To the bitter end
This was a brief exchange between the Scotland correspondent of the Guardian and the Political Editor of the Daily Record on Twitter last night. (The hug referred to is the one between Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru and Natalie Bennett of the Greens at one of the leaders’ debates for the May general election.)
A little vision of the future, there.
If you were bending over backwards to find a generous interpretation – it’s Christmas, after all – you might try floating the idea that Clegg was joking. But you’d struggle to back it up. The sour tone is bereft of any discernible wit. It’s not a satirical reference to anything Libby Brooks ever said to that effect, so far as we can recall. After a few Nat types jumped on it, he’s tweeted no huffy response about their humourlessness.
To all intents and purposes, then, he means it. Which is depressing almost beyond measure, and not just because every single aspect of it is factually complete drivel.
Eight-year-old children can do the arithmetic. The Tories won 330 seats to Labour’s 232. If every single SNP, Plaid and Green seat had gone to Labour instead (which they would never have done – Labour couldn’t have taken some of the Lib Dem seats the SNP won in a thousand years), Labour would have had 292 and the Tories would still have had the exact same majority they do now.
The backup line of the Labour whinge – seeking to blame everyone but themselves for their defeat – is that the threat of the SNP holding Ed Miliband to ransom drove swing voters to the Tories. But as well as being self-evident nonsense, that theory has been blown to pieces by the British Election Study, who also rather ironically found that it was people switching TO Labour (from the Lib Dems) that actually turned what would otherwise have been a Tory minority government into a majority one.
But we knew all that already. The truly dismal thing about Clegg’s tweet is what it tells us about how the next few months are going to go down.
While the Record is an openly Labour-supporting paper, the Irish-born reporter is usually rather more guarded and professional, and we can’t help wondering if a few festive drinks may have been taken before he so guilelessly regurgitated tired Labour propaganda in public. But it’s not an isolated incident.
Over recent weeks the Scottish media seems to have adopted even more of a siege mentality than before. The level of flat-out, petulantly childish “SNP BAD” reporting has escalated. This morning’s Scotsman slant on the good news of the unexpectedly early reopening of the Forth Road Bridge is like something you’d expect cybernats to have Photoshopped in mockery, but is all too real:
We tweeted a few days ago that – deaths excepted – the saddest loss in Scottish political journalism this year was that of The Daisley Mail, the once-regular snarky gossip column by talented STV writer Stephen Daisley. TDM poked fun at all sides of the political divide more or less equally, in a way that provided a sorely-needed shaft of light in what’s all too often a horribly poisonous atmosphere.
There’s precious little comedy of any sort to be found in Scotland’s political debate (there’s no “Have I Got Scottish News For You?”), and what there is is almost totally partisan and essentially antagonistic in nature. The Daisley Mail was more or less the only bridge across which prisoners could be exchanged and dialogue held.
To lose it was a serious blow, made worse by the fact that Daisley instead dedicated most of his time to something of which there was already an excessive supply: angry right-wing diatribes and barely-disguised lazy trolling in the vein of Iain Martin, Chris Deerin, Alan Cochrane, Euan McColm, Brian Monteith et al.
Monteith, incidentally, recently penned a by-the-numbers attack on the SNP blaming it for the Forth Bridge closure, which made the discovery by an alert reader of this 2003 Holyrood transcript from his time as a Tory MSP all the more ironic:
The bridge story has cast the Scottish press in a pretty unflattering light. No stone has been left unturned for negativity, often at the cost of truly spectacular perversions of the truth. Conversely, anything which failed to portray the SNP badly has been studiously ignored. But it’s only the most recent and striking example.
The hysterically overblown witch-hunts – some of them comically ludicrous – against a string of SNP MPs as yet not even questioned by police for alleged misdeeds, and the submission by the Telegraph of the discredited, IPSO-censured “memogate” story for a journalism award, have all provided fuel for the fires of hatred.
A significant number of Unionist hacks, traumatised and enraged beyond endurance by the events of May and with the public seemingly immune to their lurid thunderings, appear to have decided to abandon even the slightest sliver of pretence and go down lashing out in blind, insensible fury. Positions are being entrenched.
If the media has any say in it, the run-up to the 2016 election will be characterised by a relentless bombardment of bitterness, resentment and provocative dishonesty. Many readers will, of course, feel that’s very much business as usual. But from where we’re standing it looks like there’s a distance to go yet before we hit rock bottom.
Keep you pecker up Rev. Sounds like it is getting you down.
The Unionist strategy to prevent Scotland being a normal country running its own affairs is increasingly in the hands of the press perpetuating political myths coupled with ever extreme SNP bad / Scotland useless.
This is the root of folks feeling compelled to take to social media to get some kind of balance, or at least set the record straight.
Alas, this gets called abuse.
Project Fear and Smear is really getting out of hand. They are performing origami tricks of verbal logic to blame everything on the SNP.
This morning on R 4 we had them blaming the former Minister, Derek McKay for removing the tolls on the bridge and thus have less money to spend on preventative maintenance.
Tolls = Good
No Tolls = Bad
Yeh Clegg has made a complete arse of himself, and not for the first time. I will take no lectures from a bitter unionist from Northern Eire about how my country should be governed.
He lives in scotland and earns a good salary telling Scots how to think. Pity he learnt nothing from his home nation about humility and respect.
He carries his baggage around with him rather than casting it off and opening his eyes.
David Clegg being the guy the bbc in Scotland employ as an impartial commentator on politics in Scotland!
And of course to balance things up they also use Katie Grant, another arch unionist, only last week Grant was forecasting doom and gloom for SNP over the bridge.
Circulation is falling, so the sensationalism is rising. Money, money, money.
I heard the hauliers doomed to fiery disaster, almost as bad as having your children barrel bombed by the Syrian Air Force, story this morning on the radio.
To be fair a 25 mile detour (free of other traffic because that can go by the bridge) is almost as bad as being beheaded by Daesh.
I see Clegg still hasn’t noticed that Labour lost because their campaign was shite.
Keep in mind that Castro has outlived every US president who proclaimed they would unseat him and ‘liberate’ Cuba. That’s a hellova lot of presidents, vice-presidents, and square-headed generals.
Today Castro has the pleasure of the latest US president seeing sense by liberating the USA from imposing an illegal US embargo for over fifty years.
Scotland’s resistance to assimilation has lasted over 300 years.
Every two-bit, booze sodden hack who thinks the way to protect ‘The Peepole’ is to remove their elected government, should understand that their place in current events and their behaviour will be no more than a footnote in Scotland’s history … if they’re lucky, and a diligent student bothers to include their ludicrous lies in his research.
Saw this yesterday. Thought should I send it winging your way? Decided no-you deserve your break-we’ll deal with it!
What are you doing man? You’re supposed to be taking time out 🙂
And this is the place to come for an antidote to all the faux outrage of the CorpMedia which is why we’re here – to read and learn. In fact, we can probably all write the headlines ourselves now for the run-up to the election.
‘WARNING’ on economy, NHS waiting times, police, educational standards etc etc
‘BLOW FOR STURGEON’ something somewhere has gone wrong
‘DISASTER’ Westminster austerity impacts Scottish families – Sturgeon’s fault…
Keep up the good work – on your wee break!
Calum- Katie Grant is a toff from the English shires. Yet her and working class Clegg from N Eire share a platform. Isn’t it interesting how the unionsits will get into bed with anyone to stop Scotland.
Like most folk on here my heckles go up when I hear a toff like Grant lecturing to me about my nation.
I know the hauliers have a 30/40 miles extra to do when heading North, but surely the current price of fuel will lessen any extra costs incurred.
Is it my imagination or has The National decided to join the band of MSM SNP bad. Since the changeover it seems to be all labour, lib dem,tory stories, but snp bad, snp need to be held to account etc. What is disappointing is if they read Wings The National could correct their mistakes before publishing the MSN accepted half truths and lies.
I have bought The National since inception, but am thinking of cancelling which is something I never thought I would do.
Project fear and the UKOKers, guaranteed Tory governance in Scotland, ya eejit.
SNP x 2
The easy answer to Clegg’s comment is this. The reason we have a Tory government running Scotland is because you voted no.
If you are not a nation another nation picks your government. ARE YOU GETTING THIS YET CLEGG!!!
The more,the better.The thicker they lay it on,the more obvious it becomes.It makes it easier to convince newspaper readers that their papers are very biased and generally full of sh*te.We just have to continue with these little conversations.A wee bit at a time.Sow the seeds.
Wait! Hold the phone. Early reports may be wrong.
Nicola Sturgeon: European Court has not told Scottish Government it cannot introduce minimum alcohol pricing
https://archive.is/kQwp9
In the midst of this maelstrom of malevolance we on Wings have The Rev Stu. An island haven on a stormy sea.
I no longer care what the petulant press consign to print.
Wings has become my window on the Scottish world, and has taught me so much from all who contribute to articles,as well as from the articles themselves.
It is a lonely furrow you plough Rev,but it is an essential one.
Never in my lifetime has such a struggle been possible,or even probable.
Shades have fallen from my eyes, and as time goes on,more and more of my fellow citizens have the blinkers removed to have the truth revealed to them of just how manipulated we have been as a people. This is in no small part due to yourself and those who frequent this site.
My days of being manipulated are over. Though previously I thought of myself as being well educated,I now read ,dissect, and discard or keep facts of relevance. I have never been a subsciber to any particular site,but Wings is my first port of call each and every day in life,and I hope it remains so.
Without any false praise ,you are a beacon of light for a great many people,myself included.
‘The easy answer to Clegg’s comment is this. The reason we have a Tory government running Scotland is because you voted no.’
Good shout.
They are losing, Rev Stu, and you are having a major effect by debunking all their lies.
In an Independent Scotland all these Unionist Journos will be redundant and will be on the scrap heap. Fear is what drives them.
2016 will be another bonanza year for the SNP and the yes2 campaign and the MSM cannot stop it.
All the best for Xmas and New Year to you and your Alert Readers.
I suspect, as do many others from their comments, that the hysterical BritNat negative ranting is doing the Dependancy/Unionist/Imperialist cause more harm that good.
In that respect we may just have to put up with it as a necessary evil!
It could all have been so different. All their bitterness and venom just leaves a nasty smell in the lives of everyone, be they pro or anti Union.
The legacy of the BetterTogether negativity, fear mongering, and divisive tactics will be with us for a long time. The CorpMedia anger is just one ongoing manifestation.
On the 18th Sept 2014 they lost absolutely everything, except the numerical vote. It didn’t take long afterwards for that to become clear. They know it and can’t cope with that reality.
Have a peek at the Hootsmon online for sheer madness and bigotry. The anti Scotsman journalists have only themselves to blame for attracting these daily knuckle draggers. If you can get the page to hold still for minute while it scrolls up and down, jumping pages, making it impossible to read, you would think you had walked into a Rangers pub after an Orange rally. The English commentators are obviously EDL allies.
From tory BBC/msm point of view, they’re losing control of a very large slice of their country but their biggest problem is who to go after, as real world democracy races away from them.
O/T
Minimum pricing is right on health and family life grounds and it also helps local shops, pubs and off licenses to survive against supermarkets.
A £5 bottle of wine is the middle class equivalent of cheap vodka or Buckie and only contains eleven pence worth of wine £2.73 goes to UK government and £1.46 to the retailer 40p for cost of bottle and 30p on transport and admin costs.
Unionists opposed devolving Excise Duty which GERS says is worth £1 billion a year.
I’m guessing Mr Clegg isn’t enjoying all this better togetherness he helped engineer. Welcome to the reality of the democratic deficit Mr Clegg.
We could have been three months away from never having to worry about a distant Conservative government managing our affairs ever again. Still, the fella got the system he wanted, so you’d think he’d be happy regardless of who sat in the chair.
No pleasing some folks.
Donald
I haven’t read the Scotsman pages in ages but I was struck by how poor the comments section had become the last time I was there. A handful of people stuck on SNPbad mode. It is the natural home of the SNPouters it would seem and the poverty of intellect displayed would hint at why they are failing so badly.
This bitter gruel is the only thing to keep them going through the long dark winter. Grappling with their irrelevance, Scottish labour’s incompetence, the Tories triumphant non-recovery and the lib dems continuing slide into oblivion…what’s left but to seek comfort in smears and sneers at those who beat them.
They consigned to themselves to the dustbin.
Just to echo the others here Stuart, Wings is now more essential than ever as the antidote to the shit that is coming down the pipe.
You are, as has been said here by others, my first reference point each day for Scottish political comment. You are utterly indispensable.
Fuck them. Just leave them keeping on digging an even greater hole for themselves, their masters and their beloved union. Their bile & venom will poison their message so that it will continue to turn previous cautious-No voters ( the reachable reasonables) towards ditching the UK. Here have a spade, , Cleggy….
I think you mean this group hug Stu?
http://www.scottcreighton.co.uk/GE2015/edd-and-grace.png
What colour do you get when red and blue are mixed? Purple
Purple faced hacks stamping up and down with their purple faced masters cos little jockland does not know its place.
Yer right Rev, they can and will go lower. They see 3 major battles ahead, SG 2016, EU 2016/17 and LG 2017. They are anticipating losing the 3, then their precious union will collapse.
Like wild animals when cornered, the unionist hacks will lash out incoherently and unrestricted against anything which is not with their agenda.
PS. Thought you were taking some time off?
Whatever happened to Ian Smart’s “better a 100 years Tory rule than independence”?
🙂 Don’t tell me they didn’t mean it
People say you buy newspapers that reflect your established opinion rather than the newspaper influencing you.
If so then we should rejoice that the bitter snark of the Yoon press is playing to a diminishing audience. I used to read the Yoon stuff in fascinated horror feeling detached and a bit sad that such negativity was given a voice.
I don’t even read it now.
I think we are aware as never before of the powerless of the paper press when faced with the internet. I only wish we had a paper equivalent of a tabloid, easy to read and accessible to the elderly. The National is just not filling that gap.
We just have to keep going with countering misinformation in whatever way we can.
Jake Gittes says@12:21 pm
What he said.
“The truly dismal thing about Clegg’s tweet is what it tells us about how the next few months are going to go down.”
Aye, merry f**kin xmas! 😉
Seriously though, to Stu and all the Alert Readers out there – have a good break (with all the trimmings) and let’s look to the new year with as much positivity as we can manage, cos there’s no doubt we’re in for a long slog.
The other end of this extremist Scottish BBC/msm anti SNP bias was the English tory May general election campaign that saw them putting up giant vote tory billboards of Alex Salmond as a pickpocket in action, dressed in black and pulling a wallet from an unfortunates back pocket, in all English marginals.
http://www.dng24.co.uk/salmond-cash-grab-poster-triggers-border-row/
and
http://blogs.elcorreo.com/gurruchaga/files/2015/04/CDbegrWXIAAawbn.jpg
Dont let the SNP grab your cash England. Vote Conservative.
They took them down almost instantly after they won obviously but these are seriously creepy UKOK characters.
The stupid Scottish Voters! Voting for these awkward Nats! They’ll soon come to their senses once the queen’s birthday comes around and they realise what a great country Britain is!
Aye right!
And all because Scotland has the temerity to srand up to them; because Scotland WON’T go back in its box and shut up.
SCottish Unionist Media. Understand this – we hold you in utter contempt.
Oh and SNP x 2 SE2016. Let’s give them another bloody nose.
Tidy bit of work there STU nicely done
Minimum unit pricing: It’s not over, the media as per usual is only mis reporting the first bit of the ruling,there’s a little more
I don’t have a linky thing but if you go on to the First Ministers Twitter full info is there
Hmmm…. I always thought it was the group hug involving Jim Murphy (Red Tory, rabid right-winger) and Annabel Goldie (Blue Tory, right-winger) that meant Tory governments for us voters forever and ever and ever…
The Englsh working class voted Tory.
Scotland out voted 10 to 1
I know it’s a big party with many talented MPs and MSPs – but Joe Public out there mostly only see Sturgeon. To them she is the SNP and as she is uber brilliant and trusted the unionists can flail around as much as they like and it won’t make a difference. They’ve no chance!
