Boris Johnson

[Corky Smeek]

Believe it or not....All Countries dealt with it badly, some worse than others.
New Zealand is likely the most successful!

How can that be the case? NZ is a small, independent country of just under 5m people. Surely, countries of that size are incapable of running their own affairs. Are you trying to suggest that NZ somehow managed to work out, all by itself, control protocols that suited its unique circumstances ? Come off it! They must have had assistance from another country - perhaps one with broad shoulders.

[The Horseman]

New Zealand.....5 million population.......1500 Covid confirmed....20 Deaths!
Same population as Scotland.

Oddquine....Prez Trump stopped flights from China in Feb and was called a Racist. So one is Damned if they do and ‘D’ if they don’t!
.................And the underfunding....Are you willing to pay Double/Triple in taxes. Are you willing to put a limit on the 500,000 Mobility cars that are out?
I know someone who has had a mobility car for 10 years.. He travels all over Europe and recently sent his new allotment car back, as it wasn‘t the right colour and didn’t have headlight Washers and Wipers! Plus Insurance, licence and petrol! And I have seen him and he is quite healthy! His Wife got one and didn't drive so she got Driving lessons!..FREE. Ohhhh and one can get a 7 seater!
Are you willing to forgo that, and all the other benefits people get. A Country cannot afford everything. Just wait...your taxes are going up on all facets of life in the near future!
And of course Politicians Will boast about what they have done. That is the Animal of Government!
And they do it in every Country. Take credit for what is positive, and blame the previous Gov’t for inadequacies! ‘Tis the way!

i should mention that there will be lessons learned here, and forgotten until the next fiasco!

In addition.....in North America approx 70% of deaths were the Elderly in Care Homes!

[Shabbychic]

Believe it or not....All Countries dealt with it badly, some worse than others.
New Zealand is likely the most successful!
One can blame the WHO, and the fact that to be prepared for anything like this costs megabucks!
Do u know that the N95 masks and the gloves have a 2 year shelf life! Then they have to be replaced....Do you know the cost of equipping Emergency Measures with said equipment.
And the people who the Govt’s choose to put on the Front Lines usually have No Experience in Crises Management.
And do you trust every Country to tell the truth about their problems. And the list goes on.
It is said ‘Hindsight is 20/20‘.
I have been involved in Emergency Measures....it ‘ain’t easy’!
******And every Country brought people back into the Country and no, they were not checked, because it would be impossible to do it!
OR......they could have left them where they were to likely die!
Trust me.....It’s an Impossible Situation!

Oh dear, where do you get your information fae? Perhaps the 'Tory Fan Club Fantasy Magazine', or the highly rated 'Conservative Crisis Management Manual for the Gullible'? Your take on this whole situation is so far from the truth, that not only are you on a different page from reality, but a different book, in a different language, from a different planet.......possibly Uran......Mars?

[Shabbychic]

I know someone who has had a mobility car for 10 years.. He travels all over Europe and recently sent his new allotment car back, as it wasn‘t the right colour and didn’t have headlight Washers and Wipers! Plus Insurance, licence and petrol! And I have seen him and he is quite healthy! His Wife got one and didn't drive so she got Driving lessons!..FREE. Ohhhh and one can get a 7 seater!

So, you are back to the Motability cars again. (sandyr1)


Can I remind you that Motability cars are not free. To get one you must go through strict medical tests to qualify for Higher Rate Mobility Allowance, and this is what pays for it, if you choose to have a car instead of the money. It applies to everyone, including those in full time employment. This qualifies you for a basic car, but you must pay extra, out of your own pocket, for bigger, or fancier models. Petrol is NOT included. There are no limits on how many are allowed per household, as long as each recipient, qualifies for Higher Rate Mobility Allowance in their own right. And please remember, looking quite healthy, means nothing. There are invisible illnesses, and it is not easy to get Higher Rate Mobility Allowance any more.

I forgot to add, there is also a 60.000 miles, mileage limit over 3 years. You have to pay extra for every mile you travel over this limit.

