Another late entry
Posted on
October 21, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
And this one might just take the entire cake stand and banana hanger.
It’s former Tory MP and junior minister Edwina Currie, speaking about someone called “Alex Salmon” on Radio 5’s Stephen Nolan show on Saturday. (From 2h 16m on that iPlayer link.) We do recommend listening to all six-and-a-half minutes. It sets a very high standard from the off, but somehow maintains it the whole way through. Enjoy.
She never disappoints . Give her a prize for bat shit madness to put on her mantlepiece when she is put to rest in the Sunshine Home for mad old nazi, glue sniffing, John Major banging old trouts. They’ll love her in Walton on the Naze.
Did you have to post so many anger inducing stories in one day?! I’m going to start punching walls or something….
‘Salmond wanted to be Labour Prime Minister’ – I felt quite disorientated then but after that I plunge feet first into Wonderland. What are these people on? Should be send Edwina some indyref info so she can engage her brain before letting the words come out next time?
This is a paradigm for much of the UK media coverage of the referendum. People who are meant to have authority but in actual fact are so far behind the discussion that it’s laughable.
Where was the balance in that programme?. Rabid Ed and her dismissive attitude to the whole independence issue, was given free rein to malign the First Minister, the nation and our people. It is so clear that they have no interest in us, only the oil revenues
Eck was a Labour MP?? FFS, in what dimension exactly… (I had to rewind to check that she actually said that.)
Yep
Balanced and impartial radio there…….the caller were typical ill informed Telegraph types mind you as Jon Stewart observed ‘Talk Radio tells you what people who don’t think are thinking’….
It’s the complete lack of knowledge shown by the guests that’s the most shocking part….as myth and down right lie are thrown out like manure fae a muck spreader…..
Salmond was a Labour MP? Whit? Ha ha ha ha.
That’s just incredible. And mind numbing too.
Listen when Norman Tebbit said ‘Get on yer bike’ John Major took it too literally which had a knock on affect on the said Edwina.
Truly, truly, vomit-inducing
Seriously, the RBS myth. The “last thing Salmond wants is independence”….
This whole thing is representative of the sneering, back-in-your-box-Scotland attitude down here.
If only the majority of Scots could hear this stuff. Or Scottish questions in Westminster
anyone who listens to this sort of shite and still votes makes me despair!
so fuckin ignorant it beggars belief
She remembers when Alex Salmond was a Labour MP. Hilarious.
Then she brings out the RBS lie.
She’d get completely tore apart by Salmond.
Oh good grief!
Shows the quality of the interviewer when he accepted the Labour MP line without question.
Unbelievably petty and ill informed.Really couldn’t have made it up.
Bloody hell – left the labour party to join the SNP?? What planet is she on? Jeez.
Nice, balanced piece though , eh? Loved the callers. I just completed a PanelBase poll about the BBC. This is the sort of stuff that influenced my responses.
Everyone give wee Edwina a tweet – @Edwina_Currie
Did anyone see Sunday Politics Scotland yesterday, Gary Robertson was presenting instead of Andrew Kerr, something the First Minister was unaware of as he began his remarks with ‘Good Morning Andrew’ (something that Robertson corrected him on)……
Presumably then this was a last minute change of host, maybe they were resting Kerr after his exertions in Perth……except that who should pop up to read the mid day bulletin…..none other than Andy Kerr !!
Is this the fastest on air demotion ever ? Surely wee Andy isnae on the naughty step for breaking precendent in allowing Blair McDougall a couple of minutes rant at another parties conference ?
I think she is confusing him with John Smith – so when he keeled over, someone dug him up from Iona, got some serum, reanimated him and then he escaped to became leader of the SNP. It’s the similar body shape, easy to get confused in all that Scotch mist.
Still, if John ‘grey Y-fronts’ Major was banging her brains out for a bit maybe she hasn’t got any left so that would explain it.
I should be furious, especially at the “Scottish banks” lie being repeated again, but I’m laughing too hard at the thought of Edwina thinking she could put Eck in his place. Oh pleeeeease make THAT debate happen!