So that yesterday – your article sums up my thoughts – sad wee whiner. As for TDM he has been losing it for some time. I may be biased towards Wings but you cannot fault its consistency of approach- shining light on rubbish journlism.
That said according to Tories we all need to lighten up and get our DANCING shoes on.
Peace to all especially Stu
More MSM lies.
Re Alcohol. It’s up to the Scottish courts to decided. The Crown Office a Law unto itself. Wait and see if they want more people in Scotland to die, without responsibility.
Tend to agree with Rev., Clegg watches his language, and comments on TV, trying to look affable, but no doubt the good polling for SNP, the FRB blind alley, has caused Clegg to burst a blood vessel.
I imagine these hacks with a visible throbbing vein on their forehead, as flecks of spittle cover their device, as they punch out their shite.
Carry on, the Unionists, your efforts will not go unrewarded.
Headlines like this in the Scotsman just make me feel like dancing. Wait. What?
I think their “rage” has got more to do with the fact they’re unable to influence voters. Certainly the majority. Hence the incredulous headlines yesterday regarding the latest opinion poll.
I don’t think Labour are in denial any more. They just don’t know what to do about it. Due to the fact they’re useless.
The same can’t be said about the MSM. They are in complete and utter denial.
Off topic
Just saw a brilliant graphic on a Yes page, called the Bath signal.
It’s batman, looking up at the Wings logo, so he knows he’s needed.
A couple of thoughts on the travails of the hauliers:
It would seem that the stress on the FRB was caused, or at least exacerbated, by the pounding on the structure by these huge heavy trucks. Testing by the engineers showed that the temporary repair enabling 90% of traffic to use the crossing would not withstand the HGVs. So what do the hauliers expect the bridge authorities to do?
1. Open the bridge to all traffic including HGVs, and risk the temporary repair failing and causing the closure of the bridge again
2. Close the bridge until the permanent repair is completed, thereby preventing 90% of the traffic from using the bridge for a few weeks
3. Do what they have done.
There is good news for the hard-pressed hauliers of course – with the fall in oil prices, their fuel bills have reduced by around 30%, which should go some way towards mitigating their costs of using the Kincardine Bridge for a month or so – weather permitting.
It’s not what they know to be true that matters, it’s what they can get people to believe!
I can’t be the only one whose sole remaining contact with the foreign corporate media – that means your newspaper, Clegg – is via the Rev’s articles deconstructing its scabrous lies.
Unless of course one tunes into Unionist TV or radio to find a sympatique ‘review’ of the foreign corporate media papers taking place.
SNP bad, to borrow Bernard Ponsonby’s gleeful judgement, is ‘the story that won’t go away’.
But guess what, Unionist media? You’ll still lose. That must be dreadfully galling and, if you had a brain or a conscience, would make you question what the hell you’re doing.
Merry Xmas wingers.
Clegg perfectly exemplifies the reason that Slabour are in such a mess. They are still blaming everything on the SNP. Their failure to move on and accept that they are at fault will forever haunt them.
They were in bed with the Tories in the referendum, not the SNP. They would rather have an English Tory government than and independent democratic Scotland. They have to face up to their responsibilities that they let Scotland down for 50 years. They wasted the oil as much as the Tories. They made sure Scotland stayed in the union. They want England to choose Scotland’s government.
While they keep lashing out at the SNP and by default the 51% who voted for them. This nation shall treat them with contempt. Let them carry on angry people never win in the end.
I was trying to predict what kind of negative spin the Yoons would put on the bridge opening ahead of schedule, and there it is. I hadn’t even thought of that one: how “disastrous” it will be for hauliers who will have a few more weeks bypassing the bridge.
They just can’t help themselves. They must be hell to live with. Can you imagine? Seeing the absolute negative in absolutely everything. They spend their days moaning, they’ll spend their evenings moaning. If their pipes freeze it will be the SNP’s fault for not keeping the weather mild. If their washing machine breaks down it will be because they’re doing so much washing because SNP. Tedious. Really, really tedious.
“Clegg” also known as a horsefly.
This may explain why he makes an equine arse of everything
he does.
The Record, Scotsman, Mail e.t.c, What are they?????
calling themselves “News” papers is a form of fraud.
How “disastrous” for hauliers who will have a few more weeks bypassing the bridge.
Labour are only confirming that they are the same as the Tories – the party of big business and corporate affairs.
In any event, those roads trucks must stay on a bit longer will be freed of the cars that couldn’t use the bridge.
Ironically as it is blowing a gale the bridge would have been closed to high sided vehicles today anyway, as it frequently is during the winter months.
Funny we haven’t heard what a disaster it is before when the lorries have to take the longer route
Can’t imagine why that is 😉
Brilliant article, Rev.
The CorpMedia are Scotland’s ‘clear and present danger’. Their constant distortions, mistruths and complete outright lies must be exposed precisely for what they are and presented to the fair minded people of Scotland.
Let THEM decide who Scotland’s ‘Real Champion’ is; let THEM decide who is lying and who is telling them the truth. And by telling the people of Scotland the whole, unspun, undiluted TRUTH (backed up by stats and facts from cedible independent sources) is how we will defeat the lying and deceitful CorpMedia in this country. Just keep doing what you are doing, Rev. It is seriously hacking (pun intended) the hacks off. They realise they are not getting this battle their own way; they see the polls and know they’re strategy simply isn’t working. And no amount of tweaking will improve it for them.
Scotland has changed. For good. They just don’t get it yet.
Their hacks are writing cheques their target audience simply cannot cash. Fewer and fewer are buying their guff; their lies because fewer and fewer are buying their establishment rags. And that is because more and more of the informed Scottish electorate are seeing these Establishment rags (the CorpMedia) in this country exactly for what it is – the mouthpiece of the UKOK Establishment. Wholly self-serving and utterly out of touch. A handful of Big Business newspaper moguls who think they have some god-given right to tell an entire nation how to think.
The days of the CorpMedia in Scotland running the show are over. They’ll get the message eventually.
Everyone have a braw festive season.
Once upon a time in a galaxy not that far away all people had for news was the musings of a bunch of satirical political comedic journalists and broadcasters… After millenia, underground forces swelled right up onto the surface of everything in the galaxy… A kind of universal growth in and of the universe itself… Many chose to ignore the force, calling those who believed in it fanaticists… They wrote beautiful comedy disparaging those who believed there could be real, and good, political change… Lovers of the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus…
Then, when all seemed to be lost in the Galaxy… On a windy, wet Christmas Eve… A sleigh appeared in the sky above Scotland… It had wings on it… It flew above the rooftops and dropped presents of sober analysis and rebalancing comedy right into the living rooms of the people below.
There were no reindeer on the sleigh… That was true… But there was one man driving it… And he ho-ho-ho’d fabulously…
And his name was Santa Claus.
Merry Christmas Stu!!
It’s just a question of stamina.
They can lie to us, deny us information, misrepresent the truth, command us to follow their agenda, poison our airwaves with their bile, but Scottish independence isn’t going to go away.
These unionists have to keep their barricades fully manned at all times. If we break through just once, it’s all over and there’s no going back. Victory for us is deliverance and a cause for celebration. Victory for them will never happen; it is the indefinite chore of avoiding defeat.
I’d rather be in our shoes than theirs.
For Clegg to call himself a political editor. Is an utter outrage to journalism. Yes he is the political editor of a comic. John Craven’s Newsround had more in depth coverage than his unionist mouthpiece.
The irony is. The peple who run his paper are the same Tories that he claims to despise.
Why are our political editors non Scots? Could they not find any willing to tow the line?
Hauliers are on holiday. Everything whines down.
When one unionist paper says a wrong thing, it is, undoubtedly, a wrong thing.
When every unionist paper publishes that same wrong thing, it remains a wrong thing.
When the BBC, die-hard labour twitterati, Jim Murphy, the SDL, the EDL and davie the-horsefly clegg swell the chorus to emphasise that same wrong thing, it is still a wrong thing, and their solidarity simply magnifies the wrongness of that wrong thing.
The truly disturbing thing is they don’t see what’s happening even now.
I’m wondering how, in Mr Clegg’s mind, he thinks the SNP are influencing anyone? The unionist media won’t give them the time of day, never mind favourable press. The simple truth of course is that the SNP have done nothing except be seen to hold the line against Westminster austerity ideology in the very worst of economic conditions.
The public themselves have rejected both the establishment parties and the establishment media. The public have shown their appreciation of the Scottish government’s efforts in the only way they can, by asking that government for more of the same effort and dedication.
There is no spell, no cult, no mind control, no feasible way the SG are influencing peoples thoughts, that was always the job of the media and their establishment chain tuggers. That’s their world of manipulation, misdirection and outright bare faced lies. What part of both the ‘Vow’ and Carmichael memogate omnishambles did the the man miss? Did he think folk wouldn’t notice, or that they’d meekly accept this is way things are done?
Yet still the media and their political chums dig the bloody hole deeper by insisting that the public are in the wrong, that we’re being unreasonable. In point of fact that we’re morons who should get our heads on straight and dae as wur telt. Vote for who we say, when we say and Like this person, hate that one. Condemn and demonise this section of society, aspire to that one instead.
These ‘people’ have been directing our lives for decades in this fashion and the fuckers expect our thanks? In the teeth of austerity UK ideology, an ever rightward Westminster and media and their conduct especially over the last year as fucking partners no less, they still insist SNP BAD and the Scottish electorate are in the wrong???
Reality check for the media and the establishment parties. You bring your own downfall upon yourselves. Your own manipulative, divisive, hateful, greedy, self serving, grasping actions did the damage. The clue is in who we choose to represent us.
The media put the conservatives in government. The people put the SNP in government.
Work it out.
This bun fight is not going to go away any time soon . The BBC journalists (all of them ),the establishment , Labour , Libdems , Tories , will do all they can in their power to throw everything at the SNP . It will not matter if it is true or false, as long as they get their sound bites out there to the less well informed they will have done their dirty work .That is why WE need to get the word out there and not leave it all to Rev.Stu .May is not that far away ,work will have to start NOW .
There will be no Damascene convertions in our beloved media, the SNP bad life-raft is all they have left to cling to as they drown in a sea of their own pish.
For satirical laughs:http://wp.me/p4fd9j-2Ha
For festive fun: http://wp.me/p4fd9j-2X4
@ winds down pre text
O/t Just heard some patronizing prick on the world at one talking Scottish independence down following a britexit result in Hamerons Euro referendum. He just reminded me why I am going to vote SNP,SNP in May and will continue till we are independent. England, one of the most indebted countries in the world is like Greece without the sunshine.
How’s the National doing?
Politics in Scotland is incredibly interesting these days. The current position presents the perfect environment for professional journalists with integrity to excel and show us what a fantastic job they can do. Fact based reporting with rational analysis and comment would be incredibly refreshing – even if it reached conclusions that we did not like. Instead we have so-called journalists with an agenda (SNP Bad) desperately scrabbling around trying to put a spin on every situation in an attempt to justify the conclusions they had already formed and cynically trying to present this as “news reporting”. They are a disgrace to what was once an honourable profession.
The good news is that it looks like the Scottish electorate are seeing through their propaganda. We must not be complacent, but it looks as if the more the voters see these crude attempts to manipulate them, the more they are pushing back. Support for the SNP is gradually increasing, so if there is a causal link between the media’s cynicism and the drift to the SNP (I think there is) then long may the so-called journalists keep doing what they are doing.
Hauliers predict doom…
Funny that the bulk of Scottish hauliers are rabid unionists.
The Unionist tactic is simple. Unfortunately the Rev and most of the other Yes commentators seem to have missed it, or at least have ignored it.
The objective is to try and stop an SNP majority next May.
It’s not about great fightbacks, Labour winning power in Holyrood and becoming the government, it’s simply about making the SNP a minority administration because as we have seen from 2007-11, it pretty much stops dead any talk of a referendum in the period of the next parliament.
Four months of winter and constant negative press reporting may not stop the SNP forming a government, but it just may knock the polls enough to make them a minority.
That’s the real agenda at play.
I have just heard that tomorrow’s headline will be Christmas is cancelled as forth bridge reopens early to cars.
I find it all a bit ironic that the most stridently divisive voices at large in the Scottish media at present are those claiming to be Unionists.
It’s just like the good old referendum days – none of them has anything positive to say in favour of the union they supposedly support.
It’s all just a bit weird really.
The usual crap from unionists determined to keep their favourite myth going saying the SNP voters let the tories in, it’s mainly for the benefit of those ignorant, can’t be bothered with politics but hate the SNP types, South of the border. The purpose is to create divide between neighbours, ie Scottish and english, as well as within Scotland, though that is not working quite so well.
Re; David Innes@1.05
I wonder if the prices of food etc will go down now that it’s cheaper to transport it all the way to Scotland.
O/T
I dipped into the McCrone book, so called, ‘Scotland’s future’ I bought from 1969. It should have been called, ‘We will make sure that Scotland has no economic, industrial, social or cultural future at any cost’. Blah!
Still it’s interesting to see the bias, spin and lies were alive and well then. But then, it’s been going on for centuries.
It’s great to know the unionists are flapping about like fish out of water when it comes to Scotland right now.
Thanks Stu for all you do.
@Ken500
It is OK the way you wrote it! 🙂
@Grouse Beater
Liked your links
Reeval Alderson indulges in much Hum and Haw on the Beattie programme on the European ruling on alcohol. Maybees Aye and maybees No he tries to say.
PS:
Enjoyed the film with the children Monday: Looking for Luke!
Many loose ends to tie up there so it seems like I’ll have to carry on to catch the next one, a bit like Indy 2.
Chewbacca still as young as ever, I won’t spoil it for youse yins that are still to go.
@ TartanFever
“The objective is to try and stop an SNP majority next May.”
Indeed. Many here have said likewise. That is why it is vital that we do not become complacent. There is no such thing as a sure victory and an overall majority even less so. We simply MUST get our vote out on the day – a MASSIVE vote. And vote that tells the UKOKery Establishment that Scotland has changed for GOOD and that we won’t be going back in our box EVER again.
And do not allow Jim Sillars, the Greens or RISE or anyone else to pull the wool over your eyes. There is no such thing as a ‘safe second’ vote. Giving your List Vote to another party COULD have the devastating result of denying the SNP a majority. Do not risk it.
SNP x 2 SE2016
People like Clegg do have some effect. They act as a sounboard for the misguided and ill informed. They reinforce the anti SNP directive to the hardline unionists.
They are fewer in number each year and they are not converting anyone from yes to no. So in the end it is holding back the tide with a leaking wall. Eventually the empire will crumble.
@Mcart. “The media put the conservatives in government. The people put the SNP in government.”
Love it!
The objective is to try and stop an SNP majority next May.
It’s partly this objective but underlying it all, is a fundamental struggle to discredit Holyrood and Scottish democracy in its entirety.
A horrible example of UKOK press relentless monstering pours out of neo fascist Voice of the North Press and Journal.
More accurately, this crew of hard core right wing yoons tend not to report anything about Holyrood at all, other than full on unionist anti SNP toryboy attacks at elections. They’d probably say their readers do not want to be informed about Holyrood and Scottish government but they merely reflect say the mental as anything Telegraph, rancid The Graun, Record etc.
BBC Scotland freak show likes to mock Holyrood but they’re not that great at it. Brian Taylor thinks he’s UKOK hilarious but he’s really not
http://bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/city-news/37-brian-taylor-quits-bbc-scotlandshire.html
It never fails to surprise me that these lying pieces of shite still have jobs. Isn’t journalism supposed to be a trade, with at least some expectation on the part of the consumer that professionalism plays a significant part in the reporting of stories? If these people were solicitors they’d be long since disbarred. Or maybe not in Scotland.
As a side-note; I visited IKEA in Murcia yesterday with my wife. Since moving to Spain the real high-point of these excursions is that I can access the Internet on their free WiFi. Guess what? Wings would appear to be a proscribed political organisation and so access is blocked. Whether this is down to IKEA or the Spanish government I have no idea but it’s strange to feel oppressed by forces outwith Scotland too. I guess we must be doing something right.
