Wings Over Scotland

All Gers fans will be delighted by this news. But if Celts do look like doing it again The Three Stooges Rennie Dugdale, and Salveston be demanding that they start losing games or fail to turn up at fixtures I would love to hear their opinions on this.

I wonder when the media will come out with…It’s no fair, we wurny ready..excuse for everyone else winning fuck all.

Weak and wobbly is sending a substitute off the bench to the BBC debate on Wednesday.

Weak and wobbly wants you to believe she can negotiate her way through Brexit when she can’t even lead the Conservatives in a debate with UK citizens.

Once in a lifetime is actually longer than once in a generation. It is going to be a long time before Celtic are allowed to win a complete sweep again.

I would imagine Murdo will be hot on this, so the “Queen’s eleven” have at least a chance of winning something. 🙂

Davidson, Dugdale and Rennie a shower of chancers that think an argument is “what I say is right”

I don’t follow football, but I’m loving the analogy, and subsequent remarks.?

Bob Mack and HandandShrimp

Who are you guys trying to kid with your anti-Celtic conspiracy theories.

Aye, I accept in the Scottish football Establishment, “The Queen’s Eleven” is traditionally seen as paramount. But, Celtic are, if you like – “The House of Lords” – a wee bit above the rest; and, since Peter Lawwell has been Mr Big on the SFA board, I would suggest, today, Celtic, rather than the other lot, have been on the throne in Scottish football.

@Socrates McSporran,

Did the SFA not bend the rules to allow Rangers to play in Europe even though they were on the verge of bankrupcy ? The evidence of the Craig Whyte trial say’s it did by failing to tell EUFA that Rangers were overdue £2.8 million tax ?.

I have been watching Scottish football my whole life and the likes of Wharton, Dallas et Al have consistently demonstrated bias. Paranoid ? Definitively not.

Scottish Rugbyers get to play with English Rugbyers sometimes if they let themselves be called the British Rugbyers but are they allowed to talk to the Rugbyers they play against or do the English Rugbyers only get that choice on behalf of Scottish Rugbyers because they’re more important Rugbyers who represent all the
British Rugbyers

Is my head on backwards

Same as it ever was:

link to youtube.com

#OIAL

Dr Jim

I always refuse to become involved in that ancient Scottish fitba gemme of “Auld Firm Whitabootery”.

I do, however, take exception to your slur on the great Tom Wharton. Big Tiny was as honest as the day is long and only ever made one error as a referee: when he disallowed a perfectly legitemate Frank Beattie goal for Kilmarnock against Hearts in the 1962 League Cup Final.

I did, have the joy of telling him, some years later, of that error, but, he didn’t accept my reading of the event.

THE BBC ON-LINE THIS AFTERNOON.
PRO-UK PARTIES WOULD BLOCK INDYREF2 [!!!!!]

“Leaders of Scotland’s main pro-UK parties insist they would block any attempt to stage a second independence vote.

Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Lib Dems said Scots did not want another ballot despite SNP claims it had a mandate.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale dismissed claims she had not been clear on the issue.

And Ruth Davidson ruled out any second ballot until after 2021……”

Now Scotland knows—-both parties are joined at the hip and Westminster governance!

link to archive.is

I wonder what they are scared of, if supposedly the dumb electorate doesn’t want another referendum what’s the problem ? , why the panic they are going to romp it aren’t they, so the Unionist party- Tory-Labour- libdems , the Unionist party for want of a better name, who are the only ones to mention another referendum even if this election is to elect MPs at Westminster, just like the council election was hijacked for the same reason, is every vote in Scotland now about independence ? , This is while Mrs Mayhem keeps saying now is not the time, eh a bit confusing we either have another one or if you listen to this Unionist party every vote is a vote for Independence, it’s one or the other we can’t have both .

Brewer failed to press Davidson on SNP mandate for Indy Ref 2 and the Unionist anti democratic stance but certainly had Dugdale floundering on Politics Show.

Other than Edinburgh South, it seems Labour are giving the Tories a free pass in Scottish Constituencies.

link to heraldscotland.com

Capella

Did they say how they would block it? Were they even asked how they would block it?

Ms Sturgeon really has to take the fight to Mr Neil tonight if he tries to keep the interview on devolved matters.

