Red, white and blue
Posted on
December 10, 2016 by
Chris Cairns
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10 12 16 07:56
Red, white and blue | speymouth
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Makes you proud to be Bri… No, me neither.
Nationalists, eh. Whit are they like?
Excellent work Chris!
Brilliant Chris. Put this on a billboard.
Gruesome but apt. Could be the first of a long series!
Is THIS the UK people voted to remain with in 2014?
I’m confused? Is Saudi Arabia ISIS lite, or is ISIS Saudi Arabia lite?
I don’t think she will kissing any hands, just hairy arses!
They get away with all that they do because of oil
.
I would be happy to pay more, if they would just stop killing brown people for it.
There is no excuse for that bitch,she has access to ours.
And while I know it’s an oversimplification,there is and always has been enough in the North Sea for this whole Island.
While there can be no excuse for dealing with this regime,the fact that they do cannot even be mitigated by claiming to need to keep the lights on here.. Disgusting.
Talk about a picture saying a thousand words….well done.
Oh, that’s a hard hitting one this morning Chris. Well done!
The true butchers of Baghdad, eh! Where’s her butchers apron btw?
Disgustingly good,Chris.
But why are her hands clean?
Peace Always
Revolting – great work Chris
Smallaxe asks:
“But why are her hands clean?”
Because she’s putting on her lippy, can’t you see?
Oh Chris.
The Chinese and the Saudis hold the Westminster debts. Brexit will mean they will hold even more. May visits them to give them a bonus of taxpayers money, Their economy is going down the tubes. They have sold off their Oil rights. An absolute despot Monarchy which will have to change or die. The Tories are utter criminal liars. They act as mercenaries for foreign powers and break International Law.
The Union is costing Scotland £20Billion a year. Brexit will cost £10Billion. If Scotland was Independent it would raise £80Billion. The same as Norway. Scotland would have a £300Billion+ Oil Fund. All wasted and squandered by Westminster Unionists. Illegal wars, banking fraud and tax evasion. Scotland’s economy being mismanaged by criminal, lying, murdering, greedy, totally ignorant, incompetent Westminster Unionists for whom Scotland did not vote.
The Tories committed electoral fraud in 31constituencies and should not even be in Government.The only way they can get out of their totally, shambolic mess is to have a GE and lose. They are destroying the world economy. Even the Gov of the BOE is publishing the inequality tables since Thatcher. The UK the most unequal place in the world with the most debt.
I was jolted by that one.
Mr Cairns is becoming one of the best political cartoonists ever. I expect that one to be widely seen across Europe and the world.
I’m glad he is on our side.
Smallaxe @ 8.02
I interpret her hand to be clean… because they are Teflon coated and the Windsor’s taught her how!!!
Wow what a cartoon, a grovelling prime minister on her knees before despots.
How low can you go Mrs May?
I posted her speech during the visit on the previous thread.
Oh, that’s brutal, Chris, but warranted. Don’t forget our Formula One racing drivers and organisers, like English cricketers before them on apartheid, like to keep politics out of sport … and their bank account very healthy.
Thanks for a fantastic year of hard work and great cartoons. Here’s to 2017.
Your weekend reading:
The daddy of all private detectives, a Scot: link to wp.me
A plane, a river, a miracle, and a Republican: link to wp.me
WM asset stripping used to be done discretely.
A few more decades and there will be “nowt” left.
Ask an ABZ Fairmer what “nowt” are.
Good point,well made,Chris
Back in the day,I was a fan of Dave Allen…
“Goodnight,Thank you and May,your God go with you”.
Excellent cartoon.
I wonder what Ruth Davdison, who courts the female and gay/lesbian vote, thinks that HER party leader, is scuttling across the middle East seeking money from countries with the most appalling human rights records.
This last week, Ruth Davidson’s boss, Theresa May, has been meeting to forge ‘new relationships’ with Saudi Arabia (where homosexuals are beheaded), the United Arab Emirates, and other gulf countries, where gay people are invariably lashed hung beheaded or other wise jailed for life if they are lucky.
Likewise those countries have the most appalling attitude to women. Just last week, a women dared to post a picture of herself in the street not wearing a burqa, and is now facing the real prospect of being prosecuted, with many men publicly calling for her to be killed.
Those are the kind of countries that Ruth Davdison’s Tory party now dances with. As for Theresa May, any woman, who gets on their knees to the leaders of these barbaric countries does women everywhere a big disservice.
Aye, brexit isn’t red, white and blue, just blood red.
link to amnesty.org
link to amnesty.org
Shouldn’t she be getting on with the day job rather than sooking up the arses of despots. Mind you her day job at the moment is wreaking economic vandalism on Scotland.
Top toon Chris..
Belter
carjamtic at 8:24 am:
Me too! And his catchphrase, “may your god go with you”, has been a favourite of mine ever since. Quite apt for an atheist!
Well, one that doesn’t believe in forceful religious confrontation. Each to their own, eh!
Chris,
I was going to say that your efforts this morning are fitting of the great Charlie Hebdo itself but on second thoughts i’ll go one better than that – yours is far superior.
Hebdo tends to have nondescript characters quite a lot but the detail in your characters can be worthy of a good portrait artist. Once again, thank you and well done.
Have a great and safe weekend troops!
Wow! That stopped me in my tracks this morning Chris. An excellent depiction of one of our “imperial masters”. Well done.
Chris
Once again a stark and disturbing image brilliantly executed.
Lets free ourselves from the butcher’s apron once and for all!
Superb and disturbing all at the same time Chris.
OT I knew many years ago when a group tried to start a newspaper that John Menzies were the distributors and didn’t give a damn as they had a monopoly.
I was seeking and searching a National in my local Sainsburys but none could I find. I then went into my wee R.S.McColls and found 4 hidden on the bottom shelf a plethora of specialist locals on top.
Now I know that Sainsburys with its union flag on everything is a lost cause .I did not realise that McColls seems to behave in the same manner. The National use to occupy a reasonable space on the shelves of my McColls thanks to the now sacked young manager – I am not connecting the two issues.
It’s a cracker Cris the best yet I think.
Stoker @ 8.39
Loved Dave Allen growing up,first person in my sphere of influence to articulate how stupid religion actually is.
As a kid surrounded by believers who thought it was just me that didn’t get it…he was a star…
Although… each to their own can have many interpretations Eh?
EG.. In Saudi Arabia the government makes law’s that dictates what a woman should have on her head,with punishment attached.
… In France my EU cousin’s government also dictate what women should have on their head,with punishment attached.
So each to their own is not a neutral position for me…as my -own- in this instance would be Woman…..
Please don’t be offended… I am doing a Peffers and using your comment to make a point.
I hope you agree that it is an important one , especially given the cartoon above.
And something to bear in mind for our country,going forward.
There is something blackly comic about Boris actually being spot on about politics in the Middle East and PM’s office saying it is not UK policy to support such a view (despite it being the truth).
Tackett beets,8.19
Mine are sorted
I’m amazed that the Saudi’s would touch a Pig!
Peace Always
Liz g at 9:12 am:
Just caught your comment before heading off out.
No worries Liz, no offence taken! Your point is a valid one.
Let me clarify, i like and use DA’ catchphrase as a non-offensive term rather than just assume someone is a certain religion when they’re not.
I also like the way you referred to Saudi “law” because that’s exactly what it is, it has very little to do with religion, imo. It’s all about dictating to and keeping women in inferior positions and having a daughter i will never buy into that.
Enjoy your weekend!
In Tory World, there is only one God, and he comes in various guises such as £, $.
Human beings don’t matter, morals don’t matter, the truth is irrelevant and must be kept from the commoners at all costs.
It’s for their own good, well just after their own Tory good.
Mass murder by bombing areas packed with innocent civilians
is fine, if they buy the Bombs from English Tory companies
after all its just another way of ensuring that the Elite
in the country stop the plebs from taking their lucre and control of their country.
So much easier than Welfare Sanctions, Austerity, Bedroom Taxes-Royal’s Excluded but Disable people included.
