Harry Potter And The Cycle Of News
A casual observer might perhaps wonder if JK Rowling, no longer writing books about wizards for children, simply wants to be noticed.
Twice in the space of a few weeks she’s appeared on newspaper front pages bleating piously about the terrible hordes of cyber- and other-nats. Yesterday the Independent, Telegraph, Scotsman, Herald, Daily Record and more all ran dismal, whiny pieces about her (entirely evidence-free) claims that the SNP was infested with mad, bitter Anglophobes just waiting for a signal to invade Derby again or something.
No particular barrage of abuse appears to have been unleashed upon the former author to provoke the outburst, but seemingly for a lack of anything better to do with her time she had a good old moan anyway and the press lapped it up.
And the reason it’s all so very tedious is that the papers might as well run stories claiming that there’s a chance of rain tomorrow.
We’ve mentioned recently that the summer months are the “silly season” for politics, when both the Scottish and UK parliaments are eyeing their holidays and nobody’s really doing very much. Alert readers will have spotted that Wings Over Scotland has been taking things a little easier than in the weeks before the general election, and as a website that’s a luxury we can enjoy in quiet times.
For newspapers and broadcast media, though, it’s different. The Six O’Clock News is the same length every day whether there’s anything happening or not. Papers can vary their pagecounts to some degree when things are slow, but only up to a point – you can’t put out a six-page edition of The Times in July because there’s no politics or football and hope people buy it anyway.
And so it is that the witless honkings of someone whose opinion is notable only because they have five million followers and enough money to try to influence political events (although Rowling’s seven-figure funding of Labour has done it precious little good of late), rather than because it offers any insight or novelty, become news.
In any large demographic of people, whether defined politically or culturally or anything else, it’s a nailed-on certainty that a percentage of its supporters will be nutters. It doesn’t matter if it’s Eurosceptics, feminists, One Direction fans or the left-handed – some minority of the group will be racist, some will be illiterate, some will be mentally disturbed, some will have unsavoury views on totally unrelated subjects, and so on.
So if you want to attack that group, it’s not news to be able to trawl up half a dozen examples of unpleasant behaviour. News would be (for example) an academic study proving that Group X had more propensity towards Characteristic Y than Group Z did.
But those are terribly expensive, so instead the media pads out column inches and air time by doing a quick word search, finding a couple of slavering halfwits with 57 followers between them and a rentaquote MP to condemn them, and the job’s done.
And the bonus, of course, is that even perfectly reasonable people get so sick of this transparent ploy after a while – of being attacked as xenophobic fascists just because they’d like their country to choose its own governments – that they get irritated and exasperated and direct their own intemperate comments at both the attention-seeking celebrity and the media, which the latter can then gleefully jump on all over again any time they get a slow news day or just can’t be bothered doing any actual work.
(Ironically, in Rowling’s case the volume of abuse her fanbase will then hurl at anyone it deems to have slighted its heroine will eclipse any she got by orders of magnitude.)
JK Rowling has more money than a sane human being could spend in a lifetime. She could stab a pin into a map of Africa and go and end poverty and disease in whichever country it landed in. She could build herself a gold castle. She could mould her Twitter followers into a Fagin-style shoplifting army.
She could open a free school and call it Hogwarts Academy. She could devise an Iron Man-style robosuit and fight crime. She could – and this is what we’d do if we were worth half a billion quid – buy a modest hill somewhere and landscape it into an exact 1:1 scale replica of the first world of Super Mario 64.
Instead, apparently motivated by an unshakeable bitterness that her near-limitless money and fame still don’t stop some people from daring to disagree with her politics, she seemingly sits around on Twitter all day looking for stuff to get upset about.
As anyone who’s been on Twitter for more than five minutes will tell you, that’s a task that makes shooting fish in a barrel look like climbing Mount Everest on a pogo stick. Shrieking “SOMEONE WAS RUDE ON THE INTERNET!” as if it’s news is such a crass insult to the intelligence of anyone with an IQ above room temperature that it’s a miracle people’s reaction is as modest as a bit of colourful language.
(We’re not even going to get into the wider ludicrousness of grown adults pretending to be shocked when someone says a four-letter word in 2015, the facepalming insanity of a civilisation where some sounds are deemed to be more offensive than others.)
JK Rowling made an obscene fortune out of making up stories about fantasy worlds and flying broomsticks and magic spells. The tragedy of her life is that when it comes to enjoying the fruits of her labour, she’s so pathologically devoid of imagination.
[…] A casual observer might perhaps wonder if JK Rowling, no longer writing books about wizards for children, simply wants to be noticed. Twice in the space of a few weeks she’s appeared on newspaper front pages bleating piously about “cybernats”.. […]
You are tempting fate here Stu!
One thing I would disagree with though. I’m sure she doesn’t personally trawl through twitter for rude words. It is far more likely she employs staff for that.
Once she gets her damehood she will cheer up. Can we not nominate her? Services to the British Empire deserves a gong.
Vile Cybernat blogger vilifies ordinary hard-working single parent.
You beast.
Routine smearing of Scots aside by JK Rowling, she’s not alone and you cant overestimate just how determined very rich and powerful people are to stop Scotland becoming an independent nation state.
Bizarre display of panicky and furious unionist vote NO or else determination coming up now on BBC r4’s Question Time debate panel thing, Lord Digby Jones, Rory the Tory MP, Johann Lamont MSP, all going mental at just this one issue for JK Rowling/England/UKOK.
It’s not fun.
“VILE CYBERNAT OVERLORD CONTROLLER LAUNCHES VICIOUS TIRADE OF HATE AGAINST OUR QUEEN OF HEART… ERR QUEEN OF HOGWARTS”
‘”He doesn’t even LIVE here”, says outraged anonymous Scottish Labour MP.’
It does get a tad tedious, when these people attack a genuine democratic movement, just because it took away their hegemony.
They won the referendum but, I don’t think they’ve got over it. They then lost Scotland, they will never get over that.
It’s called democracy, deal with it.
She writes children books,maybe she is writing another as we post.
Influence the younger ones MAYBE,MAYBE.
FFS FFS FFS
Scotland appears in Rowling’s books as a grouse moor containing a posh school which is connect to the rest of the world via Kings Cross station. None of her subsequent ranting indicates that she has any deeper understanding of Scotland than this. She’s an irrelevance.
Saw this today and laughed out loud …
“JK Rowling, sitting on a mountain of Children’s Pocket Money like a Dragon in a fairy story” – Frankie Boyle.
You do realise, that the chance of you now getting an invitation to meet with the Queen of England so she can pat you on each shoulder with a giant bread knife is zero?
If I had her wealth, I’d probably spend about half of it on gambling, women & alcohol.
And the other half, would probably end up just getting wasted.
JK Rowling is utterly hypocritical. I quite clearly remember her stating that she would vote no and then support any party offering devo max (read: full fiscal autonomy) yet she still acts as nothing more than an aggressive Labour shill that seeks to denigrate the SNP at any given moment.
I’ve been much happier since blocking her on Twitter 🙂
16-17year olds won the right to vote in Scotland the same day she pops up with anti snp smears. Next day media full of snp bad. Coincidence ? She has pumped a rather large amount of pocket money into labour and the glorious union.
I note that statement by Stephen Daisley (copied above)refers to our most successful living author. I think a number of people would take issue with that. By what criteria is it being judged? Surely a professional writer wouldn’t allow himself to think that the amount of money one makes is the way of judging success. Quality has to be a factor as well.
I think I will go put a pro independence post on the Daily Mails website.
Dont envisage any abuse at all.
Shouldn’t that be “…psycho of news”?
Is she still doing this? Oh look, there’s a few nutters in a huge group of people. Well, aye, that’s pretty much a given as you say. The real difference with the independence supporting parties is they don’t tend to use them as their spokesperson. I’m sure we’ve all seen the interesting opinions of Labour politicians over the years.
Slow news day doesn’t really cover it.
Noted with a chuckle Yvette Cooper saying ‘no deals with the SNP if I’m Labour leader’ as though this will be news to anyone in Scotland where they’ve been on the ‘Labour says NO’ track for years.
Of course, it’s not aimed at Scotland anyway. It’s aimed at those eejits in England that fell for the Tory bollocks in the election campaign.
I’ve nothing against Ms Rowling, she’s entitled to her opinion, but I do suspect she needs to get out more and more importantly listen to a wider view.
“our most successful living author”
Really? Some might say she ripped off characters and themes from Lord of the Rings by Tolkien; Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll; Willy the Wizard by Adrian Jacobs; and Star Wars.
Daisley’s objectivity is frequently blinded by his Labour prejudices. Is he still pining for ‘the party my grandad voted for’?
Super Mario 64! Really!
Instead of using her vast wealth to prop up Right Wing political parties like the `Red Tories` and `Better Together`she should do as Andrew Carnegie did with his wealth (in 2015, $4.76 billion) and use it to give a helping hand to the disadvantaged.
I do not think JK is a bad person I just think that she has `fallen in with the wrong crowd`.
You’d think the President of Gingerbread, and writer of children’s fiction, would have her work cut out in austerity Britain doing what she could to help the record numbers of children and lone parent families subjected to living in poverty in her beloved United Kingdom.
Stephen Daisley’s tweet is a bit weird. It’s what she said that prompts the objections.
Seems a bit celebrity groupie-ish otherwise.
Telegraph, 11 June 2014. JKR said …
… does she now accept just how bad a mistake was made? Does she have cause, along with other No voters, to look back and wonder, “what have we done?”
No significant new powers, attacks on civil liberties, undermining democratic will, cranking up of austerity, continuation of WMDs, Tory governments with no mandate for the foreseeable future.
OT but still medieval – at the risk of being smeared bravehearts – there’s a made for American TV documentary on William Wallace on youtube with interesting CGI reconstructions of the buildings of the time. 45 minutes
link to youtube.com
galamcennalath
I wouldn’t want to read the Telegraph article. What was the context; was it having the Referendum or the No vote in the Referendum she talked about?
If she’s got too much time on her hands and has run out of ideas is she suffering from “a casual vacancy”?
Rowling believes she’s on a mission to expose SNP BAD, that’s it really. She is a media darling and knows how to exploit the position with a fawning and a compliant anti-SNP MSM. It’s cold and calculated.
Popularity is now deemed as ‘successful’. That’s mainly why they hate the SNP. By their own low standard they judge others. It never occurs to them that it’s not the SNP’s popularity that makes them successful, it’s their fucking policies and the fact that they give a damn, that resonates with people who also give a damn.
Sigh…these are people that never got over not being popular when they were teenagers. They are now running the playground and stamp their feet when people don’t like what they say. It’s astonishingly pathetic. So …not cool…smirk.
[…] Harry Potter And The Cycle Of News […]
At least Daisley is correct in part, “Scotland is a country …”. He always reminds me of Pangloss in Candide, believing that the Scottish Labour Party was all for the best in our best of all possible worlds.
Should we tell him Leibnitz was wrong, or is that not the thing that you do to wake sleep-walkers?
It was articles like this this got me reading Wingdings Over Scotchland back in 1996.
Thank you Alta Vista.
Why do such people strive to be the victim when they clearly are not only not the victim but the begetters of wealth from imaginative fairy stories. Do they have guilt issues? Do they regret that they made money so easily.
It seems they cannot attack the cause of independence with meritorious argument so they attack with crooked thought. Sad!
All I have to say to Ms Rowling is: Terry Pratchett’s, The Wee Free Men.
David Cameron says Alex Salmond is a thief out to pick the pockets of the English but that’s OK
David Cameron says Nicola Sturgeon is the most dangerous woman in Britain and some sort of Dominatrix Puppet mistress
But that’s OK
David Cameron says the radicalisation of Muslim youth is condoned by Muslims
But that’s OK
David Cameron says Immigrants only come here for benefits and are a drain on our resources
But that’s OK
I’m finished now coz this could take all day and I think I’ve made the point I hope to Ms Rowling and her less than vivid imagination
One more point, maybe she’s in the same Tweet club as Ms Dugdale who can’t produce all these vile Cybernatty Insults either
Should Rowling choose to leave Scotland before or after independence I will be happy to provide transport to Carlisle or Berwick on Tweed.
