h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I suppose exposure to the global village might improve my spelling. zenophobic = xenophobic

"Will England accept a Scottish MP being Prime Minister when Scotland has it's own assembly. Can an English MP be Scotland's First Minister."

No an English MP couldn't be First Minister. As far as I can tell the First Minister would have to be a sitting MSP, and I don't think you can similtaneously be an MP and an MSP. But then an MSP doesn't have to be Scottish.

If England can't accept Brown just because he's Scottish then that plays right into the nationalists hands. It'll further alienate Scotland and finish off what Thatcher started. Which is a shame, the home nations are stronger together than apart.

Looking back on some of your previouse coments.

"It's now hard to hear a government statement in anything but a Scottish accent"

or

"Why should the Scots have representation in Westminster"

Postings like that, again, only play into the Nationalists hands. I'm Scottish, but proud to be British at the same time. Convincing others to feel the same isn't made any easier when people come out with statements like these.

I detest chauvinism in any form, national, sexual or religious. I have many very close Scottish friends but what I see, increasingly, is fervent Scottish chauvinism allied with extreme anti English sentiment. All I seek to do is put the other side of the argument. If you follow my arguments you will have noticed that revision of the Barnett formula and resolution of the West Lothian question, particularly the reduction in the number of Scottish MP's, are my main thrusts. The current political landscape is distorted by the preponderance of Scottish Labour MP's.

I agree with you regarding the West Lothian issue and the Barnet formula. And I think the answers to both these questions are fairly simple, but wouldn't be to a lot of my compatriots liking. And yes there is a disproportionate amount of overall Scottish MPs in westminster. Again there is a fairly simple resouluton to that issue as well.

Where I disagree with you is,

"The current political landscape is distorted by the preponderance of Scottish Labour MP's".

To me that sounds almost racist. The currant landscape is dominated by Labour MPs, thats true. But they do currantly have a whopping great majority (unfortunatly this doesn't look set to change). Would your suggestion be that there should be a cap on how many non english members of cabinet there is? I doubt it.

As for the increased chauvinism. Again your right there is. But as a Scot living in England I can tell you there is exactly the same nasty nationalism south of the border. And IMHO it's got worse over the last five years. It isn't mixed with the same level of anti-Scotish sentiment. I think where I stay the hate is directed more westward. But it's still there none-the-less.

I notice that once again he didn't put anything on spirits. What with the 24 hour opening as well maybe the plan is to get us all so drunk we forget about Iraq.

I think it was an atrocious budget. My pension is still totally screwed from his intervetion into taxation on pension funds, my children are still running up debts to become qualified, there is still no action on the senseless use of fossil fuels for the transport of heavy goods, the working man is once more raided to support the non-workers. Can it be right that a staff nurse and a physio-therapist pay tax at the highest rate ?

Let's face it Gordon is the luckiest chancellor in living memory. The huge bonuses he's got from fuel price rises, an American government thats allowed interest rates to drop to nothing, and a massive bonus from the sale of 3G comms licenses. Yet we remain the most heavily taxed nation in Europe.

I'd have liked to seen action on making railways more attractive to passengers, a realistic minimum wage, action on super trucks destroying our road infra-structure, something to encourage mothers to stay at home and be mothers rather than encouraging them to ship the child out to a minder as soon as possible, action on education, to introduce checks on how school budgets are used. I could go on...

Bubba, I haven't finished reading it yet but this book is interesting on the spread of the Scottish Diaspora.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1840188138/026-4523002-8651631

McKay.

Ok, thats what you would have liked, but realistically, is either of the other parties going to give it to you?

As for luck, well I believe you make your own. And the fact that we have managed to avoid the recession whilst most of the western world is still in one suggests something more than mere luck.

Frankly the only thing that he didn't do this time that he really should have done is clobber the banks as well as the oil industry.

Oh, and by the way everybody, never mind whether or not Britain *would* accept a Scottish PM, it already *has* one! TB was born in Edinburgh...

And he went to Fetters, the Scotch Eton, what a background for the leader of a Socialist party, some cool dude.

The one unescapable fact is that if we want better public services and state pensions we are going to have to pay more tax. I can never reconcile the 'Cut the Public Sector' argument with the 'We need more Doctors, Nurses, Policemen, Teachers, Social Workers' argument.

Undoutedly true, but regrettably the punters have shown themselves utterly unwilling to vote for any party (ie the Lib-Dems) who actually state they will raise taxes.

Looks like an interesting read Mr Albatross, I'll try and get a copy.

btw, you didn't need to change your name, I didn't really think you were anti-Jock.

It wasn't Jock it was Jack but I'm too dumb, whoops dim to be able to follow their march. However I am a passionate supporter of Haggis hunting.

Ah that most noble of puddings.

McKay said:
"Can it be right that a staff nurse and a physio-therapist pay tax at the highest rate ?"

At the moment that depends on their income, or are you suggesting that doing certain jobs should attract a special tax banding irrespective of how much an individual earns?

"I guess the inheritance allowance rises are in line with rising housing prices? Maybe? But that still irks a little."

And why's that then? Inheritance Tax is an anachronism, it was put in placed to humble the landed gentry out of spite more than an attempt at social justice. £300,000 pounds is far too low and it hasn't even been raised to that yet.

# There will be new rules to encourage incapacity benefit claimants into work and changes to housing benefit to help create jobs.

# From next month, there will be £2,000 return to work bonuses available to single parents

Now these on the other hand would be the kind of thing one should get irked about.
Single parents suffer from alot of prejudice and have never gotten a good deal from any government. Those that do work have to work bloody hard and because they spending so much time and energy working their relationship with the child is at risk of suffering. Money for the majority is always tight and now single parents are being bribed/blackmailed into returning to work when that may not be the best thing them or their child... and for why? Because this goverment loves to pander to the new right.

People on incapacity benefit, more unforgivable scroungers to target with expensive ad campaigns to blacken their image, make them jump through hoops to get the money they need to survive, and that's survive, not live it up large.
This policy isn't about providing the help and support to get people that would feel better about their lives if they were working, it's about appearances and pandering to the bigot.
Bah.

Why on Earth would anyone need to inherit £300,000? You could buy the average house in Britain nearly twice over.

A lot of single people do want to work, especially once the kids are at school. It's not much fun hanging around the house on your own all day when you haven't got much money to do anything and the kids are out.

It's interesting to see that it's the same problems everywhere, and it's often women who suffer from it most, especially when they're single with kids.

"You could buy the average house in Britain nearly twice over."

The average house price is around the £200,000 mark give or take 10 grand.

"Why on Earth would anyone need to inherit £300,000?"

The question shows that the reason you are irked is because you envy and are resentful of people that for whatever reason have something of more monetary value than you.
And what has need to do with it? Why on Earth should the taxman be entitled to taking a great bite out of an estate as it passes from the dead to the living, whatever it's value?
Why should anyone have to sell off parts of their inheritance to pay IHT?
There is a difference between taxing large capital transfers and the like and taxing someone for being the living loved one of wealthy deceased.

fat kelli - who really should change her name - said "Can it be right that a staff nurse and a physio-therapist pay tax at the highest rate ?" At the moment that depends on their income, or are you suggesting that doing certain jobs should attract a special tax banding irrespective of how much an individual earns?

I'm saying its wrong that the tax levels are such that a person who works for the health service - not noted for extortionate salaries - and a citi-financier are both paying tax at the same rate.