COMMISERATIONS AND CONGRATULATIONS

This is Carwyn Jones, who expected to be elected First Minister of Wales today, and wasn't. Commiserations Carwyn. You have a wee bubble.

This is Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who was insulted yesterday by David Cameron when he thought no one except the Queen, Archbishop of Canterbury and John Bercow were listening. 

Mr Cameron, who recently profited very nicely from his dad's fund based the tax friendly British Virgin Islands, said Nigeria was "fantastically corrupt" (just as police in 7 different regions of England launched inquiries into Tory Party electoral fraud which could bring Cameron's government down). 

President Buhari is a big man. He didn't rant and rave at Cameron's lack of diplomatic skills. Instead he pointed out that he had done all he could do in Nigeria, and now he would very much like the money back. He says back becasue the Brits have got it. It is all either in the City of London, or other British overseas territories. 

Maybe Mr Cameron can oblige him. 

Chief Editorial Editor at The Independent:-- "When you look at Darling now, though, and you listen to what he says about Scotland, and you hear him saying petulantly, as he did on Monday, that he was “angry, very angry” about what he insisted was the loose way of the Salmond team with its economic figures, did you believe him? Or did you think, as I instinctively did, that Darling, with his clipped phrases, his mock scorn and his negativity, were the past, and the future was somewhere and someone else?"

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-i-were-young-and-scottish-i-would-vote-yes-to-independence-8970579.html

I think that's mean Santa.
Give the boy a gun and some bullets, and some for his friends.

He's all heart, apart from his head which is clearly a condom,
suggesting that he's a bit of a.....

Who on earth is this idiot? Anyone here watch daytime tv ?

Oh look, Mr Duncan Smith is on fire. If I wasn't so tired, I'd phone the fire brigade.
Still, I'll be refreshed in the morning. Maybe I'll phone then.

Dear Scotland

It seems that our esteemed first minister Carwyn Jones has visited your country to warn you against the evils of independence.

Please do not assume that he speaks for all Welsh people. He does not. He speaks only for the Labour party in Wales.

Labour has ruled Wales as a political feoff for almost a century and has, in that time, reduced our nation to a door mat for our next-door neighbours to wipe their feet on. The Welsh electorate are regarded as mere voting fodder. We are here to ensure that Westminster occasionally has a left-of-centre government.

Welsh constituencies contain communities that are amongst the poorest and most deprived in the UK. Little has been done to improve their conditions: after all, poor areas are more likely to vote Labour that affluent ones.

Many of us in Wales are eagerly following developments in Scotland. We look to you Scots to lead the way.

We hope that you grasp your future and lead your nation from under the cloud of English domination into the light of freedom.

Good luck Scotland.

Chris Schoen,

Tal Gwynedd, Heol y Bedyddwyr, Penygroes, Caernarfon, Gwynedd.

DEAR, DEAR, DEAR

...as long as they were already there to begin with.

Dear Rt Hon Mr Alexander

How proud did it make you to open a food bank for the starving in your constituency and to pretend to be helping to pack a parcel to feed your hungry constituents? 

Yours sincerely

Tris

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Dear Rt Hon Mr Carmichael,

Could you please point out to me where in Public International Law it says that you cannot share a fully convertible currency?

Does this stop Guernsey, Jersey, IoM, Gibraltar, and probably the Falkland Islands/Malvinas from having this currency and will they now, under Public International Law have to join another currency or start their own?

Best regards

Tris
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Dear Ms Davidson,

I understand you are a big Dr Who fan. In the hopefully likely event of Scotland becoming independent in 2016, will you fight tooth and nail for Daleks to be allowed in Scotland, or will you emigrate to England where you will be able to watch them as much as you like.

Kind regards

Tris

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Dearest Rt Hon Darling

Would you like to explain these actions to the Scottish taxpayer, and perhaps outline why on earth we would believe anything you say now regarding financial arrangements?

Sincerely

Tristan
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Dear Mr Hosie,

Thank heavens someone in Westminster is talking sense about the sterling debacle.

I particularly liked the comment from you today in the Herald.

"The UK, or sterling zone, balance of trade deficit right now is £35bn a year; Scottish oil and gas exports are £30 billion. That would effectively double the sterling zone trade imbalance and shred the currency. That would be really silly." 

You also pointed out that imposing barriers to trade with Scotland would "destroy at least tens of thousands of English jobs and that's just bonkers."

We are grateful for some sanity being brought to the debate. Of course it must help that you have a handle on your brief!

I was wondering if you think that people like Osborne and Balls, Carmichael and Darling are aware of the consequences of their pettiness?

Best

Tris
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Dear Mr Carwyn Jones,

I was amazed to read that you would veto the UK and Scotland sharing the same currency. 

I hadn't the vaguest notion that you had that power. Nor, I think, did anyone else.

