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I have chosen - SNP for me!

Seriously, you've almost said it yourself in your latest blog Brian - we desperately need a change of government, with much higher aspirations for our country.

No group of people will ever achieve their potential if they listen to, and take on board, pronouncements of their inherent inferiority.

Labour and other Unionists are constantly negative about what we could achieve - we really need to let go of all that baggage and look forward with hope and hard work to better this nation.

What are these Unionist supporting business people really saying?

1.Are they saying they don't like independence or is it a SNP led coalition at Holyrood? Or could it be both?

2. Or could it be they won't publicly support Labour because they don't like Gordon Brown that much? Which seems to be the popular view.

3.Or are they saying that small countries are bad for their business? For companies that are multi-nationals, or aspire to be so, that does seem a very strange and un-business like position to hold.

It all seems a tad confusing.

This entry is disturbing. I beg, implore, nay, beseech you to keep your comments politically neutral.

You cannot have a correspondent in this day and age, working for a blatantly unionist, establishement-orientated public-service broadcaster who is so publicly against Scotland's National Party.

Business breakfast and working lunches are two examples of business code or camouflage for early morning meetings and meetings which will be held in the times when we should be eating a balanced lunch.

Our language is now peppered with expressions, name and nomenclature changes which are a cross between Politically Correct language and the reclassification of tasks and job titles often with unstated, and as yet often hidden agendas.
One commonality of purpose is to make the renamed items seem more important or less onerous; if the change is interrogated the real reason for change can most readily be identified.

If the Chancellor feels that the oil revenues will be of little value to Scotland, why does he not commit the Labour Government to ensure these revenues are made available to the Scottish Parliament to administer?
Ted Heath proposed such an allocation of resources, 鈥溾�eath asked government departments in early 1972 to explore "novel arrangements" to help revive Scotland's economy with "its own resources"鈥︹��

The 鈥榳all of ignorance鈥� the Labour canvassers have alluded to is more realistically an example of the public鈥檚 growing disenchantment with politicians in general but some in particular; how can those very labour canvassers emanate accolades about their leader鈥檚 support whilst he campaigns for Scottish Labour and at the same time not expect the voters to examine the credentials of the messenger; it was not the SNP who brought Tony Blair to Scotland.

Brian the real 鈥榳all of ignorance鈥� is the one that is built with the bricks of misinformation or misdirection; we rely on people such as your self with access to these politicians to expose their attempts to deceive the electorate with subterfuge.

A bit of advice for politicians and canvassers, you will not fool all of the people all of the time with unsupported headline figures; the devil is truly in the detail as Jack McConnell found out in his interview with Bernard Ponsonby, especially in relation to Council Tax, on Monday 23rd April 2007.

Lord Robertson of port ellen on the list of 100 unionist buiness people
Did they only have 99 and pull one of there own out to match the SNP 100
Labour is after all claiming to have nothing to do with this list.
Smoke & Mirrors yet again.

Again Brian you accept and repeat verbatim ( more or less) in your blog what Labour people tell you.

I expect you to balence this by speaking to SNP canvassers and repeating here what they say.

Taylor, never was a truer word spoken - the idea that anyone should have to be sentient before 10 in the morning and have had some breakfast and at least 2 pots of tea is absolutely ridiculous.

I got increasingly annoyed during my working life at people who insisted on adopting the foolish American habit of insisting on starting work at [or even more foolishly, sometimes before] eight o'clock in the morning !!

This was especially galling as I lived near to work and so could get out of bed AFTER eight and still be in work for nine-ish..

And it is also nonsense that one can or should do another activity when one should be eating - even if that is something as brainless as watching the telly.

Why are you bothering to cover these eejits - it is you who should be the First Minister !!!!!

Any guesses as to when Brown's list of Union backers will get their honours?

I've got some sympathy for the 'wall of ignorance' view. The level of political discourse in this country is simply shocking, one only has to tune into a Radio 5 Live phone in to see how un-intelligent people are about politics.

"Labour canvassers talk of being greeted on doorsteps with complaints about Blair, Prescott, Blunkett, Brown"

I would complain too if any of them knocked on my door!!

Hi Brian,

I would rather enjoy a blether over breakfast with any/all of the parties.
Where I live in Edinburgh you wouldn't know there was an election. No party posters,lamp-post flyers, door-step canvassers; nothing at all. Disappointing when using one's vote is so important for democracy.
No wonder they say people aren't involved. Why should they be when no-on seems to want to involve them.

Since no-one has canvassed me for my opinion let me tell you instead:))

I have a small business and like what the SNP is saying. I will give them a chance.
Regards,
Ed

The electorate are probably a lot better informed than the Labour spokesperson imagines.

They are demanding of Labour canvasers an accounting of the previous four years administration. They are raising points that Labour itself raised in the previous election. They are demanding answers and accountability from politicians who have historically relied on the old tactic of promising the earth and delivering problems.
"Folk" do know a lot more than they are given credit for. So they don't know the SNP policy on the EU? Well what is the Labour policy on the EU?
They were a supposedly pro EU party but from the moment Blair got into government they adopted a Euro Sceptic attitude that put the Conservatives to shame. In fact they havered so much with the EU that the UK presidency came and went without much being achieved at all.
Its the Labout politicians who need to wake up. They have become by default the right wing party that has basically displaced and replaced the Thatcher/Major team. The Conservatives are at a loss because their ground in the political spectrum has been siezed and colonised by "New Labour".
Attacking the SNP on independance is a red herring...and the people of Scotland deserve more during an election.

