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Kezia Dugdale Fact Check, Part 683

Posted on September 14, 2017 by

The Daily Record have continued to run Kezia Dugdale’s weekly column despite her resignation as Scottish Labour branch office manager (North British division), and this week we were interested to note her assessment of the devolution years, which could be summarised neatly as “Labour devolution good, SNP devolution bad”.

We raised an especially quizzical eyebrow at the claim that the 1999-2007 Labour/Lib Dem administrations had apparently ended homelessness. So we thought we’d do that thing we do when Kezia Dugdale claims something.

It didn’t take very long.

When Scottish Labour took charge of the Executive in 1999, there were around 33,000 applications assessed as homeless. When they left office in 2007 after a decade-long economic boom and ever-growing budgets supplied by a friendly Labour government in London, that number had shot up to around 41,000 – an increase of roughly 25%.

Since the SNP came to power, despite a global economic crash and years of austerity and cuts from Westminster – which have negatively impacted both individuals and the Scottish government’s finances – the number has nevertheless fallen steadily in all but one year and now sits at around 28,000. That’s a remarkable reduction of 32%, and the lowest level of homelessness in Scotland for 25 years.

Leader or not, we’ll always be here to check Kezia Dugdale’s facts, readers. Because it doesn’t look they’re going to get any less false any time soon.

.Y

Previous Kezia Dugdale Fact Checks:
[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]

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bobajock

Banged on before about this but.

She is useless in a debate about facts (see above).

On devolution she is clueless. On reality she lies.

Can I get a job in a rag for her rates?

Street Andrew

Have you got a graph showing the Labour Party ‘Pork pie’ production figures, Stu?

Proud Cybernat

Oi Kez – can you get us back the £2 Billion SLabour sent back to London because your lot couldn’t think how to spend the money in Scotland.

Some time today would be good. Ta.

Aye – that’s SLABOUR DEVOLUTION for you. Don’t get me started on PFI schools & hospitals.

Betty Boop

Why does she do it? Really… she must know that a lack of diligence will always be found out. The pity is that there are entire political parties which specialise in trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.

Murray McCallum

Wouldn’t it be fair to say that Labour truly ended the declining trend in those assessed as homeless and in critical need?

Donald MacKenzie

Is she so stupid that she thinks that this won’t be found out, or is she just so dismissive of the voters that she can put out a bare faced lie knowing that the lie will stick and the revealers of the truth will come in behind and not be seen by many who first of all read the lie.

jimnarlene

You’d think, by now, Kezia would know that old adage “the truth will out”; is bang on.

Merkin Scot

Unfortunately, there are people out there who still believe her.

Macart

Student politics at its very best. ‘It is because I say it is’. Never mind those facts and figures thingies, they just get in the way of a damn good whinge.

Pretty grim and of course as for the soap box that gave Ms Dugdale space to post this nonsense? They’re aware they look stupid at this point, right?

David

@ Betty Boop

The trouble is that there’s too much tribalism in politics, especially on the Union side of things. The audience she is writing to wants believe what she says (or anything else anti-independence), so its true. No facts needed. The rest tend not to have the time (or are too bone idle) to spend 1 minute googling it.

If someone could show me hard facts that Scottish independence is a very bad idea id become a Unionist. Unfortunately not many of our political opponents share that trait.

KathyT

I have to wonder how much of Lab/Libs demonstrated homelessness increase is attributable to the boasted closure of asylums. Mental health problems are common in homeless people.

Bob Mack

Not only Kezia. I am sick of listening to every Unionist politician and news media distorting and bending facts to suit their agenda.

Having spent a lifetime under Governments of all hues, I can say with some conviction that the SNP at least try their best for the Scottish people.

Now I listen to various proposals put forward to try and nullify if not expunge our Scottish parliament for good.

Not on my watch.No sir. That would be a step too far, which may sound ridiculous considering what they have already done.

shug

She gets away with it because so. Enjoy people do that read any further and the BBC and the press protect her
Her nonsense suits their message

Free Scotland

Kezia is a secret plant, whose mission is to deal the death blow to the Daily Record. If she doesn’t manage it, no-one will.

dakk

@Macart says

‘as for the soap box that gave Ms Dugdale space to post this nonsense? They’re aware they look stupid at this point, right?’

Doubt it.They still think they are clever spinning their lies for their paymasters.

It is what is left of their readership who look/are stupid.

Chick McGregor

TBF Rev. SLAB did manage to build 6 council houses during their tenure.

That’s nearly one a year.

Tombee

Has she forgotten to mention the PFI scheme inflicted upon Local Authorities, during the years that the Lab/Lib Dems were in administration, at Holywood ?. Or are we to accept that she has just chosen to ignore it ?.
Did she make any mention at all, of the £1.5 billion sent back to Gordon Brown’s exchequer, at Westminster, by Lord Jack McConell, as he said he could think of nothing to spend it on in Scotland ?. Or did she just ignore that too ?.

fillofficer

but it’s for DR ‘readers’ that’s what they want/need to read, target audience, keeps em happy, they dont do tinternet

gordoz

But the DRecord will tell you she is a good egg & popular too ??
Despite the manufactured facts! Best thing I can say is I have heard no one talk faster; with no attention to detail. 🙂

Arbroath1320

Oh dear.

It looks to me like Jackie “pass the pie” Baillie has been trying to teach oor wee Kez how to use the BBC calculator … AGAIN! 😀

heedtracker

Nightmare SLab. But god spare us Anas, please please not that nutcase.

Robert Graham

Eh sort of missed the, one , thousand, million Pound annual debt for Labours only game in town PFI debacle, gee that’s some bill for something we will never acutely own ,at least at the end of your mortgage you acutely get something to keep ,it’s yours.
One billion pounds £1000.000.000 . Doesn’t seem much when you say it quickly, then again mustn’t dwell on the small change eh , what’s a billion here or there to Labour, it’s someone else’s money after all .
It might be good to remind Labour and the other msps from opposition parties of this anchor round our neck , when they stand up and demand this and that be done with cash from the magic money tree,
The SNP constantly criticised for their inability to rectify Unionists mistakes, the bast***ds eh .

Mike

Problem is Dugdales facts will always be facts as long as there is media willing to publish them as facts and people around too lazy or unconcerned to challenge “facts” in the media.
I doubt even the Soviet Union had so many media fact distortions in its history as Scotland has had to endure this decade alone.
Its kind of sickening really. The whole concept of informative media has been bought off. Journalism has become a byword for information suppression and it isn’t going to get any better any time soon.

Legerwood

“”Tombee says:
14 September, 2017 at 3:19 pm
Has she forgotten to mention the PFI scheme inflicted upon Local Authorities, during the years that the Lab/Lib Dems were in administration, at Holywood ?. Or are we to accept that she has just chosen to ignore it ?.
Did she make any mention at all, of the £1.5 billion sent back to Gordon Brown’s exchequer, at Westminster, by Lord Jack McConell, as he said he could think of nothing to spend it on in Scotland ?. Or did she just ignore that too ?””
………………………

Those PFI schemes that now cost us £1 Billion pounds per year in interest. PFI schools that came close to maiming children when they started to fall down when the wind blew.

The £1.5 Billion sent back by Mr (now M’Lord) McConnell was clawed back by the SNP Government who I am sure put it to good use.

galamcennalath

Another hour, another lie. Sometimes it feels like Scotland is a nation where most of the mainstream news is fake!

Some will believe it, but I reckon more and more see through it. And, it’s a one way road because once your eyes and ears have been opened there is no going back.

I’m not saying that makes the enlightened suddenly YES supporters or SNP/Green voters, but it does permanently reduce the effectiveness of the pro Union propaganda. And they don’t have much left to use.

Their Union is doomed when it can now only survive with lying and deceiving.

galamcennalath

@Others

Yup. Three letters P F I sum up Labour in office and its lasting legacy on Scotland.

Derick fae Yell

Just a note that a key reason for the drop in homelessness applications in recent years has been the new focus on helping people avoid homelessness in the first place, rather than picking up the pieces afterwards.

The key steps being:

Statutory guidance for local authorities on preventing homelessness introduced in 2009
link to gov.scot

The development and promotion of the Housing Options approach.

