Wings Over Scotland

I nearly forgot what a vile excuse for a human being Gove is.  Thanks for reminding me.

Alex Salmond did warn Labour about the danger of joining with the Conservatives.
In many ways it would be a win for the Tories. Labour does a ‘hatchet’ job on Scotland wrecking what is left of its reputation, loses the general election, loses what could have been an alliance with another social democrat party, the SNP, alienates part of the population of Scotland.
The Tories win.
I also read in the Times ,Gove using the same words about families becoming foreigners as Margaret Curran did.

A No vote would represent a Tory victory.
Of course it would. DC is no daft. If Scotland votes No, Cameron takes the credit. If Scotland votes Yes, Darling gets the blame. Either way, Labour are screwed. Devo Max was Labour’s get out of jail card. Sadly, stupidly, they threw it away last year and jumped into bed with the Tories.

Just read this quote from a trade unionist outside the Tory conference.
 
Iain MacDonald, organiser at the Unite union, inflated a seven-foot rat with the slogan “Standing Up To Tory Ratbags”.
He said: “I’m quite shocked that Alistair Darling is in there. I’m tempted to sing to him that he’s not Labour anymore, but as a trade unionist and a Labour member I want the UK to stay together so on this occasion I will excuse him.
“He’s got a lot of work to do. I don’t know if it will be reciprocated with David Cameron coming to the Labour conference – I hope not.”
 
Sometimes I feel we are banging our heads against a brick wall.  This guy, a trade unionist, turns up at the Scottish Conservative Conference allegedly protesting against the Tories, but is still going to vote No, and effectively supports Darling’s attendance at said conference?  FFS!  What is it with people like him…

I think Darling is feeling the pressure somewhat!!  He appears to be getting more and more agitated and narky as we move closer to the referendum, and we still have around 15 months to go.

In regards to Darling ‘recruiting’ active service personnel he might want to be aware of the Queens Regulations in this respect  
“Political Activities 
J5.581. a. Regular Service personnel are not to take any active part in the affairs of any political organisation, party or movement. They are not to participate in political marches or demonstrations. b. No restriction is to be placed upon the attendance at political meetings of such personnel provided that uniform is not worn, Service duties are not impeded, and no action is taken which would bring the Service into disrepute.
So basically they can’t wear uniform, leaflet and speak but can go a meeting and eat sausage rolls and drink tea.  And to be honest most service personnel have better things to do I imagine(such as getting to the pub 🙂 )

Bill C says
“The Armed Forces should be neutral on the referendum.”
 
They should unless the Government are intending to deploy them against the Nationalist Insurgents.
Wonder how long it will be before the National Insurgents become a threat to The UK’s National Security and need to be extinguished ?
Not long by the feel of things.  What would happen should the Rebel forces try to capture the WMD’s ? They could use them against London in errr about 45 minutes.
No Fly Zone needed. Siezure of Rebel’s asset’s. Regime change.  
Dail Mail, Sun, Spectator and EBC in full hate mode.
Of course it could never happen here in this day and age.
Syrians and Libyans thought that too.
 

@sneddon -Thanks for the info. makes you wonder what Darling is actually talking about. Is he encouraging members of the Armed Forces to break the Queen’s Regulations?

If the armed forces are allowed to campaign, then civil servants should be allowed to speak up too!

Sneddon
My thanks also for the explanation.
Could you clarify the Queen’s position also. Is she not Commander-in-Chief of the UK forces? In an independent Scotland retaining her as Queen of Scots, she would also retain her C-in-C title for Scottish forces, in which case she loses no authority. Unlike the Westminster and BT gangs.
Perhaps HM  could come out with a gentle warning to those apparently exceeding their remit!

“Alistair Darling is now encouraging the Armed Forces to join the No campaign.”
 
I do hope he makes himself very clear. Usually when you ask the armed forces to join a campaign, they have certain expectations.

