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Pip Pip
On A Journey (500 Miles)
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 20
Location: upstairs
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 Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:43 pm Post subject: Hello everybody |
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I came here following the link from Shuggy's Blog.
I've been in the Labour Party for 25 years, having joined at a time when it was neither profitable nor popular, and have nothing good to say about the SNP or the SSP or the Tories or the Lib Dems. So obviously I expect to fit in fine here. I have a finely tuned sense of humour, though and I hope most of you do too.
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Maol.Chaluim
'Our Scotland' = 2nd Job!
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 418
Location: Glaschu
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Hello, Pip Pip.
Why do you support the Union, then? |
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azzuri
'Our Scotland' Fossil
Joined: 12 Sep 2005
Posts: 3796
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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welcome pip pip.
_________________
"Every single person on this planet is unique. Just like everyone else..." - Random Guy in Edinburgh Pub
Possibly the funniest site in the world, 'The Daily Mash' - http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/ |
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SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Welcome to the board Pip Pip. Hope you enjoy your stay! 25 years with Labour, eh? Do you still feel the Labour party satisfies those reasons you joined 25 years ago? |
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Rinty
Ready For Afterlife!
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 2600
Location: SW Scotland
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:57 pm Post subject: p |
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Welcome Pip, just out of interest how did you manage to go from supporting this in 1979 http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/man/lab79.htm
My favourite bits are
| Quote: | | In any programme for nuclear power, safety must continue to be the dominant factor. Any such development would have to take place within the public sector. |
and
| Quote: | | By developing the Girobank and the National Savings Bank to their full potential, a Labour Government will ensure for the country a vigorous public banking sector. |
To supporting this 25 years later?
http://www.labour.org.uk/manifesto
My favourite parts are
| Quote: | | We want a tax regime that supports British business |
and
| Quote: | | Over the next five years we will implement a new electronic borders system that will track visitors entering or leaving the UK. |
Last edited by Rinty on Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Pip Pip
On A Journey (500 Miles)
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 20
Location: upstairs
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:40 am Post subject: |
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| Maol.Chaluim wrote: | | Hello, Pip Pip. Why do you support the Union, then? |
Hello, MC.
I think we all do better in Britain. I think breaking up Britain would diminish all of us. I have just as much in common with pals in Bradford, Bala, Bath and Brighton as with others in Braco, Bathgate, Beith and Buckie. I don't want to feel that I'm a foreigner when I'm on the other side of the border, or that English people up here should be made to feel foreign. I am frequently reminded that the Scottish political class running the devolved Scottish administration would be exactly the same people running a separate Scottish state.
Among other things. |
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Pip Pip
On A Journey (500 Miles)
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 20
Location: upstairs
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:46 am Post subject: |
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| SLG wrote: | | Welcome to the board Pip Pip. Hope you enjoy your stay! 25 years with Labour, eh? Do you still feel the Labour party satisfies those reasons you joined 25 years ago? |
Briefly - yes! I'm 25 years older, right enough. |
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Pip Pip
On A Journey (500 Miles)
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 20
Location: upstairs
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:01 am Post subject: Re: p |
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Well I wasn't in the Labour Party in 1979 - this is 2006. I remember the Callaghan Labour Government - Horrible. Failure. But I joined to support the fight to get the Tories out and even before then I was active in the CSA (prizes for recognising what the initials stood for then!). As I recall the SNP weren't a huge help at the time.
I have to confess that I am entirely relaxed about continuing to use nuclear power as the basis of our country's energy supply mix. The Government should stop faffing about over this.
I want to see properly paid work for everyone who needs it, so I support fiscal strategy that promotes British business. Should it support some other country's economy?
My only worry about better border controls is that they won't work and they'll be another waste of money. |
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SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:30 am Post subject: |
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| Pip Pip wrote: | I think we all do better in Britain. I think breaking up Britain would diminish all of us. I have just as much in common with pals in Bradford, Bala, Bath and Brighton as with others in Braco, Bathgate, Beith and Buckie. I don't want to feel that I'm a foreigner when I'm on the other side of the border, or that English people up here should be made to feel foreign. I am frequently reminded that the Scottish political class running the devolved Scottish administration would be exactly the same people running a separate Scottish state.
Among other things. |
PipPip, I have pals various countries across the world that I have more in common with than many of my neighbours. I don't see that to be a reason why we should all be ruled from London. I lived in England for a while and I felt like a foreigner. I met some really nice folk, but it's a different country. Maybe if I'd spent time there as a kid, or had English family I might feel different. And it's not to say that I didn't have a lot in common with many of the folk I met there.
Your second point is that the quality of politician at Westminster and the astuteness of the English electorate mean that we are better ruled by Westminster than Holyrood. That is going down the line of we're too stupid to rule ourselves properly. Is that what you believe? |
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Pip Pip
On A Journey (500 Miles)
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 20
Location: upstairs
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| SLG wrote: | | PipPip, I have pals various countries across the world that I have more in common with than many of my neighbours. I don't see that to be a reason why we should all be ruled from London. I lived in England for a while and I felt like a foreigner. I met some really nice folk, but it's a different country. Maybe if I'd spent time there as a kid, or had English family I might feel different. And it's not to say that I didn't have a lot in common with many of the folk I met there. |
It's quite revealing that you use the expression "ruled by". It seems to me to be an old-fashioned description of life in a democratic multinational state of 60m citizens (and rising). Would you still feel that you were being "ruled" if you were in a more autonomous democratic mononational Scottish state with 5m citizens (and falling)?
I've never felt that I was a foreigner anywhere in the UK and I and my family are boringly un-cosmopolitan. You did. Oh well.
| SLG wrote: | | Your second point is that the quality of politician at Westminster and the astuteness of the English electorate mean that we are better ruled by Westminster than Holyrood. That is going down the line of we're too stupid to rule ourselves properly. Is that what you believe? |
Westminster and Holyrood are Parliaments, not Executives, but I know what you mean.
It was naughty of you to suggest that I believe that Scots are too stupid to govern themselves. I don't. I do think that the quality of leadership, for what ought to be a federal UK government, may be better from a pool of 60m than from a pool of 5m.
As it happens, the current UK leadership is pretty damn Scottish, a fact that seems to irritate the hell out of some of our English cousins. But we keep on winning elections! And you lot don't. (Well maybe you do, personally!)
On reflection - the people running the independent Scottish Government to which you aspire would not be exactly the same people running the Scotttish Executive. It would be led by people like Gordon Brown and John Reid, but I have no doubt that someone like Margaret Curran would be capable of reaching that level in such company.
Jack McConnell would still be a Councillor in Stirling.
The SNP, if there was one, would still have Nicola Sturgeon  . |
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