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Wings Over Scotland


An eye-witness account

Posted on April 16, 2015 by

Sorry about this, readers. We know that YOU already know that the biggest party in a hung parliament has no special privileges when it comes to forming the government, but since those truth-dodging scamps Scottish Labour still won’t stop saying it (see below), we do still need to keep collating the evidence proving it’s a lie.

The bald-eagle-looking chap toting the cerise tie in this clip of this morning’s Victoria Derbyshire show on the BBC News channel is Lord (Andrew) Adonis, a former Labour government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

He also wrote the book “Five Days In May” about the latter’s unsuccessful attempt to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, despite having won almost 50 fewer seats than the Conservatives in that election. So he understands the process.

Lord Adonis does, in fairness, make a brief and half-hearted attempt at punting Jim Murphy’s “1924” line, but in the end he’s forced to concede (nudged along by Peter Riddell of the Institute for Government) that in fact the second-placed party forming the government is perfectly possible.

As Scottish Labour focus instead on the “£7.6bn black hole with FFA” non-argument, the “biggest party” line is falling by the wayside. Even super-loyal spin-journalists like the New Statesman’s George Eaton are now quietly backing away from the claim.

biggesteaton

But while they’re increasingly disinclined to say it on air and thereby open themselves up to attack, Scottish Labour are still pouring the message through letterboxes across Scotland daily. Continued vigilance is required.

biggestnash

biggestdavidson

biggestmckechin

biggest6apr

biggestmccann

biggest1

biggesthood

We’re on it.

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Ally

Now that we are officially in Purdah period, can they not get pulled up for spouting shi** / untruths? This is NOT simply a difference of opinion, but a blatant untruth!

think again

It would be nice to make history – ignoring 1924 – and see Labour, as the second largest party, asking if we would play nice and help them form a minority government.

Should any Labour candidates be lucky enough to get elected it would be even nicer to see who gets to be Scottish Secretary.

Kenny

I keep saying it but no journalist will bother to ask it. The Labour Party knows the truth about this but they keep saying it. The right-wing press is happy enough to play along and the anti-SNP left-wing press won’t make too much fuss either. But reading between the lines of all that Labour Party literature, the message is clear – if the Tories get more seats than us, we’ll put them in government and blame the Nats.

A year of beating that drum should be enough to let Murphy claim he’s turned things around by turning the SNP back into a minority government. After that, another four years of Tory misery, blamed EVERY SINGLE DAY by Labour on the SNP should be enough to make the SNP look pointless – “well, what did they achieve at Westminster apart from putting David Cameron into power? Don’t you think Labour could have achieved more if you’d voted for us?”

It’s a do-or-die strategy and it seems insane if we assume all SNP voters are as committed as we are. But anyone who’s not a “high information” voter will get beaten down by the relentless (and apparently consistent) message from Labour. Meanwhile, they can get shot of Miliband and put someone like that nice Chuka Umunna in charge, all the better to sweep the board in 2020.

katherine hamilton

“We’re on it”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never!

Geoff

Creepy even managed to get it past the censor and into a PPB up here earlier this week. The man has the scruples of a dead dog

grahamlive

One of the main criticism of Yes Scotland ,was that it didn’t do enough to counter the lies of Better Together.

I fear the SNP may be making a similar mistake with Labour’s lies. They need to squash this nonsense hard and repeatedly.

Osprey MacIntyre

Jim Hood has the same handwriting and the same claim as Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith). What a coincidence!

Patrick Roden

This general election will do more to leave the Labour Party in Scotland with a ‘Big Black Hole’ in their credibility, than any has done before,

It’s one big lie after another.

Has Jim Murphy decided to ‘weapon-ise’ the truth?

Luigi

grahamlive says:
16 April, 2015 at 12:01 pm

One of the main criticism of Yes Scotland ,was that it didn’t do enough to counter the lies of Better Together.

I fear the SNP may be making a similar mistake with Labour’s lies. They need to squash this nonsense hard and repeatedly.

It’s not so easy when you have a unionist, London-controlled media that spends every minute of every day searching for something to blame the SNP on. There are ways of getting the message across, but it takes a wee bit of craftiness and a lot more time than it should when the media are dead set against you.

icyspark

The Jimmy Hood leaflet I just got through the letterbox spouts the same pish.

iheartScotland

Lowest common denominator politics.
Labour (northern British branch office)
Let’s appeal to low information voters……
‘Blair Mc D says, lets try and save our jobs’

HandandShrimp

If it were true the Tories would not be crapping themselves over a Labour SNP agreement. They know perfectly well it could happen.

