Once more for the folks at home
Even the alertest readers will probably already be confused by the baffling tale of Douglas and Jacqueline Wright, who sold their home to Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson. We certainly were last night, but on delving a little more into the media coverage of their story, things got a whole lot worse.
On yesterday evening’s STV News, we heard Jacqueline Wright say in her own words that the couple paid £21,000 for their ex-council house in Cumbernauld. We then saw documents stating that it had been sold for £75,000 but that the Wrights had agreed to accept only £51,000 of that sum, with the rest going to M & F Property Solutions, the company run by Thomson and associate Frank Gilbride.
The document inescapably implied that the £75,000 sale, to a third party, happened at a time when the house was still the property of the Wrights (because otherwise it makes no sense at all).
Mrs Wright also said that they sold the property simply because they wanted out of the house and the market was poor, and STV says that the Wrights approached M&F.
So let’s recap that:
PRICE PAID BY WRIGHTS: £21,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY WRIGHTS: £51,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY M&F: £75,000
TIME ELAPSED BETWEEN SALES: zero
That all seems straightforward enough, then. But at the weekend we also noted a dramatic front-page splash in the Sunday Mail quoting the Wrights on the same subject, and it told a completely different story.
Wait, what? That gives us this:
PRICE PAID BY WRIGHTS: unknown, but presumably less than £21,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY WRIGHTS: £21,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY M&F: £75,000
TIME ELAPSED BETWEEN SALES: “within a year”
That’s a radically different proposition. There’s a whopping £30,000 between the two prices supposedly paid by M&F Property Solutions, and it claims that they were “stunned” to discover the resale price.
Yet according to STV News that resale price was part of the agreement between the Wrights and M&F, and that they knew it all along, because it was technically paid to them. The figure of £51,000 doesn’t appear anywhere in the Sunday Mail piece.
The only thing weirder than that would be if there was a THIRD set of figures. At which point we turn to yesterday’s Scottish Daily Mail.
And here the story changes again.
No mention here of the Wrights approaching M&F. Now it appears as if they were contacted out of the blue with an unsolicited offer.
“They were forced to sell as they could no longer afford their mortgage payments.”
A detail they hadn’t felt a need to mention to the Sunday Mail or STV. Indeed, they told STV they simply wanted out, and to bank a tidy profit, because in Mrs Wright’s words “we only paid £21,000 for it”. So it’s baffling that the Daily Mail then tells us:
So we’re back from the £21,000 sale price quoted in the Sunday Mail to the £51,000 of STV (or at least, £51,000 received by the Wrights out of a total of £75,000). Except that we’re now being told that there was over £30,000 outstanding on the mortgage of a £21,000 house.
And there’s another curious and very big inconsistency. In the Mail we’re told:
£17,000? But on STV last night Mrs Wright clearly told us the opening offer was more than twice that much:
“She just came in, looked about the house, and she went ‘£40,000, that’s all I would gie for this’, and I thought ‘You cheeky bitch’.”
Both those statements seem to unmistakeably refer to an inital offer, not a later one, yet there’s a whacking great £23,000 gap between them.
Also, if we believe the Daily Mail’s version Mr or Mrs Wright cannily managed to get M&F to TRIPLE their starting offer in the course of negotiations. This is particularly impressive because Mr Wright tells the paper “We had no idea what the value of our home was and just wanted a quick sale”. (Our emphasis.)
And of course, if the Wrights were insulted by an opening offer of £40,000 it certainly seems unlikely that the Sunday Mail’s account of them selling for half that is true.
The figures for the transaction are now:
PRICE PAID BY WRIGHTS: unknown, but presumably over £30,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY WRIGHTS: £51,000
PRICE RECEIVED BY M&F: £75,000
TIME ELAPSED BETWEEN SALES: “only months after”
Now, we haven’t a clue which – if any – of these figures are right. And a whole series of questions now have multiple-choice answers.
– Did the house cost the Wrights £21,000 (STV) or some unspecified higher (Daily Mail) or lower (Sunday Mail) sum?
– Was it sold by the Wrights for £21,000 (Sunday Mail), or for £51,000 (Daily Mail), or £75,000 (STV)?
– Did M&F sell it on to someone else months later (Daily Mail), or up to a year later (Sunday Mail), or was there in fact only ever one sale, on which the Wrights and M&F split the money (STV)?
– Did M&F initially offer £17,000 (Daily Mail) or £40,000 (STV)? Or was it in fact £21,000, as the Sunday Mail implies the Wrights took the first offer?
– Did the Wrights approach M&F (STV) or did M&F approach them (Daily Mail)?
All we can say for sure is that readers and viewers are being fed a very great deal of bull-product by at least two and possibly all of the three media outlets to have covered this story. The four figures we’ve compared can only have one answer each, yet everyone’s are different (with the exception of the sale price to the unidentified third party). At best one of them, and at worst none of them, can possibly be true.
(STV are the front-runners, because there we’ve at least seen and heard Mrs Wright make the statements with our own eyes and ears, but frankly at this point it seems fair to question whether she’s a reliable witness.)
Since the story broke we’ve highlighted some dreadful, inept and reckless journalism around it, and been duly and sourly attacked by a whole host of mainstream-media hacks for it. We’d love to see them explain this burning trainwreck of contradictory hyperbole away as legitimate professional reporting.
To be honest, we’re expecting to open this morning’s papers and find one reporting that the Wrights paid £700,000 for the house, Michelle Thomson bought it off them for 65p and a kick in the throat, and then sold it to an ISIS warlord for £2bn and a helicopter gunship that she used to mow down hundreds of poor people and Syrian refugees outside a foodbank, laughing maniacally and screaming “How’s THIS for social justice??!!?!” all the while.
On the other hand, we might just not open the papers at all and be better informed.
There is surely cases here for legal action against these newspapers.
If only to establish they tell huge,damaging and defamatory lies such a procedure would be very useful.
*Spluttering howls of incoherent rage*
I thought there was a discrepancy there – well done for chasing that down, Rev. Seems stunning that nobody has actually got the full story yet.
It seems the Daily Mail, Sunday Mail and STV are all using Danny Alexander’s calculator, from his time in the Treasury. The one he used to magnify Scotland’s Ministries start up by a factor of 12, decide Independent Scotland would need 6 times a many Ministries as the UK, and the one where Scotland’s economy was worth 5p.
Brilliant work, Stu
Ah, now I get it. They’re getting their financial advice direct from George Osborne. Oooops. He has a tendency to use a random number generator on the basis he’ll get it right ever 143,512.6 years (+ or – a margin of error of 3%).
Congrats, Rev Stu.
But the question remains, what has become of the ‘investigative’ journalists, who used to be employed by the corpmedia?
Are they all working on blogs to rival this one, and others, in social media?
Looks like they are so desperate to throw mud, little things like facts don’t really matter much.
Simply outrageous and Michelle Thomson and the SNP need to sit tight and let the various enquiries run their course.
Everything else is rabid speculation and only exposes the MSM as willing participants in smear tactics in a battle of trust they are losing, day by day and election by election.
The people of Scotland are sick fed up of this broken UK, and even those that only wanted a fair share of the WM govt spoils are now turning towards independence as the only option.
Ruth will get the support of disillusioned unionist Blairites, but will not win any Constituency seats.
Labour and Libdems will collapse to the point of irrelevance and the Greens will get the remaining scraps.
The SNP will be given their mandate and the final Indyref is there to be won by the end of the next Parliament.
Superb, Stu. This whole episode stinks of media shit. It’s about time it was flushed down the pan.
This is what we’ve come to expect from you Stu. I seriously don’t know what the papers do properly anymore.
Awful lot of “goody-two-shoes” out on the tinternet too, stating “facts” which are nothing of the sort.
I’ve said this before, but I’m losing my patience with all this fucking crap….
Isn’t it rather sad when conspirators can’t even get their story consistent? You’d think they’d know by now that you can’t get away with this amateurishness with Rev on the case.
Well done Stu!
Rev Stu, please don’t stop doing what you do.
You make all the others look like amateurs.
Many thanks.
ISIS warlords infiltrating Scottish housing estates hatching cunning plans to extend caliphate. Lol
What this confirms is that we do indeed live in multiple universes. Truth is optional. Reality is whatever you decide it is.
Whatever.
Great work Stu!
Sounds like this couple have got in a financial pickle deferring mortgage payments and have needed a way out of that mess quickly. Never the best time to get a good price.
Filled with resentment that their own financial stupidity meant they didn’t realise the best value for their house they’ve obviously fed each reporter what they want to hear, no doubt being lead by an eager journo wanting the dishiest anti-SNP story possible, resulting in a total farce.
Absolutely pitiful journalism and someone has published outright lies. Checking sources just seems to have been thrown out the window in our media.
If it wasn’t so dangerous in misinforming the uneducated and stoking the Unionist nutters it would be laughable!
I initially though Michelle should go.
I’ve changed my mind. She should sit tight but the rambling nonsense of these news reports should be widely exposed.
I am making no moral judgement here about MT.
But if she is made to stand down or stand aside who will they hit next?
–
Excellent research and investigation, Rev, yet more media lies and incompetence exposed.
Brilliant as ever. These hacks are an embarrassment to their trade, unless they admit to being spin doctors, smear campaigners and propagandists.
Love the last paragraph, you can’t beat a bit of sarcasm to calm down the anger at these cretins who have the cheek to call themselves journalists.
I still think there is something extremely wrong here and the term “Controlling Mind” is plausible.
This woman was THE ONLY female name in the UK as the Mashley Hadison cheating website story appeared. Then it was revealed that virtually all the females in the website were ‘bots so that attack fizzled out.
Now, a different method of attack is being tried against the same person.
I hate conspiracy theory but this really stinks.
@osakisuchi
If there is something more, then it seems to be from MT’s time in BfI. The leaked emails etc. could only have come from someone in BfI (surely?)
I guess she ruffled someone’s feathers, but this personal vendetta, if this it what it is, could easily impact on the SNP
So, a number of newspapers just made up figures. Or were fed figures from an unnamed source. Then a number of distinguished journalists with weekly columns rushed to judgement on the basis of false and contradictory information slopping around newspaper sites.
The Wrights trump them all by explaining they made a killing on a council house originally sold to them at a gift price and, who knows, might have squirrelled the profit away, leaving us hoping they have not crossed a line whereby they claim welfare.
How soon can Thomson begin court action against her accusers?
@Brian Doonthetoon 1:19 am
My thoughts exactly. Where are the hard-hitting, uncompromising, credible investigative reports we used to have confidence in reading or watching. Unless of course they were always full of inaccuracies and we were just too gullible to question.
I recall not too long ago tuning in to Panorama for the first time in years. I’m not sure which word describes it best – parody or tragedy. The intro and extro (?) were covered by Jeremy Vine in a tone which suggested he thought his microphone had just cut out, and the content would have been rejected by Newsround, so bereft was it of any substance. A flagship investigative programme had become infotainment.
