Nicola Sturgeon wants to try a Citizens Assembly to set the future of the country.
Widely reported but here it is in the Speccy
The idea is to bring together 120 randomly-selected Scots to ruminate on the future of the nation…each member will get £1,200 plus expenses for six weekends’ work
So, 12 days work, £100 a day. Equivalent to £25k a year, a bit less what with being weekend work. Pretty much average wage then. Plus weekends, so childcare likely to be a problem.
So anyone over average wage is not going to be keen. Anyone with family commitments is likely to find it harder to do. Average age to start a family and get that childcare headache is mid 30’s.
Now let’s consider the demographics of who voted for Scotland to Leave in 2015. Here from the highly reliable Beeb. Low income Predominantly Leave, under 40 Predominantly Leave.
I mean they haven’t actually excluded retirees, but maybe they should as it’s “Scotlands’ Future”. That aside, this is a blatant way of fiddling the selection process to ensure they get predominantly ScotIndy voters.
NB: No objection here if the Scottish genuinely want to leave the Union – think it’s the wrong choice but theirs to make not ours. However subtly fiddling the survey panel and questions to get the desired answer should be fine art, and this is frankly shonky work.
The language we use matters - it provides clarity to our own thoughts and enables…
It is now generally acknowledged that the structure of the NHS needs to be overhauled…
In the film Apollo 13, a loss of oxygen causes the crew to start inadvertently…
There's an idea out there which seems intuitive but then so many ideas do seem…
When we think about the darkly opaque goals of modern central bankers as they relate…
As the papers recently filled with the distressing images of desperate souls looking to escape…
View Comments
Or just look at the comments section of any media outlet, or social media - it's not as if people don't ever give their opinions on stuff is it?
The best way for the SNP to get their way is to convince the cash cow (English) to vote them out of the union. Not many who would weep for the loss of the Porridge Wogs.
Why should it only be the Scots who get to decide? If they are allowed a vote whether to be in a Union with the rest of us, why shouldn't the rest of us get to decide if we want to be in a Union with them?
This automatic acceptance that the Scots are the only people who decide to join - as they did in 1707 - and the only people to decide if they stay is unacceptable to those of us wanting equality among the nations in the United Kingdom. It also continually sends the false signal to everyone that the rest of the Union are desperate to keep Scotland as part of the UK. On this point, I am unconvinced.
‘...120 randomly-selected Scots to ruminate on the future of the nation...’
So it won’t just be about Scottish independence but about governance, welfare, taxation.
‘ Low income Predominantly Leave, under 40 Predominantly Leave.’
So the loser group, who want lots of free stuff paid for by rich and older people who have stolen their prosperity - right up the SNP’s Socialist street.
Scotland needs to leave (England needs Scotland to leave) so there can be a real time comparative study, a Socialist (done right this time of course) Scotland and a (what’s left of) free market capitalist England.
In the aftermath of Labour, and now years of Socialist Conservatism, little remains of free market capitalism on the island, but perhaps a Scottish Venezuela will focus Sassanach minds.