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Nothing but repeats

Posted on September 04, 2015 by

Summer is, as we’ve said before, the “silly season” for politics. Wings readers will have noticed that like everywhere else, we’ve been rather lighter on content than usual for the last three months as politicians celebrated their general election victories by giving themselves long holidays – sorry, “time for constituency work” – and in the absence of a referendum campaign to fill the gap there wasn’t much going on.

So we can’t blame the media for raking over old ground in search of anything to fill threadbare column inches with. But it’s less excusable when the things they choose to reheat, repackage and reissue are ancient, endlessly-disproven lies.

We yawned extravagantly when irritable Scotsman hack Euan McColm half-heartedly phoned in a vacuous column this morning, for example, dragging out and dusting off for approximately the 500th time the Unionist and media myth that Alex Salmond told some sort of lie in 2012 over EU advice to the Scottish Government.

Even the angle, relating it to Alistair Carmichael’s imminent appearance before a court for actually definitely lying to voters over the “memogate” affair, wasn’t original. It was trotted out repeatedly by a long parade of Unionist politicians and media pundits this May, and duly comprehensively debunked (again) by this site and others.

Meanwhile, Spectator editor Fraser Nelson saddled up another favourite hobbyhorse of the SNP’s opponents – that free university tuition has been a bad thing for Scottish students from poor families.

nelsonuni1

There are several problems with that assertion. Firstly, the graph shows that rates of entry for poorer students in Scotland have increased from around 6% to almost 10%, while those in England have gone from around 12% to about 18%. Both of those outcomes represent increases on their respective starting points of about 50%, so it appears to prove nothing about the efficacy or otherwise of fees as a leveller.

Secondly, Nelson is pulling a classic media trick of comparing apples with oranges. He was swiftly pulled up on it by a Research Fellow from the University of Glasgow, Dr Paul Johnson, who noted that the graph was based on UCAS figures, which cover almost all full-time undergraduate provision in England, Wales and NI but not in Scotland, where they omit roughly a third of students:

drjohnson

The real embarrassment, though, is that Nelson had had four months to realise his error. He’d made the same claims back in May, and he’d been corrected then too, on the same grounds, including by a BBC Newsnight editor and the man who until last December was the Scottish Government’s Education Secretary:

nelsonuni2

nelsonuni4

nelsonuni3

nelsonuni5

Must try harder, young Master Nelson. Stay behind after class. And while you’re about it, tell your fellow pupils in the Union Society to stop copying each other and passing off old essays cut-and-pasted from the internet as your course work. Nobody’s fooled.

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  1. 04 09 15 11:43

    Nothing but repeats | Speymouth
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  2. 04 09 15 14:38

    Nothing but repeats | Politics Scotland | Scoo...
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191 to “Nothing but repeats”

  1. MajorBloodnok
    Ignored
    says:

    If Frazer Nelson had studied statistics at University instead of blowing his tuition fees on elocution lessons he wouldn’t be where he is now.

  2. Mik Johnstone
    Ignored
    says:

    hasn’t Scotland just been voted best educated people in the EU ?

  3. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    Why change the habits of a lifetime when easy money is available.

  4. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s this sort of thing that reveals the bias so starkly. Any competent commentator would immediately correct an error like that, while inwardly cringing with embarrassment and vowing to himself never to repeat that mistake.

    He can’t claim he didn’t know. You can’t be all over Twitter with people tweeting corrections at you and claiming you never saw it, not plausibly, anyway.

    The sad thing is that the readers of the dead-tree magazines that publish this trash probably never get to see the corrections and believe every word. They probably believe Nelson is a reputable journalist while people on Twitter are just a mob of demented cybernats.

  5. No no no...Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    I recall Fraser Nelson being interviewed on a Radio Scotland sunday morning programme some months ago and he said that he writes what his readers want to read. Says it all really!

    I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his readers were among those that phoned in to KallKaye today. A vicious cycle of keeping them misinformed, get them all worked up and angry and allow them to vent on State radio.

  6. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    Hmmm. I see what some people meant on the previous thread. While my office computer (at least since its “rebuild” into Win7 by the IT bods) has always had this problem of not retaining my details and only showing a batch of comments every 20 minutes or so, my home computer (that I’m using at the moment) was fine. Details always there and posts appeared immediately. Now this one is at it too.

    It definitely inhibits communication. It’s some sort of cacheing bug, but I don’t encounter it with any other WordPress blog. (When I submitted my previous comment I saw one comment from Major Bloodnock alreasy there, but that’s disappeared again.)

  7. Susan
    Ignored
    says:

    I am sure Fraser Nelson does not lose any sleep over the number of poor students getting into university!

  8. Taranaich
    Ignored
    says:

    Thank you for this.

  9. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    Same failed student of Scottish politics, different subject:

    The Spectator has been losing good writers for over a year now, and the brain drain continues.

    https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/cook-caught-in-a-half-nelson/

  10. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @MajorBloodnok –

    🙂

    Aye, and he should be asking for his money back – sounds like he’s got a gobstopper lodged in his gullet.

  11. alastair
    Ignored
    says:

    Sure I read this week that a higher proportion of Scottish degree students get jobs within 6 months of graduation than RUK, also they earn more than their RUK counterparts. Does this suggest quality trumps quantity? FE students are also more likely from poorer backgrounds so presumably the actual figure for those students is much higher than the Unionistas would have it.

  12. handclapping
    Ignored
    says:

    @no no no … yes
    he said that he writes what his readers want to read.
    After ‘The lesser of two stupids’ we can absolve Stu of that 😀
    We get what Stu wants to say and if you dont like it bugger off. I like this attitude.

  13. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    It appears Fraser Nelson turns a blind eye to the truth in his attempts to save the British Enpyre.

  14. David McCann
    Ignored
    says:

    Who reads the Spectator anyway?

  15. AnneDon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Mik Johnstone:

    Scots weren’t voted the best educated work force in Europe – ONS figures showed us to be so, ahead of Ireland, and even Finland.

  16. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    What, and have Mr Nelson work for a living?

  17. R-type Grunt
    Ignored
    says:

    Frazer Nelson is a liar. Who knew?

    Thanks Stu.

  18. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    By the way, what is the Spectator? Is it like Punch or Beano, or the 2 year old comic revamp of the Economist?

  19. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Trouble is, they’re not thinking up new ways to lie, and if you’re a Britnat that’s a problem for this great country of ours that is so prosperous and broke and stupid and improving all at the same time

    What to do, what to do,

    How does a good Britisher convince the genetically unprogrammable to comply if he can’t manage a new lie

    3 out of 10 no star ( Must do better )

    Signed Your teacher, one of the religious cult

  20. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dorothy Devine
    You can get Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM PC Service Pack 3 English Software for £13.95, if you don’t have it.

  21. Ian
    Ignored
    says:

    You have to love the Scotsman’s Mr Angry.

    I understand that the absolute minimum thickness human skin can be before the body falls apart is known as “The McColm Limit”.

  22. Desimond
    Ignored
    says:

    No no no…Yes says:

    I recall Fraser Nelson .. he said that he writes what his readers want to read.

    Reminds me of an argument a few years back I had with an old boss who besottedly refused to accept The Da Vinci code was total fiction. How she loved a good anti Catholic church conspiracy theory.

    Her final reply was “Well the author said he believed it to be true when writing it so that’s true enough for me!”

    My Chin then met with the floor

  23. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Major Bloodnok says
    “If Frazer Nelson had studied statistics at University instead of blowing his tuition fees on elocution lessons he wouldn’t be where he is now.”

    He did?
    WOW!
    do you think he’ll get a refund?

    Reminds me of my daughter who came home from school laughing, when I asked her she was laughing at she said her teacher who was a bit of a yuppie(yes I know they still used that word when my kids were at school)said to the kids “you better put your hoods up on your coats, its chucking it down wi wholestanes outside”

  24. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry, the post to DD was on the wrong tab/thread.

  25. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Morag
    I don’t see how the site could just have a caching problem. That might explain the 20 min time lapse between batches of comments appearing. But what about the loss of username and email registration? That looks like we are no longer registered as users and have to go into “quarantine” for an unspecified time.

    It is disruptive to the thread.

    I’m posting this at 12.21 but don’t expect it to appear till 12.41. Although it will appear in the right sequence and probably with 12.21 timestamp.

  26. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    “Problem with nationalism is it stops people asking questions like:” is actually really funny.

    It’s getting Scots Nats to stop asking questions and piss orf that’s the trick eh Horatio.

    His wiki thing’s a hoot too, toryboy hardcore but says he’s not. They’re all like that though.

  27. msean
    Ignored
    says:

    Nothing new here, 🙂 London based publication gets Scotland wrong again.

  28. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Its starting to seem like the OKOK lot are running out of decent material so their just sticking the stories together like a Mr Potato head trouble is they have his mustache where his arse should be and he has a leg sticking out of the top of his head.

    Do you think we should give them a few more pieces so they can at least pretend they have something different?
    http://tinyurl.com/pp987dq

  29. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    All this guff coming from rabid unionists is almost all rehashed stuff already debunked as partial truths or downright lies, Nelson needs something to do, so here we are again. Unfortunately we will get a whole lot more in attempts to belittle the SNP.

    Found an interesting thing, seems the mighty UK still has world aspirations and plan to take over the seas again.
    Here is their latest.

    http://www.gizmag.com/royal-navy-startpoint-dreadnought-2050/39204/

  30. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    yesindyref2 , thanks for the information – I don’t mind it being on the wrong thread but watch your back for hammers!

  31. geeo
    Ignored
    says:

    Why are the media still throwing out these re hashed lies and scare stories when they keep saying that Scotland ‘comprehensively’ voted to stay in the union ?

    Anyone would think they do not believe their own utterances…fancy that huh !!

