I love Wales, and I like Scotland..... So IndyRefs?

I'm British.... If we want to delve further into that I was born in England and can trace an 8th of myself to very strong Irish Ancestry, the rest is a bit of Norfolk and a lot of Nottinghamshire.

As a kid I spent time holidaying in North Wales; and of late I've spent a bit of time holidaying on Anglesey.  I like Wales a lot.

I also like Scotland, I had a lovely friend who is Scottish, I've many acquaintances who are Scottish, and I toured Scotland once with notable stops in Dundee and Edinburgh.

Lately the wife and I have even contemplated moving to either country.

However, the thoughts of moving to Scotland were tempered with all this me-gudgeon about IndyRef2.  Now, I thought the matter was settled in the first, it was a close vote, I think every Scottish National voted; and they were out voted by everyone else; there were even a bunch of apathetic people who didn't even bother to vote and still the nationalists were out numbered.

And to be perfectly honest, I think recent times have taught us you're stronger together.  Doubly (or is that quadrupley?) so in terms of the UK.

So hearing all this hoo-haa about the possibility of another referendum and wanting to put things into perspective I took a look at the Scottish Governments own publications; they make for interesting reading.

And I of course focussed on the economy and how Scotland may fair as an independent unit, my question came down to one of Revenue versus expenditure, and to be perfectly honest if I were a Scot asking for independence I'd be scared stiff.

As an Englishman this is perhaps easy for me to say, and feel free to dismiss me; but I'm talking about the FOI-202200277763 publication of the Scottish Government; where it clearly states that "Around 40 per cent of the Scottish Budget 2020-2021 was funded from revenue raising powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament."

40%? Where does the rest of the 60% to keep the country afloat arrive in the coffers from?  "a block grant from the UK Government".

Right, so a lot of money goes into Scotland which it itself can't afford to provide, and I've taken a look, no-one; not one single party calling for IndyRef2 has an answer to this problem.  Indeed they don't ask it, and I find that so very worrying.

I'd even proffer my own opinion that is I, or anyone in Whitehall, asked the question they would have a decorative Shortbread tin stuffed down their gullet faster than you can say "Nicola Sturgeon".

So how do these politicians pulling on the strings of Nationalist Sympathy think the money will come from?  Honestly, I can only believe they think the UK would continue to stump up the cash; forgetting there would be no more UK.

The United Kingdom would cease to exist.

There would be Scotland and then the rest of the Kingdom; England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Assuming the latter did not continue to fund Scotland, which I believe they would in some way, but assuming that "we" didn't what would the Scottish Expenditure Portfolio become?

Well, I believe Health and Sport would take a hit, particularly Sport.   Quite what the split is between the two is not made clear in 202200277763.  But I think sport would go.

Communities and Local Government is the next big ticket item; well there would not be any "Local" in Government, there would just be the Scottish Government; but does that necessarily spell a saving?  I don't think so, for there would suddenly be a requirement for institutions to facilitate the functions of state.  For example, the Bank of Scotland would have to issue actual currency, Passports, Drivers licensing and control; so many things assumed to cost zero to Scotland today as they're provided services of the state would have to migrate and be picked up by Scotland.

Indeed in the current portfolio "Government Business and Constitutional Relations" shows as zero; because there is none, that cost would sky rocket; more so in a hostile departure from the Acts of Union.

Similarly the "Audit Scotland" would rise, Scottish Parliament too... So many things.

And I can only see the people of Scotland suffering, or the people remaining in the Union being forced to bail out the situation; so I don't get it.

Personally I do not get it, I do not see any need for England, or Wales, to depart the Union, and neither can I see this for Scotland.  It's almost an emotional reaction from some Scots, that they want to be independent, but asking them quite what that means, it means they want the status quo AND freedom; but looking at the books that can't happen.

Whatever your thoughts mine are quite sad, I'm personally strongly against moving to Scotland with this question poised as it is.  I would only move to Scotland if it were part of the Union anyway.

