Dawson Park Boy

Explain, please.

Yes, agree. At last the real target is being subjected to scrutiny. Not a fan of Salmond, but, on this, I wish him well.

Venezuela had a thriving oil and gas industry, then nationalised the oil companies thus impoverishing the citizenry. Socialist madness! All sounds wonderful on paper but hopeless in practice. In fact I understand that Venezuela are now reintroducing some private enterprise and there are signs of improvement.

Are you saying that to get to this socialist ‘promised land’ you’d be happy to live like the Cubans or Venezuelans? Ive been and seen it and - No thanks.

Absolutely! Says it all. Back into the shackles of the EU and the ECB.

Sandy- yes, there is no excuse for tax evasion. You are absolutely correct. However, I don’t altogether blame the perpetrators. Governments are the ones who set the rules and usually they are far too complicated in that it allows lawyers and accountants to find loopholes. Unfortunately, the evaders are normally one step ahead. A classic example was the Rangers tax case which took years to be properly decided. Any sensible person could see that money paid to players was wages and not loan repayments. However, there are lots of smart people out there who construct all these ‘wheezes’. I do know a little about this field as I practised as a CA all my adult life. Funnily enough I had a partner who was married to a Vestey(James) but not part of the family with all the money. Regarding the global titans like Amazon, you need worldwide tax agreements as they have their intellectual property rights in America with all the trading companies scattered throughout the world to obtain maximum tax efficiency. The only way to get them is to levy a sales tax in the country where the sale is made and something along those lines is currently being mooted. Finding it hard to discover that I might agree with you on something.You definitely come over better when you cut out the bad language.

I must inform you that a big chunk of the NHS is privatised. The GP’s are self-employed, the drugs come from private companies (who do you think produced the vaccines?), all the equipment comes from private firms, the buildings are built by private companies. Almost the only public part is the hospital staff. Indeed, large swathes of the support staff are employed by private companies.

All I’m saying Sandy, is that in this country, UK or Scotland, we are far too quick to denigrate entrepreneurs who turn out to be billionaires. Without those capitalists, we would be in a much poorer state both in terms of technology advances and prosperity. Im afraid socialism doesn’t quite ‘cut the mustard’.

I think she could do with a better bra?

I agree with Johnson. Why be afraid of capitalism. One of the driving forces of capitalism is greed and why not? As long as it is contained within rules and regulations capitalism and greed are forces for good. What would life be like without Silicon Valley? What do you think drives Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk?

I did. Onwards now to meet Celtic.

What more protection can I have both for myself or others can there be other than being vaccinated which I have been. What is ever going to be more secure than that? I don’t see anything else in the pipe line.

Wow!! Some changes.

Fantastically reasoned response.

The F M has the power to move her just like the PM with his Cabinet Secretary.

You may well be correct regarding polling, but in the circles I move in, we’ve more or less given up on Covid restrictions. Obviously, you need a mask to go into supermarkets but as regards socialising in houses with family and friends we are all back to normal. Since all the old and vulnerable have now had at least one jab, what’s the point? Things are as good as they’re going to get. Hospitals are not busy, the case and death rates are down, what’s the problem? I saw an interview between Andrew Neil and Lord Sumption who made the point that it should be up to individuals to make their own risk assessment. Why lockdown the young and healthy for no good reason? okay, there might be a slight spike in cases and deaths but, with excess deaths now down to zero, the acceptance of some additional deaths seems worth it to get the economy, educational and health care for other diseases back to something like normal.

Sorry, I didn’t loathe Tony Blair. Never came across him. No, it was Tam who loathed him despite being in the same party. It was to do with the Iraq war.

The most interesting and personable politician I have ever met was the late Tam Dalyell. He spoke at a number of functions which I organised and his knowledge on a wide range of topics was amazing. Absolutely loathed Tony Blair. Exactly the kind of fellow to be a politician. From an aristocratic background but a real man of the people.

Sandy - maybe you can give us some context to the numbers. I think fully paid up membership was around 120000 a few years ago. What is it now? I say this as I understand that quite a few people who have either lapsed or cancelled their membership are still receiving literature and appeals for cash.

Sandy- I think you forget that Scots were very much at the fore in the creation of the British Empire. You seem to imply that it was purely an English affair. Having been to most of our former colonies, the message that comes over is that the Empire was a mixed bag. There were good things and bad and most folk seem to appreciate that. Never come across any great animosity towards us. Interestingly, a very high percentage of Jamaicans have Scottish surnames. Wonder what that tells you?

Yes, very disturbing. Seemed to start off okay as a peaceful protest then the usual anarchy mob got involved and escalated it. The police in Bristol have a poor reputation as they stood back and allowed the mob to pull down statues a while back. Once you show weakness , it just encourages the rioters.

Absolutely nothing to back it up but quite a few people I know have changed from Remain to Leave regarding the EU based on the mess up they’re making on vaccinations. If this is correct, then it would have quite an effect on Scottish independence. Have any polls been done on this?

Because if the vehicle for independence is shown as being corrupt, then people will go off the idea and support for the Union will increase. The pursuit of independence is perfectly laudable but if the organisation behind it is rotten then the idea will wither. Seems simple to me. Rule Britannia.

Okay, here’s a fact. The SNP audited accounts at 31.12.2019 show £90k in the bank. They can be seen as they are on public view.. That was after the fundraising for the indyref2 campaign which raised £600k and was supposed to be ringfenced I have seen a copy of a letter to the Treasurer asking about the ringfenced money to which there has been no response. A new Treasurer was appointed quite recently - Chapman, I think? and still no response from him. There may be a reasonable answerbut there may not. The matter needs to be clarified. Sandy - where are you?

I understand there have been resignations from the NEC Finance committee of the SNP as Murrell won’t let them examine the books. A respected CA Is one of them. There have been, of course, lots of enquiries as to the whereabouts of the ring fenced £600k electioneering fund as the last accounts showed only £90k in the bank. More scandal coming down the tracks? Sandy, what’s going on?