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Alex Salmond Seems To Be Getting More Arrogant?

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gordiescotland1 | 15:39 Sat 16th Aug 2014 | News
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It would seem that anyone who disagrees with him over independence gets heavily criticised. The latest is the Australian Prime Minister.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28814936
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I think in this case mr salmond is right - I cannot see how Scottish independence is anything to do with mr abbott.
Abbot didn't give his opinion out of the blue, he gave it as part of an interview i.e. where someone asks for his opinions about this and that.
As bibblebub says the remarks were made as the result of direct questions during an interview but even so everybody has their own opinion on the issue and the right to voice it,unless so it seems it is against Mr Salmond's view.As for Salmonds comments about it being hypocritical as independence has done Australia no harm he seems to have forgotten that Oz is a huge country rich in all sorts of resources and virtually self sufficient,while Scotland is a small country, NS oil is a diminishing resource and apart from tourism and a very strong distilling industry I don't think there's all that much going for them as an independent country
The reason that Scottish Independence has something to do with Mr. Abbott is because we're not living in a world where Nations are isolated from each other. There are alliances/ blocs/ treaties/ Various Unions and so forth. Any change in the UK will have knock-on effects for the rest of the world, in one way or another. And so the world therefore has an interest in the result. In some cases it's clearly a national interest -- one can easily imagine a "Yes" vote being noticed in Tibet, for example, and so China might naturally be hoping for a "no" vote for itself as much as for its ties with the UK. In other cases, perhaps not so much. Salmond's argument that there would be "two voices" at various diplomatic tables instead of one is just nonsensical since the two new voices combined would have at best the same weight as the one United voice did; and more likely the net influence of a separate Rest-of-UK and Scotland would be somewhat diminished.

From the point of view of the vote of course it's up to those with votes to make their own minds up. Again, though, I should say that it ought to be less about individual policy decisions, none of which can be determined until long after the referendum, and more about a general feeling about the direction the people want to take Scotland. It should be clear that a "Yes" vote carries some considerable risk that this direction will be away from the UK's current allies and current interests.

As to the comment about "...independence does not seem to have done Australia any harm," are equally nonsensical. In the first place the two countries have had wildly different relationships with the rest of the UK. Indeed if you were going to draw any parallels at all then it should be with the Indigenous peoples of Australia, rather than the dominant population of former colonists. Furthermore it was clear that Mr. Abbott was speaking about people from outside the UK who might have vested interests in a "Yes" vote, and not criticising the Scots who might want to vote "yes", so there are no grounds to take offence.

One would hope that the first act of an Independent Scotland would be to throw Salmond out of office; his performances on the world stage are currently worse than useless.
To be fair, what business is it of the Australian Prme Minister what the Scotish people decide to do? He should keep his nose out

We don't tell him what to do about the apalling treatment of Australia's indigenous population and the aparthied system he oversees there.

now the PM of Australia......... ye gods .
I think the other posts have explained that Gromit. The Prime Minister of Oz was answering the question of Scottish Independence. Other world leaders have already expressed their opinion for unity in the UK. Salmond is clutching at straws. Australia by comparison is a huge country - with I might add a better immigration system than the UK,, their treatment of the indiginous people is no better than anyone elses -maybe except Iraq. I think Salmond is finding himself to be the pariah among world leaders imo. and he doesn't like it.
// Australia (has) a better immigration system than the UK //

Population 1914 = 4 million
Population 2014 = 23.5 million

Yep, a roaring success.
You don't find many immigrants queuing to get into Oz like they do here gromit, their immigration process is much better than ours, they will not accept people without meeting certain criteria, and they have spoken out against Asian immigrants there.
Compare your 'roaring success' of immigration in Oz, against ours. I think you will also find a better class of immigrant there, no sleeping rough in public areas.
As the vote gets ever closer, Mr Salmond has to be seen to have the courage of his convicitions, in order to sway any remaining undecided voters.

The fact that everyone knows he is going to lose does not mean he will not do everything possible to save face, and that includes appearing as bullish and upbeat as possible at every opportunity.

Mr Salmond is trying to convince an entire country that, against any reasonable argument, Scotland's independence is a good thing - so he has to be seen to believe it, even if increasing numbers of his countrymen and women don't.

He'll calm down in a couple of weeks.
AYG

// You don't find many immigrants queuing to get into Oz like they do here //

But Australia has more net migration into the country than we do. They have a third of our population but accept more than us.

Australia Net Migration  - 
244,400 persons, which was 8.6% (19,300 persons) more than in 2011-12. NOM in 2011-12 was 225,100 persons, which was 24.8% (44,700 persons) more than the dip experienced in 2010-11 when NOM added 180,400 persons to Australia for the year.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3412.0Chapter32011-12%20and%202012-13

Net migration UK 2012 - 
182,000 in the year to June, up from 167,000 in the previous 12 months.

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