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t_mike

Listed below are comments made by t_mike between Monday, 27th October 2008 and Friday, 21st November 2008.

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Not 'if', but 'when' 2:15pm on 21 Nov 2008 #30 Oldnat - Brilliant - As a former East Lothianite who saw the transition from Home-Robertson (Labour but OK) to Moffat (silent bouffant tory automaton living in the wrong decade), I always presumed the reason she never contributed to any discussions was that she was too busy taking the train to/from Heathrow. Now I discover that she spends her days on the BBC website being rude to people.

Expat - on yer bike. One by-election does not a recovery make. Like the rest of new labour you pretend to listen, you just don't really know how.

The issue here is labour's disasterous image-led top down policy that led to massive PFI building with no funding or infrastructure to support it, run by people with no power, who rapidly lose interest in their jobs. My gran has been in and out of the ERI and it is a total shambles.

Whichever way you look at it, labour is totally stuffed. To say that it isn't is like being an enthusiastic tory in 1992. It's sooner or later, and then right back out to political oblivion. GB and TB have been so terrified of any coherent opposition for so long that they have demolished anyone capable of standing up to them. The labour party in Scotland is a joke, still feeling the outrage of the proles having booted them out. Until that changes, and it won't soon, they are on the decline, however steep or shallow that may be.
Having it both ways 4:10pm on 19 Nov 2008 #111/#113 - I believe he is referring to good old fashioned Scottish manners.

You've obviously been an Expat for too long.
Having it both ways 2:18pm on 19 Nov 2008 # 95 Anglophone - Thanks for the response. You are suggesting his point is retrospective but he says

"What could Scotland do with a ?2bn a year share of that windfall?"

surely you are as confused as I am? How is he suggesting we get our hands on this money?

# 98 Reluctant Expat - When you get tired of patronising other posters maybe you can come up with a list of 10 politicians in the UK today who are more capable that Salmond.

Bluelaw - An emerging independent nation from within the EU is without precedent and would not pass quietly.

"if Scotland took the decision not to be in the EU then that would be ours alone and no-one would have made that decision for us."

What is this, 1995? This is the kind of Jingoistic nonsense that gives nats a bad name.
Having it both ways 12:35pm on 19 Nov 2008 88 - absolutely - give me alex over any other UK politician any day of the week. I do think he should cut down on the pies though as it would be a shame to lose him early. Mind you, I feel the same about the BBC Scotland Political Editor...
Having it both ways 12:33pm on 19 Nov 2008 #75 - Within the EU, wealthy areas provide funding to poorer areas. So, you have to ask yourself, what is Ireland doing that we aren't?

Surely by highlighting how much more money we should have had by comparison you are making the case that an independent Scotland would get more EU loot? And that's got to be a good thing.
Having it both ways 08:54am on 19 Nov 2008 #61 - I'm a card-carrying nat and I recognise all that... there is no point in denying that Scotland faces real problems, which all the west-coast style confrontational denials in the world cannot erase.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing - given there's at least a reasonable chance that the EU will be uneasy about an independent Scotland (it would give a precedent to every other breakaway region and spark up heated debate at the very least in the Basque country, Corsica, Flanders, Milan etc., even the Cornish would be enthused), why don't we give old fashioned protectionism a go? Scotland is a small enough country to try to operate in a close to self sufficient capacity with high tariffs on imports. Couple this with more relaxed immigration and we could see a real boom in farming and manufacturing.

This is unlikely I know, but I would be interested to hear why it wouldn't work. I certainly don't think it's any more stupid than bankrolling the financial sector.

Hmmm, while I'm on the subject, is there any reason the Government didn't just say "To Hell with the shareholders and senior management!", close all nationalised banks to new business and raise/lower interest rates to pressure existing customers to look elsewhere for business?
Divisive alarms 1:29pm on 17 Nov 2008 Surely the Clintons are a spent force in American politics? Hillary gave away just how venomous she could be during the primaries and looks more than a little tarnished, and Bill seems increasing unpredictable, a distraction in the background with a dubious past. Hillary's defeat was the perfect opportunity to bury them both, so why seek to bring them back in?