Point out that:
— this is a General Election for Westminster NOT a rerun of last year’s election for Holyrood which, by the way, Mr Neil, gave the Independence supporting parties a majority in Scottish Parliament.
— Scottish Parliament has already voted for an independence referendum. Unionist parties were defeated
–Scotland voted to Remain in UK so let’s talk about non-devolved areas. For example
1.Welfare 85% of welfare not devolved therefore only right to talk about that and which party would best stand up for Scotland.
2 Brexit.
— reminder Labour keeps abstaining and giving Tories a free pass at Westminster so not to be relied on to stand up for Scotland
— point out Labour now campaigning on issues such as Free tuition etc which SNP has already implemented in Scotland to much criticism from Labour!
— if he brings up the £15 billion deficit tell him to take it and buy himself a decent hairpiece.

Got that off my chest.
— if he starts on currency of I Scotland remind him plenty of time to lay out the details before the referendum.
—

Cactus says:
28 May, 2017 at 3:17 pm
“Same as it ever was: #OIAL”
🙂 It took me a minute. F.as.F

Peace Always ma’ Man
😎

Where will Dugdale be in 2021?

Not in charge of Labour branch office north. The arrogance of her and her arrogant British ants of Davidson and Rennie.

The Scots parliament voted on the issue. I think Dugdale has listened the the likes of gutter Foulkes for too long.

David Caledonia says:

“i actually made the mistake once of looking in the mirror before i washed my old coupon down, what a bloody awful day i had, never made that mistake again” ¬

Take my advice David, Don’t Look Doon!!

I nearly phoned an ambulance!

Peace Always

Oh, I’m hanging on now with immense anticipation for the pronouncement of their “lifetime” fatwa on future Celtic triple wins by the three amigoettes. Given their great sensitivity to such terminology, it should be along any second now.

Having watched all today’s political programs I was unaware that Nicola’s turn to face Brillo’s lies and interruptions was scheduled for tonight.

I would have thought that at least it would be trailed on Sunday Politics.

If it wasn’t for the information in comments above I would still be looking forward to watching it at 6pm tomorrow.

Thanks.

@ Brian Powell 4:51 pm – The BBC article doesn’t say what the mechanism is for losing parties to block the manifesto promises of the winning party.
The House of Lords can block bills in Westminster but not if it is a manifesto promise of the winning party.

I can’t bring myself to watch these programmess but if any braver souls have the answer I’d like to know.

It looks as if it is our civic duty to vote SNP to protect democracy from what is increasingly looking like a proposed coup.

It’s a Westminster election, Remind him Nicola, Westminster .

FFS Nicola, tell the twerp: “This is a Westminster election, this is a devolved issue, I am here to speak about Westminster issues.

“Ask me about reserved issues and Westminster and I will answer.”

Boris keep the profiles coming.

Brilliant.

Eh count how many times Brillo buts in , he can’t help it as Nicola has just pointed out , if you LISTEN maybe just once LISTEN yah f/n tosser. Oh grab his wig and toss it out the window .

Andrew went for Nicola, just as he went for Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Nicola performed better than these two did.

That said, the way he concentrated on devolved issues – 82% of the questions were on devolved issues – was disgraceful.

I am almost tempted to complain to the BBC, but, know full well, it would achieve nothing.

Immigration article of much interest.

The figures in this paragraph won’t please Ruth(Scotland is shite) Davidson at all.

“In 2015 there were 181,000 non-UK EU nationals living in Scotland, which is 3.4% of the total population. Yet the 115,000 non-UK EU nationals aged 16 and over who were in employment in Scotland accounted for 4.5% of total employment. The upshot is that EU nationals have higher employment rates in Scotland compared to UK nationals for all age groups, except those aged 35 to 49 years old.”

link to archive.is

Now grab his wig and knee him in the nuts Nicola . Westminster is the backdrop you would have thought Neil might have noticed . Nope all devolved issues as per Tory instructions, well done Andrew your country salutes you , yah scabby Tory b/rd .

Robert Graham

Hopefully she kept saying this is devolved not to do with the Westminster election.

Brendan Rogers in the 25th Century

“Is that long enough noo?”

“Nope. That’s still no’ a generation. Intit no, Rooth?”

Who said this “”This election is about who can best protect Scotland’s schools, hospitals and pensions from unnecessary Tory cuts and an extreme Brexit deal which will put Scottish jobs at risk.” it was Angus Robertson, we can’t blame the yoons for going on about devolved issues if we do the same,

The electorate typically doesn’t understand reserved/devolved.

You get the impression that Unionist politicians don’t know when something is reserved/devolved, although this may sometimes be a tactic to keep the electorate in ignorance!

