Good point re Trident having limited deterrent effect, and I'd add the fact that we now have enemies who would, it seems, like nothing more than to meet their maker via a nuclear fireball, although preferably one that they have detonated themselves! Please amend "pay down the deficit" though - to "reduce the deficit" - we will not actually start to "pay down" (or "pay off") anything until the deficit is zero, and that's a long way off. Politicians on all sides seem to have created this confusion in terminology. I would not say that I was "paying down" a credit card debt if I meant that I had only added £500 to it in 2014, compared to £1000 in 2013 - I'd still owe more money than I did at the start of 2013. Whether SNP or anyone else influences policy, the UK will owe more money at the end of 2015 than it does now.
"Pay down the deficit" ?, well Recidivist dealt with that one. But I would add that talk comes cheap and with politicians we actually pay them to come up with this tosh. I did introduce the word "tartan" but last time I looked we were all one "nation", you on the other hand introduced the word "black" which, correct me if I am wrong, refers to "race"; the card of last resort for all right on lefties. And finally when the UK and our Allies in NATO could be facing Russia in Ukraine, or even the Baltic, anyone who would have us give up our nuclear deterrent, something which has worked, in that it has never been used, since the time it was introduced, would be a raving lunatic .
I think a lot of English people would agree with that. However what people outside Scotland don't want is to see our national governance hi-jacked by the SNP in pursuit of their own narrow agenda nor our Parliament dragged off on a separatist tangent. Those who feel the result of the referendum was unsatisfactory should seek resolution to the question in Scotland. No one outside Scotland is preventing secession, nor is it the English or anyone else outside Scotland whom nationalists need to convince of the case for independence, it is their fellow Scots.
does this worry you. Every Tory attack on the SNP is another blow to the union | John Harris | Comment is free | The Guardian
No. It should be out in the open and it should be discussed. SNP MPs at Westminster are elected to do what is right for the whole of the UK and not just for Scotland.
Yes, you are correct. I have been listening to GIMP by LOKI and that line comes up in one of the songs, so its ingrained in my mind.
With a due respect, that is a big assumption - that the SNP would have a narrow view. They will not vote on English only matters. As for general, UK wide matters, their opinion is as valid as anyone's. they should not be allowed to hold Labour to ransom, that would be wrong, and I doubt they will be able to. Look at Clegg and tuition fees, he lost that argument. Compromises would have to be made all round, and I don't see that as a bad thing, and unionist certainly shouldn't. Maybe you didn't see people outside Scotland trying to influence the referendum, but we did. BBC Sainsburys, Asda BP Shell Barrack Obama Cameron even tried to get Putin to comment in a pro union way, but he refused and exposed the approach.
Interesting the "England has too much influence over Scotland" argument given that Scottish people have more MP's per capita, and therefore a greater influence in parliament, that English people. And remind me again - where was Gordon Brown from ? And Tony Blair ?
