108 Days Later
Posted on
January 20, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Herald, 4 October 2013:
The Herald, 20 January 2014:
We guess fifteen-and-a-half weeks is a long time in politics.
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
October 2014 quotes … we doing predictions now?
Everything they say can’t be done, will be done.
… OK, too quick to criticise. keep up the good work.
*Jaw drops*
4 Oct 2013…
Already fixed, please delete these comments.
That second one’s not very polite.
The Sunday Herald was running with the Putin story yesterday:
“Putin: Russia has no interest in Scottish independence”
Today in the Herald, in the guise of Michael Settle, it had the headline:
“Putin on referendum: remember benefits of single state”
The unionists’ had to repair the damage somehow.
Potential Labour chancellor? Better vote yes.
I believe that this measure could leave Osborne isolated.
If the governor of the BoE and the shadow chancellor can discuss monetary plans with Alex Salmond why can’t Osborne.
Of course it may also shut up Lamont a bit.
Everything falling into place it would seem.
I suppose Ed feels a sense of relief; after all it’ll mean no need for any pretence of ‘Red Ed’.
Tad presumptuous from Balls though.
And as for poor wee stupid Darling…
“I warn the [‘Scottish’ ahem] Labour party about getting into bed with the [English] Tories; they’ll suck you in and spit you out just like they did the Liberal Democrats.”
They’re making that pre-gob snorting sound right now.
*eyes roll*
That’s all very well but we need people to vote Yes. If they all think we’re skint and they’ll be on the breadline, how does that work?
Oh my! What on earth could have prompted such a change of heart?
Balls is actually a good, if somewhat trivial reason to vote Yes. I will not stand by and risk Scotland’s economy being run by someone called Baws in 2015. It’s unseemly.
He wasn’t bluffing; just talking shite.
Me thinks Darling got his arse felt for saying “a currency union is dead in the water” on Newsnicht last week
Caught in a vice. iiiiyah.
I wonder what their private polling in Scotland is telling the Labour party, following this approach from Mr Balls I can make a very good guess.
Putin was also asked if an independent Scotland would be allowed to join Russia’s new customs union to which he replied ” I wouldn’t rule it out”. They are wasting their time if they think he is going to throw then a bone.
It is interesting that as the date gets closer and it is obvious the negativity isn’t winning votes all the positions are becoming rather more vague and nuanced and a lot less He-Man Master of the Universe.
A wee bit O/T but I reckon we’re far enough in now- I just wanted to share something really cool that happened to me today.
I met for the first time a well spoken, highly educated (English) chap who told me that his son works for the University of Highlands and Islands and lives in Tain.
He said that when he travels to Scotland he is very aware that “it is a foreign” country but “it’s a foreign country that has the sense of ‘we’re all in it together'” that he does not find in England.
He then went on to tell me that if he were living in Scotland in September he would “most definitely vote for independence” as it “doesn’t make much sense to be united with England”.
All of this was with absolutely no prompting on my part and him knowing nothing of my personal politics.
FFS, if he can see it why can’t our fellow Scots?!!
Ed Balls will never be Chancellor.
Got this from the BBC website in 1997 when The Tories (Hague) we’re scaremongering against devolution.
link to bbc.co.uk
Same old scaremongering how we would be a high tax ghetto and we would be £1,600 per person worse off and there would be a 3pence tartan tax required.
The no camp were wrong then but did they ever admit it afterwards. Of course they did not.
Ed Balls has a strange approach to negotiations. Crumbling before he even gets in the room.
A good example of British pout.
O/T and someone else may have already picked this up. The Our Kingdom site has an article by a Prof Renwick of Reading University, claiming the referendum is already won for the No side on the basis of existing polls. No will win 60/40 apparently.
Has Ball’s been asked yet what has happened since October that has prompted this change of tone?
However when you read the article, it is one long list of dire warnings and negativity, as we have seen from every other Unionist.
I was amused by the attempt give some relevance to Alistair Darling. But the whole article is not amusing at all.
I commented on the difference in the two articles, in the Herald, when I read it earlier today.
Very, very suspicious of this…..
The Unionist MSM
The reason there is an alternative Press in Scotland.
Thanks
Salmond had better watch his pockets. Gies a sub. Nae chance. Feart
Facepalm Labour.
LOL
Newsnight Scotland , backdrop two row,s of Saltire,s, Union
flag keekin oot at the bottom left corner,do you think that will last ?.
God, what a horribly patronising article. To be honest the thought ofMilliband and Balls as the alternative to the Tories makes me even more depressed than just thinking of the Tories.
