A Parliament Of Clowns
It’s no easy task picking the dimmest of the new intake of Unionist M/SPs. Competition is stiff, what with the likes of Jamie Greene (Con), Dean Lockhart (Con), Jamie Greene (Con), Christine Jardine (Lib), Jamie Greene (Con) and Paul Sweeney (Lab) all putting up a strong showing on a regular basis.
But we have a new(ish) contender for the crown.
The above story is feeble enough as it stands, even allowing for it being a desperately slow news week for Scottish politics. Maureen Watt is 66 years old and has asthma, and making a pensioner with breathing difficulties sprint a mile to get to a speech on time probably isn’t the most cost-effective way for the Parliament to save four and a half quid, once you’ve factored in the cost of the ambulance and everything.
But it gets worse.
Because the rent-an-idiot Tory MSP Kerr called on to provide a quote was this one:
And just imagine how embarrassing it would be if some alert person was to spend 30 seconds checking the Holyrood expenses register and easily find out that Briggs – a man half Watt’s age, who as far as we know has no debilitating respiratory illnesses – had charged even shorter trips of just a few hundred yards to the taxpayer.
(Although if we were carrying as much bulk as Briggs, someone prone to indignantly opining about Scotland’s obesity problem, we wouldn’t be up for much jogging either.)
It’s not even the ludicrous hypocrisy we mind. It’s the galactic stupidity of making such a statement knowing that people would check and would find him out. We look forward to Aidan Kerr’s surely-imminent report on the matter.
SNP baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!
Ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
Miles Briggs maybe could do as his name suggests *Miles* or change it to *Yards*
Taxi for Yards! for Miles
At the risk of sounding absurdly smug, the collective noun ‘parliament’ applies to owls.
I believe the collective noun for clowns is a ‘shudder’.
Taxi for Kerr… FGS! What a plonKerr! 🙁
Buffoons I say, buffoonish baffoons.
FFS. Honestly, you couldn’t invent this stuff.
“It’s the galactic stupidity of making such a statement knowing that people would check and would find him out.”
Which people?
Only people like you who tirelessly expose their hypocrisy day in and day out.
The unionists rags, led by Pravda GB, let them get away with murder.
Only if we had an “independence supporting” newspaper.
Ha ha. fekin hilarious. Imagine that lot with access to the levers of power. Place would burn to the ground overnight
British nationalists: thick as shit
That obesity pic is making me a bit squeamish.
What is Ruth about to do???
A braw heid for a coconut-shy !
Scots who decided the Tory party was a good career choice? Enough said!
As a responsible capable, journalist I am sure, having secured a quote from Miles, this is first thing he checked….
Shirley?
@cuilean says: 12 October, 2017 at 7:19 pm:
“At the risk of sounding absurdly smug, the collective noun ‘parliament’ applies to owls.
I believe the collective noun for clowns is a ‘shudder’”
Aye! cuilean, and the Lallans Scots name for an owl is, “Hoolet”, but in Scots Standard English that name has a different meaning when referring to a human as, “A Hoolet”, and I believe it is most appropriate when applied to the said, Member of the Scottish parliament.
To be fair Stu, they were not signed up because they were very bright. In the case of the Tories, they only wanted bigots and butchers apron types, preferably linked to loyalist organisations,whilst Labour singled out those who professed Socialist principles when necessary, but who could also drop them when, and as, required.
And yet, people voted for these buffoons. Makes you wonder. Is it just because they don’t want an independent Scotland that they are prepared to send in the clowns? (Shakes head)
The question is: Will he be pulled up on this in the media? If not, then why wouldn’t he do this?
I love a bit of clinical. Rev on top form dishing it out to those who should know better.
GIRFUY SiU / British Nationalists and associated (STV hack) hangers on everywhere.
Slow news + SNP conference = David, Chris and Stephen will be writing their articles again.
His beauty is surpassed only by his intelligence.
Exclusive: STV ‘journalist’ is a dick
Why haven’t we seen this image of Ruth before now?
Blimey…is there no end to her wacky zaniness?!
(It’s all for the weans innit…)
BBC again today bumming her up as a potential replacement for May, or mibbe it was Sky? Can’t remember now as they’re becoming indistinguishable.
To be fair Stu, the Parly to the High Street taxi is all uphill.
The only thing I’ve known the most repugnant of our unelected representatives to be good at uphill is fighting a losing battle against the Scottish Government
”It’s not even the ludicrous hypocrisy we mind. It’s the galactic stupidity of making such a statement knowing that people would check and would find him out.”
”’Knowing”?
You’re obviously giving some credit which isn’t due, Stu.
link to thesaurus.com
Davidson mentioned recently that all politicians should be required to take IQ tests. We can see with the latest recruits, HERS, that she’s apparently changed her mind. Another U-turn.
If this is the best effort of the opposition and Yoon media, then the SNP must be squeaky clean.
To be fair,the sinister Yoon clowns probably just still believe they live in a pre Campbellian utopia where they can use their tame media to spout their dishonest smears without fear of rebuttal.
Great to see typical petty little snide Yoons like these,with their pathetic billionaire media promoters being eviscerated by one honest man with only the interests of the people of Scotland at heart.
Hoisting them with their own petard in the sweetest way.
Liz – I think Ruth has done it – she’s found his expenses claim which he thought he’d lost.
@liz says: 12 October, 2017 at 7:39 pm:
“That obesity pic is making me a bit squeamish.
What is Ruth about to do???”
Not at all sure, Liz, but going by the look on the other numpties face she has just alrady done it. That is, “Skelpit his dowp wi whitivvir it is”.
BTW: Folks just a wee aside.
In the Lowland, (Lallans), Scots language the word, “Erse”, translates as, “Gaelic”, but without the initial upper case “E”, translates as, “hinterland”.
The Lowland Scots for, “arse”, is, “doup”, or, “dowp”.
In case you are unaware, the Scots lowland language is a language in its own right. It is at least as old as English itself and both are derived from the, “Old English”, that in fact few Englanders today would recognise as anything like Modern English.
One distinguishing factor of a distinct language is that it has dialects. Lowland Scots has several dialects including, “The Doric”, of the North East.
What most Scots now speak is actually Standard Scottish English”, and is actually a dialect of Standard English that contains many Scots words and phrases and is often spoken with a distinctive Scottish accent. Thing is it also has dialects including, “Weegie”, which term is often thought to be an insulting term but is simply just derived from, “Glaswegian”.
We indeed have a very rich and varied culture that Westminster has, through the centuries, done its very best to supress – and failed to do so.
Not sure what’s more disgusting. That or RD with a CHAS t shit on
Should read t shirt
Oh good grief!
We’ve gone beyond Barney bear and headed straight for a Homer moment. Mr Kerr takes empathy free and arrogant to a whole new level.
Miles briggs. Oh sorry I thought you said shrek.
Well, what do you expect from a guy called Miles? With his girth he probably couldn’t manage a quarter of that distance. Typical Billy Bunter. He’ll be the type to take travel passes off the disabled whilst wanting to be chauffeured everywhere on other folks dime.
These seem like strange destinations!
I’m guessing his trip to The Pleasance was to Holyrood 9A and his trip to the High Street could be to ‘The World’s End’ or ‘The Royal Mile Tavern’
Both these incredibly short journeys would have taken at least three times as long in a taxi as it would walking. It’s always slow going on The Royal Mile likewise on Holyrood Road.
Apologies. Should have read ‘Mr Briggs takes empathy free and arrogant to a whole new level’. (blush)
That’s the problem with giving so-called journalists a Twitter account. He can post stuff that would never see the light of day otherwise. He even had the temerity to mark it “exclusive” as if it was of any import.
He even went to the trouble of getting a response from a Scottish government spokesman.
He’s the one wasting taxpayers money, it’s not Maureen Watt.
Going with the collective name theme.Can anyone confirm if the collective name for bankers is a ”wunch”?
@Ian Brotherhood says: 12 October, 2017 at 8:16 pm:
” … BBC again today bumming her up as a potential replacement for May, or mibbe it was Sky? Can’t remember now as they’re becoming indistinguishable.”
Well, Ian, as replacement for Theresa May is not exactly an extremely high standard to comply with – now is it?
I suppose if you were suffering from a bad case of ‘chub rub’. (chafing thighs) you would prefer to sit in a taxi for half an hour rather than suffer the pain of walking for 5 minutes.
@ Paula Rose says at 8:27 pm …. ”Liz – I think Ruth has done it – she’s found his expenses claim which he thought he’d lost.”
Good one! That or she’s just deprived him of his subsidised food and drink tokens.
@Paula Rose says: 12 October, 2017 at 8:27 pm:
“Liz – I think Ruth has done it – she’s found his expenses claim which he thought he’d lost.”
Then to me it looks like had it in his hip pocket. It sure as hell looks, by the look on his face, (and on her face), like she has just whacked him on his rear end.
Surely the Tory party in Edinburgh Parliament have forgotten the infamous
“Taxi for McLetchie” meme.
link, link to en.wikipedia.org
“David McLetchie announced his resignation as Scottish Conservative Party leader on 31 October 2005, after it was revealed he had spent £11,500 of taxpayers’ money on taxi fares, more than any other MSP.[2] The problem was not so much the large bill, but that he had used taxis for Conservative party business (as opposed to constituency business). His successor as leader was Annabel Goldie.”
He looks like his jaw is bigger than his brain, and probably has more neurons in it.
@Paul Rose –
He hadn’t lost it – he had concealed it ‘about his person’.
