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An act of sabotage

Posted on May 20, 2016 by

Yesterday we reported how the only people who were risking the privatisation of key ferry services to the Western Isles were the Scottish Labour politicians and media crowing about how the decision to keep them in the hands of publicly-owned operator Caledonian MacBrayne had been made for political reasons.

(Which, were it true, would render the award of the contract illegal under EU law.)

drcalmac1

We had no idea how low they were about to sink.

In a wild orgy of self-congratulation, the Daily Record devotes no fewer than SEVEN of the first 11 pages in today’s edition, including the front cover, to the story, all blared under the header “VICTORY FOR THE RECORD CAMPAIGN”.

drcalmac3

drcalmac2

There’s only one possible implication that could be drawn from such a claim – namely that the decision was made as a result of the political pressure exerted by the paper and Scottish Labour.

The Record’s Westminster editor Torcuil Crichton makes it explicit:

crichtonbullshit

Not a single word of Crichton’s article offers even a single atom of evidence for the assertion that Serco would have won the contract if not for the campaign. As we noted in our piece yesterday (and as picked up by the Herald today), Serco itself had issued a statement to the Stock Exchange yesterday morning saying it had never expected its bid to succeed.

heraldserco

In trying to square these two incompatible facts, Crichton turns corkscrews:

crichtonbullshit2

Right, so let’s just get all of that straight: according to Torcuil Crichton, the Scottish Government was definitely going to award the contract to Serco (for unexplained reasons, and despite having consistently publicly said that it didn’t want to), but then under political pressure it illegally changed the rules so that Serco couldn’t possibly win, but then it delayed announcing the decision in case Serco somehow did win even though it had just guaranteed that it wouldn’t.

We feel sorry for the Daily Record’s remaining readers having to try to make sense of such incoherent drivel. But not nearly as sorry as we feel for the CalMac employees justifiably celebrating something that the Record is now attempting to undermine and endanger by bellowing to anyone who’ll listen that it was won unlawfully, and giving Serco grounds to challenge it in court.

But the Record wasn’t done there. It also ropes in poisonous former Labour minister Brian Wilson to insist that the decision was made on illegal political grounds:

wilsonbullshit

Wilson rants across a two-page spread that the contract should never have been put out to tender at all, an argument diametrically at odds with the Labour-led Scottish Executive who originally put the tendering process in place in 2005 and insisted that there was no alternative to doing so:

“Since MSPs rejected opening up the routes to private operators last December, the SNP and unions argued against the plan.

But prolonged discussions between ministers, officials and the European Commission left the executive in no doubt that going out to private tender was the only way forward.

Labour’s Highlands and Islands MSP Maureen MacMillan said she had hoped that CalMac could avoid the EU regulations but insisted this was not possible.

She said ‘If we do not swiftly comply with the European directive the tendering of the ferry service will be taken out of the executive’s hands and could well then be tendered route by route, which would be a catastrophe for the west Highlands and islands, for communities and the workforce.'”

Wilson even goes to far as to explicitly say Serco have a legitimate grievance:

wilsonbullshit2

Short of offering to pay their legal fees, it’s hard to see what more Wilson and the Record could do to urge Serco to challenge the decision. That’d be a win-win for the paper, of course – it could fill pages for months with crusading (and accurate) rants about “private-sector asset-strippers”, it could blame the SNP for the whole process being snarled up in costly court wrangling, and then explode in indignant fake outrage should the outcome be in Serco’s favour.

Let there be no doubt: the actions of the Daily Record and Scottish Labour are placing CalMac’s contract in peril. Should it choose to – and thankfully there’s no sign of it yet – it could point to the Record’s coverage in support of a claim that it lost the contract unfairly and illegally, since that’s precisely what the paper is saying has happened.

Crichton, Wilson and editor Murray Foote are playing games with the livelihoods of CalMac staff and lifeline services to some of Scotland’s most remote communities, all driven by nothing other than blind hatred of the SNP. It can only be hoped that they don’t succeed in snatching a bitter defeat from the jaws of victory.

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  1. 20 05 16 12:57

    An act of sabotage | speymouth
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  2. 20 05 16 13:26

    An act of sabotage | Stuff from the Internet | ...
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199 to “An act of sabotage”

  1. Jim Thomson
    Ignored
    says:

    Further example of the unionist scorched earth policy.

    Let’s not bother about the pain and anguish we’ll cause, let’s just screw the lot of them.

    *slow hand clap* for the Daily Record.

    Arses, the lot of them.

  2. Dan Huil
    Ignored
    says:

    Don’t buy the Daily Record; don’t visit its internet site. Leave it to the Rev to expose the britnat Record’s lies and deceit.

  3. Sandy
    Ignored
    says:

    More evidence, if it were needed, that ‘Scottish’ Labour and their cronies operate in favour of party and not the nation’s or the worker’s interests.

    Let’s see how far this takes them in next year’s council elections.

  4. Scott Maclure
    Ignored
    says:

    The Daily Bullshit, I feel sorry for the readers.

  5. David
    Ignored
    says:

    Surprised the EU leave campaign haven’t jumped on this, although wouldn’t know if they had. Imagine why the Tories haven’t waded in on this demanding an investigation into claims was for political reasons.

  6. Brian Powell
    Ignored
    says:

    A very scary aspect of this is that if relentless campaign of it was Labour and the DR that save this, along with other grand claims, lead to them being elected, then the people would Scotland would be in the hands of incompetent no-hopers in Labour, and the liars at the DR.

    Fortunately they won’t, but witnessing the collaboration of Labour, the DR, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Times and the BBC on most of these issues shows the total disintegration of any moral standing in the establishment.

  7. Davy
    Ignored
    says:

    Ah the Daily Record and Labour, both are bywords for honesty and accuracy “NOT”.

    The old saying “shite floats to the top” and the daily record/labour constantly prove that true that time after time.

    Lets hope with next years elections that will be the last of labour.

  8. Inverclyder
    Ignored
    says:

    The Daily Vow had a campaign. Who would have thunk it. I did not know that.

    Let’s be clear, none of their “readers” will manage one page never mind 7.

    Let’s be clear, nobody believes anything they print.

    Let’s be clear, their readers are only interested in the football pages and maybe what’s on the TV.

    Let’s be clear, Daily Vow readers don’t care about the Western Isles as they rarely get out of the scheme unless they’re going to Spain on holiday and couldn’t find Stornoway on a map anyway.

  9. Murray McCallum
    Ignored
    says:

    “… the decision was made as a result of the political pressure exerted by the paper and Scottish Labour.”

    To be fair, this is why Daily Record sales are rocketing and Labour are dominating the political scene in Scotland.

    It’s all about pressure + clout = success.

    Anything else is surely an empty rant in a diminishing newspaper / political party.

  10. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Rancid The Graun also pile in behind Torcuil and co with their style, “it was SLab what won it”

    “David Stewart, a Scottish Labour MSP, said it had become clear the contracting process was not in fact necessary, and Labour would be pressing for other tendering processes for the Gourock-Dunoon and Northern isles services to be halted.

    Claiming the CalMac decision was due to union and opposition pressure, Stewart said: “Labour welcomes this announcement, which is completely the right decision. These ferry services are part of the DNA of our island communities and it is absolutely right that they have stayed in public hands.”

  11. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Everybody an’his dug including Serco knows The DR is a lying rag with no credibility.

    Any case that that uses the Daily Record’s assertions as evidence would be laughed out of court.

    Cal Mac employees are likely safe despite this typically corrupt Slab campaign.

  12. Walter Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    It would appear, without even having to read “The Prince” by Machiavelli that the Daily Record & the Labour Party are hoping for the contract to be challenged, thus making mischief for the SNP. The workforce will be seen as collateral damage if it has the effect of portraying the SG in a bad light. I only hope that a member of the government makes a statement to the chamber listing the low cunning of slab & the Record.
    After years of falling sales & in the case of Labour, votes they keep flogging this horse even though it died years ago. They persist in trying to get people on their side by rubbishing everything the SNP does or doesn’t do. Their readership & voters are rapidly ageing & aren’t being replaced by a new generation of blind devotees. Lying, not hope is now their only weapon. Unlike the employees of CalMac their jobs are safe if their wishes come true.

  13. DerekM
    Ignored
    says:

    If i didnt know they were stupid idiots i would think they actually dont want the ferries to stay in public hands.

    And would CalMsc have grounds to sue the Retard if they were now to lose the contract under dispute ?

  14. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    Utter contemptible buffyoons.

  15. Peter McCulloch
    Ignored
    says:

    What this story further highlights to anyone with an ounce of common sense is that there are no depths Labour won’t plumb.

    Maybe some one will correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t the Labour opposition claim in the past that there was a legal loophole in the EU legislation that would have allowed the Scottish Government not to put the ferries contract out to tender?

    And if that were the case then why didn’t the Lib/Lab Scottish Executive not make use of any such legal loophole in 2005 when it put the ferry contracts out to tender.

  16. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    They could’ve saved themselves a lot of print by saying what they really wanted to say
    We hate the SNP just because we do

    I suppose it’s what the Record and all it’s conspiratorial partners do though, just insult the very folk who actually buy their paper by inferring they’re too stupid to find out the truth,

    But I suppose those who will believe this crud want to believe it even if they DO know the truth it fits their narrative SNP Baad No Surrender

    What’s funny though is I’m not sure they know what it is they don’t want to surrender to, but they know they don’t want to, whatever it is

    Because the Daily Record says so (Today)

  17. Roger Mexico
    Ignored
    says:

    You do seem to be worrying unduly. Do you really think that there is a judge anywhere in Scotland or Europe who would take the idea that Scottish Labour, the Daily Record and Torcuil Crichton could actually influence anyone about anything? They don’t have a particularly impressive history of it recently, do they?

    (Oh and was the 90 Cost – 10 Quality split inherited from the previous bidding process under Labour?)

  18. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    We should be treating them just as they treat us.The Record in league with the dark forces well nothing new in that, but it is time the SNP did some biting back.

    If Serco did take this to court Nicola should immediately hold a press conference outlining the cause of issue and lay it right at the door of the Record and Labour.(I say Labour now rather than Slab, as nothing will be done that has not been given the nod by Labour HQ, in London. Cretins!

    If the people of the Isles are left with redundancies and a holy mess, they need to be sure of just who caused it.

  19. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m pretty familiar with the scoring system for tenders,and the methodology used.

    I think any legal challenge would be bound to fail given the in built mechanisms for ensuring scrutiny and compliance with the scoring system.

    Having said that,I feel nothing but revulsion that a Scottish newspaper and a Scottish political party would co – operate to deliberately try to make a case for malpractice where none exists,to score political points which could endanger the whole process that secured the immediate future of these ferry services.

    To any workers on the ferries who may happen to visit this site I say this. Your union affiliated to the Labour party and backed by the media are trying to endanger all your company strived to gain. I think you as workers should be having a word with your branch officials who are playing politics with their own members jobs.

  20. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    Torcuil Cretin.

  21. Juteman
    Ignored
    says:

    The enemy within.
    The ProudScotBrits hate Scotland.

