“Better Together” spokesman, 27 September 2013:
“David Cameron does not have a vote in this referendum. Alistair Darling does. He is ready to debate Alex Salmond any time and any place.”
Letter from Danny Alexander MP to Alex Salmond, 30 Jan 2014:
“Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign, has said he is willing to debate with you, as leader of the pro-independence campaign, anytime, anywhere.”
The Telegraph, 23 June 2014:
“The pro-UK Better Together campaign withdrew from the contest, complaining that STV was allowing the First Minister to dictate when the show would be broadcast.”
So, just “anywhere”, then.
Tags: and finally, debates, project feart
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He’s washing his eyebrows that night !
… Or perhaps they now have a different leader? Of the No Thanks campaign? Let’s hope Danny will write again to clarify.
Anywhere in Pacific Quay that is.
He really is like a playground bully oor Flipper giving it all the come ahead come ahead then when FM says nae probs bike shed fowr o clock, he makes some pathetic excuse and wails aye yer lucky I’ll have you the next time…
The Telegraph says that the dispute was not about the date of the debate but when it would be broadcast, although later on the article seems somewhat to contradict that. It’s unclear, however no doubt it was BT who withdrew.
Waiting to see if we learn anymore from Scotland Tonight. What, optimist, me?
But Salmond isn’t the leader of the pro-Indy campaign.
Peter Bell insight:
Oh dear! Darling really needs to draw his neck in. He needs to remember that he’s just a back-bench British Labour MP and that being the Tory Prime Minister’s stooge does not give him such status as to be able to make demands of Scotland’s First Minister.
There has been no “climb-down” on Salmond’s part, of course. That’s just the distorting spin that we’ve come to expect from the British media. He has always maintained that he should meet his opposite number in debate. His opposite number is David Cameron, not an underling like Darling. But this never precluded debates with other representatives of the campaign to deny the sovereignty of Scotland’s people. It was always just a matter of making suitable arrangements.
Perhaps if Cameron hadn’t spent so long running away from meeting Alex Salmond in debate then there would not be such difficulty in making those arrangements. Yet again, the anti-independence mob has screwed things up and now resort to the pathetic whining that has become so tiresome
Even better quote than Danny Alexander:
Alistair Darling, chair of Better Together, called for the Yes campaign to provide answers about the impact of independence on areas such as jobs, pensions and public services.
“I have repeatedly challenged Alex Salmond to publicly debate these issues with me. However, he seems more interested in turning the debate on Scotland’s future into a battle between England and Scotland than he is in providing people with details. I will debate him any time, anywhere,” he said.
link to birminghammail.co.uk
Big Girl’s Blouse
Will the MSN run with this or with some press release from Better Together No Thanks dressed up as an article?
Gotcha!!!!
So A D is not a Martini girl?
link to youtube.com
Listening to AS today in Selkirk, he’s on top form. Watch out Alistair.
Alistair Darling is feart. Not really a surprise.
Salmond will be laughing his socks off.
To paraphrase Churchill:
I cannot forecast to you the action of the No Campaign. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is British national interest.
Hi Guys
apologies as not a comment on the topic
Im on holiday with a couple of English fellas who dispute my assertions that the BBC are a scurrilous lot of biased lying bastar*s not to be believed or trusted.
They want proof of how and where they have lied and misrepresented the truth.
please can you give me some hotspots to cut and paste so I can email them some proof.
I know we have had lots of stuff over the last few months about these BBC scumbags but I would like as I say to collate it together
thanks very much
Not a good day for No thanks BetterTogether, with public apology for hiring Andy Coulson slitheirig out of Downing Street then Flipper and MacDougal
make fools of all of them, again.
OT but just did an incredibly long You gov poll on political attitudes , who you last voted for, where you live, what you think of the various parties, THE question, how likely you are to vote. And rather strangely where you bought a tv in the last six months. who’s is it I wonder?
Alex Salmond called Alistair Darlings bluff, he blinked.
OH and sorry more ot can tose of you in the glasgow area have a look at this foodbank petition as it’s going rather sluggishly,
link to change.org
thanks
‘those’
One man telling an entire nation it should be content with its lot and think no more of its future is preposterous.
There’s a kind of madness in Darling’s posturing.
“I’m not familiar with your problem,” the psychiatrist said, “let’s start at the beginning.” “Very well,” replied the patent. “In the beginning I created the heavens and the earth…”
@robin key
Refer your friends to Medialens, Craig Murray’s blog or the Glasgow University Media Group. Has benefit of being much wider than Scottish concerns.
