Bit by bit, Alex Salmond is getting his way…

Blimey, you don’t even need to show your passport when entering the UK from Ireland.

Good to see politicians flying with Ryanair though, I hope their flight was on tiem and they got that awful musical fanfare played at them.

I was lucky enough to hear the full conversation, which proves that the boys in blue need more education.

Och aye, och aye, och aye. What’s all this then, Jimma? Ye come from Stansted? Isnae that in America?

Benedict, it’s pretty amazing the range of activities police forces are getting up to these days, it seems everything except patrolling the streets and solving crimes.

That must have been a tricky one for Wee Picties returning from the diaspora (where, as any fule kno, the streets are paved with gold) who were not able to produce a Scottish Passport.

I wonder how much it would cost to put Hadrian’s Wall back into operational condition…..

I think we should be told.

Well that would be interesting, as I don’t have a passport and I’m not aware that the police have any right to require me to carry one.

I do wish you lot in the media would stop talking up that bloated little egomaniac when his party is doing very well eroding any enthusiasm floating voters might once have had for it.

Sheumais – Indeed, what are Strathclyde Police going to do if you show up without a passport? They have no right to turn you back.

This could be fun; I am in Dublin, having come here with only my driving licence, and am flying to Edinburgh this weekend. If stopped do I admit I don’t have my passport, or do I make a stand and ask them by what right they are asking to see it.

If detained by an over ambitious plod, how much compensation will I be able to get out of them? This might see my retirement put back on track.

“They have no right to turn you back.”

They might like to try Phil, but, from what a former colleague told me about her Strathclyde police sergeant husband’s colleagues, I would prefer to deny them the opportunity. Whatever the case, my passport expired in 2007 and I chose not to bother renewing it, as I have had no need of it since.

The Huntsman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_(film)

Not much, especialy if we dump newcastle as well…

Big Brother Brown handed them the keys when he said the Lockerbie decision was purely a matter for the Scots to decide according to their laws, thereby ceding sovereignty to them as the issue covered all essential aspects: defence, international law, foreign policy,diplomacy, civil liberties, taxation (insofaras it was deemed cheaper for the terrorist to die at home).

Stalin and Hitler would recognise Brown’s tactics; divide, and rule.A police state testing its powers, bit by bit, often with the help of unwitting apparatchiks, turning citizen against citizen. No doubt the government can find some form of doublespeak to excuse this latest incident. Miliband is already branding euroskepticism as extremism. How long before any debate is condemned as treason, an enemy of the State?

Papers, papers. Show me your papers!

“I do wish you lot in the media would stop talking up that bloated little egomaniac..”

Ah – you see Sheumais, we support the Napoleonic little bumpkin as our best chance for Scottish independence!

Are they checking passports at the land border as well ? If not, why not ?

“Napoleonic little bumpkin”

I’m not quite sure what you think the benefits of losing Scotland would be, particularly as England has dominated politics in the UK as long as it has existed and couldn’t produce a more able alternative to either Blair or Brown. Certainly Salmond isn’t either, but he’s our problem, not yours. If you disagree, contemplate the fact that 82% of Westminster MPs represent English seats.

@Sheumais

The problem is not the 82% of MPs who represent English seats and whose constituents have to live with the consequences of how they vote. The problem is that 72 MPs are sent to Westminster from Scotland (plus 40 from Wales) by people who can send any fool they like because the MPs’ decisions do not affect them.

I’m not sure Scotland still returns as many MPs as that to Westminster now, but if 70% of all seats are safe, as someone suggested a few days ago, Scotland is far from being England’s problem, even on relative cost. Scotland should be all the proof anyone could ever need that devolved assemblies do not work.

You got pulled because your English or is it anyone passing through Prestwick? Don’t Scottish authorities have an interest in the safety of their people? you know the Telegraph enjoys scaring the sh@t out of everyone when it comes to the “war on terror”; how did the cop know without questioning you and getting some id that you were not going to blow up Scottish people. Oh I see, he should have know who you were?!!

That aside my Scots heart rejoices to hear what happened to you at Prestwick; because I can’t tell you how many times i have been pulled by the police purely because I am Scottish; or been discriminated against in job interviews because of my accent (not posh enough), or had Scottish money rejected in shops, gas stations etc when it legal tender. This sort of arrogant dismissal of Scots is why we cheers for the other side when England plays; and why I have yearned for Scottish Independence for four decades.

Alex Salmond is the first politician who looks like he could actually deliver what every thinking Scot wishes for, the freedom to govern ourselves and our own affairs.

‘Every thinking Scot’ would know that independence from England would be pointless since you’re in the EU and don’t have the freedom to govern yourselves anyway – the Lisbon Treaty will guarantee that.

Also strange that given one of the boasts of the EU is ‘free movement’ of goods, people and services across internal borders we are now continually hassled by Agents and police at our own borders.

bembaboy – here’s what the Bank of England says about Scottish banknotes being legal tender:

“…these notes are not legal tender; only Bank of England notes are legal tender but only in England and Wales.”

Benedict, I live less than 20 miles from Prestwick and frequently fly back and forth to Stanstead and understand what you went through.

I think this whole issue can be resolved down to three key sources, New Labour, Gordon Brown, Devolution.

Spot the common denominator.

I know the SNP have power in Scotland, but that wouldn’t have been the case if Brown and New Labour hadn’t tried to screw the system to ensure a lifelong socialist oligarchy up here.

Judging by the reaction to your previous posts I think you may have touched on a raw nerve.

Its just a try on to make us more open to a national ID card.

Get off it. They very sensibly want to keep Tories out. Good enough.

I have no problem with this, as long as it cuts both ways.

Time to start repatriating Scots from England too – starting at the top.

Home rule for England

I hate to spoil the paranoia – and rather tasteless national stereotyping – party but have you considered the most obvious explanation?

Most likely Strathclyde Police had a tip off that a person of interest was coming into town on a flight from London and thus were cutting them off at the pass.

Given that Glasgow Airport was the site of terrorist attack only a few years ago, you’d expect there to be a substantial police presence.

Salmond is doing enough to break up the Union by other means. You’d do better concentrating on those rather than inventing spurious stuff from nowhere.