Wings Over Scotland

They’re all just anti-English.

Why don’t some of these people, join the party and seek to stand in their own constituency? Can’t be outwith the realms of possibility.
Not too late is it?

Thepnr
The PNR surely follows nomalisation of the SNP? 🙂

I wonder if BBC in Scotland/British Labour in Scotland, will report this outpouring of the usual fear and loathing we have all come to expect from south of the border? 🙂

Just shows how much attention was paid to the referendum debate in England. Nicola being the best politician on these isles is not news to us.

Erm…Arthur Scargill?

As expected Nicola kicked ass, way to go , rest of the ladies were not far behind , results night could look interesting after this.

As I’ve said before I’m no fan of Nicola Sturgeon (personal reasons – and no, I’m not a troll) but her performance last night along with the sort of reactions shown above made me truly emotional.

It brought a lump to my throat that there are still people with compassion who will support her anti-austerity, anti-poverty stance.

It was also good to see Lord Ashcroft give his respect despite him being from an opposition standpoint.

the response also highlights perhaps the main reason the media constantly try to ignore the SNP or omit them from debates where the reaction to them would be supportive.

The Establishment are rattled. The BBC (BBCQT in particular) are still a disgrace.

Good old Scottish down-to-earth common sense wins through.

All are welcome, only, when coming to Scotland, Westminster baggage must be left at the border for reasons of safety and sanity. Support Scotland’s legitimate right to have its autonomy comprehensively restored.

Our ability to create happiness in a fully democratic state is severely constrained, as you now perceive.

I think Russ Cockburn’s tweet re. Archie Gemmill’s wonder goal against Holland, might have pushed credulity a little. 😉

Nicola’s class shone through last night and showed up the Westminster mob for the shallow self-serving creeps that they actually are.

Many eyes in England were opened up to why Scotland is changing for the better.

The praise for Nicola from rUK just shows what happens when the SNP gets the oxygen of publicity.

There is no doubt that the MSM is responsible for producing hyper negativity about Scotland, the SNP, Alex Salmond and our right to self determination. It has now backfired on an epic scale. The fact that Nicola has put forward reasoned arguments that actually meet the aspirations of many rUK voters is a winner.

The SNP showcased their leader and policies to around 10 Million viewers. The genie is out the bottle.

welcome, friends!

At the very least, progressive liberal England could see SNP Scotland is not the enemy, according to usual BBC, Daily Heil, Torygraph, Sun etc creep show.

Still get goose bumps watching this.

link to youtube.com

It was good to see that rather inconvenient truth about child poverty being aired last night.
200000 children in Scotland now live in poverty with a further 100000 expected to join them because of the austerity policies. The levels of child poverty in Scotland are significantly higher than many other European countries (Denmark 10.2% Norway 9.4%). 1/5 children are also ‘multiply deprived’ – they have 3 or more deprivations-lack of food / heating/clothing.
Gordon Brown in May 2000 in his speech as Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Child Poverty Action Group stated
‘Action on child poverty is the obligation this generation owes to the next; to millions of children who should not be growing up in poverty; children who because of poverty, deprivation and the lack of opportunity have been destined to fail even before their life’s journey has begun…unless we act life will never be fair. Children in deprived areas need, deserve and must have government on their side, a government committed to a fighting for social justice’
This echoes the then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s comments in 1999 in a book chapter ‘Ending Child Poverty; Popular welfare for the 21st century’
‘Poverty should not be a birthright. Being poor should not be a life sentence…Our historic aim will be for ours to be the first generation to end child poverty, and it will take a generation…I believe it can be done’
Despite the rhetoric on child poverty the progress from 1996-2004/5 began to stall under the policies of Labour before the recession with the low growth of wages for low skilled workers & rising costs of basic goods/shrinkage of job opportunities due to increase of low skilled jobs and fewer middle skilled jobs. The coalition government are merely speeding up the process- increasing the gap and increasing the gradient of child health inequalities and income inequality.
This means that currently in the UK the richest 10% own the 60% of the national wealth- the poorest 50% own less than 10% of the national wealth and generally less than 5% i.e. they own virtually nothing. This is putting us on the same trajectory as the US where the most recent survey by the federal reserve shows that the top 10% own 72% of the US wealth and the bottom half just 2%.
Basically the poorer half of the population here are as poor as they were in the past –just as in 1910 they owned 5% of the wealth that is the same statistic today and the percentage of households who fall below society’s minimum standard of living has increased from 14% to 33% in the last 30 years.
The drivers of child poverty-
Work is no longer a solution to poverty ,Social Security no longer acts as a safety net and flat wages and the rising cost living means that poor families pay a ‘poverty premium’ a higher cost for goods & services –additional spend £1639-8% income for families around the poverty line.
The UK has a very high rate of low pay in the developed world. In the UK 1 in 5 employees is low paid earning 2/3 below average wage. 2/3 of poor children live in working households and 19% of the poorest children (bottom quintile) & 17% near-poor children (2nd quintile) live in houses where they can’t afford heating. 1 in 7 children arrives at school hungry-many families in working poverty are not entitled to free school meals (SG has again shown the way with free school meals).
It took almost 100 years after Joseph Rowntrees’s 1902 ‘Poverty’ study where his insights into the idea of poverty revolved around the notion of a minimum or ‘breadwinner’ wage to introduce a minimum wage in 1999.Now we are in an age where the minimum wage is no longer viable as a solution to child poverty.
The Children’s Commissioner in England has warned the UK government that it ‘is at risk of not meeting its obligations to children and young people under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’ because of its retrogressive welfare policies.
The Scottish Government have chosen to mitigate against a political structure which feeds on the existence of inequality and the mistrust of whole sectors of society by propagating a punitive and stigmatising agenda. They absorbed the cut to Council Tax Benefit and replaced the abolished components of the social fund to reduce some of the impacts. Between 2008/09- 2011/12- the % of children living in poverty in Scotland decreased from 21% to 15% (reduction of 60000 children)-but with the looming welfare cuts and austerity measures this trend will be reversed.
There is an unassailable evidence base of the toxic effects of child poverty on the lifecourse- any MP who votes for austerity measures has become disconnected with his or her conscience and humanity. WM should ponder this as London now has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Happily for Scotland the YES movement have developed an alternative to TINA, we understand that there is something called society and we are all part of it. A vote for the Unionist agenda is a vote for social death therefore put your vote where it really counts in May

