Just plain lying
The front page of today’s Scottish Daily Mail:
The problem: it’s completely and utterly made up.
Here’s what the paper is claiming:
“Tens of millions of pounds worth of potholes created by the ‘Beast from the East’ will not be repaired because of a major funding crisis.
Scotland’s roads have been plagued by the craters since the nation endured its most severe winter weather in years.
It is estimated it will cost £50million to repair the damage caused over the past few months.
But SNP ministers have offered local authorities only £10million to tackle the problem – despite previously promising to help deal with ‘unforeseen costs resulting from the recent heavy snowfalls’.”
The source appears to be the Lib Dems, in the shape of a local councillor:
“Some local authorities are furious at the Scottish Government for providing only enough emergency money to deal with what is estimated to be a fifth of the repairs.
Perth and Kinross Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Barrett, who sits on council umbrella group Cosla, said: ‘A month ago [Finance Secretary] Derek Mackay promised to ‘help communities remain resilient and councils deal with any immediate and unforeseen costs resulting from the recent heavy snowfalls and ongoing cold weather’.
‘He is going back on his word. In Perth and Kinross alone we have been hit by more than £2million of extra winter maintenance costs. We will end up with just a few hundred thousand pounds because of the Scottish Government’s sleight of hand.”
Backed up by Willie Rennie:
“Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘Derek Mackay has ditched the Bellwin formula activated only a month ago in response to the Beast from the East. Instead he’s offering a measly £10million when councils need five times as much.”
Except that absolutely none of the above seems to be true. Something which the Mail knows perfectly well, because tucked away at the very end we hear this:
“The Scottish Government said: ‘This additional £10million is being made directly available to local authorities immediately so they do not have to submit formal Bellwin claims and await approval. No applications have been received for [Bellwin Scheme] funding.”
In other words, the £10 million is OVER AND ABOVE the normal contingency measure which was already in place for emergency funding, known as the Bellwin Scheme, which was triggered by the extreme weather conditions in February. When the sum was announced last Friday, every report made clear that it was NEW, EXTRA money:
Absolutely NOWHERE has it been suggested by anyone whatsoever that the £10m is a REPLACEMENT for the Bellwin Scheme. It’s an immediate additional sum which will be distributed via Cosla without councils having to apply for Bellwin funds. They’ll still be able to apply for Bellwin money on top of that.
The Cosla spokeswoman in the story says “We are pleased the Scottish Government has recognised the impact on councils with this additional funding“. (Our emphasis.)
So there is no “scandal”.
Nobody has broken any “promise”.
There is no reason to believe that “tens of millions of pounds worth of potholes created by the ‘Beast from the East’ will not be repaired”.
There has been no “sleight of hand”.
There is no evidence at all that Derek Mackay is “going back on his word”.
There is no evidence at all that he’s “ditched the Bellwin formula”.
It is not true that there is “no money left to repair our roads”.
The piece uses none of the usual media tricks of presenting true facts in misleading ways, or selectively cherry-picking bits of data to fool readers into drawing inaccurate conclusions. It’s simply absolute brazen falsehood from top to bottom.
To be honest, we welcome this new more direct approach from the Mail. It’s going to save us a lot of time in the future.
[…] Wings Over Scotland Just plain lying The front page of today’s Scottish Daily Mail: The problem: it’s completely and […]
Is there 40m in the usual pot though? Not sure it’s as clear cas described here.
It’d probably save even more time if they simply printed…
SNP BAD! JUST BECAUSE! SHUT UP NOW!
I cannot understand any Scot buying this ‘newspaper’ . It has been shown time after time to be an undisguised propaganda sheet for unionist lies and , from most of its headlines , appears to be virulently anti-Scottish government .
Of course , were that government to be Tory , every negative headline that has been exposed by Wings would have been fully supportive of a government doing its best in trying conditions . The hypocrisy stinks !
Let me guess … someone at Lib Dem branchette office noticed that no one from their “party” was getting into the news recently. A decision was made, no doubt by the branchette office manager, to stir the shit with the Daily Mail as stirring spoon in a pathetic attempt to smear the Scottish Government sorry SNP.
You know what … the LibDems are a complete waste of space and every time they try a pathetic stunt like this they make themselves even more pathetic.
To keep things in proportion. Two dung beetles have been trapped with rabbit droppings.
I sure chose the wrong job.
Thanks for this Stuart, I know what to expect when I pop to the shops and see a sea of lies glaring at me and no doubt The National hidden as usual underneath these right wing rags’ lies by some tosspot. ( oops can I say that on here!). It’s incessant, 24/7 lies and propaganda.
I was reading about the artist Louise Bourgeois last night who exiled to America from France. When WW11 started she said, about listening to the radio:
‘political discussions, conversations whose sole aim is to conceal the frightful term “neutrality.” I assure you, it’s useful living abroad: it helps one to understand how propaganda and false information is circulated for whatever secret purposes’.
She also said, ‘I don’t know what to say about the behaviour of the Americans. On the whole they are irresponsible. The newspapers, without exception, are trying to mold public opinion. The news they carry is correct, but the slant they put on events is tendentious — or, most of the time, false’.
The UK has been a little America for some time. Though the ‘news they carry’ is definitely not correct in their Scotland region.
Re;Ross@1pm
Read the article again, then you might understand.
Is it not about time that papers were challenged in court over the deceitful way that they report stuff. Opinions are for the opinions pages.They do not constitute news. And yes I do understand that they are trying to influence by printing this sort of junk but seriously they need to be called out.
The people who’ll fall for this rubbish are the same people who fell for “Noah and his magic Zoo boat” or “Hi de Hi the holocaust holiday camp”
They want to believe it no matter what it says because it fits in with their hate
The Mail dont need any excuse to misrepresent the truth….its their policy
It’s instructive that the largest shopping centre, raking in an absolute mint from OTT parking charges around its property, has some of the biggest pot holes I’ve seen anywhere, gaping and unrepaired.
How long it will take the multi-billion pound owners to effect any repairs is anyone’s guess. Suspect they won’t be dipping into their contingency fund or making extra cash available on top of that as the MSM expects the Scottish government to do, regardless of the fact that since 2010 Holyrood has seen a 20% drop in real terms from Barnett.
Addendum…This shopping centre, I think the largest in Scotland, being located in West Lothian.
Many years ago it was stated that the total income for the UK road fund was 33 Billion Quid and only 3 Billion was spent on the roads, it also said that the M1 costs 30 Million Quid a mile to repair.
Now the question has to be asked, if the road fund is not being used to repair our roads where is it going to ?
A guy once said, if they used the road fund tax to repair our roads, the roads would be paved with gold, he was not far wrong there, every district should get every penny its local road fund payers pay for their roads to be used to repair those roads, what do we get, a few pot holes filled in here and there, its a big con trick by central government, its not the fault of our local authorities if they don’t recieve the funding paid into this confidence trick, and for anyone that is not aware of it, income tax was brought in as a stop gap measure many years ago because the UK needed the money at that time, ofc they did not need nuclear weapons and all the other war paraphenalia they need now, most taxed country in the world, I wonder why that is ?
Even if this article were true, surely the local yoon politicians and folk like Willie Rennie should be standing by the tried and tested message that these branches of government should cease with the grievance politics and use the powers they have to magic up money. Why are they running at a deficit and why have they been mismanaging the weather?
“Is there 40m in the usual pot though?”
I haven’t a clue what’s in the pot. The story is that the £10m is a replacement for the Bellwin Scheme, rather than an addition to it, and that claim is complete shite.
Thank god I dont read this bull…. and dont buy any paper.
fiction novels are more of a laugh with my current reading ‘Confessions of a Sociopath’.
I reckon the Unionists and unionist press have more than there fair share of them
FibDems keeping on Fibbing. It seems once a party starts it is unable to stop. One for the Ferret to add to their pie charts of shame.
“The problem: it’s completely and utterly made up.”
So is this self evident statement news?
Of course if Scotland was a normal Independent country all road maintenance costs including road fund licence would be incorporated in the price of fuel so the higher users would pay in proportion to their usage in turn eliminating the beaurocracy of dedicated civil servants collecting road fund taxes which in turn would solve the problem of vehicles from outwith Scotland travelling within Scotland and not contributing to the cost of repairs
Fury as SNP… for the rest of our lives. Wonder what tomorrow’s Heil says Fury as SNP… will be?
Who on earth is Paul Hollywood? See what happens when you no longer watch the great beeb gimp zone network.
The pot is clearly quantifiable as they are adding money to it for some reason.
If it covers the full amount they wouldn’t need to add 10m.
Regardless Of whether the mail is talking balls as usual/embellishing is there actually 50m aside to fix the roads?
Here’s a trick the ‘Scottish’ Daily Mail missed.
link to dailymail.co.uk
Not sure how far you’ll get (and I know it’s a well-worn, often fruitless, path), but I’d still like to draw my Scottish friends’ attention to Article 1 of the Editors’ Code of Practice:
link to ipso.co.uk
Bill not Ben: said:
Nice in theory but that would mean that here in the Highlands, where we have few car owners per square mile, longer to travel between destinations, and some of the most atrocious weather – we would probably get less per mile to repair the roads. Roads which are full every summer with tourist vehicles which, under such a scheme, would pay nothing for the damage they cause.
What a disgusting little creature Willie Rennie continues to be. The Holyrood Administration will be tied up needlessly refuting yet more lies by this odious little man yet again.
I look forward to the day when we dance a jig on the Unionist Grave.
What is the point of Rennie, Rumble, Bumble, Grumble, and stumble? They do not contribute one iota to the good governance of Scotland. They are wreckers and vandals.
The Lib Dems are as much VFM as burning half a million of our hard earned taxes on Rennie’s Holyrood lectern.
I am sick fed up to the back teeth of the lot of them.
They hate Scotland, quite literally, and are Fifth Columnists whose only role is to destroy our civic society and make their fellow Scots suffer in penury and oppression. Liberals, my arse.
I wouldn’t trust myself to be in the same room as any of them these days.
Beilin’.
I wouldn’t wipe my erse with any of the Yoon Rags.
Stu, hire yourself a bodyguard. It’s going to get very dark soon now, if this rag has resorted to outright lying so soon.
I mean that.
@ Bill not Ben
“Many years ago it was stated that the total income for the UK road fund was 33 Billion Quid and only 3 Billion was spent on the roads”
Roads are not intended to be “paid for” by Vehicle Excise Duty, and there is no such thing as the road fund; it was abolished getting on for a century ago.
Hypothecation of taxes is not a thing. As with all other public expenditure, roads are paid for from one pot, into which all taxes are received.
Budget for road maintenance is allocated to councils for local roads (plus a portion of council tax receipts also goes into that) and to Transport Scotland for the national road network.
George Orwells work 1984 is turning out to be more prophetic than Nostradamus.
You could almost believe that George Orwell is the inspiration of todays MSM.
The right to free speech and expression has been morphed into the right to deceive misinform and suppress truth.
I wish people would refrain from referring to the UK as Democratic or free because if it ever had been then it lost its way so long ago you couldn’t pinpoint the time it changed.
What Abraham Lincoln failed to understand is the fact that you can fool far too many people most or all of the time far too often.
Scottish(?)Daily Mail prints inaccurate news regularly on its front page.
Come om Rev surely this is not news? They have been printing fake news and extremely nasty right wing fake news for decades.
It is what they do.
Polls:
They stopped being representative of cross section opinion years ago, they’re not innacurate or sometimes flawed, they lie just like the Daily Mail
Fury from SNP et al as scumbag arse-wipe tabloid prints more brazen lies.
Welsh Sion says:
9 April, 2018 at 2:03 pm
link to ipso.co.uk
interesting,
1. Accuracy
i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.
Plenty to go on there, just about every day in the
Scottishcolonial press.Is the Scottish Daily Mail circulation as high as WoS? Perhaps the lies ae falling on deaf ears. Once independent we could set up a proper press complaints commission. Put it in the manifesto.
