25 January 2012
The other major item occupying much media space is the question of independence for Scotland.. The Scottish Nationalists are seeking a referendum on the topic but want to wait as long as possible in order to persuade the populace to vote for it, whereas the Tories are keen to get on and hold it sooner rather than later and seem fairly confident that they will get a resounding no vote as they did before. The SNP are being quite canny and are floating the idea about as to whether or not they should lower the voting age to 16. The usual arguments are made about 16-year-olds being able to marry and have children and so on, and therefore they should be entitled to vote. I don’t think there’s much doubt that if they did lower the voting age. most of the youngsters would probably vote for independence without giving them much thought to the ramifications but free University in Scotland against up to £9000 a year in England, could sway a great number of youngsters in favour, who would be affected by the significance of a substantial post-university debt.
Personally, I think it will be a backward step. ‘United we stand’. I think it will be a backward step and there would be many complications, not the least of which, after much wrangling as to the wording of the referendum itself, would be who would owned the North Sea oil and gas. Leaving that out of the equation I’m not certain that Scotland could stand on its feet financially, certainly not in defence terms.. The union has worked perfectly well since James IV of Scotland- an avid Protestant -became James I of England, 1603.’, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Fpart from being the first king of Great Britain, ‘he is best remembered for the James IV Bible which is still used throughout the kingdom today. I am for the status quo
Of course, scarcely a day goes by when the economy does not raise its ugly head. Today, it was disclosed that in the last quarter of 2011 our GDP was a negative .0.2%. I cannot remember how long ago it was that we went into negative growth (if that doesn’t sound like a contradiction in terms) but this must be viewed, in the light of the Chancellor of the Exchequer forecast of 2.6% growth last year and a 2.8% growth for this current year, neither of, which, of course, will be achieved.
Now the ‘Bears'(a stock exchange expression for those who believe things will get worse) are mumbling about a ‘double dip’ recession. In other words, the stock market having hit a bottom once and bounced back, will sink once more to a similar bottom before bouncing back yet again. 2009 was supposed to be the worst year of this current recession which the pessimists believe might be repeated.
On the personal front, things seem to be going ahead very smoothly for my dear mother-in-law’s Memorial Service, in Wales -a service to celebrate her long life and the many fields in which she was involved and played a part.. I am extremely sorry that I shall not be able to be there myself in the flesh but I shall certainly be with them in the spirit. The big problem not being so much the travelling there and back-which we could do with Ollie-but the overnight stop in houses with steps which were not designed for the disabled, plus the lack of hoisting equipment which we now rely upon very heavily
The Dragon people have actually come back, for the first time in six months, with a positive suggestion to try to resolve my problem. I shall follow this through today and see how I get on.
Click here  for a typical example of the unromantic husband.