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Scotland rejects independence with No winning 55% of vote; Market reaction to Scotland vote: it’s 'up, up and away'
Topic Started: 9 Sep 2014, 10:43 AM (3,404 Views)
Black Panther
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Scottish independence: No camp pledges new powers

The No campaign will this week make a last-ditch appeal for Scots to stick with the UK by unveiling an “action plan” for more Holyrood powers, after the Yes camp seized a shock poll lead in the race for Scotland’s future.

But the move, announced by Chancellor George Osborne, has been branded a “panic measure and bribe” by First Minister Alex Salmond, who insisted that the only prospect for real change is a Yes vote on 18 September.

The Better Together campaign is facing internal recriminations after a weekend poll by YouGov revealed a dramatic turnaround for supporters of independence, putting them ahead for the first time, by 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

David Cameron was with the Queen at Balmoral yesterday as news of the Yes lead emerged and a Number 10 source insisted the Prime Minister would “strain every sinew to make the case for a No vote”. Mr Osborne has now said a timetable will be set out this week detailing how all three of the pro-Union parties’ current plans for more devolution will be moulded into a package of powers in the event of a No vote.

Labour will today ratchet up attempts to persuade wavering Scots to vote No, with Ed Miliband setting out a “social justice” case in a keynote speech at the TUC and shadow chancellor Ed Balls hitting the campaign trail in Aberdeen. Former prime minister Gordon Brown is to undertake a whistlestop six-day speaking tour of the country.

• Get the latest referendum news, opinion and analysis from across Scotland and beyond on our new Scottish Independence website

The latest poll means the No camp has surrendered a 22-point lead in just over a month. Although a different poll conducted by Panelbase from the weekend suggests the No camp is four points in front, the referendum battle now appears neck and neck just ten days from the vote. Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that the Queen has a “great deal of concern” about the prospect of a Yes vote, although Buckingham Palace insisted she is “strictly neutral”.

The Chancellor yesterday moved to assure wavering voters they can be assured of change if they stick with the UK.

Mr Osborne said: “You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland. More tax powers, more spending powers, more plans for powers over the welfare state.

“That will be put into effect – the timetable for delivering that will be put into effect the moment there is a No vote in the referendum. The clock will be ticking for delivering those powers, and then Scotland will have the best of both worlds.

“They will avoid the risks of separation but have more control over their own destiny, which is where I think many Scots want to be.”

It is “clear” Scotland wanted more autonomy, Mr Osborne said, and the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats had agreed to “deliver” on that.

All three parties have set out their own proposals for greater powers for Holyrood after a No vote. The measures being announced this week will be a timetable setting out the formal process to agree and implement a deal. This is likely to centre on the “Conference for a New Scotland”, which Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has announced he will be staging after a No vote.

But the prospect of any package of new powers has been dismissed by Mr Salmond who insisted the No camp was only reacting to the disappearance of its lead in the Sunday Times poll.

“We’re expected to believe that secretly, behind the scenes, after hundreds of thousands of people have already voted (by post) there is a radical new deal on the constitution agreed by the Westminster parties.

“There is a radical new deal on the constitution -– it’s called independence. They’re not serious – this is a panicky last-minute measure because the Yes campaign is winning on the ground. The evidence for that is overwhelming. I’ve no doubt they’ll cobble something together because having failed to scare the Scottish people, the next step is to try to bribe us, but it won’t work because they have no credibility left.”

The coalition government ruled out calls for the so-called “Devo Max” third option appearing on the independence referendum ballot paper, Mr Salmond added.

“That’s why these people have no credibility left,” he added. “It shows the chaos, confusion and total disintegration of the No campaign because, quite clearly, if you were serious about something and thought it would help your campaign, you would announce it before people voted as opposed to after.

“This is a reaction to movement on the ground and the first opinion poll to show Yes in the lead.”

But the First Minister insisted that the Yes camp is still the underdog. He said: “As this campaign moves towards its climax, things on the ground and in the communities of Scotland are moving firmly in the Yes direction and it is precisely because of the total lack of confidence in the Westminster elite.”

Better Together campaign chief Alistair Darling hit the campaign trail around Loch Lomond yesterday and said every voter can now “tip the balance in this referendum”. He added: “We are very confident that we’re going to win, but people have to realise this is a close contest – it will go right to the wire.”

Mr Brown revealed that he will carry out a six-day, 30-visit tour of Scotland’s heartlands aimed at convincing undecided voters of the case for a “patriotic No vote”. He has already formally requested Westminster allocates time for debate immediately after the referendum to get a timetable for implementing more Holyrood powers.

“This is a decision not about me or this generation – it’s a decision about my children, it’s a decision about their future, their children’s future,” he said yesterday. “It’s irreversible and it’s not one that you can make without getting your views across to the maximum number of people.

“This is a completely different type of decision.”

He added: “We’re about to enter an economic minefield if we have independence and people have got to focus on that.

“I understand the protest, I understand the desire for change, I understand that people actually want a change of government.”

MORE POWERS

What each of the unionist parties have been offering in the event of a No vote on 18 September.

