Meet the new year, same as the old year
As politics wakes up from the holidays, any readers still bothering to gaze at the pages of the Scottish media could be forgiven for a crushing sense of deja vu.
In more senses than one.
The Daily Mail kicks off with a “story” about SNP MP Lisa Cameron owning some houses (or, in the standard SNP BAD terminology, a “property empire”), and renting them out, despite being opposed to the sell-off of social housing.
The only problem with it is that Cameron didn’t buy them from social landlords. The description of “ex-council” homes is used to deliberately mislead readers into thinking the properties had been taken out of the social housing stock, when in fact they were already privately-owned, which the Mail eventually grudgingly notes by saying she bought them “after previous owners could not keep up their mortgage payments”.
(One was in fact left to her by her grandmother.)
There’s absolutely no suggestion of any kind of illegality in any of the deals. Cameron has bought some houses from private owners and rented them out for income, just like millions of other people have done. And it’s not even news – the Herald reported all of Cameron’s property interests more than three months ago.
The Herald itself is also apparently working through the list of SNP MPs alphabetically looking for dirt, because it whips up a front-page splash out of the barely-news that the Parliamentary standards office is going to look into allegations about disclosure of Coatbridge member’s Phil Boswell business interests, prompted by a complaint from a defeated Lib Dem candidate.
The story is linked by the paper to revelations a month ago that Boswell had gained advantage from a legal tax avoidance scheme in his previous employment before being elected. In order to make it a front-page lead the Herald is forced to assume the worst possible findings from the standards office and then the worst possible outcome of what could follow such findings:
In the latter case, temporary suspension from the Commons or even expulsion from it could follow.”
That assumption-on-top-of-assumption-on-top-of-assumption is somewhat weakened by the fact that the SNP has – unlike in the cases of Michelle Thomson and Natalie McGarry – unequivocally stated that Boswell has done nothing wrong.
The blaring headline – “MP faces suspension from the SNP” – quickly disintegrates in the article text to the weasel-worded “Given the commissioner has now begun a full investigation into Mr Boswell’s registration of interests, political pressure for him to withdraw from the SNP whip could begin to grow.”
Readers might be forgiven for thinking “Could it, aye?”
The Scotsman’s front page, meanwhile, goes with the claim that if Scottish Labour win the Holyrood election in May – stop sniggering at the back, for Heaven’s sake – it will give first-time buyers a handout of £3000 to help them get on the housing ladder.
That’s not especially interesting, given that all of the major parties are apparently now committed to inflating runaway house prices even further by giving away public money to help people buy properties that they can’t really afford, and of course also given that the headline may as well read “KEZIA DUGDALE WANTS A MAGIC PONY” for all the chance Labour have of being in power to enact the policy.
The fun bit is where the money’s supposedly going to come from.
Incredibly, despite a series of car-crash humiliations for Dugdale herself, Jackie Baillie and Claire Baker the last time they tried to spend the non-existent proceeds of keeping Air Passenger Duty the same as it is now, Labour are having another bash at telling people they can magic extra cash out of thin air by not changing anything, now that they don’t need the imaginary money to mitigate tax-credit cuts.
We might just try reprinting all last year’s Wings articles with new datestamps and hope nobody notices. It seems to be what the rest of the Scottish media is planning.
From abbreviated accounts which don’t show the full picture, but do show current year and previous year summaries, it looks like that company did nothing in the last year, hence didn’t pay Boswell anything hence, under the rules, not guidelines, rules, Boswell “should not” declare the directorship. But it’d need full acounts to verify that, also ones for this year.
Accounts submitted are up to 9 months behind, so in fact this years accounts wouldn’t be due until Dec 2016.
Welcome to 2016!
@ call me dave says at 9:24am …. ‘Called a Nazi by Wings over Scotland on Twitter: ex-MP Anne Begg on social media bullying.’
I posted this on the last thread but it would seem that it’s relevant here.
David Leask of the Herald dredging up a story that was reported months ago. How many ‘REPEATS’ are we going to get between now and May?
WoS (and the SNP) must be really getting to them. Sad sacks!
It would suit them better to start reporting data that’s been / being withheld from the Scots. Data that’s being reported on Wings over Scotland.
Aye, well happy new year folks, hope you’ve had a nice wee break – here we go!
Has Kezia carved that promise into a big rock yet?
I awoke today after a lovely dream where Labour came 3rd in the local election. Still smiling at it.
Seems the Establishment have a very high expectation of SNP MPs, want them to be of a higher class than their own. I wonder why the North of England MP who(allegedly) hit a member of the public is still a member of the Labour Party?
I see they have disowned Mr Danczuck,but must be because of the nature of the complaint.
This time SNP do not disown anyone, stand up as you have so far or Mr Boswell, and for goodness sake at the very least do a Stuart and threaten suing.
The phantom APD money story had me chuckling this morning when I read it in The National. The North Briton has it wrong though, Labour’s not giving any money to first time buyers, instead they plan to hand it directly to the banks.
Same old, same old, bullshit!
If Boswell gets dragged over the coals for tax avoidance then that is a can of worms that no one else in wastemonster will want opened.Glass houses, stones and all that.
Happy new smear!
That’s the English run ‘Scottish’ newspapers for you Rev.
I couldn’t miss the ‘Scottish’ Daily Mail headline as I went to pick up my copy of The National this morning.
I wonder if the MSM Media will pick up on The National’s front page story about the UK’s National Front leader being on Aberdeen Community Council?…..
