Is Boris's trip essential?

FPTP not FOOT!

First past the post is only used in sham democracies

It is high time we got rid of the obscenely undemocric FOOT electoral system.

It's not the SNP which has insisted on keeping the first-past-the-post system in UK elections.

In the last election each SNP seat in the HoC represented 25 thousand votes.

Each Conservative seat 38 thousand votes

Each Labour seat 51 thousand votes

Each Liberal Democrat seat 336 thousand votes

and the one Green Party seat represented 866 thousand votes.

It is the SNP who are ludicrously over-represented!

LauraNorder We have NEVER been one country ,4 nations ,supposedly in Union but in fact three nations ruled by England .Put all three of those nations MP's on one side and we can be voted out or over ruled every time.THAT is not democracy not in my book and not in the eyes of any one who knows what democracy is .

We need to lovebomb the Scots.

UrmstonGran.

David Cameron already did that, in 2014, and managed to get a NO victory.
However, since then, many of those who didn't vote YES have changed their minds, based on the UK government's obvious contempt for Scotland in the years since then.

People may have other reasons not to support Scottish independence but I really don't think that an absence of 'love-bombing' is one of them

Okay done, news and politics forum. See you there.
Sorry for diverting the thread

Go for it Laura. I promise not to get too argumentative

Never mind about " is Boris's trip essential ", what about the 300,000 UK residents arriving here from Hong Kong ? Starting from Sunday for the next 5 years. Why ?

Sorry Elegran obviously both typing at the same time. I am thinking of starting a thread on the subject but am wary of starting anything too heated.
Also need to look at whether it’s already been discussed in depth elsewhere.

Thank you Alegrias. It’s very sad that you feel our values are diverging in so many ways and you may well be right.
I can also understand the feeling of being tied to a more dominant country and wanting self government.
I do feel sad that there are borders between us and that you feel we cannot be one country.
I know there have been some awful comments regarding Nicola Sturgeon but I do feel those are minority views and most English and Welsh people I know respect the clear way she has conducted herself during the pandemic. However I could argue that the same lack of respect for voters of Boris Johnson or Mark Drakeford is shown, that is the nature of politics.
I really would like to understand the depth of feeling for independence but as you say it diverts the thread so perhaps a new thread is in order.
Thanks for taking the time

LauraNorder I haven't a clue what the answer is to your question, because although I have received a small number of political circulars from the Lib Dems (who at least have the merit of trying to keep the population informed) and a lot of hot air from the Westminster Tories, I have not seen any statements or received any circulars from the SNP.

Of course, committed members of the SNP may be getting weekly updates, but the rest of the electorate are getting on with life under Covid.

Johnson says that most Scots don't want a referendum (how does he know that when he returned to the safety of Westminster almost as soon as he had arrived here? How many did he talk to?) However, would that necessarily mean that most Scots would actually vote YES in one? For all he knows, most Scots could be looking forward a referendum so that they can vote NO. He is assuming a yes result in advance - which means that he thinks that is what it will be!

I can’t speak for all Scots Laura but I’ll answer your question with what I think. I apologise in advance if anyone thinks this is diverting the thread.

I can’t imagine a scenario where the EU would block the membership of a small, outward looking country who shares their values for ever, although someone will come along and screech “Spain! Catalunya!” at us in a minute. I don’t believe anyone in Scotland thinks we’d walk out of the UK union and right into the EU the next day, but the fact that we have a deal now, however bad it is, means that we will remain aligned with some EU rules and that would make entry easier in the future.

But, if it were proven that we couldn’t join the EU, then we have the choice of being a small independent nation like Norway or Iceland (Yes, I know they have lots of money). Or a country tied to a larger, dominant country whose values are diverging rapidly from ours both politically, socially and culturally. A country that’s ignored our separate needs for many years and is threatened by a devolved parliament. A country that is trying to gaslight the Scottish population into thinking it doesn’t want independence because we need the bigger, more powerful country to look after us and to remain in their “precious union”.

Oh, and people who think that insulting our elected FM is OK and fail to see that we elected her party, so in telling us how crap she is, you’re telling us how stupid we were to vote for her. Or think that we’re daft enough to fall for “lovebombing” thinking it will divert our minds from the way we’ve been treated since the last time they tried that in 2014, when they immediately changed tack the minute power came back to Westminster.

So yes, independence over this Union, every time.

Lets not be disingenuous. The elections are in May - mere weeks away!
But what would we have Boris do?
I don’t want the break up of our precious Union. He has to at least try to keep us together.
He definitely ought to go up there every couple of weeks.
We need to lovebomb the Scots.

Actually good point LauraNorder when you asked ‘would Scotland still vote for independence if they knew the EU would say ‘non’?” A very interesting question. What do our Scottish grans think?

Alegrias I am sure some have changed their minds, thank you for the link, I thought the visit to Scotland was because of
this.

Alegrias1 what else would a French based news agency say? The French vaccine is a failure. The EU has proved itself a bungling incompetent bureaucracy.we’re Scotland in the EU they would have NO vaccine and be back at the end of the queue. Sturgeon is so obsessed with putting the UK down her thinking is completely blinkered. The EU will make all sorts of promises they have no intention of keeping.

Boris may have blundered on many things but our vaccine strategy has proved the best. A lot of thanks to Kate Bingham who so many tried to put down accusing Johnson of cronyism. She deserves a medal.

As the question of Scottish independence has been raised here may I ask politely and out of genuine interest
If it could be proven that the EU would not accept Scotland as a member state, would Scots still want independence?

Annie some have changed their minds. The last 20 polls have shown >50% support for independence. Boris's little PR exercise won't have done that figure any harm.

The Greens want independence too. And some labour voters.

www.france24.com/en/uk/20210129-johnson-rallies-the-union-on-a-tour-of-scotland-amid-rising-support-for-independence

Thank you Alegrias1 I don’t listen to her so thought the visit
by Boris was related to that.

I know the SNP want independence but the referendum showed over 50% didn’t.

Well Anniebach you'd think so from the news coverage, wouldn't you? It's in the manifesto for the May elections which is hardly surprising given that the SNP are in support of independence. But the FM has been scrupulous about avoiding talking about the referendum or independence in public or on the press briefings during the pandemic.

The Conservative opposition on the other hand, can't stay away from the topic.

Has Ms Sturgon not been speaking again about another referendum?

I don't think so in this case trisher. The reaction up here has more or less been "what a plonker". That's the polite word.

Two young men have just been fined £10k for organising a snowball fight in Leeds. I can't help wondering if when they see Bozzer galavanting around the country with all his security, advisers etc young peope just think "if the law doesn't apply to him why should it apply to me?" and do as they like?

after nearly 50 years yyiikkeess !

FarNorth: As for the elbow bumps, why? They're almost as bad as the 'shaking hands with everyone' Johnson was so proud of - which turned out to be a really bad idea.

Exactly. Why does he insist on those silly elbow bumps? I'm afraid I wouldn't want to be elbow bumped by him or anybody else. Also, does our PM know what a distance of 2 m looks like? Mind you, when I see people queueing few of them stand 2 m away. I believe metrication is still a mystery to many.