The off-message journalist
Posted on
March 03, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We thought you might like to see this snippet from a recent edition of the BBC News channel’s newspapers round-up, spotted by an alert reader.
We particularly enjoy the obviousness with which presenter Martine Croxall is being fed random titles into her earpiece by a panicking producer in response to freelancer stringer Matthew Green’s unexpected observation.
Utter panic on presenters face…’what do you mean?’
I guess he won’t be invited back.
Haha the presenter looked like she was touching cloth.
Oh yes, can you see the producer sticking DNR next to his name, never to be seen again. The horror of the presenter .. but but but … presenters learn not to think, just to parrot.
Then back to the usual BBC approach, its been broached, get a Geordie lass with some Jock bloke next time – but make sure they’re better vetted – no off piste comments, just “its all ok – its all for the 1%”.
The Sunday Post? Seriously? :o)
The “what do I do?” look.
Refreshing bit of real observation there from someone who will probably never appear again. He’ll have to be sent for re-education.
Ooooh, what a long silence. You could have smashed it with a hammer….or a spanner.
Don’t think we’ll ever see him again
Oh jings, that presenter had to really reach for titles. 😀 LOL
Not that we’re saying they live in a bubble, but…. (sigh) yeah, that’s exactly what they’re doing. 🙂
That’ll be the last time Matthew gets an invite on to review the papers. No more BBC coffee for you my boy.
The feeble response that the paper review is centered on London, “oh dear don’t start…that’s not QUITE true, Sunday Post…we also do the Western Mail”
I am trying to imagine the producer melting down and screaming in in her ear “shyte! Martina shut him up, change the subject, Sunday post, Western thingy”. Hilarious.
More power to Matthew Green though for bringing up a valid point. Never heard of him but I’ll keep an eye out, he shows promise 🙂
Doesn’t this make a mockery of Better Together when the BBC don’t give a damn for Scotland or the Northern Powerhouse without watching edited broadcasts.The panic in the screen reader’s eyes was a hoot, complete with earphones telling her what to say. It’s getting nearly as bad as North Korea!
More evidence that the London Bubble has an inner mirrored surface. Those on the inside can’t see out. Worse, many of them are stupid enough to think the reflection they see is actually the world beyond London.
The guy was spot on, of course.
In Scotland, we are moving beyond grievance politics because we have solutions to the ‘London Problem’. You have to feel sorry of other areas of the UK because I just can’t see how they can reverse the blood sucking effect London is having on them.
The other guest was just as revealing. The very idea of covering media from outside London just seemed daft to her.
Let’s face it, the crossword in the “Falkirk Herald” is rubbish.
eg. 14 Across – Degree of precision among Romantic etymologists 6
According to the ONS the London region only makes about 2% of its GDP from manufacturing.
I think a large proportion of that piffling amount from our indolent lodger must be in the manufacture of the ego salving ‘articles’ concocted by the London-centric press.
Amidst its other strange properties, the distorting lens with which they espy the rest of the UK seems to be the existence of a very strong social voyeurism filter.
Of course, actually MAKING things is not for the elite, my goodness, think of the weekly manicure bill. They are more into FAKING and TAKING.
Sadly for them, the rUK is in the process of WAKING up.
The Sunday Post??? How often have they ever had stories from the Sunday Post on that program, or ANY BBC news program covering the newspapers? The Western Mail? Oh yeah. I remember that. Never off the BBC. FFS, if you are going to try and lie for the establishment, make it vaguely believable
Brilliant Helen Lederer impression she did there I thought.
can someone spill the beans for those of us who can’t accss video? What did he say?
Thanks.
‘Oh dear…’. I thought she was going to say ‘don’t start’ whingeing. She was panicked, and that other plummy accent woman did the patronising the ‘North’ very well.
I do hope that the message has at least reached some South of the border, you are not represented on state run tv by any newspaper not produced in the Southern powerhouse.
That new ‘New Day’ thingy, anyone know who is producing that? Saw these yesterday, lots of them on the rags stands. 25p.
Got to hand it to the laddie it takes a bit of nerve to leave the script on the BBC,though if he was hoping it would get him a regular slot it backfired.
They actually make it worse by trying to counter him still its not every day you hear the truth on the BBC.
London has been described, Cable et al, as being a ‘Black Hole’ sucking the lifeblood out of the rest of the UK but in media terms it is more like an ‘Inverse Black Hole’.
It only emits. For those living inside the Event Horizon (aka the M25) nothing can get through from the rUK.
A subtle difference between the properties of gravity and greed when sufficient accretion has taken place to instigate an Event Horizon.
@ArtyHetty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Day_(newspaper)
Two Scottish Tory newspapers Front Pages TODAY:-
The Times Scotland:-
“Mansion Tax to fund schools ‘would push rich out of Scotland’ ”
Scottish Daily Mail:-“Middle Scotland Punished With Council Tax Hike”
Partisan Political Nonsense—–and Scotland has woken up. 🙂
With Front Pages like these is it any wonder most people in Scotland are now see the ‘Scottish’ Press as a complete joke.
PS—-If you want news as it happens without filtering from Labour and Tory ‘newspapers’ go to
First Minister’s Question at 12 MD:-
Scottish Parliamet TV
http://www.scottishparliament.tv/
To be fair though, the Greenock Telegraph is a pile o’ shite!
I’ve always thought BBC Scotland treated their audience as if they were still at primary school…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35709803
On the rare occasions they use “Scottish” newspapers to attack the bad SNP.
Good for him.
“Don’t start that again about the cloggies, jocks, taffies, yokels, boring provincials, they’re just not us, are they, I mean?!”
Oh dear, that’s the last you’ll see of him. Feel sorry for the poor sap! Have to make a note of hi s name so I can make a point of reading his articles in the future- if there are any!
I wonder if Matthew Green consulted with any of these ‘northern newspapers before deciding to destroy his television career forever? I’m sure the Scotsman should be able to provide someone to argue passionately and insanely as to how ‘parochial’ it would be to have Scottish newspapers discussed on the BBC.
Good clip, but, I had a look at the map which showed that so-many of the so-called deprived cities were in “the North”.
Except, if you were to take a map of Great Britain – the main island of the British Isles – then fold it in half, you would discover that only three of the cities named: Middlesbrough, Glasgow and Dundee were actually in the true northern half of the country.
The centre of Great Britain is somewhere along a line which passes coast-to-coast through York/Harrogate – if this country was genuinely one nation, rather than London and the South-East, with the rest tagged-on, it would be clear, “The North” starts somewhere around Harrogate.
Places such as Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Sheffield and so-froth would then, more-properly, be seen as where they actually are – in the southern half of Great Britain.
But, as we all know – “The North” as seen from the London bubble is the north of England – Scotland: “here be dragons”, or is that Wales?
“and we also do the Western Mail…from……”
The near panic from the presenter betrays just how scripted and controlled a media outlet the BBC really is.
Their latest “grab” attempt with the BBCiPlayer, to take license fees from those watching BBC output that is not live is a measure of their desperation.
You gotta hand it to the establishment though. Getting the people to pay through the nose to be propagandized was a great scam while it lasted for them.
Possession of a BBC TV license should be an offense. It is to me.
Shock Horror – Man multi-tasks
Not that I am boasting, but, I managed to type my post at 12.12, while simultaneously watching FMQ.
Respect to Dippity Doug, yet again she showed she was floundering out of her depth. Yet again the Nippy Sweety skelped her erse, but, the lassie just keeps going.
We should maybe start a fund-raiser to give Kezia a gold wings badge – she is doing so-much for the cause of Independence.
And as for Nicola’s slapping down of Wullie Rennie, further extreme cruelty – I’d hate to take a broken pay hame to Nicola.
Mmm, this is him:
“My new book ‘Aftershock: the untold story of surviving peace,’ which documents the struggles of British soldiers with PTSD, is now available”
https://twitter.com/matthew__green
From his website:
“He has spent the past 14 years working as a correspondent for the Financial Times and Reuters and has reported from more than 30 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. “
“Green is now based in London and appears regularly as a commentator on the BBC News Channel and World Service radio, and has written for publications including Monocle, Newsweek, FHM and the Literary Review“
Don’t forget that to the national BBC the north is Carlisle.
“The Western Mail, from…?” LOL
Love it. The first ‘Northern’ newspaper she referred to was The Sunday Post. There you go. Embedded into the psyche of the great state of the UK:- The Sunday Post. God help us if that’s the first thing that came into the producer’s head and he/she shouted down the earpiece to the presenter.
Martine’s facial expression in the last few seconds of this clip are hilarious as she turns to camera and quizzically mimes WTF to the viewers.
BBC mimic loony tunes cartoons!
It would have been more subtle just to point finger at side of head and rotate finger in a clock wise direction indicating a lack of intellect!.
That’s all folks!
At least they don’t have the impartial Kate Grant, David Torrance or Alex Massie brigade – it does make a change.
Nana@.49am
Great thanks for the link. If it’s anything like R4’s ‘wimmin’s hour’
there will be lots about making cakes, what to wear and how to keep your guy from straying and such stuff. Stopped listening to that a few years ago.
Must have a closer look if it’s aimed at women, strange.
Ah, man in London bubble wakes up!
Well done to him for daring to speak up for the rest of the world. 😉
London / State central does seem to struggle with issues such as not London / State approved issues.
Just look at the BBC weather maps for subliminal measure of relevance or importance.
No offence taken ‘Proud Scot buts’
None at all Ken MacIntosh
Priceless! Although I do wish we could have had visuals of Martine Croxall instead of the Independent front page hanging like a lead balloon over the top of her floundering.
A witches reflection in the mirror I suspect – blank!
BBC, no longer fit for any purpose outside of UKOK Central propaganda.
Slightly O/t Martine does have a twitter A/c, might be fun for somebody familiar with its inner workings.
https://twitter.com/MartineBBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Presenter proves she knows of Scotland by quoting the Sunday Post.
Yeah really quality read there bud ????
@pitchfork says:
3 March, 2016 at 11:42 am
can someone spill the beans for those of us who can’t accss video? What did he say?
They were about to discuss the poorhouse North as opposed to the powerhouse North when the chap said
“Before we get into that it’s fairly unusual that we don’t see a paper printed outside London on this programme isn’t it”
This was followed by a pregnant pause which stretched into a deafening silence then a flustered attempt by Martina to give examples of papers from North that have been reviewed like the Sunday Post and the Western thingy. You have to see/hear it to do it justice, the transcription just isn’t the same.