  22. Almannysbunnet
    Ignored
    says:

    The Daily Record and Scottish Labour mantra is “if we are going down we’re taking you with us”.
    The fact is they are going down by themselves and we are forging ahead. May they all rot in the same hell!

  23. Walter Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    A piece in I think it was the Guardian after the Labour bloodbath of GE reported on the state of the Labour Party in Scotland & the conclusion made for some distressing reading if you’re a Labour voter. It reported that during a very poorly attended meeting at a labour club in Glasgow, none of the members were under 70.
    These got-up stories by an outraged newspaper and a party of the elderly aren’t as damaging as once they were.
    I agree with another poster on here saying that not many people who read the Record would have got through 7 pages of this guff.

  24. pitchfork
    Ignored
    says:

    Scottish labour have lost even the sense of shame.

  25. Andrew Mclean
    Ignored
    says:

    I read somewhere yesterday that a complaint about SERCO was they didn’t have experience as they dint run ferries? then I read today, “Serco, which currently operates the Northlink Ferries service to Orkney and Shetland”

    its got you cant trust anything you read anymore,

  26. carjamtic
    Ignored
    says:

    Are they ‘write’ in the head ?

    Trapped in a twilight zone between writing shit or reality,looks like shit won….again.

  27. bobajock
    Ignored
    says:

    Hmm, taking credit for something you did not do, printing some lies that you did.

    Labour and the MSM constantly.

  28. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    Dear God! They surely have to be clinically insane.

    Not only did that rag have nothing to do with a process already set in stone, but now their faux triumphalism is actively endangering the decision.

    All folks need know about that paper is the following:

    The VOW – vow delivered – then not – vow delivered – then not – vow delivered – then not. The First Minister should ensure delivery of the vow. Its the Record what done it! Didn’t do it. Done it. Didn’t do it… etc.

    Scotland’s Champion… is to journalism and championing the cause of the Scottish electorate, what I am to writing advanced quantum mechanics theory.

    Hopefully both EU beeks and SERCO aren’t feeling like exercising some muscle.

  29. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    When some ships are sunk, they are sometimes recovered, or sometimes classed as a registered grave, so that they cannot be touched.

    As the Daily Redcoat Sinks to new depths and oblivion, I think it
    should registered as a memorial grave so that no one touches it.

    The workers must be a nervous wreck, as the captain can’t see out.

  30. Karmanaut
    Ignored
    says:

    Labour couldn’t care less about Scotland. It has always been party first, then UK second. Scotland isn’t even an afterthought. The Record is just the party mouthpiece. It’s been known as the “Tuppeny Liar” since I was a boy.

    This is just the latest of countless examples confirming what is already evident.

    Let them carry on just as they are. They’ve lost so much trust that they’re behind the Tories now, but still they show no signs of letting up.

    It amazes me that they can’t see what they’re doing to themselves. Amazes me. Foulkes yesterday was a good example. We should think ourselves lucky that the road to independence cuts through such a perfect storm of blinkered idiocy.

  31. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Andrew McLean,

    This is the irony Andrew.Serco won the preferred bidder for Orkney in 2011,and we’re taken to court by a rival bidder.The case was of course thrown out because the scoring system for tenders is very thorough Oil made the northern links very profitable,and therefore worth bidding on. The island routes less so, unless oil is found off the West Coast in which case Serco would be very interested.

  32. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    The Scottish Government needs a media spokesman to jump on these lying bastards right away instead of the present drift, they get away with murder. Where would we be wi nae Wings?

  33. DerekM
    Ignored
    says:

    They cant win at anything so instead they fabricate a victory with full BUM blast of noxious guff for an outcome that had already been made due to Serco not trying hard enough to get the contract.

    If they hadnt jumped up and down shouting SNP bad this would have been a little footnote CalMac get contract and everybody would have went oh good whats next except the blue tories who we all know just hate anything public and as usually have left their toxic stink all over this.

    Labour really are prize chumps and their tame scribblers at the record are not much better.

  34. ROBBO
    Ignored
    says:

    Come on everyone it was obvious this disgusting paper, coupled with their dwindling labour supporters/readers were going to make political capital out of this announcement. It is in their nature to undermine everything Scotland and what this SG does. They have thrived in the past as the only option to the ruthless Tories. Their socialist ideology will always supersede what is best for Scotland. They have preyed on voter ignorance and both Party and Paper will now die an ignominious death.

  35. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    However provocative and inflammatory this Daily Record article undoubtedly is, just remember when we engage with it, we are indulging the sandbox politics of Scottish government.

    The issue isn’t, or shouldn’t be, whether the Scottish Government did the right thing; we all know the cacophony of abuse that would ensue if the SNP government had broken any rules. The bigger issue should be that a propaganda news sheet is masquerading as a newspaper and printing seditious articles seeking to discredit and destabilise the legitimate, democratically elected Scottish Government.

    Here’s a suggestion for the SNP: Next election you fight, why not produce two manifestos? Have a domestic manifesto for the sandbox, detailing how and why you do things better or different from the opposition and carry out the mundane “housekeeping” for Scottish affairs. But get creative; produce a second manifesto, one which runs concurrent with the humdrum sandbox manifesto, but detailing the strategic battle plan for Scottish independence.

    Strikes me it might be a useful tool to curtail discussion of domestic issues and clearly define the domestic nature of their context, while opening the door to the “super user” agenda of the strategic manifesto, focused on the sovereign aspects of policy.

    Just like we know governments seldom negotiate with terrorists or kidnappers, why not have the Scottish Goverment declaring it will never be held to account by scurrilous propaganda?

  36. mr thms
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    stv.tv/sport/football/1354756-barcelona-fans-to-wave-saltire-at-cup-final-after-catalan-flag-ban/

    “Superstars Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr. will be greeted by the sight of 10,000 Scotland flags when Barcelona take on Sevilla this weekend.”

  37. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    The Empire strikes back (media aerial bombardment as usual – its’ all they have left). Yet again, that well-known red tory rag, the Daily Record, is willing to jeapordize a legitimate victory for CalMac, the people’s choice. Livelihoods now put at risk, all in desperation to make a dying Labour party and a dying Daily Record look good and score a hit against the BAD SNP.

    Anyone surprised?

  38. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve always thought of Torquil Crichton as somewhat of a ‘Tavish Scot’ ….

    See what I did there …. no thanks needed.

  39. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    My memory must be failing, because I was convinced the Lab-Lib government featuring Minister Alistair Morrison went through a tendering process around 2007. I must be wrong.

  40. Golfnut
    Ignored
    says:

    The tendering process can be very expensive, unlike Labour, Serco would not have used the back of fag packet to produce a commercial bid.
    Any commercial bid is backed up by numerous departments, finance, catering, engineering, operations, employment, senior management as well as the commercial bid team. Outside agencies may well have been contacted concerning pensions etc.
    Serco may well have been handed a route to at least recover the cost of the bid if not full compensation, this is not dissimilar to ttip type scenario.
    If ever there was a time for Nicola to stomp all over our media and Labour, this is it.

  41. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Bob Mack says: 20 May, 2016 at 11:53 am:

    ” … Having said that,I feel nothing but revulsion that a Scottish newspaper and a Scottish political party would co – operate to deliberately try to make a case for malpractice where none exists …

    Ah! But! You seem to be under some great misapprehension there, Bob Mack, if you believe the Daily Record is a actually a genuine Scottish Newspaper.

    Its owners are recorded as the, “Trinity Mirror Group”, and I quote:-

    “Trinity Mirror plc is the largest British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher after purchasing rival Local World for £220m, in October 2015. It is Britain’s biggest newspaper group, publishing 240 regional papers as well as the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, and the Scottish Sunday Mail and Daily Record.

    Since purchasing Local World in November 2015, it has gained 83 print publications. Trinity Mirrors headquarters are at Canary Wharf in London. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, it is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index.”

    (Bold emphasis is mine).

    Furthermore the Labour Party, (based in London), has made it abundantly clear that the misnamed, “Scottish Labour Party”, are in truth a, “Regional Accounting Unit”, of the British Labour Party. In effect a London Labour Party regional Branch Office and in no way autonomous.

  42. ArtHetty
    Ignored
    says:

    Labour and their red top pals really would take a massive wrecking ball to Scotland, just to spite the SNP, and thereby the people. Utter trash, who will attempt to take everyone down with them until the council elections next year.

    These unionist troughers are beyond contempt.

  43. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    When Labour were in negotiating with the EU about this whole tendering process for the ferries could they not have made the case for it being a Universal Service and thus exempt from the tendering rules of the EU?

    Another Labour fail?

  44. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    This parallel existence we are living in where a sizable percentage of this country believe the VOW has been delivered and the SNP are useless and are being held in check by honest and competent opposition parties and the media ,this despite freely available evidence to the contrary , this daily deluge of total bleedn rubbish designed to sap the life out normal sane people must in the minds of those who manufacture this propaganda be worth the effort when a majority of the voting public are sorry to say it either asleep or bloody thick , this is going to be a long haul and most of us won’t be around to see its conclusion , oh well if you dont try it wont happen onwards and upwards bit by bit we will in the end get there .

  45. Sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T Another Glasgow Labour Councillor quits the Party

    http://archive.is/HQd8u

  46. Jim Mitchell
    Ignored
    says:

    Just shows how desperate they have become to keep labour in the news, no matter what it takes or the harm it could cause.

    These efforts were obviously worked out prior to the decision being announced and we know why, but lets not forget that the Tories are the official opposition now, lets not be deflected from them.

  47. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    The VOW to the Daily Record readership

    We at Atlantic Quay will Lie BIGGER , Lie LONGER, Than any other newspaper.

    We Are the Scottish Readers Chumpionies,we have reduced rates for weekly subscriptions suject to IQ testing.

  48. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    I will be perfectly honest – I didn’t know there was a Record campaign.

    I do know a fair bit about OJEU procurement regulations though and I know that even if there had been a Record campaign (I am not saying there wasn’t one just that it completely passed me by) it would have been irrelevant.

    A tender panel sits with the bids and nothing else. They never use tabloid newspapers as reference points (does anyone?).

    What strikes me is not that the SNPbadders are happy that Calmac won but they are in fact suffering a great sense of deflation. A sense that they have been viciously cheated of a the SNPbad headlines they so badly wanted. Hence all the bizarre thrashing around and clutching at straws.

    Oh dear, how sad, never mind. 🙂

  49. Cuilean
    Ignored
    says:

    The SNP put the interests of workers in Scotland first by keeping within the law and putting the western isles ferries contract out to tender. They had no choice.

    The SNP are putting the interests of Scotland first by keeping within the law via-a-vis the fracking moratorium. The SNP don’t want fracking in Scotland but they have to be seen to be sticking to the rules so that fracking cannot get into Scotland, via the backdoor, on a court technicality. I wish the Scottish Green Party’s Co-Convenor, Patrick Harvie & his ilk, would tell the truth and stop disengenuously spinning, in naked self-interest, that the SNP are in favour of fracking.

