YES CAFE - 90 MINUTES OF QUESTIONS FOR SHONA & JOHN

Yes Dundee’s first Independence Café, on Saturday, threw up over 90 minutes of questions on independence from local people to SNP MSP Shona Robison and former Labour MP & MSP John McAllion, now with the Scottish Socialist Party.
After chats over coffee and home baking, Shona and John took questions and comments from a busy hall. Subjects covered were Scotland’s economy, the European Union, the media, and what happens if Scotland votes No. A lively debate round one table concluded that an independent Scotland could be a country of new ideas and that Dundee was the City of Discovery. They said we needed to get that positive, confident message out more effectively.

Shona Robison responded by setting out the Yes Dundee vision for a strong, confident Scotland, prosperous, business friendly, bringing new jobs to Dundee in the knowledge economy and renewables, taking care to look after those who could not work, and taking all the important decisions in Scotland for the benefit of Scotland.

Former SNP leader Gordon Wilson, from the floor, warned that voting 'No' did not mean that nothing would change. He said Westminster would “take its revenge”. “The Scottish budget - the Barnett Formula - will come under attack,” said Mr Wilson, “and if you are complaining of cuts now, just wait until two years after the referendum and you will find the teeth of the tiger are very sharp.”

John McAllion agreed, saying the only reason Scotland is getting extra attention from Westminster is the threat of independence; if people voted 'No' this time they would never get another chance. “Don’t look forward to winning a second referendum,” he said, “There won’t be one.” Mr McAllion also said significant numbers of Labour voters were ready to ignore their Party’s official line, and vote for independence.

Shona wound up the meeting by saying this would be the first of several Independence Cafés, and asked the audience to keep an eye on the newly launched YesDundee.net website for details.

MORE AND MORE ENDORSEMENTS FOR INDEPENDENCE

Andrew Hughes Hallett, Professor of Economics and Public Policy; Co-Director, Center for Emerging Market Policy at George Mason University, and Visiting Professor at St Andrews University, has confirmed that Scotland subsidises the UK Treasury in London and that the unionist cabal’s Calman recommendations are unworkable.


Professor Hughes Hallett made the points on Radio Scotland’s ‘Newsweek’ show. When questioned by presenter Derek Batemen on the economics of independence, he confirmed John Swinney’s case that Scotland would be better off financially with economic independence.


This comes only a few weeks after Nobel Prize winning economist Josef Stiglitz confirmed that the UK Government had ‘squandered’ Scotland’s oil wealth and the SNP’s plans for oil fund should be carried out as soon as possible.


Dundee West’s MSP Joe FitzPatrick, who is a member of Parliament’s finance committee, said:

“Professor Hughes Hallet has confirmed what John Swinney and the SNP have been saying for years. It’s economically unviable for Scotland to remain part of the union and subsidise the rest of the UK. For years Scotland has more than paid its own way, only for unionist parties in Scotland to peddle the myth that it is the other way around.


“An Independent Scotland will be able to build the better and fairer Scotland we all want to see. With the cuts from ConDem coalition about to bite, the importance of the economic powers of independence have never been more important to Scotland.


“The SNP will be working hard over the next year to promote a better Scotland, a Scotland free from the financial ties of the union and a Scotland free from the Tories, and their cuts agenda. For too long Scotland has been held back by the union and held back by a Labour party who prefer Tory rule to home rule. It’s time to end that. It’s time to stand up for Scotland, let her flourish, and show that we’ve got what it takes to make Scotland better.”

More and more respected people are coming out for an independent Scotland.

The choice between a future of being tied to England, sending 50+ MPs to a house of 600+, ruled by the South East of England for their economy instead of Edinburgh for ours, having our own country, our own economy and our own success story is becoming easier and easier to make.

We could be living so much better. We could be passing a wealthy, happy country at ease with itself on to our kids... instead of the mess we have, and will continue to have.

It seems a no brainer to me!

Pics: The Act of Union, John Swinney, Joe Fitzpatrick

Minister and Convenor Open New Dundee Housing Project

Something cheered me hugely today. Alex Neil the Housing Minister and Dundee’s Housing Convenor Jimmy Black, opened the new building project in Mains Loan, Dundee, and laid the first stones. This project will build the first council houses in Dundee for 20 years. Initially seven family homes will be built and three wheelchair friendly units, with more in the pipeline.

Councillor Black said: "It is a significant event, marking the start of Dundee's first new council house builds for at least two decades and the Scottish Government funding will help the city achieve its aim of providing more than 70 new council homes over the next few years.

"The new homes that are planned will help address a shortage of family homes and houses that are designed to make life easier for people with disabilities.

"All the houses have been designed to provide high standards of energy efficiency through increased insulation levels which exceed current building regulation requirements. This should mean lower heating costs for tenants, better noise insulation and help achieve carbon-saving targets."

According to Joe Fitzpatrick, one of Dundee’s MSPs, in the last year the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £75 million to build 2,300 new council houses and the planned radical legislation to end the right to buy for new social housing will ensure that those new homes remain accessible, affordable and available for future generations.

For far too long, in my opinion, the standard of council housing in Dundee has been too low. The best ones were long since bought and profits made on them. What has been left was the slum property in the least desirable areas, and some semi derelict multi-storey properties. There was a desperate need for new council housing. It is good to know that once they are built they will not be sold off cheap.

As an added bonus this project is providing employment opportunities for the builders, a local construction firm. It’s just a win win win situation.

Well done to the Scottish Government and Dundee City Council.

Pics: Jimmy Black; Alex Neil; Joe Fitzpartick

Jim McGovern claims the credit.......Joe Fitzpatrick does the work

From the pages of the Dundee Courier’s Political Round-up comes this heartening tale of hard work rewarded.

That hard work is, according to Labour, the work of Dundee’s sole flyer of the red flag, Dundee West MP Jim McGovern. The Courier reports that Jim claims to have put in a huge amount of effort to secure Dundee a £100 million taxpayer boost for the high tech gaming industry in which the city excels.

It is suggested that Jim has been slogging away night and day by all possible means to secure that huge (and it is huge so I will say it again) £100 million.....and, I suppose, to help secure his lonely outpost of ex-Labour domination on the Tay.

But wait a minute........... This is a Labour MP we are talking about. The sort that likes to take all the credit, but do very little for it. So imagine Jim’s ire when some busybody sent in an FOI request to the Scotland Office to actually see all the communications on this subject between our Jim and them.

How dare they not take Honest Jim at his word, the blackguards!

Just out of interest, how many communications where there, I hear you all ask?

Well the answer given from the Scotland Office was........ one, and that was a letter sent to Dundee West MSP, Joe Fitzpatrick, Jim’s SNP counterpart in the Scottish Parliament.

Oh dear!

Hardly value for money is Jim, the ninth most expensive MP at Westminster with a whopping claim for £171,989.

It seems that 'well done Joe' should really be the order of the day.