Best not hold my breath waiting!
Revelations about Thatcher illegally and secretly defrauding Scotland of the equivalent of £Billions. Not a peep from MSM.
A load of absolute nonsense, writing themselves out of a job. How can some people be so ignorant and arrogant. The MSM and BBC are an insult. Most ‘journalists’ are a disgrace. May they continue to decline.
There are already schemes to use public money to subsidise the private housing sector. It benefits the wealthy London S/E private sector.
Vote Kez “I will not rest till every child has a Magic Pony” Dugdale.
You know it makes sense.
As a committed environmentalist, I rushed to inform the Mail of my hypocrisy by buying a house that used to be a greenfield site. The fact that I am the fourth or fifth owner of the property since it ceased to be a greenfield site is neither here nor there.
£250 million, a property empire.
£20 million, a large property portfolio. (Description of Tony Blair’s properties)
£630,000, a 4 bedroom detached house in the more expensive parts of Scotland. (if you’re lucky)
Clearly the Mail thinks SNP MP’s are getting way above themselves and need to get back to their sackcloth and ashes.
Doesn’t Paul Dacre the Mail’s chief editor have extensive investments in Scottish land? Like Dan Snow’s little … erm, Scottish ‘investment’ he is shy in declaring it.
Spot on Stu yet again. Unionist Central Office at No 10 Downing St, declaring it’s strategy for 2016 on the front pages of Scotland’s Unionist gutter press – smear, smear and a bit of bribery.
As the song says, ‘we gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do.’
Vote SNP x 2
There is not an Aberdeen Community council. Community Council are for different areas. A lying BNP member has put themself forward to be a member of a community council. That will likely be corrected. The totally ignorant ‘Press’. Any council taxpayer can join a Community Council if the members agree. It’s a forum with limited statuary power.
@ Grouse Beater: 9.57
Would that Paul Dacre be the same as this landed gent and his good lady?
link to whoownsscotland.org.uk
Lord Rothermere is a tax evading Non Dom, Scottish estate owner? Land is exempt from tax. Murdoch is a criminal who brides public officials and should be in jail. A criminal tax evading Non Dom. The Barclay brothers are tax evading Non Doms who own an island and London Property.
The media may not think that we can fight back ,but they are wrong. I have the ultimate reply at the ballot box,and that is when and where I will reply to their attacks on Scotlands elected representatives.
The Psychology they are using is to drip feed innuendo in the hope that dissolusionment will creep in to some voters.
However,I think we have gone beyond that particular line of reasoning. I have accquired immunity.
Most voters realise that this is the life and death struggle for
a nation,,and whilst the media focus on individuals,the
public are becoming more and more focused on what really
matters. The future of Scotland,and the chance to forge our
own way,and make our own decisions,for ourselves.
That choice is bigger than any individual could ever be.
Let them accuse and point the finger at whoever they like. In my book it makes no difference . I have spent my life listening to stories of corruption in Westminster.It is nothing new. I have watched as the media defended or minimised the indiscretions of the Establishment “worthies” affiliated with their scandal sheets.
I believe nothing they write and none of them has the ability or power to tarnish or derail my hopes for the future of Scotland.
Usual BBC Scotland SNP bad attack propaganda but £3000 out of nowhere for first time house buyers is creepy in the extreme from SLab but they’ve nothing to lose.
Paul Dacre chairman of the Press Standards Committee.
You have to wonder if the journalists ( I use the term loosely) went into work with a hangover and no inspiration. “Let’s dredge up some SNPbad shite for the front page” says equally hung over editor………
“Gotcha boss” and away they go.
If it was not so widespread it would be laughable.
Same old, same old, let’s tear them all a new earse hole this coming election.
SNP X SNP , sounds so good I voted them twice.
Most folk have heard of quantum physics eh, well it seems Slab have adopted a Quantum funding policy, lolz, the same chunk of cash appearing in lots of different places at the same time.
I wonder what the secret to that is? I’m sure we would all like to do that but I suspect this theory like mostly everything else we hear from Slab will turn out to be utter bollox :-0
The MSM just annoy people and make them angry. Any ethics were sold down the river long ago. They are responsible for the 1.5Trillion debt.
Three ‘Newspapers’, three different anti-SNP front pages. I’ve often wondered if they actually consult before their SNP bad stories or if they are co-ordinated by magic.
Anyway my Herald subscription is hanging by a thread, which I suspect is going to snap quite soon.
Beyond any level of giving a shit now at anything the media print about either the SG or SNP representation and that’s a sad state of affairs. They’ve cried wolf and fabricated stories from thin air so many times, I’d have to see photographic evidence, backed by a hand written confession of a representative axe murdering kittens, whilst snorting marching powder bought from funds pilfered from a poor box.
In other words, they can take a hike.
Who’d have thunk it – a defeated Liebdem complaining to Ms Hudson!!!
Has the poor lady not got enough on her plate with her current Carbuncle investigation?
Labour MP Ian Murray was investigated by the Standards Commissioner back in 2013-14 and was forced to apologise to the House. Oddly, it doesn’t appear to have been reported on the BBC, Herald or Scotsman web sites at the time.
link to parliament.uk
It doesn’t matter whether Phil Boswell’s business interests turn out to be in order and legal.
All that matters to unionists is using any excuse they can
to create headlines smearing the SNP and its politicians
at every opportunity.
We are going to see more of this tactic in the run up to the Holyrood elections this year.
