A little less conversation
We know the No campaign is dead set against entering any discussions before the independence referendum, but we were so moved by Willie Rennie’s concern today about Scotland not having enough time to “negotiate over 14,000 international treaties“ in the 16 months between a Yes vote and the first elections to an independent Holyrood that we thought we’d help him out a bit with some advance work.
We did enquire of Mr Rennie as to where these “14,000 international treaties” could be found, but he was too busy helping poor people by fining them £80 a month to answer. Luckily, alert reader Angus McLellan was hot on the case, and swiftly directed us to a handy Foreign Office website featuring the magic number.
We’ve now had a brief skim through some of the UK’s historic agreements with other countries, and to save some time after 2014 we’ve knocked a few off the list.
———————————————————–
Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Trucial States on the Unification between Rulers of Sharjah and Fujeirah – Batirah Coast, Gulf of Oman (6 February 1958)
We reckon it’s pretty safe to say this one can stay as it is.
Convention between the United Kingdom and the United States of America respecting the Boundary between the Dominion of Canada and Alaska (21 April 1906)
Everyone in Scotland happy with the current boundary arrangements between Canada and Alaska? Grand.
Well, we’ll have been thrown out of the EU, so that’s none of our business, is it?
Treaty between Great Britain, Bavaria, France, Greece and Russia, relative to the Succession to the Crown of Greece (20 November 1852)
Does Greece even have a king any more? Seems not. Another one sorted!
Okay, it could take a while just to get phone numbers for all of those.
Sudan seems to have fully self-determined now. We dodged a bullet there.
We don’t wish to be complacent, but our guess is that this one won’t need a lot of work done, what with neither “Northern Rhodesia” nor the “Belgian Congo” existing any more.
Sorry, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, you’re on your own now.
Telegraphic Convention between the Cape of Good Hope, Natal and the Orange Free State (25 October 1883)
They’ve all got mobiles these days. They’ll be fine.
Treaty with the King of Dahomey [regarding] Peace, Commerce, Slave Trade, Human Sacrifices (12 May 1877)
Fairly confident we’re still for the first two and against the last two. Next!
Decision [of Ambassadors’ Conference] constituting DANZIG a Free City (27 October 1920)
Probably best to forget about this one. Didn’t go well.
By a weird coincidence, Denmark rang us up the other day and said that they weren’t all that bothered about the redemption of Sound Dues from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, as they hadn’t a clue what either thing was. Phew!
Agreement between India and French Indo-China respecting the direct supply of Indian Opium (15 March 1926)
Superseded by subsequent developments in private-sector heroin trading.
The Irish Free State is now Ireland, so we’re off the hook for that. Yay!
The Khmer Republic isn’t a thing any more.
This one seems like a fait accompli.
Admittedly this is still a pretty hot-button issue for most Scots. But we’re sure we’ll manage to work something out eventually.
———————————————————–
Are we labouring this point at all? You get the idea, we presume. Willie Rennie’s claim of an independent Scotland having to “negotiate 14,000 international treaties” is, to be bluntly candid about it, big purple bollocks on toast. The vast majority of the UK’s “14,000” treaties are ancient dead history, and the notion that they constitute some sort of present-day logistical barrier to independence is a farcical absurdity.
If these are the depths to which the No camp’s arguments have sunk this early in the day, we might just order in some bunting now and beat the late-2014 rush.
Given the Unionist arithmetic ability based on past experience the number will probably end up being around 450.
Given the Scottish Governments track record, I would imagine if they haven’t already been through this list to check on the work required, then they will be soon.
I’m actually sore with laughing……..
The whole premise of Mr Rennie’s soundbite was absolute nonsense Rev. Way too much paperwork to cut through in a given time period, bit of a bother eh? The thought that this would put any country or individual off, that is determined to achieve independence is utterly laughable as an argument and frankly more than a little insulting to that electorate.
Having been an avid reader for some time now I have decided to stop lurking and make my first post to congratulate you on the inclusion of the phrase “big purple bollocks on toast”.
Love the site, keep up the good work!
Put Willie on BBC Mastermind programme – his specialist subjects: UK Treaties and the Bedroom Tax.
I have already e-mailed him asking for a breakdown of the 14,000 and I’ll give you an update when he gets back to me.
Of course, the BBC will be all over these claims like a rash before then.
What about the treaties covering wee sausage rolls?
