Keep calm and what a carry-on
We absolutely love the fact that only one of the stories in the “Referendum News” section of the Herald website this morning is headlined in all capitals:
It paints a rather lovely picture of everyone at the “Better Together” HQ running around shouting “THERE IS NO PANIC! EVERYONE HERE IS TOTALLY CALM!” at the tops of their voices to anyone in the general vicinity.
But there’s something less amusing about the very short piece.
It’s not the fact that despite the headline it completely lacks any sort of quote from anyone in the No camp denying panic claims, although that’s a bit weird in itself.
In so far as the story contains any news at all, its focus appears to be the addition of Labour MP Frank Roy to the “Better Together” campaigning team, a move trumpeted proudly in the article by campaign director Blair McDougall.
If you’re wondering, yes, that IS the same Blair McDougall who tweeted this last night:
Why are those two things related? Well, because a campaign that’s just employed the services of Motherwell and Wishaw’s finest trougher perhaps isn’t in the best place to lecture others about being “anti LGBT-rights”.
Of the 22 Labour MPs who voted against equal marriage in the House Of Commons last year, a disproportionate number (over 27% of those who opposed the law, despite Scottish MPs making up under 16% of Labour’s contingent at Westminster) were Scottish. Among their number was, well, you’re probably ahead of us at this point:
This site completely disagrees with Brian Souter’s views on gay marriage, but they ARE only views – Mr Souter has no political power. His previous donations to the SNP have clearly had no influence on their policies on the subject, the Scottish Government having pushed through its own equal-marriage legislation in February this year.
Frank Roy, on the other hand, DOES have a vote in the UK Parliament and used it to oppose equal marriage, along with several of his Labour colleagues. As a Labour member, activist and apparatchik, Blair McDougall knows that full well. The astonishing hypocrisy of attacking Mr Souter for donating to a completely unrelated cause, while at the same time actually employing someone who shares the same views to work for your own campaign, presumably needs no further comment from us.
(And, y’know, we hate to bring this up again, but whatever else Brian Souter has done with his money, to the best of our knowledge he’s never given seven-figure sums of it to genocidal war criminals, nor been involved with Saddam Hussein. But while apparently “Better Together” think Mr Souter’s cash is too dirty to be used in the independence debate, it seems the same doesn’t apply to Ian Taylor’s.)
Readers can make their own judgements on both Blair McDougall’s attitude to the morality of campaign donations and the sincerity of his commitment to LGBT rights.
.
EDIT 16.37: In fairness, we should note that Frank Roy has sometimes voted in favour of equal rights for gay people. The Public Whip website records his voting history on the subject as “ambiguous”.
Latest from BT: Left hand to quit after being excluded from planning meetings.
However, McDougall said: “This is the real fight now so we’re bringing in the full team”
Que? Where is Flipper?
“Better Together” must be desperate to be bringing in Frank Roy. A complete buffoon (just watch or read any of his contributions in the Commons chamber or committees). I don’t think the man who besmirched the name of Scotland and his constituents with his disastrous role in the Carfin Grotto saga in 2001 should be allowed anywhere near the referendum campaign. I really hope we don’t start to see the sick old sectarian card get played as we get closer to polling day.
Rev
That final paragraph nailed it for me.
Just read about the Carfin Grotto fiasco, had no idea. Crazy stuff.
@revStu Typo in article “presumably needs no firther comment from us.”
Could some of the crowd funding money be used to put together a factsheet of the No campaign’s double dealing/don’t do as I do do as I say “greatest hits” to be delivered to households in key areas where the no vote is soft?
Comment posts appear to fail sometimes?
Labour will deploy
The nasty Frank Roy.
Roy said, “If anybody calls
Tell them I’m out with some trolls.”
(I think that’s called a Clerihew.)
Croompenstein
McDougall said: “This is the real fight now so we’re bringing in the full team”
With under five months until the vote, you would have thought they would have had Frank Roy in long before now.
Or has he been to busy writing a book, the same as the rest of Scottish Labour’s Westminster MPs.
