Bad medicine
Posted on
January 24, 2015 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Nice one Chris,
Any Scots daft enough to think the Smith report is home rule for Scotland would be better off joining the libdems.
Don’t all rush now !!!
HMG – Guide for parliamentarians: How to kick shit into the long grass
.
Example 1:
Sept 2014 DevoMax Vow -> Nov 2014 The Smith Commission -> Jan 2015 resulting Command Paper -> May 2016 toothless enabling legislation -> Dec 2017 Act of Parliament = 0 additional powers
Good one Chris. Labour must be worried as Brian Wilson at his usual bitter anti snp diatribe in hootsman this morning
[…] Bad medicine […]
Stop the PRESS: Jim Murphy has decided to oppose “fracking” in Scotland, honest its true I heard him on the radio. He was saying the tories imposed the poll tax on Scotland, but he would not allow them to impose fracking if he was First Minster.
Correct me if I’m wrong but is not control of fracking in Scotland already or going to be devolved to Holyrood ???
His re-patriotism of being scottish is not very convincing. Perhaps we should add it into the Smith commission command paper, it would fit right into the rest of the shite.
I see John Bull is even watering down the diluted pish that was the Smith Commission. Great cartoon Chris.
I ken politicians of all persuasions will play to any given audience but Big Jim seems to be taking it to a whole new level.
Stinky
Thanks for the warning, but a) I wouldn’t read the Scotsman, and b) I’ve heard Wilson’s diatribes before.
Just another “yesterday’s man” making money from “yesterday’s paper”.
Love the cartoon. Riffing on the hospital theme of last Saturday’s cartoon. I hesitate to say that this is a much more artistic depiction.
Talking of waste of time promises, a certain J Murphy has been waffling on about fracking… Dramatic headline on BBC online site – ‘Murphy Pledges To Stop Fracking’
BBC go on to state, “Mr Murphy said that if he was in power at Holyrood after the 2016 election he would ensure there would be no onshore fracking in Scotland until it had been shown beyond all doubt that it could be carried out safely.”
So he is not stoping it then. Just fracking about as usual.
A picture paints a thousand words…
Another cracker Chris
Well done Chris .
Average recovery from a ” dooin ” of that nature is 8 to 12 weeks .
Up an aboot in plenty time for Round 2 , GE May 2015 .
” The hills are alive with Indy supporters “
Ah, so that’s it. Homeopathic Home Rule. The weaker the mixture the more potent it is. Excellent! Don’t know what we’re all moaning about. ????
🙂
…it’s all been said.
Aye, watered down, very good.
Poor Hamish. A swift injection of SNP MPs, a course of ass kicking, a doze of payback, and he’ll be just fine.
Author_al says:
…BBC go on to state, “Mr Murphy said that if he was in power at Holyrood after the 2016 election he would ensure there would be no onshore fracking in Scotland until it had been shown beyond all doubt that it could be carried out safely.”
HSE legislation will ensure that fracking is carried out safely, whether Saint Jim is in power or not. Of course, what really should be addressed is the question of whether fracking ought to be allowed on local and global environmental grounds. That is the real issue.
Maybe the patient should have been the “union” and Hamish the skeptical observer?
Hamish sure as hell is not beaten and bruised.
Frack Murphy and his London Dome Rule Patriots.
Re Murphy and fracking,why did the BBC not ask him how his policy differs from the current Scottish Government? The policies appear identical when you examine Murphy’s statement. However Murpphy wants to run with a sound bite that he would ban fracking.
Over generious with the mattress thickness Chris is it a private hospital.
Hope your well rested , wee tip Chris next time you take time out,dont leave wains wie crayons as your replacement cartoonist.
What? No more Lowry? 🙂
Neatly done Chris.
Don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t feel like asking for anyone’s permission to make my life better.
I still want to know where to apply for the Road Sign job coz that’s “DEFO” And is there anything coming in the 2012 powers?
Still waiting for that, Ah WELL, I suppose those are right around the corner EH?
One wonders how Dim Jim can be so selfless with his time; he’s just about everywhere and with a comment on everything – from the shortage of foodbanks, which, as a good socialist he wants to see much more of in his beloved country /region of Scotland, to the proliferation of Trident-ism in his beloved country/region of Scotland and more, we can be sure he’ll do everything in his power, when FM, to really, really look very, very closely at onshore fracking to make absolutely sure that it will cause only tiny, wee, little environmental issues here and there in his beloved country/region somewhere in North Britain, ie., above Carlisle way it starts, where there’s a sign in a funny kinda language.
But hang on a minute, there’s just this unbelievably unfair rag-bag of historical deeds’ like Tony’s best meant intentions to help the wee brown people in Iraq hanging round his shoulders and that’s stopping him promising even more kindnesses, vowing indeed to bring his deserving peepul a veritable nirvana.
So, damn and blast it all, it’s all so bloody unfair – must talk to John McTiernan – the newest best pal – he always knows what the right thing to do is!
Don’t worry folks, I will always think about my patriotic duty when I’m thinking also about my beloved country.
GB rules, right!
As with any Homeopath medication there is a De-Toxification period I fervantly hope the 55% start their treatment on 7th May,its painless, it really is.
BBC latest “News” now saying Murphy would ban fracking.
BBC and Labour a tag team of liars.
Murphy qualified his fracking statement,the BBC ignored that and give him the green sound bite. I feel nostalgic back to the days of the Iraq war when Murphy also used lies.
Fracking WILL go ahead. Money talks I’m afraid.
I don’t like to see Hamish on a hospital bed, he should always be on his feet fighting back no matter how hurt he is.
It is just heart breaking to see Hamish injured so badly.
@Davy says:24 January, 2015 at 6:21 am:
“Any Scots daft enough to think the Smith report is home rule for Scotland would be better off joining the libdems.”
Aye! Davy, The genius of Chris goes much further than his art, which is in itself great, for it encompasses the rare ability to whack nails on the head with a single blow.
As to your point about the Smith report – the nominal United Kingdom Parliament has become the de facto parliament of the country of England ever since Westminster decided to ignore the bipartite Treaty of Union that united just the Kingdoms of Scotland & England. Westminster thus divided the so called, “United Kingdom up as four distinct countries, (three of which comprised the former Kingdom of England), but retained the former United Kingdom Parliament as the Parliament of the country of England.
The reality is there are 533 members sitting in that de facto parliament of England who wear two hats as Westminster is treated by them as both the parliament of the United Kingdom and the parliament of England. In effect this makes that parliament fund England with United Kingdom funds as if England were indeed the United Kingdom. The legislation they pass is passed according to the English legal system, (which legal system applies to all three Kingdom of England countries), but then they tag on wee bits to the English/UK legislation to accommodate any differences in the laws as applied to the three countries outwith England.
So Westminster is running England as the UK, funding England as the UK and thus devolving English powers to the other three countries. Not forgetting that many Scottish, Welsh and N.I elected members are also unionists, Westminster has 533 English members while the other three countries have 59+40+18=117 and 533-117=416 so we get a clear English majority of 416 plus the non-English Unionists when the promises of the VOW, already watered down by the Smith report, comes up for debate post the looming GE.
Anyone daft enough to imagine that those 533 members of the parliament of England are about to give away England’s grip upon the country and Kingdom of Scotland is living in a fools paradise. It simply is not going to happen, no matter what weird mix of political parties eventually make up the next de facto parliament of England, (a.k.a The UK Parliament).
MajorBloodnok says:24 January, 2015 at 7:59 am:
“I see John Bull is even watering down the diluted pish that was the Smith Commission.”
Aye! Major, to really appreciate the art of Chris Cairns the viewer has to take account of the more subtle facets of the artwork. Some may be less observant than your good self.
Vote NO get nothing. Keep taking the pills. The SNP/Alliance is coming after you.
Next Scottish polls are going to be interesting. THE VOW Delivered says Slab/BBC/Daily Record/ConDem’s every single newspaper and if you vote SNP you get both Milliband and Cameron? It must be all true, teamGB never lies.
Just get Labour and the Tories favourite disability deniers Atos in to perform one of its trademark miracle cures to “vow” that the patient is now fit for work.
World Class Analysis – thanks Chris
The essence of a Devo formula applied since 1974
NOW with a “Barnet Formula” drip feed in and an extraction unit to help Hampshire by removing all excess Energy
Time to Stop the Medicine and let the lion roar…
Wow – prediction SW on this phone amazing as it turns Hamish into Hampshire
Ain’t it the truth ????