  50. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Edit Edit Edit post at 1.01pm the word is (subject)its ma speiling letting me doon again.

  51. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    Sinky says:

    20 May, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    O/T Another Glasgow Labour Councillor quits the Party

    http://archive.is/HQd8u

    Another rivet on the side of the Titanic pops. Just wait until the tipping point is reached and they all start popping. Sometime between now and May 2017, methinks.

    Keep the pressure on. She is going down. 🙂

  52. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Caught all this in the cafe this morning in my ‘left behind Scotland’s champion’. It was left open and folded at the footie pages.

    Crighton and Wilson sounds like a defunct branch office somewhere in Scotland.

    PS:
    The SNP’s danger from within:

    Aye right Gerry… I wouldn’t worry too much on our behalf I’m sure ours are better than yours..

    https://archive.is/6vQoA
    ——————————————————-

    Scots in space latest: I told you so yesterday.

    UK spaceport competition axed in favour of licensing model

    Suck it up Scotland… or you can fly by the seat of your pants.

    https://archive.is/4UUDw

    PPS:
    Caught the saltire story and that will be worth the watch.

  53. tartanarse
    Ignored
    says:

    Court eh?

    Smashing, then when Labour are made to look like chumps the peoples champion will obviously run a 7 page spread about what a bunch of lying tossers they are.

    Can’t wait.

  54. Patrick Roden
    Ignored
    says:

    I understand why people want the Scottish Government to go on tv and expose the Daily Record/Labour, for these and other lies, but that will only serve to give the media the excuse to paint the SNP as a media controlling Nazi type party.

    What the SNP are doing, and doing very successfully, is allowing people to read these articles and to listen /read to the Labour Party, then make up their own minds who is telling the truth or lying.

    The bigger the headline, the more people will be talking about this story.

    So where and who will they be talking to in the workplace, pub, bookies, etc?

    The dwindling band of Labour voters/daily redcoat readers. will be keen to speak to any known SNP voter to point out how victorious Labour and the Redcoat have been in this campaign, only to have the truth yet again come back to smack them in the face, and make them yet again look very very silly.

    How many Daily Redcoat readers will think ‘that’s it, I’m not being lied to any more’ or Labour voters think the same?

    Let them lie, smear, denigrate, put Scots down,

    The slow drip, drip, sound that they hope is the sound of their propaganda getting through to Scotland’s consciousness, is in fact the sound of their own life blood dripping down the sewer, and you can’t keep loosing blood without eventually dying.

  55. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    If the SNP withdrew from the Scottish media it would be handing the opposition the gift to print or televise much worse than they do now by inferring the SNP were dictatorial, secretive and guilty of everything the media had said they were

    I’m afraid it’s down to us, but if you think about it if you were a casual observer from another planet who monitored Scotlands media and airwaves you’d have to be forgiven for thinking the SNP must surely be the most unpopular political party on planet Earth so how is it that they keep winning

    Over a million people voted for the SNP at the election and yet none of those people seem to appear on the telly or in the papers or on the radio unless faced by a barrage of opposition spokespeople and hostile interviewers, but still the powers that run the media claim to be impartial and fair and they furrow their brows at us and claim complete puzzlement as to what we’re complaining about

    This problem is not going to go away by itself
    The FM said “Don’t hate the media become the media” and those are fine words and well meant and of course she can say no more than that given the circumstances but as in other countries which are not democracies, because we shouldn’t kid ourselves, Scotland is not a democracy, Scotland as England, is a one Media state and it’s there to spread and indoctrinate the dogma it’s paid to do which is the protection of Britains aristocracy and Monarchy and control of the masses

    Throughout history in order to overcome despots dictators corruption and injustice it was never, unfortunately done by the ballot box
    Scotland is trying to do something that has never been done in this way and anyone reading this thinking I might have been going to present a possible solution would be mistaken

    That solution though may be presented by the Tory party, in their eagerness to fight with one another and their unbridled passion for being anti everything that’s not English, Ruth Thatcher and her Chums, in what’s left of the Labour party are about to embark on the most vindictive war of attrition on Scotland and her chosen government we’ve ever seen, and in doing that will leave themselves exposed and in full view of all the voters of Scotland

    Let’s see what the judgement of that will be

  56. mr thms
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36341336

    “EU official meets Nicola Sturgeon over farm payments”

    This bit stands out..

    “Only about 80% of Scottish farmers have so far received their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments.”

    Only?

  57. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Clearly everything and anything in Scotland is acceptable collateral damage in the campaign to protect their Union.

    History will not be kind to them.

  58. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Aw Naw no again, somebody,s went and gon and done it again Developed ah Fishing Rod that will revolutionize fishing (Highlands) as FOOKs would say they done it deliberatly.

    Jist gonny No invent things in Scotland its embarresing Were to Wee to Poor an we hivnae the potential tae sucseeds oan oor ain.

    Ah hope it can catch ah lot of Floating voters.

  59. David MacGille-Mhuire
    Ignored
    says:

    Brit MSM’s Jock branch publications and propagandists guised as journalists: Vile fcuking shysters.

  60. K1
    Ignored
    says:

    They are so weak therefore they can only sink this low.

    We really must be winning. If this is all they have to attack a popular competent and successful government in office for 9 years. Who have just won a democratic election retaining them for the next 5 years. Is it any wonder they have nothing left but this sort of public display of their own corrupt and redundant agenda to maintain their tiny and shrinking core vote?

    Labour are now the lunatic fringe in Scottish politics. This is the ‘backlash’ from the DR who couldn’t get their pals back in office, a public attempt to shore up Labour’s shattered self esteem.

    Thankfully over a million and counting are seeing through the propaganda. Your days are numbered DR. When we take the councils next year, especially Glasgow, the DR will be consigned to the dustbin of history and be remembered for it’s lies and deception and it’s last gasping straw clutching attempts at remaining in any way relevant to Scotland’s future.

  61. DerekM
    Ignored
    says:

    Serco now there is a company that needs some serious scrutiny placed on it if you dig deep enough all sorts of things come out the woodwork mainly strangely enough known carpet baggers and tories,in the fore front of privitisation of just about everything,they are not a company they are a tory axe a monster of a neo liberal scorched earth monopoly.

    Buggers should get thrown out of Scotland and told not to come back imo,well done to the SNP for treading this difficult line very carefully and sticking to the EU law and guys lets put our support fully behind CalMac and the people who work for them for not getting bullied out of making the best bid for the contract and letting another tory axe swing on public companies.

    Three cheers for CalMac 🙂

  62. Marcia
    Ignored
    says:

    That newspaper would make the newspaper headlines in the Third Reich newspapers more believable. If you keep telling lies you end up believing them yourself. They give journalist such a bad name. Thankfully their circulation is in steep decline. We are not just criticising them but laughing at them.

  63. Andrew McLean
    Ignored
    says:

    Mrtms
    fixed that for you
    be proud Scotland, and stand up, not you mr yooon!

    https://archive.is/GcPOC

  64. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    Interesting article in the Guardian today about a UK-wide survey carried out into people’s attitude to the BBC.

    Basically the Scots were the most critical of the BBC – admittedly on a relatively small sample – but in the context of the BBC’s influence in Scotland it suggests it is not all that it is cracked up to be.

  65. Martin Richmond
    Ignored
    says:

    You’ve said that…

    “Not a single word of Crichton’s article offers even a single atom of evidence for the assertion that Serco would have won the contract if not for the campaign”

    Closely followed by…

    “Let there be no doubt: the actions of the Daily Record and Scottish Labour are placing CalMac’s contract in peril. Should it choose to – and thankfully there’s no sign of it yet – it could point to the Record’s coverage in support of a claim that it lost the contract unfairly and illegally, since that’s precisely what the paper is saying has happened.”

    These don’t seem compatible statements. Is the Record wrong in your view, or are they exposing irregularities that could result in the setting aside of the contract?

  66. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Neo fascism in Scotland piles in with Torcuil

    Stephen Daisley ?@JournoStephen 5h5 hours ago
    .@Torcuil on what keeping CalMac public means to islanders. Incidentally, his writing changed my mind on this issue

  67. Jack Murphy
    Ignored
    says:

    Trinity Mirror Group [Canary Wharf based owners of Scotland’s Champion– The Record] in the Doldrums.

    “Trinity Mirror share price dips as it suffers death by a thousand cuts”

    JOURNALISTS MISBEHAVIOUR.

    From the Guardian last month:-
    “And, as if coping with those business problems were not enough, Trinity Mirror also faces a substantial bill for the misbehaviour of its former national paper journalists, who were responsible for intercepting the voicemail messages of a host of celebrities.[!!!]
    Although the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute Mirror Group staff on phone hacking charges, it faces large payouts to hacking victims.

    Legal attempts to reduce the amounts it must pay have been foiled. Having been ordered to compensate eight victims awarded a total of £1.2m, it appealed and lost. Then it sought to argue its case before the supreme court only to be refused its application to mount an appeal.

    After the ruling, on 23 March, Trinity Mirror issued a statement saying it would cost the company about £41m to settle the hacking claims.”

    http://archive.is/ICEns

  68. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @ronnie anderson says: 20 May, 2016 at 1:33 pm:

    “Ah hope it can catch ah lot of Floating voters.”

    Och! Ronnie, Ye ken whit the auld sayin is about yon stuff whit floats tae the tap?

    Weel! Whan it cams tae elections yon floatin voters, wha micht still bi floatin oan votin nicht, wull maist like be the shite whit floats tae the tap.

  69. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Rev.
    Could we have a Crowdfunder for Wings Buisness Cards to promote the site,collectively we can produce more than as individuals. We need more people to be exposed to the Truth of the Biaz Media ( Highlands & Islands & Borders )especially.

  70. Giving Goose
    Ignored
    says:

    Is it possible to run a crowd funded campaign that can then be used to manage a information drive that seeks to enlighten the population about the Record’s role as a propaganda sheet?

    If the Record can get away with publishing such crap, then a counter organised campaign can pull together resources to resist the propaganda.

    I’m thinking leaflets, coordinated online efforts, adverts, poster etc?

    The Record is simply acting as an arm of a political party and therefore can be “campaigned” against in the public sphere.

  71. Cuilean
    Ignored
    says:

    OT Barca fans will wave Saltire as right wing Spannish Govt bans Catalans’ national flag at final.

  72. Kevin meina
    Ignored
    says:

    I live in the constituency the ships are moored.The fact that London based Johanna Baxter used this issue as her main election issue.The usual suspects and liars were wheeled out Brian Wilson,Gordon Brown to mention but a few .
    Needless to say the locals believed them that much with a compliant local paper that they finished third behind the SNP and the Tories.

  73. scunnered
    Ignored
    says:

    stu you must feel like hitting your head off the wall sometimes I know I do.
    as usual its left to you to expose the lies

  74. Marcia
    Ignored
    says:

    Leaflets exposing the dreadful reporting in that newspaper would be a waste of money in the long term. The newspapers in Scotland are seeing their circulations dropping. The National has such a low circulation to not make a difference.

