Manifesto for an independent Scotland

All of us in favour of an independent Scotland have differing views of what we would like the future of Scotland to look like.

I have to admit that as I get older and maybe wiser I seem to move more to the left, or is it that the world has moved to the right?

So here is my personal manifesto for what I would like to see in an Independent Scotland.  I must stress this is my personal view and not that of any political party.

1.       A Written constitution

2.       Education

A.      Access to Education guarantee, free from nursery to university for all citizens.

B.      Encourage Educators to move away from “academic skills are the only skills that matter” mind set to encouraging children to develop skills that suit their aptitude and their future wishes for life, be that in Academic,  Trade Apprentice,  Professional training or the Arts and creative, Education must train for the country’s needs but also the wishes and desires of the Pupils for the future

3.       Housing.

A.      A free market in the private housing sector,

B.      Social housing at an affordable price for those that need it.

4.       Environment and Green Policy’s

A.      Encourage recycling and reuse schemes

B.      More green energy with government support for research into wave power

C.      Local councils to add solar power to social housing stock, this will reduce energy bills of poorest households and increase amount of green generation.

D.      Government to fund improvements to insulation standards of general housing stock via improved loft and wall insulation and upgrade of windows to triple glazing, banning installation of single or double glazing.

5.       Nationalisation

A.      Water, Energy, and public transport to be nationalised as they are essential public services which should be protected for the common good.

6.       Defence and armed forces

A.      Armed forces should be for defence only and not used for any other purpose apart from humanitarian rescue and relief operations,  unless under the command of United Nations.

B.      No Nuclear weapons on Scottish soil

7.       Foreign Relations

A.      Ethical foreign policy

B.      Membership of UN

C.      Membership of EU

D.      Membership of NATO

E.       Membership of commonwealth

F.       Membership of any alliance that it is in Scottish interests

8.       Health Service

A.      No privatisation of NHS and no sub-contracting of services with the NHS unless unable to be provided at reasonable cost in house

9.       Justice

A.      Return of double jeopardy protection and corroboration in criminal trials in general

B.      A review lead by legal experts to decide if a lesser burden of proof is needed to ensure justice for victims of crimes where corroboration is not possible due to the nature of the crime.

10.   Employment

A.      A Decent minimum wage, this should be tied to match the best in EU so that all workers in Scotland get a decent level of income

B.      Repeal of the worst anti trade union laws and a constructional Guarantee of the right to belong to a trade union and the right to strike

C.      Outlaw zero hours contracts

D.      Decent employment protections laws

E.       Genuine training schemes for all, no matter age or skill level, meaning that those leaving school can get apprenticeship’s or other skills training and those who wish to change existing career or trade can do so at any time during working life.

11.   Immigration

A.      The system of immigration controls should be examined and a fair and equitable system introduced, with the emphasis on taking a humane view and treating each case on merit not on fixed inflexible rules

12.   Broadcasting

A.       Keep the system of public service and commercial broadcasting as at present with a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation to replace the BBC, and as far as possible and as is in the interests of SBC put in place a partnership with BBC to share resources.

B.      Make provision for more community broadcast companies with less of a financial commitment required to obtain licence to broadcast so that like many parts of the world small local broadcasters can air programs that are non-commercial but not of national importance so would be lost if left to SBC or commercial broadcasters.

13.    Agriculture and Fisheries

A.      Fight for an EU fishing policy that protects and grows the Scottish fishing fleet as it has been for decades run down by EU in favour of southern European fleets.

B.      Ban on seed companies who use anti-competitive and unfair practises to monopolise seed market.

C.      Laws to protect agriculture from imports of diseased plants or animals which could endanger the industry and bio diversity, emphasis should be on the importer to prove imports are safe and all importers have to carry insurance to cover cost of repairing any damage and compensating those affected by any product they import

D.      An end to putting wildlife before all else, biodiversity is desirable in the countryside but the balance is currently skewed towards wildlife over agriculture this must be addressed.

E.       Set up marine national parks in consultation with fishing industry while avoiding damage to marine life is important any such plans much ensure those who make a living from the sea can still do so

14.   Tourism

A.      Continue to encourage tourism with a renewed and invigorated Visit Scotland

B.      Reduce or Abolish air passenger duty

15.   Benefits

A.      Move to a system of benefits that ensure those in need such as Unemployed, Elderly, Sick, & Disabled are taken care of in a humane system and that those receiving benefits are helped as far as possible to move back into work, but not punished where this is not possible.

These are just some of the things that are important to me, there are lots of issues that I am sure are not included here and on which I will most likely have a view. Some of my views will be controversial to some and agreed with by others, I would love to hear what others think as I am one of those who like to hear and debate ideas and I am open to reviewing my ideas in the light of compelling argument.

You want Safety & Security ?

You Demand Ethical security services

You  demand transparency & Public Scrutiny

Sorry you can't have your cake and eat it

There has been much debate as to the rights and wrongs of NSA and GCHQ activities around the monitoring of telecoms. there is a reason for this debate being in the public domain at this time, and it is a serious criminal offence, sanitised by those who wish to justify themselves, they call it whistle blowing. I call it treason.

The demand that the security services should publicly justify and announce every action is faintly ridiculous.

despite the hype, the chances of anyone at GCHQ reading this blog, let alone my emails, is minute.

