- David Cameron sets out UK-wide changes 'to build better future'
BBC 19 September 2014
David Cameron has said it is time for the UK "to move forward" after Scotland voted against independence.
The PM said he was "delighted" by the result, which gave the UK a chance to change "for the better".
He said there had to be a "fair and balanced" settlement with English MPs deciding on laws applying to England.
But defeated SNP leader Alex Salmond warned against any delay in shifting powers to Scotland as he announced his decision to step down.
"For me as leader, my time is nearly done," he said. "For Scotland, the campaign continues and the dream shall never die."
Scotland's First Minister explained his decision to quit just hours after Scotland voted decisively to stay in the United Kingdom by 2,001,926 votes to 1,617,989 - about 55% to 45%.
The vote is the culmination of a two-year campaign. Talks will now begin on devolving more powers to Scotland.
The people have spoken. But it's not over.
The people have spoken. Scotland has rejected independence. The result has been accepted by both sides. So that you might think is that. Not a bit of it.
The fact that over 1.5m British citizens voted not to remain part of the UK, the fact that a majority in Scotland's biggest city - Glasgow - backed independence, the fact that the Westminster establishment briefly thought this vote was lost, is the reason for that.
The leaders of the three UK parties are now promising significant constitutional change and not just for Scotland but for England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.
They have agreed on a timetable for giving more powers to the Scottish Parliament but are a long, long way from agreeing proposals.
Mr Salmond said he was "immensely proud" of his Yes campaign and serving as Scotland's First Minister had been "the privilege of my life", but he conceded that the SNP would benefit from new leadership to take the process on.
The party had "the opportunity to hold Westminster's feet to the fire on the 'vow' that they have made to devolve further meaningful power to Scotland," he said. "This places Scotland in a very strong position."
But while he would continue to serve as MSP for Aberdeenshire East, he had decided to stand down after the party's annual conference in November.
"We lost the referendum vote but can still carry the political initiative," he said. "More importantly Scotland can still emerge as the real winner."
- Is the world going nuts?
By Fareed Zakaria CNN September 21, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- There is an unraveling taking place in parts of the world, writes Fareed Zakaria
- In the Middle East, people were tired of the old dictatorships
- They weren't prepared for what should follow them, Zakaria says
- Europe went through its turmoil before it became stable continent it is today, he says
(CNN) -- Is the world spinning out of control?
I get asked this question a lot these days, and for understandable reasons. Look at what's been in the news in just the last few weeks. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's execution videos, Scotland's bid for secession, Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
There is an unraveling taking place in parts of the world. In the Middle East, the old order that stretched from Libya to Syria has collapsed. In Russia, the rise of oil prices has empowered and emboldened President Vladimir Putin -- and he wants a makeover on the fall of the Soviet Union. Putin is testing the stability of the old international order built after World War II, and sees that it is weaker than most people might have guessed.
But why is all this happening? In the Middle East, people were tired of the old dictatorships. They weren't prepared for what should follow them, but they wanted greater space and voice. The result has been chaos and violence, but perhaps that is the brutal, ugly phase that will force people there to find a way to make their peace with the modern world. After all, Europe went through its own religious wars, wars or nationalism, and world wars before it became the stable continent it is today.
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Similarly, in Eurasia, the real driver of what has happened there is not the West or Russia, but the Ukrainian people. They decided that they didn't want to be vassals of the Kremlin. They look with longing at Poland, which in 1989 had a similar-sized economy to theirs and is now twice the size, and is a member in good standing of the European Union.
Of course there are Ukrainians who feel differently -- that's what's causing the turmoil -- but most, overwhelmingly, want to chart a future with the West. Whether they can remains an open question, given Putin's firm resolve to sabotage their plans. But again, this is a sign of people searching for greater connections with the civilized world.
And look at the rest of the world. India and Indonesia have elected leaders who are friendly towards markets, the West, and America -- resolutely democratic and yet strong nationalists. Mexico and Colombia have reformers at the helm. In Africa, there are many governments from Ethiopia to Rwanda, where you see real progress in health and living conditions. There are many pieces of bad news coming out of that continent -- from Ebola to Boko Haram -- but there is also good news, growing economies, a surging middle class.
And look at the world's two largest economies. The United States remains economically vibrant, with a dynamic society, new technologies that dominate the world, and new sources of energy that will power it for a few generations. China, for all the noise, remains committed to economic development first, is embarking on anti-corruption and reform drives and has even begun to tackle pollution and climate change as an issue.
I'm not saying that all is well in the world -- I'm really suggesting that we are in the midst of great global change. Much of this change is driven by good news -- people's desires for greater freedom and autonomy, new information technologies, etc. But all change is disruptive, and without the institutions of freedom and the civic culture of liberty, this period of transition can be dangerous. The forces of integration will not automatically triumph over the forces of disintegration. But there are many good forces out here that are also sweeping through the world these days.
And, of course, Scotland did not end up seceding. Score one for integration.
- Tainted Lard: China's Latest Food-Safety Scare Comes From Taiwan
The Bloomberg September 08, 2014
It’s the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, a holiday that coincides with the full moon in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and people across the country will be celebrating by going out in the evening and gazing at the sky. Tradition calls for admiring the moon’s beauty while eating sweet round cakes loaded with egg yolks and lotus seeds, wrapped in a dough containing generous amounts of lard.
In the runup to this year’s festival, though, yet another food scandal is giving Chinese reason to worry about the safety of those mooncakes. For a change, the center of the latest scandal isn’t in mainland China but in Taiwan, where the government last week arrested six people for allegedly recycling oil from kitchens and grease from leather factories and selling the mixture to unwitting buyers.
That has led Chang Guann (1498:TT), a Taiwanese supplier of cooking oil, to remove from sale more than 236 tons of oil products, according to Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration. Nearly 1,000 shops or restaurants on the island had unknowingly purchased tainted lard. Another company hit by the scandal is Wei-Chuan Food (1201:TT), a Taipei producer of everything from ice cream to MSG that has told the Taiwan stock exchange it expects to lose 79.4 million Taiwan dollars ($2.65 million) through product recalls and lost inventory. The company’s stock price plunged nearly 7 percent on Monday.
The foul play in Taiwan provides a rare chance for the Chinese government, hit by scandal after scandal involving food safety, to indulge in some schadenfreude—or, to use the Chinese expression for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, xin zai le huo. No doubt China’s beleaguered food-safety mandarins, repeatedly criticized for lax regulation of the food supply on the mainland, welcome any opportunity to point out the shortcomings of a rival.
The case is the second major food-safety scandal by a Taiwan-based company in the past year, as the state-run China News Service helpfully reminded readers; the earlier incident prompted Wei-Chuan to recall “tens of thousands of bottles of tainted cooking oil.” According to the official China Daily, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine, the Chinese agency in charge of food safety, said it hadn’t yet found any products on the mainland containing the recycled cooking oil. Still, the regulator has warned Chinese citizens against eating tainted food from Taiwan. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reported today that the local government has said at least four importers had introduced the tainted oil into the city.
The new gutter-oil scandal has “shocked local consumers” in Taiwan who expect more from their government, according to a report by China’s Xinhua news agency. “I hope the law could be revised to impose tougher punishment on those who breach food safety regulations,” one New Taipei resident told the news agency.
