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Lonely hearts

Posted on August 31, 2013 by

A picture taken earlier today at Edinburgh’s Mela festival.

yesnomela

In the upper half of the shot, a busy Yes Scotland tent buzzing with activists and interested members of the public. In the foreground, another forlorn “Better Together” campaigner looking around hopefully for someone – anyone – to talk to about how Scotland’s too pathetic and useless to be a country by itself.

We don’t even have the heart to mock. It must be sad.

43 to “Lonely hearts”

  1. Macart says:

    OFFS, the poor wee soul.
     
    Opens fresh bag of raisins.
     
    Let the chortles begin. 😀

    Reply
  2. Yesitis says:

    And yet, strangely, we`re back to early this year with another 59% NO – 29% YES poll from the Scotland on Sunday.
    Looks like “I love my country” has been working it`s union flag waving magic and turning most Scots into rabid Brits.
    Och well.
     
    Rebellious Scots to crush, by placing a pork pie on a map of Britain.

    Reply
  3. Murray McCallum says:

    Better Together seem to have the opposite of the lynx effect.
     
    It must be hard getting the prophets of doom out of the safety of their houses into the big wide risky world.  Looks to me as if she is having second thoughts and is thinking of joining the Yes team?

    Reply
  4. a supporter says:

    We really do have to ask where pollsters find the NO sayers in the polls?

    Reply
  5. Andy says:

    Maybe they do a survey in the street and count the “NO’s” they get when asking if they’d take time out their day to answer a few questions. :-/

    Reply
  6. John says:

    This is ludicrous, I’m sure you lot have just strategically cropped that picture to remove the queue of 500 people waiting to get into the Nay tent. 

    Reply
  7. Firestarter says:

    surely a bit o mocking never hurt anyone? 🙂
    She didn’t appear to have much “clout” at the Edinburgh Mela? Bless………

    Reply
  8. But according to BT they had “a great day”. link to twitter.com
    Much like their usual attendance reports.

    Reply
  9. Callum says:

    The Better Together campaign are relying on the “fear change” message that will worry people into voting No.  it’s not the voters fault, it is a natural human condition.  The message the YES campaign has to effectively get through is that a vote for No is the vote for change.  It’s the vote for a negative spiral of change and things definitely won’t stay as they are.  We’ve already heard mutterings from senior labour and conservative politico’s and they are not promising “things will stay the same” after a No victory, i.e. EU in/out, return of Planning to Westminster, etc.
     
    This is why the BT booths are always empty but the polling results are still high for No.  people must be privately crapping bricks about this and believe a vote for “No” means “no change”.
     
    A vote for YES means we won’t be harmed by the next Westminster government.  If I may be so bold, I don’t think the YES campaign are communicating well at all.

    Reply
  10. Lanarkist says:

    I agree, it does seem a bit strange. All visible evidence, recommendations on articles, speaking to people in the streets, cafe’s, bars etc seems to point to growing confidence and support in the benefits of independence and the short comings of the BT argument. The Scottish electorate have danced this dance before, many times. The game is not to let anyone gain any perspective or proper insight into the national zeitgeist lest we allow our opponents the opportunity to change their game plan, adjust their approach to the argument. The younger generation must have subliminally picked up some of the older generations cynicism and contempt for Westminster manoeuvres and ,like the last Scottish Election for Holyrood, swing to the same majority decision at the last moment. SLAB still haven’t got over their fright, Tories are beyond caring about projecting their visceral natures and the Libs are now fearful of their public betrayal being used against them. Seems that Scotland have few options and more and more have come to realise this. It will be interesting to see how MSM manage to spin if Fill the Hill has a large turnout. Either that , like in the photo, people like to be in the popular gang    In order to maintain social standing whilst lying to pollsters.
    something odd is going on if poll no’s are stilll remaining static or the media might just be making some of it up.
    Lanarkist

    Reply
  11. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    59%/29% poll
     
    The obvious thing to do here is to commission a Panelbase poll asking exactly the same questions.

    Reply
  12. Indy_Scot says:

    “looking around hopefully for someone – anyone – to talk to about how Scotland’s too pathetic and useless to be a country by itself”
     
    Okay I’ve had a few beers, but man that is funny.

    Reply
  13. Doug Daniel says:

    Imagine standing at a gala telling people why their country is too shit to be independent. What kind of wrong-headed imbecile does that?