  32. Phil Robertson
    Ignored
    says:

    “Wings readers will have noticed that like everywhere else, we’ve been rather lighter on content than usual”

    That may be true in Englandshire but the summer is over here north of the border. As usual, Wings over Scotland has obsessed with carping at and mockery of individuals, some of whom are quite inconsequential.

    In case you missed it, the Scottish Government present its Programme for Government, intended to “build on the record of achievement since 2007”. Also, the governance of Police Scotland seems to be in meltdown.

    And what does WoS come up with? Two thin postings, one about some minor (admittedly nasty) delusional in the Tory backwoods and the other about a slip of the tongue by Ms Dugdale. Is that the best that your “own commentary and analysis” can come up with?

  33. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Help decimate the Wasp population (my Wife,s allergic tae stings) sent them to Fraser Nelson.

  34. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Elocution lessons for Nelson were well worth it, he’s never off BBC vote NO or else telly or their radio, massive hit on BBC rules the World service too. eg

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030wt9q BBC World Money prog with money guru Frase, arts grad, history and politics.

  35. Fiona
    Ignored
    says:

    All these articles just come down to “Polly wants a cracker”

  36. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T
    Lesley Riddoch & Andy Wightman on livestream right now #OurLand

    http://livestream.com/IndependenceLive/BeBrave

  37. katherine hamilton
    Ignored
    says:

    Hiya Dr. Jim,
    You beat me to it. I take great heart from this for two reasons. First as you say they’re running out of lies and more importantly it’s in the Spectator. Ha Ha, the Spectator! Who cares.

    With this, the poll earlier in the week, the great debate in Holyrood yesterday on the refugee crisis where Nicola Sturgeon shamed Westminster and the whole “pass on the other side” pseudo Christians in the UK, has made a good end to the week.

  38. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s not meant to be news, it’s meant to be propaganda!

  39. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    Cappella, we’re still registered as users. Otherwise Stu would have to approve our posts manually. It’s the browser that keeps the details in the comment boxes, and for some reason it’s not doing that. At the same time as it’s only updating the comments lists every 20 minutes or so.

    Sometimes you can see more posts when you submit a comment, then is you refresh the page they’re gone. It’s a bug, and I’m fairly sure it’s about cacheing, and it’s causing everything.

  40. steveasaneilean
    Ignored
    says:

    Interestingly the Spectator magazine is owned by the Barclay brothers who between them have an estimated wealth of £6.5 billion.

    If Fraser is genuinely worried about poor students not getting to University maybe he could ask his “owners” to sub a few places?

    The Barclay brothers could fund the entire budget for all of Scotland universities for the next 5 years and still have a decent amount to live on (about £1 billion).

    What is they say a about people in glass houses Fraser?

  41. DerekM
    Ignored
    says:

    hmm still trying to run with that old chestnut even after it was totally debunked,no dunce cap for you boy its straight to the headmasters for six of the best for copying an old piece of work you already got an F(fail) for and resubmitting it hoping nobody would notice.

    But then whats new i even heard on RT UK news that old myth but wasnt it meant to be a once in a generation referendum when they were talking about the recent indy polls.

  42. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “In case you missed it, the Scottish Government present its Programme for Government, intended to “build on the record of achievement since 2007?.”

    I saw it. Seemed mainly good, but it’s basically just a press release, and we’re not the kind of site that rewrites press releases and calls them news. Get back to me when it turns into some bills.

    “Also, the governance of Police Scotland seems to be in meltdown.”

    Does it?

  43. ClanDonald
    Ignored
    says:

    At the time of the Lamara Bell / John Yuill car crash tragedy the media reported that the for some reason a call to the non emergency 101 number hadn’t been forwarded by the person who had taken the call.

    Yet the BBC continues to report that the call was an emergency 999 one and this wasn’t a failure of an individual but the entire system. I heard this reported at least 4 times yesterday on BBC radio.

    Was the call a 999 one or is this yet another BBC lie to attack the SNP?

  44. Papadox
    Ignored
    says:

    Please remember Mr Nelson and his ilk are payed for reporting the London establishments propaganda to the peasants of Engerland and its colonies, Scotlandshire, Welshshire & Ulstershire. Factual accuracy and truth do not come into it. The EBC & MSM are there to make sure of that.

    Unfortunately there are many in these colonies who think they are on equal terms with the London elite and are proud of their ignorance and the crap that they get fed.

    NONE ARE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO SEE! Intentional NOT accidental.

  45. Connor McEwen
    Ignored
    says:

    I see Phil [the Golliwog] needs his jam jar re-labelled along with insensible Dave.
    No matter,the Mad Hatters Tea Party will re-convene in Wheeshtminster with or without Giddy Muttley Osborne and Dick Dastardly Cameron present.
    It is rumoured that Sarah Palin,retired half baked Alaskan is to advise PR tactics for the Tories in holding democracy up for ransom and destroying the economy while holding up finances for health.
    Queen of Hearts? Jackie Baillie or Kezia Dugdale

  46. Dan Huil
    Ignored
    says:

    “Meltdown” seems to be the new catchword for Project Fear unionists. Any word will suit if unionists think it will do Scotland down. Unionists must keep the dependency, too-wee-too-stupid factor free from “meltdown” of course. Scots: know your place!

  47. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Scottish Governments record

    Given the constraints: Fantastic

    Police Scotland: Every party in Holyrood signed up to the new creation and gave their blessing to it

    You want to get started on Police call outs?

    It would seem the only people who understand the difference between 101 and 999 are Scottish Nationalists and I mean that in the wider sense

    I don’t want to be insensitive to folks feelings but the amount of calls per day relating to total stupidity are astonishing ( I have a relative who was a call handler )

    We’re talking here of 999 for “My budgie got out the window”
    “There’s a man in my street I don’t recognise”
    “There are kids outside not at school”

    Ad Infinitum, and the Police have to respond with their time on the phone while genuine cases are waiting
    How about, where are you phoning from: “My bedroom”

    Why on earth do you moronic Britnats not get it, why do you think we’re attempting to educate our kids so that whatever brain they’ve got they might have a chance of using it for something productive instead of mind numbing Britnatteryness

    This is the very reason for Stu’s article to try to turn out better educated people than total Wonks like Fraser Nelson who doesn’t posses the imagination to even invent something different to try and fool people with

    It’s not normally my way to play with Trolls or engage on any level with them because it’s never about the argument it’s always about the Bitter Hatred

    Now I’m off to read my Dan Dare comics

  48. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “Was the call a 999 one or is this yet another BBC lie to attack the SNP?”

    – “Martin Bell is demanding the sacking of Sergeant Brian Henry – named as the officer who answered the 101 call about the accident near Stirling last month.” (Daily Record)

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/m9-victim-lamara-bells-family-6230328

    – “a member of the public contacted Police Scotland via the 101 system to report that they could see a vehicle down an embankment near the M9 slip road at Bannockburn” (The Guardian)

    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/12/lamara-bell-dies-of-injuries-sustained-in-m9-car-crash-in-scotland

    – “Ms Bell, 25, lay trapped in her car for three days after Police Scotland failed to respond to a 101 call reporting the crash because the details were not logged correctly.” (BBC website)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34101593

    – “The incident was reported to police at the time, however, an experienced official failed to log the 101 call from the member of the public.” (STV News)

    http://news.stv.tv/scotland/1324544-lamara-bell-brother-speaks-out-as-government-investigation-launched/

    It isn’t stated in any articles I’ve seen, but it seems reasonable to imagine that the person making the call simply reported what they took for an abandoned crashed car – had they known or thought there were injured people in it, you’d think they’d have called 999. So as far as the police were concerned, they lost a call about an abandoned car in a ditch.

  49. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    @ ClanDonald

    101 Raw feeling over this stop me going further but a full report is due in October I think on this particular incident

    It’s why the Scottish Government has been quiet on it due to sensitivity, which of course as we know is not the Media’s forte ( sensitivity ) that is

  50. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    And what does WoS come up with? Two thin postings, one about some minor (admittedly nasty) delusional in the Tory backwoods and the other about a slip of the tongue by Ms Dugdale.

    Bit harsh Phil, “some minor (admittedly nasty) delusional in the Tory backwoods, what? Is delusional a slam and a noun etc?

    Thing is these guys are everywhere running every media.com there is, not just the BBC freak show. Horatio’s one of the biggest whopper tellers out there. You can listen to his fruity brand of Rule Britannia Tory boy propaganda all around Planet Earth, in every country and on every planet. He’s a giant fraud perpetrating giant frauds and that’s why he’s a special little Tory boy. It’s like last week the conmen at the record said Gaelic road signs cost £26 million. And that’s how you help the blue and red Toryboys monster Scottish democracy, day in day out.

    And as as we all know, the more plums in your mouth, the more respected, more honest, more trustworthy, more intelligent, more frightfully decent you really are. Just ask the City boys or the royals, purr purr.

  51. carjamtic
    Ignored
    says:

    It has been an emotionally draining week or maybe it’s just me.

    BBC and MSM admit bias reporting against YES campaign,DWP death lists published,HOL troughers list announced,Cash for Faslane and weapons of mass destruction,Plight of the poor refugee’s. :-((

    All reported/commented on here,more power to your elbow Rev.(where we would we be without WoS).

    I read the content on all the other sites but always return to WoS for the truth of the matter,what ever is going on,(WoS my ‘go to’ site)

    Latest poll at 53% and growing :-))

  52. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Excellent exposure of Fraser Nelson who could have have been separated from Jo Swinson at birth.They look and sound clone like identical with the effette Scots accent.

    To repeat proven lies like he has is an indicator of the integrity of the man(non woman).

