A second opinion
We got an email last night with regard to yesterday’s piece about a bizarre story in the Daily Record. We thought it was worth sharing with you. The emphasis is ours.
“I’m a lawyer and many years ago worked for the Scottish Office drafting ‘exchange cover’ contracts to deal with fluctuations in the value of currencies between parties from different countries. Sometimes the contract dealt with Swiss Francs, sometimes Deutschmarks or US Dollars and so on.
From what you have printed in your article, it seems that this is not such a contract but it does the same job another way. It makes the person sending the invoice (the contractor) send all their bills to the Scottish Government in one currency only – the pound Sterling. It also provides that they will only receive payment in Sterling.
In other words it’s an affirmation of the use of Sterling now and in the future by the Scottish Government. I don’t know who the ‘top’ lawyer alluded to is but he or she is talking mince.
Regards,
George Gebbie
Faculty of Advocates.”
(“Mince” is an obscure legal term. You wouldn’t understand.)
The cat is well & truly out of the bag!
Mince goes well with tattie ( boodies ) which would describe many of these “no” contributors
There is no hiding place for the Daily Record on this. They have started off with mince and end up printing utter shyte.
Are they trying to admit in a most roundabout way,the fact that the currency question has been settled without actually admitting it? You can’t now harp on about currency without spooking the city gamblers again.
We must keep exposing these as propaganda
Yes is a latin term, very complex:
mendacem memorem esse oportet
Ouch!!
Yep it was hard to see how “we will only use sterling invoices in addition to only using sterling for payments” is interpreted as “we think it’s less likely we’ll be using sterling in the future”.
Also, I can comment from Android now! Sweet.
I see Gardham is pushing the same line as the record, using the Jenny Marra quote without any SG/Yes response.
Like duggydug sais, a pounds’ a pound, sterling or mince 🙂
Pure mince is renowned for being the best.
The UK’s MSM has the backing of Better Together’s ‘limitless funds’ to make sure we get dished up nothing else but the purest of mince at all times!
Perhaps the person who commented yesterday that they rang the Daily Record to complain about the original article, will try again now armed with this new helpful nugget of info.
And then post the DR’s response.
Rev, noo you ur jokeing, tellin Scot,s aboot Mince legal or not,but it has to be Galloway,s mince ( fae the Steamie ),but we,ll grow fat on the poor quality, being served up at this time,hud the tattie,s.
From today’s BBC app.: “Fallon to be Minister for Portsmouth”
“Michael Fallon is to be appointed Minster for Portsmouth, the BBC learns”
Eh? Just haud oan a wee minute. Somethin’s no right here. Ah thought thon Alistair Carmichael fella wiz the ‘Minister for Portsmouth’ …?
How about a reconstituted aberdeen angus pie.
Apart frae the additives it’s almost pure mince for the masses, just like the Daily Mail.
Ohh, you are offal.
I prefer the more readily understandable legal term of pure bollox. This must be some form of north British regional variant. 😉
I think I like Mr Gebbie; he’s clearly a very good lawyer, since the use of the word ‘mince’ makes his opinion completely clear even to those completely ignorant of law.
I like lawyers who speak everyone else’s language. We all understand mince.
What a surprise; mince from a Unionist source.
I had mince last night, it was very nice, but it’s better eaten than heard.
Da wurry, the coat is on, leather yin.
If its mince your after…
@Dal Riata, Naw he,s Carmichael,s the Minister of Porter Tae Mooth,( he,s punch drunk )Git in there Nicola.
@Gillie
Shyte from shysters shurely.
I’ll walk the dug and clear my head.
@ronnie anderson
Did you mean minceter for Portsmooth?
Ye cooo dna make it up!
Sorry, coat is definitely goin on this time….
Isn’t there a case for some regulatory body (Law Society, Faculty of Advocates, Solicitors glee club committee) to get involved here. Clearly this individual is doing a great disservice to his or her profession in what clearly amounts to misleading the public and action should be taken to prevent such professional misconduct. It has brought the whole legal profession into disrepute…or should that be more disrepute?
@Alan Macintosh,
Brilliant,start,s the day of,& put,us in the rite frame of mind, takin every thing in our stride.
A quick google reveals Mr Gebbie to be a well known defence advocate.
Good to see the professional classes joining in the debate.
