Different news Scotland and England

[skirtingtoday]

Here is a front page issue of the Daily Express from yesterday showing quite a conflict in the UK pensions views:-

expresses1-resized.jpg

As you may have guessed, the English version is on the left whilst the Scottish version is on the right!

Spin, Spin, Spin!

(Of course the Daily express is firmly in the "NO" camp on Independence)

[Sinned]

Well, that is shocking in itself - a newspaper having two different viewpoints depending upon its circulation area. I never would have thought that. Amazing, a pig just flew past my window - that's two firsts today.

[Dripping sarcasm]

[crfriend]

It is worth recalling that the primary purpose of a newspaper is not to disseminate news, but rather to sell advertising and push editorial opinion -- and always has been.

[STEVIE]

The "Express" has certainly gone downhill over the past several years in terms of reporting standards.
Still love it's crosswords, I complete them most days.
I don't want to brag, but I don't complete the grids, all done in the head.
It actually saddens me that it was actually quite impartial and that is a huge rarity in the British press.
Still not as bad as the "Mail", yet!
Steve.

[skirtyscot]

Not as bad as the mail - damning with faint praise!

[Milfmog]

Since this thread has nothing to do with skirts for men I have moved it from the advocacy forum to off topic.

Have fun,


Ian.

[Grok]

Television news......

Mentioned in passing, that the UK is offering Scotland more autonomy if only the Scots will vote "No". Unforetunately I have no further details at this time.

[skirtingtoday]

Television news......

Mentioned in passing, that the UK is offering Scotland more autonomy if only the Scots will vote "No". Unforetunately I have no further details at this time.

Grok, there are two ways of answering this. (First of all, I am assuming this was a recent announcement within the last day or two)

1 Within the UK, before any election (UK, European, Holyrood) all policies by the parties have to be announced and in place well before the election date. This period is known as Purdah (and it has nothing to do with the Muslim seclusion of women and things like the compulsory wearing of a burkha.) The reasons for this is because many people will have already sent in their postal votes and they would feel that they were not in possession of the full facts and details of the parties policies especially if these policies are perceived to have changed. (I am not sure if such a system exists in other countries but it gives a level playing field for ALL voters - especially postal voters)
Here is the details of the Purdah as related to the Referendum on Independence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-23840118

As you can see, the Purdah cut-off date was in August 21st. If the Westminster government are now announcing new powers, they are doing so illegally, so in later announcements, they have back-tracked to say that the powers were "already announced" and that they were simply reiterating them. Which brings me to the second point:-

2 The various parties have been asked, "What new powers will there be on offer?" and not one of them can say or give an example of a definitive devolvement of power or - only possible options that could be considered (incl possible extra tax raising powers). People are asking that if there was to be a definite devolvement of more power, the question, "If more power is to be devolved, why is it not in any of the parties manifestos?" That question remains to be answered.

Food for thought.

I have my own view of why the announcement is being made - but it is likely to be in response to three recent polls that show a small variously 47% YES - 45% NO, another absolutely level at 41% each and a third at 38% YES, 39% NO)

Whatever happens, it seems the vote will be close.

[skirtingtoday]

PS to the last post - I have since found what the Labour Party is proposing in their manifesto for Scotland (published March 2014) IF they get elected in the next election :-

1 A reform of the Crown Estates ( a body that controls almost all of the sea-bed and approx. 50% of the coast-line.)
2 A possible non-profit making option for the future of Scotrail
3 An aspiration to devolve housing benefit (once it has been extracted from Universal Credits)

[Grok]

Correct, the announcement was yesterday. No details was offered. I had noticed that polls indicated growing support for a "Yes" vote. Without further information, I had to wonder if the powers that be were becoming alarmed by the poll.

[Sinned]

Somehow a close vote seems the worst possible result since if it's marginally "No" then there would be calls for another referendum and if it's "Yes" then presumably devolution will go ahead but there would still be a large body ( just short of a majority ) that wants to remain in the Union and there will be arguments either way. Interestingly if the result is 50.1% Yes and 49.9% No then will there be calls for another referendum? I suspect not. Seems like it's turning into a bit of an c*ssp*t to me.

[Grok]

I thank the moderators for tolerating a discussion of politics.

[crfriend]

There have been a number of different scenarios described online, depending on how the vote goes.

I rather suspect that the best thing that can be hoped for is a lopsided vote where one of the options gets at least 80+ percent of the vote, else it'll languish for years and cause all manner of bad blood. Since the Scots have already played their card in this and announced it, if the vote is evenly split, or goes in favour of union then likely the option will be closed for another hundred years or so (i.e. more than long enough for everybody to have forgotten about it).

If one is to play a daring move, then one needs to be fairly certain that there is backing for it; if the backing isn't there, the damage done is awful.

The absolute nightmare scenario, and one I do not foresee, would mimic the one that happened when the United States schismed in the 1860s and one of the most bloody conflicts to visit the planet until The Great War visited us a few decades later. Such an outcome would break my heart.

[skirtingtoday]

And back to the original theme of different front pages in Scotland and England - this time from the Daily Wail:- (Guess which is which)

Daily mail 14-09-10.jpg

[Grok]

I mentioned scenarios I came across online. A list:

1. Further devolution. I believe this is called "devo max" in reference to Scotland; a similar concept, but not realized, was "home rule" for Ireland.

2. A corresponding idea is devolution for England. One concept is a specifically English parliament. Another concept was to divide England into regions, with devolved powers.

3. It seems that there is grassroots support in Cornwall for a specifically Cornish region with devolved powers.

4. A special status for London; it wasn't quite clear to me if this would be a muted form of city-state, or a capital as a special district (like Canberra or Washington D.C.).


If devolution is to be extended to England, the U.K. would be evolving towards a federal system.

Yet another concept would be a confederal system. The remnant of the old central government would handle international relations, defense, and macro-economic policy (such as the participants retaining the pound).

Then there is the idea that the former components of the U.K. could form a mini-confederation within the European Union.