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Wings Over Scotland


Damned if you don’t

Posted on October 06, 2015 by

Earlier today we made an observation about the overblown way the media has been covering the Scottish Government’s underspend of 1.3% of its budget (a figure about which the David Hume Institute today cooed approvingly “Even Mr Micawber could not budget more accurately”).

To nobody’s great amazement, Scottish Labour rentahonk Jackie Baillie – fresh from making a complete idiot of herself over the Michelle Thomson case – couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon.

bailliespend

Quite aside from the fact that it means no such thing – there’s no less money, it’s just that some of it will now be carried over and spent this year instead – we suppose the tweet does at least mean that Scottish Labour’s policy position is clear: the Scottish Government should always spend every penny of its budget. Right?

Except that wasn’t always their view. When the SNP took power in 2007, the previous Labour governments had – as we noted in the earlier post – run up a large pile of unspent cash, sometimes as much as £718m in a single year.

And when the Nats instead laid out a post-crash budget that aimed to fully utilise the money available to it, Labour were incandescent at the recklessness of it all:

“The SNP budget has no contingency fund, no money set aside for flood, famine or a sudden wave of pestilence, so if Orkney starts to sink, they’re on their own.

Government is about responsibility, but for the SNP it’s all about using the trappings of power and taxpayers money to bolster their case for separation, with the most vulnerable the victims of the SNP’s pursuit of the narrowest of agendas. This isn’t Government, this is a hostage situation.”

So just so we know where we stand:

SNP government spends all its money: SNP BAD.

SNP government doesn’t spend all its money: SNP BAD.

The more things change, readers, the more they stay the same.

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Bill Fraser

I’m afraid this is half of Labor’s trouble They make so many erroneous statements both in parliament and the media without justification.They want to start doing their homework.

handclapping

Marvelously, their piece ends
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour renews, and we wait.
and 8 years later we are still waiting for any sign of renewal

galamcennalath

Simple solution to the SLab problem. Annihilation at the ballot box. It’s no less than they deserve.

When did they last do something constructive and contributory?

Unfortunately with their residual nostalgia vote and Holyrood’s PR system, I fear there may be a few left after May. The fewer the better, though.

Lanarkist

Wow!

Sorry OT.

Scot 15.

Heavy visual bias and deliberate symbolic scare mongering.

Project Smear just moved up a level!

Time to start examining other MP’s property portfolios!

Lesley-Anne

Bloody Hell!

Who left the cage door open?

Come on now own up. Who left rentahonk’s cage door open?

Gawd I love that word … rentahonk! 😀

[…] Damned if you don’t […]

ahundredthidiot

And I will be damned if I do

God forbid

MajorBloodnok

Never mind the Scottish Government’s £350m underspend this year, what about the £10,000 that’s gone missing from Kezia Dugdale’s constituency office? Who’s put that aside for a rainy day?

Itchybiscuit

Baillie just got pulled up on STV news – presenter accused her of a ‘witch-hunt’. Her beady wee eyes almost popped out of her head.

Presenter: ‘What happens in the 2016 election if a Labour candidate is found to have skeletons in their closet?’ (paraphrased)

Baillie: ‘You know, we have a very robust vetting process but all parties need to tighten up their vetting procedures.’

The SLab ship of fools know they’re one headline away from a scandal but they just can’t help themselves. They’re basically just throwing shit out of their enclosure without a thought for the consequences.

Effijy

Could that vile lying woman offer her thoughts on her party colleague and former first minister under spending Scotland’s
block grant by £1.5 Billion, Yes Billion, and then returning it back to Westminster?

Repugnant, arrogant, mealy-mouthed, waste of space who’s phony
accent is about as genuine as her concerns for Scotland’s well being.

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Jim

How the fuck can it be less money for services when the SNP government overfunded councils to mitigate the council tax freeze?

Someone please explain that to me?

One_Scot

Is there anything more beautiful and elegant than the ‘The Bain Principle’ deployed in full flight mode.

Sassenach

A good end to the ‘rentahonk’ interview – after fatso had said the SNP vetting had to be improved, the SNP guy just said “Labour have had six MPs jailed” !!!

caz-m

Can Baillie, Dugdale, Rennie, Davidson etc…lose their seats next May if we vote a certain way?

Somebody please tell me that it can be done.

C’mon Stoker, you’re the man with a plan.

Les wilson

Jackie Baillie’s mouth is becoming bigger each day, she must be scared of what is coming to her and her much loved, money spinner job.
She will well known about the labour refunds to Wasteminster.
It seems to have been Slab policy for years, at Labour HQ instruction of course.

The Man in the Jar

The incredible thing is that they still have a long way to go before hitting the bottom of the barrel. Never mind the politics these are thoroughly nasty people. Their time is coming and I hope that when it does it hurts like hell.

Another Union Dividend

A Tory MP has reported Michelle Thomson to House of commons Standards Committee.

On 20 September Sunday Times reported that Pat McFadden MP, shadow cabinet Minister for Europe, has claimed almost £22,000 from taxpayer for renting a second home in his Wolverhampton constituency despite owning a next door property and renting it out. He also owns a home in London valued at £1.2 million.

Is anyone going to report him to the House of Commons Standards Committee?

On Scotland 2015 Mr Dornan nailed Jackie Baillie over Party vetting by saying that six Labour MPs went to prison during the last Parliament.

boris

A wee bit off topic but relevant to other posts by the Rev. today

link to caltonjock.com

Jim

Sassenach says:
6 October, 2015 at 11:07 pm

A good end to the ‘rentahonk’ interview – after fatso had said the SNP vetting had to be improved.
_______
If Michelle Thompson is investigated which she isn’t being at the moment and found to be innocent of any wrong doing then what the fuck is that rotund fuckity fuck on about better vetting of SNP candidates.

CmonIndy

Think its time we had result of another voting intention poll.

Lesley-Anne

Sassenach says:
6 October, 2015 at 11:07 pm

A good end to the ‘rentahonk’ interview – after fatso had said the SNP vetting had to be improved, the SNP guy just said “Labour have had six MPs jailed” !!!

I think, Sassenach, THAT is what you call a SMACKDOWN exceptionnelle! 😀

Almannysbunnet

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, self confessed little Englander, has made a complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards about the SNP member for Edinburgh West. He said the case raises “serious questions regarding the professional integrity required from a prominent public servant”.
As well as being an MP he owns AB Produce PLC, known locally in Leicestershire as stinky vegetables. As a director he draws a salary of over £7000 per month for 12 hours work. He is clearly a paragon of virtue.

Capella

“This isn’t Government, this is a hostage situation.”

Really? A hostage situation. The puerility of SLab is becoming an embarrassment. Can nobody save them from themselves?

Jim

Frank Mulholland, the lord advocate, told the Scottish parliament on Tuesday that detectives would investigate every lead in the inquiry into 13 property deals and mortgage transactions carried out for Thomson and her companies by a former lawyer, Christopher Hales.