Yeah, it does get a bit tiresome. Best remedy?
Ignore them and their product. Doesn’t matter who they are, if they are going to marginalise me, I see no point in adding to their already considerable fortune.
No need for harsh words IMO, just ignore everything about them and walk on by.
Might be thev unionists are about to hurt one of their own, blame the nats and make a big story
She really is a tedious bore, I wonder how many SNP members she actually knows?
Methinks she doth protest too much.
What I find hard to understand is she is always in the papers complaining of Scots that disagree with her and an odd one calls her a name
Yet there are nude (probably fake I do not know) photos of her all over the internet why does she not complain about these
Both are wrong and I would guess the second to be a lot worse
surly Scots who disagree with her comes second to people who put up disgusting photos
Macart, the best thing possible for someone who craves publicity is not to give them any. So yes ignore them.
I confess I bought Harry Potter, they are no longer in my house. Gave them all away to charity, seemed as good a place as any, I am not into book burning.
I was part of that thread on Twitter a couple of days ago. She made the first comment & many found they couldn’t let it go but it backfired because lots of English people answered saying they’d never experienced anti-English sentiment from Scots. Well one did BUT it was from NO voters because he was wearing Yes badge LOL!
Yes it was deliberate & I tweeted that it would be in Mail next & sure enough it was.
I didn’t see any swearing or abuse & it was a very, very long thread full of people disagreeing with her opinion. No insults-nothing. She’s working towards her ermine award 🙂
This particular round appears to have kicked off when Ms Rowling responded to a post by Iain MacWhirter. The original post was not about her but she has every right, like any other twitter user, to post her views on the subject at hand.
When the last round kicked off, she actually tweeted along the lines of “What am I supposed to have said now?” It turned out the Record had mis-attributed comments by someone else to her. Admittedly, she did then appear to play to the gallery with Vile ®™ Cybernat stories all round.
Now, it is a woeful feature of Twitter that famous women (and it does appear to be women more than men) are faced with disgusting abuse from fucknuts and, a cursory search shows that Ms Rowling receives dog’s abuse on Twitter from fucknuts the world over, many of whom will never even have heard of Scottish independence.
That in no way excuses Cybernats who indulge in this sort of behaviour. Any Cybernat who does indulge in this deserves to be sidelined, unfollowed and blocked by us all; they do us no favours.
We know that sections of the mainstream press are sleb-obsessed arseholes. Unfortunately, there is a large section of the public who are sleb-obsessed arseholes and they are willing to pay for the tripe.
However, we are big boys and girls. Ms Rowling is on the other side of the argument and it’s fair game for her to call out abuse or even anti-English racism if she perceives it, even if such perceived racism is devoid of examples, though, as Stuart say, we know that there are arseholes in every gouping.
If we are sincere about the Scotland we want to see then WE should treat her opinion like anyone else’s, whether the press fawn over her every utterance or not. Play the ball and not the woman: Think on the turnaround in the reputation of the Tartan Army (Jings, I’m beginning to sound like Murphy!).
Treat the fucknuts in our ranks as we should treat the fucknuts in Unionist ranks, and by that I don’t mean retweet them up the YingYang looking to start a Cyber-stushie. The Block button is a great tool, even if those who should know better don’t seem to have found it yet.
Remember, the aim is to persuade Unionists that we are right, not to entrench them in their opposition.
Thankyou for this REV :
This needed said; the woman is reckless in her commentary on Scotland for the most part and vindictive in her Scorn for the idea of free thinking independents.
What Daisley misses is the subliminal influence she has with the young minds.
It would be better if she left the stage but such attention / publicity seekers never seem to know that they’ve exceeded their polite period in the limelight so to speak.
They are currently building another Hogwarts theme section at Universal in California to match the one in Florida. Money is no option Im sure but her mouth is becoming more famous than her writings.
Sad for someone with so much influence. She is now becoming a real pain and should have kept to writing and less groundless comment.
You might have a shot at crowd funding the Super Mario thing.
They’ve got a giant grassy knoll sculpted like a Scottie dog in Bilbao.
Frogesque @ 2.21
Indeed. And Terry Pratchett preferred full stop.
Scotland is a country where most of its population have never heard of its greatest ever novelist, I refer of course to one Neil Gunn and not some third rate authoress of infantile fantasy fiction.
Daisley can go eff himself preferably with some Silver Darlings that are long dead and stinking.
Oh and Alistair McLean was head and shoulders above that self proclaimed basher of Nats and media darling Daisley fawns over when it came to rattling good reads. Oh and he had more of his books made into films as well.
I hope her Perthshire castle is well damp and draughty and oh haunted.
These sort of people are merely self important attention seekers and the challenge is to starve them of the oxygen they crave.I acknowledge it is difficult, but the price is pages and screeds of mindless drivel, and that is not worth it.
After independence she is welcome to stay. Her property may even appreciate – look how scary the house prices got in Dublin. She may pay taxes in Scotland too, and I’m sure she’ll be delighted that those taxes are not squandered on WMD’s or pointless foreign wars.
As a much quoted Labour donor and supporter, surely she can see that the Scotland we seek to create will be far closer to the ideal that the old Labour party was supposed to aspire to too. Her stance is irrational. I cannot see why she is not an enthusiastic supporter of independence.
Unless she has an old fashioned colonialist mindset of course.
I guess being serious for a moment she isnae too chuffed at her investment in the Brit Red Tory Slime Party of several million Brit Pesos going belly up on her. Hee Haw!
Never read any of the JK HP books. No inclination to do so. There is just so much better stuff out there to read.
Fuck being married to her
Did her last novel not go belly up in the sales flop department as well. Did it not also get made into a BBC TV production, is that the real root of her anti Scottish bile?
Brian Powell says:
I didn’t link to the full original JKR article because the only relevant part now is the closing sentence, as quoted above.
Here is the full article …
link to archive.is
Although the rest of her article is a pro-Union rant, I took her closing remarks to be made in a wider non partisan context. I think this is probably correct because the previous sentence says “Whatever the outcome of the referendum on 18th September, it will be a historic moment for Scotland.” … then … “I just hope with all my heart that we never have cause to look back and feel that we made a historically bad mistake.”
I believe we all, despite what result we wished for, hoped a historically bad mistake would not be the outcome.
Well, given unfolding events, I think any fair minded person (I exclude hard core BritNats) can hardly believe the No vote was a good result!
What I dislike the most is the complete one sidedness of it all. Why does she not hate Britnats or people abusing Nicola Sturgeon?
SHe knows she commands front pages but chooses to stir things up for the vast majority of non English hating yes/SNP voters with this petty trolling. I put her in same league as UKIP
Terry Pratchet used to wear a t shirt to conventions that said
”Tolkeins Dead
JK Rowling said No
Philip Pullman couldn’t make it
Hi I am Terry Pratchet’
Which I always liked.
She is entitled to do whatever she wants but by being THE major backer of No campaign and also by backing labour losers (why?) she has to accept that she is going to get flack (not excusing the nasty stuff they are idiots)
Quite disappointed.
You have zero rights to influence the political will of the people by virtue of your wealth.
The wealthy are playing a greater and greater role in politics and using their money to influence results against the will of the people.Usually with the desire to protect or increase their own wealth.
link to policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk
No excuse but like so many supporting the Labour politicians the certainty of a solid Lab foundation turned out to be sand, or quicksand it has pulled so may down.
I think she never expected to have her statement of “I’ll never support a party that doesn’t stand up to austerity” to be challenged by reality.
Just as the Herald’s grand statement, “it would oppose Independence only as long as we see a strong concern for the ‘poor’ in the Union” ( something along those lines) was again never expected to be challenged by the failure of the Labour Party.
Both stances were covers for being antiSNP, but both have failed. Not expecting to see conversion to the SNP by either.
The thing that annoys me most about JK is that she’s a writer. The basic job of a writer – especially a fiction one – is to tell the truth. OK it may be dressed up in fable and story or whatever. But a writer who can look at a country which isn’t independent, and an independence movement in that country being utterly demonised by the media and government of the country governing it, and choose to join in that demonisation loses all respect as a writer, an observer, a teller of truth.
When you look back at the great writers – Dickens, Orwell, etc – the ones who survive are not the ones who take the line of power, the establishment and no change and demonise those more powerless seeking change. They’re the ones who accurately document the struggles for progress, or look at individuals within that struggle, not strawmen. That is precisely because taking the media narrative is the easy way, and the idiot’s path. And right now, in the modern UK, it is taking the side of the very wealthy against the most vulnerable. No decent writer should be on that side, not noticeably at least. It’s an absolute abuse of a writer’s voice unless you’re being paid by the Daily Mail and that’s how you feed your family. And even then it’s high level bawbaggery.
She’s lost all respect I had for her as a writer from this, and that’s the sad thing.
Wonder what would happen if she gave a million big ones to BT or similar in Spain in an attempt to deny Catalonian independence if it would just be a few harsh words on social media or a more
Volatile country? Think she has got off lightly.
Funny how its only successful unionists who get sympathy from the press with their fictitious accusations. I’m sure successful independence supporters will get the same coverage, NOT! Like Alex and Nicola’s death threats, the lottery winners from Largs who were constantly insulted, as was Andy Murray. Mone and Rowling, the union is welcome to you. Thankfully Scotland has real women who are not so selfish and care for future generations.
I wish she would do some real magic and make herself disappear. Shout to the boys from wings I spoke to in George Square. Keep up the good work guys
Its a pity FUD gave up.
Rowling could have written a new book.
Jimmy Glue Face and the Prophets of Doom.
JK who??
last years news.
Hilarious.
First of all, JK Rowling doesn’t decide what makes it on to the front pages.
Secondly, you accuse of her something she didn’t say.
Aside from that, another great article.
I did read to the end on my second attempt though.
Is it really your contention that because someone has money they shouldn’t be allowed to comment on anything? What’s the cut off point? 100K in the bank?
“Secondly, you accuse of her something she didn’t say.
Is it really your contention that because someone has money they shouldn’t be allowed to comment on anything?”
Zounds, the irony.
I didn’t accuse her of anything she didn’t say. I paraphrased satirically. And I made no suggestion whatsoever that wealth should be a factor in whether people can express an opinion. I suggested, in fact, the exact opposite. Rowling’s witless “AW THE SNP PURE HATE THE ENGLISH ANNAT” dribbling got newspaper coverage SOLELY because she’s rich and famous. Had Senga McClatty of Castlemilk said it, nobody would have given a toss.
My contention is that stuff should make the newspapers if it’s news – “There are some dafties on the internet” isn’t news – and that people’s opinions should be given weight if they’re in some way interesting or insightful, not because the person expressing them is rich or famous.
Rowling said nothing worthy of note. You’re perfectly correct that she didn’t choose to put it on the front of the paper. But then I didn’t say she did, so maybe take a leaf out of your own book and only attack me for what I actually said.
Ms Rowling is merely filling the vacuum created by the departure of Ms Mone. And is as equally tedious.
What I find particularly galling is that it was in North UKorea that she got the chance to write her stories and succeed, yet now she has decided that the inhabitants of that beleaguered outpost are all rabid Anglophobes. Evidence, please, JK? As the saying goes, put up or shut up.
I’m sorry but J.K. WHO?
Am I supposed to know who this personage is?
More importantly am I REALLY expected to give a damn about what she *ahem* thinks supporters of independence and indy supporting parties say?
On a more serious point. As a rather mature hoggess I take extreme humbridge to her claim that all hogs have warts! I for one do not have ANY warts about my hogform. I would therefore be extremely pleased if this J.K. person would offer up an apology to hogs around the world for her ridiculous slur on OUR persons concerning the appearance, or not, of warts about our hoggynessess!
