Not totally wired
Tory MP Kirstene “dumber than a box of” Hair is best known for being the member of the UK Parliament who didn’t vote in the Brexit referendum because it was too difficult.
But today she’s made a tilt at a different title.
And what makes this entry so extra-galactically dim is that not knowing that broadband is the responsibility of the UK government, not the Scottish Government is an error that’s been debunked and patiently explained to impossibly thick Scottish Tories so many times it was actually the very first example of towering witlessness that kicked off this whole contest, almost TWO YEARS ago.
But the clincher was the fact that Hair was complaining about broadband in the context of complaining about rural bank branches being closed by RBS. Which is, of course, owned by… the UK government.
Being stupid on such an epic scale that you keep drawing attention to your own party’s failings when even dogs in the street know better is exactly the sort of talent we’re looking for. Dimwits of Scotland, try not to poke yourself in the eye when you salute your new Queen.
I sigh. I moved to the Highlands from the centre of London, I was literally 1 mile from the Gherkin.
I have internet that is 7x faster, stable, and cheaper!!
Thanks UK Government 🙂 or .. umm, I wish it was better – like my mates in some EU nations where its classed as a ‘utility’,
Yeh, but how many people out there know that it’s a reserved matter? Plenty don’t and will think this dimwit a heroine.
Banks almost went defunct under Westminster as well due to lack of regulation.
Hair today gone tomorrow. The Tories have an uncanny knack of picking candidates from the lowest strata of intellect available,
Is she a dimwit? Maybe, but I believe she and the other dimwits know exactly what they are doing. These comments are aimed at us on SM, they’re for the rest of the electorate who take bbc/msm word on it. We have no way to reply so electorate believe it. We need to change this.
Yet an other idiotic, Tory fucker, surfing on-the-back of the tax payer.
It’s a political lie. It’s allowed–apparently.
I don’t think they are really that stupid, although in her case I could be very wrong. I believe it is part of there strategy to confuse the public, and also keep their own dumb supporters happy, as they will believe anything issue from Westminster High Command.
MP for the Galactically Supid
The Conservatives only need candidates that will toe the party line. If they could think for themselves…..
She’s as thick as shit in the neck of a bottle!!
I’m still waiting for broadband in the UK to catch up to what I had in Tokyo in 2005.
It was 100Mbps up and down fibre to the premises, which was pretty normal in Japan back then and nowadays would be considered slow.
Therfore the whole thing should actually read
“The RBS (which we the UK government own), and which went bust because we in Westminster failed to regulate them properly,has turned it’s back on rural communities like Angus by closing our local branch in Montrose. Residents must rely more heavily on digital banking , but the SNP aren’t making that easy with inefficient broadband roll out ,which we also own”
Why are the SNP making such a mess of everything over which they have no control? Why? Why? Why?
Answers on a postcard. Keep it simple for Ms Hair please.
We’ve been here with her and this already only last July. Is she not reading Wings? :-\
Not stupid, criminally cynical. The bigger the lie….
This whole idea of bank branch closures is dodgy. I suspect that the reason is not because everybody is turning to online banking, rather it is to force everyone to use online banking and more importantly for the government, stop businesses using cash.
I stand ready to be corrected, but I haven’t heard of bank branches being closed like this anywhere else in the world.
Its great how we can laugh at such idiocy but we don’t laugh at the folk that actually elected such representatives…
Stupider than a stupid thing
Hair in a tangle?
Se the new mystery move: ‘Last Tangle in Angus’
Who will be the new Queen of Scotland?
I do believe I’m a ‘hair’s’ breath from exploding at these fuckwits.
She/they are doing this deliberately because no strong voice is telling it like it is. No media, no press.
Also watching the SNP MP’s at Westminster trying to get points across about serious issues concerning their constituents whilst an obviously concerted campaign of jeering, boorish calls and constant talking and laughing over them is taking place.
They don’t want us there…we need to go.
O/T
Re: the mad cow found in Aberdeenshire. Already having Brexit ramifications with regards to NI Backstop:
Borders are there for reasons. No doubt the SG will be getting the blame for this by the mad Brexiteers in 5-4-3-2-1…
Just how fast does your broadband have to be for online banking anyway?
Stupid is as stupid does. Ms Hair is not on of the brightest sparks around. Being blonde is she trying to out do Lady Moan
CapnAndy
You could be right. Banks have instigated all the ‘tech’ that we have now to further their aim of cutting costs.
Banks started the process of call centres being outside of the country because of ‘costs’, so everything they do leads to that end.
But nowhere have I ever seen a push for bank bosses to cut THEIR costs!!
