Dropping the lovebomb
Posted on
January 26, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
John “Chicogo” Barrowman knocks ’em dead as the special mystery celebrity guest at the “Better Together” Burns Night celebrations, which we are not making up:
(Edit by Jack Foster.)
You know, sometimes I wonder about the “national treasures” that seem to make it into the “British” psyche! I definitely think that our southern friends have a different level of humour.
OH no he didnt…
“Nostalgia and Nonsense”, from someone wearing a lovely tartan jacket with open neck shirt and no tie goes on about wearing shorts under the kilt. If the FIRST MINISTER had gone commando, I am sure they would have been shrieking about it…
I’m happy for him that, after living in the United States of America for almost 40 years, he believes independence for a country to be a ridiculous notion.
My wife went to the panto and this prat and the Twatties from Australia were pronouncing on the referendum, Scotland and Salmond. Just as a joke mind. I am waiting on his views on some of the things that might be important to Scotland.
What happened to his American accent?
Speaks volumes they can’t get a celeb who lives in Scotland and will actually vote NO.
And still the whipping of the dead horse that is Salmond bashing. And they wonder why their losing this?!
What was you doing looking up kilts, perhaps it’s his hobby
O/T – from yesterday:-
@Les Wilson says:
25 January, 2014 at 4:33 pm
“BTW Fiona Hyslop, Alan Bisset, and Elaine C Smith were all in great form at The Hub last night.”
Any video links anyone?
I don’t think there was any video or audio recording on Friday, however Fiona Hyslop’s excellent “Immortal Memory” is now up in text form on Bella Caledonia …
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/01/25/the-immortal-memory/
Cringe….
Pantomime Dame
Sky Debate falling apart
Debate about Scottish Independence, without a Scottish Independence spokesperson.
Comical
He seems to smirk at his own ‘jokes’.
Sad to see “proud Scots” have zero faith in running their own country.
A disgrace….to the Anderson tartan.
Usual AS rubbish.
Does Barrowman have a vote? If not, then is he not a strange choice of ‘diplomat’?
Who is John Barrowman? I’ve never heard of him. What does he do? I could probably find out on the I’net but frankly cannot be arsed.
The AUSTRALIAN tennis
Apparently, he did it for no fee. Probably wise, I wouldn’t want to be associated with Taylor’s dirty money and Serbian war criminals either.
Delivered with all the conviction and sincerity of a Crossroads extra, you can watch the sequel, Immortal Memory 2
It really doesn’t portray the aspirational modern image that I have of Scotland. Someone else said the video has a Shortbread Tin element to it. It has.
I wonder what type of reaction the BritNats were hoping for using this chap and his insults. Lets ignore and move on.
I think that he is merely looking after his own interests like so many.
Moved to the US where he can stay.
O/T
SoS reports on privately commissioned ICM poll:
Yes up 5 since September to 37%
No down five to 44%
http://archive.is/m0nCm
New ICM poll—-YES 37%, NO 43%. (plus 5, minus 5). Scot goes Pop.
In defence of John Barrowman he has uttered the greatest line in any movie, ever.
http://youtu.be/w1XOfHax6Q8
The line is from Shark Attack 3, a movie series so bad it’s good and was uttered just after a spot of shark related mortal peril. Needless to say it contains rude language.
Is Dr Who all true and Captain Jack’s stuck in the 1950s?
GOOD GOD – a Gay man who’s moaned in the past about prejudice he’s suffered as a result of his homosexuality -actually on a public forum just ridiculed the elected first minister of Scotland for being fat???
I feel the love here 😀
The ICM poll seems to be the first poll for awhile that shows a direct swing from No to Yes rather going to Don’t Know. Memo to self to get that bet on.
Welsh not British
I’m not sure if that is a straight red. 🙂
I’d rather have the Krankies ! Well no !
o/t On Murnaghan …… Well not going too bad BUT Mundell just said he was in Turkey ! This when they were discussing Syria . Right , the only Conservative MP in Scotland goes to Turkey I hope on holiday after Johann made such a song and dance about our First Minister going on a trade mission to Chicago ! , and how much it cost !
better hurry marcia, william hill odds still 7/2.
I can see his lips moving and I know he is making a noise, but all I can hear is – I love the union because my career depends on it.
I know nothing about Twitter but John along with other artists warned against the Conservatives back before the 2010 election. John is political and evangelical. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with him warning people against the Tories but I am sure Tories did and I am sure some of them might have been intemperate about it.
I don’t know how easy it is to dredge up such responses but it would be entertaining if they were still available.
