Proud to be Grumpy

What next, post referendum? After an interminable two weeks the Scottish Referendum took place yesterday. I'm glad I had something scheduled yesterday and was able to avoid most of the TV coverage until late in the evening. Even then I watched old recorded programs (Thank goodness for the PVR.) rather than the 'talking heads' programming that apparently was scheduled to run all night. So this morning I woke-up to the news that our Scottish friends (well, a majority of them) have decided, for now, to stay in the Un ion. The result mirrors almost exactly the outcome predicted by Daniel J Mitchell in his column 'Would Scottish Independence Be a Net Plus for Liberty?'   Posted September 17, 2014 on  finance.townhall.com. While I agreed with much of his 'Libertarian' take and analysis of the referendum it  also raised, for me, a number of issues at the very heart of the Union. The current 'shower' of mainstream politicians at Westminster (I'd li...

The Ignorance of the Law is no defense; no matter how stupid it is. I want to be clear here. I'm talking about stupid, and in my opinion, intrusive law (and regulation) Imposed by various forms of government and those who would serve it. Here are just three examples of Government excess and it's seemingly insatiable need to micro-manage all aspects of our daily lives. And these in only the last couple of weeks! The Ashya King case. The Criminalization  of parents who chose to vacation with their children during term-time. Limits to the power of vacuum cleaners (soon to be followed by hairdryers and other devices).  I would like to include the Rotherham debacle in Child Services & Protection but that has much more to do with inefficiency, secrecy, political correctness and a lack of accountability. At the very least worth it's own Blog(s)! First, to be serious, let me say that I wish Ashya King and his family well. This surely a v...

Continental Airlines is United at last. I make no bones about it, I was a fan of Continental Airlines. They had a policy (even on International Services) of operating into Regional Airports and although there was always a marginal premium to be paid, the benefits far outweighed the disadvantages. I became a fan when they introduced a regular service into Bristol (BRS) from Newark NJ (EWR) in 2005. Although I frequently traveled between Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) and the UK using direct flights on American Airlines, British Airways and even British Caledonian and Braniff in earlier times the misery of the journey in the UK, to and from Gatwick (LGW) and later Heathrow (LHR) in both summer and winter were and still are too much. So from 2005 I flew into and out of Bristol on Continental. Although that meant clearing Customs and Immigration at Newark, the flight was never more than seven hours, I never had to 'stack'  over central England and the journey to the airport took les...

Scottish Independence. Is this vote an abuse of 'democracy'. With two weeks to go before the 'Scottish Vote', as a 'Brit' there are a number issues I would like the Scots to consider. Am I English, are YOU Scottish and are WE British? If the answer is YES then WE should have decided first if WE want a part of OUR Country to choose to dissolve the Union that is Britain. I'm not sure that, as a Unionist, my campaigning and vote for the Union, had there been one, would have carried the day but at least it would have gone some way toward legitimizing this upcoming 'democratic' folly. Can Scottish Nationalists please tell us the model they are using for the  peaceful division of their State from our Country. Perhaps they can give us four or five successful examples of where this has happened, in say the last fifty years? Do the Separatists (for that is surely what they are) understand that, should they win the vote, what they are proposing is...