A revealing turn of phrase
Posted on
March 25, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
From an editorial leader in this week’s London Evening Standard:
His price: an end to austerity and to Trident.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has come out fighting against the threat.“
Seems to sum it up pretty well.
It does indeed.Sad,really.
“The prospect of the SNP annihilating the Labour Party in Scotland — as yet another poll suggests could happen — is obviously bad news for Labour, which has fielded one of the party’s most robust politicians there: Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. But the SNP’s threatened landslide has worrying implications too for English voters.”
Murphy – robust – in the same sentence – bwahhhaaahhhaahhaaa!
Let me see.. The SNP are willing to keep Dead head ED in power and he sees that as a threat.
OK where am I? what is this place? MummmY!!!
What Ed terrified of?
Has he only just realised that when he accepted the Labour leadership it might lead to him becoming Prime Minister?
Best resign now Ed, otherwise it just might happen.
These vile Scots, threatening to end austerity! Aye, Ed is just the man to stick for up austerity and make sure it continues.
Austerity Good, SNP Bad.
They truly inhabit another planet down in London.
Jings. Sometimes think I live on another planet.
And you can pretty much guarantee that our Alex (assuming he will lead the w/m SNP) will be a lot more effective than Clegg.
The Tory press are desperate to tell Ed that he should absolutely refuse to PM and that just because Cameron might be Billy No Mates and not able to command a majority Ed should level the playing field and refuse to talk to any other parties that might give him sufficient votes to form a government
…in the interests of democracy or something else.
Actually, Alex made it clear to Andrew Marr that Angus Robertson is the leader of the SNP group at Westminster. UKOK journalists and politicians really can’t cope with the idea that the SNP might actually operate collegiately. It doesn’t compute in their backstabbing world.
Threat. DEFCON. The sabotage of democracy. The Thames flowing with blood. How much more dramatic will the establishment get?
Tune in on 8th May for Westminster Zombie Apocalypse: “The Walking Ed”.
An Alicsammin Production.
The lib/dems could be the spanner in the works if they poll a bit better than expected. A re-run of the con/lib alliance could make it may letting labour off the hook in England but prove a disaster for labour in Scotland. Curtains for Miliband and Dim Jim.
PS: Herald with its usual flattering photo of Sturgeon and some polling stuff UK wide on alliances.
link to archive.today
An end to austerity and Trident is a “threat”? I see further down the article the paper lists the generosity of Gideon in funding London charities such as the Battersea Arts Centre. Is it London which is threatened? Or just The City?
Watched “The Four Horsemen” earlier which suggests it is the City which has to maintain the neo-liberal delusion against any alternative proposals, or threats as they call them. Ed better toe the line.
link to youtube.com
I don’t mean to be anti-English and frankly, that’s not really the intent behind this comment. I have to admit though to being very curious as to the English mind-set and perhaps Stu, living down in Bath, you can shed some light on this?
Is it generally perceived in England that ending austerity is a bad thing? I ask because it seems hell of a strange that the MSM down there is parading around talking about the ‘SNP’ this, ‘Threat’ that and couches that within the argument of ending austerity as if that’s a bad thing and therefore meant to somehow engender a defensive response and generate animosity towards these impudent ‘interloper Jocks’.
Hi Natasha – just making a comment that us English Scots are here in abundance – mainly dancing.
Alec won’t lead.It’s all good though.The guy at the back clears the path for the troops to go forward.
Winging their way south, WMD from Scotland!
Weapons of Mass Democracy.
…I’ll add into the above query that yes, I’m all too aware that the MSM can spout utter pish that in no way reflects the mood or opinions of those it’s trying to influence. I’m just wondering if the argument of ending austerity = bad is actually a widely held belief south of the border.
Evening Standard’s is the Daily Heil for London commuters and there cant be a more damning indictment of the red tory party. That LBC radio shite from Murphy today was merely a part of the hate campaign building in the UKOK media and all coordinated by the beeb.
Have you seen Stu’s tweet that accompanied the link to this post where Stuey says ‘Enjoy this piece, readers, there probably won’t be any more for a little while:’
What does he mean????? How little a while? What’s happened??? Maybe he’s going to work on the Wee Red Book? (wee hopeful faced thingy)
Only in the UK would attempts at eradicating government-sanctioned mass misery and impoverishment and the removal of weapons of mass murder be seen as constituting a “threat” to be tackled.