Ruth is nothing if not thorough…
She tries so hard to come over as all Jolly Hockey Sticks, a jolly fat “fellow” who is fun to be with and is the life and soul of the Party, mixed with a dark menacing frown that quickly turns ugly when confronted, like a mix between Herman Goring and Ernst Rohm. Is she a distant cousin twice removed from either of them, or indeed a certain chappy from North Korea?
Maureen is a fine and dedicated minister, quite often consilatory, but always constructive, so the attack is plain nasty. I hope she raises it in parliament and embarrasses him.
Often an expression is used that tories are lower than vermin, in this case that’s applicable but also as daft as a goat!
Mr Kerr does not have the intelligence to hold office, I doubt he’d have the brain to instigate tying his own shoelaces, he must have been fed this story by someone!
It reflects poorly on STVtoo!
[…] Wings Over Scotland A Parliament Of Clowns It’s no easy task picking the dimmest of the new intake of Unionist M/SPs. […]
link to tinyurl.com
She gave him a Brazilian!
Oh, and while I’m at it I’ll no longer try and poke fun of her lifestyle. From now on I’ll just attack her for being a miserable two faced tight arsed money grabbing hypocrite and right wing Fascist Tory Bastard. BTW other folks mentioned similar before without being shouted down, one titled gent even mentioning the contents of her bedside cabinet with much hilarity from others, and condemnation from none. Ah well.
@Robert Peffers –
Aye. And wouldn’t it be sweet to see WM Tories coming to terms with Ruthy D as leader!? She’s been bummed-up so much there’s a chance they might even believe some of the shite that’s been written about her. Even Alex Thomson of CH4 fell for it and it’s one of the few times I’ve ever seen NS rattled i.e. when Thomson asked her, ‘Why is Ruth Davidson so good?’
😉 🙂 🙂
Btw, who was that poster who was pulled-up by Rev for multiple identities? I keep thinking it was Norsewarrior (Man of A Thousand Helmets) but there was someone else. I remember the character getting that shirriking, but the name(s) eludes me…
Rev. You need tae look at his Biscuit expenses they Taxi’s unnae cheep .
@Paula Rose – HaHaHa
an Brotherhood says:
12 October, 2017 at 8:47 pm
@Paul Rose –
He hadn’t lost it – he had concealed it ‘about his person’.
Ruth is nothing if not thorough…
Ruby replies
She had to do a bit of ‘manscaping’ before she found the hidden expenses sheet!
@ Ruby We know she’s ah arse wipe but we dont need tae see her at work . Hugs lol.
@bugsbunny
‘ a mix between Herman Goring and Ernst Rohm. Is she a distant cousin twice removed from either of them,’
No, don’t think so,but I’m sure she is in direct lineage of an old school bully I knew.
I recall him vividly.
Bunter,Master William Bunter they cried him.
Ruby says:
12 October, 2017 at 8:39 pm
I suppose if you were suffering from a bad case of ‘chub rub’. (chafing thighs) you would prefer to sit in a taxi for half an hour rather than suffer the pain of walking for 5 minutes.
……………..
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby – you are a hard wummin
The wee soul, it’s uphill – with Chub rub – the horror. And he would have to mix with the common people – double horror – none of them would recognise him – triple horror.
You would not wish that on anyone…oh wait, for him an exception could be made.
Ian Brotherhood
Pretty sure it was Ken500. He’s not called that for nothing.
@ Ian Brotherhood was it no Indy wie multiple ID .
Is that ‘our’ Ruthie in the spanking and chuckling photo? Such fun to be had in the modern British Tory Party party party.
It looks like her, but hard to be sure without her trademark ‘fish face’ expression.
The portly frame, the Hitler fringe (minus moustache as yet. Thinks: Thanks to Immac?) looks familiar.
WE don’t usually get to see her smile unless she’s being patted on the head by Theresa May. Do you think they might really want her down there in Westminster? I’d be prepared to chip in for her bus fare. Especially if Miles ‘who ate all the pies’ Briggs was to carry her bags.
£2.75
my guess is he went to the canongate chippy
walofs
Harrison is actually waxing his big hairy arse.. and loving it by the looks of it
Och, Stu, you ruined Tom Gordon’s :-“SNP Minister accused of hiring a taxi for a miniscule journey and charging the tax payer.” headline tomorrow morning.No wonder they hate your guts.
Neil Findlay was heralded as the Obesity Czar last year if I recall.
I see that he has yet to sign up Ruth, and Miles, and Jackson, and Jackie, and Alex, and and and.
What a plonker this man Kerr is.
They have nothing left in the Project Fear locker.
They are genuinely thick, pointless individuals, who are kept in the public eye by a complicit MSM in the pay of foreign billionaires controlling our press and TV.
It matters not that you are as thick as two short planks, as long as you stand for the Union, The Fleg, and London.
There can be no half way house now.
The choice is between Independence or leave the EU and be ruled by Fortress England as a subservient colony.
I’ll personally escort Miles and the gang to the airport when we achieve Independence if they want to scurry South to the Motherland.
It looks like Ruth is threatening colonic irrigation in the photo.
Perhaps this is part of the initiation ceremony. It beats fucking a pig’s head I suppose.
You may have to recruit bodyguards soon, Stu.
Keep it up, young man.
Bit more seriously, there does appear to be a positive dearth of talent in the establishment party benches. The inevitable result of single issue voting? Maybe the result of branch office mentality? That being policy is set at head office and place people simply rinse and repeat.
Regardless, from leadership on down there appears to be a distinct lack of policy in opposition benches. A single issue unites all three, their voter base and little else. No imagination. No innovation. No aspiration. They don’t need to think. They need only rinse and repeat. So why did anyone vote for them?
I mean, I’m sure those who voted for parties devoid of multiple policies were perfectly aware of what they were voting for. It certainly wasn’t about better government. It wasn’t about tackling Westminster legislation and I’m sure they’re aware of what they would lose should their party of choice got to novelty island. They couldn’t have cared much about tuition fees, prescription charges, infrastructure investment, public services, bedroom tax mitigation or any of a host of other issues. They clearly couldn’t have cared less about prudent administration and management. There were no policies to be had, costed or otherwise and only a single message ran through the literature of three parties.
So, safe to say intelligent, thoughtful reformers dedicated to the betterment of the lives and life chances of an entire population base didn’t figure highly in the thoughts of their voters.
You do get who and more importantly what you vote for.
bookie from hell says:
12 October, 2017 at 9:23 pm
£2.75
my guess is he went to the canongate chippy
walofs
Ruby replies
I think you’ve cracked it only he didn’t go to the chippy he sent the taxi driver to Bene’s to get him a fish supper, a picked onion, a picked egg, 2 butter rolls, a deep fried pizza, a bottle of Diet Coke, a couple of deep fried Cadbury’s Easter eggs and a large jar of Vaseline (for the chub rub)
Ruth say’s, “And that’s how we go about creating Scottish conservative manifesto pledges”. “By pulling it out of a fat twat’s arse”.
Or alternatively we could have Anas Sarwar doing the same to Jackie Bailley on a table but this time saying, “And this is how we create Scottish Labour manifesto pledges” “By pulling it out of a fat arse’s twat”.
-Hello Doctor Innes.
Hello Dougie, please take a seat. I’ve got your results back.
-Oh God, I’ve been dreading this.
I’m afraid it’s not good news. Your daughter is Ruth Davidson.
That’s no clown that’s a danger to society!
Why do Yoons tend towards the intellectually challenged end of the spectrum? Could it be a product of BritNat culture?
link to historytothepublic.org
“El Pais sacks Times essayist John Carlin for Catalonia article attacking King of Spain”
link to archive.is
So much for the free press in Spain.
Isnt this just a part of yoon culture though, treat Holyrood like a big joke? Its not like blue tories are every going to get in to office are they. Oh god.
@Ronnie Anderson –
Aye!!!
‘Indy’, and whatever other handles he had…properly rumbled and chastised.
And, re your ‘Taxi’ joke…you do realise Ronnie, you’ve given us the opportunity to roll out all the biscuit jokes yet again?
I’ll refuse the temptation, except to say that yon Tory Party definitely isn’t as big as it used to be…
😉
O/T
Time to raise our eyes and our spirits from the crass, small mindedness of our media and British Nationalist MSPs?
In case some don’t know, our FM is, for the second time in two years, giving a keynote address to the Arctic Circle Assembly, a major international event being held over the next few days in Reykjavik.
What is perhaps even more significant and welcome is that this year’s programme also includes numerous other contributions from Scotland, including from a Local Authority, from Lateral North (the Glasgow based design collective) , and from the communities of Eigg and Applecross, and others. The full programme is at the link below.
link to arcticcircle.org
And this year’s Arctic Circle Forum is being hosted in Edinburgh in late November (details are here https://www.arcticcirclescotland.com ).
So no cringe in sight: rather looking outward, sharing knowledge and ideas, building collaborations for the future – all consistent with living in the early days of a better nation!
CameronB Brodie says:
Traditionally the ruling class have their offsprings privately educated in institutions where academic success was secondary to manufacturing the next generation of the ruling class.
And one more for Catalonia:
“BREAKING: The Assembly of the Council of Europe condemns the Spanish police violence against Catalan voters.”
link to twitter.com
It;s in the Express so I wouldn’t vouch for accuracy.
O/T but a compelling read on the subterfuge required to hold Catalan’s referendum.
It reads as a wartime resistance escapade.
