News just in
This is a picture of the Sun, which reports confirm became visible in the skies above parts of the Northern Hemisphere earlier today.
A similar event is widely expected to take place around the same time tomorrow.
This is the sea, which recent studies have shown to be almost entirely full of water.
Here’s Pope Francis I, who insider sources tell us is of the Catholic faith.
What’s that bear doing in the woods? We’ve got eye-witness testimony coming up.
Below, a 99-year-old woman who seemingly died yesterday of natural causes.
And finally, we gather that Aberdeen lost the Betfred Cup final to Celtic last month.
We bring you these pieces of information because each one of them is slightly more surprising and newsworthy than the fact that Alex Bell and John McLaren are slagging off the SNP again, although the latter events have inexplicably received considerably more press coverage today.
More details as we get them, folks. Keep holding your breath.
Slow day, eh? 🙂
What do these guys get for their er, penmanship, a couple of grand a pop?
You know what they say about a woman scorned…
Excellent post incorporating environmentalism, hydrology, religion, natural history, humanism and sport – all in one concise package.
And a tag line of SNP Badderyness…
The essence of VFM.
Cheers Stu and have a good day. 🙂
The media hacks are licking their fingers ‘cos the chocolate biscuits are finished.
“Slow day, eh?”
It’s going to be a slow news day until about March… 🙁
defo says:
19 December, 2016 at 12:01 pm
You know what they say about a woman scorned…
They get paid a reasonable amount of easy mullah to go, SNP bad crazy, in assorted grotty rags, like the Record, Graun etc? In my day they might’ve poured a pint over your heed:D
Bloody bears, coming over here and shitting in our woods…
Well a leopard does not change it’s spots, Alex Bell knocks down that one, what it tells me is that he was not an Indy man, he was just in it for the money. SNP need to examine their advisers previous history and affiliations before employing them as such.
As for the other, I have watched him a number of times and no matter what the SNP do, it always ends up somehow bad, or at least not as good as it should be, so his input can be expected.
The BBC and the anti SNP media ALWAYS find a sympathiser to suit the Westminster their anti SNP agenda. Guess they enjoy their minutes in the limelight.
What’s this “sun” thing you speak of?
There’s probably a critical theory explaining this.
Blow for Salmond as Zsa Zsa Gabor fails to support Jocky Scotch separatism.
Bell and McLaren are nothing if not predictable. Fortunately, I couldn’t carte less what they think.
I noted that the Independent ran with a story stating that JP Morgan are factoring in an independent Scotland with its own currency and an rUK with a less than desirable Brexit agreement in their future plans.
I would imagine that rankled with the Yoonery and had Tomkins reaching for the political cliché bucket. 🙂
peekay says:
19 December, 2016 at 12:13 pm
What’s this “sun” thing you speak of?””
………
I think that might be an example of ‘fake news’if you live in Scotland or maybe even ‘post-truth news’.
But come July…Who knows, it could be true.
Heed
You know what they call those who sell their dignity for money?
Media hoes.
carte?
Bloody auto-correct
McLaren has astounded the world of Scotland by telling us all that the way the Scottish Government receives funding via the Barnett formula and Barnett consequentials, is that it receives funding via the Barnett formula and Barnett consequentials.
Well, who’d have thunk it!
Wish I was such a clever economist, I’d maybe have been able to figure that out myself.
“It’s going to be a slow news day until about March…”
Rev, whatever you do, don’t let McTernan talk you into any bets.
Is there no end to their talent ? Please tell me there is.
Good heavens, this is on topic too, must be a record for me!
The anti-EU squad is talking about the “EU imploding” which is all very dramatic stuff but basically, if the EU “implodes”, what you’re left with is 28 different member states. Which is just Brexit times 28.
So basically what they’re saying is that the UK is better off Brexiting, before it has to Brexit.
Oh.
The link to the Herald article at least produced a laugh in the comments:
Writes one: “The vow has been delivered”
With the reply: “To the wrong address”
I’m sure that they’re a double act though.
That labour unionist McLaren guy seems to be a specialist when it comes to discredited numbers-no wonder the unionist bent msm gives him so much credence. As has been said above fake news seems to be all the yoon media have.
Wait! The sun came out?
FFS! WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?
The Vow
Never has so little been covered so much….in a Churchillian voice
Oh, I dunno. There is the Scottish Government paper tomorrow which, if the outbreak of hysterical yoonery on every social media thread is anything to go by – might have some news value.
Incidentally, what exactly is an “Honorary Professor”? as the Herald describes Mr McLaren
John McLaren was of course part of CPPR with Jo Armstrong at Glasgow Uni. Then they formed or moved off to an outfit called Fiscal Affairs Scotland, now it’s Scottish Trends.
The website doesn’t work so I can’t see who else is involved, but I saw Jo Armstrong a couple of times on TV and she was OK, quite rational, so what on earth she’s doing staying associated with him I’ve no idea.
In unsubstantiated news, Zsa Zsa Gabor is quoted as saying that she’d rather die than see her real age, a mere 99 years young, in print. I see that she was good as her word.
They never tire of filling column inches with SNP Bad, and collecting their 30 pieces of silver every time.
The MSM Christmas dinner table will creak under the weight of scores of individual salt shakers.
On a daily basis they take it in turns to pass the salt to NS. The Fourth Estate Fifth Column.
The Dead Tree Scollers are an endangered species now; and they know it. Who is actually buying these rags any more?
Still there will always be an internship on the Findo Gask Enquirer for an ambitious young advertising salesperson, hoping to make their way in the world of journalism. Age and previous experience no barrier.
