Brexit slowly becoming a Farce.

[bob the tank]

Prime Minister May on the international stage again today, addressing World movers and shakers, telling them to shape up and shwing the UK is open for business.
What did First Minister Sturgeon do today?

She put the Lying Ruth Davidson Party back in its box again, for the umpteenth week in a row, that's all

[WILLIEA]

1 hour ago, McSpreader said:

Prime Minister May on the international stage again today, addressing World movers and shakers, mouthing her usual vacuous meaningless platitudes.

 

Talks a lot, achieves nothing!

[AyrExile]

2 hours ago, McSpreader said:

Prime Minister May on the international stage again today, addressing World movers and shakers, telling them to shape up and shwing the UK is open for business.

What did First Minister Sturgeon do today?

Earned a larger salary for less responsibility and full time moaning. Who is the mug here? 

[AUFC90]

10 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

Earned a larger salary for less responsibility and full time moaning. Who is the mug here? 

What has her salary got to do with anything ? Her, her government and Salmond before her are certainly miles better than the Lab/Lib coalition that preceded them. We can only compare them to previous administrations and they are a lot better with less of a budget.

[AyrExile]

2 minutes ago, AUFC90 said:

What has her salary got to do with anything ? Her, her government and Salmond before her are certainly miles better than the Lab/Lib coalition that preceded them. We can only compare them to previous administrations and they are a lot better with less of a budget.

In a country reliant on foodbanks how can she earn more than May when governing over a population one tenth of the size and without the added responsibility of the additional departments Westminster control. With education at a low point and Scottish unemployment levels rising whilst the Uk rate is falling I assume you're high praise comes from her independence efforts?

[Alan Stubbs]

2 hours ago, McSpreader said:

Prime Minister May on the international stage again today, addressing World movers and shakers, telling them to shape up and shwing the UK is open for business.

What did First Minister Sturgeon do today?

As we know from you and Rob absolutely shiting it every time someone's asked you to back up your claims that Sturgeon ought to be "influencing from the inside", the First Minister of Scotland is not really one of the protagonists in this particular story. Nobody is claiming otherwise, Indeed the lack of consideration for the devolved administrations (a quick meeting with some soundbites from May notwithstanding) is well documented, so I've absolutely no idea what point you think you're making here.

The Prime Minister of the outgoing member state has the world's attention, no shit. Doesn't mean she's using that platform well.

"Open for business"

Edited January 19, 2017 by Alan Stubbs

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Is David Davis still manning the Brexit hotline?

[Alan Stubbs]

25 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

In a country reliant on foodbanks how can she earn more than May when governing over a population one tenth of the size and without the added responsibility of the additional departments Westminster control. With education at a low point and Scottish unemployment levels rising whilst the Uk rate is falling I assume you're high praise comes from her independence efforts?

Unemployment 12 Nov 2014 - 5.9%

Unemployment 18 January 2017 - 5.1%

That's after huge job losses in the oil and gas sector as well.

Just because Aunty Beeb and the rest of the media spunk their jammies every time Scotland's figures are actually worse than Britain's month to month, doesn't mean you can't look into them yourself.

[AyrExile]

6 minutes ago, Alan Stubbs said:

Unemployment 12 Nov 2014 - 5.9%

Unemployment 18 January 2017 - 5.1%

That's after huge job losses in the oil and gas sector as well.

Just because Aunty Beeb and the rest of the media spunk their jammies every time Scotland's figures are actually worse than Britain's month to month, doesn't mean you can't look into them yourself.

For fairness are you not going to add the UK's three year difference also? I remember Sturgeon asking to be judged on her record within education. Any decent figures there worth sharing to substantiate this excellent job she is doing.

[Alan Stubbs]

7 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

For fairness are you not going to add the UK's three year difference also? I remember Sturgeon asking to be judged on her record within education. Any decent figures there worth sharing to substantiate this excellent job she is doing.

6% - 4.8%. Which doesn't answer the question of whether unemployment is rising under Sturgeon's leadership. It rose between September and November this year but as we can tell from you already trying to change the subject, it has fallen with Sturgeon as FM. In conditions that are particularly tough on Scotland as well, well done Nic.

You remember Sturgeon being asked to be judged on her record within education a year and a half ago. The education figures that have been floating around since then were collected before her even saying that, so let me get back to you on that one.