Why have I NEVER heard of this J.K. whatsit ever working in a foodbank?
Does this J.K. person even know what a food bank is?
Was this J.K. person at ANY of the Austerity rallies across the world today?
Does this J.K. person actually understand what austerity is?
NEWSFLASH!
Received a wee pressie in the mail today. Anyone care to guess what it was? 😉
I’ll give you a clue.
It is smallish.
It is Navy Blue in colour.
It has Silver embossed writting on the leather bound cover.
That’s enough of a clue for you to be going on with. 😀
The thing that really gets my goat is that JK should really count her blessings and thank her lucky stars that she set out on her literary career at the time she did because under the current Benefits Regime endorsed by her beloved Westminster Labour Party there is no way she would have been allowed the freedom to write her novels.
She would have been told in no uncertain terms
” Who do you think you are wasting tax payers hard earned money sitting on your backside all day writing novels you workshy layabout. Magic yourself over to Asda right away.”
Or
“What do you mean you couldn’t hunt for jobs as you were roo busy writing. Consider yourself sanctioned for eight weeks you Benefit Scrounger.Need food to feed your family? Get the SNP Welfare Fund to help. Oh no you hate them with a vengeance don’t you. Oh well you’ll just have to magic yourself to the nearest food bank then.
Daisley says “Scotland is a country where a committed (and committable) segment of the poulation despises our most successful living author. Weird.” When did making lots of money become the sole sign of success and why should achieving millionaire status make you automatically likeable? Are we now banned from disagreeing with or disliking people who have made money? People can be the best at what they do in the world but if they are arrogant and unlikable no amount of money is going to make them “nice” people.
When you distill down JKR’s core beliefs there is one that stands out and it is this;
JKR firmly believes that it is acceptable to have 1/4 million Scottish children rotting in poverty.
When a part of Scottish society sought a cure to this blight, JKR proactively used her wealth and connections to help prevent said cure.
Is JKR a nice person?
Has JKR shown gratitude to the nation, Scotland, that has provided her with a home?
By her actions can JKR be described as compassionate?
Answers – No, No and No!
Unfortunately rich people are more inclined to spend their wealth on those who would recreate Cannon Fodder IRL rather than Mario.
If only they had ever played it they might reconsider.
For the record, that’s not a dig at cannon fodder, great game.
Having read this website for a couple of years now, I’m always impressed by the accuracy and clarity with which its articles are written. This one, however, had me in tears of laughter by the end. Hats off to Stu, brilliantly written!
On a side note, perhaps she could fund 1/6th of the repair work on the houses of parliament, easing the burden on us “normal” earning tax paying fellow country folk. Or name the replacement”The Ministry of Magic” and be done with it?
Cath – Oh, PLEASE do not mention JKR in same reply as Dickens and Orwell! I did try to read one once and managed one chapter of the first book. Maybe the others developed a better style but I am not going to find out. Agree with other answers re her wealth and what to do with it. It would be so inspiring and fulfilling to change peoples lives for the better by setting up trusts etc If you are reading this JK send it over to me – I’d think of plenty of things to use it for blessing others with.
I burned my copies of her books.
No doubt she’s getting quid pro quo from the relevant quarters. I expect to see her doing this on a regular basis, maybe every 3 months, until she gets to be in the House of Lords.
link to twitter.com
She’s certainly having a lot of coy chase me chase me fun but this is nice
J.K. Rowling ?@jk_rowling Jun 19
“Yep, in my 3rd decade in Scotland, self-identify as Scottish but according to some, I’ll never, ever make the grade!”
Its much like what likes of the great Steve Bell says in the Guardian, that he’s half a jock so its fine to publish this kind of thing.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Both BritScots are massive UKOK nationalists, Rowling one of the richest women alive, truly global, Steve Bell’s a media thug in London, Rowling says Scottish independence will be a disaster in waiting for Scotland, Bell hates nats, if you disagree you’re a racist.
Its not fair but I bet every single country that tried to break free endured exactly the same baiting.
The last sentence of this excellent article, absolutely nails it. Sitting in her Barnton mansion, with all that money, whinging about people on the internet.
It is all a sad reminder that just because you have lots of money, it doesn’t mean you are intelligent, and it certainly doesn’t mean you know how to enjoy your good fortune in life.
Go and do something useful for the world with all your money, JK, make all of Scotland proud, instead of sitting whining about the SNP.
Was talking to my MP today and asking about the maiden speeches and it looks like they won’t be making them till after the summer recess so have to wait a wee while also looking forward to Mharis.
I did say that if any foreign visitors knew who she was they would be surprised at the lack of jackboots, stormtrooper outfit and anti-English badges if they get their news from the British MSM. It’s important not to rise to this sort of nonsense but it is really hard to turn the other cheek.
We have a 20 year old MP who is worth 10 of JK Rowling
Celebrity types of both red and blue hues call me thick, unwashed, a fascist an insurgent, a Nazi and the folk I voted for various other unpleasant names
Which newspaper is standing up for my rights as a citizen not to be abused by Unionists and their supporters and their politicians
I’ve never seen my picture in the paper once defending my victimisation by the Yookay State
She could use some of that vast mountain of children’s pocket money she has acquired to lift children out of poverty.
A person uses their imagination to write children book(s); gains a substantial fortune from the book sales;the tax system is overly kind to substantial wealth income so person gets to keep lots of children’s pocket money.;
Professionals, engineers, doctors, scientists, etc research and invent for the common good. Artisans, cleaners, drivers, carers, maintain society. Personal tax allowance of £10K, income thereafter taxed. So too pensioners.
Retired politicians, and political party donors inhabit the House of Lords at £300/day, plus champagne.
Croompenstein says:
We have a 20 year old MP who is worth 10 of JK Rowling
ONLY 10 Croomps?
I’d say oor Mhairi is worth a damned sight MORE than 10 JKR’s myself. 😀
The besom’s after royal baubles and recognition. Seems obvious.
Croompenstein,
“We have a 20 year old MP who is worth 10 of JK Rowling”
Indeed. She is genuinely (and not just because of her age) a real talent.
Just remembered something else this moaning on about being Scottish
This Rowling woman is just as stupid as that woman in America claiming to be black when she’s actually white
You can’t grow into being Scottish you either are or you’re not
I could spend my entire life in China it won’t make me Chinese
And who cares what she is, that’s less than important, it’s who you are not where you were born or what colour you are
My Mother lived here in Scotland for around 60 years she was still English and quite happy about it
Or is there a little shame going on in Ms Rowlings mind
Don’t feed the (mountain) trolls
Seems to me someone simply wants to provoke a response, and unfortunately there are sufficient heid-th-ba’s, of both the genuine and the agent-provocateur variety, who will indeed respond.
Ignore her – she might just find something more constructive to do with her time and money – she would appear to have an ample supply of both.
J.K. Rowland is a plagiarist of many different authors. Just like many Labour Luvvies, a hysterical faker.
God help Alex Salmond if he went walkabouts in Glasgow with a transvestite in a skirt and jacket with red lipstick like Jim Murphy? The papers would have a field day. But the SNP will never do right by these stirrers of manure. Michelle Mone(Moan), Stanley Baxter, The Krankies, Ronnie Corbett, John Barrowman, the Quality of Unionist Luvvies knows no ends.
This will go beyond Independence by maybe a Generation? We really need a media clearout in this country. It stinks.
The Daily Record, the “fair weather friend, The Sun”, Daily Mail, Sunday Mail, Sunday Post, Daily Express, BBC Scotland, STV, Channel 4, all these will try to drown Scottish Freedom at it’s birth, or even stop it’s conception?
People sometimes wonder what will be said at their graveside, as a eulogy, as a way that people will remember their lives and achievements. What, in the name of the wee man, will future generation say about the Michelle Mones of this world, when not only we are free, but no one remembers any different? An Oswald Mosley or Lord Haw Haw perhaps? A Vidkun Quisling? The Earl of Menteith?
As for Gordon Brown, surely Benedict Arnold has nothing on this odious example of turncoat? This Cyclops of Fetid Excrement will be lauded only by idiots and ("Tractor" - Ed)s.
To hell with the bloody lot of them.
Stephen.
Excellent read.
Funny how so much is made these days of J.K’s utterances, but yet I’m having real difficulty finding her political musings, incidents of offending anti-englishness from before she was worth squillions of quid, and popped out a few kids books.
Strange how millions and millions of pounds results in the media clambering over themselves for your opinion – don’t remember her not being able to finish her coffee in the cafe when she was unemployed for the paparazzi frenzy..
You never see the media grasping for a quote from the cleaner at the local Co-Op, the lollypop person helping kids across the road, the big issue seller in town etc..
No, their opinions (and possible real life verbal abuse) doesn’t sell papers or whip up quite the same storm does it.
The headline starting.. “Millionaire Author…” is much more effective.
P.S.. I love the line “..anyone with an IQ above room temperature ..” hahahah..
Could it be that JKR believes Scotland belongs to England and she has a pathological hatred of people who want Scotland to be a country again? Think the answer is obvious
I take issue with Daisley’s tweet. I for one have no problem with Ian Rankin or Val McDermid, who rank amongst our greatest living Scottish authors.
bugsbunny says:
To hell with the bloody lot of them.
I think you will find hell has rather a lot on its plate at the moment Bugs. There has been a rather large face to face battle going on between the devil and and a certain former Tory leader about how many ovens need to be kept burning! 😀
Rowling not Rowland of course, lol.
Ms Rowling, you can keep your plagiarised Kiddie Stories. I, for one, have never bought any of your books, or DVD’s, and I even switch over if any of your movies come onto the TV screen.
Audrey Baxter, Boyd Tunnock and many more backers of Better Together. I hope we are all boycotting their products? Without the mighty pound, they are nothing. Stop helping our enemies. Do not buy their products. They are poisoning our future.
Stephen.
I see Alistair Darling has been rewarded with fine ermine and title!
As some old guy almost said a long time ago, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first give massive shed-loads of cash.” I suspect JK is rather fragile in the personality department and needs a lot of attention. She may feel very insecure because she knows deep-down her writing is derivative and that she has been very fortunate to tap into a transient Teen liking for Gothic.
I think we should follow the Macart Option in future and ignore her. Easy for me ‘cos I’m not on Twitter.
Listen to the silence.
Croompenstein.. I found a twenty year old unwashed sock under my bed that’s worth twenty of Jk Rowling!! Any truth she’s fronting the next Bill Gates vaccination cull.. Sorry.. Project. I wish she would do some of what she writes about… And make herself disappear.
Could this JK Rowling thing be an utterly shite attempt at brainwashing the kids who read her books and look up to her into believing people who support indy are nasty fuckers to be frowned upon?
Let’s face it, the more the oldies fall off the cliff the higher the support and more likely independence becomes.
I fully expect 1 Direction and Justin Bieber to be trolled by Cybernats in quick order.
As I don’t tweet and never read Harry Potter or watched him on TV I can say without any problems, “Isn’t JK that American politician guy that someone shot?
@Helena
Oh and the kids are both Manga and GoT daft, they consider HP a bit lightweight and wishy washy for their tastes. 😀
Can’t say I disagree with their view. 😉
Needless to say it won’t be a struggle to avoid adding to the authors bank balance.
She’s a millionaire, she’s English, she lives here and she has an opinion.
I’m a millionaire, I’m English, I live here and I have an opinion.
Don’t make her a martyr. Don’t blame her. Blame the MSM as Stu does. Read the piece again.
Robert Peffers… That would mean most US politicians would be called Jk..Lol. Wee irony here. I bought a first edition jk Rowling book from a charity shop for 1.50. Turns out it’s worth 38 quid!! That will replenish my entire John Prebble collection which found its way to England. Happy daze!!!
As Dr. Jim highlights, there is a world of difference between the abuse that Ms. Rowling may have suffered at the hands of individual independence supporting zoomers, and the institutionalised abuse that is being directed at Scotland and those of us who simply wish to run our own affairs.