Holebender

Kenny, it doesn’t matter if Labour lets Cameron form a minority government if he can’t win any votes in Parliament. The only way the Tories would be able to govern would be if Labour abstains in every vote and lets the Tories govern. If that happens it’ll be Labour who gets the blame, nobody else.

Fireproofjim

Think again
Personally I think we should do away with the colonial minded Scotland Office and the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Use the money for something useful.

No no no...Yes

The SNP is doing what they can to dispel this myth, but they are up against a petrified Labour Party who will stop at nothing. The best way is to speak to voters when canvassing and on stall, etc.

Apparently some Labour MP’s have resorted to looking for sympathy on the doorstep saying that they will lose their jobs!

Aceldo Atthis

How about this from Jim Murphy in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 General Election;

“I think all options are still open, including for example a Labour-Liberal coalition.”

There you have it. Jim Murphy considered a coalition with the liberals an option that was still open in 2010, despite Labour having less seats than the Tories.

link to telegraph.co.uk

starlaw

Note labours leaflets all have same hand writing, be nice to know where they were all printed, bet it wasn’t Scotland . . vote SNP and keep Scottish printers employed

One_Scot

‘The Party with the most seats will form the Government in May – it can only be Labour’

Which roughly translates to,

‘The Party with the Biggest Lie will form the Government in May – it can only be Labour’

Unless we stand to these people on the 7th of May, then we will only have ourselves to blame.

Harry Shanks

The response to Murphy’s line of:

“When was the last time the largest Party didn’t form the Govt” is very simple.

It is simply to turn it back on Murphy with:

“And when was the last time prior to 2010 that there was a Coalition? Which shows that anything can happen”

Luigi

Apparently some Labour MP’s have resorted to looking for sympathy on the doorstep saying that they will lose their jobs!

They have have been at the trough long enough. Time for them to get a proper job like the rest of us (if they are employable in the real world, that is).

chalks

Labour are fully ‘in’ on this argument now, it’s not mcdougall’s style to suddenly cut his losses and run.

bookie from hell

Jackson Carlaw Tory MSP on daily poltics confirms Scottish Parliament was designed NOT to get a majority.

David Wardrope

Is the Jim Hood picture from a through the door leaflet? If so, I could contact him to clarify.

Strangely I’ve had absolutely no unsolicited stuff from Labour so far, although my wife has had 2 or 3 things actually addressed to her recently.

frogesque

The problem is, all the leaflets and bumf have been printed and are awaiting distribution, largely by the PO since they have no ground support. Labour (being totally broke by £12M at the last count) cannot afford to have them withdrawn and reprinted so there is no option but to go with the lie and make what they can of it.

This is my personal answer:

link to frogesque.co.uk

Joemcg

Saw a couple of big Ian Murray posters in a mansion window in morningside today. £750k house. Hashtag Red Tories.

Macart

‘It can only be the Labour or the Tories’.

Why?

Because they say so apparently.

(Except for viewers in Scotland or Wales)

Harry Shanks

In Glasgow Rutherglen – so far I’ve had 4 Labour leaflets, 2 Tory, 1 UKIP, 1 SNP.

The Labour, Tory, UKIP ones have all been returned to their FREEPOST addresses. Incidentally, all the Labour ones went in separate envelopes to maximise their costs.

frogesque

PS

Feel free to use or FB as required:

link to frogesque.co.uk

Grenscot

The first presenter made the very salient point ” We elect a Parliament, not a Government”

Stephen Bowers

Wankers will be wankers, sod this I’m off canvassing in a hour, get out there people, have the conversations. Time to flush the bog !

PeteLyes

The Labour leaflets are printed in Wales – A MClay and Company Ltd

Wilma

Hi all do we have a date for the new wee book arriving yet.

Clootie

I have a SNP MP (Eilidh), a SNP MSP(Alex) and a Majority SNP Government at Holyrood.

….just waiting for Independence now. It doesn’t have to be Labour or Tory!

orri

Thing is that MPs are on a limited contract that can come to an end at any election. Strictly speaking you might view the elections as a competitive tender for them to continue in the contract.

heedtracker

link to twitter.com

You’re probably right about SLabour moving away from biggest party con on TV and radio and piling in with their FFA £7.5bn terror campaigning. My very own SLabour job for lifer more exactly matches this Murphy/MacTernan/MacBloater/BBC stumbling away from it.

For kicks I wrote to my MP Ms Begg about creepy Jim biggest party bullshit 6 weeks but no response. Funny that.