Again I say sue them it is the only way you will stop their lies come on SNP do something their is a fortune waiting for you in damages if you do so Stu., shows you every day How to expose them it is not to hard as they are telling blatant lies If a neighbour was doing this to me I would have them in court for deformation of character and with the proof you have with all their previous news papers they cannot even dispute your claims so please sue them or explain to us why you are not doing so???
James Mills says:
9 April, 2018 at 1:14 pm
That’s why unionists like it so much.
As the endgame approaches the Daily Mail can, will, and must become ever shriller, more hateful and with an increasingly tenuous grip on reality – their readership will demand it.
Who’s this Pothole Bill bloke?
Just heading out to the supermarket to cover up these lying Scottish Daily Mail bastards.
Damn SNP weather
Stuart, do you ever get the chance to speak to any of the sources to question them? Is it possible for this to happen?
Derek should sue.
The mass media have gotten away with spreading lies for too long.
If the average man in the street thinks a headline means ‘X’ then that should be what it is held to mean in court.
Retailers who display these lies in such a way as those who are not buying them are exposed to them should be equally liable.
As we all know there’s no such thing as a “Scottish” Daily Mail. It’s the English Daily Mail sent north to lecture Scots on how they must obey England. A filthy disgusting publication.
The Scottish Gov could implement Leveson findings? It would make it easier for these papers to be sued.
AWPR coming on fine. Thanks to Alex Salmond. After being blocked for years by LibDem – Unionists.
Seems to me we are preaching to the converted here, we should be getting this out to the people who actually buy the rag.
Capella Nope not falling on deaf ears, i was advised by a mate and his wife that their was a report about Call-Mac in their Daily Heil on Saturday. They believed every word, i never read it so cannot remark but i guess I know the answer.
“It’s an immediate additional sum”
Are you sure it’s “additional”, or is it payment in advance that will then be deducted from any Bellwin claim made, and only if no claim is made will it be extra?
Similar to what insurance companies do about keys and changing locks, immediate payments that are part of the final accepted claim – but not actually extra.
The aim of the headline is to sell the paper. So they choose headlines to suit their intended market – those who already think “SNP bad” and want to be told “SNP bad”. The truth doesn’t come into it.
If the SNP criticised the press it took legal action there would be howls of “Censorship!”.
Cover up the rags, don’t respond to clickbait and keep getting the message in their faces.
Also, note the very sneaky juxtaposition of the SNP bad hate piece and the fluffy Hollywood story.
A very quick eye glance while doing the messages and trying to control a handful of bored kids on holiday an it looks like there is a scandal at Holyrood. This is not casual or accidental, it is quite deliberate.
When Wikipedia refuses it as a source you know that the publication can not sink much lower.
May it rot along with the other so called Scottish publication and I care not a jot who loses their job – far too disgusted with the media to care.
If the average man in the street thinks a headline means ‘X’ then that should be what it is held to mean in court.
It’s fascism in the 21st century. Mccarthy in the 50’s did exactly the same as UK msm today, lied so hard and so fast, no one could keep up.
Hitler said it, the bigger the lie the better or something like that. His US psycho profile report (wiki) could just as easily describe an average Scottish haha newsroom today,
“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it”
So today, Heil gits have gone big with “and blame him for everything that goes wrong.”
Tomorrow? just more of the same.
Alternative headline:
SNP fails to protect Scottish drivers from Russian highway sabotage.
Subtext: Ruth Davidson would sign pan-global agreement to outlaw the immigration of foreign weather (?)
Heedtracker , perhaps we should use the strategy and start a whispering campaign .
Nice big juicy rumours ,lots of misleading info , twisted tales, hints of scandal and BIG lies – playing our evil media at their own game.
In war time this sort of morale sapping disinformation would be deemed treasonable.
William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw) was hanged.
(I’m not actually in favour of capital punishment, but those were different times and different standards applied)
Keep them coming Stu.
The £10m is genuine additional money to help address the problem. It is very likely the only additional money that Local Authorities will get for roads maintenance. There is a £1.2 billion roads maintenance backlog. link to transport.gov.scot, so although welcome, it’s not going to make a huge difference.
Bellwin funding is only (and rarely) given to fund EMERGENCY response works to events. Each Local Authority has to demonstrate it has incurred spend above a set threshold before any Bellwin funding would be provided. Bellwin funding does not cover the expenditure up to that threshold.
These thresholds are:
Local Authority Threshold level (£s)
Aberdeen City 880,402
Aberdeenshire 1,090,564
Angus 489,774
Argyll and Bute 476,608
Clackmannanshire 236,216
Dumfries and Galloway 680,204
Dundee City 675,458
East Ayrshire 547,542
East Dunbartonshire 481,644
East Lothian 449,052
East Renfrewshire 454,584
Edinburgh, City of 1,886,258
Eilean Siar 214,796
Falkirk 672,982
Fife 1,542,196
Glasgow City 2,880,042
Highland 1,109,810
Inverclyde 385,434
Midlothian 394,694
Moray 402,046
North Ayrshire 662,314
North Lanarkshire 1,420,734
Orkney 163,762
Perth and Kinross 649,784
Renfrewshire 747,558
Scottish Borders 523,880
Shetland 223,338
South Ayrshire 511,280
South Lanarkshire 1,352,574
Stirling 419,096
West Dunbartonshire 425,357
West Lothian 754,206
So the reason that no Bellwin applications have been received by the Scottish Government is probably because most Local Authorities haven’t hit the threshold in the 6 weeks since the storm.
A LibDem wet fart = a Mail headline, its a messy business, lol.
@yesindy2
It is reported as additional, but it is likely to be impossible to say if an extra £10m has been spent. We would have to know what the total Bellwin claims would be in advance and whether this extra has been spent.
So I suppose the headline should be, £10m made available immediately and this extra will not be deducted from Bellwin claims fund. The government then presumably hopes these claims will be lower by the up front spending. So possibly you could see it as a bit of spin in the hope the bill will in the end be the same but gives them some good publicity.
Ruth Davidson and her chums are determined to turn Scotland into one big Belfast and if we don’t stop them soon she’ll get her way and Scotland will be gridlocked for generations just like Belfast and look what’s happened there now, in all but name *direct rule* in co-operation with the DUP
The Daily Mail and others hatefest headlines are the precursor towards that end, they can’t get rid of the SNP by fiddling votes, they can’t get them out constitutionally, they know they can’t win by fair and legal means so what’s next
Just look at what the Brits record is on grasping on to what they can’t afford to lose, if they can’t win they destroy by divide and conquer
It’s why I believe Independence cannot wait until London gets all its ducks in a row, it must be now, by giving them time they win
@jfngw
Yes, as Rev’s article says, Cosla aid it was “additional funding”, so hopefully they know that for a fact.
I’m just being pernickety, on the basis that since Rev carefully shows the
lies“errors” of the media, he needs to make sure he doesn’t do the same, even if far less major an error.Check out the FMs Twitter, she’s doing rather well in good old China, so well in fact that BBCs Douglas Fraser is there watching, although by Reporting Scotland news time no doubt it’ll all be Baad
And you know it’s going well by the amount of poison flowing on to her account from the Yoon poison brigade, they’re doing the full name calling and everything
They’re frantic with hate
the roads are in shockingly bad shape, potholes everywhere, I once heard a man say that first sign of a banana republic is holes in the roads, and it’s not just because of the storm
Why is nobody pressing Rennie to pay the policing bill the Lib Dems still owe???
Dr. Jim @ 4.39pm . . . Agree with your highlighting of Ruthless’s. Belfastisation of Scotland’s politics. Think we’re there already, things have been polarised for some time. Best hope is for a Brexit disaster, job losses , inflation that the MSM can’t disguise. . . Then people’s attitudes should turn pro Indy. Going for Indy Ref2 before Brexit bites would be a breeze for the media. They’d just tell folks that Brexit is brilliant. (Every 5 mins) w
With apologies for the length of this, but there appear to be some ‘nuances’ to this Bellwin Scheme/additional £10m issue.
My take on it all is as follows. The SG has essentially added £10m to this year’s aggregate Local Government settlement, with the actual distribution of this sum between Local Authorities to be decided in consultation with COSLA. Although provided by the SG because of the cost of dealing with the impact of exceptional weather damage, thus sum is not directly related to potential Bellwin funding but it may well prove to have had an indirect effect in time.
The Bellwin Scheme, opened up by the SG as a result of a request by one Local Authority (Dumfries and Galloway?) is now available to all Councils in Scotland to bid into.
It is worth noting that the Bellwin Scheme is discretionary UK government emergency financial assistance which “reimburses local authorities for costs incurred on, or in connection with, their immediate actions to safeguard life and property or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience as a result of a disaster or emergency in their area”. In Scotland the Scheme is devolved to the Scottish Government.
Where Bellwin criteria are met, a grant to meet eligible costs incurred is paid ABOVE a pre-set threshold. Importantly, each authority is expected to have budgeted for a certain amount of emergency expenditure, so Bellwin relief is paid only when necessary expenditure goes beyond what the Government thinks it is reasonable to expect them to have budgeted for as contingency.
(I understand that the threshold is set at 0.2% of an Authority’s total net revenue budget and that the Scheme addresses revenue and uninsurable expenditure incurred within a fixed period from the date of the incident or as agreed between the Government and the Local Authority.)
Crucially also, the purpose of the Bellwin Scheme is NOT to put right ALL the ill effects resulting from an emergency incident but to provide a degree of financial protection to both Local Authorities and council taxpayers as a result of having to deal with emergency situations over and above what could reasonably have been budgeted for.
(See: link to gov.scot )
So it remains to be seen: (a) what bids to the Bellwin Scheme individual Local Authorities will choose to make, and of what value, and (b) how each bid is then assessed for eligibility by the SG.
Each Local Authority will need to consider the following when deciding on any Bellwin bid: (i) the scale of the emergency spending (as defined by the Bellwin Scheme) it is incurring; (ii) the scale of this emergency expenditure above the threshold that has been pre-set; and now as an extra factor (iii) its need for Bellwin Scheme funding once its share of the SG’s additional £10m to the 2018-19 settlement is known.
The Mail article states that the overall cost of dealing with the effects of the severe weather is estimated at £50m (estimated by whom and how distributed between Local Authorities?). For the sake of argument, let’s say this figure is an accurate estimate of (strictly) only those “costs incurred on, or in connection with, their immediate actions to safeguard life and property or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience as a result of a disaster or emergency in their area”.
Any expenditure within the scope of Bellwin at the level of each Local Authority will be met potentially from three pots of money, from: (i) the Authority’s existing budget, up to the pre-set threshold; (ii) its own share of the SG’s £10m addition to the 2018-18 Local Authority settlement; and (iii) the funding that it may seek to access through a bid to the Bellwin Scheme.
Dont forget this is the paper that had ruth Davidsons 2012 tory conference speech as its front page with the 9/10 of scots are a burden to the state as its front page so you know its anti Scottish.
Did you notice who the COSLA spokesperson was ? None other than Gail “Tenacious Tory” McGregor so no bias there then
Well done to all the English athletes who’ve won medals. However England has about 86% of the UK population, but has only about 60% of British won medals in these Games.
Someone should tell Clare Balding and the BBC that England are actually a bit rubbish at sport, all things considered.
Off topic
Today was National (which nation?) Unicorn Day, apparently.
Happy NUD to all Scots who love that beast! 🙂
This type of mischievous attack, in the form of disinformation by the so-called newspaper, is an outright lie passed from editor to printer.
“tens of millions of pounds worth of potholes created by the ‘Beast from the East’ will not be repaired”.
Parliament(s) should be informed of these politically motivated lies.
Unfortunately we have two parliaments-
One, Westminster stuffed full of Tories and their unionist buddies.
The other, Holyrood with it’s Tory led opposition actually hoping for bad news on the SNHS.
And if there’s none, make something up in their friend’s newspapers.