  53. Gary45%
    Ignored
    says:

    The reason Fraser Nelson keeps on repeating this story is, he is a unionist supporter.
    (Yet another Plamph who can’t accept Scotland has woken up.)
    Gone are the days where if you heard or read something on the media repeated enough you would accept it as fact.

    There are some citizens who will take in what Nelson says, but they are getting fewer by the day.(just like my hair)
    Tick Tock

  54. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    About the delay in posts-I normally get 20 minutes delay but when I posted the Livestream event at 12.50pm it appeared immediately. Shocked & surprised-you betcha 🙂

  55. Betty Boop
    Ignored
    says:

    FE students are also more likely from poorer backgrounds so presumably the actual figure for those students is much higher than the Unionistas would have it

    That’s a fair point, Alastair. FE students tend to go to local colleges, so more affordable for many no doubt.

  56. tartanarse
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m a former soldier from a shitty scheme in Dundee. I’ve seen a lot of shit and served four tours of Bosnia and met real poor folks.

    I’m not heartless but have always been able to remain largely unaffected by horrible images and experiences.

    That photie of the guy on the beach will not leave me at the moment, perhaps it because I,m a dad of three now.

    Sometimes a bit of perspective is required.

    With that in mind I would like to inform all that I was immediately cheered up by Stu’s piece today and felt I had to write this post to explain that my mood has been lifted by two words that had me pissing my pants.

    “Yawned extravagantly”

    Don’t know if anyone else was the same but this just set me off.

    To all Nawbags and their ilk reading this (we know you do), think about your own kids and the people that you vote to represent you (and of course your kids).

    Then tell your kids, who are likely to do collections at school for refugees, that you are partly responsible for the deaths.

  57. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    The former head of security for Rebekah Brooks has said he will blow the whistle on Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers, the day after it was confirmed she had been re-hired as chief executive of News UK.”

    Rancid The Graun says.

    Someone knows where the Toryboy bodies are. Rancid also the ex soldier got a £16 million pay off for Rupert. It just sticks out in that it won’t make any difference what he blows his whistle on in the teamGB media. Last great fraud UKOK the Garun style yesterday was, Rupert’s anti establishment. Don’t write the news, be the news!

    Also, if BBC vote SLab Scotland really are lying about the M9 tragedy 999 call, perish the thought, this has to be IPSO and FOI complaints. Lol

    It’s good to laugh. at fraudsters like Horatio up there especially.

  58. Potter
    Ignored
    says:

    Ignore Philip Robertson, Slab Unionist zoomer regularly to be found on Heralds comment page.

  59. Phil Robertson
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
    4 September, 2015 at 1:02 pm
    “Also, the governance of Police Scotland seems to be in meltdown.”
    Does it?

    Well, in case you missed these as well, in the last year we have lost the Justice Secretary, the Chief Constable and the chair of the Scottish Police Authority.

    In addition, the new chair of the SPA has been instructed to “launch a review of governance”. Why do that if everything is hunky dory.

  60. Onwards
    Ignored
    says:

    @tartanarse,
    Lol, that whole paragraph was hilarious. ‘Half-heartedly phoned in’ got me.
    Of course he knew himself it was tedious BS.

  61. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    When FE colleges were financed to expand their range of courses they adopted a “bums on seats” mentality. It didn’t matter if the students dropped out or failed to graduate. All that mattered was that they signed up for courses which guaranteed the income from the Labour/Liberal (to a fault) coalition.

    This encouraged them to advertise courses on everything under the sun. That, in turn, drew learners away from self-financing and largely self organising community groups and classes. Local Authorities, such as the Liberal led Aberdeenshire one, cut funding for community classes. Thus one popular and fruitful channel for local democratic decision making was snuffed out.

    Cathy Jamieson was the Labour Education Minister at the time.

    I’m sorry I don’t have dates and links but will search some out if I can summon up the energy. Personally, I feel like moving on from the dismal past.

  62. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Aha!
    The last post appeared immediately! Could it be because I commented on WGD and WordPress asked me to log in? Fingers crossed. If this appears immediately, 2.40 pm, then part of the problem is solved. Maybe it will also retain my login details.

  63. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Malcolm Rifkind informs us this morning that the drowned family should have stayed in Turkey where they were quite safe, “we” can’t take them all in. Maybe if the Lithuanian Rifkinds, fleeing the pogroms, had moved to Germany where they were also safe at the time, we wouldn’t be troubled by this greedy bastard & his opinions right now.

    Meantime back to Muriel Gray on the wireless! god this wummin should be in the House of Lords.

  64. Sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
    4 September, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    “Was the call a 999 one or is this yet another BBC lie to attack the SNP?”

    The BBC were contacted before 6 pm and told it was a 101 call, and I am sure they read this site and others where it was also mentioned, but they still repeated the lie late into the evening and on “national” TV news.

    Whether the BBC were in the words of Baron Foulkes “doing it deliberately” or not it shows what the SNP / Scottish government is up against when trying to get its message out.

  65. Scunterbunnet
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella

    I don’t think the ‘login’ problem you’re having is to do with Wings, sounds more like your browser setup.

    You might have turned off the “remember forms I’ve filled in” thing in your browser settings? Or you might be blocking cookies from WoS. The way to fix that will depend on which browser you’re on.

    I often get the 20 min delay before my new comment appears too. That IS to do with Wings… the site probably gets a lot of hits at certain times of day, so to keep it fast, the new comments don’t get ‘processed’ onto the page right away, just every 20 minutes or so. It’s called server-side caching, different from ordinary ‘caching’ in your browser.

    I’m guessing the only way Stu could fix that would be to buy loads of extra server hardware. Maybe all us cybernattery addicts could chip in to get him some?

  66. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Morag says: 4 September, 2015 at 11:06 am:

    “Hmmm. I see what some people meant on the previous thread. While my office computer (at least since its “rebuild” into Win7 by the IT bods) has always had this problem of not retaining my details and only showing a batch of comments every 20 minutes or so, my home computer (that I’m using at the moment) was fine. Details always there and posts appeared immediately. Now this one is at it too.”

    Most browsers allow the user to set several things, for example IE has under [tools] – [options], a list of settings.

    Sometimes updates to the browser resets some of these user settings and the user then has to reselect the settings.

    My laptop, it’s set up as a larger screen media centre as I do lots of video and photo editing, has just updated to Windows 10 and it’s been a real pain getting it to run properly.

    First of all it took almost 24 hours to download and reset, (and it is not a very slow connection). Then the much trumpeted new Start Menu was gone. As were both the on screen icons and the task bar and quick load bars across the bottom of the page. Running anything was a real trial – that is except for games and this seemed to have been prioritised by Microsoft.

    After a lot of hard work I have some semblance of a workable computer again but the system keeps upgrading drivers and programs. Worse still much of these changes go on in the background and with not as much as a, “By your leave”.

  67. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry. No improvement. Last comment didn’t appear when posted and login details not being saved. So must have been a coincidence with the sites “update” schedule.

  68. C Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder if the graph also takes into account those who enter uni at 17 as is often the case in Scotland due to the difference in the cut off for children starting school. I was 17 when I went to uni not 18, I didn’t reach 18 until more than halfway through my first year.

  69. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    “Ignore Philip Robertson, Slab Unionist zoomer regularly to be found on Heralds comment page.”

    But he raises good points though, just in exact opposite of stuff what actually happened.

    SO, The Smith Commission, aka “How I screwed the sweaties” by Prof Adamski Tomkins, not of Slovenia, is approaching a n other important stage on its journey down the UKOK pan in Westminster.

    But why oh why can we Scots NOT have a referendum on whatever shyste the Smith Commission is up to? Its our country and our decisions.

    Do you agree The Smith Commission is just loo roll? YES or NO.

    If its, YES, that should be the trigger for next and final referendum to get the fcuk away from the control of and or, by our red and blue tory neighbours, via Fluffie, or Prof T or the BBC, or the Press and Journal, now outselling Glasgow Herald and Hootsman together.

    Its nice to have dream that we actually live in a democracy.

  70. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Muriel finished her interview with a sneery “Rocks Would Melt in the Sun” crack!

  71. manandboy
    Ignored
    says:

    Four months since the GE, including a long break in which to think things over, and the Unionists south of the border have figured out the significance of the 56, the crumbling Smith proposals, and the end of Unionist political influence or power in Scotland – and they’re starting to panic. It is this panic which is responsible for the new wave of Nat bashing.

    Throw in Cameron’s woes with ‘swarms’ of refugees and a new sentiment in the electorate caused by the saddest picture you’re ever likely to see in the paper, and all of a sudden David Cameron & crew are wishing they didn’t have to get back to work so soon.

    They are returning to a political world which is beyond their control – you can just feel the panic starting.

  72. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Scunterbunnet

    I haven’t changed any settings in my browser but will check again to see if something has been changed by stealth – I use Chrome.

    I never got the 20 min delay except for a brief spell last year and it corrected itself. I would certainly contribute to more server capacity if that is what is causing the problem. Looks like caching as Morag suggests.

  73. The Isolator
    Ignored
    says:

    Phil,

    You do realise that crime rates have fallen since 2007 and at an all time low and that confidence in the police force is at an all time high.However being ravaged by the MSM and their ilk is bound to have it tumbling down soon enough.So dinnae fret yersel too much..the British Labour Party know how tae put the boot intae the polis especially the Scottish branch.

    By the way I hope the slimeballs that escaped prosecution in the corrupted Labour run cooncils appreciate the upturn in crime detection at least by the new force.(you\they know who they are).

    Just shine the torch in and have a wee look.

  74. Graeme Doig
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks Rev.

    Another disingenuous, na, lying barsteward put to the Campbell sword.

    I think he’s the “crooked mouthed” one 😉

    Another day, another record to set straight. You not sick of this yet Rev?

