The New UK Passport

It is a matter of extreme regret that British jobs will be lost following the decision to have the new post-Brexit UK passport printed abroad.

What is more difficult to understand is the hand-wringing of the Tories over both the colour and the printing of the UK passport abroad when a large section of their party are desperate to begin to engage in unfettered free trade with the whole of the world market and remove the very sort of job protection that might have saved those jobs.

As we exit the European Union we should prepare ourselves for British business to have to compete globally and losing contracts abroad to lower priced competitors is an intrinsic part of that process. It is inevitable that this will drive down British wages as the UK  tries to compete on cost in an unregulated market.

It makes for a very uncertain future for UK workers who will lose the protections the EU has imposed on employers and which the Tories condemn as 'red tape'.

Scottish Independence Referendum and the Westminster Parliament

I speak here for no-one but myself as usual.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about some of the questions raised by Westminster about the future of Scotland after the Independence Referendum, so let me try to give an answer to the Westminster Parliament to some of the key issues e.g
Will we join the European Union ?.

Will we join the Euro ?

Will we join Nato ?

Will we have our own currency or piggy-back on another?

Will we retain the Queen as head of state ? … and,

What will we do about an army ?

My answer is that it’s none of your bloody business. These are matters that will be decided by the people of Scotland after we are independent.  You will not bind us in advance to policies of your choosing. You are no longer our big brother looking after us and making sure we act in the best interests of the English parliament, we will not submit to your oversight and we will no longer answer to you on matters that are no concern of yours. Independence will be just what it says on the tin.

The political parties of Scotland will have an election and each will, no doubt, propose a different raft of policies, just as you do at Westminster, and for you to try to insist that a common raft of the most fundamental policies must be agreed in advance between all of the parties is supremely arrogant. These decisions are for the people of Scotland and for them alone. They may well have consequences for the rump of the UK but that should affect our decisions no more than the effect on the UK moderates the policies of your other neighbours such as France or Germany i.e. not at all.

So please stop interfering. You have many bigger problems which are much more demanding of your attentions, such as filling in your expenses.

European Union, the Lisbon Treaty and Ireland

I am reminded of a piece of advice regularly given to aspiring lawyers regarding cross-examination of witnesses. You should never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer.

The Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty only goes to prove that the same applies in politics.

Democracy is always a real problem for bureaucracies and dictatorships, and the E.U. is both. So as foreign ministers struggle to find a way to thwart the clearly expressed will of the Irish people we should really be asking ourselves why. The answer is, of course, that the E.U. and its past incarnations, have always put profit before people.

The Irish, even although the country has benefitted enormously from the E.U. has seen little of the benefit 'trickle down' to the ordinary people. Big business, especially big farms have flourished and the rich, as usual, get richer.

They, and we, should continue to reject the treaty until it addresses distribution of wealth as well as wealth creation, because in a zero sum game, if business benefits then ordinary people must be penalised, and with growth at only 2-3% it is effectively a zero sum game.