Soutar has played a very minor role in the Yes campaign thus far. He clearly has always supported Scottish independence and still does. His religious views are well known as are the Pope’s and Frank Roy’s. I personally would not make an issue of either religious standpoint but Blair is obviously a wee bit desperate. More funds going into Yes is hardly good news for BT.
What happened to Blair’s breaking indy news story? Was it McMillan retiring or Lord Reid’s tangential incursion into the fray. The former is just amusing although hardly important and the latter is simply not important.
‘Full team’? Was that not the shout when they unveiled their baronial chums and big clunking fist? Next week can we expect a ‘new improved full team’ and so on? They must have the same advertising agency as soap powder manufacturers and how many people believe the nonsense they come out with to promote their products.
@ Blair McDougall BREAKING: Anti LBGT-rights Labour MP Frank Roy not fired by vote NO front organisation BetterTogether #BMcDougallraginghypocrite
@ Blair McDougall BREAKING: Blair McDougall wishes to publicly thank WingsoverScotland for news that Labour MP Frank Roy votes/campaigns against gay marriage #BMcDougallraginghypocrite
Carfin grotto saga..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1160617.stm
@ Blair Mc Dougall, bringing in the full team & delivering
250.000 leaflets to homes, 5.2 million people in Scotland
he,s taking that pooling an sharing a bit to far.
Ah furgoat aboot ma baw of string fae weeks ago, wie awe
the setbacks of BT I’ll wind it in tae Grantham 100miles
or so, I wiz generious when I payed it oot,I used the long
road tae London the A1.
Excellent video – Ivan McKee, Business For Scotland puts forward the economic case for Scottish Independence.
From Kemnay Village Hall 22 April.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmPNHkZxE_k
.
A bit about Frank Roy in the Daily Mail :-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335753/MPs-expenses-Politicians-cash-THIRD-HOME-ploy.html
They don’t seem to like him too much, maybe that’s about to change.
Rev, yir getting awfa good at filleting these stories.
Ps Everybody should read the wee ginger dug’s Contractual Obligations, it’s hilarious.
Latest BT fear letter bombing campaign, courtesy of SNP Highland councillor Gail Ross (that wonderful profiling software of BT’s that’s supposed to target just undecideds – d’you think maybe it’s shite?)
Page 1: pic.twitter.com/ZwmXwrjSEX
Page 2: pic.twitter.com/LWryyDHSTE
Enclosed “survey”: pic.twitter.com/yuZym9aPsC
I’m hoping Gail will tweet the return address so that we can “fill in” a few of these surveys ourselves 😀
What utter shite they are sending out. It’s all the completely discredited fear stories from 3 months ago. Do they really think people are that dim?
I still can’t get my head round how low key Blair McDougall has played the visit of the WHOLE Westminster Shadow Cabinet to Scotland on Friday.
Is he not a Labour Party member. Should he not have been at the side of Ed Miliband, with Frank Roy lurking in the background.
Or was it the evil YES Campaign who organised the visit just to win over more Labour voters.
Blair McD, we need to know these things.
There were actually people saying yesterday that they didn’t even know that Ed Miliband was in Scotland on Friday.
What was the point, it must have cost a fortune for a negative return.
Keep up the good work Blair McD.
O/T – can anyone help with this..I had a discussion with oor wullie on another thread
@Oor Wullie – And why would any economist be “committed to high rates of unemployment”?
Are you mad?
Here is a take on that subject..
http://politicaleconomy.ie/?p=682
Oor Wullie replied with – Croompenstein – many thanks for the link – I have read the article in question but it assumes we live in a capitalist society.
We do not. A “true” Capitalist Society would have very little (if any) in the way of govt intervention in the economy
The level of govt intervention around the world to stop “fat cats” and others from “losing their shirts” since the financial crisis points to nothing like Capitalism.
And, pre the crisis, the levels of govt intervention, particularly in the UK, to allow debt to fuel a false boom, pointed too to the fact that in no way were we living in a Capitalist society.
Am I a big thicko? I thought we lived in a capitalist society
Labour / Tory Better Together Campaign in trouble >
Hit the irresponsible button.
Predictable move; (YES had to know this was coming surely)
Cue ‘Sectarian Issues’ to scare the cattle away from democracy.
Classic colonial counter measure from days of the ‘British Empire’.
