Wings Over Scotland

Chris …if a picture spoke a 1,000 words…

If the Yes campaign wanted to put a poster on a billboard. This is the one. This is the one that would make people have a good damn hard think…

@JLT

Beat me to it, excellent for a billboard as you say.

Thanks Chris.

Billboard crowd fund Rev

CEO of BP, Bob Dudley was given a package worth $6.8 million in 2011 and no doubt has made a lot more since.

He has nothing to lose if Scotland votes for independence so the only reason I can imagine he chose to make his opinions known, was to mitigate the report highlighting the poor economic performance of BP.

Operating in chaotic countries like Nigeria, Iraq & Libya for example doesn’t seem to bother Bob at all.

Odd then that he’s chosen to mention that the costs of a back office operation on the outskirts of Aberdeen is one of his key concerns.

He might be a knowledgeable oil man but he is politically inept. The previous CEO, Tony Hayward suffered from the same problem. And he got the boot.

Regarding Jimmy Hood my MP! Please don’t blame the people of Lanark for his 13,470 (29%) safe majority that allows him to spout pish without fear for his Westminster ambitions.

Lanark and Hamilton East also includes Larkhall and Strathaven not exactly hotbeds of nationalism for differing reasons. Lots of wee former mining villages as well.

link to en.wikipedia.org

Sorry an error in my above comment. Please exclude Strathaven.

Weeembarasedfacething. 🙁

If you missed Channel 4 News last night here’s the full version of the cringeworthy Matt Frei interview with A Salmond.

The ‘Have your haggis and eat it’ part is around 3.36, I believe now deleted from their website.

Thanks to the wonderful work of FMQ Unofficial we have the original.

New reports published yesterday by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) have re-emphasied Scotland’s key economic strengths and the potential to improve Scotland’s economy with the full powers of independence.

Polls demonstrate that the economy is the key issue for voters in the referendum. The evidence demonstrates that people in Scotland will be better off as a result of independence.

Here are 10 points published in the NIESR reports today.
1) New Gross National Income (GNI) calculation implies that Scotland is even wealthier than previously thought.

The major revelation in the report is that new calculations of Scotland’s finances may upgrade Scotland’s economic position even further. Evidence already shows that Scotland is the wealthiest area of the UK outside of London and the South East. Scotland put in 9.9% of tax and received 9.3% of spending (GERS figures).

The report by John McLaren and Jo Armstrong concludes by suggesting that GNI calculations may place Scotland in an even stronger fiscal position:

“this implies that Scots are richer than had heretofore been recognised. This also means that previous (GERS-based) estimates of the Scottish fiscal balance are underestimating revenues and overestimating the size of any inherited net deficit” (page R12).

link to businessforscotland.co.uk

link to businessforscotland.co.uk

Matt Frei… what a fucking awful little horrible shite of a man.

Sorry for the swearing.

I thought Matt Frei was poor. The haggis jibe followed by you only want PM after your name shows how out of touch he is. Disappointing from Channel 4 news. I usually expect far better from them.

Another terrific sketch from Chris Cairns.

The future Sir Dud Bobley must be very pleased with his illogical intervention.

Thanks for the link, Albalha

“You just want to be called Prime Minister, is that what this is all about?”

Schoolboy stuff, Mr Frei. Is that the level of debate we’re going to get from you?

Any chance of a total ripping apart of the disgusting Herald article this morning in the Herald “Fresh blow to Salmond plans for pound and pensions”, which is either totally incompetent journalism by Marcus Gardham, or they published a Better Together press release by mistake.

The Herald should print a retraction on Monday on the front page, and hang its head in shame. Marcus should be sent on a journalism course.

The Herald was good for a time, but it looks like it’s been nobbled.

Jim Hood is the worst of the worse, he would sell the hopes and ambitions of his fellow countrymen for the pomp and patronage of Westminster while some of his constituents probably have to decide whether to heat or eat. He is a bloated fucker who would probably rather be reamed by a red hot poker than leave the blessed union.