But Begg is interesting to watch though if only because she is more than willing to terrorise her electorate with creepy Jim’s FFA frighteners but she often abstains herself from big Westminster war vote stuff, like Trident renewal or war in Iraq etc. T’other side of city is Frank Doran, archetypal SLabour seat warmer.

[…] An eye-witness account […]

Will Podmore

Clegg had said before the 2010 election that he would try to deal with the largest party after the election.
He said that in the event of no party’s winning an absolute majority he had an obligation to talk first to the party with the most seats.
The party with the biggest mandate should have first go at forming a government.
This was a political decision not a constitutional duty. But it has arguably now become the constitutional convention. Previously, the convention was that power stays with the sitting Prime Minister. He is in office until he resigns, having failed to form a new government. But Clegg ignored the convention by inviting the leader of the party with the most seats (the Tories in this case) to make the first attempt to form a government.
For an overall majority, Cameron needs 313 seats. The more seats that the LibDems win, the fewer Cameron would need to renew his coalition with them.
The more seats that the SNP wins (which would almost all be at Labour’s expense), the fewer Cameron would need to have a majority over Labour, and make him better able to renew the Con/LibDem coalition.
A LibDem source said of this election, “if we hold the balance, we will speak first to whichever party has most seats.” Clegg would again talk first to the party with the most seats.
So voting SNP, or any party other than Labour, would directly help Cameron and Clegg to form another Tory/LibDem coalition government.
As Tory supporter finalcurtain wrote, “I hope Nicola Sturgeon does well in Scotland, as that reduces the chances of a Labour victory at Westminster.”
That’s honest – more so than the SNP itself, which lies to its supporters that voting for the SNP, and thus defeating Labour candidates, would help Labour.

Aceldo Atthis

ACELDO’S LOG
STARDATE: APRIL SIXTEENTH, 2015

I can report that yesterday on Planet Twitter, I entered into protracted negotiations with a certain Scottish Laborg representative, Duncan Hothersall.

Our discussions focused on the pressing matter of his beard which as most of you will know is something of a crime against humanity.

Both within and outwith Scotland, I think most people would agree that shaving your beard in such a way as to give the impression you have a chin is simply unacceptable in the 21st Century.

For that reason, I think the sooner we give the issue of Hothersall’s beard prominence in our manifesto — and take the matter to the doorsteps — the better.

Additionally, beyond Scotland, if UK voters generally were made aware of our concerns here, I expect that they would be much more open to the idea of the SNP making a positive contribution to shaping policy at Westminster.

Whilst no meaningful progress was made on the issue yesterday, I think the discussion with Hothersall as a whole was a success in terms of;

A) Raising the issue.

B) Taking the fight to them for once rather than simply responding to their lies all the time.

C) Planting seeds and doubts in the minds of Laborg representatives like Hothersall, regarding their vibe generally and future funding for razors.

END OF TRANSMISSION

Donald Urquhart

OT ( but not totally, because it’s about how shit Labour are )

Fife Free Press front page… ” Gordon Brown’s challenge to Stagecoach : Free travel to food banks”

Thank God, anti slavery campaigners saw the problem as being slavery itself – and set about getting it abolished.

Had Gordon Brown been around in those days, he’d have campaigned for cotton ankle bands to stop the shackles chaffing the skin….

Every single year that Labour were in power, the last time, they increased the inequality in wealth distribution – they also spent billions on illegal wars.

Gordon Brown should set about undoing the damage he caused, not the slight mitigation advocated in today’s Fife Free Press.

DerekM

yea they will not stop using it now,they have nothing else and nothing left to lose,this has never been about the GE for them the writing was on the wall after indyref its about discredit the SNP anyway they can,they cant deliver policy announcements as they take no part in UK labour policy so must resort to smears,lies and spin ,but i guess the head office manager didnt get the memo about actual policies lol

need to watch them though as they like i said have nothing left to lose which usually means old clunking fist himself is released from the darkness to scare the old folk.

HandandShrimp

Will it is still Bollocks whatever way you cut. Clegg was in talks with Brown but his terms included Brown stepping down. The maths simply didn’t favour Brown either. He needed about four parties to agree, Liberals, SDLP, SNP and PC before he had enough and still they wrangled for days.

If Labour have 270 and the SNP 53 then Cameron is screwed regardless if he has 280 or 290. There is no obligation for the SNP to back Cameron.

Karmanaut

If you have a Labour leaflet containing misleading information, perhaps you could try to send it back to:

Freepost RSJK–BART–AYRZ, Labour Party Membership, Cramlington NE23 1BB
or
The Scottish Labour Party
FREEPOST GW4863
Glasgow
G2 4BR

Labour would be oblidged to pick up the cost of postage, which I believe is 54p.

