Where's Red Celt when you want a laugh!?

[mistermack]

It's all shuffling deckchairs and organising the quoits tournament. The corporations are on the bridge.

...and 70% of the bridge is located in London, New York, Tokyo and Frankfurt.

Yeh but, it's not really them who have us by the balls.
It's the people with the gigantic lumps of capital. The other guys just work for them.

Hey, when I mentioned London, New York, Tokyo and Frankfurt, I was alluding to the stock exchanges where owners of capital do their wheeling and dealing. And Clinton Huxley didn't mention "the other guys just work for them" either, as far as I can tell.

That's all I was saying. It's not the stock exchanges, it's those who OWN the vast lumps of capital.
I doubt if they ever go near a stock exchange. They pay people to do all that.

The only way that people could end the cycle is to stop borrowing. But you can't even do that, because your government borrows on your behalf. As do the people who sell you everything you buy.
And if you want a roof over your head, you either pay an exorbitant price for it because everybody BORROWS to buy, pushing prices up. Or you pay highly inflated rents, because of inflated house prices.
And it's all down to the drug of easy borrowing.

[Hermit]

It's not the stock exchanges, it's those who OWN the vast lumps of capital.

No kidding? And what makes you think anyone was referring to the people doing the paperwork at those exchanges?

The only way that people could end the cycle is to stop borrowing. But you can't even do that, because your government borrows on your behalf. As do the people who sell you everything you buy.
And if you want a roof over your head, you either pay an exorbitant price for it because everybody BORROWS to buy, pushing prices up. Or you pay highly inflated rents, because of inflated house prices.
And it's all down to the drug of easy borrowing.

Yes, and thank you, captain obvious. Borrowing has been around for at least 4000 years. If farmers needed help to tide them over until the next harvest it's most unlikely that we can do without financial leverage today or any time in the future.

[DaveDodo007]

While I don't doubt the sincerity of the posters here I do think there is some anti-Englishness in the Scottish psyche. One example is why do you hate our national footy team, it's not like we wont lose anyway without a third to half of Scottish footy fans willing it. Scotland has had a great impact on the world and that is because of the union. You would be just another Belgium without it, with England being another Portugal. This is why I want a yes vote to happen, not that that would still stop quite a number of Scotland's people blaming England for most of their woes. I'm just sick and tried of it to be honest and after a yes vote It wont bother me any more.

[Svartalf]

Portugal used to be a major colonial power, for all that the country always was in the shadow of Spain.

[mistermack]

Portugal used to be a major colonial power, for all that the country always was in the shadow of Spain.

So was Belgium, I think. And Belgian colonial rule was one of the worst, according to what I've gleaned about the Congo.

[Svartalf]

Portugal had Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, and I suspect minor possessions around India and Eastern Asia, whatever the Dutch did not steal from them... That's a lot more than the Belgian Congo, which itself was not much compared to French and britich posse'ssions in Africa.

[mistermack]

Portugal had Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, and I suspect minor possessions around India and Eastern Asia, whatever the Dutch did not steal from them... That's a lot more than the Belgian Congo, which itself was not much compared to French and britich posse'ssions in Africa.

True, but Belgium is tiny. The Congo is about eighty times the size of Belgium.

[Svartalf]

Portugal is not that big either... (ok, 2.5 times as big as Belgium)

[mistermack]

I can't imagine that Belgium made much money out of the Congo.
The infra-structure wasn't there to get big industries up and running. Bit of rubber growing. That was simple enough to do on a rural basis.

[Hermit]

I can't imagine that Belgium made much money out of the Congo.

Leopold II made a fortune out of the rubber plantations, copper mines and stuff like that.

[Rum]

While I don't doubt the sincerity of the posters here I do think there is some anti-Englishness in the Scottish psyche. One example is why do you hate our national footy team, it's not like we wont lose anyway without a third to half of Scottish footy fans willing it. Scotland has had a great impact on the world and that is because of the union. You would be just another Belgium without it, with England being another Portugal. This is why I want a yes vote to happen, not that that would still stop quite a number of Scotland's people blaming England for most of their woes. I'm just sick and tried of it to be honest and after a yes vote It wont bother me any more.

A good point and the best I have come across for telling them to fuck off and find their own road to hell. The amount of whining I hear from the pro Independence lobby and Scots generally aimed in the direction of the English is a pain in the arse.

[mistermack]

A good point and the best I have come across for telling them to fuck off and find their own road to hell. The amount of whining I hear from the pro Independence lobby and Scots generally aimed in the direction of the English is a pain in the arse.

I blame Gordon Brown for all of it. That Scottish Parliament was the big mistake, and I'm sure it was his baby. Even if it wasn't I still blame him.
Fuckin stupid idea.
I would scrap it tomorrow, and make it a Scottish NEC. Might get back some of the wasted money.

[Svartalf]

NEC? some kind of stock exchange?

[mistermack]

NEC? some kind of stock exchange?

No, a National Exhibition Centre, like the one in Birmingham.

[Svartalf]

All you'd get is even more whining from the Scots, including those that are satisfied by the degree of autonomy currently provided by the Holyrood thing.