A recurring theme
There’s a tactical voting tool on the Telegraph website, which despite a somewhat loaded headline purports to even-handedly advise confused voters on the best course of action to take in their own constituency depending on whether they want to keep Ed Miliband or David Cameron OUT of 10 Downing Street.
We were a bit suspicious when we typed our Bath postcode in and asked to keep Cameron out, because it advised us to vote Labour even though it’s one of the safest Lib Dem seats in the country (with the Tories in 2nd) and Labour got just 3,251 votes in 2010, which is to say they’ve got absolutely no hope here.
And then we tried some Scottish seats, and things got a bit creepy.
Hmm.
There’s nothing illegal about a newspaper telling its readers to vote tactically, nor even in it giving them seat-specific instructions on how to do it. But this is something different. This is fraudulent. It’s claiming to be giving tailored advice, but actually just saying “anyone but SNP, no matter what the local circumstances”.
[EDIT: In fact, as you’ll see from a reader comment below, it’s hard-wired to do so automatically for any Scottish seat, although it works properly for the rest of the UK.]
But rather than angry, SNP voters should be delighted. Because what that means in practice is that in seats which are notionally Labour-Tory, Lib Dem-Tory or Labour-Lib Dem contests (eg East Renfrewshire or Gordon), would-be tactical voters are being given wonky advice which will in fact split the Unionist vote and help let the SNP in.
Nats had some fun at the weekend posting fake tactical-voting wheels for the loony “SNPout” group, to the point where their demented spiritual leader Jill Stephenson let out this primal howl of dismay:
But whoever got into the Telegraph office and sabotaged its source code like this is operating at a whole other level of subversion. We take our hats off to them.
Scottish results are a foregone conclusion. But what are we to make of your Bath result? That is weird
How can they get away with this? Honestly, telling people to vote Conservative to get Cameron out is tantamount to fraud.
Isn’t this probably ilegal? Spreading wrong information on purpose?
Disgusting but not surprising in the least. Sigh!
So voting SNP means that you won’t get Cameron or Miliband what is not to like.
You really have to laugh, what next I wonder?
My mouth is wide open in speechlessness!
I see a pattern, forming.
Just for a laugh, I put in a Kirkwall postcode. I should have thought it would tell me to vote Lib Dem at least once, but it told me to vote anything except SNP.
If anyone uses is this to help them decide (yikes) is it possible that they will see the yellow band across the screen and vote SNP, without actually reading the “advice?”
SNP BAD!!
Does it not actually encourage you to vote for “anyone other than”?
Here in Livingston I chose the option of keeping Milliband out and was advised to vote for anyone but the SNP.
Of course, I’ve probably read that entirely wrong?!
Kilmarnock & Louden the same.
The Telegraph could have saved a lot of effort by distributing an image of a tactical voting wheel.
A handy, pocket-sized guide to the candidates that our betters want us to vote for. It would be a far more effective way to stop those vile separatists…
I’m truly f’n’ astonished.
Did someone spike my coffee?
Just how weird is this election getting?
I noticed that the other day when I put my postcode in
Here is some of the code for that little app.
constituency_keys=
{
ABERAVON:{mps:[“Edward Yi He”,”Stephen Kinnock”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:1},
ABERCONWY:{mps:[“Guto Bebb”,”Mary Wimbury”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:2},
“ABERDEEN NORTH”:{mps:[“Mark Oliver”,”Jack Kempster”],parties:[“Nope”,”Nope”],pa_id:3},
“ABERDEEN SOUTH”:{mps:[“Mark Oliver”,”Jack Kempster”],parties:[“Nope”,”Nope”],pa_id:4},
“AIRDRIE AND SHOTTS”:{mps:[“Mark Oliver”,”Jack Kempster”],parties:[“Nope”,”Nope”],pa_id:6},
ALDERSHOT:{mps:[“Gerald Howarth”,”Alan Hilliar”],parties:[“Con”,”Ld”],pa_id:7},”
ALDRIDGE-BROWNHILLS”:{mps:[“Wendy Morton”,”John Fisher”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:8},
“ALTRINCHAM AND SALE WEST”:{mps:[“Graham Brady”,”James Wright”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:9},
“ALYN AND DEESIDE”:{mps:[“Laura Knightly”,”Mark Tami”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:10},
“AMBER VALLEY”:{mps:[“Nigel Mills”,”Kevin Gillott”],parties:[“Con”,”Lab”],pa_id:11},
ANGUS:{mps:[“Mark Oliver”,”Jack Kempster”],parties:[“Nope”,”Nope”],pa_id:12},
All Scottish seats are marked “Nope” for parties. When you type in your postcode and “Nope” is returned, it just defaults to “Vote anyone except SNP”.
Odd that the MPs for all Scottish seats are “Mark Oliver” and “Jack Kempster”.
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
That is pathetic and disrespectful.
And smacks of desperation
It’s impossible to vote for the SNP. The code doesn’t allow it.
This is the frame with the voting form:
http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/Years/2015/April/TacticalVoting/index.html
If you look at the bottom of the page source, a script is loaded:
http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/Years/2015/April/TacticalVoting/js/page.js
(the actual link is page.min.js, the minified/compressed version, but the above link also works and is the full version with comments).
If you read down the list of parties (“CON”, “GREEN”, “LAB”, etc) you can see the SNP section is called NOPE and quite literally includes code that says, “You should vote for anyone other than.”
it’s surely meant for tactical voting “tools”
& being the Torygraph they must be legion legion.
Probably some coder at the Telegraph is on a £20k bonus for SNP to lose the election.
From Karmanaut’s bit of code, we have “Mark Oliver” & “Jack Kempster”, representing the “Nope Party in Scotland” LOL
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3hQZITixrec/VT_M8xGHp9I/AAAAAAAAAVE/e7hqCIknPq8/s1600/rihannas_granny.png
This is Sinister by the Telegraph.
If you look at the source code for determining each constituency you will find that EVERY Scottish seat has “NOPE”,”NOPE” which relates to “You should vote for anyone other than the SNP” at the front end of the webpage.