@ orri,
I can online bank on my phone comfortably with 3G, 4G obviously quicker and Wi-Fi means I don’t use up cellular data limits
RBS Closures
If you’re the manager of a company owned by somebody else you need permission of the owner of that company to agree to either sell or close parts of it
Do people really believe The UK government had no involvement in this decision
Theresa May said the UK government couldn’t get involved in commercial decisions at RBS yet the UK actually owned RBS
I still maintain this was a deliberate UK stitch up like every other bit of silverware the UK has sold
Extraordinary
Stupid as a fox.
These blaggards know fine and well where the demarcation lines between Reserved and Devolved matters are – and they deliberately blur them to their own ends.
She is an example of someone blinded by her belief system. Mis-truths etc are permissable if they are about your sworn enemy. All’s fair in love and war after all. This is what they believe.
Just imagine if we bought the Scotsman and used that to expose the ignorance of what is and isn’t devolved.
The public don’t care for ignorant politicians. Just ask Bob Gillespie when Jim Sillars showed him up on STV the day before the Govan By-election. He had no idea what subsidiarity was in the context of the EU, and it showed. Nobody was going to admit to voting for a fool, so they backed Sillars. I believe this is why interviews with the SNP are strictly marshalled nowadays.
As one of her constituents, I can tell you that she doesn’t speak for all of us. She wasn’t voted for by all of us either. To be honest, I still don’t know how the hell she appeared from nowhere and ousted a first class MP of long standing and a gentleman too (Mike Weir).
Airhead daughter of a wealthy farming family with ample connections to the Tories and the landed gentry in Ayrshire.
The Montrose RBS branch became my ‘local’ business bank after they closed my other ‘local’ branch in Brechin. Now, Montrose is being closed too, so the choice is becomming Aberdeen or Dundee! This was nothing to do with the SNP.
As for Broadband, we were one of the first areas in the country to receive (normal) broadband back in 2002. It’s still a more than adequate service to do my daily banking with, so what’s the fuss? Ah, of course, that’s not enough of an SNP BAAADD story, so perhaps I should stand in a ploughed field and complain that I don’t have superfast broadband yet, when I don’t actually need it.
The girl has always been out of her depth, but who needs to be anything more than shallow when you have a background like hers?
link to caltonjock.com
Word is the penny may be starting to drop, at long last, for the fairmers in Angus. Most used to say ‘not interested’ and shut their door when SNP canvassers came by, now, while not saying they will vote for independence, we are getting reports that former door slammers are now at least inviting canvassers in to hear what they have to say.
Baby steps.
Will be interesting to see if there is a diminution on the free advertising space they give in their fields at election time. That alone would be a big help here.
Kirstene Hair comes in handy when you need to explain the difference between ‘street smarts’ and ‘street furniture’.
On the subject of hair…can we stop with the “blondes are stupid” line? I had to stop my teenage daughter using the word blonde as an insult…
In other news….SNP mitigates UK govt failings – again.
Oh wow! That’s epic. 😀
[…] Wings Over Scotland Not totally wired Tory MP Kirstene “dumber than a box of” Hair is best known for being the member of […]
She might be a bit thick, but she is still paid a huge amount of public money to be thick and to lie to the voters.
These jobsworths were chosen for a reason, to lie and ensure as many people as possible never get to the facts of what’s reserved to the London English government, who rule over Scotland.
These British Nationalists knew what they were doing in 1707, and they know what they are doing now. Taking Scotland’s resources, land, and revenues. It’s been so lucrative and easy for them, so far. Now they don’t like that their lies and thieving are exposed, at least half of the people of Scotland are not taking it anymore.
Britnats serving up gruel while taking all your gold, literally now as well. ‘Scotland, be grateful you sweaty scroungers!’ Kick, punch, kick.
If Scotland does not escape from Britnat rule, they will continue to serve up gruel while siphoning away Scotland’s actual own riches forever more. To add insult to injury they will claim credit for all of the hard work of the real government of Scotland, the SNP, in ‘rebuilding’ Scotland.
Britnats will make sure Scotland is kept poor and begging if we don’t get out of the cesspit called the ‘UK
Doesn’t the unicorn have a chain around it’s neck? It’s not out of kindness.
If someone was given funding to remedy something, say a leaking roof, and instead spent it on something else then turned up the next year asking for the same again then the people giving the funds might wonder if that’s a deliberate fraud. In effect the UK is withholding funds that would improve the farms they’re meant to go to to such an extent that the roof would stop leaking.
If it was a charity deliberately withholding funds from victims of whatever they campaigned against the public would start to wonder if perhaps they had no interest in really helping and by that putting themselves out of business.
Or say someone had a chronic condition needing pain relief and their carer kept the majority of it for themselves.
