Always crashing in the same car
Posted on
January 14, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A must-view for those of you who missed last night’s Scotland Tonight. Watch and marvel (mainly from 2m 28s) as a man falls apart in front of your eyes, reduced to a babbling, incoherent shambles by a calm, eloquent gent in a sharp tweed suit.
Our favourite bit is the desperate, plaintive “Just ask Alistair Darling!” at the end.
The tie wiz a bit OTT tho’. 😉
Slaughtered him deid.
Lord McFail.
Painful to watch.
The No campaigners, do they have one valid argument – NO.
And whit a suit it wiz!
Anyone remember ‘Coach’ Eddie Pantusso from Cheers ? Who knew he was now in the House of Lords 😉
Its great to see BfS etc finally getting some airtime to help dispel the BS coming from BT… 🙂
Woah, acronyms ahoy! 😀
Th McFall guy wined and dined by Tory Bankers, in their pocket. Could they fall any lower? Beneath contempt.
another labour lord extremely concerned over his future in westminister and the house of lords and no doubt just as concerned about scotland and her people.
Lord Mcfall, If Daring Alistair is your back up you really are in the shit. It’s quite obvious that like ALL other better together spokes persons YOU DONT KNOW YOUR SUBJECT OR WHAT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING IN WESTMINSTER THE PAST 40 YEARS, POLISHING SOMEBODIES BOOTS AND FILLING OUT EXPENSES. it’s an open secret.
The more lay people the Yes campaign can put up for these debates the better. For some reason I can’t work out, but possibly due to politicians disappearing up their own focus-grouped arses, a non-politician always sounds better in these debates than the politicians do.
I particularly liked him fitting in “I’m not part of the SNP” and “There is no positive case for the union”.
Good soundbytes there.
McFall tried to drown out the truth!
Banks are not bailed out by where they are headquartered but in proportion to the countries where they do business.That is why for example the US Government bailed out Barclays along with many others including the proportion of business done by RBS and their own banks.
To think that McFall was once chairman of the HoC Treasury Committee and how he came across so abysmally inadequate in the discussion. No wonder the UK are in deep financial trouble.
It’s beyond obvious that McFall has a very limited grasp of his subject. It would seem that he’s grabbed a hold of a few little concepts, which he thinks to be truisms or aphorisms and is clinging onto them for dear life.
Gordon Macintyre-Kemp is in command of his subject and the relative authority with which he speaks shows McFall to be not just struggling, but to be honest, fairly stupid.
Gordon MacIntyre Kemp, First class, very knowledgable, confident, sincere and a gentleman what an asset to the yes campaign.
There is NO comparison between the YES & NO campaigns and personnel. Day & night. The no voters have got serious issues and where the DK get confused baffles me. We live in hope.
The fear is palpable on McFall’s face.
O/T, but something I feel needs emphasising:
The case for the union keeps talking about how we have all this great history together, revering the past.
The case for independance is talking about all we could achieve without Wesminster as a millstone around our neck, looking to the future.
It’s nice how the two campaigns are coopertating to provide the image that the union is (about) the past, and independance is (about) the future.
The whole Labour Party just don’t realise how far to the right they have moved. McFall could have been any Tory minister talking last night.
And we now have their boss, Ed Milliband, in the Telegraph today saying he wants to save the middle class. He wants to make it “richer and larger”.
So the disabled, poor, unemployed, and families on low incomes will just have to wait. Ed’s priorities are now middle class South East England.
I hope the voters in Cowdenbeath are taking note of this before they cast their vote in the up and coming by -election.
And what is wee Johann saying about Labour’s new priorities.
link to telegraph.co.uk
O/T a quite flattering profile of Alex Salmond on Radio 4 Today this morning, from about 8.30.
Was Lord McFall not chair of the Treasury Select Committee, when they spectacularly failed to hold the Financial Services Authority to account during the 2008 financial crash?
If so, he is even more discredited than Darling.