All English seats give you something other than NOPE.
http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/Years/2015/April/TacticalVoting/js/page.min.js
Is this even Legal?
I think the Nope Party in Scotland is an ofshoot of the “SNP Baad Party”.
I kind of imagine a programme that just goes “Aaaaaaaggggh a Jock seat, SCARY, SCARY….ANYONE BUT SNP!!!!
Who do I vote for if i think the nazis are pretty good….?
@Fiona: I assume the whole thing is rigged to help the Tories in England. So in the anti-Tory setting, it’ll tell people to vote for a no-hoper (Labour in Lib-Tory marginal Bath, Lib Dem in a Labour-Tory marginal).
Curious what it recommends for the Green seat in Brighton, or the Plaid strongholds in north Wales?
And that is vindication of my policy of never buying the telegraph in my four decades on this earth.
So, logically:
If voting anyone except SNP will keep Ed Milliband out of Westminster, then all Labour supporters in Scotland, in order to prevent Ed Milliband from being kept out of Westminster, should vote SNP.
If voting anyone except SNP will keep David Cameron out of Westminster, then all Conservative supporters in Scotland, in order to prevent David Cameron from being kept out of Westminster, should vote SNP.
Cochrane’s been at the sherry again.
jaw-dropping
(hi to teh urbanites)
Interesting: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/jack-kempster/
“Jackalus Kempster
Jackalus Kempster is a web gnome on the Interactive Gnomes Desk
Jack Kempster is a web developer on the Interactive Graphics desk.”
They do love signing their work, don’t they. But where’s poor old Joel Gunter?
http://www.scanvine.com/author/graphic-by-jack-kempster-mark-oliver-and-joel-gunter-words-by-telegraph-reporters
(Scanvine is also a Telegraph-owned site.)
Are you surprised? At all? The anti-SNP rhetoric in almost every MSM newspaper and TV report/interview I’ve seen in the last few months has been declaring exactly this agenda. Bar a small few, it’s reached hysterical mode and will stay there until polling day.
Any pretence of fair and balanced reporting in support of our democratic values was lost well before the referendum.
The fact of the matter is, the only way you can expect the electorate to cut through the bullshit is to make whatever honest, balanced journalism exists (usually online on sites like this) as readily available as possible to the masses. And when it comes to the older vote (55+) we need to educate the majority of this demographic through traditional means.
This kind of thing will NEVER stop – even if it does illustrate this countries dire need for some sort of mechanism to stop the flow of absolute garbage that misrepresents the position of progressive politics and occasionally lies directly to voters.
If I was in charge and I had the ability to make willful misrepresentation when in public office an offence, I would. Let’s see how many politicians and newspaper editors are willing to stray from the truth and push biased editorial values when it lands them with significant fines or prison for repeat offenders.
My ears are open to a better alternative – but I can’t think of one. The media is a rabid dog that was let off its leash long ago; it needs captured, and trained, or it needs put down.
Yep …Livingston is a ‘You should vote for anyone other than the SNP’.
What was really hilarious in The Telegraph is that they can’t even bring themselves to print the percentages for a ‘Labour-SNP coalition’. Nope …it’s ‘Any Other Government/Coalition’.
Absolutely priceless!
They are honestly paranoid, delusional, uptight arseholes (I apologise for my swearing, but hey! It’s the truth!! LOL)
LOL …they now can’t even say three little letters in a certain specific order in case thy explode with apoplectic rage! I did a search on ‘SNP’ within that article and the only one that leapt up was a small link to another article.
Yep! We are their worst nightmare. To not say those 3 little letters almost feels like ‘he whose name that must not be said’
This is actually doing the SNP a huge service, if you think about it. Clearly this ‘service’ is only aimed at people who want to foil the SNP but if the Telegraph simply tells them that it is OK to vote for anyone but the SNP, then the anti-SNP voter will simply vote for the party they were always going to vote for, of the red,blue or yellow tory persuasion. So the whole point of tactical voting is ignored, leaving the road open to the SNP to win under First Past The Post. Thanks Telegraph.
WTAF
No wonder Oborne left. The Telegraph is trying to find a market below the Daily Sport.
Perhaps the Telegraph know so little about Scotland they are not quite sure which parties, other than the SNP, actually stand here! After all, we could be like Northern Ireland and have a whole set of different parties. Do you think they know where Scotland actually is?
What ever happened to good old “if ya want labour vote labour. If ya want SNP vote SNP”. This is turning out to be pretty mental.
Nope – No Obvious Permutation Exists.
Looks more like an UsVsth3m,Daily Mirror joke poll.
Jobseekers should try Ian Duncan Smith Realistic unemployment Simulator.
Doctors or health workers should try Jeremy Hunt Realistic A+E crisis simulator.
Farmer Cameron has “delightful and frightening Photoshop,-and his pig friend.
SNP REALLY, really, bad, bad, bad!!!
I sense a disturbance in the force, Lord Tellygrath is playing silly buggers again.
Honestly the MSM, it’s like two kids shouting it IS and it ISN’T at each other, if this is the level a so-called UK national newspaper has to scrapp down to, it just means they have nothing left.
The next thing they will be doing is knocking yer door leaving a tory leaflet and running away.
I think I know what they are getting at: they are saying that if the SNP win the predicted landslide in Scotland, Labour and the Tories are going to join together in a grand coalition to keep out the nasty separatists. This means that if the SNP do well then both parties “win” the election and so you need to vote against the SNP to stop this from happening. 😉
So if I click that I want Cameron to Lose on this rather sinsister ‘tactical’ voting tool, it comes up with immeditately ‘You should vote for anyone other than’:SNP.
I can vote for any other candidates in Scotland including Conservative and Labour if I want either Cameron or Milliband to lose, if I live in Scotland.
Hmmm…So if I vote SNP in Scotland, both Labour and Conservatives will lose…my vote.
Sounds like a plan.
Absolutely disgusting, a newspaper making no pretence of honesty.