That, in essence is what successive Westminster Governments have been doing to Scottish Farmers and the EU.
Meant “doesn’t stop leaking” but hope you get the jist.
On the subject of Brexit, there will be no extension to the transition period because there will be no agreed deal and therefore no transition period.
May is simply leading folk down dead ends. Again. Deliberately.
re:Chick MacGregor@12.46
Let’s hope the Angus farmers grow up sometime soon then, because they about to be royally shafted by the Britnats re, London England’s government taking us out of the EU.
Did a lot of people actually vote for Kirstene Hair or was it a small number and some electioneering fiddle or perhaps there are so many people in Angus who work in the farming and industry or are connected to it and got scared of voting for someone who would actually act on their behalf because she certainly does not act on behalf of the majority of people in Angus, she works for the rich landowners ,when will ordinary working people wake up and stop voting for clowns who damage their future and keep them poor.
Essentially the Hair Raiser is right.
It must be SNP’s fault that a complete and utter idiot like this can be supported by Dark Money from foreign nations who do not have Scotland’s best interests at heart.
I had a Scotland in Union or somebody leaflet drop my home in Glasgow.
Nice to see them panicking early but cash to fund these scams seem to be limitless, but then again Scotland pays for it indirectly when robbed of our assets.
CapnAndy
In the Netherlands it is much the same, I found an article from 2015 that said 1500 local bank branches had been closed over the previous 10 years. I saw another article from 2018 saying the Rabobank (big sport sponsor) wants to be wholly digital.
I myself use Triodos bank which is an international ethical and sustainable bank which does not have any local offices.
The phenomenon is not restricted to UK, I’m afraid and yes, I do recognise that local banks have their uses.
O/T
The Fort William Diving Centre must be saved – either by SG or Jim McColl, Wood Grouo or the likes of Hunter Foundation.
We are the ones who are thick for allowing. This to happen no other country would put up with all these lies and deception if someone accused me of fraud I would take them to court to expose their lies the SNP should have done that long ago I mean where does patience end and stupidity begin???
Oh dear, another bad Hair day.
It’s shocking that she is so ill informed BUT how many ordinary people who are equally ignorant of what is devolved and what is reserved will swallow everything she says and believe that it IS the fault of the SNP BAAD government that we currently have.
It is this ignorance that we need to dispel so that everyone, and I mean everyone, can hear these words and turn round to the speaker and say ‘ You are talking rubbish – this is all the fault of WM’ because until we can educate everyone to know what is really the fault of WM and how much the SNP is doing to mitigate things, then we are fighting an uphill battle with both hands tied behind our backs.
O/T
Where has this BSE come from which has now been found on a farm in Aberdeenshire?
Scottish beef is protected brand and a premium product because it is disease free – surely they wouldn’t…..
I wonder. Was hers a planted question so that chummy could make his reply about investment? If so, was the wording hers, or was she stitched up? For chummy must know that it’s Westminster’s business.
Does she really not know that broadband is the responsibility of the UK government, not the Scottish Government and that the RBS is owned by the English Government of the UK? Or is she intentionally trying to stir up people to be discontent with the SNP Government of Scotland? Is this part of the anti-independence campaign?
Artyhetty,
WHY IS THE UNICORN CHAINED?
The unicorn representing Scotland in the coat of arms is always depicted bounded by a golden chain, which is often seen passing around its neck and wrapping all around its body. The unicorn was believed to be the strongest of all animals – wild and untamed, and that it could only be humbled by a virgin maiden. It is possible that the entrapment symbolises the power of the Scottish kings – they were strong enough to tame even a unicorn:
link to visitscotland.com
🙂
On the subject of RBS, why don’t the tax payers own the whole shooting match lock stock and barrel?
The people who invested in their shares had spare money to gamble with and made good money with dividends while the Banking Casino
was making money.
When it went bust, working tax payers on low incomes had to endure a decade of suffering to keep it going as a viable business.
Fred the Shred who had millions in the bank was allowed to keep an obscene pension while pensioners bail him out?
In the 3 years after the banks broke the economy and were bailed out with £80 Billion, they paid out £80 Billion in bonuses.
We also hear from the Tories that Austerity didn’t really need to happen as they could have just continued to print money?
Westminster governments are forcing a share of their £2 Trillion
of debt on to Scotland while Norway boasts of have a reserve of £100,000 in the bank for every man. woman and child in the country.
Bereft For Every Not better together!
the caltonjock link is worth a read.
Hair related to Lamont – 35 of which were hanged from a tree by the Campbells.
Campbells as the good guys, for once – who knew?