Then this:

Called to answer opposition questions about the unfolding scandal, Mulholland did not mention anyone by name, warning that it was a live police investigation, but he told Holyrood that detectives would follow all the evidence available.

So he never mentioned Michelle Thompson but the Gua….. implies otherwise, what a bunch of cocks.

Alan Mackintosh

Saw this linked on another thread and thought I would add it here. Highlights the discrepancy between corpmedia’s reportage of NB Lab (North British) and SNP. All i recall of the byelection was someone standing down for health reasons. Guess I fell for the news reporting back then. Particularly interesting was mention of £2M donations to NB Lab that werent declared, and links with McConnell. Mike Dailly also mentioned in there too.

link to ponsonbypost.com

crazycat

@ caz-m

Baillie is a constituency MSP, so getting rid of her merely requires more people to vote for one particular alternative candidate.

The others are list MSPs, and all the discussions of tactical voting rely on so many unknowns happening to be exactly right on the day that I really don’t think it should be risked.

They will be defeated not by people like you and me voting differently – they will lose if large numbers of their erstwhile supporters abandon them. That is what needs to be encouraged.

Jim

If Michelle Thompson is ever investigated she will never get a fair hearing.

Free Scotland

Scottish Labour rentahonk Jackie Baillie should perhaps consider an underspend of her own between now and next May, because, if the Scottish electorate have any sense, they will reject her at the ballot box and she will need to learn how to manage her expenses.

Papadox

Jackie Bailey

A SLAB snob with absolutely no moral standards nor conscience. If she has any intelligence then she certainly hides it very well. The way she is throwing herself about I think she is angling for kezias job once she gets punted.

The party of Kier Hardy! Wash your mouth out.

Anybody know who the new presenter on Scotland 2015 is?

caz-m

crazycat

cheers,

The thought of the Scottish Parliament being Baillie-free is just heaven.

I’ll be playing safe and vote SNP/SNP.

tombee

It would appear that SNP Prudence is bad, but Labour’s branch office profligacy is good.
Remember when Lord Jack McConnell returned £1.5 billion to Gordon Brown’s exchequer ?. Money that could have been better spent on infrastructure in Scotland.

robert graham

I have been tempted to comment regarding this (hoose-gate) media storm indeed a tidal wave of innuendo thats going on and and on ad nausea ,and i agree with the comments of some here this is better together MK2 , as demonstrated with the intervention of a English Tory MP , together with last week’s orchestrated attack by best friends ruthie & dugface this is to avert a wipeout next year , but this time it’s going to be hidden , same shit different day

Luigi

For anyone among us who is slightly concerned that the MSM will be gunning for the SNP all the way to May 2016, it may be worth remembering that when people eventually go back into those wee booths to cast their vote, even if they consider for a moment voting Labour, they will soon imagine what it would be like if the current bunch of red tory buffoons ever got hold of the reins of power at Holyrood, and then they will proceed to vote accordingly.

The Tree of Liberty

Rentahonk……………love it.

Clootie

Jackie Baillie will never be convinced that she is wrong because no matter how smart you are, you can never convince someone stupid that they are stupid.

Les wilson

robert graham says: ” Same shit different day”
The same shit EVERY day!!

Dave McEwan Hill

Jackie Baillie casts a big shadow.

No, seriously though this story is beginning to turn and my initial assumption that MT was expendable is now modified.
If they get her they’ll be encouraged and come for somebody else next. This situation has to be judged very carefully.

I rather think we have made this very easy for our enemies . By fannying about on the Smith Commission, devo max,the Vow etc we are now giving these impediments credibility. Six weeks ago everybody in Scotland knew we were getting nothing significant delivered. It was time then and it is certainly time now to get back to campaigning for independence.

Make them answer to our questions,not have ourselves trapped answering theirs

Dr Jim

@ Papadox

Her name is Shelly Jofre

Google her you’ll be surprised, I’ll say no more, I know nothing

Except do you remember the most dangerous woman in Britain interview with Nicola Sturgeon (praise her name) she was the journalist who did the programme

NiallD

I’m sure Rentahonk Baillie said something like ” person A then sold the house to her husband”. Must be awfy close to interfering in an ongoing investigation!

The best laugh was when she said it was to do with “morals”…….coming from somebody with absolutely no morals or scruples.

Lesley-Anne

Is it just me or is the Baconiser and his friends trying to turn the clocks back to 1939?

link to archive.is

link to archive.is

link to archive.is

From what I see we are only two steps away from full blown return of Nazism. The only things missing from the Baconiser and co are their uniforms and swastikas.

Still I think I can help them out here.

I understand someone called Harry has an appropriate uniform they can all share till more are manufactured. I am also hearing that apparently the grand mother of Harry can help the Baconiser and out with a new formal greeting!

caz-m

Is this Kezia’s idea of starting with a clean slate, new ideas, no more shouty politics?

Well you could have fooled me Kezia.

You send out the “big beast” Jackie Baillie, into the TV studios tonight and from what I have heard all Baillie has done is lose you votes.

This is what Grey done, this is what Lamont done, this is what Murphy done. And here you are, you’re repeating exactly what the rest have done before you.

(Scottish Labour) No vision for Scotland.

Dave McEwan Hill

Shelly Jofre is the daughter of long term SNP activist and many times SNP candidate Kay Ullrich

K1

It’s Baillie’s smugness that really irks me. She’s a ‘smart arse’ and a real bone fide phoney. In the name of all that is sacred we must get these bastards out of the parliament next year. Can you imagine ‘her’ in any position of ‘authority’ representing our country…that’s the genuine cringe right there.

SNP/SNP all the way…till we’re oot!

caz-m

Lesley-Anne

The Tories are want to take us back to the days of Dickens.

The class system is on the way back.

I want Scotland to be a classless society.

We are aw’ “Jock Thamsans bairns”.

liz

@Dave McEwan Hill – think the SNP might have to take a different tack.

If MT has been referred to the WM standards commission, this has taken it to a new level.

There are a lot of very talented folk in the SNP but I also think they have a number of fairly naive, inexperienced people.

Hopefully the MT situation will be resolved soon but JBaillie is a known liar.

Maybe the STV tonight has improved because of the flack from the Rev and the twitter storm over these allegations.

GrahamB

Dave McEwan Hill says:
7 October, 2015 at 12:14 am
Shelly Jofre is the daughter of long term SNP activist and many times SNP candidate Kay Ulrich.

… and she (KU) is credited by Nicola for getting her involved in SNP politics at the age of sixteen!
No idea what her daughter’s political leanings are, she was always used by the BBC for investigative work. Maybe she should apply her skills to Scottish Politics if the BBC ever allow her.

silver19

OT: I see today Lewis MacDonald Slabour was on TV with his SNPbad effort regarding awarding Anglian Water Business contract for Billing and meter reading services for council buildings, hospitals and prisons.

But I don’t know what Slabour are complaining about :-
link to twitter.com

osakisushi

Recent events – by which I mean virtually anything anti-scotland – are really angering me.
The shambolic attack on MT, while being the most visible recent example, is highlighting a deficit. She’s one of “ours” and has distanced herself from the SNP. That is both good and bad.
Why has no-one senior in the SNP made a solid Innocent until Guilty statement and kept repeating it?