Meanwhile in other what the fuck is the world coming to news:
Journalist Mel McLaughlin was reportedly left angry and upset after West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle asked her on a date during an interview on Monday night.
Despite issuing an apology, Gayle has been fined $10,000.
What the fuck is the world coming to?
This is desperate stuff. Holding the Scottish government to account is a good thing. However, going out of the way to deliberately smear SNP politicians is something entirely different, and rather sinister. The trouble for our corporate, unionist media is that they have cried wolf once, nay one hundred times, too often, and most people are simply no longer listening. Those dwindling numbers of people that still do believe the ridiculous SNP Bad stories do so just because they really want to believe them, and they would never vote SNP anyway. The rest of us are wise to their game.
The corporate media death spiral continues. I don’t know which rag will go down the waste pipe first, but I look forward to that event. Next to giving the unionist parties another severe kicking in May 2016, it’s simply the best!. 🙂
Wasn’t Ms Begg one of the Labour MPs forced to apologise for publically calling the SNP Nazis? Their mistake was to o say it publicly.
Prepare for four solid months of this, folks. The media’s going to do all it can to try and convince people not to vote SNP in May, so the smears will come thick and fast.
It’s something to bear in mind when deciding how to use your regional list vote, especially if you’re an SNP voter thinking of voting tactically for another party under the assumption that the SNP are guaranteed to win all the seats in your area. The media is going to be doing all it can to ensure that doesn’t happen, while simultaneously declaring that it will, in the hope that folk get complacent.
Go big! Bigger! Biggest!
link to bbc.co.uk
Paul Dacre chairman of the Press Standards Committee.
So UKOK neo fascism’s got that covered. Who’s in charge of
link to ipso.co.uk
All the far right editors of rags like the torygraph, who are owned by
link to en.wikipedia.org
and they all jump to the BBC UKOK tune, is how you own any democracy, you hope.
Herald, SDM and the Kilted Englishman should be re-branded as the Three Stooges. Although, on reflection, the Three Stooges at least had some comedy value.
Frogesque: “Would that Paul Dacre be the same as this landed gent and his good lady?
link to whoownsscotland.org.uk
Well, I never!
What an amazing coincidence; an entire family sharing the same names and ownership in Scottish property and land!
David Torrance believes newspapers are neutral when it comes to Scotland’s autonomy: link to wp.me
Any reference to a “legal tax avoidance scheme” should quote the HMRC reference number for the scheme which should have been reported on a disclosure form.
Otherwise if tax is avoided eg via stocks & shares or cash ISA, putting money into your pension, buying NS&I savings certs, or any of the other activities within HMRC rules should not be described as a “scheme”.
How pathetic!
If we lived in a fair and just society, we should be able to
prosecute these people for impersonating a journalist and for
securing funds from vulnerable people by deceit.
Each and every day their readers must come across information that tears apart their false claims and then they make the decision to stop buying their propaganda pamphlets.
You would think that these papers would ask themselves why they are being abandoned in such numbers, so presumably, the Elite are happy to pay for their own selfish doctrine to be doled out as the rewards offer an even greater return.
If we look at the accusations against Ms Cameron, it seems that Scottish MPs should not own more than one property, while almost all other MPs from other parties own at least 2, one of them being tax payer funded.
Flipper Darling didn’t make £1,000,000 profit from his housing allowance by settling in one home.
What would the odds be that Flipper has made much more money
from housing than Ms Cameron, but let’s make him a Lord and give him an extra allowance for sleeping in the HoL, and demonise Lisa
I am astonished at the statement “after previous owners could not keep up their mortgage payments”.
Do these corrupt correspondents ever research the who and why behind any of Ms Cameron’s purchases?
I doubt that they do, but the bottom line for me is, if someone
cannot pay a low end mortgage for a short period of time, due to
reasonable circumstances, then they should have received support from the robbers who call themselves the English/UK Tory Party.
What Ms Cameron will have done in every circumstance is to offer
the highest bid available to each and every owner.
If she didn’t purchase them, then every single owner would have
walked away with less money than she was willing to offer.
Have any former owners come forward to complain that she should
have not offered to buy the homes and that they were looking for less money? NO!
I found this article in a copy of the Torygraph back in April’09
“The biggest property empire is owned by James Clappison, the Tory MP for Hertsmere, who owns farmland, a cricket ground and 22 rented houses in and around the villages of Patrington and Withernsea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Five of the houses are jointly owed with his wife. Since 2001-2009, Mr Clappison has claimed £97,892 in second-home expenses.
He declined to comment.”
I would expect that Mr Clappison’s empire has grown considerably
over the last 6-7 years as his party continue to make the rich richer from the sweat of the working classes and our resources.
I’d like to give him and the Daily Mail an opportunity to now
comment and compare these 2 sets of circumstances.
Last ramble, I would really like to know who co-ordinates the daily diatribe against the SNP. It is obviously a staged managed situation to fill the newspaper stands with a barrage of SNP
Bad stories from every newspaper.
Most countries would have expected front page headlines highlighting the Chinese Stock Market crash and its implications,
or the identification of the Londoners involved in the latest IS
murders, but no, we have trumped up embarrassing nonsense for the hard of understanding.
Despicable charlatans each and every one of them.
Westminster Politics definition:Poli= Many/ tics= Parasites.
Happy New Year,sad old news.
Hahahahahahaha
Sorry for laughing Rev but F£k me! The yoons just cannae cut it.
A lot of fear from the undecideds is the fact that there is no one else but the snp. As long as the unionist parties keep putting out pish the more it seems plausible to people that an ISc*%&”^d would be a one party state.
