Busy doing nothing
Posted on
November 12, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
There’s so little happening in Scottish politics today, readers, that the Scottish Sun has been reduced to interviewing a brick. And no, that’s not rhyming slang.
Frankly, folks, at that point we may as well have the day off.
The thing is a brick is fit for purpose 😉
Stu’, I suggest you find a hole in the wall for you to spend the rest of day.
Or watch the landing on the Philae probe on the comet. A perfect day to really soar over!
Not sure whether to laugh or just cry at this….
Why is a brick like an egg?
Because they both have to be laid.
Jon D, you are on FIRE!
Ha ha Rev-what’s the betting he got more sense out of the brick than he would have got out of the Smurph 🙂
This has made my day
fill the appropriate holes with lime mortar could have yersel an interesting game of dominoes.
🙂
Off-topic, but definitely worth people’s attention – stupid little shit trying to become a Labour MP, who previously tried to get someone into trouble with their work because he was pissed off at a tweet: link to misssymartin.blogspot.co.uk
Slabber are up to their necks in very deep excrement and sinking fast.
We know it and they most certainly know it.
link to archive.today
Filthy red tory collaborators must be wiped out of Scotland.
This candidate might win,solid foundations and all that… 🙂
Meanwhile, SNP are gearing up for conference, running the country, running a Deputy vote. 3 Deputy candidates are touring, as is Nicola.
At my SNP branch last night we proposed our PPC. I defo joined the right party.
Will it rebuild the foundation principles of the labour party?
“It’s going to be a tough job convincing Labour voters.”
The Sun got it spot on there, no matter who Labour chooses!
There’s this, however: “Salmond: I’ll see independence within my lifetime”
link to scotsman.com
I think uncle Rupertt would like to see the red Tories go away for a long long while and it’s proabably pay back for Rupert’s very ex close familly friend Crash Gordon and Leveson. Brown’s appalling legacy will live on for a very long time throughout teamGB. Lie with pigs… And a lot of life lessons for Holyrood too.
Jon D says:
12 November, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Why is a brick like an egg?
Because they both have to be laid.
So do I, Jon D, so do I.
We all need a bit of cuddling Panda.
The BBC and the Brit LabServative establishment have already chosen Murphy, he is a true Brit and he did come up to tell these Scots what a bad idea nationhood is, he even had his own security throws eggs at him for a bit of attention seeking.
As for Johann, it looks like she should have voted Yes.
The quality of SlabberServative in Scotland is dire.
Some politicians never tire of bleating how it’s not a popularity contest and their policies will speak for themselves..
In this instance, I’m sure the Brick has it in the bag in terms of personality.
Labour Branch Leader in Scotland : Inanimate UK Labour Branch Office Droid
Brick : Inanimate.. err.. brick like object.
The brick’s policies are half-baked and full of holes. 😉
Which is more than be said about Blab and the Murph..!
We new SNP party members should soon be getting our welcome packs – I reckon I’ll be a good branch in Frankfurt.. 🙂
Hey Rev-you need to add SLAB to your Zany Comedy Relief section
All in all it was just another brick in the wall?
W.T.F.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they come to fight you, then you interview a brick, and then the brick wins (W.J.Campbell). I see Andrew in Broughty Ferry now and again. I’ll see if I can get his autograph. Maybe get him to sign a brick.
Hey hey Wee Jonny,
hows life?
Did ye hae a gid necht after we left you in Glasgow during the bus sesh… erm trip!
There may not be much political news out there, but I have noticed there’s a concerted attack going on, by the Herald in particular, against the Scottish Government about education.
No doubt Marcus is doing his best to turn around the disastrous poll rating of the Labour branch in Scotland by peddling Labour [lying] hand-outs as news.
Like to know what the education admin costs are for each local authority?
Why should front line services suffer?
@stoker, that piece in Left Labour is pretty searing. Even the terminology used, daggers, skullduggery – this is key to their suicide, they have never evolved, adjusted.
The rest of us enjoy Game of Thrones as colourful fantasy, they are living it like saddos.
Straight outta Eastwood:
link to heraldscotland.com
A Skeletal service?
Stick a red rosette on Mr Brick and it’d easily be mistaken for any number of Labour MSPs/MPs/MEPs/Lords.