@Socrates MacSporran
Thanks for the heads up on FMQs. I was late back and missed the start so decided to wait for the Parliament tv playback later.
Par for the course.
———————————————————-
Falkirk Herald X-word You can get
Nicety? … might be the answer two words merged minus the ‘t’
Definition includes:
accuracy or precision.
“she prided herself on her nicety of pronunciation”
synonyms: precision, accuracy, exactness, meticulousness, rigour, rigorousness
“great nicety of control was called for”
Just starting The National X-word. 🙁
There was this on the stv website yesterday as well regarding the CT story…explains the problems it hands labour…
http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/1344984-aidan-kerr-sturgeon-smashes-council-tax-freeze-and-labour-melts-away/
gordoz
Michty Me, jings crivvens help ma Boab, ye mun be critical o the Sunday Post – terrible.
scotbob – your comment re Carlisle being “the North” reminds me of a BBC programme on the north/south divide. Various talking heads were asked to define where the north or the south began.
The consensus for the dividing line was somewhere around Staffordshire, either north or south of Stoke or Crewe, until Carol Smillie was asked.
“Where does the south begin – Carlisle”, was her answer.
A Yorkshireman with whom I worked always reckoned: “Wogs begin at Chesterfield”. He was from Sheffield and if you can say where Sheffield ends and Chesterfield begins – you’re a better man than I am Gunga Din.
Face on Maxine at the end of the clip. A picture.
More power to his elbow.
Think this might just be the start of folk going ‘off message’.
There is genuine anger now in England with junior doctors, IDS evil sanctions, clean for the Queen
Maybe the great unwashed are starting to wake up a bit.
Also interestingly have read a couple of articles recently bemoaning the number of posh actors there are around.
Well Matthew Green certainly ‘put the cat amongst the pigeons’ there & oh so great to see. Completely demonstrated the biased BBC when Martine said ‘Don’t start’ in that exasperated voice.
More please 🙂
Martine Croxall,JK Rowling, Magrit Curran.
Separated at birth.
I’m still waiting for the day when these papers have to be dropped altogether and they then have to discuss news from websites like Wings instead. The numbers game already points in that direction but the stoneage BBC will take a while to be dragged kicking and screaming into modernity.
One thing is for sure, you can be guaranteed he’ll not be getting asked on again.
O/T
I’ve been looking at Michelle Mone’s new business report which has fugured out that being poor acts as a barrier to starting up business.
The document explains where she went on her tour, lists the organisations she met, and provides info about each one – all of which appears to have been cut and pasted from the web.
That fills up the first 41 pages.
Then it’s the recommendations.
“The mentoring provided by the NEA programme is key”
As far as I can see, the mentoring is mostly done by “People Plus”, which is this company formerly known as “A4e”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108259/David-Cameron-orders-inquiry-Emma-Harrison-appointed-place.html
Doesn’t Mone provide mentoring? How, I wonder, would someone go about getting those lucrative NEA contracts?
I wonder how much did this report cost.
Welcome the dystopian world of EBC District South.
Without being overly dramatic as we clearly inhabit different worlds,cut the crappy pretence,take this condescending,patronising bilge water and do one.
#Ram it #Shove it
They are way beyond saving,rescuing,off to re- watch Hunger Games….and calm.
#lifeimitatingart
Tick Tock
You can almost see her hand about to press the red button dropping him into a pool of sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.
If everything about that clip does not send out klaxon alerts that we need our own news channel/station, I don’t know what does.
@david says:
3 March, 2016 at 1:11 pm
I’m still waiting for the day when these papers have to be dropped altogether
It’s coming. http://tinyurl.com/hojv9qn
OT but has anyone had difficulty using archive.is today? I’ve tried a couple of articles and get a red screen with the warning message “the site contains malware”. Never had this before.
All the struggling cities with the exception of Dundee are in England.
https://archive.is/ePA4c
Why did she bring up Scottish newspapers. Perhaps there are no newspapers printed in the struggling English cities or perhaps they are all ignored by the BBC.
Interesting quote from Independent article:
“But Mr Stott said Rochdale, like Bolton and Wigan, fell into the category of cities “overshadowed” by a larger, more powerful neighbour and work would need to be done to re-balance this.
Greater Manchester, which includes Rochdale, Bolton and Wigan, has signed up to a devolution deal with the Government and will elect a metro mayor next year.
Interim Greater Manchester Mayor, Tony Lloyd, said: “It’s no secret that for too long economic growth in the South has outstripped the North. It’s the reason we need to take power from the corridors of Westminster and start making better local decisions that work for people in our communities.”
What a face. The face of BBC style Better Together but they did win, tee UKOK hee.
Almannysbunnet Archive worked fine for me acually it said that the article had been archived already 11 mins ago. Perhaps it’s you anti-virus software that is causing the problem.
https://archive.is/I59TK
Um, ‘yes we do – during the floods and so on…..” So, national emergencies only. Meanwhile in London Boris hits a pothole on his bike….
TODAY’S First Minister’s Questions now Archived by Scottish Parliament TV and ready to view:-
http://tinyurl.com/h6vdrrk
@Almannysbunnet
Yeah! Same here so I’ll wait a bit before arhiving today.
In the Herald
Glasgow councillors told ‘set budget or face sanctions’
The main jist is that the SG may have to intervene:
———————————————————–
A senior council source, who asked not to be named, said: “Frank McAveety has considered delaying or not having a budget due to finding it impossible to find cuts. It would be rather bold to basically throw managerialism of cuts out of the window.”
It is understood key members of the administration have sounded out trade union bosses who represent council workers.
A trade union source said: “Some in the administration have discussed the idea of only setting the council tax but no budget.
“Some Labour councillors have also said that they may as well go down fighting the cuts. This is a reference to the expectation that Labour will lose the council to the SNP in May 2017.
—————————————————————
Reminds me of the fresh-faced BBC weather presenter, a few years ago, who attempted to segue from a feature about the runners/riders in the impending Eurovision Song Contest by merrily quipping: ‘Since when was Israel part of Europe?!’
That was the last anyone saw of him…
@Almannysbunnet
Thanks!
chris
Almannysbunnet
Archive is working now. Here’s your article
https://archive.is/EzfQq
@george paterson says: 3 March, 2016 at 11:19 am:
” … It’s getting nearly as bad as North Korea”.
Nah! George, North Korea, or even the old unified Korea, haven’t got a thing on the South Britain Establishment when it comes to propaganda.
The South Britain Establishment have been an elite band of rulers in Britain since ever the Roman’s began to record British History and, when the Romans left South Britain the South Britons, (who had been ruled over by the Romans for between 400 and 500 years invited in the Angles who gave their name to Angleland.
In 43 AD we got the first records of South British History. If you begin to read any history that begins by saying, “The first written records of England’s history”., then stop reading as it is obvious balderdash.
Roman Records show that Julius Caesar made visits to Britain in 55 and 54 BC, but these were for his politically motivated propaganda back in Rome.
In 43 AD Emperor Claudius ordering the invasion of Britain under the command of Aulus Plautius and the Romans quickly gained control over the tribes of what is now southeastern England. A South British chieftain of the Catuvallauni tribe, (he was named Caractacus), fled from Camulodunum (Colchester) to what is now south Wales and stirred up resistance until his capture in 51 AD. He was sent off to Rome where he made high placed friends, appearing in Emperor Claudius’ triumphal procession. He was later released a free man and died in Rome.
However Resistance to Roman rule continued in what is now Wales, mainly instigated by the Druids, (priests), of the native Celts. Things were fairly quiet in South Britannia for around ten years until Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni tribe, died and his queen, Boudica, (who was annoyed at having her lands taken by the Romans, not to mention having her two daughters raped by them), gave up the diplomatic approach and decided on full blown attack.
Boudica’s Iceni, with their neighbouring tribes, the Trinovantes attacked the Romans, burning to the ground Londinium (London), Verulamium (St. Albans) and Camulodunum (Colchester).
However, Boudica killed herself with poison after her army was almost wiped out by Roman legions who were returning from a spell of active service in North Wales where they were attempting to suppress the Druids in Anglesey.
During the 70’s and 80’s Romans, command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, took control of northern and western England. Roman Legions were then based at York, Chester and Caerleon. This marked the limits of the ‘Civil Zone’. Agricola then moved northwards defeating the Caledonian tribes under the leadership of Calgacus at the battle of Mons Graupius in what is now present day north-eastern Scotland.
However, the Romans slowly had to give up their conquests in Scotland and, in 122 AD, Emperor Hadrian built his wall all the way from the west coast of Britain to the east. Hadrian’s Wall ran 80 miles from Newcastle, in the east, to Carlisle in the west. This was the boundaries of the Roman Empire and much of the great construction can still be seen today.
Hadrian died in 138 AD and his successor, Antonius Pius, abandoned the newly completed wall and attempted to again push northwards into Scotland. First building the Gask Ridge and Roman Road then to establish a new frontier, called The Antonine Wall. This was built between the Forth and Clyde rivers in Scotland as a continuation of the Gask Ridge.
In around 160 AD the Antonine Wall was abandoned and thereafter Hadrian’s Wall again became the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain. The Romans never did succeed in subduing the Scots and thus always had to maintain a significant military presence to control the threat from the unconquered tribes. The people in southern Britain settled for Roman rule. Roman towns appeared across south Britain, including York, Chester, St. Albans, Bath, Lincoln, Gloucester and Colchester.
All of these major areas are still linked today by the system of Roman military roads radiating from London. Roman Roads such as Ermine Street, Watling Street and the Fosse Way.
These roads were used to allow the distribution of Roman luxuries such as spices, wines, glass etc. from other regions of the Empire.
It is clear the Romanisation of Britain mainly affected the rich beginning an aristocracy who increased their status by adopting Roman ways and practices such as regular bathing. Yet the majority of the populace remain relatively untouched by the Roman civilisation where they lived off the land and eked out a precarious living. Not much has change since the Romans left.
People in the North of England vote Tory. They get a government for which they have voted.
London votes on average 50/50 or more. London is a Labour voting City. Not that it matters. They are all the same.
Jack Murphy
I know they’re only Tory rags but I wish they had given some thought before they launched their headlines.
Who would sell up their houses here because of a relatively small (for them) increase In CT and head off to England where the money they would get for selling their houses in Scotland would only be able to buy a much inferior house?
