tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-341282642024-03-07T18:53:06.905+00:00Caron's MusingsAn everyday tale of family and political life with a dollop of Formula One and various random thoughts on the side.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.comBlogger3061125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-11553263598926912042014-02-15T15:00:00.000+00:002014-02-15T15:00:02.047+00:00Men, is your behaviour driving women out of politics?<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Imagine you are in a meeting trying to make your case. How would you feel if, every time you opened your mouth to speak, somebody interrupted you before you had got to the end of your first sentence? Not just once. Every. Single.Time.</div>
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Imagine you are in a meeting, trying to make your case, but the decision has clearly been made by a small cabal of powerful men who have reached their own understanding over dinner and some booze the night before, at an event that you were not invited to.</div>
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Imagine you are in a meeting trying to do your job responsibly, but because your recollections or views don't fit in with what others want, they become aggressive, shouting you down, demeaning your abilities, decrying your right to suggest something different. You feel completely under attack, humiliated, your heart is racing, you can feel the tears stinging and try to suppress them because you sure as hell aren't going to give them the satisfaction of showing weakness.</div>
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These are just three examples of behaviour I've repeatedly experienced and witnessed while going about my Lib Demmery over the years, and it still goes on to this day. And virtually always, the aggressors are men, who would never behave towards other men in such a manner.</div>
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You will always to a certain extent get people who will take advantage of their position and power, but this is not what I'm talking about. That's kind of part of politics. I'm talking about those men who, whether consciously or not, treat women with less respect than they do men. It's almost as if they think we're interlopers. I would not for one moment think that this sort of behaviour is confined to the Liberal Democrats, or even active politics, but it's my own party I want to change.</div>
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Academic Mary Beard, who has been the victim of Twitter trolls, has given a lecture, <a data-mce-href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/mary-beard-vocal-women-treated-freakish-androgynes" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/14/mary-beard-vocal-women-treated-freakish-androgynes">reported in the Guardian</a>, about the way women are treated when they dare to put their heads above the parapet and speak out. She says that from Homer to Twitter, prejudice hardwired into our culture leads to vocal women being treated as "freakish androgenes." Dealing with that can't be remedied by measures like all women shortlists alone:</div>
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But if we want to understand – and do something about – the fact that women, even when they are not silenced, still tend to pay a very high price for being heard, we have to recognise that it's more complicated and that there's a long backstory."</div>
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Women's interventions were often described as "strident" or "whining". "Do those words matter? Of course they do – because they underpin an idiom that acts to remove the authority, the force, even the humour from what women have to say. It's an idiom that effectively repositions women back into the domestic sphere (people "whinge" over things like the washing up); it trivialises their words," she said.</div>
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"Contrast that with the 'deep-voiced' man, and its connotations of profundity. It is still the case, I'd argue, that when as listeners we hear a female voice, we don't hear a voice that connotes authority; or rather we haven't learned how to hear authority in it."</div>
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What is her solution?</div>
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"We just have got to have a bit more onsciousness-raising, old-fashioned feminist consciousness-raising. How do we use language? Why does it matter? And how does it put women down?"</div>
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This isn't about robust exchange of views. Anyone in politics should expect that. And anyone in the Liberal Democrats should always relish reasoned debate and discussion as a way to learn as much as a form of combat. Nobody in any position of power within the party should expect their decisions to go unchallenged. No, my concerns relate to a specific issue with how some men behave towards women.</div>
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Sometimes they aren't even aware. In my first example, of the man who interrupted me every time I opened my mouth, I eventually took him to one side and, very gently, asked him why he did that. He didn't even realise he was doing it but when I gave him a whole list of specific examples, he started to get it and to his credit worked at changing his behaviour. Our working relationship improved vastly as a result.</div>
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So, what's the solution? Well, it's certainly not easy. It is a problem, though that we ignore at our peril. I've seen good women driven away from active politics out of sheer exasperation at the way powerful men exclude and demean them. Participation in politics should not require putting up with such behaviour and politics itself is better when it more accurately reflects the society we live in.</div>
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A start would be for us all to be much more aware of our behaviour and that of others. Men in powerful positions, have a look at your own behaviour. Do you exclude women, do you behave aggressively towards them in a way that you would never do to a man? If so, change your behaviour. Decide that you won't do that in future. It's not difficult.</div>
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The rest of us need to look out for women who are being treated like this and challenge disrespectful behaviour. Even if we don't agree with what they say, we should always support their right to be heard and treated with dignity. Let's tackle our everyday sexism.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-70784642055052223082014-02-15T09:00:00.000+00:002014-02-15T09:00:05.518+00:00Bluff, bluster and bullying says Salmond. Pot, kettle and black come to mind.<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
<i>This post originally appeared on Liberal Democrat Voice</i></div>
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That the SNP would dismiss yesterday's announcement on currency by George Osborne should not come as a surprise to any of us.</div>
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Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have taken to the airwaves to complain of "bluff, bluster and bullying" by those nasty big boys from Westminster. It's actually quite brazen to sit there and say, having been told a very firm "no" that the answer was really yes. But their aim was to whip up fury amongst their own supporters, to incite an emotional reaction in those who don't like English Tories telling things like they are.</div>
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That was always going to be the huge risk of Osborne's gamble and the jury is still out on whether Danny Alexander and Ed Balls were right to agree with it. Those voters who are undecided, who instinctively might veer towards yes but are worried by the uncertainties of independence might be propelled back towards them in the face of what they might perceive as a reactionary and petulant manoeuvre. Except that doesn't quite work when one of the people agreeing this, Danny Alexander, is a highlander through and through.</div>
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From what I can see in my social media timeline, and I'm discounting people already involved in politics, those who were already committed to voting yes are outraged, those who were already committed to voting no are pleased and those who don't know are splitting fairly evenly. That's only a small sample of family and friends. It'll be interesting to see the first proper poll.</div>
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I am still in two minds about whether this is the right thing to do <a data-mce-href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/ruling-out-currency-union-locking-the-horse-inside-the-stable-38202.html" href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/ruling-out-currency-union-locking-the-horse-inside-the-stable-38202.html">as I wrote the other day</a>. I do, though, completely see the rationale behind being honest with the voters ahead of the referendum. It's really important that Scots know what they are voting for. I said then that Osborne needed to be logical, reasonable and measured in his tone. By and large, <a data-mce-href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-on-the-prospect-of-a-currency-union-with-an-independent-scotland" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-on-the-prospect-of-a-currency-union-with-an-independent-scotland">he was.</a> In fact, he was quite cold and forensic. I'm not normally one for giving added publicity to anything that George Osborne says, but he summed up the whole independence debate quite well with this observation:</div>
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People in Scotland are being asked to accept two diametrically opposite things at the same time.</div>
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That with independence everything in Scotland will change</div>
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and at the same time nothing will change.</div>
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The SNP wants to bring about fundamental change, but are giving false reassurance to people that things will stay the same, they'll still use the pound, they'll still have the Queen and they'll barely notice independence. If that's the case, what's the point? Leaving the UK is a huge decision that will require changes in every aspect of our lives, and will involve massive risk and uncertainty. To pretend otherwise is wrong. If Osborne's move yesterday gets more people realising that, then it will have succeeded.</div>
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The SNP's line has been that the UK Government is bluffing and they will still be arguing for a currency union because that's what'll happen in the event of a yes vote. They have refused to give out any details of their Plan B. The tone of the debate on Twitter has been of the "You can't stop us using the pound, na na na na na" variety. I've heard nationalists on discussion programmes also talk about using the euro or the dollar, like it's really easy to do and there is no downside. Prominent pro independence folk like Jim Sillars and Dennis Canavan, neither of them every likely to be on message for the Yes campaign at the best of times, have repeated their calls for Scotland to have its own currency.</div>
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The Scotland Office's <a data-mce-href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191786/ScotlandAnalysis_acc-1.pdf" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191786/ScotlandAnalysis_acc-1.pdf">Scotland Analysis paper on currency</a> looked at the four options considered by the SNP's Fiscal Commission and concluded that in every event Scots would be worse off out of the UK. Quelle surprise, I hear you say, but it makes sense. A new country doesn't have a proven credit history. How tough do individuals find it to get credit for the first time? Well, it's the same for countries, who generally have to pay a higher rate of interest. That feeds back to more expensive mortgages and borrowing costs for businesses for citizens.</div>
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Then of course there's the fact that if you just use someone else's currency, you don't have a proper central bank, or lender of last resort. It was quite scary to hear SNP minister Fiona Hyslop suggest on Brian Taylor's Big Debate today that the bank bailout in 2008 just benefitted the city of London. I was under the impression it protected the savings of ordinary people and their jobs, too. If there is nobody to give your banks liquidity when they need it, and they all do from time to time, a hitch quickly becomes a crisis.</div>
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You can't really accuse someone of bullying when you then infer that taking your share of the national debt is conditional. Trying to get your own way by threatening not to fulfil your obligations is not far off blackmail. All the nonsense being put about by nationalists that it's the UK's debt abd nowt to do with them will amount to nothing when lenders make an independent Scotland borrow at exorbitant rates, if they allow it to borrow at all. Starting life as a pariah state that doesn't pay its dues is not a good prospect. The idea that the SNP can just walk away from that debt is like me saying I'm not paying income tax because I've lost Child Benefit.</div>
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One of the great things about the independence debate is that we get Jim Naughtie back for our version of the Today programme a couple of days a week. This morning, he got closer than anyone else has done so far to getting Salmond to admit that there would have to be an alternative proposal at some point:</div>
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JN: Does that mean in the event of a yes vote you go into negotiations without another option in your back pocket?</div>
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AS: Well let me say for the third time Jim that the fiscal commission working group set out all of the monetary policy options for an independent Scotland but recommended the best one was a sterling area and that’s the one that we’re going to be articulating and that’s what you’d expect us to do….</div>
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JN: OK Alex Salmond says there is no alternative –</div>
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AS: No I didn’t say that Jim, I said</div>
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JN – I’m just checking</div>
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AS – Try again, I said the Fiscal Commission Working Group set out a range of monetary policy options for an independent Scotland…</div>
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Willie Rennie encouraged Salmond to get on with telling us his Plan B:</div>
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The penny has finally dropped. The First Minister has effectively conceded that the Sterling Currency union with the UK will not happen.</div>
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He pointed towards the options in his fiscal commission but he needs to tell us which one he’d choose. Would it be the Euro or a separate Scottish currency?</div>
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The clock is ticking. With 10 days until Scottish Cabinet meets in the North East, the First Minister can’t turn up empty handed. I am clear that the only way to keep the UK pound, and all the benefits which come with it, is to keep the strong UK family of nations. Now that Alex Salmond is without his Plan A he has a duty to tell people in Scotland what his Plan B is.</div>
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If Salmond goes into the referendum without fully explaining his alternative, then he'll be asking the voters to pay the biggest game of chicken in electoral history. His comments to Naughtie suggest that he knows that even if he's not prepared to explicitly say so just yet. His original suggestion that they'd just wait it out till after 18th September has been exposed as bluff within 24 hours. If he wants examples of bullying, bluff and bluster, he could easily look in the mirror.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-59999636311831658482014-02-14T15:59:00.000+00:002014-02-14T15:59:03.993+00:00Ruling out a currency union. Locking the horse inside the stable?<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
<i>This post first appeared on <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/ruling-out-currency-union-locking-the-horse-inside-the-stable-38202.html">Liberal Democrat Voice</a></i></div>
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The currency in an independent Scotland has been the subject of much frenetic debate in recent months. The Scottish Government's <a data-mce-href="http://82.113.138.107/00439021.pdf" href="http://82.113.138.107/00439021.pdf">White Paper on independence </a>is clear that their preferred option is to continue to use sterling within a monetary union with what would remain of the UK:</div>
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The Commission's analysis shows that it will not only be in Scotland's interests to retain Sterling but that - post independence - this will also benefit the rest of the UK.</div>
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Under such an arrangement, monetary policy will be set according to economic conditions across the Sterling Area with ownership and governance of the Bank of England undertaken on a shareholder basis.</div>
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The SNP has this unfortunate habit of thinking that just because it wants something to be the case, that it'll happen. In any relationship, the views of the other parties have to be taken into consideration. Over the past few months, expert after expert has said that Scotland would have to cede its newly won independence and submit its spending plans to the will of the Bank of England and would have arguably less influence over its fiscal policy than it does at the moment.</div>
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Just the other week, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, laid out the conditions which would be necessary for a successful currency union:</div>
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The euro area is now beginning to rectify its institutional shortcomings, but further, very significant steps must be taken to expand the sharing of risks and pooling of fiscal resources. In short, a durable, successful currency union requires some ceding of national sovereignty.</div>
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It is likely that similar institutional arrangements would be necessary to support a monetary union between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.</div>
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But despite all of that sage and expert advice, Alex Salmond <a data-mce-href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa0305d6-8a98-11e3-9c29-00144feab7de.html#axzz2t6udUWuE" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa0305d6-8a98-11e3-9c29-00144feab7de.html#axzz2t6udUWuE">told the FT </a>that he has no intention of ceding any power at all over fiscal policy:</div>
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Mr Salmond said an independent Scotland would be happy to cede sovereignty on monetary policy but on fiscal policy it would only have to accept aggregate limits to state debt and borrowing.</div>
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He added on that the currency union might be the trade for Scotland agreeing to take on a share of UK debts:</div>
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In the interview, Mr Salmond refused to consider a “Plan B” on the currency, warning that refusal by the remaining UK to accept shared use of the Bank of England would free Scotland of any responsibility for the UK debt.</div>
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“You’ve got a negotiation where the UK government will want to persuade the Scottish representatives that they should take on a share of debt which is the legal liability of Her Majesty’s Treasury,” he said.</div>
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So, you have a Scottish Government doing it's usual false reassurance and asserting that it'll all be fine despite growing evidence to the contrary. What should the UK Government do? Well, one option is to stand by while yet more experts demolish the SNP's arguments. The other significantly riskier option is to take the whole idea of a currency union off the table. This, <a data-mce-href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/independence-osborne-set-for-currency-union-speech-1-3302926" href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/independence-osborne-set-for-currency-union-speech-1-3302926">we are told</a>, is what George Osborne is going to do tomorrow, with the backing of Ed Balls and Danny Alexander.<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Why the risk? It makes the UK Government sound reactionary, petulant and unwilling. This could alienate the very people that Better Together needs to vote No in September. These are the people who respond to the Yes pretty picture narrative. They will even say that it doesn't matter if we're poor as long as we're free. However unpretty not having a viable currency would be, Osborne's gamble runs the risk of sounding like more of the macho posturing we've had on both sides of this debate. It's not a good look. It feeds those who view the Union as some great oppressive tyrant. But, and it's a big but, if a currency union just isn't going to work, is it not better for the UK Government to be honest about it? How would the voters in the rest of the UK feel about sharing its currency with a country that's just left that union? Would a government of any flavour be able to get that through the House of Commons? I can't see it. If it's a political, fiscal and economic non-starter, is it not best to say so now, rather than let Scotland vote yes on the basis of false reassurance. Saying no then would be locking the door after the horse had bolted. I just hope saying no now isn't locking the poor beast in the stable in the dark for months on end.</div>