Fuck! RS are at it too.
Here we go for more SNP bad.
The only answer to this MSM cloacal stew of bollocks:
link to youtube.com
O, what is that sound?
Wake up, Scotland, FFS.
Thank God the Rev is here to reveal the truth when all UK media only exist to deceive the Scottish voters a daily dose of fake news.
I really feel that the Scottish Government/SNP should be taking the Mail to court of this malicious distortion of the truth.
I’d also like an advert taken out by same in the local papers where wee Willie and his fellow party liar,Peter Barrett operate
their scams to reveal their bare faced lies.
Time to take them on and expose these charlatans to the masses.
That’s Rep Scot more or less running the Mail story, they just don’t care about facts, even after the lies are exposed. They didn’t even mention the Bellwin fund.
Apparently the Skirpals were using their Novichokette patches, hence the delayed action. Be sure you wear these when you want to give up on nerve gas.
Why does the Daily Mail have the word Scottish in its title, when it’s nothing more than a Britnat propaganda rag.
Do the numbskulls running that comic think that by adding the word Scottish that we believe a word written in it?
The Bellwin fund also operates in England and of course has thresholds. In Scotland the fund is o.2% for each of the local authority budgets. This can vary from £200,000 for smaller authorities to over a £ million for others.
It is expected that local authorities will contribute as they already have road budgets.
I do not think it is anywhere near £50 million Stu. More like £ 20 million in total.
Wrong Rev. The date and price is right! 65p to read what are Viz-style news pages on a daily basis. Not bad value, I guess. Plus “22 year old lover calls him Cake Cake” on the front page too. Great stuff.
People say that fake news can’t get any worse. The Mail says “hold my beer”.
‘To be honest, we welcome this new more direct approach from the Mail. It’s going to save us a lot of time in the future.’
That will keep you very busy though. ‘Today’s lie is…….’
O/T
Having seen the daily lying rags on the shelves this evening, a lot seem to be headlining with pics and story about Pete Wishart being abused online by ‘independence’ supporters. The Britnats are loving the spat.
Respect Pete and his work for Scotland, and it’s his own view to stall another indy ref, but this has opened up another avenue to demonise the masses of people who support Scottish independence.
Still, it’s a distraction while the yes groups get on with campaigning! 🙂
OT Having just watched a heart wrenching advert for the RSPCA, for those who think to donate to the poor animals that suffer at the hands of the ‘animal loving british’ a reminder that our animal charity equivalent is the SSPCA and some years ago was diddled out of funds by its big brother.
Please donate to the SSPCA.
Dorothy Devine says:
9 April, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Heedtracker , perhaps we should use the strategy and start a whispering campaign
Where though? tory reprobates have the UK msm floor to themselves. although you can see some yoons online up here explaining how the SNP “controls” Scottish media. All of which, just more hard core right wing lies.
Although you can do this all day, their Russian poisoning fiasco, a staggering BBC gimp led tory fraud on, well all western democracy. Talk about your Hitleresque bigger the lie the better.
Hitler, Maccarthy, Nixon, Orange Hitler, Colonel Ruth, Strong and Stable, Project Fear 2014, everyone in Pacific Quay news stuff today, you name it, all lovely examples of how barefaced hard core right lying can be very successful, for a whilee anyway.
ps.
If SNP do control Scottish media, they’re bloody useless at it:D
Wall to wall coverage of the rising crime stats all over the country.. Even Radio Shiteland is highlighting them..
Nobody wants to mention the tartan elephant in the room.. No mention of Scottish crime at all time low figures and record police numbers..
I know it’s par for the course from Brit nat media but still annoys..
Don’t pay the tv tax or buy the shiterags..
Lib dems and tories are good at getting stories on bbc with their ex employees now an MP and MSP
Donalda of the bbc promised impartiality. Time she was called back to parliament to explain.
Fake News? The utter rubbish about Syria is reached to a demented crescendo. But bit by bit informed people are understanding who is doing what in Syria and this is destroying the lying media. In due course everybody will know the truth and understand the absolute depths of wickedness the US/UK/Saudi Arabia/Israel have stooped to to destroy Syria and open up attack options against Iran.
And they will realise that we are getting reported the exact opposite of what is going on there.
Lies that big can’t survive.
As I have Middle Eastern relatives and Syrian contacts my rage knows no bounds.
Who will be the brave man or woman in our political establishment who can’t take any more of the evil and steps across to the truth.
O/T
Just been looking at the BTL comments on the BBC Scotland News website concerning the FM’s visit to China.
I never cease to be amazed not just the bile that is written but also the ignorance of many that contribute.
Do they not realise that Scottish Development International, an SG agency, already has staffed offices in several locations in China to promote trade and inward investment? (Source: link to sdi.co.uk )
Do they not realise that even within the EU, member states such as Estonia can negotiate bilateral trade partnerships with China?
(Source: link to baltictimes.com )
Evidently not – more important for these people to show how much they despise the aspirations and the actions of a SG working in the interests of Scotland’s businesses and people. Depressing!
Effigy- ‘I really feel that the Scottish Government/SNP should be taking the Mail to court..’
I’LL second that.
And where are the ‘checks and balances’ on opposition soundbites? Nothing, even from ‘rival’ media.
We are chasing our tails here, trying to tell the world that these stories are all Unionist lies.
We will get a similar story tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. It could be about our NHS or our Schools,
Whether it is true or not, the aim is to keep the idea of the SNP being an incompetent Government on the front pages and the first story of the STV and BBC Scotland news bulletins.
Until Nicola gives us the date for IndyRef2, there is very little we have to fight these claims with.
At this moment in time, we are in a very weak position.
For proof of this, just look at the Polls.
Oh aye let’s do democracy by newspaper polls
If it’s the polls then let’s do democracy by online polls of which today has one poll showing Independence at 77%
Polls are a manipulation tool and have been for years and does anyone seriously believe the SNP enemies of the state are going to look good in newspaper polls, the last time that happened The Tories went into meltdown and promised the Godlike powers we would get if we voted NO, ya think they’re going to let that happen again
That’s why the polls never move, because the evil SNP don’t control them, if they did at least they’d be honestly done
Why has the “independence supporting” The National published just one article by the Rev. Stuart Campbell in its more than three years of existence?
Dave Mc Ewan Hill
Perhaps that brave politician was openly murdered on the streets of Britain a year ago? The on whose husband wanted donations to go to the White Helmets???
Troll alert. Boring boring.
Clydebuilt and Dr Jim
RE the Ulsterisation of Scottish politics – there was a programme on R4 tonight, I switched on half way through but they were visiting N.Irland and discussing with ‘the man in the street’ how their politics are now in Belfast etc… will brexit cause the troubles again and so on…
Call me a cynic but the final 5 minutes of the programme went on about how the youth of Belfast are growing up to be neither Unionist or Nationalist; Catholic or protestant – they’re “Progressionists”. The binary way is the old way, and of course this is the cynical bit – we read only two days ago that there is a new political party starting up with £50 squillion backing, which will cherry pick the best bits from Labour and Tory( effectively) so they can all stay in WM till they retire.
I can hardly listen to the BBC now without sensing an ulterior motif behind every programme. Am i wrong?
On a brighter note, my sister and her husband have decided to stop buying ‘the Scottish Daily Fail ‘ because they think it is TOO NEGATIVE and makes them feel depressed. Hurrah!!!
The point is the money paid by motorists for using the roads is not being used to repair the roads as they should be repaired, there is allways someone quoting something or other that has nothing to do with the point I made.
And as for the roads in places like the highlands and roads that are not as busy as others, that could come out of a pot put aside for that purpose, goodness me I can’t cover everything, I am just making a few valid points folks.
Dave Mcewan Hill , glad somebody else sees what Syria is about, a way to get through to Iran, back n 2003 , after the illegal invasion of Iraq, i said to a colleague , Syria is next pointing to a map of the World on my office wall. I said they need to get Syria to get Iran, going through the Straights of Hormuz is not an option, they need to get at Iran via Syria and Iraq. He thought for a moment and said big gamble , i dont think the Russians will let them take Syria. Hopefully he is correct.
Even Radio Shortbread saying its £10 million EXTRA money to fix potholes – usual suspects whinging its not enough.
Couple of interesting pieces regarding the despicable state of England.
We all know the Tories underfund their NHS, we know that are bit by bit privatising it, we know there are countless unnecessary deaths, we know they capped the Nurses wages to deliver a 15%
real terms cut, we know they forced the First Ever Junior Doctor’s strike, we know they have scarred off foreign recruits, well today it seems that some of their Trusts,
isn’t that an oxymoron, have increased the parking charges for Doctors and Nurses to £2,600.00 per annum.
Yes, you too could have all this in Scotland.
Just vote for Red, Yellow or Blue Westminster Tory!
Part 2, A True and Reliable source advised that London Police
were en mass being accused of being racist when stopping ethnic minorities who they considered to be carrying drugs and or weapons.
The Met know demand a very long winded document must be compiled after a shift to justify why they stopped any ethnic minority to question or search them.
With so many Police members having lost their jobs and the remainder rushed off their feet, they now don’t bother to stop these guys, even if tipped of they are drug dealers as they are not always carrying.
So its a case of don’t stop anyone, or you do more overtime for free. Of course these people know their rights so they carry whatever they like as no one is going to stop them.
I do demand that we are all treated equal but should a known member of a Yardi Drug Gang expect a little more hassle?
Bottom line, Westminster Controlled London has more murders than New York.
Good old Tories can’t see the relationship between less Police and more red tape equals more murders.
Well when you live in a posh gated community down there and have your own driver waiting outside of parliament for you, things don’t seem so bad?
@Bill not Ben 9.06pm
It’s because we’re not Independent, when we are road fund tax will be added to fuel usage so those who use the roads most will pay most which should answer your question on tourism as well as the question of cross border deliveries from other countries
An added benefit to this system would be reduced beaurocracy and our cousins in England would be able to see how much they’re being ripped of by their chosen government
by looking at the new Scottish system which I suggested to John Swinney a few years ago and his office replied in the affirmative
Geez….This Russian poisoning thing is getting out of hand.
Turned over to Sky News, and surprise suprise, the UK Halfwit at the UN who actually represents us is wanting ANOTHER inquiry into whether the Russians poisoned the Syrian rebels this time.
She wants Syria’s backers investigated.
England are really noising up these Russians and as I have said, I can see some England fans coming home from the World Cup in body bags.
We’ve had nearly two months of wall to wall news coverage on how evil the Russians are.
And if I was a crazy Russian football fan, then England supporters would be my number one enemy.
Weak position? Don’t make us laugh.
Every day we’re closer to Independence.
The fact that we actually have a hand to play at all, whether good or bad and however we play it, makes me feel quite good. A credit to our movement.
To come out the other end, almost intact after 300 years, is quite something for a wee nation.
Meg merrilees at 8.53
The “White Helmets” were exposed as a fraud over a year ago.They require no funding because the US/UK have spent millions inventing them.
If you want to know the truth about Syria read John Pilger, Vanessa Beely, Eva Bartlet, SCIAF and a whole variety of others who were/are actually in Syria watching the Syrian government providing humanitarian corridors for its people to escape from Islamic invading loonies who are funded by the West to try to overthrow Assad who wont do what the US tells him (a bit like Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi). The president Assad, elected by a huge majority of Syrians in a an election described as fair and transparent by over 30 counties who oversaw it,has no need to gas his own people and would be a raving lunatic if he did. I could go on all night – but believe me the Syrian lie is the biggest lie we have ever been told. Even bigger than the WMD lie.
Good Lord, Pete Wishart is saying we should always listen to Jim Sillars, the guy who told everybody to vote for RISE with their List vote for Holyrood, the guy every Unionist rag looks to for an anti-SNP or anti-Sturgeon vote, the guy who is rabidly anti-EU, and the guy who won’t vote YES if it means a “return” to the EU.