This horrible woman Baillie is taking headlines she should not be given. She’s only one MSP and the SNP are the majority.

I guess the question is, why are the SNP not fighting back. It is insufficient to assume WoS and WGD are being read by everyone. They aren’t any more than Private Eye is.

yesindyref2

LPW now has an article about the MT thing:
link to lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk

Cautionary reading for people, but almost as an aside in it I like this bit:

“Not Jackie Baillie, it seems. Blockheaded, forked-tongued, her contribution actually serves to obscure the real, serious, challenging legal issues raised by this matter by over-egging them. All for the sake of a partisan barb without legal foundation. This kind of thing is the worst of politics.”

Herald now started on John Nicolson, though the article is kind of like Magnus Gardham pulling a snot out of his nose and trying to use it to blow up a fortress.

Al-Stuart

So Andrew Bridgen MP has reported Michelle Thomson to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Public Standards.

Hey Bridgen, haven’t you heard – people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?

What’s the story with your personal paws grabbing a huge chunk of £392,642 in expenses? An action which seemed to perplex your local newspaper…

link to archive.is

The answer for the Hon Member of The Pig Poking Party, Mr Bridgen is he trousered £137,139 in one financial year alone (2011-2012).

It seems Bridgen is suspiciously quiet about things when it comes to his constituency newspaper shining the light on his questionable grabbing of public cash. Bridgen is reported to have told his local newspaper I’m not interested”

The newspaper went on to state…

Mr Bridgen, who also earns £7,500 for six hours’ work each month as chairman of Measham-based vegetable processing firm AB Produce, declined to speak to the Mail about his parliamentary expenditure, saying: “I’m not interested in commenting,” before hanging up

Andrew Bridgen appears to like reporting opposition MPs to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Public Standards…

link to archive.is

The problem with doing this repeatedly is an investigative journalist will start digging on Bridgen. Past results?

Bridgen then has to face allegations of being a sex pest…

link to archive.is

Unlike our SNP MP who has NOT been subject to arrested…

Andrew Bridgen WAS arrested by the police…

link to archive.is

So why is he still an MP? Methinks future investigative journalist will be focussing on Andrew Bridgen. This guy has already been arrested, and the probability is he will be arrested again.

This little creep Bridgen is an odious waste of skin and exactly the reason why we need to get ourselves away from that wretched palace of perverts.

bugsbunny

Nobodies talking about the obvious Elephant in the room? Actually I now notice you are, in the form of Jackie Bailey.

Stephen.

manandboy

The Tory Conference in Manchester has a ring of steel barriers 8 feet high placed around the building.
Police snipers are positioned on the roof.

100,000 people gathered in Manchester to protest against Austerity.
Tax credits will soon be withdrawn leaving hundreds of thousands of people short by over a thousand pounds a year.

There is four years and seven months of this Government left. I don’t think they’re gonna make it. And I don’t put that down to the hapless Labour & Unionist Party. Running the UK on 24% of the electorate, with austerity as their default long-term strategy for the economy.

It won’t be Nicola Sturgeon who’ll be keeping the Pig Man awake at nights. It’ll be the people of England who, very soon, won’t take much more.

Macart

Jackie Baillie and the facts are never knowingly in the same room together.

Where one enters, the other leaves.

Sandy Henderson

Jackie Baillie,

God, she lets that belly of her’s rumble. What comes out of one end cannot cope. Her mouth comes to her rescue!!!

ScotsCanuck

I can only hope the guid folk of her constituency will have seen through her bovine excrement and dispatch her doon the local Job Seekers abyss for a reality check .If anyone needed brought back to the Planet Truth it is this wayward soul !!

donald anderson

Slab Mudslingers and SNP haters have nae politics.

Political nobodies with just hate and bile towards any kind of advancement for this puir wee nation.

Since the Scottish Parliament opened Blair’s Babes and Blairite Bums mission in life was to sit and glower at the hated SNP and bang their desks like tame seals every time one of their empty heads got up tae speak, with nothing positive to say: just nark, nark, barf, barf agin the bad SNP.

Not one of them could define socialism. Corbyn will have to watch his back with that lot. No wonder he couldn’t use them for a press conference on his visit North, after their infamous Death March up Buchanan Street.

Ghillie

BTW Did the Lib Dems ever pay their outstanding bill of some £800,000 to Police Scotland?

john king

Rentahonk?…
What?
Like this you mean?
link to tinyurl.com
_________________________________________________________

john king

Osakisushi says
“Why has no-one senior in the SNP made a solid Innocent until Guilty statement and kept repeating it?”

I could not agree more,
they way Nicola leapt to put space between Michelle and the SNP was terrible, whatever happened to the “British” value of fair play and innocent until proven guilty?
It would seem we have now truly become a country who allow our justice to be dispensed by the media,

And Im sorry to say the SNP seem to have been mesmerized by the press along with the proles, who think if its written in the papers then it must be true,

I am sick of defending the SNP when they wont bloody well defend themselves, playing the moral card is getting old.

When the punters in the street say “they’re all as bad as each other” I cant see what possible advantage the SNP imagine they are gaining by their silence, they just make themselves look as guilty as those clowns like Bailey portray them,

When someone from the SNP does grow a pair they can be withering and every time they are in front of camera they should leave SLAB quivering like nervous wrecks about what they might say,

I cant see what there is to gain from a dignified silence,
the vast majority just see it as a tacit acknowledgement of guilt,

Christ it took a GREEN to explain in words of single syllables how the SNP’s budget balancing act was nothing less than miraculous, how many people have heard ANYONE from the SNP point out these (not hard to understand) facts?

Get off your knees SNP and start using the media’s power against them, just look how much damage was done to Robinson’s credibility when Alex Salmond challenged him re the “why should people trust YOU a politician?” bullshit,
I am sick of being the cuddly party,
time we got down and dirty.

This is what those arseholes should look like after a brush with us
link to tinyurl.com

Socrates MacSporran

This is a sad morning for me. Three-quarters retired though I may be, I continue to write the odd article for the Herald, it ekes out my meagre pension.

However, after reading their hatchet job on John Nicolson MP this morning, I have to ask myself, do I really wish to work for a paper which prints such a terrible piece.

An old and distinguished Herald hack, with whom I shared many a good Saturday afternoon in various Scottish football ground press boxes, once told me – as the constant cut, cut, cut approach to staffing of the paper’s management drove down standards – “I like to think there are still enough of us on board who know what the Herald’s standards are and try to work to those standards, but, it is getting more and more difficult”.

That fine journalist is no longer with us, which is just as well. He would have been most-unhappy at what this once-great paper has become.

EddieMunster

Anyone know how to get a break down of a vote count?, that shows ballot box votes and postal votes separated?

My memory might be playing tricks but if i remember right, Jackie Ballie won Dumbarton with 2,000 ballot box votes and 10,000 postal votes, while her nearest rival the SNP candidate had 8,000 ballot box votes and 2,000 postal votes.

