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Wings Over Scotland


Strong medicine

Posted on August 22, 2014 by

When we came up with this flyer idea last January, we decided that on balance it was perhaps edging a wee bit on the aggressive side. But in the light of today’s comments from Eddie Bone and the deputy leader of UKIP, and the findings of the recent Future Of England survey, it seems suddenly more appropriate. What do we think, folks?

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H

I don’t think fear doesn’t work, you point it out enough on the other side, keep it postive write something about the voice of Scotland reaching a 1 million + or #Yesbecause

Croompenstein

Well do ya..punk.. The lovebombing is getting too hard to take!

Ron Burgundy

Excellent, not over the top, needs stating to the soft NO’s.

heedtracker

Farage’s UKIPsters hate immigrants, the EU and now Scotland too. Oh well, we’ll be fine I’m sure, under the shiny heel of future deputy PM Farage.

Alistair

I think it is a good idea. However, you’ve got the injury covered but you need to add the insult. Put somewhere the evidence that Scotland is a net contributor/runs a fiscal surplus etc. For me it’s not the “sharing of resources” that hurts the most. It’s the casual denial and derogatory attitude that we can’t possibly be subsidising them. Stuff them!

Tony Little

I think it is exactly what is needed in these final few days/weeks. I do not consider this “scaremongering” as it is based on refiviable sources. I say YES, do it!

Tony Little

Gosh, darn that predictive text! I meant “verifiable”, of course

Grant

Text form if you want to copy and paste.

“If and when the Scots ‘bottle it’ on 18 September and vote No, they will see a stronger English voice because the people of England have had enough of Scottish self-indulgence.” Eddie Bone, Campaign loran English Parliament Quoted in The Scotsman, 22 August 2014

“English voters want the government to take a hard line against Scotland even if its residents vote “no” to independence. Funding should be cut and Scottish MPs should no longer have a say over English matters, according to a survey. The findings will unsettle parties in the pro-Union campaign, who have promised a good deal for Scotland if it remains in the UK.” (The Times, 20 August 2014)

“Voters south of the Border want a cut to Scottish annual public spending of almost £1,400 per person if there is a No vote.” (The Herald, 20 August 2014)

“An English backlash against Scotland’s demands for greater political power is looming, whatever the outcome of the referendum. Even after a No vote, people south of the Border say public spending in Scotland should be reduced to bring it into line with the UK average, which could see £4bn removed from the Scottish budget — a development that would lead to savage cuts in public services north of the
Border.'” (The Scotsman 20 August 2014)

“By a large margin of 56 percent to 12 percent, the English said Scottish public spending should be cut to the UK average following a No vote.” (The Telegraph, 20 August 2014)

If Scotland votes No on the 18th of September, it won’t be able to stop Westminster from slashing the Scottish budget by billions of pounds. Do you feel lucky?

Gary

Combining this – with Dale’s post on the huge surplus we’ve given the union – makes my blood boil.

I’ll never forgive the no voter’s for fucking us over if we don’t win (though I’m feeling more confident by the day that we will).

Moreida Lord

Go for it Stu – this is far to important to leave to chance

Russell Chalmers

I am voting yes but this posting plus some of the other lies we are seeing minute by minute at the moment means I need to get more active so I will be directing my friends and family to Wings to get some balance and truth rather than the unbelievable anti YES bias and lies the media is feeding them. Thanks Stuart for all you are doing to get some genuine facts into the debate. If we vote No there will definitely be a backlash and I hope people can see that.

Alex Grant

Almost perfect but needs a reminder that we are ABSOLUTELY not subsidised Some sort of reference to the last article about how much the Union has cost us in the last 30 years??

paul mccormack

– It’s very mild, why would you even think it aggressive? – Paul Nutall what a charmer. The united kingdom, my arse, at least he puts paid to that phoney argument about solidarity with our working class English scouse mates blah blah blah etc. etc. if the kingdom is united why doesn’t he stand on a soapbox in Argyle Street a la jim (how much am I worth now?) Murphy and tell us all where we’ve gone wrong?

faolie

Include Boris’s quote? He’s in the news, many people think he’ll become PM anyway and actually be in a position to at least ignore us, or at worst ‘punish’ us

Ever more things we are giving Scotland….for no reason we are promising the Scots more tax-raising powers. Quite why, I don’t understand. There’s no need to do it.

RogueCoder

Excellent. How many are we printing? 🙂

Julian Smith

Spot on!

handclapping

Too aggressive, prone to get a GIRU No vote; it should be a message to the devo-maxers “Do you think that SLab, SCon and SLib will get a word in edgeways in their respective UK parties when the English voter is baying for Scots blood?”.

Albaman

Anything to expose the under current of opinion in the political circulation within England, AND it must be recognised in Scotland to a lesser degree .

joe kane

I’m pretty wary of any of this Unionist news media propaganda that is attempting to stoke up resentment such as this is trying to do. It’s typical divide and rule tactics so beloved of the British establishment. If the Westminster elite are going to punish Scottish voters for daring to hold a referendum then they’re going to do it anyway regardless of the opinions of ordinary English people. They didn’t ask English folk if they wanted their Royal Mail and NHS privatised so why should they give a monkey’s what English people think about Scots?

faolie

I agree with above to insert that we’re rich and we’re actually subsidising them. Remove quotes 2 & 3 as they talk about real cash – people might think that maybe we are actually lucky to ‘get more’ than England.

Need to emphasis that that’s our money they’re keeping. No actually, not keeping, stealing.

Most people don’t understand all this Barnett stuff, but they do or would understand that it’s OUR money they’re keeping. Why the f**k are we giving it to these f**ckers anyway?

Bugger [the Panda]

Tackity bits on, and into their proverbial ribs.

The Scottish genteel version of bayoneting the wounded.

Harry McAye

I’ll deliver those until my feet bleed Stu but agreed, we need a few lines about how we subsidise them, like in the WBB which Yes Hamilton got last night and I nabbed a couple for myself. My once definite No Dad is a very likely Yes now but I thought he might like a wee read, just to clinch the deal! I have a couple of soft No pals so the other will go to one of them.

Dan

Now that the question has been asked, we must answer “yes” because answering “no” gives Westminster a mandate to do whatever the majority, i.e. England, want to do.

That arrangement (the UK government making key decisions about how to run Scotland) has not gone well for Scotland in the past and there is good reason to expect that it will become much worse for Scotland in future.

Self-preservation forces us to vote “yes”, even if there were no aspirational reasons (which there are, of course).

Willie John

Go for it. Need more crowdfunding?

Nemo

I’m with Alex Grant on this – reference the £300 billion of subsidy from Scotland to England. Otherwise, excellent. We need to drive these points home again and again. No-one else will!

Steve Bowers 74% win

Go for it , with the mention about how much we subsidise them

BB

I like this! As suggested previously, a remineder of the fact we are subsidising WM and not the other way around. Possibly the Boris quote too.

Mary Bruce

I’m so sick of all the lies and hostility from the no campaign, the labour party in Scotland especially. It’s gloves off time, Rev, I say go for it.

galamcennalath

Very good. It’s not negative campaigning, it’s a realistic vision of one future.

Important: You need to be careful the drinks companies don’t take offence about using their clearly branded products. Remember VNBs getting into trouble with Lego. We don’t want the story to be about misuse of branding. It would be better with label-less bottles, or made up, or illegible.

Onwards

One of Sir Tom Devine’s reasons for backing a YES vote is the improved relation between Scotland and England:

“If more powers are granted, many English people will be unhappy; they’re already unhappy about the Barnett formula. Only through sovereignty can we develop a truly amicable and equal relationship with our great southern neighbour.”

Steve Bowers 74% win

Chuffed today, YES Aberdeenshire have got their copies of the Wee Blue Book in, have sent my request !

David Wardrope

Feels like it’s been a big day for Yes (which seems to be happening more and more often recently) and I personally think this style of message has to be shown from time to time now, I like it. Also see that Skybet moved a Yes from 5/1 this morning to 4/1 now so they must have seen it as a big day for Yes too…

TJenny

I remember, near the beginning of the indy campaign seeing on Twitter a poster like this, I think though with a bottle of Irn Bru as well as whisky, but without the text.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then this may well reach out to those who wont even read the text, but will pick up on the picture’s message.

I like it. 🙂

Mealer

I think there’s room for this in our positive campaign.

joe kane

Sorry if my previous comment seemed to be implying the flyer itself was deliberately stoking up resentment. My apologies. I was referring to the UKIP comments and sundry news stories about English people’s views on government funding of Scotland.

karmanaut

Excellent, but I agree with other comments that it needs a reminder we are not subsidised.

crisiscult

I support the message, but not sure about the format. Some people saying maybe we need to highlight the fact we’re sharing our resources for this type of response. Also, we need to be careful it doesn’t come across as anti English. So many Yes activists are English and could feel uncomfortable with this.