@ Dr Jim, sos Jim the Rev & masel hiv already got the job, the Rev,s doing the graphics am dain the wording,people will be confuddled & lost, but they will enjoy the scenery.
cant believe rank & file scottish libdems honestly believe this is HomeRule
mutiny after general election?last man/women/dog standing
Thank goodness that the Murphy/fracking article was true, difficult when it appears in something produced outside of Scotland.
Have to admit my first thought was, when did Hamish get injured, when and where and how where were these injuries inflicted.
It then occurred to me that this is what wm(no capitals required)thought Hamish would be like.
Deluded, or what.
Ronnie, if you have ever been in Ireland you will have learned that it is easy to get tourists lost, you simply reuse the old signs, the ones with the miles on them and put them anywhere to indicate you are on the right road, the trouble is if you believe the mileage…….
Meant to say that it is a great cartoon though I will not say anything derogatory about the classic one we had last week.
Ah, nice one, Chris – it was about a month ago, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the first to think of the ‘mass dilution’ metaphor…. 🙂
link to wp.me
[and I hope the link works…]
They will be thinking that they can administer it as an enema.No chance.
@ Robert Peffers
“subtle facets of the artwork.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Check out the patient’s chart at the end of the bed.
My party will promise to employ 1000 more nurses over and above anything the SNP promises and furthermore they will do any and all Fracking for free and they will all wear green Nursy suits to save energy while they do it thus freeing up the other Frackers to volunteer to run all our new food banks, then all the left over food can be supplied to help out the poor oil workers in our depressed north coz that’s what i think is the Patriotic thing to do God bless Palestine and the Orange Lodge..and if there’s anything i’ve missed out i’ll promise that too
The Very Reverend St James Murphy of every denomination
Well done Chris – yet another blinder.
The more I look at this image,
the more I see Hamish – and the state he’s in.
Flat on his back
completely tied up
and quite powerless,
even as John Bull prepares an unseen drink of water
while proclaiming its restorative powers.
From the moment the VOW was conceived,
this was always the intention – promise so much, deliver nothing.
Too wee, too poor, but above all, too stupid.
For now.
But we’re learning fast – let’s hope quick enough
for GE15 on May 7th.
There’s 1.5 million yes voters in Scotland
who, if they wanted to, could wield enormous power.
However, as yet, they seem either afraid or too busy.
At 95,000 strong, the SNP membership is impressive –
but that’s all it is.
To convert impressive into powerful it requires
a lot more Yessers to JOIN THE SNP, OR THE GREENS OR THE SSP.
1.5 million single people are powerLESS,
but let them join a Party like the SNP, or the Greens/SSP
and they become powerFULL.
Hamish is tied up – he needs help to get on his feet and ROAR!
If you have yet to join the SNP – don’t wait, sitting around moaning, depressed maybe, JOIN UP.
Create the power Scotland needs.
The English are not going to give us ANY power – no, we have to generate it ourselves – by joining together.
Go on. Do it now. Untie Hamish – and feel the ROAR!
last weeks cartoonist been fired or wot?
@ronnie anderson;
AW DAMN…
And to make a difference here’s a fundraiser for Dundee West, I’m not an SNP member but a Dundonian who’d like to see Labour lose this one, at long last.
link to indiegogo.com
Arsenic.
Rancid Guardian teams up with super rich Ian Wood to tell Scotland to STFU
link to archive.today
He added: “I kind of hope now, when we have got the macro devolution details sorted out, that the SNP government will say, ‘Well, now we’ve got significant additional powers, let’s go ahead and solve a lot of Scotland’s problems and let’s make Scotland a better place to live in’.
“And let’s put that divisive referendum away on a back burner … for a long, long period of time.”
Red Tory meets Blue Tory and all to close down Scottish democracy. Funny that.
And if its Scottish Water we know nobody is making a profit out of it as well as it being a tonic for oor Hamish
Nurse Murphy will soon be along with 1000cc more medicine.
Will J Bull be turning the water into wine?
Ahh, they want to think that Hamish is beaten and all wrapped up. Satisfied and grateful to have homeopathic devo.
Really he has turned into the The Invisible Man and they just don’t know where he will appear and what he will do next.
Be scared John Bull, be very scared.
Hope you had a good holiday Chris, you abscence was noticed.
@Robert Peffers 9:48am
Like all your posts Robert very informative and in my opinion spot on the money. Scottish nobles were bought by ENGLAND in 1707 to protect England’s back door. Since then we are just a province of ENGLAND and our MPs are bought via expenses.
I think Hamish is about to go Hulk in May.
(John Bull turns to the sound of ripping bandages….)
Papadox, did you also know that they were bought with Scots money. Something I did not know up until recently. That is the Westminster Government for you why use your money when they can use someone else’s.
A cracker from “Dr Jim” there,
I have heard a rumor that for his next trick ‘Saint Murphy’ is going to walk on water when he proves the route for the third bridge over the river DEE, because the labour council in Aberdeen could’nt find their own earsehole let alone the DEE.
He will follow that up by showing them how not to use a free 50 odd million to do up your city centre, but the twist is how to tranfer it to your expenses instead.
And just to finish I believe next week “Saint Murphy” is going to make the Sun rise in the morning and set in the evening, you heard it here first.
O/T
More voter registration shenanigans reported in Newsnet
link to newsnet.scot
“It is believed that as many as 800,000 people who signed up to vote in last year’s referendum may not be eligible for the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016.”
O/T. Japan said that it would seek to phase out nuclear power by 2040 — a historic shift for a country that has long staked its future on such energy, but one that falls far short of the decisive steps the government had promised in the wake of the world’s second-largest nuclear plant disaster last year. By comparison, Germany, which in 2010 relied on reactors for 26 percent of its electricity, was rattled enough by the Fukushima disaster to announce a move away from nuclear power by 2022.
At 2015 clean energy produces more power in Scotland than nuclear, coal or gas and this is set to increase significantly. The expertise of Scottish industry is being exported to other countries worldwide and the decision of Japan to embrace renewables over nuclear vastly increases opportunities for Scottish outward looking firms.
link to caltonjock.com
Is Jim Murphy the BBC’s propaganda spokesperson of choice these days?
What happened to “Stairheid”?
Just curious, we saw Murphy on telly working away conscientiously at his local food bank, wearing his nice fleece jacket, cameras poised and rolling as he heaved crates on to the van.
I’d just like to ask anyone who might know …
How many hours a week does Big Jim put in at this particular foodbank?
Was it actually his fleece jacket?
Is Jim beginning to feel a bit like Truman Burbank, his every move caught on camera for our edification?
If so, how can we help Jim realise he is actually living in a false reality?
Protest the now in london about trident
link to rt.com
O/T trident demo in London…
link to rt.com
@ manandboy
i joined the snp yesterday.and it feels good
“It is believed that as many as 800,000 people who signed up to vote in last year’s referendum may not be eligible for the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2016.”
Is that ‘cos they don’t exist?
@captmaxspacecat.
Well done, get active as soon as you can. I’m out canvassing for one of the PPC’s at the moment, then will be looking to play a part in the May 2015 elections.
It’s only just getting started.
🙂
I think the ‘Smith Solution’ is a giant tube of ‘Superglue’ which they intend to apply liberally (sic) along the Scottish-English Border.
@ A Haddow
LOL. That crossed my mind too. Maybe they were postal votes too.
@AN Surgent and ScottieDog –
I’m just going out I’ll catch it later on the BBC teatime news 🙂
@Capella 11.45
everybody should take heed. These c***s will do ANYTHING now to stop us.
Great cartoon Chris.
The anti fracking groups are full of the Murphy stance, and as an SNP member, I am well peed off, that the Scottish govt. Has let this drift without a strong statement. SNP will lose votes in May over this if they faff about. Our SNP MSP was almost eaten alive at a meeting in November about fracking. We are in North Lanarkshire, so this is going to be fracking central.
They have dropped the ball.
Ian Wood tells the SNP to drop independence plans for foreseeable future because of the mismanagement by Westminster of our oil and gas industry!…
link to theguardian.com
Update on Murphys stance on Fracking just in….St Jim..will allow fracking if there are safeguards
In other words, if the SNP say OK to Fracking St Jim will say, not enough safeguards
If the SNP say no to fracking St Jim will say, plenty of safeguards
Makes you hope St Jim would wander into a Jewish Barber Shop by mistake
No offence was meant to any person of any faith in this attempt at humour, or indeed to any person who is dead dying or about to be dead
I’m getting as bad as Murphy now….no offence
somebody stop me!