This Stupid Politician award is a great idea – but you are going to need more categories …
– failure to check basic facts
– … follow simple logic
– … do arithmetic at an 8 year old level
– … do any research about a topic
– failure to field an under-arm slowball from jackie bird
– imaginative use of common fallacies
SNP don’t help when at meeting during last Scottish election they where saying that voting for them would lead to better broadband and mobile coverage in highlands.
I used to do online banking over a dial-up connection in a remote part of the Outer Hebrides.
The Scottish Government is actually involved, by providing additional funds, and pushing the UK strategy.
“More than 95% of Scotland’s homes and businesses are now able to connect to fibre broadband.” (17/4/18)
link to news.gov.scot
Broadband and mobile
link to beta.gov.scot
Basically speaking, Hair is wrong on both counts. It is UK Government responsibility, but the ScotGov is pushing Scotland’s needs, as well as providing specific extra funding.
One of the things from memory the SG were operative (forceful) in, was changing BT Openreach’s policy to 95% geographical coverage from 95% population coverage which favoured densely populated areas – considering Scotland as a whole is a quarter the density of the UK as a whole.
78 mb speed in Portree on Skye, average speed on rural island is 30mbs, I would say the SNP have done a pretty good job, and they are rolling out free internet in Portree for folk who are not at home, another SNP good, or how about that we have finally a decent mobile phone signal here in the highlands, 4G, when before we were lucky if we could get GPRS, another SNPGood story, but how her own party are going to bankrupt her parents has missed being tweeted link to bbc.co.uk nae luck Kirsten of Hair
@Effijy
“We also hear from the Tories that Austerity didn’t really need to happen as they could have just continued to print money?”
That’s correct. Austerity never needs to happen if you issue your own currency.
The ‘tax payer’s money’ idea is a red herring and that is simply because money has to have been issued first before it can be tax revenue. Using that phrase is a gift to the neoliberals in London. Tax yield of the city of London is high but it doesnt fund anything. IT was funded by govt issued money.
If it sounds strange, then monopoly analogy is a good one. You never start the game by paying tax. You pass go and receive funds BEFORE you can pay tax. 🙂
The stupidity is quite deliberate. Which is why it’s dead easy for people like Hair (or Kelly) to promote. It’s filthy politics, diversionary slander delivered drip-by-drip by people who don’t themselves have any alternative to offer. Red, Blue and Orange Tory alike.
Keep on hammering-on that everything reserved by UKGov is the fault of the SNP and some of the mud will stick, because most people, who alas don’t see Stu’s liberating articles on WoS, are spectacularly unaware of the crucial difference.
Which is why – as I’ve said many times before, sorry – mitigation has its definite limits. And none more so than the issues over which the SG has no control whatever.
And why counter-messaging needs to be direct and resonant with people, not vacuously theoretical.
@David R
Maybe, but on the other hand they have and are actually doing that. If they had done nothing, the BB situation in Scotland would be worse, we’d probably be treated similar to rural England.
The SNP are improving services in Scotland and they’re doing deliberately *Lord George Fffffoukkes*
“it”
@Wullie B
Don’t know speeds, but mobile coverage is far better than say 4 years ago around the Highlands, so is broadband. Torridon (hostel for instance) used to be basically no signal, now it’s 5 bars, plus you can use whatsapp / post on Wings!
We’ve got it all wrong, guys!
We just don’t understand the flexible definitions of reserved and devolved.
If it’s actually reserved, but shite, then that redefines it as devolved.
If it’s actually devolved, but going well, then that means it must be reserved.
Every BritNat politician and journalist fully understands these rules.
Hair is a prime example of why you need to get out and vote as the only thing worse than a Tory is a thick Tory.
My sister’s friend was at school with Hair and advises she was thick as shite then too.
It’s confounding to see how many unionists defend the UK so vociferously but don’t seem to know how it works or which government is responsible for what.
What bugs me is that there will be people who will read this, believe it and tut with a “that SNP is terrible, I’m going to vote Tory next time.”
Trust me, guys. It’s not just the MPs that are thick, a sizeable portion of the public are too. How else do you think imbeciles like Hair get elected in the first place?
In another life blonde boneheads made the cress sandwiches in the club house while the men palyed clicky ba’ on the village green.
This is the life to which the Brexiteers wish to return.
This lasss lies and gets away with it.
Of course she knows that it is a lie, and that the closyres of bank branches are because they are now ‘businesses’, and not as they were in the past, essential sevices there to serve the public.
The ‘market forces’ at play.
First the banks and post offices, next GP surgeries and ‘local’ hospitals.
Your average Tory believes that if it doesn’t make money, close it down.Profits and Elitism.
They have no ideological commitment to Public Service, or a Caring Society.
