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The act of Union 1707. Ah!! Scottish Utopia!!! promises, promises, promises betrayal, betrayal, betrayal. 1745 Culloden. and the butchery of German Geordie, his son, and the English army.

But you see we Scots were sold out by a few unelected lords who took English bribes and betrayed Scotland

From that time Scotland has been brutally asset-stripped by an avaricious  Westminster government. All roads lead to London!!!

All revenue accrued in the UK is passed to the English Exchequer.

Westminster’s financial needs are then allocated after which the Secretary of State for Scotland is handed a budget, top sliced from the Scottish Grant.

The residue, (decreasing annually as areas of responsibility are removed from Holyrood) passes to the Scottish government.

No-one really knows the full extent of revenue gathered by Scotland. eg Whisky manufactured, blended and bottled in Scotland is transported to England for worldwide distribution. The tax collected is credited to England. £3-5billion annually.

But the annual GERS financial report falsely records Scotland to be in receipt of £ billion’s more from Westminster than it contributes.

This is quoted routinely by Unionists in support of their argument that Scotland is too wee and too poor to survive as a nation. The statement is utter nonsense and has been debunked by many independent financial experts.

Then, if minded to do so – throws Scotland a few scraps to keep them quiet.

New untested ideas about tax collection. Probably unworkable. Introduce new measures in Scotland first The jocks are well indoctrinated to Westminster’s authority.  eg Poll Tax Experiment Yup!!

Industry!! – Order books a bit light!! – Close Scotland down. Relocate companies to England.

Coal- mining industry!!! – Bloody minded Jocks and their Unions. Shut it down. Leave the coal in the ground. Purchase cheap dirty coal from Poland and South America.

Car production, Shut it down transfer it from Linwood and Bathgate to England.

Steel production – Shut it down in Scotland move production to England then Sell it to India for a pittance

Retain a massively upgraded Trident nuclear weapons and submarine fleet – Yes!!  But voters will not allow nuclear missiles or submarines to be based within 150 miles of population centres in England.  Bugger it – locate them in Glasgow. Scots votes count for nothing at Westminster.

The homing of the nuclear submarine fleet and missile systems in Faslane precludes any major shipping industry on the Clyde. Shut it down.

Construction of a few battleships, kit constructed in England, then shipped to Glasgow for assembly will keep the natives happy.

Fighting Johnny Foreigner!! – troops required – Not a problem – Get them from Scotland. The Jocks must pay their way in the Union. In the absence of finance, blood will do.

Shut down their factories –  get the buggers on the dole or offer job security through service in the forces.

Death and lifetime incapacity for many young Scots incurred through injury on active service in many cavalier military actions entered into by Westminster.

Gordon Brown’s answer to the ever-increasing incidence. The Westminster government cannot afford to meet their needs.

Create “Cash for Hero’s” a charity for injured servicemen – Appoint half a dozen cronies to manage it. All on six-figure salaries. As public awareness recedes it’ll die a natural death.

Charitable housing for wounded – handicapped soldiers – no way, let the Scottish public find the money.

Upgrade the UK infrastructure. But England is allocated the vast bulk of available finance so that a massive programme of works, eg. HS2/3 and numerous other high-cost projects in London and the South East of England can be completed.

Net tax and other revenues to the UK reveals Scotland’s financial contribution to the foregoing works to be many £billions but there are no direct benefits to Scotland.

The Westminster government issues assurance that Scotland will be given finance to allow similar works to e completed but not before 2030. Now that’s a kick in the teeth!!!

Scotland – Natives restless – give them a “wee talking shop parliament” but retain power in England. William Hague clarified Scotland’s place in the Union:

“Scotland is not a state. Westminster simply decided to delegate the games to be held in Glasgow, a city of the UK”

“http://home.bt.com/news/oddnews/commonwealth-team-gb-gaffe-by-hague-11363912308295”

Will Scots find the confidence to ask for another independence referendum after being so heavily defeated in 2014??

They appear to have swallowed the Westminster message. Scots are too timid and stupid to try again. Their continued acceptance of abuse heaped upon them by Westminster justifies the statement.

