I see that the totalitarian instincts of the SNP Scottish government extends to seeking to police the internet;

Plans to restrict online alcohol sales in Scotland have been branded “unenforceable”.  The Scottish Government yesterday (19 December)launched a consultation on a fuRther shake-up of the country’s alcohol licensing regime. The proposals include giving more power to the police and licensing boards and improving the “effectiveness” of the licensing regime.  Among the measures suggested is banning online multi-buy orders that are placed with retailers outside the country. Under laws introduced in October last year multi-buy deals are banned in Scotland.  The consultation paper asks: “If this were introduced, would the police and local authorities be able to carry out meaningful compliance and enforcement action?”

Are they serious? Will Scottish plod be checking on your internet purchases? How? At what cost and at what price to liberty? Under the guise of cracking down on alcohol consumption (Key to life in Scotland I would have thought) these control freaks want to control the  internet.

The inefficiencies that characterise the Public Sector are legion. Just consider this if you will….

Scotland’s new single police force will have debts totalling more than £100m, it has been warned. The Scottish Conservatives have raised concerns about the scale of the debt after obtaining figures in a parliamentary written answer. The country’s eight police forces will be merged into a single Scottish service at the start of April 2013. A Scottish government spokesman said Police Scotland would be given funds to service the debt. The local authority loans fund figures cover the period 2010-11.

Stunning. £100m debt racked up in ONE year! I wonder who will get sacked over that? That’s right – no-one.  And they get away with it year after year. They lavish our cash on their follies and then demand MORE.

It’s obvious. When your credit card is maxed, and your overdraft is at the limit, what you need to do is….SPEND MORE!!

“SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon will use her SNP conference address to challenge the UK chancellor to dump his spending “cuts” policy. She will urge George Osborne to pump more cash into projects like roads, schools, and hospitals. Ms Sturgeon will argue that the Tory minister must increase capital spending to “build our way out of recession”.”

“Building” is a leftist euphemism, it means spending.  Where does the money for all this “building” comes from? Magic money trees, perhaps? The SNP are playing to the notion that you can spend your way out of recession. This is populist with the delusionist tendency but lethal.

Renowned Scottish windbag and SNP Leader Alex Salmond  has called the current United Kingdom a “nonsense” that will cease to exist in 2014 despite opinion polls showing falling support for Scottish separation.

I suppose the argument goes that the younger you are the more likely you are to hold left wing views and vote for left wing parties.

David Cameron today prepared to hand over powers which will give 16-year-olds the vote in the Scottish independence referendum. However, despite the concession to the Nationalists, he vowed to fight to preserve the United Kingdom ‘with everything we’ve got’.  At a meeting on Monday the Prime Minister will agree to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond’s demands that 16 and 17-year-old Scots should be given a vote on independence.

Lowering the voting age to 16 is a sop to the SNP. The quid pro quo is that there will be only ONE question on the referendum form. But this is pure folly since it creates precedence. If 16 year olds can vote in Scotland, why not in England, Wales and Northern Ireland? Cameron is establishing a principle that HIS Party will live to regret. Naturally, the hope is that the younger they are the less likely they are to exercise their vote but that is more of an aspiration than a strategy.

And I think it is bad in Northern Ireland!

It is said that Edinburgh is “the Athens of the North” and clearly the SNP government intend to turn the rest of Scotland into Greece;

Scotland’s finance minister yesterday pledged to introduce higher salaries for public servants and extra funds for schools, housing and the ‘green economy’. The £180million spending boost was laid out in a draft budget by John Swinney, who claimed Scotland had been given a ‘particularly challenging’ financial settlement by Westminster. The Scottish finance secretary said his government is maintaining the free prescription and no tuition fees policies for those north of the border. Mr Swinney, a Scottish National Party politician, said the two-year pay freeze for public sector workers on more than £21,000 would be lifted with ‘a modest 1 per cent increase’ for those earning up to £80,000.

Now, you may ask, how is all this fiscal  largesse possible? I mean Scotland is as exposed to the chill wind of global recession as the rest of the world so you might wonder where all the CASH comes from to enable this “boost”. The answer is simple – ENGLAND.  Under the Barnett formula, Scotland creams off a disproportionate amount of cash from the UK Exchequer. Scottish Nationalism is all about spending English taxes. And they want to become Independent! Oh and as for “Scottish Oil”..well, that is as credible an international entity as the Loch Ness Monster.

The nationalist tyrants in devolved Governments show their true fascist colours….this time by increasing the minimum price of alcohol. For our own good, naturally.

“The Scottish Government has announced it wants to set a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol. The measure is predicted to save 500 lives a year, and will see the price of a standard bottle of wine at 12.5% volume set at a minimum of £4.69 in Scotland, compared to £2.99 for the cheapest bottle of plonk in England. The proposals raise the prospect of cross-border booze raids from Scots who wish to avoid paying up to two and a half times the current price of alcohol. The price of a can of strong cider will rise from 45p to at least £1.17 under the planned changes.”

I would be interested to understand the scientific basis for the “save 500 lives a year” claim. This is just blatant Nanny Statism, although if my information is correct, Buckfast, that drink de jour for the drinking class, will not be effected. It’s enough to drive you to drink. That said, I expect all off-licenses along the border should see a boom in business as we see the booze cruise to England! Hoots mon, but Salmond and his tyrannical crew really haven’t thought this one through. They sh

This amused me greatly and it is a great instance of the law of unintended consequences.

Thousands of English and Welsh students will be able to claim free tuition at Scottish universities by claiming Irish grandparents, it was revealed today. Last week, it emerged that students from Northern Ireland could avoid fees by taking dual Republic of Ireland citizenship and applying as EU students, which would result in them having their fees paid under European equality law. The Scottish Government played down the development, saying it would only apply to a small number of students.

HOWEVER….and this is the hilarious bit;

Nearly 625,000 people living in England and Wales claimed Irish ethnicity in the 2001 census – and as many as six million across the UK are estimated to have at least one Irish grandparent. In some cases, even UK residents with an Irish great-grandparent could apply for an Irish passport.

Alex Salmond proves that Nationalism leads to humour by-pass.