I’m not surprised, just angry that they have this platform to so advise the gullible, that can’t work out it’s pathetic.
I’m in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale. The only Tory in Scotland. It’s a close race between the Tories and the SNP, with the other parties nowhere.
If you don’t want Cameron to win, the only possible vote is SNP. Anything else may let Mundell in. Of course, voting for Mundell will help Mundell get in.
Yes I checked. Same result as all the others. If I don’t want Cameron, the instruction is NOT to vote for the only party that can defeat the Conservatives here. It’s OK to vote Conservative of course!
I’d love to see this featured somewhere in the mainstream media.
“Mark Oliver is the Telegraph’s Online Graphics Editor.”
He is also a leading member of the vile splittist Scottish Nope Party. Standing for election in all 59 constituencies. Such enthusiasm, such stamina!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/journalists/mark-oliver/?showPageNumber=2
I’m so disappointed not to be able to say, #WellDoneAgentMurphy
bloody hell. Sorry for not being an alert reader, but I only glanced at the above post as I was about to have my dinner. Anyway, seeing all the SNP logos, I wrongly assumed it was telling you to vote SNP!
In my state of ignorance I put in my constituency (Paisley & Renfrewshire North). Only at that point did I realise what was going on. I’m glad I did it now, because I was sleep walking into voting for the SNP!!!!
So, if you live in Scotland, the Telegraph doesn’t care who you want or don’t want in No 10, as long as you don’t vote for the bloody SNP!
I suppose this could be the Telegraph’s idea of satire
I’m in the dark room and I’m staying there until next week.
Absolutely zero intelligence built into that, and no use whatsoever for the poor SNPouters. Shame
Well done, Telegraph
You know, DC&T is the perfect test of all this. Here, if you want Cameron to win you MUST vote Conservative as voting Labour or LibDem or whatever will facilitate the SNP beating Mundell. If you want Cameron to lose you MUST vote SNP, because only the SNP has a hope in hell of beating the last Tory in Scotland.
It’s a no-brainer. It’s between these two, and the choice is clear. And yet either way, you get the same “anyone but the SNP” instruction.
Sorry, I’m confused. I can still vote SNP to get SNP, can’t I?
These wheel thingies and graphs! I’m only from Lanarkshire…
Hilarious and counter-productive as it stands but I wouldn’t be surprised if they updated it so that it served their evil ends in Scotland.
I’m laughing at the desperation levels the telegraph have hit, however this is really quite sinister. They don’t like us much,eh?
Worth mentioning to the Press complaints commission or Independent Press Standards Organisation.
Like all their other smears and crap chucking, this will work in our favour. Just wish the GE was tomorrow….
In a previous life I worked in civil engineering – dams, motorways etc. The “Paddies”, the Irish “traveling men”, who went from job to job used to tell a joke about the Asian worker who, on learning the “Paddies” were on a higher wage band, asked one Irish ganger how he could become Irish.
“Dat’s easy Yusef – to become a “Paddy” you have to have half your brain removed with a pick axe, Murphy will do it for you at dinner time, if you want.”
Yusef agreed and, at dinner time, Murphy did the operation.
Yusef came round, to find the ganger crouched over hime.
“I’m terribly sorry Yusef, but, Murphy got carried away and removed three-quarters of your brain, rather than half,” he was told.
“Quite alright old boy, think nothing of it, I’ll muddle through somehow”, was Yusef’s response.
I reckon whoever wrote that piece for the Torygraph maybe wanted to be a “Paddy” too, but went private.
“We were a bit suspicious when we typed our Bath postcode in and asked to keep Cameron out, because it advised us to vote Labour even though it’s one of the safest Lib Dem seats in the country”
Actually that is proper advice because a Lib Dem MP will keep Cameron in.
this is a form of voter suppression instructional tactical voter guides are illegal as they suppress the vote and take away a legitimacy of an election or referendum both Australia and Canada had similar cases to this and the government and publications that produced these guides were punished and fined heavily for voter suppression due to tactical instructional voting
O/T slightly but well worth a read; the alignment of Tory HQ with the right wing press and what their strategy has been so far over the last few weeks.
Oliver Huiston and Adam Ramsay outline the real ‘coup’ that is underway and they spell it out clearly by following the right wing press’s part in setting up the foundations leading to the eventual constitutional ‘crisis’ that is being manufactured after May 7th.
https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oliver-huitson/press-campaign-so-far-coup-gathers-pace
Astonished.
May the fear be with them.
I’m astonished! #ChannelingJohannLamont
Have the MSM always been like this?
There used to be snake-oil salesman and bogus tradesmen, and manufacturers used to fill out bread with chalk and sawdust, water in the beer etc. You can buy online chemicals these days that can kill you if you’re not careful. (But I read that in a newspaper so maybe not true).
This must be the “newspaper” equivalent.
How did the Levison inquiry end? I forget.
I get the feeling that we aren’t loved. I get the feeling it is time to go sit in the dark room in the very corner of it again.
O/T Gordon Brown is expected to make a substantial speech at the University of Glasgow tomorrow when he receives an honorary doctorate. Sources tell The National that he believes this will be similar to his late interventions during the referendum. It is not known if he will be announcing any policy.
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/confusion-over-pledge-by-gordon-brown-that-labour-will-give-1m-to-foodbanks.2437?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_term=Autofeed#link_time=1430214959
JLT says
“Yep! We are their worst nightmare. To not say those 3 little letters almost feels like ‘he whose name that must not be said’”
Jesus WE’RE THE SCOTTISH PLAY! 🙂
It’s always worth remembering that the people who read the Torygraph aren’t really any brighter than Daily Mail readers.
Hence the reason both newspapers treat their readers like complete simpletons and with with utter contempt. 😉
Warms up Low Orbit Ion Canon and boots into Kali Linux.
Expect Us, we do not forgive.. .
Our Scottish compatriots,the Barclay twins must be very proud of their contribution to quality informative journalism with material like this.
Good to know they are using their billions for the furtherment of human knowledge.
@Kenny
VOW mark 3?
Return of the revenge of the VOW!
