A difficulty with facts
We’ve been observing for some time now that Scottish Labour deputy “leader” Kezia Dugdale has something of a tendency for making claims with a pious, strident conviction that’s in directly inverse proportion to how true they are.
And as we DO like to get our facts straight before we run around asserting things, allow us to illustrate our point with a case study.
Above is a tweet made by Ms Dugdale last night to SNP candidate Natalie McGarry. In her characteristic style it’s categorical and insistent. But is it true?
Fortunately, the reasoning and mechanics by which the Scottish Government (then controlled by Labour and the Lib Dems) came to replace tuition fees with a graduate endowment are well documented, and summarised very plainly and concisely by a Guardian article from January 2000. We reproduce extracts from it below.
What were Cubie’s main recommendations?
Tuition fees were to be replaced by a Scottish graduate endowment scheme, whereby the Scottish executive paid the fees and students would be required to pay £3,000 of it back when their earnings reached £25,000 a year.How much of the report has been [accepted] by the Scottish executive?
The executive has agreed to abolish up-front tuition fees and has announced a replacement graduate scheme similar to Cubie’s proposals. Students will now pay back £2,000, not £3,000, but repayments will start once their earnings reach just £10,000, which is significantly less than the average national wage and a long way off Cubie’s £25,000.”
Despite what Kezia Dugdale claims, the graduate endowment, according to the Cubie report, was EXPRESSLY intended as a (partial) repayment of fees, which at the time were £1000 a year, or £4000 for a standard four-year Scottish degree.
Labour had introduced fees in 1998, then effectively halved – rather than abolished – them two years later. The endowment looks so small compared to current fees that it’s easy to overlook that when it was introduced it still amounted to backdated fees at 50% of the previous level.
When Labour took power in 1997 students in Scotland had to pay nothing for a degree. Three years later they were paying £2000, but Labour had somehow managed to paint that as being an abolition rather than an imposition. And then in 2008, when the SNP brought forward a bill to end the graduate endowment and thereby genuinely abolish Labour’s tuition fees, Labour (and the Tories) voted against it.
As for “slashing” bursaries, it’s true that they were substantially reduced in 2014 under austerity cuts. But the Scottish Government’s annual investment in tuition, grants and bursaries (ie excluding loans) has risen under the SNP from £50m a year in 2000 to over £305m, a huge real-terms increase partly explained by the record numbers of students who went on to enrol in Scottish universities after the abolition of fees.
(Even though the BBC had reported in 2008 that “Labour education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin claimed ministers had ‘failed miserably’ to produce persuasive evidence that scrapping the charge would increase the numbers going to university”.)
In other words, Dugdale’s comments are almost entirely at odds with the truth. We wish that was a phrase we didn’t have to use quite so often.
‘In other words, Dugdale’s comments are almost entirely at odds with the truth. We wish that was a phrase we didn’t have to use quite so often.’
On the contrary, I wish we could use it much more often.
Kezia Dugdale, “Never knowingly accurate”
[…] We’ve been observing for some time now how that Scottish Labour deputy “leader” Kezia Dugdale has something of a tendency for making claims with a pious, irritable stridency that’s in directly inverse proportion to how true they are. […]
Hey, ignorant and mendacious people need representation too, you know!
poor dug canny help but stick her foot in her mouth all the time poor soul
To be fair to DeputyDug she is probably too young to remember what happened in 2000.
Maybe she gets her informationfrom the Record. That would explain a lot.
The “It was widely reported” excuse.
I think this speaks volumes about the suitability of Kezia to the post of Deputy, and also to that of Labour as a governing party. Can anyone imagine Salmond or Sturgeon being caught out in such an obvious untruth? Kezia lashes out from a faulty memory; Alec delivered killer blows from an exceptional memory backed by excellent briefings, as does Nicola (albeit whilst wearing a more velvet glove). Kezia has a lot of maturing to do, and Labour need a major attitude adjustment – hopefully forthcoming on May 7th.
Just to be clear; I have a lot of sympathy with the Labour party of old. I voted for Blair in 1997 genuinely believing “the good guys” were going to change things. During the course of the indyref I quickly realised that the SNP had taken on the mantle of the Left, and that it was the only party capable of governing. I’m not a “natural Nat”, one might say – like Jim Sillars, it took me a long time to conclude that independence is the only way.
But there’s a bigger picture, and a long term view. We NEED Labour to get its act together. Scotland cannot be adequately represented by one hugely dominant party – no matter how well-intentioned. We need effective opposition to ensure that minority voices are heard. As much as I anticipate GE2015 and the prospect of Labour getting annihilated as just deserts for abandoning their roots and taking on Tory policies, I also look forward to Labour being reborn as the party it was always supposed to be; the one that represented “the rest of us”. A necessary part of that rebirth is getting shot of the Red Tories in its ranks, and “re-educating” those that can be saved; Kezia may yet be one of the latter, but only time will tell.
All going well with the “Yes alliance” plans to send a small army of SNP southward, hopefully that process of demolishing Blair’s dubious legacy and reinstating some centre-left principals will begin.
She (Dugdale) isn’t too bright, it would seem, though it may just be the blinding hatred of the SNP that’s blunting her intellect.
She shoots.. She scores.. She’s brilliant eh.
I know I sometimes open my mouth and talk shit afore I think, but then I’m not the deputy leader of the opposition.
Go on yir’sel Kezia.. Just you keep putting your dainty size 7’s in your mouth at the same time. Lol.
Thing is, she openly admits to being drafted into Labour after going along to a local meeting on a whim.
“I was unemployed for a long time. I couldn’t even get an interview. It was the same for my flat-mate who was involved with Labour, so we’d have these long chats and she said I should join as it represented what I believed in. So I did. The first meeting I went to I ended up leaving as constituency secretary.”
(That all happened, I believe, in 2011.)
link to edinburghnews.scotsman.com
For one thing it explains her hamfisted ineptitude; for another it illustrates perfectly the abominable condition of Labour’s grassroots that they will grab literally anyone with a passing interest to be an office bearer. You’d expect that of your local allotments’ administrative committee, not the supposedly pre-eminent political organisation in Scotland.
No longer to be pitied, as opposed to scolded.
She represents an embarrassment of riches for anyone seeking evidence of the absolutely pathetic level of competency that currently stalks the corridors of the northern branch.
Stunning how shite Labour actually are, literally stunning. I’m Stunned (capital S). Anyone else share my stunnedness?
Kezia Dugdale, from Wiki … “went on to study Law at the University of Aberdeen from 1999 to 2003, then completed a Masters in Policy Studies at the University of Edinburgh.”
Sounds like she’s intelligent … presumably with skills to remember and appraise facts. So, when she tweets statements like that above, she must surely appreciate that it’s not quite based on reality? Rewrites history, makes it up as she goes along, assumes others won’t challenge … intentionally, presumably.
Shame she’s not an MP with May GE looming!
At least nobody can accuse her of being a career politician.
Instead of hogwash, her comments are dugwash.
Oh well all dugs in Scotland to be micro-chipped soon that’ll help her if she strays too far from labour branch office and gets lost.
PS:
Had to go out so missed the ID debate but heard the Lib/Dem amendment was successful.
MSPs voted in favour of a motion by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie for the proposals to undergo full parliamentary scrutiny, by 65 to 60.
————————
I’m OK with that.
BUSTED! Oh dear, oh dear – Kesia Dugdale exposed as serial dissembler! Who’da thunk it?
Mind you, those less charitable than you or me would aver she and the truth were never well acquainted.
To be fair to Ms Dugdale, it is an understandable confusion because the legislation which introduced the endowment does indeed specify that it be used for student support. Student support is defined as “allowances for living costs” and “loans”. In the event graduate endowment did not pay fees, no matter what the recommendation was in the first place
However she is not correct in saying that this budget has been slashed, so far as I can tell. The consultation paper prior to abolition addresses the failure of the endowment to deliver what was expected; the deterrent effect of increased debt on student applications; and how student support will be maintained following abolition
link to gov.scot
The Abolition act expressly provides that the abolition must not adversely affect student support, in line with the proposals in the consultation paper
link to legislation.gov.uk
Erratum: “
KesiaKezia Dugdale exposed . . . ”Least I could have done is spell her name correctly. My profound apologies to the serial dissembler, Ms Dugdale.
I do sometimes wonder if people like Dugdale, are typical of many in the Labour Scottish branch. Is it that they have been fed these lies, and without checking, have genuinely believed them up to now? Or is it deliberate attempts to lie to the electorate? Is it just unadulterated group think, where somebody says something, and without checking they all automatically believe it?
Dugdale utters this demonstrable tripe (the same as she did in her steel sniping, recently) with such conviction and regularity, you do wonder, is she an accomplished liar or has she just fallen for a pack of lies straight out of McTernan’s mouth?
Think you better get use to using that phrase Rev, several times daily by how the Scottish branch are playing it.
It’s the ‘fyi’ at the end that says it all for me. A silly, petulant child. One of Labour’s shining lights too. Wow!
Surely the Scottish Government could bring in a law whereby politicians could be convicted for telling lies?
If we really want honesty in our government, then why is there no moves to bring forward such a law?
Who would oppose it?
BrianW says:
4 March, 2015 at 5:55 pm
She shoots.. She scores.. In her own goal. She’s brilliant eh.
There Brian. Fixed that fir yi.
Some say yi couldnay mak it up – but labour fukn do.
aww, deputy dug…
She was probably still in school when all this took place so we mustn’t be mean to her.
Here’s a piece from somebody who’s actually still in school.
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk
Compare and contrast.
Fiona says:
“To be fair to Ms Dugdale,”
Oh Fiona, ma ribs!
🙂
__________________
I know, i know, as thoughts go, this one’s truly way out there, but does anyone think she could be our man on the inside?