[The Horseman]

Yup u got it!
U cannot have everything!
Ohh mistake...550,000 nowadays!
Social Assistance means just that. Help for those in Dire Need! Get it. The needy!
I am just quoting from the UK official Websites.��

[Shabbychic]

Ohh mistake...550,000 nowadays!
Social Assistance means just that. Help for those in Dire Need! Get it. The needy!
I am just quoting from the UK official Websites.😇

Mobility Allowance and Daily Living Allowance have absolutely nothing to do with financial need or 'the needy'. They both come under PIP (Personal Independence Payment) previously known as DLA (Disability Living Allowance) and have nothing to do with any other Benefits, or other incomes. You can even have a full time job and still qualify for one or both components of PIP. It is paid no matter your income, savings, or NI contributions, and is tax free. David Cameron used to claim DLA for his disabled son, and I don't think he was needy.


Your mention of Social Assistance is actually called Universal Credit in the UK nowadays, and that is the one that is supposed to help people on low incomes, or out of work, (pitiful as it is) and has nothing to do with Mobility Allowance or Motability Vehicles.


Did you go to the Priti Patel school of maths? The mileage allowance is sixty thousand miles for a 3 year agreement, or one hundred thousand miles for a 5 year agreement, NOT five hundred and fifty thousand miles for any kind of agreement.


I don't have a Motability car myself, just in case you're interested, but I know someone who does.

[Oddquine]

New Zealand.....5 million population.......1500 Covid confirmed....20 Deaths!
Same population as Scotland.

Oddquine....Prez Trump stopped flights from China in Feb and was called a Racist. So one is Damned if they do and ‘D’ if they don’t!
.................And the underfunding....Are you willing to pay Double/Triple in taxes. Are you willing to put a limit on the 500,000 Mobility cars that are out?
I know someone who has had a mobility car for 10 years.. He travels all over Europe and recently sent his new allotment car back, as it wasn‘t the right colour and didn’t have headlight Washers and Wipers! Plus Insurance, licence and petrol! And I have seen him and he is quite healthy! His Wife got one and didn't drive so she got Driving lessons!..FREE. Ohhhh and one can get a 7 seater!
Are you willing to forgo that, and all the other benefits people get. A Country cannot afford everything. Just wait...your taxes are going up on all facets of life in the near future!
And of course Politicians Will boast about what they have done. That is the Animal of Government!
And they do it in every Country. Take credit for what is positive, and blame the previous Gov’t for inadequacies! ‘Tis the way!

i should mention that there will be lessons learned here, and forgotten until the next fiasco!

In addition.....in North America approx 70% of deaths were the Elderly in Care Homes!

New Zealand, lucky for them, doesn't have a neighbour with sole control of its income, and in charge of everything though, does it?

Trump didn't stop flights from China in February....or, if it comes to that flights from Europe. Trump restricted travel for “foreign nationals who had been in China in the last 14 days.” as if foreigners were the only ones who could be infected and Americans were incapable of catching and tranamitting a virus. Pretty much the same attitude as in the UK...ie ..you can get home if you promise faithfully to self-isolate for a fortnight.

Re underfunding...your examples of the ways to increase/free up taxes is typically Tory...try to scare us with the threat of increased taxes for everybody (not just the highest earners) or take a pop at the benefits system which grudgingly helps the poor and sick...with your diatribe about motability cars. I note you don't offer any of the obvious solutions and say...stop or cut back on the corporate welfare to ex-nationalised industries that costs over £90 billion a year because we privatise profits but nationalise the bulk of financial responsibility; stop subsidising companies via tax credits to pay crap wages; don't upgrade Trident; scrap HS2; don't tart up Buck House or the Houses of Parliament; don't fork out six and a half million on allowing MPs to work from home or well over £60 million a year in subsidising 800+ jobs for the boys in an unelected second chamber; or even do what they usually do, and simply pluck more leaves from Westminster's magic money tree..the same tree that grew the £1 billion bung fto buy the DUP's support Theresa May's government.

