FREEDOM!!!! [4]

because its the SNP this gross intrusion into family life is suddenly ok. - Figg

The difference is trust- look at the polling for voter trust in the SNP and compare it to every other party in the UK. They are miles and miles ahead-so far they have done what they said they would do and it hasnt been disastrous and in general folk think they are doing as good a job as can be done for the most part, in difficult financial times. People dont suspect an ulterior motive because they have never had one before in passing legislation. And this is still in the debate part of things.

'stories of having their pocket money taken away for bad behaviour. what happens when parents discipline their kids for biting, stealing and kicking, with a slap on the legs, do they get put on abuser registers? how will the police cope with thousands of trivial instances from kids who want to get their parents to buy them new trainers so go to the police with lies about abuse.'

Thats nothing like what it being proposed- the named person would have to submit the reasons why they think there is a case to see further records- if that is accepted they then see the records, decide if they feel there is a pattern here which points towards abuse and contact the social services to deal with it. The named person is not snooping, they are not in contact with them asking them if they are ok ,they are not like a councillor the child goes to complain about their parents.


'what about the so called named people who will take this opportunity to infiltrate vulnerable families?'

The named people have as a matter of being in those jobs already been screened so as they are allowed to work with children in the first place as a teacher. You are the one saying this is invasion of privacy what more do you advocate- the pvg scheme is about as good a scrutiny as you will get without intrusive surveillance of a person.

It seems to me the number of paedophiles infiltrating the system of named persons is considerable less than number of children it could conceivably save from serious abuse.

The difference is trust- look at the polling for voter trust in the SNP and compare it to every other party in the UK. They are miles and miles ahead-so far they have done what they said they would do and it hasnt been disastrous and in general folk think they are doing as good a job as can be done for the most part, in difficult financial times. People dont suspect an ulterior motive because they have never had one before in passing legislation. And this is still in the debate part of things. Petty

um I am sure the population of North korea trusts their government too.

I doubt they do, but I bet they are too afraid to say so. No one in Scotland is, or for that matter, has ever been, afraid to say what they think.

um ok.

oil is now £30 per barrel. Soon it will be £20.

I can just imagine Salmond reading the FT as he has his morning dump. He dodged the bullet on that one.

Donald Trump foreign policy

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hit out at former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond on Thursday, calling him "an embarrassment" as he defended his ownership of a prestigious Scottish golf course.

The attack is the latest in a feud between the pair, stemming from Trump's objection in 2013 to a Scottish government-approved offshore wind farm project near one of his golf courses.

Trump has found himself under scrutiny from British politicians more generally after they voted last week to debate a call to ban him from the UK due to public outcry over his proposal to stop Muslims entering the United States.

Calling Salmond a "stupid man", Trump accused him of destroying landscapes by supporting wind farm projects and said he "disgracefully" released from prison a Libyan convicted of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

"Alex Salmond is an embarrassment to Scotland," he said.

In a previous row, Trump had called Salmond a "has-been and totally irrelevant".

Half-Scottish Trump, who speaks proudly of his Gaelic heritage, defended his ownership of Turnberry, one of the two golf resorts he owns in Scotland, saying he was spending 200 million pounds ($290 million)on a revamp.

'He dodged the bullet on that one.'- Figg

The oil price is a bugger and hurts the industry badly- more job lkosees this week.

However its a bonus revenue not an essential- the Scottish economy is not reliant upon oil and we can balance our books without it with other resources.
Indeed we have a diverse export market, our food and drink rake sin billions, as does tourism, and thanks to the NP focus on renewals this year we became the first country in the EU who produced over 100% of all domestic electricity needs via wind power alone.


Trump will be lucky if he doesn't get linched when he comes back here.
The majority of Scots not only back the release of the person (almost certainly wrongly) convicted for Lockerbie, but they also support a post his death appeal into the conviction.

Trump has tried to get the windfarms blocked in the Scottish courts- he failed and took it to the Scottish High Court- he failed. So he took it to the English courts- he failed. So he took it to the English High Court- he failed. Now he wants to take it to the European court- where he will also fail.
In the meantime all his promises of luxury hotels, new golf clubs, thousands of jobs have failed to materialise (he employs less than the grouse shooting estate he replaced- and it only employed 100 people) and he has delayed the biggest scientific development of renewable energy in Europe for several years now, costing millions in investment whilst they wait on court results, and costing hundreds and hundreds of well paid jobs in the local economy- all because he doesnt like to lose a fight- thats Trump - be warned. He throws his toys out the pram when he doesnt get this own way- like all small minded bullies do.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
Trump will be lucky if he doesn't get linched when he comes back here.

