Young people - smarter than the SNP give them credit for?

Calton was very encouraged to hear the young voters asking very pertinent questions and making very salient points in today's independence discussion on Radio Scotland. It is clear that quite a number of young people are not impressed by the lack of information, and, in particular, costings, coming from the SNP Government. They are also not impressed by the SNP party line on the currency union dutifully trotted out by Humza Yousaf. The SNP may have hoped to boost the yes vote by including 16 and 17 year olds but it looks like that might backfire on them if the roasting given to Humza was anything to go by. Those youngsters were not letting him get away with anything and neither was Jim Murphy, who was the clear winner in the discussion, in Calton's opinion. The SNP should really take Jim's advice and admit that not everything in the garden of an independent Scotland is going to be rosy. They would be a lot more credible if they did. Instead, it was the same old refrain of "It's our pound too, if we can't have it we'll not pay our share of the debt." The needle is stuck in a groove of pathetic petulance.

Martha's meals

Good to see Jim Murphy talking about an in-out referendum on our membership of the EU, although postponing it until after the economic crisis ends and the Eurozone stabilises sounds like a kick into the very long grass indeed. So long that Scotland might be independent by the time the rest of the UK gets round to voting on the EU. If that should be the case, will Scottish Labour campaign for an in-out referendum? It would certainly put some clear blue water between themselves and the SNP if they did.

Scotland has long had links with Malawi, and Calton is not just talking about one former Labour First Minister, so it was fitting that the money raised by schoolgirl Martha's blog NeverSeconds should be spent in that country, providing meals and schooling for children. Martha has been on a visit to Malawi to see what their lives are like and you can watch a short video of her trip here. Amazing  what one blog can do.

Mushroom politics

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore looks like he has been attending the Alex Salmond School of Question Evasion, judging by his performance at Scottish Questions earlier today. So now, not only do we not know what independence will mean for vital areas like defence and pensions, we also do not know what we might be offered in terms of devo-max if we vote 'no' to independence. Wonderful. Being kept in the dark and fed a load of manure might be good for mushrooms but it is not the way to treat the electorate. One bombastic, blustering minister is bad enough. Two, on opposing sides, is a nightmare. Come back Jim Murphy - all is forgiven!

Spend, spend, spend

The other thing that worried Calton about Alex Salmond's performance at yesterday's FMQs was the fact that he still doesn't seem to get it when it comes to the necessity for cuts. Labour's Jim Murphy got it, Ed Balls and Ed Milliband now get it but no, not our Alex. He's still following the Gordon Brown strategy of spend, spend and, err, spend. Where are we going to get the money from Alex? Calton thinks we should be told.

Death by 999 cuts

At last - a Labour politician prepared to come out and admit that Labour would have had to make cuts if they were in power. Calton has a lot of time for Jim Murphy, which is more than he can say for a lot of Labour politicians, and Murphy's comments as reported in the Guardian yesterday only serve to strengthen Calton's admiration for the man, even if he doesn't agree with all Murphy's views (notably those on Europe).

It's high time Labour came clean and admitted that the difference between the cuts they would have made, had they remained in power, and the cuts the Coalition government are making is insignificant, compared to the scale of the problem.