And now the weather
Posted on
March 07, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s a really slow news day today, so here’s an extended report from the Met Office.
The outlook in the event of a No vote: this is as good as it gets.
Thank goodness for dark humour!
I actually saw a tiny excerpt of this on STV The other night. We do really live in dire times and there is absolutely no excuse for it. We must vote Yes to get control of our own country.
A brilliant way to convey a terrible truth.
Only misgiving was I couldn’t help but think of John Barrowman for some reason.
No its No right at all.
Think that forecast is bad, go and look at http://www.scotlandsoutlook.org and see what is forecast if there is a No vote.
This must be spread far and wide, there is no status quo, staying with the union means more austerity, which as we all know means the less well off in our society getting hit hardest.
Here in ABZ, one of my bosses, oil co, 45, great guy and so on bought a fine a old edwardian villa near me for £2 million, demolished it and he’s now in middle of £2.2 million rebuild. Its the same style, only better and his wife wanted a more modern kitchen. And there’s more than few Aberdeen oil execs doing exactly the same. Scotland is a very rich and very divided country.
It’s a wee masterpiece in getting across a point and holding your attention till the end.
Saw it a few days ago and posted it to some friends. It was well received and opened up a certain individuals eyes in the family that she might be well off but others in Scotland were suffering.
Mr Bateman is worth a visit…seems the campaign has affected him greatly. Also taking, message boy, Axelander down a peg.
The weather has been mental today in Falkirk.Constantly changing from one extreme to the next.
I suggest this or the website link http://scotlandsoutlook.org/
is posted across all social networks, to push home what a future Scotland needs to do
Interesting that the highest child poverty happens to be in a Labour stronghold in Glasgow
Hmm was hoping that Wings might have something about its attempts to silence Ben Fogle for having an opinion about Scottish Independence.
Only people who live in Scotland get to have an opinion, right Rev? 😉
It’s funny: you’d think my 30th birthday (spent the morning at the dentist getting a filling and bruxism splint – hey ho, let’s just call it a luxury spa for your teeth!) would be grim.
I remember growing up in Greenock & Gourock. The town reminded me of nothing so much as the post-apocalyptic fiction I devoured as a youngster: the train station falling apart yet still in service for soot-coated diesel puffers. I watched buildings & features I grew up with demolished – Ashton, Gingerbread, the Gantock Hotel, the Hector McNeil baths, Goliath the crane, the Inverkip Towers, even that loud Yellow Kettle. Others, like the Arts Guild, are closed up & waiting for demolition.
But things HAVE gotten better in the past few years. A decade of Labour can’t compare to the revitalisation I’ve seen in the 2000s: Gourock station now actually looks like a station, we’re seeing more houses built, more renovations made, and far greater restoration of local heritage. This is why the knowledge of 1 in 3 children in poverty, third most unequal state, and all the other Benefits Of The Union can’t get me down: this is PROOF that things can be different.
I cannot fathom those who think we’re “swapping” Westminster for Holyrood, and that it’ll be business as usual – just Scottish corruption instead of Westminster corruption. As if all the things Holyrood has done differently from Westminster DESPITE the reservation of the vast majority of powers didn’t mean anything. As if the council tax freeze, free tuition, free prescriptions, free travel & care for the elderly, and mitigation of the Bedroom Tax was meaningless, because SNP DARE to propose cut corporation tax. That campaigning for social justice, removal of nuclear weapons, non-aggressive foreign policy, and pro-EU is somehow NOT DIFFERENT ENOUGH from Westminster to justify independence.
I spent much of my life seeing Gourock and Greenock being destroyed. I learned about the blitz, saw the pictures, heard the stories. The loss of lives was terrible, but there’s something visceral about seeing a building – something that, to a child, seems permanent and perpetual – demolished, for no good reason. The Germans at least had the dignity to destroy Greenock’s buildings at once: the UK government just dragged it out. A building here, an industry there. Till all that’s left are ruins.
Well, there’s life in the ruins yet – and we’ve seen it can be done. And just as we can rebuild ruins, we can rebuild lives. We CAN alleviate poverty, we CAN increase social justice, we CAN reverse the ridiculous spend-and-borrow psychosis infecting our country.