Im afraid I committed FB ‘bitter-cide’ over this earlier, I just want to say publicly that Im sorry for telling the truth.
Robin asks: please give me hotspots to cut and paste so I can email them some proof.
BBC Bias – grousebeater.wordpress … and half-a-dozen other essays on the Beeb from a former executive. Also see Derek Bateman’s blog
@robin key
link to heraldscotland.com
link to newsnetscotland.com
Robin Key at 1051pm
BBC BIAS reports:
link to newsnetscotland.com
FULL academic study showing anti YES bias by BBC
link to worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com
link to newsnetscotland.com
How to accept an apology with dignity, even when the apology is grudging andand not sincere. Some people could learn a lot about how to conduct themselves in public from the ‘notorious dictator’
link to bbc.co.uk
Derek Bateman on top form
But what really got to me was Simon Schama describing the Yes movement as a tribal identity which would destroy ‘expansive, inclusive’ Britain. Read those words again and remember who put the Go Home Foreigner vans on our streets, who elected wholesale UKIP councillors and MEPs, who openly denounces Romanians and Bulgarians and wants tighter immigration. Inclusive Britain sounds like the kind of out-of-time expression that someone who doesn’t actually live here could make. link to thetimes.co.uk
link to derekbateman.co.uk
Why would the elected First Minister of the Scottish Parliament debate with a Yesterday’s Man opposition party backbencher?
Darling is not even a member of the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet and has no place whatsoever in the Scottish Parliament. What, though, is the alternative? There are only a handful of actual Government representatives among elected Scottish members of Parliament with a lone Tory junior minister, David Mundell. The rest are LibDem hangers on.
There really is only one person who should be putting the case for Scots to remain as members of the United Kingdom and that is the elected Prime Minister of that elected body. It is significant that he sees himself as not being qualified to make the case for the union instead having nothing better to add to the debate than, “We don’t want to lose you Scotland”.
You bet he doesn’t, considering that Scots pay more per capita into the United Kingdom per annum than Westminster returns back to the Scottish economy and the English seem rather reluctant to base their weapons of mass destruction in their own country. They also fear the loss of 95% to 98% of the oil & gas revenues from Scottish internationally recognized territory.
Not to mention the real legal situation they face upon the dis-unification of the bipartite United Kingdom. The United Kingdom created on 1 May 1707 by the Treaty of Union that only has two equally sovereign signatory kingdoms and both Wales & Ireland being non-signatories as both were integral parts of the Kingdom of England in 1706/7. Simply put the Status Quo Ante of Scotland becoming again an independent kingdom is a return to the immediate status of the last day of April 1707. That is a return to two independent kingdoms and two independent parliaments.
It is called the United Kingdom for the very good reason that it was kingdoms, not countries, that were united by that treaty.
So SUN editor Rebecca Brooks was having an affair with her colleague Andy Coulson and he never mentioned her own employer/News international industrial phone hacking and Brooks husband says he was stashing his laptop behind carpark bins to get rid of his online porno? and she got away with it. Aye right.
This is teamGB media that thinks it can destroy Scottish democracy in September.
No debate will take place with Mr Cameron, he wishes to keep his hands clean and could not win a debate with a Scottish Donkey, let alone Mr Salmond. No debate with Mr Darling either, dates will be a problem and he will accuse Mr Salmond of running scared because that is exactly what Darling is doing now that his bluff has been called.
Better Together are serial bottlers. They will do anything not to be involved in a debate.
Radical Independence Campaign Mass Canvass 22 June 2014
8317 responses, 978 canvassers, 46 areas from Ullapool to Dumfries
40 % Yes
29.5 % No
30.5 % Don’t Know
Minus Don’t Knows
57.6 % Yes
42.4 % No
Robin Key
The Dirty Dozen
link to newsnetscotland.com
Robert asks: Why would the elected First Minister of the Scottish Parliament debate with a Yesterday’s Man opposition party backbencher?
Exactly. How can Darling give a pledge of new powers? How can he confirm
They couldn’t ‘pool and share’ a backbone between the lot of them.
Quiver Together.
Pff!
I am struggling to get my head around this. Has Darling backed out of the 16th July and is he somehow blaming Salmond because he has backed out?
They both know their position, they both know their arguments and the challenge anytime anywhere precisely does offer Salmond the opportunity to set the date. Three weeks warning is plenty of time.
