The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The sharpest bulb in the packet

Posted on March 01, 2015 by

Scottish Labour’s mustard-keen Kezia “Deputy” Dugdale bravely tried a tweet all on her own on Friday without running it past Labour central office in London first.

dugdalerv

It didn’t go too well.

Luckily, several dozen friendly internet users were on hand to helpfully point out to Kezia the unfortunate flaws in her analogy. Nobody in Scotland produces the kind of steel that’s needed for the new Forth crossing, ever since a UK government Scotland didn’t vote for shut down the country’s last steel plant, Ravenscraig, in 1992.

(Scotland’s 50 Labour MPs at the time stood by uselessly and watched.)

ravenscraig1

So using Scottish steel to build the bridge was an option not open to the Scottish Government, since Westminster levelled the entire site before Holyrood ever existed.

ravenscraig3

On the other hand, Scotland has no such shortage of printers.

printers

Yell.com returns well over 1000 places where the new “patriotic” Scottish Labour could get their leaflets printed without having to send all the business to England.

If Ms Dugdale needs a more specific recommendation, we can unreservedly endorse the splendid Wm Anderson and Sons of Govan, who produced around 300,000 copies of the Wee Blue Book for us last year with great speed, impeccable quality and at extremely reasonable prices. (They’re also making our special souvenir editions.)

Unfortunately, we have no idea where Scottish Labour can find better leaders.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. 01 03 15 19:40

    The sharpest bulb in the packet - Speymouth
    Ignored

  2. 01 03 15 20:12

    The sharpest bulb in the packet | Politics Scot...
    Ignored

  3. 08 10 15 06:03

    The Consequence of Inhumanity | A Wilderness of Peace
    Ignored

210 to “The sharpest bulb in the packet”

  1. Mealer
    Ignored
    says:

    Luv you back Kez.

  2. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Brilliant. What more can one say! Oh – and funny too.

  3. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    They must take it in turns to make a fool of themselves.

    How can they display such crass stupidity and expect even the even semi-conscious to vote for them.

  4. Robert Kerr
    Ignored
    says:

    Indeed there is no scottish steel works. Dalziel works (plate rolling mill) is owned by the Indian Company Tata.

    As is Llanelli Steel in South Wales.

    But SLAB don’t do Irony!

  5. Des
    Ignored
    says:

    You don’t have to know about things like the destruction of Ravenscraig to climb to the top in SLAB – such things obviously unknown to careerist Red Tories.

  6. Derrick
    Ignored
    says:

    Every time they open their mouths on anything, I’m left asking myself if they really are that thick, or is it just that they think we are.

  7. Croompenstein
    Ignored
    says:

    Can we put a Saltire and ‘Funded by the Scottish Government’ plaque on the bridge when it is finished on time and in budget Kezia ya rocket….

  8. Donald MacKenzie
    Ignored
    says:

    She’s more to be pitied than scolded.

  9. One_Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    To be fair, maybe she was too busy doing a staged anti SNP photo op, that she didn’t realise the computer was actually switched on as she was monkey pressing the keyboard.

  10. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    Ooft-that’s gotta hurt! But very well said Stu.

    Patriotic indeed-Scotland Branch of the Labour Party proving once again that their loyalty is to England. Only problem is that English Labour voters aren’t feeling the same love & devotion for Labour as they normally do.

    Many like me voted Labour for 40+ years but I can happily guarantee that it will NEVER happen again 🙂

  11. Rigmac7
    Ignored
    says:

    By now, the stupidity shouldn’t stagger me…..but it does. What a very naive, silly little girl she is.

  12. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    Unfortunately, we have no idea where Scottish Labour can find better leaders.

    Ouch!

  13. Mike
    Ignored
    says:

    Again, labour ‘logic’ torn to shreds. Run a country? I wouldn’t trust the red tories to print leaflets!

  14. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    Dear Deputy Dug,

    Sit.

    Fetch.

    Heel.

    Goooood doggy.

    Imagine, folks, having to answer to her, eh, oh my!

    The Labour Party are in serious dog dirt. WOOF WOOF.
    🙂

  15. Steve Bowers
    Ignored
    says:

    Ah rev, you have raised pisstaking to a fine art, thank you. Glad to see the yearly cash fest going so well.

  16. Iain Gray's Subway Lament
    Ignored
    says:

    The inept Deputy Dugdale was trying to appeal to SNP voters (and the lost Labour voters who have switched to us) not that long ago, but the outright panic that has broken out in ‘scottish’ Labour has put a very swift end to that. Panic very much inspired by the belated realisation that Eggman Murhpy is even less popular than Lamont and that the all the polls now point to a complete meltdown for ‘scottish’ Labour in May.

    So good luck appealing to all your lost voters with stupidity like that. I’ve a feeling most of them will wonder what the Murphy, his boss Miliband and the London Branch office of Labour hates so much about giving business to scottish printers.

  17. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia obviously doesn’t read her very own newspaper, even after her previous leader provoked Alex Salmond into paraphrasing the Proclaimers in FMQs last year.

    “As the Proclaimers sang in Letter from America: “Bathgate no more, Linwood no more, Methil no more, Irvine no more.”
    https://archive.today/c9JAg

  18. birnie
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh, joy unalloyed! This post alone is worth another tenner – Cheers!

  19. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    The are sourced dorn sarf because it they who commission and pay for it all.

    Labour is about £20 million Overdrawn and the Northen sub branch needs a prepayed meter to boil the kettle, just like The scotsman

  20. Alistair
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s not her fault, poor wee lamb. When her Mum was pregnant with her she was scared by two thick planks

  21. a2
    Ignored
    says:

    Dagnabit!

  22. R-type Grunt
    Ignored
    says:

    SNP NEST OF MALE VIPERS BULLIES INNOCENT YOUNG SCOTS WOMAN ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE SHE WAS BORN!

    NICOLA STURGEON (ALSO A MAN!) FAILS TO CONDEMN!

  23. Mealer
    Ignored
    says:

    Donald MacKenzie,
    I agree.I think she’s quite,how should I put it,…fragile? Best nae be ower roch wi’ her.

  24. Valerie
    Ignored
    says:

    Out there, somewhere, there is a village missing it’s idiot.

  25. Muiris
    Ignored
    says:

    As one Canadian politician said of his opponent, ‘he only opens his mouth, to change his foot’. I’d give them a rope to save them from drowning, but they’d probably hang themselves it it 🙂

  26. Davy
    Ignored
    says:

    Yep “deputy dug” is absolute priceless, instead of trying to change to a printer up here in north brition, she decides to sink both feet in her gob miscalling the SNP instead.

    The red tories never get it do they.

  27. Take Idependence
    Ignored
    says:

    The parents took her out of kindergarten to soon

  28. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    Back to the Steel thingy – pretty sure ‘Imperial Labour’ were still running Scotland as a ‘fiefdom’ at the time. Lot of good they were then as now.

    Cybernats a problem eh ???

    Hey Kez & Anas : what about the latest British nationalist factions congregating in Newcastle (just Wow?) now heading North to keep all of Britain Pure Eh ??

    Better Together right enough (?), Labour should be more open about all thats Great about Britian, even these nutters.

    Careful residents of Scotland; that NO Vote feel good factor has side effects such as the far right nutters Labour tolerate (to keep Britian intact at any cost ?)

    Sure Jim Murphy will sort this lot out no problem with all the help BBC can muster.

  29. author_al
    Ignored
    says:

    Looks like Jim Murphy will need a couple of flags tattooed on his forehead…’Funded by taxpayers whether you like it or not.’ We will run out of ink if saltires are printed on his expenses.

    Does this mean the nukes will have wee saltires on them?

  30. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    She had no idea because she was still at school right. This would be funny if it weren’t for the fact our chums in the south completely de-industrialised Scotland over say 30 years. Bet Norway wishes they too were run by SLabSConSLib teamGB

    https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/Business-and-industry-in-Norway—The-metals-industry/id419341/

    The metals industry is one of Norway’s largest export industries. Norwegian companies are also major producers of aluminium and ferro-alloys on a global basis. Norway also produces iron and steel, magnesium, nickel and zinc. The foundries are a part of the metals industry. Many of the companies, such as the aluminium plants at Årdal and Sunndal, were established along with the hydroelectric-power stations.