To me, we’ve already proven we can handle independence. It isn’t a “guessing game,” a “gamble”. That we could manage with the constraints put on us by Westminster alone proves that. Even under Labour, we managed to underspend our budget (even if that jackal McConnell decided to send it back to the treasury rather than use it on schools, hospitals etc).
It’s not a question of “can we do it.” We’ve been doing it with our hands tied behind our backs: imagine what we could do with our arms free!
These sad facts are not produced by the laws of nature, they are the result of political choices. Decisions made in London, by a legislature that is not influenced by Scottish votes. How can the status quo be “as good as it gets”?
Apparently a divided society and real suffering, are still a price worth paying to secure the all important votes of middle England.
@ an_obersver, this the one?
Ben Fogle ?@Benfogle 8 hrs A week in Scotland and I’m reminded how much I like Scots and Scotland. Please don’t leave us……….
Why so many ……..’s though? We really weally wuv you Scotland but if you vote YES for new decomcracy, running your own affairs, economy, lives etc we’ll do everything we possibly can to make it as rough as fcuk for you.
Yours faithfully,
England.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26477209
Austerity policies are poised to continue until 2020 as the OBR reports a further £20bn ‘black hole’ in UK public finances. See FT at http://archive.is/YpwBi
Meanwhile, the European Commission states: “The United Kingdom continues to experience macroeconomic imbalances, which require monitoring and policy action…as regards public finances, the UK seems to continue missing its headline deficit targets and its structural adjustment targets by wide margins.”
I’m sure both will be widely reported by bbc inScotland
@desimond 2.30, you could,nt help thinkin aboot John Barrowman, well ah hope you wurra thinkin aboot him
in a Anderson Tartan jaikit. Grrrrr
Sorry to be a party pooper but the video isn’t working, either here or on YouTube. Has it been pulled?
Good Lord, someone’s sat on Alan Cochrane…
“• In a story published on Thursday morning, we described the “cybernats” as “a notorious wing of the SNP that specialises in online abuse of Unionists.” I am happy to correct this and make plain that although the “cybernats” are all nationalists there is no such wing of the SNP.”
http://archive.is/omZ0f
A week in England and I’m reminded how much I like the English and England. Please don’t leave us……….
Note to file: Circulate in run up to 2017 EU in/out referendum from an iScotland.
O/T, why don’t we get Lady Alba released and into the charts with her brilliant ‘Bad Romance’?
Good use for part of the Rev’s loot.
Andrew Morton
Was working fine a minute ago
Lady Alba for No.1? Another chart-topper the BBC would, no doubt, refuse to play.
Was it the Anderson tartan he was wearing in that awful video Ronnie?
If so my heart goes out to you and all the other Andersons ,including my daughter and her husband!
Just visited the BBBC website and am wondering when they think it will be important enough to open the website for comment on the referendum.
Didn’t some worthless , overpaid pillock tell us they were trying to use resources in a fresh and exciting manner in the run up to the referendum?
And since they are pretty parsimonious with the licence fee collected in Scotland wouldn’t opening the website be a very good way of using some of our money for the benefit of those of us living in Scotland?
Wouldn’t it enhance the debate and educate those who feel poorly informed?
Or is that what scares them?
@ Ronnie Anderson
Left a message on the ‘sticking to the script’ thread for you Ronnie. Re stencils
Regarding labour and this is as good as it gets, all I can say is I’m disgusted. Disgusted that the labour party are happy to keep the people of Scotland in abject poverty and thrall to Westminster for their own personal or parties gain. To think that the future of this nation and that of it’s people may rest in their hands is painful.
retraction from telegraph —-nice
@Desimond
Erase John Barrowman from your mind.
This young man is Keith McLeish – and he deserves to have his name known after this excellent performance in putting across a serious message.
Excellent really brings it home, must admit to a wee tear.
Anyway, on another topic entirely just had a look at BT’s website, gas mask, radioactive googles, nausea tablets, and there’s a wonderful graphic showing that the difference between highs and lows of North Sea Oil Tax Revenue is £11.9 billion – That’s more than the entire NHS budget in Scotland, as they say.
Now, bearing in mind that ScotGov scenario 2 is £6.8 bn and scenario 4 is £7.9 bn, while the wonderful OBR is £3.3 bn, this either means that Better Together are forecasting that oil revenues could be as high as £15.2 billion which would hae us all in hysterics the way to the bank, or they’re forecasting that revenues could be as low as MINUS £4 billion.