Not a very scary insurgency, if this is the worst atrocity that can be attributed to us Nazi-Stalinists.
She may well be England’s most successful living author but I doubt if, even after her death, she’ll ever sell as many copies as Scotland’s King James VI.
The rich and famous think they own Scotland. They really do, and they get so upset when the natives rebel. It’s the colonial mindset, folks.
Handclapping @ 5.40
what?
Your a millionaire?
And never ever bought ma hoose fur me when we met!
Has Jakey Rollin considered that this could be the work of
Lord Voldemort?
Get in touch with reality for pity sake!
You charged into the politics of another country with fists full of Dollars and think you will be able to comment without reply and without any of the on-line Nutters taking their daily fix of imaginary powers and threats??
Would our fair and unbiased media carry out a count on the number of threats Jakey got to those of Alex Salmond or Nicola Sturgeon
? No I didn’t think so.
Fortunately for Scotland and politics in general, the SNP leaders
knew what to expect and keep their focus on the real issues.
Fortunately for Jakey, she has enough money to buy a small country, where she can sponsor the sick, the poor and the unemployed to play Quidditch all day.
Hagrid- Send her to her room without supper to think about what
she has done.
Jim says:
20 June, 2015 at 5:28 pm
I see Alistair Darling has been rewarded with fine ermine and title
Sic a parcel o rogues.
Robert Bryce says:
20 June, 2015 at 5:31 pm
Could this JK Rowling thing be an utterly shite attempt at brainwashing the kids who read her books and look up to her into believing people who support indy are nasty fuckers to be frowned upon?
The BBC r4 any questions thing last night ended the “you’re all racist if you vote SNP” rage from Lord Digby with the 12 year old audience memeber that asked the question saying he thought Scotland could run its own affairs but Scotland is bettertogether with England.
Loud cheers, not so much.
The Moidart@5.20pm,
I have skidmarked underpants that have more of a grasp of Scottish Politics than the JK Rowlings of this world.
I saw that her “star”, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe came out in support of her against Scottish Independence. To be fair, he probably doesn’t give a toss about anybody that isn’t a luvvie.
He backed Clegg in the 2010 election.
Nuff said.
Stephen.
I see Alistair Darling has been rewarded with fine ermine and title!
Lord of the Uncle Tams..
Baron of the Bumlickers..
Count of the Cunts..
Duke of Duplicity..
Knight of Bull Shite..
Prince of Pish..
These eyebrows were made for lying and that’s just what they’ll do and one day these eyebrows will Lord it over you…
FFS!
Luigi says @ 5.56
*** * ***** * ****s
Have you ANY idea what the rev does to you if you say that?
Im still getting therapy! 🙁
@ Roddy Macdonald 3.12pm
Great post. I wholeheartedly agree.
Btw
Looking at that picture,
Do you think she’s been to the Kezia Dugdale School for “hard done by” faces?
Don’t you just love the Westminster party of the working classes?
It’s like a Billy Connolly sketch_
I was talking Lord McConnell about Lord Robertson’s visit to Lord
Darling to what dates are available for Lord Blair and Brown getting on the old House of Lords scam.
They supposedly get these accolades for services to the people.
Is that the people who died in their illegal war, the ones on Zero hours contracts, the ones kicked out of their homes by the Bed Room Tax, the ones who are Homeless because they didn’t build any affordable homes, or perhaps its the working families who have to use Food Banks in order to eat?
Good Job Boys!
The Very Rich Tax avoider, the corporations who make £millions in the UK but make no contribution to it, the Bankers who picked up £80 Billion on bonuses since their casino gambling drove us into economic melt down all think you deserve every fraudulent penny you can squeeze into your ermine robes.
Best response to Daisley’s tweet.
Who doesn’t like Ian Rankin?
Personally I have no interest in the Rowlings of this world. When volunteering at a charity we were inundated with her books which we literally could not get rid off.
Ended up being shredded as the charity got money for recycling paper and cardboard.
Anyway how many folk in Scotland know about this…the last sentences especially.
link to bbc.co.uk
Please spread far and wide
Has anyone coined the phrase Poundshop Tolkien yet?
No change there then:
At his launch, Mr Macintosh promised to shake up the party organisation, including moving the headquarters from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
He said Scotland must be more accountable and responsive to the needs and wants of Scottish people.
He would begin negotiations with the new national Labour leadership to establish a formal relationship with Scottish Labour that recognised its autonomous role within the UK party.
————————————————————–
Meanwhile Kez is in Edinburgh moaning:
link to archive.is
Bugs bunny.. I never knew that about Daniel Radcliffe. I did hear that his character was originally called jock with a swastika on his forehead. Went through the commons…. Labour abstained. Lol ????
Good piece, Rev.
If you ever needed evidence that money doesn’t make you happy, it’s Harry Potters mum.
A bitter, bleating Britnat with the ways and means to do something better with her time.
Really pathetic. I think folk like JK just have this delusional idea that we don’t know what’s good for us, or we require her magic words to guide us.
News flash – get over yourself, missus.
Rancid old Graun finally got something about their Scotland region. I thought you’d all left:D
On balance Graun doesn’t report much about any of their other 2 regions, in fact Wales is a couple of grinches a month.
Maybe if one of their other regions has a referendum to get away from likes of red and blue tory creeps, they’ll get rountienly shat on from a great The Graun height too…
link to theguardian.com
Ms Rowling’s twittering this week seem to have been in response to Iain McWhirter’s column in the Herald. She appears to have taken exception to some of it.
But he as he said in the article ‘when the opposition suggests you are Nazis then they, the opposition, have already lost the argument’.
I thought that was a pretty comprehensive put-down to all those who keep trying to brand the SNP as Nazis, North Koreans, Robert Mugabe etc.
I certainly think it put Ms Rowling et al in their place.
@john king
If by that you mean that she has a face like a skelpit arse?
My mithers words and not mine.
I find my mither doesnae like Harry bleedin Potter either. Something about having to read the same bleedin books over and over again to her grandchildren.
Wait, What, even Prof Tomkins knows it’s pish. Did Dobcat Daisley read this bit?
Prof Adam Tomkins, an expert on constitutional law and an adviser to David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, tweeted that as a high profile No voter and an Englishman who had spent 12 years in Scotland he had “experienced no anti-Englishness from SNP”
As nobody else will say it, I will. Let’s face it, she’s nothing but a twisted boot. I’ve never had anything but admiration for the woman. But now, she’s just a scunner
LeslieAnn@5.26pm,
I was in the Pearl Palace in Dumfries last night and the waitress was talking about a parade through the town today. What is the parade about? I know Annan is not that near to Dumfries, but I forgot to ask.
Stephen.
Funny you don’t hear of Ian Rankine complaining about abuse. Is he missing a trick? Seems there’s a knighthood form our imperial masters in it!
Darling got his, Carmichael’s is in the pending drawer, JK earning hers now.
But the, Ian Rankine seems a realistic kind of bloke, who’s recognised for good work, as opposed to work dictated by a foreign power. I think he’d tell them where to shove it.
@Lesley Anne –
I’ll give you a clue.
It is smallish.
It is Navy Blue in colour.
It has Silver embossed writting on the leather bound cover.
That’s enough of a clue for you to be going on with
I got one of those too LA 🙂
A sensible sized wee book unlike Moodies huge tome 🙂
Why is she not pointing out the anti Scottish people in the Conservatives,of which there are many. Is she not concerned about the people in her adopted country?
Only the luvvies who move here and buy mansions and castles are to be protected from nasty Scots. These poor millionaires are insulted on a daily basis by Scots wanting the money spread to the many instead of the few.
50% of people in Scotland voted SNP,so by default she is alleging half of Scotland is anti English. The point she misses is that we are not anti English we are anti selfish gredy wealth. Look what her no vote got her. 5 years of Tories with 15% of the Scottish vote. Great thing this Union!
Prof Adam Tomkins, an expert on constitutional law and an adviser to David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, tweeted that as a high profile No voter and an Englishman who had spent 12 years in Scotland he had “experienced no anti-Englishness from SNP”
No matter how hard Professor Smirky from Kent tried.
There is little point in being annoyed with JK’s accusations because that then becomes self fulfilling prophecies.
She is good friends with the Browns…ergo she will have nothing nice to say about us. I think we should just accept that. It is where Labour are at and they aren’t likely to change soon by the looks of things.
Had a very pleasant afternoon with Wingers at George Square and Ronnie was in fine shouting form. My God they shifted a lot of badges. The food bank they are donating the money too will do will on the back of that effort.
It seems to me to a symptom of the denial that is prevalent throughout the establishment and their media. Concentrate on a trivial by product of all movements, political or otherwise. Ignore the infinitely larger truth that this is a legal, peaceful, disciplined grass roots demand for legitimate change in Scotland. Heads in the sand. Insult it enough and it might go away. Trivialise it at every turn. They just don’t get it, or don’t want to.
Funny how you are in the limelight one minute,then dropped the next.She may have oodles of money,but that is not the oxygen that feeds her ego.She needs a cause with the publicity which accompanies that master.
We see it daily with artistic,showbiz types.She is no different.
Her only claim to fame recently is her anti SNP stance,and if this gets her noticed then that is what she will do.
Sad really for one who wrote about good v evil.I don’t think she truly recognises one from another.
pmcrek says
“Has anyone coined the phrase Poundshop Tolkien yet?”
They have now. 🙂
Iain Mores at 3:26 pm said-
Scotland is a country where most of its population have never heard of its greatest ever novelist, I refer of course to one Neil Gunn
Just purchased “The Silver Darlings” for my Kindle, many thanks.
Quote from the reviews “The Silver Darlings is one of the best books ever written in English. It begs comparison with the work of the Russian greats”
“They’ve got a giant grassy knoll sculpted like a Scottie dog in Bilbao.”
Cybernats killed President Kennedy. You heard it here first.
Handandshrimp.. I was there today too. Met some old friends and made some new ones too. Smiles and handshakes all round. No trouble at all. Cat Boyd can shout!!! Lol. August 1st. Kelvingrove park. See you there.
bugsbunny@6-41
The parade in Dumfries is the annual ‘Good Neighbours’ pageant.
The English woman who succeeded in helping to deny a foreign country independence with filthy lucre and she is surprised she received abuse?? You’re kidding right?
Lesley-Anne says:
20 June, 2015 at 4:27 pm
…is it a Smurph?
Stu, what a brilliant analysis! Thanks for another great piece. Daily Mail / Sunday Mail – eat your hearts out! Proud to be a cybernat.
@CameronB Brodie says: 20 June, 2015 at 5:49 pm:
“Not a very scary insurgency, if this is the worst atrocity that can be attributed to us Nazi-Stalinists.”
But! But! But! Aren’t we supposed to be insurgents?
That nice Mr Murphy said we were, so it must be true for he wouldn’t tell us any lies. Would he?
Well would he?
@Jimbo says: 20 June, 2015 at 5:49 pm:
“She may well be England’s most successful living author but I doubt if, even after her death, she’ll ever sell as many copies as Scotland’s King James VI.”
Now that one did make me laugh out loud.
Very well said.
We have had to put up with this nonsense for too long.
Don’t spare anyone now, from the purring queen downwards. Call them out for their utter hypocrisy and dishonesty.
A majority of the people are on our side.
Master Peffers. I think he’s turned over a new leaf. There were absolutely no accounts of any pathological liars running around George Square stookying placards today. Maybe he was busy at the food Bank helping the elderly right enough….
Ach I’m not rising to this nonsense.
She’s welcome in Scotland, she’s welcome to her money, and she’s welcome to her opinion.
However, if she can’t back up her accusations with evidence, that’s all it is..an opinion (everyone has one…like.. yes I know)
Ho bloody hum. Just ignore her
Cybernats killed President Kennedy. You heard it here first.
