Marbles down
Sheesh. We pop out for a couple of hours to feed the Wings Emergency Kitten and we get back to find that it’s the UK press that’s barfed up hairballs all over its front pages.
And the contradictory cross-vortex coverlines aren’t even the mad bit.
Obviously it IS weird that the same paper, using the same picture, is telling English readers that Nicola Sturgeon will – should she hold the balance of power in a hung Parliament – unleash “not even a little bit Red” Ed Miliband on their defenceless shires, while telling Scots that she wants David Cameron to stay in power.
But it’s less weird than the story itself, which actually comes from the Telegraph. It claims that Sturgeon made the admission on the account of a senior British civil servant, who allegedly reports that a consul-general told him that an ambassador reported that Sturgeon made the comments at a meeting in February – in other words the claim is FOURTH-hand, as well as weeks old. Remarkably, that didn’t stop BBC News leading with it in its 10.30pm bulletin.
(If any readers are wondering, by the way, if that’s the same British civil service whose head openly and publicly admitted he’d abandoned the organisation’s sworn duty of neutrality over the independence referendum, we can confirm that in fact it is.)
Obviously, being a serious broadsheet newspaper, the Telegraph made all possible reasonable attempts to verify such a major story based on such flimsy evidence before rushing to press with it, right?
Oh.
Remarkably, while the 1000-word piece takes the trouble to get quotes from Willie Rennie (NB some sort of politician, apparently) and Scottish Labour branch manager Jim Murphy, there isn’t the slightest suggestion in the text that any attempt was made to ask any Scottish Government representative, let alone the First Minister herself, for a quote of confirmation or denial.
It’s a breathtaking oversight for a grown-up publication, and we can only speculate as to why Scottish political editor Simon Johnson was so indecently keen to get into print that he didn’t have time to pick up the phone. (It also seems slightly kamikaze for an arch-Tory newspaper to be so keen to use the Tories as a hideous toxic bogeyman, but that’s the least of the oddities here.)
We weren’t at the meeting between the FM and the ambassador. We don’t know what was said. But in the light of the mind-bogglingly fishy behaviour of the Telegraph and the Mail, and the civil service’s freely-admitted partisanship, we know who we believe. Especially when EVERYONE who was there is denying it.
We noted earlier that Sturgeon’s performance on last night’s debate put both Labour and the Tories in a very uncomfortable spot. Tonight we appear to have seen how a frightened Unionist establishment lashes out in blind panic when you pin it in a corner. Goodness knows what we can expect over the next four weeks.
BBC Scotland’s James Cook says a source close to the first minister described Civil Service minutes of her meeting with the French ambassador as making “no mention of a discussion of Ms Sturgeon’s preference for prime minister”.
We gotta get out of this place, ASAP.
4th hand tittle-tattle filtered through the British Establishment. Because, of course, any female party leader will spill her intimate thoughts to a foreign ambassador for 1lb of Ferrero Rocher. And they said you were a misogynist, Stu?
Nicola – “That Milliband’s a bawbag”. French ambassador, ” So you want Cameron as PM”? Nicola, “Aye, that’ll be right…”
BBC UK running with this now on web site.
If your argument is weak then try smearing your opponent…but it’s not much of a smear is it….Ed and his bacon sandwich, made in one of his two kitchens, has been getting pelters for months from the media.
All over by Tuesday… but Murphy will try to to keep the ‘red squirrel’running as it takes away how poorly his campaign is going.
The more blatant the propaganda becomes the more people wake up – bring it on!
Scottish people tend to react strongly against attacks on their own from the English media – the Labour vote in 2010 being a case in point.
And we`re off.
You nailed it, the Establishment at it worst, collusion of state and press to deny democracy. Hilarious if it weren’t so darn sad.
Panic? What panic?…
Lead story on the BBC Scotland news.
That’s it started then. Again.
Buckle up????
BBC UK running with this now on web site.
Not only on their website, it was headline news on their last bulletin, gleefully reporting it as if it was fact.
Didn’t release his little shitshell before the debate? Wonder why?
They really are beyond panic after last night; had to wait for it to be confirmed that our FM really is a politician of the people and that her star is rising so they fired their ‘big smear gun’ today…
Och you have got to pity them all…it’s too late you bunch of msm ingrates.
Moving on. Remember tomorrow everyone. George Square: Bairns Not Bombs; meet 10.30 a.m. March off 11 a.m. Rally 12 Noon, back at the square.
Nicola, Patrick, Katy Clark, Karine Polwart and others…let’s make it a big one.
GIRUTFLOT
BBC Scotland and Network News have made the most of this with extended headline reports, uncritical as ever. The dirty tricks have started.
“Her Majesty’s Treasury is by its nature a unionist institution. The clue is in the name.” Sir Nicholas MacPherson, KCB, Eton, Balliol, Oxford.
There may be a lot more UK civil service dirty tricks ahead, in the 2015 UK General Election for christ sake.
This a$$hole is making the Sun look like a broadsheet.
I do not expect any sort of support for anything vaguely Scottish from the Mail but I do expect a certain level of basic journalism.
Wrong again…..,,,
Just wait until tomorrow when the UK press pack see Nicola at the Anti Trident demo in Glasgow.
They are worried – very worried!
As if any self respecting Scot reads that rag…
One would nothing better from the Telegraph.
However, for the BBC to eagerly jump right in, without even an attempt to verify the facts, is utterly despicable. It’s just so wrong.
Since the days before Universal Suffrage, it is the biggest liars who form the government.
It’s a ‘leaked’ UK memo about a conversation with one French diplomat discussing a conversation another French diplomat had with Sturgeon, in English (not with a translator), that was told to the UK diplomat on the basis of confidentiality…
1) third hand gossip
2) language
3) Sturgeon storms through debate and all of a sudden UK gov memos start getting ‘leaked’ – which won’t help get others to give foreign office info in confidence
4) Why were UK diplomats grilling foreign diplomats for information on Scotland & SNP
5) Sturgeon has totally slapped it down – She’s a professional… No way she’d be so careless with words like that
6) it’s sad but expected that Labour trying to defend rumour as they have nothing else… George Foulkes even having a go at Ian McWhirter for saying he doesn’t believe the story
Can the SNP sue the Telegraph?
Faithfully reported on the BBC in an almost orgasmic manner. We expected this sort of crap, but they’re clearly losing their heads big time as it’s utterly amateurish for the well practised British establishment.
Aye, she looks dangerous eh?. What wars did she vote for? How many civilians have died because of foreign policy decisions she has made?……..
Daily Mail, Daily Record, BBC (and others). You should be ashamed of yourselves.
In all honesty, I ain’t surprised in the least. The Unionist supporters and their elite ‘masters’ are living in perpetual fear in the knowledge that they are well and truly fukced (excuse the language).
That said, however, it is ever-so amusing to witness their downfall; it has been a long time coming!!!!!
Now I know why people get abusive on social media. Had to boil kettle to avoid boiling over!
Labour mps quoting the telegraph – quite appropriate really.
And the British civil service – well I think that horse bolted already. It really is desperate stuff.
The gloves are off.
We have been expec
Looks like the French Ambassador backs up Nicola:
Severin Carrell tweets: “French consul general tells @GdnScotland no such views given by @NicolaSturgeon “absolutely no preference was expressed” on #GE2015 outcome”
But they’ve already thrown everything including the kitchen sink at us in the indyref campaign… and still we keep growing and growing… like the Blob!!
I think it is a good sign that “they” are resorting to The Telegraph, the ultimate establishment mouthpiece and disgrace to proper journalism (planted Ministry of Defence stories which are found out to be lies, recent HSBC scandal). The Daily Record is no longer big enough to contain Nicola’s voice of sanity and caring politics for the people. I think the English stirrings and support for the SNP has terrified them!!
But once they run out of all this, what will be left? We have had Project Fear and all the bias from BBC Labour for years… but now there is no one left to hoodwink. If you are gullible enough to believe their lies, you will have been deluded long ago, while those outside will never believe!
The making up of stories means that they have been unable to find any dirt on Nicola or any of the SNP members! On the other hand, real crimes such as paedophilia in Westminster, the royal family and the BBC are covered up for decades…
So what next? They wheeled out Betty Battenburg for the referendum campaign? They even brought in Obama. So what is left? God says: “SNP bad”???
already denied by the french
Take a look at @severincarrell’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/severincarrell/status/584113809633239040?s=09
“no such views given by @NicolaSturgeon “absolutely no preference was expressed” on #GE2015 outcome”
Nicola really has them worried, doesn’t she? Bloody good for her!She impressed UK last night & they didn’t like it so now the dirty tricks brigade are hitting back.