The Jocks are Luddites!!! Witness the Labour Party in Scotland. Returned to power at Westminster for nearly 60 years. They really did vote for donkeys wearing a labour badge and paid the price suffering rampant corruption.

Moaning Jocks!!!  Promise them jam tomorrow – They’ll believe anything Yup! that’s it, buy the buggers off with a few sweeteners.

300 years of abuse imposed on Scots by avaricious Westminster governments yet 55% choose to remain loyal to the most corrupt union of sovereign nations ever created. Beggar’s belief!!

Rabbie Burns got it right when he wrote that  “a parcel of rogues” sold Scotland out 300 years ago

The next referendum will provide another chance for Scot’s to get rid of Westminster politicians and their sycophantic useless Peers of the realm.

The fate of Scotland should be in Scottish hands not the grubby paws of a bunch of rich toff’s, lords and even richer barons at Westminster. Feathering their own nest’s, selling the nation into bondage.

In 2014 the Unionists said they loved Scotland and implored Scots to remain in the Union and the European Community. And we did.

The betrayal of the Unionist vow, to devolve to Scotland full fiscal authority and many other areas of governance was not long coming.

Only 3 months on from the referendum the Unionists thumbed their noses at Scotland and devolved little of any significance. Rubbing salt into the wounds they even attempted to con Scotland out of finance that rightfully belonged in Holyrood.

The Unionist paid the price for their devious tactics at the next General Election when they were nearly wiped out in Scotland.

The Scottish politicians returned to Westminster in 2015 were subjected to abuse mirroring that meted out to Irish politicians by the Unionists at the turn of the twentieth century.

Tony Blair & Religion

Tony Blair’s religion became a political issue because of his role in the Northern Ireland peace process.

His critics said the denial of his Roman Catholic beliefs was for political rather than constitutional reasons and that was why he delayed announcing his conversion by the pope until after he had left office.

Blair had been attending Mass (and on some occasions receiving communion) for years before he converted. And it wasn’t just a case of Protestant v non-Protestant.

In England there are very different historical influences associated with being a Jew and a Catholic, and they would be viewed quite differently.

The long antipathy towards Roman Catholicism in England needs to be better understood. England as a nation rejected the power and authority of Rome, then destroyed thousands of Roman Catholic monasteries and churches. Indeed it still has an annual celebration, (Guy Fawkes) celebrating the execution of a small group of Catholics who tried to destroy the Westminster Parliament building.

And he would not have been allowed, as a Roman Catholic, to undertake the role of leader of her majesty’s government since it is the duty of the Prime Minister to prepare and give approval to the short list of Church of England archbishops to be submitted to the sovereign for appointment and attendance in the House of Lords.

Global Elites Greatly Fear Secession and Decentralization

When it comes to predictions of economic doom, it doesn’t get much more hysterical than that. Except that it does. David Cameron nearly burst into tears begging the Scots not to vote for independence.

The “Yes” campaign for secession failed by a margin of approximately 55 percent to 45 percent. Yet, even without a majority vote for secession, Scotland’s campaign for separation from the United Kingdom provided insights into the weakness of spirit of those who defended the status quo. Namely that:

Global elite institutions and individuals including Goldman Sachs, Alan Greenspan, David Cameron and several major banks pulled out all the stops to sow fear about independence as much as possible. Global bankers vowed to punish Scotland, declaring they would move out of Scotland if independence were declared. According to one report:

The Deutsche Bank compared it to the decision to return to the gold standard in the 1920s, and said it might spark a rerun of the Great Depression, at least north of the border.

When it comes to predictions of economic doom, it doesn’t get much more hysterical than that. Except that it does. David Cameron nearly burst into tears begging the Scots not to vote for independence.

The elite onslaught against secession employed at least two strategies:

The first involved threats and “for your own good” lectures. Things will “not work out well” for Scotland in case of secession, intoned Robert Zoellick of the World Bank. Senator John McCain implied that Scottish independence would be good for terrorists.

The second strategy involved pleading and begging, which, of course, betrayed how truly fearful the West’s ruling class is of secession.

In addition to Cameron’s histrionics based on nostalgia and maudlin appeals to not break “this family apart,” he attempted (apparently successfully) to bribe the Scottish voters with numerous promises of more money, more autonomy, and more power within the UK.

