Popularity contest – results in
Posted on
May 05, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Children’s author, billionaire and Labour donor JK Rowling, last year:
You feeling that popularity yet, readers?
Honestly, UK, you’re making us blush.
[…] Children’s author, billionaire and Labour donor JK Rowling, last year: […]
Trying to think of a response to all this but…
I just want out of it. Our own wee country. Away from all this…
Don’t care about black holes or places at top tables or prices of barrels of oil or anything else. Just lets get out of this horrible unfair union.
All the news that’s fit to print…
Yeah the foresight of JK Rowling –
“Stick to the fiction Lady – not in sync with facts of our political landscape.
She was up for the Vow guff – howz that goin’ then ???
Out of her depth where Scotland’s future is concerned sadly.
We may not be popular but I damn well hope we’ll be in a position to dictate terms. Hell Yes!
You would think that perhaps the media don’t like the idea of Scots having a say in Westminster…Or maybe they just don’t like the way we’re not going away after the referendum.
They need to remember that although the referendum vote was lost, there were still 45% of the population here in Scotland wanting real change in the way we are governed….Even a lot of no voters wanted change, but wouldn’t go the final hurdle of independence and they are joining in with that call for Scotland to have a bigger say in it’s own future…
Most people have no problem with JK Rowling having an opinion. After tweeting her support for Devo-Max, I’m sure she will be voting SNP. That’s obviously the best way to keep up the pressure for more powers.
“I’m voting ‘no’ then supporting anyone who’ll give us Devo-Max”
“I sincerely hope that the rumours in the Sunday papers that we are about to be offered Devo Max are true”
And what is JK saying nowadays ?
Here’s my letter to dear JK Rowling, published on my blog, delivered to her door. (Difficult to get past the various security guards!)
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Real spittle flecked, veins-protruding “Alf Garnet-esque” stuff isnt it?
“And another thing its – yer bleedin’ nationalists – thats wot it is….” 🙂
duped or duper?
She wants to talk to her pals, Mr & Mrs Vow.
This explains why JK is an author of fiction.
It is all unravelling by the day and the outcome of GE negotiations will be the defining moment in the history of the Union and the Labour Party in particular:
If Tories win, Smith Commission will be diluted into mere tap water and EVEL will spell the real end game for WM.
The MSM in England will stoke up anti-SNP, Plaid, Green feeling claiming legitimacy and disregard for English voters’ wishes. Outcome- a disUnited Kingdom
If Miliband lets Tories back in, it will be the end of his leadership and Labour in Scotland
These are indeed very interesting times
They love us really, They’re just playing hard to get….
Well that is just a vile, trolling statement of reality.
Bloody cybernats and their pointing out of the elephants in the room.
No elephants here, move along now. Will all be splendid, vote for unchangingness.
In reply to the quote, we tried, you did not deliver as you promised you would…. Bye!
D.I.V.O.R.C.E…….
Utter tripe, rather akin to the million $ novels.
Och come on, we know they’re just playing ‘hard to get’ with us!
Aren’t they?
what`s the difference between J K Rowling and Stuart Campbell?
One writes fiction the other stays to the facts.
As for me, I enjoy both, happily I can tell the difference.
This baloney just makes me more determined. Huge backfire by the MSM. They are doing more to break up the Union that he SNP ever did.
The heady position of the spouse who looks like walking out, stays … and then is on the receiving end of yet another beating. England’s relationship with Scotland is exactly parallel to that of spousal abuse.
Extract from “Harry Potter and the Amazing Crystal Ball”
Harry: But I don’t understand professor. The images I saw in the crystal ball were so clear and positive! How could events not have played out as it foretold?
Dumbledore : Dear me Harry, you really can be slow on the uptake at times. Let me put it simply. The Amazing Crystal Ball of Rehtegot Retteb can never be trusted. It only shows what we want it to show. It is very dangerous to leave lying around. And that is why I will be having it removed from this room on Friday, just after I watch the Election results come in.
Harry: Sorry professor. I’m just upset that I didn’t manage to get off with Hermione. She and Ron hit it off. I guess I never saw that coming either.
Dumbledore: Ah! The gullibility of youth. Sigh.
It’s quite incredible to see all these journalists, from so many different newspapers, falling over themselves to show how much they value us in this great family of nations.
To paraphrase:
“Honestly, JK, you’re making us blush. Expelliarmous!”
Hmm…there are many Scots who, after weighing up the pros n cons, voted for the status quo.
Most we’re probably risk averse, some perhaps believed the Establishment.
I do wonder how they feel about this Union now….the silent majority?
Guess we’ll find out on Friday morning.
Surprisingly, someone who writes children’s books about wizards was unable to predict real-world political outcomes.
It’s a pity really, because in her books the heroes oppose an undemocratic and totalitarian regime with courage, cleverness and determination. We were all cheering them on. But that was apparently just for story time. When you try to do it in real life, it seems millionaires get all fearty about change, and start applying their making-shit-up ability for the dark side.
I am so glad they asked us to be “better-together” with them last year, can you imagine what the headlines would have been otherwise.
The great thing about this election campaign is finally the Scots are being honestly told exactly what the London based parties really think of them, ie YOU ARE NOT FIT TO GOVERN AT WESTMINSTER, GO AWAY.
Well lets disappoint the bastards and place 59 Scottish SNP Mp’s in Westminster, and show them and the rest of the UK how governments should be run, and throw the House of Lords (legalised benefit cheats),out the door, for a quick saving of half a billion.
Yes but,maybe they don’t mean it. A hero will save the day.
J.K.Rowling.—my advice is stay away from marriage.
She should stick to ripping off Terry Pratchett and popular fairy tales.
And the british establishment expect to renegotiate favourable membership terms with the EU when they deploy these tactics?
The SNP and broader Scottish nationalist movement used to have to work for every single vote, now we get the British establishment to do it for us!
As for jkr, it would be interesting what she finds so brilliant about the uk that she continues to support Scotland’s continued imprisonment within it.
There are a lot of things for which I respect JK Rowling for. This was not one of them.
“However, I also know that there is a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence and I suspect, notwithstanding the fact that I’ve lived in Scotland for twenty-one years and plan to remain here for the rest of my life, that they might judge me ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to have a valid view.
It is true that I was born in the West Country and grew up on the Welsh border and while I have Scottish blood on my mother’s side, I also have English, French and Flemish ancestry. However, when people try to make this debate about the purity of your lineage, things start getting a little Death Eaterish for my taste.”
I have never been able to come up with a reason why this wasn’t anything other than political posturing to smear the yes side as ethnic nationalists. If it’s a fringe, then by definition its not representative. Then why write it?
” While a few of our fiercer nationalists might like to drive me forcibly over the border after reading this”. Yeah, sure, whatever. We’d be driving them out of Scotland before they ever got to you.
“I gave you another chance and you let me down, you returned to usual form; you replied with abuse.
All I want to know is…will you still love me in the morning?”
Broken Relationship™
I admire J K Rowling enormously as a writer and she does a lot for charity. She seems like a nice person. But I can’t agree with her desire to keep Scotland bound to this unfair system where the rich get richer and the poor go hungry and die.
I recall her tweeting Broon’s line of “Vote No and get Home Rule”. I’m sure that convinced plenty of people to vote the way she wanted them to.
Either she never saw what the Yes campaign was really about, or she just cared more about her beloved flag. Sad.
Ironically (or perhaps not), Rowling herself had to flee from a violent spouse and get a court injunction against him. So she does know that an abusive partner doesn’t give any second chances.
Why she decided to advise the Scottish people to behave like a battered wife is a mystery.
link to en.wikipedia.org
@gordoz
Yeah the foresight of JK Rowling –
“Stick to the fiction Lady – not in sync with facts of our political landscape.
She was up for the Vow guff – howz that goin’ then ???
Out of her depth where Scotland’s future is concerned sadly.
_______________
I think you have her wrong’ she was sticking to the fiction.
Like the dog that pissed on the carpet they tempted us with sausages so as to give us a beating when we capitulated and ran to the ballot box to vote no!
If you think that is bad, just wait until Friday/Saturday/Sunday if Labour get a majority with the SNP/Plaid/Green/SDLP/Indy from N.I
World War 3, just imagine if Putin sends over a destroyer or two to sit in international waters off the coast of the UK….
How to defeat the dementers ?
In box maked SNP put an X
tick tock
I have to say, I am astonished at that assessment by JKR. Absolute fantasy more suited to one of her novels.
They want or taxes, exports and oil. They want somewhere to park their WMDs. Most of all, they want to retain the status and prestige which comes from being Greater Britain, rather than the diminished Little England. As for we Scots, we only fit in when we keep our heads down, mouths shut, and behave as subservient North British.
The fantasy version is coming to an end at a ballot box near you!
BBCS, heard the news and a quick bit of Old Brown, bellowing anti SNP usual stuff. He probably woke a few of the pensioners up, and scared them stiff.
Well, it would have been the usual pensioner roundup wouldn’t it. (and the MSM of course!)