Surely Better Together will see sense and turn up?
[…] « Not quite anytime […]
Craig Murray bites the BBC coverage of Islamic radicalism “threat” to the UK
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Re the Radical Independence Campaign Mass Canvass results
40 % Yes
29.5 % No
30.5 % Don’t Know
I really believe the figures right now are close to this, polls conducted online do NOT reflect the entire population but mainly the higher educated and of course those with online access and an interest in politics.
I don’t think the don’t knows are likely to have increased in the last few months as traditional Labour supporters start to doubt their allegiance to Labour’s view on this subject.
In my conversations, my impression is that Yes is slightly ahead, many many folk are reluctant to commit but in seeing that you support Yes will tend to lean that way.
Help make those folk lean all the way over to our side, wear a small badge, put a sticker on the car. Doesn’t need to be in yer face. Then have that conversation.
This is the most effective tool we have, so please use it, everyone can do it and it gets results. Come on, let’s all have a chat at every opportunity.
That is worth ten front pages or two 60min documentaries full of propaganda.
Does anyone know if Newsnet is ever going to produce the second part of that Dirty Dozen article?
Thepnr
I have seen quite a few window posters in the Logie part of the town when I went through it yesterday. Very encouraging so see them – not houses where I had previously seen an SNP poster displayed at election time.
Is there no unionist with the courage to debate the mythical benefits of the Union with Alex salmond?
Surely Better Together can find a champion from somewhere? What about Nigel Farage, Nick Griffin or the heid honcho of the Orange Order? Maybe one of them would be up for it.
link to bbc.co.uk
Lawyer Mike Dailly apologises for Salmond Twitter abuse
Mike Dailly is the principal solicitor at Govan Law Centre and sits on the board of the Scottish Housing Regulator.
The abusive tweet was sent on Saturday evening and attracted criticism on the social media site.
The lawyer has now apologised “unreservedly” to the first minister, who has accepted his apology.
Mr Dailly is a prominent member of the “No” campaign in Scotland’s independence referendum.
In his apology, he said: “I am involved in this independence debate and it means a lot to me.
“This time my passion ran away with me.”
He added: “I would like to say that I have upset people and I would like to make an unreserved apology for any offence I have caused.”
The Scottish Housing Regulator is an independent body which reports to the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Dailly has rejected calls to resign from the board, saying: “My work at the board of Scotland’s Housing Regulator is important to me.
“But I also have to say I think, in the circumstances, it is not a resigning issue.”
A spokesman for the Scottish government welcomed the apology, saying: “We are grateful for Mr Dailly’s apology and view the matter as closed.”
The latest from Newsnet Scotland says “Better Together revealed that Mr Darling has instead accepted an offer to take part in a TV debate to be hosted by the BBC.
The broadcaster, which has moved to a pro-Union stance in its coverage of the referendum, has set a date of August 12th, however it is not known if the First Minister has agreed to take part in this rival debate”.
Alistair probably feels he’d be more comfortable amongst friends at the BBC who’d probably do their best to stitch-up the FM as far as they could.
@ HandandShrimp.
BT have pulled out because they say that STV told then that an earlier date was final and there was no negotiation on the movement of that date. They now claim that AS changed that date to after the commonwealth games, hence the bitters saying AS was dictating the agenda.
Er um a eh t mm eh er oh
just so can’t wait to watch the train wreck of AD taking on AS
One only has to listen to the state AD was in on the blood and soil clip to know that he is a train wreck waiting to happen
AD has shattit
Mr dailly right back at you
We beat you
Cause u so dropped yourself in it
it was hilarious -thanks for the entertainment
So Darling, now that his bluff has finally been called, has decided to run away.
That didn’t take long.
Why am I not surprised?
i would like to know who the hell the BBC,STV,darling think they are to try set a date and time for the debate,dont they know they are talking to the First Minister of Scotland not some flunky they can dictate terms to ,what happens if on that day Alec has previous engagements i would imagine as the FM his calendar is pretty full.
Man, you couldnae make it up.
I had a look at the herald today and read a piece of full bodied praise for Mr Darling by Colette Douglas Home. Mr Darling is described as follows:
He says it like he sees it
a down to earth character
a tougher tactical challenge (than DC)
Low key gravity
a strong intelligence
a tactical mind
attention to detail
passionate
witty
lack of ego
a modest man
Mr Darling cannot be dismissed easily
he rescued the Scottish banks
I just wondered if there is another Alastair Darling involved in the debate? I have always found the various spellings of his first name a bit of a nightmare. Is there another? Or am I going to wake up like Pam Ewing and find out this article is part of a dream? Or are we all just figments of Pam Ewing’s imagination? Or Bobby’s?