Unionists like to say it’s Westminster which matters and that’s where are the power is, yet when it suits them they will claim Holyrood has the power to solve most problems.

So, out of that lot it is perfectly obvious that the media don’t have any clue at all about reserved/devolved.

All SNP folks, when interviewed, should used speech like, “you do realise that’s a reserved/devolved [choose to suit] matter and while I am willing to discuss anything to do with Scotland I think the electorate would firstly want to hear about areas relevant to this election”.

That educates everyone, focuses stupid interviewers, and prevents a fair bit of propaganda.

@Fairliered

I feel she dealt very well with the questions being put to her. I suspect if she repeatedly said that is a devolved matter and not relevant, then she would have came across as dodging the question.

She dealt with everything head on and Neil was the one squirming.

How any party running a devolved Scotland performs is not an argument for or against independence.

Handled well or poorly isn’t the main issue. The BBC is setting the agenda and manipulating the narrative just like it did in 2013-14, and in all the years since.

When, where, and how do we get to wax lyrical about the progressive advantages of Independence and Scotland remaining in Europe? How can we constructively debate to persuade and inform anybody about anything through the keyhole of opportunity provided by the British State monopolised media?

Are we going to deal with the progressive media deficit at the next referendum or the one after?

Dave McEwan Hill says:

<

How any party running a devolved Scotland performs is not an argument for or against independence.

Precisely!

The Yoons like to reduce the debate to party politics and personalities. They either don’t get that the YES movement is above all that and focused on the big picture and the long term.

Or, perhaps they are in denial as their world erodes before them.

Or most likely, they understand all too well what they are up against and it is their chosen strategy to side step the real debate and try to deflect onto what is just trivia in the actual grand scheme.

Whichever, they are losing IMHO!

Hellish Brexit and ScotRef are unavoidable. When they have to engage in the real debate, they will crumble.

Lenny Hartley at 6:59 pm

You posted:
“Who said this ‘This election is about who can best protect Scotland’s schools, hospitals and pensions from unnecessary Tory cuts and an extreme Brexit deal which will put Scottish jobs at risk.’ it was Angus Robertson, we can’t blame the yoons for going on about devolved issues if we do the same.”

With respect, I think you are maybe not getting the point here!

1) if the Tory austerity causes underfunding for education in England, Scotland’s overall funding from Westminster will reflect this – making it more difficult to sustain quality public services in Scotland, for education and/or other services (as per Barnett)

2) similarly if Tory austerity leads to NHS underfunding – Scotland’s overall funding from Westminster will be cut etc. (as per Barnett)

3) as pensions are reserved, Scottish pensioners are at risk of a Tory government’s changes, especially a Tory government with an increased majority and weak ‘English’ opposition

4) on Brexit, the decision making is (presently) all with the Government in Westminster but a strong SNP opposition can bring pressure to bear.

In short, if Angus Robertson said what you quoted, then he is right – and this quote in no way excuses (is in no way comparable to) the BBC and the SNP’s opposition in GE2017 seeking to focus on the Scottish Government’s performance on what are devolved matters.

And regarding the comment of Dave McEwan Hill @ 7:16 pm viz. “How any party running a devolved Scotland performs is not an argument for or against independence.”, I completely agree. We the Scottish electorate will decide when the time comes which party to entrust with the governance of our independent country and we will decide what weight to give to the parties’ track record during the transitional period we currently refer to as ‘devolution’.

Chin up Lenny, Arran for independence 🙂

Sarky, but nice Stu..!

Croompenstein When I was a lad, there were moves afoot by would you believe the Tories for Arran to become a bit like the Isle of Man. I say Tories coz the ones I remember being involved were Tories but it may have been cross party. Think it was tied in with a rates strike , I am guessing coz I have had about 2 billion units of alcohol since then , that it may have been when we were moved from Buteshire to Cunningham which would probably have meant going from Tory to Labour local administration. Anyway nothing came off it which is a pity coz we could have had a revolution and chopped of certain feudal overlords heads and had our own TT Races. 🙂

Stewartb fully aware of that, however you can not expect the electorate to differentiate between the two. if you told a sizeable porpotion of the electorate that the Donald was standing for PM they would believe you.