Quality and the Daily record go together like ‘fish and jelly’.
Yes, the lawyer is talking ground beef. If the contractor is committed to paying in a particular currency, they buy the currency at the agreed future date in exchange for whatever currency they operate in thus fixing the cost and eliminating any exchange rate risk. Simples.
Sorry, should have said the above post was O/T…
So then, continuing on, here’s another ‘sorry’ and another ‘O/T’.
The BBC app. is Better Together-ing like mad today – top ho!
There’s this beauty:
“Darling urges young to vote ‘no'”
Following are some excerpts:
“The head of the pro-Union Better Together campaign is to call on young people to reject Scottish independence.”
“Alistair Darling will tell a gathering of young voters in Edinburgh that they have most to gain by sticking with the United Kingdom.”
“”A vote to separate from the rest of the United Kingdom wil be unchangeable. This generation of Scots will have bound the hands of generations od Scots to come. Be in no doubt about the gravity of this situation””
“Mr Darling will say that key questions have nt been answered by the pro-independence campaign.”
“He will tell his audience: “Take the most fundamental issue at stake in this referendum: Alex Salmond cannot even tell us what money we would carry in our pockets the day after independence.””
“”…But be warned. The biggest of the don’t knows is Alex Salmond.””
“”Ask him what currency an independent Scotland would have and he has to answer don’t know.””
“”Ask him to give you a guarantee on your pension, your
mortgage rates, your tax rates, your children’s school or your parents’ care and the best he can say is don’t know.””
“”That is not a good enough prospectus upon which to make this decision. That is too negative a message for Scotland to contemplate.””
That last bit once again… “That is too negative a message for Scotland to contemplate.”… said by Alistair Darling the nominal head of Better Together AKA Project Fear… Ohhhh, the irony! The bitter, bitter irony!
brilliant article, i’ll be sharing this in all the groups i’m in, typical they’re trying to make something that’s un-complicated into something that’s not complicated,silly people .
“Take the most fundamental issue at stake in this referendum: Alex Salmond cannot even tell us what money we would carry in our pockets the day after independence.”
Oh for FFfffffff!
As wee Alex Neil, is my MSP,& health Minister I ll give him notice that in Independent Scotland,he had better start putting in place now,Larger Mental health facilities, bye the time we re finnished weil awe need,tae regain oor sanity, ( am touch n go the noo ).
Given that David Clegg was getting plaudits yesterday for his ‘scoop’ from Severin Carroll & Robert Peston et al.
Has he commented on the fact his ‘scoop’ has now been described as ‘mince’ ?
I saw that on the old twitter feed he was claiming the SG hadn’t ‘denied’ it, even though they did exactly that in his own article.
A perfect example then of the wilful ludicrous bias and occasional blatant incompetence of the Scottish MSM.
It’s like the Rangers Tax Case and ‘succulent lamb’ never even happened.
Just fantastic! Many thanks.
“”Ask him what currency an independent Scotland would have and he has to answer don’t know.””
I really, really hope someone in the audience shouts “THE POUND YA BIG GALOOT.”
@Dal Riata: 10:38 Business For Scotland have a searing article about Alistair Darling on their page. below is a quote from their conclusion:
‘Business for Scotland is apolitical and we reserve the right to attack what we see as damaging incompetence on behalf of any politician. We believe that a Government of any colour in an independent Scotland would be better for Scotland than a government of any colour based in Westminster.
However in the course of the referendum debate on Scottish independence there remain serious questions over Alistair Darling’s competency. He was not solely responsible for the systematic and trans-national failures of the financial system. However, he was complicit in the economic policy shift within his party that exacerbated these problems and led to economic catastrophe (not to mention the failure to resolve the many other economic failures of UK plc).
As Alistair Darling in his capacity as head of the No Campaign releases further economic misinformation on Scotland’s economy, the people of Scotland must reflect on his record in Government. It wasn’t successful, it wasn’t stable and it certainly wasn’t prosperous. It isn’t a message the people of Scotland can trust.’
link:link to archive.is
Aye, sounds like Darling is the original stuck record, regardless of what he’s told, he just keeps repeating himself, numpty.
Just another quick thank you, Rev for all the interesting and informative articles that you keep producing. Wings really is a fantastic resource. I don’t often comment, but I do read most days and I’ll definitely be donating next month.