Of course, Alex Salmond comes in for praise but in that clever way journalists and commentators do where they twist praise into criticism then make out like they are impartial/undecided. Torrance does this well (see what I did there). Not one word of criticism for AD.
The best bit is yet to come: “The former Labour cabinet minister has a track record in many of the areas where the Yes campaign is most vulnerable: currency, taxation, the effects of independence on the financial services sector, pensions and the benefit system”. That one sentence is mental – I did not think even Mr Darling’s family and friends could be 100% convinced of this like Colette is. I also love the list of the Yes weaknesses that reads EVERYTHING!
2 questions: didn’t AD’s actions and inaction expose the UK to its worst recession?
And didn’t he recently reveal his ugly belief that SNP members and voters were blood and soil nationalists, alluding to a movement as far from the beliefs, aims and politics of the SNP as you could imagine?
So let’s add:
incompetent
slanderous
disingenuous
And now cowardly
(If anyone can do an archive thingy that would be great – I am just getting the pay wall stuff and Im struggling with linking it.)
Why would anything change? There will be NO debate, not with Alistair Darling or David Cameron. This has been BT’s strategy all along. So why should things change now?
As far as 12th August goes, AD already said as the Rev pointed out anytime anyplace but it wasn’t. Any debate at BBC would be a stitch up so I don’t see it happening.
They have far too much to lose, we are not going to win hoping Alex Salmond will get through to the masses cos he’s on telly battering Alistair Darling 6-0 6-0 6-0. We the already committed supporters of Yes will have to do it ourselves.
Always remember that, so get busy.
I find it quite disgraceful that Darling has bottled it and Better Together are throwing an assortment of spanners into the mix, by wanting now to have the debate in friendly BBC territory.
No doubt Better Together will push for a really twisted spin with their chums in the media as we have seen already from Bobby shortarse’s twitterings
So Flipper isn’t exactly like the 1970s Martini advert: Any time, any where, any place. Now there’s a Better Together leader to be proud of. Debate – No Thanks! Blinking flip!
P.S. Of course, Flipper probably isn’t the leader of the pro-dependency campaign this week, so fair enough… Leader? Take her pick
So dear old Alistair Darling kept up his “I’ll debate you any time any where” shout at Alex Salmond faithfully backed up by his we wully dug Danny Alexander. Alex Salmond maintains his call for Feartie to debate with him but also says if Feartie refuses to debate cause he’s too feart then he WILL debate anyone from Project Fear. Nothing untoward there as far as I can see.
STV invite the First Minister to debate Alistair Darling possibly on 16th July but they are told that F.M. will debate anyone AFTER the end of Commonwealth Games. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Apparently Darling thinks because the F.M. is NOT prepared to jump to his tune then he will not debate F.M. after all, at least not on STV where he has NO control. Hmm…
I’m thinking that Darling is mirroring his boss now, he’s too feart to debate with the F.M. unless he, Darling, can set the ground rules the running order the series of what’s allowed and what’s not allowed etc. He can NOT achieve this on STV but can do so on BBC.
Note to F.M. be extremely wary of ANY debate you agree to with Darling on BBC!
Project Fear are losing more and more of the plot, I’m still not convinced they ever had the plot to start with but hey ho 😛 , each and every day.
Regarding BBC media bias, here is a worthy petition calling for an independent enquiry into it.
link to you.38degrees.org.uk
@manandboy
I saw this article as well and it struck me that something was missing. What this did Mr Daily say to the FM? All the article contained was a load of hot air and waffle. Oh and an apology.
What I’m getting at is, when this site or any other ‘yes’ supporter makes a remark that is deemed offensive(no matter how trivial it may seem to anyone with a mental age greater than 5) it is repeated throughout any and all articles that are written.
Yet I’m still none the wiser as to what was said to the FM. I know there has been an apology. But what did he apologise for?
Whenever there is a “twitter row” it always seems to be the ‘yes’ side who have said something to upset some sensitive soul in the no supporters. Take the article in the Courier the other day regarding the Angus councillor. To me his tweet just meant that by voting for and winning independence, every person in Scotland would be viewed as first class citizens, whereas by voting no, would mean continuing to be viewed as second class citizens by the Westminster government.