Less of this raking up of Dean, Kerry, Clinton, Emanuel - surely some new blood would be a good thing at the whitehouse, something which Obama attracts very well. He has the political capital, and for the moment is accountable to no one, so a few new faces wouldn't go amiss.

It's exciting to read how many people link
1) the abilities of Bill with Hillary (one has charisma)
2) what hillary is likely to be able to bring to State with Bill's foreign policies (surely very different roles in very different times)
3) the policies of america and their influence on the world. (the stability of the clinton era had a lot to do with the collapse of communism, and I certainly agree that bill should have resolved afganistan, iraq etc while it could still be done peacefully)

also hillary has spoken openly of "obliterating" a country which poses no threat to america. awesome qualification for the international face of america.
'Addicted' to Warcraft? 10:49am on 13 Nov 2008 I played a variety of games throughout my teenage years and at university. During my final year I bought World of Warcraft on the day it came out.

The issue of games addiction is one I have real uncertainties about. I play computer games on and off, usually for a couple of hours two or three times a week. On occasion, having just bought a new game or rediscovering an old one, I have played for whole days, sometimes til four or five in the morning, sometimes for a week or so. Many people I know who play games casually show similar behavioural patterns.

Those who play these games are generally intelligent enough to make the obvious comparisions with TV or drinking in the pub - surely no less futile - yet the doubt I have about this argument is that, presuming you recognise both to be fairly futile, why not do something more productive? I certainly feel every so often that if I had made better use of the time I spent gaming I could have learned a new skill or maybe not had so many mornings half asleep at school.

World of Warcraft is unique in its popularity, reasonably so in its online social capacity, but not unique for it's addictiveness. The real challenge is that it is so colossal in size that the addictiveness - usually resolved by completing the game - is long term. As it is a subscription rather than flat fee game it is in the manufacturer's interest to draw out the experience for as long as possible.

There are countless arguments against treating moderate to heavy gaming as an addiction - the relief of drudgery, online friends, harmlessness etc. I just can't help but feel there is a bit more to life than this.
The ultimate sacrifice 4:20pm on 11 Nov 2008 I'm never sure where this notion of people defending freedoms comes from. I don't say this to mock those who are rightly remembered but because I believe it to be of high political importance - certainly during the build up to Iraq we were told not to criticise lest we dishonour the troops, lowering their morale. It was seen as wrong to suggest that they were not defending our freedoms.

With the exception of WWII I don't see where this defence of our freedom comes from. It certainly wasn't there in WWI. Do they mean Britain's freedom, or mine? There seems to be this curious notion that freedom of speech and war are somehow connected, but surely that is a progressive principle of liberty which the army has done more to suppress (through the centuries and in the name of the crown) than any other national institution?

I agree with the previous posts, that those who fought grimly against probable invasion in the darkest days of World War 2 were a different breed from the volunteers of WW1 or today's career soldiers. When I think of the cenotaph, and of the poppy wreaths, I think three things. Firstly, I consider my unwavering contempt for the social constructs which pushed so many young men off to France in the First World War, and promise myself I will never fall victim to that kind of jingoistic nonsense. Secondly, I think of the true bravery of those who stood up to the Nazis in the face of near certain defeat to protect their homelands and families. Thirdly, I think of the cynical exploitation of the day by media, by politicians, and by all the others who turn the 11th of November into an oddly militaristic victory parade, seeking another generation to sacrifice. They look sad and say never again, but they still send our boys and girls half way round the world, and look the other way while the UK exports a billion dollars worth of weapons every year to kill somebody else's boys and girls.

Let's hope greater independence for Scotland leads us to become a country less inspired to get involved in other people's wars.

A day for sadness and hope.
Entertaining tax changes 1:20pm on 27 Oct 2008 Brian,

I for one have no reservations about the theatre reports, although you could pick productions that the rest of us have some chance of seeing! It's good to read your opinion on other matters, certainly when I saw you host Louis de Bernieres at the Edinburgh Book Festival there was hints of a great cultural mind at work. If that sounds like shameless flattery, that's because it is - I want to hear more about these recipes!

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