My References:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200277763/

https://www.gov.scot/policies/government-finance/setting-the-scottish-budget/

https://yourviews.parliament.scot/finance/scotland-public-finances-23-24/

https://fraserofallander.org/scottish-budget-guide/

https://ifs.org.uk/articles/scotlands-underlying-public-finances-are-improving-oil-and-gas-revenues-rise-long-term

Menstruation is Normal, in 1989 everyone knew, yet not today?

I'm going to come back to this again... In 1989, in a dusty second floor science room at what was Top Valley Comprehensive School I sat down with my then classmates and we had our first sex-education lesson.  Mr Simpson the (unfortunately) body odour riddled and forever exacerbated physics teacher had to teach us young folk about masturbation and menstruation, and ultimately where babies arrive from.

Not one picture of a stalk was had, not one allusion to fact, not one sugar coating, we had a video of (admittedly a cartoon of) a boy holding his penis and the narrator saying it's okay for this to feel good.  We had a young lady (again a cartoon) fondle herself and we were again told this was normal, we were shown putting condoms onto bananas to everyone's mirth as we'd mostly all seen and even used condoms before... This is Top Valley Estate bruv.

And the last part of this talk was about periods.  We were all told all girls start to have periods, it is normal, we were taught about pads, tampons and even moon cups.  We were told, point blank, about how much menstrual blood a girl should expect; and I remember a fair few of my female class mates blankly stating they would say that a vastly conservative estimate.

THIS IS 1989...

Let me make that clear, nineteen eighty-nine.

So, why the hell are articles like this appearing in 2018?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-42871791

I am utterly baffled and confused by this... Was my school vastly a head of its time?  I don't think we were, we were a daggy comprehensive intended to turn our plasterers, car mechanics and dust-bin men.  It was not an Engineering specialist (read that as "turning out car mechanics") as it is now as an rebuilt academy.

What on Earth has happened in this time?

What has the Department of Education been up to?  How can I go back and check the 1989 Personal and Social education syllabus I was enrolled upon against today's?  Because I remember this episode.

I remember it as it made me vaguely uncomfortable, a period was something my mother had, with her big box of giant canoe like panty liners.  The pretty girls in class with me, they didn't have them, "old women" had them.  It was a genuine surprise, and it is one of the few times during my secondary education where I remember being taught something.

So why are kids today not being taught the same thing?  Again, why this retrograde step?

Computing Education 2017

Here in the UK there have been several waves of trying to educate new generations as to the art of compute science, this started when I was a boy with the BBC Computer Literacy project and concluded soon after with a drought of interest from non-technical educators and politicians a like through until fairly recently.

The BBC reports that there has been a low amount of uptake of new Computer Science GCSE studies.

And I can believe this, however the neither the BBC nor government seems to even point as to why this is, they talk about pupil disengagement or lack of interest.

I however contend that the government and educators and indeed the BBC completely fail to spot the elephant in the room, kids study not for jobs or skills, however they do study what is emphasised, IT has always been an "also ran" topic, it's not Maths, nor English nor seemingly as important in appearance as any other topic out there.

In my day this was the case because few understood computing, today however it seems IT is still an unimportant subject, today it's seen as unimportant because of it's ubiquitity.  Kids see easy to use computers, they walk around with them on their wrists, on their pockets, they are the always online generation.  If they need now know how to do more than turn the wifi on why should they care?

Likewise the educators see using a modern computer as easy, so why should it be a subject of study really?

And finally, the basest of problems, is the employers, if employers are willing to employ a programmer who studied horticulture, why should one study computing?  If the employer will take on an IT support operative who has no qualifications but whom is handy with a screw driver and knows how to plug the right parts of a PC together, then why should they bother to get formal qualifications?

Ultimately, for computing to be taken seriously, you need a passion for it, you also however need a reason to study it, and until that reason exists in the form of accessible all tier jobs that actually require a formal computing qualification there is little hope in pushing back up the chain to educators or government that computing is important and needs to be studied.

RAF Typhoon Retirement - Disgrace!