UKOK unionistas blamed Charles Kennedy on cybernats, demonstrating once again how low these charmers are prepared sink to save their farce union.
Scot Finlayson,
“I do not think JK is a bad person”
What is good about a person who has billions but does not use a fraction of it to end child poverty in the country she lives in?
O/T but an amusing read – our favourite poodle given a sporty makeover – ooft!
link to dailybusinessgroup.co.uk?
Terrific stuff Stu. And particularly liked your swipe at Stephen Daisley, a hack I would never trust even though he does write the occasional Nationalist supporting piece. He is of the ilk that likes to keep one foot in each camp and to jump to whatever side is advantageous on the day. His tweet in support of the ‘witch of Hogwarts’ was nasty and extremely stupid.
TBH I agree with the folk who say we should just ignore her. The more we comment, The more chance there is of unionists picking through the replies for ammunition. She is just trying to create the very thing she complains about. The best way, I think to deal with this, is to quietly note it, and save it for the ballot box in 2016 and 2017. What better way to reply to her, than castrate the party she follows politically. For the Scottish and local elections, we need “#Rout2” and “#Rout3” for her beloved Labour party. It’s been done once, it only needs done twice more. What use is a pile of cash, if there’s no-one left to spend it?
She always reminded me of a younger version of Magrit Curran, hope she doesn’t go the same way.
All this daft old biddy is after, is a bit of attention.
Her last book was a lulu and I am surprised she has not mentioned how she is so “in tune” with Michelle Moan and the torment she has to endure day in, day out.. etc.
Stuart, what did I tell you about lazy, dish-it-out-but-canny-take-it-hack Stephen Daisley?
Prof Tomkinski puts his tory boy weight behind today’s anti austerity marches.
link to twitter.com
Another total teamGB mystery is public sector tory boys, let alone unionist ones in Scotland, “what do we want? less pay” “one out, fcuk em” “Maggie Maggie Maggie In In In” “Slash my dept budget” “triple student fees, they’re are great” “Eat the poor” “foodbanks are sign of success in teamGB” etc
More UKOK tory boy irony, first generation uni education presents the world with jumped up tory twits and counter jumpers like the above. Michael Gove’s another far right loony in the Professor Smirky mould.
@call me dave says: 20 June, 2015 at 6:25 pm:
“Meanwhile Kez is in Edinburgh moaning:”
link to archive.is
Hilarious!
In Edinburgh Kez says, “It’s a national scandal because (after) eight years of SNP government with full control over education, all the power and all the ability to do something about it, and they have singularly failed.”
But her party were in power in Scotland, for something like 80 years, during some of which with Labour in Westminster when the UK was booming and had full employment. How come they did nothing about it?
Aye! And I was in the education system then and working class kids had no chance of University. Most didn’t even have the chance to stay in the Education system after they reached 15 years old.
Yet that brain dead woman has the hard neck to claim the SNP are bad. We are the only UK country not charging tuition fees. She can talk faster than she can think.
Ian Bell in the Herald.
Mr Harris giggles at the prospects of a labour recovery:
link to archive.is
Jo Rowling and the Sleep of Reason
Who are these Cybernats exactly? Sounds like an old Saturday morning cartoon show from the eighties. My favourite character was always Shuggie McTuggie, he of the roaming hands, who always kicked about with his loyal sidekick Mockit the dug and who together with the other Cybernats fought the evil forces of Uniontron and his minions.
This anti nationalist bile is so very tiresome. You will always get morons on all sides and in the interests of fairness it would be nice if the people who did this on the Unionist side where also taken to task as well and reported on. I voted yes in the referendum and voted SNP in the recent election but I have never attacked anyone online nor am I prone to howling at the moon. As for this faith based economics I keep hearing that Nationalists believe in well even if that were true, which it is not, I would still take faith based economics over fear based economics, the latter of which is so favoured by the Unionist parties and sadly is believed by so many people. There is another way.
Hope over fear. Always. So says Mr.O.
“People need a champion against the cosy consensus in Scottish politics.”
(from todays speech)
Kez not yet worked out that we have found our champion. She’s in good company with JK as complete irrelevances to the current mood in the country.
I don’t like the term ‘insirgent’ sounds like something one would hear in “Little Britain” as in – “Would one like one in sir gent”.
Could we have outdamelady instead?
Well done to everyone who attended the STUC rally – good turnout and atmosphere.
Anyone have links to footage?
Robert Peffers: at 09.41pm
Robert Depity Dug has probably nae read the latest news.
Record numbers of pupils from Scotland’s poorest communities apply to university
Alasdair Gray, one of our greatest living authors, falls and breaks his back and gets barely an inch on the front page of the Herald. On the same day, Rowling tweets some unsubstantiated garbage and gets a full front page column and huge photo on same cover.
Disgusting.
O/T
Sky News a few minutes ago.
“Anti-austerity rallies across Britain and Scotland.”
They just can’t get t right, can they? Britain is England, England is Britain. And Scotland is apparently separate from Britain.
Effing eejits.
Excellent point G.
Hello Ian B. Great to see you today.
Slightly O/T here but interestingly enough, I presume i am not alone here, in saying this, but JK Rowling, you can not write. You can make money, but write, no.
I once tried to read aloud one of your books to my girls when they were younger and i just couldn’t. I physically couldn’t read that miserable dead prose. La-dah-de-dah-de-dah-de-dum la-dah-da-da-de-dah-de-dum ad nauseum.
Reading a novel should be like watching some fat guy wearing tiny dainty mincers move and dance to salsa beautifully, whereas trying to read a Harry Potter book of yours was like being stabbed in my eyes with pins.
Nothing personal, mind. You’re just a crap writer. The fact you make lots of money for publishers and yourself is meaningless.
But, as has been said here, please feel free to say whatever. We welcome every word. See, you’re just like us. No different.
Proud Cybernat says:
“Britain is England, England is Britain.”
As it has been since … well, since a long time ago.
Then what do we go and do? We put Scotland on the map. Of course they’re totally confused!
‘Britain and Scotland’ is technically incorrect and there’s no excuse for broadcasters to be so ignorant but there’s something I like about the sound of it… there was an English contractor at my work recently who when going home for the weekend talked about ‘flying back to the UK’.
@Proud Cybernat says: 20 June, 2015 at 10:38 pm:
“They just can’t get t right, can they? Britain is England, England is Britain. And Scotland is apparently separate from Britain.
I didn’t see any anti-austerity marches in the rest of the Britain, only in the UK parts of Britain.
Neither the UK or England are Britain. Both are British but so is The Republic of Ireland, the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
I hope Marcia gives us the Sunday Herald front page soon, and that it has a decent image of today’s rally.
JK is tedious.
Like most celebrities expects to be endorsed/adulated.
Took a stance on indy, received critiscism, lost money. Now bleats to anyone who will listen about how she is a victim.
She’s not a victim. Simply foolish to back the wrong horse and alienate herself from former supporters.
Sunday Herald front page;
link to twitter.com
@Ian Brotherhood
Links to Glasgow, London and Paris.
http://www.independencelive.net
While we’re on the subject of hormonal lady authors who let fame go to their heids, let us not forget Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Toms Cabin,” who was a “Clearances” white-washer & friend of the Sutherland family,
link to windsorscottish.com
@Ian Brotherhood
Glasgow, London and Paris links.
http://www.independencelive.net
Silly woman she should stick to writing and stay out of politics,she is just the flavour of the month for rancid team GB press looking for a proudscotbut celeb to tell us all we are nazi communists hell bent on destroying the world,if she had any sense she would not be playing fast and loose with the tory attack dogs they might bite her once she is no longer useful to them.
I dont know but maybe she had aspirations to be something big in the Labour party and now cant use the Scotland door since we banged it shut and put the locks on,this might be why she hates us so much but then who cares anyway just another onion squealing blue murder over nothing so what new.
Only in Scotland could a whining self-pitying, plagiarising imperialist scribbler get away with insulting the country that nurtured her thin talent.
Even more so, after contributing a million pounds to undermining the democratic process to achieve our freedom.
Our country is too decent for this ungrateful self-publicising nonentity.
I thought Britain was the unitary state formed through the Act of Union, and comprises of Scotland and England only. The UK consists of Britain, along with all the other bits of the British Isles. Happy to be corrected.
@cynicalHighlander –
🙂 Cheers aplenty.
Rev. Could you please explain to Mr Daisley and all the rest, that if this horseshit could have worked for them, it would have done so by now. It didn’t work because it doesn’t work. The scale of labours defeat in Scotland should be all the evidence they need.
Or you could just politely ask them to stop digging. Its getting embarrassing now.
It must be hard for JK coming from a working class background and then being part of the `Super Rich`to fit in with her new peer group.
I think a lot of people to be accepted by their new peer group would try hard to emulate or surpass what the peer group stands for.
Sadly JK has chosen for her peer group a bunch of C##ts.
link to caltonjock.com
The question arises whether Alister Carmichael, aka Hagrid of the Sleepless Knights, will pay a visit to the dragon in her lair in the quest of sufficient cash to pay his legal fees, the Lib’Dems being somewhat reluctant to open the box.
crivvens help ma boab an jings the world is phull o a number o things.
Maybe it’s all a strategy to get the press to love her? Remember the abuse they used to give her and how they said her first adult book was a pile of pants?
But the harassment stopped once she discovered that they would love her if she attacked the vile separatists or if they could get a headline that said heroic author gets abuse from evil cybernats.
Bet her new book gets magnificent praise when it comes out next month…
@ Lochside
Very succinct! Totally agree. Can we all move on now?
‘Rowling rejects claim that SNP are not anti-English’.
Well how straightforward is that statement, NOT?
If it’s correct ….. in other words, her words, at least 100,00 members of the SNP, 1.6 million adults in Scotland who voted for Independence don’t like English people. That’s some defamatory claim (and I for one am extremely annoyed about this) coming from someone who’s complaining that she’s being verbally abused online by a small number of morons ….. with no proof if they are SNP supporters or not ….. and with her wealth and influence could have easily identified these particular people and put a stop to it …… IF she really wanted to.
She’s one of a number of celebrities who have been verbally abused online for example SNP supporters but I don’t see this being reported at all by the MSM or JKR acknowledge this either. Not too bothered about the unfairness of it all. Just another shallow-minded me, me person desperate for attention.
I wonder if her relationship with Brown and Darling has anything to do with her very manipulative behaviour or is she just raging because her celebrity (which she is misusing) and money didn’t scare everyone into voting for the Union last year and Labour at the Election? Is she preparing to leave Scotland for sunnier climes but like Mone will choose to blame the SNP …… keen to be rewarded like her pal Darling? To go down in history, for all time coming, as Lord or Lady Scotsh*fter like Dalrymple.
I can’t understand why a woman who has been so successful and is so wealthy spends one minute of her precious time trawling through Twitter looking for ‘nasties’ and then seemingly picks up her phone to report to Torcuil et al. How sad is that? What a sad individual. Why not use her time and wealth to help, say, individuals suffering from a disability like her mother or single parents as she once was?
There are billions of people suffering worldwide. Millions of causes that she could get involved in. She’s in such a privileged position and could have used this to alleviate horrendous misery and put a smile on so many faces, like a compassionate Diana.
If she doesn’t want to venture too far afield she could get off her butt and help some of the 1 million people living in abject poverty in Scotland; previously the Labour way. The country she professes to love. The country that welcomed her with open arms. The country she’s used, in part, to sell her books and make her fortune. Seems not to be.
I used to admire her. Once upon a time.
jk rowling books
“Dozy Slaber and the half truth mince”
“Quid Rich Bitch through the ages”
“The Prisoner of Barnton”
“The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations,the best doctors ,and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history , this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.’ Joseph Stiglitz
Hopefully the anti- austerity marches will have an impact on that understanding because to have a functioning society there does need to be stability – that means that policies are needed to reverse the inequality gap. Having limitless personal wealth does not protect against the consequences of catastrophic social and economic dysfunction .
