Counting With Cretins
There’s not much going on in Scottish politics at the moment, but you know that when the media resorts to printing stuff from echo-skulled Tory mousewit Annie Wells, there can’t even have been any barrel left to scrape.
Grimly, the spelling in the headline is the LEAST embarrassing facet of the story.
The piece is a desperate patching together of bits of crumbs to try to cobble up some SNP BAD out of the unrelated facts that (1) the NHS buys in sandwiches, and (2) sometimes people die, and it tends to happen more often in winter.
There are exactly two material statements in the article:
(a) the Scottish Government has allocated a £10m winter resilience fund for this year, covering the three-month period when hospital admissions are highest.
(b) NHS Scotland is tendering for a contractor to provide it with sandwiches for patients, staff and visitors, at a cost of around £11m for four years.
To a primary-school child who’s mastered most of the basic operations of an abacus, it’s staggeringly obvious that even if the two things were in any way connected to each other, which they aren’t, you can’t just compare a figure for three months with one for four years, being that the second one is SIXTEEN TIMES as long.
To save you the arithmetic, the comparable figures covering the same amounts of time would be £10m for the resilience fund vs £690,000 for the sandwiches. (And in fact it’s much stupider even than that, because the contract is for the SUPPLY of sandwiches which the hospital then sells to patients, staff and visitors, presumably actually making a PROFIT in the process rather than a cost.)
But that didn’t stop Wells honking out a comment of such monumental empty-headed brainlessness that we’re going to share it with you in full so you can marvel at it and give your jaw some exercise:
“The number of winter deaths reached a record high in Scotland last year. A link has been made between this and severe underfunding by the SNP.”
[Has it? By who? Was it you, by any chance?]
“The winter resilience money announced last week will hopefully patch things over but it’s no more than that – a patch. And looking at this £11m contract, the difference is quite stark.
It appears that sandwiches are more important than preventing deaths.”
We’re not sure about you, readers, but we suspect having hospital wards staffed by starving nurses because someone took their sandwiches away to pointlessly placate an actual bona-fide imbecile currently drawing a £62,000 salary (plus expenses and subsidised canteen) off the back of 2,062 votes might not be the best possible strategy for winter death prevention in Scotland’s hospitals.
To be honest, you’d probably get more sense out of stuffing your face with a big bag of baked beans and putting a microphone next to your arse.
Oh, wait, we think we see how it works.
I am just surprised they never said ‘sarnies’.
Ruth plays *sojurs* so ahm gonnae play *sojurs* tae she gets back fae huvvin that wean says Annie Wells, see look we’re the same me an Ruth, and she’s right
they’re both liars
point of information: death rates are higher in the winter in Scotland – but not in Norway, Sweden or Finland which are far colder. The differential reflects poor housing stock, most of which was built since the war by Labour and Tory administrations
When she was picked for Holyrood, she said,if my memory serves.
” Imagine ME as a Tory Msp in Glasgow!)
Yes I can imagine it, in my nightmares.
A guid few slices short of a pan loaf is Ms Wells
Did the Tories just go out in the street, and ask the first person who passed, “have you ever considered a career in politics?”
Aye, she’s never been the sharpest tool in that Tory box.
Does ma tits in that these people get away with such mince stories,media print it and heh there yi go -another SNP bad STORY WHICH IS BOLLOCKS, BUT FOR THE ORCS TO FEED ON!
‘To be honest, you’d probably get more sense out of eating a bag of baked beans and putting a microphone next to your arse’
Neat turn of phrase Stuart.
That’s one reason (among many) why I love reading Wings 🙂
There are no words. For these ignorant, embarrassing 3rd rate rejects. What a load of utter drivel. The Press imbeciles.
I’m undecided if Annie Wells is actually that stupid or she is so arrogant she thinks all our heids zip up the back. Though the two are not mutually exclusive, she could have an aide who is clued up but also thinks we are all idiots but know he/she/it/they can get Wells to spout off about it without embarrassment.
How can anyone be this thick?
seriously.
She denied she was a Tory. Says it all.
ah think the Earl of Sanwich will be writing to the Editor of the Express asking for a correction lol.
Norway doesn’t do “Austerity!” You might think that Annie Wells would just pocket the cash & keep her mouth shut!
Imbecelic though the Daily Express and Annie Wells undoubtedly are,they are in receipt of financial reward for their crass efforts.
They are no more than opportunistic cynical liars preying on the thousands of gullible imbeciles who actually pay money to be lied to in this way.
That’s before we consider the hundreds of thousands who don’t purchase it but who will swallow the resultant ‘chatter’.
They prey on the ignorant. Not nice people at all.
Thought, are incredibly dense politicians chosen to represent incredibly dense voters intentionally?
Makes sense, because then those voters can better associate with their representatives.
She’s an idiot.
How she is allowed to cross the road by herself is beyond me.
The Tories put Aircraft carriers and planes, Trident and Astute class submarines ahead of people.
They put bribes to the DUP, Brexit, involvement in foreign wars, the HoLs ahead of people.
The comfort of the Royal Family and wider hanger-ons comes ahead of people.
Annie Wells is handed a propaganda sheet and somehow manages to read it…not that it mattered because the media machine already had it.
I suppose we could cut more benefits and keep Annie happy.
Is this the fact base media Leask was praising?
There is no definitive reason why people die in winter. National records for Scotland show hypothermia as the least cause, but indicate that lifestyle choices have created long term susceptibility to illnesses which have weakened resistance to illness.
It is the Scottish lifestyle of fry ups ,drink,smoking which contribute to around 20,000 deaths each year in the older generation.
Annie Wells is an idiot ,spouting idiotic pish.
Even with hospital care ,these people would probably still die.That is just a fact of Scottish life and bad choices.
Beanz Meanz pish!
Bean bag
Procedure for Tory media announcement : take a length of hose, insert one end into earse and the other end into ear.
THEN FART.
Guaranteed for shite speaking.
Rev
[‘To be honest, you’d probably get more sense out of eating a bag of baked beans and putting a microphone next to your arse’]
Not ah lot of people know this [so say’s Michael Cane] the Boom Box was born when sumbody sat on a Tea chest an Farted lol.
Creasing myself laughing. Sooooo stupid.
“Nae frills Annie Wells”, being ordered to eat their hormone laced American style bean stew, WARNING may also contain nuts or GM derivatives.
What is it wae her and the bull-rider always posing for photies with army clothed personnel. They wouldnae last a day in the jungle, let alone play the part of Bungle.
Why are the Tory politicians all OBSESSED with war?
OFFS! Seriously, they’re just a pitiful joke at this point. Both the politicians and their pet media.
Y’know, we get it. You hate the SNP. You hate what they stand for. You hate what they stand to take away from you and you’ll say and do whatever it takes to get shot of them. Wouldn’t matter if the FM could find the cure to cancer and instigate instant world peace. These useless articles would still find a way to say SNP bad.
They’re beyond childish and way beyond tribal at this point. They’ve finally reached contemptible and with some style. Sick of the sight of them, their media and their wee helpers. Opposition for the sake of it and to hell with what it does to the public.
We’re facing political, economic and societal carnage and these … people… reckon this is the pressing issue. A make work point scoring exercise. Just epic. (Slow hand clap)
I cannot believe anybody can be this thick!
The Daily Express relies on its readers being stupid.
As for the Tory MSPs and MPs though, there is a brain for the Tory politicians in and from Scotland, but we don’t know who’s got it this week.
Jack, snap.
SO … SUBWAY is bidding for NHS contracts?
– Is that it?
Did I pass the Tory Candidate general reasoning and aptitude test?
(- at least that other thread got the BOLT-GUN.)
Check out the shoulder of the ‘Royal Marines Commando’, he has a Wings Over Parachute emblem on ee’s sleeve.
Ahm awa tae make a soup anna sandwich.
It’s also worth noting the fact that NHS staff and visitors will have to PAY for the sandwiches (at cost, or even at a slight profit for the NHS), and only patients will get them for free.
Are the Tories now advocating that hospital patients have to pay for their meals? wouldn’t surprise me.
Jesus H Christ, you cannot even make this shit up.
*** Beans, beans, are good for your heart; the more you eat them, the more you [are asked to comment on nonsense stores by f**kwit journalists who are scared their unionist bosses will sack them and they will be left with nothing but a foil back of baked beans to live on]***
At a recent talk by Philippa Whitford, she said, ‘Poverty is the main driver of ill-health.’.
Jesus H Christ, you cannot even make this shit up.
*** Beans, beans, are good for your heart; the more you eat them, the more you [are asked to comment on nonsense stores by f**kwit journalists who are scared their unionist bosses will sack them and they will be left with nothing but a foil back of baked beans to live on]***
Wee Annie … fucking clueless.
@ raineach: You make an excellent point about the contributory effect of poor housing stock on health. Who decided it would be a good idea to equip council housing with “Crittal” metal window frames during their construction in the fifties and sixties?
You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to catch a whiff of corruption regarding the rewarding of the condensation-causing window-frame contract to one manufacturer, either.
ronnie anderson says:
11 September, 2018 at 1:16 pm
ah think the Earl of Sanwich will be writing to the Editor of the Express asking for a correction lol.
Big smiley thing!
_________
Annie Wells is just one of MANY of our MSP’s who shame our parliament.
A bigger shame for all of us who have to pay her salary.
“echo skulled ” pmsl, brilliant ?
@ Tinto, take it you read Hamish MacPherson’s guest article by Stuart McHardy today? Right up your street kid!
IMO hospital catering, and schools, should be in-house with strict standards applied i.e. vegan.
Rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes would plummet and the health budget would benefit accordingly. Animal welfare would improve dramatically and the production of greenhouse gases would fall. Agriculture far outweighs anything produced by transport and industry.
As for Annie Wells, a living monument to the faulty dHondt system.
I hear M&S are hiring staff again (kidding folks) … I wonder if they’d ever consider re-employing this thickest of thick dorks! 😀
Who are the sandwiches for anyway? It doesn’t say they’re for staff. For all we know, that could be patient lunches? Certainly newly admitted patients who missed the lunch/dinner order, Xmas, Sunday tea etc, patients are usually given pre-packed sandwiches rather than cooked meals.
Something that I am particularly looking forward to once we have gained Independence is writing to my local member of the Scottish Parliament and asking that he/she put forward a bill that prevents people like Annie Wells from participating in public life in an Independent Scotland.
I will ask that the Bill recognises the great harm that people like Annie Wells have done to Scottish society, that the Bill looks at the activities of all Unionist politicians in the period prior to Independence and that they are identified, individually investigated and sanctioned for their activities which they carried out against the people of Scotland.
I will also ask that the Bill is extended to journalists and others in the media.
Annie Wells , a brainless wannabe politian , she’s a Tory , it figures !
Ooops!
I think I have just found out why wee Annie is writing in the Daily whatsit … she has a biography written about herself and is following in her great leader’s footsteps by doing some self promotion! 😀
link to youtube.com
raineach says:
Any links to stats or academy research on that topic?
It would be excellent anti Union fodder for IndyRef2! A massive indictment of UK and BritNat economic mismanagement.
UK state pensions are also awful by EU standards. Poor health and poverty are also clearly linked.
