FREEDOM!!!! [3]

I'd hope Buckfast would reimburse their funeral expenses.   

17 ? stabbed in the heart ? What the fooks wrong with people ? My son is older, (18) Sometimes I look at him when I hear sickening stories of young guys being killed, & I imagine if it was HIM laid out on a slab, call me weird but, did THOSE mums & dads think it would happen to them ?? Its to awful !

I think the No campaign might be get a bit desperate for arguments!

'Scotland should stay in the UK "for the sake of the world's poor", according to International Development Minister Alan Duncan.' - Herald

Well thats that then, we best just stay in the Union   

Interesting piece in the Herald-

'SCOTLAND becoming an independent country would be Britain's greatest humiliation since the loss of the American colonies in the 1780s at the hands of George Washington and could lead to the Coalition government falling, according to a paper by one of the UK's top defence experts.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says a Yes vote would leave the rest of the UK "in a state of humiliation and existential crisis" '

And trouble in the NO camp-

'THE Scots millionaire behind the latest arm of the No campaign has warned the squabbling pro-Union parties "to get their act together" and stop backbiting ahead of the referendum.
Financier Malcolm Offord, who last week launched the £400,000 No Borders project, said Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were "at each others' throats" because of the looming General Election.'

And a hysterical piece in the Mail imaging what happensif Scotland votes YES,here ssome choce pieces from it-

Salmond is on TV, a Cheshire cat grin splitting his face. ‘Our friends  in England will find we are good neighbours,’ he says.
‘Smuggo Salmond’s got a surprise coming,’ chips in George Osborne. ‘We own his Royal Bank. And the markets are soaring. The City thinks Scotland has been holding the recovery back. Let him pay for his own precious free education and health care.’

‘There’s a flood of money coming South and the planes from Scotland to London are booked solid.'

‘I told you currency union is not on,’ says a smiling Chancellor. ‘Ed Balls agrees. You’re on your own now, sink or swim.’
‘They’ll sink,’ he smirks, ending the call. The news alarms the markets. Money flees from Scotland and three large insurance companies relocate to England. Osborne, representing the UK taxpayer, commands the Royal Bank of Scotland to transfer its headquarters to London.

‘We must put the United Kingdom first,’ she says. ‘I demand the introduction of border controls to stop Scottish workers stealing our jobs.’ At the EU Council of Ministers, Johnson endures French President Francois Hollande’s jibes about the Auld Alliance and the Spanish Prime Minister assures him he will veto Scotland’s bid to join the EU.

The markets panic when SNP extremists call on Salmond to reject Scotland’s share of the UK national debt. A flight of capital begins amid rumours that Scotland plans exchange controls.

Rising unemployment sees anti-Salmond demonstrations and an exodus from Scotland to England.
Farage again demands border controls to protect jobs.

As Scotland’s economy withers, England booms. Salmond is forced to accept that Trident submarines will continue to be based in the Clyde in exchange for an annual rent from London.

NOT many bells are rung in Scotland when the Day of Independence finally arrives.'

Literally unbelievable.  

Beginnings of a shift in the media?

'The Sunday Herald has become the first newspaper publicly to back a "Yes" vote in the Scottish independence referendum.
An article on the newspaper's website said: "The Herald & Times Group, publisher of the Sunday Herald, The Herald and the Evening Times, is giving the titles' editors freedom to take their own editorial position on the constitution."- BBC

'SCOTLAND becoming an independent country would be Britain's greatest humiliation since the loss of the American colonies in the 1780s at the hands of George Washington and could lead to the Coalition government falling, according to a paper by one of the UK's top defence experts.

Really? I'd say that the Suez Crisis and subsequently becoming America's bitch would have been more humiliating, particularly since it came much closer to the height of the British Empire. For that matter, the Irish War of Independence would seem to be pretty humiliating to the number-one country in the world.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Beginnings of a shift in the media?

'The Sunday Herald has become the first newspaper publicly to back a "Yes" vote in the Scottish independence referendum.
An article on the newspaper's website said: "The Herald & Times Group, publisher of the Sunday Herald, The Herald and the Evening Times, is giving the titles' editors freedom to take their own editorial position on the constitution."- BBC

That's encouraging. I assume the Herald and the Sunday Herald are editorially separate based on your last two posts, though.

Another Better Together scare tactic falls apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny, this time on pensions-

Here what Better Together head Alistair Darling had to say just last week-

'“On the subject of pensions, we know the whole of the UK stands behind the State pension, but what happens with separation? Nobody knows - certainly not the Scottish Government.”

The SNP position was they did know, and the answer was nothing at all, they would be paid as normal, they had already sought advise an info from it from the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions).