Never doubted we had progressive friends across these islands for a second. 🙂

Well all of the above tweeters would be most welcome to move to Scotland – they can come for tea anytime!

Nicola, Natalie and Leanne were brilliant, especially Nicola. Three intellient articulate women looked and sounded human, not perfect, but real – like us. And on that basis alone they outshone the male order mannequins mouthing soundbites and blowing dog whistles.

Farage was reptilian, Cameron an automaton, Clegg a sleazy salesman and Ed just looked like he was still practising his speech in the mirror.

Nicola was the undoubted star but I was pleased to see Natalie Bennett stand up well and (I have to admit) I’m slightly dazzled for Leanne Wood. Ahem.

I saw a tweet which read: “I bet the ghosts of the suffragettes were punching the air tonight.”

Absolutely.

Hope you’re feeling a little less lonely down there, Stu.

I thought all of the ladies did exceptionally well.

They all exposed Labour’s austerity agenda to the extent that most of the MSM in Scotland will not report. Hugely uncomfortable for Labour MP’s in Scotland.

If you only got your information from the English media you could be forgiven to imagine that the SNP are a group of swivel eyed fanatics bent on destruction and murder of the first born. When people discover that they are actually a fairly sober and well organised political group they’re bound to be pleasantly surprised.

Time for the SNP to start a branch office in England, appoint a branch manager who doesn’t talk p*sh, then when Nicola becomes PM she can sort out the ConDemLab mess then get Scotland her freedom.

Nicola back in Edinburgh and wearing green, smart move.
She’s winning hearts and minds folks!

Tea or coffee – I’ll even bring out my posh Italian coffee maker. We all them up here – FM included lol. Only 1 kitchen tho 🙁

We’re on our way folks!

I felt very moved last night watching Rev’s twitter account fill up with these tweets, I truly feel we are blessed in Scotland, to have Nicola, Patrick and Richie and vast swathes of our population so engaged with the essential values that any decent and human society should aspire to.

Fairness, social inclusion, and a deep and nuanced understanding of where the systemic causes lie, and therefore where the essential solutions need to be applied.

Not for us the knee-jerk tweaking and focus group thinking and dog whistling rhetoric that has engulfed the entire political establishment of Westminster and by this means has brainwashed millions into believing a false narrative disseminated by that very establishment’s mouthpiece: MSM.

As we can’t get our independence right now, then we will apply all of our talent, all of our integrity and all of our energies to ensure we bring everyone on these isles up to speed and we will, by so doing: shape our own destiny.

Nicola Sturgeon is a credit to Scotland, but more saliently she is a credit to Humanity.

Lest we forget. Last night Nicola put the lid on Scottish Labour’s coffin. Now we need to nail it down!
1979 Labour government brought down by 34 Labour rebels not 11 SNP MPs.
Biggest party forms government destroyed on Politics Today.

Thanks for both of those Stuart.

Now let us destroy the 7.6 Billion black hole nonsense. Any takers??

The people of England are slowly realising that we have some pretty awesome politicians up here.

Real politicians.

It’s all in the eyes.

David Cameron looked frightened and confused. Nicola, Clegg, Wood and Bennett looked focused.

All I see when I look at Farage and Milliband is empty space.

Friends, come here by all means, but remember to vote Yes when we have another referendum.

Can you see now why so many of us did vote Yes?

Cheers the heart when others see the light. Nicola really is a breath of fresh air.

If Nicola can do this in a TV debate with six other UKOK party leaders, when she probably spoke for about 10% of the viewing time, what is the effect going to be when a large team of SNP MPs are going to be speaking at WM?