O/T, but hilarious:
link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk
Would the 14000 be related in anyway to the plucked out of the air 19000 jobs dependent on trident?
Maybe they have some weird kabbalistic numerology job linked to the positive case for the union up in BT headquarters
Firstly, welcome Fay-Yes. Secondly, I hope Salmond brings this up at FMQs when the bold Willie speaks (if it is his turn?). Talk about an another own goal by Rennie.
Oh I know, I know, bloody old pedant. But I just wish people wouldn’t do it. The word is ‘superseded’.
And don’t be too flip with the ‘queer place names of no importance to us’ stuff. One of my pals joined the RAF (silly cunt) and found himself shooting peasants in Trucial Oman. I suspect we might want to back out of that little deal and leave the sheikhs to defend themselves.
Isn’t the fact that the UK state has over 14,000 of these treaties still current (in theory) a damned good reason for wanting out?
I mean, does the bloated and ineffective UK civil service employ people to check whether the “Convention of Commerce and Navigation between Great Britain, on the one part, and Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg, Baden, the Electorate of Hesse, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the States forming the Customs and Commercial Union of Thuringia, Nassau, and Frankfort, on the other part (2 March 1841)” is being adhered to? Isn’t this a waste?
And what would the consequences be if Scotland did not re-negotiate it (assuming that we could, for example, find some Thuringians to re-negotiate with)?
What a ridiculous argument to come up with for not choosing independence.
Perhaps Willie Rennie will take the opportunity whilst in Parliament at FMQs to announce the said 14,000 international treaties in his supplementary question. I think not and mair pie in the sky from one of the four horsemen of the Scots apocalypse.
You know, besides anything else, this really is textbook investigative journalism by Angus McLellan and the Stuart Campbell collective (I’m assuming the ubiquitous “we” is not a nosism).
Now the press and broadcast media will simply parrot Rennie’s parroting of Darling’s line, and do nout else about it. It will not occur to them to ask Rennie to corroborate his statement, let alone risk breaking a nail by googleing it themselves.
“Talk about an another own goal by Rennie.”
“Own-goal Rennie” – What a splendid name for a mediocre jobsworth apparatchik with a penchant for putting his foot in it.
One salient point for me out of all of this is the fact that without the phenomenon of the internet, Rennie’s statement would have carried a bit of gravitas. It would be carried by every mainstream news outlet and even the most avid independence fan may have stopped to wonder if it were possible to handle 14,000 treaties as stated.
However, we DO have the internet these days and people like the good Rev who can swiftly do the kind of research that would have taken many months just 20 years ago and might not have been possible at all.
I urge you all to tweet this, share on facebook and email the story to friends and relatives as well as work colleagues.
The genie is out of the bottle and no longer can the unionists simply spout drivel and expect it to go unchallenged. The MSM will not dig behind Rennies claims (i’d give my right arm to see a newsnight reporter question Rennie unannounced on these points) so WE have to get the message out there.
A brilliant scoop Rev, because in the good old days, uncovering an MP spouting bullshit in this fashion was exactly that.
“A brilliant scoop Rev, because in the good old days, uncovering an MP spouting bullshit in this fashion was exactly that.”
In fairness, Angus McL was the one who found the site. I just browsed it for a while.
There are a large number of treaties/licences/agreements to be re-written/applied for which will need to be addressed. As lawyers have to do this it will take time and money.(i imagine even the mute ones mentioned above could be argued by lawyers) Does the UK cover us until all is negotiated or do the licences become invalid?
In the case of international flight licences this would ground all flights in and out of Scotland. I do not feel this is highly influential in choosing independence or not but the cost of lawyers fees, the time they will take and the possible interventions by others to make difficult is a concern.
“Oh I know, I know, bloody old pedant. But I just wish people wouldn’t do it. The word is ‘superseded’. “
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN.
Did you see anything about Berwick on Tweed amongst that 14K Rev?
Politicians like Rennie and Connarty do not seem to realise, or do not care, that any statement made can usually be verified almost immediately on the “Net”
I think what really rattles the UK parties is the fact that the “Yes” backers have the nous to use Emails etc. to question the people who only a few short years ago were remote and distant to us plebs.