The threats that focused on the future of the Scottish monetary system are particularly telling. The very last thing that governments in London, Brussels, or Washington, DC want to see is an established Western country secede from a monetary system and join another in an orderly fashion.

Ryan McMaken holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy and international relations from the University of Colorado.

The 2014 Scottish Referendum gave hope to other secession movements

Even though it ultimately failed at the ballot box, the campaign for Scottish independence should cheer supporters of numerous secession movements springing up around the world.

In the weeks leading up to the referendum, it appeared that the people of Scotland were poised to vote to secede from the United Kingdom.

Defeating the referendum required British political elites to co-opt secession forces by promising greater self-rule for Scotland, as well as launching a massive campaign to convince Scots that secession would plunge them into economic depression.

The people of Scotland were even warned that secession would damage the international market for one of Scotland’s main exports, whisky. Considering the lengths to which opponents went to discredit secession, it is amazing that almost 45 percent of the Scottish people still voted in favour of it.

Widespread acceptance of the principle of peaceful secession and self-determination could resolve many ongoing conflicts

The Scottish referendum result did not discourage secessionist movements spreading across Europe. Just days after the Scottish referendum, the people of Catalonia voted to hold their own referendum measuring popular support for secession from Spain.

Support for secession is also growing in America. According to a recent poll, one in four Americans would support their state seceding from the federal government. Movements and organizations advocating that state governments secede from the federal government, that local governments secede from state governments, or that local governments secede from both the federal and state governments, are springing up around the country. Over one million Californians signed a ballot access petition in support of splitting California into six states. While the proposal did not meet the requirements necessary to appear on the ballot, the effort to split California continues to gain support.

Americans who embrace secession are acting in a grand American tradition. The Declaration of Independence was written to justify secession from Britain. Supporters of liberty should cheer the growth in support for secession, as it is the ultimate rejection of centralized government and the ideologies of Keynesianism, welfarism, and militarism.

Widespread acceptance of the principle of peaceful secession and self-determination could resolve many ongoing conflicts. For instance, allowing the people of eastern Ukraine and western Ukraine to decide for themselves whether to split into two separate nations may be the only way to resolve their differences.

The possibility that people will break away from an oppressive government is one of the most effective checks on the growth of government. It is no coincidence that the transformation of America from a limited republic to a monolithic welfare-warfare state coincided with the discrediting of secession as an appropriate response to excessive government.

Devolving government into smaller units promotes economic growth. The smaller the size of government, the less power it has to hobble free enterprise with taxes and regulations.

Just because people do not wish to live under the same government does not mean they are unwilling or unable to engage in mutually beneficial trade. By eliminating political conflicts, secession could actually make people more interested in trading with each other. Decentralizing government power would thus promote true free trade as opposed to “managed trade” controlled by bureaucrats, politicians, and special interests.

Devolution of power to smaller levels of government should also make it easier for individuals to use a currency of their choice, instead of a currency favoured by central bankers and politicians.

The growth of support for secession should cheer all supporters of freedom, as devolving power to smaller units of government is one of the best ways to guarantee peace, property, liberty — and even cheap whisky! (Ron Paul is a former member of the US Congress)

Bank of last resort

Scotland’s “no” vote for independence in 2014 brought an end to discussions about what an independent Scotland should do with its monetary institutions.

Throughout the 2014 independence campaign Unionists promoted a false narrative and convinced many Scots to the view that a secure banking system in an independent Scotland required a central bank to act as a lender of last resort. Their argument being that a bank was a necessary back-up not influenced by market forces thus able to provide stability in banking systems plagued by instabilities. But the Unionist reasoning was spurious with its acceptance that banking systems are inherently unstable and that to have a lender of “last resort,” meant having a central bank.

The truth of the matter was had Scotland voted for independence it could have unilaterally decided to keep using the UK pound (providing Scotland with greater flexibility than a bilateral agreement to change the currency if the British pound proved to be a bad choice).

In the case of such a unilateral choice, in principle, Scottish banks would not have been able to ask for support from the Bank of England as a lender of last resort.

But this did not mean that Scottish banks would have been short on lenders to go to since they had the financial markets of the entire world from which to find lenders willing to extend credit.