All joking aside, there remain those in Scotland who would vote for anything provided it sported the necessary red rosette.
They walk amongst us…
Q. What do you get if you cross a chicken with a cement mixer?
A. A brick layer
Sill it does allow him to get in a dig at Judy Murray on Strictly.
But there is news today, all over the media, that Scotland is unfairly benefiting from a flaw in the Barnett formula to the tune of £600 m per year. I can’t find any real explanation as to how this was worked out. Still, if the IFS says it’s true it must be.
link to archive.today
Now just hod on folks… without doubt, the brick has far more integrity than Murphy (it also just oozes charisma).
Meanwhile the BBC online news (I use that word guardedly) page for Scotland has this news… The Barnett funding formula for Scotland is apparently wrongly calculated and ‘unfairly’ giving us extra dosh.
link to bbc.co.uk
How about this for news, the latest UK wide poll from Ipsos Mori link to ipsos-mori.com
Labour support lowest since before 2010 general election.
Author-Al – and so the groundwork begins for the changing of the Barnett formula to make Scotland receive less. Funny they only noticed this now, eh?
Valerie says:
“The rest of us enjoy Game of Thrones as colourful fantasy, they are living it like saddos.”
You’ve now got me sitting here wondering which GoT characters Curran, Murphy, Sarwar, Baillie, Alexander etc etc think they are role playing 🙂
link to en.wikipedia.org
The rousing speech from Murphy…
“So, claymore ready for battle, or should that be ‘more-clay’, it’s time for Slab to build a new red party worthy of building bridges”
Aye labour will have to try a lot harder to cement their relationship with a mortarfied electorate. Pointing fingers at the SNP is not a foundation to build a party on. Troweling over the cracks will only lead to structural issues in the future. Only concrete policies will stop the grouting Thomas` from demolishing the party forever.
Is that the brick that Cameron shat when he saw the secret poll
Seeing that things are in the doldrums here’s an interesting wee test to see if you have Scotch/Irish or English feet and does this match how you voted at the Referendum, are we indeed not “genetically programmed” to manage our own affair and have people voted with their feet. 🙂
link to archaeology.co.uk
Gutties Aff.
Labour are bricking it.
Fred
I have got a Scots-Irish female foot which is a bit of a shock since I`m a lad.
Great to see the REAL front contender in the race to be the next Branch Manager of Labour in Scotland has finally been recognised and given the full recognition he deserves.
At least any interview that Mr B.R.Ick gives will be coming from a place that is built on a concrete foundation! 😛
If I see or hear or read of Murphy I get angry, if I have a Murphy free day I get agitated and have withdrawal symptoms. Do I have a problem?
To be fair to Jim Murphy, no seriously, his likes on FB have gone up by 56 since the Brick`s campaign started. The Brick has gone up by 7855 and rising fast.
Over to you John Curtice for expert analysis of this phenomenon.
I wanted to make up wee jokes about Labour, puns and anything else to crease a smile on this day of nothing.
Then I realised, that Labour is beyond parody; they are the joke.
Thanks for that link Fred. 😉
ARGH!
I’ve got ENGLISH FEET!
I’m now off to have a double foot amputation. If I don’t get these feet amputated who knows what will happen next … I might end up speaking with an Essex accent!
You could watch the Rosetta comet landing:
link to new.livestream.com
Once had a very erudite lecturer who extolled the lateral thinker’s use of the common house brick; paperweight, ballast, hammer, measuring instrument, door-stop, prop, serious weapon-at-hand, and ultimately, a very dedicated part of a wall, forever cemented in and normally fit for no other purpose once put to that use – that is, until said wall is demolished and said brick, has a new purpose in life as any of the above!
Now compare and contrast – brick or *rick?
Looks like the Sun poll’s got it about right, for once.
I suspect Murphy’s people will be spitting blood at the Sun. This kind of mockery sticks, and the rhyming slang bit helps it along. Put it this way, neither the Sun nor Daily Record would dare trying the same thing on Sturgeon.
FFS… It’s not even the same brick, the one in the original article looks like an Earlswood textured buff whereas the one on his desk is quite clearly a Bristol buff multi.
How he expects to get any sense out of that I’ll never know.
@Barontorc
I had a very good early bookcase of a couple of planks on sidewalls of gash engineering bricks. It was quite handsome even.