Also, the way public housing stock has been so badly handled since the 80s.
A number of different factors could be brought together to build a strong case for just how shite the UK system has become.
Where has Wings twitter link gone?
Maybe the Tories want foodbanks for nurses lunches?
Who can tell with this load of tossers?
Very off topic…. I can no longer see the Rev’s tweets at the top of the page!!
I am fair scunnered as this has been a daily source of much merriment for me and was wondering if it is something to do with my computer or perhaps something more decidedly wicked and nefarious……?
Any clues?
The DExpress has only two real themes, Britain heading for a scorcher/freeze (in Fahrenheit) or Dementia cure imminent.
Never seen anybody actually buy it.
@Arbroath1320
A biography of Annie Wells?
Eh?
How many relatives does she have?
Ah right, I did the youtube link 🙂
Miles Briggs, a big fat nobody from nowhere was second on the Blue Tory list after Ruth Davidson.
Why?
What’s he got on the Tories?
Is he connected?
Well no matter; this bumbling big fool and Annie the Sannie Wells two electoral failures, would be in charge of our Health Service if Mum2B Davidson’s wet dream became reality and the Blue Tories, in collaboration with the Red Tories and Willie Wonka’s chocolate soldiers swept to power in 2021.
Of course the gerrymandered boundary changes and the thought of any of the Third Division Brit Nat placemats at Holyrood ever governing us will be superseded by Indyref 2, unless we develop a collective death wish in the meantime.
Jesus what a bunch of seriously thick people we are giving £64 k a year plus exes to.
This is an insult to democracy and it must stop now.
BTW the sandwiches will be sold, not given away free.
@yesindyref2 How many relatives does she have?
Two thousand and they all voted for her
Got to be something wrong with our system when someone who’s totally unsuitable for the job she now holds on only as many votes as the average anybody could get on the average walk to the post office and then have the arrogance to accept such a position knowing full well they have no training no academic qualifications in fact no background whatsoever in the understanding of politics at all
What company or business on the face of the earth would hire somebody like that, they wouldn’t would they, so why did the Tories, well the real reason seems to have something to do with Annie Wells being gay and she just happened to have a giant crush on Ruth Davidson so she *joined up* to be close to her idol and inconceivably they hired her because she’s a fan
I’m going to try hanging around Scarlett Johansson and keep telling her I’m her biggest fan
D’ya think I’ve got a chance?
galamcennalath says:
11 September, 2018 at 2:08 pm
raineach says:
Higher rate of winter deaths.
The quote from Ms Wells taken from the article in the Express relates to specifically to last winter: She is quoted as saying:
“”“The number of winter deaths reached a record high in Scotland last year. A link has been made between this and severe underfunding by the SNP.”””
That increase in the death rate was down to the severe ‘flu outbreak. Nothing to do with severe underfunding
Do these people not
know that when they lie and insult the SNP they are also insulting the people who vote for them which is almost the halve of Scotland we shall remember them
How can anyone with a modicum of a brain cell vote for these lying self serving red or blue unionist tories? Will you ever awaken from your 300 yr plus slumber Scotland.
I think all would be politicians should be the primary one assessment.
galamcennalath – re death rates, I got my figures from the then health spokeswoman, Nicola sturgeon, so it’s already known to the snp
The fools!
Everyone knows it’s “samwidge”.
Looks as though Annie Wells slipped through the assessment net at school. eh! No matter, the MSM will print any old cr*p from any old plonker as long as it’s an SNP Baad ”story”.
What in the name of God did Scotland do to deserve this … them?
I can’t wait to see their faces when we bail out of the Union. Let’s hope that people like her then bail out of Holyrood. If not, I’ll be watching them all like a hawk wanting to know what they’re doing for their money.
Without doubt this is the funniest article I’ve ever read on Wings. It’s hilarious, it’s ludicrous and at the same time downright depressing.
To be aware that there are still many Scots who will vote for and elect cretins like those on the opposition benches to represent them is what depresses me.
I can only assume that those voting that way believe they are voting for “one of their own”. Someone just like them.
She deserves her very own sobriquet:-
Annie The Sannie Snatcher.
Not as an affectionate nickname, but as a constant reminder of how stultifyingly dense this woman really is.
Annie The Sannie Snatcher; the Blue Tory Scourge of our Nurses.
I urge its use often and maliciously.
yesindyref2 says:
11 September, 2018 at 2:27 pm
@Arbroath1320
A biography of Annie Wells?
Eh?
How many relatives does she have?
Unfortunately YIR2 no one knows the answer to that question.
Quite understandably no one is daring to admit to being related to Wells. Probably best … for THEIR sanity levels if they don’t! ;D
One of my most pleasant hospital memories is being wheeled back into a ward after a minor operation, for which I had to forego food for 24 hours beforehand, to find a young nurse appearing with a choice of sandwiches. Cheese and tomato has never tasted so good. Makes the memory all the sweeter to think that this kind act would have enraged Ms Wells, who gives a whole new meaning to “nil by mouth”.
If she wants to make an alternative suggestion, she might point to the system generally in force in Spain, where supply of food for patients is often mainly a family obligation, and test opinion on this way of saving NHS cash.
O/T but still on the Tories
From the Herald online just now:
“” FORMER Tory candidate for Westminster who works at Holyrood has been disciplined for pestering a female SNP MSP with unwanted text messages.
Chris Land, who stood in Glasgow North West last year, was given a dressing down by party leader Ruth Davidson after repeatedly contacting the woman.””
But it is Ok Ms Davidson has reprimanded him. Double standards anyone?
Saw a post from Ruth the tank commander which someone shared on Facebook , probably in an attempt to wind me up! (Bait not taken) , she says “The Scottish people deserve a Scottish Government focused on the important job of governing the country, not on in-fighting and Independence”
Guess the Civil War is still raging then ??????
‘Her stick’s not even touching the ground’
link to youtube.com
When Scotland returns to being an independent nation, we will have a far higher standard of Political Parties, members of parliament & Civil Service fit to grace Holyrood, for the benefit of our Country and it’s people.
We cannot have this within the Union.
@Legerwood
@raineach
Excess Winter Deaths Index
A bit of research …
link to academic.oup.com
No figures for Scotland specifically but UK is worse than Scandinavians. But here’s a massive twist, Malta and Portugal are the worst!
So, Scotland. Found this …
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
Scottish all ages, all regions Winter Death Index data appears to be (Table 3)
2007/08 12%
2008/09 21%
2009/10 16%
2010/11 14%
2011/12 8%
2012/13 11%
2013/14 9%
2014/15 23%
2015/16 16%
2016/17 15%
The statement that Scotland is worse than Nordic countries is probably true.
It would be difficult to prove exactly how political decisions (state pension, poverty, selling of public housing, etc) effected figures. Clearly annual weather and influenza mask other effects.
Also, with Malta and Portugal Europe’s worst for winter deaths, the picture is obviously very complex!
Earning a crust has never been so hard! Dough-head Wells is always toast when she opens her mouth.
You have a lovely way with words Rev Stu =)
Thepnr 3.14pm. Oh they’ll be voting for one of their own alright. A bigot.
Shinty says:
WM politics is undemocratic and poor, inequality in the UK is among the EU’s highest, Scotland has always been ripped off and mismanaged within the UK …. so, absolutely, we need out of the shithole we are currently in. Then we can build the country Scotland should already be, but isn’t.
I can’t be,I’ve they left the G out of Sangwiches
Beanz Meanz Fartz.
As many others have said and I’ve said here and on other sites, Annie Wells is a complete and utter dunderhead but she is indicative of her type and of far to many people in our country.
She is also the best example of why we need to change the way we fill the seats in our parliament!!
I speak, daily, to far too many people who believe the type of crap written in these papers just because it’s written in the papers.
The problem isn’t just Annie Wells and her type in our politics and our media its the hundreds of thousands of people in our country who are as dense as Annie Wells!!!!!!
Aff topic… on this day…
It is 17 years to the day that the Twin Towers came down in USA.
Stu, why do you always leave me with an image which will haunt my dreams?
I assume that the sandwiches are for resale and therefore would make some sort of profit for NHS Scotland , which would make “ the story” even more farcical?? Also I note the “ English edition” of the Express would appear to headlining this apparently for RUK “ consumption” . Stories like this no doubt to continuously denigrate the vastly superior performance of the Holyrood Scottish government , in comparison with the utter shambles that is Westminster especially as regards the NHS either side of the border.
yesindyref2 says 2:27 pm
“How many relatives does she have?”
My best guess would be about 2000.
A pretty desperate attempt at an SNP bad although what she is probably saying is that if the Tories were in charge hospitals would be food free zones.
To be honest, Tory Labour, Tory and libdem politicians know they can spout any rubbish about the Scottish Government, NHS schools etc
Safely in the knowledge that they will never be challenged by their friends MSM media which protects them and will never hold them to account for the lies and disinformation they peddle to the people of Scotland.
And as we approach indyref2 we will see their behaviour becoming even worse.
Just realised I read too quickly earlier and missed this: “contractor to provide it with sandwiches for patients, staff and visitors, at a cost of around £11m for four years.”
That is actually amazing value if they’re feeding patients as well. So it’s not just nurses she wants to starve but patients as well?
Should’ve tested her in P1…
Les Wilson wrote on 11 September, 2018 at 2:13 pm
“Where has Wings twitter link gone?”
Aye! Noticed yesterday it had vanished. Bit of a bummer as i like to keep an eye on what’s going on as i explore the archives. Anyone contacted the Rev about it yet via the contact facility at the top of this page? Is he aware of it?
Annie Wells, James Kelly & Iain Gray – all on £62K salaries, plus expenses, subsidies etc., so that’s coming in at about £900 per year per functioning brain cell.
Could we not just sit a £2 goldfish in a bowl in their Holyrood seats? This would represent a reasonable financial saving whilst increasing the chamber’s intellect.
Surely the list vote for all parties should be compiled according to performance (% of constituency vote). But then again we wouldn’t have these nuggets to poke fun at
Stoker et al re twitter, at the top of the page under the facebook logo is box saying wos twitter, click on it and you go to his twitter feed.
@ Legerwood says at 3:02 pm …. ”The quote from Ms Wells taken from the article in the Express relates to specifically to last winter: She is quoted as saying: “”“The number of winter deaths reached a record high in Scotland last year. A link has been made between this and severe underfunding by the SNP.””” That increase in the death rate was down to the severe ‘flu outbreak. Nothing to do with severe underfunding.”
Does anyone have any idea how many winter deaths there are in Tory run England over and above those relating to the ‘sanctioned’ suicides, people dying in hospital corridors and those who ultimately die of the cold, malnutrition and starvation?
Wasn’t last year an extremely bad year for them? Far worse than their ‘normally’ bad, hellish, years?
This Tory crew have some brass neck on them. Their NHS / Social care sector is the absolute pits, their NHS nurses get paid less than the Scots, the UN is hounding them over their treatment of vulnerable people and millions of children (and rising) are living below the poverty line (some starving) due to their policies.
And, eh, I thought Nicola Sturgeon put more money into our NHS, per capita, than Theresa May. It’s the ENHS, which in reality no longer exists, that underfunds their hospitals. Not us.