If only we could harness the heat generated by the faux outrage of the “Yoons”, to power peoples homes.
Mind you all the kinetic energy being produced by all straw clutching thats going on by them and the BBC etc, we would export even more electricity to the shires down south, at an even bigger discount.
It would help if we didn’t refer to first and second votes which they are not – but to the constituency vote and the list vote, which is what they are.
How long until they dump Joan McAlpine’s column? I bet they will, they’re that desperate and spiteful and increasingly full of hatred for the SNP.
@Paula Rose
Agree.
I often wonder if the votes had been logically reversed, ie. list as 1st, constituency as 2nd, what might happen.
Checking up on Cleggs background and see that he is (cough) SCOTTISH political correspondent of the year https://archive.is/cQOZg
Regarding posts above expressing surprise that an Irish person could be so narrow minded about Scotland. It’s worth pointing out that he probably does not consider himself to be Irish at all given that he is from Lisburn and does not have an Irish surname. 80% chance or better that he is from an Irish Unionist background, which unlike most Scottish unionists, excludes the possibility of being Irish at the same time. They are nothing if not more bitter – it’s a very ethnic and uber alles mindset in outlook.
I could be wrong, but it would explain a lot.
If you consider the possibility of England continuing to hang onto N Ireland in the event of Scottish independence, you will see where I am coming from. Aside from anything else Englan could not afford it without Scottish money. Nor will the excuse to preserving the Union suffice either. Unionists in NI are well aware of this.
While there are a few moderate leading Ulster Unionists who also consider themselves to be Irish too like the thoroughly decent John McCallister, they are very much in the minority, and most hang onto the coloniser and settler mindset, at a distance from what they consider the natives.
Is the Government of Scotland buying time on the tv stations, and the MSM to present the facts? If not, why not? We must pull out every stop to prevent the Unionist media distorting the May 2016 election results, as they did with the referendum.
Just a quick look in at wings while having a wee break between wrapping pressies and baking.
Nothing changed then eh ? Just the usual same auld crap from Clegg and his cohorts.
Well said Macart @ 1.45 agree with all of it.
Good to see the Major making an appearance, nice to hear from you sir.
Have to go again to make sure nothing in the oven is burning.
Take care folks. Merry Christmas.
Here I was thinking that burning effigies was group therapy for taking the power away from the personality in effigy or sometimes commemorating the removal already ( often violently and fatally).
But I’ve been misunderstanding it. It’s simply satire.
Silly me.
“Satire ?sat???/
noun
the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”
Now, you could class as exaggeration, the creation of a humourous effigy, but nowhere in the definition covers burning the effigy. Burning is ritual, cleansing and violent change, but not satire.
I honestly predict soon:
“Fury as SNP fails to prevent the sun from rising every morning, contributing to climate warming and skin cancer among Scots”
An elderly neighbour of mine in his late 80s Labour all his life told me this morning he will vote SNP at the next elections
Completely out of nowhere this man as staunch a Labour man as you can get, because he knows me as the SNP leaflet guy was asking me questions about policy and The First Minister
But one of his reasons for changing his vote to SNP he said was the continuous barrage of Baad from the Media in his words “Ah jist thought naebody kin be this bad and as popular at the same time somethins no right here”
I’m as pleased as punch about this man it’s taken me two years and I’ve finally converted the one man I thought I never would, but the thing is, it looks like the Daily Record and the BBC did most of the work for me, so my grateful thanks to both of those organisations for their efforts to convert the last remaining stragglers of the Labour party over to the bright side, and keep it up
As I’ve wished everyone on Wings Christmas Cheer I’d like to wish all our Trolls who dedicate their lives to our entertainment and amusement, these folk who slavishly, without evidence or support from their respective parties
and who have virtually given up the fight knowing Independence is on the way a very Merry Yoontide and God Bless you one and all
Your Goose is Cooked
Och I tend to think that the worse things are portrayed by the media, the more people will dig in. Looking round the bits of Scotland that I have seen recently, from the new council and housing associations to the new bridge and even the different look of many an old council house with new insulation. People are not stupid, they see things happening, they are feeling more confident and this is what is needed to convince all those folk who have been led to believe they need the English to tell them what to do.
Well I am not surprised at the utter lack of any generosity of spirit from the bitter twisted hate filed Brit Nats. But then the ban I imposed last year on Naw bags crossing my door on Hogmanay remains in place and will remain so until we are free of the Tyrants.
It is not just the hatred they have for the SNP that particular bothers me, it is the hatred they have for Scotland, its residents and all things remotely Scottish.
In relation to the Naw bags I will give no quarter and they needn’t look to me for any generosity of spirit at this time of year let alone any other time of year.
I do however have some sympathy for those folk so recently flooded in England who have now been flooded again.
I have some sympathy for those civilians being bombed back to the stone age by so called forces of western civilisation. The Naw bags however can rot in hell. I hope the deil taks them and taks them all soon.
Constituency vote=SNP
List vote=SNP
Any other vote till we’re Independent like Portugal-Spain-Greece-Catalonia-and the list is growing daily-just won’t cut the mustard.
The Empire wishes to crush Scotland’s self determination but it’s OVER for them.
No prisoners.
This is a WAR declared by these poisonous lowly cretinous scum and until we’re FREE from these horrible Establishment Bastards let’s not forget that fact.
The game is up for the Empire.
Let’s finish this asap.
And apart from that MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR and let’s look forward to the inevitable NEW FREE INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
@ galamcennelath at 3.11
I often wonder if the votes had been logically reversed, ie. list as 1st, constituency as 2nd, what might happen.
That was how it was referred to in the first election in 1999. For some reason it had changed for the 2003 election, which was rather a pain for the Greens, who had reused all their signs for attaching to lamp-posts.
These all read “1st vote Green”.
@ Stuart 2.04
Happy Chistmas Stuart! ~waves~ and {happy hugs}
In the New Year, try the small adds. Look for GSOH. xxx
@ me at 3.36
What happened to my blockquote for the first sentence? I’m sure I put it in; if I’d mis-typed it the tags would have been visible, or not closed. Odd.
Anyway, the first sentence was what galamcennelath wrote – I hope that makes my addition more sensible.
Independence will come when the unionists least expect it!
Main article:- “Over recent weeks the Scottish media seems to have adopted even more of a siege mentality than before. The level of flat-out, petulantly childish “SNP BAD” reporting has escalated.”
“This morning’s Scotsman slant on the good news of the unexpectedly early reopening of the Forth Road Bridge is like something you’d expect cybernats to have Photoshopped in mockery, but is all too real:
…………………….The Scotsman………………………
……………..SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER……………..
…….Hauliers ‘face disaster’ as bridge reopens to cars……”
and meaanwhile back at the BBC Ranch in Scotland,the journalists and political commentators discuss on air and screen, the Scotsman and other Scottish papers in all seriousness without a hint of irony or embarrassment!
Agree with almost all comments here, but please when we are independent and FREE let’s all remember these naysayer divisive distortionist TWATS and make sure none of them are ever employed in their hated Scotland MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
JUst listening to Carols from Kings 2014 on youtube whilst I wrap presents and write cards to folk I forgot. My Dad died away back in 1998 and was staunch Labour all his life. Like my recently deceased Uncle I got nothing except bile over my Party Membership, from them both.
You cannot help some folk. A lot of old Labour voters are not only bitterly anti SNP and anti Independence, but their bitter bile extends to everything Scottish except the cringe. I cannot stand the average Labour voter as the hatred they have for everything Scottish shows them for what they. Traitorous scumbags.
Stephen.
@ Marie Clark 3.16
Don’t burn yer buns lol!
I’m cooking mince, while reading about mince!!
@Marie Clark
Have a good Christmas Marie. 🙂
That is a great piece of writing Rev.
Does the Road Haulage Association actually represent general hauliers views?
Some how I very much doubt it
I’m reminded that they are a trade body, very much like the CBI and very much like the CBI were vocal against Independence during the referendum. Like the CBI they don’t actually represent the vies of hauliers.
Now some salient facts that the RHA may be aware of, but certainly don’t want anyone to be aware of and that that the bulk of the 30% of Bridge users that are HGV are local distributers between Fife and Edinburgh.
The bulk of HGV traffic transporting goods to ports, either in Scotland or England would not be using the Forth Road Bridge, as its just as easy to go via the Kincardine Bridge, which the majority do anyway.
Another little fact lost on the RHA, is with the Christmas and New Year holiday, commercial business is closed for two weeks, so not a lot of goods being carried during that period, with many haulage companies not operating or providing reduced service
How do I know this – I am in logistics – Merry Christmas y’all 🙂
I prefer to use the terms “Constituency Vote” and “Regional Vote”. That’s what they are.
The various “lists” are put together by individual parties, to rank their candidates for the regional vote.
So, vote SNP for your constituency and SNP for your region.
HOWZAT!
@ Paula Rose
How do I find out about the 30th Jan ?
The Herald has an article about Anne-Marie Clements, a teacher in a Catholic school in Barrhead who is under investigation for pro-IRA and general sectarian social media activity. In the middle of the article is this “Pictures of gun toting terrorists were also published, alongside pictures of the 24 year old from Blantyre (Anne-Marie) posing with Celtic player Anthony Stokes and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon”. Yet another example of the shitty unionist propagandists attaching Nicola to any negative story completely out of context.
Heard it all now, scraping the barrel doesn’t cover it.
Jackson Carlaw has responded to some type of research, which shows less Scots are dancing!!! Car law says SNP have sucked the life out of Scots. It’s too funny.
Angry Salmond has a pic of the Smurph dancing with a wee granny #LetScotlandDance
:)))
bugsbunny says:
“… their bitter bile extends to everything Scottish …”
Not so many decades ago there were aspects of life which were branded British and generally seen as good. All the public utilities and nationalised industries for starters. Perhaps some common cultural traits. People weren’t so sceptical about institutions like monarchy, or about imperialist activities abroad.
Things which were identifiably Scottish were seen by the left as deviant, and by the right as quaint. Those on the left rejected anything Scottish with a cringe. Those on the right embraced certain pseudo cultural aspects as proud Scots but only so far.
The older you are, the more likely you are to see things through partially British lenses. My late mother had been an SNP member for many decades, yet having been born in 1930 she always saw much of Britishness as somehow wholesome.
Everything has now changed. What was Britain and British is history. The institutions that gave meaning to Britain, have been sold off.
Scepticism of everything is the normal for most people.
Scotland and Scottishness is something you can be proud of, with no buts.
Yet, those loyal to the dying Unionist parties are still everywhere – old style British-not-Scottish Labour and equally old style Proud Scot but Tories.
Hi Fran.
Keep dipping into ‘off-topic’. If you look at the text box at the foot of every page, you’ll see a wee box underneath it, with the legend “Notify me of new posts by email.”
If you check that box on the ‘off-topic’ page next time you post there, you’ll get an email, with the latest post, every time somebody posts.
@Fran – the Wings social club –
http://wingsoverscotland.com/off-topic/
The Brits prefer enforced nationality. Always have done. Think of India and Ireland. Some Brit Scots genuinley feel British as well as Scottish.
I am not even going to attempt to explain that, or step into their shoes.I don’t understand the switching of nationalities at the drop of a tennis ball. How you can sing your heart out with a Saltire at Hampden. Then turn up at Braehead with a back the Brits T Shirt. The two nationalities are so different!
But like it or not we all have friends and relatives who are Brit Scots. They put us in awkward position by using the word Brit or asking if we watched the Davis Cup. I shrug and say I was busy. They know or should no I have no interest in a jingoistic British love in at tennis. Nor do I support the Lions or Formula 1. I have no feelings when that flag is raised other than sadness. I feel like a foreigner in my own country sometimes.
O/T I’ve just visited the Indiegogo page for the fundraiser for the Orkney 4 vs Carmichael. The fund is now standing at a shade over £198000, but these good folk are still about £10,000 short. How about giving them a really good Christmas present by clearing their debt, which they incurred in the name of all democratically – minded people who don’t like to be blatantly lied to by our politicians.
Every little helps….let’s do this!
Clive Scott
I’ve seen photos and video of Martin McGuiness with the Queen and Prince Phillip!
What can it all mean!
@Big Jock says: 23 December, 2015 at 11:40 am:
” … He carries his baggage around with him rather than casting it off and opening his eyes.”
No doubt, Big Jock, Clegg carries those belongings of his around in the proverbial Carpet Bag.
David Innes -well said. For anyone able to donate here’s the link
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-people-versus-carmichael#/story
@Camz says: 23 December, 2015 at 11:41 am:
“Circulation is falling … “.
A sort of Scottish Media form of Angina, perhaps?
Their GP has perhaps put them on a fact free diet.
I’ll get my coat.
Aye Robert Carpet Bag indeed. He knows who pays his wages. “The Man”. If you work for “The Man” you are enslaved.
Haters gonna hate
Hacks gonna hack
Yoons gonna Yoon
and Dogs gonna Bark.
Proud Cybernat,
“And do not allow Jim Sillars, the Greens or RISE or anyone else to pull the wool over your eyes. There is no such thing as a ‘safe second’ vote. Giving your List Vote to another party COULD have the devastating result of denying the SNP a majority. Do not risk it.”
There are several Greens, ex-Greens now claiming to be in the SNP, and socialists trying to dupe SNP supporters into giving their 2nd vote to them.
Some claiming to be SNP supporters are also finding excuses.
This is not the time to take any risks. Don’t be duped.
The SNP are not perfect but we have to give them the benefit of doubt for the sake of independence.
SNP+SNP at least until after independence.
The time has come for all us wingers to give poor David a break. The poor chap obviously has a problem with his waste expulsion pipe. He never stops spewing sh-te.
@Tommy allan says: 23 December, 2015 at 11:48 am:
“I know the hauliers have a 30/40 miles extra to do when heading North, but surely the current price of fuel will lessen any extra costs incurred.”
Thing is, Tommy, not all the hauliers have to make a detour. It depends upon where they are hauling from and to and also where they keep their transport. A mate of mine in the business often brings his rig home at night, if it is a shorter run to load in the morning, or he fetches a load home at night to deliver in the morning.
Swings and roundabouts for what is bad for some is good for others by giving them a competitive edge.
That fact rather knocks the Unionist, “SNP Baad”, mantra on the head.
Correct Rock- The unionists love splinter parties as they can split the block vote. United we beat them, divided we are pissing in the wind!
Big Jock,
“I feel like a foreigner in my own country sometimes.”
Don’t worry. Apparently you are “sovereign”. Ask Robert Peffers.
Big Jock 4.26pm
Just that,min.Also,in the census a few years ago,more than 60% of people said they were Scottish and only Scottish.A substantial number of them went out and voted for London rule.I still find that profoundly sad.However,on we must go! These people have been brainwashed all their lives into thinking Scotlands a basket case.Its up to us to help them know the truth.
@ Brian Doonthetoon & Paula Rose
Cheers Folks 😀
Disappointing piece in yesterday’s Guardian by the guy who made the documentary ‘You’ve Been Trumped’ about DTs golf extravaganza at Menie. It concentrates on vilifying Alex Salmonds role and assumes the world started in 2007 when the SNP formed its first (minority) administration. Absolutely no mention of prior work carried out by Jack McConnel when First Minister. The whole sorry saga is comprehensively covered by G A Ponsonby in ‘London Calling’ The real disappointment was that many bloggers seemed to accept the article at face value and decided AS was a shyster.
Robert Peffers@4.28
Big Jock@4.36
Guys i’m athinkin yer man CLEGG carries his baggage aroon wi himsel like a coalie bag?
A co cerry?
A cuddy back?
A cally coad?
A coal carry?
A cully coad?
A carry coad?
A cully bucky?
Big Jock,
“United we beat them, divided we are pissing in the wind!”
Divide and Rule. We can see how they messed up the whole world, Scotland and Ireland included.
But our worst enemies are within us. Beware of infiltrators.
Don’t trust anyone apparently from the SNP who tries to dupe SNP supporters into giving their second vote to someone else.
