Devo Nano Watch, 26 March
Posted on
March 26, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
So, who wants to play a wee fun quiz game over how many responses we’ve had from the members of Labour’s Devolution Commission to our polite request for clarification of some issues regarding their post-No taxation policy?
(a) None, still not even a single form acknowledgement of our email?
(b) Oh, you got it already.
It’s almost as if they wanted to pretend it didn’t exist, isn’t it?
I’m more inclined to believe that THEY don’t exist.
Sorry Rev, Scottish Labour and counting is never a welcome combo!
or
c) they are still having a discussion about the need to set up an indepth commission to explore the options required to examine the possibility of opening the email.
What we’ve said is…
Rigorous antivirus checks prevent contaminated emails from being displayed, far less opened. I did read somewhere about the YES campaign and viruses, now who could have said that I wonder?
O/T have been having problems accessing Derek Bateman’s site. Another denial of service attack?
They’re ‘astonished’ and having a conversation about having a debate that matters on a discussion which is deeply personal to everyone.
That’s got to be it
My understanding is that the detailed reply on behalf of Labour’s Devolution Commission has either:
1. Been left on the bus, or
2. Eaten by someone’s dog.
Attention has now switched to finding a responsible adult to confirm this in writing.
c) We have a taxation policy WTF?
They will need a committee to open the e-mail if I know Labour, at least, the very least a long discussion.
Then another discussion as to who should write the answer, that is if they have finished the discussion on whether to open e-mail.
Apart from making money for themselves they have no interest in serving the public.
To be fair, the members of the Devolution Commission are still probably trying to unscramble (a) Johann Lamont’s “explanaton” of her party’s tax proposals in her last interview, or (b) their brains, or (c) both!
Re your wait for an answer to your e-mails, a line from a poem (I forget its title) jumps into my head: “And answer came there none!”
They’ll be having a conversation with the people of Scotland to ask them what kind of reply they want them to give – it’ll take quite some time to formulate.
They’ll be in the resources pool pooling their resources together before getting back to you. With respect.
Are we still having problems with THIS site? I still have to fill in my details each time I post, and dont see any editing facility either. The back to top arrow is also missing.
This has been going on for some time- since the attack, I believe.
Anyone else having this problem
Oh, look a squirrel!
I think Ed Balls threw a spanner in the works with his proposal to re-introduce the 10p tax rate – “A 10p tax rate WTF?”, would have been the commission’s likely reply to that.
I have read somewhere that the inclusion of a 10p tax rate will actually reduce devo-nano-tax collected down to Calman levels of 20%.
SNP opposition in Aberdeen City Council trying to persuade Messrs Crocket and Young their time is up and they should resign, more chance of hell freezing over.
Rev. are you sure the rats haven’t been nobbling again (think about it) 🙂
I believe a carrier pigeon with the response is on its way. However, there are a lot of spillages of chips in George Square, so it might be a while yet…
Did you not promise them a photographer? I can’t think of any other reason SLAB wouldn’t attend an opening of even an email. They do it for food banks. 🙁
That is what happens when you privatise the Royal Mail – letters getting lost in the post.
O/T have been having problems accessing Derek Bateman’s site. Another denial of service attack?
William of Ockham, he say common sense (and all past precedent) dictate that when Bateman’s web site is down, it is because Bateman has been meddling with buttons he doesn’t understand.
Even my stilts are astonished
Derek’s blog is back up now. Mrs. Bateman probably came home for lunch….
“The People of Scotland MUST have all the information available, to make that most important decision ever ever” so sayeth all three bettertogether parties/bullshit artists and all the time too.
To spread the word on local transport, simply leave a few copies of the YES newspaper every time you take a bus or train.
They will probably be thrown out in favour of Metro next morning, but perhaps a dozen people will read each one in the course of a day.
Rev. It is a waste of time. They only talk to themselves. That is why they get into so much trouble all the time. A serious case of group think.
SLab H.Q. IT Department “What we will say is this, we will tell you in 2016”.
Give them a break, people. It is not easy responding to Stu’s questions in a detailed and meaningful way that people can easily understand. I mean, there are issues like spelling and grammar that have to be considered. For example:
half or halve?
two, to or too?
there, their or they’re?