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Bluntly, Scotland needs the currency union a great deal more than the rest of the UK. Nicola Sturgeon goes on about transaction costs for business. Well, the other UK countries may well be Scotland's biggest trading partner, but Scotland isn't the rest of the UK's, not by a long chalk. You have the 600 million people in the EU and US way ahead of our 6 million people, and nobody's seriously suggested we join the Euro for a while, or the dollar ever.</div>
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Reaction from the SNP so far has been either that the UK Government is bluffing or that it's bullying. Well, they can't have that both ways.</div>
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I'm still not convinced that this is the best tactic. A lot will depend on what Osborne actually says tomorrow. It's not the time for rhetoric and passion. If he's going to set out this stall, his language will have to be rational, reasoned and measured. He'll have to set it out very carefully and logically, with no rancour. He has a lot of convincing to do, and, let's face it, he is not the most popular politician as far as Scots are concerned. Already the execution of this has been incredibly cackhanded. If David Cameron had kept his mouth shut at that press briefing yesterday and just let Osborne make his speech on Thursday, we could have had the judgement done on his actual words, not conjecture, for 36 hours before. Cameron did this last year, too. He made some comment about the timing of the referendum not being an issue to journalists before it had been agreed between the Governments.</div>
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The SNP must now state their Plan B</h3>
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One thing that's absolutely for sure is that the SNP has nowhere to hide now. They'll try, for a while, to just lob accusations of nasty Westminster bullies into the air but that won't count for much if, having been told they won't get their currency union, they don't produce an alternative. Otherwise, they will be asking the electorate to play the biggest game of chicken in history. Currency is fundamental to everything we do, so we need to know exactly what's going to happen. It would have been wrong of the SNP to keep making promises it was in no position to keep on something as important as this. It's interesting that nobody really cared about the currency a few months ago, but now polls are seeing it figure quite highly.</div>
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So, everyone, to the tune of "Donald where's your troosers", Alex, where's your Plan B?</div>
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The three pro UK parties are taking a huge risk here. It will be some time before we see if it pays off, but I'd say it has a pretty good chance. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-45956694805944031622014-01-23T19:30:00.000+00:002014-01-23T19:30:01.190+00:00Time to start educating children about their rights after figures show Police stopped and searched 500 under 10s<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Shocking figures show that police in Scotland have stopped and searched 750,000 people in the last year. The <a data-mce-href="http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Stop_and_Search_in_Scotland1.pdf" href="http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Stop_and_Search_in_Scotland1.pdf">Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research report</a> also found that 500 children under 10 were stopped and searched in 2010 alone. This has caused concern from human rights and children's organisations.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Scotland's Children's Commissioner, Tam Baillie, <a data-mce-href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/agenda-stop-and-search-on-scale-we-have-seen-risks-alienating-young-people.23213560" href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/agenda-stop-and-search-on-scale-we-have-seen-risks-alienating-young-people.23213560">writing in the Herald</a> said:</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
On any reading, it is clear that young people are being targeted and there will be times when their rights are being infringed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
In a the country that claims to be committed to children's rights and wants to be the best country in the world in which to grow up, this needs to be addressed urgently.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission was also worried:</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The recent increase in the use of non-statutory powers of stop and search [i.e. where there is no reasonable suspicion of the person] is particularly concerning. According to Police Scotland these amount to 70% of the almost half a million searches conducted between April and December in 2013. Such an increased and extensive use of this form of stop and search power can, dependent upon the circumstances, be unlawful, be carried out without informed and freely given consent, and have a longer term adverse impact upon police and community relations. Scotland should not be repeating the mistakes and lessons learned in England and Wales, where the use of stop and search is reducing.</div>
</blockquote>
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One person isn't worried one little bit, though. Step forward First Minister Alex Salmond who pretty much shrugged his shoulders and said "so what" when questioned by Willie Rennie today. You can watch the whole thing <a data-mce-href="http://www.scottishhumanrights.com/news/latestnews/article/stopandsearch2014" href="http://www.scottishhumanrights.com/news/latestnews/article/stopandsearch2014">here</a> from about 18:30. Willie asked Salmond if he was comfortable with that high number of searches on children who are hardly in a position to consent. The First Minister again showed that he really doesn't get it on civil liberties. As long as crime's going down, he's happy.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
With a 1 in 8 chance of Scots being searched by Police, perhaps it's time to start educating our citizens and schoolchildren about their rights. Ultimately, if the Police are going to search you, they need to have reasonable suspicion of a number of things. Otherwise,you do not need to submit. The Citizens' Advice Bureau has a<a data-mce-href="http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland/law_s/law_legal_system_s/law_police_s/police_powers_scotland.htm#h_powers_of_stop_search_and_seizure" href="http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland/law_s/law_legal_system_s/law_police_s/police_powers_scotland.htm#h_powers_of_stop_search_and_seizure"> handy guide to your rights</a>. Read and learn it now.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
While there are still concerns about stop and search powers in England <a data-mce-href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24902389" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24902389">being disproportionately used on black and Asian people</a>, which must be addressed, the total number is falling. Just think, in a country of 50 million people, there are just 1.1 million stop and searches, while in Scotland, with a population of 6 million, there were 750,000. The downward trend, coupled with falling crime, shows what can be achieved with Liberal Democrats in government. To be blunt, even Theresa May is more liberal on this than Alex Salmond. That's not a good look.</div>
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As well as Willie's question, Alison McInnes, our Scottish justice spokesperson said that overuse of these powers on children sends out the wrong message about what sort of society we are:</div>
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Overuse of stop and search, particularly towards very young people, sends the completely wrong message about the kind of society we want to live in. Scottish Liberal Democrats are committed to building a fairer society.</div>
</blockquote>
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I've always said that I want to live in a liberal Scotland. So much about the SNP, not to mention authoritarian Labour, tells me it would be anything but if we were independent.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-24529680196583385452014-01-19T13:46:00.000+00:002014-01-19T14:51:19.871+00:00Rennard: How is the party going to get through this?I've had a post in drafts for the last 3 days about the fallout from <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/internal-investigation-into-allegations-against-lord-rennard-37847.html">Alistair Webster's statement</a> but my heart has been so heavy that it's only now I feel able to complete it. I have to thank Lord Carlile of Berriew for his help in that regard. His statements across various media have been so unnecessarily aggressive, rude, bullish and, frankly, unhelpful to anyone that he's helped clarify my thoughts. There is also an irony about the man who so strongly supported the introduction of secret courts complaining about secret justice in this matter. To be clear, he and Chris Rennard have seen all the evidence. They and the women concerned should probably see the report.<br />
<br />
What I'm going to say is as someone who has been broadly sympathetic to Chris Rennard in the almost 20 years I've known him and should be viewed in that context. I have no scores to settle and I've always had a cordial relationship with him.<br />
<br />
This past year has been excruciating for me and for the party. There are people I care about on all sides of this. I may not be directly involved, but I feel like I've been emotionally boshed on the head with a sledgehammer. I shudder to think what it must be like for the people who have been at the centre of it all.<br />
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The party is in danger of pulling itself apart over this. On one hand, there are a growing number of people who feel that Chris Rennard should apologise as asked to do so by Alistair Webster QC before being admitted back into the Lords group. I was really surprised that the Scottish Liberal Democrats Executive agreed unanimously yesterday to back <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/nick-clegg-inappropriate-for-lord-rennard-to-rejoin-lib-dem-lords-if-he-does-not-apologise-37879.html">Nick Clegg's position</a> on this. Although we confined our motion to that, there was a call to also condemn Lord Carlile for his deeply offensive public statements.<br />
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On the other hand, there are those who genuinely believe Rennard to be innocent and to have been found so by the enquiry. They are fiercely protective of him and view the complainants, as our friend Lord Carlile does, as "bad losers" or possibly even worse.<br />
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<h4>
Chris Rennard has not been found innocent</h4>
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In order to try and find a way through this, I think we have to bear in mind that Chris Rennard has not been found innocent. At best, Alistair Webster's findngs are more akin to the Scottish "not proven" verdict and the reaction of people on both sides demonstrate very clearly why such a verdict is entirely unsatisfactory. Let's look at what the QC said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Let me be clear from the outset that the evidence suggests that Lord Rennard’s behaviour has caused distress to a number of women, so much so that they came forward several years after the events in question.</i></span></span></blockquote>
His final conclusion:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i> <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">My view, judging the evidence as a whole, is that there is a less than 50% chance that a charge against Lord Rennard could be proved to the requisite standard.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In my opinion, the evidence of behaviour which violated the personal space and autonomy of the complainants was broadly credible. However, it is my judgment, considering all of the evidence collected, that it is unlikely that it could be established beyond reasonable doubt that Lord Rennard had intended to act in an indecent or sexually inappropriate way. Without proof of such an intention, I do not consider that such a charge would be tenable.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I stress that I am not finding that the evidence of the complainants was unreliable. I have specifically discounted suggestions made during the investigation that the incidents had been invented as part of a political campaign against Lord Rennard.</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>It is my view that Lord Rennard ought to reflect upon the effect that his behaviour has had and the distress which it caused and that an apology would be appropriate, as would a commitment to change his behaviour in future.</i></span></blockquote>
Not innocence, but evidence that suggests that Rennard's behaviour caused distress, that he should reflect on this, apologise and give assurances about future behaviour.<br />
<br />
I agree with <a href="http://stephentall.org/2014/01/17/rennard-allegations-q-and-a/">Stephen Tall's main conclusion</a> - it's a mess. The party's processes have been found to be totally inadequate to deal with allegations of this nature and that must be remedied as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
I think that the way in which Alex Carlile has interpreted this statement has been insensitive, inaccurate and utterly offensive. His manner is entirely dismissive of the women concerned and is especially inappropriate given that Rennard said yesterday<a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/lord-rennard-breaks-silence-on-facebook"> via his speedily deleted Facebook account </a>that he considered making an apology 3 years ago. In today's Daily Mail, he compares the party's processes to North Korea and Henry VIII's torture. He says that Rennard has been made ill over the last year. Is he therefore suggesting that the party should not even have investigated these allegations? Being under investigation is stressful for anyone.<br />
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Had Rennard accepted Webster's conclusion and issued a genuine, credible apology rather than forget about the second part of the statement, he could have been back on the path to better health and less stress. Instead, he chooses to threaten further legal action and dig his heels in, presumably on the advice of Carlile and others. That could have been an end to the matter, he could have been re-admitted to the Lords group and everyone could have moved on. That same stubbornness and single focus which contributed to his fantastic election winning success for this party has an altogether more (self)-destructive side now. Simply, when someone is told that there is evidence that their behaviour has caused distress, their first reaction should be to apologise for that distress, whether it was intended or not. He may feel that his previous vehement denials have painted him into a corner. Actually, I think a genuine apology would be well received and the courage it takes to issue it respected. Even now.<br />
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<h4>
Privileged few closing ranks - not a good look</h4>
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<br /></div>
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The idea that the Lords could let Chris back in without an apology was always hugely worrying for me. I wrote to Jim Wallace saying that such a move would be very damaging for our party. We, the party who are supposed to challenge vested interests, would see a privileged few close ranks to protect one of their own. If they do that, all the fantastic work that they do will be, from then on, tarnished. </div>
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<br /></div>
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It may well be that the Lords will vote tomorrow to allow Chris Rennard back into the group, defying Nick Clegg's very clear statement that they should not without an apology. That would be really unfortunate. Even if they do bow to the leader's view and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/17/lord-rennard-lib-dem-activists-demand-withdrawal-whip">that expressed by the 120 party members (me included)</a>, they will be in mutinous mood which doesn't bode well for future relations.</div>
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The Lords have different motivations for the view they take. In fact, I think an analysis of them in a Venn diagram would be quite interesting. First of all, you have those who think they're living in a world of Benny Hill and Carry on films,where women's breasts and bottoms are fair game.This Facepalm Brigade simply don't get the concept of sexual harassment and think that it's all a load of fuss about nothing. It scares me that people with that sort of view make our laws, let alone that they're in our party. To be fair, these sorts of people exist in all parties and in wider society, but still. </div>
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Secondly, and this is a group of people I think we need to treat with some sympathy, Rennard's actual friends. Some of them have known him well for decades. Some of them owe their entire careers to him. For various reasons, they have a strong bond with him and a fierce loyalty to him. Before you condemn them, think how it would be if your friend or your dad or your brother was in Rennard's situation. Of course you would support them in almost all cases and you would feel very protective of them and angry at anyone who wasn't. These are very human reactions and emotions and I think we need to cut those people a bit of slack. That doesn't give them the right to be offensive in public, and to be honest, most of them have either said nothing or been respectful, but I can see why they would want to vote to readmit someone they care about. It doesn't make it right to do so, though, because, as Liberal Democrat parliamentarians they also have a duty to the party. </div>
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Thirdly, and this is where it's worth putting the effort in to build positive relationships with people, not all our Lordships have time for Nick Clegg and Tim Farron, not least for the way that they spoke about them during the doomed process of trying to get Lords reform through. Then, they suggested that Lords just turned up and got £300 a day tax free and wasn't this awful? Actually, our Lords work bloody hard, seriously improve legislation and do a huge amount of good. Nick has recognised that latterly, but he's still not flavour of the month in the Upper House. </div>
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Whatever their perspective, I really hope that they will see that they will harm the party if they allow Chris Rennard back without an apology.<br />
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<h4>
So how do we get through?</h4>
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<br /></div>
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There is an obvious path to peace.</div>
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It's not too late for Chris Rennard to apologise, and to do it well. I really think that he should call off Carlile, say no thanks to Chris Davies MEP's pledges of money to fund high court actions and just do it for his own sake as well as everybody else's.Those women should get the apology that they, according to the person who has seen all the evidence, deserve. Stephen Tall rightly pointed out that an apology extracted under duress wouldn't make any difference or satisfy anyone. What I'm suggesting is that he actually makes it sincerely. It takes a lot of courage to unpaint yourself from a corner, but it can be done. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
There's a report in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-cleggs-job-on-the-line-lib-dem-leader-to-face-decisive-vote-on-whether-to-allow-lord-rennard-to-return-9069607.html">the Independent on Sunday </a>which states that Chris's supporters are saying that he can't apologise in case he gets sued. If you think about it, this is quite insulting to the women. This has never been about money. They were purely motivated by concerns about the safety of women in the party and its failure to treat allegations of sexual harassment seriously, pure and simple. Having said that, if that perception is a barrier to an apology, I wonder if it would help if they were able to say explicitly that they would not seek civil damages. </div>
