Just goes to show that he is a master strategist and tactician. I think there is an inevitability about Scotish independence, quite possibly within the next decade, and the English do need to decide their own future. But first we need to have a referendum on the future of the EU, and for that we need both the Conservatives and UKIP to do well at the expense of Labour and the Libdems in the general election. I do not agree with Salmond's position regarding the EU, which takes power further away from the electorate.
you have to piss with what you've got, things will change in Europe if you can change things here first.
that may be of some significance to you, but tbh there is not a lot of difference in distance from scotland to brussels or london,, much of a muchness.
Casting aside Iain Martin's perpetual dislike of Alex Salmond, his article below is an interesting précis of Sandy's latest dream. Alex Salmond is trying to wind-up the English so that they tell the Scots to leave - Telegraph
Pretty transparent attempt to push for a constitutional future in England that would further his independence ambitions after the people of Scotland declined to do it for him when given the opportunity. Scots wouldn't give me what I wanted, maybe I can dupe the dumb Englanders into delivering it instead. Or, as the Telegraph puts it, antagonise the English into widening the schism between England and Scotland. He wants us to have a constitutional revolution on his terms and he condescends to tell us what we should be voting for in an English referendum, what our future constitution should look like and what political sympathies we should aspire to. You should change you constitution and identity, England, for one that suits me. What if we don't want to be a socialist dependency of a European bureaucratic dictatorship Mr Salmond? What if we want to keep our appointed Upper House? What if we want to remain a small state centre-right free-market economy and not a student activist people's republic? What if we want to vote on leaving the EU? What if we want to vote in defence of our sovereignty? What if we want to decide for ourselves which parties and policies should govern our country? And what if we tell you to fuck off and keep your Scottish nose out of English affairs which is what you told us to do every time we opened our mouths to express an opinion during your referendum? I'll set the ball rolling on the antagonism if nothing else: Fuck off Mr Salmond and keep your nose out of English affairs.
The overriding ambition of at the few have always set the agenda for the majority who follow like labs to the slaughter. The problem with trying to establish a peoples democracy is that it requires leaders to do so. Give George Orwell's Animal Farm a read.
Gimlet, generally, I agree with a lot of your viewpoints but here I feel you are approaching Salmond with a bit too much scepticism. He, like the vast majority of us yes voters, genuinely like England and it's people. He is not proposing an English referendum to break up the UK, he is proposing a referendum to restructure England's government. I am sure we all agree that the current situation is not acceptable or good enough for England, eg Scottish MPs voting on English only matters. He abhors the House of Lords and is suggesting that, whilst improving democracy in England on the subject of EVEL, you may as we'll go the whole hog and abolish the House of Lords and probably bring in PR, so you don't have him as Deputy PM. this could happen under the current constitutional set up. He is also highlighting the fact that Scotland has a broad church of non establishment parties and England has only the racist, homophobic UKIP. England does need an uprising of the people in huge numbers to get rid of the idiots that are ruining your country. In my view Scottish independence would be as good for England as it would for Scotland. It would invigorate national identity in such a positive way that it would allow all those symbols, hijacked by the likes of the EDL to be taken back by the common people. Lastly, anyone who thought Salmond stepped down "in defeat" must now know, he has just changed jobs. He will be every bit as effective in Westminster as he was as FM.
Really John? The following parties support independence in Scotland. SNP, GREENS, SNP, SOLIDARITY. As for UKIP, overcrowding in SE England has nothing to do with where people came from, and everything to do with an economic policy designed to make London the centre for everything. That's why people go there, to get work. If we were not in the EU for the past 10 years the overcrowding problem would still have happened, as those jobs, created in the boom time would have been taken up by Scots, Irish, Geordies, Scousers etc. Putting the blame on people, because of where they came from is racism. The blame lies with those who centralise wealth and opportunity and did not put in sufficient infrastructure to deal with the growth in population. How many racist and homophobic quotes would you like me to list from UKIP representatives?
representatives? who are they representing? their clowns with zero diplomacy skills and credible political prowess .the route to all hatred.i don't believe there that daft down there.
Farage Councillor Dave Small Candidate Kerry Smith All made remarks which could be considered racist, homophobic etc Most UKIP voters aren't racist, they are just frustrated with the main political parties, and expressing a desire for change.
That's exactly what he was hypothesising about in his interview with The Times, amongst other things. I'm sorry I posted that link. My caveat wasn't strong enough. Iain Martin's writing is extremely twisted when it comes to Alex Salmond. His prejudice should be looked through and that includes his notion of anti-English sentiment. You would never know it from his language but Iain Martin is a Scot. I posted the link merely for the précis of what Alex is up to and for this purpose I should have said merely to look at the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. Much of the remainder of the article is a load of shit. Should someone choose to take it on board then there's little that can be done about that (or for that matter the recent tripe the BBC wrote about The Times interview). Heres a link to the article Iain Martin was referring to when he wrote that load of cobblers. Make your own mind up. Alex Salmond hints at Scottish votes for English laws - UK Politics - UK - The Independent There's been so much tripe printed / said about his Times interview in the last few days. It's been printed / jumped on yesterday / today that Sandy has "plans" for another referendum; or words to this effect. For example yesterday in the Independent Ben Tufft wrote ""Despite previously stating unequivocally that independence was a “once in a generation opportunity”, the MSP is confident that independence would be won in a future referendum." Alex Salmond has 'broken his word to the Scottish people' says Scottish Lib Dem leader - UK Politics - UK - The Independent For some reason the writer equates Sandy's belief of a "Yes" vote with his statement regarding "once in a generation". One would think from this statement that Sandy has said somewhere that he is unequivocally seeking another referendum. But no. In the context of the Times interview to which the article relates, that's not what Sandy said at all. Other than poor journalism or to suit the narrative of the article headline, I cannot see another reason for Ben Tufft's statement. Sadly the times interview is subscription only and that's a shame because it's an interesting read. The subscription is good value for Sandy's comments about David Cameron alone.
