The Angry Man
So it seems our article of earlier today rattled the Herald’s cage but good. Scottish political Twitter has been an absolute logjam of incandescent Herald Group hacks all afternoon, making all manner of wild accusations and threats. At the head of the fury, of course, was Chief Reporter And Witchfinder General Mr David Leask.
Unfamiliar with the Scottish media? God, how we wish THAT was true.
Leask issued a long (long) stream of invective on Twitter, while hiding behind a block that means we can’t post any responses to it that any of his Twitter followers will see. So for the record, we suppose we’ll have to address them here.
Let’s see how many errors we find, then.
No it’s not.
Why is that proof? Leask constantly claims that the Herald’s readership is rising. But as he himself notes, that’s only true if you’re talking about the website.
The print papers’ sales are tanking and have been for years. In fact the vast bulk – upwards of 80% – of the papers’ claimed readership is online. And online the Herald and the Sunday Herald are a single entity. There is no distinction whatsoever on heraldscotland.com (which Leask’s bio lists as his work address) between weekday Herald and Sunday Herald content.
It’s a wildly irrelevant point anyway – in the context of editorial, who cares what Herald Group’s internal payroll structures are? – but nevertheless his claim is still wrong.
This clearly isn’t an “error” in the Wings article. But it’s false anyway – plenty people have attested, and demonstrated with evidence, that Leask has blocked them without them doing any of those things. He himself admits he does it “automatically” simply for people mentioning this site.
What’s next?
False. As his own screenshot shows, the article did NOT say “all”.
This tweet is such gibberish it’s hard to know what it means. Our best guess is that he’s trying to say he was joking all the times he suggested we might not really support independence, and therefore actually be saboteurs working for an unknown agent. Judge the comic intent of these rib-ticklers for yourself, folks:
Gosh, weren’t there a lot of those? But maybe it’s the way he tells them or something. Maybe it’s funny if you’re there. Our advice: don’t quit the day job, Dave.
We’re not sure what a “stooge” would do if not “repeat propaganda” and “endorse Russia”. In fact we haven’t done any of those things – as usual we’ve simply reported facts, and provided independent sources to go with all of them. This one’s just a mess.
Sort of almost true-ish, a bit. I’ve certainly described Leask’s six-year obsession with Wings as increasingly “deranged” and “demented”. But I have no idea whether it constitutes any sort of diagnosable mental condition. That’s just the language people use conversationally to describe something they think defies reason and logic.
A bit like when they call someone “bonkers”, say.
Leask was doing the vast bulk of this stuff long before we ever criticised him or any article of his. What set him off, goodness alone knows.
This one’s nothing to do with us, so we don’t know why we’re getting the blame for it. (Although we HAVE been told a very interesting story regarding him and security services, which we can neither verify nor dispute and so couldn’t possibly repeat here.)
In the article we described Neil Cameron’s threats as “veiled”, which means “not overtly stated”. Most people would interpret “this prick… I would love to meet him… it would be my satisfaction” as an allusion to physical violence. After all, you don’t need to meet someone in person just to tell them you don’t like them.
But Cameron helpfully stepped in to make things clearer anyway.
Of course, maybe he just meant “motivational encouragement”.
See the response to Leask’s claim (1) above. But also, don’t WE feel stupid for actually believing something that’s currently published on the Herald’s own website?
[EDIT 11.23pm: the Herald has now concealed this error by simply removing the link to Tom Gordon’s profile page from its bio section entirely. But Gordon’s page itself is still there at the time of making this edit, and still says “Sunday Herald”.]
[EDIT 1.50am, 16 May 2018: Still does.]
[EDIT 11.56am, 11 May 2019: Still does, even though the SH no longer exists.]
Still, employers can sometimes be a touch slack about keeping such things up-to-date. Maybe we could check his LinkedIn page instead?
Oh. He was the Scottish Political Editor of ONLY the Sunday Herald until about a year and a half ago, when he carefully edited his bio to reflect that fact that he now holds that post for the weekday Herald AND the Sunday Herald. Glad we cleared that up.
Nearly done now, folks.
Well, this is awkward.
Maybe PR Week are Trumpist cybernats too.
[EDIT 11.26pm: Leask has now corrected this, magnificently.]
And to be fair, which of us hasn’t at some point said “the UK government” when we meant “the Sunday Herald”, and also used the present tense when we meant to use the past tense? False negative i earlier tweet, indeed.
That’s just (1) again. His only actual complaint with the article appears to be that it might not be 100% accurate regarding a couple of Herald Group staff’s internal job titles, as if that has any bearing on what they’ve written.
Hmm, yes. As readers will of course know, we NEVER criticise the Daily Mail, the Express, the Daily Record, the Telegraph, the BBC, the Guardian or the Scotsman, and we’re ALWAYS sticking it to The National, the only pro-indy daily paper in the country. Remember that time six months ago when we, um, gave the site over to the National’s editor to write a sales pitch for it?
We’ve criticised the Sunday Herald in maybe five or six Wings articles in six and a half years, out of a total of almost five THOUSAND. That’s 0.1%. So if it’s our “main focus” we’re doing a pretty terrible job of focusing.
We make that 12 claims, 0 true. Sounds about right. Come back any time, Dave.
And if you ever think we’ve defamed you, you know our lawyer’s number.
David Leask , a poundland Michael White. As my granny used to say , ‘he husnae slept wi a journalist’ …a laughable nobody
“…Reality-based journalism…”.
Really ?
And as always Mr Leask I, the buyer, reserve the right to give my hard earned to whichever media outlet I choose. The Herald benefitted from that policy for decades, but never again, a decision I made quite some time ago – shortly after said Mr Gardham was recruited.
Roll on the next Wings Crowdfunder.
Actually reading that litany of bile from Leask et al over the years makes me feel quite anxious. I can only imagine what it feels like to be on the receiving end of it.
Gosh. It’s always a bit questionable when someone such as this is unable to identify any level of personal fault – to be polite.
The behaviour from The Herald staff today reminded me of the shambles when Scotland in Union stepped in a pile of THEIR OWN merde.
“Unfamiliar with Scottish media”
I’ve heard some shite over the years but this one tops it for me.
Gan oan yersel rev.
He seems at tad obsessed by you Stu?
Go, Stu, Go!
What a busy man. Anyone know if he has a job?
Hi Rev Stu.
Congrats on shredding their (the unionist media) ß@ll$.