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However, and I've changed my view on this in the last 24 hours, I don't think it's appropriate, even with an apology to allow him back into the Lords group just yet. Not after the way his legal adviser has been talking all over the media, misrepresenting what Alistair Webster said. And the comparisons he's made to Henry VIII's torturers and to North Korea are really ridiculous. I mean, he's saying that an oppressive legal system which gives people no freedom and where political rivals face the firing squad is better than the disciplinary processes of the Liberal Democrats. That Henry VIII's people torturing in search of evidence is better than the admittedly imperfect procedure that's just taken place. Such statements make me question the credibility of everything else that he says.</div>
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A time of contrition after all the bluster is now called for.</div>
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I think we also need to try and take the temperature down somehow. People need to try and be calm and temperate in their language. There are very strong emotions involved in this and we need to respect where others are coming from and frame our remarks accordingly. It is possible to have these differences without letting them overwhelm our ability to function and work together.</div>
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The four women have now filed an appeal against the process. I don't know the details of it, but we'll have to wait for due process on that. There may well be further evidence, further hearings and legal action in the public courts. </div>
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The European elections take place 4 months on Wednesday. We all need to work together to get a decent result in that and the many sets of local elections also taking place. We need to get our focus back off this and on to the doorstep. That'll be a lot easier if the Lords do the right thing tomorrow, whether they want to or not. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-21312847518509920832014-01-14T09:00:00.000+00:002014-01-23T17:25:05.721+00:00The three dimensions to Alistair Carmichael's speech: a positive vision of the UK, incoherent nationalist ideas and future powers<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
<i>This article first appeared on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1374920632"></span>Liberal Democrat Voice<span id="goog_1374920633"></span></a></i></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Alistair Carmichael's keynote speech and subsequent question and answer session in Stirling today touched three different dimensions of the constitutional debate, the last of which should cheer any Liberal Democrat heart. Up until now, roughly, the nationalist campaign has been all about painting a pretty picture of how all our problems would disappear if we controlled our own destiny, and in dismissing all searching for detail and questioning as scaremongering. The pro UK campaign has been about robust analysis of the SNP positions, but it hasn't even made my heart sing and I'm voting for them. It's been all head and fact and evidence based and worthy, but it's not appealed to the emotions. The parts of Carmichael's speech trailed overnight heavily emphasised what Scotland gains as being part of the UK, though. Were we about to see a change of emphasis?</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">
The positive vision for the UK</h3>
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It's not just about money, said Alistair. It's about what the 4 nations of the UK have built together. He said Scotland gets more out than it puts in which will no doubt have the nationalists in a tailspin of indignation - but the same is the case for all the countries which make up the UK, greater than the sum of their parts.</div>
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<img alt="" class="mce-wp-more mceItemNoResize" data-mce-src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" style="background-image: url(http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/themes/advanced/skins/wp_theme/img/mce-more.png); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 52px 11px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; cursor: default; display: block; height: 12px; margin: 1.2em auto 0px; width: 812px;" title="More..." /></div>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.5em;" style="line-height: 1.5em;">One of things of which I am most proud in the UK is that we’re able to absorb, to protect and to cherish differences: differences of culture, religion, accent, origin and much, much more. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
But let no-one underestimate what we share together and how that helps us succeed together.</div>
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Of course, our commitment to the UK family is not just about the facts and figures.</div>
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It’s also about the values and ambitions we share.</div>
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The hands that built the United Kingdom have created things of enormous value.</div>
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They strike a chord of pride within us and remind us all of what we can achieve together.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
There was a long section about what we have achieved by working together, building institutions like the NHS.</div>
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And when the UK Parliament established the NHS, it did so to fight those evils within the entirety of our borders.</div>
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We faced the same problems, we felt the same outrage and we together we found the same solution.</div>
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Today, people across the UK family take enormous pride in a National Health Service, providing comprehensive health services, free at the point of use for all UK citizens wherever they fall ill within our United Kingdom.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The BBC was similarly praised, as were our UK sporting stars, cheered on by everyone across the UK in 2012.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Why, he asked, would you want to break this up when we have all this plus economic stability, more secure pensions, cheaper mortgages, a single labour market and huge international influence.</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">
The incoherent nationalist idea of independence</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
In contrast to all this, independence, he argued, would be a massive risk, especially as the nationalist view wasn't either clear or actually deliverable. They were making promises that they were in no position to know they could keep. He looked back to 2007, when he said an independent Scotland would be the low tax, prosperous Celtic tiger. By 2011, the vision was for a Scandinavian social democracy with the White Paper a fudge between the two.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
But here was the problem:</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Even in the best of times, no-one can have a low-tax economy paying for Scandinavian levels of social provision.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
If they could, Scandinavia – and others – would have done it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
To say that they will do so with the backdrop of an ageing population and reduced oil and gas revenues, only adds insult to injury.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
He called on the nationalists to produce a full, true and costed vision of what independence would mean so that people would know what they were being asked to vote for.</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Alistair-Carmichael-being-interviewed-by-Brian-Taylor.jpg" href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Alistair-Carmichael-being-interviewed-by-Brian-Taylor.jpg"><img alt="Alistair Carmichael being interviewed by Brian Taylor" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-37815" data-mce-src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Alistair-Carmichael-being-interviewed-by-Brian-Taylor-225x300.jpg" src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Alistair-Carmichael-being-interviewed-by-Brian-Taylor-225x300.jpg" height="300" style="border: 0px; cursor: default; float: right;" width="225" /></a>"I am a Liberal Democrat and a Federalist"</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The F word, federalist. He said it. He volunteered it. And not only that, but you should have seen the way his eyes lit up when he did. This is ground where he is very comfortable and he needs to take the chance to talk about the plans<a data-mce-href="http://scotlibdems.org.uk/homerule" href="http://scotlibdems.org.uk/homerule"> set out by the Campbell Commission</a>. In response to a question, he said he supported home rule for all nations and regions of the UK if they wanted it.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
He talked about how the Liberal Democrats had led the way in making the case for more powers. He particularly said that he wanted the debate to be as much about raising money as spending it.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
As a fellow Liberal Democrat and federalist, I am delighted to see these ideas unashamedly in the mix again. I am, however, perplexed by those who say that they are federalists but would vote for independence if they didn't see a prospect of achieving federalism. How does that work? Independence is very, very different and much more risky.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
One particular questioner took issue with his votes on the Bedroom Tax and against an investigation of food banks. This is a common tactic of the nationalist campaign, and, in fact, I saw the questioner afterwards but with her Yes Scotland badge on. Alistair handled it well, saying that the best way to alleviate child poverty was to get parents into work like the Coalition has been doing. He also said that the foodbanks vote was not about just foodbanks. There was stuff in there, like the unworkable energy price freeze that he didn't believe in and couldn't support.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
This speech needed to show a bit of heart and soul to balance the worthiness and evidence base of the very academic Scotland Analysis series of papers. Alistair did that very well. The slight issue is that the <a data-mce-href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25707218" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25707218">Treasury's announcement about debt </a>kind of brought technical stuff back into play on the same day and I suspect that the positive stuff might get lost in the main coverage. Teh soundbites we'll see are going to be more on the variant of "If the first act of an independent Scotland is to default on its debts, who is going to want to lend it money?" rather than the "Look at the lovely stuff the UK has made." variety.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The speech in full is available <a data-mce-href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/in-full-alistair-carmichaels-new-year.html" href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/in-full-alistair-carmichaels-new-year.html">here</a> on my own blog. It's worth a read to get the full picture.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-35308159730287054172014-01-13T17:05:00.002+00:002014-01-13T17:05:50.286+00:00In Full: Alistair Carmichael's New Year Speech - A positive vision of UK's achievements to contrast with the incoherent nationalist position<i>This is very long, but I thought it was worth posting in full. My analysis is <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/3-dimensions-to-carmichaels-speech-37813.html">here</a> on Liberal Democrat Voice. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>You can never really get the full flavour of a 14 page speech into a blog post. It's not always worth reading the whole thing, but this is well written and definitely worth it. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is a
real pleasure to be with you all here in Stirling University today to talk
about Scotland’s future.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">On 18</span><sup><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> September this year we will
take the most fundamental collective decision that a nation can ever be asked
to take.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is a
once in a generation decision:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We have
just over eight months to decide whether we stay in the United Kingdom family
or go it alone. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Eight
months to choose between remaining part of this four-nation partnership that we
have built together or to break away and to start from scratch.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That is
our choice. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That time
will fly by – but I’m determined to the make the most of every minute.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Why?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Quite
simply because I believe in Scotland within the United Kingdom. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe
in the contribution we’ve made over the last 300 years along with our friends
and families across England, Wales and Northern Ireland: our common effort to
create and share something bigger and that serves us all well. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe
in the benefits we get from being part of this larger shared community.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe
this because I can see the evidence around me – at home in Orkney, here in
Stirling, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, right throughout the
United Kingdom.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We all put
something in and we are all getting something out: the UK is greater than the
sum of its parts. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Right now
Scotland sees the benefit of this long shared history.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Right now,
we get the benefits from natural resources like North Sea oil – but we are able
to manage the volatility in production and price as part of a much larger and
diverse economy made up of 60 million individuals rather than just five.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Our
economy comprises four and a half million companies rather than 320,000 – a
market with no boundaries, no borders, no customs - but with a stable UK
currency that is respected and envied across the world; a single financial
system, and a single body of rules and regulations. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Because we
share in these benefits, Scotland is best placed to succeed. We are the
wealthiest area of the UK outside London and South East, and we have achieved
that as part of the UK. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And right
now, all of this supports jobs here in Scotland.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Jobs in
industries as diverse as oil and gas, defence, food and drink and the new and
emerging creative industries of the future.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Let us not
forget we get more back than we put in. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Public
spending in Scotland is currently 10% higher than the UK average.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Yes, there
are national differences across the UK – we are not a monolithic culture, thank
goodness. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That’s
true of our economy and our society.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">One of
things of which I am most proud in the UK is that we’re able to absorb, to
protect and to cherish differences: differences of culture, religion, accent,
origin and much, much more. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But let
no-one underestimate what we share together and how that helps us succeed
together. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Of course,
our commitment to the UK family is not just about the facts and figures.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s also
about the values and ambitions we share.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The hands
that built the United Kingdom have created things of enormous value.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They
strike a chord of pride within us and remind us all of what we can achieve
together. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we built a National Health Service.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When
William Beveridge identified the five “Giant Evils” facing post-war Britain -
squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease – these evils blighted every
nation of our United Kingdom.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And when
the UK Parliament established the NHS, it did so to fight those evils within
the entirety of our borders.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We faced
the same problems, we felt the same outrage and we together we found the same
solution.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Today,
people across the UK family take enormous pride in a National Health Service,
providing comprehensive health services, free at the point of use for all UK
citizens wherever they fall ill within our United Kingdom.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we built the BBC - three letters that stand for excellence in broadcasting at
home and around the world.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They
invoke quality, depth and impartiality.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is the
product of our shared wish for a national broadcaster that can educate,
entertain and inform.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is
funded by a flat licence fee that guarantees access to programming that is both
UK wide and nation and region specific. It serves local communities
with a local presence in places like my own communities in Orkney and
Shetland. It provides national reporting and entertainment across the
nation. Around the world people look to the world service as a
source of truth and impartiality.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is
unrivalled, unparalleled, and irreplaceable.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we have built a formidable sporting culture too.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In so many
sports, the nations of our UK family have different traditions, different
strengths and different teams.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But while
we maintain a strong pride in our teams for football, rugby and so much more –</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We also
maintain an enormous pride in the sporting clout that we represent together.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Whether
that’s the British Lions, or next month’s Winter Olympics, or of course, our
astonishing achievements in the London 2012 Olympic Games.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">At those
Games, the UK won a 29 gold medals.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And over
the Games, as the tally went higher, so did our collective sense of national
pride.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Chris Hoy,
Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray, Mo Farah, Katherine Granger.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Those
outstanding athletes weren’t cheered on by parts of the UK, but by all of us.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They were
our representatives.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They
worked together, they competed together – many had trained together at
facilities across the UK.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Their
success fed our pride.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The NHS,
the BBC, our sporting events, teams and heroes.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">These are
just a few of the things that bind together our family in pride and endeavour.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Shared
values, shared effort, shared achievements.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Why should
we now break these things up?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As
separate states must.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When we
have achieved so much through our common values and labour, wouldn’t we go on
to achieve so much more?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
challenges we face today may be different but they are every bit as demanding
as those we faced in the past.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we can afford the subsidies that will bring about a renewables revolution in
this country.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Cutting
carbon emissions, tackling climate change, strengthening the green economy.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we can make a bigger impact on global poverty.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pooling
our resources, we have grown our aid budget and become the second largest donor
nation in the world today.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together,
we can rebalance our economy and become more prosperous.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Growing
faster than any other G7 country, becoming the largest EU economy within