Hired hands such as ATOS just take so long to kill off those not making the Tories money.
Maybe Boris could discuss bombing our Council Estates while over in the Middle-East?
Sometimes, words aren’t enough and other times, none are needed.
Your cartoon says it all! This should be circulated worldwide.
Genius Chris. Simply genius.
If a picture paints a thousand words… Says all that needs to be said about this vile regime, and the Saudis. Well done.
The Cringe was strong on BBC Jockland this morning.
How dare President Elect Trump return the First Ministers courtesy call! We are only wee Scotland and nobody should ever return our calls!
Just heard oor Donalda MacKinnon telling listeners to radio Scotland that it has not been proved that the BBC was biased during the referendum…… So we’re going to get the same old.
Also said that while a lot of people in Scotland are not happy with BBC coverage …….. NOT EVERY LISTENER was unhappy with The BBC in Scotland.
Need to get the Billboards up and get the 50,000 DVD’s made and distributed (with the message to pass on after viewing)
Independent carrying a story today about how the National Grid has just sold 61% of its shares to an Australian consortium MacQuarie whose major investors are Qatar and China… yet May promised to crack down on foreign ownership of strategic assets.
Failing, failing…
Heard Labour MSP MacDonald on the radio this morning arguing against any more referendum (on anything I think). Apparently they incredibly divisive.
I think what he means is “every time we have a referendum Labour loses 15% of its vote”.
I haven’t encountered any division in my day to day life in Scotland. Working in Glasgow what strikes me is how few strongly No voters I ever encounter and how many were actually Yes. So much so I sometimes wonder how we lost.
Great drawing,
Can we assume May had washed her hands to remove the britnat blood?
See BBc new girl on the block claims that bbc scotchshire was reporting fairly during indy 1 referendum. Her source — The BBC Trust. That’s what I like impartiality!
Ooft!…that’s a belter Chris.
That’s a Topper Topher.
Cheers
Oooft. Brilliant depiction of the situation Chris. You have enormous talent at taking a complex story re politics and morality and encapsulating it on one sheet of paper.What skill.
I need say no more
No More “Refurendums”
link to snpou.weebly.com
“Working in Glasgow what strikes me is how few strongly No voters I ever encounter and how many were actually Yes. So much so I sometimes wonder how we lost.”
Given what has happened since IndyRef#1 who would ever now actually admit to having voted NO? (The loony loyalist cult excepted).
“Just heard oor Donalda MacKinnon telling listeners to radio Scotland that it has not been proved that the BBC was biased during the referendum……”
That cognitive dissonance thing again. Aye Donalda–we believe you, doll. Millions wouldn’t.
Ouch!!1 of a ‘toon Chris. That one deserves to go viral.
Dorothy devine 9.07am. Re rs mcolls Dorothy,down here in Dorset they are refusing to take Scottish banknotes. So i don’t give them my custom.
A work of satire, so sharp, it is bereft of any humour.
Thanks Chris, Rev. Get it out there.
To bloody acutely painted to be funny, how many people were beheaded when she was there.
Disgusting person. As for Boris he could not care less, his remarks were calculated to cause her harm, to remind everyone what a jolly good chap he is, not like May, so next time vote for him. Not bloody likely.
Happy Christmas
link to m.youtube.com
Great as usual Chris.
Was half expecting one from the statement some commentator made
That Boris now knows what Saudi Dick taste’s like!
Conan – that snpout blog reads very much like one Andrew HN Gray’s grovelling style. A regular contributor to the Scotsman’s “letter” page for many years – no I’ve not read for 5 years! The author of the most grovelling letter I’ve ever seen – he sent it to the H of C…. (fill in the spaces)Scottish affairs committee a few years ago! MInd you there are a fair number of grovelers on the unionist side – it could be any one of them!
Conan
Opening your link I noticed the change. Org wants Nicola reprimanded, most signatures seem to be from abroad, you know other countries, I want the Scottish parliament to save on toilet paper and use the paper for wiping shite.
Funny if Nicola travels abroad they complain, yet these foreigners think it correct to vote on our country’s future.
So I have no interest what someone from Wales, Ireland, England, or wherever thinks. They can piss right off and mind their own business.
great cartoon Chris, but struggling to work out why so many people are even mildly shocked by it…….perhaps some people have been living in a cave for the last 15 years.
Well done, Chris.
Might I suggest that you are not a cartoonist, but a Master Cartoonist, and ought always to be referred to as such.
Lang may your lum reek.
Great cartoon. Ghoul britannia indeed.
Chris, this is one of your most powerful pieces of work thus far. And that says a lot. This brutal image deserves to be distributed for all eyes over the world.
Spread it far and wide, folks.
Mike d @ 10:33
Time to boycott RS McColl perhaps?
Judging from some of the comments, I am getting the impression that the MSM have seen London Calling???
Also sounds like they are trying to address it while not addressing it ( if that makes sense )
Can’t think why…after all…we are discussing it’s pro’s and con’s… it’s not like it is some Tennant of the Independence movement?!?!?!
The professor is willing to engage!!!!
I wonder if the programme is so troublesome , only the “usual suspects” will twitterise it in response???
Again judging by my Facebook another hudge mistake,but wit do I know?
Then after a few Tweets, get back to framing all news not from them as FAKE news.
There was a time I would have said..they are more to be pitied than blamed….
Ofcourse that’s quite a while ago now.
Bill whoever he is his lack of self worth is pathological, the child needs a psychiatrist. His pain is perhaps from some darkness in his soul brought on from a terrible episode in his childhood.
So as much as I hate his crime, I as a human must feel pity for him and his family, I will light a candle for him at Mass, say a little prayer, in fact I will have his name read out so we can all pray for him in his hour of shame and embarrassment.
Wow! Gets you right in the guts that one. Just watch your back and stay safe Chris
When you’re right, you’re right.
Neatly done Chris.
mike d @ 10.33am
Talk about an irony by-pass. You tell us of a branch of a retail group in Dorset refusing to accept Scottish banknotes.
Yet, that shop group was founded by Robert Smyth McColl (Queen’s Park, Newcastle United, Rangers and Scotland) – a former Scotland football captain who scored 13 goals in 13 appearances for Scotland and a man inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Sighs and shakes his head sadly.
Andrew McLean – hear hear to that Andrew. I crossed swords with him many times years ago in Scotsman letters page and found his letter to H of C on Google incredibly pathetic in it’s grovelling embarrassment at being a Scot(it’s still there). Eventually I began to feel more sorry for him than contemptuous – I believe his self contempt is more than enough. However i’ll draw the line at “praying” for him!
Wee update on the London Calling YT views.
Approx midnight it was edging 8,000.
10.30 this morning it was 16,213
11.20 it was 22,320
Right now it’s stuck at that number.
It’s off like a rocket!
link to youtube.com
Chris
Thank you!
You lift our spirit.
You shine a light into the dark corners of Westminster.
You achieve more with one weekly cartoon than the combined unionist propaganda manages daily.
An amazing artist and an outstanding political critic.
Mike d, you have convinced me – McColls nae mair. They have lost /sacked most of the staff I like anyway and replaced with a surly substitute.
Socrates , I didn’t know that ,thanks for the information .
Is it still owned by them or the family or is it owned elsewhere? If it is still family owned then a complaint might actually get attention.
Ian B
on YT numbers, my money is on them being manipulated downwards….there is precedence for this on YT.
Just keeps getting better and better.
Class
just another one of the ARSE KISSERS of the House of Saud.
Watch oot Chris you’ll be oan Boris Johnstone’s christmas card list noo, NAILED IT.
@ahundredthidiot –
Aye, agreed, let’s keep a close eye on that number.
There was a stushie about suchlike before – can you or anyone else remember what it was about?
Dorothy Devine
The McColl family, “Toffee Bob” McColl started the business with his brother Tom, has not been involved in the business for over 40-years.
It is just another retail group, no family involvement.
Chris, that toon hits you right on the fizzer. Yir best yit.
