Steve Bell on Scottish independence vote – cartoon
David Cameron takes gamble on union and tells Alex Salmond independence vote must be held within next 18 months
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10 January 2012 12:31AM
Brilliant, sums it up perfectly....trouble is my money is on the man in the blue woad
10 January 2012 12:39AM
Interesting. The last time Steve Bell depicted Cameron's arse, Nick Clegg was sticking out of it.
10 January 2012 12:40AM
Cameron better be careful, the Scots are not overly fond of Tories. Particularly smarmy and divisive Tories. The man is a scunner in all senses of the word!!
10 January 2012 12:41AM
I suspect that Scotland will ultimately say 'our boot up your arse.'
10 January 2012 12:44AM
Is that a request or an order?
10 January 2012 12:49AM
Once he's paid off, Salmond's lips will be stuck together with Prick Stick
- that handy old big business-glue.
james ( cantab student @ get rid of scotland please . soon )
10 January 2012 12:54AM
Will ye no come back again?
Will ye no come back again?
More deeply loathed ye canna be,
Will ye no come back again?
10 January 2012 12:55AM
Pass the popcorn!
10 January 2012 1:12AM
Many Scots would take independence and happily wish England all the best. Yes this cartoon is funny but elsewhere in this newspaper an editorial is calling for a grown-up approach from all sides in handling the referendum, so enough with the sabre-rattling, please.
10 January 2012 1:13AM
Having said that, fight, fight, fight!
My money's on Salmond for a TKO.
10 January 2012 1:27AM
Broken Britain?
Soon will be .
well done Dave.
Not.
10 January 2012 1:29AM
I said when Cameron formed the coalition that I believed the Tory Old Guard would "get him" before anyone else and the Conservative and UNIONIST Party must be wishing he could just keep his stupid mouth shut.
10 January 2012 1:31AM
Boundery Changes and the Nasty Labour seats in Scotland vanish .
Hello Tory little england.
No future just a bigots paradise and airstrip 1 for uncle sam.
10 January 2012 1:33AM
I said when Cameron formed the coalition that I believed the Tory Old Guard would "get him" before anyone else and the Conservative and UNIONIST Party
................
think they will oust him in a backbench revolt ..when the economy goes total tits up by the end of this year...walkies.
10 January 2012 1:40AM
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10 January 2012 1:41AM
Cameron's advisors (what ! You didn't think he thought this up himself I hope?) should be sacked.
Much has been made about the SNP 'Choosing' 2014 to play up to Scot's sentiment's over Bannockburn (first mistake. 95% of Scottish voters are much more pragmatic these days - and many of them are English or part-English), but there's not a shred of evidence for this - it's media 'creativity' (second mistake - his advisors should have checked).
The Tory option of 2013 ? The 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden ?? Fought just a few miles from Michael Moore's house - where 12,000 Scots were slaughtered by an English army ??? (Third mistake - if you want real historical sentiment - go to the Moore's seat during the Common Ridings).
Every town and village in Moore's constituency commemorates that battle every year, and he's going to be reminded of that every time he steps out his front door.
Choosing 2013 looks like the Bullingdon Boys giving the restaurant owner a kicking after they've destroyed his livelihood .... and laughing about it ... then paying the LibDems to clean up and pay for the damage.
The Tories have made the "Bannockburn sentimentality" claims without a shred of evidence.
And they've suggested 2013 without bothering to find out what THAT particular date means for any Scot (or Border Anglo-Scot like me) who knows their history.
Moore will be having nightmares.
The Scots King, and the 'great and good' of Scotland, died in THAT battle.
"The flo'ers o' the Forest are a' wede awa' ?
Cameron's just brought them back to life !
10 January 2012 1:43AM
No - a match made in hell.
Time to put a match to the Union in its present form.
10 January 2012 1:46AM
fformat
10 January 2012 1:43AM
No - a match made in hell.
Time to put a match to the Union in its present form
.................
enjoy a balkanised clapped out island.
10 January 2012 1:49AM
Cameron ,the Pm who got in on 'broken Britain'then smashed its social infrastructure and poured gasoline on the flames of bigotry and tribal factions .
when the whole shebang falls apart ....I hope the Clarksons ,the Daily Mail types ..the bigots in whitevans ..are all happy .
10 January 2012 1:58AM
Steve Bell
Thanks be to the cartoon gods -- you're back!
Cheers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 January 2012 2:02AM
The Squadrone Volante and the Court Party were bribed in 1707, the people never wanted Union!
Time to vote people!
10 January 2012 2:04AM
Bollocks
10 January 2012 2:08AM
get some manners .
10 January 2012 2:10AM
Oh give over ..you will be dragging up Rob Roys ghost next .
.
10 January 2012 2:11AM
ConstantinePlaymates
'when the whole shebang falls apart ....I hope the Clarksons ,the Daily Mail types ..the bigots in whitevans ..are all happy .'
Yes indeed - and you can keep 'em and good luck. I was born in Glasgow and still live in a country which overwhelmingly rejects the Tory principles inherent in the examples you cite.
10 January 2012 2:14AM
'Tongue in cheek' I hop e Corinthianism, but just in case someone else comes up with the nonsense of 'Sponging Jocks ..... :
I don't know where people get the idea that England will be better off financially.
Because the evidence - the facts - and the fiscal studies carried out by national and international experts and 'think tanks' show the opposite.
The McCrone report (go and read it), suppressed for 30 years by successive governments, told the truth. So it was marked 'Secret' and buried in a vault.
It's been updated and confirmed many times.
