When will indyref2 happen?

[Cyclizine]

2 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

It's a great read:

http://allanfaulds.scot/new-municipalism

That's the one. It is indeed a great read.

[Wee-Bey]

1 minute ago, G51 said:

Oh please, the Central Belt has no culture.

Well, except sectarianism.

You won't be laughing when I use my powers as Minister of the Interior to make learning The Sash/Fields of Athenry mandatory and flood your silly little island with Buckfast and heroin.

In 20 years time, folk will think your kids are from Larkhall not Lerwick.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Can’t we just make Shetland a gulag and be done with it? 

[G51]

11 minutes ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

You won't be laughing when I use my powers as Minister of the Interior to make learning The Sash/Fields of Athenry mandatory and flood your silly little island with Buckfast and heroin.

In 20 years time, folk will think your kids are from Larkhall not Lerwick.

So you're going to do to us what you did to the Occupied Six, nice one pal

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, speckled tangerine said:

The SNP will absolutely fragment/fold after independence. It may be some sort of caretaker immediately after indy, but there will be elections within a year and I'd imagine new parties will emerge along left/centre/right lines.

 

55 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Because there's one reason the SNP is hegemonic today that will not be there after independence.

 

24 minutes ago, G51 said:

Ireland has a PR system and it still has parties with broad coalitions within them - particularly the powerful ones like Fianna Fail.

Scotland has a leader that's a clear cut above the rest in terms of political nous and favourability, a dominant hegemonic party of government stacked with careerists, and a dire standard of opposition. Mixu's identified some tension points but I would wager there's a far greater majority of post-indy politicians who will see where their bread is buttered and continue pissing inside the tent after independence. Who's going to form these opposition parties to threaten the Sturgeon government? Loads of SNP supporters can't even identify their next leader before we even have a laugh at Dicky Leonard, Douglas Ross or the glorious resurrection of Jim Murphy's political career.

 

[Wee-Bey]

28 minutes ago, G51 said:

So you're going to do to us what you did to the Occupied Six, nice one pal

Careful, this is rebel talk.

[SandyCromarty]

2 hours ago, G51 said:

I think the folk from the Central Belt need to understand that this is nothing to do with some covert plan to remain in the UK (how would that even work anyway), and everything to do with devolving powers away from Holyrood and London and into the hands of local communities, who feel that both Parliaments are out of touch with these areas.

If/when an independent Scotland happens (an inevitability in my opinion, and something I'd favour), you're going to have a situation where the Central Belt becomes dominant over the rest of the country. Of Scotlands 5.5m population, 3.5m live in the Central Belt. Every policy made will be tailored for the Central Belt, just like it currently is. And that's fine - if you live there.

This is not unique to Scotland either. Ireland makes decisions that disproportionately benefit the Greater Dublin area, hence the huge increase in wealth for people who live there. England does the same with London.

But in Scotland, the Highlands is rich in the resources that will matter over the next Century - water, land and clean energy. The majority of clean energy produced in Scotland is produced in this region. This is somewhere that should be thriving. And yet these communities watch as powers are actually taken *away* from them by Westminster and Holyrood. If rural communities are to survive then they need to be able to make themselves attractive to incomers and the people raised there, and right now they aren't. All the power is in Holyrood and London, and soon it'll all be in Holyrood.

Fundamentally, this is what the move by SIC is all about - to try and regain some of these powers and put them in the hands of local communities. And if Holyrood / the Central Belt refuses to devolve power, then they'll be left with no choice but to campaign and win independence.

For years the Highlands and Islands Development board continually handed out grants to hippy basket weavers from the south looking for alternative lifestyles, the highlands are littered with outlets for pottery and sheepskin rugs located in the middle of nowhere.

We do need to see serious industrial investment in the Highlands rather on this emphasis on tourism which has now been shown to be a precarious seasonal business mostly employing the young on minimum wages in hotels etc.

Yet when we had the proposal for a commercial rocket launching site in the north there was an immediate uproar from the locals in the area proposed.

Another blow, albeit a short term fix, has seen the de-commissioning of oil platforms given to yards in the north of england while we have an excellent facility and massive operational dry dock at Nigg, this type of work would provide hundreds if not thousands of jobs given the amount of de-commissioning there will be.

[G51]

2 minutes ago, Henderson to deliver ..... said:

Careful, this is rebel talk.

okkarr dagr munu koma

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

As minister of information, I will be building a single official language from the "hate wen ma maw" section of Scottish twitter. Non compliance will be treated severely 

[Stellaboz]

Minister of Yer Maw more like

[SandyCromarty]

2 hours ago, G51 said:

I think the folk from the Central Belt need to understand that this is nothing to do with some covert plan to remain in the UK (how would that even work anyway), and everything to do with devolving powers away from Holyrood and London and into the hands of local communities, who feel that both Parliaments are out of touch with these areas.

If/when an independent Scotland happens (an inevitability in my opinion, and something I'd favour), you're going to have a situation where the Central Belt becomes dominant over the rest of the country. Of Scotlands 5.5m population, 3.5m live in the Central Belt. Every policy made will be tailored for the Central Belt, just like it currently is. And that's fine - if you live there.

This is not unique to Scotland either. Ireland makes decisions that disproportionately benefit the Greater Dublin area, hence the huge increase in wealth for people who live there. England does the same with London.

But in Scotland, the Highlands is rich in the resources that will matter over the next Century - water, land and clean energy. The majority of clean energy produced in Scotland is produced in this region. This is somewhere that should be thriving. And yet these communities watch as powers are actually taken *away* from them by Westminster and Holyrood. If rural communities are to survive then they need to be able to make themselves attractive to incomers and the people raised there, and right now they aren't. All the power is in Holyrood and London, and soon it'll all be in Holyrood.