You could go as mad as a tory, trying to work out UK/Saudi relations. Iraq and Iraqi Baath party were destroyed for 9/11, Bin Laden and his team were Saudi’s, House of Saud is extremely close to House of Windsor, who never go near Israel, House of Bush had or have strong finance ties with Bin Laden,
link to denverpost.com
“In 1978, Bush and Osama bin Laden’s brother, Salem bin Laden, founded Arbusto Energy, an oil company based in Texas.
Several bin Laden family members invested millions in The Carlyle Group, a private global equity firm based in Washington, DC. The company’s senior advisor was Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. After news of the bin Laden-Bush connection became public, the elder Bush stepped down from Carlyle.
Interestingly, on Sept. 11, 2001, members of the Carlyle Group – including Bush senior, and his former secretary of state, James Baker – were meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., along with Shafiq bin Laden, another one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers.”
But…Russians!?
Looks like BoJo’s off the cuff? comments about our Saudi “partners” are being eased out of the conversation on tv by the usual means!
How desperate is this UK regime to continue to sup wi’ these murdering bastards?
Ruthie: “I agree with Boris about the Saudis… I’m not part of the government.” – BBC R2 news.
Ruthie trying to place some red, white and blue water between herself and T.May. More faces than Big Ben.
The Independant cartoons are savage the last few days. Like Hogarth!
Theresa May must be a really friendly woman she’s got her lippy all over those guys
Oooft! Draw it like it is, Chris! Excellent.
I fear things are hotting up to turn very nasty, going on the anti Russian rhetoric, Saudi arse kissing, snooping charter and the low key announcements in increase in military hardware.
If the UK can’t do trade deals via diplomacy, then they will simply position as mercenaries for hire, and suppliers of arms.
Remember the British government’s love in with the Saudi regime whenever you hear some Tory going off on Irelands ww2 neutrality.
Teresa May is mad as any tory.
“Nicky Morgan ‘banned from No 10 meeting’ after querying Theresa May’s £995 trousers
Written by: Josh May Posted On: 10th December 2016
Downing Street has withdrawn an invitation for Nicky Morgan to speak to Theresa May about Brexit, after the former Education Secretary criticised the Prime Minister’s £995 trousers, it has been claimed.”
That’s a true depiction of the sort of person we have at the helm in tory led WM. FFS.
When she scraps the human rights act in the brexited island of her great britain Scotland better be independent, or else.
This image should be in the Graun, but they demonise those who would stand up for democracy and human rights these days.
When she scraps the human rights act in the brexited island of her great britain Scotland better be independent, or else.
The nutcase now collects everything we do online. Surveillance state UK, via a mad tory state. Was there any UK media protest at another level of state mass surveillance? Hardly a peep.
link to caltonjock.com
Since the May 2015 GE, the Tories have been doing whatever they want. Hardly surprising since it is in their DNA, but also of course, because of the disappearance of the Labour Party as a meaningful opposition at Westminster.
This has led to the emergence of a default irresponsibility in Government, which gave rise, ultimately, to the globally damaging decision by David Cameron to hold an EU referendum. The resulting vote for a British exit from the EU, is a matter requiring the highest order of responsible management on the part of the UK Government – at a time when the current Tory Westminster administration is at its most irresponsible.
Who can take seriously the statements and decisions of any of the leading group in this Government, comprising May, Hammond, Davis, Fox and Boris Johnson.
Who on earth believes that this Government can govern responsibly, while Theresa May continues her world tour selling the wares of British armaments manufacturers. Talk about paying attention to the day job. Monty Python could not have dreamed up a more chaotic scenario.
In an ever deepening Brexit crisis, the UK would be better run by The Monster Raving Loony Party. At least they would admit to being completely out of their depth.
In an ever deepening Brexit crisis, the UK would be better run by The Monster Raving Loony Party.
Tories are infinitely more raving mental. Some BBC propaganda on new tory gov surveillance. They now watch and record everywhere we go online but the actual problem isnt assorted tory spooks, tory nut jobs, hard core Core swilled eyed loonies like May but cybercrime, hacking into their data collecting, y’see.
link to bbc.co.uk
Theresa May continues her world tour selling the wares of British armaments manufacturers.
England–a nation of shot keepers.
@ heedtracker 1.04 Kevlar is the new black this season she’ll hiv ah matching jaikit as well.
ronnie anderson says:
10 December, 2016 at 1:48 pm
@ heedtracker 1.04 Kevlar is the new black this season she’ll hiv ah matching jaikit as well.
Mad-as-a-tory.com
Another crackpot tory in action, BBC fluffery at it’s finest, for collectors of creepout BBC tory propaganda
link to bbc.co.uk
Brutal and revealing.
I believe that at one time in the UK’s past you would have been hung for that cartoon. If the UK keeps heading down this path we’re on then it’s likely that you could be hung for such a cartoon in the future.
Proud Cybernat says:
10 December, 2016 at 12:41 pm
Ruthie: “I agree with Boris about the Saudis… I’m not part of the government.” – BBC R2 news.
Ruthie trying to place some red, white and blue water between herself and T.May. More faces than Big Ben.”””
……..
Is that the same Ms Davidson who hosted an arms trade event at Hollyrood? See today’s Herald for story.
About 100 MSPs attended including Mr Keith Brown.
They just don’t get it..
The ‘British’ state are still despised by more people than they are loved by.
Many countries have learned to live as non offensive equals with their neighbours, each celebrating their similar but unique identities.
Not England, not yet. Still war war war…
What % of the UK’s exports to Saudi Arabia and the rest of The Gulf States consists of arms and other military goods?
OT this would be better on the previous thread as it made me think of the London Calling film. On the Wikipedia entry for Robert the Bruce
‘Contemporary accusations that Robert suffered from leprosy, the “unclean sickness”—the present-day, treatable Hansen’s disease—derived from English and Hainault chroniclers. None of the Scottish accounts of his death hint at leprosy.‘
An early example of propaganda perhaps
Great Toon Chris.
Great image summing up UKOK Realpolitik.
British arms and advisors to Saudi and used against civilians in Yemen = Good.
Russian arms and advisors to Syria and used against ISIL = Bad
Thepnr,
Speak for yourself I am well hung already,
I’ll get my coat.
Aye @ Sunniva says at 9:55 am
“Independent carrying a story today about how the National Grid has just sold 61% of its…………..whose major investors are Qatar and China”.
More bargains in the UKOK fire sale.
The UK National Debt stands at £1.778 Trillion and grows at a rate of £5,170 every second.
The UK is bankrupt, it’s Government Bonds are owned by the likes of China and the Saudis.
Rock the boat with the House of Saud and they’ll call in their Bonds which May can’t afford to honour.
Following on from “the free TV licence may be scrapped” to selling off the National Grid the UK is very soon going to run out of ‘family silver’ (tax payer funded national assets like Network Rail and the NHS down South) to sell and revenue streams to raise (Brexit will severely damage tax receipts).
iScotland leaving with its Oil, Gas, Food and Drink Export revenues and it’s agricultural, energy and water resource surplus will sink England.
Expect the Yoons to be fighting very very dirty in IndyRef 2 (worse than they did in Indy Ref 1).
The BritNat Fanatics will fight IndyRef 2 to the last man/woman and bullet (metaphorically speaking), the continuing existence of their Fantasy Britannia Land depends on this and they know it.
@ gus1940 says at 2:20 pm
UK is 4th largest arms exporter in the world behind US (1st), Russia (2nd) and China (3rd).
Saudi Arabia is the 2nd largest importer of arms globally, behind India who are largest importer.
Total Exports from the United Kingdom (not just arms exports) amounted to US $460.1 billion in 2015 but I can’t find a break down by country or just for arms exports.
Two-thirds of UK arms exports go to the Middle East though.
This has been going on for as far back as I remember to the “death of a princess” drama documentary that was shown in 1980 exposing the medieval Saudi regime. A diplomatic incident over a telly programme! The UK government sucking up to them almost 40 years ago.