Will Kezia be opposed by a Briquette?
FRED
i,ve got scottish feet
what about oscar pistorius(the blade runner)is he a kangaroo
@ James 123
It will be until 17:00n hours(ISH) until it lands, so back to Ry Cooder and rolling tumbleweed.
@James123:
Yup, and get a refreshing cup of French accent! 🙂 🙂
Personally I think the media are being a bit too pro-brick and are a little biased towards brick candidate. The real buzz going round the grassroots in social media far prefer Murphy’s crate for leader. Will the Sun allow equal coverage to both sides? I’ll not hold my breath…
handclapping
Are you up to go through to Glasgow for Nicola’s address to us, the unwashed, at the Hydron on Saturday, the 21st?
@Barontorc:
Now compare and contrast – brick or *rick?
You mean: “brick or trick”?
Haloween is over! 🙂
Oops. Halloween. 2 L. Sorry.
@Bugger
Nah, saw her in Lochgelly before her rise to fame. She was better then 🙂
Thanks for the offer
Labour are going to need all the bricks they can get to enable them to rebuild after the incoming tsunami of voter anger hits them on May 7.
Meantime, John McTernan & Jim Murphy can be found throwing bricks
stamped ‘I HATE SNP’ in the hope that the Red Tories in Scotland
won’t be swept away.
From Slab to Ed to the tune of The bricklayers song.
Dear Ed I write this note today to tell you of our plight
For at the time of writing this,we are an ugly sight
The natives are rebelling as they’ve now found us oot
So Ed you’ll have to help us or we’re for the bloody boot.
The bbc are working hard to keep us on tv
Our lies and dodgy dealings are suppressed from all to see
It’s getting harder every day,the internet is not our friend
Rev Stu and all those wingers will be our bloody end.
We are pushing forward Murphy for the leadership up here
But as he’s really toxic, it may cost us very dear
We see a scottish newspaper has interviewed a brick
Apparently it’s more popular than eggman who’s a _____
Ah I see the good old IFS are back on BBC Jockland, they’re completely independent don’t you know, not funded by Westminster or anything, or have a pro-Union agenda, no no no. Apparently we’re lucky bastards and get loads more money than we deserve, bows head and gives thanks for our generous handouts.
Are they going to put a European flag on the Comet just incase there is a potential to Frack the thing?
H Clap
OK
Next time maybe?
@ handclapping
Nah, saw her in Lochgelly before her rise to fame. She was better then.
Yes I know what you mean, I saw the Who, I think, before they were famous.
~I say, I think, because there was a lot of comet dust around at that time, allegedly.
Has the brick got the support of the unions or do they still support the plank .
A wee piece of “trivia” for Natasha and all the other Borderers:
Just prior to the referendum The Southern Reporter (for those who do not know – its a Scottish Borders newspaper) was reporting the results of their poll which had 64% Yes and 36% No.
A bit strange, don’t you think, that the Scottish Borders then returned a massive ‘No’ – something along the lines of almost 3to1, apparently, just a few days later.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it!
I guess most Borderers bricked it when push came to shove, eh!
🙂
I’ll quickly grab ma coat.
Sort of o/t
On facebook a 16year old boy named Kyle, asked for more likes than J Murphy. So far Kyle has 6,874 – J Murphy has 4,269! He,he! Well done Kyle!
A brick? Thick as a brick springs to mind. And yet I am convinced that it will beat Humpty Dumpty Murphy.
I believe Humpty the Eggman sat on a wall (perhaps Antonines) and came a cropper… all the establishment couldn’t put him together again.
Is this an omen for Murphy? I’d say he is going to fall from grace in Scotland… but he’d not really have too far to go. Maybe the height of a brick.
@Flower of Scotland
Murphy paid for his likes.
http://www.getyourlikes.co.uk
Don’t believe people actually went on to his site and voted LOL
Hod on the noo..
There is a rumour a piece of 4 x 2 and a lavy seat are entering the leadership contest. Murphy would be beaten by both.
OT I see Barclays are, yet again, being kept off the radar regarding the latest banking scandal – the fixing of currency exchange rates. They are being allowed to negotiate their fine separately with the regulators.