perhaps just twenty years, providing the financial security that safeguards our
banks and secures our currency. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
motivation to prevent climate change, to protect the most vulnerable and to
build a strong prosperous and sustainable economy. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">These
values are common across the United Kingdom. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And by
staying together, we can build on those values to create a strong and secure
future.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Why should
we now break these things up?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2013 – the
year of evidence</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I don’t
believe in the UK family because of dogma, ideology or nostalgia but because of
what the UK means to us in the here and now and what it can deliver for us all
in the future. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For too
long we have allowed to go unspoken the contribution that Scotland makes to the
UK - and we have been equally silent on the benefits that we get from being
part of it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2013 was
the year when the UK Government started putting the record straight.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We
embarked on an analysis programme examining the facts, reviewing the evidence
and making the case for Scotland as part of the United Kingdom in a series of
detailed papers. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Soon we
will publish our first paper of the new year. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It will
examine the benefits for Scotland of being part of the UK in the EU and on the
international stage. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The UK is
at the heart of all of the world’s most influential organisations. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As part of
the UK we are one of the founding members of the United Nations and have a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council - helping to take decisions on major
foreign policy and defence issues. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As part of
the UK we can use our influence to help others – whether to give our home-grown
businesses access to new export markets through our highly-developed
embassy network; or providing support and assistance to other countries in
times of crisis. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Our paper
will set out the facts about Scotland’s contribution and the benefits we get
from being part of this world-leading partnership.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We’re
talking about a complex, detailed piece of analytical work.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That’s
because what we have in the UK is a product of years, of decades worth of
cooperation and negotiation – both within the UK and with our neighbours. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Academics,
businesses and legal experts here in Scotland have read – and contributed to -
the papers we’ve published to date.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They
support the facts and the evidence we have presented. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">You’ll
find no grandiose flights of fancy here - only the very facts of our United
Kingdom:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">our banks
are safer; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">we have
greater financial protection for savers and pensioners;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">greater
levels of competition delivering cheaper mortgages and insurance for families
and businesses;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">we invest
in research, infrastructure and industry to remain at the forefront of new
technological developments;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">we have a
single labour market which allows people to move freely within the UK for jobs;
and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">we use our
international influence to make a positive difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The list
can – and does – go on. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Together
these facts to make a positive case for Scotland in the United
Kingdom. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
throughout the remainder of this year we’re going to keep making that case.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But you
don’t just have to accept the facts we’ve published, just take a look at some
of the other contributions we’ve had so recently in this debate:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We have
heard the supermarkets talk about the benefit of being part of a single
large economy where food and drink costs us, the consumers, the same regardless
of the costs of production and distribution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We’ve
heard the CBI – the organisation that speaks on behalf of business - say that the
nations of the UK are stronger together and that Scotland’s business and
economic interests will be best served by remaining part of the UK family<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We’ve seen
the body that represents accountants in Scotland continue to ask questions
about the Scottish Government’s proposals for pensions – questions that remain
after the White Paper’s publication<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And we’ve
heard legal experts describe independence as ‘a road to nowhere’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s no surprise that the Scottish Government argue
against all the evidence and the facts that we’ve presented - but their
eagerness to shout down the experts from the worlds of business, academia and
the law is worrying and regrettable.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><u><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Other side
of the argument – not being honest</span></u></i></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I don’t
argue with the right of those on the other side of this debate to feel the way
they do about the future of our country. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But I do
feel very strongly that those who want to break up our United Kingdom have a
duty to listen to the experts and to make an evidence-based case of their own.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is not
good enough to adopt the politics of ‘he who shouts loudest’. It’s not
good enough to say, when challenged, “just because I say so”.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For most
of 2013 the Scottish Government told us in response to almost every question
put to them: ‘wait for the White paper’; ‘the answer will be in the White
paper’. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But what
we got in November was heavy on rhetoric and light on answers. It
was a wish list without a price list. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">On the one
hand we got a set of promises that the Scottish Government can’t deliver.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">No matter
what they say, it is not for the Scottish Government to dictate what deal a
separate Scotland could negotiate with the rest of the UK.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As Scots
we all have to ask ourselves if we choose to leave the UK, why would those
we’ve walked out on want to continue to share the things we have at the moment
precisely because we part of the UK?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If we stop
contributing to the UK, why would we keep getting the benefits from being part
of it? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And that’s
before we even start to think about the negotiations that would be required
with all 28 EU member states, bilateral relations with countries around the
world and international organisations.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Yet on the
other hand we saw the Scottish Government promising things post-independence
that they could be delivering today.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
Scottish Government chose to put the spotlight on childcare in their White
Paper - something that it is within their power to do right now. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Last week
they finally acknowledged the folly of this approach and came forward with
proposals to start the catch-up with childcare provision in the rest of the
United Kingdom. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In so
doing they made the case for what we have – not for what they want.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
Nationalists like to assert that they have a vision for an independent Scotland
and that their White Paper is its articulation.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is not.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is
not a vision; it is a mirage.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Like all
mirages, the closer you get the less real it becomes.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is
no coherence whatsoever in this nationalist document – or any other – about the
kind of country Scotland would be if we were to leave the UK family.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is
not surprising.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
nationalists have long been skittish and evasive about the model for an
independent Scotland.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They
proffer whatever fits for any given audience at any given time.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Then
switch it for something else when the moment suits.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Back in
2007 we were told that Scotland would be the free market Celtic Lion.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Roaring to
the sound of banking deregulation, and echoing across the arc of prosperity to
Iceland and Ireland.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By 2011
the tune had changed.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now we
would be a Scandinavian-style social democracy.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">With
social services and public spending priorities that looked east, not west.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The White
Paper couldn’t decide which way to jump.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A promise
to cut some taxes, and freeze others, clumsily grafted on to expensive
commitments on nationalisation, public spending and a lower retirement age.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">All based
on a single, solitary page of numbers and the wilful omission of data from 2008
– the inconvenient year of the financial crash.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In every
sense, it simply does not add up.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Even in
the best of times, no-one can have a low-tax economy paying for Scandinavian
levels of social provision.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If they
could, Scandinavia – and others – would have done it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To say
that they will do so with the backdrop of an ageing population and reduced oil
and gas revenues, only adds insult to injury.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is
no vision, just 670 pages of words.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">All things
to all people, big on rhetoric, low on facts, it offers no true picture of what
kind of country Scotland would really become.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What
currency would we use?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What terms
of EU membership could we hope to achieve? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">How much
would independence cost and just how would it be paid for?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is for
the nationalists to present a full, true and costed vision of what independence
would mean.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If they
refuse to do that, what are people being asked to vote for?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Conclusion</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In 2014 my
job – and the job of all those who believe in the United Kingdom – is to make
the strong positive case for the UK and to make it loudly and proudly.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We can do
that confidently, because our case is supported by the experts. The
substance of the argument is on our side and it has gone without meaningful
challenge by our opponents. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now our
job is to make sure that every voter is aware of these facts before they enter
the polling station.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Because
ultimately this isn’t a debate that will rest on the production of papers by
Governments, however learned and substantial they may be.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is a
debate that must take place in the pub and in the bank – at the school gates
and on the factory floor - our universities and in our supermarkets. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This must
be a debate in which we are all involved.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We cannot
leave this to someone else and hope they get it right for us. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We must
not let anyone tell us what we can and cannot think or say. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In this
debate, everyone’s voice matters.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We all get
one vote. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The future
of our country really is in our hands and we must take it, grasp it and decide
for ourselves.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So my hope
for 2014 is this: in September I hope that all of us who can vote, do
vote. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And I am
confident that people right across Scotland will make the positive choice and
vote no. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
positive choice to stay part of the United Kingdom family.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
positive for a bright Scottish future as part of the United Kingdom.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-43733643302050187562014-01-12T19:13:00.001+00:002014-01-12T19:13:20.839+00:00Review: Peter Pan, Edinburgh. Or, Allan Stewart makes my lifeIt's been our tradition in recent years to go to the Pantomime at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, which always stars comedians Allan Stewart and Andy Gray and Grant Stott from Radio Forth. Usually I book the tickets at the last moment and get a seat up in the gods. However, last year I was a bit more organised and got what I thought were good seats in the stalls. If I'd read the seating map properly, I'd have realised that they were THE front seats at the end of the row.<br />
<br />
We loved being there, so close to the action, last year, so as soon as I had the chance, I booked the same seats for this year's show.<br />
<br />
Well, the first thing that happened was that we were sprayed with water from pantomime dame Stewart's bosom. We thought we were fine after that.<br />
<br />
The show itself was probably not the strongest or most topical script I've heard from that team, but it was good. Grant Stott's effectiveness as a fiendishly villanous Captain Hook was offset by the fact that he kept getting the giggles. I'm also not sure whether Allan Stewart fluffed up his exit at one point, or whether that was part of the script. The song Blurred Lines has not made my feminist heart beat faster this year, but its panto equivalent, Slurred Lines, made me laugh.<br />
<br />
My favourite character was Shona White, an accomplished performer from the musicals who played a very feisty take-no-prisoners Tinker Bell. The Peter Pan/Wendy love-interest thing was only slight but creepy nonetheless given that the first scene had had Wendy being tucked up in bed with a story.<br />
<br />
The on-stage chemistry between the principals is so strong after so many years of working together, but still it's fresh every year. And there is just no getting away from Allan being the best panto dame in the business. We normally go on the very last day but couldn't get tickets for those seats. The cast is demob happy and just having a laugh, by then, so we did feel we missed out a little bit on that. Until just before the end.<br />
<br />
I probably should say at this point that my lovely husband Bob doesn't really take kindly to either surprises or being put on the spot. I've learned this the hard way over the past 27 years of living with him. So, when Allan Stewart came off the stage and stuck a microphone in his face and asked him to sing a little ditty in the style of Elvis Presley, I did fear a little bit for my Bob. He was brilliant, though. I was so proud of him. Knowing there was no escape, he just got on with it. Maybe Allan has shown me how to get my way more often... Anyway, singing is not his strong point, and these words will probably haunt him for some time to come:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Nickety Nackety Nickety Noo</i><i>Nickety Nackety Nay</i><i>Rum, tum, tickle your bum</i><i>Everyone sing Hooray</i></blockquote>
Given that his musical taste is if it's not playing in the hippest clubs in Ibiza he doesn't listen to it, you can imagine how exruciating that bit of trash must have been for him. And, bless him, singing isn't exactly his strong suit.<br />
<br />
He did so well and, if you asked him if he enjoyed it, in his heart of hearts, he would, I think, say that he did. People were coming up to him on the way out and telling him he did great.<br />
<br />
I had a minor moment in the spotlight as well. I should have said that Andy Gray was filming all this from the stage and it appeared on the big screen. Allan asked me where we were from and I said Livingston. He said that the town was famous for beautiful women and rugby players and then asked what position I played.<br />
<br />
Afterwards, Anna and I were talking about when exactly we should let Bob forget about today. We agreed never. And given the absolute look of joy on her face while all this was going on, I think that's a wise choice.<br />
<br />
Allan Stewart, you made my life. Ta for that.<br />
<br />
The next exciting thing in my life comes tomorrow when I'm covering Alistair Carmichael's keynote speech. Al, you have a bit to live up to, here. No pressure, though. You'll be fab, too.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-87340382778616437652014-01-10T09:00:00.000+00:002014-01-10T09:00:03.230+00:00Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby?<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
There's been a bit of controversy over the issue of breastfeeding in the House of Commons and taking babies into the voting lobby sparked by comments by Jo Swinson, who gave birth to her son Andrew on 22 December. The argument goes that you can take a sword into the Commons voting lobby, but not a baby. On face value, it sounds like yet another way in which Westminster needs to be dragged into the 21st century.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Jo said <a data-mce-href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/03/parents-too-much-guilt-breastfeeding-work" href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/03/parents-too-much-guilt-breastfeeding-work">to the Guardian</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
"I think it's been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy," she said. "[But] I think some of the structures of the institutions of the House of Commons probably don't make it as easy as it could be, in particular that you don't get maternity cover. As a minister, I get cover for my work … but nobody else will be being the MP for East Dunbartonshire."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
<img alt="" class="mce-wp-more mceItemNoResize" data-mce-src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" src="http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif" style="background-image: url(http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-includes/js/tinymce/themes/advanced/skins/wp_theme/img/mce-more.png); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 52px 11px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; cursor: default; display: block; height: 12px; margin: 1.2em auto 0px; width: 732px;" title="More..." /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Swinson said her staff would do a fantastic job of looking after her constituents but other countries allow a replacement MP to stand in.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
I don't think it's impossible or insurmountable but I don't think there's any job that's particularly easy to have a baby when you're in it," she said. "There's always going to be a lot of challenges and there's plenty of people who have jobs with even more difficult challenges, like people who are self-employed and running a business."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
She condemned the "bizarre" ban on walking through the House of Commons voting lobby while holding a baby. "I hardly think it would be too much of a disruption," she said. "You can take a sword through there but you can't a baby.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
