The Scottish Prime Minister has announced that the British government will be selling £16bn worth of assets to try and plug the gaping hole in the budget.
Amongst the assets that will be put up for sale are the English Channel Tunnel rail link, the English student loan book, the English Dartford Crossing, the English enriched uranium production company URENCO and the assets of English local authorities.
Hmm, there’s a theme emerging here but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
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The easy way to raise cash would be to sell North Sea oil taxation revenues in the future. ( It would also kill the SNP stone dead ).
Or perhaps, just perhaps, the celtic fringe could stop spending so much English tax payer’s money….
October 11th, 2009 at 9:04 pmThanks Mr Shed – perhaps funding a stupid police action in Afghanistan was not so cleaver or maybe not spending £35 billion on Trident. What makes you think that the English parliament hasn’t already sold the North Sea oil ?
This country is in a financial mess – whoever gets in next year is going to have a terrible time clearing it up and it’s going to hit everyone – god help the pensioners ‘cos the govt wont.
Remember YOU voted this lot in .
Vote SNP to get an EP
October 11th, 2009 at 10:01 pmNo such thing as an English parliament Mr McFeagle,as for voting this lot in, personally I’ve never voted Labour…ever.
They didn’t win the popular vote in England at the last election anyway, we have Labour rule by default.
If I were on the Scottish electoral role SNP would get my vote.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:15 pmHello McFeagle. This blog is obviously sitting upon a tear in the space/time continuum.
Over here, we don’t have an English Parliament and the populous of England voted for a diferent party than the one that formed a Government. The man who led the campaign for the party that polled fewer votes promised to stay for a full term, but he was replaced by another man because this other man thought it was “his turn”. This man is not responsible to any electorate (Scottish, Welsh, Irish or English) for 85% of the legislation he controls and he has sworn to hold another country’s interests “paramount” in all his deeds.
Anyway, that’s enough about us. What year is it and who is the President in your dimension?
October 12th, 2009 at 8:12 amI’ll have a pint of whatever Mr McFeagle is on…..
October 12th, 2009 at 9:30 amThe Scotch never like to let facts get in the way of a good whinge.
Amusing thing is, “their Scotch parliament” is nothing but an EU Regional Assembly anyway.
October 12th, 2009 at 10:47 amHello Mcfeagle, you have been on this site for quite some time, and you know very well that we do not have an English Parliament yet.
I would prefer not to have to sell our Natural resources to pay for the budget, England needs more self control – not selling it off to others, I really do not see how difficult it is to dismantle Trident – we have never used it and I pray that we never HAVE to use it and it would be an emormous step to fixing the budget, along with withdrawing the troops from Iraq and reducing the size of our army.
October 12th, 2009 at 10:49 amI don’t suppose Brown will sell off the Forth Rail Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge
October 12th, 2009 at 2:55 pmDerek,
I think he would if he could!
October 12th, 2009 at 5:35 pmThe banking bail out was mainly political. They could have let Northern Rock fail (strong Labour Area, North East); they could have let RBS fail (Scots Labour Vote). The rest of the system could have survived. Those banks needed some ‘cold turkey’.
The significance of the bailout was overplayed and was a smokescreen for the real reasons we ended up in a mess:
1. Bingeing on borrowing due to interest rates being too low for far too long.
2. Trusting the yanks and their sub prime debt
Labour enjoyed it all: they like spending, printing money and trying to tell us that capitalism is failing.
Result: Labour can now say ‘aren’t we wonderful, capitalism failed and we generously bailed it out, bankers should be eternally grateful and you therefore must not vote for those ‘City loving’ Conservatives’.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:59 pmHi Terry
The year is 1979 ! The Scots voted Yes.
Jim Callaghan and Westminster said – sod off.
Welcome to la-la labour land .. the only way – at the moment – to get an EP is for the SNP to win in Scotland have a referendum and declare Independence.
The UK economy is buggered and any new govt is going to flog off all the family silver and then some to get us out of this hole, they are going to have to squeeze more tax out of us, streamline the welfare system and tax every mile that you drive . Cut back on the military, police, NHS and education, no sacred cows.
I would guess that in England we will see either a Cons, Lab or Lib ( ahem ) party getting into power – none of which have professed any interest in an EP .
Unless lots and lots of pressure is brought to bear the chances of a constitutional change – eg an EP – is slimmer that Mr Slim on a diet.
Derek – maybe the govt could sell the Humber bridge, or that one going to Wales – I reckon Windsor castle would fetch a bob or two as well. They intend to make Local councils flog off ‘assets’ as well – the only way they can do that is to reduce central funds to Local councils – so thats the bin men collecting once a month .
PS – it’s more fun on here when everyone gets fired up !
October 12th, 2009 at 7:42 pmMcfeagle I’ve no doubt he would like to flog off lots of England. Won’t flog the Forth Bridges though will he? Why? Because Scotland’s got its own government and would fight it!
October 12th, 2009 at 10:29 pmThat’s why England needs its own government, not one led by Gormless Gordon!
McFeagle, we are obviously ahead of you (time wise). The good news is that things get better for you, but worse for us. (Maybe someone post 2009 can let us know if things get better for England anytime soon?)
In the meantime, as you correctly state “to get an EP is for the SNP to win in Scotland have a referendum and declare Independence. That’s why I vehemently support the SNP, I just wish they had a candidate down here.
Interestingly, the Unionist press in Scotland have long touted a Conservative victory equals an independent Scotland. Labour have recently stated a vote for the SNP equals a vote for the Tories.
