For starters I’m guessing Michelle Thomson won’t be involved this time.

Or perhaps she will be because she isn’t SNP 🙂

How long will the Tories live with subsidizing a “15bn deficit” Scotland?

If that was the objective of any government, either London would declare independence or everywhere in the UK outside of the South-East would see monstrous cuts.

Part of being a state is that the wealthier areas financially support the less wealthy areas. It happens in every country in the world, it would happen in an independent Scotland.

All the votes for councils have an effect and the list vote for Holyrood always does

No they don’t always matter (unless you count a vote that doesn’t get anyone elected an important one).

If we had full PR (more like the German system) then it would be different but we don’t. Our PR is quite limited and does lead to regionally irrelevant votes. Far less so than FPTP, but it still happens. (and yes, I do know that the Scottish Executive did not select its own voting system).

<GERS> does not allow for profits earning in Scotland but reported in England

Largely, it does. If you take some time to read the GERS methodology, it goes a long way to try and fairly estimate the Scottish contribution. According to the SNP, GERS is an authoritative guide to Scotland’s finances. The so-called white paper proposed finances for an independent Scotland based very much on GERS.

Long term, we would be a long way from GERS. For the first couple of years in a newly independent country, I don’t think things could look much better than GERS. It isn’t like the first day of independence will start with a blank sheet of paper – “so, now we are a sovereign nation, what shall we do about taxes and spening and stuff?”

“And that perfectly illustrates the beauty of independence, we can change our government, our votes will have value.”

Only if you vote with the majority. The lines will simply be a bit different.

My general election vote had no value, my candidate was not elected. Only one of my votes in the last Holyrood election made any difference and the time before that, neither vote made a difference. My council votes have had very limited value too. If we leave the UK, that first vote disappears but the others all stay (broadly) the same.

I used to vote Lib Dem. Then I moved house. Voting Lib Dem in any election is now pointless so I don’t. It happens in just about any electoral system except for true national PR.

You seem to be more concerned about the location of the commenter than the content of their posts?

Is this where we start chanting “Lock Her Up” and “Make Scotland Great Again”??

Perhaps we should even think about building a wall, it’s all the rage. The Roman’s were millennia ahead of their time.

Maybe the SNP should campaign for full fiscal autonomy, and get the pain over with now?

There were two amendments to the last Scotland Bill related to this. The SNP wanted the power to unilaterally declare FFA to be permanently devolved. This got voted down by all other parties.

There was also a Tory amendment to give Scotland FFA. It got voted down too but the SNP voted against it

We pay huge unfair access charges to put our surplus energy into the national grid

It isn’t unfair to charge for generating electricity in regions where it is not in demand (i.e. Scotland). National distribution is a pain in the backside and the grid is heavily loaded. If generation in Scotland increases, massive investment in the grid is required.

Under the current arrangements, charges are levied to encourage investment in generation nearer demand centres. I expect that will change over time once green energy comes to the fore properly. Personally, I favour micro-generation but that isn’t popular because the capacity is expensive.

Scotland is also doing pretty badly for base load, which is mostly what is under threat at the moment. Variable energy sources are an even bigger pain – the grid has to cope with peaks and not averages.

SNPs plan is obviously to go for continued membership

Unfortunately, the European Commission torpedoed that one almost immediately after Sturgeon’s speech.

In terms of economy and trade, in the EU and not in the UK is the worst position on offer. In the EU and in the UK is better still but that boat has sadly sailed.

I personally think calling the referendum is a mistake but I’m sure there are plenty who will disagree with me.

I believe it is a mistake for Scotland and the UK, but I also believe that she had no option politically. Not to call for one would have left her, or her party, in tatters.

After she presented her list of unrealistic options she had to do something otherwise she and the SNP would be seen as powerless and irrelevant.

I do not think she will get the same easy ride through Westminster that Alex got last time – I doubt they will be as relaxed. I don’t see WM blocking it, but I also don’t see her getting the carte blanche that she is asking for.

Let’s all remember, if you don’t live in Scotland you haven’t a vote, but if you do (and are 16 or older) then you have.

Not if they use the same franchise as last time.

If you live in Scotland, are over 16 and come from one of a short list of countries that we approve of (but not any other ones) then you can have a vote.

So who is the sensible voice for the undecideds? Not obvious. it was bad last time.