All very reminiscent, of course, of the way their huge bailout, more than HBOS and RBS combined, was ‘buried’ at the time that that occurred.
To be fair to Murphy,… er… nope I’ll have to give up on that one.
Has Murphy not won the branch manager election yet? Damn, am I going to have to fork out a fiver and join the Red Tories just so I can vote for him (to hasten along indy)?
So many better things to do with a fiver, of course… But I would be providing the BBC with a new evening news headline, I can just see Jackie Bird trilling: “Labour Party new membership soars, new takers double….. while SNP intake reaches a plateau and is down on last week….. the actual figures?… em, let’s move on shall we, our next report, a man got his heid stuck in a bin today in Aberdeen…wibble wibble….”
@
wingman 2020 says:
Agreed but, MacDougall arranged it?
Remember him?
Simples
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Didn’t they notice the way we are overfunded then?
I want hard cash for that interview, looks like one of the bricks out of our wall? I would reckon that it is a pro YES brick therefore not related in any way to Jim Murphy.
I hear the follow-up interview is with an egg:
‘How I raised Murphy’s turgid hustings to national attention.’
Waaaay O/T
for all you nerdy types – Philae landing live here:
link to rosetta.esa.int
Don’t get too excited now. No onboard streamed video
@Bugger the Panda
Surely if McDougall had arranged it… It would be a bag of flour?
In any case… What is the difference between a wank and an egg?
Wingman 2020
Why should I know, privately or publically?
Away and beat you own tune.
BtP ;(-
They are all busy doing HeeHaw
Please watch all the video, through.
link to youtube.com
Have fun
The above was for the Ladies.
Great fun
SNP hit new high.
Britain-wide voting intentions (Ipsos-Mori) :
Conservatives 32%
Labour 29%
UKIP 14%
Liberal Democrats 9%
SNP 8%
Greens 7%
Plaid Cymru 1%
59% in Scottish sub-sample
Yon brick is a lot less abrasive and a damn sight more transparent than Jim’ll ever be.
MOD admits Frigates may not be built on the Clyde
link to archive.today
Trust BBC will make this their main news story to compensate for the number of warnings from “respected Labour and Trade Union officials” and all the shipbuilding scare stories they ran prior to September 18th
ED’S BUSY DOING NOTHING AS WELL -surprise, surprise.
(labourlist.org/2014/11/10-tangible-changes-ed-miliband-could-make-today-to-kickstart-his-leadership/)
Mark Ferguson in Labourlist offers Ed this advice – no.5 on his list.
5. “Make a proper effort with Scotland –
In a month, Scottish Labour will elect their new leader. Whoever is chosen, they will have a clear mandate for change and will want (and need) to take firm control of how Labour campaigns and is run in Scotland.
But that doesn’t mean you can leave Scotland to the new leader. Arguably the greatest threat to Labour’s ability to win a majority next year is a vote collapse in Scotland.
You’re the leader of the UK-wide Labour Party, you fought to keep the union together – now you need to spend plenty of time in Scotland getting your hands dirty and telling Scots why having a Labour government matters.”
Jim Murphy will be so pleased!
@Bugger (the Panda)
Indeed, why should you care… But you came close to the answer.
‘You can beat an egg.’
Labour – Game of Crones……
The UK never builds warships abroad, says unionist brick.
This warship thing is just a construct to save Ed,or give Mr Murphy a narrative to follow – nothing surprises me now! Cue a press conference complete with vow to protect shipbuilding, this to keep the labour vote up. Not falling for it this time
CLYDE FRIGATES
If Cameron can cut a deal to suit him on Europe with the French, then the Frigates will be French.
As for the Clyde, well….. actually, it’s the Brits and the French who are Better Together.
Mais bien sûr.
Jim Murphy holds press conference saying that he has saved the frigate order for Govan.
Shame they never really interviewed “The Brick” or it’s creator (Myself), I’d have given them something to write about….
The concept of the brick’s popularity came to me whilst researching murphies expenses, political history and lifestyle.
I thought that a brick had more honesty and charisma than him…So decided to ask the online community who would be more popular….currently running at over 8000 for the brick….I think that says it all….
Thick as a Brick
what?
like this
link to youtube.com
Was that the wee ginger dug on the party political broadcast?
o/t What about the SNP changing it’s name to the Scottish National Labour Party – that would scare the sh.t out of Labour in Scotland. OK don’t chuck things at me -I’ve already been told by the boss that I’m senile!