Having seen how much the WM controlled press lie when it suits them, I have absolutely no doubt that they are lying this time. The Torygraph-the establishment mouthpiece. I don’t even trust the date is correct never mind the content of tall tales like this.
UK MSM are just a joke! Journalistic integrity-gone to hell in a handcart.
Severin Carrell @severincarrell
· 7 mins 7 minutes ago
French consul general tells @GdnScotland no such views given by @NicolaSturgeon “absolutely no preference was expressed” on #GE2015 outcome
Aidan Kerr @Aidan_Kerr1
· 5 mins 5 minutes ago
BREAKING: French Consul General tells @severincarrell that “absolutely no preference was expressed” by @NicolaSturgeon. #FrenchGate
Sorry. Hit the send accidentally.
We have been expecting this. It was bound to happen as panic rose in Westminster, but it is so feeble. A third hand doubtful remark, filtered through a compliant civil servant. It is hardly a smoking gun.
However Nicola should jump all over the Telegraph and use words like LIAR and challenge them to come up with facts. .
It’s the Tollygraph…enough said.
The UK civil service has no credibility left. This is the body which declared Scotland ‘extinguished’ in 1707. Which openly celebrated in an ‘awards ceremony’ the partial nature of its ‘advice’ during the indyref campaign. Which, as the Rev notes, had its Head proudly declare that objectivity was a luxury it could not afford.
Not one single entrail of the British establishment, be that the Civil Service, the Electoral Commission or the BBC can be trusted with a single word they say.
You really could not make this shit up (except they have).
Yet again the good old state broadcaster jumps right in and transmits total and utter rumour to the nation without any semblance of professional diligence.
WTAF!!!
BBC online headline,
Election 2015: Nicola Sturgeon denies ‘preferring Cameron’
All usual BBC anti Sturgeon contricks with actual details at bottom of page, maximum attack at the top. With the British Civil Service and the BBC taking over democratic campaigning, how can they lose, they’ll comfort themselves.
French consulate saying Not True!
https://twitter.com/severincarrell/status/584113809633239040
Severin Carrell ?@severincarrell · 18m18 minutes ago
French consul general tells @GdnScotland no such views given by @NicolaSturgeon “absolutely no preference was expressed” on #GE2015 outcome
Other journalists should pull them up are they trying to get their profession a bad name,next thing you know a true story will happen,you know what,as nobody believes a thing they report,if it is a safety concern,a disbelieving member of the public may ignore some proper safety advise,irresponsible reporting/journalism.
These transparent unionist lies are having an ever shorter lifespan. Wee Severin “Vote Labour” Carrell has just tweeted that the French Consul General ha said Nicola Sturgeon SAID NO SUCH THING https://twitter.com/severincarrell/status/584113809633239040
Sue the Telegraph bastards and find out who the civil servant liar was!
Jeezo. How low will these people stoop!
It’s the “Zinoviev Letter’ all over again.
They must seriously think that because it worked in the 1920s it’ll work now.
How naive – and how desperate!
What effect was this smear supposed to have anyway? Labour voters thinking about or already decided to switch to SNP are doing so because they’ve given up on Scottish Labour and realise that what Scotland needs is the maximum number of SNP MPs to shake things up at WM.
They’re not going to change their minds because of some highly improbable story which, even if true, is not even relevant to their basic belief that the SNP now represent them more closely than the hollowed out shell of ScotLab.
They also know that the SNP will never support the Tories and will support Labour in Govt if that’s how the numbers stack up. Ultimately the story is a damp squib and demonstrate how desperately worried the WM establishment are getting. It’s very significant that this smear emerges 24 hours after Nicola Sturgeon’s triumph in the debate.
A senior British civil servant, dated March 6th, states: “Just had a telephone conversation with Pierre-Alain Coffinier (PAC), the French CG [consul-general]. He was keen to fill me in on some of the conversations his Ambassador had during her visit to Scotland last week. All of this was given on a confidential basis.”
Pierre was interviewed recently and revealed a strongly held sentiment for maintaining the UK as it is. See: http://www.fb-connections.org/mr-pierre-alain-coffinier/
He also commented less than favourably about a poll released just before the referendum. See http://barker.co.uk/scotlandpoll
This chappie is clearly not all he appears to be
http://barker.co.uk/scotlandpoll
Is that a hole I see below the waterline of the good ship United Kingdom?
There was a look of terror on all the unionist faces on bbc, Goldie, Bruce and Murphy.
The debate has shown up their union for the complete sham it is and those that survive through selling out Scotland to that sham of a union have now seen the writing on the wall. It says ENOUGH.
You fucking wanted us. You’re going to fucking get us.
Suck that UK.
The real measure of how scared they are in ruling circles is the extent to which they appear willing to expose the propaganda apparatus they have used for generations to influence manipulate and ultimately control the great mass of working people in this country. Lord Beaverbrook once said” democracy depends on an informed electorate” that is why he made it his life’s work to buy up every newspaper he could get his hands on to control the flow of information
My feeling is that the English electorate are now being treated to the same lesson that the Scottish electorate underwent during the referendum and it will I think have the same result. A great swaithe of people in Scotland don’t believe ANYTHING they hear from the media. Why the two different headlines in the mail. Is the truth different depending on which country you hear it in. This is great news. This election is exposing the treacherous face of the British state to all with an eye to see it. Only good can come of it.
There’s something fishy going on here and BBC were incredibly quick to run with the story.
Will be interesting to see if they report on the denials from the French Consul tomorrow.
Och well, it was about time the dirty tricks fired up. State Broadcaster relishing in this French Ambassador story. Sounds like Chinese Whispers if not a downright fabrication.
Perhaps any BBC news/camera teams at tomorrows ‘Bairns not Bombs’ rally should be confronted and prevented from filming, nothing intimadatory of course just a wee bit of unfortunate obstruction.
For fucks sake it’s the DAILY MAIL!
People are embarrassed to even admit they read such a laughable excuse for a newspaper so let’s not pretend it’s a serious or remotely reliable journalistic source.
They’re lying through their teeth and the only reason dozens of Mail journos aren’t in the dock right now for phone hacking is that their private investigator Steve Whittamore actually admitted he got rid of the most incriminating Operation Motorman evidence.
Fuck Paul Dacre and his idiot hacks. This is a pathetically feeble attempt at a smear even by Lord Rothermere’s pitifully low standards.
FFS – how low will the BBC sink in their attempts to discredit the SNP?
I think I just heard a paid professional BBC Scotland reporter (I think his name is Cook) state that according to some unnamed French ambassador who heard it from the French consul in Edinburgh (or it might have been the Ambassador’s cleaner or the cleaner’s mum) that Nicola Sturgeon told him that she’d rather see Cameron in number 10 and that Ed wasn’t PM material (that bit’s true right enough).
Nothing like reliable sources and this is indeed nothing like reliable sources but the BBC report this crap like it’s gospel.
This is a new low even for the Labour Party propaganda department that is BBC Scotland! Bottom of the barrel stuff but they must be desperate if this is the best they can come up with!
More denials from the French. This must be the shortest lived smear story in history.
https://twitter.com/BBCJamesCook/status/584121026595921921
I’m sorry, but as narrow minded and prejudiced as the avarage Daily Heil reader is, they are not so politically illiterate that they could ever believe this. This is insulting even to them as readers, it just come across as a pure made up lie of a story (Scottish Edition).
One minute they tell readers of unholy Labour-SNP alliance that will lock out the rightful owners of government – the tories – from number 10. Days later ‘actually Sturgeon wants Tory victory’ Cameron is better as prime minister. The same woman they were frothing about a week ago daring to vote down Cameron to stop him being prime minister now wants him to be prime minister.
You didn’t even try to do basic fact checking. That’s just dire, even for that lot.
Tell you what daily mail, print whatever headline you like. But rename yourself the Daily World Mail and try and be even more fruity with your made up headlines:
-Nicola Sturgeon Lizard Woman who drinks blood of englishman
-Alex Salmond seen discussing plans for NWO with Elvis
-Wild Haggis ate my baby
Your rag deserves little respect, and is nothing but racist elitist trash. Now I will add ‘work of fiction’ to that critique.
Anyway, off to finish reading the todays National. You know, Non-Fiction.