How they look their children in the eye of an evening beats me.
Just exactly what current credentials do these two individuals (Alex Bell or John McLaren)have? they seem to be ex and former, mostly.
Any current info folks?
I can see blue skies in Dundee so your report is correct.
It is not true that Bell and McLaren are in a partnership.
For ages the forces of evil have been banging on about the failure of The Scottish Govt.to make payments to farmers on time.
What do I find this morning in the Politics Section of The BBC Web Site – farmers In England who haven’t received their payments are nearly broke, have exhausted their credit, are having to use food banks and are selling off some of their sock to enable them to exist.
Additionally the article paints a disastrous picture of the history of the administration of the payment system in England.
This failure has previously had extensive coverage in Private Eye.
oh dear dear dear i made the mistake of reading the alex bell diatribe , i have the feeling he is upset about something , or in this case by the looks of it everything , someone stole his sweetie or lolly maybe ? .A poor tortured soul .
And whilst we are on the subject – has there been any sign of the “Snow Bomb” that the Express promised us the other week?
Have they taken their 11% rise in sales for that day and sloped off to their Xmas party with it? Or perhaps Rothermere is planning to use it to go murdering some 500 pheasant with Pippa et al on Christmas day.
When you go through the headlines of that rag it is almost like reading the Sunday Sport of old.
Sorry o/t but just checked the bonny badge company to look for saltire stickers to put on anything and everything with a colonial uj flag on it whenever I’m in supermarket or whatever.
Found the page with the buying function for said stickers but it says nothing about quantity. Clicking on the buy button takes you to a buying page where it still says nothing about quantities. All it says 10mm x 16mm and £1.75. Surely can’t be £1.75 EACH? Not much use if you want to stick dozens of them.
Could someone point out what/where I’m missing it?
Hey come on it´s not that slow a news day!
http://www.rt.com/usa/370698-calexit-california-embassy-moscow/
Rev, your cultural insensitivity in announcing you have seen the sun today, and will do tomorrow is breathtaking, and you say you hate the Scots!
We in the northern part of these isles, particularly in the country “Scotland” have waited years to catch a glimpse of the brightest star in our sky, but alas many will live long productive lives and never witness the astrological phenomena known as “sun shine”. In fact many from these parts scoff when the sun is mentioned, believing it a myth to frighten the children so they never remove the furry cagoule hood, and risk being drenched by our incessant rain.
I would caution you to keep your funny southern ways to yourself in future, This Bath place you speak of has changed you Rev, it really has!
Alex Bell “resigned” in July 2013, as one of Alex Salmond’s Spads.
He seems to get by writing pieces in rags who only give him column inches because he’s so bitter and twisted. “Views expressed are not those of this newspaper”.
Clipper
Pretty sure that is for a sheet. Try looking at their Facebook page. I seem to recall seeing quantities somewhere.
I never read Alex Bell’s column in the Courier at my local library.
Though I still don’t know why he fell out with and left the SNP.
His vitriolic attacks on the Scottish Government since he left means that he has burned his bridges with the party.
So Derek Mackay does his best to spread the vastly watered down jam he received from Westminster as far as possible, helping in the process as many people as he can, and he gets lambasted. 😉
Of course … I get it now … he is being lambasted because he did not do what the Tories in London and their pet lap dogs in the press wanted him to do. … i.e. fall into their trap. 😀
S.N.P. have been in power now for something like NINE years and still the Tories deidheids and their little lap dog friends do not get it … the S.N.P. do NOT do what they are told to do by either of these pathetic little groups. The S.N.P. are a group of free thinkers, something you are not permitted to be in either the Tory party or the London controlled media.
Oh well on a brighter note looks like the BBC have managed to overcome its problem with its equipment in Ireland as its non stop broadcasting today yipee .
To bad its was two weeks ago we wanted to view something in ireland that was actually relevant to our country oh well maybe next time .
Ok will check it out though I don’t do Facespook so if you need to log in to buy them I won’t get them that way. Before I forget please help this important and potentially very significant crowdfund along.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/london-calling-50-000-dvds#/
It must be excruciatingly disconcerting for these people that, even with all the UK media and the UK government working against them, the SNP government’s popularity continues to rise.
Clipper
You get a sheet of 72 stickers for that price 🙂
Jimbo
I think the official Yoon line is it because we are cults…at least that is what I think they said.
On 7th March 2013 An internal SNP paper on finance was leaked to the press.
The paper, written by John Swinney, the Scottish Finance Minister, warned a separate Scotland’s finances would be at the mercy of volatile oil prices and the mounting cost of dealing with an ageing population.
Alex Bell “resigned” in July 2013, as one of Alex Salmond’s Spads. Coincidence?
But but but, what about the bbc’s britnat Sarah Smith? What does she think? All Scotland demands to know. No excuses!
The Telegraph – don’t look.. Take me word for it, describes John McLaren as “an eminent economist”
Jings and to think I thought he was just a mature student who could not afford to dress properly for his age..
@Derek fae Yell
says ‘Incidentally, what exactly is an “Honorary Professor”? as the Herald describes Mr McLaren’
An academic who purports to be an objecive expert and who professes untruths for his Establishment superiors in pursuit of state Honours.
Honorary Professor Johnny’bag’ McLaren wannabee Knight of the Realm we salute you Sir.
I don’t believe it!
Dan Huil says:
19 December, 2016 at 1:40 pm
But but but, what about the bbc’s britnat Sarah Smith? What does she think? All Scotland demands to know. No excuses!
Sorry Dan you will have to wait till 2017 before getting answer to that question. This is when the “NEW” flagship political programme from Pacific Quay that is replacing BBC Scotland 2016 starts up.