I have long believed that we are merely caretakers of Scotland for our children, although Scotland has an abundance of fresh water, the potential of contamination through Fracking is to great. Why encourage the Saudi Kingdom to reduce oil prices and therefore the nations wealth to accommodate Westminster, who appear capable of selling their grannies for a short time advantage. Scotland need only win the argument in Scotland for independence to progress and that is where the focus should be. You will not get any straight answers from Westminster, who have become accustomed to not being challenged. GE2015 is only the start, the more the Unionist’s speak the more they discredit themselves the rest of the UK have no clue what is happening in Scotland but they will catch on.
JOHN CURTICE ‘rather more people say they’re less likely to vote Labour now that Mr Murphy is leader than say they are more likely to do so’
sinky
Sorry for the predictive text calling you Stinky. It wisnae me!
muttley79 says:
24 January, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Ian Wood tells the SNP to drop independence plans for foreseeable future because of the mismanagement by Westminster of our oil and gas industry!…
link to theguardian.com
Let me get this right: Westminster drags their heals on vital tax reforms for the oil industry, needed NOW, and Ian Wood’s main concern is that the SNP should give up independence?
Incredible.
I think this is last week’s ‘toon with more perspective and fatter folk.
link to norrie.wordpress.com
mini devo
Well, well Andrew Haddow may have hit the nail bang on. Is there a credibility factor surfacing over 800,000 voters being scrutinised and found to be non-entitled voters?
There’s more than one way to look at the implications of this finding and I do hope the YES fraternity with responsibility for dealing with such matters get right on top of this issue.
I take it this does not relate directly with postal vote fraud, however out of a registered voting roll of 4,285,323 for the referendum, 665,408 did not have their vote recorded for either YES or NO, which leaves a troubling democratic question-mark over this latest 800,000 round figure.
Were these 800,000 illegally registered and now fail under closer scrutiny? Did the participation of these voters influence the referendum result? The margin of NO over YES was 383,937.
If we assume that the 665,000 whose vote was not recorded came from this 800,000 that leaves a balance of 135,000 votes or so and if we further consider that these ‘ghost’ votes were boosting NO then the truer margin would show YES beaten by only around 150,000, just over 4%.
However to go down that line of thinking, if there were 800,000 illegally registered to vote we need to assume that these votes were designed for and most surely would have been used.
Which means the truer voting record would show NO having 2,001,926 and if this was boosted by 800,000 illegal votes in reality NO actually polled 1.2M and YES 1.6M of those who voted.
Of course, the opposite position would also be true if YES was boosted by these 800,000.
But somehow all fingers would be pointing at the horse with previous form in this race and thanks to the insider information from the NO horse’s trainer Sir Nick Macpherson, such an outcome would have to be expected.
WE wiz robbed!
@Luigi
Welcome to the bizarre logic and reasoning of unionists.
Fracking:
You will receive assurances that it can be done safely. The design will be in theory safe. However you have a layer of companies / contractors / sub-contractors and individuals. The Oil industry has the same fundemental design and assuraces.
Things still go wrong – a cement operations can not guarentee the casing is central in the well bore. The cement can go off early due to the temperature at depth / microfractures can provide a path through the cement barrier / communication through annulus can rupture the shoe et, etc
Cross flow can lead to pollution and you can hit shallow gas pockets unexpectantly. An incorrect material can be used (mistake / negligence / cost cutting).
You can kill a well and make it safe but a shallow gas pocket communication to a water table could continue undetected.
The design assuraces will be robust. It will assume every layer of barrier is in place. Imagine a flaw in each barrier and they line up. When something goes wrong with the design at a remote location it can impact on a few people. When you risk a heavily populated area with a slow impact chronic risk it may take decades to become apparent.
Ask the oil industry for a list of the well issues they have and manage and you will be astounded by the number given.
Scotland will not benefit from this and I for one have no confidence that they can achieve the standard required for a heavily populated region.
Councils may be tempted by regional payments – why do you think they would offer such incentives!
Why were the unionist politicians so smug immediately after the polls closed? Why no exit polls? Why a humongous 800,000 postal votes? Why did scotland’s biggest yes cities have the lowest turn out? Umpteen dodgy goings on at the counts. Something extremely suspect about the integrity of that vote.
“Wings Over Scotland” is the nearest we have in place at this time fighting to expand influence in Scotland spreading the messages of the benefits of independence. The problem is the failure to combat the heavily biased media, in particular the BBC.
I expect Stuart might sigh!! at the thought of taking on more duties but our campaigns might break through the barriers if “Wings” could expand along the lines of the organisation below which has achieved great things in the US,
link to front.moveon.org
@Barontorc
Well spotted, and, as you say, I hope someone in the SG is looking at this carefully.
Watching the anti Trident protest in London courtesy of RT – strange there’s not a cheep about it on the bbc.
link to rt.com
Ian Wood tells the SNP to : ‘drop independence plans at least till Im not around any more’
2 bad winters maybe ?
Dilemmas, dilemmas
@liveIndyScot Oor ain Thistle with a great team of volunteers.
Broadcasting interview with Colin Fox SSP live from Athens
link to tinyurl.com
Support Live Indy
link to tvl.ink
Colin Fox on Livestream right now:
link to new.livestream.com
Going Underground on Trident, some issues I hadn’t heard before
link to tinyurl.com
…and just as I posted that link, it’s finished!
(Should be able to watch it recorded though.)
@ x-sticks.
I’ve already submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament.
“Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to investigate the recent referendum results in the light of the many anomolies raised by different indivudals. Postal voting procedures and results in the two cities of Glasgow and Dundee being two of these issues.”
@ captmaxspacecat
i joined the snp yesterday.and it feels good
_____________________
Welcome capt., delighted you made it onboard. Well done!
My wife and son joined after Indy so now we’re an SNP family and it has made a difference having such a big thing that we all share in.
With very best wishes
great magnum opus chris.
scotland to be from fracking rules, how dare they not exempt r.uk!
no one is exempt from it’s consequences.
Thanks Chris for an excellent cartoon, as a believer in homeopathy – yes I know but think quantum mechanics – it certainly won’t cure broken bones.
Just dipped into that Guardian article and I must say I am so glad I don’t comment on there anymore.
It would try the patience of a saint to try to correct all the same garbage that’s still getting posted re Scotland’s finances.
Beginning to think Bangorstu is Sev.
PS @Barontorc – good point. Hope though that genuine voters haven’t been excluded
The ‘new’ voters register.
This new system is a mess.
The Electoral Commission’s excuse for this change to Individual registration, is to tighten security by ensuring that voters are who they say they are by checking their voter registration details with other government held personal information.
If the two sets of personal identification don’t match, you don’t get a vote.
It is easy to see however that the motivation for doing this is to catch tax dodgers, fine dodgers – and, I wonder, possibly even people who don’t pay a TV Licence?
Anyway, since I DID NOT receive a letter in OCT/NOV as I should have, and in order to check my own status on the register, I took the available option of ‘updating my details’, only to find that actually means registering to vote.
Whereupon, I am informed that my name will not appear on the voters list UNTIL I get confirmation from the local office.
What folows is official:-
link to gov.uk
The way you register to vote is changing
Up to now, the head of a household has been responsible for registering everyone who lives there.
From now on people will register as individuals instead, using a new system.
Look out for your letter
Most people who are already registered to vote have been moved on to the new system automatically. So you may not need to do anything.
In Scotland, look out for a letter from your local council in October or November.
The letter will tell you whether you’ve been moved automatically, or whether you need to register on the new system. You can register online in less than 5 minutes.
Most people in England and Wales will have had their letter in July or August.
Why we’re asking some people to register on the new system
The new system is more secure because we try to match everyone’s details against government records.
If you get a letter telling you that you need to register on the new system, it’s probably because we couldn’t find an exact match.
Not already registered to vote?
Register to vote (England, Scotland and Wales)
Register to vote (Northern Ireland)
More about voter registration
The electoral register (including information on the ‘open register’ and fines)
Individual Electoral Registration (background information)
Clootie, are you a Well Integrity Engineer lol?