And perhaps pay more in CT as well.
North – South? Where is the halfway point between Shetland and Scilly?
Prestwick!
On FM Questions. Why did Ms Dugdale keep on asking about Fracking when the question was answered? Is she not given a second question just in case? Who is writing this script?
Aaaah. Questions, eh?
Why the h*** do we need to frack when we’ve got more oil and gas than Croesus, anyway? Oh, it’s not ours is it?
Aaaah. Questions, eh?
From a population point of view, the north-south dividing line runs roughly between the Bristol channel and the Wash. From a Westminster constituency point of view, everything south of that line plus either the East Midlands or West Midlands, makes a plurality.
From a geographical point of view, the midpoint of the main island of Britain between north, south, east, and west is around Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria. Include outlying islands like Scilly, Shetland, St Kilda, the midpoint is just east of Ayr!
The BBC never reviews Scottish newspapers unless its a big story, its always the usual Fleet Street rags.
The reality is that London isn`t remotely interested in what Scotland has to say and when trying to defend the BBC she merely talks of“ Northern“ papers.
Look, in this Unionist universe we unfortunately inhabit, the north of Britain is south of Scotland, which is the northern most nation of the bipartite British state. Only once you have grasped the subtle inflection of this reality, can you fully grasp the insignificance of Scotland to the metro-centric viewpoint. London constitutes roughly 8% of the UK’s population but it is the capitol of Britain and it’s inhabitants are very important. Ergo, shut your cake holes and stop bleating.
#Grievances
The problem with these pratty parochial presenters is they probably possess property in places in Portugal and not in Polperro, Porthcawl, Preston, Peterlee or Peterloo, Peterborough, Penzance, Pittenween, Partick, Portpatrick or Pierowall.
Basically speaking, they’re just taking the pee.
Michelle Mone and others, Heyward, McPherson etc are now being illegally rewarded with public money for supporting Cameron’s lies at the Referendum.
O/T Danus Skene
Danus is also running a fundraiser here: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/fighting-fund-in-support-of-danus-skene and he could do with a wee filip if you can manage.
He would have been the MP for Ork/Shet if Carmichael hadn’t lied his way to selection. He’s now running to oust Tavish Scott
The centralization in London, economic, political and cultural has become utterly entrenched.
To suggest any distribution around the UK, or even parts of England is heresy, be it BBC, Airports,infrastructure spending or even news papers on the News.
SAye I can just see them reporting on a story in the Sunday Post.
Murder in the Glens… Carnage as Eagle Swoops on Defenceless Lamb…
perhaps the Hon Man is a regular contributor as well…
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-launch-a-scottish-six-stop-the-bbc-being-steered-by-london/u/15670805
Still 155 signatures needed , lets see that look on ALL of their faces .
@galamcennalath
“North – South? Where is the halfway point between Shetland and Scilly?
Prestwick!”
Not if you use the BBC Weather Map.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f390/chicmac/BBCWeather.gif
Then it is either near Leeds or South of Manchester depending whether you go from Shetland-Scilly or John o Groats-Lizard point.
That’s probably the face every BBC presenter made off camera after any report about Scottish independence pre vote. Guaranteed.
So patronising, like ‘the Capitol’ to ‘the Districts.’
That scene could have come straight from ‘The Hunger Games’.
PS Sorry that Gif is running a bit jerkily in Bucket either something happened in the upload or Buckets optimizer bots haven’t had time to hone it yet.
@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 11:25 am:
“According to the ONS the London region only makes about 2% of its GDP from manufacturing.”
Aye! Chic, read my long comment about early Roman British history. I briefly hint at the facts there.
Since ever we have had a written history the records show there has been an elite, mainly of foreign extraction, as a ruling class in and around London.
Now the Romans, throughout the entire Roman Empire, operated in the same manner. First they subdued the native populations with military might. Then they held a population census, (Joseph and Mary were on their way to one such when Jesus was born).
Thereafter the Romans ruled by Romanising the former rulers and setting them up as the local governments. They took prisoners as slaves to sell back in Rome and set up a customs and excise system.
This system taxed the imports and exports of the various countries of the Roman Empire. Thus extracting the natural wealth of their colonial slave states while at the same time making the native populations pay for being raped of their natural resources.
London was the centre of Roman Britain and when the Romans left Britain the south Britons invited the Germanic tribes into Britain rather than re-join with the Celtic Fringes in what was to become Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
History proves the point that since ever written records began Britain has had an elite ruling class in London who either claimed all Britain as their own even while the rest of Britain resisted them ar have actually been in charge.
When they couldn’t subdue the native populations with military force they did so with bribery, corruption or underhanded trickery and the Treaty of Union is provable as such.
The English Navigation Acts, the William Paterson scheme to establish The Bank of England, His scheme to involve Scotland’s landowners/parliamentarians in the Darien Expedition and his associate, Daniel Defoe being an undercover English agent. The massed troops and Royal Navy presence on our borders all add up to a Rough Wooing and forced marriage.
That elite Ruling class living off the backs of the poor natives has been an ever present faction throughout Britain’s history. Every faction since the Anglo-Saxon tribes has been of the same area of origin. The Norsemen/Normans and those aristocratic hereditary peers still sitting in the HOL to this very day are their direct descendants.
Over 2000 years – why would they opt to change now?
UKOK hackdom mocks Scotland relentlessly, either #SNPbad or stuff like rancid The Graun’s daily piss take, like today, Scotland section, no capital letter, after their UK, education, media, society, law, its their scotland region
“Snow and ice warnings issued for large swaths of Britain
Met Office issues yellow warnings for Thursday, Friday and Saturday as mercury falls to -1C in Leeds”
#SNPbad, sometimes v bad, sometimes v v bad, sometimes they even have Rupert Carrell on, to really teach his scotland region a lesson, after he’s gone through every single scotland region story, binned them all, and then spotting a meteor shower over his scotland region, which was really amazing and UKOK relevant and amazing. Sometimes an old English geezer keels over, in his Scotland region and that can amaze the Graun too, in their scotland region.
Chic
Your gif is running OK for me. Very instructive-thanks:-)
Chic McGregor says:
“Not if you use the BBC Weather Map.”
Animation makes the point well!
Same old questions. Why? Ignorance, arrogance, stupidity … or intentional propaganda trying to reinforce the “too wee” message?
Too many apologists are willing to accept ignorance, arrogance and/or stupidity. I’m always a sucker for a good conspiracy theory – I go with propaganda.
@ Socrates Macsporran
I think you may have missed out Shetland. If you draw a line from the furthest north point to the southernmost, the centre is actually in Kelso.
@ Socrates Macsporran 12:12 pm
I think you may have missed out Shetland. If you draw a line from the furthest north point to the southernmost, the centre is actually in Kelso.
Tad more subtle #SNPbad thing today from rancid The Graun. It looks like pay back from Rupert Carrell for yesterday’s Westmonster PMQ’s where Angus Robertson made the UK pig fancying champion really sweat over Brexit. It was fun watching toryboy No.1 struggle to NOT boost the EU, in front of his hoards of hard core Brexit tories behind him, but still having to actually to agree with the SNP and boost the EU, without actually doing so.
Clearly, the questions really pissed off rancid The Graun, so UKOK revenge for Angus Robertson’s perfectly reasonable backing for pro EU Cammers.
Robertson did it twice too. No wonder Rancid’s angry.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/03/pro-eu-vote-would-harm-scottish-independence-ex-snp-deputy-jim-sillars
Don’t forget adblock. Chrome says archive is has malware but it is tax dodger google.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b072sycw/prime-ministers-questions-02032016
Yesterday’s PMQ’s, in case you’re wondering what on earth I’m on about. 12 mins ish, blue tory benches go very quiet.
I used to collect these gems, unguarded moment when they just couldn’t help themselves, but it was time consuming and there were so many, I stopped. Still got some on my hard drive and I’ve uploaded one typical example. From Radio 4 (with ‘actors’ provided by muvizu).
Hope it runs OK
http://vid51.photobucket.com/albums/f390/chicmac/R4%20broadcast%20animation%20using%20muvizu.mp4
Sorry about double post above – don’t know how.
Re Guardian article, quotes extensively from Jim Sillars anti-EU campaigner. Sillars does seem to have the knack of shooting himself in the foot. Guardian helpfully refers to him as a former Deputy Leader of the SNP but omits that that was in 1988.
http://tinyurl.com/jqv2d99
I got the warning about archive too – says malware might be installed from archive.li whoever they are?
If not from the Sunday Post, from where else do nostalgic Londoners order replacement beige Crimplene trousers, tartan lined leatherette slippers & carbolic soap?
Capella says:
“Sillars does seem to have the knack of shooting himself in the foot”
He is an ideological socialist. He often talks a lot of sense. However his priority is to be seen to be fighting the good fight and never actually getting into a position of implementing worthy changes!
Capella
Fair point about the dividing line being around Kelso, I was, however, specifically referring to the mid-point of Great Britain, the main island in the British Isles archapeligo, rather than the mid-point of the political entity, the Unitd Kingdom.
Mind you, down in that there Lunnun – “The North” will still begin somewhere around the River Trent, and finish at the line of Hadrian’s Wall. Beyond there is a small, far-away land, of which they know nothing – and about which they care even less.
That’s a belter chic! Surely a no voter would think twice after that beauty? Surely??
Thanks for that Robert.
I’m a bit of a history fiend myself, at least in areas that take my interest.
On Paterson I would say, for me, the jury is still out on whether he was a consciously malicious agent of the Union re Darien, if for no other reason than his own wife died on the venture. Also, he is alleged but unproven to have had input into the creation of the later South Sea Bubble scam which most likely inordinately lost money for English investors.
I tend to think of him more as a 17th-18th century Gordon Brown, the primary characteristic being incompetence.
And he need not have been even as pro-Union as Incapability Brown either, to achieve similar effect.
@Socrates MacSporran says: 3 March, 2016 at 4:02 pm:
“Fair point about the dividing line being around Kelso, I was, however, specifically referring to the mid-point of Great Britain, the main island in the British Isles archapeligo, rather than the mid-point of the political entity, the Unitd Kingdom.”
Well actually if you had quoted the geographic centre of Britain it would have been somewhere else again. The geographic centre would take account of the Channel Island Crown protectorates of Jersey and Guernsey which are not part of the UK of Great Britain & N.Ireland.