These things aren’t easy. Give them time.
“I think I answered this in my speech at the Brighton Conference”
Perhaps your new friends at the BBC may post the same queries…
Hi Rev – purely O/T you’ve somehow got me on your blocked list and I cannae follow you back. Think it has to be a twitter-typo somehow … no way I can be confused with any unionist nutters LOL
@pwmartin_leith
Dear New Bod brought here by the BBC or STV.
Forget about us chattering amongst ourselves in the comments section. Have a look at the Reference section, pick an area you have an interest in and see if it takes you more than 2 minutes to think ‘WOW’.
Whatever next?
Will they try and scupper our get-together a week on Friday?
Does anyone in BT know what happens if you try to keep Wingers (especially Weegie Wingers) from their wee ‘refreshment’ of a Friday evening?
@Proud Cybernat,
Don’t Labour have an ex-English teacher to help them with that?
Despite constantly bleating about ‘debates’ the one thing
Labour in Scotland doesn’t do is debate…oh…or reply
to valid questions or spell out their actual Tory-esque
policies to the electorate.
@proudScot
I consulted my ancient dictionary of quotations and found:
‘but answer came there none’
Is from Walter Scott’s The Bridal of Triermain
Lewis Carrol also uses it in the Walrus and the Carpenter. If you remember they asked something of the oysters . . .
But answer came there none
And this was scarcely odd
Because they had eaten every one.
Altogether now:
The time has come the Walrus said
To speak of many things
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of Cabbages and Kings
Of why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings.
Heads up folks
Head To Head – Jim Eadie MSP & Alistair Darling MP
http://yesscotland.nationbuilder.com/neilhay/head_to_head_jim_eadie_msp_alistair_darling_mp
May 08, 2014 at 7:30pm – 9:30pm
WHERE
Craiglockhart Parish Church
Craiglockhart Drive North
Edinburgh EH14 1HS
Oh dear with friends like these eh!
After Labour has said it will support the Tory’s to deliver the Welfare Cap Policy, Ian Duncan Smith, kicks them in the nuts with this:
“Labour’s support for the permanent welfare spending cap means it will have to show how it will cut other parts of the welfare budget if it sticks to its pledge to abolish the bedroom tax, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has said.”
So Ed/Johann, what are the cuts we can expect, IF you abolish the bedroom tax?
@gerry parker2.33,JoLo canny dey any spelling corrections
her Pin-thills , hows the paper deliverys going
@ gerry parker
Don’t Labour have an ex-English teacher to help them with that?
I think, perhaps, that is why she is an ‘ex’ teacher of English.
@ Ronnie, very good sir. Was over at Dunoon at the weekend so no deliveries this week. Only got the Whifflet flats to do, should manage them before issue 3 comes out.
Any coverage is good coverage – may backfire Bigtime on all of ‘THEM’ this time…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-26752071
Nice big blue banner right across the screen under the headline !! – couldn’t have paid for any better attention if you’d tried ! How long ‘bbc’ keep this on is another thing entirely but that’ll have reached people and parts other YES-stuff couldn’t have even dreamed of!
Now I realise my donation was worth it!
@Muscleguy..
The Walrus and the Carpenter you say….heres that speech from movie Dogma, penned by Kevin Smith…a man who looks like an XXXXL Stu Campbell..
Nun: Let me get this straight: you don’t believe in God because of “Alice in Wonderland”?
Loki: No, “Through the Looking Glass”. That poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” that’s an indictment of organized religion. The walrus, with his girth and his good nature, he obviously represents either Buddha, or, or with his tusks, the Hindu elephant god, Lord Ganesha. That takes care of your Eastern religions. Now the carpenter, which is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was raised a carpenter’s son, he represents the Western religions. Now in the poem, what do they do? What do they do? They, they dupe all these oysters into following them and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures en masse. I don’t know what that says to you, but to me it says that following these faiths based on mythological figures ensures the destruction of one’s inner being. Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our actions, by inhibiting our decisions out of, out of fear of some, some intangible parent figure who, who shakes a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says, and says, “Do it… do it and I’ll fuckin’ spank you.”
