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  #31  
Unread 04-21-2017, 07:56 AM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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Nobody cares much about Scotland who doesn't live there, Nigel. The rest of us are looking forward to a General Election where the horrid Tories, according to various polls, will come out with a majority of 80 to 100 seats. When they have got that they can do the boundary change which will increase the majority by between 20 and 40 seats. You Scots won't get your Independence election till 2022. Five years to wait. rs May will see to that.

My brother lives in Shetland. He reckons the Scottish Government steals the Shetlanders money in order to keep feckless Glaswegians. He is not alone. Most Shetlanders think that, or so he says. I may say my brother is on the left, to the left of the SNP and will vote for his present MP who is a Liberal.
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  #32  
Unread 04-21-2017, 07:57 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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My overriding thought has always been: what is it about the evolution of our species towards globalization that is so repulsive to some? It's our only hope for world peace, I think.
Fix it, don't nix it.
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  #33  
Unread 04-21-2017, 07:59 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Or would you rather us devolve back to isolationism, nationalism, exceptionalism?
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  #34  
Unread 04-21-2017, 08:07 AM
Nigel Mace Nigel Mace is offline
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Shetlanders have a very long Liberal connection, even when there were no other Liberals left and that may well continue - despite the fact that their current MP is a court-proven liar. That they should tend to wish to stand outside the mainland's consesnus if only as a means to ensure that they are heard and attended to, is entirely understandable; however, even there the SNP has made big strides in recent years and the SNP government has continued to make more and more special arrangements for Scotland's island communities - and quite rightly too.

As to our independence date, we'll see - but you will find it will come much sooner than you or the arrogant May think - and as the Big Yin would say - "That's a fact and no a rumour."
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  #35  
Unread 04-21-2017, 08:11 AM
Nigel Mace Nigel Mace is offline
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Hi, Jim. We are on your side entirely. We in the SNP and the YES movement are 'nationalists' in order to be internationalists. We are pro-refugee, pro-free movement, pro-EU, pro-UN and anti-nuclear weapons. The xenophobes are in Downing Street and in a rash across the provincial south of Britain.
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  #36  
Unread 04-21-2017, 08:16 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Nigel, yes I can see that in the Scots. Bravo for that.
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  #37  
Unread 04-23-2017, 12:09 AM
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I suppose the lack of interest here is because the result is a foregone conclusion and the general love of Scots persons is because of kilts and bagpipes and the well known Michael Farfrae effect.
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  #38  
Unread 04-23-2017, 06:02 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Love? No. Admiration, yes. Albeit from afar and casual. But being as instinctual as the next person, I sense in the Scots a collective modernity of thought and a hunger for progress away from complacency and self-interest. Or to put it another way, a new kind self-interest that is inclusive.

I'm so often reminded of the Nobel laureate Bob Zimmerman's anthem here.
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  #39  
Unread 04-23-2017, 07:24 AM
David Anthony David Anthony is offline
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The latest opinion polls indicate that the SNP will lose 12 seats in the election.
Happy St George's Day.
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  #40  
Unread 04-23-2017, 08:16 AM
Nigel Mace Nigel Mace is offline
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And a very happy St George's Day to you too, David.

On the polls, that won't be quite how it will work, David, even if today's polls are accurate and repeated on the 8th of June. The Greens' share of the opinion poll in Scotland, for which the companies have both failed to release the data-sets, somewhere between 5 and 9%, will mostly go to the SNP (where there are no Green candidates standing - and that is likely to be quite a few of the Tories alleged 'target' seats, e.g. Mundell's); none of it will go to the Tories. Even without the 'Green' element the SNP lead over the Tories is c.15%. (Labour in total free-fall at c.15%. is by far the biggest source of the increased Tory percentages.)

So.... a result with the SNP taking 44-46 of the 59 seats in Scotland (the worst end of today's poll results) would be over 75% of the available seats for the pro-independence party. Remind me when any UK party achieved a majority remotely so overwhelming? (The answer is only once - the so-called 'National' government of 1931; nothing else comes close.)
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