Lenny Hartley at 659,

You have either intentionally or inadvertently taken Angus Robertsons comments out of context and mis-interpreted them. He meant that by ensuring a strong SNP presence at WESTMINSTER, and thereby trying to prevent cuts to the Scottish block grant and other budgets for things like health etc.. since cutting the English NHS budget leads directly to equivalent cuts to the Scottish block grant.

The setting of the Scottish block grant and the English NHS budget are both decided in Westminster, not in Holyrood.

A single person on Job Seekers Allowance over a whole year would if they were under 25 receive £2982.20. Someone over 25 would receive £3764.80 for the year.

Of course JSA does not last for a whole year, it last for 6 months so after that if you were unable to find work you would be on even less.

Compare with a nurse living on her own earning in excess of £22,000/year. Foodbanks cannot be used every week, yet who would really need them?

I spent time on the dole when Thatcher decimated Scottish industry, it can happen to anyone, I just pray that I never have to use a foodbank. I doubt I will but never say never.

I’m pretty pissed off tonight, apologies if your fed up of the rant.

Ach no worries the Refs and Assistant Refs will get their orders from the Lodge just as the electorate gets their orders from the rabid Scotland hating Press and Media and especially the BBC. Or is that comment offside?

Until the 8th I am going to keep telling those idiots who are planning to vote Tory that they are voting to cut Pensions and take away their own Winter Fuel Payments and screw the Fishermen again. None of which is untrue.

Yee canna book me Ref I’m Scotty Broon, I mean Roothie the Mooth!!!

ALEX BELL SPLIT PERSONALITY WATCH

2016: Theresa May bashing coppers = good.
2017: Theresa May bashing coppers = bad.

The Courier
Alex Bell: May v Sturgeon – who’s the radical?
JULY 14 2016

Both have mastered complicated departments and got out with reputations intact.

In this, May could be one of the great prime ministers but it is not clear how history will judge Sturgeon.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Sunday Mail
Alex Bell: Britain stands united in the face of terrorism but Theresa May is too weak to lead us
28 MAY 2017

Far from being a firm leader, May is a weak prevaricator. She stood for Remain but now champions Brexit.

She cut the budget to intelligence services – when our greatest weapon is information.

The BBC has no one left to go on TV and fight against another Independence referendum.

Gordon Brown’s a non-starter; Fluffy’s a joke; Lord Darling of Roulanish is a spent force; Douglas Alexander – Mhairi Black chased him away –
so, they have to scrape the barrel and they’ve come up with the triumvirate:
Kezia, Ruth and Willie.

Not one of them is brave enough to take it on single handed, they have to do it with all three holding hands! You cover my back and i’ll cover yours.

These three think that it’s still the Cooncil elections and they can form a coalition after the vote on June 8th to make them more powerful, more important and more wonderful and deny the very democracy which each of them is supposedly trying to defend.

Let’s hope they all get thrashed in 10 days time and there is no doubting that a MAJORITY of voters in Scotland don’t want ANY of their pathetic parties.

These cowards do not stand up for the people of Scotland.

In Norway Unemployment benefit is based on the salary you earned in the previous 3 years.

Unemployment benefit for job loss (dagpenger ved arbeidsløshet) may be granted after conclusion of employment with a Norwegian employer or reduction of working hours by at least 50 percent. The benefit equals 62,4 percent of income earned before job loss or reduction of working hours.

The average yearly wage in Norway is among the highest in Europe at $40,200 so 62.4% of that is just over $25,000 dollars or £19,500. We give our unemployed less than £4000. Go figure

link to en.wikipedia.org

So how come their unemployment rate is just 4.7% despite the problems with the low oil price and the job losses that have resulted?

The truth is that that Tories need an enemy to attack, that enemy is the poorest, the disabled and the immigrants. Believe me we will ALL be far better off if we rid ourselves of these people. Let’s just do it.

Just to add, I suspect the great inquisitor will claim he was talking about the Tory government, not the coalition. These unionist type ex Murdoch employees can be shifty with the details.

Noted Sarah Smith on BBC News misquoting Sturgeon and claiming that she would enter a coalition with Labour, not what was said.

How much news regarding Scotland on the BBC is effectively fake. It’s difficult to keep track, almost every Scottish news story seems to have factual errors. I’m beginning to think it is deliberate, only joking I know it is.

Stewartb don’t think you have been chapping doors much or talking to many people :)I’m not going to get into a discussion about this as I’m cream Crackered. All I will say is Brexit. I.e. ignorance rules. Goodnight.

???????