Bartleby: [Bartleby is listening from a nearby seat]
[quietly]
Bartleby: Oh, geez…
Nun: The way you put it… I never really thought about it like that before. What have I been doing with my life? What am I…
Loki: Yeah, I know. Listen, my advice to you: you take this money that you’ve been collecting for your parish, go get yourself a nice dress, you know? Fix yourself up. Find some man, find some woman, that you can connect with, even for a moment, ’cause that’s really all that life is, Sister. It’s a series of moments. Why don’t you seize yours?
[the nun hesitates, then smiles, nods, and leaves]
Loki: That-a girl. Ah.
[he turns around and sits next to Bartleby with a grin on his face]
Bartleby: You know, here’s what I don’t get about you. You know for a fact that there is a God. You’ve been in His presence. He’s spoken to you personally. Yet I just heard you claim to be an atheist.
Loki: I just like to f*ck with the clergy, man. I just love it, I love to keep those guys on their toes.
@Proud Cybernat
And god help them if they accidentally leave a CITE tag in their reply or forget to add regular paragraph breaks! 😉
Welfare cap approved, only 22 voted against. How many SLab MP’s are there noo??
Tîm Criced i Gymru
Great a free advert on BBC – Magic
@ Oneironaut
Please drop me a line at bill_urquhart@hotmail.com
Might have something of interest to you
They’re having a bit of a problem getting their heads around the fact that someone is daring to ask questions of the Labour Party. That really isn’t done, dear chap.
O/T but have you seen this?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/what-10000-readers-say-to-indyref-yes-69-no-21-.1395836243
Gillie says:
That is what happens when you privatise the Royal Mail – letters getting lost in the post.
I don’t know about that Gillie maybe it’s all the up coming sacked posties picking the e-mail up by mistake thinking its their redundancy notice.:P
gerry parker says:
@Proud Cybernat,
Don’t Labour have an ex-English teacher to help them with that?
Naw she gave up teaching English apparently she found it too easy and she has moved on to a harder subject… mathematics. Well it is harder for HER at least. 🙂
Bunter says:
Welfare cap approved, only 22 voted against. How many SLab MP’s are there noo??
If memory serves me right Bunter there are 41 Labour M.P.’s and out of the 22 M.P.’s who voted against the Welfare bill today only 13 were Labour, sadly though not all 13 Labour M.P.’s came from Scottish constituencies. Here’s an excerpt from LabourList http://tinyurl.com/nenoyof
Those 13 Labour rebels were – Diane Abbott, Ronnie Campbell, Katy Clark, Michael Connarty, Jeremy Corbyn, Kelvin Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, John McDonnell, George Mudie, Linda Riordan, Denis Skinner, Tom Watson and Mike Wood.
Tom Watson is the only Scottish M.P. I recognise in the list although I might be wrong.
Sorry Stu I’m going O/T here but for anyone in and around Langholm there will be a wee debate on Friday night, nothing special just Joan MacAlpine up against David Mundell. 🙂
http://tinyurl.com/mcdthwv
Michael Connarty is the other still leaves 39 SLAB Tartan Tories in the Labour Party.
Their move to the left didn’t last long huh?
Labour rebels were – Diane Abbott, Ronnie Campbell, Katy Clark, Michael Connarty, Jeremy Corbyn, Kelvin Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, John McDonnell, George Mudie, Linda Riordan, Denis Skinner, Tom Watson and Mike Wood.
Tom Watson is the only Scottish M.P. I recognise in the list although I might be wrong.
Michael Connarty is another.
Is there a harsh Cap on MP Expenses?
Is there a harsh Cap on the amount of tax a massive Corporation can avoid in one of the dozens of british flagged Tax Haven?
Labour..its got so bad that no one is even surprised anymore. I await thursday nights BBC Question Time and all the greedy MPs on the Panel claiming “Its only fair, isnt it?”
@Arbroath1320 …
Diane Abbot who used to get comfy on Andrew Neil’s sofa with Portillo; Glenda Jackson famous ex-actress (Oscar winner) and Denis Skinner probably the only old socialist MP left in the Labour Party recently famous for the line in Parliament “Half of the people in front me are crooks … (speaker interjects) … I apologise Mr Speaker, half of the people in front of are not crooks.”
