Proud Scot Of The Week
Posted on
March 27, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
It’s the “your” that makes it.
The next time you hear Scottish Labour whinge that nationalists have “stolen” the Saltire or some such, remember what they really think of it.
The BritNat tag suits them to a tee!
In some cultures spitting is a way of paying respects. I remember I was at a Jesus & Mary Chain concert and the support band didn’t understand the spitting thing. I think they were Canadian. The more they complained, the more they were smothered in respect…
Ian Smart is a particularly bitter person. I read the diary of a repressed homosexual some years ago, I forget what it was called, and the guy said he vehemently hated everybody until he came out of the closet; once he came out, the guy was transformed into a highly compassionate humanitarian. So it goes.
Maybe we have something to look forward to with Smarty-pants.
Jeez, cringe turned up to 11! Seriously, Labour wonders why nobody votes for them, yet they come out with guff like this, exposing for all to see, just what they think about Scotland.
I’d have the Saltire of Scotland any day, before the butcher’s apron.
Why do unionists (and the Labour party) hate Scotland so much?
It’s still shocking to be reminded that many “mainstream” Labour unionists hold private opinions like this: Spiteful, aggressive British nationalism that would make an Orangeman blush.
Happily, with Ian Smart, all that’s required to make the mask slip is a wee Saturday night libation…
In vino veritas!
Real irony from a member of a party that’s been pissing on the poor for years and still is!
It beggars belief that this guy is paid by the media as a political commentator.
Does Smart [sic] do this stuff when he’s pished, or what? If he does, then he hits 95% on the arseholeometer, with a more-than-generous 5% leeway given for drunkenness.
If not, which is even worse as there is then no excuse whatsoever, then he gets the full-fat 100% on the arseholeometer.
Well done that man! Proud to be a Unionist – and no ‘buts’ about it!
‘Rather a 1000-year Unionist Reich than a Scotland free from Westminster subjugation, not just for one year but forever…’, eh, Mr. Misnomer?!
All the hallmarks of a vindictive alcoholic.
Sometimes I think we should allocate a medium-sized island off the west coast as an AA mandatory rehabilitation centre, only mandatory has ‘Tory’ in it.
Why devolution will never work:
“No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”[Mathew 6: 24].
Proud scots indeed.
You should make this a regular item. Invite followers to propose the most Scotophobic tweet they have seen that week. Should make for hilarious reading.
Sandra: make this a regular item
I good idea: ‘Scotophobic of the Week’.
Mind you, the hard part will be choosing from the many available.
A real master of the yooniverse there….
Bow down before your true flag fellow cringers, bend the knee, bend the knee!
We are the labour party, send forth your bigots, your idiots, the clueless, all your general assorted yoon bell ends – we shall take them and let them spew forth their vile shite on twitter!
Pathetic.
It is always the characters of some Establishment organisations who complain the loudest. People who bad mouth Scotland and it’s emblem are generally locked into the Union by way of Honours I. E OBE, CBE ,MBE.There are also the Peers, and of course the Orange Order and Freemasonry. They have much to lose in an independent Scotland.
In addition you have those who have family in the Tory ,Lib Dem and Labour Parties.
Their tentacles of all these groupings mentioned above, spread throughout society.
We are growing ,whilst they decline.
And isn’t this the whole nub of it? Britnats such as Smart aren’t where the bulk of the Scottish people are on this.They are a minority who keep us in the union through fear and intimidation.
But not for much longer.
He sounds panicky.
They love their North Britain they do.
It’s the determination not to acknowledge that there exists two countries locked in an archaic Treaty that angers. The mentality seems to be the Treaty is written in stone; neither can renegotiate anything.
Anyhow, depending on the mood you’re in, two new essays:
Happy: link to wp.me
Grim: link to wp.me
I wonder if such a serious case of the cringe gives you back ache?
Ian Smart. Smart by name, just plain nasty by nature.
`The enemy within`
In America he could end up in jail for saying such things about his countries flag,
`Whoever publicly mutilates, tramples upon, defaces or treats contemptuously the flag of the United States … whether such flag is public or private property … shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both…`
Does Scotland have similar laws about abuse of the Saltire?
Thus is quite revealing. Pat Kane is an intelligent and considered pro-indy writer who largely supports Scottish Greens as well as SNP. In no sane, well-informed person’s view could he ever be characterised as someone who would “spit on the poor”; and neither could he realistically be described as a “flag-waver”.
Ian Smart’s insulting nonsense reveals, therefore, that either he is just way behind the curve on “where the conversation is at”, and “who’s all who” in terms of some of the more prominent figures writing about the conversation (i.e. Pat being one), or:
He knows Slab are being trounced in the polls and just hasn’t a damn clue how to respond other than with childish and petulant insults.
@Angra Mainyu says: 27 March, 2016 at 8:03 am:
“Maybe we have something to look forward to with Smarty-pants.”
Please do not attempt to make excuse for Smart, Angra Mainyu.
His sexual orientation has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his utter blind hatred of Scots, Scotland and the SNP.
The clue is in that last part, (hate for the SNP), which simply marks Smart out as just a, more outspoken than usual, member of, The London Labour in Scotland Branch Office.
As a branch of the London Labour Party they basically all hate Scots, Scotland and the SNP and consider themselves variously internationalists or UK/British residents.
Typically, as a now spent force political body, Labour cannot even agree among themselves which of the above they should class themselves. The only thing they seem to agree upon is, “SNP BAD”.
The Scottish Cringe is indeed a terrible psychological mental illness that has blighted Scotland for many centuries.
…the flag represents the restoration a nation that will champion the values of fairness in society.
We cannot change the direction of travel of his beloved Westminster but we can choose a different path for Scotland.
As long as the Labour Party try to copy the Tories to win England, and in doing so attract right wing career “politicians”, then the drift to the right of UK politics is assured.
Labour claiming one thing in London and another in Scotland fools no one. Labour in Scotland will always be a branch office.
Smart should explain the open warfare between the Blairites and Corbynites – how does that benefit the poor?
Come independence day this fucker needs to be removed from our country.
Forget him as an irrelevance, the writings on the wall for him and his party.
Why even the pensioners are beginning to take notice:
Sunday Post: some bits here.
I for one am quite happy that he doesn’t share the saltire with us. It makes it so much easier to dismiss him. He can go and don his Union Jack underpants and sing God save the Queen to his hearts content.
@ Angra, you’ve mebbes hit the nail on the head but who would shag Smart, lets face it!
The Sunday Post poll seems to bear out door to door canvassing carried out by the SNP activists in our constituency. The Labour vote seems to be vanishing (surprisingly so) whilst the older Tory vote is still there.
The key to success for the SNP will be to get the vote out. The numbers are there for success in every demographic – just need to avoid complacency.
Lovely sentiment. Is that an ivory tower in Mr Smart’s avatar?
Flags are important to people
They must be, the Brits never stop complaining about them
They either have to be halfway up or halfway down or not flown at all or if the Queen’s coming, which ones to fly
The only flag they have a real problem with is the Saltire which is only shown when there’s a complaint about the Scottish government so that must be a bad flag and terribly unpopular because we see the I.S flag on the telly quite regularly accompanied usually be some horrific Atrocity so that means Baad
And the Telly Media can’t get enough of showing the wartime Nazi flag in as many documentaries of bad people as they can cram into telly time
The way it seems to work is when you want to report that something’s Baad show plenty of flag of that entity or country….Except if it’s British
To display the British flag on Telly means “Comfort and Joy” “Justice and Right”
Example: Had Roger Federer won Wimbledon and the Swiss Prime Minister waved his flag not a soul would have complained but how very dare the First Minister of Scotland wave his national flag when that Scottish (British) guy won “It’s an outrage” “Disgusting” Conclusion, the Swiss flag must be fine and they’re nice people but the Saltire is without doubt very unpopular proving that all people who are represented by that flag are extremely Baad
What a miserable existence he inhabits. Exposed, he is filled with impotent anger. He rages against the inevitable, not eloquently but like an ill educated bar room bully. Not a happy man.
Freedom for Scotland Ian, it’s coming, you can’t do a damn thing about it. Seek help, it’s driving you crazy.
But it is the Red Flag,
That Labour have truly abused.
I will take the Saltire over some auld wifey in a magic hat any day.
@Grouse Beater says: 27 March, 2016 at 8:49 am:
” … Sometimes I think we should allocate a medium-sized island off the west coast as an AA mandatory rehabilitation centre, only mandatory has ‘Tory’ in it.”
Aye! Grouse Beater but so does, “The London Labour in Scotland Branch Office”, have Tories in it.
Dr Jim says
The UK is special, exceptional. Never does anything nasty. It has a special place in God’s heart. Always on the side of the righteous. Noble, honest and honourable. Better than all those Johnny foreign places.
One of the UK’s many problems is that there are millions of people around who believe that shite!
Dr Jim-the salmond wimbledon debacle immediately sprang to mind with me too. Still cannot quite believe the vitriol, hatred and abuse he got for waving our flag. What the fuck was that about? Scotland’s shame.
Anne gorman wrote:
“Real irony from a member of a party that’s been pissing on the poor for years and still is!”
Well said Anne, the only part i would change in that is to replace the word “years” with the word decades.
All Britnat Tory scum OUT OUT OUT – Lets all say Yes2snp2
Harvie’s on Northsound in 30min, taking calls…
@Richardinho,
Is it not the truth tower in a tabernacle?
‘This thought is as a death, which cannot choose,
But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.’
W.S. Sonnet No 64.
‘When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed.’
Mr Smart’s ‘lofty towers’ are collapsing before his very eyes; and it’s KILLING him.
Scotland Forever. Hail Alba !
@galamcennalath says: 27 March, 2016 at 10:38 am:
“Except if it’s British”.
There is no such thing as, “THE”, British Flag.
There are many British Flags.
The Republic of Ireland has its own flag.
Northern Ireland has a plethora of flags including the Union Flag with the Red Hand Of Ulster emblazoned upon it and also has the St Patrick’s Saltire but see :-
link to en.wikipedia.org .
The Welsh have their Red Dragon Flag.
The English have their Cross of St George but mostly believe that the Butchers Apron is the flag of England.
There are flags for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Scotland has the St Andrews Saltire and there are also Royal Flags for each UK and Crown Protectorates.
There is no such political state as Britain.
Smart by name. Dope by habit and repute.
While we are on this subject why were the English team wearing blue socks last night? Is the union flag there’s now?
Ian Smart is a bit of an enigma,,but one thing is constant. His hatred of the SNP.
I read a blog he did in March 2014 in which he suggested the Unionist parties “gang up” on the SNP to prevent them taking power. What was really telling was that he professed the name of Murdo Fraser as chancellor,as well as praising Ruth Davidson for her healthy approach to politics,as well as her ability to galvanise Unionist votes.
This ia a guy who professes to be Labour through and through,but was happy to have a coalition of the hated Tories running Scotland and her budget.
They really are one and the same beastie.
So, as Robert P says above..
Britain has no ‘unique’ flag.
Neither has it ‘unique’ values.
Ffs writing this, Cambo pops up on UKTV SPOUTING THE OPPOSITE.
Someone please explain again..
what are British values?
Even one or two.?
And would ANY of those
‘British-ness-isms’, differ from a respectful community ANYWHERE on the planet.
It’s all made up pish. Sorry.
Joemcg: There is an element within English society which has always held it to be a universal truth: UK/Britain/England is one and the same. The title may be interchangeable, but, the thing being discussed is one entity.
They absolutely hate it when it is pointed out that Scotland is part of this artificial political alliance: “The United Kingdom”, this blows apart their vision of reality.
Thus, there is always, sometimes with more subtlety than at other times, a desire to get the colours red, white and blue into an “England” strip or uniform.
There was the England strip at the 1982 World Cup, which was a rip-off of the British Airways logo.