One of the many positive initiatives established by our wonderful SNP Government was to scrap the Forth Road Bridge Tolls that were established by Westminster Labour ( The is no other type of Labour within these shores!).
I suggest the Unionist Hauliers add up how much that has saved them over the years and subtract the few weeks of additional fuel charges.
I also recall these same hauliers complaining that they couldn’t compete with their European counterparts due to the excess fuel duty imposed by the Westminster Tory Government.
They also need to recognise that Labour rejected the need for a replacement bridge, so where would they then be if Forth Bridge was closed to their trucks for several years?
(Up the Forth without a paddle!)
Could someone ask them what they think they get out of being
a second class member of the Union? They are certainly not articulate in their interviews.
It seems these guys have more faces than trucks?
BritNat “journalists” in Scotland are getting more and more hysterical. They are spitting anti-SNP bile in the hope of getting a job with a little-Englander newspaper after Scotland regains its independence.
Aw ffs Rock gie it a rest eh? Yer never done wi yer moanin’ aboot how we’re no Sovereign, we ur aw Sovereign as has been explained ad nauseum (nae offence Robert) by Robert Peffers.
We’re getting there Rock, whether you want to acknowledge it or not…now say something positive for once, just once, let’s see if yu’v goat any humour, any sense of hope or tenuous optimism for our future in Scotland.
And please no dry barbed response. We get enough of that cynical shit from the Unionists, without huvin’ tae deal wi yours, eh?
So Constituency and Regional, kin we no jist gie them two barrels right were it hurts 🙂
@Big Jock says: 23 December, 2015 at 11:53 am:
” … If you are not a nation another nation picks your government. ARE YOU GETTING THIS YET CLEGG!!!”
Of course he’s not, Big Jock, he’s from Ireland. You do know the Irish history about, “The Plantations”, don’t you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantations_of_Ireland
The smileys are different now on Wings, just sayin’ ;-0 Is it a wordpress thing? Anyone?
O/T
Just had my no voting friends popped round. Conversation about films and tv, they ‘don’t watch much due television, mainly because it’s rubbish these days’. But, they also think, as the Gruan tells them that their good old truth telling, reliable bbc is ‘at risk of being scrapped, by the government’, instead of what is actually happening where it is in fact, controlled by UKok.
It’s amazing how things can be so twisted around, well, maybe it’s not really amazing.
What is being scrapped as we know is bbc Alba, but he didn’t mention that.
At least they are getting their lies from just one source now, ie the Graun!
I would say, that road hauliers actually “caused” the (averted) “disaster”.
I do share concerns about the inconvenience to individual operators..
but as a lobby/pressure group, the hauliers are about as positive towards society (but powerful nonetheless) as are the NRA in the US.
Trucking such a high %age of goods from city to city BY ROAD is ridiculous.
Time to cut the crap and invest in SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Bridges, powerlines, trams, new ferries, roads, cycleways, hydro, wind/wave/tidal- all need investment.
GET HALF OF THE HEAVY LORRIES OFF THE ROADS AND THEY LAST THREE TIMES AS LONG BETWEEN RESURFACING.
A no brainer.
GET TOUGH! SNP.
…other countries enforce no driving at certain times etc..
.it’s not a popularity contest any more..
..the future is a serious business.
Donald Anderson @ 12.08
do you have a symbol in the address bar that looks like an open book?
If you do its called “reader view” click that and it just allows the text from the page you reading and the other crap is omitted thus stopping the page moving as additional shit you don’t want is added.
ArtyHetty 5.20pm
“At least they are getting their lies from just one source now, ie the Graun!”
Hey Arty, watch what you’re sayin there. That’s “heedy’s” favourite comic.
Well that and whatever Prof dickheed Tompkins writes.
Don’t see anyone else highlighting this. Apologies if I messed it in a comment.
http://derekbateman.co.uk/2015/12/23/a-bridge-too-far/
Bateman also pointing out how the Corp Media / BBC spin every SNP/ SG story negatively by default.
OT, anyone know more about this Sun journalist attack?
@chris wood at 11:49
You are not the only one. They may say they support Independence, but I really doubt it more and more.
McKenna’s article “Kevin McKenna: Police Scotland is a pantomime you can watch all year round” belonged in the Scotsman not the National. It reiterated all the same old misinformation, distortions and downright lies you see all the time in the BUM MSM.
I may make decide to stop my daily purchase as my New Year’s Resolution.
Hate to state the bleeding obvious and agree with other posters but it was his own fault and his bog paper rag that ensured a Tory govt. with their relentless no vote campaign.Independent and hell would have froze over first before the Tories would get any where near the seat of power in an IScotland.
As usual the yoons jump on their high horse and gallop down the low road.
Conan the Librarian™ says:
“OT, anyone know more about this Sun journalist attack?”
Googled … Sun journalist attack … Lots comes up.
His condition stable. Someone held in custody. Not much detail.
Hope he’s OK. And, hope they lock the loonie up for a long time.
What really gets up their noses, what really has them chewing their fingernails off is that the public no longer dance to their tune.
There is no Pied Piper. Must be true, the Tories reported it today.
Proud Cybernat
“SCottish Unionist Media. ”
Oh that’s good, I like that. 🙂
terry
“the unionists can flail around as much as they like and it won’t make a difference. They’ve no chance!”
What?
Like this you mean?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7GJcKuVGm8
Tory looking type haulage boss says he feels betrayed by hgv’ s still being banned in FRB, says the SG should pay him compensation. GTF maybe better putting tolls back on for these arseholes.
@ Thepnr
The Tories certainly put the ‘count’ in country dancing.
Re Sun Journalist, says he is investigative Journalist, if so probably related to story he is working on. Don’t like the sound of liquid thrown in his face, sounds like an Acid attack seen the results of this in Cambodia , horrific .
Absolutely fucking shocking,
A STV story about charitable collections in Kirkcaldy and who do they interview? the MP for Kirkcaldy Roger Mullin you might think? no no no they interview the little known Californian Gordon Fucking Brown!
Livid doesn’t come close.
Thepnr says:
“the public no longer dance to their tune.”
To paraphrase what is often said about SLab ….. the public didn’t abandon the print and broadcast media, they abandoned the public.
What they push now is becoming more and more removed from the reality people see around them. Their output is rapidly becoming little more than the ramblings of a loonie fringe.
Take the FRB problems. They continued to report this as a failing of the SG. None of the evidence coming into public domain supports this, and the general public are clearly not blaming the SG. (Polling evidence). Yet the media en masse are off at a tangent.
By my (rough) estimate, the Daily Redcoat is loosing about 400 readers every week.
No wonder they are mad! haha.
If the latest polls are anything to go by, it looks like Labour are loosing similar numbers in Scotland.
Can’t say we never warned thum!!!
All the more reason to keep the indy media going. Obviously, this is a very challenging time of year to be crowdfunding, however, if anybody has a few quid spare, Independence Live (now working together with Bella Caledonia, CommonSpace and Kiltr, I’m glad to see) are trying to raise a fairly modest amount to keep going and there’s a few days left but they’re quite short of the target: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/independence-live-xmas-crowdfunder#/
@Dan Huil says: 23 December, 2015 at 5:02 pm:
“BritNat “journalists” in Scotland are getting more and more hysterical. They are spitting anti-SNP bile in the hope of getting a job with a little-Englander newspaper after Scotland regains its independence
Hope, they say, springs eternal, but those hacks haven’t a hope in hell of getting employed by an English paper.
After all the English press have a surfeit of useless hacks taking up the lead places in the queue for English newspaper jobs
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined the Telegraph Media Group £30,000 for sending emails urging readers of the Telegraph to vote Conservative
“ICO fines Telegraph Media Group for election day email campaign”
link:
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2015/12/ico-fines-telegraph-media-group-for-election-day-email-campaign/
I relation to the brig reopening to cars and now that I have had the chance to compare Disreporting Jackie’s bile and Britannia TV Aberdeen’s bile; I don’t hear any difference between the two. I conclude that they have the same central controller or scrutiniser.
Britannia TV Aberdeen did manage to find a bleating someone who had Naw bag written all over him though, he looked like a stereotypical Tory. Do they have lists of such people they regularly go to when they are in full on propaganda mode? Nod doubt Pennington will be on a retainer just to BS out another Health scare on Scottish NHS, I get the feeling we are due another one.
Scots Housewives fail to cook Xmas turkey correctly – SNP BAD. I am just waiting for that one!
OT – The National
3 stories top of the list online today, one about the bridge open for Fife, one Salmond fact-finding in Iran rather than the rags “grandstanding” according to the word of that trustworthy representative of the LibDems – Alistair Carmichael. And the other from Tasmina.
In fact even more about the SNP.
So perhaps they took note of some criticisms here about the preponderance of RISE / Green stories, and even anti-SNP ones.
It needs to be balanced, and today was a good redress. Now they need to take care not to be TOO pro-SNP! (never happy)
re Louiebargyll@5.22
Indeed, the roads are horrible and dangerous, and expensive to maintain due to the very heavy traffic. How come road tax is sooo cheap now?
It was M.thatcher who destroyed rail frieght completely in the yookay, I remember it. We lived near a rail freight terminus as kids, I remember it being dismantled by her immoral, backward looking, destructive government. All about money being diverted to the road building industry, car industry and hauliers industry I am sure.
As usual it would no doubt be a long process if not nogh on impossible to reverse that now.
meant nigh, not nogh.
Proud Cybernat says:
23 December, 2015 at 12:35 pm
SCottish Unionist Media.
Scottish Corp Unionist Media. you bet they are,
Merry Christmas Rev and fellow Wingers
@chris wood + @bjsalba
Other posters on WOS including myself have expressed concern about The National, but if you look online today you’ll see a good spread for the SNP. Other times it has a good spread for the Greens and RISE.
But as the only Indy supporting daily newspaper, it’s not much use if it only appeals to “the faithful” with constant headlines such as “SNP Gooooood”, “RISE arise”, “Green and beautiful”.
To help Indy it has to appeal at least to the undecided or soft NOs, so needs the occasional headline such as “What on earth are the SNP doing?”. The SNP / ScotGov aren’t perfect, and if they carefully and fairly cover such stories, it’ll make their other stories much more believeable and appealing to a wider readership.
@Conan the Librarian
Russell Findlay the Sun crime journalist was attacked at his home by an acid wielding thug, Findlay with the help of neighbours overpowered him and the police have him in custody.
Latest here, https://archive.is/6Zhqf
FRB – hauliers.
Strange article in the Herald apparently from a courier complaining about the tolls having been taken off.
What? Eh? This eejit is in business? He wants to have additional costs added to his business/ Has he consulted with his company’s shareholders, I doubt they’ll agree?
As a poster here points out, over the years not having bridge tolls has saved the couriers a fortune, and helped business in Fife. You should hear people on Skye complaining about being charged a surcharge because they’re an island, when they’ve actually got a bridge. In fairness to couriers it’s the distance and remoteness, which applies to the Highlands, and other more remote parts of Scotland – remote by road distance. In my little business I absorb the extra cost.
http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/politics/getting-away-with-murdoch-cameron-joins-osborne-and-rebekah-brooks-at-murdochs-christmas-bash/11604.article
Festive neo fascist shindig. Whatever happens, please SNP, dont let the Dirty Digger slime his way into Scottish politics like he did with Crash Gordon and Bomber Bliar. Scotland clearly couldn’t care less what Murdoch’s henchman do with the Scottish Sun
‘His presence in the British political scene has similarly intimidated people by offering favour to some and fear to all.’
Mr Murdoch’s influence over prime ministers goes back decades. Papers released this year showed that he held a secret meeting with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1981 to secure his acquisition of the Times of London.
Mr Blair was godfather to one of Mr Murdoch’s daughters and Mr Cameron employed as his personal spokesman a former Murdoch editor who was himself implicated in the hacking scandal.
‘Ever since the Sun claimed they won it in 1992 there’s been an almost pathological fear of Murdoch’s ability to influence an electorate,’ Liverpool University’s political professor Jonathan Tonge told Reuters, in reference to the 1992 election.
Even histories greatest perverts at the Heil grinched about Murdoch, as in the above
Sorry for the rush of posts, not long back from managing to pick out a big bag of big sprouts from the trays of pethetic little ones. Delighted.
Anyway, regards the teacher / IRA, my NO-voting and possibly Labour-voting teacher daughter thinks it ridiculous they had a picture of Sturgeon alongside the teacher, who she thinks was stupid as parents wouldn’t want their kids possibly exposed to such extreme nonsense. Her friends thought the same.
So the media is antagonising the very people we want it to – the non-SNP and non-Indy people. Keep up the good work, MSM.
As you will note I wrote this before the 18th Sept 2014 but I thought it may well fit in here today. Stuart I have paragraphed it – I think!
In the Defence of Fairness
There has been a great furore around intemperate and abusive blogging on the internet. We may not like it but we have to accept that the internet is a worldwide open forum and as such will attract all kinds of contributors, good and bad, for and against our beliefs. But where it has taken most of our interest over the last couple of weeks has been to do with our own Independence Referendum. Although I deplore it I am of the opinion that the intemperate and abusive blogging is perpetrated by both sides. I leave it to others to analyse which side does it most but that is of no matter it is not acceptable if you wish to be listened to in a positive manner.
A contributory factor is, of course, how the information, provided by our national media and the leaders of both sides of the referendum debate, is presented. Anger and frustration can be caused to either side if they feel their cause is being continually misrepresented. With the less temperate and abusive elements on either side this can lead to the kind of blogging noted above. Our national media and leaders of both sides of the debate should therefore give serious consideration to how they present their information, be consistent, stick to the truth and the facts and express honest opinion.
This has become increasingly important as the national media and some of our political leaders have only recently become aware of the power of the internet. It is no longer possible to distort the truth or present questionable data without it being checked by a mere mouse click in the appropriate area and in a very short time indeed. In my opinion our national media and our political leaders do not like this and are reacting badly to being exposed.
Should we shut down the websites because of a few intemperate abusive people? No way!! They are keeping the national media and the politicians under scrutiny and letting them know the facts and honesty of their information can and will be checked out.
My conclusion is that our national media and politicians need to learn from this lesson. In the defence of fairness we should always be honest, truthful and factual because the error of your ways is only a mouse click away.
After all what we are debating here is not exactly insignificant. It is about the future of our Nation and the governance of Scotland, the most important vote for 300 years.
Millions of people have died and millions more are still dying for the opportunity we have been given simply by voting YES on the 18th September 2014. The freedom to live in Scotland and manage our own economy in our own way by electing a government from the people who live in Scotland to govern Scotland for the people who have chosen that government.
This is a privilege which has been achieved with no loss of blood and a victory which can be won with no loss of life. It is a priceless gift which cannot be measured in economic or resource sharing terms, a gift that we can accept on the 18th September 2014 by voting YES.
Conclusion 23/12/2015 the MSM, BBC and the Unionist have learned nothing from the experience and still continue to engage in rhetoric which the majority of the people of Scotland have rejected. The Unionists will be blown out of the water come May 2016. Onwards to Independence they cannot hold back the tide of change.
@yesindyref2
Re the National, I agree with you that it should not be afraid of a critical article against the SNP or any other Indy supporting party. Nor should it fail to print supportative articles
What I never want to see is inaccuracies that just followed all the other papers headlines such as those printed about the FRB last week which were debunked the day before here on Wings.
They have to be better than that. We demand quality from our journalists as well as our politicians if they expect to earn our support.
OPEC is slowing down production oil prices to rebound within the next few years
Wait for it:
2019 or I’ll eat my own nose
tartanfever says: http://wingsoverscotland.com/to-the-bitter-end/#comment-2097124
“The objective is to try and stop an SNP majority next May.. That’s the real agenda at play.”
Exactly that.
@David Innes & Lollysmum
Thanks for the reminder. Donation made.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-people-versus-carmichael#/story
Al says:
“if anybody has a few quid spare, Independence Live are trying to raise a fairly modest amount to keep going and there’s a few days left but they’re quite short of the target: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/independence-live-xmas-crowdfunder#/
@Al – Good call. I’ve been supporting Indy Live right from the start. They have done an excellent job and we’ll need their services in the ongoing fight.