Newsnight was a bit weird. I think if I was on the No side I wouldn’t be all that chuffed with the “time travel No won” bit. What was the “Yes won” one like? I didn’t see it.
I thought that only the Scottish people were to be involved in the debate regarding the ins and outs of independence that is according to better together commander in chief Cameron. If balls want’s to campaign in the Cowdenbeath by election he should stick to the issues that are relevant to that constituency bedroom tax oh sorry they had their chance to do something but jaunting off was more important than that debate, inflation, unemployment and defence etc and not involve himself in constitutional matters Cameron won’t be pleased.
Thought Balls was busy courting Clegg in case it was a bit nip and tuck in 2015 (especially if we leave in 2014
)
Balls off the fence!
Ouch!
You know a by-election is imminent when BBC Scotland wheel out Scottish Labour loving Eleanor Bradford.
She loves nothing more than digging up a Scottish NHS story. This one was about care for disabled where THREE patients in Scotland couldn’t get care here but could get it in England.
It was nothing more than a cheap swipe at the Scottish Government ahead of the Cowdenbeath by-election.
Whit a ball,s up that man hiz a delusion of gradiosity,
1st clawback Davidson, wanting in on the negoatiation,s,noo
this clown Ball,s /Darling, help ma boab,ah need a shower,lol.
My interpretation of the last few weeks news is that the BT mob have eased off on the scare stories. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s how it seems.
If I’m right it means a change in strategy, so maybe this is part of the “love bombing”. Just more lies in a different suit.
Phew, for a minute there I thought I was in big trouble. i’ve used Sterling successfully in France, Switzerland and Poland without realising that Balls could have vetoed it if he had been there. Shouldn’t prospective Chancellors (and past ones) have some idea about how currency works and the basic fact that no-one ‘owns’ it.
Ed Balls as Chancellor…shiver!
Just when you think it can’t get any worse…
I find it difficult to understand how people in Scotland percieve Milliband and Balls or Cameron and Osborne as part of ‘our’ political scene, to me and many others they’re just politicians from another country who have little understanding or indeed interest in Scotland’s affairs. Leaving Scotland’s future in the hands of these people is beyond scary.
The big story today on the ‘national’ news is Lord Rennard being suspended from the Lib-Dems, does anyone in Scotland really care about this, again it feels like a political story from another country that has little relevance to us. The scene in England is just bizarre with UKIP running high in the polls, a Tory prime minister, Boris Johnson as mayor of London, the sooner we’re out of it the better.
@James 123
Exactly what you said.
James you have a good point, the more that lot down in westminster dictate how Scotland should run and be governed, the more they appear utterly disengaged, out of touch and lacking in integrity. They have no interest in Scotland other than that she keep lining their already full to bursting pockets. It has to change, and a YES vote is the best way forward, and the ‘no’ lot are damn well running scared.
@James123
I’ve had a subscription to Private Eye for nearly forty years now. Twenty years ago I would have read it cover to cover within a couple of hours of its arrival. Nowadays I glance at the cover when it arrives and read it over the course of a week and, frankly, half of the stories go unread. The reason is that I find it all utterly irrelevant to our situation here in Scotland and it’s a mirror on UK political life which is completely obsessed with London.
Caz-m I noticed that re the NHS and absolutely no mention of any social work dept , Eleanor balanced Bradford or half a story Bradford.
thepnr I like that, just more lies in a different suit.
Andrew Morton, I’m the same, in fact sometimes it’s too depressing, the connections, the corruption is all there but no one seems capable or willing to change , it tips over from funny to feeling like it’s some kind of homework your being forced to read.
@Calum Craig –
I think people who don’t travel between Scotland and London just don’t realise how different the political culture is down there. For a start, they don’t realise how the NHS has been dismantled – because the mainstream media don’t tell them!
Okay, I definitely only put the bold tag around Calum’s name – so I don’t know what happened to the rest of the post to make it bold! Sorry!
On the BBC Scotland snow job on the NHS care story with the elusive Eleanor Bradford. Not sure if anyone noticed , but after all the dire rubbish about NHS England care has increased and NHS Scotland has decreased and why oh why are patients that are in a vegetative state not getting the care they need, in a little aside she actually admits that the whole thing is under Scottish Government review. In other words, the likely hood is the loop hole that’s allowing the current situation to happen, is likely to be corrected. So what exactly was Bradford trying to prove? That she can highlight a situation that is likely to change anyway.
Clearly she is mot fully employed and just looks to creating stories and wasting licence payers money!