Now I’ve seen it all.
“Don’t always agree with Jim but he should always be listened to.”
link to twitter.com
Has the Rev or anyone else actually made a complaint to the (admittedly toothless) regulator??
I lodge regular complaints with the BBC as they are required to report fairly. And progress them to Ofcom
If we are going to waste time on the Scottish Mail who have no such requirement, then someone needs to pen the complaint too
Yes a “Weak Position”.
We are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.
No date for IndyRef2, means no mention of it from the Scottish Government and no media help.
No matter which way we turn at the moment, we are being met with a wall of Unionist Propaganda.
So Yes,,we are in a weak position, AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME,,,,,, IMHO !!!
If that’s alright with you sir????
Dave McEwan Hill says:
9 April, 2018 at 10:04 pm
I could go on all night – but believe me the Syrian lie is the biggest lie we have ever been told. Even bigger than the WMD lie.
The Salisbury poisoning was completely fabricated and the gas attack in Syria is false flag (rebels allied to the US-UK axis). Lies lies lies. Completely propped up by a compliant media.
Very worrying developments. More so because the ignorant, the misinformed among us, those disbelievers who think WW3 could not possibly happen need to wake up pronto. Our WM government is panicking – they are on the verge of doing something really stupid and millions 0f us (yep, us not just some other misfortunates) are going to suffer if they go ahead. We should be out on the streets already before this whole thing blows up.
Any “democracy” that starts a war is not a real democracy. Think about it, what electorate would ever deliberately pick a fight with a powerful neighbour?
Treeza would rather talk about the Bad Russians than this:
May’s post-Brexit trade plan with EU dealt blow by key ally
More bureaucracy will be part of price tag for UK leaving single market, says Danish PM
Theresa May’s plans for a Brexit deal that delivers frictionless trade with the EU have been dealt a blow by a key European ally who has said there will be more bureaucracy after leaving the bloc.
The Danish prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said after talks with his UK counterpart in Copenhagen that there would be an inevitable price to pay for Britain leaving the single market.
Following a bilateral meeting with May, he told reporters at a joint press conference: “We should avoid too many changes in our relations and I am totally in favour of an enhanced trade agreement between the EU and UK.
“I hope if there’s willingness … we will close a deal which will be as close to what we know now as possible. But we have to be realistic and we have to realise that there will be changes. Leaving the single market comes with a price tag and unfortunately the price tag is also a Danish price tag.
“That is the reality of life. There will be more bureaucracy in future, unfortunately.”
The European council president, Donald Tusk, has already told the UK that it . “Friction is an inevitable side-effect of Brexit,” he said in March.
Rasmussen, whose country is generally regarded as sympathetic toward the UK having also joined the EU in 1973, insisted Brussels was simply aiming to be “realistic and fair” in the negotiations.
May also signalled that the government’s goal of cutting net annual immigration to below 100,000 would remain in place after Brexit.
She said: “We recognise the concern that people in the UK have about this issue of net migration into the UK, which is why we set ourselves the target … and want to continue to work to ensure that we address that particular target.”
Her position was in stark contrast to that of her home secretary, Amber Rudd, who repeatedly refused to confirm to the Commons home affairs committee last month that she was aiming to meet the target by the next election.
The two leaders also discussed fishing rights, and May promised that Denmark, whose boats regularly fish in British waters, would get “fair and reciprocal access” after Brexit.
Britain is braced for tough negotiations with Brussels after delaying the decision over who will control and have access to its territorial waters. The government is also facing calls at home from an increasingly belligerent fishing industry to restrict the number of foreign boats.
May, who backed remaining in the EU, again refused to say whether she had changed her mind about Brexit when challenged by a Danish journalist.
Dave Mc Ewan Hill
the white helmets – that is exactly my point… the White Helmets are proven to be frauds yet Jo Cox was murdered and her husband wanted the money to go to this fraudulent group. Didn’t they raise £250,000 or some figure like that?
Maybe she was the brave politician who might have blown it all out of the water? we’ll never know.
This latest chemical attack immediately had a hollow ring when they were talking about it on the world service and mentioned the W. Helmets in the same breath.
I believe what you are saying but I really don’t want to believe that we are being lied to on such a massive scale – it’s scary stuff!
As an aside, I see that a russian chemical weapons scientist has come out of retirement to say that Skripal was poisoned by A238 which he created and the set is right to blame Putin.
This is breaking news on the Biased Broadcasting Company tonight.
I suppose the ball is now in Trump’s court and it could all go belly up shortly. Hope I’m wrong.
sorry typo error 4 lines from the end of previous post @ 11.17
the west is right to blame Putin
Batten down the hatches the war in Syria is about to become very nasty indeed
link to caltonjock.com
I take issue with your accompanying photo – minor English “celebrity” with his “Slapper du joure” – apologies for my Schoolboy French 🙂
Thanks for the National dig Rock! Great headline tomorrow
NEW CURRENCY URGED FOR SCOTLAND.
Pro indy business prepares strategy case during indyref2
link to twitter.com
Although Rock is gliding home on the late bus from the Scottish haha Office.
Wish you’d tell us what its like at work too Rock.
Is Viceroy Fliuffie as much a fcukwit at the office as he is in public? Word is he keeps nagging London for a colonial style limo, with little union jacks on the bonnet.
link to thesun.co.uk
Fluffie would, if the boss would just sign it off, right Rock?
@Dr Jim@7.42pm
Well said.
Polls, Shmolls…!
Here in theoretical land…a paper, lets say, The Times, commissions a poll on indy support.
Said poll returns 56% Yes support.
Does The Times …
A. Publish this incredibly good news for Indy campaigners ?
B. Bury it forever ?
C. Take a straw poll of office staff, and announce indy support is 32% Yes ?
The media are carefully and deliberately trying to create a narrative that support for indy is “stuck” in mid 40’s, % wise, and somehow would not go up during an indy campaign.
Completely ignoring the HUGE 16% increase from pre indyref campaign to the vote in 2014, and the tiny shift required this time to secure victory for Yes.
Too many Yes folk seem willing to buy into that narrative.
There is a clear democratic mandate for indy, given by THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND.
You do not get such a mandate from opinion polls, especially when they are commissioned by media vehemently against independence for Scotland.
We need to remember that wee factoid.
The Scottish Daily Mail target audience probably don’t read Wings so they will never know that they are being lied too.
With the possible exception of the Kurds it is hard to pick a side in Syria (or Iraq come to think of it) that makes any sense. There are umpteen sides and most have questionable records, aims and allegiances. Indeed, we probably haven’t backed the Kurds enough, playing Machiavellian politics to keep the Turks happy.
Why the hell the US/UK would want to get involved in yet another quagmire is anyone’s guess. It is a no win situation. Trump may fire off more cruise missiles as gesture but I seriously doubt he will want to put boots on the ground. He needs those for his border patrol.
Good morning Scotland and beyond.
We’ll sort the roads when we’re i.
Love ye all, with…
Passion X.
Before joining the US in an offensive in Syria against Assad and his allies, notably the Russians, Theresa May would, of necessity, want the support of the ‘British people’.
How to get such support? Implement the Skripal strategy to stir up anti-Russian sentiment in the UK.
Hi Cactus.
That herbal remedy you suggested at Glenrothes worked a treat over Sunday. 5 doses spread from the back of 1 to Sunday evening, cured the malaise.
Megathankx!
And there was Jackie Bird on the 10.30 pm Scottish news bulletin introducing Jamie McIvor their Education and Local Government expert by repeating the lie, po-faced, cold as a witch’s teat.
If McIvor doesn’t know about the Bellwin scheme, he’s no very good at his job. If he does, as is more likely, he lied by omission.
A government Spokesman (sic) was apparently unavailable, so no need to mention the extra funding available then?
They interviewed a cyclist who went over on his bike by cycling through a puddle masking a pothole. Cue close up of broken knuckle the treatment of which cost the NHS money, and it was obviously all the SNP’s fault.
If Ruth or That Dick or that other Willie, Rennie was in charge this poor chap would never have ended up arse over tit in a hidden pot hole.
I wonder how the Pacific Quay research team got to know about this latest victim of EssEnnPee BADness?
Or is he an active Red Yellow or Blue Brit Nat activist on tap, ready with his woe is me story?
What a tawdry little Brit Nat organisation BBC Scotland has become.
I gather that the SG awaits Bellwin submissions from all 32 councils if they incurred extra expenditure from the ravages of the Beast from the East.
But fuck the Truth, McIvor. Stick on a Lib Dem nonentity SNP BADding it for the late bulletin.
The Truth in Scotland is smothered and stifled by the likes of the BBC and its bought and paid for ProudScotBut Fifth Column of Brit Nat collaborators.
I look forward to the Bird hosting next years Hogmanay Show; not.
The dirty bar stewards lie with impunity.
Jack
I didn’t have the sound on but I saw some grinning ninny squatting by a pothole as if to use it as a public convenience. I take that was the news article? I did wonder if that was Reporting Shite because it looked both inane and parochial enough to be the BBC’s parody of what a national news programme should be.
Boris
I take no pleasure in realising that I have reached the same conclusion as Calton Jock and Craig Murray.
God help us – if he’s not already too busy helping the people of Syria!
Luigi 10.31pm. The only consolation is , those warmongering westminster bar stewards and their families will get fried with the rest of us.Their billions will be no use use to them then.
@Clootie says: 9 April, 2018 at 11:44 pm:
“The Scottish Daily Mail target audience probably don’t read Wings so they will never know that they are being lied too.”
I’d venture a guess that most of them know full well they are being lied to – but they like it that way.
Had I chat with a close neighbour the other day. She’s married to an Englishman. Actually he’s a really nice guy.
She made the usual propaganda claim that the Scots get extra per capita funding. I asked her how she knew that to be true.
I got the usual daft answer, “Everyone knows that’s true”, she said, “It’s in the papers, on the radio and on the TV”.
I asked her if she knew what the Barnett Formula was designed to do and she said no. So I explained that all it did was calculate the costs of running the functions that were devolved from the Westminster Ministries to the Devolved Governments. To which she replied, “So why do the Scots get more than everyone else”?
It was just the question I hoped she would ask – although I had expected her not to phrase it as a question but make it as a statement. I knew this meant I had her argument right where I wanted it.
My reply was, “That’s because the don’t get more than everyone else. They get less, per head, than England, less than Northern Ireland but more than Wales for, first of all England is funder as the United Kingdom and thus gets no Block Grant so nothing decided by the Barnett Formula.
Northern Ireland has the most devolved functions from the UK ministries. So Scotland has more than Wales but less than Northern Ireland.
It all depends upon the costs of running the functions devolved from The United Kingdom and England is funded as The United Kingdom, (Now here comes the punchline).
“So there you go, they told you a lie when they told you Scotland gets more per head than anyone else for England has no block grant and N.I. gets more per head than Scotland.
However, they lied to you by omission by not telling you that as every devolved country has different levels of devolved function then they must get different levels of funding to run them”.
When I got back from the Jim Clerk 50 years thingy today she came and apologised for having not believed me but had checked out my explanation.
I then told her how the BBC was invented by Westminster as its Propaganda Wing – Yes you guessed it – she didn’t believe me.
So after explaining that one to her that the BBC was founded by Royal Charter and gets an annual grant from Westminster I’ve no doubt she has been busy checking that one out all day today. However, my parting shot may not have sunk in yet – I called after her as she headed back to her door, “By the way The Bank of England was also begun by a Royal Charter”.
I’m almost certain I have a convert there in the making. Once anyone finds out they have been lied to on any one subject they are on the way to questioning everything else.
Theresa May and Pete Wishart may say now is not the time.
I say now IS the time. A referendum every 4 years. Just like the football World Cup.