Interesting as well to hear John McFall personalising the debate with reference to the bogeyman, “Alex Salmond wants this… Alex Salmond claims that…” as if the entire independence movement was one man’s vanity project. He probably believes it too.
The more I think about it, the more he sounds like some bitter old bloke you’d meet in the pub.
hi
The best bit for me was when he started talking about the banking crash. I thought don’t go there mister and say though things if you value your credibility at all,,, opps too late
Well that was interesting
Lord McFall of Alcluith, to give him his full ennobled titled (hopefully with that on screen will remind his former constituents in West Dunbartonshire exactly what the Labour MP was all about) He was all over the place, more like Lord McFail.
The former chemistry and maths teacher was exposed as knowing zip about finance and economics. Which is strange considering he was on the Treasury committee .
McFail was outclassed by the very knowledgeable Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
McFail clearly had not read the Scottish Government White Paper, so tried to rubbish it, so he tried a sound bite comment stating that the ICAS were critical. Actually ICAS want to see proper debate link to icas.org.uk
Quoting Scottish CBI, really doesn’t cut it, so another grasping of straws by McFail
Then Quoting about the bank bail outs, just showed how stupid Lord McFail was getting and grasping at more straws. Gordon quite rightly pointed out that Barclays had been bailed out by the US Fed. Something the unionists don’t want to talk about. The final grasp by Lord McFail was to quote Alistair Darling regards the bank bail outs
Depressingly familiar spin on the story in the Herald this morning.
For every story with two sides to it there is, obviously, two basic approaches to take – and each and every time our press leads with the unionist angle, no matter how predictable or mendacious it might be. The nationalist angle is therefore presented as a response, a reaction and is lucky if it gets in before paragraph four. Thus, the headline is secured and, if it warrants, the billboard.
Balanced? Is it f …
Is it just me, or does Lord McFall look like someone who’s waiting for their redundancy notice?
If fact, almost all of the unionists look like folk who are waiting for their redundancy notices. Not long to wait now…
There was a time I thought McFall to be a reasonable sensible voice, that is gone now. He is quoting A.Darling as if what he quoted was the truth, this on the failing of Scottish Banks, which we know is hardly the responsibility of Scotland but that of the areas where the bank operates. So Darling says are lies, but taken as actual by McFall.
He appears to have a total ignorance of money matters, and to think he blindly believes Darling, is simply amazing. What we witnessed was an old school labour peer go into meltdown due to his fear of losing his Lord status and perks. the fear is in his face.Driven even further by his hatred of the SNP which of course stems from the panic in labour ranks that life for them may be about to change, big time.
To use the HBOS and RBS collapse as being a Scotland thingy was just the pits – plain and pure bluster and lies – this guy McFall has been living way above his paygrade for far too long if this is his noncontributing take on the banking collapse; which everybody and their granny knows was wrought by casino bankers all within the ‘square mile’ of good old London town.
The guys a pathetic joke – I hope he enjoys his baubles and ermine – it don’t amount to a pile of sh*t if he can’t add an ounce of value to life as an MP and minister of the crown.
When I hear the utterances of the likes of McFall, Darling, Curran, Lamont, why do I get the impression that they don’t know what they are talking about? A robotic delivery of memorized sound bites seems to be the extent of their ability. Any deviation from the track leaves them floundering. Why do so many big beasts of the Labour party appear to be generally unfit for purpose?
The red rosette seems to cover a multitude of limitations.
Some seem to have short memories; McFall did a pretty good job as Chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, and impressively gave bankers a lot of grief. That was before anyone really had a clue to the extent of their criminal mendacity; McFall and his Committee, for example, stopped them charging for ATM withdrawals, amongst other initiatives.
I’m getting this off the top of my head, no source checking, so I’m prepared to be corrected if anyone knows better.
