300 years British?

[matgb]

Interesting discussion at publicansdecoy's about the anniversay of the Act of Union and the creation of Great Britain. David's concentrating on the West Lothian question, which I've done to death in the past, so instead I thought I'd discuss celebrating the anniversay. Any ideas, feel free to contribute either at voting_taktix or here because, y'know, comments=good.

On the subject of V-TX, kick starting it again; draxar transferred his article on hypothecated taxation, we've had a 'chat' about Europe (again) and I went through an article of Prof Fred Halliday's, who if I recall correctly taught David Armstrong, who was my Head of Department at Exeter. They're both a little dull and dry, unless you're an IR wonk, but we end up talking on the post about condoms, as always...

Oh yeah; I'd like more writers, either occasionally or regularly, the more people writing, the better it gets I think, there are two more coming on board soon, but there are loads of people reading this that write about politics sometimes; I'll start harassing people or sending invites soon...

Comments

[matgb]

Ah, the joys of reading libertarian economics obsessed blogs. I could pretend to be all smart and knowledgable, or I could admit that tim_worstall mentioned this very thing a few weeks back.

Pigouvian Taxes, an attempt to put the external costs back intot he market.

See, me knows stuff. Wot I read elsewhere. But I still knows it. My offer/invite above for contributors, you interested on occasions?

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Ta for the link and info.

I have difficulty rising to occasions. Or, more specifically, I have difficulty motivating myself to write about interesting topics because I write professionally. I used to write much, much more for pleasure before that happened.

[matgb]

Fair enough. The team of writers thing is mostly motivation for me. Knowing there are others that can do stuff seems to make me more likely to keep it going, which is completely counter-intuitive.

But if'n you ever fancy it, LMK, hopefully the LJ login will start working soon (plugin won't talk to the database properly and we can't find why)...

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Well, my other problem is trying to find things that I want to write about and also know something about.

For example, I mostly believe that - much as Britain's voice on the world stage is stronger within the context of the European Union as well as a nation state on its own - Scotland and Wales¹ should both be stronger in a properly representative United Kingdom. Such might entail a more federalised structure, to some degree. However, I have absolutely no backing for my belief other than some extrapolation, minor lateral thinking and what feels right. At which point, I turn into some crap columnist in a broadsheet who's only there to provide opinion and colour and to show that the paper respects opinions of PeopleWhoAreWrongButAren'tWeTolerantDon'tYouThink? and not, you know, well-informed debate that actually matters.


¹ I would include Northern Ireland here. However, most debates surrounding NI that I see do not include independence as a real option for it, rather whether it's part of the UK or part of Ireland. At that point, the argument diverges wildly into whether it would be better off as part of Ireland or as part of the UK, which is a completely different discussion.

[matgb]

Heh; bottom up; my solution for NI is complete autonomy under dual sovereignty a lá Andorra. Possibly the 9 counties not the 6, but that'd probably be messy and free trade makes it irrelevent anyway.

You can't use the F word, because all the Europhobes think it means a govt set up like the US federal govt (not understanding that level != structure), so you have to use other, similar words.

Regionalised, devolved, provinces, autnomous communities (I like the way Spain does things).

But yeah, that's pretty much my approach, I just got stuck in and used a bit of background knowledge and research. OK, it helped that background knowledge included half remembered degree, but, y'know...

The big question isn't Scotland/Wales, it's London and then the rest of England. You can't balkanise England!

Hate hate hate that argument, silly damned blindfolded fools tilting at EU windmills...

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Oh, autonomy for NI might well be the best option, in some ways. I don't think it's a realistic option in the next 20 years, however. (20 just being some arbitrary number. Well, not entirely arbitrary, given that most of the front-liners in NI politics won't be front-liners then.)

If it stays part of the UK until some point in the future when the argument is not tub-thumping and passion but, rather, what's actually in NI's interests, it could go independent. If it becomes part of Ireland, I can't see it going back.

Being a Londoner now, it's difficult to comment properly on London vs the rest of the UK. London does get a hell of a lot more attention than the rest of the UK, for no good reason. When the whale got stuck in the Thames, a few people said at the time "If this had happened Oop North, the media wouldn't care." Then it happened up north a few days later. And no-one cared.

[matgb]

See, I didn't even know it had landed anywhere else (or another one), didn't get covered.

But yes, living in the westcountry gives you in many ways the worst of everything; you get ignored, the north thinks you're south, the SE thinks you're quaint and the jobs think to go somewhere with infrastructure.

Meanwhile rich gits retire there and no bugger can afford to live...

I'd actually give it less than 20 years, but more than ten, not sure beyond that. It'll happen, demographics and momentum I suspect, but this current govt won't be the ones to do it.

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Another whale, about ten days after the one in That London died.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4681046.stm

But yes, living in the westcountry gives you in many ways the worst of everything; you get ignored, the north thinks you're south, the SE thinks you're quaint and the jobs think to go somewhere with infrastructure.

More or less. Devon is crap for roads. Cornwall is even worse. Actually, I find much of the south coast is. Say you want to go from Plymouth/Exeter to somewhere on the south coast further east, you have to go well inland and back out again for a lot of the sensible routes.

Somerset is fine, though. It doesn't need roads, it has cider.


As an aside, when my employer was looking, some years ago, to establish an office outside London, the major criteria were being near a proper airport and decent rail/road links. Which wipes out most of the southwest, unless you count "Bristol" airport (which you couldn't really at the time) or Plymouth (which isn't usually worth counting). Ex's father used to try to fly into Plymouth after a long-haul flight to Heathrow. It was never once running, and he always got a (paid for by BA) taxi.

[matgb]

Ah, see, had no idea.

But yeah, getting up here from Devon is always a pain. Leaving Torquay to get anywhere is a pain. 120,000 people living the wrong end of a road not wide enough for two tractors, and frequently blocked by one. Because that makes sense. Then you have to either take a back road or go to Bristol to cut back across country. Yup, thanks.

As for airport transfers? Just got out of that business thankee muchly, never again...