Slow train coming
Posted on
July 30, 2016 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)
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A tall tale
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Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Chris Cairns yet again impressively gets things into perspective.
With all that lovely Victorian ironwork illustrated, Chris, you must be a fan of steam locomotives. And who’s the model in the centre?
Ugly English right-wing Christian voices proclaiming they defeated protection for the young and vulnerable is not an easy event to translate into cartoon form and lampoon. So, well done.
The whole distasteful campaign reminds me of the last Pope who fell on top of a child while glad-handing the crowd. The irony sizzled.
Your weekend reading: link to wp.me
A solution must be found to the rail strikes to improve the rconomy. The Scottish Gov is investing £Millions. There will be more frequent trains and more jobs.Train drivers get £50,000 a year. HS2 is a complete waste of money, which could be better spent improving the whole network, especially in the North.
The Scottish Gov is going to stop sanctioning and starving vulnerable people. No more food banks.
Good luck on the March today, especially from people who can’t make it but people will be carrying the flag for millions of others.
Do not believe the Polls. They always get it wrong. They have been sanctioned many times but still nothing is done. They make £70Million – wasted. The Polls are used to manipulate the result. Peter Kellend (Labour) stepped down as President in 2016.
The Tories committed electoral fraud in 29 constituencies. What is being done about it?
The Chilcot verdict is going unreported. Has a ‘D’ notice been put in the Verdict by Westminster? Another Official Secrets Cover up, which will come out in Court. The ‘psycho bastards’. Get rid of them and Trident.
Effijy says:
29 July, 2016 at 6:53 pm
Some good news on the BBC propaganda front, especially with thank to the WoS supporters, the petition below, demanding a public enquiry into Blatant BBC Bias, has now crossed the 90,000 Mark!
I hope this number registers with WoS supporters, our politicians, and you never know, the BBC.
Although little more than half of Scottish License fees
are actually spent on Scottish television, we probably fall below half, if we could see the cost of producing a constant stream of condescending reply letters to our individual complaints.
But now the EBC and Westminster Forever Politicians cannot ignore the 90,180 Scots who have signed so far.
It is still a long way to 100,000, but with your help, we might just get there! Thank You one and all!
link to you.38degrees.org.uk
Well done Grouse Beater, I did not get this at first glance, but the Victorian station and the modern child, sums up the attitude of this so called Christian movement who may well have more to fear from NP than most.
I not with approval that there’s even a lineside pole route across the yard too; nicely observed – I like that sort of thing, Chris. ?
Absolutely bob-on with the announcement too. I really noticed the Yoon BS cranked up to 11 on this one; for hee haw ultimately as has been ably demonstrated.
You don’t even have to be an ‘alert reader’ these days to spot it, they’ve given up trying to be subtle and nuanced if they ever were to begin with.
Now a nice Class 37 loco idling in the yard would have set the image off perfectly! ?
It’s funny cos it’s true.
link to yougov.co.uk
47-53 to remain in the UK. Slow train indeed
In Spain their are more holidays. 2 months July/August (very hot),1 month Easter and 1 month Christmas. That is why there are higher unemployment recorded rates (4 months holidays). Everyone is on holiday with other fiesta days as well. There is a black market economy which is not recorded in the figures. When people in Spain have National marches they are organised by the Administration on a National holiday. So more people can go. E.g. more widespread publicity and a National holiday.
At the 2nd Independence March in Edinburgh Sept 2013. Shop workers and other people in Edinburgh did not even know a March was taking place, The Administration tried to stop the March happening – even up to the last minute. Edinburgh (Unionist) Council started to demand £thousands in insurance fees. One person realised the by-laws and paid a £10 registered fee. Otherwise the Indy March could have been prevented from going ahead. The decision hung on a thread. People were travelling distances with travel and overnight accommodation booked.
Why are the Orange March allowed with such frequency in the Central Belt? An exclusive, unequal Organisation. Not open to all but supported by taxpayers money to disrupt the economy. Policing costs should be met by the participants on private or paid for ground.