The FM was in excellent form in Selkirk today at the cabinet event. Relaxed and enjoying himself, he received a great welcome beforehand, and afterwards was surrounded by a large group of people wanting photographs taken with him and/or for him to sign their copy of Scotland’s Future. He chatted, charmed and made people feel that this was indeed democracy in action, when you could buttonhole the FM of your country.
No mention of Darling or televised debates. He seemed more focussed and mightily pleased with what had been arranged with Borders Council for the opening of the Borders rail line, and the huge success he was convinced the new line would be.
Hi folks,
I’m not trying to hijack this thread so apologies in advance if anyone is offended. But – any chance some of you kind people could repost this link on your Facebook or Twitter accounts to try and raise a wee bit of cash for the Yes Stirling campaign office?
link to igg.me
We’re still a wee bit short and your extraordinary generosity will make a difference as it has in the past for so many other similar worthy causes on this site.
Well who knew?
Something, something, something I can’t make it that night, but its all Alicsammin’s fault…
…jist because. 😀
Cluck, cluck Mr Darling.
@Dorothy Bruce
And that’s why they’re terrified of debating the man. He’s always focussed on the task/engagement in hand, communicates well, has a bear trap memory and thinks on his feet. Given the chance to mix, he never hesitates and isn’t afraid to get in among the crowd minus minders and spads.
Contrast with the opposition who just love those controlled environments, scripted questions, preferred hacks and set pieces. This is the part of the referendum they were always afraid of, the FM getting into campaign mode, out and about meeting people on the ground. They can’t engage like that except through second stringers like Mr Murphy.
When someone is seen to lead from the front and get stuck in on the ground it makes a difference.
Good article about how No aren’t even trying to engage or debate. Especially interesting in the light of how things panned out re not debating!
link to derekbateman.co.uk
Better Together tactics, when not lying, are aimed at insulting and marginalising the Scottish electorate. That’s all they have in their bag.
link to whitefeatherclub.wordpress.com
@ Tam Jardine, this the one
Alistair would be No camp’s darling in the big TV debate
link to archive.today
Holly shit its awful. No mention of the Flipper bottling it on bettertogethrBBC.com, funny that. If Flipper does go for the BBC debate, they’ll only edit it to make AlicSamin look bad.
link to heraldscotland.com
Herald seem to block the archiver.
Mr Salmond is clearly keeping that date open for Cameron, giving him the
opportunity to change his mind and face Alex on TV. If he offers this
date to Cameron’s human shield( Darling) then this lets Cameron off the
hook, as he will then say Mr Salmond changed the date and he cannot now
attend. Hence the reason why the NO Thanks mob are desperate to fill this calender spot with a backbench Labour MP. Anyone with half a brain can see that The No Campaign are doing everything they can to avoid Mr Salmond tearing them to pieces on national TV .
manandboy
The Housing Regulator does what it says on the tin. It sets standards for Housing Associations and Councils. If a Board Member of a HA did what Dailly did, it would be very likely that his fellow members would put pressure on him to resign, to prevent the HA being tarred with the same brush. If not, the matter could be reported to the Regulator for a decision.
We are in uncharted waters if it’s a Board Member of the Regulator itself who has made the comment. It doesn’t matter if Dailly loves his job on the Board of the Regulator, there are standards to be observed. The impartiality of the Regulator has been breached and we haven’t heard the end of this matter.
O/T
Mike Russell, Scottish government education minister, was on TV last night defending free tuition fees in Scotland.
And in England they are starting to question the £9000 a year fee. Oxford Uni is first in, with wanting the fee cap raised to £16,000 a year.
link to independent.co.uk
When one Uni starts asking for more, it is not long before the rest start asking for more.
The £16,000 a year Uni fee should be pointed out to undecided voters, because IF we vote NO(spit) then charging £16,000 a year Uni fees is very much on the cards, due to Scotland’s overall budget being reduced due to UK cutbacks.
Derek Bateman on the no show by the no campaign to debates.
link to newsnetscotland.com
And Daily Wrecker with misleading headline on BMA chief and “NHS car crash” but ignores the comments made by Brian Keighley on BBC radio yesterday morning when he pointed out that the Scottish government had done well considering the financial constraints from Westminster not least as a consequence of privatisation and outsourcing in England’s NHS.
Radical Independence Campaign Mass Canvass 22 June 2014
link to radicalindependence.org
Now the Yes seems to match well with polls. They’re pretty much all getting high 30’s to mid 40’s Yes now.