If you can’t pay for it, be it health, education, university, or housing, it’s your own fault, so beg, starve, or do without.
The Tories truly are scum.
This woman is a perfect example of the capitalist society.
Dog eat dog. For the few, not the many.
Hence her untrammelled access to an obliging media whose job now appears to be to protect the rich elite from the Lumpen Proletariat.
According to the Herald Britland, their online headline, the most important thing going on in Scotland is that alarmingly, ‘Sturgeon’ is to be grilled next week.
Is she to be served up as the roast at some Posh Edinburgh fundraiser by the Lords Darling and Forsyth of this privileged Oligarchy?
May this misleading Tory afterthought’s crops rot in their unpicked fields.
Her days and her party’s are numbered.
She is the last straw.
Up with which we shall no longer put.
There’s gonna be a revolution.
I think she’s just a useful stooge..
O/T Listened to Jeremy Vine discussing bab8boxes.. One caller originally from Scotland tells how the digital thermometer probably saved her life.. He reads out a SNP bad text saying ” the SNP just introduced them to win votes”.. Must be a good idea then if it8a vote winner.. They’re doing it deliberately!
Time for Holyrood to take on these supposedly reserved matters. To hell with the britnat presiding officer and to hell with the britnat media.
The thing about the unicorn in chains is due to history. Once the unchained unicorn was the heraldic emblem of a noble scots family. It was only when he became king that the chain was added with a representation of the crown of Scotland around it’s neck. The other end of the chain is sometimes shown staked to the ground. The thing is a heraldic joke showing that the king is actually less free than his fellow scots, not subjects.
So it’s not unchaining the unicorn we should be about but rather asserting our right to yank on it’s chain and harness it to our will.
If in modern terms a unicorn represents dreams then we have ours under control as otherwise they’re liable to run amok.
Why did one of the SNP MPs not raise a point of order?
They wouldn’t have to be specific , just ask: if she knows what are reserved powers and if she has does she understand them?
Another thing is that quite a few libraries have internet, even if for a nominal charge. Not quite the face to face deal it is with a bank branch but if you need to go out to a bank now then not a lot has changed.
That said shared telepresence banking might be an idea in some areas as Banks, and other businesses, could share an infrastructure whilst at least maintaining a level of face to face contact with their clients.
Perhaps the SNP Government should introduce a third category of decision making. There is Devolved, Reserved and Mitigated.
Educate the public at every opportunity so that idiots and liars can no longer deceive people about who is responsible for devolved and mitigated services.
Unmitigated disasters can be squarely laid at Westminster’s door.
Sly. Nasty and coarse the Tory bastards getting desperate as the sink in to the mud of the pigsty. What an opportunist, actually pointing out the dire Tory policies. No one will notice. How better would be broadband if the Westminster unionists hadn’t crashed the Banks and blown the world to bit.
There must be another bank in Montrose people can use. The customers will just need to change their bank,. Quite easy to do. Or the Post Office. Alliancedvto the Alliance. People make the occasion trip to Dundee. No bother. 30 mins? If they have to or get someone else to do it. There is also a BT? hook up that can be used at rural properties.
The Labour unionists could have stopped all this nonsense. They could have voted the EVEL Tories out September 2016. Frank Fiekd voted with the Tories. Now complaining about the affect of Universal Credit. He vote with the Tories at every possible occasion and gave speeches supporting it. Now deselected. He has changed his tune.
@Jack Collatin (2.12) –
I hope you’re right about a revolution.
In Scotland we’ve had a lot of practise doing it veeeerrrry slowly, with nabedy gettin their heids panned in.
But London? Soon the Mail and Express will be calling for Bojo’s head – it won’t be anything to do Brexit or him being a permanent embarrassment, but because he flogged off the water cannons.
They are not being stupid. This is a well tested strategy from the USA. Purposely lying to produce statements that can then be repeated in the allied media and news broadcasters. The corrections and debunking is NEVER reported. So as far as the Scottish public is concerned what she said is fact.
A tactic we can use is perhaps exaggerating the unionists own statements. If they make crap up about the Queensferry Crossing we say ” Lib Dems demand closure of Forth bridges “. We force them to deny it and anything they say afterwards only makes their denial seem false. That’s another tactic from the USA. Absurd claims get thrown around till nothing is true. So either we stay whiter than white while they get to cover us in crap or start flinging back.
In Montrose there is a TSB Bank in Csstle Street. A Clydesdale and Nationwide Building Society in the High Street. Kirstene should have googled it. Now she is in the big City of London speaking nonsense. Must have forgotten the roots and the constituency. People can also access their accounts on their phones. Different network.