@davidb, I don’t know about a ‘colonialist mindset’, but at the very least there is just something *rude* about someone using their wealth and influence to help prevent their adopted country achieve self determination.
She is entitled to do so, but most reasonable people would feel very uncomfortable doing that.
Wherever they came from originally.
Perhaps she doesn’t see it that way. Maybe she does really regard herself as Scottish, and thinks we would be better off ruled from London. It comes across as a strange type of disingenous patriotism though, with a blind eye to missed opportunities and no faith in our long term potential.
And yes, partly thanks to a Labour backer, Scotland now suffers years more of a Tory government we didn’t vote for.
The Rowling Mones In Concert
The Guardian puts the vote SLab boot in again, a slip in their Scotland region black out.
Usual Guardian says SNP Scots.gov is a load of shite so STOP voting for them stuff.
link to theguardian.com
“The SNP’s initiative came just two days after it was revealed that in Scotland, since 1997, the richest people in the country have seen their wealth expand while the very poorest Scots have got poorer.”
Hello rancid The Graun!
Why do you think super reach women like JK Rowling paid BetterTogether vote SLab a million quid, shock.
etc
It should probably be remembered that Ms Rowling was the one who insulted all things Independant in the first place by being in the position to use her profile to denigrate everything the SNP said and then didn’t like it when some folk not in high profile positions disagreed
You see you’re only allowed to disagree if you’re famous or you have lots of money
Now that doesn’t sound very Labour or Socialist to me, it sounds like what she really is “A Tory”
Also this is the same woman who complained to Leveson about intrusion by the Guardian Newspaper now she uses that same publication to prosecute her twisted point of view about the SNP
She’s a hoot that’s what she is
If JK and the Guardian both say I’m a Nazi then I suppose I must be coz I’m not very bright and I voted SNP
Thing is, because I’m so thick I’m going to do it all over again at the Holyrood Election and Ms Rowling has a vote too, so vote away Ms Rowling and make a difference
Or, like Ms Mone you have other options as do we all
Of course you could give the Labour party another chunk of money and try that
Me, I’ll give the SNP my fifty quid as will around Two Million others and guess what for a change WE WIN
@David Agnew
Spot on.
But I fear that Stu would be pissing into the wind. Our esteemed Shadow Secretary of State (aka the MP for Morningside) had a recent piece in LabourHame on FFA. It reads like Groundhog Day:
“pooling and sharing”
“powerhouse Scottish Parliament”
“one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world” (note we’ve gone from *the* most powerful, to one of the most)
£7.6 billion black hole; massive cuts/tax rises needed to fill the gap, failing which growth would require to be double the normal average; pensions at risk! (didn’t we hear that last year?)
Black hole ‘projected’ to be over £9billion by the end of the decade (crivens!)
Being in the UK ensures we “spread our country’s wealth fairly” (but isn’t the *actual* empirical evidence that the UK is the most unequal country in Europe?)
So, the executive summary is : w’ur poor, w’uv always been poor, w’ur always gonnie be poor unless mother England looks after us. And don’t SLAB luv it!
Her profile is being kept up, politically, and we are always reminded of her connection to Labour as a donor. Is she going to run for leader?
“JK Rowling, no longer writing books about wizards for children”
Children? How dare you, how very dare you.
If you don’t withdraw that remark I’m telling mummy. Remarkarum vanisharo.
Just who does she think she is, oo oh boo hoo whoa is me. My fg god to have such wealth from writing a few crap books, but to seek attention via the media in such a disgusting, negative and biased way is just really stooping very low. There is such a thing as Karma.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, this is the business, and helps explain, very succinctly, why we must keep fighting ‘Tories’ and all suchlike manifestations, wherever they appear –
George Carlin, ‘The American Dream’ –
link to youtube.com
Two points:
1. That Herald headline is atrocious. “Rowling rejects claim SNP are not anti-Scottish”? Did no-one teach the Herald sub about double- and triple-negatives?
2. Daisley can be very funny but when he drops snarky wee remarks like that, he should be able to figure out why some people give him abuse. In fact, that’s a microcosm of the whole anti-nationalist movement. Be snarky as fuck for as long as possible then wail “ABUSE!” as soon as someone calls you a cunt for it. It’s a bit like running up to someone in the playground, hitting them, then running away shouting “KEYS!”
Phronesis what a fabulous quote from Joseph Stiglitz. Thanks for that. It’s now been pasted into my little archive for future reference and practical usage.
If only everyone would read this, truly understand and act upon it appropriately such as JKR.
I watched a programme recently and a number (few) of compassionate, empathetic billionaires voiced their profound concerns about being so wealthy, donating millions to charities but having to live behind security fences / gates. Their lives were totally limited and impoverished. They were fearful of the consequences, repercussions, of being so wealthy when so many were so very poor. They, their partners and more so their children could no longer lead a normal life.
They no doubt had studied history such as Russian and French. The same old, same old story … a handful of people being mega-rich and powerful versus masses of people living in poverty…… let them eat cake.
Osborne has a degree (2:1) in history (that’s all he’s got) but one doubts that he has actually learned anything at all. His obsession with taking us all back to Dickensian times has a historical link which we would call regressive and cruel. He thinks it’s ‘surplus’ progressive. And as I’m thinking of this don’t you reckon that a prerequisite of the job should be IQ testing and psychological assessment?
No one in the UK is going to assasinate the ultra-wealthy by shooting or by beheading but they better believe that we are now at the end of our tether: the VERY end of it.
We’re not daft. We know that the UK is in the top four most inequitable countries in the developed world. We don’t have to be economists or even have the ability to count to work that one out. This basic fact tells us that we ain’t ‘in this (austerity) together’ far less Better Together. We know that the rich are getter richer as the poor are getting poorer. Then we ask ourselves how can that be? If things are so bad and we are suffering through ‘austerity cuts’ how come they are all getting richer? Duh!
A General Strike may be in the offing to get rid of the Tories that is if the English Labour Party gets its act together.
I was at the rally in Freedom Square today. People coming together to speak out against austerity measures. A great turnout, good music and noticed a number of SNP MPs there such as Philipa, Mhairi and Tommy. Seemingly there was 20 plus SNP MPs there: Attending after a long week at the Commons and of course having to deal with their own constituents.
No sign of Darling, Brown, Dugdale, Matheson, Murray or any of the other so-called anti-austerity crew. No sign of JKR either. Strange, eh?
Wings: She could build herself a gold castle
She has done that, already.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Doesn’t everyone know that being a celebrity (which is mostly a luck of the draw affair) automatically makes you a genius in all things economy and politics?
Obviously a celebs opinion is insanely more valid than a random stranger you meet in a pub.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke*
The neoliberals who dominate both blue and red Tory parties, are intent on shrinking the state. This ideology will inevitably result in excluding those who are less able from everyday social norms. Ultimately, such ‘restructuring’ will undermine social cohesion. Should this be considered good or evil? Well, according to Boris, those who are most able should be encouraged at the expense of those who are less fortunate. I call that modern fascism.
*Edmund Burke was a leading figure within the conservative faction of the Whig party and is credited as being the founder of conservatism.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Don’t need no stinking ‘robo-suit’……show me the hoverboard
JKRs next book title should be the Circle of Myths.
The original Mario on NES was much better than the pseudo-3d nonsense of Mario 64. Actually, duck hunt, now that was PROPER entertainment. Godangit, Kickle Cubicle on the NES… that was the ultimate ultimate!!!
We need simple platform games, with quality muzak… original Mario type stuff.
As for JKR, she couldn’t hold a match to CS Lewis or Roald Dahl. If the youngers wurnae functionally illiterate, they would see that.
Blinkin Potter: blinkin hotchpotch of Greek myths by somebody who can’t fathom their mythopoeic significance. Is anybody here really surprised that the daughter of a brit admiral gets a publishing deal. Compare and contrast: Graham Greene (MI6); John le Carre (MI5); Ian Fleming (MI5); George Orwell (BBC)
[sorry, I’ve had a few drams]
My take on the Britain/England/Scotland confusion is that Britain is derived from the Roman name Briton for England and Wales.
When Scotland went into a union with England we became Great Britain.
I assume meaning greater Britain.
That’s my take on it anyway.
O/T. Looks like Darling’s dream has come true a nice little earner for his betrayal of Scotland.
“A Labour source also told the newspaper that David Blunkett and Alistair Darling are in line for peerages, while Gordon Brown is thought to have refused the honour.”
link to politicshome.com
Does this mean Iain Macwhirter actually has a spine? Now that IS news.
The SNP doesn’t tolerate anti-English racism, and it does a disservice to politics to suggest otherwise
link to archive.is
@alexicon says: 21 June, 2015 at 7:19 am:
“My take on the Britain/England/Scotland confusion is that Britain is derived from the Roman name Briton for England and Wales.
When Scotland went into a union with England we became Great Britain.
I assume meaning greater Britain.
That’s my take on it anyway.”
Aye! Alexicon it is “Great, or Greater Britain and the term is geographic. There are many thousands of place-names in the British Isles that use the term. As, for example, Greater Cumbrae as the name of the larger of the two Scottish islands.
There is also the term Little as in Littlehampton but the Great In Britain carries go other meaning of greatness than Great Britain being the biggest island in the island group.
Mince for breakfast, anyone? WARNING: a total pile of poo.
If you thought that the Tories’ austerity is bad, wait until you see the fiscal crunch a fiscally autonomous Scottish government would have to contend with.
link to archive.is
I concur with othere about Daisley’s misplaced perception about the significance of ‘success’ as an author.
Nobody with a knowledge of literature would classify Rowling as a great writer, and she is not particularly well-educated or qualified or experienced in any field. But she struck lucky and has made a mountain of money, and not many of us would decline to accept that fortune, though we would probably think of better things to do with it than fund the Labour Party. So: good for her: but making a lot of money is a pretty crude measurement of ‘success’ as an author.
But I can never think of Rowling without feeling sorry for Jill Murphy – the children’s author from whose ‘Worst Witch’ books the whole Hogwarts saga was derived. She must be an extremely nice person, not having sued.
heedtracker
I read that piece by Kevin McKenna this morning. My opinion of that guy has been subject to fluctuation… I wondered if there were 2 observer writers with the same name.
Scotland suffers from inequality and the SNP have not been able to fix this with control over health, education and the council tax. An amazing revelation.!
Wait… its just the council tax it would take to turn our society into the Scandinavian model where there are no ultra rich and no ultra poor. We can just increase the property tax for people who are rich whatever band of house they live in and reduce it for people who are poor whatever band of house they live in.
Or we abolish council tax and tax people based on earnings only regardless of whether they are well off or not! Simples!
Why hasn’t Nicola got this inequality sorted out by lunchtime using control of verges or traffic bollards already and moved on to solving the problems of the Middle East?
I thought Kevin’s article was extremely ill conceived and tribal, condescending and insulting. He seems to miss the whole point of independence and gaining all control over the direction we can steer Scotland.
If we had a fair and equal Scotland already then what were 45% of us blethering about last year?
Paisley’s tweet is all about getting someone to pop up and say she’s not Scottish and therefore not “ours”.
It is subtle as a brick.
So far as I’m concerned if she considers herself Scottish, then she is. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with anything she says.
I’m just glad I’ve never put one penny in her pocket. Never read the “books” and never seen the films.
Rowling reminds me of Madonna, someone who is not actually very talented (particularly with regard to those she has copied), but has managed to make a whole load of money, which does not seem to have made her happy.
Both seem to have a need to “control” things and are probably not in a secure or sound relationship, because they keep lashing out at others and doing things to flaunt their wealth.
If I were rich, I hope I would be more modest, quiet online (!), I would try to do good things, not stir up “flame wars” and I would certainly not slavishly bum-kiss establishment politicial parties like a craven courtier.
I hate to say this, but I have never read as much as a sentence of Rowling’s books. I cannot believe adults can fall for such childish nonsense, especially when they are a regurgitation of so much of what has gone before!!