They really are quite stupid aren’t they?
It beggars belief how far these people can get in life.
I see the BBC are reporting on Carney meeting up with the SG….
Why would he even be bothering to meet up if we weren’t able to use the pound.
They are creating so much trouble for themselves with these lies that they are forcing No’s to Yes.
It’s great, the no campaign is turning into a massive face palm.
Maybe the DR’s David Clegg should be suing this ‘top corporate lawyer’ from Scotland for giving him a bum steer -would that be rump steak mince then?
That article on BfS brought up a question for me:
How many of BfS’s people are bankers?
11.40 hollyrood parly,our weekly face ache, JOLO,RUTHIE,WEE WULLY,it can only add enjoyment to oor day,re the Uk gov dept,TOON IN
Rev,
Maybe you should hold an Awards Ceremony for the most misleading MSM articles of the year. The WOS Annual Bad Journalism Awards
Not just an on-line thing, but a proper awards dinner in Glasgow or Edinburgh with a view to getting some good publicity out of it.
If we are naming and shaming them its really in their face and difficult for it to be ignored as easily as if its just on a blog (even as illustrious a one as WOS)
Maybe get Bateman or someone similar along to do the awards.
Would be a good excuse for Wingers to get together anyway.
And if you structure the costs right – those that can afford to pay a bit more do so allowing a wide range of regular contributors to get along.
Maybe a daft idea, but just thinking of ways to get a higher profile for this stuff as otherwise we are relying on people coming on here to see it and we want to get a bigger audience.
@Gillie
Your post reminds me of an old BBC Drama ( I think it was Peter MacDougalls “Shoot for the Sun”) based in Edinburgh, Jimmy Nail meets a sad old man in the lift…
“Whats up?” asks a concerned Nail.
“Some bastards broke into my flat last night…they didnae steal much but worst thing was, they shat in my mince!….I had to throw hauf it oot!”
Andrew Sleigh, the “top corporate lawyer” quoted by the Daily Record is ranked at Band 4 by the Chambers Law Directory. That’s out of 6 Bands, although to be fair you could try to get into the directory and fail. He’s rated Band 1 for Sport though so he’s obviously a multi talented individual.
@Ivan
If the opposite of the Oscars are The Razzies…what would would an award for worse Article be called, the Arssies?
Lies, damned lies, and Better Together
A Poolizer Prize?
“As wee Alex Neil, is my MSP,& health Minister I ll give him notice that in Independent Scotland,he had better start putting in place now,Larger Mental health facilities, bye the time we re finnished weil awe need,tae regain oor sanity, ( am touch n go the noo ).”
Not that far from the truth. I don’t know if there is a technical term for the stress caused by specifically being lied to and knowing you and others are being lied to, but if there is then most of us here must be sufferers.
PNSD could take some time to recover from, but not so much for PISD. A good party should suffice in the latter clue is in the acronym).
@Murray McCallum
Brillliant!
A good party should suffice in the latter (clue is in the acronym)
could,nt get into parliament tv at 11.40, phoned them at 11.50. reason DE CODER FELL OVER they did,nt notice, whit the FUCK, its noo the end of this .
Ivan
A great idea for a social, but would the press cover it, even if egos demanded they attended incognito?
Still a great idea though, I would go for a night out.
But how about also a regular ‘raspberry’ or ‘rotten tomato’ award where the journo concerned is handed it (with attending cam record made)? They would hate that, but it is an established phenomena elsewhere, so tough.
‘Wosberry’?
‘Written Tomato’?
Darling urges the young to vote NO,I welcome this.I would like to be at the meeting .Perhaps then we will eventually hear what voting NO really means ,although I doubt it.It will be another hour and a half of lies and scaremoungering.There may be doubts about the future under YES,there is no doubt about the future under NO.A forensic analysis of the economic effects of the 90 percent austerity cuts still to come would be a welcome change from the fear campaign,now that is really scary to contemplate.How will these cuts affect you young people and your futures?
“First Minister Alex Salmond’s plans to keep the pound as part of a currency union have been been dismissedby Chancellor George Osborne.”
By Gardham in The Herald.
Second time this week I’ve read that there will be no currency union stated as fact, have I missed something?