[By the way, did anyone notice that the camera seemed to always choose Nicola to “briefly focus” on when other leaders were speaking?]

Let’s face it, you could put virtually any SNP politican in Nicola’s shoes and they would run rings round the clapped-out snake-oil salesmen of the WM establishment (as I am sure the SNP will do in the Commons post-GE). The same goes for a long list of other indy-supporting Scots outside the SNP, such as Patrick Harvie, Colin Fox, Lesley Riddoch, Jeanne Freeman, Robin McAlpine, Cat Boyd, Jim Sillars, Carol Fox, Tommy Sheridan, Susan Archibald……..

I suggest the English get on YouTube and find out who some of these people are. Note: oor wimmin are particularly excellent!

Outside the corridors of Westminster and BBC Pravda, there is genuine support for the SNP’s policies among the English. I happened to pass at a protest on Parliament Square in October, after Salmond had resigned. I was telling the English there how the Labour vote was thankfully collapsing in Scotland in the aftermath of them campaigning with the Tories in the indyref.

The English then asked me what Sturgeon and the SNP politicians were like. I said: “They’re good, they’re very good.” And not just in terms of their policies. They are professionals to the core, answer questions directly, and always have statistics and facts at their fingertips.

The SNP have governed Scotland for seven years and (outside La-La-Labourland on Pacific Quay) it is an established fact that they deliver good government. And all this on just a block grant, which the Tories have been constantly cutting! So imagine what they could do with real fiscal control…

Ironically, when I was saying this, I overhead a group of English people in the neighbouring group say that they were so disappointed with the indyref results, as they had so hoped Scotland would break free and there would be decent policies in at least part of Great Britain.

It is nice for us Scots to feel we have a “product” which is in demand in England (alongside our electricity and whisky). The English are sadly missing out on such a party, because the Greens are not the same as the SNP, the Greens are further left and the SNP run a tighter economic policy. I don’t know what the answer is. England to set up SNP branches? Or set up their own party which would use the SNP policies as blueprints and ally themselves to the SNP in WM?

I think Nicola’s performance may go a long way to counter Labour and the Tories’ efforts to scaremonger the prospect of the SNP having any say at Westminster. It will also make the Tories’ poster with Ed in Eck’s pocket look silly as Eck is quite obviously not the leader. Too big, too thin on top, possession of a Y-chromosome etc.

Maybe the likes of Jonathon Freedland and Neil Ascherson in the Graun might notice Eck is not the leader any more too. We can live in hope.

But of course the answer to all those who want to vote for that alternative: vote Green in this election AND/OR form your own English ‘SNP’ Party. IF you ask nicely the SNP might help you copy their policies and translate them to the English situation.

Doing things like popping over to Wales to help PC campaign in the Welsh elections (lots of English accents promoting PC would be good in countering the ‘they are Welsh language bigots’ accusation. At the moment I’m not sure they’re needed to help the SNP though I’m sure they’d be welcome as observers next March. So get organising people of England. You have nothing to lose but your deposits, and the scales from your eyes.

A tv station reporting no clear winner of last nights debate.. Clearly,the worm was pointless, and the poll of polls I’m sure said that there was. Clearly,the operative word is “clear” in this case. Very clear winner actually.

I never saw the debate last night, but I’ve been catching up on what’s being said and seen wee snippets on-line.

It would appear that all the woman done a stonking job – and would you believe – they all talked like regular people. Folk will always warm to that. (refreshing from the usual Parliamentary flag pole up the bottom private school style the 3main parties adopt)

I’ve been listening to Radio 2 since about half9 this morning, and every news bulletin they are ploughing on with the line there was ‘No Clear Winner’ (but then what matrices do you do use to determine success). This is completely contrary to what I’m seeing/reading on-line. They really do live a parallel universe – but then I’m just a vile partisan nationalist.

It has been great to see Nicola and the SNP getting such favourable comments/reactions on-line – and they are not the Demons from north of Hadrian’s Wall the English media presented us as. I hope that enthusiasm continues.

BBC news channel 12:35

Intro to piece with NS “she spoke a short time ago and says that she wasn’t tested during the event.”

Goes to interview with NS and the strapline “Sturgeon says she wasn’t “tested” during event.”

Her opening words “Well it felt like a fairly testing experience standing there for 2 hours…”

Is then pressed by James Cook and gives a further refutation.

In fact she says no such thing. All the time there is that strapline or should I say falsehood glaring out at me. It’s like some Orwellian dream.

It’s been a bad day for the BBC for me (and I don’t/try hard not to hold to the #bbcbias thing in the indyref as the clue is in the name) but listening to John Beattie this morning was very disappointing.

I think JB tries to be fair but quite how a caller is allowed to come on and call the FM a liar unchallenged over hospital car park charging is beyond me. It then takes 2 hours for them to read out a correction from the SG pointing out that charges ARE free, other than at the 3 hospitals who have PFI deals. Deals signed by er, the last Labour government.

Don’t you have Google in the studio there John?