@ahundredthidiot –
Update on London Calling:
Between 10.30 and 11.23 this morning the YT version added 6,017 views.
Between then and now it has had 222.
???
Current total – 22,542
All about oil. Looks like Trump’s going to fcuk the arctic too.
link to reuters.com
“Trump is considering the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson – who recently cut a $300 billion deal with Russia to drill for oil in the Arctic and had interests in Crimea and 50 other countries – to be SECRETARY OF STATE. Russia? Check. Forget oil independence? Check. Climate Change enemy? Check. This person should be nowhere near the state department and we need to do everything we can to make that clear”
Nomiki Konst
Meanwhile and Every time you UKOK look. Hard core virtual yoon Cons of Scotland flock to this idiot, who says he/she’s “at” the Uni of Aberdeen.
link to archive.is
“What if a wealthy Scottish woman who was disappointed that Scotland had voted to leave the UK took the case to the High Court. It’s hard to imagine that such a case could not be heard. What about the precedent? Moreover, the SNP could hardly complain, because they had already taken part in a similar case.”
So much dumb, for such a big country, Scotland.
manandboy says:
Historically you knew where you stood with the Tories. A bunch of barstards and they didn’t try to hide it. The label on the package made clear what was inside.
Part of the problem with this present shower is we have no idea what their plans actually are. The five you list appear to have different policies on everything and are quite open about disagreeing with each other! It certainly gives the impression of astonishly weak leadership. They all behave as if they were in charge.
heedtracker says:
What a load of bollocks.
“We had a legal referendum last June, but since then we have had continual attempts by those who were disappointed by the result to prevent the UK from leaving the EU.”
That character clearly isn’t following what is going on. Or, is pretending not to understand. There is no attempt to “prevent” that I am aware of. So WTF?
The High and Supreme court cases have been all about who gets to make the decisions – is it May dictatorially or is it Parliament democratically? And now, should devolved admins have a say too.
What is going on is that various factions, including our own SG, are trying ensure a soft Brexit takes place. The problem is there are elements who actually want a hard Brexit and I presume the writer of that blog is one.
All academic, I hope. Because Scotland will be forced to take her own route. Thank heavens!
Ian Brotherhood says:
10 December, 2016 at 3:16 pm
@ahundredthidiot –
Update on London Calling:
Between 10.30 and 11.23 this morning the YT version added 6,017 views.
Between then and now it has had 222.
???
Current total – 22,542
I have entered the link for the film about 6 times since reading your post and the number of views does not change. Still 22,542. Something rather interesting was that for every entry I clicked the thumbs up for likes and for the first 4 it increased the number by one each time. However in the last two times instead of increasing the number it decreased it by one!!!!!!!
The Tories lose at every election in Scotland and have been rejected by the people of Scotland for years
Why does Ruth Davidson keep wanting another go why will she not respect the will of the people when it’s clearly no by a huge majority
Can’t Ruth Davidson abide by the decision and stop obsessing over these constant attempts at divisive behaviour and get back to her day job
What is her day job BTW, Oh aye, OO kit girl
@Ian Brotherhood
Aye, agreed, let’s keep a close eye on that number.
There was a stushie about suchlike before – can you or anyone else remember what it was about?
Yes, well I certainly did in the run up to the referendum over in off topic. We were playing songs like Tracy Chapman “Talkin bout the Revolution” and the number watching was going down instead of up.
Tin hat back on
@ mike d 10:33am You should go into rs mcolls pick something up. open it and start eating it. when you offer to pay for it and you only have Scottish Money on you. They will take Scottish Banknotes then ? if they don’t you have gotten something for nothing.
@Michael McCabe
Wish some someone would go into McColls and start eating all the newspapers. Preferably a really hungry Yes supporter.
Daily Mail yum yum.
Whether the UK is selling arms to the Saudis, the National Grid to the Chinese, or High Tea and Biscuits to the Japanese, you can’t get away from the sober reality that Westminster has for decades been plundering the U.K. for assets it can sell off at knock down prices, based upon the lie that such things were a burden upon the state. BT, British Gas, Jaguar, British Steel, Coal, Rolls Royce, England’s NHS, Water, Electricity, British Airways, British Rail, BP, (and let’s not even mention the criminal squandering of Scotland’s oil), …Gordon Brown even sold off 400 tonnes of UK’s gold reserves, plundered the Nation’s pensions for its cash, and all the time, UK property is epically overpriced, with every street in every town throwing away it’s hard earned cash into some faceless mortgage company, and yet for all the tax and interest on such “valuable” commodities changing hands, the country is bankrupt.
If we’d been buying up all these National treasures, then we’d have some excuse for being up to our necks in debt, but at least we’d have some substantial assets to show for our investment, which we could I am sure make pay for its own upkeep. But we have nothing. Not a crumb. These treasures belonged to all of us, and they’ve been sold, and yet all the proceeds have disappeared into some mythical black hole, while the country blasts through more cash than a merchant banker sparko’d oot his nut on crack cocaine.
Never, ever, throughout History, has any country, ever, been so profligate and breathtakingly reckless with its own economic welfare and prosperity. It’s stupidity beyond measure. It’s not about banks being too big to fail, it’s about boundless rank stupidity that’s too big to comprehend. The cynical harvesting of a throwaway Nation simply for its wealth.
It cannot end well. There is no coming back from this, not in decades, not centuries, perhaps never. It is THAT big a catastrophe.
I’m sure Scotland, if we check under our seat, with luck we will find a big handle with yellow and black stripes and a warning label that says “Pull to Eject”. What the feck is it we’re all waiting for???
When does this NeoLiberal wet dream start to make any money? At what point will there be enough to go around? It is ALL a con. It’s a grift. It serves to move the money from your back pocket and into the back pocket of a privileged minority of the super wealthy. That’s it. That’s the end of the formula. There is no ying and yang law of equilibrium going to sort out any imbalance.
Neoliberalism does not enrich your economy, it ruthlessly exploits it, siphoning off all the wealth and removing it from a Nation’s economic formula, leaving the country having to do more and more for less and less, with ever fewer resources to support them as they try. If people fall off the treadmill or are lost, they are of no longer of any consequence.
There has to be a better way than this.
Re youtube videos
I think global research had an article [perhaps last year] about youtube manipulation, and if my memory serves Reddit were discussing this recently about the latest US scandal. I don’t have time to go searching right now.
Brilliant Chris, the Brit Nat conservative voters must have their heads stuck firmly in the sand.
How can anyone with a conscience vote for these folk
@Breeks
You might want to read this research briefing from the House of Commons Library. It is full of facts about “privatisation” since 1970.
However, in my view also full of holes and lies.
On “Motives for privatisation” it states this:
However, such clear cut examples of using the sale of government shares as a revenue raising mechanism are rare.
In fact, many of the key authors of privatisation as a policy saw revenue raising as less important than other outcomes.
Nigel Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989 when many major privatisations occurred, stated that “the money that is raised [from privatisation], while useful, has always been a second-order question.”
How about “Making Industry More Efficient” or “Spreading Share Ownership”
Just a load of Tory bollocks. Link to the paper here:
link to researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk
On the subject of Scottish banknotes.
There are a number of examples of them being refused down south. A chain of chemists around the south west hit the Press, after an outcry. They gave a BS excuse about counterfeit Scottish fivers.
I shared a story on Twitter from a guy, proper name etc., describing being refused in a Canary Wharf Costa. He told the Assistant, no bother, ill use my bank card. He proceeded to order 6 items, they got it ready, and he told them to shove it.
I think there is an active campaign, OR, perhaps it’s Scots making sure the story gets out. I heard Kaye Adams say on her show, she daren’t offer Scottish notes to London cabbies, because, of course, she is up and down there every week.
She had a good laugh about it.
@Breeks
Just read your post again. Nail meet hammer, that’s it summed up in a superb post.
Breeks @ 4:45
Well said.