OT again,sorry.
The Guardian is running a ‘no comments’ article about sterling and the BoE statement.
Very ‘sloppy’ misuse of British and UK, with respect to credit rating post-independence.
“Both options are likely to do some damage to Britain’s perceived creditworthiness as its bondholders grapple with the concept of a brand new country. But the second option would have had the most serious implications for the UK’s credit rating and could even have amounted to Britain defaulting on its debt, something that hasn’t happened since Charles II.”
@Ivan
I heard from a freelancer pal that there exists the “Tartan Bollox” awards.. ever heard of it ?
I got banned from NNS for suggesting the same as Ivan, perhaps a little too robustly. 🙂
What about holding an event during the Edinburgh Festival? Too late? Certainly a chance for worldwide exposure.
O/T
Don’t know if anyone has posted this link to the Guardian article printed on Monday.
link to theguardian.com
“I got banned from NNS for suggesting the same as Ivan, perhaps a little too robustly.”
Erm, I was only kidding about the ‘Wosberry’, I think.
“The Guardian is running a ‘no comments’ article about sterling and the BoE statement.”
Where ?
Whilst I was on the Guardian site though…completely OT
But Roger Lloyd Pack aka ‘Trigger’ has died….
Triggers Broom…..
Sorry, just spotted its two days old. Note to self – keep up.
link to theguardian.com
Very interesting FMQ’s today. Lots of topics covered and another excellent rebuttal of all opposition claims.
AS says were keeping the £.
I’m still trying get my head round Lamont’s math calculation on the GERS figures! Maybe she’s borrowed Andy Kerr’s calculator from the last election.
On second thoughts I’ll just stick to what Mr Swinney and Salmond have worked out.
CameronB
Hmm, dodgy one. ‘UK’ and ‘Great Britain’ does apply from 1603 onwards, but you are quite right in that Charles II preceded the fiscal union of 1707.
At the time of political union, Scotland had virtually no national debt (despite Darien which were private losses, not national debt) whereas continually warring England had a massive (for then) debt of around £30 million.
O/T
I see No.10 have taken up our suggestion that there be a Minister for Portsmouth. Our nomination of Mr Carmicheal has been rejected in favour of a Mr Fallon.
link to bbc.co.uk
Dear God, dont ever let Johann Lamont be in charge of Scotland please, what dunderheed advised her to start quoteing figures against AS.
She found it impossible to come off script even after the First Minister has answered her question a 1000%, she does’nt understand the answers.
Was she being advised by Iain Grey on economics ? it was appaling.
Long may she lead labour.
OT again, though it is a second opinion of sorts. This time from former US defense secretary Robert Gates, re. planned cuts in defense expenditure.
“He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that naval cuts were particularly damaging, noting that for the first time since the first world war Britain did not have an operational aircraft carrier. Britain is building a replacement.
In his most critical remarks. he said: “With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we’re finding is that it won’t have full-spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past.””
link to yougov.co.uk
EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: UKIP CLOSES IN ON FIRST PLACE
The UK Independence Party is on course to win this May’s elections to the European Parliament. YouGov’s first survey in the run-up to the election puts UKIP on 26%, six points behind Labour and three ahead of the Conservatives. In past euro-elections, UKIP’s support has increased as the election approaches. If this pattern is repeated, UKIP is likely to overtake Labour by polling day.
Experts: iScotland unlikely to be left out in cold by EU
link to archive.is
How many experts can you get on a pin head!
Labour’s Lamont at FMQ’s was today either too stupid to fully understand the figures she cited, or else she was intentionally trying to mislead and deceive people with what she said.
Even after the First Minister, Alex Salmond, clarified the numbers to her, she still either did not have the intellectual capacity to realise her mistake, or as I said above, she was deliberately trying to mislead people.
Let me break it down for her. Let us suppose (hypothetical) Scotland contributed 10% of UK revenue, and got back 10% of UK spending, both figures would still be different in pounds (the spending amount for Scotland in pounds would still be higher than the money contributed in revenue). Why??? Because the UK economy runs at a deficit, that is it spends MORE than it gets in revenue.
It is that single concept that Lamont clearly couldn’t grasp today. The fact remains, that Scotland subsidises the UK. It contributes a 9.9% share of revenue, yet only gets 9.3% of spending back.