I will be sending all of my leaflets back there, with a helpful note pointing out the lies. I’m sure Labour will find this useful. Hopefully having to pick up the cost will encourage them to be more truthful in the future.

If enough people did this, they would be forced to tell the truth or suffer serious financial loses.

Bob Mack

@Will Podmore,
I see what you are trying to twist,but there is a problem!
The problem is that no other party represents Scotlands interest better than the SNP..Given that fact,why would anyone pick another party to votd for?

Tackety Beets

Will Podmore @ 1.36

Are you still here ?

Still don’t agree with what you say .

Cheerio.

orri

Has it fuck become a constitutional convention. The fucking Fixed Term Parliament Act makes it fucking clear that even if it were once true that the largest party gets to govern, which we all fucking know it wasn’t, as of that Act being passed any possible claim to it being a convention is right out the windae.

Party or parties that can get their Queens Speech passed governs. End of Story. Fail a specifically worded vote of no confidence, so the Speaker can’t ignore or pretend it hasn’t happened, then all the parties involved get 15 days to try to create another government which has to pass a specifically worded vote of confidence or parliament is dissolved.

Note that the requirement for specific wording seems to involve a certain amount of distrust in the Speaker acknowledging that the 15 day period had been invoked. Doesn’t actually say that the PM ceases to be in post though.

Louis B Argyll

Shouldn’t the palace scotch this myth.

After all… It is their department.

A wee hint from her majesty can be leaked as before..off the record of course

[…] Sorry about this, readers. We know that YOU already know that the biggest party in a hung parliament has no special privileges when it comes to forming the government, but since those truth-dodging scamps Scottish Labour still won’t stop saying it (see below), we do still need to keep collating the evidence proving it’s a lie.  […]

heedtracker

The more seats that the SNP wins (which would almost all be at Labour’s expense), the fewer Cameron would need to have a majority over Labour, and make him better able to renew the Con/LibDem coalition.

Will Podmore says: thats fun isnt it Will. Thing is though or really two things,

1.England votes majority Tory party bullshit over and over.

2. Red and blue tory Britnats, in England and Scotland, are going completely mental now at just the thought of polls holding and Scottish MP’s that are not SLabour seat warmers, having any influence at all.

Check out this nasty banality of rule Britannia says anyone can stand as an MP in teamGB, except SNP MP’s Will Plodmore.

link to twitter.com

Glamaig

@Will

if (Lab + SNP + Green + Plaid) greater than (Con + LibDem + DUP)

then

Cameron and Clegg cant form a government, even if Con have more seats than Lab. Simple enough?

Also, SNP are likely to take a few seats off the LibDem total.

Richardinho

The interviewer says: ‘The second largest party could still form the government.. and how will voters take to that?’ You can see how this meme has taken hold potentially making it very difficult for Labour to in fact form a government if they are not the largest party.
And whose fault will that be?

galamcennalath

There’s a pattern of gross incompetence here. The reason why all these leaflets are going out with now debunked ‘largest party claim’, is probably because they we printed before the debunking.

At the highest level, the ‘largest party claim’ was chosen as the primary strategy to be rolled out and adopted by every politician, every branch, and printed extensively.

Who pulled the BS out of the air? Who thought the plan would stick? Did they believe it was true? Did no one think of actually checking the facts?

Truth is, the answers don’t really matter. All that matters is that the episode shows Labour decision makers couldn’t be trusted with even the simplest of tasks!

HandandShrimp

You can see how this meme has taken hold potentially making it very difficult for Labour to in fact form a government if they are not the largest party.
And whose fault will that be?

I think Ed will simply say, don’t listen to Jim…we certainly don’t.

David Wardrope

The LibDems saying that they will try to negotiate with party with the most seats is disheartening. No mention of negotiating with the party closest to their principles, merely the one with the largest number of seats. As I’ve always said, if it looks like a party is chasing power for powers sake, they should be nowhere near the levers of a country.

Paul

If the vast majority of those that voted yes vote SNP then the unionist press won’t make any difference we just have to make sure that we get the vote out then SLAB are toast.

imafan

WTF is going on with the camera!?

Some kind of Dalek on uppers that can’t sit at peace for two seconds?

Fred

@ Will Podmore, the SNP hope to win LibDem seats also, not to mention the lone Tory, and are therefore capable of fielding a bigger bloc of MPs than Labour possibly could hope for, which kinda scuppers your argument somewhat.