  31. Diane
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh Kezia, if only you’d listened to your dad : )

  32. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    That tweet from Kez is officially the longest chain I have ever seen but I’m pleased to say that I have my own place on it from Friday #preservedfor posterity

  33. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh dang, what a howler! 😀

    A Labour deputy leader who doesn’t know the manufacturing capabilities of her own country. And they want responsibility for Scotland’s workforce?

    That’s a beauty. 😀

  34. JLT
    Ignored
    says:

    Yep …it wasn’t one of Kezia’s cleverest thoughts to tweet out to the public.

    Her gaff summed up literally Lamont’s last ever outburst which confirmed what most folk thought – that the Labour Party ideology will be produced in England, and exported to Scotland. The Local Branch Office must not be allowed to think, nor do, anything that could break from the London Head Office ideology.

    What she now has to beware off, is that her ‘boss’, Jim Murphy, has now bailed from the sinking SS SLAB and is paddling like fury in his wee life raft to the safety of Westminster again. Kezia is literally …the Captain of the rudderless SS SLAB.

    And what she should have learned in the weeks that Murphy ‘led’ the Party is, not to produce soundbites, antagonise half of her countrymen, or post tweets that will end up in the Public Domain ready to be analysed …and probably condemned.

    If she wishes to save herself (and the SS SLAB), the maybe it’s high time that she cottoned on that London Labour have no say in Scotland, and she should be beating them with a stick, and pursuing SLAB’s own policies to make Scotland a better place.

    Because if she’s not truly careful, then Kezia could find herself walking out of Holyrood in just over a year’s time, carrying a box with her desk belongings, and wondering where she goes from there…

  35. Tackety Beets
    Ignored
    says:

    Even Cameron McNeish getting his bit in .

    Good on him .

    For the not so outdoors types here he does present A “Hill” feature on the Beebs Adventure Show .
    It is generally presented by Dougie Vipont ( Deacon Blue Drummer )

  36. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    Do you suppose that these Labour people ever read the replies to their idiotic tweets?

    I don’t have a twitter account, but I sometimes look at others’ “conversations”, where I almost never see a response from the original person. But I’m clearly not seeing all the interactions.

    Maybe they just check how many views they’ve had and count that as a success.

  37. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    I seem to remember that they made this error in Holyrood and so, they just seem to learn by the factual stupidities.

    Surely a classic definition of stupidity, definitive I would say.

    Maybe Labour should outsource their Holyrood representation to some local primary school ?

  38. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    Utterly baffling. Salmond creased when Lamont came out with this pish a couple of years ago. It is almost like Labour glory in the Thatcher destruction of Scotland’s heavy industry. Except that I don’t think they do…they really are just stupid, uninformed, lightweights.

  39. Marco McGinty
    Ignored
    says:

    Well, if “Scottish” Labour had any decency at all, or if they were capable of operating independently from their Westminster masters, then they would have chosen to use any one of the masses of Scottish-based printers. However, this has been happening for quite a while now, and I commented on this fact before the referendum.
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcomcginty/15070704627/

    I wonder what Kezia thinks of the UK government (and her Tory allies) decision to build UK naval auxiliary vessels in South Korea? Can she provide any guarantees that UK steel will be used for their construction?

  40. Aos
    Ignored
    says:

    Future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary will define Epic Fail with a picture of Kezia.

  41. gillie
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe Keiza Dugdale should take up acting as a new career. All she needs is a stage name. Any suggestions?

  42. Gary45%
    Ignored
    says:

    Each time you see Deputy Dug,
    just imagine her running round in circles chasing her tail. (woof woof)
    Gary

  43. Gillian_Ruglonian
    Ignored
    says:

    r-type grunt @ 6.16pm

    Indeed, and you’d better add my (male) voice to that, we wouldn’t want to disappoint ‘Scotland’s champion’ now!!

  44. kirriereoch
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia Dugdale´s tweet serves to reminds me of a quote I saw about the 1979 referendum, ie the referendum where Scotland voted yes but it turned out Scotland voted no due to Labour´s 40% rule.

    “How much of Scotland’s economy will be left intact if a Scottish Assembly gets the go-ahead on March 1? Will our coal mines go gaily on? Will Ravenscraig or Linwood thrive? Will Bathgate flourish and Dounreay prosper?”

    And we know what happened in the following 15 years or so.

    https://archive.today/61TLS

  45. Foonurt
    Ignored
    says:

    Meanwhull, backit thon ranch.

  46. Rigmac7
    Ignored
    says:

    Deep breath….

    The wheel’s still turning but the hamster’s dead

    The gates are down, the lights are flashing but there ain’t no train coming

    She has delusions of adequacy

    She’s reached rock bottom…..and kept digging

    She thinks socialism means partying

    She makes two short planks look like a computer

    I’ll get my coat….

  47. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Dugdale makes people even more angry. Not fit for public office.

  48. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    Who is her minder and let her stray off the reservation?

  49. handclapping
    Ignored
    says:

    Naw, gie the gal a break. She’s no in the same league as oor Danny with his every cludgie in Lunon to be fitted with a Union Jack funded by the British Taxpayer when they do the super sewer. I’ll gladly go down to Lunon to piss on them 😀

  50. H
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia always harps on about the first minister blaming Scottish labour for mess we are in, and she was at School the last time Scottish labour was in, so it’s no excuse . One could ask, is Kezia mature enough ? and understands that the Rome wasn’t built in a day to mend the mess that Scottish Labour put Scotland in, her immaturity shows in this tweet, was like the boot in the balls to all those that once worked at the Ravenscraig, didn’t matter to her at the time she was still at school …………… she could have done with learning some Scottish History

  51. stu
    Ignored
    says:

    Interesting about there being no response from her personally. It reminds me of when Chico Young had a column on the BBC sport website. He’d post some lazy, half arsed apology for a column.

    However, the BBC made the mistake of having a comments section, resulting in his ill thought out missives being torn to bits with 5 seconds thought.

    One time on Sportsound his column was referenced and another contributer pointed out that it perhaps didn’t get the response he was expecting. He’d no idea what they were talking about. He’d write the column, collect the fee, and then move onto the next.

    It’s the same story with Labour, and that’s why they can’t understand people calling them to account – they said what needed to be said at the time of the referendum for political expediency and then dropped it and moved on immediately.

  52. Tackety Beets
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Crazycat
    Ref Twitter .
    I have had no real inclination to be part o the FB , tweeting etc either .
    I set Twitter up in mins , quite easy .
    Mainly so I could see what others were on about on here , eh and follow Rev .
    I’ll look out for Crazycat next time I open up my Twitter .

  53. frogesque
    Ignored
    says:

    Just to add, had the steel been imported from say somewhere in Europe at a higher cost than the world market then the SNP would have been roundly condemned.

    Never mind Kez, keep it up, it should be worth another 1% to the SNP’s vote

  54. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    I used to be able to see the distant blue towers of Ravenscraig from our bedroom. Despite all the hoops the workers went through to save their jobs, they were sacrificed as part of the great “pooling and sharing” philosophy of UKOK, with little resistance from SLAB.

    There’s nothing there now, with incalculable effects on the physical and mental health of thousands in Lanarkshire. Go to Hamilton or Motherwell town centres and see the gap sites and pound shops. Welcome to SLABvision, Scotland-style: “Know your place and shut up at the back, sweaties, move on and get over it”. Just like the wipeout of the mining communities all over Lowland Scotland in the eighties.

    Well, actually, no, we won’t. The times they are a’changing. Feel the tremors under your feet. Landslide a’coming, Slabbers.

    Memo to Kezia: listen to your Dad. He seems up to speed: your party’s sinking faster than The Titanic.

