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Sunday 23 October 2011

Alex Salmond and Isabel Fraser: Independence - The Question(s)?

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18 comments:

  1. StevieSunday, October 23, 2011

    http://www.snp.org/blog/post/2011/oct/angus-robertson-roadmap-independence-speech

    Angus Robertson's speech announcing the independence campaign is started.

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  2. moriduraalt.blogspot.comSunday, October 23, 2011

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. AnonymousSunday, October 23, 2011

    Isobel Fraser is far too intelligent not to understand that Devo Max (or whatever) has to be defined and offered by Westminster and their adhering parties.

    So why doesn't she get it.

    She surely can't believe that the Maximum Eck will define Westminster's position for her?

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  4. moriduraalt.blogspot.comSunday, October 23, 2011

    I ma sure YOU are far too intelligent, Lupus Incomitatus to believe that the best media interviewers pose questions driven by ignorance or personal views.

    Their job is to elicit answers from politicians to inform their viewers, and in this they act as devil's advocate, and will ask different questions of politicians from a different party.

    Alex Salmond understands this perfectly well - as a master politician, he welcomes the opportunity given to clarify and expound on his policies.

    Isabel Fraser is an interviewer of the highest calibre, and understands in a fundamental way the nature of question types and question framing.

    That is not to say that bias, and indeed, gross incompetence does not exist among some metropolitian media interviewers, and there have been egregious examples of this.

    The purpose of an effective interviewer is not massage my political preferences or yours - it is to get the powerful to speak the truth - or be seen to evade it. Isabel Fraser exemplifies - and I have to say most Scottish media interviewers exhibit - this approach.

    If you want to see what happens to truth - and democracy - when an entire television channel and ALL of its interviewers are there to act as tame feeds to politicians, watch any Fox News broadcast. That is the real horror that lies in wait when truth and journalistic standards fly oot the windae ...

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  5. AnonymousSunday, October 23, 2011

    Can you clear this up for me , why does Scotland have to take a percentage of the UK debt . Has one country ever taken another countries debt .

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  6. StevieSunday, October 23, 2011

    I thought she was fair and even friendly to the First Minister.

    She's been far more open and less aggressive since she interviewed Richard Baker and was angered by the blatant insulting stupidity of his responses to the Labour's knife crime 'policy' and the ludicrous financial figures the Labour party had in effect made up.

    She even wanted to laugh at Salmond's joke at the end of the interview.

    I may be imagining that but that's what I think from what I see.

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  7. moriduraalt.blogspot.comSunday, October 23, 2011

    I have no idea, Trickster. All I know is that I want Scotland to exit clean from the UK and honour its obligations if it has any.

    We have come this far by being honourable, and I want to see the Union end with honour. But that doesn't preclude negotiation.

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  8. Angus McLellanSunday, October 23, 2011

    I think that most people would accept, on reflection, that an equitable division of assets and liabilities would be more or less reasonable. After all, that's what the Czechs and Slovaks did. It's also what the as yet unratified 1983 Vienna Convention on the subject proposed when a country disappears, creating two (or more) new ones.

    The convention text here, with article 41 on page 14 being the relevant one.

    There is a "but". That was the Czech-Slovak situation, but the breakup of the USSR was different. Then Russia became the successor to the USSR in international law, complete with recognition as a nuclear power and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

    That situation isn't covered by article 41 but by article 38, which begins: "When the successor state is a newly independent state" - that was the case for all ex-Soviet states but Russia and is Westminster's view of a future independent Scotland's situation - "no debt of the predecessor state shall pass to the newly independent state, unless ...".

    So, as usual, there's no simple answer. It seems like Westminster wants to have its cake and eat it too. What a surprise!

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  9. AnonymousMonday, October 24, 2011

    A clean exit would be good , but will Westminster see things the same way ?

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  10. BarontorcMonday, October 24, 2011

    What a refreshing and hopeful change in approach to this interview - no hectoring, time allowed to answer in full, yet the evidence that a sharp curtailment would come, if going over the score.

    I actually, trading warily, think we're coming to be a rather civilised society. Now, what will we do with Brillo, Paxo and Brewster?

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  11. moriduraalt.blogspot.comMonday, October 24, 2011

    Brillo and Paxo will continue as the shrunken voices of UK Minus, Barontorc.

    I hope we retain Gordon Brewer in a new, revitalised BBC Scotland. Stylistically, he's differenr for Isabel, but by and large, I think he's professional - and unbiased.

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  12. moriduraalt.blogspot.comMonday, October 24, 2011

    That is a very useful and pertinent contribution to the debate, Angus, and thanks for the link, reproduced here

    Vienna Convention on Succession of states

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  13. AnonymousMonday, October 24, 2011

    Thanks Angus

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  14. moriduraalt.blogspot.comMonday, October 24, 2011

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. moriduraalt.blogspot.comMonday, October 24, 2011

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. StevieMonday, October 24, 2011

    Debt - okay and not okay.

    We should work out from 1707 till today who owes who what sum of money.

    We have been underfunded and overtaxed for most of that time till the creation of social services following WWII.

    The oil revenue from the 1970s till today should be counted up noting well that till devolution we were underfunded.

    After that we can negotiate.

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  17. StevieMonday, October 24, 2011

    Stephen Noon's blog on debt following Moore's announcement.

    http://stephennoon.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-scotland-office-boomerang.html

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  18. cynicalHighlanderMonday, October 24, 2011

    Now, what will we do with Brillo, Paxo and Brewster?

    Scrub it, eat it and drink it.

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