Scottish Referendum debate - watch with Mumsnet

The bedroom tax is a really silly policy, I agree. If (as the various MPs claimed) it was about freeing up social housing then it should have been enforced more through policy than punishment. There are some people "hogging" big houses and I personally think it is probably right to encourage them to downsize, especially in areas where housing is scarce.

But for many areas it's not going to work. Edinburgh has something ridiculous like 90 odd 1 bedroom flats coming available each year and 5000 chasing them (disclaimer, I can't remember the definite stats but they were properly nuts!)

I'd have said an approach where, if you were deemed to be in too big a house then you have to go on the housing list for a smaller property/bid for smaller houses depending on the approach in your area. If you don't bid/turn down properties - then some sort of "ok, you have to pay the difference" approach seems reasonable. But the reality is many places don't have the properties for people to move to.

anything

They shouldn't have to mitigate the bedroom tax though, imposed by Westminster even though it was rejected by majority of Scottish MP's.

Labour Party in Wales haven't done scything about it at all.

Surely the Scottish government could have paid the extra subsidy to those who lost it with the Housing benefit changes - same cost to them as paying the extra benefit - they could even have raised taxes to pay for it.

"He's pretty easy on the eye as well. "

Ha, you're no kidding FannyFifer!! He's gorgeous!

I think he sees himself as a bit of a laydeez man, very flirty. Hence the book title I suppose!

He's pretty easy on the eye as well.

It was a full house when I was at his show last week. It was hilarious take on the referendum and both the yes and no voters had equal amounts of piss taken out of them.

Yes, the reviews have been good, would be interested to see it.

The Pure the Dead and the Brilliant was extremely well written (his show at the Festival this year).

I'm a fan of Death of a Ladies' Man. Very well written.

Oh I know all about him and his work, met him several times in a work capacity. He's a nice guy, very bright, very entertaining, I just thought that tweet was a bit ridiculous.

Speaking of Alan Bissett, I thought his tweet the other day was a bit silly 'Finding these days that I feel more in common with English people voting Yes than with Scottish people voting No.'

Not really, squoosh. Bissett's very tongue in cheek, unless you've seen/read any of his work, it's easy to misinterpret the written word.

I'm a non-Scottish, non-English person voting no. He must think he has nothing whatsoever in common with me.

Jackie Baillie said pretty much the same about foodbanks on scotnight last night.
Also complaining Scot Gov had took so long to abolish bedroom tax, can't bloody abolish it that's the bloody point.

That's an interesting quote squoosh (I don't do twitter so hadn't seen it). The longer this campaign goes on the more I see things in common with the rest of the UK. Some people are very much about national identity though. I'm not keen on the flag waving from either side, it just doesn't seem relevant to me.

Completely agree Squoosh, what an ignorant thing to say.

The problem with foodbanks though is how to get rid of the need for them? I actually think there will always be a need for some form of 'practical assistance' but considering now widespread they are and the diverse range of countries that have them - how do you address the problem? As with many things, I'm not convinced an independent Scotland would do any better than any other country at this.

Speaking of Alan Bissett, I thought his tweet the other day was a bit silly 'Finding these days that I feel more in common with English people voting Yes than with Scottish people voting No.'

Like it's such an unusual thing for a Scottish person to have much in common with an English person! I'm neither Scottish nor English and can clearly see the Scots and English have far more things in common than they do differences.

I agree, it's a stupidly worded comment. As far I can tell written by a random history teacher. There's been plenty of shit from yes campaign affiliates too. Personally I'm not going to make a decision based on random comments from numpties on either side. I'll stick to proper information!

As they say, opinions are like Arseholes... Including this guy's!

There shouldn't even be food banks, rather than seeing it as something that we should get used to we need to correct the reasons why people are resorting to them. Yes, Scottish Government should be helping address this issue, I agree with you OOAOML.

I've been in my local food bank to see how it all operates, and it's working families that are actually needing to use it. In this day and age...

It is one Better Together site that I've seen it on, and I agree it is badly written. It is however indisputable that there are foodbanks throughout Europe. Including the well-known struggling economy Germany.

Why not shame on the Scottish Government? How much have they contributed to foodbanks and how much have they spent on Gaelic? How much did they spend trying to cover up lies about legal advice? How much do the poor benefit from the council tax freeze and free prescriptions, and how much do the middle class and rich benefit?

Alan Bissett's response to the latest Better Together guff that's circulating:

"According to the Better Together campaign, food banks are a GOOD THING in society that mean Scotland is becoming 'normal'. Vote Yes and bin this mentality."

Shame on you Better Together.

Aye craic -UK is 18% so if we even just dropped to be proportionally the same that would be 78000 jobs lost roughly.