Hopefully Ruth Davidson because she is both competent and liked (the person, not the party). The spectator ran a piece a couple of weeks ago predicting that a referendum would be called because Sturgeon’s ratings are dropping while Davidson’s are improving.

I used to be Child Protection Office for a sport governing body. I’d want to hear of this if it was going on in my sport, even if it was resolved at a lower level.

Sport is a great thing for kids and, as I have pointed out to coaches in the past, even little shits should be allowed to participate. It is up to the coaches to manage this. For kids that are difficult or troubled, sport can be a way out of their problems and set them on the straight an narrow.

In any case, even if a child is a disruption nightmare then there needs to be a decent disciplinary process and you don’t just kick somebody out unless it was really bad. At 6 that would be completely disproportionate.

Some coaches believe that they run their club or team or whatever but in most cases that simply isn’t true any more. Governing bodies are more involved than ever before, led by the larger and more difficult sports (football, rugby and swimming spring to mind, gymnastics too). Where they are under a governing body, clubs and coaches can only operate within the framework of their sport.

The wine society.

By far better value than most supermarket stuff and plenty of daily drinkers at pretty fair prices.

You would have to live a very long time for this to be worthwhile, and £75,000 of your money is gone.

Breakeven on most annuities is in your 80s. Which you would expect because that is the typical life expectancy. Gilt yields are around zero in real terms so there is no growth (in real terms). Annuities also make next to no profit, which is why there are far fewer providers than there used to be.

Drawdown has to be the better option for most people, surely?

It depends.

Annuities are really poor value at the moment but drawdown takes more work to manage (either time or cost) and has the risk of running out of money. Properly done, you should never run out but there is always a chance.

If you are prepared to pay for it, or take the time to do it yourself, drawdown is a more fruitful option. Risks can be managed, but it means your income may fluctuate and you may run out of money. You can also do a UFPLS to spread your 25% over time rather than take it all upfront if that suits you.

Annuities are expensive, drawdown could give you a higher income but at higher risk. The cost of an annuity is because of the guaranteed income – they invest in very low risk securities (gilts mainly) and those securities are yielding very little because everybody wants them right now.

The only thing to choose between annuity providers is how much they will give you. Sticking with the Pru is likey to be expensive.

You yourself need to think through whether you want any guarantee period, spouse provision and index linking. If you have any serious health issues, make sure you look at enhanced annuities.

There are not that many annuity providers any more, it is not as popular now pension freedoms are in place. Going to each one shouldn’t take too long. You could also consider an IFA – odd as it sounds some get better deals than you will so that you actually end up better off even after paying their fee. Some will also cost you a pretty penny and leave you worse off.

jambalaya – Member
As above and in the BBC piece, you could get multiple penalty points from speed cameras and be completely unaware. Personally I think that needs changing.

You will get seperate NIP and fixed penalties.

You can reject the offer, go to court and then the court has discretion to combine the offences. For example, if you get flashed by several camera on the same road as you drive along it, then they will often accept that as a single offence. It won’t be 3 points and £60 but it is probably less points than all the fixed penalties.

Less likely to succeed if they were different trips (e.g. out and back, or different days). Magistrate could still award a penalty that would stop short of a totting up ban. So if hammyuk did the same thing every day for a week, they haven’t received the NIP to let them know of any offence and wouldn’t have the opportunity to “change their ways”. A magistrate could give a different penalty and not a ban.

The magistrate could also treat each speeding camera as a separate offence and screw you over if the offences are grievous, you are a knob or they are hungry.

It’s the simplicity of the fixed penalty notice vs the discretion of the bench.

Our nursery simply returned the cash.

In private nurseries, you rarely get the funded hours for free. What you end up with is a discount. So for 9 hours over 38 weeks, the nursery receives a certain amount of money. They are taking that and deducting it from your annual cost and then charging you the rest as a fixed rate through the year.

It is often shockingly badly presented and sometimes made really hard. That is why ours decided to charge the full whack and when a payment from the council arrrived the “overpayment” you had made was refunded with a lump sum. Simple and transparent.

I have a detachable flange towbar. Great.

You really want dedicated electrics (which includes an ECU update if needed). Bypass relay is a means of putting a tow bar on without the car knowing you have one (you wire it in parallel with the rear lights.

Without dedicated electrics, the car doesn’t know you have anything attached. So reversing sensors will still operate, the traction control and gear box won’t change settings (if you car is capable of doing so).