It would appear that we, the great unwashed, hang on to their every word, from what THEY believe.
It’s coming soon, for a’ thah’…
The most frightening part is he attacks people that he has blocked, is this the definition of open debate. We can only be thankful that he isn’t a judge, ‘thats us heard the case for the prosecution, now the jury must reach its verdict’.
Of course he is a journalist, they don’t really believe in the right of reply.
Pretty soon anyone buying the Herald will also need to buy something like Playboy to hide it in, saves any embarrassment.
The BBC’s propaganda money is certainly encouraging the unionist loonies on failing papers isn’t it?
Remember not to pay the BBC tax as part of it is given to privately owned media groups like Newsquest.
Hey Mr Angry Man… getta grip loser.
Feeling ra quickening like aye?
Mr David, yer leakin’
Ahhhhh ha ha ha!
This has all been highly entertaining, particularly as I blocked Leask a good while ago when I realised he had nothing much to say to me.
You know, this article has shown that many journalists are incredibly bad at interacting with their purchasing public.
Or should that be their ‘former’ purchasing public? Tricky…
(Oh, and hi Mr Leask.):D 😀 😀 😀 😀
There’s something no right with Leasky there. Tsk tsk.
Seriously though – actually saying he’s not sure whether Wee Ginger Dug is pro-independence. I mean what the actual…?
I love this site just away to set up a subscription for wings and the national, money well spent watching the “pro journos” being taking to school.
Some not on twitter will not get this but
Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave
Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave
Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave
Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave Dave
I see that @Historywoman hasn’t blocked him and he actually communicates with her. Explains a lot really.
By the way what did he mean by “Wings and his ilk”? He actually does a very good impression of being a bit of a knob and that’s without even trying. The man clearly has talent.
Hey Stu, do I get any credit for the motivational encouragement line?
It would be a little claim to fame, since I’m too lazy to right anything myself!
Well good to know he is one of your many readers who waits the next post bated breath.
Doh, that should of course be write!
This article alone was worth my years Wings’ “subscription”.
New award…
David Leaskin’.
Yer the absolute fanny of the day and night.
And always bitch.
iScotland aye.
Go quick!
O/T early but I’m getting on a bit and don’t want to waste anymore of my diminishing brain cells on the Herald.
I see Corbyn has rejected the idea of a Norway type deal, he wants to be a rule giver, not taker.
I think even if May brought in a law that anyone on benefits was forbidden to have children, Corbyn could not win an election. To be honest I suspect this suggestion might actually go down well in some areas but I was trying to not be too ghoulish with the example.
He’s supposed to be running a newspaper not spending all day getting angry on twitter! does his boss know?
Keep a cool head Stu, you’ve already been arrested for nothing.
Has the ‘rock’ just outed himself as David Leask?
The guy is a complete nutter and is in denial about everything that is fact.
I stopped visiting the herald/SH websites about 2 years ago. I used to contribute to their comment sections on a daily basis. I’ve never clicked on a link or anything to do with the herald since.
Not once have I missed their blatant bias.
Take some advice folks. ?
“Actually reading that litany of bile from Leask et al over the years makes me feel quite anxious. I can only imagine what it feels like to be on the receiving end of it.”
That’s only a fraction of it…
It never ceases to amaze me the mal-intellect of people claiming to be journalists.
If someone makes what yor perceive an outrageous claim on social media, surely the best way is to engage, probe and let the person trip themselves up. (For all to see).
His anger is an indication that he’s been found out. Of course his friends in the ‘media’ profession will no doubt come to his aid.
And he argues far too hard that wings is a liability to YES. It’s the jewel in the crown and he knows it.
Be ready for some big artillery hits from MSM as SNP conference approaches.
I fail to see what is being achieved here. An article where Leask’s jokes are taken as threats but Campbell’s jokes re mental health are just jokes, is patently ridiculous. Neither party is looking particularly good here, but it is doing nothing to counter the narrative that the fringe of Yes is a rabble up for sending out abuse and bile.
All in, a depressing few days for Scottish politics on the internet
Oh do be quiet double-oh-seven. And leave the keys to the Aston Martin with Moneypenny on the way out. David L… I mean double-oh-thirteen will need them to go to Scotland. Leave the satnav in it, he’ll need it.
I think he is still wincing from the backlash to that picture in the SH, after the Indy march.
Realises he lost nearly all the yes readers. We now can’t trust the paper or the writers. No way back from that epic fail.
Ironic he accuses Wings of being a double agent. When his paper picked a picture which sold a lie. Described a peaceful march as angry exchanges!
Who is working for the unionist side Least? Divide and rule David! Not this time you charlatan.
“Remember that time six months ago when we, um, gave the site over to the National’s editor to write a sales pitch for it?”
The “independence supporting” The National, the younger sister of The Herald and The Sunday Herald, should surely now offer you its front page to counter these libelous comments by David Leask of the Herald Group?
Wow, that’s just epic. I guess this guy Leask has nothing better to do, keep up the good work Stuart I don’t know how you stay sane. What a disgrace and a scourge on intelligent honest journalism really. You don’t have to look far to see that those trying to report honestly about what’s going on around the world are the ones who are defamed.
It’s quite something when someone in the UK media, spends their time attempting to demonise others who are trying to keep things factual, so that we can all make informed decisions. Shameful.
I saw that twitter exchange with those two guys and yes, it’s threatening towards Stuart.
Disgraceful and no excuses. How would Leask feel if he had that kind of language used about and toward him? Not happy or particularly safe I expect, and those tweets are not even false flag, it’s scarily from real folk!
The Quality of the Man is shown by the level of Hate he inspires
-Rev, O My Captain!
(what a fucking day-job to have)
Mmm. … and leave the satnav in it, he’ll need it to find Inchgreen on the Clyde. They can build ships there. Bloody big ones like 3 auxiliaries for the RN. Their south and north slipways in total are 305 meters long each, compared to the 200 odd metres the ships actually need. So there IS room on the Clyde despite his protestations otherwise on April the whatever it was, 18th I think. Smart Alec he ain’t.
O/T
Scottish Labour’s new communications guy accidentally deleted this article from his website.
Aidan Kerr: Scottish Labour’s tax plans will hurt most Scots and their own campaign
February 2, 2016
No political party has been successful in Scotland by asking the vast bulk of the country to pay more taxes. We may as a nation self-identify as a part of Scandinavia that somehow floated away and became attached to a neo-liberal land mass called Britain but the evidence is missing.
