Westcoaster

F.I.V.A. are nothing to do with the E.U. once again you've wheeled out 'Project Fear' see here: https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/press-reports-on-ec-proposals-on-mot-tests-are-incorrect/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-36586860

The SNP have always voted against austerity budgets that affect Scotland, and Angus Robertson is the SNP's spokesman on Westminster matters. He told The National newspaper on the 16th of June: “The SNP are an anti-austerity party. We will do everything we can to oppose the prospect of an increasingly right-wing Tory agenda dominating the UK. “The SNP’s focus in the last week of the campaign will be to continue making the positive and progressive case for remaining in the EU, with the aim of winning this referendum and avoiding even more austerity.” Well those are your opinions, albeit with something of the conspiracy theory about them..... Here are Nicola Sturgeon's own words on the matter of the EU and Scottish independence: "Independence supporters frequently ask me two questions about the EU referendum. The first is how can you support independence and back Scotland’s membership of the EU? The answer to that is simple – I believe independent countries must cooperate to tackle common challenges. Every member of the EU is an independent country working with for the greater good."

What can I say, membership of the EU is seen as more beneficial to Scotland than membership of the UK. As I sit here in Denmark, in a country with a similar population to Scotland, I'm very impressed at the way the country and it's infrastructure is light years ahead of the crap that we are forced to put up with at home.......

He's not an MP ( or an MSP) and he will be an independent councillor by the end of the week!

Perhaps you didn't know that there are no Brexit supporting MPs in Scotland, of any party!

You really need to stop guessing about the political situation in Scotland, you are way off the mark, stick with what you know!

This is not the case in Scotland, the SNP have stood on a pro EU ticket on both the Westminster elections of 2015 and the Scottish Parliament elections this year and the polls are predicting almost two thirds of Scots voting for remain. I would suggest that they are representing their constituents in this case. The bookies still have Remain to win, so I'd be very surprised if they get it wrong in a two horse race!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36550304 Is this what happens when the ugly side of politics is brought to the fore? Why do people take politics so literally that they feel the urge to snuff out the life of a dedicated young MP? I blame politicians of both sides for ramping up the fear to the point that idiots in the far fringes of politics feel compelled to violence...... It seems a life time ago that the biggest talking point of the latter stages of the independence referendum campaign was the throwing of an egg at a Labour MP - if only that is all that was meted out to Jo Cox.

Postal vote completed and returned today, so I have voted to remain in the E.U. I had always leaned towards staying in the E.U. and absolutely nothing I have seen, heard or read from the Brexit side has made me think twice about my vote. Mind you, any campaign led by Farage, Johnson, Gove and Fox is doomed to failure, whatever it's message....... I shall now ignore the whole damn thing until the result is announced - ironically, I'll be in Denmark when the voting boothes are open and I doubt I'll be able to get any information whilst abroad, bliss!

Yes, but when the police actions were seen in the documentary 'You've Been Trumped', the resulting complaints about the film makers arrest has ensured that that behaviour won't be tolerated again. In the 4 years since that controversy, there is now a single national police service in Scotland and Trump's bullying behaviour is now very well known. Irrespective of his current high profile, he is unlikely to be granted a meeting with any high ranking politicians when he visits Ayrshire.

I think you'll find that they are called Police Scotland up here, so they are our police, not yours! I would imagine that Police Scotland will do the same thing as they did for another right wing asshat who came to call. They will wade in and take him in to protective custody! http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00414/128180463_01_414087c.jpg

Never use Vaseline on rubber seals, it breaks them down and causes them to crack. My other car has a removable Targa roof, I've used Hepworths silicon grease on the rubber seals for over 10 years to stop the squeaking that can occur, particularly when the weather is warm. A 500ml tub is about £5-£6 from a builders merchant and will last years - apply it sparingly from an old cloth and gently rub it in to the rubber seals where they meet. It will also make the seals water resistant again.

"A directive is a legal act of the European Union, which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. It can be distinguished from regulations which are self-executing and do not require any implementing measures." Many of the EU directives are based on existing UK legislation, we gave Europe Health & Safety, we gave them our old British Standard ( the Kite Mark) which is then distributed around Europe ( including us as the originating contributor) as a directive on the 'E' mark. The U.K. can, and does, opt out of EU directives, they do not have to be taken literally. Lazy Westminster politicians complain about EU 'interference' because they don't understand the process, or because it serves their purpose to make it seem as if it isn't their fault that legislation should be enacted, or they choose to pick on one mundane item such as oven gloves, which is in a directive about standards for Personal Protective Equipment for items including life jackets to chainsaw proof work trousers. Who wouldn't want to see such things tightly regulated? I'm not going to contribute to this debate any more, most of the reasons given for wishing to leave the EU have much more to do with dissatisfaction with your own Westminster government and less to do with the EU, there just seems to be too little research for the truth and a great willingness to believe the right wing crap from the London based media.

