politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Opinium: Most of those polled say 2nd Scottish IndyRef ‘not justified’ but only one in three sure of a no vote if one happens
With Scottish Independence back on the agenda and Northern Ireland heading for crisis, Keiran Pedley argues that London is far too complacent about the future of the Union.
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I think both Sinn Fein and the SNP have a window of opportunity between now and Brexit taking place. After Brexit, that window will slam shut.
Oh blast, I've gone and mentioned AV, haven't I?
1) If the parties cannot agree in, what is it, two weeks, then it’s EITHER direct rule OR another election.
2) If Brokenshire decides on another election then there are six weeks for the election campaign, so
3) The next election will be around two months after the last one.
Do we seriously think that unless there’s a significant change, in particular the standing aside of Arlene Foster, an election in May will produce a significantly different result to that which we have at the moment?
I locked myself out the other day and had a locksmith round. He openly offered me the choice of paying more with VAT or less without paperwork. I frowned and said curtly "The legal option with proper paperwork" and left it at that. Was he committing an offence by making the unsolicitied offer (there was a witness - a family friend)? Would HMRC prosecute on that basis? (And is it wise to make an enemy of a local locksmith?)
The divide between politicians and normal people, Exhibit A
"Ruth Davidson rules out leading No campaign for indyref2"
http://tinyurl.com/gldyjre
Why not ask the French about Brexit?
Like Brexit it is an aim in itself, with no real concern about what follows.
I am by nature a Unionist, but think it will be different this time, and do not think that May will handle it well. Nothing would go down worse in Scotland than her refusal, but if May supports another indyref it will rile Scottish Unionists. I cannot see a way out for her.
Just suppose there is another election and SF pick up, or more likely, the DUP lose, enough seats for SF to be the largest party and therefore provide the First Minister.
The level of entanglement is far greater for the nations of the UK than Brexit is for the EU though.
The UK government is really going to have to think about the things it commits to and invests in in Scotland if this neverendum behaviour persists.
Apart from when the patient dies.
Scotland would be independent, the deed done. Whether the SNP exists as a single party is a trifle, no Unionist party could either take power back or reverse it. It would be like Brexit.
“I don’t suppose we would ever be allowed full independence,” Manson said, adding: “In an ideal world we would be a British overseas territory. We would be to Britain what Faroe is to Denmark.”
Although that’s me being a bit cynical.
Rather like aggressive doctoring or lawyering, the anti-virus industry keeps going by creating its own clients.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CHYP1P6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1489335197625
And that's without getting into weird cultural stuff like anorexia in the West, or ultra-agoraphobia (or the testicle-withdrawal yin-tang issue) in the East.
Edited extra bit: yin-yang*.
"With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country" - Winnie Mandela, 1986.
Condemnation of above statement by Nelson Mandela or the ANC: " ".
I do remember a poll on whether people would agree to payment in cash to evade tax - there was a fairly even split. But what people say and actually do may be two different things. Is there any hard data on it?
There is also a great demand for peoples difficulties in life to get medicalised as a form of validation that the problem is a medical one. I think that part of the stigma of mental illness is that problems have to be medically defined in order to be deemed worthy of taking seriously.
The Kilted Kippers Voice of Reason speaks again.
"May's instinct is to tax and spend"
https://twitter.com/rcolvile/status/840849309356691456
Like tax-avoidance specialists!
for example:
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-02-17/news/mn-2781_1_winnie-mandela
The Turkish referendum is on 16 April, a week before the French round one. The polls in Turkey seem to be all over the place.
A second referendum, particularly one with anything like the same timescale as the neverendum of 2012-14, would be catastrophic for Scotland. There is a real reluctance to recognise how much damage that last effort did to our economy and tax base.
The tendency towards an entirely branch economy grew sharply in those years as management, seat and decision making moved south just in case. As a simple example the majority of Scotland's leading legal firms, many with centuries of prestige and independence, became branches of English based law firms as partners sought to get their capital out and spread their risk. Regrettably the result has not stopped that trend.
More uncertainty is not what Scotland requires in 2017. The consolidation of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management leaves us one take over away from no longer having the vestiges of an independent financial centre. A branch economy that has uncertainty about its connections to the trunk (London of course) dies. It is as simple as that.
Ruth Davidson would make an acceptable leader of a Scottish government of Unionist unity [*], which I think the majority of people in Scotland would like to have (if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me that Sturgeon should shut the eff up about independence and start running Scotland properly, etc.), but she is not the right person to be the sole "main No spokesperson". For goodness sake, don't help the SNP with their line that Unionism = Tories = Westminster = London media = FEBs, their sockpuppets, and the stupid.
(*) Sturgeon wants a referendum before the next Holyrood election. The SNP lost their majority in 2016, and hopefully in 2021 (or maybe 2020, depending on when the next British GE is held) the Unionists will regain a majority and if necessary Kezia, Willie and Ruth will be mature enough to do the right thing and form a coalition.
Increasingly anorexia is being found in many other cultures from Latin America to the far East. It may not be so rare there as once thought, just under recognised.
Many psychiatric conditions do blend into normality. At what point does gambling addiction become pathological for instance? or shyness? or depression or binge eating?
Medicine certainly has a role in managing anorexia (not least the metabolic effects are what kills anorectics) but the treatment needs a much wider approach.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/12/britains-youngest-mp-mhairi-black-hates-parliament-says-might/