Most Scots don’t want to pay more tax. It’s just a fact of life. Those who have campaigned on doorsteps will tell you that. The fetish of enjoying paying more tax is a minority pursuit.
The Scottish Labour ship was already taking in water before this policy announcement today. Their sworn enemies the SNP have destroyed the party’s electoral base with their aforementioned all-encompassing political machine. Today, its captain has turned the ship to the left and now the party is heading straight for a Tory tax torpedo. Labourites should brace for impact.
Today’s tax plans from Scottish Labour has just validated the Scottish Tories’ entire election campaign message. Now Ruth Davidson can say as a matter of fact that she is the only Unionist party leader not proposing that Scots pay a higher rate of tax than their counterparts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Let’s be frank about Scottish Labour’s position in our politics today. They are pitching to the section of the electorate that is not interested in them while actively turning many middle class unionists – their new core voter base – off them. This is an electoral kamikaze campaign with the sole purpose of just trying to dent the SNP’s progressive facade.
If there was one thing that Scottish Labour – an army already suffering mass casualties – did not need was another front. Today they have opened up this new front voluntarily. God help them, as I’m not sure they can help themselves.
link to web.archive.org
It’s pure jealousy that has Leask raging. Simple as that.
Well done Rev
One gets the impression that it’s all coming to a head
The AUOB march has knocked them all arse-over-tit, it would seem
If only the UK Gov wasn’t financing the dead tree scrolls via the BBC,
many may have folded by now
Interesting times indeed
Just because of persons like David Leask…
Let’s go walkies on ra 2nd.
Scotland knows.
Fuck aye!
Leask, a man badly in need of a fucking life.
Or maybe just a man badly in need of a doctor.
He’s not the only one, though. The last indy march has given them the heebees and they are lashing out in all directions. As far as I can tell the AUOB movement doesn’t have a head honcho for them to target, so they comfort themselves with SNPbad (and Stubad) nonsense.
God knows what the next one in Dumfries will occasion them to.
To our friend Ms Mugabe, you are everything they are not.
Lol, genuinely think the man is a weirdo.
“His fan base is hugely problematic online IMO” says the Angry Man.
Setting aside the fact that this is a personal insult to me and all the other Wings posters and readers, you better believe we are hugely problematic to Leask and his ilk online. Not getting everything his own way any more. Rational thinking beings questioning the media narrative. You bet he’s pissed off.
Why is he so obsessed with Stu? I think we all know the answer to that.
For someone claiming to be a journalist he’s not done a particularly good job at getting his facts right.
Mind you, that seems par for the course these days.
And they wonder why I’ve not bought a paper for several decades.
Is Leask a Unionist!
If I walks like a duck! If it quacks like a duck!…..it is a f….n duck.
Front page after the March Mr. Leask!
We’re with you Rev – enough of these ignorant and arrogant sods!
It’s comforting to know we’ve been promoted to an *Ilk* from what we used to be called
Have they stopped calling us the other stuff now?
..jesus christ, did Leask really just say ‘the much missed Magnus Gardham’.
Looking forward to Dumfries on 2nd June.
Busses booked from all over. Let’s show ’em!
“We’ll fight for what is right and the dawning of the day…”
link to youtube.com
Ah lost ma sooth side signal…
And now we’re back.
That’s Scotland.
That’s Glasgow.
Cluthabound.
X.
Everybody keep calm and cool and remind those who don’t read Wings to do the same. This is beginning to look like coordinated action. They want someone to lose the plot and give them something more to attack us with. Calm is good and we will win in the end! We are well on the way. Hope the National restores my faith tomorrow with some sort of support!
Rock at 9.47
Why? What has it got to do with the National?
I’m beginning to enjoy these childish and stupid posts.
Just been leaked, an excerpt from a journos novel:
All work and no play makes wings a bad boy
All work and no play makes wings a bad boy
All work and no play makes wings a bad boy
…
…
…
What must really piss him/them off is that he/they can’t do what the The Rev does here on WoS.
Never ever, anywhere, do you find a BritNat taking a WoS article and forensically taking it apart. Never do they quote specific text and show it to be untrue with supporting links to what is true.
They are good at hissing and spitting, but pathetic when it comes to evidence supported arguments.
As one of his twitter pals might say
“ he’s the pricks prick”
Leask is like the rest of them self centred, self promoting and trying desperately to hang onto a by gone age when people thought they were important.
They are now all like the guys in suits that walk about public places wearing hi-vis vests thinking the vest makes them important and everyone else just thinks “prick!!”
So is Leask a Yes supporter? I find his position somewhat ambiguous. Is he a dedicated Yes voter who finds Wings too feisty or is he playing the classic concern troll card?
Good grief. Can anyone recall any other editor of any other newspaper going full Twitter-rogue as Leask has? Astonishing. And I quite believe Stu who says this isn’t even the half of it. Hasn’t Leask learned yet that fact checking is the sauce to the Wings site? It gives it flavour and bite. It adds depth to the fare.
I think we’re now supposed to “grateful” that the SH had the guts to stand against the tide of unionist papers in Scotland. Well we were dead chuffed when the SH in its previous incarnation took up the standard and waved it aloft. Now apparently the unionists who have been moaning that they feel “shut out” from the SH since it embraced independence are from now on going to get an equal say.
So, the only newspaper left that espouses the independence cause is The National, because the SH isn’t brave enough to tell its unionist moaners “you have a plethora of other unionist titles to choose from, while the Indys only have the National and the SH so stop yer moaning.”
What these media types can’t stand is that there’s a vibrant and thriving alternative Indyverse up and running, and it’s not controlled by media barons or editors who feel the need to have a meltdown on Twitter when the readership asks why they’re paying good money to be insulted and patronised.
Yes, there is abuse on social media. No, it’s not acceptable. But since the SH is keen to give unionists an equal voice, let’s have an even-handed investigation into the abuse on ALL sides. That includes Mr Leask’s mate who has come up with her own choice barbarisms aimed at Indys. Is he proud of her, I wonder? Is he disgusted by what she has said? … *crickets*
If you make your living from a profession that relys on interacting with the public, ALL the public no matter their political views.
Then it’s probably not a good idea to have a twitter account where your only interaction with half of the public you rely on for your income is to block them from communicating with you because you don’t like what they say.
He should block himself from using twitter, damage limitation.
