FREEDOM!!!!

In a follow up to the above events there are disturbing rumblings in my small town. You see there is more than a touch of the Hobbiton v Buckland about things, but with a darker side.
You see my town is on a peninsula, it is seperated from the rest of the mainland by water and a mountain road. Across the water is where industrial Scotland starts (or did do before most of the shipyards were closed by Thatcher). And over there they have a differnt accent, there is perceived to be more crime, more poverty and a big herion problem.
Now my side of the water was at its height a gentile Victorian Tourist resort (youd haveloved it Mrs Figg), then during the Cold War housed the largest US Nuclear Naval Base in Europe. Its now a place of large Victorian houses- where rich city bankers and their wives retrire to with a marina where the base once was.
But the recent spate of violence, and now murder- well that all takes place amongst the same group of people in the same locations in town- and unfortuntely it inovles those folk from the other side of the water.
And there is a growing resentment among those who call themselves locals that these intruders from across the water are bringing their smack addictions, their alcholism and their violence and crime into our town and making it unsafe for everyone else.
And because there are efectively ony 3 ways in our out, one road, two ferries, and everyone knows its them from acorss the water doing it all, people cannot understand why the police have not done something about it before and are starting to mumble and say under their breath, 'maybe its time we sorted it ourselves. Everyone knows who they are and where they live.'
This is worrying and one has to hope its a modd which dissapates- but that very much depends on what happens next- if this murder leads to revenge attacks more trouble, things could get very bad indeed.

Did I ever mention that if Scotland does get independce the first thing we will probably do is declare war on each other.
There is something worryingly orclike in the Scots mentally in that we will fight each other until someone, an englishman, roman whoever is trying to invade shows up and join together to kick the crap out of them, but nly so we can get back to kicking the crap out of each other. Might have something to do with all the buckie.

And just to bring some memories for Mrs Figg heres my town Victorian Pier in its heyday.



And in more recent times (still got one paddle steamer left coming to it- the waverley-was in the lates Sherlock Holmes film- the bad ones).

OOOOH I love that Prom tiddle-de-pom-pom-pom. Did it have a band stand as well? Those were the days. sigh!

It not only had a bandstand Mrs Figg it still has one!

No, no...Scotland is rocky, heather-ridden and windswept. That's not Scotland!

We even have palm trees.



And then there is our Botanical Gardens







Did I mention Scotland is where God comes for a holiday?

(And for those who have seen the Wickerman you might see some similarities and reason for concern when visiting our small west coast town )

I get this aweful song stuck in my head cus of this thread.

I have a question- primarlity for any members who are English or have spent a lot of time there.
I have noted in some recent reporting on Scottish Independence that there is a perception in England this about nationalism, about us wanting to seperate ourselves from being British and to express our Scottishness more.
Is that how you see it or not?

No help from the English (again) I see!

Which fits rather nicely with this;

In answer to your question, I would say yes.

Interesting Mrs Figg.
You see in Scotland we tend to see it the other way round. Its not Scotland moving away from the rest of the UK, its Westminister politically and ideologically moving ever further away from us.
We are a left leaning socialist country at heart. Thats why we have free education, prescriptions ect when England don't- they'd rather spend their money on nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers we dont have any planes for and Jubillees for monarchs. We'd rather spend that money on the people.
Its not really about nationalism at all- its about being able to express our inherent political leanings which we curently cannot do.
Scotland votes Labour and we get Tory as England can outvote us every time, and increasingly England votes to the right and ever further right-and thats the basic problem from a Scottish perspective.

I personally dont know what all the Nationalist stuff is all about, whether Scottish, Welsh or Cornish, we all live on the same Island the same bit of rock, surely these divisions are illusions, I dont get it.
I am talking generally, notwithstanding the historic and political differences, just the pure daftness of three seperate countries on one tiny bit of floating rock.

Look at it this way Mrs Figg- Scotland has consistently voted for a left leaning Westminister govt- the only time we got one was when Blair convinced the English to vote for him because he had a 3rd way- that was not left at all but more right of centre. So the only time england went labour with Scotland was for a man who turned out to be more to the right than the Tories were.

So we vote for labour, but we get Tories. They then screw us over because Westminister knows our votes don't matter- so long as England votes Tory they will always win, even if Wales and Scotland vote the other way every time- they simply dont need our votes, thereofre they dont have to treat us with any respect at all.

Look at the current lot- first budget the Chanceller raided Scotlands oil by announcing an extra tax with no warning- the end result was the UK exchequer got richer and in Scotland the oil companies cancelled a bunch of development projects they could no longer afford, so jobs went, expansion of new fields was halted- it seriously impended the industry and our economy.

Scotland has long been majority anti-nuclear. Yet we have the UK nuclear fleet stationed within 40 miles of our biggest population centre and there is not a damn thing we can do about it.

When Thatcher came up with the poll tax she trialed in Scotland a full year before England- it was met with universal hatred and protest-sit ins at town halls, marches. Thatchers response? Lump it its staying.
It was imposed in England- same thing happened, protests. She immediately scrapped it. English votes counted, that would have cost them power- Scots votes didn't count- we were voting labour anyway and she knew it. So why listen to us at all?
And she used our oil money to bankroll making the souh the of England and London in particular a service economy and to close down all our major industoires- from our famous shipbuilding to our steel works. Destroyng entire communities in the process and casting an entire generation on the unemployment heap.

And now, minor as it is, but indicitive, the team GB football for the Olympics they exclude Scotland and Northern Ireland and only put a couple of welsh in it- its 99% an English team claiming to be GB- thats pretty much how we are treated by Westminister too.