😉
@RogueCoder
I’m a natural Labour voter who was also an emotional ScotNat DevoMaxer due to what I thought was inadequate info, McCrone not having been declassified. But there is no law in the universe that says it is SLAB who has to rise to challenge the SNP, the Greens and the SSP could get their acts together off the back of their increased memberships too and of course people could also go back to a properly Scottish Conservative but not unionist party as an alternative. With the SNP parking so many tanks on Labour’s lawn there is only to the right of them to go to and the Tories are already there.
Shorn of Thatcherism and back to their roots after Independence the Tories could do quite well. So that is three parties vs the SNP. Labour may need to exist in your worldview but I’m afraid the universe, history and other countries (I’ve seen parties disappear in NZ and rise from nothing into a governing coalition). After Independence we will be living in interesting times similar to after we changed the voting system from FPTP to MMP in NZ. Sacred cows are for sacrificing remembering.
Is this not an example of #SLab doing the ‘Truther’ thing that exercises D’Mouthof Sauron’H so much?
Hang on – it can’t be, this is a vile cybernat blog, you are obviously distorting things Stu.
No, I’ve checked, you and Natalie are right. Perhaps we should invite Double-Standards Hatesemall to comment?
Here Kezia, let me just Google that.
Aye, shite again.
Serious question. Do they not have researchers, or are they just not using them. I remember the stooshie about the ad for 9 part-time officers for the run up to the election. Is there no-one there capable of using Google?
Here we go again. ole dippity dug opening her mouth and letting her belly rumble.
Dear oh dear lassie, did naebody teach you how to check facts. Naw jist the SLAB way, heid doon and charge in.
I’ve telt ye afore, before opening mooth, engage brain. This is the deputy leader of the north britain accounting unit.
Oh aye, and anither thing hen, GROW UP.
Sorry Folks O/T.
WM letting the banks away with it as usual. Copied from RT
“Business as usual? HSBC must clean up its own affairs, says Chancellor Osborne”
Ossy looking after his buddies again while his tv station and loyal rags attack anyone trying to make a change for the better. The government have know about HSBC tax aviodance since 2010.
[…] A difficulty with facts […]
@ chic thomson
I suspect they have nobody at all
Everyone I know who used to be active in the labour party has left it in disgust. I suspect that they have very few willing to work for them, and of the two folk and a dug they have, only two of them can google.
With a record like New Labour to defend it must be bloody hard work for Kezia to dig anything positive out to talk about. Making shit up is undoubtedly a damn sight easier than defending tuition fees, PFI or invading Iraq.
Well what do you know wee Kezia Dugdale shouting from the rooftops … AGAIN *YAWN* … about her ability to speak whilst chewing her foot at the same time. 😀
Just a wee off side query here but anyone know who the Labour *ahem* competitor is on tomorrow night’s Question Time? 😛
If anyone has no idea might I suggest a wee look at the tweet we are *ahem* discussing here! 😉
@ wee jonny 06:20pm
“She shoots.. She scores.. In her own goal.”
Now see, why didn’t I bloody think of that – see.. me opening my mooth (well typing this time) afore i think about it..
Far better wee jonny and sums up whit Ms Dugdale has done.
Cheers.
Dugdale is spouting the Labour line. Iain Grey came out with the same quote and they are pushing the fairy tale that they abolished student fees when what they did was re-jig it to call it something else. If you went through University, you had to pay for the privilege. What they did with the money is beside the point.
That first Scottish Parliament contained Sarah Boyack, Susan Deacon, Wendy Alexander and Pauline McNeill, all of whom were senior office bearers in Labour Students and/or NUS in the 1980s. They turned their backs on everything that they had previously argued for whilst in those positions when they a d their
I wish she had taken the BBC Sunday morning gig, Crossfire.
We would have been able to take her and the BBC to the cleaners with all the misinformation (lies).
After Kezia’s tweet a couple of days ago, I recommended that McTernan bans her from Twitter but I’ve had second thoughts since.
Leave her where she is because we enjoy pointing out these ‘foot in mouth’ moments from her. We’d have nothing to do without them 🙂
As for she’s only young-that’s crap. She draws a salary as a politician so she should act like one. Oh look she is doing just that-A LABOUR POLITICIAN.
She’s exactly the same as the rest of SLAB. May 2016 is not far away & she like the others will be up for election. Hang on to your memories voters you’re going to need them 🙂
I have no difficulty accepting that anything that comes out Dugdale’s mouth is a load of fcuking creepy lies and distortions.
Just like Scrambled Murphy’s poisonous muck.
The thing is they’ve done more to push folk to the SNP than anybody else.
Long may it continue(May 7th will do for me!)
Scotland’s governed by the BBC and 30 odd papers, so this women’s just one more sock pocket although creepy Murphy’s more of a sock puppeteer. He’s the man alright. Even BBC World Service had Murphy slime out soft but sexy only one union for Scotland now shtick, come together under Murphy and SLab, feel his love, manly, firm, gentle, very early one morn last week I just threw up a bit in my mouth.
We can chuckle all we want, but Jackie Bird will still report her every word to the hard of thinking.
I don’t know if anyone has seen the latest Ashcroft polls for Scotland but I am stunned. It is easy to say where someone other the SNP has a lead and that is 1 seat – East Renfrewshire and he only has a one per cent lead. Going to have a lie down! Amazing – I know it is only a poll. 7 weeks to go before the postal votes go out though.
Re a future for Labour in an Independent Scotland.
As my old friend, the Rev Ian Paisley,since deceased, said on more than one occasion –
‘Never! Never! Never!
link to youtube.com
You lot are Bad!
She was still at school when all this happened, and her Mum doesn’t let her read in bed when she could be catching up on things.
It is complicated this Facts and Truth malarkey, especially when
Labour can expel you for dabbling in these uncharted waters.
You know I don’t think she does could manage this level of consistent cock ups without the help of an expert?
Fud Smurphy holds the crown for political foot in mouth, and we haven’t heard so many of his false promises lately.
Could Dippity Dug be acting as a stooge for Smurph??
If the Krankies are think about retiring, this pair have got it made. Does anyone know John Barrowman’s e-mail address, as they
really should be practicing for their Panto in May
RogueCoder
A Natural labour voter?…how long back are we looking for defining labour here? im 46 and I cant remember anything after Michael Foot as decent Labour people with a decent socialist message!
Labour now remind me of that gallus Uncle who played fitbaw with you as a child. Oh you thought how swanky he was, how charming at family parties. Then you grow up and hear how he messed your lovely Aunty about and you now wish she had divorced him years ago and saved so many years of grief in the false hope he would change.
To be honest I don’t know what is funnier here, this tweet from the Labour *ahem* deputy leader or the idea that Margaret “Stairheid rammy” Curran blocked Tris from Munguins Republic over the idea that there was a Labour M.P. called Gisela Stewart, someone that she denies exists.
That would be THIS person then Margaret who does NOT exist. 😀
link to archive.today
If anyone mentions Fifi Le BonBon we may end up with this…
link to tinyurl.com
Aberdeen Council to leave COSLA + three other labour councils to follow soon. That sounds par for the course.
SNP = bad.
PS
Footie link
Take your pick:
Includes St Johnstone V Celtic.
CET = Central European Time 19:45 hrs our time.
link to myp2p.ec
Early results from Lord Ashcroft today..
He polled eight Scottish constituencies, 5 Labour, 2 LibDem and the Con seat.
Results are:
Ross Skye and Lochaber (21.5% swing to SNP)
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk – too close to call (13% swing to SNP)
Edinburgh SW (SNP 13% ahead)
W Aberdeen to SNP (25% swing)
Kirkcaldy/Cowdenbeath to SNP (6% ahead)
East Renfrewshire –Labour by 1%
Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock SNP (swing 20%)
Dumfries & Galloway SNP (swing 20%)
OT Have a wee look at tonight’s Ashcroft poll [ScotgoesPop].
@ Fiona @ chic thomson
Kezia IS a researcher! At least she was taken on by George Foulkes to be his researcher. She also did a Masters in Policy Studies at Edinburgh (wikipedia).
So if she can’t research the actuality – who can?
O/T
Fiona
If you’re still here, I haven’t had an email via Stu so I can’t phone you. Did you use the email facility on the Contact page? That works pretty quickly & your email disappears once you press submit so it’s completely private.
Oh jeez, here I go again. 🙂
I’ve just been alerted over on twitter to this wee poll result from Lord Ashcroft. 😉
link to lordashcroftpolls.com
You can check out your own constituency here. 😛
link to lordashcroftpolls.com
@Brian Nicholson
Thanks for the info.
Surely shome mistake! Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath!!
All my old relatives will be burling in Kirk of Beath cemetery.
🙂
Personally, there are times I do feel sorry for the poor lass. She is obviously floundering in a job that has probably come 10 years to quick, and without having any experience in real governance of a nation. The reasons for Kezia’s blunders may come down to naivety, rather than out-right stupidity, and the reasons for it, come down to other factors…
1. She is being told information …that is actually misinformation. This is not being done deliberately by her advisors. I believe that simply put, the advisor’s advising her are themselves just wholly not that good at their job. They are either not investigating deeply enough to find the facts, or they truly don’t understand what it is they are analysing. Is the information just to gobbledy-gook for them to understand? More to the point, does Kezia really need an old past-master around her, to tell her what it is she really needs to know?
2. The media! Our wonderful biased media! Who hates the SNP more? Labour or the Media …but if Kezia’s advisors are taking their information from the likes of the BBC, the Record, the Sun, The Scotsman, and believing it to be ‘gospel’, then it is absolutely no wonder that she is being fed drivel.