No doubt somebody will be along to shoot you down in flames properly just shortly. Was talking to some guy selling the Morning Star at the Trident demo, a big Yesser by the way, don’t know where you’d fit in?

Luigi

David Wardrope says:
16 April, 2015 at 2:19 pm

The LibDems saying that they will try to negotiate with party with the most seats is disheartening. No mention of negotiating with the party closest to their principles, merely the one with the largest number of seats. As I’ve always said, if it looks like a party is chasing power for powers sake, they should be nowhere near the levers of a country.

“principles” ?? Hey, this is the LibDems we are talking about here!

Robert Graham

I for one will never vote for this version of the Labour party so removed from its founding principles that it is just another version of the conservative party if they think anyone will vote for these absolute total in your face liars they seem to think everyone in scotland has collective amnesia what labour say and what labour do are totally different

Dr Jim

Nick Clegg is a flea
Any dogs back will do

Miliband is a twerp
Just wants to be head boy, hell yes, he really pulls that off doesn’t he

(Flashman) eh Cameron well it’s obvious innit

Looking forward to tonights debate Nicola Sturgeon is the only one with actual experience of Government
Now that’s something in a Britnat context i never thought i’d say

David Wardrope

@Luigi,

I know, what the hell was I thinking!!

Luigi

Will Podmore

“constitutional convention”

Interesting word play.

Pure bullshit of course.

Dr Ew

I would suggest Nicola makes her position clear this evening and thereafter with a statement along the lines of:
“THe SNP would take great satisfaction in being the party that locked the Tories out of Downing Street.”

That’d put their gas at a peep!

Robert Louis

The FACT that the Labour party is and has been for some months telling voters in Scotland a complete lie about ‘the largest party forms the government’, tells us all that voters need to know about Labour.

The problem for Labour is that for most of my life, they got away, completely unchallenged, spouting lies to the Scottish electorate – the kind of lies which would be called out, if done in England during an election. Now, here in 2015, with social media, and a very connected electorate, Labour simply do not seem to know how to fight an election with rational arguments – hence their peurile rubbish about FFA.

Labour are so used to getting away with total lies up in Scotland (which they also use to mislead supporters and especially students – it is shocking how many students do not know that it was Labour who first introduced tuition fees, and not the Tories), that they cannot seem to think of anything other than the same tired old lies in this election. A good example of this, is the truly moronic habit of Labour supporters shouting ‘Tartan Tories’ in relation to the SNP. It bears absolutely zero connection with reality, has nothing to do with this election, and is just daft. It also completely misses the fact that the SNP is radically more left wing than Labour.

What I think this election will hopefully show Labour, especially in Scotland, is that the outdated ‘strategies’ of the likes of mcTernan, no longer work effectively. It is like McTernan is stuck in a timewarp, re-running elections of ten or more years ago.

Politics in Scotland have moved on, and the electorate is much better informed. I do not doubt that there will be some in Scotland who will, through no fault of their own, fall for the Labour lies, but in most cases, I think following the referendum, people are much more savvy.

To win an election in Scotland ever again, Labour in the Scottish branch office will simply need to stop telling demonstrably clear bare faced lies. They could make a start by jetissoning the likes of McTernan, who, to be frank, despite the hype has not exactly had major successes with his brand of spiteful, dishonest politics. I mean look at where his career is, he isn’t even the key strategist for Labour, working only for the Scottish branch office, instead.

Hardly what I’d call success.

I am loathe to give Labour advice though, so I’ll say no more, except it does them no good at all to lie, and the voters are simply NOT as stupid as they and especially McTernan like to believe.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Nicola Sturgeon has signed a letter condemming Nigel Farage’s lies about HIV, during the last debate. link to snp.org

Big Red

Is that Jim Hood’s election leaflet or his Primary 5 homework?

gordoz

Christ the Podmores back; dearie me –

The ‘CyberBrit’ that blindly backs ‘Politics with convictions’ rather than those who put Scotland’s interests first and practice ‘Conviction Politics’.

Talk about not getting the message.

fred blogger

stop calling them the labour party, but the carborundum party.
oh wait, i get the name now, labour to get through to them.
not for much longer though if there’s any justice in this world.

ot link to one-europe.info Luxembourg has the most foreigners in Europe
the uk is so low it’s not even on the graphic.
apart from what does it matter!
mustn’t let facts get in the way of a yarn must we.

manandboy

It appears as if the entire Politics Industry has been corrupted through giving itself over to the pursuit of wealth these past thirty five years.

We now have an entire generation of politicians who are pretending to be one thing to the electorate, but quite the opposite in private.