I simply don’t buy the argument trotted out by the MSM that they’re only giving people what they want. Yes people might occasionally fancy some fluff TV to unwind to, but they don’t want it 24/7 on every channel and pervading every genre.
As for the reaction to the criticism of the people churning this out at work, here’s some advice. If a chef presented you with a meal which was half-baked, on a plate smeared with grubby fingerprints, would you believe his indignant claim that his work was to Michelin standard, or would you tear up the bill and walk?
OT – but a must read.
http://www.weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/going-to-work-on-an-egg/
Big demonstration /confrontation at the Tory conference – this is big – and with snipers on roofs! This is a C change, as is some of the extreme language being used inside the conf hall. The Tories are off the leash.
BBC online news blackout of demonstration at tory party conference.
Now the numbers being bandied about are beginning to add up. £21,000 to the Wrights. £30,000 to the bank to pay off the Wright’s mortgage. That equals the £51,000 paid to the Wrights in the STV piece.
That is the end of the story. M and F paid 51k for the property. Everyone in the transaction is satisfied by definition ( if not, the Wrights or M and F would not have transacted).
M and F sell to a third party for 75k. None of the previous owners’ business or concern.
What remains unanswered is a) what the Wrights originally paid?, b) how much they borrowed to buy?, c) whether or not they borrowed more as the property value rose i.e., equity release?
As for feeling hard done by on an agreed transaction: tough.
They may now wish they hadn’t pushed quite so hard.
Making money is not issue despite what papers say – it’s the potential for mortgage fraud. Solicitor was struck off for not telling lender about back-to-back deals and ‘cashback’. If MT was party to this then she’s in big trouble. I’d be careful about defending MT too vigorously until facts are known.
Is this a new game? Called Bad Journalists Bingo. Where there Numbers have not been called yet. But they are all Shouting House. Keep up the good work Stu. Journalism at it’s Best.
Rev thank god for people like you, the work you do and facts you take time to find out are absolutely invaluable in the fight against the bias false reporting UK media machine. Keep up the good work.
Brilliant piece of journalism rev stu , but in this case , I’m afraid that mud sticks
we must be above reproach
For whatever reason she seems linked to a corrupt solicitor. She should step back from the front line until all enquiries are complete.
Speculation is all well and good.
We all know the media will do what it needs to do to win the game.
Let’s be honest about this though – she’s bought houses tp make a profit – those that she’s bought from are showing sour grapes.
If she managed to save someone from a banks repossession then she’s done good
The sooner there is a proper court, with proper evidence the better case the better.
The whole media should be on trial here.
…it is when you realise that the media have been doing this since the first loose sheet was printed that you get really angry.
From Foodbanks to Syria, from the Iraq war to protests at the Tory conference – The News is what THEY decide to print and the “facts” are defined as the words in THEIR article.
Read the versions of any story in several blogs/sites on the Internet and you know you are being fed shit by our “respected journalists”
BBC may not be putting Tory Conference demonstration coverage online but Independence Live most definitely is.
See: http://www.independencelive.net/ main page for the archived events from the last 3 days & take your pick. I can recommend the Disabled (DPAC)demo where the delegates had to make their way past disabled protestors to get into the venue.
Media gone mad.
You could also throw into the mix Ian Smart’s blog. He more or less openly accuses Michelle Thomson of mortgage fraud and blackmailing her poor lawyer to do her dirty work and take a bullet for her. He then goes on to explain mortgage fraud in a way that makes bankers sound like innocent, trusting lambs and not the hard-headed business people of reality.
One would hope that Michelle Thomas has now secured the services of a good litigator.
It’s quite good that STV made a video of proof of how some people tell their story. A lot of nonsense. Now for the next embarrassment. Jackie la bob bon
By the the time solicitor fees, interest payments etc. (renovations?) had been paid. A profit of £10K would have been made on the house by the housing Co. Over a year taking a risk. The Wright’s would have made £30K. £10K form the original mortgage deal and £20K from the sale. The Wright’s made three times the profit but they are complaining. Who’s the ‘greedy bitch’?
The Companies asset’s might be high but what about the liabilities. Outstanding mortgages, interest payments, insurance etc.
One can put together a plausible story, that the Wrights are paid £51,000 ( including £30,000 to pay off mortgage) for a degraded property. MT needs to spend £20+K to upgrade it to make it fit for letting, hence the sale to her at a higher price with cash back to finance the upgrading. A surveyor would then be able legitimately to value at £70+ for the purposes of a buy to rent mortgage. If this is correct, this whole process is both legitimate and ethical, and indeed is improving the housing stock. This is now clearly a wild witch-hunt.
If the address of the property is known, you should be able to find the price paid on Zoopla.
In April 2011…….If memory serves me correctly Britain was ‘In the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s,with the BoE having to inject £75 bn into the ailing economy to top up the £200 bn already pumped in’
Do Gordon Brown/George Osbourne have a case to answer,forcing this family to sell their home due to their personal financial circumstances,was there pressure from their bank/lender.
IMO these people are the victims of financial mis-management from the City of London,they,like thousands of others like them (including me),had to re-think their finances,thanks to the gambling culture within the banking sector.
These unregulated bankers brought the global economy to it’s knees indeed the reason for the Tories severe austerity measures now,are also direct consequence of this or so they keep telling us.
Just saying
It’s funny, the very back bone of the UK economy is financial speculation. If we are saying it should be stopped, bring it on. I think however mNy MPs and those closely associated with them might have a problem with that.
We are a nation built on private debt. It’s a ponzi economy simply because that been the policy of successive UK governments – both Tory and labour.
In war, the first casualty is truth.
In case anyone has recently come out of a coma, we have been at war with the corporate media since 2007.
She would also have had her own lawyer advising her a point no one mentions.
I do hope she was not receiving any means tested state benefits at point of £30k windfall or thereafter?
May prove an expensive media intervention.
Nicola should stand up in the chamber and propose a ‘Protect vulnerable people who get into mortgage arrears, whilst building up our social housing stock, and stiffing the heartless who currently make a profit out of this’ bill.
And then ask Wullie,Kez, and Ruth, especially Ruth to back it wholeheartedly.
Banks at one time were actively encouraging council house buyers to borrow more than the cost of their house because of the discount given by the Council. I personally know people who bought a new car on their mortgage.
When this is all over, I do not doubt Michelle Thomson will be happily taking ALL those abusing her to court.
I would if I were her. This is pure out and out smearing, with NO substance whatsoever.
If the Wrights couldnt afford payments on a mortgage on a £21,000 house with around 70% equity, they must be living on the breadline because you couldnt rent at that price. Hope the journos were paying for the poor peoples time.
This can be figured out. 192.com will have the Wright’s address since they lived there for a while. Sites like zoopla will tell you the history of house price sales for an address.
However, there should be some sympathy for the Wright’s. The clearly were I’ll advised, after all, they got into a mortgage they couldn’t afford and also attempted to sell a house with little forward thought about value. It looks like a fire-sale situation that put them in a poor negotiating position and if the mortgage wasn’t being paid then a prospective buyer would have to think whether maintenance had been properly carried out or whether there were other financial issues on the property.
We all like to think our property is worth more than it is, I sold a property in Stirling 4 or so years ago and it was on the market for over a year. The market was dead, so the Wright’s panic sold – but that was their decision.
Pig fancier Cammers was on BBC Breakfast this morning explaining toryboy world’s new fines for parents of truanting kids and their tac credit scrapping.
So manipulating the vote in their Scotland region to get SLab back in May, is really a just a very tawdry side show cooked up by very sleazy characters, BBC Scotland style.
As I understand it, the proceeds from the sale of your own house is free from income tax if you have lived in it for 3 years(I think its 3). This is why you get flipper and others changing their “main residence” so often, so that when they sell it they pay no tax. This raises the question of whether the Wrights had their house for over 3 years prior to sale, not to mention how come they owed 30K when they bought for 21K(supposedly…).
Comedy gold, a farce from start to finish.
How low can you go; since when has the misogynistic term, ‘bitch’, been an acceptable word to be used on a national television news channel?
Surely there are standards that these fools should abide by?
Shame Jim Murphy isnt still at the Northern North England Branch office ..would have been fun watching the alleged former london landlord-expense manipulator berate this given his history
@Clootie
Pretty much Clootie.
This was never about Ms Thomson and all about damaging the SNP. There is no search for truth or redress here and near as I can tell for all the yardage of column space no criminal act has as yet been uncovered by the press or pursued by the authorities.
Now, the longer it carries on without any concrete charge or evidence, the more catastrophic it looks for the media. In fact Ms Thomson if cleared of any suspicion will have plenty of grounds and evidence of her own to go to town on the media through legal means.
The whole property thing is a mystery to me anyhoo, I’ve never owned a property in ma puff and all this talk of estate agents, property sales an such leaves me dizzy, but I do understand that unless Ms Thomson is under suspicion of something, been duly investigated and charged for some crime or other, then the meeja are basically destroying a career simply because they can.
Either way that post in Westminster is now vacant and the SNP have a media casualty, not the first and probably not the last. Our MPs are going to be under media scrutiny as never before and those types will be looking for the slightest slip as an excuse to go to town.
OT I see we are about to host the gymnastics – does that mean we have to have the xenophobic cretins yelling and screaming as they did at the Davis Cup?
If so I am depressed already.
Hi Stu,
Informed – did you write this from the Manchester Stand-Up event!!!!!
Here’s another scenario:
1. Wrights buy house from Cooncil for, shall we use their 1st figure – £21,000
2. Sometime thereafter Wrights take out a second mortgage for say £50,000 for shall we kindly say home improovements and maybe a wee holiday and a new car.
3. In Osbrne’s austerity they find that they can’t afford mortgage and need a fast exit to pay-off 2nd mortgage and give them a profit.
My thoughts on this are incomplete but I’m sure others could delve further – maybe some really earth shattering, mind boggling INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM?
Auld Rock
O/T links
http://ponsonbypost.com/index.php/comment/43-david-marshall-the-forgotten-labour-mp
http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/labour-is-coming-home-come-home-to.html?spref=tw
http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Widow-and-widower-pensions-reinstated-1ded.aspx
http://www.cityam.com/225856/oil-prices-rise-after-russia-says-its-open-talks-opec?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Looks like Dave managed to halt whatever this was from coming out…
http://metro.co.uk/2015/10/03/something-wrong-dave-shock-new-rumour-about-the-camerons-will-be-revealed-on-monday-5419790/
If buying a house at a knock down price is ‘morally unacceptable’ then why was there not a similar outcry when Labour MP Emily Thornberry bought a house at auction from a Housing Association. In March 2007 Thornberry’s barrister husband Christopher Nugee bought a three-bedroom house in Rawstorne Street, Clerken-well, from Ujima Housing Association for £572,000, it is now valued at over £1 million. Tenants of the Housing Association fought to prevent the sale and claim they tried to contact Thornberry herself for support.
The house was bought by the Labour MP for the specific purpose of renting it out. At the time of the sale there were allegations that senior figures at Ujima were involved in fraud and corruption. The organisation, which provided affordable homes to people from an ethnic minority background, eventually went bankrupt.