Re Minimum unit pricing on alcohol,apparently it is the Scotch Whiskey Association which has been challenging the Scottish Government on this and Iseem to remember them being very anti independence during the referendum.How have we allowed such a major industry to become infested with such UKOKKERY?
Time for a clear oot methinks!
@Thepnr
@yesindyref2
” I never want to see is inaccuracies that just followed all the other papers headlines …. We demand quality from our journalists …”
I completely agree with what you both are saying.
The Yoons seem to think we want our bias instead of their bias.
No, we want a Free Press!
Proper investigation, weed out the facts from opinion, support claims with facts, be critical where criticism is justified. Treat all politicians equally.
And, most of all maybe … Get off your arses and do some journalism instead of just plagiarism, and stop regurgitating press releases unquestioningly.
“Dr Jim says:
23 December, 2015 at 7:27 pm
OPEC is slowing down production oil prices to rebound within the next few years”
Agreed but with the Chinese and Indians talking up their economies it may be sooner than 2019. More importantly we need to get control of Scotland’s renewable’s industry and transmission charges then things will spark into life.
Hi Artyhetty.
Re: freight by rail.
Have a look at the link below, particularly the ‘History” section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freightliner_Group
And for a bit of light relief (hilarious, btw, if you have an affinity with cats)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRp7ezUqbI
@yesindyref2
Yes the National does have a variety of variety of contributors from all parties, and I certainly don’t think they should be all SNP good.
However, if the paper joins the BUM MSM campaign against Police Scotland and prints misinformation, distortions and downright lies, that destroys their reputation for journalistic integrity.
By repeating them in a supposedly unbiased paper, they give support to the “Too poor, too wee, too stupid brigade.”
I do wonder what their motives are – especially when I think of the hacking scandal in the London press. I have zero confidence that we have had the full truth about just exactly who has been hacked and who has been doing the hacking.
@Thepnr
Yes I agree, that was a very poor article, worthy of the Record. And I agree with galamcennalath, we want jouralists that do their job, rather than sit on their backside and lazily copy off Reuters – which is itself more than a little suspect. It used to be good, nowadays, not so good.
Thanks Thepnr.
“When the crime writer stepped out, the man threw a liquid in his acid, believed to be acid.”
The sub-editor appears to be *taking* acid…
The Tory road hauliers infamous during the miners strike etcetera wishes public subsidy for going a few miles down a road. They should return all monies saved when tolls were removed across Scotland because they certainly didn’t reduce prices to the customer. In the old pocket thank you.
If the Forth Bridge is so essential to them let them pay up. What does RUK do when the ferries are off at the channel? The Channel Tunnel? M1, M25 at a standstill for 20 miles. The usual political motivated drivel by the Tory press and the Tory road hauliers.
Less tax them by weight for the road damage caused. If it can be taken by rail give tax breaks.
Most of us recognise that it has been an inconvenience but get life into perspective… Ask the good folk in Cumbria how they are feeling go further afield Over 400 soldiers in Helmand province lost their lives and now it has been handed over to the Taliban. One ex army leader now a Tory actually stated on Tele that it was less important than Syria. How cheep is life to those Tories. A few extra miles is survivable!
Oh aye one more thing about the FRB. The FRC is designed to be more wind-resitant as it were, so less closed days to high-sided vehicles. Which as others have said, cost the couriers days during the year anyway – like tonight – having just put the near empty blue bin flat on the grass so it doesn’t blow around 🙂
@bjsalba
Yes, The National has to act its up, or rather up its act. It does have some very sloppy journalism which justifiably raises the hackles – and doubts.
Scotland= Venezuela as far as media bias against popular gvt concerned. Don’t get too cocky guys, look what happened there. They ” learned the lesson of the referendum” ie who has the media wins.
Also re OPEC slowdown, I have opined before that now Venezuela hascp fallen,little need to keep oil prices high, unless russia is also target.
At the crowded barbers this morning an old boy (well he was probably a year older than me) comes in with a copy of the Scotsman. As he opens it,we all have a sneaky look at the headline ,the place erupts with laughter. The old boy eventually says that’s the last time I pay for this rubbish.
Btw Scottish whisky is spelled without the “e”
O/T – but essential news!
Wings over Aberdeen Nicht-Oot confirmed for 30 January 2016.
Anyone interested, head over to Off-Topic and get yer name on the list.
Otherwise – ye’ll nae get in!
Bearing in mind the “professionalism???” of a certain Gary Rubberhead on GMS reporting misery this morning, I feel it appropriate to share something which has recently been brought to my attention.
I was having a conversation with a guy I met at work and he told me that if you have cancelled your TV licence and have been paying it by direct debit you can claim back all the monies you have paid (in the direct debit period).
He said that you go into your bank (or I suppose if you do ‘phone banking – you ‘phone the bank) and ask for “Indemnity as part of your Direct Debit guarantee”.
So long as you have been paying your TVL by direct debit you can apparently “call it back”.
The bank will ask you to explain the reasons behind why you are calling this money back, as they have boxes to tick regarding making a claim.
Saying “it’s because I hate the BBC” would obviously not be an acceptable reason.
However, if for example you have only ever used your TV for watching DVDs or videos, or as a route for playing video games, but you were under the misapprehension that you had to have a TV licence for just using a TV (as is commonly spouted by supporters of the state), then you in reality were never in a category whereby you needed to pay for a TV Licence.
The bank will take a judiciary stance, as they have to, but give them a straight reply.
If you are genuine about your claim, you should have no problems getting any monies back (and there is apparently no time limit – so if you have been paying under this misapprehension for 10 years, you can claim 10 years’ licence fee back).
Unfortunately, we were not in a position to use this information when we stopped paying for a TV licence last December (the wife having had one for 35 years when we stopped it !!!!).
It cost us for a new TV with “on demand” facilities to do it legally (the wife is a bit of a stickler!!).
However, the guy seemed to know what he was talking about – and it might be worthwhile checking around on the internet for further information.
I hope this brings some festive cheer.
‘Off-topic’ can be found under “Zany comedy relief”, at the foot of the middle column on any WOS page.
Or you could use this link:-
http://wingsoverscotland.com/off-topic/
Wings Over Aberdeen is building up nicely…
That Scotsman headline, Hauliers ‘face disaster’ as bridge reopens to cars is truly one for the ages! It’s such a blatantly misleading, SNP-bad headline that it is indeed worthy of any of the three acronyms, LOL!, ROFL! and ROFLMAO!, or all three at once!
I mean, FFS, what’s the Scotsman’s readership these days, about 25,000 a day? They also give away loads, which you’ll discover any time your flying out of Scotland’s airports.
Someone put that pathetic sad rag out of its misery soon. Imagine being asked where you work, and you had to answer, ‘I work at/on the Scotman.’ And then having people Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!-ing in your face every time… Pitiful!
Clegg, Crichton, Foote can we really expect anything better from that lot, the Daily Record is finished in many voters eyes.
the Scotsman has been known for decades as a London English paper, even back in the days of the Glasgow Herald, and nothing to do with SNP or Independence, just its editorial stance and the bulk of its London-centric articles and columns.
It hasn’t changed, just that we’ve all become more aware. It deserves its form, it deserves the rabod commenters on those forums, and it deserves Brian Wilson and most of its journalists, reporters, copy and pasters. Just a few should pull the ripcord and parachute to a safe landing somewhere else.
@Dr Jim
An elderly neighbour of mine in his late 80s Labour all his life told me this morning he will vote SNP at the next elections
Completely out of nowhere this man as staunch a Labour man as you can get
@Famous15
At the crowded barbers this morning an old boy (well he was probably a year older than me) comes in with a copy of the Scotsman. As he opens it,we all have a sneaky look at the headline ,the place erupts with laughter. The old boy eventually says that’s the last time I pay for this rubbish.
Both these wee stories put a smile on my face, early Xmas present, cheers 🙂
Believe it or not we are having an effect, much more so than BUM.
Snpbadeverin Carrell over on the hypocritical, lying and misreporting Guardian re minimum alcohol price in Scotland:
“a significant blow to [..] Nicola Sturgeon”
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
What a hopeless, lying numbnut! FFS, how many ‘significant blows’ is that now Sturgeon/the SNP have had according to Snpbadeverin Carrell…!?
Skooshcase says:
“Imagine being asked where you work, and you had to answer, ‘I work at/on the Scotman.’ ”
Perhaps the best defence might be, ‘I work at the Scotsman, but have absolutely no say in what they print’ …. followed by an understandable … ‘I needed the job’.
The Scotsman headline that “Hauliers ‘face disaster’ as bridge reopens to cars” is right up there with the Daily Mail’s “Fury as SNP opens state of the art ‘Death Star’ hospital”.
People may not believe me, but there *really was* such a headline!
It is very important when it is now a question of rationality v absurdity. When your opponents are now regularly engaging in the absolute absurd, it almost transcends the question of “yes” or “no”, dependent or independent.
No voters are really left with only one question: at what stage do I change my mind? Now or a bit later when things go completely twilight-zone?
We have already been through the equal absurdity this year of the Tories + Lib Dems + Red Tories voting to bomb one side in the Syrian civil war… two years after it attempted to vote to bomb the other side… If this is not straight out of “1984” (Eurasia/Eastasia), I wonder what is…
I urge no voters to independently analyse what the SNP government has done for Scotland in the past eight years with very little money…. and what the Westminster parties have done to Scotland over the decades… whether it is asset-stripping and deliberate deindustrialisation by the Blue Tories or sweet f.a. by the Red Tories in power in councils and often the real government for a hundred years…
Voting yes does not mean handing control from various coloured Tories to the SNP. It is about letting us all decide to share in the decision making and to make the very rich resources of Scotland work for the people of Scotland… that means YOU!
Indyref2 I see keith Howells is trolling in The National. His letter today claims he is open minded but every letter he writes to numerous pspers is anti snp
@Galamcennalath at 8:27 pm
“I needed the job.” Ha-ha-ha! Aye, right enough!
Scotland’s mainstream media journalists (with the odd exceptions)… verging on becoming Scotland’s version of India’s Untouchables.
Since I find it useful to understand the mindset of such people, I really wonder the extent to which Clegg believes the guff he’s talking.
Is there any reason for thinking that the SNP cost Labour the election or are the likes of Clegg just spouting the propaganda they are paid to spout?
I find this a fascinating question.
I suppose by ‘robbing’ Labour of its heartland and by reminding England that Scotland exists, the SNP made it more difficult for Labour who wanted a straight fight between Mlliband and Cameron, un-complicated by other factors.
To which you can only really say: boohoo.
AnonyNat @ 6.31 wrote
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined the Telegraph Media Group £30,000 for sending emails urging readers of the Telegraph to vote Conservative
“ICO fines Telegraph Media Group for election day email campaign”
link:
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2015/12/ico-fines-telegraph-media-group-for-election-day-email-campaign/
What about Aberdeen council who sent out letters urging people to vote NO in council tax letters different law for anyone going against the english based parties
@sinky
There’s also a new batch – Gremlins 2 – of people who are like “I voted YES and voted SNP last time but …”
I suggest polygraphic keyboards and electric shock therapy for suspects.
peter 7.33
‘how have we allowed such a major industry to become infested with suck UKOKKERY ?’
The same way Scotland in general has been colonised and asset stripped for 300 hundred of years.
The thing which sickens me about the Scotch Whisky industry is how it uses the Scottish identity/brand to sell its wares,but is determined to ensure all taxes/duties it pays are received by the UK exchequer.
Why dont they try sell their wares as United Kingdom or British whisky since they are so concerned about their Britishness ?
They are the archetypal unionists-they are Scottish when it suits them but couldnt care less about Scotland,only what they can get out of it.
Skooshcase says:
“Scotland’s version of India’s Untouchables.”
When independence comes, soon I hope, we will all have to live together, build bridges, get over the past, and construct a new future.
However, there are some individuals who have completely crossed the line far beyond acceptable Unionism. Their future has to be out of Scottish public life and perhaps physically in the rUKOK they seem to idolise.
Skooshcase
The Scotsman has a little tent at the east end of Princes Street which sells the Paper with a hessian bag for £1.40. Passing the other day I noticed that the price for the two objects had gone down to £1.00. They must be losing money at these prices–lots of money.
Tick, tock.
Effijy said:
“They also need to recognise that Labour rejected the need for a replacement bridge, so where would they then be if Forth Bridge was closed to their trucks for several years?
(Up the Forth without a paddle!)” 🙁
Then in 2007 the Messiah came.
A.S. said, “Go Forth and multiply”.
And a new bridge was born, halleluja…
In essence, Clegg and his fellow Unionist hacks are portraying Scots as some kind of inferior race who are too wee, too poor and too stupid to run their own affairs.
In contrast, they portray the English as a superior race to Scots. A people who are, significant enough, rich enough and smart enough to run, not just their own affairs, but those of others countries also – most notably Scotland’s.
So good at running their own and Scotland’s affairs are they that they have managed to run up a national debt of £1.5 trillion and have already squandered this year’s annual budget three months before the end of the current financial year.
Money for wars and bombs can always be found while many of the people they govern are dying of starvation and cold – Or, out of sheer despondency are being driven to suicide by the UK government’s inhumane austerity measures. However, to Clegg & Co. this is a good thing, and they tell us it’s lucky for us that Scotland’s affairs are managed by such giants.
@Richardinho
Framing won the Tories the last two elections.
Simple statements (whch we can all relate to but don’t hold true ) which the Tories have taken ownership of over the last few decades have proved very powerful and it is very hard for people to see past them.
Some examples..
Thatchers statements about every woman running a household recognising the need to balance the books (false assumption that you can compare a household with the macro economy)
‘The party of hard working people’ (bullshit yes but the amount of MSM crap on about benefit scroungers leads many of us believe that we are all being robbed by them rather than the banks)
‘Fixing the roof whilst the sun is shining’ (relating to deficit reduction completely ignoring the fact that the sun ain’t shining)
They are very powerful metaphors yet completely fallacious. They work because most folk can relate to them. Labour being all at sea and not knowing where they stand makes the job of the Tories far easier.
The Tory metaphors are easy to debunk but I know myself trying to persuade folk I consider to be reasonably intelligent ain’t easy. It takes a strong political movement with really good PR.
The SNP warned the Tories pre election that their economic policy wouldn’t work and it isn’t, yet I read I the FT the perceived reasons for this – all bullshit. All they had to say was ‘spending IS income at the macro economic level George’
Potential Yes voters…
Help your local NHS/police by..
“arguing whilst drinking responsibly”
I suppose that should extend to Yoons..
..but they seem to want to go backwards.
Awkwardly denying progress to those who strive for it..
.. the Yoon is now endangered,
having un-evolved itself into a nothingness.
Jimbo 9.17
Excellent post.
Note to MARK MCGIVERN, so-called journalist with the Daily Record, a so-called newspaper:-
The following snippets from your recent article suggest that you may be in need of help with your writing skills.
“When the crime writer stepped out, the man threw a liquid in his acid, believed to be acid.” Hmmm. He threw acid in his acid?
“Findlay, 42, intensely flushed his face, eyes and hands with water before being rushed to hospital in an ambulance to hospital.” Hmmm. He was rushed to hospital to hospital?
“He was taken by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where is currently undergoing treatment.” Hmmm. Try inserting “he” after the word “where.”
@Thepnr Thanks for the archived link https://archive.is/6Zhqf
Famous 15
‘at the crowded barbers this morning’
I’m in hairdressing industry and the 4 weeks before Xmas we get shat on from all angles.
Today a bitter pestilence riddled BritNat with whom I’ve had loads of heated political run ins gave me two Empire biscuits as an Xmas gift and probably a chest infection to boot.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Would have accidentally nicked his ear,but I need the repeat business.
@dakk 8.54
suck UKOKKERY? hope thats no a Freudian slip!!!
I watched some guy (a road haulier apparently) mumphing and moaning on TV about how disappointing it was that the bridge hadn’t been opened to large lorries as well as cars and vans.