I personally wouldn't class a Letting Agent as a housing professional, he is telling lies, in fact it's absolute crap!

Name your source for this piece of utter tripe! Although, as a housing professional for a large housing association, I can agree that most Eastern Europeans make excellent tenants, paying their rent, keeping tidy gardens and generally being good God fearing family orientated folks!

What is your source for alleged costs? The Free movement of people, what about the 100s of thousands of UK emigrant retirees using the Spanish, French and Portuguese health services? CRD IV is to prevent financial collapse such as in 2008/9, by regulating banks and financial institutions so we (the tax payer) don't have to keep bailing them out - it also sought to curtail bankers bonuses, is that a bad thing? The UK Renewable Energy Strategy or the UK The Renewable Energy Directive (2009) sets a target for the UK to achieve 15% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This compares to only 1.5% in 2005, Is it bad to generate electricity from solar and wind turbines instead of coal? The Working Time Directive - The Working Time Directive, 2003/88/EC, is a Directive of the European Union. It gives EU workers the right to a minimum number of holidays each year, rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; a day off after a week's work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It was issued as an update on earlier versions from 22 June 2000 and 23 November 1993. Since excessive working time is cited as a major cause of stress, depression and illness, the stated purpose of the Directive is to protect people's health and safety. How is that bad? If everyone in Europe does it, then no one country can seek an advantage by running sweatshops! The EU Climate and Energy package - To reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020 taking 1990 emissions as the reference, to increase energy efficiency to save 20% of EU energy consumption by 2020, and to reach 20% of renewable energy in the total energy consumption in the EU by 2020. plus to reach 10% of biofuels in the total consumption of vehicles by 2020. What's wrong with that? The Temporary Agency Workers Directive is an EU Directive agreed in November 2008 which seeks to guarantee those working through employment agencies equal pay and conditions with employees in the same business who do the same work - why is that a problem? "Common fisheries policy in which a Danish, Spanish or French fishing boat can come and catch fish within eyesight of the fisherman's coastal house, but yet he is not allowed to go and catch the same fish. The coast of Britain being a rich-picking area of the North Sea and Irish Sea. 100's of fishing businesses lost over the years, creating ghost towns/villiages along the coast with high unemployment and little local trade/incomes. That isn't true as you've written it, fish are not routed to the spot and move in different seasons to different locations. There are quotas set for different fish with fisherman able to buy and sell quotas in certain species. Fishing is still a major employer in Scotland despite lack of effective EU representation by a dismissive and disinterested Westminster government and most of the ghost towns and missing fishing fleets have been caused by the sellout by Westminster in 1976 to appease the US and Nato over Iceland and the lucrative sale of quotas by UK based fisherman to the Spanish fishing fleets. We can agree on CAP, farmers in the UK and europe are featherbedded with grants and subsidies, if no one wants their goods, they should be allowed to wither away and sell up! Everyone's asleep now!

Or, another view - http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/25/is-immigration-causing-the-uk-housing-crisis Both articles are technically incorrect as they both mention housing as a UK issue, however, both quote English only figures as Housing is devolved to the Scottish parliament and in Ireland and Wales to their respective assemblies. The Daily Fail article should be regarded as crap as they haven't cited the source of the supposed E.U. report, or who commissioned it.

Isn't that what a vote is for? You are asked to vote on your own opinion, based on your own knowledge and experience......... Praising the tories? You need to look at other news sources than the red tops! The major uproar on austerity and uncertainty is still there, but not reported due to the EU referendum

Enlighten us, quote the directives................