The 1689 – Scottish “Claim of Right” and Common Law

The document contains the assertion that ultimate power rests with the “Nation of Scotland”, and the UK Parliament is but their representative.

Claims by politicians that they represent “what the people want” are often exploited in the corridors of the Parliament at Westminster under the guise of representing the Nation state of the UK.

And in this respect letters from government ministers or other persons to the courts of Justice ordaining Judges to stop or desist from determining causes, or ordaining them how to proceed in causes depending before them is contrary to law.

Judicial decisions are legitimately open to comment and criticism. But more than one Home Secretary has sought to tell the judiciary how to apply (or how not to apply) the law and there is an increasing tendency to invoke the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, which properly applies only to duly enacted legislation, to justify Ministers and other politicians in criticising, or even abusing, judges for disregarding their view of the law and how it is to be interpreted and applied.

SCOTLAND’S MAGNA CARTA: THE CLAIM OF RIGHT
AND THE COMMON LAW
Professor the Rt Hon Sir David Edward KCMG QC FRSE*

Click to access 2015-magnacarta.pdf

George Robertson, (Baron of Port Ellen)

In 1995, when Scottish nationalism began to find increasing favour with Scots as their preferred choice of government Robertson, then Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland said:

“let them have their way. Devolution entrenches the Scottish parliament in the UK’s unwritten constitution, power devolved from Westminster is power retained by Westminster. It will kill Nationalism stone dead.”

In the years that followed the SNP gloated that the party had destroyed that fallacy by winning the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2020. But “wise seer” George was right.

His vision of Scots being “fitted up” with a poorly equipped and reversable devolved governance structure proved to be entirely accurate.

As at 2022 Scottish Nationalism is faltering badly under the auspices of SNP WOKE minded Daniel Defoe’s who self recruited themselves to the nationalist cause falsely proffering to be committed to fighting tooth and nail for independence.

Scots will need to find another way of kick starting the drive for independence only this time ensuring the campaign is led by bone-fide Party members who declare “fealty” to a Scotland free and independent of any political interference from Westminster or any other country.

Duties and responsibilities of MP’ greatly diminished with devolution

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 raised important questions about the future of local representative roles of MP’s.

The Scottish Parliament took over responsibility for many of the issues that individual constituents were likely to raise with their elected members, as well as important strategic matters such as economic development, transport and health previously central to the role remitted to MP’s.

Members of the Scottish Parliament, MSPs assumed the duties of local representative and spend many hours each week fulfilling them. Their contact with interest groups and work with local community groups and party members is also more frequent. MSPs spend more time on these activities than did Scottish MPs previously

The traditional local role of the MP in Scotland, which was highly rated and significant in terms of commitment of time, was given up to members of the Scottish Parliament, MSP’s.

But some MPs are determined to hold onto the past and the resulting duplication of roles are frequently the cause of confusion for constituents dependent in part on the level of co-operation existing between the two local members. A problem exacerbated if the local MSP is a list member from another political party.

Benefits and Allowances made available to MP’s

Gross Salary & Pension: £120-£140k

Staffing: Constituency based. Assistance with casework, correspondence, surgeries, visits, meetings, organising events, and outreach activities. Mainly covers payroll costs but can also be used for pooled staffing services and incidental expenses for volunteers. It is paid directly to the employee. Annual charge £150-180k.

Office costs: Covers rent, stationery, telephone, broadband, and other costs attributed to running a constituency office. Annual charge £14-£20k

Accommodation: To meet costs incurred as a result of working from two permanent locations. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, it is usually only possible to claim for accommodation and associated costs in either Scotland or London, not both. Annual Charge £25-£40k.

Travel and Subsistence Allowance: Is for travel between Scotland and Westminster, within the constituency, and elsewhere on parliamentary business. MPs can only travel First Class if the fare is demonstrably cheaper than a standard class ticket. Annual cost £12-£18k

MPs may only claim for the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks where they have stayed overnight either outside the London area or Scotland. This is limited to £25 for each night of a stay but can be for purchases made in the day.

Summary: The role and responsibilities of Scottish MP’s at Westminster is greatly diminished following devolution. And yet MPs still enjoy the same benefits, privileges and allowances as English MP’s who’s role has remained unchanged.

