HERE'S A THOUGHT...

SATURDAY SNAPS

Well said, Bruce. They would use anything.
They have no problems who or what you are.
Cheap or what, pretending 12 year olds are your supporters
when they are NOT.

Oh...someone in the BBC who tells the truth?
Gee, now that's a rarity.
Eh Nick?

So it was all lies...

Even about Asda...

And Tesco

The pleasure will be enormous.

This is what Better Together means which is why we
should be supporting our foodbank, buying Caledonia
by the Libations and voting yes. There are no
food banks in Norway, Iceland, Denmark...

They trotted out Presser who had to write the words Better Together on his hand
lest looking around him he thought the organisation was Hell Together.
They always trot him out because he and Dennis Skinner are  their only working class
spokesmen. Pity Presser is now an aristocratic working class person.

... and the glory, but yeah, mostly the money which
starts rolling in with the books
and the after dinner talks and the boardroom jobs
and the house of lords allowance...

And they are Too Posh, I'd say.

Your next prime minister?

Oh look, I found something that's appealing
Clearly not a politician.

Middle window, top floor, left hand side bottom pane
Seems someone at the big hoose is a YES supporter.
Ma'am?

They are not too poor or wee or stupid.
Lucky old them.

Why you say that Frankie?

...Oh yeah, I see what ya mean.
Edwardian may be a bit on the modern side.

Well there's one who will vote against Cameron's plans.
He simply doesn't see why they would waste good money on Jocks.

FOOD PRICE STORY PROVES TO BE YET MORE FEARMONGERING

Dear Old Niko reminded me last night in his post of the scare stories about food becoming more expensive in an independent Scotland. 

And I don't blame him for believing it, because it wasn't one of the Daily Mail howler headlines warning that Christmas celebrations will be banned in Scotland after independence (although there are some that wouldn't have a big issue with that!) or moronic MPs warning that all young people studying at English universities will become foreigners in 2026 (gotta admit Maggie will go down in history for that one...).

No. This came from no less an organ than the Financial Times.

It seemed to me from minute one that the story was ridiculous.

Because, while many things in this country do not operate in a free market… electricity, gas, telecoms, etc all seemed to be fixed… in general, the retail industry does seem to be pretty cut throat  and if you have the time, energy and transport, you can go round all four getting the cheapest deal on everything. Why would that change?

Of course getting past the ‘Sunesque’ opening paragraph in the FT: “Scottish consumers will pay more for food if they vote for independence in next year’s referendum because Britain’s big supermarket chains plan to raise their prices north of the border, senior executives have warned”, you find that senior executives did nothing of the sort.

The UBC masquerading as BBC, reported in a rare moment of honesty: “Neither Asda nor Morrison’s said they had any plans to raise prices in an independent Scotland”.  Meantime, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have distanced themselves from the report.”

The executives of the four large supermarkets reportedly told the FT that they currently absorbed the extra cost of doing business in Scotland into their overall costs.  I’m assuming they mean that they accept that trailing everything from their head office to Scotland costs them more distribution, but then that is true of the whole group of islands.

ASDA is based in Leeds; Morrison’s in Bradford. So presumably it costs it very little to distribute food in the North of England, but much more to Shetland or the Scilly Isles, Cornwall. Sainsbury in based in London and Tesco in the home counties of England, so different story there.

The truth is that the supermarkets have warned that if an independent Scottish government increased the cost of doing business, then they would have to look at the prices. However, as the only two parties that might form a government in Scotland are committed to lowering the cost of doing business (the SNP have indicated that they would lower corporation tax, and Labour while in power in the UK did so, with Gordon Brown promising to do it again as soon as he could), that is unlikely to happen. 

Business for Independent Scotland has an excellent article here for much more detail.

And what we have learned is that the once reputable Financial Times has sunk to the level of bending the news to suit its agenda. Fortunately their Scottish sales figures are laughably low (35% of the Paisley Daily Express and 20% of the Greenock Telegraph), not a lot of people will have been glued to the story.

If BT quoted it as fact, it says as much about them as it does about the FT?

Random Thoughts ... Handahófi Hugsanir

As the trial for a wide range of offenses including: "misconduct in public office", "perverting the course of justice", "hacking of dead children's phones" begins, half of Dave's Chipping Norton set is in the dock. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of justice is meted out to the elite of the prime minister's county set. 