No looks low however with DK very high.
Or is this the case?
We might get a poll that says e.g. 47% No. Yet, we look at ‘certain to vote’ tabbed with ‘No’ we get only ~33% consistently across polls.
Going one step further and ask how definite people are / will not change mind, we get less than 30% cross tabbed with No.
Now, if you say you still may change your mind, then you are not a No, you are a DK.
So you might get 47% say ‘No’ in a poll, yet ask if people might yet change their minds and 17 points of that are actually ‘Don’t know’, bringing No down to 30% and DKs up to canvass levels.
We really do seem to have a group of people saying different things depending on who is asking.
Just like we did in 2010-early 2011 when you asked people if they were satisfied with Salmond / the SNP and ~55% said Yes on average. If you asked them about Iain Gray, you’d struggle to get 30%.
If you asked people what they planned to vote in 2011, 45% said for Iain Gray / Labour with only ~30% for the SNP. Porky pies.
Although I should note that canvassing predicted an SNP win in 2011 when polls didn’t. The latter only started to come close with a few weeks to go.
And so the charade continues…
(queue music for intro to “Soap” – 70’s American Comedy)
youtube.com/watch?v=OSaNWYHmUvI
@Dorothy Bruce
Thanks for the report, just one small point, the line is being reopened along substantially the same route. Though not whole length (that might be for the future).
The track will be new but the line is old, and has merely been sleeping. I expect AS sees it as a metaphor for the parliament and our sovereignty.
That Gala was the largest town in Britain without a rail link anywhere near was long a scandal. Dr Beeching got that one very wrong.
As global warming gets going and storm damage gets more expensive much of the rail infrastructure along the coasts will need to move inland. There are old abandoned rail lines from here in Dundee heading for Forfar and Brechin for eg. Or it could run alongside or down the middle of the A92 to Arbroath.
robin key
skip past the saville stuff if you have heard enough of that the stuff on iran and the irish referendum are clear how bad it id
link to youtube.com
How have we managed to get two such contradictory stories? Other than one side just lying, obviously?
Did STV release details of the debate before confirming that both sides were happy with it?
@Thepnr
I first started wearing a Yes badge over a year ago and nobody every remarked on it. I used to wonder what I was doing wrong as I would regularly read posts on Wings from other people who said that when they wore their Yes badge, people would ask them about it. It just never happened to me……until 3 weeks ago, when a lovely young lassie at a garden centre saw it and we had a great conversation – she was undecided but wanting to vote Yes and was looking for more information (which I just happened to have in my bag).
Since then, another two people have done the same thing. So I think we’re at the stage where it’s really important for Yes people to be as visible as possible – not only to get conversations going, but just to show that supporting Yes is normal and growing.
A strange ghostly figure, with white hair and thick black eyebrows and a terrified expression, was seen wandering the streets early this morning, checking out the location of the nearest Subway Bar in his neighbourhood.
SLab mouthpiece publication, the daily rancid has full front page monstering of ”car crash” Scottish NHS this morn, quoting the head of the Scottish region of the BMA.
When are the folk who work in the NHS going to respond to the trashing of their hard work by these SLab opportunists and media mouthpieces.
Stop.. Stop… Don’t panic.. Don’t panic..
There’s no need for a debate. Lord Robertson has spoken. We’re doomed I tell yi. Doomed..
link to thescottishsun.co.uk
Well if the “safety of The World” is at risk then I guess we might as well pack up now – why didn’t you say earlier?
Roll up our banners, put our badges away in the drawer, get the Yes tattoo surgically removed, and all quietly go home.
Is there no end to the nonsense that comes out of this mans mouth? “Neurotic Scaremongering JibberJabber in Ermin” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Vermin in Ermin” does it?
Jeanie
I play a wee Yes game with my daughter when we’re out and about in Edinburgh: 1 point for a wee sticker on a lamppost, 2 for a car sticker or a wee window sticker, 5 for an A3 big window yes and 10 for a badge. Yesterday the tally was 35, much higher than ever before.
Not very scientific but I can see it going up and up. Nae badges yesterday but it’s early doors. A few ugly wee Naw stickers (-1). That sticker is so negativeand mocking – canny imagine it’s a product of Saachi and Saachi.
Hardly anyone talks to me about it on the street. I find when I go to the taverns it is there that people are most eager to engage, argue and have their misconceptions removed.