That is how he works these days, if only we could get him in a Q&A, I can dream.
Hey, Rowling!
Top tip …
Antonio Stradivari was rubbish at oil painting.
J K Rowling has a vivid imagination and has made a fortune from creating a fantasy world for children that has given a lot of pleasure to millions. Well done her. No surprise to discover her detachment from reality when it comes to politics. She has an opinion and easy access to a public platform but I don’t think it does her any good straying from the day job when she gets things so completely wrong.
This may come in handy:
ROFPMSL, in Latin –
‘Volvitur in area humefactamque ridentem me’
(Haven’t yet checked GIRFUY and/or WALOFS)
Wait now, I’m seeing a pattern forming. I’m not feeling the love.
It seems that Ms Rowling’s reading of politics in the UK hasn’t proven very accurate. Who knew?
I feel unloved …. but I’ll cope with it!
It makes me feel all warm and fluffy and pink inside and out.
I have no regard for JK Rowling as a writer. Okay so Game of Thrones is my cup of tea and not the drivel that is her third rate puerile fantasy.
It is also clear from her statement that she doesn’t have a great grasp of reality. I am not feeling pink and fluffy and furry inside or out. Popular – not even close.
For her and her ilk – Winter is Coming!
I prefer the great Terry Pratchett’s words to Rowling.
“Nae king, nae quin, nae laird, nae master! We willnae be fooled again!
NacMcfeegle, from The Wee Free Men
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” Sirius Black – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Karmanaut: She seems like a nice person.
Who worries about being a nice person when your country’s future is at stake?
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
well if you don’t like the result change the electorate that would simplify things now wouldn’t it chaps pip pip tally ho
I wonder if the words “publish and be damned” crossed JK Rowling’s mind before she made that statement to the Torygraph.
OT Empire Biscuit has uploaded part 2 of “Thanks For All the Fish”, his video record of the worst outbreak of vile nationalist chaos ever.
Interesting scenes and some recognisable faces, including cub reporter James Cook “watching his cameraman’s back” (nobody behind him). Good to have a picture of what actually happened.
link to youtube.com
Seriously worth a listen – Ian Dunn, who runs the politics.co.uk speaking to Kaye Adams this morning and making it very clear he is speaking as a unionist (from 02:47:20)
link to bbc.co.uk
He talks about ” a defining moment in the relationship between England and Scotland and the continuation of Britain itself”
“We’ve seen the Tories’ response to the democratic surge in Scotland saying we need to block this party from power”
“The Libdems said almost entirely the same thing” and Milliband “said something tantamount to the same thing”
“according to anyone who knows anything about how even the basics of Parliament work he [Milliband] will have to deal with her [Nicola] every day if he’s head of a minority Government”
“Most of the arguments about Westminster not respecting the views of Scottish voters will feel largely vindicated by the way the main parties have behaved during this campaign”
“the Tories have thrown in their lot as a borderline English Nationalist party…stoking the resentment of the English for the Scots…and Labour has capitulated [to that] completely”
O/T
Just received a letter from someone by the name of Betty Gale.
Don’t know her, never heard of her until today.
She’s 80 odds and ives in Inverurie, apparently.
Started off telling me how cancer care is sh1t and it’s all the fault of the SNP then proceeds to tell me to vote Liberal.
Signed (rather shakily) picture and cut out caption included.
The canvasser weave his way up the road carefully avoiding all the houses occupied by young people with families.
Targeting the elderly.
In fairness to JK she wraps up her statement well in the last sentence:
“I just hope with all my heart that we never have cause to look back and feel that we made a historically bad mistake.”
I am just sorry that she and so many others made a historical mistake and must be looking back with regret. They made it not just for themselves but for all of us. They are culpable for the demonisation of Scotland, the proposed disenfranchisement of Scotland at Westminster and the continued drain of our resources.
They are also culpable for the constitutional mess in the UK dragging on instead of being finally resolved.
Had we voted Yes I would feel personally responsible for that decision and would work to make good on that responsibility for the sake of those who wanted our future mapped out by Westminster and the UK establishment instead.
JK as a prominent No campaigner and backer surely needs to own her decision and do what she can to ensure Scotland is not treated like the pariah it now is, and not disenfranchised for daring to excercise her democratic rights and participate in her blessed union.
JK made her decision and put her shoulder to the wheel for the union – she needs to own it. I have yet to hear her condemnation of Ed’s refusal to work with the SNP if they are elected in numbers. If she does not condemn Ed for this then, well, that just isnae very guid, is it?
Joanne Rowling and the Hostage to Fortune.
Or is that Joanne Rowling and the Deathly Silence…?
(File under: “Whoops!”)
@ michaelc at 2:54 pm
I tried to think of my own response to all of this but you did such a good job. You sum up my feelings exactly.
Popularity contest? Check out Scot Goes Pop to see how Jim Murphys doing.
Agree totally with Michaelc at 2.54.
I don’t care what “journalists”, writers, actors, comedians, pop stars, royals, politicians or even what my next door neighbour thinks.
I just want Scotland to be a normal, free and genuinely democratic nation.
Just ignore her, she’s loquentes testiculis, so she is.
@Grouse Beater
Like I said, I don’t think she got what indyref was about. If you don’t live here and you don’t speak to people and you just soak up the hatred spewed out at us by the right wing press, you’re never going to get it. I know people like that. They drink it in and spew it right back out again. I don’t hate her. I couldn’t really care less.
But it hardly matters. I’m sure someone else on our side will be kind enough to furnish the media with tomorrow’s “vile nationalist scum” headlines by hurling abuse at her on Twitter.
Every single line of abuse is going to make it that much easier for the Tories to shut us out of government.
There’s only one way J K Rowling would accept Independence and that’s if all Scots offered to bung her a quid each.
Grouse Beater, great letter to JK. I read recently she complained of receiving poor comments from nats. If you dish it, you have to be prepared for the backlash.
Wings – great collection of headlines to highlight the love lost from the love bombers only last September. Wonder if JK is regretting her stance? Hope so. Hope she votes SNP to get our voice heard since clearly her predictions were so inaccurate
Some are rating JK Rowling on her children’s novels – I always wondered what she was really trying to say.
So we have this exceptional subset that exists within society who regard the lumpen proletariat with disdain.
They all go to this special private school (and send their kids there) where they learn magical ways of being even more special. They are the elite next to which ordinary ‘Muggles’ are like farm animals – humping, getting pissed, living on council estates and working in mundane jobs while the illuminati in Hogwarts self mythologise and transcend or whatever they do.
Have I got that right? I just watched the movies (scum that I am).
@ Davy 3:12 pm
” Well lets disappoint the bastards and place 59 Scottish SNP Mp’s in Westminster, and show them and the rest of the UK how governments should be run …. ”
Nothing for us in England to worry about there then Davy.
Question for those of calm dispositions. How many times did the saviour of the universe spout 59 SNP MPs today?
jimnarlene@4.04
plus 1 Jim.
Tam Jardine says:
5 May, 2015 at 3:47 pm
In fairness to JK she wraps up her statement well in the last sentence:
“I just hope with all my heart that we never have cause to look back and feel that we made a historically bad mistake.”
The only “historically bad mistake” may have been a veiled reference to a YES vote, similar to Her Majesty’s “Think carefully” advice.
You can’t help but feel the “love” from all those beautiful people who wanted us to stay a part of and not apart from their United Kingdom.
Makes me want to give them all one last big cuddle before dumping them. Aw belss, this is bringing me out in tears…where’s the Kleenex…
Sorry, I’m so emotional right now.
@ Tam Jardine 3.47
“They are also culpable for the constitutional mess in the UK dragging on instead of being finally resolved”
I think you are getting a little over excited Tam. Don’t the majority of Scots that voted No in the recent referendum have, just a smidge, of culpability for the “constitutional mess”? Or is just everyone that didn’t have a vote?
O/T – ish.
Sky news are running worrying footage this afternoon, of a verbal heckler, who shouted disagreement, in a non violent non threatening manner, from some distance, today at David Cameron. The man wass immediately pulled away by a burly security man.
The question I ask is this, at what point did we as a population give up our rights to peaceful dissent. In the past people would regularly shout comments at politicians on walkabouts. Now, people who do such things are ‘taken away’.
If that same footage shown by SKY news was of a heckler disagreeing with Vladimir Putin, who was then bundled away by a security man, with no badge or uniform, people such as David Cameron would cry ‘foul’.
Can people not see what has been done to our democratic rights? Dissent in England in 2015, and you will be taken away – just like in the bad old days of the USSR and the East German Stasi.
sensibledave
Read my comment again. When I said “They are also culpable for the constitutional mess in the UK dragging on instead of being finally resolved” I mean no – voters, including JK are culpable for the constitutional mess in the UK dragging on instead of being finally resolved”
There – I’ve said it 3 times and you’ve said it once. Savvy?
Politics, particularly in Scotland has changed . That, surely, must be obvious even to the most diehard unionists . If we are at last to witness genuine Democracy at Westminster then the voice of the Scottish electorate must be allowed to participate . If not then it must be even more obvious to all that the only way Scotland can have true Democracy is by being independent .
sensibledave
PS… I’m sitting watching Bob the Builder with my bairns. Excited is not the word.