When the lower orders rioted in English cities a couple of years ago, and obliged Dave to come back from his Italian holiday, he instructed the courts to be harsh with the miscreants.  

Fair enough, although six months in prison for stealing two bottles of water is, without doubt, harsh. Still, Tuscany in August is delightful, and I wouldn't want to have to deal with his Mrs in a strop; she looks like she could be a right bitch, so I can understand that the chap was in a bit of a blue funk adn someone had to pay! 

I wonder, though, if he will be take the same hardline view now that it is his own class, nay, his own close dear friends that are standing in the dock. 

It's a thought too that Dave and his family will have to find new people to invite round on Christmas day this year for charades. Last year's invitees are a bit on the embarrassing side adn might even be spending Christmas at the pleasure of someone even more elevated than Eton Dave.

Isn't it interesting too that not a single member of the Murdoch family is in court facing charges relating to all these crimes? It seems that one of the most successful newspaper tycoons in the world had no earthly idea how his newspapers were getting all these sensational scoops, and never thought to inquire. Fancy!
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Why on why, I keep asking myself, can't we be more like Iceland? Then I remember that, in fact we are quite like Iceland in many ways, it's just that we are ruled from a place that wants to be more like the United States of America. 

Still, we can change that. Right?

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I was more than a little shocked to see in my junk emails a missive from Moneysupermarket.com informing me that with a Tesco credit card I can spread the cost of Christmas over 18 months. Handy, I though, but erm what about next year's Christmas? 

I was also concerned to read that to get one of these credit cards one must have an income of at least £5,000 a year. As £5969159_591952830859067_962482265_n.jpg,000 will soon be needed to pay the electricity and gas bills, never mind service a credit card, I can't help but think someone needs to look again at this irresponsible nonsense. 

Every little helps, does it Tesco?
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I found this on Craig Murray's latest post (well worth a read). It comes from Donald McDonald: 

"I should add, that Independence for Scotland is one of the few hopes the English Left has of overcoming the corporate, neo-con domination of their own politics.

"Once England faces the world with only its own resources and stops trying to be the main character in a Boys’ Own comic, it will, I am confident, rediscover its own greatness."

I suspect that may be very true.

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BIG BROTHER AT TESCO... AND WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT JONG UN?

According to someofus.com, Tesco is forcing its warehouse workers and drivers to wear electronic armbands that can monitor how hard they're working. People can be punished if they don't meet strict targets.

A former Tesco worker says the armbands are used to time every task. If an employee doesn’t work fast enough, they get a bad score and can be hauled in front of management. 

Tesco admits it is using electronic armbands on warehouse workers and drivers but claims this is just to cut down on paperwork. But the real story is that these armbands are like Big Brother in the workplace, watching every move a person makes.

Tesco isn't known for doing business ethically or treating people well. But is this going too far?

If you think it is wrong, you might like to sign the petition here.

*****

I thought this was quite amusing...

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AN OLD FASHIONED LABOUR...REMEMBER THIS?

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GOOD NEWS FOR SCOTTISH FARMERS, BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO CAN'T AFFORD FRESH MEAT?

"It may look like a load of bull, but this image makes a serious point. For many years, since the days of the BSE crisis, the Scottish meat industry has worked tirelessly to make its products totally traceable. Every steak or sausage on a butcher's shelf can be traced back to the farm, and even the animal, from which it came.

Scotland has long had a reputation for producing the finest meat products on the planet and now it (rightly) has a reputation for producing the safest too. This of course comes at a cost and Scottish meats carry a premium over lower quality equivalents.

Large retailers, including many in the UK, have been moving away from Scottish producers, in favour of other cheaper sources, in a drive to reduce prices for consumers. This 'race to the bottom' has caused many corners to be cut and has even promoted widespread fraud, as we have seen in recent weeks.

Scottish butchers have seen increases in sales of over 25% since the 'horsegate' scandal began, as consumers have returned to buying higher quality and safer products. Now we should all begin to put pressure on the supermarkets to source their own products from traceable Scottish sources and stop using 'dodgy' ingredients of uncertain provenance."

(From Yes To An Independent Scotland)

The butchers' shops around our way have certainly had queues out the door this weekend, but we need to remember that not everyone can afford to do that kind of luxury. 

There was a government minister on QT who was all for shopping locally, but of course she collects £300+ tax free every day as an aristocrat (incidentally, one which was dumped by her Commons constituency and promptly sent to the Lords to show that no matter how much the stupid voters didn't want her in parliament, they were going to get her one way or the other). Then she has her ministerial salary on top of that, so exorbitant prices probably don't phase her much. 