I have said it time and again, the unionists incompetence is their ace card.
Too wee, too puir, too glakit, the people really believe this because they have been brain washed all their lives, their parents and grandparents lives too. The independence movement has now hit the “wall” and how we break through it is now more serious than ever.
Words fail me, I don’t have that gift but I’m not a total socialist or a capitalist. For me, a honest and democratic country combines the two, one cannot be without the other, its just human nature. Lean too far either way and imbalance occurs. I do not aspire to a socialist utopia as depicted by Rise and the such or to a Swiss style governance as wanted by conservative nationalists. Maybe I’m the biggest dreamer of them all!
I digress, Its a catch 22. The unionist parties put in proper leaders then why is there a need for independence? They keep the underachievers in place and what diversity do we have in an Independent Scotland?
I just believe that the people decide in our own country how we go forward and that I would accept. Either way, because it is what my fellow country men want and not a foreign power.
I think this rambling post points to the question of how do I instil self confidence to the remaining 50% of the population?
Getting boring isn’t it – yawn. I agree with everything above but we’ve all said it all before.
Auld Rock
The sooner we break free from this ‘crap on Scotland’ union the better.
SNP x 2 May 2016.
Message to the MSM in neon lights-IT ISN’T WORKING! COMPRENDE?
The Media forgets and dislikes the fact that the Electorate are who holds the Government to account and not them
The Media desperately scurry around making up anything they can to muddy the waters in order to make themselves relevant
The Invention of modern technology has basically consigned newspapers to the bin so “Journalists” don’t like it, but are unable to deal with it because, it would seem they themselves are their own problem
Their inability to just simply report the facts and the truth is what’s got them where they are today
If a “Journalist” has an opinion then he /she should headline that fact before indulging in mindless speculation and describing same as fact
You’d think when they go to “Journalist school” somebody would teach them how to do it properly and then instead of being angry wee people at the voters for finding them out the people might actually start having some respect for good writing
It’s not going to happen though is it? “Journalists will go down with their ships still screeching at the people who really are important
And that’s us, the voters, and we’re all Baad!!
@ Auld Rock
Agreed, but we need to keep saying it.
Stu. Worth a wee look at the story on the Scotsman site this new unionist party to challenge the SNP,APB or whatever shite name,was too busy laughing.Hilarious!
The Unionist media policy on the SNP is ‘throw enough mud and hope some will stick’. The problem for them is it makes them look childish, diminishes their standing as a NEWS communicator, turns off their own readership and makes them more irrelevant to the public.
Worse than that for Westminster elite that’s driving the policy – it’s not reducing support for the SNP.
They are desperate and it shows. They know that the Union is dying. They are desperate to maintain the fiction that the 2014 narrow referendum win is a ‘settled will of the people’ when every opinion poll shows the independence movement growing. Yet another SNP victory in the polls would only highlight their fiction and prove that the Union is dead all but in name.
They are doing everything possible to prevent the SNP from calling another indyref. The death of their media is collateral damage.
We have them running scared and scuttling oot repeat drivel cause there is nothing they can do about any of it.
We have the power. They fucking hate it. Tough.
@ John J. says at 10:24 am … Three ‘Newspapers’, three different anti-SNP front pages. I’ve often wondered if they actually consult before their SNP bad stories or if they are co-ordinated by magic.”
John there’s no doubt that this is being co-ordinated … ”You report that tomorrow and we’ll report this”. And so it will go on until May … and beyond.
It’s also clear that they’re (and others) delving into the background of every SNP MSP hoping to find a spot of so-called dirt that they can then ‘expand upon’: Grovel around looking for some tall tale (often a repeat) to keep them in work …. to sook up the anti-SNP boss’s backside. If they weren’t so dangerous you would have to feel sorry for them.
Now they’re trying to make out that Lisa Cameron has committed some kind of a crime because she’s a successful business woman whilst these Tory and Labour supporting newspapers are covering up the fact that hundreds of their political cronies are in the same boat, if not much better off than she is.
Maybe we should start playing them at their own game by delving into their backgrounds, their political ‘pals’ backgrounds, better still their owners such as Murdoch, and reporting the info on here.
Whatever the case they still don’t get it. They’ve not got smart as advised recently. Many people can see right through their ploy. They stand in front of the news-stands and see SNP Baad, SNP Baad on the front of every newspaper and if there’s one thing the Scots can’t stand is a crowd picking on a singular person / faction. And they’re also not daft contrary to Westminster / Unionist opinion.
On a personal note I was talking to an 85 year old woman last night and she brought this very subject up with me. Said it was very obvious what they were trying to do …. and very annoying. Maybe we should just let them get on with it as they’re actually driving people into the (very welcoming) arms of the SNP.
Watching the constant outpouring of SNP Bad I’ve been trying to pin down an understanding of why this is happening.
In the light of the process that is the Scottish Independence movement, where we are witnessing X2 separate entities, in a supposedly unitary state, inevitably drifting apart, why are Scottish media journos and commentators persisting with SNP Bad?
I’ve tried to answer that; so is it one of the following?
Is it a circling of the wagons?
A last ditch defence?
An effort to preserve at least some unionist representation in Holyrood as the basis of a future fight back?
Force of habit and a deeply entrenched psyche of SNP Bad?
What is evident is that Scotland is cutting loose from rUK, it’s an obvious fact and an evolution generated from within the Scottish electorate.