3. Jim Murphy. Question is …how often do they chat? And is he advising her? If he is …then like his own soundbites, mad ideas, and past record over these last couple of months, then it is no wonder Kezia is getting it wrong. Her ‘Boss’ is literally a walking car crash himself. With no real ‘father figure’ to guide her (remember, she is young at 33 to be the Leader of a major Party in Scotland), then she really is in charge of the rudderless SS SLAB.
4. The Labour Party themselves. How many of the Labour MSP’s are actually helping her? (surely there must be someone in Holyrood on the Labour benches who must know what the hell is going on and can help her) Surely, one of them must be capable of telling her, ‘look, we know you’re a bit green around the edges when it comes to this, but we will help you out.’ In fact! it is in their absolute best interests to help her out!! They’re all facing annihilation in a year’s time if they don’t! A floundering party, with a floundering leader …just does not inspire. People will vote the entire Scottish Labour Party OUT of Holyrood if they continue in avoiding helping Kezia.
5. Kezia jumps in without thinking. This is probably her biggest weakness. In trying to project a sense of authority and confidence, there are times her tweets might hold a grain of truth, but they also contain grains of mistakes. This is a skill that she really needs to learn quickly, or it will leave her looking like Murphy. And these days …who believes he’s the voice of authority? …Exactly!
Personally, there are times I feel sorry for her. She is being thrown under a bus …but it is by her own side. And I think they are so blinkered in their hatred of the SNP, that they can’t see that they have damaged their new leader, and potentially, could be endangering themselves. This will all be remembered come the 2016 elections.
@capella
So if she can’t research the actuality – who can?
Anyone competent and not blinded by hatred of SNP (BAD BAD BAD!)
Our day shall come!
@ Lollysmum
I did do that, I think. I am not really sure what I am doing but that is what I thought I did. Perhaps I messed it up 🙁
Thanks for the link Lesley Anne. Just looked up my constituency, Aberdeenshire West and Kincaridine. Joy! Swing from Lib Dem to SNP 20.5% giving them a wide margin win. Something I never expected to see as this constituency was likely to go Tory.
Alex Massie on the Ashcroft polls;
link to blogs.spectator.co.uk
Ashcroft has Murphy with 1 percent lead in his constituency and Brown’s falling to Snp.
54 of 59 seats to Snp.
Steady, people. This is just a poll and we are quite a way from the election yet.
I have reached the point were I can no longer make any meaningful analysis or comment as to the current state of Scottish labour. After almost 4 years of watching this party become a swivel eyed goon, I can only conclude that at some stage the party was inserted up Satan’s Butthole, and decided to stay there.
Is there a future for the Labour Party in an Independent Scotland?
Let’s not be too hasty about this.
Perhaps we should look to the practice of other countries
and learn from them.
Norway – our nearest neighbour – is there an anti-Norway party in the Norwegian Parliament. No.
Denmark – another near neighbour – is there an anti-Denmark party in the Danish Parliament. No.
Now, you’re a bright lot, so I won’t quote you every country in Europe.
I’m sure you all get the point.
Why on earth, would Scotland have an anti-Scotland party,
as Labour is, in the Scottish Parliament.
Anymore than we would want an anti-Scotland National Broadcaster , as the BBC is.
Or an anti-Scottish Press.
Or an anti-Scottish anything.
Even an anti-Scottish anybody.
Nobody emigrates to Canada or Australia, if they are completely anti these countries and their independent status.
Let’s just be like everybody else –
except the English.
“I was unemployed for a long time. I couldn’t even get an interview. It was the same for my flat-mate who was involved with Labour, so we’d have these long chats and she said I should join as it represented what I believed in. So I did. The first meeting I went to I ended up leaving as constituency secretary.”
We have to look at the upside.She joined Labour instead of taking a job. Perhaps hundreds of people have remained in employment as this prevented a good company going to the wall.
At least she has had the experience of being unemployed for a long time. This should assist her to adjust next year.
Perhaps acting would be an option as the ability to deceive people is an attribute…cue nurse dugdale
£91,010
Well done all (2425 it says)
Every time Dippity opens her mouth she knows exactly what she’s saying
It’s just up to everybody else to make her responsible for it
Does anyone feel sorry for Stairheid? i don’t think so
Dippity is just an apprentice Stairheid
Let’s not allow her to become time served and get her papers
@ Clootie
That quote is the one that makes me angriest with this woman. She joined a party which subscribes to the view that there is no such thing as involuntary unemployment and supports the benefits regime imposed by those who might charitably be admitted to know no better since they don’t teach that stuff at Eton.
Freaking Scrounger!!!
Ashcroft Poll.
Danny Alexander’s a gonner. 21% LD to 50% SNP
Sweet.
@Fiona
Och! I was getting mildly euphoric there…but your right!
Even had Lonnie Donegan ‘The party’s over’ ready to play.. 🙁
Be back later, off to the footie site.
She is either trying to be too smart for her own good, or she’s thick as mince. You decide.
@Lesley Anne –
A wonderful poll result for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock. Historically a very weird constituency due to the high tory vote in Ayr and before the change when it was Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley we were dominated by Labour and the Baron von Pishedup Foulkesake.
The SNP have a wonderful candidate for us and I really hope she can oust Sandra Osborne. Sandra’s not a bad person but she just toes the party line and it’s party first for her. Also her husband was with Creepy Jim in Ayr when he didn’t answer that wee wummins question.
SNP candidate is Corri Wilson, currently an SNP councillor in Lab\Con South Ayrshire… go Corri 😀
link to corriwilson.scot
I’m sorry folks but having seen the Lord Ashcroft polling result for the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat I just could not help myself. 😀
Honest! 😉
link to youtube.com
Reading Lord Ashcrofts constituency polls,
Labour big guns – north and south of the Border – will have a very sick feeling in their gut.
LibDems too.
WOW, just f’n WOW!
Just watch the dirty tricks ramp up exponentially now. The State Broadcaster will go into meltdown.
I expect today’s polls will bring more hostile media coverage of the Scottish Government by electronic and print media right up to polling day. Doesn’t seem to be working.
The latest Ashcroft constituency polls in No areas are a revelation. It looks like the SNP surge is across the board.
There will be a few worried brows tonight in Labour, liberal and Tory ranks.
manandboy says:
Ashcroft Poll.
Danny Alexander’s a gonner. 21% LD to 50% SNP
Sweet.
______
Funded by SNP Government.
😉
Fiona says:
Steady, people. This is just a poll and we are quite a way from the election yet.
Yes it is only a poll Fiona but surely you have realised by now that whenever we see a set of polls that show such amazing figures such as these then we all love nothing more than doing a wee Glee dance at the expence of Broon, Murphy et al. 😛
The real test for all of us is to keep pushing right up till the polls close on May 7th. Only then when the results show what I believe will be a convinving routing of Labour in Scotland can we really let our hair down, for those of us who have hair 😉 , and party like there is no tomorrow. 😀
Until the 8th of May arrives it is noses to the grind stones and push, push, push all the way. 🙂
@ Lesley-Anne
Och I know, but I am Scottish so I expect disappointment. I am genetically programmed for it…but I look forward to being astonished in May ;P
Guys, I need some help.
If you could ask one succinct question to a panel with a Labour Representative, someone from the Biased Broadcasting Corporation, and possibly another from the Daily Rancid, what would you ask them to explain or accuse them of?
I could haunt them for an hour plus, but I’ll be lucky if I get one brief moment to slap their faces?
GrahamB, Marcia and others I agree the BBC and print media will go into overdrive like never before to drive us all back into our wee boxes and vote Labour in May.
However, there is one thing in the electoral equation that THEY can not fight and that is the way they treated us all in the lead up to, and beyond, the referendum. They all lied out of their skins to their hearts content without so much as a query. Now however, the people of Scotland have awoken, big time in my view, and they now realise, especially a lot of NO voters, just how badly they were LIED to.
Consequently, no matter how hard the BBC and other media try to push us all back into our boxes we aint going back! In fact, I think, this media frenzy that we are all about to endure could work in our favour. 😛
As a result of everyone opening their eyes to how badly we were treated last year I think there will NOT be a resurgence of Labour, Tory or even Lib Dem between now and May 7th. I believe we, the electorate of Scotland, have these three parties by the short and curlies and we are NOT letting go. They don’t like it, it hurts like hell for them and there is nothing they can do about it! 😀
Regarding the polls. Come the day, we either grow a pair and let them know we’re going nowhere, or we bottle it, and sit back in the corner. You decide.
I keep thinking that these polls cannot possibly be accurate but as each new one turns up I’m starting to get the wonderful, euphoric feeling that they might well be.
@ Effijy
Would it be of interest to ask them to detail the contacts they have had with each other over the last, say, 3 months? And ask them how that compares with their contacts with other political parties, in the case of the media representatives, and with their constituents in the case of the politician?
I think there’s every chance SNP will take Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath. Years of bad management by Labour has seen a once thriving town ruined by council decisions. They hold consultations, then ignore public input and do what they want.
The recent by election victory for the SNP in Kirkcaldy East,(despite Brown’s support) was a sign that the people have had enough.
With regard to some of the comments about ‘old’ labour, I remember my Grandad back in the 1960’s, cursing labour councillors. He didn’t have a good word to say about them. For him, they were a self serving, self important bunch of moneygrabbers.
Perhaps after we get rid of them from Westminster and Holyrood, we can start to clear out the councils as well
Lesley-Anne
That’s the shot of the day for me L-A.
Brilliant!
John Munro says:
I keep thinking that these polls cannot possibly be accurate but as each new one turns up I’m starting to get the wonderful, euphoric feeling that they might well be.