    In my opinion we need to have a more robust newsgathering site on the internet that could compete with the present print and electronic media. More and more smart TVs are becoming affordable and soon will be commonplace. Perhaps all those pro-independence people with a vested interest in the new media should try and see how this could be developed to provide a better news site that could compete with the BBC and papers.

  75. Bill
    Ignored
    says:

    Labour always wanted to occupy the ruins.

  76. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Streaming link for Barcelona v Seville

    http://www.ronaldo7.net/video/barcelona-live/barcelona-live-stream.html

  77. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Murray a Member of The Great Brutish Parliament and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland says that the bid was won not by the best tender but by pressure from Trade Unions and the Daily Record and his own self,

    either Labour MP for Morningside and The Grange Ian Murray is a liar or this bid is unlawful.

  78. Andrew Mclean
    Ignored
    says:

    Just read that Torquils idea of his media lighting up all day is 6 tweets 6

    6

    no really 6

    now I feel sorry for him!

  79. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Breeks at 12:26pm ….”The bigger issue should be that a propaganda news sheet is masquerading as a newspaper and printing seditious articles seeking to discredit and destabilise the legitimate, democratically elected Scottish Government.

    Spot on. That IS the ‘big issue’ Breeks and Nicola Sturgeon should be discussing it with her legal team: The Board of CalMac likewise.

    The Daily Record propaganda machine interfered previously in a democratic election, for one, by initiating and / or promoting the Vow and in doing so influenced the vote: a breach of UN Legislation. Since then they’ve reported, lied through their teeth, that the Vow has been delivered and yet key Labour (and ex) politicians in Scotland, 20 months on, are now pushing for a rerun of having the covert promises of the Vow delivered. Strange that the Daily Liar has had nothing to say about that; however the truth will come out say on the front page of the Sun ‘Vow NOT delivered’ followed by 7 pages highlighting the ins and outs of the corruption, their Labour cronies and exactly how they managed to dupe thousands of Scots.

    Torcuil, living in the Labour / Unionist bubble, probably doesn’t realise how many people are aware of the fact that he’s an out and out manipulative liar such as many CalMac workers, some of whom I know personally. They know the score, what’s been going on, and should now submit formal complaints to their Union reps. Better still descend on the Daily Record premises.

    Nicola Sturgeon should also combat the lies by outlining the true situation clearly on the ScotGov site, if not on the SNP site. This should then be fired all over the Internet.

    Torcuil Chrichton, one of the most hated people in Scotland, is pushing his luck, imo. Tick, tock.

  80. Andrew McLean
    Ignored
    says:

    Les Wilson

    Imagine say, the Catalans decided to fly the Union jack, we would get wall to wall coverage and the unionists proclaiming it in evidence of how great the uk is.

    Now lets see what the Scottish media response is?

  81. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Giveing Goose One thing at ah time , that was my next proposal ( Aye Rite leaflets )were a success in promoting Indy sites,

    Yes your correct we need to counteract the Media Biaz, there is enough evidence against them that they could,nt challenge any leaflet legally ,would they even try with the ammount of evidence against them.

    Its a Win Win for the Indy Movement. What says You’s Wingers.

  82. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    If the news stands in the shops where I am are anything to go by, Rupert Murdoch for one has decided to destroy the SNP with sex scandal. Which is a different thing from a shyster like Torcuil but if you can, go and look upon a news stand. Its either the beginning of the end of the SNP or the dictatorship by UK media at a stalemate in Scotland.

  83. Jack Collatin
    Ignored
    says:

    Twisted lying bastards.
    One down the food chain from grave robbers .
    How the fuck they sleep at night beats me.
    Is there anybody left in the Labour Movement Up Here who still subscribes to and supports this Branch Office of chancers and thickos?
    It occurs to me that we would never have heard of Murray if the Feckers Forty had been re-elected.
    He is the scud at the bottom of the Labour barrel.
    Dugdale and Co didn’t even make the barrel.
    The Dead Tree Scrolls are dying a slow and painful death.
    Selling advertising space in the Fettercairn Advertiser is looking good?
    What happened to all the pro Indy scribes? Were they all ‘downsized’ and ‘rightsized’?
    No bums and tits for seven whole pages, DR?
    Is there an audio version for the knuckledraggers?

  84. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Martin Richmond says: 20 May, 2016 at 2:02 pm:
    ” … These don’t seem compatible statements. Is the Record wrong in your view, or are they exposing irregularities that could result in the setting aside of the contract”

    Very valiant attempt to justify the unjustifiable, Martin, but still and all your comments are utter pish!

    There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever to the actually verifiable facts. When in office the Labour Party at Holyrood defended their tendering process that allowed Serco to win a bidding process by claiming they were compelled, by EU regulations, to put bids to open tender.

    Their present utterly shameful claims expose them for the liars, cheats, and anti-Scotland’s best interest, unionist party they have always been.

    The valid point being made by Rev Stu is no more than logical truth. By casting doubts upon the due process carried out by the democratically elected Scottish Government they have indeed sowed the seeds of doubt, at least as far as instigating a very expensive, (for the Scottish Taxpayer), enquiry.

    A public enquiry that would no doubt involve the hostile unionist Westminster Establishment and the EU regulators.

    Quite clearly the union is under its greatest threat of extinction since WWII. What is clear as that all Establishment unionist parties, normally at each other’s throats, have as always when the establishment is under threat, closed ranks against their common enemy and even Her Majesty purrs as she observes.

    Thing is that in spite of the establishment, unionist media, aristocracy, ‘Celebs, and the London political machine and their best propaganda efforts, the Scottish electorate is returning an SNP majority to Westminster, an SNP Majority to Holyrood and will, (next election), probably return greater than ever numbers of local councillors in Scottish local authorities.

    Clearly the Unionist Establishment propaganda is failing as never before. This has not gone un-noticed throughout the World. There is a distinct probability that if Scotland succeeds it regaining her independence that Scotland may well then be followed by Wales and even Northern Ireland.

    Your protestations are utter bunk – what is more you know, deep down, that they are.

  85. DerekM
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh what lovely people those Catalans are we really must invite them to the party in the summer,anybody know where we can pick up a few thousand Catalan flags.

    A football match yea a football match Scotland v Catalan how brilliant would that be or is it just a dream ?

  86. Albaman
    Ignored
    says:

    Aye Stew,
    Go get em!, I only wish The National has the testicals to go to war, ( front page!) with the record,
    Surely this has got to be confronted by them, you’ve shown the way, as you always have done, and we all spread your words into the Internet, so why does The National not take a lead from your direct attack, and take the likes of this misinformation head on, or is it too comfie a club, for these reporters to take each other on?.

  87. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    so why does The National not take a lead from your direct attack, and take the likes of this misinformation head on, or is it too comfie a club, for these reporters to take each other on?.

    Christ knows what they’re up to in The National. Hugh MacDiarmid was a poet. Meanwhile, UK.gov steadily demilitarising its Scotland region, pumping billions more into England and reneging once again on all electoral commitments to Scotland like their super barracks in the central belt, eg

    http://www.wyg.com/projects/regular-army-basing-plan-salisbury-plain

    Rebasing from Germany was promised for their Scotland region and the NO vote but its not.

  88. Andrew Mclean
    Ignored
    says:

    heedtracker says:2:44 pm
    “If the news stands in the shops where I am are anything to go by, Rupert Murdoch for one has decided to destroy the SNP with sex scandal.”

    Yes but the scandals of Tory MPs at Westminster, and the young conservatives, sex, drugs and blackmail and suicide, might just cause such a stink that will make this sorry episode seem quaint and silly.

  89. Sharny Dubs
    Ignored
    says:

    Quote (ish) “it ain’t what you don’t know that will hurt you, it’s what you do know that just ain’t so” Mark Twain

  90. AhuraMazda
    Ignored
    says:

    I think what Martin Richmond is saying is that in questioning the whole process that lead to yesterday’s decision to award Calmac the contract, the Record could give encouragement to Serco in terms of questioning and going on to challenge the decision.

    There’s no evidence of anything irregular anywhere but rules on tendering can be very complicated and decisions can often hinge on value judgments as to what is in the public interest and such.

    It’ll all be forgotten in a week or so. I’m inclined to think there are too many people on all sides who are prone to get over-excited about day-to-day housekeeping stuff like this.

  91. Kevin Evans
    Ignored
    says:

    I had hopes that the daily record would finally start reporting on accurate stories once the tories became the 2nd party in Holyrood. I guess my hopes have been dashed.

    That must be the worst and most pathetic SNPbad story yet.

  92. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Andrew Mclean says:
    20 May, 2016 at 3:07 pm
    heedtracker says:2:44 pm

    No it looks like a cunning UKOK five year end of Scottish independence plan. Destroy the SNP with your tory BBC led media, goons like Torcuil up there’s a perfect demonstration but the Sun today is pretty horrific.

    Destroy the SNP with your media, The Vow shyste has almost completely shut down anything SNP Holyrood can do for Scottish economic growth, UK.gov drains away public sector investments all for England. while charging Scots and bish bosh, SNP rules over economic stagnation at least and all of it SNP bad’s fault smirks Bottox Bird, out of your 62 inch flat screen.

    Even if/when NOT Scots oil recovers, Scotland has nothing to do with it. Red or Blue tory UK.gov will merely overtax it all again to underwrite massive borrowing for England and for big London Olympic games style treats. SNP Holyrood cant even dare to hike tax or borrow much at all for growth. Look at the savaging even APD’s getting, from all sides and in particular the Green nimby party.

    For teamGBists out there, who dont give a flying UKOK fcuk about Scotland, other than thinking they own it, vile separatists have had their fun. The UKOK strike back began May 6 2016 and they do not intend to lose.

  93. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    Barcelona fans have just brought a tear to my eye.

    I’m immensely proud that our wee saltire speaks up for them when their own flag is silenced, but sad for them too, to be suffering such oppression of spirit.

    Good luck Barcelona, and all of Catalonia. Joy by proxy is twice the joy.

  94. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Andrew McLean says:

    You are of course right Andrew, just look at what they did at the commonwealth games aided and abetted by Glasgow Council.
    No prominence for the Saltire allowed.

    Well at least they won’t be able to stop us watching the streams, unless of course Westminster begs Madrid not to allow it, at the last minute. That Could happen, but what negative response from the crowd would occur????

    A wee aside, when you print Saltire in the rev’s spelling software, does not know the word and offers alternative spelling for other words, funny that.

  95. Clootie
    Ignored
    says:

    …The Daily Record somehow managed to make the VOW story less dreadful…only in comparison.

    Scotland why do you buy this crap newspaper?

  96. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Scot Finlayson says: 20 May, 2016 at 2:36 pm:

    “Ian Murray a Member of The Great Brutish Parliament and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland says that the bid was won not by the best tender but by pressure from Trade Unions and the Daily Record and his own self.”

    Jings! Michty Me! Crivens!

    Wnen did Ian Murray, the Daily Wrekker and the Trade Unions start runnin ferries and tendering fir routes?

    Here wis me thinkin it wis Caledonian MacBrayne whit dun it and CalMac were the only sole bidders after the other bidder was disqualified for not meeting the criteria of the tendering process.