Fundamentally, this is what the move by SIC is all about - to try and regain some of these powers and put them in the hands of local communities. And if Holyrood / the Central Belt refuses to devolve power, then they'll be left with no choice but to campaign and win independence.

Here lies the answer to your fear of Central Belt domination post Independence, simply that the bulk of the SNP Independence vote will come from the Central Belt.

All political parties favour areas where their majority support lies. It was ever thus.

Thing is lets get Independence first and then we'll see.

[SandyCromarty]

32 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

 

 

Scotland has a leader that's a clear cut above the rest in terms of political nous and favourability, a dominant hegemonic party of government stacked with careerists, and a dire standard of opposition. Mixu's identified some tension points but I would wager there's a far greater majority of post-indy politicians who will see where their bread is buttered and continue pissing inside the tent after independence. Who's going to form these opposition parties to threaten the Sturgeon government? Loads of SNP supporters can't even identify their next leader before we even have a laugh at Dicky Leonard, Douglas Ross or the glorious resurrection of Jim Murphy's political career.

 

Good points.

[SandyCromarty]

All this talk of Shetland etc wanting independence is diversionary unionist talk borne out of the sheer panic at the latest polls.

It has all the relevance of a fart in a sewage works.

[NotThePars]

14 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

As minister of information, I will be building a single official language from the "hate wen ma maw" section of Scottish twitter. Non compliance will be treated severely 

Looking forward to tons of folk from Newton Mearns developing a working class patois to match their tweeting styles and avoid the gulags. They will fail. Dekulakisation of Meadowside and Bearsden, empty the West Ends.

[Highland Capital]

1 hour ago, Cyclizine said:

I think government in Scotland needs to be more decentralised and I agree with you that particularly in the Highlands and Islands, but also elsewhere there is a perception, probably accurate, that decisions are often made for the benefit of the Central Belt.

I don't think this is a call for independence for Shetland or Orkney or Sutherland, but more a call for more local devolution of powers. Even in Caithness, there's a feeling that Highland Council only care about Inverness. There was an article recently that suggested as a country, we have some of the largest council areas, geographically and demographically. I think there is a real opportunity to give more powers to more local entities and allow more local accountability.

It's not always necessarily about power per se, it's that there's been a fair amount of centralisation already in the last few years within Scotland.  For example, even a couple of years ago if you phoned 999 in Inverness, the person in the call centre was usually in the town, knew the town and that was a massive help.  Now when you phone 999 in Inverness you get someone in Dundee and in the time the whole call would've taken previously, they're still trying to get Google Maps up.  I can't imagine what it would be like trying to explain your location in somewhere up in the far north west.

In regards to the Highland Council I've heard the line before that "Inverness gets everything" and there's probably some truth in that.  The Highland Council region is absolutely monstrous.  Having a council area with a population bigger than Iceland and a land mass bigger than Belgium in a country of Scotland's size is ridiculous.  Surely your council should at least be local - no-one can surely argue that Wick and Fort William are in any way local to each other.  It's time Highland was split up, with Inverness, Lochaber, Caithness etc having their own individual council regions.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Highland Capital

[Cyclizine]

17 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

Yet when we had the proposal for a commercial rocket launching site in the north there was an immediate uproar from the locals in the area proposed.

Not entirely true. The majority of the local population support the site. There's a vocal minority, who seem to think the Far North needs to be preserved as some sort of sterile tourist Disneyland, ignoring the needs of local workers who will slowly but surely continue to leave for jobs elsewhere, a process that will be accelerated over time with Dounreay decommissioning. Don't get me wrong, we need to protect and preseve the environment and spectacular landscapes, but this can be done whilst creating opportunities for skilled workers locally. The Covid epidemic has shown that many jobs can be done remotely, perhaps something to promote?

Edited September 11, 2020 by Cyclizine

[Cyclizine]

3 minutes ago, Highland Capital said:

It's not always necessarily about power per se, it's that there's been a fair amount of centralisation already in the last few years within Scotland.  For example, even a couple of years ago if you phoned 999 in Inverness, the person in the call centre was usually in the town, knew the town and that was a massive help.  Now when you phone 999 in Inverness you get someone in Dundee and in the time the whole call would've taken previously, they're still trying to get Google Maps up.  I can't imagine what it would be like trying to explain your location in somewhere up in the far north west.

In regards to the Highland Council I've heard the line before that "Inverness gets everything" and there's probably some truth in that.  The Highland Council region is absolutely monstrous.  Having a council area with a population bigger than Iceland and a land mass bigger than Belgium in a country of Scotland's size is ridiculous.  Surely your council should at least be local - no-one can surely argue that Wick and Fort William are in any way local to each other.  It's time Highland was split up, with Inverness, Lochaber, Caithness etc having their own individual council regions.

Yup. The paper that @MixuFruit mentioned several posts ago talks about this and proposes some solutions: essentially a return to two-tier local government, but with a graded distribution of powers.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Cyclizine said:

There was an article recently that suggested as a country, we have some of the largest council areas, geographically and demographically. I think there is a real opportunity to give more powers to more local entities and allow more local accountability.

The people making this argument clearly have no experience of micro-level, utter failure councils like Inverclyde. Any system that brings dozens more Chris McElenys into Scottish politics gets the thumbs down from me.

A Greater Greenock city state on the other hand...

 

[John Lambies Doos]

Are we independent yet?

[Highland Capital]

15 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Are we independent yet?

No, but Shetland might be.