If it’s the latter and the Scottish Government is going to have a free buffet for the oil industry, shouldn’t someone tell Shell and BP?
@ Kininvie.
A correction at all is better than no correction, but they’ve still got it wrong. Not all cybernats are nationalists, not by quite some distance. We are all independence supporters; and that is not the same thing.
I count Labour members amongst my regularly seen Cybernats and I suppose it’s as well that they have taken the tag, along with we actual nationalists, with far more humour than the person who first uttered cybernat ever intended it to have.
We are Cybernats in the same basic way as the 8th Army were the Desert Rats; you take an insult from an enemy and make it a badge of honour…. then you turn it back on your enemy.
Do my effing eyes deceive me? BBC report on the Tower Watson pensions bombshell on the same day that the Ginger Rodent comes up to defecate on us while speaking to the Pensions industry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26481348
Surely shome mishtake. Did someone read a certain blog about an unreported item yesterday? I fear for the poor girl.
Ah, video now working.
@Dorothy Devine
Why don’t we offer to crowd fund BBC Scotland comments pages?
FFS. And what would the Labour parties response be to 47% child poverty in East Glasgow??? More of the same. Vote NO to keep your children in poverty.
This is a great wee film. It hits the nail on the head. A picture speaks a thousand words, a film like this speaks millions. Why anybody thinks sticking in this corrupt and undemocratic union is ‘better together’ for us, is really beyond me. As our oil and economic wealth flows to London, so our children get poorer, all the while as we are told by the London media, that Scots are ‘subsidy junkies’.
I really could scream. I really could weep.
Ben Fogle says:
Please vote no Scotland, i don’t care what shit you have to put up with from Westminster, you mustn’t spoil my holidays.
Explain the difference, then.
Vote No for even more.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/07/george-osborne-20bn-black-hole-public-finances
Meanwhile, London Tory houseboy, Danny Alexander has flown up to Scotland to tell us Scots what’s what, and that the monetary union refusal from London is really, really final. It really, really is. Really, really, really. Honestly, really, really. Honestly, honestly, honestly.
I think I’ll take the considered wisdom of Professor Hughes-Hallett and the eminent fiscal commission, before I listen to a silly wee laddie promoted well beyond his abilities, like Danny Alexander.
A bit of a hiatus on your Twitter feed, Rev?
Caught sight of some pretty nasty ad hominem stuff on you, which disappeared quickly enough. Get the police onto these cyberpricks!
I see “America’s worst bank” has issued an opinion around currency union and Plan B.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26489307
Citibank worst: http://www.ibtimes.com/citibank-c-named-americas-worst-bank-report-also-says-american-banks-stand-lose-627-billion-1350413
@ p macbeastie
@ morag
Depends of course on your definition of ‘nationalist’ (I think we can guess what A Cochrane’s is)
Citigroup nonsense.
Important to stress that this is done by analysts, who are only reporting what the politicians have said.
Means fk all.
The pension scare might turn out to be like the mobile phone roaming charges scare story from last year. Both bits of news coming out on the same day.
You couldn’t make that up…are they doing it deliberately!
The pension story was broken on another thread yesterday and now it is on the BBC web site. This has just been on Newsdrive a moment ago, wait… I think I hear the sound of shuffling papers from Mr Fraser, is he clearing his throat to pronounce…not yet!
🙂
Salmond needs to take his fingers out of his ears and accept that formal currency union is not an option and come up with a viable alternative. The Yes campaign is losing credibility.
Mr Swinney on newsdrive can’t see him speaking but he’s beaming,BBC commentator…nonplussed.
Can’t wait to hear the Bird’s take on it later.
Mr Alexander will not be enjoying his tunnocks & coffee.
@an observer.
Mere details old boy. Don’t let the referendum spoil your pheasant shoot.
@Dorothy Devine 4:05pm
There’s a Change.org petition recently started to ask the Beeb and Ofcom to make sure they open the articles for comment.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/bbc-trust-and-ofcom-open-all-bbc-news-scotland-articles-on-bbc-news-website-for-comment
Already over 500 sigs.