@Christian Wright
Sadly the media in Scotland are not putting the No campaign under any kind of a scrutiny. If they were they would have pulled up Blair McDougall for saying that the SNP opposed devolution, when in fact we all know they supported a Yes vote in both devolution referendums. This is one of their numerous blatant lies. BBC Scotland in particular has become a parody of itself, whether it is consciously attempting to imitate Russian Television News broadcasting, or is just slipping into its default unionist position is very difficult to say?
“And what would the consequences be if Scotland did not re-negotiate it (assuming that we could, for example, find some Thuringians to re-negotiate with)?”
I pissed myself at this. I wish Salmond would say this to oor wullie at FMQs 😉
Salmond has said that after a YES vote opponents of independence will be given a role in negotiations. Might I suggest that Rennie is made our ambassador to countries that have ceased to be and told not to come back until he has renegotiated all of our treaties with them?
“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN.”
Oh dear. You have ‘superceded’ (spit). It’s another lost battle though, I suppose. Mine must be the last generation that had compulsory Latin at school.
link to en.wiktionary.org
“Oh dear. You have ‘superceded’ (spit). It’s another lost battle though, I suppose. Mine must be the last generation that had compulsory Latin at school.”
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN.
“BBC Scotland in particular has become a parody of itself, whether it is consciously attempting to imitate Russian Television News broadcasting ..”
Two observations Muttley:
A proof of the BBC’s self-parody lay yet another contentious story that almost brought me to put fingers on keyboard in protest, until I realised the article was actually on BBC Scotlandshire.
That is to say, to my not inexperienced eye, the two entities were in terms of their output, indistinguishable.
With respect to Russian TV news, I find the output of Russia Today, pretty well fair and balanced with respect to their occasional coverage of Scotland. It is orders of magnitude better than the propaganda and pablum served up by the BBC.
@Cuphook
In the event of a Yes vote we should sent Rennie to some hellish bandit country as our ambassador…
Muttley: “In the event of a Yes vote we should sent Rennie to some hellish bandit country as our ambassador…”
England?
@Christian Wright
I was thinking of maybe Somalia, Damascus as our dodging the bullets Syrian ambassador, or some other ‘hot spot’….
Cuphook – I think you’re being a tad unfair on wee Willie Rennie. I think he should have an active role in the constitution process.
Someone needs to make the tea…
Tea, as I’m always told, on the few occasions that I make it, is a complicated recipe beyond my abilities. If I’m incapable of making it properly what chance has Rennie?
Do we have any treaties with the Urjanchai Republic?
Am I missing something here?
As a newly independent country, why would we sit and pick through someone elses shite?
Surely we would be signing our own treaties? How dare the rUK assume that we will comply with all of their archane pish?
Sort out the essentials like trade and industry, assetts, EU etc then it’s a clean slate.
I for one will not be complying with Lord Smiggle-Cockbottom’s right to shoot grouse in Airdrie Main St on the second Tuesday of each month!!
Vronsky, that’s what RevStu says when he’s fixed a typo that was pointed out to him BTL. Don’t spoil the joke.
Muttley: “I was thinking of maybe Somalia, Damascus as our dodging the bullets Syrian ambassador, or some other ‘hot spot’….”
Here a point . . why give any of these folks a government job, when they have tried so mightily for so long to deny Scots their inalienable right to be masters in their own house?
Why have any of them on the public payroll when so many other Scots of proven competence could use the work?
Why not let them be the kept women and men of rUK to which they have so publicly pledged everlasting fealty?
Why would they want to work for a Scottish independent state anyway, upon the very notion of which they have spent decades hurling abuse, bile, and the most accursed scorn?
I think the maximum consideration the Scottish Treasury on behalf of the Scottish people should afford these chancers is a one way ticket on the quickest train out of Scotland – if they want it.
Failing that they can look for work like everyone else has to, and until they find it, live on the social benefits THEY recommended and actioned into law.
Let’s see if Willie is quite so sanguine about the bedroom tax when he is subject to it.
Ach I know but it is good to have a wee joke.
I was always told that a wee Rennie helped to release trapped wind. Now I’m certain that its true.
Bit whiffy round the Better Together headquarters this evening…….
@Christian Wright
I’m tempted to agree with you but I think what Salmond is aiming at is rapprochement and an acceptance of the result.
What will be fun to watch though is Unionist MPs either fighting for a pay off or for a seat in the pretendy parliament. There are a few of the usual suspects who have gone remarkably quiet over the independence question and I suspect some of them keeping their options open. And I hope that we have no Lords in Scotland: both out of principle and for the fun of deflating a few egos.