“The development of the Housing Options approach in Scotland should be viewed as the most significant strategic development in homelessness in Scotland in the past six years.” Shelter Scotland, “Far from Fixed” September 2016

In June 2010 the Scottish Government/COSLA 2012 Joint Steering group identified the adoption of homelessness prevention work, and in particular the housing options approach, as a key way forward.

Housing Options refocuses the way local authorities deal with housing problems, from assessing clients on the basis of what they are legally entitled to receive, towards an approach based on finding the most helpful solution for the client in light of their circumstances: the focus moves from “who can we help?” to “how can we help?”

Five regional ‘Hubs’ were established in autumn 2010, which brought together groups of neighbouring local authorities, with the aim of promoting knowledge sharing and learning across different local authorities in relation to housing options.

Setting aside the human cost, the financial cost of dealing with homelessness is horrendous. The focus on prevention is not only humane, it’s cost effective.

A greatly unsung achievement of the Scottish Government AND local authorities of all political complexions.

link to beta.gov.scot

Chick McGregor

That £1.5 billion must have been able to build 20,000 quality Council Houses at the time. More probably.

Dan Huil

Lying Britnat blunder-merchants can initially get away with it because of the britnat media. Thankfully britnat rags like the Record are losing sales and, more importantly, we have the likes of the Rev to set the record [ha ha!] straight.

Boycott all britnat media.

Ghillie

Does this poor wee lassie not have anyone who could check her homework before she hands it in ?

Desimond

Is this a “Kezia was speaking too” style column, I cant believe she finds the time to sit and type a column every week…after all she has so many American Lobby Group Youtube training videos to watch!

You would think her column would be all about the up and coming Scottish Labour Leadership non event or the Labour MPs voting with Tories to destroy Holyrood…elsewhere on the page perhaps?

Foonurt

Fae gurnin Royal College Of Surgeons & Physicians spokespersons. Tae pathological leein poaliteeshins, agin wurr Scoattish [SNP} Government, urr onnaehin Scoattish.

Pit ah name tae – “Yet in that period, I have looked sadly at England”. “…. the England I have loved and admired…..”

“I am an out and proud Nat, but I’m an English qualified lawyer to trade ……” “….but I don’t want to see the UK have a bad time.”

Ah, baith oan 13th September, 2017.

Wull, ah ken thurr speaking fur thurrsell, bit it maks ye hink. Nivurr huv, in nivurr wull love/admire England. Iz faur iz yoan UK huvin ah bad time, ah couldnae gie ah fuck.

Ghillie

Chick Murray @ 4.02 pm

Good point! That COULD have meant homelessness in Scotland down to 8000.

Still a horrible thought that anyone at all would still not have a home but a whole lot fewer homes to provide before the winter sets in.

Question. Is that Kezia and Slab’s main concern though? Or is SNP bashing now their sole raison d’etre?

Hamish100

Dugdale is old news . Let’s concentrate on Davidson.

Labour will argue between itself as it tries to appoint another branch officer.

Ghillie

Kathy T @ 3.13 pm

Very good point! Closure of mental health facilities would not have been in the best interests of all their patients and clients and would certainly have contributed to a rise in homelessness. Especially if suitable alternatives were not put in place at that time.

Free Scotland @ 3.17 pm 🙂 THAT explains it!

You’ve fair cheered me up Free Scotland!

Have a lovely day folks =)

Petra

Seems that Kezia Dugdale suffers from selective memory syndrome and has clearly forgotten the dire impact that one Labour Leader in Scotland, and at Westminster, have had on Scotland from Harold Wilson hiding the McCrone Report, Donald Dewar handing over our seas / 7 oil fields, Blair taking us into an illegal war, Brown robbing the pension pots of hundreds of billions, the PPI scandal and constantly voting with their Tory pals, the most recent relating to the EU Withdrawal Bill, to name but a FEW.

Maybe she’s hoping that the Scots have selective memories, like hers, too? Forget it Kezia. The Labour party’s track record in Scotland has been absolutely abysmal and that includes yours. Great how she walked off and left her mates in the sh*t but has managed to hold onto her cushy wee number continuing to pump out propaganda.

Welsh Sion

O/T

This week, Scots are marking the 20th anniversary of devolution and the (re-)establishment of the Scottish Parliament. Hearty best wishes to you all. And next week, it will be us, the Welshies turn to celebrate 20 years of our own devolution and the first ever creation of a National Assembly for Wales. Feel free to congratulate us, too.

I enclose a letter I sent to the Radio Times on this matter – not really expecting publication. My initial thoughts have been justified. However, I’m happy to share it with you all here as I know it will receive a sympathetic audience.

And hello, again to anyone on here who remembers me from, inter alia, Facebook.
__________

To the Editor, the Radio Times

Dear Sir,

Oh, dear! Your film reviewer, Andrew Collins, seems as intent on re-writing (modern) history as that Aussie-American, Mel Gibson, was in the 1995 film Braveheart.

Having already told us in his film review that, “It’s 20 years this week since Scots voted resoundingly for a Scottish Parliament”, your reviewer then leaves open the question as to whether the Gibson “epic” of 1995 had some bearing on the result.

Let me try to enlighten Mr Collins. Braveheart was released a full two years before a UK General Election, in which, had the sitting (Conservative) Government been successful, there would have been no vote of the Scottish people on the desirability (or otherwise) of a Scottish Parliament. It would be the in-coming Labour Government of May 1997, that kept its election promise to hold a Referendum on the matter in the autumn of the same year.

One supposes that Andrew Collins’s assertion that Mel Gibson’s eponymous character was a “13th century SNP activist” to be an attempt at juvenile humour on the part of your film reviewer, there being, quite obviously no Scottish National Party in the Middle Ages. However, what is more disconcerting is that any less-informed reader of Collins’s piece could (and probably would) construe this analogy as being one whereby the SNP and its members actively detest “the English” and would fight this enemy through force of arms – gross misrepresentations and falsehoods, not far removed from racism.

Also for the record, I associate regularly with Members of the Scottish National Party and other Scots. None of them take Braveheart seriously, nor as an accurate representation of their history. It would seem therefore that others, notably ignorant commentators south of the Border, assume the “history” contained therein to be accurate, factual and truthful.

Yours faithfully,

Nana

OT Door open for Scotland?

BREAKING: Jean-Claude Juncker has said he would “respect” the results of a yes vote in a Catalan independence referendum.

link to twitter.com

Cuilean

British Labour in Scotland’s two great legacies;

(a) Scotland condemned to repay £1 billion per annum (and rising) PFI for next 50 years. We (and our children’s and our children’s children) will still be paying for this disasterous SLAB policy, long after the sub-standard and dangerous buildings have been demolished. Curiously, (or not) when PFI comes up on BBC Scotland, the broadcasters are at great pains never to mention that SLAB introduced PFI. I can’t imagine the SNP would be treated with the same white wash by Glen Campbell and Jackie Bird, SLAB’s greatest fan club in Scotland.

(b) Tony Blair stuffing the Lords with 203 ‘socialist’-lords during his first 5 years in office as he thought this would give him a majority in the Lords, but he needed to create another 23 new peers because Tory peers often voted with Libdems peers & crossbenchers to defeat Blair Cronies. But that still was not enough to guarantee Blair ruling both Houses because the working Labour peers were very poor attendees. So, 2005, Blair appointed another 16 new Lords a leaping & Ladies dancing, giving Labour their first ever majority in the House. Blair created a staggering 242 Labour peers during his reign and 357 new peers in total.

Labour abusing democracy for its own ends caused further scandal when the ‘Cash for Honours’ debacle arose. Of the 242 new peers Blair appointed, it transpired that over three quarters of these had donated more than Fifty Thousand pounds each to the Labour Party. Those who donated over one Million pounds each were also given a knighthood and/or a peerage.

Cameron continued this great wheeze against the British tax payer when he created another 189 Tory peers in his six year PM’s tenure; 242 new peers in total.