@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 4:13 pm:
“On Paterson I would say, for me, the jury is still out on whether he was a consciously malicious agent of the Union re Darien, if for no other reason than his own wife died on the venture.”
Ah! there we must differ, Chic. The evidence on Daniel Defoe is conclusive. He was indeed a proven and paid for English Agent but recruited under pressure of threats and blackmailed.
Here’s a reference that may prove enlightening.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe
And here’s an extract from that reference :-
This indicates Paterson was instrumental in recruiting Defoe as a spy. The point about Paterson’s wife is negated if you realise Paterson himself was probably being blackmailed by Robert Harley as Paterson too had long term debt problems. If nothing else they both were friends and both involved with the spy master Robert Harley who does seem to have a modus operandi of forcing obedience by blackmail and coercion.
Robert Peffers @ 2.57
Don’t mean to open a whole can of worms especially since it’s no really relevant to this site or this discussion.
But I know you are a stickler for facts.
It’s my understanding that other than the claims made in the Bible itself (which are in contradiction with each other).
There is no supporting documentation or evedienc for the claim of a census ever having occurred around the time of the alleged birth of Jesus.
There is also no logical reason to conduct a census that entails a return to the town of you’re birth.
Instigating such a mass movement of people, would most likely have been recorded/remarked upon in other writing of that peroid,again nothing has to date been found.
While the story of the census certainly supports the claim that the Romans did indeed conduct them,that one in particular seems to be one of the myths that enter in to the realm of distorted history that you,yourself spend a lot of time trying to correct…… …Jist Sayin
Robert Peffers, enjoy your “essays” here on real and unknown Scottish history here very much. I am sure all Scots suffocating for true information would be glad to see you given an hour on the telly, rather than the political broadcasts on behalf of the Kim Jong Davidson Don’t Mention The Conservatives Party…
I wanted to ask the following: given that the people of Scotland is sovereign, was Mary Stuart wrong to say the following words at her trial in England? Or was she “absolute” in the sense — absolute insofar as the sovereign people allows… and then… ???
“I am myself a Queen, the daughter of a King, a stranger, and the true Kinswoman of the Queen of England. I came to England on my cousin’s promise of assistance against my enemies and rebel subjects and was at once imprisoned… As an absolute Queen, I cannot submit to orders, nor can I submit to the laws of the land without injury to myself, the King my son and all other sovereign princes…
Of course, she is talking about being an absolute queen while she is on the territory of England, so maybe that gives her a get-out clause, given that Liz I of Ingerland really WAS an absolute monarch as “queen OF england”…
OK Bob. I stand corrected.
I used to be of the view that Paterson was an agent but was dissuaded from that view by another of us oldies with an interest in history who does not contribute here.
So now I am persuaded back again. 🙂
Chic at 3.42pm
Wow-that clip caused my Quick Time program to run on my pc. Didn’t even know whether it worked or not after years sitting on my hard drive. It’s never been triggered before 🙂
Liked the clip though
Liz G,
what could honestly go wrong mentioning religion in Scotland 😉
All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe, The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun.
Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter.
@Lollysmum
Quick Time eh? That’s going back. Used to be the main player at one time until it started trying to ingratiate itself too much into your computer system. 🙂
I have mp4 files defaulted to run on Windows Media Player on my system.
Western Mail FFS so Cardiff is now in the North!!!
O/T
Did he speak out during the Blair and Brown years, I can’t recall.
http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/corbyn-launches-attacks-failures-of-blair-and-brown/03/03/
http://archive.is/SDjC9
Andrew McLean @ 5.36
Whits up way the Sun….Ah like the Sun
It’s really useful, its blasphemers like you that cause the Sun tae no shine very much oan Scotland.
Dae ye no realise if the Sun wiz shown the respect it deserves it wid show up a Wee bit mare,that kin only be a good thing.Aye
@Liz g says: 3 March, 2016 at 5:19 pm:
“Robert Peffers @ 2.57
Don’t mean to open a whole can of worms especially since it’s no really relevant to this site or this discussion.
Sorry to disillusion you, Liz, but the last book in the World I’d regard as a history book is the Bible. My use of the Biblical census was much more due to the probability almost everyone had heard the story.
It doesn’t change the fact that the Roman Empire was run for the Roman occupiers by the Romanised local native bigwigs, in whatever country they came from, and the Romans financed their empire by taxation and that was mainly customs & excise.
There are more historic holes in the Bible’s stories than there are bible stories.
“Don’t start …”
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Jeezo I thought it was Helen Lederer..
Ach well since it’s quiet Stu there cannae be many better totp’s than this….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06zdnkk/top-of-the-pops-05031981
@Kenny says: 3 March, 2016 at 5:21 pm:
“Robert Peffers, enjoy your “essays” here on real and unknown Scottish history here very much. I am sure all Scots suffocating for true information would be glad to see you given an hour on the telly, rather than the political broadcasts on behalf of the Kim Jong Davidson Don’t Mention The Conservatives Party…”
I believe, Kenny, that most Scots would rather have an hour of Tom & Jerry than any political broadcast on behalf of anyone on the telly.
:-))
As to what any particular Scottish monarch believed they were is also rather a moot point. Like the present lot in The UK they all rather had ideas well above their actual station.
For example I don’t believe, for a minute, that King Robert Bruce thought himself any less a Monarch with the Divine Right of Kings than did James I & VI. I’m sure he died believing he had that Divine Right.
He was a victim of circumstances and just went along with the ideas of the people being sovereign mooted in the Declaration of Arbroath in order to retain the crown of Scotland.
It got him, (and all Scotland), off the hook of being excommunicated by the then leadership of the Pope in Rome who also claims to be God’s Earthly representative.
Just as James I & VI took himself off to his Kingdom of England where he was officially a sovereign monarch but not so in Scotland under Scots law.
Then we had King Billy and Queen Mary who delegated their Divine Right to the Parliament of England. To not do so would have seen them not getting their coronation as legal duel monarchs of England.
Do you imagine, for a moment that Lizzie doesn’t regard herself as having Divine Right? These people are born to believe they have a right to privilege and the unquestioned support of their subjects.
All of which is quite a different matter from what becomes law it any particular country in the World. Do you think, for example that the Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, doesn’t think he has Divine Right?
North Korea changed a lot since Kim Jong-un assumed power. Kim Jong-un, is officially part of a triumvirate heading the executive branch of the North Korean government. The other two are Premier Pak Pong-ju and parliament chairman Kim Yong-nam (no relation), but if I were any of the other two I’d be very, very, careful.
After all Kim Jong-un wasn’t long before bumping off his own uncle who he regarded as a personal threat. Considering there is no such thing as a single proof of God’s existence then there can be no such thing as an actual Representative of God on Earth.
@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 5:23 pm:
“I used to be of the view that Paterson was an agent but was dissuaded from that view by another of us oldies with an interest in history who does not contribute here.
So now I am persuaded back again.”
We are all in the same boat, Chic. We can only go on the evidence we find and that does seem to point to Paterson being up to his neck in undercover work for the English Crown Spy-master Robert Harley.
The thing is that the Establishment have an interest in suppressing any real evidence that the Treaty was a forced matter and if they can sit on something like the MacRone Report they can certainly sit on other matters of history.
However, the paperwork of Robert Harley, Defoe and Paterson still exists and can be read, even if getting the chance to do so is made almost impossible.
Do you think Martine Croxall thinks a Wullie Rennie is used for treating syphilis?
She must know who this vastly intelligent visionary politician is, with her vast knowledge of everything north of Westminster.(surely?)
O/T Orkney and Shetland still think they are voting for Joe Grimond.(pathetic)
O/T (just)
Excellent article in this month’s iScot entitled “Psychology of weather maps” by Dr Robert Sproul-Cran. How the BBC denigrates the North every day!
No link. Please subscribe. An excellent magazine for us.
I note that a certain Robbie Dinwoodie is their “Political Editor”.
Capella says:
3 March, 2016 at 3:43 pm
Sorry about double post above – don’t know how.
Re Guardian article, quotes extensively from Jim Sillars anti-EU campaigner.
Graun hacks do allow themselves the pleasures of jock baiting dont they.
Opposition is meant to make life difficult for the PM and that’s exactly what Robertson did, really well. But Graun flips everything around as per, and then monsters Scottish democracy.
Its comes naturally to Britnat yoons like Carrell but its not hiding the fact that Lab and JC are hopeless, listless, dead in the water, about to throw it all and go back to their proper jobs. Return to your constituency and prepare for actual 9 to 5 jobs.
As we all know Scotland has no input to nominations for the BBC Trust.
The head of BBC Trust is one Rona Fairhead who is a friend of Cameron and Osborne and was appointed without interview.
The whistle blower Nicholas Wilson has revealed Ms Fairhead’s connections with HSBC and also investigates possible fraudulent activities of this Bank.
http://nicholaswilson.com/
Don’t you love the London Establishment.
Breach of BBC independence
http://nicholaswilson.com/response-from-bbc-trust/
@ Robert Peffers 7.40pm
Often read your very interesting excursions into history, Robert. One very small quibble though – the Declaration of Arbroath, I think, was presented to Pope John XX11, who was the second of the Avignon popes who presided at Avignon and not Rome. As I said, just a small point of interest.
Respects.
Scotland seems to need the approval of the United Kingdom Parliament if it wants to have a referendum to leave the political union that is the United Kingdom,
did United Kingdom Parliament need approval of European Parliament to have a referendum to leave the political union that is the European Union?
or if we leave will it be a case of UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence)?
I’d say one of 2 things happened after that programme;
1. The BBC goon squad took that young fella out the back and metaphorically shot him in the back of the head
Or
2. They saw the error of their ways and have added The National and. The Irish News to thier standard UKOK right wing pile of tosh to give a different view on things
I wonder which decision was made?
I did not get any audio on this. Is it my computer or your audio that’s the problem? I don’t have any other audio problems.
Slightly OT
Anyone else witness Clive Myrie in full Johnny foreigner mode last night (bbc news 24 8:20 ish).
Speaking with a Swiss academic (I think) about Switzerland’s relationship with Europe quizzes said gentleman:
CM “With all due respect to Switzerland, nice cheese and all that, but Switzerland is a small country …”
I would credit the Swiss guy with answering the question Clive eventually asked but in fact I was looking for him to tell Clive that if he ever met him he would ram a toblerone up his arse.
EBC mind set right there.
@Bill Steele
Still got audio for me, it could be you don’t have the appropriate codec says he vaguely?