Re;Bill McLean @10.11
Wise words Bill, any kind of insults from WoS people commenting will be used as bait, and ammunition. Let’s not give the Britnats any more ammunition than they already have at their disposal.
Keep it peaceful and above board. Tempting to be outwardly and vocally raging, but it gets us nowhere.
So Leask isnae keen on defamation , we’re no keen on deification of would be comic reporters
He will never be a journalist as long as I’ve got a hole in my arse.
did u ever take this guys dinner money off him?
Meanwhile on twitter someone thanks people for all the goodwill tweets from the trauma of being spattered with blood after having stabbed someone.
Jeez oh, “they don’t like it up em Capt. Mainwaring”. What an absolute tirade from a so called journalist.
The AUOB March has fairly got them a’ upset hasn’t it. I think that they believed a’ their ain bilge aboot no one
wants indy ref2. Well I’ve got news for them, YES we do, and it’s frightened the hell out them. The sheer numbers that turned up as shaken them to their core.
As for the Wee Ginger Dug not being for independence, away and don’t talk pish man. I heard Paul speak on Saturday night in Castle Douglas, and it was a very passionate and heartfelt speech. An educated , articulate and very amusing man. An they Dug wiz braw an awe.
Roll on Dumfries on the 2nd June, I hope to meet many of you there.
Well done to you Rev, how on earth do you keep you sanity wading through this relentless stream of hogwash.
This is all so off the wall I find it difficult to actually process it. The world seems to get that little more unhinged every day in just about every corner of its globey extent.
Sunday Herald saga appearing on Scotland Tonight! Tune in folks let’s see how they spin This!
Ffs we’ve got that Scotland in Yoon guy on Scotland Tonight. The one that can’t pronounce his rrrrs properly.
Forgot to say, as someone on the previous article said, we are winning, and they know it. 🙂
Leaky himself sounds uncannily like Trump in a lot of those outbursts.
Tsk. That 20 year-old photo of Tom Gordon on his profile should’ve rung alarm bells about the veracity of the information in it.
No, Confused as 10:16pm, everyone is NOT thinking that.
I think that post should come down.
Sometimes aye need some time on my own like.
Sometimes aye need sometimes all alone.
Never mind the darkness like…
Fuck you Leask.
Love Scotland.
Axl kens.
Wing.
[…] Wings Over Scotland The Angry Man So it seems our article of earlier today rattled the Herald’s cage but good. […]
Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, if you are a professional communicator and challenge people’s views, then block them from making a response, you’re not behaving professionally. More like a coward, in fact.
Some of the stuff that appears btl here is counter-productive Putin-purblind and other kinds of left-field nonsense, IMO, and (intentionally or otherwise) does the indy movement no favours, but not Stu’s articles, which are well-sourced and justifiably popular.
Which is more than we get from the MSM. All we have ever asked of The Herald and its sister papers is to give both sides of the indy debate a fair outing. Something that is sorely lacking. Independence would have thin fare indeed if it were not for WoS and some other weel-kent pro-indy websites.
Instead we get an outright travesty like last Sunday’s absurd misrepresentation of the march. Leask and Co may bluster away as much as they like after the event, but every single person who was did that walk knows the truth.
Time to man (or woman) up, Herald folks, and just admit a mistake instead of digging your own hole ever deeper.
Well done Peter Bell…’ Will you buy the Sunday Herald again Peter?’……NO!…came the reply.Simon Pia an Indy supporter fighting for the Herald.
Denying the chief reporter thing? It’s like a pathological liar stuck in a loop and unable to stop lying about things that are painfully easy to prove are lies. It just went downhill from there.
What a shambles of a paper.
Has he left any time in his busy tweeting schedule for journalism?
And why am I thinking of the denouement of the courtroom scenes in The Caine Mutiny?
What the Unionist media establishment fail to grasp, is that the more they deny the independence movement and a half of all people in Scotland a voice, the stronger the anger we feel and more we will kick back. When you hear them cry that the Yes movement has shot itself in the foot over the Sunday Herald argument, you can be more than sure that the opposite is true.
3617 Robert.
Where do we go now…
Back of bitch Leask you.
You are a can’t.
Ra Ally Arms, sooth side.
Come talk with me…
With all the changing seasons and reasons of OUR life.
Mibbies ye’ll get better next time PNV’s.
The quickening is comin’
V good.
17’s talkin’
Scotland.
Scotland.
Scotland.
Feelin’ Whispy like…
Mon ra bears.
X.
Simon Pia was a perfect example of the journalist union looking after each others backs on STV. Well done to our own Peter Bell sticking it to him though.
Archbishop of Dork
I’m thinking more of Col. Nathan R. Jessup in the final courtroom scene in ‘A Few Good Men’.
And if yer dyslexic like…
Do number 3671..
Same sum.
Be whispy.
Like.
iScotland is gonna be alright.
I can honestly say that I have never heard of this guy Leask , so I am afraid I will need to give this one a miss.
I just can’t understand why so much time is being wasted on a nobody.
Bad news for the Herald/Sunday Herald after today’s twitter fiesta is that most, I suspect, have moved on from being angry to just mocking/pitying them. They will have lost the respect of a lot of readers over the last week that is unlikely ever to return.
It’s never a good look to have your readers laughing at you. On the plus side for them, I believe one of them has received a lot of support. Looks like SiU may have found a new hero.
God, he really is in meltdown.
Quick somebody give Simon Pia Angela Haggerty’s phone number so’s she can get him a newspaper job alongside her
BTW “journalists” check everything they write says Simon Pia
As I finished rubbing my chin after it bounced off the coffee table, Oh how I didn’t laugh
Crystal balls AND yer eye-balls Scotland…
Ye don’t need to look to see.
This is obvious.
These highly self esteemed and arcane wordsmiths of the msm don’t half provide you with an endless argosy of good sport Stuart.
The guy Neil Cameron is the unacceptable face of Leaskism,and obviously the lunatic fringe of the Leaskists.
His veiled threats are disgraceful,even by an msm employee’s standards.
You only need to breathe like.
Love YOU.
Ah kin see Simon Pia up front & centre at the Dumfries March another ( False Yesser/McKenna/Haggerty , we’re no so simple as Simon thinks .
America is lost in a nightmare of its own making, Scotland is not. Scotland is on a journey, it is imagining its future – its citizens are fact finding and marching for, debating and writing about, singing of their dream country-soon to be a reality.