@Croompenstein,
Very interesting link that. Apart from reminding us that Mr Roy is a world class moron, I note George Galloway has changed his tune on the subject of bigotry in Scotland since 2001.
“Frank Roy, on the other hand, DOES have a vote in the UK Parliament and used it to oppose equal marriage, along with several of his Labour colleagues. As a Labour member, activist and apparatchik, Blair McDougall knows that full well”
But he can do what ever he feels like because he knows that none of teamGB media will even ask him why he is such a grotesque hypocrite.
Aye, but Roy only opposed it in England & Wales – so its OK. Ahh, the benefits of the union.
RogueCoder: I can’t believe they are STILL trying to peddle the “Scotland will lose the £” line, it is a total and utter lie and most of us know it. The fools.
Anyway, when you fill in your BT questionnaire, remember to tick the “undecided” box so that when the employees in the London call centre call you up you can keep them talking for hours on end.
I have no doubt we are about to see the sectarian card being played.
This is heartbreaking given the gradual progress we have made over many years.
Regardless of your support for a YES or NO vote the last thing we need is for his approach. His style,based on previous rants, will attempt to hold a section of the community through bigotry or fear of bigotry.
Regardless of the referendum vote this man will set Scotland back 20years.
If you think I’m jumping the gun, wait and see. This man has very little skills except narrow partisan politics.
He does not look for consensus in debate.
The Guardian website story about Iain McMillan’s ‘retirement’ from CBI Scotland isn’t allowing comments: http://archive.today/vc0e1
Just exactly where is Alistair?. Padded cell somewhere blinking furiously?. Would any of his constituents know?.
Remember the time Frank placed a dodgy bet on the result of the vote for the new speaker?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1070377.stm
So Dr. John Reid” Baron Reid of Cardowan” – Frank Roy MP. – George Galloway MP.
That’s some half back line!
@Croompenstein,
Like Unix, there are a few flavours.
We’re actually crony capitalism.
If we give McDougall the benefit of just being quite stupid thus oblivious to Frank Roy’s voting record in Westminster, this may be a sign that Alistair Darling is being quietly pushed to the back of the stage.
Darling is the “Chairman” of Better Together after all, a role that usually requires one to provide thought leadership & direction but rarely involving front stage, public performances.
Oddly, Darling has personally conducted numerous front stage performances on behalf of Better Together & it’s now accepted by even his own team, that his virulently negative rants on TV & on stage have been counterproductive.
Is Frank Roy now expected to fill the roll that Darling was oddly doing, allowing Darling to step back? One might ask why it’s not Blair McDougall? The problem for Better Together is that McDougall is the least trusted of all the major players in the YES/NO camps.
So perhaps Roy is expected to solve two problems since Darling & Blair are on balance more of a liability than an asset.
It does suggest that the Better Together camp is in a state of turmoil, desperate to find a face & a voice that can reverse the direction of the polls.
I think Frank Roy is a poor choice but then again, who else could they pick or who else would be willing to have their reputation & possibly career trashed by backing the wrong side?
Betsy,
Galloway will change his views on anything to suit the demographic of his next meal ticket for the WM trough.
It’s what he does.
O/T – Postal workers urged to vote NO by union.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/postal-workers-urged-union-vote-3465312
It’s like turkeys being told to vote for Christmas.
Haven’t the union read the WP?
I can see some logic in Frank Roy getting the job as General Custer for the dwindling London Labour troops in Scotland, with the Battle of the Little Bighorn five months away.
Clootie
The sectarian card has always puzzled me.
If Frank Roy is going to try to convince Scots/Irish Catholics to vote NO(same as Terry Kelly), then is he asking them to wrap themselves in the Union Jack.
I don’t think they’ll be queuing round the block to do this.
If Frank Roy, Johann Lamont, George Galloway, Margaret Curran and all the other Scots/Irish MPs and MSPs are not willing to wrap themselves in the Union Jack then why ask labour voters to do it.
Are they ashamed to be seen flying the Union Jack. Are they ashamed to mention Queen Elisabeth II, why the hypocrisy.
You are either for the Union or you are against it.