In order to perpetuate this charade, every one of them is compelled to lie constantly.

It is as if every police officer, every sheriff, every magistrate, every procurator fiscal, and every judge in the land had been replaced overnight by career criminals with multiple convictions.

Or, again, imagine a bank in which every single employee is engaged in the embezzlment of the customers deposits.

Such are unionist politicians today.

It really ought to be a criminal offence with an automatic custodial sentence, for an elected politician to fiddle expenses, to have a second source of income, to take a bribe, or to distort or keep secret, information vital to the public interest like for example, the asset value and revenue from oil & gas.

Their corruption is making us all sick. It’s time to get back on the road to good health.

Lead on Nicola.

Lesley-Anne

Sorry for going O/T but these numpties want us to re-elect them back to Westminster … I wonder why?

It would NOT have anything to do with protecting the not so *ahem* innocent by any chance would it?

link to i.imgur.com

link to lbc.co.uk

Big Jock

Paul – That’s 45% who voted Yes,voting SNP. What a cushion to have. But lets not forget there are plenty of no voters who feel cheated by Slabour. We will take some of them over to the SNP.

55% is not out of the question.

Will Podmore

Fred, the Morning Star – of the CPGB – usually opposes separatism, though that party is not united on the subject. Some were for Yes, some for No, some didn’t know. Not very communist!

jackie g

Jim Murphy’s comments today on the Tory Party manifesto launched today by David Cameron.

“In every election, going way back to 1924, the biggest party has gone on to form the government.

Geez he is like a dug wi a bone!

🙁

orri

Trouble is that now the LD’s are playing fast and loose with what they’ll consider the largest party. It’s number of seats or votes cast. Basically they’ll pick whichever gets them another go at being in the government.

heraldnomore

The Branch Manager was heard shouting the same old line on Radio Jockland earlier this very day. No cries of ‘pish’ rose up from host broadcaster, and so the ‘largest party’ tosh went out unchallenged yet again.

manandboy

The UK is at a crossroads at which to go straight on is to head for a cliff. Straight on is the path of two party politics in a first past the post electoral system (FPTP). This option is past it’s sell-by date and the country knows it and is going to vote for change by spreading the vote across a variety of political parties forcing, again, a coalition.

Only those in power are against this, because this is the system which protects the British Monarchy, the Aristocracy, the ruling Classes, the very wealthy and the super rich.

As everyone should know, the coalition model is widespread in Europe where democracy, as a rule, is in a much better state. In the UK, democracy simply doesn’t reach the lower orders of British society.

Those in power will cling on with everything they have to their wealth and extensive privileges. They will have to be dragged screaming into the new era as we have already heard from the many lords and ladies who have taken to the willing platforms of the broadcast and written media to make their case for endless protectionism for their life of grace and favour.

But it’s over. The voters have decided, and are now, more and more, turning a deaf ear to the loud protests of the rulers who morphed into oppressors.

Let’s hope the electorate keep their nerve on may 7th. May Scotland and the UK both turn a corner and thereafter maintain the new direction.

The alternative is the cliff.

JLT

think again says:

It would be nice to make history – ignoring 1924 – and see Labour, as the second largest party, asking if we would play nice and help them form a minority government.

Technically, Jim Murphy could still end up being right. LOL. What happens if Labour end up being the biggest minority party after all, but still need the SNP to make up the balance to give them the honour of being the Government of the day.

Can you imagine it! Murphy will be shrieking at everyone saying, ‘See! I told you so! Told you!! No-one believed me, but see! I was right! You see! The biggest party forms the government. I was right all along!!! Those damned Nats!’

That would be damned funny!

thedogphilosopher

@ Comrade Podmore

What you seem to perceive as ‘Separatism’, myself and others here regard as Anti-Imperialism. You’re on the wrong side of the barricades mate.

Donny Mac

In Ian Murray’s latest plea to voters in Edinburgh South there is no mention of largest parties forming governments, but I was interested to note he includes a few words from selected supporters – one of whom is James Clark, a personable young chap. James, although Ian Murray makes no mention of it, is a Civil Servant. He is also author of a blog which can be found at
https://leftminster.wordpress.com.
He subtitles his blog “He who rejects change is the architect of decay”. Oh…the irony.

manandboy

More headlines today on Paedophiles at Westminster and the ongoing cover up.

The MP said, ‘ Just put your vote in the Ballot Box over there will you, Luv, while I finish off with this little boy here. Ta.’