Bit depressing this one, as Scotland’s choice is once again made by England.

link to archive.is

Europe can no longer completely rely on its longstanding British and US allies, Angela Merkel has warned, saying the EU must now be prepared to “take its fate into its own hands”.

Speaking after bruising meetings of Nato and the G7 group of wealthy nations last week, the German chancellor suggested the postwar western alliance had been badly undermined by the UK’s Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as US president.”

Thanks again, proud Scot buts.

Tomorrow’s “National” twitter pages:-

link to twitter.com

I’m not as concerned as some about the grey area between reserved matters and devolved matters in this election campaign. It’s all Government at the end of the day.

I am more concerned when good news and decent workmanlike performance is distorted into some contrived dreadful indictment for the express purpose of smearing the SNP.

If you’re going to object about Nicola being quizzed on both reserved and devolved issues, then isn’t there a third field of debate that is totally missing? First, the SNP’s stance and performance on reserved matters, second, the SNP’s stance and performance on devolved matters, but third, and pretty central too, the SNP’s stance on the same governmental issues but how and why they would be altered and handled differently in an Independent Scotland. We never get this third perspective addressed in any detail.

We seem very tame and “domesticated” in the way we couch our debates in terms of reserved matters or devolved democracy, and unwilling to cut loose and articulate our own agenda, daring to believe the day is coming when Westminster government is brought to an end.

To give that remark context, take the BBC and broadcasting. We can criticise Scottish broadcasting and appeal to its governors, and at the same time we can lobby for a partially devolved news and cultural broadcasting facility. But what we don’t do is to wheel out the big Independence howitzers and exercise our sovereign right to take back broadcasting and use the issue to test the UK’s fudged constitutional authority to its destruction.

I don’t say that in the sense of actually doing anything radical beyond approaching the subject and firing a warning shot across the brows of the BBC; “If you don’t stop the fun and games, smears and propaganda, then we will conclude the Reserved Broadcasting legislation is not fit for purpose, and exercise some limited sovereign control to take back broadcasting control to make sure our news is delivered with all due cultural diligence and is not corrupted and distorted by BritNat propaganda.

Best result for Scotland?

50+ SNP MPs and a minority Tory government

For anyone who missed it, here’s A Neil asking Nicola about devolved issues.
link to youtube.com

link to snp.org

Merkel says EU cannot completely rely on US and Britain any more
link to archive.is

Tory MP accused of ‘ignoring’ dying man’s plea after family lost £50k in support because he lived ‘too long’
link to archive.is

Hi Nana, just watched Nicolas’ interview – she was brilliant, so proud to have a First Minister who puts Scotland first and only mentions independence when asked, unlike the Red Tory, Blue Tory and Yellow Tory leaders who without fail open with “Scotland doesn’t want another divisive referendum” – only good thing about their position is that they will likely split the unionist vote giving the SNP the advantage in this election.

@skintybroko

I thought she did good, must be difficult not to lose your cool with such an ignorant twit sitting opposite. I would not be able to, I might even have ripped his wig off!

@Smallaxe

Looks to be a fine day here. How about a laugh to start the day. The Donald lacks stamina, eating too much American fast food maybe or his arrogance weighing him down?

link to politicususa.com

link to twitter.com

link to nybooks.com

Good morning Nana.

Thanks for the links.

I have been ignoring the FM interview with AN but opened and viewed your link above.

Glad I did. Good interview with some telling points addressed and well responded to by Nicola.

AN tried to get Nicola to say what would she do if Mayhem would still continue to block an Indy vote taking place. Nicola wouldn’t get dragged into that one as there is still a lot to play in this one and we (the Scottish people and Parliament) have a mandate for one and this cannot be ignored. Even the BBC is reporting that the Scots Unionists (Labour, Tories and LibDems) are now united in stating they will block a new Indy ref. How can they as the Scots Parliament has already debated and passed such a vote. Why is the BBC not asking the Unionist parties how they intend to block such a vote when it is clearly the will of both the Scottish people and it’s elected Parliament.

Sententious Dave: “Oh Dear Galamcennalath. Once again you have caught the “one-eyed” disease that often spreads here on Wings.”

Pompous, ignorant twat.

@TheItalianJob

Like you I avoided it last night and like you I’m glad I eventually watched it. Nicola at least answers questions asked of her, TM is sending Rudd as a ‘stand in’ for the leaders debate.

