General Chat

Would giving Ex Pat Scots the vote be akin to giving Ex Pat Brits a vote :-D :-D

Caroline - not seems but has. Too many ill informed generalizations methinks :-D

Aaaah just woken from my senile nap.

Thank you for your threat Rollo. It's always most interesting to see how a direct quote causes you to answer a challenge to your quoted 'facts ' whereas,by default, the usual option is to ignore any counter :-D

Von it's none of my business what you may have lost so yes I generalised, it's not to say you didn't lose out.

Okay lets be fair....let's assume Scotland does separate from the rest of the UK and applies to join the EU....how will they finance themselves for the long period it will take to even be considered ? I assume they're expecting monies from the EU in the long run, so how will they keep taxes at the same level or lower than now, whilst keeping all the services in place that they are used to. Any supposed new car industry will be years in the making as will any other big new industry....wind farms aren't built over night so no monies or power from there right away.
Are they expecting the rest of the UK to carry on paying their bills whilst they wait to see if they can join the EU?

Oddly enough Caroline I wonder the same thing about the UK.
As business with the EU drops off and foreign investment falls how long will it take for Liam Fox export dept to kick in? Apart from spending a lot on offices and travel not much to show. Ads on Classic Fm and Alibi "open your exporter self, you know you want To" is a bit desperate.

No G20 member depends on WTO rules for their trade. All have bilateral agreements of varying complexity which also cover standards. The UK depends on EU trade agreements with other countries for about half of non EU trade. such agreements take around 7 years with a range of 4 to 14 years.

Fwiw all non-defence major UK earners of foreign exchange are also foreign owned. No wonder Hammond is battening down the hatches.

It is precisely because of cash flow that the SNP want to be inside the SM and CU asap. it would be put in the queue for EU membership which could be done in 3 years.

Renault took 6 months to move a factory from France to e Europe.

Caroline, I cannot see that it's feasible.

Scotland's one ace card is closing Faslane but that surely is a case of 'cut off nose to spite face'.

Oh Rollo...the EU themselves say it will take much longer than that, if they're allowed to join after that wait it wouldn't be overnight still so a fair guess would be more like ten years IF they get allowed in.

As for car factory....LOL please Rollo....if you can start a car factory up from scratch in Scotland in 6 months I'd love to know how...here's a few of the possible problems
Planning permission.......even a separate Scotland isn't going to want to build a factory where it's not wanted...so there's more than 6 months to start with.
Skilled work force.....even the lowest of the low need to know how to do the job there's months to recruit and train.
Build the actual factory...well again to actually build the whole place could not take less than 6 months try more than a year......and the labour force will cost more and you can't work all hours the unions will not allow that...not sure if unions were a big problem in Eastern Europe
Do I really need to go on....seriously 6 months to build and start producing and making enough money to finance the country......you're having a laugh Rollo....

Nissan took 2 years from a greenfield site in Sunderland to autos rolling off the line.
Renault, fed up with high costs and recalcitrant unions, ripped up the production line for a budget model and shifted it to an existing plant in Romania in 6 months. Productivity in France improved no end.

the EU can provide various kinds of funding to non members, usually poor countries and aspiring mrmbers. Turkey has done well out of this. FORD moved its Transit van plant to take advantage. Renault moving Astra production to Scotland with EU grants is perfectly feasable. True would not go down well in Liverpool.

Nonetheless Scotland would have to shape up a whole lot to make indepence work. however the writing is on the wall for the current levels of block grant anyway so they will have to get used to change either way. Having spent some time in Dundee, Penecuik and Hawick my reading is that older Scots (40) are not that keen and pensioners mostly against. The younger generations are far more inclined to give it a go. The old are also hostile to immigration.

Sturgeon's chances rest largely on May's perceived arrogance. Mayhem can get away with this in London so long as she looks like bringing home the bacon. Crashed talks and May would be out on her ear and hard brexit would be rapidly replaced with brexit light, CU and SM. Sturgeon's chances of winning a referendum would be gone too which is why she wants an early date.