  55. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Gillie

    Fanny Spencer?

  56. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @

    Robert Kerr says:

    1 March, 2015 at 5:57 pm

    “But SLAB don’t do Irony”

    Nor, it seems, do they do steel either. They do, though, have a very nice line in high quality, well polished, Brass Necks.

  57. Craig Evans
    Ignored
    says:

    As my wife commented: she just opens her mouth and let’s her belly rumble!

    Has this woman no idea how many (former) Labour Party members and voters worked at Ravescraig?

    There is no hope for them, they are toast.

  58. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    Does anyone not know why the call her Dipity Dug? lol

    The Smurph puts his foot in it every time he tries to be creative. Low and behold Dipity follows in her master’s disasters footprints

    Next week she may ask why they didn’t built it across the
    shorter river Clyde, or should the Scottish Government be paying VAT on a Chinese takeaway? LOL LOL

    These two are the cream of the North British Accounting Unit!
    What a Joke, if these clowns didn’t have the support of the corrupt UK Media. Limo with doors that fall off anyone? Ha Ha

  59. sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    No wonder Kezia failed her interview for an SNP researcher before getting taken on by George Foulkes

  60. TYRAN
    Ignored
    says:

    Why wouldn’t London Labour get leaflets printed in England though? What’s the problem? 😀

  61. Patrick Roden
    Ignored
    says:

    If I remember correctly Ravenscraig was making about 1 million pound a week profit, but the alternative site (in England) was loosing money, but the Tories made the political decision to close Ravenscraig.

    I think a full article, to remind the working classes of Scotland how the Labour Party stood buy and earned the nickname the ‘Feeble Fifty’ would be timely and also a fitting reward for Kesia’s stupidity.

  62. Mealer
    Ignored
    says:

    Go on YouTube and find Gerry Cinnamon Hope Over Fear.

  63. laverock
    Ignored
    says:

    Ok so she is young….

    But she has got a real important grown up job representing people in parliament. Yet she hasn’t got enough sense to think things through logically. Or to check the facts if she doesn’t know them already – which she should in her position.

    Really quite a shocking example of not having a clue.

  64. Patrick Roden
    Ignored
    says:

    Scottish Labour (don’t laugh) getting leaflets printed in England doesn’t make sense…

    Unless, the person who owns the printing company is erm, cough, ahem, friendly with Labour or perhaps a donor?

    Lets find out Wingers…what’s the connection?

  65. Dan Huil
    Ignored
    says:

    Nurse!

  66. Michael Cameron
    Ignored
    says:

    “Unfortunately, we have no idea where Scottish Labour can find better leaders.”

    Virtually anywhere?

  67. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Tackety Beets

    Alas, you will be disappointed if you look for me on Twitter! I’m steering clear of it, lest I say something I later regret. It’s bad enough on sites like this, with no edit function, though so far I haven’t posted any real howlers.

  68. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Still on the infrastructure theme which will need Union Jack stickers:
    The Rail network.
    http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Resources/RailNetMap%208.9D.pdf

  69. Wuffing Dug
    Ignored
    says:

    Dugdale reminds me of some quotes about below par employees. ‘This employee has delusions of adequacy’ ‘this employee has been scraping the bottom of the barrel and has started to break through it ‘mediocrity is something this employee should aspire to’. Just about sums up slab 🙂

  70. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    You really dont want to pull on that thread sweetheart, oh, too late, that’ll go into a hole now,

    The singlemost distressing thing I recall happening was the destruction of Ravenscraig, the loss of that steel mill represented the emasculation of Scotland, I was working in England when those towers were brought down and coming home after a month away from home up the a74 (yea I know) I couldn’t believe when approaching Motherwell they were gone, I was distraught and I didn’t even come from there!

    A few wee facts for Kez
    The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by Colvilles and from 1967 by British Steel, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

    Motherwell was noted as the steel production capital of Scotland, nicknamed Steelopolis.[1] Its skyline was dominated by the gas holder and three cooling towers of the Ravenscraig steel plant which closed in 1992. The Ravenscraig plant had one of the longest continuous casting, hot rolling, steel production facilities in the world before it was decommissioned. Construction of the integrated iron and steel works started in 1954. The steel mill, which was built shortly after, was one of four in the United Kingdom. In 1992, when it closed down, it was the largest hot strip steel mill in Western Europe.

    Nice to know the Chinese were there to step into the breach eh Kezia? (you idiot)

    Its also worth bearing in mind WHY Thatcher refused to support Ravenscraig, and it was her strict adherence to the common market rule that countries could not support failing industries,
    so while Thatcher followed the rules faithfully (of course suiting her agenda) France and Germany totally ignored the rules (they created) and subsidized their own steel industries and to this day they still exist while ours…. well ours was sacrificed on the alter of neo liberalism of Thatchers making,
    Her vision was for us to move to a service industry country.

    Look where it got us!

  71. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Rigmac7 says: 1 March, 2015 at 6:02 pm:

    “By now, the stupidity shouldn’t stagger me…..but it does. What a very naive, silly little girl she is.”

    I was so busy sorting out the several Trojan attacks on my computers I misses FMQ’s. However, I had it record as usual.

    So I was watching it today. When deputy Dugtail came on with her daft claims about the NHS I frightened the wee bitch by roaring at the recording.

    She shot off behind the settee and it took a biscuit to get her out,

    (Err! In case you thought otherwise it was my wee Papillon bitch I frightened behind the settee, not wee Kezia).

  72. ferryman
    Ignored
    says:

    “you’re building a bridge with Chinese steel”

    Sure as leader of the Scottish branch she should be assimilating with her voters and using “we’re” rather than “you’re”?

    Kinda sums it up really!

  73. Democracy Reborn
    Ignored
    says:

    Kez was once caught copying one of her classmates in a school exam. In answer to one of the questions, the classmate put “don’t know”. Kez’s answer was “neither do I”….

  74. John Browning
    Ignored
    says:

    asked for a reply to the wings article, deputy dug ventured :

    ” ah, ravenscraig. now that would be an ecumenical matter.”

  75. scottieDog
    Ignored
    says:

    Does this mean there will be union jacks in bomb craters in Iraq?

  76. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Patrick Roden

    If I am wrong someone here will correct me politely.

    I think that the coal mining industry in Scotland was intimately woven into coal powered stations and Ravenscraig.

    The Dash for Gas meant that the main outlet for coal mined in Scotland was Ravenscraig.

    Shut Ravenscraig down and all the uses for steel made there would be stuffed, and, of course the miners would be totally stuffed.

    Scotland was deindustrialised by Thatcher to bugger the miners and Scotland, who contributed nothing in Tory votes.

    She realised earlier than Blair that the SE of England was where Westminster was won or lost.

    All she needed was the oil revenues to pay the unemployment benefit, and then to use that to fund the SE of England infrastructure, not attributed to that area as an expense but an “imperial” expense

  77. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Patrick Roden

    The orders for stationery are placed by London because they sign the cheques.

    Murphy et al have SFA money in the bank account, which is probably held in London anyway.

  78. Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    I seem to remember that Lamont tried this one a while back and look where that got her,out of her branch office job.

  79. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    More infrastructure. My effort to help Danny with his Union Jack stickers.
    I was looking for a map of the motorways in UK but it’s hard to find one with Scotland in it as the motorway only goes as far as Perth.
    Here’s a nice map of the Roman roads in Britain. Scotland was marginally better served in Roman times!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads_in_Britain#mediaviewer/File:Roman.Britain.roads.jpg

  80. Edward
    Ignored
    says:

    @Tinto Chiel
    What you might not know is that the so called ‘uneconomic’ Ravenscraig had all its plant, machinery, rolling equipment, shipped to a steel plant in the Southern states of America. No doubt the taxpayer funded that

  81. SquareHaggis
    Ignored
    says:

    FYI

    Frae Wiki

    149 segments of bridge deck, each of which is 12 metres (39 ft) long and 40 metres (130 ft) wide, were to be constructed in China and Spain, then delivered by sea in October 2013[29] The approach steel bridge sections are being manufactured by Cleveland Bridge UK in Darlington.