Sorry misread, obviously they are not Scottish MPs. doh!
I seem to remember actually watching PMQ’s I think it was when Dennis Skinner made these remarks, absolutely brilliant. He doesn’t get to speak very often but when he does what he says is usually a belter. 🙂
Patrician ;”c) they are still having a discussion about the need to set up an indepth commission to explore the options required to examine the possibility of opening the email.”
Just spilt my beer 😀 LOL
Skinner is simply a time server, picking up a wage. If he had real principles, he would have left Labour years ago. Every court needs their jesters.
@gerryparker 3.17,yer dain a grand job Gerry,a’v only 3 hundred to fold for complete 2700 since last week,ma job,s the easy bit its thanks to people like you thats getting the message out.if your on the nite out on the 4th yer on tae a big pint an a wee dram.
Arel @ 4.53
Katy Clark is a North Ayrshire MP.
Juteman
Dennis Skinner is revered by his constituents as he will fight tooth and nail for them.
British nats began playing dirty and WingsOverScotland got them.
Newest post from Scotsman:
Rev, yer no getting an answer tae that Email,you did’na
hing wee RID curtains on it,nor did you book the photographer.
As it is rather quiet with not a response from our Labour friends I thought I might go off topic with a few thoughts on Scottish education,or perhaps I should say lack of it.
It is so long since I was in formal education that my memories of it are somewhat vague but here are a little of my recollections.I finished school in 1960 having grown up in industrial Lanarkshire.The secondary education system was more concerned with producing fodder for the iron and steel works,engineering factories and the Glasgow shipyards than it was with producing academics or artists.Clearly further education was not considered necessary for the working class.So much so that only a few of my peers continued to take lower grades and even fewer higher grades.The only ones to progress to these levels had parents who were a bit better off and could support them for another 2 years or so.I knew no one who was in education long enough to take a degree course at university.
Although the education was short lived,it was of a fairly good standard and most achieved good literacy and numeracy skills.However,on reflection some of the teaching of other subjects was flawed and in some instances absolutely misinformed.Whether this was unintended or education department policy I had no idea at the time.I did not realise until many years later that some of the curriculum content was actually indoctrination by the British state.Let me explain further…
Geography lessons were mainly concerned with the pink shades on the world map which Britain had ruled and in many cases still did.We were made to feel proud that we had subjected people in far off lands to our will.Even now,all these years further on I have twinges of conscience for feeling then that I belonged to a superior race.
History as taught then was further imperialist brainwashing.We were informed that William Shakespeare was our national bard and that he was the worlds greatest ever poet and playwright,a genius whose writings would never be surpassed.In English lessons we studied in depth The Merchant of Venice and no one pointed out the racist overtones of the play.
In due course I discovered that many academics have challenged the perceived knowledge that Shakespeare wrote these plays,the evidence being that no signed manuscripts have ever been found.He only had a very modest education would not have had the vocabulary (around 30,000 words)required to have written all the plays attributed to him.Not only that,it is believed that he never travelled out of England and would not have detailed knowledge of the countries in which some of the plays were set.On balance it would seem that the plays were written in collaboration with others with possibly limited input by Shakespeare.
One last point about Shakespeare.We do not know what he looked like as there were no portraits of him painted in his lifetime.The picture purporting to be him which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London is only “believed to be” him with no certain provenance.
Charles Darwin was the first person to discover the evolution of species. Another very doubtful assertion by my teacher.This has went unchallenged since the publication of On The Origin of Species.In fact that were a number of publications on the same subject which pre-date Darwins book.Frenchman Jean Baptiste Lamarck,our own Robert Chambers of Peebles and Welshman Alfred Russel Wallace all published similar theories before Darwin.Of course I never learned of these people in school.
One thing I did learn since school is to be sceptical,and as the great English philosopher Bertrand Russell once said “have no respect for the authority of others,for there are always contrary authorities to be found”.
I do hope in an independent Scotland we will produce free thinking people as well as providing education opportunities for all.
Great coverage on STV pages !!
news.stv.tv/west-central/269451-wings-over-scotland-adverts-pulled-from-glasgow-underground/
@ Ronnie, The Rev probably forgot to attach the 200 quid to the e mail.