The admitted number of hours freed up for other duties at Westminster is around 25 weekly and the absence of any tangible promotion of the cause of Scottish independence and claims of MPs promoting LBGTQ agendas, wild partying, alcohol consumption, extra marital sex affairs and harassment both physical and sexual within the group is embarrassing and of concern to constituents.

Something needs to be done to ensure the Scottish taxpayer is provided with value for money. We are not getting it from the present group of SNP MPs.

Dundee

Dundee, was given the title “Yes” city after 57% of its citizens voted for independence in the 2014 referendum.

In 2022 the SNP narrowly established control of the council following the local government elections.

Sturgeon’s ecstatically claimed the results in Dundee vindicated her government’s approach to independence.

But a review of the voting pattern of those that voted contradicts her euphoric razzmatazz and her plans for a referendum might well founder badly.

Local Election results Dundee

Ward 1 – Strathmartine: Electorate 15,266. Turnout 40%

Alexander: SNP: 2143
Baird: Grn: 199
Coleman: Lib: 1,116
Ettle: Ind: 81
Hunter: SNP: 559
Jamieson: TUC: 43
Keenan: Lab: 1,359
Walker: Tory: 351
Whyte: Alba: 105

Votes cast: 5956: Unionist: 2869-48% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 3957-52%

Ward 2 – Lochee: Electorate 14,912. Turnout 40.4%

Bremner: Lib: 184
Hosie: Ind: 128
Mackenzie: Tory: 488
Malone: Lab: 1,678
Ross: Alba: 184
Scullin: Lab: 412
Smith: SNP: 2,174
Tolland: SNP: 351
Treharne: Grn: 244

Votes cast: 5843: Unionist: 2762-47% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 3957-53%

Ward 3 – West End: Electorate 14,626. Turnout 40%

Booth: Grn: 536
Campbell: SNP: 872
Crichton: Lib: 165
El-Nakla: SNP:924
Hay: Tory: 386
Jenkins: Alba: 64
Labagh: Ind: 15
Macpherson: Lib: 2,146
McCready: LAB: 624

Votes cast: 5732: Unionist: 3321-42% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 3957-58%

Ward 4 – Coldside: Electorate 14,893. Turnout 39%

Agnew: Alba: 141
Ali: Tory: 444
Anderson SNP: 1,737
Blain: Lib: 176
Flynn: SNP: 751
Jones: Grn 551
McIrvine:Lab: 960
Scott: TUC: 52
Wright: SNP: 777

Votes cast: 5589: Unionist: 1632-29% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 3957-71%

Ward 5 – Maryfield: Electorate 12,749. Turnout 34%

Cruickshank: Lab: 953
Dewar: Lib: 198
Gurr: Ind: 34
Kamran: Alba: 214
Lynn: SNP: 1,037
Marr: Tory: 371
Short: SNP: 960
Smart: Grn: 446

Votes cast: 4213: Unionist: 1522-36% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 2657-62%

Ward 6 – North East: Electorate 11,792. Turnout 33%

Finnegan: Lab: 1,007
Franchi: Tory: 313
McLean: Alba: 102
Rome :SNP: 1,150
Sawers: SNP: 991
Smith: Lib: 100
White: Grn: 126

Votes cast: 3789: Unionist: 1420-38% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 2369-62%

Ward 7 – East End: Electorate 12,005. Turnout 35%

Crabb: Tory: 440
Dawson: SNP: 1,350
Maattanen: Lib: 115
McHugh: Lab: 1,071
McIntosh: Grn: 167
Petrie: Alba: 151
Roberts: SNP 823

Votes cast: 4117: Unionist: 1626-40% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 2497-60%

Ward 8 – The Ferry: Electorate 16,211. Turnout 56%

Byrne: Alba:92
Cordel: SNP:1,806
Duncan: Lib:3,112
Qaiser: SNP:674
Parsons: Grn:269
Scott: Tory:1,661
Scott: Tory:407
Shears: Lab: 899
Carole: Ind:59

Votes cast: 8979: Unionist: 6079-67% : SNP/Alb/Grn: 2841-32%

Results summary

Total votes cast: 44218: Unionist 21331-48% : SNP/Alb/Grn 22887-52%

2014 Referendum: Yes: 57%: No: 43%

2023 Referendum: (projection): Yes: 52% No: 48%

The Weir Group

The company is a global leader in the design, supply and ongoing service of engineering equipment for the mining, oil and gas, power and industrial sectors and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. With annual sales in excess of 2 billion, it employs around 15,000 people and operates in more than 42 countries.

