The Scottish Politics Thread

[Slick]

An anecdote on policing, our town has almost doubled in size since I last lived here, there used to be two or three polis going around on any one shift-plus one in the station. I played rugby with a good few of those sharing the shifts and I knew the others who didn't play.

The station has been closed down and you never see anyone now - I still see a couple of the guys I first referenced because they are mates, but they are long retired now.

The lack of public funding has got little to do with the SG, they can't raise the money needed to fund public services to the extent needed, there is no mechanism that allows for this.

That’s laughable. Not only do they have some mechanisms, such as income tax, they also have the ability to make decisions on what they spend money on. “Free” uni education, “free” prescriptions, increased benefits, for example.

They certainly don’t have the budget to get things to where we all want them, but they do have the ability to spend better.

[Tichtheid]

An anecdote on policing, our town has almost doubled in size since I last lived here, there used to be two or three polis going around on any one shift-plus one in the station. I played rugby with a good few of those sharing the shifts and I knew the others who didn't play.

The station has been closed down and you never see anyone now - I still see a couple of the guys I first referenced because they are mates, but they are long retired now.

The lack of public funding has got little to do with the SG, they can't raise the money needed to fund public services to the extent needed, there is no mechanism that allows for this.

That’s laughable. Not only do they have some mechanisms, such as income tax, they also have the ability to make decisions on what they spend money on. “Free” uni education, “free” prescriptions, increased benefits, for example.

They certainly don’t have the budget to get things to where we all want them, but they do have the ability to spend better.

That's a small-minded view.

The "wiggle room " on income tax is tiny. The SG can't start taxing huge multinational corporations unilaterally- they do not have the legal wherewithal. Look beyond tuition fees and prescriptions, it's a much bigger issue than that.

The money taken out of the Scottish economy from corporations and the individuals who own them is nigh on theft - it's the same across the other constituent parts of the UK, but Westminster does have a set of options at its disposal that are not available to the devolved governments.

[Blackmac]

Yeah, my post probably didn’t acknowledge that as it
should have, it’s difficult to pin too much blame on the police when we all know how stretched they are. I know a local community officer pretty well and the stories he tells of understaffing and the knock on effects are terrifying.

How many police would the City now have?

It's hard to remember as I was CID, so probably not paying as much attention as I should to the uniformed resources during the daily TAC meeting, but E division was, I think, about 34 and 4 Sgts. That is Howdenhall, Craigmillar (which would cover Porty) St Leonard's, Gayfield and Leith. That's full strength which it rarely is.
Police resources are protected from Data Protection requests so you will never get the truth.

I remember a survey back in the late 90's which showed that the public overestimated L&B's resources by about 12 times. I would imagine that is now worse.

Sorry. Wasn't meaning it as a dig atthe Police more a dig at where we are now. It's depressing. The wee arseholes know that being kids and then as they grow u25 will see them get off lighter than they should. It's a mess.

The SG won't be held to account.

Jesus. Don't worry about me. I'm far removed from being offended by police criticism.

[Biffer]

An anecdote on policing, our town has almost doubled in size since I last lived here, there used to be two or three polis going around on any one shift-plus one in the station. I played rugby with a good few of those sharing the shifts and I knew the others who didn't play.

The station has been closed down and you never see anyone now - I still see a couple of the guys I first referenced because they are mates, but they are long retired now.

The lack of public funding has got little to do with the SG, they can't raise the money needed to fund public services to the extent needed, there is no mechanism that allows for this.

That’s laughable. Not only do they have some mechanisms, such as income tax, they also have the ability to make decisions on what they spend money on. “Free” uni education, “free” prescriptions, increased benefits, for example.

They certainly don’t have the budget to get things to where we all want them, but they do have the ability to spend better.

That's a small-minded view.

The "wiggle room " on income tax is tiny. The SG can't start taxing huge multinational corporations unilaterally- they do not have the legal wherewithal. Look beyond tuition fees and prescriptions, it's a much bigger issue than that.