Send in the clowns…oh wait, Ed and Jim are already on the scene.
A bit O/T but readers should be aware of this.
I think it is important to clarify the 1951 Westminster results and totally refute the lies being told by Jim Murphy and Labour.
The 1951 Westminster results were as follows:
Labour 295,
Conservative 293,
Liberal National Party 19,
Ulster Unionist Party 9,
Liberal Party 6,
Independent Nationalist 2, and
Irish Labour 1
…. a hung parliament.
The Conservative, Liberal National and Ulster Unionist Parties formed a coalition and governed with 321 seats.
Labour actually won more of the popular vote (13,948,883) than the governing coalition
(Conservatives 12,384,784 , Liberal National 1,58,138,and Ulster Unionist 274,928 for a total of 13,717,850)
Now for the cherry on top, the Labour Party gained MORE seats than the Conservative Party.
In 1951, the party with the largest number of seats in Westminster DID NOT FORM THE GOVERNMENT!
Well that is it then, something we all knew already now backed by the press, as if we ever had a doubt.
We expect no less from the parallel world that exists within the M25. Labour, Tories, Westminster, quelle un douche!
@ Brian Nicholson 10.39 pm
Good report , I assume its 100% correct .
Big hip hip hooray to you .
Agree that Alec Salmond will not be the leader of SNP at Westminster as he can do much more damage as a backbencher.
Looking forward to it immensely.
You left leaning lot that spend all day reading Wings Over Scotland don’t quite get it yet, do you?
Austerity is vital to the well being of those of us that live in London, it is absolutely essential that we squeeze the pips of those on the dole or disability of any “benefit” for that fact.
Your ignorance of this is quite astounding, no wonder you need US to run your country for you and distribute your allowance as we see fit.
It pisses me off that you still fail to see our largesse in allowing your lot to run some of your own affairs.
Austerity is not just for Christmas, you twats. It is forever, get used to it!
Met Alex tonight for the second time. What a nice chap and made time for everyone even after a 2 hour wait for some people. He had a wee tear in his eye talking about the sea change in politics in Scotland.Great night and I recommend you go along to one of his events.
@TJenny
Some kind of falling out with Bella? The link to it in the sidebar has been removed.
It has been brought to my attention that in 1951, the Scottish Unionist Party won 29 seats. I was aware of the Scottish Unionist breakdown, but for ease of understanding, I included the Scottish Unionist seats in the Conservative column.
Without that inclusion, the seats would be as follows:
Labour 295,
Conservative 264,
Scottish Unionist Party 29,
Liberal National Party 19,
Ulster Unionist Party 9,
Liberal Party 6,
Independent Nationalist 2, and
Irish Labour 1
The party that was the largest by over 30 seats DID NOT form the government.
That seems strangely familiar…..;-)
“The party that was the largest by over 30 seats DID NOT form the government.”
The official record says that the Tories got 321 seats in 1951 to Labour’s 295:
link to parliament.uk
History seems to have retrospectively merged them with the Liberal Nationals as well as the Scottish Unionists. If you exclude the LNP – as we clearly should – but include the SUP, the Tories still had 302 to Labour’s 295, and while it’s undoubtedly technically correct, the distinction between the SUP and the Tories is a bit like the difference between Labour and the Co-op Party – arcane and a little fuzzy. Labour would just waffle and bluster out of it.
Brian Nicholson says:
“I think it is important to clarify the 1951 Westminster results and totally refute the lies being told by Jim Murphy and Labour.”
I agree. However, the Scottish Unionist Party, although aligned to the Conservative Party of England and Wales, had not merged with it in 1951. The SUP took 35 seats in 1951, the same as Labour in Scotland.
This adds even more weight to your argument that the smaller of the two main parties took power in 1951 in coalition with a number of other minor parties.
@TJenny
Yes, I also so that tweet from the Rev. No idea what it actually meant, maybe he will let us know here.