@Juteman
Trust me, i’m a long way from any aspirations of going on a pheasant shoot. Maybe i’ll set up an indiegogo fundraiser to help me along.
an_observer
Naw it’s Scotland’s pound too. Plenty of time yet. Osborne will blink soon. The markets will be putting pressure on him as we speak.
My preference is our own currency in about 5 years which is why the UK wont bite, they can see that coming too, Scotland breaking away. They would like the currency union but for much longer about 40 years it is rumoured.
I think Mr Osborne needs to look at the £20bn black hole he’s already got (see Juteman above), imagine another £100bn+ on top of it, and then come back to us and start talking sense. The No Campaign is losing control of its bowels.
@an observer
Timing….You’ve got to leave AS to choose that. The fiscal commission said a currency union was the best option for both nations. They have now gone off to flesh out that ‘both’ idea further.
When they come back with the figures, you can expect a major effort to show how rUK is acting against its own interests, and that Osborne etc are stupid to insist otherwise…
Then there will be a little shrug of the shoulders and ‘we’ll leave it open to them to change their minds’ as we move on to the next best option.
But the important point is to give time to show that, rather than Scotland being denied something, it is rUK who are losing.
@call me dave
“They would like the currency union but for much longer about 40 years it is rumoured.”
What twaddle. As if anyone in Westminster is planning political strategies well past their retirement.
@kininvie
“The fiscal commission said a currency union was the best option for both nations.”
Untrue. They said it was in an independent Scotland’s best interests, and something they thought the UK could agree to. They were wrong.
@Kininvie
Spot on, you say it much better.
@a_nob_server
;-]
Great stuff SquareHaggis
OOPs looks like Black ops are putting it off line, “Error try later”
Just an observation, nothing personal.
McCrone report and many other things political are buried for years so it will not be revealed until the politicians are no more.
Anyhoo, rUK finances are destabilised if Scotland leaves and the oil goes too. So UK wants longer security on currency not uncertainty.
I’m not worried anyway as I said before separate currency is best in the long run.
@SquareHaggis
I never take internet trolls seriously. It says more about you than me that that’s the best you can do. Bless.
o/t Has anyone seen the horrendous commonwealth games volunteers outfits?
Another chance to promote Scotland on world wide stage missed.
http://archive.is/gTsiM
This is long but worth a read a legal view on independence over on Business for Scotland.
http://www.businessforscotland.co.uk/scottish-independence-opportunities-for-the-legal-profession/
Absolutely brilliant video. Grabs your attention right from the start and holds it. This is exactly the sort of thing we need more of. Utter genius.
Here’s a petition you might want to sign up to:
Open all BBC News (Scotland) articles on BBC News website for comment.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/bbc-trust-and-ofcom-open-all-bbc-news-scotland-articles-on-bbc-news-website-for-comment?recruiter=84782937&utm_campaign=twitter_link_action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition
The ladies are an untapped goldmine for the the ‘Yes’ campaign.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/women-for-independence-our-voices-fundraiser
Give generously to the cause and a much underfunded part the campaign.
£50 quid donated on my part.
BBC fail to report that Citi’s assessment of at least a “high single A” rating means they think a lower limit of A+, and they also regard an AAA as unlikely, which conversely means possible.
Not my spin, it just sets the potential range: A+ to AAA. A+ means A Positive, i.e. likely to rise.
@an observer
Untrue. They said it was in an independent Scotland’s best interests, and something they thought the UK could agree to. They were wrong.
Actually, they said:
“On Day one of independence, the Members of the Working Group agree that retaining Sterling would
be a sensible currency choice that would be attractive both to Scotland and the UK.”
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0041/00414291.pdf (Box 7.02 & ff)
OT
I’d like to invite anyone interested to pop over and check out our wee shot at turning around the b*****ks spread by the MSM
http://ayescotland.co.uk
CIF and you won’t be banned.
Just in – Whose leaving us today to set up home in the deep south ??
@ kininvie
Which is a far cry from what you originally claimed.
kininvie
Thanks. I knew it was so but couldn’t be bothered searching for link.
Besides spaghetti bolognese needed seeing to. 🙂
@an_observer
@an_observer
Any facts to support this claim about Yes campaign losing credibility?
All I see is No campaign crying out to hear a Plan B and getting the proverbial cold shoulder.
@Desimond
“All I see is No campaign crying out to hear a Plan B and getting the proverbial cold shoulder”
And you’re satisfied by this?