Then there’s the wee issue of OUR sweety money being cut no doubt due, in part, to privatisation of THEIR NHS.
They should stuff a sandwich in their mouths, shut it and crawl under a stone. Give us all peace.
P&O Ferries will cease to transport Scottish calves with immediate effect
So even though it’s legal even though the Scottish farming industry counts on it for it’s economy even though the Scottish government have not informed them to do so it looks like the BBC is running Scotland now without the need to stand for election
One wonders what the BBC will decide to interfere in next
Well we don’t have to think hard on that do we
“@ Tinto, take it you read Hamish MacPherson’s guest article by Stuart McHardy today? Right up your street kid!”
C u on Off Topic, mom vieux haricot.
A very nasty tweet from Gerry Hassan. Compares Tommy Sheridan to Tommy Robinson and Boris Johnson, saying they are all proven liars, and Scotland can do something about one of them.
How dare he???? Trying to incite something?
No matter how flawed you may think Sheridan is, his consistency and work on Independence is beyond question. We know Hassan welches on bets, and his support to independence is questionable.
A very nasty tweet, ahead of this Saturday’s Hope over Fear rally.
Folk just can’t keep their rancid bile to themselves.
North Cheil, the sannies are available to patients on request, sometimes you miss a meal if your at xray or another dept, i cannot imagine them giving free to staff as they charge for everything else like parking. This was a big concern when the new Southern General in Glasgow opened as Staff Had limited access to car parks and when they could get a space had to pay six quid a day for the pleasure of turning up for your work sometimes before the Public Transport network has started up for the day.
So they will be charging staff and no doubt making a profit on selling sannies to the Nurses , visitors et al.
I presume the parking capacity issue has been resolved, it was a major bugbear to the Nurses when I was a patient there in 2015.
Oh my god.
The last picture and the last two paragraphs is amazing comedy.
I’m actually standing laughing out loud on this train. And if Kelly is reading it’s an overfull Cross Country train, not Scotrail. They run trains in Scotland too you know.
For the Twatterers that Tweet try looking fur the wee burdy at the top of the page for the Revs Twiiter page underneith his FaceBook page .
The bumbling fool Wells, is a bonus for the independence movement. Her Murphyesque faux pas, will only throw votes our way.
Her orations in the Holyrood chamber are only surpassed by the monotonous James Kelly’s dulcet tones.
The Annie Wells saga.
Surely before being forwarded as a party candidate, each should undergo an entrance examination which would entail a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the country they purport, hopefully, to represent.
In Wells’s case, an IQ test. But don’t tell her what IQ means. She might get confused.
Mz Wells brings to mind the old Scottish saying, “Ye canna mak a silk purse frae a soo’s lug”
Yon Wells is a richt muckle auld soo’s lug.
Shes my favourite dullard from the Tories. But she is particularly standout dumb and always good for a laugh. Lets rename her Annie Sphincter.
Different kinds of Wells :
H G Wells
Wishing wells
Water Wells
Oil Wells
Wells Fargo
To name but a few and well well we also have :
Annie Wells
Some wells produce and others run dry
Tory list MSP’s produce shit ? Och aye.
Some Wells try to speak but they just canny
Tory list MSP’s should all be filed under Fanny.
My tribute to Mcgonagall is not quite complete but then neither is Annie’s Wells transition from shop floor worker to politician tribute act.
Apologies in advance to lovers of poetry…both good and bad ….and in my above effort… that is ….frankly dire!! .
Also apologies for glaring omission of Red/Yellow Tories not included in above DITTY when obvious that, they too, are just as SH*TTY. Yep I’m still rhyming for my sins…which are many !!
@ Dr Jim says at 5:14 pm … ”P&O Ferries will cease to transport Scottish calves with immediate effect. So even though it’s legal even though the Scottish farming industry counts on it for it’s economy even though the Scottish government have not informed them to do so it looks like the BBC is running Scotland now without the need to stand for election. One wonders what the BBC will decide to interfere in next. Well we don’t have to think hard on that do we.
This is what it’s all about. The Establishment in cahoots with the MSM, in this case the BBC, trying to scupper our economy and you can bet your bottom dollar it won’t cease when we get our Independence.
On the bright side they’re continuing to p*ss off the people who matter, such as the farmers, NHS staff, Police Scotland etc, etc etc.
Carry on, carrying on BBC. It ain’t going to work.
It strikes me, that these unionist list MSPs, really are actually very, very thick. Except, despite their rank stupidity and truly appalling worldviews (Annie Wells), they rake in over 60 k a year. That’s good money, if you are completely talentless, devoid of humanity and thick as sh*t.
Careerist unionist list MSPs, they just say and do any old stupid sh*t, and really don’t care. They are happy (and you would be too), coining it in, with just over 1,200 pounds wages per week, for doing sweet F all.
My advice, if you are 16, left school, no qualifications and no chance of a job or a life, is join the Labour or Tory party, and suck up, brown nose it as much as you can, so that in a few years, they ‘put you high up the list’ for the next election. Then you could overnight be earning over 60k, have an expense account, cheap meals, and aside from occasionally having to vote in the parliament, the rest of the time is yours to indulge whatever hobbies you might fancy. This is what careers advisers should be telling young people who haven’t got many prospects. Forget joining the army, just become a list MSP, and get paid for doing nothing.
No more over 75s free TV licences says the BBC who are going to have to finance themselves in future says the UK Government
They’ll be roon aboot yer hoose Robert Peffers get yer gun oot
Am livid incandescent wie rage that SNHS feking gein me Cancellation appointments at only ah days notice Removing ah Cataract gein me free Tea an sandwiches ( spelling correct at time of posting ) then then hivin the audacity tae pay for ah Taxi hame.
( continued )
An noo the fekers ur at it again wie ma right ein ah hiv tae suffer aw that again, diz anybudy know if that Annie Wells diz Ootsiders complaints tae SNHS .
Tories who’s like them.
Rees-Mogg on the Jeremy Vine Show on C5. The subject being discussed is can super rich people like Mogg ever understand what it’s like to be poor. Mogg’s answer – I did campaign in Fife in the past. Casual insult to Scotland and Fife.
His nanny and mother also went with him.
In the rest of the UK the Police Budget has been cut. Less Police. 120,000 increase in elderly death. Austerity. The death rate age plateau. It could go down. People dying younger. A Report that the poorer not only die younger. 19years less. They spend 1/3 of their life in illness.
Westminster are sanctioning and starving vulnerable people. Universal will cut incomes. They have cut NHS/Education and welfare funding. Unnecessarily. They are raising £628Billion in taxes. £92Billion other income. Enough to be funding essential services properly. They have given tax breaks to the wealthiest.
Brexit is a disaster. Hedge funds have gambled £Billions on the £ going down in value on Brexit. Everyone else is paying for it.
Here is todays link to Gordon Ross – Indy car,
link to youtube.com
As usual, well worth a view.
Mmm, as “a food retail manager, for one of the UK’s leading brands”, I sincerely hope Annie Wells actually knows the difference between a 4 year contract for £11 million, and a 4 year one for the same total amount!
Mmm, “I and my company will be delighted to give you £11 million a year for the sandwiches”.
“Quick – sign here”.
That doesn’t quite work, this is more like it.
Mmm, “I and my company will be delighted to give you £11 million a year for the sandwiches”.
“We’ll just get the contracts checked and reprinted and we can sign after coffee”.
STV news showed Mike Russell talking at Holyrood followed by Tomkins. What a difference in relation to their behaviour.
I’ve got a number of people visiting right now and the overall response was ”Oh, my God. He’s like Hitler.” They, the Tories, just can’t help it can they? Can’t hide how despicable they are.
……………………………..
Nicola Sturgeon is on Scotland Tonight (STV) on Thurday night at 10:30pm answering questions from 100 children (schoolchildren?)
……………………………..
I hope you don’t mind Nana, but I’ve just brought these links across from the last thread, in case anyone missed them earlier (like myself).
@ Nana says …. ”Michael Russell earlier today giving evidence to the Law Reform committee re the Trade bill. Starts with a statement from Mr Russell.”
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee – 11 September 2018
link to youtube.com
@ Nana says …. ”Statement by Michael Russell.”
Constitutional Relations Secretary warns of no-deal ‘chaos’.
link to news.gov.scot
Ahh, sweet savoury memories: Iain Gray and his visit to Subway…
Taking old folks TV licence away is clearly a SNP BBC bad story.
Not confirmed yet, just a proposal.
@Dr Jim
From the online bbc article:
“Following on from the Disclosure documentary, NFU Scotland is writing an official complaint to the BBC in regards to the standards of the reporting involved in the documentary and journalism showcased in the programme which, disappointingly, has already had an immediate effect on the agricultural industry.”
Could be interesting eventually.
Lenny Hartley @ 5.22pm
Parking at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
“”New parking measures at the QEUH
Friday, September 16, 2016
There is a misconception that NHSGGC is responsible for the total number of spaces on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) campus.
When the planning application was submitted for the new hospitals a condition of planning consent was that there be a limit to the number of parking spaces available on the site. However, Glasgow City Council subsequently approved an increase in the original number of spaces and this enabled the creation of more spaces in the surface car park at the Govan Road entrance.
This was to ensure that the car parking available was not above the limits that the site and local road infrastructure was designed for and part of the local transport and travel provisions.
The local community does not benefit from additional traffic generated by the availability of more car parking spaces as this causes further congestion on the local roads increasing traffic emissions which are injurious to health.
To ensure patient and visitors are able to park on site we operate a permit scheme for staff which provides car park spaces for all staff who meet the requirements with the Board’s car parking policy.
It is also worth noting that all parking on the QEUH site, both surface and multi storey car parks is completely free at all times, and that the parking arrangements are in place during peak times Monday to Friday only. Nightshift and weekend staff do not require permits and can park in any of the designated staff parking areas.
We will continue to monitor car parking provision at the QEUH on a daily basis and if we require to change the current configuration of patient space to staff permit holders spaces or staff first come first park spaces we will where necessary.
It remains an objective of the Board to reduce dependency on car journeys where reasonable and promote public transport, cycling and walking as an alternative””
The hospital was ready 6 weeks ahead of schedule which caught out a few organisations who had responsibility for parking provision and transport e.g. Greater Glasgow Council.
NHS sstaff have always paid for their food but it was subsidised to a certain extent. Many staff would go outside at lunchtime to buy sandwiches because they considered the food pretty awful. Now they can buy sandwiches on site or in some of the shops in the newer hospitals.
In short, they have a choice.
This is where the SNP completely fall down on the job. They have a twitter account that allegedly they will use to debunk rubbish stories such as this. They rarely use it. Fortunately we have Wings. They should just link to you website.
However on sandwiches, they are for patients, ones who arrive in after meal times and mainly for day patients in for elective surgery. They won’t let you home until you have eaten something and depending on op gone to toilet. As elective patients come to at various times during the day that’s why it’s sandwiches.
Tories have got to be the most ignorant of our politicians. MSM of course are equally ignorant people who regurgitate their ignorance.