Don’t be getting excited mind, it could just be my sleep deprived brain playing tricks on me.

EddieMunster

Oh and Ol’ Jackie is claming she made John Swinney
“effectively abolished the ‘bedroom tax”

“I also led calls for the Erskine Bridge tolls to be scrapped – something which has made a huge difference to people’s lives in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute. One of my proudest moments during this session was forcing the SNP to concede that it had the power and the resources to cancel out the effects of the ‘bedroom tax’ in Scotland.

“John Swinney said he didn’t want to ‘let Westminster off the hook’ in the run up to the referendum, but my backbench bill forced him to do the right thing by vulnerable Scots and effectively abolished the ‘bedroom tax’. I am grateful for the opportunity to stand again in Dumbarton constituency and look forward to leading a positive campaign based around the issues that really matter to local people.”

link to dumbartonreporter.co.uk

EddieMunster

Last one I promise . . .

Jackie saying that the claim of overspend on council tax freeze funding is a lie.

“The new analysis from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPIC) shows that ‘the money provided by the government to freeze the council tax has resulted in local authorities receiving more income than they would have done by increasing rates by RPI percentage’ and goes on to say the funding given to local government was such that ‘it could be said that the freeze, over the period 2008-09 to 2013-14 was ‘over-funded’.

But Ms Baillie claimed the SNP government has doubled the three per cent budget cut imposed on them by the UK Government and passed it on to councils.

She said the move placed vital services in Dumbarton and the Vale at risk and called on Mr McMillan to take action instead of ‘indulging in petty insults’.”

link to dumbartonreporter.co.uk

Wuffing Dug

Jackie Baillie.

Idiot mouthpiece, I’m originally from dumbarton would like to see her removed from her post.

OT lickspittle northsound now banned from this house.

Exhibit a) Aberdeen airport now serving four London City airports ‘our capital’ FFS.

Exhibit b) fanny presenter, don’t know his name or who he is – sandy lyle – first British winner of….

The unionist onslaught continues on the commercial airwaves, sickening.

I agree with a lot of people on here it will backfire.

But it is music to the ears of all the forelock tugging lickspittles that live in the NE.

EddieMunster

Ok ok, last one for sure . . .

Jackie Ballie claming that bed blocking is keeping people from going home to loved ones . . .

“Ms Baillie said: “Shona Robison promised that by the end of the year no patient would be kept in a hospital when clinically fit to leave, yet the figures are going in the wrong direction, it’s getting worse, not better.

“Despite progress made earlier in the year, the number of patients in West Dunbartonshire kept needlessly in hospitals when they could have been in their homes with their loved ones has shot up by 44 per cent in one month. The SNP Health Minister blamed last winter’s A&E crisis that kept patients waiting on trolleys for hours at the Royal Alexandra Hospital on levels of delayed discharge. This issue has to be sorted before the cold weather returns.”

link to dumbartonreporter.co.uk

Is she implying that hospitals are purposely keeping patients fit to leave in hospital, just to be nasty and that its the SNPs fault?

cearc

Morning John,

Couldn’t agree more.

When Ruthie brought up MT the obvious retort was to point out that she had been under police investigation for the last year (not that the Tories would regard that as a resigning matter).

It’s too much of a ‘small party mentality’ striving for credibility and fearing scandal. They are now a large, strong party and need to be far more aggressive.

These attacks over any little thing are going to increase. No shortage of property deals and landlords at Westminster!

Iain

There has been a revolution in Scotland, and we are not going to stop till we are independent and westminster and it’s establishment are swept away. It’s great to be part of a movement for social change, so don’t get too wound up by the death throws of the m.s.m.

Ken500

Labour wasted £Billions on illegal wars, Trident, banking fraud and tax evading. Hide the McCrone Report and cost Scotland a £220Billion Oil Fund. They are still wasting £Millions of taxpayers money in the Unionist dominated Local Authorities. Wipe them out 16/17.

Socrates MacSporran

I appreciate Jackie Baillie is probably the result of a one-night stand between Homer Simpson and Daphne Broon, but, does she really have to take the cartoon capers to the extent she does in her public utterances?

john king

The first thing the SNP should do is point blank refuse to take part in ANY news item that is pre recorded live transmission or forget it!

john king

A comma between pre recorded and live would have helped. 🙁

Hiya Cearc. 🙂

Bugger (the Panda)

Rentahonk

Worthy alone

cearc

Wow, that really is a headline story in the Herald.

An MP who uses a house that he owns in London instead of letting it out and renting another on expenses!

Is this a first?

Sinky

BBC Radio Scotland still referring to the Nationalist MP Michelle Thomson rather than former SNP MP… subtle
.

Dorothy Devine

Socrates , I am now cleaning coffee , toast and marmalade off the keyboard – you swine!

Socrates MacSorran

Dorothy Devine –

My apologies dear lady, however, in my defence: “swine”; sorry, I do not hang around Tories.

Luigi

Sinky says:
7 October, 2015 at 7:36 am

BBC Radio Scotland still referring to the Nationalist MP Michelle Thomson rather than former SNP MP… subtle

Not forgetting those “subtle” TV images they always show with massive SNP backdrops or flags superimposed along with MT’s face.

The Great British Brainwashing Corporation

Luigi

Dorothy Devine says:
7 October, 2015 at 7:44 am

Socrates , I am now cleaning coffee , toast and marmalade off the keyboard – you swine!

Checking this wonderful site during breakfast is always a big risk, Dorothy. There are many casualties who will testify.

As for Wee Ginger Dug? Don’t even think about it!

🙂

Bob Mack

I cannot speak for anyone else, but the more of this rubbish that comes to the fore ,then the firmer my resolve to fight against it.
I am not blinded to the possible faults of those that represent us, but neither am I blinded to the full on attempted besmirching of people for political reasons.

I agree that the SNP must up their game when dealing with this stuff. To sit back whilst the membership alone provide your defence is insufficient in my view. I am looking for strong leadership from within the Party.

This is a fight to the death,and will not stop till one or the other prevails. We currently are armed with a teaspoon,whilst our enemy has a machine gun press at their disposal.

We need support from the top,and I mean now.

Jim

What Bailie doesn’t get is that La…r will never be the elected Government in Scotland for the foreseeable future.

Being an active participant in a scummy smear campaign does not endear you and your like to anyone but your most fervent supporters.

On the question of why does Nicola Sturgeon or the SNP come out fighting I ask, why should they.

Michelle Thompson did the right thing falling on her sword in resigning the party whip and her membership of the SNP.

Now she is an Independent so the papers can only call her a former SNP MP which is quite smart on her part.

Giving the bastards more ammunition would be foolish in the extreme so well done Nicola, et al.

Tinto Chiel

So this £350 million (don’t know if that’s quite accurate, given the source is Jackie Baillie) will be carried over and spent a little later to benefit the people of S______d.

And the fiendish thing is, the SG wil be doing it it deliberately, just to annoy Lord Foulkes.