TresSemme (That’s Arlene Foster pronunciation of Theresa May) has only created 17 new peers but give her time. Her latest is of course, Ian Duncan, rejected by the people of Perth & North Perthshire as their MP but he can now lord it over us all FOR LIFE. Fcuk the people, eh? Lord Duncan studied has a PHD in paleontology, which should stand him in good stead among the fossils enbedded into the House of LOrds

louis.b.argyll

..Ending homelessness. Pah!

Ending hope itself more like.. by holding hands with those conspiring AGAINST self determination.

boris
Movy

Picking up on Derick fae Yell’s point above, surely some of those Local Authorities of all hues must be seriously annoyed with this misrepresentation and thus rubbishing of their achievements. I would be.

Petra

Ooops PFI at 4.41 pm, not PPI, lol.

……………………….

@ Nana says at 4:44 pm …. ”OT Door open for Scotland?

BREAKING: Jean-Claude Juncker has said he would “respect” the results of a yes vote in a Catalan independence referendum.”

link to twitter.com

GREAT news Nana not only sending out a message to us / Westminster, but sending out a clear message to Spain to back off. Drop any plans they may have had in relation to sending in the troops, etc. Clever man, eh?

Now let’s hope that the Catalonians get their Independence and apply to join the EU. If so that should be EXTREMELY helpful for us and put the wind RIGHT up Westminster.

COME ON CATALONIA, COME ON CATALONIA. WE’RE RIGHT BEHIND YOU X

heraldnomore

I’m sure it’s just another typo from the DR; what they meant to say was ‘The first 10 years, ending in hopelessness…’

scunner

Despite being supporters of Indy, my folks still religiously buy the Record.

I regularly find myself correcting some of the misconceptions they repeat having read it there. “We don’t read the political bits” they lie.

Dugdale and the rest know fine well what they’re doing. They know the target market for their falsehoods, those that still read the dead-tree press, vote in every election and only use the internet to buy stuff.

Dan Huil

@Nana Petra

Could be THE game changer. Very interesting.

dakk

You just know compulsive liars have found their niche in life when they become Unionist politicians.

Blair Paterson

OT I am sure that Scotland s sons could invent an electric car that could charge itselfe as it runs I mean solar panels on the roof and the bonnet some sort of windmill effect below the bonnet the wind created by the car as it travels also the car wheels are turning all the time so like a watermill or a windmill surely some sort of gadget could be fitted to each wheel to charge the batteries as the car is running I am sure there must be some young Scots who could do this alough big car companies won’t like it

manandboy

The Daily Record is just a puppet show for people with an attention span of less than three seconds. Kez is a Unionist puppet hence her frequent appearances in the DR.

mike d

O/t i see the sfa in their usual manner,have stated that tory douglas ross’s ‘gypsy ‘remarks were not discriminatory.

cearc

Nana, Great news for Catalans (and for us).

R4’s PM bigging up the far-right for the German election.

Nana

Petra and Cearc

Good to see this from Juncker, wonder how the bbc will spin it or likely ignore it altogether

Arbroath1320

With the great news coming out of Brussels from Junker I wonder how he’d feel if our government convened a national assembly. I posted this up on Facebook earlier today.

So after all the recent coniving power grabbing running down of Scotland etc being carried out by Feartie and her mates I got to thinking. For quite a while now I have been saying that we should forget a second referendum and call an assembly. Today I ran the latest figures that would be seen if an assembly were called and they look like this.
SNP (63 MSPs +35 MPs +2 MEPs) 100
Greens (6 MSPs) 6
Labour (23 MSPs +7MPs+2MEPs) 32
Tories (31MSPs+13MPs+1MEP) 45
Lib Dems(5MSPs+4MPs) 9
UKIP (1MEP) 1
These figures lead to a total of 106 politicians FOR Scottish independence and 87 AGAINST. In terms of percentages we end up with 54.92% FOR and 45.08% AGAINST.
Now just take a second to think about these figures then look at what the percentages were in May of 2016 after the E.U. referendum where we ended up with LEAVE on 51.89% and REMAIN on 48.11%.
In my view if winning with a 3% margin is good enough for Feartie to take us out of the E.U. then surely a 10% margin is more than good enough to give us independence and by default keep us in the E.U.

link to craigmurray.org.uk

No doubt the experts on here will arrive shortly to shoot me down in flames … AGAIN. 😀

Hey that’s why I stick around … to ask the awkward questions and play the village idiot! 😀

Bill McLean

O/T Sorry! Just finished watching the 1969 film “Oh! what a lovely war” – a film i’d never seen as I spent much of the 60s and 70s overseas. We know the history of WW1 but to see it ridiculed so clearly made me wonder more and more about the incompetence and downright ignorance of our betters. Tories, the wealthy, the upper class, the royals, lunatic Britnats sent hundreds of thousands of young men from throughout UK, Ireland and the Empire to fight a pointless war. Now, of course, if you ask them why, they respond “to uphold democracy, honesty, decency, freedom of speech and the latest bullshit “British values”. The behaviour of the list headed “Tories”, to which must now be added Labour and LibDems

Capella

Strangely, I couldn’t find anything on the BBC site about Mr Junker’s statement on respecting a YES vote in Catalonia. The state broadcaster must be thoroughly researching it before publishing.

Meanwhile, here is the Euronews link to confirm:
link to euronews.com

Poor Kez.

Cheer up everyone! Soon we will be reading Anas fact checks.

HandandShrimp

Why oh why oh why do politicians do this?

I know we live in a post truth world but this is just ridiculous. Blair Tubaman would claim that post truth is denying that the MSM tell the truth. The simple fact is that the MSM is a primary source of utter bullshit and politicians like Kezia and Spads like Horatio Tubablower aid and abet in spade loads.

Alex Clark

@KathyT

You are spot on, the link to the rise in homelessness alongside the closing of mental health hospitals known as “care in the community” was a total failure.

Yet here we have a politician crowing about in her words “ending homelessness” when the actual statistice show the opposite to be the case.

Labour were in charge during the years that saw an almost 33% increase in homelessness. I sick of this lying shower and the newspapers that give them the space to print blatent lies.

Give people the facts and Scotland would vote for her Independence tomorrow. Our job to give the facts I’m afraid, no one else to do it so let’s get at it.

This article for starters is a very good example of how lies are spun. Email it to someone you think can be persuaded by the truth. No longer be accepting of these lies, we need to continue to expose them. Red, Blue, Yellow Tory LIARS!

Petra

@ Dan Huil says at 5:22 pm … ”Could be THE game changer. Very interesting.”

Could be a game changer right enough, Dan. The two laughing hyena’s from earlier today, Davidson and Carlaw, will be greetin into their coffee tonight.

……………………………….

@ Nana says at 5:40 pm ….. ”Petra and Cearc …. Good to see this from Juncker, wonder how the bbc will spin it or likely ignore it altogether.”

I don’t know about the BBC but there wasn’t a mention of this on STV news, Nana. They concentrated on young people with neurological conditions being sent into care homes for the elderly / very few neurological specialists in Scotland, Police Scotland in crisis even although top cops said that there was no crisis and an Equal Pay saga that’s been dragging on from Labour’s days on the Cooncil just like last night’s news about the trams. No mention of Labour there either. Everyone left to think it’s SNP Baad!

Then there there was a GREAT LONG spiel on the main news about ‘National Action’ in Scotland. The far right neo-Nazi group, some of whom were seen flying the Saltire and with one shouting ”no surrender”, but of course not a mention of the NUMEROUS far right groups in England.

Petra

C’mon Catalonia win your Referendum and when you get your Independence set up a Broadcasting Service for us, PLEASE.

The following people will be in a position to run it. Alex Salmond, Angus Robertson, George Kerevan, John Nicolson, Callum McCaig, Dr Paul Monaghan, Mike Weir, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheik, Margaret Ferrier, Michelle Thompson, Kirsten Oswald, Toni Giugliano etc, etc.

Do we think they’ll win it?

link to youtube.com

………………………………………………

With 7.5 million of a population what resources / assets does Catalonia have that we don’t have? Other than the sun, that is!

link to en.wikipedia.org

Meg merrilees

cearc @ 5.34

BBC R4 has been taken over completely by the propaganda machine.

I was listening this morning to 9.00am news and then absently to the following programme… that is, until my jaw literally dropped open and I was speechless.