Could it be along the lines:

Image on front: bottle with the label ‘Rest of UK: for the common good’ with money stuffed into it.
Then image of polling box.

On back, as is, but headed: Here’s what you get when Westminster does your wealth redistribution for you.

Perhaps an additional quote re the amount of money that goes to the rich or politicians (so that the back doesn’t seem to be too much of an attack on the ordinary Englishman/woman

Murray McCallum

When you read the anti-Scotland comments and the arbitrary cutting of public expenditure (no mention of need or allowance for geographical spread/complexity) you have to wonder why any Labour people are still voting No.

The No campaign alliance need to address these specific issues raised by their supporters in the press.

joe kane

MP Jim Murphy given a tradition chorus of welcome and appreciation by the locals of Motherwell at their beloved town Cross –
link to facebook.com

No no no...Yes

I would be careful of using branded products without the owner’s permission.
Remember the carry on with BT and the Lego bricks!

CM

O/T, but good for wee Hamish 😀

link to vine.co

Braw Day

Even though it’s true it sounds scaremongery to me. We don’t want to be our messages to be dismissed as nonsense.

packhorse pete

Go for it. I think the “be very afraid” line will resonate with Don’t Knows. Most of these, and the soft No’s, are scared about the consequences of independence. Let’s give them something to be afraid of if they vote NO.

msean

To the piont,not an untrue either as it references the quotes in newspapers.

TJenny

Braw Day – but the truth of Scotland’s future in the union is scary, very scary.

Cindie

I agree about adding something about the 300 million, because, as others have already said, it’s the irony of the attitude of those quoted against the reality that really makes an impact. It’s the injustice that upsets me, people hate injustice

BTW, I got my e-mail from Yes Scotland thanking me for signing the declaration. It was the first thing I did when I decided to vote yes. But hardly anyone else I know who is voting yes has signed it yet and there’s loads of them

David Stevenson

Looks like I will be in a minority here, but I don’t think stoking up anti-English sentiment is a good idea. I often read Yes campaigners being critical of opinion polls and the way they are constructed with questions and their order designs to get the desired response.

We have James Kelly at Scot goes Pop to thank for a lot of deconstruction and explanation of polling data on the referendum.

I feel that the polling used to generate the headlines is a deliberate part of the Unionist campaign to divert us from positive campaigning and allow us to be painted as anti-English bigots if we respond.

On the other hand, I have
I have no qualms

Murray McCallum

I think we are all keen to have a democratic return that removes any threat of Scotland being “extinguished in international law”.

I think its time we started to hear why No voters are going to “bottle it” and have Scotland consigned to history.

John

My absolutely NO mother is now a YES, stating she had been impressed by the knowledge of the issues I had been imparting to her over the past few months, much of which has been brought to my attention from regular visits to this site.

She is staunch Labour, so showing her the article on that bigot woman’s tweets, and then the photo of her on stage with Flipper… her face was a picture and her mind set just a little bit more.

Onwards

I agree some of the quotes on that flyer give the impression we are subsidised.

Better to just use quotes talking about budget cuts in general, instead of reducing to a UK average.
That needs a more detailed explanation of how we also pay higher taxes.. have a larger land area etc

If some folks want Scottish public spending reduced to the UK average, do they also want Scottish taxes reduced to the UK average?

Perhaps get Piers Morgans quote on there.
That displays the arrogant attitude completely:

“OK, Scotland, you’ve had your fun. Now just quietly vote ‘NO’ and we’ll say no more about it.”

Why be dependent and put up with attitudes like that?
With independence, we are equals.

Maybe a challenge along the lines of:
“Are you going to let Project Fear scare YOU ??”

David Stevenson

(sorry- trying to do this on a phone on a busy train and touched return in error).

I have no qualms about quoting the right wing politicians who are driving the agenda however: they are more than fair game.

There are plenty English people living in Scotland who support Yes. It would be crazy to adopt a campaign that might alienate them. In my experience, those people are on the left and highlighting the attacks from the likes of UKIP is the way to go. Don’t let headline writers at the Times pull us by the nose into this particular trap.

Bugger (the Panda)

Not £300billions

But

£ 30,000,000,000. ( three hundred thousand million! )

Much better strike that way

galamcennalath

TJenny says:
“with a bottle of Irn Bru as well as whisky”

Stu needs to watch branding. Most companies won’t want their produce associated with a particular side in a campaign.

faolie

It’s about time we went on the offensive against the MSM and WM and made people here realise that they’re thinking about giving us less of our money than they give is at moment. Like I said before people don’t realise that it’s our money that they’re talking about

About time we said this as plain as we can. Go for it Rev

Ian Kirkwood

I agree with Joe Kane. Who is the target? I guess it should be the undecided voter? This will not sway any No hard liners. Stay positive on what Scotland can and will achieve with any reference to the no side purely acknowledging what they claim. We know better!

tartanfever

What I would add is a comment from a leading Labour or Tory politician from down south saying that our budget should be cut.

After all, the people we are trying to convince are mostly Labour voters here in Scotland a or at the very least they are suspicious of the Tories.

Repeating our ‘excess coffers to the Westminster purse’ won’t get any more voters, we’ve been using that line for years now.

We are not scaremongering. It’s use by BT refers to a bleak future they envisage based on their own figures and most fearful projections.

What the Yes campaign does is use the real threats made to Scotland by unionists and the media and that marks a significant difference. We don’t make up our own stuff, we use the actual threats made against us.

Jim McIntosh

O/T – just saw Gordy on STV spouting the same guff about pooling and sharing. “Pensions are better controlled and affordable in the union”. He obviously forgets the scandal of the 95p increase he gave one year when he was chancellor.

Bugger (the Panda)

Three hundred thousand millions

300,000,000,000

alexicon

@Steve Bowers,

Quick get them to some of the farmers whose land is adjacent to the A90.
I’ve just arrived back from driving down from Aberdeen and there’s about 4 or 5 posters in the fields up that way.

O/T Latest rumour on facebook is that the Sunday Express is leading with a new poll saying that the YES campaign has taken the lead in the polls.
Apparently 51%
Also strong rumours on Henry MacLeish coming out for YES on Monday.

Ken500

Give a man a bone. Mr Bone went trolling home.

Bugger (the Panda)

Or as we sober scientists say

300 x 10e9

Ken500

Who elected Mr Bone

haud on the noo

Henry coming out is a setup I suspect. .

Cindie

@David Stevenson, I’m sorry, I don’t see that leaflet as being anti-English at all. It simply quotes newspapers which are reporting a survey, some of which are English.

These threats are real, a no vote does have risks and these need to be highlighted.

Colin

Save the printing costs and put it towards the WBB, that says it all.

fred blogger

a no vote will be seen as an endorsement of the WM establishment, and will be seen as permission for them to do as they will.
they will cut budgets, they will destroy the altruistic nature of the uk NHS and savage scot NHS.
they will remove the welfare state etc etc.
this message must get out there, these posters are mild in context of that.
the cuts we have already seen in scotland have had a devastating impact on life.
that’s 40% of the cuts so far, 60% yet to come.
personally i think that the campaign should focus on what WM will do in the event of a no vote.
if there is a no vote, our “share” of the promised £25bn+ cuts, is on it’s way

Papadox

Big Gordy,

Telling the old and frightened that you are going to protect them, very amicable. However when you know it’s not just a lie it’s deception with intent, pretty low politics. Pretty low life as a human being and a sad advert for unionism.

alexicon

Henry coming out is a setup I suspect

He did say today that voting no has become difficult.

link to bbc.co.uk

Milady de Winter

I don’t think it’s aggressive at all but I would be worried about using the whisky brand names unless you know they are for yes..you don’t want a repeat of Jim Murphy and the Irn Bru crate (earning him a rebuke from barr’s)

MacBee

I don’t think this is a good message and I feel if you are asking for a second opinion that you have your doubts as well

The poll sample was not very representative, dated from April and made amongst people who perhaps have not had the honor and privilege to be blessed with reliable news source on Independence such as your website.

How representative is it and is there not a better way of encouraging the Yes vote without a message that could be twisted to be anti-English?

MSM have not held back on reporting that poll, so anyone who would be annoyed/worried by the outcome is aware.

Suggesting that people who vote ‘No’ or are thinking of voting no are cowards is not going to help.

Mealer

Leaflets and the WWB have a big role to play,but it’s those little one to one conversations that will win he day.