Perhaps you would be kind enough to indicate if there are other things that you would veto regarding Scotland's future, what with you being a Welsh first minister. It's best to know these things in advance, wouldn't you agree? 

gyda fy nymuniadau gorau

Tris
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Dear Rt Hon Grieve,

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Why did you set out to stir up racial tension by accusing Pakistanis of being corrupt? Is your government not in enough trouble already without you adding to it? 

Was this not a rather stupid thing for a) a legal expert [we've assumed that you are a legal expert, you know, what with the job you do, and all] and b) a politician? I mean you must presumably have some Pakistanis in your constituency. Do you now feel you can serve them as their MP.

I can tell you that you nearly caused a friend of mine to crash his car when he heard you on the radio. I mean, it takes great comedy skills for a member of the House of Commons to talk about other people being corrupt. Didn't one of your own papers, the Telegraph, recently discover that more than 50% of your fellow members had fiddled their expenses, some to an incredible extent? 

Add the House of Lords, police who blame their own incompetence on drunken youths, knock over sick men at demonstrations, never mind that they are making their way home for work (a striver, I'm sure you'd agree), kill Brazilians on the metro and lie through their teeth in court about it, and sell stories to the press in return for health spa holidays and cash incentives, a press which hacks people's phones, some dodgy invitations to royal weddings from people who had given use of their private jets to Prince Charles and Mrs Parker Bowles, and finally a state broadcaster which you sometimes wonder ever had time to make programmes given what was going on in its premises, and it's all looking a bit like a  good old fashioned Whitehall farce?

Silly man.

One more question, if I may. Do you really think you're up to this job, or wouldn't you be better suited to prosecuting petty thieves?

With my best wishes for the consequences of your outrageous slur.

Tristan

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Dear Ms Lamont,
If Private Eye thought that any of their readers had ever
 heard of you, you might have made their lookalike feature.
As it is you will have to make do with Munguin's.
Some of our readers will probably be aware of you
Tris x
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DON'T BE AN INTERFERING OLD BUSYBODY

I understand that Cameron's man in Scotland, Alistair Carmichael, has asked Facebook to take down a page which ridicules Alex Salmond.

I suspect that it may be the page that was referred to by an angry unionist who posted it anonymously on this blog. 

I wonder why.

What has it got to do with him?

I suppose he thinks it makes him look statesman like. It doesn't. It makes him look like an interfering old busybody. 

Firstly, I'm sure that the First Minister is capable of dealing with Facebook himself, if he wishes to. 

And secondly,except where we are talking illegal pornography, terrorism or crime, politicians should keep their noses out of what people wish to discuss, down the pub, at the water cooler, in the canteen and on line. Even then it's a police matter, not political.

There is nothing illegal in calling Alex Salmond a deluded wanker. Sticks and stones, etc. 

And there are no brownie points in trying to look like you care when you don't. We still have freedom of speech in the UK, or certainly in Scotland, or did i miss something overnight?
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I see that Carwyn Jones was paid by London to come to Edinburgh and do the Tory government's bidding in selling his fellow Celts down the river. He wants more power for Wales (devo max which Scotland was denied) and less from Scotland, however, he may find that if he persuades Scots to vote no to independence, the courting of the Celtic nations may well stop, and he will find himself with a good deal less. 

Barnett, which he wants rid of,  may favour Scotland because of its size and the need to provide Scots with the services that their taxes pay for in more populous parts of the UK, but with the Tory (and Labour) fixation for making sure that London wins in every matter, if the really powerful Celtic tiger, Scotland, is slain, and independence put back in its box, Wales may find that Barnett will be replaced with something that will do the Welsh no favours at all.

The Tories don't have much to lose in the Celtic fringe; the memory of Thatcher just won't go away. And Labour takes us for granted. 

It's only when we look as if we may leave them to stew in their own juice that they take any notice of us.

I urge you to read the interview that James Stafford conducted with the First Minister on behalf of Oilprice. It answers a lot of questions you might have wanted to ask. James, at Scot Goes Pop has their permission to print it in full here
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Barney Thomson, who has posted here on occasion, was kind enough to provide the figures for the Arc of Prosperity (Ireland, Iceland, Norway) that the First Minister suggested that we might join after independence. 

We all know that both Ireland and Iceland suffered some financially embarrassment pretty soon after that, and that the then Scottish Secretary in the London government, Jim Murphy, and his colleague, the leader of the Labour Group in the Scottish Parliament, Iain Gray, insulted both Iceland and Ireland in their attempts to ridicule the Government's position. (Murphy was called out by the Foreign Minister of Ireland and invited to debate the subject with his on RTE. Mr Murphy said he was too busy. He was also criticised by the Icelandic government when he called their country backward looking!)