If lessons are forgotten about until an emergency occurs, then they are not lessons learned, are they? Any government worthy of the name should be heeding lessons learned and setting in place some kind of apparatus to meet the possibility of just such an emergency. If not, why do we bother having Governments? We had the pandemic response simulation in 2016...and the reccomendations were ignored; we had ample warning of the coronavirus pandemic in January...and that was ignored; we have been running on the spot half-heartedly trying to catch up, since we actually started taking notice of the fact there was a problem...once it landed on our shores because we didn't start to do something about it at the earliest stages..like testing people at airports or from cruise ships in ports for example.

Wow...there is a country worse than us for not bothering their backside to do the obvious, then...how reassuring to our belief in our exceptionalism is that?

[The Horseman]

Lets not get personal!
I am very simply saying that we cannot ‘have it all’.
£6 Billion would go a long way to assist to prepare for the present calamity.
I don't know of any other Country that has such a Liberal policy of ‘doling’ out money.
Come on.....there are no scare tactics.......just You cannot have it all!
I agree all Gov'ts are bloated. Millions for this and that. We all have that.
A Politician here got in on the Catchy phrase.....Do away with the Gravy Train!
Yes, someone has to pay for Covid, and the only place the money can from is us poor tax payers.
All Political parties are the same/ just different theories.
And we had a Nuke disaster exercise......where did the Recommendations go, and there were many........Filed.

Testing people at Airports....Impossible...we had thousands come thru and No one was tested. And if they did test positive, where are you going to put them!.....They were given a peace of paper and told to Self Isolate. 70% didn't. The logistics are impossible.
I still feel that all Gov’t are in the same boat/plane! Very few have handled this well.
NZ seems to have, with approx. the same population as Scotland.
I think here Politics should be put aside and a concerted effort be made to rethink Scotland, and for that matter ‘other Countries’. There seems no sense in this continual argument of separation at a time when The UK is ‘licking it’s wounds’.
It’s better together!
No sense in trashing me! If you had been smarter or better, you like everyone else would not be in the Dire situation we are all in!

Caveat.....The blame game doesn't work here! Solutions do!

[Corky Smeek]

I think here Politics should be put aside

That is usually the go-to phrase when someone feels their preferred political system is under threat.

As has been said many times on here this situation requires a political solution. Politicians are deciding the policy; the allocation of funds; the distribution of resources and even the use of the armed forces. This situation could not be any more political if it tried. It's just a shame that the UK currently has a bumper crop of self-interested, incompetent, numbskulls in charge.

The thing that really gets me mad though, is all the distraction activity that is going on; either initiated or encouraged by HMG and all of it draped in a UJ. They have allowed this pandemic to produce what will probably be the single worst socio-economic crisis in all our lifetimes. And yet their crisis management approach seems to be, "We have made a huge mess of everything so let's create a load of smoke and mirrors and maybe people won't notice.". Dunkirk and Blitz spirit references; centenarian veterans having to keep the NHS afloat; good old Boris recovering; and national clapping once a week. Then there is the press going ballistic when the SG proposes a plan (face masks in some public places) which HMG hasn't even thought about yet but which the press spin to be a cheap attempt by NS to embarrass HMG.

As for your assertion that "It's better together!"; don't make me laugh. Being in this Union is costing people their lives. British exceptionalism is costing people their lives and above all sheer incompetence is costing people their lives.

[The Horseman]

Canada has been using the Military for likely 2 months now, to supplement Old Age homes and as a support system, and most other Countries are now doing the same!
All Governments are ‘smoke and mirrors’!
I agree that those in charge in most Countries arn’t capable of Crisis Mgm’t!
If it’s any consolation, Most Countries are in the same boat, with the same probs, but people trying to ‘stir it up’ at this juncture, serves no one!
If people feel so strongly about the issues, they should go and Volunteer.
And Division creates more Division, and thus it goes on and on!
Stick together and wait for an opportunity to do better.
Go back in time...what caused the probs in the British Empire, and all the great dynasties in the World!