Ken; need to pull you up on that ‘£50k drivers’ comment. That just isn’t true – that would push your drivers into the top tax band. A more realistic assessment is round about the £35k mark though admittedly overtime CAN push things up a bit. That 50k quote is a tabloid figure arising from their disinformation about the LU drivers’ dispute.
“That is why there are higher unemployment recorded rates (4 months holidays)”
Incorrect – the recording of unemployment statistics worldwide is NOT influenced by how many or few holidays are available. Its a simple enough question – are you seeking but not able to find work?
Excellent thought through cartoon Chris, better late than never eh!
O/T , on BBCs, some guy I have never seen before interviewed to comment on papers around 8.20 am, proclaims that according to a new poll, brexit has made NO difference to a move towards Indy.
Here is a BBC collusion with an unidentified poll, to start denigrating the brexit effect on Scots. I guess this is how they are going to play their propaganda game.
Sorry BBCs around 8.28 am
Lol. Yoon poll, then clearly it must be true. Yoons don’t lie.
[…] Source: Wings Over Scotland Slow train coming […]
It is becoming ever more difficult to admit to being a journalist, even a retired one. I refer to the media’s approach to the newly-published You Gov poll.
The Herald, for instance, is in full “Another blow for Sturgeon” mode as it analyses a poll which shows support for Independence up by 1%.
OK, not great, but, moving in the right direction. “Scot Goes Pop” by the way, does a superb demolition job on the anti-Independence spin of the BUMS.
I despair of my craft – often.
Poll according to STV was heavily weighted – 414 Yes voters, 506 No voters and the rest presumably didn’t vote in 2014. The only recent poll that is majority No. BBC papers earlier had Simon Fanshawe initially saying it was 10% then quickly changed it to 8%, can’t count Simon can you or was that deliberate? Didn’t mention the weighting of course, they won’t know the important details like that. Poll was still 1% on May’s YouGov poll, which of course also wasn’t mentioned.
Still concerning that so many still want to stay in the UK and shows we still have much to do and now, ie next six months, is not the time for another referendum. We need polls to be as near as possible to 60% so that it will be unfixable.
Scot Goes Pop says the Herald reporting is wrong. Always worth checking polls with SGP:
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
Beautiful drawing as usual. Love the details on the roof and the splash of colour made by the girl in the centre.
Brian @8.10am
Looks like many people have come to the same conclusion as myself – Brexit is never going to happen. No supporters always favoured the status quo. They don’t think anything’s going to change and nothing has changed as yet so why should they change their opinion? There are also clearly some Leave voting purist Indy supporters who would rather have Westminster than Brussels. Some strange logic there which is beyond me given that we are so well regarded on the continent and so thouroughly despised in London. Go figure.
So over all nothing is happening therefore many people go back to their former positions. The various opposing forces cancel one another out and it’s as you were. For now.
The next big thing that will happen I think will be in England. We still haven’t seen the Tories fighting much yet. They’ve been protected by the distraction caused by the fiasco in the Labour party and a very smooth (suspiciously smooth) transition to a new leader. But once the penny drops for the leavers that it ain’t gonna happen’ then the fun will start and Theresa May is far too much of a lightweight to hold the party together. Meanwhile, business, academia, farmers, charities, fishermen, local authorities, the devolved administrations etc, etc don’t know FOR CERTAIN what’s going to happen. It’s the very definition of incompetent government. Welcome to the UK.
@Les Wilson
The poll you refer to appears to have been commissioned by Scotland in Union… so yes, somewhet Yoon. Also half of the sample are 50+ and 16/17 year olds not polled.
Well done again Chris,the child in your artwork will not stand alone for long we will wrap all of our children in Love and Law.
G.B.Another succinct and sensible Blog,the pen in your hand becomes the proverbial Sword once again.
Ken500,an neat deflection of my last post to yourself onto the Rev,but you can not avoid my original statement as you once again show your innate Altruism.
Peace to all and to our friends marching today,keep safe and remember you carry our hearts and hopes along with your banners and flags.Peace,Love and success in your endeavours.
Excellent again Chris and a timely antidote to those, including Kevin McKenna, who use Named Person legislation to attack the SNP.
Good letters from Ruth Marr and Mary Thomas on NP in Herald this morning.