Lets start with the demand that we are safe at home and in public places, I suspect that we are more likely to be assaulted by a drunk than fall victim to terrorism, In the 1980's I  lived in London during numerous IRA attacks, I have spent time in places around the world that even then were noted for being dangerous places, and I am still here.

the risk to any individual from terrorist attack or of even witnessing such is tiny. but those charged with our security know that it only takes one attack for the demands to know why "they" let it happen begin. So like most people they try to have all the best tools so they can do the job we demand of them. and we are as safe now as we have ever been.

You want ethical security services

No information should be gained from torture.

No use of inhuman treatment of suspects etc etc.

I would say our security services are like most people in this country, pretty decent, ethical people, but they are faced with difficult ethical dilemas a lot of the time, they do not engage in torture, they know it is pointless, most of the time, they can not prevent other nations security services engaging in torch and other abuses, they have neither the power or the right to do so.

They must however react to information that may have been unethicaly obtained, despite the moral objections.You disagree ?
OK here is a scenario, You are duty officer 9pm friday evening, you get a phone call from a terrorism hotline passed to you, the caller claims to be from Syrian security service, says that there will be a series of suicide bomb attacks on london mainline and tube stations on Monday morning,  peak hour and gives you the names of the people who will carry out those attacks,
Now you have to start making decisions,    you ask questions to verify the validity of the information of course
Do you ask how this information was obtained  ? what if the callers states without any hint of remorse that " oh we just applied 240 volts to his............ and he talked"
now if you have just been told the information was obtained via torture you now have a problem do you act on information ? or do you ignore it and let the attack happen ? which is the moral thing to do ?
I think you avoid the question as to how the information was obtained and even if you become aware of unethical methods your duty would be to protect the public first before any moral question.
what would the public have said if following the 7/7 attacks the security service had said oh we were aware of what they planned, but could do nothing as the information was obtained by a third party who used torture.
Life is full of moral and ethical ambiguity and sometimes we have to leave our own moral high ground at home and do what needs to be done, and like it or not, we the public will not forgive if one person dies as a result of someone else's trying to be ethical, nor will we forgive if they are found to be acting unethicaly on our behalf. that leaves those that are on the frontline with little wiggle room.
My solution I do what I think is right, I do not pay regard to how information was obtained, it is too late for that, I pick up the phone and make sure the information is used to prevent death and mayhem, no if's but's or qualms.

Transparency & Public Scrutiny

Simple answer is NO 

the security services have to work in the shadows, when confronting terrorism they face an enemy who use's our system of open democratic government against us to undermine our democracy, when fools moan about  democratic rights of terrorism suspects I despair as they are falling into the trap of assuming the suspect has any interest in democratic rights as anything other than a weapon to be used against us all.

Security service personal are as I have said before a reflection of the populus of this country, fair minded, decent people, they are also, Civil Servants, that is to say servants of the crown sworn to protect and to act only in the interests of the crown, they are trained to act for the interests of the crown or state and the population of the country not for the currently ruling politicians, governments change, the state continues, 

If you are not going to trust the people you appoint to protect you, who are you going to trust ? 

So suppose the traitors and the newspaper editors win, and we go for public access to everything where will that lead ?

Not a world that is safer that is the one thing you can be sure of,  the work of the men in the shadows has saved us all in one way or another over the decades. Do not let these pompus idiots fool you into giving aid to those who would destroy democracy.

Can you have the utopia that the Guardian promises of freedom, security,transparancy, public scrutiny, and ethics ? 

Yes You Can, but you have to leave some of us to walk that fine line, so you can have your democracy and freedom to be as pompus, moraly superior, and ethical as you chose to be.

Treason 

Strong word but one we have to use as this myth that telling all your secrets to the press is an honourable thing has to end. pop stars and celebrities may be good tabloid fodder with tales from back stage but people in positions of trust should rarely go public.  as an employee I owe my employer a duty of trust, if I disagree with how my employer is acting, I take it up with my employer, if it is a matter of legality, I give my employer a chance to change things to comply with the law, if my employer refuses to obey the law then I inform the police or who ever is legal enforcement.  If it is not a matter of legality, then if discusion fails to cover the void then I shut up and quit, The one thing I do not do is go running to the press as my first move.

As a person in possesion of your countries secrets your duty of trust & confidence is even greater, and your personal moral ethical religious or other considerations are secondary.

Giving Classified information to a third party  is Traitorous an act of Treason.

Syria and chemical weapons

A blank sheet of paper and the title of the piece reflects the decade's most important historic turning point
I have strong opinions on the middle east so have to be careful not to go off on a rant

So chemical weapons have been used in Syria that is fact who used them that's disputed, probably Government forces, but at what level of government were they authorised to be used ?
Well that's for a future court of history to debate what we need to do is get them out of reach of those who would use them, no mater which side

how do we do this well I have a proposal which will make UN and Governments of United States, EU, Russia, Ukraine China and Syria scramble for a reason it can not work

here it is
the UN Security council motion should be detailed as follows

Syria will surrender all chemical weapons to inspectors, who will have full access to any area they require, they will be assisted by as large a  protection force as required, this force will be permitted to use as much force as they deem required to carry out mission
The protection force will be provided by the Army of the Peoples Republic of China, all other members of the security council will provide such support as the inspectors and or protection force request of them

The chemical weapons and delivery systems will be transported to a former Soviet union chemicals weapon base in the republic of Ukraine which will be manned by a UN Chemical weapons disposal team, where they will be destroyed.
A simple plan, yes, maybe that will be the problem

My first blog

Well this is my first blog and I guess the question in your mind is,  what is this blog about ?
The answer is nothing, well nothing apart from my personal musings on events past and present, the news, politics, religion, morals, ethics and I might even squeeze the occasional bit of sport in there.