🙂
Thats a great speech by Mr Obama,all about the right to self determination,mutual respect,respecting soveriegnty etc.
A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words – Dr. Winston O’Boogie.
Dr. Winston O’Boogie is also known as John Lennon
Resign yourself to not getting a response…although I think you know that already 🙂
Dear [insert name]
The Commission has done its work. It has now disbanded. It is no more. There is no one here. The Commission’s work will not be referred to again until the campaign for the 2016 general election has begun. Maybe.
Yours for a high-tax, capped-benefits Britain.
Please do not reply to this reply.
“Skinner is simply a time server, picking up a wage. If he had real principles, he would have left Labour years ago. Every court needs their jesters.”
i agree, and he knew of mcrone report.
Re Skinner.
I would think that most folk on here are political anoraks. WE know that Labour are anything but a socialist party, but the general public are not so engaged. Having useful fools like Skinner, enables Labour folk to point to the likes of him, and claim that they are a socialist party. Labour need a Skinner or two to promote their myth. Take away the token Skinners, and their right wing ethos is laid bare.
Voting figures from last night’s BfS Glasgow now up – Yes vote rises from 63% before to 84% after. Well done Ivan and all the rest
heraldnomore says:
Voting figures from last night’s BfS Glasgow now up – Yes vote rises from 63% before to 84% after. Well done Ivan and all the rest
Are you sure that is the count of people voting YES herald?
Maybe this is the count of the answers to the question from the wee wifie serving tea afterwards.
“Would you like milk in your tea?”
“Yes”
that’s one
“Would you like milk in your tea?”
“Yes”
That’s two
“Would you like milk in your tea?”
“Yes”
That’s three…:)
O/T – Rev’s seems to be fighting all corners on Twitter ( not that I’m up to speed with it all )
@Juteman 6.13, who ur you kawin a Anorak ah,ll let you know
ah hiv several Trespass jaikits nae hoods, an several
Ah Manny Suits,anoraks indeed, ah used tae like you tae.
I’ve got a spare Rab jaiket with your name on it Ronnie. 🙂
Nick Clegg versus Nigel Farage live on Sky news from 7 p.m. I think it might be worth a wee scan until I get bored with the pair of them. I wonder how long I’ll last, will 5 minutes be too long to expect I wonder? 🙂
@gerryparker 5.56, not in my name he would,na
This is important.
I’m having my favourite baked tatties for tea tonight.
Will we still be able to get tins of A&B Roll in an Indy Scotland?
There,s you,s go people,s Stv/Bbc as predicted bury news
on their websites, so,s nae coconut milkin on the poster
adverts.
@Juteman6.36, holey moly ah bet, titter u not.
LBC debate,British press going nuts,farage,clegg
If Salmond went to LBC,it would be impossible for Cameron to turn him down
@ Twenty14 – Yep noticed that and I did some backtracking and delving into the prime movers of scurrilous comments. It doesnt take much to figure out their base level. Searching for any chinks in the Wings and Rev’s armour is their mission.
Rev is quite capable of seeing them off as is his way. Same here but so much more on Twitter. What I cant figure is why Dunk the Skunk perseveres despite being dunked so many times.
@ Ronnie Anderson – You continue to amaze me with your dedication and just want to say thank you. Para Handy came to mind – feck the fish ahm foldin the papers. 🙂
Damn it just heard the dulcet tone of that Kay (without an ‘E’) burlesque person. Nice to see she was able to get back from her wee holiday in Kuala Lumpur in time to wander the corridors during the debate. I’m now thinking that my previous estimate of 5 minutes might very well be a wee tad optimistic. 🙂
@ Archie(not Erchie ) – they’ll be trying to plant some seed and then hope it spreads to the media.
Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s money printing machine found in his garage overnight or his hat found in the robbed bank vault 🙂
I see Johann has made a video.
http://youtu.be/r1lbqhEOjBA
“This is important.
I’m having my favourite baked tatties for tea tonight.
Will we still be able to get tins of A&B Roll in an Indy Scotland?”
course no
Yep Arby, them’s the figures per BfS twitter feed. And No went from 5.5% to 9%….