Dr Jim, Petra
I just received this e-mail from the Green Party
Scotland closer to live animal export ban
Dear Margaret,
We did it – Scotland is one step closer to a ban on live animal exports today, as P&O Ferries confirm they will no longer accept lorry loads of calves being shipped from Scotland to Northern Ireland, for transportation onto Europe.
Green supporters have written to me in their hundreds over the last few months, expressing dismay at the Scottish Government’s support for this cruel trade and asking MSPs to take action. I and my Green colleagues have raised this repeatedly in the Scottish Parliament chamber, in committees, and in letters to Fergus Ewing, pressing them to publish the real figures for live exports from Scotland and co-operate with the UK Government on a consultation for a ban.
Share the news on Facebook
Over the summer, we conducted a poll that found a huge 73% of people backed a ban on live exports. Finally, all this pressure came to a head last night, when the BBC aired their shocking expose on the extent of the trade and the traumatic journey these baby calves are forced to go through.
Today’s announcement amounts to a ban in all but name – P&O were the only company shipping live animals for fattening and slaughter, and they only did this on the Cairnryan to Larne route, upholding their own animal welfare policies elsewhere.
But the fight isn’t over. The Scottish Government needs to wake up to the strong public feeling and scientific evidence behind this, and get behind a full ban. There’s also questions to be answered as to whether the Scottish Government put pressure on P&O to contravene their own animal welfare policies. And finally, we need a proper plan to support the farming industry and press for a radical shift to more ethical, sustainable dairying – see my blog here for more detail on what our future dairy farms should look like.
link to greens.scot
I smell a smell!!!
Especially if the BBC is involved. Is this a cunning plan to crash the success of BSE free Scottish beef production which is compromising English beef because the SNP is so Baad!
Jock McDonnell says:
11 September, 2018 at 6:58 pm
@Dr Jim
From the online bbc article:
“Following on from the Disclosure documentary, NFU Scotland is writing an official complaint to the BBC in regards to the standards of the reporting involved in the documentary and journalism showcased in the programme which, disappointingly, has already had an immediate effect on the agricultural industry.”
Could be interesting eventually.
Once again, people’s reputation and livelihoods are threatened in the BBC’s quest for another SNP BAD story. But Hey, all’s fair in love and war, right? Who cares how much collateral damage is cause, as long as another pathetic point is scored against the Scottish Government. I do wonder if some of Labour’s dirty tricksters were involved in this story, in any way? Wouldn;t be surprised. 🙂
The Greens say, “And finally, we need a proper plan to support the farming industry…”
Tory britnat farmers rejoice!
Jings, I’ve fallen doon the rabbit hole again.
A day in the life of Annie
Get up
breakfast
read meedya looking for something to bash evil nats with
attend holyrood
fill in expense form
Lunch
say something deranged only a half wit would think up
dinner
snuggle up with good book boris johnstons biograhy
go to sleep
Great to get behind this, but what is plan B dairy farms have no use for these animals, beef cattle farmers don’t want them as they are the wrong type, is there really a farm in either Ayrshire or the Borders who takes these animals, if there is no such farm then its either the Irish lorry or a bullet.
Im not sure what kind of a victory was gained here, hope there is such a farm that takes these animals.
‘ P&O will stop with immediate effect transporting Scottish bull calls ‘
Bit contrived is it not, shown on the telly in the evening, and P&O jumps in the very next day and announces a ban. Hmmm. Have I got this wrong, that’s how it happened, isn’t it. P & O made a commercial decision to bin the revenue generated transporting 5,000 cattle after probably one of the most contrived and inept documentaries that would have shamed even the ‘ white helmets’. Am I just cynical, or does this stink.
By the way the sandwiches are used in so many way within the health service. I have had them in a couple of ways.
First after an operation I was asked to eat something before I could leave to replace sugars and to ensure I could eat without throwing up! and secondly my wife was rushed into hospital just before tea time we were both supplied with a sandwich by late evening as we had not eaten since lunch I joked that it was better than the toast we used to get was told that toast had been discontinued as the staff may have to attend someone suddenly resulting in toast burning and setting off smoke detectors which The fire service had to attend just in case!
So there you are Annie by supplying sandwiches the fire service is being denied much needed practice runs to local hospitals.
I am sure you could get another of your SNP Bad stories out of that!
Ps The Sandwiches were not the luxury but tasted good and very much appreciated
Sanwiches ffs.
Brit nat media, devoid of talent, and run by lackies.
Loony Leftist let Loose ..
weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2018/09/11/the-battle-of-braveheart/
Basically if there is no market for the veal calves they will now instead be shot at birth. I would suggest to the Green party that this is but a hollow victory.
Veal became a “dirty” food in the 1970’s due to the practice of keeping the calves in a wooden crate before their slaughter. Conditions in UK so far as I can see are much better than the rest of Europe, but even now veal is not a meat that is commonly bought due to that 1970s campaign.
Ironically pre 1997 400,000 calves per year were exported from the UK. That market died with the advent of BSE (and also foot and mouth) and the subsequent collapse of the trade.
If the greens are so concerned with animal welfare, then they should now be running a campaign to encourage production and eating of properly managed veal and thus support those very same farmers who have now lost a source of income due to this bbc report.
I’ve just spent the last two months visiting my mum in the Western General in Edinburgh. I have nothing but kind words for the staff there, many of whom I got to know quite well as the weeks went past.
Their patient menu sheets always included a sandwich choice as well as more trad casseroles etc etc. Staff and visitors could eat in a couple of cafes, one of which was run by a subsidiary owned(?) by the hospital, the other was manned by the W.I. So staff were paying for their own food at slightly discount prices compared with visitors. They weren’t giving the food away, except to patients.
All of which qualifies me to say this story is utter BOLLOCKS. Hell mend both Conservative and Labour press releases, and all who lie behind them. Bar stewards.
Is that her own bullshit she is scoffing?
Though, the bag would be much bigger
One thing, it doesn’t matter how thick or corrupt they all are, if they succeed no amount of realisation by people in Scotland is going to have any meaning.
They will have control in Westminster and will impose whatever ‘policies’ they want in Scotland.
The time for realisation is now.
I wonder if the Greens will be standing up to claim victory if next year the story is ‘thousands of calves that could be saved by being sold are being slaughtered’. But being Greens they will disown any responsibility and demand the ScotGov take action, that’s how virtue signalling works.
Don’t know if it is still the same in Scottish schools as it is rather a wee while since I was a school boy. Every class used to have its class sneak, a.k.a. “clipe”. Usually a dullard with no greater talent to curry favour with the teacher. Not only that but every class had the class bully who would usually make the clips life a misery.
Very much like BBC Scotland where the clips try to curry favour with their superiors in London but their is always the bully too. So the BBC clips are driven to ever more clipeing by the resident BBC bullies in London.
It’s easy to say don’t kill animals in whatever way but however it’s done they’re still dead and folk still need to eat them and they’re not buying them and killing them for fun
The world eats meat even Comrade Harvie knows this and he also knows the reason behind Scottish farmers selling it and that is because Scottish beef is well known to be risk free of BSE which Englands beef is not and that’s why English farmers aren’t first choice for selling their beef although some do but the BBC decided to avoid highlighting that as does Patrick
The fact that other cultures slaughter animals in different ways (Halal) should make no difference to this argument because the minute the Greens and the BBC and whoever else they can muster up to get behind this if they succeed the next move will be attempting to force farmers to keep animals they don’t want and have no profit in them but they won’t then be able to shoot them because the Greens will complain about that too
So what are Scottish farmers to do with these animals, well should they put condoms on their dads then or separate cows from bulls put on night watchmen to make sure no randy boys or girls manage to get together and do what comes naturally or end up with a whole load of animals the farmers can’t feed because the supermarkets won’t pay enough for the meat or milk to cover the cost
Comrade Harvie is as Green as I’m cabbage coloured and folk should really wake up to this guy and take a look at his finance plans then decide if they really want a nice red hammer and sickle fluttering in the breeze over Holyrood
I make no bones about my feelings about Patrick Harvie ever since he plastered Green party messages on SNP posters in Glasgow instead of standing on his own two feet and not coat-tailing the SNP and as I said take a good long look at what he’d do with Scotlands money given the chance
Yes Patricks Green alright but green with envy of the FMs chair maybe even worse than Ruthy
I know there are some Green folks who read WOS, what I’m saying is not in any way that I’m anti Green I’m not, far from it, but this is a business and economy issue, animals die, most folk couldn’t do the job of killing them but they’re always happy to eat the stuff then go *Aahh! that terrible thaat shouldnae be daein thaat dead sad eh sumdy should stoap it no*
Patrick says he’s been talking about this for a length of time, really coincidental timing right now then eh
What would anybody say if the animals were being shipped to countries in poverty for no money, well go on Patrick say what now!
It’s a cheap pressure stunt no more no less, and apologies for the length of this but once again Scotlands taking about some flaming cows for God sake, a Cow!!
Ach Bullocks!
Dr Jim @ 17:14,
Very salient point there. The political dumb cluck may have sneaked-in with 2000-odd leftover Tory votes, but the BBC has never sought nor received any votes at all, yet it seems to believe (and act as if) it is the official opposition.
Mind you, with actual opposition reps as fundamentally laughable as Annie Wells, it may feel a crying need.
With regard to the shipment of live animals in Scotland
If my memory serves me right, one reason we can’t ban the shipping of live animals is because we have cows and sheep on our islands and they have to get to market ( and most likely, abattoirs) on the mainland.
If the Scottish Gov imposes a ban then these animals cannot be sent to the mainland to be raised and brought on for further markets in Scotland itself, let alone exporting.
Someone please correct me if I’ve got that wrong.
It may not matter what the Scottish Government decide what to do about the shipping of live animals after Brexit happens.
The law over transporting of animals is governed by EU regulations and if the power grab goes ahead then it will not be in the power of Holyrood to make any changes even if they wanted to.
Westminster have been considering a new law covering animal transport since January this year.
link to independent.co.uk
@Meg Merrilees
Look at the way the BBC and STV are reporting these stories like something out of an Edgar allan Poe Horror movie
No standardised testing of kids (they don’t even know they’re being tested, they’re 5) unless somebody tells them to be afraid
NHS story after story SNP baad
Sanwiches! sanwiches! Jeez!
Now we’ve got Bullocks, (the whole world transports animals
No more referendums they’re Baad
Brexit! How do they report that? you barely notice it, like putting red sauce on your chips, like it’s something normal
D’ya think there’s a big deal about to happen, I think sooo!
This sort of stuff is going to monster on for months now and every day they’ll remind us how it’s all about the SNP using circumstances to *provoke* or to *stir up* or to *stoke* for Independence as if it’s some sort of crime to fight for the very thing we voted for and offer people a democratic choice about what they want to do
It just shows you what lengths the Tories Labour and the rest will go to to deny people democracy on equal terms
Engish referendums good Scottish referendums bad English decisions right Scottish decisions wrong, and they’ll shout it at us every day for another 300 years if we let them
O/T
Tory Brexiters of the European Research Group have tonight been openly plotting a coup against Theresa May
link to facebook.com
link to twitter.com
Meg merilees @ 9.49pm
No you have not got it wrong. Cattle, sheep etc are transported from the Islands to the mainland often, in the case of cattle, bought bt farmers on the mainland to be fattened up then killed for food.