When you feed your kids value burgers, because that's all you can afford, I'm not quite sure where you go once you find out that they are dodgy and quite possibly lethal. 

When you sit in the House of Lords, the answer is probably ... your local high quality butchers.

Once again while the aristocrats are safely shielded from the misery, ordinary commoners find themselves badly let down.

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SNAPS ON SATURDAY

WELL, WHY SHOULD TESCO GET AWAY WITH THE BEST IDEAS?

HOW MANY SPARE BEDROOMS  DOES THIS COUNCIL HOUSE HAVE?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO A WELL-MATCHED COUPLE

MOST DEMOCRACIES HAVE THE GOVERNMENTS THEY ELECTED. SCOTLAND HAS
THE GOVERNMENT ITS NEIGHBOURS ELECTED

IT'S MOVING IN OUR DIRECTION

AND, IT WOULD SEEM, AMONG THE UNDER 8s

AWWW POOR WEE GOVEY

THAT INDEED IS SOMETHING TO BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT

THEY WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO KEEP THEIR SEAT ON THE SECURITY COUNCIL
BUT, ALTHOUGH THEY WILL NOT ALLOW US ANY UK ASSETS, EVEN ONES BASED IN SCOTLAND, THEY WILL GENEROUSLY ALLOW US TO PAY OUR SHARE OF THEIR DEBTS

THE GOOD OLD  PORKIES TORIES

PROBABLY THE LATTER

I DECLARE YOU MAN AND WIFE. YOU CAN UPDATE YOUR FACEBOOK STATUS

GEORGE HAS TO GET THE DEFICIT DOWN SOMEHOW, AND WHAT BETTER WAY?

This doesn't need much comment from me...

Thanks heavens for Morrisons, Asda, Aldi and Lidl

I wonder if I killed 11,000 people, I'd get away with it.

SMART SCOTS GIVE IT ALDI (AND LIDL)

I remember hearing about a woman who used to take her neighbour shopping in her car. The neighbour liked to buy some of her weekly shop from one of the bargain supermarkets, but driver (a bit of a snob) informed everyone that she didn't even get out of the car.... The thought of being seen shopping in a cheap supermarket put her off.

I remember thinking that it was a shame to be so strung up on image, because the quality of the products in both Lidl and Aldi is pretty high.

Not being the kind that worries about being seen poking around in Oxfam or Save the Children (and having laid my hands on some fine brand names at a fraction of the cost of their new price, who can blame me), I've never been shy about shopping in the German supermarkets.

But until recently I wondered how they managed to make any profit. They were nearly always more or less empty, and even on a Saturday morning there was never a crush in the small car parks.

Now things are different, I suspect as a result of the 'neverendession' (to paraphrase one of the very few genuinely funny things that David Cameron has even said.

The car parks are full; the tills are all open and goods, far cheaper than the main British/American supermarkets are selling, are flying off the shelves.

Indeed according to this Yahoo article Aldi made £56.8 million in profit last year, having recorded a loss the previous year. They opened 29 new stores and plan to continue opening new ones in the coming year, creating over 4,000 new jobs (welcome, albeit most of them will probably be part time).

Lidl and Aldi concentrate on selling their own brands to the almost total exclusion of big brand names. This means no premium paid to the big names, and the savings can be passed on to the customer. In the other supermarkets only around 50% of their products are own brand.

Frequently supermarket own brands are of much poorer quality (some custard I bought at Asda was so inedible it had to be thrown out). Aldi and Lidl's brands in contrast are of very high quality. Indeed, recently a taste test organised by "Good Housekeeping" magazine found that Aldi's Christmas Pudding was the second best brand behind Waitrose. Fortnum & Mason came 29th!! And Aldi's pudding cost £7.99, whereas Fortnum's was around £29.00.

And a study by Grocer magazine found that on a shopping basket of 33 items Aldi was 16% cheaper than Asda, 20% cheaper than Tesco and 40% cheaper than Waitrose! And there is not a lot of difference in price between Aldi and Lidl.

Judging by the readers'  comments on the Yahoo article, Aldi's rise in the ranks is due in part to price, but also to the quality of service you can expect. Tesco's (the worst of all the UK chains, in my opinion), Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury and Waitrose, have all been working hard to try to maintain their market share in the straitened economic times. 

It seems they have no room for slacking.