In the early 1990s (1992 I think), the England Rugby Union international team had a strip which included navy blue cuffs on the long-sleeved jersey. At a crucial time in the Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield that year, the referee spotted a hand, with a navy blue cuff at the wrist, illegally handling in a ruck – he penalised Scotland, England kicked the penalty and won the game. TV analysis later showed, it was England’s Rob Andrew who had handled, not a Scot.
To answer your question Joemcg: Yes, some of them do think the Union Flag is theirs and theirs alone.
Aye in fleein ‘Aull Glory’ upside doon. Recawin Jimmy in ‘Thunderheart’. Played bae, yurr late, great John Trudell.
Mr Smart serves as a window into the character of a tainted Labour we’d all like to see the back of. His Labour has been exposed for the sham it is. A party that practices politics and the pursuit of power for its own sake. Career politicians, triangulators, movers, shakers, enablers, focus groups and place wonks. That Labour produced Blairs, Darlings, Campbells, Murphys, McTernans, McDougalls, Baillies and Smarts by the bushell. You could ad a lot of examples really, but you get the drift. It produced Labour peers FFS.
In reality and to be fair they have no flag, not even a red one anymore, (this applies to most of a certain political strata) but they happily wrap themselves up in one when it suits an agenda or a specific purpose. They’re a professional political class, not public servants. They haven’t cottoned on yet that in Scotland at least, the electorate need and want representative public servants who reflect their will and society.
Self serving careerists need not apply.
The British Flag in the Republic of Ireland was named the Butcher’s Apron due to the murder of Irish men women and children
in an attempt to keep Westminster’s elite in control of Ireland’s
resources.
The British Starved them, turned machine guns on sports fans,
and tied them up for firing squads.
Today BUM has a teary eye looking back at those who lost their lives in the fight to remove the deadly aggressor from their shores?
Can anyone explain why the Irish had a just cause in wanting to take control of their own destiny, while Scots are evil, stupid,
lazy spongers for wanting the exact same right to govern ourselves with a foreign power stealing from us?
OT. NEW.Apologies if this has been posted earlier.
Media academic Dr. John Robertson takes a look at BBC Reporting Scotland and STV.
Short quote:-
“Even after this fairly short time of 11 weeks – or 55 broadcasts – a pattern has emerged of a very strong tendency for Reporting Scotland, by contrast with STV, to present a very negative picture of Scotland and it’s politics, health, social services, policing and other issues.
This can be read as an attempt to create a climate of dissatisfaction amongst the electorate.”
For me,the white table in the piece is very revealing! 🙁
link to newsnet.scot
Mr Smart, clearly there is a completely irrational venom within you to all things Scottish – the country, its flag, its people.
Be glad to know that feeling is not reciprocated on our side. We dislike the Union but we do not hate those who support it.
That’s the difference between us, Mr Smart. The ‘hate’ is all on your side. You really need to ask yourelf ‘why’ that is. Would it really be so bad for Scotland to fully govern itself? Really?
@Robert Peffers
Of course you’re entirely correct Robert, there is no “British” flag but the good folk of England don’t seem to know that and my guess is that the adoption of the Union flag as their own by that country is that their own English flag’s use was usurped by the more unpleasant Nationalist elements of that country and became a little bit disreputable and those people are slightly ashamed of it except of course when used by the Navy then it’s a good flag
Had the riots in George Square been accompanied by Saltire waving supporters there is no doubt in my mind those pictures would have made the National news but as we know the fault was on the other side and given in the Unionist mind that the Union Flag means “Britain United Kingdom of England” to them there’s no way it’s going to be shown in a less than favourable light
Here’s another thing that puzzles me Robert, when they talk about Scotland becoming Independent they very often refer to “The rest of the UK” how can it be claimed this would be so when only England is a Kingdom of what’s left and Wales and NI are other entities so there’s no rest of UK they’d need to call it something else surely
It certainly explains why there are no Saltires flying over cities owned by yoons like Smart, Aberdeen in particular. Although he didn’t really have to.
Such is Lab yoonery.
And from tory yoons, actually one that swung far left republican in his Scotland region, then far right monarchist in his Scotland region, my Slovene girlfriend says Scotland’s shite so lets impeach Alex Salmond.
link to notesfromnorthbritain.wordpress.com
Somebody up there likes us. I clicked on a link to Ian Smart and got this:
CORRUPTED CONTENT ERROR
Socrates-ah yes I remember it well. Hastings bubbling like a bairn live on telly. Pity he wasn’t so emotional when it came to his own countries independence. 80 minute patriots.
Zoomer central Northsund!
Wummin wants capital punishment topped up with fracking!
@Effijy
If this were 100 years ago there is no doubt in my mind the British Government would send in troops to kill as many of us as they could as quickly as they could and if they thought they could get away with it they’d do it today
Scotland is way more important than Ireland not only finance but I think the real biggie is Location from the strategic point of view
Without the “Use” and control of Scotland, England is a tad isolated and they understand it well
They are much diminished as a power and who knows, they might even lose some of their much prized top table seats at the big important warry thingys
Apart from the obvious pure Brasser at “Losing” Scotland
Ian Smart is such a miserable wank, I thought it might help over this Easter weekend to lighten the mood.
The captain of a ship, sailing past a remote island, spots a stranded man on the beach. The captain heads to shore & learns that the man has been there for years and while chatting, notices three huts, all built by the castaway.
“What’s the first hut for?” he asks.
“That’s my house,” says the castaway.
“What’s the second hut for?”
“That’s my church.”
“And the third?”
“That’s the church I used to go to.”
Hey! Ian Smart is Scottish, so that means he is shite too!
Ian Shite. Has a nice ring to it (no pun intended *snigger*)
Tell you what the Union flag stands for——corruption.
I just read a post from Nicola telling the people of Scotland that the SNP run Scotland with a budget of just under £30 billion, whilst the bankers who caused all the problems have £80 billion in bonuses.
WTF. The Tories have allowed the people who created a deficit to walk away with enough to pay it. I need to waken up from this alternate reality, and soon.
Smart sounds like an ignorant bigot. Labour should crowdfund these people and send them on a fact finding trip to Scandinavia. They would always know which country they were in because of the flags fluttering from houses, businesses and public buildings. The standard of public services is excellent too.
Ignorance is curable, arrogance not so much.
All the youtube videos I bookmared about the 1916 Easter rising are now barred. But Ken Loach’s “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” is still available. Explains a lot.
link to youtube.com
Giving Goose, I think Ian’s brother would agree with you.
The RTE documentary about James Connolly is also still available. Being independent, Eire manages to sustain a film and TV service, unlike poverty stricken Scotland.
.
Connolly came from Edinburgh so there’s some local interest too.
link to youtube.com
Did anyone see the report from Slab about Ian S Smart when he was “investigated” previously for his Anti SNP rants?
Good thing they never suspended him.
He is a real asset to the SNP and the indy campaign.
Just imagine how mad he will be after the May Labour wipeout!
Sky news is covering events from Dublin live but you’ll notice the State Broadcaster isn’t
A funny thing happened at the fly past by the Irish Air Foece though, their planes were able to stream the colours of their flag
We were told British planes couldn’t manage that for Scotland
The Irish planes must be better eh
Slightly O/T but the last donation to The Great Leap Forward was £50 from J K Rowling.
Really? I’d like to think so but something tells me otherwise….
Westminster subsidises Ulster for it’s illegal bigotry and sectarianism. 50% pro rata, £14Billion. To cause murder and death for over 100 years for Unionist votes in Westminster. Partition 1922.
NI (2 million) raises £28Billion in tax revenues and gets 50% – £14Billion = £42Billion. Norwegian level of funding.
Westminster Unionists cheated the Irish out Home Rule and caused unnecessary suffering and death.
RT has live coverage of the parade in Dublin
link to youtube.com
i always thought that the rise of yes and the snp was partly down to the looney yoons like smart, effy, etc
but with sarwar being parachuted into slab leader in waiting, the die have been cast.
going forward, the ian smart type yoonery will become the norm. standby for more claims from sarwar about nazis supporters, dictators, saltires photoshoped into swatstikas, etc
lets face it, it was always going to be thus, after all, ian davidson has retired
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
The main concern I have with the term ‘Britnat’ is not that it might upset them.
No, it is rather because it conveys a suggestion of equivalence with other terms like ‘Scots nat, Scotnat, Cybernat’ which is highly inaccurate and unfair.
In reality, the two ‘nats’ in the above are only related in that they are virtually antonyms.
They are opposite in meaning.
One ‘nat’ means: “My nation is the best. All other nations are inferior and should be ignored if possible. If they cannot be ignored, for example if they have something we want, then they may require to be occupied and an attempt made at correction.
If no reasonable attempt at correction is successful then some more drastic solution may be required.”.
In other words, the ‘philosophy’ of the Nationalist Imperialist.
The other nat means: “My nation is no better or worse than any other nation. I welcome the existence of different nations and the diversity in cultural perspectives that brings. I see that as being highly advantageous for the pace of advancement of human civilisation.
So, tolerance is the key word. We should tolerate and learn from other cultural perspectives even if we find them difficult to understand. The only time tolerance is inapproriate is when we are faced with the intolerance of a nation state which tries to interfere in another nation’s cultural perspective.”
In other words. fundamentally anti imperialist.
Unfortunately ‘Britimperialist’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
Perhaps it could be abbreviated to ‘Bimp’ or Bimpnat’??
There are more than a couple of Scottish reason’s for that flag to be called The Butcher’s Apron too.
Well it puts to bed any misconceptions who is at the heart of ‘divided’ Scotland. This sort of stuff is really awful from Slab.
Mr Smart et al really are obsessed with ‘flegs’ aren’t they?
Just catching up with raging Kevin’s meltdown. Truly unbelievable. If I were a shareholder in any of his companies I would wonder what the hell he was being paid for. He is never off social media promoting his blog!
He spends more time arguing with those he supposedly seeks to convert than most people who do social media stuff for a living.
It is clear he desperately wants to be in some kind of political advisory role. Remember he offered his services to the Scottish Government? Kez probably could not pay as much or had a rare moment of insight not to ally herself with such a toxic brand.Or, is he aligning himself with who he thinks will come second?
The idea that he is politically neutral is pathological self delusion.
What a talented writer Mr. Smart is. Condescension, projection, cringeing and sneering – 14 words.
For some Establishment Britnat sentiment (that I’m sure Smart & co will relish) go to Simon Heffer’s piece in the Telegraph about the Easter Rising.
I won’t spoil it for you but it’s a cracker.
The National last May:-
“Labour man Ian Smart: New SNP MPs Trots and fascists”.
Scottish Labour at it’s finest. 🙁
link to tinyurl.com
The fact that Ian Smart is able to rant and rave at will in Scotland, making the most offensive remarks and outrageous assertions (such as the tweet above) is telling.
He won’t be arrested, or attacked or dragged from his bed at 5am. So all the pure pish he has spouted down the years about Nazis and one party states is conveniently dismantled by his own existence.
He generously and efficiently destroys his own world-view.
The British Starved them, turned machine guns on sports fans,
and tied them up for firing squads.
In all the extensive BBC coverage of this week’s ceremonies in Ireland, the words “black and tan” have never been mentioned.
It’s an Easter anniversary.
The Parliamentary Standards Officer has been investigating Liar Carmichael for 300 days this weekend.
Must be one extensive in-depth peice of work.
Didn’t realise so many people must be involved and so much evidence to take.
The legal case on front of 2 Law Lords was shorter.
Smart by name – arse by nature.
Brit Bot thinks he’s Erchie….only parroting what he was taught at School,(with regular top ups/downloads on EBC/MSM),no concept of individual thought,programmed to perform robotic tasks on demand,time for a reboot,first turn of their power source ;-).
Time to re-educate the Erchie’s,(martian (s) by name alien by nature) ;-/
#Erchiehasnoshame
Happy Easter
SNP x 2 Eu in
Indyref2
Inkall says:
27 March, 2016 at 1:08 pm
There are more than a couple of Scottish reason’s for that flag to be called The Butchers Apron too
————-
Exactly
The infamous Duke of Cumberland at culloden otherwise known as “the butcher”
The problem the Britnatz have with Scotland’s civic nationalism is that it holds up a mirror to themselves. And they don’t like what they see.
