Devolution is good for your health

Calton is very glad he lives in a devolved Scotland, with the announcement today that prescription charges in England are going to rise to £8.05 in April this year. Yes, he knows that some people can well afford to pay for their medicine but there is increasing evidence that the high cost of prescriptions, particularly for people with chronic conditions such as asthma, coupled with a drive to limit the amount GPs prescribe in one go, is having a real negative impact on the health of the working poor - those who earn just enough to make them ineligible for free prescriptions but not enough to cope with extra expenditure, especially when they are ill. Thank goodness we have a more enlightened attitude here in Scotland and we didn't need to be independent to implement it.

If this is Utopia, no thankyou

It may well be sensible, reasonable, logical, etc, etc for the rUK to be in a sterling currency union with us post-indy but the noises coming from England and Wales are not positive at the moment. It would inspire more confidence if the SNP listened to those noises, rather than ignoring them, and answered the questions the noises generate, such as the one posed by Drew Smith at Holyrood this afternoon (35 mins in), instead of ducking the issue, as the Deputy First Minister did.

Calton has still to digest the contents of the White Paper (literally) but one thing did stand out today and that is the SNP's nightmare vision of an independent Scotland bankrolled by the taxes of women freed from the drudgery of caring for their own children by increased state provision of nurserycare, which will, in turn, provide 35,000 low paid jobs for women, caring for other women's children while their mothers work in the modern equivalent of the old mills - call centres and warehouses. The irony of it all seemed, unfortunately, to be lost on Ms Sturgeon as she enthusiastically presented this Utopia that could be ours, if we vote yes. Yet another reason to vote NO.

Precious metal

As long as it is possible to do, as Calton did today, and walk into a Scottish scrapyard with a few bits of copper pipe (which he found in his loft) and get £3 per kg cash with no questions asked, idiots will continue to risk not only their own lives but those of others in pursuit of a quick quid. Calton was under the impression that the Scottish Government was going to bring licensing of scrap metal merchants into line with that of England and Wales but it doesn't seem to have happened yet. "Bring it on" is all he can say, a sentiment probably echoed by the residents of Greenock, not to mention communities across the north of England where metal theft is high due to the ease of shipping the stuff north over the border for conversion into cash. Alex Salmond likes to think that an independent Scotland would attract business but Calton doubts he was thinking of the illegal cross-border scrap metal trade. This is one area where having the same approach as England and Wales would definitely be a good thing.

Calton's New Year Homily

If you accept an offer of employment from a company, you need to abide by the conditions of employment imposed by that company. If you don't like them, you are free to find another job. If you want to join a political party, you need to subscribe to the beliefs of that particular party. Otherwise, don't join. If your interest is knitting, don't join the local motorcycle gang and expect them to abandon their bikes in favour of knitting needles. We all understand that. So why do people who don't accept the Bible's teaching on homosexuality join organisations which are based on the teachings of the Bible? No-one is forcing them to do so - they have a choice. There's nothing to stop them forming their own organisations based on their own beliefs. Perhaps Calton is being simplistic but it seems to him that if you don't like the rules of the group, find another group or start your own. If everyone adopted that philosophy, the Church of England would not be in its current ridiculous position vis-a-vis homosexual Bishops. Alternatively, if the CofE were not so hell-bent on maintaining unity, it would have split long ago and both sides could now be concentrating on other more important things. There's a limit to how diverse an organisation can be before it loses its fundamental cohesiveness and/or its raison d'etre. It is maybe presumptuous of Calton to pontificate on the problems of the CofE since he is not a member of that, or indeed any, church, however, if he was able to give advice to His Grace, who has temporarily taken over the reins at Lambeth Palace, it would be to acknowledge the fault lines which already exist and pave the way for an amicable split. Because this is one of the few instances where divorce really is better than continued bickering.

Staying in the EU is nonsense

It just does not make sense for the SNP to keep complaining that, as part of the UK, they do not have all the fiscal levers needed to help the economy, while all the while they are determined to stay/become part of the EU if Scotland becomes independent, especially in the light of Frau Merkel's most recent comments in which she stated that the EU should have "real rights to intervene in national budgets". Which of those seven rather frightening words does Alex Salmond not understand? Is it only unacceptable to the SNP when England intervenes in Scottish affairs but it's OK if Europe does it? Who would you rather have sticking an oar into our budget - England or Germany? Calton would rather have the former any day of the week. If our First Minister truly wants independence he needs to go for our own bank and our own currency and stay out of the EU. Anything else is just nonsense.

Aye right Willie!

According to Willie Rennie, his party is making an impact on Scottish politics. Eh? What on earth gave him that idea? Just what policies have the Scottish Libdems influenced in this parliamentary session? They are having about as much impact on the SNP as a snowflake. (Now Calton is aware that a lot of snowflakes can make quite a snowstorm but 5 MSPs is hardly critical mass.) Alex Salmond has no bother brushing the Libdem leader's questions off at FMQs and with the SNP's majority government Rennie hasn't a snowball's chance of making a difference. His attempt to mobilise moderate England in support of the Union is unlikely to do him any favours up here either. That's the whole point of the independence debate - self-determination for Scotland rather than being told what to do by England. Doh! It seems that only a desire to spite his opponents is stopping Rennie and his party in their slide into self-annihilation.

Disabled paying for blue badge fraud

As Calton has said before, Scotland leads the way with its policy of free prescriptions, however we are lagging behind the rest of the UK when it comes to charging for disabled blue badges. Scots are having to pay £20 for a blue badge whereas the charge in England is £10 and in Wales they are free. Calton believes that there should be a crackdown on the abuse and misuse of these badges, which is rife, however for some people they are an absolute necessity and to charge £20 for one seems wrong. It is punishing the innocent for the actions of the guilty. Instead, we should increase the fines for blue badge fraud.