LOL
They really are absolutely desperate and scraping the bottom of the barrel now.
I take it the flunkies in ‘scottish’ Labour are too scared to even tell Murphy or Miliband that the biggest swing from Labour to the SNP is in Brown’s seat.
Bring it on. 😀
Cameron calls independence a “False Dream” in the proud Scotchman.
Meant to post this on here and not on the previous thread
If we do virtually wipe out the opposition on 7th May
it will be unwise to be finding reasons to put a second referendum back to 2020 or later.
The next referendum should be held as soon as it is practicable to do so.
We don’t have to ask anyone else’s permission to do so – and we have to make sure that the Scottish Government supervises the voting.
The longer it is delayed the longer opponents to independence will have to skew all the circumstances.
Politics very often moves very quickly indeed (as Ted Heath and Gordon Brown both found out as they hesitated and lost their main opportunities).
Everything is moving in independence’s favour at the moment
Seize the day is good advice.
In 1916 there was a failed rebellion in Ireland. In 1918 the Irish nationalists wiped out the unionists in the General Election in all but the six counties. In 1919 these walked out of Westminster and declared an independent Ireland. Had they not done so I doubt if Ireland would now be independent as the Great Depression would have wiped every other consideration off the political map.
We should never underestimate the power of the opponents of independence and their ability to take control of the battlefield if we give them the time to regroup
Is it not simply the case that these people are not very bright?
….and this “False Dream” will fade over time, Lol!
This level of manipulation, misinformation and hysteria will only get much much worse over the next week.
They simply cannot cope with us rebellious jocks embracing democracy.
Kenny 8.29
Last week I predicted that he would come out to play at this event.I got the date wrong and thought it was last Wednesday though.
The media coverage Alex Salmond had for the same honour last week was minimal compared to what blow up doll Brown will get tomorrow,guaranteed.
I’m minded to say that this is a clear subversion of democracy, where a publication is telling people how to vote.
However people are free to ignore the ‘advise’ given
But taken in conjunction of what is going on in the written and broadcast media,, cannot be ignored
I would say that Labour are useful fools in this diorama
Reading https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oliver-huitson/press-campaign-so-far-coup-gathers-pace
just adds more colour to this
Question is are there people within Labour that are working towards a Tory coup?
I once visited the Torygraph website. They were describing Nicolas Surgeon as someone who “hates Thatcherism”. They seemed to think it was a mental illness!
The readers’ comments read as if they have been written by the creation of a mad scientist who decided to clone a new race of human being from the DNA of Daily Mail readers, City spivs and UKIP voters.
O/T Plaid Cymru doing well in Wales and may end up with four MPs to add to our own total as a progressive force at Westminster.
https://twitter.com/Elin_A_Roberts/status/593138537169592321/photo/1
Kenny @ 8.29pm
So Gordon Brown – the useless dupe is being wheeled out to make a speech when he gets his honorary doctorate
No doubt the media will due their duty and report his spiel
I wonder what his doctorate is for?
Edward,that is a very,very good question.Is this election campaign mere theatre with a pre-determined coup by the money men?
RED TORIES OUT
Aren’t coups what chickens come home to roost in?
Ach, I don’t suppose tactical voting by the six known Daily Telegraph readers in Scotland is likely to make much difference in any case.
This doesn’t surprise me, but what is strange is that when I put in a Colchester postcode, they tell me to vote Lib Dem if I want Cameron to lose, but suggests voting Conservative if I want Labour to lose.
The local MP, Sir Bob Russell, is a Lib Dem (the solo sailor in a very True Blue sea… that was until Douglas Carswell switched to UKIP last year) with a healthy majority and it would be astonishing were he to lose his seat to Tory councillor Will Quince.
Wouldn’t’ it have been better to let the unionists wallow in their ignorance instead of pointing out the telegraph’s mistakes…….
@ Dave McEwan Hill
You’re leaving out vast chunks of Irish history there, are you not? Mr Peffers will be along shortly to comment.
An awful lot of historical water flowed under the bridge between 1916 and 1949 (when Ireland officially became an independent Republic)! Most of it available on youtube btw.
Edward says:
28 April, 2015 at 9:04 pm
I wonder what his doctorate is for?
Bovine waste management
Tactical. Clearly they are lacking knowledge in the meaning of the word. Let’s just hope that the electorate have a more enlightened grasp of just what it means to vote with your principles as well as to retain a modicum of integrity.
The msm have their own agenda, whatever happened to policies being the driving force in how people were expected to make such an important decision, if that concept was in fact, ever really real, except on the odd occasion.
Judt typed in my Kensington (constituency) postcode & it still comes up with:
You should vote for anyone other than the SNP
@Martin says: 28 April, 2015 at 7:20 pm :
” … when it comes to the older vote (55+) we need to educate the majority of this demographic through traditional means”.
Gee! Martin, I wonder what these guys were doing way back 55 years ago?
Silly old buggers are totally computer illiterate. Everyone knows it was 2015 teenagers who invent and design computers. Now what was it I was doing again around the mid to late 1950s in that top secret government building I was working in? Naw! Canna remember. My brains far too stupid to remember way back then. What the hell was it I was working on while on MOD detached duty with GEC Marconi in the early 1970s? Naw! Can’t remember the auld brain jist disna mind things ony mair.
Paula Rose
Its also Scots for where rubbish is dumped I recall 🙂
From the title that brought you the car crash memogate, we bring you the train wreck that is tactical voting advice. 😀
Oh jeez, could they be any more obvious?
Would be a shame if there was a fire alarm tomorrow during Brown’s speech 🙂
Slightly O/T
We should not be too worried about what the red an blue Tories are up to and just concentrate on getting as many SNP MPs in to Westminster.
This very good article from Peter Thomson (Tarff Advertiser) explains how the SNP delegation of MPs will represent the ‘Considered will of the people of Scotland’ and give them more power than most of us realised.