Astonishing stuff.
Wonder how Scotland will cope?
“Broadsword calling Danny Boy… De ye huv enough Irn Bru tae go wi thon fish suppers?”
link to theintercept.com
“It’s time for SNP ministers to practice what they preach.”
Not sure whether to blame Billy Bunter Briggs or the Stv website for not knowing the difference between the noun “practice” and the verb “to practise.”
Are you posting while high, Cameron?
stewartb,
Our FM and Government can do everything and anything to make life easier for millions and still be ignored. A new national bank…..nothing from msm, a not for profit energy firm….nothing from msm…..new infrastructures under cost……nothing from msm. However, Ruth Davidson farts….msm have a Prof of Smellology telling us all how it all smells of roses as s/he personally had their nose up her butt. The life of a yoon reporter eh? I hope they have a good pension plan, as in an Independent Scotland they will need it, as they will become as employable as Harvey Proctor as a Scoutmaster.
Other news of yoon madness, over 700,000 Americans Visit Scotland.com every year alone, so Visit Scotland have shut down majority of Scottish visitor centres.
link to bbc.co.uk
Visit Scotland are the same tories that have JK Trolling as a visit Scotland thing too. What next, make Neil Oliver as visit Scotland el presidente?
@
Ian Brotherhood says:
12 October, 2017 at 8:59 pm
“Btw, who was that poster who was pulled-up by Rev for multiple identities? I keep thinking it was Norsewarrior (Man of A Thousand Helmets) but there was someone else. I remember the character getting that shirriking, but the name(s) eludes me…”
Gave it a bit of thought and far as I can recall Rev Stu didn’t mention a name but said something along the lines of, “You know who you are”. What was very clear, though, was Stu wasn’t best pleased.
@ Ian Brotherhood Wagon Wheels ho
What is worse however is the medias never ending willingness to publish this level of non news non story and non event with flourish and gusto. Building it up as a relevance and scandal without making any effort to investigate or even care about the reality.
While Briggs is being paid to be a political cunt our so called journalists are being paid to be impartial cunts.
At the end of the day all we are left with is cunts.
@Robert Peffers –
I reckon Ronnie A got him (9.09).
‘Indy’ – had other names, kept changing them, but I think it was Thepnr (as was!) who caught him.
Alex, if you’re there. is that right? And do you remember any of the other names ‘Indy’ used?
This is good fun, eh?
“The game’s afoot!”
Or mibbe we should just ask ‘Rock’ – he’d just have to shout across the office!
😉 😉 🙂
Reluctant Nationalist
What gives you that impression, why do you ask?
Davidson delighted with more quality research generated for the next FMQ’s.
What gets me is that these idiots are financially supported by us.
Rethinking Banal Nationalism: Banal Americanism, Europeanism, and the Missing Link between Media Representations and Identities
link to ijoc.org
Nationalism and the BBC
link to scottishreviewofbooks.org
@Ronnie A –
😉
I had an uncle who worked in a factory making biscuits (in Glasgow I presume, because that’s where he lived, along with his family, and that’s how I knew them) and he would bring back these big bags of rejected stuff. Can’t even remember the names now, but it would be like ‘Bandit’ biscuits – they were supposed to have some form of crunchy biscuit filling and were chocolate-covered. And those wee toty chocolate bars which had different fruits fillings in each half? I can see them now, and am finding it difficult to type whilst greetin’…Great stuff. (PS – Club Bars??!!)
Anyway, he brought back these bags of rejects which were exactly the same shape as the regular things, but were just solid chocolate as they lacked the requisite filling.
Oh my, how we complained…
🙁
A parliament of clowns indeed, if that’s the most the Tories have to worry about.
Has nobody anything to say about the news that Bield are closing all their care homes and ending very sheltered housing support to focus on retirement flats.
BUPA are also selling off many of their care homes too.
In Glasgow, I know from my auntie’s case it went from Council run care homes offering respite care to it being provided by a privately run care home.
There is a crisis in elderly care and it’s only going to get worse with an increasingly elderly population and lack of funding for their care.
The state has almost all but abandoned state run residential care for elderly people since the 80s. The Geriatric hospital is a thing of the past.
The private sector – including charities – have become the main providers of care, but many don’t want to do it. As private businesses they have no duty to provide care. They can follow the money, wherever the profits are.
For those unable to meet care costs, What future do they face? Do spending priorities need to be reconsidered?
Or does it not matter, as the vulnerable elderly are unable to organise protest campaigns?
Tory MSP’s are a sad bunch of chancers. Briggs is a carpetbagger.
link to caltonjock.com
@ Iain mohr
Oh Danny Boy
the arse wipes are Trolling
through every thread
they’re roaming
But come the day
when Scotland seises
Independence
they’ll fade away .
IanB: think you’re right about Thepnr spotting him.
Wasn’t it Angostura Bitters, as I used to call him?
Can’t remember his name, but it revealed itself if you hovered the cursor over his avatar, as Alex noticed, if I remember correctly.
None too bright, really. All that specialised 77 training too…
Yet another BBC Question Time with no SNP representative on the panel. When will the London centric BBC recognise that the SNP is the third largest party in the House of Commons and has the second highest membership in the UK?
Question Time is the most viewed political programme on TV which discriminates against the SNP who should by rights have one panellist out of five every week.
IanB: “If you want a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club”?
Gave rise to all sorts of subversive versions…
@Colin Alexander
Just heard the news about bield. I was looking at their accommodation for my mother who can no longer live at home. V sad.
Up until 4 weeks ago she was getting by with free care at home – the provision of which alongside the district nursing, physio etc has been bloody marvelous.
Her voting preference (conservative ) would see all that disappear and she couldn’t reconcile it whilst of ‘sound’ mind.
If scotland wants to fund more of this it has to raise taxes. If WM wants to fund it, it does so by double entry book keeping via its overdraft at the BOE (without raising taxes). That’s the reality.
@TC –
🙂
Brilliant stuff – it’s aw comin back now!!!
P.S. My favourite was the purple one i.e. ‘Fruit Club’.
Are yous talking about neoconat and his multi disguises. Azurafuckwit being one…okay not that end bit 😉
The Empire as was takes the biscuit & every other thing they can get they’re feking hands on .
Ian: happy to help! I agree, purple was best with a swig of hot tea. orange ones not bad, on reflection.
K1: that’s the cove but I can’t remember the exact handle. He morphed into so many others at the time, including the one who used the Latin name for kingfisher. Then there was Aldo and Waldo.
Ah, the memories…
There was a bakery bottom of queen Margaret drive that we passed on the way tae school and we could get a bag o broken biscuits fur sixpence, sometimes they gave us them fur nothin’ tae….only about 5/6 years old…69/70…huge bag they gave us…think they new by the look o us we were starvin’. Aye memories that make ye greet right enough.
@K1 –
🙂 🙂 🙂
Aw maaaan, ma sides, ma sides…
This is a perfect example of how solid the WOS ‘community’ is – we’re like a big cheese: where some of us have holes, others have solid stuff.
Soo-fekkin-perb.
This has made my night.
(I’m now about to listen to some of QT and will, therefore, get back to ‘normal’…bang on cue, DD says. ‘yes, you, the man in the checked shirt’…ah, the familiar is *so* cosy…)
@K1, TC, Ronnie –
Azuraman?
Aye we were on a mission tae uncover his lies about who he was etc….well I was…real piece of work, like something right out of the daily mail, his schtick was so unbelievably right wing Tory…think we aw thought he wis sd at one point too…notice he’s made an appearance btl of late too…wonder what’s eating mr ‘I speak fur engerlund’ lol
@K1
Yes, Neoconat was the first name I think then came Angra Mainyu and finally a third. It was Tam Jardine who spotted the hovering over the icon thingy. I just repeated it again and again LOL.
To be fair I think Briggs has been inhaling pies. That’s a debilitating respitory illness.
Talking about Empire biscuits Gerry Parker & myself went to Holyrood 2014 we went into the cafe area I go to the toilet when i get back gerry has bought the coffees & two Empire biscuits i didn’t know whether laugh or cry lol.
You’re getting closer, Ian, but not quite there.
Hope to wake up tomorrow with yon name.
Got a plasterer coming at 0730 tomorrow (!) so it’s up wood hill for me.
*Muses thereon*
Angra Mainyu!
And that’s numberwang, Alex.
Right, must hit the hay.
Biscuit puns? I’ll penguin the best one I know unless someone has bandit.
Paula Rose,
We can always rename a biscuit? What about Westminster MP Biscuits, the new name for “Jammie Dodgers”.
@TC –
Well done that man.
We’ll all sleep easier the nicht!
😉
@yesindyref2 says: 12 October, 2017 at 10:06 pm:
““BREAKING: The Assembly of the Council of Europe condemns the Spanish police violence against Catalan voters.”
link to twitter.com
It;s in the Express so I wouldn’t vouch for accuracy.”
I did say here on Wings, when the violence was being perpetrated, that the Council of Europe would be the most likely to act. They usually work away quietly in the background and they do not get the publicity they deserve.
Many Scots of my generation and that of our parents knew that the Council for Europe urged on by Canon Kenyon Wright, who was a long-time campaigner for Scottish devolution and the cross-party Scottish Constitutional Convention had a lot more to do with Scotland getting devolution than had the then Labour Party who were claiming all the credit.