“you cannot urge national political renewal on the basis of descriptions of fact. You have to describe the country in terms of what you passionately hope it will become, as well as in the terms of what you know it to be now. You have to be loyal to a dream country rather than to the one to which you wake up every morning. Unless such loyalty exists, the ideal has no chance of becoming actual.”
Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America by Richard M. Rorty
Wow, just wow!
This guy is hysterical and dangerously obsessed.
Don’t quite know what is stronger: the smell of bullshit or the smell of panic/desperation.
His incoherent gibberish is definitely not the product of a rational, professional journalist.
Cue Twilight Zone music…
@Dr Jim
BTW “journalists” check everything they write says Simon Pia
If the Sunday Herald had checked what the churnalist wrote below the infamous front page picture the “ugly confrontations marred the event” before printing we wouldn’t be talking about it now.
Well done Peter Bell for taking part, not an easy task and takes some guts.
@Rev
Perhaps you should consider pulling the article out of compassion, or even replacing it with “Article removed out of compassion – please carry on talking about anything you like”.
Maybe a picture of the Titanic all the same. Or one of Inchgreen and a link to a National article:
link to thenational.scot
What an emotional and intellectual debt we owe to Wings Over Scotland.
Consistently brilliant and uplifting.
Rev,
Is there actually a plus side to twitter?
Foreigner rocked GLASGOW.
Last night like.
Ah know U can show me…
Love being SO way aff topic.
Taps aff.
Summer.
Wow. They’re seriously rattled. I wonder if all their trolls are getting paid? Any other Yes group attracting trolls since the March? Mr Leask could do with a spot of counselling. Or Valium.
They’re now trying to goad us Yessers. DO NOT RISE TO THE BAIT! They will use anything and everything to provoke a reaction and then blame us. They detest this page too. Why? Cos it skewers their lies and bullshit. Mr leask has just directed more new readers to our page. So let’s welcome them!
Keep calm and Indy on ?????????
One man or woman’s reality shiw is another’s fake reality.
Hiw dare you pose the truth to them Stu.
It just results in lie after lie.
This is a much better read than any fake news tabloid newspaper.
I’m of the opinion Simon Pia has yet again u-turned and was looking for a face-saving way to extricate himself.How convenient for him then that a golden opportunity presents itself in the shape of ‘I’m backing the Herald….stop attacking pro-indy journos(he knows fine they are no such thing).
Expect an announcement..’It is with profound regret that I find I can no longer support the cause for Ind…..blah blah blah.’
Such a loss(not).
Just watched “All the Presidents Men” on the tele.
One telling piece from “Deep THROAT”
How illegal money was moving around various groups to discredit individuals and the democratic party, the false letters and press releases, the lies and deceipt, the use of ex army to inveigle themselves in order to undermine. Criminal activity
Take a step back we have the MSM, the trolls, BBC/ITV/SKY, Carmichael as SoS for Scotland and Mundell as his sidekick with their infamous behaviours, monies moving between unionist groups, bought journalists. Since the police got caught with undercover work with left wing green groups I am sure we can assume the authorities have already done this with SNP and GREEN Party Branches, Yes campaign groups. The agitators to divert efforts down blind allies.
Yip I am sure they have done it all and still are.
To quote Good Morning Vietnam…
*(to leask)*
“You are in more dire need of a blowjob than any white man in history”.
Pia, Haggarty, McLeish will out themselves as federalists and say vote first re brexit , no indy ref2. They will await the coming of the Brown.
I feel a Vow coming
Can’t see what Alex Salmond and RT had to do with the Yes Campaign speaking out about the way our march was reported ?
Well other than never miss the chance to smear!
Leask is now tweeting that low profile reporters like himself don’t like this kind of attention.
Doesn’t read your stuff and blocks you on the twitter media, yet criticises you with real venom. On what basis ? Hearsay of rumour?
It takes quite a concrete thinker to exhibit such reactions to someone you actively avoid.
The other thing of course is that you earn considerable takings via a fund raiser ( not all used on yourself),
Whilst he earns less. Jealousy is a powerful incitement to hate, especially if the self proclaimed”professional “feels inferior in the relationship.
I always maintain the old maxim is true “Those whom the God’s wish to destroy they first make mad”.
Be the fuck.
Chris Cairns we miss and love you.
Love art.
Leask… yer a wank, you know like.
Et Trevor.
He’s a crazy GTA V fuck like.
What’s yer latest mission Michael?
When I see someone with serious “issues” play out the internal workings of their mind, as catalogued here, I feel like a voyeur, who wound up paddling in unwanted sewage.
We must be the only country in the world treated to this type of deranged tirade from someone trying to sell papers.
Can you imagine their meetings?
“Neil, why are you crying”
“Some yessers have had a go on Twitter about that pic on the front page, the one we spent hours cropping”
“Whit!!! Release the kraken. Let him do his worst on those ungrateful cybernats. Who do they think they are, they should love that pic, and thank us for it”
“Look Neil, that’s a plan, we play victim, we call on the SNP to deal with this shite, and next week, you do a 3 page spread on cybernattery, how nasty it is, and how it upsets us. We sit back, and kerching”
“But, what does this have to do with a political party? It’s folk on Twitter not being nice”
“That’s the beauty, we drag them in, spin it like it’s their “supporters”, we always put them somewhere in the picture, we can say it’s Stewart MacMillan’s fault, he tweeted getting a nazi salute from the Britnats”
“Right folks, altogether, a chorus of ‘We’re in the money'”
There you have it, a sales strategy meeting of The Herald, an Indy supporting newspaper.
Bizarre doesn’t even begin to cover what we are witnessing here.
Rev, you have the mental fortitude of Ghandi. I seriously thank you for your work, and feel sorry that this work makes you the target of so many demented weirdos.
Think he is just really really jealous and frightened of the readership and stats…yes the Herald ‘group’ has online readers, so does the Mail but as others have mentioned the hard copies are dropping year or year and with this type of personal investment that Leask is revealing, they must be so angry and frightened for their future. What future do any of them really have now, especially in Scotland’s current political climate?
Not one of them individually as so called journalists could pull the stats that Stu does on Wings, nor could any one of them crowdfund year on year and retain and increase their online readership as he has done also.
The more people like Leask lose the plot and shout down Wings, the more others who have not read Wings ‘fur fear’ of the big bad indy blog will come to check out Wings for themselves…the more they will see and realise the utter nonsense and propaganda that people like Lieask are promoting by these ridiculous assertions and lies…the more the independence vote will increase.