Can confirm what you say is exactly true, micro-annulars are a problem although if you have the right centralizer programme, the casing should be pretty much central to the well bore (if they can be bothered to put them all on of course).
Cement jobs seem to be a very frequent problem and CBL’s (cement bond logs) often show failings in the final product. Swiss cheese is only good when it’s on a nice sandwich – not as a model. When the holes line up, it’s not pretty.
Can i just say to Sir Ian Wood as gently as possible
The world, and indeed our country does neither, revolve rely or depend on every word that comes out of your big fat mouth, to the population of anywhere you are only the foremost authority on yourself, you’ll get your Ermine of that i’m sure, but until then you should understand Scotland has other interests apart from oil, so shut the F..K up
Apologies to fellow wingers for the descriptive language
Remember something like 150,000 (rough head calculation) of ineligibles would be 16 & 17 year olds.
Rigmac7 says:
24 January, 2015 at 4:06 pm
An OIM 😛
Dr Jim
FRACK ?
Broadcasting needs to be devolved sooner rather than later
now i hear English football is about to be shown to our tellys at 3pm on a Saturday (heard it on tam cowan show this dinner time)
What is that going to do to Scottish football (pulling and sharing my arse)
@liz
Just dipped into that Guardian article and I must say I am so glad I don’t comment on there anymore.
It would try the patience of a saint to try to correct all the same garbage that’s still getting posted re Scotland’s finances.
Beginning to think Bangorstu is Sev.
Many of the Guardian posters on Scottish politics articles keep banging on and on about all the usual unionist talking points: The SNP are fascists/Nazis and anti-English, Scotland would go bust if it became independent, we are too reliant on oil, rinse and repeat over and over again. It is stupendously repetitive and dull.
I had a look at the comments for the Wood article today and it reminded me why I gave up commenting as well on the Guardian Scottish politics section. Many of them are completely brainwashed, they genuinely seem to believe that Scotland could not survive as an independence nation, one of them was even being derogatory about Norway! It is actually as bad as it was pre-referendum. The delicious irony is many seem to have been duped by the same British establishment that many of them profess to hate and despise.
@bookie from hell
Classic BMC.
Valerie @1257pm
RE:Fracking
The situation is not quite how you portray things. There is a vote on fracking in the HoC on Monday, at which an amendment to issue a moratorium on all UK fracking will be voted upon. The SNP will support that amendment, will Labour? Come to think of it, will Labour even turn up?
link to snp.org
Here is the relevant clause – do Labour agree?
Infrastructure Bill
Moratorium on onshore unconventional oil and gas
Amendment
Clause 38, page 45, line 25, at end insert –
“(5A) All use of land for development consisting of the exploitation of unconventional petroleum in Great Britain shall be discontinued during the relevant period.
(5B) The Secretary of State must ensure that an independent assessment is undertaken in relation to the exploitation of unconventional petroleum [in Great Britain] including the use of high volume hydraulic fracturing.
(5C) The assessment must take account of the impacts of the exploitation of unconventional petroleum on –
climate change;
the environment;
health and safety;
the economy.
(5D) The Secretary of State must –
consult such persons as the Secretary of State thinks fit; and
publish the assessment
within the relevant period.
(5E) For the purposes of subsections (5A) to (5D) –
“relevant period” means a period of not less than 18 months and not more than 30 months commencing on the date two months after Royal Assent;
“unconventional petroleum” means petroleum which does not flow readily to the wellbore.
(5F) In section 3 of the Petroleum Act 1998, after subsection (4) insert –
“and subsection (4A).
(4A) Nothing in this section permits the grant of a licence to search and bore for and get unconventional petroleum in Great Britain during the relevant period.
(4B) For the purposes of subsection (4A) “relevant period” and “unconventional petroleum” have the meaning specified in section 38(5B) of the Infrastructure Act 2015.”
Beep.. Beep..Beep.
Labour MP for Midlothian to stand down, did’nt catch his name,it was taken off the Index almost as quick as it came on, maybe somebody from that area could let us know
Dropping like flies..I think that’s how the expression goes?
Fracking;
Political bloody nuisance, damned if you do damned if you don’t
Careful navigation required from our side
Do you hold off until Independence then have an oil and gas boom, if there’s enough of the stuff, or just say no for the obvious political short term sensibilities and live with it even if it might benefit us long term
Wouldn’t like to be the decision maker on this one
A reminder about The Electoral Commission (EC).
1. The EC is a Unionist Establishment Government Agency.
2. It is NOT independent.
3. It does NOT uphold the rules of democracy.
4. It’s purpose is to organise and administer ballots and
votes in the UK on behalf of HM Gov.
5. In Scotland, it is difficult to separate the EC from
Local Council governance which often means simply the
Labour party.
E.g. The Chief Counting Officer for Scotland, and an
eminently capable individual with the highest integrity,
is the CEO of Falkirk Council for whom she has worked
since 1980.
Assistant to the CEO in 1995, before becoming the CEO in
1998, and remains in post, now 17 years in the job.
A Lawyer by profession, the post of CEO at Falkirk DC is
an inextricable link to the Labour Party.
The CCO ordered 800,000 extra voting papers be printed
in case they were needed for the Referendum in Sep.2014.
In the Referendum, the CCO sought a result that was accepted and trusted by all.
I would suggest that the CCO failed miserably in that regard. As did the EC over Purda and then Ruthie & JMcTernan.
The EC will have a robust defence of their position which is not available yet.
Till it is, this is, generally speaking, where we’re at.
@ Robert Louis, I haven’t misrepresented anything. I know about the vote on Monday, and SNP were slow to declare their support for the motion to declare a moratorium, a fact Friends of the Earth were quick to point out this morning, and we now have the SNP saying they will support the motion.
I repeat, they have dropped the ball.
I am a firm supporter and member, but I’m not going to blow smoke when they are not paying attention to the mood.
The Scottish govt. must have a sore arse sitting on that fence about fracking.
Dr Jim
David Hamilton is the man. I say man but you know what I mean.
R–type Grunt
Are you in Corsica?
BTW, Nicola had an on-line Q & A during the week, and was again asking about banning or imposing a moratorium on fracking, and it was exactly the same cut and paste as before about a cautious approach.
I’m aware this is a difficult subject for them, but for communities, it’s easy, we don’t want to live in a gas field, with all the attendant dangers, of which there are plenty.
I hope he’s tested the water for Legionnaire’s Disease.
Oh, according to an Academic in the Herald (Paul Spicker from Robert Gordon), that’s been actually injected into the water. Ah well. that’s “fine”, drink up!
We need a political blitzkreig. What we are engaged in is ‘rattenkreig’ and this is what westminster wants. It’s no use moaning and gnashing teeth or asking for anything now. Agree with mananboy about ec – it’s no use going to them waving a piece of paper, they don’t give a shit. People will eventually realise that we have to do things for ourselves.
@Dr Jim
link to archive.today
R-type Grunt says:
Dr Jim
David Hamilton is the man. I say man but you know what I mean.
Yes it is David Hamilton he is unfortunately my MP.
Was once a miner,but now a Labour trougher..as someone said to me last week he has gone from a boiler suit to an Armani suit.
Will be interesting to see who will be chosen to fight his seat for Labour.
If any one wants to know about the economics of fracking, this report by David Hughes examines the actual data from each and every well in the states.
link to shalebubble.org
If the Labour and Tory parties don’t want Scottish MPs voting on English only legislation in Westminster, can I assume when the bills resulting from the Smith report come before the house, only Scottish MPs will be voting??
Anyone who is trying to keep pace with output from the USA on the emerging dangers of fracking will be suitably horrified at the thought of a derrick anywhere near them, or in Scotland on shore.
As they have had it there for 10 years, we will hopefully benefit by resisting this horror. Contaminated air, soil and water with carcinogens and hormone disruptors are now in evidence. A burst oil pipe this week saw thousands of barrels worth of oil flow into the Yellowstone river, and poison drinking water downstream, there are literally hundreds of stories now emerging. An 80 year old man sitting in a chair on a fracking protest was arrested this week.
You can’t keep up with the stories
L
I am not convinced by fracking either and would like to see the SNP vote for a moratorium. The difficulty they have is that Ineos can hold bloody Grangemouth over their heads like the sword of Damocles. They have to tread carefully but my gut feeling is that they are not keen. I certainly don’t expect to see any licenses for fracking under or near houses.
