Post by mouse on Nov 28, 2013 3:39:31 GMT -5
from the guardian
For a man who wants to be independent, Salmond wants to depend on the English
White Paper full of examples of what Scotland could only do with help from 'foreigners
JUST like a couple of my colleagues, I was handed a press pass that read “International Media” at yesterday’s White Paper launch in Glasgow.
Was it just a mistake, or could it have been an omen — you know, that Alex Salmond’s great day had already arrived and that both my good self and The Telegraph, as well as my fellow hacks, were already designated as “foreign”?
It turned out to be just an error and I got the “domestic” version shortly afterwards but that “F” word is just how many members of my family, as well as hosts of friends and acquaintances, will be categorised if the objective set out in yesterday’s document comes to pass. No matter what he says or what Mr Salmond’s massive White Paper avers, Scotland and England would become foreign countries, each to the other.
Mr Salmond may object to the word “separatist” and hate the suggestion that breaking up Britain is what he’s about, but ending the hugely successful 306-year Union between two former enemies is precisely what he wants to do.
That said, he’s going about it in a funny way. Mr Salmond may wish to be independent of the United Kingdom but he’s dependent on a helluva lot of goodwill from the English, Welsh and Northern Irish to make it so. We have been well used to Mr Salmond transforming mere assertion into hard facts but yesterday’s 650-page, 170,000-word document turned that trait into an art form because over a range of issues he insists that rUK (as the rest of the United Kingdom is now called in Nat circles) will simply have to concede his every demand.
His press conference yesterday was all of a piece with the nationalists’ entire perspective on independence — namely that those who wish the Union to remain as it is should remain entirely quiescent and simply roll over before every strident SNP ultimatum.
Nowhere is this more blatant and outrageous than in connection with the currency. The White Paper says, without any hint of equivocation, that Scotland will keep the currency as it’s “just as much” Scotland’s pound “as it is the rest of the UK’s.”
And the Nats say that this claim would become Holy Writ if they win the referendum next September and they further insist it is in the best interests of not only Scotland but also of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Now it may be all right for Wee Eck — and to be fair to him his diet is shrinking his frame — to say he knows what’s best for Scotland but how on earth can he state that he knows what’s best for the other parts of Britain?
But when reminded that the First Minister of Wales has already recently stated that he would agree to no such pound-sharing, all we got from Mr Salmond was a pretty cheap shot against the aforesaid Welshman; so much for Celtic solidarity. Mind you, that’s normal behaviour from this politician.
Johan Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, claimed later that the SNP would refuse to pay Scotland’s share of the UK’s national debt unless it was allowed to keep the pound.
This meant, she added, that the Nats’ only real policy after independence was to “do a runner”.
On page after page of this weighty tome, there are examples where an independent Scotland would be unable to do what it says it will do without not just cooperation but the enthusiastic help from the British, EU and Nato authorities. It can’t join the EU without the agreement of current member states, including the UK. And it can’t join nuclear-tipped Nato, without the agreement of current member states, including the UK, whose nuclear deterrent it plans to expel from Scotland by 2020.
In addition, there are issues on energy, borders, broadcasting, security, defence and sharing out civil service jobs where the Nats say they will retain pan-UK agreements because they’ll be good for Scotland. But again these are assertions, mere declarations of what the SNP would like to do – and to hell with what the Brits might fancy. As even some supporters of independence have said: why on earth would the rest of the UK help Scotland when it has decided to walk out of the Union?
Oh yes, and the White Paper states baldly that the Queen would remain Scotland’s head of state. But have the Nats asked her? Has the House of Windsor responded? Or is this grandiose assertion merely another item on the wish list? We’re not allowed to know what Her Majesty and Mr Salmond talk about at their regular meetings but we shall have to be told eventually.
Why was the document launched in Glasgow and not at the Scottish Parliament? The immediate upshot was that Mr Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and the entire Scottish cabinet had to jump into a fleet of limousines afterwards and shoot back to Edinburgh afterwards where a truncated statement on the White Paper was due.
There, things became even more bizarre when Ms Sturgeon delivered the outline and answered questions about the document, with Mr Salmond sitting silently at her side. I’ve no idea why he didn’t shoulder the responsibility for this supposedly momentous document and even more surprisingly no one on the opposition benches even asked. Incredible place this parliament.
Yesterday’s event at the Glasgow Science Centre was an altogether bizarre, pretty low-grade and astonishingly predictable affair. There was nothing in it that we didn’t expect, or put that another way: there was nothing in it. Literally.