An Observer
Not much of an Observer are you, as your talking pish.
@an_observer – Plans A B C and wait for it…D are in the Scottish Governments white paper Scotland’s Future
You should use somebody with an alternative point of view as an opportunity to hone and refine your arguments for out there in the ‘real world’ – instead it’s a parade of internet trolls lining up with personal attacks.
This place is a worthless echo chamber.
@an_observer
Are you hanging around for the party tonight. Usually after 9 on a Friday some of the guys put up some toons, we have a beer, a laugh and even some of the Girls have a wee dance around the livingroom. Your more than welcome to the happy house 🙂
@ an_observer
It’s a hard life at the coal face lad.
You have a cheek calling anyone a troll.
Ask questions like a nice lad and perhaps you might get some answers and there’s a wealth of info on this site if you care to look for it. If you then continue to come away with the same crap then you are indeed a troll.
@orkers
No you’re alright I’ll go back to observing rather than engaging.
And when you wake up on the 19th and wonder where it went wrong, think back to days like today when you were more interested in slapping each other on the back than engaging with people.
Good luck.
@an_observer
Consider this. You are being given a platform here to express your views. Whilst we may not agree at least you are getting the courtesy of your posts not being deleted. That is called open and honest debate. Tell that to your friends over at BT.
O/T but I was thinking today ( a rare thing ) would it be worthwhile listing all the countries in the past 60-80 years who have become Independent and what was their financial, monetary, employment rates, debt etc etc at the time of becoming Indedendent- my thinking behind it is that I reckon we would be in one of the strongest positions compared to the previous countries
@twenty14 – It’s a great thing for countries to become independent and be responsible for their own affairs that is unless you’re Scotland in which case it’s better to have the ‘best of both worlds’
@croopenstein
Agree – but was thinking what current state were previous countries prior to their Independence – it may be interesting reading to compare what financial position they started from and then compare with ours – thinking re: S & P
apologise for the missing “m” 🙂
Brilliant video – vile statistics. And a mountain of human unhappiness and misery only hinted at. This is desperate stuff indeed.
Depends of course on your definition of ‘nationalist’
I just want to know what makes one person who supports independence a “nationalist” and another one not. I hear this quite frequently. “I’m part of the Yes campaign but I’m not a nationalist.” What does that even mean? Who is a nationalist, in this conversation?
@an_observer
Another one who thinks Salmond is the entire Yes campaign? It’s so cute how obsessed/naive they all are…
Anyways, Westminster have more to lose from a currency separation than we do, and even someone like Osborne has to know this. So I still call “bluff” on his rather feeble threats.
Speaking from a non-SNP-led viewpoint, we’re better off without the pound anyway. Our own currency won’t come with strings attached…
Does anyone know the position on independence of the organisations whose logos appear at the end of this video?
This is a sad reflection on our great country. Why can’s MSP’s actually do something about it rather than defend their own job and party.
After clicking through to that Kelly piece in the Scotsman, among the incredibley delusional Labour-should-be-west-of-Scotland’s-go-to-choice-each-and-every-time tribal call, was found the following paragraph. There is no need for an addendum. Just read it, shake your head and weep:
“There are many of us who do not feel that the Better Together campaign has to be positive. If you’re landed with fighting for a No it seems the logical place to start. With a No win little is going to change. Right here, right now you can see the kind of country we are going to be living in. No use kidding on that there is going to be some great dramatic change. Leave it to the separatists to paint a land of Middle Eastern wealth and World Cup triumphs. This is it. Most Scots are satisfied with the status quo.”
Pride restored 🙂
“Only people who live in Scotland get to have an opinion, right Rev? ”
Wrong,
but the people who have an opinion have also got a responsibility to stand up and tell us why they might disagree with independence and give the people who do believe in it to debate the subject,
right An observer?
“Meanwhile, London Tory houseboy, Danny Alexander”
Gee thanks Robert,
do you have any idea how hard it is to get porridge out of a keyboard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETVNG-73b0&list=PLZczFRjT_AhP6GmffEEUaBzKwfxLAylEp
I wonder who the BOY with the red hair could be?
“And you’re satisfied by this?”
Remind me again who said “no pre negotiation”?
oh yes David Cameron,
And you’re satisfied by this?