I am indebted to Jim McGugan of Letham, Angus for sending me cards of comparisons between Scotland and 5 different countries; Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He compares Area, Population,\nDensity, Country GDP, GDP per head, Currency, Borders with, In EU?, or with\nother arrangements, and finally Nuclear bombs: \nthis last has Scotland the sole \u201cbeneficiary\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cards are published by\nBill Robertson, 1 Drimmie Place, Letham, Angus, DD8 2DW of the SNP in Letham,\nsupporting Normal Nations everywhere, as a counter to the \u201cToo wee, too poor\nand too stupid\u201d and are being delivered by Letham Branch, one country at a\ntime- wary of too much overload!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The email address for Jim is: irene.mcgugan@btinternet.com<\/a> to request copies and prices. They are useful in showing normal nations;\nfor instance comparing Scotland with Ireland \u2013 Size: Scotland 77933 sq\nkilometres, Ireland 70273 sq kilometres, Population: Scotland 5.3 million,\nIreland 4,761,865. Country GDP:-\nScotland 145 Billion Euros, Ireland 357 Billion Euros. Run that past me again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have known Jim McGugan\nsince the late Sixties when we interviewed him as a candidate for East Aberdeenshire; we erred in not taking him \u2013 see hindsight,\ngreat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned things I never knew\nfrom these cards. I tried to scan one and attach it to this piece but failed \u2013\nmiserably; any expertise I had I lost\nwhen I became ill \u2013 but I am happy to be still alive\ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n\n As some of you may know,\nafter I handed over the Scots Independent to Grant Thoms, it was my intention\nto try and get at least one letter a week in the Glasgow Herald and The\nNational; this did not last long as in April\n2016 I ended up in hospital for 6 weeks. \nAnyway, a few months later I took up the pen again and have been\nreasonably successful. Quite frankly I\nknow my campaigning days are past, as I can no longer leaflet or canvas, so all\nI can do is write to the Press. I know I\nshould try the Scotsman, but I became scunnered with it after the Barclay\nBrothers took it over and appointed Andrew Neil as the Managing Editor, and it\nhas gone downhill ever since. I thought\nwe might see a change when the Johnston Press took it over, but that did not\nhappen. Then a Scandinavian billionaire\nexpressed an interest and thought he could get Alex Salmond to become Chairman\nbut then that fell through. They have now done some form of management buyout\nbut fiddled about with the Pension Fund. (Alex is doing well with his Russia\nToday programme, but my problem is the lack of titles and I cannot follow the\ndialogue.) I know one colleague who stopped writing to The National because he was\npreaching to the converted; I do not take that view, we all have something to\ncontribute and the Unionists avoid The National so we do not normally have to\ndo rebuttal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On that subject it is\ngratifying to see support for independence and activities of the Yes campaign\nbeing reported on a daily basis. The\nmainstream media, (including the Herald sometimes) does not report the level of\nactivity but their offshoot, the National certainly does. The Sunday Herald morphed into The Herald on Sunday\nand has maintained its support for independence. I\nremember some time back that the Sunday Herald stated that it was the only\nnewspaper supporting Scottish Independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They published my response saying\nthat The Scots Independent had been doing so since it was founded in November\n1926, 8 years before the SNP. I also quoted a favourite line from the late\nOliver Brown, who wrote \u201cAll a man needs in life is a good cause and the enmity\nof The Glasgow Herald, and he can be assured that if he has the first, the\nsecond will automatically follow\u201d. I\nqualified that by saying we should substitute that with the Scotsman!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I certainly find The Herald\nto be more fair minded; I gave up on the\nScotsman after I retired (22 years ago) \u2013 it became anti-independence, anti-SNP\nand anti-the Scottish Parliament, which it had originally supported; they made hay of the mess choosing and\nbuilding Holyrood; the site was chosen by the late Donald Dewar, the architect\nwas chosen by Donald Dewar and the contractors were also chosen by Donald Dewar\n\u2013 all this at the time he was still Secretary of State for Scotland at\nWestminster and the Scottish Parliament did not exist. The\nsite had the soubriquet ABC – Anywhere but Calton!<\/p>\n\n\n\n At present this is anybody\u2019s\nguess as the Westminster Government ducks and dives, we have three ferries on\norder to be run by a company who does not have them, no sailors and now we hear\nof a chosen port that cannot handle them so it looks as if we will have a\nvirtual solution; today I saw on TV a\ndisused airfield where they are stacking up 150 lorries, real ones, not virtual\nones, and we hear about 3500 troops to\nhelp out with the problems, and we also hear about 1000 police from Police\nScotland to be sent to Northern Ireland to help with the border problem \u2013 I look\nforward to the Scottish Tories complaining about the misuse of Scottish assets\nand how much overtime will be required to fill in their loss. On the lorry\nepisode, 89 turned up, and the Road Haulage Association Chairman said \u201cToo\nlittle, too late\u201d, so another stitch up bites the dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time you look at this\nbourach it gets worse. It looks as if\nMrs May will not get this through Parliament, but we hear rumours that Labour\nmay abstain, which is an abdication of responsibility. It also seems that Mr Corbyn is undecided as\nto whether he wants a General Election; he has the support of the Labour Party\nper se \u2013 or Momentum, as their grass roots are called but causes trepidation in\nthe Labour members in Westminster by dilly dallying, and then shilly shallying\nif you get my meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicola Sturgeon is also under\npressure to call for an Independence Referendum but wants to wait until the fog\nof Brexit clears a bit, which is an eminently sensible way of looking at the\nsituation. There is no way of judging\nthe best time because neither the Tories nor the Labour Party can make up their\nminds and call the situation fluid is an understatement. At the end of the day Nicola is left to carry\nthe can while the siren voices fade into the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just last week I was in my\nlocal Tesco and I noticed wee Saltires strung up everywhere; I thought to\nmyself \u201cHmm \u2013 Union Jacks on all the produce but they are now showing our\nFlag!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How dependable are the\nTories? Their attitudes to immigrants\nnever change \u2013 we had the Windrush just after the Second World War, now turning\ninto the Bums rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note a bit in The National\ntoday: according to the press there was a demonstration at Glasgow Central Rail\nStation calling for the renationalisation of Scottish Rail. It was claimed to be by the Rail Unions; in\nfact it was by the Transport & Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), with no\nattendance from other rail unions. It\nwas fronted by Richard Leonard, Leader of Scottish Labour and Labour leaflets\nwere being doled out; it seems to have been a \u201cfake\u201d demonstration; members\nwere unaware that Network Rail is a reserved power ie Westminster, and Labour\nvoted against this being devolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Alex Salmond won his case\nin the Court today and was awarded costs. \nMy view, readers may remember that I attempted to contribute to his\nCrowdfunding but got barred by an electronic wifie from the Bank of Scotland; I\nthink the costs awarded were in the region of half a million. I am not happy about the wedge being driven\nbetween Alex and the SNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All comments correct at the\ntime of going to press \u2013 but will change as the day goes by!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am indebted to Jim McGugan of Letham, Angus for sending me cards of comparisons between Scotland and 5 different countries; Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland. He compares Area, Population, Density, Country GDP, GDP per head, Currency, Borders with, In EU?, or with other arrangements, and finally Nuclear bombs: this last has Scotland the sole \u201cbeneficiary\u201d. The cards are published by Bill Robertson, 1 Drimmie Place, Letham, Angus, DD8 2DW of the SNP in Letham, supporting Normal Nations everywhere, as a counter to the \u201cToo wee, too poor and too stupid\u201d and are being delivered by Letham Branch, one country at a time- waryRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2365,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Letters to the Press<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Current political situation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Odd points<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n