HandandShrimp

Henry seems a tad annoyed with Blair McDougall. Have Better Together got their wires crossed? Did some of Alistair’s ice bucket water get into the circuits? Seems the way to go push someone out of your camp.

As a non party aligned Yes voter I quite like Henry, thought he was a better leader than any they have had subsequently. I would be happy if he did move across to Yes but I’m guessing he will stay a No, albeit a No unimpressed with the No campaign.

Onwards

@Alexicon
I’ve just arrived back from driving down from Aberdeen and there’s about 4 or 5 posters in the fields up that way.

Drove south from Aberdeen to Stirling last week, and the NO trailers did seem to outnumber the YES’s at that time.

I do wish more of our posters had a message.
Rather than just a YES.

There are a few of the NO ones with the “Delighted to be United” catchphrase, which annoyingly, does stick in your head.

The “Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands” phrase gives people something to think about, rather than just seeing a generic YES.

I always thought “Empower ourselves” was a good one for poster size.
Or the classic “Stop the world, we want to get on”
The “One Opportunity” ones are good too, but only seen them on the news.

JimnArlene

If Scots MPs can’t vote on rUK matters, why can the rUK vote on Scottish matters? Let’s just say YES, that’ll fix it.

Desimond

I was thinking we should all stand at our voting stations with a placard or t-shirt that simply states

DONT BE A SHITEBAG!

fred blogger

Onwards
delighted yes united.

kestral

stu

your kinda pushing it for time to put these things out now

I do have a local printer who can turn around in 2 days only because I can pick up

do you want me to get some printed and put them on ebay?

hey I am already doing 100 parcels this weekend on the wee blue book

galamcennalath

Having read the comments above, I now do wonder if focusing on the dubious English opinion polls is wrong. The format and line is great (branding issues taken account of) and so is the message of what No will bring. It might be better to talk about threats to NHS, etc . Not quoting polls, but quoting Unionist politicians. Not focusing on Engish, but on Unists.

Juteman

It’s very simple.
You are being asked if Scotland is a country, or a northern shire of England.

Dave

Rev, 100% behind you all the way. I keep hearing the line – ‘what happens when the oil runs out?’ People NEED to understand being in the UK offers NO protection whatsoever. Some people are still under the impression that, if we vote no, the English will see us ok – this simply is not the case.

muttley79

I agree with David Stevenson, I don’t think it is a good idea to mention the people of England in general in the context of the independence referendum. By all means quote what the politicians and MSM have said back at them though.

HandandShrimp

I like the flier but like a couple of others I am not sure we might not run into resistance from the Whisky companies some of whom are pretty anti and wouldn’t hesitate to complain. We don’t want to do a NOB.

Can’t we go generic

link to apetogentleman.com

dave robb

I agree with David Stevenson. I am o.k with highlighting the negative statements by the politicians, but I would prefer the positive analysis of Scotland’s real finances showing the true direction of subsidies to be emphasised, even if we pick a couple of negatives to debunk. We are not the no campaign, and we are getting there with a positive case.

muttley79

@David Stevenson

There are plenty English people living in Scotland who support Yes. It would be crazy to adopt a campaign that might alienate them. In my experience, those people are on the left and highlighting the attacks from the likes of UKIP is the way to go. Don’t let headline writers at the Times pull us by the nose into this particular trap.

That is what I reckon as well. The MSM have been trying to goad us for months. Do not fall for it.

Scotspine

Re the “delighted to be united” placards, they really boil my piss. The image of the wee kilted guy holding a big Union flag. It’s like the demeaning Harry Lauder type image of a Scots person.

It’s easy seeing that those planting them in their fields are the landed upper class types who have very little in common with the “common man and woman in the street”. I saw one with his outrageously big 4×4, raspberry pink “excentric” landowner type trousers and debauched face and figure. (caricature of one of these types but true)

Aside from that, the “NO THANKS” placards have an angry air about them (just the colour sets me off bizarrely). I’m betting they have the same effect on a lot of other people.

Jamie

Just a couple of comments. People won’t get the “bottle it” reference to Eddie Bone unless you actually give his quote, since most won’t have read it in the newspaper. The other thing, as someone else has said, is that it would be nice if it were possible to show the threats and how unjust they are, perhaps by pointing out that Scotland’s contribution to the UK is much higher than the spending that the English out terms want to cut.

Scotspine

Incidentally, I am expecting a resounding YES vote, but should it not be the case, I really hope (vindictive and puerile I know) that the Tory’s, who the landed types support, take the UK out of Europe and they all lose the millions they take in CAP payments. See them squeal then!

Ken Johnston

Was thinking of doing a flyer a few months ago saying :-

Please vote NO, you know Mrs. Thatcher would have wanted you to.

But thought better of it.

Midgehunter

With one or two changes – see comments above – we should do it, in 4 weeks time it’ll be too late and I don’t want to look back and say we were feart.

Why not do another one in two weeks time to keep up the pressure. Or even one a week.

Flyers can be easily produced with home printers – easier than a WBB – and quickly distributed.

heedtracker

How about Wings Over Scotland brand whiskies? Lay some down for Independence day and its making my mouth water already.

Jamie

“out terms” in my above comment being autocorrect’s version of ‘voters’.

Blair paterson

If I remember correctly Henry was one of the m.p.s who voted with Blair to change the Scottish sea borders I would not trust him one bit remember your own saying fool me once e.t.c.,vote yes

fred blogger

Blair paterson
i agree, red herring, best ignored imo.

alexicon

Just watched STV news give a party political broadcast on behalf of the no campaign.
Brown was allowed free rein to spout of his nonsense without any reply from the YES side.
Noticed how they down played the 1 million signatures to say that represents 25% of the voters, true, but what they failed to mention is that 1 million people are not registered or that a turn out of 80% is expected.
At the fear of getting this wrong: 80% of 3 million equals 2.4 million expected voters.
There’s 1 million pledged to vote YES already and I’m sure like most on here that we all know many people who are going to vote YES, but haven’t signed the declaration yet.
All their scaremongering is not working.
No wonder they’re bricking it.
Expect the sentiment part soon.

Tattie-bogle

Clobbering time

mr thms

link to theguardian.com

“Cameron said: “We live in a very dangerous and difficult world. We do not want to be over-reliant on energy supplies from difficult parts of the world, from unstable parts of the world. And it is a huge national advantage having such a brilliant oil and gas industry here in Aberdeen and here in the North Sea.

“We should treasure that and want to see it expand, want to see it grow, want to see it be part of a good and diversified energy industry in the UK.”

According to BP, since the late 1960s, £300bn has been invested in exploration drilling and field developments on the UK continental shelf – and a similar figure has been paid in corporate taxes. BP alone has invested about £35bn into the UK North Sea, paying more than £40bn to the government in tax”

Marcia

Desimond

I can see Some people might take offence at that message but it could be fun.

For polling day you don’t want wordy leaflets, a simple picture and a message. How about a photo of a baby with the message – Yes for Scotland’s future.

TJenny

Henry McLeish + Blair McDougall are just playing good cop bad cop. Don’t be fooled by Henry, he colluded in moving our sea border.

link to oilofscotland.org

lemon

Sorry but I dont like it. It’s negative and MSM wil portray it as anti English.
I think we have to be 100% positive or BT will jump on it saying we are fear mongering.

Dan Huil

Maybe some would see this as a “Low Flyer”. Sorry to grouse.

Dougie Bee

Sorry for going O/ T but just saw on Sky News HSBC have said that if Scotland votes for Independence a lot of money COULD be removed from the country by worried savers..that word again..could…xxx

Dougie Bee

Sorry for going O/ T but just saw on Sky News HSBC have said that if Scotland votes for Independence a lot of money COULD be removed from the country by worried savers..that word again..could…xxx

cearc

Kestral,

‘hey I am already doing 100 parcels this weekend on the wee blue book’.

Glad to hear it! You’re a star.

Dougie Bee

And sorry for posting twice..digitalis uppy fcuky…xxx

David Stevenson

Cindie: Those newspaper quotes (all from titles antipathetic towards Yes) cite “English voters”, “voters south of the border”, “the English” and “an English backlash”. Broad brush quotes based on (what I had forgotten was) a 4-5 months old poll of potentially dubious origins and design.

We should not base any of our campaigning on that. Rent-a-mouth UKIPers and Tories provide us the ammunition we need while ensuring we don’t alienate our own support or worse give those self-same rags the chance to play the bigot card on us. We aren’t, so lets make sure they don’t get the chance to say we are.

Labour and their faux internationalists would love it if we were to prove daft enough to give them the opportunity.