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

6 hours ago, Colkitto said:

Hearing the hard border post Brexit will be between the island of Ireland and the British mainland and not between N.Ireland and the Republic.

Bizarre if true...

You can't control immigration without a hard border. England has a problem and Northern Ireland does not. It makes sense. 

[DublinMagyar]

The Warrenpoint Jungle. Will a jungle be allowed in NI?

[AyrExile]

15 minutes ago, Alan Stubbs said:

6% - 4.8%. Which doesn't answer the question of whether unemployment is rising under Sturgeon's leadership. It rose between September and November this year but as we can tell from you already trying to change the subject, it has fallen with Sturgeon as FM. In conditions that are particularly tough on Scotland as well, well done Nic.

You remember Sturgeon being asked to be judged on her record within education a year and a half ago. The education figures that have been floating around since then were collected before her even saying that, so let me get back to you on that one.

So the Scottish unemployment rate has fallen by 0.8% and the Uk by 1.2%. Pretty damning stats for Sturgeon who spends her time moaning about the shortcomings of Westminster. Rather than worrying about any rise I'm more concerned about how we are faring compared to the rest of Uk. In any field I would expect someone who is being paid top dollar to outperform their peers. But then again I suppose it's all Westminsters fault. Perhaps spend less time on an independence dream and sort the day to day tasks out. The masses can only be fooled for so long.

[Big Rider]

6 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

So the Scottish unemployment rate has fallen by 0.8% and the Uk by 1.2%. Pretty damning stats for Sturgeon who spends her time moaning about the shortcomings of Westminster. Rather than worrying about any rise I'm more concerned about how we are faring compared to the rest of Uk. In any field I would expect someone who is being paid top dollar to outperform their peers. But then again I suppose it's all Westminsters fault. Perhaps spend less time on an independence dream and sort the day to day tasks out. The masses can only be fooled for so long.

Jeezo man, are you actually running with this salary thing to take a dig at the first minister? Nicola is spending her time standing up for Scotland which is her remit. She argues that Scotland would be better served managing its own budget, rather than mitigate the austerity package handed down from........ You guessed it, Westminster. 

Contrast and compare with Mumbel, or whatever his name is, our so called Secretary of State, who acts as a message boy reading out dispatches from HQ like the lapdog he undoubtably is.

[Alan Stubbs]

25 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

So the Scottish unemployment rate has fallen by 0.8% and the Uk by 1.2%. Pretty damning stats for Sturgeon who spends her time moaning about the shortcomings of Westminster. Rather than worrying about any rise I'm more concerned about how we are faring compared to the rest of Uk. In any field I would expect someone who is being paid top dollar to outperform their peers. But then again I suppose it's all Westminsters fault. Perhaps spend less time on an independence dream and sort the day to day tasks out. The masses can only be fooled for so long.

So unemployment hasn't fallen under Sturgeon. Unlucky, thanks for playing etc.

Still this getting paid more than the PM thing though. I suppose a 0.4% difference (despite 120k jobs gone in one sector) is pretty bad when the FM is being paid to outperform her peers. I can see why you've brought it up so many times.

The SNP leader received more than £104,000, and paid over £31,000 in tax. "Nicola Sturgeon pays tax on her full salary entitlement but only draws her salary at its 2008/09 level

The PM gets £150,042.

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Alan Stubbs

[AyrExile]

8 minutes ago, Alan Stubbs said:

So unemployment hasn't fallen under Sturgeon. Unlucky, thanks for playing etc.

Still this getting paid more than the PM thing though. I suppose a 0.4% difference (despite 120k jobs gone in one sector) is pretty bad when the FM is being paid to outperform her peers. I can see why you've brought it up so many times.

The SNP leader received more than £104,000, and paid over £31,000 in tax. "Nicola Sturgeon pays tax on her full salary entitlement but only draws her salary at its 2008/09 level

The PM gets £150,042.

 

Unemployment has fallen under Sturgeon. The point you ignore is that Scotland is doing worse than RUk in this area. How can you say she is doing a great job when we are lagging behind in key areas like this. What exactly is she doing for people to say she is doing a great job? Unfortunately you have to carry the can when in power so making excuses about the demise in one job sector is laughable. Actually their salary packages are a lot closer than you state although Sturgeon chooses to claim less. Still a joke they are even close considering the responsibilities they both have. 