In the meantime we should play nice on this one. The scare tactics are failing and a video of John repeating BT jokes about the SNP are not damaging to the Yes campaign. They make the No campaign look a tad desperate.
If your ears need cleaning out after his appalling shred of The Cotter’s Saturday Night, and you don’t think the Bard was suitably revvered [sic], you can do worse than go here to hear how it should be done.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/the_cotters_saturday_night/
H&S – better than that – they are showing the BT crowd for what they are… playground bullies…
@Alba4Eva,
It’s what one might come up with if they’d never heard of Scotland before but just had it described to them by an idiot. It’s a foul piece of Shortbread Tin smuggery – Oh look at the stupid Americans getting Burns Supper wrong. Personally I’d be chuffed to bits if I were in another country and found my hosts were holding a Burns Night. I certainly wouldn’t be sneering at them in effect for not being Scottish. I don’t know what is more embarrassing, a Scot sneering at hospitable foreigners or that he and BT thought it would appeal to the Scottish people. have any of them ever actually met a Scot?
Bets on. All to win – even on over 55% win
Betting No 1/6 – started 1/9
Betting Yes 7/2 – started 9/2
I actually think this is more helpful to Yes than No, ’cause the folk who find it funny are most likely to be No-voter’s anyway, whereas those who are true don’t knows and who are looking for an improvement in the level of debate are going to be turned off by this childish nonsense.
Ironic isn’t it that such desperate garbage appears on the day of such positive news for the Yes campaign
OMG!
Pathetic
Sky’s Burn’s Supper Con
The OAP’s Border celebration.
Betfair odds tumbling. Yes now at 4.7. I got on as high as 6.0
Ah, Jack Foster did the edit. Here was me thinking it was some young lad hunched over his laptop in the bedroom 🙂
Dearie me, cringe, cringe, cringety, cringe.
The man went down in my estimation quite some time ago when I saw him interviewed in Scotland for the first time, and he put on this ‘scottishy ‘ accent throughout, yet in any other interview situation, including at home, he speaks with an American accent.
It’s what they call ‘acting’.
If this is what a ‘lovebomb’ looks like, then, no thanks please.
Truly pathetic.
The latest poll is probably a swing of 5% from Don’t Know to Yes and then another 5% from No to Don’t Know. I heard on the grapevine recently that this is in line with what the Yes camp’s state-of-the-art software is showing. Looking good. 🙂
Comical Ali
loveplum, dropped in like a damp neep
Ah hate tae say it, but it is a belter o’ ah jakit!
His comic timing is bloody terrible.
Shoulda brought a box. Shoulda used Ronnie Corbett.
This Sky thing is getting tedious, first that ridiculous poll of OAPs, then Darling waggling his eyebrows.
I thought you might all like to read Prof John Curtice’s take on the poll – in case you don’t know him he appears on TV now and then. I’d rather have Jim Mitchell.
http://tinyurl.com/pxd337p
– it rather pours cold water on his old survey released this week. I suppose it is a matter of timing.
The Tree of Liberty
I can’t wait for the Commonwealth Games.
Watching scary Alistair Darling ! He claimed to have saved us during the Bank Crash . NOT according to an Aljazeera programme yesterday , in fact they mentioned Brown and Darling as some of the men that actually caused the crash because they had deregulated the banks in UK . So only you think that Alistair !
Just watched the full version of John Barrowman – what a load of inane pish.
Who could have forecast that BT could have plunged through the erse of the barrel so early?
The only way is down.
Well folks that is the BT case for the union by one of its more intelligent, sincere and knowledgable supporters. Next week we will have Popeye, scripted by Blair McDougal.
AYE THE POSITIVE CASE FOR BETTER TOGETHER.
VOTE YES FOR SANITY & FREEDOM.
Good gawd is this for real? John Barrowman, that hot talent at the epicentre of Scottish culture wearing a tartan jacket with his fake accent (which one I’m not sure), ridiculing Alex Salmond over his weight as a ‘love bomb’ against Scottish Independence? I mean, REALLY! I wonder how he is going to celebrate the 4th July this year, just wondrin’.
(Part 2) cue the Krankies …
okaaay back from the panto, the new poll looks mightily good, YES 37% (NO 44%), I always beleive that if we reach 40% before April then we’ve won it fandabifuckindozie 🙂
The most monumentally stupid thing BT could have done to promote the union.
Think of all those millions of undecided folk that are currently tuning into the BT website to watch John address real Scots in has real Scottish tongue telling them that their government is shite, Burns wouldn’t know a cabinet meeting if it jumped up and bit him on the arse and their FM is a deluded fatty who talks pish.