Ireland’s had about ten referendums in around ten years on all sorts of stuff, nobody bats an eyelid, and you know why?
they’ve got democracy so they’re frightened of more of it
The only people afraid of democracy are those who don’t want you to have it
@me 1.37am correction
Should’ve read *so they’re *NOT* frightened of more of it
*Not frightened of it* 1.37am
Was at my SNP meeting earlier and we haven’t decided when the next indtref should be.
What we have decided is that ‘Yes Clydebank’ is starting on 10th May. I am happy about that.
Dan
“Who’s this Pothole Bill bloke?”
I believe he is related to the snorkel and scuba pros Diver Ted and Diver Sean.
Still positive @ 1.45
Yay…. Thats what I keep hearing,Yes groups starting back up.
People are starting to organise again.
I’ve been to more Yes events since the new year than I was at between January to April 2014…
Still Positive, good for YES Clydebank .
In Clydebank ASDA ( briefly) yesterday and though it had a plethora of Daily Fascists , Suns , Daily Depresses there was NO National.
I wondered if that was standard practice – I thought it strange in Yesser Clydebank .
Couple of links for you DMH re Syria and False Flags
link to sott.net
link to google.co.uk
link to google.co.uk
I also remember seeing video of canisters marked “Salisbury, England” on them getting displayed among other weapons intercepted by Syrian Government forces in an aid convoy into Ghouta on woS fairly recently.
Again re Syria Gary Robertson on Radio Shortbread just got his arse handed to him.
Please can someone lift the audio and post it online
Also would urge our SNP representatives to listen and understand that is how you deal with the BBC when you know they are lying.
Interview starts around 07:35hrs
Further on BBC Distorting Scotland’s Potholegate:
Is the ‘Christopher Johnson: cyclist’interviewed on the piece, THE Christopher Johnson Chief Development Officer for Cycling Scotland?
The murder spy’s daughter who got drunk and had food poisoning is discharged. The double dealing spy responsible for the lies in for the ‘dirt dossier’ paid for by Clinton with Saudi money.
Clinton now interferes in NI. ‘Good Friday’ agreement. For some cheap publicity. Last time peddling a book. Clinton and her buddies are responsible for millions of deaths the world over. In Yemen. In Palestine, in the US. Millions of data breaches and millions of worthless surveillance. Breaking the Law with impunity. To make themselves extraordinary wealthy by makings others lives harder. A total hypocrite. Most of them should be in jail.
Ref Willie Rennie misinforming Scotland about the Bellwin Scheme?
Just another lie we, can expect no less from them, and their like. It suits the unionist narrative that they suggests by proxy that the SNP are shite.
This is of course just one tiny part of them trying to turn the people against the SNP, there is nothing sacred in the eyes of the unionist/s now, lies are the prerequisite position of them, for they have no real legs to stand on.
It is time they were held to account legally if possible, or perhaps to our parliament in that they get kicked out for lying to the electorate. Perhaps 3 ticks and you are out.
They should be very very glad they do not stay in Spain and many other countries across the world. They would be in a cell with no windows and fed bread and water once a day. Hmmm, some countries get it right, but we are civilised right!
A lie, however eloquently spoken or oft repeated, is still a lie.
There’s Jim Sillars out again to resonate with Pete Wishart, and warn anybody who wants Scotland actually saved from Brexit to be sent homeward tae think again.
Come on Craig Murray. Seen enough yet? Then how about it? You, me, a Constitutional Lawyer, and 62% of the voting population of Scotland… It will all be over by Christmas.
@ Jockanese Wind Talker – Veterans Today has articles on Syria. This one shows canisters of smoke grenades made in Salisbury.
Trump Bolton behind gas attacks:
link to tinyurl.com
i thought it was April 1 again in the National after reading Michael Fry and his capitalist plan for indy –
“we should be cutting taxes not raising them, we should be liberating enterprise not stifling it with regulation. We should favour the private sector not the public sector.”
I thought the whole purpose of indy was to see change from the capitalist ideas of WM – fair taxes based on ability to pay.
Enterprise of course but with real living wages and no zero hours contracts, and keeping all the hard won EU health and safety, holiday and maternity rights etc and of course no more PFI and private sector rip offs where shareholders get the profits and everyone else gets falling down schools and damp unsafe houses when builders run away and householders have to foot the bill for new cladding – eg riverside apts and Edinburgh schools.
And then of course social security we need a system where it really is a safety blanket for everyone of us given with kindness and care recognising that it could be any one of us and this care for all is the hallmark of a civilised society.
If that is not what indy is about – freedom from WM greed, freedom to tread our own path and freedom to do things differently then what is the point.
James Kelly’s assessment of Sillars ….
“So why would Sillars of all people want Scotland to remain subject to London rule? Quite simply he got a pleasant surprise when Britain voted to leave the European Union, and he’s now emotionally tethered to the idea of Scotland leaving European institutions when the rest of Britain does.”
… is probably correct. We know a percentage of YES say they have abandoned their position because Leave matters more. Looks like Sillars is one of them.
Sillars wants to see the polls at 60% before we call ScotRef. I certainly hope it 60% by voting day, but 60% before campaigning even starts!? That is truly other worldly.
Without campaigning for YES we are relying on the mistakes of the BritNats to convert switherers. Giving their incompetence that is not beyond possibilities. However, they ARE already campaigning for a NO vote! And expecting their net effect to shift polls by over 10% is madness.
So should we be ramping up a campaign for YES now? Personally, I think we should but limiting it to ‘working with’ the BritNats – highlighting their incompetence and disrespect while countering their lies. Reactive, in effect. We need to be doing a bit more of this.
Then, when Nicola deems the time I saw right, we go for an all out proactive campaign setting the agenda and backfooting the BritNats.
Do we want to protect Scotland from Brexit, YES
Vote YES next time.
@Jockanese Wind Talker
has that interview now been cut by the state media ?
anybody capture it ?
O/T
SiU. Guest Sqeaker: Willie Rennie;
link to eventbrite.co.uk
John Bolton the hyper-hawk who ruined Iraq and seeks to bring nuclear devastation to Iran, N Korea, Russia and any other state that doesn’t crawl to US interests is now advising the bipolar, flaky POTUS on how to handle Al Assad (Satan incarnate) and Putin (Brother of Satan) in the West enabled mess that is Syria, where Basshâr still remains a very popular guy indeed…the alternatives having been tried and found rather wanting.
I hope our National party is not toying with the notion of playing along with this nightmare agenda.
There should be no Scottish ‘boots on the ground’….a repellent expression, but it fits the current ‘West knows best’ mindset.
winifred mccartney says:
The neo liberal approach has been tried, and has failed. The challenge for its believers is to give any examples of where it has actually worked. Nowhere, frankly!
Yes, a system can make a minority very wealthy, but that proves nothing. And achieves even less for the whole population.
Take the US. It has been called the richest third world country. By total wealth it seems first world, but by any moral measure of it’s citizens welfare it is definitely third world. A quarter of its population have effectively no access to healthcare.
Conversely, that doesn’t mean rampant socialism. The ‘best’ by every conceivable measure, human and economic, are the Nordic nations. That’s where Scotland should be looking for a plan. And that certainly doesn’t mean neo liberal ‘hands off’ government.
Mixed state and private capitalism, with extensive regulation and hands-government is the tried and proven system ….. unless making the rich even richer is your sole objective.
I agree @galamcennalath
we can all campaign at the grass roots but to capture the headlines, we need someone recognisable to stand up & be distinct from the Scot Gov
somebody who can be a figurehead for a campaign which allows Nicola to say that she is responding to a demand
thats the only way we will get serious traction in advance of a formal Scot Gov announcement on a referendum, until that person materialises we just need to keep doing whatever we can as grass roots activists
OT Thanks to the Herald – I used to find Billy Connelly funny but not any more.
I now class him with a head tossing non historian.
@galamcennalath
Yet to encounter a Nordic who expressed any favourable attitude to Scottish independence. Scots are just a regional variant of English like the people of Skáne are just another tupe of Swede. Nordics are Anglophiles.
The fetishising of the Nordic way is a fatal error. Nordic states have major social issues and serious problems with far-rightism.
We must make our own way. That is what independence is about.
Pollsters lost the SNP outright majority by advising to give SNP second votes to the greens. Advising to give SNP voters votes to unionist opposition to increase their vote volume. Not conducive to Independence but splitting the vote. Who seriously listens to Sillars. A white noise. Without the migrant vote the IndyRef would have been won,
Savevresources until another IndyRef is called by elected representative. Not agent provocateurs. Or pollsters who always get it wrong. They have been censored and fined many times for poor, inadequate metholodgy. The pollsters illegally manipulate the vote for money. Most are a disgrace.
Scotland needs a central bank. To have a IndyRef in Sept it would have to be called now with all the Brexit uncertainty. Not a very wise decision. It is better not to have a winter campaign. In the Bew Year a lot could have changed. Especially around Brexit. The Westminster Gov could gave collapsed, There could be another GE. Independence is more important than EU membership which can be renegotiated. Ibdependence will make the greatest difference to the Scottish economy.
Chinese direct flights in June (Alex Salmond). In time for the Edinburgh Festival and the new uni term. The Chinese call Scotland the ‘Land of invention’. Every £ spent in education gets £10 back. £1Billion becomes £10Billion. In exports, literature,music, fashion, food and drink, oil, gas, medicine, engineering, computing etc. China 1.2Billion people. A freer market eradicates poverty. In the last 40 years China has eradicated poverty with growth. Invested in renewables. ‘One child’ policy. Now two child. Population imbalance.
That’s twice now the SNP have run the ‘let the mandate drop’ argument up the flag pole – first it was Tommy Shepherd, now Pete Wishart, and Pete’s not for letting it go.
Concerning.
I haven’t been following the news in Syria (the joys of no tv) but when the UN came out in full support of Mrs May’s bullshit over the Salisbury incident, I thought then, it was likely to be about stoking up Syria. Another dodgy dossier.
And I’ve been wondering how the British Establishment was going to deal with Indyref2 / Brexit shambles.
I think the answer is now, they’ll make another war in Syria. Whatever research they’ve done in Scotland, to go to this extent, they must be truly shitting themselves.
Its going to be interesting to hear what Alex Salmond has to say about it on TV, and could it be that the ‘coolness’ displayed by NS and Swinney towards him getting a TV program had its roots in what is about to unfold.
Interesting times indeed. But here’s a question, if the above worst case scenario, is what is about to pan out, if the SNP have ‘gone over to the dark side’ (again worst case scenario) how do we keep Indy Ref 2 on track and win it?
Their argument will be in times of crisis/war, holding an indy ref is not appropriate.
All that is necessary for evil states to succeed in deceiving the people is a compliant media. We have that in spades with one notable exception!
Hotel in Edinburgh during the Festival nearly £300 a room for the Express hotels. £100 per person? Airb&b approximately cheaper but 150 family sizes apartments. Pop 1 million.
Then they want to put on a tourist tax? Fleecing. The Trams underpriced.. undersubscribed. OAP’s can’t their travel (bus) passes. More buses have to run. Edinburgh the westhiest City in Scotland with subsidised transport.
People can just vote for a mandate. Elected reps can decide. That’s why they are elected. It is up to the voters to elect them.
Alex Salmond is no longer elected or a representative. He can say what he likes. He does not have to follow the ministerial code of conduct which governs the whole of Scotland. Different roles.
@ winifred maccartney – Michael Fry is that rare beast – an Independence supporting Tory. He is involved in The Wealthy Nation blog site.
It’s a free country and people can promote their ideas freely. We don’t have to agree with them.
Once independent then I would expect free marketeers to pitch for votes the same as everyone else. As a socialist and also a democrat I have no problem with that.
I agree, neo-liberalism is a hoax designed to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich.
I don’t see how a war in Syria rescues the British or Trump administrations from anything. There is no one other than the Kurds to support and the Turks would throw a fit if we did that.
Assad has with Russian support more or less won. The Kurds control their area apart from a point of conflict with the Turks in Afrin and Assad has persuaded most of the rebels to go to Idlib and now controls most of the rest of Syria. The rebels in Idlib may coalesce into a unified force but there is every chance they might turn on each other.