Stu, you’ve left out what I think is the worst example, Boris Johnson’s “AJOCKALYPSE NOW”:
link to dailymail.co.uk
link to thesundaytimes.co.uk
Latest Ashcroft Polls
The Conservatives lead by two points in this week’s Ashcroft National Poll, conducted over the past weekend. The Tory lead is down by four since last week, with Labour unchanged on 30%. The Liberal Democrats are up two points at 11%, UKIP up one at 12%, the Greens unchanged at 7% and the SNP up one at 5%.
The problem with Jk,is not that she is English in Scotland. It’s that she has never lived in the real Scotland. Her Scotland is as fictitious as The Potter express.
She is an upper class millionare, the very people we are fighting against. She is as remote from an ordinary Scot on a low paid jo, as it’s possible to be.
It’s you we want to defeat Jk….get it?
Robert Louis
Indeed. On Radio 4 they said the heckler was an employee of the garden centre Cameron was visiting. They joked that he would not be an employee for much longer.
[…] Popularity contest – results in […]
Luigi
Aye – I got exactly her meaning. At no point did she contemplate that she could be making a mistake. ‘Think very carefully about your decision’
It’s inflammatory statements from Unionist politicians and headlines like these from their tame press that are the cause of attacks on independence minded voters and SNP activists.
@ Big Jock, Thought she had lived on benefits in Edinburgh before she got rich. Is that not right?
At long last English nationalism shows it’s true face and it isn’t very pleasant. Hopefully Scots will reflect carefully on events over the past year, in particular the hidden agenda designed to keep the troublesome Scots securely in their Kennels. Just so they might be thrown a bone from time to time. Next move will be to remove pwers from Holyrood. Remember the statement, “No detriment to any other Country within the UK”. The way in which the NHS is run in Scotland might be considered detrimental to England.
But the Labour Party Policy Guru Jon Cruddas is very much against what is going on in Scotland.
link to caltonjock.com
All this stirring up by the newspapers is just their usual attempt to sell papers with head lines based on the fears of those who want to keep the Union. It’s time Allan Massie was growing up. That Tartan Stalinist headline is a scandal. They fairly show themselves up with the ‘when in doubt, blame a woman’ misogynistic attitude. You would think some of them had been asleep since the seventies.
Yes, Miliband, the son of the great Marxist Philosopher, has become a British Unionist, dyed in the wool, complete with fawning servility, and unable to accept the democratic will of the Scottish people. He’s probably not aware that he is putting the final nail in Labour’s coffin up here. Long overdue.
Seriously ‘though, it just shows up their real attitude to Democracy. It’s wonderful when it all goes their way, but as soon as one group of people in the great ‘Union’ decide on something that doesn’t suit the élite, they show their real selves. That’s the savage side, I mean.
@ Tam Jardine t 4:26 pm
Thank you for the clarification. We agree that you are saying the majority of Scots are responsible. Not me, Not the English. Not Westminster. Not everybody else. The majority of Scots. The ones that wanted to stay part of the Union
You couldn’t just pass that message on to many of your fellow commenters here could you.
I think JKR’s writings are all factual and the Unionist media are all fantasy. Or am I just imagining that?
Thanks to the Internet and social media we are all journalists and commentators now and our opinions are just as important as anyone else’s. We all take praise and abuse as much as anyone else nowadays and you need to be adult and responsible about it. It is impossible to eliminate the bad elements when you have a free democratic society. But remember – Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. All we need is a thicker skin and not to be over sensitive about written comment.
If the polls stand up on Thursday it will be interesting to see the Unionist media headlines on Friday.
I tend to ignore JK Rowling – who deals in the world of fantasy fiction.
But, in the real world, what we are now seeing from Westminster is a 21st century of the English “Rough Wooing” of 16th century Scotland, which led to the Scottish King ascending the English throne at the very start of the 17th century.
@ Robert Louis
I agree,doesn’t make pleasant viewing. However, maybe a good way of making people sit up and take notice? The longer they run it, the more people will see it and perhaps the penny will drop?
Robert Louis 4.24, things are getting very worrying in England. We in anti fracking groups get a lot of interchange with those south of the Border who are fighting, peaceably, sites where frackers are carrying out their disgusting trade.
Police are trying to get names of those attending community meetings to discuss fracking. Private security guards are moving in on fracking protests, and dragging middle aged protesters along the ground.
You only have to look at what happened in Parliament Sq.when protesters moved in. I watched a vid of a well known environmental writer, being loaded into a police van fir trying to hand in his dossier to Downing st. He did the whole thing planned and filmed because he knew they would arrest him.
It really is worrying.
“I just hope with all my heart that we never have cause to look back and feel that we made a historically bad mistake.” JK Rowling on the Referendum
Hoo haar!
This is the moment Rowling needs to stand up and be counted!
But so far, only silence.
The Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Express do not speak for Britain, as is implied by some posters here. Newspapers do not represent the views of their readers, they represent the views of their millionaire proprietors.
They do not speak for the people of Britain, they speak at us. More than two-thirds of them are howling for another Tory victory.
The readerships of all these ghastly rags are falling rapidly – but not rapidly enough. We can all see what trash these papers are.
Sky News coverage of the newspapers the other night spent some time covering J.K. Rowlings complaint that cybernats were abusing her again. Andrew Pierce and his Labour oppo. went overboard about the SNP bullies.
Aye Fiona single mother on benefits…my arse. Her dad was a Rolls Royce Engineer and her mother was a science technition. She split up with rich hubbie and moved to Edinburgh. She was not born poor and had a sheltered life and went to University. She chose to move to Edinburgh and become poor for a couple of years. There was never any prospect of her being homeless or going to a foodbank.
There is a difference between being born into poverty and having no hope or education and being a middle class dropout!
Robert Louis says:
O/T – ish.
Sky news are running worrying footage this afternoon, of a verbal heckler, who shouted disagreement, in a non violent non threatening manner, from some distance, today at David Cameron. The man wass immediately pulled away by a burly security man.
____________
Yep, the man disagreed with what Cameron was saying then got pushed away by a security forces minion. That’s democracy!
sensibledave@4:43
You back on here peddlin yer pish again.
The good people of Scotland have already been told,the morning after indyref result,go away and play tig with the buses.
Troll David Cameron see if he has the answers you desperately seek or will he no speak to you…unless your an invited guest ?
Now bore off,goan scavenge in somebody’s midden….oh and brace for impact….democracy is coming.
“sensibledave”
If you think a tesicle eater like yourself can twist my comments to get me to bite, it’s never going to happen.
I have no intention of ever replying to you again so you may drag yourself back up that trolls earsehole you came from and go back to playing at being an earsewipe.
Missy M has a detailed account of the tricks the Better Together lot use to get a media response on “evil nats”.
Good read.
link to misssymartin.blogspot.co.uk
Did JK no use the same caveat as the Herald, ‘vote not for devo max but if we don’t get devo max, we’ll reconsider supporting independence.’
Seems like a cautious, reasonable approach for someone who is an instinctive British nationalist but also wants the best for Scotland. A category which covers a fair section of the population.
The real question is whether or not JK and the Herald do switch, once they realise that devo max is off the cards.
O/T
Anyone see this reported anywhere?
link to twitter.com
Grouse Beater says:
5 May, 2015 at 2:58 pm
Here’s my letter to dear JK Rowling,
Did you ever get a reply or is that a daft question?
Wings should have a section compiling these plus a selection of the comments and we can wheel them out as required. Every column inch moves an undecided towards us.
Actually the idea of SNP hordes commanded by Nicola looting the stolen wealth of Saxonistan has a strange allure to it.
Can exiled Scots return to get a piece of the loot or is it reserved for blooded cybernats. Maybe the Rowling person could write a story about it and give the profits to a foodbank or twelve and both sides of the border.
I’m with michaelc; I just want out of this!
We’re all vile nationalists
SNP involvement in westminster would be illegitimate
Rebellious Scots to crush
uk is a den of iniquity, corruption and vice. Politicians are making obscene amounts of money from sidelines, rewards and subsequent huge payments for lobbying. Powerful figures have been allowed to carry out horrific offences, and authorities losing files on them.
Why won’t england accept it; we don’t all run around shouting about them all the time, while dragging tons of giros over the wall. We want to do our own thing.
The whole world is laughing at uk press and media, but of course they won’t print it here. The demonization of a small country by its more powerful neighbour is being noticed, and uk establishment are showing their true colours.
Come on, these are trashy right wing media outlets.
Of course they are against any left wing government, the fact is that they’re only printing all this ‘anti scottish’ stuff (most of which is tongue in cheek) because the party going to be elected in Scotland may end up represents what they see as an even more left wing part of a left wing administration.
Or perhaps they are just against a nationalist party that wants to break our Union.
Though I think the first is more likely.