Programme called ‘The English Fix’ part of a series. In this one, philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, argues that the EU has encroached on the fundamentals of Englishness: the landscape, and the common law. He justifies his reasons for writing ‘An Elegy for England’.

You can hear it tonight at 9.30pm

Here is a flavour if you can’t face it:

The feeling of Englishness surfaces when England is under threat. !!!

Patrick came to ‘Englishness’ through hunting as a result of a love of horses.
He met the ‘country people of England’ who for centuries had their feet in the soil and it was a change from all the ‘sneering Marxists’ he had been surrounded by previously.

OK so far…

Then ’20 years ago this threat appeared’ ….cut to BBC announcement about Scottish Devolution
and then the phrase… Scottish and Welsh devolution
threatened this.

I missed the next chunk since I was reeling from hearing those words on the state broadcaster, in my own house in Scotland (yes I am that naive).

This programme went on for 30 minutes and contained other gems such as;

‘English Common Law is better than Roman Law’ and the ECJ is basically cr*p;

‘Brexit means you’re allowed to be English’

‘Immigration is a burden on our natural way of life’

‘Our island status meant that we could successfully get rid of the wolf . Rain fed grass for our sheep meant that we could be like an oil-rich state!!!’

‘Do you think there is a danger that we could be trapped in this narrow view of us being under threat? NO’

‘More than half of the people in this country voted for Brexit’

‘An American woman talked about how ‘the resilience of the Brits, by which I think she meant English, was summed up for her by the seeing an Englishman running out of a pub carrying his pint during a terrorist attack.’

And then this ironic statement:

A Treaty is NOT a Treaty if it prevents a Sovereign country from.. basically doing it’s own thing and following it’s own laws .

Sorry, I can’t now remember the exact quote and I refuse to sign in to the BBC to listen to the radio on I-player but I can hear it tonight.

I look forward to the series in response from a respected Scottish philosopher who might have written ‘An Elegy for Scotland’ pointing out how Scottishness is under threat from Brexit and how ‘A Treaty is not a Treaty if it prevents a Sovereign country’ from following its own laws and ways.

Come on Donalda! Time to hear the other side of the discussion…

Dr Jim

The invention of the Internet has ruined Kezias life and will lead to the ruin of many other politicians who just keep on lying hoping to get away with it

Mon the Internet

Alex Clark

@Petra

Catalonia per capita GDP was €27,000 in 2014 by contrast according to Wiki per capita GDP in Scotland in 2013 was €29,100 (excl oil revenue).

Too poor? I don’t think so. C’mon the Catalans vote YES and show us the way.

Dave McEwan Hill

The time has come for us to call out the “Lying For London” politicians and the “Lying For London” media.
In their desperation they have given us the opportunity.

We used to believe politicians could be a bit careless with the truth, or at best a bit selective.

Now they openly lie and the media, printed and broadcasting, lie with them.
This means they can be caught and held to account.
The “London Calling ” disclosure of BBC bias (which we have as DVDs) was breathtaking. We are now in a different ball game

£100,000 would produce 1 million 8 page “Not the Daily Record” newspapers (which could include also sections for the Mail the Express and the BBC) which when widely distributed would hit the Record very hard and establish vividly that these publications are not only printing lies but treating their readers like fools WHICH IS JUST AS IMPORTANT.

Anybody else with any ideas?

heedtracker

Another way of lying for the UK, Graun style, report nothing much at all, but it is still SNP bad from those tories. Seve o the Graun really loved Kez though. There can’t be a better example of hagiographic propaganda than the way Graun tories worshipped Kez, all through her Corbyn’s a disaster/triumph flipflop days especially. Should be interesting to watch Seve and chums also flipflop to Anas worship instead. Well not interesting, predictable.

link to archive.is

cearc

Meg merrilees,

Thanks for the warning I shall definitely leave the radio off! I don’t think that I could bear it.

bjsalba

@cearc at 5:34pm

I too heard R4 bigging up AfD. Itmade me laugh because I have been reading German press for a while. If In have read it right AfD is not doing so well (I use googletranslate for the grunt work and a proper dictionary for where the translation into English is wonky).

Like UKIP, AfD seems to spend a lot of time squabbling or in scandals. They got a new leader, having ditched Petry. There are questions about whether some of their manifesto is legal under German law. They have not made payments to the pension fund of employees of the party.

I don’t read everything about them as I am following German attitudes to Brexit.

Rock

scunner,

“Dugdale and the rest know fine well what they’re doing. They know the target market for their falsehoods, those that still read the dead-tree press, vote in every election and only use the internet to buy stuff.”

Precisely.

The fake “independence supporting” The National gets the cash in from gullible independence supporters without ever having WOS type articles like this as front page headline news.

If it did, they would be noticed by unionists.

Tomorrow’s blaring headline could be: “Kezia Dugdale caught lying for the 683rd time”.

Alex Clark

As the Rev points out homelessness increased year on year under a Labour/Lib Dem coalition in Holyrood. It has since fallen year on year apart from one under an SNP government since 2007.

This is despite austerity, sanctions on the poorest and the bedroom tax. The SNP has improved the situation for the homeless since being in power with now the lowest figures in 25 years.

Similarly education is also better, more students than ever before are leaving school with at least one higher grade and more are going into further education. The Scottish NHS is by far the best performing in the UK by a country mile.

Yet, daily we are told the opposite is true, they are lying and the lies are simply to get folk feeling down and to be against Independence. Call out the lies, talk about them at every opportunity. Thanks Rev and Wings for doing what you do, giving ordinary folk the ammunition needed to refute their daily lies and state propaganda.

Next vote is for keeps, help educate your fellow citizens, open your big Scottish gubs and say something. Don’t allow any further lies to escape scrutiny. That’s how we win, education.

Ken500

How much money did Scotland lose in fiddled accounts and faked figures. £Billions in embezzled Oil revenues. Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Trns of debt. The Labour/Unionist Party. Shafting Scotland for ever, Fifty years of Labour. Liars, cheats and mass murderers. . Squander money like there is no tomorrow. Killing and maiming millions of innocent people. Responsible for millions of deaths. The unionist and green no Party. A total waste of useless hypocrites. Scotland is losing £20Biliion a year to these duplicitous liars. Hypocrites beyond belief. The useless Vow. They have ruined the world economy, causing death, destruction, inequality and unhappiness.

The dentist got £thousands of free training. Now pouncing about Hoyrood complaining about lack of trained staff in the SNHS. If he is so worried why doesn’t he sort some teeth. Too incompetent and useless for the family business? £Mutimillionaire hypocrites that don’t want to pay but tax avoid.

Wasting public money. Useless hypocrites, They did not vote for ‘minimum pricing’. To improve, health and save people from early death. Save the SNHS money which could be better spent. Pouncing around Hoyrood wasting people’s. False poseur’s greeting about folk’s early death from alcoholic poisoning. They did not even vote for ‘minimum prcing’. Voted for Scotland to get no powers. Total, greedy lying hypocrites.

Rock

Petra,

“BREAKING: Jean-Claude Juncker has said he would “respect” the results of a yes vote in a Catalan independence referendum.”

Juncker knows perfectly well that Spain will use all means possible to prevent the referendum.

Will the EU expel Spain?

No, it will not.

The European Commission went to great lengths to prevent a Yes vote in Scotland.

Did any EU member, or indeed countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, say anything positive about Scottish independence at the time of the referendum?

No, they did not.

Scotland had only one friend in the whole world at the time of the referendum: Iceland.

Robert Peffers

@Blair Paterson says: 14 September, 2017 at 5:27 pm:

“OT I am sure that Scotland s sons could invent an electric car that could charge itselfe as it runs I mean solar panels on the roof and the bonnet some sort of windmill effect below the …

Oh! Dear!

Please! Please! Not that hoary old chestnut again.

You are attempting to describe the long ago proven impossible feat usually called, “Perpetual Motion”, and that is a proven impossible scientific and engineering feat.

I already, in a different context, explained why not on a previous thread yesterday.

Energy cannot be created.
It can only be converted to another form.
Each conversion of energy is accompanied by unwanted loses.

