Scotland swings decisively behind the SNP and independence

[Gavin Rae]

In response to the two previous posts ..... !!

Humbug - Nick I'm assuming you are referring to that pepperminty flavoured striped sweetie

Bill - I don't think Jim C needs any help from me 'to balance' the numbers !!!!


Snoman

[jimcee]

Attempt no3 at a reply to sundry posters-
NB – In your wisdom? You cut out anonymous posters, on the premise that they were abusive both to yourself and to others – a laudable objective, but it has decimated the number of contributors.
However you are now fielding entries on to your web pages which contain links to content which is just as abusive ( not locally) although admittedly in furtherance of your cause. But this seems a paradox to stamp out the local stuff but to encourage the national variety – a conflict of interests?
DC – Well we are indebted to you for your interpretation of MSM and MNM. But it would be interesting to know what is considered as MAINSTREAM in both respects.
The references you quote, I have never come across in all the mainstream daily papers or television channels that I have access to. I suspect that mainstream here refers to chat, and sectional interest sites on the internet or “underground” press.
However, keep the abbreviations and oblique references flowing – it keeps us on our toes.
B McD – There are nicknames and nicknames – some are affectionate (particularly at a personal level), some are descriptive ( and on the whole benign), but there are also others which are downright vindictive and designed to belittle or ridicule. To achieve this distinction one has to be in the public eye and to have enemies – a par for the course in political life. But it reflects more on the bitterness of the perpetrator than it does of the recipient. I have a lady who used to work for me over many years, and in that time she never had an abusive or derogatory word to say about anyone – I admire her example, but it is a hard act to follow.
GR – I suspect that your suggestion that this Independence site be closed down will follow on deaf ears. The recent upsurge in SNP membership has the YES camp “cock a’ hoop”, and wanting to keep the whole “caboodle “ simmering in the hope of a further referendum in the near future. Another 2+ year campaign to facilitate this, doesn’t bear thinking about – except possibly for the media, who relish anything that keeps them off the dole queue.
Hopefully “Copy & Paste” will see this safely on the website and I can relax until the brickbats start flying.

[NickB]

Attempt no3 at a reply to sundry posters-
NB – In your wisdom? You cut out anonymous posters, on the premise that they were abusive both to yourself and to others – a laudable objective, but it has decimated the number of contributors.
However you are now fielding entries on to your web pages which contain links to content which is just as abusive ( not locally) although admittedly in furtherance of your cause. But this seems a paradox to stamp out the local stuff but to encourage the national variety – a conflict of interests?
DC – Well we are indebted to you for your interpretation of MSM and MNM. But it would be interesting to know what is considered as MAINSTREAM in both respects.
The references you quote, I have never come across in all the mainstream daily papers or television channels that I have access to. I suspect that mainstream here refers to chat, and sectional interest sites on the internet or “underground” press.
However, keep the abbreviations and oblique references flowing – it keeps us on our toes.
B McD – There are nicknames and nicknames – some are affectionate (particularly at a personal level), some are descriptive ( and on the whole benign), but there are also others which are downright vindictive and designed to belittle or ridicule. To achieve this distinction one has to be in the public eye and to have enemies – a par for the course in political life. But it reflects more on the bitterness of the perpetrator than it does of the recipient. I have a lady who used to work for me over many years, and in that time she never had an abusive or derogatory word to say about anyone – I admire her example, but it is a hard act to follow.
GR – I suspect that your suggestion that this Independence site be closed down will follow on deaf ears. The recent upsurge in SNP membership has the YES camp “cock a’ hoop”, and wanting to keep the whole “caboodle “ simmering in the hope of a further referendum in the near future. Another 2+ year campaign to facilitate this, doesn’t bear thinking about – except possibly for the media, who relish anything that keeps them off the dole queue.
Hopefully “Copy & Paste” will see this safely on the website and I can relax until the brickbats start flying.

Good grief !

[jimcee]

It never rains but it pours.
After being frustrated in typing out a considered reply to various posters and losing them to cyberspace (twice), I eventually try a different tack (as suggested by our administrator) and get Mark 3 ensconced on the website.
So, sighs of relief at this end, but then what happens, but our admin copies the whole shebang into a following posting with the comment "good grief".
It is difficult to pin down an interpretation of this remark.
It could mean "what a lot of wisdom in a short message" -doubtful
Or " I am flabbergasted at your perspicacity" - pull the other one.
Altenatively - "I am at a loss to take all this in - it will need some serious consideration by myself and the others cited before venturing on to the website to reply" - being an optomist this is the interpretation I favour.
Whatever the reason for "good grief" it does not answer any questions or advance the debate one whit.
Over to you four - the ball is in your court.

[Bill McDicken]

Still tryin' to git ma heid roond "PERSPICACITY"
Merry Christmas !!

[jimcee]

We can't have heids with problems at this time of the year - especially with New Year in the offing.
according to the Oxford English dictionary the meaning of perspicacity is-
"Having mental penetration or discernment"
There B McD- you can now sprinkle your conversation with this any time you want to impress or flatter the recipient.

[jimcee]

It is now a week since the last posting above appeared on the website, and there has been no response from any of the previous participants.
This would suggest that either-
1) They are still in the festive spirit and have been nowhere a computer - doubtful
2) They have been far too busy with other more serious matters - debatable
3) They have been so dumbstruck by my PERSPICACITY that any comeback is difficult to achieve - while this is the outcome I favour, it must, in all honesty, come under the heading of "doubtful".
Whatever the reason - might I humbly suggest that the reason for the current low profile from the YES bandwagon is the current plummeting of the oil price, on which much of the financial support for independence relied.
If that does not elicit some sort of response, then their tails, at the moment, must surely be between their legs.