Today the question came up under the scrutiny of a Parliamentary Select Committee-

'Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb said that anybody who had paid UK national insurance would be entitled to their state pension whatever the outcome of the referendum.
He said: “Citizenship is irrelevant. It is what you have put into the UK National Insurance system prior to separation, answer 35 years, that builds up to a continued UK pension under continuing UK rules, the question is who is paying for it, but they are entitled to that money.”
The intervention contradicts concerns raised by former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, the leader of the Better Together campaign.'

Darling must have known this when he made his statement last week trying to scare pensioners into voting NO on the made up threat they might not get their pensions paid.
How low can the NO side stoop to?

I think I must have made one too many Google searches for Scottish news, because I've been getting this YouTube ad incessantly the past few days. I haven't actually watched the whole thing though, just the first five seconds until it's skippable.



(Before anyone brings it up, yes, I'm perfectly aware of Adblock.)

Ah, add for green energy. Wave and wind turbines.

Based on the phrase "moon power" I wasn't sure if it was like solar power, but using moonlight, or what.

NB is that an actual Orkney accent?

Just seems to be the company name I think  

And no thats not very Orkney sounding, at all-

I was expecting something barely comprehensible, but I was actually able to understand that pretty well.

Speaking of dialects, I find them really neat and part of me wishes that there were more variation in forms of American English. Though it's probably easier this way.

I know this is really a thread about Scotland but, this is freedom of a different sort & I found it interesting ?

Gino Bartali: The cyclist who saved Jews in wartime Italy
By Peter Crutchley BBC, Belfast

Continue reading the main story
As one of the cycling world's biggest races, the Giro d'Italia, begins in Belfast on Friday, more is being learned about the daring activities of one of its former winners in wartime Italy.
"He had everything to lose. His story is one of the most dramatic examples during World War Two of an Italian willing to risk his own life to save the lives of strangers."
Film director Oren Jacoby is describing Gino Bartali, one of the leading cyclists of his era - a three-time winner of the Giro d'Italia, who also notched up two Tour de France victories, 10 years apart, before and after the war.
During his lifetime, Bartali didn't talk about his wartime activities.
It was only after his death in 2000 that details began to emerge, and Jacoby fills in some remaining gaps in a Storyville documentary film about Italy's secret heroes, due to be premiered this year.
Bartali, a villager from a poor Tuscan family, was reaching the peak of his career as the war approached.
Gino Bartali competing in the Tour de France in 1938
He won his first Giro d'Italia in 1936, retaining the title in 1937. Then - to Italy's delight - he won the 1938 Tour de France. It was a moment the country's fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, had been looking forward to eagerly.
Continue reading the main story
Gino Bartali

• Born in Florence in 1914
  
• Started work as a mechanic in a bicycle shop, became a professional cyclist in 1935
  
• Won the Giro d'Italia in 1936, 1937 and 1946, and the Tour de France in 1938 and in 1948
  
• Great rival of the younger Italian, Fausto Coppi, who won the Giro and the Tour in 1949
  

"Mussolini believed that if an Italian rider triumphed in the tour it would show that Italians too belonged to the master race," says Bartali's son Andrea in Jacoby's film.
"It was a matter of national pride and fascist prestige that my father won the 1938 Tour, so he was under real pressure."
Bartali was invited to dedicate his win to Mussolini, but refused. It was a grave insult to il duce and a big risk to take.
In the middle of that year's tour, Mussolini had published a Manifesto on Race, which led later to Jews being stripped of citizenship or any position in government or the professions.
Italy remained, however, a country in which Jews could take refuge, until it surrendered to the allies in 1943. The German army then occupied northern and central parts of the country and immediately started rounding up Jews and sending them to concentration camps.
At this point Bartali, a devout Catholic, was asked by the Cardinal of Florence, Archbishop Elia Dalla Costa, to join a secret network offering protection and deportation to Jews and other endangered people.
His role in the network was uniquely suited to his talents - he became a courier. On the face of it he was undertaking the long training rides for which he was renowned, but in reality he was carrying photographs and counterfeit identity documents to and from a secret printing press.
Bartali's bike on display in the cycling museum in Madonna del Ghisallo Church, Lombardy
All were hidden in the frame and handlebars of his bicycle.
"We've seen documentation that he travelled thousands of kilometres across Italy, travelling the roads between cities as far apart as Florence, Lucca, Genoa, Assisi, and the Vatican in Rome," says Jacoby.
Continue reading the main story
Nazi occupation of Italy

• Mussolini formally signs non-military alliance with Hitler's Germany in October 1936
  
• In July 1943, Mussolini is dismissed from office and placed under arrest
  
• Italy surrenders to Allied forces in September 1943, with Germany occupying northern and central Italy in response
  
• By June 1944, over 8,000 Jews had been rounded up and deported from Italian territories by the Nazis
  