The journalists and commentators must and will be able to recognise this; so why do they persist with SNP Bad?
There is the possibility of them being under intense pressure from vested interests, e.g. the ownership of the Media organisation that they work for. That would make sense, after all, everyone has to earn a crust somehow.
But I don’t buy that. No it’s something more powerful.
It’s not simply die hard Unionism, because the Union is ending and that is obvious to all, so that excuse doesn’t fit in these circumstances.
It’s like pissing against the wind; eventually you recognise the futility of your attempts and simply stop trying.
No, the continuing efforts from the Scottish media to do SNP Bad is not Unionism.
It can only be explained as a loyalty to another country, another political landscape, another identity, another culture and, by definition, a rejection of another.
It’s a rejection of Scotland.
What we witness from Scottish Journalists, media Commentators and advocates of SNP Bad is loyalty to England. Pure and simple.
I saw a really apt tweet the other day about how it seems the Scottish Press feel it is their duty to hold the electorate to account. That is it in a nutshell, until we vote the way they want, we will be bombarded with distortions and smears. Every supposed misdemeanour blown out of proportion and no real information or scrutiny where it is due.
I don’t agree with selling off social housing but once it is in the market it is fair game for anyone who wants it. The real crime is not replacing it and every party needs to be more proactive in doing that.
Meanwhile Lucy Allan is not to be investigated!
With regard to today’s Leask story, doesn’t he deny ever reading Wings? Maybe he should from now on…
I’m not necessarily the brightest or most observant bloke in Scotland but it’s looking pretty obvious that the media is now full-on clickbait. Anyone on twitter will notice how the ‘journalists’ are at it in order to promote interest in themselves and their ‘newspapers’. My new year’s resolution is not to visit their websites because I really don’t see any benefit. Some people used to think that by reading the comments and writing comments themselves, somehow they were keeping up the fight. I’m really not convinced.
By the way, here’s an insight into the mind of an SNPbad ordinary bloke to give you an idea of who you might be thinking can be persuaded to switch to a YES voter:
This guy is Masters’ educated, lives in nice middle class area, and is a finance director in largish company:
“So, Neil, what do you think about that SNP woman who was buying houses off poor desperate people and selling at a profit?”
“Michele Thomson?”
“Eh, dunno what her name is but SNP claim to be socialist and that’s not very socialist. Whether her actions are legal or not, they are immoral. She should stand down”
“Hmmm, what do you think of that Conservative MP, Lucy Allan who fabricated a death threat. Should she stand down?”
“Never heard about that. I don’t think that can be true”
So the SNP Bad meme is Bad because it stifles criticism of the SNP, and that’s Bad, but the SNP Bad meme will be maintained every day until May regardless of it promoting a Bad reaction among Bad SNP types because the SNP are Bad, and that’s Bad.
Right.
ScottishPsyche at 11.34am
Was this the tweet you saw?
link to twitter.com
It seems to have struck a chord with many-502 retweets
@Scottish Psyche
Good post, agree with what you say.
That is indeed how it feels, holding the electorate to account!
We are such stupid, ignorant brainwashed robots – continually voting the wrong way. It would be funny, except it’s disgusting that the alleged Press hold us in such low esteem.
I think there has been so much disrespect, that people are immune now. They know who serves Scotland best, and will vote SNP x2 come May.
Still it goes on. LAbour MSP wants FM to investigate / give a statement regarding Phil Boswell.
Is he honestly saying he wants the FM to pre-judge Standards Commissioner investigation?
Thought the MSM was bad…..but this man takes the biscuit!! Maybe he is just trying to prove he is doing something ( despite how stupid) before he goes befor electorate ?
@ Ian Mackay
They keep banging on about the settled will of the people because they know its not settled. 75%-25% would be settled but as they know 55%-45% is too close for comfort.
I don’t know the % of “non Scots born” who voted no, but would be interesting to know if ” Johnny Foreigner” helped save the union. The very people that the “British” detest. How ironic would that be?
Interesting to note that the Mail article on Dr. Cameron’s empire (linked above at – left to her by her grandmother.) despite photographing all her properties were unable to find any ‘shocked’ or unhappy tenants.
Perhaps they forgot to ask?
and WOW, the shock and horror of knowing:
‘On top of the £74,000 Westminster salary to which she is entitled, Dr Cameron receives £150 a month from her company, Psychological Services Scotland, for five hours’ work supervising the reports of an assistant forensic psychologist.’
Clearly a major embarrassment that someone should take so little from their own company!
PS. nice wee precis about uk/saudi arms trade by Michael Gray in today’s National
A glimpse of village life Aberdeenshire style. We have a Hyacinth Bucket character: can’t be just unionist, has to be Anglophile; sees herself as key to the local Tory fight back. Not so long ago she was gleefully spreading a tale of SNP cronyism gleaned from the pages of the Mail on Sunday. Apparently, if a house buyer were to approach Springfield Builders, there would be a guarantee of a mortgage from the Scottish Government. Even the Mail wasn’t quite saying that, but the article’s outrage couldn’t possible be over a ‘government guaranteed/indemnified mortgage,’ she could only see a scheme to support cronies. And as for windmills, they’re the product of an unholy alliance of SNP, SNP-crony businesses and SNP-supporting farmers, shameful profiteers all. Delusional just does not cut it.
We’re not short of folk whose swivelling eyes will do all the spinning necessary to get what they what from the papers, “Better the devil you know, you know.” Why would they engage critical faculties that would only take away any of those targets to blame for a world leaving them behind?