We in North Britain are voting for a British political Party. This party is a democratic representation of the wishes of those living in North Britain it is also producing policies which are also popular with those in the south. Yet in this wonderful democracy of ours this is deemed undemocratic and a threat. I could ask WHY? but we know the answer.
JK may well be able to justify her political stance (the Union & Labour)which has resulted in 1 in 4 children born into poverty, the disabled, vulnerable, & unemployed dying due to starvation/suicide, not to mention the humiliation some feel by having to use foodbanks, by doing ‘good work for charity’ or donating to charity.
However, the saddest thing for me when made unemployed was eventually having to give in & finally cancel my direct debits to charity. I cried when I did so. I finally had no use, no purpose & was cast into an underclass of ‘scroungers’. That I did voluntary work for almost four years helped me survive; it gives one a reason to live.
So yes, her charity donations/work are admirable and if that assuages the guilt she (should) feel(s)then all the better for her.
Personally, I could never support a system that results in such poverty & desperation in parts of society (people who deserve help & support not demonisation). I could never look at a single disabled soul, a mother & child at a foodbank, or someone seeking help, in the eye knowing I had voted to endorse or further their pain.
Rachel Reeves’ comments on Labour not being the Party of the unemployed disgusted me. I expect the Tories to be dismissive of the poor, weak & vulnerable but Labour have proven for years now that they are no better. Indeed, they are worse in some ways especially as often they allude to being the Party of the poor but act in ways only expected of Tories.
I think it was Keir Hardy (stand to be corrected on this)that said he considered Tories lower than ‘vermin’.
Today’s Labour Party which is pure establishment; pro-rich, anti-poor, anti-vulnerable and ultimately in so many ways anti-social have now joined them.
sensibledave
“We agree that you are saying the majority of Scots are responsible. Not me, Not the English. Not Westminster. Not everybody else. The majority of Scots. The ones that wanted to stay part of the Union”
where did that all come from? That’s a bit of an extrapolation from my statement. Jesus – where to begin? I don’t have access to the breakdown of the referendum vote by country of birth. Many Scots did not vote due to living elsewhere. Not even a majority of all people eligible to vote voted no never mind all people living in Scotland, all Scots living in Scotland or all Scots.
For a vote result you ignore people who have not voted or cannot vote but when apportioning blame that seems a little unfair.
And of course some English people are to blame – it beggars belief that all English people living in Scotland voted Yes? I know you can’t think that.
I would agree that you are not to blame – nor any of our friends down south. Westminster? I don’t think anyone could claim they did not bear partial responsibility for a no vote? Their campaign won after all? Credit where credit is due surely?
Read my comment one more time: “I mean no – voters, including JK are culpable for the constitutional mess in the UK dragging on instead of being finally resolved”
Fifth time lucky perhaps. As for passing this on to my fellow commenters- with pleasure. here goes:
People responsible for no-vote:
People who voted no
People who were registered but did not vote
Westminster
The UK civil service
Most of the Press
Most of the UK TV companies
Some heads of foreign governments
Some heads of large companies
The Yes campaign (which certainly could have been stronger in areas)
People definitely not responsible:
sensibledave
People who voted yes
Everybody who exists or existed in the past, present and future not mentioned above. Ie everybody else in the world. Especially the good, honest people of England.
I was in a foreign country and I caught a programme shown on their tv about the British royal family. It was describing a sort of typical day. Involved a state visit from someone, can’t remember who, possibly president of Philippines…
Anyway, lo and behold, who was at the state banquet but JK Rowling! Hobnobbing with the royals, luvving it up with Princess Anne, grinning the whole time like a cheshire cat…
I don’t watch tv, but on YouTube I caught an interview between JK Rowling and Oprah. They both discussed with immense gloating how rich they were, smirking at each other with the most reptilian grins you could imagine as they both agreed: “We’re so rich, it’s frightening…”!
This incitement of hysteria and contempt towards the SNP and by extension the democratic will of the Scottish people is puerile politics.
However there are millions of serious grownups in England crying out for the opportunity of voting for an SNP anti-austerity agenda. They have glimpsed it during the TV debates and the political pickings for a progressively placed party in England will be extraordinarily rich especially if the Labour Party stand aside to let the Tories back into Downing Street
So with Scottish Independence off the immediate agenda isn’t it time for the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party to get together and promote a formal UK wide progressive alliance? This would open the way for standing candidates, who share economic policies of the human kind, at every English by-election during the next Parliament. In five years (maybe less depending on the electoral maths) Nicola Sturgeon will be at the head of a Progressive Alliance Party with the real potential of returning her as Prime Minister of this dis-united Kingdom. So let Ed and Dave incite some hysteria about that.
Rowling should stick to writing Harry Potter, which myself and my family very much enjoyed.
She is very much in the same category as Rhoda “I stood on the banks of the clyde and wept” MacDonald (see below). Disappointing, as I used to watch ‘Speaking our language’ in my student dosser days.
link to hanovercomms.com
and now Delia Smith, whom I very much admired until she announced EdStone the ‘next prime minister of England’.
hmmm.
Haha, “tongue in cheek”
Wow, that’s a new level of naivety
You’re suggesting that the churnalists who write these articles are doing so in a jocular manner, and furthermore that the loyal readership of these newspapers knows and agrees that this is so.
Do you want to buy some shares in a Nigerian bank?
It would be nice to think this might prompt some self examination from Ms Rowling or even better, a response. If not, perhaps sticking to her strengths might be best!
Hystrerical rectomy to quote the late Les Dawson. 🙂
JK didn’t stay in an abuse relationship, allegedly, why should anyone else.
It’s obvious Westminster have never wanted an equal partner in the Union. Just secrecy and lies.
Robert Louis @ 4.23 pm
It is not just the Tories who do this. Remember the elderly gentleman who was manhandled out of the Labour Party Conference when he heckled Jack Straw.
I think Labour tried to justify it under some law or other, maybe even one they brought in themselves, but cannot remember all the details.
But when you consider how MPs behave in the Commons particularly at PMQs then these incidents over the past few days pale into insignificance by comparison.
Grouse Beater
I hope you don’t mind me responding to your open letter here.
The theoretical understanding of the relationship between “place” and “identity”, has been developing over the past twenty odd years, which I have missed entirely. However, I don’t think it will be disputed that there is a strong interaction between one’s day-to-day experience and one’s identity. It should go without saying that one’s wealth has a significant influence on one’s day-to-day experience, which will revealed a world entirely separate to that reveled to the majority. If our psychology is influenced by the world around us, I would suggest it also influences the identity we choose to reveal to the world, in terms of the values we project.
link to en.wikipedia.org
link to en.wikipedia.org
Identity and Place
link to oxfordbibliographies.com
In summury – J.K.? Who cares.
P.S. This looks interesting.
Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity
link to amazon.com
Giving a million quid to succeed in denying another country it’s independence. Wonder what one of the more volatile countries in the world would do if she did that to them?
“JK didn’t stay in an abuse relationship”
True, but she sure as hell contributed to Scotland staying in an abusive relationship with the British state.
The British establishment are showing the world the laughing stock they really are. cowardice in the face of democracy, fearful of a small country with a few million votes.
Showing the rest of the world that they are incapable of standing on their own two feet, fearful of being exposed to their own citizens as the insignificant little country that they really are.
A clapped out run down banana country not fit for the 21st century. Show the world your cowardice they are laughing their heads off
Someone called Shaun Lawson presents some pretty persuasive polling arguments about why we are probably going to be locked out with another Con/Dem alliance.
link to opendemocracy.net
It’s depressing stuff, but makes every single seat and every single vote for the SNP all the more important in order to de-legitmise the Con/Dems in Scotland.
He also has some reasons for the apparent self-destruction of Labour in the past couple of weeks, which I’ve copied below.
“…defeat in 1992 was ultimately a blessing in disguise for Labour. As it was then, so I strongly suspect it will be again: because with the economy slowing down quarter by quarter, still entirely dependent on services, and many key international markets in trouble, I fully expect the UK to head back into recession within the next year. Perish the thought, so many global fundamentals remain horribly unsound that there may even be a second global crash looming in the next two or three years. For Labour to be anywhere near government at such a time would surely destroy it forever; and for it to form a minority government dependent on the SNP would allow the latter to take credit for any of its successes, the former to be blamed furiously in England for any economic woes.
That, I believe, is why a number of Labour MPs have already suggested that a ‘coalition of the losers’ should not be formed: it simply wouldn’t be in the party’s strategic interests to do so. That is also why Miliband has made such a point of the need to win a majority, and Scottish Labour have repeatedly stated that “the largest party forms a government”. Constitutionally inaccurate, this may be; but in a bitterly divided Union, to huge swathes of the English public, it is the reality. Indeed, it’s the very thing that’s pushing more and more worried voters into Cameron’s grateful embrace.”
– With the extreme help of their pals in the MSM.
@ carjamtic 5:01 pm
@ Davy says: 5:01 pm
Now I know you both mean that in a caring way so I wont take offence.
I think many here are getting carried away.