Perhaps she should go for a job with BBC Wales as there appears to be a stack of concerning health stories there, such as Ambulances having to wait up to 4 hours to check patients into hospitals
O/T Just found this on interwebs…
link to i.imgur.com
Things have come to a pretty pass when a “potential leader” of London Labour seeks to raise his profile by tryimg to have a meeting with AS
O/T Ed Davy,Lib Enegy Sect trying to sell the idea of the safety of Fracking, on energy price,no it wont lower the cost,s of energy, unless its a Europe wide scheme, EU country,s have allready banned fracking for safety consern,s, citeing safety report,s of Public Health England / enviroment agency, they must be very ( very well respected bodies of independant study,s)that,s the tory,s filling their pocket,s before there kicked out.
Are these Westminster types incapable of “just talking’?
Must they always try to command and intimidate Scots with ‘warnings’?
Are they capable of civilised behaviour?
Doesn’t look like it.
o/t but on t
Im seeing changes,
the people in my team who are usually prone to having a laugh at my expense in regards the referendum however do see me as a source of knowledge about it and one by one out of a team of nine one of whom was a sure fire yes(other than me) the others are asking (individually) do you really think we can go it alone (in a pleading way)and I very gently point them to the sources like here and other sources.
So far out of nine(including me) I think 5 are now certain to vote yes, and the one who was an out and out unionist who would respond with a no to any point I made about independence is not saying no anymore, she’s just keeping quiet,another one is a middle aged man who was brought up in Cheshire and has asked serious questions about it so he is thinking carefully but has not yet made up his mind, (we’ll see about that);) that leaves one who is my team manager who I cant seem to break I don’t know what she’s thinking,but she makes cryptic comments which suggest support.
8 months to go, I think I might just have persuaded my whole team guys.
REv, you just have to do a pieceon,Al Fayed,s gift to Scotland ( Scotsman )re Princess Scota,the course of history Can Change if you,ve got money LMAA.
Calum Craig says
“FFS, if he can see it why can’t our fellow Scots?!!”
Courage mon brave
they are beginning to
quote
“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”
a quote from the estimable Eleanor Roosevelt
not relevant to the conversation I just thought I would share it
Ronnie, do me a favour,
see that shed o yours get some drink in it cos come independence we’re all inviting ourselves round to your shed and we’ll all raise a glass to you my friend you are truly an inspiration
@john king,go fur it John, gie them the Sermon on the desktop,a couple of Arbroath smokie,s, n a Pan loaf, should do the trick, mind use Scottish Pride Butter.lol
@Andrew Morton
Your Private Eye reading habits are exactly the same as mine. I used to lap it up now I am lucky if I spend 10 minutes on it.
@ john king,You,s would be more than welcome, ah hiv a friend wi a bouncy castle, widna be the first time that wiz in ma garden,lol
@john king, it,s thank,s to the lot of you,s that keep me going,we all contribute,am nae anything spethial lol.nae drinking on the bouncy castle btw.
Cant wait Ronnie
Ronnie ,is there room for one more, slightly tubby wee wummin’ in thon shed o’ yours?
REV,Bbc news Scot 6.55,a report on inequality, Nicola S DFM,that would change under a Indy Scotland,B T comment also,tryed to find the report on Stow colledge site,to give you a link,maybe worth a look for you.
“is there room for one more”
As long as a get first dibs on the bouncy castle Dorothy
Things have come to a pretty pass when a “potential leader” of London Labour seeks to raise his profile by trying to have a meeting with AS
Quite. We can ignore the guff he spouted associated with the potential meeting, but we might ask why Baws wanted to talk about currency for an iScotland rather than say, more devolution…
Grandstanding? Yes. Presumptuous? Totally. Recognising reality? You might be forgiven for thinking so…
@ dorothy Devine, it,s a bit like Scotland & Scot,s people ,come one come all,yu hiv,na a wee ginger dug tae, but it,s bared fae the bouncy castle, it,s toe nail,s scratch the plastic,
It is an arrogance borne out of a sense of self entitlement typical of the Westminster mindset ss.
Whit the FFFF, Witherspoon opened a PUB at Beaconsfield Sevice,s,what kind of council do they have, IDIOT,S.
Here we go again ground hog day begin
BBC Scottish news
“Academic have warned major changes would be needed to reduce inequality in Scotland”
Better together have been reported to have said
“this news just reinforces the argument to retain the union”
Do they know we can hear them ffs?
talk about brain farts,
and that one is a stinker.
@Ukp42
Excellent find! Pinched – hope you don’t mind.
link to logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk
The queue,s getting bigger in them that want to debate Alex Salmond,sell Ticket,s £5000,a pop, Big Davy get,s a
Free Pass, for the duration.