Kenyon Wright had been a member of the Labour party but had lapsed his membership to work with the cross-party Scottish Constitutional Convention. Well that was the story but to me it has always sounded rather hollow. Why, if you were still the same way inclined politically would you lapse your party membership? It was, after all, a cross-party organisation.
However my real point is that the Council of Europe is a larger and more influential organisation that is the EU and every EU member state is also a member of the Council of Europe but there 47 member states in the Council of Europe including the 28 EU member states. The Council of Europe run The European Court of Human rights and the Schengen Area and not the EU.
Angra Mainu, Ahura Mazda
@yesindyref2 –
The collective WOS memory is long…
Mischief-makers, beware!
O/T
BBC Scotland: Latest news. DOZENS of Scottish school children are going missing. Check school with a large number of ethnically diverse children running around. Interview four people two of whom are black. Looking for causes of this. Question one Scots Asian woman says they may have been taken out of the country to get married or to have genital mutilation carried out. And more of course.
Am I being paranoid or are they now ramping up the ante? And following Nicola et al stating that we depend on immigrants to keep us afloat are they targeting those who are fearful of a rise in migrant numbers?
@yesindyref2
Yes that was the third name, Now here’s a long post from Angra Mainu just skip by if your not interested.
Check the thread itself, after this post who responds first? Our good friend Rock and then AM replys to Rock. LOL a tag team.
Angra Mainyu says:
6 December, 2015 at 1:13 pm
ArtyHetty, could agree more, Bateman reveals his pro-establishment roots and bias all too often.
The referendum was a sham, reminiscent of the sort of pro-Russian democracy you’d expect in Ukraine or one of the other Soviet satellites.
You can’t use have a state controlled media spouting out lies and threats 24/7 for months in the run up to a referendum, then claim the predictable result was democratically achieved.
I’ve noticed middle-class people generally, like Bateman, despite professing to support independence, are always urging us to wait and be patient and accept the result.
He and others who say that have no special gift in terms of being able to predict anything. It’s just as likely that waiting and being patient will kill the I dependence movement stone dead. I actually already see interest and enthusiasm waning because of a lack of progress.
Add to that the likely splits and fractures that are starting to appear and grow in the movement and it’s a no-brainer.
Waiting suits the bastards, it doesn’t suit Scotland. We’re about to be dragged into an apocalyptic war and we have SNP representatives urging us on Sunday TV to accept the decision and get behind the troops. Fuck that.
Is that the deal, then? Support the troops, support the SNP, expect nothing? What next? Support the food banks, maybe we should be proud to have food banks eh?
The cowardly self-serving middle-class careerists now have a foothold in the movement it would seem and Bateman speaks for them.
Can’t put my finger on it but that style of writing reminds me of someone, does it remind you of anyone?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Just looked it up and the CoE did debate Catalonia right enough on Thursday.
link to website-pace.net
@Alex Clark
Just checked back through the rest of that thread like
“Rock, exactly, screw them all.
And at the moment, like you, I’ll be voting and supporting SNP + SNP.
But if no firm commitment to a second referendum is given by the SNP by say Easter, I’ll probably campaign and vote against them.
It should be a given that the SNP’s top priority until we are independent is independence; and it should be on the first line of every manifesto forever.
If the SNP don’t do that then I don’t see the point in them. We can get piss-boring politics elsewhere, why limit yourself to theirs?”
So yeah, Mr Zoroaster does appear to have come back with a new name.
Just spent some time reading the btl comments on the link given earlier. Was well worth it, call it a refresher. Have a glance your eyes might be opened at the comparisons of the comments and those making them between today and then.
I’m talking of the arguments of the doubters, those that are always negative. Take a look and then laugh at their efforts for nothing has changed.
Paula Rose @ 11.35
Well I’ll count ye in…..ready?
5,4,3,2,1
Taxi!
Robert Peffers @ 23:46,
Interestingly, while Kenyon Wright dropped his Labour party membership to chair the Constitutional Convention as you say, after the re-convention of the Scots Parliament, he first stood for election as an independent, then as a LibDem. Unsuccessfully in both cases, more’s the pity. Not the first time then that the electorate have had as much collective sense as an amoeba!
He also voted “yes” in 2014.
So he was clearly on a journey of his own as well.
I imagine him today in heaven shaking his head at the puerile and selfish antics of the current membership of both his former party allegiances in Scotland.
OT
Been getting calls this week from an unknown 0131561xxxx number and didn’t bother answering them, but looked it up and it’s Ipsos Mori, so they’re doing a poll at the moment.
@yesindyref2
That does it for me, Angra Mainyu has been back for a while as colin alexander, COLIN ALEXANDER, Colin Alexander and even colin Alexander.
How many names do you need to get your point across LOL.
Alex Clark @ 12 October, 2017 at 11:57 pm
I’ve been trying to make sense of the UK (middle class) liberal response to events in Catalonia which has been using every excuse to blame the actions of the Spanish government on the Catalan people for daring to exercise their right for self-determination.
When it comes to the role in politics, regardless of topic, I can only come to the same conclusion of yourself that these middle class liberal types are only into causes that they know aren’t going to affect them in any way.
In regards to Scottish indy, they supported it because it was right-on at the time and deep down they knew it wasn’t going to happen. However, when it it was fast becoming a reality of happening they changed their tune by going back to undecided and afterwards those that stayed, comes out with every excuse to wait and see.
The reality is that when you scratch below a (middle class) liberal, you get a conservative. When it comes down to it, they don’t want change especially when it could affect their lifestyle and future/retirement plans.
These individuals are irrelevant and best to leave them to drift away back to their right-on causes in far away parts of the world that will never touch them in any way.
Paula Rose @ 12.34
Taxi??? Why are ye trying tae Breakaway?
@PacMan
I’m sorry but that post that may have made you respond wasn’t by me and I disagree with everything the original poster said in it.
Pacman, that sounds like my well off relatives. Never a truer word said. When it becomes too real, it’s dropped. Always chasing their own tail.
Ah, it’s my old pal? 🙂
The Dialectics of Globalization: Economic and Political Conflict in a Transnational World
link to net4dem.org
Ireland, European Integration, and the Dialectic of Nationalism and Postnationalism
link to persee.fr
Nationalism and Beyond
Chapter nine. Political alternatives to nationalism
link to books.openedition.org
PacMan @ 00:54,
So who are you going to recruit to replace them to vote for yes and get us over the line? It’s not as though we’re doing better than holding steady at the moment. Good, but not good enough to be able to afford to freely insult any waverers.
I’m getting pretty sick of the self-righteous who deride anyone with a different view of life from atop their self-appointed high horses. And would prefer, it seems, to take us all down with them and their fine principles the next time around.
People vote for all sorts of reasons, and I don’t give a tinker’s cuss what they think as long as they vote “yes” when the chance comes around again and we win.
It even seems to me that the way to achieve that essential win is to convince most people that independence is precisely the best way they can hang on to whatever it is that they value most in life, hypocrites or not.
Utopia is only on the agenda of losers.
@PacMan
In my opinion that post was part of the UK states propaganda against Independence. It wanted to create division in a number of ways.
There are attacks there on middle class, on the SNP, on the date for another referendum.
They are doing all the same shit now, really I think to we need to pay more attention to what we are reading. Not having a go at you Pacman honestly, of course their words are carefully crafted.
They’re being paid though and we’re not, if your goal is Independence then we must stick together and support one another. Class, race or political affiliation means nothing so don’t be taken in by them fighting against our Independence by lying.
They lie not just on the newspapers or TV, they lie on here too.
@Alex Clark
There’s always different points of view, like going back to June 2016 should we have a referendum straight away, or wait? Along comes the splitter with a strong view of the one that’s not going to happen, complaining it isn’t and didn’t.
Where we are now, there’s not so much point for the splitter to push that one, by the time one was organised it would be March next year at the earliest, compared to November, or the next March.
So perhaps the next will be whether it should be a 1 or 2 question referendum, with the second on the EU. That’s something we (some of us) do have different views, so the next splitter identity, oh I don’t know, let’s call him George Wade, will look for one view, push that one, while doing the rest of the SNP doing it wrong stuff.
We just need to be alert, Scotland needs lerts!
yesindyref2 @ 01:23,
That’s why I’m dead against multi-option referendums. They provide a heaven-sent opportunity for splitters, who will try to poison one vote by getting people all confused, upset and divided over the other.
Referendums are devlish things at the best of times, with all sorts of undercurrents that can lead people astray, even with one apparently simple question. (EURef, for example.)
It’s essential to minimise any potential confusion and focus on the prime issue, and on that alone.
It seems to me that the best way to proceed is to have a simple referendum on independence with a firm promise that if “yes” wins, the newly-elected Scottish government of the day, whichever it is, will institute talks with the EU on our membership in our own right, and people will be given the opportunity to vote in a follow-up referendum on the basis of what’s then clearly agreed regarding that membership.
(And I am very confident about the answer to that second one already. As do various others, actually, which is why they are so desperately anxious to have that option removed by the UK first.)
@RJS
Yes, that would be my preference, keep it simple! Then the anti-EU YES people can vote for Indy knowing they’ve got a chance in the actual EU Ref to follow.
Possibly though make that follow-up Ref about a choice between EU or EFTA+EEA, or neither. Mutli question but on the same theme at least. That would really get the anti-EU ones who might consider EFTA on board with YES for the first referendum.
But it’s all about optimising YES and makng it about making our own choices, never mind other issues – they come later when we can actually decide rather than just talk about it.
Not keen on Jamie Greene then ?