  82. Now's the Hour
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezza – the Deputy Dug that keeps on giving. Gotta love her. They really haven’t got a clue.

  83. Wuffing Dug
    Ignored
    says:

    On steel, no point trying to get back into rolled steel or plate. Market saturated and far east suppliers are supplying premium product at competitive prices. High specification forgings for the oil industry are what’s needed.

    Most of these forges are in northern Italy and their order books are full. Building such a plant would be expensive, but would be a significant investment for the future.

    Utilities consumption would be horrific to produce these things. Perhaps a good use for our surplus energy? Better than being penalised for actually producing it….

    Just remembered to paragraph break ,phew, hammer blow dodged 🙂

  84. joe macfarlane
    Ignored
    says:

    Unfortunately, we have no idea where Scottish Labour can find better leaders.

    Did you try doing a search on YELL for that, you never know .

  85. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Tinto Chiel.

    You typed,
    “The times they are a’changing. Feel the tremors under your feet. Landslide a’coming, Slabbers.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1jeyCX6oE8

  86. BrianW
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia must have got the string that comes out of her back caught on the door handle, then all sorts came bleating out..

    They try to cast up history about which party sided with which party etc. But my god, she couldn’t muster up the memory of their Beloved Bedfellows the Tories tearing apart Scotland’s Steel industry – along with our Coal, Shipbuilding, Manufacturing industries (to name but a few).

    Just like they sat idly by and watched that happen, history is repeating itself as they again sit back now and not only watch, but vote their Tory Bedfellows for Bedroom Tax, Austerity Programs, Trident Replacements etc..

  87. ferryman
    Ignored
    says:

    “Maybe Keiza Dugdale should take up acting as a new career. All she needs is a stage name. Any suggestions?”

    Suzanne?

  88. Kevin Evans
    Ignored
    says:

    What’s the phrase again about calling back the horse after the stable doors been left open? Am sure someone (like the helpful punctuation nazi’s who were so keen to criticise me yesterday) will remember the exact quote. It feels very apt.

  89. jimnarlene
    Ignored
    says:

    Ineptitude of the first order.

  90. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    CAPITAL to see you’ve stuck with us, Kevin, old boy!

    8=)

  91. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Thank FFFk ah dont pay ah TV licence in ah word POMPIDOU.

  92. handclapping
    Ignored
    says:

    @jimnarlene
    AH but, what is ineptitude of the second order?

  93. No no no...Yes
    Ignored
    says:

    Dugdale is a competent MSP in terms of the Labour gene pool. She has been elevated to leadership far too early and is firing bullets made by her masters. Unfortunately her boots do not have steel toecaps and she is getting wounded each week, by her own actions and by the first Minister.

    I genuinely think Dugdale will not last much beyond GE2015. Marra is doing a Jim Murphy, she is building a high profile and will pounce- with the backing of the leadership.

  94. Kevin Evans
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve been here for a long while Brian. Am no goin anywhere. Where else would I get my info. Maybe the BBC. Lol

  95. Chitterinlicht
    Ignored
    says:

    I once knew a plumber who had the nickname ‘mahogany’ coz he was so dense.

    Seems appropriate for the deputy.

    Really could not believe anyone would be so ignorant as to tweet that guff!

    Completely misreads circumstances and I would struggle to have picked a more inappropriate analogy.

    Thick as a brick.

  96. dennis mclaughlin
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Peffers “I was so busy sorting out the several Trojan attacks on my computers”……..
    what on earth are you up to with all these “trojans”?.

    i use a program called Avast! Anti Virus,( the Pro Version); and exercise caution when clicking on any e-mail links i regard as suspicious.

    running Windows 8.1 Pro here and never have any of these nightmares !.

  97. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks to Danny McGee (a shy lurker) for this link.

    Check out the consecutive road names at 1:37 and 1:40.

    Prescient, ur whut?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssx1Davnkw

  98. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Wuffing Dug says
    “Just remembered to paragraph break ,phew, hammer blow dodged ”

    thuer lucky thi thot thit wif is fhammers!!!!!

  99. Grizzle McPuss
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia tries to ‘steel’ political ground, but finds herself up the proverbial without an ‘ore’

    I thank you…boom-boom

    (I should have been a Sun headline writer…NOT)

  100. Al Dossary
    Ignored
    says:

    @ John King – Much as I hated (and still do) Thatcher and all she stood for. She did however support Ravenscraig throughout the time I was there (1984-1992). What eventually happened at Ravenscraig was that British Steel finally closed it.

    Maybe at that point the Tory government were aware of the closure beforehand, but as was to later come out in the EU courts, British Steel had closed the works as its ongoing “membership fee” to a price fixing cartel in Europe – later to be fined by the EU. I guess we will find out soon enough when the documents become available from HMG.

    https://archive.today/uFzQO

  101. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @TYRAN says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:11 pm:

    “Why wouldn’t London Labour get leaflets printed in England though? What’s the problem?

    I think they may have to get clearance from their bosses in Head-office for anything to be paid for on the Branch office credit card and that Head-office has an arrangement with the owners of the English Printers.

    They give all their printing to the business and a peerage to the print company boss in return for a donation to the Labour Party.

  102. Mick McGachy
    Ignored
    says:

    @ ferrman, her stage name should be “Non Ferrous” as she has a Brass neck and her gaffer big Spud has a Titanium Neck.

  103. SquareHaggis
    Ignored
    says:

    Why does her gravatar have two faces on it?
    Maybe Kez IS Jim?

  104. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Muiris says
    “As one Canadian politician said of his opponent, ‘he only opens his mouth, to change his foot’. I’d give them a rope to save them from drowning, but they’d probably hang themselves it it :-)”

    ……….mwa……..bwa………..hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha brilliant!

  105. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Croompenstein 6.01 They are ahead of time on the completion date & Under Budget by something like £3 million.

    On ah even happier note the Scottish People WONT be building any bridge,s with the SLAB party,no even wans made of Irn Bru crates.

  106. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Michael Cameron says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:17 pm:

    ““Unfortunately, we have no idea where Scottish Labour can find better leaders.”

    Virtually anywhere?

    Rumour has it they got the last lot from the West of Scotland cat & dog rescue service.

  107. Lesley-Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    Croompenstein says:

    Can we put a Saltire and ‘Funded by the Scottish Government’ plaque on the bridge when it is finished on time and in budget Kezia ya rocket….

    Croomps, I think a better plaque would read:

    “Funded by the Scottish Government ON tims and UNDER budget.” 😉

    Take Idependence says:

    The parents took her out of kindergarten to soon

    I’m sorry TI but for someone to be taken OUT of Kindergarten they must first of all actually have been IN kindergarten to start with! 😛

    I really do hope someone from the Labour leadership says something on Thursday at F.M.Q.’s, oh that would be the wee pet dug then wouldn’t it 😀 , about there being no steel from Scotland being used on the bridge which is why Labour have their *ahem* informative pamphlets printed in Essex.

    Perhaps folks can remind where Essex is exactly. I always thought it was that wee spit of land otherwise known as Rockall. Eh sex indeed! 😀

  108. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    “Bridge over the Ditherer’s Lie”!

    Dipity Dug was wearing a Nurse’s uniform with NHS Logo, while holding down a part time job as a 2 bit actress, so Mr Foot will
    be very angry with you lot tomorrow!

    If you read between the lines, she also won Wimbledon while voting No with a Girder made in an English printing press that has a union jack on its gate.

  109. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Brian Doonthetoon.

    Thanks for your groovy clip.

    You Casey Jones, me Fireman?

    We need more coal.

    But not much more!

    @ Edward.

    I don’t doubt it, Edward. And no doubt the machinery is still turning a profit, but, hey, it’s the Union Dividend, is it not?

    Not for much longer, methinks.