There has been a change that women who are breastfeeding can be nodded through. But I think when you are perfectly capable of walking through the lobby holding a small baby, I think there would be a better way of just allowing that. But parliament moves but slowly.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Channel 4's Cathy Newman, writing <a data-mce-href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10553594/Bringing-babies-into-the-Commons-Has-this-MP-gone-gaga.html" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10553594/Bringing-babies-into-the-Commons-Has-this-MP-gone-gaga.html">in the Telegraph</a>, criticised Jo, saying:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for mums being encouraged to breastfeed, though too many are made to feel terribly guilty if they can't make it work. I'm afraid, though, that it doesn't greatly advance the feminist cause to allow MPs to cart their bawling babies through the lobby. The Commons is a workplace unlike any other, but a workplace nevertheless. And how many new mums in other walks of life can bring their babies to work day in day out?</div>
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To be fair to Cathy, she does eventually get round to talking about the fact that no cover is provided and the hours are long, but I think her conclusion is flawed. If you've just had a baby and there's a vote that affects your constituency, you kind of have to be there. The same applies at Council level. I know of one councillor who had to turn up to vote when her baby was days old to get the budget through. So if you go to Westminster for the day, for that vote, you don't have childcare, you don't have a nursery place. You either have to take someone with you to look after the baby, or you can't vote. How much simpler would it be to walk in from your flat, leave the pram at the entrance of the voting lobby and carry the baby through. It disrupts nobody. And for those who worry about prams taking up too much space, well, the House of Lords has room for lots of mobility scooters. They've managed to adapt themselves to the needs of their members. The Commons should follow suit.</div>
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We should be looking at ways of making it easier for mothers, parents to participate in Parliament and take down any barriers that present themselves. There have been several attempts to change things over the years. In 2000, a ruling was made that no baby could be breastfed in a committee room because standing orders said that only committee members could consume refreshments. At that stage there was nowhere else where babies could be breastfed in Parliament and that led to the establishment of breastfeeding rooms.</div>
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To my eternal disappointment, David Steel, when he was Presiding Officer at the Scottish Parliament, refused to allow breastfeeding in the Chamber. Voting is a far less archaic process there. Members press a button at their desks. They don't have to spend 15 minutes of their life per vote in a queue. Maybe one way round this is to actually get rid of the voting lobby itself.</div>
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Jenny Willott, in a recent AD LIB interview, talked about having to leave her baby in the arms of a Conservative MP, Edward Timpson, while she went to vote. Timpson isn't a random stranger, Jenny went to school with him, but even so, it's hardly ideal. When a vote is called in the Commons, the division bell rings. Members then have 8 minutes to get themselves from wherever they are on the parliamentary estate to the voting lobbies which are then locked. They may have to do this many times, at 20 minutes at least a time, at unsocial hours and sometimes unpredictably so. In Holyrood, you have Decision Time on all matters at the end of the day's business at 5pm. It's quite simple and takes a matter of minutes to get through it all.</div>
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Having said that, I have absolutely no problem with babes-in-arms being breastfed in the chamber itself. What better sign of a modern, inclusive Parliament could there be? It allows mum to participate in the proceedings and baby to be fed and nobody else is affected. It's a win all round. I've loved the pictures of Italian MEP Lucia Ronzulli with her daughter in the chamber of the European Parliament. She gets some stick for it, but she's a pioneer. It would be great if this was a much more commonplace sight.</div>
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Nick Clegg and Jo have championed a very flexible and liberal approach to shared parental leave. I think it's also worth encouraging employers to be much more accommodating to their employees in terms of breastfeeding and childcare. We have this idea that when parents return to work their children are put into nursery, or have a childminder or nanny. For some it might work better if the caregiver brings the baby in at certain times to be fed. It's much quicker and more efficient than using a pump. That wouldn't work for everybody in every job, but it should be an option for those for whom it would work. Employers generally should be encouraged to be flexible and to try to meet their employees' individual needs. They get more out of them that way.</div>
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The work of an MP, though, is not like most jobs. Mothers in traditional employment get up to a year at home with their baby without having to think about the place. Self employed mothers can often organise their work around their babies. This is not the case for someone who has to represent their constituents. It's about time Parliament stopped being so unsufferably traditional and stuffy and set a positive example which could then permeate through the rest of society.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-27535143784286175122014-01-09T19:31:00.001+00:002014-01-09T19:31:42.092+00:00A polite request to all Scottish male politicians and political commentatorsScotland may be involved in a long and often bad-tempered referendum campaign, but there are still some issues that unite people across the political divide. You can guarantee that at least once a fortnight, I'll complain on Twitter about yet another panel of men in suits who have been brought together to opine on the relative merits of Yes Scotland and Better Together. And people from all sides of the referendum campaign, whether they believe in devo plus, devo max, Jacobite or Hanoverian monarchs, euros, groats or pounds (in or out of a currency union) agree with me. <div>
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Too often the panellists and commentators are all men, as was the case on Newsnight Scotland last night. I guess they thought they'd had one woman (the excellent Kezia Dugdale) on this week so they could relax. I've also seen all male entire programmes. </div>
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You do rarely get all female panels, when producers feel shamed into it, but they discuss things like the lack of women's voices in the debate rather than the substantive issues of the referendum.</div>
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As Kate Higgins put it last night:</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/caronmlindsay">@caronmlindsay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CAJardine">@CAJardine</a> whit? Allow wimmin to talk big meaty things like jobs and economy? Dinnae be daft! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23newsnicht&src=hash">#newsnicht</a><br />
— Kate Higgins (@burdzeyeview) <a href="https://twitter.com/burdzeyeview/statuses/421058566548905984">January 8, 2014</a></blockquote>
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We have tried complaining to the producers, but nothing ever seems to change. </div>
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So, it's time to go a little further. And for that, we need the help of Scotland's progressive male politicians and political commentators to follow the example <a href="http://www.markpack.org.uk/39690/opinion-are-you-a-man/">Mark Pack set</a> last year. If all of you simply refused to take part in all-male panels, the producers would know that they would have to put more effort into making sure that they invited more women. That doesn't mean that they get away with having just one woman and a whole load of men. Ideally you need more balance than that. </div>
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A quick chat amongst half a dozen people on Twitter had about 30 different names of good women on both sides of the debate. I can think of at least another 20 more we should be hearing from. You would think from the panel discussions up until now that Scotland was made up of around 20% women rather than us being the majority of the population. It's not fair that our views, diverse that they are, are being frozen out because producers call the usual male suspects. </div>
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Gerry Hassan is on board with this idea, tweeting today:</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/caronmlindsay">@caronmlindsay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/thoughtland">@thoughtland</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Scotto_Voce">@Scotto_Voce</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/patrickharvie">@patrickharvie</a> We cant be 'a nation in conversation' with more than half of it missing on gender.<br />
— Gerry Hassan (@GerryHassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/GerryHassan/statuses/421306668673028096">January 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
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So, men of the Scottish political scene, will you take the pledge. Will you refuse to take part in all-male panels? The whole debate will be a lot healthier if you do. A debate that does not reflect the true Scotland is no debate at all. You can help make it what it should be. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-26687540476344920792014-01-07T19:53:00.001+00:002014-01-07T19:53:25.914+00:00Willie Rennie: "In 20 years, they'll be glad they had nursery education at an early stage because it might just change their life chances"<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
There were extraordinary scenes in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. First of all, the Scottish Liberal Democrats didn't even vote for their amendment, and nor did anyone else. They didn't have to, because the Scottish Government had taken a big step to doing what they wanted.</div>
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For months, Willie Rennie has got up at virtually every First Minister's Questions session and doggedly asked, pleaded, cajoled with Salmond to extend nursery places to 40% of 2 year olds from its current figure of 3%, just like Nick Clegg had done south of the Border. And every time, Alex Salmond replied with varying degrees of condescension, disdain and aggression.</div>
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Today, though, all that was forgotten as the Government announced not just an extension of nursery places for 15% of 2 year olds from this August, rising to 27% the year after. It's not as far as Willie Rennie might have wanted him to go - he wanted a match of 40% - but when you factor in that they're giving free school meals for the first 3 years of school from January 2015, it's something we can be very satisfied with.</div>
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It's an astute move by Salmond. The SNP were being damaged for failing to make any moves on childcare, saying that they could only act after independence. It made sense for them to show that they could deliver something with the powers that they already had.</div>
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Willie had to rewrite his speech for the debate virtually on his feet. He got the tone absolutely right, generous spirited and positive. He spoke of what it would mean for children:</div>
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The main issue that we are discussing today is poverty. If we are going to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, we can make an effort to do something for people at later stages, such as work on youth unemployment, or we can try to improve people’s life chances through working with schools, but the best impact that we can make is on people at the age of two. I am therefore pleased that the First Minister has listened. We have not quite achieved the 20 per cent entitlement that I wanted, but I do not want to be too begrudging about it. It is a step in the right direction and children will welcome it.</div>
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I have to say that none of this stuff would be happening if Nick Clegg had not taken the step that he did last autumn, because the Scottish Government was not moving very fast on free school meals up to that point. However, as I am trying to be generous today, I do not want labour that point.</div>
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What is at the centre of the decision is that it proves that this Parliament can deliver on poverty. It proves that devolution can work, which has not been the script from the SNP in recent weeks and certainly not post the white paper. The SNP said that none of this would be possible without independence but today’s announcements have shown that we can deliver things that can change people’s lives—that can tackle poverty—using the powers that this Parliament has. I hope that the SNP does not try to use the barrier of independence again on significant policies such as this in order to try to win votes in the referendum, because it would be a retrograde step if the SNP were to do so.</div>
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I welcome today’s announcement; I think that it is a step in the right direction. I will be pressing the First Minister to go further. I know that he wants to go further and I think that it is important to go further, but it is a welcome step on free school meals and on nursery education. I think that children across the country today will be welcoming this step. When they look back in 20 years’ time, they will be glad that they had the chance of nursery education at an early stage because it might just change their life chances—it might remove them from poverty and it might make Scotland a better place.</div>
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That last bit was the most important, followed by his comments that this showed that devolution could deliver great results.</div>
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It's quite a good birthday present for Nick Clegg to know that two policies that he has personally championed are being introduced north of the border as well.</div>
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Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael added his delight at the turnaround and pointed out that this was possible because of money being made available from Westminster through the Barnett Formula:</div>
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I welcome any measure which helps children in Scotland and I am glad to see the Scottish Government focusing on its day job for once.</div>
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Today's announcements have been made possible by extra funding from Westminster through the Barnett formula, a great example of the combined strength of the UK and the flexibility of devolution. Additional resources of around £300 million have been provided to Scotland.</div>
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I am pleased that the Scottish Government has, for once, acted to put the needs of the people of Scotland before their need to make political points to support the flagging case for independence.</div>
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The Scottish Government White Paper was a wish-list without a price list, typified by the commitment on childcare which they claimed could only be delivered in an independent Scotland. It ignored the fact the Scottish Government already has the power to set childcare policy now.</div>
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The claim there were no resources to improve childcare and that only independence could deliver this was simply misleading.</div>
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This additional support for childcare fits perfectly with what we are trying to do moving people into work and out of poverty and is a prime example of how when Westminster and the Scottish Government work together, Scotland gets the best of both worlds.</div>
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For months, SNP MSPs had jeered every time Willie Rennie asked about nursery for 2 year olds. Today they cheered as the announcement was made. A good day all round.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-61410851603146181502014-01-07T15:26:00.003+00:002014-01-07T15:26:57.623+00:00Quick review: The 7:39So, after truly dreadful Festive television (with only a few exceptions like Doctor Who and Death comes to Pemberley), will the new season deliver anything worth watching? Well, this week is replete with decent stuff from several hours in the company of Professor Brian Cox on Stargazing Live, to BBC1's two part drama starring Sheridan Smith, Olivia Colman and David Morrissey, The 7:39.<br />
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The first part was shown last night. It's written by the author of One Day, David Nicholls. That novel was a work of genius, which I loved. However, his previous work, Starter for Ten was laddish and pretty awful. The 7:39 was somewhere in between. It centres around two commuters who meet on their daily journey on the 7:39 train to Waterloo. Carl has been happily and comfortably married to Maggie for not far off 20 years. Sally has been married before but is currently in an unsatisfactory relationship with a very annoying exercise instructor.<br />
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The mutual attraction creeps up on them but this turns from a classy Brief Encounter type affair to your average middle aged man's fantasy pretty quickly. I mean, come on, how many gym managers have the keys and entertain their customers after hours in the sauna? And of course all the gym action means that our blonde, much younger lady is incredibly fit. It may, of course, be, that it's all done like that to make the contrast greater when it all ends in tears as it is bound to do so.<br />
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For all that, all the characters came across relatively sympathetically. Carl and Sally are quite nice, ordinary people. He veers between being bold and totally out of his depth and shy and excited with the whole thing. Morrissey is so good at getting that across. Sheridan Smith plays Sally sensitively, too, making her sympathetic.<br />
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I'm looking forward to the conclusion tonight.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-83964973013299864762014-01-06T15:30:00.000+00:002014-01-06T15:30:02.259+00:00Moves to close Edinburgh saunas show illiberal and centralising effect of Scotland's Police merger<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
For the New Year, a story which shows the adverse effects of both illiberal and centralising measures. In Edinburgh, for the past 30 years, "saunas" have been licensed with the unspoken knowledge that it was sex, rather than massages, which were on offer inside them. Even if you don't approve of sex being sold like any other commodity, there are obvious advantages in giving sex workers a safe environment to work in.</div>
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However, this tolerance is set to end after a series of raids on saunas. The City of Edinburgh Council is set to withdraw licences from these facilities within the next few months as <a data-mce-href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/140102/edinburgh-sex-work-saunas" href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/140102/edinburgh-sex-work-saunas">this report</a> on Global Post by Edinburgh-based journalist Peter Geoghegan shows. Apparently, the Police and Council leaders have suddenly agreed, the city risks "reputational and financial damage" because of the saunas. Oh, really? I wonder how many of the visitors <a data-mce-href="https://www.edfringe.com/news/world-s-largest-arts-festival-draws-to-a-close-for-another-year" href="https://www.edfringe.com/news/world-s-largest-arts-festival-draws-to-a-close-for-another-year">who bought an unprecedented 1.9 million tickets</a> for Fringe shows this year had the first clue that saunas existed, let alone were bothered by them in any way? Virgin Money doesn't seem to think there's a problem given that <a data-mce-href="https://www.edfringe.com/news/virgin-money-extends-fringe-on-the-high-street-sponsorship-deal-to-2016" href="https://www.edfringe.com/news/virgin-money-extends-fringe-on-the-high-street-sponsorship-deal-to-2016">it's renewed its sponsorship deal </a>for a further 3 years. The huge crowds who saw in 2014 at Edinburgh's Hogmanay seemed remarkably unperturbed.</div>
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When Scotland's 8 Police forces were merged into a single force, Police Scotland, we were told that it wouldn't be the end of local policing and that divisional commanders would be able to set their own local priorities. The Scottish Liberal Democrats, alone, warned that this would not be the case and staunchly opposed the plans from the start. The only police force which was wholeheartedly in favour of the merger was the Strathclyde. Funnily enough, since merger, there have been numerous examples of Stratchclyde's procedures and policies being forced on the rest of Scotland. It's been a takeover, not a merger. Liberal Democrats always argued that policing needs in different communities were very diverse. Policies which might work in Glasgow are not suitable in Aberdeen, or Helmsdale, or on Islay or in Tain. Sadly the Strathclyde tiger seems to have devoured any sort of local flexibility.</div>