Heard that on BBC “Scotland” this morning John. Even half asleep it made me laugh. “Doing a thing will require big changes. This is an argument against making any big changes”.
Aye right you are.
@scottish_skier
Is there a Social Attitudes poll due out this week?. I have had a look about and cant find info on it.
Also on GMS this morning, they brought up the item regarding Labour Party policy for new jobseekers. So I thought we might be hearing from Johann Lamont or some other leading Scottish Labour Party rep.
What we got was a spokesperson from the UK polling company YouGov.
How BBC Scotland thought he was more relevant to have on as a guest than someone from Labour, I will never know.
Am sitting looking oot ma front windi at a lovely red sky,
is SLAB on the rise, surely no, It,s okay jist realized, the front windi face,s east.
Do these overpaid GMS plonkers not realise the ‘big thing’ is Independence! The status quo would just perpetuate the existing inequality levels and likely make it worse with what we hear is coming after 2015, don’t see how BT can claim this report vindicates the Union. But the scare story is that highly paid folk would go across the border and leave our economy worse off – if it’s bankers and their like they mean then good riddance.
Balls; “Lets discuss indyref finance issues?”
Salmond; “OK Ed… what’s the magic word?”
“what’s the magic word?”
If I know Balls, for him the magic word will be Salmond.
Anyone else still fuming on the media blackout on the UWS report on media bias? Ive been emailing, sharing and tweeting all over the place and as far as I can see, not one Scottish journalist seems the least bit interested!
Six months ago:
Bitter Together Project Fear – “Whit? LOLz! Naw yez cannae! Yer too wee, too stupid and too poor! Alex Salmond and his splitists? Aye, right! Yez’ll be chucked oot the EU! Trident’ll be stayin’ where it is! Yez’ll no’ get tae use Sterling… and that’s just for starters!… It duznae matter anyway, there’s no’ a chance in hell that yez’ll vote for independence coz yez are aw too feart!”
The present day:
Better Together Project Feart [sic] – “Umm, ehh, about this, umm, Sterling union thingy, Mr. Salmond… Would you perhaps be so gracious as join us in a meeting? Umm, we need to talk…”
@John and Ronnie
Shed drinking. Nirvana.
Annedon is your friend.
Woops. Will use preview in future.
@scottish_skier
Is there a Social Attitudes poll due out this week?
Yougov have one out which includes stuff on social class etc. Also on Miliband’s bank reforms etc. Nothing of major interest that I’m aware of.
What is interesting is Yougov are having to suppress the SNP share for UKGE’s more and more. Down-weighting SNP respondents by x0.7 (30%) now on average. Even with that, they’re still getting 3-4% shares of the UK total (36-48% in Scotland).
so, Balls talks balls then eats his – who knew? I thought this guy was a mega economist, doesn’t he know that a globally traded currency,such as the pound, can be used by any independent sovereign nation on the planet without permission? The only thing Westminster can make a decision on is continuing the sterling zone – will they stay or will they go? Yet more uncertainty from Better Together and another question for project fear (that’s 51 now isn’t it?)
Early Ball, Andrew Morton
Iain Macwhirter had a phrase for it. England and Scotland were like two slices of pizza being pulled apart, connected by ever elongating strands of cheese. 90% of the news these days is about a foreign country, when twenty years ago that wasn’t so much the case. Although only folk north of the border seem to have noticed.
PS is Ronnie’s shed going to be a new improved version of the darkened room from newsnet Scotland?
@Bunter
Keep doing what you are doing. If we keep reminding people of media bias by using Twitter, Facebook or word of mouth, then we will get the message out.
Not only did they not report the University findings on media bias and lies, but also according to NNS, the BBC Trust have told BBC Scotland they don’t need to issue an apology for the “misleading” report about the Irish European Minister Lucinda Creighton last year. Link below.
link to newsnetscotland.com
@SS
Thanks for that. Keep up the good work.
Oh my, have a look at Balls wiki entry. Some snippets…
” the private all-boys Nottingham High School”; ” While at Oxford he was a partially active member of the Labour Club, but also signed up to the Conservative Association”;
” He was a founding member of the all-male drinking club, The Steamers and suffered embarrassment when a contemporary photo of him wearing Nazi uniform appeared in the papers.”
” Balls attended the Bilderberg annual conference of politicians, financiers and businessmen in 2001 and 2003, and returned to the United Kingdom on Conrad Black’s private jet on both occasions.”