Now it looks as if Davidson is dodging as well
link to twitter.com

FYI

Tweet from John Nicolson, he’s appearing on Victoris live special at 9am with questions from the studio audience.

link to twitter.com

Stu’s football comments are lost on me I am afraid. My interest is somewhere between toothache and having a broken arm.
Politics is different. Agree Nicola, Angus and many others are good speakers.

Have just turned over to Vic D. In introduction woman says ‘Corbyn too weak, May be here, May be there, I don’t like any of the 2. In Scotland another choice and I’ll be voting SNP.’

How come Davidson has ducked out of Call Kay(e).
2nd Hand car salesmen on in stead.

OT also listened to the Ulster unionist Scottish fishing chief basically backing brexit at all costs. Not political of course.he is lily white or is it orange?

sensibledave says:
29 May, 2017 at 8:34 am
…
What would you say to the majority of the S[c]ottish electorate, were they to appear her[e] on Wings, that wrote….. “You wanted a referendum. We had a referendum. The democratic process and the result was full and complete and decisive.

///////

Yes, yes, and no. Referring both to your statements and to the adjectives, which you use to describe the results.

The result was not decisive because David Cameron, suffering from hubris, encountered nemesis in the form of the Leave campaign. British foreign policy is now in its weakest state since the Tory ‘Blue water policy’ of the 1760s. That united France and Spain against Britain, and provided the colonists in the United States with the cause and resources to rebel against the British government.

It was Donald Dewar who argued that devolution had no father, but that Margaret Thatcher was its mother. The narrow English nationalism of the current Conservative party prevents it from engaging with Scottish civic nationalism, and recognising the mandate derived from a majority vote in the Scottish general election for parties supporting a referendum, and the democratic decision of the Scottish Parliament to seek a Section 30 order.

I have noticed that the Herald is back to its usual ploy during elections of ignoring the SNP. Today’s two page spread managed one headline with SNP in it but only about one paragraph in the article mentions the SNP. Apparently the SNP will only get 24 seats if you believe the polls – or is it just one poll!

When is the manifesto launch? Perhaps this will get the momentum going and some wider coverage.

Why do trolls hide under bridges?

What better place to disrupt communication from.

Jackson Carlaw can’t say eu funds/ grants will be met!!

Are you listening farmers and fishermen !

You have been played as patsy’s

Remember the Tories reneged on the new energy plant HR Peterhead.

Enjoy being told by Plymouth and Hull how much fish your allowed.

Was going to say yesterday Ms Davidson was looking a rather angry, disgruntled and ‘off-weather’ politician yesterday onn sunday Pols show.
But then I remembered the majority of unionists are angry and shouty (and not good with numbers). Who was the other woman on, what’s her role ?

Anyway had an inkling she wouldn’t appear today – anyone hear the reasons given ?

Is this just the ‘May’ contagion spreading ?

IE avoid the public (scrutiny)

heedtracker 9.26am.

Labour could win if Corbyn ditches Diane Abbott. He won’t though. They are old pals and both are rebels by nature. I’ve lost count of the number of English people who have phoned in to various pogrammes over the weekend saying they would vote Labour but for Diane Abbott. She could lose Labour the election single handedly.

And Auntie Kaye to the rescue to save Jackson from a key question to squirm over. That’s it ; all we’ve got time for on an indyref sticky question folks !!!

Phew …. still pretty sure he was saying democracy rests on polls stating 60% of indyref !

So 55% NO Thanx vote was not as clear and definitive as the Yoons would have suggested ???

Im confused.

John H says:
29 May, 2017 at 10:02 am
heedtracker 9.26am.

Labour could win if Corbyn ditches Diane Abbott. He won’t though.”

Not unless there is a tectonic shift going on in England. There could be but then you find yourself in wishful thinking territory. You never know though. Mind what it was like last GE, as SNP win after SNP win popped up throughout results night.

It all feels like JC’s whole team didn’t really expect to ever be where they are today, that they always just assumed they’d be on Blairite Lab’s fringe.

All kinds of irony, like Blair and Brown’s Lab gave JC the break for greatness but SLabour hate them, and keep on losing too. Win or lose, its going to be interesting to see what Lab look like in less than 2 weeks time.

If JC does win, England’s going to be a rather jumpy country indeed.

We are facing an absolute crescendo of Unionist spin across wide areas of the media and I am being hit by continuous episodes of Britain United on Facebook which are quite complicated to block.

I have no doubt that this has been in planning right across the media including the BBC for some time and I am more convinced than ever that this election was called as much to halt Scotland as anything else.