Agree Tam. Remember Kevin is a nuovo independence supporter. He was old Labour so has a lot of baggage.
Like you I find his posts sporadic,erratic and schizophrenic. You cannot solve problem B and C without control of A. It’s like paying your wages into a friends account and him deciding what you get back,what bills you can pay,what you can control spending on, how much you can borrow and therefore invest.
Running a nation in such away is tinkering with 30% and leaving the rest in Situ with a third party.
Pocket money can be spent wisely, but it leaves control with mum and dad.
@ Ian Brotherhood
Carlin video worth a listen. Thanks.
Derek Bateman has a good post on the Greek troubles and the EU. Ode to Joy. That, in turn, links to an excellent post by Paul Mason of C4.
link to blogs.channel4.com
Austerity imposed by wealthy elites is so destructive. Good theme for a children’s writer. But my sense of social justice probably comes from Oor Wullie and The Broons.
@Iain says: 21 June, 2015 at 9:13 am:
“I concur with othere about Daisley’s misplaced perception about the significance of ‘success’ as an author
Nobody with a knowledge of literature would classify Rowling as a great writer, and she is not particularly well-educated or qualified or experienced in any field”.
I’d go along with that, Iain. The woman is not a great writer but is exploiting the gullibility and naivety of the young and of adults who require a bit of escapism. Rather like, “Hank Janson”, exploited the sexual repressions of the 1940s/early1950s. Not a great author but sold lots of books.
Hank Janson was both a fictional character and a pseudonym created by the English author Stephen Daniel Frances, (who died in 1989). He was the most popular and successful of British pulp fiction authors of the 1940s and 1950s. He wrote violent “pseudo-American”, paperback thrillers featuring erotic cover art. An estimated five million copies were sold by 1954.
In 1954 the author, D. F. Crawley, was prosecuted, only to be acquitted when it was discovered he no longer had rights to the Janson pseudonym. The titles by then were being written by a variety of others.
I don’t think anyone noticed any difference in style. In other words anyone could write them and the success was due to the original concept. As you indicate by highlighting the rip-off by Rowling of Jill Murphy – the children’s author of the ‘Worst Witch’ books.
Tam Jardine, its probably the shock of May 7 starting to ease off and now their fury kicks in.
Blue or red tory rags like the Graun and their crews of pompous, pious, pissy, posh twits attack change in teamGB by instinct but the reality of change in Scotland is slowing sinking and they do not like it at all.
Quoting the twerp that CameronB Brodie linked up there who farts off-
“The trouble is this. Somehow, the SNP has built a reputation for seriousness and competence in government, and this is the collateral on which they want us to mortgage our country.”
Just more of the usual UKOK bullshit from tory unionista sneaks and creeps as in, how the hell can SNP possibly build any kind of reputation in a bettertogether world of NO or else, that automatically monsters everything Holyrood, Scotland, Scottish democracy, Scots oil, Scottish sports, Scottish culture, Scottish oil, Scottish… well Scottish anything gets shat on day in day out by the whole of the UKOK media, led and coordinated by the BBC and yet “the SNP has built a reputation for seriousness and competence in government.”
Maybe SNP have JK Rowlingesque powers of witch craft.
Graun and their crews of pompous, pious, pissy, posh twits, bit of alteration there of a Sunday morn:D
Meant alliteration not alteration! on a Sunday.
Graun and their crews of pompous, pious, pissy, posh twits, bit of alliteration there of a Sunday morn:D
Sorry
@ heedtracker
I hate to encourage bad language but feel I must point out that “posh pricks” would be more alliterative.
I popped in on my pal and he was raging at the TV as usual. Sunday Morning Live was on and they were debating, “British History”. Just as I went in a guy was reading out Tweets for, “British”, people. in answer to the question, “Are you proud of British History”?
It was hilarious. Every read out Tweet was very obviously from Englanders. None of them knew the difference between Britain, The UK and England.
I paraphrase as it was rather too quick to get it word perfect :- “Yes – what about Magna Carta?”. Some then actually mentioned England in their reply and one said, “No, but why do they concentrate only on the exploits of wars and never mention scientific and medical discoveries”. At which point my wee pal almost burst a blood vessel and yelled at the box, “Because you bloody daft F****** idiot the wars were all English and the inventions and discovery were all Scottish”.
To let you understand it is his wife who is the TV addict and she controls the remote. He has a pathological hatred of the BBC. I’m expecting one day to see his wife wearing their TV as a necklace as well as wearing the trousers.
I think Rowling is symptomatic of what is wrong with our media and the chattering classes.
She has demonstrated that she knows next to nothing about economics or Scottish politics. Yet she is given a loud voice because she writes kiddies books and is a millionaire. Most of her drivel is Brownesque ,no surprise there. He is a Scot who is not comfortable in his own skin or identity. Being a Scot = hating the English to him. So he dresses it in a union blanket to appease his uncomfortableness with his English wife and rich friends.
Most nations do not have to think about who they are or why they are. But the Brits in Scotland see Scots as a threat to the order and ownership they feel. If you are English and live in Scotland you should embrace your own identity and celebrates the one you live in. Not force a shared identity onto people.
We witnessed the true Brits in George square last September. A peaceful yes movemgt destroyed by neanderthals. Scotland’s shame. There is anti Scottishness in the BBC and among rich English people in Scotland. That’s the truth Rowling will never see.
Azeem Ibrahim is a liar. Any increase in spending on Education in theorist of the UK is £6Billion borrowed to cover higher fees. £3Billion will not be recovered. Scotland spends more (pro rata) on healthcare. Scotland drinks 15% more (down 10%) but can’t put a tax on ‘loss leading’ drink. A factor in Health and crime. Crime is down and Health spending is up under SNP. Any deficit in Scotland is because of Westminster policies.Trident/illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud.
Scotland raises £54Billion in taxes. More (pro rata) than the rest of the UK, £412Billion (£90Billion borrowed) or Germany. Norway raises £80Billion in tax revenues (42% of GDP) UK is 35% of GDP. Norway invests from Oil fund (£500Billion) in it’s economy.
Scotland would need to grow (invest in it’s economy) and stop spending on Trident/illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud to be more like Germany (surplus) and Norway higher tax revenues.
Was it worth it labour?
Warning! Picture of the new shadow Sec of State for Scotland.
link to archive.is
I’m an author who is constantly asked, ‘I bet you wish you were J K Rowling.’ If I say no I get a disbelieving ‘really?’ reaction. There is no reason for me to say yes. I guess she has a big audience for her books and that would be great, but sometimes writers write because they have to write. Huge money, fame, power are irrelevant.
It is clear to me that she is not applying cause and effect to her decisions about Labour. Its support or abstentions re fracking, austerity, Trident ( and disregard for poverty and cruel oligarchical rule ) mark it out as an enfeebled option. SNP is a mandate for change but that won’t come on a plate. Stronger language from MPs is needed and they have to shout louder and further and longer to be heard. The establishment will resist all change.
By supporting BT, Rowling sided with the status quo albeit one that is entrenching its ‘take everything, milk the masses, sod the poor’ position. If she is guilty of anything it is to have helped disinfranchise Scotland’s youth. FFA, control of powers, an equality with England were possible, but thanks to muddled, or should I say muggled, thinking Scotland has been put in its box.
Not for long. I’m English and don’t hate the Scots, I just hate inequality and bigotry emanating from WM and those who should know better.
Germany NH is contribution funded, not all from tax revenues. Germany (pop 80million) raises €600Billion in taxes and is in surplus. More equal.
Child poverty has increase since ConDem came to power in 2010. Westminster are sanctioning vulnerable people and starving them.
Capella says:
21 June, 2015 at 10:43 am
@ heedtracker
I hate to encourage bad language but feel I must point out that “posh pricks” would be more alliterative.
Well if that next unionist shill, sorry Executive Chairman at The Scotland Institute, what ever that is, if he’s right there’s two things going on in their Scotland region.
1. SNP have discovered some staggeringly miraculous way of building a reputation for “seriousness and competence in government” in the face of years of hard core BBC style monstering, therefore they should now all jack in teamGB politicking and get into the PR biz, thereby trousering JK Rowlingesque levels of cash/castles/greed.
2. Maybe a lot of Scots and some English would like change in teamGB and fundamental change too.
Ofcourse none of the shills and liggers at the BBC, rancid Graun etc would ever dare even mention it. Thus we have one more UKOK buffoon like MacKenna shitting all over everything Scottish democracy, or another day at the coal face for teamGBists in all newsrooms across their regions.
“Why are all Scottish judges so posh? I blame that beastly Nicola Sturgeon, she’s horrid and making no difference to posh judges who are really posh, so vote SLabour and Kezia Dugdale is really weally lovely and wont do much, if anything at all”
Sunday Mail gives advice to labour.
Jim Murphy did not have all the answers to all the questions facing Scottish Labour but he had a few and they were mugs to get rid of him after just six months. 🙂
link to archive.is
Iain McWhirter has returned to the subject of Ms Rowling in his column in today’s Sunday Herald. It is very much worth a read – sorry cannot archive a link to it.
It is a comprehensive reply to her position about anti-English sentiment in the SNP to the extent that I, at least, don’t think the subject of Ms Rowling need never be discussed further. It is boring and everything that needs to be said has been said.
Re Guid Nychburris in Dumfries yesterday (similar to a Riding of the Marches) – see Richard Arkless’s post here: link to facebook.com
The riders wore a white rose inspired by the SNP MPs, and it was a particularly big ride out this year, lovely to see
Well I split my sides laughing at the news that Jackie Burd is to do an hour long special on the Fall of Scottish Labour.
I find that a bit rich since the BBC has been running SLABs campaigns for the last decade and to no avail apparently.
It seems that Rowling’s millions couldn’t help them out either. Oh bitterness is a SLABBER with a skelpit face.
Lets be honest the media are not doing Scottish Labour any favors. All this frothing imbecility drove more than half of labours vote in the welcome embrace of the SNP. They kept doing it and the support of the SNP became so embedded, that Labour could not think of anyway to win them back.
If I was a labour party member with any sense at all, I would be pleading with the UK media to knock it on the head. If Scottish Labour go into 2016 riding a wave of this pish, they risk a far worse defeat in Holyrood than what the polls already are predicting for them.
Brewer ‘local people make decisions’. Local people vote majority SNP councillors and Unionists unite to keep them out of power. Councils waste the most taxpayers money. Refuse gifts of £80Million to pedestrianise the City and spend £33Million renovating an Art Gallery.
Oil decommissioning goes out of Scotland under Westminster policies. Westminster refused permission for Inquiries into 4 helicopter crashes in Scotland. Even though there was evidence of Health & Safety rules not being followed. Company’s sold out for £250Million 2 years later.
Rev wrote:
” Had Senga McClatty of Castlemilk said it, nobody would have given a toss.”
FROFL
🙂
Brewer? The subsidies come back. They are paid to the EU and come back. £1/2Billion is pay in the first place to the EU and Scotland gets it back. Scotland received the lowest subsidy in the EU as part of the UK. The EU gave Scotland extra and Westminster took it and gave it to wealthier farmers in the rest of the UK.
Born in Glasgow, Dr Ibrahim was named one of the Top Global Thinkers of 2009 by the LSDP European Social Think Tank and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
With a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Dr Ibrahim is highly in demand for his expertise in the area of geopolitical strategy. He has advised many world leaders in recent years and served as an International Security Fellow at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a World Fellow at Yale and an Adjunct Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College.
Dr Ibrahim also founded over half a dozen award-winning companies in three continents, including his most recent venture, Ibrahim Associates – a non-profit global strategic consultancy firm. His many years of experience as an economic expert led him to consider the situation of his own home country. He knew that innovative policy solutions were required if Scotland was to remain globally competitive, and he responded to this need by setting up The Scotland Institute.
link to scotlandinstitute.com
#Fingered!
Has anyone seen this little gem on Twitter?
