Burning Lemons

Since the election of The SNP Government in May 2007 the issue of Scotland succeding from The United Kingdom has again become an issue. Some people are beginning to argue that even though we are yet to get anywhere close to a referendum on actual independence the SNP is gradually moving the country in that direction by diversifying Scotland from the rest of The UK.

For example just the other day it was announced that all trains in Scotland will be repainted into a livery defined by Transport Scotland (the government regulator of Transport) and not one decided on by the operating company (in this case FirstScotRail). While this may seem insignificant it is another example of The SNP choosing to do things differently to The rest of The UK. Other examples exist across Health, Education and almost every area touched by the government.

So is this independence by stealth. I find it hard to think so, while the SNP are clearly pro-independence I believe this is only a case of deciding what is best for Scotland as opossed to remaiing in-line with the rest of The UK.

A few minutes ago Barack Obama (The Democratic Presumptive candidate for President, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the past year) finished the keynote speech of his European tour in Berlin.

His speech has evoked the most positive reaction for a US politician since at least Bill Clinton and possibly JFK. Pro-American feeling hasn’t been so high since the days following 9/11.

So what does Obama offer that McCain doesn’t, well the message of change has gone down particularly well amongst the ranks of “Anyone but Bush” people in Europe he seems to offer a fresh take on US foreign policy after what they see as the particularly gung-ho tactics employed by George W Bush.

That said however Obama still doesn’t go as far as many people would like, his policy for Iraq withdrawal is not fast enough for some and others don’t like his focus upon Afghanistan.

I will write more on this in the coming day’s as Obama continues his European tour with further stops in Paris and London.]

Well we’re now just under 30 minutes away from the first results in the super Tuesday poll in Georgia. The latest I’ve heard is that the race for the Dem nomination is way too tight to call, thankfully Barek Obama is managing to pull slightly closer to Hillary Clinton. On the GOP side John McCain could well seal it up tonight. The most important thing to remember here is that the polls can go very wrong. In the NH primary Barek Obama was forecast to win by 10-15% and Clinton ended up taking the race with a 3-5% margin. I’ll have more later but if you’re looking for coverage I wholeheartedly endorse (groan) Al Jazeera English: if you don’t get it on TV (in the UK it’s on Sky 514) watch it online at http://Jalipo.com