So well done Leask….you should know as a so called journalist there is no such thing as ‘bad’ publicity’…like Trump you are driving people to those very sites that you are threatened by…out of sheer curiosity, people do like to find out for themselves ‘is this true or not’.
Given all the evidence that Stu has just countered atl and by doing so revealing your silly paranoia and quite frankly disturbing outlook about ‘people complaining about lies the Sunday Herald printed on the 6th May’ and your very insulting manner wrt to Wings and its readership, you have no ground left to stand on.
You’ve made an absolute fool of yourself. Try being a ‘reporter’ of what takes place not an opinion maker, you’re crap at that anyway…as no doubt the Rev’s stats will prove soon enough when he posts this past fortnight’s figures…we await your nth meltdown…with bated breath. 🙂
Robert Peffers dude.
Cool as fuck like.
Mon the City
Like.
Tis almost midnight.
The City knows…
We SO do too.
Glasgow’s.
X.
Hi from Tassie:
Leask is good for a laugh isn’t he!
Does he not realise that the rubbish that is written by the likes of him make determination for Independence all the greater. Wings is not helping the unionists, people like him are helping the pro independence cause all the more!!
Scotland is on the whole a land of INDEPENDENT thinkers who only have to use their own eyes to see the only way for Scotland is being run by SCOTS. All the Anglo Scots should stay down in England where they belong!
We are being drowned over here in Australia with one propaganda program after another on the monarchy! As a matter of principle I do not watch any. I get very sad when I see interviews with people over there making insipid remarks about royal babies and weddings when they should be really frightened as to what is happening around them with the Brexit situation and the very uncertain future for all if Scotland does not break with the union.
The call for Independence if becoming greater because more people are realising that a Scotland choosing it’s own future is the only way!
It looks as if the awful wind rush situation has gone quiet together with the Russian poisoning – probably silenced to some extent by Westminster. Surely to goodness people care that they are having their thoughts controlled by Westminster. Unfortunately for the majority memories are short and people have to keep being reminded of the facts. Like the msm and BBC over there, we get very little news as to what is really happening over there, just what they allow to filter through!
Thank you Stuart for all the work you do. Bilge from the likes of Leask only prove that Wings etc have got the unionists worried. When Independence is achieved I hope it is soon so that all those good people who have supported it for years live to see it.
In admiration for Rev Stuart, Robert Peffers, Nanna, Liz, Tpnr and all the wonderful people who
donate to Wings taking Scotland inch by inch to INDEPENDENCE
WHAS LIKE US!
Hey oor Mary frae Tassie.
Scotland is we can…
See ra light.
Night is young, Dalavich, Scotland, next week like Scotland.
Much for sharing.
Bob Mack @ 11.47
I think you’ve got it there Bob, he probably won’t ever earn annually what the Rev does.
But he forgets that the Rev was …. head hunted…. “sort of” !! into this role.
Primarily because he was good at what he did
No “journalist skool” could make that guy more than just average, and that’s probably why he is so bitter.
Instead of trying to make his name by hitching himself to the Revs Star, mibbi it would be mair in his line, if he just reflected that at least he disnay have any student debt.
And carry on in his mediocrity !
I’ve reread the article as it’s been updated. Paying more attention this time I’m wondering if Mr Leask ever sleeps? He posts at all times of the day and night.
Anyway what really caught my attention was Tweet #7 from Mr Leask about him being “linked with GCHQ”, what’s that doing in a thread about Wings when it’s nothing to do with Wings?
It was written by someone writing for the random public journal website and has absolutely nothing to do with Wings? This behaviour is very strange, if not bizarre and I’m not surprised to read that “low profile reporters like himself don’t like this kind of attention.”
He has brought this unwanted attention entirely on himself. If you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen. We’re baking pies, big big pies and it’s very hot in here.
Our media in Scotland is a National disgrace. Journalists are just British Nationalist propaganda writers.
Like the trolls that write their dross on this site it is best just to ignore them. We do not need their rags and their propaganda. These so called journalists have over inflated egos. They are nowhere near as good as they think they are. They are just doing their masters bidding. They are all hoping for the call down to London (like Torrance) where they hope to be fed a regular supply of dog biscuits and an occasional pat on the head.
Do not give them your money (only exception the National.)
Hey Glasgow, go furrit Glasgow, we’re pure gaun furrit.
Shaheds South Side.
Ask for Ally.
He’s cool.
300,00+
Readers…
Zat’s YOU!
LIKE.
I’m feeling a bit sorry for Mr Leask now, he seems to be taking all this nasty cybernat anger very badly. A wee tune for him, no don’t bother to thank me Mr Leask, you blocked me after one tweet.
You might like this Mr Leask as it’s from Bearsden.
link to youtube.com
I don’t expect the journalists to do anything but back each other up, we have to remember they may be criticising someone who they find is recruiting them in the future. Most of them will not be on large salaries and the media business in Scotland is a small circle. So yes I do understand their circling the wagons, self preservation is a strong instinct.
But they need to accept that if the public don’t buy their product it’s not the public that’s at fault. Lose trust, you lose readers, you lose your job anyway.
Just to confirm what others are saying, I’m someone who started reading Wings after seeing it mentioned negatively again and again but during indyref1 campaign. Undoubtedly this process will still be happening.
Sittin atta busstop, thurs a police van flashin’ thur lights like.
Leask… yer still an arsehole…
Scotland says…
Ahm a wanderer.
@Cactus
But are you:
Going round and round and round and round and round.
A big cheers jfngw.
We are.
Soon…
Fuck ra Tories..
Time is timeless.
X knows.
Walking HOME
@Dr Jim says: 14 May, 2018 at 11:10 pm:
” … BTW “journalists” check everything they write says Simon Pia.”
I wouldn’t know how it came over in the viewing as I don’t watch live TV but isn’t Simon Pia correct and Journalists do check everything the write?
This highlights two points.
The first point is, do they check everything those the criticise have written?
The second point being, that if they have checked what they have written themselves, why do the papers employ sub-editors?
In other words what this numptie wrote was not only what he intended to write but was checked and passed by a sub-editor and thus reflects the views of the paper.
What a heap of nonsense that Pia cove spouted on STV Scotland Tonight – basically “You have to love all us Scottish journalists”.