    Reply
  14. Jon D says:

    link to twitter.com
    Interesting how all the speech bubbles have the same handwriting. Did Darling scribble these out before heading to Glasgow? Every facet of the No Better stunt, stage managed.

    Reply
  15. Firestarter says:

    @Doug
    comment would be superfluous 🙂
     

    Reply
  16. Endless Psych says:

    Some “fun objections” from the few Better Together folks who came for a chat.

    In reverse order:
     
    3. They would want to change the timezones so it would make it difficult to travel down south.

    2. Isn’t it all a bit racist, we are better together and multicultural (for bonus points this was said a few feet from the “Scottish Asians for Indy” banner)

    1. I won’t vote yes. You can’t guarantee there won’t be a genocide of English folk afterwards.

    Reply
  17. M4rkyboy says:

    Alex Salmond cropped that photo.gtfoh

    Reply
  18. macdoc says:

    If its true that its 29% to 59% we are well and truly fu**** .
    Only about 5-10% of people are actively interested in politics and when facing a media that is so hostile to Scottish Independence hell bent on lying and misinforming the public i’m not wholly surprised. 
    I’ve got my fingers crossed that something will happen but the ignorance is staggering for most people on this issue.
    After the release of the white paper if theirs not a substantial move towards yes, then we must redouble our efforts and at last become aggressive. These charlatans have zero argument other than British Nationalism and Imperialism, its about time they get call;ed out for their lies and misinformation. Too often i’ve heard an unconvincing meek and defensive reply by the yes campaign. Its about time we got stuck in. 

    Reply
  19. Jimbo says:

    @Lanarkist:
    ” In order to maintain social standing whilst lying to pollsters. something odd is going on if poll no’s are stilll remaining static or the media might just be making some of it up.”
     
    Possibly a bit of both.
     
    Re Media making some of it up: I remember that in the lead up to the 2007 Scottish elections the Herald wrote it would soon be coming out with new polling figures. Some-one at the Herald tipped off a councillor friend of mine that the Herald was about to publish a faked poll. Back then the Scotsman/Herald comments sections were totally different from today. The news of the fake poll spread like wildfire through the comments boards. The poll failed to appear.
     
    Re lying to pollsters: I admit that I do that with YouGov. 

    Reply
  20. To be fair, there were two women staffing the No stall. So, you know, not quite as lonely as our other friend…

    Reply
  21. Iain says:

    Jon D @ 12:02
     
    Have a closer look at the speech bubbles.
    They have all been used multiple times.
    There are only 3 different ones.
    The ‘were better together’ one has been used in 75% of the pictures.
    People seem to be holding bubble of their choice rather than making their own comments.

    Reply
  22. Geoff Huijer says:

    @Endless Psych
     
    I really despair when I read moronic nonsense like that.
     
    Did you just burst out laughing or aim at giving a sensible response?

    Reply
  23. molly says:

    Iain ,sorry I’ve lost my specs, does that speech bubble say “is the World still flat ?”

    Reply
  24. Jamie Arriere says:

    Maybe there are a few more BT staff there – they’re maybe just away fetching the Border Agency “Go Home” van!!

    Reply
  25. Thepnr says:

    Posted in the wrong thread so posting again.
     

    You know what, I just can’t understand these polls. I talk about the referendum often to all shapes and sizes and apart from being told I was a “fucking idiot” on one occasion, I find almost exclusively positive views! 

    How can this be? What I think is that the majority are undecided, answering a pollster  they may just side with the view of their preferred parties

    Spend 10 minutes talking to them and I swear many will tell you they will vote YES. The truth is possibly that  polls generally represent the views of the commissioner or the poll because the questions are structured to obtain the result the buyer would like, lets avoid that please Rev.

    Quite simply I do not believe the results of the polls that the MSM are reporting because that is not my own personal experience.

    Where are all these NO supporters? Not much presence on the newspaper columns or social media, nor real life in my experience.

    Reply
  26. Paula Rose says:

    Why are people commenting here confusing a poll of 1000 people who choose to be sampled (not stopped in the street) with an actual vote? These polls show trends not a forecast. If the poll showed a majority for Independence could we all go back to our day jobs knowing ‘job done’?