@Brian Nicholson
Bloody good find Brian, no idea how the Rev may have missed this. Puts paid to the Labour LIE for good.
link to en.wikipedia.org
SOS Thepnr I keep forgetting. Austerity good for US bad for BANKERS.
Watched The Hunger Games the other night. We must be District 12. (It’s like 1984 but more depressing!). Anyway, there’s this big City where all the rich people live surrounded by poor districts where the workers live ekeing out a bare living supplemented by hunting which is illegal…….
The daily tirade from the Brit Nat Press and Media of the SNP is evil, bad, wicked etc, juxtaposed along side Scotland is too wee and too poor etc to have Devo Max is getting tiresome. Strewth we have another 6 weeks or so of this to suffer.
A bit off topic, so apologies, but not so long ago, some SNP councillors, as well as the SNP as a whole, were heavily criticised because the councillors had set fire to a copy of the Smith Commission Report. Much of that criticism came from outraged unionists politicians, with the UK media only too eager to make an anti-independence point.
Labour politicians just couldn’t help themselves, especially Jim McGovern, who compared the act with the NAZI book burnings. He was quoted as saying “I have quite often read books and followed documentaries about pre-war Germany, and one of them was where … the National Socialist Party, which became obviously the Nazis, burned the books.
Douglas Alexander also got in on the act, and although nowhere near as vicious as his colleague, he was quoted “Discussion and debate is the lifeblood of our democracy but publicly torching documents they disagree with has no place in a modern society.”
Unsurprisingly, Anas Sarwar couldn’t hold back with a typical anti-SNP jibe “This is disgusting and disrespectful behaviour from three SNP councillors.”
Of course, it wasn’t just Labour showing disgust. Wee Willie Rennie didn’t hesitate, and offered “I would expect Nicola Sturgeon to react swiftly to this silly and offensive nonsense.”
And a Tory party spokesman said: “This was an idiotic act”
Of course, they are entitled to their opinions, however they have clearly expressed outrage and disgust at the burning of the report, so I sincerely hope that the unionist politicians and political parties all approach the UK media, as soon as possible, and strongly condemn Glenn Wilkinson for burning a copy of the Penrose Report.
Or are they a bunch of hypocrites?
Has it occurred to anyone else that perhaps neither Tories nor Labour WANT to win this election, because neither of them want to be the ones during whose watch the UK breaks up?
galamcennalath says:
“However, the Scottish Unionist Party, although aligned to the Conservative Party of England and Wales, had not merged with it in 1951. The SUP took 35 seats in 1951, the same as Labour in Scotland.”
Actually, the Scottish Unionist Party took 29 in 1951, The other 6 seats went to a joint ticket of the Conservative and Liberal National Party and have been included in the Liberal National party numbers.
Regardless, it is very clear that Murphy’s ” Since 1924, the largest party wins the government argument” is in tatters.
O/T
Derek hugely enjoying the press hysteria. He was in Edinburgh too interviewing Alex about his book so that should appear on Newsnet.
link to derekbateman.co.uk
@Brian Nicholson
Looks like the Unionist Party (Scotland) and the Conservative Party in England and Wales did not merge till 1965.
link to en.wikipedia.org
[…] A revealing turn of phrase […]
@ Capella
I saw Oliver Twist the other day, couldn’t help but consider us Scots asking westminster for MORE powers.
MORE???? MORRRE???? Cry the House of Lords, their cheeks flushing with rage…
Umm, what was I talking about again? Oh yes, good film. Although the hero of the story does join the ranks of the ultra wealthy at the end, prob became a Tory to boot. Ah well, least the songs were catchy.
Haig has proposals to ban Scottish MPs from voting on English only bills – reduce them to second-class MPs.
That debate will loom large soon, but the arguments flooding social sites prove the end of the Union is happening now.
Posters appear to realise they are arguing over which lifeboat is the better to use. Haig’s proposals are just another manifestation.
Eck’s A naughty wee imp
Great isn’t it
@Iain More
Strewth we have another 6 weeks or so of this to suffer.
No Iain you surely meant another 6 weeks or so to enjoy, No?
I do so love watching a once respected party in Scotland disintegrate before my eyes because of their own failings in the eyes of the Scottish people.
Comedy gold it surely is, the Scottish electorate are laughing at Labour and its leaders big time. Just keep taking the piss, they can’t hack it and their collective heads will surely explode soon.