[Oddquine]

Lets not get personal!
I am very simply saying that we cannot ‘have it all’.
£6 Billion would go a long way to assist to prepare for the present calamity.
I don't know of any other Country that has such a Liberal policy of ‘doling’ out money.
Come on.....there are no scare tactics.......just You cannot have it all!
I agree all Gov'ts are bloated. Millions for this and that. We all have that.
A Politician here got in on the Catchy phrase.....Do away with the Gravy Train!
Yes, someone has to pay for Covid, and the only place the money can from is us poor tax payers.
All Political parties are the same/ just different theories.
And we had a Nuke disaster exercise......where did the Recommendations go, and there were many........Filed.

Testing people at Airports....Impossible...we had thousands come thru and No one was tested. And if they did test positive, where are you going to put them!.....They were given a peace of paper and told to Self Isolate. 70% didn't. The logistics are impossible.
I still feel that all Gov’t are in the same boat/plane! Very few have handled this well.
NZ seems to have, with approx. the same population as Scotland.
I think here Politics should be put aside and a concerted effort be made to rethink Scotland, and for that matter ‘other Countries’. There seems no sense in this continual argument of separation at a time when The UK is ‘licking it’s wounds’.
It’s better together!
No sense in trashing me! If you had been smarter or better, you like everyone else would not be in the Dire situation we are all in!

Caveat.....The blame game doesn't work here! Solutions do!

Who is getting personal? Do you object to being considered to have Tory attitudes? If so, I apologise, and realise I should have said right wing attitudes. That better?

If testing people at airports is impossible..then how have other countries managed it? I have just read a post on FB from someone who came back from Australia a few days ago, comparing the laissez faire attitude at the UK airports on arrival at Heathrow...no tests, no social distancing, staff without PPE etc. etc. to her experience on leaving Australia. After all, if Matt Hancock is correct, (and why would he lie) passenger numbers had fallen to about 15,000 a day by the 16th April so surely airport and immigration staff could cope with a drop of nearly 90% of the previous year's traffic into airports...given they aren't all going to arrive on the same flight?

I agree we cannot have it all, but where politics comes into it is that different political ideologies have different spending priorities and recruit their advisory boards/councils, scientific or otherwise, with those priorities in mind. As I said elsewhere.... If you DON''T scrutinise and criticise a government for thousands needlessly dying...then they are just going to carry on making their catastrophic errors, aren't they? I'm getting sick of people saying that now is not the time to be criticising, and we should all pull together. Does that mean we all pull together, without complaint, until the government manages to kill off enough of us, before the 2021-2022 budget, to cut their pension payouts and other benefit spending in order to free up money to give tax breaks to those who don't need any more tax breaks?

I wasn't trashing you, btw, unless you are a "my government right or wrong" kind of person, in which case, you will take personal offence at any criticism of the UK Government, however deserved it is...so if you feel offended, that is down to you and not me.

Solutions require someone to be interested in hearing and implementing them...something our government has not done at any time since this whole thing started. They have listened only to what they wanted to hear...e.g. "herd immunity" They have reacted to pressure, some of which may well be the volume of ordinary people trashing them all over Social media, and some of the media rolling back a shade from its usually uncritical and unscrutinised support. If we hadn't been all over the media complaining about the rank stupidity of our government, the lack of PPE, the level of deaths etc etc...the government would probably still be blatantly pursuing their original idea of herd immunity with no safegaurds, waiting for the virus to cull the herd....instead of doing it surreptitiously, while lying through their teeth as to how well we are doing compared to other countries.

[The Horseman]

Hi, I really don’t know what the answer is.
The World in general has problems....of no surprise to me.
Methinks the answer is to get into Politics yourself. And of course, then u will see the difficulties of changing anything!

An example......Damage, and Drunks rampaging in Wick and Thurso.
Two men who could do something about it...Willie Mackey and Mathew Reiss.
What do they do...Nothing.....that we have heard of!

Willie Mackay...Caithness Civic Leader...poses for Photo Ops at the damaged scenes, and provides his own pics to the Newspapers!
Mathew Reiss the retired Copper, who obviously has connections, is unheard. Again!
You toe the ‘Council Line’......I would invite them to respond!
So there you are.......u take it from there!
That is why Donald Trump came to power.......just to get rid of the ...Same old......Same old!