So because you are using energy to move the vehicle it is impossible to also generate enough energy from stored energy to replace it, move the object and overcome other factors like friction and heat losses.

We Scots may be great engineers and inventers but we are also wise enough to know the basic principles as we actually originally discovered those principles – mainly while Scotland was leading the World into the European Enlightenment.

It is usually summed up by that old Scottish proverb, “Ye canna mak ae silk purse frae oot o a soo’s lug”.

Giving Goose

Meg merrilees and others.

Regarding the subject matter of the radio broadcast and other indicators, not least the blatant SNP Bad and rubbishing of the Scots Government record, including the framing of devolution as a failure, I believe that the UK electorate is being prepared for a major event.

It’s not going to be a power grab but a complete close down of Holyrood. And before anyone shouts “they wouldn’t dare!” They would.

There’s no one to stop them.

If the Tories can get away with the gerrynadering of the committee system and the “Henry the 8th” moves without so much as a firewotk being chucked outside Westminster then they can get away with anything.

There is going to be a major “restructuring” of power in the UK “for the good of the nation” and Scotland will come out of it badly bruised.

Cue Britnats in Scotland scrambling for available favours in this soon to be reality brave new UKOK world.

Robert Peffers

@Capella says: 14 September, 2017 at 6:08 pm:

“Strangely, I couldn’t find anything on the BBC site about Mr Junker’s statement on respecting a YES vote in Catalonia. “

There is, unfortunately no real link between the case of Scotland and that of Catalonia and that fact is already a well established and accepted fact.

The whole thing has been done to death already but that will not stop it being all done over again by the Establishment Propaganda factory at Westminster and trumpeted by their propaganda machines.

Remember the many such claims of José Manuel Durão Barroso. A Portuguese politician and a current non-executive chairman at Goldman Sachs International.

He was previously the 11th President of the European Commission (NOT the European Union from 2004–2014), and the 115th Prime Minister of Portugal (2002–2004).

Yet somehow the Westminster Establishment’s little helpers have most people thinking he was a Spanish political figure and speaking on behalf of the EU.

Barroso stated that Spain would veto Scotland as an EU member state and the Britnat propaganda pushed that to the limit.

This in spite of the Spanish Government issuing a statement that Spain would not veto Scotland as they viewed the Catalan issue as a totally different matter with no resemblance to the UK/Scottish matter.

It really is quite simple. The United Kingdom is legally a Union of two equal partner KINGDOMS but the UK contains four countries three of them in the Kingdom of England and with Scotland a single country and the only kingdom partner to England in the United Kingdom.

Spain is set up quite differently as a unified country composed f many semi-autonomous Spanish regions. These regions are not either countries nor kingdoms in their own right. Furthermore, there is no Spanish Treaty of Union.

So, in regard to EU membership, The United Kingdom is neither a single country nor is it a single unified Kingdom if one equally sovereign kingdom partner decides the union is over.

However, in the event that the two kingdoms divorce, then the Scots are actually still citizens of the EU and the EU is legally compelled to protect its citizens as it really has no other reason to exist. If you grant anyone citizenship you must then protect their citizenship as long as they demand you do or you have no purpose except for business and trade.

You cannot have European Union laws if you cannot protect those under those laws.

So there you go – we have been here before and the arguments have already all been settled – but you wouldn’t know that by what Westminster tells you.

Jason Smoothpiece

Either the British Nat media are too incompetent or too lazy to check the facts of a story, or are prepared to print lies.

Must be lazy or incompetent, they wouldn’t intentionally print lies.

I mean why would they print lies?

I heard that….. who said propaganda?

Shinty

Welsh Sion @4.43 – cheers!

mike cassidy

Meg 7.00

The BBC have been allowing Roger Scruton to ‘philosophise’ on matters English and Scottish for a while now.

link to archive.is

Petra

@ Meg at 7:00pm ………. “Come on Donalda! Time to hear the other side of the discussion…

I think you can forget that one, Meg. Donalda MacKinnon BBC Scotland was handpicked by bosses at BBC England for a reason. All Better Together. Biased together.

………………………………………..

@ Alex at 7:06pm …… “Too poor I don’t think so.”

Our oil not included in the figure and I don’t think Catalonia has got much going for it either in relation to RE, other than solar. Tidal energy said to be 800 times stronger than wind, wave or solar and when we get that off of the ground the revenue’s been said to make oil revenue look like coppers. I wonder if that’s why Westminster wants to get its claws into us over and above using Scotland as a toxic waste and nuclear weapons dump, playground for the shooters and fishers, holiday home haven for Brit southers, lucrative big country for their greedy, wee frackers etc, etc?

…………………….

@ Dave at 7:27pm ……… “Anybody else with any idea?”

Dave I’ll do anything to get the truth out there. Support it financially, so you can count me in.
…………………….

In the National today:

‘Anger as Fallon says UK arms sales could grow after EU exit.’ Fallon saying “Brexit should spur Britain’s arms industry to become the biggest in the world.”

………………..

‘Northern lights can help guide us on our future path – Lesley Riddoch.’

“….. On November 19th, hundreds of politicians, activists and civic leaders from Norway, Iceland, the Faroes, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Russia and the wider world will arrive in Edinburgh for a special Artic Circle Forum entitled ‘Scotland and the New North’ (love the word new!), which is set to focus on sustainable development and climate change. Clinching this conference is unquestionably a feather in Scotland’s cap and recognition that, although devolved rather than independent, Scotland is most definitely regarded as a ‘player’ by other North Atlantic states.”
Plus another page of extremely interesting information on this.

…………….

‘Police to probe Catalan civic heads (more than 700 Mayors) as Spain tightens screw.’ Public television also told not to report on referendum.’ Looks as Junker’s scuppered that one, lol.

Plus other informative articles.

galamcennalath

Just reading some tweets about Catalonia on WoS twitter.

Police told to confiscate posters. Power may cut off at polling stations. Postal workers warned not to handle referendum material.

Well, sounds like a ‘good’ plan to offend people and encourage them to get out and vote Yes!

Alex Clark

@galamcennalath

Read that also, the Catalonian referendum might prove to be an eye opener in more ways than one. I wish them well and hope democracy prevails.The right to self determination and all that.

Robert Louis

Giving goose at 803pm,

Given that Theresa May has just taken full powers of a dictator (aided by the complicit and supine Labour party), I no longer thinkI think it is too far from reality for Westminster to try (and I emphasise TRY) to shut down the Scots Parliament, but it would not succeed.

The Scots Parliament can be held anywhere(and it has been). If London shuts the Holyrood building by force, then the democratically elected Scots Parliament will be held elsewhere.

Such a move would be an absolute godsend, as it would unite Scots for independence.

Macart

Worth reading.

link to thenational.scot

Jockanese Wind Talker

Regarding R4 bigging up AfD @cearc at 5:34pm and @bjsalba says at 7:41 pm.

Same as:

BBC bigging up UKIP during Brexit

BBC bigging up Le Pens, Front National during the French Presidential Elections.

BBC bigging up ALL Unionist Parties (tactically in their SNP target seats) during GE 2017.

Never forget that the BBC are The Establishments Propaganda Machine and the Neo Fascist UKOK Dictatorships Enablers.

Ken500

Dugdale even illegally told voters to vote Tory. Illegal under the electoral Law for an elected member of any Party, to tell voters to vote for another Party. Totally illegal. Political,Party rules do not sanctions members to advocate voting for an other political Party. Trained lawyers should know this information. £Thousands of public money spent on the education. Some didn’t learn very much. Depriving someone else of an education. They are meant use their skills to improve others lives. Not deprive them.

Holyrood representatives telling voters to vote for another Party. Unlawful yet never cautioned or charged.Breaking electoral laws and overspending on expenses. Unionist candidates telling voters to vote for another Parties candidate to prevent another candidate getting elected. Telling lies about accounts and receiving illegal donations.through the corrupt sources.

Scotland has Thatcher Mark 11. Imposed on it but never voted for by the majority. May doing her best to ruin the economy. The unionist decisions are the reason why people in the world are homeless. Blowing innocent people to bits. Crashing the economy. Wasting. Public money. Starving and sanctioning people leaving them homeless The bedroom tax, now cutting house benefit for young people who have no where to go. Increasing homelessness, Not building affordable houses for years but their is plenty of money to blow the Middle East bits. Leaving millions of innocent people homeless and suffering.