The Labour MP also owns a £3m Victorian townhouse in London as well as a £600,000 flat in Surrey, yet there was no media outcry at this property purchase. As far as I can tell, nobody in the Labour party has attacked Thornberry over her near £5m property portfolio.
Where was the Scottish media’s coverage of the Labour MP David Marshall’s scandal in 2008?
http://ponsonbypost.com/index.php/comment/43-david-marshall-the-forgotten-labour-mp
If you are Chancellor of Exchequer you can flip your main dwelling house five times at taxpayer’s expense, become shield for the Tory Better Together campaign and then head off to the House of Lords at £300 a day on top of your gold plated pension without as much as a peep from the Scottish media.
Brilliant piece of work Stu.
And here’s the truth. Not a single MSM journalist, even if they had either the inclination or the ability to do so, would be able to do what the Rev does on here every day. Otherwise they’d be turfed out by their corporate masters.
I feel sullied after reading the express.
Mundell sets tax trap for SNP
https://archive.is/bAiXW
Haven’t come accross any SNP/Yesser who doesn’t think that if she has done something illegal, she should not get the heave ho, but have to say, the MSM are losing whats left of their credibility, and is becoming fun to watch. I await the outcome of the investigations, one way or another.
Cameron boasting of shine coming off SNP ball and difficulties of SNP members at Scot Tories meeting. Corpsmear headed by right wing press and the bumbling, compliant Scottish media STV BBC and Rancid tuck in behind to help Labour in Scotland by SNP BAAAD.
Better Together Project Smear.
I think even the Wrights are being economical with the truth .
ie Bought a council hoos for £21k ? So at that point you only have a Max borrowing of £21k
I can assume that they later re-mortgaged to get some capital , to explain the £30k mortgage.
None of this is important as we ( as financial contributors to WOS) have been delivered a bounty by Stuart . This beaut shows the MSM in their true line of ” Truthfull Reporting”
People must be buying their news paper in the same frame o mind as we , as kids , did when we got out Beano or Dandy !
The current Dead tree Media is IMHO an effin joke !
@Nana
Fluids!
Remember, plenty of fluids. 😉
@Macart
Reaching for a bottle Macart, I’m thinking bleach!
@Colin Church
Cameron boasting of shine coming off SNP ball and difficulties of SNP members at Scot Tories meeting.
Ach he’s just tellin’ porkies.
If anybody has been ‘led up the garden path’ its us.
Well done Stu.
In 1997 I was desperate to return to Glasgow after 4 years in England. I had bought a house for £65,000 but realised that I couldn’t sell it for that and certainly not as quickly as I had hoped. I was offered £54000 by a firm which I knew was derisory but had no other option. In fact they only sold it on for £59,000 which wasn’t much of a profit. That is all that has happened here to the wrights: this type of transaction is nothing new
In their excitement and desperation to stick mud on the SNP, certain broadcasters and newspapers seem to have overstepped the mark and exposed their flank big time. I knew somebody would screw up sooner or later. With all the corporate media cut-backs and staff shortages, is this crass, amateur journalism any surprise?
Certain outfits/individuals are almost certainly open to court action (when the appropriate time comes). Obviously, this has to run its course, there is an on-going investigation of an MP’s associate. When the time comes, however, I would sue and donate any proceeds to charity. That would stick in their craw.
This will be interesting.
“This is particularly impressive because Mr Wright tells the paper “We had no idea what the value of our home was and just wanted a quick sale”.
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report
The Single Survey contains an assessment by a surveyor of the condition of the home, a valuation and an accessibility audit for people with particular needs.
As the seller, Mr Wright was legally obliged to have the Single Survey. He couldn’t put his property up for sale with out a survey and he’s not legally obliged to read it himself. But is it likely he did not, the survey cost him a few hundred quid?
No doubt defamation lawyers are recording it all. I sure as hell would.
“Did you feel you had been led up the garden path?”
Well STV certainly did that to me. I had a little hope that they would be better than the Imperial master’s BBC but hey they are just as bad!
Faux outrage . They are all toxic tories.
SNP/SNP
Nana Smith says:
6 October, 2015 at 8:37 am
I feel sullied after reading the express.
Mundell sets tax trap for SNP
https://archive.is/bAiXW
If the Scottish government is brave and rejects the proposals on the basis that they are crap, short of what was offered and actually damaging to Scotland, I think they will receive widespread support. Forget the inevitable corporate media bleatings, the people know what is going on. If the proposals are unworkable, they really should not be accepted.
Unfortunately, I think that even the tiny crumbs offered will be accepted, and the tax trap that the tories are carefully constructing will be set.
I came here to make a similar statement to Luigi. It is surely becoming time for Ms Thomson to loose the dogs of Law. Time to do a George Galloway on them Michele, make them pay for sullying your reputation.
I have often wondered at the tolerance of the SNP, and this tolerance is the result. Alex Salmond only used the law when his father was threatened, his reputation was often sullied, Nicola is as tolerant. Time these dreadful people were made to put up of shut up.
As for this interview, well I doubt the Wright’s made that many friends other than those they have last night.
No mention of the £10,000 missing from the Edinburgh Eastern Labour Branch I note.
A great article, Rev. You put the “profession” of journalism to shame.
Looks like the wheels are coming off another chariot this week. The Smearers really should have got their story straight before they started. I expect this was all designed to show lost Labour voters that the SNP are Tartan Tories at heart. Ever heard of Flipper Darling, hacks?
Have things always been as bad as this, or we were just blind to it before the Referendum? Even then, for every Pilger we had a hundred Cockers, I suppose.
I really hope MT is innocent of blame so she can then sue the arse off the whole lot of them, but there must be a lot of pressure on Police Scotland just now.
The UK media is just so desperate to get something on the SNP that they don’t care if it’s bollocks or not. Heaven forbid they should actually find something worth reporting.
There is probably an infinite number of genuine scandals they could report on from the ‘Better Together’ side, but choose not too.
It really is a sad state of affairs that our country Scotland finds itself in. Surely people can now see that there must be a better way, that there is a better way.
The time is now to choose that way.
Aye,
We are well into “protect fear mk2”, and it will continue for as long as we are attached to Westminster, just surprised that they (Westminster) have not resurrected the “Alien Act” of 1704/5!.
Great analysis by Stew, the Editor of the National ought to have contacted Stew by now, asking if he could use his findings, for the front page, If only that paper had the testicles to take other papers and tv stations head on, because we do need that type of information to be on every newspaper stand/shelf.
@Luigi
A few weeks ago Mr Swinney was adamant he would reject any unionist nonsense which was detrimental to Scotland.
Let us hope he does just that.
Regarding fracking I spotted this article last night being tweeted by Stewart McDonald mp and now I see there is to be a pro fracking stand at the snp conf. Ineos I think.
http://www.scottishenergynews.com/shale-gas-may-not-offer-an-ideal-solution-to-our-energy-needs-but-banning-it-makes-neither-economic-nor-environmental-sense/
Great stuff Rev, you are so good at things like this.
I would also be very dubious of the £30,000 mortgage claim, I think this is an invention by the DM. The fact they have bent facts to suite the witch hunt, does not seem it would be lawfully accepted. On advice Michelle should sue them, and for a substantial sum.
This is character assassination, she deserves our support.
Am just wondering why the Brit Nat LabServativeDem and BBC STV Unionist media party are ignoring the facts that they helped arm Isis and the Russians are going to destroy them, and of course their dodgy MPs escaping criminal proceedings
O/T
Oh look it’s the centre of the universe…
http://www.cityam.com/225834/silvertown-tunnel-consultation-could-pave-way-tackle-multi-million-pound-issues-blackwall-and
Only thing we can say for certain is that the Holyrood campaign has kicked off n earnest- the character assassination tactics seem set to be a mainstay of the Unionist campaign
My the CRINGE is strong on call Kaye.
Protesting bad, don’t make a fuss, quiet at the back of the bus.
Nice piece of work stu. I don’t know whether to be angry or sad at coverage of this nonsense. Looks to me as if the sellers just pissed didn’t get more profit from social housing sell off.
Are all journalists scumbags? It would appear so.
Tonto: I expect this was all designed to show lost Labour voters that the SNP are Tartan Tories at heart.
there must be a lot of pressure on Police Scotland just now.
You’re not really here to advance the cause of Scottish sovereignty, are you?
This is character assassination, she deserves our support.
They are destroying her professional reputation. UKOK BBC style politicking can monster Thompson as SNP MP as hard as they like but as soon as they make and/or publish false statements that are clearly ending Thompson’s business or income, defamation law kicks in.
BBC are way too sneaky/creepy to slip up legally and Mail reprobates will have probably decided defamation legal action is worth their efforts. It’s part of their profession, if you can call it that. STV though?
Great work again, wos.
I’ve said before, a front page lie warrants a front page apology, repeated for every time the lie is reported.
Also agree with a previous post, in hoping that MT is amassing piles of these lies for litigation when she is cleared of wrong-doing.
What a sad country we live in; people unable to afford to live in their own home even though they bought their house years ago at a massive discount from their local authority.
Millions of debtors (home owners as the banks like to call them) were convinced by sophisticated mortgage providers (greedy lenders as I like to call them) that, as long as the market value of their home increased, they could also look forward to a wee nest egg once the mortgage was eventually paid off.
The Wrights, like many I suspect, were possibly lured by their “friendly” bank to take on even more debt (equity release is how the lenders like to call it) as the value of their bargain property purchase inevitably increased.
Heck, they could even feel smug for about seven weeks by driving a new car (while ignoring the catastrophic depreciation) or piss off to Benidorm with the kids to avoid the shite weather in Glasgow in July.
That the debtor actually pays at least three times more in principal & interest for the debt, is skilfully disguised by property price inflation.
But two conditions must exist for this arrangement to remain intact:-
1. The debt must be paid on time, every month for the next 20 or 30 years.
2. Over the long term, the value of the property must increase (unless one is never going to move & doesn’t care what it’s worth if & when the debtor croaks it).
But few of us are immune to Tory “boom & busts”, despite Gordon Brown claiming that he had fixed that problem in 2008.
And the financial crash that same year revealed the fragility of an economy that relied heavily, not on manufactured goods but on rising property values & galactic scale sovereign, institutional, corporate & personal debt.
I feel sorry for the Wrights, not because there is a suggestion that someone else extracted even more value from their home but that the Wrights found themselves unable to afford to remain in their own home in the first place.
Of course, we live in a society that puffs about free will & free market economics. But I remain uneasy, that ordinary members of the public were coerced into making decisions that were ultimately not in their best financial interests.
We are somewhat unique in Europe; encouraged into home ownership from which we are also invited to extract cash to finance lifestyle choices. But a home, especially those lived in by people at the bottom of the wealth pyramid, should not be used as an ATM machine.
Meanwhile, it looks like the country is heading towards another “bust” when the property bubble in London collapses, driven by unavoidable increases in interest rates.