O/T Also worth reading in Herald is this article by Geoff Beattie on Ireland’s amazing economic recovery.
link to archive.is
Why is this not featured by BBC Scotland TV?
James Purnell (ex Labour?) – Head of BBC strategy and digital.
Meant to say above that poll was 47-53. So a 6% lead, not 10 or 8 as said by BBC goon.
Hammer time! Every time SNP is mentioned is Hammer time.
Nice toon, Chris.
Train Drivers wages.
Google it
Qualified Train drivers can earn from £35,000 to over £60,000 a year. A responsible job.
If train/rail services are improved, more frequent services. There will be more qualified jobs. More drivers will be needed.
What’s the bets that we now see a constant drip drip of Yoon polls coming away with all sorts of crap from, support for Independence now at its lowest level since time began, to blow for Sturgeon as poll shows no one in Scotland wants Independence.
They are clearly now going to try and wear us down this kind of pish. It’s all they have. They even have their CyberYoons trying to infect twitter with this type of crap.
You have two choices, you either believe it and give up, or you see it for the manipulated crap it is and become even more determined to make Scotland the country it should be.
One comment gives the birthplace figures for that Yougov poll. Strangely, 200 were born in the rest of the UK, and 58 outside UK. Why? Could they be polling EU nationals?
Also it was heavily weighted for some reason towards previous NO voters.
Birthplace:
Scotland: 748
Rest of the UK: 200
Outside UK: 58
Also interesting in the poll being discussed is that:
Exactly half of the poll (upweighted to 503 out of 1006) is in the 50+ age group.
Support for Yes in 18-25 group is 63% and 59% in 26-49 age group (excluding don’t knows and don’t cares).
16/17 yr olds weren’t polled at all.
I think the Scotland in Union commissioned poll was a couple of days ago, MajorBloodnok and didn’t even merit an analysis from Scot Goes Pop!
Capella says:
“birthplace figures for that Yougov poll”
Looks like approx 20% rest UK and 6% elsewhere.
It’s that 20% which will impact significantly. It should be nearer 10%. This would be OK if the polling company down weighted the 20% so their impact on results reflected their wider presence.
I doubt if they did this.
The fact that the poll is much like others ~50:50 shouldn’t worry us. Nothing much has changed. Brexit has had no impact on daily lives, anti-Indy propaganda continues, and there is no Yes2 campaign.
There is no length the British establishment and Yoon media will not go to to try and make the people of Scotland think that we do not want Independence.
We cannot let them win their propaganda war on Scotland.
Wikipedia
Methods of calculation and presentation of unemployment rates vary from country to country. Some countries count insured unemployed only, some count those in receipt of welfare benefit only, some count the disabled and other permanently unemployable people. Some countries count those who choose (and are financially able) not to work, supported by their spouses and caring for a family. Some count students at College.
For purposes of comparison harmonised values are published by International Labour Organisation (ILO) and by OECD etc.
Should (independently supported) foreign students be included in immigration figures? EU residents in Spain become Spanish citizens to pay less tax. A higher number of British people are resident in the EU than the UK Gov figures. The UK Gov (Tories) are manipulating the immigration figures for political purposes.
Great cartoon Chris. Looks uncannily like my local station in Perth.
It must be wearing for the MSM to constantly try to make something good into something bad, but with conviction.
If britnats in Scotland and elsewhere wish to console themselves with misrepresenting poll results then so much the better. False sense of britnat security and all that.
Brilliant Chris,genuine LOL and on so many levels.
The only trains that are ‘hated’ in Scotland,are the ones transporting the nuclear waste,as Mhairi Black recently highlighted these ‘dirty bombs’ regularly travel through the busy Paisley Gilmour Street station.
Why don’t the fat controllers of this particular ‘express’ go and take a ‘Flying Scotsman’ to themselves.
Bairns not Bombs
Just sat and watched BBC news huge thing for England World Cup Champs 1966, really happy and glorious times, excited actual real Wembley crowd in studio , like it was yesterday, BBC, World Cup, England, joy, triumph, union jacks, Bobby Moore etc
while reading latest rancid The Graun’s our Scotland region’s shite isn’t it, and that Sturgeon eh? Kick her in the teeth.
link to archive.is
“Pictures of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy found drowned on a beach in Turkey were still fresh in the public memory; the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, offered to take refugees into her own home; public sympathy had still to be corrupted, confused or diluted by the events at the Bataclan theatre and subsequent terrorist outrages.”