Only reason not to go dedicated is cost. These days, the cost is often pretty small and cars have the tow bar plugged to the ECU so there are more benefits of dedicated.

I think if you are driving around in a branded car (as he was) then the company should carry the can for its employees actions.

If he was in a personal vehicle and was being a knob on his own time, that is much more of a grey area.

and changing a will to disinherit grown up children (who it sounds like he didn’t have a good relationship with) and instead give it to someone he loves and who is financially dependent on him – that all sounds fairly reasonable.

First step would always be a Larke vs Nugus letter to the solicitor who prepared the will. That costs little and may be quite revealing. If it isn’t, you are probably one a hiding to nothing (but your solicitor will get a nice sports car out of it).

You better have deep pockets. Some solicitor will get rich off this.

In Scots Law, spouses and offspring have legal rights and cannot be disinherited.

In England, and beyond those legal rights in Scotland, the general principle is that you can leave your worldly belongings to whoever the hell you like (cats home included).

Dependents may have a claim, but they would have to show that they were financially dependent on the deceased.

In law, vindictiveness is a perfectly acceptable reason to leave your estate to some random person in the phone book provided that you were compos mentis at the time you made the will.

Doctors should have records of the medication at the time (but bear in mind that someone who “comes and goes” can make a valid will during their good spots). The solicitor who drew up the will should also have records, if a solicitor was used. You also have the two witnesses.

It is much less about the time that has passed than it is about the records that exist. Generally, there is a presumption that the deceased knew what they were doing. If you have no or little evidence to the contrary then you will lose.

Your best bet may be to use a solicitor to fire a shot across the bows of the other beneficiary. Settling quickly is not a bad option for either party if you are committed to action.

You can have it reversed if you fancy, way more complicated procedure though.

And often more painful.

And certainly far less successful.

If you are getting a vasectomy, consider it a one way trip.

I generally tried not to think about it. I’m a right wuss and was nervous as hell. Spent most of the time discussing the pentland hills with the nurse (she runs them, I ride them).

I had more pain/bruising after than some pepole report but it was more “walking funny” levels of pain than anything that needed painkillers.

Whole thing took about 45 minutes, took quite a while for me and consultant to be happy with getting enough local anaesthetic in.

Chronic pain and pvps are real risks. Granulomas tend to go after a while and are often not painful.

I had a granuloma, fairly big one but then I would think that. Freaked the hell out of me, but didn’t hurt at all.

The official numbers that my consultant gave me before I had mine (5 weeks ago) is that 1 in 200 vasectomies will fail and this failure will be detected in the routine semen test. 1 in 2000 vasectomies (as above) will pass the semen test and later on have a sort of spontaneous reversal.

This is people, not number of ejaculations. Of every 200 men who have a vasectomy, 1 man will have an early failure that is detected. Of every 2000 men that have vasectomies, 1 man will have a late failure or spontaneous reversal.

Just like when they say condoms are 97% effective or whatever, they mean that 3% of people using condoms will get pregnant and not that you will get pregnant 3 times out of 100 shags.

Either put some away for him or make sure he does it himself. It can be hard to leave, its even harder if you get used to living on too much of your income.

And, as suggested above, have lots of noisy sex. Hearing his mum will probably make him adjust his priorities. You could also try leaving toys around the house.

This is why we never have self employed contractors and only work with certain umbrellas who have IR35-proof contracts.

Does sound like he wants to have his cake and eat it, this trend in ruling will probably have a big impact elsewhere.

They’re also completely misunderstood the whole point of a representative democracy – MPs are hired to make the difficult decisions, not the popular ones.

Except they only get hired by being popular, and then we expect them to do what they said they would do.

Politicians can’t be trusted on big issues, so we end up with referendums. The electorate can’t be trusted to do what is right, so we go off referendums and look to our politicians. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Realise insurance could do something but likely to lead to increased premiums…

You will be contractually obliged to report it to your insurer. It will probably cause your premiums to go up – this is recoverable from the third party as a loss. Statistically, someone who has suffered loss/damage is more likely to claim in the future (regardless of whether or not the initial incident led to a claim).

If you don’t report it and get found out then you could end up with your insurance being cancelled which is nasty. Unlikely for minor damage and a first ‘offence’, but still possible.