This is what unionists often refer to as “Great” Britain.
I’ve just been buying a flat. The first one I bid for went for something like 15% over the valuation price, because it went to a closing date and six of us were interested. I got my flat for the valuation price because, it turned out, the sellers had found the place they wanted to move into, so rather than hold out for more offers and put it to a closing date to try and maximise the price, they decided a quick sale was better.
Now, I could easily put the flat straight back on the market and get more for it than they did by holding out for a higher price. If a reporter then went round to them and said “see how much that guy got for it when he sold it on a few months later?” they might feel a bit aggrieved that they didn’t get that price, and wishing they’d held out longer. But a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush for them, so chose convenience over profit (plus they were a nice couple anyway.)
When I saw the Wrights’ story on STV News, I couldn’t help thinking of someone selling a spare ticket to a tout for £5, only to see them sell it to the person behind you for £25. You would feel like you’d just handed the tout £20 yourself. But the fact remains that you chose to accept a guaranteed £5, rather than stand outside looking for a buyer.
They’re different scales obviously, but ticket touting and property speculation are grubby for the same reason. And both are symptoms of the society we live in today, where making as much money as possible for as little physical effort as possible is encouraged.
Snp mp’s must be whiter than white. The scum of the corporate/ establishment media will up their attacks in the run up to next years sg elections.
Morning, Grouse Beater. Hope you’ve got the coffee on.
“You’re not really here to advance the cause of Scottish sovereignty, are you?”
Every bit as much as you are, my friend.
So after getting “ripped off” and only making around £30k profit on their ex council hoose are the Wrights back in a new council hoose?
It coincided with the decision of the Election Court on Carmichael. Perhaps the Establishment wanted to even the score?
Right now I couldn’t see MT getting even a parking ticket.
Regardless of what eventually emerges, it’s going to be SNP/SNP in May.
Possibly this couple have spent the money they got for their house and are looking for some way to get more. Why else bring this up after all this time? Of course, this also causes trouble for the SNP, which suits certain parties as well.
@ ChoosedaysChild 7:35 am
You should be able to get a copy of the title deeds from the Land Registry on which there will be details of ALL the sales back to the original purchase,And there should be detail figure-wise of all and any First Charges against the property, The Land Registry in Glasgow is within walking distance of STV at
Registers of Scotland,Hanover House, 24 Douglas Street,Glasgow G2 7NQ
But no STV reporters are of the same ilk as those of the press , Lazy Bastards , inclusive of “Chief Reporters”
Of course both the MP and the struck-off solicitor could produce full details of the transactions because in the solicitors case the Wrights aren’t or more correctly weren’t his client
BUT why should they ? After all as it stands at the moment MT has done nothing wrong
Maybe time for Legal Action?
All this mud-slinging is having an effect though. My Auntie an Uncle who are Mail and Telegraph reading No voters volunteered to me that they thought the media campaign was politically motivated and full of drivel.
Also, I’d be interested to know ow long the Wright’s owned the property. As I recall, under Right to Buy, if you wanted to sell it on in under 5 years, you needed to at least offer it back to the Council and perhaps even pay back some of the discount.
Panto: Every bit as much as you are, my friend.
You’re not my friend, so drop the bullshit. Your posts have slyly loaded comments. Do you think readers stupid?
Oh btw, I expect the next story here will be the ‘victimisation’ of the wrights from vile cybernats.
Only a matter of time.
The Corporate Media and State Broadcaster attack dogs are most certainly out in force. When this MT ‘story’ first broke there was 56 months to go to GE2020. The Corporate Media’s (CM) game plan seems clear–attack 1 SNP MP per month. Who will it be next month? The actual truth is immaterial to them–it’s all about perception and feeding the uneducated and naive ‘SNP Bad’ brain manure. Dark arts from a dark media.
On the bright side–the 45% can see right through their pish.
woosie says:
Agreed. Let the punishment fit the crime.
Newspapers have the right to print what they want, but with that comes the responsibility to report truthfully. There needs to be a mechanism with teeth to hold them to account when they lie.
Another punishment might be for then to forfeit a high proportion (or all) of the cover price and sales revenue for editions sold while lying. Crime should not be seen to pay.
I live not far from Stu. I don’t get to Scotland anywhere near as much as I’d like to.
I don’t read any newspapers and occasionally turn on my telly, spending most of my time shouting at it incredulously.
I get most if not all of my information about Scotland online. I know more about Scotland both national and local than most of my family do.
I don’t know anyone who voted NO and I also know ex Labour folks now SNP.
It is my view that many folk who are “subjected” to MSM whether willingly or subliminally are simply becoming immune to the bollocks.
Scots aren’t daft. When the stories aren’t actually reflecting the reality of their lives, folks will start to question.
Thankfully there are enough Yessers on hand to help those starting to question.
Many on here keep reminding us that we must talk to NO voters and we should. I Ddon’t believe that anyone who is persuaded of Yes will ever go back.
Perhaps a new round of WBB is in order.
The MSM at their very best. While attempting to smear an MP, they have revealed just how rampantly debased they themselves are. If they were cooks they’d spoil the broth.
Grouse Beater:
Not for a minute. They can read the comments for themselves. If you think I’m a troll, frankly, you’re the one with the problem.
Absolutely brilliant demolition work, Stu – you have succeeded where all other so-called journalists have failed.
Two sources MUST get sight of this: Amer Anwar who I believe is working on the case for MT,and the SG who imo must fight fire with fire now and expose the utter hypocrisy and opportunism (and that’s putting it mildly) of this whole debacle.
Now that’s the right way to tell the story
And that’s the problem with these so called “JOURNALISTS” who are creating works of fiction and then digging deeper by the minute with ever increasing lies to support a position that those of us with more than one brain cell can spot is a big fat lie in the first place
We can all see it’s a smear campaign and some people even know the exact reason for it which I’m quite sure will bubble it’s way to the surface eventually
And we all know that the perpetuation of this smear will be kept going by those with the vested interests “UNTIL” let’s see which of the conspirators loses their nerve first because one of them will and the Gaff will be blown and they’re dealing with Nicola Sturgeon now so they can expect not just repercussions they can expect Holy Hell to descend upon them
Paul Hutcheon and pals, we know who you are and where it’s coming from and I spotted your face on 2015 and right about now you’re wishing this would all go away
Don’t worry it will
Vote SNP and pay the Bastirts back
bizarrely I got my 1st ever tenement flat below fixed price
I went an knocked on wrong door my mistake
her neighbour an elderly women told me,their was an attempted break in at her flat and she wanted to move back to her parents.
nice area,nice flat–put in 3k below fixed price,offer accepted
regardless of local election results and personal anecdotes
this drip drip drip of snp bad will have a detrimental effect on support for the snp and yes.
project smear is in full swing
freefindpeopleuk.co.uk
First Name: JAQUELINE
Last Name: WRIGHT
With First Name: DOUGLAS
With Last Name: WRIGHT
Town: CUMBERNAULD
Region: Scotland
28 WIGTOUN PLACE
CUMBERNAULD
GLASGOW
– – – – – – – – –
zoopla.co.uk
Property details for 28 Wigtoun Place, Cumbernauld, Glasgow
Zoopla Estimate: £80,000
Last sale: £75,000 | Sale date: 13th May 2011
Previous sale: £21,000 | Sale date: 11th May 2007
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/28-wigtoun-place/cumbernauld/glasgow/g67-2qz/9360800
Tinsel: If you think I’m a troll
I think you’ve a problem relating to some posters, myself included. Please lay off the gratuitous asides and louche remarks. Stick to the topic, or expect challenge.
Echoing others in praise of Stuart, but this isn’t a defence of Michelle Thomson, it’s an expose of the inconsistences at the heart of the “story”.
Speaking from previous professional experience, I found that a person who kept changing their story was, at the very least, “confused”. It was as simple as that. Once you compared their original statement with what you were subsequently being told, you found inconsistences, with a few facts, if they could remember them, thrown in for good measure.
I believe this is what has happened here, and the result you see is the contradictory versions found in the various news outlets.
Once again, this is trial by media, and, unfortunately, there is very little can be done about it, at least at the present time. All of us on this side of the argument knew that any alleged indiscretion, no matter how real, or otherwise, would be pounced upon by the M.S.M, and kept going by them for as long as possible.
I have no idea whether Michelle is guilty of any offence, criminal, or civil, but I think the media, and individuals, should think twice before publishing any defamatory articles. Will they? Probably not.
Well done, Mr Campbell.
And, more especially, thank you for writing this since reading it has deflated some of the apoplectic rage welling up inside me from days of reading all of the hysterical venom and sneering contempt that’s been shown by not only the usual culprits and pouters but by Mckenna and Macwhirter types as well.
I found Macwhirter especially distasteful – implying the SNP (and all its members no doubt) had to sit on the highest eschelon of the pedestal he said was the only place they could ever inhabit – if any one of that party had a spot of grey on their pristine plumage then he was ready to grind them into the dust – even beneath those labour and tory party members guilty of far more. I don’t often swear, but fuck that for a lark and fuck him and his stupid saintly hero worship and impossible expectations.
Most folk were like me and voted SNP for independence. Yes, the SNP does need to be ‘worthy indy’, to try to be better than other parties, not only because as the green blog said ‘a budget surplus is only bad when the SNP manage it’ but because we want a better style of politics and fairer way of living, working and dealing with each other. The SNP party have suspended/distanced her at an early stage and are letting things take their course – that is all they can do unless MacWarty expects them to drive a stake through her sacrificial heart on the Mound to still the baying mob and ease his conscience for once having written a few words in their favour. They’ve behaved better than most parties would and no doubt if she’s guilty of serious wrongdoing will expel her completely and denounce her. As it is, I think they might go too far sidelining her even if she’s proved completely innocent. But no, I’ve never believed in a ‘holy SNP’ – just that they should be seen to be trying to behave better than their opponents.
And as for those of the left, making gripe about Thomson making such a profit – we need home grown Scottish businesses to be successful, they need to be part of our future to make a successful new country. We learned early during indyref that big businesses who weren’t Scottish would desert us quickly. We need our own businesses who support Scotland and want to stay here. Yes, we need them to be reasonably ethical – but we don’t need them to be so overflowing with ethics that they refuse to turn a decent profit and instead take only a pittance while stuffing the extra monies back into the hands of stupid customers. Companies working for customers is all very well, but giving them nearly all of their profits because said customers are ill or old or stupid does our country no good. Nor does it do us any good if we expect not to have to take care of ourselves and our own interests.
I am pretty sure there is a register somewhere detailing all transactions on property. Perhaps the journalists forgot .
Why let facts ruin a good story?
They must long for the days when all of this would have been taken as fact.
Thanks again Stu for real journalism.
Rev you never cease to amaze me with your journalistic tenacity. What a great piece.
Raging this morning. Just realised I booked a holiday cottage when I was feeling vulnerable. 500 quid for a week! I could have stayed hame for nothing AND I have to pay my mortgage whether I’m there or not.