  97. Semus Hamilton
    Ignored
    says:

    SLAB Daily Record and BBC ..roll on roll off shites the lot of them. An Islander.

  98. One_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    I don’t think there is any other way of putting it, but Scotland is seriously one F’ked up country being part of the UK.

    Please vote Yes next time, don’t make my children suffer this shit.

  99. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    “Scotland why do you buy this crap newspaper?”

    What ‘newspaper’?

  100. Softshoebanana
    Ignored
    says:

    To Bob Mack
    To any workers on the ferries who may happen to visit this site I say this. Your union affiliated to the Labour party and backed by the media are trying to endanger all your company strived to gain. I think you as workers should be having a word with your branch officials who are playing politics with their own members jobs.

    I believe that the RMT are not affiliated to the Labour Party

  101. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    Support for Scottish independence reaches 63% (D/K excluded) – The Scotsman.

    Daily Record sales fall below 90,000 for first time – The Guardian

    Two can play at their game.

  102. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    Spanish Court has lifted the ban on Catalan flags at the football match. The Herald a few minutes ago.

  103. louis.b.argyll
    Ignored
    says:

    My comments dont appear..something amiss? Or is obliqueness superfluous.

  104. One_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    Honestly, if it was not for the work the Rev does, I think the Yoon media would bury Scotland in so much shit, you wouldn’t know what day of the week it was.

  105. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Softshoebanana

    I believe that the RMT are not affiliated to the Labour Party

    I thought that they had been affiliated, but had left during Bob Crow’s leadership, and then rejoined. So I checked:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Union_of_Rail,_Maritime_and_Transport_Workers

    and it seems the picture is rather more complicated than I realized.

    Bits of the RMT are affiliated to Labour, and all of it is affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee which is a pressure group within the party, but they also seem to be affiliated to TUSC.

  106. louis.b.argyll
    Ignored
    says:

    Depressing, isnt it.
    Not being in control of your destiny.

    Lets hope all those Indyref ‘NOs’- who chickened out last minute – get a bit of gumption about them..
    ..if not, its all downhill from here.

  107. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    Further to my comment above, the RMT’s own website says this (amongst other things):

    “We also note and welcome that since the 2015 AGM, Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the Labour Party and we welcome the progress he and John McDonnell and others have made to make Labour supportive of our key policy points. We believe that we should do all we can to support and maintain that progress.

    While we believe that we need to be flexible in our political strategy including our approach to TUSC, we do not believe there is yet a case for affiliation to a political party, which as stipulated by the 2015 AGM remains a matter for the AGM.

    This union set up TUSC and has been part of it since it started. The NEC believes that the 2016 AGM should review our involvement in TUSC, in light of the new situation in the Labour Party, the poor electoral record of TUSC, and the lack of response to TUSC from other trades unions. We therefore invite the views of branches and Regional Councils on whether we should continue our involvement in TUSC, as part of this consultation over our political strategy.”

    http://www.rmt.org.uk/about/policies/political-circulars-and-submissions/rmt-political-strategy110316/?preview=true

  108. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    I do not think that we need worry too much about the Daily Record. On 15 April their circulation figures were reported as :-

    “The Daily Record, based in Glasgow, saw full-price sales slip 13% over the past year, to below 168,000. Of them, all but 6000 were sold at full price”.

    Mind you a 13% slip over one year must be causing them to panic a bit.

  109. Martin Richmond
    Ignored
    says:

    In reply to Robert Peffers 20 May, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    You’ve completely missed my point. I was pointing out inconsistencies in Stuart’s article and asking for a clarification. Both statements can’t be true.

  110. carjamtic
    Ignored
    says:

    The ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne routinely flies the Saltire,on vessels which have a bow staff,including when such vessels are underway.

    Ian Murray,a mere Herb Strewer.

    🙂

  111. AhuraMazda
    Ignored
    says:

    Martin, there are no inconsistencies.

    Rev Stuart isn’t responsible for what The Daily Record writes. There’s no evidence of any irregular anywhere in terms of the process. But thats not to say something irregular in the eyes of Serco or the EU competition authorities might be found.

    Clearly there’s more chance of irregularities coming into view if there is an enquiry and that is something that CalMac and others might regret.

  112. seanair
    Ignored
    says:

    Proud Cybernetic @3.51pm
    Since I wouldn’t log onto The Scotsman, could you please clarify the 63% support for Scottish independence. Thanks.

  113. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    “The National” is nothing more than a Trojan Horse used by the Unionist media to prop up the neocon, pro BritNat extremists working at “The Herald.”

    So every copy purchased & every click to/from either of these title’s websites, directly funds the production & distribution of more British propaganda.

  114. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Martin Richmond

    A:

    “Not a single word of Crichton’s article offers even a single atom of evidence for the assertion that Serco would have won the contract if not for the campaign”

    B:

    “Let there be no doubt: the actions of the Daily Record and Scottish Labour are placing CalMac’s contract in peril. Should it choose to – and thankfully there’s no sign of it yet – it could point to the Record’s coverage in support of a claim that it lost the contract unfairly and illegally, since that’s precisely what the paper is saying has happened.”

    I don’t think those statements are inconsistent.

    Statement A says that Crichton has failed to provide evidence to back up his assertion that the campaign made a difference to the outcome.

    Statement B refers to the potential ramifications if Serco believes/pretends to believe the campaign worked and uses its existence/success as an argument in an appeal.

    Serco could do that because the paper is claiming it worked despite not providing any evidence that it did.

    That’s not inconsistent; it’s the DR’s modus operandi.

  115. Dan Huil
    Ignored
    says:

    The britnat media in Scotland surely knows its britnat hysteria will not change the minds of pro-indy people in Scotland. Therefore we can only conclude that its message is for britnats only. I take heart at the continuing fall in circulation of britnat newspapers.

  116. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    The usual pack of lies from the nonsense Record on speed dial to Dugdale. Pathetic showing themselves up as immature, inexperience, incompetents. No wonder the readership is falling. No one believes them any more. Any achievement by the SNP Gov they try to claim. Just a joke. It’s not working – lying Labour.

    Will Torcuil be mentioning the Hosie Affair or giving it a wide berth. Or is this a diversion.

    Trinity Press still trying to find a company to re merge.

    Fe Fi Fo dumb. 2019 The taxman cometh will be revisiting to continue the proceeding. The lights will go out.

  117. Hamish McTavish
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat 3.57pm

    I smell shite (of the Hootsmon variety). What’s the betting that they are simply trying to produce random “surveys” that show a “consistent and sustained” trend for indy support above 60% and trick those foolish and gullible SNats into another indyref.

    I’m getting far too good at shaking my head in wonderment and disbelief these days.

  118. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Usual round of Rancid the Graun trolling its Scotland region

    http://archive.is/7ETVM

    Severin Carrell has his fun trolling his Scotland region but its wading through more Britnat rivers of bile like so

    BBC Scotland’s not so bad says rancid Graun.

    “No one can beat the BBC Question Time – I love it on a Thursday night.” (By coincidence, Question Time is produced from BBC Scotland’s Glasgow HQ, as part of the corporation’s “lift and shift” strategy to spread UK network shows around the UK). Another said: “If you’ve ever watched one of those Attenborough programmes in HD, you feel like you’re there.” Another described the BBC as “the people’s channel”.

    By coincidence, Question Time is produced from BBC Scotland’s Glasgow HQ, golly gosh. What a coincidence.

    After their desperate shite from Dundee, where there are only ferocious tory yoons from England land now, its hard to add to any of Carrell’s stuff. His lies about SLabour saving Calmac yesterday have been topped within 24 hours.

    A personal UKOK best for that bunch.

  119. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Hammer of the vile seps, Severin winds up this Graun week of piddling over Scottish democracy with-

    “Yet David Strachan of Tern TV, a regular contributor to BBC Scotland programming, said the DCMS findings could not be “dismissed as the extremist wing of the SNP…

    “The BBC’s challenge is partly to persuade Scottish audiences that it has, at last, a wider view of what British means. But it also needs gently to persuade its well served south east audiences that they should let go of their cultural dominance.”

    Who ever David Strachan is, that is one grovelling way of keeping BBC Scotland contracts.

    It’s BBC Scotland what won it and will ultimately destroy the SNP but we all gotta pay rent.

  120. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Well done SNP gov. Working and standing up for Scotland. It would great if Scotland was building liners, frigates, supply boats and ferries on the Clyde. Develop Oil & Gas on the West.

    Vote IN for EU. Scotland is best in the EU. It costs nothing and brings massive benefits. Nearest market, good social Law, Human rights Law. A right to Devolution/Independence. Scotland would manage Independent, but a bit arkward.

    The worse scenario is if Scotland get taken out of the EU and stays in the UK Union. Westminster could try and take European Human rights away from Scotland and it could affect Devolution (enshired in European Human Rights Laws) and a Right to another IndyRef. They have already done as much damage to the Scottish economy as they can. Westminster would continue to do even worse damage to the Scottish economy, with no redress.

    It is really important Scotland votes IN to EU.

  121. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Martin Richmond says: 20 May, 2016 at 4:25 pm:

    “In reply to Robert Peffers 20 May, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    You’ve completely missed my point. I was pointing out inconsistencies in Stuart’s article and asking for a clarification. Both statements can’t be true.”

    And I pointed out that there were no inconsistencies and what was stated was reasonable and logical.

    The SG’s conduct was exemplary, it complied with EU directives, was consistent with their policies and there was never the slightest doubt that they DID NOT want the routes to be privatised. They had stated so previously.

    On the other hand the Daily Record’s reports were inaccurate, (or downright lies). The Labour Party Claims were, not only utterly idiotic but, totally inconsistent with their actions when in office.

    The mere fact that the disgraceful rag expressed doubts and told lies were grounds enough to engender the EU authorities to, at very least, hold an expensive enquiry.

    If for no other reason than clarification of a clear situation muddied by Labour and Record lies and false claims.

    Tell me this, Martin – what was the actual evidence the SG wanted to privatise the ferry contracts?

    What was the actual evidence that the SG had acted in any way against EU rules or procedures?

    Furthermore, what evidence is there that the Record’s, somewhat invisible, campaign had the slightest affect upon the contract procedures?

    What is the evidence the RMT Union pickets had any affect on the outcome of the contract award?
    Not to mention that it is totally unclear what they were picketing against. There was only one bidder and it was CalMac. So just what was it the RMT wanted the SG to do?

    There is the logical bit for you. If they were picketing against the SG’s awarding the contract to CalMac then they must have wanted it to go elsewhere.

    For that last question the point that there was only one bidder tells the whole story.

    Furthermore the reason there was only one bidder was because the SG had disqualified the only other bid – and the Records claims of wrongdoing are enough in themselves to prompt EU action.

  122. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    mr thms and Andrew McLean:

    Thanks for the link to the Barça story. I hope if the ban is lifted that they wave the saltire anyway.

    Somehow, I feel a Yoon news blackout coming on…….

    Viva Catalunya.