Latest:Shock News
Jim Murphy joins the Conservative and Unionist party.
At a news conference this evening in Glasgow, the leading candidate for the Leadership of Labour in Scotland, Jim Murphy MP, shocked his audience of reporters and supporters by declaring his defection to the Tory party.
He said to the stunned gathering, ‘There is no future for me in a Milliband led party. With Labour sinking up here, I had to jump ship. It will make no difference to Labour’s chances in the General Election in Scotland – they will still go down to the bottom. I have had talks with Ruth Davidson and she is delighted to have me on board.’
Didn’t realise Ricky Gervais worked in Scottish shipyards.
link to i.imgur.com
@ chalks says:
12 November, 2014 at 4:46 pm
SNP hit new high.
Britain-wide voting intentions (Ipsos-Mori) :
Conservatives 32%
Labour 29%
UKIP 14%
Liberal Democrats 9%
SNP 8%
Greens 7%
Plaid Cymru 1%
59% in Scottish sub-sample
Great to see not only the SNP doing stupendously well, but our Green and Welsh friends also polling strongly.
On these figures, a sort of Yes Alliance would pull in 16% of the UK-wide electorate. Add in a few NI votes. And I honestly believe that if they were putting out national policies, they could pull in a lot of votes from the Lib Dems and Labour. Possibly even UKIP if it is the disillusioned voter who just wants to give the establishment a kick and not a complete anti-EU nutter…
Sorry OT but,
Is there anything at all, which the Scottish Government can either propose, make policy on or claim to be in the interests of the Scottish people which the so called Secretary of State, supposed to be, ‘FOR’ Scotland can find himself able to promote or support?.
He always seems to find some means to find some objection to whatever the SG advocates in the interests of Scotland. He really is a waste of oxygen.
He was on STV news tonight mumping and moaning again.
I might have thought that tub of lard which appeared on Have I Got News For You instead of Roy Hattersley, all those years ago, might have been a better candidate for Scottish Branch Office Manager than Murph the Smurf.
After all, it better represents real Labour.
O/T Since its a slow news day – Catalan news latest.
2.3 million citizens cast their vote
81% want of those wanted full independence. If only…
Catalan president requests Spanish PM ‘Rajoy’ to now allow a mutually agreed vote. Today Rajoy responded: A referendum is impossible, change can only happen via constitutional reform within Spain.
That leaves Mas’ Catalans with one option from the 2 preferred: “a democratic mandate will only come from a mutually-agreed referendum with the Spanish Government or early elections transformed into a plebiscite on independence. Mas sent a message to the Catalan political parties: the only reason to hold early elections would be to decide on independence, as otherwise there is no need for “ordinary elections”. Those early “elections are only the tool to make the definitive consultation vote”, if the Spanish Government does not agree on negotiating a mutually-agreed referendum.”
We will know in 10>15 days time what course of action is taken.
Meanwhile…
Spain has tasked the Spanish prosecutor in Catalonia to take the Catalan president to court. Catalan Gov. is also investigating the source of a massive cyber attack during the voluntary referendum last week and obviously they think they know who is behind it. During the attack, it also took out many Catalan public services including access to any prescriptions, at any chemist.
And finally, something with a whiff of Britishness:
“Mas announced they will take to the European Union the Spanish Government’s ban on the Catalan Government’s decree to fight the so-called ‘energy poverty’. Catalonia approved a series of measures to help families in need to avoid suffering power and gas cuts during winter months, by basically delaying the payment of their energy bills. However, the Spanish Government surprisingly considered that this was discriminatory to citizens in the rest of Spain”.
Sources: Spanish and Catalan news eg. (http://www.catalannewsagency.com)
@ Square Haggis 3.09 ( Hod on the noo ) the Bricks heid n shooders above Murphy on his irn bru crates.
Can anyone explain exactly what this means please?
“There is confusion everywhere, so much so that London journalists have included the SNP in the ranks of the anti-politics parties – even though it is arguably the best organised, most political and certainly most coherent party in the United Kingdom.”
Its from a piece in the Hootsmon.