Come next Saturday night they’re watching John host a show in London with his real American accent without a care.
What will they think?
News just in: as a lethal Cringe Bomb detonated instead of Love Bomb, Alistair Darling moved quickly to deal with the damage.
Alistair Darling seems to have learned something when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and in charge of the UK financial system when the banks and financial systems were in chaos.
Bigger is better and safer?
@Ken500 – Yes seen their poll on the news.
Create your own DIY opinion poll
Take 3 tall glasses, paint on Y, N and DK
Buy packet of large blue tiddlywinks and fill glasses randomly – Result
Just noted Pippa Carrer of the London Evening Standard tweeting ‘Now what would Salmond think of that? Orkney going independent taking oil & marine power w them ‘
Obviously didn’t understand what was being said
I’ve just read Fiona Hyslop’s “Immortal Memory”
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/01/25/the-immortal-memory/
Barrowman Together has made a notable fool of himself in this context. How degraded a culture do he and his backers imagine they are “contributing” to?
Mr Barrowman is pretty lucky growing up that his family dodged the de-industrialisation of Scotland. So not entirely surprising that he sees Scotland run from abroad as a good thing. He has no direct experience if why it is bad.
But that jaiket!
About as patronising as David Cameron getting into drag to address a Stonewall event.
I am a big fan of John Barrowman, but this vid he made for Better Together is utter rubbish!! heres a less glam word for it Pish !!
@ColinRadburn1
ROTUK is welcome to him.
I am very disappointed in John and the way he put his point across in this video.
I agree Robert, he seems to belittle the ppl of Scotland.
Oh dear, is that not the most cringeworthy thing ever?
Robert Knight says:
It did seem like it was aimed only at staunch unionists rather than an appeal to the undecided.
Bizarre!
Who said he couldn’t die?
Just read Fiona Hyslop,s Immortal memory speech .PURE CLASS ! then watched J Barrowman,s cringeworthy effort ! HAVE YOU WATCHED YOURSELF JOHN ! I think you’ve been used !
Douglas Alexander ” were better run by a Tory Westminster government than independence”. My interpretation GOOD SCOTTISH SOCIALIST. (PARASITE)
Sunday Politics: Gary Robertson interrogating Marco Biagio. BBC could save a lot of money by just letting Robertson rant on himself to an empty chair.
It is almost like a death rattle and an acknowledgement that the game is over.
I am still shaking my head at the crassness of it all.
When it comes to promoting weird causes,John Barrowman has form (albeit in character) 🙂
In case you don’t recognise him he’s the blond SS Officer.
I hope that works – if not could Rev Stu fix it please!!
Hmmm obviously it doesn’t
Is it me, or does Alex Rowley look like a potential leader of Labour after the people of Scotland votes Yes ? (just been watching his interview on BBC Scotland Politics Sunday, very much watching his P’s and Q’s)
In the same week, that the Mail has boiled itself into a froth over abuse, abuse, abuse …out pops good old John Barrowman, backed by the Better Together gang and they hit us with slander and mis-information in one brilliant video!
Basically, John has just destroyed the very notion of David Cameron’s ‘love-bombing’ exercise to the Scottish people.
Priceless!
Sunday Politics … Gary Robertson talking to Rowley about his first piece of work as a new MSP . He will be supporting J Baillies bill about the BEDROOM TAX ! These labour folk are unbelievable ! They steal our policies without blinking an eye . I live in FIFE ! Couldn’t run FIFE COUNCIL ! Was caught lying on youtube about Council tax freeze policies for labour in Fife . Despicable man !
Its the first time I have ever seen John Barrowman on screen and not running. Its only his mouth doing that. Whit a riddy.
“I am Scottish, I do have an opinion”
Fair enough John Barrowman , but you don’t live here and you don’t have a vote in the Referendum!
Are these the only people that Better Together can muster up to keep us Scots in line?
OT, but good news
A poll commissioned by the Hootsmon on Sunday and out today shows the gap between YES and NO down to just 7%
YES: 37%
NO : 44%
The paper says,
“This is the largest swing towards a Yes vote recorded so far in the campaign.”
The game is very much on.
Link to Archived Scotland on Sunday article
Nice to see he used his Scottish accent on this occasion …pmsl.
When news channels are viewed re referendum and politics in general,it always brings to mind the 2010 general election.
John Barrowman, in the comment,s on SoS, ie, the REV,not
staying in Scotland (ah but he is a Scot Mr Barrowman )like
you Mr Barrowman the Rev,s,never been tae Denny, but unlike you Mr Barrowman, the Rev would,nt have trouble
finding it,unlike you JB, the Rev has a good command of the history of Scotland.