Wasting public money on groteque projects ruining City centres. The unionists cutting education and NHS spending. Wasting £Billion on Hinkley Point, HS2 and Trident. Cutting welfare spending, NHS and Education, Now illegally trying to leave the EU. They could have stop the EVEL Bill instead they voted it through. The Westminster total, ignorant incompetents. The mess they are making of the world economy is beyond belief.

Thank goodness Scotland has the (SNP) Gov standing up for Scotland. Goodness knows the state Scotland would be in without them. It is just like Thatcher all over again, but worse. Despicable Westminster unionists sanctioning and killing people. Wasting £Trns, Crashing the economy. Brexit engineered so Tory/unionists and their cronies can tax evade and embezzle and waste public money. ‘Psycho bastards’.

Westminster/politicians should have to retire at the official retirement age, they make or definitely at 70. Just like everyone else. Instead of troughing endlessly from the public purse. A job for life. Unless in exceptional circumstances approved by Parliament. In special circumstance. They should have to vote on it. The House of Lords should be shut down. An affront to democracy. The most popular voting system is FPTP, not PR on a flawed list parliamentary system. Or council ejections which many voters do not understand.

Jockanese Wind Talker

Can anyone give me the actual quote from BBC R4 that @Meg merrilees says at 7:00 pm

“A Treaty is NOT a Treaty if it prevents a Sovereign country from.. basically doing it’s own thing and following it’s own laws .”

Need it to put a BritNat right on hypocrisy.

Thanks in advance.

Sinky

Kirsty Blackman on BBC Question Time in 40 mins time but have to suffer Julia Hartley- Brewer as well.

Hope she mentions 7 Labour MPs voted for Repeal Bill and 13 abstained on second reading that amounts to Westminster power grab

Meg merrilees

Jockanese

I switched on again this evening hoping to catch the phrase in the repeat ( began at 9.30pm) and quote it correctly but had missed it. I switched on at 9.44 so it’s in the first 15 minutes of the programme.
Anyone able to sign into I-Player will be able to hear it.
Programme called ‘The English Fix’ with Sir Roger Scruton, 9.30pm BBC R4

I don’t go near I-Player- sorry

Sarah

@Arbroath1320 5.48 p.m. – looks good to me. Any comment to add RP, cearc, Nana, Petra, anyone?

mike cassidy

Here’s a link to “the English Fix”.

link to bbc.co.uk

Not an iplayer user since they introduced all that signing in bollocks.

Edward

Some may have seen recently an article in the Herald about Michelle Mone (yes I know another one). In which she is selling her luxury apartment in Dubai and getting it in Bitcoin
” Michelle Mone has defended her plan to sell luxury flats through Bitcoin as part of a £250 million Dubai property venture saying it is no gimmick”

Good news is Bitcoin is set to colapse due to banks , the Chinese etc stopping any trades in Bitcoin

Awwe shame 🙂

cearc

JWT,

Also Geert Wilders in the NL. election. Lots about him in the run up. Nothing much, if anything, about the other parties. The night before the election R4 had a whole starry-eyed programme about him, his ‘popularity’ and policies.

However, they forgot to mention that all the other parties had pledged to have no coalition deal with him and that the chance of him getting over 50% of the vote was zilch (he got 11%).

The Austrian presidential election. I think it was ‘The World Tonight’ reported it as the fascist one (can’t remember the name) had not won and continued to talk about him without even mentioning the name of the new president.

Agenda? Impartial reporting?

Arbroath1320

Sarah says:
14 September, 2017 at 10:37 pm
@Arbroath1320 5.48 p.m. – looks good to me. Any comment to add RP, cearc, Nana, Petra, anyone?

Oh no!

Dinnae dae that Sarah. Ma life will no be worth living. Oh wait a sec it’s already no worth living! 😀

Dr Jim

Shame on STV and Peter Geoghan for giving oxygen to a bunch of unheard of Nazi types on TV thus making them heard of
are things not bad enough with Ruths head cases without more of them
Absolute shame on them

boris
cearc

Arbroath,

‘it’s already no worth living!’

Ach, the lassie’s angling for another party so soon.

sinky

Kirsty Blackman not getting a look in at BBC QT. She needs to be more assertive as everyone else is getting second chance on topics

Ken500

There is a Tory MP, Tracy Harrison on a Westminster education committee. She is suggesting looking into – people being Doctors without a Medical degree. ‘Through a ‘technical method’. It is just unbelievable. Accordingly ‘Her constituents are not bother by the 1% Cap’. (On health workers). Think they might be bothered when they get to,a hospital in pain and are met with a plumber. Maybe a butcher might suffice. Has anyone heard the like? No disrespect to plumbers, joiners, electricians or other tradespeople. Some can earn more than Doctors.

Davidson suggesting the Scottish (SNP) Gov should do more to,recruit teachers from overseas. Brexit. Making it harder. Westminster spending £Millions to recruit more teachers from outwith the UK. Brexit. Graduates from the UK going to work outwith Britain. Migrating because of low wages in the UK. Students might not be able to have reciprocal agreement, study time outside Scotland, Broading their education. Making contacts and friends overseas. For contacts, greater understanding and commerce etc.. Bring inward investment. .

Sarah

@Arbroath1320 and cearc: am I missing something [as usual]?

velofello

@ Robert Peffers: in your response on self energised vehicles you are being unfair. Yes conversion of energy incurs losses however if the energy resource is from an external source then the losses are incurred not by the user.

Example a mega wind turbine positioned on the roof of your car – I’m not proposing such a scheme – the losses are the efficiency of the turbine blades,friction of the rotating turbine bearings, and their heat build up. However the energy source wind, is free to the user and so doesn’t incur any loss.

Another example would be the £1 billion pound donation to the DUP. Money is energy and the DUP have gained energy with no loss. Well OK they do have an obligation to support the Tories, but then the Tories will fully understand when the DUP fail to meet this obligation. It is the Tory way after all.

Still Positive

Kezia Dugdale is a complete waste of space for a woman with a law degree and a Masters in, I think, Social Policy she should know better. She is blindly following party lines.

Re FMQs: I think the GTC (General Teaching Council for Scotland) changed the criteria for teaching qualifications to an Honours degree before I retired in 2011.

I do not have an honours degree as when I went to uni in 1987 as a mature student I wanted to get back into the workforce as soon as possible to help with the family income.

So today I could not qualify as a teacher.

Jack Collatin

Presumably David Clegg approved the lies churned out by the former Leader of the bRANCH oFFICE.
tHE daily rECORD AND TRUTH JUSTICE AND THE uNIONIST wAY.
lOOK U

Jack Collatin

Presumably David Clegg, if he is still Political Editor of the Record, fact checked this piece of nonsense before allowing it to appear in that exemplar of truth, justice and the Unionist way.
How low will the Fourth Estate, Fifth Column sink?
I note the don’t mention the £ billion plus that McConnell handed back, just before he was elevated to the House of Lards.
A billion bought Ruth 10 DUP zealots after all.
1984 and all that.
At least we now know that if we vote Labour then all the ‘free stuff’ will go, and we’ll just be liker Merrie England, suffocating to death.

Petra

Off to bed now thank goodness. I’m feeling brilliant after having two low level (undetected for ages), pain wise, gum abscesses dealt with. No more headaches, earache, sore throat, swollen glands and more than anything absolute exhaustion. Raring, absolutely raring, to go now …. after I get a good sleep.

Leaving you all with Professor John Robertson’s good news site. He’s an absolute darling X

link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com

Rest easy folks we’re going to win the next Independence Referendum …. next year. Have no fear or doubt about that, however until we do so just lie down in your bed, or wherever, and visualise living in the country of your dreams. Imagine your foe (Westminster) being tossed to one side. Believe me it will help.