While Trump is a wild card I don’t think May is foolish enough to believe another Middle East conflict will help her or anyone else.
As to Pete Wishart and Jim Sillars I think they are both still committed to Scottish independence but Jim would like that to be outside the EU (as he always has) and Pete is just being cautious, mindful if we do not succeed we could be in a very weak position in a neo-conservative Brexitland. The people I have seen most critical of Pete are people that I would consider to be potential concern trolls. We are not a hive mind, we know what we want but that doesn’t mean there is only one road.
When the posturing over Salisbury and Syria dies away, as it will, we will back to Brexit and as far as I can see another month has passed and little has been achieved.
@Jockanese Wind Talker
Heard that interview with the ex-ambassador to somewhere and Gary was cut off and outgunned as he tried in vain to push the accepted BBC view of the Syrian story.
It’ll be on the shortbread i-player thing soon. If it is I’ll post it when I get home.
Poor Gary. First Lord Adonis and now that this morning… 🙂
Jings!
On the other hand maybe his views were known beforehand and it’s shortbread getting the news out…Shurley naw!
Jock McDonnell says:
10 April, 2018 at 9:10 am
‘has that interview now been cut by the state media’
It was quite a long interview, with Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria. Made me late for work!
Confirms everything DMcE as been saying, was quite surprised they interviewed him.
Further to a previous post.
Thinking about our politicians at least in Holyrood.
Would it not be desirable if our elected MSP’s could not lie to their electorate? Would it not benefit all who really believe in democracy? Where we could be sure that we did not get lies or deceit by omission.
Well, a suggestion to fix it.
All MSP’s, have to sign up to oath of only telling the truth in all situations to insure our voters are truly guided by the actual truth not partisan propaganda or misdirection.
I think that would be a really great thing, to include all Holyrood parties, so nothing partisan.
So how would that really work? Part of their oath would agree that if they are caught lying, they would get a tick on their parliamentary record. Where after accumulating 3 ticks, they would be expelled from parliament.
This would put a real pressure on them that to speak the truth, is the only way to speak, instilled by the fear of getting expelled altogether.
Without compensation as they would be proven to be working against the expected rights of the electorate.
Taking this action would cut out many fake news events or outright lies by any MSP, and gain more of trust of the people.
To have a system like this would I think, be a world first, a notch for a progressive Scotland and would boost democracy.
Maybe they would not sign up to the Truth oath?, but then how would their voters take that? what would their excuses be?
We want to lie? I do not think so.
There would be no wiggle room in this oath, when electioneering the would have to publicly accept the signing of the oath, to ensure voters that truth will be said by them. If the do not then they would find it very difficult to get elected in the first place. it would be made known that they do not agree to tell the truth!
It would immensely improve the status of our parliament, and encourage more people to vote,knowing they are judging their vote on a real true perspective.
Would people like the idea? maybe someone on twitter someone could pose the question and we would see the response.
Maybe the BBC may like the idea for their reporters and front men and women? (ok, that was a joke, right!)
Pete Wishart should declare an interest here, he just managed to keep his seat & has a nice little earner at Westminster. Why would he want to rock the boat?
@ handandshrimp
Not sure what a ‘potential concern troll’ is to be honest.
The triple lock democratic mandate – was hard won. We will not have it and not get it back any time soon if we let it drop and allow ourselves to be dragged out of EU, have our parliament destroyed, and the UK doubles down on the asset stripping to keep itself afloat.
No way will people vote SNP after that. They will have less credibility than Scottish Labour, but without the long standing voting habit labour still enjoys in areas of Scotland.
I get that declaring Indy Ref 2 at this precise moment is not appropriate, but getting real information out now, is a no brainer. And its what the other side – the BBC and all – have been doing constantly, they have never stopped.
For England/Britian to lose Scotland, it loses 1/3 of its landmass, 60% of Europe’s Oil reserves, over 20% Europe’s Fishing stocks, Renewable Energy Reserves 4 times as large as the oil and gas, etc, etc. And England is bankrupt, it was before and now mid Brexit deal, if it does not get a deal on banking / passport rights, its in a hole it will never climb out of.
In light of that, calling in a few favours in America and joining in the push to take over Syria and steal their oil is an easy jump. And its been done before!
And for those who don’t already know, please read Craig Murray’s blog with regards Rupert Murdoch’s 5% stake in Genie Energy, which has been granted drilling rights, by Isreal, in the Golan Heights (which belong to Syria) and take over drilling rights on existing Oil Wells in Syria, should the country ever need to be ‘occupied’. Was it 11 Billion he paid for that? I can’t recall.
Once War is declared, the ‘wise words of leadership’ will be its not an appropriate time for division, for an Indy Ref, not when our soldiers are in the front line, etc, etc.
I will be hugely relieved if I’m wrong about all of the above, but, if I’m not, I ask again, if all of the above pans out, what are the tactics for securing Independence for Scotland?
Being prepared of all possibilities and having a plan B, are infinitely sensible courses of action, wouldn’t you say?
Pete Wishart has spent his life in the SNP supporting Independence. He looks stressed out from fighting Scotland’s corner. Like most SNP elected reps who are well educated and responsible. They could earn more money and better conditions, with less stress in other professions. Ie They do not do it for the money. They do it to make people’s lives better. Unlike the unionists who join political parties for what they can get, especially in Scotland.Most rational people can think of nothing worse attending Westminster. Those who can do. Those who can’t join Unionists Parties, especially in Scotland. Racists, bigots and misogynists liars. Getting way with it with impunity.
Parliamentary Channel Rail Franchising.
I reckon I’m one of the very few who actually knew Syria before the pointless civil war was fomented and encouraged by the US. I recall a country with a growing economy, a liberalising government thanks to the mild mannered President Al Assad, tourism expanding, tentative peace overtures to Israel, infrastructure plans, restoration of national patrimony sites and a good measure of harmony between religious and ethnic communities which its neighbours did not possess.
Trouble was it had friendly relations with Iran and Russia. America didn’t like, so America, both republican and democrat, must destroy. Islamic State had no time for Iran either. Most interesting, as the US did nothing to prevent Da3ish expansion. Russia did.
Europe must not get trapped into involvement with politically immature US tantrums. European interference in the Near East in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries is largely responsible for the post-Ottoman trauma in which lives have been wasted on power politics driven, colonial ‘nation building’ schemes.
Under Trump the USA has all the symptoms of roguery in which laying waste to sovereign states is just collateral damage.
The fetishising of the Nordic way is a fatal error. Nordic states have major social issues and serious problems with far-rightism.
We must make our own way. That is what independence is about.
All states have fascists. Why should Scandinavia be any different? I can’t think of any state that’s not got fascists. Whether or not its like here with fascist press and broadcasting, is unlikely.
Look on the brightside. If the great UK fascist did not own and run UK press and broadcasting, they’d have been marching us all down to the local football stadium a while back here in Scotland.
Land of free, home of the fascist and their latest hero owns a beach golf club 20 minutes north of Aberbloodydeen.
link to independent.co.uk
@ Handandshrimp – it’s about oil. Sometimes also gas. But always oil. And “full spectrum dominance”. They have to pick off Syria in order to get the big prize – Iran. Saudi Arabia is already bought and paid for. Libya and Iraq already destroyed.
Then Russia. They already have the southern Stans. It was all spelt out decades ago in the “Project for the New American Century.”
link to en.wikipedia.org
Some people seem to have a crystal ball. Can see into the future. Prophets of doom. This is an Independence supporting website. In the wrong place. Some Pollsters are always wrong.
If the SNP allow the (triple) mandate to lapse – the KEY point of their manifesto, lets remember – then why would you believe them again?
If brexit isn’t a reason for indyref2 then what is? Having the parliament & devolution dismantled post-brexit?
Scotland will NEVER be permitted an indyref once brexit is completed. The rest of the EU will look the other way as devolution is rolled back/abolished, as is happening in Catalonia now. The Council of Europe is pretty much ignored these days & anything at the UN will be vetoed by England.
What route is left to indy then? Nothing good, thats for sure.
Wishart has lost the plot, that’s the kindest way I can put it.
If the SNP are thinking his way then they won’t be in power at Holyrood next time, people simply won’t bother to turn out to vote for them.
China reduced poverty from 88% in the 1980’s to 6.5% in 2012. Based on a lower standard of living. In the UK it was 18% rising now to 20%. Austerity. Unequal and unfair.
HS2 cost £Billions. UK pop 65Million. Japan pop 115Million.
People in UK being sanctioned and starved. The elderly being killed off. Elderly death in England up 117% in the rest of the UK. Vote Tory to die early. Killing their supporters off.
Abulhaq says:
I think you are very right and Trumph has just installed a really bias hawk as his security adviser, Bolton. Here is a link, at the end it wants you to buy something so do not do that, or bother with any other links just read through the article. It is no punches pulled on what America is doing and why.
Preparing for war
link to internationalman.com
@capella
The anglosphere, the putative alliance of anglophone countries and their buddies, is the 21st century construct.
It inspires Brexit, it stimulates the grey cells of the US State Dept and is perceived by many as the Brit-American answer to the ‘threat’ of the emerging Asian power blocs.
Promoting the English language as a vehicle for American/British sociopolitical and cultural worldviews is a core element of the plan. It is called soft diplomacy. In practice, it is aggressive, subversive, well financed and tough. Scots, Irish and Welsh have already experienced its noxious influence.
Wishart has lost the plot, that’s the kindest way I can put it.
I can see where Pete is coming from. Even back in 2014, some YES votes would say out loud, our imperial masters simply will not allow nation state Scotland to exist. For starters, there’s just too much money made by a few very rich people and their liggers in this union. Pete’s right at the heart of it all too.
If SNP Scots gov were publicly prepping a fiscal policy for indy Scotland, with currency planning, in time for the next indyref, 12 to 18 months, Pete would probably not be coming out with this kind of realpolitik.
We Scots are owned and ruled over by the tories, no matter how hard we don’t vote for them, here they are, feeding on Scotland’s treasure, explaining to us via their beeb gimps, hour after hour just how shite we are. No other of their UK regions has a BBC Scotland endlessly attacking its host region. Its not by chance.
As we know, some Scots like it this way, from the OO to the fishing “folk.” Maybe Pete’s just saying, long way to go yet.
@Japan pop 127Million. Densely populated. Nearly twice UK.
Radio shortbread’s Gary interview about Syria.
1hr and 36mins in then an intro.. then Peter Ford ex-ambassador in Syria for about 8 mins.
link to bbc.co.uk
Capella
I think the US hawks have missed the boat. The sentiment in the US is now for a more isolationist, trade barrier stance.
Russia is embedded in Syria and backs Iran. We are back to the cold war stalemate and Putin seems determined to ensure that Russia modernises militarily.
Trump may be very, very odd but I don’t think he wants his real estate fried.
Les Wilson @ 10.38
While I agree that Holyrood Parliamentarians should be obliged to swear an Oath of Honesty to the people of Scotland.
In fact I believe that they should be Constitutionally bound,on pain of defined consequences to do so.
And I believe that this would go a long way to addressing the dishonesty in the Media,without actually legislating ” for” the Media!
I don’t think that they should be given any chances…
They are no teenagers with authority issues,who need time to mature and therefore a chance to get it right.
But rather …very well paid people who didn’t get into our Parliament on impulse.
Where they are doing THE most important job in dealing with our resources and writing our laws!
We have seen time and time again how ,Just, one lie can have dire consequences,E.G. WMDs,320 million a week for the NHS, The Vow,just three recent one’s……International,Uk wide and Domestic.
So I hope you can see why I would argue for giving the MSPs no quarter …….. One lie just One and they have behaved unconstitutionally…and must pay the price.
And yes I agree this would probably be a world first,but I have long said that Our Constitution has to be a clever doccument, one that other’s wish they had.