At $50 a barrel, I am not sure fracking is all that viable but I don’t expect the oil price to stay low for any length of time so it is an issue that will come back to the forefront.
Sarah Boyak was asked, several times, this morning, on the BBC Good morning Scotland show, if Labour would support and vote for the Moritoriam, at Westminster, regarding fracking. She failed to answer the question, prevaricating wildly. It was obvious she,and the Smurph, hadn’t received their instructions from the London office yet. So don’t know how to answer that question yet.
@liz – and completely O/T but anyone who uses quantum theory to try and justify homoeopathy doesn’t understand quantum theory (and I speak as someone who has studied both). But, hey, if it works for you (and you are paying for it – not the NHS) then rock on 🙂
Bill Hume says:
“…..can I assume when the bills resulting from the Smith report come before the house, only Scottish MPs will be voting??”
Excellent point. Of course they will vote, because they see everything as effecting rUK/England. However, Scots voting on English issues which actually effect Scotland …. in their little minds, that’s totally different because … well, England matters more.
Valerie
It’s possible the SNP are reluctant or very careful about what they say for legal reasons. They do have the power to refuse planning or permits, but if they oppose too violently on political grounds, a court case after a refusal could potentially use that against them. They’ve probably been consulting with those Law Officers 🙂
Just my opinion, nothing I’ve seen anywhere.
Jim Murphy better be voting for the moratorium, after bragging this week how he would stop all fracking when he becomes FM.
There was a moratorium on fracking doing the rounds a couple of years ago, which went to the ScotGov. They stated the technology and processes had to be proven safe before any fracking could be considered.
Can’t remember but I think it was signed by somewhere in excess of 100,000 people.
@Yesindyref2, you are right, there is no question this is fraught, but even that has not been explained by SNP, a gap was left,and SLab are like a rat up a drainpipe.
We SNP members are constantly defending the govt., and it ain’t that easy when they are sitting on the fence, and no clear statement. Ineos will threaten to try and get what they want. It will simply boil down to bending to big corporate money, or listening to 20 odd activist groups and communities. This govt. has been a leader in green energy targets, and I believe they have to stick to that.
More pension funds etc.are divesting of fossil fuel investment, and even BP shareholders are asking the company to take account of climate change. Fracking is more impactful on climate change gases than other forms of fossil fuel extraction.
OPEC are holding out with low barrel prices to try and kill the fracking bubble, there is no question in my mind, fracking is a step backwards, doing untold human and environmental damage.
OT, Lords sneaking in the snoopers charter, we have 3 days.
link to boingboing.net
link to tinyurl.com
Frack off short film and crowdfunder
link to frackoffscotland.org.uk
This commentary piece from the express. Not sure whether it appeared in Scottish version. This is the sort of stuff we in England are told about Scots /SNP . See what you think. I think it is intended to increase bad feeling between Scots & English. Published 2 days ago
link to archive.today
This is A trailer for PBS’s documentary Shattered Ground about the environmental effects of fracking… scary stuff..
link to youtube.com
@ Luigi 7:12
I’m sure many of us will be watching.
@steveasaneilean – my own GP who was a fully qualified medical doctor (now retired) also practised homeopathy on the NHS.
My comment on QM was to highlight the fact that life is stranger than we think.
Einstein, as I’m sure you know, couldn’t allow himself to believe QM.
In other words not everything can be explained fully until the mechanisms for measurement are available.
Valerie
My branch has or is showing a dvd about fracking, presumably showing the dangers etc. No idea if that’s common in other branches. It could be that the SNP as a party can do what it wants, but the Government have to be very wary. Anyway, the SNP have put up a media release that they’re backing a moratorium on fracking on Monday which the MPs are fully entitled to, probably without any consequence to ScotGov.
@Valerie – I have to agree with you about the SNP dropping the ball.
I was at the women’s SNP meeting in Ayr and that question was asked and not fully answered.
Personally I think they didn’t want to rule it out completely, were waiting for more information but were probably pushed into supporting the moratorium.
The point about Lab grabbing the headline is correct but they are already contradicting themselves because McTernan has written an article supporting fracking.
Having just watched FMQ on the I player (as I no longer pay for a TV licence) it occurred to me that if you freeze the screen when the labour party are on, their new slogan could easily be “The Labour Party – when every day looks like Halloween”.
Gary
Lollysmum
From the article “Such manifestly unfair behaviour would so enrage the rest of us that the demands to throw Scotland out of the UK would grow with every passing day.”
Seems Pollard doesn’t quite understand how the UK of GB was formed but never mind. From the article beginning (about SNP) “and I can think of many words that suit, most of which can’t be printed in a family newspaper”
At least he’s laid his card on the table which is honest, but also focuses the reader’s attention in advance that it will indeed be an SNP-hating article.
But apart from that, it’s potentially good publicity for the SNP, as he’s exposing Labour’s myth of “a vote for the SNP being a vote for Cameron”!
My apologies to all of you if this has been mentioned before, but I would refer all those, who want to find out the truth about fracking, should look at the documentary, Gasland, (just Google it). Having seen this film (ca. an hour and a half long), it changed my initial neutral stance completely to one, which is very much against this commercial activity. For example, most of the 590-odd chemicals used in the process are carcinogenic (i.e. cancer-causing) and many do leak into the environment (air and water-borne courses). I understand that there has been a sequel, Gasland 2, but I have yet to view its contents. I would urge you all to have a look at these documentaries and make your own minds up.
The SG are caught between a rock and a hard place on fracking. Its INEOS who has Scotland’s only license, yes? The same INEOS with whom the SG had to intervene to keep Grangemouth open?
I don’t think they’re under any illusions about the dangers of fracking. Equally they are under no illusions about the effect of INEOS chucking something like 800 jobs on the fire and the knock on effects to second tier employment in the central belt. I reckon the best they can do is sit on that fence till their rear end develops woodworm.
Without full control over energy matters or the levers of the economy INEOS may have them over a barrel.
Gary45%
You mean like this
Kevin’s piece over on the Groan is worth a glance over, it made me smile.
The truth is that no-one knows how fracking will affect the geology. Yes we have films from other parts of the world which shows disastrous outcomes but their rock formation is different to Scotland.
In my area it is chalk, in Cornwall it is granite & each type of rock will react differently when fractured.. We just don’t know because it depends on rock formation in the particular area which is why Scot gov hasn’t got off the fence. You can’t make good decisions based on poor or limited information-that is definitely not good governance. I would worry about govt making snap decisions without having the evidence base to back it up.
SNP can call for a moratorium but without evidence I don’t think Scotgov can because it governs on behalf of all the people of Scotland not just SNP members. Without evidence for their decision Scotgov could be accused of maladministration & I believe that was why Nicola said in her capacity as First Minister we need to know more, we don’t know enough about fracking so we will proceed with caution. You may not like that answer but they govern for individuals, business owners etc & each will have competing priorities/needs.
If Nicola confuses her role & different remits leader of SNP & First Minister she becomes a political target for those who want to see her gone.. She has a formidable reputation but if she puts a foot wrong zWM will pounce
Rigmac7, clootie – I work in the industry too. Been offshore a few times but never really been at the coal face from a drlling perspective. Realise you can have as many barrier philosophies as you like but when shit goes wrong it’s in the lap of the gods. Read a bit on water table contamination mitigation / fracking / high integrity casing programs / cement jobs but doubt all that due to cost as you say. All wells leak. P/a’d wells will apparently ‘weep’ for years to come.
The Central belt is riddled with old mine workings,tunnels etc., a great deal of which is not on any maps. Ohio has just produced a report on earth tremors, fissures which were stable, up until the fracking had been going for a bit.
There is enough known about geology and instability in the area. Who will pay for damage to the roads infrastructure in communities of high density. Fracking uses huge amounts of water, which they then discharge into the waterways or ground water, with chemicals. SEPA do not monitor, they respond to incidents.
Our local group had a Professor from Stirling Uni,FoE, and a key activist from Worth who have been battling for 2years. We had a hall full of about 200 local people, who knew very little at the start, but by the end, they were livid.
Unlike back bench mps such as the messiah Murphy governments must be vary of what they say and do in case of legal challenges as in minimum pricing for alcohol legislation .
However SNP will be voting for Fracking moratorium in Commons on Monday, will Murphy turn up and has Labour made up its mind yet?