I have NEVER seen any Welsh papers……they don’t care
@Cadogan Enright –
London is, and always has been, the centre of the universe.
By ‘tradition’, the only newspapers on this planet which are allowed to capitalise ‘the’ are The Times and The Sunday Times.
All other publications are, therefore, inferior.
Obviously.
PS You wouldn’t happen to be in Scotland on March 26th by any chance? 😉
@JGedd, Robert
I noticed that one as well. I was corrected on it myself many years ago, again by the same old history graduate who persuaded me Paterson was merely incompetent rather than an agent, but the Harley material available in Wiki Robert highlighted now would appear to settle that matter.
Also noticed another where you, Robert, recounted the commonly held view that the Maid of Norway was drowned on the way to Scotland when in fact she did not.
I have heard enough claims along that line over the years to be of the opinion that this seems to have been due to a once common misconception among schoolteachers which I think stemmed mainly from a misinterpretation of the once ubiquitously taught Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens.
However none of these details changes the gist of the matter.
Even in the contemporary example of a Paterson-esque figure i.e. Gordon Brown, despite the absence of intervening centuries to contend with, you can still find significant division between those who think he acted in an anti-Scottish manner deliberately and those who think he was just a manipulated incompetent.
No one from Scotland on BBC Questions for England only Time tonight again.
So anyway
Stewart McDonald MP Retweeted
Britain Elects ?@britainelects 5h5 hours ago
Voting intentions for the Scottish Parliament throughout February suggest Labour on course to lose 1/3 of its seats
SLab -12.
SNP +3
Immigration Time on the beeb is strange- the same programme repeated again and again with a different accent from last week.
Young woman from UKIP reminding the audience that Turkey are trying to get membership of the EU opening our borders to 77million Turkish folk: can our infrastructure in the North of England cope (with an extra 77 million people)?
I love it: poor infrastructure in the North of England is to be endured like the weather! An act of God!
Lots of indignation at Project Fear (as they call the vastly diluted scaremongering of the Remain campaign compared to the original Westminster/BT campaign). Big difference of course was that the original Project Fear was conceived, funded, and relentlessly prosecuted by the country we were debating whether to leave or not.
The equivalent during this referendum would be if Project Fear II was conceived, funded and prosecuted by the EU which it clearly is not. There are similarities but lets not forget the enormous difference between the two campaigns.
@ian Brotherhood 10.35
Depends what’s on. Have been recovering from an operation and just getting back to things. Would love to organise a workshop some where for the ‘Inform Scotland” group who aspire to crowd fund street posters but are struggling to hit their organisational stride.
Suggestions welcome
Liz g 5:15
The Sun hates Scots, 10 minutes in its presence and we throb like a Belisha Beacon!
I tell you it hates us, every other nation on earth can bask in its rays, frolicking and laughing whilst we cowering under umbrellas wonder what we did to offend it!. Can you believe it umbrellas in the sun! we are so used to rain we take our umbrellas to the beach!
Amazing, and true!
Anyway as much as they call us a one party state, of being Nazis, any sane person listening to the last few BBC question time audiences would weep!
We’re lucky to have a social democratic tradition in our country, where our government cares about being better, our neighbors are saddled with right wing extremists, but then listen to some on question time, they are one step from goose stepping around shouting at Johny foreigner,
On BBC colonial service (Scotland) we had a bust pipe damaging a ward in a old hospital, that’s due to be replaced next year, compare and contrast with the collapse of the English NHS, doctors strike, 10% of GP practices in serious financial crisis. But we have a journalist EB who’s reports are a bloody disgrace, a corruption of her craft.
We live in a country where our press is corrupt, hiding behind journalism’s true tenant of holding the government to account, as the launch a black opps attack and abuse our democracy.
No wonder the sun, as it rises over Scotland, looks down and thinks “sod that” and dives behind a cloud!
Is QT still the Dimbleby show?
Don’t see it, don’t want to, and can’t imagine why anyone bothers with it.
It’d be nice to see Dimbleby heading up a congo-line, followed by all the usual faces – Bojo, Melanie Philips, Owen Jones, Ken Clarke, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Heseltine, Gove, Diane Abbott, Livingstone, Galloway, Kelvin McKenzie, Piers Morgan, John Prescott, Ian Hislop, Edwina Currie and all their pundit pals, interspersed with sundry comedians, minor novelists, cultural commentators, telly-chefs, retired athletes, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen and all the rest of them, slowly winding their way, like a behemoth Caterpillar from Hell, heading back there, where they belong…stutteringly kicking their way out of Broadcasting House and out of our lives forever…
As we get nearer the Grand Eurobollox Draw QT will sound like this:
Black Lace, ‘Hokey Cokey’ –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z20qLln3qI8
Ian Brotherhood @11.46.
Brilliant!
This EU ref has deflected from the real problems in, particularly England, like the NHS. But also the risk to our Human Rights among many other things this Tory government is hell-bent on.
Hopeful for a more balanced QT from Dundee next week with John Swinney, although Ruthie is also on the panel.
Hopefully, Owen Thomson’s Bill on the movement of nuclear weapons throughout UK will progress tomorrow. Channel 131 from 9.30am.
@Cadogan Enright –
If the group you mention don’t mind workshopping and socialising simultaneously, we’re getting together on that Saturday at a Glasgow venue (tbc). If nothing else, they’d get to meet a lot of folk from here – a good networking opportunity? There will be an open mike, so it might also be a chance to explain what the group is all about.
Just a thought.
In any event, it’d be great to finally meet you.
I thought Orkney & Shetland were east of Aberdeen. & mehaving worked off-shore for years!!!
O/T…New online Book Report.
There is one read which should provide the best laugh of the decade.
It will be coming out shortly, it is called…
…….
The labour party manifest for the Scottish Parliament election.
……..
It is unique in that it brilliantly combines fiction, comedy, surrealism and political gerrymandering, wrapped in a swirling haze of obfuscation and memory lapses.
The lead character attracts derision and the kind of confused sympathy usually attached to comic book villians, you know they always lose in the end, partly because of the massive holes in their scurrilous plots, and partly due to the obvious lack of self awareness of their limited ability to produce a cohesive and workable plan to conquer over the good guys.
This read will divide the nation, some will value the attempt at sarcasm and others will hate it from the start, yet the latter is a tad harsh as it is a piece which should not be taken too seriously by the reader, since the main plot lines, and the main character are themselves self deprecating in a massively ironic manner, all despite the obvious and previously mentioned, lack of self awareness.
To summarise, if you do not take the content seriously, you will surely get a good laugh it the best piece of comedic writing since …..well…since the 2015 labour party GE manifesto !!!
……….
Tories apply to become “Conservative and Unionist party” across Britain
Cameron is coming to Scotland for the Tory conference and according to the leaked parts of his speech it’s gloves off and personal with Sturgeon.
—————————————————————–
That’ll add a 1% to the SNP poll ratings. 🙂
https://archive.is/KRJW2
OT:
Is treason still a capital offence?
Having listened to & read some of the comments from Forsyth & Lang, shouldn’t we immediately request their arrest & extradition to stand trial. As they have already ‘shit in their own nest’, the jury decision would only be coffe & biscuits (5 minutes).
Now that we have done away with capital punishment might I suggest the possible alternatives.
1) Permanently banned from Scotland & forbidden from making any more inane comments. If breached, be exiled to St Kilda & be provided with the minimum basics to stay alive.
2) Be publicly humiliated on a daily basis until such time they see the folly of their ways & uderstand that s**t is supposed to be excreted from the rectum.
More suggestions welcomed.
Sleeping on the job
Need more Wee Books for the May Elections. Ran out the last time. Need over 200,000. Get them out now. There will be unemployed Oil folk out campaigning. Publish more Wee Blue Books. They are needed now. There were not enough to go round at indyRef1. The more the merrier.
I think the Social Chapters we’d lose leaving the EU is a red herring,… Well not quite, let’s call it a pinkish herring.
There is a much bigger problem, and it’s all about mortgages and property. Here in the UK, our property market is a shaky house of cards, with low cost cheaply built structures being sold for vastly inflated values. The actual method, and more importantly permanence and longevity of the construction is not being connected to the value of the property. Instead, the critical elements for valuations are location, infrastructure, and the schedule of bedrooms. You could build a house with butter, and if it had enough bedrooms, was near to the school and shops you could get a mortgage for it. And if there were two houses built of butter, the arbitrary value of one will be used as a yardstick to gauge the value of the second. It’s a massive, massive con worth uber-billions, typified by the fact the people who lend you the money to buy these properties are the same people who specify the value of these properties. They literally write their own cheque.
And here comes the problem. Europe doesn’t think that way. On the continent, there is a straight forward difference which has a profound effect on property value. It takes account of how the property is built. A traditional property built with bricks and mortar and built to last will see that permanence reflected in its value, just as a cheap specification timber frame with a 50 year design life will see its structure and fabric pegging it to a much lower value. It’s an age old concept; value for money, but the UK has long ago dispensed with value for money, and chosen abstract issues such as the number of bedrooms to hoodwink buyers, and disassociate the price property can sell for, and what it’s actually worth.
Government colludes. The population is groomed to have aspirations to own property, yet know nothing about the property they are buying. Everybody makes money. The lenders, the house builders, the Estate Agents, the Council rates, the lawyers… All take their %, just like they always have. So where is the con? It’s with the house buyer. They are paying somewhere between three and four times the price for a property over and above what it is worth. They also think that a new property is not going to require any maintenance for decades, and provide equity later on in life. They are going to be in for a shock if they think they will be able to borrow against a 30 year old timber frame property.
And finally, we get back to the European problem. The British economy draws its value from abstract components supported on sky hooks. It is fundamentally incompatible with the EU’s economy which may not be problem free, but it kinda has its feet on the ground. This is why the UK cannot entertain joining the Euro, and must resist closer integration with Europe. They cannot risk European standards and values blowing the gaff on our “Great Property Swindle”. There will be a property crash to make the Credit Crunch look feeble.
The clock is ticking. All of this modern shitty property which spiralled out of control in the 80’s is 30 years old now, and when it turns out to be worthless, the chickens will start coming home to roost.
In this scenario, the priority of government is control. Perhaps, if the population can be conned again, the property crash can be manipulated so the whole economy doesn’t implode spectacularly and the poor sods who have lost everything can be sidelined and cauterised ; but Europe, with all those pesky rules and regulations would just get in the way.
