2014 September 13 « Dr Alf's Blog

First Minister Alex Salmond (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like Dr Alf I agree with Danny Alexander on this one thing.

That said, even if the Scots decide to remain in the Union, they will demand more and create international uncertainty, which will cause foreign governments and potential investors to not be so willing to invest here or listen to what the UK Government says.

This not least because they will never really know how long any agreement they reach with the British Government will last or whether other elements of the Celtic fringe or the Orkney’s and Shetland Islands are prepared to break away.

Already the larger regions like the NorthEast, parts of the NorthWest and Cornwall are getting restless and demanding devolved powers over income taxation, business rates and housing.

They smell blood and the possibility of getting their hands on money which under Margaret Thatcher was placed firmly beyond their wasteful reach.

What is needed is fewer councils, fewer layers, fewer civil servants, fewer MPs and much greater efficiency NOT more devolved powers to waste and steal taxpayers money.

This and the uncertain climate on confidence and inward investment is what Alex Salmond has caused and the genie is now out of the bottle with almost unstoppable momentum.

Alex Salmond is interested in himself and his own self aggrandizement, not in these bigger issues and the damage his demagoguery causes and will continue to cause the very people whose interests he pretends to truly represent.

John Gelmini

English: Alex Salmond photographed in his constituency at Turriff (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As Dr Alf says the Guardian’s arguments are weak and I would say vacuous.

Everyone wants a better future but better futures have to be won, worked for and earned.

Scotland is not a viable economic unit, neither is Wales and neither is Northern Ireland.

Scotland has too many benefit recipients, too little job creation, less North Sea oil than Alex Salmond says there is, not enough industry, too few entrepreneurs and too many unhealthy people, who represent a drain on the health service and on Adult Social Care budgets.

East Anglia and Hertfordshire, where I live, is a viable economic unit and along with London and the SouthEasts, represents a UK version of Umberto Bossi‘s Padana(the prosperous part of Northern Italy shorn of the corrupt and chaotic south). We represent the part of the UK which produces more than it consumes, whilst the rest of it remains a drain on resources.

Collectively our patience with the other parts of the UK, with their growing sense of entitlement and “bite the hand that feeds them” mentality, is simmering under the surface but if we are pushed too far the consequences will be severe for the Salmonds’, latter-day William Wallaces’, Michael Angos’ and other heroes of the Celtic fringe.

Like Dr Alf I think that the Cameron/Clegg Coalition has become a government for the rich and powerful only and it needs to be cut down to size and radically reformed.

Unlike Dr Alf, I would not want too much devolution, although I would reduce the number of UK councils to 15, create a national police and fire service with 15 commands, outsource all the services now delivered by Districts and Boroughs, sack all but 15,000 civil servants, centralize procurement within a rotating panel of providers with independent oversight, abolish the BBC licence fee and make them operate on subscription.

The same treatment would be meted out to quangocracies and their Chief Executives, unaccountable boards and overpaid apparatchiks would experience the unique smell of “napalm in the morning” combined with a firmly closed revolving door.

We would frack and build nuclear power stations and the NHS would be abolished and reconstituted on German lines with Rife machines in every cancer ward and available for purchase in Boots and good pharmacies.

The Barnett Formula would be abolished and the UK would become a neutral tax haven with a beefed up self-defense force and money with which to pay for out of area operations such as dealing with ISIS

John Gelmini