Aye I know what you mean John. You are not alone in feeling like that. However, what gives us all a wee bit more hope and belief than normal is that the Lord Ashcroft polling results are generally pretty acurate. 😛
I stand ready to be shot down in flames by those in the know. 😉
“I was unemployed for a long time. I couldn’t even get an interview. It was the same for my flat-mate who was involved with Labour, so we’d have these long chats and she said I should join as it represented what I believed in. So I did. The first meeting I went to I ended up leaving as constituency secretary.”
Did I not liken Unionism to an STD, spread through close personal contact? 🙂
I love Kez, she’s worse than Jlo. I look forward to every tweet/quote.
I particularly liked her error strewn response to the Scottish steel tweet.
Keep it up Kez.
@rigmac7 6.03
I too am stunned but with the ‘s’ in lower case. Not sure if that helps put your own stunnedness into perspective.
????
Rigmac7
Sorry, but I go over my STUND-NESS a long time ago, even though I was THAT stunned. 🙂
received an e-mail tonight from a friend in sheltered housing, seems there’s a rumour doing the rounds that SNP have sold Scottish Water to Anglian water, I know this is rubbish but these stories will have to be countered.
Its now clear that operation scare is now running and will get worse, I just hope they over-egg the pudding to the point of absurdity.
Re them poll results.
Um – perhaps the Scottish electorate is determined to save the rest of the UK.
Re Ashcroft. They are going to panic in the opposition. Please, again I urge you all. Get down to your local SNP Hub and help. They need canvassers. They need leaflet delivery people. Any time you can spare. The more people who help the more work can be done. Don’t just dream about 59 seats, help to get as close to that as possible.
Most local authorities have banned the lamppost posters since Labour had to spend so much hiring folk to put them up last year. If you support the SNP, and especially if you are on a main road or bus route, please ask the local party for a poster to display in your window. Was there ever such a glorious sight last August as the Yes posters in all those windows on the Royal Mile?
Your country really does need you. Volunteer.
Paula Rose
.. the Scots electorate determined to save the rest of the UK
If our independence proves an example for others to follow
that’s up to them.
Scotland might have a mountain to climb alright,
but nobody said anything about being roped together.
Fifi the ‘old woman’ who astonishably, always got first post on a website. Until a researcher became a list MSP. Silence. The FK sugar daddy and the naive researcher. The three day rant about Megrahi. Until it became apparent Brown supported the release. Silence. A right wee twisted bag.
A naive Green is backing Williy’s Young attempts to destroy Aberdern city centre. Without the support it would not be happening, wasting £millions of public money. Policy,’he wants Madonna to appear in the city’. The majority wishes Willy would disappear from the scene. Willie’s friend gives £k’s to the Labour Party and has no trouble with planning issues.
Manandboy – You say can anyone imagine a country with anti -country parties in its parliament?
Catalonia has 3 anti-Catalan parties in its parliament, soon to be 3 and a half. Including:
– Socialists – federalists but since this is a hopeless cause, effectively unionists
– Conservatives – virulant unionists, current Spanish governing party, actively opposed to all differential features in Catalan culture
– Citizens’ party, foundational aim of combating not just Catalan independence but the Catalan language and culture
– Podemos, (new) the new-born far left party that favours the right to decide provided Catalans decide to stay in Spain
(also the Greens who are federalist but confused)
Sorry folks, got a bit carried away – the Socialists and the Greens are not anti-Catalan but anti-independence. The rest stands.
O/T Have you seen this, Stu?
link to boards.footymad.net
Oh, dear.
It’s time Kezia’s Dear Old Dad took her aside and told her what’s what.
As in, “Kezia, yir tea’s oot.”
Sorry for going O/T here but folks may recall the recent newspaper sales figures being announced. Well here is a wee interpretation of these figures. Well to be exact one particular set of figures … for the Scotsman. 😉
link to scot-buzz.co.uk
It turns out that of the 26,783 daily sales not all 26,783 are actually *ahem* sold.
2,462 are copies given away free to hotels, trians and airlines etc
6,934 are sold at below the full cover cost
Now I’m no accountant but surely selling 16,000 or so Scotsman’s a day can NOT be profitable surely?
What brings this even stronger into the light, I think, is the proof that the Times sells 13,472 at its full cover price. Eho would have thunk that?
I think we are almost at the point where the Times sells MORE papers a day at FULL price than the Scotsman!
Johnston Press, the owner of The Scotsman, continues to struggle with £180 million of debt despite a re-financing deal last year, and is desperately trying to reshape its newspapers into digital businesses.
But they prefer what seems like never-ending rounds of redundancies and cost-cutting instead of real investment in journalism which, you would think, must be at the heart of what they are trying to achieve.
Oh good grief.
Yet again.
It may be prudent for Ms Dugdale to avoid tweeting…
… anything, ever.
On the other hand it is proving rather useful, not to mention entertaining. 🙂
manandboy says:
Lesley-Anne
That’s the shot of the day for me L-A.
Brilliant!
Frequently doffed hat doffed yet again. 😀
Marga – I did say any other country in Europe.
Catalonia doesn’t qualify as a country – as everyone on here knows,
and my whole point alluded to life post Independence for Scotland.
We must compare like with like.
@ Lesley-Anne
link to lordashcroftpolls.com
SNP 34%
Con 30%
Lab 28%
Go get em Arb. 🙂
My, that Ashcroft for Kirkcaldy + Cowdenbeath is something else again. Apart from 4 years 1931-5 Kirkcaldy has been Labour since 1923 ie you have got to be over 90 to remember when Kirkcaldy wasn’t normally Labour and over 80 to remember anything but Labour.
I think its suggesting a 28% swing ( SNP 6% this time Labour 50% last time, all divided by 2? ) which is the stuff of mid term bye elections not a General Election.
If it doesn’t happen I’m blaming Robert Peffers and John King 😀
The commercial division of Scottish water was privatised (sold) in 2005 (pre SNP) by a consensus in Holyrood. (10 years ago). It is possible Anglian Water will get the three? year maintenance contract. EU Law says govs have to accept the lowest contract, all things considered.
@effijy
Given the chance i always thought a good question might be
“Would you support a law that criminalised a Politician or Broadcaster found to have lied to the Electorate in order to subvert the free will of Democracy”
Based on the repetition of untruths spoken with certainty, false facts, and fabrications, the collective intellectual understanding of Labour in Scotland of their own policies, never mind past parliamentary business, is shockingly low to the point of pig ignorant.
We are back to the early days of the reinstated Parliament when observers expressed alarm and distaste at what they saw as brash and bruising ‘Stoneyburn coonsillors’ bumping into walls, hence our most famous comic’s infamous remark, “Holyrood is jist a pretendy parliament.”
Years on, riding high in the saddle and digging spurs in hard, Labour’s self-awareness is still an unknown quality. Their arrogance tells us they don’t give a damn either way.
Their motto:
Better a falsehood believed than a truth that reflects badly on Labour.
Lord Ashcroft’s Constituency Polls are dream inducing,
in the way that a big win on Euromillions
sets the imagination going like feathers in the wind.
I dream of Danny Alexander on the dole.
I dream of Wee Dougie at the therapist asking
‘What did ah do wrong?’.
And Wendy on the phone sayin’ ‘Now ye know whut it feels like.’
Imagine Magrit Curran, girnin’ ‘n greetin’.
And Johanne Lamont comes on the phone an’ says
‘Magrit, it’s over, hen.
Noo shut the f*** up wull ye.’
Think of Jim Murphy. Eh. . . naw, don’t bother.
My personal favourite for the chop is Alistair Carmichael,
not because he might lose his seat in the Northern Isles,
but just because I can’t stand him.
If this lot go, austerity will nearly be worth it.
A lot of No voters did so because they believed they would be better off in the union.
We’ve now had doom and gloom for the last few weeks about the oil price, jobs being lost, scare stories about the NHS – all reasons that some voted No to prevent this from happening.
The ‘threat’ of independence is gone, people are now concentrating on the good that the SG does and want a stronger voice at WM.
The water privatisation story has been refuted before, it will not stop a full on lie being spread about this.
link to facebook.com
Re Ashcroft Polls, wonder if it would be prudent for Wings to commission a poll on Postal Vote intentions?
Does any poll by Ashcroft cover this?
I haven’t seen any news or focus on postal voting.
Not much cheer for Labour (or Tories or Lib Dem) from John Curtice;
link to blog.whatscotlandthinks.org
If drug deal told me it was raining outside I would still take a swatch outside the windae.
Who knows who to believe with that wee gravatar of theirs.
Kez of Jim?
Having visions ala Norman Bates at his PC dressed up as his mother.
Help me out here…
I know the :”FYI” at the end says it all really. Like a 10 year old puffing her cheeks at her younger brother. So there!
Absolutely out of her depth. An immature spiteful little child.
Herald extract: On poll
According to the poll, the Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy would cling on by just one percentage point in prosperous East Renfrewshire, with the SNP in second place. This was once the safest Tory seat in Scotland.
About 1,000 people in each constituency were polled by telephone last month.
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said: “There is no gloss that can be put on these polls. This is bad news for Scottish Labour but great news for the Tories.”
Bwaa!! waaaaaaaaa!! 🙂 It’s only a poll, but a good one.
From the BBC’s website, sent to me on social media,
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said:
“This poll shows that the Scottish Conservatives
are now in a real fight across Scotland.”
He wanted to say ‘we’re gubbed, mate’,
but he’s no’ allowed tae speak like that.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats said:
“As the election gets nearer
people will want to back Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs
to support our focus on public services
and our plan for more support for the NHS. ”
They said that ‘cos they’re full of p*sh.
My attention was drawn to these two particular quotes,
because I deplore the use of anonymity in the pro media,
and because it looks as if the BBC
couldn’t find anyone from the Tories or the LibDems,
or else just couldn’t be bothered phoning them
and made the quote up themselves.