The money taken out of the Scottish economy from corporations and the individuals who own them is nigh on theft - it's the same across the other constituent parts of the UK, but Westminster does have a set of options at its disposal that are not available to the devolved governments.

Slick having a small minded view of the SNP government? Blimey, that’s news.

[Slick]

An anecdote on policing, our town has almost doubled in size since I last lived here, there used to be two or three polis going around on any one shift-plus one in the station. I played rugby with a good few of those sharing the shifts and I knew the others who didn't play.

The station has been closed down and you never see anyone now - I still see a couple of the guys I first referenced because they are mates, but they are long retired now.

The lack of public funding has got little to do with the SG, they can't raise the money needed to fund public services to the extent needed, there is no mechanism that allows for this.

That’s laughable. Not only do they have some mechanisms, such as income tax, they also have the ability to make decisions on what they spend money on. “Free” uni education, “free” prescriptions, increased benefits, for example.

They certainly don’t have the budget to get things to where we all want them, but they do have the ability to spend better.

That's a small-minded view.

The "wiggle room " on income tax is tiny. The SG can't start taxing huge multinational corporations unilaterally- they do not have the legal wherewithal. Look beyond tuition fees and prescriptions, it's a much bigger issue than that.

The money taken out of the Scottish economy from corporations and the individuals who own them is nigh on theft - it's the same across the other constituent parts of the UK, but Westminster does have a set of options at its disposal that are not available to the devolved governments.

Like I said, I appreciate they don’t have the budgets to do everything, but they do have the ability to spend the money better. They have just received a larger budget than they were expecting and are choosing to spend it on more look at us projects.

By the way, SG cut deals with multi nationals all the time and have their fair share of shocking decisions. They also have the ability to attract investment and therefore income

[Tichtheid]

That’s laughable. Not only do they have some mechanisms, such as income tax, they also have the ability to make decisions on what they spend money on. “Free” uni education, “free” prescriptions, increased benefits, for example.

They certainly don’t have the budget to get things to where we all want them, but they do have the ability to spend better.

That's a small-minded view.

The "wiggle room " on income tax is tiny. The SG can't start taxing huge multinational corporations unilaterally- they do not have the legal wherewithal. Look beyond tuition fees and prescriptions, it's a much bigger issue than that.

The money taken out of the Scottish economy from corporations and the individuals who own them is nigh on theft - it's the same across the other constituent parts of the UK, but Westminster does have a set of options at its disposal that are not available to the devolved governments.

Like I said, I appreciate they don’t have the budgets to do everything, but they do have the ability to spend the money better. They have just received a larger budget than they were expecting and are choosing to spend it on more look at us projects.

By the way, SG cut deals with multi nationals all the time and have their fair share of shocking decisions. They also have the ability to attract investment and therefore income

Again I think you are focusing on a microcosm and missing the bigger picture. The SG could cut every penny for projects you don’t approve of and put it all into areas you support and there would still be a massive shortfall.
I would guess the system works for those at the top when we are blaming the government or the gays or the trans or the immigrants or net zero or whatever policy we don’t like.
In no way do I let the government in Edinburgh off the hook, but it takes far more than shuffling which party holds office there or even in Westminster if all they are going to do is continue down the same path.

I’ll give a quick example, a full run down would take days. We are all experiencing energy price hikes, this is being reflected in retail prices as well as affecting household budgets.

This from a quick search,

National Grid's underlying operating profit for the first half of the year ended September 30, 2024, was £2 billion, a 14% increase from the same period last year. The company expects operating profit growth of around 10% for the full year, with earnings per share (EPS) expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6-8% over the following four years

Ownership and Corporate Structure

National Grid plc’s top ten shareholders range from global asset management firms BlackRock and Vanguard to public pension funds, notably those of Norway and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. As of 2022, BlackRock held close to 9% of total shares.
This is just one part of the energy supply system.
Why aren’t the profits from National Grid being ploughed back into public services?

We have travel infrastructure which is partly state owned, but the sates are Germany, France and Italy

Etc etc