General Chat

'Alas! Elections are mere cosmetic exercises in musical chairs. We are simply replacing the faces, yet the music remains the same'.

for once I agree Dermot ;-) ;-)

( did i just type that) ;-)

Nicola Sturgeon is selling a dummy to the English with consummate political skill in much the same way as an Irish fly half will take the ball from the scrum and coast through the lumbering English defense.

It is not in Scotland's interest to separate from the UK - that much became clear during the referendum ( I'll not repeat the reasons). Equally it is not in England's interest to cast off Scotland for different but related reasons.

Nicola though is managing to terrify the English into the fear that they might. This would have a horrible knock on effect on the English world position - UN seat, G7, credit rating and would make any sensible defense of the islands next to impossible.

Nicola intends to exact a high price for doing what she will be forced to do anyway i.e. stay in the union. Her price will be to run a counter domestic policy completely at odds with UKGov but funded by the English taxpayer.

There is no way to break out of this circle within the current messy arrangements financed mainly through Barnett. The UK will have to adopt federal arrangements not the sticking plaster of "English Votes for English Taxes" proposed by DC.

Meanwhile as the Chinese say you cannot ride two tigers at once. Nicola will find riding the tigers of Holyrood and DevoMax at the same time a very difficult trick. Things in Scotland under the SNP are not all hunky dory and Labour's Jim Murphy will make sure that this is well understood. Holyrood has proportional voting so the SNP cannot collect > 90% of the seats there with only half the vote.

The English should calm down and set the pace - slowly.

fwiw all the reasons which made a UK/Scotland split a really bad idea apply in spades to leaving the EU.

Guinevere, did I say Nigel would be an MP, don't think so, however, he wasn't far away from being one. Plus UKIP came second and third in many places, so they picked up many votes.

The big question: who will become the next Labour Leader ? I think Y.Cooper would be a good idea, time the Labour Party had a woman has their leader. Who do you fancy as the new leader, and if you have any other views on a new leader, post them, thanks.

G007/ Graham Heather I would seriously doubt, given how many threads you have deleted, that you can remember WHAT you said ...half the time you don't seem to remember your own name...after all you've already changed it twice on this thread alone ;-)

RR I think you have deleted quite a few of your threads too.

Nope,only the posts you reported G007 :-)

RR best if you just answered the questions, and stick to debating the subject matter.

RR you have deleted some of your posts, I remember it well.

You hadn't actually asked a question when I posted G007....

RR I think I have, however, if you don't want to answer any of mine, or debate the subject matter, fine by me.

the only posts deleted where not in fact deleted by me but by GR.... as well you know, since you reported them.... you really should think before typing you know :-)

I have already "debated the subject matter" long before your post G007...addressing the OP. ( edit OP's on several threads in fact during your period of 'enforced absence' from the board..... )

Give it a rest you two.

aww when love blossoms <3 <3

GH, Yes you did say he would be an MP - do you want me paste your original post on here? It's one of many you deleted before saying you were leaving forever and not posting any more. I think it was the second time you flounced. Or maybe the third.

You rarely answer any questions put to you so I see no point in answering yours as a rule.

However, I am interested in who will become leader of both the LibDems and Labour. A bit too early to say until I know who will be standing. Yvette Cooper would be an interesting choice. She certainly has the brains but maybe lacking a little in experience.

As for the third leadership election - I'm pretty sure Nigel will allow himself to be persuaded to stand as leader of the kippers. He is all they have, really.

I am very worried at the prospect of Boris standing as leader of the Tories. A man who lies to his wife and mistresses multiple times really can't be trusted.

Guinevere, I said Nigel F would probably be an MP, so what. If there was a G. Election again, and it was just between Labour and UKIP, I'm very sure UKIP would win it. Many people voted Conservatives rather than UKIP to make sure Labour didn't get into power through the back door. If you look how many votes Nigel F got, it was still a good result for him.

RR do you remember about my post about that comet, or asteroid, you posted quite a lot on there, and then they were deleted, are you saying GR deleted them ? I think I recall, something about I was wrong, and there were several postings regarding this, then it turned out to be true what I was saying (once again), strange but true. I'm pretty sure about this, because I remember at the time asking why you deleted your posts, but you didn't reply.

Hear, hear Bob.