DESPERATE TACTICS FROM REPUBLICANS SIGNAL OBAMA WIN

Sarah Palin. Has went way too far by linking Obama with terrorism.

I won't confess to having much interest in the US Presidential elections. There is very little difference between the Republicans and Democrats and whoever gets elected is unlikely to substantially change US policy worldwide.

The ignorant buffoon Bush has made America unpopular worldwide and yet he was elected for two terms, his folksy idiocy which the rest of the planet viewed with horror seemed (for the most part) to be just an indication that he was one of America's own.

I now confidently predict that Barack Obama will win the White House. The fairly smart and celebral McCain in an attempt to improve his image chose a young, inexperienced but attractive running mate to boost his credibility and give him the common god fearin' touch which served Bush well.

Unfortunately Sarah Palin is also a loud mouthed ignorant bigot. Her lack of knowledge of the outside world has been painfully obvious in her TV interviews and her harsh but carefully crafted sound bites haven't covered up her basic incompetence.

McCain had signalled that he was going to move into personal attack territory. However Palin has now severely overstepped the mark. Calling a presidential candidate a friend of terrorists is just too desperate to work.

This is the end of the McCain challenge as is forcefully argued here much of his appeal was that he seemed a bit different from the rest of the discredited Republican machine (people had became sick of Bush and his party eventually) but now his campaign has shown he will do and say anything to get elected. He's lost it and will now lose the election.

Comgratulations Obama. I hold no hope that you will do anything great but you can't be much worse than the last one.

Independence is normality

Letter to the Editor
Edinburgh Evening News

07/04/2008

Sir,

With regard to the Evening News editorial today 'the US allows separate states to be different' I would remind your paper of the obvious fact that Scotland, like the United States, is a country and not a state.

The idea that all Scots should aspire to is the status of a federal state shows a certain lack of ambition. Just what is it about Scotland that we are judged to be uniquely incapable of running our own affairs? What is wrong with our flag, the Saltire, that it shouldn't fly on its own at the United Nations?

Why should we ever want to swear allegiance to a flag which is clearly designed to represent England's past dominance over Ireland and Scotland (Wales isn't even on it!) with the St George's cross front and centre?

Jack Straw recently admitted that the Empire was basically a device to amplify English power abroad. Yes, Scots played a part in the Empire but most of our ancestors were just as poor at the end of it as we were at the beginning!

The Empire is over, knighthoods and other honours which pretend to membership of a British empire are as absurd and anachronistic as the UK monarch's claim to be 'defender of the [Catholic] faith'.

It is time to wash away this backward looking nonsense and any along with it any innate desire to bully other nations. What we need is equality with other countries, not superiority.
Independence is normality. Scotland is entirely capable of becoming a successful independent modern state and deciding our own policy on foreign affairs and defence.

If unionist opinion is genuinely strong, why was there no celebration whatsoever of the Union of Crowns or the Union of Parliaments? The only organisation which did mark both occasions was the Orange Lodge, who are hardly the most modern of political thinkers.

The union does not suit any country, not Scotland when we are outvoted 10-1 at Westminster, not Wales which is offered sub standard forms of Devolution and not even England who are waking up to the fact that the English identity has been subsumed by a British one which doesn't necessarily represent their views either.

Alex Salmond is right, we should take courage from the US who ended their own remote control by Britain and who like most other countries warmly celebrate their independence day. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by independence.

At the very least the unionist parties should have the basic politeness after 300 years to ask the Scottish people whether they want the union to continue or not. The fact they desperately don't want to do so, suggests they already know the likely answer!

Raise your game please Evening News and think seriously about what suits our country right now, not 50 or a hundred years ago.

Yours faithfully,

Joe Middleton