[HTG]

54 minutes ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

You can't control immigration without a hard border. England has a problem and Northern Ireland does not. It makes sense. 

Well that's fine if hard borders are only to be applied to England whilst Northern Ireland can take its face for a shite. Either immigration policy is consistent in a UK environment or it's just English expedience. It makes no sense at all. Particularly if it means that every time someone from NI coming into another area of the UK is forced to go through hard border processes whilst not having to go through that degree of scrutiny when moving into another country. 

[Alan Stubbs]

43 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

Unemployment has fallen under Sturgeon. The point you ignore is that Scotland is doing worse than RUk in this area. How can you say she is doing a great job when we are lagging behind in key areas like this. What exactly is she doing for people to say she is doing a great job? Unfortunately you have to carry the can when in power so making excuses about the demise in one job sector is laughable. Actually their salary packages are a lot closer than you state although Sturgeon chooses to claim less. Still a joke they are even close considering the responsibilities they both have. 

For starters, at no point in this little back and forth have I mentioned the words "great job". I simply pointed out a factually incorrect statement and as you've flailed about talking even more shite, I've went into those points as well.

Back to the unemployment though, please do explain how the FM carries the can for job losses in the oil industry, a matter reserved to Westminster? Before you get too excited with some "look! Look! Nats blaming Westminster again grr" pish, that's not what I'm saying at all. The reason I bring it up is that when a figure equivalent to 4.6% of the number of people currently employed in the country goes, maybe driving unemployed down only 0.8% since taking office isn't exactly the end of the world.

Yep their salary packages are closer, as the link I posted shows. £144k - £152k (the PM's £150k also involves a (smaller) voluntary freeze). Still not more than the PM then.

Edit: That 120,000 figure is actually the UK sector, so not definitely all in Scotland. Still fair to say that that region has been hit massively and things could be a lot worse than a 0.8% reduction to 2014.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Alan Stubbs

[AUFC90]

Is Sturgeon the first leader of a parliament to be criticized about her pay. Not just criticized but actively used as a stick to beat her with like she somehow can't stick up for normal people as she's on 150k. Lot of shite, she's in the highest position in our national parliament. She would probably get paid more in the private sector using her fucking degree. As for employment statistics, you take London out the equation then Scotland pisses all over England on everything. GDP per capita for England is like 24K? For London it's 40K, it's quite simply in a league of its own when it comes to economic output and job creation, not just in the UK but across the whole of Europe. London skews the figures and makes England look better than it actually is. The funny thing is it probably has a lot to do with Scotland and the rest of England subsidizing London infrastructure for decades and all the politicians being primarily focused on policies that suit the city. Idiots like Ayrexile using employment figures with a miniscule difference of 0.4% as a way of saying the scottish government are doing a bad a job are quite frankly morons. I'm pretty sure that unemployment in Scotland is at it's lowest rate ever and that's with the SNP running the ship through a financial crash and successive budget cuts. NHS waiting times for people being seen within 4 hours is at 93%, it was like 80% when Labour ran it during the BOOM years but Labour continue to spout that 90,000 weren't seen within the time, well 90,000 sounds a lot worse than 93% were seen within the time right ? And idiots like Ayrexile lap it right up. Granted the education system needs work but the government has admitted this and are trying to make it better. At least they've acknowledged it.

I can still rember before the SNP took power that the Labour government couldn't even build a fucking overpass without being vastly over budget and time. The SNP government seem to be quite good at capital projects. 

I'll compare this current administration to the previous one... not Westminster.... and quite frankly it pisses all over it with LESS resources.

[RedRob72]

As we know from you and Rob absolutely shiting it every time someone's asked you to back up your claims that Sturgeon ought to be "influencing from the inside", the First Minister of Scotland is not really one of the protagonists in this particular story. Nobody is claiming otherwise, Indeed the lack of consideration for the devolved administrations (a quick meeting with some soundbites from May notwithstanding) is well documented, so I've absolutely no idea what point you think you're making here.
The Prime Minister of the outgoing member state has the world's attention, no shit. Doesn't mean she's using that platform well.
"Open for business"

I honestly think May is principal led as I believe is Sturgeon, wee Nip could have offered co-operation and advice ( I've said before she is a formidable politician) on Brexit strategy, but she's between a rock and a hard place in that she can't be seen to take a backward step with more fervent Nationalists.