The message is therefore clear…
October 13th, 2009 at 9:24 amvote SNP in Scotland and Conservative in England. The latter don’t support an EP (bastardos!) but voting for them might just get us one anyway. That’s what I’m pinning my hopes on.
Comment by “Man in a Shed”
The easy way to raise cash would be to sell North Sea oil taxation revenues in the future. ( It would also kill the SNP stone dead ).
heard it before we got the parly that was gonna kill snp stone dead
terry just looked at the tea leaves the year 2020 ,snp still trying to get independence ,england still voting torry and singing rule britania,the establishment still laughing up there sleeves
so you guys dont have an ep ,what you gonna do about it?
October 13th, 2009 at 10:30 amRoll on the SNP Independence referendum – can the rest of the UK vote as well?
October 13th, 2009 at 11:28 amBrown should cancel our payments to the EU, but I guess because the EU is Anti English brown will not stop that.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:27 pmSo… Lets sell off Scotland we don’t need or want it, or to be a part of this predudice devolved UK until it equaled out for the people of England, Gordon Browns discrimination Stopped.
Yeah, small problem with that Chris – Scotland is mortaged to the hilt and in negative equity.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pmwonko any chance of a tenner?
October 13th, 2009 at 2:15 pmDerek
October 13th, 2009 at 5:29 pmThe govt cant sell the Forth Bridge ( the railway one ) as its owned by Network Rail – that well known private company . No one would buy the Forth Road bridge because its falling apart – which is why the Scottish Govt is trying to get another road crossing. The only thing they could sell it for is scrap. The road bridge is run by Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) – named after a crumbly Greek cheese.
McFeagle – Brown won’t sell the Humber Bridge, because it brings in multi millions of pounds in revenue, for the Scottish Chancellor. Where do you think they get the money from for the Scottish free prescriptions, free eye and gob check ups? We don’t get those. Scot-Free does have a meaning, you know. When your scum decided to team up with our scum, your Scottish peasants paid less land tax than the English, and that kind of preferential treatment has continued to this day.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:52 amhelen how about you …any chance of a tenner?
October 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pmHelen Wright – I think you’ll find that the Humber Bridge tolls are used to pay off it’s huge debts, not to finance the profligacy of the Scottish government.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:05 pmHelen – the current charge for a prescription in Scotland is £4.00, not quite free , is is proposed that by 2011 they will be free but in the current climate that is unlikely. Dental examination ( a check up ) is free, the basic eye test is also free to all residents of the UK who have an eye test in Scotland .
The Scottish parliament has decided that healthcare is a priority and they have chosen to use some of their budget to fund those basic tests.
Those living in England ( and that includes me ) dont get those for free in England because the Wasteminster parliament choose not use their budget for it – canvas your local MP about it – I do !
The question of the discrepancies in the per head calculation are well known and are fundamentally wrong and can only be addressed by Wasteminster .
I have friends and family in Scotland, none are on benefit, they all work and pay tax the same as folk in England.
Your arguement isn’t and shouldn’t be with the Scots people but with the Wasteminster parliament and the useless idiots that make policy in the UK .
Is anyone going to ‘lend’ Clyde a tenner ?
October 15th, 2009 at 7:20 pmPerhaps Clyde might loan some of us a tenner or two, since Scotland has enjoyed a spending per head advantage of 20pc+ over England for fifty years – long preceding the Barnett Formula and about ten years before the discovery of North Sea oil.
For the record, the extra spending per head in Scotland over England and Wales, due to the Goschen grant, was:
1961 22.41pc
1951 18.07pc
1941 No Census taken during WWII (1939 13.86pc)
1931 13.43pc
1921 6.71pc
So in 1923, the year Lord Barnett was born, the figure would be about 7pc.
Of the House of Lords Barnett Formula Select Committee meetings which were broadcast on the internet, the name Goschen was mentioned only once, so far as I’m aware, yet the problem today – the baseline figure (the grant before Barnett consequentials are added)- is a legacy of Chancellor Goschen.
Presumably, successive governments allowed the Goschen grant to continue rising in the hope it would ‘kill Home Rule by kindness’ – a policy which was unsuccessfully applied to Ireland. Some of us here are hoping for a similar outcome in the case of Scotland, in the not too distant future.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:54 pmDo you think that if we push the right buttons the UK government might start bribing us (the English) too?
How about: “Gordon, we’ll leave if you don’t buy our English love”
Or perhaps we could get cash to promote Britishness and brand assertions of being ‘English not British’ as something nasty – maybe a subtle form of racism? Gordon might just buy it…
If we save up we could pay towards some of the health benefits (free prescriptions etc.) seen elsewhere in our proud historic nation (Great Britain that is Gordon
.
Any other suggestions on these lines?
October 16th, 2009 at 3:03 pmRead with interest all the comments and agree with most, however let’s open our eyes and realise that this Government firstly under Blair and now Brown, have with the full approval and support of the European Union (represented my Peter Mandleson) set out to smash this country England. They have very sadly all but succeeded. Those that control the EU and you would not be surprised to know who they are, knew that unless they could completely subdue and control England the European Union would quickly fall apart and so would their power and extreme wealth. Not only are the people of this nation mostly and utterly confused as to what is happening to their country, which in turn leads to discontent and resentment, but will never be given the real truth of what is proposed for their futures. I cannot in all truth say that I can look forward to a happy and prosperous future for our Children or Grandchildren. I am moving towards seventy and so my future is narrower now, nevertheless I fear for us all. Believe me within a few short years we shall have a World Government, of which the Untited Sates Europe will be but part. Individuality, will be controlled, free expression curtailed and freedom of movement policed.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:32 amHave a happy day!