Just like Indy Ref one was “The Gold Standard” for how to hold a vote, ( even thought it wasn’t perfect,and we should aim to do better next time) and not because of some daft notion of exceptionalism.
@ Albuhaq – Yes the Westminster and Washington elite think they have a right to dictate to the rest of us and English is certainly the language of world class bullies and thieves.
It’s a lingua franca!
But Westminster is Washington’s poodle as the shambles of the Skripal affair has demonstrated. May and Johnson should be sacked. They are not acting in this country’s interests. Scotland could sack them through independence.
George Kerevan only took the average salary from his MP’s salary, he certainly wasn’t in it for the money & I think Alex Salmond did something similar? Sixty odd grand plus expenses is way beyond the dreams of a working man or woman & as most of the work involved is devolved to Holyrood anyhow, the sooner they’re out of Westminster the better! It is a travesty of a democratic assembly in the 21st century.
@ heedtracker 11:35 am :
“Maybe Pete’s just saying, long way to go yet.”
Doesn’t really matter – the “realpolitik” for the SNP is that if the mandate lapses then plenty won’t turn out again for the SNP. They might vote green or more likely stay at home.
If the biggest constitutional crisis/clusterfuck/power grab in half a century isn’t reason enough to call indyref2 then are we supposed to wait another 50 years?
SNP have to pull the trigger on indyref2 this year so it can happen before “brexit day”. If not then I don’t believe they’ll get another chance – they won’t be in power for one thing, never mind devolution being rolled back.
The signals they’re sending now (via people like Wishart) aren’t going to enthuse swing voters in indyref2 so like others I think they’re kicking it into the long grass. Big mistake.
Re the Sripals this is a must watch , hope this guy is not going to become the next Dr David Kelly.
//m.youtube.com/watch?v=J4utEI2EU64
I think we should put road repairs to one side at the moment along with the Indyref 2 agenda. What is happening re Syria is nothing short of a nuclear confrontation between the USA and Russia. It appears our political masters have learned zero from false flags and their consequences. Led by cheerleader May and her corrupt minority government over the Skripal pantomime it saddens me greatly to see Nicola Sturgeon endorsing the witch hunt against Russia. One wrong move from Trump over yet another “Assad gassing his own people” lie then we could face the end of life on this small planet. Our Scottish government and SNP MP’s need to stand up and be counted over this issue. The people of the Middle East require diplomacy and peace not a warmongering bully who shows no respect for international law while promoting their crusade for worldwide “democracy”. The Russians are in Syria legally having been invited by the Assad government. The Americans with their UK and French “advisors” are there illegally. Make no mistake Russia will not back down over any provocation or threat towards their own military in this region.
One last time ( our Roads )
I am a driver, I pay for the upkeep of my roads in scotland because I have a car that uses those roads.
I do not give a damn how its collected as long as all the money collected is used on scottish roads and not just paid into the UK treasury, that money should stay in scotland to be used on scottish roads.
And if I happen to drive into england or anywhere else, they can pay for their own roads and they can use scottish roads for free, and we can use their roads for free in return.
Point is, we pay for the upkeep of our roads, every last penny should be used to repair those roads, and before someone else mentions the highlands or any other area that has their own unique problems, there could be laws to make sure that those roads must be repaired from a central fund if need be
Sorry @Glamaig
I was referring to yesterday’s interview with Lord Adonis, which I think was mentioned on this site earlier. Not sure its available now on the the state media site
And I believe that this would go a long way to addressing the dishonesty in the Media,without actually legislating ” for” the Media!
Honesty is one thing but their greatest power is simply not telling us stuff.
“If they do not know what’s actually going on, even better, they won’t even begin to understand why. Status quo reins, tory status quo.”
I love this website. It makes my mornings complete.
Potholes. The latest rage of the nationalists (well 170 of them as of 1202hrs.
Keep up the good work Rev, your the man.
HandandShrimp says:
10 April, 2018 at 10:33 am
I don’t see how a war in Syria rescues the British or Trump administrations from anything. There is no one other than the Kurds to support and the Turks would throw a fit if we did that.
Ah, but that’s because you’re not thinking like an Israeli.
The threat of peace and stability breaking out in the Middle East is the stuff of nightmares for some. If we take it as read that Tony Blair’s war in Iraq was NOT about WMD’s, there remains the rather awkward question what it was all about…
Do the arithmetic… Palestinian riots and heavy handed suppression, journalists getting targeted and shot, “Syrian” gas attacks, and everything from poisoned ex spies, fiddling elections, and to Putin “lording over the World Cup like Hitler” is bending the truth backwards trying to blame the nasty Russians for everything. Any rational dissent, such as Corbyn or Craig Murray having the temerity to ask for actual proof, is vilified as a tractor, an antisemite, a puppet and “useful idiot” for the Russians. All they did was caution against knee jerk reaction and ask for proof and evidence. Both have been fully vindicated by subsequent developments and revelations, but you wouldn’t think it by the way they’re still being treated.
But of course, (what’s the HTML tag for Sarcasm?)… none of this has anything to do with Trump recently ad-libbing about removing US troops from the Middle East…
“We’re coming out of Syria very soon. Let the other people take care of it now — very soon, very soon, we’re coming out.”
Trump being unhappy with the amount of money the US was spending in the region mopping up ISIS, (yes, that’s the Sunni ISIS whackos who chop of heads and burn people in cages, armed and backed by Sunni Saudis, armed and backed by Sunny America and Theresa May) and Trump, bless him, has questioned the results of that expenditure. Trump had to be persuaded by his
Israelinational security team to hold off on ordering a major troop withdrawal.It’s almost as if “somebody” is deeply worried the proxy Cold War in the Middle East is going off the boil and risks petering out altogether, and the US troops going home is a very unwelcome development which must at all costs be shown up to be reckless and premature.
Conversely, given that Assad and the Russians have essentially “won” the war in Syria, both are secure and popular in their office, and actually are mopping up the remnants of ISIS maniacs, why on earth would they provoke fresh retaliatory air strikes, renewed tensions and hostilities by using chemical weapons? That, even in this modern world of total bollox, still doesn’t actually make any sense.
Richard
Not as much as you love the Daily Mail then, who made it a front page issue or the BBC who had a lengthy report on the subject with a reporter out live facing the hazards of standing near a pothole (almost as dangerous as going to Syria).
🙂 The site is here to tackle the shite in the press. If that shite is potholes then so be it.
To be fair, most of us are talking about the ramping up of the cold war rhetoric between the US/UK and Russia.
Liz g says:
My post was just my thinking, it could be refined and more pointed by others. However, I think we both agree something needs done and thoughts could be expanded by those brighter than I am.
Something needs done to protect democracy, something along these lines would be ground breaking. Yes, accountability is a crucial element for our politicians. A sever penalty would be a way to deter lies by any creed by those who people vote for.
The deterrence I propose may fit the bill or be amended to something similar, but putting a high cost on lying would I feel sure, be the way to stop our MSP’s from even thinking about it.
As we know a lot of the lies are Westminster supported, so that would also put a spoke in their wheel.
Bill not Ben says:
10 April, 2018 at 12:03 pm
One last time ( our Roads )
TeamGB’s spent between £35 and £45 billion on middle east war, from their Iraq invasion on to and including their rolling Afghanistan wars. Then they blew £10 billion on two, not one, white elephant aircraft carriers.
Its a bit odd listening to moaning about potholes, especially from red and blue tories. Labour’s internationalist Socialist Worker party, from Crash Gordo, Bomber Blair, Lord Darling etc had a lot of priorities way beyond pot holes.
Breeks
I am an optimist by nature and I am still hopeful that real politik will prevail and Trump will do something token and default back to spending less on such adventures…he has his own spend agenda on walls and the like. Whether this suits other interests is moot…I don’t think Trump cares.
Richard MacKinnon says:
It’s,
Keep up the good work Rev, you’re the man.
Come come Daily Heil er, readers. It’s your native language.
@Lenny H (12.00) –
Cheers for that link. The poor guy looks utterly dejected, much as Kelly did during those Select Committee hearings.
Also interesting that he puts NIST in the frame. Deja-fekkin-vu…
🙁
link to youtube.com
Some people can’t read. 170 posts mainly not about potholes. Have a nice afternoon.
O/T but about the biggest lie we have ever been told.
An amazing resurrection exposing the fake “White Helmets” and the lies being used to justify an invasion of Syria (just like the WMD lie on Iraq)
link to facebook.com
Yeah. Forgive me Ken but getting involved in a potential Middle East conflict might just be more important than potholes, of which there will be plenty if Russia decides to help Assad.
Yulia Skripal out of hospital. Wonder what uk government office is now giving her the treatment?
Heedtracker @ 12.11
Well yes….While no system is perfect….
I did say when I originally commented about addressing the Media, without actually,legislating to bind the Media.
Which would bring with it it’s own problems that….
If we can put a parliamentary system in place,in which, we can be reasonably confident that anything they say it likely to be the truth as best they know it to be.
Then when there are any issues that concern us we just need to have it asked about in Parliament.
We don’t need to depend on the Media,we have Hoolyrood TV and the internet to share the content of it.
This makes the Media’s only role (in respect of this country’s politics) to investigate for any lies.
Even then we can look too.
Not just for what they Knew,but WHEN they Knew it,so lying by omission is no an option for them either.
When we are currently in a Country where Courts can approve ” Political ” lying new law’s need to be made to address it?
And that has not a thing to do with the Media,who normalised it.
But rather the parliamentary system which didn’t guard against it!
The “smoke grenades from Salisbury are probably White Phosphorus grenades @Capella says at 8:59 am
Gets round the Geneva Conventions ban on WP if you claim it is smoke/target marking.
Has Shona Robison resigned or been sacked yet?
Les Wilson @ 12.28
We are definitely on the same page with this Les…
Infact you are probably the more reasonable one..lol
This constant lying by people who should know better,gets on my last nerve and I’m done being reasonable.
Probably jist as well I’m no actually in charge….
But I’m sure when and if these things are debated some middle ground will be found!
colin alexander says:
10 April, 2018 at 1:03 pm
Has Shona Robison resigned or been sacked yet?
If you CAN get her out Coco, who’s next on the SNP Out hit list?
Minister of potholes, coco?
only one thing worse than potholes
darn pesky russians
smoke em out I say
Westminster = WARMONGERS
Meanwhile in Ireland:
“Brexit is a “disaster for Ireland” according to Bertie Ahern who insisted any return to a physical border would not be acceptable.
He said: “Theresa May has said that no British Prime Minister can ever do that.
”There never will be a border. There is not going to be a physical border across Ireland because if you tried to put it there you wouldn’t have to wait for terrorism to take it down, people would just physically pull it down – the ordinary people.”
Asked whether Ireland should take a tough stance in negotiations over cross-border trade and alignment, Mr Ahern answered: “I’m afraid the answer to that is we have to play hard ball.”
Ticking along interestingly.
Plenty of potholes in Syria. Millions more?
WoS twitter 54,466 followers,
@ Ian, thanks for Dr Busby’s take on this, just reading “A Thorn in their Sides!” by Robert Green on the murder of Hilda Murrell & hope Dr Busby is taking sensible precautions. I would like to fix his wallpaper but!
If we can put a parliamentary system in place,in which, we can be reasonably confident that anything they say it likely to be the truth as best they know it to be.
Its a much more fundamental issue Liz. American constitution says citizens can impeach their elected reps. Even if they try, its almost impossible to do it, get them in to a courtroom, look at Clinton, let alone Nixon.
Bomber Blair and Crash Gordo marched off to war with far right Bush USA. Its cost millions of lives, who knows how many military casualties, cost trillions of dollars and pounds, destabilised the whole of the middle east, caused worldwide mass refugee crisis, endless war on terror and all of it based on their Saddam’s got WMD’s lie?
Blair always says, well look at the 2005 GE result, after our Iraq invasion. Labour won.
