FREEDOM!!!! [3]

That was quite moving your description of Tom Weir. Those sort of programs are a dying breed, The only thing us English had was a guy called Jack Hargreaves & he spoke & told you all he could about country life, what certain forgotten tools were, disused words now redundant as no one spoke them, wild flowers & any medicinal properties it had.These were things my grandparents knew, told to them by their parents. Things are so different now. All people wanna know is what App to get on their mobile & mobile banking etc.

Nicola Sturgeon has been announcing her plans for what sort of Firtst Miister she intends to be.
And I have to say I like the sound of he proposals-

'For too long the conversation between politicians and the public has been reduced to 30 second soundbites and stage-managed public appearances.
The referendum campaign changed all that, bringing citizens and politicians closer together than at any previous time in our nation's history.
That might not always be comfortable, but it's exactly as it should be in a healthy democracy. And this level of accessibility and direct contact is perfectly possible in a nation of five million people and should be the standard all of the time - not just during such a high-level event as a referendum campaign."

So her plan?

'Her plans include a monthly Facebook question and answer session with members of the public.
Ms Sturgeon will also stage regular town hall public meetings.
The Scottish Cabinet will meet outside Edinburgh every two months.
And Ms Sturgeon will offer to go before the Conveners Group of the Scottish Parliament on a regular basis to answer questions on the government's record and plans.'

So basically staying in the public firing line where they can actually go and shout at you and putting the government up for a lot more parliamentary scrutiny of their decisions.
I like all of that.

And good on her for doing it as its much easier when you are leader of a country to hide behind soundbites and presentations and not put yourself up for question.

So much for a change in attitude at Westminster regards Scotland.

There is a very important fisheries council in Europe making very important quota negotiations.
Scotland accounts for two thirds of the UK fishing industry and Scottish boats last year landed 95% of the quotas under discussion.

Now the government in 2010 agreed that if a matter came up in Europe which was largely effecting or concerning Scotland the relevant Scottish Minister wold have their seat at the table.

In this case the relevant Minister is one of the longest serving fisheries Ministers we have had, having been seven years in the job ad s generally regarded as an expert in the field.

The official UK representative at the meeting is the Environment Secretary Liz Truss, but she has decided she is to busy to go.
So has she honoured the agreement? Has she drafted in the most experienced Fisheries Minister in the UK?
No of course not, she snubbed Scotland entirely, we have n o one going and they drafted in Lord de Mauley from the House of Lords whose experience in fisheries is, yup, you guessed it, zero, zilch, nothing at all.
So we are now in the idiotic position where someone who doesn't know anything about the area they have to negotiate over is needing to be briefed by the minister in that area who does know it, but is not allowed to attend.

And the weak arsed response by the government to this betrayal of principle, everything they said during the referendum about Scotland getting an equal voice and common sense?

'"The government takes its responsibility to act for all parts of the UK extremely seriously. Our ministers put our country's interests first and foremost in all they do.
We have consistently and successfully worked with the Scottish government to argue for and to secure the best deals for our fishing industry. Their hand is strengthened by being part of the UK."

New pic of Nessie! Well her head anyway. (or just an odd shaped lump of wood with weeds and crap stuck to it or slightly odd shaped wave!)

I so want her to be alive, we have Ogopogo and a crew cam with an underwater camera in a deep diving miniature sub and were here, or rather at Kelowna for over a week. It wasn't Jaques Cousteau but they were fairly intelligent and I think Napoleon Dynamite would be impressed.

I was poking around on Wikipedia and for some reason it took me to a page were they spell everything funny:

http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Walcome tae Wikipaedia,
the free encyclopaedia that awbody can eedit.
This Scots edeetion wis shapit on 23rd Juin 2005. We hae 27,415 airticles the nou.

Wat?

Awbody can eedit, but naebody can speel.

I've seen that before and thought it was a parody, but I don't know enough about the Scots language/dialect to say for sure.

Newsins

Scotland votes against unthirldom frae the Unitit Kinrick.

I googled the word "unthrildom" and the only websites it came up with were the Scots Wikipedia and mirrors of the same. Unfortunately, Google Translate doesn't support Scots, but I wasn't able to find it in the Dictionar o the Scots Leid.

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/results/unthrildom

Thats even worse than the Archet Bugles attempts

Well done Alex Salmond, heres another reason why he tends to be rather popular as politicians go-

'Alex Salmond is to donate the annual pension he will receive after stepping down as Scottish first minister to good causes.
The former SNP leader said that, for as long as he continues to be an MSP, the £42,501 sum would go into a trust.
It would then be distributed to charities in the north east of Scotland, with youth and community groups the main beneficiaries.'- BBC

Is not the first time he has done this sort of thing either-

'When Mr Salmond was both an MP and MSP between 2007 and 2010, he donated one of his parliamentary salaries into the Mary Salmond Trust, which was named after his late mother.
It has so far distributed more than £92,000 to 239 groups and young people.'- BBC


Its not often politicians do something worthy of praising, but this is one of those occasions.

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, did much the same thing - working for $1 per year. But then, he was a billionaire.

Salaries for elected officials was a nice idea, but in modern times at least, it hasn't really succeeded in opening the possibility of holding public office to middle or lower class people.

Well Salmond didnt come from a particularly wealthy background. His father was an electrician and then a civil servant, so a decent job, but in the middle classes.

I think the hold up for middle class and below is the time off needed to campaign. I suppose if you work up from local to national you go from small to large scale, attracting funding along the way.

I was away with 3 Scottish people last week... all 3 voted No!!

I am curious Lance- what class were they? Lower, middle, upper?

Middle.... all 3 in the financial industry as i am.

Ah that might go somewhere to explain it- a breakdown of the voting patterns shows the majority of lower and working class voted YES- they have nothing to lose by the gamble, and a majority of middle and upper class voted NO- vested interests.

They all said that they saw themselves as British first... jusy Scottish British.

They also all said that they didnt trust Salmond and the promises the Yes campaign were making.

Better the devil you know I suppose.

Do you know where they were from as there were some interesting voting differences based on region too.


Weirdly enough I think the chances of Independence in the next 5-10 years (possibly much sooner depending what happens next year) are higher now than at anytime before or during the actual referendum.

Support for the SNP is up, support for independence is now over the 50%mark for the first time ever and Salmond stepped down officially today and Nicole Sturgeon took over, she has broader appeal (especially among women) less baggage, and is more left of centre than Salmond which is one of the reasons the SNP are creaming off Labour votes.

Dunfermline supporters if that helps?

Thats doesnt usually help anyone!

They were most distraught about losing to Stenny but excited about beating the Irish.