Its just another General ELection where the majority of the UK electorate wont get the government they vote for. The SNP are going to win 50 odd seats out of 658 but we all know that none of the parties are going to be in a position to implement their manifestos. They are all making manifesto commitments that they know they will not deliver because many of them will be “negotiated away” in any agreement talks, coalitions, etc.
Ms Sturgeon has made it clear she wants to influence government policy but she doesn’t think, for one minute, that her policies will be adopted, so just like everyone else, she can say anything she likes.
No one, including SNP supporters, are going to get the economic policies they want – because everybody wants different things.
You need to keep some sense of perspective or you are going to be sorely disappointed.
My guess is that while JKRowling may live here in Scotland, it will be in a mainly unionist grouping, perhaps with lots of really English Tory types with lots of money. She certainly will not keep the company of people who do not match her financial profile.
But moving on, we are unquestionably in the calendar month of May, but in our political relationship with England, once called ‘The Union’, I’d say we are in the middle of November, and with a long winter ahead of us.
Unless of course Douglas Alexander arranges a service of reconciliation this coming weekend, during which we all kiss and make up, before resuming the pattern of spousal abuse from our much bigger hubby, who is depressed due to impending bankruptcy and part-time wages, and the possibility of losing all the money he’s been taking from our joint account.
Let’s just go for Independence shall we. By that time no one will be sparing a thought for Ms Rowling.
The way to treat people like JK are to not buy her books
People like her dont worry about us as long as they stay mega rich
My sons love harry potter but if ever i see a book by her will not buy it
And if ever i see a poll on anything she is in will vote it last
I would have the utmost respect for JKR or equivalent if they admitted vow was a con.
Sadly can’t think of anyone who has.
I take this as meaning they are happy to be politically active and as such should be open to challenge.
Listened to this pish from Jeremy Vine today ranting at Nicola… from 22:50 on..
link to bbc.co.uk
Insensitive Dave: No one, including SNP supporters, are going to get the economic policies they want – because everybody wants different things.
The bollocks machine just keeps on producing on no oil.
It’s seems obvious to me at least that after Jim Callahagns government fell in 1979 the party was infiltrated with Tories so as no matter the result of any future election in a two party system the politics on offer would remain the same.
I shouldn’t have used the term Tories but rather “Establishment” it is they who govern and where the true power lies. The voter is duped.
The power of the Trade unions was weakened and that of the Establishment owned and run MSM strengthened in order to perpetuate the myth of a free country.
This is why you had the day of the spin doctors, the likes of Mandelson and McTernan employed to pull the wool over the electorates eyes. Even now Labour are saying they would employ Tarzan, Mr Heseltine, a former challenger to Thatcher for the Tory leadership as an adviser on Cities.
A Tory ex-minister as an adviser to Labour FFS!
The SNP were not part of this ploy and have upset the applecart, hence the media frenzy highlighted above. the only democratic option on offer in Scotland for your vote on Thursday is the SNP.
The two major parties are tainted, the reversal of all that is wrong in British politics has to start somewhere.
It starts here in Scotland on Thursday.
@Croompenstein
Listened to this pish from Jeremy Vine today ranting at Nicola… from 22:50 on..”
I listened to it earlier, “why does your party attract so many thugs” Vine asked. I ‘m amazed NS keeps her cool in these situations.
…and this is just the foreplay!
Wait until we win 40+ seats 🙁 …then again…WAIT until we win 40+ seats 🙂
Cameron: It should go without saying that one’s wealth has a significant influence on day-to-day experience, which will revealed a world entirely separate to that reveled to the majority.
I agree. You have not only choices the masses tend not to have, but better choices. In the end, you can choose the best choices and always avoid the worst. Life is materially good.
JK Rowling’s rationale for voting NO was similar to the vast majority of NO voters,IMO.
A pretense that they care about Scotland which is just a cover for their British Nationalism.
There is a small group(maybe10-15%) who voted NO out of fear and uncertainty,these are the ones we can enlighten and reassure.
I doubt Rowling is one of them.
Westminster is corrupt, time for change for everyone, we may be better together to make it happen, how ironic that would be. All the people in all the Nations getting rid of the corruption together and getting their own Nations, karma in action.
We now only have 48 hours to stand up and save Scotland.
O/T
Scottish Independence Referendum results breakdown by parliament constituency:
link to democraticdashboard.com
Very Interesting indeed.
Alex Massie, for one, seems to have had a slight insight into the possible effect of the anti-Scottish ravings from down south.
link to blogs.spectator.co.uk
Meanwhile, that brilliant tactician Cleggy is traveling from Land’s End to John o’Groats.
Deliberately snubbing his most winnable seat in Scotland? That should do the trick.
Worth the look
link to democraticdashboard.com
After wading through all the UKOK unionist bile which the Rev has kindly put together for us, I can only repeat what I felt a few weeks ago after some similar tabloid outburst: oh, how I long to be foreign!
Hope I get my Scottish passport before I pop my clogs.
Westminster wimps are scared of a wee woman, and it ain’t JK.
What we’re seeing right now is nothing less than a coordinated media assault on the SNP, same as the one we had against the Yes campaign during the referendum. It will be interesting to see the effect it has on Thursday. If the SNP get over 50 seats then it is proof that the power of the traditional media has diminished, if it is around 35 then I’m more inclined to feel that they’re just as powerful as ever.
Apologies for going O/T here folks but my partner has just asked me a question about Postal Ballots.
My partner has just read on Facebook that someone has heard that postal votes were being opened in her constituency of … Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. I think I know the answer here but for clarification does anyone know what the rules are relating to postal votes i.e. when they are opened, by who, who is permitted to be present, how soon before the count they are opened etc. 1,000 apologies for this long winded query. 😉
In a related query, as some may recall there were queries over wheter the referendum ballot paper was supposed to have some form of marking on the reverse of the ballot paper. We have a friend who has asked if there will be a requirement for any sort of marking on the reverse of Thursday’s G.E. ballot paper.
If anyone is able to supply answers I’d be very appreciative. In fact I’d be SO appreciative I might even cease all postings on Wings for a while. 😀
Looking at the referendum results by constituency confirms what I’ve always thought – people tend to vote out of self-interest. Those doing very nicely thank you very much under the current set-up vote to stick with it and those with nothing to lose (eg. Glasgow South) vote for change.
Interesting piece about the two people suspended from the SNP after the protests.
link to bbc.co.uk
One of them at least features in Empire Biscuits video, seems to be directing people into the crowd.
They both feature in a John MacTernan tweet.
link to twitter.com
I’m with you Tinto Chiel. Can’t wait to ditch “Cesspit on Thames!”
Sorry for another O/T folks but just seen this on Twitter.
As we all knowMurph the Smurph is doing his damndest to scare the elderly out of their skins with his LIES About their pensions being cut if they vote for S.N.P. Well folks it appears that in Motherwell Labour have stepped this scaremongering up yet ANOTHER level.
link to twitter.com
Absolutely DISGUSTING!
All I can say is that the odious lying so and so from Labour is damned lucky they are no where near my address otherwise they would be spending the General Election in Intensive Care!
O/T On the news it stated that Nicola will be in London on Friday for the VE celebrations
That’s handy for Miliband when he has to backpedal & meet with her to beg for her support
Here’s the “Thanks For All the Fish” video. The suspended member, Piers Doughty-Brown, appears in it a few times but at 7.00 minutes appears to be pointing into the crowd.
link to youtube.com
Empire Biscuits has an interesting record of that event!
Will Podmore
The “dangerous class”, [lumpenproletariat] the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.
link to marxists.org
Do you seriously endorse the above?
Manandboy. Correct Rowling will have a clique of toffy nosed English erstury accented friends in Edinburgh and Perth. I used to work in Edinburgh and have never heard as many plumby voiced home counties types in one area in my life. Apart from the home counties.
In Glasgow I hear English accents. But they are normal English people not elitists or snobs. I suspect she chose Edinburgh because it is the one part of Scotland that feels more British than Scottish! Apologies to Leithers and others. But your city has been taken over by class driven twits like Darling and Rowling. Hence the big no vote in Edinburgh and the big yes vote in Glasgow and Dundee. Its a class vote the no vote. Most no voters I have met have been middle class or extreme Rangers types.
I don’t think they love us anymore..
James123 wrote:
“Listened to this pish from Jeremy Vine today ranting at Nicola…”
“why does your party attract so many thugs” Vine asked.”
The perfect comeback to that one should have been something along the lines of:- Why does your employer (The BBC) employ, and then attempt to cover up the actions of, so many paedophiles.
It wouldn’t exactly be very parliamentarian for her to ask such a question but nobody could argue that it wasn’t a fair question, given the standard of shite offered by weasel Vine.
So far she has been a great First Minister, IMO, but i just wish from time to time she would savagely, but honestly, cut these arsewipes to the bone.
It’s amazing that Jim Murphy’s popularity is holding up. The Daily Record poll, asking whether you trust Jim Murphy to deliver on his promises, has 90% voting No. I realise it’s the Daily Record, but for as many as 10% of even DR readers to still trust Jim Murphy is quite incredible.