[Oddquine]

Hi, I really don’t know what the answer is.
The World in general has problems....of no surprise to me.
Methinks the answer is to get into Politics yourself. And of course, then u will see the difficulties of changing anything!

An example......Damage, and Drunks rampaging in Wick and Thurso.
Two men who could do something about it...Willie Mackey and Mathew Reiss.
What do they do...Nothing.....that we have heard of!

Willie Mackay...Caithness Civic Leader...poses for Photo Ops at the damaged scenes, and provides his own pics to the Newspapers!
Mathew Reiss the retired Copper, who obviously has connections, is unheard. Again!
You toe the ‘Council Line’......I would invite them to respond!
So there you are.......u take it from there!
That is why Donald Trump came to power.......just to get rid of the ...Same old......Same old!

Is that not a job for the police? What do you expect councillors to do about drunks rampaging in the streets? Isn't there a no alcohol in public places rule for the police to enforce? If not they could certainly try doing something about that.

[The Horseman]

I think I quit this conversation.
Methinks u will argue with your Shadow!
Regards.

[Oddquine]

I think I quit this conversation.
Methinks u will argue with your Shadow!
Regards.

That's your prerogative of course. I suppose sensible enough when you will never convince me, or many other people, that Westminster responded adequately and was not driven by their political ideology as opposed to the common good, when they protected the health of the economy first and foremost, rather than the health and well-being of the whole UK population they are meant to represent. They did too little, too late and did what little they did do, they did half-heartedly...as evidenced by the fact that they are seemingly intending to start coming out of lockdown, when there are still no checks on people coming into the country, still no working testing and tracing regime and still a shortage of PPE....and when other countries didn't start coming out of lockdown for a month or more after "hitting the peak", the "exceptional" UK, who only began to notice anything was wrong a fortnight after anybody else in the first place, and has the highest death rate in Europe, is intending to do it after three weeks....yet again, putting the health of the economy before the health of the population.

[The Horseman]

I realize what you are saying, but if the system has failed which most did across the World, then DO something about it.
Get like minded people ‘Up in Arms’, and get better representation For the people!

My example of the Two Politicians were not meant to demean them, or to criticize you! It was to say, if they cannot get the drunks off the street and prevent continual damage being done, how can any one of them or any of the Elected people deal competently with the Current situation.
BTW...The Council Civic Leaders/Politicians meet with the Police and there can construct strategies to counter the Drunks and Damage being done. As usual this is not being done! The Police are there to serve the Public.
In 1829 Sir Robert Peel said.....The Police are the Public and the Public are the Police! These two entities are entwined!
Above Lybster harbour there was a bench. It was damaged many times, and after if being fixed by volunteers, it was eventually thrown in the harbour.
Something has to change with local council, including the Leaders of the UK., so rather than Rant on about it, do something!
I read your ‘stuff’, and feel you are a well educated person. Take advantage of your gift.

[Oddquine]

I realize what you are saying, but if the system has failed which most did across the World, then DO something about it.
Get like minded people ‘Up in Arms’, and get better representation For the people!

My example of the Two Politicians were not meant to demean them, or to criticize you! It was to say, if they cannot get the drunks off the street and prevent continual damage being done, how can any one of them or any of the Elected people deal competently with the Current situation.
BTW...The Council Civic Leaders/Politicians meet with the Police and there can construct strategies to counter the Drunks and Damage being done. As usual this is not being done! The Police are there to serve the Public.
In 1829 Sir Robert Peel said.....The Police are the Public and the Public are the Police! These two entities are entwined!
Above Lybster harbour there was a bench. It was damaged many times, and after if being fixed by volunteers, it was eventually thrown in the harbour.
Something has to change with local council, including the Leaders of the UK., so rather than Rant on about it, do something!
I read your ‘stuff’, and feel you are a well educated person. Take advantage of your gift.

