Article 50

I do enjoy reading your comments Mair, long may you go on posting to the consternation of a particular section!

Its a 'hardball' piece from Verhofstadt Rose designed to send a tough message to Britain that the EU will not give an inch and setting whats in their interest in the order of priorities i.e. securing the place of their emigrants in Britain above what is in ours i.e. a quick trade deal .

I suspect youve read the article quickly and been misled by the measured tones of his wording. This man is an EU fanatic who wants to keep us out of the single market! Strange that Jess would be supportive and reveals that she is holding on to her dream that Brexit will not happen!

JessM you have got that right ( post of 09.25.35)

Nice piece by one of those who will be negotiating with the UK government.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/18/not-punish-britain-shed-illusions-eu-fair-deal?CMP=share_btn_tw

A Tory MP has just helped out with showing the national debt.

evolvepolitics.com/conservative-party-mp-tweets-graph-attacking-tories/

Very kind of him to show that the Tories have trebled the national debt. His tweet has disappeared - the one where he was blaming Labour, but the twittersphere noticed first.

And doesn't Scotland have the highest public spending deficit in the European Union?

I thought that Scotland received more per head via the Barnett formulae than the rest of the U.K. Am I mistaken.

I see John McDonnell is promising a Northern Crossrail, LIverpool to Leeds. That's the M62 line.
Of course, Tories are saying he's doing the usual spend-too-much Labour slur, quite forgetting the amount they have spent on Crossrail and HS2.
The sooner the north separates from the south the better. They can have Osborne back, as well.

I'll go with the original Northumbria and all of them South of the River Humber can just get on with it. We'll introduce huge charges for any of them coming north for their holidays/grouse shooting /whatever.

M62?
The original Northumbria?
Lots of people in Yorkshire want to join us.

Perhaps they could relocate Hadrian's wall to a bit further South, dj, then we wouldn't even have to move

The Scottish border is not Hadrian's Wall, although I wouldn't mind the border being Hadrian's Wall, as I'd only have to move a few miles further north.

This is an interesting article by Prescott.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-painted-being-bitterly-divided-9759381

Labour was more divided in the seventies when we joined the EU.

If Scotland stay in the EU and we rebuild Hadrian's wall I'll be on the Scottish side of it. Not that I'm complaining, just pointing out that the border has fluctuated over the years. Personally I'd be very happy to stay in the EU with Scotland.

Paddyann I think you need to remind us what is devolved to Scotland and therefore what has to come out of the £26 billion. e.g. I don't think it covers a contribution to running the armed forces or foreign embassies does it?
Because if you kept all that revenue, you'd have a lot more things to pay for? Or have I got that wrong?

As they're clearly more than able to support themselves, instead of just whining on and on about it why doesn't Scotland just have another ' once in a lifetime?!! referendum and, 'In the name of God, go' and give us all a bit of peace. If the whole of the UK were to be allowed a vote it would be a done deal for sure!! The relief would be immense!

Lots of work for Polish builders

When Scotland is independent and in the EU England will have to rebuild Hadrians Wall to stop all the migrants, that's in addition to the M25 wall for free independent London.

You're absolutely not allowed to say that, paddyann

THE IGNORANCE ON HERE IS ASTOUNDING !!!

if you add to that our whisky industry that earns £135asecond and which isn't counted as a Scottish export as it goes through English ports I'm sure you'll see that we can manage just fine without westminster .WHEN WE GET INDEPENDENCE we will also get our share of all UK assetts in return for the 10% of the UK debt taken in OUR name ...we cant actually have debs as we cant borrow ...our budgets BALANCE or are in surplus EVERY YEAR

yorkshiregel first of all Scotland is NOT subsidised by England ...do you really think a government who cant subsidise a spare bedroom would subsidise a whole country ? We send OUR money south and get a percentage of it back with the majority witheld by westminster...it has always been this way for over 300 years ,up until the 1920's the figures were published and showed that we only got back 33% of OUR revenue.here are some facts for youScotland represents just 8.3% of the UK population. Remember that number 8.3%
We have the following share of UK resources -
- 32% Land area
- 61% Sea area
- 90% Surface fresh water
- 65% North Sea natural gas production
- 96.5% North Sea crude oil production
- 47% Open cast coal production
- 81% Coal reserves at sites not yet in production
- 62% Timber production (green tonnes)
- 46% Total forest area (hectares)
- 92% Hydro electric production
- 40% Wind, wave, solar production
- 60% Fish Landings (total by Scottish vessels)
- 55% Fish Landings (total from Scottish waters)
- 30% Beef herd (breeding stock)
- 20% Sheep herd (breeding flock)
- 9% Dairy herd
- 10% Pig herd
- 15% Cereal holdings (hectares)
- 20% potato holdings (hectares)
All with 8.3% of the population!
There are very few countries in the WORLD that rival Scotland's resources per head and in such rich diversity. We absolutely, unequivocally can be an extremely successful independent country.
Last year Scotland generated 56.8 billion in taxes from everything that we generate in the country eg oil, gas, income tax, export tax etc yet we got 26.8 billion from Westminster to run the country for the same year.
Does that sound to you like we're going to have any kind of "Black Hole" ?

Oh such larks. We're could end up without the single market but with free movement. How to please nobody Theresa. Go for it. Could become an even more unpopular ex PM than your predecessor.

Shouldn't worry suzie there's going to be free movement in the rest of the UK anyway for the foreseeable future.

Ooh no there would be free movement into London, we'd be in the Eu remember. May have to have a border wall round the M 25 to stop those trying to break in.

Think topless will do Jalima!