  110. Cuddis
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev.

    An absolute blinder. Had me laughing for twenty minutes. Many of the other contributors’ comments also very funny.

    Thanks

  111. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    BtP says
    “Labour is about £20 million Overdrawn and the Northen sub branch needs a prepayed meter to boil the kettle, just like The scotsman”

    Yea’ll have read the latest from The Scotsman then?

    http://tinyurl.com/kbjgg8s
    (it never gets old) 🙂
    credit to Conan the Librarian

  112. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Wuffing Dug says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:19 pm:

    Dugdale reminds me of some quotes about below par employees. ‘This employee has delusions of adequacy’ ‘this employee has been scraping the bottom of the barrel and has started to break through it ‘mediocrity is something this employee should aspire to’. Just about sums up slab 🙂

    The old saying in the Civil Service was that people got promoted on a Buggin’s Turn basis until they reached the level of their own particular level of incompetence. Then remained at that level until they drew their Civil Service Pension.

  113. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Tinto Chiel.

    Check out my later “prescient” link.

  114. Golfnut
    Ignored
    says:

    I have little doubt that Keiza is a highly intelligent young women, sometimes in the race to appear smart, common sense escapes and you end up with egg all over your face, more to be pitied really.

    Or stupidity is actually contagious and she has come down with the same malaise infecting the rest of her party.

    Get out of there lassie, your making a fool of yourself.

  115. bjsalba
    Ignored
    says:

    @handclapping at 1 March, 2015 at 6:51 pm

    Where exactly in the cludgies?

    For starters, I was thinking in every urinal – somewhere to aim for.

  116. caledonia
    Ignored
    says:

    jesus i was going to the circus on thursday but how could i top this for laughs

    Kezia is so dumb she stands on a chair to raise her IQ.

  117. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    john king @ 7.20.

    Missed your post while writing.

    I don’t think Kezia is remotely interested in your concise and heartfelt summary of events, but you’re spot on.

    It’s like when I drove through Darvel, Newmilns and Cumnock in the nineties and saw what Thatcher’s policies had done to these proud towns. Appalling.

    I have faith in the young. They don’t give a fig for the BBC or MSM. They are the future and it’s with us. Can’t stop the future.

  118. Alan McHarg
    Ignored
    says:

    We should get stickers “funded by Scottish Oil ” made up and plastered throughout their UK!!

  119. Kenny
    Ignored
    says:

    This Labour drudge is as thick as pig$hit. And why does she spell Labour with a small letter l? I have no respect for Labour, but my respect for the English language overrides any desire to “denigrate” it by writing “labour”. However, judging by its deputy leader (!), it needs no help in denigrating itself.

    Can you imagine what Keir Hardie or Ramsey MacDonald would make of this ignorant drudge? And why can’t she smarten herself up a bit or buy clothes the right size? She’s supposed to be representing a section of the electorate!

  120. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    This is either an example of gross ignorance and incompetence, or an example of gross ignorance and incompetence. Alternatively, is KD cynically assuming that her target group will not put the story together for themselves, and are unlikely to get their news and analysis from reliable sources? 😉

    IMO, this links with the chat Ken 500 and Fiona were having earlier. We are now facing a TTIP future where global corporations will be able to basically dictate standards to national governments, including those relating to trade and employment, environment, and health. So as they are the ‘think-tank’ behind British Labour, what does the Fabian Society have to say about globalisation in general?

    Progressive Globalisation argues for the management of global capitalism under social democratic principles. It shows how the application of common rules and structural reforms, backed by democratically legitimate international institutions, can address the urgent problems of worsening global inequality, environmental degradation and economic instability….

    http://www.fabians.org.uk/publications/progressive-globalisation/

    As such, I don’t think TTIP can be considered ‘progressive’, as it has largely been negotiated behind closed doors and is unlikely to have a positive impact on anything other than corporate profits.

    http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-society/ttip-papers-published-eu-ombudsman-demands-more-transparency-311088

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ttip-how-new-secret-trade-treaty-could-put-worlds-biggest-firms-beyond-government-control-1432405

    So, what does the Fabian Society think about British Labour’s responce to TTIP? Basically, lacking clarity and fails to communicate a direction. Unfortunately, Ciara Dunne isn’t concerned over the future of public services, such as the national health services. I suppose there might not have been enough space to cover that issue in the article though. ;(

    http://www.fabians.org.uk/labour-must-take-a-tougher-stance-on-ttip/

    P.S. The author of the above link, does argue for scrapping Trident though, which must get right up Vernon Coaker’s nose. 🙂

    http://www.fabians.org.uk/why-labour-shouldnt-learn-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb/

    Trident is the UK’s nuclear deterrent and in March 2007 the House of Commons voted to renew it. The Ministry of Defence has responsibility for Trident. – Jim Murphy MP.

    @ Jim Murphy
    Why so coy on your blog?

    Murphy: Scrapping Trident ‘wrong’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-30972739

  121. jimnarlene
    Ignored
    says:

    @Handclapping

    I couldn’t possibly say, though it will wear a red rosette.

  122. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    Bdtt
    Good video-Stuart & Campbell street sign. Perhaps someone with responsibility for naming roads had a touch of psychic ability there. Wind the clock forward a few years & we have our very own Stuart Campbell exacting revenge on our Imperial Masters 🙂

  123. Wuffing Dug
    Ignored
    says:

    @Robert Peffers
    A ‘re-tweet’ from a stalwart such as yourself is indeed an honour.

    Ah ken fit yer sayin’ unfortunately it’s endemic across all sectors and I’ve been ‘around the block’.

  124. john king
    Ignored
    says:

    Alan McHarg
    “We should get stickers “funded by Scottish Oil ” made up and plastered throughout their UK!!”

    I cannot think of a more stupid thing to do than plaster everything with bought and paid for by the UK taxpayer,
    they asking for us all to go around with stickers and cover them with bought and paid for by Scottish oil,
    now who do I know that’s good at that? hmmm

  125. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    OH Rev you vile nasty cybernat picking oan anither wee lassie, her Hand Maiden,s uniforms in the cleaners so,s she,s bare ersed ,never mind dannyboy,s goat a Onionist wraparoon fur her.

  126. ScottieDog
    Ignored
    says:

    Labours rising star turns into a black hole. So dense even reason can’t escape…

  127. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    If I remember aright the disgraced former Labour MP for Ashfield, Geoff Hoon, when Britain’s industry was being scrapped wholesale, opined that Britain should be getting out of the “metal bashing business”.

  128. Compo
    Ignored
    says:

    aww bless! Kez hasnt quite got the hang of that politics malarkey yet has she? 🙂

  129. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:32 pm:

    ” … I was looking for a map of the motorways in UK but it’s hard to find one with Scotland in it as the motorway only goes as far as Perth … “

    You want to know about Scottish Motorways, Capella?

    The M6 was a large wide multi-lane road until it arrive just short of Gretna. It then stopped short and was originally not even a duel Carriagway. On the other side of the country the M1 stopped well short of the border.

    In England, when they built new bridges, UK transport paid for the new roads infrastructure on both sides of the new bridges. When they built the Forth Road Bridge it was left to the local authorities to finance the roads infrastructure. Working in the Dockyard I could see the work on the new bridge and see the Fife side roads being constructed.

    Now the first thing was that the Queens Ferry Road on the Edinburgh side is not motorway standard and as the bridge was a main trunk road that would have to carry both on-foot travellers and cyclists it could not be motorway standard as these are not allowed on motorways. So, on the Fife side the road, even today, is not a motorway until the Rosyth main slip-roads. However, they still did not build the road towards Perth to motorway standard but did classify it as a motorway.

    Thing is there was flooding problems that were ignored and the dual carriageway did not even have hard shoulders. For example they bypassed Kelty by a cutting that cut through at least five live burns that had been culverted under Kelty. So there was flooding and the road was actually floating on a sea of mud as those burns drained into the motorway cutting.