In an independent Scotland I think the correct term will be Chancellor not prime minister. Whether the Alex Salmond will be Chancellor will depend on the democratic will of the people of Scotland.

I wish they’d all lay off the haggis like.

Good cartoon, shame the irony.

Matt Frei seemed like a very good example of a badly-informed, hectoring wee tosser. Interviewing someone of Alec Salmond’s calibre allowed him to reveal those unpleasant characteristics in himself very clearly. As that was evidently the intention, I guess Channel 4 must be quite pleased with themselves. They did the Yes campaign a big favour too, of course, whether they meant to or not. So I guess Matt ate his bratwurst and still had it to chew on later!

The criminals in Westminster cost Scotland £10Billion+ a year. £7Billion + £1.5Billion Trident + £1.5Billion (a tax on ‘loss leading’ alcohol).

The £ has fallen against the Euro. It was £ = €1.44. Now £ = €1.21.

Matt Frei is very badly informed.

‘Haggis’? ‘Want to be PM’? So AS joined a Party committed to Independence.

The haggis jibe is contextually racist. Like African Americans and fried chicken; Scots and fried Mars Bars; French and garlic; anyone of African decent and bananas; it really depends on the circumstances and the perceived motivation of the doer.

Certainly the haggis comment made me pause and it was not a pleasant interlude. It seemed to me he was referencing ethnicity pejoratively. He just couldn’t help himself.

Do you think if the interviewee had been black would Frei have used “banana” under ANY circumstances? ‘Course not.

Sorry, forgot to mention, that cartoon should be on every billboard we can afford to put it on.

Not that bothered about the haggis comment. It was a good interview where Alex got a lengthy opportunity to very clearly articulate his case. It finished on a good humoured note and I think that Alex felt pretty pleased with how it went. Matt Frei actually sounded quite warm by the end of it too. Haggis aside, Matt Frei left a lot more space for the questions to be answered clearly and in a way that the viewers would be able to digest than Brewer and Co. would have.

Alex had a good day yesterday. It has been a good couple of weeks all in.

Reckon it’s definitely Game On now.

Great cartoon, and I’m in for any billboard crowd-funding!

@X_Sticks
It is indeed adapted from a photo – of Easterhouse, I think. I’d tell you the source but I’m sure their copyright lawyers don’t any more help in tracking me down!

@ronnie anderson
@Freddie Threepwood
Sadly it could be any scheme in any Scottish town city or village.

Thanks guys – good to know my brain is not completely scrambled!

O/T good response to Cameron’s love-bomb from Ian Bell in the Herald:

link to archive.is

@Seanair

What’s worse than the story itself though is the fact it happened at all. For a time the Herald seemed to be presenting a balanced coverage, with stories against, but stories for as well. Then I noticed MacWhirter adopting more and more the Unionist take, even using the same language as on their website. Gardham was always a bit distorting, but his articles weren’t too bad, it was the headlines that were misleading even to the contents of the article.

But this latest is just sheer blatant lies, both in the highly selective article itself, and a headline that bears no relation to the NIESR reports – themselves portraying only the worst case scenario for Scotland.

Perhaps YES campaigners could carry a tablet if they ahve one, or even arrange access to a laptop, and carry a dvd or even a flash drice, with some of these actual reports on them, so they can show people on a screen just how much they’re being lied to by the disgusting media in the UK.

@ Dorothy Devine 9.50

Sarah Smith is hostile to Scottish independence and is being brought in to do a demolition job. Fair and balanced view from anyone at BBC Scotland?. Aye pigs will fly.

O/T seen this on FB, Lovely poem by Jock Campbell.

The smouldering..

9 September 2011 at 21:17

The man at the podium sells a grand vision.

Spins us a line on democracy and wisdom.

Twisting the words to sound measured in tone.

Burning our senses, our flesh to the bone.

I stare at the screen in blank disbelief.