  75. Graeme Doig
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella

    Same issues for me for about

  76. Graeme Doig
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella

    Same issues for me for about a week. Too computer illiterate to wonder about the why’s and wherefor’s though.

  77. Glamaig
    Ignored
    says:

    Fred at 2:44

    Malcolm Rifkind informs us this morning

    Extraordinary given his family background.

    Only a few generations ago my grandparents grandparents were refugees from a famine in the West of Ireland. This famine was made worse by the reluctance of the UK establishment to interfere with market forces by sending aid. Ireland exported food throughout the famine.

    Its not that long ago – there but for the grace of god go all of us.

  78. lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T Just done a panel base poll, asking the referendum question and for next years
    Scots Parliament, also a few questions on what the branch office has to do to get back the voters.
    Robert Peffers – I would be surprised if theres not a setting in Windows 10 that allows you
    to stop automatic updates. Im still on XP for my only microsoft machine, after about
    20 years of procrastination have moved to Apple, wish I had done it years ago.

  79. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry Rev, Just seen the line breaks in last post, please don’t kill me with hammers, Im still recuperating from the last time I was nearly deid.

  80. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @R-type Grunt says: 4 September, 2015 at 11:50 am:

    “Frazer Nelson is a liar. Who knew”?

    Only those poor souls who actually read his codswallop

    The rest of us just say, “Who? Who?” Raither like a gyte pairliament o hoolets.

    (owersettin intil the Inglis) – “Somewhat akin to a demented parliament of owls”.

  81. Iain More
    Ignored
    says:

    Win 10 like every Brit Nat sucks big time. I think I will be moving to a Mac when my present machine bites the proverbial.

    If I could roll everything back to XP I would but it seems I cant with my present machine. Brit Nats suck big time by the way.

    Scotland voted Naw and we get another Microsoft OS that is bloody useless.

  82. Alex Beveridge
    Ignored
    says:

    Just tuned in, by accident, to B.B.C News, where there seemed to a press conference taking place where I believe the Spanish Prime Minister was being questioned along with David Cameron.
    As I was about to change channel, a journalist started to ask a question about Catalonia, in relation to the Scottish referendum last year. Hello I thought, this might be interesting.
    No chance. Funnily enough, the B.B.C cut the link. Strange that.

  83. cearc
    Ignored
    says:

    There are currently hundreds or thousands even of people leaving Budapest walking along the motorway to Vienna some 200 mls away.

    https://twitter.com/jamesmatesitv

    Has been tweeting from Budapest for a few days. It is truly awful.

  84. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Phil Robertson says: 4 September, 2015 at 12:39 pm:

    “ … In case you missed it, the Scottish Government present its Programme for Government, intended to “build on the record of achievement since 2007?. Also, the governance of Police Scotland seems to be in meltdown.”

    No, Phil, we didn’t miss it. We just know the truths of these matters. Unlike the people of Establishment run areas of Britain who apparently believe the manufactured prevarications of their lords and masters.

    When such people begin to believe their own lies are the truth then those people have become easy subjects to convince about anything.

    What is more, going by the most recent polls, a significantly greater proportion of the Scottish electorate also know the truths of these matters.

    My old Grandmother had a saying, “Aiblins if ye believe aa ye hear an read ye micht eat aa ye see an smell”. – I do hope you enjoyed your lunch, Phil.

  85. manandboy
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T But in the run up to the Holyrood elections, my guess is that Adam Tompkins is going to give the SNP/ScotGov a daily kicking on BBC , over, for example, the ‘named person’ Act. But this will only be his ‘get elected’ act; his real objective is to become leader of the Tories in Scotland and thereafter move to higher things down Westminster way. I’m sure the plans are laid already.

    My concern meanwhile is that the professor does have the capacity to hurt the SNP. No one in the ScotTories has anything near his skill set, though he may be damaged by the Smith fiasco which is being recognised as such by more and more English Tory MP’s. I only hope the SNP do their homework.

  86. Nana Smith
    Ignored
    says:

    @cearc

    I’ve been following James Mates for a few days. The refugees were begging the media not to leave them.

    Saw a lady who looked as if she couldn’t go on and there are many who can not.

  87. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Fiona says: 4 September, 2015 at 12:49 pm:

    “All these articles just come down to “Polly wants a cracker”

    I knew a Polly once – she was a real cracker.

  88. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Nuclear power station delayed yet again and is years behind schedule. Brown out and power cuts possible! 🙁

    https://archive.is/YOdAr

    @Dr Jim : Off to read my Lash Larue comics.
    Wish I still had them 🙁

    PS:
    Squeaky bum time about 5pm. One of these should work.

    http://myp2p.ec/

    http://mytvlive.me/english-premier-league-live-stream-online/

  89. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Rev. Stuart Campbell says: 4 September, 2015 at 1:02 pm:

    “Also, the governance of Police Scotland seems to be in meltdown.”

    Does it?

    Yeah, Rev Stu – it does – but only if you believe the Establishment lies. Most Scots, it seems, don’t believe the Establishment anymore. Why else are the opinion polls creeping relentlessly upwards in favour independence?

  90. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Windows 10

    It’s evil, if you’ve got it, get rid of it
    If you don’t got it, save yourself and don’t get it

    It does nothing to improve anything, the only thing it does with any certainty is Fcuk up your probably already adequately functioning computer

    If you have Lenovo GTFOH quick it causes lots of functions to vanish like the Mysterons

    The main thing is, you’re missing nothing

    Mysterons 10, good name

  91. Nana Smith
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    Humans, not cattle’: Egyptian mogul wants to buy Mediterranean island to house refugees

    http://www.rt.com/news/314314-greece-italy-sell-island-refugees/

  92. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    My concern meanwhile is that the professor does have the capacity to hurt the SNP.

    Prof T’s never debated and when he has CiFed, he’s a raging psycho from Slovenia, if its him, m’lud:D

    He’s on BBC Scotland a lot smirking for the union on say Sarah Smith’s lap but get him out of these UKOK comfort zones and watch out. So many red and blue tories are like this, and below’s just one more unionist carpet bagger who doesn’t debate but has decided Labour’s right to reign over their Scotland region is bigger than the hell on earth they caused in the middle east.

    Even if say Bomber Bliar and Westminster’s historic frauds like Crash Brown had tried and failed to stop the Bush invasion of Iraq, the clown below is still trying to kid on Labour are for a “fairer country.”

    Scott Arthur ?@DrScottThinks 8h8 hours ago
    >@DinMehboob I left Labour over Iraq. I came back when I saw that creating a fairer country was more important.
    @columbascave @davidtorrance

    If JC wins, he should get every last Lab MP that voted for the Iraq to resign. There must be some Labour candidates with a sense of morality out there.

  93. Tackety Beets
    Ignored
    says:

    Fraser Nelson went to school in the fastest toon in the north Naaairn , as Major B says he gings aboot wi’ bools in hees moo !

    As many say above , he is certainly trying his best to be the brightest light on the tree but for us he seams very dimmmm.

    Between him and the 999 fiasco etc I’m so glad I put in my wee investment into WOS , real VFM.

    I posted a year ago how My mac posts are up straight away, my I-pad and Pcs are usually always circa 20 mins but they were always time stamped correctly. So for me this recent situation is nowt new.

    Submitting @16.41

  94. manandboy
    Ignored
    says:

    The refugees crisis has got everybody’s attention now with mass media all involved. The Tories are in trouble with this.

  95. Marie Clark
    Ignored
    says:

    What a dreadfully sad sight from Hungary. Poor desperate souls trying to walk along the motorway to Vienna. What the hell is the problem that the authorities in Hungary will not help these people. Words fail you sometimes, they just don’t seem to be enough.

    Re the windows ten saga, my computer died recently and had to get another. My IT guy brought the new one and he had left windows 7 on it, but it was ready for a free upgrade to 10 when I wanted it.

    I remembered the fiasco that some of you had with windows 8, so I thought I’d wait awhile before installing 10. Seems from what some of you are saying , I’ve done myself a favour.

    I too am having to keep filling in my details for wings. Thought perhaps it was just me. Comforting to know that it’s not.

  96. Kevin meina
    Ignored
    says:

    When will the unionists ever learn whether it be police,education,oil,slab propaganda around the clock ,we are now immune to the MSM or BBC WE DONT BELIEVE A WORD ANYMORE.
    We have been lied to so much in recent years we take nothing they tell us at face value anymore.

  97. tartanarse
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve never changed any settings on my computer as I’m a computer eejit.

    I used to be able to see posts straight away now I’m in the 20 min gang.

    Submitted last Tuesday at teatime.

  98. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    OT. Another press release from the SNP where Alec Salmond is highly critical of purdah breaching behaviour at indyref. I sense a much tougher tone all round from our folks at WM.

    http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2015/sep/cameron-no-longer-control-eu-referendum

  99. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Labour/Unionists were means testing student loans on household income, on a sliding scale 21K to 42K. Students couldn’t get a full loan to go to University but people get £60? a week unemployment.

    The ConDems borrowed £6Billion a year (with interest) more for higher student fees in the rest of the UK. £3Billion will never get paid back. Fraser Nelson has a cheek students in the rest of the UK are ending up £40K in debt.

    Glasgow Police are a disgrace. House got appointed by Labour/Unionists and was appointed Head because of contractual issues.

  100. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Many students in Scotland go from College to Uni. Start in 2nd year.

  101. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @ClanDonald says: 4 September, 2015 at 1:05 pm:

    ” … Was the call a 999 one or is this yet another BBC lie to attack the SNP?”

    As I’ve been posting since the incident this tragic accident is being used by the unionists at large to whip the Scottish Police in an effort to discredit the Scottish Government.