    Anyone breaking down on that stretch of road who stepped onto the verge sank into the mud, in some places, up to their thighs. They then dug a very deep trench down the central reservation and installed a drainage pipe to carry the water down to Loch Fitty. They also installed rubble drains on either side of the M90. Then bit by bit added bits of hard shoulder, much like laybys, above them.

    Still, today, is little more than just a dual carriageway with only two lanes on either side.

    They skimped on everything including the road bridge which is why they have had to do renovations due to corrosion. All my life I’ve seen Scotland treated that way by Westminster while no expense has ever been spared on London infrastructure everything in Scotland has been grudged.

  130. geeo
    Ignored
    says:

    Was Ravenscraig not hitting production records when it was shut down ?

    As for kez and her comments, it is a surprise she didn’t greet about the lack of good old fashioned Scottish made “airhooks” to hold the deck up on that on time under budget bridge thingy !

  131. Tam Jardine
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s a really interesting tweet. What is Kezia telling us? That SNP supporters are hypocrites? That the Scottish Government refuse to use guid Scottish steel because they are hypocrites?

    That we (or they as she puts it) should not only use the elusive Scottish steel but should only source materials for Scottish manufacturing and construction sourced within Scotland? What is this new protectionist Scottish Nationalist Labour movement that is emerging from within Kezia’s circle?

    How could we have stayed true to Kezia’s own ubernationalist standards? Should all us Wingers setup furnaces in our back gardens like the Chinese did in Mao’s Great Leap Forward, smelting our pots, pans and now redundant yes badges to provide steel for the bridge?

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward#/media/File:Backyardfurnace5.jpg

    Plenty wood kicking about to fire up the furnaces…. In fact why not build some kind of massive wooden bridge across the Firth instead, from honest Scottish timber.

    Or is Kezia simply lashing out in an unthinking way, saying ‘how dare you criticise labour’

    If she could just snap out of the SNP BAAD mindset she may accept that some criticisms of Scottish Labour are legitimate. It is a a shame to watch another human flounder so badly in a job… the last thing Kezia needs is a labour revival in Scotland as it would validate her party in its current chronic state.

    Love Tam

  132. Lollysmum
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T news

    Paul Monaghan has recruited Lord Thurso’s former Election Agent to SNP 🙂

    http://blog.independencelive.net/thursokickedintheteet/

  133. geeo
    Ignored
    says:

    @robert peffers.

    Interesting read and thanks for that, especially the section on the divert of water to loch fitty.

    Where would that water have gone instead if the Fitty had been drained for coal production ?

  134. GallusEffie
    Ignored
    says:

    Perhaps it’s thinking about those poor wee llamas getting hunted up and down the highways and byways, but I think is that it’s apt that every time SLab opens it’s mouth, all I can hear is Yakkety Sax.

  135. Compo
    Ignored
    says:

    Is it possible that Kez doesnt even know about Ravenscraig? How old is she? People of my age will never forget the Thatcher years. Its easy to forget that it is literally history to younger people. I had to explain to my son recently that before Thatcher, all utilities and major industries were in public ownership.

    No excuse of course, its laughable if someone in Kez’s position doesnt know this stuff. I tend to think she is inept and/or ignorant though, not the cynical type (like her boss)

  136. Lesley-Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    geeo says:

    Was Ravenscraig not hitting production records when it was shut down ?
    o stee
    As for kez and her comments, it is a surprise she didn’t greet about the lack of good old fashioned Scottish made “airhooks” to hold the deck up on that on time under budget bridge thingy !

    I can’t remember where I read it geeo but I’m sure I read somewhere that Ravenscraig was the ONLY profitable steel plant in the whole of the U.K. at the time that our dear leader, blessings upon the road she walks 😉 , made the decision that no steel should be manufactured in the U.K., all praise to the bold and wise one! 😀

  137. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    @geeo:

    Quite right about Ravenscraig performance: it was supplying high quality steel to BMW as it closed.

    @ Brian Doonthetoon:

    Not getting your prescient link yet. Site seems slow tonight.

    All the best.

  138. Nana Smith
    Ignored
    says:

    Labour MP says party shouldn’t rule out a ‘grand coalition’ with the Tories

    https://archive.today/5ivW0

  139. Grant
    Ignored
    says:

    Silly dug….

  140. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Effijy 7.08 Deputy Dog ( cartoon )Dipity Dug

    Or dipity doo dah dipity day ,only in Kezia,s case its Dipity 24/7, & the sad thing is,ah labotemy is the only known cure & she is ah nice lookin lassie,tae she snarls at the camera.

    PeteTC dont go near her.

  141. frogesque
    Ignored
    says:

    Hoss Mackintosh says:
    1 March, 2015 at 8:53 pm
    I blame the “Master”…

    https://bellacaledonia.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/kezia3.jpg

    From Greg…

    http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/12/19/the-toasters-apprentice/

    Enjoy!

    Actually Talkie Toaster was one of my favorite Red Dwarf characters.

    Back on topic, Is Kez trying for a Natalie Bennet Award?

  142. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Brian Doonthetoon (7.56pm).

    Thanks for that link, Brian, i enjoyed that trip down memory lane.

    I spent a big chunk of my childhood in Corby, due to the works.

    Little did i know that many years later i’d be back home in Scotland and working as part of the security for Ravenscraig, pre closure and demolition.

  143. Lesley-Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    Thought I’d just have a wee peek at the total on the fundraiser, just for posterity you understand. 😉

    Well let me tell you folks we have smashed throught the £86,000 mark. 😀

    I think we may be reaching the point shortly when our Stu may be able to afford to send a loverly bunch of coconuts flowers and accompanying thank you card to a certain Mr Foote. 😛

  144. Wulls
    Ignored
    says:

    The Infinate Monkey Theorum says that if you throw a typewriter up a tree eventually a monkey will type out the works of Shakespeare.
    There is a heluva lot more chance of that happening than anyone from ScotLab going more than a few days without making an absolute walloper of themselves.
    Take a bow Kezia.
    I didn’t think it could get worse than Slim Jim telling us ScotLab would keep all their seats.

  145. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    Tata Kezia.

  146. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Aye but under Labour Jim has promised a thousand new steel workers. Did none of you guys get the memo. Lol

    He is going to fund them from recycled chip papers in Lambeth.The next bridge they build will be named Murphy’s Follie.

  147. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Yet another example of Stookam Bell and his terrorist followers bullying a vulnerable young woman just trying to do her job as…
    What is her job exactly?
    Deputy to the guy who’s the leader who doesn’t have a seat in the parliament he’s not allowed in but wants to be First Minister of if only Jim McIntosh the guy who’s got the seat that the first guy wants him to give him will go away but he wont
    Confused?
    So are they…

  148. Wuffing Dug
    Ignored
    says:

    @Brian W
    Yes, Kezia reminds me of Jessie from toy story…. minus the intellect and charm.

  149. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Edward says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:32 pm :

    “What you might not know is that the so called ‘uneconomic’ Ravenscraig had all its plant, machinery, rolling equipment, shipped to a steel plant in the Southern states of America. No doubt the taxpayer funded that”.

    Believe me it was not the only really great Scottish enterprise that was sold off and, besides the value of the actual plant, the much more valuable stuff was the know how and development that built the plant. For example there was the little matter of the Westfield Lurgi Coal Gasification Plant in Fife.

    Some info here : –

    http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/70355-Westfield-Development-Centre-Fife-April-2012

    This plant not only could produced gas from coal, (for when North Sea gas ran out), but was producing electricity among many hundreds of other chemical by-products including the production of smokeless domestic fuel. It had become the leading Lurgi development in the World when the Establishment shut it down and sold off the plant, (if memory serves), to the Chinese or perhaps it was the USA. Just one more Scottish leading engineering process that we developed for someone else’s benefit and profit.

    Now I ask you – why did not the Scottish MSM and broadcasters make the loss of such industrial leadership known to the people of Scotland? Perhaps there was a more important Celtic vs Rangers cup-tie on at the time or a Labour Party conference – only such as the Delay Wrecker can tell us why.