First Fracking licence awarded, drilling is to begin in Dumfries with very long pipes to reach into England and extract their (English Volume Of English Liability)(EVEL) minimum disruption has been guaranteed by the Liberal Democrats ( so that’ll be alright then) and because we are all Better together the good people of Dumfries are welcoming the Rigs, Derricks and all the road disruptions this will undoubtably bring to their fair and Honest sonsie faces, The Daily Mail, the Express….All the newspapers of Scotland blame the SNP for the failure to have reasonably consulted with local people in England on the matter, but SNP MSP for Dumfries and Gallawae Jenny Marra was unavailable for comment, but a statement from her assistant Wee jimmy Murphy who was questioned outside a nearby foodbank read “We have always not been opposed to the idea of not having Fracking within our townships and great cities of the north, and indeed south, when required in a Patriotic sense going forward for the future together as one nation, God bless Palestine and the Orange Order) he said.
following this news Labour MSP Jenny Marra was arrested at her luxury holiday residence in the South of Liverpool on a charge of impersonating an SNP MSP, and sums of money numbering into the very very much were confiscated along with photocopies of Fracking Applications, Later Wee Jimmy Murphy, assistant to Mz Marra had his bike taken away by police and a statement from his mother read “He wull get kep in don’t yous wurry aboot it”
Fracking was given the go ahead in Blackpool as the ground formation was relatively stable but a few weeks into fracking they started getting earthquakes that could be felt as far away as Nottingham. Blackpool shut down the sites declaring it unsafe.
Lollysmum says:
24 January, 2015 at 7:43 pm
This commentary piece from the express. Not sure whether it appeared in Scottish version. This is the sort of stuff we in England are told about Scots /SNP . See what you think. I think it is intended to increase bad feeling between Scots & English. Published 2 days ago
link to archive.today
===================================
I saw this in the Guardian with Kevin McKenna the writer, and he said in that piece he was a unionist. Now I thought he voted YES?
Could this be subterfuge and misinformation of some kind?
My branch of the SNP,East lothian,are very much against fracking.All the councillors our MSP and George Kerevan(our MP candidate)will oppose it ever happening in Eastlothian.
However,I believe that once power over fracking is devolved to Holyrood then the SNP will finally come out and oppose it fully.
The conference in March will be full of new members,and im sure this will be one of the big questions there.Who knows,it may be resolved then,but it is a huge issue with many new members including myself, and i hope the party will be bold and ban it full stop!
James
Kevin was certainly leaning to No about 18 months ago but moved to Yes. You just have to mention his name over on the Guardian to get the Naysayers in a lather. His piece in the National on Monday (I think) was very good. His poem in the Guardian tonight in the style of Tam O’Shanter brought a smile to my face.
His daughter was very pro-Yes and he wrote about how devastated she was at the result.
The test for whether you want to support fracking in your community is very simple.
Would you buy a house in an oil field?
No? Too bad then, because you will have an oil field fitted in your community retrograde, in the Central belt, it will be metres from your home.
The UK govt. gave out hundreds of licences (PEDL) licences for potential exploration to test. Its the only reason they say the powers will come back to Scotland under Smith – if they do.
I don’t know anyone, of any political persuasion, who has looked into it a bit, and supports it. We have shills patrolling the anti fracking groups, trying to tell us its safe, yet cant answer any questions about regulations that will assist in safety.
I was never a great fan of wind turbines, but there is a reason they are called clean energy.
Scotlands wind farms are paid millions to switch off the wind turbines, because they are overloading an old national grid. We have the resources in this country.
Surely that’s one of the arguments we built independence on?
This thread is being taken over by fracking talk, but the paralells with the Irish struggle (as mentioned on other threads) is staggering. Let us not walk blindly into some manufactured divisive construct, it could happen. Wtf would Westminster hold onto ni for, no disrespect to the poulation intended. At least we have an idea now. No taxation without representation. That is the crux of the matter. PS fuck em’ all can’t help myself….
@Handandshrimp
Yeah, Kevin early doors in the campaign was extremely pro union, but as the campaign wore on, the change in writing though gradual was marked. By some margin before the end his writing was pretty pro YES. Very died in the wool Labour our Kevin, but even he saw through BT PDQ and started saying so, much to the annoyance of his one time CiF cheerleaders, quite loudly. 🙂
Macart, I always wondered if INEOS’ purchase of the licence right under their refinery and petrochemicals plants was defensive… to prevent anybody else owning it. Ratcliffe has said before the now that his biggest worry, in his line of work, is safety. If a refinery ever blew up, that’s his business gone, for sure. Just pondering, is all.
Sunday Herald front page;
link to twitter.com
I have really enjoyed some of Kevin McKennas pieces, some are really scathing of the Union, and the connivance going on.
I think he is quite fair when he is on TV, and seems quite pro independence.
I got talking to a guy last month who was very heavily involved in fracking in the states years ago.
His opinion is DO NOT TOUCH IT.
I have said on this site before watch some of the RT documentaries about fracking in the states, yes some people will say they are one-sided against fracking but the truth is out there.
If it’s that safe lets try fracking in the Westminster / Knightsbridge/Chelsea areas of London first.
And when any government minister tells the public how wonderful this new energy source is we change the law so the minister and their close family only drink water from areas where fracking takes place.
I will guarantee any person who supports this form of energy is only interested in themselves and personal greed.
It is time to bring them down.
Gary
@Andrew Haddow says: 24 January, 2015 at 12:27 pm:
“ … Is that ‘cos they don’t exist?”
No it’s because the Unionists have become frightened and shifted the goal posts. Remember that Unionist controlled councils tried to frighten folks off by using the voters roll to track down and prosecute the old debts from the poll tax protest days.
The Scottish government soon put a stop to that, though.
@Wuffing Dog
I totally agree! Far too much talk about FRACKING and some folk being rather unfair to the SNP. Let’s see what happens on the votes on the Moratorium.
To something funny. Kevin McKenna,s “modern day Tam O,Shanter” is brilliant! Hope Jim (of the green fleece) reads it!
Oh Grangemouth has had its fair share explosions over the years, but in this case I reckon the License was in the bag long before the recent industrial action.
Fracking is cheap energy at the end of the day for INEOS, their one impediment? A Scottish Government, or rather a fully empowered Scottish Government. Scotland is sitting on a bankroll of recoverable resource both at sea and on land. The latter, the cheaper and easily more recoverable. The problem? It sits under the most populace area in Scotland and has a track record of damaging side effects. Its a Mexican stand off. The SG still pose a threat to the union treaty and licensing. Ineos still haven’t invested in production and can quite easily still pull the pin on their Scottish operation.
WM may have handed out the licenses, but they’re still not fully in control of Scotland’s governance. The referendum didn’t produce the landslide result which would provide INEOS and WM a near unassailable environment in which to proceed. The SG having only recently arbitrated a stay of execution on Grangemouth aren’t empowered/confident enough to take a stand which may result in INEOS upping sticks and leaving the Central belt in an economic black hole with certainly hundreds and possibly up to a couple of thousand jobs affected.
Stalemate.
That’s how I see it anyway.
@Barontorc says:24 January, 2015 at 1:44 pm:
” … I take it this does not relate directly with postal vote fraud”
You take it 100% right. It is because of the new rules that the head of household can no longer register the eligible members of the household and each person must register their own right to vote.
The Unionists are applying the new rule from before those former unregistered folks who signed up for the referendum and if they were signed by the head of household Excluding them from the new voters role.
I’d best stop there or I’ll say things about the c… Err! chancers … that will see me being visited by the polis.
To frack or not to frack? it really doesn’t matter does it? we’re not there yet, lots to be decided before it’s even a question.
Same with what will we do with the powers? at the moment we’ve got no powers, it’s all just mouth from the Uk an could end there, i mean after all we’re still waiting for supposed powers to come from 2012, anybody seen those? The first thing UK would love us to be doing is moaning at our own team, all they’re doing is sowing the seeds of discontent and hoping we are all stupid enough to fall for it again, a constant stream of misinformation to wind us all up
Mental torture, confusion to the enemy, belittle the opponent, it’s what they do, this is a war to them so fight them back with what we’re best at( Who owns social media? we do, Who’s funnier than us? nobody) So stick it to the Bastirts using social media, Sarcasm the Bastirts to death, they can’t stand that, that’s why they invented the word cybernatz to annoy us, did it work? did it fun, remember night after night they moaned about social media nya nya nya nya nya they’re saying terrible things about us true blue unioners…. Westminster are liars our team knows it they’ve steered our ship pretty good so far, we’re nearly there, Nicola and John Swinney are the best we’ve got and we’re damn lucky they’re better than all the other lot put together.