Angus Robertson MP for the SNP said:
“The most significant aspect of the findings is
it confirms that the SNP’s surge in support
is reflected every bit as much in areas of Scotland
which voted No as a well as Yes in the referendum.”
Meanwhile, Jim Murphy said: John told me to say,
“There is no gloss that can be put on these polls.
This is bad news for the Scottish branch of Labour
but great news for the Tories.” (approx)
Murphy said that without a smile on his face,
as he wiped away the tears.
I made that last bit up.
Every time I begin to feel sorry for her she comes out with something like this. I don’t know how she does it but she makes the written word appear strident.
I will be voting in this seat. I find the conduct of Curran to not be appropriate for my community. The Tories are really concentrating on holding this. Curran and Murphy are our biggest assets. As a strategy we must keep them focused on their own seats and take the rest
I’ll give you that Kez is maintaining her deplorable standards BUT, I think her branch manager has went one better.
Phillips Whitford has just posted a copy of a tweet from him saying that if the Americans had had Trident in WW 2, the Germans would never have dared bomb Pearl Harbour.
It looks authentic, because of course a fewf said it was a spoof.
Brains Trust hard at work today.
link to archive.today
Darling & Broon photie warning!
BBC Radio Scotland reporting poll in a grave WWII voicy thing.
Just saw an amazing bit of film of a Labour politician telling a questioner to “Piss off!” Then it disappeared.
Was it up on the board and taken down again for a reason?
I hope it reappears – it will put off many from voting labour.
Ah walked up ah close an came oot wie ah quill in ma ear,any secretary jobs gon at the local accouting unit branch office,ah dey hiv ah bitty genuine memory problem, onny jobs.
Refined and retweeted: why we should avoid meeting our heroes.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
take a look at Munguin’s Republic for difficulty with facts.Dim Jim or what?
The SNP candidate is 1% behind Jim Murphy in the latest Lord Ashcroft poll.
New crowd fund out – to help get rid of the Smurph.
link to twitter.com
link to crowdfunder.co.uk
I don’t know what it is but no matter was or Kez says or tweets, all I hear is “you’re fat and cheeky and your no getting in my paddling pool”. Does she have a 6 year old writing her stuff. If not she should get one it just might raise the standard.
@grouse beater,
here is it curtuoisy of Rev Stu – nothing gets past him…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Meanwhile back on the Ranch…
Bonaza for SNP!
Yeeee Haaaaaaw!!!
Kezia, judged by the company she keeps?
Researcher for Foulkes, now deputy to Murphy.
FB is good tonight.
Just saw that weasel and woodpecker picture.
Jackie Bird is the woodpecker, and the SLab branch manager is the weasel!
Macart says:
@ Lesley-Anne
link to lordashcroftpolls.com
SNP 34%
Con 30%
Lab 28%
Go get em Arb. 🙂
Oh look wee Russell Brown looks like getting his earse served up to him on a plate and wee Fluffy in the next seat along looks like he is on the verge of having the same thing happen to him! 😛
link to youtube.com
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said: “There is no gloss that can be put on these polls. This is bad news for Scottish Labour but great news for the Tories.”
So says the man who is branch manger of the party that wants its supporters to vote Tory to keep the S.N.P. out. 😀
@Valerie
I saw that Murphy post on Facebook a wee while ago and shared it, it was taken down after about 10 minutes.
He’s not beyond that kind of stupidity.
call me dave
‘Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said: “There is no gloss that can be put on these polls. This is bad news for Scottish Labour but great news for the Tories.”
Said Murphy glossing over the very bad news for Scottish Labour that these polls signify.
Can’t just accept the reality, that’s their whole problem right there. Therefore can’t counter with anything but the lie, totally refuted over and over by clear evidence; it makes no difference voting SNP to the outcome of the GE.
Voting SNP is a vote for Scotland, for our voice within the UK parliament, to enable us to push for more devolved powers and ultimately to rebalance the democratic deficit within these isles.
Independence is coming. Whether they like it or not. We’ve just adapted to the inevitable, and now the doubters are catching up.
These polls indicate that reality.
If it’s bad for Labour, then it’s good for Scotland.
Labour no longer represent the people in this country. Time Murphy and his ilk faced reality.
On the subject of a poll of postal voting intentions,
did you know that at IndyRef,
796,835 (18.3%) postal votes were cast.
That, and tons of other stuff, is contained in this report.
The Electoral Commission are insistent
that UK elections and Referenda are fully protected by Law
and by the procedures set out by the EC.
It is such a shame therefore
that the credibility of the Electoral Commission
is being eroded by every passing day on which
no news is forthcoming about the public confession of
illegal activity at the postal voting reception areas during IndyRef
involving Ruth Davidson and John McTernan.
They won’t thank me for that little reminder,
neither will Police Scotland,
whose duty it is to prosecute the offences.
As someone once said :
It’s not what you say that really counts.
It’s what people hear.
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/179812/
Scottish-independence-referendum-report.pdf
Poor wee Kez, with MSM in their pocket, the fear of getting in wrong does not exist. Slabber have become sloppy at a time when the electorate have been not only informed but engaged. That is why Kez is not learning her trade and seems to believe that noise is enough when unchallenged.
Like most, I feel that even Slabber suspect that GE 2015 is all but lost. I do have concerns that their will be many Westmonster troughers rejects will be available to fight for Hollyrood 2016 and can’t help but be concerned what progress could be undone there if things went wrong. That said I do have great faith in the velvet glove of Nicola in Scotland with the scrapper talents of Alex in Westmonster will prove to be facinating times.
Has creepy Murphy from hell’s heart I strike at thee’d yet?
GO NICKY!
Brilliant again, Rev. Keep up the good work. Donation on its way soon.
Hoss: Here it is, curiosity of Rev Stu
Thanks, Hoss.
Worth a repeat … once an hour. Do you get the feeling Labour is rattled at the way the ‘damnable, disloyal’ public are treating them for selling out Scotland?
🙂
John Curtice enjoying himself on the BBC programme putting the boot into Labour. 🙂
Wrinleyreborn
Ironically it seems to be the heightened, one sided media scrutiny the SNP are subject to has led to them being extremely disciplined and careful whereas the easy run slab get from their pals in the press has left them all at sea.
Ill disciplined, devoid of principle, weak in personel both at candidate level and on the ground. Unelectable.
Rather than consider this to be a natural disaster, or some kind of alien invasion perhaps the media could reflect on the SNP having run 2 competent administrations, delivering on their manifesto commitments and working hard for the people.
Anyone wanting to see the now infamous tweet from Nine year student Murph the Smurph can read it in all its technicolour beauty here. 😀
link to munguinsrepublic.blogspot.co.uk
Don’t all laugh at once otherwise we might knock the Earth off of its axis. 😛
Kezia did do her research. She checked the appropriate info in The Big Labour Book of Facts and found ‘SNP bad’. What more does the lass need to know?
Lesley-Anne
You have got to be kidding – must be his account hacked
Is everything they say a lie?
Fortunately, Murphy’s tweet has been saved by Munguins…
http://munguinsrepublic.blogspot.co.uk
I think Modern History must have been one of his main subjects when he was at Strathclyde University for nine years.
He was not very good at it – like most things.
Jackie Bird tonight on the Ashcroft polls, she looks as if she had lost a shilling and found sixpence.
Meanwhile being grilled on STV, an unbelievable display of stupidity from doughball Willie Bain. You might think he would at least have the wit to steer clear of anything remotely resembling a camera. Jeeeeez.
These SLAB MPs just can’t help themselves.
“1ST MARCH, 2015 7:15 PM
Gisela Stuart, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, has said that Labour shouldn’t rule out forming a ‘grand coalition’ with the Tories after the next election if neither party win a majority.”
link to bit.ly
“Margaret Curran MP @Margaret_Curran · Mar 3
@theSNP Twitter account spreading lies as usual. No ifs, no buts, no deal with the Tories. Anyone suggesting otherwise is talking nonsense.”
link to twitter.com
So one Labour MP in England says that Labour shouldn’t rule out a ‘grand coalition’ between Labour and the Tories, two days later, SLAB MP Margaret Curran says that there won’t be a deal with the Tories and that ‘anyone suggesting otherwise is talking nonsense.’
I suppose this means that Margaret Curran thinks that her fellow Labour MP, Gisela Stewart, is ‘talking nonsense’?
Mark,
The message from Ashcroft is that nobody gives a f**k what that old bag has to say about anything.
Tam Jardine
MSM biase is a uniting force, alas only as far as the borders.
I do however think that the SNP should keep their powder dry for the time being and resist calls to blow Slabber out of the water, they are doing that all by themselves without SNP assistance. For the time being the Winger’s are doing a stirring job highlighting Slabbers performance.
There will be time enough for the SNP to put the boot it once the campaign starts for real
Ashcroft is suggesting the SNP swing applies to No voting areas as well as Yes ones.
I reckon … there were two types of No voter … those swayed by the Vow, and the rest. A lot of those swayed by the Vow must be feeling pissed off at the non delivery for promises! Thus, they will turn to voting SNP in disgust at callous betrayal by their previous Unionist choices.
IMO Yes voters want payback for sure, but so will a percentage of No voters given Smith, DevoFA, EVEL etc etc!
Tam Jardine says:
Lesley-Anne
You have got to be kidding – must be his account hacked
I agree with you there Tam.
See what I did there Tam … I pretended to be a Labour politician. 😀
As far as I’m aware the account itself is genuine so the only possible reasons for the tweet being made is either:
1. the account was hacked
2. Murphy did indeed send that tweet.
Being the leader of the gulible gang on here I don’t think his account was hacked. I mean who would want to hack his account he does MORE damage by himself than any hacker could achieve. 😛
This leaves me to deduce that it was indeed Murph the Smurph who sent that tweet! 😀
Just received this from unemployed but not without self-created work Daughter Number Two:
Today I signed a petition for a national living wage – on a stall for the Socialist Workers Party. They had a contribution box. I explained I only had 15p.