I am shocked and appalled to read that the number of RAF fighters is to drop to an all time low, not least because part of the fleet being retired is the first tranche of Euro-fighter Typhoon jets.... Now, I have a long history with the Euro-fighter, I actually "flew" it in 1994, that is I played the EF2000 Simulator on my Pentium 60Mhz PC at the time... And we expected this amazing new jet to enter service soon...

But soon was almost a joke, the first jets only reached RAF hands on the 9th August 2007... Just look at those dates again... 1994 to 2007... That's eleven years... Eleven years from a simulated touted version, it was for a long time meant to be the new fighter for the RAF to take them into the new millennium, it was the Euro-fighter 2000, then the Euro-fighter Typhoon 2000, and then when the calendar over marched progress on production it became just the Typhoon... And still even more years before it was in squadron hands.

Before the computer game, the real aircraft had finally taken it's first flight just a couple of years before in 1994, but it had been touted as in design for a decade at least by then already!  I'd seen news of it at Farnborough for year upon year, but that plane never wanted to appear.

What's this got to do with today's cuts in 2015?... Well, they're retiring 53 of the first tranche of Typhoons... So those planes delivered in just 2007... That's about the same age as my car... This is a total disgrace!  Just shy of twelve years service, and they're binning them, we don't have dry deserts in which to moth ball aircraft, we don't have hermetically sealed hangars, so these planes are going to be dumped, scrapped, destroyed.

We already lost our fast-jet fleet ability pending the even more delayed F35B, and now we're throwing away Typhoons!

This is senseless... Ridiculous, and perilous with Russian aircraft buzzing our borders!

BBC Story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33618484)

Pissed Okay, Tranny No Way...?

Yes this is hot news, Russia has decided that if you're a Transexual or Transgender, which are regarded in society here as normal states or conditions, which people struggle with and which people over come and live perfectly normal lives throughout... But Russia has decided being a chick with a dick, or a bloke wanting a fanny means you can't drive...

I wonder if they'll do away with all the ARM chips they use over there, since Sophie Wilson, the venerable creator of that technology, one of the creators of the BBC Micro in fact would be classified as not being able to drive in Russia (her having been born Roger Wilson).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30735673

It just makes me a little bit sick, I've seen video (mostly dashboard cam footage) of Russian traffic accidents, you can see 90% of them include ludicrous idiocy and vodka whilst the other 10% are just Ice & Snow related... Never have I seen a tranny (with or without fanny) crash in one of these videos, but I've seen many skin-head types jump out and brawl, I've seen many farmer looking lumps hiccup and spill empty Vodka bottles over the road.

No, Russia is just getting strange now, and I have to say it reflects the mind of that megalomaniac moron Putin, it really does.

Hey Putin, you're nuts, just for the record.

All this from a Russia conducting a covert War in the Ukraine...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30739110

Pot Holes

Do you know what annoys the shit out of me about this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17376556

All the pot-holes I've seen on the road are caused by their being seams in the surface dug by utility companies or other road-maintenance tasks... So we're talking about the likes of Severn Trent, Virgin Media, The National Grid, British Gas.. Infact, pick any utility company you want, just close your eyes and point into the yellow pages and voila there's one of the bastards.

So, whilst we the tax payers are lumbered paying our road tax, its not going to fund fixing the roads, its off doing god alone knows what.  Councils are paying for holes which other profiteering bastards created.

I swear its so annoying... Broad Lane in Brinsley was recently resurfaced, and what a joy it is to drive on now, but it was rutted by a great swathe of surface cuttings all the way along to the brow of its hill by some utility company (most likely Severn Trent in that case).

There are other fantastic examples of this problem, I'm sure you've seen dozens of these.

Another great example was the A52, this was resurfaced from the QMC Island all the way down to Priory Island... Within a week of it being finished... the surface was being cut into by a utility company, British Gas in that case... I will bet my bottom dollar that the surface starts to break up not on the original surfacing, but around this bastard work by British Gas.

And I'm tired of it, I think these utility companies should be charged for doing duff-fill-ins... If Roads have to be of a "Standard" as the report suggests, I suggest that cuttings into the surface have to be of that (or a higher) standard!