I feel like I’ve been led up the garden path. I just wanted to get away for a few days, now I feel like I’ve been taken for a ride.
How much have they made out of folk like me? This extortion and profiteering is endemic. I blame the SNP. The practice of ‘self catering’ must end NOW
@Alasdair Stephen says: 6 October, 2015 at 3:50 am:
“Making money is not issue despite what papers say – it’s the potential for mortgage fraud.”
Correct.
“Solicitor was struck off for not telling lender about back-to-back deals and ‘cashback’.
Nope! Solicitor was struck off by his trade association for, “Professional Misconduct”. He is only now being investigated by the police for suspected mortgage fraud.
“If MT was party to this then she’s in big trouble.”
Whoa! There! – You are now presuming the solicitor is already guilty of mortgage fraud yet he has just come under investigation by the Police and MT is not under any police investigation whatsoever.
“I’d be careful about defending MT too vigorously until facts are known.”
No one here is defending MT – We are defending her right to remain innocent until shown to be guilty.
In fact it goes even deeper than that – we are defending her right not to be persecuted until she even comes under investigation.
Thanks for your advice, which I hardly require, Grouse Beater.
Physician, heal thyself.
If you want a slanging match, go off topic. You’re disrupting a good thread.
I am seriously finding it hard to fathom the thinking behind all this, other than just deliberate smearing of those in the SNP. Given there is not a single shred of evidence against Michelle Thomson, I can only assume, that Scottish so-called ‘journalists’ are happy to do this.
The real problem I have however, is this, these so called ‘Scottish’ journalists’ are effectively covering up the truly mendacious and evil attacks being made by the Tory party against the poor, sick and disabled. Each day this week we have seen the most vicious comments and policy changes by Tories designed to hurt the poor, yet these so-called ‘Scottish’ ‘journalists’ have spent every single day diverting attention away from it.
Look in the Scottish papers, not a freaking word.
Scottish Journalists doing the Tories dirty work, diverting attention from Tory greed, dancing to Tory spin doctors’ whims. Bought and sold for London’s gold, such a parcel of rogues in a nation.
Aye, Scotland needs them like a proverbial hole in the head. They are not journalists, they are England’s political puppets, dancing a London jig.
@tinto chief @grousebeater,
Get a room guys.
What do we know about the Wrights? Any Labour affiliations, by any chance? And are they getting paid for their story?
Just wond’rin’.
Well done G. Campbell.
That certainly nails down two facts and refutes the nonsense in the papers.
Now can anyone find a connection between the Wrights, and Billy Troy of Paisley, with the Labout Party? I would bet good money that is at ter root of all this ‘scandal’. Unfortunately my feeble attempts to find a link just gets me back to the paper stories.
Anyone out there from Cumbernauld or Paisley who knows these charmers and their political affiliation?
Get a room guys.
Agreed, only this is the only one on topic. I’m challenging what I see as anti-SG remarks that are unjustified, and without evidence.
Here’s what may have happened. Apologies if some else has said similar.
The thing to remember is that when you sell a house, all the money goes to the solicitor who then pays off the mortgage lender before passing on the balance.
MT’s company offered the Wrights £51000 for a quick sale. They accepted.
The Wrights’ solicitor paid off a mortgage of £30000.
The Wrights therefore received £21000 in their hands for their house.
I may be wrong, of course 🙂
Scott Borthwick says:
6 October, 2015 at 7:23 am
You could also throw into the mix Ian Smart’s blog. He more or less openly accuses Michelle Thomson of mortgage fraud and blackmailing her poor lawyer to do her dirty work and take a bullet for her. He then goes on to explain mortgage fraud in a way that makes bankers sound like innocent, trusting lambs and not the hard-headed business people of reality.
One would hope that Michelle Thomas has now secured the services of a good litigator.
Erm … do you think Aamer Anwar will fit the bill properly Scott? 😀
Macart says:
6 October, 2015 at 8:58 am
@Colin Church
Cameron boasting of shine coming off SNP ball and difficulties of SNP members at Scot Tories meeting.
Ach he’s just tellin’ porkies.
Well it’s an oink oink from me and an oink oink from him then! 😀
@Robert Louis
Yes. The timing might be to keep the Tory conference off the front pages of Scottish CorpM.
I’m sure it’s all part of a wider Project Deny SNP Majority by smear, and deflection from the likes of Carmichael too. However, hiding the Tory bogey men from the spotlight must be a component.
Sandra: “What do we know about the Wrights?”
Good question.
The one I asked yesterday was how did STV discover where they lived, did the Wrights contact STV to voice their complaint? But in the interview Mrs Wright doesn’t complain about being ripped-off, she only implies it in a few remarks. (I’ve no idea what was edited out of the interview, or presented out of true sequence.) It wouldn’t matter to me if the Wrights were Labour voters unless Labour encouraged them to get involved in the fracas for reasons of making mischief, or coached them what to say. Personally, if I’d been relieved of an unsalable property I’d not want to get involved in subsequent controversy.
The whole thing looks effectively orchestrated by shills and the like, with the exception of their inability to control contradictory information and figures flying around. Then again, that doesn’t matter to them – the ‘no smoke without fire’ attack is standard MOD.
@G Campbell
Interesting find, HOWEVER the dates do not match any of the 13 transactions that are the basis of the SSDT report.
The closest one is referred to as 6.16 Property 7 (transaction 5). It does indeed indicate a purchase price of £75k, but the transaction dates are inconsistent with the ones you quote. None of the others fit in any way.
It was on 17th May that the solicitor wrote to confirm acting, i.e. AFTER the supposed transaction was completed.
In addition the Northern Rock only made a mortgage offer on 24 May 2011, some 11 days AFTER the sale. As I have little detailed knowledge of Scottish property laws and transactions, I ask – Is this normal?
Now it may well be that I have not read the SSDT report properly, but there does seem to be ‘something’ amiss, although I am not sure what it is.
I think someone may have eluded (yes I know big words from the village idiot but I ate a dictionary for breakfast by mistake! 😉 ) to this story yesterday.
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/police-probe-missing-10-000-from-labour-party-coffers-1-3907487
Could this story be the reason why we are being inundated (dictionary for breakfast, remember 😉 ) with the constant *ahem* news about Michelle Thompson. The Smoke screen currently hanging around in the shape of the Wright’s may be the unionist media’s attempt to copy the BBC’s “nothing to see here move along now” technique.
The Big story is the Tory Party Conference because of the protests, the security being employed, and the content of the speeches. None of this can help the Unionists in the Holyrood elections in May 2016, and if the Tories want to weaken the SNP in the Scottish Parliament, then they would want to keep the Conference in Manchester out of the Scottish media.
But is the Michelle Thompson media fest just a squirrel to distract the Scottish public from the Tory conference, or is No 10 killing two birds with one stone.
Just a gut feeling but the tone of the woman’s voice and calling MT a “cheeky bitch” is indicative that she’s maybe of dubious character…
Thanks for the excellent detective work. I sincerely hope MT will be vindicated in this. I expect she will be but if she isn’t it ain’t exactly invading Iraq to the tune of thousands of lives, causing economic mayhem and resultant misery re the bank crisis or cutting disability benefits leading to suicide, is it?
Yet again though the MSM show themselves up to be the mouth piece of the establishment – don’t they wonder that even their most loyal supporters will wonder why they are going on and on about this yet ignoring jiggy piggy Cameron and the like?
Surely these so-called journalists must be aware that Michelle Thomson’s lawyer will be collating all these contradictory statements (lies) for her defamation case against them.
If it turns out that there is no truth or evidence found to substantiate the allegations levelled at Ms Thomson by the press and unionist politicians.
Then lets hope that Ms Thomson is able to issues writs for defamation against the press and politicians.
Edinburgh News now reporting that Fib Dem looking to get this seat in the event of MT resignation.
I have to agree that there seems to be a concerted effort against a smart business woman, a SNP smear campaign of real efforts. It is a convenient diversion from the Pigfest in Manchester, and the filth being pumped out.
As a SNP member, I’m hoping the party keep a dignified silence, until the time is right to come out guns blazing, and instruct solicitors to raise actions for defamation.
I’m sure our overlords hate Business for Scotland in a manner we can’t imagine. I’m sure they hate it every time a business case for independence is made. I’m sure they hate the fact we have smart business people as MPs, and bright folk standing for Holyrood.
What I can’t figure out is why a govt of the UK, that has high powered sniper rifles trained on a peaceful protest in Manchester, are not held to account.
http://peterabell.tumblr.com/post/130608721649/cat-boyd-labour-politicians-with-10-houses
Tam J,
Well done for looking it up.
So if they only had it for four years their must have been monies paid back to the council?
So maybe 21K mortgage + 9K discount repayment?
I wonder how much they received in fees for their varying stories from these respective pedlars of b…s…!
Mr Wright tells the paper “We had no idea what the value of our home was and just wanted a quick sale”.
I’m confused here.
Don’t Mr and Mrs Wright talk to each other?
I mean Mrs Wright told STV last night that their house was worth more than what they received for it and yet here we have Mr Wright saying he has no idea what their house was worth. Surely, if for no other reason than one of consistency, he would have claimed that the house was worth more than what they received or she would have just said they had no idea what the house was worth.
The fact that both Mr and Mrs Wright are telling different stories says quite a lot about them and this whole non story, in my view.
Valerie: a concerted effort against a smart business woman
Michelle Thomson is small – in height – but damn feisty! 😉
Really hope MT and the SNP go to town on these unionist media crooks. Its long overdue, sue the arses of them!
The whole point of the press coverage of the Thomson affair isn’t to uncover the truth. The whole point of it is SNPBAAAAAD. So the facts don’t matter to most of those those reporting it. Indeed, they appear to have been altered in several cases to squeeze as much SNPBAAADNESS as possible out of it.
STV seems to have come closest, because they let the woman speak for herself. It appears that she’s angry because she’s now realised that she might have got more for her house had she put it on the market and waited.
Well why didn’t she do that? If I want to sell my car, I can either advertise it and have people come round and see it, or I can contact one of those companies who offer to buy any car. Obviously I’d get more if I advertised.
I don’t know if Michelle Thomson has done anything immoral or not, and I’ll reserve judgement until I know the facts.
I didn’t vote SNP because of Thomson. I voted SNP because I thought they were the best party to lead Scotland to independence and because they’ve done a good job of running the country up to now.
@Nana
Thanks for Peter Bell link. Excellent calling out of Cat Boyd, who thinks being radical involves using your platform for making unfounded claims, so you can climb onto a media bandwagon.
Yeah, dead radical, Cat. Well done.
If it is the case that the Wrights were not able to manage their finances then, it is very possible they have continued to mismanage to the present day. In which case they may be skint and/or in debt and their entry into the MT case may be motivated accordingly. If that is the case, they would be easily manipulated by STV.
STV only showed close ups of the couple which can be a giveaway to their living conditions and circumstances not being good. Mrs Wright did not have the appearance of someone with money.