How much are these cretins being paid? Plus expenses. Trying to take the electorate for fools and telling lies. The only way is to sue them.
Are Tories pathologically incapable of honest political discourse? From a Political Realist’s perspective, the answer would probably have to be yes. It’s dishonest such as this that ensures an unjust society and threatens the basic principle of liberal democracy.
link to iep.utm.edu
A Theory of Justice
link to hup.harvard.edu
Regarding this MP For Angus I hope it is a case of Hair today gone tomorrow.
The female version of Ross Thomson, thick as two planks of wood.
Thatcher killed fast fibre into the home.
Read this and weep.
link to techradar.com
I could get angry!
The internal diode is malfunctioning, captain. Set phasers ti Malky.
@Robert Kerr
Jesus, that’s sad. What’s even sadders is that I knew about the AT&T but not BT.
Which, when I think of it, is a classic case of UK media Propaganda.
From ‘tinternet by the way, common discussion on American dominated UseNet groups. Even way back, social media was more reliable than the trad media.
Another wan fae the Tory Neep yaird.
yesindyref2 says:Don’t know speeds, but mobile coverage is far better than say 4 years ago around the Highlands, so is broadband. Torridon (hostel for instance) used to be basically no signal, now it’s 5 bars, plus you can use whatsapp / post on Wings!
@yesindyref2 Mobile signal at The Old Man of Storr carpark gives mobile data speeds of in excess of 20mbs, a speed that was faster than my house in Portree three years ago, now I get 76mbs here on Skye which I would class as rural so Miss Hair is full of shite I reckon
If a political scientist suggested the British system of parliamentary democracy as a means of achieving a just society, they would be laughed out of town. Parliamentary sovereignty opposes the normative foundations of human rights, and perpetuates a medievalist ‘class’ entitlement. True democracy does not exist in Britain (see Scotland’s democratic deficit).
link to tandfonline.com
Offensive Political Theory
link to pdfs.semanticscholar.org
The Future of Political Theory: The Normative Science of Politics
link to humanitiesfutures.org
The trouble is that MSM report what people like Airhead Angus say, often in eye-catching headlines or as tag lines on radio, and many people take the comments at face value without investigating further. For example, GMS, which read out ‘today’s main stories’ but don’t deal with them till later when you then discover they’re either very minor or inaccurate, but the damage has been done because the subliminal message has been delivered!
A pea brain if ever there was one. Why would anyone ever vote for dim wits like this idiot ?
Capella@ 2:34 pm
You wrote: “Perhaps the SNP Government should introduce a third category of decision making. There is Devolved, Reserved and Mitigated.”
There is merit in this. I don’t believe the ‘reserved’ vs. ‘devolved’ issue when it comes to broadband is as straightforward (including politically) as it may appear.
Yes, in 2017 The Ferret reported this: “Theresa May’s claim that Scotland should use its powers to improve broadband services is misleading. While the Scottish Government has some measure of control over broadband projects, telecommunications including broadband infrastructure are ultimately still reserved by Westminster, limiting the level of decision-making available to Scottish ministers.” (Source: link to theferret.scot )
And the Scottish Government has also stated: “Telecoms is a reserved matter which means that, like defence and foreign affairs, it remains the responsibility of the UK Parliament.”
However it goes on: “… the central importance of digital connectivity to Scotland’s economy has meant that the Scottish Government has had to become increasingly active in this area.” (Source: Scottish Government (2017) Realising Scotland’s full potential in a digital world: a digital strategy for Scotland. p. 21. )
Then the SNP’s website has this: “We’re connecting businesses to the markets they need. We’ve met our 2017 target to provide broadband access to 95 per cent of premises, and we’ll reach 100 per cent by 2021.”
So on something that is acknowledged as ‘reserved’, the SG has nevertheless set its own target for broadband access. Unless it’s being perverse, the SG must consider that it has the means to ensure, regardless of what is ‘reserved’, delivery to its own target. So it won’t be easy to hide behind a ‘reserved matter’ (if it should end up missing its target) – unless it can show that the Westminster Government has acted in a way that has thwarted the ambition for broadband in Scotland.
By the way, one assessment of the status of superfast broadband in Angus from 2011 to 2018 can be found at link to labs.thinkbroadband.com .
Dawn in NL
I do stand corrected. Interesting to hear it’s going on elsewhere. However I do think I’m right on what they are trying to do.
….who is her target audience? It is not the informed who visit this site so a SNPbad story can still work….especially with a friendly Scottish press and the bias BBC who will not challenge such statements.
@Wullie B
How’s Broadford? I don’t think I tried the mobile there this year, all booked up in advance with this NC500 thing, and no other need. It used to be just before the grid on the road to Armadale, back of co-op by the diesel pumps, and in -between just past the vets to get a Vodaphone signal.
