{"id":2668,"date":"2020-01-02T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=2668"},"modified":"2020-01-02T16:55:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T16:55:39","slug":"inflated-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=2668","title":{"rendered":"Inflated Profit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wish you all a Happy\nand Prosperous New Year;  who knows what\nthis year will bring forth, but we start with 48 seats in Westminster,\nsomething we must learn to live with. \nThe Unionist camp, whose name is legion, mutters and grumbles at us only\ngetting 45% of the votes cast as we did get 80% of the seats.  However these are their rules, not ours, or\nto phrase it correctly a win is a win is a win.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had an odd experience\nthis morning; I was renewing my car insurance. \nI did this at the weekend but had to telephone the current insurer and\ncancel the renewal premium they had advised. \nThe young lady asked what premium I was leaving them for, so then she\nattempted to dissuade me from this;  she\noffered to take \u00a3150.00 off their current quote, but I refused, as the quote I\nhad accepted was \u00a3250.00 under their one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just think of this for\na minute or two;  the insurers would\nstill be making a profit after giving me a discount of \u00a3150.00, so how much\ndoes the true insurance cost? And, also more worryingly \u2013 how many quotes for\nother things can be trusted?  I always\ncheck insurance costs, house, car etc against the previous year and work out\nthe percentage increase before I call. Invariably the price gets reduced but I\nhave never seen a bigger reduction than this one, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cAsk and ye shall receive\u201d but Insurers do not\ndo charity<\/strong>\ud83d\ude0a<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brexit<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Boris Johnston is cock a hoop at getting Brexit through;\u00a0 his bill was even worse than Theresa May\u2019s, but his slogan was \u201cGet Brexit Done\u201d and he is basking in the glow of \u00a0the three little words.\u00a0 The luckless ones, which include us, are now going to go through at least a year, for starters, as all the small print is going to be looked at and negotiated, borders are going to be crossed, or ignored, and the electorate will be howling with frustration;\u00a0 Mr Plantagenet\u00a0 \u00a0(He bears a close relation to Edward 1st<\/sup> of that ilk) will come up with simple answers\u00a0\u00a0 and blame every slight wobble on the EU.\u00a0 He was the type who used a broad brush, but forgot about the paint.\u00a0 A lot of bugs will come out of the woodwork.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has occurred on\nthe political front is astounding; who could ever have imagined the complete\ncollapse of Labour?  This does not suit\ndemocracy well nor the SNP in particular. \nWe hoped at least for a hung Parliament so that we would have some room\nto push the case for Independence, but an overwhelmingly Tory majority will dim\nthose hopes, so no room for compromise. \nThe Liberal Democrats also collapsed, the long term effect of going into\ncoalition with the Tories, but we did not expect Labour to go the same way. I\ndo not have any criticism of Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s applause when Amy Callahan won\nJo Swinson\u2019s seat \u2013 cheerful exuberance is always good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not think Jeremy\nCorbyn is a bad person, and he performed reasonably well against Theresa May,\nbut was blown away by Mr Plantagenet\u2019s hyperbole.  However, as the fancy words have to be backed\nup by realistic action we\u2019ll see how that plays out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just think, when the\nSNP came to power in 2007, courtesy of the alert observation by Dave Thompson \u2013\nwho could have expected that \u2013 not the Returning Officer for Highland Region\nany way! In any event, Alex Salmond thought that he would be supported by the\nLibDems, who after all had been in cahoots with the Labour Party since the Scottish\nParliament was founded. To general consternation, the LibDems refused to even\nspeak to the SNP unless they gave up the base of their belief \u2013 Scottish\nIndependence \u2013 such arrogance!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LibDems in\nWestminster then gave up their sacred principle, Tuition Fees, engraved, on a\nsheet of cardboard (how appropriate) which looked like stone, so they expected\nduplicity to be a normal political principle; \nthey also expected the SNP administration  would only \nlast for a few weeks; it lasted 4 years! \nAt the end of that time the opinion polls did not look good or us, and I\nspent the last few days of our time in office going around to say Farewell to\nmany MSPs who I did not expect to see again.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Parliament term\nended the Manifesto was launched in Glasgow, and I went through to see\nthat.  