Ghillie

Have a lovely snooze Petra = )

You deserve it for the boost you just gave us all 🙂

CameronB Brodie

Still Positive
Social Policy is informed by social science and shaped by political ideology.

link to en.wikipedia.org

CameronB Brodie

P.S. The Academy has let Scotland down, IMHO. Institutional prejudice re-emerge as social injustices within society. Social policy shaped to fit a ‘One Nation’ conception of the world is bound to be a bit suspect.

CameronB Brodie

P.P.P. We face many institutional prejudices, one of them is the alarming number of ‘academics’ who appear to believe utility is more significant than human dignity and social justice. That’s Yoons for you, I suppose (think History Woman).

CameronB Brodie

@History Woman
All rational men do not have the same notion of good.

Ghillie

Institutional anything seems to be bad Cameron b.

There has to be a better way.

Indy Scotland will enjoy finding it, won’t we = )

Macart

Aaaand a big ‘Who Knew’ moment finally makes the mainstream.

link to independent.co.uk

(sigh)

I need my coffee.

Nana

link to noisesfaetheheid.wordpress.com

another numptie
link to archive.is

link to lbc.co.uk

The Scottish Affairs Committee launches the My Scottish Affairs inquiry, inviting the people of Scotland to talk about the issues that matter to them and help decide the future direction of the Committee’s work.
link to parliament.uk

Nana

link to nybooks.com

Every dead body we find in the Mediterranean is a scandal for us, for Europe!
Video here
link to facebook.com

link to politico.eu

link to lawgazette.co.uk

Smallaxe

Good morning, Nana. The sun is shining here this morning, thank you for your links.
Kettle’s on! 🙂

Highland Wifie

@Still Positive 12.21
Me neither nor my other half! In fact many of my ex colleagues would no longer be able to qualify for teaching.
Just yesterday I met a young woman with all the attributes required to make a good teacher. She is in her early 30s, mature, experienced in another profession and full of enthusiasm to teach. She is turning somersaults to get into the profession because she doesn’t have an honours degree. They won’t let her in without one but they won’t let her join the honours year of the degree either, insisting she must do the whole degree. She is trying to get experience in the classroom as an assistant to strengthen her application for pge but it’s a hard road.

Smallaxe

A letter from America;

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Dear Smallaxe,

Irma and Harvey mark the first time on record that two category 4 or higher hurricanes have struck the U.S. mainland in the same year, both in states that have nuclear reactors. The potential danger is overwhelmingly apparent. At the rate at which we’re experiencing extreme natural disasters, how can we be certain the next one won’t trigger a Fukushima-like nuclear meltdown?

It’s ludicrous that the Trump administration would propose nuclear bailouts for this dying, dirty, and dangerous energy source. We have to stop Trump’s $100+ Billion nuclear bailout!

The combined estimated damage from Irma and Harvey is about $290 billion. Where the feds will get the money for those repairs is a mystery to most of us. But the idea that Trump wants to give $100+ billion in bailouts to coal and nuclear power in the face of these dirty-energy-fueled disasters is unconscionable – it must be stopped.

Now imagine the Turkey Point reactors, 25 miles from Miami, which were in line for a possible direct hit from Irma, had been struck. The financial cost would nearly double. Fukushima costs are still rising, currently sitting somewhere around $188 billion. Which does not include the cost in human lives, trauma, health, and quality of life.

We cannot afford to let the Trump administration bail out the nuclear industry.

The stakes are too high. Our rapidly changing climate has triggered extreme and uncertain weather patterns. We can’t allow this danger to be exacerbated by an avoidable catastrophic nuclear meltdown.

Thanks for all you do!

Tim Judson
Executive Director

Nana

Good morning Smallaxe, looks like a nice day here.

One more link

link to elnacional.cat

Macart

Right on cue Nana.

Many thanks. 🙂

Nana

Good morning Macart

Smallaxe

Just when you thought Jacob Rees-Mogg couldn’t get any more vile, he claims food banks are ‘rather uplifting’;
link to thecanary.co

Effijy

Kez, Labour, and Westminster just need to churn out nonsense
stats for the UK Media Outlets to nurture without question or consideration.

No need for the Truth with Big Brother England in total control of the sheep living and working in Scotland.

I discovered that I can no longer stomach Question Time on TV. All those sons of the English Empire desperate to become isolated from the rest of the world unless they concede that they are superior beings with a right to rule the world.

Can’t wait for the mighty Englanders to see their food bills increase by 25% while they continue with decades
of below inflation wage rises, when there are wage rises.

The cost of holidays will escalate, jobs will be lost, you will wait forever at passport control, mortgage rate rises will see millions of homes repossessed to feed the bankers corrupt earnings and there will be 5 million children in the UK living in poverty.

Thanks Johnny Englander!

Brian Powell

Nana

On the EFTA/Norway article: EFTA would need to accept a new member, the UK couldn’t just say I’m in, and the other members would be very wary of having a member 5 times the size of the rest combined, and have a partnership with a Gov as chaotically stupid as the UK one.

Nana

@Brian

“a partnership with a Gov as chaotically stupid as the UK one”

I would think any sane ministers in other countries are looking on in horror at the incompetence and criminality of Westminster politicians and would [if they have any sense] shy away from having any dealings with them.

Nana

clarification

some Westminster politicians

galamcennalath

” The UK loses up to £120 billion to tax evasion every year.

Hoad on! Does that mean there’s £10 billion a year lost in Scotland due to tax evasion?

‘Black hole’ filled. Again.

link to thepileus.com

Smallaxe

The five things you need to know on Friday, September 15, 2017;
link to news.huffingtonpost.com

pitchfork

Scotlab, with the aid of GMB, seem to be trying to set themselves up to claim credit for an equal pay settlement from GCC and portray the new SNP administration as the obstacle. No doubt their friends in the media will do their best to promote this dirty tricks rewrite of history.

Grrr

Robert Peffers

@velofello says: 14 September, 2017 at 11:51 pm:

“@ Robert Peffers: in your response on self energised vehicles you are being unfair. Yes conversion of energy incurs losses however if the energy resource is from an external source then the losses are incurred not by the user.”

Thing is that when you put those, “External Sources”, together as one system they cease to be external sources.

While good design can reduce losses it cannot eliminate them entirely. At the cutting edge of engineering, for example F1 Motor Sport, they have been working on such advances for a long time and energy can indeed be gained from previous unwanted losses. It cannot, though ever totally eliminate them.

Perpetual motion is thus just not possible.

Peter McCulloch

The truth and facts are an inconvenience for Labour when it attempts to undermine the record of this SNP Scottish Government.

But then that’s understandable because Labour can’t afford to highlight its own appalling record when in office, the increased numbers of homeless, fitness for work tests, the gap between rich and poor being wider than it was under Thatcher and of course the taxpayer being ripped off by Labour’s PFI schemes.

galamcennalath

What will be May’s big offer to the EU in Florence?

Is this just guess work …
link to archive.is

A transitional period where everything continues as it is. This includes ongoing payments which are supposed to be instead of a lump sum ‘divorce bill’, from what I can make out.

I don’t think that would impress the EU. Sound just like a delaying tactic. And what about the final settlement? Does the UK still want all the best benefits and reject the other obligations?

Will a May’s speech like this move things on? Nah.

Valerie

@ Effigy

You spared yourself a lot of the usual bile by missing QT.

I think Kirsty Blackman acquitted herself quite well, but was skilful in saying nothing too controversial, lest the audience lynch her on the spot.

A room full of Leavers, led in concert by Harpie-Brewer.

Castigating any criticism of Brexit, or the Tories conducting it, then lots of sad faces when Grenfell was mentioned. Shaking their heads that the wealthy, politicians will do a cover up, or escape Scott free.

They couldn’t see the huge irony in their position, but it summed up where we are, and the Tories enjoy this support.

It was stunning.

North chiel

“Petra” link @0136 ” thought control Scotland “.Wonderful link Petra to Professor John Robertson’s tremendous research.
BBC Scotland @Pacific Quay should read it and hang their collective heads in ” utter shame” at the
Never ending year after year constant denigration of our precious country by these London branch office ” bought& sold ” propagandists. Thank you Professor John Robertson ! ” The truth shall set you free”.

colin alexander

link to ukpollingreport.co.uk

Since the SNP policy relaunch, the latest opinion poll puts the SNP at 42% down 5% and support for indy at 40% down another 1%.