Every Labour politician in Scotland deserves what’s coming, that they shat in their own bed to Scotlands and her peoples detriment will not be forgiven anytime soon.
@ Grouse
Lifeboats! Are we on the Titanic! Or just Desolation Row.
“Praise be to Nero’s Neptune The Titanic sails at dawn. And everybody’s shouting “Which Side Are You On?” ” (Dylan)?
The funniest part of the whole 1951 situation is that if kind of places Labour in a no-win situation regarding palming of any kind of independent Scottish Labour Party. The Conservatives alliance had a pre-electoral pact and many of them stood on the same manifesto and accepted the Conservative whip. If Labour insist on defining them as the largest party then by the same token it makes no odds how far they go to tart it up their northern ally will still be part of them.
In a weird way, this racist, verbal abuse that will hit us over the next few weeks, will hopefully awaken those Scots who sleepwalked into those voting booths on Sept 18th and voted NO.
Any Scot worth their salt, has got to say, enough is enough.
@ Dr Jim
ha ha – I suspect you are right. He’s up to something. But whatever the strategy is it will all be to serve the ultimate goal. And it will all have been worked out with the rest of the party in advance and Nicola will be in charge. The SNP are a formidably disciplined army but he’s having fun with it as well – the minx!
I’d love to have seen his face when he saw the Tory cartoon of him heading to Westminster on the train. I bet he laughed his head off. Anybody else hear the stupid voiceover calling the constituency of Gordon “Gourdon”?
I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in a long time.
@ Marco McGinty. They were justifyed in burning the Penrose Report. A total insult to the memory of those people & the people living with Hepatitis C
There was no need to bring blood products in from America & from a highrisk groups ( prisoners )& it was well reported of the risks, but Money Talks & many politicians had their palms greased.
At the 1st signs of contamination they carried on , for over a year. Private Finances before Public Health.
Is Murphy’s heed so far up his own ass, that he can’t see what is happening all around him, honestly, is he that dim?
The man with the nine year degree must have something going on in that napper?
Burnt his bridges to the ground
Burnt his bridges to the ground
Oh dear Murphy.
‘We live in a united kingdom and that means electoral outcomes in Scotland can affect what happens in London’
Tbh, if it wasn’t for WOS highlighting this, I would’ve struggled to read past THAT opening-line as it shows that either the writer of this article is an idiot or he thinks his readers are (if he has any ?)!. I even managed to get past the ‘Threat’ of ending austerity and scrapping Trident. However, once read in full, it doesn’t change my opinion that everyone in the London-media, truly are on a different planet !!
Good nicht all.
Do have to admire the fly way they say he’s going to take the lead in Westminster. The best thing the SNP could do is not have that happen.
@ronnie anderson
I fully agree with all of your comment. My point centred on the unionist politicians, and the UK media, criticising the SNP councillors for burning a published report, with one SLAB representative comparing it to the NAZI book burnings.
The circumstances surrounding the publications of the two reports are vastly different, and they simply cannot be held in any comparison, however the actual acts of burning the reports are the same. If these politicians truly believe that burning a published report is an outrageous act against democracy, has no place in modern society, or is just a disgusting, disrespectful and offensive act, then they must come out and say so in the media over the next day or two.
But they won’t.
They will fake their outrage and disgust if a pro-independence supporter acts in this way, but completely ignore the Penrose Report incident, proving that they are hypocrites of the highest order.
Plenty of faux outrage from the Labour Party over nothing
We will not deal with Alex Salmond nonsense, it’s all purely for the English audience because Miliband knows perfectly well Nicola Sturgeon’s in charge
The deal will be done when the First Minister walks through the door of Downing Street and Miliband can announce that he refused to deal with Alex, everybody faux placated because Nicola’s the goody and Alex is the baddy and Miliband saw him off
No harm no foul nothing to see here
But we know better, don’t we readers
Nicola will eat him up as easily as her favourite takeaway curry
“Get the knives and forks out Peter i’ll make the coffee..”
Oh! This is going to be so much FUN!
A majority of people in the Labour Party want an end to austerity and to Trident.