So let’s see Frank Roy turn up at the next Better Together meeting wearing a Union Jack suit, just like his fellow Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray.
http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/field-day.html
Any postal workers looking in been involved in any ballots lately ?? or is it the CBI special consensus balloting thingy majig that has spoken on your behalf – without informing you
For those wondering where Flipper is he was in Western Isles at least yesterday.
I would imagine that the postal workers will treat the Union as the bunch of useless troughers they are and vote according to what is best for themselves.
@ Susan, doesn’t the family come from there and he has a holiday home there. Must be having some R&R so he can carry on the fight, oh my!
Mail in 2010 explains how 2 expenses loopholes are exploited by MP’s like Frank Roy in the Westminster golden goose. Roy’s half a million quid Thames side pad’s probably worth double that now
Before the Election, Motherwell Labour MP Frank Roy claimed £885 a month expenses for the second-home mortgage on his £500,000 flat in County Hall, the former GLC building across the Thames from Parliament.
He now claims £1,430 per month rent and declares in the Commons register a ‘residential flat in London from which rental income is received’. It is understood to be his Southwark flat, which has an estimated monthly rental value of up to £1,750.
Assuming that former steelworker Mr Roy’s mortgage still costs him £885, it means he is now nearly £1,000 better off every month than he was under the old system. Meanwhile, the cost to the taxpayer of supplying him with a London home has increased by £545 a month.
There is no suggestion he is breaking any rules, and it is possible that his third home is less well-appointed than his second. Before the expenses reforms, Mr Roy claimed for £455 of ‘bedding, curtains and furnishings’; £750 for a 32in HD television with DVD player; and £265 for a sink waste-disposal unit.
Asked to comment yesterday, he replied ‘Sorry, I’ve got someone with me’ and declined to call back
Are we in danger of exhausting ourselves with the insignifiacant [eg Frank Roy]
We need a nationwide campaign to challenge every known No supporter, as publicly as can be managed, in the week before the vote:
Do you support the bedroom tax for which so many of your supporter MPs voted?
POSTAL workers have pledged to play an active role in the campaign for Scotland to become independent.
Members of Scotland No 2 branch of the Communication Workers Union backed a motion stating that leaving the UK is “the only way forward for workers in Scotland”.
The branch, which pledged to work to secure a Yes vote in next year’s independence referendum, includes postal workers in Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife, Falkirk and Stirling. (March 2013)
Oooops!
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10517/frank_roy/motherwell_and_wishaw says Frank votes moderately against “wholly elected” Lords reform and strongly for Trident 2.0.
BetterTogether eh?
OT Nice one from Paul
weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/contractual-obligations/comment-page-1/#comment-2662
Oops, taking the http// off that one didnae work. I’ll try it with it still there.
http://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/contractual-obligations/comment-page-1/#comment-2662
@Susan says:
For those wondering where Flipper is he was in Western Isles at least yesterday.
What’s with the Western Isles thing?
Did I hear yesterday that Ian (knife crime) Davidson was there too?
I am aware of the Flipper local connection, but if Ian or others are involved, have BT fled the field already (in a post-Culloden manner)?
Or are they digging-up their hidden secret weapon, the REAL Stone of Destiny?
I recall that Michael Forsyth let his inner sword-in-the-stone fetish surface pre-Devolution.
Strange days.
“Oops, taking the http// off that one didnae work.”
You only need to do that if it’s YouTube, you tube 😉
O/T
Great news on the betting front.
A Yes win in the Referendum goes BELOW 2/1 for the first time.
We are winning Blair McDougall, we are winning this referendum and even the bookies are realising it.
http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/scottish-independence/referendum-outcome
The Daily Record suffers an irony bypass:-
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/mail-opinion-proposed-measures-control-3465239
The DR are on fire today.
Blare says he’s an underdug …
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/better-together-say-underdogs-independence-3464533
have the Japs left Carfin Grotto yet?
Hay!, who let the “wee ginger dug” on here?, cause it’s just peed all over my I pad.
When is Frank Roy going to break cover and make his maiden Better Together speech?
It will give us a better idea of who he is trying to target.
If he is your MP, you could maybe drop him a wee note, asking him what are the benefits of staying in the Union and when will we see him in Better Together colours.