And in any case, any eight year old can tell you that were Scotland independent of the UK but an EU member it would have more control over its affairs than it has currently

Any eight year old can probably tell you that if Dingwall left the UK and became an independent city-state then it would have a lot more control over its affairs than it does within the UK, or within an independent Scotland.

That doesn’t make Independence For Dingwall a good idea.

We sometimes end up with an unpleasant tasting one for one of our kids. Can’t remember the name offhand, but it is a kind of chalky suspension. Mix it 50:50 with ribena and she’s OK with it.

Pharmacist can only dispense exactly what is on the script. GP sometimes has some flexibility – but remember that not all antibiotics are the same and there is often a preferred choice for good clinical reasons.

We have, sometimes, just forced them in with a syringe but that isn’t pleasant.

Mostly snobbery.

To me, it depends what you do. In film, you could vary the exposure of the print, dodge, burn, etc.

Are you sorting the horizon, adjusting white balance and tone? Or are you adding in Nessie and removing half the contents of the frame because you really mucked up the composition?

We did met up and ive aaid od like to stay self-employed at least for the 3 month trial period then decide how to proceed.

You don’t decide if you are self-employed or not. The tax man does. Be careful of IR35 and how you arrange this “trial period”

Better to do a temp contract as an employee, throw in flexible working terms. Then if you do decide to go for it, you have already got some service in terms of employment rights etc.

Do check nose weight on bar v rack+4 bikes – there’s a lot of leverage with those bigger racks.

Or buy a proper car 🙂

More seriously, at 15-20kg for the rack you do have to watch the payload on some cars. You could easily overload a 75 kg noseweight ball if you have four gnarrly bikes on it.

I got a Witter 4 bike carrier – the flange mount version. It’s great. It’s a bit fiddly when I have four bikes on it, but a lot of that is down to size differences (me, short wife, shorter kids).

If I hadn’t got the Witter, I would have got the Atera.

tjagain
Those links from the TUC state clearly the legal position which is that you cannot decide unilaterally when you take your holidays. The employer may well be being an arse but they are also acting within the law

Except OP’s missus had her leave verbally approved prior to spending money. That changes things quite a bit.Might have helped if it was in the OP, but never mind.

MrsPP mentioned this when we booked the ferry last June. No problem then.
She checked again at roughly the time when the bill for the ferry arrived. No problem then.
She checked again when she put the request through. No problem then.

The employer is entitled to cancel leave (which is what they have done – verbal approval is binding) but if they don’t have a good business reason for doing so then everything gets a bit murkier. Estoppel could easily be claimed and there’s a stronger argument to constructive dismissal if other options are available to the employer.

This needs escalated above the manager’s head. Could submit a grievance too.

I think many people may disagree with the Guardian but I’d go with Cougar, I don’t think people find it awful in quite the same way as people find the Mail repellent.

One is crap and offensive. The other is just crap.

If only there had been some sort of Europe wide union that could impose equal standards across Europe so we could sell Nissan Micras made in Sunderland to Germany.

I’m pretty sure my post is clear that this rule exists and that, in some areas, it can cause problems.

Such as allowing imports of anything Italian or French that contains moving parts.

They were eventually stopped though, by of all people, the EU!

It took them 10 months (ish) after the court ruling before they started accepting imports. All the way through, France ignored the rules and largely ignored the court judgement.

And the penalty that the EU imposed on France for an illegal three year long ban on our beef was?

That’s the point. Our farmers are subject to certain standards (quite rightly) but imports don’t have to meet the same standards. That in my book is simply wrong.

I concur. It is one of the problems with the single market. But the solutions are that you either dismantle the single market or you relax our standards – neither of which I particularly like.

In some product categories it is more of a theoretical problem (e.g. we could make tougher national rules on car production, but we’d still need to accept any car with EU type approval). Food, and animal welfare, is where it causes more problems. Especially as most people do their food shopping on the basis of price or brand, not quality.

That’s the concern isn’t it? In arranging trade deals with other countries we potentially have to relax our regulations to allow their stuff in – to the detriment of our producers. Once cheap, nasty stuff starts flowing in that’s yet more trouble for our farmers.

Like our EU membership requires. If it comes from within the single market, we must accept it on our shelves regardless of whether it meets our national requirements or not.

But then when the French maintained a ban on British beef well after it is legal, that’s all OK then…