Garbage!
Thank goodness for Peter Bell.
Spicey chick pea channa rocks.
We know like.
March.
“The Herald is publishing information that isn’t true.”
“Wrong! You’re the one one making mistakes. Look. See! This thing here… You’re claiming that this person works for us – that isn’t true!”
“That’s published on your website.”
“Well… We might have published it, but its actually false! And you’ve told everyone it was true. Therefore it proves you can’t be trusted and people shouldn’t listen to you when you say we publish false information.”
This wouldn’t be half as funny if some folk at the Herald didn’t take themselves so seriously.
Scotland comes first.
1st and always.
Always & first.
Ahn ahm waiting furra bus…
Southbound like.
Yes we journalists do check everything we write to make sure we have actually portrayed the Independence movement in a negative light. We check and double check and everything we wrote we meant.
Doesn’t matter if “ugly confrontations that marred the event” as printed under an inflamatory picture on the front page is an absolute LIE because what counts is what we say. Do you get it? WE are the journalists and the rest of you rabble rousers can shut yer cakehole.
Not quite working out for the journalists as they expected is it? Torrance seems to have got out just in time, who’s next?
Keep yer eyes on the road an yer hauns upon ra wheel..!
Ye gotta roll baby roll…
Its magic! 😉
It’s 17.
@Cactus
A wise sage once said when your ahead get yersel a taxi LOL
There is only one conclusion that stands out as true even if it is not ever hinted at by the Westminster Establishment and their paid for propagandists. That conclusion is that they are very badly rattled by the way things are panning out on more than one front.
Whether they like it or not this
BRUKEXIT fiasco and the highly likely resultant indyref2 that it will engender are, like a Gordian Knot, so intertwined that it will be impossible to unravel and there is no way for Westminster to untangle it.Like the original Gordian Knot it will require some lateral thinking to undo but the only lateral solution, as far as one of the only two partners in the union is concerned, is exactly the same as the solution to the Gordian Knot.
Cut the bloody thing apart as it cannot otherwise be undone. The Westminster Establishment will not, or cannot, willingly accept that solution.
It is, though, going to happen whether they agree to it or
Knot.Ahm always ahead of ra head thepnr…
It’s Tuesday.
iScotland knows.
Cheers for yours…
HOME soon.
Good morning Robert Peffers…
Ahm heading for the V.
GTA style.
3671.
@Thepnr
I’m feeling sorry for him too, complete meltdown. Must be that us “ilk” have soft hearts.
But contrary to what I posted earlier, Rev does have to cover it, as the guy blocked him on Twitter, and then attacks him on a medium he has no access to. There’s a traditional “right of reply” which Leask has totally failed to respect.
Gets to that point inda night where U just don’t give a fuck like…
Aye ain’t angry, never, only ever passionate like.
Love Scotland.
Title makes grievous error. Gets called on it by an upset readership. Journos circle wagons and wind up compounding error. Hole digging 101. When you’re in one, it’s probably best to stop digging.
Now is ra time..
2:17 like.
Soon.
One is HOME.
HOME is one like.
Night.
Morning.
Fuck thy Tories like.
Put a needle on the record…
I suspect that Leask’s ploy has been to embroil the Rev in this argument to deflect attention away from Haggerty’s outing of Mhairi Black’s partner and her subsequent ham-fisted attempts to defend it. Don’t fall for it, Rev.
Great reply Rev, succinct and to the point.
Looks like he might be another great future appointment to the UK Gov’s scottish coms team if ever they to beef it up and add quality……OK, the last part was far fetched.
OT
Can you imagine if our march through Glasgow had left 50 of us dead, some of the dead children, and hundreds of us hospitalised with gunshot wounds?
When Israelis sing like chickens they win Eurovision. When they act like chickens, it’s the Palestinians who pay the price with their lives.
I was never really comfortable with the concept of poor dumb animals. Then along came Donald Trump, Arsehole in Chief, and the epitome of the poorest, dumbest, animal ever to walk the planet.
Congratulations Mr President. You’ve made America grate again.
David Leask is a man obsessed with digging his own grave that he isn’t going to stop until he teaches Australia
Teaches= reaches
Although he now says he supports Independence Simon Pia is as poisonous as ever.
The media are also doing a fine job distracting us from brexit. I don’t have a licence but does anyone know if corbyn was grilled by the Scottish media on his hard brexit stance?
Keep up the good work, Rev.
You are obviously doing something right.
That is one seriously rattled newspaper, and one obsessive, foaming “chief reporter” that appears to have serious issues. He has lost the plot completely and is making a complete fool of himself.
They have been found out big time, and the pain of being impaled on their own stake of lies and deceipt must be excruciating. My heart bleeds. 🙂
Hey Leasky, why don’t you pop along to the Ballgreen Hall in Strathaven tonight, and hear the Wee Ginger Dug talking down Scotland’s road to Indy. I’m sure Paul will let you clap the dug afterwards. 8.30. Be there.
ScottieDog, the Scottish media would never be so bold as to intrude on the drivelings of the Labour Party the Tory Party or the Liberal Party – the Scottish National Party on the other hand get all the rap of the day heaped upon them.
See that Leask , is he having a Twitter nervous breakdown for all to see or what?
And who is that crony of his that threatens our Stu?
Does anyone think that Newsquest might notice the poor performance of the Herald group in Scotland ? Cut its losses and those of its shareholders?
Links
link to snp.org
Time for SNP to be more Radical.
link to barrheadboy.com
link to peterabell.blog
Scotland means business. FM @NicolaSturgeon addresses the City’s business leaders
Wee video here
link to twitter.com
link to scottishhousingnews.com
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Warning, upsetting
link to onekind.scot
Campaigners call for UK to act on rights as Turkish president arrives
link to archive.is
People only access Herald on line to see what shocking lies are on it. It is actually shocking the nonsense that is ‘reported’. Two minutes on line can usually find the true stats. Yet these ‘reporters’ cannot research it? Comes down to complete and utter lies being ‘reported’. Then they wonder why people get annoyed and angry that they collude with a corrupt system.
People are being sanctioned and starved yet £Billions are spent inTrident and dumped on Scotland. People in Scotland have been lied to and cheated for years but this is just ignored. The real facts are just kept hidden by a corrupt Westminster system where Scotland’s resources and rights are mismanaged and misappropriated. No wonder people are annoyed and angry. To see events so misreported. Royals getting £Millions for a wedding while vulnerable people are starved. When the Scottish Gov try to make improvements they are constantly criticised. Maliciously. The Press should hang their head in shame. Colluding in a system from which they try to gain. The right wing non Dom tax evaders. Most of them should be in jail. More corrupt Murdoch revelations.