Funniest post on the site so far I think! Also pissed myself at this:
“Might I suggest that Rennie is made our ambassador to countries that have ceased to be and told not to come back until he has renegotiated all of our treaties with them?”
Come this week’s FMQ will the Lamentable One get tore into the FM for even thinking about abandoning our responsibilities for these 14,000 hard won treaties. Then will Jackie Baillie raise a supplementary to opine that it isn’t in fact just these 14,000 treaties but it’s 10 times that figure kept secret by the Scottish Government and really it’s no longer shocking to see the FM lying through his teeth to say it’s not. Both of these being presented by Flubber at the end as a coup de gras, these robust honest challenges nailing Alex Salmond for misleading the Scottish people yet again and so, toodiloo!
Seriously, why bother with the guy?
You only need remind people about the racist propaganda he put on his Facebook page, and people discount his opinions.
‘big purple bollocks on toast.’
Ha ha ha ha ha ha….childish I know, but best line of the day. Certainly topped Mr’ Rennie’s funny joke of 14,000 treaties
Made my night, so it did!!!
Cheers Rev
@ Tamson
Racist propaganda?
Cuphook,
What will be fun to watch though is Unionist MPs either fighting for a pay off or for a seat in the pretendy parliament. There are a few of the usual suspects who have gone remarkably quiet over the independence question and I suspect some of them keeping their options open. And I hope that we have no Lords in Scotland: both out of principle and for the fun of deflating a few egos.
That’s what I’ve been thinking too. Some of them might have weighed up a life on the back benches of Westminster versus a cabinet post in Holyrood and decided to wait and see which way the wind is blowing. Others in the Labour party must have considered the possibility that they could become a future Prime Minister of Scotland.
Also, what Labour did regarding ‘welfare reform’, especially in relation to the sick and disabled, may well come back to bite them big time. A new start in Scotland might appeal to some of them.
Of course that then impacts on their MSPs, especially the weaker and less talented ones. If Scotland tends towards coalitions then there won’t be too many jobs going, but there are the international posts to consider too.
I personally dislike the front bench Scots, while a lot of the rest of the Westminster bunch are just anonymous. I wonder how some of them would perform though as politicians if they were cut loose from the Westminster party. It could be the making of some of them, but after New Labour’s track record, not to mention the Labour party in Scotland’s record, I’m not feeling too hopeful.
Willie’s been havering again
@Ysabelle
Is it fair to say ‘the weaker and less talented ones’? I’m sure that they’re all equally as capable as Lamont.
I sat and listened to Radio Scotland at 8.15 this morning, and they had Alistair Darling on it. When the presenters asked him what he made of the timetable for full independence and an election in the first 5 months of 2016, Darling just kept saying that ‘it’s nonsense, and not clearly thought through.’ Again and again, he repeated this mantra.
This is a man who is also using another mantra in the form of sitting with a finger in each ear, and yelling loudly, ‘NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH’
Denial as they say, is not only a river in Egypt.
Cuphook,
Hmm… That’s a low bar. However, I remember one MSP sitting behind Lamont at one point who did not seem to be amused at her jokes and jibes. Not sure who he was. It did make me wonder what he was really thinking.
Anyway, I’m not sure talent has anything to do with it so much as the ability to be yes-men and women, and sheer naked ambition.
I found 14 agreements relating to the treaty of Versailles on the list and 2 relating to Germany’s military surrender at the end of WW2….does Willie Rennie expect us to have to re-negotiate those?
Muttley79 – after a yes in 2014 won’t all unionist’s be on the road to Damascus?
Cuphook says: “I’m tempted to agree with you but I think what Salmond is aiming at is rapprochement and an acceptance of the result.”
I agree, however, I don’t think we should have to pay danegeld to these toothless parasites to keep peace in the land. Every job for the boys of the Ancien Régime is a job less available to the working man and women. The message the practice sends is divisive and corrosive in the extreme
I have a larger concern that the self-styled intelligentsia of the Imperium (North Britain branch) may yet get their nose under the tent and infect the fledgling state.
These folks are the detritus of a moribund union who will be looking to establish themselves newly minted as proud Scottish small-c nationalists. Even now some leftists are bit by bit repositioning themselves.
I read the musings of some of the lauded and semi-lauded “thinkers” abroad in the Scottish body politic and despair. Not so much because of their inchoate rambling, but because other folks who should know better mistake it for deep thought.