Some of the journeys can be quite long e g from Orkney to Aberdeen. But being able to sell their cattle on for final fattening is important in maintaining the viability of farming cattle or sheep on the Islands. Orkney does not have an abbatoir at the moment.
It did make me wonder when I saw the reports about P&O if the Greens etc would turn their attention to the Islands.
You are wrong, however, in suggesting that it is the Scottish Government who are implementing/imposing a banthe ban.
Here is an article about farming on Papa Westray which gives some idea of the difficulties involved and the fine margins they work to.
link to fwi.co.uk
All you peeps who are missing the WOS Twitters links on WOS pages…
Do what I did around three or four years ago –
1. find the WOS Twitter page.
2. Go to it.
3. Bookmark that page.
4. Leave it in a tab in your web browser (Firefox, Chrome or whatever).
5. Reload/refresh that tab when you want to see what’s new.
I’ve never looked at the Tweets on a WOS page – too much hard work to scroll back up to the top of a WOS page when, if I click on “reload”, the page is refreshed to the same place I was at, with the new comments below.
So here’s the link, that others today have provided.
link to twitter.com
And here’s the Rev’s personal page…
link to twitter.com
You don’t have to have a Twitter account to view pages.
@Fergus Green
“To be honest, you’d probably get more sense out of eating a bag of baked beans and putting a micro-phone next to your arse”.
For some unknown reason when reading the article I registered that as, “Putting a Micro-wave next to your arse”.
Makes more sense when read properly but strange mistake, maybe I was thinking of Micro-waved beans with melted butter ot marg….. Mmmmm.
Can the calves not be turned into organic quinoa. There must be a back court near Byres Road where someone could build a factory.
Still reading threads. Honest.
Can’t be arsed sometimes posting on a thread as many folk doing it & saying it better. Your all doing very well 🙂
I see the empire biscuit and ‘not’ Palestine dates guy has been missing today.
Anyhoo! O/T…ish!
Wings twitter ‘birdie thing’ showing fine on this laptop which I use as standby but not on the bigger laptop in the kitchen which I normally use during the day.
So some folk seeing it OK and some not…anyone know why?
Using Chrome with windows 10 (updates are a pain).
Legerwood
Thanks for the info – sorry if it reads wrongly but I’m not accusing the Scottish gov of imposing the ban. That is what the Greens, Lib Dems and others want to ask it to do.
I have a vague memory of Fergus Ewing some time ago, at Holyrood, on his feet, saying they couldn’t impose the ban because of island traffic which is something I had never considered.
Before realising about that I would have been in favour of banning live animal transport – I hate to see frightened faces peering out of the sides of lorries – but my ignorance of how due process, farming practice and location of abattoirs make it a logistical nightmare for livestock farmers made me react against transportation. I now realise that in some cases it is inevitable, and as our gov says, they have a duty of care to make it as bearable as possible.
@Brian Doonthetoon
Ha! Jings! etc Your clairvoyant.
o/t – or maybe not. There has been a coming together of niaive and malign groups to target P1 assessment. Likewise, on the topic of sending live cattle to a constituent part – for now – of the UK, orchestrated by the unelected BBC.
Unite has decided – unlike other unions – not to settle for 3%, but keep going and threaten strikes. What party do they support again? The EIS wants no less than 10% and sod everyone else. What is the political background of their current leadership? Why go for this now, when others are being reasonable?
Far from nothing happening, there is a tidal wave approaching the SNP in government, whether it is explicitly organised or not which will have the aim of destroying the SNP in either the Autumn election, or the referendum – whichever is called.
There have been plenty of calls for the SNP to stop sleepwalking, and to be more proactive, possibly even radical. Replicating austerity is not a rallying cry – making the positive case for doing some things differently might help.
I don’t see much to persuade me that the Party is getting its act together. Not everything is the fault of biased BBC and STV. While their deferential treatment of Ruth and the Tory bigots is clear, if you don’t make your own case or challenge the portrayal by these organisations you will always be on the back foot. That fight cannot be left to individuals on twitter.
There is a war going on, and some important people on our side don’t seem to have noticed yet. We seem to be stuck playing a 0-4-6 formation and hoping for a draw.
The actual definition of ‘Fake News’
Could we no sneak the coos on the britnat boats to France and have veal & mussels a la tompkins?
Another wave on the Tsunami of anti-Scottish Independence and propaganda from the BBC on the transportation of Scottish Calves.
They are now working toward Scottish Farmers shooting your bull calves rather than selling them to another country.
Not only do they want to cut that revenue stream, but their wee stooge expert on the radio suggests that the Farmers should feed the calves with feed that they don’t have and the mothers should not be milked for 6 months to allow their milk to be for the calve only. 2 Sets of revenue gone from struggling farmers??
How about the Scottish Farmers EU Subsidy stolen by Westminster was recovered and paid out to help them.
How do you fight for the lives of cattle born to be raised for food?
How do you allow calves to be held captive and fed milk only in the dark to produce veal?
How do the BBC miss the key element about English Beef being banned and excluded from export due to BSE?
How do we find food that will replace this food if it is shot at birth rather than being transported?
The Gimp on the radio explains that we should all be paying more for Beef and for Milk?
He is oblivious to 10 years of Tory Austerity, wages freezes,
Food Banks and welfare cuts.
Just find more money from everyone and hate SNP and all is well.
Farmers it seems don’t understand economics according to BBC
and the BBC don’t understand blatant propaganda is do 2014.
Objective and measured considerations about the impact of Brexit on farming in Scotland that is to the detriment of sheep and beef farming predominantly. Rural communities in Scotland are in a precarious position with their complex economies.There will be no support from WM (why would WM care about another wave of depopulation in Scotland) who will ensure that the 2 remaining Highland MPs will be serving ghost communities. The economic madness of Brexit is not an option for Scotland.
‘Specialist beef and LFA mixed livestock farms are predicted to experience substantial financial pressure under Brexit, especially if the UK market is unilaterally liberalised.
– LFA specialist sheep farms are particularly vulnerable to trade scenarios where exports face tariffs or imports face no tariffs, particularly where direct support is removed. In the extreme scenario some 89% of the specialist sheep farms are expected to return losses in 2022.
– ScotFarm predicts a reduction in beef and sheep production under both ‘World Trade Agreement’ and ‘Unilateral Trade Liberalisation’. The model predicts that the national beef herd could shrink by up to 28% and the sheep flock by 56% depending on the trade and policy scenario’
link to sruc.ac.uk
‘Post-Brexit Implications for Agriculture and Associated Land Use in the Highlands and Islands’ assesses the likely impacts of different Brexit scenarios on the economy and communities and their related effects on wildlife, the environment and key sectors such as tourism.
It concludes that existing trends such as declining agricultural activity, land abandonment and a shrinking agricultural workforce, could be accelerated by Brexit. These trends have negative effects on environmental land management and upstream and downstream sectors such as food and drink and tourism. Future policy and funding will need to respond to these challenges and reflect the distinctive needs and contributions of the Highlands and Islands’
link to sruc.ac.uk
I admit to knowing very little re bull calves but is there any reason we can’t fatten them up in Scotland and then kill them and export veal?
I await enlightenment.
TREACHERY ANYONE? COME TO WESTMINSTER.
link to amp.theguardian.com
Dominic Raab has been reprimanded by Michel Barnier after the EU’s chief negotiator discovered the British government had written to the 27 other member states asking for side negotiations on transport in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The Brexit secretary was confronted by Barnier during their most recent meeting in Brussels over correspondence sent in recent days to EU capitals by the Department for Transport.
The letters had asked the member states to prepare to engage with the British government in side deals on aviation and haulage, to allow key trade flows to continue in the event of the UK and the EU failing to come to an agreement on leaving the union by 29 March 2019.
The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, had ordered the letters to be sent despite being insidess than two weeks ago by the European commission’s most senior trade official, Violeta Bulc, that without a deal this autumn, there would be no other agreements made to protect the UK economy.
Barnier is said to have reiterated that message to Raab, telling the cabinet minister: “If there is no deal, there is no trust.”
Phronesis @ 11.55
Re. Why would WM care about another depopulation of the Highlands?
Well…That made me mind of something I read a wee while back.
Canny mind where or even when but..
It’s something along the lins of —Re Wilding Land—- apparently…
In anticipation of Governments having nothing left to demonstrate wealth to the lenders/ banks..
The next thing is going to be the amount of land Governments own!!
A sort of mortgage taken out on the land title.
So Governments are apparently looking to “acquire “ more land.
Has anyone ever heard of this… Re Wilding thing??
Could be a nutty conspiracy theory.. I love those sites… but I can’t be sure.
I’m only sure that there is no Conspiracy too outrageous to be believable of the Westminster Junta..
The BBC – nationalist olive branch dialogue didnay last long – what was it – 2 days and we basically have –
“the SNP killed Bambi” (Nikki and Eddie Tenpole with Saltire flagpoles)
– an animal cruelty “beef” – only a short while ago they tried to fit Nikki up as an arms dealer, probly the ONLY world leader who ISN’T one – like she was seen personally welding GPS fin kits onto 500lb Mk82s at Raytheon …
– but there is a solution to the male calves live trafficking dilemma
If these “MALE” dairy calves IDENTIFY as female, then surely they can be added to the milking herd. And if the farmers don’t allow this, then the trans-mentalists will descend on them.
(Identity Politics is a treasure trove – if you know how to use it, it can solve -any- problem. Biology is a social construct and anyone who disagrees can suck my lady-dick.)
– “but it disnay have an udder … ”
– DON’T YOU OPPRESS ME !!!
@manandboy
The link to the Raab story was incomplete, this one works.
link to archive.fo
At least our food standards currently recognise calves as sentient beings, unlike the UK which regards animals as merely product.
Scotland’s problem isn’t it’s farmers, but UK food standards, UK government, and of course, it’s defective and malignant news media.
Yet another distorting poison pen article from the anti-Scottish BBC.
Dear BBC,
link to youtube.com
So, there’s now a gap where P&O once were? Business hates a vacuum.
Counting with cunts.
Tis a big burp from the Glasgow Merchant city.
Gaun pokerin’… Mibbies roulettin’ like.
24 days remaining to go like…
XI / X / MMXVIII.
Stoatin’ aboot oor city.
That’s you dat is…
Glasgow.
Innit?
14/17.
OT – defence
Now that’s what I’m talking about with my LDA (LPH) for the Scottish Navy:
link to ukdefencejournal.org.uk
from the Dokdo LPH (Landing Platform Helicopter)
link to en.wikipedia.org
cost (but remember this is South Korea where the recent auxiliaries were built) – a mere US$ 288 million.
I stuck a budget of £400 million on for it which is reasonable, as it would need reinforced and heat resistant deck.
Ah’ve WON ra night, just like Scotland.
Black chips in mon pocket like now.
Gonna try not get knocked doon.
Walking Wingers’…
Ra year…
2034.
The F35 by the way is going to become the de facto standard for years to come (along with the Typhoon being upped), and I personally think the B version will end up outselling the other two added together. Which will make it chepaer, it’s already heading sub 100 million, not far to go.
OT defence – third and last it’s time for my scratcher!