Type the words “hospital car parking scotland” and the first 3 articles are from your own organisation clearly explaining the situation. Unless of course you don’t believe what you read on the BBC 😉

So happy and proud of Scotland today!

@Lockie there is already a London SNP branch. Several members came up to campaign during the referendum.

On another topic, who in their right mind would vote UKIP who are standing on a platform of reducing Scottish block grant by £4bn. And that’s before you take all their other crap policies into account.

It’s very clear England needs a new political party.

Nicola is a star and now everyone in the UK knows it.

Amazing!

There will be massive UK establishment reaction to this, just as much as there was when the Polls showed YES in the lead.
The perceived threat to Westminster by the SNP is getting more realistic by the day, the propaganda machine will move up a gear and project fear will be intensified, if the referendum taught us nothing else it was there are no limits to the lies and deceit that the unionists will peddle.
As we speak unionist spin doctors and P.R. people will be working overtime to concoct their next campaign of fears and smears.
Hold on to your hats people there’s a storm coming, but this time we have the pumps running already, it’s the unionist’s boats that are spring leaks.

itsme wrote:
“It’s been a bad day for the BBC for me (and I don’t try hard not to hold to the #bbcbias thing in the indyref as the clue is in the name)”

Watch it ‘itsme’ – Uncle Bob will have yer guts for garters.
🙂

The BBC are supposed to be a balanced, open and fair national broadcaster. People are forced to pay them a fee under threat of prosecution if they don’t. People of all descriptions and supporters of all political beliefs are forced to pay this “TV Licence” tax.

With that in mind it is absolutely essential that ALL and ANY forms of bias are exposed and dealt with.

Bias, corruption and downright lies should NEVER be acceptable.
😉

OT

This will probably get lost in the pages of post-debate discussion of last night’s event, but it is worth noting for future use.

On BBC Scotland’s big debate today hosted by Gordon Brewer ex-Tory leader in Scotland Annabelle Goldie clearly and unequivocally set the record straight with reference to the Tories’ voting record in the Holyrood Parliament.

Quite simply she explained in plain language that there was NO arrangement, deal or pact between the Tories and the minority SNP government. Every vote was dealt with on an issue by issue basis.

I hope that this is picked up and given wider publicity, given the false narrative of there being a pact between the Tories and the SNP, particularly by the Slab-bots who infest the comments pages of the Guardian online and the likes of Hothersall and MacDougall.

May I ask if those who watched QT on BBCi player succeeded in watching the entire programme of insulting guff?
I have only seen 30 mins and all of a sudden a blank screen but for an exclamation mark – like the one on here leading to daily politics.

I tried refreshing the page to no avail.I would have liked to be further insulted by the brash , the bold and the buggered.

Harsh words have been spoken between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

Congratulations Nicola.

The women on the debate where the only ones with genuine passion and spoke from the heart as well as from the head.

How phoney the men were. You could see they had been coached to death by spin doctors and psychologists.
Cameron staring into the camera as if he was looking into your eyes. Miliband running down to the audience to sake hands with people he could give a toss about, etc.

Voting for one of them would be like marrying a blow up doll.

Wonderful to see so many English people recognising that we don’t hate them, but we do hate the old boys Tory network that drives ordinary people into the ground
and takes our fair share away for themselves, their banker and corporate paymasters.

I don’t use Twitter or FB but I wish I could advise the English about the WoS web site. I’d like to communicate with them and share the truth behind the lies that Westminster, and the media project as being a democracy.

SNP tweets that it now has over 105,000 members, with 2022 added since the ITV debate last night.

I agree with Nicola.

And it looks like I’m not alone. According to one snap poll, apparently an amazing 28% said she “won.” Jim Murphy must be shitting himself even more than usual. No wonder he’s looking so pale and grey. A few more weeks of this he’ll be transparent.

Sturgeon, Bennett and Wood all had a very good debate. It was good to see Scotland and Wales represented on the national stage – I hope this sets a precedent. But where were the DUP and SDLP?

When was the last time you heard a politician point out, like Bennett did, that the NHS depends on immigrants to function? And, to be fair, Clegg pointed this out too.

Sturgeon got the first laugh of the night pointedly asking if there’s anything Farage doesn’t blame on foreigners. Tellingly, Sturgeon and Wood got the most applause and the biggest laughs.

Indeed, Nigel shot himself in the balls with his frankly breathtaking remarks about AIDS “health tourism.” (Is there such a thing? I do wish someone, anyone had called “Bullshit!” on the health and benefits “tourism” bollocks.) You could hear the air getting sucked out the room when he said it, if not the country.

Wood and Sturgeon rightly earned applause (from an audience which clearly had been told not to make a sound) for saying Farage’s rhetoric is dangerous, he should be ashamed of himself and should think of sick people as people first instead wondering what country they’re from. Oh, the (lack of) humanity!

The Plaid and SNP leaders took an admirably level-headed and pragmatic view of immigration while rightly pointing out that immigration is a two-way street. Not something you’ll ever hear Farage acknowledge. Or Cameron and Miliband for that matter.