@Robert J. Sutherland says: 13 October, 2017 at 1:44 am:
” … whichever it is, will institute talks with the EU on our membership in our own right, and people will be given the opportunity to vote in a follow-up referendum on the basis of what’s then clearly agreed regarding that membership.”
And there you go, getting it confusing for everyone before it even begins.
What if, and it isn’t too far fetched, as Scotland is still in the EU and the United Kingdom isn’t a country but a Kingdom, with legally two equally sovereign partners, and one partner democratically voted to leave while the other democratically voted to remain, the EU agrees to do what is set up to do. Protect its member states and its EU citizens and just rules that Scots remain EU citizens and Scotland becomes the hereditary member state.
The EU retains its 28 member states, Scotland gets what Scots EU citizens voted for and the kingdom of England’s three countries get what they voted for and everyone, (who respects democracy), gets exactly what they wanted.
Those who voted against the majority in their country or Kingdom, (as is usual in a vote), will just have to suck it up or emigrate to the United Kingdom partner Kingdom that voted as they did.
What’s not to like? The only ones not pleased are the ones who, wrongly, think that the UK is a country and its name can be either England or Britain or the Kingdom of England.
Even the ignorant numpties who have claimed they subsidise Scots will be pleased to have rid themselves of a beggar nation of layabouts.
O/T sorry.
Just reading a news round up before bed.
It seems that WM is giving itself £47.9 bn for railways in England and Wales and giving Scotland £3.6 bn, – £600 million less than we were expecting.
Apparently that is a ‘generous settlement’
link to bbc.co.uk
How soon can we get away from these people who continuously denigrate us?
Here is one that seems to have slipped under the radar.
Theresa’s Tories have delayed the (Not so great) Repeal Bill.
Apparently due to TORY REBELS having the numbers to hand out around 13 defeats.
link to archive.is
I read that the Forth Road bridge is re-opening to buses after roadworks and that the speed limit on Kevin will rise from 40 to 50 imminently.
Apparently also, in high winds a few weeks ago, which would have closed the Forth Bridge, Kevin stayed open – but NO newspapers reported it because they already had loads of SNP bad stories to tell us.
Aren’t the SNP a really bad government making life so difficult for us all…
That last line should read…”hand out a severe defeat”…!!!
Was thinking about something else and senior momented it…
Wonder who the new Inveruruie and district/Aberdeenshire councillor will be.
By-election was today, count starts at 10am friday.
Could be an interesting one to watch!
Robert Peffers @ 02:09,
This is all theory, Robert, and like you I would much prefer that we attempted to swan into the EU automatically, as of sovereign right. But even we have to recognise that whatever the rights and wrongs of UK constitutional niceties (an enormous swamp if ever there was one), an independent Scotland will still have to conduct its own negotiation with the EU, even if it is recognised as a continuing member, of which currently there is some doubt.
So it seems to me that it’s far simpler to persuade voters that a vote for independence doesn’t hobble them for anything further, and it would be a fine democratic principle to get them to sign off on any agreement that will be arrived at anyway.
It actually then becomes irrelevant whether we are still a continuing member of the EU at that point or not. A sovereign people are deciding on an important issue in their own right, whatever. I’m sure the EU would be willing to hold ready until a win for “yes” and will thereafter not be in the least interested in quibbling about the issue.
We’ll be “in” whatever, I’m sure of it, not least given the example of Brexitannia to compare with. =grin=
@Meg merrilees
From that BBC article: “Scotland has been attracting more than 11% of UK rail funds based on the extent of the network in Scotland.
The Scottish government said that was now being reduced because the Treasury had decided to switch to a calculation using the Barnett formula. ”
What a lot of people don’t realise, and I didn’t realise until discussing Barnett with Robert Peffers and reading up on it, is that Barnett is not about the split of UK spending, it’s about the change (increase) in funding from year to year of the different parts, i.e. what next year’s budget will be, and the next after that.
And that the aim of Barnett is convergence, i.e. the four parts of the UK get the same relative funding, without taking into account our geography or special needs. Scotland is populated to one-quarter the level of the UK, we have 4 times as much land per capita as the rest of the UK. So it costs more for – everything.
Perhaps when Unionists wake up to this they won’t talk smugly about the “Barnett blanket”, or “the broad shoulders of the UK”, but about the way that in 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, even 2 years, all Scotland will get is our population percentage, no more, no less – 8.3%. Nver mind it costs say 10% more to run an NHS all over Scotland, to run trains all over Scotland, buses, police, education – and we have ferries for the islands.
With the UK being bust, and Brexit on top, the UK has no broad shoulders, it has a stoop and like all ageing things, it’s going south at an accelerating rate, with a loss of circulation to the extremities like Scotland.
yesindyref2 @ 01:56,
Well, if that’s the way to go, whatever the alternative is, it will have to be well-defined. A nailed-down certainty. No more monkey business like the last EURef, where there were apparently thousands of different alternatives lurking in various people’s minds. Most of them conjured up by sheer trickery. As we all know.
@RJS
Yes, it would have to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But it’s simple really. All it needs is for YES and everyone to say:
“First we vote YES for Independence, then we have a referendum to decide what we want to do with it, stay in the EU or rejoin the EU while hopefully in a holding pen so we don’t leave the single market, freedom of movement and trade, or we leave the EU while being in a holding pen for the EEA if possible to preserve the single market and freedom of mvement, but join EFTA and the EEA in our own right instead, or be a member of neither, no single market, no freedom of movement”.
That might need to be written a bit better 🙂
And there wqas me joking that you had stolen Tom Gordon’s Herald Britland SNP BAD story today, Stu, when the online Herald Britrag has Gordon reporting on SNP Ministers using official vehicles to travel from Perth to Edinburgh last MAY following the launch of their manifesto.
Gie’s a job, Herald Britland, I could do that.
Imagine paying money to read the full account of this pathetic drivel online.
I took the Herald for nearly fifty years, man and boy, until September 2014.I no longer buy or subscribe online. It is a sick joke funded by Non Dom billionaires and staffed by sad wee hacks with nowhere else to go now.
I am assuming that Davidson is clutching the editorial section to wipe Briggs not inconsiderable arse in this rare photo op snap of Jolly Hockey sticks?
They have run out of Project Fear and SNP BAD riffs.
Michel Barnier leaves the latest round of Brexit Talks as frustrated as ever by Davis and his Mandarins, yet Tom Gordon reheats this shit for a day’s wage?
Howe does he look his kids in the eye?
Many of the Tories are obscene and obese. Too much vino. Kerr looks like a extra proportion mummy’s boy who always had extra chips. Another Hypocrite. They just can’t help shooting themselves in the foot. Most of them were dragged off the street to stand. Such is the unpopularity of the Tory Party. Age of the average member 72. The Tory Party is actually dying out. Year after year the numbers go down.10 members in some constituency.
Peter Chapman opens a new Doctor surgery in Crimond,. His auld dead (Tory?) mate contributed to it. The little screwed up numpty is the one who classes people getting their prescriptions as unaffordable freebies. When it stops people getting sick and saves money. Saves NHS money in the long run because people can get their prescriptions that they need.
He is worth £2Million. Owns a farm. Has an income of £1/2Million a year. Gets up to £100,000 in subsidies on top of that. Plus the MSP salary and perks but resents sick people getting their prescriptions. His constant accusation is that £Multimillionare farmers and fishermen are in poverty. When in fact they are highly subsidised. This abnoxious little toe rag liar called Wightman, ‘an nasty little man’ when Andy called out his subsidies. Everyone know who the nasty little man is. It is liar Peter Chapman. Blaming the SNP for Westminster fishing policies with which the SNP never agreed. Pathetic little liar.
Aberdeenshire Council cut the allocated funding for education. It lobbed off £Millions over the years. Lobbed £Millions off. They think people will not notice but they do. Leading to oversized class room and stress for teachers. They use the statutue of limitation. Set at 30 per clas to help the councils out in extreme sutuatation. eg houses being built and a school not being completed in time. Etc. That is the exception but the unionists (illegally) take it as the norm Cut all the special needs provision. A totally false economy. It ends up more has to be spend on mental service, NHS, polic, social care, fire,addiction problems. More people die or are in prison because they did not get adequate necessary support when at school.
These Tories who are responsible for these cuts. (Along with the FibDems), stand up in Holyrood giving bleating heart speeches about their families. It’s all about them. Claiming to support Education when they are hypocritical liars. Shave cut the allocated money incessantly. Letting the pupils, the teachers and the parents and communities down. They are total liars. They often blame John Swinney when it is the unionist total corrupt mismanagement. They hope people will not notice but they do.
The unionist cuts to the education allocation and essential services. Spending £Millions on groteque projects of no value ruining city centres. No one bothers going into the City anymore unless they gave to, because of the congestion. The chairperson of the education committtee Aberdeen/Shire council is a personal friend of May from her constituency. A right old Tory. She is off her head.
That!s what is happening. 3rd Tories (landowners) getting elected and then trying to control the local economy. Stop essential roads being built or any improvement in the local economy. The Greens do their dirty work fir them for payment. Leading to delays costing £Billions. While the local unionists waste £Billions of public money. On non mandated, non essential crap. Of no value. ACC is £1.2Billion in debt with more to come. The SNP group leader in the Council is called Flynn. (Scottish?) On of the abnoxious unionists. Started shouting Irish insults at him across the Chamber. Spiteful little runt. The unionists have changed council meeting to accomodate the two job Tory’s trips to Holyrood. After coming third. To keep the useless unionists in power. So they can continue to waste public money like there is no tomorrow ruining the City. The unionist in cohoots.