Based on those figures indyref YES would lose and the Unionist parties would have a clear majority in Holyrood.

The positive, if there is one to be found, is that there is time to change track and turn those figures around.

However, the alarm bells are ringing loud and long that the good ship, Independence is slowly sinking, due to the SNP Captain and officers diverting the course of the ship and running her aground.

The route and final destination was plotted on the navigation charts: Independence.

But Captain Sturgeon became distracted by the fabled treasures of devolution island.

Devolution island turned out to be a shifting sandbank with dangerous shoals, that have damaged Independence and now she is sinking.

She’s not yet lost, but the Unionist tide is again rising and time is running out.

Robert Peffers

@Jack Collatin says: 15 September, 2017 at 12:35 am

“At least we now know that if we vote Labour then all the ‘free stuff’ will go, and we’ll just be liker Merrie England, suffocating to death.”

They have played the public as illiterate mugs for as long as I can remember and a study of history proves it has gone on since there was written history.

Now I’m not saying the general public cannot read and write with that statement. What I’m saying is they do not fully comprehend what is actually being said by deliberate misdirection by the propaganda propagators.

To explain that you hit the nail on the head when you highlight with quotes, “Free Stuff”. We all know it isn’t free but only, “Free at point of use”. The lack of comprehension thus comes into play.

In the first place there is the missing information that nothing is free but there is also then the unmentioned implication that the, “Free Stuff”, is being financed by English Tax Payers and Scots are subsidy junkies of, “English tax money”. This is, of course, mental prestidigitation.

There is no such thing as English Taxpayer’s money. All tax is collected by the United Kingdom Treasury and is according to UK tax band rules. It other words everyone pays United Kingdom tax and that cash is redistributed as United Kingdom revenue.

As we all pay tax, and these days the main taxation is indirect taxation, then everyone pays tax indirectly. VAT, Road Fuel Duty, VAT on services, Alcohol Duty, Betting Tax and so on.

So the real situation is that we all pay in and we all get out and, as a matter of truth, the Scottish Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, (GDP), is normally the highest of any of the four United Kingdom Countries.

Now Per Capita GDP is defined and calculated as, “The total revenue raised by the government from any given area divided by the total population of that given area”. Plainly then, as the Scottish per capita GDP is the highest of all United Kingdom countries that the Scots are subsidising everyone else in the United Kingdom

That means, in case you have not yet grasped the truth, each person in Scotland is, on average, generating more revenue than they get back from the United Kingdom Treasury and the true picture is that we are getting nothing for free but are actually subsidising everyone else.

We Scots are all indirectly taxed to finance those, “Free at point of use”, services and are all subsidising everyone else including the English and that claimed, “English taxpayers”, money is factually United Kingdom Taxpayer’s money of which we pay the highest proportion of all United Kingdom countries.

mike cassidy

Smallaxe 7.41

More wonderful nuclear news here!

link to archive.is

Stoker

For those who haven’t seen this yet, spread it around.
link to indyref2.scot

To any readers out there, try and avoid clicking on the direct link to a BUM rag in the post this morning at 07:24am. That rag, along with others, routinely craps all over Scotland.

By clicking on direct links to BUM rags you are helping them to pull in much needed advertising revenue to pay for the crap they produce against Scotland and her people.

Smallaxe

mike cassidy says:
15 September, 2017 at 10:13 am
Smallaxe 7.41:

Thank’s Mike, have a great day.
🙂

Dave McEwan Hill

Nobody is talking about “perpetual motion” What is being talked about is sensibly recovering some energy that is being unnecessarily lost. The best example I can think of to express what is the plan is the Loch Awe Power Station in Argyll which in quiet spells of electricity demand power is used to pump water back up to the loch which supplies the hydro power thus saving around 80% of power generation which otherwise would have been lost.
The resistance caused by a moving vehicle could obviously provide a source of energy though generating that would slightly increase the resistance to effect a small net gain.

Dave McEwan Hill

colin alexander at 10.05

Based on these figures nothing of the sort would be the case.

Support for independence of course does not rely only on the SNP and there has been no independence campaign yet the latest figures show a rise in support for the SNP despite this.(We started the last campaign on 28% support for independence)

This time all the pieces are being out in place before we march out again.

The most noticeable factor in recent opinion polls is the steady collapse of the Tory vote. They came in fourth in a by election last week losing a councillor in the process -defeated they were by their own device of playing the sectarian card as a OO style candidate split the Tory vote.

They have now dropped again to a distant third place and Ruth Davidson has become a noisy and objectionable irrelevance (in contrast to the Murph who became a comical irrelevance).

The monumental stupidity of the UK establishment in now attacking the very existence of the Scottish Parliament and devolution is music to my ears today. The Labour Party which was driven to the establishment of our Parliament by burgeoning SNP support nonetheless has marched about since with its chests stuck out in pride about their part in that. This idiocy by the masters of Brexit idiocy will provide a Scottish parliament united against the faltering and clueless Tories.

Only problem we now have to deal with is the clueless Scots who haven’t wakened up yet.

The establishment is now making a referendum an absolute and urgent necessity.

Petra

Thanks for the links Nana (just finished reading through them all, phew … wiping forehead!) and in particular the noisesfaetheheid link at 7:31am. It’s an excellent article but more than anything highlights that the poor, terrified people who leapt from the Grenfell Tower building are actually being classified as committing suicide meaning that insurance companies can null and void their policies. This just beggars belief and it would be interesting to find out who made the decision to classify in such a way. Would this apply to someone who died through jumping out of a window to escape from someone wielding a knife or waving a gun in their face? This story, IMO, just throws even more light on the fact that this country has hit the absolute skids.

…………………………..

@ Nana at 7:31am. …… “Juncker.”

I see that Juncker has mentioned an Independent Scotland in the article. Normalising the concept has to be good for us.

……………………………..

@ Smallaxe at 7:41am / Mike at 10:13am …..”Hurricanes and nuclear disaster.”

Thanks for that info. Thanks mhhh!? I’d never thought about this before. Absolutely terrifying.

……………………………

@ North Chiel at 9:53am ….. “Thought Control Scotland.”

There’s no doubt that the MSM in this country should be hanging their heads in shame NC. To my mind it’s well worth taking the time (little time it takes) to copy / paste his site (and others like Business for Scotland / Richard Murphy’s) and send it to the BBC, STV and newspaper editors asking them why they are not informing the Scots by pointing out that we have to get our news online.

CameronB Brodie

Ghillie
It won’t happen over night but Scotland is ideally situated to provide a template for progressive social policy that others may choose to follow. Reclaiming our sovereignty has the potential to play a large roll in the struggle against neo-liberal cultural imperialism. That’s how big and important we are in the global struggle for human dignity.

Voting against an independent Scotland is a vote for the New Right, IMHO.

CameronB Brodie

New Right Theory
link to slideshare.net

CameronB Brodie

Conservatism, Thatcherism, The New Right and Education Policy

link to study.com

Robert J. Sutherland

Valerie @ 09:45,

Your comment that Kirsty Blackman “was skilful in saying nothing too controversial” on QT seems like damning with faint praise to me.

I would prefer that any SNP spokesperson on a nationally-broadcast TV programme should really “tell it like it is”, and the more irrationally irate an English audience get as a consequence, the better.

On the one hand to convince the English that we are a persistent thorn in their side and they would be better off without us, and on the other hand to demonstrate to the PSB’s here just how little we are respected by our southern “equals”.

Kirsty Blackman is evidently a gentle soul, and obviously doesn’t have that kind of confrontation in her. Which says a lot for her as a person, but we need something more assertive in our representatives right now, I would contend.

Even if her “softly-softly” approach seems very much in tune with current SNP tactics, alas.

David Caledonia

I never buy any newspapers, i used to buy the Sunday Post as it was a good read, but i got sick and tired of their political stance and stopped buying it because of their constant attacks on the SNP, ofc it has english owners who don’t seem to appreciate that not all its readers are unionists, i think in time it will eventually close down if it does not stop its political bias towards unionism

Street Andrew

Who IS this Roger Scrotum?


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