"What will you do without freedom?"
Time to cut loose this post.
"Britain promises Scotland more self-rule if it rejects independence" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times September 08, 2014
LONDON — Shaken by polls showing momentum shifting toward independence for Scotland, the British government will offer proposals for greater political and fiscal autonomy for the Scots if they vote to remain within the United Kingdom in a referendum on Sept. 18, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said Sunday.
The narrowing polls have caused considerable anxiety among politicians and business leaders, driving down the value of the pound and raising questions among investors about the stability of the economy and the fate of the current British government.
The vote, which could end the 307-year union between Scotland and England, is also regarded as important to the future of the British prime minister, David Cameron.
As leader of what is still formally known as the Conservative and Unionist Party, Cameron, already facing internal divisions over Britain’s membership in the European Union, may not survive politically if Scotland votes to break away from the United Kingdom in a referendum that he negotiated with the Scottish National Party and its leader, Alex Salmond.
I really don't give a crap about the Zionist tool and EU imperialist Cameron and his political future.
On Sunday, Osborne, a close ally of Cameron’s, responded to the tightening race by promising more powers to Scotland if it votes no.
“More tax-raising powers, much greater fiscal autonomy,” Osborne told the BBC. “More control over public expenditure, more control over welfare rates, and a host of other changes.”
The plan will be revealed “in the next few days” after the government gets agreement from all three major parties in the British Parliament, including the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, Osborne said.
“Then Scotland will have the best of both worlds,” he said. “They will both avoid the risks of separation but have more control over their own destiny, which is where I think many Scots want to be.”
That position is sometimes known as “devo max,” or maximum devolution, an alternative that Cameron did not allow Salmond to put on the ballot. Instead, Cameron insisted on a simple yes or no vote for independence.
In return, he allowed Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, to extend the vote to ages 16 and over but limit it to those who are registered in Scotland, which excludes many Scots living and working elsewhere in Britain.
Salmond dismissed Osborne’s proposals on Sunday as “a panic measure.” Salmond’s deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, calling the new polls a “very significant moment” in the campaign, said the offer of new powers had come very late.
“I don’t think people are going to take this seriously,” she told Sky News. “If the other parties had been serious about more powers, then something concrete would have been put forward before now.”
That is what I wanted to type above.
Alistair Darling, the former Labour Cabinet minister who leads the “no” campaign, known as “Better Together,” said that the polls showed the referendum would “go down to the wire” but that his side would win.
The fix is in, 'eh? They got Diebold voting machines, too?
“We relish this battle,” he said. “It is not the Battle of Britain. It is the battle for Scotland, for Scotland’s children and grandchildren and the generations to come.”
The anxiety in Westminster has been building, and even Queen Elizabeth II, who is also queen of Scotland, was said by The Sunday Times of London to be worried about preserving the union of the two crowns, which dates back to 1603, a century before the political union.
Salmond has said she would remain monarch of an independent Scotland, but the queen — whose public stance is one of strict neutrality — was also reported to be concerned about what independence could mean for the self-governing Church of Scotland.
Business leaders are also taking the prospect of dissolution seriously.
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"Cameron pleads to keep Scotland part of the UK" by Karla Adam | Washington Post September 11, 2014
LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron made an impassioned plea on Wednesday to keep Scotland in the union and urged voters not to vote for separation just to give ‘‘effing Tories’’ a kick.
His speech came one week before Scots cast ballots to decide whether they will break away from the United Kingdom.
Arguably, he seemed on Wednesday to be trying to do what the unionist camp has been accused of failing at miserably so far: connect emotionally with Scottish voters.
After polls published this weekend showed that the outcome was too close to call, the leaders of all the main Westminster parties agreed to abandon Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday for emergency campaigning north of the border.
Sitting on a stool at Scottish Widow’s head office in Edinburgh, a glassy-eyed Cameron made an intimate and often emotional appeal to Scottish voters, telling them he’d be ‘‘heartbroken’’ if Scots decided to go it alone while stressing that the vote on Sept. 18 was ‘‘totally different’’ than a general election, where Scots may want to give the ‘‘effing Tories’’ a ‘‘kick.’’
Because Scottish wealth would be out of British hands.
‘‘This is a decision not about the next five years, it’s a decision about the next century,’’ he said.
The prime minister emphasized the union’s shared history, saying that the ‘‘family of nations’’ together had defeated Hitler, abolished slavery, and helped to build the beloved National Health Service. He also reiterated the stance of the three main Westminster parties that if they walk away, Scotland can’t use the pound.
He cited Hitler?
Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, framed the campaigning on Wednesday as ‘‘Team Scotland’’ vs. ‘‘Team Westminster.’’
‘‘What we’re seeing today on the other side is Team Westminster jetting up to Scotland for the day because they are panicking in the campaign,’’ he said.
It’s a gamble for Cameron, who could face calls to step down in the face of a ‘‘yes’’ vote for independence (although he insists he won’t resign and that he would be responsible for negotiating the breakup).
Cameron conceded that his Conservative party was unpopular in Scotland but said ‘‘I love my country more than I love my party.’’
Whether Scotland stays or goes, much will change after Sept. 18. If Scots reject independence, for instance, the three main Westminster parties have pledged new powers for Scotland’s devolved government.
