Billy Young's Blog - Posts Tagged "referendum"
30th August 2014
I've just been out picking blueberries and apples. I still have loads of berries still to pick but that is all the cooking apples off of the tree. I will need to think about pruning the tree as it is really getting very top heavy. I wish I could say the same for the eating apple tree. The apples on it are small under sized and scabby looking. I will need to try hard with spraying it next year to see if it will improve its growth. If that doesn't work I will need cut it down and replace it in. Though I may have to leave replacing it for a couple of years so the infection doesn't carry over to the new tree. I think I will need to do more research and hope I can save the tree I have.
Another debate between the leaders of both side in the referendum happened this week. This time it was a much better performance by Alex Salmond. Not only did he win the arguments but totally defeated Alistair Darling. I thought by the end of it that Darling was going to burst out crying. Of course he didn't but it did look like he was about to. Since the Yes campaign victory in the debate the No voters have been in full denial. They still demand a plan B on currency which Mr Salmond gave them three alternatives to a sterling zone as he wishes: Using the pound without an agreement as Panama uses the Dollar: Pegging a Scottish pound to Sterling as the Channel Islands do: Or having our own floating currency just like the Pound is at the moment. Three choices open to us if Westminster deny us Sterling. Of course by stopping us from having the pound then The UK government is liable to all of the debt that they have accrued on that monetary system. We as a new nation will not be liable as it won't be our money officially. Sadly most of the press are on the side of the union as they are English papers. This has led to many here listening to the smoke and mirrors of the No camp. Fear has been their biggest weapon but they don't like it when the Yes side has recently used similar. I think in the next few weeks it could become more heated than it has already. I hope not. I would love to see us all accept whatever the out come is on the 18th Sept and respect the decision by the people of our wonderful nation. Whatever that might be.
Another debate between the leaders of both side in the referendum happened this week. This time it was a much better performance by Alex Salmond. Not only did he win the arguments but totally defeated Alistair Darling. I thought by the end of it that Darling was going to burst out crying. Of course he didn't but it did look like he was about to. Since the Yes campaign victory in the debate the No voters have been in full denial. They still demand a plan B on currency which Mr Salmond gave them three alternatives to a sterling zone as he wishes: Using the pound without an agreement as Panama uses the Dollar: Pegging a Scottish pound to Sterling as the Channel Islands do: Or having our own floating currency just like the Pound is at the moment. Three choices open to us if Westminster deny us Sterling. Of course by stopping us from having the pound then The UK government is liable to all of the debt that they have accrued on that monetary system. We as a new nation will not be liable as it won't be our money officially. Sadly most of the press are on the side of the union as they are English papers. This has led to many here listening to the smoke and mirrors of the No camp. Fear has been their biggest weapon but they don't like it when the Yes side has recently used similar. I think in the next few weeks it could become more heated than it has already. I hope not. I would love to see us all accept whatever the out come is on the 18th Sept and respect the decision by the people of our wonderful nation. Whatever that might be.
6th September 2014
I was out picking some tomatoes today. We didn't get many this year plus those we did are on the very small side. This year has not been the greatest harvest from the garden though some crops have done well. Those being the blueberries and cooking apples. Strawberries, peas, potatoes and onions have all been not to bad but they could have been better. Really I shouldn't complain as at least we did manage to get a good crop from some things and though the growing season is coming to a close I still have some things to keep an eye on. The strawberries have begun sending out their runners which means weeding tomorrow. The parsnips are beginning to die back which means I will soon find out how well they have done this year. And I still have some more carrots still to pull. The last lot were delicious.
More scare stories are being put round by both side in the referendum debate. The yes side are claiming that the Scottish NHS may be under threat from cuts if there is a no vote. When you hear both side argue over this it makes you wonder as this is already a devolved issue. Yet at the same time the Westminster government has said their will be further cuts to the Scottish block grant. This in turn would lead to cuts but I am not sure that these would be made to the NHS. So what would we lose? Well earlier in the year Scottish labour did give a hint to what they would cut. Student fees would be introduced, free prescription done away with and the freeze on council tax abolished. At least that was what the leader of Scottish Labour claimed at the beginning of the year. These policies would hurt me very much in the pocket and Magz needs a lot of medicines as you know. Then both of my children are now going to college now. Plus the council tax is a struggle to pay as it is without a rise which the SNP have protected us from.