Numbed by the image, stunned into grief.

The sound has now faded, my ears cannot hear,

The mantra repeated; ‘Please do not fear.’

Before his words end I am out on the street.

I’m walking in silence, on poorly-clad feet.

I walked countless miles through the wind and the rain.

My limbs never tire, I am numb from the pain.

What has become of the nation I knew?

Where are the men who’d fight for their due?

Standing together for what they believe?

Supporting their neighbours in love and in grief.

Before me stands tall the castle of power.

A thousand spires shadowed by a Gothic clock-tower.

Surrounded by barriers of cold stone and steel,

Protecting the “entitled” from the honest man’s zeal.

I stood there in silence, my heart in dismay.

Stared at the walls through the heat of the day.

I realised as hunger had come and had gone.

Here at the barriers, I was not alone.

To my left stood a woman her face streamed with tears.

To my right a young man was contorted with fears.

A girl in a wheelchair had her head in her hands.

An impoverished old man with a child in his arms.

At first just a handful joined me at the gate.

Ten thousand more had come before late.

Before the clock had struck nine a million had gathered.

Westminster village was completely surrounded.

We stood there in silence, our eyes stared as one,

At the walls of corruption we gathered our frown.

A smouldering rage burned us deeply within.

Let the past burn in hell and the future begin.

By the force of our minds we’ll tear down the walls.

Rewrite the rulebooks, democracy calls!

Free our society from greed and selfish will.

Make opportunity equal for one and for all.

Jock 2012

Good cartoon but too optimistic. It implies that No will at least keep it as bad as it is. It won’t, it will get worse.

The Man in the Jar said: I saw the channel4 interview yesterday. I must say I was disappointed with Matt Frei. I would have thought that him being German would have altered his perspective at least a little bit.

To paraphrase myself from Derek Bateman’s blog comments a few days ago, his real name was Albert Matt Frei but he changed it by deed poll to avoid suspicion.

That cartoon is brilliant. I also think the pics of Maggie with the caption “vote no, it’s what she would have wanted” would be a fabulous vote-winner in selected areas.

Major

Do you mean Arbeit Macht Frei or am I missing the joke?

Jimsie , my thinking is that all will be under scrutiny by the time she gets started ,from the academics who reported on bias , to the electorate who recognise the bias and those who monitor such things officially.

It may be naïve but I live in hope of an even playing field in the latter months of the campaign.

Having read that back , I have to say I also believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

That interview was disgraceful! Disappointed in Matt Frei, he comes across much more reasonable on radio 4 but showed his true character here.
Increasingly impressed with Salmond though.

Nur ein Zufall (natürlich).

jingly jangly says:

A brilliant post, I hope someone puts it on Facebook/twitter.
It should have more exposure.

@Les – you tease!

I thought Alex Salmond was great in the Channel 4 interview. He was obviously relishing the questions. I used to really admire Matt Frei. His reports a few years ago from the debacle of New Orleans floods were the stuff of real journalism. But the last twice I’ve heard him on the subject of Scottish independence, he’s sounded petty. Talking about the currency, it was ‘we’ and ‘you’ showing clearly which camp he was in and the snide haggis and prime minister remarks yesterday were unworthy of him. I do believe the London journalists are only beginning to wake up to this story.

Sign me up for billboard crowdfund if it’s placed in front of the same type of communities. Or can you not just send it to yesscotland and get them to use it?

@Chris Cairns
Can I use that as my fb cover please?

@
Barontorc
Pete Wishart calling mundell a Scottish national treasure had me in tears of laughter .after all he is an endangered species

Macht Frie used that ‘haggis’ jibe because he knew he was losing: a bit like a kid upending a ludo board when he is getting beaten.

Imagine though, if he had been debating with the Prime Minister of Egypt or Saudi Arabia, and made the same comment but using the word bacon instead.

Haggis and eat it? ffs,now we can win,they are down to this with 8 months to go.