Constitutional Options: Preserving the Kingdom

From the desk of admin ·October 31, 2007 at 7:03 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

This is a Guest Post from Ordovicius, looking at the constitutional position in the UK. Orodvicius has translated a series of articles by Aberystwyth University’s devolution expert Richard Wyn Jones.

Preserving the Kingdom

There’s been an almighty kerfuffle in the past week concerning public expenditure in England’s Celtic neighbours, the Scottish Executive Government plans to scrap prescription charges (something the previous minority Labour administration in Cardiff Bay introduced earler this year), the infamous West Lothian question and ultimately the British constitution in the wake of devolution.

Alex Salmond has been given the opportunity to give his two cents on the matter on an almost daily basis, and yet other than kneejerk reactions there has been very little indepth analysis of either the Barnett Formula or Rifkind’s proposed “English Grand Committee”.

By a happy coincidence, Aberystwyth University’s devolution expert, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, dedicated his column in this month’s edition of the Welsh language magazine Barn to these very subjects, and I have translated his analysis of the constitutional quagmire of British politics on my own blog.

Under the title Diogelu’r Deyrnas (’Preserving the Kingdom’), the professor explains how the Labour Party has constitutionally dug itself into a hole, and why Rifkind’s “English Votes For English Laws” would not make devolved British politics any fairer. The other options that have been suggested by unionists -an English Parliament, regional federalism, a “Stormont discount” and the current Labour favourite - doing nothing - all have major flaws and could make a “bad” situation worse.

Read it all

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Why is a Trick Cyclist on the Sex Offenders’ Register?

From the desk of admin ·October 31, 2007 at 12:37 pm · Filed under News - Current Affairs

From the Telegraph:

Robert Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners

at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year.

On Wednesday Mr Stewart admitted to sexual breach of the peace in Ayr Sheriff Court, where depute fiscal Gail Davidson described how he had been found by the hostel workers.

She said: “They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply.

“They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down.

“The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex.”

Both witnesses, who were extremely shocked, notified the hotel manager, who in turn alerted the police.

Mr Stewart was placed on the sex offenders’ register but his sentence was deferred until next month.

Have a chuckle by all means, but if the Telegraph Report is accurate (bear in mind the original source was the Sunday Mail), a man has had his life blighted for 3 years - and in some ways permanently - by a conviction for an activity in private in a hostel room interrupted by cleaning staff who walked in on him with by using their master keys. As Mr E has it:

But hang on here. Look past the comical aspect of this tale and get down to specifics. The guy is in his room, alone, and is accidentally discovered using an inanimate object (which presumably belonged to him) for sexual gratification - and he gets put on the fucking sex offenders’ register with rapists and child-sodomisers? What? What business is it of the state what he uses to get his rocks off in private?

How is a decision this stupid even possible? The person who really needs to walk in on a Trick Cyclist is depute fiscal Gail Davidson. The verdict is mad.

Not a court, but a lottery. There’s something very wrong here.

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Mark Thomas, banning demos, and the whole of Aldershot is a SOCPA zone

From the desk of admin ·October 31, 2007 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Ethics - Religion, Humourous, News - Current Affairs, Politics

I went to hear Mark Thomas a few days ago.

For those with their heads in a bucket, he’s a comedian campaigning against iniquitous SOCPA laws (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005) by following them to the letter.

Those were the laws under which a woman was arrested for reading out a list of war dead at the Cenotaph, and ban demonstrations without advanced permission within around 1km of Parliament, and - apparently - the whole of Aldershot and Farnborough (hat tip Wat Tyler who was SOCPA’d outside a Porsche dealer IBM (IBM Waste Watch Video 2 minutes in), while the confirmatory email is on my PC which died this morning (sorry).

Even though I follow Mark Thomas from time to time, I hadn’t noticed the fact that SOCPA means that you can now demonstrate - with permission from SOCPA - in Downing Street itself.

The law says that the police must give permission for people to demonstrate within the area covered by the law (see previous article and map)which includes Downing Street. So for the first time since the gates went up in 1989 we were allowed to demonstrate in Downing St itself rather than being herded into the metal railings in Whitehall opposite. So in groups of twos and threes we were allowed into the hallowed grounds, having gone through various metal detectors and escorted by police. I had made a blue plaque, announcing that Tony Blair Lived here - Prime Minister and War criminal. My friend Tony happily waved his banner declaring “Shame on me for voting Labour”.

There was apparently a demonstration in Downing Street against Gated Communities. Wonderful.

Highly recommended, especially if you have not been following the campaign.

There’s more coming in the next months, but I’m not posting about that - go to the show or read the website.

Blogging may be intermittent over the next few days due to PC hardware problems, and a sick broadband connection. Any email should be sent to mattwardman AT gmail FULLSTOP com.

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Chicken Yoghurt wrote a very popular article

From the desk of admin ·October 30, 2007 at 6:16 pm · Filed under Politics

Chickyog has bust his bandwidth limit.

Must have written something good.

Try again at the weekend.

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Salmond the Propaganda Minister, A Glimpse in to the future? And The Royal End Game: Politics Decoded

From the desk of garbo ·October 30, 2007 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Politics Decoded

The Impact of Salmond

The West Lothian Question is hardly a new concept. It has been around since the 1970s – yet for the first time its implications have changed it from a hypothetical question to a very real one. It has taken eight years since devolution was first passed down to Scotland for it to really become an issue – but why has it taken so long? The obvious answer is because the English are fed up with the Scots getting the better deal. But if that was the case, why has it taken so long to get to this point? The answer is because Alex Salmond is now the First Minister of Scotland.

Propaganda Merchant

On the surface it does seem deeply unfair that Scottish MPs get to vote on English matters but not vice versa. But this was just something that bothered a few people and in practice it didn’t really make much difference. The reason that the debate has now really picked up is because Alex Salmond is pushing the boundaries, exaggerating the unfairness and causing an unpalatable friction between England and Scotland. He knows that there is not enough appetite north of the border for independence – hence he didn’t win a majority government and why the polls consistently tell us that most Scots want to keep the union. Therefore his best hope is to push the boundaries of the system and make the English want rid of the Scots. Read the rest of this entry »

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Video is the New Longhand

From the desk of admin ·October 30, 2007 at 12:01 pm · Filed under Quote of the Day

A thought that occurred while listening to a programme this morning about longhand letters sent by a member of Scott’s polar expedition of 1912.

Personal video is the new longhand. It is now the only form of communications that takes time to do, cannot be read without concentrating, and that we actually keep for posterity.

Tags: quote of the day, political blogging

[tags]quote of the day, political blogging[/tags]

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Alex Salmond’s £32 Billion in Oil Revenue: Citation needed

From the desk of admin ·October 29, 2007 at 4:27 pm · Filed under News - Current Affairs, Politics, Scotland

In his Scottish National Party leader’s speech at the annual conference in Aviemore, Alex Salmond stated that the Treasury receives £32bn a year revenue from North Sea oil revenues based on a price of $86 per barrel.

He contrasted Westminster’s financial “squeeze” with the £32 billion a year the Treasury receives from North Sea oil revenues now oil prices are around $86 a barrel. (Scotsman)

Bearing in mind that the official forecast for the current year is less than a third of that figure at £10.4bn - and that even that figure is double the £5.2bn figure for 2004-5 - can anyone provide me with a detailed citation and calculations for Mr Salmond’s £32 billion number?

Tags: alex salmond, oil revenue forecast, 32 billion[tags]alex salmond, oil revenue forecast, 32 billion[/tags]

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