Any sympathy I had for that guy and others of the same whining opinion evaporated in an instant. All he was doing was spouting anti SNP propaganda and it stuck right out like a sore thumb.
You’ll get your big, noisy, diesel spitting, air polluting, road ruining lorry over the Forth Road Bridge when it’s fixed pal, and not a moment sooner: we would prefer that the bridge didn’t collapse if it’s all the same to you, so suck it up, and meantime think about splitting your cargo into smaller loads and using vans.
Merry Christmas to all you hauliers that don’t share his torn faced view.
yesindyref2 at 6.38
The best thing about the improving National now is the four pages of readers’ letters – and I thought WGD was at about the angriest I have read him today. It is actually amazing what has been achieved here.
This has been put together on a shoestring by a small team of mostly unknown journalists, not all of whom just regurgitate the SNP line and with whom I quite often disagree on some points. But there is no doubt that the paper supports independence and independence is the reason for its existence.
It outsells the Scotsman (which, to be true, is not difficult),
If all the people who read Wings were to break the bank and go out and buy the National for 60p what it could achieve in terms of size,coverage and top flight contributors is limitless.
As it is I would say that WGD, Gordon McIntyre-Kemp, Moodievision are ahead of anything else in Scottish newspapers at the moment.
And it is not an SNP pamphlet
Kenny says:
Voting yes does not mean handing control from various coloured Tories to the SNP. It is about letting us all decide to share in the decision making and to make the very rich resources of Scotland work for the people of Scotland… that means YOU!
I couldn’t agree more, this is what an Independent Scotland means for me.
Her people will decide who we want to govern us, no one else.
Just those that are living in Scotland will decide. We will get the government we vote for, not one supported by the likes of UKIP and the Tory voters whose policies I totally reject.
Yet, I have to suffer their insufferable policies even though my country rejected them at the polls.
@Rough Bounds
You are spot on it was so obvious what the purpose of the interview was.
As far as Im concerned, we have a perfectly usable rail network which should be utilised to take a hell of a lot of freight off the roads and would make driving experiences a whole lot more pleasurable for all of us as well as a whole lot safer
@Free Scotland
That was a shocker, feck he likes just like me after about 11 at night, thought I was looking in the mirror there. LOL
sinkyat 8.37
“Howelling” I described it in a letter the National published last week (the whining noise made by Labour) and his letter in the National today is a corker. Every letter he writes to all the newspapers is a regurgitation of Labour spin and he tries to tell us he is neutral
Peter 9.33
‘suck UKOKERRY’
An me a hairdresser too.
Ffs the cat’s oot the bag lol 🙂
Excellent piece Rev. Bateman had a similar filleting of the current surge in SNPBad reportage. It is easy to become ambivalent towards the monotonously negative drumbeat of post-SNP ascendence reporting. However, straightforward ‘reminder’ articles like this need periodically printed. Monstering SNP MP’s, down-side presentation of public services, rerunning Indyref, spin-first headlines…and all the while SNP support remains solid whilst ‘ra opposition’ make a science out of self-contradictory aw-rhetoric-nae-knickers policy alternatives (eg, tax credits). Hell mend the Record, Herald, Hoots, Beeb et al…but I doubt it.
UKOK.
A bit like sex, drugs and sausage rolls,
only without the sex, drugs and the sausage rolls.
Jaba and Toodloothenoo ate all the sausage rolls.NumNum
What the Fu*k is a Wullie Rennie????
I have been giving the National a serious chewing on their on line site for a few daft articles lately. Made more effective by my status as a subscriber.
However all is forgiven after the front page today with Bailie as the grinch http://www.thenational.scot/news/merry-xmas-fife-forth-bridge-reopens-and-derek-mackay-plays-santa-but-jackie-baillie-grinches.11560
Also, the article carrying the Tory nutter blaming the SNP for lack of dancing in Scotland was good too.
If you don’t yet subscribe, register and have a browse tonight and consider subscribing as you NEW YEARS RESOLUTION
@Gary45%
Which reminds me. I’d better get the Just Roll ready made pastry out the freezer and into the fridge.
Sausage roll duty tomorrow. WoS is so informative so it is 🙂
When Scotland gets its Independence
The mainstream media may have to try “balanced journalism” two words that are not currently in their lexicon
Hopefully the improving education of our youngsters will produce better human beings
The days of the current media are numbered!
@Gary45%
A wullie Rennie is a tablet for excess acid in the genitalia
According to the National George Galloway wants Jeremy Corbyn to let him rejoin the Labour Party. I thought rats left a sinking ship, not scuppered back on?
Stephen.
O/T
Kezia Dugdale will be on the Christmas edition of University Challenge at 8pm on 28th December. The two teams are Aberdeen and Sheffield. I guess she is on the Aberdeen team.
……
Now the road hauliers. The 2005 and 2006 reports on the state of the Forth Bridge both said that by 2013/14 the bridge would have to have limits placed on the loads allowed to use it. They also predicted full closure by 2019/20.
So whatever is said about FETA and the work they did or deferred they have managed to prioritise the maintenance and get the bridge to this point without those predictions re load limits coming to pass. The current limit on loads is temporary not permanent.
Brilliant!
Just saw that someone sent Chris Deerin a present.
A pillowcase with I love Nicola, and her face.
Nicola tweeted to Deerin, bet you love it!
Regarding the Police Scotland story in the National. I thoroughly enjoyed reading McKenna’s piece,it gave me a right giggle. He must have mixed it up with one of his Herald/Guardian articles. McKenna is just another player, pimping his wares to the highest bidder…good luck to him. The over zealous tone certainly stood out from the many decent articles in today’s edition.
On the subject of minimum pricing of alcohol, can someone explain to me why the Whisky lobby have taken the government to court on this? Surely they would be totally unaffected by minimum pricing, which is aimed at cheap booze.
“I honestly predict soon:Fury as SNP fails to prevent the sun from rising every morning, contributing to global warming and skin cancer among Scots.”
Personally, I’m waiting on someone greeting about why the SNP are letting the country down by not moving Christmas to a less busy time of the year.
@dakk
An me a hairdresser too
Brilliant!
David Frost (chief executive)on the News in an oh so plummy english accent explaining the Scottish Whisky Associations position re minimum pricing.
We’re so lucky having these people look after us.
NOT.
Letter in today’s local paper from someone saying they voted SNP last time but they’re now going back to Labour as it’s best to go with “the devil you know”
Enjoy the festive break everyone.
Here’s one for you.
This article appeared today “Five months after a “massive surge” of water flooded a small Perthshire town many residents are still waiting to get back into their homes.
More than 100 properties were flooded in Alyth during heavy rain on 17 July 2015.
Some businesses in the town are still not back to normal and a handful of residents are facing Christmas in temporary accommodation.
Experts said the flooding was a one in 200-year event.
Water several feet deep flowed thought the town centre and some people were left stranded in their vehicles.”
Now I ask you – how many Scottish Papers, TV and Radio stations have made bigger stories of the Cumbria Flooding yet six months after the Alyth flooding have done much more in that 6 months than the usual, “Oh! By the way there was flooding in Alyth”?
Snode 1965
‘Can someone explain why the Whisky lobby have taken the government to court on this’
At best its a thin end of the wedge fear.
More likely a Unionist pathological aversion to Scottish self governance.
@ Legerwood 10.24 Are ye sure Kezias no on Universally Challenged?
@Robert Peffers 10.45 thocht you were on holiday yev been that quiet, anyway youl be glad tae hear the rest o Keltys no on holiday yet!!!
Some of the letters or blogs against the occasional BUM article in the National are better than the article itself and congruent with what the Rev posts above. Here is a real corker from Peter A Bell giving Kevin McKenna a right kicking.
A failure of scrutiny
PETER A BELL·MONDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2015
The suggestion that the SNP administration is not subject to scrutiny is just plain idiocy. A substantial part of the resources of the British state, including almost all of the mainstream print and broadcast media has for years been devoted to finding – or inventing – something by which to discredit the party and/or its leaders. If anything gives the party the appearance of being beyond reproach it is, not the accolades of those honest enough to recognise its achievements, but the signal failure of all the smear stories and dirt-digging.
If scrutiny of the Scottish Government is inadequate then it is folly to blame this on the SNP, which quite properly has no role in such scrutiny. It makes even less sense to blame the electorate whose democratic choice it is to have the SNP in government. And it is just as stupid to blame party members and supporters who have absolutely no power to prevent scrutiny. Nor even to discourage it.
If the SNP administration is not being properly scrutinised and held to account then this points only and entirely to a gross failure on the part of those whose responsibility it is – the opposition parties and the media.
It is sheer hypocrisy for Kevin McKenna to condemn a lack of proper scrutiny even as he exhibits the ill-informed prejudice and/or wilful dishonesty that have rendered both opposition and media incapable of even commenting in a rational manner on the SNP administration, never mind properly holding it to account. His account of the state of Police Scotland is woefully characteristic of the hysterical sensationalisation that substitutes for reasoned analysis whenever the SNP is involved.
To talk of “custom and practice” in an organisation not yet three years old is nonsensical and very much in keeping with the hyperbole that distorts every story about Police Scotland. Kevin McKenna is not commenting on the reality of Police Scotland. He is commenting on the grotesque caricature of Police Scotland generated by those whose overarching imperative is to find, or fashion, a stick with which to beat the hated SNP.
If there was any doubt that Kevin McKenna has been taken in by the untruths and distortions peddled by his media colleagues then such doubts are immediately dispelled on seeing his reference to Lamara Bell dying “in a crashed car three days after the accident was first reported to police”. The reality is that no accident was ever reported to the police. There was a non-emergency report of an abandoned vehicle. That is all.
As Kevin McKenna has unwittingly demonstrated there can be no proper scrutiny of the Scottish Government until the opposition parties and the media abandon the obsessive anti-SNP agenda and start being honest.
*News on North Britain News at 23.00* – major investment banks in UK paid NO TAX.
None.
And they didn’t break the law.
So, who’s to blame – the banks, or the law?
Surely that’s a fair question?
Naw. It isnae. There’s no ‘blame’ involved. They just don’t pay it, and that’s that.
We do.
And as long as we do? They won’t.
Ain’t exactly ‘rocket-science’, eh?
But try telling that to hardcore BTUKOK bawbaggers who start on about ‘scroungers’ being the root of all economic woes – they maybe ought to have a wee think about who the real ‘suckers’ are in the bigger picture.
The Whisky association are millionaire toffs. They want to keep the poor in their place and young ones to drink themselves to death. They care not a jot about ordinary families. If we get this through the SNP should apply the tax to their whisky just to annoy them. They will never vote yes anyway.
Well -I realised that I have done all my Christmas shopping and still have some cash left over this month to contribute to a worthy cause.
The Orkney (O4) need your help. They put their heads on the chopping block for democracy in Scotland. They stood up for ALL of us. We CANNOT and we MUST NOT let them down. The ned around £10,000 for the current campaign.
I know the Festive Season places an extra burden on all of but IF YOU CAN AFFORD A COUPLE OF QUID, then PLEASE send it to the O4.
They STOOD UP FOR ALL OF US.
And the ery least WE CAN DO is to STAND UO FOR THEM IN THEIR TIME OF NEED.
COME ON PEOPLE. DIG DEEP.
(Apologies all if I sound over-bearing – and to Rev Stu – but this really is too important a cause).
Just imagine the CorpMedia headlines if the O4 can’t pay their legal bills.
COME OOOOONNNN.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-people-versus-carmichael#/funders
And what about this for an all-time great Chistmas story from George Kerevan? http://www.thenational.scot/comment/george-kerevans-alternative-nativity-story-is-that-a-star-or-a-drone.11451
The Rev should run it as his Christmas Day post
Big Jock says:
23 December, 2015 at 11:15 pm
The Whisky association are millionaire toffs.
Aye, very establishment, very unionist. Still, they depend very much on the Scottish quality brand for their success. The original “Proud Scots but”s….
I would like to see them try and market their product as “British” Whisky and see how far they get. Most consumers around the world would be instantly repelled.
@ Cadogan Enright
Good quote. I’ve noticed Peter Bell has published some superb comments on line lately.
Re BBC, I sometimes go to the Home page to see what’s new. The decline in quality is stunning. I haven’t registered my location so I’m getting the London version. It is truly dire. I think the phrase “dumming down” needs to be reframed. It is more like “lobotomising”.
It reminds me of the 1920s newsreader, dressed in dinner jacket and bow tie, announcing:
“Nothing of any importance has been brought to my attention today.”
Is there really NOTHING going on other than sport and celebrity gossip?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
@ Big Jock,
worth a read here.
https://thecommongreen.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/no-the-eu-didnt-just-ban-alcohol-minimum-pricing/
Clegg = twat. Rev and my fellow wingers, if this is all they have , they are more worthy of our pity than ridicule. Lets show them what we have in our armour SNP x 2 in May. Fuck them all . Their lies and skewed preachings , we know the truth and can see through their opaque stinking shit & shallow lies. Lets all do them the courtsey and dispatch them along with their old party politics of blame and self presevation to oblivion accompanied with the Daily Retard tucked under their arm.
Wishing every one of my fellow wingers and indy supporters a joyful & peaceful Christmas. 2016 and onward is our time.
Re the National.
I Could not agree more with David Hill and others.
Yes. The National like any newspaper gets it wrong occasionally, but for heavens sake, it’s a pro Indy newspaper and deserves the support of EVERY pro Indy voter in the country.
As David says it survives on a shoestring, in a difficult market, as I can personally attest to.
Give it your support and if you have issues, then write to the letters page with constructive criticism, with references if necessary, but the last thing a pro Indy paper needs is lost circulation.
Can you imagine the glee of the unionist press if the only paper supporting independence stopped publishing?
Big Jock
‘The Whisky Association are millionaire toffs’
True,but that is not their crime.
They use the good name of Scotland to profiteer and create revenue for our Imperial Exchequer
Parasites of magnificent British Imperial pedigree.
The SWA have their fingers in a lot of the cheap alcohol pies. It has nothing to do with a fine Ardmore by the fireside which would be completely unaffected by minimum unit prices.
I was going to comment about how boring all the rage/lies/whining from the unionists was and how they wouldn’t win voters over that way – just like we’ve all said a million times. Then, it struck me that had someone whispered in my ear even 5 years ago that we’d now be at this crossroads, I’d have thought they were they were having a lovely drug induced dream!
It’s unbelievable how far we’ve come. The fact that independence is now a real option is amazing. That, to me, is the real story. It’s why they won’t stop complaining and it’s why we should all have a great break and then roll our sleeves up and start fighting the propaganda all over again in the New Year! Independence isn’t a fantasy anymore; it’s likely to happen! That’s just incredible when you look where we were 10 years ago.
In the meantime, have a fantastic Christmas and Hogmanay all you lovely people. x
Kirsty at 11.46
Exactly – but there is no pleasing some people
What does it matter to ya.
When you’ve got a job to do.
You’ve got to do it well.
And give the fucking Yoonies HELL.
Tell you what, people. Things really are changing in the Nawbag fraternity.
A mate of mine who voted NO in ndyRef#1 started asking questions tonight in our local when we were out for a couple of beers.
I’m telling you – this guy (although not uber UKOK) felt last September that his personal situation was best served with a NO vote – is now asking questions about the whole UKOKery meme. I will defend my mate in that he felt last year that he genuinely voted NO for what he felt were the best of HIS intentions and, yes, what was best financially for him. Selfish perhaps.
However…
Tonight in the pub he is questioning why the media (he reads the Daily Redcoat) were constantly attacking the SNP for the FRB closure. He is an engineer himself (not of bridges I have to say) but he understands how unexpected shit can happen in projects. And yet, with his limited dunderstanding, even he is totally appauled at the attacks of the CorpMedia on the SNP over te FRB fiasco.
What we have here people is the CorpMedia thinking they can use a story to undermine the Scottish (SNP) Government but which, in actual fact (if my nawbag pal is anything to go by), is having the total opposite effect among those who are totally uninterested in politics or who are otherwise Daily Redcoat informed in politics.
