Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

Shakethedisease

.string. wrote: »

@Hamish - is that underspend cumulative? In other words, do the SNP have a "War Chest" a-building?

No.

This year, the Scottish Government has managed to spend 98.95% of their budget without pushing it over.

...This all brings up another question though. What happens to the unspent money?

Well, two things can happen. Between 1999 and 2007 the Labour led governments, which also ran underspends in each of its years in power, simply returned the unspent funds to the UK Government. By the time the SNP came to power in 2007 these funds had totaled £1.5 billion [page 9 here]. The SNP negotiated for the funds to be returned over a period of the following four years. Since then, the underspent funds have been rolled over into the following year’s budget (of course, given that there will inevitably be an underspend in that year too this doesn’t automatically translate to increased budgets. Merely an avoidance of budget cuts).

https://thecommongreen.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/we-need-to-talk-about-budget-underspends/

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

No.

You cannot deny however that the SNP cut the bridge maintenance funds and also underspent it's transport and infrastructure budget.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

An interesting infographic.

Scotland - High spending low contributions

London/SE - Low spending high contributions

Leanne1812

Shakethedisease wrote: »

No.

https://thecommongreen.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/we-need-to-talk-about-budget-underspends/

Do I detect some faint praise here for SNP? Or am I just imagining it.....

I remember reading this article a couple of months ago and I found it informative.

Big oops! I thought Hamish had posted this. My brain nearly exploded in the confusion. Apologies Shakes.

wotsthat

Shakethedisease wrote: »

The Scottish media really is grasping at straws now. A 50 year old bridge at the end of it's life, never built for the volume of traffic it gets today... needs constant repairs due to metal fatigue.

How is the age of the bridge relevant to Mr. MacKay's truthfulness?

.string.

Shakethedisease wrote: »

The Scottish media really is grasping at straws now. A 50 year old bridge at the end of it's life, never built for the volume of traffic it gets today... needs constant repairs due to metal fatigue. The SNP knew it wouldn't hold out, and despite repeat condemnation through the last 8 years, from all of the other parties.. are building a new one.

I hope Labour do get their inquiry. Since it will show fully how inept they've been over the years regarding the FRB. Not least by refusing repeatedly to consider building a replacement. And handing a huge billion pound underspend back to Westminster which could've been used towards repairs when they were in power.

Ps The helicopter is rented for a few weeks at at time I believe. And paid for out of SNP money.

What that witless Sturgeon does not understand is that a Maintenance Budget is meant to maintain, not just used to patch up. A major aim is to prevent failures. The failure happened "on her watch" and yet, rather that show some humility and recognise that the buck stopped with her and therefore apologise for the considerable inconvenience, instead out comes the pathetic excuses and the attempt to put blame on others who had nothing to do with the decision she made. Yes she made I repeat, it was her responsibility, but there again she tries to hide behind someone else.

I'm not a great fan of token resignations, but I do think that expressions of regret are entirely appropriate in this case.

It's all part of the "see no evil etc. etc. " mentality. She lacks the political courage to admit to mistakes.

Shame on her, and her parroting acolytes.

skintmacflint

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Well plenty of other people were fired up about it's 'uniqueness' enough to donate £200,000. But don't Carmichael and public opinion ( that isn't yours so it must be wrong )..get in the way of your own 'high horse' its all the SNP's fault' postings.

It's unique because there was a court case about the 'honorable' Mr Carmichael MP's conduct during the election. 3 out of 3 points had to be proved without doubt. The court case sided with the Orkney group in 2 of those. 1) that he had mislead and 2 ) that he had did so in a way to attempt to affect the outcome of an election... it was only 3 ) that he'd mislead in a 'personal' capacity.. rather than a political one that wasn't proven beyond doubt. Skin of teeth stuff.

If it doesn't interest you. Then do feel free to refrain from any further comment on how much it doesn't interest you.

Here you go again getting all defensive, and sort of shriekey to the extent you're now imagining things. Show me where I said it was SNPs fault, in any of the 2 posts I made. I simply said I didn't find anything about it inspiring, unique or even interesting. But in the hyper vigilant twitchy noisey bubble of a minority of SNP/Yes supporters, which I'm beginning to think you must inhabit , it simply can't be tolerated for anyone to have a general viewpoint which doesn't fit in with the SNP/Yes narrative.

Yes about 10,000 donations have been made to this fund, and as some have donated sums of £100, obviously they must have been interested or felt inspired. The other 22,000 constituents of Orkeny obviously weren't so inspired or interested, nor was the the other 3,990,000 of th electorate either for that matter. But don't let the cold hard facts of that matter get in your way here.

The Regius Professor of Law at Glasgow University well known for his sarcastic ironic comments recently tweeted referring to some comments being made about Carmichael
'ATTENTION PARENTS ' How have 'you' dealt with telling your children the awful truth about Alistair Carmichael' , in relation to a Herald headline and comments about the subject.

The past few weeks have been difficult for SNP, seems to be one thing after another. And some of Sturgeons new and existing MPs/MSPS aren't making life any easier for her. The bridge is just the latest to come up. More is coming shortly. My primary concern for the minute is with the commuters and in particular with the engineers currently suspended in mid air in atrocius weather trying to sort this problem.

SNP will likely be blamed for this. They are the government, and were in charge when decisions were made, on maintenance, bridge toll removal and budget cutting. Sturgeon will need to tread very carefully.

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

You cannot deny however that the SNP cut the bridge maintenance funds and also underspent it's transport and infrastructure budget.

Your supposed to be an informed economist. If some bloke on a random blog can explain why ALL Scottish Governments since Holyrood's inception have underspends and what happens to them in very.basic.language.

Then am quite at a loss as to why you don't understand it. You're supposed to know about this sort of stuff. Obviously not. :eek:

Shakethedisease

wotsthat wrote: »

How is the age of the bridge relevant to Mr. MacKay's truthfulness?

Nothing to do with him. He's probably been more caught up with building the new one. On time, and within budget, from public funds ( none of that PFI nonsense ).

I must've missed the part whereby qualified engineers take structural and technical advice directly from the SNP.

Shakethedisease

.string. wrote: »

What that witless Sturgeon does not understand is that a Maintenance Budget is meant to maintain, not just used to patch up. A major aim is to prevent failures. The failure happened "on her watch" and yet, rather that show some humility and recognise that the buck stopped with her and therefore apologise for the considerable inconvenience, instead out comes the pathetic excuses and the attempt to put blame on others who had nothing to do with the decision she made. Yes she made I repeat, it was her responsibility, but there again she tries to hide behind someone else.

I'm not a great fan of token resignations, but I do think that expressions of regret are entirely appropriate in this case.

It's all part of the "see no evil etc. etc. " mentality. She lacks the political courage to admit to mistakes.

Shame on her, and her parroting acolytes.

I honestly think you need to take a few deep breaths. I'm afraid the union isn't going to be saved due to the Forth Road Bridge being shut down. The SNP aren't responsible for every, single, thing that ever, ever, ever goes wrong in Scotland.

That's where Labour IS going very wrong up here. They all sound like you a bit. I've already said that I hope Labour do get a full inquiry.