Orkney could do with a few more bob,if anyone has any to spare,to help replace the Lib Dems.
link to crowdfunder.co.uk
British Nationalism, or as I like to think of it as, English Home Counties proto-facsism, was cooked up between the original One Nation Tories and early Fabian socialists.
Nationalism, Racialism and Early British Socialism
The Journal for Historical Review
link to ihr.org
Yes I too was wondering about Labour’s investigation into
Mr Smart exchanging Tweets with Dipity Dug, Dim Jim and McTerspam
where he called the SNP that Nasty N work for world war 2 Germany.
They said they were unaware of him saying this, and yet they
regularly exchanged tweets.
They advised SNP that they must ban and of their supporters that
are shown to use such language, but then, it is one rule for them?
I’ve had a letter from Scottish Power about fitting a Smart Meter
It has bad connotations for me so No. Can you put a Pin in them?
Lol
There is a plaque in the cowgate in Edinburgh (though it’s not easy to spot), commemorating James Connolly – as he was from Edinburgh.
When it comes to the Saltire in particular, ‘right-on’ old-Labourites and hipster Lefties always had a kneejerk ‘you must be nazis’-style response. It became a conditioned reflex throughout the SNPs existence, such as the Bannockburn march compared to Nuremberg rally etc. Anyway, it’s always puzzled me why the Union Jack does not contain the proper saltire colour, but some darker shade of blue. Which now of course adorns football and rugby tops etc. Perhaps this oddity allows Britnats of all persuasions to distance themselves from their own flag whilst clinging to the remnant of the old Empire.
‘Whit yea gonnae dae,phone the polis,We ARE the polis’
‘Smart just fukc off and don’t darken my vowels again’
As mentioned earlier, a ‘Cringe of the Week’ would be pretty amusing.
This guy would be a regular winner.
The type that would prefer Tory governments lording over us for the next 50 years, than a chance for his party to govern an independent Scotland.
‘…pathetic flag’
That is some reference to the Scottish flag.
To be said in the same weekend where the Republic of Ireland celebrates, as well as commemorates, the Easter Uprising that took place 100 years ago today, shows the narrow-vision of some of those who still believe in Unionism. The Tri-Colour is flying proudly over Dublin as well as the other cities, towns and villages throughout Ireland as they celebrate not only the centenary of the modern-state of Ireland, but also their culture.
So when it comes to Ian Smart’s perception of our national flag …words fail me.
However (and funnily enough as I am at this very moment doing a TMA for my Uni course on the modern state, romanticism and nationalism), I’ll remind Mr Smart of a quote that was written well over a century and a half ago in Italy. When Mr Smart condemns his national flag as ‘pathetic’, then he implies that the nationhood of ‘Scotland’ as pitiful, worthless and therefore a mockery (and this …literally from the same political wing …which saw only over a week ago at a certain conference, when a certain someone quoted that ‘Scotland’ was just a ‘word’).
However, though this quote was written as a rallying cry for the unification of Italy (the irony there), it’s simple message is a call to any people’s who wish to be free from misrule; to be perceived as sovereign; and have the right to govern themselves. It’s words …could easily apply to the Polish of 1795, the Irish of 1916 or even simply, Scotland of 2016.
‘Without a country you have no name, no identity, no voice, no rights, no membership in the brotherhood of nations – you remain just the bastards of humanity. Soldiers without a flag, Jews in a world of Gentiles, you will win neither trust nor protection. You will have no sponsors. Where there is no country, there is no common agreement to which you can appeal; the egoism of self-interest rules alone, and he who has the upper hand keeps it. [Therefore], only your country, the blessed land that stretches spacious and rich …can realize your hopes of a better lot.
– Giuseppe Mazzini, The Duties of Man (1844-58)
Just been watching the episode “Rory Bremner’s Great British Views” from Somerset. He may be a Unionist but he was born in Edinburgh.
“The soil and climate in Somerset are perfect for producing apples in the same way as the French vinyards produce perfect grapes but obviously obviously I think we are better because we are English; Hurrah!”
Really says it all
@Robert Louis
Connelly:
link to tinyurl.com
PS:
Make what you will of this from radio shortbread this morning.
Easter Rising:
Especially the bit from Ruth Dudley Edwards Irish but not living there but in London. 4:30 mins in close enough to the start.
link to bbc.co.uk
After that there is a bit from
Dr J Hassan on the campaign, ‘Things to come’!
What a film that was… scary from HG Wells. Anyhoo!
Chic McGregor
Does my recognition of the homosapien sub-species defined as “Bimpnat”, make me a racist? 🙂
Angra Mainyu?
Sorry I got the spelling wrong…Connolly:
I no longer consider these Britnat Unionists as the opposition. They are a sideshow.
In our camp, we have the arguments and the will to see our Country set free. Ranged against us, we have Fortress Britain reluctantly deferring token powers to pacify the rebellious Scots but thoroughly intransigent and quite determined it will never release the iron grip it has on us.
Frankly, I rather suspect Fortress Britain has as much regard for the caliber of Scottish Unionists as we do. When we ask them to articulate the positive case for the Union, I rather suspect Fortress Britain wishes they’d get on and do it too. However, even incompetent Scottish Unionists provide a convenient buffer zone which excuses the British state having to deal with awkward questions. And all for the price of some weasely promises and and an ermine lined cloak or two. Cheap at half the price. To coin the phrase from the front line of British Imperialsm, “They (Scots) are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to rough country, and it is no great loss if they fall”. – General Wolfe expressing his regard for the Highland troops he deployed against the French in 18th Century Canada.
Do your bit Yoons. Your Empire needs you.
‘Scottish’ Labours election strategy seems to be, ‘Vote for me, we tell lies, so what, we want easy money.’
Not sure that’s a winning strategy.
The “left-leaning” Guardian live blogging the – sorry, one absolutely must capitalise that ‘t’, it is, after all, THE most important boat race in THE WORLD – The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race…. LOL!
I mind back in the day when this English upper-class elitist trash was one of the BBC’s ‘must see’ (no choice) events in their sporting calendar-year: Grandstand – dedicated almost entirely to English sporting endeavours; Royal Ascot; The Horse of the Year Show; The FA Cup Final; The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final; Test Match Cricket; The Grand National (to be fair, it does have worlwide appeal); Athletics from (wherever) where ‘Britain’s’ English athletes were competing; Racing (cars) from Silverstone… and other sundry guff that I can’t even be bothered trying to remember.
Ahhh, those were the days, eh! That was when Scotland was ‘really’ rubbish – couldn’t get our sports teams and athletes on the BBC no matter what they did! Tsk! But we knew our place then, when Brittania believed they still ruled the world, and it wasn’t one for us to complain about.
And for that, I must thank those arrogant bastards! Oh, yes, because here we are in 2016, not too many years away now from our independence – Scotland’s independence – and that makes Scots future very rosy indeed!
The UK? Going down like a leaking ship – nice legs… shame about the boat race!
The most interesting thing I can think of to say about Ian Smart, is that his name is an anagram of Martians.
Aye, that’s it. You’d get more sense out a Martian too.
See what happens ,when it gets nearer to Marching Season,no fresh air for their village idiot brains ,hiding in the closet till July comes around ,
@ Skooshcase
Yer a welcome breath of fresh air, love reading yer posts and absolutely love that shoot straight from the hips take no prisoners style you have. Call a spade a spade and git the joab done. Nae messin!
😉
No more LibLabCons – Vote Yes2snp2
P.S.
British nationalist socialism. More evidence of the duality of life? 🙂
All over the blogshere as we approach the Scottish Election there are the principled,well-intentioned but deluded ranks of those who imagine they are marching to political change in Scotland with a huge, radical, left-wing republican army. I may be a left wing republican but I recognise there is no such huge army in Scotland. Political change will only be achieved through the support of a broad based movement that can actually achieve real political power. That’s when we start
I notice his tweet was posted well after sundown. Hic! or in his case bitterhic!
I feel really sorry for Iain Smart. The guy must really hate himself!
It must be terrible to be ashamed of your nationality/country/yourself.
He seems to be an Englishman trapped in a Scotsman’s body. He’s a ‘transnational’ 🙂
There are a lot of people like Iain Smart who hate being Scottish because they believe Scots are inferior.
I wonder if there is any other country in the world with this problem?
I suppose indigenous people in a country that has been taken over by others might feel the same as Iain Smart & Co.
I would have to do further research into this but I suppose it wouldn’t be difficult for the dominant culture to teach indigensous people that they are inferior.
This is probably what has happened to people like Iain Smart.
I’m off to find out if there is such a thing as the ‘Aboriginal Cringe’ ‘Native American Cringe’ ‘African American Cringe’ etc.
There has got to be some explanation is to why the Scottish Cringe exists! It must have been taught!
How did some people avoid having the ‘Scottish Cringe’ and could this learned behaviour be reversed?
Do you think using the term ‘coconut’ is racist?
link to archive.is
Would there be a similar term to describe ‘Scots with the Cringe’ and would that be considered racist?
@CamB
Weel thai hiv certaintly manyeit Scotland an garred a wheen o fowk be verra angra.
Paul O’Grady: The Sally Army and Me – BBC1
BBC used sub-titles for a homeless Scottish man when speaking to Scouser Paul O’Grady
Yes, they did!
Stu., thanks for alerting folk to this dangerous fool.
The only good thing to come out of poor narcissistic Ian Smart’s Twitter feed is this – in his own words…
“Virtually nobody read my blog yesterday”
Proof: link to archive.is
Says everything you need to now about this irrelevant and deluded individual. Nobody is paying him attention, and those that are, are nobodies!
O/T
The best anti-cringe medicine
Flags – it’s time we started getting more and more Saltires up. They now are a powerful political statement.
We can get a 5ft x 3ft polyester SALTIRE (sleeved with two brass eyelets) to anybody in UK for £3.50 (which includes p&p).
A cheque to YES COWAL sent to Forward, 186 Argyll Street, Dunoon PA23 7HA will get you one by return or phone 01369 707844 any afternoon.
Scottish Labour’s public services spokeswoman says
“I’m bewildered” … she means me! 🙁
No I don’t think so. Klaxon alert photo included.
link to archive.is
Just tried to reply on twitter to Stuart’s ‘once in a generation’ tweet but got something like ‘looks like spam’??? so couldn’t.
So here is my reply:
“‘Generation’ is a variable concept, especially when an extinction event is involved.”
@heedtracker
Aye, I remember my dad talking about the “black and tans”. He did his apprenticeship in a shipyard in Belfast in the early 1900s.
He had no good words to say about them.
Funny how they and their activities have been airbrushed out of history.
This looks interesting. Perhaps one of the more literary readers would like to be the first reviewer?
The Concept of Empire Burke to Attlee 1774-1947
link to amazon.co.uk
Oops.
link to archive.org
link to tinyurl.com
Making children ashamed to be Aboriginal
@CamB, Angra
PS just noticed Angra Mainyu is a poster here. Hi.
Hadn’t a clue what you were going on about Cameron.
Have now read the ‘coming out’ theory.
I have now looked AM up and it means ‘malevolent spirit’ for Zoroastrians.
Does ‘Bimpnat’ mean something else I don’t know about?
Pinches arm. Ouch!
@gillie
I saw this as well. Fucking incensed. No one else was treated this way and you can’t say that the guys accent was broad unlike Paul O’Grady
Dave McEwan Hill
thing about the 10,000 yes saltires was it was crowd funded in advance. from there the various yes groups around the country were given between 50-100. these flags were then sold to supporters in their own supporters in there area for £5 a pop and were one of the main sources of income for the grass roots groups.
it was also one of the best and most visible items of merchandise during the entire campaign. those that organised and crowd funded the 10,000 flags project should be proud that there was no image, video or photograph of any rally during the indy ref which didnt have at least one of the flags in the image.