Bring it on! Gaun yerselves UKOKery CorpMedia especially the Redcoat.
If this is what my Nawbag mate (and I love hin to bits btw) is now starting to say about the CorpMedia then we are winning folks. We are winning big time.
HandandShrimp
‘The SWA have their hand in a lot of cheap alcohol pies’
That may be part of it.Follow the money trail.
However we all know the crevasses into which the British Establishment have crept.
So IMO it is more than that.
Kirsty 11.46
Ye we’ve come a long long way.Keep on keeping on:)
An ex- journalist writes,
‘I need no persuading of the unethical conduct of elements of the print media. For three decades I have been up against those journalists, many from the Murdoch empire, whose ethic-free behaviour and easy access to lavish funds I often found profoundly disturbing. In the post 1979 neo-liberal climate, their behaviour deteriorated with the use of private investigators, blaggers and bribes’
Lashmar ,2013 http://www.opendemocracy.net
The rot set in decades ago, the collusion between a concentrated media power unaccountable to no- one and a political elite – the losers are democracy and the free press.
There’s a ton of fantastic things happening in Scotland regarding our industries our new power generating systems our digital technical people
New hospitals,schools either new or refurbished, our transport system has improved beyond recognition, innovative new ways of agriculture and farming, so much so other countries come to Scotland to learn from our people
All of which and more would never have happened previously under ANY Labour administration, in fact they tried to prevent many of these things from taking place in our country as all of us know well
So then some might ask themselves, with this amount of positive energy coming from our current Government, which not by accident happens to be the SNP with 50% plus of the population supporting them does a newspaper that purports to support an Independent Scotland (The National) fudge about with insignificant pseudo intellectual fluff pieces when it should be reporting the dynamism and positivity in our new vibrant and economically successful Scotland
Because it doesn’t do that, it just doesn’t, I’ve tried and tried to like it but I don’t, it’s not a good read and it’s not a good paper, it’s damn boring most of the time, and that leads me to believe it’s a bit like a hookers orgasm “Ooh Ooh Ohhh Sigh” she got her money and you’re not feeling warm and fuzzy or staring up at the stars
I’m no writer but if I can find more interesting stories than a newspaper then that newspaper isn’t doing it’s job, and it shows because if it was doing it’s job it’s sales would be considerably higher by now and I don’t think I’m alone here or the sales would call me a liar, I’m afraid this paper started out average and fell away, instead of inspiring it’s depressing
If Stuart Campbell can write a couple of paragraphs and within them contain interest information and skillful writing what’s going on in this newspaper that a whole bunch between them can’t
The people of Scotland don’t need another comic like the Record or the Sun and we know the others are just nonsensical Yoon rags but we could be doing with an Informative Positive and Scottish Newspaper with substance
Not something that looks like it should be given away free on the underground by embarrassed Kiosk Vendors
For the folks who have been loyal to this paper so far I say good on you for doing it but for me, I’m not doing it any more (Unless)
@Dr Jim (12.39) –
Interesting comment, but you appear to have clicked ‘Submit Comment’ before completing it.
‘Unless’ what?
Cadogan Enright ref Peter Bell .
For those new here Peter is on FB and does a wee blog on a regular basis . Always worth a read.
Proud Cybernat 12.07
Your wee story there has reminded me of an incident today .
I bumped into a very nice “old school ” pensioner , whom I have got to know over recent years.
Bear in mind we have NEVER discussed politics or such like.
We had hardly exchanged pleasantries when he says to me reflective like “A well maybe it’s a blessing that last year went the way it went” tilting my head “How?” I enquired
“Well look at the price o oil”
Now for us wingers that’s like a Reed Rag t’ a bull , but I kept a cool tool.
Usual response “so what oil money benefit do we get now 8/9% in general or would we be better with 100% ?”
” a bit look how well Fergusons yard is doing now ” he exclaimed trying to swat away my facts
” R U referring to Jim MColl’s purchase of the Ferguson yard ? ” I asked
The teen in him kicked in ” a but yea but … Eh Mmmm you seam to know a bit more about it than me” he scuttles.
FFS , I thought to myself , much as I like him, he made this huge decision about the future of the country and in 2 minutes he admits he knows FUCK ALL about it .
Any way I put him straight on Jim M being a strong YES supporter along with Mr MacDonald of MD Hotels etc etc …. You know the script .
We eventually headed our separate ways , hopefully he has some things to think about now.
We wished each other all the best etc and he very nicely advised me ,
” Dinna empty a the bottles ! ”
So I forward this to you all tonight
“Ca canny an Dinna teem a the bottles on the same day. It’s a gie whiley ’til May”
Cheers
TB
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a new portmanteau word for the New Year:
‘Cringerati’
Seasons greetings to all.
Tackety,
Always enjoy yer posts – I can smell the sharn fae here.
Ony chunce ye can mak the Nicht Oot in Aiberdeen Jan 30?
Ye cud weer yer Nicky Tams ana’
http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_tams.htm
(Unless) I was leaving that part up to the paper it’s their decision to decide if they either think, well that’s the best we can do, or we’re in it for some cash and who cares anyway
If it’s the latter, then damn them, if it’s the former then they need help with design, format, and content
Mr and Mrs Average newspaper reader is a fading breed, the youngsters of today have little or no interest in newspapers unless you include something pertaining to them
What do young people want? give them some of it, could be NME type stuff but Scottish, could be Digital Tech Gaming stuff, what’s a couple of pages
The National started out with the right motive but wrong objective and left itself with nowhere to go, there’s nothing wrong with folk like Leslie Riddoch or Robin McAlpine and others but they are a wee bit like Gruel, nourishment provided but not tasty, and that’s from someone who likes them
It feels lately as though I should be reading it in my Conservatory, an ah hivnae goat a Glesshoose
Politics and News, it’s all Showbusiness and the National has none of that in spades, I feel if it’s to succeed as a NEW news it’s got to reflect the new dynamism and belt it out, it seems too content not to take chances and fit in and if that’s all you’re going to aim at, in the words of DADS ARMY You’re Doomed, just like the rest of the papers
I’ve got a ton of ideas, all of which could be rubbish, but there are an awful lot of Independence Supporters out there who’ll have ideas too in all sorts of industries who might be happy to help with input, the National only has to ask and I’m sure the response would be positive
Chic at 1:40 – xx
@Dr Jim
Great post and I’m certain you are right. In the long run the National is doomed as are all printed media. Meantime, I agree with those that argue for sticking with it.
There are no alternatives, you know that as well as I.
The young I think we need not be chasing for votes, where we are well down the list is with the elderly. Would you agree?
Anyways, I’ve no particular audience in mind, EVERYONE is up for grabs. We carry on, supporting the National meantime is one way to do that.
If out of your “ton of ideas” you have a better one, would appreciate if you would share it with us.
What we have to ask ourselves is this: Who is Clegg? A nasty wee insect?
We know where here comes from, Ireland, but what makes him ‘tick’? Does anyone know anything at all about his background (especially early) and who (his granny?) and what has formed his rabid Scottish anti-Independence opinion? Anyone know him at all?
Does anyone know anything about the ‘key’ VOW man in Scotland who in my opinion manipulated and interfered GREATLY in a democratic election … A National Referendum .. to OUR cost. He hides behind Torcuil Chrichton. Uses dafty Chrichton to do his (public) dirty work. He uses nincompoop Kezia Dugdale too.
Latest news last night … Kezia donating her £13,000 wage from her column in the Daily Record to her ‘best friend!!’ who’s suffering from motor neurone disease. Wonder who came up with that great propaganda idea? Clegg and his BBC cronies? Kezia being duped into thinking that her ‘sad’ face being linked to a patient in turn to the Daily Record paying out £13,000 will get them more votes. Kezia can’t see that the Daily Record is akin to the Titanic, symbiotic relationship with SLab, and will now take her down with them (listen to daddy Kezia as you’ve lost the plot now). Nicola Sturgeon has done her utmost to help him too. No mention of that in the news.
I for one am sick and tired of people moving to Scotland from screwed up immigration England (Tomkins) and screwed up religious Ireland (Clegg) or just moving here because they prefer to live in our beautiful country in comparison to their own (ask yourself why) and then stick their beaks in to our detriment. Communities all over Scotland, such as in villages, are totally scunnered with rUK relocators moving in and then ruling the roost (such as on Councils) or just buying up all the properties and not living there forcing locals to move away or move in, overcrowded, with relatives.
I’m sick and tired of elderly rUK relocators voting for the SNP to get all the freebies going but then 74% voting NO for Independence. REALLY sick and tired of watching the news now with the vast majority of people castigating the SNP. The vast majority with English accents. Very worrying too that two professors at St Andrews University are members of the Henry Jackson Society. Leading cops in Scotland are English. Dig deep and you’ll find that top posts absolutely everywhere in Scotland are now being held by guess what? ………?
Scotland suffering economically from having to cope with a top heavy elderly population. How many are Scottish? Scotland having to cope with ever increasing homeless individuals. How many are Scottish? Scotland having to cope with ever increasing benefit claimants. How many are Scottish?
High time the polls divulged the truth. The TRUE FACTS because the SNP can’t do it. Can’t do it because they’ll be castigated as being racist.
Sites like this allow us to tell the TRUTH. And hey I’m far, very far indeed, from being viewed as being racist. I’m a fact finder and truth seeker.
I would love to see a wider range of non-political stories in the National. Scottish music, tourism, business, property, food, drink, reviews etc
Newspapers aren’t so much about news now, but opinion and analysis and entertainment. In a way this should actually make it easier for small newspapers to survive on a shoestring budget.
Surely it doesn’t have to be expensive to bring in a wider range of writers. You would think there must be many Scottish bloggers who would write a weekly article, in return for links and publicity to their personal websites.
I really hope the paper survives.
I make a point of buying it just to support the pro-Scottish front pages which give some well needed balance to the newstands.
They missed a trick in not having a calender this year.
That would have been good publicity. And a nice alternative to the Scotsman calender, which is usually pretty good photography wise, although I would support them by buying the thing.
Thepnr
“Believe it or not we are having an effect, much more so than BUM.”
I’ve been putting Independence related posts on my facebook page eg WGD’s “Mundell is a sock puppet” story in the national,
and lo, I get a wee like from one of my old band mates who was a no voter.
drip drip drip! 🙂
Big Jock
“I am not even going to attempt to explain that, or step into their shoes.I don’t understand the switching of nationalities at the drop of a tennis ball. How you can sing your heart out with a Saltire at Hampden. Then turn up at Braehead with a back the Brits T Shirt. The two nationalities are so different!”
“the two nationalities are so different”
NO THEY’RE NOT!
The trouble with most people is they buy into the unionist version of reality,
they have no more right to call themselves British than you do, and you SHOULD do it with pride Britain IS NOT the UK and the UK is NOT Britain,
They have stolen Britishness and used it for their own ends, Its long past time we claimed it back,
if anything, WE are the TRUE defenders of Britishness NOT them.
When someone says Scandinavia to you do you automatically think Sweden? no you don’t because you KNOW Scandinavia is NOT just Sweden but Norway, Denmark, and Finland as well,
Britain existed long before England and Scotland were countries.
We MUSNT let them claim OUR birthright ITS NOT THEIRS TO TAKE,
We let them claim that then what?
Maybe we’re not the same species as them?
like some clown tried to do with the Chinese, claiming that as they don’t look like “us” they must be descended from a different species.
We ARE British,
who says?
THE ANCIENT GREEKS THATS WHO!
and breathe
Rock @ 4.52
Give it up Rock it’s getting old.
nodrog @7.19
one word,
SUPERB!
The deficit is increasing and growth is down – as predicted by SNP, Greens and any decent economist in the run up to GE.
No reports of vindication of course.
Dr Jim
“What do young people want? give them some of it, could be NME type stuff but Scottish, could be Digital Tech Gaming stuff, what’s a couple of pages”
Now if only we knew someone who could write about such things, hmmm.
Petra
“Tick, Clegg,
geddit
snarfsnarf. 🙂
@petra
“I’m sick and tired of elderly rUK relocators voting for the SNP to get all the freebies going but then 74% voting NO for Independence. REALLY sick and tired of watching the news now with the vast majority of people castigating the SNP.”
To be fair I think it’s majority of elderly home grown scots too but it’s a good point. My mother can’t see past the Tories. She gave me the look of incredulity when I said the main reason I want to stay in Europe is to protect my family from David Cameron.
i think many of the ‘job for life’ generation have the most entrenched belief in the Tory ‘you work hard you’ll be ok’ mantra. Much of their employment directly and indirectly was off a wave of massive government post war spending and very few of them realise it. That kind of investment doesn’t happen any more due to the completely false (yet plausible) belief that the govt will run out of money.
I should say that I tip my hat to all of that same generation who have seen right through it.
Our kids can graft all they want on their perpetual temporary contracts but they probably still won’t be able to buy a house.
Vote NO you get nothing. Scotlandcwas promised the VOW, FFA, Home Rule,Federalism. Instead Scotland got tax raising powers to pay for Trident/illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud. Whisky Companies tax evade through the City of London. Along with major Banks and multinationals making vast profits. HMRC is not fit for purpose.
The Tories have ruined the Oil sector (tax take), the Steel industry, the Coal industry (no CCS),and Renewables. They have banned wind turbines. More Oil, Gas and coal has to be imported putting up the balance of payments deficit and the debt. Peoole are having to sell their houses and move in with relatives or take out loans to pay for their mortgages or rent.
Older people have lived through hard times and Thatcher. The people most likely to live in povertty are elderly women who had no pension rights, students, the sick and vulnerable.
The National is expanding. 10p more to 60p.
@Valerie says: 23 December, 2015 at 10:32 pm:
“Brilliant! Just saw that someone sent Chris Deerin a present. A pillowcase with I love Nicola, and her face.”
The best thing to do about a semi-educated numptie, like Deerin, is to ignore him as the pseudo-journalist he is.
s, “British”, and, “The United Kingdom”, requires remedial classes in, among other subjects, Basic English language.
This is the congenital idiot who wrote for the public domain just before the referendum vote:-
Now, basic Grammar aside, any average eight year old could tell you that, no matter what permutation of country or kingdom grouping within the British archipelago, everyone within those islands will sill be British as they will remain citizens of a British country or kingdom.
Mind you it doesn’t say a lot about the management and ownership of the publications that employs such uneducated numpties.
Plenty of people from Scotland live elsewhere in Britain. Scotland needs people. It has been depopulated by Westminster centralise economc policies. Even retired people bring benefits. Plenty of UK citizens retire to Spain and elsewhere. People can’t retire to the US, but the US cause major migration in Europe.
Ronnie , thank you for the reminder and invite.
I would love to join you all on 30th . Sadly I’m unable to confirm at this time.
I’ll be just back from a ski trip , without my family, so you will appreciate the implications.
I will decide on the week of the 30th and will try to bring a few of my siblings , all long time Wingers.
In fact one of them is to blame for me being here.
A hid a lagh at yer Nicky Tams jibe as I intend writing a short stories type book in a few years and that’s fit a wis gaan t’ caa ‘t.
“Tackety Beets an’ Nicky Tams” and for obvious reasons I always take note when “Sharny Dubs” posts on here !
Ronnie , is yon Derren Brown a relative o yours ?
Hopefully meet you on the 30th Jan.
Regards ,
TB
@snode1965 says: 23 December, 2015 at 10:33 pm:
” … On the subject of minimum pricing of alcohol, can someone explain to me why the Whisky lobby have taken the government to court on this? Surely they would be totally unaffected by minimum pricing, which is aimed at cheap booze.”
Aye! Snode, but it isn’t hard to work out their reasoning. The members of the Whisky lobby do not just have their fingers in Scotch Whisky making but also in many other booze producing manufacture.
It may not be generally realised that Scotland, for example, produces more Gin than does England.
They also have their fingers in the distribution, pub, hotel and entertainment sectors that sell the cheap rotgut. It is as simple as that.