A majority of people in the UK want an end to austerity and to Trident. Austerity is leading to depression.
Westminster do not do Democracy. Westminster secrecy and lies and the Official Secrets Act.
Re: 1951
This is going to sound a bit ‘tin-foil hat’ but what the hell:
I’m suspicious that the Wikipedia link (link to en.wikipedia.org) appears to have lumped in the UUP results with the Conservatives to make it appear the Conservatives (on their own) gained more seats BEFORE doing any coalition deal with the Liberal National Party. If you look at other sources you can see the UUP achieved 9 seats on its own in 1951. Under the results table on the Wikipedia page though, someone has entered this:
“Total votes cast: 28,596,594. All parties shown. Conservative result includes the Ulster Unionists.”
And if you look at the bottom of the page you see this:
“This page was last modified on 12 March 2015, at 11:27.”
Why did a page reporting an election result from over 6 decades ago have to be updated so recently? Is someone trying to re-write history?
frogesque says @10.09pm
“Murphy – robust – in the same sentence ”
My wife made a “robust” souffle once,
does that count?
____________________________________________________________
GM Dundonian says @10.18pm
“Threat. DEFCON. The sabotage of democracy. The Thames flowing with blood. How much more dramatic will the establishment get?”
How about this!
link to youtube.com
____________________________________________________________
JayR says @ 10.38
“Send in the clowns…oh wait, Ed and Jim are already on the scene.”
Judy Collins did it far better than you
“Dont bother they’re here”
link to youtube.com
__________________________________________________________
That was a long walk Goldenayr.
planning another one?
yea’ll have had yer tea!
_____________________________________________________________
Ronnie Anderson @ 12.26
I think Marco McGinty’s point IS valid Ronnie, since the point I believe he was making was to highlight the ridiculous faux anger at a daft publicity stunt by turning it into the Scottish equivalent of the southern U.S preacher who burned a Koran!
“They will fake their outrage and disgust if a pro-independence supporter acts in this way, but completely ignore the Penrose Report incident, proving that they are hypocrites of the highest order.”
Point made.
________________________________________________________________
ITV :-
“Poll suggests main parties eroding smaller party gains”
An opinion poll for ITV News and the Daily Mail suggests the two main parties are gaining support at the expense of the smaller parties – especially UKIP.
The poll results are as follows: Con 35% (+1), Lab 35% (+3), LD 8% (NC), UKIP 10% (-3), Green 7% (-1), Others 6% (NC)
When translated into seats and adjusted for variations in voting scenarios and outcomes, ITV News’ election analyst Professor Colin Rallings says there could be 283 Labour MPs, 280 Conservatives, with the Lib Dems on 14 and the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties on 51.
The Greens could have 1, UKIP 2 and other parties occupying 19.
Last updated Wed 25 Mar 2015
The Spectator:
Alex Salmond on his ‘progressive alliance’ for pushing Miliband around.
‘The alternative to doing a deal is not doing a deal’ – just prop him up and bleed him dry.
Fraser Nelson.
link to spectator.co.uk
OT Got my copy of the book in Waterstones yesterday – I had wanted to wait and get the man himself to sign it but Granny duties will prevent that.
Started reading it on the bus home and would recommend it as a good read, unlike the miffed , petulant, ungracious ex Liberal leader Ashdown who obviously doesn’t know what is acceptable and what is schoolboy offensive.
There again , I find the entire Liberal party offensive.
The English media and their coordinated threats, lies, smears and all-round disparagement of Scotland and its people: do they believe that once the General Election is done and dusted that we will just shrug our shoulders, say, “Ach, that was all just paper-talk. We’ve forgotten about it already. Let’s all get back to being pals again!”?
Can the English-based media and their commentators be so blinded by their arrogance that they think their demonizing of Scots is without repercussions?
These are not pre-internet days. The abuse from the media is not now just discarded once the next day’s paper arrives. That abuse is now online – permanently, and for all future generations of Scots to see.
Scots have long memories. The media abuse will not be forgotten – ever, nor forgiven. How can it be?
Independence, self-determination, call it what you will, will maybe not stop the English media directing derision on Scotland, but, by then, it won’t matter any more, by then Scots will be at last able to forge their own path to better things.