    The facts speak for themselves, first of all the incident happened at a slip road from a busy route. Now there must have been hundreds, or probably thousands, of drivers who drove past the scene yet only a single driver reported seeing a vehicle off road among the trees. The only conclusion must be that it was very well hidden.

    Furthermore, as it was by a slip road there was no hard shoulder to pull onto so as to further investigate. Then the caller told the press he felt guilty for using the non-urgent line but he really has nothing to feel guilty about as there was no indication of when or how the car ended in the trees nor if it was already known about by the police.

    Can we really blame the police for prioritising genuine 999 emergency calls over what, to all intents, was a non-emergency? It is easy to criticise after the event and even easier to manufacture a false case for what was obviously a tragic accident.

  102. Peter Craig
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T
    Lifted from United Against Separation Website.

    “This is an uncomfortable time for Unionists, who endured several years of bitter and divisive debate which wrecked friendships and split families across the country which continue to be felt to this day. Despite winning the referendum, Unionists appear to be constantly on the defensive, forced into reacting to every attack and grievance engineered from SNP HQ. We worry that any mistake or policy decision by the UK Government could be enough justification to call for a second referendum”

    That “Decisive Victory” last September is cold comfort it seems.

  103. John king
    Ignored
    says:

    Tartan ares says
    “Submitted last Tuesday at tea time.

    Ha your lucky,
    When I posted this I had hair!

  104. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ tartanarse 5.02 keep the bairns away fae your keyboard,its they bisquit crumbs thats dain it,no the cookies lol.

    17.26

  105. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dan Huil says: 4 September, 2015 at 1:19 pm:

    ” … Unionists must keep the dependency, too-wee-too-stupid factor free from “meltdown” of course. Scots: know your place”, Well said, Dan. You have to wonder at the temerity of these people when the local Metropolitan plod regularly gun down mainly innocent, and not yet even charged, members of the public. Wasn’t there another case of that just four days ago?

    Ouch! I thought I’d test my memory and I Googled, “Met Police shoot man”, and set it for results from the past month. There were too many to post links to.

  106. The Man in the Jar
    Ignored
    says:

    A wee test to see if my post appears immediately. Fingers crossed. 😀

  107. The Man in the Jar
    Ignored
    says:

    Nope! 🙁

  108. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Peter Craig says:
    “That “Decisive Victory” last September is cold comfort it seems”

    … because no matter what Unionist’s claim, they know the outcome is on a very shoggly peg!

    They began the campaign by saying all talk of further devolution was off the table. The stronger Yes got, the more they U-turned and talked up more powers! We all know how that culminated. Then they largely reneged on their promises, and, they began moves to disenfranchise our representatives.

    They won by dodgy tactics then immediately began throwing away their winning position.

    They now feel their Union slowly slipping beneath the incoming tide. Of course they feel despondent.

  109. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Phil Robertson says: 4 September, 2015 at 2:30 pm:

    “Well, in case you missed these as well, in the last year we have lost the Justice Secretary, the Chief Constable and the chair of the Scottish Police Authority.”

    Sheer desperation, Phil. Police Scotland is a large organisation. Like all large organisations there will be parts that require attention. Furthermore it is an organisation in the process of change. Like the New Glasgow Hospital it is very, very cynical to belittle it before there has been a decent time for things to settle down properly.

    Now I’m not about to start researching the matter but I’m sure I would be able to expose a lot more police problems happening before the present shake-up than after it.

    One reason being the former local police board system set-up that had far more chance, far more motive and far too much mutual back-scratching to cover up failings. Mainly just jobs for the boys and corrupt as hell.

  110. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Malcolm, Rifkind is a FUCKING BASTARD
    that is all!

  111. lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Deja Vue all over again for Scotland beaten 1-0 in Georgia

  112. handclapping
    Ignored
    says:

    If it makes you feel better John … 🙂
    But in his warped world of compassionate Conservatism its
    Malcolm, Rifkind is a RICH FUCKING BASTARD
    and that gives him the same status as ex-party leader IDS
    that is all!

  113. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    OT but the Moaning one is presenting her designs on QVC – I used to like jewellery programmes on QVC but the holy water has now been sprayed on its grave.

  114. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @lenny Hartley says: 4 September, 2015 at 3:24 pm:

    ” … I would be surprised if theres not a setting in Windows 10 that allows you to stop automatic updates. Im still on XP for my only microsoft machine, after about
    20 years of procrastination have moved to Apple, wish I had done it years ago.”

    It’s not just the things going on in the background, Lenny. There are reports of troubles with laptops all over the windows 10 pages. The problem is that while you are attempting to sort out one problem the system is doing its best to set up, or change, several other settings.

    It was a major breakthrough when I managed to get the start menu to run as I could then use the installed programs, tools and Windows Powershell. Even then it several times just locked up and would not fully run, nor allow access nor even shut down other than with the power off button.

    It is running now but still a bit like the curate’s egg.

  115. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Red tory Graun weewees over Scottish democracy in days with Y in them, today its Scots referendum costs bad-

    “John Lamont, the Scottish Conservative chief whip, suggested the cost may have been too high. He said: “Everyone accepts the independence referendum was a historical constitutional event and, therefore, will have had cost implications, but the fact remains that the SNP said the eventual bill for the taxpayer was going to be much lower. Many voters will feel this was a lot of money to spend for the nationalists to be told that most people prefer Scotland to remain in the UK.”

    SNP bad, Scots democracy bad, rule Britannia/England.

  116. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    Quite simply—-liars each and every one.
    When will they realise we see through their duplicity ?.

  117. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m afraid my yawn was pretty underwhelmed and less than enthusiastic. I don’t think that means my yawn should be considered any less significant though. 😉

    Equality of ‘News’ Disinterest

  118. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    From Scot2scot, just be aware folks.

    David Milligan
    9 hrs

    >>> A HILL WORTH FIGHTING FOR <<<

    Over the last 24 hours we've had news of a "bot" attack on scot2.scot. Many of you will be able to see the the request for membership under the name "Athena Roger". Such an account would never be accepted onto the group but when trying to "ignore" the request, we found that no admin had the ability to do it. We've since confirmed that this isn't a typical facebook glitch.

    We have put in place strategies to protect the group but as you may be aware, we are limited by the facebook system as to what we can or cannot do.

    We'll try to keep you updated and if the worst comes to the worst, we'll simply set up another scot2scot mother group and graft everyone across onto that.

    Flexibility is our best defence and we ask that members keep an eye out for strange activity such as posts that you wouldn't normally see on the group. You all know what we stand for; an independent Scotland.

    This little hill is worth fighting for and fight we will.

    The really nice thing about all of this is that someone thinks we're worth attacking so we must be doing something right. The reach of scot2.scot has often surpassed that of many newspapers circulation that you see in the convenience shop. Possibly our wee voice is getting too loud for some folks liking. I certainly hope so.

    You chaps are the stars of this show and we intend to keep you in the spotlight.

    Stay frosty.

    Kindest regards,

  119. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    The SNPbad crowd have had slim pickings of late so they need to re-cycle every scrap they have and avoid talking about polls, popularity and, in the Conservatives’ case, refugees.

  120. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Marie Clark
    I’m on 7. It works, it’s stable, why change? Truth is I’m just too lazy to cross over to Linux.

  121. K1
    Ignored
    says:

    Heed, I wonder what he’ll say when the costs of the historical ‘constitutional’ event of the EU referendum are revealed? I suspect sweet fuck all as it’s his party that have pushed for it relentlessly…also will Westminster be on ‘pause’ during the lead up to England having it’s say? Hypocritical wanker.

  122. Blair paterson
    Ignored
    says:

    I think it is a disgrace that a good man like cheif constable House had to resign while people like Mr.,Rifkind who was caught along with Mr., straw offering to use their position for money are still in a job and being given air time I heard Rifkind naming all the countries who should take in the refugees strangely he never mentioned Israel

  123. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Heedtracker

    I wonder how much the NAWS spent Crash Gordon doesn’t come out of his cave for nothing Alistair Darling? well we know what his bill was

    Then there were all those bus fares up and down, and up and down for all those Westminster types, David Beckams appearances along with all the other famous folk Oooh Oooh and all the activists they had to hire from England to leaflet and bus up and down

    Funny though, no mention of SNP bringing in the Commonwealth games on time on budget or the Queensferry crossing on time and probably under budget the new silly name super hospital on time and under budget

    Railway fcuking lines, Schools, Keeping Grangemouth open for the moaning faced gits that nearly closed it, Fergusons shipyard wouldn’t even be there, council houses built, affordable first time buyers homes,Island communities, don’t start me ungrateful Bstards

    I’m running out of Fcuking Internet here

    I’m away, somebody’s lending me the new Hopalong Cassidy annual

  124. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Dorothy Devine didnt you know the Moaning One,s a Oikypreneur,she wiz in the Dragons Den,ah want tae know who let her oot .

  125. Arabs for Independence
    Ignored
    says:

    Dr Jim @ 7.58 PM

    Good rant sir. Saved me the bather. You forgot Lord Coe the sleazy greasy bastard that he is. He should be in every rant.

  126. Democracy Reborn
    Ignored
    says:

    @manandboy 4.05pm

    Re. any criticism by Tomkins (or anyone else) of the ”named person Act’

    Judgment issued yesterday by Inner House, Court of Session, in appeal brought by Christian Institute & Others v. Scottish Ministers. Petitioners sought to argue, amongst other things, that named person Act was in breach of European Convention on Human Rights. Appeal refused. The Lord Justice Clerk:-

    “Essentially all that the legislation does, and is intended to do, is… to provide for every child and his or her family a suitably qualified professional who can if necessary act as a single point of contact between the child and any public service from which the child could benefit. This provision is part of what is intended to be an enlightened scheme to promote child welfare generally…” (para [64])

    “The mere creation of a named person, available to assist a child or parent, no more confuses or diminishes the legal role, duties or responsibilities of parents in relation to their children than the provision of social services or education generally. It has no effect whatsoever on the legal, moral or social relationships within the family.*The assertion to the contrary, without any supporting basis, has the appearance of hyperbole.*” (para [68])

  127. daisy Waker
    Ignored
    says:

    Re Malcolm Rifkind,

    He’s a qualified QC, therefore well aware of the legal principle, ‘it is not enough that justice be done, it must be seen to be done’.