Thank you, Socrates MacS @6.59 for the funniest thing on here for a while, and that’s quite a high bar.

A joke which will go down in infamy, infamy…

Rmac

There is a high probability that the SNP are fighting this but its not being reported. The MSM/Unionists have a vested interest in promoting one side of the story and they control the conduit to the majority of people that will be influences by this witch hunt.

Macart

They put their socks on one foot at a time same as us. I reckon they get just as angry and frustrated John.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve gone to the SNP releases and seen something explained in detail, never to have the release get a mention anywhere in the press. Same with their Scot gov. releases. I mean how many people knew that the SG cracked into the Emergency Food Fund to help out food banks?

link to news.scotland.gov.uk

I never saw it in the press and only came upon it by chance.

When they do get an opportunity to hit back on live meeja, which is rare, they are normally out numbered or talked over. When its newspaper quotes? Jeez! If they appear at all its a miracle and almost an afterthought in a pre coloured piece.

We know the pack drill by this time where the media are concerned.

I suspect the SNP long since considered their safest option was to keep their faces shut where the press are concerned and save it for the door step.

Though just once, just one time, I’d love to see one of the other parliamentarians pull a Salmond/Robinson and set some loud mouth pundit back on their arse live on national telly and have it accurately reported in the press next day.

Chances of any of that happening? Well IMO and putting it mildly, I’ve more chance of regrowing a hairline.

Dave McEwan Hill

Jim at 8.38

I agree. Unlike our opponents we do not have almost the entire media at our disposal. It may be difficult but refusing to enter into disputes is the wisest thing to do in many circumstances. The more we argue and dispute the more opportunity we give our opponents with their vastly superior firepower to repeat their attacks.

Roseanne

Rentahonk baillie lol brilliant!

Robert Louis

Given the holier than though attitude of Labour, as expressed by the red tories ‘rentahonk’ (love that term), Jackie Baillie, is it not time we had a nice detailed article on here, listing the many well documented dodgy property deals of member of Labour, Libdems and Tories in Scotland and at Westminster.

That way everybody can see what REAL sleeze actually looks like. Just an idea. For clarity, you understand. 🙂

Wulls

the only surprise for me is the Meeja not trotting out a Willie Rennie quote.
I have no idea where the free fall of journalistic quality will end……
No one has mentioned the 6 labour MPs in the clink.
They have all gone quiet about Alastair Carmichael.
And as for Hunt……. I’m convinced the only reason Cameron keeps him around is the difficulty in finding a pigs head in tesco these days.

Jim

Dave McEwan Hill @9:08am

The more we argue and dispute the more opportunity we give our opponents with their vastly superior firepower to repeat their attacks.
______________
Sc…… La…R was struck down by apoplexy when it was denied the opportunity to scream for the resignation of Michelle Thompson, Nicola is playing a blinder.

Read more at link to sentence.yourdictionary.com

Alan Mackintosh

Oh you couldn’t make it up, (but they did). Article this morning in the Herald that Socrates alluded to above. Regarding John Nicolson and his house in London that he bought about 15 years ago in run down part of London. He restored it(himself) in Georgian style and lives in it when there rather than renting and charging expenses. But he has the temerity to make a smal income from it as it is used for fashion shoots as it has been done up so well. (And this is from Magnus Garham and is posted in politics section.)

As one commenter btl said. Man owns hoose, baaaddd, burn him!

Grouse Beater

Worth repeating:

McSporran on the Herald: “After reading their hatchet job on John Nicolson MP this morning, I have to ask myself, do I really wish to work for a paper which prints such a terrible piece.”

I wonder why one should buy its sister Sunday paper just because now and then it says the opposite to its weekly paper.

Ken500

Support for SNP rising. Support for the Press falling.

heedtracker

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour renews, and we wait.

Scotland is still trying to get out of the SLabour madhouse. Why wasn’t their £718m surplus used for building this? Every single town in England has amazing road network, except EU oil capital Aberdeen, owned by unionists.

Because its SLabour land, so shut it.

link to transportscotland.gov.uk

Decades late, real block on north east growth without this bypass, even starting at the end of SLabour reign would have saved hundreds of millions in construction costs. All of it stopped by red and blue tory unionists. If its good for Scotland, it could be good for independence, so…

caz-m

This is all timed to coincide with the SNP Conference in Aberdeen next week.

The world must be a very peaceful place indeed if what is making all the headlines in Scotland is the sale of a few houses.

It just makes us all the more determined to fight for Independence.

Show these bastards next year just how much of an impact their stories had on your voting intentions.

SNP/SNP.

X_Sticks

Haven’t yet read all the posts, but this came to mind:

“Over its two Holyrood administrations from 1999, Labour had managed to under-spend the Scottish block grant to the collective tune of £1.5bn – money which was returned to the Treasury at Westminster because, incredibly, Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell just couldn’t think of anything to spend it on.”

link to wingsoverscotland.com

TheFool

Itchybiscuit says:

6 October, 2015 at 10:59 pm

“Baillie just got pulled up on STV news – presenter accused her of a ‘witch-hunt’. Her beady wee eyes almost popped out of her head.

Presenter: ‘What happens in the 2016 election if a Labour candidate is found to have skeletons in their closet?’ (paraphrased)

Baillie: ‘You know, we have a very robust vetting process but all parties need to tighten up their vetting procedures.’”

I wonder if the presenter knows something about MSP Baillie… because there are certainly skeletons in that closet of hers. You don’t have to dig too far to find them.

I would not be surprised if the SNP are aware of them but have the decency not to spread them to the public as they are of a personal nature. But then again, the media in Scotland tends to protect SLab for some reason.

Tamson

Any chance of a “Jackie Baillie’s greatest hits article, Rev? I appreciate it could take weeks to compile, but it would be comedy gold.

My personal favourite was during the referendum, when she said independence would leave families geographically further apart.

Robert Peffers

@ Rev Stu

“Jackie Baillie – fresh from making a complete idiot of herself over the Michelle Thomson case – couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon.”

Yon wee long suffering Bandwagon will never be quite the same again. That mental picture of a morning will remain with me for some considerable time.

mr thms

In The National today..

link to thenational.scot

“SCOTTISH ministers yesterday came under fire for awarding a £360m contract for SUPPLYING WATER (my emphasis) to all the country’s schools, hospitals and councils to a private company which paid no corporation tax last year.”

From the comments their readers believe them.

Graham Harris Graham

Don’t fall for professional BritNaT Zoomer Gardham’s puerile nonsense at The Herald.

His childish pot stirring only serves to encourage incensed readers to click on his website & create more revenue.

If you really can’t resist sharing links to this clown’s comical collective, archive the pages first before posting them here.

Here’s the tool to do it… link to archive.is

Alex Beveridge

caz-m @ 9.46am.
Well talking to people on the doorsteps several times a week now, and if anything, support for the S.N.P is growing, and perhaps more importantly, no one, and I mean no one, has mentioned the latest unionist smears.
By the way, in answer to your previous observation, I believe the class system has never left us, it’s just that the present Westminster Government are making it quite clear what they think of us uppity plebs, and they will in no uncertain terms, put us back in our box.

