Quotes Of The Year #7
Erk. I think spending a whole day crouched over a laptop on the floor trying to install Windows bloody 8 might have done me in, readers. Judging by the wracked state of my upper torso last night and this morning, for a while there I thought I was going to be bringing in 2014 with a heart attack.
But anyway, as I’m plainly not going anywhere for a while, here are the best quotes of July! (Catch up: January, February, March, April, May, June.)
PS If you’re one of the IDIOTS who doesn’t follow us on Twitter, you’re missing out on the other highlights of the year, which we’re tweeting as we go along. (But you can just click that link to see the tweets without setting up your own account.)
“Eventually it was mentioned to us that there was a beer tent at the fair and after a few drinks things “could turn a bit nasty” with some of the objectors.” – Yes Scotland campaigner Paul Donaldson reports on a small team of canvassers attending the ‘Maggie Fair’ near Elgin, with official permission, being chased out under threat of violence by angry No supporters. It was a story that would become all too familiar.
“I found this highly amusing. Haha.
#nolucknats” – local Labour activist Louise Morton responds to the incident on Twitter.“When the Tories are attacking the poorest in society, it’s pretty difficult to sit with them and to argue for a progressive Scotland.” – Richard Leonard, organiser for the GMB trade union, explains why his members want nothing to do with “Better Together”.
“Blair and Brown were defeatists, convinced Britain was essentially conservative, individualist, imbued with Thatcherism. Ideas matter. Had Labour changed the political climate (as Cameron briefly thought), this government could not dismantle the social state. But like tumbleweed, Labour policies put down no roots to anchor ideas of collective provision and social protection.” – Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee bemoans the failure of two Labour Prime Ministers to reverse the UK’s prevailing neoliberal ideology in 13 years.
“I reject the arguments that some people make on my side that Scotland is too poor and too stupid. ‘Cos I don’t think it is. I think it’s well capable of being a vibrant, successful nation. I think that is something that we must convince people through this process, through the referendum. And I want them, with that confidence, to believe that we can stay in the United Kingdom and punch above our weight within the United Kingdom.” – Willie Rennie doesn’t want Scotland to be ‘a vibrant, successful nation’ for some reason.
“After 77 years, Murray and England rule” – hastily corrected New York Times headline after the Scot’s thrilling Wimbledon victory.
“Attitudes in England are hardening towards Scotland, with 52% now believing that Scotland receives more than its fair share of public spending, up from 24% in 2002.” – the Institute for Public Policy Research sounds the death knell for the Barnett Formula. Vote No in 2014 and get ready for billions of pounds of cuts to the Scottish budget, folks.
“The British government is examining plans to designate the Scottish military base that houses the Trident nuclear deterrent as sovereign United Kingdom territory if the people of Scotland vote for independence.” – the Guardian reports the first invasion of an independent Scotland.
“This Government has not commissioned contingency plans over Faslane. No such ideas have come to the Secretary of State or the Prime Minister. They would not support them if they did. It’s not a credible or sensible idea.” – a Downing Street spokesman quickly denies the suggestion the next day.
“Scotland’s share of UK debt interest amounted to £83 billion at 2001-12 prices. Subtracting this from total estimated Scottish spend of £1,440 billion we get a debt interest adjusted estimate of spend of £1,357 billion. This means that Scotland was in overall surplus by about £68 billion.” – Professor Brian Ashcroft, husband of former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, calculates Scotland’s financial status had it been independent since 1980, rather than sending all its tax revenues to Westminster. Having stayed within the UK, Scotland instead carries a debt share of over £100bn.
“I am on holiday in Denmark and independence is the topic all Danes want to discuss when they learn you are from Scotland. I have met no-one yet who is opposed to Scotland’s independence. One said to me yesterday: ‘Surely it is natural to want to run your own affairs, we certainly wouldn’t want to be run by Sweden.'” – former Labour MEP Hugh Kerr in the Herald.
“Salmond pictured with Mickelson at Scottish Open. Can anyone remember last time a British PM was pictured with Open winner? Is FM an arse?” – Johann Lamont’s speechwriter Paul Sinclair is enraged by a picture of Alex Salmond with a sportsman at a sporting event in Scotland.
– proud Scot and Labour councillor Terry Kelly explains in the Herald just what a pitiful basketcase of a country Scotland would be without the Union.
“In an uncertain world in which the number of nuclear weapons remains high and some states are increasing their holdings, we should not take risks with our security by downgrading to a part-time deterrent.” – a series of peers, including former Labour defence secretaries George Robertson, John Reid and Bob Ainsworth, write to the Telegraph demanding the UK spends £100bn+ on a new nuclear weapons system while their constituents queue at foodbanks.