You meet a lot of people who read the paper from the back and don’t watch the news and rely on what they are told, and many who have not heard an argument face to face from either side After 2 years! Fertile territory folks – get out there.
Jeannie
About wearing badges, I also wear wristbands. I put two wristbands on the same wrist, with one stuck higher up my wrist than the other one. You could go really crazy, and wear three wristbands.
Put badges on every jacket/coat and on every top that you have, so when you take your coat/jacket off, you still have a badge showing. Badges and wristbands are very eye catching and great conversation starter. I wear the small white YES badges.
Who have BT got that can shine in a debate with Salmond and make an impression beyond their hard core support?
Not very scientific but I can see it going up and up.
I can see it too. Counting of Yes car stickers. Seeing them every day now on my 35 mile commute. A month ago, they were just every so often.
BT/Naw/NoThanks/UKOK to Yes ratio seems around 1:10.
Also have noticed saltires and rampants appearing in gardens where there were none before.
@ SS
Another reason for the high Yes return in the RIC canvassing could be the areas in which the canvas was carried out.
RIC are concentrating there efforts in the schemes/more deptived areas which other pollsters normaly fail to reach
@caz-m
Funnily enough, I was wearing a large coloured badge before and changed it to the small white one with the blue yes and it’s since I changed the badge that the conversations have started. Don’t know whether it’s to do with the badge or the timing, but think I’ll concentrate on the white badges for a while to be on the safe side.
C’mon you lot – don’t be shy! Get visible!
Oh, also got a we scotland car aeriel sign. They’re really visible in a car park or driving along the road. I’ve got a yes sticker on the back window too, but it’s not as visible as the car aeriel thingy – £2.30 at VisitScotland shops.
Curios why Alistair chose the Glorious Twelfth to debate. Most of the No supporters will be out on the moors grousing about something or other.
BrianW 9.01
In an independent Scotland will his supplies of Just For Men be at risk?
“Another reason for the high Yes return in the RIC”
That’s the thing. The Yes vote they’re getting matches polls. Sure maybe a little higher due to what you say, but the No (definite) also matches polls when you dig into them.
@scottish skier
Saw my first NAW sticker on a car in Argyll at the weekend. I was so tempted to stick a note on his windscreen wipers saying “How no?”.
I drive between Glasgow and Argyll every few weeks and have definitely noticed more saltires and lions rampant going up in people’s gardens on that route.
Bunter
Arch Unionist David Clegg of the Record, will be all over this trashing of Scotland’s NHS.
I keep asking Clegg, if he is so unhappy with life in Scotland, then why doesn’t he return to his native Northern Ireland or better still, head south to England, where he seems to think everything is so much better.
To date, he is still resident in Scotland, so things might not be as bad as the bullshit that he prints in his comic called the Record.
STOP BUYING THE DAILY RECORD, IT PRINTS LIES ABOUT SCOTLAND!
O/T
I just typed in the wrong address looking for the Yes Scotland website.
I typed in
http://www.yes-scotland.com
I was a bit surprised where I was re-directed to!! Not to mention the scare I got when the page opened up properly.
Has anyone noticed this before? Are the better together crowd targeting people who don’t know the correct web address for Yes Scotland? I would have thought that Yes Scotland would have bought as many Yes Scotland sounding url’s as they could so anyone typing in the incorrect address would be re-directed to the correct one. Maybe a bit of an oversight here?
I don’t really get the Naw thing. Aye and Yes are both used across the whole of Scotland. Naw is very specific to one region. I’m guessing that it was devised within the rarefied bubble that is Blythswood Square in an attempt to be “grass roots”. Nae is the proper Scots equivalent to Aye. You don’t say naw limits you say nae limits although clearly there are severe limits in Nae Thanks land (or is that Naw Thanks these days?)
Jeannie
You have One car sticker on your back window?
C’mon Jeannie, don’t be shy.
I have FIVE stickers on my back window AND two on the front windscreen. lol
I think the front windscreen stickers are as important as the back window stickers.
Sitting at traffic lights, you actually see conversations getting started in other cars.
Start “normalising” YES.
LOUD AND PROUD!.
@Jim Marshall
“In an independent Scotland will his supplies of Just For Men be at risk?”