    Makes it kind of worrying therefore that he remained as Chair of the special committee for security, (pretty sure I’ve got that department name right) right at the time information became public that both the security services and Leon Brittan were directly implicated in the Westminster Pedophile scandal.

    Considering Leon Brittan is listed as Malcolm’s COUSIN, you would have thought it appropriate for him to step aside on this one. Still he’s out now.

    I’m glad I’m not built with their mindsets, it’s nice to be nice, for aw that.

    Best wishes to all, specially those most in need just now.

  128. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    @HandandShrimp

    ‘Slim Pickings’: Naw… doesn’t count, too young a cowboy for me and Dr Jim.

    The SNP bad lot are easy pickins for Sturgeon and Co at the moment. Ruthie stymied because of the actions of Cameron and wee Wullie sweating on the Carmichael trial and both labour camps in turmoil.

    Only the BBC is batting for the Union.

    PS: Germany v Poland good game, link further up.

  129. Karmanaut
    Ignored
    says:

    McColm writes like a petulant teenager. The Spectator, however, should have better standards than that. It’s supposed to be a proper newspaper.

  130. heraldnomore
    Ignored
    says:

    Catching up and finding all the Rifkind comment, reminds me of the Jews For Jeremy group that has been formed, countering all the anti-semite stuff. The page is worth a look, reckoning Corbyn is the only man able to treat the Palestinians and the Israelis fairly.

  131. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    Here’s Russell Brand on Katie Hopkins, from a few months ago when she made her ‘cockroaches’ remark.

    Hopefully this will be seen by some of the belters who called in to ‘Kaye’ this morning and shamed all of us with their bigoted ranting.

    Russell Brand, The Trews (E302) –

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=884RCxG61K4

  132. Lenny hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Peffers thank goodness I no longer work in IT, 30 years was enough , I was in at the right time, when a bit of common sense could solve a problem 🙂

    I wonder about the data acquisition capabilities of today’s operating systems and apps. Who is getting all the info, doubt it it’s only Microsoft and Apple.

    Good luck with 10 bound to be a market for somebody retro fitting XP

  133. Phil Robertson
    Ignored
    says:

    Mr Peffers,
    If you had read the posting correctly, you would have noticed that I referred to the governance of Pollce Scotland. How many more of its high heid yins would it have to lose before you would be worried?

    As for “covering up failings”, the Bayoh family might have more to offer on that than you or I.

  134. manandboy
    Ignored
    says:

    Nicola says ‘To hell wi’ the money; let’s help our fellow human beings. They’re just like us.

    Cameron says ‘To hell with the swarm of refugees; let’s continue to help ourselves to the money. Anyway, they’re not like us.’

    Nicola is SNP Scottish.
    David Cameron is Tory English.
    Did you spot the difference?

    Union? What union?

  135. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    Hey Ronnie , I like the “oikypreneur”!

    Hope to see you at the horses bahoochie on the 19th.

  136. MJS Dundee
    Ignored
    says:

    Was thinking about this Police Scotland business generally.

    Previously when something went wrong somewhere, whichever force was concerned would get a bit of kicking, a head or 2 might roll or the Chief Constable would have to eat some humble pie. Fair enough. Other forces would bob along, business as usual, not impacted.

    You might occasionally get things going wrong in 2 or 3 forces at much the same time, but that still wouldn’t reflect on policing across the whole country.

    When you switch to a single force, it no longer works like that. There is only one lad or lass where the buck stops and if 2 or 3 things go wrong around the same time, it’s all going to land on he or she at once. Moreover, virtually all issues are automatically national news because the force itself is now national.

    If we then try to view the single force in the way we used to view the old multi-force set-up, then we’re going to be disappointed. We’re going to think that loads more things are going wrong than they were before and it’s turning to a mess. The reality is that previously we wouldn’t have heard about the half of them because they’d be local to one force or another and probably not ours.

    It’s not the same and we need to start getting our heads around that just as much as Police Scotland needs to sort some things out pronto.

    This business of it all now landing on one individual will almost certainly mean that House’s replacement will run into exactly the same accumulation of bad news stories, be descried as failing and eventually be forced to resign in apparent disgrace. The stories/incidents themselves will be different, but the structural effect the same. The structure is potentially a gift to the doom-chasing and lazy hacks. (And Wee Willie frae Kelty).

    A single force could work really well, but we’ll need to get behind it to give it a chance. Understand that we can’t treat and judge it in the same way we would our old local forces. If we don’t, we’ll lose one boss officer after another and soon enough only career-suicidal nutters will want the job – and we can do without that thanks.

    Anyhow, let’s watch and see what happens to House MkII and if it looks like I’m right as above, then there’s a discussion we’ll need to be having with our electeds.

  137. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Dorothy Devine Its NO the horses Bahookie weil be at, an Walter Scott dizna hiv a horse.

    At the Centre of the Square Dorothy. XX

  138. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Dorothy Devine.

    Not at the horses – at Sir Walter Scott’s feet!

  139. Midgehunter
    Ignored
    says:

    a teeny weeny test 23.45

  140. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    Russell Brand is good.

    Never watched his ‘own’ stuff before, but that Katie Hopkins one was an eye-opener.

    Here’s another good one, about Blair:

    Russell Brand The Trews (E235) –

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFE1rAAG-Is

  141. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Jeez Midgehunter!

    Your post appeared an hour before you clicked on ‘submit’!

    Now that’s what I call magic…

  142. Midgehunter
    Ignored
    says:

    St Kilda, we have a problem 00.15 cet

  143. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Dorothy Devine Dont tell that fella that diz the Wee Ginger Dug Blog, aboot Oikypeneur,let him carry oan making up hiz ain words lol.

    Smilies Paul.

  144. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Brian Doonthetoon
    Is it a “Time Funnel” or is it the time in Germany? 🙂

  145. Midgehunter
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Brian Doonthetoon

    I walked 500 miles, then I walked 500 more…..

    I’m near Frankfurt. 🙂

    00.21 CET Test agin

  146. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Nae bad video on just another unionist bullshitter, although this one is in court next week. Watch Fluffie sweat. How ever do these UKOK bullshitters get away with it?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwDiTDRmE7k&feature=player_embedded

  147. Midgehunter
    Ignored
    says:

    00.39 CET holy Moses

  148. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    @heedtracker (11.29) –

    Hoots! 🙂

    Superb wee dossier there, helps spark the memories, and re-ignite the fire.

    Fozzy ‘Fudball’ Carmichael should’ve gone months ago, when he still had a chance. If he doesn’t? I predict there will be busloads of outraged citizens heading to the Orkneys to make sure he can’t attend his office without being given a piece of their mind! (And I’ll also predict that, if we did so, the guid folk there would support us all the way!)

    David Mundellyfundelly should watch-out too! Those who can’t afford to get up to Carmichael’s patch may vent their rage on him, and the poor man doesn’t look in any fit state to endure such punishment…

    And then there’s the higher-ups again…who knew about Alistair C’s durty wee plot? Eh?

    Not long to wait now – all will be revealed on STV! Live!

  149. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Toryboy standing for toryboy Scotland greatness is fun this week too-

    Adam Tomkins ?@ProfTomkins Sep 2
    I have no idea what the solution to the refugee crisis is. All I know is I want to live in a country that is doing everything it can.
    121 retweets 113 favorites
    Reply Retweet 121 Favorite 113

    How many refugees is Slovenia taking anyway?

  150. Kevie Helmet
    Ignored
    says:

    For anyone who thinks sticking to Windows 7 will stave off Microsofts new privacy (or more correctly non privacy policy) may want to read this

    http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/microsoft-accused-of-adding-spy-features-to-windows-7-8/

    then think awhile why are they giving Windows 10 away for free

  151. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    Mjs Dundee @ 10.35

    There is a whole raft of senior officers under Sir Stephen each with responsibilities for different areas of policing and I suspect that some are happy to hide their own shortcomings and culpability in some of these incidents behind Sir Stephen House. They know he has been the target of the politicians and, conveniently for these officers, they can hide behind him.

    Another element is that some may not be up to the job the single force entails.

    And finally there is the internal politics you find in any organisation.

    All combine in a perfect storm and Sir Stephen, who may not be entirely blameless, cops for the lot.

    It was interesting in FMQs yesterday when Ms Dugdale asked her question about the police she said at one point that he was effectively leaving Police Scotland in the lurch by leaving early! Quite breathtaking hypocrisy from her given the way the politicians including her had been calling for him to go.

  152. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    @ MJS Dundee

    Police

    Wouldn’t give it a second thought, at the first Flu outbreak they’ll jump back on to NHS in crisis again (More Mileage on that one)

    SKY News Press Preview

    I missed what paper it was too busy choking with laughter and then annoyance

    Because Brenda’s been on her throne longer than God and in view of the fact she’s got a house in the area, Nessie is to be renamed after her Queenieship, they suggest

    Now as I said I laughed with extravagant sarcastic gusto ( Thanks to Stu) Bwahahaha
    like that, then, from a great height pissed on once again I started to feel…. (wee bit of Yoda there)

    But it’s just the sort of Britnat shite they would try isn’t it given that we did vote to remain loyal to our betters and been getting reminded of that fact all day today by the BBC

    There’s something definitely in the air, Keeping Wee Nippy off the telly not so long ago The most Dangerous Woman In Britain and then this nonsense

    It’s all a bit, hurry up Cameron and show you’re the big real boss,or that Scotch Wummin will get all the attention except the world leaders, at the moment think he’s a little shit, and that’s nice eh….