Well, remember what Matthew Parris wrote in the Times : England are “the boss nation”.
@icyspark
Very.
link to democraticdashboard.com
Their map is certainly interesting.
Didn’t realise Scotland was so big.
Here’s a powerful spell fur ye jk.
Scotus sum. Anglia mihi alienum est
Just watched the Scottish Labour Party Election Broadcast which ended with the slogan “Choose Labour”.
Hopefully it will be Friday’s headline “Scottish electorate chews Labour”.
Has anyone asked JK recently how that love is going for her? Is nuts that I’m not feeling it .
Aw Gee you guys, don’t you know it’s for our own good? They only hurt us to make us better and to show the love they have.
We shouldn’t make them act in this way, it’s all our own fault for upsetting them and we deserve to be punished.
Feel the LURVE!
Or I could say F**K off and fester you imperialist B******S. I only hope and pray that your end is soon coming.
From Jeremy Vine’s wiki biop.
It was revealed on 4 February 2015 that Vine received a five-figure sum for a post-dinner speech at a £250-a-head banquet organised by ADS Group, the trade organisation that represents defence and security industries in the UK, and attended by global arms manufacturers. Campaign Against Arms Trade lodged a formal complaint with the BBC, claiming a conflict for the organisation appearing to support an industry which “profits from dictatorships which silence and suppress debate”. This prompted a BBC response saying: “Jeremy is a freelance presenter and so can make personal appearances without speaking on behalf of the BBC, as he did here.”
So in the BBC World of fair and balanced reporting he’s OK and he fits right in. He’s freelance so the BBC are not responsible for anything he says or does. Hypocrites!
@Croompenstein
Jeremy Vine who works for the BBC.
Vine received a five-figure sum for a post-dinner speech organised by ADS Group,that represents defence and security industries in the UK, and attended by global arms dealers which “profits from dictatorships which silence and suppress debate”.
And he was trying to give Nicola a hard time about an alleged shouting match.
The man`s integrity has been bought.
This treatment has just about put the tin hat on it for me.
I don’t think we should entertain even a thought of linking up with any English dominated party to play mind-games down in Wasteminster.
The BBC has now totally gone beyond the pale and when, whatever (if any) usefulness, has been gained by giving them any official recognition, it should be abruptly stopped on 8 May 2015.
The same goes for every newspaper excepting the Sunday Herald and the National.
The BBC and all other newspapers should be put into official quarantine – no official government statements, no appearances on farcical studio set-ups, no off the cuff remarks to any outlet unless it has been officially approved.
And if this is classified as Nth Korean-ish, tough.
Prof John Robertson has plenty of evidence that STV at least attempts to play the game, as does the Sunday Herald and National.
These should become the official reporting bodies of the Scottish Government. End of!
O/T
link to bbc.co.uk
The image of the three “main party leaders” has been on the front page of the BBC website all day.
Scotland apparently isn’t important enough in this election for our main party leader to be featured.
You know, I used to not admit I had not read any of the Harry Potter books. Now, I feel “entirely relaxed” about it.
If the principles of your government rest on obfuscation, suppressing the truth and wilfully distorting any communication that offers an alternative and credible option in the political arena then it cannot be understood as a fair and open democracy. We’ve had 4 decades of unintelligent policies that have resulted in rising inequality, child poverty, zero hours contracts,low economic growth, a shrinking state and loss of social protection in a country that should have a substantial sovereign wealth fund.
These newspaper headlines are disgraceful and all the more so because they are published with the tacit approval of our elected unionist MPs. WM exists for the 1% – the political changes coming will mean that WM will have to answer to the 99%. We must not offer the unionist camp who have systematically failed their electorate across the UK amnestic redemption we should send them a very different message at the ballot box on Thursday – Scotland will be the messenger and we are writing our legacy.
Jeremy Vine attack on Nicola today cyber-nats worst bias I’ve ever heard
read out nutters on Internet and said it was SNP
bbc are as neutral as a Golf G.T.I in 1st gear
A song for Dave…
link to m.youtube.com
Sensibledave@6:00
Oh we get it all right,every SNP MP means one less Red/Blue Tory MP.(troughers,,oink,oink)
The SNP have earned respect in Scotland,everbody loves a grafter,add honesty,moral integrity,to the mix,your on a winner.
Since 2011 they have done more for this country than troughers have in the last 50 years,not perfect by any manner of means,but importantly we trust them.
They/we know that they are going to be the ‘away’ team in all of this and heavily outnumbered,but with the previously mentioned attributes,they will be fine.
You may find and this is why maybe,you are afraid,other,non SNP MP’s may have similar,progressive,fairer policy ideas on,how society should be run,what kind of country we want to live in.
We are not building up our levels of expectation,we can see the road ahead and it’s a long one,but the good people of Wallyford,Twatt,Dull,Muck and Cocksburnpath,(all strangely English sounding names) may have voted for BT last time round but will surely vote SNP this time.
No matter the outcome of this election,David Cameron has put an end to the union,a little man,who,when put to the test,showed his true colours for all to see.(me,me,me)
The people Scotland have taken no satisfaction from this,we held very low expectations for BT,those expectations have simply been met.
LAST GASP
Sneaky Nick: Any min gov wont be able to survive without LibDems.
If you don’t want another election before xmas.
Broon: Social Justice, reform ……change this coming from the party who fought tooth an nail to give Scots any new powers in the Smith Commission.
Do not mix patriotism with nationalism?
Sorry Broon but my nationalism comes from my belief in my cultural background which unites my country and I believe my nationalism has values and belief in its people which creates its patriotism.
The patriotism which you nearly had a heart attack to display to the labour faithful was the passion of a fool displaying the most foolish of passions. Arthur Schopehauver.
Clive Scott,
“J K Rowling has a vivid imagination and has made a fortune from creating a fantasy world for children that has given a lot of pleasure to millions.”
“Creating a fantasy world for children”.
I wonder what sort of society we will have when these fantasy world children grow up.
Michele, stick to bras not poltics. What a disgrace…
link to m.youtube.com
Quidditch sticks to Malky!
Although the woman is now Rowlink in it.
she needs to cast her mind back to when she was single Mum
who couldn’t heat her flat.
Picture how much that single mum would be looking forward to the
£30 Billion of additional austerity cuts promised by the 3 main Wastmonster parties!
Not eating comes just after not heating, if she has has lost the plot of the Tory!
@Lesley-Anne
on the promise – I might even cease all postings on Wings for a while I’ll bite
Item postal votes are being opened in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
Item does anyone know what the rules are relating to postal votes – the Electoral Commission thinks it does
Item when they are opened, As is convenient for the RO (Returning Officer)
Item by who, The RO and/or his staff.
Item who is permitted to be present, RO, staff,candidate’s agents who have been pre notified to the RO
Item how soon before the count they are opened, The Fife ones started last Tuesday.The only legal requirement is for there to be an opening at 2200 on Thursday.
Item etc. As the whole of Fife is being dealt with in the one location the SNP candidates have all appointed the same people as their agents and they have been there from the beginning.
Item etc. The process is that the signed statements (PVS) are removed from the ballot paper envelopes, scanned by computer and the signature and date of birth computer compared to the ones given on the application for a postal vote. The barcode is also logged so the ballot paper can be matched if required. Any signature / dob mismatches are put up for scrutiny by the RO. Failures at this point have the corresponding ballot paper envelope removed from the system
“Good” ballot paper envelopes are then opened and the none, one or more ballot papers removed,face down, and only the “ones” continue, the nones and many going to the “matching” table for hand scrutiny and hopefully matching with an already here PVS or one yet to come or a husband and wife have put both their ballots in the same envelope etc. When the batch numbers tally with the number of ballots the ballot barcodes are scanned to match the PVS barcodes so that you can look on the internet and see that your PVS has been accepted and your ballot too. The ballots are then put in a ballot box and sealed and the box put into the alarmed store room which is practically next to a 24/7 cop shop.
Why do I know this? I’m the one on duty at the 2200 opening on Thursday
In a related query, there is a requirement for some sort of marking on Thursday’s G.E. ballot paper, just not necessarily the reverse.
I might even cease all postings on Wings for a while 😀
Karmanaut,
“She seems like a nice person.”
I can’t see anything nice about a billionaire living in a country where hundreds of thousands of children live in poverty, and the billionaire using her money and fame to prevent them having a chance of a better future.
If she is a billionaire, she could afford to use about a hundred million to eliminate child poverty in Scotland if she so desired.
I am glad that most of the likes of her were not on our side.
O/T An interesting take on Camerons planned tax lock
link to voxpoliticalonline.com
We have all been through this before, character assassination, hate fuelled tirades, set ups, fear mongering, violence add your own.Disturbing as it is, unfortunately this is the norm for a unionist campaign.
Being only a matter of hours before voting gets underway, I`m waiting for their big vote winner a la `the vow` to be unveiled.
Although i`m expecting crash broon to be carving promises of more foodbanks into the castle rock tomorrow morn.