When I got home I told my wife \u201cI\nhave never seen so many cases of Candidate\u2019s Disease in my life \u2013 they\u2019re all\ngoing to win!\u201d  And they did, and ushered\nin what was not meant to happen. The d\u2019hote voting system was designed to\nensure that the SNP could not get a majority at Holyrood \u2013 and it did! This is\nnot an exaggeration, but the truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admitted by Jim Craigen, retired Labour MP writing in\nthe Coop News \u2013 he requested the use of the Yellow map for them \u2013 I gave him\nit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iain Duncan Smith<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Politicians, non Tories\nthat is, were aghast to see the above MP given a knighthood;  the man who personified austerity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not a seat in the House of Losers, as he remains in the Commons.  Being unfamiliar with many knights I checked\nmy PC and came up with this \u201cA knight was a man who knew and understood the\ngames of courtly love and also fulfilled services and duties of war\u201d.  Well this particular knight certainly\ndeclared war on the sick, the poor and the dispossessed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referendum<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Who knows if there will be a referendum this year;  on  a\npersonal note I think it is unlikely as we perhaps need a wee break from\npolitics.  It is a bit sad for me as at\nthe age of 85 my options are getting a bit closed down, but independence will\ngrant no privileges to me, 85 again! \nHowever I have two sons, four grandchildren and now a great\ngranddaughter, so a much better future for them.  I recall in 2011 the SI printed many 4 page\nSIs for that Election, and on the frontpage \nwas an article by Joan McAlpine with the sub headline \u201cDon\u2019t vote Labour\nfor your parents, vote SNP for your children\u201d; I know that one MSP was elected\nbecause in the last week of the campaign they put out 30,000 of them \u2013 I was\ntold that by the MSP and his Election Agent on the day after the Election.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odd items<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Casting my mindback to the 2014 Referendum I recall knocking on one door\nwith a Green campaigner, and the voter was a cautious , courteous chap; he\nasked me if I had seen George Galloway on TV the night before (Galloway was\ntalking to a younger audience) and I said Yes. \nThe man pondered, then said \u201cF****** arsehole!\u201d.  We made no reply;  I do not know what brought that event to\nmind, but it registered with me.  On\nanother occasion we knocked a door in Carricknowe and the resident came down\nthe stairs \u2013 bunnet on, fag in mouth, tattooed arms and I thought \u201cOh Oh\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we asked what he thought about Independence on a scale of 1 Against\nto 10 For- he said \u201c20\u201d \u2013 appearances can be deceptive.  In that Referendum people wanted to talk and\nasked questions, the best canvassing experiences I ever had.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cowdenbeath<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may note that I refer to the SNP winning 48 seats, and not 47 as per\nthe official record, I ignore that.  The\ncandidate certainly did make racist remarks, on Twitter, which is instant\nreaction without thought and happening daily, even hourly, by people speaking\n\u201coff the cuff\u201d you will get all sorts of reaction.  I knowingly voted for a candidate I\ndisapproved of, but gritted my teeth as I was not prepared to vote against the\nSNP nor abstain \u2013 the candidate lost. \nWhen the constituency decided to dump our SNP MSP, I told them they were\nrolling out a red carpet for the Liberals, but they continued.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway I hope that our Cowdenbeath MP is returned to the fold – I have a\nsoft spot for Cowdenbeath, my mother had a sister there and we spent our\nholidays there – as folk did in my young days; it was also a part of Central\nFife, a constituency I stood in in 1979. \nIn that General Election the SNP fought all 73 seats, and only saved 19\ndeposits \u2013 mine was one of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year;  who knows what this year will bring forth, but we start with 48 seats in Westminster, something we must learn to live with.  The Unionist camp, whose name is legion, mutters and grumbles at us only getting 45% of the votes cast as we did get 80% of the seats.  However these are their rules, not ours, or to phrase it correctly a win is a win is a win. I had an odd experience this morning; I was renewing my car insurance.  I did this at the weekend but had to telephone the currentRead 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":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668"}],"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=2668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}