That is why the UK economy cannot risk closer integration with Europe. It has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration. Immigration is the white rabbit which distracts the eye from the slight of hand we’re not supposed to see.
Last of all, in Scotland, because our property prices haven’t gone wholly ballistic, we are better placed for the next crunch, but that is more by luck than judgement. Our property based economy IS the UK’s house of cards ponzi scheme model, and we are all dangerously complacent with that simple fact.
ken 500 following from Rev’s fundraiser
it should indeed be the case that a second indyref comes along, this time we want to print one million copies of the Wee Blue Book (in an updated and revised edition), to follow the 300,000 we distributed across Scotland in 2014.
The property market has stayed relatively stable in Scotland because Scotland has been depopulated by Westminster economic policies until the year 2000. There were enough houses to meet demand. In fact many became ruins, still visable all over the countryside. The people had to emigrate to get job and not starve. (Migrants) 40Million Diaspora. Scotland is more than half empty.
There has always been relative enough houses to meet demand, but not in certain catagories. Until 2000 when Devolution resulted in population increase. The Unionists administration did not encourage the building of enough affordable homes. They built one affordable house in six years. Too busy paying for illegal wars, tax evasion and unregulated banking fraud. Mainly in London and the Midlands.
On average the ratio of home to income has remained the same since the 1950’s. Without inflation in certain areas. The wealth of London was attributed to major house building in the 1930’s? Houses pass from generation to generation. The housing fraud was a result of Government irresposible banking deregulation in the UK /US. Deregulation of world banking rules of capital reserves and collateral. UK/US are world bankers because of fraud and instability in many ither countries. A irresponsible, fraudulent banking sector. A disaster since the 1980’s especially in London S/E and the Midland. Thatchers/Brown irresponsibility. Prooerty rights are enshrined in the (EU) Human Rights legislation.
There is an increase needed in single person occupancy/accomadation. More people are living alone for demographic reasons (worldwide?). More affordable houses are being build by the Scottish Gov 6,000 a year. + 11,000 by private builders. This will solve many problems. More need to be built. People dying will leave more homes available. There are empty houses which could be brought back into use, that it is not an insurmountable problem. New homes are built to a higher standards, insulation, renewable features and better boilers etc.
To buy or rent. Buyng costs £100 a month more which decreases over time to over £100+ less. (Mortgage) pro rata. Rent pay £100 less a month for a better property = more freedom and disposible income. The Diffence increasing on average with size of property. People are marrying later (age) having less children – later. (age) . More people are not having children = need for more one person occupancy property.. Divorce is higher. Deaths are later. Women out live men on average. Die at an older average age. (5 years?) Getting a mortgage can be difficult if there is less money available because of (UK) Gov restrictions.
Rats in tenements etc are a problem in some major cites. The councils should sort out that problem. A health and safety matter.
More wee blue books need to be printed now to distribute for the Holyrood EU elections. Get them out now to inform voters and encourage more folk to vote for Independence. Kill Twa burds with one stone. There were not enough to go round IndyRef1. Be prepared. To delay is to procrastinate.
O/T links
https://www.politicshome.com/foreign-and-defence/articles/story/alex-salmond-helps-broker-moves-end-death-penalty
https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/103189/snp-accuse-osborne-of-sitting-on-his-hands-over-offshore-tax-cuts/
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3586/our-real-debt-problem-personal-debt-austerity-and-the-parasite-banks
http://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/7793/queensferry-crossing-construction-bill-falls-by-1bn-msps-hear/
O/T links
http://helensburghsnp.scot/index.php/item/378-tories-renewing-trident-by-stealth
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-03/u-k-france-2-billion-drone-project-to-benefit-bae-dassault
http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/tory-bullying-more-sick-smears.html
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/03/george-osborne-has-foot-in-mouth-disease-yanis-varoufakis.html
Another problem the SNP Scottish Gov is going to face is the cut in housing benefit for under 25 year olds, with low incomes and no other accommodation. That will have to be resolved. Young folk leaving care etc.
Breeks
‘Home Reports’ state if a property is ‘non-traditional build’ i.e anything which is not double-brick with insulation gap & pitched roof with durable cover (slate/tiles).
If it is a ‘non traditional build’ it is highly unlikely to be mortgagable as lenders will not touch it.
Lenders will also not touch a property in Scotland which has ‘Japanese knotweed’ in garden or near a burn, water which has flooded. That really is the kiss of death.
I agree it did not use to be the case but since 2008 lenders really have become a lot more choosy. But yes, some modern builds are not fit for purpose. Lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers etc. have to sit exams and are rigidly checked to have proper qualifications but anyone can build a house and then sell you a deathtrap for hundreds of thousands, with local authority ‘completion certificates’ which don’t do any real checks. Builders really need to be licensed and qualified with a regulatory authority which they have to be a member of and cannot sell a house unless members of the Building Authority. The NHBC is a complete paper tiger and in builders’ pockets.
Steven Jardine on Radio North Britain just about to launch discussion about ‘Clean For The Queen’ week-end.
This should be good…whoops, must dash, just saw a crisp poke blowing down the road…
England ruling and dictating Scotland is clearly a relationship that just does not work. It never will. Long term it is not healthy or good for either side to carry on like this.
It needs to change, SNP x 2 May.
Just know our robust media core will doggedly press Cameron
Liam Fox statement about banning any notion of demands for Indyref2 via Courts if Exit of EU occurs.
A gift but our poodle press will ignore for sake of career prospects.
O/T links
Bribery with taxpayers cash
http://linkis.com/wordpress.com/KnlpX
HMRC and facebook taxes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnQLqykwHpY
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/03/02/hmrc-should-stop-lying-on-behalf-of-tax-cheats/
http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/peat-worrying-at-declarationfest.html?spref=tw
Gary45% at 7.52
Cut her some slack Gary. Martine knows fine well about the Sunday Post and who Wullie is. It,s Wullie Rennie one week and Gordon Broon the next.
I’m looking forward to the Post being taken over by PC Rupert Murdoch.
Toby Young (aye, that dude) just kicked it off by telling a grateful nation that he is a ‘Self-Appointed Litter Monitor’.
Huzzah!
Will anyone be asking John Chilcott to clean his out-tray?
Toby Young saying the most vituperative abuse he’s received via Twitter was from Cybernats!
The stall has been set out…
Huzzah!
Clean for the Queen, well OK, YOU FIRST!
Actual no, we know how long it takes to clean out your Westminster palace! we tried by sending you a batch of exterminators, but the cockroaches and rats demanded squatters rights!
Clean for Kim Jong-un, would get even bigger laughs in N. Korea.
SNP dont exist, BBC says but Andrew Neils last night end of week BBC Politics show was a spectacular example of how the winners write history, with an upper class twit trying to make a fool of Sturgeon as usual, air brush out BBC crucial hard core Project Fear thuggery in Scotland 2014, and then Labour dude explaining how Project Fear was actually necessary in Scotland 2014 as it “stripped away” YES lies on currency, EU membership for Scotland and how Scotland is an oil dependent economy and look at the oil price now.
Despite that old Labour shyster on the couch, its still BBC pretence that they were not infact Project Fear 2014 that makes them interesting, as crooks and con artists often are. The spivs cant even admit that Project Fear was Project Fear’s own name what they gave themselves. Watching that Spectator hackess ducking around that reality was quite a journey in UKOK BBC spiv politics.
QT in Dundee next. UKOK George Galloway got the stones to go home?
Heard Ruth Tank Commander on Radio shortbread this morning being given free reign to spout her p.., nonsense!
New Tory guarantee on NHS spending, is that a different flavour of vow? We all should know better about Tory guarantees.
She is full of contradictions. The most powerful devolved parliament in the world is also a one party state seemingly!
Very few interruptions from interviewer allowed, Ruth just kept ploughing on!
Refocus of media now on TOries trying to rehabilitate their cuddly, friendly, Scottish friendly image.
Aaaarf!
Toby Young has a well-kent face on him – has anyone in ‘Great Britain’ seen him picking up other people’s litter in any street, ever, ever, ever?
Artist taxi driver “Does anyone understand”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEV_4vqJ-Zw&feature=youtu.be
Increasingly people dying older, without any children (no relatives). No will. Their estate (houses) go to the Crown estate, their money goes back into the Community. You can’t take it with you.
Andrew Neil is a liar. A hard right Tory, one of Thatcher henchman, who gave false report for her. There are still archive broadcast of him down crying Scotland (poverty) when Thatcher was secretly and illegally taking the equivalent of £Billion out of Scotland. A disgrace. A irrepresible BBC troughering staffer, with knowingly false statistics made to deceive for his Westminster masters, on redial. They knew about the McCrone Report being kept secret. Neil is an alcoholic (just look at his visage). Been on the Whisky and wine. Alcoholics make poor judgements without total abstinence, proper counselling.
Do not watch the BBC news programmes, except Parliamentary Channel to decipher all the lies.
The only thing Cameron needs to come to Scotland for is to apologise for his Party’s criminal activity and keep the promise of Independence for Scotland.
T.R.A.D.A. specify a design life for Timber frame, that is timber frame that is properly built in the first place, of 60 years. The EU considers that generous, by around 20%, reigning that back to 50 years. That’s bad enough, but be aware that 50/60 years is dependent up 4 major refurbishments taking place; that is once every 15 years to replace doors/Windows/fascias/roof tiles/paint finishes which have anywhere from a 5 year lifespan to 25 or 30 years, IF those in turn are properly maintained.
The average moisture content in a centrally heated flat is 14%. Dry rot fungus requires a moisture content of (they say) 20%, although the fungus can exist and proliferate if not erupt when the moisture content is 18 to 19%.
The moisture content inside a property is dependent on three things; relative humidity, fuel for the fungus, and a lack of ventilation.
Now ask yourself, particularly in local authority properties whether the occupants are more or less likely to be bordering on fuel poverty, and whether they are more or less likely to block up all the drafty vents and extracts to keep the heat in, and thus impact on the ventilation that is vital for the timber.
Let’s stay in the bathroom and consider how much condensation say 4 family showers per day puts into the air, the further moisture which condenses on the cold porcelain fittings, and unpleasant though it is, the careless aim of us blokes. 14% is the average moisture content remember… 19% and dry rot may be there, spreading semi dormant.