Today we hit the figure of one million declared YES voters. There has not been such a mass expression of unity around a political event since the Poll Tax. This time, we are agitating positively, not defensively. Yes support will increase if we keep up the positive campaigning and highlight the lies of the Nawbags. That doesn’t preclude us explaining the threat arising from a No vote, but we have to pick and hit the right targets.

Nana Smith

O/T

Anyone want to comment….

link to north-star-news.co.uk

John Walsh

In advertising fear sells..we have ran a positive campaign so far. But I would hate to lose by a small margin because we underestimated the DK and soft No’s who think everything will stay the same. With the majority of “no’s” getting their info from MSM and BBC and the MSM relying on YES sticking to the plan maybe in the words of Will Smith it is time to “Switch”, just for a week or so. Factual backed leaflet like yours is a good example. And what is WM plan B for Trident and why did we not get all the NHS facts. There are a few YES supporters with a huge following maybe one question a day co-ordinated over Social media as in #YesBecause campaign will be affective . So go for it Stu.

Pierre

Come on Henry. You know as many of us Labour members / voters Yes is really the only way to realise the society we earn for.

BuckieBraes

I would echo the warnings about using branded images without permission (which you invariably won’t obtain). Then again: publish and be damned…

Regarding the English issue, England is (to use the tired old expression) the ‘elephant in the room’. People on the Yes side are so terrified of being called ‘anti-English’ that they often avoid mentioning England at all. This is absurd. Where supposed English public opinion is being used as a weapon against us, sorry, but we are entitled to highlight the fact, and the dangers it signifies.

Some people here fear what the MSM will make of it. The MSM will attack us, whatever we do. I would broadly use the flyer as it is.

Luigi

“Don’t be fooled by Henry, he colluded in moving our sea border.”

Indeed. If McLeish had ever intended to vote YES, he would have declared it long before now. One month to go is far too late for him.

You lost yer chance, Henry.

HandandShrimp

Mary Scanlan?

Yet another MSP I could not put a face to.

Brian Mchugh

Someone has probably beaten me to this, but I can’t resist…

link to youtube.com

😀

Elaine Colliar

O/T I have a wee YES bedecked car (gifted to me free by a reader) and I popped out to do some shopping for an Old Dear today.

Parked next to a rather ritzy posh car – who’s owner sneered “Might have know that scabby wee rustbucket would be a Yessers car” … before flouncing into his …. and it wouldn’t turn over! Just coughed, spluttered and died.

Instant Karma!! Made my day so I came home and went out and chapped some more doors.

wingman 2020

Great flyer… One for each of my neighbours along with the WBB. Excellent.

O/T There is an Indy Bike Ride (cars welcome) from Kilmarnock through to Edinburgh next saturday. I expect the BBC will pick it up.

Anyone want to go? 🙂

link to facebook.com

The Rough Bounds

Of COURSE Westminster is going to stick the boot into Scotland if we’re daft enough to vote No.

Anyone who knows anything about self defence knows that when you hit your opponent and he goes down you hit him again to make sure that he won’t get up an come at you as soon as your back is turned.

If we go down they’re going to jump on our gasping throats.

NODROG

Telling the truth can never be wrong.

Nana Smith

O/T but so funny…

link to change.org

muttley79

@John Walsh

I would not worry too much if this article is the Guardian is correct:

There are signs that the Yes campaign’s buoyancy will give way to something far more confrontational in the closing four weeks. Senior figures in the yes movement have said they expect the yes campaign to go heavily negative, attacking the Tory-led UK government over NHS reforms and on welfare, in a final push to try and close the gap.

They believe Salmond has been too slow to attack the Tories. “We’ve tried every optimistic strategy, and the yes campaign has been a tsunami of trying to raise people’s spirits,” said one senior insider. “It’s time to try with the negative consequences of a no vote, and level with the nos and don’t knows about the consequences of their actions.”

Les Wilson

I would have liked to see something like this along the bottom.

“FACT – Scotland has subsidised the the UK by XXX over the last XXX years.”

Stu would have these figures and know how best to word it, but you get the idea.

gerry parker

@ NODROG. 8:13

And there’s no right way of doing a wrong thing.

Paula Rose

I found these to be very effective at the Arbroath Seafest…

link to quickbadge.co.uk

Using our own knowledge we can tailor our message to the people we need to reach.

BuckieBraes

@alexicon
I had the same feeling watching the STV news No-fest. Bernard Ponsonby wrapped up the Gordon Brown story as though the day’s ramblings were an unassailable statement of fact, rather than the highly questionable opinions of a discredited UK politician. Not good enough, STV.

The programme was followed by an item on the ITV main news, featuring people in a pub who ‘didn’t have enough information’ and didn’t know how we were going to pay for the roads to be repaired in an independent Scotland.

This is why I keep my television off, most of the time.

Ghengis D'Midgies

It reveals a truth about the UK for Scotland. Westminster has the power to punish us and will do so if they get the chance. However I would not share this poster as it’s too open to anti Yes propaganda.

Instead I like this info-graphiccomment image?dl=0 and I wish someone with the figures for the last five years could update it but use this map instead:comment image?dl=0

That would be a dynamite poster/flyer.

kendomacaroonbar

O/T For the 2nd day on the trot, I have just spent several hours at Anderson Printers with our Ronnie (Anderson…undercover millionaire ? eh Ronnie ? 🙂

We’ve shipped just over 13,000 WBB’s, and thanks to those Wingslanders that met us at the printers to collect their revised order in order to distribute the WBB over the weekend.

AS an aside, the lads on the printer lines (bar one) were impressed with the content, and even commented that the ship yards para was a very powerful argument.

The WBB is a definite ‘power up’ (an appropriate computer gaming phrase) and I urge you to take advantage of the Rev’s WBB production run which will be available very soon and target the DK’s in your area.

We can win this… we WILL win this 🙂

call me dave

I pick my partners grandson up from the beavers every fortnight it’s at the top of a hill where I lived prior to moving away 10 years ago,so I know all the doors and who they vote for from leafleting over the years.

Anyhoo, I was delighted this evening to count, in a street of about 20 houses facing the road, no less than 10 YES posters at least 5 in labour households. My wife and also my son in the next street also have YES in the window.

This all in the last two weeks. Fife has it’s share of YES!

Neil Mackenzie

I hope none of those are Grant’s’ brands.

cynicalHighlander

Independence lifebelt is Yes to Save our Scotland.

link to image.shutterstock.com

Tam Jardine

Great flyer… WBB is the key but.

Henry has been teasing us for an age – would be great if he stood up and made a stand for what he believes in but until that time it is not worth much speculation. It is a personal decision and it is up to him alone. He’s voting yes anyway – declaring it in public is a bonus.

Breaking the million barrier on the declarations makes me very optimistic – not every signature will translate into a vote but almost every one will, and as Alexicon said, I know plenty people voting yes none of whom to my knowledge has signed it. If anything the push for signatures has been fairly low key!

OT for anyone who is unaware, Yes Edinburgh North and Leith are organising a wonderful wee festival on the Champs-Élysées (aka Leith Walk) tomorrow afternoon – a plethora of Yes groups with street stalls, comedy, music and discussion. It’s what our new wide pavements were built for. Take a wander down if you can.

link to yesedinburghnorthandleith.net

ScottieDog

Maybe it’s simply enough to ask “how can you guarantee more powers for scotland when most of the uk electorate, the majority of whom don’t live in scotland, are against granting of additional powers”.
This would highlight the lack of say we have as a minority in the union. I think that’s enough. We shouldn’t sink to that level IMHO.

Cheers
Scott

bookie from hell

naw henry

comment image%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FOh_Henry!%3B800%3B200

packhorse pete

Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
22 August, 2014 at 8:03 pm
“I think we have to be 100% positive or BT will jump on it saying we are fear mongering.”

“I couldn’t give a crap what BT say. I’m bothered about whether it will work with voters, and the consensus seems to be yes.”

That’s exactly right. We’ve been on the back foot for far too long and BT’s insidious lies seep into the consciousness of many voters. Let’s put the boot in. Let’s put them under pressure.

TJenny

Tam Jardine – I intend going to the EN&L fest – maybe I’ll see you and Muscle Guy there. Hope so. 🙂

TJenny

Ooh – I think that should have been YESGuy, not Muscle Guy (who he) but they may or may not exist/attend.

Albalha

Hello folks, a wee plug for the Referendum TV fundraiser, today Pat Kane got George Foulkes to admit independence was ‘tempting’, the last programme on Sunday has Derek Bateman, Angus Roxburgh, Chris Law who is ploughing around Scotland in the Blue Goddess and cartoonist Greg Moodie, all staffed by, in the main young volunteers, who’re otherwise doing their bit to get a Yes. All contributions, resends etc weclome.

link to indiegogo.com

Findlay Farquaharson

“I couldnt give a crap what BT say”. Man, can i relate to that.

alexicon

@onward. Kingsway between Dundee and Perth was much better with banners outside of a couple of homes. To the person who has the YES (2 rows of 3) trailer in a spare bit of ground along there. You’ll need to move it, I only saw it at the last minute. Good on you all.