  153. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Phil Robertson says: 4 September, 2015 at 9:47 pm:

    “If you had read the posting correctly,”

    Well then, Mr Robertson, I read it correctly and I’m well aware of exactly what you wrote.

    ” … you would have noticed that I referred to the governance of Pollce Scotland.”

    Yes I noticed and I also noted your rank hypocrisy. Which was why I replied to your comment.

    “How many more of its high heid yins would it have to lose before you would be worried?”

    So let us examine your hierocracy, shall we?

    In the first place all large organisations have a loss of staff from top to bottom. Even the leaders of the Unionist political parties have all lost their Hecht heid ains from time to time. It is normally called staff wastage. It is often mentioned when companies are downsizing and they say, “There will be no compulsory redundancy as we expect the numbers to reduce by natural wastage.

    Even the monarchy, within living memory, has seen the head of state abdicate. Has not Ms Rebekah Brooks just been re-employed after blotting her copy book and getting her marching orders?

    “As for “covering up failings”, the Bayoh family might have more to offer on that than you or I.”

    Indeed they may but, unlike you, I much prefer to await the official results of a proper enquiry and getting the results of the medical and forensic evidence together with the expert witness opinions.

    Thing is I have no particular axe to grind. I have nothing against police Scotland to wish to blacken them. I have no political gain to make from attempting to blacken their proven good record.

    In spite of your rather strange conclusions the facts are that the Scottish Police Force record proves that crime figures are the lowest they have been since records began. The solved crime to unsolved crime ratio is better than ever and the rate of officers involved in corrupt or illegal acts is lower too.

    I have a long and excellent memory and have always taken a keen interest in civics. There was most certainly much more police misdeeds in years past and much of it covered up by the localised nature of police forces and the far too chummy relationships between those who appointed chief constables and the local councils, Not only that but the local scandals remained local.

    The facts are that there has decidedly been a trumped up set of politically motivated campaigns by every unionist political party in Scotland all backed by the State Broadcaster.

    Tell you what to do, Mr Robertson. Go to your search engine of choice. Search for, “Metropolitan Police Shoot man”, and count just the number for, say, the past year.

    If you use this UK version of Google advanced search :-

    http://www.google.com/advanced_search

    you can select the language, the UK only and the time period to search. it is now only five days since the last person shot by the met police. I’m sure the rate in the whole of Scotland is a great deal better.

    As to the carrying of guns in public that too compares better too. Then we have the trumped up stories of the NHS failures. Thing is the voters in Scotland have rumbled the politically motivated trumped up stories by the Unionist Establishment and the English owned media.

    Total hypocrisy is not hard to detect. That doesn’t mean to say that there is not room for improvement but the way to get it is NOT by destroying the moral of fine organizations for political ends.

  154. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @manandboy says: 4 September, 2015 at 9:53 pm:

    “Nicola says ‘To hell wi’ the money; let’s help our fellow human beings. They’re just like us.

    Cameron says ‘To hell with the swarm of refugees; let’s continue to help ourselves to the money. Anyway, they’re not like us.’

    Nicola is SNP Scottish.
    David Cameron is Tory English.
    Did you spot the difference? “

    Aye! Wee Nicola is a far better shape than Posh Boy and a far better speaker of the English Language too.

  155. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    Police Scotland. Yes, House has been pushed through a relentless campaign by the Unionist politicians and the Unionist media in an attempt to get at the SNP. Ironically he’s English, with an SNP Government, which means Scottish Unionists going after an Englishman, I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere. I daresay the Beeb will pick up on it. Or not.

    House did or is doing the right thing. As the person at the top it’s his ultimate responsibility and by moving on early he takes the heat and leaves the force intact. That’s his Job to use an old Met term in a kind of different way. It has been thought his ultimate desintation is as the head honcho of the Met, well, after a brief pause, I daresay he’ll be back in the running, and probably make a good head honcho.

    If Police Scotland didn’t do voluntary stop and search they’d be criticised. Since they did do stop and search they were criticised. There’s less crime than there was years ago so the clearup rate is less, and they’re criticised which, I guess, means the Unionist politicans would like the police to go out and commit some crimes so they could clear it up and get a few of them sacked to keep the unionists happy who would be claiming the whole police force was corrupt and should be sent packing, and it’s all the fault of the SNP and that Sturgeon.

    Meanwhile the SNP gain in popularity, the Tories send Osborne to wind up Scotland, again, YES goes up and up, and the Unionists go round and round in ever decreasing circles trying to bite their own tails off. It looks like they’re at last managing to achieve that contortionist objective, good dogs, sit, stay, beg! And leave the sheep alone.

  156. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    “Thank you. Your comment has been accepted.” on the Herald but half or more comments have already disappeared, and threads getting “cleaned up” like there’s no tomorrow, leaving only the personal bickering ones strangely enough.

    I think when Calum went, they replaced him with Sweeney Todd.

  157. The Man in the Jar
    Ignored
    says:

    I notice a certain lickspital atempting to make capital out of the tragic deaths of two young people. Disgusting little scab!

    Aye ye know who you are!

  158. Patrician
    Ignored
    says:

    For all those now suffering with missing details when trying to post. If you look in off-topic you will see some solutions.

    I predicted this would happen to most people by now. Stuart’s WordPress installation was messed up some time last year about July/August. The result no doubt of a half-arsed attempt at an upgrade of WordPress or the server. The WordPress installation hasn’t delivered the correct info (cookies) for just over a year now, so most of them will be timing out and causing the issue.

    As for complaints about Windows 10, you have the ability to roll back to whatever version of Windows you used previously within 1 or 2 months.

  159. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    There is less crime because of demographics. Falling crime rates.Most (violent) crime is committed by males (16) 18-24 year olds, usually against each other while under the influence of drink/drugs. An ageing polpulation means there is less crime ie less 18-24 year old males. There is not much crime as a percentage of the population. Scotland is very law abiding.

    There are people in prison because of drink/drug abuse or mental health issues. It would be cheaper and more effective to have proper rehab/treatment centres. Thatcher ‘care in the community’ prison.

    There are now 100K apprenticeships. Now more pupils leave at 16 (4th year) to do an apprenticeship. Skilled workers get jobs.

    10% of pupils have additional needs (inclusion). Teachers get no training in additional needs (unless they specialise). 10% of teacher training should be in special needs. It would help the teachers and the pupils. Some (brilliant) pupils can use computers to write and do Maths. Or I-pads for instruction. ‘Scotland has one of the best education systems in the world. (ONS)’ @ Bateman.

    Increasing nursery places and getting more people into work will take people out of poverty.

  160. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    How much did Fraser Nelson pay for hs ‘education’. How much student debt did he have? Westminster borrowed another £6Billion (with interest) a year, to cover increased student fees in the rest of the UK. Half (£3Billion) will not be recovered. The illegal Wars in the Middle East have cost £Billions.

  161. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks chaps – Sir Walter Scott it is!

    Ronnie , I won’t tell WGD – he can struggle with his own words ( awfully well!)

  162. Tackety Beets
    Ignored
    says:

    Disgraced Tory Rifkin yesterday !

    Disgraced Tory Fox today !

    Who is pushing forward for Sunday ?

    Thank goodness our Sunday Politic shows are still off air .

    Nae Rubens the day ?

  163. Dorothy Devine
    Ignored
    says:

    Dr Jim , agree totally.
    There are several horrid things in my life at the moment and Windows 10 is helping them get worse.

    Twice now I have had blank , black screens – the first time I was told to reset with no option as to when I could reset ,as in pre Windows 10.

    I struggled to regain my Kaspersky – of which I am very fond.

    This morning just after responding to Ronnie and Brian my screen went blank and black again.

    It has now returned but for how long?

    I have grown to hate Windows 10.

  164. Cadogan Enright
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely there is a winger capable of producing an accurate graph with colleges also included?

  165. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    I have been watching a few user names of late who are suspect.

    None appear on this thread.

    Is there a bank holiday or something at GCHQ?

    Lazy bastards, I pay my taxes and I want a good laugh at their pishtalk! Where are they?!

  166. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    ahundredthidiot says:

    Is there a bank holiday or something

    It’s the weekend. The overtime budget is being conserved for indyref2.

    Wonder is WoS records the posting IP address.

  167. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    @galamcennalath
    Their IP address is probably spooked, errr, I mean spoofed.

  168. ali
    Ignored
    says:

    I see/hear some of the conspiracy theorists linking the demise of the soon to be ex chief Constable Mr House to some unionists trying to get to the SNP.

    Tosh, its as simple as this, Mr House being an arrogant self centred individual tried to bring the Metropolitan style of policing to Scotland and failed miserably. His management style was “me me me” never listened to any advice given by anyone including his own senior officers let alone his foot soldiers or any other advisors including the Scottish Government.

    Motorway incident etc was only the tip of the iceberg that managed to grab public attention and arguably was the straw that perhaps broke the camels back, rightly or wrongly, but speak to any serving officer and you will hear the true stories of what was really going on behind the scenes.

    I know many officers still serving and I do not know many shedding any kind of tear at his resignation, in fact quite the opposite, I have been invited to a couple of “unofficial” retirement parties.

    While I am on the subject lets not look further than the Scottish government who made a complete and utter pigs ear of combining the police forces and fire services into single entities and I speak from experience not as an armchair critic.

    Both Fire Scotland and Police Scotland are one huge big unadulterated shambles from day one, we tried to tell them at the consultation stage that their plans would never work (on fire anyway – where i have first hand experience) and that their budget projections were pie in the sky – -did they listen – -clearly not and I believe the demise of Mr House is just the start of a long road of discontent in both services.