At least Graun’s ligger uses First Minister. He’s got a holiday home on Bute but its troubling for him, you see he’s got a wee conscience about second homes in Scotland as its a bit off really, is what that UKOK bundle of proud Scotbut delight moaned about his scotland region 2014.
No I don’t know why rancid old Graun’s ligger uses lower case “the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon,” instead of upper case, “the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon,” either.
Marches: One for the road: link to wp.me
Cars: Another one for the road: link to wp.me
Grouse Beater,
Your post was foul, as is your attitude. Presumably, the new Scottish Republic will be run by the kind of people Gamergate was trying to push back.
David Smith @ 8.18am
Ken 500 is not far off the mark with his figure for train drivers pay. There is variation across the UK as one of the links below demonstrates but in Scotland it is £44k as the ASLEF link shows. Overtime etc. will push it higher still.
Last year Abelio wanted to hire/train an additional 100 drivers and the train drivers threatened to strike. No doubt worried that their overtime would be diluted as a result. Reports at the time stated that a newly qualified driver after their probationary year would earn £43k close to the figure quoted in the ASLEF link.
This year the drivers went on a ‘go slow on overtime’ and demanded that Abelio should hire/train an additional 200 drivers!
The links to pay are here:
link to traindrivertrainee.com
link to aslef.org.uk
Indylive reporting that 5,300 are on their way from the Botanics.
They’ve been counted.
O/T
link to glasgow.gov.uk
@Smallaxe 09:13am – Totally agree with your comments. Glad you are back home and recovering. Hope the weans find the Wings Stall and the ageing hipsters will give them a warm welcome.
I have added the webcam link above which is a 20second refresh of the Square so we can view the proceedings.
Nuada: “Your post was foul.”
I am delighted to learn it.
If there’s any other blind and deaf unionist readers I’ve failed to anger please let me know.
Archie [not Erchie]
Cidre, not cider. 🙂
Nuada says:
30 July, 2016 at 10:41 am
Grouse Beater,
Your post was foul, as is your attitude. Presumably, the new Scottish Republic will be run by the kind of people Gamergate was trying to push back.
What was vile about it Nuada? I listened to the triumphant English christian institute dude give his victory speech outside the High Court in London and he was lying through his teeth. Jesus Christ says lying is a sin. Or was he lying though, is Scots.gov a snooper state on Scottish families and what would Jesus do, propaganda wise, is spin lying in Jesus Christ’s opinion?
Surely it’s a train for Glasgow Gallowgate, near the cross. (To paraphrase the Big Yin). If there’s anything in life I detest more it is sanctimonious hypocrits; those who most loudly protested against the NP legislation have among their numbers the very worst abusers of children. But no worries for them – their god will forgive them their crimes.
Really?
@grousebeater, well said, Sir!
@legerwood, cheers for the update.
Things have moved on a bit since I applied 9 yrs ago!
I suppose the higher rates pertain to drivers on crack long-distance services and also some of the guys in the freight sector who in some companies have additional operational and even commercial responsibilities.
I got so damn close; I passed all the interviews then got binned due to a wee diddy paychometric test involving a line of dots.
I’m not bitter, not at all… ???
Nuada what is foul is the Catholic Church covering up thousands of cases of child abuse.
You ever been to the Vatican, I have, whilst millions of children worldwide born to parents who are followers of Iron Age goat herders superstitions starve and live in abject poverty. The headquarters at abusers central live in obscene wealth with the hypocrite Pope Francils in charge of an estimated £10 billion of assets. Mind you their is a nice painting on the ceiling. I’ll get my cereal.
