The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Clarifications and corrections

Posted on July 20, 2012 by

In an earlier piece today, we referred to an error on the Herald’s website, where it was displaying a story about Madonna rather than a comment piece by Ian Smart. We note that the error appears to have now been fixed and the correct page is again displayed, in which Mr Smart offers his opinion on Scottish Labour’s choice of current leader.

Never having read a “Harry Potter” book or watched any of the films on account of being adults, we were unaware until today of the meaning of a word used in the column as a description of Ms Lamont, having simply assumed it to mean “madperson”. Having now looked it up, we thought it merited sharing:

“A Dementor is a Dark creature, considered one of the foulest to inhabit the world. Dementors feed off human happiness, and thus cause depression and despair to anyone near them. They can also consume a person’s soul, leaving their victims in a permanent vegetative state, and thus are often referred to as “soul-sucking fiends” and are known to leave a person as an “empty-shell.”

Mr Smart wishes to see such a creature as the First Minister of Scotland, and predicts such an event will take place should the electorate vote No in the 2014 independence referendum, which seems to us to be a highly compelling reason to vote Yes.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Doug Daniel

Labour need to stop electing leaders that even many in their own party can see are clearly incompetent. Ed Miliband is not Prime Ministerial material, and Johann Lamont is most certainly not capable of being First Minister. Imagine other countries seeing her as our leader – we’d be a laughing stock.

Mr Bean in Downing Street and Wee Jimmy Krankie in Bute House – Labour, please start treating the electorate with a bit less contempt, eh?

At least with independence their “best” people will have to find jobs in Holyrood, thus giving them more chance of electing slightly more talented people to their top positions. Hopefully they’d attract a better standard of member in the first place, as they’ll be free of the anti-SNP pro-union mindset which Ian Smart has so kindly confirmed for us are the two fundamental principles of Labour in Scotland…

MajorBloodnok

Now I know why I can feel my life force draining away when Johann gets up to speak at FMQ.

Barbarian

I wouldn’t write off Lamont. Everyone compares other MSPs to Salmond. But he is an exceptional politician. How about a comparison of Lamont with Joan McAlpine. Who’s the laughing stock now?

Juteman

Was Les Dawson a family member?


R Louis

Barbarian,

I think when comparing Lamont, the Scottish Labour ‘Leader’, I think the first place to start aside from Alex Salmond is the Scottish cabinet.  I’d rate Swinney, Russell, Sturgeon, MacAskill, Lochhead and may others including Joan MacAlpine in the SNP way head and shoulders above Lamont, Baillie, Baker, Mackintosh, and every other Labour MSP.  I’d also rate them above the frankly comical Ruth Davidson and her coterie of British Nationalist buffoons.

I won’t bother comparing with Rennie, as we’d probably all just end up giggling. 

Juteman

Rennie?


Erchie

firstly, putting down Harry Potter as being obly fir kids! from a man who plays “Zool” for a living!  😉
 
 Ian Smart is wrong, if she could, Lamont would be  Dolores Umbrage

maxstafford

In that case, the Tories must be the Death Eaters, praying for the return of Voldemort. Although that’s unlikely given her present condition.