I hear rumours that it is to be called BBC Scotland 2017! 😀
This is the sea, which recent studies have shown to be almost entirely full of water.
Nah i am no buying that one no way is it full of water ye canny drink it found that oot when i was collecting some shell beasties to eat ower the fire afore i went hunting buffalo its salty ye big liar so canny be water its gods piss or alien juice i tell ye.
Whit that big thing is the sun i thought i was getting stalked by a fireball jeez whit a relief i thought it was trying to steal my buffalo.
Bears where! they beggars sneak up when you are no watching heard they had taken over Bath watch out for your buffalo good people of Bath they Bears steal them then they do unspeakable things in the woods.
LOL yep Rev its going to be trudge up to the middle of January at least probably more mad ass Labour press releases and over the top BBC nonsense but nothing much can change from now to A50.
@Arbroath 1320 2:06pm
Apparently Sarah Smith is unavailable for comment because she is currently taking the new britnat british attitude oath – for the millionth time because she wants to impress her britnat chums in London.
Thinking about the projections by Scotland in the Uniononto, well everything.
Is that not a tool WE could use to great effect?
Could we not crowdfund the required equipment required?
If someone knows a person who has the ability to make it work, then we could do Flash projections pretty well anywhere.
We could get across any message we would want,If someone reliable and preferably Indy minded could put such a thing together, then I am up for a £100 to start it off.
Just an idea.
Sorry typo in last post, ” required equipment required”
Only one required, was needed.
Thought the papers and BBC would be blanket coverage of all the racism against Scotland last night after Andy Murray won his 3rd sports personality award
I also bet there were loads of scots also who hated him winning because of their political views
They just hate any kind of Scottish success
I am an EU citizen and have lived in Scotland since 2007. I voted No in the Scottish independence referendum and at the time it was a very easy decision for me and my friends and family but now I will vote Yes if a new referendum is called. I will be honest I do not care about Scotland being independent. I was happy with Scotland being part of the UK but now with the rest of the UK leaving the EU I feel I have no choice but to vote Yes. It may be for purely selfish reasons but the Yes people cannot afford to pick and choose their supporters. What matters to me is continued EU membership. Scotland could not survive outside of the EU that is obvious.
Some people in Scotland are so stupid to vote to leave the EU. Who do they think will do all the jobs here? So many Scottish people are very lazy(apart from my husband!)and will not work for low pay. You need us EU workers. As for sharing sovereignty well that is ok. Scotland will probably only have to share a little sovereignty with the EU which is a lot less risky than an independent Scotland being outside the EU as then it would have to make ALL its own decisions and clearly that would be asking for too much. I understand the argument that only the people who live and work in Scotland should make all the decisions for Scotland but in the EU we can work with other countries even when their own interests may be different from ours.
Vote Yes2
Not possible to read the John McLaren piece in the Herald on account of the ipsum lorem substitute text – which is probably a mercy.
The Alex Bell text is readable in the strictly physical sense.
But you’re right, there’s something odd happening to the news.
Tomorrow, Nicola’s BREXIT letter to Theresa will be published and the hacks are maybe writing their “Blow for Sturgeon” headlines in advance.
Dan Huil says:
19 December, 2016 at 2:38 pm
@Arbroath 1320 2:06pm
Apparently Sarah Smith is unavailable for comment because she is currently taking the new britnat british attitude oath – for the millionth time because she wants to impress her britnat chums in London.
Well that certainly would explain why her new “flagship” programme will not take to the airwaves till 2017 then. She is currently engrossed in learning her lines to swear the oath of allegiance to Britnattery. 😀
I have not previously bothered to read The Scotsman comments, I won’t be bothering to again. The comments are mostly incoherent drivel. If this is a reflection of their reader’s intellectual level, then The Scotsman needs a new name. Not a single positive suggestion, only complaints that SNP are not using powers they don’t have, and accusations that’s the SNP’s fault.
Clipper 1.06pm that’s for a sheet of them. Got a few myself . one now on my driving licence.
@Les Wilson
Re the Scotland in Union projections and Wings doing similar. That idea I remember was suggested by Ian Brotherhood early in 2013.
Shortly after, for the first time some Wings posters met up in the Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow to discuss such tactics. I wasn’t there but I believe about a dozen turned up.
Nothing came of Ian’s idea to beam the Wings Over Scotland logo from a wee boat in the Clyde onto the BBC Pacific Quay building.
What did emerge from that night though was that another Winger, thistle packed in his job and started Independence Live.
So some good came of it at least. You can be no more than triers and who knows, some good may come of it.
This just in. Nothing Scotland as per
http://archive.is/sHyVz
“This year should have been one in which TV news was the only thing to watch. Instead, it was the year in which TV news demonstrated its irrelevance. In the end, it reported on nothing more poignantly than its own looming death.”
If only. Vote tory Ligger gets half a million a year to whine on twitter and arse about on BBC 2 with whatisface Portillo, who’s probably on even more, for his train rides around the EU. And fantastically boring it is too.
Thepnr says:
There would be endless places that could be projected onto, even clouds. Imagine a Saltire projected above Glasgow, then in turn Edinburgh above the Castle, Dundee, Aberdeen. Could be any message we wish to put across. It would be exciting, and productive.
That would really make them worried. (Even more than they now are!) Maybe lasers could be used. It could be looked into, one of us must have an idea how to do it, or knows someone who does.
Capella says:
19 December, 2016 at 2:56 pm
‘Tomorrow, Nicola’s BREXIT letter to Theresa will be published and the hacks are maybe writing their “Blow for Sturgeon” headlines in advance.’