The format was surprisingly successful, I think. Everyone got a fair shake of the stick and, on the whole, acquitted themselves well. It helped that the whole thing was very well moderated by Julie Etchingham who didn’t let it degenerate into a shouting match. Or an ego trip for the presenter. Jeremy.

And it demonstrated the obvious benefits of “smaller” parties from outside the Westminster bubble shaking up the smug complacency of the corrupt status quo. For instance, Sturgeon, Bennett and Wood were prepared to openly challenge Farage on immigration while Cameron and Miliband, “driven by the intolerance of Nigel Farage” pussyfooted around him for obvious and craven reasons.

Nicola Sturgeon summed-up by pointing out we can vote for the same old politics or vote for something different; that the Westminster parties have their priorities in the wrong order while the SNP offers a clear alternative to nukes ‘n’ austerity and the human suffering which goes with them. And, crucially, that a vote for the SNP means a louder voice not just for Scotland but a powerful voice for you too. (Bono will be pleased!)

Wood was right. Austerity ISN’T inevitable. It IS a choice. (Personally I think the deficit is mostly smoke and mirrors as well. But that’s another matter.)

Bennett deserves praise for insisting if you want change you’ve got to vote for it; vote for what you believe in not the lesser of two evils. We can deliver a new kind of politics. We can deliver a peaceful revolution. (If we build it, they will shit themselves!)

Farage was a sweaty, awkward and bizarrely gurning stuck record with a visibly rusting dog whistle while demonstrating once and for all that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and shameless political opportunist alike.

Clegg was clearly getting A LOT of pent-up frustration off his chest while giving Cameron an undeniably entertaining earful. Fat lot of good it’ll do him though. Maybe if he’d done this in cabinet the past five years his party wouldn’t be facing oblivion.

How pleased was Cameron with his obviously rehearsed “zero hours/zero jobs” soundbite? He sure trotted it out often enough.

And the lesson is: let the boys get on with their childish games while the women have a go at running things for a change and “break the old boys’ network at Westminster.” They couldn’t do much worse.

PS: I hope that heckler has clean knickers cos the tabs are going to be on her like stink on doo-doo!

The three ladies addressed the political problems and proposed solutions, Farage too, although with very unpleasant solutions. Cameron, Clegg and Miliband were in auction mode – “I’ll recruit 7000 nurses and 5000 police, Ah ha, I’ll recruit 7,200 nurses and…I’ll beat that with 400 doctors and 70 ambulances…and…
I cannot recall the exact numbers the three of these men in suits were shouting, why? “Cos it is meaningless twaddle really.

I do recall Leanne Wood saying to Farage – “You should be ashamed of yourself”.
That stung him.

When does the first poll come out that would have had polling survey taken after this debate?
🙂

BBC news channel 12:35

Intro to piece with NS “she spoke a short time ago and says that she wasn’t tested during the event.”

BBC Scotland has become more and more Orwellian over the years and they reached fever pitch today. They can only get worse but they know that if current Scottish polls hold, there is a excellent chance of public broadcasting being devolved to Scotland.

What western democracy anywhere could tolerate the current level of establishment BBC vote SLabour bias and their relentless anti Scottish democracy attack?

Devolved Scottish public broadcasting is still wide open to same appalling abuse currently on display via our chums in Pacific Quay but we are on the verge of winning an actual PR Holyrood democracy May 7. The same fundamental democratic PR principles and consensus power sharing possible at Holyrood would be applied to future public broadcasting for Scotland.

If it means all the job for life BBC vote SLab or else place-men and shills are looking at the end of the line, what the bloody hell did they expect.

Rev tweets

Just applied to be in the Question Time audience for Bristol next week. Should hear a day or two before.

She played a blinder

You are welcome to come to Scotland. As long as you are not a criminal, or a racist, or an arsehole, or whatever. We need to increase our population- rural communities in particular need more [i]permanent[/i] residents.

I am left wondering if Plaid Cymru and the Greens in the south have had a good reaction to last nights debates.

Seeing BBC Scotland and the Guardian twist themselves into knots trying oh so hard *not* to say that Nicola Sturgeon was the winner of the debate (although, “put in the most impressive performance” probably encapsulates the reality rather than ‘winner’) is a sight to behold. By their doing so, it just shows up their bias and unscrupulous corruption even more.

So, then, yet another positive from Sturgeon’s performance!

Way to go, Nicola Sturgeon – pure dead brilliant!

For the full horror of BBC’s approach to the leaders’ debate, read this from Craig Murray

link to craigmurray.org.uk

Note this is BBC News NOT BBC Scotland News

@ Robert Peffers says:
3 April, 2015 at 2:38 pm

@Noel Chidwick says: 3 April, 2015 at 12:09 pm:

” … we’ll lend you Nicola and her team to help sort out the mess in the UK.”

At which point the neighbours will discover there’s a team of exceptionally good politicians in the SNP. I’ve listened and watched them for years now and there are others in the party who could step into the leader’s job seamlessly. There really is a great depth of quality within the party.