Thanks for the space Rev, WOS is as good for my blood pressure as the Bucket woman and her cronies aren’t.
Interestingly enough under labour’s tenure more money was created out of thin air than at any time in history.
Unfortunately this was all debt based money and the canny gordon brown (meaning canny manage the economy) allowed banks to create £1 trillion in just ten years ploughing more than half into the mortgage market.
This ten year period saw house prices triple benefiting mostly brown’s mates in the city.
Scotland: the only country in the world where the press believe it’s their duty to hold the electorate to account?
thanks for that link, Lollysmum (11.50). Some other tweets from that conversation which made me smile –
Scotland: the only country in the world that can’t include its largest industry in its GDP figures.
Scotland: the only one party state governed by another party in another state
Scotland: the only country in the world where taking responsibility is seen as a cop out
‘I don’t know the % of “non Scots born” who voted no, but would be interesting to know if ” Johnny Foreigner” helped save the union. The very people that the “British” detest.’
Oh man, if that is what happened it would be enough to drive you insane.
How much would it take to relieve Johnston Press of Scotsman Publications in the face of circulationn figures indictaing imminent departure down The Swanee?
JP as an organisation has been racking up massive losses for years and its shares are bobbing around in single figures of pence.
Since Thompson Org. sold out to the loathesome Barclay Brothers Scotsman Pubs has been systematically asset stripped.
The Barclays promptly sold off the magnificent Scotsman Building and built a new Scotsman Building at Holyrood.
Once they acquired The Telegarph they lost interest and flogged off Scotsman Pubs. to JP but retaining (I think) the Holyrood building which was rented by JP.
JP soon closed down and sold off the Edinburgh Print Operation.
They then abandoned the Holyrood building and decdamped to some (no doubt rented) rooms in Orchard Brae House off Queensferry Road.
This asset stripping raises the question ‘Just how much is Scotsman Pubs worth?’
Given the disastrous decline in circulation of the papers just how much are the actual titles worth given the fact that The Scotsman in particular is now regarded by most people as an object of ridicule.
Other assets – A few desks and chairs plus some IT equipment and maybe some vehicles some or all of which may be leased.
The total value can’t be much so why can’t something be done to take the papers off JP’s hands by crowd funding and turning what are currently ludicrous propaganda rags back into newspapers.
Of course,if as I suspect, The Scottish Media is being supported in their relentless campaign of SNPbad by some WM slush fund the likes of JP will be quite happy to carry on shovelling out their daily diet of lies and distortion to their few remaining blinkered and brainwashed readers.
Even though circulation figures for all of the MSM are in freefall their continued existence still allows BBC Scotland to pass on their lies and distortion as part of a wonderful incestuous relationship of universal unionist bias when they review the papers.
I know the APD money doesn’t actually exist, but even pretending it does…that’s Labour now spent it, what, 4 times already now? Is it a golden egg laying goose, there to finance everything SLab can dream up?
Amazing how stupid they think voters are.
The Scottish Unionist Media seem to have adopted the role that SLab used to have.
Their symbiotic relationship has been partially dissolved by SLab losing so many MP’s and will suffer severe consequences when SLab are further eroded at the SE 16.
It is striking how similar the ScUM reaction to the electorate choosing the SNP as their representatives is to the SLab GE Campaign where SLab blamed the electorate for being hoodwinked rather than analysing where their campaign and policies, supporting the TOries being one good example, were to blame.
You would think that the Media would be aware of how well that strategy played out for SLab.
After May if SLab and STory do as badly as they did at the GE. Who are the media going to use for interview, commentary and analysis?
The old Labour spin Doctors seem to have more political longevity than the political parties they used to represent.
It is a negative return again as this tactic just serves to illustrate how non representative the media have become.
More power to their elbows!
@onescot
re % of non UK citizens: I happen to know large numbers of people from the Baltics (won’t go into how I know them but for one thing, there were long discussions on certain social media where they hang out – several hundred so decent sample). Anyway, it appeared to be around 80-20 AGAINST independence. Reasons varied, but there was genuine fear of a) exit from EU b) loss of jobs/economic collapse c) Scotland was generally too wee d) those of Russian ‘ethnicity’ tended also to like the idea of a powerful prestigious country (no laughing please)
I am a slow walker (when it comes to politics)but I always walk forwards,never back,I look at the MSM articles (on here) and wonder wtf.
They never learn,slagging off the people you want to vote for you has worked really well for them so far.
I say let them continue,keep it up,as with the EBC the more desperate/biased they become,the funnier/sadder it is to watch.
N. B. Every time you hear an ice cream van’s tune,it means another new YES voter 😉
Well, I see Duggers has gone for the old line of paying money to people to help them buy a home.
Some people will go YAY.
Those of us with sense will go HOLD ON A FUCKING SECOND! Why are we once again, as tax payers, funding a already bloated and unattainable property market?
Paying peoples down payment comes out of our pockets! Its a big swindle and worst of all it totally ignores the problem of house prices, and the banks, and mortgages.
Does nobody remember 2007?
Why the fuck are we continuing to feed the disgusting corrupt bloated monster that is the casino banking sector? Why do they with one hand say people should be able to get a home, but fail to address the real issue?
Simple answer is a quick buck and a way of fiddling GDP.
Saw these headlines last night on Twitter and thought they were quite funny. Just the usual #SNPBad crap. And the press complain that nobody takes them seriously? Lol.