“There can be no justification for either unilaterally disarming or for decreasing the capabilities of the UK’s deterrent. There is nothing we have seen from the Alternatives Review or from our own extensive research that convinces us otherwise. That is why Labour is committed to maintaining a continuous at sea deterrent.” – the party’s shadow defence minister Kevan Jones reinforces the point in an article for LabourList.
“Salmond knows the US would veto Scotland’s membership of international fruit trading organisations, never mind NATO or the EU, until it accepted nukes at Faslane.” – the Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton is clearly better-connected with the US government than we imagined.
“After a fortnight which included high-profile debates around Labour and Ed Miliband’s relations with the trade unions, Britons are saying they do not believe that the Labour leader will be the next Prime Minister. Fewer than one in four (22%) expect Ed Miliband to be the Prime Minister in 2015.” – ITV reports a ComRes poll, one of several delivering similar results. Labour’s poll lead has since halved.
“[Alex Salmond has] inflated the amount that he thinks is left in the North Sea to something like 12 times what independent experts say.” – Alistair Darling claims that Scottish oil will run out in January 2017. We still await the source for this assertion.
“SNP clearly have a figure for defence budget. Why won’t they share?” – No campaign director Blair McDougall, apparently missing the dozens of times the SNP announced their proposed defence budget (it’s £2.5bn, Blair) live on national television and just about everywhere else.
Death or glory now. Next up: August.
Hi Stu, do you have a link?
I’m one of those IDIOTS!!
Oh! and please tell me that’s not a photo of your tea last night…
“Hi Stu, do you have a link?”
link to twitter.com
Come on folks, we’re less than 3000 behind Scottish Labour now 😀
Re Willie Rennie and punching above our weight in the UK. Good news for you lad, you’ll be punching above your weight where ever you go! So let’s vote yes!
Ditch it and get a MAC.
I was with Windows from the 286 version up to 7 and when my bidey bought a new laptop with 8 on it I took out a bankloan when my 7 laptop turned up its toes and went over to the dark side.
It just works, I hate to say it but, it just works.
I bought an iPad mini and it just works too.
I bought a Blackberry Z10 and that does not work at all. I should have spent the extra 10% at the time an bought an iPhone.
If that’s your tea, Rev, you probably are having a heart attack. Not sure even Windows 8 can be blamed for it, though!
Another determined idiot here – I assumed it was Rev Stu’s breakfast!
Ach, Stuart. Had you not heard the adage “Ignore every second version of Windows”?
Windows 2000 – Good
Windows Millennium – Crap
Windows XP – Good
Windows Vista – Appalling
Windows 7 – Good
Windows 8 – ?
I like to carry pita bread, a portion of chips and chili sauce in the car (fits nicely in a cardboard box). You know – just in case you come across some meat.
Do you often find doner donors? boom! boom!
I find the odd gem on Twitter not worth the tsunami of inane guff. For me, just like Monty Python.
“I find the odd gem on Twitter not worth the tsunami of inane guff.”
The trick, of course, is not to follow the people who spew out the guff. It’s not obligatory.
Windows 8.1 is out which fixes some of the omissions of 8….although I am not convinced Firefox likes 8.1 all that much
I wish I had got a Windows 7 laptop. :/
“Windows 8.1 is out which fixes some of the omissions of 8”
It took 26 hours to get Windows 8.1 up and running, but it was worth it in the end. It’s like a whole different OS compared to 8. So much better.
PS If you’re one of the IDIOTS who doesn’t follow us on Twitter, you’re missing out on the other highlights of the year, which we’re tweeting as we go along.
SURELY no such backward stick-in-the-muds exist – it’s the 21st century!
Good stuff REV and a lot of work put in. Have a good new year !
In ref to the “want” of Unionists to spend all the dosh on a new nuclear deterrent, I wonder if they could just SAY the have spent money on this, for example they could build the submarines but not install the actual missiles. This would BLUFF potential enemies and make them quiver, and save money and the country at the same time. I think that is a real possibility, after all we will have aircraft carriers with no planes. So precedent in place! But shhhh the ploy would need to be secret !!
Stu, I realise you are but a young man and perhaps able to live dangerously. However, we NEED you for another nine months and we’d probably quite like it if you were around for a bit longer than that.
@ bugger the panda. ‘Ditch it and get a mac’
Seconded. It just works and works and works.
‘Ditch it and get a mac’
link to wingsoverscotland.com
You spent a day installing Windows 8, yet I’m the idiot for not using Twitter. Still Lolling and will be for some time.
Happy Hog’y
@Murray McCallum
We shall all be thankful for road-kill if there is a no vote.