Problem with committees (and parliaments are just glorified committees) is the existence of politics. Politics polarises and divides...it doesn't strive for consensus/a workable pragmatic compromise to suit most of the people most of the time. As committees are elected via an undemocratic FPTP (or variation of it) system, (bar Scottish local councillors who are elected by STV, but also by less than the full complement of eligble voters), or by nomination from people already within the FPTP undemocratic system) by a minority of the people eligible to vote, the country is run to suit a minority, and the majority are obliged to lump it until the next election. In fact, it is not only run by a government a minority voted for, it is also run by special interest groups and advisors nobody voted for. The UK system, when a political party has an appreciable majority, is little more than an elected dictatorship. We had the chance to change the voting system in 2011, and 42% of the voters decided for us that we wanted to keep FPTP.

If, at my age, I was inclined to get up in arms in a non-sedentary way. I'd be fighting for STV, compulsory voting at pain of fine.and a written constution including something more on the lines of a contract of employment for MPs, instead of them being able to decide for themselves how the job is to be done and remunerated, which has to be approved by referendum and only altered by referendum. (I'd also ban coalition governments and lobbying by special interest and business groups). I'd expect candidates of political parties to have some reasonably recent connection with the area they want to represent, (no parachuting in), and have some more life experience than a political degree and/or a stint in a parliamentary/constituency or government departmental office. Professional politicians are not representative of anyone but politicians. I'd also like to see party manifestos setting out EVERYTHING a government is intending to do and how they intend to do it...and not have them throwing in brainfarts during their term that they have never mentioned before (and I'm thinking about the GRA bill in Holyrood here). I can't see too many agreeing with my thoughts on it all, though!

Councillors, like MPs have to pass things by majority...no majority means a fail. But it looks as if, as far as Highland Council is concerned bye-laws only apply to Wick and Thurso, unless they are using Wick and Thurso as shorthand for the East and West of Caithness from the top to Sutherland. Can community councils make bye-laws? I've never been a fan of Police Scotland, though I can understand that it does cut costs while we are existing on pocket-money, but when I lived in Caithness, before the Police Scotland days, I found that the local police were too inclined to do little about people they knew, who were breaking the law...as in vandalism/ fighting on the street, for example. In the end, it is down to the police to deal with miscreants, following the rules set up by the government and councils, but they can't be everywhere at the same time. Even a local bobby wouldn't necessarily be in that area at the time to see the bench being vandalised or thrown in the water. That's the kind of thing that CCTV cameras, or people phoning in, are useful for...isn't there anywhere around Lybster Harbour (if you are meaning the Latheron Lybster, where I used to stay) that could take a CCTV camera?

Inclined to think the police are no longer as trusted as they used to be...a bit like politicians and the media.....they have been politicised, I fear, but then so much has been nowadays. I would like to roll the clock at least as far back as to the days when being a councillor was a part-time expenses only job (because I'm blowed if I can see what they do all day) and not a salaried and pensioned income choice....but ideally, I'd prefer the town councils and district councils of my younger days, which seemed to me to work fine. I do really hate the way money has become a god to our politicians and too many of their supporters.

I am, surprisingly, not party political...I like at least one thing in the manifestos of every party, and if pushed, describe myself as a leftwing scottish nationalist with right wing tendencies. If the SNP(or some other pro-independence party) didn't exist, I'd never have voted in any election in the last 50 years as I don't vote on policies...I vote on the the principle of independence only and currently hold my nose voting SNP.

Real change will never come within the UK, because real change needs full control of the economic reins and the ability to choose for ourselves our own priorities....not a handout of pocket money,with us paying for stuff which doesn't improve our tax income, and with any benefits from growth in the economy heading back down to the Westminster Treasury.