INDEPENDENT

Dim Jim or maybe its Forgetful Jim,
Has obviously forgotten that beloved turncoat of the Tories, Liberal and Tories. Doyen of Dundonians.
Winston Churchill who was elected over Clem Atlee with the assistance of a coalition the Scottish Progressive and Unionist Party and various other shysters.
Dim Jim would not realise this as it is part of Socialist Labour history.
Which he couldn’t be further from all his political life.
I bet Clem Atlee will be looking down saying.

Go Nicola Go!!!

Macart

This isn’t just simple arithmetic, its simple logic.

Scotland has for almost forty years faithfully voted predominantly for Labour and what it considered left of centre parties. What did we get regardless? Conservative governments. When Labour did get into power we got Blair/Brown and one would be hard pressed to argue that they weren’t in fact simply Conservatives wearing different ties.

When the Conservatives were in power, were we protected, fought for, our interests protected by those we sent to Westminster with that charge? Look around us and what do we see? They weren’t known as the feeble fifty for nothing.

Regardless of who forms a government in Westminster after May 7th, I want representation with teeth, that carries political weight and that will fight tooth and claw to protect our interests as both UK constituents and as nation partners. The establishment parties CANNOT be trusted with this charge anymore. They have shown their worth over this forty year period and we have shown patience and loyalty above and beyond.

Its well past the point of time for a change.

Lesley-Anne

Oh dearie me.

It looks like everyone’s favourite one man political party is in a wee bit of trouble with the boys in blue.

link to archive.today

One_Scot

Labour – ‘We will do and say anything to get you to vote for us, even if it is complete and utter bollocks, in fact being complete bollocks is probably a prerequisite.’

manandboy

The Lord Janner Case

In a statement Lord Janner’s family described him as a “man of great integrity and high repute with a long and unblemished record of public service”. (The same might be said of Jimmy Saville or Rolf Harris in the context of the entertainment industry)
“As the Crown Prosecution Service indicated today, this decision does not mean or imply that any of the allegations that have been made are established or that Lord Janner is guilty of any offence,” the statement said.
In 1991, Lord Janner made statements in Parliament asserting his innocence after a man claimed he had abused him.
He will remain a member of the House of Lords until his death or until he formally retires under reforms passed last year.”

If he can remain a member of Her Maesty’s House of Lords until his death, then he can remain a member of HMP at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

Roger

Speaking of that link to democraticaudit.com

fred blogger

thedogphilosopher
yep! your’re right.
but, as much as it’s said, it don’t sink in.
luckily we get it, as did gandhi.

Cherry

I got my first labour leaflet from Tom Greatrex …printed by Trinity Mirror group Glasgow!

Almannysbunnet

Well that’s good news. Over 4 million people in Scotland have registered to vote. link to bbc.co.uk
scotland-32333215

starlaw

several years ago boys made allegations concerning Lord Janner in open court. The Judge threatened them with jail as Lord Janner was not on trial.

Big Jock

3:26 – Unification not Seperatism – Or it could be described as leaving with your friends beside you, and your enemies snarling at your back.

We are trying to unify Scotland the country we call home.Which our neighbours have abused for centuries.United we go into the future as far as I am concerned.

The divided nation of the UK is united only in statute not heart.

izzie

Jim’s at it again on Newsdrive

scottieDog

Will podmore makes a very good case for independence. Not sure if he remembers that Scotland voted labour in 2010 heralding in a tory /lib government.

Almannysbunnet

16 April, 2015 at 4:21 pm
Well that’s good news. Over 4 million people in Scotland have registered to vote. link to bbc.co.uk
scotland-32333215

That link went belly up, try this one. link to bbc.co.uk

shiregirl

Hi all
Just seen the news – the leaders debate (sans conservative and lib dem) will have 200 persons in the audience and will feature 50 floating voters with a keypad thingy saying who they would vote for,who is doing well, etc.

Given this is in London, is this not a bit odd as I suspect there won’t be many Scottish persons present? I am perhaps being a bit judgmental here, but will English people living in England be pushing the SNP button stating they would vote for them? And no tories/lib dems whom they could vote for…
Or maybe they will and I am jumping to conclusions. I hope so.

I missed the SNP leaflet pushers out for Angus Robertson – so far, no other leaflets other than SNP. Lot’s of SNP posters in windows in Buckie and Cullen which is good 😀

Lesley-Anne

That’s great news Almannysbunnet that must be getting on for matching the total registered to vote in the ref.