The Barnett Formula was devised in the 1980’s by Thatcher and Lang take the equivalent of £Billion secretly and illegally out of Scotland and spend it on London S/E. That is what happened under the guise of the Official Secrets Act. Thatcher wrote on Treasury papers. ‘This must be kept secret’. Her Scottish minister Forsyth etc was Thatcher’s henchman. A devious little toad of no principles.
That is what she did, while claiming Scotland was subsidised by illegally wiping the equivalent of £Billions off the balance sheet, Totally false accounting. If an accountant used these methods they would be put in jail. Thatcher deprived Scotland of every investment she could. Shut down ever industry or plant that was running. She funded loads of crooked London bankers with the public money. So of which was donated to the Tory Party’s coffers. Totally illegally. Public money is not supposed to be used to fund political Parties. It is illegal.
Ken500@7.50 am.
The Blue Red and Yellow Tories spout ‘aspirations’, which is Double Speak for ‘the rat race. Dog eat dog; the poor will always be with us.
Bow down to your Lords and Masters.
If you can’t pay for it you don’t get, be it a private education, private health care, or private security.
They are all out to destroy Scotland’s Civic Society.
Thatcherism, Blairism, Yellow Book Liberalism (look it up) all advocate ‘small government’ sell off all public assets to relatives and pals in the City, and tout free market solutions to society’s basic needs, from gas, electricity water, and care for the elderly.
This is what we face. An Iron Heel Cross Party Oligarchy and a willing Press and Broadcasting wing selling lies and threats to the Scottish People.
Corbyn’s Labour is not a ‘Party for the Many not the Few’.
His Party signed up to the Blue Tories’ Austerity Rob The Poor Reward The Rich Package under Miliband in January 2015, and there are 200 odd New Labour Blairites still sitting at WM behind him. He himself is a Militant Marxist, anti European to the core.
He hates New Labour Blairism, yet most of his colleagues are Filofax Yuppies from the ‘eighties.
May’s risible efforts to portray the Blue Tories as the Party for Everyone ranks as one of the sickest jokes of the 21st Century so far.
And 74 year old Vince Cable as the leader of the Yellow Tories challenges our sanity.
We must get out of this corrupt little Union NOW (sorry for the Caps, Stu.)
Every considered opinion forecasts disaster and financial ruin for most of us if we are dragged out of the EU without a mitigating exit package including continuing access to the EU Market and free movement; yet we are expected to sit on our hands while the English Tories sort it all out for us? Aye, right.
The storm clouds are gathering.
Now exactly what Corbyn is. Just think three day week, the electricity cuts. The ‘winter of discontent’ The dead could not be buried. Rubbish piled up in the streets. Rats everywhere. Wages caps , rent caps. Energy cap. Everyone ended up poorer than before in inferior accommodation with candles. Like Victorian days. The sick and vulnerable were not getting oroper attention and care.
Britain was bankrupt again. In even more debt now. Corbyn was cheering all this on. The instigator, A total dangerous idiot. The good old days. Not bloody likely. He supports Trident along with McCluskey who funds these bastards. So £1Billion of Scottish funds are used to provide jobs in Barrow on Furness. Like they can’t build sonthing else that would have more use. Then obsoleted nuclear weapons polluting Scotland’s shore. They don’t want the. WMD’s near them. Nuclear warheads were removed from 20 mins of London in 1992 after major protests. With Brexit the nuclear weapons will be going.
Corbyn anti EU stance is so hypocritical as to be totally unreasonable. The international socialists causing illegal international wars. Causing the worse migration crisis in Europe since the 11WW. Then refusing to take any migrants into the UK, even displaced children. How cruel. May refused to take the children. Yet claims to be a Christian. Never out of the Church ever week. Hard as nails and totally unempathetic. ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’. ‘It is as hard for a rich man to get through the eye of a needle as it is to get to heaven’. The parables. Helping passing strangers and travellers. Jesus washing people’s feet. All the Christian teaching totally ignored. Total cruel hypocrites.
Whether people believe or not. These Westminster clowns are total hypocrites. The can’t count or read a balance sheet. The Guardian is full of these ultimate privileged people. No wonder they are struggling. The only paper of any freedom of editorial because the Founders made it so, They lost £Millions to establish a free standing paper exempt from outside influence. They have bern betrayed. . They print lies. They can’t count or read a balance sheet. Oxbridge privilege. Funded 2000 times mor than any other Universities. So they can ruin the economy. Raking it in their rank and privilege. Totally out of touch. No wonder they are struggling. Paying themselves excess wages and remuneration.
Other EU counties have to pick up the pieces. Costing £Billions and wearing down the EU economy. The Labour Red flag drenched in blood.of millions of vulnerable people. The old Marxists has made quite a good living troughing in a Party where he disagreed with every major decision. Who would do that. Anyone of principle would resign and go and do something useful.
MP’s should be made to resign at 70. Except in extreme circumstances. Well pass the Official retirement age they set for everyone else. The House of Lords should go. A worthless talking shop of possible delay. No powers at all. Unelected representatives. A complete balls up. Under the Tories average life expectancy is beginning to deteriorate. Osesity and excess drink/drugs are beginning to take there toll as expected. Westminster total intransigence to bring in effective measures to combat the problems. Other governments have done it but not the useless unionists. Although they do nothing but complain about it. While gorging themselves on public money. Horse and cart. Lead by example.
Re discussion on Indy and the EU. Getting Indy as a priority, then deciding what OUR relationship with the EU is afterwards makes sense.
One group of folks would be a problem. YES inclined voters who have leaving the EU as a higher priority than leaving the UK. Some may vote NO because they believe staying with an exiting rUK would keep them out of the EU.
I believe they need to consider how the future might play out. OK, so some or all of the UK would be leaving the UK at the point of IndyRef2, however will it stay out?
Change of WM government, long transition, extended transition, and next a renegotiation just to stay in the EU. Or, 5, 10, 20 years later, applying to join again. IMO leaving permanently is not guaranteed even if the UK leaves in 2019.
All confirmed and potential YES voters need to focus on the urgent need for Scottish self determination. Anything else which may or may not happen to the UK should not influence that priority.
It’s hard to understand why John Nicholson bothers to turn up for Andrew Neil’s This Week. After letting the other three guests talk uninterrupted, Nicholson hardly got through a single sentence without interruption. Although this was a discussion about the Tories strangely it became an attack on the SNP, meanwhile Mr Portillo sits smiling like the Cheshire cat.
They also seemed confused by querying what concessions the EU have made. When you leave a club that you have signed up to for a fixed period there are no concessions. Mr Neil worked for News International, he should know that when you sign up for a one year contract you read the small print about how much it costs to leave. My understanding is Mr Cameron signed up for a seven year contract, they need to look at the small print.
@ Jack Collatin at 08:21
“May’s risible efforts to portray the Blue Tories as the Party for Everyone ranks as one of the sickest jokes of the 21st Century so far.”
A very quotable quotation. I’ll keep that one up my sleeve.
How does this become a story? What’s the editorial policy at STV? If i told them that i saw an SNP politician asking for a bigger bit of fish at the chippie would they print that? Or Tight arsed SNP MP doesnae get his round in at the bar?
I checked out the ‘STV Group PLC’ on Companies House Website and there’s been and still is some fairly big hitters on the board of directors.
At work I have daily short rants to anyone who will listen about our mainstream media being the worst, and it’s not really ours ‘cept for thon family that owns the Courier and the P&G.
Another day, another day listening to radio at work. Texas got a play, Wet Wet Wet got a play. Two songs fae Scotland in seven hours. Standard.
Was in Tesco the other day (looking for cheap pies ye ken) and the Scottish Butter was £1.85 that’s 5p more than the Organic Butter…that’s headline news surely.
The reality is Labour, Tory and Libdems daren’t highlight their own expenses claims to public scrutiny.
So they need to keep up this negativity and focus the public’s attention on Scottish Government ministers expenses.
Every time an opposition MSP attempts to exploit an SNP minister’s expenses claim for their own political advantage.
Then we need to highlight that opposition MSPS own expenses claims to the public.
Its the old adage fight fire with fire.
jfngw says:
Indeed. The current EU budgeting is up to 2020. May gave a woolly commitment in Florence to ensure no country was out of pocket, but since has given absolutely no indication of what that means in hard cash.
Asking for a transition, and paying for single market access, is simply ongoing membership fees. It would impact on the 2019/2020 budgeting but is a deflection from the main responsibility to settle accounts and of course relies on the EU27 agreeing.
Meeting budget obligations is one aspect, there are other ongoing responsibilities like EU staff pensions.
There is a divorce bill to be paid. “Small print” for cancelling membership, as you say. Future relationships are a completely different matter, as they should be.
Understanding Reporting Scotland syntax number 1.
“A Reporting Scotland investigation…”
Deciphered, we sat all day thinking about what new FOI we can generate. I believe the next Scottish BAFTA’s are going to have a ‘best FOI request’ award added.
@Thepnr or is that
@Alex Clark now?
I have only ever posted under one identity on WoS – whether it’s caps or lower case is irrelevant.
You are the person that changed id cos Stu banned you, for your poor attempts at being Rabbie Burns, if I remember correctly.