  150. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    HAW, Deputy Dug,

    Are you old enough to remember Barbara Woodhouse?

    ((((( WAAAAALKIEEES )))))

  151. Noel Chidwick
    Ignored
    says:

    Did no-one tell Kezia that all the girders were used up to make Murphy’s Irn-Bru?

  152. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    @Al Dossary
    `British Steel had closed (Ravenscraig) the works as its ongoing “membership fee” to a price fixing cartel in Europe – later to be fined(28million) by the EU.

    Just a wee add on to that story ,this is from Hansard HC Deb 25 May 1994 vol 244 cc327-8.

    Mr. SALMOND: As Ravenscraig was probably sacrificed by British Steel as its entry price into a European cartel on other steel products, would it not be outrageous if British Steel escaped any of its obligations or if the site remained undeveloped because of a lack of political will and initiative from the Government? In view of the behaviour of British Steel and British Gas towards their customers and work forces in Scotland, what does the Minister think is the common factor—the fact that both were privatised or the fact that both were British?

  153. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Brian Doonthetoon @ 9.32

    Still not loading. May be my iPad. Nice to hear from you anyway.

    Slightly O/T re The National: it’s not perfect but it’s so cheap, by two and leave one in a public place.

    Remember Alone in Berlin by Fallada.

    Onwards, Cybernats!

  154. Lesley-Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    I knew I’ve seen this Labour party before I just couldn’t remember from where … until now! 😀

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

  155. bob mooney
    Ignored
    says:

    Silly wee lassie, needs her nappy changed.

  156. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Come on you guys, don’t mock the afflicted.

  157. wilma3957
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Stu,
    i have setup my standing order for £5 pounds every month until such time when we no longer need to worry about independance and scotland WILL rule it self, if more is needed I might be able to do a bit more.

  158. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Lesley-Anne ah remember as a apprentice molder getting sent for Sky Hooks, ah bought a wee packet of curtain hooks an telt the tradesman thats awe the shop hud.

    anither time ah wiz sent fur a bucket of Blue Steam,ah got ah wee Dolly Dye the guys in the shop gave me a bucket of watter, ah telt the tradseman blue steam wiz aff.

    ok ok am drawing the curtain in the darkened room.

  159. Marie clark
    Ignored
    says:

    OOPS! Dippity Dug must realise that you should engage brain befor you open mouth.

    Erm, mibbies that’s the problem nae brain.

    Robert Peffers, your on fire the nicht, well done Sir. Always informative N

  160. Wuffing Dug
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella etc al
    Absolutely right, Scotland’s infrastructure is a disgrace. We all know where the money went.

    A90, oil capital of Europe? You have to be joking. 3rd world roads. The price paid in lives in the ne and on the a9 is a another crime of unionism.

  161. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Its a bit like complaining that the Holyrood cafe,only sells coffee produced in Brazil. You can’t use what you don’t produce.

    The difference is Scotland could produce steel ,but not coffee. We then ask the question. Why did the glorious Westminster government scrap our steelworks?

    Answer…because they don’t give a fuck about Scotland. Just like Labour.

  162. cynicalHighlander
    Ignored
    says:

    @ronnie anderson

    Retrieve the long stand while your there, please.

  163. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @dennis mclaughlin says: 1 March, 2015 at 7:52 pm:

    “what on earth are you up to with all these “trojans”?.

    Believe me, Dennis, whoever it is attacking me is good. None of their stuff is as yet recognized by the anti-virus programs. I sent the info off to them as I weeded it out. This was a deliberate attack on my machines. Today I’ve been free of their attacks. The point is commercial anti-virus programs mainly have to know the footprint of the virus, Trojan or whatever in order to either prevent it or remove it and they didn’t recognize that lot. Most good anti programs can detect attacks, even if they cannot identify them, but removing unknown stuff is a real pain.

    I do know my way around computers. I worked for the MOD and worked on my first computer in the early 1950s. It was built into a couple of aircraft hangers and contained lots of twin triode valves. These drove Post Office style uniselectors and P.O. style relays.

    The machine was being built as a top secret replacement for the WWII German code-breaking machine at Bletchley Park. It used as much electricity just for valve heaters as would be used by a city the size of the Edinburgh of those days.

    I spent the next 40 odd years, mainly in electronics, with the MOD that in the early years designed and built all defence electronics themselves, (with the exception of such as some Marconi Communication Radio). Farming stuff out to commercial companies came a bit later.

  164. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Stocker, Babara Woodhouse didnt do mongrel pups only dugs that espired to be winners.

  165. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    I used to keep a parrot that displayed greater intelligence than Kezia Dugdale.

    Actually, when I think of it, so did my hamster.

    Definition of a Scottish Labour politician: Too young to know Scotland’s history, or too bigoted to admit it.

  166. Lesley-Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    Don’t close the curtains completely Ronnie I think some of us may be right behind you into the “Darkened Room!” I have it on good authority that the bar is fully stocked so help yourself. 😉

    Just as well that we have managed to complete the “Darkened Room” expansion EARLY and under budget! Boom! Boom! 😀

  167. Clootie
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia must be the thickest person yet to rise through the Labour ranks in Scotland. This is a remarkable achievement given the strong field of contenders for that title.

    There has to be a controlling mind selecting these candidates. The statistical chances of achieving such a run of consecutive morons from the general population must be almost zero…the question is why do they promote them?

    I wouldn’t leave Kezia in an empty room with a box of matches. Complaining that the bridge was not built by using steel that is not available in Scotland is on a par with Ian Gray asking where the money for an oil fund would come from.

  168. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    Hi Robert Peffers.

    You may have read this already but I find it of interest because I lived within 100 yards of the “Myles” B&B in the 50s.

    “It was there that we heard Neville Chamberlain announce that we were at war with Germany. It was Sunday morning, September 3rd, 1939.
    We arrived in Dundee later that fateful day. The following morning, Rowe scolded Oliphant for not arriving earlier.”

    http://www.whitehead-family.ca/drrennie/chap2.html

  169. Wilty
    Ignored
    says:

    Ravenscraig was not the only Scottish steel plant to close during the 80s. I am from Kilbirnie in Ayrshire, and while I was growing up the valley was dominated by the Gelengarnock steelworks – which closed down in 1985, taking with it much of the employment prospects of the district.
    http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/steelworks/Steelworks%20Glengarnock.htm

  170. Mucklemickle
    Ignored
    says:

    Aw, wee kez is coming oer all tribal again.

    Maybe thats what better together means, ye get yer pamphlets printed for you once yer imperial masters have checked oer whit youve said.

    Now, who selects labour candidates at the GE again? Is it the super-autonomous local accounting unit or LondonLabours NEC? And why did yer “patriotic” party conceal the true extent o Scotland’s oil wealth in the 1970s again? Then redraw the maritime border in 1999 to Scotlands detriment?

    Oh, I feel like such a vile and paranoid cybernat! How can ah live wi meself havin’ turned against ‘the party’?! The reality of course is that it was labour who abandoned progressive politics and sold out the people of Scotland for its own perceived gain.

    On Thursday 7th May the people of Scotland will have the opportunity to reward ‘Scottish’ Labour for decades of self-indulgent nepotism, presumptive entitlement and outright treachery. LETS WIPE EM OUT FOLKS.

  171. Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Like Pike from Dad’s Army, “Stupid Girl”!

  172. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @john king says:1 March, 2015 at 8:49 pm:

    “I cannot think of a more stupid thing to do than plaster everything with bought and paid for by the UK taxpayer”.

    You are of course correct, John, it is stupid and implies we are being subsidised. After a little more thought it occurred to me that we Scots are also UK citizens and pay tax on exactly the same terms as the rest of the UK. We do, though, pay a higher average per capita GDP than the other UK countries taxpayers. A more subtle added sticker could read : –

    “Scots are UK taxpayers too. We also pay higher average per capita tax than other UK people. When will you return our fair share of funding to us?”