I suspect STV have left a lot out of this story.
All British papers crap on Scottish democracy all the time but they’ve gone quiet on their Scottish colleagues ongoing Thompson slander monstering.
In fact Scotland’s been airbrushed out of UKOK toryboy world this week. Odd people, toryboy media. Although toryboy and far right Scotch cringer of the year, Horatio Nelson of the New Statesmen was a bit wobbly last night on C4 news.
Anyhoo, the Yanks get telly like Breaking Bad, True Detective, Daily Show, BBC farts out endless
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/06/genius-of-great-british-bake-off
“Bake Off is pure English pastoral: it is Delius, Vaughan-Williams and Blake. It is Miss Marple. It is the National Trust. It is the first tableau in Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics: a village cricket match played out in a green and pleasant land.
It is the England that then prime minister John Major vowed would never vanish in a famous 1993 speech: “Long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and – as George Orwell said – ‘old maids bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist’.”
You like cake. You vote teamGEnglandB.
Ive looked again at the film of tbe Wrights and withdraw all my previous comments. I apologise to the Wrights and to the blog, and to STV.
I can hardly believe I wrote such drivel, and no, I haven’t been drinking. At least that would have been an excuse.
Is there any info on how much the victims sold their story for, to the Mail?
I presume cash changed hands.
Mcwhirter’s entire argument seems to be it’s morally unacceptable for somebody to profit from a transaction, indeed, he implies ‘exploit’ another.
(He expands that egregiously to mean the entire Scottish government must be whiter than white if voters are not to be disillusioned – but you need to become a Unionist to get real, lasting reward from corruption.)
So far exploitation has not been verified, and from the facts available, seems not to have happened.
Everybody involved, especially the Wrights, are the better for the agreement, save the lawyer accused of crossing a line, and now Thomson for daring to make her own profit.
In fact Scotland’s been airbrushed out of UKOK toryboy world this week
Didn’t you get the memo heedtracker?
I know we all did so you must have received the e-mail. I’m almost certain you must have.
You know which one I’m talking about don’t you?
It’s the one sent to wee Jeremy Corbyn and cc’d to us all about not using the “S” word. You, like the rest of us are now living in a country with no name! 😀
Twitter is presently a raging waterfall of frothing Unionists.
I’ve also noticed on several popular proIndy blogs a sudden increase in antiIndependence commentators. I wondering if there is an election of some sort in the near future.
The rubbish being peddled by the mainstream media is an affront to democracy. But the UK ain’t no democracy but rather a we eapon of establishment propaganda.
This iis the way that the UK operates and if needed propaganda moves to force, and we should be under no illusion that force will be used if needed.
This is how a facing colonial master operates and one need only consider how force is never far away when there is a protest march. Snipers on the roof training their weapons on women and children this week is a visible sign of how the establishment will operate.
Could last weeks snipers have been a prelude to a Bloody Tuesday to teach the masses a lesson. Or what about Willie McCrae widely believed to have been murdered by military intelligence in the 80s.
Well I don’t think we need to wait for an answer for that. As an unamed serving General said the other week when he declared he would resist ( democratic ) change by ” fair means or foul ” we know exactly.
The poisonous media is but a portion of the establishment method of enforcing its hegemony.
O/T. But just reading online headlines and Westminster Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been quoted that the low paid lacks dignity and self respect and what with the Tax Credit Cuts on their way, if the low paid want to succeed, or simply to get back up to their previous pre cut income, then they will have to work as hard as the Chinese to make up the difference. Jeremy Hunt = Utter Cunt in rhyming slang. Bastard.
Stephen.
OT. TRIDENT. The National:- More pressure on Dugdale as two Labour MSPs back SNP.
Good for them. Principles before Party. 🙂
The National:- http://tinyurl.com/pmxnshm
The Wrights are no more guilty than anyone.
The issue of whether Ms Thomson has done any wrong is also irrelevant at this time.
The whole issue is that the Media are making up their own unevidenced stories and reporting them in such a way as to deliberately discredit a member of a political Party to promote the chances of the opposition.
Guilt without trial or investigation has no role in my country, but appears to be the rule of thumb in the land of media.
It is truly becoming a war of ideology in which the truth and justice will be sacrificed on the alter of unionism.
Heedtracker,
Well no thanks for that quote. Trying to put me off cake?
Cake’s a damn fine way of freezing surplus eggs in the spring.
This obsessive British (aka. English) hoorah seems to be ubiquitous across the medias. Rather reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.
terry says:
6 October, 2015 at 11:32 am
Just a gut feeling but the tone of the woman’s voice and calling MT a “cheeky bitch” is indicative that she’s maybe of dubious character…
STV blew their cunning plan by allowing that offensive “statement” to be heard. I suppose STV were impressed by the artistic content. 🙂 Most decent people watching would be instantly repelled the moment this character opened her mouth. The poor victim narrative no longer applies now, I’m afraid. Try harder next time, STV.
I wonder what might have been paid to this woman, seems to have done a number of interviews?
Jack Murphy says:
6 October, 2015 at 12:23 pm
OT. TRIDENT. The National:- More pressure on Dugdale as two Labour MSPs back SNP.
Good for them. Principles before Party.
Aye, good for them, but (sigh) four years since the indy ref was announced and we are still waiting for a Labour politician to come out for independence.
Come on, we know you exist!
@ Tinto Chiel
I enjoy reading your posts. Please keep on posting and don’t let anyone put you off. No idea what the accusations were about but it’s not unusual from certain commenteers!
Les Wilson says:
6 October, 2015 at 12:29 pm
I wonder what might have been paid to this woman, seems to have done a number of interviews?
Five minutes of fame.
Stu, nail on the head stuff. Cap doffed and very well done.
Andrew Neil chatting to Liam Fox ‘re EU, and used the phrase ‘bringing home the bacon’ then said it was an unfortunate phrase to use at the Conference.
Had a wee chuckle, as Fox tried bravely to not smirk.
From the above research in comments above, could it be the case that MT didn’t even buy or sell the property, instead the company/ individualthat paid £75k bought it, with MT receiving a kind of finders fee which was the difference between the £75k and £51k? The £75k appears to be around market value.
So an unrelated company/ individual paid £75k of which £51k went to the Wrights and £24k went to Thomson as a commission? The Wrights signed up to this as they needed a quick sale. Why they wanted a quick sale is undisclosed but it could have been for many reasons, perhaps they didn’t want to advertise on the open market. MT’s company exists to facilitate sellers in such circumstances.
If the other company/individual then went on to commit mortgage fraud why would this have anything to do with MT who was essentially acting as an agent on commission?
Is this it? MIchelle Thomson has a company that makes large profits out of people who want to sell their house quickly by hooking up sellers and buyers and taking a commission which is based on the difference in the prices that they can negotiate with sellers and buyers? She doesn’t actually buy and sell the properties?
Is this it? Just trying to get my head around all this. Otherwise if did MT did buy the property and sell it on for a profit why doesn’t this transaction appear in the registry? The only other explanation is that MT bought it for £75k, gave £51 to the Wrights and still owns it? Makes no sense. Why not just buy it for £51k which is what would then appear in the registry.
@Valerie
Agreed and good on Peter Bell.
Not a good look for Boyd jumping on a bandwagon with less than four wheels in order to keep the spotlight on herself.
Not a vote winner either.
What we don’t know is whether they sold during the discount period. If so, they would then have had to pay the council back a proportion of the discount they had received.
On top of that, they would also have had to pay off their existing mortgage and pay solicitors fees.
They also stated that they couldn’t sell the house in the current market. So what was stopping them from advertising it themselves at a reduced price of, say, £55k? It may have been that their credit rating was so bad that nobody wanted to touch them with a barge pole.
This all sounds like a couple who dug themselves into a deep financial hole and are attempting to blame everyone but themselves.
ot former aide to Alex Salmond Jennifer Dempsie has threatened to sue deputy Labour in Scotland Alex Rowley MSP for defamation over comments he made about her involvement in the T-in the Park.
OK, so I found the house in question.
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/cumbernauld/wigtoun-place/?q=Wigtoun%20Place%2C%20Cumbernauld%2C%20Glasgow%20G67
check out number 28. May 2007 was a crappy time for selling a house. However, it was 2 years until it sold again, potentially after having money spent on it and (more importantly) as the financial crash started to find it’s feet again.
@Nana Smith
@Valerie
Peter Bell ends with a statement that’s soooooo true …
“For all too many of the myriad factions which make up the political left, honourable failure is an acceptable option. Perhaps even a preferred one.”
There is, and always has been, the most perverse attitude among the left that somehow “honourable failure” achieves something worthwhile. It doesn’t! When you fail, you fail. And invariably someone else wins and walks off with the prize.
It has occurred to me in the past that many Indy supporters of the left might at some point adopt that fatal attitude. It leads to people fighting the good fight in the expectation of losing! It is institutional defeatism. I prefer to get stuck in with every intention of success, one way or another, sooner or later!
Yes, yes, MSM…. election coming up, vote anything apart from SNP…. we get it. Thoroughly conditioned to it now. All white noise. Off you trot.
All sale prices for every sale in Scotland is available, FREE OF CHARGE, on the Registers of Scotland’s website, [type in ‘Scotland’s House Prices’ to fast track to this public service].
If any one out there knows the addresses for these properties in question, the actual price paid can be accessed online, for each and every transaction, and the dates they are registered in the Registers of Scotland.
There is therefore no excuse for ‘investigative’ journalists, who have spoken to the allegedly ‘duped’ previous owners, to publish false sale prices, as the journos could easily verify these sale prices ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ – the Land Register of Scotland, which is a public record.
Any investigative journalist ‘worth his salt’, would have accessed the ‘Scotland’s House Prices’ and very easily verified the actual sale price before printing ‘guff’.
Also, for a few pounds, any member of the public can write to the Registers of Scotland’s Customer Services Dept and request a full history of any property in Scotland, (a Behind the Records Search), which will give not just prices but the names and addresses of owners and sellers plus dates of entry etc.
There is absolutely no excuse for all these conflicting ‘alleged’ house sale prices. The only rational explanation is that the MSM is conducting a ‘witch hunt’, on a grand-scale, against one SNP MP, and, by association, the SNP Party.
Isn’t it ‘interesting’ how every atrocious smear & innuendo article pictures MT with the SNP Leader, Nicola Sturgeon? A blatant attempt to smear the most popular leader in the UK by association.
The last one to try smearing NS was a certain Liberal MP for Orkney & Shetland. That worked out well for him, didn’t it? You’d think they’d learn by now, wouldn’t you? It is their appalling sense of entitlement, of their ‘untouchableness’ which beggars belief.
Of course the MSM are all simply working on the age old and proven premise, ‘Through enough muck and some of it must stick’.
It is derisory bunkum.
“Trial by media” has become an intolerable problem for Scottish democracy.
A small cabal of “journalists” are conducting witch hunts against one group of politicians whilst burying or ignoring any alleged wrongdoing by their opponents.
This is subversion of our democratic process, plain and simple.