Shut your eyes and listen to that car crash again. Baron McFall tries persistently to cite the director of CBI Scotland as a source to back up his argument. Stumbles into the minefield of bank bailouts. Clearly didn’t research his opposition for the studio debate. Came into the studio the former chair of the HoC Treasury Committee and exposed himself as a shallow, clueless, bisto-boy. West of Scotland Labour Party socialist morphs into right-wing rabid tory before your very ears and eyes (if you can stand it!).
I was going to add that he should have retired at his peak, instead of degenerating into the bumbling fool we saw last night, didn’t get the chance to edit.
McFall was a teacher before becoming a politician, it would interesting to find out how many Labour MP’s & MSP’s were teachers prior to becoming politicians.
@ Luigi
I agree. Mcfail is a perfect example of unionist oppostion. They really have no coherent argument, in fact sweet FA would be a better decription.
To cover the big red exposed bahookies they have a mix-and-match pot pourri of meaningless sound bites based on already mcfailed arguments which they parrot off.
They rely on two simple things.
1 Getting and easy, if not supporting, ride from the inky fingered press and especially the BBC
2 Repeating ad nauseum their nae mantra hoping we will take it slides into our subconscious.
These two are hallmarks of propaganda.
McFall was a teacher before becoming a politician, it would interesting to find out how many Labour MP’s & MSP’s were teachers prior to becoming politicians.
Lamont, Gray
McFall I could probably suffer in short doses, but can you imagine taking a lesson from Lamont or Gray?
There is no week link in the yes chain. They are a first class team, sincere, knowledgable, dedicated, and respectful they are a credit to Scotland and themselves. They have lifted the status of Scotland and give you confidence in our own country and abilities. I would follow them anywhere they have my complete loyalty faith and trust.
I would prefer not to pick out one person and I won’t but I’m Sure you all know what I mean.
probably the best in the no campaign is Blair McDougal and he is a slug, they are a disorganised rabble, a disgrace. Lies lies and more lies. Aye better the gither. They deserve each other.
@Luigi
Last week the Newsnight Scotland presenter forced a ranting Kezia Dugdale to promise that any of the standard empty statements she was making on air would definitely be in the Labour Manifesto…it could be a right circus come their next official publication!
How does the UK forcing a debt exchange onto its hapless investors (which would be a default event for the UK) make Scotland a financial pariah?
Genuinely curious.
“That was before anyone really had a clue to the extent of their criminal mendacity”
?
how far back do you want to go? Money lenders and temples come to mind.
“it would interesting to find out how many Labour MP’s & MSP’s were teachers prior to becoming politicians”
And they thought they were getting away from a room full of people asking them questions they couldn’t answer.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a group portrait of all these belters as the realisation sinks in that they’re out of a job?
link to cdn.arwrath.com
In the months after the banks crashed John McFall was never off our screens pontificating and airily dispensing his wisdom as if him and his Treasury Select Committee had had no responsibility whatsoever for the mess we were in. Two years later he was even ennobled! – par for the course in a land where reward for failure has become the norm. I think last night was the first time I’ve seen his complacency rattled. Wonderful stuff from Gordon Macintyre-Kemp. A great suit btw It looked like Harris tweed.
“Just ask Alistair Darling!”
As if Alistair Darling had any credibility left.
Interesting point in the Newsnet article about the Treasury announcement obviously not having been coordinated with the No Campaign team. The chickens are coming home to roost, boys.
GMK certainly took no prisoners.
As I understand it Alistair Darling hit the bottle after getting those phone calls from RBS, HBOS, Lloyds and Barclays.
Missed that last night so thanks Stu. for giving me a laugh this morning.
Reason and calm versus shouty…don’t you just love to be a Yesser.
The day the Labour party accepted titles such as Lords was the day it lost its soul. It is time this ridiculous institution was replaced by a second elected chamber there are now 900 of these pompous twits lording over us at £ 300 a day each just for turning up.Can I get my pay for just turning up signing in then going home again.