Now the only problem we have is convincing the majority of the 4 Million to actualyy go out and vote … and vote S.N.P.! 😀

ian gould

just heard the smurph on bbc radio scotland [the largest party forms the government]

Lesley-Anne

I agree with what you say there shiregirl. However there was a poll carried yesterday in Manchester, I think, where 95% said they’d vote for S.N.P. if they stood in England. Given that perhaps the *ahem* floating voters may decide to all vote S.N.P. tonight. Wouldn’t that screw up the BBC big time! 😀

fletch49er

I saw a sound bite from Jim Murphy today, and it went a bit like this “Blah1 Blah! Blah!… 1924, Blah! Blah! Blah!… the biggest party with most seats, Blah! Blah! Blah!… will form the government, Blah! Blah! Blah!…”

So he’s still at it! And the TV media are still at it!

Andrew Morton

Before we get all hot and bothered, let’s just remember two things.

1. Hardly anybody reads election literature, it usually goes straight in the bin

2. Those that do read the leaflets probably don’t believe them and if they do, they’ll have forgotten it all the next day.

BBC Scotland is far more dangerous.

Deontas

Ohhhh argggh Pammy Nash totally boils my piss!!

Come on the good folk of Airdrie & Shotts get rid of Pammy…………who is only interested in keeping herself in a chushy wee job!!!

PS thanks 13.54 Karmanaut for the return address I will be happily sending back the Pammy “keep me in ma chushy joab” Nash pamphlet that stained my mail box today.

Bill McLean

Mr Podmore’s comments are totallty irrelevant to those of us who live in Scotland. He has little to say on matters of real democracy (the type Labour doesn’t understand or want to) and I often wonders how he feels about the totally biased behaviour of the BBC (the world’s greatest broadcaster) towards Scotland and her people. As I say his views are totally irrelevant, like Jim Murphy’s whose change depending on the day of the week. We treat you politely and respectfully Mr Podmore so why don’t you respond by finding something out about politics in Scotland instead of trotting out Labour guff – and while you do remember the vast majority of us on her were former Labour supporters and members as I was from 18 to 59 and the fould, murderous, Labour conconcted excuse for a war against Iraq which has done much to leave the MIddle East in the state it is in now …. and Tony Blair a multi-millionaire. Murphy is a right-wing airhead! Dont’ advise us until you know how we felt about Labour and feel about it now and understand why!

Kev

Aye they’re still peddling this mince, got a leaflet through the door from wee Wullie Bain and the largest party line was repeated no fewer than 5 times. Also featured was a Labour fanatic nurse complete with NHS outfit and badge, tut tut.

Paula Rose

Why does Jim Hood’s computer need lined paper?

Stoker

OT: Absolutely disgusting news about filthy Labour scum Lord Janner who will NOT face charges into multiple charges of child abuse.

He may have alzheimers but why were the investigations stalled?

Deliberately, if you ask me.

How many more of these filthy Unionist politicians are going to get away with it.

Westminster and The House of Lords, truly rancid cesspits.

The UK establishment is riddled with filthy rancid little secrets.

The sooner we break away from these filthy sick scumbags the better.

shiregirl

Lesley-Anne – Ha! can you imagine if there was a majority SNP vote tonight by English voters??!! I’m hoping that the Manchester poll will be mirrored in London tonight (perhaps optimistically….) Worth watching!

fred blogger

stoker
very true, lets get away from that lot, for all our good.

Chris

O/T
We have just had a Labour canvasser at our door. My son opened the door to her and told her to take a couple of steps back and look up (at our SNP posters) before she said anything.
Her response: a resigned “Ok” as she walked away

arthur thomson

Like many others I used to think that the Libdems were people of principle. How foolish was I. Anyone who has principles has surely turned against them.

With regard to the biggest party issue the SNP has to do something on the day before polling to state clearly to people that they are being deliberately lied to. Perhaps a huge number of leaflets carrying a picture of Nicola saying ‘you are being lied to; trust me and vote SNP’.

Will Podmore

The fewer MPs that Labour has, the more likely it is that the Tories would have more. The more MPs that parties other than Labour have, the fewer Cameron needs to have the majority over Labour that he needs to enable him to renew the Con/LibDem coalition.
So voting SNP – or for any party other than Labour – helps Cameron and Clegg to form another coalition government. Tory supporter finalcurtain wrote, “I hope Nicola Sturgeon does well in Scotland, as that reduces the chances of a Labour victory at Westminster.” By contrast, the SNP lies that voting for the SNP, defeating Labour candidates, would help Labour. The SNP is claiming, absurdly, that the way to help Labour is to defeat Labour!

Brian Powell

Watched FMQ on Youtube. Nicola Sturgeon is clear, assured and straight in her answers, what a contrast with Kezia Dugdale.

They want different responses but it’s not happening.


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