Scotgov’s proposals will of course be personalised as ‘Sturgeon’s proposals’ and ridiculed, dismantled and a parade of ‘independent experts’ from ‘think-tanks’ and a sprinkling of ‘professors’ will tell us why none them can work. Whereas Brexit will all go smoothly, with fantastic deals and opportunities, the EU is shite, and they won’t let you join anyway. Just a wild guess of course.
There is something very odd going on out there in yoon world. Very very NO, Dr Scott Thinks is standing as a SLabour office holder thingee but there’s no mention of SLabour on his twitter page,
https://twitter.com/DrScottThinks
And its the exact same with my Slovene girlfriend, almost no mention of the Conservative party, certainly no Scottish tory logo. Most odd. Vote for the man, not for the party, sounds about as daft as a yoon.
https://twitter.com/ProfTomkins
“You get a sheet of 72 stickers for that price ?”
I got two sheets, but she likes me. 🙂
Kez isnt hiding her Slab under a rock.
https://twitter.com/kezdugdale
Murdo is hiding his Cons though. He probably thought he was a candidate for the Triumph Stag party though.
https://twitter.com/murdo_fraser
HandandShrimp
“I think the official Yoon line is it because we are cults…at least that is what I think they said.”
Aye, H&S, that and we’re a creed.
I was talking to some-one who’s a Tory councillor in the deep south on Twitter. He said people down there were shocked at what Scotland has turned to – how we had become part of this creed.
They really only know what the hate rags down there tell them.
Other things Wingers can be proud of apart from the Wee Blue Book and Independence Live are iScot magazine which just passed its 2nd birthday and the 10,000 Yes flags that were so prominent in the run in to the vote that fateful day in September.
We have kenmacaroonbar and tartanpigsy to thank for that.
None of these would have existed without Wings and her readers, we are truly grassroots and wha’s like us?
Not “Scotland in Union” or “No Borders” nor “Better Together”.
The difference is we have a heart and a soul, they have neither.
Slow ( no ) News : O/T Hurricane Energy confirm West of Shetland ” basement play ” will yield a conservative 250 million barrels of crude oil.
@Glamaig..
I look forward to the media telling everyone who will listen that the SNP plans are impossible etc.
That just emphasises the fact that ONLY independence is the answer to the issues Nicola and the SNP are trying to solve.
They are doing our job for us, yet do not seem to see it.
@Dek
http://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/hurricane-finds-oil-at-lincoln-well/
http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/highlights/11859/hurricane-energy-makes-large-oil-find-west-of-shetland/
O/T but the Russian Ambassador to Turkey has been shot in the back by a Turkish gunman.
There is a hostage situation in which the critically wounded Ambassador is a hostage.
Porentially scary stuff.
Some news just in
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/snp/nicola-sturgeon/news/81853/theresa-may-warns-nicola-sturgeon-she-risks
Dek says:
19 December, 2016 at 4:32 pm
Slow ( no ) News : O/T Hurricane Energy confirm West of Shetland ” basement play ” will yield a conservative 250 million barrels of crude oil.
DAMN IT Dek!
What are you playing at? 😉
Did you not receive the e-mail?
We are NOT supposed to advertise in any way shape of form that there is ANY oil in the whole of the Scottish basin … none … zilch … nowt!
We don’t have the broad shoulders to enable us to cope with all the oil so in future please keep all news of this oil thingy to yourself … PLEASE! 😀
Aye ( slow news day until March) Rev , ah hiv ah feeling Nicola hiznae read that script lol.
@Legerwood says: 19 December, 2016 at 12:20 pm:
” … I think that might be an example of ‘fake news’if you live in Scotland or maybe even ‘post-truth news’.
But come July…Who knows, it could be true.”
The true news is that there has already been climae change affecting Scotland.
Scotland no longer has four seasons and now only has two seasons.
The Rainy Season and the even Rainier Season!
@Arbroath1320
Oops too late, the cat’s out of the bag. Just don’t know how we will ever cope with all the black stuff, deary me its a worry right enough!
O/T
Happened to be flicking through the, let’s call it ‘news’ when I stumbled upon the Northern Irish Assembly where some guy from the DUP full on accused the BBC of bias and having an agenda. The more people attacking the BBC the better. This should be happening in Holyrood
I am sure they have some other SNP Brexiters lined up to make an appearance at the right time to try and damage the SNP.
Nana says:
19 December, 2016 at 4:57 pm
@Arbroath1320
Oops too late, the cat’s out of the bag. Just don’t know how we will ever cope with all the black stuff, deary me its a worry right enough!
I wouldn’t worry too much Nana you should be safe on here. It’s not like any unionists pay this site a visit. They leave it well alone to all those rabid vile Cybernats. 😀
Now if only we knew of somewhere, possibly close to Scotland even, that had broad shoulders and stuff who could take this burden off our hands and relieve us of all our worries. 😉
Nope I can’t think of a single country who would be prepared to help us out with all that black sticky stuff. Looks like we are on own folks! 😀
@Derick fae Yell says: 19 December, 2016 at 12:44 pm;
Incidentally, what exactly is an “Honorary Professor”? as the Herald describes Mr McLaren.
It probably means some college or other was daft enough to invite, and pay, him to make a speech.
The term is most often wrongly used by some publications to describean, “Emeritus Professor”. However, Emeritus Professors are actually mainly actual professionals who are retired, or mainly retired, professionals.
The publications concerned most likely cater for numpties and believe their readership would not know what an Emeritus Professor was.