Grouse Beater

It’s symptomatic of humankind’s loss of faith in ourselves, the knowledge that we have dumped on our own planet, that we should be keen to see films about us dropping more crap on other planets:

link to grousebeater.wordpress.com

stonefree

Always remember that Baillie, is the product of Private School Education
And it shows

heedtracker

Ofcourse SLabour will never tell you why Aberdeen, EU oil capital, has had to get by with a Victorian road network, while say English toons like York, Hull, Newcastle have highly advanced interconnecting motorway and dual carriageway networks.

But as SLab twit Barney explains away their fantastically wasteful delays to BBC vote SLab Scotland, “its only money, so shut it”

link to bbc.co.uk

“Aberdeen City Council leader Barney Crockett said: “We realised that the cost of the AWPR (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route) would be roughly what it now is and we have made adequate provision for that.” Beeb ligger doesn’t ask what the provision is.

Barney’s one of the SLab owners of Aberdeen that banned FM Salmond from Aberdeen, sent out their 2014 council tax bill with a formal letter telling everyone to vote NO or else, banned Scotland flags from Aberdeen etc.

Not insane at all are SLabour.

Onwards

Yeah, SNP/SNP is the only way to go.
A majority is essential or we can forget about any more powers for Scotland.

All the previous chat about second votes got me thinking though..
What if there was an SNP ‘sister’ party, that ONLY stood for the list vote?
Close links, but officially a different party.

SNP1 for the constituencies and SNP2 for the list..
Which should boost pro-Indy MSP’s overall in the current circumstances.

Grouse Beater

Stonefree: Always remember that Baillie is the product of Private School Education

‘Born in Hong Kong to a Portuguese father and Scottish mother, Baillie was schooled at the private St Anne’s School, Windermere, in the English Lake District’ …

that’ll account for the tortured vowels.

Anagach

Tokyo Kaye doing a special on the named person policy today.

carjamtic

Just Another Westminster – Jaw( )

Bullshiter
Broadcaster
Etc. etc.

JawB

E.G. Jackie JawB……Jeremy JawB………Evening JawB……Morning JawB…..daily,weekly…..small b….a wee Jawb

;-/

Naina Tal

@ Grousebeater. You mean she could have inflicted her stupit self on Hong Kong, Portugal, E*****d, but instead chose too poor too wee too stupit us? Awtae….

Grouse Beater

Naina: You mean she could have inflicted her stupit self on Hong Kong,

That very British colony. 😉

heedtracker

Wasn’t watching but could hear doom laden dreariness of BBC vote SLab Scotland teatime news last night, miserable gits Project Fearing it over Scotland’s ageing population time bomb, vote bettertogether to share giant costs of old people care, long list of ways to die old and miserable in Scotland, unless its run by far bettertogether neighbours and SLabour.

Moaning about it how ball shriveling ghastly it is under BBC tv UKOK reign of vote SLab terror propaganda to a Dane buddie, who then sent Danish gov rather different take on their too many olds problem.

link to digg.com

Alan Mackintosh

Grousebeater, aye there is a passing resemblance between JaBa and Barroso, right enough.

Naina Tal

Grouse Beater:
Wherever she hangs her hat….

Dr Jim

Herald doing everything it can to boost SNP vote again today
and it’s working SNP support rising and strengthening

My own MP John Nicolson has a nice house in a nice colour is the latest smear from the Herald

I for one am totally shocked at this news, I had no idea he was such a Wastrel How dare he have a house, nice or not

Looking forward to campaigning In East Dumbarton with that user for the Holyrood Elections

SNP/SNP

Bob Mack

O/t.
group of us considered the proposition of giving a collective name to the multiplicity of forces ranged against independence,and we came up with a couple of suggestions.

1. Cerberus — the 3 headed attack dog that protects the gates of hell.

2. Hydra—– the multi headed serpent—-seems suitable.

Peter McCulloch

Please, Please don’t equate elephants with Jackie Baillie.

Elephants are intelligent animals.

manandboy

Kezia’s lost her constituency purse last year – wi’ £10,000 in it. Branch activists complain of no records being kept at the branch in Edinburgh. The police have become involved after a complaint was lodged by branch members.

Just waiting now for this to be headlined in the Scottish Unionist Establishment Media run from 10 Downing St.

Naina Tal

Bob Mack:
Bit more lowbrow, but I suggest Sadim (Midas in Reverse). Because everything they touch turns to shite.

Grouse Beater

Dr Jim: My own MP John Nicolson has a nice house in a nice colour is the latest smear from the Herald

See Wings on Twitter for full conversation.

Nana Smith
manandboy

If we take what the bankers did in bankrupting the UK in the years leading up to 2007/08; then add what Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling did in the 3 years afterwards, and finally add what the Tories have done in the last 5 years or so, then they have done more damage to the UK than all the Islamic terrorist groups could have done in a hundred years.

And we’re not finished yet.

The UK is precariously balanced in a very dangerous way. Either the Tories change tack, or the UK will shortly topple over into something very very bad.

While that happens, vote SNP/SNP.

Ps. Let’s hope the Tories stop Winter Fuel Allowance and the Bus Pass. After a year of that, Independence will be a walk-over.

Nana Smith

O/T links. Left out a couple as they may have had gremlins.

link to scriptonitedaily.com

link to revolution-news.com

Putin’s address to the UN

link to archive.is

Ian Brotherhood

Turned on GMS, must’ve been 6.20 or so this morning – first thing I heard was the MT story…again. Turned it off.

It’s actually becoming embarrassing.

If there’s a FMQ today, surely, surely, Dugs and Swagger-stick Davidson won’t go with this again…surely?

Nana Smith

Oh well the first lot of links did not load after 3rd attempt so give up.

One was from France24.com about rebound in oil price.

Karmanaut

Well, since more than 50% of the country know the truth behind so called “underspends”, the propaganda spouted by the Labour party and the MSM simply reinforces the delusions of the chronically uninformed, whose numbers will continue to dwindle.

I’m looking forward to my next pub chat with the Unionist who brings up this “underspend”.

manandboy

My but Ruthie is very upbeat these days. Last time she was this chirpy, she’d just had an illegal peek at the postal ballot returns at Indy.

Maybe David Cameron has explained to her during the party conference in Manchester, how he’s planning to rig the Holyrood elections next May as a trial run for the EU In/Out referendum.

And Cameron offered her a job on the Referendum campaign committee for Scotland, which she turned down. She might regret that when she’s looking for a safe seat in England after next May.

The Tory Party Conference, complete with snipers, showed that the Tories are out of control. There is no power or mechanism in the UK to keep them in check.

Thanks to the 2 million No voters in Scotland who made sure we were ALL going to be Far Worse Together for the next five years. Cheers.

Robert Peffers

@Papadox says: 6 October, 2015 at 11:30 pm:

“Anybody know who the new presenter on Scotland 2015 is?”