The unionists really do have a problem on their plate if this gets past the 7 May..!
http://tarffadvertiser.blogspot.de/2015/04/the-lady-with-gioconda-smile.html#comment-form
Hahahaha…. but ‘any one but snp’ doesnt necessarily mean lab or con, what about green? Anyway is any one that stupid to use a computer program to tell them how to vote? Unbelivable!!
I’m beginning to realise more and more that there really is already a coalition at work throughout this entire campaign (it never ended after the ref), in light of what Adam Ramsay addresses about the likelihood of the newspapers defining the terms, which are handed to them by Tory HQ and Labour.
Even this Telegraph tactical voting crap may well be part of this. As the whole point is to de legitamise the SNP. At every level from both sides left and right: From Murphy’s constant ‘biggest party forms goverment’ lie, given more oxygen than an astronaut in outer space by the press, right through to May’s ‘biggest crisis since the abdication’.
This does seem to be what their aim is here. It is a coup that is underway. They are legitamising their final move after we trounce Labour in Scotland.
This is why I think Milliband has ruled out even confidence and supply. I feel they have already decided between them how to ‘divvy up’ the spoils after the election. The press merely softens up the population for what will be presented as ‘unprecedented’ circumstance.
I also feel the BBC is on side, and this too is why, in Scotland there has been no ‘softening’ of approach toward the SNP by the msm even the though these unprecedented polls show that the people are moving their alliances in their droves to the SNP. There is no ‘reflection’ of that within our media reports and in the manner in which they speak to our representatives in the Scottish Government.
All we can do is remain steadfast because these next 9 days are going to be relentless as they pursue their aims. These people would rather destabalise the entire society on these isle to maintain their hegemony. They are beyond fear and reproach, their entitlement is under threat and they would rather Scotland tore itself apart than allow us our representation.
A coup of this sort, a betrayal of the unwritten constiutional precedents by the Tories/Labour would ensure (they think) a reaction from the Scots that may amount to them mounting an ‘intervention’ if such were the case.
We won’t give them any quarter. We won’t be lead by these cowards and their despicable credo.
By these actions they would make our case for us more than any referendum ever could.
They are forcing a fight, they will never win. Because once again their despicable methods will be seen by more and more for what they truly are: The last dying gasps of men and women whose souls have been consumed by their own vanity.
Calgacus, Actually , this election IS pure theatre
consider that the amount of highly controlled staged events, that the media are in on without questioning why they are so staged
A good example being Murphy. Each of his so called rally’s only involved a small group of activists being bussed around like some weird groupies. With compliant media with the close in angle shots.
Or take his visit to a building site with Curran and Flint (I ask you what has Flint to do with Scotland) but no cheer group just a Sky tv crew and a compliant James Matthews.
That little sham was exactly that, a sham
Tory’s are doing the same down south with the ‘set pieces’
Both the Tory’s and Labour have been trying to control the whole thing with the help if the pliable media
The unexpected spanner has been Nicola Sturgeon, which became apparent with that first UK wide debate. It was Nicola ‘live and unleashed’ and brought about a UK wide buzz which the establishment didn’t like.
So since then it has been heightened attack by the establishment media and Tory/Labour/Libdem politico’s on the SNP and specifically Nicola Sturgeon.
Remember prior to that first debate, the Tory poster campaign demonising Alex Salmond. Tory’s had to switch attention to Nicola as she very fast became the establishments main threat.
We are in for an interesting time of more smear and dirty tricks, you have been warned, you aint seen nothing yet as the Red/Blue brigade get more shrill!
@indyracer2014 says: 28 April, 2015 at 7:16 pm
“Who do I vote for if i think the nazis are pretty good….?”
Any party than the SNP, of course.
Capella at 9.25
Ireland became a republic in 1949. It became formally independent in 1922.
Scotland Working on BBC Scotland tonight. Scotland is shite, move on!
@ Robert Peffers
Not quite in the 55+ bracket yet masel’, but still bashing away on my Commodore PET here. 😀
The Way Scotland Works
Just finished watching the documentary on BBC2 and why anybody would vote NO must be because they live in a vacuum somewhere
This was a stunning programme highlighting everything good about our country
We make other countries not a million miles away look as though they’re in the stone age
If you missed it I recommend catch up for this
It’ll make you proud
Well, it did me
Aye. A coup, iz whaur awe yoan shite gethurrs.
Another productive outing for Jeffrey Deputy-Dug-Dad Dugdale over on Twitter:
#GE2015 At uni in the late 60’s I felt the SNP were in the Highland League; Alec had us in the Ch’ship; Nicola has put us in the Premiership
I guess sometimes the apple does fall too far from the tree.
@Midgehunter 9.34pm
Fantastic article. Well worth sharing far and wide
Nothing wrong with an Hon Doc i’ll have you know
@col
Scotland Working on BBC Scotland tonight. Scotland is shite, move on!
You must have been watching a different programme from me.
It was talking up Scotland’s world class food and drink sector, highlighting the modernisation of education facilities, and ended with an entrepreneur talking up Scotland as nation of creators.
K1
Great post. You allude to a post election carve up – do you really think it possible that the tories and labour could form a government of ‘national unity’? Or do you think something more subtle?
Anything of this nature would kill the union. A tory government would kill the union. Labour taking a careless and hostile attitude to the SNP would kill the union. I think it’s only lifeline exists if labour work with the SNP which Ed has ruled out.
Interesting times….
From their bloater Carmichael’s French memogate to this sort of weird behaviour, tory boys complete are utter fcukwits again, shock. Have they actually got the balls for a grande coalition? Cameron will be the minority PM and Labour will shilly shally around him, for the saviour of teamGB and this most blessed UKOK union. Neo fascism never plays fair and I bet they’re plotting all kinds of cunning stunts to strip powers from Holyrood, in and around Whitehall.
Some ‘dangerous’ women from a hundred years ago, i.e. they stood up to the establishment for what they believed and got labelled like Nicola Sturgeon. http://noglory.org/index.php/multimedia/video/444-these-dangerous-women-the-women-who-tried-to-stop-world-war-1
SNP coverage mostly negative according to university study.