Yes, we have to include oil revenues - International law has proved that over 90% lies in Scottish water (and Westminster was forced to agree) - but when the London media does the 'England v Scotland' thing, those revenues are never included.
And at today's extraction rates, there's another 40 years-worth (£1 Trillion) left. But the technology is improving all the time, and the oil companies know there are huge reserves waiting.
So with the oil, every Scottish resident pays as much into the Treasury as every Londoner. The difference is what the Scot's get back :
Scotland receives - £10,400 (pop 5.2 million) per head, per year
LONDON - £10,655 (pop 8 million) - ph/py
And that's why the London media always reduces the Treasury's individual regional/country spending figures to : England V Scotland V Wales V NI.
London gets the biggest share - by a lot ! People in the regions should be asking 'Why ?'
And that's just Public Services, not Capital or other projects.
McCrone suggested where the revenues could be spent - a 'London ring road' was one.
The more recent Ansel Reports confirm this : Oil revenues paid for the M25, the Channel Tunnel, the massive regeneration seen in London, Underground extensions and upgrades and more (I'd add the Iraq war too).
The rest of England was thrown a few crumbs, while London and the SE got the rest.
The most recent 'Oxford Economics' study of Public Finances I've seen is unequivocal :
"London receives a far greater share of public spending than any other region in the UK..." - sums it up nicely. And accurately.
10 January 2012 2:16AM
Cleevr chap Alex ..use the Barnett Formula to bribe the voters ..get independance ..no tax subsidy from England then the shit hits the fan and Salmond starts the cuts .
Of course you Guardianistas are all such super brained mighty Mekon intellectuals .
sooner this paper goes bankrupt pear shaped the better .
people know the Mail and Sun is claptrap ..but you sad pseuds take it so serious .
laugh ..bring on the slutwalks Dr Who and Lemons ..muppets
10 January 2012 2:17AM
I have no manners, i am but a working class oik.
10 January 2012 2:18AM
good luck .... I toatally agree with you ..however you will end up ecomomicaly up shite creek
10 January 2012 2:18AM
Is that you showing me the missing manners?
10 January 2012 2:20AM
Ranald
10 January 2012 2:17AM
Response to ConstantinePlaymates, 10 January 2012 2:08AM
I have no manners, i am but a working class oik.
...............
im a working class oik ..dragged up in a slum in the 50s
However I do have manners ..
10 January 2012 2:21AM
Sorry sir
10 January 2012 2:22AM
Hey Ranald, how much are the Scots going to ransom Faslane for?
I can't see any English towns welcoming a prime nuclear target so you have them over a Trident shaped barrel.
We Welsh need to know for when we get round to setting the price for Brum and Scouse water supplies. Not to mention the gas in that there pipe John Harris hated.
10 January 2012 2:23AM
Ranald
10 January 2012 2:18AM
Response to ConstantinePlaymates, 10 January 2012 2:16AM
Is that you showing me the missing manners?
..........
no just getting something off my chest .
I first started buying the Guardian in 1974
I do not anymore.
10 January 2012 2:25AM
well Im off you are relieved .
have fun posting ..I wont bother again
bye bye guardian ..
I give it 1 year and this paper will fold .
shame ...mind you saved me 1.20 p aday :)
keep on slutwalking comrades.
10 January 2012 2:29AM
The Scots were forced at gunpoint to vote for union, we had no choice.
Scotland had little or no navy and our trade with continental Europe was being strangled by the Royal Navy, we also couldn't trade with the Americas and West Indies, all that sugar was out of bounds.
Scotland's money was required for war with France, there was also the matter of maintaining a Protestant succession, the Catholic House of Stuart was still a perceived threat.
Do you know about the 1705 Alien Act? Scotland had no choice but to agree to an unequal union.
10 January 2012 2:31AM
Absolutely, an a sleekit one at that !
10 January 2012 2:33AM
life's tough Historys the past .
however if you think you going enjoy a modern welfare state infrastructure with naff all farming and industry ...dream on
as soon as the Barnett formula dries up ...bring on the cuts .
Youl have independance but naff all on the table .
10 January 2012 2:34AM
Constantine, why post here insulting others on a personal basis when you wish the Guardian to cease to exist?
No kleenex left?
10 January 2012 2:35AM
My great Grandfatther a Scot and also a Laird .
Im no fan of Englands elite .
gdnite.
10 January 2012 2:42AM
Ah, Cameron the "Unionist" that is going to preside over the disintegration of the UK
I hear that Plaid Cymru is getting a bit restive too, soon all he will be left with is the DUP, but if you choose to sup with the Devil...
10 January 2012 2:45AM
Cameron could rule the Home Counties as an independet Duchy.
10 January 2012 2:54AM
independent*
10 January 2012 3:03AM
The crazy thing about this cartoon is that Cameron is half Scottish, just like the Queen. Cameron's father was born in Aberdeenshire.
10 January 2012 3:12AM
I have no idea to whom to attribute this to, but remember....
Scotland has more pandas than Tory MPs
10 January 2012 3:13AM
It could help empower English nationalists if they see Scotland go it's own way. Maybe that's what the Westminster cabal are really frightened about? Being left alone with a bunch of pissed off English.
10 January 2012 3:31AM
Can't agree that Salmond is in anyway shape or form as objectionable as cameron or that this is a stand off/square go. Far from it. So this cartoon is fail for me.
10 January 2012 3:53AM
Here's your bunnet Eck. What' your hurry?
10 January 2012 3:58AM
Maybe 'Dave' might think about apologising for the Highland Clearances before going anywhere near Scotland.
10 January 2012 4:21AM
I reckon Steve Bell has found the perfect constituional formula for England and Scotland:
Condominion.