I’m a proud Scot tish Mac owner!
@ Les Wilson
Even better – sell off all the subs but one and pretend they are at sea. Keep the last one docked. Just have to keep changing the number on the conning tower – or remove it and have everyone guessing!
I admire your stamina rev. Thanks for the 2013 reminders. A lot juicier than your meal. How can you?!
“A lot juicier than your meal. How can you?!”
Well, I totally COULD, but sadly I still live in Bath and chippies here don’t offer Munchy Boxes just yet…
Rev there might be a case for forming the worst of these snippets into our own ‘Book of Kells’ for future generations.
The Book of ‘Sell-outs’ – if this was published – plenty would buy it as a keepsake.
Either that or an easy file formatt readers could print off and bind as a future reference book of unionist crap ?
(A thought for other times – know how busy you are with this info and much praise to you)
Let’s spare a thought for all those journos who are scunnered by the shameless propaganda in the MSM. There might even be a politician or two midst the throngs of the dependency tendency parties who harbour similar feelings.
Here is one message of hope which might give them the courage to speak out.
Does anyone know if BBC Reporting Scotland has reported on the panelbase poll which found the UK citizens sane ? I have been trying to catch all the editions of RS but have not heard a dickie bird about it !! don’t know if i’ve missed though…anyone else know ?
Rev; have a happy New Year and thanks for providing me with your reasoned gems during the past year, “I was blind but now I see” Onward to a free and independent Scotland in 2014
@Murray. Aye that’s probably it. It certainly looks like “road kill”
Windows 7 is just a marketing name for Windows 6.1 (See your ‘About Windows’ to see what the Windows 7 version number actually is). Windows 6.0 was, of course, the much unloved Vista.
For those still using XP: On April 8, 2014, support and updates for Windows XP will no longer be available from Microsoft (link to bit.ly), so – unless you want your PC to be a virus and trojan ridden cesspit – you should upgrade your Operating System.
If you want to spend and stay with Microsoft:
– Windows 8 if you like it (!)
– Windows 7 if you can’t abide the Windows 8 look & feel.
If you want a free and stable system:
– Linux Mint (link to bit.ly)
Or buy a new Macintosh.
“I was blind but now I see”
Jeez .. Quite a case of healing there Rev – Lets see the naesayers challenge your integrity now !
With the events in Volgograd over the last few days the so called threat of invasion, not that it would ever happen anyway, from Russia is even more remote than it has ever been.
Maintaining defence forces at the level of the cold war is now just stupid and completely nonsensical. To spend £100Bn+ on Trident replacement is even more idiotic. Even if Russia were to wage war on the UK there would be such an internal backlash they would disappear up their own arses quicker that Alistair Darling could flip his next house.
Brilliant, Rev.
Just goes to show you what a mess BT are in. They are un-organised, at each other’s throats, contradictory with one another, clueless, highly aggressive if questioned, and very …very …fearful!
Rev …I’ll give you your due …you’ve lasted longer than I did with Windows 8. I gave it 4 days before I almost threw my laptop through the study window. There was a helluva lot of swearing when I had it. I kept looking for the ‘Start’ button in the bottom left hand corner. Just missing that had me in a blind and epic fury. Why Microsoft? Why?!?
O/T
Not all stories out there are anti Independence.
Martin Hannan writes:
link to edinburghnews.scotsman.com
Another O/T.
For anyone wanting to keep abreast of the latest scarestories, or positive stories on Scottish Independence, here is a useful link to keep as one of your favourites.
It will give you all the media, well 99%, stories on Scottish Independence from the UK and overseas.
I do suspect that some so called Scottish journalist for their own use as I usually see a story several hours before on this site which is repeated by our press later on.
link to newsnow.co.uk
Rev have you thought of getting your site [more exposure] registered on newsnow?
I suggested your site and NNS yesterday, but I’m sure if other on here suggest their prefered nationalist sites like your own, then it would make things a lot harder for them to ignore.
They do cover blogs/sites etc. as conservative home is usually highlighted.
Everyone can make their suggestions for Newnow to cover WOS on this link.
link to newsnow.co.uk
Go to the drop down and select: “Suggest a news web site worth us linking to”
C’mon on folks most of the articles are a bit one sided so get suggesting.