That alone would be a major contribution to NATO, and with marines and amphibs would mean Scotland could do a standalone mission at need, prob supported by the likes of an Iver Huitfeld or an Absalon – or our own lookalike frigate. Curiously I’m thinking more future North Atlantic, Arctic and the opening melting ice passageways. Something the UK is badly neglecting.
Minted.
Ra morra et ra morra et ra morra like.
One is ha ha HOME.
Love like.
Haha, check oot the Annie Wellz.
She has no lhs thumb…
4-fingered fuck!
See above.
Changing digital device to play a song for YOU.
Welcome to ra morn.
Counting wae cunts… hey Ruth Davidson, politician allegedly…
Dat’s U that is.
Alice Cooper is playing DEVO right now. Crazy cool!
They’re whippin’ like Planet Rock.
Ye know what’s comin’
Time…
PAB.
It’s not too late…
Alice knows…
Gypsy…
Good morning wiki-wiki Wednesday…
You fucking know:
link to indiegogo.com
It’s a You Tube video
link to youtube.com
SEE ABOVE big STYLE.
“every penny”.
602.
“Fear or Love, former or latter..
Ah fuckin’ Love dis watter.”
Tis AYE.
Do U like like Edinburgh Edinburgh EDINBURGH.
Cheers Rev Stu & WOS and you Scotland…
For. Every. Fucking. Thing.
Full. Fucking. Stop.
XI / X / MMXVIII.
EDINBURGH X.
06:17 hrs.
Ye ken.
Good morning Cactus…
Don’t spend it all at once.
Save some for Edinburgh…
Hear farmers writing to bbc to complain about the ‘foi’ documentary – about time someone else complained – never know maybe tories will be forced to back them. Wouldn’t that be fun. BBC can never change – it is run by London and we know who they take their orders from. Only following orders, now where have I heard that before?
Aye grant thee…:
link to youtube.com
(aye believe in this song)
An excellent song.
Ye ken like…
EDINBURGH AUTUMN 2018 ~ XI / X / MMXVIII…
Like.
LOVE. X.
A hey Liz g, ahm pure rarin’ tae go wae Scotland.
Aweright HYUFD…
How be thee…
Challenge thee SVP…
Je suis PH7.0.
Still gaun Liz, ma mind n body is like a big capacitor xx.
Ah’ve got guid storage like, sometimes, mostly. 😉
Ass and when.
’22.
Links
link to news.gov.scot
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
Are the EU and the UK edging close to deal with 8 weeks? Or is is the tone of EU statements simply a softer attitude with the same rigid conditions?
link to facebook.com
link to itisintruthnotforglory.wordpress.com
All this nonsense usually means a Poll is due out.
link to anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com
link to theorkneynews.scot
link to scottishconstructionnow.com
link to lesleyriddoch.com
link to sbnn.co.uk
Disrespecting Scotland continues
link to twitter.com
link to imgonnasayitanyway.wordpress.com
link to grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com
Debunking the paper championed by Jacob Rees Mogg claiming a no-deal Brexit would boost the economy
link to archive.is
link to rt.com
link to taxresearch.org.uk
Dominic Raab has been reprimanded by Michel Barnier after the EU’s chief negotiator discovered the British government had written to the 27 other member states asking for side negotiations on transport in the event of a no-deal Brexit
link to archive.is
link to uk.businessinsider.com
link to jackofkent.com
Here’s the video from the chief executive of Britain’s biggest car manufacturer saying he doesn’t now know if any of JLR’s manufacturing will be able to function the day after Brexit in 6 month’s time – from same lectern used by PM moments later:
link to twitter.com
link to skwawkbox.org
link to vip.politicsmeanspolitics.com
link to rt.com
Brexit: “ultras” on the back foot
link to eureferendum.com
A major study has revealed how British manufacturers that boost UK exports by £52bn a year have already suffered a major loss in both business and investment as a direct consequence of Brexit link to archive.is
All yours Nana… xx.
Will not archive
link to bloomberg.com
‘She has to go’: Conservative MPs meet over plot to oust Theresa May
link to archive.is
Since the publication of the Gosport War Memorial Independent Panel inquiry into the untimely deaths of 456 people there I have been contacted by a number people across the country alleging similar situations. I would like more people to contact me as part of a bigger investigation,
link to byline.com
and just for weirdness. Libdem idea more than likely
link to localgov.co.uk
Good morning Cactus 🙂
I Love YOU latest anonymous contributor:
link to indiegogo.com
That’s you that is.
It’s the BIG one!
Wiki-wiki.
Ra Tories are planning a coo.
Moooooooooooooooooo!
Ahhhhhh ha ha ha…
…ha ha.
“Aye calibrate the significance…”
Said he on the BBC Radio Scotlandy, just there…
Ye may or may not hear it again.
“CooPoo”.
O/T Ruth gone into hiding again. Unavailable to GMS to comment on latest salvo in Tory Civil War. How long can they continue to say this with a straight face?
I would call this type of article ‘a drum-beat’. Any single drum-beat is a trivial thing, but it’s absent is immediately noticeable by the listener and accorded significance. The article is likewise extremely trivial, but if it wasn’t there, there would be an interval in which anti SNP propaganda was not being pushed which would upset the unionist plan of completely immersive propaganda.
Think it would be good if the Rev picked up on this one.
(Nana Link)
link to twitter.com
Strong words from the BMA- the NHS will be reduced to a logo that provides dividends to shareholders who have no interest in population health and well being.
‘First and foremost, the NHS must be taken off the table entirely. … If healthcare provision is not excluded from future trade agreements, it would risk sections of the NHS being outsourced to private companies based abroad, further contributing to the worrying increase in publicly-funded care being delivered by the independent sector. Market, rather than health-driven policies, contribute to fragmentation of services and create significant barriers to innovative and cooperative models of care that can have a real positive impact on the health of the country’
link to bma.org.uk
Small man’s sneering attitude stinks
link to randompublicjournal.com
@Les
Pete Wishart says
Here we go again. I will now be asking for a meeting with the Chancellor with SNP colleagues. What do think our chances are with all the recently exposed politicisation of meetings with UK Ministers to try and secure party political advantage?
link to twitter.com
Nana says:
12 September, 2018 at 7:30 am
Are the EU and the UK edging close to deal with 8 weeks? Or is is the tone of EU statements simply a softer attitude with the same rigid conditions?
I think it’s a case of the EU being magnanimous in victory. 🙂
IMO it’s been a decisive EU victory, a complete rout, and BBC-Pravda are utterly desperate to report some good news (any good news) about Brexit. Time for Blighty to try and save face. 🙂
Les Wilson says:
12 September, 2018 at 8:28 am
Think it would be good if the Rev picked up on this one.
(Nana Link)
link to twitter.com
Yep, it’s a bloody disgrace. Shame on Scotland for allowing this ridiculous situation to continue.
@
Nana says:
12 September, 2018 at 8:37 am
Small man’s sneering attitude stinks
link to randompublicjournal.com
glad that someone has articulated what most Scots think about Braveheart,
the hatred of the film by the middle class sanctimonious cringing culturati of Scotland has brought out some deranged written attacks on the 5 Oscar ,inc best picture,winning film,
as Orwell said(ish) about the middle class sanctimonious cringing culturati of Scotland,
” they don`t like the poor working class, they just hate the rich upper class”.
It’s unfair to insult cretins by comparing them with Annie Wells.
Re the bull calves furore: I was reminded that Mike Russell, in a speech on Brexit this July, informed the audience that almost all the abattoir vets were continental EU nationals and that there was potentially a very serious problem developing in the industry (like so many others). If these animals can’t be exported, then surely they will have to be destroyed, putting more pressure on abattoirs. Or is it a case of taking the animals on a one-way journey behind the byre?
When will farmers wake up and realise it’s the Tories who are destroying their industry?
So this week we’ve has P1 testing bad, live animal export bad, Dundee building by the V&A bad.
Next week, probs: Police Scotland bad (again), mental health provision bad and “I got food poisoning from an NHS sangwidge” says Mrs Wallace of Strathbungo.
And so it goes on and a nice smirk from Jackie Bird, no doubt.
Nana says
My first reaction was that has to be a spoof. But no, seems real.
Seems they believe they can set up a colonial administration as an alternative to the duly elected parliament.
The excrement needs to hit the fan over this one!
@Nana
RE: Mr Raab getting telt
UKgov… you can smell the desperation at this point. Clearly the existence of the letters were reported near as soon as they hit the desks of those in receipt. UK gov should be getting the message at this juncture that they have no friends in Europe. They’ve kinda burnt those bridges all by themselves. (shrugs) Their choice and they’ve been loud about it t’boot.
They were kinda telt early doors about making deals in isolation behind the chief negotiators back, just as they were telt about making trade deals with other nations before they ceased to be a member state. Pretty certain Messrs Barnier and Verhofstadt were fairly clear on that.
Arrogance and ignorance makes for a dynamite combo.
One caveat though. Whilst no deal is very, VERY, close and very likely. Nothing is certain till it’s certain. Also agree that Europe won’t blink. They can’t and never could. Undermine the four freedoms and they undermine the reason for the existence of the EU. Not a difficult concept, not unless you’re a died in the wool exceptionalist that thinks rules and laws are merely serving suggestions for others.
Also? They’ve burnt more than one bridge at home. They have endangered standing national and international agreements with the home nations. They have ridden roughshod over the devolution settlements of N.I., Scotland. On some (Scotland), the ink isn’t even dry. The equivalent of that smash n’ grab I mentioned t’other day.
Whatever comes out at the end of this negotiation period, only one thing is absolutely certain. Should Brexit proceed? Soft, medium, hard or no deal, the populations of the UK are looking at penury and hardship way beyond the austerity legislation they’re enjoying right this moment and for a looooong time to come.
There is no and never has been a good Brexit scenario for the peoples of the UK. Only minor demographics. Those and such as those. And frankly? I’m not entirely sure they were giving a shit about the rest of us.
Reason two as to why there never was a good Brexit scenario? Mainly because it was NEVER planned for. No contingencies. No restructuring of the economy years in advance. No remodelling of the infrastructure to suit a new economic model. No societal aid put in place. No reconstruction of the constitution. No consultation with the devolved legislatures. No ready made proposals over near or adjoining border issues. No blueprint or timescale for unravelling EU legislation where it joined with UK laws or legislation. No thought for the cost to the rights, lives and livelihoods of EU nationals resident. Most importantly? No proposal ready and waiting to hand over to the EU on all of the above. Nothing. Not a jot.
Fail to prepare. Prepare to fail. As I say though, not entirely sure that those driving the show were worried about the cost of failure for the rest of us.
Re: Braveheart
Get yourselves to Independence Square, this Saturday.
Big screen showing of Braveheart at 10am. (to start off the Hope over Fear Rally)
@Scot Finlayson says:
12 September, 2018 at 9:05 am
@Nana says:
12 September, 2018 at 8:37 am
=============================================
Seems more to me like to guys sneering at each other from different sides bout something most folks don’t give a damn about. Lots of pro-Indy people (some I know who were pro-Indy long before me) don’t like Braveheart. You’re not obliged to. It’s just a movie. You’re allowed to like it. You’re also allowed not to like and criticise it without being called a snob or anti-Indy.