As a Nat’ i think this Tory conference has been good for Scotland, why? well it serves as a reminder of the following:
Tory (and unionists in general) hypocrisy, they decry Scottish nationalism with words like ‘poison’ yet use British Nationalism as a rallying cry.
How they misuse history: whilst i think there have been times when our service men and women have been deserving of the highest praise, there have been times when H.M. government have sent them to do things, in purely British imperialist interests that history has shown to be shameful, just ask those Kenyan’s who received compensation awards just this week or what about those loyal Gurkha troops who have been treated as second class time and time again.
And if i remember my history it was units of British Army, even if they were Scots who helped with  aspects of the highland clearances,
The very clear warning for the future: If there is a NO vote,  they, and it won’t just be the Tory’s, are set on changing the Holyrood voting system, and I believe that that would just be the start.
They are still lying and bending the truth: Both Darling and Gove made assertions without offering proof or unsurprisingly without being pushed on these matters by political commentators e,g, Darling, that independence would threaten Scottish jobs as British companies would no longer place contracts with ‘foreign’ companies.
Gove, (amazingly) claiming that Tory welfare policies  are popular in Scotland, (well at least with his mum and dad)! 
And a very timely reminder at that.
BTW has anyone taken up that Welsh tort for his use of the word poison in connection with Alex Salmond and Scottish independence?   they can’t weazle their way out of it this time!

 
@Bill C (4.47)
 
‘The Armed Forces should be neutral on the referendum. It is purely a political issue and the Armed Forces should play no part, unless members as individuals and off duty wish to campaign in their own time.’
 
It’s dodgy, desperate stuff, but no more than we should expect from an outfit happy to take Ian Taylor’s dosh. And it’s pretty presumptuous – what if it turns out that the majority of squaddies are Yes-men? (I always thought military people weren’t allowed to say ‘No’)
 
Reminds me of the stushie a few years back when Strathclyde Police briefly got their testes caught in a mangle over having political posters (Labour, I presume) in their van windows. Anyone remember that?

The Tories have won every GE since Thatcher came to power.  Just because the rosette was red doesn’t make any difference.

Many years ago I thought there was a party called the Labourtory Party – no doubt confusion with politics and science, a perversion of ‘laboratory’.  Shocking though that it was actually more of a premonition than anything else . . .

Marcia
Just realised that your image is a “TWITpic” !!!! 
Only fudpic or bawbagpic could beat that!
 
🙂
 

@Jim Mitchell and “How they misuse history”.
Lots of stuff on the Guardian about destruction of documents from Britain’s colonial past, in Kenya, Malaya, Mauritius and others.
Not only that, but UK government lawyers went on to lie about the existence of significant archives of documents. They were eventually forced to disclose most of them, but even now, some remain secret under exemption in the 1958 Public Records act. The FCO still refuses even to explain why certain files are being withheld.
Which brings me to the documents still being suppressed by the UK government regarding the setup of devolution. Yes Scotland needs to keep campaigning, loudly and publicly, for release of those. Whatever dirty little secrets are there could make a significant difference to the attitudes of many in the referendum. According to article in the Herald this year, a source in the Scotland Office said they didn’t want to release anything that would be  a “gift” to the “SNP”.
link to heraldscotland.com
Not expecting Margaret Curran to have any knowledge, of course.
 

I was reading Tom Gordon’s article in the Sunday Herald about Darling at the Tory conference yesterday.  Darling apparently argued that
 
‘the Union meant jobs, a single market with England, a strong voice in Europe, a shared energy market, a combined armed forces, and deep cultural and emotional ties.’
 
What does he mean by the ‘Union means jobs?’  What does Darling mean by a ‘single market with England?’  Surely the single market involves the EU?  How can we have a strong voice in Europe when we are heading out of the EU?

@Cameron B
 
It does not make any sense to me.  I genuinely have no idea what Darling is talking about. 

What does Darling mean by a ‘single market with England?
 
It’s part of the conditioning process (brainwashing), implying that the scottish economy doesn’t really sell anything of worth or in great numbers to the rest of the world. It’s the english market that keeps the scots economy afloat with their selfless sacrifice.
Regurgitate it as often and widely as possible etc, etc, etc …….