@Papadocx:
I’m not sure I’d follow them *anywhere*, but something that is certainly scaring the Westminster parties is than the SNP has integrety. I can trust that they’ll do what they say that they’ll do. Alex Salmond may not be the brightest fish in the barrel, and I might not agree with him on everything, but he’s pulling in the right general direction, and he can be trusted not to change his tune when he hits office.
That is why the SNP got a landslide victory in the last elections. They showed that it is possible for left-wing politicians to keep their campaign promises, and it’s scaring Labour silly. The SNP have picked up the discarded hat of Labour, and Labour are raging mad that the SNP are wearing it so well.
And yes, they’re doing it on purpose :p
Some seem to have short memories; McFall did a pretty good job as Chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, and impressively gave bankers a lot of grief.
Maybe, but last night he tried the ‘Scottish Banks Bail Out ‘card.
Now either he knows that bail out are done on the basis of where the problem occurred….in which case he was attempting to deliberately mislead the Scottish Public.
Or he genuinely didn’t know….which given his position on the Treasury Committee is even more frightening and far worse as he clearly has no grasp on the subject his Committee is specifically charged with.
O/t anybody read BBC news Scotland Politics ? Alright that’s definitely BBC on side with BT ! The Expert Opinion is highly suspect !
McFall is absolutely typical of the talentless nonentities who float up through the Labour ranks. Turds, not lords. Take a look around Dumbarton and Vale of Leven – that is McFall’s old constituency – and see the desolation his Party and its beloved Union have brought there.
RoughMan, interesting, I did not know about the ATMs. I do remember the banker interrogations, though I had the impression that although McFall was boosted by the media as this terrible inquisitor, as far as the bank directors were concerned, they had to suffer no other sanctions or punishments for the crash except a tongue-lashing from the heidie.
PS I also used to think of McFall as a respected figure, back in the 1990s.
OT
I’m sure the Rev will have something on the Guardian running a Daily Mail piece on the moral imperative to vote NO…..
Thought this was interesting from BTL from one of the Guardian own feature writers Emer O’Toole…
emerotoole
13 January 2014 10:34pm
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The colonial apologism! Oh the colonial apologism!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go wash my brain.
Excellent job by the two Macs!
Good to see McFall take the fall at long last!
Another one bites the dust. More of this please.
Although it drives you nuts the media bias and the one sided points that are allowed to be made by Better Together, what infuriates me more is the utter contempt these people have for the electorate.
They seem to think they can come on TV( Mr Carmichael yesterday) Mcfall last night and tell us the World is flat and the eejits (us) are not supposed to know any better.
When challenged, we’re then called cybernats or aggressive separatists.It would appear you can have an opinion( however fact free ) and that is valid if you support the Union but to refute that opinion and want Independence is somehow wrong?
John Mcfalls complacancy and contempt was neatly shown last night, while he’s been cocooned in Westminster, the rest of us have moved on.
It is the uncomprehending repeating of propaganda from the likes of Mcfall that drives the uncertainty.
They believe that only what they want to change will occur when they make politicised statements about the economy. McFall was unaware of the irony of talking about the international markets without realising they would be reacting to often repeated misinformation statements from Westminster establishment politicians.
Another one bites the dust. More of this please.
The long road to the referendum will be littered with the corpses of old unionist dinosaurs that try desperately to evade extinction. A steady stream of old cockroaches are now coming out of the woodwork, to defend their privileged positions. However, cockroaches cannot tolerate exposure to direct sunlight and they are effectively entering a killing zone. This is going to be a fascinating process, but not pretty. Get your popcorn ready.
When our side are allowed a fair debate, the no men invariably crumble!
This whole debt guarantee thing. This is the point at which the tanker slowly starts to turn, isn’t it? I keep reading about it and being amazed at the announcement in itself and also the early timing.
You can see the Yes strategy playing out, can’t you? Announce a date 4 years out, allow the No campaign to whine and bluster predictably about fear and doom, produce a paper on the positive case for Yes, watch the No campaign start to implode, let the UK parties focus on Euro elections and UKIP, then desperately try to get something together on ‘more powers’ before the vote.