  169. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh please Ali…..the fire service was top heavy for years and got worse with rank to role…….public money being poured down drain

    It’s a transition, take a leaf from the military book and bloody well get on with it

    House may have been a tosser, but let’s not link him to service and then to government and then to SNP, because when people do that….I smell shite

  170. ahundredthidiot
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh and Ali……you’re flushed mate

    No such thing as Fire Scotland….its Scottish Fire & Rescue, but nice try.

    Mind tell your boss to limit your exposure to Wings….lest you go native…..what with all this truth….its addictive

  171. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    @ali
    No bonio for you!

  172. Andrew McLean
    Ignored
    says:

    Ahundredtheidiot

    Glad to see I am not the only one who doubts the validity of some unionist posters, but maybe I am getting paranoid? I had to take a break from posting on the Scotsman, as the negativity and insanity was beginning to depress me, if they really hold that bile inside them then surely it will finish them off! The herald I am afraid has now drunk from the same well, I like a good debate, but why is it that, from my observation, the yes camp are generally cool dudes, whilst the unionist side have a large battalion of raving lunatics!

  173. ArtyHetty
    Ignored
    says:

    Dorothy Devine@8.20am

    Dorothy, could you try using a different operating system like Linux, not so versatile for everything, but a heck of a lot less frustrating. Also try DuckduckGo search engine, or one or three of the many out there.

  174. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    Ali: “lets not look further than the Scottish government who made a complete and utter pigs ear of combining the police forces and fire services into single entities”

    That’s a huge generalisation. And made public without any proof.

    Exactly how does a ‘government’ physically organise amalgamation?

    Nor are you able to detail the political or administrative journey that rendered both services an “utter pigs ear.”

    Frankly, your opinion reads like a Daly Mail editorial.

  175. Quakeawake
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dorothy Devine
    ArtyHetty’s suggestion of Linux is the way forward I believe.
    I’ve used it for years and run my business on it!

    People often say it’s too big a step to make the switch, but imagine being free of Windoze forever! Definitely worth a bit of hassle (which you’re already getting anyway with Windoze 10) AND increased privacy too.

    To start off what you can do, quite easily, is make a start up CD that lets you boot up and play around with Linux so you can see what it’s all about before committing to putting it on your computer. When you’re done, you take the CD out, restart your computer and you’re back in Windows – it doesn’t change anything. You can also use the CD to install Linux when/if you’re ready and you can still leave Windows on your machine if you want – that’s called a dual boot system.

    Sorry if that sounds all a bit techy but it really isn’t that difficult and so worth it. You will have to do a bit of learning and put in a bit of time, but at least you will be in control of your system, not some multinational corporation. And it’s all free.

    There are lots of different free, open source operating systems that run under Linux – ie different “flavours” of Linux. I recommend Xubuntu as being one of the simplest and most user-friendly. Here’s a link to an easy to understand guide http://pc.buildyourown.org.uk/installing-ubuntu/ and there are loads of similar places to go on the internet.

  176. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Kevie Helmet, 5 Sep, 12:31pm

    Thanks for the tip re. Windows 7.

  177. Mark
    Ignored
    says:

    If the UCAS figures only cover about two-thirds of students in Scotland, and since just under 10% of ‘UCAS students’ in Scotland are from the poorest 20% of 18 year olds starting higher education, it must mean that about 15% of 18 year olds from the poorest backgrounds are now starting degrees in Scotland. This compares very well to Wales or Northern Ireland where about 16% of 18 year olds from poorer backgrounds started degrees in 2014. And Scotland has achieved this result without burdening young people starting out on their careers with tens of thousands of pounds of debt for tuition fees. It would be good to see a comparison of the overall percentage of all students starting secondary school who leave school to enter higher education.

  178. Bill
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T Linux

    A word of warning about Linux, you’d need to be a command line guru to get your wifi and printer to work.

    Building drivers from source to your kernel.

    insmod 8192cu.ko etc

    Its fun for me but then I always was a geek.

    You’d be rewarded with a powerful, virus free, free machine that can be customised.

  179. Craig
    Ignored
    says:

    yesindyref2 says:
    5 September, 2015 at 1:09 am

    “Police Scotland. Yes, House has been pushed through a relentless campaign by the Unionist politicians and the Unionist media in an attempt to get at the SNP. Ironically he’s English, with an SNP Government, which means Scottish Unionists going after an Englishman, I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere. I daresay the Beeb will pick up on it. Or not.”

    Just one minor point in regards to your comment about Stephen House, He isn’t English, he was born in Glasgow and his family moved to England when he was a child and he did spend most of his career in the Met Police.

  180. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Bill Gates’ claimed he dreamt of, “a computer on every desk and in every home all running Microsoft software.”

    I think he, more or less, saw his dream come true. So I estimate around a high 80% low 90% of those reading our wee exchange of views here are doing so on a Windows operating system.

    There may be the odd Linux or Mac OS X user but chances are they are Windows users for, when it comes to desktop or laptops the choice is quite narrow. You either run Windows, or some form of Unix-like OS, (of which there are around 12,000 different Linux like flavours. Mind you there’s always FreeBSD, which, come to think on it, is just Unix without a Finnish flavour.

    Even if you go the vendor route and run AIX or HP-UX or even Sun’s offering, and there is always Mac OS X. Which, although it sounds like a different variety it still comes down to Windows vs Unix.

    The way I see it is that it is like the old idea, “That if rape seems inevitable then you may as well just lie back and enjoy it”.

    Now I’ve not really been too keen on Bill Gates stuff since he conned Gary Kildall out of the very first Bios system that Gary wrote. CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers), written by Gary Kildall of Digital Research.

    Anyway Bill’s “MS DOS”, (Microsoft Disk Operating System), was a rip off of Gary’s operating system and Gate’s next fly move was to rip-off the idea of other people’s, “Graphical User Interface”, and calling it Windows.

    This was followed by buying up other company’s successful programs and selling them as part of the Windows operating system. In short Windows began as a cobbled together set of rip offs and has continued to be so ever since. Gates was never the great programmer but he was a great businessman.

    So, as Windows 10 is to go on with just updates from now on we may just as well lie back and enjoy it for we are going to be stuck with it anyway.

  181. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Kevie Helmet says: 5 September, 2015 at 12:31 am:

    ” … then think awhile why are they giving Windows 10 away for free”

    They do so to get the mugs to accept the next step in Microsoft’s World domination. Windows 10 is the last version of Windows. From now on you just get updates to Windows 10. The obvious thing is that we are already well on the way to Cloudland Computing. Soon all the programs will be on the cloud and you will pay a regular fee to use them. What else did you think, “Windows Live was all about?

    Adobe has already gone down that road. They call it, “Creative Cloud”. You don’t buy the programs to install on your machine – you pay a subscription to use them.

  182. yesindyref2
    Ignored
    says:

    @Craig
    Thanks for that I didn’t know. And my apologies to House!

  183. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dorothy Devine says: 5 September, 2015 at 8:20 am:

    ” Dr Jim , agree totally. There are several horrid things in my life at the moment and Windows 10 is helping them get worse.”

    … This morning, just after responding to Ronnie and Brian my screen went blank and black again.”

    May just be coincidence, Dorothy, but just after, “attempting” to reply to Ronnie, my machine began to operate strangely. I knew the symptoms of Trojans and started a long process of scans. My resident anti-virus program detected nothing and neither did Malwarebytes.

    I thought it might be some form of spyware as I’d been doing a bit of searching for some electronics components on such as Amazon and E-bay so ran Superantispyware. It threw-up hundreds of cookies but also a couple of Trojans that the antivirus programs missed.

    I then went to my big desktop and found another couple of Trojans there too. The big desk-top has several very large hard disks so any kind of scan takes forever. I do lots of Blu=ray, hi-def video, photo and audio editing so need lots of disk space. I’ve been at it since 07:30 this morning.

    Now I’m wondering if WOS posters are under attack from Brigade77 as the trolls suddenly went quiet for a bit.

    Maybe I’m just getting paranoid in my old age but strange that troubles should happen on my two different machines and also others on Wings being affected too?

    “It has now returned but for how long?”

    Windows 10 seems to work away in the background downloading and installing updates and drivers and it doesn’t let on it is doing so. It seems to be sorting itself out but goes weird in the meantime.

  184. Chris Darroch
    Ignored
    says:

    Of course, Fraser fails to refer to the elephant that is becoming apparent in the room, that the fee system in England is a disaster and is not only preventing many poorer students from attending colleges but has becoming more expensive now than it was prior to fees introduction, due to the volume of defaulting.

  185. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Anent British Bullshit, old muck if first-class for tatties, it’s lime which makes them scabby!

  186. bookie from hell
    Ignored
    says:

    Lord Ashcroft ?@14 minutes ago

    Between 2006 and 2014

    454 British soldiers lost their lives in Helmand Afghanistan.

    The Taliban is expected to attack Camp Bastion shortly.

  187. Quakeawake
    Ignored
    says:

    @Bill 3.31pm. This is misleading. Nowadays, it’s extremely unlikely you would have to do this.

    I’ve installed it on friends machines many times, with working wifi, printers and other hardware without going anywhere near the command line.

    Linux has come a long way in recent years and it’s now perfectly feasible to set your system up with no specialist knowledge. Besides, you can test it all out before committing yourself, as I said at 12.07pm Worth giving a whirl if you’re struggling with Windows so don’t be put off by false flags.

  188. Cadogan Enright
    Ignored
    says:

    Anybody got safe links to buy prof robinsons’ ‘Soctlands Propaganda War’ as well as Ponsonby’s ‘how the BBC stole the referendum’ ??



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