Rollo you change the story as you go along.....you said the factory was in Slovakia now it's Romania. Let's pretend someone does want to move a factory to Scotland from wherever.....and let's pretend there's already an actual factory sitting waiting for something to go in there and it's all tiptop no repairs needed etc.....why would they move to Scotland ...well there would be a willing work force one would assume...BUT...would they want to pay the wages that would be expected in Scotland or would they want to pay wages that would be expected in lets say Romania or Slovakia or............companies move to countries where they can get the biggest profit and that's usually at the expenses of wages and work conditions.

Can't wait to see the New Scotland with these as their visions...... :-D

Edit....and Rollo you said it could be up and running from scratch in 6 months now 2 years...no way you can go from greenfield to fully running with all planning permission etc etc.

I am going down the pub now to have a drink with my Scottish mate. I will wind him up talking about the Six Nations.

See Bob that's the sort of behaviour they think means the Brits hate them :-D :-D

Make him buy you a double first though.

Winding Jocks up over their rugby team ( that's what they call it) is good fun and last Sat is good for another 40 years. or was it 40 points I had a dram or two afterwards.

The mother load is winding up the Welsh. I was once married to a very pretty girl from Pontypridd but the stars were against us in the shape of Mil a firebrand socialist teacher who hated the English. Didn't stop her living in Richmond tho. I got blamed for everything from Aberfan to Organ Morgan.

The Irish can take a loss here and there even to the English 'cos they know they are the best and anyway rugby is for softies real hard men play Gaelic Football.

Llareggub

Nissan. On their Web site, claim that the first autos came off the line at Sunderland two years after turning the first sod. I was half the world away so couldn't confirm it. A Qashquai is the last thing I'd drive though. Enzo Ferrarri faced with criticism of his cars' brakes riposted that his cars were built to go not to stop. He was right. Anybody complaining that the EU is overly bureaucratic should consider that real cars are still built. OZ has given up while the Americans depend on renovating their old muscle cars and pretending to be Clint Eastwood.

Although it has been alleged that I spend all my time googling stuff to post here the reality is that I rely on my memory and improve on the facts as and when the opportunity presents itself.

This might be difficult for brexiters who live in the world of alternative facts such as Mayhem's use of the political concept "close consultation". Apparently this means a royal progress around the Celtic fringes in red, white and blue. she should stick to what suits her snakeskin and black leather trousers.

I thought that a fact is a thing that is known or proved to be true.

How can you improve it?

Oh dear RR'd again, never mind the post has been copied to another site for all to see what Rollo is really like.

Perhaps he would like to make an apology for his crass, hurtful comment.

I missed it...literally off for an hour what happened !!!

But to address something Rolo said......IF they took two years from turning the first sod...that still doesn't include the planning etc before hand....

Sorry, have to lower the high-flautin' tone here.
Quote from Rollo:

"the reality is that I rely on my memory and improve on the facts as and when the opportunity presents itself".

...or make things up that in your mind are true, based on your assumptions and (therefore) to your mind possibly factual, but you don't really know, however will state them anyway as 'fact' - especially if it makes you appear 'better'/more 'informed' / of a 'higher intelligence' than them, for example, personal comments you've made about members of this site that were/are total Bullsh*te, and very far from the mark.


Edit: Glad to see your carpal tunnel syndrome/broken finger/amputated hand is better.

I really do have to equate the Scottish separatists with the Quebec separatistes of some years ago (but now lying low) ............

Just replace England/London for every mention of Canada/Ottawa


We must separate from those who are oppressing us.

We can and will do better as an independent country

Oh, by the way ..............

We will still receive all inter-provincial payments from Ottawa after separation as we did before

We will continue to use Canadian dollars, issued by the Canadian Mint (in Winnipeg)

We will continue to use passports issued by Canada but under the name of Quebec

We will have our borders defended by the Canadian Military, as and when needed.

The Canadian Border Services will still be responsible for all immigration inspections at all international airports and other ports of entry into Quebec

We will increase taxes on all companies with head offices in Quebec and doing business with Canada

We will become a purely French-speaking country in North America, with the aid of Canada

All education in Quebec will be in French, there will be no English school boards or universities



Oh, and by the way ........

............. no part of Quebec will be allowed to separate from Quebec. This latter condition arising after a First Nations nation declared its members did not wish to secede from Canada, and therefore their territory in northern Quebec would separate from Quebec and remain in Canada.



No wonder head offices of many companies moved from Montreal to Toronto at the height of separatism in the 1990s.