If we have an opposing political view to England, an opposng view on industyr and manufacturing- why should we stay attached to a country who doesn't but who rules over us with their ideology?

I know its a less than happy situation, and I hope that the Scottish people get more indipendance from central government, I agree with you about all the practical reasons, thats not my point, its just the reason we have this division in the first place between countries, it seems strange that it happened at all given the size of Britain, I know it goes back to probably before the Romans and they probably started the notion of us and them with Hadrians Wall, it seems odd to me thats all, I do agree with all your points about central government and unfair treatment.

There was one of a series of live tv debates the other night on the referendum- here it is.
An english friend of mne watched it and his first question was one I had never even considered- 'why did they pick all women for the panel?'
The answer is they didnt- these are some of our most prominent politicians- Tory and Labour in Scotland have a female party leader, a lot of the SNP government, including the deputy FM is a women and our leading independent politician is also a female.
You cant stop a Scots women voicing her opinion- and you'd be a bloody fool to try!

it seems strange that it happened at all given the size of Britain- Mrs Figg

Well the Act of Union was 1707- so we have been independent of each other far longer than we have been in a union. And the poor Welsh don't even have a country anymore, its a Principality, it belongs to the English by an act of conquering.
And Scotland joined because at the time our politicians bankrupt the country (and politician I use losely, back then little democracy , they were major landowners), they basically sold the country for peanuts against the will of the people of the time.

I was wondering why it happened historically, thousands of years ago, rather than recent events. Its a small Island relative to the Continent. I was wondering why we felt the need to separate into Scottish, Welsh and English. I find it interesting and a bit odd.

We didn't seperate is the answer Mrs Figg. Scotland was several kingdoms- the Irish Scotia who had established themselves in the west and on the wetsren isles and the Picts who held the east and north.
England was divided even longer than Scotland was, you had the Daneland in the ne of England, the saxons in the central areas and angles in the south.
Slowly over time in Scotland the clan system eventually emerged, one country lots of fiefdoms. And later England eventually unified their different areas too.
But the two ends of the country had been working pretty much independently of each other from the very begining- in that sense Union is the odd thing nor seperate states.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:the Union is the odd thing not seperate states.

here too

I'm looking forward to a United World Government. Then we would have the State of Scotland, the State of Louisania, and the State of Japan - with their own legislatures, but over it all, certain World Rules enacted at Head Office. (There's plenty of room btw in Ozobbitstan for World Government House to be built).

Thats makes sense- put all the politicians with the rest of the convicts down-under! You got room for bankers?

Excellent idea.

Btw Odo is happy to put the Bankers up at one of his manseholes. {{{Says he can keep them under closer scrutiny that way. Reckons they don't always follow his instructions to a tee when he hasn't got them in plain view. }}}

Just noticed the debate video from last week is gone, fortunetly its been put up by someone else-

No crabbit? Why that makes me crabbit!

I just ate some homemade tablet. A scottish sweet (candy to you US hobbits). This however is a Scottish sweet and therefore it is to your health what it normally takes a weeks worth of Macdonalds to do. But it is delicous and moreish- and therein lies its peril! And of course even to prepare it has an element of danger as the mixture is volatile, but what else would expect from a Scottish sweet but one thats crabbit in the cooking?

Give it a go, make some I dare you.

Scottish Tablet is not as it sounds, something to write on, it is a sweet Scottish, fudge-like, extremely sugary candy. Scottish tablet contains sugar, butter and condensed milk and as you can see in this Scottish Tablet recipe is easy to make. Warning though - it is seriously moreish if you have a sweet tooth.

Important Note: For this recipe you will need a heavy based 4-pint sauce pan but if you have a larger one I recommend using it; the Scottish tablet reaches a rolling boil and sometimes if you have the heat even a fraction too high the mixture can swell up very quickly and boil over. For safety's sake a larger pan will make it safer. This recipe reaches very high temperatures and I recommend you do not make this with children around.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:

1 pint/500ml water
8oz/225g butter, chopped into pieces
4 lbs/1.8kg super fine/caster sugar
1lb/450g of condensed milk
Optional
Flavorings as desired***

Preparation:

Butter a 12" x 4"/30cm x 10cm or 7"/18cm square tin.
In your saucepan (see note above) heat the water to a low simmer then add the butter. Stir until melted. Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring the sugar to a hard boil for 5 minutes (the mixture should boil really fiercely which helps to reduce the liquid and colour the mixture) stirring all the time to prevent the sugar from sticking and burning. If you have a thermometer take the temperature to 120°C/ 250°F (also known as hard ball stage in candy and toffee making).
Once the sugar is boiling, slowly add the condensed milk - TAKE CARE - the sugar is at a very high temperature and may splatter. Stir well then lower the heat and simmer for 20 mins. The mixture will bubble and resemble a moon crater, but don't be put off, keep cooking. The mixture will also start to slightly darken.
After twenty minutes or once the mixture is visibly thickened, remove the pan from the stove and beat the mixture vigorously for 5 - 10 mins, add any optional flavorings (see note below).
Pour into the greased pan and when the tablet is cool but still soft, cut into 1" squares - you can even put the pan in the freezer to make sure it is completely cold.
Wrap in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin.

*Tablet can be flavored as desired; favorites include peppermint, whisky, buckie or vanilla, simply add a few drops to taste.

-About.com Scottish foods.

This sounded intriguing so I took to Google Image Search to find out what it looked like and, um...



Looks like congealed fat. Tasty, tasty heart attack.