The ‘God’ of neoliberalism is the only ‘guide’ these Tories hypocrites worship,YES there is a better way,we just need to look to our Nordic friends (e.g. public trusts for natural resources (oil in Norway’s case),excellence in the management of government bureaucracies etc.etc.).
In these times of global carnage,ranging from mass poverty and inequality,to climate change deniers,to unchecked war mongerers,it is time to make stand and the only way to do that, is for Scotland to be Independant….of that,there can be no more doubt.
Breeks says:
At 4:45pm
Like this ….
link to flighthelmet.com
Seriously, though, your analysis of UKOK is spot on, and we need out.
2014 leaving was desirable, now it has become essential.
@Breeks
Post of the year.
Nothing in it most of us did not know already, but tied together beautifully.
I’d love to here Peter Mullen read it on a YT.
Breeks
Your excellent post (which I agree with every word) reminds me of Kezia’s claim in her speech this week that:
“the central purpose of the UK…to redistribute wealth and resources within our union of nations.”
She is right of course- just not in the way she thinks or claims. It is project redistribution of wealth from all of us (across the UK) into the pockets of the few. (How stupid can a human being be, by the way?)
I worry that if Scotland doesn’t pull the eject handle we will be left simply raging against the elite forever. They have it sewn up so tight with the press and tv whose sole purpose seems to be to subvert those 2 or 3 days every five years where the people get to cast their miserable little vote and make their voice heard.
That’s why the brexit cataclysm is so great- without such great disruption we may be left beating the collective national organ unenthusiastically, hopelessly, joylessly for decades.
RE;Valerie@5.09pm
Funny I have been getting lots of those new (including dead animal ingredients) Bank of england five pound notes this past week or so, certainly more than the Scottish five pound notes. I try to get rid of them asap but just seem to get more next day, no thanks!
So Callkaye thinks it’s funny. So if shops here start refusing english notes, will she still be laughing or will she have a britnat rage phone in.
Deep breaths, now!
link to archive.is
Straight to the point as always Chris, well done.
Not to sound toooo political, a wee Star of Dave on her lapel would have finished it off.
Arty Hetty@6.00, I started refusing English notes in my change a while back, I know two wrongs don’t make a right, but if it’s OK for the Scots to be treated as second class, then FU*K them.
As for Call K fae the valleys, bring it on.
Spot on, Chris.
Well said, Breeks. Sincerely hope we are out of this quagmire soon.
WOS archive links now over on O/T.
I just saw a man in Morrisons Supermarket pick up a Daily Mail then scuttle nervously to the fast self checkout with it under his arm instead of going to the fag part where everybody else goes and where I was standing watching him because I’d just been looking at the papers
So they know what they’re doing and what folk think of them for buying the shit so they do it secretly now ……Jeeez!
Closet Nazis eh they used to be so shouty about it
Short wave radio next
David Mudell walked in front of my car twice today in Glasgow. His trousers were too short up round his ankles and he takes very small steps. Just sayin’.
Pat on the back Breeks. Well written and concise. Deserves to be on a yes2 campaign leaflet.
@breeks You know, when the privatisation thing started with Thatcher’s ‘share owning democracy’, I thought it was a great idea & like many others, took up my wee allocation in British Gas, etc.
The reason I thought it was a great idea, was that – since the point of owning part of a company is to have control over how the company’s run – an army of small shareholders could help to keep the company honest (more honest than when it could blackmail governments for cash).
That didn’t work out – because, of course, that’s not how capitalism operates. Takeovers, mergers, foreign buyouts…the small shareholder disappeared (often just bought out). Just look at the history of the de-mutualised Building Societies….vanished into the maw of the banks.
The final straw was RBS and the shafting of shareholders, Scottish business, and the idea of socially-useful banking – all in pursuit of one man’s ambition, which it turned out no one could control.
And, as it turns out, the UK govt, in its pursuit of cash at any price, is now the one in danger of being shafted, as the assets which we all used to own are bought up in their turn by Chinese corporations whose interests, like it or not, are not the growing prosperity of UK citizens.
There are other ways of doing things…
Well, there’s socliaism for instance:
link to youtube.com
@Roughian –
David Mudell walked in front of my car twice today in Glasgow
Ken McDonald walked in front of mine at Silverburn today and I started rolling the window doon to shout “Ken tell Kez to shove her new act of union right up her arse!” but the wife went aff her nut at me so had to compromise for the sake of xmas and that…
incredibly good cartoon, Chris.
here’s a post about the similarities between ISIS and Saudia Arabia and Saudia’s relationships with the UK and USA
link to eurofree3.wordpress.com
Great post Breeks.
You can add Royal Mail as the most recent misappropriation of assets by UK Gov.
And the Yoons just lap it up and think their betters in Westminster know best.Gullible and subservient to the bitter end.
@Kininvie
Nice to see you posting again.
“There are other ways of doing things…”
This I totally agree with, we need not have sold off OUR assets for buttons to private enterprise.
Hey, think about it for fuck sake would they have bought anything that could FAIL? NO. That’s why National Rail the losing part was kept public and the profitable parts sold off.
Successive governments have sold things that belonged to all of us to enable others to profit, an utter disgrace.
I think we might all have fallen asleep as we have slowly been consumed. AND WHO PAYS?
The poorest that’s who with billions being cut from the budget year on year. Stand up FFS.
Vote YES.
By the way one last point any cash raised from these endeavours is normally spent on keeping taxes for the richest low.
What a kin joke.
Hi Guys——- there was a very good article in the New European by Alistair Campbell (Yes I know) About Dacre and the DM….Have a read at it ……………
Ask not who owes the debt but who owns it.
The Yoons will sup with and grovel to any psychopath with cash. Spot on about the Red, White and Blue. I wonder if any comedian will have the guts to spoil the Royal Variety Show? The creep show must go on at all costs.
My grandfather worked for the GPO. They built telephone infrastructure for generations until the Tories sold it to the stock market..it wasn’t Thatcher’s to sell in the first place.
Paula Rose says: 7:34 pm
Ask not who owes the debt but who owns it.
Especially if we are also giving sweeteners and rebates to the same people.
Successive governments have sold things that belonged to all of us to enable others to profit, an utter disgrace.
A billion quids worth of student fees got sold to “investors” lately. Or rather student loans worth almost £1billion have been sold to a debt collecting agency in the latest Government privatisation.
Planet toryboy also wants to sell off at least £40billion student loans, out of its total £90+bn, to the City. Big bucks.
Just in case any defaulters out there, Torygraph roasters say its all johnny foreigner types, so lets get em!
link to archive.is
The toryboy what runs a n other planet toryboy “think tank” OBR style and reported by torygraph roasters, also popped up in progressive liberal rancid the Graun lately, a lot too. He’s just another of a big toryboy’s private gimps, which is never reported, with his tory lunacy, ofcourse.
Why does teamGB media never say who their toryboys actually are? They own teamGB and its not like England doesn’t bend the knee to them.
link to conservativehome.com
link to archive.is
Higher education
Is selling student loans to the private sector such a bad thing?
Nick Hillman
Sorry to see Sunday Time critic AA Gill has died. Good writer and he had a nice piece in the Sunday Times supporting Scottish independence before the 2014 referendum:
link to imgur.com
“The Republic will be 100 years old in eight years, and if they had a referendum and were asked “Look, you’ve had a century of this, wouldn’t you rather come back and be part of the UK again?”, do you imagine there would be a single vote for yes?
Because whatever happens, it is always better to be yourself.
And when you ask, “Will it be different the morning after?”, well, everything will be different and how fabulously exciting will that be? And if you have a vote how will you be able to turn to your grandchildren in years to come and say: “Well, I did have the chance to right an old wrong, but actually I couldn’t be bothered. I was a bit scared.”
I’ve been asked before by my Tory supporting friends what I have against free market capitalism. I normally reply bay saying nothing and then asking them where it is practiced.
The inference is that we are running a capitalist country, yet I only see an economy dominated by part-public organisations. They are called banks.