It maintains manufacturing facilities in North and South America, the UK, mainland Europe, Australia, South Africa, India and China.

Annual profits vary between 300-600 million.

Lord Smith of Kelvin was chairman of the Group between 2002 and 2013.

Additional information

The companies main operational thrust in the UK over the next few years (2016-2020)  is to be directed at the development and expansion of Nuclear Power and Fracking

The Group has consistently and actively solicited support to its campaigns against any form of Scottish devolution or independence and although founded and registered in Scotland less than 5% of the Groups total workforce is Scottish based.

The Group is an active member of the networking organisation, “Common Purpose” which provides unique and highly productive opportunities through its extensive connections.

In 2013, a team of leaders undertook specialist leadership development programmes and attended a global leadership conference run by “Common Purpose” which had assembled exceptional senior people from across the Commonwealth to tackle challenges that businesses, governments and society face today with the aim of building global relationships for use in the future. The Weir Groups tentacles of influence spread far and wide.

Iraqi Oil for Food Programme

Trade sanctions against Iraq were introduced after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 but the measures contributed to an increase in the suffering and starvation among the Iraqi population and the UN set up the Oil for Food Programme (OFFP).

From 1996 onwards, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell oil, but all the receipts were placed in a UN account in Paris. Iraq was then able to use the funds to buy goods approved by the UN for the benefit of its population.

Using its French subsidiary Wemco to administer the deals (because of Iraq’s “Buy British Last” policy), the Weir Group tendered for and won several contracts which involved supplying spare parts for water and oil pumps to Iraq’s North Oil Company and South Oil Company.

How the Weir Group worked the scam

Knowing the money could not be paid into an Iraqi bank, it was agreed an Iraqi agent would pay it from his own pocket. When it received the money from the OFFP, the company paid a 10 per cent kickback plus a further 4 per cent for the agent’s services to a fake Geneva-based company, Corsin Finance Ltd. The payments did not arouse suspicion as paying an agent to act on overseas deals was in itself entirely legitimate.

Two meetings were held on 13 and 14 September 2001 at the behest of a group director who was not involved in the OFFP contracts but had become aware of what was going on. At the second meeting, the director gave the go-ahead for the kickbacks despite being told they were illegal. The first payment was made that same day. In total, Weir Group plc secured 16 contracts worth 35 million paying kickbacks of 3 million.

 
2010: Weir Group prosecuted for providing kickbacks to the Iraqi regime

The “Oil For Food Programme” OFFP was put in place by the United Nations UN to ensure sanctions would not punish Iraqi citizens for the excesses of their government.

The Weir Group agreed on supply contracts heavily overcharging the programme, between 2001 and 2003 diverting around £3.1 million away from humanitarian aid to the coffers of Saddam Hussein.

The company was fined £3 million. The judge said he was taking into account the company’s guilty plea and its willingness to pay back the £9.4 million profits it made from the deals and the £3.1 million it had diverted from the OFFP together with a £1.4 million sum it had paid to its Iraqi agent for acting as a conduit for the illegal payments.

Weir Group PLC put profits before ethics; when told it had to pay a 10 per cent kickback or it wouldn’t win contracts, any scruples about UN sanctions disappeared.

Not one, of the more than 50 employees of the Weir Group involved was identified or pursued through the courts. Despite the fact that a number of individuals from other UK companies charged with similar offences of corruption and violation of sanctions, were charged, tried and punished. Moreover, though most of those at the helm at the time had moved on, many secured prestigious posts elsewhere.

In a statement explaining its decision to keep individuals out of the frame, the Crown Office said: “In the course of this investigation it became clear that the decision to pay kickbacks to the Iraqi government and to pay fees to the Iraqi agent, was taken at Weir Group level. It was, therefore, deemed that the most appropriate course of action was to prosecute The Weir Group plc rather than any individual who may have been involved in these events.”

