A Message To All On BBS

Mine arrived this morning matey

so its game on from me too.

I hope we win, but I am just so looking forward to be able to get there again at last.

 

It looks like some good has come out of the Scotland Independence Vote. You are going to get more powers devolved from London and the English look as though they might get a parliament that mirrors Edinburgh, hopefully not in London. Oh, and the debate has re-awoken the democratic process, which is also no bad thing. It will be good if voters in all the home nations, in the future, spend more time and effort on deliberating the issues and with as much diligence and patience as the Scots have before they place their votes.

I understand that you will be grieving for the missed opportunity at the moment, but I believe that the 'No' vote was the better outcome for all our sakes, and I am relieved and pleased that the Union of equals will continue, assuming Dundee and Glasgow do not declare their independence.

 

You'll spend the first half an hour

Trying to identify Bob Parker, Eric Brookes, Barry Swallow & Dick Hewitt!

 

Thank god for that only joking pal, to be honest I was one of those that was bored of it all but I would never be against you posting your views on here Ian,

 

We've all had a good bit of banter - most of it without any malice at all. I can completely understand what would motivate someone to want to break away from London.

Personally if someone offered me an opportunity to vote to live in a Britain without London, I'd be sorely tempted just to get some focus back on people that live more than spitting distance from Big Ben.

Maybe London needs another national stadium, another major airport upgrade, another international sporting event, or perhaps a high speed rail link so we can all get into London more quickly?

I'm personally grateful to the Scottish voters for putting the wind up David Cameron - always worth doing - and for underlining to the Labour party that there is an agenda left of Centre that they have been failing to represent. The NHS has benefited from the campaign too and the whole political establishment has taken a huge smack across the face. Everything of late has been focused on London and finally someone has taken the agenda away from the South East.

I'm glad we still have Scotland in the union - genuinely do think we're better together, and certainly have more of a chance of getting GB back from the brink. I know you might not feel the same way, but you're stuck with us.

 

There were some very glum faces in work today, you should've seen the faces of the "yes" voters too

 

Hey LD did you see the news there 2 minutes ago. Fighting in George square between yes/no supporters. Police having to push them both apart.
Could get messy later tonight. If I was you I would a think about going to glasgow tonight.

 

I've not seen the news but it was bound to happen, wasn't it?

 

And so to the next referendum . . . . . .

The whole UK should now have a say on whether to float London off into the English Channel complete with its Westminster croneys and square mile bankers and Financial Services sector (the debt they owe the rest of us taxpayers can go with them).

They can take their extra runways and billion pound cross rail projects with them as long as they can work out how to finance them without income from the rest of the UK.

I nominate Boris Johnson as it's ruler designate.

 

Well yes but it really shouldn't.

As you can imagine it looks like a pile of drunk huns all singing rule Britannia and waving their union jacks.

 

It's very rare I actually go in to Glasgow for a beer these days, plus I'm working at 6am so I'm safe tonight

Morons, the lot of 'em.

 

Correct. John you stay safe mate. You being English not a good thing for the next few days while emotions are still raw.

 

Re: And so to the next referendum . . . . . .

Let's float London off...and rely instead upon our rampant manufacturing sector to keep us in clover.

Plus the North Sea oil....

 

Heyup old mate
I know you'll be very dissapointed by the outcome of the vote today but a small consolation is you've really shook the tail feathers down at Westminster.

Its opened the debate of how all the regions of UK have been held in contempt by the political elite of all colours in London.
I just hope the momentum carries on all over the UK but I suppose it all depends on the media barons and how they report it..

Personally I'm pleased its a no vote in Scotland but with a heavy heart as I know what it meant to people!e like yourself ,but I'm really glad the debate was had and the emotions, passions and enthusiasm shone through .

What a turnout!!! Unprecedented in British politics I believe,a credit to the people of scotland from both sides of the argument.

Think Westminster thought it was gonna be a formality just shows the British people can't be taken for granted all the time .
Good to see you got some good setiments from some of the posters who argued and had banter with you during the campaign just shows they're a decent bunch on here.bet you wouldn't have got that on dee dars forums:wink:

 

Good words mate...I'm certainly not gloating and my commiserations would have gone to whoever had lost.I am firmly of the better together idea,but had I been a scot I may have thought differently..who knows. One thing it does prove though is that Scotland is capable of producing good debate, unlike some of the crap I read in certain newspapers. Just a few points though, I think the basic question was flawed, I'm amazed it was passed by the Electoral Commission. To ask 'Should Scotland be an Independent country' with a Yes/No answer is a quite leading, anyone in marketing of any kind will know that the positive answer to a question is always the best route to take.The question really should have been a choice of
'Should Scotland be an Independent Country' and the second option 'Should Scotland stay in the United Kingdom'
neither of which suggests a positive/negative answer.....Alex Salmond got away with daylight robbery on that one.
Another point I'd like to mention was changing the generally accepted rules of elections, allowing 16 years old to vote, assuming it was an SNP initiative it appears to be a quite cynical way of boosting a Yes vote (wether it worked in any way or not remains to be seen) but you have to ask the question, if you're going to change a well established accepted practise, why not 14 or 12 or younger?
The third point is a praise for a group (who's name I cannot remember after a few pints!!) who suggested about a week ago that the pollsters had got it wrong in saying the race was on a knife edge, they said the accepted methods of prediction were flawed by up to 10 points, because of the modern methodology used, social media studies, telephone and internet studies, and studies of the marked registers ( a list available by law only to Parties and Candidates) that tells you everyone who voted in previous elections, they suggested that a large number of potential voters were missed due to a variety of reasons, no internet, no phone, no recent voting record, they suggested they might be older people living away from the towns, who may be more inclined to drag themselves out in support of a perhaps, traditional position, a no vote, in such an important referendum, my praise is for what appears to be their accuracy in comparison to the usual pollsters.
Lastly Ian, I'm disappointed that Cameron et al, blundered up there at the eleventh hour making childish promises of extra powers etc....I don't believe the Scots are likely to be either iimpressed or bullied by that kind of salesmanship, for that's all it was, they, the big parties, believed they were losing, something that six months ago was incomprehensible. In my view the No campaign was poor from moment one, and apart from a high point after the first tv debate, actually got worse.
I think better/together won because although Alex Salmond presented a brave optimistic case, almost heroic by suggestion, his vision did not do enough to impress a pretty hard nosed mature electorate who had no, absolutely, definitive answers on issues like Currency and EU membership.
Your thoughts would be most appreciated mate.