Re the CWU, a friend of mine, a postie, keeps receiving phone calls from them on the referendum and they are not happy when he states that he is a Yes.
As for Frank Roy. Not only would I remind Labour activists that he is not a champion for equality but that he is firmly in the UKIP camp with his voting record on equal marriage.
http://whitefeatherclub.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/205/
I’m afraid Frank Roy’s name isn’t exactly a household one in our home, and I remember only three contributions he has made to political life:
1. insinuating that his constituents were a rabble uncontrollable by police in the event of a visit to Carfin by then Irish PM, Bertie Ahern;
2. voting to deny equal marriage rights to people in England and Wales;
3. voting in support of the Tory-Liberal government’s cap on benefits spending despite 24% of children in his Motherwell and Wishaw constituency living in poverty.
That’s it.
I’m puzzled that it’s only now that Mr Roy has been promoted to the ‘full team’, and perplexed as to what Flipper has been doing this past year or so. Was he only keeping Mr Roy’s seat warm for him in a kind of parallel to the Medvedyev-Putin set-up? That was very self-effacing of Flipper to take the strain while Mr Roy was limbering up off-stage.
Looking forward to seeing Mr Roy’s game-changing presence in the UKOK campaign.
Like others I wouldn’t know Roy if you hit me over the head with him. I was aware a while back that he was one of the antis regarding same sex marriage and that is the sum total of my knowledge. I cannot for the life of me put a face to the name. At least I know who Alistair is.
Is Baron Martin of spring burn limbering up ready for a call from baron Reid of cardowan in response to a call from Baron Robertson of port Ellon Baroness Liddle of Coatdyke. They sound like the Tory establishment.
The second stringers are still collecting the corn at our expense. Then they’ll be in the Que for the ermine and expenses. Yep the mother of parliaments and the home of democracy. Any non participant who advocates or accepts this putrid system deserve all they get, and it won’t be out the trough.
Was Frank Roy in the Western Isles yesterday?
If so, it must have been a BT team-bonding session.
Venue: http://i.imgur.com/YnClxFf.jpg
The CWU thing stinks and who will protect the posties when the asset strippers come to call.
OT Rev
If the BT send out literature with prepaid enevelopes for replies
and we can mobilise enough people to reply
does the postage cost accrueing to the BT campaign, come off their referendum budget?
it might be worth a campaign to aquire as many as poss and posting them back?
Re the CWU, I’m sure there was a CWU rep, from Livingston?, at the 2012 Indy march and rally who was on stage advocating passionately for YES and saying a lot of his members would be voting YES too.
Surely posties voting No, RM privatisation + job losses, is like students voting No, and thereby incurring tuition fees – but it appears that there are, like turkeys who vote for Christmas, people who will vote detrimentally to their benefit.
Why?
Aren’t we all on this site Anti LGBT (London Government,Better Together) or have i missed something? 🙂
On the CWU story, I find it amazing that the MSM are giving big prominence that CWU is backing no, despite the fact that they didn’t bother balloting members in Scotland.
Apparently it was a decision made in Bournemouth of its UK leadership and despite the fact that CWU Branch nr 2, the largest branch in Scotland chose to back independence last year. This fact alone was ignored and remains ignored by the MSM
Just reading a snippet from Better Together website quoting that “The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 17,000 postal and telecommunication workers in Scoland and 20,000 across the whole of the UK, today backed a motion at its annual conference calling for Scotland to remain in the UK” [their spelling mistake by the way]
Now the astute amongst you will have also noted something else in that paragraph from Better Together (apart from the spelling error) . Can you see what it is readers?
Apparently there are 17,000 postal workers in Scotland and only 3,000 in the rest of the UK, as it states clearly that there are 20,000 across the UK as a whole
Talking of Yes supporting posties, Mark Coburn, who has his postal delivery route in Glasgow’s West End, is cycling from ‘Rome to Home’ to raise cash for local Yes groups. Just completed Stage 1. If you donate please specify which group you want your cash to go to.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rome-to-home-1421-miles-on-a-bike-for-yes#home
I’m in the CWU (Scotland No.1 branch) have been for 32 years and I have never been asked my opinion on this nevermind polled twice.Looks like I’ll be having a strong word with my rep tomorrow and looking for another Union. Feeling physically sick.
