Friday, November 13, 2015

Extensive New Powers

A guest post by Mike McCreadie

The Scottish Parliament will have extensive new powers. Fact. Extensive new powers. EXTENSIVE NEW POWERS. There, that's that then, I can get back to Downton.

It's an interesting coin of phrase, extensive new powers. It keeps being dangled around in front of us from all angles. The press love it, the parties love it, and Fluffy totally bums off it. It sounds great - it has the word “extensive” in it. And it also sounds great because it has the word “new” in it. Even better than that, though, it sounds great because it has the word “powers” in it, like Superman. It is thrice great, and can probably see through ladies' undergarments. No wonder they keep saying it. It's just that, well, it’s not something the Scotland Bill can be measured against.

"Extensive new powers", catchy though it is, is open to interpretation. For example, my wife feels that I was given "extensive new powers" when we got a telly in the bedroom. I, on the other hand, was dismayed to find that she had retained a power of veto over the plunger, especially when she wants to catch up with EastEnders at bedtime (just to be clear - that's a veto in the channel-changing sense, not the biblical sense, although there's one of them'n'all which I won't go into here). I can’t complain, though - I love EastEnders - I love it almost as much as I love running my nipples through a mangle. Which brings me neatly back to the Scotland Bill.

Objectively, the Scotland Bill will be measured against two things. Firstly, politically, it'll be measured against the Smith Commission proposals. It’ll be held up to Smith like tracing paper, and depending on which side of the fence you sit, the traced likeness will be either heralded or derided, but mostly derided, because it'll be like tracing over a picture of David Cameron's face and coming away with a caricature of Ming T Merciless, although I imagine he'd be quite happy with such a likeness, proud even. DC, I mean, not Ming - Ming would be ****ing furious, I should imagine. Like, zappy-furious.

Secondly, and way more importantly, the Scotland Bill will be measured by the people of Scotland - the ordinary man in the street, so to speak - against “The Vow”. The Vow was nice and simple - Devo Max - devolution of everything bar defence and foreign policy. Or if you believe George Galloway, even more than that, DevoMaximusDecimusMeridious, if you will, Husband to a murdered Vow, Father to a butchered Bill, and I will have my vengeance. I wouldn’t hold my breath for George to speak up about it, though. He’ll be busy spooning Putin now that Saddam’s gone cold.

But of course, we know that Devo Max has not and will never be delivered. William Hill won't even give odds on it, for a start, and in fact will eventually have you escorted from the premises, and barred, should you insist on being offered even the most outside of odds on the subject. Believe me, it's a dead duck. I probably shouldn’t have gone in swinging my claymore to be honest, though. Have you ever been tasered? Hindsight.

So why then do certain interested parties insist on insulting our intelligence and continue to proclaim that The Vow is being delivered, has been delivered already, and will be delivered later, in a bit? Well, it beats the **** outta me. Maybe it was left at the neighbours and they just haven’t let on. It seems stupid. When less than 10% of Scotland believes it, I just can't see a rationale for even pretending anymore.

The Scotland Bill, no more than a bill-of-attrition, as it is, is a bit like getting into the driving seat of a car blindfolded, and then being told, nay, goaded, into driving off, only to find that the steering wheel only turns left and the throttle has an unpredictable tendency to stick to the carpets. And then they blame you when you crash. It is the most cynical and destructive type of politics. Apart from a nuclear strike, of course. That can be pretty destructive, if I’m being honest. Look it up on YouTube if you don’t believe me.

The only possible explanation is that Labour and the Conservatives both want the SNP to fail (no surprise there, I hear you say). They want a party - a party that’s in government - to fail, and they want it so badly that they’ll happily cripple a whole country to achieve it, and they’ll laugh and sneer while it happens. And then, while those who are left tend the wounded, and make do and mend to get by, they’ll sneer again and say: we told you so.

And they’ll be right, partly. They did tell us so. They were unequivocal about it. To be fair to them, I do the same thing myself - when I’m bored of an evening I’ll often head down to the lower estates where I can look down upon the little people and say “You’ll never make it out of here, sonny!”, and do you know what, after I’ve driven over a few of ‘em, they won’t! It makes me feel all...Tory inside. And then I can go back home and snuggle up to the wife and EastEnders, happy that I’ve just identified a future workforce, all hopeless and broken and ready to comply because what other option do they have?

