General Chat

David Cameron going to Scotland and not meeting up with Scotland's First Minister is just bad manners.

Just for the record I am in the "No Camp" but I am strongly in favour of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland - each having their own national governments responsible for their own domestic affairs.

Obviously there would be those external issues as opposed to domestic issues that would need to be shared, issues like defence, national security, foreign affairs etc and I think that each of the national governments could nominate say, their 5 most senior ministers to, for a better phrase, a Grand Council, to formulate policies on these issues and decide how these costs would be shared.

I know - probably a pipe dream ;-)

“The name Cameron might mean ‘crooked nose’ but the clan motto is ‘Let us unite’, and that is exactly what we in these islands have done.” So said the Prime Minister earlier this month, evoking his Scottish and English roots in an impassioned plea to keep the countries together as part of the United Kingdom'.

(Today's Times).

I think the point is that the cost of a day out in Scotland for Cameron is money well spent (IF) it helps to keep Scotland part of the UK

My own opinion is that Cameron should stay out of it unless he is prepare to have the debate with Alex Salmond,

Although i don't think such a debate should be had anyway, Its upto the Scottish people to have the debate between themselves as to if they want to stay or go,

I also think Alex Salmond has not done his homework on just what independants will bring too or take away from Scotland, He is assuming the rest of the UK and the EU are just going to give him what he wants if Scotland do get a yes vote,

In all marriages and divorce there has to be compromise and neither party ever gets all of what they want,

I look forward to us English having that same debate and vote as to whether we should also stay part of the "UK" or if we should go it alone,

Why should England be left out of having our own independants and our own parliament.

Roy

Roy - no doubt issues of independence were on the agenda, the main issue according to the news reports was that of North Sea Oil, hence the location being Aberdeen.

As most of what is being discussed has already been put into the public domain by the UK government, I don't think spending money on a day out in Scotland is justified.

OFITG, Your thread may not be about Scottish Independence but i would bet the Cabinet meeting in Scotland was,

I don't think the figure (cost) quoted is accurate,

These figures are banded about without taking into account the every day cost of security for our high profile politicians and the normal costs of a ministers day at the office?

The wage bill is the same for all security staff wether they stay at home or go out and do the job,

Granted there will be add-ons when they move location but that will be kept to a minimum.

Roy

David Cameron and his Cabinet are meeting in Scotland today, I think I am correct in saying that meetings of the Cabinet outside of London in modern times, was something started by Gordon Brown in 2008, before that the last time a Cabinet meeting was held outside London was 1921.

Are these meetings of the Cabinet outside of London productive or are they just a day out for the boys, that aside the cost of these meetings, including security, is estimated to be anything between £200,000 to £250,000 a time.

Is spending that kind of money on a day out justified?

Please Note: This is not a thread about the issue of "Scottish Independence"