SNP has been caught on the hop – not surprisingly – but we cannot rely on Nicola alone and nothing else.

We need high visibility campaigning material but we have very little time.

What is public consent and how would it be defined

Well in a quick question to Jackson Carlaw on Call Kaye this morning it was made clear what the opposition to the Scottish government is on that

In the SNP manifesto there was an offering by that party of some different options to how the desire for a referendum was to be measured and I won’t bore us all with what they were because we all know, but one of those options was continuous polling evidence
Now in order to circumvent the democratic wishes of voters the opposition have seized on that as the only way to measure support, but in doing so what they are saying is they wish to remove certain voting options from the parliament which represents the votes of the people of Scotland, and that’s tantamount to admitting they can never beat the SNP legitimately so want to remove power from Holyrood and place it in the hands of polling companies

And if they’re going to do that what’s the next removal of power they would like to make changes to and does this mean there’s any need for a parliament at all at Holyrood if we decide decisions can be made at the whims of polling companies

So referendums in the UK are authorised by the UK government but decisions of the same magnitude in Scotland must be taken by, yes you guessed it, a polling company

There is however another way to circumvent the SNPs popularity and dominance of the Scottish parliament and bend Scotlands knee to Tory rule once more that is only barely less obvious

The Tories could just go back to the olden days and start murdering everyone who opposes them or offering to send Scottish folk overseas to new and better lands and hope nobody notices until it’s too late

Because that worked out very well in the past

@ Legerwood says: 29 May, 2017 at 9:28 am

The Hootsman is even worse. Claims Dugdale had a good day yesterday and obviously didn’t watch her car crash of an interview.

Also had Scotland In Union’s Prof. Hugh Pennington big article on about Scotland’s plummeting educational standards but naturally didn’t mention such allegiance.

When will any broadcaster ask Davidson and other Tories what constitutes a mandate if not winning two elections and backing from Scottish Parliament in a democratic vote.

Agree that SNP needs to highlight more on what our MPs have done at Westminster in standing up against draconian Tory measures while Labour MPs, including Ian Murray, spent more time plotting against Jeremy Corbyn than opposing the Tories.

if Labour don’t lose by a landslide then Jeremy Corbyn will remain leader and Labour’s infighting will continue.

Robert Louis…I agree with you. We had 56 MPs with a ‘strong voice’..but that voice was ignored and outvoted. To return the same or god forbid less..what is the point? More of concern to me is the upsurge for Corbyn. Many feeble SNP converts from Labour are daft enough to switch back to SLAB because of the built in lemming like belief in a Brit Lab victory.

AS gambled by bringing the issue of Scotland’s sovereignty back to being predicated on the Edinburgh agreement. At the time I couldn’t understand this as the old basis was simple: win a majority of SCOTTISH MPs and we could legitimately sue for Independence.

As a result, we lost the REF and subsequently with Brexit the Supreme Court predictably ruled our devolved parliament impotent constitutionally. We are now left with a situation where a democratic vote in that devolved parliament has been allowed to be ignored and disdained by the English in their UK Parliament. A decision that no Unionist party will overturn.

This should be the issue for the SNP: The illegal overruling of our Sovereign people’s vote for a Referendum. Combined with the same setting aside and disdaining of our majority vote for remaining EU citizens. I don’t see how two anti-democratic and anti Scottish situations can be subordinate to a feeble campaign of a ‘strong voice’ which will be drowned out and suffocated yet again by the UK media is anywhere logical or right.

I challenged my local MP at the first post Council election meeting and was told the priority was Westminster. I asked about the REF as everywhere I went it came up with the Unionists. If they were voting permanently on that basis…as their propaganda confirms…then why don’t we?..he answer was that we should answer it but only when necessary.

For that reason, I have not had the desire to canvass. I will vote SNP as ever, but I am fast losing belief in where this is all going. No doubt the usual suspects will criticise my voicing my concerns. But the same mob assured us that the exact same powder puff spineless campaign before the REF would succeed. I believed it then reluctantly. I don’t now.

What isn’t surprising from the BBC and the Tories is their connivance and political machinations in relation to the SNP and Independence, what is surprising is our supposedly left leaning voters buying the Tory agenda.

Have read lots of posts this morning to try and catch up. Apologies if I don’t quote any names with my responses.

1. I think tRuthless is deep in a ‘war-cabinet’ meeting somewhere in the middle of nowhere-Tories are on full alert,major panic, spinning out of control-hence ‘no show’ on Call K.