    Reply
  27. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    I have no idea why anybody on this site would take a YouGov poll seriously  They have been  completely wrong on so many many occasions that I no longer pay any attention to them.
     
    macdoc
    If you can tell us how we get a a message out through a media   “hostile to Scottish Independence hell bent on lying and misinforming the public” please let us know. It’s no fault of YES that our responses don’t get coverage
     

    Reply
  28. call me dave says:

    Worth a  look
    Adam Smith College May 2013.


    Reply
  29. john king says:

    “Looks to me as if she is having second thoughts and is thinking of joining the Yes team?”
    You read my mind
      

    Reply
  30. john king says:

    “Maybe they do a survey in the street and count the “NO’s” they get when asking if they’d take time out their day to answer a few questions. :-/”
     
    BWAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

    Reply
  31. john king says:

    “1. I won’t vote yes. You can’t guarantee there won’t be a genocide of English folk afterwards.”
    that, that should be vocalized is truly chilling and begs the question just what the hell is being said behind closed doors by these people?
    this person would be well advised to seek professional help,
     the time zone one is really quite funny, 
    and as far as racism is concerned that is truly laughable, people only have to go to the UKBA and ask them if this is the way they see them? link to archive.is
      

    Reply
  32. Brian Ritchie says:

    And yet, strangely, we`re back to early this year with another 59% NO – 29% YES poll from the Scotland on Sunday.
    It’s YOUGOV, and as S_S never tires of telling us, Yougov are….shall we say…slightly inaccurate when it comes to Scotland?

    Reply
  33. EmbraBoffin says:

    There are some more pictures of the day here: link to facebook.com
    The Mela is on again today (Sunday) so if you are in the neighbourhood pop along and give the folks on the stall your support.
     

    Reply
  34. wee jamie says:

    Quite easily explained, they conducted the poll at the copeland road end , Ibrox at 4.30 on a saturday ! lol

    Reply
  35. ShredderIsAlive says:

    Some submissions for the caption contest.

    “Who the hell thought having Johann Lamont in the tent wearing a Better Together bikini would be a good idea?”

    “Would anyone like to watch David Mundell perform in mime form the case for why the Bedroom Tax is the best thing to ever happen to Scotland?”

    *from the tent* “Probably all Poles and Pakis at the YES tent.”
    “That’s the last time I bring Ian Smart to one of these events”

    Reply
  36. Ian Grant says:

    Having canvassed thoroughly in 3 distinct areas, I’m convinced Yes sits at around 33%, with No around 3 or 4% more. There is 30% at least who score 3-7 on the YesScotland linear analogue scale, and who are eminently persuadable. Most of these are at heart Yeses but who have been frightened by the relentlessly negative MSM and BT. We just have to get enough POSITIVE information out there, and also to find and target these undecideds. This is winnable but more of our SNP members and also Yes signatories have to get up and join their local Yes groups and campaign. In the short term, we need a massive turnout for the march and rally, and then we need to get out canvassing and leafleting.

    Reply
  37. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    You are correct in my opinion, Ian.
    A significant majority in Scotland want to vote YES

    Reply
  38. Breeks says:

    Don’t mock. If she ran away, the Event Police bully boys would have to shut down the YES tent in the interests of balanced campaigning. 

    Reply
  39. Bob Howie says:

    The only poll you can be assured to give you an accurate portrayal of what is to come is the one the girl dances around!!!

    Reply
  40. Robert Dickson says:

    What is not shown in that photograph is the fact that all of those folk seen milling about are actually No voting Venusians with no interest in the Yes campaign..
    This is not made clear by the author. 
    This is the kind of deception that will guarantee a No vote next year.

    Reply
  41. Bugger (the Panda) says:

    Ever so lonely
     
    youtube.com/watch?v=ouIss1cBghk

    Reply
  42. Endless_psych says:

    Today’s rumour was that the announcer at the Mela had “a go” at Yes Scotland being there and asked people to give a show of hands if they supported “separation”.

    Apparently they were angry that we had politicised” the event (standing at our paid for stall two along from Better Together) and expressed this by… er… politicising the event yourself.)

    Reply
  43. Lanarkist says:

    This isreally what they were hoping to avoid by trying to close down Yes stands and not putting BT stands up for events. The possibility of direct comparison by their public popularity. How could it be any more obvious?

    Reply


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