DougtheDug

The problem for Ruth, Johann and Willie is that to become a leader you have to be a leader. When there’s no-one to kick a decision upstairs to, when there’s no passing the buck, when you have to make all the decisions and the buck stops on your desk you turn into a leader fairly fast. 
But since neither of the three actually leads a party as they are all fairly minor cogs in their respective British parties then they’re all stuck in a regional manager mindset quite apart from any other deficiencies.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,691 Posts, 1,208,883 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “The national debt was around £1.5T when Brown was booted out. This was AFTER the bank bail-outs. The Tories doubled…Jan 15, 06:16
    • Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “Those are more than reasonable assumptions. I would not put money on Trump only serving for one more term either,…Jan 15, 05:48
    • Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “You seem to have forgotten about the mob of Trump-supporting thugs who invaded the Capitol 4 years ago. They tried…Jan 15, 05:15
    • James Gardner on A crisis of democracy: “The UK squandered it building nuclear bombs and missile technology and fighting colonial wars.Jan 15, 03:39
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “re. rumours #ScotlandEARTHQUAKEJan 15, 01:19
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Does that post constitute “whanging on about ….”? or am I simply picking this up wrong?Jan 15, 00:58
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “Branchform submission? Rumour is Breathy Bain has rolled it into a phallus shape, rocked up to pal Vals polycule and…Jan 15, 00:41
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “The Independent: Is Scotland Facing An Identity Crisis? https://www.indiependent.co.uk/is-scotland-facing-an-identity-crisis/ https://archive.ph/giDy7 #ScotlandIdentityCrisis2025 #YawnJan 15, 00:39
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: ““The eyes are the mirror of the soul, they reflect everything that seems hidden – Like a mirror, they reflect…Jan 15, 00:31
    • Young Lochinvar on A crisis of democracy: “I’m going against a decision I wasn’t going to comment here anymore due to heavy handed “moderation”, but IM; very…Jan 15, 00:23
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Myself: “A speaker or writer uses myself to refer to himself or herself. Myself is used as the object of…Jan 15, 00:09
    • Scot Finlayson on A crisis of democracy: “£90 billion a year in interest payments for UK £3 trillion debt, most of the debt was from Brown and…Jan 14, 23:56
    • Iain mhor on A crisis of democracy: “Yes and no. I’d rather say that under the Marshall Plan (of which Britain received the Lion’s share) the monies…Jan 14, 23:43
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “BBC (2025): MSP pay to rise by 3.2% to almost £75,000: “The total cost of MSP salaries and associated taxes…Jan 14, 23:41
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A crisis of democracy: “I have just watched and posted the lower of two videos at the link below. It is archive footage of…Jan 14, 23:20
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Must be my imagination here, but It feels as though I’m talking to myself sometimes, lolJan 14, 23:04
    • gregor on Nicola’s Non-Truths: “re. “Who will get the camper van after the divorce?”Jan 14, 22:46
    • Jay on A crisis of democracy: “There is something in common between Starmer and Trump.Jan 14, 22:32
    • Jay on A crisis of democracy: “Yes, and as Rev Stu mentioned earlier, much depends on the design of the P.R. system used, it can put…Jan 14, 22:25
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “Scotland doesn’t get the message, huh ? I don’t believe you… “Message: 1. a communication, usually brief, from one person…Jan 14, 22:17
    • PacMan on A crisis of democracy: “That is based on the assumption that all of these appointees and members of both houses are totally loyal to…Jan 14, 22:17
    • Jay on A crisis of democracy: “That summarises the threat. There is further threat from oligarchs undermining the ‘4th estate’, either buying formerly reputable titles or…Jan 14, 22:15
    • Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: “Nope. Not even Wikipedia has a page on “The Sherman Plan” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?go=Go&search=The+Sherman+Plan&ns0=1 The search engine lists the 1787 Roger Sherman…Jan 14, 22:03
    • Derek on A crisis of democracy: ““the government is opposed by four out of every five voters” isn’t really true though. Plenty of people who voted…Jan 14, 21:58
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “It’s the message that counts.Jan 14, 21:33
    • gregor on A crisis of democracy: “COPFS @COPFS: reposted: “Disrupting serious organised crime is a priority for @ScotGov and partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce…”:…Jan 14, 21:29
    • willi on A crisis of democracy: “Can’t but help think what friendship the Donald John is saving up for the hapless Sir Keir Starmer who actively…Jan 14, 21:22
    • Marie on A crisis of democracy: “If you say so Chatham House. HilariousJan 14, 21:21
    • Dave Hansell on A crisis of democracy: “Surely the SNP have not done that much damage? Otherwise, we’ed have seen the official D-notice.Jan 14, 21:20
    • Humza Who? on A crisis of democracy: “A promise from that amoral grifter Farage is even less reliable than one from the SNP or the Labour Party’s…Jan 14, 21:07
  • A tall tale



↑ Top
215
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x