Wholeheartedly agree Robert.

I hope you will be at the count for Kirkcaldy and if Broon isn’t there, ye’ll ken.

Used to live in Freuchie. Family still do.

OT but important.

I was stopped by a Labour campaigner yesterday in Edinburgh, holding a Ian Murray MP poster ( not allowed to use MP anymore!! ) who told me to “vote Labour to end zero hours contracts”.

I asked if this was official Labour Policy? “Yes it is”, came the reply. I asked the campaigner for his name, explaining he was the first Labour person to state this – everyone else Murphy, Currant, Millipede et all, had used the term “exploitative zero hour contracts”, not “all zero hour contracts”

“Same thing”, he stated

Metaphor time… I said.. ” You give me £100 to clear all the “offensive weeds” in your garden, I pocket the money and wander off, stating none of the numerous weeds were particular offensive. Clearing all your weeds is not the same as clearing all your offensive weeds.

“So Labour official policy is to abolish all zero hour contracts, not just those deemed to be exploitive?” I asked again.

At this he became a little flustered, refusing to endorse his statement by giving his name.
He firmly suggested I “f++k off”.

Proffering a leaflet to the next passer by he said “vote Labour to end exploitative zero hours contracts”.

I have written to five Labour politicians to ask how they will define ‘exploitative’ and have received no reply.

We need to call Labour out on this one.. without a concise definition of ‘exploitative’ the term, ‘end all exploitive zero hour contracts’, is meaningless…

…and we can’t have Labour politicians making meaningless statements, can we?

Looks like the MSM are going to have a hard time monstering Sturgeon, the SNP and Scots now, then.

While the other leaders had all day to prepare for the debate, remember that Nicola had a full session of First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament to take care of first, where (as usual) she ran rings round the Scottish Branch Managers of the other parties.

I’m sure a lesser politician would have simply handed FMQs over to a deputy, but Nicola was there, fully briefed and taking due note of those sensible issues which arose.

Then she goes on a live 2 hour TV debate and wipes the floor with Clegg, Cameron and Miliband, attracting over 2,000 new SNP members in the process and winning respect in unlikely places.

Quite a day’s work!

This Article shows that it’s true that Rev is a vile cybernat.

He is clearly doing this to wind up the Daily Record and Duncan Hothersal…

..And he’s doing it on purpose! 🙂

I bet you enjoyed writing this post Stu, Nicola was impressive and was my winner.

For those interested in how Leanne Wood’s performance went down in Wales, it’s good news

Wales ICM sub sample albeit small gave Nicola and Leanne the top 2 spots with 66% approval and 50% respectively link to twitter.com

The Western Mail, Welsh Daily Record gave it as a draw between Leanne and Nicola getting 8/10 each, with Natalie and the 4 blokes trailing behind.

Leanne’s slap down of Farage is doing the rounds on social media and Leanne’s had 6,000 new Twitter followers since the debate, Plaid Cymru’s account added 4,000, thier facebook more than a 1,000 and plenty on social media committed to vote Plaid Cymru which is wanted they wanted. They’ve signed up new members but I’m not in the know so don’t have numbers.

But best of all the Labour Party down here has been very quiet, a very good sign of success indeed.

FREE SCOTLAND

Excellent collation of tweets Stu.

All night last night I seemed to be doing nothing much other than telling folks down South to join the S.N.P., apologising forv there being no S.N.P. candidates in England but if they wanted to move to Scotland they would be made warmly welcome. There would be one itsy bitsy teeny weeny little proviso though … they would all have to vote S.N.P. and YES in the next indy ref. 😉

Like so many others I thought the three women were excellent last night. As I constantly made reference to on Twitter … the Three Wise Women of politics kick the earses of the Four Dunderheids of politics. 😀

I think last night was a real eye opener for the people of England. Up until now all they have really known is whatever bile the Daily Mail and others have printed in their anti Scotland we hate the S.N.P. articles. Last night blew that approach right out of the water. Never again will the Daily Mail and others be able to successfully con the English people the way they have before last night’s debate.

I wonder Jack how many more Labour candidates will be following Jim McGovern’s lead in the next few days and withdrawing from standing as a candidate based on *ahem* health issues. 😛

That’s fantastic news about the rise in S.N.P. membership Kenny. I am just wondering now if there are any plane to show a repeat of last night’s debate any time soon. 😉

Sorry I made a mistake. Here is the quote from Laura Kuenssberg from 1min 55 secs into last nights NewsNight:

“For Nigel Farage and Nichola Sturgeon, it was a huge chance as the Insurgents…”

Well Rev, if that doesn’t melt her heart into giving at least a nod in your direction, she’s playing hard to get. Maybe send a card with some chocs.

Hang in there mate 😉

well would you believe it is England waking up, not before time you lot we have poked you long enough lol welcome friends one and all to Scotland and the truth 🙂

Now you know why we back the SNP and if you think oor Nicola is impressive you aint seen nothing yet the SNP are without doubt the most talented group of politicians to grace these lands in my lifetime maybe even ever.