They snorted at me.
I was snorted at by a member of the Socialist Workers Party for having 15p.
Ironic.
Please God make that Murphy tweet genuine! Its worth 10% to the SNP in East Ren.
How can we get it verified. Tell you what though. Those Germans knew a thing or two about long distance air raids! LOL
@Hoss 11.16
Well done! I’ll know in future to grab it! Must admit I dithered, as I simply couldn’t believe my eyes, and kept thinking perhaps it was a spoof, but it did come from Phillipa Whitford via one of the Indy sites.
This one has to be the best to date for my money! And they wonder why they are swirling around the toilet bowl just now.
If the Tweet is genuine the only reason Stu hasn’t posted it is because he is still laughing.
Don’t everyone get too carried away by the Ashcroft polls. We still have the Dirty Tricks Squad and State Broadcaster to contend with and don’t forget about the postal votes.
“It is a simple fact that in every election since before the second world war, the largest party has gone on to form the government.
Murphy today to London press on learning of potential Scottish wipe-out.
Bought The (not yet grand) National today – a better read than before, some intellectual stimulation from well-written essays. Nice to see it stapled.
Im with Fiona on this.
I cant allow myself to believe that these polls will reflect the outcome of the election, after the devastation of the Referendum.
However it does boost morale and gives me more confidence to slap down the craptalkers and persuade the uncommitted whom I come into contact with.
‘Imagination going like feathers in the wind’as manandboy so eloquently puts it.
This is just a little off topic, but in keeping with the Ashcroft poll news.
Shortly after the referendum, this graphic appeared on one of the indy pages, and I kept it, because I thought it was a good take on the stats.
Also, I think what is becoming more apparent, and Ashcroft bears this out today, is that we are not sitting on our bums, the high number of SNP members (including myself) are out there grafting.
I just mention that part because I think Labour, in their supreme arrogance, just never considered that those thousands of new members would translate into anything.
come on people – Kirsten for East Renfrewshire
1. needs dosh link to crowdfunder.co.uk
2. if you can get down there do
AND – PLEEZZE let that tweet be true – send it to her if it is
link to facebook.com
Word on the street is that the Murph tweet is ‘clearly a fake’. I have it on good authority 😉
Maybe the tweet is genuine but Murphy is the fake. 😉
Interviewed for BBC Radio 4’s World at One, Alan Bennett was asked what the English excelled at. He replied – hypocrisy.
“Take London: we extol its beauty and its dignity while at the same time we’re happy to sell it off to the highest bidder.”
What do you mean ‘we,’ kemosabe?
Brilliant Valerie,
The Burd giving the Murph a free ride.
And as for that poll in Murphy’s constituency, I’m sure we can overturn a 1% majority.
joemcg 9.38pm
Kezia Drugdeal,
Brill Joe. LOL
End the night on a roll.
“We’re on our way, from misery to happiness today…”
The Proclaimers.
I don’t believe the tweet is genuine. Murphy has scumbag McTernan working for him (or should it be the other way around?) and its unlikely that he would let something as stupid as that pass as it is something learned in Secondary school.
There are a few people photoshopping tweets from labour “stars” and posting them as it they are genuine. It makes us look bad if we take one of those joke photoshops as genuine (though I will admit, its hard to tell these days as it is entirely plausible for Labour to come out with something stupid. Just look at Kezia’s twitter feed.)
A good tip for checking the authenticity of a labour tweet is to look for replies to it. If it has replies, its probably genuine.
I reckon there were not many committed No voters. I think most voted No reluctantly, and without any pride in doing so. I was covering a polling station in Edinburgh on the day, with other Yessers. The No side were there too, feet apart from us. Voters had to walk between us. We were smiling, hopeful, they were scowling and looking grim and resolute. You could tell the Yes voters, they generally gave you some sign. The No lot got a few nods too. But mostly folk didn’t acknowledge either. They looked like they had come to do a kind of grim but unpleasant and distateful duty. I think theirs was a No, but voted unenthusiastically for out of fear, or from the precautionary principle. Now that the dust has settled, and they see what they were voting to preserve, many have changed their minds.
Front page of the National, another good one!
@Lesley-Anne
Axis shifted hehehehe. 🙂
On that earlier post – Its no exaggeration to say they’ll feel that one in the morning. A 22% swing in Tory/Labour central down here in the SW.
OUCH!
I was hoping to see the SNP strip their vote share in May, but damn! If that polling is anywhere near accurate We may see either Conservative or Labour narrowly lose their seat, which for D&G would be a near political earthquake.
Will someone please tell me why he’s holding a briefcase –
oh, right. . . it’s got his parachute payment in it.
Get Gerry Cinnamon singing “hope over fear”.Its a brilliant way to start the day.Its on YouTube.
Mealer @ 7.33
What?
this one you mean? 🙂
link to youtube.com
Analysis of latest Ashcroft poll in today’s National is by our very own James Kelly ( Scot Goes Pop ). 😉
galamcennalath says:
“IMO Yes voters want payback for sure, but so will a percentage of No voters given Smith, DevoFA, EVEL etc etc!”
But in reality they were given EFOL.
🙂
John King,
That’s it! Rev Stu should put it up for everyone to enjoy.
Gerry Cinnamon singing Hope Over Fear.
Keep buying and subscribing to The National but it can now be seen online
link to thenational.scot
Morning folks,
Late to this party, was out last night. Two things strike me,1 Lord Ashcroft’s poll is quite gobsmacking. Wow, if that’s how it works out on the 7th May, the 8th May will be quite a day of celebrating.
2. re Murphy’s tweet ( if genuine) the title of the Rev’s piece is “A difficulty with facts”. Sure enough Murphy does have a difficulty with fact. I seem to remember that Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. that was Japan.
Labour are paying the price for getting into bed with the Tories to defend the archaic Westminster establishment rather than having a modern social democratic Scotland.
They spent two years running down Scotland’s voters by saying we were too wee, too poor and too stupid to run our own affairs.
Then they vote for the Tory austerity plans to shave billions of the Scottish government budget (13 January 2015) whilst rejecting SNP calls to scrap Trident renewal which will save £100 billions. (19 January 2015)
Who can forget the day Miliband, (“A Labour government will never agree to Scotland sharing the pound”) Balls, Brown and Murphy lined up with Cameron, Clegg and Osborne to wage an economic war on the rebellious Scots if we had democratically voted for self determination and a Currency Union?
The Labour leader said he would seek a formal mandate from other voters in the UK to reject a deal to share sterling, by putting that veto in the 2015 general election manifesto if there was a yes vote in September’s referendum.
Lesley-Anne says:
“To be honest I don’t know what is funnier here, this tweet from the Labour deputy leader or the idea that Margaret “Stairheid rammy” Curran blocked Tris from Munguins Republic over the idea that there was a Labour M.P. called Gisela Stewart, someone that she denies exists.”
“That would be THIS person then Margaret who does NOT exist.”
link to archive.today
___________________________
LA,
Technically, Septic Meg is correct.
Look at the different spellings of the surnames.
I’m not trying to be pedantic, just pointing out a technicality that Septic Meg would use to state as fact that there is no Labour politician named Gisela Stewart.
😉
Knowing how devious and downright dishonest and vile was the Better Together campaign stops me from taking too much comfort from Ashcroft’s survey. The idea that it’s another aspect of their fear tactics crosses my mind; they trying to force people to vote for anybody except the one party devoted to Scotland.
On spotting the American fleet and diving to attack, the Japanese/German aircrew shouted “Tora, Tora, Tora” (Tiger). Some of Jim’s crew shouted “Tory,Tory,Tory”, whilst Jim shouted ” Fuck off, Fuck off, Fuck off”!…
Marie Clark 8.16am
“Sure enough Murphy does have a difficulty with fact. I seem to remember that Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. that was Japan.”
Marie, don’t tell him the answer, let him work it out by himself.
The US nuked Japan. The US did have weapons of mass destruction. WMD’s. They have been threatening and destroying, the rest of the world ever since, with disastrous effects.
Just read in the Guardian that Tony Blair will personally be giving £1000 to ‘target seats’ which must surely include Jim “1%” Murphy in East Renfrewshire.
That may have just encouraged me to help the SNP candidate, see campaign linked above…
Bawheed McDougall and motor mouth McTernan have went very quite these days.
Plus, @joemcg, still havin a chuckle at Kezia Drugdeal.
And finally, in case you missed it, here is the intimate photograph Jackie Burd didn’t want the world to see,
All the SNP have to do is their job.
Keep putting people first, before parliaments, before power, before elections or referendums, just govern well. We already know what they, the Greens and the SSP stand for.
They do this and we all win in the end.
This is what the establishment parties fail to understand and its why their vote and their system is falling apart. Its why their media is losing its effectiveness. The SNP, the SSP, the Greens and a handful of independents ARE reflecting the needs of their electorate. They are seen to bee helping and supporting others. What they are not seen to be doing is denigrating their own electorate, constantly seeking the killer soundbite or airtime sneer. They are not seen to be self seeking or compromised by the corporate world or constantly in pursuit of political advancement.
You see that’s the upside of the bias shown against these parties by the media. The lack of redress or access to the same soap box as the establishment parties and its as plain as the nose on your face.
These parties are seen to be working FOR people, just getting on with it. Whilst the others sit on telly sofas and newsroom offices bitching about each other, oh and the SNP in particular. Whilst their higher echelons and institutions are being nailed in corruption stings, investigations and scandals, these parties, our parties, have popular support for just getting on with trying to make our lives better.