Gordon Brown never says anything about anything Iraq and he’s never asked, he’s earned his free tory pass, for stamping out Scottish democracy 2014.
All just how power works in teamGB, just one of the countless reasons why they can’t ever allow an actual accountable democracy to break out in their Scotland region.
Now that Yulia Skripal has been kidnapped by UK security forces one has to hope that she does not suffer a sudden relapse which would suit May/Boris and their useful idiots in the BBC and print media. – with the same applying to her father when he leaves hospital.
Listening to the talking heads on my rare visit to BBC, all about action in Syria. What will WE do, we must take some action to deter chemical warfare against civil populations. Russia somehow responsible. Of course that is the tack America and their poodles in Europe want.
Russia wants a full arbitrary investigation and will comply also.
So once more we have no proof of any substance as to who caused it. I do not see any reason for Russia to do it, especially with the media hatred towards it at the moment. Syria either as if they did it on their own it would cause a rift with Russia.
No, someone else is involved in order to further falsely implicate Russia. Just what America and it’s poodles want.
A set up, if ever there was.
[…] their more committed chums in Meejaland assault the Scottish government and essential services with questionable figures, or out of context claims. Y’know, their version of what they laughably term ‘holding to account’. Is that […]
@Fred –
Cheers, but it was the bold Lenny Hartley who put it up, I just posted a different link.
Yeah, the man talks much sense and seems completely gen, but there’s a frightening resignation about it all. Looks like we really are very close to the end and it could’ve been avoided if only we’d stopped these neo-con maniacs decades ago. It’s not as if they didn’t give us enough clues, make enough mistakes – it was all there in plain view but too many of us were in denial, too scared to admit that these bastards view us as nothing more than expendable livestock.
Has Shona Robison resigned or been sacked yet?
??
Wrong website Shirley?
…or because she hasn’t been filling potholes with junior doctors?
Just heard that Ireland intend to introduce giant ferries which can handle 1500 lorries at a time to sail direct to the continent and Bye Passing the UK all together.
This does not bode well for the Scottish ferries or jobs in the Stranraer area, Holyhead in Wales will also suffer from the loss of Irish traffic.
Cheers Ian, reaches for the tinfoil!
Meanwhile back in Jack & Victor land, Isa and Winston gather roon the fire to discuss how rank the Daily Mail is.
At least Alex Salmond had the courage to make a broadcast condemning the illegal and immoral NATO bombing of Belgrade.
He is a giant that is sorely missed.
Only Craig Murray can fill his shoes.
Pesky Russkies – successfully jamming American drones in Syria. US trying to drop food parcels to the poor victims in Dhouma I suppose.
link to euronews.com
Vote SLab, they’re really great.
link to theguardian.com
BBC r4 gimp zone says Barry used “colourful” language. Imagine BBC gimp fury alone, if endless UK catastrofucks were on the SNP.
@capella
The British Council promotes an overwhelmingly anglocentric version of the UK’s cultural mix through its education programmes.
Scots, Welsh and Irish exist merely to serve the interests of that version. Difference is not in accord with the unitary matrix of Britishness.
It has outposts in Scotland, Wales and N. ireland.
It promotes English as the ‘language of peace’. The irony of that being lost.
@Heedtracker
Scandi states have issues with male circumcision and kosher and hallal animal slaughter which has origins on the race conscious political right.
The Swedes experimented with eugenics and sterilisation of the socalled ‘unfit’ before Hitler and the scheme continued until the 1960’s.
@Heedtracker
Scandi states have issues with male circumcision and kosher and hallal animal slaughter which has origins on the race conscious political right.
The Swedes experimented with eugenics and sterilisation of the socalled ‘unfit’ before Hitler and the scheme continued until the 1960’s.
So?
HandandShrimp says:
10 April, 2018 at 12:36 pm
I am not sure if I would be at all optimistic about what Trumps response to the current situation in Syria is likely to be.
On the news last night there was a clip of Trump at a cabinet meeting saying he would decide on his response shortly. Right behind him was John Bolton, his new National security adviser.
Not good.
Yet another family resident in Scotland being split up due to the hard line stance adopted by the Home office. This time however the man and daughter are Scottish. Doesn’t matter to the english Home office, rules are rules and besides its a devolved issue.
Contrast this with the hijacking of the “devolved” Scottish powers coming back from Europe by the english government. Their excuse is that the need to set up a common framework thats suits the UK (by that they mean england). In other words its okay for them to ignore devolved issues when it suits them but not the Scottish government.
Time the Scottish government grew a pair and told the english government to take a hike. We can’t/shouldn’t play by their rules
Heedtracker @ 1.22
I wasn’t actually meaning team GB/Westminster, they will just have to play catch up when the English electorate finally wake up, and while we can learn a lot from the American Constitution,we can do better.
Better mainly because of,I think, three things..
Firstly. Because of modern communication.
Secondly..Because we can see from the US and other’s what does and doesn’t work.
Thirdly… We are a small enough country to be responsive to the Seat of Government,America’s main problem, it seems to me, is that it’s too big for the individual to negotiate the systems.
They are very dependent on the Media to get anything done!
We don’t need to be…not anymore !
As to the example of Westminster going off to War,well …
what Les Wilson and I were getting at was that had they attempted the WMD lie in the Holyrood system we are discussing they would be in jail.
Not Impeached or Royal Commissioned or on TV with a sad face.
So while it is indeed a fundamental issue Aye… with the right frame work our systems could be fundamentally working to be keepin us in charge.
We could for example have a Constitution that requires any military action,that doesn’t involve the threat of invasion or is a response to a direct attack, to be put to a referendum, and/or to last no longer than 18 months,without going back to Parliament and no longer that 5 year’s without being again put before the people.
Rules like that would have stymied Blair even if he was prepared to risk jail for lying!
We have to be ready to get control of our Parliament very soon after we take back all of Scotland’s powers,if we want to finnish up with a system that actually works,instead of the same shit different day time after time!
Oh and apart from we are getting in the middle of a very important discussion of really urgent issues, duty calls so..I will have to leave this one here for now.
I think when people say we should emulate certain Scandinavian models, I’m pretty sure they mean the good stuff.
Call me Dave @ 11.37 am.
Can’t listen to GMS clip without logging in to the BBC.
@ockanese Wind Talker says: 10 April, 2018 at 7:52 am:
“Also would urge our SNP representatives to listen and understand that is how you deal with the BBC when you know they are lying.”
Why would the SNP want the BBC to stop lying to the people of Scotland?
Most already independence supporters already know that the media, with only a few exceptions, have been pushing out propaganda and lies at the people of Scotland for centuries. Never forget that Denial Defoe was an undercover Kingdom of England spy and was reporting back to Sir Robert Harley, the English spymaster during the negotiations for the Treaty of Union.
Defoe’s main claim to fame as a fiction novel writer was actually his cover. Here is the first line in his biography:-
” Daniel Defoe born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy.”
Pamphleteer describes writers of political and/or religious propaganda leaflets.
At that time newspapers were almost unknown and, anyway, most of the population of England were illiterate, “(the introduction of compulsory education in England only became English law in 1870).
So as long as the unionists in Scotland are still discovering they are being lied to consistently by the Westminster Governments using the media as their propaganda tools the tide will continue to favour independence.
Just read Wings if you doubt that fact. I’ve read many, many Wings comments to that effect. Why do you imagine that all the newspaper circulation figures are plummeting and ever more viewers are deserting the BBC with a good percentage of still existing viewers refusing to pay the Propaganda tax that is the licence fee?
“…but too many of us were in denial, too scared to admit that these bastards view us as nothing more than expendable livestock”.
The neocon view is that the herd is needing culled.
More from Ireland:
The Irish government was accused by Britnat BS Bulldog David Davis of bowing to political pressure from Sinn Fein yesterday and allowing the party to encourage its hardline stance on Brexit.
The Brexit secretary said that Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, had allowed republican sentiment to play “a strong political role” in Brexit that had made it harder to resolve the impasse over the Northern Irish border. His claims were rejected by Dublin.
Row threatens to heighten tensions between the two governments amid talks aimed at resolving the border issue.
Tick tick tick…
We have to be ready to get control of our Parliament very soon after we take back all of Scotland’s powers,if we want to finnish up with a system that actually works,instead of the same shit different day time after time!
You’re right in theory Liz but who becomes the “we?”
Who decides what is and isn’t legal to say?
I’d rather live in a society where the media is like now, a huge army of professional liars, led by the BBC, than one where they’re standing in a dock, in a Scottish court.
Freedom of speech means ofcourse, the absolute right to lie as hard and as long as you like, like fascists at the Daily Heil for example or BBC Scotland’s absolute determination to bring down SNP Scots, cause as much damage to our nascent democracy as they possibly can and so on.
Constitutions are only functional contracts and they have loads of problems too.
We all know USA has an appalling gun ownership problem and the first block on any anti gun ownership laws there is the US Constitution 2nd Amendment, written 200 years ago.
link to law.cornell.edu
Hey Ian Brotherhood, come to Arran to watch the end of the world, im sure i can get a good view of Faslane from the North of the Island, was gonna built a shelter but thought feck it, fill the Motorhome with the finest arran malt and party, best party ever mo hangover to worry about 🙂
“Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has dismissed as “strange” and “inaccurate” comments by the British Brexit Secretary that claimed the Irish Government was being influenced by Sinn Féin over Brexit.” RTE
It’s just that David Davis is “strange” and “inaccurate”.
@Clydebank
Link was for those that want to.
Anyhoo! Peter Ford on a similar interview 7th April.
A flavour of what happened this morning.
I expect it will appear on u-tube soon. 🙂
link to youtube.com
@Smallaxe says: 10 April, 2018 at 9:11 am:
“SiU. Guest Sqeaker: Willie Rennie”:-
“https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/arbroath-supporters-meeting-tickets-44446733376
When are all Wingers going to accept the truth that the Westminster Establishment and its three main unionist parties has always been exactly what it is now – A sham to fool the electorate that the United Kingdom has never been other than what its title describes it as a KINGDOM and a kingdom cannot be democratic.
Truth- It is Her Majesty’s Government – it is NOT the people’s government and the sham of there being three distinct parties is just for show.
Whenever the United Kingdom has come under threat, externally or internally, there has always been either a formal or an informal coalition government.
Two World wars each saw a coalition in power, and now that the threats are internal, all three unionist parties stand shoulder to shoulder against their common foe — and we are their common foe.
Heedtracker @ 2.54
Ouickly
The WE are the voter’s ….. All of them.
And what on earth makes ye think I ment the media?
I thought I made it clear that I was talking about our Elected Representatives..
Leave the Media to sink of swim ,I say..
….
As for Constitution’s…..we are under an Unwritten one,therefore the Government is not bound by anything.
With all it’s faults to bind a government to a framework within which they must operate (mindful that we are likely sooner or later to pick a bad one too) can only be a good thing…aye..
And if we are to have one…well em…we have to actually write something in it…that’s the whole point Heedtracker.
Or are you seriously sayin we should be like Westminster and not have one…..?
Have another look at what I Actually wrote…..laters..
@Jock McDonnell says: 10 April, 2018 at 9:23 am:
“thats the only way we will get serious traction in advance of a formal Scot Gov announcement on a referendum, until that person materialises we just need to keep doing whatever we can as grass roots activists.
I’m an old man now and have seen many elections and I can state from experience that many elections have been lost by the obviously best party by them peaking much too soon.
Or are you seriously sayin we should be like Westminster and not have one…..?
Have another look at what I Actually wrote…..laters..
UK media are our elected rep’s spokesberks.
Do you really want to live in a democracy that sees anyone at all in the dock for the heinous crime of telling whoppers?
Some societies have, over the years. Its a guaranteed disaster. And at the end of the day Liz, they might come for you too.
Fascists at the Daily Heil for example, publishing on behalf of yoonster Scotland, should ofcourse never see a courtroom. The market, who buys their horror product or not, is good enough for me.