I say part public because there is no fear of insolvency or failure, simply because they are guaranteed by the state – a huge moral hazard.
Moving onto QE – the purchase of UK debt – £445 bn created on the computer by the Bank of England used to inflate stock prices and benefitting the richest families by an average sum of £125000.
If any of the above sounds like free market capitalism, let me know.
Wow Chris. Just … Wow. Bril.
That is communication and we have a problem; Murdoch wants complete control of Sky. Imagine the anti-independence equivalent of Fox News coverage of Trump pumping out / communicating the non truths of Westminster in Indyref2! Do we need to resurrect Radio Free Scotland? Can we take over STV? Chris’ cartoon blown up on billboards will not be enough.
That is a brilliant example of Red White and Blue and the hypocrisy of the Butchers Apron.
I think one of the Unionist fears is being left with an obsolete flag when Scotland is no longer part of it.
Onwards, your post reminds me of the words of Thomas Pain
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
Let’s fight for Scotlands future today. So our children can be free!
Glasgow.
Yer so bonnie.
Solid ROCK.
X.
Blue, white & bleu.
X.
Another good piece by The Sunday Times critic AA Gill who has just died. Although his family moved to England when he was one he said “My links to Scotland are fierce and they’re blood. This is the place where I feel the choke and the pulse of my creation myth”
His piece is about the union and it’s creation has some strong views about why and how that came about. It was written just before the Independence referendum.
link to archive.is
Brexit came out of the blue, its pretendy promoters turned white and now the UK will go ever deeper into the red.
euan0709
Read the Dacre piece- and although I have disliked A Campbell intensely and often I relly enjoyed it. Dacre himself is obviously lower than a snakes belly- one of the very worst people alive and the stuff on his staggering hypocrisy in the EU subsidising work in and around his Ullapool estate is brilliant.
link to archive.is
Nice one Euan- cheers
@Proud Cybernat says: 10 December, 2016 at 10:31 am:
“Just heard oor Donalda MacKinnon telling listeners to radio Scotland that it has not been proved that the BBC was biased during the referendum……”
I’m playing catch up again and it strikes be many here have missed the real telling point in the Donalda MacKinnon statement.
The bit about her pledge, “To spend more licence fee funds raised, “North of the Border”, on programmes produced in Scotland”. She states that in 2015/16 only 55%of the cash raised in Scotland was spent on local and Scottish network content. Her stated ambition was to see the amount spent, “better reflect”, what is collected.
Now that ambition seems to have fooled some of you but, do what the Rev Stu always tells you to do, read what is actually being said.
In the first place, if only 55% of the licence fee collected in Scotland comes back to Scotland, then that means 45% of it went to Westminster.
However, that is not the real story either of if Ms Donalda MacKinnon is going to spend more of it in Scotland, yet claims there is no BBC bias, then there thus needs be no change in BBC Jockland programming policy.
So the real story is that she intends to, Spend even more of the money raised from Scots on biased programmes and Westminster Propaganda against the Scots than the BBC spends already.
The Yoon Goons are about to use even more of our Scottish money on biased and anti-Scottish propaganda.
Am I wrong in my analysis?
No Robert you’re not.
For the rest of you. Operation destroy independence referendum 2 has commenced.
No referendum, fascist are marching in your town, send them packing.
@Robert Peffers –
The BBC can make all the pledges it likes about spending in Scotland relative to the amount it ‘raises’, but we don’t know how much they raise because they point-blank refuse to divulge how many households have simply stopped paying the licence-fee.
And under no circumstances will that particular stat be revealed – if it turns out that, for argument’s sake 100,000 Scottish addresses are unlicensed, that will precipitate a deluge of others saying ‘they’re no payin’, and they’re no goin’ tae jail, so why should we?’.
Poor Auld Auntie, caught between a rock and a hard place. What’s a new broom tae dae, eh?
Ian Brotherhood
The fact that they blocked the iplayer to non licence payers could indicate that there were quite a lot of people not paying the licence.
How deep is ur love..
For Scotland?
X.
That’s Blair and Straw in the robes.
I’d recognize those faceless men anywhere.
@Robert Peffers –
PS. I didn’t answer your question, sorry.
No, I don’t think you’re wrong. But I don’t believe the amount spent on anti-Scottish/indy propaganda bears any relation whatsoever to the amount raised via licence fee in Scotland.
Even if no-one in Scotland paid, we’d still be subjected to the same torrent of shite, day-in, day-out. It would be small consolation to know that our friends and kin in RUK are paying for it, but we’re surely at or near the point where paying that ‘tax’ is an open admission of full BTUKOK allegiance.
Someone on Twitter said to me earlier than he pays the licence fee because he enjoys the sport, specific game shows etc etc provided by the Beeb. That won’t wash as an excuse for funding blatant bigotry and hatemongering – far too many options available now, many of which are completely free after the initial lay-out on a wee plug-in, all perfectly legal.
“Sometimes watch these passengers reading it, too. Mail readers really read it. Not for them the idle page-flicking you might see of the airline magazines. Headlines draw them in. Pictures draw them in. Captions draw them in. Then the long reads begin. I want to take them by the neck – indeed, sometimes I do take them by the eyeball, and I ask: “Why are you reading that shit? It’s a national poison. Take some heroin or something.” And here is the greatest success of all for Dacre. Many say they know, they agree, but they don’t care, because it amuses, entertains or, more usually, angers them – “But I don’t take it seriously”; while others look at me like I am the one in need of rescue, not them, because they agree with so much of what they read.”
I fly alot due work and this I have to say is spot on from Alistair Campbell.
Michael mcabe 4.30 pm. I actually done that the 3rd mcolls shop i went in,by opening a bottle of sparkling flavoured water and having a swig out it.. my Scottish fiver was reluctantly accepted.
Happy last hour or so of,
link to ohchr.org
everyone.
TeamGB just waltzed away from this too. Planet toryboy will look after us though.
link to rightsinfo.org
I could not resist it.
‘Phoned BBC complaints to give off about the lack of irony in their reporting on the CIA having an investigation into Russian interference in US election.
Is there any country in the world where the CIA has not interfered in elections? And how many military coups followed when they did not succeed?
Indeed, how do we know this investigation is not the CIA interfering in the US elections and preparing for a coup?
Roughian says:
10 December, 2016 at 6:19 pm
David Mudell walked in front of my car twice today in Glasgow. His trousers were too short up round his ankles and he takes very small steps. Just sayin’.
Ruby replies
I spotted Ruth Davidson in the street a couple of weeks ago. She wasn’t wearing any of her stage make-up or girlie clothes/jewellery. She looked very macho! Nobody was paying here any attention so she may not be as much of a celeb as she thinks either that or nobody recognised her au natural image.
Unlike David Mundell she took pretty big steps she doesn’t mince along!
Breeks @ 4.4.5 –well said.
The current structural economic stagnation has its origins in ‘free market’ capitalism- when floundering is free to plunder state assets- and has delivered thus far concentrated wealth for a few and income inequality for the majority, a vanishing social contract, high levels of indebtedness, financial fragility and the future generation defined by its social immobility and precariat class.
Thatcher’s legacy and for all those devotees who followed is an anathema to the neoliberal dream.
‘The United Kingdom improves its performance across the board, but not enough to keep up with its peers, slipping down one place to 10th position. The country has created a good set of conditions for its vibrant service sector to develop and for London to become the epicenter of the European tech and start-up scene. It boasts solid public and private institutions (14th), strong property protection rights (5th), and an efficient judicial system.
Thanks to its capacity to attract talent from abroad (4th) and some of the best universities in the world, the United Kingdom can count on a well-educated workforce, contributing to high levels of technological adoption (9th) and ICT penetration (2nd). Although still recovering from the global financial crisis, the UK financial market remains one of world’s best developed, able to provide venture capital and equity financing to start-ups and entrepreneurs. In the long run, the country will have to continue efforts to improve its macroeconomic environment (108th); the government deficit is still very high (5.7 percent of GDP, ranked 118th) and its public debt has doubled since 2007, now accounting for almost 90 percent of GDP (123nd)’
link to reports.weforum.org
Of course the report will be amended to reflect Brexit- London will no longer be an epicenter of the global financial scene.