Last night’s little interview was surely a taste of things to come. And if anyone hasn’t been to a BfS meeting, go along and see Gordon and Ivan in action. And take a don’t know with you.
I saw part of this,now I’ve seen it all,have to say,Mr McFall doesn’t look too well there. Aside from that overused magic word ‘uncertainty’,nothing unusual here,Mr MacIntyre-kemp talked calm sense against an old politburo type,who can’t change the same old mantra,Salmon,SNP,uncertainty, bank bailouts (which funnily enough happened on Mr McFalls’ watch) blah blah blah. At least make an attempt to alter the word flow chart to account for when you debate a non political on Independence.
faolie:
This whole debt guarantee thing. This is the point at which the tanker slowly starts to turn, isn’t it?
Still 1/6 No and 4/1 Yes at Ladbrokes. Get your money on now folks before the bookies wake up…
Sorry I had a good laugh at that one, good on you Mr MacIntyre-Kemp. I could never take McFall seriously before they gave him his Lordship and then I can’t take these Labour Lords seriously anyway. If this is the best they can do they really need to have a good look at themselves.
I do worry though about those people who are not political and do not watch this. We need more of the Newspapers to slip in bits like the Herald yesterday.
We owe you nothing you stupid British twats.
McFallacy reeks of the usual Labour Peer oath of fealty to his ‘Westminster gravy train’.
Another of Labours new Red Tories
He has no credibility when he sells Scotland short.
@fairiefromtheearth: We owe you nothing you stupid British twats
ROFL
Or he finds it very difficult to tell porkies.
What is he talking about in the first few minutes ? Does he mean GILT or GUILT ?If it’s the latter,it will be the first time any Westminster government has shown any of that for their actions !
@Paul – Not quite 900….there is 700 odd peers, they are speaking about paying the full time ones £60k a year…
Gordon McIntyre Kemp is talking tonight at the Scottish Piping Centre on McPhater St in Glasgow (Facing onto top of Hope St). Everyone and anyone is invited as it is an open meeting. 6pm to 8pm. He is even more interesting when you hear him in full flow. He knows his stuff. Every time he speaks, I learn something new.
Ian MacDonald of MacDonald Estates is also giving a short talk.
There will be about 60 or 70 others so an opportunity to mix and mingle too.
(Apologies Rev for the advert but he is worth the effort to hear in action, I feel sorry for anyone that tries to debate with him)
I Think t was McFall who charged the tax payer in excess of £100 for a fountain pen. I could never take him seriously after learning that.
Just watched that. GMK is AWESOME. He is one of the key people who are going to win this for us. I only hope and pray he gets more exposure because he is completely on top of this.
“When our side are allowed a fair debate, the no men invariably crumble!”
Yes, it’s a fascinating thing to watch. I suspect the Yes campaign, and Salmond especially, have played a blinder in understanding exactly what the media would be like and how they would react. And have use them and their ignorance and arrogance about Scotland against themselves and the no campaign.
They’ve given them a whole year or two’s worth of rope to trot out the same old scare stories again and again, while quietly building up a large amount of activists and information and refuting everything they can. While many, such as the EU and currency can only be cleared up by Westminster. And they’ve allowed them to become totally complacent. Those based in London get most, if not all, their information on Scotland from the media so between the media, the no campaign and the ignorant commentators they’ve built themselves the perfect echo chamber, insulated from anything those nasty nats are saying.
Now that might be extremely frustrating for us, but eventually it was always going to get t a point where the No camp have to put people up to debate and answer questions. And when they do they’re totally unprepared, and out their depth. The day before Carmichael’s mauling he wrote a blog for the Scotland Office which mentioned Braveheart and the usual nonsense. I almost posted to it then – if your man’s that badly briefed Sturgeon will take him apart but didn’t bother.