The thing is, the story is such nonsense… “Nicola wants Tories in No. 10″… Come on! It is like a headline in the Sunday Sport … “Baby born with no brain wins place at Oxford… Obama joins the Ku Klux Klan”…
I hope such overstepping the mark opens eyes even further in England. That country is also ready for change. Time to open a branch of the SNP in every town, village and city of England, methinks!
Have a look at this, in The Times of all places:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4402036.ece
“Sturgeon triumph has Labour in turmoil”.
Leaks are mostly common on sinking ships, however a ship may also be sunk due to overloading, something the tollygraff seems to have achieved in it’s article.
The auld git gadget haters are the target for this.
If we thought the Referendum was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
It only makes us stronger, and it will be interesting to see how low the unionist parties will go.
Have they forgotten Scotland has woken up?
No more lies.
Truth will overcome deceit.
Gary.
Twitter explodes.
Have to laugh at the comments saying that it’s a great piece of journalism. It’s not journalism to be handed a “story”.
If true then it’s a leak if not then it’s a smear.
It’s also IMO a blatant attempt to interfere in the result of a general election by either the civil service, a Minister of the Crown or the Fourth Estate.
An affront to democracy.
I’m still having trouble with the “who benefits” question.
Perhaps it is true as per QT last night and the Tory party see the only way of ever being in government again is independence for Scotland. Lower than vermin right enough.
“Tonight we appear to have seen how a frightened Unionist establishment lashes out in blind panic when you pin it in a corner. Goodness knows what we can expect over the next four weeks.”
Of course and it’s laughably easy to dismiss because the story is quite obviously the flimsiest of lies based on hilariously tenuous bullshit only a fool would ever take seriously.
Are they really so stupid to think the public won’t notice these lies and smears came straight after Nicola won the leaders debate?
Boy! Are they going to be in for a shock. LOL 😀
Fact is we really don’t give a shit which of the out of touch westminster parties get slightly more votes than the other. Neither can win a majority. Both are guaranteed to further our cause since they are hopelessly corrupt and incompetent and their witless ‘leaders’ couldn’t find their own arse with a flashlight.
enjoy
Duncan Hothersall ?@dhothersall · 11m11 minutes ago
So both @NicolaSturgeon & French ambassador have now both categorically denied Telegraph story. Apologies to the FM. Looks like I was duped.
Just been watching bbc 24 between 10.30 and 11.15. Twice, James Cook has been enthusiasticly telling this story but sumarising with a twist that he knows that there are those within the SNP who would wish this as it would give them a chance to oppose the Tories for the next 5 years. Does JC have inside info or was he fed a line from the branch office ? As this develops,looks like he is tweeting the French denial.
BBC=Scotland’s enemy number one and we are forced to hand them a tidy sum every year for the pleasure! Biggest mugs on the planet.
Remember the Mail also famously claimed Nick Cleg was a Nazi after he won the first debate in 2010. These fuckwits have form and the Barclay Brothers Telegraph is the westminster bubble establishment writ large.
It’s been reported in the past couple of weeks that Barclay Brothers have pledged to do ‘whatever it takes’ to support Cameron so it’s not as if they can possibly be relied on to be a serious or trustworthy source either.
Talk on European Diplomacy with the General Consul of France for Scotland, M. Pierre-Alain Coffinier
We would like to invite you for a lecture about the EU diplomacy which will be delivered by the Consul General of France to Scotland Pierre-Alain Coffinie. Mr. Coffinie is a new Consul General. Previously he was head of division for western and northern Europe, EU Department at the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs.
Yes this is the same person that supposedly leaked details of a private conversation between his boss and Nicola Sturgeon.
http://diplomatsdundee.weebly.com/past-events.html
Typical disgraceful scummy Establishment MSM trash. Do they not realise this sort of stuff just betrays the sheer level of fear they are suffering?
Anyway, the worse this gets, the greater their fear. And they truly are afraid,
Looking forward to hearing Nikki tomorrow. Perfect excuse to unfurl the Saltires again! Now, will the BBC have cameras there…???
This story is Torygraph bullshit – even the BBC says it’s not true
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-32177315
Formal request to the cabinet office seeking release of the memo about Nicola Sturgeon and the frenchman
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/memo_of_6th_march_detailing_rema
So, the beeb look like they are shifting up a gear on the bias mobile. They say on Newsshite that “Nicola Sturgeon wasn’t really tested”. Maybe they should have highlighted that her opponents weren’t really up to the task of testing her while they had the chance.
To take the shine off her impressive performance they have dragged out a third hand piece of gossip via some Westminster gadgie, the Telegraph (who would have thought?) and a French ambassador.
If you like gossip BBC why not investigate Ted Heath? Of course, you don’t have to as you know about that gossip already and, the evidence has much sounder provenance than what you have just offered up.
BBC, we know what you are about.
Well done the three female debaters who reminded the old boys network what honour and integrity are about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32177315
BBC online news ending with:
The BBC’s James Cook said: “While Nicola Sturgeon may or may not have said it… there are definitely some people within the Scottish National Party for whom five years of the Tories to attack would be a better outcome than getting into bed with Labour.”
Even if it were true, I don’t see that it’s revelatory: Everyone thinks Ed’s useless don’t they?
BBC radio led with this at 11. No mention at 12 🙂
Answer to Hothersall.
No, Duncan, that occured on September 18th 2014.
The frustrating part of this shite is we can do Fxxx all about it. It’s infuriating.
Incidently, absolutely anyone have a go at this type of ‘journalism’ on twitter and Facebook if they like.
For example..
I’ve heard through a second hand source who claimed to have seen a memo of a secret SLAB meeting that revealed.. Jim Murphy hates Ed Miliband’s guts and would prefer to have to have David Cameron as his leader rather than Ed Miliband.
See? This shit is easy. 😀
All I need now is for corrupt tabloids and the biased BBC ‘to credulously repeat it constantly even though it may or may not be bullshit. Shouldn’t be hard. 😉
(It also seems slightly kamikaze for an arch-Tory newspaper to be so keen to use the Tories as a hideous toxic bogeyman, but that’s the least of the oddities here.)
Not quite; it actually makes sense when you understand what this election campaign is trying to do, from the sneering Tory perspective. Terry Pratchett (rest his soul) rather accurately summed it up in a passage from Night Watch;
“As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up. What would run through the streets soon enough wouldn’t be a revolution or a riot. It’d be people who were frightened and panicking. It was what happened when the machinery of city life faltered, the wheels stopped turning and all the little rules broke down. And when that happened, humans were worse than sheep. Sheep just ran; they didn’t try to bite the sheep next to them.”
The point is to deliberately panic people, and encourage them tear each other apart secure in the knowledge that the result doesn’t normally reach the Masters Of The Universe. That it’s those self same Masters being used to scare people doesn’t matter; you aren’t on their level, you’ll haul off and punch the people that are closest to you instead, and that’s fine by those safe in the mansions on the hill. They don’t care if you like them, only that they can break you.
Hence the posters in Bath that seemed so strange as well; they aren’t trying to win in Bath, or even make any sort of logical point, they’re trying to spread fear and divide their opponents… If I was feeling charitable, I’d say someone smart but monstrously cynical targeted Bath because they want to spook the huge Student population away from Labour, and ensure it stays a Lib Dem seat (who aren’t on the poster) in the expectation that’ll be a potential coalition partner again for the Tories. After all, the Lib Dems sold you out once for a Ministerial limo, it’ll be much easier to do it a second time…
If I’m being somewhat positive, I’d say it’s hopefully just a massive misapplication of the dark arts again, like the Tony Blair “Demon Eyes” poster campaign way back when. They’re trying to use American/Australian style terror-campaigning but hopefully, hopefully it doesn’t really work here in the UK yet… hopefully the British soul isn’t quite as black as those who wave it’s flag around the most. Hopefully it’ll crater as much as the New Labour New Danger campaign…
Because likewise, the target isn’t Nicola Sturgeon or the SNP as such… it’s hope. Don’t vote principle. Don’t admire those who offer a different perspective. Politics is cynical and cruel and about brute application of power. So you might as well vote for the Devils that are good at being brutal and cruel, eh?
They’re trying to win on tone. And the terrifying thing is, as the polls have suddenly narrowed over the last few months (Labour, despite the claims here, has had a commanding lead for much of the Parliament, then thrown it all away) the Tories don’t feel they need to outright win it; just keep the jaded dick vote solid for a few more weeks, and hope the generous and decent panic.
