Scotland YES or NO

For those who think that if Scotland says yes, there will always be a Conservative government in England, take heart.

https://fullfact.org/scotland/permanent_conservative_majority_scottish_independence-35134

Jane10, what's the anti No lobby? Do you mean the Yes lobby?

Think we need to redress the balance a bit here, Girls! How about this one?

www.economist.com/news/leaders/21616957-ditching-union-would-be-mistake-scotland-and-tragedy-country-it-leaves

Also I notice that Alex's new best friend, Rupert Murdoch, has landed in Scotland to gauge the mood of the country...

So, old wounds are being ripped open and ancient animosities revived. Sectarianism and prejudice are rearing their ugly heads again. Intimidation and bigotry are back roaming the streets. Great past achievements have been swept away and replaced by spin, exaggeration and blatant lies. Children are being used as no more than metaphorical canon-fodder. Strutting, squawking, foul-mouthed turkeys are blindly rushing towards Christmes. I really must stop listening to the Archers!

Have you been at the whisky, papaoscar?

That's another thought - they could put an extra import duty on whisky if Scotland gain independence.

I won't mention it to DH just yet.

Are people just over the border who really want to join given special discount?

I would be incredibly surprised if they did that, rose. I think about 80% of Scottish exports are to the rest of the UK.

Papaoscar, is Linda organising the pantomime already? Haven't listened to The Archers for ages, not since I realised that all the youngsters sounded the same.

Relief dj (for DH anyway, I don't drink it, but just wondering if papa does?)

I doubt any discounts will be given; we who live in Wales would like a discount to cross the Severn Bridges but it just goes up and up .....

I cannot remember which way you pay. Is it to get out of Wales or to get out of England? My brother-in-law lives in Chepstow.
I always try to avoid the Tyne Tunnel and the Humber Bridge. They are quite expensive too.

The very good Engish Whisky Company is on standby Rose !

Just to make you more jealous the Scottish Government has abolished tolls on all the bridges including the Forth Road Bridge and the Skye Bridge.

Yes, whisky is certainly Scotland's great contribution to the cause of worldwide inebriation. Fine though the golden product of the highland pot-still is, it should be remembered that it is blended with vast quantities of grain whisky for mass consumption, much like the SNP conceals its real objectives in a sea of spin and bile. By the way, the Archers, former repository of the Tory party at play in the English countryside has now been elevated to the dizzy heights of a radio soap with all aspects of modern-day muggery and thuggery covered. Not unlike our political process, one might say. Just getting ready for Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia and Jerusalem at the Albert Hall tonight on BBC1. Brace yourself, Edinburgh!

You pay to get into Wales, dj. £6.40 and due to go up again in January because of the agreement they have with the company which 'runs' it.
The nearest decent shops are in England, a stone's throw away!

I knows that, Granny23, that's what makes it more galling.
Not good for business either, or the many people who live one side of the bridge and work the other side.

Will investigate the English Whisky Co. on behalf of DH, thankyou Nfk

My dad used to be a tours driver and visited lots of distilleries in Scotland. At the end of each season he used to be given lots of single malts. They would last him all winter, until we got old enough to drink it with him.

Apart from Irish whiskey, I have seen English, Japanese, French, and many other versions of the golden elixir but haven't tried them all yet by any means. I think it would need a deeper pocket than mine to do so!

Another wee interesting snippet of information: A few years ago the UK government changed the point at which excise duty was levied on whisky from 'when it left the Bond' to 'when it left the country'. This meant that the vast revenue was no longer credited exclusively to figures for Scottish income generated, but instead credited to England as the Whisky is mainly exported via English Ports. Another wee dodge to fiddle the figures, just like Tony Blair's overnight shifting northwards of the sea boundary between Scottish and English waters immediately after the Devolution referendum was won, such that a chunk of gas and oil fields were suddenly in England.

Papaoscar, hasn't Roderick Williams got a fantastic voice?

There's a welsh whisky as well. I've heard it's very good.
If the scots vote yes, perhaps we could boycott their whisky and drink welsh instead? Thereby giving a boost to one of our other Celtic partners?

Very, very good, dj,and the Finnish conductor is also doing a very good job.

That's interesting, Granny23. So the No brigade want to keep the tax from Scotland's whisky. I bet that's quite a lot.

A Finnish conductor from a more equal society. I bet there are a lot more like him at home, because their education system is better than the English one. I speak from somewhere in the middle of six generations of teachers and as the mother of a head of music.

Not quite so, G23, no duty is paid on exported whisky, so it wouldn't matter which port it is exported from. Presumably whisky for domestic consumption is still duty-paid ex-bond in Scotland, but I've lost track of all that, and it wouldn't surprise me what slippery accounting tricks our politicians have got up to in the meantime. I remember that anyway excise duties used only to be a fraction of what VAT, income and corporation tax brought in.

Nothing like a good bit of William Blake to stir the soul.

In the interests of balance:
Here are a few of the 100s of pictures and videos posted on facebook today from around the country
You will not have seen any sign of these or any of the other YES campaign activities on the BBC, who chose instead to give coverage to the Orange Order March in Edinburgh in support of the Better Together Campaign.

Cardiff
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203950239449096&set=pcb.10203950240249116&type=1&permPage=1

Not sure where?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=294853160702336&set=a.190639011123752.1073741828.100005329621310&type=1

Inverness
https://www.facebook.com/533919023290523/photos/a.645863425429415.1073741827.533919023290523/938500406165714/?type=1

Dumfries
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203950238809080&set=pcb.10203950240249116&type=1

Buchannan Street, Glasgow
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202580367654912&set=gm.320644634783680&type=1

Dundee
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152372826592496&fref=nf

If the links don't work try Control + click on them

I love the one of Alex Salmond with the little girl.

"For many companies, VAT and Corporation tax for the whole of UK operations are paid at company headquarters which is most often in London or the South East of England. It doesn’t count as Scottish revenue, despite the fact it’s a tax paid on sales / profit generated in Scotland. Put simply, if you buy a packet of Walkers shortbread in Tesco in Edinburgh, the VAT you pay is taken to be generated at Tesco’s head office in Hertfordshire.
There are other ways in which Scottish revenues are invisible in GERS. Much of the alcohol duty paid by the whisky industry is not counted as revenue from Scotland. Alcohol produced in the UK which is exported abroad becomes subject to UK alcohol duty at the point of export, and a large proportion of Scotland’s multibillion whisky exports gets shipped out from ports in England. The UK Treasury counts the duty levied on this whisky as income from the tax region in which the port is situated".
www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0041/00415871.pdf
www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0041/00418420.pdf

Great links Granny23,as you say the BBC focusing on only one march in Edinburgh rather than covering all marches taking place around the country.I am quite angry at the bias towards the NO being shown by the Daily Record in Central Scotland seems like they have taken it upon themselves to try to scare the population into a NO vote.