Hurricane energy’s oil find on the Lincoln Field looks like an extension of their Lancaster Field, off Shetland, and they are now going on to drill an exploration well on the adjacent Halifax field.
The initial, conservative estimates for the area are at least 500 million barrels and the likely potential is over one billion barrels.
Great for Hurricane Energy but I worry, because the more oil we have, the harder the Unionists will fight to keep Scotland, all the time telling us that the oil is no use and too volatile in price, broad shoulders etc. etc.
@geeo
Very serious news indeed and scary as you say.
Noticed Telegraph headline today ‘Nicola Sturgeon Brexit power grab ‘a risk to free trade with England’ and similar in the paper edition.
Now, Telegraph readers are surely more intelligent than average people and any application of logic to this statement would beg the question that since the UKGov says it’s apparently going to get a great free trade deal with every other country on the planet, why is Scotland different? The only scenario in which Scotland’s ‘free trade with England’ is risked, is where England doesnt have free trade with anyone.
The quote marks in this case mean ‘Professor Michael Keating of the Centre for Constitutional Change says’. Regulars on here will no doubt be able to enlighten me about them. I’m going to make another wild guess, there is one very basic constitutional change they’re totally opposed to, in fact their raison d’etre is probably to oppose it.
@Robert Graham says: 19 December, 2016 at 12:54 pm:
” … someone stole his sweetie or lolly maybe ? .A poor tortured soul”.
The old Scots Lallans version of that particular saying, Robert, is, “Wha stole yer scone”? It is more fully said as, “Wha stole yer scone an ca’d ye partin face”.
(Partin=Sea Crab).
Robert Peffers says:
19 December, 2016 at 4:54 pm
“”The true news is that there has already been climae change affecting Scotland.
Scotland no longer has four seasons and now only has two seasons.
The Rainy Season and the even Rainier Season!””
……
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Scotland does not have a climate – just weather!
Our spring crocuses have appeared above ground!
We need tae find ah recipe tae spin aw that Oil intae Candy Floss ,we’ve been brought intae the light we need some sweetness noo,sure as shit the Cooperate Media will spin it as a negative.
@HandandShrimp says: 19 December, 2016 at 1:35 pm:
“I think the official Yoon line is it because we are cults…at least that is what I think they said.”
Urgent message for Handand shrimp.
Yer needin yer lugs washed oot.
From RT: “The comments were based on Javid’s first speech as culture secretary in 2014, where the wunderkind of then-leader David Cameron’s Conservative Party said:
“What we do in this country is great because, far from being ruled by central diktats, our culture is based on freedom and self-determination.”
Russian ambassador shot dead in Ankara
http://archive.is/NXxsC
Re. the outside world’s perception of us as narrow cultists. It is no wonder that Britain’s institutional structures would seek to misrepresent those who merely seek access to inalienable human rights. That’s what structures of cultural oppression do.
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/129/exclusion-misrepresentation-and-discrimination-still-prevalent-for-women-in-american-media-and-politics
@Stephen McKenzie says: 19 December, 2016 at 1:52 pm:
” … The Telegraph – don’t look.. Take me word for it, describes John McLaren as “an eminent economist”.
Ah! I think I’ve cracked the mystery.
Here is a cut & paste from Glasgow University Staff List :-
So- there you go. It quotes his email address – why not ask him?
I think I saw some sun yesterday. Well, something low-slung in the sky almost prevented me from seeing where I was going as I shuffled slowly up Leith Walk.
The real question is whether the sun was warm enough for rocks to melt.
WOS archive links now over on O/T.
@ Lederwood Crocuses ur we no in enough trouble wie Oil , & Gold your adding in crocus saffron ( worth its weight in Gold ) naemair ah says naemair ma pockets canny take oany mair loos change.
@Capella says: 19 December, 2016 at 2:56 pm:
” … Tomorrow, Nicola’s BREXIT letter to Theresa will be published and the hacks are maybe writing their “Blow for Sturgeon” headlines in advance.”
Can you not just picture in your mind, Capella, how great a wee country Scotland would be now – if only Nicola had not suffered so very many serious, “Blows”, to the SNP’s Government policies?
Hi Robert Peffers.
Re: “Emeritus Professor”. I was always under the impression that an Emeritus Professor was a Professor who had retired.
Thus, to have the title “Emeritus Professor” the person involved would have had to have been an actual working Professor.
Of course, you can have the title “Emeritus” used for other professions, eg ministers, bishops, and so on but that wouldn’t make that person an Emeritus Professor.
This ain’t gonnae be good following Russian ambassador to Turkey’s assassination. For that is what ‘this’ is.
I would suggest McLaren’s titles of Honorary Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Professor indicate, he is permitted to spout his pish to the students in these university departments, but, the uni does not consider his opinions as being worth paying-for.
@Nana says: 19 December, 2016 at 4:57 pm:
“Oops too late, the cat’s out of the bag. Just don’t know how we will ever cope with all the black stuff, deary me its a worry right enough.”
No! No! Nana. Don’t you worry yourself. You know it’s not good for your health.
I can categorically assure you that those broad, broad United Kingdom shoulders are very capable of absorbing the oil & gas revenue from Scottish territorial waters. They have proved that in the past.
No matter how big that very dangerous Scottish territorial revenue becomes, the Westminster wheeze of calling it United Kingdom revenue from the United Kingdom’s Extra-Region Territory will assure the United Kingdom’s broad shoulders will absorb it and mak siccar no harm from it will ever cause any trouble whatsoever for Scotland and Scots.
Have not a long succession of the English Parliaments Prime Ministers assured us that Scotland will always be protected from damaging oil & gas revenue income?
