The main cause of the troubles in Ireland was due to the fact that Paisley & his cohorts wanted to be seen as a seperate country not ruled from Westminster, but at the same time, kept the protection of the crown.

Neither Dublin or Westminster would allow this & as such, Ireland still sees it as a colony.

What would Eire like to see happen, Sirius?

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The Kite Fliers

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Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

All 32 counties fly the Irish Tricolour.

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All 32 counties fly the Irish Tricolour.

Understandable....I'd still like to see the whole of the UK form under one
name and drop those individual country names. Then we could have the
top half known as the High Lands, the bottom half as the Low Lands and the
Welsh part becoming known as the West lands...or something like that, then with
the middle region of Britain becoming known as the Home Lands.. One wounders
had the Romans hung around long enough that perhaps this would have come about
in time.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Sirius -- wait a decade or two, demographics might make the vote in the six countries support that. Then they can join the Eurozone <smile>

[quote]I'd still like to see the whole of the UK form under one name and drop those individual country names. Then we could have the top half known as the High Lands, the bottom half as the Low Lands and the Welsh part becoming known as the West lands...or something like that, then with the middle region of Britain becoming known as the Home Lands..

Ye gods, you are showing your age ...... Next you'll be advocating scrapping Radio 1 and returning to Home, Light, and Third. Oh and Radio Luxembourg. I can just hear it now ...

...This is...London...2LO calling......

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

All 32 counties fly the Irish Tricolour.

Are you sure, at the moment the UK government has to deal with the six counties which are mainly protestant but with some troublesome Roman Catholics.

If those six counties were to join the south, then the Irish government, which has strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic church, would have to deal with 6 counties where the predominent faith is not in line with the government and might become unruly.

To be frank WK, not really bothered one way or the other, but since Independance is being bandied about by the Welsh, Scots & possibly the Channel Islands, which god forbid, if that ever happened, England will have no right to the 6 counties as they were orginally taken by force not by law.

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To be frank WK, not really bothered one way or the other, but since Independance is being bandied about by the Welsh, Scots & possibly the Channel Islands, which god forbid, if that ever happened, England will have no right to the 6 counties as they were orginally taken by force not by law.

Someone had better tell them that there's not much demand these days for their coal any more.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

This has been ignored lately, but I see a statement by the EC,

European Commission: Separate Scotland forced to reapply for EU membership

Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission (EC), said that any new nation state will have to apply for membership under international law.

This would mean a separate Scotland having to sign up to the euro and the Schengen Agreement, which permits free movement without passport checks, unless it can secure its own version of the UK’s opt-outs.

This apparently could take years, and what currency would they use whilst in transition. If they used the pound they would still effectively be under Whitehall control.

Nice & I like the final comment: -

"A spokesman for the Better Together referendum campaign to keep Scotland part of the UK said: “We now have it straight from the horse’s mouth. The SNP’s assertion that we would be granted automatic entry has proven to be, like so many of their arguments, a baseless assertion".

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European Commission: Separate Scotland forced to reapply for EU membership

Are we left to believe that Salmond thought that with Scotland's' supposed
automatic succession into the ECM this would lead to a gravy train of grants
coming to Scotland so supporting it's economy? If he believed that Scotland's
economy was strong enough to support independence then why is he not looking
at Scotland running it's own currency plus arranging full trade agreements with
the ECM. The latter obviously would mean that Scotland would not have access
to ECM grants. The picture is quite clear, Scotland's economy is not strong enough
to support it under independence without financial support either coming from the
UK? or the ECM. If the report above is factually correct, with respect to
Scotland's ECM membership position, then it looks like they won't be in a
position to be able to go for independence now....not that the Scottish electorate
would have voted for it any way....

....as Chris would say, "Cometh the hour, cometh the man", but for this hour
though....not for Alex Salmond.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Looks like they don't want to know........

1000's at rally

....what they're letting themselves in for.

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Sorry Alex, your young people don't like what you're doing....

Scottish teenagers say NO!

& with this view, i don't blame them! Anyone see a "skinny" politician?

Salmond spends £370,00 on entertaining

& from that picture, it looks like the guests had the scraps from his table!

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I will tell you what strikes me is the line "MP's can claim up to £400 a month on food without providing receipts!

WHY?

When I was working away from home(only time I could claim for food) I had to provide receipts for everything! If I didn't I didn't get paid.

I have no problem with MP's claiming expenses correctly incurred but surely a receipt is required to prove you actually spent the money!

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That was always the case 25 years ago with National Utilities Bernie. As a Level 1 Manager I could claim a flat rate subsistence allowance for an overnight stay away from Headquarters. You could get a cheap B&B for 1/2 that. Later on the Accountants wised up and you could only claim out of pocket expenses backed up by receipts.

It should apply to Parliament as well, and the sooner the better. Again this is another one of those traditional perks of the job that just isn't acceptable any more.

I realise it USED to happen, I worked for Post Office Telephones before it was BT and even after you got flat rate subsistence without receipts. That was a long time ago and the world has changed. It makes me wonder just how many other "Civil Servants" still have this "perk".

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So Alex, when you get your independence, do you still expect this to happen?

9/10 Jocks living off the state

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So Alex, when you get your independence, do you still expect this to happen?

9/10 Jocks living off the state

You forgot to add; Planning for the future

and Scotland can no longer afford free university tuition and free prescriptions and council tax frezes.

Hee! Hee!

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

Referendum deal agreed

So we can expect an EU referendum at the same time then Butch?

In the meantime, I'm heading up to Scotland for a Modern English university course as Old English is seen as offensive.

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In the meantime, I'm heading up to Scotland for a Modern English university course as Old English is seen as offensive.

Which University and which course? Is it residential, and how much are the fees? Got a date for registration?

Trinity College Dublin.

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