    God rot this stinking, corrupt Union.

    And The Record.

    I feel better now.

  123. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ seanair & Hamish McTavish

    Okay – I was being a wee bit mischievious there. I thought my comment “Two can play at their [propaganda] game” would have made clear what I was doing. Obviously got that one wrong. Apologies for confusion. Best, I think, if we just stick to the facts and not get ourselves embroiled in propaganda and lies the yoons spout day in and out.

  124. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe Wingers could reciprocate by wearing this:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/SCOTLAND-CATALONIA-DOUBLE-ENAMEL-LAPEL/dp/B009E7N4YE

    If it doesn’t work put the usual http stuff at the front.

  125. Sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    The huge problem the SNP has is that the BBC / STV never challenge Labour / Tory assertions at prime viewing times. Their idea of balance is three unionist voices against sole SNP representative and I notice that unlike during Indy Ref they are giving In and Leave equal coverage for Euro Referendum.

    No media outlet has given the SNP government for greatly strengthening the criteria for ferry contracts.

    Under Derek Bateman’s good article http://derekbateman.scot/2016/05/20/listing-to-port/
    on Labour’s ferry go round is a list of those Labour and Lib Dems who supported the tendering process in 2005.

  126. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Orkney/Shetland is one of the most prosperous and best places to live in the UK. They have a £400Million Fund. They still come looking for more. There is austerity from Westminster. The UK tax regime has been damaging the Oil & Gas sector. Osbourne has kept tax high 60/80% when the price was falling, damaging the sector, and losing thousands of jobs in Scotland. The Oil Companies are starting to avoid the Sullom Voe terminal to save money. Using other methods to retrieve the Oil & Gas, Claire Field etc. Taking vessels/barges from Norway.

    Orkney voted NO.

  127. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Sinky says:

    “BBC / STV never challenge Labour / Tory assertions at prime viewing times. Their idea of balance is three unionist voices against sole SNP representative”

    Can we assume from now on a Green representative will appear in place of a LibDem?

    It will certainly be interesting to see how things go.

    I won’t reopen the debate about trusting Green motives, however I would rather see and hear their position and views instead of the LibDems.

    I also expect the Greens to have some relevance in the new parliament. I think we can assume the LibDems will be completely irrelevant.

    My best guess is that the BBC/STV will now interview one SNP, Lab, and Tory representative. Then ignore both Greens and LibDems. Thus maintaining a Yoon bias at all times.

  128. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Serco is run by Fatty Soames who Cameron just negotiated to get Corporate sector to campaign for IN – EU Ref. When Cameron was saying he had no made up his mind. The letter Cameron wrote to Soames (Churchhill’s grandson?) which was leaked. Cameron is threatening to get the Police involved. Soames’s private company getting awarded public contracts. The only reason Cameron/Osbourne are in parliament to fleece public money for their associates, and starve the vulnerable to death. At home and away.

  129. Iain
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s such a shame that a yoon rag is in its death throes. It’s so sad about the death spiral of the Labour party, then again Scotland will soon be free of all this crap. And it is not like they don’t deserve everything they get. You reap what you sow.

  130. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    Torcuil on what keeping CalMac public means to islanders. Incidentally, his writing changed my mind on this issue

    Heedtracker

    WTF?

    Stephen Daisley wanted Serco to win until he read Torcuil?

    What is wrong with him? I suppose it suggests that Torcuil is not entirely without purpose but what the hell was Stephen thinking?

  131. Hamish McTavish
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat 5.23pm

    Hmmm.. methinks you are becoming far to trustworthy, young Proud.

    I need to set my “stupid boy” threshold a bit lower. 😉

  132. caledonia
    Ignored
    says:

    Really sad to say this but the record was my first thing i got every morning for the football and the racing but now after 30 years have gave it up as its all snpbad

    If it was 50/50 i would buy it but it does not represent the population of scotland any more

    Its known as the Daily Liecord at my work and this is amongst the non snp voters as well

    They are not bothered about politics but its the constant downing of scotland

  133. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    H&S – What is wrong with him? I suppose it suggests that Torcuil is not entirely without purpose but what the hell was Stephen thinking?

    Sadly, Daisley is no more than a big yoon troll, a troll in yoon’s clothing 🙂

  134. Martin Richmond
    Ignored
    says:

    @crazycat

    I just disagree with the point that both you an Stuart are making that somehow “The Daily Record said…” is the basis for a legal challenge to a public contract award (or anything else!) when not backed by “..even a single atom of evidence…”

  135. Gary45%
    Ignored
    says:

    David “Don’t you know who I am” Stewart when trying to book a table in a restaurant.
    Printed off some details regarding the Cal Mac thingy from 2005, will be getting handed to him the next time I see the TWAT.

  136. Truth
    Ignored
    says:

    There’s only one word to describe Wilson, Crichton, and similar yoons – twisted.

    By the way, I’m not aware of the current Scottish Government privatising anything at all since 2007.

    On the contrary I recall them nationalising Prestwick Airport.

    Now let’s look at the record of the lib/lab executive. Privatisation by PFI of our schools, hospitals and public buildings. Make no mistake PFI=privatisation.

    Labour in Scotland invited those private sector asset strippers to help themselves for decades to come, and this sniveling little shit Crichton points the finger and casts aspersions at the SNP.

    He’d be better castigating Labour, but that would mean pointing the finger at his Labour councillor brother Donald Crichton, and best buddy Brian Wilson.

  137. Hamish100
    Ignored
    says:

    Torcuil and the Record are just fud’s. No idea what this means but sounds right.

    As for the dinosaur RMT who do they sponsor?

  138. Iain More
    Ignored
    says:

    To use some of Torcuil Crichton’s own words from the Redcoat

    “Lets be clear!”

    Crichton is a hypocritical odious little cunt. He has once again proved that he is indeed the nasty creation of Brian Wilson. They were hand in condom with SERCO during the Indy Referendum.

  139. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Where’s Eleanor when you need her.

    It’s not easy running the NHS anywhere in the UK but were doing OK in Scotland relatively speaking.
    Ruthie will have a bit of a struggle getting traction at FMQ’s when you see headlines that reflect this state of affairs on BBC and ITV today.

    Deputy Deadwood and Rennie on the other hand well…. 🙂

    Not archived as the graphs disappear.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36341235

  140. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Red-top reporters – people whose parents met for a few minutes, following which money changed hands.

  141. Papadox
    Ignored
    says:

    IMHO
    SLAB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Londinium labour which is part of the Westminster gangsters who govern the good old UK (Aka Engerland). SLAB many years ago sold its sole and the people of Scotland into servitude for a place at the trough in Westminster. Wilson, Reid, Liddell, Foulkes, Brown, Darling, Robertson sold the Scottish nation down the river for personal gain and enoblement (money again).
    The EBC & MSM are only there to spread the propaganda mi5 & security services generate to cover this whole sordid corrupt institution up and allow it to deceive the people.

    The number 1 and only objective of these agencies is to protect the rotten corrupt state.
    As I say often they will do anything to protect their trough. Anything! this system can be pretty nasty.

  142. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Martin Richmond,

    It is not about what the Record said in isolation. If you add to that story the Scottish Shadow Secretary of State Ian Murray implying the same thing,it raises eyebrows.

  143. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder if this old shite is any better informed..

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/advice-for-jeremy-corbyn/

  144. Nuggets O'Pish
    Ignored
    says:

    Is anyone out there a CalMac employee, or does anyone know one? It would be interesting to know if they believe that the record and RMT won them the contract.

  145. Suzanne
    Ignored
    says:

    Some people just can’t have nice things. Any by “some people” I mean the Rancid and Scotlab. They’ll wilfully undermine or destroy anything and to hell with the fallout if it means they can have a stab at the SNP.

    Mindless, stupid and dangerous.

  146. sandycraig
    Ignored
    says:

    Fred @12.22 and others.
    ” Scottish Government needs a media spokesperson ”

    I completely agree with this. We badly need someone who can refute every untrue story and every lie that is broadcast or published by the media.

    I was at the Glasgow Transport Museum the other day and an interesting display caught my eye. It concerned the Upper Clyde Shipyard event.

    I never knew this, but the union reps were so concerned about the misinformation coming from the media, that they actually printed their own news sheets, to distribute to the workers, so they knew the truth of the goings on.

    The SG or the SNP must take the initiative here and employ some media savvy person to counteract all this crap. Re Kelly the LIAR. Apart from Wings mainly, no one has taken him to task about his corrupt statements, and the interviewer should have had these figures to hand anyway, and asked him to explain.

    The WBB will go a long way in arguing duff information, but there must be a continuing campaign until we achieve our goal of independence.

  147. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    The mentality of those in charge of the Daily Record has to be questioned. Same goes for leaders of the Labour party but we know that already.

    To devote 7 pages to this is simply ridiculous, I suspect that like me the vast majority of Scots have hardly given this a second thought. At least I’m unaware of it being debated in the pub, coffee shop or works tearoom.

    Of course I’m sure it is an important story to those that must use these ferries but who can say for sure that if Serco won the service would be any different, for better or worse? Unknown

    To devote 7 pages though you would have thght Scotland just won the World Cup or t least the Euro Championship.

    No, this is just the same as the OBFA story and the Named Person story. These are purely political stushies that have little interest for me or I suspect the great majority of the Scottish public.

    I’ll start to worry when they have something meaningful to say on the issues that matter, meantime let them keep digging.

  148. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Brent Crude $48.81 and continuing to perform strongly with predictions of $70 by the end of the year

    Bet you we’re still Dooomed though

  149. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Heedtracker

    WTF?

    Stephen Daisley wanted Serco to win until he read Torcuil?

    Its just a cabal far right toryboys. Here, UKOK neo fascism says, SNP should take their rightful place in the Lords, because they could really make a difference. This advice is brought to you by exact same crew of tory BBC led media unionists that scream SNP bad about anything they make a difference to.

    TeamGB toryboys are a crazy breed.

    http://archive.is/xsbxE

  150. Taranaich
    Ignored
    says:

    You know, it’s funny: you’d almost think that the Other Party wanted Serco to win the contract.

    For the past year, any time I’ve been in a meeting or similar event with my local councillors from that party, they have made wee quips about Calmac. They enjoyed mentioning that the announcement would be delayed until after the election, hinting that the only reason the SNP could have is if it was bad news. They really loved having what they perceived to be one-up on the SNP.

    So it’s entirely to be expected that they’re unwilling to recognise the actual heroes in this – Calmac’s bidding team – and claim victory for themselves. “Gloaty McBoatface,” Murray Foote called himself on Twitter. Any victory they can wrest over the SNP, be it the triumph of gloating over the SNP privatising ferries, or of stopping the SNP from privatising ferries, is all they have now. Even if it’s a load of nonsense.

    @Roger Mexico: You do seem to be worrying unduly. Do you really think that there is a judge anywhere in Scotland or Europe who would take the idea that Scottish Labour, the Daily Record and Torcuil Crichton could actually influence anyone about anything? They don’t have a particularly impressive history of it recently, do they?