Scotland as a viable independent country which is resource rich can adopt alternative economic models e.g. Nordic Capitalism. We need not take any lessons from successive UKOK administrations that have led us to crisis of economy with stagnation, weak investment, inequality and wealth concentration and a democracy in disarray.
Ruby.
2nd time he walked in front I made him run a bit. Well he was going against the lights.
Get down, n’ gerrup!
Roughian says:
10 December, 2016 at 10:48 pm
Ruby.
2nd time he walked in front I made him run a bit. Well he was going against the lights.
Ruby replies
Do you think the press might be interested in that story?
Perhaps not! Now had it been Humza Yousaf there would probably have been headlines all over the press
SNP Transport Minister fails to obey traffic signals.
How about a bit of a game. See who can come up with the best headline for Mundell’s failure to obey the rules of the road.
OT
Two Scottish scientists have just been awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, for their work on topology. – I could explain but I would only confuse you.
Actually it is something to do with thin films and is said to be important for future computing and new materials.
Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!
Stayin’ alive..
Glasgow.. You’re amazing.
X.
Stu Mac
Are you suggesting the necromancer of thatchers rotting corpse has the capability to feel remorse?
BBC reports practically every country in the world and their media is corrupt
But certainly not Britain or the BBC they’re completely exempt and all white and shiny and clean
(Forrest Gump voice)
I’m not a smart man but I know what shit is
BBC Scotland….. 2 Scots win Nobel prize for Physics and they lead with a story about a….. MURDER!
One wonders how the FBI are going to feel about the CIA investigating their candidate? Our emails are better than your emails
Could it be a coup? Was the FBI working with the Russians too? Great popcorn material
Could not happen to a nicer candidate elect, what with the Exxon mobil CEO as proposed Secretary of State and Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA link to nytimes.com
And their first act to look for a list of names of employees working on climate change link to npr.o.rg
Makes Teresa May and the Brexiteers look almost respectable
@phronesis
Indeed,
Thatcher’s neoliberal beliefs lead to the financial crisis we experienced in 2008. She worshipped Frederick Hayek and Milton Friedman. The economics of the day (and sadly today) would have us believe that the central bank controlled the money supply and that government deficit spending was inflationary.
Thus the government put away its credit card and decided that we run up our’s. in order to grow the economy (in a net importing area like the U.K. ) either the govt runs a deficit or we do. Bank regulation in the late 70s stopped the private sector from running up big deficits which is why it was deregulated – the rest is history. It was merely a matter of who was on watch when the private debt bubble burst.
Of course mainstream economics falsely believed that banks were intermediaries – you borrow from someone else’s savings – hence there is a net gain somewhere else in the economy when you borrow and things balance out. This is utterly false since banks actually create money when they lend – blowing away any theories that the Bank of England control the money supply.
So indeed the phoney economics of thatcher led us to where we are today – with the very levels of national debt levels the tories were trying to avoid. We, the private sector can’t take on any more debt. We run a trade deficit and so the only option left is for the government to spend.
This spending occurs automoatIcally by design by way of automatic stabilisers which prevent us going into economic freefall. I wish someone would explain this to the likes of the OBR. Of course this is why the national debt has continued to rise.
Watching Osborne as chancellor was a bit like watching my father with his first laptop.
Achnababan says:
11 December, 2016 at 12:03 am
BBC Scotland….. 2 Scots win Nobel prize for Physics and they lead with a story about a….. MURDER!
Its like a big fat tick, feeding away off the host, making the host feel ill, low, hopeless.
Achnababan says:
11 December, 2016 at 12:03 am
BBC Scotland….. 2 Scots win Nobel prize for Physics and they lead with a story about a….. MURDER!
What has surprised you?
Let’s pretend two Nobel prizes were by England’s finest, Scotland in union would have mutually Wanked each other into a spasmodic spastic orgasm. “Oh masta you a god, whip me masta whip me good, me a bad slave, beet ma ass good masta, me nothing like a bad slave masta you do what you want masta”
Scotland in union pledges 2017.
Interesting Sunday Herald trailing story that a third of Labour councillors are getting ready to stand down.
Also, this week, two Labour resignations in North Lan. Labour are running a minority administration now.
Lots of brown trousered cowards, fleeing the troughs.
Listening to Boston..
It’s been such a long time..
PEACE & FOGARTY.
X.
I Love Scotland so much
Cheers to you REV STU!
Andrew, fucking hilarious
Wild times ~
Planet Rock, Planet Earth..
Mon in.
X.
Hi Cactus.
link to youtube.com
Ah don’t givva f..
But ah do.
Cheers the B doon da T.
X.
When we free?
I Love Scotland.
So do you.
Scotland.
X.
Cheers B..
Everything..
Think of dreams..
Ludovico E.
Aye.
X.
We’re thru da night.. Who’s up?
X.
Cactus Sweetie
link to youtube.com
Breeks@4:45
Repeating earlier BTL comments,WoS the best cartoonist,the best BTL comments,the best political blog,bar none,truly exceptional.
Outstanding post.
Links
Exposed-the-hypocrisy-of-reporting-scotlands-freedom-of-information-foi-requests
link to archive.is
link to thescottishfarmer.co.uk
link to newsnet.scot
Scots receive Nobel Prize for ‘exotic matter’ research
link to archive.is
UK government facing new Brexit court case
link to archive.is
link to disabilitynewsservice.com
link to euractiv.com
link to 21stcenturywire.com
Heedtracker, a most excellent analogy!
The lovely Nana , may I thank you for your posts and links , I shall enjoy my morning coffee even more.
Nana:Good morning,
Great timing,kettle’s boiling.Thank you
Peace Always
@Dorothy
I fit in well with this lot, headscarf wearing, welly booted, pitchfork at the ready. My kind of lovely
link to archive.is
@Smallaxe
I’m off to the shops this morning. I may well need something stronger than coffee by the end of the day.
Should I take my pitchfork?
Let it not be forgotten what these people are capable of, the atrocities in all their colony’s, the company they gladly keep, all to reap more, stay in power and dominate. Watch out! remember the Minor’s riots, remember bloody Sunday, they can’t afford to let Scotland go, desperate people do desperate things.
Great cartoon Chris!!
Nana:
Don’t forget the steel toed wellies,and tell them to frack off.
Peace Always
Dorothy Devine
Daily injecting poison into the host, just not enough to kill.
link to indyref2.scot
Nana , love the photo and I’d take the pitchfork. I think I’ll invest in those steel to cap wellies that Smallaxe suggested too – not to mention my pocket sized exocet missile!!
Heedtracker , that article really exposes those swines , utterly shocking and from the Jimmy Saville ,Rolf Harris ,Stuart Hall brigade.
Maybe they should watch out lest the Scottish Government does widen the remit to include the bloody BBBC.
that should be ‘toe’ !
Dorothy Devine, we dont have to consume their propaganda pouring out of Pacific Quay but its there nonetheless. We’re being swamped by far right propaganda and its clearly working.
Jump in anywhere here… BBC Producer Alison Fuller Pedley, BBC QT, All Heil Trump/Farage.
link to archive.is
“They added that: “Alison has reassured her managers that the posts were shared unwittingly and she was unaware of their wider context.”
“In a year when Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered; in a year when Gina Miller was threatened and abused for bringing the legal case against Brexit to the courts; and in a year when the judges hearing that same case were vilified and MPs labelled ("Tractor" - Ed)s for voting against leaving Europe, to have someone in a such a high-profile position influencing the nation’s view of itself is extremely serious. The political debate has never been more toxic and the existence of fake news has shifted from the corners of conspiracy theory to the front page. In light of all that, the conduct of the BBC in this instance is frankly disgraceful.”