She is my MP (sigh). Replaced the excellent Mike Weir.
We had a Tory,leaflet through the letter box a couple of months ago, it’s so good to know that she has been fighting hard to allow more eu fruit pickers in after Brexit, yippee, 2,500 for the whole of the U.K., how many for Scotland out of that, and how many will go to her family’s fruit farm, bet that’ll get serviced!
She has a Facebook page, the comments make interesting reading!
British nationalism is a dangerous cult that opposes the normative value of human rights (see Brexit).
link to digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com
What Might it Mean for Political Theory to Be More ‘Realistic’?
link to link.springer.com
Political Theory, Values and Public Health
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
@Boudicca
I was reading about the EU migrant workers in Scotland today and in 2017 there were estimated to be 9,200 working on farms with over 7000 of them employed berry picking, the vast majority in Tayside and Fife.
You should also read the story from the BBC posted earlier by Wullie B as it looks like the powers that be don’t give a toss if farms go bust due to a failure to find enough labour.
link to bbc.co.uk
Theresa Mays Question and Answer sessions really are the worst. Clearly staged and she never even answered the Backstop question properly.
The recycled BBC news tombola called “SNP BAD”
wrong place sorry
Hey – RBS isn’t entirely owned by the UK government. I still have 14 shares from my time working for them, I received a nice cheque for 28p recently. Unfortunately the bar-stewards have closed down my branch so I’ll have to wait until i go into town to get my nice shiny coins.
@Proud Cybernat and @Meg merrilees
RE: “BSE case found in Aberdeenshire.”
Given Mundells “Defend the Union to his last breath”
Why does this spring to mind?
“The UVF also claimed MI5 planned to supply a spoon of ‘Anthras’ (sic), ‘Foort and Mouth Disease’ (sic), ‘Fowl Pest, Swine Fever, and Jaagsikpi’ to anyone who would release them in Ireland. The loyalists said the plot was to destroy the ‘Eire economy’.”
link to archive.is
So yes, they would do it deliberately.
@ Thrpnr
Tayside and Angus in recent years have between 20,000 – 25,000 eastern european itinerant workers for the farms.
One of the larger farms near Blairgowrie employs about 3,000.
About 10% stay all year round.
I’ve heard some tories suggest that prisoner could do the work.
HMP Perth is a medium to high security prison – it houses around the 800 mark of prisoners, top estimate.
The polytunnels industry extended a hit or miss weather dependent, 6 week, berry industry and changed it into a 5 month industry with a huge increase in products for export.
One change the farmers initially struggled to cope with, was the idea of paying minimum wages, and providing liveable accommodation. Bearing in mind, prior to this change, they’d been used to paying pennies a punnet to school bairns, mill workers (on bus men’s holidays) and travellers, and providing hedgerows for them to sleep under.
Oh and lets not mention all the workers who were signed on the dole and topping it up. In effect the tax payer was subsidising the farmer with cheap labour.
However, by paying a minimum wage, it meant they could house the workers in caravans 4 up at £40 per week. Its not unusual to see 100 caravans per farm = £16,000 per week. That created enough money to generate a job for someone working the caravan site.
Trade in static caravans is one industry that’s going to take a hit. As will the local shops where they buy their groceries for the 5 months they’re here.
I do hope the fairmers are waking up.
She’s dum
She’s Blonde
She’s a cliche.
And people still voted for her.
“I’ve heard some tories suggest that prisoner could do the work.”
The right-wing just love slave labour, which only serves to highlights their moral bankruptcy and economic illiteracy.
link to column.global-labour-university.org
Possibly a daft question, but, wasn’t the excuse for branch closures because people had moved to online banking and branches were no longer needed ?
It’s a bit rich to complain that people can’t cope with branch closures because they have no suitable internet access
@Stewartb 3:30pm
The UK gov has sat on its hands ‘re interwebby connection issues concerning Scotland.
The issue isn’t devolved, its Westminster responsibility.
However, the lack of funds allocated by Westminster ( just £21 million ) for this service is being mitigated yet again by the SG by allocating £500 million from their budget to try and bring Scotland into the 21st century.
Since then Westminsters minions have been tasked
with undermining the SG’s efforts by spouting the kind of nonsense highlighted in this article. Basically Scotland is paying twice for a service that is westminsters responsibility.
@Daisy Walker
Their not my figures Daisy but from a report commissioned and published by the Scottish Government in March this year. These apply to seasonal workers only and not EU citizens who permanently live in Scotland so the overall number could indeed by higher.