OT but today a few thousand motor cyclists gave up their Sunday to do the Easter Egg charity run for Yorkhill – once upon a time they did carry easter eggs but there were too many , now the organisation of the Children’s hospital gets money from them instead.
Yes , they enjoy it but they get no publicity from either of the two close TV stations – despite the meeting place , for many years , being the SECC car park.
I have no doubt that some biker will put footage on youtube but that isn’t the point. Surely , since both TV stations enjoy ” cat stuck up a tree ” tales they could make the little effort required to show a large charity run?
I no longer believe that either bunch at Pacific Quay have any interest in Scotland .
@Chic McGregor
Yeah, had a look at that. Seems Labour are attempting to mislead again. I’ve looked over the SNPs 2011 manifesto, the Edinburgh agreement and the Smith Commission proposals and y’know whut? I cannot find that ‘promise’ anywhere.
I heard Mr Salmond reply to a reporters query in those terms and I’m pretty sure he included it in his preface in the White paper, but to my knowledge it does not exist anywhere as a stated legal outcome for the Scottish referendum. There are of course several reasons for that, not least of which is that no current government could be held responsible for the actions of past government decisions. More importantly though, in our democracy no government can tie the hands of the electorate in terms of their democratic choices, they wouldn’t dare.
Mr Salmond not only would not commit the electorate or the government to such a course, he almost certainly could not. He could only ever state his personal opinion.
‘Course Lab/Con/Lib are counting on the public being totally ignorant (seems to be a pattern forming there). Personally, I just find their vehemence on the subject not a little insulting and almost certainly stinks of desperation.
In short the government ain’t the boss of the public Labour. I think you’ll find it’s the other way round.
Ashamed To Be a Native American?!
link to sojo.net
‘What began with genuinely good intentions (in those days, “European” norms were viewed as superior, “sameness” seemed like a good idea, and the threat of legitimate genocide lingered over tribes) rapidly deteriorated, with Christian boarding schools becoming institutions of forced assimilation and abuse.
Beginning in the 1800s and lasting into the 20th century, Native children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to live in boarding schools. Finding the task of “civilizing” Native adults beyond its ability, the federal government delegated the task of “normalization” to churches, which could educate, or, inculcate, children from a young age.
Originally, these schools were located close enough to the reservation that a child could at least return home on weekends. However, when it was discovered they were still able to practice their culture at home with their families, the children were sent to boarding schools, often thousands of miles away, to ensure they were entirely stripped of their traditions and family ties.
Complaint gone in to the BBC about the use of sub titles when homeless Scottish guy was speaking to Paul O’Grady.
Noticed to that whenever BBC Countryfile is in Scotland you hear very few Scottish accents.
bjsalba says:
27 March, 2016 at 6:54 pm
@heedtracker
Aye, I remember my dad talking about the “black and tans”. He did his apprenticeship in a shipyard in Belfast in the early 1900s.
Its thought extreme violence shown by the black and tans, particularly in the south west of Ireland around Cork, ended broader Irish public support for British rule in Ireland.
British historians used to explain the level of violence displayed by the black and tans as brutalised WW 1 trench warfare soldiery, exported to the civilian population in Ireland.
Its a legacy of British brutality that survived for another 80 years at least.
@Ruby, you could also look at the Native American experience in Indian Schools, especially the Carlisle School of Richard ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man’ Pratt.
There is a great book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz called An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. A few flaws but overall a great book. Or, in fiction, Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko.
schrodingerscat says:
“those that organised and crowd funded the 10,000 flags project should be proud”
That would be oor ain Tartanpigsy 🙂
@Ruby 6.25pm
You have hit on something which is a well-established and well-documented part of human nature, unfortunately. Its roots are probably ancient, even found in social animals’ behaviours, the desire to belong to the dominant group. In these situations, to establish the dominance of the leading group, it is often necessary to remind those in lower groups of their inferior status.
It is known that this has a negative effect on those animals with inferior status, apart from the obvious(e.g restricted access to food resources) in that they suffer from constant anxiety leading to poor health and earlier death than the elite group.
We can all see the parallels with modern human societies and you are correct in that indigenous peoples suffer from the attacks on their culture and status. John Pilger has documented the appalling way in which Australian Aborigines have been marginalized and their culture regarded as backward and primitive causing catastrophic loss of self-esteem in their communities so that alcoholism and early death is common.
Scots are not suffering like the Native Americans or Aborigines but I would suggest that someone like Smart is exhibiting the same desire to denigrate in order to maintain the supposed superiority of his establishment group. He might want to appear more sophisticated but it’s not too far from how meerkats behave, if they could use twitter!
ruby, think Uncle Tom describes them perfectly well.
Dorothy Devine, missed you last night, mind you it was too busy to get round everybody.
Re Bikers Easter Egg runs, happens all over the UK, and very rarely gets publicity.
Bikers seen as workin class so not worthy of note. Since I’ve got scores of them , I must be thought as underclass 🙂
Chic McGregor
Are you suggesting I’m a bit queer* like? Well I would admit I’m influenced by the view that differing sexuality exhibit certain defining characteristics, though I wouldn’t know how definitive such an observation is. 🙂
* As in “Queer Theory”, obvs.
gillie says:
27 March, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Paul O’Grady: The Sally Army and Me – BBC1
BBC used sub-titles for a homeless Scottish man when speaking to Scouser Paul O’Grady
Yes, they did!
Ruby replies
It’s all part of the Cringe training!
Project Cringe!
Has this been going on for 300 years?
The yoon state and its establishment are TERRIFIED that Scotland decides to control its own destiny and ‘finances’. That would be the end of the great Brittish empire and dear old Engerland will have to live within its means and Scotland can go its own way using its own finances to benefit its own population and future.
The yoons will try to prevent this at ALL costs make no mistake about that. That is why the yoon parties are forever going on about trying to prevent a second referendum, they are terrified and if they can cheat or trick us into loosing another ref. Then the they will outlaw it for the next 30 and we can lump it. That is not a very sound idea on their part, listen to the people yoons.
I believe Ian Smart is the son of the former Lord Provost of Paisley John S Smart. Knew him when he worked with Ross Harper in Easterhouse, seemed sane then…
Scots are not suffering like the Native Americans or Aborigines but I would suggest that someone like Smart is exhibiting the same desire to denigrate in order to maintain the supposed superiority of his establishment group
Look at life expectancy, drug and alcohol addiction, generational unemployment in Scotland. Its not that different.
“We are the people” getting chanted by crowds across the planet often stems from the poorest, the most marginalised and exploited.
Lenny , I know that all airts and pairts do the Easter Egg run and I think that when thousands of bikes take to the road for a charity run then they damned well should get a mention on the telly!
Didn’t get to Waxy’s ,my wee granddaughter was here for the weekend and not even a Wingers gathering can compete with my wee three year old charmer!
JGedd says
John Pilger has documented the appalling way in which Australian Aborigines have been marginalized and their culture regarded as backward and primitive causing catastrophic loss of self-esteem in their communities so that alcoholism and early death is common.
Scots are not suffering like the Native Americans or Aborigines
Ruby replies
Alcoholism/Drug Addiction & early death! That sounds like something that happens in Scotland.
I wonder if Independence will bring about a
psychological change?
“There has got to be some explanation is to why the Scottish Cringe exists! It must have been taught!”
Quite right, Ruby. The Establishment has been denigrating our culture since 1707 but the real attack on it, both Scots and Gaelic, began with the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, which effectively excluded those languages from the education process in order to devalue them and thus “Britify” the lieges.
How we get from there to deeply disturbed self-loathers like Ian Smart would require the attentions of an army of PhD students but I seriously wonder if many other countries have produced such pathologically conflicted types who loathe themselves to the point of self-deletion.
As for the Butcher’s Apron, it now revolts me as much as other historical flags of oppression.
@Jas: I think they darkened our blue for the UJ to increase the contrast and make it more recognisable from a distance, something which really bugs me too. “The Story of The Scottish Flag” by McMillan and Stewart (1925) is a good read and quite easy to get second hand. I believe a lot more of the Scottish “Red Dusters” are now being seen on boats in Scottish waters, which is encouraging.
@call me Dave 4.24
The extraordinary shite on REPORTING SCOTLAND this morning where the BBC wheeled on thier favourite unionist polemic Ruth Dudly Evans to comment on the Irish Rising 100 years ago without mentioning that she is the Irish(?) equivalent of Ian Smart – except with none of his marvellous redeeming features.
That the BBC picked such a person to ‘Independently’ comment in a fair and balanced manner on the 1916 Rising after employing her for years on all thier outlets to savagely demounce all things Irish, Gaelic or Independent.
She replaced the failed politician Conor Cruise O’Brien as the colonial office/bbc spokesperson on Irish culture, history and politics when he thankfully went to the big Lieatorium in the sky.
She belongs to a stable of journos who were pAid by the Independent group to do the exact equivalent of SNP BAD in Ireland employed by the only Irishperson since independence to accept a full knighthood from the Queen (for services rendered to the Crown) – Tony O’Reilly – whose business empire is now toast (:
Others in this coven of shame include Kevin Myers , Eoin Harris and Emer O’Kelly to name a few – there are about 10 of them. They have a particular hatred of Sinn Féin and in the recent elections in the Republic the Sunday Independent broke its own record of 19 anti-Sinn Féin articles in a single edition, reaching 23 articles.
Their market is the Irish equivalent of the Tories called Fine Gael and a small right-wing rump of the Irish Labour Party that unknownst to most of the Irish Public was owned and controlled by the UK intelligence services in the 1970’s and 80’s.
This 25/28% of the Irish population is similar to the 30% of Scottish voters who say they will never vote for independence and have similar neo-colonial attitudes – they are from families who did well under British rule and seek newspapers and programming that affirms thier self-hate and attachment to the BBC and all things British.
Fine Gael’s forbears were armed ny the British in the 1920’s to mount a counter-revolution against Republicans and resulted in the first years of the Irish State being a shadow of what it could have been with deeply conservative neo colonial attitudes ingrained with little change to the public administration (“just painting the letterboxes green” is a way of explaining it) until Republicans took power in the 1930’s . These were the same sort of people who supported the Irish Blueshirt movement and sent support to Franco and Hitler in Spain while Irish Republicans and Socialists fought on the Governement side. Normal Irish people refer to them as ‘Blueshirts’.
This was all well depicted by Ken Loach in his excellent film ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’ that I can recommend to anyone trying to understand how the UK damaged the early years of Irish Independence link to m.youtube.com if you want history without having to do any work. Ken had his budget cut mid-film when the UK authorities found out what he was up to but he still completed the film albeit with a reduced cast.
Attempts by the early Irish State in the 1930’s to establish economic independence were firmly crushed by the UK in an 8 year economic War on Ireland that only ended with the Second World War. link to en.m.wikipedia.org
If you follow what I have posted above, you will begin to understand how normal Irish people regard the likes of Ruth Dudly Edwards and her UKOK Emprire GOOD , Ireland BAD style of BBC independent commentary on all things Irish.
The BBC has been broadcasting this sort of white to the World via the World Service for decades, and it is upsetting that they are feeding this sort of rubbish and worse to Scottish people.
I could go on – but it would make this post too long
Both Labour and Tory leaflets are the same, both parties are bleating about stopping a referendum by the only party likely to propose one, who haven’t
All attempts at trying to win voters with political arguments have gone by these parties but the one thing uniting them is the slogan “We’re the only ones who can stop the SNP” vote for us to come second
Laudable to have ambition though
aye xstix, it was.
but it was mainly crowdfunded by wingers, you and I included
it was the best piece of merchandise and the biggest source of revenue for the local groups.
coupled with the fact that the wbb was the best piece of yes literature in the entire campaign, wos should not underestimate their importance in the grand scheme of things, the rev and the posters included
‘Scots are not suffering like the Native Americans or Aborigines’
Is that because ‘Project Cringe’ has been successful in Scotland?
Has anyone like John Pilger/BBC done a documentary on the Scottish Cringe?