Edwina should be nominated for the Nigel Farage Award for talking utter drivel with an air of absolute certainty.
“I think she is confusing him with John Smith”
Maybe we just all look alike to her……
“Salmond wanted to be Labour Prime Minister” as the utterance of a nutter trumps even UKIP’s Viscount Monckton after he failed to retain his deposit in Donside earlier this year, when he said that “Alex Salmond was thrown out of the Labour Party”. Sill, I suppose not much to choose between them. What a bunch of buffoons, the lot of them!
What???
The sad thing is that they talk about Alex Salmond, the SNP and Scotland as a whole like they are unruly children who need some firm discipline … on a radio show that’s broadcast nationally. Don’t these people realise that talking down to people will not make them any friends?
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
This must be how the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire must have felt. The elite within the London political bubble have completely lost touch with reality.
I agree with Bingo Wings! I would dearly love to see that debate. Live TV. Make her squirm for 90 minutes live on air with no break. That would be fabulous.
I was just filling in that consultation about BBC bias while listening to that. It was quite reasonable up until then.
Honeslty, this is the kind of bile-inducing nonsense that really shows the BBC and London media and political classes up for what they are – know nothing, patronising eejits.
So the reason Cameron won’t debate is because Salmond isn’t on his level? Aye, well that’s why we want independence you insufferable bint.
That’s an astonishing discussion, it really is. There’s so much wrong with it that it would take you a year to write an article about it. Get Edwina up here, let’s have a debate with her – it will only help the cause!
Just to say the obvious response is a real egg on face moment who was heaven forbid a government minister once.
Stinking eggs and Y fronts.
Some Hens have a strange taste in men.
Anything for publicity.
My flab is now well and truly gasted….
How did she end up erected to serve the people… oops Major Freudian slip there….
Is this what passes for serious political discussion down south?
It’s sad….
Well done BBC. Another class production well described by all the posts above and below.
All the talk of “populist” (and Labour MP) made me think Edwina was maybe confusing AS with George Galloway?
All these people are going to get such a hit when we vote Yes next year. The bottom is going to drop out of their world.
I managed to make it as far as “I can remember Alex Salmond when he was a Labour Member of Parliament…” before I succumbed to laughter
I’m so glad you put this up today as I looked for it after hearing about it and couldn’t find anything. For a start, google kept replacing Salmond with salmon, although now I’ve heard the interview I see why that was happening. Maybe Edwina was actually talking about a fish?
6mins 30secs of “Fact Free” Radio. That’s impressive by any standards.
Time to give our views to the BBC Trust. Everyone is invited.
link to allmediascotland.com
I really think there are many, many folks who will get a major shock to the system next year when Scotland votes. The English are so ignorant that this radio exchange doesn’t really surprise me. There is virtually no representation in the media whatsoever- this Edwina piece truly is the level.
I doubt the majority even know that there will be a referendum in 2014.
When I mentioned in passing today to a young female colleague that I would be “doing everything I can to support a Yes vote” she seemed genuinely perplexed. “Why would you want to do that?” she asked. This was after she casually asserted that “they won’t vote for independence”. I politely informed her that she was very badly un/ misinformed by the media (she reads the Daily Mail website for celeb gossip…) and she actually seemed a bit offended.
I took a deep breath and changed the subject.
“SNP has been misleading people” says Cara Hilton.
Dinner scene from “Carry On Up The Khyber” award!
When was Alex Salmond ever a Labour Member of Parliament? I don’t remember that!
I hear conversations like that in England every day. It is mental.
Neil Mackenzie
I think Alex Salmond became a Labour MP after being deselected by the Ulster Unionist Party. He’s had quite a varied career – according to Edwina Currie!!
“Labour Prime Minister”
It’s not often that I actually laugh out loud if I write lol. But I just did. lol
She’s aff her heid.