Incidentally, if you’re going to be in Bristol Stu for Question Time, I’d recommend having a little walk along Gloucester Road before hand, past where the Tony Benn memorial stood, up to where the anti-Tesco riots were, and getting a few local comments on genuine left wing politics from our burgeoning bohemian enclave here… because it would be good to ambush the Labour panellists with the point that, if Labour isn’t even prepared to stand by, and vote in the spirit of it’s own local history, right here in the city that still fondly remembers Tony Benn, what real hope is there for, or even in the United Kingdom for it’s people?
And is it any wonder then that the SNP are still going from strength to strength, through voting on their principles? Aren’t they the sort of allies you need, if you actually mean any of the things you supposedly want power for, Labour?
Just don’t go with the “majority government” line again old chap; they’ve almost certainly been focus testing a response to that in the off chance you’ll pop over, or someone else brings it up. Remember, they’re evil not daft. Throw them a curve ball if you get to speak.
And again, my congratulations to the independent voices for realigning the public debate, including the SNP and the folks here.
Ask yourself what is the reason behind the story?
Well NS did so well in TV debate they now have to discredit her as much as possible why? Because she is a threat to the status quo and Westminster establishment. She already stated the disillusionment of H of L. No way support Conservatives thus backlash.
How?
A. Discredit your opponent
B. Help the other half of the status quo…….Labour.
C. Divide your enemy to make them weak thus help Labour’s flagging support.
D. Spread confusion spread misinformation blur the facts so people don’t know who is saying or doing what!
E distract your opponents from the real issues thus concealing their own weaknesses.
We’ve seen it all before we know all the unionist propaganda tactics by now.. probably more to come.
Wont make a difference this time stay calm change is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“The BBC’s James Cook said: “While Nicola Sturgeon may or may not have said it… there are definitely some people within the Scottish National Party for whom five years of the Tories to attack would be a better outcome than getting into bed with Labour.””
Translation: ‘Ok it’s not true, but it COULD be true- if you squint at it sideways with your eyes half closed.. with the lights dimmed..’
Kenny says:
3 April, 2015 at 11:39 pm
Come on! It is like a headline in the Sunday Sport … “Baby born with no brain wins place at Oxford… Obama joins the Ku Klux Klan”…
======
One of those headlines is not true = FACT
From Rev’s twitter: Labour made a ‘vine’
(one of those looped videos, beLabouring a point)
Y’know it would seem that all the unionists were very much in cahoots with this smear before it was released…especially the BBC and Labour (branch). People should look at Rev’s twitter feed to get the full extent of ‘attack’ twitter pieces just fired out simultaneously from all the usual suspects…and no retractions….’cept for that weird guy Hothersall.
Hope this link works.
https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/BA5E87F1B11195893938553577472_38477ac968d.2.1.16947062486634402735.mp4?versionId=o..gOgZ9yaSnO6wY55xTArzn2tsR6xmk
Looking at the Rev’s twitter feed, I feel an excoriating article coming on which could be the death knell for Labour and its bedfellows at Pacific Quay..
Here’s a better headline for you:
FOUR GROWN MEN BEATEN UP BY THREE WEE LASSIES
I feel we are in something like the dying days of a Communist regime circa 1989 when everyone just laughed at the establishment figures they once feared.
I feel a little bad for Willie Rennie and the branch manager being conned into having their names associated with this little pyramid of dog faeces. They probably thought that the Telegraph was some sort of respectable newspaper.
The UK Unionist press constantly spouting out and out lies really needs to be held to account. It’s well past time this lot was properly regulated.
Tonight’s classic uk wide BBC/Torygraph attack smear on Sturgeon makes me a bit nostalgic for the independence campaign and just how far the BBC would go to get their Bettertogether shots in. Remember far right PM Tony Abbot of Australia and the BBC and The Times, all piling in to Scotland’s referendum with
“Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the Times it was “hard to see how the world would be helped by an independent Scotland”. Mr Abbott said those who would like to see the UK break up were “not the friends of justice… [or] freedom”.
BBC World Service also went huge with PM Abbott ordering a massive terrorist hunt across OZ on the eve of Scotland’s referendum but this is what BBC didn’t tell us about dudes like Abbott, born in England, usual Oxbridge hard line right winger, religiously anti immigration, tory boy in action, slot right in to a Cameron cabinet or UKIpster, down under this time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dpefG50G04
Judging by the Revs twitter feed, British journalism is utter scum.
Excellent analysis of the referendum
http://centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Scottish%20Referendum%20Study%2027%20March%202015.pdf
I don’t think we should get too worked up about this. The unionist establishment and their sidekicks in the media are simply revealing their true character and I am delighted that all of the evidence seems to suggest that the Scottish people see through them. The media have been doing this sort of thing for months – years even – and yet the polls show consistent strong support for the SNP.
I wish I understood the mechanism whereby this is happening, but it doesn’t really matter. What the SNP and the wider Yes movement are doing is working, and what the unionists are doing is not working. So the more the BBC, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and all the rest of them keep this up, the more votes there will be for independence. Their propaganda just isn’t working for them.
Perhaps we should be more concerned if we get intelligent, well informed comment from the media. But then the overwhelming logic of the Yes movement would be highlighted. So either way we should be content. That’s not to say relaxed, because it is through the vigilance of Stu and others that people are enabled to see through the unionist nonsense. But the more our opponents keep making mistakes, the better it is for us.
Didn’t the French just come out and deny something else the Establishment was saying.
What was it again?
Oh, that’s right.
That poor old HMRC couldn’t pursue HSBC for aiding and abetting tax evaders, because the French wouldn’t let them.
Seems almost as if the French have allied themselves with the Scots against the Establishment.
Three cheers for the EU 😀
Duncan Hothersall should know there’s a big difference in ‘being duped’ and in ‘being willing to be duped’.
The BBC are chronically dis-eased and should be put in isolation.
Any self-respecting BBC journalists /presenters should be looking askance at what passes for editorial correctness in what they are being asked to do – for, once it’s broadcast, the damage is done, as was intended and they, in person, are inextricably linked with the news fraud.
I await Professor John Robertson’s terse commentary as the scales tip heavily, and always ever so, against BBC probity. Have BBC honchos no sense of shame whatsoever?
Kind of proves that the claim about Scotland’s vote having almost zero influence past UK elections. Now it looks like Scotland will have a sniff of influence, the Yoo Kay media has flung their toys oot the pram.
Never seen the like in a previous GE campaign.
@Wulls, 11.06pm
I do not expect any sort of support for anything vaguely Scottish from the Mail but I do expect a certain level of basic journalism.
Really?
Maybe this is their way of trying to find out what was actually said between the FM and the French diplomat – Make false allegations in the hope that they’ll release the minutes of the meeting in order to prove the allegations are untrue.
That link was crap…sorry…don’t know how to ‘fix’ it…and it’s messed up the page…just so untidy 🙁
Apologies all round.
F*#k the lot of them;-)
@Roger
“even the BBC says it’s not true”
Ah, but it’s true that is not true but true that they might actually believe it to be true, so it’s really true after all.
At least I think that’s what ex-journalist James Cook said in his justification for repeating lies instead of being a journalist.
The BBC are now making a big story out the denial of Nicola Sturgeon. But their job is done. They have planted the story in the mind of the undecided. Then they put their hands up and say, “it was nothing to do with us guv”.
This was a joint effort by the English Establishment, the bastards of the Beeb and the scum at Scottish labour.
Just waiting on that dickhead Clegg of the Daily Record to jump all over it.
My view on all of this is that the Telegraph picked up the wording wrong on the memo.
It didn’t say “Nicola would rather the Tories win the next election”. What it did say was “Nicola would rather the Red Tories win the next election”.
Turns out it’s bullshit, but mission accomplished.
Smear achieved. Doubts planted.
And how does the BBC get away with ending their article with the personal opinion of their reporter, pretty much backing up the gist of the story, ‘whether she may or may not have said it’ ?
I wonder if we will see anything like “There are plenty of people within Labour would would prefer to see a Labour-Tory coalition, rather than making concessions to the SNP”
One can only marvel at the level of collusion on this story pre-publication that must have taken place between Labour and its ‘mortal enemy’ the Torygraph..
It all seems rather co ordinated Richardinho…I don’t feel remotely ‘sorry’ for any of them.