Of course a yes result in the referendum doesn't mean these things are any safer from Labour. And if it was left to the far right then we would be paying just to see the doctor as it was in the bad old days. I'd hate to see those days return.
Of course the no camp would have us all believe the world will stop spinning if we vote yes. That Westminster will demand all Scotland's money leaving us skint and then they will rebuild Hadrian's wall. The list of things we would not be able to do is laughable at best and embarrassing for them. If they had won the argument over money maybe I would have been more inclined to listen but they didn't because they believe we should be afraid of the future without the Westminster government to stand at our backs. I think I'm more afraid of the thought of them being at my back than them not. After all for most of my life I have seen the damage that has been brought to bare on society by their policies. Poll Tax, the closing of Ravenscraig, and more recently the bedroom tax. Westminster is out of touch with us north of the border ands much of the rest of the UK. Will a Yes to independence change that? Will bring a full government to Scotland with full powers make it more in touch with our need? Will it make us better off? I don't know but I think it is better than what the other side is offering, more of the same.
More scare stories are being put round by both side in the referendum debate. The yes side are claiming that the Scottish NHS may be under threat from cuts if there is a no vote. When you hear both side argue over this it makes you wonder as this is already a devolved issue. Yet at the same time the Westminster government has said their will be further cuts to the Scottish block grant. This in turn would lead to cuts but I am not sure that these would be made to the NHS. So what would we lose? Well earlier in the year Scottish labour did give a hint to what they would cut. Student fees would be introduced, free prescription done away with and the freeze on council tax abolished. At least that was what the leader of Scottish Labour claimed at the beginning of the year. These policies would hurt me very much in the pocket and Magz needs a lot of medicines as you know. Then both of my children are now going to college now. Plus the council tax is a struggle to pay as it is without a rise which the SNP have protected us from.
Of course a yes result in the referendum doesn't mean these things are any safer from Labour. And if it was left to the far right then we would be paying just to see the doctor as it was in the bad old days. I'd hate to see those days return.
Of course the no camp would have us all believe the world will stop spinning if we vote yes. That Westminster will demand all Scotland's money leaving us skint and then they will rebuild Hadrian's wall. The list of things we would not be able to do is laughable at best and embarrassing for them. If they had won the argument over money maybe I would have been more inclined to listen but they didn't because they believe we should be afraid of the future without the Westminster government to stand at our backs. I think I'm more afraid of the thought of them being at my back than them not. After all for most of my life I have seen the damage that has been brought to bare on society by their policies. Poll Tax, the closing of Ravenscraig, and more recently the bedroom tax. Westminster is out of touch with us north of the border ands much of the rest of the UK. Will a Yes to independence change that? Will bring a full government to Scotland with full powers make it more in touch with our need? Will it make us better off? I don't know but I think it is better than what the other side is offering, more of the same.
27th September 2014
I was out picking my eating apples today. Though they don't look great being covered in scabs, though not all of them, they aren't to bad. I got about a dozen apples in total. Not a lot I know but I do love apples. I have an apple every day at work so these should save Magz buying them for a couple of weeks which is a good thing considering the cost of everything these days. I unfortunately lost the pumpkin that was growing. I noticed that is was rotting on top when checking on it today. I'm beginning to think growing pumpkins isn't a great idea if you are doing it in tubs. I will need to think of some other way to grow them. Maybe a grow bag as I have for the tomatoes. Speaking of which I am now getting a nice little crop from them now. They have taken their time to give us much and though we aren't getting as many as previous years it is still a nice number. There are more blueberries to be picked tomorrow as well. Magz has already made two crumbles with apples chunks and blueberries. They went brilliantly with custard and I'm now hoping she makes muffins with some of the berries that are left. That will also leave enough for a nice pie to go with more custard. I do love cake and custard, yummy.