Oh and hands off Nicola is ours we might let you borrow her for a wee while to fix the mess westminster has caused throughout these islands but never forget she is a Scots lassie with freedom burned into her heart and our First Minister and will be our next FM as well.

I would now like to see Nicola, Leanne and Natalie agree to form a ‘progressive, anti-austerity’ bloc in WM, no matter the outcome of the GE.

Let the radical tail wag the undemocratic dog.

England seems to have been sleepwalking since the Thatcher/Blair years, constantly mesmerised by a neoliberal cabal that includes Old Boy Network Politicians, The Media, and The Market.

What happened last night was that we got a glimpse behind the evil mask.

Down the line the train came puffing –

Sturgeon 10 – Cameron/Milliband/Clegg 0.

After last night’s debate surely it is a no brainer that the SNP should put up candidates in England.

Not just in Berwick but in the seats of the following:-

Cameron
Osborne
Duncan-Smith
Milliband
Balls
Clegg

for starters.

It needn’t cost much and even if the candidates didn’t actively campaign the results could be very interesting and the publicity would be worth a fortune – the media couldn’t stop themselves from covering it.

As for candidates obviously they would have to be party members and have been approved as candidates – but surely there are a sufficient number of approved candidates who failed to be selected to stand in Scotland this time round.

It will be interesting to see how Private Eye treats last night’s debate and the resultant fallout. I know Hyslop is a Unionist but would it not be an idea to use some of the recently raised money to put an ad for Wings in PE?

@ Patrick Roden

There’s a good analysis on the HIV health tourism issue over on Common Space: Farage’s 2 billion figure is between six and thirty times the government’s own *total* health tourism figure (and you *know* the Tories will have done their best to exaggerate that number already). Vevers used a series of Freedom of Information requests to reach a conclusion that the total cost of HIV health tourism is probably 3p per year per UK citizen.

link to commonspace.scot

Caveats: he says “per taxpayer”, but the numbers suggest he means “per UK resident”. He also appears to be making the unjustified assumption that the distribution of health problems among health tourists is the same as that across the entire health service, but all that means is that even if *every* *single* health tourist coming here has HIV, Farage is still overstating the numbers by an obscene amount.

Nicola Sturgeon gave a very polished performance throughout and I can only see her going from strength to strength over the next few years. In Scotland Skindiana Bones, Deputy Dug and the rest of their cronies are just no match for her.

Did anyone else notice how strange and subdued David Cameron was acting during the debates last night? Some of the bizarre expressions on his face at times, when others were speaking, were hilarious. You could almost picture the gears turning in his head.

I loved the moment Nicola Sturgeon nailed Miliband on the fact that he had signed up to the cuts alongside the coalition and both Nick Clegg and David Cameron agreed with her. In all the post debate analysis I have seen very few comment on this.

Well done Nicola, it will be interesting to see if the press down in englandshire change their opinion and reporting of the SNP after Nicola stole the show, will we still be the children of satan

@ chris Kilby at 2.pm who asked where were the DUP and SDLP?
Excluded because it was a great britian debate and NI is sorta semi-detached from the UK anyway.

As far as regards what the DUP is proposing you can read all about it here link to eurofree3.wordpress.com

Anyway just wanted to add Nicola Sturgeon was great last night – did Scotland proud. Hope everyone in the SNP is canvassing madly in the next few weeks – just to make those polls come true!

Also thought leanne Woods did very well and was glad to hear from The earthshaker above that she had a good impact in Wales.

I was rather disapointed by natalie but like all the women, she did seem like a genuine politician – unlike the media mannequin males.

I hope she also picks up a lot of votes in England

Great praise for Nicola. But let’s not forget what the SNP are for. Not changing the UK, although that would be a shor term bonus. We are here to get out of the UK not become an establishment party of the UK.

I know that most people don’t forget that. However there is always a danger of doing too well at Westminster and forgetting our raisone d’etre!

ERRATUM

“… that a vote for the SNP in England is a vote for authentic Labour governance UK-wide”

A number of us in SNP border branches offered to stand in the constituencies just across the border in Cumbria and Northumbria but the SNP HQ remains steadfast that it will only stand official candidates in Scottish constituencies as its raison d’etre is Scottish independence.

I find it amazing that even though 7 million watched the debate last night with the public response to Nicola largely positive, the London MSM are still playing the ‘nasty SNP’ meme and how the SNP are out to deny all yeoman Englishmen their democratic rights.

Just how long is the skid market on the British Establishment communal gusset today?

I should have added, no airtime or coverage on a radio channel from her own country.
As for question time, isn’t it about time they gave the snp a place on the panel at this time so that the party has a representative that can counter the blatant, unchallenged, unadulterated bile and lies that come from the other party representatives on that programme.
As someone commented already commented on these pages; the only member of that panel that tried to defend the SNP in general and Nicola Sturgeon in particular was Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and even then, the ginger rodent kept shouting over the top of her at which time I felt that Dimbleby should have told him to button it and let the lady speak.