That’s exactly right. We’ve been on the back foot for far too long and BT’s insidious lies seep into the consciousness of many voters. Let’s put the boot in. Let’s put them under pressure.

Here, here. About time we all went on the attack and turned the screw.

Christian Wright

The leaflet is pitch-perfect. We need inform voters of the unacceptable cost of a NO vote.

In the last couple of weeks, from the bigotry and intolerance displayed by Boris Johnson, through Tam Dalyell’s signaling of establishment thinking on the dismantling of the Scottish Parliament, to the attitudes survey of the English people, revealing a thirst for revenge, we have been blessed with an embarrassment of riches that cry out for exploitation.

Their intemperance has given us a large club with which to bludgeon the Better Together Campaign until it stops twitching. We must use it to full effect in ways that speak directly to the personal interests and concerns of voters.

A no vote means saying no to our NHS, no to elder care, no free prescriptions, no to free university education, no to bus passes for the over sixties.

A NO vote means saying yes to privatisation of our healthcare system, yes to swinging cuts to our budget, yes to a crippling of our economy, yes to higher unemployment and lower unemployment benefits, yes to crippling student debt, yes to the expropriation of our vast oil wealth to fund the continued improvement of London’s infrastructure, yes to another half century of Faslane and Coulport making Scotland’s Central Belt a first-strike nuclear target.

To vote NO is to risk Westminster-managed decline wherein the country we love is starved of resources and left to rot as the reviled low-opportunity celtic backwater of a Greater England.

I could go on, and have . . . here link to weourselves.com

Tam Jardine

TJenny

Wee message OT for you

Alexicon

I’m with you – attack. Need to hear some prominent yessers taking the BBC on as well – they’ve had a free reign so far. That is one organisation that needs dismantled and a new broadcaster formed on day 1.

I had a dream last night that we’d won – I looked in vain in the papers in my dream and it was not reported by anyone!

Thepnr

Rev

Please can you format that picture so as it is suitable for posting on facebook. Wingsoverscotland.com takes up half the width of the page so it is unreadable at first glance of facebook.

velofello

Thoughts and comments:

Rather than sneeringly downplaying the remaining oil and gas resources in the North Sea shouldn’t the Unionists apologise for their hopeless squandering of the resources, and their deception to us in Scotland – ref. the McCrone Report?

Odd that the Unionists find comfort in any bad news about Scotland.

Regards the NHS, Philippa Whitford is a friend of mine, I have absolute unquestioning trust in her integrity and honesty. For the Unionists to wheel out some retiree to question her veracity is disgraceful.

My campaign mantra – “I’m not trying to persuade you to vote Yes, I’m trying to persuade you to research the facts”.

Now is the time – sports talk – to up your effort, you’ve sussed out the opposition, they maybe are tired, and you are tired, but – Do you want to win?

Scoobiedubh

Aye. Go for it.
Looks like a Leith Agency Ad.
I can feel the change in the air!

Sinky

Latest Panelbase opinion poll out this evening. YES 48% NO 52%

There will be a referendum on an independent Scotland on 18 September. How do you intend to vote in response to the question: Should Scotland be an independent country?

Yes: 42%
No: 46%
Undecided: 12%

Excluding undecided voters

Yes: 48%
No: 52%

Among Labour voters, 37 per cent intend to vote Yes – which equates to more than 230,000 Labour voters, in terms of their constituency vote in the 2011 Holyrood election.

Men are 52 per cent Yes and 48 per cent No; women 43 per cent Yes and 57 per cent No. This 9-point gap in Yes support between men and women represents a significant narrowing of the gender gap compared to previous Panelbase polls – in July it was 14 points and in January 18 points.

Do you agree that Scotland could be a successful independent country?

Yes: 54%
No: 31%
Don’t know: 15%

All gender and age groups agree with this proposition. And among Labour voters in the 2011 election, 43 per cent say Yes and 41 per cent No.

Does the prospect of an increased role of the private sector in the NHS in England having an adverse effect on the Scottish budget which funds NHS Scotland make you likely or unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland in the referendum?

Very likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 37%
Quite likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 9%
Total likely: 46%
Quite unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 9%
Very unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 26%
Total unlikely: 35%
Don’t know: 18%

Excluding ‘don’t know’ would give these figures:
Likely to vote Yes: 57%
Unlikely to vote Yes: 43%

Compared to the headline figures, the NHS argument generates a 9-point swing in favour of Yes.

Among WOMEN, the findings are:
Very likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 33%
Quite likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 9%
Total likely: 42%
Quite unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 12%
Very unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 26%
Total unlikely: 38%
Don’t know: 20%

Excluding ‘don’t know’ would give these figures for WOMEN:
Likely to vote Yes: 52%
Unlikely to vote Yes: 48%

Among men, the findings are:
Very likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 42%
Quite likely to vote for an independent Scotland: 9%
Total likely: 51%
Quite unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 6%
Very unlikely to vote for an independent Scotland: 26%
Total unlikely: 32%
Don’t know: 17%

Excluding ‘don’t know’ would give these figures for men:
Likely to vote Yes: 61%
Unlikely to vote Yes: 39%

Do you trust Alex Salmond, First Minister, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?
Yes: 52%
No: 37%
Don’t know: 12%
Net rating: +15

Do you trust Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?
Yes: 53%
No: 33%
Don’t know: 14%
Net rating: +20

Do you trust Dennis Canavan, Chairman of the Yes campaign, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?
Yes: 41%
No: 33%
Don’t know: 26%
Net rating: +8

Do you trust David Cameron, Prime Minister, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?
Yes: 19%
No: 66%
Don’t know: 14%
Net rating: -47

Do you trust Alistair Darling, Chairman of the No campaign, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?
Yes: 32%
No: 50%
Don’t know: 18%
Net rating: -18

Only 40 per cent of Labour voters trust Alistair Darling to stand up for Scotland, compared to 42 per cent who do not.

Do you trust Johann Lamont, leader of Scottish Labour, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?

Yes: 30%
No: 40%
Don’t know: 30%
Net rating: -10

gerry parker

@ Ken Johnstone at 7:08 pm.

Like this?

comment image

🙂

Douglas Macdonald

Alexicon
haud on the noo
HandandShrimp
Pierre
Luigi
I was listening to the Friday lunchtime discussion on BBC Radio Scotland, hosted by Gordon Brewer. Henry McLeish was one of the panellists and towards the end of the programme (ca. 12.50pm) he declared publicly that he was voting no, which certainly took Brewer aback.

HandandShrimp

Sinky

Where be that poll to

HandandShrimp

Douglas

I think his start point was No. The No campaign has sorely tested his resolve but I haven’t heard him say he has moved to Yes.

kendomacaroonbar

Guys

Forgive me, but I can’t reconcile the difference between what I overwhelmingly see and hear to the tsunami of polls that contradict my instincts. Is it me ?

Vestas

Do it.

David Stevenson

link to bbc.co.uk

Henry remains a nawbag. No change there…….

Les Wilson

Christian Wright says:

Christian, Weourselves is excellent.

bookie from hell

Do you trust Alistair Darling, Chairman of the No campaign, to stand up for Scotland’s interests?

Yes: 32%
No: 50%
Don’t know: 18%
Net rating: -18

walofs

Graeme Doig

O/T
Guy called Brian Nixon has a petition on 38 Degrees calling for fairness in the BBC debate. Not convinced of effectiveness but signing is only a click away to show support.
Sorry i’m a complete technophobe so don’t have a link.

Croompenstein

@Graeme –

here it is..

link to secure.38degrees.org.uk

Douglas Macdonald

HandandShrimp
When I heard him say that he was voting No, I was completely taken by surprise, yet when asked by Brewer to confirm this, he repeated that he was voting No. Brewer then went on to ask the other panellists what their voting intentions were. Perhaps, some other Winger may have captured the programme, but if not, then it should be on BBC i-player tomorrow.

Graeme Doig

Cheers Croompenstein.

Luigi

Douglas Macdonald

Aye, first Sir Ian Wood and now Henry MacLeish.

The great pretenders are finally coming off the fence.

It is getting close to call, and they are no longer comfortable pretending to be reasonable, rational men considering independence. A establishment, NAW man cannot change his spots.

