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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Suddenly independence starts to look a much scarier prospect to the Scots. BREXIT could be keeping the union together
The normal response is to blame the oil price but I wonder if it goes deeper than that. BREXIT has added so many new uncertainties that the idea of adding independence into the mixture just seems too much at this time.
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Unite's HQ being used by Momentum. Looks like a blind eye from its head honchos.
It shows how the root of Labour's problems stem from unions such as Unite. There was a thread and article about how Unite was dominating the Labour party on PB a few years ago. It has got worse since then.
Yes of course Brexit makes Sindy infinitely tougher. Scottish independence was based upon the idea of still being in a Single Market with the rest of the UK via the EU so no longer needing to be in the same nation anymore.
Given Scotland trades far, far more with the UK than the rest of the EU leaving a British 'single market' to join the EU Single Market makes no sense.
Sindy is dead, Rest In Peace. No Flowers.
Yes 42% (-5) - No 48% (+7) - Changes from June 28
Doesn’t quite tally with the post EURef rhetoric coming from the Edinburgh County Council...
The backpack was found near a rubbish bin at a train station. It exploded as a police robot tried to deactivate the explosives.
"They carried this [backpack] 800 to 1,000 yards before they dropped it," Mr Bollwage said. They had initially thought that the backpack contained valuables because they saw the wires inside.
"That's the stuff, Jez. Innocent question about your favourite biscuit - kick it off with a bit of prim moral disapproval, alienate the audience nice and early. 'Corbyn Shames Mums for Scoffing Biscuits' - that's the kind of headline we're looking for in tomorrow's tabloids. Also, make everyone wonder what on earth you put in your jam, if you hate sugar so much, given that you list your favourite hobby as jam-making. Baffle them further with the weird implication that someone might 'force' you to eat a biscuit, as if Mary Berry is holding you at gunpoint. Then, after all that circuitous waffle, finally get round to giving the answer you could have just given straight off. Textbook."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/19/miserable-jeremy-corbyn-takes-the-famous-mumsnet-biscuit-test-a/
I know the Borders are relatively strong for unionism, but I was impressed by how enthusiastically my B&B hosts described themselves as British as well as Scottish, and I saw a not a few Union flags - as well as the cross of St. Andrew - around Peebles and Galashiels.
The Union is not dead yet.
Put this is context: the total value of China's services imports is less than the value of Belgium's services imports. Staggering. But true. And the gap isn't small either (it's more than $50bn.)
We're not going to make big, immediate, gains from a free trade deal with China. Simply, we export few things (Rolls Royce aero engines, and few others) that China imports, so even removing the tariffs isn't going to lead to big things in the near term.
Yes, the paradox is that if Brexit were now being perceived as a breeze then the Sindy vote could well be storming ahead. The fact that Brexit is mired in uncertainty and strife has caused the Scots to hunker down. They, like all of us, feel paralysed until some glimmer of an objective appears on the horizon. Sturgeon will keep her powder try until England figures something out, or it all explodes amid its own contradictions.
So long as the SNP return the large bulk of Scotland's MPs to Westminster, the path of any future centre-left opposition party to an overall majority is greatly impeded - and, consequently, the Lab/Nat Pact stick that was deployed against Miliband in England can continue to be used at every subsequent General Election. Under such circumstances, the SNP can always be portrayed as strong and the centre-left as weak and, consequently, vulnerable to being shoved about by what is unarguably a separatist movement, and one that does not necessarily consider the welfare of the rest of the UK to rank highly among its concerns.
The Tories, on the other hand, do not need any Scottish votes to win - BUT if Ruth Davidson can convert the Scots Tories into the dominant Unionist party in Holyrood then they can also have a reasonable expectation of cutting into SNP support amongst better off voters, especially in the borders, Edinburgh and the North-East, as the years roll by and their long record in office finally starts to catch up with them. Should Scottish Labour wither away whilst the Scottish Tories win back half-a-dozen seats, and perhaps many more in future elections, then the position of the centre-left at Westminster would become even more hopeless.
Thanks to things like that this video could do with bringing up to date to star Theresa instead of Maggie.
https://youtu.be/ReIAna459sg
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/two-more-labour-bristol-city-councillors-suspended-by-party/story-29730984-detail/story.html
3 councillors now suspended by NEC.
*gets popcorn*
http://www.libdems.org.uk/growing-stronger-by-the-day
I must admit to being surprised at Massow, but also Clare Gerada caught my eye. She would make an excellent MP.
The destiny of all of the British Isles is to be members of the mainstream union of European nations. Scotland has the opportunity to steal a march on England in recognising this reality.
'Access' to the single market could mean anything other than a complete trade embargo. It's a perfect example of dishonest Leave rhetoric.
A free trade area with flexible and well educated industrious workforce that can undercut us is not nessicarily to our advantage (particularly to the voters of Leaverstan). We should aim to have a free trade area with a part of the world that we can outcompete. I commend to this site one called the European Union...
https://twitter.com/search?q=single market ashcroft poll&src=typd
He became a senior investigative reporter at the Daily Mail in 1994, switching to the chief reporter role at the Daily Express two years later.
Greg also founded football website Soccernet with his then 12-year-old son Tom in 1995, which was later sold to ESPN for £25m.
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/editor-of-independent-weekly-bought-by-jp-quits/
http://www.thewrap.com/hollywood-panics-over-hillary-behind-the-scenes-at-emmy-parties/
To the extent that the EU currently appears to be a vehicle for some of the negatives of globalisation that people voted against in the referendum, this is a bug rather than a feature, and will be corrected as the current elected elite across Europe is replaced by a new generation.
I ask, because if they're very pro-free trade, presumably they'll have free trade agreements with at least a couple of these.
Like the one we're not going to have any more.
Although, of course, one day the last person to have even heard the words "the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland" will die...
May I offer you a biscuit Jezza?
In my opinion the primary goal of the UK economy for the time being should be import substitution.
Brexit to a free trade area is not going to relieve the ills of Leaverstan.
How many educated people have not heard of ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt?
Having said that, Brexit and independence are both backward in my view, again for the same reasons. It's better to be connected.
https://twitter.com/rolandmcs/status/777827242806214656
Re India, I think Modi is a genuine free trader, but I wouldn't underestimate the amount of anti-free trade sentiment in the Indian parliament, and the extent to which the big Indian families have the politicians in their pockets. If British imports are seen as threatening the wealth of the Ambani's, then suddenly a whole bunch of politicians won't be so keen.