The English media in their spite and arrogance towards the Scots perhaps believe they are working towards a short-term goal of saving the present UK unionist set up thus anything goes because in the long-term it is for the good.
They may indeed achieve that short-term goal, yet in their ignorance of who and what the Scots are they are determining that Scotland will view that the UK, as an entity, is over and their presence within it is not required.
When polls start to show 60% and over for independence the time will have arrived for Scotland to set its own course. The English media are expediating and encouraging that percentage to become reality much sooner than they could ever have imagined.
@dal riata
except it’s not the “English” media, is it? It’s the oligarch media, mostly owned overseas. The “English” are just as downtrodden as the rest of us being ruled over by the Imperial Masters, the Normans (which is an anagram of Romans) . It’ all very complicated!
Dal Riata says
“Scots have long memories. ”
Obviously not long enough to remember what was done to us in 1979.
Dorothy Devine: petulant, ungracious ex Liberal leader Ashdown who obviously doesn’t know what is acceptable and what is schoolboy offensive.
I agree – but did Ashdown have time to read the book? His comment arrived on the day of publication. Here it is:
link to wp.me
Yes they would waffle and bluster about it. And we should encourage them. Then ask if the same would be the case with a putative Scottish Labour Party. Or at present with the UU and DUP.
@galamcennalath says: 25 March, 2015 at 10:12 pm:
” … They truly inhabit another planet down in London”.
Perhaps not another planet but just the opposite poles of the same planet. You need a negative terminal as well as a positive terminal before current flows.
What we need is a switch to close the circuit and a fuse to blow when the current drawn is too much. Not to mention better insulation to keep us safe from shocks.
@caz-m says: 26 March, 2015 at 12:30 am
” … The man with the nine year degree must have something going on in that napper?”
Err! No! Caz-m – there was no degree for Dim Jim after those wasted nine years at University at the public expense.
We have been funding that subsidised utter numptie since he ran out on South Africa to avoid the military call-up.
@Dr Jim says:26 March, 2015 at 2:27 am:
” … Nicola will eat him up as easily as her favourite takeaway curry. “Get the knives and forks out Peter i’ll make the coffee..”
As I already posted on WoS, Dr Jim, “The female of the species is more deadly than the male”, but they usually carry out the execution while wearing, (Blue),Velvet Gloves.
youtube.com/watch?v=icfq_foa5Mo
No doubt Ed, “will still see Blue Velvet through his tears”, too.
@Capella says:26 March, 2015 at 7:30 am:
” … except it’s not the “English” media, is it?
Now, Capella, I’ve nothing against, “The English”, per se. I even married one once. (she died young). However, there is this wee niggling problem with the downtrodden among them that I do have issues with.
While we Scots have taken a very long and hard democratic road towards independence, (I set my first foot on that road around 1946), many of our English counterparts are, without doubt, doing so by violence, riots and a very distinct set of pro-English, anti-Everyone else with several quite racist organizations.
And, Yes I do know that is not the majority of the more downtrodden English population but it is a very worrying faction none the less.
@Rev
They may waffle about the SUP but let us not forget the 9 seats of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Labour 295 UUP 9 Conservative (including SUP) 293
There is a problem with their speculation, Alex Salmond has already said Angus Robertson is doing a very good job as leader of SNP in Westminster
As Rev said, he was going to take the ‘short interlude’ post down, this has now happened, in case anyone is perplexed by its disappearance…
@ john king
Very true point sir! The more you look into that whole sordid mess it makes me wonder why it took this long for labour to faulter in Scotland. Perhaps it’s a case ‘all good things come to those who wait.’
Regarding my previous reply to Marco Mc Ginty re the Penrose Report,I dont have a problem in you expressing your comments,however I dont think the Hacks of the Media need not have their attention draw to the Burning of this Report.
( I personally would have supplyed the petrol )
£ 12 million bloody insult to Families & Friends of all those People effected. Their looking for closure not another 30 yrs of torment.
Short Interlude.
Aye rite enough, ah never hud a chance tae get ootae ma seat fur ah Choc Ice.
Whit times the Ice cream tray lady coming roon again.
Peeps, Stu’s put up another post:
‘Temporary service interruption’. 😉
See you all there.