Well brian if Alex and and his rich friends like soutar and connery who is busy telling us what we should do while he lives in spain
Will comrade salmond stop us from watching the bbc and jam the broadcasts as salmond belives that england is on a par with the devil .If salmond gets in and the economic collapse follows quickly as it no doubt will with the bold alex in charge
Will farmer and his nationalist pals still think independence is good idea then

Alex didn't pick a fight with you - I am very surprised to hear that! I have been led to believe by his political opponents that he eats babies!
Perhaps he felt sorry for you after getting Wendied!
Take your quiet and peaceful breakfasts when you can get them Brian!

You'd think that the SNP's promises of a low-wage economy and turning Scotland into a new-celtic tiger would have business leaders flocking!

Every part of this election has been thoroughly disheartening. I've already made up my mind that I won't bother to vote for constituency as none of the major parties want to seriously address my concerns. I want more jobs but I want jobs that pay a decent living wage and provide good skills. I want an NHS but I want one without stealth privatisations through PFI's. I don't want Trident and I don't want the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I don't think any of the main parties can provide that so I'm not going to vote for them. I will be voting for Solidarity on the regional list and Solidarity in the council elections.

Willie Haughey states as an argument for the union (election debate 25/4/07) Irelands poverty, children in Dublin with no shoes on their feet etc..
Utter rubbish Haughey is a numpty.what Dublin was he in,I grew up there not in a wealthy environment
never saw Kids with no shoes on even in rough areas.Haughey you are an idiot.This is all over Ireland today.
Typical,Even labour supporters cant help telling lies.

I cannot believe the credence given to "business" by the media. We live in a democracy, the opinions of a rich businessman/woman should have no more weight than that of any other citizen.

In reality no matter what constitutional change occurs business will continue, if as Wendy Alexander contests (wrongly in my opinion) the burden of paying 3% in LIT drives to rich individuals to flight, they will simply be replaced b new rich individuals.Incidentally, it would cost significantly more than 3% of such individuals income to acquire property in virtually anywhere else in the UK

Please help us to break down the "wall of Ignorance" that you say has been experienced on the door step.
Tell us about referendums. The usual definition is that they are a method of testing the opinion of the people and yet New Labour, Lib-Dems (does "Dems" really mean "Democrats" -their rejection of trusting the people seems pretty anti-democratic) and the Tories (God bless them) seem to think that an SNP administration will inevitably lead to "separation"

If you put it like a syllogism you will see my problem.

Referendums test the opinion of the people
79% of the people oppose separation
ergo a referendum in 3 years will result in separation.

To me it looks like a non-sequitur but with so many people asserting that it is right, I must be missing something. Please help.

You report also says "Folk think they can vote SNP without consequences, without really changing anything." If they think that then they are not just "Folk", they are fools. The whole point about voting against New Labour is to say that it is time for a change. You can't compartmentalise just by invoking the reserved matters in the Scotland Act. The opportunity cost of the Iraq war has an enormous impact on the economy of Scotland. Think of the hospitals and schools that could have been funded by the government (rather than by PFI/PPP) and the aid that could have been given to Africa. The cost and placing of Trident is going to be a millstone round Scots' necks (as with many other people) for a generation and did not a majority of our MPs vote against it and yet we have it forced through unnecessarily at the fag-end of the Blair years. Do you really think that anyone believes that a vote for SNP is a vote for the "no change".
And then the threat of "constitutional turmoil" Surely it is high time some turmoil to sort things out? The complacency of a virtually unopposed and therefore a virtually unaccountable government has played havoc with our constitution. A few examples are the botched House of Lords reforms, the conflict between the executive and the legal system, the exercise of the Royal Prerogative without accountability, a Prime Minister who behaves as if he is head of state and his Lady Wife the First Lady, the anomaly of power-sharing in Northern Ireland but not in any other country in the UK, a disastrous reform of voting systems (who could possible have equated a postal ballot system with a secret ballot or devised 4 separate voting systems for Scotland while the people only understanding one - and that that is not one of the two that we are being asked to use in 6 days). I had hoped that an SNP adminstration would have acted as a catalyst to help to tear down the "wall of Ignorance" that New Labour has so carefully built over the last 10 years not just for Scotland but for the whole of the UK.

Alex Salmond has since said he also wants breakfast meetings to be a thing of the past...has he been reading Brian Taylor's blog? Perhaps he's looking to oor Mr Taylor to guide him. Use your power wisely, Brian.

鈥淎lex Salmond wants breakfast meetings to be a thing of the past鈥︹�� as I have said before such events are merely business code, what I did not say was the thinking that lay behind such events.
To cut to the chase it is merely to get their version of events or issues to be delivered to the target audience first; such audiences could be employees or voters additionally on most occasions, the media to ensure the word is carried to a wider audience and is therefore repeated ad infinitum.
What does this mean? Is the reasoning behind such event timings that the first message delivered programmes the recipient to the message, or that the first message carries more credibility?
Or is it merely the manipulation of half awake minds that are in the ideal conditions for unquestioning acceptance of the message?