‘The backup line of the Labour whinge – seeking to blame everyone but themselves for their defeat’
I would be quite willing to bet …even placing serious money …that if a General Election was held today, with Corbyn as leader, and without any input from the SNP about ‘working together with Labour’ …that the Tories would still win outright.
I don’t believe anything has truly changed in the mindset of Middle England. So far, Cameron hasn’t done a lot to upset them.
And if such an alternative scenario was to happen today, it still leaves the question of who should Labour blame? Corbyn? Miliband? Blair? The Electorate? …or would it still be the SNP for having created the perception that it could hold Labour, and therefore, England to ransom?
@Robert Peffers and John King
Ayup, the state has taken ownership of words and have redefined their meanings to their own ends.
Union and unity, Britain and Britishness, these two especially have now become so twisted by the state with connotations and associations attached to the latter which leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouths of most folk of an independent mind.
How and ever, the state does NOT own or define either and I reckon its about time we took those words back, cleaned em up and made them fit for original purpose.
The union and unity of peoples inhabiting the British isles will last long after thone hoose on the Thames has fallen victim to the rot currently threatening to sink it into the Thames. Unity has fuck all to do with the heading on a piece of paper laying out our present constitutional status and political governance and everything to do with fellow feeling, common purpose and popular will.
Folk mustn’t let the sad and barking zoomers, racists and party politico wonks inhabiting the right wing press or twitter conflate the two, or muddy the waters. Scotland will become independent sooner or later (hopefully sooner) and the ties that truly bind,of family and friendship, will ensure a far fairer ‘unity’ than anything defined by a Westminster politician in the past three hundred odd years.
Hi kids,
Just a wee fact for you all to keep in mind.We do not need to win over every elderly voter in Scotland,but we could certainly do with some of them so that independence comes a bit quicker.The next ten days provides a lot of ideal opportunities to drop some subtle little hints into quiet little conversations.Nothing to heavy,mind.
O/T links
http://thirdforcenews.org.uk/tfn-news/eu-court-blocks-minimum-alcohol-pricing
http://www.thecanary.co/2015/12/23/seven-investment-banks-just-delivered-massive-fck-britain/
Dinner lady sacked after serving free lunch to 12-year-old girl who couldn’t afford to eat
https://archive.is/MTzuT
Dig 200 graves’: UK troops return to Helmand as local police chief delivers grim prediction
https://www.rt.com/uk/326865-afghanistan-helmand-sangin-taliban/
@peter says: 23 December, 2015 at 10:58 pm:
“@Robert Peffers 10.45 thocht you were on holiday yev been that quiet, anyway youl be glad tae hear the rest o Keltys no on holiday yet!!!”
Naw! The reason I’ve been quiet is my usual aversion to the Winter Celebration period. It was Christmas week, many moons age, that the drunk driver hit our car and landed my late wife in a wheelchair for what remained of her then miserable life. It also mainly crippled me.
It is thus not my happiest time of year but it also has had a strange after effect ever since. I cannot seem to get through a pre-Christmas period without a dire series of crisis striking me. I kid you not.
This year the wee papillon woke me at around 03:30am. There was water dripping through the ceiling. I was thus up on the roof in my jammies,in a howling gale and horizontal blowing rain, clearing the wee zinc gutter, (round a chimney), that had blocked. I did manage to prevent the ceiling coming down, though. It didn’t do my neck & spinal injuries much good.
Next up I’m sitting in the living room when I became aware it was getting cold – the central heating gas boiler had packed in. It was electronic, not gas, so I fixed lf.
Not to be outdone my wee campervan, (that carts my disability scooter around), got sick. As it was due an MOT I couldn’t get it road taxed without an MOT Certificate and was thus rather housebound with all the Christmas & Hogmanay shopping to do.
They say, “nae peace fir the wicked”, so I must have done something afu bad.
Oh! Wait a minute – is this just another case of SNP BAAD?
It’s a good job I can laugh at myself — or I’d greet.
As the old saying goes, “Well when you get to my age it helps time”.
Now I think I will just lock the door and not come out until next year.
O/T links
Cameron delivers Christmas message saying Britain is a Christian country. Not with him & Murdoch in charge it bloody is not.
http://www.thecanary.co/2015/12/23/cameron-enjoys-christmas-party-real-ruler-britain-corbyn-calls-big-media-break/
These are the biggest companies that paid little or no corporation tax last year
https://archive.is/51JHV
John Pilger on Wars of the Future and Past
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQkhMlyk4SE&feature=youtu.be
Bob
“I was thus up on the roof in my jammies,in a howling gale and horizontal blowing rain, clearing the wee zinc gutter, (round a chimney), that had blocked. I did manage to prevent the ceiling coming down, though. It didn’t do my neck & spinal injuries much good.”
Are you mad?
stick oot an SOS next time you do something like that I’ve got a son able to do it.
Definitely worth reading
http://www.thecanary.co/2015/12/16/telegraph-gets-truly-desperate-latest-smear-corbyn/
When I started in journalism, it was back in the “hot metal” days. All we hacks had to do was find the stories, then write them. The sub-editors decided on the fonts, type sizes, headlines and where it was put in the paper – the guys in the back shop did the rest.
Today, the back shops are no more, all those compositors, paste-up men and what not have vanished. The hacks still get the stories, but, the subs now have so-much to do, they can barely cope.
Also, today we have a new breed of desk managers who seem wedded to the internet. Once upon a time, to get the stories, the hacks had to get out and about, meet people, make contacts, talk to folk. Today, the desk managers seem to want their precious charges around them, surfing the net for stories.
I was just getting off the treadmill when this new form of news management began to surface. A lot of the news reporters, when they were allowed out of the office, had to book a taxi to wherever they were going, then, once they had got the story, get a taxi back.
Myself and another of my contemporaries, known in the office as Staetler and Waldort (the old guys in the Muppets), would, whenever possible, walk to our sources, then walk back. It was amazing how many other stories we got walking to and from the office and bumping into contacts.
There was an old hand on another local paper, whose week went something like this:
Monday – Into office, fill-in expenses until pub opens – head for pub.
Tuesday – Phone-in to confirm existence, do the rounds of police, pubs etc. Return to office at 4pm to tell Editor what he had got.
Wednesday – Type-up front page “splash”, pages 3, 4, 5 and 7 lead stories; retire to pub.
Thursday – Friday: Do an ad-feature, speak to local councillors and the MP, on Friday when he was up from London. Write stories as necessary.
That guy was priceless to that paper. Today, he’d never get in the door, and, if he did and was tied to a terminal, he’d go crackers and wreck the office.
So-many of today’s young journalists – if the story wasn’t handed to them on a plate, would be lost.
Nana says:
24 December, 2015 at 8:25 am
O/T links
“Just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation. If you include online and mobile readers, the situation isn’t that much better with five companies accounting for 80% of all consumption, online and offline.
This has led to Jeremy Corbyn calling for a change in the media. Corbyn has been on the receiving end of the hostile press”
Interesting how JC leaves out BBC change. Bomber Blair and Crash Gordon are both godparents to uncle Rupert’s children.
Scotland’s showing them all that democracy is more powerful than big money and relentless tory BBC propaganda. Probably more than 50% Scotland’s voters hate them because they’re sneaky cynical liars and that’s all we need for democracy to triumph, which it usually does, eventually.
Keep it up UKOK bullshit artists, Scottish democracy needs you.
Petra @ 3.06
Well said. I worked in Stirling for 10 years, and there were days I hardly heard a Scottish accent. The property in that area is sky high to most Scots, but very attractive to English folk getting more bang for their buck.
Valerie – That might explain why Stirling stayed Tory for so long. Very like posh Edinburgh! Areas where the locals have been pitched out to sighthill and Wester Hailes as they can’t afford to live in Murrayfield or Corstorphine.
I know what a real Edinburgh accent sounds like but you only hear it outside the city.
@jdman says: 24 December, 2015 at 8:35 am:
” … Are you mad?”
Well! Jdman, that is not the first time that particular idea has been suggested!
;-))
” stick oot an SOS next time you do something like that I’ve got a son able to do it.”
The point of being in my Jammies, was because there was no time to put anything else on. It needed instant action. It really was a case of stop the water fast or the ceiling was down. It has happened before.
A few years ago a crow had died sitting on the lum. Its body landed on the zinc behind the lum. This diverted the water running down the tiles up under the tiles and brought the ceiling down.
I have an old style, but good, VAX wet & dry vac. I cleared the gutter on the roof of muck and moss by hand, then inside used the VAX to suck the water from the ceiling paper bulge. VAXed the water up from the bedroom units and carpet and it hardly had time to soak in.
It saved a lot of water damage but it had to be done instantly or everything would have been ruined.
The roof isn’t high and I have a wee conservatory. So I can get on the roof with a just a step ladder, rather than by use of a normal ladder.
The plan is for my next door neighbour and myself to have the offending lums demolished and vents fitted. We each need only one lum each, (neither of which give bother), and remove the respective (bedroom), lums.
My neighbour is seeing to that being organized and we will share the costs. I had not known they had been having leaking lums too. Looks like it’s been a design fault.
Anyhow, thanks for the kind offer but, except for a rather sore neck and back, and the need to patch up the ceiling paper, things are now in hand.
It was not, though, a pleasant experience.
@ Nana 8.31 links on Britain as a Christian country
Anyone remember
“Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven any more
It’s already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like killing
No matter what the reason’s for.
Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven any more”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgRVNjsuycQ
Merry Christmas Mr Cameron!
@Socrates MacSporran says: 24 December, 2015 at 9:04 am:
“When I started in journalism, it was back in the “hot metal” days. All we hacks had to do was find the stories, then write them.”
Ah! Yes! Socrates, but back then they not only had, (largely anonymous), reporters, (cub reporters too), and named columnists.
The cubs did the local fairs, gymkhanas and galas. et al. The reporters sought out and wrote the news stories. The advertising desk did the Hatched, matched and dispatched and the columnists shaped the paper’s opinions while the editor gave the biased views of the owners.
Now they all just click on the News Agency website link and Cut & Paste the agency stories that fit the owner’s views.
O/T –
There’s a story in today’s Herald, with the headline,
“NHS Scotland set to face ‘significantly more pressure’ in 2016”.
For some strange reason, to illustrate a story about the NHS in Scotland, the Herald has seen fit to use a pic of the English NHS’s logo!
https://archive.is/yulOP
caz-m, look away now.
Anything SNP try to do drives SLabour wild with UKOK rage but the facts n shit of UK spending speak for themselves
From
https://archive.is/iQgOE
to
https://archive.is/77Cil
NO mention of their Scotland region but Fluffie Mundell was chuntering away this week about making Glasgow a global city, if we just shut up and go away
https://archive.is/DyPwO
Actualy Glasgow does get a one word mention.
@ Dave McEwan Hill& Sinky Agree …
Lets nail the impartial ‘porkies’spouted by Mr Howell shall we ?
http://www.votenoborders.co.uk/tags/scotland
http://wingsoverscotland.com/ironic-timing/
http://www.scotlandinunion.co.uk/who_will_really_stand_up_for_scotland_thoughts_of_a_moderate_provocateur
He spent a veritable fortune on ‘Vote No’ adverts all over the place; so he aint changing sides anytime soon.
Robert Peffers @ 10.33am.
Aye Robert, those were the days – when you learned the job, on the job, with block release to college for the technical stuff: shorthand and typing, Scots Law for journalists and so on.
Today, the wee dears go to University, and get their BA in English, then they go to post-graduate Journalism College, where they get bags of theory but, little practical education.
I well recall, working for a Trinity Mirror title; we got a Daily Record trainee sent to us for work experience. The first time our old-school Editor, legendary for his nuclear rants when on the Record news desk, asked him to: “get a collect”, the trainee looked at him as if he had been speaking Swalihi.
Then I got a minion who, for all the possession of a BA (Hons) degree in English, could not spell the most-basic of words, and had a greengrocer’s approach to apostrophes.
I wonder how they would have coped with my old head teacher, whose season ticket seat in the local football ground was just below the press box. He would, just occasionally, I got wise to this, remind me: “You split an infinitive in one of your pieces this week”.
Come on everyone!
Our First Minister requires another 178 signatures to reach her 100,000 target to stop bombing the innocents of Syria.
The number isn’t moving now and we cannot let her down when we have come so close.
Contact who you can to deliver this Xmas present for her.
http://www.snp.org/dont-bomb-syria?mc_cid=86a2a6caac&mc_eid=2ca6f3edb9
galamcennalath said at 5:49 pm yesterday:
“Don’t see anyone else highlighting this. Apologies if I messed it in a comment.
http://derekbateman.co.uk/2015/12/23/a-bridge-too-far/
Bateman also pointing out how the Corp Media / BBC spin every SNP/ SG story negatively by default.”
Here’s a short extract from the Derek Bateman article: “The BBC seems afflicted by the same disease of imagining that an event has no news value unless it is first contradicted by an opponent which in turns forms the basis of the coverage.”
A good short eye-opener from a restrained Mr Bateman.
Parasitic London sucking in the nation’s taxpayer money – according to BBC Breakfast there will be closures over the holiday to allow major work to take place on the £1Billion upgrade of London Bridge Station.
How much is being spent on just the upgrading of London’s mainline stations alone ignoring all the other vast expenditure on HS1, HS2, E-W Crossrail, N-S Crossrail, Jubilee Line etc.
Not forgetting the modernisation of the Tube reckoned to be costing 10s of Billions.
What sort of mugs do they take us to be for standing for this – it’s nothing but robbery of Scotland, Wales and the rest of England apart from the SE.
Gus1940,
I have been saying this for decades,
When I first started bringing this subject up in conversations, it was regarded as the ramblings of an
idiot.
I get the last laugh now, only its not that funny.
Gus & Gary , exactly.
All that type of spending has been going on for as long as I recall.
Q ,In England-shire, how much gets knocked back ? After all in these times of austerity , these expenditures are adding to OUR National debt.
Aye , better i gither .
What’s Ricky Tomlinson say “My ar$e !”
A shame about the intelectuals who have an aversion to tabloids. The National fills a gap in the market and yours truly will continue buying it in the New Year. Cutting your nose off to spite your face was never clever and the grand gesture of withholding their sixty pence is just pish.
Here’s to a bunch of holly in Jackie Baillie’s knickers!
K1,
“we ur aw Sovereign as has been explained ad nauseum (nae offence Robert) by Robert Peffers.”
Our “sovereignty” is not worth the paper it is written on.
A Scottish dog is more “sovereign” than a Scot.
If we don’t accept that, we are too stupid to be independent.
Robert Peffers can shout about his “sovereignty” from the rooftops. He is pissing against the wind.
Wings is like reading the Brit media in ‘safe mode’.
Hi Rock.
If a MAJORITY of Sovereign Scots had voted YES last year, would Scotland be declaring independence in March 2016?
If a MAJORITY of Sovereign Scots indicate a wish for IndyRef2, will it take place?
If a MAJORITY of Sovereign Scots vote for independence in IndyRef2, will Scotland become an independent country?
You don’t seem to get that a MAJORITY of Sovereign Scots is required to carry out any course of action. That is why UDI is dead in the water. What we need is a MAJORITY for independence, then it will happen.
Try and have a merry Christmas!
Gus 1940
Not just closures at London Bridge, but Waterloo East, Cannon Street and Charing Cross Stations too. from tonight to 04 January. This redevelopment has been going on since 2013.
London Bridge is being totally redeveloped, at what cost I do not know???
Love, Peace and Hope to Everybody. 🙂
Colin Colquhoun @ 6.46 pm.
The figure being widely quoted is £1 billion Colin.
Merry Christmas everybody, although it doesn’t sound very cheery here as we contemplate the media yet again. I think the editorial change at the National has been to it’s detriment. I’ve supported it since day one but I think the writing is on the wall. I have no desire to contribute to a news organisation that doesn’t actually want a pro independence paper if they continue to sabotage it’s chances. It’s all very depressing that all we get from the established media is an organised campaign to attack everything that people actually voted for.
This is a wee test too as for some reason I haven’t been able to post for a bit for resons beyond my ken.