The no camp have been relying entirely on a powerful and biased media to provide cover for them, not to challenge them and not to ask any tough questions. And I’m not even sure that they realise this. I honestly think they’re so arrogant and out of touch that they believe themselves and their case is unassailable and the entire Yes movement is Alex Salmond and a few people bearing Saltire painted arses and bellowing freedom (as the Guardian so nicely put it yesterday).
Now we’re seeing people turn up to debate once, get pulped, then run away and leave it to the next sucker. But it’s too late for them to do anything much about the actual message now.
One of the group of has been Unionists who are easy to spot. They use the word ‘uncertainty’ with great aplomb and say the word ‘Scotland’ in an oh so posh way. A chancer who got lucky.
@cath 3.01pm
You were quite right cath not to point out their failings to them. Why should we hand them ammunition? They’re doing fine anyway as far as I can see, and they’re far too arrogant to listen to anyone anyway.
And also we wont get Doctor Who any more. Away & boil yir heid yah daft we dithering old man. The Yes camp bring a senior head of business & the No camp bring in a senile jibbering halfwit.
That was cruel & yet very funny.
“And also we wont get Doctor Who any more. Away & boil yir heid yah daft we dithering old man.”
To be honest, the last series of Doctor Who was so abominably shit I’m starting to regard that prospect as a good thing.
McFall disgracefully embarassed himself last night, and came over as fiscally illiterate. No understanding of who bailed out who, or why. Does he believe the Fed Reserve wouldn’t have thrown $446bn at RBOS had Scotland been independent? Or was he simply telling porkies which seems to be BT’s default tactic..
When a Labour peer uses the CBI to back up his straw argument, you know the games a bogey. And when a guy like McFall stoops so low, you know the Labour movement is dead and bloated.
Lord (as in, “Lord, thank you. I’ve made it!”) McFall, could have done himself a few favours by enlightening everyone to all he (and his matey’s, A Darling, G Brown, et al) did to stop the collapse of BoS and RBS.
Then he could have told us, he has had discussions with fellow pee-ers as to how much debt Scotland should share and whether to give Scotland any assets, in order to lessen any uncertainties the markets may have. But of course, that wouldn’t do. It would mean they couldn’t use “uncertainty” in every sentence.
He could have said how much things have improved in his former constituency, especially round about Alcluith, but…
The saddest thing is this pretence to be acting in ‘our best interests.’ Thank the Lord, but none of our grown hypocrite’s, who seem to shout louder and longer, the same scaremongering stuff each time. The worst of which is “there is a lack of detail about x, y, z!” Of course there is, cause Westminster willnae discuss!
Anyway, after this performance, his CV and fees, at “Specialist Speakers,” might be getting a bit of a knockdown! (Check Google, for a titter at what must come close to a breach of the trades description act.)
Welcome Jimmy! You just committed about 46 separate infractions of the comment rules. I’ve tidied it up, but NOW I’M WATCHING YOU.
STV have just put the video up on their official Youtube channel in the last few hours…
There was no RBS.HBOS debt in Scotland. Scotland didn’t borrow it or spend it. Scotland had perfectly manageable debt, and would have had the reserves to cover it. Scotland has been in surplus for years.
George Mathewson ‘Scotland borrowed half (pro rata) as the rest of the UK. Scotland had £1Billion of borrowing from RBS,. The rest of the UK had £19Billion.’ Pro rata the rest of the UK had borrowed twice as much as Scotland. Most of the debt was based on (Ponzi) property speculation in London S/E and the Midlands.
The Guardian, the only MSM with any independence of editoralship in the UK had to fall into line. When the Guardian gave the truth about the UK Gov actions, (NAS etc) Cameron/Clegg set in the heavy mob (the Met) to trash up the Print room, vandalise the contents and threaten the Editor with jail. The Guardian it seems has fallen into line.
Free MSM in the UK doesn’t exist. They want freedom of speech, but deny it to others.