I get expenses every two weeks, its called my pension, i have a bus pass, but my bus service is run by a couple of millionaire spivs . so this year i decided to buy myself a little car for 240 quid and it runs like a dream, no more standing in bus shelters that would not keep a polar bear warm and dry, they must have got the bus shelters from a closing down sale in Spain, cause they sure are not made in scotland
If anyone wants to travel 2 miles with this shower of crap it costs £2.30, yes 2 pounds 30 pence, and they don’t do return tickets, they used to until they became the one and only by threatening and driving other operators off the road to become the main attraction, one of them has actually done time in england for fraud and thieving, he was caught in england, but the theft started in scotland, started out as a couple of scrapmen and worked their way up to be much bigger crooks than they used to be
I have allways voted for the SNP, and i was born in 1951, yes 66 years old this year, save you all working it out lol
Anyway i did not vote to stay in any european political union, so i want all the SNP members to have a vote on that when we get our independence, until them i am happy to be coming out of it thanks to westminster, at least they are getting something right this time
We all want to trade with equal partners in europe, but i am sure none of us want to be governed by a few clowns that think they can threaten us, they tried that with Poland and a few others, and they all told them to get stuffed and quite right too !
I agree and always have supported the position that Indy first as a priority, thereafter we decide on which direction once the various options are put before the electorate. That proposition hasn’t changed from Indy 14. Was it not clearly stated that whatever was negotiated between Westminster and the Scottish Government, the EU and the Scottish Government could only be ratified by a referendum, has that not always been our position?
@ jfngw John Nicholson is a BBC lovie ( the former SNP Superstar ) the appearance money must be good to get the piss taken out of you .
I know it couldn’t happen to a nicer party, but man alive, the Tory Party is like a procession of cartoon parodies from the Beano and Viz.
Even before you get to policy, integrity, or character, the alarm bells are already ringing.
Jacob Rees-Mogg IS Cuthbert from the Bash Street Kids, but you get the sense he’d weirdly welcome the recognition for it. For the rest of us, it’s like kiddies going to Disneyland and discovering Mickey Mouse isn’t the cool wee cartoon character you’ve been so excited to meet, but burst into tears when the reality is a 7 foot tall foam monster that can’t even speak or change a facial expression but still wants to give us a hug.
If Jamie Greene had a Bash St persona, he’d be Jamie Homework; the kid character yet to be written who opens his gob all the time, makes a thorough fool of himself for not doing his homework first. He slags of the SNP for patchy 4G mobile phone coverage without checking that it’s his own party in government responsible. He has quite a dossier.
Ruthie D is so many caricatures squeezed into one body she is like the Ghostbusters Ecto Containment Unit. You feel she needs a pressure gauge bolted on her head as a safety precaution so we all know when to run.
I’ll bend the rules and include UKIP’s David Coburn as another alien in our midst. I don’t mean he’s foreign, but that he hails from another planet altogether. I must confess I have warmed to Mr Coburn a little, since I will never forget his tremendously funny live interactive broadcast. Spontaneous genius if ever you see it. And no, I’m not talking about Coburn.
When you take them altogether, you realise there are kids in school studying algebra and statics, learning the humdrum difference between mean and median, average and norm, and suddenly they stumble upon the psychedelic Mr Messy type manic scribble that is the Tory definition of “norm”.
@ colin alexander ( upper case lower case ) feking heidcase . The PNR was never banned by the Rev . The PNR just came out in his own name , Alex is a WoS stalwart,unlike yourself a TOTAL ARSEHOLE .
@David Caledonia
13 October, 2017 at 9:59 am
I would be careful about calling your pension
expenses.
It may very well give the Tories ideas.
After all we already have one Tory minster Jackie Doyle-Price who has stated that homes are not assets to be passed on to children.
@ David Caledonia 10.11
Maybe you will regale us with your views on furriners too?
You are perfectly entitled to your opinion on the the EU, but not to your own madey up snippets of bile presented as fact.
The EU Parliament votes on all legislation, not the Commission, which I assume you mean by ‘a few clowns’.
Poland has a lot of issues too, one of which is denying women’s rights at the money moment.
@ronnie anderson
You mean Alex Clark one of the offensive and insulting clique of (curmudgeon) WoS regular commenters like you, who act like it’s they believe they own the website, who try to control what’s said; who try to drive away anyone who would vote YES to independence, but does not worship the SNP as the perfect ones, without flaw.
People like yourself who cannot discuss any criticism of the SNP or indy strategies without the use of obscene and personally abusive assertions.
You people are a disgrace to the independence cause with your foul-mouthed, aggressive rants. You give credibility to Unionist complaints that seek to tar the YES campaign with the label of ” National Socialist fascist bullies” who try to intimidate and abuse anyone who seeks a genuine and open debate on what’s best for Scotland.
You are no better than the Nazi-saluting thugs of Freedom Square post indy-ref, except you do it online by words.
If WoS gets shut down, it won’t be cos of the Unionists, it will be because of people like you who use the forum to intimidate and abuse others who have a different point of view from the WoS SNP worshipping clique of bullies.
If its a parliament of clowns, is it a brood or a flock of naw bag journos?
Either way, ashamed to see the SFA part company with Gordon Strachan on the back of the best string of results in 30 years (Big Jock went 8 unbeaten in 1985-86).
Unless it was a pre-condition to Sir AF taking the helm then it appears to be a move of foot shooting proportions on a par with the country going postal in September 2014, and even then, whit a shower o donkeys!
Anyone know what’s up (if anything) with link to newsnet.scot??
Not my favourite site but occasionally visit it but at the moment keep getting the big 403 FORBIDDEN message.
SNP worshipping clique of bullies – now that really is so wide of the mark as to be utterly ludicrous.
I see disharmony has broken out again. Well done. Saves the Unionists a few bob in trying to cause division.
I watched Question time last night and was amazed that the DUP had such an entrenched position on the Irish language. Amazingly most schools in N Ireland teach Spanish, Italian and several other languages to pupils. However Irish Gaelic is out of the question.
When you dig an entrenched position on anything, and become too scared or too bitter to do anything about it, then eventually you find yourself in a hole that is too deep to climb out.
Perhaps there is a lesson for us all on the need to be creative and even unique in the way we approach a common goal, which in this case is independence. One aim,many routes.
Speaking of clowns, Gordon Brown is giving a talk at Glasgow Uni’ November 7th I think?
@Heedtracker
Haul that head in, Visit Scotland are not engaged in a bit of Torying. They have analysed falling footfall and the rise in online access for their information. 3 in 4 visitors have smartphones and tend to look stuff up online including on Visit Scotland’s website.
So, instead of spending to keep open offices with negligible footfall they have, based on data, decided to close those less visited and put the resources released into their digital offerings.
IOW this is in reaction to advances in the modern world.
Should iScotland be a place where folk are employed to spend all day in tatty offices nobody ever visits while visitors cannot find they information they need online?
Look at the lists of which offices will stay and which close. Small and duplicated go, large, spaced and regional stay. We can put info on where to look on the signboards at tourist sites with those funny squares you point a phone at. I dare say they are also thinking about Apple’s ARKit framework.
Your rock up to a castle of your choice, point your phone at it and and it appears unruined and soldiery with cannons arrive and proceed to pound it to rubble. Or you arrive at a tumulus and Picts leap about, all painted. Sort of thing. This costs money but will inform and excite the tourists and our weans on school trips too.
AR is where it will be.
We used to have truthful genuine Unionists coming on Wings to abuse us with their rants and hatred and misinformation but those guys have either gone now or seen the light and stopped shouting
Now we have a different breed *The pretendy Nationalist*
they spend their time telling us how nasty we all are and how everything is our fault and we should change our behaviour to be lovely so that Unionists would like us, and always in the course of their educational scribbles they manage to throw in every unpleasant nasty term they can think of calling us while at the same time maintaining their loyalty to Independence *to keep us all fooled*
Which we totally are! Duh!
I prefer the old style guys who were honest about their bitterness, these new guys with their lecturing faux generosity of spirit are way lower down the respect chain and much more insulting than the old ones
Although it must really annoy and anger them to know we know what they think we don’t know
Ruth say’s, “And that’s how we go about creating Scottish conservative manifesto pledges”. “By pulling it out of a fat twat’s arse”.
Or alternatively we could have Anas Sarwar doing the same to Jackie Bailley on a table but this time saying, “And this is how we create Scottish Labour manifesto pledges” “By pulling it out of a fat arse’s twat”
I’m Jackie Bailleying myself so much I’m going to need a wee lie down.
Bugs, yer a legend.
@ colin alexander !st things 1st I dont have membership of the SNP . I wouldn’t soil the soles of my boots stepping in people like you .
I give short shift to people of your ilk , now FUCK OFF an Troll some Unionist site there is no welcoming sign at this door.
@David Caledonia@10.11am
Question for you.
If the only choice available was vote Yes to independence and stay in the EU, would you vote Yes or vote No ?
I put it to you, if you would vote No in those circumstances, then you are a defacto unionist.
Is there an annual competition to choose the stupidest MSP? I admit it would be a difficult selection in a very crowded field, but maybe an intellectual giant like Neil Oliver could do the choosing. The prize (a jar of Liam Fox’s home-made jam and a bag of Michael Gove’s unpierced pig ears) could be presented by Eddie Izzard.
In the interests of fairness MSPs Jamie Greene and James Kelly would have to be excluded after the first year. It would be a bit unfair and boring always to have the same pair in the final. It might even appear as a stitch-up, like Cambridge and Oxford on University Challenge.