Albaman

Yes Henry McLiesh did say NO but did you hear his reasoning ?, he seemed to acknowledge that a Yes vote was best, because he feared a NO would bring a very uncertain future from Westminster , but as he has been a Labour supporter , and politician most of his life he will be voting NO, what sort of reasoning is that?!!.
Mind you that’s how most of Labour MPs &SMPs think “party,before country”, one of those is Jenny Mara, but she was fairly challenge in that “Big Debate”.

liz g

Yes publish and be dammed
We will any way
It’s about blidy time

Grouse Beater

The English attitude to non-Brits: Mobile billboards exhorting ‘foreigners’ to go home.

A billboard and poster for Scotland in the 21st Century – on it faces of different ethnic origin, in the middle of the group one happy Scotsman, arms folded.

“Scotland – It Takes All Sorts.”

Nana Smith
Ian Brotherhood

Just saw on Twitter that Jim Murphy got a rough ride in Motherwell. Anyone have links to any footage?

I really really REALLY want to see it! Right now!

(Cracks open can and waits, smiling…)

Edward

Disgraceful reporting on ITV’s News at Ten, trying to make out Jim Murphy is a victim of abuse, while on his box in Motherwell.

Cue clips of ordinary people being interviewed, all either no’s or supposed don’t knows, including a female stating she isn’t being told anything, god give me strength !

Nana Smith

Sorry tried to link to save the NHS march. Did’nt work.

Croompenstein

Anyone else hear Ponsonby’s report from Crash Gordon’s lie in today, at the end of his piece he said about this convincing people to vote No Thanks on the 18th but you thick unionist schmuck it doesn’t say No Thanks on the ballot paper it just says No. Surprise surprise they have dropped this line in the stv player version.

HandandShrimp

I love the “not enough information” thing. I had a chap say that to me when I was standing in the street with a table creaking with leaflets, newspapers and info sheets. I asked him what he was looking for and without batting an eyelid said “I’m too busy to read stuff”

What can you do? Inject information straight into their eyeballs?

Graeme Doig

At least you tried Nana. I’m impressed 😉

Nana Smith

@Graeme Doig

Usually works for me,don’t know what went wrong that time.

But here’s a goodie…

link to twitter.com

Croompenstein

trying to make out Jim Murphy is a victim of abuse, while on his box in Motherwell

What is this numbnut doing does he not have any constituency to represent. Is there anyone who is in this bawbags constituency and ask what he thinks he’s doing?

Nana Smith

@Ian BRotherhood

I saw the video of Murphy but can’t remember where I found it.
Anyhow the folks were all shouting “shite” over and over at him.

I also read on one of the twitter comments that he has claimed 2.1million in expenses since 2010. Is this true and if it is he should be in prison.

Kev

@ Ian Brotherhood

Heres a link here, im still pissin masel 🙂

link to youtube.com

HandandShrimp

Nana

I don’t think in their heyday of fraud they could have claimed 2.1m in expenses over 5 years. That doesn’t seem very likely.

Training Day

Is that a poll out this evening showing Yes behind?

Well fan my brow!

Colin Church

@ Ghengis D’Midgies
Infographics are very powerful. Really like this. And another graph showing the accumulated theft over time. job done. Still trying to get over the Brown PPB for free on STV.

ScottieDog
Graeme Doig

No abuse i can see. Just Jim Murphy choking on his own medicine. Stick yourself on a soap box peddling lies, you’ll soon get shouted down.

Nana Smith

@Handandshrimp

Well I thought it sounded rather much, however having heard their lies over the past years nothing would surprise me.

Filling their own pockets at the expense of the taxpayer seems to be the way for Westminster mps.

HandandShrimp

I can’t make out a word Murphy is saying. He was asked a question about more powers and started on the usual politician’s crap of making a sound bite on something else and the heckling never stopped thereafter.

BuckieBraes

Not that I condone vandalism, but I admit I smiled today on seeing two of the ‘No Thanks’ boards alongside the A90 transformed by having the ‘Thanks’ painted out and the rest changed to ‘How No?’ and ‘Why No?’

Nana Smith
McTim

Re flyer: go for it, Rev. Agree with others that the Boris quote is an absolute must and a quote with source to explain that we have and still are contributing well above our fair share.

Flipper has done a Icebucket video and posted it on his Facebook page. I asked him some awkward questions about his Plan Bs for the European in/out referendum and what if Ed Miliband loses in 2015.

Another Union Dividend

Handand Shrimp at 9.48

Like you I wondered about the source of the poll but after a lot of Googling found Panelbase poll at

link to panelbase.com

Strange that it was so difficult to find.

Robert Peffers

To my mind the good people of England are actually as much victims of the Establishment as Scots are. They have been brainwashed that Scots are subsidised by the English. It is thus pointless, at this late date, to even attempt to correct that brainwashing.

Witness how many benighted Scots still, in spite of decades of telling them otherwise, still are victims of the Scottish Cringe. For heaven’s sake was that not the exact message Crash Gordon Brown the Clown was thumping into the subconscious of a captive audience of Labour party faithful sheeple in the Lochgelly Institute?

joe kane

Another video has surfaced from Motherwell today regarding MP Jim Mouthy’s now traditional soapbox bawling match with the locals.

Even before he took to his soapbox at Motherwell Cross his NO Thanks helpers were insulting people –
link to facebook.com

Nana Smith

@Handandshrimp

link to weourselves.com

HandandShrimp

Another Union Divided

That was the poll released on Sunday in the Herald. I did wonder at another PB Poll so soon after that one.

I am sure there will others soon though

Ian Brotherhood

@Kev (10.42) –

Superb. Thanks so much.

Gaun yersel Motherwell!

(Cracks another can. Smiles.)

Indy_Scot

Edward, I also saw the ITV News manufactured negative report of Jim Murphy and the clearly set up interviews of members of the public. It is akin to State propaganda by a unionist media.

Gary Grant

Forgive me if this isn’t the right place but I just feel so angry I want to put it down somewhere. Just had a dig through the Better Together and I’m just absolutely astounded by the downright dishonesty.
Just working through their submissions especially the video pieces and the majority of them are people who omit important pieces to present themselves as just ordinary concerned student, man/woman off the street, perhaps buoyed by having seen Clare Lally presented as an ordinary Mum.

In order

Barry Turner retired Chartered Survey and Town Planner
…..and Lib Dem Councillor suspended by the ethics committee
Standards Commission Scotland.
Marian Craig Paisley Student
…..and Labour activist, Research Assistant to Mary Fee MSP, Shadow Housing Minister at The Scottish Parliament
Greg Black Edinburgh Student
…..and worked for the Shadow Youth Employment Minister Kezia Dugdale in the Scottish Parliament
Lora Bedford, student from Edinburgh Student
…..and Edinburgh Labour Students Secretary (former members Gordon Brown & Douglas Alexander)
Kyle Thornton 19 year old student from Glasgow
…and Secretary of Glasgow University Conservative Association
Alan Grant, recent graduate from Stirling University
…and Local Leader of Better Together Ltd and published on behalf of the University of Stirling’s Conservative society
Karen Osborne, a trainee solicitor at Govan Law Centre
….and former Office Assistant at House of Commons
Meghan Gallacher recent graduate
….and politics graduate from the University of the West of Scotland, a dedicated member of the Conservative Party – and wants to be the next female prime minister.
Alison Dowling, mother of two
….and beaten candidate to run for Labour MSP in Clydebank
Greg Williams works in the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen
…and Labour candidate runner up in Aberdeen South and North Kincardine MSP elections
Michael Hope Student
..and Chair, British Youth Council, Parliamentary Select Committee
Connor McElwaine Student
…and a President of Dundee Labour Students
The sheer and utter dishonesty just flabbergasts me and leaves me bloody mad !

HandandShrimp

Nana

That sounds a lot more like it. £1m over about 15 years is pretty much the maximum they can claim. Jim obviously doesn’t economise on the expenses.

Bruce Wallace

I used to be worried about the folks of Motherwell and their Labour loving ways.
I am now feeling positive that the red rosette is in big trouble there after today.
We will win this folks, heres a 30 min video of the event, Thanks, wee bastard.

link to youtube.com

Flower of Scotland

@thepnr

I took a photo with my ipad and put it on Facebook!

It’s very good REV! Just right for this time!

fred blogger

Nana Smith
too many sick and disabled people were winning appeals, so they introduced mandatory reconsideration’s to help them with no income, until this extra phase was settled.
link to kittysjones.wordpress.com
in work poverty soars.
productivity falls.
malnutrition soars.
self employment soars.
0hr contracts soar.