You have nailed it Socrates – an honorary academic is someone not worth paying for but who can provide useful service for free – in McLaren’s case for long service to the Yoons and their attack dogs at the BBC.
An Emeritus Professor on the other hand is a retired salaried professor from a University. But not every professor who is retired can be granted the title Emeritus – it is bestowed on the more senior academics who have gained great esteem during a long and distinguished career.
Hence there is a massive difference between the 2 titles – the former is almost meaningless as it is handed out willy nilly to almost a’body, while the latter is a genuine title of respect.
O/T
Caught an item on BBC News at 6 about modular houses. Apparently 5 factories will be built in various locations in England to build the modules and this should produce 22,000 houses per year.
The funding for the factories, and the jobs they will bring to say nothing of the houses, comes from Chinese Investment!
Meanwhile in Scotland…
Fantastic news for the new development at the Lochaber smelter & promise of real jobs. Whilst it was first-up on STV, Shortbread buried this great story in the second half as it featured Nicola Sturgeon? La Burd barely concealed her contempt. What a shower of shits we are paying for at Pacific Quay. Pity it was the Art School which burnt doon!
Wee video of Nicola in Lochaber
https://twitter.com/ScotGovFM/status/810920726349905920?lang=en-gb
@ Robert Peffers – yes indeed. Won’t it be wonderful when we don’t have to put up with the endless stream of rubbish pouring out of the media. Imagine being able to turn on a TV or radio and open a newspaper without being insulted within minutes.
That’s why I stick to alt-media but having no broadcasting service is a cultural deprivation and maybe even a crime against humanity.
“It’s going to be a slow news day until about March… ?”
Not exactly.
Did you know that Ruth Davidson, the MSP from Edinburgh, resembles Private Vasquez in Aliens?
Only much, much meaner looking. Although admittedly, quite a bit chubbier.
Never watch BBC Scotland news but noted that STV news didn’t mention the new oil field of 500 million barrels in the west of Shetland.
They are very quick to report a drop in oil prices and can hardly contain their glee.
Funny that!
yesindyref2. re. ex Fraser of Alexander Jo Armstrong.
I have a vague memory of looking up her (ooh er missus) during the first indyref campaign.
From a quick google. It’s easy peasy btw. Key words. Name + Labour! 🙂
See if you still think she’s “OK” mate.
“The publishers of the report – Glasgow University’s Centre of Public Policy and the Regions (CPPR) – question the viability of future sovereign oil fund and are described in the first paragraph as “a major independent think-tank”.
At no point do The Scotsman flag up the fact that the author of the report, Jo Armstrong (above), was a former advisor to Jack McConnell and a champion of privatisation and PFI/PPP. ”
So you’ll know where to direct the PFI charges then !
Not exactly a Blair ‘Babe’ but, I wonder if Jack had a wee fondle ?
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2012/02/23/the-professor-the-think-tank-the-black-black-oil/
She’s a full on neo-liberal, head in the trough bitch really.
Ideal ‘Lady’ material, the ermine can’t be far off.
Surely helping to sell off the Glasgow housing stock, Scottish Water, and saddling future generations with PFI is worth that ?
http://powerbase.info/index.php/Jo_Armstrong
As for co-conspirator McLaren, they go hand in hand. A long ways back.
“Or should we should look again at the CPPR and ask how non-aligned some of its people really are. John McLaren, for example, was once an adviser to the Labour First Minister Donald Dewar – not something that is flagged up on television.”
http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/glasgow/
@defo
I must have caught her in a good moment on TV.
I see Andrew Neil is still insulting anyone who disagrees with him:
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/810842359671955456
“I pay your wages too. And the unemployment benefits of the cybernats, who I notice you seem fine with.”
Beyond parody. He really doesn’t like being humiliated, sob, pout.
yesindyref2
There’s hope yet. 2016 seems to be taking a lot of good people, but some pieces of merde too. It’s not over yet, and with a coupon like his…
And before I get attacked, no I’m not joking. I for one will toast his demise. With a nice cup of Earl grey.
@ Nana
Lochaber all the more they’re going to make Alloy wheels , why couldn’t Rio Tinto diversify.
yesindyref2
Andrew Neil is a “right-minded” bigot, IMHO, though that may just be his on-screen persona. I bet he’s a bumbling idiot without the producer in his earpiece.
@Andrew Neil
Would you like to learn more?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pathologies-Reason-Legacy-Critical-Directions/dp/0231146264
This just in, Graun gives Better Together Bertie a whole page, to say Scotland’s going to get all the fish, in Britain’s waters
The UK should not be “frightened to death” of the trade tariffs that could be introduced after Brexit as they may not prove to be a disaster, the head of the Scottish fishing industry has said.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, told the Commons Brexit select committee that the fishing sector stood to see a doubling or more of its catch when Britain took back control of its waters.”
The UKOK fraud goes on.
Ever noticed that Paisley Pattern resembles ah Tadpole it must hiv been Andrew Neil they were fashioning it after, Slime fae the frogs spawn still attached
O/T
http://www.globalresearch.ca/report-from-aleppo-a-historic-moment/5561835
This from an Anglican vicar on the ground in Aleppo. The biggest lie the world has ever been told continues to unravel.
Check also online 21st Century Wire
We have in front of in the absolute lies the BBC has been promoting about Syria the tool to smash the credibility of the BBC forever.It is no longer a public service broadcaster.It is now a propagandist.