The very fact that none of those, who were contacted by the Telegraph, even questioned the veracity of the information that they clearly commented on, tells you something about all of them: Deeply unprincipled and willingly/eagerly jumped right in on a ‘bad piece’ about the FM without the slightest hesitation. These people have revealed something that is obvious to all who read Wings: They are absolutely beyond redemption. Including Rennie.
Has Jim Murphy wiped his twitter account again?
After being elated and ecstatic last night this feels like a boot in the nadgers. Bastards the lot of them. Get us out of this cesspit pronto.
BBC just forgot to review the Telegraph in the paper review. Ooops.
This is not even subtle, it is just pure mince; but after the kicking the neo-liberal British establishment took on Thursday night is it any wonder the Torygraph would come up with crap like this.
I hope Nicola’s legal team are filing complaints with the BBC Trust and IPSOS as we speak – there is a time for every purpose and the purpose now has to be to kick the British Establishment where the sun don’t shine.
The only reassuring feature is if they are already scraping the barrel for fourth hand accounts of discussions that never happened they have lost the plot.
Next up – will the boss of Police Scotland pull the Willie McRae cold case out of the box and try to claim he was one of the peadophiles. No doubt his Labour pals on Strathclyde Police’s old Authority have been offering House the chance to join the vermine in ermine if he could ‘Fix this for Jim’.
Oh dear! The Torygraph won’t let it go!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11515276/Revealed-Full-text-of-Nicola-Sturgeon-memo.html
Nicola Sturgeon ?@NicolaSturgeon
.@Telegraph don’t you think you should update this story with the statements from both myself and the French Ambassador that it’s untrue?
Time for these lying scum posing as journalists to man the fuck up and apologise.
This is the tweet with the Labour (branch) vine…lol
https://twitter.com/scottishlabour/status/584111514459705345
I have a dream, a very simple dream.
One day Scotland will gain Independance. All staff of BBC Scotland sacked and it’s operation shut down. They all move to London or something like good Brit Nats. Pacific Quay HQ lies empty.
We demolish Pacific Quay HQ.
We erect a monument to the Freedom of Scotland and her people on the very site that bastion of lies once stood. The ultimate F.U to those who tried to deny us self determination.
It’s a simple dream, but maybe one day.
Sets out the French view of the Scottish bid for independence. Not a lot of support clearly bent on supporting retention of the UK
http://www.scottishglobalforum.net/uploads/2/2/6/1/22614014/indpendance_cossaise_the_view_from_france.pdf
The BBC showed once again tonight that it is not fit for purpose.
Do the out of touch twits at the Torygraph really think this third hand rubbish from some BRITISH GOVERNMENT minor functionary has any credibility whatsoever just because he wrote it down in a memo?
ROFL 😀
Maaan! These Telegraph liars are fucking hilarious. They just keep digging.
They really are terrified of her now after her successful appearance at the leaders debate.. Brilliant!
They must’ve been tripping over themselves to print some ludicrous story. They can’t suffer the fact she done well, it’s hilarious.
They say good comedy is all about the timing. The timing of this story is pure comedy. What a coincidence that the paper stumbles across a poop of a story the day after Nicola is the talk of the town.
Now I’m no Sherlock Holmes but it doesn’t take a genius to work out what at play here.. The establishment are shaken and they’re going to do what ever takes to smear their opponents.
Besides. Makes no sense at all anyway that such a remark would be made. I’m not zipped up the back (and no, it’s nae vellcro either).
This may have been said already…it’s a very long thread! But these two newspaper articles are not aimed at us. The English one is designed to scare people in England into voting Tory at best and lib dem at worst. The Scottish version is designed to reduce the snp vote and either get people voting lib dem or Labour as the best they can hope for in Scotland. The establishment are hoping they can get a Tory majority and then have enough liberals to go into coalition and not enough snp mp’s to make their lives difficult. It’s clever, could work and not something we should take lightly..do not sit back and think this is just nonsense.
If we don’t fight this propaganda beyond these cosy walls THEY WILL WIN.
WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE LADIES AND GENTS………KEEP CALM PLEASE AND GET IT UP’EM.
the establishment is worried and feels threatened. This is the rationale behind the story….it is aimed at cross over Labour/SNP voters.. vote SNP – Get tory, remember?
SMELL THE FEAR
This is journalism Torygraph style and symptomatic of the Unionist bile… While Indy side had to prove, document and motivate, cross examine everything… Unionists just assert lied and thump their feet.
I’ve just seen the latest….the apparent full text of ‘the memo’ and the part at the end which says,
“I have to admit that I’m not sure that the FM’s tongue would be quite so loose on that kind of thing in a meeting like that, so it might well be a case of something being lost in translation”
This has only just gone online, yet some hours ago I’ve seen several people (lab + others) stating that what was said couldn’t be lost in translation because of the French ambassadors good English. Some even posting videos of her speaking to prove the point.
Now why would people do that?
Coincidence or already having knowledge of the text of the memo and trying to close off any line of excuse from Sturgeon?
It smells big time of prior knowledge and co-ordination.
Definite déjà vu. Pre-referendum vibe.
Joemcg says: 12:06
The frustrating part of this shite is we can do Fxxx all about it. It’s infuriating.
Not true. Pick up the phone every time and make a polite rational complaint. Never let one past.
Had to happen. There was a danger after last night the media and politicians might have to talk about policies. Quick find a squirrel….
Please stop paying this illegal tax called a “BBC TV License”.
Tell them you no longer need your License, tell them you want your refund AND most importantly, tell them that YOU are withdrawing their “Right of Access”.
It’s as simple as that.
(And don’t tell anybody else this, but you can still watch the telly).
Why should the BBC have the power to tell you that you can’t watch a game of football on Sky Sports, even though you have already paid Sky for the privilege of watching that game of football.
French Ambassador ppppprrrrrpprrraaaaaannnnooooowwweeee?
BBC do you think,better yet our expensive Security Service.
Sorry I voted YES to be shot of these incompetents among a million other reasons!
Libby Carrell may tweet nice but rancid Guardian’s gone front page massive on the whole thing
“Nicola Sturgeon denies saying she wanted David Cameron to win election”
They have to keep Scotland under SLabour control and they’ll do whatever they bloody well feel like. So much for vote NO for THE VOW and BetterTogether democracy, let alone the whole of the UK press.
8th may headlines
“It wos WOS wot won it”
🙂
I am very surprised by this story.
I am not surprised that the Telegraph would tell lies: nor that they would repeat lies fed to them by the civil service, if that is what happened. I am not surprised that the BBC would pass it on as fact, nor that other parts of the MSM would do likewise.
What I am surprised about is how incompetent this is. Truly.
I tend to caution when I read the news, but it is genuine caution. I am apt to wait for further information and I do not usually leap to a conclusion. As I said earlier today I am not one to unreservedly admire any leader and I am aware that there will be slithers from any party for that is the nature of politics
But when I read this story I believed it to be a straightforward lie. There was no doubt in my mind at all. I do not think I am in any way unusual: I do not think any average person in Scotland would entertain this for one moment
I have been aware that the labour party and its support in rUK have been punting the notion that the SNP would prefer a tory government, as repeated by Mr Cook, cited above. This has been going on for some time (see Sunny Hundal at the New Statesman for an example). I can see the logic of such an approach. But I do not understand the sheer ignorance behind it. It seems to me that these people have no understanding at all of the mood in Scotland, but they are not acting as if they are a professional political or media presence: they are acting as if they believe their own propaganda. And I think they do.
Perhaps it is just inconceivable to them that people see no difference between labour and tory – Hundal has gone to great lengths to insist there is a real important difference. Perhaps they are unable to grasp that there is a thirst for a real alternative because they truly do believe in TINA. Perhaps they cannot face the fact that they are tories and they just haven’t realised yet.
What seemed to me to happen in the leaders’ debate yesterday was very simple. For the first time in decades the shared premises of the westminster parties were simply dismissed as nonsense. All three progressive candidates did that in a straightforward way and it is the loss of the “policy consensus” that the neoliberals fear more than anything
Many people do not accept the neoliberal narrative: but they are in the position that they hear no alternative from any of the media or from Westminster. Most people are not deeply political or deeply engaged in economic theory. So if their gut feeling is nowhere represented by those ought to know they are not confident. The “spiral of silence” comes into play for they cannot articulate their position: lets face it, very few of us can formulate a complex argument all by ourselves and without drawing on the wisdom of those in power as well as those around us.