If someone did would it ever be released in Scotland?
@schrodingerscat @X-sticks
Aye, the Yes flag and the WBB. There was nothing better and that’s a fact.
Robert Peffers,
“There is no such thing as, “THE”, British Flag.”
“There are many British Flags.”
“There is no such political state as Britain.”
Do you have any objection to Gordon Brown calling Scotland “North Britain”?
@ Cadogan Enright: a great post. We could do with more of your perspectives on the Scottish and Irish situation. RD Evans is another classic Bamber Gascgoine/Massey Ferguson type, so extreme that the first time I read one of her articles, I thought it was a spoof.
It’s typical her guff appeared on Reporting Scotland. As I have said elsewhere, every time I have the misfortune to see this misbegotten programme in someone’s house, I always think, “If the French had had television in the Forties, this is what Vichy Vision would have looked like.”
What about jokes? Are they all part of Project Cringe?
How did all these Irish jokes come about?
What about Scottish jokes?
Are there the equivalent jokes about the English?
I think my ‘Scottish Cringe’ project is going to be huge! I might have to write a book! 🙂
@Truth at 5:31 pm
“The most interesting thing I can think of to say about Ian Smart, is that his name is an anagram of Martians.”
It does ‘n’ all! That’s a belter!
@Stoker at 5:44 pm
Cheers to you there, Stoker! Sometimes you just have to tell it as you see it, and, well, now and again that incudes being a bit of a potty-mouth. Aye, some will disagree, or even get right pished-off, but hey, better out than in, eh!
@Ruby at 6:25 pm
“He seems to be an Englishman trapped in a Scotsman’s body. He’s a ‘transnational’”
LOL! Wonder if he’s gender neutral…?
Between them they cost only a fraction of the total spend of the Yes campaign. An obvious example of the power of the grassroots campaign and Wings in particular.
We should never forget that, we’re here until the job is done.
Normally the Rev. blocks rants from anybody….that mean shit….ffs sober up.
Yes you maybe imporant,yet to be decided,but keep a lid on it,if youv’e had a few.
FFS
@heedtracker 7.56pm
‘Look at life expectancy, drug and alcohol addiction, generational unemployment in Scotland. Its not that different.’
I agree entirely, heedtracker, and if I had had time when I posted earlier, I would have expanded on my comments to that effect. Lesley Riddoch in her book, ” Blossom ” goes into the terrible cost on deprived communities in Scotland in terms of drug addiction, alcoholism, ill health and early death due to generational poverty and lack of educational opportunity.
And what is New Labour’s response to that? They called such communities, living with deep-seated familial deprivation over generations, the ” underclass”. I have nothing but scorn for Labour charlatans who, while they had the chance, did little to try to address some of the causes of this human distress.
Instead, they kept us thirled to the Westminster system and seem to share the same contempt for people in poverty as the Tory establishment.
I could go on – but it would make this post too long
Thanks SC. That’s who it is in BBC Rules The World Service, continually stating at every and any opportunity, the Irish Republic was not wanted in Ireland, should never happened, and is a failure.
I thought they’d gone UKOK BBC mad during the referendum, with a spectacular attempt at terrorising Scottish voters throughout the eve of 18th Sept. But it does explain their bizarre endless attack on Ireland’s democracy.
BBC World Service gits were terrifying throughout the night before 18 Sept. Their on the hour news had terrifying solemn reportage of IS attacking and possibly beheading shoppers in Australian cities like Melbourne, with OZ PM Abbott nutcase mobilising thousands of police and troops. Nothing like that actually happened though, but following all that terror BBC “item,” Scotland goes to the polls this morning…
Very BBC dirty tricks.
@onwards
I don’t think a Cringe of the Week would be enough. It is a daily occurrence and we do get several even on a quiet day.
For uni project I researched the hanging of ‘The Last Jacobite’ in London, in 1753.
The man was Dr. Archibald Cameron, of Lochiel, younger brother of the then-chieftain.
After Culloden he bolted to France with his wife. He was betrayed while on a secret trip home to settle some personal and Jacobite business, taken to the Tower of London, sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. One of the four judges, delivering sentence, made a point of telling him that he was not to be allowed to hang long enough to die before disembowellement.
His wife came over from France and stayed with him in prison for his last week. He gave her his final notes which she secreted out and later had published.
According to what passed for ‘newspapers’ at the time, there seemed to be no popular appetite for Cameron’s death as he had always been a non-combatant and used his medical expertise to help wounded enemies as well as those on his own side. Because he’d been found guilty of Treason, Cameron suffered the indignity of being drawn to Tyburn on a sledge rather than be allowed to share a cart with ‘ordinary’ criminals. But the judge’s orders were not carried out – the hangman allowed his body to hang for a full forty-five minutes before he was brought down, and then his heart was removed. He was not quartered and his head was left attached to his body.
His wife, who was pregnant with their eight child at the time, had appealed for mercy directly to the king, but was ignored. She subsequently lost her mind.
link to en.wikipedia.org
@Cadogan Enright
I also listened to this on the BBC world service in the early hours.
Easter rising.
Actual recorded voices used of peoples involved in some places.
link to bbc.co.uk
@Ian Brotherhood
Now that’s gruesome. Guess that is what is meant by “hanging’s too good for him”. Justice my arse.
Ian Smart followers 3.5K. Wings followers 46.5K.
It’s always a stupid idea to spit on someone’s flag.
I’m extremely glad that Smart isn’t on our side. The man’s a complete liability. A sort of Unionist version of McGlashan from Absolutely but with all redeeming features removed.
Read Heffer’s article on the Easter Rising. I still can’t believe it, the Brit Nats are all misty eyed over Irish nationalism. Maybe bullies only respect those who stand up to them and not surrender abjectly to them (twice).
I raised a glass to James Connolly this weekend. Both nations could have had much to celebrate this week.
Must be many conflicting emotions with the many rabid BritNats in the upper echelons of Celtic Park today.
@Iain More: sadly true.
A good comment, Ian Brotherhood. I don’t know if you’ve read the chapter on the Jacobites in Stuart McHardy’s “Scotland’s Future History”, where he demolishes the notion that the Jacobites were a Gaelic/Catholic minority? The Cantonment Records (strangely not generally available in Scotland) show that the Redcoats had to oppress the Lowlands for many years post-45 because so many Lowland Non-Gaels supported the Stewarts since they represented, for all their faults, the lineage of the Scots Crown, and not that of the Hanoverian interlopers.
Some things never change.
I seem to have caused some controversy by seeming to say that Scots hadn’t suffered as had Native Americans or Aborigines. These are the perils of trying to type a comment while carrying on various conversations with family members coming in and out of the room and not wanting to write at essay length.
My remark, with more time, would have prefaced a more nuanced set of comments in which I would have drawn those parallels of deprived communities in Scotland with various marginalized communities who had suffered from colonialism, which Ruby and heedtracker picked up on.
However, to head off any pouncing unionist who might have pretended outrage that I had overlooked the racist oppression of Native Americans and Aborigines and equated it with the Scottish experience, I had begun by saying that Scots had not suffered the same overt racist oppression but the effects of co-opted class identity, causing indifference to the poor, had had a similar effect on disadvantaged communities.
I had meant anyone reading to link these consequent effects of marginalization, whether due to race or class, to be the same in some communities in Scotland to that of Native Americans or Aborigines. I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to complete my thoughts clearly enough.
The Scottish experience is complicated by the fact that there are contented parts of the Scottish electorate who would be horrified and indignant that Scotland’s experience could be suggested to have parallels with that of Native Americans and Aborigines.
Here, class identity often trumps race and the lines are easily blurred. Impoverished communities are marginalized within their own societies, among fellow Scots, whereas Aborigines, for example, are separated on racist grounds from the rest of Australian society. That was my point of difference.
I am surprised to appear to be in contention with people with whom I’m in agreement.
Joemcg says:
27 March, 2016 at 10:38 am
Dr Jim-the salmond wimbledon debacle immediately sprang to mind with me too. Still cannot quite believe the vitriol, hatred and abuse he got for waving our flag. What the fuck was that about? Scotland’s shame.
Ruby replies
It’s all part of ‘Project Cringe’
I reckon that this ‘Project Cringe’ is so insidious that it almost goes unnoticed.
Poor demented Ian Smart doesn’t even realise that he has been a victim of ‘Project Cringe’
@Tinto Chiel (9.29) –
I haven’t heard of the McHardy stuff but will investigate. Project still hasn’t been completed, so may be able to use that.
Many thanks!
@JGedd
There was nothing contentious in you posts, in fact they were good posts. I for one like to be informed. So Ta.
For those interested in The Jacobite Rising,Historic Scotland are putting on a Myth busting event at Fort George in the summer, July I think.
Will post details nearer the time.
IBH: I would be interested in your opinions if you get the chance to read his argument.
I’m beginning to think Britnat propaganda didn’t start in 2014.
Funny, that…??
Attempted peace sign but my emojis rarely work.
JGedd says:
The Scottish experience is complicated by the fact that there are contented parts of the Scottish electorate who would be horrified and indignant that Scotland’s experience could be suggested to have parallels with that of Native Americans and Aborigines.
Here, class identity often trumps race and the lines are easily blurred.
I am surprised to appear to be in contention with people with whom I’m in agreement.
Ruby replies
I don’t see much difference between discrimination on the grounds of race & on the grounds of class. Discrimination is discrimination!
These contented people you talk about would probably be horrified & indignant to know that I class them in the same category as racists.
The word racist has become an ugly word but it would seem being a ‘snob’ is a badge of honour.
I’m glad we have the odd difference of opinion it makes for a more interesting debate.
PS I enjoy reading your posts they are very interesting! I bet you did well at school.
JGedd
I think we got where you’re coming from, I wouldn’t worry about the limitations of circumstance and the medium used to convey your thoughts.
Here’s one to send you to bed with a wee chuckle.
Spent the day with some grand friends. Eventually we get to the Proud Scot But no voter thing, and it’ll be the UK decision to be in or out of EU etc
Then I’m told Labour are going to win the election. Knew you’d like it.
As the election campaign gets into gear don’t expect any favours from, who seems to have joined the SNP baaaad campaign. He’s leaning towards Slab over the 50% tax issue, whose leader he called the greatest since Donald Dewar and now has to find something to justify it.
O for an Ian Bell.
@Tinto Chiel
“Britnat” propoganda has been going at least 309 years.
link to rogerebert.com
This is another example of how well our equal partners look after the unfortunates in our society
“Britnat” propoganda has been going at least 309 years.
Its not propaganda if its true
link to archive.is
“The onus is on government to satisfy the public that the people who will govern the BBC are independent and chosen purely on merit. No politicians. No big party donors. No one whose past could reasonably call the BBC’s future independence or impartiality into question”
Viewers in our Scotland region can fcuk off.
@heedtracker
“Viewers in our Scotland region can fcuk off.”
LOL yer still a nutter.
Yesindyref2: absolutely. Always enjoy your cheeky posts.
@JGedd. Dinnae fash. Your meaning and intention were quite clear.
Cadogan Enright at 8.02
There is some strange ands disturbing stuff coming out about De Valera
Cadogan Enright
enjoyed your presentation broadcast on indy live
the sound failed on the live feed, so we missed 3 parts
the yes registry sounds interesting, would like to see a thread here where we could discuss it
have you spoken to stu about a guest article, maybe including the video too,?
i would be interested in what the other wingers think
I get paid tomorrow, so more funds to be sent to the Wings
Fund raiser.
Come on everyone, where would be without the Rev and this web site
We need both in good shape if democracy, truth, and independane
are to be a part of our nation’s future.
There are only a couple of days left, and we don’t even have £80K
in the Kitty. The Rev must be working below the minimum wage for
our benefit, and he and Scotland deserve better.
Dig deep or imagine only having the Dire Redcoat, Hootsmon, or Dreary Hail for your political insight.
Tinto Chiel says:
I’m beginning to think Britnat propaganda didn’t start in 2014.