“The spectacle of audiences watching highly imbalanced panels discuss a narrow political agenda is the height of manipulation – and it has a Scottish context. Many will recall the passionate if – at least in my view – unhinged unionist-supporting audience member who appeared on the show that was broadcast from Inverness during the independence referendum. Fuller Pedley later tweeted: “Did you like my Highlander – great guy #bbcqt”.
I see in the National Andy Wightman is getting sued. I can imagine there are numbers of landowners clamouring to destroy him. Absolutely zero detail released in terms of who is after him but the amount (750K) they are suing for is preposterous.
All because he has championed land reform. Having read about Paul Dacre and his estates benefiting from £88,000 of EU agricultural money in 2014 alone between his 20,000 acre estate near Ullapool and his estate down south it just makes me so angry. Has anyone ever been so hypocritical?
What is that old phrase: cheap to those who can afford it… very expensive to those that can’t. I have been on the waiting list in Edinburgh for a 250sqm allotment for 6 years- the waiting time was meant to be 6 years but I am allegedly 4 years off. If we divvied the country up every man woman and child would be due about 14,500sqm.
All of this stuff has been said over and over again about how poorly used land is in Scotland and how concentrated in a few hands the supposed “ownership” is.
I would be keen to divvy it up and all these rich land-owners can do one. Of course we need agricultural land cultivated by successful large scale farms but the sporting estates? And of course there is a world of difference in the utility of land in Leith and on some remote island.
Somewhere between every man woman and child being marked out their 14,500sqm portion and the current setup where 500 people own half the land (an average of 78,000,00sqm each) would be nice. And if that leads to accusations of Zimbabwe style land grabs sobeit.
Andy is a champion- I await details of the case and crowdfund for his defence and will gladly back him up to the extent that I can. We need more like him.
Andrew Castle (LBC) earlier, bemoaning the fact that London is so congested that he doesn’t use his car there anymore. “We’re choking on the fumes” he said. No. You’re choking on greed Andrew.
Also, saw the BBC (London) weather report this morning. Scotland is definitely getting smaller on the BBC maps. We’ll reach vanishing point soon at this rate.
I’ll say it again..
..that cartoon is so good, the smile it almost raises is a painful one.
Great info on here as usual,
As a people WE DO kneel before the ‘elites’, by (being in a union with England, who keep) re-electing the Conservative Establishment FOREVER!
Our ‘still Orwellian’ civil service, bizarrely, helps maintain these immoral pre-war aristocratic alliances.
It is Westminster and the house of Saudi, who subsidise eachother and co-develop WAR and internal SUPPRESSION together, with the smiling Royals on both sides USING THEIR PREROGATIVE POWERS to sweep through contracts.
You can’t move in the home counties for science or defence research and support companies. Jobs for all the private school boys. We only see the tip of the iceberg in the political sphere.
Mess with the establishment gravy train?
WORLD WARS have neen fought for less.
Everyone is rattled, it’s 2016..
Maybe a giant asteroid / nuclear war will put us out of our misery.
BBC radio Scotland have a lovely wee 12 days of Christmas jingo
Talk about racial stereotyping
Sovereign Rings
Obligatory nod to Buckfast.
Scotti Dugs. (Aberdeen Terriers Actually )
Highland dancer’s
Nae shortbread right enough..
Mixed in with a nod to Andy Murray.
And a reminder that there’s Two Kelpies.
What the Fuck is wrong with these people..
Hope someone gives a return effort on YouTube.
Yes Liz g. RETURN EVERYTHING THEY THROW AT US. Andy Murray being the role model there.
Louis B Argyl 10.47
Absolutely Louis.
They canny even bring themselves to acknowledge Andy’s success,propbally the only good thing about 2016.
Without taking a dig at Scotland.
Are we ment to nod along and laugh?
Try that with any other nationalities and there would be an outcry.
Bit naw we will just be accused of having nae sense of humour.
Many thanks for the supportive comments.
I might not sound like it, but I am more optimistic now than I was in 2014. In 2013-14 there was enthusiam, but also a point of disconnection; if we don’t tackle the media bias, we might lose. Nobody did, and we did lose. If we don’t seize the initiative, we will be held to account on the Unionists agenda. No initiative came forward, and we squandered hour after hour whining about keeping the pound, what Barrusso said, and whether Alex Salmond was a liar.
I desperately wanted to win in 2014, but I could see the shape of our defeat as it was unfolding in real time. It wasn’t like we were losing key states like in America, but we were not gaining purchase over the BBC spin, the bias, and most of all, being shepherded away from every issue and agenda where we were strong but where Unionism skated upon thin ice or had no argument.
Things are different this time.
Sovereignty was like a no-go subject in 2014. If anyone proposed Scotland establishing the legitimacy of its ancient sovereignty in a law court, you’d have been branded a heretic against democracy. Not this time around. There is not only a lot more talk about Scotland’s REAL sovereignty, it seems to be well informed talk. What’s more, people are now listening. There is a growing number of people who understand what it means. It is the horseshoe in our boxing glove, and it must be from the foot of a Clydesdale…
Things are different this time.
In 2013, I was niaive enough to think MP’s on TV might have worn a ribbon to register solidarity with those who condemned the BBC for bias. You weren’t allowed to use the “b” word because the Unionists would cry out foul over SNP inference with free speech. The BBC has now had the YES referendum, and two years of garbage since, in which to assemble sufficient length of rope with which to hang itself. It isn’t hung just yet, but it’s head is in the noose, and Professor Robertson and GA Ponsonby have just this week slipped the knot tight.
I’m not a Kung fu ninja or anything, but I know lots of these martial arts talk about extra depth; you don’t aim to punch somebody in the face, you aim to punch beyond their face. That’s what I feel about Indyref2. When the Indyref2 punch lands, it is going to make contact far beyond a democratic referendum result. There is a very real possibility that we will have already crossed over the threshold for independence, and Indyref2 will not a binary choice of whether we should, but transformed by events into a ratification plebiscite for what has already come to pass.
We have tried to do this the nice way, all smiles and Bon ami, and they just cheated us in the same cheap way they always have. This time will be different. To quote not Braveheart, but instead, Gerard Butler in 300, “Give them nothing. Take from them everything”.
Another excellent post “Breeks” @ 1151. Couldn’t
agree with you more as regards BBC bias and the new ” sovereignty issue”.
Breeks @ 11.51
Well said Breeks
I have always thought that if the Scot’s understood their Soverenty they would not put up with anything less than an equal Union.
And as sure as night follows day it wouldn’t be long before everyone understands that these two Soverenty’s are incompatible.
So there would be no point in keeping that Treaty.
I am optimistic this time as well because the Soverenty issues are live issues and can’t be portrayed as just a footnote in history anymore.
This IMHO is Westminster’s biggest weakness.
They have their own Soverenty to protect,they really don’t want to shine a light on that.
The English might decide that ours is a better version and want to have Westminster change.
There is also the potential to drag auld Lizzie Windsor into a tough spot and I don’t think they would risk that either.
The biggest issue in this referendum has to be Soverenty.
We also have all the card’s…The Sovereign’s of Scotland voted to stay in Europe so therefore The Sovereign of England has no right to override that.
The Treaty won’t survive the dispute.
Jees.. that was good whisky.
Good
morningafternoon Scotland.X.
I suggested Peter Mullen for a video to read Breek’s great post.
Now Peter Mullen is a very, very fine actor, but I suddenly realised the actor whose face sprung to mind was actually David Hayman. Not the first time I have mixed the two up for some reason (I guess age has something to do with it.)
Not that it will ever happen anyway but just thought I’d correct myself.
Cactus
It must be good, never so chirpy after a dram too far, get this muffled drum in my head for a couple of days after, must be an age thing.
Absolute belter, Chris! Well done!
On this subject, does anyone else think it strange that Saudi upped production of oil to surpress the price just after the referendum when SNP membership soared, and Prince Charles had just visited. They have been pumping out enough to flood the world market.
Now with the UK facing Brexit they have cut production and the price of oil is climbing again.
Perhaps the British prime minister owes them more than we know.