    They can always lay claim to “winning” the referendum (though given they lost a double-digit lead over the course of the campaign it’s fairer to say they merely “survived” the referendum.)

    But whether they actually can influence a decision, be it for Serco to submit a complaint or for a judge to favour them, isn’t the point: the Record and the Other Party are clearly trying to say that Calmac’s award of the contract was made under political pressure – and thus, illegal. Even if it isn’t held up in court, they still made the charge.

    It’s like the Glasgow terrorist attack: they may have made a complete hash of it and ended up doing more damage to themselves than any innocent lives, but it was still an attempted terrorist attack all the same.

  151. James Westland
    Ignored
    says:

    Thepnr – you said : – “At least I’m unaware of it being debated in the pub, coffee shop or works tearoom.”

    I live in the Isle of Mull, and am obviously affected by this.

    I have heard very few people saying very much about it over the past year, usually only CalMac employees mentioning it. Not even sure if it was mentioned much during the election – didnt hear much about it

    Likewise, since the new contract was announced, I can honestly say that I have heard no-one mention it.

    Maybe people just assumed it would continue, who knows.

    What HAS got people talking over the past year however, was the introduction of RET and extra sailings. Mot people I know are very happy about those two things.

    The Daily Rectum is way over the top with their reporting. You’d think there was nothing else happening.

  152. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/05/govern-again-labour-must-do-deal-snp-and-focus-england

    “Regardless of any progress made in England, Labour’s ‘Scottish problem’ cannot be ignored.”

    In précis, do a deal with the SNP to get Labour back in. That’s it. Just knowing that Labour is back in No.10, is reward enough Scotland.

  153. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Tinto Chiel.

    Re: Saltire/Catalan badges. We did 500 of the examples below for Ronnie Anderson’s trip to Catalonia last year. He also took a pile of 3’x2′ Scottish flags – Saltires and so on.

    We’ll have supplies of the badges below at any future rallies/get-togethers.

    BTW: The background tartan is the ‘Caledonia-Catalonia’ tartan, designed by David McGill of International Tartans.

    https://sites.google.com/site/webgaffer/home/badge-designs/Catelonia-Saltire-ScotlandBlue-crop.jpg

    https://sites.google.com/site/webgaffer/home/badge-designs/Catelonia-Saltire-CaledoniaBlue-crop.jpg

  154. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    @Thepnr 7.54

    Mental is the very word I had in mind for them.

    That Labour and their media are reduced to living off the efforts of others (Cal Macs Bid team) and the objectivity of the SG is beyond grim.

    That they would cast any doubt on the objectivity and adherence to the procedure in the name of a puerile point scoring exercise, is both reckless and stupid.

    Their obsession with and their hatred of the SG over the past several years has blinded them to any collateral damage they cause others.

    So yes, mental is the very word.

  155. Bill
    Ignored
    says:

    I worked on Calmac Ferries, many are Naw Bags, they get what they deserve.

  156. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Briandoonthetoon You & PeteTC done yer bit in furthering Scottish & Catalonian relations. Keep yer ein open fur mair o they flags.

  157. Jamie
    Ignored
    says:

    Torcuil Crichton must think he is a right smart arse. He probably read 1984 and thought the newspaper in it, the times if I remember correctly, which overused “doublespeak”, was a positively great way to write and the only way to achieve what his aims are. Am now pretty sure Torcuil Crichton is an actual Douche bag.

  158. Arabs for Independence
    Ignored
    says:

    We can be sure there will be at some Saltires at the Copa del Rey final on Sunday in Madrid. I was already taking mine but now I have bought a further five.

    Setting off tomorrow – Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya

  159. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    It is also worth pointing out that the Road Equivalent Tarriff rolled out by the Scottish Government has been instrumental in increasing the passenger numbers carried by CalMac and making life on the islands that bit cheaper as well as boosting their tourist business.

  160. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    Sandycraig@7.50
    Absolutely right. The SNP government need a full time press officer with the remit to rebut the lies of the press and yoons.

  161. sometimesoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Bill says “I worked on Calmac Ferries, many are Naw Bags, they get what they deserve”

    Well, I work for Calmac and have done so for many years and I would have to say that the spread of Yes and No is pretty even. They are no different from the rest of the population – many unfortunately believe the outpouring of drivel from the mainstream media.

    Calmac put together a very professional bid with much input from both seafarers and office staff alike. A power of work went into the process and I am glad to say that both the islanders and the workforce got the result they deserve. I believe they get a first rate and professional service from us while still retaining that friendly and homely ‘Para Handy’ feel. Many firms would kill for our image.

    Sigh of relief 🙂

  162. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    As Torcuil, Brian etc keep us natives in order, tory England looks to the future. NOT Scots oil looking good too.

    http://archive.is/ESC4f

    At £55bn, HS2 might not reach Manchester but England’s transport investment roars ahead

    “An HS2 passenger changing at Old Oak for the Elizabeth Line could be at Heathrow in 11 minutes or Bond Street in less than ten. To me that signals a different opportunity to lop the HS2 bill: why bother tunnelling from Old Oak to the ill-connected terminus that is Euston? And if £5 billion could be saved, why not spend it extending the Elizabeth Line or Crossrail 2 to Stansted airport, which should (in defiance of the Davies Commission) be encouraged to build the second runway for which it has ample scope? Then we’d really make some progress.

    Back to normal?
    Is oil heading back to normality? At the start of the week, the Brent Crude barrel price was close to $50 for the first time since November, prompted by supply problems in Nigeria and Venezuela

  163. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    BBC shortbread less popular than it used to be… Auntie is not trusted as much in bad report card from North Britain.

    https://archive.is/7ETVM

  164. Richardinho
    Ignored
    says:

    Gotta say, I’m not certain what the big deal is about someone other than CalMac running the ferries. Putting out to tender seems a reasonable idea to me. The free market is a good thing after all. As it turns out it would seem that CalMac did win in a fair competition.

  165. AhuraMazda
    Ignored
    says:

    My way forward, privatise CalMac and the BBC / nationalise Wings.

  166. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    call me dave says:
    20 May, 2016 at 10:57 pm
    BBC shortbread less popular than it used to be…

    There’s actual NO vote, “only 37% of Scots felt the licence fee offered good value – the worst of any nation; and 58% felt “the BBC shows too many repeats.”

    Right now BBC 4, smug rubbish like

    Very British Problems
    10:30 PM – 11:30 PM

    Its awful.

    More progs about cakes and Neil Oliver, poncing and posturing on top of windy cliffs blowing his lovely hair off his lovely face n shit, please nice Mr BBC.

  167. potter
    Ignored
    says:

    Lots oh Yoons greetin about Farm Subsidies.
    UK has been fined 642 million by EU re payments.
    Out of 28 countries in the CAP only 5 have been fined more.
    The UK has incurred ‘disallowance penalties’ of £2.70 for every £100 of CAP funds paid out to the UK from the European Commission.

    https://www.nao.org.uk/report/managing-disallowance-risk/

  168. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @heedtracker –

    BBC needs to change with the times, come up with something different.

    ‘Ultimate Strictly’, where minor celebrities waterboard one another. (Copyright, Ian Brotherhood, 2016)

    It’s not real ‘torture’ anyway, eh? Certainly no more than eating wriggly things you don’t normally find in a Full English.

  169. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Tonights BBC 4, rich bores being boring about being English, such a trial, last BBC night, Murdoch’s BBC henchman dragged in this example of mental illness for our amusement. 37% of Scots that like this BBC garbage are probably the same that gave disgraced Carbuncle’s LibDem’s that Orkney landslide.

    Andrew Neil Retweeted
    BBC This Week ?@bbcthisweek 23h23 hours ago
    “It’s not that simple… whole big back story” says @davidicke as @afneil asks about lizards and 9/11 conspiracies
    Do you still think the Royal Family were shape shifting lizards?
    Andrew Neil and David Icke on This Week

  170. Cadogan Enright
    Ignored
    says:

    Archived

    The pic at top is priceless

    https://archive.is/rZZ93

    Presumably the massive coverage mentioned by Rev in the Record is being read by fewer and fewer people? How much damage can it do in the absence of the EBC repeating it as if it was factual news? Did they? I did not see it http://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/dailyrecordsales2.jpg

  171. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    Calmac last year had a few problems which hacked islanders off. The one day strike and a work to rule cost businesses a lot of money with cancellations, and the uncertainty for a couple of weeks after over potential more strikes. People had to cancel holidays, or leave early to avoid getting stranded.

    Even before that two ferries were late back after winter refit / maintenance, other ferries had to be switched around with some disruption. What I found was quite a few people wouldn’t have cared if Serco got the contract, and a few even wanted it out of disgust with the strike and disruptions.

    Then this year there’s problems with the two hybrids replacing the Coruisk on the Armadale run, as they weren’t actually built for the ramps, so there’s low tide problems and adaptations. They’re nice but pretty basic compared to the Coruisk.

    So, yeah, if the Record and Labour party think they’re going to score points it just shows how thick they are, how ignorant of the ferries and routes, and how people think. Me I’m glad Calmac won the contract, but then I’m not an islander. But Calmac have work to do on their public relations.

  172. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Heedtracker –

    David Icke v’s Andrew Neil?

    Blimey…the saliva’s flowing.

    If it turns out that Portillo/Abbot are also there I’ll be up at the Post Office first-thing to get meself a telly licence…

  173. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    @Cadogan Enright

    “How much damage can it do in the absence of the EBC repeating it”

    None at all I believe.

    Only Torcuil Crichton, Murray Foote and Brian Wilson see this is something to beat the SNP with. They have made this not a big deal but a “massive” deal. Seven pages FFS!

    The rest of the usual suspects are noticeable by their absence.

    Wonder how long it will be before someone at Trinity Mirror notices the declining sales and income, increased waste of ink and paper, then boots their arse out the door.

  174. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Ian Brotherhood says:
    20 May, 2016 at 11:35 pm
    @heedtracker –

    BBC needs to change with the times, come up with something different.

    ‘Ultimate Strictly’, where minor celebrities waterboard one another. (Copyright, Ian Brotherhood, 2016)

    Too tame.

    Murdoch’s goon Ligger Neil last night with Icke was as close to dog fighting on the BBC as it gets. Its a disgusting outfit run by greedy shits, tory shits but if they were sold off for a quid, they could crap all over Scotland as hard as they like. They do anyway but at least…

  175. Morag Frame
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m glad someone has eventually named Brian Wilson as a poisonous guy, as he is! I was aware of him 30 years ago when living in the Western Isles and was well aware of his duplicity then. Skulking under a socialist banner but at heart an opportunist and a ‘cheat’.
    !

    Saw him last year at a Ross County football match looking like the ‘fat cat’ he was always destined to be! I managed to keep my mouth shutll Would have loved to have called him out and given him the ‘red tory card’.

  176. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @Heedtracker –

    It’s on YT now.

    David Icke looks ill, as if he’s had a stroke. He’s an old BBC hand, must’ve known what he was getting into. Fair play to him, they’d all have had a good snigger about him in the Green Room.