It didnt
yesindyref2 says:
“Britnat” propaganda has been going at least 309 years
it has
Fred says:
As the election campaign gets into gear don’t expect any favours from, (bbc/anyone?)who seems to have joined the SNP baaaad campaign.
we are not at the beginning of this, we are moving into the end game
the power of this propaganda is fading, already 50% of the population no longer believe it.
this game is for the hearts and minds of a small percentage of the population still open to their lies
and they wont give up without a fight. they will only get more desparate from here on. thats why sarwar has been draughted in
Mr Smart?
What a complete and utter misnomer!
Sarwar is the ultimate failure, can’t wait until Labour elect him as leader when they dump Kezia. The final nail in the SLab coffin.
Will Radio North Britain have any ‘news’ at 11.00 pm?
And if so, what will be in it?
A nation awaits…
Yay, we had ‘news’ on the national radio station…
1. 65 killed in suicide bombing, Pakistan
2. Riot police busy in Brussels with fascist counter-demonstration
3. Netherlands, terrorist suspect
4. Aberdeenshire murder investigation
5. Essex police/bouncy castle incident
6. UN Sec-Gen Banky Moon (aye, it’s still him) comments on Syrian Army retaking Palmyra
Completely O/T
But, I just had to share this,
There’s a guy on Titter right now (and the tears are blinding me with this) he blames the SNP for supporting Hitler to kill his Grandad
Now I know it’s a shame and everything his Grandad got killed in a war but Jeez Louise it’s like a Daily Mail headline
SNP killed my Grandad
These Yoons are getting more mentally irregular by the minute
It’s hardly surprising that over 50% of us are no longer susceptible to UK propaganda.
Followed a twitter link, some Scottish/Ulster unionist..
ACTUALLY TYPED THIS STATEMENT (SLIGHT PARAPHRASE)…
“Jesus was killed by Romantic Catholics and Muslims”
As my 14 year old son said when I showed him…
..’there were NO CHRISTIANS AND NO MUSLIMS AT THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
There was a pagan Roman Empire, there was a Hebrews aristocracy.
And nowadays, there are a majority of fuckwits within unionist ranks, easy political targets, without a morsel of intelligence.
Proddies, without any notion of religion, are basically fascists.
Wonder if the Craig guy has EVER BEEN TO CHURCH..doubt it.
LOL yer still a nutter.
Indeed.
Are we not lucky/nuts to still be in union and run by our neighbour, who lied, begged, pleaded, threatened and promised us a brave new UKOK The Vow world, above our weight punching, safe secure in teamGB?
Below comment’s on a Glasgow theatre review, in rancid The Graun. Makes you proud to be governed by the tory party, BetterTogether Barry here could just as easily be any toryboy red or blue, in Westminster or their Scotland region
BarryFanning 20h ago
2
3
The YES campaign seems to stagger on like a zombie, not knowing it’s dead despite all the objective evidence that independence would at the best balkanise the UK, and at it’s most realistic create an economic and social wasteland leading to massive further drains on the English taxpayer. One can only conclude that it is the harassment and threats that the Nationalists subject the population to on the doorstep and via social media that is keeping it going.
As we saw from the first referendum once the voter got into the safety of voting booth, the true result became clear.
If you want a future where you travel abroad, my Scottish friends, or indeed where you want to be able to be able to import anything at all, it’s very much in your interests to maintain the Union. Otherwise you’ll have to find a currency more in keeping with your new global status: the Albanian Lek, perhaps, or the West African CFA franc, as used by your economic soul-mate Burkina Faso.
As (then) Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has made perfectly clear, an independent Scotland is not going to keep the pound. Why not? Well look at what Greece did when — with a little book-balancing sleight of hand from its friends at Goldman Sachs — it snuck into membership of the Euro.
Let’s be blunt: apart from the whiskey industry, and what’s left of the tourist industry that hasn’t been wiped out by Alex Salmond’s wind-farm building programme, Scotland doesn’t really have an economy. It is a welfare-dependent basket case, with near Soviet levels of government spending and a workforce who’d mostly be out of jobs if they weren’t sucking on the teat of state employment.
For various historical and emotional reasons, the English taxpayers who bankroll most of this welfarism – e.g. through the iniquitous Barnett Formula, whereby around £1000 more per annum is spent by the government on Scottish citizens than English ones – have decided generally to be cool about this.
What about North Sea Oil, I hear you bleat? It’s almost run out and the price has halved this year so you’ll not survive on that for very long whatever that Snake Oil Salesman Salmond may have promised you. In any case you know what happens to countries – e.g. Venezuela; Russia — that become too dependent on oil? Massive boom and bust that’s what.
If in some fit of petulance you do break the Union you will soon find yourselves in a harsh reality where, like the ‘liberated’ Africans in post apartheid South Africa you will be forced to confront the truth that your real problems are not the English, but your exaggerated sense of grievance and catastrophic attitude of entitlement.
The great Samuel Johnson said “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.”and that what we’ll see if they vote for independence – tens of thousands of economic refugees making their way to England for handouts.
Dave McEwan Hill @10.20
De Valera was a rather strange man.
Among his eccentricities, in 1945 he was the only politician in the world to express the sympathy of his government to the German people on the sad loss of their leader, one A Hitler.
He personally visited the German embassy in Dublin to express the Nation’s sorrow!
Sub titles when Scottish people speak on the Telly
Sometimes they do that but they never have any subtitles for the actual newsreaders who think the are speaking English when they’re Feckin not
Lauren Audah ….Translates as Law and Order
Drawring………Translates as Drawing
Peoples names get it all the time if the first name ends in a vowel it becomes part of the second name…example….
Gemmararteton…Translates as Gemma Arterton
Now I’m not complaining about folks accents that’s not important and actually I like accents a lot from everywhere but perhaps in the Telly peoples arrogance they might contemplate their own Feckin speech because it isn’t always Feckin English
Can’t stand this style of presentation (1970s Labour Party).
After much discussion with Mrs Carjamtic Im’e out…..so by default (chicken) I will leave it to others to decide…so long.
@heedtracker (11.40) –
I love your anarchic attitude towards the use of speech-marks, but they sometimes confuse me.
Is that ‘BarryFanning’ stuff real?
Seriously – was that pish actually published somewhere?
Thanks, heedtracker. Is this Barry guy for real?
@ Barry Fanning: any guy who can’t spell whisky properly shoots himself in the foot.
Let us know when you return to Earth.
Earth is nice.
heedtracker
Ah, the Little Englander is alive and well, illiterate as ever in the subtle socio-economic realities of UKOK plc. land. Typical of the ‘Rule Britannia’ Tory fug produced by a skewed interpretation of wonky stats and Whitehall pronouncements. Dunderheads the lot of them.
I still want your kids btw. 😉
@ Dr Jim
To say nothing about ‘fifth’ pronounced as ‘fith’,
or ‘sixth’ pronounced as ‘sick-th’ or often simply ‘sick’.
Listen in to sports results for more proof of lazy articulation.
@J Gedd,
I see where you are coming from,but remember that English control especially after the Jacobite rebellion was as severe as you would have found against the aboriginals or Native Americans.
Over the time since those days,control over Scotland has morphed into a very different animal rather than just physical oppression. English obility own huge swaiths of Scottish land for a start. As we saw during the referendum ,they have financial control over the Scottish population,and influence with all the business Ann control functions of state
They have cultivated Britishness through Monarchy,titles,and the proposal that Scotland was eradicated by the Treaty of Union
They also control the media,which I think you will agree is another method of controlling knowledge.
It is a much subtler for of repression,but nonetheless effective for that
Lots of clever people on here and lots of clever comments. But I’m the cleverest of all, for I’m the one that points out that smart rhymes with fart.
When will you all work out that it’s not about independence or flags or feeding the poor? It’s about pissing people like Smart off. That’s all that matters really. So, the best way to do that is to have another referendum, and another, and another.
After a few years they’ll give up and say “okay, have yer effing independence” and at that point we tell them we’re British and proud of it and won’t be dictated to.
More good stuff from the Prof. link to newsnet.scot
He really has the BBC banged to rights
BBC anchors and guests having a jolly
good time reporting England’s women’s cricket exploits and a jolly good laugh at/during ‘The Papers’
Multiple deaths in Pakistan…
There are (by many definitions) more Pakistanis in the UK, than just about any other country.
Surely this should be reflected in national coverage..
Why aren’t Huw Edwards and the
TERROR LIVE PRESS CORE being rushed in…oh maybe they’re going straight from Dublin, lies having been reinforced in Ireland on the way..
Or is he still spreading fear from Belgium.?
Sorry for mistakes in my post.Damn predicate the to he’ll. See what I mean?
Bob Mack @09.15 am:
Obviously, you know nothing about Freemasonary. Been blackballed?
Incidentally, SNP x 2.
@Fireproofjim 11.41
Randomly repeating Brit propaganda factlets out of context is not very useful
There have been teams of full time professionals working for a century trying to discredit Irish Republican leaders. And for a century before that with Parnel, Davitt, O’Connell and the likes
And teams of nasty lying journos repeating this faclets out of context, Creating ‘memes’ that spread form mouth to mouth
Parroting this paltry fare like this out of context is not very useful – on Irish blog sites, the trolls who come up with this sort of out of context faclet try to steer the conversation towards frustrated normals trying to put something in context, while the trolls throw in further disconnected half-truths
I was no fan of De Valera – a million miles away politically – but in 100 years of skulduggery the full time professionals in MI6, MI5, foreign office, colonial office and the legion of hostile media never laid a fist on him.
His dignified reply to Churchills threats to invade in the 1940’s were a masterpiece – often forgotten by faclet throwers like yourself
@Tinto Chiel
Thanks! I like to be a bit provocative, genuine but cheeky. Helps to make people think.
Ekkijy @ 11.45 am;
Correct me if I am wrong but I always understood that “The Bucher’s Apron” aluded to the Duke of Cumberland after the ’45 & was cross-referenced to the English “Hitler”, George II, the greatest murderer this Island has known.
Could we really be so blessed as to have Sarwar as the next Slab boy?
@CamB
Err, not suggesting anything. Just referring to the first post I read from Angar Mainyu, having just discovered they were a poster here after I replied to your email which mentioned the name.
In that post, unless I am mistaken, which would not be unusual, an observation was made that a case of suppressed (repressed?) homosexuality, where the subject concerned hated everyone, was turned 180 when they eventually came out.
That is all.
BTW, I have no personal issue with homosexuality. In fact over the course of my long life, now that I think about it, I have probably got on better with gay men than with straight men on average.
Scot Goes Pop’s pair of trolls are having a bit of a Love-in. They’ve really taken over today’s thread. They are in full agreement – We want independence because we hate the English.
I’m in agreement with James Kelly there there should be no comment censoring there. I like to know what the crazier unionist thinks. It’s entertaining but these people are beyond reasoning with.
@Cadogan Enright
A problem that Ireland and Scotland have in common is that the British set about suppressing the language, culture and history of both countries. The result is that the history was largely written by the British, the winners. The “true” history from the point of view of Ireland and Scotland was quite often handed down verbally, but often with its own embellishments and almost mythology. Everyone want to be on the right side, and a hero / heroine.
It means all “accepted” history needs to be viewed with suspicion, and if any major figure is blackened by the official history, it’s quite likely to be untrue.
The sad thing is that those of a British is best nature, don’t even know their own official history of Ireland and Scotland, and it’s often easy to disprove what they say from the official history, let alone from a more modern in-depth analysis of what might have happened.
The good thing is that there are modern historians prepared to look behind the accepted version of history, and investigate, using letters, any relics that have survived intact. Doesn’t mean they’re right, but it’s another slant.
Happy Bank Holiday!
Chic McGregor
Appologies if I’ve caused you concern with my apparently failed attempt at humour. I’ve no issues either, though I was recently accused on WOS, of being a racist because I opposed totalitarian Salaphi sectarianism.