For myself, i don’t trust Nicola Sturgeon with my life, i trust her with more than that, I trust her with my country
Phew!!! Right that’s it, INTAE BATTLE… ya Torie bastirts
@liz says: 24 January, 2015 at 3:53 pm:
” … Hope though that genuine voters haven’t been excluded”
Liz, that is exactly who have been excluded. The new registration rule that the head of household can no longer register all the eligible voters in the household and thus each person must register themselves is being used by unionist led councils to exclude those in mainly poorer areas who only registered for the first time for the referendum in order to vote yes.
They have backdated the rule and struck off those who were registered by the head of household since the last pre-referendum election and obviously the bulk of those were yes voters.
Burns Day..
Auld Ayr, wham na’er a toon surpasses,
For wee weemin waitin oan Murphy’s answers
Watching Kevin McKenna was one of the saddest and at the same time most enjoyable and hope-filling parts of the Referendum. Starting very pro-Labour and Union, and anti-SNP, Catholic and Celtic, he saw the Church come out against gay marriage, and being fair-minded that upset him. Stuff with Celtic, I forget what, another of his cores falling apart. Labour were regressing and he didn’t like that.
He was supportive of Lamont and then she came out with her “something for nothing” and I think that just tipped him over the edge. Indy posters like Macart and me started at him because of the anti-SNP stuff, and then gradually I think we became supportive as we saw his agonising about the direction Labour were going.
I really really thought that other journalists would, having direct access to what was going on, do the change as well. And that some Labour MPs at least, and MSPs, would examine the case, look at Better Together, and have the guts to move over to YES. They didn’t.
Just Kevin McKenna, and Ian McWhirter who moved from devo to Indy when he saw that all the unionist offerings of more devo were basically – a mirage. Maybe a half dozen other journalists (and three, no four, nameless TV broadcasters) who did see the bias, the relentless negative lying pressure, and became pretty well unbiased and in at least one case maybe two, pro-indy under the surface (as I think they are now).
Times!
I’ve got to add to that, since I’m being so musing, that I’ve seen what I think is a bit of a sea change in the London media too. The last couple of weeks of the ref opened their eyes, but it’s after events that have made them more accurate in their reporting. They do sell after all mostly to the rUK, and their eyes are opening too. Whether genuine or just responding, the journos with the usual SNP-hating exceptions, are becoming more accurate in their reporting.
I think they see the way it’s going, perhaps 8 out of 10 of them realise that it’s not IF Scotland becomes Independent, it’s WHEN. And it might be a lot sooner than any sensible person would predict! Luckily I’m not sensible …
The EU today warned the United Kingdom if there were to be a Vote to leave the EU that the UK banks would be required to move their head offices to Europe or they could not depend on the security of the IMF
We’ve heard this stuff before i think
The old threats are the best EH?
Ya gotta laugh
@ Lollysmum, that article in the Daily Express is certainly happy to be giving the SNP a kicking, and it shows just how badly the MSM treats readers in England. No truth, just slant or bias in all their output.
Curiously enough, the journalist who wrote it, Stephen Pollard, “was one of the signatory founders, in 2005, of the Henry Jackson Society”. (From Wikipedia) So he may be friendly with ProudScot Jim Murphy…
@Valerie says: 24 January, 2015 at 9:07 pm:
“The Central belt is riddled with old mine workings,tunnels etc., a great deal of which is not on any maps.”
While all that is true, Valerie, the main drawback across the Central Belt is the same one that saw a new town and superpit built in Fife, (Glenrothes), and then the whole superpit was abandoned before any coal was extracted .
The Central belt still has more coal and other mineral wealth than has ever been extracted. The reason the Glenrothes superpit was ditched was that the whole nature of coal mining had changed and the seams of the rock formation are broken and shifted and run in all sorts of directions. All right when men dug the stuff but not for massive machines built for long, straight, unbroken seams
The machines intended to work Glenrothes were USA designed to work along massive long, straight coal seams. Not only that but there was no way to prevent water ingress with all the broken and shifted seams.
Think what leaks in Fracking would do to the ground water system? One leak of tocsin would have chemicals flowing all over the place for miles around and all those old workings are already full of water, much of it contaminated.
Hell, while I’m in the mood for some half-time commentary, especially after a pivotal week for Scotland and the SNP, I think the SNP are the cavalry, but the likes of Rev particularly, the re-awakened Newsnet, Scot Goes Pop with constant polls of polls and analysis, Bateman when he’s on-topic are the spearhead, with the lot of us as foot-soldiers and the shield-wall.
I would guess that the media regualrly look at Rev’s site because he not only highlights stuff, but provides the evidence and links for them to check it out themselves. Probably even skim through comments. That would really make them think, because it’s clear that we’ve just about all got behind the SNP, are still YES, accept and are behind Devo-Max, and things are going to change – fast – whatever they may think. What’s interesting for me is that they really didn’t know what to do with the Craig Murray story, nor what they dared to try to do. So, basically, they didn’t apart from a few half-hearted efforts.
The media is changing in Scotland, even the Record, it needs to change a lot faster for its own survival. Unbiased, even-handed or balanced reporting would be a start.
Governor Andrew Cuomo banned fracking from New York State following a Public Health Review of the evidence. There are links to the report in this article
link to readersupportednews.org
Dr Jim
The IMF! What an empty threat. The UK pays or rather guarantees units or something, a top rate to the IMF to get the top rate of guaranteed support (and to be good guys). As far as I know, it’s by country, not the EU, though the EU may have its own arrangement.
Oh, whoops, maybe I should just leave that myth for the Tories to sort out – they’re good at creating myths, surely they’d be good at laying myths?
More news about US fracking.
link to commondreams.org
Might I suggest that the SG-Ineos-Fracking-Grangemouth issue is getting a bit overblown.
The Ineos Owners are not going to shut Grangemouth and thereby seriously damage their business and their balance sheet – all over a fracking licence.
Were it ever to come to a Mexican standoff between Ineos and the SG, there can be only one winner – the SG.
Ineos know that, if only because of the anti-fracking feeling in Scotland, but also because, if the SG buckled to Ineos’ demands to frack, it would very likely bring down the Gov in Holyrood, and there is no way the SNP are going to let that happen and thereby allow Labour to come back from the dead.
Breaking news! Jim Murphy says he’ll abolish masturbating if he is elected FM.
Although he did go on to say that he would not rule it out completely.
More glaring contradictions from Murphy there Kenny, I’m fairly sure from recent ‘breaking news’ that in fact he too is a w**nker, a rather big one at that! (bloody hypocrite)
The Sunday Herald is quite incredible, I guess they’ve been patiently waiting for the command paper to be delivered before really going on the attack.
I’m wondering which of the tabloids will be the first to break cover and go for proper Home Rule not the pathetic offering that isn’t Hone Rule or “The Vow”. It could be the Sun which held back from Indy because I think they expected a NO vote, but will be aware that a large majority of Scotland is behind more than Smith, all the way up to Devo-Max.
But perhaps the clue is in “The Vow”, with the Record realising that its only way back from its faux pas is to get behind its Vow, and push for Home Rule like there’s no tomorrow. Which, for it, there probably won’t be if it doesn’t.
One thing’s for sure; the first to market will have a big advantage over the others.
@ yesindyref2
See what you mean about today’s Herald. 😮
That’s quite a collection of articles on the home page.
In 18th century Scotland we had Robert Burns who would write with pride and passion of what Scotland was all about.
In 21st century Scotland we have Jim Murphy.
Life just isn’t fair.
Happy Burns Day everybody.
Had a look at the front page and then the comments.
Dear Lord! Intelligence shining out of every word.
Why do people respond to the obvious idiotic twits?
Leave them to show themselves up for the complete numpties they are – that said there are the polite sneerers and I want everyone to stomp on them.
Congratulations goes to Kirsten Oswald who has been nominated to represent the SNP to go head to head against Jim Murphy in East Renfrewshire at the May GE.
link to glasgowsouthandeastwoodextra.co.uk
Interesting view taken from the US establishment. It places RT in the same category as ISIS etc..
link to rt.com
@manandboy says:25 January, 2015 at 1:26 am:
“Might I suggest that the SG-Ineos-Fracking-Grangemouth issue is getting a bit overblown.”