Keep Trident, and even more folk will not have a bedroom in Scotland.
Why is it Darling,can spout shite on national TV,without
any face to face debate. Nicola TAK him DOON, n MAK it very SOON.
Was embarrassing to watch him. Wish he’d stick to one accent.
ronnie anderson
I meant to say thanks the other day, for making the extra effort.
I’m afraid I am having to invoke the Trades description Act here – there were no gags in that piece. Perhaps a better title would have been: –
“John Barrowmans immortal memory -forget it!”
Murnaghan this morning did you,s notice the pregnant pause,
after Ken Livingstone spoke, methinks some, hasty direction,sfrom the Editor.
” I am Scottish, I do have an opinion” “Scottish gov in Bute House is a parcel of rogues” “Alex Salmond is a pud”
Mr Barrowman you are one klassy guy.
First love bomb results in ‘blue on blue’ incident.
“I hope that works – if not could Rev Stu fix it please!!”
There’s nothing there to fix, just a blank space.
Wow! Is this guy on at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival? I’ll take fellow comedians along – we can bow at the feet of a true master.
Puddings of Scotland unite, you have nothing to lose but your Barrowmans
@Seanair,an that,s as far as ah goat,it wix gittin ma gout jist lookin at the picture,Ah,ll caw the heid aff the batturd,sos Rev,ah should hi,ve said Guanno.
@Papadocx,Popeye wiz signed by Wing,s week,s ago,he,s a yes
B Mac dougall canny use him, Popeye,s IQs to far advanced,
fur B MC D, he ,s better sticking wie the magic runaroon,n zebidde.
I lasted for about 45 seconds of this clown’s cheap shots.
John Barrowman,s better stickin wie the Village people
Together,he wud be the Indian the wan that wear,s the
feather,s ( boa of course )> Sos to all our gay & lesbien
& bi sexual friend,s,wee ruthie wuld be awe er ma comment
its SATIRE,ah wud have said SALTIRE, but wee Ruthie wud be
wantin the site shut doon, where,s Big Jim Morph, when she
need,s him, in the play doh boxhidin.
How embarrassing :-/
I bet you he loves his wee dug and sausage rolls as well.
@cameronB12.33,i do but try n try,try,again,if ah hud tae lay doon ah,d miss you,s lot.
“First love bomb results in ‘blue on blue’ incident.”
You mean tartan on tartan incident,
there fixed that for you.
hi
Its bizarre watching Barrowman calling it “our union.” On that youtube Jonathan Ross thing, he says he’s thrilled that he’s just got married at home in Palm Springs, California where he’s lived for over 20 years. I can understand such a cringy defence of “our union” if he actually had any connection at all with “our union” but why these guys are so against new democracy for Scotland when they have virtually nothing to do with Scotland is really really odd.
Would California like to be taxed and ruled by Westminster, is the next bonkers extension.
Pretty diasppointed, with John Barrowmans attitude, its almost sneering, he may not like Alex Salmond, but whats not to like about independence, another Scot who’s seen the bright lights of London and been blinded by them.
Is this really the best celebrity endorsement that Better Together can come up with? Wow. Even Amy MacDonald’s wee “you got to be shitting me” tweet had more impact, humour and spontaneity than this “mystery” contrived dribble that has been getting a week-long build up.
It is really difficult to take Barrowman seriously, he doesn’t come across as particularly clever and the overall impression is very, very cheesy. The snidey insults were a big mistake: they might appeal to the hardline no voters but will do absolutely nothing to convert the don’t knows to their cause.
The worst part is the Scottish accent which no one has ever heard him use in public before, that is just plain old embarrassing.
“Chicogo” was a hoot, I laughed out loud.
Keep up the good work, Better Together!
It beggars belief, that any Celebrity would not work out that over 50% of Scotland either have not made up their mind or are Voting YES… why would any Panto star with an ailing career, and half a brain, risk alienate over half of its audience , regardless of which side of the fence they sit on! To make the stupid career finishing statement, to a country, you have no Vote in, or don’t live in.. Is beyond stupid!
My take on the Immortal Mammary and other events of yesterday:
Live from Chicogo: Widow Twanky’s Saturday Night
http://logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/live-from-chicogo-widow-twankys.html
@Roddy Macdonald: good blog, I especially enjoyed the tartan Krankies photo. Did the Project Fear pre-publicity really claim that a celebrity would come out as a no supporter? Are they pretending that they missed the occasion when he came out as a no supporter in September? They must have a serious shortage of No Slebs if they are having to launch them over and over again…
http://archive.is/3XYjL
The video must be really so popular that BT disabled the ratings for it. They just dont want us seeing how unpopular it is.