LABOUR

• Tax powers MSPs should be able to vary tax by up to 15p, giving them the option of restoring the 50p rate for top earners – but there would be no power to cut the upper income tax rate, which currently sits at 45p.

• Housing benefit This should be devolved to Holyrood, allowing MSPs to scrap the UK government’s controversial under occupancy charge, branded the “bedroom tax” by Labour and other critics.

• Attendance Allowance This benefit is paid to disabled OAPs.

• Work programme The scheme manages services for the unemployed.

CONSERVATIVES

• Income tax Full control over income tax which would make the Scottish Parliament accountable for 40 per cent of the money it spent.

• VAT The Tories devolution commission said there was a case for a share of Scottish VAT receipts being assigned to the Scottish Parliament.

• Welfare Holyrood should be given responsibility on welfare issues which relate to devolved areas, such as housing benefits, and attendance allowance.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

• Tax Raising Holyrood would raise and spend most of its own taxes under the Lib Dems’ federal-style “home rule” plans devised by Sir Menzies Campbell.

• Borrowing powers Scotland would be able to borrow on its own terms under the plans.

• Barnett Formula The system use to work out Scotland’s share of public spending would be replaced with a “needs-based” set-up.

• The Act of Union The 1707 agreement between Scotland and England would be scrapped and replaced with a declaration of federalism.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/scottish-independence-no-camp-pledges-new-powers-1-3533905
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Black Panther
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Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe

Independence would cap great year for first minister but despite his charm for all seasons, is the promise a grand illusion?

Alex Salmond is undoubtedly the most successful politician practising in these islands today. He has led Scots first to an SNP majority at Holyrood, now to the brink of a historic break with the rest of the UK ("rUK"?).

He has done so by telling them they can keep all the bits of Britain they like – the BBC and the pound – while discarding the nasty Tory or New Labour bits, like austerity and war. As Martin Kettle shouts, it's the only game that matters now. In the face of enfeebled, self-harming opposition on both sides of the border (and a miserable economic recession on both sides too) he has performed brilliantly.

He is a political chameleon, as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond. The ex-oil economist can do it all because he has the gift of the gab and used to be a leftwing tearaway, expelled from the SNP ranks in stuffier times.

I refer to his answer on development aid, the one he gave to a grumpy Daily Express type in Perth's Salutation hotel on Monday night. This is what Cameron, Clegg and Miliband are up against. Elderly Mr Grumpy had asked whether we should be spending 0.7% of GDP on aid when so much of it is wasted and some goes to countries with their own nuclear programmes. Salmond said the man was "quite right" about waste but that Scotland's own aid programme – started by Labour's first ministers, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell, he generously noted – is different. "I challenge you to find a penny that has been wasted." But on the main thrust – "should we spend 0.7% of our wealth to help people who have nothing? YES WE SHOULD."

Thanks in no small measure to the collective memory of David Livingstone, Scotland's most famous missionary explorer, help for Africa is special here. Gordon Brown, himself raised on Livingstone stories in the family manse, could and would have given a similar answer, dull but decent.

But the real talent, the election-winning Wilson or Blair bit (the pair won seven general elections between them), lay in the seemingly inconsequential back half of Salmond's answer.

He spoke of Scotland's hydroelectric projects in Africa, local expertise shared with the world's poor. Thanks to Scottish aid football fans in a Malawi village – a Livingstone country with which Scotland has deep ties – were able to watch this year's World Cup on TV for the first time. A vivid little story capped by a seeming afterthought. "Tragically, Malawi did not qualify for the World Cup." (Pause while the audience chuckle). Even more tragically, Scotland did not qualify for the World Cup either." After the pause for much more self-deprecating laughter and with everyone listening, Salmond rounded off his story on a high-minded note. The hospital near that village is also powered by the same hydro project, he told them.

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. Not many politicians could have handled it half as well. Even Mr Grumpy probably felt satisfied. Salmond has the capacity to make a large chunk of any audience believe in him and in themselves. It's a feelgood process that assuages instinctive scepticism which some must have felt ("that man's a comedian," one audience member told me as he left) towards his answers on tax or the currency problem, on defence jobs or skills shortages, on assorted holes that might loom in the health, education or research budgets if Scotland's oil revenues are not as buoyant as the current Scottish government tells voters they will be.

One more anecdote. Earlier in the evening, he confessed to a weakness: his well known passion for horseracing ("it's one of my vices").

Part of its charm is that "it's a sport which attracts every single stratum of society, including Her Majesty the Queen, the whole of society is engaged". True, if a touch exaggerated. And the moral of the tale? "The yes campaign is not the SNP or me, it's not one spectrum. We can do better running ourselves."

Brilliant. With one deft sidestep Her Maj was thereby enlisted in the yes camp, despite the alarm she is reported to be feeling about the prospect of having to rule over two kingdoms. It was an arrangement brought about in 1603 by the Stewart (Scottish spelling) dynast, James I and VI (of Scotland, as English schoolboys were once politely taught), and ended in 1707 under the last Protestant Stuart (English spelling), Queen Anne, before her distant Hanoverian cousins inherited the British throne in 1714 and saw off the Catholic Stewarts' invasion the following year (and again in 1745-6 for luck).