Do what you like with him. All I ask is that you post the video.

{{{{Much ado about nothing in the Scottish Unionist press today (that's all bar 1 paper) the GERS figures are out today- basically we get to see the books for the country and see how much the government spent, how much tax it raised and what the differenced is.
Due to the collapse in oil its worse than previous, leaving a deficit of  £14.9 billion which is 9.7% of GDP.

Which sounds bad.. But it has to be seen in context.

For example (all figures from wiki) the UK debt as percentage of GDP is 90.3% of GDP- so we are already in a country with almost 10 times as worse a debt than if we had gone independent.

But how does this compare to other European countries?

Well France is at 9-.2%
Germany- 81.9%
Switzerland - 49%
Sweden 38.2%
Norway- 32& ()excludes oil if you include that revenue and there oil reserve they are th eonly Euro country well into the minus figures per head of population- as Scotland would be had we set up an oil fund as Norway did when the oil was discovered- but instead Thatcher used it to pay for all the unemployment benefit needed to destroy the Unions and smash the manufacturing bases in order to switch the UK over to being a services industry nation}}}

And outside Europe the US debt as a percentage of GDP is 106%


The point is, rather than the headlines screaming how in debt Scotland would be, when compared to our peers we would actually be doing better than most of them, and with control of all our own affairs we could adjust to make the most of that. }}}}

{{Couple of satellite pictures from the ISS of Scotland}}





{{But you might wonder, and more fool you if you do, what goes on down there? Well....}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{[

That's another reason why we use chimney caps here!

'Scottish Social Attitudes Survey finds 73 per cent of people trust the Scottish Government, compared with 23 per cent who trust the UK Government....The 2015 SSA survey found that 73 per cent of people in Scotland trust the Scottish Government, the highest level since the Scottish Parliament was established, compared with 23 per cent who trust the UK Government.
The Scottish Government was also more trusted than the UK Government to make fair decisions, with 49 per cent backing it, compared with 18 per cent for Whitehall..... The SSA found 59 per cent of respondents thought the Scottish Government was good at listening to people’s views before it takes decisions, compared with 44 per cent for local councils and 17 per cent for the UK Government.
While roughly equal proportions said the UK and Scottish Governments have the most influence over the way Scotland is run, with 42 per cent for the UK and 41 per cent for the Scottish Government, 76 per cent thought that the Scottish Government should to have the most influence, compared with 14 per cent who chose the UK Government.... Scots were more likely to blame the UK Government (38 per cent) than the Scottish Government (14 per cent) for falls in living standards.....The Social Attitudes survey is based on face-to-face interviews with 1,288 people aged 18 and over, between July 2015 and January 2016.'

{{Interesting stats! And now here's a picture of a pretty boat off a Scottish Island, mainly for David who I thought would like it, and its not been buggered about with either, its really that colour as its catching the setting sunlight}}

The terrorist's-balls-kicking guy was my avatar on here for a while.

Love the spray-painted car one.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ And now here's a picture of a pretty boat off a Scottish Island, mainly for David who I thought would like it, and its not been buggered about with either, its really that colour as its catching the setting sunlight}}

Beautiful old barque sailing very close to the wind! She's got her mizzen, mizzen-topsail and all her staysails sheeted flat on a starboard tack, and her upper- and lower-topsails on fore and main braced to starboard (though I'd have thought she might brace the squaresails a little sharper ). I'd bet she was just ghosting along, using the current as much as the wind to clear some rock or headland. Beautiful picture!

beautiful ship.

that 23% rating is due to IDS, now he has gone it might go up to 24.5%

{{{{Some more Scothobbit culture for those who think I exaggerate it for comic relief, you have no idea This time Glasgow culture}}

That sign in the first image is amazing. I feel like that should be a thread or user title on here somewhere. {{{Maybe hung over the door of the shuttered Who thread? }}}

{{{Over the weekend in the sottish press it emerged that the Scottish labour leader had come out as an openly gay woman in a relationship.
This now means that the Labour leader and Tory leader in Scotland are lesbians, the Green Party leader is bi-sexual, the Scottish Secretary to Westminster is gay, as to is, believe it or not, Scotland's sole UKIP MSP. Giving us, apparently ,the 'gayest parliament in the world'.

And ironically Sturgeon, who looks like she should be gay, is the only heterosexual leader in the country. }}}}

And here WE were happy to get a single black president elected.

{{{{Some more Scottish gems for your pleasure }}}

colour me speechless

{{{{Election day today- I have to go vote and I still don't know who I am giving my second vote too }}}}

I'm surprised you're not going all in on the SNP. Tempted to try to rescue Scottish Labour from oblivion (aka finishing behind the Tories)?