Jim. He can have my supplies that I no longer need.. I’ve a baldy napper, but I look like the Remus form the kids toy things years ago (showing my age now..lol)
@Hand and Shrimp
Had a surreal conversation a number of years ago with a colleague from the south of England who was baffled as to why someone who had written her a letter had finished it with “Aye Yours”. Spent the next hour explaining the difference in spelling, pronounciaton and meaning of aye =yes, aye=always and ae=one. Think she emerged from the conversation more confused than when she came in 🙂
I just typed in the incorrect address for the Yes Scotland website.
I typed in
http://www.yes-scotland.com
I was really quite surprised where I was re-directed to. Not to mention who’s mug was staring back at me from the screen.
Has anyone else done this?
I’m beginning to wonder if Yes Scotland have missed out on a lot of potential supporters due to folk getting the wrong web address.
I think they may have missed a trick here. I would have thought that they would have bought all Yes Scotland sounding URL’s. This way if people do try and go to the wrong site then they could be automatically re-directed to the correct one.
@caz-m
Yeah – think I’ll put one on the front, too It’ll look good in the driveway next to the ones on my recycling bins.
Sorry for posting that last comment twice. I’m offshore just now and the internet is a bit slow. I didn’t look like it had posted the first time.
None of this is to do with the Salmond Darling debate….It’s all to do with making another side issue the focal point ….to stop the debate focussing on the issues that matter.
The cynic in me suspects this is all part of the rumoured “Salmond story” that will be released close to vote. Easy to imagine the henchmen of BT wanting to tie everything in nicely, a shame story in all the media and then cue public debate to attempt further discredit.
They’ll stop at nothing to protect their riches. Thankfully Im sure Eck, and indeed the Scottish people, are more than ready for anything they think they have up their sleeve.
Darling can go whistle , Cameron get up here and fight with every fibre of your being to save the union ya fuckin weaselling coward
Sitting laughing here at Mike Dailly claiming a “Tired and emotional” style excuse for abusing the elected leader of our country. No mention of police investigating unlike J.K Rowlings case the other week.
Cybernat…bad
Cybernaughty…good
@ Hand and Shrimp
“Spent the next hour explaining the difference in spelling, pronounciaton and meaning of aye =yes, aye=always and ae=one.”
It makes the phrase “Aye Scotland” so much more pertinent with the double meaning.
Not just anywhere either.
Anytime, so long as I can choose, and any place, so long as it’s the BBC.
Salmond must only agree if it is a LIVE broadcast. No live, no show.
Got 1 of them better together propaganda pamphlets through my door today, so tonight and tomorrow night I will be going round my area chapping doors, I shall adhere to collect as much of this propaganda material as possible to make a smashing wee fire out of them, I might even stick a video on you tube.
Better Together my big spotty arse.
The Sun reports that Salmond has pulled out of the debate!
Sorry to go O/T but does anyone know if this event is being broadcast.
link to eventbrite.co.uk
Dave McEwan Hill says:
Sun reports that Salmond has pulled out of the debate!
Whatever the details of why BT?NT pulled out (probably to save Darling whose bluff had been called), they will see the opportunity to blame the whole thing on Alec Salmond and milk that for all it’s worth. No gutter is too deep.
Truth says:
Salmond must only agree if it is a LIVE broadcast.
No one from Yes should go near the BtBC unless it’s live!
@galamcennalath.
Don’t be silly. NO BBC broadcasts are live.
There is always a delay to allow the programme to suffer a glitch in the case of an unwanted remark. Normally the recording loop is broadcast a short time later to delude us into thinking it’s live.
A trick used for many years in totalitarian state broadcasts.
Perhaps Mr Bateman can confirm.
Test
Jeannie, I would agree with you regarding wearing the YES badge, I have had conversations with regard to my badge, it is bright pink so it stands out. All positive.
So WEAR the BADGE people.
@NOROG 9.24 Why has AD chosen the glorious 12th? Perfect timing as always from the BT camp. He is probably still unconsciously simmering about William Duguid’s poem “To a Grouse”
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Tattie-bogle says:
This was a good post, if people want to take the time to find out about BBC bias and propaganda and how they do it.
It is worth re posting as we will recognise several similarities that we face.
You will need a coffee, takes time to watch, but well worth it.
link to youtube.com
I’ve been wearing a YES badge since February.
Just the other week in Dunfermline, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turned around and this guy gave me a thumbs up.
Also seen a lot more YES posters popping up in windows and people wearing YES badges in the last week or two. Maybe the furor with the JK Rowling and the Ordinary Mum have done the BetterTogethers more harm than good.
Even the Couriers Referendum Roadshow is starting to come back with more and more people supporting YES than No.