“We used to have truthful genuine Unionists coming on Wings to abuse us with their rants and hatred and misinformation”
Dr Jim
To be fair, some like Captain Caveman were actually quite nice and were open, honest, good humoured and polite. However, we did have concern trolls back then too. Can’t remember the various names but I think it was Viking Warrior/Tellen as appeared elsewhere.
Its always a judgment call over whether to ignore or call-out individual contributors. I’m opting for the latter on this occasion – for the record.
Its one thing having to cope with the usual ‘disrupters’, but I hope that whatever our views on politics we can all disown the language used by the contributor at 11.55am.
This crossed well over the line for me. If it ever became commonplace, I could no longer continue to recommend people I meet to read BTL on WoS as a way of persuading them join us in supporting independence. However, having been reading Wings for years, I am very confident it won’t.
A deliberate attempt to paint the community of Wingers in a bad light .. or just f’n stupid?
Re;Stu mac@11.24
Newsnet is offline due to trying to fix spam probs. Twitter message. Hope thy can fix it soon must be serious, gremlins no doubt.
Cheers, Art
Conservatives hold Inverurie by-election by about 500 votes ahead of SNP.
Con 1672
SNP 1146
Lib Dem 295
Labour 276
Greens 56
30.9% turn out.
No surprise there but SLab in 4th position.
@Robert J. Sutherland says: 13 October, 2017 at 2:27 am:
“This is all theory, Robert.”
Well factually, Robert, it is not theory it is the real legal facts.
It is a Westminster assumption, not backed by any other legal facts than Westminster claiming that Westminster has sovereignty over Scotland. There is no legislation to back up Westminster’s claims.
The documents that prove the legal truth are the Treaty and both Acts of Union although those acts of union prove nothing except that the parliaments that passed then made themselves redundant.
In England’s case a permanent end but in Scotland’s case the parliament was only prorogued as it never sat and ended the parliament. Proclaiming it ended by town Crier around the streets of Edinburgh was/is not a recognised legal way to end a parliament.
So the Treaty is, without doubt, a bipartite agreement between two KINGDOMS not between two countries. The resultant union is also, without doubt, legally a treaty between two equally sovereign Kingdoms and the proof of that is that if Scotland were not an equally sovereign kingdom then Scotland’s parliament would have had no legal right to make any kind of treaty.
So the truth is the United Kingdom is a treaty of Equals to have a joint parliament and they already had a joint monarch but a monarch who was sovereign only in the kingdom of England. So it is a Westminster illegal assumption that the sovereign monarch of England was also sovereign in Scottish law. There simply are no other proofs to show otherwise.
Yet under David Cameron’s heading of the Westminster Parliament the Westminster parliament made totally illegal claims:-
“The Treaty of Union extinguished the Kingdom of Scotland and renamed the Kingdom of England as the United Kingdom”
This was the statement made on national TV by the Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, quoting as his source a paper published by the Westminster Government that factually has no legal standing if for no other reason that it was opinions of the authors of the government commissioned paper.
See:- link to youtube.com
Then Cameron instigated the totally illegal EVEL
These illegal moves making the actual United Kingdom a union of four unequal countries and thus no longer a United Kingdom – to be a United Kingdom requires at least two existing kingdom partners but if Scotland is no longer a partner as an equally sovereign kingdom and no longer exists as either a country or a kingdom then Westminster is illegally governing either a United Kingdom nor a united country.
It is operating as the Country of England devolving those English sovereign powers that Westminster chooses to devolve to Scotland, N.I. and Wales as regions of England. Yet no one has been elected as member of the Parliament of England since the last day of April 1707.
Just because Westminster says something is so does not make it legally so – and that’s a fact.
I see Murdo Fraser claimed 46p for a stamp. If he’s that hard up, I’ll buy the poor soul a book of stamps.
This Wings article should be Required Reading on Day One in Scotland’s Colleges of Journalism.
Day Two stay in bed. 🙂
Meg merrilees @ 01:11,
Curious really, NorthBritLab coming in 4th there, because Inverurie used to be the only Labour patch in the whole NE, largely due to the employees of the former railway works and paper mill there.
LibDems used to be the main challengers to the Tories everywhere else around there, and even their vote was nowhere. Which must bode even worse for them than Lab.
Inverurie becoming more of a dormitory town for Aberdeen has evidently changed its composition significantly.
The contest there seems to have become a straight fight between supporters and opponents of Scottish independence, the latter turning largely to the Tories whatever their previous allegiance.
More shame on me,
Poor jock stein was only around for the first three of that 8 match unbeaten run so, according to my careless research, Scotland football team just lost their best manager in 50 years and, arguably, their best manager ever.
So sorry
@ Valerie says at 11:06 am …. ”David Caledonia (10.11)… Maybe you will regale us with your views on furriners too? You are perfectly entitled to your opinion on the the EU, but not to your own madey up snippets of bile presented as fact. The EU Parliament votes on all legislation, not the Commission, which I assume you mean by ‘a few clowns’. Poland has a lot of issues too, one of which is denying women’s rights at the money moment.”
Spot on Valerie. Mr Caledonia should take some time out to study and analyse just exactly what’s going on in Poland right now under a hard right wing Government. Scary to say the least. A couple of examples for him to get on with. Attempting to take over control of the Judiciary and the Media.
……………………
‘Poland’s parliament backs bill tightening political control over Supreme Court.’
…’The Polish government’s moves to take control of the judiciary are being closely watched in Brussels, where earlier in the week Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans warned it is “very close” to triggering Article 7 proceedings against Poland, a process which, in the unlikely event that Poland’s allies don’t block it, could lead to the suspension of the country’s voting rights in the EU….’
link to politico.eu
…………………………………………
…’Poles took to the streets Saturday in freezing temperatures to protest a new media law that allows the government to take control of state television and radio broadcasters, which many fear is a step toward an authoritarian state. Critics say the move by the Law and Justice party in power infringes on civil liberties and threatens the young democracy that emerged from the fall of Communism on 1989….’
link to news.vice.com
Re Poland. The EU has threatened to remove the voting rights of Poland because of the abuses, but with Spain the EU seem to give Spain the green light for anti-democracy abuses – because those abused are independists like the Scottish YES campaign.
This is the extent of the Tory branch office’s capabilities in Scotland.
They have no viable policies, their remit enforced by London is to constantly decry the SNP at every turn.
They’re a disgrace to Scotland.
@Colin Alexander
Did I touch a nerve? LOL
@Alex Clark
How many times has it been pointed out that slagging people just disrupts the thread?
The insults are just boring. They don’t bother me but, it upsets other people who are looking for a sensible discussion and instead get infantile name calling.
As for the troll talk, that just cheeses Stu off big time – as did your poetry.
To be fair, I thought your poem wisnae bad. But no my website.
Alex Clark @ 13 October, 2017 at 1:15 am
In my original post, well a rant, I was saying these middle class types are going to go for what is in their best interest. It doesn’t matter how much you try to pander to them, if independence doesn’t suit their best interests, they are never going to go for despite how much they say they might go for it.
To touch on your comments about the role of media propaganda and it’s attempts to create division, another way to look at it if we try not to offend anyone as well as trying to be everything to everyone, we start to become too timid, mousy and not say boo to a goose. Being like that isn’t going to win any arguments.
The British nationalists are trying to create division but that works both ways. Of course the indy campaign needs to win hearts and minds but it also needs to call out the BS of the other side.
Being like Sean Clerkin and his mob just doesn’t work. EmpireBiscuit with this Star Wars music playing as the Labour big wigs tried to walk through Glasgow City Centre during the referendum was a classic way of calling out Labour’s BS.
Another example which I think would have been good was to turn up to Jim Murphy’s Irn Bru soapbox publicity stunts and drink bottles of Tizer and heckling them that Tizer is a lot better than Irn Bru. It doesn’t add to the conversation but it would have shut him up in a constructive way.
The simple fact is that the indy movement doesn’t have the resources to combat the British nationalist so we either play their game and be good losers again or we get creative, taken them at their own game and beat them.
Lets look at things. Brexit is going to be a mess. Westminster’s only card is trade and they are overplaying it. The German car industry is going to take a hit in the short term but the German’s have deep pockets and will overcome it. Their prize is taking a huge chunk of the City of London’s business which will more than compensate for their car industry. Unless there is compromise, it looks like a hard Brexit which will be the best chance of winning the next referendum. We need to be bold and seize the day rather than being timid and always been second-footed.
Yer a whinny wee fanny Colin. Fuck off. You sound exactly like Rock… ‘It’s not your blog’ and ‘people swearing will undo the independence movement’. Ya total wanksocket. Grow up. We’re aw adults and speak as such, a direct fuck off has more power than wearing out our collective fingers in responding to your utter drivel and fantasy driven scenarios about the SNP and what ‘you’ assume’ to be commenters political affiliations with them.
One trick flea is what you are…you don’t even have the status of a pony on here.
O/T (I know…).
Following on from a blether at work today… Has anyone actually seen a Maritime Haggis? You know, the species that lives on the seashore, has webbed feet with long narrow claws and feeds on wulks?
@BDTT
link to emaritime.de
I of course understand everything it’s talking about.
Oh.
@Pacman
I don’t mind being offensive if I think it due lol. I also don’t think we should pigeon hole anyone according to “class”, That’s outdated and I think (I can’t be arsed looking) that the “middle class” as you call them were as for YES as any other group.
All I’m trying to argue is let’s not divide ourselves and unite instead. Even the Royals can get into my team 🙂