Yes! She’s Shelley Jofre.

Shelley Jofre is an Ayrshire girl, from Irvine. Her Mum is the nationalist politician Kay Ullrich. She was Educated at Stirling University and has a degree in Newspaper Journalism from City University London. She joined the BBC around 1991 as a junior reporter on Reporting Scotland then moved to Frontline Scotland around four years later and has also worked on Newsnight. She reported for Panorama.

She became well know after she reported on such as the Lockerbie bomber, paedophiles on the internet, and the scandal of the Fingerprint Scotland case. She got a BAFTA Scotland award for Best Current Affairs programme in, I think, 1995. I have a vague memory of her being one of several good BBC journalists made redundant a while back but that’s as far as I can recall. So she is probably now freelance.

Now don’t ask me why I remember that information for I’ve no idea. I must have looked it up for some reason that I can’t remember and it may be not quite correct as it’s from memory.

nodrog

I watched the Jackie Baillie interview on Scotland Tonight and what she said was not in line with Stuart’s findings on Google on a previous article. Was she using her words carefully or was she totally incorrect?

Robert Peffers

@Clootie says: 6 October, 2015 at 11:54 pm:

“Jackie Baillie will never be convinced that she is wrong because no matter how smart you are, you can never convince someone stupid that they are stupid.”

I’m still waiting for Baillie to admit her mistake of accusing the SNP of, “Presiding over the Hospital Acquired Infections Capital of Europe”, when Nicola was in charge of Health. It turned out that the figures quoted by Baillie were from when Labour were in office.

That blatant attempt to blacken the SNP was followed by her agreement la about the fake Rape Case that Jola had invented. When challenged admit to these errors Baillie refused to admit the errors never mind apologising for them.

Is it stupidity? I think not – I think much more a case of Baillie being a totally thoroughly devious, dishonest and obnoxious personality.

heedtracker

Straight in with vote NO Graun smeer of the day . No journalism just smear.

“Thomson, who has a large property rental portfolio but is alleged to have profited from vulnerable home owners, has denied any wrongdoing.”

link to theguardian.com

At the very least Libby’s left out his Crown Office’s serious organised crime division called out from yesterday, but no doubt tomorrow its the FBI, CIA, International Rescue all piling in on Thompson, UKOK style.

link to metro.co.uk

Carrell’s got EU competition smear wise.

Bob Mack

@nodrog,

The technical term for it is LYING.

heedtracker

Another compare and contrast display of The Graun’s attack propagandists in action. Spot the difference in Graun reportage for Carmicheal getting referred to watchdog and Thompson.

link to theguardian.com

She will look into whether the Orkney and Shetland MP broke the Commons code of conduct in three separate areas: the requirement of MPs to “base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest”;

link to theguardian.com

SNP bad.

Robert Peffers

@Lesley-Anne says: 7 October, 2015 at 12:10 am:

“Is it just me or is the Baconiser and his friends trying to turn the clocks back to 1939?

link to archive.is

link to archive.is

link to archive.is

Och! Lesley-Anne, don’t you mean advance us to 1939?

The Hameron & co. lot have us already back in Dickensian like days – starving the, “Tiny Tims”, of our time to death and so on.
Note: –

Tiny Tim, (Timothy Cratchit,), the Dickens character from the 1843 novel, “A Christmas Carol”, though just a minor character, was the crippled son of Bob Cratchit, and serves well as an important symbol of the consequences of the wide rich/poor divide of that time.

nodrog

Bob Mack you must be mistaken. The lady is a MSP with responsibilities to her constituents she could not possibly do that , could she???

DerekM

ha rentahonk brilliant Rev 🙂

still the same old Slab i see ,void of any ideas and the less people are listening the shriller they scream.

All they have left is smear and lie we will see a lot more of this mainly anytime the SNP do a good thing ,the onions are trying to set the agenda for 2016 and intend to use the MSM to make the SNP side of the story unheard but then whats new about that.

It all smells of desperation from a political party that has lost its principles and know they are on a one way ticket to an electoral thumping.

They have learned nothing or are incapable of creating policy by listening to the whole electorates wishes its just all blah blah SNP bad unfit for parliament imo and deserve to be handed p45`s on mass in 2016.

Peter McCulloch

Ever since the SNP were elected to govern Scotland in 2007.

This is all we have ever heard from Labour politicians
who have bleated that services are being underfunded and have demanded more and more resources be found for this or that service.

For example we recently have had the Labour leader of Fife Council bleating about the how the council is facing the twin challenge of increased costs and reduced resources
“without help from the Scottish Government”.

Of course what he wants is to keep the money for the council tax freeze and be able to increase the council tax as well.

Talk about having your cake and eating.

If the Scottish Government had listened to them and spent all the money and had left nothing for contingencies.
Then it wouldn’t have had the funds to be able to help mitigate the bedroom tax or any of the other changes made to welfare.

But then Labour would then be trying to portray the Scottish Government as spend thrifts.

Almannysbunnet

If all this negativity is getting you down head over to Moody Vision for a singsong. Cheered me up no end!
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk

shug

I see the BBC is in trouble for their programme about high level child abuse endangering the police investigation
Am I the only one that smells a deliberate ploy to close down the investigation

Molly

Peter McCulloch

On the other hand , there’s Falkirk Council, declared they’ll need £40 million of cuts but also want to spend £25 m on a new town hall .

Is it an essential in life, if your going to charge the most vulnerable in life for services, you do it from a snazzy new Town hall ?

The Sunday Herald , last week had an opening statement on Falkirk, saying ” Falkirk is thriving” . Oh how we laughed. At £2.50 for parking and every other shop either a phone shop or charity shop, at least we’ll be able to pass our new Town Hall and know our Labour Council are as visionary as they’ve always been !

Robert Peffers

@K1 says: 7 October, 2015 at 12:21 am:

“It’s Baillie’s smugness that really irks me. She’s a ‘smart arse’ and a real bone fide phoney.”

Isn’t Baillie just another of those Economic Migrants, or really refugees from South Africa, like Dim Jim Murphy?

You know the kind. Totally white supremacists getting out while the going was good and looking for another nation, of what they regard as their inferiors, to dominate. Only over here looking for, (an)Asylum in Scotland.

Nana Smith
Robert Peffers

@osakisushi says: 7 October, 2015 at 12:59 am:

” … Why has no-one senior in the SNP made a solid Innocent until Guilty statement and kept repeating it?”

They have, of course done so, but the hostile MSM & Broadcasters, don’t let the public know, if they do print or broadcast, anything it is designed to go un-noticed or is biased to look like something else.

They do this in all matters, for example the confusion between Migrants, Economic Migrants, refugees and Asylum seekers. A white former South African like Baillie or Murphy are white refugees from the troubles suffered by South Africa and, as such, are no different from a migrant attempting to get illegally through the Chunnel.

However Baillie sits as a Labour MSP and the coloured refugee is despised by the UK Establishment.

yesindyref2

@Socrates MacSporran
Did you have a gilded career in journalism?