Bruce Wallace

In that vid you can see a wee elderly lady getting accused of being a bru scrounger from Murphy s helper, she is recovering from cancer and gives her emotional response to the abuse she received.

boris

Nick Clegg to visit India 25-28 August 2014

Major Indian Medical and Biological Research institutions announce plans to collaborate with Scottish universities

A partnership between the University of Dundee and the National Centre for Biological Sciences will be signed during his visit to Bangalore. The collaboration will concern itself with the field of antibiotics, and the global problem of the growing resistance to antibiotics amongst populations suffering from malaria and tuberculosis.

A collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the Christian Medical College in Vellore, and the Indian Christian Medical and Dental Association, for a new distance learning Master’s degree in Family Medicine will be announced during the visit. This will help general practitioners working in Asia and Africa to better serve poor and rural communities.

In addition, Aberdeen University will announce that it is investing £500,000 in PhD studentships for Indians, with a focus on the life sciences, health and energy research.

Scotland leads the way. So much for the doom and gloom spread by the, “Blether Together” campaign claiming an independent Scotland would struggle to attract inward investment to it’s universities. I think not. Give up telling lies Westminster.

Brian Doonthetoon

Hi Paula Rose.

I ordered 100 of those leaflets on Wednesday evening and they arrived today.
£3.60 including P&P.

link to ebay.co.uk

Good deal, compared to £27.50 from,
link to quickbadge.co.uk

.
Hi Ghengis D’Midgies.

Try this graphic…

comment image

Or this one, from The Herald, around 2011/12.

comment image

.
Hi all peeps.

I took it into my head to play around with the Rev’s original and came up with this one. All the names on the bottles have been changed and I’ve added in Piers Morgan’s Twitter quote.

It prints out nicely as an A3 poster.

comment image

Lastly, onny Dundonians gonna help out the WOS Referendum Agent in Dundee? Iye? Iye?

Nana Smith
muttley79

Red Tories out chant in Motherwell! SLAB unionists must be bricking it hearing that kind of thing! 😀 😀

Ian Brotherhood

John McTernan said that Murphy’s 100 Towns Roadshow has been a ‘triumph’?

If he wanted to be fair and accurate, he shouldn’t really have used any past tenses – by my reckoning Murphy still has, what, over 40 to do?

Who’s the next lucky town then?

Would it be out of order to invite him to Stevenston next Wednesday evening?

Or perhaps he’d like to join us on Tuesday, when SSP Ayrshire is planning to have a seaside day-out in the Margo-mobile!

Come on Jim! Name a place, anywhere in the Three Towns, and we’ll bring a busload to participate in your historic crusade! We’ll make it look busy! And we promise not to nick your crate!

And, if you like, you can shift yourself up to another Three Towns venue – we’ll follow you, and we can do it all again! From the Morrison’s to the Tesco to the Sainsbury’s to the Asda, and round and round and round we go…If we keep doing that for a few hours, you could chalk-off, what, ten, twelve gigs against your 100 target? We’d be more than happy to help expand the list of places where you’ll never be able to show your coupon again.

Ewan MacKenzie

I’ve been working on a “100% no” for over a year now. It’s gone from “far too wee, way too poor” to “ok, we could do it but…”.

The biggest reaction I’ve had was just the other day, when I mentioned about the probable disappearance of the Barnett formula if it’s a no. She’d been comparing the prospects for independence (maybe good, maybe no) with the status quo, not considering that the status quo isn’t an option.

So I can confirm that this particular line of argument can be persuasive to the right people.

Still working on her.

joe kane

Try wee bastard’s You Tube account for many more videos of Murphy’s 100 lies in a 100 minutes tour of Scotland –
link to youtube.com

cearc

nana smith

I looked for the figures from
link to parliamentary-standards.org.uk

After getting 2010-11 £138,320.60

I kept getting ‘connection reset’. Is their server really that busy at this time of night?

Janet W

Nana

Is it this one?

999callfornhs.org.uk/the-march/4583609408

wingman 2020

Red Tories Out! Well done Motherwell.

Another Union Dividend

Ian Brotherhod.

Jim Murphy’s Roadshow is not about the referendum, its all about positioning him by the Blairites, such as John McTernan and Labour’s other cheerleaders in the Media, to take over from the useless Johann Lamont who is unelectable.

Midgehunter

“I couldnt give a crap what BT say”

I wish there were some folk at Hope Street who would say the same and get their fingers out.

There are still too many chances being lost. 🙁

Ian Brotherhood

@Another Union Dividend –

That has never occurred to me, but I hope you’re right.

If Jim Murphy becomes leader of SLab, we are guaranteed years of highly entertaining FMQs, and his demise will be prolonged further than his worst enemies (e.g. me) thought possible.

Capella

I like it but think the comments in red are enough on their own. I agree that quoting those English opinions will come across as anti-English. How representative were the people who made them?
Also like the idea of substituting Wings labels for the brands on the bottles.
And add the amount that Scotland subsidises UK. (But not for much longer).

fred blogger

the tories are a real class act 1st they organize things to privatise the NHS.
then they organize protests against privatization and claim expenses for doing so! link to mirror.co.uk

boris

North Sea oil: Facts and figures

Ignore the, “Blether Together” hype. First off residents of an independent Scotland, (without adding in the financial benefits of oil & gas) would enjoy an annual Gross Disposable Income (GDP) comparable with rUK. So both countries would continue to be entirely self sufficient maintaining existing trading policies.

Adding in the financial benefits of oil and gas increases the annual GDP of Scottish residents by approximately £6000. The Scottish government intends to set aside at least 10% of the recurring windfall income, retaining it in a, “Sovereign Wealth Fund”, (something the Westminster government, now cheerfully admits it should have done at the time the oil started to flow but didn’t) to provide long term benefits for the Scottish nation for many year’s to come.

The article provides support to the foregoing; link to bbc.co.uk

Christian Wright

@Les Wilson – Thank you Les, really appreciate that.

caz-m

Ian Brotherhood

Well done Motherwell.

That Murphy video was brilliant. And you think there is still another 40 odd towns to come.

This is turning into a bit of a competition, to see what town can out shout Murphy.

Murphy reminds me of the guy who sells the butcher meet from the van up at the Barras, you can hear him but you haven’t got a clue what he is saying.

Christian Wright

Shrimp
Nana

I don’t think in their heyday of fraud they could have claimed 2.1m in expenses over 5 years. That doesn’t seem very likely

Over ONE MILLION alleged in a period spanning ~12 years
link to weourselves.com

Gray

One question in the recent Panelbase poll caught my attention.

Do you trust JOHANN LAMONT, leader of
Scottish Labour, to stand up for Scotland’s
interests?

Previously Labour voters 47% Yes, 30% No
Previously Liberal voters 68% Yes, 20% No

Seems like Johann should be considering a switch of parties, though I doubt she’d be re-elected even if she joined the SNP.

Joe Swan

caz-m

Essentially the guy in the Barras and Murphy are both talking mince.

Ian Brotherhood

This is very O/T, but a heartfelt request for all peoples worldwide (especially in ‘The Middle East’) to stop fighting one another – every time you start up some shit you reanimate Ming Campbell.

Right now, we just don’t need that.

Cheers, world.

YESGUY

T jenny and everyone else

enjoyed the comments a lot guys and girls.

I say let the NO’ers know what their vote will do . Shame the whole lot of them.

Off to bed now as i will be in Leith tmoz and hope to bump in to some Wingers.

Wings badges on and a big smile . YES is a positive message , hope and unity .

Bugger the NO’ers

todayinscotland

New posts, please share

todayinscotland | The Referendum Blues
link to todayinscotland.wordpress.com

thedogphilosopher

Watching the Murphy performance in Motherwell brings it home that there are many ways to skin a cat. Many levels of discourse to be had. Perhaps the problem with the SNP/YES campaign is that it is operating too far within the formal boundaries of polite/middle-class discourse which the media tends to control and ‘police’. The Yes argument comes alive within a less formal, less restrained context. Perhaps that’s why the gloves must come off at some point. There was not a glove in sight in Motherwell.

So on Monday why shouldn’t AS interrogate AD about BTs TV broadcast – about Yvonne Hama’s links with the BNP and the Orange Order and her attitude towards the Catholic community? It was beamed into our homes for christsakes!

john king

If it puts a seed of doubt in the undecideds minds in the ballot box I would say its worth it, they HAVE to be made to understand that a no vote will not be all sweetness and light from Westminster and no’s as well as yeses will suffer equally.

Handclapping says
“Do you think that SLab, SCon and SLib will get a word in edgeways in their respective UK parties when the English voter is baying for Scots blood?”.

Why does anyone think they would WANT to get a word in edgeways, wasn’t their default position always this far and no further anyway,
your more likely to get flaggelants to beg for mercy.

