We’re Back To The West Lothian Question
A good leader always picks the issue, place and time for their battles to ensure that he or she wins in the end. Planning should be meticulous and hopefully it all works out as they want it.
Compare Margaret Thatcher and her government and military’s response to the invasion of the Falklands by Argentina with other campaigns fought in Iraq and Afghanistan recently. The Falklands was a smaller conflict, but very little was left to chance, although it could be thought of as a close run thing.
Other British Prime Ministers and influential politicians have brought contentious legislation through to law, by making sure they plan and win every battle. Take Cameron’s law on same-sex marriage as a recent example. But then there are many others.
So when Alex Salmond proposed a vote on Scottish independence, I thought if he got it right, he could win.
His mistake was that he didn’t plan and get decent concessions on tax and spending, before he even called for the poll. That way, if Devo max had been successful and acceptable to all parties, after a few years, Scotland would probably have had an agreed separation, in much the same way Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic.
But he pig-headedly called the referendum as early as he could.
And he lost. So we’ve now been kicked back to the West Lothian Question, but with more variables than it ever had before. Tam Dalyell must be laughing from his grave.
It has been suggested this morning that large cities have more powers, something that I agree with.
But Scotland now has the Glasgow Problem, as surely what is good for London, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle must be good enough for the one of the largest cities outside London in the UK.
Alex Salmond, who in a overly-passionate campaign led us to this mess, should resign!
Does London Need Devo Max?
In the Standard today, Labour politician, Margaret Hodge is asking this question and says that London needs it.
She says this about housing.
The capital’s population will be twice Scotland’s by 2030. Yet we already desperately lack the homes and infrastructure we need to meet the needs of 8.5 million Londoners. Our housing crisis dwarfs that of other parts of the country. Some 800,000 new homes are needed by 2020. Yet in the year to May, only 16,800 were built. Despite London’s great successes, we are becoming ever more grotesquely unequal. Inner London is increasingly only accessible to the very rich.
I would agree with some of what she says and go further to say that all cities and conurbations should have more powers.
The trouble is that it would change the political map of the UK for ever and think of all those bench warmers in Westminster, who would be out of a job.
But I do think that competition between cities would create jobs and better places to live. Some provincial cities need a real kicking to bring them into the twentieth century.
It would also be very good for London, if when they wanted to build something like Crossrail 2, they didn’t have to go cap-in-hand to the Government and compete with other necessary projects elsewhere.
If say London financed Crossrail 2 from its own resources and population, would anybody outside the capital have a right to complain? I don’t think so!
Why Are Polling Stations Called Polling Places In Scotland?
As I watch the BBC News, I have noticed that polling stations, seem to be called polling places in Scotland.
It’s just like with what you call bus stands!
A Robust View On Homeopathy In The Times
Professor Michael Baum is an amazing doctor and surgeon, who I have had the pleasure of meeting.
In The Times today, he has a letter published about accreditation of homoeopaths to the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA).
He writes this memorable sentence.
From now on they will be able to check if their homoeopathic doctor is a fully trained quack or simply someone masquerading as a quack.
I do not believe in anything that can’t be scientifically proven by rigorous methods. The three at the top of my list are religion, homoeopathy and many of the zanier and animal-unfriendly aspects of Chinese medicine.
The Tyranny Of Shopping
Today’s shopping showed how sometimes, it can be a complete pain. I went up to Islington and bought this today.
The Tyranny Of Shopping
My trouble in some ways is that I’m particular in what I like.
1. Bread has to be from Marks and Spencer. Waitrose’s especially is made from cardboard.
2. Only Sainsbury sell my preferred Black Farmer sausages, which go so well in a sausage casserole I’m making.
3. Marks and Spencer doesn’t sell cannelloni beans.
4. I prepay for The Times and getting rid of the voucher can be difficult in some supermarkets.
5. Etc. etc.
So in the end, I ended up going to all of Waitrose, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer, buying a few items in each.
At least at the Angel, the three shops are close together. In Sainsbury, all I bought was the sausages.
Last week, I went to Waitrose at Canary Wharf to try to get everything in one visit, but they didn’t have the sausages, as they’d sold out and their own gluten-fre ones are tasteless.
Should We Have A Margaret Thatcher Square?
The Standard reported last night that Madrid has named a square after Margaret Thatcher and that there are calls to do the same in London.
We definitely should not, but then we don’t generally name squares, roads or buildings after politicians. Tastes change and one person’s hero may one day be some other person’s ogre.
Or as in the case of Jimmy Saville, there may be the darkest of secrets. The problems of erasing his memory are described here.
The Irish Boiler Problem
When I think of Scotland being independent, I’m always reminded of a problem, that was ongoing at a hotel we stayed in, in Dublin.
The boiler for the central heating had failed and the poor plumber was trying to get it going again. The boiler had been made in England a few years before and it wasn’t a cheap one. But it turned out that as it was rather a special, the spare that the plumber wanted wasn’t held in Ireland. And as it was about six on a Friday evening, the factory in I think Birmingham had closed for the night.
So the hotel had to wait a few days for heating. At least they had an immersion heater for hot water.
The plumber told me, how this was often happening as with expensive plumbing and its spares, was generally not kept in Ireland as it was only a small country and it was usually ordered overnight from England.
One of the things that might be a problem with Scottish independence, is that companies don’t keep stock north of the border and it becomes much more difficult to get something urgently. You might also have more paperwork and different currencies and VAT rates.
Prices in Scotland might rise! Or they might fall. Who knows?
An Advantage To The Rest Of The UK Of Scottish Independence
If Scotland becomes independent after Thursday, then we won’t have to suffer, when the weather forecasts give out the often more depressing forecast for north of the border.
The weather forecasts would be even better, if Northern Ireland were to become independent as well.
Does The Fashion Industry Think People Have More Money Than Sense?
Over the last few days, I’ve been through several glossy supplements to Newspapers and they seem to supporters by the big fashion companies, selling over-designed and over-priced clothes and accessories. They are mainly for women, but you do see adverts for watches that are more difficult to understand for the average Joe, than Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time.
I’ve always had a policy of not buying any clothes with any form of branding on it, unless the design is what I want. C was very much the same and usually her handbag was lacking any obvious label, although often they were expensive.
But seeing these adverts and also observing ladies around the world, why is it that they overpay for a handbag and then have some enormous advert slapped on it, which generally ruins any style the design had in the first place?
C once bought a very expensive bra and knickers set, because it fitted her so well. When she put it on for the first time, I asked her if she really wanted to show off where she had spent her money. She was rather embarrassed and after that first wearing, it was never seen again. When she died, I sold it for a lot of money on eBay. Just because of the name!
I think where fashion is concerned, there are several born every minute!
Action By The River
There was a lot going on in London by the river.
The pictures show the preparations for the Tour of Britain and a barge race on the Thames.
I met a lady from Stoke Newington, who was on her way to see Harmondsworth Barn near Heathrow.
I think there are millions of us, who use their Freedom Passes to explore London.
The Anonymous Widower 