alanferrier

alanferrier, 8 months ago to random

The UK and Norway discovered oil at roughly the same time, and have extracted roughly the same total amount of oil and gas. Norway has a sovereign wealth fund amounting to $1.4 trillion. The UK, and consequently Scotland, has a sovereign wealth fund amounting to the square root of sod all.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/01/north-sea-oil-a-tale-of-two-countries/

alanferrier, 8 months ago to random

But for the broad shoulders of the Union, Scotland would be as poor as Norway.

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

“Long-term trends suggest that the level of support for independence, and of opposition to it, are unlikely to be affected strongly or permanently by the transient fortunes of the SNP.”
—Lindsay Paterson, Professor Emeritus of Education Policy, Edinburgh University, writing in The Political Quarterly.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23749744.scottish-independence-not-going-away-according-major-analysis/

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

Cities which have banned or restricted short-term lets: Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Honolulu, New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney.

But strangely, and uniquely, Scotland "will turn into a laughing stock."
https://news.stv.tv/east-central/edinburgh-self-catering-host-says-short-term-lets-legislation-will-turn-scotland-into-a-laughing-stock

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

BREAKING: Shock horror as rich bloke moans about taxes and says #SNPBad.

NB: Control over corporation tax is reserved to the UK Government.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tax-scotland-drop-corporation-tax-to-15-per-cent-for-key-scottish-sectors-to-boost-economy-says-sir-tom-hunter-4265086

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

This shabby little country where a woman can be arrested and handcuffed in front of her crying child for not paying her bus fare yet where peers steal hundreds of millions of pounds with impunity and royals can flog citizenship and knighthoods for a bung is not a country with which I wish in any way to be associated.

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

“This is an incredibly open and shut case with the evidence provided in writing. It is astonishing how this matter is not being taken forward. We need an explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service and the Met police as to why no action is being taken. But the suspicion must be that no action is being taken because of the nature of the potential offender, rather than a proper assessment of the potential crime.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/21/met-police-no-further-action-cash-for-honours-claims-king-charity-princes-foundation

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

From today's Times - well played, Mr. Ian Jones.
https://archive.is/S6XcG#selection-1211.0-1238.0

Braverman’s future

Sir, In your story about Suella Braverman (“No 10’s Suella dilemma: keep in or cast out?”, Aug 19) you describe her as a polarising figure, with some of her colleagues deriding her as “totally useless” and others hailing her as a future party leader. I'd like to point out that, based on recent experience, the one doesn’t rule out the other.

Ian Jones
Lingfield, Surrey

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

#GERS for 2023 is 73 pages long and includes the words "estimate" or "estimated" 140 times but here's all you need to know: small, independent nations (e.g. Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland) are significantly, provably happier, more equal and more prosperous.

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

Interesting stat from this poll is that the Rejoin/Stay Out preference across the UK now exactly matches the Scottish Remain/Leave vote on the day of the actual #Brexit referendum - 23 June 2016.

Took you a while, but you got there.

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

The UK Home Office has told an asylum seeker with tuberculosis they are to be moved onto the Bibby Stockholm barge.

The doctor treating the condition is trying to prevent the move, has warned of a “public health catastrophe,” and said “I feel they are being treated like livestock, only slightly worse, as livestock are prohibited from being transported with an active infection.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/home-office-asylum-seeker-tb-bibby-stockholm-health-fears-2537035

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

Their intention is not to remove refugees' human rights.

Their intention is to remove your human rights, and to use refugees as an excuse.

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

Reminder: if you're English and an arsehole and Scottish folk don't like you, it's not because you're English.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/penny-mordaunt-snp-investigation-independence-mld7csmr6

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

"If they don’t like it they can fuck off back to France."

Not Britain First. Not the National Front. Not the BNP. Not the British Union of Fascists.

The Deputy Chairman of the Conservative and Unionist Party.

Hard to tell the difference these days, ain't it?

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

On the same day that Sunak blew 50 grand on a private jet to Aberdeen, it's reported that the FM spent £534 on a return flight between Edinburgh and London City.

Guess which one made the Scottish papers.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23691315.humza-yousaf-slated-eyewatering-hotel-bill-london-debut-fm

alanferrier, 9 months ago to random

"Have you considered travelling by private jet? It's a much more efficient use of your time."

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Schrödinger's Scotland: simultaneously too poor to be independent but rich enough to "power up Britain."

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

"This is a British problem. When comparing spending power across Europe, between 2007 to 2018 households saw a jump of 27% in Germany and 34% in France. The UK meanwhile saw a 2% fall over the same period."

Still - #BetterTogether, eh?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-30/britain-s-youngest-workers-face-a-bleak-economic-future

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Why is the UK media obsessed by where Farage keeps his money but entirely uninterested in where he got it from?

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Support for the Scottish Government's "Citizenship in an independent Scotland" publication from one of the happiest, most egalitarian and most prosperous countries in the world - the small, northern European, independent nation of Finland.
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/world-int/23935-citizenship-in-an-independent-scotland-a-fair-and-welcoming-approach.html

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Dominic Rabb, the man who resigned in protest at a #Brexit deal he himself negotiated then voted for the deal he said was worse than staying in the EU because it was better than staying in the EU is in the @Telegraph today telling us how experts can make better decisions.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/26/britain-can-take-a-lesson-from-the-super-forecasters/

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

"I got 45% and I didn't even have to strike! Not that anyone would have noticed..."

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

The Tories are now basically UKIP.

Labour are now basically the Tories.

One way or another the Tories will win the next UK General Election, except this time they'll probably be wearing red ties.

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001 and subsequently treated drug abuse as a public health issue. Between 1999 and 2016 deaths from overdose fell by 92%.

If Westminster refuses to even consider this approach then future deaths are on their hands.

alanferrier, 10 months ago to random

Grown adults in the 21st century who still believe in kings and queens, princes and princesses, nobles and commoners? The monarchy is both the apex and the essence of the British state, the symbol of a national childishness, a national backwardness.