• Mussolini is captured and shot dead by Italian partisans on 28 April 1945
  

• More on Mussolini
  
• More on The Holocaust
  

By taking on this role, he put himself at huge risk. At one point he was arrested and questioned by the head of the Fascist secret police in Florence, where he lived.
For a period he went into hiding, living incognito in the town of Citta Di Castello in Umbria.
In addition to this, Bartali hid his Jewish friend Giacomo Goldenberg, and Goldenberg's family.
"He hid us in spite of knowing that the Germans were killing everybody who was hiding Jews," Goldenberg's son, Giorgio, says in Jacoby's film.
"He was risking not only his life but also his family. Gino Bartali saved my life and the life of my family. That's clear because if he hadn't hidden us, we had nowhere to go."
Approximately 80% of Italian and refugee Jews living in Italy before World War Two survived, partly thanks to the efforts of Italian sympathisers.
It's taken a lot of detective work, by a number of people, to piece Bartali's story together over the last 14 years.
Andrea Bartali says that eventually little by little his father told him about his actions during the war but made him promise not to tell anyone at that time.
Bartali's son Andrea visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel
"When I asked my father why I couldn't tell anyone, he said, 'You must do good, but you must not talk about it. If you talk about it you're taking advantage of others misfortunes' for your own gain.'"
Continue reading the main story
More from the Magazine
In 1943, Italy officially changed sides in World War Two, making peace with the Allies against Nazi Germany. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the life of one little Jewish boy in Florence, Marcello Buiatti, whose family suddenly had to go into hiding, writes Dany Mitzman.
Seventy-five years ago in Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "degenerate", expelled from their homes and interned on an island. They were held under a prison regime - but some found life in the country's first openly gay community a liberating experience, writes Alan Johnston.
According to Jacoby, Bartali's reticence is a "defining characteristic" of many of the Italians who were willing to risk their lives in World War Two.
"He didn't want to be acknowledged for what he had done: few of those he helped ever knew his name or what role he had played in their rescue," says Jacoby.
Last September he was posthumously awarded with the honour Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and education centre in Jerusalem.
"When Bartali was stopped and searched, he specifically asked that his bicycle not be touched since the different parts were very carefully calibrated to achieve maximum speed," the citation points out.
Andrea Bartali says his father refused to view his actions as heroic.
"When people were telling him, 'Gino, you're a hero', he would reply: 'No, no - I want to be remembered for my sporting achievements. Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. I'm just a cyclist.'"

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That's a remarkable story, Az. I found Yad Vashem's page on the guy and it's really interesting. There are so many stories in their Righteous Among the Nations section.

A heartwarming story. There are so many truly good people we never hear about. Often they want it that way, I guess....

I honestly dont know what to say to these, so I will let them speak for themselves   

Well if separation was an obvious win for everyone it would have happened by now.

Those are just offensive, ignorant, inflammatory, divisive and unpleasant.

And no one said it was an obvious win for everyone, its probably not for England which explains why they want to keep hold of us so much (whilst simultaneously telling the rest of the UK they have to subsidise us)

Seems Westminster might have paid to hear something they did not want to, and now dont want anyone else to know about either-

'WESTMINSTER has been accused of hiding the findings of an opinion poll on Scottish independence, amid allegations it shows a rise in Yes voters.
Downing Street figures revealed that the Cabinet Office Devolution Team had spent more than £75,000 of taxpayers’ money on independence polling and PR tie-ups in January of this year.

Part of the deal included a contract with Ipsos MORI worth £46,550 for ‘market research on attitudes in Scotland towards Scottish independence’ - a fee almost 50 times that of a standard newspaper poll.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called on the results of the poll to be made public.
He said: “David Cameron’s government have spent almost £50,000 of taxpayers’ cash on an opinion poll they now appear to be trying to keep secret - that’s unacceptable.”
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office Devolution Team said surveys were key in the lead-up to the referendum but refused to announce the poll’s findings.'- Scotsman

Great story Azriel, I enjoyed reading that.   

Your welcome !   
Im fond of these quiet tales of people's lives that dont always get the recognition they deserve, they make such a fresh change from the "up my own arse" Brigade & millionaire spoilt brat syndrome that seems to dominate mags/papers/tv

David Cameron interviewed on the Scottish news tonight- not exactly convincing- in denial about the state of the Better Together Campaign and its leadership by Alistair Darling. Promises jam tomorrow but cant even say what flavour and won't commit to it even being in the first Queens Speech if he wins the election.
The best he can offer is we will get some unnamed powers in the future after yet another round of consultations and reviews lasting an unknown amount of time and with no guarantee it could be passed through the House anyway.

Not good enough by a long chalk. If he really does want to save the Union he is going to have to do better than this.