Lighten up both sides please.
nana @ 9.21
my blood has never boiled before
your links are on a roll
Final list of Bird’s Smirks for September:
Too many Scottish students going to university.
Tiddlywinks expert warns climbing in Skye too dangerous.
Isle of Arran unable to cope with September weekend tourist rush, says Visit London CEO.
Und so weiter…..
The EU will not accept Treeza’s Brexit Plan.
Are any of the Scottish newspapers, BBC or STV reporting on this? Reporting that the Scottish Tories are the only Scottish politicians getting access to Westminster Ministers. SNP politicians are being excluded and of course the Tories are being seen to be on the ball and getting credit for the any “positives” that come out of the talks. A clear sign that we are living in a one party state. A wee bl**dy dictatorship. What’s Rooth the Mooth got to say about that? Her lackeys in England exacerbating the need for Independence.
…………….
That’s computer No2 on the bung now (in the last two months). I can’t access the Internet due to the time clock being stuck at November 4020. I’ve tried everything but can’t change the time. It doesn’t help that I’m an IT dummy home alone at the moment
Shinty @ 9.29am
Is there an itinerary for Saturday? Tried google didn’t find much specific info.
Braveheart is just a movie but to some independence supporters it is important as it kickstarted an awakening of Scottish history. No need to trash the movie or its showing but also independence supporters can dislike it as well without criticism. I don’t agree however it is playing into Britnat hands by showing it. They have been calling us Bravehearts for a long time now and it will not make any difference.
If I am called. Braveheart I just own it by saying rather that than a darkheart. If it annoys some Britnats all the better. They deserve to be annoyed on a regular basis.
Last links for now
Barnier must be tired of having to repeat over and over again for thick tories to understand
“We respect the British decision to leave our Union, even though we continue to regret it deeply. But we also ask the British government to understand that someone who leaves the Union cannot be in the same privileged position as a Member State ”
link to twitter.com
Defra’s readiness for no-deal Brexit pilloried by Whitehall auditors
Michael Gove’s department yet to comprehend scale of work it must complete, says NAO
link to archive.is
Tory sucking up to the fascists
link to archive.is
link to thenational.scot
Those I see on social media saying “I don’t like this or that so I’m cutting up my SNP membership card”
I’m beginning to doubt they were ever an snp member as I see the same people again and again attempting to sow division.
It’s not about the movie, it’s the fact that Tommy Sheridan is on the platform, that’s what they have a beef with.
I don’t care what is shown at the rally, I don’t care who I stand beside or whose hand I have to shake in order to achieve independence. All that holds us back are those with small and jealous minds.
Wait until Outlaw King hits the screens, these people will be needing smelling salts.
Meg merilees @ 10.59pm
Sorry but I was probably being over touchy on the subject.
On the subject of travel conditions for the cattle from the Islands to the mainland, this was in the link I put in my post:
“”All traded Orkney auction cattle, plus finished stock direct from farm, travel to the livestock lairage at Kirkwall ferry terminal, where they are loaded for their journey to Aberdeen into specifically designed transport trailers.
These trailers provide more comfort for the travelling bovines than most human commuter trains. Facilities include feed, water, inspection ladders and lights, plus a “hospital” pen.””
I have visited Orkney a few times and certainly noticed the quality of the cattle – farmer’s granddaughter- and on the last visit a couple of years ago we visited Sanday. Smallish island and they were very much geared to rearing their cattle for the first 18 months or so – great grazing – then selling them on at a premium to farmers from NE Scotland for final fattening up. Lose the ability to transport live animals and the whole thing goes down the pan.
This is also true of many Islands in the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
All the Tories and their fellow travellers are interested in is scoring political points and to he’ll with the damage it causes to man and beast.
Is Annie Wells, Tory, aware of this? The wee wummin that’s concerned about winter deaths in Scotland. You know the time of the year when people are more likely to get the flu, have accidents and so on.
Meanwhile in Tory run England hundreds of patients (or more?) are seemingly dying of drug overdoses throughout the year. Annie should think of moving south to sort out their problems. I’ll willingly pay her fare and supply her with a packed lunch. Jeely piece and a bottle of Irn Bro. Haste you back … not … Annie. England needs you.
link to byline.com
This Westminster thing re Pete Wishart, this MUST contradict UK laws, but also the Union “agreement” itself. Are we going to just let it go.
The SNP really need to stop allowing the Tories to walk all over
Scotland with only a few words in reply. Yeah I know they try, but more needs done, and very very soon.
So come on guys, move up a gear and get angry down there and disrupt the place.
Nana, thanks for that follow up, your the best.
stu mac @9.36am
As you say Braveheart was only a film, no one is obliged to like it. However, I doubt if there is a film that has ever evoked such frothing at the mouth by it’s critics. The mere mention of Braveheart sends some folk into apoplectic rage, even now 23 years later.
I doubt if there is a single ‘British’ War film that was historically accurate (many of them being pure fabrication/propaganda) – yet we are subjected to them constantly on our TV screens – 73 years after the war ended. I wonder how our German residents feel about that (pretty pissed off I would say), as you say they are only ‘movies’. Some folk like them, personally I don’t, but I don’t make a big thing about it, I simply don’t watch them.
Whether you like Braveheart or not, I doubt if there is anywhere in the world that has not watched or enjoyed it. This film was good for Scotland and bad for England. So that pretty much tells you something in itself.
Why was Outlander originally banned in Scotland, why is the ‘Outlaw King’ being treated the same way as Braveheart, and it hasn’t even been shown yet (to my knowledge)
I hope there will be more films like Braveheart in the future – sufficiently historically accurate where it matters and the rest pure fantasy if need be to make a good film.
She’s not even eating the beans -she’s emptying her heid of the ones already in there and bagging them up for grateful troops.
@Petra
Computers: Don’t got to the heavy objects
I’ve found that switching it off pulling out the plug pacing up and down for half an hour swearing and muttering under my breath doesn’t help with my computer but helps me lose weight and stops me shouting directly at the screen and when I come back to switch it all on …you guessed it the same thing happens all over again and the minute you buy a new computer your old one miraculously breathes into life and the swearing starts all over again, but for a different reason
If you find yourself making noises (agh uurgh mergh) you must immediately leave the house…..save yourself!
@ Cubby
All I know is event starts off at 11am to 5pm. The 10am showing of Braveheart is to encourage folk early. Lots of speakers, 17 bands playing including The Graham Brown Band. There is also a small march into the square for those who like to march.
Sorry don’t have anymore info. – you could try here, they are good for listing indy events. link to united4yes.org
Came across this article from “Kirkintilloch Town & Parish” 1894, on the Arbroath Declaration,
link to electricscotland.com
Mel Gibsons American version of Braveheart *The Patriot* was another great blockbuster movie and we don’t hear the Americans whining on about it’s authenticity or accuracy, they loved it because they understand *It’s a movie* not a documentary, if these films were documentaries they’d be on BBC2 where the British state would rewrite their version of history on them and present them as fact which we would know wasn’t anyway
Richard Todd never won WW11 and John Wayne never won everything in the history of American life
These moaning minnies give me the pip, movies are like music song plays or poetry, it’s an art form to stimulate and move you emotionally to feel something
Maybe these moaners are just dead inside, who disnae like a good greet or a cheer up at the pictures
Petra says:
All part of their BIG plan.
– sideline SG and SNP
– talk up ‘Scottish’ Tories
– hide Tories’ true colours
– erode SNP support by fake news
– delay and hide the Brexit threat
– avoid IndyRef2
and
– win a BritNat majority in Holyrood 2021
They can all shout “Hallelujah Our Blessed Union is Safe”. Then, they embark on constitutional changes to ensure the ‘Scottish threat’ is removed permanently.
Many of us have other ideas 🙂
O/T but possibly good news.
link to archive.is
Ian Brotherhood says:
Ha Ha, excellent.
Shinty says:
Indeed.
We all have hearts as well as minds. Sometimes it seems not ‘politically correct’ to appeal emotionally in politics. Why not? Our opponents certainly use emotional tactics.
Cameron clearly thought, or had been advised, that Outlander should be banned from Scottish screens. It was definitely seen as negative from a Union perspective. It was a threat. That says a lot.
I hope Outlaw King, which you mention, will push the right buttons for a lot of Scots. If it raises any awareness of Scotland, Scottishness, identity, values, history, sacrifices, etc etc … that is good and bad for British Nationalism.
Scotland is awash with mind fodder … let’s have some heart fodder too 🙂
Fred says:
That is a great read, thanks for posting. Says I with a lump in my throat! Every one should read it all.
Shinty 11.13am. They screamed blue murder about historical inaccuracies in the Liam neeson film ‘Michael Collins. the croke park massacre was accurate enough for them, along with their murder and torture of Irish people.
Definitely the last link for today
Bare arsed defiance
link to peterabell.blog
Hello everyone what I’m about to say is very off topic and very long – but it’s about the never available for interview Ruth Davidson.
I’ve thought long and hard about how to bring this up and I know it will fuel the whole cybernats / conspiracy angle that the Tories and unionists throw around – and indeed it could be seen as someone trying to smear Ruth Davidson. But despite all of that I feel someone has to say it.
I think Ruth Davidson has timed her pregnancy for political purposes.
Now many folks might already have come to the same conclusion. But I’ve not seen so far anyone come out and make the connection so clearly. If they have I do apologise and I don’t mean to dismiss their work.
But let me be clear, while the desire to have a child is common in many many people (but not everyone) and the decision to act on that desire can be a difficult decision, I do believe that in this case Ruth Davidson has timed the IVF treatment for the best political benefit for her.
Some background on this, my children are IVF products. We had many failed attempts at IVF and have run the gauntlet over many years to finally get the results we longed for. IVF is not easy nor is it fun. It’s not cheap either, and thank god the NHS in Scotland does its very best to help keep the costs low. IVF is tough, really tough both physically, financially (if you burn through your NHS free cycles) and most importantly mentally. Unlike natural pregnancies where you might have plenty of fun with your partner at the beginning stage – IVF cycles mean appointments, injections and planning from the get go.
If you are successful you know the date your child is conceived you know very likely when you will become parents.
Because while there is very little you can control with trying to fall pregnant successfully (other than avoiding foods keeping fit etc not smoking) – there is one thing which you can control. Your cycle start date and thus when you would expect, if you are lucky to be successful, to have your child.
We knew of couples going through IVF who planned holidays and IVF cycles to ensure they would be most relaxed before they started the cycle. Other couples tried to planned their cycle start dates to try and avoid having a child born in Feb and March so they didn’t have to worry about school start age decisions. One couple who are good friends of ours made sure that their cycles wouldn’t end up with a child born during a religious period or indeed have a pregnancy ongoing during a period of religious fasting. Another couple aimed to have their cycle so that if everything went to plan the child would be born in November and the mother wouldn’t need to miss drinking and eating what she wanted during Christmas. Others had job applications where they knew they would be stressed so postponed until after that period.
There are many many reasons why a couple would want to try and time their IVF cycle. We ourselves took a year out from trying to go on an extended holiday that otherwise we couldn’t afford and knew we could never go on in the future if we had children.