What happened on Thursday was that 3 competent politicians challenged the very basis of that narrow range of debate: and in so doing they widened it. We have had quite a lot of that in Scotland, though less than I would like because of the control of the media the elite still enjoy: but it was fairly new ground south of the border and suddenly a lot of social democrats heard their views represented on the telly: and it was a revelation to many.
The establishment has a reputation for being good at this, and they may have been in the past. But they are not good at it any longer. The reason for that is simple. It arises from their own narrative and their own position. They have sacked all the professional journalists and civil servants and replaced them with the business and managerial types they believe are the fount of all wisdom. Those people are rubbish at government and rubbish at journalism: they are rubbish at anything which requires more skill than “buy cheap and sell dear”. The seeds are in their own beliefs and their own decisions.
And so we see this amateurish demonstration of what is wrong with their smug self satisfaction and delusions of adequacy.
Their fear is not of the SNP, it is of the people. They know they are naked
Am I the only one offended that the activities of the Scottish Government appear to be monitored, spied on and reported at length to unelected civil servants in Westminster???
Seriously… WTF!
The Torygraph lies are collapsing about their ears right this second with even the most rabidly SNP hating ‘scottish’ Labour MPs and spinners frantically backpedalling and trying to delete any mention of it now lest they too get caught up and personally blamed for the Torygraph’s bullshit.
Michael Gray ?@GrayInGlasgow 2 minutes ago
Top Jim Murphy staffer @blairmcdougall deletes claim @NicolaSturgeon is a “total fraud”. Labour MPs also deleting. https://twitter.com/deletedbyMPs
LOL 😀
The Torygraph lies are collapsing about their ears right this second with even the most rabidly SNP hating ‘scottish’ Labour MPs and spinners frantically backpedalling and trying to delete any mention of it now. They seem terrified that they too will get caught up in and personally blamed for the Torygraph’s bullshit.
Michael Gray @GrayInGlasgow 2 minutes ago
Top Jim Murphy staffer @blairmcdougall deletes claim @NicolaSturgeon is a “total fraud”. Labour MPs also deleting. -deletedbyMPs
LOL 😀
And so it begins…….another 5 weeks of this garbage……but it,s too late…Scotland has rumbled this crap a long time ago……..the use of “useful idiots” in the MSM & BBC is old hat to us…..we are not afraid 🙂
If the gutless brain dead London centric media can keep this story going until Wednesday what is the betting that it will feature in the BBC debate up in Aberdeeen, I think.
If this storyline does arise in Aberdeen debate then I am certain that there will be a few ambulances required to carry of the dead and dying. NOT Nicola Sturgeon but all the other panelists. 😉
The BIG question for Wednesday night is WHO will Nicola chew up and spit out first?
I’m thinking that wee Murph the Smurph might very well draw the short straw to be the first panelist to be reduced to bones on Wednesday noght. 😀
It’s a slow process but in time websites like this will put the printed press out of business.
As a lifelong avid newspaper buyer, I now seek online verification(from multiple sources)of what I read about in newspapers, some more than others. I simply do not believe what I read.
By the same slow and sure process, more and more people are turning to online news as the agenda of most newspapers is biased and cannot be trusted.
As to the Telegraph assertion that NS wants DC as PM, just think Perfidious Albion.
I could not resist it. Did a MWSnap to capture the image and retweeted it from a business account. Even by DM’s (low) standards, this is pathetic.
Oh dear, I saw a tweet by a Labour supporter condemning Dugdale Deputy Dog Drone for running a lie. Story falling apart and will probably end with more and more people north and south of the border fleeing from Blue and Red Tories alike…
Caledonius 12.39am Re: BBC Scotland Pacific Quay.
BBC Scotland don’t even own Pacific Quay Caledonius, they lease it.
So there wouldn’t be any satisfaction in knocking it down after we kicked them out.
We could do something really dramatic to it that has NEVER been done since it opened, we could fill with journalists.
Ouch!
@Caledonius
Great Dream.
We should demolish PQ like the French did to the hated Bastille.
Then we should celebrate the anniversary every year with fireworks and a big party.
The Gruaniad is still airing this – even though they’re publishing that NS denies it
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/03/nicola-sturgeon-denies-saying-she-wanted-david-cameron-to-win-election
Ronnie Anderson
If you’re still up, I will see you in George Sq in the morning about 11am, (under the “horse’s arse” ).
If this “memo” was really given to the Torygraph by a civil servant then it is a serious issue. During purdah senior civil servants cannot participate in any political activity at all. The memo clearly states at the top that it is sensitive.
However, I have my doubts that any civil servant would be that stupid and secondly the memo has a get out of jail card saying this all sees very unlikely. I wonder if the Torygraph have been used by a the Tory spads to spread a bit of discontent and mistrust.
Not good for the journalists’ credibility but not sure those two have much to lose. That they didn’t check the story out with the people that were actually at the meeting suggests either incompetence or complicity.
Creepy Murphy primed with this all over the news
“Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader, said the memo’s allegations were “astonishing”. He added: “For months Nicola Sturgeon has been telling Scots she wants rid of David Cameron yet behind closed doors with foreign governments she admits she wants a Tory government. It’s deja vu all over again – the SNP say one thing in public but another in private.”
Very hard hitter hits very hard with “Sturgeon’s an out right liar” shock. They think this is the same as NO sterling for Scotland indy killer but they only have to claw a few thousand former SLabour votes in every seat and SLabour keep control of their Scotland region. UKOK goes for the jugular once again and because they have to.
Rancid Graun’s Libby Carrell says Sturgeon is ” terse, angry”
Who can blame her.
“The UK would be “the big loser” Pierre-Alain Coffinier made the comment as he asked questions at The Scotsman Conference on Defence in an Independent Scotland, as the subject turned to the impact of secession on the rest of the United Kingdom. He said it would remain “important” for the world community to ensure that the UK stayed as a “global power”.
So he does get involved in local politics and very much in favour of retention of the UK
http://www.newsrt.co.uk/news/self-perception-may-become-the-big-issue-for-policymakers-in-rump-uk-say-analysts-428952.html
A quadruple hearsay ‘statement’. The original maker and recipient deny its veracity. The story is nevertheless run as purported fact.
Is that a modern day hack’s definition of ‘reliable source’? Shoddy, disgusting journalism from start to finish.
Perhaps the Torygarph’s next front page splash will be “Cameron Denies Beating Wife”.
Jack Monroe tweets: “How unlike the Torygraph to try to keep a good strong lefty woman down with smears and lies. Really, I’m surprised at them.”
Now, let us see, will anyone now believe the Telegraph, Daily Mail, BBC and Jim Murphy’s twitter account when they come up with more “damaging revelations”??? So who will the establishment use? Will we see the Guardian come out with: “Double whammy as Nicola aka the most dangerous woman in Britain tells Putin she wants to see Ed Miliband in Downing Street and Dave Cameron as head of NATO”?
In other news: British media blast RT for “broadcasting propaganda, making up stories and printing lies.”
Radio 4 this morning was reporting the fact that Nicola Sturgeon had won accordinging to yougov but quite quickly started thru “commentaters’ started saying ‘we can disregard her cause she doesn’t have to be responsible and and can say what she wants without having to do it’.
It seemed particulary biased to say and ignore that this is the serving First Minister but the telegraph bollocks is clearly ramping up the propaganda to the 11,000 or so marignal voters who matter in England.
I’m fairly sure those voters won’t suffer when trident is gone and maybe even when dodgy defence contracts are investigated, not that the Daily Telegraph would have any vested interested there.
Hey ho
This danger for Sturgeon now is not to overreact and effectively start campaigning for Labour.
If the cards fall right, SNP could hold the balance of power for Scotland’s benefit, regardless of who ends up as PM – Clown 1 or Clown 2.
@Author_Al
Given that the Ambassador’s excellent command of English is widely known, the comment from the “civil servant” about things being lost in translation seems a little odd.
Surely the Telegraph could not have made the whole thing up? 😉
Cheer up! It will only get worse.
“Too Sensible for her Shoes’: http://wp.me/p4fd9j-19A
For the first time in my life, and against decades of experience in untrustworthy politicians, I am 100% confident – If Nicola Sturgeon says she didn’t say it – she didn’t say it.
She is honesty personified.
And what is the heinous crime she is accused of?… saying Ed Millipede is not Prime Ministerial material.. this makes her the most dangerous woman in Britain… jeeeeeeeezzzzuuuusssss fff++kkkk!!!!!! I wouldn’t send Ed for a loaf of bread.