North chiel

It’s now obvious that the Holyrood 2016 ” propaganda
campaign is underway .Equally obvious is this will not be
a “domestic / Scottish” election campaign .David Cameron
will be organising the “dirty tricks/smear rhetoric ” from London.
No doubt the “opening gambits” will be ” local” via Dugdale,Davidson&Rennie ,however
when they are shown to be making no impact , the ” better together ”
“shock& awe” tactic will be wheeled out in the final days of the campaign
as Cameron realised this resulted in the required swing to defeat “yes”.

Cameron also realises that prevention of a SNP majority next year
is the absolute guarantee of prevention of a 2nd referendum.
consequently my interpretation of this campaign for Holyrood
2016 is that it’s a straight contest between Nicola Sturgeon V David Cameron ( and this is
how the SNP should fight this ). Hopefully , there can be only a ” home winner”.
However, all should remember how the London controlled media “assisted ” Cameron/Better together last year , and of course don’t forget the “controversy ” over the “postal votes”
In Referendum campaign and of course the

Peter McCulloch

@Molly

Yes its good to know that Labour in Falkirk have got
their priorities in order.

What makes the attitude of Labour politicians even more sickening is they go on about how they are looking after the poor and vulnerable in our society.

And yet their decisions have the exact opposite effect.

yesindyref2

The Herald used to have a different comment system and people could follow posters. I think rather than reading all the comments, some journos (and politicians / agents) followed posters they thought they could get information or material or even opinion from. This is reasonably certain because at times you’d see whole phrases being used in a column or article.

I did a lot of research and analysis myself, and a couple of other posters on the pro-indy side were very knowledgeable and sensible in their postings. We had a lot of followers. I made a small mistake of terminology in one posting and saw Ian Davidson make exactly the same mistake in a Scottish Affairs Committee meeting. But that was a good one for Indy where he pinned the Defence Minister guy against the wall and got him to admit that TFEU 346 was no obstacle to T26 being built in iScotland.

I was aware of being followed, and at times having reached what I thought was a startling conclusion from my research, sat on it rather than giving the game away.

As well as other factors, I think there are two things happened to the Herald. First the new comment system doesn’t allow followers so it’s a bit harder for H research to sift through the threads. But secondly most of the “serious” posters have given up in disgust, maybe the odd disparaging posting but no deep research or analysis.

Basically the Herald is now starved of free researchers and analysts.

Just a thought.

Gillian_Ruglonian

“rentahonk”

That kinda thing should come with a warning! 😀

[…] Earlier today we made an observation about the overblown way the media has been covering the Scottish Government’s underspend of 1.3% of its budget (a figure about which the David Hume Institute today cooed approvingly “Even Mr Micawber could not budget more accurately”).  […]

Nana Smith

OK Rev. I was sure I posted at around 8.15. I’m now wondering if I did actually hit the submit button.

Having a bad back sitting around is not easy and I’m getting cranky as well as creaky. Or perhaps pain meds are addling my brain!

Robert Peffers

@Bob Mack says: 7 October, 2015 at 8:25 am:

“I agree that the SNP must up their game when dealing with this stuff. To sit back whilst the membership alone provide your defence is insufficient in my view.”

Have a care, Bob. Do you think for a minute the SNP elected members don’t speak out? They do but there is no way for their words to either make it into print, or onto the airwaves.

This was amply demonstrated when the BBC edited the live video footage of Nick Robinson asking the rather stupid question of Alex Salmond, (I paraphrase), “Why should the voters listen to you, a politician, instead of business people who deal with billions of pounds”.

Alex, speaking live, answered at great length but the later broadcast edited version had Robinson claiming, (after showing him asking the question”, “and he didn’t answer me”. Then just about every other broadcaster repeated the edited version and every newspaper reported the edited version.

It is rather pointless wasting time when what reaches the airwaves and print media is a total set of lies.

Take FMQs – unless you watch Parliament TV live from Holyrood you will get an edited version of what the TV companies or newspapers want you to see.

It may be my recent move to the dire Windows 10 but I attempted to get Mulholland being questioned yesterday and the video footage could not be accessed live on the computer.

However, I’ve often noted that the more important live stuff is interrupted by technical problems and the BBC footage has a built in delay to allow them to sensor it by cutting out bits or introducing technical problems as it is broadcast.

Much of what gets printed is based upon those video broadcasts. Why would failing papers, pushed for cash and cutting staff to the bone, send a camera crew to the likes of Holyrood when the BBC shows if, (supposedly), live with built in delays?

So unless you are watching the SNP spokespersons live you just do not know it you are seeing the truth. Take another example – the attacks on the YES Supporters by the Loyalists after the referendum. It was an obvious one sided attack but you wouldn’t believe it from the UK broadcasters and MSM.

So please stop blaming the SNP when the culprits are the hostile media. Good grief, even live Westminster Parliament TV is biased and has built in delay.

Ever tried watching Scottish Questions? Even although there are many microphones dotted around the mixers do not suppress the crap from the hostile unionists and you struggle to hear what the SNP guys are saying. Same area set-up at PMQs and you clearly hear every word the PM says and the background clamour of the ill mannered juvenile members is mainly muted out.

Socrates MacSporran

yesindyref2:

You asked if I had a gilded career in journalism.

I am just a jobbing sports hack, who is able to write about almost any sport (I have covered some 60 different sports in my 40-plus years career).

I ask two questions – how many words do you want, and when do you want them? Getting those answered, I deliver.

I started as a freelance, and have generally freelanced, although I did have one spell of around a decade as a Sports Editor on a Daily. I now cover a rugby match each weekend, write mainly historical features and have one specialist job, about which I keep quiet, lest my identity become known.

I don’t consider myself a great wordsmith – I simply get the job done as quickly. efficiently and honestly as I possibly can.

I have never been a member of the Lap Top Loyal, indeed, I am ambivelant about both halves of the Old Firm – I don’t care who beats them.

Robert Peffers

@Robert Louis says: 7 October, 2015 at 9:24 am:

” … is it not time we had a nice detailed article on here, listing the many well documented dodgy property deals of member of Labour, Libdems and Tories in Scotland and at Westminster. “

Aye! Robert Louis, Provided that it only prints details of those Unionists who have actually been investigated, charged, brought to trial, found guilty and then give details of just how much of their sentence or fine they served.

Then, of course we need those who were only brought before the Parliamentary Standards and whether they were punished of let of although obviously guilty but make it clear they were NOT punished.

Mind you it will probably take up most of the column inches and leave little room for the rest of us to comment.

Davosa

Trust that fat waste of space Baillie to get her many chins wobbling on this. She knows her time is almost up and will grasp at any straw she thinks might save her. Good riddance next May fatso.

punklin

Thank you, thank you, Rev for your forensic responses to both Thomson and ‘underspend’ stories – much appreciated!

[…] would think, when the media never publish or broadcast anything about the SNP unless it is ‘SNPbad‘, that this is hardly surprising, however it is surprising that this attitude can prevail, […]


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