That’s all mate. 😉
@CamB
Don’t worry, I had no concern. Tolerance for everything except for intolerance, is my abiding philosophy. 🙂
Don’t worry be happy
If we were all perfect we probably wouldn’t have invented anything or reproduced and would likely be extinct by now
By doing wrong we’re doing right
Which leads me to Yoons who think they’re right and perfect there’s got to be something Darwinesque about
a species who thinks it’s finished evolving
Here’s one to go to bed with:
An Ian Smart type & his sidekick opened up a shop in the high street. After having got it fitted out & with an opening date, they were having difficulty with suppliers (I wonder why?) Anyway, they opened on the said date with a rather sparce selection of merchandise.
A wee Scots wifie comes along & peers in the window.
“Look at that”, says the Ian Smart type, “Nosy & probably thick as shit. Bet she comes in noses around. Let’s have some fun”.
Woman duly enters, has a look, then says, “Your new here. What are you selling?”
“Arseholes”, says the Ian Smart type.
To which the wee woman replied, “Business must be good, I see you have only two left”.
@Ian Smart says ~
That’s the flag of my homeland that you speak of. Noted with disgust.
«««««
Anyroad, try this for an independence darts analogy:
1) 18/09/14 = We hit Treble-15
2) 28/03/16 = We’re hitting the Bullseye (if not more)
3) xx/xx/1x = We’re aiming to score a consistent Treble-20
So let’s start throwing X3 Treble-20’s in-a-row and we can begin to turn this thing around!
I wonder if Hamish is a dab hand on the oche?
O/T links
link to indyref2.scot
link to snp.org
Let us concentrate on the here and now and not what if’s
link to archive.is
link to lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk
O/T links
link to twitter.com
Britain’s benefit sanctions- you are not even human
link to archive.is
Capita and the great British food safety sell-off
link to archive.is
Chunky Mark – socks off Cameron
link to youtube.com
Excellent link on the BBC Nana.
I don’t buy newspapers except the Local one, I don’t watch or listen to BBC nor do I pay a TV license. I stay away from their website, even use another source for the weather. Thankfully there are others watching them and exposing their tactics.
I wouldn’t even take a newspaper if it was handed to me free.
Many thanks for the links you provide.
Check your registered, I know for a fact since the 2014 referendum I have registered my vote, at least twice, but having filled in the application form it was accepted as if I wasn’t on the register,
they’re pulling a fast one guys, check your on the register
link to gov.uk
OT I’m not especially interested right now in the EURef. We have an election to win first!
A big blue leaflet came through my door. “Scotland Stronger in Europe”. I tend to agree with what it says.
The ‘sales pitch’ is very Scotland, Scotland, Scotland. Fair enough.
Then I noted the website strongerin.scot, which just leads to a standard .co.uk site. Turns out to be the site of the In Campaign Ltd registered in England and Wales.
The site has no ‘about us’ page. No info on exactly who has stuck a leaflet through my door. I couldn’t see anything, anyway.
As I said, I don’t disagree with their ‘pitch’. However, they have been blatant on the use of a Scotland branded leaflet. They are almost certainly NOT pushing for an Indy Scotland in Europe. Who they are, and what they stand for isn’t completely clear.
Doug says:
27 March, 2016 at 10:01 pm
link to rogerebert.com
This is another example of how well our equal partners look after the unfortunates in our society
Ruby replies
This is a great site! I learn new things everytime I visit.
I will definitely be doing further research into this child migration scandal.
link to archive.is
link to childmigrantstrust.com
The dvd ‘Oranges & Sunshine’ is availabe on Amazon for £4 so I will buy that.
I’ve also become aware of how uninformed I am about Irish history. I’m going take steps to get more informed I will start by buying the dvd
‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’
that’s just £2 on Amazon.
Cadogan Enright@12.35
I am a “factlet thrower” am I ?
What’s one of them? Is it a fact with which you disagree, but can’t dispute happened?
@Gerry parker
Bookmark that site Gerry as with electioneering hotting up I might not have time to link or I may miss something. GA Ponsonby is worth following if you are on twitter.
@Jdman
Back safely from your hols John, hope you had a good time.
My mp tweeted this last week.
link to twitter.com
It’s a right pain having to register for every vote and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are out to scam us. Thankfully we have received our polling cards.
Reading the comments on The Jacobites and the 45 reminds me of the story of one Roderick MacKenzie. Son of an Edinburgh jeweler that joined the Jacobite rebellion.
It is an illustration of how appalling manor that the British Army behaved post Culloden. And the ultimate sacrifice Roderick was prepared to make.
Well worth a couple of minutes.
link to thesonsofscotland.co.uk
@Nana
yes back again,
they had to drag me kicking and screaming to the plane,
no seriously though it’s always good to get home albeit with a bad dose of bronchitis, I had to go to the A&E @ Queen Victoria hospital in Kirkcaldy with the cough from hell and got antibiotics, let’s see if they’ll work,
I may have put myself (inadvertently) on a Spanish government’s “watch list” having signed my support for independence for the Canaries, the similarities are really striking, Tenerife’s flag is the saltire and they have an indy movement,which has been roundly rejected by the Canarians due to its violent methods the (ex) leader of the movement was nearly killed in a Spanish secret service attempt on his life back in the sixties and was left paralyzed, subsequently pardoned by the Spanish, now lives in obscurity in Algeria.
Back to the holiday, the trip we took to a beautiful little village called Masca which clung impossibly to a sheer mountain, and the tortuous road to it comprised of
a continuous series of sharp bends while climbing a sheer cliff face for what seemed like miles, the screams from inside the car could be heard in Porto Cruz (and that was just me) I was the lucky one (being the driver) as Irene sitting on the cliffside of the car could only grimace and grunt in silence as she looked down sheer cliffsides with only concrete bollards (of dubious quality) for safety at the side of the road preserving us from sheer drops so huge you went through clouds below before you reached the bottom, (SERIOUSLY)
We are now both suffering from PTSD for which we may need councelling, (no disrepect intended to REAL sufferers)
link to realtenerife.wordpress.com
O/T
Johnston Press what a shame.
Standard&Poor has cut the long-term rating from B to CCC+ it seems that Johnston is right up S***creek with out a paddle
A spokesman for Johnston press declined to comment
If these unionists had been living in the USA and peddling the tripe against that country and its people they peddle against Scotland they would be serving prison sentences.
@ Ruby
Although the best videos on the Easter Rising have been blocked, there is still a badly spliced old BBC 2 documentary on Eamonn De Valera which provides a bit of background.
Obviously, being BBC we can expect some economy with the truth. Why was De Valera not shot at Kilmainham Prison, for example? The BBC gives a weak explanation that they ran out of time. But other sources say it was because he was an American citizen and so the British didn’t dare execute him.
link to youtube.com
The Man in the Jar
Good article that – I remember reading about Roderick Mackenzie a while ago but had completely forgotten it – thanks for the posting.
People like Roderick Mackenzie and Ian Smart are polar opposites. Even mentioning that guy’s name in the same sentence as Roderick Mackenzie is like fingernails on a blackboard…
@Jdman
That is some account of your travels or should that be travails?
Jeez that jaunt up the hillside sounds nightmarish [poor Irene]and my fear of heights has been heightened! I avoid standing on a stool.
Many years ago we went for a drive here link to curiousireland.ie
The driver [hubby] did not mention beforehand where we were going. I clung on for dear life trying not to look at the rickety fencing along the steepest bendy roads. I’ve yet to forgive him and now that I’m reminded of it there will be no dinner for him tonight!
I’m sure the man who bought the car we had at the time is still wondering what the marks in the dashboard are, that was from my nails digging in.
Hoping you are feeling better soon.
@TMITJ (10.24) –
Thanks aplenty for the Roderick MacKenzie link, that’s exactly the type of stuff I’ve been looking into but I’d never heard his story, so that’ll be referenced in the final draft.
Hoots!
Our pathetic flag is the flag of Scotland one of the nation’s bound by treaty to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. If Ian Smart wishes to repudiate his birth then so be it.
Thing is even in Dublin there is acknowledgement that at first there was no taste for the Easter Uprising. On one side it was simply a matter of not ever. On the other it was a simple case that their men were off fighting and the time wasn’t right. It was only the mishandling by the UK that hanged that opinion.
The good thing about education is we have the advantage of knowing the history of these things even before it gets layered in bullshit by either side. We know that Westminster is not to be trusted. We also know that given half a chance they will sow divisions if only to keep at least part of our country for themselves. Which is what Ian Smart is doing by slandering the Saltire.
As to Jacobitism. It’s a partial trap in that it links independence to catholism and also to yet another gloriously romantic defeat alongside the missnamed Braveheart. Go to far down that route and I as a McDonald clansman would want nothing to do with a Crown collaborator such as a Campbell.
Kind of telling that the history we’re encouraged to celebrate consists of heroic losers. Even “Flower of Scotland” is a reference to “Flowers of the Forest” and Flodden
Ruby , be warned you will get angry watching Oranges and Sunshine and sad too.
Come on all you lurkers and voyeurs! Only a few days until the fundraiser is finished. Try and imagine life without wings, doesn’t bear thinking about does it.
C’mon Jakey prise open yer wallet with yer boney old fingers. C’mon Smart, donate a bottles worth. We know you read it. Freeloaders.
@ The Cat, my post was about McWhirter but the name’s disappeared, 🙂 He’s milking the 50% issue for all it’s worth, I suppose he has to fill his articles with something but whether it comes this year or next & despite his best efforts, the issue aint setting the heather alight! McWhirter not using Scottish Bluebell!
George Kerevan excellent in todays National on the Easter Rising.
Anent Wallace, the National again has a piece on a new monument to the Battle o the Bell o the Brae, fought in Glasgow’s High Street. There used to be a commemorative plaque on the wall of the tenement down from Duke Street Jail.
This is lovely. Liam Neeson reciting Yeats poem, Easter, 1916.
link to lovindublin.com
Independence Live is livestreaming from Dublin at 1pm today
link to livestream.com
@Thepnr,
I was hoping for Jaickie Baillie for next Slab leader but you are right It will probably be Sarwar.
All he has to do is to run another of his free curry diners for the 500 last labour activists like he did for his top list place.
Jaba would go for that too. Anything for a free curry!
They just never learn. Doomed to failure.
Orri says:
… or heroic military deeds of Scots on behave of the UK after 1707. Quebec, Waterloo, Crimea etc..
Pre Union history highlights the losers, while post Union hides the times when we lost, like 51st Highland Division at St Valery in June 1940. Scots in the Union are only ever winners!
I am quite sure it has been all intentional, part of assimilating North Briton into Greater England.
And, as always, the spade work was done by previous generations of proud-Scots-buts on behave of their Union.
We rarely hear of people like Alexander Leslie. Military genius who left Swedish service to return to Scotland to ensure the success of the Covenanters and went on to win the English Civil war for the Parliament side.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Without people like Leslie, Scotland would never have retained our distinct national identity.
@ Valerie thanks for link. Beautifully read by Liam Neeson. He played Michael Collins in the film of that name.
Found what looks like a well made documentary on the 1916 Easter Rising. Produced in association with RTE in 3 50 min parts.
link to youtube.com
O/T
Apologies if this has been posted already.
link to theirishstory.com
Dorothy – the National has big photo of the day of the Bikers Easter egg run. 🙂
Re register to vote, polling cards have already been sent out I got mine last week and a mate in Aberdeenshire likewise. So if you don’t receive by end of month I would start trying to work out why!
Wheeee! He’s drunk again.
The Easter Rising and its bloody aftermath seems to have been the catalyst event, the inciting incident, the defining moment, that turned the minds of the majority in southern Ireland towards an independent Republican State.
Scotland’s defining moment was the 2014 IndyRe#1 campaign. It opened so many minds to what could be possible, that there was another, better path for Scotland to take. And it showed the Brutish ‘Empire’ for what it really was and still is.
A tale of two soldiers: link to wp.me
Anyone from iScot aboot?
I’ve been trying to subscribe for annual subscription (hard copy), no paypal account, so just filling out the online payment fields, every time I send the thing it comes back with error message and red fields highlight the ‘missing’ info. throughout the form.