Concerned yet? You should be. You cannot rely on timber treatments. For one thing, only structural timber requires to be rot treated. Boards and fascias, shelves, doors and furniture don’t require any treatment whatsoever. And where the structural timber has been cut, the rot protection is compromised. Very little timber in the modern home is rot treated.
I could go on… A timber frame typically settles by half an inch per storey, so the sills and lintels of the cladding have to be built low to accommodate the settlement. There are supposed to be wall ties tying back the cladding, but these cannot accommodate movement of some 50mm without pulling out the fixing. Instead, the ties need to be abbey cramp type, which slides up and down a rail. I invite you to find such ties being used…
It is all very trotting out the argument about low cost affordable housing, but that is a short sighted objective if the property needs demolished and replaced in 30 to 40 years. Furthermore, in fabric terms, there is very little change in the specification of low cost or luxury housing. It’s the same wood, the same boards, the same insulation, the same vents.
Believe it or not, I’m not anti timber frame. It serves a purpose. But can we please start seeing it as the short term interim solution, something closer in spirit to the temporary huts and classroom buildings of the 70’s. As the basis of our property market, we have infinitely better and more durable solutions which don’t get a look in, and worse, are frequently demolished to make way for this modern trash.
We are steadily losing our quality buildings, losing the trades and competence which built them, and by the time we realise the impact on our society, it will be too late. It may already be too late. Give it a few more years, and you will buy your house from Tesco, and it will be just like every other new house in the country.
Still it’s not all bad news. In 30 years time, the houses will be obsolete and due for replacement. That’s good news and job security for the two or three button pushers in the timber frame factory, and of course the lorry driver delivering them. R.I.P. the Scottish construction industry.
As per my post on Wednesday.
Partner’s granddaughter away with packed lunch to the park in Glenrothes to ‘clean for the Queen’ today!
Also got a birthday card to produce at school in honour of her birthday…
Nothing changes as I remember having to stand in Cowdenbeath high Street in the early fifties to wave to Betty and Phil as the RR sped past. Happy days 🙁
Tuning in to the Tories later to see the flag etc hope it’s upside down (they never get it right)
SNP X 2
Sorry.. T.R.A.D.A is the Timber Research and Development Association, the driving force behind timber frame.
Neil knows his mate Osbourne is illegally taxing the Scottish Oil sector at 60% costing thousands of jobs and revenues in Scotland. Osbourne illegally and deliberately trying to ruin the Scottish economy, for political reasons and spite. Neil knows Scotland has lost over £20Billion of Oil revenues over the last six years but keeps quiet to line his pockets with an over exorbitant salary of taxpayers money.
Total ignorance and greed.
Get the WMD’s out of Scotland. The majority did nit want them at Greenham Common Berkshire, 50 miles west of London. Closed in 1993.
Cancel Orange Marches in Glasgow every week. The Policing money saved could clean up Glasgow.
A PR campaign. The Royal’s £400Million was increased £5 Million in the 2011 Budget. They certainly clean up. They have got enough. Cut their extravagant allowance and create jobs and tidy up, instead of treating people like serfs. Treat people with respect. ‘Purring cat’. Milking the system.
I think they dare not acknowledge the metropolitan nature of the media because once they do and we get a Scottish Six, the North gets a Northern Six, the Welsh and Northern Irish do then London from the Rome of the Empire begins to look a bit Southern parochial. We can’t have that, so the weeping sores of media coverage in these sceptic isles will continue.
Andrew Neil is Scotland’s uncle Tom.
Uncle Tam doesn’t work. Ligger would hate the Tam bit. It is interesting watching him in BetterTogether action though, he slips in and out of “we Scots” a lot but it makes him visibly cringe. Like all BBC proud Scot buts, he’s trapped in world where he can never give up Project Fearing Scotland BBC style and its a fitting legacy. Everyone loathes propagandists eventually but none so much as themselves.
That’s a lie. They love it. The thrill of the successful fraudster, UKOK style.
New built homes last years. They only become old because they last so long. Timber built houses last for years and are fully insulated. All over the country (world). There are timbers build houses built over 50 years ago still going strong, in good condition and really popular. They will last well over a hundred years and more with reasonable maintenance. Relatively built at low cost (pro rata). They can secure mortgages.
A timber built framed house from Scandinavia was refused planning permission because it was too well insulated. The insulation had to be reduced to comply with Scottish Planning rules.
Muscleguy says
“begins to look a bit Southern parochial”
The point about ‘parochial’ is that when the parish happens to be the one you live in it is probably relevant. And, when the parish is elsewhere it is largely irrelevant.
The London Bubble just can’t see that their wee metropolitan sphere seems parochial to everyone else!
London contains one eighth of the UK population, and even with the whole SE we are talking about a quarter. Most live beyond their parish.
Ooh look at the diminishing tories or ‘Vibrant and dynamic’ as they call it.
https://twitter.com/GrayInGlasgow/status/705692137535496192
ACC unionists/green are still trying to shut Broad Street causing traffic chaos, to accommodate the non mandated carbuncle mess. What a sight. Beyond belief. The only solution is to get shot 2017. How much damage can be done till then? Goodness knows.
@ Breeks
What is your personal beef, aka SNP.
Breeks,
You are half right, but that means you are half wrong, I will build about 100 or so timber kit this year, just me, no one else involved ;-). We build to the silver standard, for housing associations, as follows specification for housing in Scotland.
I have been building houses for over 35 years now and for a fact houses are better built than they ever were. you should visit!
For anyone not picking up on the reference to, “The Western Mail”, in the video clip allow me to post part from a comment by a Welsh Nationalist on the matter.
I hope others get the implications and can now tie them to the reference to the Sunday Post.
Not sure if there is anything pertinent to the discussion re housing but anyhow…
http://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/scotland-round-up-scottish-minister-to-%E2%80%98call-in%E2%80%99-and-scrutinise-all-appeals-for-100-or-more-new
Ruthie puffing up CMD at the conference and here he is…cracking a joke at murryfield. Oh a double yoker!
OK Dave I’m listening! 🙂
>B/B<
When you're talking of timber housing, do you mean Block as in Canadian Block houses or are we talking about the Scottish home-made Carbon Dynamic or Makar?
Alternative would be Scananavian imports.
Sorry it’s for (fat fingers an no check)
@ Andrew McLean
When you’re talking of timber housing, do you mean Block as in Canadian Block houses or are we talking about the Scottish home-made Carbon Dynamic or Makar?
Alternative would be Scananavian imports.
@ Breeks
Not in construction are we?
A timber kit house will out last a traditional build.
You seem to think that traditional houses aren’t prone to rot and dampness.
Whats your thoughts on steel houses? Theres still a few of them knocking about.
Materials, technologies and technics change with building sciences just like any other industry.
@Gedd says: 3 March, 2016 at 8:49 pm:
“Often read your very interesting excursions into history, Robert. One very small quibble though – the Declaration of Arbroath, I think, was presented to Pope John XX11, who was the second of the Avignon popes who presided at Avignon and not Rome. As I said, just a small point of interest.”
I stand corrected, Gedd. It is rather difficult to squeeze every detail into a Wings post.
I thus attempt to stick to the main points I’m trying to make. You are correct, though, and perhaps I would have been better to stick to the use of, “The Head of all Christendom”, when referring to, “The Papacy”.
It’s a bit daft on my part to accuse other historians of misuse of terms while sometimes doing the same thing myself.
@Graf Midgehunter
Happy to promote Carbon dynamic. Their buildings are amazing, energy efficient etc.
http://www.carbondynamic.com/home.aspx
Cameron’s speech!
That was short and not so sweet less than 20 minutes and he’s off! Maybe London calling!
Small hall, cramped seating and close in camera shots about 200? but hard to tell.
What did he say?…SNP bad and vow delivered, so shut up and vote tory for 2nd place and up the red white and saltire blue… really he did!
Coverage closed for now.
@call me dave
This sums it up nicely
https://twitter.com/MrMalky/status/705723365462581248
Graf No timber kit,
may be wrong but no local authority I know is building timber homes. I did some work on old timber homes in view park, the tenants loved them?
I think Breeks is confusing the two?
when i started specifications were pretty simple now forgive me I have attached a recent specification.
External Walls
Rendered External Wall
External finish to be 19mm proprietary dry dash render system on 100mm concrete block, 50mm cavity, Render beads and trims to be PVC – colour to match render.Re-constitutd Stone
100mm Blue/Black Pitched face reconstituted stone. 50mm cavity, breather paper installed as per manufacturer’s instructions and recommendations.
External Cladding (Wall)
Trespa (colour as approved –t.b.c.) mounted 50 x 50mm treated sw battens vertically. To be fixed at back to structure 600 c/c max. if fixed to 3 battens or at 400 c/c max. if fixed to 2 battens. Fixed with stainless steel screws (4.8 x 38mm or to manufacturers recommendations) min 50mm from edge of board.
10mm ventilation gap with non deleterious insect mesh to top and bottom of each panel.
Timber Kit
Flexible stainless steel wall ties to timber frame inner leaf designed and constructed by specialist sub-contractor comprising standard breather paper (to BS4016:1997)on 9mm OSB on 140 x 38mm nominal treated softwood studs at 600mm centres (refer to project engineers panel details), insulated with 140mm thick unfaced non-combustible inorganic mineral fibre (conductivity 0.035W/mK), 250 gauge polythene vapour barrier,continuous 60mm rigid PIR insulation batt (conductivity 0.022W/mK) to inside of kit, 38x38mm sw timber battens at 600mm horizontal centres to form service void and 12.5mm thick tapered plasterboard for Ames taping. For flatted units two layers 12.5mm thick tapered plasterboard with joints staggered to all external walls at all floor levels except topmost where only one layer is required.
Timber Engineer designed lintels to inner leaf with stepped DPC’s, supported on cripple studs.
Fran, you are not wrong about technology changing construction!
@ Nana KGW (Knight of the Golden Wings) 🙂
When I come back to Scotland in the next couple of years I was thinking of buying either a typical Scottish stone-built cottage to completely renovate up to German standards or maybe a new modern timber house.
It’s information time for me.
@ Andrew M
Do you have a website or an info source?
Graf,
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Building/Building-standards/publications/pubtech
But if you are planning to self build your architect or engineer will assist as you have to meet or indeed exceed the standards,
you can email me if you need specifics or a tour!