[Gavin Rae]

Jim

Lol

The latest forecast is estimated at £155 million short each day since the referendum ......... !!

As I said in a previous post several months ago this was 'Arithmetic for Dummies' !!!

Enjoy the price at the pumps at the moment - I'm certain it will go even lower towards mid/late January

.......... and look forward to (eg the Six Nations Rugby ) in the run up to the General Election

(Lots of dummies - miss one moves - overlaps - new coach NS - heard this one before ...?

Happy New Year

Snoman

[Bill McDicken]

Most likely "Option 2", Jim, and as for:

the reason, for the current low profile from the YES bandwagon is the current plummeting of the oil price, on which much of the financial support for independence relied.

The oil price will return to normal when OPEC get fed up tormenting the Russians and reduce production.



Happy New Year Folks!!

[jimcee]

B McD I think you must have been imbibing early - What is all this palaver about a NORMAL price for fuel. In my lifetime I have had the advantage of buying a gallon (not you will notice a measly litre) of petrol for 2/6p - about 12p in current vernacular, and up to the present recent circumstances, having to pay about £1.35 for a (again I use the word advisably - a measly) litre.
So in my petrol (and diesel) consuming days, I have seen a steady rise, with frequent fluctuations, in the cost of this commodity - mostly, I might add, by governments quick to add a buck to their coffers.
And no future independent Scotland as envisaged in the run up to the referendum made any extravagant promises of reducing the fuel duty, which is a nice wee earner for them.
So the only thing NORMAL about it is it's instability.

[Bill McDicken]

In my lifetime I have had the advantage of buying a gallon (not you will notice a measly litre) of petrol for 2/6p - about 12p in current vernacular,

Not much of an advantage when you only earned £2 a week.
I must be younger than you Jim, as I could only get 3 Gallons for a Pound when I bought my first death trap for £20 ( an Austin A40 that was missing much of it's floor !!, )

[NickB]

.
I remember being able to have a night out in Inverness for £1 when I was 17.

This included a gallon of petrol, four pints of beer, ten Number 6 and a bag of chips. Petrol was 4s 8d a gallon.

However, I also remember earning £10 for a six day week in my first job after leaving school.

[jimcee]

Well, it being New year, I suppose some reminiscences are par for the course but it is tending to veer off topic somewhat.
However in keeping with the trend - My first job on leaving school was for £1 a week = £52 a year.
Currently, if I let my fuel tank get down to the quarter mark, it costs me more than one years (1949) salary to fill it up.
Inflation yes, but also government taxes which are disproportionate to the cost of the commodity.
The same applies to cigarettes, but at least here the objective is to discourage a bad habit

[Gavin Rae]

Hi Guys

Just for info

The price for fuel today in Milton Esso Dumbarton

£1.04 for petrol - Diesel £1.14.9

What a nice fill but as you say Bill it won't last too long .... !!!

As I said I predict 99.6/7/8 a litre by mid late January then flatten out - tesco will no doubt stop their promotional pence off at the pump offer ....... !!

Anyway we should all enjoy ? As Nick reminences on his Inverness times - I also treasure memories of adding a 1pence squirt of reddex (per gallon) to my 1275 GT Mini to enhance performance ... !!!

The 'girlfriends' thought it worked - at least that is what I remember ......... !!

Snoman

[Bill McDicken]

I predict 99.6/7/8 a litre by mid late January

If you're correct Snoman I predict a national shortage of Jerrycans.
Incidentally, ( before Herbie ticks us all off for wandering way off topic ) my first wage was £6 per week as an apprentice draughtsman, with which I ran the forementioned A40 (and I was never short of beer or fags either !).

[jimcee]

Well we all seem to be in the prediction game this New Year.
Not to be outdone, my prediction is that fish farming, tourism, or tidal/wave power will become the big potential income earners in the independence manifesto.

[Bill McDicken]

I predict 99.6/7/8 a litre by mid late January

Spot on Snoman !! See below

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/j ... -litre[url][/url]

[jimcee]

So it looks as if the promise of untold wealth from beneath the North Sea to fill an Independent Scotland's coffers and give us all a gulf state lifestyle is a "busted flush" (this I believe is a poker term).
B McD's assertion that high prices would be restored once OPEC got fed up annoying the Russians - well, good on you OPEC, if you can live with these current returns, just you keep the pressure on the Russians going, and we will all be able to have a more reasonable price at our filling stations.

[NickB]

So it looks as if the promise of untold wealth from beneath the North Sea to fill an Independent Scotland's coffers and give us all a gulf state lifestyle is a "busted flush".

Scotland would not have been independent until May next year at the earliest, so we are a bit premature . . . we need to wait and see what the oil price is then.

[jimcee]

OK - fair comment.
But most of the YES argument was that "It is Scotland's oil" purely on the grounds that it was in UK territorial waters which happened to abut Scotland. And a further claim was that the UK government had misappropriated the revenue from same - as compared to the Norwegians. But there is no possible way of knowing how an independent Scottish government would have dealt with revenues and taxes had they been in control from the beginning.
Furthermore, currently both UK and Scottish parliaments are being lobbied (in the interest of saving jobs) to reduce the tax burden (and the income from them) which will make a hole in the coffers.
Oil, with it's volatility, is not a commodity to base any projections of a sustainable economy on.