That Scotsman front page is a cracker, though. Scottish Labour now seem to be basing all their policies on: “we have this bag of magic beans”. And the Scotsman journos don’t even question it. It makes Labour and their cheerleaders look like utter cretins.
Re:-Johnny foreigner. I’m pretty certain there have been polls that showed incomers did vote against Indy in their droves. Maybe something to do with Ruthies infamous burly unionist blokes scaring the shit out of certain nationalities by telling them they would be chucked out of an independent Scotland.
Giving Goose says:
“… outpouring of SNP Bad I’ve been trying to pin down an understanding of why this is happening…. them being under intense pressure from vested interests … It’s not simply die hard Unionism, because the Union is ending and that is obvious…”
It’s hard to get a handle on exactly how all this is being driven. I think it is clear there is a degree of coordination from somewhere. It always seems orchestrated.
The problem is, it is all against a background of poor and under financed journalism with widespread plagiarism. That itself throws up a lot of stoor.
One aspect which I believe to be an accurate view, is that Unionism is a phenonimem found in Scotland (and NI) but not in London. The Establishment in London does not want a Union between equals, they want Greater England. They are not Unionists, they are Imperialists.
I also reckon that many in Scotland who consider themselves in favour of a union, seem to be unaware that it is one sided. They want Scotland to be in Union with England. The London Establishment simply wants to rule and control Scotland.
So … Bad journalism, strings being pulled, one sided Scottish Unionism, underlying imperialism … Confusion in the enemy ranks, I believe is one way to view it!
There’s one aspic about these unionists attacks against the SNP that hasn’t been mentioned and it is this.
I believe they are designed to intimidate and demoralise the SNP group at Westminster and thereby making them a less effective opposition.
FFS, considering 630k a “property empire” is a bit parochial, isn’t it?
Last year the average price for individual terraced properties n London was £600,949.
So Lisa Cameron could buy a nice but fairly modest house for that money near her main place of work.
Ken500@10.03am
O/T sorry
In reply to your comment, yep just looked it up and no such thing exists. Aberdeen has lots of community councils! You get paid a not insignificant sum for being on a CC.
The crap being spouted about a bnp guy will no doubt confirm to my NE of South Britain friends, that Scotland is definitely going to be a ‘fascist country’ as of May ’16.
Their UKok democratic government, might just have to step in to bring Scotland back from the brink of fascism, and the inevitable one party state dictatorship that the Britnat establishment are so concerned about. So nice of them to care so much about Scotland in this one nationism.
We shouldn’t be complacent about the conduct of the media. It’s all very well saying it isn’t working, but I rather suspect the hostile media remains convinced it does. Who is to say they are wrong? For right or wrong, people who are smeared often stay smeared. It’s hateful, but it’s true.
For me, it’s an Emperors new clothes scenario; once you see the distortion and manipulation of the truth, you cannot “un-see” it ever again. I suspect most people here are the same. But there is a substantial number of our people who still cannot see the media for what it is. It’s not that they are stupid, but they are like drones in a hive; worker bees with no incentive to figure it out the bigger picture.
However, once alert to this propaganda, you begin to realise the contempt Westminster has for us doesn’t restrict itself to propaganda, but they manipulate our economy with the same cynicism. They manipulate our industry likewise, they manipulate our welfare and health, they exploit our skills and weaknesses and resent when we complain about it. This isn’t government, it is nothing more than subjugation. Were it not for this ubiquitous veil of distorting propaganda, it surely must sail pretty close to hostile subjugation and it is most definitely hostile exploitation.
How will it end? Aye, that’s the big question. I do not know the route the path will take us, but when we do become masters in our own country, and we will, all these Grima Wormtongue sorry excuses for journalists best have fall back properties and jobs somewhere else outside of Scotland. The air here will be all the fresher once they leave and our country can at last recover from these endless weeping sores. Let them find someone else’s scabs to pick.
£630k is a property empire? Is that a joke or has the holiday break and Star Wars just gone to these idiots, ie, writers of these pretendy newspapers heads. If that’s a property empire, then christ knows what the likes of Davie Camoron, his Eton pals and the likes of the queen have in their property portfolios. They must own the whole of the universe then!
But then, Scotland is just a little teensy, little biddie, poor, useless, no resources, can’t manage on it’s own country, where you can get much more for your cash if you want a second or third home, and a voters ticket, but you really live in South Britain.
Hi ArtyHetty.
Members and office bearers of a Community Council receive NO payment. They are, basically, volunteers. I know this – I was vice-chair of a CC for 5 years.
The CC gets around £400 a year to cover expenses, like stationery, etc.
So if I am thinking this through correctly, MSM are whinging about SNP people having a “property empire” through buying former council houses that had previously been bought by people who struggled to pay the mortgage.
Now, Kez is planning on giving between £3,000 and £6,000 to banks to help people who, by the fact they need the help, will buy a house they can barely afford.
Then years down the line,(if by some miracle Kez wins election) some of those people “helped” by Kez, lose a job, get ill, divorced etc and the house becomes unaffordable. The house has to be sold, to someone with, say, a”property empire”.
MSM headline in 2022, “SNP MP/voter/member in Housing swindle”
What is the supervening social necessity of such homogenised headlines- hardly up there with ‘Watergate’.
Is it to disguise and deflect from the truth- that the 30 year neoliberal economic experiment is failing-inequality globally and within nations has worsened (especially in the UK).The rich are getting richer, the ‘middle classes’ are living in a state of perpetual financial insecurity, the poor are poorer and global exploitation of workers with the accompanying erosion of worker’s rights are at a level in the 21st century that would shock Marx.