Actually that Graun UK fash for UK chips only, is probably Graun’s preemptive Sturgeon monstering for tomorrow’s Brexit plan publication. Its bad, very bad, Alex Bell levels of bad…
http://archive.is/oyH5I
Dave McEwan Hill
I’m afraid not Dave.
It seems to me that most aren’t willing to see. It’s too painful, best just to stick the blinkers on and keep watching Stricktlys got Talent.
@Yesindyref2
So Neil has stereotyped cybernats as basically benefits claimants? Oh Jeez!
Classy is wee Andra.
I’d say he’s basically blown any pretense at BBC objectivity oot the watter (like there was much doubt). Between him and Robinson they’ve done a bang up job for destroying the reputation of the Beebs political journalists.
Mind you, he’s had a hard week since Mr Mackay’s outstanding performance.
@G H Graham
cheers for ruining Aliens!
@ Ronnie Anderson, I’ve heard them described as wee sperms, a great pity Andrew Neil’s Paisley faither wasn’t clued-up on family planning!
Anent Rio Tinto, they don’t have a great international reputation & were apparently running the Kinlochleven generators below capacity to collect subsidies. Still, they’ve kept the Lochaber smelter running despite falling metal prices so that’s something. The local peeps will be hoping for a satisfactory outcome from the talks on the land deal, some of it was sold to British Aluminium for a reputed penny an acre between the wars. They made fortunes on the deal, time to put something back for the communities.
@Robert Peffers 7.07pm
Aye Robert you’re right, besides worrying always gives me heartburn.
@Ronnie Anderson 8.36pm
I don’t know Ronnie, maybe we should ask our ain Tinto Chiel lol
Dave McEwan Hill
It’s not the man in Bath we need to worry about, it’s the ‘anti-Assad activist’ in Coventry (Rami Abdel Rahman). One man with an apparent political agenda appears to be the main source of ‘news’ published in Britain. Perhaps he has the right agenda, one that fits with British values.
http://anonhq.com/truth-behind-oft-quoted-syrian-observatory-human-rights/
So good to read about Nicola visiting Lochaber today to highlight the new investment in the Aluminium works. I was brought up in Glen Nevis and have always been aware of this fantastic piece of engineering.
The Railway came to Fort William in 1890 and I believe this line also introduced a form of local NHS which introduced the model of the actual NHS which was developed over 40 years later.
In 1929 The British Aluminium Company (the BA) completed a major hydro construction programme of dams and pipework to carry millions of litres of water to their new aluminium smelters at Fort William and Kinlochleven.
Hundreds of men came from all over came to work and labour on this project and some became the first employees of the company.
Earlier, in 1907, the Kinlochleven plant was commissioned. The villages of Inverlochy and Kinlochleven were built specifically to provide housing for the workers and their families and Kinlochleven was the first village in Scotland to be provided with electricity as a result of the hydro-generating station. I went to Inverlochy primary school and the houses and the village were so well designed they became very sought after.
Loch Treig, which you can see from the railway line, near Spean Bridge, is the main source of water which is taken from the loch along a 25Km pipeline, 4.5m in diameter. Along the way additional water is collected from the surrounding hills and introduced to the pipe. The familiar to me, pipes descending from the shoulder of Ben Nevis are the last section of this waterway and produces a fantastic volume and power of water and with gravity this drives the electricity generators. As a boy we used to fish for trout, very successfully, at the foot of what we called the tail race.
Bauxite was brought to Fort William and using this ‘free’ electricity generated, turned into Aluminium. There had been so much talk locally of the Aluminium smelting being dropped and the facility just becoming an electricity generator it is so good that it is actually now being expanded and diversified thanks to the SNPBad government.
@ John Young, good post, the Loch Treig tunnel was the longest in Europe at the time & the supply was further augmented by the damming of the Spey above Laggan & diverting it via a tunnel to Loch Laggan & down to Loch Treig. There was a plant at Burntisland which processed bauxite into alumina for the smelters. It would be a great pity if this industry, which started at Foyers on Loch Ness, was allowed to go! An industry which has kept people in the Highlands for over a century.
@Macart
Yes, he really showed himself up. I daresay the BBC will have a word with him. Probably “well done”. Oh, that’s two words, well, it’s up to Neil’s arithmetic standards.
@John Young
There’s an Inn in Kinlochleven, the Tailrace Inn. I drive past there 3 or 4 times a year on business. Interesting to know some of the history around the aluminium.
Syria – a matrix of destruction and disaster- possibly the biggest humanitarian crisis since WWII. Who is to blame for the failed diplomacy and the country’s descent into civil war with many actors with shifting allegiances and goals involved in the conflict?
Certainly not the real victims, the civilians who are being pummelled into dust as the world looks on and then turns away from their suffering. The end game? ‘to convert Syria into a failing state with endless sectarian internal conflicts providing a pretext for humanitarian intervention’
This article provides a summary of events that have roots in the illegal invasion of Iraq.