Some examples of EU legislation 'forced' upon us: "Mobile phone tariffs In 2007 the EU set a "eurotariff" price cap on mobile phone roaming charges - the cost of making and receiving phone calls while abroad. From July 2009 the maximum that home operators may charge customers will be 43 euro cents (£0.40) per minute for outgoing roaming calls and 19 euro cents for incoming calls (both excluding VAT). It is the second such EU-wide drop in the cost of voice calls. MEPs also voted in April 2009 to cut the cost of texting and using the internet on mobiles abroad. The cap for a "roaming" text will fall to 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents), from about 29 cents on average. These EU-wide caps, excluding VAT, will also take effect in July." "Working Time Directive This longstanding directive stipulates that no employee in the EU should have to work more than an average of 48 hours a week. It also establishes how many breaks they can have and how much holiday they are entitled to - all aimed at preventing exploitation of workers. The UK government, along with 14 other member states, negotiated an opt-out from the directive. The European Parliament voted in December 2008 to cancel the opt-out, but MEPs' conciliation talks with EU ministers later failed to produce a new deal on the directive. A key sticking point was how to define on-call time - whether it should count as working time. So the current directive and opt-out remain in force. It is up to the European Commission to decide whether to draft a revised directive. Many argue that a revision is overdue, because several European Court of Justice rulings affect how the directive is implemented. The UK government, which wants to keep the opt-out, is at odds with a majority of Labour MEPs, who want to scrap it." "Food labelling MEPs approved legislation in 2006 to standardise food product labels to prevent misleading claims. The new rules target the use of health or nutritional claims, such as "low fat", "high fibre" and "helps lower cholesterol". The legislation bans vague claims for foods, such as "preserves youth", along with slimming or weight control claims and health claims on beverages with more than 1.2% alcohol content." "All-inclusive air fares In July 2008 MEPs voted to make airlines display the taxes and charges that passengers have to pay, to stop the misleading offers of bargain basement flights. Airlines are now obliged to give comprehensive information on air fares, including on the internet. Parliament widened the pricing transparency to include all flights departing from airports in the EU, regardless of destination." "Reach - chemicals authorisation Reach stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals. The regulation took effect in June 2007, replacing 40 other pieces of legislation. About 30,000 substances will have to be registered with the new Chemical Agency in Helsinki by 2018. The new law puts the onus on the chemical industry to prove that its products, including those that have been on sale for years, are safe. Previously it was up to the national authorities to prove that a given substance was hazardous. A safety report now has to be drawn up for chemicals produced or imported in quantities of more than one tonne per year." Can we see a list of actual legislation which the EU have 'forced' us to take which is not helpful to industry or looks out for the consumer/customer?

Not sure who the 'stupid' comment is aimed at, but who says the UK can't be an independent nation - it patently is! Of course it can, who would say it couldn't? The point is that it will be more bureaucratic to be outside the EU when trading - let me give you an actual example: An acquaintance of mine runs a successful company which catches, sells and distributes shellfish - high value langoustines and crabs. Prior to a harmonisation of EU regulations, he requires to obtain a UK fish export and transport release to load the fresh produce on to his refrigerated trucks; If the shellfish were going to France, he required to get importation certificates, transport certificates and confirmation of quality certificates (in French) faxed from a Scottish local authority's Environmental health department, before he could sell his shellfish. The process was time consuming, laborious, bureaucratic and resulted in him (and his sons!who work with him) to have to learn French! He expanded his business to sell his shellfish in Barcelona. He now had a similar set up with forms, different of course to the French forms, but equally as bureaucratic and time consuming. Fast forward to EU legislation which harmonises the EU single market - he now has one set of forms to complete and exports to France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal. You can see for exporters that simplification of paperwork is vital to keeping business costs down. There is an irony that suggests that EU membership causes bureaucracy, when in many cases it has simplified business transactions.

Very selective use of numbers there, The SNP put up candidates in 59 Scottish constituencies and won 56 of them, which gives an average SNP vote of 50.8% in each constituency it stood in. UKIP stood in 650 English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh seats and won one seat and had an average of only 13.8% in each constituency they stood in.

Firstly, from a Scottish perspective, we have an un-elected and un-democratic government in Westminster ignoring us for decades - at least in Europe we would have a seat at the table. If you think I'm exaggerating about un-elected representatives, google Viscount Johnny Thurso and see how the un-electable can get to hang on to power in Scottish matters despite being roundly kicked out of office by the electorate. No matter how much you moan about EU bureaucrats, Westminster's rotten practices are far worse! Secondly, we welcome full financial powers, the recent Scotland Act dreamed up by David Cameron stops way short on giving Scotland autonomy in dealing with it's own finances, we want the powers, the tories and Labour voted against amendments to allow full fiscal autonomy - ask yourself why that is?