This is what Scottish audiences have been hearing for two years now, ever since Salmond took the plunge he was expected to take on full independence.

After much manoeuvring, Cameron ruled out the third option on the 18 September ballot paper – the compromise offer known as "devo max". He did so because it was not in the SNP's 2011 manifesto, though it is still on the table if Scotland votes no. Westminster will spell out further details this week.

We will know soon enough whether Cameron's was a masterly piece of nerve keeping, or the fatal blunder that broke the union of 1707. In 2012, Salmond gave some listeners the impression that devo max is what he really wanted. Whatever the outcome, Fleet Street's introspective pundits will say: "I told you so", and make dire predictions for the future, which are likely to be off the mark.

The fact is that more sensible analysts suspect the future will not be what either side predicts for the reason that the wider world is in a rare and dangerous state of flux. Who can predict how the crisis in the Middle East will unfold – or affect oil prices? How the EU will resolve its problems – or not? How China and the US will handle the changing power balance between them? How the arch-nationalist Vladimir Putin will channel separatism in Ukraine?

In that context Scotland's fate is a modest element, a symptom of wider fragmentation of the current global order, a footnote to the fall of empire and the Berlin Wall, important to us and punchdrunk neighbours like France and Italy, a mere curiosity to emerging titans like Brazil.

But Salmond the magician's dazzle has not pulled those crucial rabbits out of his hat. Not on tax and spending, on the currency union which he wants (but rUK does not), on Scotland's relations with an EU which does not want this aggro. He has changed his tune on all of them in ways that would have sunk a lesser politician. The fact that Cameron is Salmond lite in his own approach to rUK's relations with Europe – devo-max or independence, eh, Dave? – does not help anyone, except perhaps the first minister.

And there is the lurking paradox that may – just may – rescue the embattled no camp. Salmond is also like Wilson and Blair in the sense that he generates startling levels of personal mistrust, among supporters as well as foes. Plenty want to ditch him in favour of a "real" leftwing or green government when the yes vote has prevailed. Others argue that, freed of Tory taint and London domination, Scotland will enjoy a free market revival.

Salmond studied medieval Scottish history as well as economics at university so he cannot say he has not had fair warning – it was even more turbulent and bloody than England at that time – and plenty of Scotland's kings and leaders came to a sticky end. If it happens this time, it won't be dull.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/08/salmond-scotland-independence-first-minister
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newjez
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The more they hear from southern pollies, the more they vote yes. You should do a search for what you can buy in Perthshire for the price of an average perth house.
Whenever you have an argument with someone, there comes a moment where you must ask yourself, whatever your political persuasion, 'am I the Nazi?'
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newjez
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He's the Nigel farage of northern politics.
Whenever you have an argument with someone, there comes a moment where you must ask yourself, whatever your political persuasion, 'am I the Nazi?'
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Gossamer
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FREEDOM!

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Common sense is a curse - those who have it need to suffer dealing with those who don't have it.

APF idiot list
Nelson
Black Panther
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Count du Monet
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In the new Scotland no one will laugh at a man for wearing a skirt! :D

The new UK will be an even smaller peanut with delusions of grandeur!
Edited by Count du Monet, 9 Sep 2014, 11:31 AM.
The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
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Black Panther
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Count du Monet
9 Sep 2014, 11:28 AM
In the new Scotland no one will laugh at a man for wearing a skirt! :D

The new UK will be an even smaller peanut with delusions of grandeur!
Alvin Toffler called it the English Disease.



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Veritas
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I wonder when Australia will cop on that having another countries flag on our flag is really lame.
Property acquisition as a topic was almost a national obsession. You couldn't even call it speculation as the buyers all presumed the price of property could only go up. That’s why we use the word obsession. Ordinary people were buying properties for their young children who had not even left school assuming they would not be able to afford property of their own when they left college- Klaus Regling on Ireland. Sound familiar?

The evidence of nearly 40 cycles in house prices for 17 OECD economies since 1970 shows that real house prices typically give up about 70 per cent of their rise in the subsequent fall, and that these falls occur slowly.
Morgan Kelly:On the Likely Extent of Falls in Irish House Prices, 2007
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Dr Watson
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Veritas
9 Sep 2014, 02:12 PM
I wonder when Australia will cop on that having another countries flag on our flag is really lame.
Not while house prices are rising. Priorities!
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt — Bertrand Russell
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Frank Castle
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Business As Usual

GBP dropping like a stone, where will it end???
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Have booked accom. in Asia a month ago and the owner wants payment in GBP so I am watching it
If I paid today we would be flying for free.

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Edited by Frank Castle, 9 Sep 2014, 02:54 PM.
Ignore posts by The Whole Truth · View Post · End Ignoring
The forum fuckwit goes RRRAAARRRGGHHhhh - But not a fuck was given..................by anyone.
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