@Graf Midgehunter
When hubby retires in a couple of years time, we thought to return to our roots [where we had a stone built property but retained the land for a build]
We are considering a home such as Carbon dynamic style, quick build, energy saving, with an outer skin to fend off the gales and rain typical of Island weather.
What I have seen so far of these builds, I really like.
@Ken 500
My business has been treated like dirt by Scottish Enterprise and my Local Council for the 15 years it’s been going. Unprovoked I stress to add, the only crime my business committed was that it existed, but the consequences have been extremely damaging to the extent my business, which started with nothing but grew to £250,000 annual turnover with 7 full time employees now barely exists.
On four separate occasions I reached such a state of desperation that I sought help from my MP, MSP, and government ministers. My grievance and complaint is apolitical; it’s a simple fact these figures in authority were, and still are SNP. I won’t go into details, for brevity and privacy for one thing, but never once has one single aspect of my grievance been addressed; not one single questioned answered. Traffic heading the other way however, smears about my business and person, are accepted as gospel, and brazen unsubstantiated lies were accepted without pause or question and my legitimate grievances dismissed as sour grapes. That’s not good enough. I want a f____ing answer to my questions, because I know these rotten bastards cannot answer my questions without implicitly acknowledging their corruption and prejudices. I know they are rotten. They know they are rotten. It’s all a game to them. It’s no food on the table for me. It has been a long haul trying to get a fraction of the justice I deserve, and yet to date I cannot present you with not a single answer to a single question, yet I am expected to accept Ministerial assertions that the people I know to be so very rotten have displayed “exemplary” conduct. Are you f____g kidding???
Call it a stitch up, a whitewash, complicity, collusion, I couldn’t care less what it’s called. It is 1000 miles short of justice, and it’s now happened four times on the bounce. It’s very hard to avoid the conclusion that SNP policy is to kick any awkward issue as far as they can into the long grass, and the poor victim of the grievance can go fk himself. It stinks.
It’s not just the absolute failure of justice that grieves me, it’s the merest lip service that was paid to establish whether there was any substance to my grievance. It seems a grievance which can destroy my livelihood isn’t important enough for an SNP MP even to investigate just in case they get their precious little hands dirty.
So be it. If you lie with dogs, you get up with their fleas. I asked for help and you hung me out to dry. Personally, I don’t think that was one of your better decisions…. x 4.
The warning I have to deliver however, is that, that shabby and amateurish level of politics might cut the mustard here in Scotland, but if these individuals don’t raise their game and grow backbone, Westminster is going to pull them apart and crush their bones to put Scotch Broth on the lunch menu, and with it goes the best chance in centuries for Scottish Independence. The SNP says it has a plan to scotch the hostile media and hostile machinations of the Westminster elite and romp to victory next time. I hope it’s true, but I’m not a believer. I just don’t want to find out that it’s all bullshit when it’s all too late. The Indyref was lost because the SNP had nothing in the tank to contest the Unionist domination of the media. I rather suspect they still don’t.
Many thanks Andrew. 🙂
Will keep everything in mind for the future.
Before I went in to retirement I worked in Advertiseing/print and the organisation of international motor sport events.
For the last couple of years before retirement I started helping out with international (English speaking) clients for an estate agent friend of mine. This blossemed out so much that I now build houses with a partner in the greater Frankfurt area.
This is why I take such an interest in the housing market and in particular the completely mad mentality that reigns in the UK. It’s nuts.
A self designed passive house with a heat pump, solar panels can be built (not frame) for a reasonable amount. In six months. Depending on the builder. A framed house can be built for a reasonable amount – wood Chip heating. Environmental friendly. Cheaper than a building company bought house and better. Depends on the price of plot of land. A land tax could put up the price of houses and food. It can be cheaper to build a new build than build an extension. Knock the property down and rebuild. Extensions – VAT on the cost. New builds are exempt.
Planning delays are a nightmare – delays can put up the cost.
@Scot Finlayson says: 3 March, 2016 at 8:59 pm:
” … if we leave will it be a case of UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence)?”
It is that, still unanswered, question of legal sovereignty again, Scot.
I have yet to find any actual evidence that either Westminster, or even the Monarchy of the Kingdom of England, have ever actually obtained legal sovereignty over Scotland.
In the case of the latter the historical evidence actually points the other way round. The Crown of England was inherited by James VI of Scotland. Which, on the face of it, made James monarch of two independent Kingdoms.
The legal facts are that in 1603 the law of the, (three country), Kingdom of England was still, “The Divine Right of Kings”, and under which legal system a monarch who either takes another monarchy by war, marries into it or inherits its crown, just tags their new conquest onto their existing realm as an integral part of that existing realm.
The legal system in Scotland had changed in 1320 by the Papal acceptance of the Declaration of Arbroath. Under which acceptance the head of all Christendom removed the excommunication of the King of Scots, (and thus that of His Subjects), but in doing so the Pope accepted that the monarchy of Scotland were not sovereign and the people were.
This was the legal reason the two Kingdoms could not become, “The Kingdom of Scotland”, when the Scottish monarch inherited the English Crown under either English or Scottish law. It is still a major tenet of English law that, once becoming sovereign, the mere fact of being sovereign means the sovereign cannot legally give up their sovereignty.
It is why The Glorious Revolution in England, (that would have normally led to England becoming a Republic), ended with the English Parliament legally retaining their Sovereign as head of state but delegating their royal sovereignty, (Divine Right), to the Parliament of England.
However, it also meant that as the King of Scots did not have Divine Right he could not just tag the English Kingdom onto his existing realm.
Thus there was no legal Union of the Crowns between 1603 and 1706/7. What there was was only a personal union for James I & VI by wearing two independent crowns. That was the reason a Treaty of union had to be forced upon the sovereign people of Scotland.
Yet under English law there is a great big yawning hole in the Westminster legal claim it hold sovereignty over Scotland. Under English law a sovereign, just by being sovereign, cannot give up their GOD GIVEN Divine Right of sovereignty.
There are no exceptions like, “Unless they are Scots”. There simple cannot be, under English law, any way to legally remove the sovereign rights of the people of Scotland granted to them when the Declaration of Arbroath was accepted by God’s representative on Earth – The Pope.
If Westminster ignores this, and are faced with doing so, then the very first victim must be Queen Elizabeth as the head of State of England, and as it is her signature that passes all acts of parliament into UK law, the whole house of cards falls about Westminster’s ears.
There simply are no written legal proofs that Westminster holds legal sovereignty over Scots or Scotland, and there cannot be, unless English law itself is ended.
@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 10:54 pm:
Also noticed another where you, Robert, recounted the commonly held view that the Maid of Norway was drowned on the way to Scotland when in fact she did not.
The recorded history attributes her death to sea-sickness. However, going by the medical knowledge of the time, and the tender age of the yet uncrowned Queen, your guess as to what actual illness was the cause will be forever a mystery. Motion Sickness, which is what sea-sickness is, is not a killer.
However, actually throwing up can lead to dehydration and that can kill. So the only real conclusion must be that an infant died en-route to Scotland.
@Fran at 11:41
No it won’t.
And I can guarantee I am familiar with rot in traditional properties. I might ask however, wouldn’t you agree the weakest link in the chain might be the material that actually rots? Ie the timber? It’s also typically before failure taken 150 years of Scottish weather, dysfunctional or non existent rot treatment or membranes other than occasional paint since day 1, and more often than not, no maintenance whatsoever. Traditional property rocks. It’s just a little sad that it’s 150 -200 years old and taken for granted. Add some money and TLC and it’ll be ready for another 200 years. I can promise you 200 years from now people won’t hold timber frame in such regard.
@Ken500…
I replied to you at length Ken, but it has disappeared. Don’t have the time right now to go through it all again. I will try later…
They dodged a bullet there! The producer could have inadvertently shouted out ‘The Beano!’ in blind panic, and made everyone in the studio look silly! Oh, damn he shouted out ‘Sunday Post!’ Oh well never mind, there’s always next time 🙂
If you’re a working class tory voter, you’re an idiot. In Scotland, you’re a UKOK idiot.
@Peter Peffers
Always had a suspicion that Edward I was behind Margaret`s untimely death,with Toom Tabard John Bailliol being his preferred choice of Scottish monarch,
but turns out Edward had been attempting to get Margaret married to his own son the future Edward II and so absorb Scotland without the need of expensive warfare.
you mention the Pope as being head of All Christendom ,he was not head of the Eastern Orthodox church of Byzantium which at that time was the larger of the churches of Christendom, until Byzantium was sacked by the Pope`s Christian Crusaders.
There are timber-framed houses in much of (stone-scarce)parts of England which are over 500 years old & fetching big bucks.
Fred,
you having a “Lath” 😉
Fred at 3:26…
If this was QI, the klaxon would be ringing and your points would be forfeit. Modern timber frame and the Tudor timber frame have the letters T I M B E and R in common, but that’s about it. But don’t feel bashful, it’s a logical supposition, and there are plenty timber frame builders all too keen to draw similar comparisons.
I repeat, I’m not anti timber frame, but just caution people against its use a premier method of property construction which you’ll be handing over to your grand kids in 50 years time. There are big, and unanswered questions about it’s longevity. That 60 year design lifespan comes from TRADA, not little old me.
The Timber construction industry is big business these days, and just visit the TRADA website to see how slick they are with their hard sell PR and targeting of University students,mbut a lot of their “green” and environmentally sound credentials should really be subject to much closer scrutiny. There are other perspectives, such as timber construction unique in requiring the felling of trees and destruction of habitat.
I am building a new, stone built property, using second hand stone that was first quarried and used in construction back when Scotland was a independent country. And when my building has served its purpose some 200 years from now, I fully hope it can be recycled and used for its fourth building. Our society has recycled our stonework since long before recycling was an environmental consideration, but suddenly, this stone is only considered fit for lining the inside of a skip. It is a criminal waste of a truly remarkable resource; both the stone itself and the property built with it. And while we are at it, how about a minutes silence for our stonemasonry trade itself, as it spins in its grave?
And on that new construction, yes, we can achieve an 0.24 U-value with only 50mm thick Insulation to our walls, and no perishable material such as timber required. To date however, nobody is interested, because stonework is yesterday’s news innit?… It’s Historic Scotland deals with that sort of stuff isn’t it?
@Robert
Well she certainly died of something in Orkney, so definitely en route to Scotland (Orkney still being under the Norwegian monarchy at that time).
But she did not drown.
Breeks, there are no ruined stones only ruined buildings!
Profound ur whit! 🙂