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There would be some merit in Edinburgh's model of a tolerant approach being implemented elsewhere. It is naive in the extreme to suggest that closing down the saunas would make the problem go away. Sex workers would be put in a much more dangerous situation. Police media activity has been sensationalist, moralising and prudish. <a data-mce-href="http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/police-reveal-seedy-details-of-edinburgh-saunas-1-3148092" href="http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/police-reveal-seedy-details-of-edinburgh-saunas-1-3148092">This report from the Evening News </a> showed that there were, shock, horror, condoms on offer in some saunas. How outrageous that items which could pr0tect the lives of the workers should be freely available!</div>
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Edinburgh's citizens know perfectly well what saunas are about. It should be no surprise to have these details revealed. Saunas have existed peaceably in the community and there is no reason for a high-handed new Police Force to impose its will in this way. The Council should tell them to keep their noses out and ensure that these premises can continue to operate. The meeting of the illiberal forces within the Labour-SNP Council administration and the centralising new "we know best" Police Force is not good for Edinburgh and could put its sex workers at risk.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-8073547727691198202014-01-06T11:07:00.000+00:002014-01-06T11:07:33.673+00:00How do we do politics better?<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
<i>This article first appeared on<a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/how-can-we-do-politics-better-37714.html"> Liberal Democrat Voice</a>. </i></div>
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There's been a spate of articles and comments by Liberal Democrat politicians which, at a guess, isn't co-ordinated, but they all address the same themes - the problems with the way that we do politics and lack of trust in politicians and institutions.</div>
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Paddy Ashdown told <a data-mce-href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3964370.ece" href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3964370.ece">the Times (£)</a>, reported also for free in<a data-mce-href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/03/paddy-ashdown-bbc-nhs-trust-politics-liberal-democrat" href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/03/paddy-ashdown-bbc-nhs-trust-politics-liberal-democrat"> the Guardian</a> that public faith in British institutions was "crumbling into dust" with some very harsh words for the BBC and NHS:</div>
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The BBC is revealed as an organisation which can’t manage its own affairs, misspends public money and seems to have been complicit in aggrandising someone [Jimmy Savile] whose proclivities would be rejected by most people.</div>
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The NHS, we are told, is to be failing right down to the level of doctors. Nurses were angels but some turn out to be witches.</div>
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I am normally a big Paddy fan, but I feel very uncomfortable with his words about nurses. Some to me is a word that signifies more than the very few, a tiny minority who turn out bad, and the use of "witch" with its history of medieval misogyny, troubles me, even when this is more of a description of how these institutions are painted rather than expression of a personal view. His remarks also don't take into account the pressures many health professionals are working under, as<a data-mce-href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/a-call-from-the-midwife-why-i-am-resigning-after-10-years-in-the-nhs-9035417.html" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/a-call-from-the-midwife-why-i-am-resigning-after-10-years-in-the-nhs-9035417.html"> this article in yesterday's Independent</a> by a midwife who is leaving the NHS shows. That aside, he goes on to warn of the consequences of such distrust in the organisations we rely on:</div>
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This decline was deterring some people from voting and pushing others into the arms of “demagogues” such as Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, and Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, whom he brackets together. “I’m reminded of the terrible line in Larkin, ‘England, with a cast of crooks and tarts’. Now I’m not saying that’s true. [However] I think all of these add up to a mood of Jacobinism which I think is quite frightening . . .</div>
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If this is the age of the collapse of beliefs, the dissolution of institutions, then what you’re going to find is people who find an appeal in answers that are simplistic.</div>
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Earlier in the week, Sarah Teather, <a data-mce-href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/01/sarah-teather-resignation-newsmaker-2013" href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/01/sarah-teather-resignation-newsmaker-2013">in an intensely personal interview with the Guardian,</a> talked about how politicians invented problems to make themselves sound relevant.</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
We get ourselves into our own little spiral. We end up inventing problems to pretend we're relevant, and then try to fix the problems we've just invented. The EU migration stuff is a classic example.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The public know it's guff, so their trust in politicians goes down. And then our anxiety about not being relevant goes up, so we kind of get into a cycle of democratic self-harm, so we get progressively more frenzied about chasing wilder and wilder straw men and the public get more and more cynical. I'm not convinced that's the best way of demonstrating we're in touch.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
I might be a little more cynical than Sarah, because it appears to me that some of these problems are invented by people with a particular agenda, or vested interest to protect. This doesn't apply to Paddy, but some people who criticise, say, the NHS or the BBC have an agenda that involves undermining them. They clearly aren't perfect, but no less so than many bodies which aren't in the public sector. Banks, anybody? And then when it comes to immigration, the frenzy we've seen over Romanians and Bulgarians, the spectacle of MPs staking out airport arrivals lounges to greet the flights from these countries. Scapegoating groups of people is never a good idea. Solving the problems, like lack of housing that people on low incomes can afford, is a much better, if harder way of dealing with frustrations.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Finally, <a data-mce-href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tessa-munt-mps-job-descriptions-2980700" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tessa-munt-mps-job-descriptions-2980700">writing in the Mirror</a>, Tessa Munt starts a debate on what we expect from our politicians. She asks if there should be a job description and how we could measure MPs' activity. She also recounts the sort of effort she puts in:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
Shortly before 3am on New Year’s Day my mobile on the bedside table rang. I found myself in conversation with a somewhat incredulous (“is that really Tessa?”) good-natured but definitely tipsy young man who – even though the background noise suggested he was celebrating the arrival of 2014 with his friends - wanted to discuss why I hadn’t voted in a particular debate.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
She doesn't dismiss the idea of MPs doing other work, although she wonders how they have the time, but she just thinks they should be open about it when they stand for election:</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
I don’t mean the doctors, drivers and others who need a minimum number of working hours to keep their skills updated so they stay registered – general elections can deliver a brutal end to any MP’s term, so keeping qualified is fair. He or she may need to return to his or her old job!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
It should be absolutely clear when candidates stand for election exactly what the deal is.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
My worry about job descriptions and standards that MPs have to meet are that such statistics, in any field of work, can often be sterile and misleading. I don't care about correspondence response target times or the number of rings before a phone is answered if, when I do get a response, it's one that takes my concerns seriously and shows a genuine willingness to do something about it. You can't necessarily measure that.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
I could write all year how politics could be done better, but I'll confine myself for the moment to just two points which are undoubtedly stating the bleedin' obvious.</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">
Stop the blame game</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
When something goes wrong, as it inevitably will in the running of anything, there's an unseemly rush to point the finger. How much better would it be if people concentrated on the solution to the problem rather than seeing it as an opportunity for a bit of indulgent schadenfreude. No government is immune from administrative screw ups. There should be a little more humility, a bit of "that could have happened to us, too" and offering of helpful suggestions to fix things. There will be times when people do need to be sacked or disciplined, but let's be professional in the way that's done and get rid of the trial by media.</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">
A bit of empathy</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
The brattish bunfight of Prime Minister's Questions is all most people see of MPs and then only in passing. Hardly an appealing shop window, is it? And the cynical, angry, spectacle is repeated in a million places on the internet every day. Mark Valladares <a data-mce-href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-is-a-more-human-more-engaging-politics-too-much-to-ask-for-37611.html" href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-is-a-more-human-more-engaging-politics-too-much-to-ask-for-37611.html">wrote last week</a> about the need for a more human, engaging politics and he's absolutely right. If politicians can't be a bit more respectful and open in their tone both with each other and with the voters, the disconnect will grow. I was mortified a few weeks ago when two women very dear to me and not involved in politics at all were called all sorts of names in a deeply condescending manner by several young Liberal Democrat men on my Facebook page. I went to bed shortly after posting something and woke up to social media carnage. I threw a bit of a strop on seeing what had been said to my dear friends and at least those concerned had the decency to apologise but it should never have happened. It did not advance a very good example of what liberalism is all about, respect for the individual. And you are never going to be able to persuade people round to your point of view if you don't understand in your own head and heart where they are and why they think like they do. Political conversation needs to have much more heart and soul and appeal to constructive and positive emotions.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
When I say we, by the way, I mean everyone who has any sort of involvement in politics, inside and outside political parties. We need to give space to others to contribute, not try to hog an ever narrower pitch to ourselves.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;">
So those are my two pretty simple ideas. What would you do to make politics healthier, better and more engaging?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-78592063386669855022014-01-03T15:16:00.001+00:002014-01-03T15:16:31.236+00:00What's good to read today? 3 January 2014The number of things I read and want to blog about greatly exceeds the amount of time I have to blog. Therefore, I have decided to do a quick round up links post every day. I don't know if Blogger has the sort of automatic thingummyjig that<a href="http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/"> Jennie</a> and <a href="http://stephentall.org/">Stephen</a> use for theirs on Dreamwidth and Wordpress respectively, but if you know different, please let me know cos it would make my life a whole load easier. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
First up today, a reminder of how dire the working conditions are for midwives. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/a-call-from-the-midwife-why-i-am-resigning-after-10-years-in-the-nhs-9035417.html">This anonymous NHS midwife, writing in the Independent</a>, says that she rarely gets a break in her 13 hour shifts and that safety of women and babies is being compromised. What's also very important from a public health point of view is that breastfeeding support is threatened because midwives don't have the time to do it. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I meant to get round to writing about Holyrood Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick's proposals for the Scottish Parliament, but <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/tavish-scott-one-party-rule-hurting-holyrood-1-3253028">Tavish Scott got there first</a> and pretty much said everything I wanted to - eg Marwick just seems to want to hand over all power to the SNP whips. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Christine Jardine <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/christine-jardine-let-s-be-grateful-for-the-eu-1-3251202">reminds us </a>of how the EU has kept the peace, invests heavily in Scotland and how millions of jobs in the UK depend on it. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tessa-munt-mps-job-descriptions-2980700">Tessa Munt, writing in the Mirror,</a> asks what we want from our MPs. Personally, I think that it's up for each MP to build their own relationship with their constituents. I'd hate to see an official job description with targets for responding to correspondence or for the maximum number of rings before the phone was answered. Tessa has more patience than I have, though. She took a call from a drunken constituent at 3am on New Year's Day...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
John Knox,<a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-going-it-alone-37702.html"> in a well argued piece</a>, with which I disagree almost entirely, says the Lib Dems should stay out of government. Surely the first priority is whether we can do some good. Also minority government may have worked after a fashion in Scotland, but then we get closer to the Parliament we ask for up there and that's relevant. We're used to at least trying to be a bit more grown up some of the time. I'm not sure a minority government would last for very long at Westminster. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Roger Roberts, as ever a wise and compassionate advocate for the most vulnerable,<a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/lord-roberts-writes-it-is-time-to-open-our-doors-to-some-of-the-most-vulnerable-people-in-the-world-37703.html"> tells us</a> that he has secured a parliamentary debate next Thursday on Syrian refugees and why we should allow some of them into the UK.<br /><div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-57644392580087033412014-01-03T12:17:00.002+00:002014-01-03T12:17:45.606+00:00Top ten read posts of 2013First of all, Happy New Year to all of you.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Second of all, I'm going to have to get better at putting more of the stuff I write on here. Since I've been co-editing Liberal Democrat Voice, I've not had time to put as much on here as I would have liked. That's something I need to remedy in 2014.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Thirdly, I thought it might amuse to remind you of my top ten posts on here this year.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In reverse order:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
10.<a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/party-in-pickle-over-porn-what-were.html"> Party in a pickle over porn. What were the Federal Conference Committee thinking?</a></div>
<div>
That #talknottech campaign</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
9.<a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-13-year-old-writes-about-same-sex.html"> A 13 year old writes about same sex marriage. MPs take note</a></div>
<div>
A very proud mummy moment for me.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
8. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ignored-by-david-ward.html">Ignored by David Ward</a></div>
<div>
In which I tried to tell Ward that I wanted him back as a Lib Dem MP, but he needed to moderate his language.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
7. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/quentin-letts-calls-miriam-gonzalez.html">Quentin Letts calls Miriam Gonzalez Durantez a "castanet clacker"</a> </div>
<div>
And, due to the uselessness of the Press Complaints Commission, he gets away with it, too.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
6. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/some-brief-thoughts-on-chris-huhne.html">Some brief thoughts on Chris Huhne</a></div>
<div>
My first reaction on the day he pled guilty.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
5. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/what-hell-are-home-office-playing-at.html">What the hell are the Home Office playing at and why are Liberal Democrats letting them get away with it?</a></div>
<div>
As if those darned vans weren't bad enough, then there were the spot checks at tube stations.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
4. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/catherine-tates-top-tips-be-nice-to.html">Catherine Tate's top tips: Be nice to everyone and don't be late.</a> (with added Doctor Who geekery)</div>
<div>
I saw Catherine at her first ever Doctor Who convention. It was fab.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
3. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/letter-to-leader-happy-easter-from-very.html">Letter to the Leader: Happy Easter from a very busy party</a></div>
<div>
A reminder to Nick that we weren't all sitting with our feet up guzzling chocolate over Easter. We were fighting elections.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2. <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/lib-dems-please-think-before-you-speak.html">Lib Dems: Please think before you speak</a></div>
<div>
A heartfelt plea in the aftermath of that exruciatingly painful period in February</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1.<a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/sidse-babett-knudsen-shocked-by-borgen.html"> Sidse Babett Knudsen "shocked" by Borgen international success. </a></div>
<div>
The actress who played Birgitte Nyborg came to Edinburgh.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-90326789008322923292013-12-30T11:27:00.001+00:002013-12-30T11:27:35.557+00:00SchumiAs many of you will know, I've been a fan of Michael Schumacher ever since he came on the Formula 1 scene in 1991. You can imagine how I'm feeling this morning as the news from Grenoble sounds ever grimmer.<br />
<br />
I know that it's par for the course for news to be progressively scarier in the days following a severe brain trauma. Things get a lot worse before they start to get better. I know from my own experience with a friend that when hope appears lost, recovery can come.<br />
<br />
My thoughts are with his wife Corinna and all his family and friends. Let's hope that by the time of his birthday on Friday, we are looking at a much calmer, better prognosis.<br />
<br />
I've found the tweets from former <a href="https://twitter.com/former_f1doc">Formula 1 doctor Gary Hartstein </a>very helpful in understanding what's going on. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-60233233682317398922013-12-29T13:14:00.001+00:002013-12-29T13:14:40.742+00:00Alison McInnes: Scots law is not safe in the hands of the SNP<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>As the Scottish Parliament continues to debate the removal of corroboration from our legal system, I thought it would be a good idea to publish Alison McInnes MSP's speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in September which gives a good summary of the arguments why this may not be a good idea. Alison is as committed as I am to ensuring justice for victims of domestic and sexual assault, but she doesn't think that removing corroboration will help.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I am pleased to
have the opportunity to move this motion today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