MEDIA coverage of the SNP has become increasingly negative as the general election draws closer, according to a new report.
The research, carried out by Loughborough University’s Communications Research Centre (CRC) between March 30 and April 22, was conducted as part of the third instalment in a series of reports scrutinising national news coverage of the general election campaign.
https://archive.is/hPNqe
Do bears sh*t in the woods
@Paula Rose says: 28 April, 2015 at 9:06 pm:
Aren’t coups what chickens come home to roost in?
Yes, M’Dear, but only in English. In Scots, (and I quote the CSD, (Concise Scots Dictionary)): –
coup =
1. An upset; overturning; a fall.
2. a rubbish tip.
3. (in mining), a sudden break in a stratum of coal.
Here’s me, (a speaker of Lallans Scots), giving an example of a very common use of the word. “Ma tea wis cauld sae Ah couped it doon the the jaw-box”, (owersettin intil the Inglis), – “My tea was cold so I emptied it down the sink”.
Like many other Scots terms an alternative term for that particular definition of, “couped”, is, “tuimed”, this also means emptied. As in tuim-heidit= Empty-headed.
The things you may learn on WoS is astonishing.
Settle down now lads N lassies Nicola,s on with Bernard.
thanks to Tarff Advertiser;
The indications are the SNP will be the majority party from Scotland and thus under article 19 of the Treaty of Union will represent the ‘considered will of the people of Scotland’ at Westminster, a will which on two occasions since 2010 has been tested in the UK Supreme Court and been found to be ‘paramount’.
All the constitutional ‘fudges’ used in the last 300 odd years to suppress Scottish representation in the British Establishment Parliament will be up in the air. This was never meant to happen, just like an SNP majority at Holyrood was never meant to happen, and brings us to Lord Cooper’s point of Law in 1953 that Scots Law and constitutional practice does not recognise the concept of the ‘crown in parliament’ being sovereign as this is a singularly English legal and constitutional concept, a legal point conceded on the UK Parliament’s behalf by the Lord Advocate.
Further this legal and constitutional point made by Lord Cooper puts paid to any concept of the Scots being subsumed by England Parliamentary practice as has been long claimed and presumed. The UK Parliamentary constitution is (and always has been) a fudge which seeks to run two very different legal and constitutional systems in parallel for the mutual benefit of both parties. (McCormack vs Lord Advocate 1953)
Who actually exercises control of the ‘considered will of the people of Scotland’ in the UK Parliament, Lord Cooper suggested, was purely theoretical and unlikely to be tested within the UK wide party system then in place (1953) across the UK, as any Scottish representation was beholden to their main UK party’s manifesto.
When you get your head around this key legal and constitutional point, you understand why Ms Sturgeon’s Gioconda smile is un-shifting in the face of all the hostility from the opposition politicians, media, commentators and their attempts to claim the SNP will be beyond the pale and isolated. This is because any Bills, Acts or Statutes effecting Scotland can not pass the UK Parliament without the agreement of the ‘considered will of the people of Scotland’ which will, with 29+ SNP MPs, be in the SNP’s hands – even if the Tories and Labour do form a grand coalition at Westminster.
In short 29+ SNP MPs is the equivalent of putting a SNP fox into the unwritten UK Constitutional hen coop.
I unpicked the source code as well, just slower than the people before me 🙂
There are in fact 60 constituencies where the Telegraph is advising people to vote for anyone but the SNP. 59 of them are the Scottish ones, so no surprise there, but the 60th is Buckingham.
Yes, really. Try entering MK18 1AA as your postcode and laugh.
Incidentally, all other parties are treated correctly, including Plaid Cymru and the Greens. You can test this too, if you like.
In Arfon – try LL54 6AA – you’ll be advised to vote Plaid Cymru or Labour, as appropriate.
In Brighton Pavilion – try BN1 1AA – you’ll be advised to vote Green or Labour, as appropriate.
Only the SNP are subject to a blanket exclusion.
I’m curious to know what the Electoral Commission might have to say about this. After all, it’s perfectly acceptable to advise people on how to vote tactically for their desired outcome, but it’s not acceptable to make false statements, especially when doing so might cause voters to inadvertently vote for a result they didn’t want.
Nick Robinson on the BBC just said that the collapse of the Labour government in 1979 was largely blamed on the SNP. Yeah it wasn’t because the Labour government was a shambles or anything it was the entirely the fault of 6 SNP MPs.
What is it with these f***in interviews…let her speak fcs!
Voting is easy.
Vote SNP,
wait for it,
are you ready for this,
Get SNP wooooohooooo.
Gary
Vote Willie Rennie – get Ken Dodd…..good information
Robert peffers
Aberdeenshire dialect, Teem=empty. How do you pronounce tuim?
@Midgehunter says: 28 April, 2015 at 9:34 pm
” … This very good article from Peter Thomson (Tarff Advertiser) explains how the SNP delegation of MPs will represent the ‘Considered will of the people of Scotland’ and give them more power than most of us realised.
The unionists really do have a problem on their plate if this gets past the 7 May..!
http://tarffadvertiser.blogspot.de/2015/04/the-lady-with-gioconda-smile.html#comment-form.”
That, Midgehunter, is exactly the point of all the history I’ve been posting for what seems forever. The Declaration of Arbroath set that law before what was then the head of Christendom, the then international law, The Pope.
It declared that Scotland was an independent Kingdom and then it declared something that in the prevailing laws of those times, (Divine Right of Kings), was breath-taking in concept. That the people of Scotland, not their monarch, were sovereign and the monarch chosen by them and they could sack him/her and appoint another in his/her place.
You will note that the independence of the Scottish Legal system was one of the few parts of the Treaty of Union the Scots retained. The others being an Independent Education system and that the monarch could not head the Scottish church. Also that Scottish Banks could legally print their own Pound Sterling bank notes.
When push comes to shove the People of Scotland are legally sovereign and that means the English Sovereign isn’t sovereign in Scotland. As England, Wales and N.I. are all the Kingdom of England and the sovereignty that Westminster wields is that of Her Majesty, (a constitutional Monarchy), then Westminster has not sovereignty over Scotland.