Haud oan the noo says
“Henry coming out is a setup I suspect”

I couldn’t agree more, an obvious Trojan horse if ever there was one,
I wouldn’t trust that man to lead me through a minefield.

David Stevenson says
“There are plenty English people living in Scotland who support Yes. It would be crazy to adopt a campaign that might alienate them”

Well why dont we ASK the Englsh yesers on here what their opnion is?

Scotspine says
“delighted to be united” placards, they really boil my piss.”

My thoughts exactly,
The wife and I were sitting in a long queue to get back over the Forth Bridge from Edinburgh @ 5 oclock last night and we were sat next to an old banger of a car with the “proud to be” pish on it, and our car couldn’t get another yes sticker on it, and the man (older type)studiously looked in every direction other than ours while we stared right at him , he was clearly embarressed,
these people have no faith in their cause.

Les Wilson says
“I would have liked to see something like this along the bottom.

“FACT – Scotland has subsidised the the UK by XXX over the last XXX years.””

The trouble is Les for a lot of people the cringe is still strong and that message just wont be beleived no matter if you produce positive proof,
Just look at this
link to youtube.com

Handandshrimp says
“What can you do? Inject information straight into their eyeballs?”

I swear to god Im going to start eating Kippers in the morning.

Robert Peffers @11.01
I see you beat me to it but it just reinforces the point I made in my post before I came to to your comments Bob,
Nothing I need to add to that.

Ian Brotherhood says
“We’d be more than happy to help expand the list of places where you’ll never be able to show your coupon again.”

Spontaneous uncontrolled burst of laughter
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

alexicon

I do wish the YES people who are attending Murphy’s talk shite tours would stop going there all too obvious with YES posters etc.
Maybe the other members of the public would be less tribal and more in tune with what they deem as ordinary members of the public who were haranguing him.
It would also stop Murphy’s accusations of rent a mob group by the YES campaign.

James Caithness

@Joe Kane

In the soap box talk Murphy had in Wishaw he actually repeated Gordon Broon’s lie that sick people waiting for organ transplants and transfusions will be at rish in an independent Scotland.

VOTE YES.

Notice how many women are involved?
SLAB are so arrogant that I don’t think they realise who it is that is against them in Labour heartlands. They must care a lot about their labour voters believing that they will just support them in the future. I gotta feeling that Labour are on a downward spiral just like the tories and lib dems.

James Caithness

Further to my last, If the SSP got into these communities right now they could do very well in the future, from disallusioned SLab voters.

Ian Kirkwood

I fully support the gloves off approach now in the final run in. The MSM have to hear what the YES campaign think of their collusion, after all there will need to be major change in iScotland. This should however not be directed at England except of course the WM lot.
The message needs to continue to be positive but by all means should question the no sides tactics, lack of vision and individual self interests.
The last push needs to make more people believe! We will do it!

Croompenstein

Murphy is putting himself out there with his f*in ridiculous tour, if he wasn’t a lying bastirt he wouldn’t get heckled. He doesn’t answer any reasonable questions so what do you want folk to do stand there politely and listen to his pish. Less than 4 weeks to go I think he deserves all the heckling he gets.

joe kane

Thanks James Caithness.
With regards to the SSP it’s my understanding they are beginning to (re)establish local party branches in parts of Scotland such is the interest that their stalwart efforts as part of the YES campaign has generated.

Support for SSP grows on wave of Pro-Yes optimism
Newsnet Scotland
15 Aug 2015
link to newsnetscotland.com

joe kane

Another eye-witness claim that members of the public were abused by Murphy’s entourage at Motherwell Cross –
“No campaign taking it stinking in motherwell today pmsl a wee guy hit the leaflets out his hand a soldier actually said wish a had my sa I wouldve put a bullet in his head ffs before a made this video”
link to facebook.com

I wonder how much the soldiers Murphy used as stage props were costing the taxpayer and if they were included as legitimate NO Thanks referendum expenses?

Robert Peffers

@caz-m says: 23 August, 2014 at 12:34 am:

“Murphy reminds me of the guy who sells the butcher meet from the van up at the Barras, you can hear him but you haven’t got a clue what he is saying.

That really made me laugh. I’m old enough to go back before the days of TV and the internet. In those days it was the radio and newspapers. Every household would have a morning a morning, evening and a batch of Sunday papers. Most also had at least one Saturday sports paper and many also either the Melody Maker or the New Musical Express.

As the Evening papers hit the streets the Newspaper vans were on the streets delivering to the vendors and they went on doing so until the early morning papers came out for the following morning.

The street corners were alive with vendors shouting, Err! Err! what I imagine were the headlines but which no one but they knew as the only thing you could make out was the final , “TWO”, words ‘SPACHANNEWS! SPATCHANNEWS!’

cauld tattie

Everybody knows the naws/no thanks/better together/ ukok folks always behave impeccably like the woman who came up to the yes stall in Perth yesterday picked up a handful of leaflets, tore them in half and threw them back on the table before stomping off. To be fair she might not have been a no voter maybe she got a very bad paper cut once and she just hates leaflet.

Chic McGregor

On a similar theme, the Lion and Mouse and variants, has had over a thousand shares on Facebook.

comment image?dl=0

Chic McGregor

@Kendo
“Guys

Forgive me, but I can’t reconcile the difference between what I overwhelmingly see and hear to the tsunami of polls that contradict my instincts. Is it me ?”

It was the same before the ’97 referendum.

comment image?dl=0

Note the Yes,Yes option then was supposed to be less than the Yes option is running at now, but the real result was 63.5%

Suzanne Bosworth

As an English-born Yesser I’m very sceptical of all this guff that says the majority of the English down south are in favour of punishing us (which, in effect, is what the propaganda is saying). I just don’t believe it. Not a single lying word. It’s nothing more than a cynical tactic to divide people and to create resentment where it can. I think we’re being lied to (again) and I think English voters down south are being lied to. I’ve heard nothing but positivity from down south.

The No campaign and Westminster have revealed themselves for who they truly are and it does none of them any favours. While I could understand that many were fueled by fear of change, now it’s a choice to behave despicably because the facts are all out there and every single lie put out by the No camp has been refuted by people who are appalled by No’s behaviour. Remember Great Ormond Street? They were spitting with anger over that lie that suggested sick kids would no longer be treated there. And yet some in the No camp are still spinning that lie because they all they can do is use fear as a weapon. They can come up with no good reason for staying in this destructive, abusive, anachronistic union so all they do is lie.

On a slightly different note – or is it? – I’m just waiting to see the footage of that meeting where a Hugh Pennington called the audience animals because they insisted on an answer to their question. We’ve seen that kind of attack on audiences before – naked anger and insult, shouting at people. They have nothing. Let’s just carry on doing what we’re doing, calmly talking, engaging people, writing, sharing. That’s what will win this. Treating people as adults who are asking for answers.

Onwards

The lion or mouse flag is brilliant.

Even more hard hitting than the ‘Bottle It’ image.

That’s what it all comes down to.
Hope or Fear.

Cag-does-thinking

I like the leaflet but I tend to think that the media has been doing the dirty work of the establishment. It’s their idea to set Scot against English and the only reason I can see for that would be to set the scene for a “negotiation” phase between the Scottish and fUK authorities, something that I feel will be the real reason why the debate will be broadcast south of the border on Monday. The Boris cartoon gets the message across very well but we should be careful not to blame others for how things will be after 18th September. I think we should focus more on the lack of partnership by the politicians, after all it won’t be the English public who will cut things for Scotland but the near 1400 representatives of both houses that will always outnumber Scotland. You would never enter a partnership in business where you could never carry the day. That’s called a takeover. And getting out of that takeover is going to be a long hard road even after a Yes vote. The politics of fear haven’t really worked for the No campaign despite all their media support. I agree that it’s time that AS brought these things into the debate. The lies are relentless and if I’m honest the Yes campign (not the activist bit of course) seems a bit insipid. I haven’t really seen a billboard or much in the way of advertising. Luckily Yes have way way the better stickers….

Rock

Suzanne Bosworth,

“As an English-born Yesser I’m very sceptical of all this guff that says the majority of the English down south are in favour of punishing us”

Even if they aren’t, they will be after a No vote because the media, led by the Daily Mail, will make damn sure that they are.

BornOptimist

Stay positive please. Anxiety and aggressiveness only lead to rejection and resentment. By all means point out lies, deceit, deception, manipulation, disingenuous statements, the political background and biases of allegedly ordinary individuals and apparently objective analysts, but please don’t get abusive. Even better, add a touch of humour. Get undecided individuals to laugh and you get ’em on your side (sometimes – but maybe often enough to swing the vote).


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