I’m annoyed I didn’t predict this… it’s so bloody obvious – no evidence, story from the Telegraph, amplified by the BBC, the day after she wins the debate, which can’t be ignored because it was on English tellies …. FFS
If this is the best the English establishment can throw at us, they’re fuc==d.
But expect more.. loads more.
If anyone has ever had the experience of shouting and waving,”Cheerio, Cheerio” to opposing fans at a game when there are minutes to go and you’re 3-0 up, and one of the departing fans throughs up a V-sign as they leave the stadium, and you laugh – that’s a great feeling. That’s where we are now.
Rejoice
Rejoice
Rejoice
It has been a strange day and the Telegraph and Mail shit have been particularly weird. Is there an explanation?
http://badassmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dont-always-have-answers.jpg
Sorry…it is late.
@Caledonius,
What a great dream!
We should demolish PQ just like the French did with the hated Bastille.
Then celebrate its anniversary with fireworks and a big party.
If we did it on the same day, 14th of July, to celebrate the Auld Alliance and the birth of democracy that would be grand – as it is my birthday. 🙂
Well here is the Telegraph’s response folks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11515276/Revealed-Full-text-of-Nicola-Sturgeon-memo.html
From what I can see there is absolutely no mention what so ever of the S.N.P. favouring a Tory government. I may be wrong and stand to be corrected but from what I’ve seen here there is indeed no mention of the First Minister favouring any party.
This is just a smoke screen by the Telegraph in my view. They have been caught red handed with their pants down and are now trying sdesperately to divert attention away from the original story.
Spotted on a tweet tonight. Plus ca change:)
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
Socrates
hi Donald U,
Not only would Nicola never said it but the diplomats also would never have disclosed it.
This nonsense is being co-ordinated between the Unionist politicians, the BBC and the Press at the highest levels.
It is no accident these stories are running on the BBC news shortly after being released with all the Unionist politicians just happening to be available to comment.
James
This one has spectacularly backfired due to the power of the internet.
I wait for tomorrow’s big smear – Trident related no doubt.
well i see its official project fear part 2 bitter together SNP bad the sequel has started lol
I find this whole thing rather silly its as if they havnt done their homework on us SNP voting Scots if they think for one second we will believe this and all flock back to Labour if that is what its meant to do ,strange its in a tory rag but then its nothing we havnt seen before from the onions.
They just dont get it we do not give a rats ass which one of them is in UK government they are both hopeless fuds we will vote SNP for Scotland not for the UK.
They should have paid more attention in class the last 5 years big F grade for them and a dunce cap now go sit in the corner with your back turned to the class, remedial studies will start on May 8th your teacher will be Nicola.
Apologies for my crudeness, but … Jim Murphy seems to have to wipe his Twitter account more often than I do my arse.
.. just noticed Jim Murphy and arse in the same sentence..
The quicker an independant Scotland gets it’s own media the better. I question everything the current media reports.
That’ll be the msm upping it another gear then.
With Nicola being all the gossip throughout these lands of ours, the media spotlight now truly on her, she could take these two DM cover pages with her to the event later today and give her own view, keeping things topical and in balance 🙂
Have a great day in George Square, the heart of Glasgow.
They don’t realise they are completely fuckin themselves up to the eyes of the rest of the world also.
Other euro news channels are watching this. Soon nothing coming from the UK will be accepted as truth.
The establishment might lose more than scotland if it’s not careful
Well I suppose Nicola if you want to play April fools you couldn’t do better than choose the BBC and The Telegraph…. hold on I haven’t seen the Daily Record front page yet …..just maybe…naw they will likely be running she thinks Jim Murphy will make a better PM. Hard hats on everyone BBC propaganda is just getting into Top Gear (sorry that was dirty)we have 4 weeks yet to go.
Don’t forget, this is aimed at the copious supply of numpty voters?.
muttley79 wrote:
“Can the SNP sue the Telegraph?”
I think that is EXACTLY what they should be doing.
Unionist media – absolutely zero credibility – born and bred liars.
Does it really matter which Bring of the same Tory Brit Nat parties are in power?
At least the official Y=Tories do not pretend to be anything else other than what they are. Labour liars and thickos pretend or actually believe that they are a socialist party.
How often have we heard the state that they would prefer each or to the SNP? Do they all really have collective amnesia, or is it that they just cannot help themselves.
Complaint to Press Commission followed by legal action
Donald Urquhart @ 2.13am
That made me laugh so much I fell out of my chair. 🙂
I have Labyrinthitis (had it for weeks) 🙁
and I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster all the time, its also given me Tinnitus and every waking minute I hear a full violin section playing a top C, 🙁
Its a miserable illness and I could have it for a very long time, 🙁
But the laughs I’ve had on here are making it bearable. 🙂
@john king
Take care of yourself John.
My mum had Labyrinthitis and the doctors kept saying it was an infection until we kicked up a fuss after diagnosing it myself.
She was terribly ill for a long time and scared as her world was literally tilting constantly.
I have just tried to submit an online complaint to the BBC about this. The process is complicated. I wanted to complain about the online news item, specifically the quote at the end:
“The BBC’s James Cook said: “While Nicola Sturgeon may or may not have said it… there are definitely some people within the Scottish National Party for whom five years of the Tories to attack would be a better outcome than getting into bed with Labour.” “. I want him to justify this statement or apologise.
I do not have time to pursue this because I am off to the Trident protest in George Square.
The BBC is a disgrace.
It’s only a matter of time before they find the hand grenade in Nicola’s handbag.
It’s no big secret that the Torygraph is in meltdown due to boardroom interference in editorial freedom. Lately, according to Private Eye, it has failed to report properly on the HSBC Swiss bank scandal, which would appear to be a sore point with the advertising department which is keen to hold onto the HSBC account. The Guardian recently that the Barclays, owners of the Torygraph, also had a lone from HSBC for Yodel, one of their other business interests.
Although the Torygraph always has been a right wing rag, at least on the past it had some sort of dignity and the editor had some degree of freedom to print the truth on such matters. With Peter Oborne’s much publicised departure over editorial interference, it seems that things have gone from bad to worse with the printing of downright lies rather than just the usual disinformation.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
(Joseph Goebbels)
” In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.”
(Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X)
That’s it. I’m paying full price for water at the railway station from now on. I refuse any longer to be paid to read the Telegraph.
David McCann
Ms Sturgeon takes great care not to be photographed with a handbag. The response of the MSM to that would be all too predictable.
I repeat a blog I made several days ago on this site. When a wounded animal is cornered it is at it’s most dangerous. Proceed with caution.
john king,
Very sorry to hear that, John.
Love to Irene.
I just love the aroma of United Kingdom Establishment blind panic being carried across the airwaves by the Fourth Estate as it mingles with the aroma of my after breakfast morning coffee. Indeed a heady mixture for independence seekers.
Journalists ought to be failed (or would-be) historians; but many are failed novelists.
Historians do research to find out ‘what really happened’; novelists make up things that never happened.
Journalists are ‘immediate historians’, who write about ‘today’s events’, not the distant past.
Like historians, they seek objectivity, and write to inform a wider public about events that really did happen.
Novelists write to make their readers believe that things which never happened did happen. They convince us that something imaginary is real, and we allow ourselves to be convinced. We enter knowingly and willingly into a made-up, make-believe world. Nothing wrong with that: novels are good for us. But a news journalist is not a novelist.
The novelist isn’t deceiving me – I know the world he sets out in his novel is imagined – and the journalist is not supposed to deceive me either. He is supposed to inform me about real events, in the real world. My ‘contract’ with news journalists is different from my ‘contract’ with novelists.
Ideally, the journalist’s art is the historian’s, not the novelist’s. But since journalist’s write ‘stories’ the risk of confusion is high. They package ‘what happened’ into ‘story form’ to make it easily understandable. Some distortion is virtually inevitable, so there must be a conscious effort to minimise it. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to happen.
News first degraded into entertainment, and now it has become propaganda. It is no longer fact-dominated. What happened to the art of relating facts?
As mere entertainment and insidious propaganda news tends to become merely ‘sensational’: it appeals to the senses rather than the mind. Instead of informing him, the journalist sets out to deceive and manipulate his reader. In that case, the journalist-reader ‘contract’ on which good journalism depends has been shredded.