[The Horseman]

Surprise, surprise....I agree with most if what you say.
But there is a ’New World‘, and like it or not we have to conform. Strategies must change.
I grew up in Caithness, worked in ‘Week’, and then to London, England.
Then to Canada and was based near Toronto travelling across Canada and America for a good part of 30+ years.
What we have are similar Government set ups, but they are all different! Yes I am being contradictory. Thats the way it is, and we cannot change it!
In Canada I worked for the Regional Municipal Gov’t., but was Seconded to both the Provincial and Federal Gov'ts, and the only thing constant was change. As time went by I moved to what one could call a Senior Mgm’t Position, and with it came what you are describing.
To be honest, nothing got done without Multiple meetings, to have more meetings and eventually something that could be completed and enacted on in a Month, ended up taking 2 years.
Politicians who were elected went there with enthusiasm, and turned into what you are describing.
NOW.....CCTV.. why?
The Law Enforcement theory is....if you let broken windows, and malicious damage occur without penalty, you will see an increase in other more serious crimes. What goes on in the North of Scotland would not be tolerated in most Countries, well the ones I have been to.
In Canada we do not have CCTV, and we are doing very well. In some of the Major American Inner Cities they have a few cameras, but nothing to the extent to that if the UK.
I think in Canada we have the best of both Worlds. We still have the British Justice system with a neighbour to the South who has a Beeg Gun!
My thought is that we have to adapt to a New World, where the ‘norm’ as we knew it has changed.
And of course Covid 19 will be another Game Changer.
I do find that the UK has a very liberal Social Assistance program. Much more than any other Country I know of. I do find it difficult to figure out how you can afford it!
Anyway, I didn't write this out as eloquently as you. Just bullet points!.........s

[Oddquine]

Surprise, surprise....I agree with most if what you say.
But there is a ’New World‘, and like it or not we have to conform. Strategies must change.
I grew up in Caithness, worked in ‘Week’, and then to London, England.
Then to Canada and was based near Toronto travelling across Canada and America for a good part of 30+ years.
What we have are similar Government set ups, but they are all different! Yes I am being contradictory. Thats the way it is, and we cannot change it!
In Canada I worked for the Regional Municipal Gov’t., but was Seconded to both the Provincial and Federal Gov'ts, and the only thing constant was change. As time went by I moved to what one could call a Senior Mgm’t Position, and with it came what you are describing.
To be honest, nothing got done without Multiple meetings, to have more meetings and eventually something that could be completed and enacted on in a Month, ended up taking 2 years.
Politicians who were elected went there with enthusiasm, and turned into what you are describing.
NOW.....CCTV.. why?
The Law Enforcement theory is....if you let broken windows, and malicious damage occur without penalty, you will see an increase in other more serious crimes. What goes on in the North of Scotland would not be tolerated in most Countries, well the ones I have been to.
In Canada we do not have CCTV, and we are doing very well. In some of the Major American Inner Cities they have a few cameras, but nothing to the extent to that if the UK.
I think in Canada we have the best of both Worlds. We still have the British Justice system with a neighbour to the South who has a Beeg Gun!
My thought is that we have to adapt to a New World, where the ‘norm’ as we knew it has changed.
And of course Covid 19 will be another Game Changer.
I do find that the UK has a very liberal Social Assistance program. Much more than any other Country I know of. I do find it difficult to figure out how you can afford it!
Anyway, I didn't write this out as eloquently as you. Just bullet points!.........s

In the UK the only way to change anything would be either independence for each of the countries or a federal system with a very strictly written constitution which didn't allow England to ride roughshod over the smaller counties as happens now. Devolution is little but a hostage to fortune, in the gift of Westminster and under the control of a Westminster which makes up its own rules on the hoof.
,
I'm not so convinced there is a "new world". This one seems to me not a lot different to the 18th and 19th century world, when the UK (mostly) and a few other european countries killed native brown people, took charge of their land and plundered their resources, bar nowadays, we have nominated (not elected) committees, the UN, the EU, Nato etc, run at the top by the West to suit the politics of the West, with the USA in the old UK driving seat, doing the killing, turning a blind eye to the killing or justifying the killing. I see little difference between the modern neoliberal capitalism the west is striving to install everywhere and the capitalism which encouraged the UK to colonise half the world....the methods used today are little different to those used a couple of hundred years ago.