Things are slowly dying down after the referendum. I am still get the mick taken out of me by Ross at work. He voted no and thinks reminding me of how we are better together as he knows I was for the yes camp. It is all in good fun though which does help us all get over the passions that was raised during the long campaign, especially towards the end when things began to become more heated. The disappointment that I feel is slowly being replaced with the acceptance of the situation. We as a nation just aren't ready to be a member of the grown up world of nations. We would rather blame Westminster for all our troubles than take the responsibility for it ourselves. Or at least that is how I imagine the world see us now. Then again I am biased in my thinking and maybe that isn't so much how the world sees us but rather how I see Scotland now.
Things are slowly dying down after the referendum. I am still get the mick taken out of me by Ross at work. He voted no and thinks reminding me of how we are better together as he knows I was for the yes camp. It is all in good fun though which does help us all get over the passions that was raised during the long campaign, especially towards the end when things began to become more heated. The disappointment that I feel is slowly being replaced with the acceptance of the situation. We as a nation just aren't ready to be a member of the grown up world of nations. We would rather blame Westminster for all our troubles than take the responsibility for it ourselves. Or at least that is how I imagine the world see us now. Then again I am biased in my thinking and maybe that isn't so much how the world sees us but rather how I see Scotland now.
22nd November 2014
I finally got the work for my son out of the way. Though he was out with friends again last weekend it wasn't all night. I was surprised to see him coming home just after midnight but it did mean he wasn't catching up on sleep the next day. It wasn't a big job so I had his guitars hanging from his walls in no time. Well it is often the case the small jobs seem to be put off for ages then you wonder why when it took so little of your time in the end.
Elite has reached the Gamma stage of development today. I look forward to see how it plays after the failure, for me, of the last beta. I found beta 3.91 was unplayable due to not being able to leave Super Cruise which you need to traverse the large distances in a star system. That meant I had to quit and re-enter the game but had the adverse effect of leaving me up to half an hour of travelling before I reached the station I was heading to. That was half an hour of sitting doing nothing other than watching numbers on the screen descending as the distance closed. Not much fun. Hopefully I won't have that problem tonight.
Reading the paper at work this week I saw that the Westminster government is already preparing the way on going back on the pledge they made. That was where they promised more powers for the Scottish government if people voted no in the referendum on independence. It hasn't taken them to long to begin to set the ground work for breaking "the pledge." Well we can't say that we who supported independence did expect it. Sadly when we said that this would happen the media drowned us out. That was one of the sad parts of the whole debate that the media was almost completely for the status quo. It was so bad that I felt angered by some of the lies that were told in the tabloids of what would happen if the "yes" camp won. If I had believed the rubbish that was spouted I would have had visions of Scotland being thrown into a dark age. Our lights would have went out and we'd be left eating grass because we wouldn't have any money in the whole country. Yeah madness but many fell for this type of scare story that the "no" camp spread.
Strangely when we told people not to believe Westminster it was us that weren't believed. Well now we see who the real liars are.
Elite has reached the Gamma stage of development today. I look forward to see how it plays after the failure, for me, of the last beta. I found beta 3.91 was unplayable due to not being able to leave Super Cruise which you need to traverse the large distances in a star system. That meant I had to quit and re-enter the game but had the adverse effect of leaving me up to half an hour of travelling before I reached the station I was heading to. That was half an hour of sitting doing nothing other than watching numbers on the screen descending as the distance closed. Not much fun. Hopefully I won't have that problem tonight.
Reading the paper at work this week I saw that the Westminster government is already preparing the way on going back on the pledge they made. That was where they promised more powers for the Scottish government if people voted no in the referendum on independence. It hasn't taken them to long to begin to set the ground work for breaking "the pledge." Well we can't say that we who supported independence did expect it. Sadly when we said that this would happen the media drowned us out. That was one of the sad parts of the whole debate that the media was almost completely for the status quo. It was so bad that I felt angered by some of the lies that were told in the tabloids of what would happen if the "yes" camp won. If I had believed the rubbish that was spouted I would have had visions of Scotland being thrown into a dark age. Our lights would have went out and we'd be left eating grass because we wouldn't have any money in the whole country. Yeah madness but many fell for this type of scare story that the "no" camp spread.
Strangely when we told people not to believe Westminster it was us that weren't believed. Well now we see who the real liars are.