The honorable art of relating facts has been replaced by the black art of twisting them. No longer set out as ‘chiels that winna ding’, facts are twisted, turned and throttled into becoming unrecognisable distortions of themselves. Theu are made up, or made into mere instruments of an agenda. They are deliberately re-shaped to serve a hidden purpose, which remains unstated, and unseen. Such are all black arts …
Journalists of this kind also FAIL as novelists. They never become the kind of writers they once dreamed of … That ‘great novel’ they once thought they had within them will never be.
A good novelist willingly colludes with his readers, who also willingly collude with him, and truth is conveyed in the process. Not that the story is literally true, but it contains truth of another kind, which operates at another level. But that only happens if the novelist has truth within him.
So too with journalism. A journalist who has given himself over to the black art of misinforming the public will never produce good journalism, far less a ‘great novel’. Lies entangle and strangle the mind, they corrupt and subvert. They may seem to win out for a while, but the most potent political weapon of all is Truth. Ultimate victory lies with those who tell it. That is why social media are now so important.
It is also the key to the increasing success of the SNP. So long as they remain truthful – what you see is what you get – they will eventually gain the day. What so many English voters saw in Nicola Sturgeon was a reflection of the kind of political culture they wish for, but are denied. Truth speaks to people in a way that lies and deception cannot.
Here’s an archived copy of the full memo text, as published by the Telegraph:
https://archive.today/ssxJL
Just to make sure it stays on record.
It disgusts me that the Telegraph didn’t bother to check with Nicola Sturgeon or the French Ambassador before publishing this story. Given that they did take the time to get comments from Jim Murphy and Willie Rennie, that’s a big red flag over their journalistic integrity.
Judging by the last sentence, the anonymous civil servant who wrote the memo was clearly worried about what might happen if their memo got leaked and made sure to cover themselves.
Of course, that means every identifiable person involved can safely deflect any claim that they lied.
BBC / Daily Mail: “Not our fault, we just reported what the Telegraph said.”
Telegraph: “Not our fault, we just reported what we were given.”
Civil Service: “Not our fault, we did note that there was some doubt about whether the First Minister would really say that.”
Most importantly, the UK Government owes Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador a full retraction and an unconditional apology. I wouldn’t care to bet on it happening, however.
@moujick says: 3 April, 2015 at 10:57 pm:
“Nicola – “That Milliband’s a bawbag”. French ambassador, ” So you want Cameron as PM”? Nicola, “Aye, that’ll be right…”
Indeed, Moujick, we may conclude that in the translation from Wir Ain Lallans Leid to English to French and back into English the weel kent Lallans Leid phrase, “Aye! That’ll be richt”, may indeed have escaped the ken of both the French Ambassador and the Anglo Fourth Estate.
I’ve been laughing all morning at the totally out of control panic in the entire Unionist Establishment since the seven Leaders exposure on the media. I posted, before the programme went off air, that the three, small in stature, ladies stood head and shoulders above the four male leaders.
Most of Scotland and Wales knew this, of course, but it seems to have come as a nasty shock to the system of the bulk of the Englander population and Fourth Estate.
The British Establishment’s Vow V2.0
Overwhelmed by the same level of shock when the polls put the YES camp in the lead last year, the full might of the London based media has once again produced a headline of pure fantasy.
Nicola say’s that she didnae do it. That’s good enough for me. End of. An honest politician is something to behold, we should treasure her, as we do, and send 59 indy minded MP’s to westmonster to aid her sorting that place out.
My only concern is that if she achieves her objective, it may weaken support for our departure
glad the truth has come out and enjoyed reading all your comments, but most of the older generation (like myself)don’t have or don’t like the internet I feel this is what lost the SNP the older generations vote in the indy how do we get the truth to them ?
Malcolm Chisholm ploughs a lonely furrow over at Labour
https://twitter.com/MalcolmChishol1/status/584274670494605312
“Not on twitter last night so missed it all but appalled by Daily Telegraph and hope they and everyone else learn lessons from it”
He’s my MSP. He’s been everything an elected representative should be. The bad news is he’s retiring. The good news is the council apparatchik who thinks she will be replacing him doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of doing so as she is almost universally loathed.
@Donnie says:3 April, 2015 at 11:05 pm:
“BBC Scotland and Network News have made the most of this with extended headline reports, uncritical as ever. The dirty tricks have started.”
The dirty tricks, Donnie, have never stopped. They have always been there. They succeeding Establishments of South Britain have been distorting our real history since Roman Times and the first recorded history.
It is only now, with the growth of the social medias, that Joe & Josephine Public are beginning to get the real truth about many of the lies they have spun. Believe me there are many more current and historic lies yet to be exposed. Much of the Establishments most effective propaganda has not yet been detected by the bulk of the public who, by the way, are often still unknowingly propagating it for the Establishment.
By far their most effective propaganda tool is the deliberate confusion of distinct terms relating to the actual geography of the British archipelago. Just listen, or read, to almost any Cameron statement and you will find it littered with many confusions of common terms.
He often uses several lies in a single sentence. Yet these terms all have distinctly different and precise definitions and the public have been brainwashed so much they cannot distinguish the lies and so propagate the Establishment lies.
Take a single statement often made by the Unionists during the Referendum campaign. “If the Scottish people vote for independence they will stop being British”. Let’s just examine this for truth and lies. First of all they use the term, “Scottish People”, which is quite different in meaning from, “The People of Scotland”.
The first is defined as, “Those of cultural or ethnic birth as Scots”. The second means, “anyone, of any colour creed or country of origin, mainly resident in Scotland”. The abusers seek to drive a wedge between two factions.
Next they use the term British but the whole of Britain is not in the United Kingdom and that is what independence is being sought from. Furthermore the United Kingdom only has two signatories on the treaty and those are two Kingdoms and thus neither countries nor the whole of Britain.
How then can a United Kingdom still exist as the Unionists claim when one kingdom leaves only a single kingdom behind? They are thus confusing four countries with two Kingdoms and claiming the two Kingdoms, (or even the four countries), are all Britain. They are all British but there are another four sovereign administrations in Britain that are not part of the two kingdom, “United Kingdom”.
The Establishment has been at this particular con-trick since long before the United Kingdom Treaty of Union was signed. Note the English claim of a, “Union of the Crowns”, that never was. Both realms remaining independent from 1603 until 1706/7.
Note that in 1688 the English Parliament claimed they had deposed the Monarchy of Scotland by deposing the Monarchy of England. And the two kingdoms began what England calls the Jacobite Rebellion and Scotland calls the Jacobite Uprisings. You cannot rebel against a monarch who is not your own.
So, Donnie, do you get the true picture that the Establishment are masters of propaganda but that the Scots have been part of the propagation of their lies by meekly accepting the lies and wrongly using the English terms to describe the situation?
We have indeed been, and perhaps still are. our own worst enemies.
Why would a Tory paper carry out a “dirty trick” that benefits Labour?
I understand that James Cook is scheduled to chair next week’s BBC Scotland Scottish Leaders’ Debate.
Given his statement re The Telegraph’s attempt to smear Nicola how can be possibly now be allowed to chair the debate.
If the Telegraph, Mirror and BBC don’t retract and apologise, surely Nicola should sue them?
@DS says 12:27 pm
Why etc etc.
DS this country has been run by a binary system since time immemorial. The system has two elements Red & Blue, inter changeable for the benefit of the “establishment” and under the control of the establishment. It is a big con and always has been!
Now if something threatens this two state control system it must be eradicated or the system must change, and the powers that be have been happily manipulating this system for the last 300 years and have it to a fine art, so changing the system to a honest one does not compute.
Divide and rule, Red &blue are two cheeks of the same bum.
Looks like Mr. Gandhi’s statement is following its course.
We are now at Defcon 1 for Westminster and MSM.
“Then they come to fight you”
And true to form the fight is getting dirtier by the day.
Only good thing is to remember after they fight us.
WE WIN
The Auld Alliance again stand together to defy the attempt by british unionists to deny Scotland the right to truth and equality. Viva la France and Ecosse!
The reality in all this is that Simon Johnson tweets his Headline and within 29 mins Nicola tweets back imparting very clearly it is RUBBISH . Never said , never happened.
I do not think that Nicola would have had time to discuss the matter with French @ late o clock to “get their stories straight” so for me , and hopefully the rest of the population , clearly see IT IS A COMPLETE FABRICATION .
No Ifs No Buts ! well maybe Butts !
this little lady frightens the life out of all of them. Lets hope the dirty tricks are as simple as this one. There are a lot of evil minded people in high places who have a lot of power. I saw one on telly yesterday lets hope they do not take his way of dealing with an advisory.