The last laugh of course is with the First Minister. Ireland's most recent figures show a growth of 1.4%; Norway shows a growth of 4.1% and Iceland, a growth of 4.2%. The most recent figures for the UK show growth of  minus 0.2% and minus 0.8%. George Osborne blames all this on the Euro-zone, of which Ireland is a part, and with which both Iceland and Norway trade, just like the UK does. Goodness knows what their figures for growth would show if only the Euro-zone were not "dragging them down".
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Carwyn Jones has now officially said that Wales is happy to host Britain's Weapons of Mass Destruction when Scotland becomes independent. He had previously hinted at the offer, but now it it is reported to be in the Cabinet minutes of the Welsh government. 

I had this weird idea that real Labour (not the effete Blair/Mandelson version) disliked WMDs, but it seems I was wrong. 

I wonder how this will go down with traditional Labour voters in the principality. There are precious few jobs involved in it, and it costs a lot of money in local security. 

Plus of course, there is the downside that if someone decided to blow them up, say by flying an aircraft into them, the explosion would wipe out half your country.

I wouldn't wish that on the Welsh, but I'll be glad to see them out of Scotland, no matter where they go.

I wonder if Mrs Lamont has any opinion on this, or indeed on anything else. Where the hell is she?
*****

This photo isn't related to anything, but a friend from Uruguay sent it to me, and I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it.

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I was amused to read this article in yesterday's Guardian, and very happy to realise that this will not be happening in Scotland.

IS THERE, IN SCOTTISH LABOUR, AN EQUIVALENT OF MR JONES?

I noticed that the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, has suggested that, as the bulk of the Scots appear in polls to want a third question on the ballot paper in 2014, offering devolution max as an alternative to independence or dependence, the two options currently on offer from the coalition of Labour, Liberal and Conservative Unionists, or Dependentists... according to how you see it, I suppose, it would be a good idea to include this option on the ballot paper.


It's strange that Ms Lamont, his Scottish equivalent in the Labour hierarchy is so vehemently against this and seems to be more of a mind with Mr Forsythe the ex-Tory SoS.


Mr Cameron's solution is a vague promise that if Scots vote against independence, he will offer some extra unspecified powers to Edinburgh...trust him!


I don't want devolution max. Although no one has spelled out exactly what it would mean, the consensus appears to be that although Scotland would run all its own affairs, it would still be dependent upon the UK for Defence and Foreign Affairs. 


At present two of the most disastrous departments of state, in my opinion (although I admit it's hard to single any out), are Defence and Foreign Affairs.

In Defence the UK still seems determined to renew a weapon system which would be a small contribution in any fight against the Soviet Union, which doesn't exist, at a cost of tens of  billions of pounds, which of course we do not have, while troops fighting endless unwinnable wars in selected Muslim countries, go under equipped and all the time a massive bureaucracy far larger than the fighting force, and including no fewer than 47 admirals who do not have ships, never mind fleets, gobbles up money as if we had some. It sounds like something from "Allo Allo", but without Von Smallhausen.


In Foreign Affairs no one appears to have told them much about the 20th century, never mind the 21st, mush less that we have arrived there. They do seem to realise that America is now in charge, but apart from that they appear to think Britain still has imperial responsibility for a quarter of the Earth. Like an embarrassing Smithers to America's Mr Burns, we trail around agreeing with everything they say, no matter how ridiculous, all the while maintaining a Rolls Royce ambassador in nearly every country on the globe in a standard to which the Queen might like to become accustomed. Notably, however, when people need their help, they are regrettably unable to offer anything but the scantest advice.


So no, if Devolution Max means England (and it would be England) keeping control over these functions, it is, whilst immeasurably preferable to the current arrangements,  not my preferred solution.

British Ambassador's residence in Washington...

But what is it that these people ave against a referendum on people's wishes being just that.  Last year the referendum on voting systems for Westminster offered two options that most of the population didn't want, whilst the third that the polls suggested would have been popular, was omitted, on it seems orders form Downing Street, that font of all wisdom. 


And while opinion polls have shown that the public wants a referendum on continued membership of the EU, it has been denied to them.


Now, with most opinion polls showing that over 40% would vote for Devolution Max, were it included on the ballot paper, is it not time for the coalition of Labour, Tory and Liberals to give some though to allowing a referendum including this as an option? 


Mr Cameron should note that you can only get away with offering people a choice of what they don't want and what they don't want more, for so long. That way you end up with people not ever getting what they want. 


Eventually surely even the long suffering Brits, faced with a series of choices between bad and worse, whilst a better is just out of reach, are going to say, enough is enough.


Incidentally, if the Welsh can have an articulate, intelligent multi lingual Labour leader (who also happens to be First Minister) who wants only the best from Wales, why did Scotland get lumbered with Johann Lamont.