@ Edward
The CWU represents Postal and Telecoms workers ,or is supposed to.
So Blair McDougall’s big news as tweeted by him last night was the news that Better Together are now *ahem* employing the services of an ardent anti LGBT and equal rights LABOUR M.P. Not the sort of news I’d want to be seen, or heard, trumpeting about I don’t think!
I know of a postie who is upset to find that he and his girlfriend will be on holiday on 18th September as they were both intending to vote No and now won’t be able to!!!!
Edward – I did notice that the largest membership of CWU seems to be in Scotland. No wonder they’re advocating a No vote – with indy, they lose 80ish % of their membership.
Which beggars the question, why if the majority of their members are in Scotland, they do not advocate indy? CWU must see the way things are going down south with privatisation being the new rule and realise their best hope of a fair working environment lies in an indy Scotland.
Is it perhaps because the union leaders are all southern sourced/based?
Slightly O/T for those interested the Facebook likes of Yes Scotland is now a full 11% ahead of the Better Together page
Compare that with last week in October last year and Yes Scotland were only ahead by 4.5%
@Pat
Yes the CWU is supposed to represent Postal and Telecoms workers but the leadership are trying it on, by doing the old style trick of dictating to members as supposedly the leadership ‘knows best’. It may have worked before the internet, but now with social networks and everyone talking to each other, it will not work.
Its interesting that the CWU got the release out smartish to the papers and BBC in an attempt to do a snow job and the MSM complied without question.
I’m sickened that the leadership can do this against its own membership, its also sickening that the MSM ignore that the CWU number 2 branch stated they would back independence
@caz-m says:
“Great news on the betting front.
A Yes win in the Referendum goes BELOW 2/1 for the first time.”
OMG I’ve been watching this closely and this is getting more and more exciting considering it was 10/1 before Xmas and 7/1 a few months back.
Game on!
“You only need to do that if it’s YouTube, you tube”
Sorry for any editing time Stuart. Nice avoidance of a ‘tautology’ riposte with the capitalisation BTW. 🙂
I’m rather confuddled.
They Work For You and Public Whip say Frank Roy “voted strongly for” the Equal Marriage Bill. Admittedly their is some confusion on Public Whip as to how he voted on the second reading (which is what the Staggers is referring to). One page says for, another says against. Both agree that he voted for the bill at the final reading. Not quite Brian Soutar then. He voted for Trident replacement though, and a benefits cap.
So he’s a troughing bastard right enough, who votes the party line nearly always, but not necessarily quite the sort of bastard he’s being presented as here.
schrodingers cat
Campaign expenses will only accrue during the official campaign period starting on 30 May.
Calgacus MacAndrews at 3:07 pm says:
“Was Frank Roy in the Western Isles yesterday?
If so, it must have been a BT team-bonding session.”
Brill photo. Had me in stitches. Keep them coming.
The idea that such a limit on spending only applies to a specific time period does beg the question of whether you could stock up on leaflets and other such publications prior to the official start in order to increase how much you spend. It also begs the question of the legality of giving money to more than one body or even of creating a front in order to register more than once.
“They Work For You and Public Whip say Frank Roy “voted strongly for” the Equal Marriage Bill.”
I’ve added an edit reflecting what TPW says about his voting record. Fair-minded, me.
Marcia – so I should save any leaflets and send them back then, when after all they’ll be able to re-use them!
@Edward at 3.42 says:
“Apparently there are 17,000 postal workers in Scotland and only 3,000 in the rest of the UK, as it states clearly that there are 20,000 across the UK as a whole.”
Yes I spotted that too. Another error in MSM. If only they had someone as astute as Stu (ref yesterday’s analysis on CP tax race to the bottom article) they wouldn’t make such a fool of themselves. Then again it’s better for us we have Stu on our side.
CBI tried the same kind of shite as CWU are trying now. Only if the larger number of members in Scotland is true then it’s even worse. It’s the kind of thing that a union opposing Westminster would be hauled over the coals for. I don’t think leaving is the right approach. In the case of the CBI I’d love to see what the founding charter is and at what point if moved from promoting british business interests into political lobbying. In the case of the CWU it’s even simpler they have no right to make any such statement without first taking a vote.
