FREEDOM!!!! [3]

the Scottish gvt isn't exactly snowy white perfection though is it. they have corruption scandals just like the rest.

No, not really. Been very few of those.
There was one early one, led to the resignation of the labour First Minister Mcleish- was (rather unbelievably in light of the scale of Westminster claims) over using tax payer money for taxi fares. And another Labour leader went for not declaring a 950 quid donation.

And there have been procedural scandals- the rising cost of the parliament building itself when it was built, sam goes for the Edinburgh tram system.

But scandals of the Westminster sort with massive expenses fiddling ect are not likely- it was Scotland brought in the transparency of expenses and publishing everything for the public to see right down to buying a biro or a cup of tea that Westminster finally, reluctantly adopted after its expenses scandal.

Its just the advantage of having a clean slate to start with- it gave the opportunity to look at the Westminster system and see where it was wrong, or out of date, or stupid, and try to start off from a position of not having those issues.

I mean if the UK were to create a new Parliament now, for the modern world, do you think it would be anything at all like the archaic Houses of Parliament?

yeah Scottish mps are the only ones without taint, saints really.

Not saying that- were Scottish MP's caught up in the Westminster expenses scandal, as bad as any other.

What I am saying is that starting a new parliament gave the opportunity to build in lessons learned from Westminster and to have a lot more scrutiny and transparency of our elected officials.
Scandal of the expenses sort common at Westminster is basically a lot harder to get away with here without getting caught.

(Changed the person whose quote this name to the one they use when occasionally posting on here)

Such a winning smile!  

"Sell-yer-granny" isn't a word I'm really familiar with, but I'm guessing most Scotshobbit grannies can take care of themselves.

True enough (Scots wimmen get more crabbit and more feisty and even more indomitable as they age, its one of the main reason the males all drink and smoke themselves to death by 45 )- but its a low of the low type comment- family and the Highland Code and all that being so important- selling your granny, even for a buckie, is not a good thing. That and you have to tell your Granny you've just sold her- and good luck there!

When I was growing up, there was a woman who owned the farm across from ours who everybody called "Gramma".  She'd been born on that farm, she lived there till the age of 94, and her shotgun was never far from hand.  We'd wake up in the night to the comforting 'BOOM' of that shotgun, knowing that some varmint had made a try for her chickens.  There was often a second report a minute or two later to finish the job.

Ya just don't mess with grammas :

Gramma uses the double-tap?

Enjoy-

Scottish weather forecast-

A vial of malt whisky from Scotland’s Ardbeg Distillery was launched to the International Space Station in October 2011 along with some particles of charred oak. A team from US-based space research organisation NanoRacks said it was an experiment to see how the two interacted in almost zero gravity conditions.

The whisky has been orbiting the Earth’s atmosphere for 1,045 days so far, and is expected to land in Kazakhstan on 12 September. According to the BBC, it was launched by a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and an identical bottle of whisky has been kept at the distillery as a control.

Once the space whisky returns, it will be compared with the Earth whisky to see what changes have occurred.

Ardbeg's director of distilling and whisky creation, Bill Lumsden, told the BBC:

"This is one small step for man but one giant leap for whisky. The team hopes to uncover how flavours develop in different gravitational conditions - findings which could revolutionise the whisky-making process. We hope to shine new light on the effect of gravity on the maturation process but who knows where it will lead us? It could be to infinity and beyond."

http://www.sciencealert.com/news/20143108-26097-2.html

You make the Scots part of the space program and what do they do with it..

Sounds like exactly the sort of crucial experiment only Scots scientists pissed out their mind at 3am could ever have thought of This is the sort of thing makes our nation great- it'll probably turn out to be some sort of cure for something (apart from life I mean) afterall we invented pencillin because some bloke was too hung over to wash his dishes.

you never wash your hole, maybe you can find something moldy in there to cure Moffatitis

you never wash your hole- Figg

Not an area of Scots male hobbit expertise, which is why I have being trying to persuade a certain lady hobbit to give it a good scrubbing (I'll even let you keep anything mouldy you find- cant say fairer than that)

What? Some of it might even still be edible, once youv'e given it a scrape. Some people just dont know a generous offer when its right in front of them.

maybe you can deep fry it? pork scratchings.

I found this really helpful.

Cities of Scotland

Aberdeen:

Dundee:

Edinburgh:

Glasgow:

Inverness:

Perth:

Stirling:

http://johnnie-has-the-tardis.tumblr.com/post/118502450890/cities-of-scotland

Things to make you proud to be Scots!-

'Scotland has been rated the best country in Europe in terms of legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
Scotland came top of the Rainbow Index after meeting 92% of ILGA-Europe's criteria for equality and human rights, ahead of the UK as a whole.
ILGA-Europe, which campaigns on behalf of sexual minorities, uses the Rainbow Index to review the performance of countries based on legal protection offered in areas such as employment and services, measures to tackle hate crime, rights and recognition for transgender and intersex people, and equality in same-sex marriage and parenting rights.'- BBC

Looks like the Church of Scotland are finally moving with the times and the rest of the country-

'The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to allow congregations to ordain gay ministers who are in same sex civil partnerships.
Delegates voted 309 in favour and 183 against.
The vote followed a church-wide debate and consultations with all 45 presbyteries, which voted 31 to 14 in favour of change.
A further vote will be held this week on whether or not to extend ordination to ministers in same sex marriages'- BBC

Encouraging to see the majority for was so large and clear. Hopefully the vote on same sex mariage is just as positive and just as clear cut.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Things to make you proud to be Scots!-

'Scotland has been rated the best country in Europe in terms of legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
Scotland came top of the Rainbow Index after meeting 92% of ILGA-Europe's criteria for equality and human rights, ahead of the UK as a whole.
ILGA-Europe, which campaigns on behalf of sexual minorities, uses the Rainbow Index to review the performance of countries based on legal protection offered in areas such as employment and services, measures to tackle hate crime, rights and recognition for transgender and intersex people, and equality in same-sex marriage and parenting rights.'- BBC

unless of course you walk into a Glasgow pub and call one of the patrons a poofter.

That very much depends on the pub!

This is very worrying-

'WILLIAM McNeilly is on the run from the military police and has produced an report called the Nuclear Secrets claiming to lift the lid on the alarming state of the UK’s ageing and short-staffed nuclear deterrent.
A NUCLEAR weapons engineer has warned Trident submarines are “a disaster waiting to happen.”
William McNeilly claims serious safety blunders and multiple security lapses at Faslane are putting the UK in danger.
n his detailed 18-page report called the Nuclear Secrets he claims to lift the lid on the alarming state of the UK’s ageing and short-staffed nuclear deterrent.
McNeilly alleges 30 safety and security flaws on Trident submarines, based at Faslane, including failures in testing whether missiles could be safely launched, burning toilet rolls starting a fire in a missile compartment, and security passes and bags going unchecked.
He also reports alarms being muted because they went off so often, missile safety procedures being ignored and top secret information left unguarded.
The Royal Navy has launched an investigation into McNeilly’s report, and is working with civilian police to find him. It describes his criticisms as “subjective and unsubstantiated,”- Daily Record (though the story is carried in several Scottish Sunday papers).

About 10 years ago I knew someone who worked there for a private security firm- and the tales of laxness he told me were equally concerning of lax security- soldiers on shift soundly asleep with their weapons propped against the wall, next to the door! Alarms that went off randomly to the point where people just stopped reacting when an alarm went off. Things like that.

Heres the document itself The secret nuclear threat- bit of frightening read really-

http://www.scribd.com/doc/265119365/The-Sec-ret-Nuc-lea-r-Th-re-At#