THIS AND THAT

'SCOTTISH Secretary Alistair Carmichael has said maintaining a strong UK Government presence north of the Border in the event of a No vote in September would mean the independence question would never be put again and the issue of Scotland's future would be settled "once and for all".

'Mr Carmichael said Whitehall had allowed the Nationalists to "hollow out" the UK Government's presence north of the Border and the lesson of the referendum campaign was that this could never be allowed to happen again.'

So unless I'm mistake from this small quote (the rest of the article is behind a paywall), if we vote NO, the Scottish government will, in future, be kept in line by the central power in London. 

This British (read English) power will never been allowed to be "hollowed out", whatever that means, by the Scottish government, elected by the Scottish people, under a part proportional voting system.

Be warned: If we vote NO Alistair Carmichael promises that we will be kept under the thumb of the British Empire and the question of freedom will never be allowed to rise again.

And that's not any old somebody saying that. It's David Cameron's man in Scotland. The representative of London in our midst. 

Heaven knows what they intend to do... send their troops to make sure that the Scottish parliament doesn't do anything the London parliament disapproves of? 

Bug the first ministers private offices and those of his cabinet?

Insist, as some including Mrs Thatcher's living representative on Earth, Michael Forsyth have suggested, that the unelected House of Lords be allowed a function in Scottish governance and the rights to veto legislation? 

Send one of the royals to live in Holyrood House to oversee our government?

Maybe even Godzilla himself will take over the palace to keep Alex Salmond, or (snigger) Johann Lamont in their place...ie Provosts of a regional council? 

So much for respect and "more powers". 

We will be watched carefully and regardless of what we vote for in the future we will NEVER be allowed our freedom.

OK Carmichael. Thanks for the warning. 

Another game changer? 

**********

What IS she doing? Levitating?

Anyway, the good news, apart from the slightly weird old lady trying to fly,  is that the poll appears to show a swing of 4% will deliver victory.

We can do this.

**********

The Red White and Blue Arrows appear to have been privatised by the Ultra Right Wing Nut Case at the Ministry of War (who didn't call the woman 'a slut' at all... he said she was a 'slattern', so that's alright, even if the two words mean exactly the same thing). They seem to have taken on a job for Eire welcoming the Queen and flown a bit lower than usual ... 

**********

The Biased Broadcasting Corporation has been taking lessons in crowd counting from the pre infants classes  or "Better Together No Thanks U Kok". 

The organisers of the protest at Pacific Quay, anticipating a bit of jiggery pokery with numbers, handed all protesters a numbered piece of paper. There were 1,207 pieces of paper given out. It is possible that there were more people there, but impossible that there were fewer.

And yet the BBC estimated 400 people.

You pay £140+ a year for a pile of lies.

I've just seen this. It surely has to be a spoof. Their reporting of the Palestine situation has been Israeli biased, but for goodness sake, even the BBC wouldn't have done this?

**********

The thing that I resent most is that they wasted the once in a lifetime opportunity of oil. Norway's Sovereign Fund now makes more in interest than their oil production makes. In short, if their oil dried up tomorrow, which it won't do, they would still be an incredibly rich country.

The immense wealth that they have created, on top of this, has all pensions covered in Norway, state employees and retirement.

On the other hand, in order to stay at the top table and wield this much vaunted clout (about which we hear a lot but see little) the Uk has frittered the money away on fighting wars it could never win, causing ill feeling around the world, buying weapons that it doesn't own and/or can't use and/or don't work, having embassies and consulates in places it doesn't need them, and generally continuing to act like some Imperial power from the 19th century. 

The result is that the external debt is £1.3 trillion and rising; no retirement pension is funded and a large number of public service pensions are not funded, meaning that taxes will have to be paid in future to fund them. This is an additional inestimable amount (depending as it does on life length). On top of that there is a massive personal debt as people take on loans for housing, education, and credit/store cards.

What a bloody mess of a country.

**********

Don't forget. If you haven't yet bought "Caledonia", you might like to think about it. Food banks need our money.