Alanm-“people voted out of self-interest looking at the constituency breakdown” Apologies for being blunt but why are so many of our fellow scots total shite bags? Annoys fuck out of me.
Big Jock,
“Most no voters I have met have been middle class or extreme Rangers types.”
I have been saying for a long time that we don’t stand a chance of winning over the 90% selfish middle class and the 70% British Nationalist elderly who voted No.
We want almost 100% of the working class on our side.
If at all, it was the working classes which were scared to death by the likes of Asda into voting No, not the middle class and the elderly.
OT but Weather for Thursday seems to be decent, no excuses for not voting. There’s bound to be some close run gigs. Ignore the hype and opinion polls get voting and make this happen. When done check yer neighbours an get them out too. Don’t let apathy or complacency steal this moment.
Joemcg
Don’t take it personally, it’s just human nature. 😉
@ Joemcg
300 plus years of indoctrination, and programming has to have had some effect.
@Lesley-Anne (6.57) –
Re SLab scaring pensioners.
If they’re going to do the door-to-door terrorism of the aged and befuddled (again) we need proof of it – most folk have mobiles, but not all know how to use the many functions on them.
Folk in areas with high density of retired folk should familiarise themselves with the video and/or recording devices on their mobiles, and take them to the door as and when the scarers turn-up. They only have two days left, and it’s likely that they’ll get even more strident and threatening. If anyone can catch them on video/tape, it could be priceless evidence down the line, regardless of the result.
Another thing – people who live in sheltered housing complexes should never ever be approached by any cold callers, and that includes political campaigners. If anyone is seen trying to doorstep folk in identifiable sheltered housing, they should be reported to the police right away.
Will Podmore,
“The Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Express do not speak for Britain, as is implied by some posters here.”
Not for Britain, but they very much speak for the less than 500,000 middle class selfish voters in 100 or less marginal constituences in South Britain who as always will decide which coloured Tories are better for their pockets.
michaelc says:
5 May, 2015 at 2:54 pm
“Trying to think of a response to all this but…
I just want out of it. Our own wee country. Away from all this…
Don’t care about black holes or places at top tables or prices of barrels of oil or anything else. Just lets get out of this horrible unfair union.”
The first post I read today, Michaelc, and I don’t think I even need to read any more.
Come on to hell, Scotland, there isn’t a country in the world that regrets getting out of a relationship like this.
Get us out of this… I beg you.
Tony Blair was an establishment infiltrator.
When Margaret Thatcher was asked what she regarded as her greatest achievement, she is said to have replied: “New Labour”.
link to archive.is
Tony Blair now said to be worth 10s of millions was bought by the dictator of Kazakhstan for $40 million for one speech.
Kazakhstan buys people, they bought Tony Blair and paid 40 million dollars to say Kazakhstan is great.
link to theoslotimes.com
What about todays labour party? Well an old story syas this:
it’s not just the Cabinet that is stuffed with millionaires. Crunching their numbers, there are at least seven in the Shadow Cabinet, and Ed has surrounded himself with another thirteen millionaire advisers or supporters.
link to archive.is
As for the Tories and Lib Dems:
The coalition of millionaires: 23 of the 29 member of the new cabinet are worth more than £1m… and the Lib Dems are just as wealthy as the Tories
link to archive.is
Hopefully you can see now that all these politicians cannot possibly represent US the general public. They represent the establishment who reward them handsomely. There is no democracy in the UK, only establishment control.
We can begin to change that on Thursday by voting SNP.
Katie
Thanks for posting that clip. I’m now swithering between voting SNP for stronger representation for my country at Westminster or Conservative to further enrich Ms Mone and provide her with a business friendly conservative government.
I never thought of DC as being the best Prime Minister we’ve ever had- perhaps she dreams of being carried to meet him on a carpet of wafting £20 notes. Dave all flushed and boyish. There was love- the love between business owner and Prime Minister.
Poor Eamonn was intruding. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth…
Cameron-is it really down to human nature or indoctrination? Hypothetically do you think any other country in the world would have the same mentality and vote no out of selfish reasons? Or is it the scottish psyche? I honestly despair of our fellow scots. You can tell I have still not got over it eh?!
Thanks for your adbice H/C.
As you have been so kind to respond to my convoluted idea of a question I will do my utmost to ensure that I keep my end of the *ahem* bargin and refrain from posting after Thursdays’s G.E. 😀
This guy just wont go away and leave us in peace. Videos of his fall from grace, for most of Scotland anyway
link to caltonjock.com
JK Rowling is one of the fortunate through wealth which she has created who has choices. Many of us due to financial constraints cannot up and leaven we have little choice but to try and make the best of it.Its therefore no great surprise that those who are wealthy like telling us whats good for us although they have little understanding of many ordinary peoples plight;
Just get this right this time, vote for your country not a northern engalander region. Vote SNP for a Stronger Scotland.
We are finished with the liars and troughers.
Joemcg
I only dabble in this stuff mate. 😉
I think though, there is a growing body of theoretical knowledge and understanding, to suggest nature over nurture is an outdated mode of thought. A bit like Communism really. 🙂
Off topic but worth a read, how we got our Scottish parliament.
link to tinyurl.com
@onwards 7.53
Did u complain to them? Always make a complaint
If those headlines didn’t make you really angry inside,then you are not a true Scot.
Gordoz: I read some, not all, of your open letter to JKR. Like JKR I am an ‘incomer’ having lived in Scotland for a mere 17 years (almost). Unlike JKR I will be voting SNP in less than 2 days. Does this make my opinion/vote ill-informed because I have ‘never quite acquires(d) the depth of experience of an indigenous (Scottish) citizen, the sense of its history and its people.’? Does this mean that you don’t think incomers (how long before incomers become equal citizens?) should vote or have a say on what they believe is the right thing for Scotland? I left NZ as an adult, through choice. I love NZ, and at times would love to return (e.g. when it’s been raining for months!), but I love my life here in Scotland, and to read comments from people like yourself that suggest, intentionally or otherwise, incomers are unwelcome when becoming involved in decisions affecting Scotland, it saddens me. I have contributed a lot to this country of ours (if I am allowed to say that), so please think carefully about your own prejudices before passing judgement.
This is the same J K Rowling who made a big play in the Unionist press about the backlash she got from some online for her condescending promotion of Better Together and its bastard spawn, Project Fear. Her utter silence on the examples of Westminster bile after they got the No vote she helped push for is deafening.
Gordon Brown’s hatred for Alex Salmond blinds his judgement. his devious attempts trying, in the course of secretly arranged meetings with Menzies Campbell,to the exclusion of the leaders of the Scottish labour and Lib/Dem Party’s (McConnell & Scott) to persuade the Lib/Dem’s to enter into another pact with Labour. His plans were scuppered when Menzies Campbell informed him that he had no authority over Tavish and as such would not become involved in the matter. Rejected Brown threw a tantrum and set about placing every block in the path of Alex Salmond. Denying him any meetings. His disgraceful antics brought about the resignation of McConnell and the 3 year Scottish Labour leadership debacle that followed.
Lessons clearly not learned Miliband and Clegg are seeking to do a deal to the exclusion of Nicola Sturgeon. It is clear Miliband is taking instruction from Brown. How sad!!!
link to caltonjock.com
Thepnr @ 8:55 pm
Some interesting reading if you google Tony Blair and Miranda.
Just saying
Plus ca change, an’ aw that pish…
link to youtube.com
Seeing all the headlines as I scroll down I’ve come to the conclusion that Westminster has a form of Munchhausen’s masquerading as love in relation to Scotland.
Joemcg
The British brand is one of the most successful in history,people tend to follow what they perceive to be a superior brand.
Scotland has always been portrayed as the poor relation and it will be hard to break this.
I do feel Scots in general are less patriotic and have a cringe more than other nationalities.It is bred into us by the British.
We’re all fucked up in other words.
But things are changing now the Empire is dead and the centralized archaic system is failing.
That’s my quick attempt to rationalize it.
I’ve never gotten over it,long before we voted No.
Where’s Robert Peffers when you need him 🙂
@Joemcg “Apologies for being blunt but why are so many of our fellow scots total shite bags? Annoys fuck out of me”.
There’s plenty out there still open to being persuaded – keep working on them. I’ve been an SNP supporter for 50 years now and can safely say that nobody I know of has ever been converted to the cause by being dubbed a “shite bag”.
In any event, we only need to convince 51% of voters to win independence.
@scav. 3.10. FABULOUS!
As we plod through the rain we are trying not to think of Friday. But I bet you that I won’t be the only one who VOWS that if we don’t even get one more mp then we will carry on. I’m 52 but the young uns out there are just too bright, imaginative and creative to let the dream die.
I don’t think we would be where we are now if it wasn’t for the wonder of Wings And not the McCartney variety.
More video of the “chaos” from another group out filming. Includes an interview of the 2 demonstrators that J McTernan and D Hothersall were particularly keen on identifying. Interview by James Cook at the end.
youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=dRNztIPb8uU
Some Cheer from the latest polls:
link to may2015.com
ALANM says:
“….. we only need to convince 51% of voters to win independence.”