And next week…Sheena Easton!
Who is he? I have (genuinely) no idea who this bloke is.
Denzil. You are so right on that.
Hazel. Lucky you, seriously!
To be completely honest, this one actually kind of stings. The petty jibes at Salmond don’t bother me, so much as the perpetuation of the idea that independence is really “just” Salmond’s dream, and not the will of hundreds of thousands of normal Scottish people. The idea of self-determination as parochial coming from a person now living in AMERICA is a perverse joke. And the idea of insinuating one of the foremost republicans and advocates of the common man would support the union as it is is a grotesque distortion akin to claiming William Wallace would back the union. But it’s a bit more personal coming from John Barrowman.
A wee bit of backstory. Every summer, my family and I go to visit relatives in Arizona. They came to America in the 1950s, and though they’ve lived there for decades (first California, then Arizona in the 1970s), they never lost their Scottish brogue, and always kept up with the news. They watched, aghast, at what Thatcher wrought on the country, and what is continuing to be done. So while they are deeply skeptical of independence happening, they can understand the desire for change.
Well, I made a good friend in Arizona, and since my visit coincides with a comic convention, we decided to go there too. That was three years ago, and I plan on doing the same this year. Last year, John Barrowman was one of the guests. Now, Phoenix Comic-Con is a pretty huge event: 55,000 people attended last year. That’s five times as many people who live in my hometown! And John Barrowman was first-billed guest: attendance for his panels packed the 3,000 seated ballroom. Think about that: we had alumni of classic TV shows, comic writers, and film stars, and Barrowman was exalted above them all. That gives an idea of his popularity in the US.
So since my family are big Barrowman fans (more for his singing than Who/Torchwood), I decided to splash out a bit, and get a photo op. I managed to get in early, and the organizer was a lovely lady of Scots-Irish ancestry, which I think might’ve had a hand in it. So we got in: John was lovely, vivacious and accomodating to all, and addressed the queue, ensuring them he’ll make time for all of us. So when my grandmother came up, announcing “I’m from Scotland too!”, he immediately, instinctively, went back to his Scottish accent with a “get out!”
So we all got our photos taken, but there was a moment, crystalised in time, where a man who’s lived far from Scotland most of his life had a connection with his homeland in the most unlikely of places. All the pizzazz, the naturalised US bravado, fell away like a mask, and he was wee John frae Glesga again, with wee ladies like his family in Millport. It was a really honest, true moment.
This here? This mockery of everything Burns stood for, this belittling of millions of people’s desire for self-determination as little more than Alex Salmond’s ambition, this reduction of Scottish culture into tartan and puddings? This isn’t the John I saw in Arizona. This is the showbiz, the persona, the artifice, cultivated and moulded over a career. And if he truly believes the Scots would be better off leaving nearly all their powers to Westminster, hemorrhaging money to London, and constantly denied their democratic mandate by virtue of their numbers, then I’m sorely disappointed and saddened.
That moment in Arizona was a special, rare moment of connection between Scots in a faraway land, a quiet celebration of how far we Scots have come and continue to go. The notion that John has aligned himself with a cause which is, by its very definition, designed to stifle Scots’ capacity to stand for itself on the world stage in favour of Westminster, fills me with a bleak sadness at how badly he has failed in the cause he claims to uphold: an international, outward and forward-looking nation to be proud of. I would’ve hoped John would have seen that such a future lies with independence, not with continued domination under Westminster.
@Hazel Lewry
It’s said he was in Dr Who & Torchwood. Apparently he can’t die… except he just did.
Oof, how embarrassing! And did he just say ‘parcel of rogues’?
Um, he just tried to say that when Burns talked about “Parcel of rogues” he was attacking the SNP, when in fact he was attacking the people who signed the Act of Union. At the end of a video they showed the url to donate money to Better Together. Asking for campaign funding while lying through his teeth, isn’t there supposed to be some sort of law against that?
Brilliant line there Albert Herring!
The parcel of rogues quote is so well known I have to ask, did he write this himself or did he just read what was given to him. If he wrote it himself it shows a complete misunderstanding of Scottish history and Burns work in relation to the politics of the time. If he just read what he was given, it’s a pretty poor show. For a man who complains about the treatment of the gay community to then go online and bully a guy for being fat shows he doesn’t do irony either.
Anyway, here’s a link to Mr Barrowman meeting his friend David Cameron…
http://www.johnbarrowman.com/fanzone/outabout/10downing.shtml