The scale of the seasonal migrant workforce in Scotland
It is conservatively estimated that there were 9,255 seasonal migrant workers engaged in Scottish agriculture during 2017 (including 900 employed directly by labour providers). About 25% work on more than one farm in the UK and there is also transition to other sectors of work, in particular food processing and hospitality.
link to beta.gov.scot
In the report that can be downloaded from the link are the number of workers is broken down into different type of farm labour and areas they work in in Scotland.
Thanks Thepnr. It may not be the end of the world for the U.K. as a whole, but it will be the end of the road for some fruit and veg farmers, plus associated businesses.
Shortage of strawberries at Wimbledon then.
My MP too never seen her on the street or at any local event. Silent on the closure of local Post Office Mike Weir had this constantly in his sights. Have no idea why people voted for her can only assume fishing community were taken in.
Could it be that she’s just not cut out for politics?
Jockanese Wind Talker
Heard on the news tonight that it will be 6 years now before Scotland can regain her ‘negligible risk’ of BSE from Beef cattle status….. 6 years!!! Funny how it is headline news on the BBC Scotland Website and here is a telling sentence:
Andrew McCornick, president of NFU Scotland, said: “It is disappointing to learn of this BSE case within the Aberdeenshire area.”
He added: “Whilst we lose our negligible risk status, it is not unexpected to see a new case and demonstrates the efficacy of the surveillance measures in place. This simply brings us back in line with the rest of Great Britain, reverting back to where we were 18 months ago.
So what other geographically protected and superior products do we have.
They are apparently already using Scotch Whisky as part of the Brexit negotiations.
Or am I just being paranoid!!!
Even more scary is this item on BBC N.Ireland.
link to bbc.co.uk
Smacks to me of Direct Rule by the back door. A Bill is to be debated in the HoC and Lords next week that will allow WM to appoint judges, will allow WM Civil servants flexibility to make to make decisions.
“The bill creates a period where an executive can be formed at any time during which there will be no duty to call an election,”
‘The bill will also give UK government ministers the power to make public appointments.
These will apply to the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission, Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Probation Board and the Police Ombudsman.
The legislation is due to be debated at Westminster next Wednesday and it is expected to come into effect in early November.’
So much for devolved governments!
Miss Hair is a gaslighter.
An extra-galatically dim gaslighter.
Meg Merrilees @ 8.51 pm
That is alarming!
And a notion that could spread. Needs to be monitored and called out for what it really means.
UK Gov would love to reinstate Direct Rule.
Scotland needs well away from this.
To borrow one of the absolute gems of this century – ‘CHRIST ON FUCKING TOAST!!!’
The Westminster unionists gave £2Billion to BT for the contract to extend broadband in the UK. There were so many complaints BT got censored and fined many times. The Chairnan wasted £2Billion on an Italian subsidiary. It went bust and he had to resign.
Maybe the Westminste Gov should have given an exclusive contract to a more reliable contractor. Wasting public money being squandered elsewhere. Some parts of the contract was taken away and given to other contractors. The were complaining they had never got a share of it.
Some people would never get BT broadband because of it’s bad reputation. Slagged of big time on the internet. Talk Talk was even worse. Stolen data. Resulting in never ending calls from fraudsters trying to get access to financial data. No apology or compensation. Sky was abominable Cut out or went slow half the time. BT now has fibre optic which is supposed to be faster. Coming through the conductor faster than the telephone line. Phone line can get overcrowded on lowered speed. That’s the story.
BT is trying to get people over to fibre because it is cheaper, faster and more reliable to supply. BT charges £99. They should do it for free because they make more profits from it. BT do not honour offers made a few weeks before. The offer is withdrawn. They can offered free introduction for a year to change suppliers. Then withdraw the offer. They say is easy to change and install. This is not true. Customers have to get an electrician in and pay more for adapter etc they should provide. Hopefully they know one.
The UK Gov have wasted £Billions (£11Billion?) subsidising ‘smart meters’ installation to make consumerscuse less fuel and energy. It is a waste of time. Does not work. They have realised.
Aye thought that title looked familiar.
Well don’t mind if aye do.
The Fall:
link to youtube.com
And all the way from fall, to fell, to ‘faw’.
link to youtube.com
We all ‘faw’ down (oor Scottish words travel very well.)
Enjoy the above short movie if u like, one of me favourites.
“It certainly is”, said Stanley. 🙂
She gets my vote as 3rd dimmest of Scots Tories after Luke Graham my Photoshop MP and the renowned Ross Thomson MP of sorts
I wish politicians weren’t allowed to knowingly lie in Parliament.
No wait, isn’t there a thing about ‘misleading the house’?? But then maybe the Tories take that as an instruction…