2. caught Amber Rudd on BBC R4 this a.m. – the woman sounded demented. I’ve heard of being emphatic but she sounded like she was firing bullets this morning – ghastly!

3.Kezia “would like those powers to come to the Scottish Parliament so that we can make different choices from Tories.” Well, wouldn’t we all but has she forgotten it’s her job to make those powers return, otherwise we won’t be able to make different choices from the tories.
Why does she continue to support the same policies as the tRuthless Harrison -‘say no to a second Indy ref’- party in Holyrood and why is she not suspending the other S Labour councils who are in coalition with the tories now?
Has she opposed the cuts to the Classroom assistants yet?

My sister ( a music instrument teacher) lives in Angus.
A few years ago, peripatetic music teachers were under threat but they were reprieved, thanks to the SNP and others.
She didn’t vote in the council elections.
Now Angus is a Tory/Indy coalition and she told me at the weekend that they think the threat to jobs is back…

4. Watched the link to the Andrew Neil interview with the 10 year old girls – he was certainly upstaged but they are monsters! What a repulsive bit of programming; They are the Amber Rudd’s of the future – absolutely horrendous children!!!

5. ‘Decorate the hoose’ with every sticker, poster, saltire and SNP flag that you possess.
We have to win this election big time!

6. Agree, the most important question needing to be asked every time now is ‘How will you stop Indy ref 2? They would have to allow the removal of Holyrood before that could happen and then it could get out of control. Better to keep the ballot and peaceful meANS.

7. I think it is great that Angus Robertson will get a high profile TV debate – it can only help his campaign in Moray. It will also show that the SNP isn’t just the Nicola and Alex show.

Sorry for the long post.

@Fergus Green

“Best result for Scotland?

50+ SNP MPs and a minority Tory government
”

IMO, it is very unlikely that the SNP will have anything like 50+ votes. The SNP vote is undergoing a double whammy (triple if you include establishment propaganda machine aka ‘the media’).

First we have the hitherto indy supporting Brexiteers of which an unknown, but certainly significant, quantity will be lost. Admittedly Ruth Davidson’s strident persona may have helped attract more of those authoritarian types than might otherwise have been the case.

Second is the ‘socialist first’ defectors from Labour to the SNP last time. Those who defected mainly because the torification of Labour had seemed complete and incorrigible. Corbyn has changed that, despite the best efforts of the UK’s prostituted media. In fact, in his own quiet way, he has played a bit of a blinder in this campaign so far. I feel a lot of ‘socialist first’ types may well be considering going back to Labour for this one.

Unless, of course, there are other ‘events’ yet to unfold e.g.s May states that Scotland cannot have another indy ref, period. Or the media manage to inflict serious new damage on Labour.

We do not need 50+ MPs., 30+ will suffice. Davidson has converted this election into an indyref2 election in Scotland, her own doing, therefore a majority of SNP MPs has a clear mandate to carry out an indyref2.

As it stands, I fully expect to see several new Labour MPs as well as Tory ones in Scotland.

For those of you who didn’t watch Victoria D this am. Please watch on iplayer if you can.

Brilliant debate compared to others I’ve seen so far.

Quite a few Scottish voices, all seem to be voting SNP, very moving contribution from disabled lady, good points from John Nicolson.

But best of all tories getting laldy!

I wonder if Ruth Davidson is ‘helping’ Theresa May prepare to meet the public for the Sky programme tonight? The Conservatives are under the illusion that she is good in debates so there may be lots of aggressive shouting from May in a pound shop Churchillian manner.

Carlaw was abysmal this morning. How different it is on Kaye Adams show when an actual victim of Tory policy is allowed to tell their story as opposed to a Tory plant trying to score points against the FM?

Agree about Victoria Derbyshire programme. Many clips circulating on twitter – quite rightly:
link to twitter.com

Capella says:

That’s pretty horrifying isnt it.

Other side of it all is that its really bad tory economics.

Leaving aside the tory policy of bumping off disabled people debate, there’s a massive multiplier economic loss, directly into local economies.

Shoveling mountains of dosh into the already swollen bank accounts of wealthy tory votes, not only sucks money out of economic circulation and the loss of all those multipliers, it also ensures that when their dosh does reappear, its almost never in a multiplier. And its almost never local either. Unless you live near a Rolex or Porsche factory.

Vote tory, if you’re minted and hate taxes, otherwise…