‘With US leadership, the pretext for humanitarian intervention seems to have shifted from democracy-based to sectarian-based and from the Syrian National Council to the Syrian National Coalition. This alternative pretext is to capitalize on sectarian crimes and turn the crisis into a sectarian conflict in which both Qatar and Saudi Arabia (along with Turkey, Jordan, ‘North’ Lebanon and later Egypt) can fuel and mobilize enough Islamists to participate against the Syrian regime and its allies in resistance, including Iran. This shift immediately alienated some secularists in the opposition and increased the weight of the role of Islamists, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, in the opposition, and opened the door for the Nusra Front to participate…
Most importantly is that up to this time, most signs point to a successful campaign against Syrian national unity that resulted in disintegration of national unity towards sectarianism. It can be considered as an example of ideological re-engineering…
For many Syrians, at the outset of the crisis, there was no clear distinction between internal opposition and external opposition. And there was no clear distinction between what would be later designated as national opposition and a non-national one. The only ‘talking point’ of the opposition campaign has been ‘regime change’ by any means necessary without any indication of what could be offered as an alternative. Regime change was the only constant in the chaotic opposition path from the SNC in Istanbul to the Syrian National Coalition in Doha. This constant demand is unattainable without the destruction of Syria by turning the conflict into a sectarian war…
No message of harmony, coexistence, dialogue or peace initiative can be welcomed, contemplated or advanced…
Intervention through self-destruction, using a low-frequency or ‘low-intensity’ war, can be achieved by targeting all Syrian infrastructure systems such as those of the military, security services, finance, the economy, transportation, industry, agriculture, oil production, the electrical grid, aviation, telecommunications and healthcare. The most notable evidence of this has been the targeted destruction of Aleppo’s industries…
The Syrian Accountability Act of 2004 was passed by the US Congress and approved by President George W. Bush. The basis for the act was that ‘Syria was supporting terrorism and interfering with US efforts to stabilize Iraq’… Iraq shares a 641 km-long border with Syria, which was home to more than 1.2 million Iraqi refugees after the Iraq War that failed to find the missing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). It is ironic that the Nusra Front was allowed to enter Syria from all available borders under the watch and political cover of participating countries of the Right. The irony is that al-Qaeda never had a foothold in Iraq prior to the US invasion, dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Syria never had the Nusra Front prior to Syria’s induced self-destruction plan, perhaps dubbed ‘Syrian Spring’.
Should there be a US Accountability Act on foreign policy by the American people?
The Syrian Crisis combines the complexities of Lebanon, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and the tools used in the Syrian Crisis are taken from all these experiences and applied in stages and in parallel to achieve certain objectives that lead to Syria’s realignment as defined in this work. The humanitarian intervention doctrine risks being viewed as a pretext for intervention to achieve neo-colonial or geopolitical objectives in a new world order – so far a more plausible interpretation based on the list of countries that have been ‘helped’ by humanitarian intervention. In the case of Syria, in the author’s view, inhumane and induced self-destruction has been manufactured to achieve Syria’s geopolitical realignment.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17550912.2014.881006?src=recsys
John Young, I recall Loch Treig, I spent a couple of years there as a stalking ghillie on Corrour Estate (think Trainspotting scene in the moors) which lies to the south of the loch. It formed the march with Killichonate Estate which was an Alcan estate. Used to drive argo to the head of the loch, jump into boat, chug down the loch, climb the hill, drag stag back to the boat, chug back up the loch, engine and stag back into argo, drive back over the hill. There was a plantation halfway along the loch which the railway ran through. There was a guy living in there in a log cabin which he had built himself from the logs there. He had spent time in Canada prior. Trains always tooted their whistle when I was on the loch.
Re. the on-going Balkanization of the middle-east.
http://journal-neo.org/2015/08/14/the-new-thirty-years-war-in-the-middle-east-a-western-policy-of-chaos/
* 2015
So Dalzell kept open, Invergordon thrown a lifeline…
Just a start, but it feels like fresh air in the lungs.
Once we remove our curse and end the Union, Scotland will flourish and never look back. We will conduct our affairs according to our values, our priorities, and our respect for civic decency.
My biggest fear is Unionist spectres will see success in Scotland the way the East India Company saw the potential in Scotland’s Darien Scheme, and pull strings and bully people to strangle it from afar. We NEED Europe. We need Europe on our side and watching our back.
I hope this “concessionary” access to the Single Market is the SNP strategy I think it is, but just be careful about actually getting what we wish for.
But aye. This is good momentum SNP. I’ll slate you if you’ve earned it, but be fulsome in my support when you’ve earned that too, and you’ve put a smile on my face. Miracles do come in threes…
@ Breeks, sadly Invergordon, the biggest smelter in Europe, was closed by Thatcher. A big hit for Easter Ross, it drew its power from Hunterston & used as much as Dundee. No hydro-scheme there, nuclear was favoured as it was to be “Too cheap to meter!” 🙂
@ Alan Mackintosh, I’ve been in that wee cabin, a guy from Derbyshire who used to get a bit of seasonal work as a pony-man? That’s a hard shore to walk doon! The engine drivers were very obliging & if you asked nice would slow the train doon & let you jump at the head of the Treig, carry-oot, coal & the rations all tumbling down the embankment & bound for Staoineag, my first ever bothy! A concrete hoose also built by the BA & hoping that the river was low & the stepping stones over the river were above water for on a hot sunny day the river rose quite a bit due to snow-melt. Superb location & a wee sandy beach plus a view of the back of the Ben. Nostalgia………
“Children of the Dead End” by Patrick McGill, a story of the construction of the Kinlochleven smelter & hydro scheme, McGill worked as a navvy & later taught at St Mungo’s, Glasgow. The wee cemetery of the folk who worked in that remote spot on the Blackwater Dam sits on a wee knoll just below the dam wall. The stones are of cast concrete & surrounded by a picket fence. A bit like Boot Hill, “Darkey Cunningham.” springs to mind & “Mrs Farrell who died at the dam.”
Phronesis @ 10.44 Just did a search after reading your post and it threw up this article!!!
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-west-saw-isis-as-strategic-asset-b99ad7a29092#.hs0ocdnry
WTF
Either Comment 3 isn’t me, or this shit i’m smoking is stronger than I thought.
Stu ?
Doh !
It’s the 2nd option. Dec 19th !