As the article states, the settled will of the Scots is a description of a political party with over 50% mandate from the sovereign people of Scotland. Mind you, as the Holyrood parliament is the reconvened old Scottish parliament which was only prorogued, then a Holyrood Parliament with a party, (or coalition), holding over 50% can also disunite the Union.
The Westminster scenario means the Scots members can just withdraw from Westminster to Holyrood.
Jeez….
Time we stopped reading these foreign newspapers altogether – they have as much relevance to Scotland as the New York Times, Der Spiegel or Le Monde.
At least from these overseas ones, you get an unbiased opinion and some real news.
@Katie says: 28 April, 2015 at 9:36 pm:
“Hahahaha…. but ‘any one but snp’ doesnt necessarily mean lab or con, what about green? Anyway is any one that stupid to use a computer program to tell them how to vote? Unbelivable!!”
Yer Kidding! aren’t you Katie?
There are a constant stream of reports of numptie blindly following their in-car GDP down old farm dirt-roads or up new one-way street systems through flooded fords when there are nearby bridges.
I think Tam that the ‘alliance’ is there, I think as I said in my post that it is in process, the press as Adam Ramsay lays out is setting the agenda, and leading the population…pure propaganda of course…but nonetheless ‘it works’. Else there wouldn’t be any point in Tory or Labour providing the amunition.
So yes, effectively the population is being groomed for a possible situation wherein the SNP is perceived as legitimately illegitimate. The ‘constitutional (The biggest)crisis (since the abdication)’ is fabricated on that basis, compeltely wrongly.
This lays the ground for a possible ‘open’ alignment between Labour and Tory. To ‘neutralise’ the SNP.
Effectively raising a genuine constitutional crisis, this would ensure the hegemony stays intact. But would cause an uproar in Scotland.
I think they are playing with fire. Forgetting that it’s burny.
It’s strange Milliband ruling out any ‘arrangement’, but it could be as Nicola has suggested, that he is being guided by the ‘dog whistling’ of the right wing press (at the behest of the Tories).
He is partaking in this anti SNP rhetoric too though: to my mind this lends credence to my suspicions that indeed they may well be on the ‘same page’ as the Tories (which they are in so many ways already, poilicy wise et al), in finding common ground to remove any ‘significant’ influence that the bloc of SNP MP’s may bring to Westminister.
So indeed…interesting times…
Dave McEwan Hill says 9:47
“Ireland became a republic in 1949. It became formally independent in 1922.”
Not so. It became a “dominion” in 1922 after the Treaty. It had to swear allegiance to the British crown. De Valera refused and the Irish Civil War began which resulted in the creation of Fianna Fail and the eventual 1937 Constitution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPbBhkI5Rx0
Surely this is campaigning and they must register with the electoral commission?
@Macart says: 28 April, 2015 at 10:06 pm:
“Not quite in the 55+ bracket yet masel’, but still bashing away on my Commodore PET here. :D”
Did lots of hours on that machine, Macart. I really hadn’t been involved with programming in machine code until the PET. Mind you in the very early days we didn’t write the programmes but we did put the programs in – believe it or not with hard wire links and a soldering irons.
Then we used Patch cords before the first punched tape and/or punched cards. Then we got actual keyboards using Crypto keyboards. Thank heavens then for Gary Kildall and the BIOS and MDS.
I then moved onto RADIAC work. Repairing, testing, and calibrating radioactivity test instruments and such like. Mind you we were using PCs too by that time.
@CyberMidgie,
A very good point – by pure chance I just happen to have the number of the Electoral Commission in Edinburgh on my phone.
Here is the number if anyone wishes to give them a call tomorrow morning to discuss the Telegraphs interference in the democratic election during the purdah period.
Fill yer boots…0131.225.0200.
Im getting invalid post code on both of them
Rather unsurprisingly, the Telegraph’s handy little ‘VoteMatch’ app also seems to be similarly skewed.
It asks your view on a range of policies, then tells you which party is best suited for you. Having put in answers which matched all the SNP policies, it then told me that the Greens were my party.
The summary, specifically for my constituency, showed that of the nearly 600 people who have used it so far, they break roughly 10% for each of Con/Lib/UKIP, 20% for Labour, 44% for Green (!) and a measly 4% for SNP. So it looks like it is very close to impossible to pick an ‘SNP route’ through the answers.
@ Robert Peffers 10:31
I knew you would understand.
@Fireproofjim says: 28 April, 2015 at 11:05 pm
“Aberdeenshire dialect, Teem=empty. How do you pronounce tuim?”
Ah! Good point, Fireproofjim. But first a wee explanation.
Real Lowland, (Lallans), Scots, (that includes Norn, (Northern Isles), and the East Coast. (Dorric), are a distinct language from English but both Scots & English are based upon Old English, in turn these are Germanic languages. Most modern Scots, though, speak, “Scottish Standard English”.
Lowland Scots is a distinct language and like most such languages has its own dialects. Lallans and Doric are dialects of Scots. Scottish Standard English is a dialect of English.
In Scots a dialect is a, “tune”, of the leid.
So as to the word tuim – in different tunes of Scots it is pronounce, “Toom”, as in “Toom Tabard”. In my own (originally Lothians), “Timm”, and your Abredeen(shire), “Teem”, the spelling, though, should remain, “tuim”, and the local accent used to pronounce it.
Having said all that we Scots usually can understand each other well. I must admit, though, I did struggle for a while in, “The Broch”, area. (Fraserborugh, Burghead & Hopeman).
These polls showing a landslide to SNP are way off the undecided will vote anyone but the SNP they just won’t say try only getting your news from the TV and the newspapers thats your answer SNP have effectively been silenced and their message blocked from getting through to older voters it dosnt matter if labour are talking pish they are able to get it out no one is questioning them the same thing happened in september
@Capella,
It took Eire quite a while to throw off the yolk and declare a Republic.
Hopefully, we will not have to wait so long.