I detest the Tories with a passion, but have to say their candidate was decent. He appeared to be fairly intelligent, and was not noticeably obnoxious, like a lot of his party. SNP candidate, Shirley-Ann Somerville is good, she is a good communicator, very clear when she is speaking, gets her points over well. I also thought the Green candidate was good, probably not as good as the SNP one. Appeared fairly young though, so one for the future as she has talent. Cannot be bothered talking about the Lib Dems candidate. Absolutely sick and disgusted with them over the past few years. UKIP candidate; oh dear. Appeared to be a bit of a dolt I am afraid. By far the worst.
On to Cara Hilton…She is terrible, almost as bad as the UKIP candidate! Hilton appeared to be very uncomfortable, and did not appear to believe what she was saying (although she was mostly talking absolute shit so maybe not a surprise at all). Did not appear to have any real conviction to what she was saying. On that viewing I think we can all guess why SLAB are resorting to desperate tactics here. SNP candidate was basically the best candidate, with the Green lady not far behind, and very surprisingly probably the Tory as the next best. Lastly, was there any mention of the preposterous SLAB leaflet lie about the SNP not opposing the Bedroom Tax?
Hm the magic mushrooms down south must be good this year.
Sounds like an episode of “The Goon Show” and as for the callers on the phone in GTF!
Edwina has confused or conflated George Galloway with Alex Salmond. It was rather surreal listening to two people discussing Scottish politics with little or no understanding of what they are talking about. I could debate this with Edwina and win.
It was Nigel Farage that first stated that Alex Salmond was a Labour MP. Perhaps Edwina’s very friendly with Nigel these days – who knows?….
In fairness, he DID vote Labour once. In a council election. When there was no SNP candidate. So she’s ALMOST right.
I think we can safely say that if there is one job Alex Salmond would definitely not want, it’s Prime Minister of the UK.
This is exactly the ignorance of Scotland and what’s important to us that has led us to the point we are at today.
They will wake up on September the 19th and be shocked that Scotland voted yes, because they are pig-shit ignorant.
I will wake up on September the 19th elated, and relieved we voted yes.
As for the two callers, if you want a vote, nobody is stopping you coming to live in Scotland and getting a vote.
Put myself through the Dunfermline debate. Shirley Anne was OK withot setting any heather on fire, thought the Green lady was very pleasant but a bit vague, did not like the Lib Dem lady at all and the Tory was surprisingly bland but inoffensive, UKIP chap a bit weird but it goes with the territory. The Labour lady Cara…is she really their best shot at this?
Still Game was better than Newsnight. Brewer, comedy gold, was missing.
As for the Alex Salmond being in Labour, is she perhaps confusing him with Jim Sillars?
He was a Labour MP, who broke away to form the Scottish Labour Party, and ultimately joined the SNP.
He almost fits who she was talking about if you use a large dose of artistic license.
did that silly old moo say Salmond was a member of the labour party? and wanted to be prime minister of the UK. These people are so disconnected from reality its quite shocking
Alex Salmond, Oil economist, would have been one of the first people to analyse the Oil figures and realise how much revenues were taken out of Scotland. He could have become a politician to make a change. He would have been well remunerated, if he had stayed in the Financial sector. Instead he chose to campaign on behalf of the people in Scotland.
Oops sorry I posted my thoughts on the debate tonight on the wrong thread! Back on topic, I just listened to Edwina Currie on the referendum. To be honest she sounds a bit mad to me. Currie talks some amount of shit. I can hardly believe she was a government minister. She is mad and/or unbelievably dim and ignorant. The garbage she spouted about Salmond is actually embarrassing. Currie thought he was a Scottish Labour MP who wanted to be British PM?! Then his colleagues cottoned on to him, and so he joined the SNP….WTF. Then to compound it all she said he did not want independence at all. Jesus wept. HandandShrimp thinks Currie mistook Salmond for George Galloway (I wonder if she got Salmond mixed up between Galloway and Sillars?). This is probably the case but for fuck sake, Galloway is still a MP at Westminster. The level that these people in London operate at, both media and politicos, is shocking. Currie is the most annoying, banal, attention seeking idiot. The bit about her wanting to debate Salmond was almost the most cringe worthy and deluded comment imaginable.
you know, I just realised how this piece dovetails in nicely with Re-inventing the right that was posted earlier today. Even now the Tory parties march of folly with regards to its attitude towards Scotland continues unabated.