“Blow for Sturgeon” “SNP Flagship policy trashed”
The Scottish Government tries to do a good thing, every child protection agency and Churches of all sides agree it’s good
But if you’re a Scottish “Journalist” you must be in the camp which say’s it’s a bad thing and use every adjective in the thesaurus you can find to describe it as such
And here’s the thing, if said “Journalists” don’t join the “Against the SNP camp” they could be moved to the outside circle of sycophantic cult worshippers and their holy word no longer revered, if you should even contemplate supporting the Scottish Government in any way shape or form you’re out, it’s that simple
If you’re in the “Against the SNP camp” you’re a fair and honest critic of Government which you triumphantly claim is your job and mission in life to impart reason and truth to the uneducated or uninformed
At this moment in time British Type 45 destroyers, all of them, are broken and in port either requiring new engines or complete refits, in other words in terms of the so called defence of the realm they might as well be Screwtaps waiting to be chucked at the Baddies whoever they may be at any given moment
Yet, these same critical, on a mission “Journalists” describe this event as, I quote “Slightly embarrassing” and “Unusual”
Given the UKs continued bellowing about British security of it’s people and status in the world, these same “Journalists” remain devoid of suitable explosive adjectives for this enormous mishandling of the UKs defence systems at the expense of a BIG bomb
So in their efforts to convince us dullard Scots that Scottish “Journalism” is approached in a fair and balanced manner, perhaps they should reflect just for even a nano second
We can Fucking read, and so can our kids
This wee story was inspired by a SNP badge wearing wee boy of around fourteen on a bike I met this morning outside the supermarket
We think they’re not paying attention at times but we’d be wrong
Griping about train drivers pay stinks, really really stinks. How come no one moans about airline pilots wages twice as much? London tube drivers get the same shit too, despite the fight that goes into pulling down their pay and hours, because its the working class you see, pilots are middle class and therefore need to be paid much more, we’re British, its how British class system works, the working class get paid less because they’re working class and its what Jesus would do too.
If, like me you cannot get to Glasgow then you can at least support in spirit by watching
link to glasgow.gov.uk
Heedtracker: “What was vile about it Nuada?”
Ha! I thought he was referring to my essay.
Ah, well, satire is not dead, just getting kicked around by people who don’t expect their sensibilities outraged when there’s revolution on the go.
Not in Glasgow today but by the live stream the march looks well attended and judging by the George Square web cam they might find when they get there that an awful lot of people decided against walking and went straight to main venue 🙂
@Proud Cybernat,
I have worked with families of “Christian” persuasion and I can tell you that the children are usually brainwashed. My daughter had such a friend and when she came to dinner she would tell us about her family and especially her stepfather who was the one that introduced them all to Christianity as a means of coping with his own “demons”
I found the content of her discussions to be overtly sexual ,centring around the advice she was getting from her stepfather about appearance and dealing with boys.
It was evident that he was testing her for reaction to his sexual conversations. He would tell her she was provocative and enticing. She was 13 years of age.
After hearing further revelations I contacted the Social Work Dept and his Minister.
The Minister felt there was nothing to worry about. The S/w Dept did nothing.
Amazingly enough it appears that the Minister told him of my concerns and soon after the whole family moved to England.
Can see the marchers at the Queen St Station side.. There is a crowd already in the square
Wow!!! What a turnout
George Square webcam frozen yet again 🙂
The George Square Cam has stopped updating now the marchers have arrived.. Any other links?
O/T
Just watched the indy march in Glasgow go through Nelson Mandella Place. Took a god 15-20 minutes start to finish. Excellent turnout.
@ Archie (not Erchie).
Thanks for your very kind post,this old hippie just wishes that he could have been there with them (hopefully next time)
Thank you also for the link,some of the other links posted don’t work as well as this one.Peace and Love to you and your’s my Friend.
Its the 3.10 to Yoker (Yuma). An impending showdown.
– always enjoy your intelligent cartoons chris.
Mr thms it’s on livestream
link to independencelive.net
Apparently the March was count clicked at over 5300, yet the BBC website are still trying to play down the numbers at under 2000.
What a shower of turds they are.
Common space has a link
link to commonspace.scot
Live feed..
link to commonspace.scot
The George Square web cam stuck at 11:54 for last 15 minutes
Something awfully suspicious about the way the web cam always freezes the moment the marchers arrive. They are either still on 28k dial up modem while the rest of Glasgow is on superfast broadband or they are at it.