If they vote to split, negotiations will commence on everything from the divvying up of debts and assets to what to do with Britain’s nuclear submarines.
That could bet messy.
As the race has tightened in recent days, former British prime ministers Gordon Brown and John Major have also stepped into the fray for the unionists’ cause.
I am sensing panic.
Writing in the Times of London, Major said: ‘‘We need one another and, if separated, would all face unwelcome and unanticipated change.’’
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What's next, a declaration of war to keep the United Kingdom together (like what the bad Serbs tried to do back in the 1990s)?
"Boy from UK hospitalized in Prague for tumor treatment" | Associated Press September 09, 2014
PRAGUE — A British boy who caused an uproar after being taken by his parents from a UK hospital without doctors’ consent landed in Prague on Monday to get treatment for his brain tumor.
Ashya King, 5, was flown on a medically equipped plane from the Spanish city of Malaga and admitted to Prague’s Motol hospital.
His parents, Brett and Naghmeh King, have fought a protracted battle to get their son treated with proton beam technology, which targets tumors more directly than radiotherapy but is not yet available for patients with brain tumors in Britain.
The parents were arrested by Spanish police after they took Ashya from a hospital in the English city of Southampton and traveled to Spain to sell an apartment they owned there to raise funds for the Czech treatment privately. They spend a night in jail in Malaga, but were released after British authorities canceled the arrest warrant.
The case has ignited a debate in Britain over children’s health rights....
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And worse yet, the tide of independence is spreading:
"With eye to Scotland, Catalans in Spain seek secession vote" by Joseph Wilson and Alan Clendenning | Associated Press September 12, 2014
BARCELONA — Hundreds of thousands of Catalans energized by Scotland’s upcoming independence referendum protested Thursday for a secession vote aimed at carving out a new Mediterranean nation in what is now northeastern Spain, showing how the Scottish vote in a week is captivating breakaway-minded Europeans from Barcelona to Spain’s Basque country, Belgium, and Italy.
And remember, the EU parliament went right-wing in the now-unmentioned elections last spring.
Sporting bright yellow and red shirts representing the colors of the Catalonian flag emblazoned with the phrase ‘‘Now is the time,’’ they shouted ‘‘Independencia!’’ and crowded two avenues that look like a ‘‘V’’ from the air to signal their desire for a Catalonia independence referendum that the central government in Madrid maintains would be illegal.
Just how many showed up was in dispute after the protest ended. Barcelona police said 1.8 million participated but the Spanish Interior Ministry’s regional office in Catalonia put the number at no more than 525,000, among them retired hospital director and economist Lluis Enric Florenca.
‘‘If the yes wins in Scotland, and it looks like it will be close, and Europe accepts it, they will accept Catalonia, which is bigger and in relation to Spain stronger than Scotland in relation to England,’’ said Florenca, 65. ‘‘Catalonia is potentially much more powerful.’’
Catalonia regional leader Artur Mas said his government is not wavering from plans to hold a Nov. 9 referendum in the region of 7.6 million people, though observers say any attempt is sure to be blocked by Spain’s Constitutional Court. Mas has repeatedly said he would not call an illegal vote.
‘‘This is a very powerful message we are sending to Europe and the world,’’ Mas said. ‘‘Now is the moment to sit down and negotiate the terms for the Catalan people to be able to express themselves at the polls.’’
Freedom!
And it is happening all over the planet. People want local control and for others to butt out. Enough centralized global structures and governments that have ruined the planet while making the designers obscenely rich.
Of course, the reverse is occurring in the Middle East after the Arab Springs.
Polls suggest Scotland’s independence vote on Sept. 18 is too close to call, and that has captivated a variety of groups in addition to Catalan separatists. They include pro-independence Basques in northern Spain; Corsicans who want to break away from France; Italians from several northern regions; and Flemish speakers in Belgium demanding more autonomy, independence, or union with the Netherlands.
Unlike the Scottish ballot, a vote in Catalonia would not result in secession. Mas’s proposed referendum would ask Catalans whether they favor secession. If the answer is yes, Mas says, that would give him a political mandate to negotiate a path toward independence.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain has vowed to block the vote because Spain’s constitution does not allow referendums that do not include all Spaniards, but Mas told reporters that would be a mistake.
‘‘The Catalan issue is one of the biggest issues the Spanish government is facing,’’ Mas said. ‘‘It is an error to try and solve this through legal means. Political problems are solved through politics, not with legal threats.’’
If Madrid refuses to allow an independence vote, a go-ahead by Mas could put him in perilous legal terrain. When the northern Basque region failed to obtain permission for a similar referendum in 2005, Spain said Basque leaders could face jail if they went ahead.
The next step for Mas comes the day after Scotland’s vote, when the Catalan Parliament is expected to approve a measure giving him the power to call a referendum. Rajoy’s government is then expected to ask Spain’s Constitutional Court to rule the vote illegal.
I guess votes for secession are only good for places like Kosovo and Sudan. Spain and Scotland more like Gaza and Kashmir.
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The odd thing about it all is the EUSraeli plan to balkanize the planet is coming back to bite them in the ass.
UPDATE: Scottish banks to move if independence is approved
Related: HSBC and Beyond