A number of key
principles must always underpin any justice system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->It must
be impartial. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->It must
be proportionate. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->And it
must be fair.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Corroboration is
the requirement that each crucial fact in a criminal case – namely that a crime
was committed and by the accused - must be supported by two different, but mutually
enforcing, pieces of evidence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Now, ours is the
only criminal justice system in Europe to require corroboration. So why should
we be precious about it? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
For hundreds of
years, since the foundations of our Scots law were laid, it has been
established that that no individual should be convicted of a crime based on the
testimony of a single witness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
But I don’t defend
it because of tradition.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Rather, I defend it
because it protects against miscarriages of justice. The fact is that the word
of one person, regardless of their status or perceived character, is not enough. Similarly, a sole piece of forensic evidence should
not be enough to convict.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
You cannot remove
this pillar of our justice system, without making the whole structure unstable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In other
jurisdictions, in the absence of a corroboration rule, there are a whole series
of checks and balances to protect against wrongful conviction. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN">For example, England, Wales
and Northern Ireland have <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN">greater regulation of police
investigations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN">Preliminary hearings to test
the quality of evidence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN">Judges have the power to
exclude poor quality or prejudicial evidence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN">Unanimous verdicts are
required in the first instance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN">And there are wider grounds
for appeal following a verdict that could be deemed unsafe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN">We do not have any of these
necessary safeguards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
But the SNP
intends to remove corroboration without ensuring that there are sufficient
alternative safeguards in the trial process to give that protection. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Indeed taken with
their other reforms – changes to double jeopardy and proposals on the
admissibility of evidence of bad character or previous convictions, and we
should be very worried. This is a profound change – sweeping aside centuries of
well-established Scottish legal practice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Conference, Scots Law is not safe in the
hands of the Scottish National Party.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In Scotland the
Crown prosecutes in the public interest. We must guard against any shift
towards prosecuting in the victim’s interest. That would be at odds with our
fundamental liberal belief in the need for a robust, transparent and
independent justice system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
We need to defend
the principle of the presumption of innocence and safeguard against false
accusation, wrongful conviction and miscarriages of justice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The SNP’s
proposals will mean that someone could be convicted on the basis of the testimony
of just one person, even if five of the fifteen jurors believe that they are
innocent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Witnesses can be
honest yet mistaken. Their evidence persuasive but wrong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
And,
unfortunately, witnesses do sometimes lie to the police and in court- out of
earnest to ensure that the accused is convicted, because of the strength of
their convictions or through spite.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I am concerned
that scrapping corroboration could mean that false accusations could become
more common. The Law Society of Scotland warns that trials could be reduced to
“a contest between two competing statements on oath”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN">Corroboration should not be
seen as a cumbersome requirement that blocks cases being taken to trial. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
It does not
simply deliver a quantity of evidence. It is ensures the quality of it. It
reinforces facts. It confirms facts. It is a way to test the reliability and
credibility of evidence. It is key to determining the guilt or otherwise of the
accused.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We cannot allow trials to hinge on lesser
evidence. Wrongful convictions bring the law into disrepute. Justice Scotland has
said the removal of corroboration will risk “justice being undone”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The SNP claim
that corroboration is a barrier to justice, particularly for those victims of
sexual crimes. But the research they
rely on is scant - a cursory desk top study carried out by the Crown Office. In
the absence of clear in-depth evidence, it would be reckless to proceed in
blind hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Now, Conference,
I am sure that you will agree with me that conviction rates for rape remain
stubbornly low.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Liberal Democrats
wholeheartedly share the aspiration to improve conviction rates. No one should be beyond the reach of our
justice system. We must strive to ensure that the victims of rape, sexual
assaults and domestic abuse receive the justice they deserve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
There are a
number of ways to tackle that – for example a much more rigorous approach to
the gathering of forensic evidence, and we could examine the idea of rape victims
being represented by a lawyer in the court, something that happens in Belgium. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
However, contrary
to the SNP’s claim, there is a real danger that scrapping corroboration could
actually reduce the chances of victims of these crimes securing justice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
We might get more
cases into court, but there is no evidence that we would secure any more
convictions. The alleged victim could face a much more aggressive cross
examination in the absence of supporting evidence. Juries are less likely to
convict on the say so of one piece of evidence. More acquittals or not proven
verdicts in these cases will not help anyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
There’s a long
list of those who warn against losing this vital safeguard. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The
Senators of the College of Justice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The Law
Society of Scotland. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The
Faculty of Advocates. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Justice
Scotland.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The
Scottish Human Rights Commission <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Justice
Secretary would be foolish to ignore all those voices.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Like you, I am
proud to say that I joined the Liberal Democrats because I believe in a just,
free and fair society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
It is therefore a
privilege to be my party’s justice spokesperson, to have the opportunity to
champion these values, and to lead the fight against a succession of
ill-considered and botched reforms from Kenny MacAskill and the SNP.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In the face of
their dogged desire to centralise services, increase ministerial control, and
push reforms through without hesitation or due consideration, we need strong
liberal voices at Holyrood and across Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
They abolished
our local police forces. They are closing our local courts. And now, through the Criminal Justice Bill,
they want to get rid of corroboration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We are on a slippery slope, not to independence but to
injustice.</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
If our justice
system fails to uphold the right to a fair trial then it also fails to serve
victims of crime. It fails to serve Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I urge members to
join me in voting for this motion. Join me in sending a message to the SNP that
it cannot cut corners when it is dealing with those issues that matter most to
us as Liberal Democrats - justice, freedom and fairness.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-27145495642274523792013-12-26T13:37:00.002+00:002013-12-26T13:43:27.479+00:00Here be many spoilers, so if you haven't watched The Time of the Doctor, do not read any furtherI've watched it twice now. And I think I probably need to watch it a few more times before I properly understand it. I can't come out and say that I loved last night's Doctor Who Christmas special. That was never going to be on the cards, though. I've loved Matt Smith as the Doctor, however much I've occasionally been annoyed at the directions his character has taken. That's not his fault, though. He acted the scripts the writers gave him with more flair, quirkiness and originality than even they could possibly have imagined. His last show was always going to be an ordeal, an assault on my emotions. Even 4 years on, I cry whenever I watch David Tennant's regeneration. And 8 years on my reaction to Eccleston's isn't that much easier.<br />
<br />
And so we come to Steven Moffat. His ears must have been burning last night. Twitter exploded, evenly split between outrage and adoration for the episode. How very Twitter. I'm quite happy to criticise Moffat and his predecessor as head writer and executive producer Russell T Davies when I think they get it wrong, but let's get a bit of perspective here. 25 years ish ago, Michael Grade took Doctor Who from its safe Saturday tea time slot and put it up against Coronation Street in the hope of killing it once and for all. In 2013, fresh from the triumphant 50th anniversary episode, Doctor Who went up against Corrie on Christmas Day and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25518352">whipped its backside</a>. And that's down to great writing, great acting and great production values. Moffatt is the guy in charge and he deserves gratitude and credit for his part in the sustained revival of the show I feel in love with when I was just 7 years old.<br />
<br />
Just as an aside, I have Corrie recorded and I know I'm going to howl my eyes out at that, too. The authenticity and tenderness which David Neilson and Julie Hesmondhalgh bring to Hayley's terminal cancer storyline is phenomenal. The real mix of emotions, from anger to poignant moments of joy to shock and fear just jump out at all of us.<br />
<br />
But back to Who. Last night's episode, for the hardcore fan, was going to be a very different beast from last month's The Day of the Doctor. In that one, Moffat managed to satisfy fans with lots of in jokes and a secret kept - the appearance of Tom Baker as the Curator - and appeal to new audiences too. That was never really on the cards for the Christmas Special. For a start, he had to tie up the loose ends in stories that some of the fandom didn't like anyway. He did it, although he had to use a pretty big shoehorn at times.<br />
<br />
This episode had action, drama, pathos, creepiness and comedy all packed into an emotional adrenaline-filled hour. That bit towards the end when you went from the noise of a battle scene to the poignant and tearful regeneration. We all knew it was coming, but Moffat managed to mess with our heads enough, changing what has become the established pattern of a regeneration so that when Capaldi's head literally popped out of Matt Smith's neck in a flash, we were all surprised. Very clever.<br />
<br />
Moffat is a bloody genius. No doubt about that. I do, though, have one huge plea for him in the new series. He has to learn how to write better female characters. Women seem to come in two types in his universe. River or Amy. I mean Tasha Lem was a "hello sweetie" away from being almost a carbon copy of River Song, right down to the alien takeover that she had to fight. And "hey babes" isn't really that far away, is it? I guess the excuse would be that the programming River was subjected to was based on Tasha Lem by the Kovarian line who went back to try to kill the Doctor before he ever arrived in Trenzalore. Not buying it, though. Orla Brady was brilliant, though. Pity she wasn't allowed to age, though, like the Doctor, because you couldn't possibly have a woman doing that, could you?<br />
<br />
And then there was Handles, the cyber head he had picked up at the nicely named Maldovar Market, a tribute to the excellent Dorium Maldovar from A Good Man goes to War. Not sure I liked the way the Doctor slapped him when he got irritated, but as things which replace the TARDIS when the ship isn't available go, he was pretty good. A slightly mawkish ending for him, though.<br />
<br />
The beginning of the episode was action-packed, although if you are being sensible you have to ask what the earthly point was of the Doctor going aboard all these ships when he knew perfectly well who was on them. But at least we got to see the Doctor in mortal peril from his sworn, ancient enemies.<br />
<br />
We now come to the entirely gratuitous nudity. It was funny on board the TARDIS, but, and this is a big failing of Moffat's Eleventh Doctor, why on earth did he think it was appropriate to turn up at Christmas Dinner with Clara's family in the buff? The Doctor has learnt enough about humans in a millennium to know that's a pretty serious social gaffe. But then, it's entirely appropriate in a retrospective in which we are saying farewell to this character.<br />
<br />
I wonder if, under Capaldi's tenure, we'll be able to have a non-Victoriana Christmas Special. The village of Christmas, snowy and romantic, would have been fine if similar hadn't featured so relentlessly. I mean, the Doctor has the whole of time and space at his disposal, yet what is allowed to depict Christmas is very narrow. Yea, I know he suits that period, but let's ring some changes, please. The truth field was brilliant, though. And the Weeping Angels were incredibly creepy. And did we all laugh at the reversing the polarity bit?<br />
<br />
No sooner had the Doctor and Clara arrived than they found the crack that joined up the last 4 years' dots. And then, just like in Mercy, the Doctor appoints himself the Sheriff.<br />
<br />
There was a symmetry with the beginning of his tenure, leaving a child waiting again, just like he did with Amelia Pond. And of course he was kept waiting by the TARDIS this time, who had Clara clinging to her in the time vortex.<br />
<br />
You have to wonder, though, why when he returned there the second time, with TARDIS in tow, why he didn't just take all the people of Christmas somewhere else and left Trenzalore to the daleks. That would have been way too easy.<br />
<br />
Steven Moffat said at last month's 50th anniversary convention that Matt Smith's performance in this episode was the best of any Doctor ever. He was pretty darned good, especially as he aged from young, to old, to ancient.<br />
<br />
And what of the time lords? Back, but off-screen back. You can bet your life that the new regeneration cycle is for their benefit, not the Doctor's. Maybe the events of the Day of the Doctor made them nice people, but I'm too much of a cynic to believe that it was done purely out of altruism on hearing Clara's heartfelt plea. The Doctor is their passport back. What will they want him to do for them? There are endless scenarios as to how this could play out. They won't all come back at once, I bet. One or two will get out at a time, with different motivations. And if one nice lot has given the Doctor a new life cycle, what's the chances of another lot doing the same for the Master?<br />
<br />
The last 6 weeks have been an unprecedented time in the life of the show and the character. It's strange to think we've had 3 regenerations in that time, all of them different. McGann's to the War Doctor was induced by the Sisterhood of Karn. The War Doctor's to Eccleston took on the form we've become used to, beacons of light streaming from the limbs. That's what we were all expecting. But no. We get the flashy bit, complete with triumphal cry of "Love from Gallifrey, boys," then Clara opens the TARDIS door, not knowing who she's going to meet in there, and it's all familiar. He's young Eleven again. That's when it gets teary. Karen Gillan's brief appearance and "Raggedy man, goodnight" had me howling. Then there was the tenderness of that last "hey" to Clara before Capaldi appeared in a split second.<br />
<br />
I was thrilled to hear his Scottish accent as he mouthed off about colour schemes and kidneys. He still seems a bit like Malcolm Tucker in the TARDIS, but that will change as we see him properly get in to the role.<br />
<br />
I doubt I'll ever be able to say I loved it. My emotions are still wrecked. My hopes are high, though. That's all you really need from a regeneration episode, surely?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-50802933169793108602013-12-21T18:19:00.001+00:002013-12-21T18:19:43.182+00:00So this is what being a floating voter feels like...I've never gone into a polling booth wondering how I'd vote. Even that time in 90s Edwinstowe when my choices were Labour and the Tories. There was no way I could ever vote Tory so I crossed my fingers behind my back, clicked my heels three times and ticked the red box. I had to have a shower afterwards but I'd had my say.<div><br></div><div>Even in party leadership elections, when I've wanted them to be scrabbling for my votes, I make my mind up far too soon then throw myself into the campaign of my chosen one.</div><div><br></div><div>But tonight, I approach the Strictly Come Dancing final, for the first time ever, with not a clue of which of the fantastic four finalists I want to win. They are all lovely and they are all very good. I can't wait for 6:30 to come. I just wish they could all win. I feel energised and enthusiastic.</div><div><br></div><div>I've only occasionally watched The X Factor or I'm a celebrity this year because I was significantly underwhelmed by the contestants. Neither show grabbed my attention, not even with Vincent from Strictly in the jungle.</div><div><br></div><div>I know that tv show polls are not the same as elections but even so, there are lessons here for political parties and referendum campaigns. None of it is rocket science. It's basic stuff around being likeable, engaging and connecting with people. Or not. </div><div><br></div><div>The scratchy, grumpy independence referendum campaign is definitely more X Factor than Strictly. And so will the 2015 election be if we don't all pull up our socks and present a worthwhile choice with some properly radical ideas. </div><div><br></div><div>And now I am going to talk dance with a brief summary of each of the Strictly finalists</div><div><br></div><div>Abbey and Alijaz</div><div><br></div><div>I never expected to like Abbey, which is really rubbish of me as all I'd heard abut her was viewed through the omnipresent prism of media misogyny. She's lovely, though. Warm, funny, hard-working, talented, she's partnered with a talented choreographer in Alijaz. Their quickstep to Walking on Sunshine was so bright and scrumptious.</div><div><br></div><div>Because of her lower profile, she is unlikely to have the core vote available to Natalie (Corrie) and Susanna (BBC). That's ended her up in the dance-off. She has been over-marked at times. Too. </div><div><br></div><div>Natalie and Artem</div><div><br></div><div>Natalie gets a lot of stick online cos people think she's a professional dancer. Ballroom and Latin are completely new to her. She is an incredibly funny and pleasant person. She was replying to tweets from me long before she was in Strictly. She's also had some real struggles with illness and injury on the show, missing one week after collapsing in rehearsals. </div><div><br></div><div>Artem's choreography is unique but I don't always like it or the music mash ups he has been known for. I just regret we didn't see their jive. </div><div><br></div><div>I don't think their regular position as judges' favourites helps.</div><div><br></div><div>They were, shockingly, in the dance off last week after topping the leader board. I had voted for her every week till then but took the tactical decision to vote for Susanna and Sophie to keep them out of the dance off. I knew if Natalie got into the dance off against anyone, she was guaranteed a win so I needed to keep them out.</div><div><br></div><div>Sophie and Brendan</div><div><br></div><div>Brendan's choreography has been original and so creative - and difficult. Those lifts in last week's American Smooth were beautiful and showcased Sophie Ellis-Bextor to perfection. </div><div><br></div><div>There is nothing I don't love about this partnership. Sophie's biggest enemy is her nerves but her fragile grace and sense of rhythm are such a delight to watch. There is nothing I wouldn't do to see their Charleston again. They must go through to the final 3.</div><div><br></div><div>Susanna and Kevin</div><div><br></div><div>Susanna Reid from BBC Breakfast and her partner ubiquitously known as Kevin from Grimsby are the pair we can all identify with. They are very down to earth and while their dancing may not be technically perfect but they've given me goosebumps more than anybody else. I love them. </div><div><br></div><div>Good luck to them all. It'll be a brilliant final. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-55658065340703010682013-12-13T10:35:00.001+00:002013-12-13T10:36:59.249+00:00Federal Executive report 9 December 2013This week's meeting of the Federal Executive could have been a fractious affair as we were discussing both the future of Spring Conference and the future of the interim peers' panel. In the end, it was very consensual and amicable. We also passed next year's Federal Party budget, talked about membership (growing) and the S/AO Group, of which I'm a member, reported on its work. We are trying to develop a tool kit to help S/AOs along the lines that they've been feeding back to us that they would like to see. We're also wanting to be more proactive about communicating with S/AOs and keeping in touch with what they are doing.<br />