The thing is none of the fields are ‘missing’ when I click to continue payment. I literally just attempted this a dozen times and it repeatedly comes back with same highlighted errors. Gave up.
Even the email address field is highlighted as ‘error’, I just don’t get what is going on here…
Any help much appreciated.
Proud Cybernat says:
Yes. We definitely don’t want Scotland to follow the Irish experience.
Decades of asking nicely for Home Rule. The Easter Rising and it’s aftermath of six years of war against WM rule. Home Rule (Plus) as the Free State in 1922. UK retained naval bases. A nasty civil war which claimed more lives than the war for independence. A full republic was only officially achieved in 1948.
We in Scotland could win IndyRef2 democratically and proceed to Indy by reasonable negotiations. Whether it all happens smoothly, is up to WM!
@K1
Their email address is highlighted here and worked ok a few moments ago
link to iscot.scot
Thanks Nana, I meant my email address is highlighted as an error on the form I’m attempting to fill in to get the subscription. I will email them, thanks for address. 🙂
RTE have opened their archive of the 1916 Rising to those outwith the Republic of Ireland. Some quite good programmes.
link to rte.ie
Two funerals and one plateful of cucumber sandwiches this morning 🙁
Catching up on a slow news day even read this to try and cheer me up?
————————————————————–
Hark the Herald: The Irish question:
The parallels between Easter Rising and recent events in Scotland
Almost all of the comments below the article expose Mr Torrance’s historical overview as the usual shallow guff!
link to archive.is
K1
I’ve just tweeted iScot asking them to check out your post above
@K1
can you e mail me at ken(at)iscot(dot)scot please ?
We have one e mail from a R*z which is bouncing back as a non existant e mail address if that’s you then that’s the issue.
A long read for a Bank Holiday. ENJOY. 🙂
The Tatler Magazine,December 2014:-‘Scottish aristocrats are fiercely opposed to independence’. SHOCK HORROR.
“The Scottish aristocracy is nervous. Change is afoot. ‘As one whose family was involved in the 1707 Act of Union, I can’t really comment on the referendum,’ barks one of the country’s pre-eminent dukes. ‘But the buggers are out to get us!’
The buggers, according to His Grace, are those currently trying to persuade the Scots that they should peel themselves off from the rest of the United Kingdom and become independent…………………………….”
link to tatler.com
I mentioned sometime ago the Irish Documentaries, a compilation of newsreel footage from those days available in DVD.
link to amazon.co.uk
and
link to amazon.co.uk
In Irish with English subtitles.
Interestingly the driving force in Westminster who made the terms of the treaty very unappealing to the Irish was David Lloyd George.
Dominion status and allegiance to the British Crown were not negotiable.
“On December 5, an ultimatum was issued. Lloyd George gave the Irish side until 10 p.m. that night to accept or reject the terms. Failure to do this would result in “an immediate and terrible war.” The Anglo-Irish Treaty, the first ever treaty between England and Ireland, was signed by both sides around 2 a.m. on December 6, 1921.”
The quotation is an extract from
link to sarasmichaelcollinssite.com
The Welshman’s need to play a role expected of him by the British Establishment directly precipitated the Irish Civil War and the death of Michael Collins.
Perhaps Cadogan Enright can elaborate further.
SNP SNP EU
Have been trying to Kevin Hague’s curiously named “The Price of Independence: An Objective Analysis”. I tried posting something on his blog some time ago and it wasn’t printed (I was mocking him so fair dos).
Now the GERS figures paint Scotland in a bad light and it seems to me to be partly because so many of the costs we incur for shared services are delivered outwith Scotland. Spending on, say, the Home Office accounts for 140million but in reality we have a passport office in Glasgow, some border police at the 4 airports and at the couple of ports? Very little from the 140million will actually return to the “Scottish economy” in terms of revenue.
Similarly the House of Commons, House of Lords and IPSA alone we pay £75million to per annum (if my figures are correct) and all but some amount of spending from MPs will appear on the Revenue sheet for rUK.
What I am trying to get my head around- anything we contribute towards but get hardly any revenue for distorts the figures in favour of the rest of UK. And the effect of this distortion is more keenly felt as our population declines relative to the rest of the UK.
Another thing that jumps out at me from Kevin’s most famous series of graphs- the ones showing that Scotland has the worst economy in Europe in support of the idea we are better together in the UK and we need to keep everything exactly the same lest the situation get worse.
The entire UK appears to have a deficit/GDP percentage significantly better than that of Scotland- something like 5.8% to Scotland’s 10%. He then goes on to dismiss claims that Scotland’s economy has been mismanaged and his evidence to support this seems to be that Scotland’s onshore revenues generated have remained strong compared to the rest of the UK.
What strikes me is that Kevin includes data for Scotland and the UK but does not even attempt to add notional figures for the other component countries of the UK. Could it be that his Objective Analysis was really an Analysis with an Objective?
Surely adding Northern Ireland and Wales, who would certainly be languishing at the bottom of such a graph along with Scotland in terms of deficit/GDP would be instructive, particularly if we found that England’s deficit to GDP ratio was closer to about 4%?
Scotland has a far sparser population so has all the associated costs of servicing said sparse population and large landmass, long coastline, numerous small island populations. Wales and Northern Ireland both have far less dense populations yet would be adrift at the bottom of the table.
I don’t have the breakdown of the renenue and expenditure figures for all 3 but even if we take a population share of the deficit for all rUK countries against GDP England sits at 4.3% (and the figure would clearly be slightly lower ) and Wales would be much higher than 7.2% and Northern Ireland much higher than 8.5%.
Kevin sees this as evidence of pooling and sharing. Forgetting Scotland for a second, I see that firstly the GERS data is conceptually skewed against countries with lower population density, against countries where the population growth is poor and against a country where a large amount of revenue is spent outwith it’s own border.
The UK economy has not been mismanaged- it has been managed to the benefit of one component part who just happens to be the largest component and the seat of government. SO LETS KEEP IT THAT WAY FOREVER is a strange conclusion for anyone living outwith England but not for those within.
Emailed you Ken, thanks for getting back tae me btl 🙂
@ Jack Murphy, I take it you mean the duke of Buccleuch, in his alter ego as the duke of Queensberry? His family were so involved in the business of the Union, for which he was well rewarded with an English dukedom, that while the family were out celebrating the foul deed, the heir lord Drumlanrig (a maniac) escaped close confinement at Queensberry House (now part of the Scottish Parliament) & killed & roasted the kitchen boy. Lovely family! 🙂
@Tam Jardine
Have you seen this? Alastair Davidson took chokkablogs report apart a few days ago
link to drive.google.com
Makes interesting reading.
I think the reason yer man Smart is so anti-scots is, the labour party have been found out in Scotland.
Their gravy train has been derailed and anything that they see as a reason,( whether SNP, Saltire wavers or whatever)they will show their despise to them.
Smart is basically an Arsehole of the highest order, along with the rest of the troughers.
Tick Tock.
SNPx2
Lollysmum
Thanks- I did read the rebuttal by Alastair Davidson and the subsequent rebuttal of the rebuttal by Hague on his blog. I am no economist and I find some of the terminology beyond me.
I am trying as an ordinary member of the public to understand the GERS figures and how they work. I can’t get my head around the idea behind them. Kevin holds them up as if he had found a piece of the True Cross but without seemingly giving them any scrutiny.
We have 3 of the 4 countries of the union (on the basis of figures measuring our financial position) languishing way off the bottom of the table of EU countries in terms of deficit as a proportion of GDP. Those 3 countries have 3 things in common-
1. they are subject to economic policy of England and have been for hundreds of years.
2. They are 3 of the 4 countries in the EU that we have to put up with mere estimates of cost as they are not unitary authorities, the 4th being England of course.
3. A portion of the revenues from those 3 countries is spent in England thus increasing spending per capita without any real subsequent revenues to show for it resulting in lower revenues per capita in comparison.
They don’t do GERS figures for Wales, Northern Ireland or England but GDP is recorded and I expect the picture they would paint for Wales and Northern Ireland would be exceptionally bleak and for England it would be much better.
Kevin’s conclusions are that we would be starting off life as an independent country with a large deficit and that we would have to reduce spending, raise taxes or improve growth and therefore taxes to make up this £1700 shortfall per person. Immediately it seems (even though most other european countries operate with a deficit).
He doesn’t think there is scope for savings (even though he is also certain we would not be able to have a currency union and therefore take on a share of the national debt).
What never seems to occur to him is that spending doesn’t have to simply drop. Many areas of spending would leave their mark on the other side of the balance sheet.
We pay towards the treasury- Kevin thinks that is a cost at the point of independence. That is the last time it is a cost surely! We become independent and could spend the same or less or more but that money will flow back to the Scottish treasury through income tax, VAT, corporation tax and any number or other means.
We could spend a billion less on defence but spend it all in Scotland and therefore simultaneously decrease spending but increase revenues.
Anyway- I could go on… I don’t think it is a coincidence that the 3 countries outside of England ruled over by Westminster are all at the bottom of the league table and Kevin thinks that is a recommendation for retaining the status quo without any searching questions.
“Your pathetic flag” says it all really about this piece of scum ‘proud scot but’.
Fred said at 4:52 pm yesterday:-
“@ Jack Murphy, I take it you mean the duke of Buccleuch, in his alter ego as the duke of Queensberry?………………..”
A shocking story.I didn’t know that. 🙁
ENJOY:- link to tatler.com
I’m guessing I’m pretty much like the vast majority of the population in that I don’t have the time or enthusiasm to look into the pros & cons of this ‘Named Person’ Act.
I’m happy to leave it up to the experts to come to the correct conclusion. It would seem the experts in this field are all happy with the legislation. That’s good enough for me.
I have read the comments on this thread and TBH I really don’t understand what the objections are.
Re historical fiction like Braveheart, Outlander etc. These films are probably not for history buffs but I find that they stimulate my interest in history.
So I would be giving then a big thumbs up!
I’m waiting for my dvd of ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’ to arrive and I supect after watching the film I will be doing research into Irish history.
I have downloaded the 1916 Easter Rising RT documentary which Capella posted links to and I am also waiting for the dvd ‘Oranges & Sunshine’
I am pretty busy keeping myself informed so I am going to have to give the ‘Named Person’ Act a miss.
I find I have been giving more & more of these stories a miss it could well be that certain political parties & the media are suffering from the ‘Cry Wolf Syndrome’
Capella thank you for the links to the RT Documentary I did thank you on the other thread but my post (which was quite long) disappeared into cyberspace.
Ooops last post on the wrong thread.
@ Jack, thanks for that, the chinless wonders abandoned their mountains & customs for cash a long time ago!
My National Anthem
link to moflomojo.blogspot.com
Spoiler alert, “The Wind That Shakes The Barley” might give you some slight sympathy or understanding for the orange/protestant perspective and paranoia of those forced out of the republic either to the north or the British mainland including Scotland.
Mind you if they events portrayed in the “Magdelean Sisters” are in any way to be believed it lends some small credence to fears about what a RC dominated society would be like. Not that NI was any better and certainly no excuse for the way they treated their own minority population. However that Westminster allowed that kind of discrimination to continue is telling.
As to the Troubles it’s worth noting that they mainly ended with the collapse of the USSR which shows that it wasn’t just the UK that played the shit stirring game for their own political end. If the Civil Rights Movement in NI had been allowed to find a peaceful solution then so many lives might have been saved. I’ve every faith that we in Scotland are wise to the kind of outright evil it takes to promote conflict and will not tolerate the threat of violence nor allow it to sway us from seeking independence in a peaceful manner.
Orri, it will be interesting to see how NI votes in the referendum. The Nationalists will probably vote to stay & the Unionists, whose farmers get a good EU deal, who knows?
Fred12.03 pm. I believe the majority of ni unionists will vote to leave the eu, because brussels and the rest of europe are all kaffliks telling loyal protestants what to do.