Don’t know whether to laugh or get angry? This woman was a cabinet minister which says it all about the state of UK politics. When these people talk they seem to forget that there are swathes of people, the electorate, who have voted for the party and politicians they disparage, and in so doing they disparage us. We must enlighten the masses to ensure we get the result Scotland is crying out for.
@Truth
As for the Alex Salmond being in Labour, is she perhaps confusing him with Jim Sillars?
Yes, I think it might well be Sillars she has confused him with. HandandShrimp thought it was Galloway. I did not see your post before I posted my last comment. It is possible she conflated both Sillars and Galloway, although Sillars would be the more likely, as he was a former Labour MP, and then left and eventually became a SNP MP.
Cara Hilton, Margaret Curran, Michael McMahon, Edwina Curry!
They make David Icke seem sensible.
Could be Sillars, did Jim ever have aspirations to be Labour leader? I don’t think he was ejected from Labour though whereas George was placed on the beyond the pale list. It could be that Edwina is just very confused. She had other things on her mind back in the day
She must have been listening to that weird lord snootyorsomething from UKIP… he started the old Alex Salmon(d) was in Labour malarky during the 2011 Scottish Election coverage.
Lord Monckton? – now he really is confused.
Sorry Alastair Naighton… I wrote my above post before reading all the posts above. You got their first. I stand corrected… weird vicount (not Lord) snootysomething from UKIP :o)
Yup Handandshrimp… thats the one.
@HandandShrimp
Could be Sillars, did Jim ever have aspirations to be Labour leader?
Sillars certainly had a big enough ego to think he could be Labour PM. Have no idea if he actually had any ambitions in that direction. Would not really surprise me if he did though.
I don’t think he was ejected from Labour though whereas George was placed on the beyond the pale list. It could be that Edwina is just very confused. She had other things on her mind back in the day
Sillars was not ejected from SLAB as such. However, I can remember reading that he basically knew he was leaving SLAB for years. I read the Hollow Drum book a while ago, and it said that Sillars came to an agreement with John Smith and the Labour whip at Westminister to continue to support Labour even though he knew he was leaving, or had left the party formally.
@ joe kane
The lizard people will be angry!
That is probably one of the most stark raving wibble-wibble examples of Industrial Strength Mentalism I have ever heard. Their armoury is clearly so depleted now that they’ve taken to picking their arses and flicking bits of hard shite at us!
The experience of listening to that for six minutes has so bludgeoned my senses that I’m temporarily incapable of articulating my feelings in an intellectually higher manner – apologies!
No apologies needed Dave. That codswallop is exactly why it is now essential that the people of Scotland vote Yes and dump these wasters.
Completely off her effing head.
Eggactly right Ken mac!
This is someone who went on Strictly Come Dancing and was the first to be voted off. Perhaps that is why she hates “popularists”so much.
She wants to debate Eck? It’ll never happen – he’s finished having Curries for breakfast.
Edwina Currie is just an old pair of tits with a loud mouth; she’s not worth analysing because what she says is unrealistic, unbalanced, ill considered & thoughtless. It is of no surprise then that she was chosen to be a cabinet member inside John Major’s government. However it is unusual for a PM to shag a member of his own Cabinet while still in office but then the Tories have a long track record of shocking the electorate.
Oh yes, I remember Edwina Currie. Wasn’t she the cause of salmonella?
Apart from her ludicrous rantings and obvious confusion, I also found it disturbing that the callers (both living in England) felt “disenfranchised”. I left my home town many years ago, but have never felt any need to have a say in how that council runs the city. Friends have emigrated to Australia, Spain, Canada, etc., and have no say in what happens at Westminster. By moving away, you disenfranchise yourself. Deal with it.
