To ask all Scottish MNrs to work together 2

[siiiiiiiiigh]

Sorry, filled the last thread with this, thought I'd better be part of Team Scottish MN and work together for those of us on the old thread...

Here's Armando's thoughts. I vote him in for everything.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/21/scottish-referendum-massive-voter-turnout-means-politics-changed-for-ever

Hear hear spirited!

I'd be interested to know when the Herriot watt paper was published?

Ah sorry. I thought you were linking something you'd seen doing the rounds today. Yup totally different. If the HW article is right and they've got some pioneering technology it would be great, not least because it came from Scotland!

No idea trixy. Tried to google but all can see is news articles suggesting it came out today or was released to press today.

It looks like they've been publishing info about it for a while - they've probably still been refining the technique but the basic idea has been there. Found stuff going back to 2008 so far

Well it's the same technology that's mentioned in the clair ridge, so I assume they've been working on it a while...

But the timing of perfecting it doesn't bother anyone then?

I'm late again! No SirChenjin, I don't go in for conspiracy theories. I find it a bit odd, is all. Although saying we had 15 years of oil left was a very inaccurate prediction, so I'm not sure if I would trust his research.
Although he has admitted, in other words, that his intervention was indeed political so he may have known it wasn't accurate.

It's a tricky issue, I read whatever is available and take what I can from it. It's more out of interest than anything.

But the timing of perfecting it doesn't bother anyone then?

It could be a coincidence, but if I had to bet on it I would say it's suspicious timing, yes.

You could say timing is suspicious. Or you could see it as a research body that relies on external funding using the current focus on Scotland and it's oil (post referendum when it doesn't get drowned our or discredited by people with their own agendas to follow) as a good excuse to do some hopefully far reaching PR and attract new sponsors? You could probably spin it either way.

Ps I am assuming that HW relies on funding from external sponsors. That could be untrue but it did have a sponsors link on its project page

I think considering that the majority of scientists in Scottish Universities were anti independence, worried about future funding I'm not surprised they sat on it until after the result (if indeed they did). Their thinking may well be this is good news for the income of an independent Scotland but it isn't good enough to counter-balance the long term damage to research funding...

Trying to have a break from this - the whole thing has been so upsetting...just want to pretend it never happened for a while. And that's as a No voter.
Anyhow a couple of people have commented on Alex and Nicola ...including Spirited just now...
I was no fan of AS and although I didn't agree with him I thought he was a good conviction politician - he was very good at avoiding answering the question etc but genuinely wanted, in his view, the very best for Scotland and for the poorest in society (a socialist agenda).
From the announcement of the result he has plummeted in my estimations.
I now find him disgusting, only displaying self interest, wallowing in self pity when for the good of Scotland he can't. Watching the first Holyrood speeches the other day - when others were saying we have to move on and work together he was smirking and sneering etc. And NS for his speech was almost sitting on his knee ...sure she was expressing support, it must have been a hard speech for him to make (even if the content left much to be desired) but she seemed so sycophantic it made me cringe.
I probably seem really naive saying this - I did always know the obvious sweetners - free prescriptions, no tuition fees, council tax freeze etc were just there to gain support ...but now I think they have deliberately not dealt with issues they could have and watched certain sections of society become more disadvantaged in a deliberate ploy to gain support for their pipe dream. I am really angry and actually feel sick that someone would do that for political gain...

I'm not spinning it anyway tbh...and I have no idea who funded it, lol.

I just find it quite disconcerting to watch Alisdair Darling say one week that one of the reasons you shouldn't estimate oil by price is because it's expensive to remove with current technology and then the next to read that there is now new technology that makes removing it cheaper.

Mostly because a lot of what he had to say about oil in that respect I didn't disagree with... Who estimates amount of something by price instead of you know, amount?

Sorry tabulah I wasn't accusing you of spinning anything

unlucky I have heard that argument from other more informed people than me about them not using the powers they have to full effect which is worrying. If independence remains the key goal then how can they realistically work together with WM if that will damage their arguments for independence 5/10/15 years down the line.

Wasn't it AS who kept putting the $1trn figure on oil (the wholesale value which is significantly higher than what the govt would receive in tax)

I suppose you do it in monetary terms because unless the general public keeps up to date with oil and gas prices it is meaningless to talk about volumes? I don't know really

Yes it was AS that priced it instead of giving amounts and AD pointed out that price fluctuates and that half the oil was too expensive to get out with current technology.

So I was when I read the news tonight...and I have no-one to go WTF? at who won't either immediately make it into a conspiracy theory or tell me I'm making it into a conspiracy theory, lol.

I'm not sure whether the HW technology would make it cheaper to extract or whether it means you can get more out but it still costs a fortune in the first place but you get higher revenues??? I'm also not sure how much this has been tested in practice. Time will tell I guess

It was cambio, he even helpfully defined what a trillion is!

I'm not saying the timing is or isn't suspicious -I just got the feeling from reading around it that it wouldn't have been much of a surprise announcement within the industry as it seems to have been something they were known to have been working on and discussing progress on. Whether the researchers themselves sat on it...who knows

Cambio that's the impression I got - AS (or NS) have no intention of working with WM and the rest of the Scottish government for the future of Scotland .

And if they go for another referendum they will be thinking 'we' (the 55%) were (on the whole) too comfortable to want change at any cost. So they have make sure we aren't anymore and it is seen to be WM fault...
And if the wealthy/middle get squeezed it is likely the poorest will suffer even more ...what a mess .

"And if they go for another referendum they will be thinking 'we' (the 55%) were (on the whole) too comfortable to want change at any cost. So they have make sure we aren't anymore and it is seen to be WM fault..."

She (NS) has already said she's not pushing for another referendum hasn't she? And she definitely said she wanted to work with Westminster about devolution, but then she's always been interested in devo max as far as I know .

Besides, complaining about Westminster too much will just make them look inefficient IMO, where to get anywhere now they need to prove themselves capable.

"It was cambio, he even helpfully defined what a trillion is!"

That was the one, the completely unpatronising oil statements

The timing of it just seems...I don't know tbh, lol.

Where was the research published? I can only see BBC links. If it was research published in a relevant scientific journal the scientists will have had very little or no influence over when it was published.

I don't know...just googling it appears to have been in lots of industry stuff from October last year and then the press release yesterday.

If it's a peer-reviewed scientific publication it's almost impossible to predict when something will be published, it might go between authors and reviewers a few times. This can take months. It would be different for a press release.

Tabulah it was AS sneering and smirking at talk of reconciliation - posturing and not taking it seriously...guess it could have been the way it was edited ...or just part of the 'political game' but still ...
NS might have said no to another referendum but AS said we didn't need one anyway and how can they work with WM????
Not happy but life goes on - and no idea who to vote for ...guess will have to wait and see what happens ...

Looks like there's another (verified) issue with the vote:

www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/police-probe-claim-no-campaign-viewed-postal-votes-1-3552492

And here's Nicola Sturgeon refusing to rule out another referendum within 5 years Newsnight with Kirsty Wark

What are they playing at??