For a man who wants to be independent, Salmond wants to depend on the English
White Paper full of examples of what Scotland could only do with help from 'foreigners
JUST like a couple of my colleagues, I was handed a press pass that read “International Media” at yesterday’s White Paper launch in Glasgow.
Was it just a mistake, or could it have been an omen — you know, that Alex Salmond’s great day had already arrived and that both my good self and The Telegraph, as well as my fellow hacks, were already designated as “foreign”?
It turned out to be just an error and I got the “domestic” version shortly afterwards but that “F” word is just how many members of my family, as well as hosts of friends and acquaintances, will be categorised if the objective set out in yesterday’s document comes to pass. No matter what he says or what Mr Salmond’s massive White Paper avers, Scotland and England would become foreign countries, each to the other.
Mr Salmond may object to the word “separatist” and hate the suggestion that breaking up Britain is what he’s about, but ending the hugely successful 306-year Union between two former enemies is precisely what he wants to do.
That said, he’s going about it in a funny way. Mr Salmond may wish to be independent of the United Kingdom but he’s dependent on a helluva lot of goodwill from the English, Welsh and Northern Irish to make it so. We have been well used to Mr Salmond transforming mere assertion into hard facts but yesterday’s 650-page, 170,000-word document turned that trait into an art form because over a range of issues he insists that rUK (as the rest of the United Kingdom is now called in Nat circles) will simply have to concede his every demand.
His press conference yesterday was all of a piece with the nationalists’ entire perspective on independence — namely that those who wish the Union to remain as it is should remain entirely quiescent and simply roll over before every strident SNP ultimatum.
Nowhere is this more blatant and outrageous than in connection with the currency. The White Paper says, without any hint of equivocation, that Scotland will keep the currency as it’s “just as much” Scotland’s pound “as it is the rest of the UK’s.”
And the Nats say that this claim would become Holy Writ if they win the referendum next September and they further insist it is in the best interests of not only Scotland but also of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Now it may be all right for Wee Eck — and to be fair to him his diet is shrinking his frame — to say he knows what’s best for Scotland but how on earth can he state that he knows what’s best for the other parts of Britain?
But when reminded that the First Minister of Wales has already recently stated that he would agree to no such pound-sharing, all we got from Mr Salmond was a pretty cheap shot against the aforesaid Welshman; so much for Celtic solidarity. Mind you, that’s normal behaviour from this politician.
Johan Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, claimed later that the SNP would refuse to pay Scotland’s share of the UK’s national debt unless it was allowed to keep the pound.
This meant, she added, that the Nats’ only real policy after independence was to “do a runner”.
On page after page of this weighty tome, there are examples where an independent Scotland would be unable to do what it says it will do without not just cooperation but the enthusiastic help from the British, EU and Nato authorities. It can’t join the EU without the agreement of current member states, including the UK. And it can’t join nuclear-tipped Nato, without the agreement of current member states, including the UK, whose nuclear deterrent it plans to expel from Scotland by 2020.
In addition, there are issues on energy, borders, broadcasting, security, defence and sharing out civil service jobs where the Nats say they will retain pan-UK agreements because they’ll be good for Scotland. But again these are assertions, mere declarations of what the SNP would like to do – and to hell with what the Brits might fancy. As even some supporters of independence have said: why on earth would the rest of the UK help Scotland when it has decided to walk out of the Union?
Oh yes, and the White Paper states baldly that the Queen would remain Scotland’s head of state. But have the Nats asked her? Has the House of Windsor responded? Or is this grandiose assertion merely another item on the wish list? We’re not allowed to know what Her Majesty and Mr Salmond talk about at their regular meetings but we shall have to be told eventually.
Why was the document launched in Glasgow and not at the Scottish Parliament? The immediate upshot was that Mr Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and the entire Scottish cabinet had to jump into a fleet of limousines afterwards and shoot back to Edinburgh afterwards where a truncated statement on the White Paper was due.
There, things became even more bizarre when Ms Sturgeon delivered the outline and answered questions about the document, with Mr Salmond sitting silently at her side. I’ve no idea why he didn’t shoulder the responsibility for this supposedly momentous document and even more surprisingly no one on the opposition benches even asked. Incredible place this parliament.
Yesterday’s event at the Glasgow Science Centre was an altogether bizarre, pretty low-grade and astonishingly predictable affair. There was nothing in it that we didn’t expect, or put that another way: there was nothing in it. Literally.
Alpha 