We have gone kinda overboard with CCTV, but as the police can't be everywhere at once, and as there is generally a time lag between a crime being reported and the arrival of a police presence, it can be a useful tool in identifying perpetrators. Perhaps in this day and age of everybody and their dog taking photos or videos on their phones of crimes as they happen, and uploading them to the internet, it is no longer as necessary as it once was, but I see no problem with it, unless you are doing something you shouldn't be doing. A much bigger problem is the politicising of the police and justice system in the UK...and the lack of trust in both as a result. If people are reluctant to come forward with information, how else are any street crimes to be solved without CCTV?

The difference between Canada and Scotland is that your neighbour with the Beeg Gun doesn't park that Beeg Gun 40 miles outside Toronto, without a by-your-leave, as our neighbour does with their one.

I think the only game that will change after Covid-19 will be the game of how much austerity will the UK population wear without an uprising, as the Government feels the effects of a reduced Covid-19 economy and a pretty much simultaneous final exit from the EU.

The Social Security is not as liberal as you seem to think. The basic unemployment benefit is a flat rate of £73.10 for a single person over 25, regardless of previous earnings, about £126 Canadian dollars at todays exchange rate. The same amount, pretty much, as the £2 billion those earning o over £50,000 a year got in Income tax cuts. In 2018, the UK spent 3.3% of GDP more than Canada on Social security...more than half of which was pensions, 12% of which was corporate welfare(subsidies to companies to pay crap wages) and around 10% was housing benefit much of which was paid to private landlords, particularly in London. for inflated rents, so pretty much two thirds of Social Security goes to pensioners and the working poor with about 22% of that going into the profits of companies and private landlords...and the rest pays for child benefit, disability and incapacity related benefits and pension credits.

We can argue until the cows come home about whether the criteria for claiming social security is too restrictive, lax or riddled with loopholes which allow scamming, but in the end, every penny the government spends on welfare is spent by the ordinary person on living their lives, and by doing that they contribute to the exchequer via VAT payments, if nothing else...and to the neoliberal capitalist's benefit...that spending adds to the profits of companies, many of which then take their profits off shore and/or pay no or minimal tax in the UK. So who is taking most advantage of the Government policies .....the person on social security...or the businesses and fatcats who avoid paying their taxes?

[The Horseman]

You have a ‘unique’ situation in Scotland. The separation attempts from the UK has me confused.....
Oh...BTW I am frae The Lybster vicinity, not Latheron.
And aren't there are benefits above and beyond Social Security?
And the profitable companies are the ones the Gov’ts use for the Funding of pensions etc.
And finally.....’buy anything Gold’. It’s Gonna Rock!.

Now to Security of one’s Person and the Polis. From what I read, and see when I am ‘over ‘ome’, the new generation are very reluctant to go to the Polis, as has been written/witnessed locally.
I remember coming home from a dance in Latheron as a passenger in a car, early one morn., when I was about 16. A car passed us and went off the road at Remiggy. The Polis were there within a few minutes as they were also going home, and asked for witnesses as to whom was driving. I told them and ended up getting Subpoenaed to Court. I gave my evidence as to the driver who was a Watten Farmer. Finis...I thought.
Perhaps a year later, I was working in Brora/Golspie during the ‘sheep dog trials‘, and there on the Street was the Farmer, the worse for wear with drink, and his two dogs. He tried to set the dogs on me, one of which did take a Sma’ bite.. Polis again, and he was arrested and went to Jail! Just reminiscing!
All Countries have probs and issues, but rest assured the systems that are in place in the UK, Canada and in the Western World, are Superior to that of other Less civilized places.
One more point.........Many people hate/loath Prez Trump...........America is 75% Red Neck, and he is mostly playing to the crowd!
And CNN’s sole purpose is to depose him, lies and all, as they are Democratically (Liberal) controlled, whereas Trump etal are Republican (Conservative). The Tabloids are now generally leaving him alone as they have been sued so many times for their falsehoods they will be bankrupt.
Michael Bloomberg just spent $500,000 Million trying to get Trump out....and failed. As you say..some systems are ‘not fair’!