Scotland, Cartoon

Senior SNP figure threatens BP with nationalisation and cutting banks down to size for being 'in cahoots with rich English Tories' Daily Mail, The SNP show their true colours

  Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars lashes out at pro-Union businesses

  He asked: 'Who do these companies think we are? They will find out'

  BT Group chair Sir Mike Rake says 'Yes' would 'inevitably' cause a slowdown

  CBI boss claims this could 'easily' last for a decade because of uncertainty

  Comes after IMF warned separation could result in financial market turmoil

  Five Scottish based banks this week warned they would move to England

  Richard Branson is the latest business figure to oppose independence

  Asda, Waitrose, B&Q and Screwfix say prices would rise after independence

  Marks & Spencer set to join firms warning against 'Yes' vote next week

  Comes as poll shows 'No' campaign four points ahead with six days to go 

  Separate poll released today put the 'Yes' campaign just two points behind 

The former deputy leader of the Scottish nationalists has threatened a 'day of reckoning' for businesses that have spoken out against independence.

SNP grandee Jim Sillars lashed out after a host of banks, finance firms, supermarkets and retail giants warned about the dangers of separation.

Mr Sillars said oil giant BP would be nationalised 'in part or in whole' while bankers and big business chiefs would be punished for 'being in cahoots' with the Tories.

The remarks are likely to increase business anxiety over independence just six days before next week's referendum. 

The 'Yes' to independence campaign's economic case for independence was further damaged after one of Britain's most influential industrialists Sir Mike Rake warned that Scotland’s economy could be damaged for a decade if it votes for independence.

But Mr Sillars vowed to punish big business for siding with the 'No' campaign against independence.

He said: ‘This referendum is about power, and when we get a Yes majority, we will use that power for a day of reckoning with BP and the banks.

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George Baker Selection Una Paloma Blanca

George Baker Selection Una Paloma Blanca

Going Through Spiritual Confusion, Oswald Chambers, My Uttermost for His Highest

Jesus answered and said, ’You do not know what you ask’ —

Matthew 20:22

There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.

The Shrouding of His Friendship (see Luke 11:5-8). Jesus gave the illustration here of a man who appears not to care for his friend. He was saying, in effect, that is how the heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think that He is an unkind friend, but remember? He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained. There seems to be a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When God appears to be completely shrouded, will you hang on with confidence in Him?

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Luke 11:1-13New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

Jesus’ teaching on prayer
11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’


 2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

‘“Father,[a] hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.[b] 3 Give us each day our daily bread.4 Forgive us our sins,    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.[c]And lead us not into temptation.”’[d]

5 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.” 7 And suppose the one inside answers, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 ‘So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 ‘Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

Peevish and bristling, Salmond exploded at man from the Beeb. Daily Mail

Scotland do you really want this arrogant,  little man to lead you ?

This was meant to be the day Alex Salmond showed off his statesmanlike qualities to the world.

But instead of meeting the founding father of a brave new nation, the world’s media came to his grandly-named ‘international press conference’ to find a peevish man bristling with indignation over the parochial details of a very inconvenient truth.

For the grandest bank in Scotland had just announced it would pack up the boardroom and move its HQ to London if Scots vote for independence next week.

The RBS has been domiciled in Edinburgh since the days of George II. It could hardly be worse if Scottish Widows became Surrey Widows or Nessie suddenly moved ponds to Windermere.

Not so, according to Mr Salmond. The loss of the RBS would be a footling matter. The real scandal was that the news had been leaked to the BBC.

And they could only have got it from one source: ‘scaremongering’ officials at the Treasury. The fact that market-sensitive information had ended up in the hands of the media, he said, almost quivering with displeasure, was a matter of ‘extraordinary gravity, as serious a matter as you can possibly get’.

As journalists argued that RBS’s vote of no confidence in its motherland was the bigger deal, Mr Salmond was having none of it, particularly when questioned by BBC political editor Nick Robinson.

Arguing that it involved little more than the relocation of a ‘brass plaque’, Mr Salmond demanded that the BBC be dragged before an official investigation and made to blab.

‘Scotland is on the cusp of making history,’ Mr Salmond went on. ‘The eyes of the world are upon us. And what the world is seeing is an energised, articulate and peaceful debate.’ The ears of the world only had to wait five seconds longer before they heard the day’s first attack on ‘the blatant bullying and intimidation of Westminster government’.

Pretty much any irksome statistic could be attributed to ‘scaremongering’, ‘bullying’, public schoolboy politics’ and so on from That Lot.

Until very recently, international interest in this debate had not extended much beyond the provincial press in countries with an ongoing separatist squabble – principally Spain and Quebec.

Yesterday, there were earnest questions about future Scottish relations with Russia, Brazil and India. Perhaps the trickiest came from a German television presenter. She asked Mr Salmond to explain in what ways the English had a different identity from the Scots ‘because our audience don’t see it’.

‘This campaign of ours does not depend on identity,’ he replied.

Out in the streets right now, it seems to depend on little else.

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Rattled Salmond launches rant at the BBC after it revealed Royal Bank of SCOTLAND will quit country after 'Yes' vote. Daily Mail

  First Minister lashes out at broadcaster to deflect row over threat by banks

  RBS one of four major banks to turn its back on independent Scotland

  John Lewis, Waitrose and Asda say prices will rise if there is a Yes victory 

  SNP leader was accused of lying about oil reserves by industry members

  He calls for official inquiry into Treasury source who leaked RBS story 

  Insurance giant Standard Life said it would move south days after Yes vote

Alex Salmond today launched an extraordinary rant at the BBC after the broadcaster reported how even the Royal Bank of Scotland planned to relocate to England in the event of independence.

In a bizarre press conference he launched a series of petulant attacks on the BBC, Westminster leaders and the Australian prime minister.

And he revealed he has called for an official inquiry into the Treasury's 'deliberate attempt to cause uncertainty in the financial markets' by leaking details of RBS's fears about the break up of the Union.

The First Minister presided over an astonishing press conference for the world's press corps in which he was tetchy, rattled and – according to several observers – 'losing the plot'.

Another observer suggested this was Mr Salmond's 'Sheffield rally', a reference to Neil Kinnock's ill-fated cry of 'We're alright!' before he went on to lose the 1992 General Election.

At one point there was an ugly clash between the SNP leader and BBC political editor Nick Robinson over the fate of Scotland's banks if there is a Yes vote in next week's referendum.

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