A critic of the Crown Office said “the fines levied against The Weir Group was a pittance when set against its overall turnover. And they will simply be incorporated into the annual profit and loss account reducing the corporation tax bill. The fines should have been made the personal responsibility of the directors which would have added bite to the punishment.”

Lord Smith of Kelvin, Weir Group’s chairman, said the judgement “finally drew a line” under the prosecution investigation. “What happened back in 2001 was wrong and we accept full responsibility”. 

27 August 2014: Scottish referendum – Weir Group chief executive canvasses support of business leaders to Better Together

Announcing their opposition to a yes vote, 133 business leaders said: “Our economic ties inside the United Kingdom are very close and support almost 1 million Scottish jobs and the rest of the UK is Scotland’s biggest market by far. Our conclusion is that the business case for independence has not been made.”

Their intervention was coordinated by Keith Cochrane, chief executive of the Scottish engineering company the Weir Group and coincided with a campaigning visit to Scotland by David Cameron.

In a follow up on BBC Radio Scotland, Cochrane said he expected Scotland to face higher interest rates and higher costs for business if there was a yes vote. “Scottish business is deeply frustrated at the lack of answers to some basic questions which are pretty fundamental to business as we look forward. The economy is clearly one of the most significant concerns of voters and we felt it was important that Scottish business contributed to the debate. These are real businesses accounting for real jobs.”

 12 September 2014: Weir Group threaten to move Glasgow HQ if Scotland votes ‘yes’

Chief Executive Keith Cochrane has said that the group could not guarantee that it would keep its Glasgow headquarters if Scotland became independent after the referendum, although the group’s three service centres would remain in the country.

 
27 November 2014: Lord Smith of Kelvin, former chairman of the Weir group which championed the anti-independence campaign to chair the DevoMax commission

The Smith Commission issued its report on the shape and form of the devolved powers promised to Scotland by the political parties at Westminster in the days before and after the Scottish Independence referendum.

(https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20151202171017/https://www.smith-commission.scot//wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Smith_Commission_Report-1.pdf)

(http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2014/11/the-lowdown-and-the-views-on-the-smith-commission-report/)

Comments:

Billiesays: Common Purpose. Now what could that be.

As an active member and having been prosecuted and fined for paying millions in kick backs to gain contracts Weir Group will certainly know a thing or two. But it’s not just Weir Group.

Their ex Chief Executive Keith Robertson Cochran’s has form elsewhere. As an energetic supporter of common purpose businesses he has also been chief executive of SSE and Carillion.

Now for those who maybe don’t know Carillion was the UK’s biggest bankruptcy going down a couple of years ago with reported debts of £5.9 billion and £29 million in the bank. And who pray tell was the Chief Executive of this absolutely huge corporate failure. And a failure absolutely threaded through the common purpose of public works and service throughout the U.K.

No other it seems that the erstwhile ex Weir Chief Executive Keith Robertson Cochrane.

And have there been concerns about Mr Cochrane and his fellow band of directors. Well you bet there has as businesses have lost billions with the bankruptcy, employees have seen their pension scheme fail through underfunding, with the public sector having to pick up the pieces on collapsed projects. Good old common purpose shining through again one has to wonder why there have been calls to ban Cochrane and team for being directors for up to 15 years.

Cochrane among ex-Carillion directors facing ban

Better together in common purpose has a certain ring to it when you read about Weir Group Carillion. More like fill your boots bandit capitalism – with Common Purpose the new Cosa Nostra

But hey pensions come and go, SSE another corporate on the radar increase their electricity prices and make huge profits whilst recommending to old people to dance to keep warm in their cold energy poor houses. Common purpose thrives whilst the general population don’t.

Ah well, and to conclude on a happy side note it’s nice to hear that Prince Andrew is paying an undisclosed but anecdotally reported circa £12 million settlement to Virginia Giuffre. With all the public funding the Royal Family gets, would it be cynical to ask who is actually going to be paying out this money to a woman the Prince says he never met. At least now we can all cheer up and enjoy the Royal platinum jubilee.