Mind you if Princess Alice (?) born on the 5th of May ( for maximum Unionist effect – by pure co-incidence) is a wee cutie then we will have to suffer a bit longer. We just loved Prince Harry in that wee cute jersey – he is soooo cute!
But then again maybe not…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140823135514/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/10/25/article-2222878-15ACBA1D000005DC-556_634x753.jpg
If you do not recognise the one on the the right he is Thomas Hamilton well known in 1980s establishment paedophile circles and also reponsible for the Dunblane Massacre.
By some bizarre coincidence Lord George Robertson (Labour) of Islay signed his gun licences although Hamilton lived in Dunblane – Small country Scotland – eh?
I’m guessing it’s entirely legal and entirely self-defeating. I bet the media will be all over it tomorrow.
CUE TOMORROW
…tumbleweed blows by along with my betting slip…
EXIT unionist candiates stage (very) right
CUE TO HOUSE OF LORDS where unionists candidates re-appear and bray
EXIT AUDIENCE
I’m no playright…
@Paula Rose says: 28 April, 2015 at 11:54 pm:
“I knew you would understand”,
Indeed, Paula Rose, and I knew you knew that I knew and …
Ach! It’s getting late — I’ll get my PJs
Guid
nicht!Err! Morning! Folks.If the red and blue tories join together to form a grand coalition. and the SNP get a good number of MPs then surely they would become her Majesty’s opposition ? Help me out here Robert Peffers.
@ Hoss Mackintosh
OMG is that Charlie AND Jimmy Saville AND Hamilton ?! Wot a coincidence!
Here’s a link to the movie about “The Treaty” starring Brendan Gleeson. Well worth a watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S25pDTkijuc
Aye , you loons and yer computer program spik fairly maks me jealous .
Mind you I hid a great time rewiring / converting TVs from 405 to 625 .
No panel pluging then , repairing everything to component level , as I’m sure you did too .
Politically , This has become a déjà vous situation like last year .
We are all praying for the polls to be close to reality .
Good point on EC , these people think they are untouchable .
We think they are despicable .
Nae faffing aboot
“cowp” them a oot
an vote SNP ,
ye Ken yea wint t !
@Hoss Mackintosh says: 29 April, 2015 at 12:14 am:
“It took Eire quite a while to throw off the yolk and declare a Republic.
Hopefully, we will not have to wait so long.”
Not to mention the blood, bombs and bullets, Hoss.
And I don’t just mean in, “The Troubles”, but in Dunblane too.
By the way! The 1800/1 Treaty was part of the longer term Establishment scam to dominate the entire United Kingdom.
As the Kingdom of England had annexed the whole of The Kingdom of Ireland in 1542 by the Crown of Ireland Act that placed the Crown of Ireland on the self proclaimed Lord of Ireland’s head, (The King of England).
Then all Ireland was part of the Kingdom of England that then, in 1688, had the English, “Glorious Revolution”, that deposed their King James II as the King of England that included all Ireland. Thus when the South declared itself a Republic and the North opted to remain part of the UK it was not a new Kingdom but already part of the English Kingdom.
All the 1800/1 acts did was change the title from, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain to the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. The Establishment were preparing the way to scam the bipartite United Kingdom as a union of four countries. Balderdash, though, for the title United Kingdom designates the whole is a Kingdom – not a country.
The Establishment has been brainwashing the whole of Britain since Roman times for the ultimate take over of all Britain. Note they use the terms, UK, England, UK, Britain and Great Britain as all mutually interchangeable.
For example they teach, The Romans invaded Britain – The Romans did not invade North Britain, West Britain, (including what was most of Wales), or Ireland.
Sheesh! I’ve supposed to be going to bed.
Interesting tactic, I can’t be arsed winning your vote, so just give it to me. You know that your to stupid I’ll get you what I want. I wonder if it will work
Please be more careful you lot
I am not sure that the man in the photo is Thomas Hamilton
I think you need to back it up or shut up
@Robert Peffers
Not just a windswept and interesting history buff then? 😀
Started out on the old CAD programmes back in the late 70s early eighties masel’. Then onto compugraphics, then the early macs and never looked back. The big breakthrough for me was the mouse and the graphics user interface. No more string commands (huzzah). Graphics game has went through a helluva transformation in the past thirty odd years.
When you think of those old boxes you could barely lift back then and look now at the processing power contained in a smart phone (shakes head). Moore’s law in action.
I’ve just looked at the JavaScript that controls the results that are displayed on the page. I can’t believe how blatant this is! It even has an “isNotSNP” flag to control two logic switches to bypass the SNP when telling you who to vote for (in non-Scottish seats) and then to tell you to vote for anyone other than SNP (in Scottish seats). I wonder if NOPE is an anacronym for something??!
I’m so tempted to do my own ‘modded’ version. I don’t really have the time but I’m sure there are some younger CS students out there looking for a reason to procrastinate of an afternoon 😉
@CyberMidgie
Good spot mate! I feel a sarcastic tweet to the Telegraph coming on (re: Dear Telegraph – who do I tactically vote for if I live in Buckingham?)…
🙂
To be fair I tried something there and it allowed me the Greens and SNP for Lochaber. Must have been a different app I guess as I cant find it any more or the the tactical one
Check out this on the Telegraph website.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11570423/Is-this-the-place-for-tactical-voting-to-beat-the-SNP.html
Even the tories desperate to indulge in tactical voting still need Labour to shore up their own vote for tv to stand a chance.
Oh as far as I know history woman blocked me
in Twitter. Lol
Their “Election Analyst” would appear to be this fellow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hayward . He’s an ex Tory MP and advisor to Eric Pickles. Hmmmmm….
Kyle F says:
28 April, 2015 at 9:23 pm
This doesn’t surprise me, but what is strange is that when I put in a Colchester postcode, they tell me to vote Lib Dem if I want Cameron to lose, but suggests voting Conservative if I want Labour to lose.
That’s because in the Colchester universe the Lib Dems might join Labour in a coalition, unlike Bath where the opposite is true.
Oh no! Wait! There is a simpler explanation.