Btw, Happy New Year to all when it comes and please spare a thought for people like me who are working offshore at the moment. Sniff, sniff.
alright wingers
i see the auld bird (jackie ) is bringing the bells in again honestly theres more wrinkles on her arms than a turkeys chin shes had that many face lifts she needs a ladder to wipe her arse
i`m in glasgow city centre tonight before and after the bells so if your in glasgow tonight take care and have one for me look for the( yes )badge if you need any help
if you are getting taxis please be extra carefull and ladies be that more vigilant about where you`s go if a voice in your head says no then dont
after tonight we have only 261 days and we need everybody there again if you need any help look for the bald eagle with the yes badge or any of the security seriously cant belive were nearly there
happy new year wingers
and stu have a good one you deserve it
@Bugger (the Panda); “it just works” – aye, that’s what my mate thought. I warned him not to get complacent, but he bought into the hype about how safe and easy and hassle-free Macs are, and by the time he figured out his machine had been infected with a keylogger and various other malware, his accounts had been cleaned out. He’s still wrangling with his bank to get a chunk of his savings back.
Mac’s are the ultimate expression of the foolish idea that users can treat computers like “magic boxes” that just turn on and function with no effort on their part; either you lean how to use computers, properly and safely regardless of which OS you have installed, or eventually you are going to get bit on the arse. Note, I’m not suggesting you’re computer illiterate or thick or anything BtP, I just feel the need to counter this notion that Macs are better because they’re easier to use and safer, because that just leads to users having a false sense of security.
On topic; thanks for these Rev, my rising urge to punch the screen is outweighed by having a nice reference to point people to when they start with their “both sides are just as bad as each other” dross.
Yodhrin
I have Sophos installed, full version and not the free version but I need to check if has ability against that type of Malware. I was reasonably savvy when I used Windows and used Panda or Zone Alarm.
I live in France and do use internet banking but the bank I use, uses no keystrokes to log in. It is by a random generation image of numbers and letter which I click over, character by character. I only have the current account on the internet and that is mercifully always low in funds except when the credit card is due and I transfer that in-branch.
Can you recommend a better anti-every-bloody-nasty-thingware?
Guid New Year.
Get a life Rev,get a Mac.,and then you will want an iPhone, and then an iPad,its a contagium!(No, not -ion).
And talking of life, Morag your wee note above to Rev reads rather Black Widow spiderish, sort of male disposed off once he has attended to his duties! Post Indy I can see a role for the Rev with his erudite observations on the progress of negotiations between the rUK and the Scottish governments.And with the post-Indy flight of the MSM and BBC journalists across the border to rUK – they will be going won’t they? – I see opportunities in mainstream MSM.
@ Morag, my Xmas present of your book in paper copy has arrived, next in line once I’ve finished Stephen Maxwell’s book Arguing for Independence.
I’ve only had Win 95, XP Pro and Win 7… I’ve got Macs going back to the Plus and many in-between either in use or stashed in the garage. I did a computing BSc but dodged Windows as soon as I found Linux alternatives for the things I needed.
Is Windows like Star Trek movies in that the odd numbers are bad and even numbers are good? I count Galaxy Quest as one of the even numbered Star Trek movies of course.
And Velofello you might be aware I have some unusual cycles (but no ‘bent yet). Fourth Brompton and a rescued Raleigh 20 this year.
” just in case you come across some meat.”
What, like road kills you mean?
Wee folding bike: my cycles are a Fred James racer, and a Trek 850. Not out so much now. My collie Jock, now deceased, was fine with the bike but my current collie Glen is too boisterous that I’m constantly fretting and managing him and so not enjoying the cycle ride, and heavens forbid I leave home without him. A comment at Ayrshire Agility Training on Glen was “That dug’s wired tae ye”. My first bike as a primary school age boy was a Humber, twin tubed front forks, and internal expanding hub brakes. Must have weighed a ton. Cycling is the most gentle of sporting exercise.
Apologies for the O/T Rev.
Triang, fixed wheel, solid tyres.
Puch single speed roadster
Sun 5 sp (really a Raleigh Arena)
1951 Claud Butler 531 Avant Coureur Special
Daye Yates road bike
Dave Yates MTB
Longstaff two wheel drive trike
Brompton T3
Brompton S6L
Brompton S2L-X
Pashley 5 speed roaster
1970s Raleigh 20
Brompton M6R
Don’t have the first 3 on the list anymore. Still got all the others.
Not allowed a dog.
@wee folding bike: shame about a dog. Me I could never afford a Flying Scotsman. The nearest I got was meeting the guy who fabricated the frames. When i was around 13 years old I tried rear suspension on my cycle – I’ve always enjoyed off road cycling and motorcycling – I removed the diagonal from the top of the seat tube down to the rear spindle. And then I learned about metal fatigue.
O/T again Rev, well it’s the festive season.
And bikes were invented in Scotland…
My Dave Yates bikes have Flying Scot transfers.
Happy New Year and here’s to the most exciting year in our Country’s History