Media smear campaigns against anyone is totally unacceptable and the Scottish government has a duty to stop it.
Peter McCulloch says:
6 October, 2015 at 1:03 pm
ot former aide to Alex Salmond Jennifer Dempsie has threatened to sue deputy Labour in Scotland Alex Rowley MSP for defamation over comments he made about her involvement in the T-in the Park.
Woo Hoo! 😉
There will a good time in the old town tonite! 😀
Labour constituency *ahem* lose £10,000 now under police investigation.
Labour deputy on the brink of being sued.
Labour at sixes and sevens over Trident.
Does anyone have any more <b.good news for Labour’s branch office today? 😀
The MT drama was discussed at my local branch meeting last night. The party had taken the appropriate action and will let any investigation run its course. Agreed that this a Establishment tactic which will only get worse. The British State has a long history of discrediting Independence movements of their colonies. As Scotland is the last piece of the British Empire they WILL fight us with every fibre of their being. We are very close people. Onwards.
@ClanDonald – the accusation is that the £51k doesn’t appear in the registry because the solicitor involved didn’t register the transaction, and has since been struck off for this and similar omissions.
“The only other explanation is that MT bought it for £75k, gave £51 to the Wrights and still owns it? Makes no sense. Why not just buy it for £51k which is what would then appear in the registry.”
Because buying for £75k would allow you to get a mortgage for £51k, but not a 100% mortgage for the £75k. So MT buys for £51k, sells it to you for £75k, and also gives you back the £24k difference. So you now have a £51k mortgage on a house bought for £51k, but that the bank thinks is worth £75k.
I am sure that there are other explanations for the cashback that don’t involve conspiracy to defraud the mortgage lender, but all the ones I can think of at the moment are worse – money laundering or capital gains tax evasion.
Someone has to have some suggestions for why you would sell a house, and then hand a 5 figure sum back to the buyer?
@rev. Err,…. Yes but
Except for the National and Sunday Herald
At least if they make mistakes it’s not with the deliberate intention of misrepresentation and anti yes propaganda
@Lealey Anne,
Yep.
How about the fact that George Osborne found Labour election manifesto so good ,he has seen fit to use several of their policies for the Conservative Party this year.
You could not make it up.
It’s way too early to sling mud that will affect the May elections so what are they up to? Of course the other thing that is about to happen is renewal of SNP memberships a year on from the huge upsurge in new members. Bad SNP publicity at any cost to make people swither about renewing or is that just me being paranoid? It’s not going to work in this household that’s for sure!
I am fairly confident I have uncovered the property in question on the land registry.
It was indeed sold on 11 May 2007 for £21,000. 4 years later it was sold for £75,000 on 13 May 2011. No other transactions are recorded.
The age of one of these parties on the electoral roll for that address bears no relation to the age given in the daily mail article. Could this be why the lawyer got into hot water? Of course it could be recorded erroneously and no wrongdoing is expressed or implied from what I write above.
If Stu would like details of how I uncovered the above info he is welcome to email me.
Well, of course, but.
The problem is that they do not seem to be the kind of people who would want the spotlight on themselves.
Unless, perhaps, if it was worth their while to do so.
You have to ask yourself how important this case is to
the Corporate Media???? They would’nt, would they???
Just a wee heads up for all you lovely folks in Glasgow. 😉
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/2597/it-s-a-labour-of-love-community-cafe-owner-fights-to-save-venue-from-glasgow-council-eviction?utm_content=buffer3bb58&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I’ve just had a thought.
I wonder if STV or BBC will go full on with this story tonight … nah on second thoughts they’ll just ignore it as per usual!
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/2591/david-cameron-thinks-the-tories-can-win-2016-holyrood-election
OT/he is definitely having a laugh!
Perhaps Stuart you could run a story on the Edinburgh tram scandal?
Whenever it is reported on bbc or stv, the current government seems to get mentioned.
If I recall correctly this was a labour council’ project that got into difficulty and was rescued by the SNP Government.
Perish the thought the bbc and stv would like to lead us to believe the project’s problems were the SNP’s Government’s negligence and not the labour council’s?
maureen says:
6 October, 2015 at 1:46 pm
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/2591/david-cameron-thinks-the-tories-can-win-2016-holyrood-election
OT/he is definitely having a laugh!
Not as big a laugh as we are though Maureen. 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRK03q76GKU&feature=youtu.be
Luigi at 6 October, 2015 at 12:29 pm
STV really do have a lot to answer for on their story and interview of the Wright’s
Where do they get off with allowing the Wright’s to call MT a b*tch? Do STV think that’s good TV?
But just reading WOS Twitter feed, the Rev has alluded to the fact that the Wright’s didn’t actually meet MT
Did STV check that pertinent fact before broadcast?
I suggest STV should urgently consult their lawyers and/ or apologise for broadcasting a pile of crap
Slightly O/T
Just picking up on a story concerning Scottish Water
Apparently the Scottish Government has had to put out to tender the supply of water to schools and hospitals.
This in itself is understandable as its a requirement under EU regulations (apparently)
Our chums at STV have jumped ahead of themselves and reporting that the contract has gone to an English water company (Anglia Water I think). Except no contract has been awarded yet.
Now perhaps I’m being a bit of a simpleton but IF someone like Anglia Water can quote lower than Scottish Water. Just how will they supply the water? After all, just like BT and phone lines, Scottish Water own and operate the water pipes as well as the water sources in Scotland.
Will Anglia water buy the water from Scottish Water? or will the truck it in from East Anglia?
Worth a think about, while drinking your afternoon latte
Lesley-Anne says:
6 October, 2015 at 11:17 am
Scott Borthwick says:
6 October, 2015 at 7:23 am
One would hope that Michelle Thomas has now secured the services of a good litigator.
Erm … do you think Aamer Anwar will fit the bill properly Scott? 😀
Fine lawyer though he is, Aamer Anwar doesn’t tackle defamation cases as far as I’m aware.
Sorry – posted too quickly. I prefer not to be anonymous.
@maureen
Wow I wonder what Dodgy Dave is taking because reading his drivel shows whatever he’s on is mighty potent with hallucinogenic properties.
He’s already won. Even if the SNP somehow win every seat in the Scottish Parliament, the Tories are still the UK government. Anything the SNP do, the Tories can kibosh with impunity. Sometimes even with the assistance of New Labour and the Neoliberal Democrats.
He’s having a laugh, alright.
Reporting “North Britain” with “Union Jackie and the team”
in full SNP “attack mode ” this lunch time ” ( every “story “either anti SNP or
anti Scotland.)Watch carefully for the “smirk” on her face following
The latest “Michelle Thompson attack”, at the conclusion of Andrew
Kerr’s “report” .Of course they had to include the “library
pictures ” of MT with NS .
There was almost a “defiant ” tone to JB ‘s “delivery” .I sense
That she well knows that “fair minded” viewers are beginning
to realise what is going on.
@lesley anne.
that donkey is hysterical! lmao
have to say the same about the one in the video, lol!
Hey wingers,
My experience on this subject is I have had a few people mention in passing to me about this story so the press and media are doing a good job smearing this story into the public eye.
Watched Cameron last night using the SNP MPs “not so perfect record” as he put it to smear once again without even a mention of balance by the media about Cameron’s latest pig screwing.
It’s great wings is here to balance the smear but in all honesty from my experience the bigger message isn’t getting out to the average man on the street. This is what we need to focus on if we want to win indyref2.
I suggested him Scott because it was Aamer who put out a letter advising that MT was prepared to be interviewed by the police if required. In the letter he also warned “certain” individuals, no names mentioned, that they should know better and not behave in a manner that could possibly prejudice a future legal case.
It’s a sideshow, albeit useful in it’s own way. The tories are dismantling the welfare state as we speak. protected by armed snipers. The mass demonstration in Manchester received little or no coverage as all were too busy carrying out their smear instructions on behalf of their colonial masters.
If there is no wrong doing, the SNP must stand firm on this, and start suing the arse of every one of them. Perhaps it will make them think twice.
@Nana
Good link to Peter Bell. I read Cat Boyd’s columns in the National and sometimes despair. I find her articles very opinionated in the sense that she is right and everyone else is wrong. I question whether she truly wants independence for the good of the country, or for self aggrandisement.
Division within the Independence movement would be a unionist dream. It’s not about you Cat, it’s about our country. We can iron out the details after the goal has been achieved. Until then, that famous war cry of the left, “solidarity”, would be appreciated.
@taranaich.
I get what you mean but what I am saying is that there will never be a scottish tory government governing from holyrood. until enough people change their views on independence and come over the right side, that’s the way it is.
@nana smith
yeah, he’s definitely delusional!
Looks like the whole Syria thingy is in the process of being stepped up a gear. I wonder how long it will take BBC,STV, SKY etc to actually report this.
http://www.neonnettle.com/sphere/427-confirmed-chinese-navy-now-sending-war-ships-to-syria
The sale price of every house in Scotland is a matter of public record. All these journalists(!) had to do was get the address of the house, and do an online sasines search to get every sale price for the past umpteen years. It’s would take 5 minutes and cost them about a fiver I think.
I suppose the facts might have wrecked their SNP bad angle though
… may I suggest that some commenters here read my comments from 12.46 onwards on the previous “World’s Worst Victim” thread.
@Edward
Its the supply of billing services, not water. They could be cheaper because their computers are less busy than SW’s as Anglian is a smaller outfit now owned by a Canadian pension fund among others.
@Taranaich,
Disagree. The more the Tories win anywhere,the further Scotland moves away from the UK whether they kaybosh anything. That just creates more alienation. It may take a while,but it will happen.
@sensibledave
Boy I love you! On a thread about media misdirection you suggest that some commenters here read my comments.
You really think that you are important enough for us bother?
Excellent bit of analysis Rev.
Need media reform.
It’s a fact that property has become about profit for all of us who are owners, and that those who are not yet owners aspire to be. Mrs Wright bought her own house from the government and uses colourful language to exclaim that £40,000 was not enough for her, even though she made more profit than anyone else on the house.
This story is a co-ordinated attack on MT and by implication the SNP, by the UK establishment across ALL media outlets.It started in the Times and has progressed to all newspapers in Scotland as well as all the TV and Radio outlets.
They are seriously worried by the opinion polls which are projecting an SNP landslide in the May 2016 elections, which of course could lead to a second referendum. To try and mitigate this they are currently scraping the sewer to find ANYTHING that could remotely be used to damage the SNP whether it is relevant or not.
They work on the principle that if they keep throwing enough crap some of it will stick eventually. Have a funny feeling that this is going to backfire on them – again
So what did Mulholland do wrong that he is attracting the ire of the Brit Nat lickspittles in the colony of Jockistan?
@ Scunterbunnet
I’ve just had a conversation with the Land Registry, and it costs £20 + VAT to consult the Register of Sasines. Not much for a journalist’s employers to fork out.
Sorry, Capella @ 12.33, missed your post. I was out at the shops.