So with that all in mind, I can’t help but come to the conclusion that Ruth Davidson has considered when she should be on her IVF cycle. And I believe she did so for political reasons.
Now there is no certainty she would have fallen pregnant, but looking at the calendar and what is coming up I believe she hasn’t by chance managed to time her expected birth and maternity leave to ensure that she will miss all the hard choices about Brexit in the critical time between now and the deadline. These months are when everyone will have to take a stand one way or another, and for the Tories it will determine the career paths of many.
The period coming up is when decisions will stick to you like glue and no level of Teflon will avoid what you say and what you vote for becoming your defining position. For someone who never manages to be clear about anything other than “no to independence” and pro LGBT+ rights – Ruth Davidson would at some point have to pick a side over how Brexit unfolds. It would mean she would hack off one side of her party no mater what. If the Brexiters win the power struggle and she isn’t one of them she won’t have a chance of Prime Minister. If she is one of the Brexiters and they win the power struggle, Brexit is likely to be a disaster so she would be hated by the public. Likewise if she picks the wrong side of the remain/soft Brexit fight within the Tories she could be political poison.
If someone who wants to lead the Tories, and be prime minister in the future, is trying to chart a path to that role – this is the absolute worst time to be in that position because you have to pick a faction and chances are it’s not going to work out because you will piss off at least one if not more other factions. The best thing one could do would be to avoid having to choose a faction in the first place. In the current Tory party that probably means either leaving the party, dying or kidnapped and held in a bunker somewhere cut off from the outside world…. If you are a man that is. There is one option available to women, if you are lucky and the timing works, you can plan things you could avoid it all by being pregnant/on maternity leave. I know what it’s like to be on maternity leave you avoid all the news at work for months and it’s like being on your own little island.
As I said above I’ve been through IVF and it is a very very difficult process especially if you aren’t successful. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But as much as I am sympathetic to the plight of Ruth Davidson in wanting to have a child, I know that she and her partner will have considerable input to when they wanted to start their cycle and indeed when, if successful, she would become a mother and need time off work.
Perhaps this is dark thinking and applying the worst of thinking to someone else, but if Ruth Davidson hadn’t consistently been “unavailable for interview” when it suited her over the years. If she hadn’t managed to avoid facing up to difficult decisions and make a stand that sticks with you over dark money or members of the party saying and doing horrid things. If there hadn’t been continuous talk of her moving to Westminster to further her career. If she had stuck to her political ideology or actually HAD a political ideology other than no to independence and pro LGBT+ rights over the years. Then I wouldn’t have come to this conclusion.
But there it is. Perhaps it is just luck and serendipity she will avoid the dark money questions, the brexit questions. But I can’t shake this thought, perhaps it’s my “motherly intuition” that is off.
Mary Queen of Scots comes out in December. Jist sayin’.
Not speaking about Braveheart in particular, but with CGI in cinema taking such strides in recent years, I think over the next few years and decades we are all in for a spectacular generation of historical movies which have been technically impossible to make (or finance) until now.
For Scotland, I think the period of Edward 1, John Bailliol, Wallace and Bruce has all the depth, drama and tragedy and triumph to thoroughly rival Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, with the added advantage that it is documented historical truth. The script is written, and the technology to make it feasible is evolving…
The sweetest irony is that the traditional BritNat suppression and distortion of Scottish history provides more than adequate justification for high profile historical epics to be created which are much more faithful to the truth.
That’s a big deal for Scotland, but not only Scotland. Perhaps before long, we might see the African perspective of “Zulu” and Zulu Dawn, or perhaps the Battle of Little Bighorn from the Sioux perspective.
Film makers in the near future will have access to technology which film makers of today can only dream about. Let’s just hope however that proper historians, (not you Mr Oliver) have unprecedented access and influence over them, and the “love-interest” is the actual history itself.
Perhaps it won’t just be a movie, but full on immersion via virtual reality… you won’t just see a film about Bannockburn, you’ll be able to stand there in a schiltron… go on holiday to medieval Scotland.., not just watch a Spitfire or Messerschmitt but fly one…. meet Arnie in Total Recall… get your arse to Mars..
@ Scottish Susan, not to mention the “Dark Money” scandal!
@Les
link to gengenieresearch.com
You might like this site
link to gengenieresearch.com
@Capella says: 12 September, 2018 at 12:00 pm:
” … Mary Queen of Scots comes out in December. Jist sayin’”
Weel A’h hope makeup managed tae soo hir heid back oan afore they startit the cameras. It wad be muckle hard and distractin fir deaf folk tae hae tae look under her oxter tae lip read whit the wifie wis sayin.
Is see the ex Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland centre forward Frank McGarvey is speaking for independence at the rally in Glasgow on Saturday. He has never spoken publicly before so he is nervous. Hope he gets a warm response.
@ Shinty, and others, well said, about the Braveheart debate.
I’ve actually been pretty sickened, so just stayed off Twitter. It’s the sanctimonious sneering at another group of Indy support, I find quite disgusting.
Cries of “The yoons will laugh, it plays into their hands” etc., who gives a flying fuck what the yoons say? They have said a lot worse! It’s the cries of “inappropriate”, the laying down of rules of behaviour.
You would think the organisers had suggested setting up a gallows in George Square.
Each to their own. Is this really in our interests??
link to twitter.com
Very, very disappointed that some can’t let others just get on with it. If we are really on the same side, why do we have this periodic kicking lumps out of each other, or belittling of efforts??
You don’t see the Catalans tearing each other up.
Nana says:
Thanks once more Nana, during my idling days I will spend some time on them, more especially the second one.
Legerwood says @ 10.58am
“All the Tories and their fellow travellers are interested in is scoring political points and to he’ll with the damage it causes to man and beast”
_____________
Maybe someone could ask them about the mass murder of our Snow Hares and the use of ‘stink holes’ by the landed gentry. Or the many deer wounded by their shooting parties, only to be left to slowly die in pain. Then again, the Tories do not believe that animals are sentient beings.
Valerie@12.35pm
It really does make you wonder about the motivation of some of these independence supporters. Are there more Haggertys out there?
It’s only an old movie that’s some independence supporters have an attachment to. Leave them alone.
The more I read about this the more it makes me think about going along on Saturday. Especially if it annoys Britnats to have Braveheart playing in George square.
Rather be a Braveheart than a Darkheart.
Breeks at 12.07 pm
“”Perhaps it won’t just be a movie, but full on immersion via virtual reality… you won’t just see a film about Bannockburn, you’ll be able to stand there in a schiltron… “”
I think you can already experience something like that at the Bannockburn Visitor Centre.
Message to Bella – organise your own event with your own band of followers. The indy movement is a VERY broad church, don’t berate others for hosting events as they see fit.
In the indy movement there should be no ‘my way or the high way’ Choose your own path to help us all achieve our common goal.
Re Veal.
It’s a by-product of the milk industry.
Lactation ?
Not much equality here. Male= for the chop.
@Shinty
Exactly that. Well said.
Shinty @ 11.24am
Thanks for that Shinty I forgot about that site. I also got some info from the Barrhead boy blog.
@Nana
Thanks for the links again, alwys plenty to think about.
Like before, there always seem to be a problem with archived links to the Independent and more often than not cannot be read.
Just thought I’d mention this, it appeared to have been sorted but hasn’t.
Petra and the time clock:
Normally you’d hit the wee date/time at the bottom right of your screen, but if your clock is seriously screwed that’s not an easy way to correct the time.
Instead, hit the window icon bottom left, and type CMD for the command prompt. You may have to do this a couple of times to get windows to respond. Once the command window’s open, type TIME.
Your computer will show you the current date, and will ask you to type in a new one. Which you do in dd/mm/yyyy format e.g. 12/09/2018
Similarly you can type TIME and then type something in hh:mm format e.g. 14:32
Hopefully that will survive a reboot.
Better than killing it with hammers.
@Pnr
Yep, sometimes archiving works and other times not. I’m also aware some wingers are not too happy to read material from certain newspapers but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
I think this was the only independent link today but I reckon you might have already gone looking 🙂 but just in case
link to independent.co.uk
@Pnr
Oops forgot this one
link to independent.co.uk
@ Dr Jim at 11:20am…. “Computers”.
Ha ha ha! Thanks for the advice Dr Jim. Still not working and of course thinking of buying another. Computer “gremlins” are costing me an absolute fortune!!! Strangely, this all started around 2013.
@ Del at 2:25pm ….. “Computer.”
I’ve tried all that Del. This happened last week when the date went back to the time that I actually bought the computer, but I managed to rectify it. I’ve been using this one as the other, fairly new, is on the bung. Now this one is showing the date of 02/11/4021 ….. FGS.
Thanks for taking the time to try and help anyway. I’m now stuck with my IPad until some whizz kid comes home / pops in. That or buying another.
O/T
Thank goodness we have Mike Russell on our side.
I’ve only recently started to watch Committee meetings, but take a look at a short question from Tory Tompkins and Mike Russell’s response.
Fast forward to 30.48 link to youtube.com
(Finance & Constitution)
Obvious to all who watch Murdo & Tompkins at these meetings that they have no interest in Scotland. Their sole purpose is to undermine Scotland & the SG for the benefit of their London masters.
@Nana
Cheers, I appreciate others will not want to click on any MSM website and I avoid it where I can, still how can we know what they’re up to unless we take a look.
So for me exceptions to archiving are to be avoided but where this is not possible then needs must if we want to provide access to the information.
As to whether or not to give them clickbait, that’s up to each individual though I do draw a line at the Daily Express and Mail 🙂
Perhaps the groovy lefties who despise Braveheart could instead watch a film of some delightfully rustic (but oppressed) peasant weaving pairs of organic hemp espadrilles while they quaff a turmeric latte before the HoF event.
Deconstruct that, Poindexters.
@Pnr
Happy to say I’ve never linked to either of those rags 🙂
I think if a rag, any rag, runs a pro-indy story for some odd reason, give them a direct link to up the hits and raise it up their “most popular” list. Otherwise use archive where possible as we do.
I had a look at the Express once and they had something about a psychic contacting Princess Diana for her opinions on something, and I looked at it another time and they had some warning about chemtrails.
Dear Scottish Susan
Re Ruth Davidson. I didn’t find your comment ‘dark thinking’. Nor did I find the thought of it in any way sinister. Is there ever a convenient time to have a child?
I think a lot of parents, quite rightly try to plan it so that the timing fits in best with them.
RD is a politician, she can’t help it, and with colleagues like the ones she has, she will need all the astute cunning in the world. So far, cunning and PR is all she has going for her.
RD is a big fish in a wee pond. NS is internationally world class – really big difference.
I wish her child the very best. But I also wish the people and children that the tories and their policies are hurting the very best too, and I rather think they are first in the que for assistance.
Really gutted by todays article by the Rev. Pete Wishart is my MP. For the record, he has on numerous occasions directly referred to Wings Over Scotland (and very favourably too). So he does read it.
The above legislation is a direct and an indirect attack on Freedom of Speech.
Wings Over Scotland has been (for me, and I think many others) the leading light in the Indy movement. Pete Wishart (no offence intended) is not.
It will be very, very informative how John Swinney responds to this.
Kind regards to all.