Duncan Hothersall ?@dhothersall 1h hour ago
On #Murnaghan @kdugdalemsp points out ScotLab is already devolved from UKLab. No need for separate party or country. Use the powers we have.
What motivates Ms Rowling?
Some points that may help her revisit some of here misgivings.
Are there anti English people in the SNP – undoubtedly so – but a very small minority. There are more English born people that are members of the SNP than English born people that are members of labour in Scotland.
It has always been the case that SNP behaviours have been judged more harshly and undergone more scrutiny than any other party in Scotland, the british state broadcaster based in England and other uk media have ensured this. the leadership of the SNP has always been alert to those whom could damage the movement by even the merest wife of anti Englishness.
Possibly where Ms Rowling concerns are alerted is the SNP anti british state and establishment (for which she is a part of) stance. For this no apologises, Scotland will not achieve independence with highlighting how our association with this state damages the people of Scotland and our country.
To date I have not heard Ms Rowling voice concerns about british nationalism and the impacts it has had on people in Iraq or Afghanistan, I look forward to that!
“Are there anti English people in the SNP – undoubtedly so – but a very small minority.”
Mm. I mean, there are doubtless Manchester United fans in the SNP, but does that make it a Manchester United-supporting party? The premise of her comment is moronic. A party is not every last characteristic of every last individual member. Macwhirter was clearly talking about the party in the sense of its principles.
Wee bit confused with a couple of comments on telly this morning.
Firstly, the ubiquitous Diane Abbot, on ebc, proudly proclaiming her part in the anti-austerity march in London. Can anyone tell me whether she voted against tory cuts, or did she abstain? And is her request for a living wage, plus a higher “London” living wage not adding to the perception of a metrocentric gov? Labour clearly have no plans to address this particular black hole.
Secondly, Ms Dugdale on Murnaghan, Sky; FFA wouls mean £7.6bn black hole, on top of tory £12bn cuts. Surely FFA would mean Scotland would decide whether cuts were needed, therefore uk gov cuts would not be part of the equation?
Why doesn’t anyone point out that by cancelling the tv licence fee, the tories would ease the hardship delivered through austerity? I’m sure Andrew Neil would agree!
This made me smile
link to thelyonyawns.com
@ HandandShrimp – That article you link to has the line
Under the age of 60? Cybernat.
Some of the vilest cybernats it is my pleasure to know are over 60. It’s a pity such an informative piece makes this basic error.
@woosie
have a look here
link to theyworkforyou.com
@Paula Rose 1:24pm
dammit PR, if you keep giving away our secrets I might have to stop dying my fringe!
@ indigo
Talking of White Roses,did you catch Alex Salmond reciting the MacDiarmid poem in the HoC EU debate?
It’s at c.16:17mins in to 16:18:12
link to parliamentlive.tv
You are right Paula. Although not there myself I intend to be just as vile once I pass that landmark. 😉
@ Paula Rose We meet a lot of the Vile Cybernats on our days out from the Doddery Hoose , an there,s pleny Younger Cybernats tae.PeteTC canny keep up wie the demand fur Proud Cybernat Badges.
Nose tae the grindstane Pete,yer nae done yit.
Capella-I remember a few years back the scots dialect was spoken at WM by one of our MPs (can’t remember which party) and one of those donkey braying Tories screamed “speak English!” nice eh?
There’s a few folk looking like falling into the PC trap of not being allowed to say certain things or express a viewpoint
Regarding this, who’s from where business, Personally I can’t contain my total indifference as to where anybody’s from or how long they’ve lived wherever
But this culture of professional outrage at anything and everything folk say seems to stick with the many and not the few
In America people who have never even visited Africa in their puff will give voice loudly to the fact they are African Americans
We have whole societies of expat Scots who are not and never have been to Scotland but somewhere in the dim and distant past they had a relative called Big Red Hairy Mc Donald and a story to go with it
Now all of that’s fine and good fun which brings me to this insane Rowling woman, she of the need to draw attention to herself by any means possible
And that’s OK too, coz if Katie Price can do it why not Rowling
But here’s the thing that bothers me the newspapers have somehow managed to convince people that in her case you can’t say she’s not Scottish because that’s in some way bigoted or racist or Anti something
I just wonder why Ms Rowling is so ashamed of her own heritage that she feels the need to go around claiming some other one, I just don’t get that
I posted before about my own mother who came from Wolverhampton lived in Scotland for 60 years had 5 children with my Edinburgh father lived quite happily and died in her 80s and in all that time she never grew any Scottish appendages or developed a funny walk, she was, and still is in my heart and mind an English woman
And in all my life though I despised everything that is, what the SNP calls (The Westminster Establishment)I never considered this to be in any way a result of my mothers Englishness
So I think folk should perhaps worry less about offending someone just by saying they’re English, it’s not offensive, it just is what they happen to be, exactly the same as me being Scottish or you being Spanish or French or any damn thing, we mustn’t allow the media and particular personalities to twist this into their own Agenda of hatred
@Jim Thomson says: 21 June, 2015 at 1:27 pm:
“dammit PR, if you keep giving away our secrets I might have to stop dying my fringe!”
You have a fringe?
Well I suppose I have one too. It’s at the back of my head, though.
@Robert Peffers
Aye, the one in the photie is the best I could manage on the day 🙂
My other-world fringe is almost circular now too 😉
It just seems to me that the LabServativeDem and British media unionist party bangs the same old hate the SNP drum and have failed to realise that the people of Scotland kin it’s all crap. Scots are sick of being talked down, whether it’s the SNP bashing, or playing down the oil or counting Scotch whisky exports as English because it leaves English ports.
It’s the unionists that are killing the ‘union’
I wonder if JKR is trying to focus everyones attention on the SNP to detract from the fact that a great deal of animosity has been shown by many English people towards the Scots, and always has been. How often have we had to put up with comments such as ‘Scotlands main export to England … tramps’.
@ call me dave says 11:11 am ‘Sunday Mail gives advice to labour.’
Looks as though JKR and the Labour party have wasted a great deal of money that could have been put to better use, such as donating to their local foodbank.
‘Ian Murray was the highest spending candidate of any party in the capital at the general election, according to official expense returns obtained by the Sunday Herald.
Returns from elsewhere in the country also reveal a host of big Labour names tried to hold back the SNP tsunami with wads of cash, only to be beaten by SNP unknowns.
Former leader Jim Murphy spent almost twice his SNP rival in East Renfrewshire, as did former Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran in Glasgow East.
In Glasgow Central, former Labour deputy Anas Sarwar spent almost five times as much the SNP’s Alison Thewliss only to end up on the wrong end of a 22 per cent swing.
Overall, Murray spent £37,129 in the five months up to polling, compared to just £13,158 spent by his SNP rival Neil Hay in Edinburgh South. The tactic worked: Murray increased his majority from 316 to 2637.
But elsewhere Labour candidates spent a fortune in vain.
In Glasgow Central, Sarwar lost after spending £39,337, compared to Thewliss’s £8,549.
Murphy’s failed campaign cost £27,366 compared to Kirsten Oswald’s winner of £14,247, and Curran was thrashed after blowing £26,482, twice the £12,916 of the SNP’s Natalie McGarry.
Thewliss said: “Labour spent huge amounts of cash desperately trying to hold on to seats, but clearly nothing could save them from the strength of the SNP campaign, or the damage done by their ‘branch office’ status in Scotland and control from Westminster. The fact is the people of Scotland no longer trust Labour after their toxic referendum alliance with the Tories.”
Stu don’t you think that mentioning / showing favoritism towards Senga McClatty from Castlemilk on this site is going to put some other noses out of joint such as:
Aggie MacBoggin from Blackhill; Bessie MacStinkin from Sighthill; Charlotte MacBowfin from Bellahouston; Nellie MacSmellie from Strathbungo; Madonna MacManky from Motherwell; Ella MacBoggin from The Brig; Shantell MacMinger from Milton; Maisie MacHonkin from Halfway; Fanny MacMingin from Maryhill; Phoebe MacHummin from Hillhead; Maggie MacLoupin from Linthouse; Morag MacKeechie from Kelvinside, Sadie MacHowfin from Hurlet; Bella MacStinky from Springboig and Beyonce MacHowlin from Haghill.
Apologies everyone. Got carried away!
She is not getting my suit. So there.
@Dr Jim says: 21 June, 2015 at 2:37 pm:
“So I think folk should perhaps worry less about offending someone just by saying they’re English, it’s not offensive, it just is what they happen to be, exactly the same as me being Scottish or you being Spanish or French or any damn thing, we mustn’t allow the media and particular personalities to twist this into their own Agenda of hatred”
I’m with you there Dr Jim, and I don’t care where, or what rank, you consider yourself to be, either. A Lordship is declared by humans. As are royal persons but they will got no special treatment from me. They won’t be disrespected, though just all treated with equal respect as persons.
I’ll tell you, though, what gets right up my nose. Those insulting numpties who attempt to tell me that if I were to decline to be part of their stinking Union I will cease to be British. They do so at their own peril and will go off considering themselves, “richt telt”.
And weel din Andy Murray – that’s him jist won Queens.
Yep, innocuous comments on zoomer sights just saying the word “English” attracts racist accusations! Weird.
did anyone else noticed Ruthless Davidson quote on Murnaghan this morning… “Taking the lowest people… Paid people out of taxation altogether.. ” She didn’t even apologise for it. U couldn’t make it up man!!!!
@ The Moidart, Davidson is a woman who has never done a stroke of, what most folks would call, work.
“JK Rowling made an obscene fortune out of making up stories about fantasy worlds and flying broomsticks and magic spells”
Jealous, are we?
The said thing is that JK is speaking the truth. There is a strong anti English sentiment in the Indy camp. You appear to have a vendetta against her due to her being pro union.
She is a wonderful author who wrote great books and has done a great deal of charity work. You don’t have to hate her.
A troll blows in.
Say no to wind at 8.46
Was that just an extrusion of that wind?
There is fierce anti Westminster government sentiment in the SNP but absolutely no significant anti English sentiment in a party and movement which accommodates thousands of English people in its membership.
JK Rowling is the author of her own discomfort as her ungenerous and frankly juvenile attack on all of a Scotland which happily housed her over a few idiotic remarks online showed an alarming lack of maturity and good sense
If any evidence of abuse being hurtled
at JK Rowling is produced then it goes
without saying it should be roundly
condemned at every opportunity.
I am getting really sick and tired of hearing
of JK Rowlling’s attempts to smear the
SNP as being anti-English party.
The SNP has shown not only with
words but also its actions hat it doesn’t
tolerate racism, or abuse of any kind.
However the same cannot be said for the
Labour party of which she donates money to.
has she condemned the smears and abuse
directed at the SNP and Nicola sturgeon and
Alex Salmond by Labour politicias and
activists yet?
And has she conde,mned the anti-scottish
comment of Tory MP Lucy Fraser who
said Cromwell had the right idea in dealing
with the Scots by selling them as slaves?
Stephen Daisley’s test of civic or ethnic nationalism shows he doesnt get it at all. Independence isn’t just for Scots or those who feel they can say they ‘identify as scots’ or have become scots by incoming to Scotland.
Its about looking after people who are IN SCOTLAND, IN SCOTTISH SOCIETY, no matter what they think they are. It doesn’t matter if they are from Mars or Venus.
They can identify themselves as anything from Aardvark to Zebra and it doesn’t matter a hoot…
It can’t be denied that JK Rowling is very good at inventing stories.
We really should all just adopt JK Rowling’s opinions on everything. Because she’s better than us, you see.
No personal attacks here then!
Why don’t you all prove you’re better than the Unionists, rather than equally abusive?
Plodmore: No personal attacks here then!
The answer to abuse attacks is simple – use the ‘Send to Trash’ button.
That’s what I do to Rowling-Innit’s fans who send me abusive mail.
Do you really think Rowling-Innit actually sits and reads her mail personally every day?