Jiggsboro
Left hand and right hand fall out after failing to find arse.
From CWU .org
“CWU represents 200,000 postal and telecommunication workers, including 17,000 members in Scotland. ”
16,999 and counting 🙁
Frank Roy’s appalling behaviour during the Carfin fiasco just proves what an embarrassment Scottish Labour MP’s are. He ebarrassed the Irish, who, to their credit didn’t make too much of it and he ebarrassed Scots. People vote for this cretin?
The CWU provided their club in Brunswick St in Edinburgh as a venue for an after rally session for the 2nd Independence First march in 2007. Had a very enjoyable couple of pints there and good craic with Dougie, Lloyd and co.
There is one word to descibe Frank Roy. He is a shyster.
He use to be one of the union types at Ravenscraig. He was held in very low esteem by the work force, but of course he had his eyes fixed on the gravy train and how much he could capitalise on it.
McDougall said: “This is the real fight now so we’re bringing in the full team”
Nobody left in the Premier. So what division are they from?
John Ried getting involved might backfire big time given he’s the former chairman of Celtic FC. I kind of doubt he’d make any real impact on many scots Celtic supporters. On the other hand what he will do is confuse the huns with the choice of agreeing with him and people who it seems think that if Scotland votes Yes that David Cameron could order the Queen to abdicate from the Scottish crown or with those who might have those in their rank who wouldn’t mind that but would leave the decision to a public who as things now stand would vote in favour of keeping her.
John Reid? That’ll be the “patronising bastard” (in Labour’s own words). That should help!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/vote2001/hi/english/scotland/newsid_1378000/1378867.stm
Angus McLellan at 4.27
Frank Roy is exactly as he is being portrayed here, believe me
I wrote piece for Wings last year titled “The Dirty Game”.
Frank Roy as right at the centre of it and the a despicable sectarian effort then.
If they are about to play the sectarian card they are in deep shit and they know it.
YES response to it should come from the Labour for Indy division
John Reid is one of those special Labour types. Those who know the entire IRA songbook by heart, but would gladly set the Black and Tans loose in Scotland, were it ever to leave the UK.
Walter Scott says:
27 April, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Frank Roy’s appalling behaviour during the Carfin fiasco just proves what an embarrassment Scottish Labour MP’s are. He ebarrassed the Irish, who, to their credit didn’t make too much of it and he ebarrassed Scots. People vote for this cretin?
Cardboard Box, red rosette, yes that about sums it up!
@Dave Hill
“If they are about to play the sectarian card they are in deep shit”
It was always inevitable that they would play this card, because they always have. It used to be the Tories, in more recent times it has been Labour. The eedjits think the card is an ace, and I’m pretty sure they will haul out ‘Lord’ Reid to throw it on the table.
We’ll tell him to look again. It’s a deuce, son. Foxtrot Oscar.
The Italian Job – 10/1 before Christmas, where on earth was that? I consulted Oddschecker late November before placing a fairly large bet on at 5/1 with Ladbrokes. It’s not been 7/1 anywhere this calendar year. I check this regularly.
@Harry –
I got 7/1 at Ladbrokes on March 28th.
On April 7th, Ronnie’s Raffle dosh (raised at the Glasgow WOS night) was accepted, same shop, at 5/1.
The comfort i suppose is that the union leaders can only advise their members, the decision to vote Yes or No is a personal one ultimately outwith their control.
GMB recently advised a No vote and were roundly criticised by the membership where i work.
I strongly advised them to look for information and make their own mind up.
My local convener didnt like this so i resigned my stewardship and membership as a point of principle.
A large amount of members followed me.
It is my opinion this instance is beyond the union remit, especially considering the recent fall outs between unions and labour.
@geeo –
Well done.
Are you in the SSP?
If not, fancy joining us?
Just asking…
It is my opinion this instance is beyond the union remit
Another case of an organisation trying to undermine the individual’s right to exercise free will.
The CWU are vague about how many polls were actually carried out and when they were. Perhaps post privatisation the attitude of their Scottish members might have changed.