Fiona said –

‘All three ladies exposed the lack of quality among the four male party leaders.

If that is true it rather raises the question as to why they are in those positions: I contend it is at least partly accounted for by positive discrimination enjoyed because of their gender’

I know, without that positive discrimination the women of the major parties would be able to properly shine in their own unique, twisted, underhand and untrustworthy ways too….

The SNP does need to form a Sister Party that will run candidates south of the border. Midgehunter at 4:28 pm above made the same suggestion. He referred to it as ‘an associated party called the S&ENP, Scottish & English National Party’.

I agree with his basic idea entirely, but still prefer the suggestion I made a while ago that its title should be SNAP.

The letters ‘S’, ‘N’, ‘A’ and ‘P’ could have a threefold significance:

1. As in the card game, ‘Snap!’, they indicate two things which are distinct from each other but at the same time identical, or at least very similar. That meaning remains, whichever of the next two suggestions are preferred.

2. They could indicate ‘Scottish National Alliance Party’, indicating that SNAP was in a formal alliance with the SNP, running candidates in England who would have the same policies and agenda as the SNP.

That’s one possibility, maybe the simplest. However, I personally prefer the next alternative (no. 3):

3. The offical name could be the ‘South North Alliance Party’. This retains the ‘alliance’ notion, exactly as set out in no. 2. Just as the idea in no. 1 is also kept.

Added to it is the ‘South North’ aspect, which could be understood in two ways simultaneously, As an English Party, it could primarily mean bridging the South / North divide in England. If the Conservatives tend to be a Party (more) of the South of England, and Labour (more) of the North of England, SNAP would aim to be a Party of both South and North equally. It could be termed a ‘United England’ Party (but – let’s make the distinction precise – NOT a UK Party, and without the quasi-racist undertones of the dreaded UKIP!).

As a secondary reference, or sub-theme, ‘South North’ could also be taken to indicate SNAP’s ‘alliance’ with the SNP. In that regard, the word ‘south’ would refer to the English Party in the Alliance (SNAP itself) while the term ‘north’ would suggest its partner Party in Scotland, the SNP.

SNAP and the SNP would remain two quite distinct Parties (maybe not unlike the Scottish Greens being a different Party from the English Greens). But they would have the same policies. And, even though both would want to end the UK, for as long as the UK parliament remains in existence, they would vote together there.

In a real sense, therefore, English tweeters who now want to vote SNP would get the chance to do so, by voting for the equivalent Party in England (SNAP).

I used to think the SNP should have tried to form such an entity in England already, in order to run pilot candidates in places like Berwick and Corby Town as a pilot project. I now see that time was not sufficient, however, for the job to be done properly before the 2015 General Election. It would have been counterproductive to set up such a thing in too big a hurry. The time was not ripe, mistakes would have been made, and even a pilot project might well have backfired.

But it will be possible to begin setting up such a Party immediately after the GE. There will then be a real groundswell for it in England, if the response to last night’s debate is anything to go by. The groundwork needs to be done first, and England getting to know Nicola Sturgeon and the real SNP seems to be creating just the right conditions.

SNAP would be an English Party, and it would not run in Wales. There the SNP’s Sister Party (or at least her ally)is Plaid. SNAP would be as closely associated with Plaid as the SNP is.

It should also be a built-in part of SNAP’s constitution (as of the SNP’s) that each of the four component parts of the UK have the right to become independent if they wish, and this would come about whenever a majority of their population votes for it in a referendum. Each nation would have the right to call such a referendum. The means and conditions for doing so would be clearly set out.

Building up SNAP would be the means to undercut the fear, lies acrimony and misinformation on which all the main Unionist Parties thrive. That they do so became apparent during the referendum campaign, and is still our experience now, during the GE. It is hugely significant, judging by the tweets, that many English people are experiencing something similar. SNAP would pit itself against the elites which profit from everything that is undemocratic in the current UK political system. The increasingly evident corruption in UK politics is something which the SNP and SNAP need to tilt at, and undermine together.

The SNP and SNAP would be in favour of the independence of both nations. The recovery of each one’s real potential and identity would be promoted as a positive development. They would also be cmmitted to bringing about independence through the ballot box, by referendum – therefore in a fully democratic way.

SNP-SNAP could transform the relationship between Scotland and England. The emergence of SNAP could also create a new political culture in England. Just as the last 15-20 years have seen the beginnings of a new Scottish politics, which nevertheless still has a long way to go, and needs to keep developing further.

The word ‘alliance’ means friendship. As independent entities, instead of continuing to be ‘auld enemies’, England and Scotland could become ‘new – and lasting – allies’. With no one trying to dominate or threaten the other, they would indeed become the best of friends.

I’m another one who wants to vote SNP but can’t because I’m not within the borders, who do I blame!

The answer to the question, “Can I vote SNP although I don’t live in Scotland?” is no. RUK need to get their own parties up and running so they can effect change. It’s not Scotland’s job to do that for them. This is not harsh or dismissive. They need to decide what they want for their countries which may be different from our needs.