Feelings reciprocated. I think I said before that you and Fiona always provide some cool analysis of the situation. And then Nana give us all those links.
The whole MT thing is gruesome but I presume the SNP are just biding their time. I have a mental picture of Chris Cairns’ Hamish surveying his claws and waiting for the counter-attack. Doubtless our opponents think that if they get enough retaliation in first, it doesn’t really matter what the final outcome is: the mud will have stuck.
The good news is that STV have really gone out on a limb. A very big mistake by them, I think. A lot of sharp minds on here have already shown that they are leaving themselves open to possible legal challenge.
May The Force be with you.
Awe! the britnats whine-
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 26 mins26 minutes ago
Lord Advocate bats the issue back to the Law Society as the source of the delay. Says no inquiry needed.
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But wait unionists, there’s still hard core smearing left UKOK style!
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 23 mins23 minutes ago
Lord Advocate: Crown hasn’t taken action under proceeds of crime…yet.
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Handclapping at 2.29
You wrote “On a thread about media misdirection you suggest that some commenters here read my comments. You really think that you are important enough for us bother?
… it depends on whether you want a “heads up” on the sort of thing that goes on in the world handclapping – and an opportunity to learn things that you didn’t know.
Read my comments (on the other thread) in the context of the words of your First Minister – “I am in no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if the allegations – and again I stress the word allegations – are proven to be correct, they will represent behaviour that I find completely unacceptable.”
What allegations and behaviour is she referring to?
Awe! the britnats whine-
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 26 mins26 minutes ago
Lord Advocate bats the issue back to the Law Society as the source of the delay. Says no inquiry needed.
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But wait unionists, there’s still hard core smearing left UKOK style!
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 23 mins23 minutes ago
Lord Advocate: Crown hasn’t taken action under proceeds of crime…yet.
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UNLESS YOU’RE A UNIONIST OR HAVE CLIMBED ON THE INDEPENDENCE BANDWAGON
Independence is a simple concept. It is a matter of fundamental constitutional justice. Scotland’s independence movement is about establishing democratic legitimacy. It is about righting a wrong. It is about correcting a disturbing constitutional anomaly. We seek for Scotland no more than that status and those powers which all other nations consider to be theirs by right. Our claim is uncomplicated. Our methods are lawful. Our cause is just. (Peter A Bell)
@sensibledave.
I too k your point from the previous thread, but what you miss is that the option to sell or not ,is always a choice.
You may be desperate ,but you still have to make that final decision of the options available to you under the prevailing conditions.
Either way you are gubbed. The banks repossess ,sell ,and keep the money, leaving you with zero.or you sell ,cover the morgage and walk away with something.It is your choice.
Lets not forget that whilst STV are sycophantic arseholes, it matters not a jot if they are found to be lying. Absolutely nothing will change.
Remember the News of the World? A simple name change then back to business.
I do think they should be forced to remove the word Scottish from their title though.
@North Chiel
Spotted the smirk, good spotting!
She seemed to enjoy the Japanese Whisky as well
We’re all doomed
Our claim is uncomplicated. Our methods are lawful. Our cause is just. (Peter A Bell)
Not according these dudes/dudesses. They say its all lies, like our water
Blair McDougall ?@blairmcdougall 1 hr1 hour ago
Scottish Water contract to Anglian water. Scotrail to Dutch Government. Explain this nationalism thing to me again?
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Blair McDougall Retweeted
Severin Carrell ?@severincarrell 57 mins57 minutes ago
Funny old world: @scotgov boasted of benefits of non-domestic water privatisation in Scotland’s Future at #indyref:
Wonder why old Macdougal and Libby Carrel there can’t quite begin to explain the why and where of the ongoing UKOK Thompson mega monstering or even Anglian water deal today?
Britnat propaganda going ape shit in their Scotland region, funny old bunch.
Old MacDougal had a farm and on that farm there was a pig, a very worried nervous pig.
Oh, I know. I’m just saying the Tories are too thick to understand that. They looked at how they shut down every single amendment to the Scotland Bill as a great triumph over the Nats, “look how powerful we are, Jocks, now you’ll know your place!” They see their one Tory MP not as a sign of the complete lack of mandate, but an example of the might of the Conservatives, where one MP can overrule 58 others.
Scotland is their Manifest Destiny. They don’t realise that the days of Empire are over, and the nations are manifesting destinies of their own.
Lesley-Anne
Just checked, the Chinese Navy Aircraft Carrier ‘Liaoning’ is in the Yellow Sea, just off Shanghai.
So the story isn’t quite what it appears
Its quite funny how the Israeli website Debka claims that
the carrier passed through the Suez on September 22nd and is docked at Tartous
Only problem is , China’s only carrier, is showing as being in the Yellow sea right now. (marinetraffic.com)
So much information, but not much in the way of hard facts
that’s what happens in times of war
Thanks Handclapping re the water 🙂
sensibledave says: are you really trying to pretend that this ongoing attack on Thompson and the SNP is not one the most desperate ever attempt by all British media to undermine, influence, make people vote how they say etc, in the history of any democracy anywhere?
STV has gone beyond reckless. They’ve clearly decided to give up being a tv station and are now only a full on British attack media, attacking everything and anyone that’s going to threaten the rule of near on 600 English MP’s in Scotland, and near on a 1000 Lords and ladies?
Why STV don’t just leave it all to the BBC, who let’s face it are an appalling outfit with no Scottish cultural morality or integrity and decency left anyway, is another teamGB mystery.
Point is sensibledave, if Scotland can break away and run its own affairs, there will be a Scotland to sell to and the STV will not exactly be winning many customers right the noo.
I had a wee look there myself Edward and the ‘Liaoning’ is shown as being in the Yellow sea but that was on 25th Feb 2014. There does not appear to be any more recent information on her.
I’m guessing that the Yellow sea track was when she was undergoing sea trials, because carriers are a very recent idea for the Chinese navy. I think the ‘Liaoning’ is actually a former Russian carrier that has been completed.
I’m guessing Edward that the ‘Liaoning’ doesn’t show up on Marine Traffic is because it is on “military operations.” 😉
Blair McDougall Retweeted
HeraldPolitics ?@HS_Politics 3 hrs3 hours ago
MP Thomson’s business described raise in families losing homes as “great opportunity”
Another classic Britnat smear. Put your ex council house what you got way under market value care of UK.gov up for sale, sell it, someone else makes a profit reselling, you’re now a familly losing your home.
Only in teamGB.
Another thing to consider is the origin of the figures all three news outlets used. We’re they:
a) gained by STV via interview and then shared via Chinese whispers throughout the media creating the discrepancies we now see?
Or
b) gained by independent interview of the Wright by each media outlet?
If a) is correct then the Mail and Mirror journalists are lazy shirkers that were not paying attention when taking their notes from TV.
If b) is correct then the Wrights are malicious liars basking in the media spotlight and enjoying their fleeting moment of fame.
All in all it is a real dogs dinner.
Nah, Id still put the monstering and smearing dished out on Nicola over the”memo gate” issue back in April as the most ferocious case seen so far as media lies, spin and Brit-Nat hatred goes.
Not a newsflash.
So called “Scottish” there’s no such thing MSM haven’t suddenly started to attack SNP or be anti Scottish.
It has always been this way.
Even if these propaganda tools wanted to be impartial, they’re not allowed to be.
It’s got be internet and word of mouth.
Not really a story but just another excellent example, in my view, of the sort of toffee nosed millioaire bampots currently running Broken Britain.
https://archive.is/djL0h
Meanwhile on the way TO the conference this particular bampot had some *ahem* fun on the trains.
https://archive.is/4YtUJ
OT
Some marvellously disingenuous shenanigans from the Greens and SSP today re Scottish water has settled where my second vote ain’t going next year.
Sleekit.
Bob Mack @ 2.48
Thank Heavens for Bob Mack!
You are absolutely right in your comments Bob. In our imaginary example of someone in the situation we have made up, there is no “victim” and the result may well be the best that the vendor could have achieved – given their circumstances at that time. Nothing illegal there.
However, and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and a microscope, how do we “feel” about our imaginary buyer who is clever enough to make say, £20k in a couple of weeks – from someone who is completely broke, and in desperate financial straits and who’s life is in ruin?
Not illegal – but isn’t it the sort of thing you might expect from the worst kind of uncaring, unkind, capitalist opportunist?
I should stress again, the sort of examples that I have given in previous comments today are based purely upon the sort of cases that have appeared in court in contravention of the Financial Services Act and are of public record – but necessarily known by some commenters here.
The FSA have “catch all” clauses for firms under their auspices. Here is some text that might be helpful:
“Unfair Contract Terms
Our work in the retail market has consistently found that some firms do not treat their customers fairly. The Unfair Contract Terms Team reviews contract terms that are referred to it by consumers and through that work we see many examples of significant deficiencies in firms’ standard form consumer contracts. We see this as an example of how the general TCF agenda has failed to take hold in a specific area.
A consumer contract is a document that crystallises the relationship between the firm and the consumer. The fairness of terms in consumer contracts is an important part of Treating Customers Fairly throughout the whole product life cycle. If a contract contains unfair contract terms, it is a black and white example of firms not treating their customers fairly.”
… So, “Treating The Customer fairly” isn’t just a marketing “strapline” in the Financial Services market (in the way we use the words in the English language elsewhere), it is a legal requirement. It is not caveat emptor. The law says be “fair”.
And thereby hangs the tail. “Fairness” is a subjective judgement and one reason why regulatory authorities sometimes have to do some detailed investigations before they know whether the “law” has been broken.
Thanks Lesley Anne, teach me for rushing 😀
So if the carrier is indeed in the east Med, then its going to be a busy place for flying.
Edward says:
6 October, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Thanks Lesley Anne, teach me for rushing 😀
So if the carrier is indeed in the east Med, then its going to be a busy place for flying.
I wouldn’t worry about it Edward it’s easy to overlook these sort of things. I’ve done the same thing myself on more than one occasion. 😉
As far as flying is concerned then you will be right, it will extremely busy aviation wise. 🙂
@Alan Ritchie
“Someone has to have some suggestions for why you would sell a house, and then hand a 5 figure sum back to the buyer?”
Isn’t cashback common practice? Or is that only for new houses?
@Chic McGregor
True, hadn’t considered new builds. This page says the net price needs to be recorded, (and the mortgage lender needs all the incentive details), so it is effectively a reduction to the advertised price. I guess a variable cashback offer saves the developer from reprinting all their marketing material.
I’ve never seen a mention of cashback in an advert from an estate agent.
This is not something that would be difficult for journalists to establish if they wanted to get the full picture.
A two minute search on the internet shows that the house was purchased for £21k in May 07 and sold for £75k in May 11.
Now that doesn’t reveal the details of any agreement between parties, but it does make a sale at £51k four years after purchasing the property a very healthy 143% return.
In any event the details of the transaction are irrelevant, it’s ridiculous to suggest that a purchaser would pay more than they need to.
Capella: Tinto – Please keep on posting
Exactly my sentiment.