2012/01/26 17:57
The Scottish Government today launched its consultation on the Independence referendendum. (The Westminster crowd have also started one [PDF], but I have a feeling the former will be more important to participate in.) You don't need to live in Scotland to participate, so do tell them what you think!The consultation document has this to say about what happens after a...
2012/01/15 23:16
According to this article (in Danish), the Danish government is considering a radical price increase for foreign magazines.At the moment, letters and parcels from outside the EU go through customs without any interference if the value is less than 80 Danish crowns (£9). However, if the value is more than £9, it will in most cases be intercepted, and Danish...
2012/01/27 12:00
The Telegraph are reporting today that the Westminster government after a Yes vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum will be willing to pay any price to keep Coulport, the navy base where the submarines are loaded with nuclear missiles:
MoD insiders believe that, after an independence vote, ministers in London would have no choice but to strike a deal with Scottish leaders allowing the Navy to go on using Coulport and Faslane until an alternative was ready.
That would give Scotland’s new government bargaining power over other issues like their share of the UK national debt and other financial liabilities.
“Maintaining the deterrent is the first priority for any UK government, so ministers in London would have to pay Salmond any price to ensure we kept access to [the Clyde bases],” said a source. “It would be an unbelievable nightmare.”
I’ve no doubt that an independent Scotland will want to get rid of the nuclear warheads eventually, but even just delaying the move by ten years might be worth quite a lot when the Scottish and RUK negotiation teams are discussing North Sea oil, the maritime border, ownership of the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland, and other contentious issues.
2012/01/24 23:09
Although some nationalists have at times hand-waved the problem away, I have for a long time been convinced that an independent Scotland might find it hard to be allowed membership of the EU (even though refusing it would be ludicrous, given that Scotland has been part of the EU for my entire life), simply because Spain is afraid that Catalonia and Euskadi might leave, and they want to make the independence option seem as unattractive as possible.I was therefore extremely...
2012/01/23 23:29
The excellent Better Nation blog today has a guest blog posting by yours truly.I've read that blog for a while, and I normally really enjoy it, so I immediately agreed when I was asked to write a blog posting on a specific topic that I had been discussing in the comments underneath another blog posting.Please do pop over to Better...
2012/01/15 0:38
Several articles, such as this one in the Scotsman, have covered the Chancellor of the Exchequer's announcement that Scotland after independence won't be able to use the pound:The Treasury confirmed that, while it could not block Scotland from using the...
2012/01/12 22:42
For a long time, I've been looking for a way to find postings that are filed under two or more categories in WordPress. It's very easy to click on any of the categories in the column on the far left...
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