its really interesting just how similar UK vs EU and Scotland vs Westminster is. And it amazes me that pro-independence people looked on in horror at a smaller state leaving a big trading block and all the hassles with borders and then imagine leaving the UK, creating a border with England and all will be easy.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2025/popular-information/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxklen5p2qo
China is not a friendly nation, anything but. The West needs to come up with a response the Chinese will understand, whether it be high tariffs or even banning Chinese cars and other key exports, especially anything with their new battery tech.
1) Foreigners will be sent home. Quickly. How broad that definition is remains TBC but the pledge is already up to a million and we're 3.5 years out from the election so hopefully millions plural by then
2) Benefits will be cut from scroungers. All foreigners are scroungers but they are going. Next we get rid of benefits from the fakers and cheaters and single mums. Scroungers.
3) Taxes will go down. For me. And money will be spent in my community.
Reform will only be able to blame foreigners for so long when they fail to deliver their promises*
*Read X. I have paraphrased what fukers genuinely seem to expect...
But David Starkey articulates things very well and places the movement within its broader historical context.
... and Norway https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/07/10/huge-mineral-discovery-in-norway-could-supply-battery-and-solar-panels-for-the-next-100-ye
His problem was he hit everyone else with tariffs though with his deals with the EU, UK, Canada and Japan etc he seems to be rowing back on that to focus on China
What is rare is the extraction and more importantly the processing of them. That is almost monopoly done by China.
Legally and constitutionally even if the SNP won 100% of MSPs the UK government could still refuse indyref2 (though at that point a UDI might be possible), Starmer knows as much as any UK PM allowing an indyref2 is gambling with ending the union and their premiership. So they likely won't
Of course, the level of our indebtedness gets in the way of that. But you would expect some money to be redeployed, as well as spent on debt repayment. Apart from anything else, as the current Government are finding, tax hikes, and even the threat of them, are having a disastrous effect on rates of growth, which has a corresponding effect on tax revenues. So it's logical that lightening the tax burden strategically could have a positive impact.
The E-gates work really well in my home airport at Dubai, there’s never a queue even at busy times.
One, obviously was high end chips; but now they have a domestic industry which is almost complete all the way up the manufacturing chain, and is perhaps three or four years behind the west at the high end.
The other, curiously, was helium, which is surprisingly important for a lot of stuff other than party balloons, and for the supply of which, until quite recently, the US had a virtual monopoly. They've now, after a LOT of state effort, second sourced about 95% of their annual demand.
Processing them to the required degree of purity for industrial use is where the Chinese virtual monopoly lies. Replicating that commercially, which is genuinely urgent, is probably half a decade away.
A lot of our discussions from recent years about tax and spending and all the rest are going to seem very petty in the face of extricating ourselves from our dependence on China - or accommodating ourselves to China politically to avoid having to do so.
They’ve been playing the long game since we let them into the WTO, and this is the end they’d planned for since the beginning.