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…
“George Osborne and his Labour shadow, Ed Balls, are on a list of those attending this week’s UK summit of the secretive Bilderberg group alongside the heads of Amazon and Google, both of which are under unprecedented political pressure over their companies’ aggressive tax avoidance policies.”
link to theguardian.com
Still chuckling… Mearnsman… read it again. Quotes from October 2013 and January 2014.
On the subject of Balls apparent comments… I could seek to be male model. I’m not tall enough, I’m not good looking enough, and I frankly don’t have a fat enough ego, but there’s nothing to stop me seeking to do it.
Does not mean the same as I will be a model. Much the same way as Ball’s prior statement doesn’t mean he could stop us. Typical unionist politician gum flapping, funnily enough with a recent change of attitude.
Just in case folk get angry with me for not using the archive site, I felt I should credit the article as it isn’t propaganda.
Pavlov was right you know.
@CameronB
And all who attend the Bilderberg meetings are sworn to secrecy regarding what gets talked about.
I remember Ken Clarke last year getting quizzed about what went on in there, and he was lapping up the begging questions coming from the journalists. And of course he didn’t tell them what went on.
It just shows you where British politics sits now. There is no left or right anymore. London is in the pocket of multi-national companies and banks. They will bring out policies to suit them and not the ordinary voter.
Everything associated with Westminster is not doing Scotland any good, so why are we stuck with it. It’s becoming quite clear to me that we can do much better having our government here in Scotland – governed by people who live and work here and share our future – ‘Scots for Scots’
caz-m says
Doesn’t real appear to be behavior that is compatible with representative democratic government.
Who are our representative’s representing? Us or the bankers and corporations?
Rev., sorry if that was a cite tag. I would have caught it with an editor.
“Rev., sorry if that was a cite tag.”
It wasn’t
New tactics from the ‘NO’ arguing that it’s not worth being independent, why bother, as the poor will still be poor!
I heard the academic this morning on GMS being led through a series of questions which proved it beyond all doubt.
Even the Scotsman … Oh wait… Nearly fell for it. Aye right! A whispery scare story.
link to archive.is
Mr Balls should be asking Mr Swinney for talks.As should Mr Osborne.
Perhaps Balls is now convinced that he will never be given the keys to the Treasury and can therefore say anything that comes into his head.
Perhaps its ‘Vote Labour in Scotland to keep the SNP in power’ rather than the Tories out.
Keen to hear JoLa’s views on this at FMQs this week
Interesting terminology balls uses, ‘a english tory’
An english tory that happens to be the Prime Minister of the UK….
Jesus, labour are pish.
Ed Balls – Beware Geeks bearing gifts.
As for Private Eye, I echo everyone here…subscribed for years and now seriously scunnered. The most coverage Scotland gets is due to rants from Pilotti about architectural neglect.
If you play the drinking game of taking a drink every time you see the word Scotland in a copy of Private Eye, a Quarter Bottle should see you through the year at least.
Has anybody got the Record today? Following a couple of editorials recently booting Labour anyesterday’s double page spread on Jim Sillars on independence we have not only Joan McAlpine highlighting the BBC bias in her excellent page but also Prof Davie Donnison,67 years a Labour member and previously partner to the late marvellous Kay Carmichael (ex Scottish Labour chair who joined the SNP)who has declared for independence in a full page spread.
Is the Record changing sides?
It’s probably just a load of balls!
However, there are rumours about him being replaced by Darling. What a put down that would be. Replaced by a man who helped ruin the economy.
@John King
“As long as a get first dibs on the bouncy castle Dorothy”
Filthy Beast!
@Alan MacIntosh
Meet the new baws, same as the auld baws…
OT in a sense and in that I am addressing a prick rathers than the Baws who would replace flaccid Gideon.
Saw Marr’s interview with President Putin on the appalling Beeb World News. His supercilious, sly arse was contemptuously felt not once by the president, but twice. The latter being the snake-eyed slit when – after paying polite lip service to the notion of a unitary, strong state – he accepted that each people’s circumstances were different, and did not rule out a customs union.
Marr looked such a deflated protuberance when facing the camera after that dismissive swat that he prompted me to think how much like him Darling must look after Balls’s ballsy, real politik
intervention in all its pragmatic opportunism.
I, also, can’t help but wondering about JoLa’s skin complexion after that, too. Apoplectically red with fear? Laughing stocks all of them.
PS Fuck the UK Diplomatic Service. A more useless, anally retentive, and arrogant shower of pissants I have yet to meet – a view not uncommon amongst their peers from other independent nations.
Patrick Roden says
“Filthy Beast! :-)”
I didnae mean Dorothy was the name of the bouncy castle, ok I’ll stop digging now and get ma coat
sorry Dorothy