O/T but interesting. The Keiser Report of 7th October focused on RBS criminal activity which the UK govt is not interested in prosecuting so a private, crowd funded, prosecution is being pursued.
“In the second half, Max interviews Neil Mitchell (Scottish businessman) about the latest in his ongoing legal case against the Royal Bank of Scotland’s subsidiary, Global Restructuring Group (GRG).”
link to rt.com
Plus good insights from Stacy Herbert in the first half. I’m quite addicted to RT now.
I have several of the famous, “Blairadam Bricks”, left after a DIY alteration to the house. As, “The Blairadam”, is a very heavy, very hard, oversized brick I’m sure it would make a good Independence candidate to stand against the one in the article.
I’m sure the party could build upon a Blairadam victory and pointedly cement the foundations of the party.
(Ahem!).
@ wingman 2020
Do you mean this Allan Massie article?
link to archive.today
Conan the librarian says
“Was that the wee ginger dug on the party political broadcast?”
That’s what I thought as well,
Paul?
@Capella says: 12 November, 2014 at 1:11 pm:
” … there is news today, all over the media, that Scotland is unfairly benefiting from a flaw in the Barnett formula to the tune of £600 m per year. I can’t find any real explanation as to how this was worked out”.
Och! That’ll be the same old story again by the numpties who think that the, “Needs”, mentioned in the Barnett Formula are related to each Scot personally needing more funding than anyone else when the truth is the, “Needs”, refer to the fact that Scotland has more devolved functions and a devolved function, “Needs”, to have the funding to run it transferred along with the function.
Anyone with savvy can work out the daft claims of extra per capita funding for Scots is mince. It quite simply is the extra funds needed to run the extra devolved functions.
OT
If Westminster had refused to sign the Edinburgh agreement then the ensuing ‘illegal’Scottish referendum would probably have been even more positive that the Catalan one.
Reasoning. Around 34% of the entire Catalan electorate voted for independence whereas in Scotland around 38% of the entire Scottish electorate voted for independence.
@Stoker
A wee piece of “trivia” for Natasha and all the other Borderers:
Just prior to the referendum The Southern Reporter (for those who do not know – its a Scottish Borders newspaper) was reporting the results of their poll which had 64% Yes and 36% No.
A bit strange, don’t you think, that the Scottish Borders then returned a massive ‘No’ – something along the lines of almost 3to1, apparently, just a few days later.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it!
Yes, I remember that happening; I think it was an online poll, which we foot-soldiers at the time agreed was not reliable, precisely because the respondents were a self-selecting group; ie, Yes voters were more likely to be looking for such polls and to vote in them.
Would have been nice, though, if it had been representative! 🙂
I think almost 3 to 1 is a bit harsh; we weren’t quite that bad!
I expect he’ll be nominated for the 2015 BRICK awards.
Have any of the BRIC countries claimed responsibility for this runaway yet?
(S’OK, I know the drill)!
Natasha,
Aye, fair enough, it was a bit closer to just over 2 to 1.
But what it does show is, what we’ve discussed previously,
although a hard task, its not beyond us to turn this into
something considerably more positive.
I’ve a feeling there will be a lot of people who made the effort
to vote at the referendum but will not vote come May.
Whether that will go in our favour i couldn’t say, but the
turnout, i feel, will be far lower than at the referendum.
And i don’t just mean those who will not be 18 come May.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we go from one extreme high at
the referendum to THE lowest ever turnout in May.
It’s too bad the ‘egg’ was not a brick, but methinks that might have been a wee bit too sore for Murphy to willingly arrange.
@Haggis Hunter
Oy Oy H.H.
Yes I had a great night thanks. It was great putting faces to names. I had a bra laugh on the way through, met a few Wingers in the boozer, got a spesh’ edition Wings badge from Kendo’ (thanks Kendo) had a wee chat with Paul (Wee Ginger Dug) Had another bra laugh with Mr &Mrs John King and I won nearly all the raffle prizes. The only thing that coulda topped that is if the Rev himself turned up. Although I probably woulda got in the same state as I did in ’82 when I asked Tosh Mckinlay for his autograph (I could hardly talk and near pished misel we excitement) when he played for Dundee. I went on to meet my wife who was in Glesgay for a works night oot. So all in all an ace night. Will hay ti day it again soon H.H.