So much real news out there to take up print space but who looks to the MSM for that anymore.
Noam Chomsky commented in 1995-
‘the best way to defend civil liberties is to collectively build a movement for social change that has broad-based appeal, that encourages free and open discussion…the systems of private tyranny…are also not there by natural law but by human decisions.They can be dismantled and democratised.
What concentrated privilege can’t live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing better the next time…Real research and inquiry is always a collective activity… a large contribution to changing consciousness, increasing insight and understanding, and leading to constructive action’
(‘A dialogue with Noam Chomsky’ The Harvard Educational review 1995 65(2).
…expressed politically at the ballot box.A vote for our party of independence is the collective event that is required to produce the social change that most of us would want for ourselves,for subsequent generations, for a more just and peaceful world.
The Daily Mail accuses someone of hypocrisy?! Aye, it is laughable. But BritNat media co-ordination of SNPbaaaad looks set to continue. Cue bbc innocent[!] faces saying “we’re only reporting what’s in the newspapers”.
I’ll wager that it’ll be The Scotsman that goes out of business first.
Business Opportunity: When Scotland’s last newspaper are gone, rabbit hutches will still need lined, jackies sleeping on park benches will still need to be kept cozy and those fresh out of toilet paper will still beg for a last ditch alternative. “Pulp sheets” will fill the gap – each using carefully selected algorithms that feature the traditional portions of royal pictures and SNP baad.
And……. Cockers kicks off the New Year with – SNP voters self deluded.
Only trolling of the highest order from the master.
I am settling down for 5 solid months of this and 24/7 at that with no days off at all.
I made the mistake of having to serve my mothers dinner when Disreporting Jackie was on and I counted at least two SNP BAD stories. I bet I missed another one as well when I was heating up the mithers dinner.
I am also allowing for one month of pure anti Scottish hate post the election in the Brit Nat Press and Media if the Pro Indy parties have a majority of any kind.
Re: ‘Johnny Foreigner’ voting pattern, I found this:
Finally, according to YouGov only 26% of those who were born in England, Wales or Northern Ireland voted Yes, little more than half the equivalent figure (49%) amongst those born in Scotland. In contrast, the division of the vote amongst those who were born outside the UK (many of whom would have been Irish, Commonwealth or EU citizens) was much less distinctive, with 41% saying they voted Yes. Meanwhile, people’s sense of national identity was also reflected in how they voted. In Ipsos MORI’s two final polls, no less than 88% of those who said they were Scottish and not British voted Yes, compared with 65% of those who said they were ‘More Scottish than British’ and 26% of those who felt ‘Equally British and Scottish’. Amongst the two remaining small groups, only 9% of those who said they were ‘More British than Scottish’ identified themselves as Yes voters, and just 13% of those who said they were British and not Scottish.
here’s the full link:
link to blog.whatscotlandthinks.org
These rags are being subsidised by a UK black ops fund. They are coordinated in their attacks..i.e. daily and weekly sustained targeted indviduals e.g MPS or MSPs as well as the SG.
Despite the growing move to the SNP and INDY, These ‘newspapers’ ignore the demographics and the consequential decline in income,… yet they increase their attacks like maddened dying animals.
The unanimity of their journalists pro-union contributions points to similar pressure from the very top of the political food chain.
The REF showed the extent that Cameron and his gang will go to pressurise and humiliate the Scots very existence…Australia, Usa , EEC etc. all lining up to insult our aspirations to be a grown up democratic State.
Everyone of a pro-Indy mind now accepts the BBC is nothing but a mouthpiece of the British State…so why not accept the press are and have been another arm of the same monolithic Imperial oppressor?..Once you do, there’s nothing to be surprised about…other than to make you feel implacable hatred towards these organs and a desire to see them all fail.
Dugdale n Baillie must be Flying at 30.000 ft an sniffing the fumes.
The coordination of our media bias isn’t difficult to understand…
The owners are mostly English/Elite types who strongly believe in a Low tax/no Tax Neo Liberal Union, that suits them just fine.
They would therefore look to hire editors/journalists/staff, who reflected this view.
The editors would also be under instruction to weed out any journalists who did not ‘toe the line’ or in the words of some journalists during the Indy Campaign ‘Go Native’
I think the term used for this type of set up is management bias, and is often used to describe what happens at the BBC.
We often ask why some newspapers keep printing the guff that is losing them readers, well the answer is simple…
They have no choice!
Oh I also notice that the BBC omitted the ‘Fact’ that Kezia would pay for this mortgage help from the APD money…
Saving her blushes perhaps?
I was very busy over the past so not commenting on wings. I was though listening to the radio. On hearing that labour were to boost first time buyers I laughed and said to myself, “Wonder what money tree they are going to crop to fund that lot – Air Passenger Duty again I expect”.
It’s hilarious, This lot should do stand-up – Oh! Wait! They wouldn’t get away with such old jokes.
The Scottish Daily Mail is speaking to their readers who probably are mainly unionist. Just ignore the lot of them and move forward.
Re Phil Boswell, I did a wee check at Companies House, and guess what, they know of no company called Boswell and Johnson. How can you be a director of a company which doesnt exist (or exists no longer)?
I also wondered why in a partnership, Phil Boswell would be the only director, then I remembered that Samuel would be otherwise engaged on his dictionary or on tours of Scotland. Quite literary for an MP. Well done Phil!