The real questions now do not centre around how the Scottish government can use these “extensive new powers” to benefit Scotland. That would be a stupid ****ing question, and one that won’t get any cleverererer the more times it’s asked. The real questions now gravitate towards the next referendum and when it will be. It’s inevitable. For one thing, we now know that Scotland’s last hope for fairness within the union - Labour - can’t be trusted. When a progressive like Jeremy Corbyn shoots his bolt as soon as the starter pistol goes off, and you just know that there’s no one else waiting to pick up the baton for the next leg, well, that’s it. Kiss the opposition goodbye. Noble though the efforts of the SNP 55/56 may be on the opposition benches, they just don’t have the numbers to make a difference. Factor in the pervasively obstinate and abstinate intransigence of Labour to anything even remotely SNP, and you can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that nursing the massive chip on their shoulder is way more important than doing right by the people. As a side note, I think that the SNP 55/56 should buy Labour chips every Friday lunchtime, until they get the message. No fish, no smoked sausage, no DFMB (let’s not be silly), just chips. Lots and lots of chips. I wouldn’t even bother with salt and sauce/vinegar, because they don’t deserve it. Just chips. Spit in them first, obviously, but you get my point.

The Scotland Bill/Vow, call it what you will, is the end. I went from being a bit disinterested in the Indyref at the beginning to becoming a fairly strong supporter of independence at the end, but I’ve always held out hope that *something* might happen within the Union to bring about the balance and the fairness that would make it work for all of the nations within it, and thus negate the need to separate. Let’s be honest about this, a Union of nations should be stronger than the sum of its parts. It should be. It bloody should be. It just should. I’m afraid that, for me at least, hope of that is gone.

PS. Don’t spit in their chips. I was only joking about that.

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39 comments:

  1. Not chips, bowls of cereal and no milk.

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  2. if only the SNP in Holyrood and Westminster would express themselves as you have.
    Instead of speaking in and playing the Westminster game, I am sorely pissed off with them.

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  3. Remembering a sick joke from the fifties, the condemned man asked for fish every day of his last week before execution. Eventually, the prison officer asks why. Only to hear the answer "I've had ma chips".

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  4. James, what do TNS et al use to segment the scoio economic categories? i.e. AB, CD, EF?

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  5. I can tell you why they keep spouting the pap about the 'vow' being delivered. They are not interested in what the people of Scotland think, or want, no this is about 'othering'.

    The ridicule and contempt I experienced recently with regard to atitudes to Scotland, on a trip to NE England visiting family and friends, was shocking. Since then, I realised what this is all about. The pap they have been fed either directly, or even subliminally about Scotland, is fuelling contempt and we know what that is close to.

    The vow crap is not for our benefit here in Scotland, except maybe to attempt to lay all of the blame on the SNP for the serious cuts having to be made, the vow is to make it seem like the Scots are getting more than they demanded, more than any English region is getting. And my are they devastating the NE of England once again, where folks like lemmings still cling to liebour for hope. My brother on the phone tonight just cannot bare to hear anythjng bad about liebour with Jez there now, all protector. Aye.

    Th vow is to make the Scottish people look lik they are getting a lot for their money with bells on, not just to ruk, but to the rest of the world when it filters through to anyone vaguely interested. These people wil not look at the details or see it for what it is a poison chalice. However, we in Scotland know exactly what it is, basically it means fcuk all and is an obvious trap. We should be mindful of how these people in such positions of unwarranted power, operate, it is not pretty and they will stoop pretty low if necessary. Look out for false flag stuff nearer to the Scottish election.

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  6. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 12:24 AM

    No point in having power if not used. Taxing the Jock rich to help the poor seems tae be aff the Natsi horizon. But not unexpected. Moaning without taxation will not give the Nat sis credibility in the long run. Ye canae keep blaming Engerland. You will be held tae account inspite off yer spin.

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    1. You're an idiot. Who is paying you to be here?

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  7. You are obviously not Scots twat. Go somewhere else and do something useless

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 12:41 AM

      BRIT SCOT just like you.

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    2. But not Like I.As my grandfather would say up the republic.
      James says it better than I can except since 14 I was for independence now 63

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    3. As your grandfather said "up the republic"!!! https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/up-the-republic/

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  8. The religion of peace strikes again, this time in Paris. 140 dead, approx. RIP.

