Visit Scotland, Visit Berwick-upon-Tweed

There's been some ballyhoo up here about a couple of opinion polls in which the denizens of Berwick-upon-Tweed expressed their desire to leave England and become part of Scotland.

One survey for ITV1's Tonight programme saw resident's vote by 1182 to 775 in favour of becoming part of Scotland. nother poll in the Berwick Advertiser saw 78% vote to leave England.
The town has a population of 11 600 and is part of Lib Dem MP Alan Beith's constituency and has 13 Lib Dem Councillors to 10 tories and 6 Independents.

It has been suggested that the pro-Scotland sentiment is due to a feeling of being on the periphery of England and of isolation from London. Cynics would suggest that it is more likely to be the realisation that the average Scot has £1500 more spent per annum on them from the public purse than the average resident of England.

I'm sure Mike Moore who is Lib Dem MP for the neighbouring Scottish Constituency of Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk would welcome all those extra Lib Dem voters with delight.

Of course Gnat heid honcho Eck salmond has weighed in with a threat to start legal moves to bring Berwick back into Scottish control, according to the Scotsman newspaper. You would think that he had more to do with his time, such as runnning his Gnat Scottish "Government".

Salmond piste off in new planning rumpus

It has emerged that Gnat FM Eck Salmond is embroiled in another planning stooshie. This one is to the tune of £30 000.

He is accused of meddling to rescue plans to expand the MacDonald Highland Resort in Aviemore. The Chief Executive of the company which owns the resort is Donald MacDonald who, last year, donated £30 000 to the gnats.

It seems that he spoke with Scotland's Chief Planner on the issue and also instructed Environment Minister Mike Russell to contact SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) who had objections to the development which were holding up the planning process.
Within days of the Minister contacting them SEPA dropped their objections.

Scottish Ministers are barred from interfering in planning applications unless it is in their capacity as a Constituency MSP. Aviemore is not in the Constituency of either Salmond or Russell.

Truth will out, eventually.

Salmond hauled before Holyrood Committee over Trump

First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond is to appear before Holyrood's Local Government Committee, which has decided to investigate the Scottish Government's interference over Trump's application to build a large development on the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire.

There would have been a public inquiry were it not for the Tories siding, as usual, with the Gnats thus the Lib Dem's and Labour had insufficient votes to force the issue. I really feel that the Tories, allegedly the most pro-Union party, are playing a very dangerous game in sooking up to the gnats as they are putting the Union in peril. despite the odd rogue poll the vast majority of ordinary Scots do not want independence. Herald journalist Douglas Fraser cracked the nail on the head when he said on his blog "Is there any hole out of which the Tories will not dig their Nationalist chums?"

Anyway, others appearing before the committee will include Scotland's Chief Planner Jim McKinnon, Fiance Secretary John Swinney and the Chief Executive of Aberdeenshire Council.

Act now to stop these stupid truckers

I agree that fuel prices are too high at the moment which seriously affects rural dwellers who have to use a car, but the news that hauliers and farmers are to stage a fuel protest convoy on Saturday really gets my goat.

Thank you for clogging up the M74, M8, M9 & A80 just 10 days before Christmas. Thank you for blockading Ineos plant at Grangemouth and scaring the hell out of people that fuel supplies may well be affected. If there's a petrol panic it will be these bullies to blame and not the Government.

In effect these people are asking the Government to give their industries extra subsidies. Well, sorry folks but the taxpayer cannot afford to subsidise every industry and I cannot accept that the road haulage sector is the most efficient in the world. This country needs more freight moving by rail and water and less by road, if for no reason other than the environment. A word of congratulations to WH Malcolm for their very busy rail-road depot which has opened between Johnstone & Paisley, which I pass twice a day commuting to and from work (by train). The business world is harsh and competitive and only the strongest survive, which is a hard truth of our economic system.

Oh yes, how many of the participants will be using reduced duty 'red diesel'?

So Mr Salmond and the Scottish government, are you going to instruct the relevant police forces to restrict the numbers involved and stop road chaos on Saturday, which will probably be the busiest shopping day of the year or are you going to give in to fuel fool bullies?

Nice one Nicol!

Scottish Lib Dem Leader Nicol Stephen played a blinder at yesterday's First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parly.

He suggested that the Scottish Government's involvement in trumpgate "smells of sleaze" and that " This is a serious situation for the first minister and his government. Every step of the way there is contradiction, concealment and cleverness from his government on this issue." He also called, justifiably, for an independent public inquiry into the issue.

I honestly believe that this has been the best direct hit on Eck and his government since they took power back in May and helps to prove the argument that with Labour being all over the shop, the Toris chumming up to the gnats and refusing to be an opposition at all, we in the Scottish Lib Dems are the real opposition to this gnat government.

Well done Nicol and more of the same please - it certainly puts heart into your troops.

26 Aberdeenshire councillors & a "First Minister" with questions to answer

News has just broken that Councillor Martin Ford has been sacked as Convener of the Council's Infrastructure services Committee by 26 votes to 10. This is because he, following customary practice, gave his casting vote on the hugely controversial Donald Trump development which was planned for the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire. This is craven behaviour by the Councillors who voted to sack Martin and seems like vindictive political behaviour of the crassest sort.

An emergency meeting of the full Council is also to be called. The "Scottish Government" has also "called-in" the decision, which the Council cannot overturn themselves, as they bollocked up their rules which meant that the Infrastructure Services Committee has final say on major decisions like this rather than Full Council.

In another interesting development in this ongoing saga, it seems that Gnat First Minister, Alex Salmond, used his Ministerial limo to travel to a meeting with Trump's underlings the night before his "Scottish Government" called-in the planning decision to have the final say on the proposal. Salmond cannot comment on the planning process and may well have broken the Ministerial Code of Conduct by using his official limo to attend this meeting. Salmond has also recently been wined and dined by Donald Trump in New York.

I had been in two minds about this proposal but the bullying behaviour of the Trump organisation, the destruction of a SSSI and the opinion of people whose views I respect have brought me round to opposition. Perhaps if the Trump lot had been a little more flexible over the site then a decent compromise could have been reached.

If the Gnat "Scottish Government" overturn this planning decision then they will have prostituted Scotland and all they will then be doing is haggling about the price to have international capitalist's F*** us over.

LATE EXTRA: I now understand that 3 Councillors were absent from the meeting today and 29 chose to abstain on the vote.