Its kinda why people will continue to support them. Represent us, reflect our needs and wishes, we support you. Betray us, manipulate us, lie to us, treat us like dog shit? Well there’s a downside to that as the establishment parties will hopefully find out in a few weeks time.
With shares in the club which plays down Govan way,
suspended, due to the resignation of the Nominated Advisor,
and with senior Board members resigning,
there is another opportunity to have a front row seat,
and to watch how the Unionist Establishment in Scotland operates.
A compare and contrast approach is usually enough
to provide those valuable insights into how
Scotland fails abysmally to meet the demands of a modern democracy.
This is an exercise in National collective embarrassment.
Compare the conduct of the Establishment during IndyRef
with it’s approach to the shadowy world which exists behind
the football facade at Ibrox.
A world of wheelers and dealers, of ex-convicts and spivs;
of compliant, accomodating regulators and administrators,
where the Laws of the land are regularly brushed to the side,
in order to preserve and protect
the Establishment’s very own football club.
Rules ? Break them.
Regulations? Ignore them.
Laws ? Don’t worry. The police will take care of all that.
Ruling Body? Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil –
about the Unionist Club.
Investigations? Nothing here, move along.
To follow the plot, you’ll have to be adept at reading between the lines,
and to consult social media.
Otherwise, you will only be led astray,
if you are relying on the Media
to keep you abreast of the real story.
No one can say how long the pantomime in blue will last.
Some will find it entertaining, even though it is a tragic story,
while others will be frustrated and perplexed by it all.
One thing’s for sure, it won’t be dull,
as the Establishment provide us all with a masterclass
in how the ruling class operates
when dealing with its own vested Unionist interests.
I’m guessing that the Ashcroft polls might feature in QT tonight. I’m looking forward to Kezia explaining why they are disastrous for the SNP.
I had an entertaining evening last night on the Alex Massie piece on the Ashcroft polls. A long argument with someone called Michael McKeown (or something like that). I am sure I have encountered him somewhere before but I can’t place him. Fantastically reactionary with that assertive but barely half true, flabby thinking so beloved of UKIP types. Not very good at engaging in actual dialogue though.
@ Macart 8.44, aye, spot on. Well said.
Scotspine 8:26am. Loving it!
Ashcroft polls- they merely confirm that the wind of change is blowing across Scotland. We all need to work hard to make sure it is hurricane force by polling day. New Labour and Murphy’s days are numbered. Even sourfaced Sarah Smith and Prof Poultice were beyond words.
The BBCScotland propoganda has backfired but they will keep it going. Question Time from Glasgow tonight should reveal the level of panic and how many inaccuracies will beset Kezia I wonder.
Do I have to be the one who shouts – ‘there’s a fly in the ointment!’
– Remember each and everyone, we’re dealing with the most unscrupulous bunch of rat-bags this world has known in the ‘purring’ UK Establishment and their paid henchmen will be working their despicable sox off to screw us yet again.
Ashcroft is ‘Lord Ashcroft’, the BBC is the main armament of the UK Establishment and we’re forced to pay for it, the media is owned by moguls with no interests other than their own and be assured they ain’t for democracy.
During the Referendum – that was most certainly rigged – we had world leaders – from Putin to Merkel to Obama, to Clinton to even the Pope (suitably misquoted as it turned out) speaking the UK line and even then, when their algorithm was missing a beat, the famous VOW.
Take a very long spoon to these pronouncements.
@Fred says:4 March, 2015 at 11:17 pm:
” … Meanwhile being grilled on STV, an unbelievable display of stupidity from doughball Willie Bain …”.
Yeah! I caught that on my mates TV during my nightly visit. If ever there was someone who should never be involved in representing anyone, not even himself, it’s Wee Willie Bain. My pal was livid, (mind you that’s his normal state).
One of these days I expect to learn he has just thrown something through the screen. I believe the only reason he hasn’t done so as yet is the formidable woman that is his wife.
One word from her and he does what she likes.
Macart says:
5 March, 2015 at 8:45 am
..another good post 🙂
The old saying remains true “…if you keep telling the truth you will eventually be found out”
caz-m says:
5 March, 2015 at 8:44 am
‘Bawheed McDougall and motor mouth McTernan ….’ these carpet baggers are one thing – we ain’t forced to pay for them.
Jackie Burd on the other hand – is pictured in the wrong foliage -she’s no more than a vulture desperate to pick on the rotting flesh of a failed Scotland – and we are forced to pay for her by the rotten BBC.
After her maiden flight with Jim on board,
I wonder if Jackie will be given a new name.
Hopefully , it will reflect Jackie’s contribution
to the cause for which she has taken to the air.
Whatever, the Lord Ashcroft polls will be a reminder
to those, like Miss Woodpecker, who have staked everything
on a Unionist future, that they have backed a loser.
But no matter, Jackie looks as if if she’s due to retire anyway.
Possibly to the countryside, where there are lots of trees –
to hide in.
@ caz-m (8.44am).
Hilarious, set me up nicely for the day ahead.
Dim Jim the Weasel riding Jackie the Bird.
FROFL
🙂
link to archive.today
Ken500 says:
5 March, 2015 at 8:36 am
The most common arguement used is that the use of the bomb resulted in the surrender of the Japanese and therfore less deaths overall resulted than would have happened in several more months of convential fighting.
a) The first bomb did not have to be of the yield used.They knew the damage from the tests in New Mexico.
b) The first bomb did not have to be dropped on a major city. It could have been over a “demonstration” area.
c) Nothing can justify the second bomb.The use was to prove an upgrade in the horror that could be deployed.
The use of nukes was not to end the war with Japan. It was to intimidate the rest of the World – in particular Russia.
We have a big stick
@Marie clark says: 5 March, 2015 at 8:16 am:
… 2. re Murphy’s tweet ( if genuine) the title of the Rev’s piece is “A difficulty with facts”. Sure enough Murphy does have a difficulty with fact. I seem to remember that Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. that was Japan.
Your post gave me a wee giggle this morning, Marie.
On my first reading, (still half asleep), made it seem that Germany had bombed Japan. Isn’t English grammar a strange thing if you don’t include context?
Just to clarify the rogue Labour MP is
link to parliament.uk
Let’s keep using the power of the internet folks
Our day shall come
@ Stoker
weasel on the woodpecker
keyboard splatter time
Bite her Jim Bite her.
EXCLUSIVE:
Late entrant to this years Grand National, Dim Jims Bird.
Its a faller at the first hurdle.
🙂
@Macart says:5 March, 2015 at 8:45 am:
” … All the SNP have to do is their job.”
As opposed to SLAB who just seem to keep doing jobbies.
The Prime Minister of Britain, in a move to perhaps
deflect attention away from the headlining polls from Lord Ashcroft
has said he will only debate on TV on one occasion.
If I was a betting man, I’d wager Cameron won’t be with us
as PM much longer, even if the Tories form the next Gov.
I don’t think he has the drive or the stamina for another five years.
I think his attitude is ‘I’ve done my stint (for the Bullingdon Club)
and now it’s someone else’s turn to deal with all that crap’.
One thing to remember.
If it’s on TV, it’s propaganda by the Unionists.
The other parties will merely be tolerated,
and manipulated.
@Stoker,
Jimbo and Jackie. I will defend your right to free speech with my life, but, there are limits……
Well I received a demand for payment of the graduate endowment when I graduated in 2007. I seem to remember it had nothing to do with my income (I was going on for further study at the time), and the government were asking for over £2,000. It was never means tested from what I can recall. Fortunately for me, the SNP were in office by the time payment was due, and they cancelled it!
O/T
Fiona-I have your number now. Will call tonight
Barontorc says:
“the ‘purring’ UK Establishment and their paid henchmen will be working their despicable sox off to screw us yet again.”
Agreed Barontorc.
I suspect that this is part of a strategy to lull us pro-indy folk into a false sense of security and to frighten out the unionist voters.
Our enemy, as with the referendum, is complacency and fear of change.
It would only have taken a few thousand more activists on the ground during the referendum and we might just have won it. It saddens me to say that whilst many on here were out working hard there were thousands more who didn’t actually do very much.
I sincerely hope the polls are correct, but I won’t be flabbergasted to find that we don’t do as well as we think we might do. I hope I’m wrong.
@Clootie
@Ken500
Murphy is probably one of these people who say the Ukraine wouldn’t be in the mess it is if it had kept its nuclear arsenal!
Their idea of a safer world is somewhat twisted.
@caz-m (8.44) –
That’s a humdinger to start the day.
Reminds me of an old joke which is unrepeatable here, but it involves a mouse and an elephant and the punchline is ‘Suffer baby! Suffer!’
scotspine says:
On spotting the American fleet and diving to attack, the Japanese/German aircrew shouted “Tora, Tora, Tora” (Tiger). Some of Jim’s crew shouted “Tory,Tory,Tory”, whilst Jim shouted ” Fuck off, Fuck off, Fuck off”!…
Coffee on the keyboard moment 🙂
@ Robert Peffers
I didn’t realise I could snort coffee through my nose.
You learn new things every day. 😀
The Ashcroft poll actually supports the Labour narrative that a vote for the SNP will potentially allow Cameron back into Downing Street. In his address Ashcroft specifically says that he thinks Labour would win outright if Scots voted as before: but that it will be a dead heat if the poll is correct. Labour will presumably latch on to that in furtherance of their central story
However, it occurs to me that those who say that No voters are saying they intend to vote SNP because they regret their choice at the referendum may be wrong
It seems to me that many take the view that a large number of No voters favoured devo max. If that is true then I think we should consider the possibility that these people are very far from gullible or daft. To me it seems clear that if that is what you want the way to get it is to vote SNP. Thus the polling results we see in No voting areas.
The Scottish electorate, whether for or against independence, are not now the cannon fodder they once were. All of us have thought hard about politics over the last couple of years, and we should give those who do not agree with independence some credit.