    Will Andrew Neil still be sniggering when he has to cover IndyRef2?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWUT6PVefU0

  177. Al-Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    Dreadful lies about the SNP and what was a legally required tendering process for the west coast lifeline ferry services.

    Here is what the idiotic Torquil Crichton and his ilk are doing to his paper with needle-stuck SNP-Bad durge they peddle.

    The Daily Record circulation has PLUMMETED from three quarters of a million – 755,026 since 1992. It now stands at a pathetic 176,892 paying readership.

    The FORMER readership of that newspaper just DO NOT BELIEVE THE MEDIA LIES ANYMORE and have been voting with their feet by not buying the rag.

    Is anyone on WoS able to advise at what point the Daily Record goes bankrupt?

    Here are the facts (that word being completely alien to Torquil)

    Dying Daily Record Circulation…

    2016 – 176,892
    2015 – 203,725
    2014 – 227,639
    2013 – 251,535
    2012 – 291,825
    2011 – 306,872
    2010 – 323,831
    2009 – 354,302
    2008 – 393,788
    2007 – 418,628
    2006 – 451,932
    2005 – 471,708
    2004 – 503,077
    2003 – 520,540
    2002 – 584,290
    2001 – 603,914
    2000 – 626,646
    1997 – 703,090
    1992 – 755,026

  178. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    @Al-Stuart

    The Daily Redcoat will be broke by 2020 if those figures are anything to go by. If not broke then subsidised by a UK Government determined to hang on to Scotland and any paper that can be used for their propaganda.

    Once at 100,000 or less it becomes irrelevant anyway, that can’t be far off. YES, the writing is on the wall for “Scotlands Champion”

    Guess we will just have to find a new one then. Don’t need to look to far.

  179. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    some light relief

    hazels new “official” video release

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOQlck_4DvE

    nb not for the easily offended !!!!

  180. Fran
    Ignored
    says:

    OT

    Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, which I have no doubt . Scotland is more independent than not.

    We live in the independent Kingdom of Scotland.
    Scots Law is outwith the UK Supremum courts jurisdiction.

  181. Famous15
    Ignored
    says:

    @Fran

    The answer is that in breach of the treaty of union Scots law is subject to the UK Supreme Court!

  182. Almannysbunnet
    Ignored
    says:

    @Al-Stuart
    Based on your figures it’s losing, on average, 24,000 daily readers per year, roughly -£15,500 per day. Given that the Record is part of a bigger group I don’t know about becoming bankrupt but if the trend continues it will be below 100,000 within 3-4 years.
    More important than bankruptcy is it’s dwindling ability to influence the public through lies. Some interesting circulation figures here. The Record has been on a downward slide since it first appeared.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation

  183. Tackety Beets
    Ignored
    says:

    Al-Stuart

    Thanks for posting the “Rangers News” sales figures.

    Astonishing to see they have sunk from 3/4 mil in ’90s to today s low.
    Even in last 4/5 years sales have halved, as PNR says that continuation could drop to 100k by 2020 .

    They may have some hard core Yoons who see the comic as funny & just “cannae” resist such a purchase ?

    As an apprentice I was always told that the success of your business is more about what you do and less about what your competitors are doing and never “slag off” your competitor to our customers.

    The media propaganda in UK is astonishing , even to folk like me who stopped purchasing papers way back in 70’s.
    Eu Ref still drip drip doom & gloom from WM

    FFS Brexit will lead to hooses dropping in price by 25% ?
    How can this be ? No more demand for hooses ?
    WM bullshit !

    Not a single Journo asking WM ( Osbourne) how this could be the case.

    Wish I had the time to rate every article for truthfulness for a day.

    Anyone see the retraction by the Sun ref Queen’s wish on Brexit ?

    Just wondered if it was done?
    Was it the usual snippet or decent sized.

    Thankfully we have WOS to provide us with all we need. Pheewww

  184. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    The Record VOW and their duplicity mucked up the Infy Ref too. The Record’s report of total lies which have never been honoured. The Record broke the rules on Purdah. The most lying account from lying management. It was an absolute lying disgrace from an absolutely lying management. Just another pack of lies, from those who want to muck up people’s lies and dishonourably fail democracy.

    The Trinity Group are looking to merge with another press group. The lies do not sell. A bad marketing decision from a failing organisation. Putting their foot in their mouth, again.

    The management should have been censored for breaking Purdah rules and trying to influence the Infy Ref result with more lies which were not honoured. The dupitious lying British Press owned by tax avading Non Doms. Illegally in the hands of lying, greedy cheats. It is leading it’s own demise. Good riddance.

    Andrew Neil is another one, lying all his life for the British state for a overpaid salary. Basically a lying spokesperson for the Tory and Unionist Party. Thatcher’s henchman there are even recording of his duplicity in talking Scotland down in the most biased manner. His love for Thatcher and the Tory Party will never die. His abusive overpaid salary to lie for the Tory State should be revealed to show the total waste of taxpayers money. He should have been retired long ago. Just making the majority of people more angry, sick and tired.

    Thatcher was illegally and secretly taking the equivalent of £Billions out of Scotland. Illegally shutting down every manufacturing facility in Scotland, causing unrest and poverty for millions. Thatcher had unemployment at 3 million and interest rates at 15% before she was stabbed in the back by her own colleagues to get rid of her.

    Andrew Neil was her public apologist, the BBC state public liar. An overpaid lying presenter. Presenter of a pack of lies for an grossly overpaid remuneration. An extremely compulsive, alcoholic, personality on speed dial to the other ‘psycho bastard’ alcoholic Cameron. Two of a kind making poor decisions. Unkind to others, without the necessary counselling. Cameron called them ‘psychos’ Major called them ‘bastards’ Both are extremely bad performers. Sanctioning the vulnerable and starving people to death. Two Tory ‘psycho bastards’ feathering their nests on lies, incompetence, ignorance and anti social behaviour.

    Deja vu. Cameron/Osbourne are doing their worse to destroy the Scottish/UK economy to target vulnerable people, misuse public money to line their associates pockets. They are just a couple of shysters. Immature, incompetent, inexperience and ignorant.

    It is only the SNP Gov that can protect Scotland from the worse of the Westminster Unionist policies. Osbourne’s illegal tax regime has destroyed the Oil sector in Scotland and lost thousands of jobs. Cameron/Osbourne have cut NHS spending. Osbourne intends spending £Billions of borrowed money on Hinkley Point nuclear station. A total waste. It will cost £60Billions and take over ten years. A total waste of public money. Two tidal barrage projects could be undertaken – Cost £10Billion each, and produce more and safer electricity.

    HS2 is a total waste of public money £70Billion (x 3?) – £210Billion. With no business case. It will make journeys through Britain longer and more expensive. Money should be invested in the present rail service and lines, It would be more productive, save time and money.

    The Tories are targeting the vulnerable. Sanctioning and starving the vulnerable. Cutting NHS funding and wasting borrowed public money. Non representative liars, especially in Scotland, who have cheated and lied their way to power, illegally. Especially in Scotland. Every policy a U turn. They have not supported NHS and the debt is rising. All Unionists/Green Parties are culpable in Scotland.

  185. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    The Trinity/Mirror group are the worse for peddling illicity aquired information. 1613 incidents by 139 Reporters. The most corrupt offences. Phone hacking, illegally obtaining information, driving licences, phone details etc. More corrupt then either News Internation or the Mail Group for breaking the Law and the PCC code of conduct. Criminals.

  186. SOG
    Ignored
    says:

    I apologise for this being OT, but I can’t see a relevant thread. From the Grauniad (more apologies), about the BBC’s (sorry) declining perception by the Scots…

    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2016/may/20/bbc-audience-study-shows-scottish-viewers-are-most-critical-of-all

    Here’s a taster – “We recognise that there’s a deficit in programming in Scotland; there’s no doubt about that,”

  187. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi BrianDTT @8.30 last night.

    Thanks for the badge info: they look really good.

    Just bought a Catalan flag for my PQ protest close-up.

    😛

  188. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Is this the Fatty Soames, Churchill’s grandson, who threatened Lady Di over the phone with a sudden accident? An ex-sexual partner described congress with Soames as being akin to having a wardrobe lying on top of one in which a small key protruded.:)

    Torcuil appeared in the Square as the march set off for Pacific Quay, strange!

    There were raised eyebrows over this fat-cat allegedly financing his tweed business with Balkan cash?

  189. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Brian Wilson that is!

  190. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Something which is now creeping into the new SNP members and nuovo indi supporters disturbs me. It is something I have noticed on various sites.

    There is an attitude that the SNP somehow made a mistake in the election. A mistake which allegedly cost them votes.

    We all know that this is garbage as the vote share increased. It decreased in some rural areas as farmers and landowners switched to lib and con. In the working class areas their vote was as strong as 2015.

    The lefties who joined the SNP want the SNP to do as they want. They want a left wing party. Guys like me who have been in the SNP since the days of 4 Mps. Know that the only way to get indi is to appeal to all people in Scotland.

    The lefties in Rise and Sheridan,Sillars etc are an angry mob. We don’t want to become an entirely left wing movement. That’s what we are a movement not just a party. Try and explain to these people that the shape of Scotland can only be determined after we determine our destiny. They just ignore the history of our movement.

    It’s not their movement it’s not mine, it’s Scotland’s. We cannot dictate terms to the movement. Ironically they use words like Stasis to describe the machine if the SNP. Yet they are the ones who want everything their own way.

    Divided,splintered,exclusive and we fail. United, inclusive and democratic we succeed. I have my disagreements with the SNP but I have the wit and understanding to know the movement is bigger than the sum of its parts.

  191. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    “We don’t want to become an entirely left wing movement. That’s what we are a movement not just a party. ”

    Agree completely, Big Jock. Don’t forget that some of those new SNP members will simply be infiltrators whose role is to sow discord.

    The Left in the UK has always been compromised in this way.

  192. katherine hamilton
    Ignored
    says:

    This is filth, just filth. No more to say.

  193. Ken500_fan
    Ignored
    says:

    Ken 500@7.54 am

    I salute your courage, your strength and your indefatigability, but what are you actually trying to say?

    Had you had any sleep before you posted that?

  194. Tam Jardine
    Ignored
    says:

    Well. I can report that Robbies on Leith Walk is busy. What a day to be alive friends.

  195. Thepnr
    Ignored
    says:

    My congratulations to Hibs Tam. 🙂

  196. Andy-B
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder if Murdo Fraser Tory MSP, will tweet, anything more about the Queens eleven.

  197. The Rough Bounds
    Ignored
    says:

    I may have missed this somewhere, but does anyone know who actually OWNS Caledonian MacBrayne.

    Just because it has a Scottish title doesn’t mean it’s a Scottish Company. Last I heard it was difficult to pin down who actually owns it. Liverpool Steamship Company (or something similar) was what I heard around 30 years ago.

    Perhaps someone can enlighten us?

  198. Sandy
    Ignored
    says:

    The Rough Bounds.

    Caledonian MacBrayne is part of David MacBrayne, Ltd, Holdings which is 100% owned by the Scottish Government.



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