You might suggest it and you’d be right to do so. The whole matter rests upon the law which places planning permission in the hands of the local authority but with the Scottish Government holding the right to call in local authority decisions.
The local authority would be cutting its own SG and Westminster party’s throats if it granted planning and then the SG called it in and quashed it. Remember that the actual fracking would probably not be in the actual Grangemouth area.
PURE CLASS!
Nicola Sturgeon appeared live in the studio on the Andrew Marr show and proved again why she is the TOP politician in the UK.
It will be on IPlayer later, well worth a look.
Well done Nicola, fighting Scotland’s corner again.
@ Caz-m.
All the best to Kirsten. we’ve still to complete the vote for our PPC, we’ve got some good candidates to choose from.
C’mon Rev – get yer finger oot. I think we’re all fed up with this bleedin’ cartoon by now. I know I am.
@ Chris
He’s not back from his art class yet.
Gerry parker 10.17am.
My own constituency of the Renfrewshire Paisley South seat will decide on 5th Feb who will represent us in the fight to kick out Ultra-Red Tory, Douglas Alexander.
Team SNP is gradually coming together.
Apparently Jim is now re-nationalising the railway.
@Capella says:25 January, 2015 at 10:43 am:
“He’s not back from his art class yet.”
Great retort, Capella. Now I’ll need to clean my screen and keyboard. I said I’d never eat or drink at the keyboard again but was actually listening to the tennis on the radio and only checked in to see if there was activity on WoS. Bad mistake!
Chris,
I think he is still in the huff as you showed him how to draw a proper hospital bed.
Scotland’s Talk In. Myth commission.
@ Robert Peffers
Welks!
Something strange has happened to the Times in Kiosko front pages (something to read while we’re waiting!).
“We speak for bigots says UK PR chief “ comes up as the front page!
link to en.kiosko.net
Just checked online;
link to gov.uk
Eugh feel dirty
The bastirts are at it
@Chris Cairns – looking at your avatar, Hamish’s wee legs look tired, shouldn’t he have John Bull bent over as a foot stool. 🙂
This week I listened to the 3 prospective SNP candidates for Argyll.
I went to the meeting thinking I knew who I was going to vote for. I was very impressed with them all for different reasons. Now I can’t decide but what wealth of talent we can draw on if those 3 are anything to go by. Each of them miles ahead of Alan Reid who stood up this week in Parliament and supported to keep Trident.
You would have thought that considering the polls showing he is about to be humiliated and out off a job he would have supported the SNP motion so that he could have at least left with some dignity.
He’s not only toast in May but burnt toast at that.
@Chris Cairns
Thanks for the laugh! I needed it as I turned off Andrew Neil bullying Natalie Bennett of the Greens. Shocking interviewer.
Someone said the other day, talking about the BBBC, “why do you watch it then”. Know your enemy maybe but my God it’s difficult sometimes.
O/T
Mr Murphy doe not get it all his own way on Andrew Neil show.
Shown up for the opportunist 2 faced fraud he is, on a a number of fronts.
Nice to see the LaboTory big hitter flounder so badly when exposed.
At least the Rev’s bed’s legs reached the floor – just saying like.
Has Deputy Dug – made a howler re basic facts of prison proposals on Scottish Politics ? Caught flat out live on air by Christine Graham – mountain out of mole hill.
BBC at it again !
Natalie wasn’t well enough prepared for that interview, it wasn’t bullying, much as I dislike him Andrew Neil is the best political interviewer in the UK, he does expose weak points
Does anyone understand what Carmichael is sating on BBC just now ?
He’s making it up surely.
Aye he’s just filling airtime with waffle
@ Caz m.
Here in Coatbridge we close the voting on 4th Feb.
I’ve been helping out a bit but staying at arms length from the inevitable internal politicking that’s going on.
Hope you’re managing to soar above it too!
😉
A Union Flag flew above a house in Livingston for the most of last year , replaced at Christmas for a festive banner, today the Saltire is flying, things are steadily moving to indy.
The way Saint Murphy is going he will be promising us all free packs of smarties and foot massages before the end of the campaign, I don’t think their is anything Murphy will not say or promise or lie about to win.
BJ with regard to your comments about the SNP candidates for Argyll, we both felt very much the same for those standing in Dunfermline West. It was an extremely hard choice and I do hope all the candidates realise that. All of our choices were excellent and any one of them could be the candidate. I am hoping that we can use one to replace the awful Ms Hilton, should they be willing to take the “lesser” though not less important job?
@Gerry Parker @12.04
I’m from Coatbridge and ,on Friday , I had a ‘phone call from Dr Majid asking for my support and ,that night , I had Julie Macanultie at my door asking for my vote .
As my daughter remarked ” I’ll bet you’ve never felt so loved “.
@Indigo
You are right! Natalie was floundering and I felt so uncomfortable watching it. I was squirming! Politicians have to be very well prepared to go on his show.
Murphy also made me squirm. He looked “not well”. I feel for him! Ha,ha.
Golem Murphy was not happy at all at being questioned rigorously by Andrew Neil. He was shot down in flames. Good to see.
I’m struggling to pick a candidate too. We have 5 very different but very good candidates. On the plus side I’m going to be happy with whichever one wins. I will make my mind up today and vote….probably…maybe 🙂
A good analogy to Independence is the bombing of the dams in the Ruhr Valley in Germany during WW2. 617 Squadron kept pounding away at the dams with their bouncing bombs.
Many of them died before the operation was complete, but with great bravery and determination, the dams started to crack, only a trickle to start with, eventually leading to bigger cracks. Then, with continued bombing, the dams burst.
We must keep pounding away at the British Establishment and eventually their dams will bust and we will win our Independence.
I salute you all.
Watching Nicola as our very doughty FM being practically begged by Andrew Marr to say anything hopefully positive about the potential for a link up between SNP and Labour at Westminster, rang a very loud bell that there’s virtual panic rattling about.
Nicola stuck to ‘what’s always in the interests of Scotland will be done’ without the need to say that ‘what’s going to do Scotland down will be fiercely opposed’ and boy, oh boy are they getting the message loud and clear.
Well done Nicola.
@ caz-m 10.07am. Totally agree with you regarding Nicola. She was confident and assured in her policy convictions. What the establishment really hate about the SNP is their determination to represent the best interests of the electorate in Scotland. Not for them the self interest of the established politicians and parties. My sympathies go out to the English people who do not have such a well organised or expierenced party alternative.
Re Andrew McNeil – he is an excellent interviewer albeit a union supporter but he does tend to be fair in most of his interviews unlike for example, Kirsty Wark who cannot hide her contempt for SNP politicians,
Re voting registration, I usually sign my family up for elections and this time when we received notification, I have a vague recollection of the letter saying we didn’t have to change any details.
So I’m now thinking that perhaps we are not registered but I have emailed to find out.
Our prospective candidate for East Ren has been reminded about registration, and we will be bring it up when out canvassing.
@ Barontorc.
Nicola’s doing really well. I think at the end of this interview she mustav wanted to say “Does that answer your question Nick?”
link to bbc.co.uk
🙂
@ Betty Craney. Lots of branch activity going on, great to see it.
An embarassment of riches with the Glasgow NE candidates, feel terrible chosing between them.
Meanwhile we have John Mason getting publicity in a dispute over whether God made the world in six days. A complete load of bollox, do we need this nonsense and how does it help the campaign in a constituency where nobody believes this stuff bar him.
O/T again
Live Independence
Broadcasting LIVE
Frack Off INEOS from Falkirk
link to tinyurl.com ON NOW
Support Live Indy fundraiser – low turnout so far 🙁
link to tvl.ink
Calgacus,
Pmsl gollum Murphy hinging on tae his big poond coin, deputy dug eyeing it up my preciousssss ha ha
Aye Wuffing Dug,
You are right, gollum is better than golem. lmao.
Re Liz, Voting registration
I received notification that the method of registration was changing, but that I did not need to do anything. However, others registered at the same address might need to re-register. My wife got a letter around the same time telling her that she needed to re-register.
What they have done is the main householder is registered but spouses / children etc have to be re-registered.
The web site on my wife’s form was link to gov.uk and the deadline provided was the 4th December 2014.
The other web site provided for checking details was link to gov.uk. It might be worth checking these out.
Gary.