https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/taking-johnsons-bullheadedness-by-the-horns/

” The English nationalists and their enablers must be forced to acknowledge that their continued block on the democratic will of the people of Scotland comes with grave consequences for their own parties and their own position. The longer that they continue to act as a fatberg in the pipe, the more the pressure will rise and the more likely it becomes that they’re going to be swept away down the drain of history. They need to understand that the deadlines that they’re given are deadlines for their own efforts to prevent independence, and it’s their own intransigence which will be their undoing. The clock is ticking on the English nationalists’ attempts to prevent independence.” READ MORE: https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/taking-johnsons-bullheadedness-by-the-horns/

Today the UK economy is weak and vulnerable to economic shocks. It sits in a precarious position, especially as the damage from Brexit won’t be felt till after the 2020 transition period. Right across the board the risk of recession and possibly even depression has never been greater in the UK since the 1970s when Scottish oil revenues saved the UK from requiring a bail-out. Every year since then, Scottish revenues have been underpinning the UK economy through paying the cost of UK debt that was not generated by Scotland’s economy rather than being reinvested in the nation and this continues to hold Scotland’s economy back.   

But still, the myth that the powerful and large UK economy somehow protects Scotland is still maintained by Unionist politicians and in the mainstream media. The stark truth is that the UK economy is not strong enough to withstand the pressures of Brexit or any global economic slowdown without serious repercussions for society including significant spending cuts on essential services. 

Brexit may be a case study on the Westminster Government’s incompetence but we must remember that the full economic impact of Brexit will not be felt till the end of the 2020 transition period which could still end in a ‘No-Deal’ Brexit if trade talks collapse. 

Even before the full impact of Brexit has been felt, the UK is floundering, and we have seen that: READ MORE: https://www.businessforscotland.com/britains-broken-economy-is-holding-scotland-back/

Written by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp

Arguably the most misunderstood part of the UK public sector budgeting mechanism is the Barnett Formula. The vast majority of people, politicians and the media seem to think that Barnett represents a subsidy to Scotland. Many Westminster MPs (mainly Conservatives) have described it as English taxpayers subsidising Scottish public spending, and the mainstream media have run headlines along those lines. There is just one little problem with that idea – it’s complete and utter nonsense. 

The Barnett Formula was introduced as a funding mechanism containing a mathematical formula that aimed to reduce Scottish funding in comparison to England’s. To understand why it exists, and how it was supposed to reduce Scotland’s public spending, we need to understand the Scotland of the 1970s, when it was first introduced. 

The Barnett Formula’s predecessor, the Goschen Formula, had been used between 1889-1959 before budget negotiations by secretaries of state became the norm. Scotland was an industrial powerhouse and its economy and the public sector revenues generated meant that Secretaries of State for Scotland had real negotiating power in budget discussions. READ MORE: https://www.businessforscotland.com/the-barnett-formula-myth-destroyed-it-does-not-subsidise-scotland/

LIBERAL Democrat peer Lord David Steel has quit the party after investigators found that he “did nothing” despite knowing of the activities of prolific paedophile Cyril Smith.

The peer, who was an MSP and Scotland’s first presiding officer, has also announced his retirement from the House of Lords. A report published today by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) stated: “It is clear that Lord Steel assumed from what Cyril Smith told him that he had committed the offences which Private Eye had reported, yet he did nothing about it.” READ MORE https://www.thenational.scot/news/18260242.david-steel-quits-shocking-cyril-smith-child-abuse-report/

Dismay as Ineos triggers plan to re-open coal gas inquiry…

A Scottish Government proposal to re-open a public inquiry into plans by Ineos to drill for underground coal gas in central Scotland has been greeted with dismay by campaigners.

The government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) has written to developers and objectors suggesting that an inquiry that closed six years ago should now re-convene to consider changes in policy – and Brexit.

The move follows The Ferret’s report on 18 February revealing that Ineos, which runs the Grangemouth petrochemical complex, was attempting to resurrect a plan to sink 14 gas wells around Airth, near Falkirk. The aim is to extract methane from underground coal seams, using a technology related to fracking. READ MORE: https://theferret.scot/inquiry-reopen-coal-bed-methane-airth/

By Norrie Hunter: The recent general election in Ireland was shaken by the support won by Sinn Fein. The previously small left-wing republican party with historic links with the IRA now is sitting as the biggest party in the Irish parliament.  

Politically hostile are the two main centre-right parties of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both who are reluctant to share power with Sinn Fein. But because of the political arithmetic, they need to either operate as a minority government or power share with another party. However, it must be noted that Sinn Fein’s ultimate political goal is for the reunification of Ireland even though this was not discussed much during the election. In a poll last year in the Irish Times, less than half the Northern Irish voters felt a connection with the UK and some 59 per cent of those surveyed who identified as having no religion said they would vote for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join the Republic.

This puts more pressure on the UK government who have Scotland and Wales to contend with. It is always been said that if  Scottish Independence is on the increase the amount of polling decreases. We have not had a poll in months. In Wales, they are coming round to the notion of Independence with marches and pro-independence parties such as Plaid Cymru hoovering up the votes just like the SNP in Scotland.  READ MORE: https://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/scottish-independence-isnt-boris-johnsons-only-worry-now/

Source: Voting No secured access to the worst pension in the developed world