Edwiner Says …
“My affair was a Major cockup. After the news broke, John’s response was hard to swallow but I bent over backwards for him anyway. He then made sure I was shafted. I never did get my butt plugs back but I think I managed to retain my dignity all the same.”
An ex-Tory activist of my aquent said that Edwina served the Tory Party well.
Or was it serviced?
Does anybody else think she was going out of her way to piss as many people in Scotland off as possible,
that was a a micron thin attempt to usher Scots into the yes camp by the Woman who loves to create mass panic, remember the eggs fiasco?
so keep it up Edwina there’s a good chap, and loved the salmon bit in spite of everyone else around you calling him Salmond
Conan says
“An ex-Tory activist of my aquent said that Edwina served the Tory Party well.
Or was it serviced?”
Is that how Major had a deposit on his suit?
he said dont worry it’ll wash off
Calum Craig says
“Did you have to post so many anger inducing stories in one day?! I’m going to start punching walls or something….”
Dont be daft Calum that one goes into the zany comedy (hand) relief box,
Oh my good gravy. And you wonder at knowledge base of the crackers you meet on CiF? FFS Please oh please, oh please lets spread this post as far as we can.
muttley79 says
“I detest the Tories with a passion, but have to say their candidate was decent.”
What a 12 year old snot rag who wants the unemployed (the ones his party made unemployed) to pick up paper?
that’s the sum total of his input into the Dunfermline debate,
I sent him a link to the NNS article about John Majors betrayal of Rosyth when he awarded the submarine refit to Devonport in spite of them needing to spend 100m to do work Rosyth was already able to do and guess what.
silence !
if they hadn’t done that there would be less unemployed around to pick up his dropped carmel wrappers.
I don’t think that Edwina’s views are that different from her political and social peers within her chunk of British society or that her views on the SNP, Salmond and Scottish independence are in any way outside the normal political opinions of that society.
As mentioned above, she’s not the first to think that Alex Salmond is ex-Labour and I’ve also seen it in comments on other stories.
The idea that the independence referendum is just a bluff by Alex Salmond in order to get more powers within the Union is also pretty prevalent in the same way as is the idea that an independent Scotland would have had to rescue in entirety any bank with “Scotland” in its name during the banking crash.
What you have there in that clip is not just Edwina, it’s Edwina regurgitating the received wisdom and political chatter of her contemporaries in Southern England.
It’s annoying but the less they understand and the more they believe it’s all a bluff the less able they are to mount a coherent defence of the Union. Why correct your enemy when they’re making mistakes?
I get the feeling that we’re going to get our Independence anyway, and they know it. (a la Scottish Skier) So, they’re going to have fun for the next year with a licence to spout and write any old crap they like for the comedy value and watching us boak.
Thanks for that Wings, really brightened up a dreich morning!
Just tweeted Edwina – she should by now be aware that AS was never a labour mp.
Had a quick look on Edwina’s twitter feed to see if she’d done a mea culpa – nae chance, just lots of gushing (eeeuugh) about Strictly and the Beeb’s latest bit of Victoriana-porn, The Paradise. One reply she made to a tweet about her Major shagging (a pretty regular occurrence I’m guessing) was funny though – ‘No to both. Get your facts right. Go on, waste your time by doing a bit of research.’
lol, Edwina Vs Salmond, in dog fighting circuits I believe they would be referring to Edwina in this type of match-up as bait … It would be just as cruel, and I’m really not sure I could watch it!
Iain
Just spotted this on Currie’s twitter feed, claiming she did correct on air, must have missed that!
link to twitter.com
“Just spotted this on Currie’s twitter feed, claiming she did correct on air, must have missed that!”
She did, around 2h 38m on the iPlayer link.
I have just had another wee listen. It is comedy gold after all.
I would love to hear the opinion of a shrink or one of those voice experts on her performance. Her voice gives her away you can hear the
‘Salmond wanted to be Labour Prime Minister’ …me thinks Edwina has been on the chablis and getting true fact muddled with her reading an old Jeffrey Archer novel. Thats basically a plotline in First Among Equals!