Some among the Good and the Great have even offered stream of conciseness riffs on the value of creating a 2nd chamber of unelected (appointed) worthies – just in case the hoi polloi and those they elect get out of line, you understand.
These our betters, share an inherent distrust of the democratic process and of democracy itself. They are by instinct, elitist and dictatorial and we should offer them no quarter.
“However, I remember one MSP sitting behind Lamont at one point who did not seem to be amused at her jokes and jibes. Not sure who he was. It did make me wonder what he was really thinking.”
Probably not thinking much at all. More likely his furrowed countenance evinced dyspepsia and associated wind.
Sorry. Not much on the TV tonight.
Pompous Rennie was a sleekit wee mess,
Raving uselessly against the word yes,
The paperwork’s huge,
Said the wee tory stooge,
We have to settle for less.
@Ysabelle –
I know you put ‘Lamont’ and ‘naked’ in separate paragraphs, but they’re still…they’re still…they’re too damned close!! My eyes…my eyes…
@Christian Wright
We have to hope that the electorate will keep the less worthy out of office; but, as we know, democracy doesn’t discriminate against chancers, and even George Galloway has found somewhere to unpack his carpet-bag.
I hope that an independent Scotland has an egalitarian foundation which precludes a second chamber of ‘Lords’ or ‘worthies’, and I see no place for a monarchy, which is nothing more than a celebration of inequality. This does not mean that parliament cannot be reformed. I would like to see MPs seated by region rather than party as I think that it would better reflect the nation and, hopefully, encourage cooperation. I’m sure other people have ideas about improving representation.
As to ‘leftists’ repositioning themselves, I would argue that it is the debate itself which has been repositioned, with welfare and social democracy become a key aspect of the ‘Scottish values’ which we are campaigning for. The Left will also deliver votes which the SNP cannot.
I know that a lot of Unionists relish the thought of a NO vote and the opportunity it presents to seek retribution from the SNP and independence supporters, but I wouldn’t want to participate in such a thing after a YES vote.
Was speaking to a friend earlier who works in a busy West-of-Scotland cafe frequented by ‘ordinary’ punters. I suppose the place could be classified as a ‘greasy spoon’.
According to her, the buzz on the street – so far as any general interest in matters political goes – is the Bedroom Tax.
People are worried. Seriously worried. And they’re confused. Some think it’s coming into force in April, others are adamant it won’t be until Oct/Nov. What they DO know is that it’s yet another real-terms cut, and that it reeks of Poll-Tax. The ‘E’ word (eviction) is raised frequently.
As Rev Stu and others have mentioned many times before, we know that MSM journalists and politicians at all levels read this and other Pro-Indy blogs.
It’s hard, to convey in words, how utterly scunnered and furious many of us are when we see bubble-wrapped runts like Rennie giving-forth on how people should have their lives wrecked to satisfy the latest harebrained directive he’s been ordered to promulgate.
So, for the benefit of any apparatchiks scanning WoS and BellaC and NNS etc, ticking boxes according to the strength of response within this or that thread, let me set this down in the simplest words I can find:
No-one in my community is going to be evicted from their home on the back of this ‘Bedroom Tax’. It won’t happen. Period. The anti-Poll Tax demos and direct actions worked, and that was before everyone had a mobile and flashmobs could be organised in minutes.
I’m not speaking on behalf of any group or party.
I’m telling you straight, as someone who values his neighbours – and there are many of us in every community across Scotland: don’t try to intimidate us. It won’t work.
Plenty of us in this country are, technically, poor, but only in relative terms. We’re still way better-off than most on this planet, and we realise and appreciate it. And we’re not stupid. If you want to find a ‘Dame Shirley’ means of clearing Inner London for your speculator buddies – go ahead, be creative!
But don’t dare drag our communities into it, especially via anaemic lickspittles who deserve no more respect than the outlets providing them with the oxygen of publicity.
“And I mean that most sincerely folks”
(coconut for first to identify quote source)
““And I mean that most sincerely folks”
(coconut for first to identify quote source) “
Hughie Green. COCONUT NOW.
First it was lets have this referendum sooner rather than later, and now its slow down dont you think your jumping the gun.
link to bbc.co.uk
Well done that man.
Denis Healey
wiki believe it or not.
British Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey, who actually did use the phrase to describe strikers and “I mean that most sincerely, folks”, which his caricature of Opportunity Knocks presenter Hughie Green used so often people believed that the real Hughie Green actually said it. In reality, Green never did. so must be mike yarwood.
“people believed that the real Hughie Green actually said it. In reality, Green never did”
I would bet quite a lot of money that I very much remember him doing so. I wonder if this is one of those Wiki entries like the one that says Harold Shipman had a walk-on part in Blake’s 7.
@ianbrotherhood
I agree with you. I was thinking this the other day. I was looking at the petition that was doing the rounds yesterday to get the Scottish Government to introduce legislation to assuage that of the UK Government and, while I’m sure that its authors have good intentions, it does nothing to save the vulnerable from debt. It is time to get organised and to save our neighbours, our communities and our values.
Sorry -just meant to send you the one.
Here’s a real one from Wiki:
Can you guess who it is?
He was also runner-up in the 2006 Scottish Coal-Carrying Championships held in Kelty.
Please tell me it’s Wee Willie.
@Seasick Dave
I had to Google (other companies involved in tax avoision also provide search engines) that. Does he support renewables or is he hoping to fall back on coal carrying as a career?
If we’re playing a game of Wiki: which British ‘comedian’ guarded Rudolf Hess in Spandau Prison?
@Cuphook: Comedian? That word you keep using, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
I did use the bunny ears. I’m guessing you know who it is then?
Even if it were 14,000 treaties to renegotiate, wouldn’t that guarantee employment on an ongoing basis to hundreds of Scots lawyers? Sounds like a bonus to me. The Law Schools could use them for practical training, particularly the ones with all those long-defunct German Principalities.
Alternatively, you could just do what the US Senate does and refuse to ratify anything. Doesn’t seem to have done them much harm, does it?
Seriously, what does Willie think will happen if you don’t renegotiate them? Very little, I suspect.
@Cuphook: I’m wondering if our man got his comedy routines from Hess. Apart from the lack of Jewish stuff, they could have come out of the Volkische Beobachter Joke Book (now with even more homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia and racism).
@Angus McLellan
I’ve only seen his routine by mistake and was surprised that anyone would have found it funny. I guess that it’s one of those ‘good old days’ things when racism and homophobia were acceptable entertainment and everyone knew their place in life. My great aunt was one of those people who would say ‘he was Pakistani; but a nice man’ sort of thing. During the Bosnian war I mentioned ethnic cleansing in front of her and she then began to reminisce about the Chinese laundry that used to be off the High Street.
re Hughie Green – he doesn’t actually say ‘I mean that most sincerely folks’ in this clip, but it’s clear whoever uploaded it associated him with the phrase….the plot thickens. I’ll maybe be needing those coconuts back.
Rev
It is wee Willie the coal carrier.
To be fair (I know) it was a charity gig.
Cuphook
I don’t know who guarded Hess but did you know that he was born in Alexandria, Egypt and spent the first 14 years of his life there?
Rennie has reached new heights of ridiculousness as a pretend politician, now just below the level of a snakes belly, and with his latest outburst that snake would be an Adder.
to McHaggis’ earlier post
I dissed it yesterday on the Telegraph and Scotsman. I always do that about lies and misinformation pronounced by the Bitter No-Men. But God forbid that I would enter into discussion with the morons who frequent those sites.
First, Welcome Fay-Yes
Rev thanks for starting my day with a great belly laugh even the comments were funny, well most of them…
To Rev Stu. Could you change the location of the date and time of each post and put it next to the commenter’s name? That way it would be easy to copy and better reference peoples’ comments in later posts.
@Alastair Wright
after a yes in 2014 won’t all unionist’s be on the road to Damascus?
They will probably attempt to do what the Scottish Tories did after the referendum in 1997.
I went to Paisley College of Technology at the same time as Willie Rennie, he was active in student politics as was I. He spent the night in a tent outside the college as a protest at something, I cannot for the life of me recall if it was poll tax or homelessness. I cannot find an archive for the Paisley Daily Express, but I and fairly certain that there was an article on him. Please, please could someone toddle down to a microfiche and search for it, it would be 1987-1989 in the winter, probably March. I’d do so but I’m in Newcastle. I so want someone to bring it back up in his face.
It seems the foreign office has removed most of these, every one I tried had this message “Foreign & Commonwealth Office
This page cannot be found”