To put it another way, due to the UK running a deficit, the total sum of revenue for the UK is a lower figure in pounds, than the total UK spending in pounds.
So, as I said at the beginning, either Lamont and the Labour party cannot understand very basic economics and Lamont is very stupid, or today in the Scottish parliament, Lamont was willfully trying to mislead people.
Either way, it makes Lamont unworthy to lead a political party, never mind try to be First Minister (shudders!!!).
Bottom line, Scotland gets a raw deal and subsidises the UK, not the other way around.
Chic McGregor
I think you are confusing me with someone who has a firm grasp on the constitutional legalities. 🙂
“Both options are likely to do some damage to Britain’s perceived creditworthiness”
“and could even have amounted to Britain defaulting on its debt”
How can this possibly happen? Britain will be dissolved. My criticism could be seen as overly picky about semantics, but I think that details as fundamental as these are to the debate, need to be reported accurately.
Don’t they mean rUK’s credit rating would be in the pan?
Yes I thought that Johann must have had some smart follow up to her first FMQ question but as the Q and A went on it became clear that she hadn’t and was in way over her head. How embarrassing for Labour ! Who will report it honestly in the MSM ?
And worryingly, Labour seem to be taking the Daily Record’s reporting on trust as Jenny Marra asked a weird question apparently connected with this story about people not getting paid in Sterling in an independent Scotland.
Ah liked the pairt where she mentioned, TOMMY GUNN ,JOLO noo there wiz a comiedian,a hour n half on stage,NAE SCRIPT LOL.
Andy A
That’s what I was waiting on too. But it became evident that she was only ‘covering the class’ for the math teacher who must have been off sick but left her a question to ask.
Unhappily for her Mr Salmond has passed his SVQ maths module.
Ruthie getting her knuckles wrapped again. She altered her words from ‘misled’ to ‘not adjacent’ to get on. Marwick was not having it, she will decide what’s acceptable.
Ronnie
Lamont as usual only fires blanks. LOL
Its no been a good start tae the week, fur the Cameroon bar ( mair like the Milky Bar Kid ) excepting the full responcibility for UK dept. Now the American,s are getting jittery over the UK Defence,( are they up to the job, of being their sidekick in the Future. The WORLD,S watching Big Davy,an we re WINNIN.
Steve stewart I don’t think the daily Labour rag will want to hear from me again. I have decided to have nothing to do with the said rag ever again I hope it goes to the wall to be honest there would only be the few unionist idiots that make up this comic that would lose their positions as it is printed in Manchester anyway.
Kudos to George Gebbie for taking the trouble to set us straight on this.
Hopefully he’ll be a regular contributor in future, and any other times the pro Union camp try to pull the wool over our eyes with legalese.
This story highlights why I really rather suspect yesterday’s New Little Friend Bilverius (or whatever he was calling himself) was perhaps being less than candid with us.
There are stories on Wings one might take issue with, occasionally. I recally getting quite aerated myself about one which seemed to be inferring an awful lot out of almost nothing. Even Homer nods.
If someone were to appear and get wildly critical about one of these stories in isolation, one might wonder why he’d picked on that one in particular, but the comments themselves might be justifiable in context.
Yesterday’s “incredible vanishing story” wasn’t in that category at all. It was highlighting what struck me at the time as being probably the worst example of dishonest reporting we’ve seen in the referendum campaign, and by God there’s no shortage of competition. It was outrageous.
But then suddenly Bilverius appears, criticising Stuart’s story as pointless nitpicking. He’s an undecided, in fact, looking for information. Where have we heard that before? And this pointless nitpicking is influencing him away from a Yes vote towards those utterly straight-as-a-die honest Better Together people.
He did it better than many of the species usually manage. Well enough that several posters felt obliged to apologise to him despite their obvious reservations. But he picked the wrong article. He simply wasn’t credible, in context.
Can we agree on a rule? I’d call it Morag’s Law except someone else probably got there first. “Any new poster who declares themselves to be undecided, but claims that something posted on Wings has scunnered them so much they’re leaning to a No, is a Unionist Troll.”
@scottish_skier: EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: UKIP CLOSES IN ON FIRST PLACE
Wonder how the Scottish results will turn out? I took a look at the last results and was mildly surprised that the SNP polled the largest number of votes. Kelner’s opinion poll though projects the same percentage, 3% (actually 2.7%) for the SNP.