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On rather a different topic I see from comments at Wings, and an article by Rod at Auld Acquaintance that there has been a debate in London about Scottish Independence, and that 336 - 5 found that Scotland would be better off in the union. 

Now, somewhere between 30 and 40% of the population wants independence, and around 20-25% is undecided, so it occurs to me that the presentation of Scots' views in the English parliament is very unrepresentative.

I understand that a further proposal put by the SNP that Scotland would enjoy a special relationship with the UK, rather like that enjoyed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand, was defeated by a similar number.

So it appears that the English (and the Welsh and Irish) don't really like us. If we go they will not be friendly towards us. But they want us to stay. 

Weird.

I can only conclude that that is because, according to them the North Sea has the potential to be the World's Global Energy hub. 

In other words they want our money.

Incidentally the 5 were the SNP members in the Commons chamber. (According to Rod, Stewart Hosie was not there due to illness. Get well soon, Stewart. You will surely be missed in London.) 

I was surprised not to have the support of the Welsh Nationalists.

IDLE THOUGHTS ...

"British Gas would do better to focus more on being energy experts not experts in making a quick buck at the expense of the British people. We get gigantic gas and electric bills, they get gigantic profits, this has got to stop. We urgently need the Government to intervene and impose a levy on the big six energy firms to help people with their bills, coupled with an independent public inquiry into energy just like we've had for banking and the media." Gavin Hayes, General Secretary, Compass.  He's not really wrong, is he?


Mr Cameron has said Britain will find another £51m for aid to refugees fleeing from Somalia to Kenya and Ethiopia. Clearly he has become a great expert on Somalia (which is a relief as he seems to be expert at nothing else), because he is claiming that Somalia is 'within reach" of a new political process. Unlike some, I have no problem with us being generous to those who have it far harder than we can even begin to understand, but I wish the government were a little more understanding of the plight of some Britons. The trouble is that the world's press isn't showing any interest when we are talking about some of the welfare reforms. As for his analysis of the Somali situation? Any takers?

Oh dear, oh dear. Another of Cameron's close aids, Emma Harrison, has had to resign from her Tzar post, as her company, A4e, is being investigated for "systematically" defrauding the government (yes, the same government she was advising about family). And only a few weeks ago she happily boasted that she was "in and out" of Downing Street. Only 'out' now I'd think Emma sweetie. Pity. That seat in the HoL was only weeks away.

In yet more embarrassment for Cameron, the Royal College of Paediatricians and Health Care, one of the Royal Colleges that was in favour of his privatisation plans for the NHS in England, and as a result was invited to the "nodding heads" summit at Downing Street this week, has changed its mind partly as a result of that very summit. Cameron apparently made it clear to the attendees (all his buddies), that he will push ahead with the changes regardless of the opposition. The college's chairman, Professor Terence Stephenson, has explained that this is impracticable. For the changes to work, the government must take the clinicians along with them. That's not Cameron's style though. Another example of bully boy Flashman tactics when he thought he was among friends.

"Put a young person into college for a month's learning, unpaid – and it's hailed as a good thing. Put a young person into a supermarket for a month's learning, unpaid – and it's slammed as slave labour." So says Cameron. But you see, Mr Cameron, there is a difference. In a college there is a real chance they will learn something; whereas in Tesco's they will provide the company with cheap labour so that they can make more profit by not employing someone. Simples! And as Tesco are now offering paid placements in the same way as they were previously offering unpaid placements, I think we can call it "job done". Cameron says he is sick of the anti-business culture. I say, who the hell cares what he's sick of?

The Royal Bank has lost a fearsome £2 billion this year. It's staff are getting almost half of that (785 million) in bonuses. On the same day, the English have announced that there will be a pay freeze in council wages, for the third year running. Now, I can understand that there's no money for pay rises for council staff, but when your wage has been frozen for three years and inflation has been running at 3-6% according to official figures, then you have got seriously poorer in that time. Imagine then, if you will, that a company, almost entirely owned by the tax payer, which made £2 billion of a loss, is paying out getting on for a billion in bonuses, never mind the pay rises... well!!!! Add that to an international sporting competition costing £25 billion going down in the middle of the summer, and I'd say you were begging for BIG trouble.

Talking of Olympics, have you seen the stamps? There is just no way on Earth I will pay whatever it is to put an advertisement for this festival of wealth on my letters. I trust Scottish stamps will continue to be available for the duration.