Either way they are either incompetent or crooked, the sooner we clear the trash out of Glasgow City Council the better.
Some great pictures on Facebook. Guy posting does not think George sq is big enough to hold crowd
One Scot
The BBC are quoting police Scotland that there were 2,000 at the march at 10.30 (when it was first getting ready to move). It has grown somewhat since then and there were hundreds at George Square when they arrived. It is certainly a lot more than 2,000. George Square is absolutely packed on the live stream.
I think the Judges knew exactly what they were doing putting in that paragraph in the preamble. Judges are as political as anyone else.
The usual suspects in the press already justifying their histrionics by saying why include it? Alison Rowat (Herald) on Shereen’s show this am saying the SNP will be ‘haunted’ by that quote – she certainly seemed to be keen to reinforce that view.
It will be interesting to see if any challenges even make it to court for the UK government’s Draft Communications Data Bill.
Meanwhile UK Labour continues to destroy itself.
The BBC are a disgrace to Scotland.
There were 5,300 click counted leaving the Botanic park. A few hundred joining en-route and about 500 to 1000 in the square waiting on the marchers arriving. If you count in folk clapping the marchers through the streets and from their windows, folk showing up in the square for parts of the day, along with upwards of another 1000+ watching on livestreams, then there is easily over 10,000 in total who will play a part today.
James Kelly take on yougov poll…
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
David Smith @ 11.17 am
I don’t know if there are higher rates for the drivers you mentioned but looking at the figures overall they seem to be starting at a high level after training and probationary period.
heedtracker @ 11.30 am.
It is not ‘griping’ to give an accurate picture of something in this instance driver’s pay. No one said anything critical of the level of pay.
Nor is it ‘griping’ to point out the contradictions in their position on driver numbers.
In another bizarre demonstration of alternative reality David Maddox of the Express has called PeatWorrier an ‘abusive cybernat’ on Twitter.
Yes, one of the most blinkered bigoted individuals who writes for one of the most disgusting publications has called one of the most polite and eloquent individuals on the internet an abusive cybernat.
Yet we are supposed to not question the press!
Andrew Tickell I know and like but who the fuck is Maddox?
Writing for the Express is intellectual suicide. It isn’t a newspaper. It’s only purpose is to make the National Enquirer look credible.
Maddox used to be The Hootsmon’s leading SNPBAD writer.
So bad that it was alleged that he had his windows smashed.
Nor is it ‘griping’ to point out the contradictions in their position on driver numbers.
Contradictions is nice. Let them get on with it and once again, its clearly a class issue in the world of UKOK socio economics.
Was going to say, you try being a train driver but there’s several thousand job applications per job. So maybe not. UKOK economics dictate that should mean cheap as chips labour costs, which may be part of the wage level pressures too.
gus1940 says:
Maddox was the Labour supporting “journalist” that monster-ed SNP candidate Neil Hay over three year old tweets, which he took out of context, and before that even tried to get Hay’s employer to sack him.
Without any evidence he blamed Cybernats for a broken window but omitted to mention that he lived in an area where there was a lot of vandalism.
George Square Indy Rally…
In the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jnr…
“We are here … it’s a beautiful day… we are here.”
Thats a belter of a cartoon Chris! 🙂
Beautifully drawn. I wonder why her hand reminds me of Hamish’s paw, accident or … ?
Yet only a month ago headlines in Reuters and The Telegraph were saying something different
link to reuters.com
link to telegraph.co.uk
Superb Chris.
Love the detail. 🙂
Shouldn’t it be 11:54.22?
Nuada says:
30 July, 2016 at 10:41 am
Grouse Beater,
Your post was foul, as is your attitude. Presumably, the new Scottish Republic will be run by the kind of people Gamergate was trying to push back.
The English are even the greatest at lying, I think is the moral of this England’s the best series, if it is a series
link to archive.is
If they didn’t keep voting tory, they’d be quite nice to be in a union with. Its the Scotch cringers that they do seem to love very much, which is quite creepy.
The Express is saying that two hooded numpties from the SDL were supporting the march!
Brilliant. Pure and simple.