<br />
Obviously, there are limits to what I can say on a public blog about FE's deliberations, but if you are a party member and you have questions, please contact me privately on Facebook, Twitter (@caronmlindsay) or by email caronsmusingsATgooglemailDOTcom.<br />
<br />
Even those who had initially advocated a big change to the format of Spring conference noted that the consensus in the party was opposed. Both Federal Policy Committee and Federal Conference Committee had rejected the idea of reducing the event to one day as had the majority of the responses to the consultation. We decided in the end to look at ways of encouraging digital engagement to allow more people to take part and at ways of reducing costs without altering the format.<br />
<br />
I had been very keen that no changes should be made without Conference's say so. It would have been ludicrous for us as FE to have made a decision about Conference in 2016 when there was plenty time to take that to Conference. The point was made, though, that those who couldn't go to Conference wouldn't have a say in that. In all the years I couldn't go to Federal Conference, I never once thought it shouldn't happen. Affordability wasn't the major issue for me, although it was certainly part of the story.<br />
<br />
On the interim peers panel, a motion from the FE will be brought to Spring Conference in York. I can't tell you the wording because it's going to be redrafted taking into account the views expressed at the meeting. I think that Sue Doughty's committee have done some excellent work on this, balancing all the views they've had from across the party. They've come up with something that should make the system more democratic and that the leader is more likely to use. I spoke in favour of wording that gave the leader slightly less wiggle room. However, Nick has shown more willing on this than any leader before him and I'm sure that he will embrace the new system once it's up and running. I just wanted to make sure that any future leader would get the message that the party values this method of choosing our peers.I also feel that there is a very strong case for appointing a much greater proportion of women to help redress the appalling imbalances elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Anyway, here are mine and others' tweets from the occasion, collected in a nice Storify thingy.<br />
<br />
<div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/caronmlindsay/liberal-democrats-federal-executive-9-december-201/embed" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/caronmlindsay/liberal-democrats-federal-executive-9-december-201.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/caronmlindsay/liberal-democrats-federal-executive-9-december-201" target="_blank">View the story "Liberal Democrats Federal Executive 9 December 2013 - the tweets" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-46603988654929492432013-12-13T09:04:00.002+00:002013-12-13T09:04:26.080+00:00Did Government misrepresent Professor Harrington's view on Employment and Support Allowance rollout?I've written many times about the problems with the Government's Work Capability Assessment, the tool, implemented by ATOS, used to decide who qualifies for Employment and Support Allowance.<br />
<br />
The WCA was first introduced by Labour for new ESA claimants in 2008 and its flaws were immediately clear. It took no account of fluctuating conditions or mental health conditions and even after reviews <a href="http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/are-you-fit-to-work.html">still bore little resemblance</a> to assessing someone's actual fitness for work.<br />
<br />
The Coalition had everyone who was claiming the old Incapacity Assessment put through the Work Capability Assessment. This has led to some really quite appalling decisions. I'm sure many of you will have your own examples, but one which was cited to me was of a man with severe agoraphobia, who hadn't left his home in quarter of a century being pronounced fit for work.<br />
<br />
The Government has set great store in claiming that it's been following the recommendations of former independent reviewer Professor Malcolm Harrington. Prominent welfare campaigner Sue Marsh could never understand why Harrington had agreed to a system that he found to be flawed to be rolled out to assess the most complex cases before the changes were implemented. So she decided to do find out - by asking him.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/breaking-news-government-reviewer.html">Her post here</a> on her Diary of a Benefit Scrounger blog contains, shall we say, inconsistencies between what Tory minister told the Commons in February 2012 and what Harrington told Sue just recently. Have a read and judge for yourself.<br />
<br />
If that's the case, then it makes me even angrier than I was already about the treatment of our most vulnerable sick and disabled people. I know of one friend whose benefit was stopped as they had had ESA for more than a year and was told they were fit for work. It was patently clear that they were not. Over a year on, a subsequent ATOS medical has decided that they should be in the support group. Ok, so they made the right decision, but my friend doesn't get that year of poverty and stress back.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-9299246856589724742013-12-05T16:30:00.000+00:002013-12-05T16:30:02.837+00:00Autumn Statement - 5 quick thoughts from me<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I don't pretend to be an economist so don't expect any commentary on debts or deficits from me. I want to take a very quick look at some of the practical aspects of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement.</div>
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
I'm not taking any marriage tax break</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
If Liberal Democrats hadn't allowed the Tories their awful marriage tax break, we'd have been breaking the Coalition Agreement in the same way as the Tories did over Lords Reform. I would have preferred we hadn't agreed to it in the first place. We won't be voting for it, at least but that's no small comfort to seeing £700 million that could be used so much more effectively (see Don't Judge my Family's wonderful Advent calendar) being frittered away as a sop to the Tory right.</div>
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My husband and I could benefit from this, but we have decided that we won't because it's insulting and discriminatory.</div>
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Priority housing status for workers is meaningless if there are no houses</h3>
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So, if you need to move to take a job and you live in social housing, you'll get priority on the lists. We'll leave to the side the fact that you may be jumping the queue ahead of people who have been waiting for years for a house that meets their needs. Priority status means nothing though if there isn't enough social housing. Councils already can't house the people with high priority. How on earth does Osborne expect them to be able to house workers?</div>
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I'll grant you that the Coalition has made a start on ensuring more affordable housing is being built, and Liberal Democrats have policy that would result in 25,000 more council houses being built in England. This is a drop in the ocean to what's required. It's about time all parties stopped being so timid and worked together to make sure that in 21st century Britain everyone has access to a decent home. That surely isn't too much to ask.</div>
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Scotland gains - but will the SNP government put its new money where its mouth is?</h3>
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Scotland is to get an extra £308 million over the next two years. The SNP Government could choose to spend it on the childcare it says is so critical but they would only be able to do after independence. Well, they have the power to do it already. It's over to them. Alistair Carmichael made that pretty clear that the choice was theirs:</div>
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The Scottish Government can now plan to spend this money in line with its priorities. The rest of the UK is already ahead of Scotland in providing childcare support, free school meals and, with this Autumn Statement, support for the high street too so that the shops we value and rely on get a little money back to help them succeed.</blockquote>
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The Scottish Government has been given the money to do these things too. They can match the help that families and businesses are getting in other parts of the UK. They could crack on with childcare package they announced last week, but are making conditional on a yes vote to independence. They can do these things, or they can spend the money elsewhere. These are the choices that they must make.</blockquote>
Let's just say I'm not going to be holding my breath.<br />
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More measures to help young people into work</h3>
Employers' National Insurance Contributions will be abolished for under 21s. This is a good thing. I'd have liked to have seen it accompanied, though, by equalisation of the national minimum wage. Often, under 21s do exactly the same work as those over 21, yet their is a £2.59 per hour difference in what they are paid. But, of course, these large profitable companies that employ young people on the minimum wage couldn't possibly afford that, could they?<br />
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And while we're on young people, Osborne did make a lot of the fact that the applications for university from people from poorer backgrounds were at highest level. This issue is painful for us, and rightly so, but the assertions from Labour that no poor young person would ever be able to go to university again were clearly nonsense.<br />
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Why do MPs have to behave like brats?</h3>
If you aren't a political anorak, chances are the only time you'll see the House of Commons on tv is for the big set-piece occasions like Prime Minister's Questions, the Budget and the Autumn Statement. You are therefore likely to come away with the idea that MPs are a bunch of rude, uncouth, loud, unpleasant brats who can't just sit nicely and listen to what is being said. As Nick Robinson said on the Daily Politics, it's done on purpose to put the speaker off, to make them look all red-faced and flustered. Ed Balls was dying on his backside perfectly well without the rabble from the braying Tories.<br />
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Seriously, though, people think that politicians are like that all the time when actually, when you take them out of that bear pit, most of them are decent human beings who you could happily have a pint with. It's not good for politics when they behave like that. The economy isn't just about numbers and debts and deficits. What they are discussing has a direct effect on people's lives in many ways every single day, whether it's the amount of pay they take home, or how much it costs them to fill their car or heat their homes. The very least they could do is take it seriously, especially when so many people are really struggling. MPs should think about this the next time they descend into juvenile banter.<br />
Again, I won't be holding my breath.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-12712414797715962942013-11-28T18:53:00.002+00:002013-11-28T18:53:42.647+00:00It's all kicking off in Calderdale...aka how to beat your Labour opposition in 140 characters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpba4xmjl3nZBMIB4eXlRv47lXKQNFQd3yBNbhW2ZHQXyGo92moWu9kCj9L-Dz-IoMV6Wx2eo1OJNyopC9DExsYEv1BTzFxZTfmg1yGaqMlxhNRVO3K7tnBw9HmEIVRvSjq-eXcg/s1600/Alisdair+McGregor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpba4xmjl3nZBMIB4eXlRv47lXKQNFQd3yBNbhW2ZHQXyGo92moWu9kCj9L-Dz-IoMV6Wx2eo1OJNyopC9DExsYEv1BTzFxZTfmg1yGaqMlxhNRVO3K7tnBw9HmEIVRvSjq-eXcg/s320/Alisdair+McGregor.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
Recently, Alisdair Calder McGregor was selected as the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Calder Valley. His articles on Liberal Democrat Voice on the <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-labours-energy-freeze-is-terrible-economics-but-excellent-politics-36383.html">energy price freeze</a> and <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-63-37067.html">the living wage</a> have been widely read and well received.<br />
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Last night, he ended up having a Twitter conversation with his Labour opposition and the excellent <a href="http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/1454451.html">Jennie Rigg</a> made a Storify thingy. BTW, I have shamelessly nicked the photo of Alisdair form her blog. I hope she doesn't mind.<br />
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The reason I'm putting her Storify thing up is because I think we can sometimes be a bit too timid around Labour people. Remember this is the party who started an illegal war, introduced control orders, wanted to lock people up for 3 months without charge, whose Chancellor knew fine they'd have to raise VAT if they'd won the election, who wanted to have us arrested for taking photos of buildings and profiled as potential terrorists if we had a vegetarian meal on a plain. Oh, and they left us with no money and thought it was ok to leave a letter bragging about it.<br />
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Alisdair sliced through all of that, explaining what liberalism was all about to him and how we had not much time for either authoritarian party.<br />
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Read, enjoy, remember. We need to be doing this sort of thing a lot more in the next 18 months. Or 17.5 months.<br />
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<div class="storify">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/miss_s_b/first-encounter-between-calder-valley-candidates-g/embed" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/miss_s_b/first-encounter-between-calder-valley-candidates-g.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/miss_s_b/first-encounter-between-calder-valley-candidates-g" target="_blank">View the story "First Encounter Between Calder Valley Candidates Goes Better For One Than the Other" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34128264.post-30689532645769791972013-11-28T14:36:00.002+00:002013-11-28T14:36:41.458+00:003 ways you can try to save #isamuaza's lifeI am reeling from the fact that a government with Liberal Democrats in it is on the brink of crossing a major humanitarian line. Not content with standing by while Isa Muaza starves himself to death in protest at his treatment within an immigration detention centre, tomorrow morning they are planning to deport him. He can barely stand, and as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/16/end-of-life-plan-hunger-striker">this report</a> from the Guardian states, he has numerous health problems. If he survives the flight, what are they going to do to someone in such a weakened state? Dump him in the arrivals lounge and head back home? What reputable airline would do that? This one, <a href="http://www.aircharterscotland.com/">Air Charter Scotland</a>, apparently.<br />
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Lord Roger Roberts<a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/lord-roger-roberts-writesplease-try-to-prevent-the-imminent-death-of-a-seeker-of-sanctuary-37330.html"> wrote a heartbreaking post </a>on Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday describing his visit to Isa, who has now not eaten for 90 days, and making the case for clemency.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Even before this protest began – and before he ever came to the UK – Isa Muaza was a deeply vulnerable person. He fled Nigeria fearing for his life at the hands of the terror group Boko Haram, a group he says have already killed several members of his family and as he told me yesterday, if returned this week he will have no one to meet him off the plane. He is penniless, blind and incapable of standing on his own. In his current state this on its own is a death sentence.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In deporting Mr Muaza on Friday the Home Office seems to be seeking to avoid <a href="http://www.irr.org.uk/news/deaths-in-immigration-detention-on-the-increase/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ff5900; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">another death</a> in immigration detention. But the Home Secretary cannot – and should not – escape responsibility for her actions. In this case, for forcibly detaining a man the system so evidently could not care for. Those held in the thousands of beds in immigration detention centres across the UK are some of the most vulnerable people in the country. Striking out at them is not the sign of a strong immigration system, but a desperately weak one.</i></span></blockquote>
So what does a fair society do when faced with someone on hunger strike? There are some people, like Theresa May, who think it's just a way of playing the system. For three months? To the point of a long drawn out horrible death? For me, it's the sign of a very sick system that nobody going through it has any confidence in it to treat them fairly.<br />
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We need to be working on prevention. Isa originally started his hunger strike because his clinical and dietary needs were not being met. Taking someone's liberty is drastic enough. We don't need to have their dignity too. If someone is being detained, which should not be a common thing at all, they should have all the support and health care that they need and the respect as a fellow human being that they deserve.<br />
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We generally are pretty helpless in these situations, but that doesn't mean we should sit and do nothing. There are times when we should make our voices heard and this is one of them. Here are 3 things you can do:<br />
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1. Sign J<a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57612">ulian Huppert's and Roger Roberts' e-petition</a>.<br />
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2. Tweet or email <a href="http://www.aircharterscotland.com/contact.html">Air Charter Scotland</a> and ask them not to transport Isa Muaza.<br />
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3. If you are a Liberal Democrat party member tweet or email <a href="https://twitter.com/timfarron">Tim Farron,</a> Party President, to ask him to continue to press Nick Clegg to intervene. He has met with Nick's team today and urged them to do so and he has also signed Julian and Roger's petition. The more people he can say are annoyed about this, the stronger his case will be. Although, bluntly, it shouldn't take us being annoyed to move Nick to action on this.<br />
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We already knew that the asylum system was inhumane and put people through horrid indignities while not giving vulnerable people enough time to get representation and present their evidence properly. It was bad enough under Labour, and the Conservatives have, seemingly unchecked, made it worse. What are we there for if not to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves? We need to start making a tangible difference, and soon, to the way people are treated. It's already bad enough that a Liberal Democrat minister has been restricting access to Legal Aid so that women can't get legal representation, for example, if they are trying to get a place in a mother and baby unit. That's heartbreaking enough, but we're talking about a matter of life and possibly imminent death here.<br />
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Liberal Democrats are there to protect people from the excesses of the state. I accept that there are limits to what we can do when we make up just a fifth of the Government and I know that Labour and Tories have no such concern, but we need to do it firstly because nobody else will and secondly because it's right.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04988201531739344840noreply@blogger.com0