Labour made it very plain they will not deliver devo max. The “Vow” was devoid of detail and the subsequent froth has done nothing to suggest that any Westminster party intends to respect those voters wishes. Those who want devo max have no more respect for, or trust in, those parties than the rest of us.
Is it not possible that they made a rather sophisticated calculation: vote against indpendence because for whatever reason they do not want that. Then vote SNP for leverage in getting what they do want.
If that is plausible then Labour’s focus is futile. They do not understand the aims of the devo max voters and are doing nothing at all to win those voters back
Just a thought
Macart
I think you should go for a column in The National
your points are well made,erudite, and have no sense of animus in them, simply honest straightforward opinion.
I vote for Macart to get a column! 🙂
Macart says
“I didn’t realise I could snort coffee through my nose.
You learn new things every day. :D”
Naw that’s nothing, you aint seen nothin not until it comes out your eyes and ears seriously ! 🙂
Marie clark says:
5 March, 2015 at 8:16 am
Morning folks,
Late to this party, was out last night. Two things strike me,1 Lord Ashcroft’s poll is quite gobsmacking. Wow, if that’s how it works out on the 7th May, the 8th May will be quite a day of celebrating.
2. re Murphy’s tweet ( if genuine) the title of the Rev’s piece is “A difficulty with facts”. Sure enough Murphy does have a difficulty with fact. I seem to remember that Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. that was Japan.
An if you were in ah bunker an WOS / Cybernats draping bombs on you, You would,nt be thinking strait either lol, lets keep draping BOMBS boom boom boom.
Marie Clark 8.16am
“Sure enough Murphy does have a difficulty with fact. I seem to remember that Germany did not bomb Pearl Harbour. that was Japan.”
DONT TELL HIM PIKE!
To be fair, I get the feeling that while Jim Murphy is an out-and-out liar I think she is at least an idiot in good faith
Hand and Shrimp – Michael McKeown used to be a regular in the Herald!
@ John King
Thanks John, appreciated. But seriously we journalists with integrity, not grumpy middle aged dudes with bad granma and speelung. 😀
“To be fair to Ms Dugdale, it is an understandable confusion because the legislation which introduced the endowment does indeed specify that it be used for student support. Student support is defined as “allowances for living costs” and “loans”.”
It’s a fairly academic point, if you’ll pardon the pun. All money paid to the government goes into a pot, out of which it pays for everything. It’s not like they put a big X with a marker pen on every tenner paid in endowments and only use those tenners for bursaries.
Or as Andrew Nicoll of the Sun sarcastically put it today in a tweet to Iain Gray:
Bill
Thanks, I thought I recognised the name but it is so long since I looked at the Herald I can’t recall the regulars…apart from the OBE chap…who did pop up here from time to time. 🙂 I have never posted on the Herald
I think my brain always conflated the two of them as they only had the one theme “SNP Bad!”
Ali
I can’t agree with your suggestion that ‘she is at least an idiot in good faith’.
She has a degree in Law & a Master’s. The first thing you learn in academia is how to research & present an argument complete with references. Every study requires a Bibliography detailing the sources of information used within the text. If online, it’s using links as Stu does.
Here she has not presented a FACT but an assertion-that is quite deliberate. Kezia has proved time & again that she doesn’t do FACTS but is relying on people to believe it because she said it.
Sorry, but I teach final year student social workers & I wouldn’t accept something like that even in conversation, let alone in writing.
She may be fairly young (30 I think) but don’t be fooled she knows what she is doing. She is a very well paid politician who seems to think she & her party could run Scotland.
Recent history in the last 40-50 years gives the lie to that idea as everyone here on WoS takes great pains to prove on a regular basis.
@Rev Stu Campbell
You can argue it is an academic point, certainly
But as you say yourself we DO like to get our facts straight
Me too 🙂
All money paid to the government goes into a pot, out of which it pays for everything.
OH!
Not separate shoe boxes under the bed then?
I think Kezia studied sophistry at university. It matters not a jot what the Government uses the money for. If you are a £1,000 down you are a £1,000 down…even if they only used the money to balance a table leg. Why is using the money to fund student bursaries any more virtuous than using it to fund a university or fund flood defences or fund care for the elderly?
A tax is a tax is a tax. The question is whether taxing students for their education is a good thing? If so why not tax middle class parents for educating their children through school fees, why not tax middle class workers for their health care through privatising health care an introducing health insurance?
British government of whatever shade or hue has always tried to control whatever media the working class may be reading communication was also a media which scared them into control of such. Telephones were a luxury not to long ago, a lot of us still remember our first television but everyone in America seemed to have one. C B radios were another no no.
To date all Media output is licensed by the government so don’t expect any to break ranks soon, their licence would be revoked
Hand and Shrimp – yes totally agree about those two. I gave up on the Herald some 2 years ago when it became clear that Llewellyn was not living up to his much proclaimed “impartiality” – he told me so in a personal email when I had complained about something. John OBE is from Dunfermline, my home town, but referred to kids from the Kelty and Cowdenbeath areas as “numpties”! A bigoted horror who deserves the opprobrium that having an OBE should bring! Good Luck!
From, The Spectator, “Can that change before election day? Of course it can. Most people still think Labour will do significantly better than the polling suggests.”
I smell fish, I know, “conspiracy”, but I still smell fish and I do think it is desperate enough for the state to protect itself, AT ANY COST!
Where did John Murphy get his early education? Maybe they saw WW2 differently in South Africa.
manandboy! I don’t know if you’re plagued by a cat that keeps walking across your keyboard and repeatedly inserting
random
paragraph breaks
in inappropriate
places or some
thing, but please make it stop.
@ Fiona, 9.58
Good post
@Rev. Stuart Campbell
“I don’t know if you’re plagued by a cat that keeps walking across your keyboard”
Aw, c’mon Rev, at least manandboy is trying, and does add some very good posts. Not everyone is brilliant at punctuation and formatting (and I include me in that 😀 )
Boy, you’re in a grumpy mood today.
Just watched FMQs. It’s like Kezia Dugdale turns up every week with a big hard-to-miss target tattooed on her foreheid. We seriously and desperately need a competent opposition in Holyrood.
Kezia Dugdale is an amusing character, whenever I see or hear Kezia on the TV, my mind immediately conjures up the image of Vicky Pollard on amphetamines.
I wonder if John Smith, Donald Dewar or Robing Cook would pay Kezia the time of the day?
Kezia, Jim Murphy, Ed Balls and Ed Milliband, you couldn’t make it up if you tried!
D McD
O/T
A small victory
“Dear Mr King
Thank you for your correspondence about unsolicited direct marketing emails from The Scottish Labour Party.
What we do
The ICO is a UK independent regulatory authority reporting directly to the UK Parliament. The Commissioner enforces and oversees the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). Our aim is to educate organisations to help them understand what the PECR require. We also gather intelligence from the concerns that are reported to us.
The PECR are concerned with the way organisations send marketing material by fax, text, email and telephone. Marketing can include the promotion of goods, services, aims or ideals.
Next steps
I have now written to the organisation to inform them of their obligations under the PECR and to ask them to suppress your email address from their databases. We have asked they take this action immediately. This should take no longer than 28 days and should ensure that they do not email you again.
Reporting your concerns enables us to take action in the future. Information about the enforcement action we have taken can be found on our website at http://www.ico.org.uk or via this link Enforcement.
Subject Access Request
From the correspondence you have provided, you have concerns regarding the source of your personal information. If this is the case, it may be beneficial to issue the organisation with a subject access request for copies of your personal information (including the source of your personal information).
For further information on the right of subject access, please click on the following link:
link to ico.org.uk“
It’s taken me a LONG time to get up to date with this page, whilst trying to keep up with the other active pages.
But I’ve finally done it! So…
Hi Lesley-Anne.
You typed,
“Now however, the people of Scotland have awoken, big time in my view, and they now realise, especially a lot of NO voters, just how badly they were LIED to.”
The ‘word on the street’ is that you are correct. I’m a member of ‘Team YES Bus’, who campaigned for a YES vote prior to the referendum.
We kept the team together and now do collections for a local “Taught By Muhammed” foodbank, who are one of the few who actually deliver to their clients.
Onnyhoo, we were outside Tesco in Dundee’s Murraygate on Saturday. Apart from the collection of food donations, we are also actively promoting the SNP. Our leader, Bob Costello, who also supplied the ‘Business For Scotland’ coach, had a wee wander down the street with a supply of SNP leaflets.
I’m gonna paste here a quote from a post he did on the “YES BUS… SCOTLAND’S DRAGON FOR INDY” Facebook page last night.
“I however realized that the best thing was to get behind the fight for Westminster candidates and at least get as many SNP members down there.
We through the Yes Bus Dragon for independence started campaigning in the City centre and we received great response and not just from people who had voted yes in the referendum but also from people who had voted no and realized that they had been taken for fools.
It was looking very much like the same process that happened during the referendum campaign was again happening and that was that the people of Scotland were making up their own minds.
Two things happened tonight , first there was the release of the latest Ashcroft poll which was taken in “No” constituencies and this showed that the surge had turned into a tsunami and the seats of Gorgon Brown (soon to be retired) and Alistair Darling were seriously at risk and the SNP were ahead by a good margin.
The second thing that happened was in an interview on the BBC Alex Salmond was asked by the interviewer, if he still held to the view he expressed when first Minister that in the event of a no vote ,that there would not be an other referendum for a generation.
Alex Salmond said that when he made that statement he was First Minister but now that there was another First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, then she would decide when the next referendum would be.
Thank you Alex.
Game on”
Onnyhoo, if you want to see some (August 2014) pics of Team YES Bus, with one featuring Sheena Wellington, who is also a team member, check out this link:-
link to sites.google.com