Bugger don’t know what happened in my last comment couldnt edit.
I was going to say that you can hear the hysteria building in her voice.
I don’t think I can add anything about Edwina that hasn’t been said already. Listened to it last night (mistakenly before bed). Didn’t realise that was Stephen Nolan though – Radio 5 must be desperate. When/why did they let him go national?
But isn’t she embarrassed? If I’d made a gaffe of that magnitude on-air, I’d be wanting the ground to open up and swallow me, not basking in the belated glory of having corrected myself.
@Edward
Stephen Nolan prompts her to correct what she said at 02:38:25 in from the start after a news bulletin. I suspect someone phoned the program and rather than Stephen Nolan doing the correction she was asked to retract what she said herself.
link to bbc.co.uk
The Prime Minister must not let the North of England witness/remember the power of solidarity.
Why couldn’t she just say that and save the air time?
I think she’s confusing Alex Salmond and Alex Neil. Which means she thinks that Alex Neil would easily beat Cameron in debate. Probably true.
In case Edwina does make it in this growing BBC campaign for her to debate the Scottish FM, I have been finding little known background pieces for her:
Alex Salmond’s reluctance for military intervention is steeped in his past – he is the only living survivor of the Alamo.
Alex Edward Charles Salmond-Stuart (to give him his full name) is keen to retain the monarchy. I have some views on his future strategy which I will share directly with Edwina.
Maybe she’s right and we’re all wrong. Maybe there is someone out there called Alek Salmon who is part man part fish and has dreams of being Labours first aquatic merman Prine minister.
do Should think that would be good for Scotland. Surely, despite being in the Labour Party he would do the right time for your fisheries and maritime rights…
Jeez, that made my hackles rise.
Currie, so cock-sure was she in her ignorant assertions and proclamations on matters Scottish.
Yet again, the London Unionist need to declare Scottish connections raised it’s head – “We’ve just put the Scottish relatives back on the train”. That’ll be the Shettleston Cohens perhaps? It came across more like ‘we’ve just put the Scottish relatives back in their box’.
Salmond can’t debate with Cameron because he’s not on Cameron’s level? There’s your class-obsessed stereotype speaking. No doubt Andrew Marr only got the job of speaking to Cameron because there wasn’t another English Prime Minister available to interview him. Currie knows Cameron doesn’t have the balls for it, so he hides behind his Better Together apologists, like her, McDougall and Darling.
The more she spoke the more she destroyed her own credibility with every smug, arrogant, supercilious, ignorant utterance that came out her mouth.
Looks like the calibre of westminster MP’s has changed very little. Such unintelligent, uninformed self congratulating idiots should have no place in politics let alone in making any important decisions about the people they are supposed to represent. Get stuffed Edwina!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Absolutely brilliant! And to think she is actually allowed out on her own.
Edwina who???
I’m late to this, been travelling and only just listened to it, haven’t read the comments, but I would like to say that Edwina Currie is quite a remarkably stupid person, cocooned in an impenetrable shield of self belief? confidence? righteousness? who knows.
I thought this at the time of her heyday in junior ministerial shenanigans, and this has totally confirmed it.
Listen too, to the rest of them, there is a quite stunningly stark ignorance about what is going on up here and, not very carefully concealed, an overweening contempt for Scotland as a nation.
We need shot of these people.
I should add, in all sincerity, I am talking about the Westminster ‘elite’, I work with many ordinary English folks, mostly Geordies, and they are undoubtedly the salt of the earth.
Just a pity about their political class.
Pure salmonella. Sure as eggs is grey peas.
It seems that the no campaign has realised that no matter how many laws it breaks, no matter how many lies it tells it will get away with it.
That Currie woman is completely batty. She’s so incredibly stupid that I reckon she believed what she was saying there. But I bet Labour wishes they had had Alex Salmond as an MP and later as leader. Better than any of the shit they have had since Clem Attlee.