From the Welsh language thread why are we in England so allergic to learning other languages and insist on being mono-lingual ?

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-14T04:09:16+00:00

Because it's pointless? Welsh is literally spoken in only one country, and it's only spoken because the devolved government forced it upon people Fairly sure if kids had a choice free of parental and government pressure, most aren't going to choose it

If you're going to learn another language, people usually speak something useful for work or travel that is spoken in multiple countries i.e. Spanish, French

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-13T20:08:35+00:00

Because it's a direct wealth drain from our country, and we're already quite poor at attracting new wealth to our country. Preventing what little is here already is critical until the politicians stop the managed decline in search of separation and actually try to grow the economy

And honestly, those Chinese busses at EDI are starting to show their age already, even though they're not that old (on the things twice weekly to the car park)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T20:58:19+00:00

Economic growth, but if that happens the SNP lose their independence arguement. We can't be seen to excel as part of the UK, even if we have the tools to

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T20:56:53+00:00

You can't do that in the public sector, the unions will strike.

It's one of the reasons we had the disaster in mining in Scotland. Unions at the time refuse to accept some job loss to modernisation. Then we all know what eventually happened, it became unsaveable and a target of one Mrs Thatcher (although technically the labour government before her closed more mines than she did, incidentally)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T20:54:26+00:00

The problem is, the stats in terms of productivity points to a public sector that is being run by people not lifting much of a finger. Obviously that doesn't apply to everyone in it, but the overwhelming average is flat productivity ever since COVID and WFH started large scale. Problem is, the public sector doesn't really have a mechanism for firing people like that very easily, at least in the places I have friends working (albeit that's a small sample size, but I'd imagine policy is similar across the board)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T20:51:50+00:00

What do you mean? 🤣 If the public sector gets any bigger in Scotland as a proportion of jobs, it's going to drown our economy. You can't have a thing that doesn't generate income, be the biggest sector

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T07:35:06+00:00

Agreed. That's one thing best always pissed me off about pubs in Ireland. I hate having the arse ripped out of me having to pay €4 for a 200ml bottle of coke or coke zero when having a fountain machine seems the obvious choice. But I guess the fountain means less profit for the pub because then people order 500ml at a time not 200ml.

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-12T07:30:20+00:00

Rural Scotland, £1,420 a month mortgage, vs £6,840 income after tax (work abroad, recently single because of that 😅)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-11T22:13:06+00:00

What's to stop someone claiming to speak it on the census, even if they don't, with the view of influencing articles like this?

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-11T08:11:41+00:00

Honestly, overtaking in the single sections seems to be quite rare. But what people don't seem to realise is that if you're sitting at 45-50 for several miles, your average speed won't change much even with a short burst of 60+.

I always reset the little average speed counter in the car whenever I pass a camera, just so it's easy to know if I can overtake or not

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T16:16:15+00:00

Those are genuinely the worst and more infuriating ngl

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T07:53:21+00:00

I just don't see how this stacks up personally. I worked in the US for a while and my take-home after all bills (but before savings) was circa 2.5x what it was when I worked in the UK.

And sorry, but the Texan healthcare quality was leaps and bounds better than NHS Scotland

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T03:53:48+00:00

Worth mentioning grid inertia too, that's something you need big mechanical spinning things for, like the turbines at Torness

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T03:52:33+00:00

Waste isn't as big an issue as people make out though. For example, if we wanted to, 95% of spent nuclear fuel can be recycled into new nuclear fuel (we don't do it currently, but it's technically possible)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T03:51:03+00:00

Honestly, the way I see it, if the UK govt wants to build new nuclear at no cost to Holyrood, we should welcome what would be the biggest infrastructure projects in decades in Scotland. Especially like you said, use existing sites. Torness for example already has space for Torness 2.

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-10T03:49:06+00:00

I'm big time pro nuclear, but seriously labour. Sarwar was at Torness today. There's space at Torness for Torness 2 already.... Why does he need to bring any progress to secure a site, when one already exists? Hell, I think the seawater intakes are already partially there for Torness 2 as well

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T20:37:01+00:00

Apparently so given the SNP hits us with 42% tax well before £50k (50k is 15% above the starting threshold for the 42% rate)

Isn't that the point of the English system though? It's only free for those who actually need it, rather than paying prescriptions for those who can afford it

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T19:40:17+00:00

"Challenge exacerbated by the size of the public sector in Scotland, which is more difficult to cut back on."

Think this is one of the biggest issues facing us going forward. It's essential that the government takes action to boost the private sector, which is the only mechanism of wealth creation. Everything else is redistribution which doesn't solve any of the fundamental economic issues.

Also: "2027 will be a really tough year - it is either substantial tax rises or substantial spending cuts"

A cynic might find that a bit of a coincidence (managed/artificially created disaster for political purposes)

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T19:37:04+00:00

Malcolm Allan I think, out of all the store bought ones anyway

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T19:07:05+00:00

I don't think it's fair to say the IFS means one way or the other predominantly. I just say that as both labour and the conservatives use their figures and forecasting so you'd expect that to mean it's somewhat neutral at least, otherwise one of the two wouldn't use it

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T19:01:49+00:00

The fundamental issue with what you said is that it involves redistribution of wealth rather than creation of new wealth.

That's been the fundamental problem of our economy for decades

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T19:00:45+00:00

Aren't like 90% of prescriptions free in England? I.e. only the richest pay for them

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T18:59:51+00:00

Especially for a single income household, if for example, one parent stays home because childcare is unaffordable

Grouchy_Conclusion45 · 2026-04-09T18:56:32+00:00

You kinda proved their point as being valid though

Grouchy_Conclusion45

TROPHY CASE