@Morag,I find it hard on here to sniffout the troll,s, might be because I like many here,have had our nose,s fill of brown stuff,am af tae the garage tae git a blaw through, wie the tyre pump,a bargain at 50p.
Kelner’s opinion poll though projects the same percentage, 3% (actually 2.7%) for the SNP.
You can’t read too much into the poll for Scotland due to the small sample size. It was 4% for SNP UK-wide for ‘definitely would vote’ when DKs and will not votes excluded.
They could well steal some Lib dem votes and do better than the 29% (in Scotland obviously) they got last time. Would take big rise for them to grab another seat; would really need to be well above the 40% mark. Likely to win it again though comfortably with the largest vote share.
The main impact will be UKIP in the rUK. That will really show people in Scotland where rUK is headed.
O/T I Listen to Manx Radio as its not the BBC and its broadcast from a so called Independent country, this afternoon Alex Brindly made a comment that Scotland would be Silly to vote YES. I sent him this email,
quote
What gives you the right to say that when Scotland Votes Yes on Sept 18th 2014, it will be a “silly decision”
They say Ignorance is Bliss, perhaps if you had a bit of knowledge of the subject you would not be so ignorant.
So tell me whats so good about staying in a bankrupt union where thousands of people depend on food parcels to feed their families?
Do you know that some food depositories in Scotland have been asked to provide food that can be eaten cold as many people cannot afford to heat their food.
Scotland is a rich country and there will be a vote for a positive future in September.
Unquote
@ Morag:
When I read the post from Bilverus the first thought that struck me was that it was the author, or a friend of the author, of the Daily Record article trying to lend some credibility to the nonsensical story.
Could be. My own thought was that someone in the unionist camp had realised that this was a particularly damaging article and decided to piss all over the comments section in the hope of sowing a few seeds of doubt. (As mixed metaphors go, that’s failry gross actually.)
The two are however not mutually exclusive.
Yes more pish from The Daily Retard. I’m convinced the punters only buy it for the football anyway. Even that Labour party apologist Lorraine Davidson stated that after she moved to The Treasury Times-sorry The Times.
Even Brian Tayor understands the folly of Johann Lamonts line of questioning, and Brian has problems dividing by zero.
Will be interesting to see how Disreporting Scotland runs with it.
“Maybe you should hold an Awards Ceremony for the most misleading MSM articles of the year. The WOS Annual Bad Journalism Awards”
Any thoughts on time and place Ivan?
could call it mince cobblers award 🙂 I’ll get my dinner jaikit
Suspect even the MSM will lay off the currency negativity as the whole ‘the debt is ours’ comment sinks in and thatse that even a daft laddie would agree that a currency union is a no-brainer.
Nice bit in George Kerevan’s article on Newsnet where he points out that the BoE’s loan to the UK of 375bn is a jointly-owned asset (c£31.5bn by my calculation) and that nae currency union will suddenly mean a foreign power owning a part of it.
George …your the main man!
Worth remembering and distributing
link to telegraph.co.uk
@Dave McEwan Hill – so lets get this straight -Darling flipped 3 properties and made 4 separate home designations in a 4 year period.
He charged us for his London flat’s mortgage, its renovation and furnishing while he was also getting paid a rent from a tenant.
He flipped again and charged us over £15k for his new designation – his home in Edinburgh while also claiming for the London flat and taking a rent for it.
He flipped again and bought another flat in London which he charged us for stamp duty, legal fees, furnishing and the £900 per month mortgage, while still claiming for his hoose in Edinburgh.
He then got the Chancellors job and moved into No 11 but only then eased-back and claimed £300 per month for food (it was a grace and favour hoose)but then stuck in a claim for his £950 a month mortgage and council tax for his now ‘main hoose’ in Edinburgh.
With gay abandon he then really rubbed the salt in and charged us his accountant’s fee for sorting out all of these financial shennanigans and so bad was this, Vince Cable said ‘he had been caught with his fingers in the till’.
This is the torag we’re facing up to as he fights tooth and nail to keep all these expenses and life style baubles with garbled nonsense and self-seeking fervour for him and his despicable mates! 18 September cannot come soon enough!