  173. Casper1066
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh come on guys that’s not fair. The Darwin site needs some gene material. She has such a lack of understanding and needs to engage the brain before the fingers

  174. Edward
    Ignored
    says:

    A bit O/T
    Anyone seen the crap on the Daily Telegraph
    Article by Auslan Cramb claiming that Nick Robinson has received abuse from ‘Cybernats’

    Sad that if it has happened, considering the circumstance as I really don’t think anyone could be that idiotic to do such stuff.

    As there is a lack of detail such as proper details of who has done this, make me suspicious of what Auslan Cramb has written

  175. Dave McEwan Hill
    Ignored
    says:

    Grouse Beater at 10.34

    That’s some hamster – keeping a parrot

  176. Stephen McKenzie
    Ignored
    says:

    @Robert Peffers says:1st March, 2015 @ 23:17

    “Scots are UK taxpayers too. We also pay higher average per capita tax than other UK people. When will you return our fair share of funding to us?”

    Robert I know, but I only have a Rover 25.. I don’t have space for all that. Something short and snappy will fit my back window.

    “Danny Boy will work for living wage. Hopefully..”

  177. Rob James
    Ignored
    says:

    World steel quotas were introduced to stop saturation of the market.

    The emergence of developing industrial countries such as India were given a share of the quota, which meant that the existing producers had to cut theirs.

    Therefore, Ravenscraig, despite having the longest rolling mills in the UK, was closed and the work was moved to Scunthorpe, despite the need for considerable investment.

  178. Jimmur Phymp
    Ignored
    says:

    When the EU was getting carved up in the early 90s, Germany was to get the industry, France the agriculture and London the finance. Scotland made a sacrifice to benefit our white collar comrades in the south, it’s the labour way, Kez the socialist will tell you how important this pooling and sharing is, it’s why Team GB is so important to Labour.

  179. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @geeo says: 1 March, 2015 at 9:13 pm:

    “Where would that water have gone instead if the Fitty had been drained for coal production?

    I’ve no real idea but this sort of thing has been going on around Fife since the mines & pits closed. The area downhill from the Fitty is Halbeath, (and they already have their own problems). Not only has there been much flooding problems as the old workings topped up with water but much of the ground is badly contaminated. There has been mining around here since before The Reformation

    Those live burns I mentioned come from, or flow through, what is now Blairadam Forest and that whole area has been mined for a couple of hundred years. So contamination flowing under Kelty all that time. For example the Blairenbathy burn rises out of the old Blairenbathy mine and, like some others in the forest, it runs rusty red and smells of Sulphated Hydrogen. These workings have been mined for around 200 years. It flowed under Kelty in a culvert and used to feed the coal fired gasworks pond that the gasometer floated in.

    All coal-gasworks left behind deadly heavy metal contamination. So after the gasworks and the pits closed and they built the M90 it left behind the five culverts that piped those burns under Kelty. However, they had also used those underground pipes as storm water drains and the seivers in the streets fed into them. Then they open cast mined the fields behind our cottages and later built new housing estates upon the obviously contaminated ground.

    The new residents have an action group fighting the builders and probably Fife Council as there has been flood problems, mysterious pet deaths, Japanese Knot weed infestations and much green slime here and there.

    We even had a couple of Winters where the paths around Loch Ore Country Park were impassable due to them being unable to open the sluices to regulate the water levels as to do so would have flooded homes in places downstream on the River Ore. Now I do have a vague memory that there were plans to drain Loch Fitty but I cannot remember why they wanted to do so. I could be wrong but I’m of the opinion we have not yet seen the end of the problems around the Kelty, Kingseat and Halbeath areas from the days of the coal mines and the old Blairadam Brickworks. But that’s another story

  180. frankieboy
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘Love Kez”? She can’t even sign off a tweet without telling a lie. Also, what’s illuminating is not her wit but her tribalism. Labour is analogous with nature where scum rises to the top.

  181. Colin.AH
    Ignored
    says:

    And these people want Scotland to vote for them? I would rather poke my eyes out with red hot needles.

  182. Malcolm
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe she could make another joke about us having to import coal? Or laugh about the demise of the Scottish automotive industry?
    Her humor will go down well in the de industrialized labour heartlands, I am sure.
    But just another example of how an all consuming desire to knock the SNP has blinded Labour to the fact that they are laughing at the expense of their own (former) supporters.

  183. Caadfael
    Ignored
    says:

    “Sharpest bulb”?
    How silly is mixing metephors becoming!
    Brightest bulb or sharpest knife surely !!
    Both of which she is neither !

  184. Suzanne
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia strikes out on her own as a Voice For Scotland and falls flat on her face. I’m looking forward to hearing her try to defend that little nugget.

  185. Donald Urquhart
    Ignored
    says:

    Surely some of the money sent to China for the steel, comes back to Britain in the form of payments to Jack Straw and other corrupt politicians.

  186. gerry parker
    Ignored
    says:

    @Caadfael. 7:58

    Up with this we cannot put.

    🙂

  187. The Rough Bounds
    Ignored
    says:

    @Caadfael. 7.58am

    Not only have you missed the joke, you have misspelt Metaphore. (it’s an A, not an E)

  188. The Rough Bounds
    Ignored
    says:

    Now can you tell us in what way I have misspelt Metaphor?

  189. Kathleen skifjell
    Ignored
    says:

    The woman is a gift to the SNP 🙂

  190. Geoff Huijer
    Ignored
    says:

    They could find better leaders by just
    popping out into the street & picking
    the first few people that wander up.

  191. Port Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Changed days – Chinese steel for the Forth crossing, but if you take the walking tour of Sydney Harbour Bridge, you can see the steel beams marked “Motherwell Bridge”.

  192. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    ronnie anderson says:
    @ Stocker, “Babara Woodhouse didnt do mongrel pups only dugs that espired to be winners.”

    Aye, right enough, ronnie!
    🙂

  193. chris kilby
    Ignored
    says:

    Awk-ward!

  194. Broch Landers
    Ignored
    says:

    Wit, resolve, collectivism and courage are the hallmarks of this site.

    Once upon a time, the Labour movement was like that.

    I know, I know.

  195. chris kilbyc
    Ignored
    says:

    What was it Denis Healey said about holes again…?

  196. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    Caadfael

    On the correct thread this time

    What is the opposite of Sharp?

    Could it be dull?

  197. robert urquhart
    Ignored
    says:

    Mcternan doing a great job of herding the cats. If she’s really as daft as that tweet suggests, a terrifying future awaits Labour. Hey ho.

  198. robert graham
    Ignored
    says:

    her previous boss (wee jimmy’s double Lamont) was laughed at endlessly about the same stupid remark still trying a history rewrite don’t they ever learn god and we employ them this is taking care in the community too far, time for a re-think surely

  199. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Nick Robinson will appreciate the NHS

  200. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    NHS Long may yer lum reek

  201. Anne
    Ignored
    says:

    This confirms my suspicion that Kezia Dugdale is an idiot.

  202. Carlywarls
    Ignored
    says:

    Do SNP pay Kezia to come out with her pish? Is she Nicola’s paid stooge? It’s the only explanation.

  203. John Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    It is no wonder that her London boss was livid with her , and Cameron would not have been the only one either , I bet Corbyn was furious too .

  204. Jack Murphy
    Ignored
    says:

    I really CANNOT understand why anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together would vote for,or be a member of the ‘Scottish Labour Party’ Branch.
    Completely baffles me.

  205. frankieboy
    Ignored
    says:

    Dear Labour supporters, alternatively you could support a Scottish political party instead of going to England to find one and delivering their edicts with a tartan ribbon round it.

  206. Jimbo
    Ignored
    says:

    Probably the reason that Labour leaflets are printed in England is because the order came from head office in London.

  207. jdman
    Ignored
    says:

    Thick as mince!
    don’t these people have advisers to stop them from making fools of themselves?

  208. The Lurker
    Ignored
    says:

    Kezia has a way of denting us while also hurting herself and I get a kick out of the feeling of collective minds thinking as one: coz I just know, you all will know.



Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.




↑ Top