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 1:29 AM

      Not unexpected Aldo, surely. You keep the enemy at the Gate and not let them in. Wee Nicola has the opposite in mind. Cameron is wavering but mibbae wake up I hope. But people who are inactive politically get what they deserve.

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    2. How dare you use such a terrible event, to try and score a political point; idiot.

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    3. Disgusting troll.

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    4. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 11:14 AM

      Aldo is perfectly right in raising this matter on a free and democratic forum. The Jihadists would ban this forum.

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    5. Who pays you to be here?

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    6. James
      You've allowed for a while now the poster GWC to fill your blog comments with childish trolling replies.
      The 2 above in response to the horrific news from Paris are surely a final step to far.
      Get him/her banned.

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  9. Much and all as I generally enjoy this blog, the quality control failed on this article. Long, painfully unfunny, with no discernible point, totally information-free.

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    1. It's James' blog.... He's perfectly entitled to write what he wants. You've been spoiled for too long with his detailed research and fine arguement(s)

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    2. Apologies to both James and Mike McReadie, the originator of this article.

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    3. Did I suggest he isn't so entitled?

      I was providing my feedback which I'm also entitled to do.

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  10. I reflect frequently on the Iain Davidson's take on what would happen after a No vote. I can't find the quote right now but, it seems likely that the ?Union is reducing the ability of the Scittish Parliament to do anything very much of note through the new Scotland Bill. Anyone who thought otherwise was a mug. And yes, the pain and suffering that this will cause amongst the poorest in our society will be laid at the feet of the Scottish Parliament.

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    1. Something about "bayoneting the wounded" was it not..?

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  11. The Vow was nice and simple - Devo Max - devolution of everything bar defence and foreign policy.

    How so? From my angle 'The Vow' was a meaningless bit of fluff that talks about 'Extensive New Powers' and that's it. If anything it does the complete opposite, by promising to continue Barnett it makes Devo Max impossible.

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron-ed-miliband-nick-4265992

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 10:57 AM

      What is the point in having powers and not being prepared to use them. eg: Taxing the Rich.

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    2. You're an idiot. We are at least a year and abut away from getting these pathetic powers. Taxing the rich might not bring in any revenue, due to the amount of tax loopholes brought in deliberately by the UK Government (under Labour and Tories). So stop trying to spread misinformation. You are the lowest of individuals.

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    3. Would you care to present your (balanced) budget for our edification GWC..?

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    4. How could GWC present a balanced budget when it is patently obvious to one and all he is unbalanced?

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    5. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 8:54 PM

      Anon. Taxing the rich may well bring in revenue it has to be tried first to see the final result. It is an offence to dodge tax! In any case you really do not want to tax the rich because you are a Tartan Tory.

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  12. An idea - Why don't the SNP offer the Scottish Public the ability to vote in a ballot on what we want devolved to the Scottish Parliament? I.e. offer us a list of options to vote on, such as Income Tax, National Insurance, Corporation Tax, VAT and so on? What do you think?

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    Replies
    1. Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.

      A very positive campaign would be in order there.

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  13. From the discussion in another place.

    The currency policy for the next referendum will be exactly the same as it was for the last one. And for the exact same reasons. It was the best option for both countries and the rejection of our right to use our own money demonstrated to even the thickest no voter just what their overlords thought of them.

    And the people of France should be joining together to hunt down T Blair and every single one of his supporters for their responsibility in the murders last night.

    I'll put B Mcdougall up against a wall and pull the trigger to save time. You can pick your own targets.

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 8:49 PM

      Islamists bombed the Paris Metro 1995. TB was not in power. I know some Nat sis would change history given the chance.

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    2. Glasgow Working ClassNovember 14, 2015 at 11:25 PM

      If Scotland leaves the Union then the GBP goes from Scotland. All the English do is not accept a Scottish notes and not send BofE notes to Scotland. England could start a new currency for Ruk. All sensibles now know that Nat si arrogance over the currency was a loser. I suspect Carney told Salmond we would not get the GBP but the man in his arrogance did not listen and put an alternative to the people. So clever clogs Anon do remember when you pull out of an agreement it means all of it. Thank goodness you never represented working people!

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  14. James, will you be getting ahold of the data sets for the Panelbase/Wings poll ?

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  15. Reject the Bill.

    (and spit in their chips).

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