Looking easier every day, with all the assistance we are getting from down south!
O/T – bbc parliament channel – tuned in to watch the interview with Nicola which is on the guide as 10.15-10.30. Instead we get “The Crumbling Palace”. A begging bowl for us to agree to fund the upkeep of that pile of poo that governs us – Westminster. Mind you – if oor Eck gets there he will certainly make it crumble. Come on, Alex!!!!
The Labour Party, for sale to the LOWEST bidder.
They have to be the most pathetic political party EVER.
Then again the LibDums are not far behind.
Just watched Sunday nights debate on iplayer.
FUD Referendum, Referendum BA wBag failed at life Murphy was as usual, a total TWAT.
As for Wull Rennie,
FU*k Me!!!!!????
Both Leader quality?
Aye right
Don’t remember Magrit Curran being suspended from the Labour party for wishing Alex Salmond under a bus.
I actually stomached that piece by Janet Daley to the end at the time, before bringing up my dinner.
The audacity of democracy, in action. How very fucking dare we!
We’ve been told and told again that the people of Scotland decided overwhelmingly, by a decisive 10% margin no less.
But shift perspective a little and meditate for a moment on the shortfall that would have made the difference – 191,969 votes. There used to be more Aussies living in London.
It would be interesting to see how many of the new SNP members since the Ref were No voters – probably not too many but still, as we all know, every vote counts.
Though its absolute votes that count let’s also consider for a moment the marginal differences by local authority area, made so much of in the reporting of the results.
Of those local authority areas that voted No, the average marginal difference over Yes was 15.8%.
Applying this average to those local authority areas that voted Yes [allowing for a modest surge in the pro-Independence mood; the actuals on 18/9 were: North Lanarkshire (2.1%), West Dunbartonshire (7.9%), Dundee (14.7%), Glasgow (7%)], would shift the tally of Yes votes with a gain of 34,466 (17.95% of the target shortfall total).
That leaves a total of 157,503 votes remaining to reach the magic number of 1,809,958 votes to win (relative to conditions of the day on 18/9/14).
Perhaps going forward, polls will be able to extrapolate the swing of those disillusioned No voters in local authority areas that returned a No result, the obvious targets being in those thorny areas with the higher volume / total votes cast (e.g. Edinburgh, Fife, South Lanarkshire, Aberdeen/shire, Highland, West Lothian).
Add in the shifting demographic between now and the next time (the Awakening, the Departing) and I’m sure it will be a different result. There are hurdles to overcome naturally, perhaps the biggest being the tabling of a fresh mandate at Westminster for formal recognition and agreement. (I can imagine an attempt to deny us the right and apply the Catalan treatment next time, even if a stalling tactic while legal jurisdiction is argued over.)
We’ll have moved on a way by then though, and this Thursday will be the first step in that process, whatever the outcome of the general election.
Exciting times, let’s hope they are genuinely a-changin and not plus ça change…
If a future referendum was 51% Yes it wouldn’t be 51% Yes, if you see what I mean, the establishment would fix it so that it became a narrow No victory. I said before the referendum that if it was a narrow loss I could quite believe it but I could never accept a double figures victory. Weren’t all the polls “too close to call”? The British establishment needed as convincing a figure as they could get away with. We really need to be at least 55% in the polls before we can expect a victory to be allowed.
But! But! But!
Didn’t we say we wanted to leave and didn’t they all say,
Then they told us, “We’re all in this together”, and, “It’s pooling and sharing”
So Ah’m askin thaim noo, “If it’s sharin, Jimmy, whaurs mine”?
Still haven’t seen any footage of Auld Preacher Broon doing his bit today.
Was it, perchance, anything like this?
link to youtube.com
The levels of anti-Scottish hatred being whipped up south of the border are truly worrying. Our chums at the BBC were at it again today: if Labour doesn’t beat the Tories in the actual number of seats then any coalition will be “illegitimate”.
Then ‘Scots shouldn’t have the balance of power in an ENGLISH parliament’.
Not since Guy Fawkes day has there been such anti-Scottish hatred whipped up in England.
I know it’s yesterday’s news but the way Eddie Izzard (who wanted to come up and give us a hug last September) started mouthing off about nationalism and anti-english feelings got me to thinking – was he hoping for some abuse by turning up in a skirt and lipstick? Yes, we all know he is into transvestite dressing and that’s cool but I bet he’d have loved some abuse over it. Agent provocateur? And I don’t mean his undies!
Seriously, is there anything more pathetically sad than unionist trolls.
link to twitter.com
Gordon Brown’s speech just started on BBC Parliament (Sky channel 504)
@ian bortherhood
Gogs is on bbc parliament channel now – huh – they cancelled Nicola’s timeslot earlier but let this old dinosaur rant . fair play to him though – his acting is much better than his politics! Hamming it up like Olivier at his best
@ terry – yes you seriously upset the plan there!
@Harry McAye. We need to be at least 55% in the polls, preferably higher, before there is another referendum. The next one will be decisive and we have to win it.
Was in the SNP hub tonight getting my Polling Agent card and wee talk from our prospective MP, Martin Docherty, and others on our duties on Thursday.
West Dunbartonshire are having a calvacade tomorrow evening from Clydebank to Balloch and beyond.
Popularty contest?
Teddy Eddie wins it hands down surely?
://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRX9ECxHM2M
Gawd help us all 🙁
@Graham Scott says: 5 May, 2015 at 3:14 pm:
“However, I also know that there is a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence”.
You can stop right there. You seem to equate, “a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence”.
With, ” … that they might judge me ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to have a valid view.
Those two things are NOT the same thing. The first is about, “The Independence of the People of Scotland”, the second your own particular take on Scottish birth.
To clarify – my next door neighbour is an Englishman married to a Scottish woman. Now, one of their sons has gone to live in England as he felt English, the other feels Scottish and remains here.
However, The People of Scotland are anyone of any colour, creed or country of origin, who are mainly resident in Scotland ,and registered to vote in Scottish elections. There are many English members in the SNP and many, many others from other lands. We even have a French born MSP and at least 6 English born others.
Cannot believe bbc Reporting Scotland Deja vu referendum tonight.
Then broke off Nicola Sturgeon to question legality of DEALS for government of UK.
Never ending snakes
@One_Scot (11.07)-
That one’s surely a wind-up. Good one, but a wind-up all the same? I fell for it anyway…
@one scot,
Aye, and if you skip back to here and scroll down you’ll find a wee tweet by Ian Davidson clinging desperately on to his tripe filled trough.
link to mobile.twitter.com
Paul Sinclair on Newsnight predicted a riot if labour form a government propped up by the SNP. Paul Sinclair is not in the Kaiser Chiefs. He is a former labour Adviser. He said the English people would not accept the result.
GE15: a roaring success for Morph ‘n’ Izzard… managed to get two SNP members suspended. Keep it up guys, 2 down 102,000 to go. At this rate, by the year 10000 you’ll have completely wiped out the separatist threat.
Then theres this zoomer
link to mobile.twitter.com
Anybody asked Ruthie how the postal votes are going?
Absolutely amazing stuff 🙂
I used the marriage/divorce/spouse analogy myself in a piece today.
link to commentisntfree.com
The divorce is now inevitable. The only thing left to decide is the manner in which they let us leave.
I was posting the following in the previous thread and it just vanished but may be relevant.
Scene: A city Street.
Enter street Left: First Political figure with megaphone, accompanied by placard carrying supporters.
Enter Street Right: Second political figure with megaphone, accompanied by placard carrying supporters.
Action: The groups close towards each other watched by the public & some police officers.
The political groups attempt to out shout each other.
Enter BBC Television Crew: They shoot close up film towards the first political group. The public & Police look on and take no action.
——————-
Now the question is – which political group is preventing the other group’s freedom of speech?
Who decides?
Oh! Wait! Isn’t that the function of the BBC TV presenter James Cooke? After all there seems to be no criminal acts as the police did not act and the cameras did not show the full scene, being focused only upon the First Political Group with just enough of the second to show there was opposition between the two groups.
The question remains if there are two groups shouting at each other which one is preventing the other’s freedom of speech?
BBLC
Must be desperate to have Kirsty Wark interviewing Hosie and Dipity Dug. Trying best to catch Hosie out. I was under the impression she was barred from Scottish politics due to her connection with McConnell? Her exile down south must be ending or she just had to get in on the Scottish perspective. But still SBLBC make sure its got its supporting reporters to help its Labour friends out.
LAST ditch fear factor being promoted continually by British State re legitimacy over result of the election and party with majority……… to make sure it stirs up the English and remains in power. Were going to hear this even after the result if Tories fail to form a Gov.
Blair and Brown were warned about the rapidly overheating UK
economy 3 years before the crash of 2007 but ignored all advice even overuling the poor old Governer of the BOE King. When hit with the crash the flyboys blamed the BOS, since it fitted nicely with their referendum scare tactic. But the entire fiasco should have been firmly placed on the doorstep of 11 Downing Street since that is where the fault truly rested.
link to caltonjock.com