@Archie no wie a E 6.54, ah wiz jist ready tae sign aff, an
get these 300 papers folded, cheers catch up later.
I see this pulling of the Wings ad from the Glasgow subway seems to have taken another wee twist according to Newsnet Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/mbf6f8f
Apparently, according to this article it was NOT the SPT who pulled the ads but it was the advertising agency and they, the Ads company, were not aware of any complaints….HUH!
“This is important.
I’m having my favourite baked tatties for tea tonight.
Will we still be able to get tins of A&B Roll in an Indy Scotland?”
course no
If I can’t get my A&B Roll / cheese baked tatties, then I may have to rethink this whole indy thing.
@jimsie
staying O/T, but can’t let the attack on Shakespeare go unchallenged.
He was not ill educated. His father was in effect mayor of Stratford and sent him to the local grammar school for the best education available. No serious Shakespeare scholar thinks that he did not write the plays. This was simply derived from snobbery in the 18th century, when the aristocracy would not accept that the son of a glover could create such dazzling prose.
Finally, his best friend, Ben Johnson, who knew him better than anyone, collected all his works in the first folio.
Genius knows no borders. I hope that the works of Shakespeare will continue to grace the theatres of an Independent Scotland
Looks as though Ladbrokes are finally paying attention to the polls, their odds on a yes vote just moved from 4/1 to 7/2
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/26/advert-scottish-media-banned-glasgow-political#start-of-comments Vote NO Guardian bearing its teeth at WoS, or gums really.
Its interesting how the Reverend’s continual straight forward questioning and statements of fact bring out this level of attack from dudes like “Honest” Severin Carrell. Progressive liberal TeamGB politics strike back. Carrell should be sacked now, if the Guardian had any sense of decency.
Interesting *ahem* quote in the article heedtracker.
But Primesight stated on Wednesday that Campbell had twice described himself as a charity when he signed the original contract with them, which meant the advert sidestepped its normal political screening.
I’ll leave it to Stu to correct this inaccuracy.
Campbell said that Primesight had designated him as a charity, and he had sought to clarify his status after signing the contract.
“The thing that came through listed us as that, through no choice of mine,” he said.
He said he had emailed them to say: “NB In case it’s important for anything, we’re not actually a ‘charity’. I don’t know what the heck we are, to tell you the truth.”
He received an email back from Primesight saying: “That’s OK and not a problem. Will you be available for me to call you to arrange payment for this?”
Fireproofjim
You have no hard evidence that William Shakespeare wrote these plays. I did concede that it is likely he did have input in their construction.To what degree is unknown and can not be ascertained.
Boys please, Will wrote some plays, poems and stuff – end off.
@Arbroath 1320
So Kay(E) wasn’t on the KL to Beijing connector then?
RICHARD BRUCE SAYS
“I see Johann has made a video.”
Those lovely big eyes, those white teeth, the voice of an angel, and such poise, I think Im in love, who is that woman? with respect 🙂
Oneironaut says
“And god help them if they accidentally leave a CITE tag in their reply or forget to add regular paragraph breaks!”
What the hell are you doing? even to mention c-i-t-e- t-a-g-s will get the beaks attention,
if you really have to , do it with a torch under the covers after lights out, jeesh.
Arbroath 1320 says
” nothing special just Joan MacAlpine up against David Mundell. :)”
I dont know why even felt the need to mention it Arbroath? so Langholm has a slaughterhouse, so what? 🙂
Alba4eva says
“Patrician ;”c) they are still having a discussion about the need to set up an indepth commission to explore the options required to examine the possibility of opening the email.”
Is that wise? shouldn’t they have a conversation with the people of Scotland before making such a monumental decision?
Before condemning these people, remember all the skills they have had to spend time learning, and are probably still honing. Johann Lamont has had to spend time learning how to move her hands to illustrate passion. Margaret Curran has had to learn how to go into verbal freefall every time she open her mouth. Jim Murphy has made massive efforts to look sincere, and Gordon Brown didn’t just learn overnight how to adopt a rictus smile on inappropriate occasions. These skills all take a lot of time. How ordinary voters can expect these political titans to bother answering valid questions is beyond me. Don’t people realise they are dealing with their betters who might answer should time permit?