Brexit: ‘Little progress’ in talks since March, says Barnier
link to archive.is
link to politico.eu
link to rte.ie
In this week’s episode of The Limehouse Podcast, William Porteous talks to anti-Brexit activist Madeleina Kay, also known as EU Super Girl about… Brexit. A really super interview!
link to vip.politicsmeanspolitics.com
link to politicshome.com
EXCLUSIVE: The Health and Safety Executive inspected prisons at the end of 2017 in response to assaults on prison officers continuing to increase.
link to byline.com
Excellent thread
link to twitter.com
Speech by Michel Barnier at the EU Institute for Security Studies conference
link to europa.eu
When The Sunday Herald implied it was pro-indy I laughed and chortled so hard it cleared my nasal passages. When The National was created as a pro-indy paper I nearly wet myself.
Then to my utter disbelief everyone swallowed it, aye that’s right, you lot.
Common Weal, RIC, et al, one after another luvvies came out from under rocks to serve us what we wanted to hear on behalf of the Brits.
Please, for the love of Christ, can you all stop buying that shit, block Haggerty, Leask and every other piece of crap that purports to support an independent Scotland.
You lost in 2014 by a Daily Record rolled up and smacked over yer noses. Next time we could lose due to the shite you brought home and the crap you read.
Stop it now!
Mornin’ Nana
Here’s one to go with your first link.
link to archive.is
Another of those ‘who knew?’ moments.
Are we at the “then they attack you” stage?
Watched STV prog. last night and well done Peter Bell, the Photo in the Sunday Mail was not a random choice it was a cropped image, deliberately made, created to show the supremacy of our Imperial masters. Attempts by Mr Pia to justify and play its significance down were lamentable.
SCHOOLED!
Good morning Macart. Ta, I’ve an appointment to get to so a bit rushed. Think I posted a couple more on re the latest developments or rather ‘lack of developments’ re Brexit. Mhairi Black is right, TM couldn’t deliver a pizza, lol
Norway-Style Brexit ‘Dead’ As Corbyn Attacks EEA Plan Flaws
link to archive.is
MPs are frantically deleting casework emails after being mistakenly advised that new regulations mean they have to clear the data that they hold on constituents.
link to archive.is
link to politico.com
Regarding Israel and Palestine , it seems that peace in that region depends on Israel getting everything it wants , including bits of Syria and the Palestinians and Syrians getting nothing ,including that which is theirs.
Absolutely shocking.
Poor Mr Leask. Got himself in a real stressed out situation.. He has made a real mess of the propaganda he was supposed to be feeding into the media. His cover is blown, his job probably at risk.. He will never make any progress up the ladder of M5.
Mmm…Leask may have unwittingly given too much information with his GCHQ post…did guilt lead to this error…does he have some dark secret…If only we had journalists in Scotland to follow it up.
The Herald site is now a bit like many others. People actually access the site to see how badly it is doing. Groundhog Day. Down the tubes, The Press in meltdown. The internet is now the place where facts can be checked. Unfortunately for the ‘Press’.
I do not know David Leask, I have never knowingly met the guy or been in his company – we may both have been on the Editorial floor at the Herald during one of my very-infrequent visits there – but, he doesn’t half come across as a Fud over all of this.
David – stop digging, you are only making things worse for yourself.
To try to split hairs over who works for the Herald, the Sunday Herald or whatever, that’s pathetic. Online – there is only one Herald, while it is fairly common practice at the top of Renfield Street, for some writers to have their copy used in both titles. Until the generally incompetent (in my opinion) digital staff make it clear, which writer is writing for which title, the public could misidentify the title the writer is writing for.
Absolutely brilliant piece Stu, You’ve really got him rattled, I can actually see the cracks appear as he has a mental breakdown. Its like a scene from The shinning, “here’s Johnny” maybe it should be “Here’s Davie” 🙂
Magnus Gardham, I’d forgotten about him. I’d got the impression he worked for the government long before he actually left Newsquest.
As for Leask’s assertion that Wings and the Dug don’t support indy but common space are alright, unfortunately for him the rest of us can access these sites too and form our own opinion. (Though having just looked at Common Space, it has got better than it used to be.)
Ahhhhh ha ha ha ha ha…
Davie Mundell on 95.8FM there.
“So called 7 years devolution transition settlement”
“Test it to destruction”
Yer the absolute fanny of the morning, ssson.
Morning.
I stopped reading the herald for specially three reasons:
1. Pretending to be all things to all men, but when when it came to the crunch it sides with the union. That union being run by right wing tories seeking to decapitate the Scottish Parliament.
2. For reasons beyond me, it resorts at time, to misrepresentation, misinformation and down right lies when there it would be easier to state the facts and mot leave it’s self open to accusations of lying and fabrication.
3. When ever I have seen or heard a held representative on tv or radio I am left in no doubt as to their support for unionism and distain for independence. The recent march in Glasgow being describe as as a problem rather than triumph. Eeh?
I know where the mail, express and telegraph stand, they make no pretence about it. Whereas the herald misrepresents its stance in the belief it will gain a wider readership. This won”t work people who used to read the herald see straight through it, it”s dishonest.
I know it’s stating the bloody obvious but.
There is no Scottish mainstream media. There is only British mainstream media in Scotland.
Yes I know the National is pro independence but it does come from the same stable as the Herald so I’m still unconvinced that it’s anymore than a marketing ploy.
A Scottish mainstream media can only exist in an independent Scotland. When that happens will Leask et al emigrate?
@Cactus says: 15 May, 2018 at 1:37 am
Good morning Robert Peffers…
Ahm heading for the V.
GTA style.
3671.”
Yeah! Cactus, after you get home and go to bed I offer you this little reminder of the truth being shown in GTA V by Rockstar for your morning viewing.
This is the real thing – Los Santos Skid Row. It is shocking that the game is to very true to life. It is what the Westminster Establishment is turning the United Kingdom into. This is where
BRUKEXIT is headed if Scottish independence doesn’t make itself felt on NO voters.link to youtube.com
The game doesn’t exaggerate one little bit.
Breeks and Dorothy Devine, the massacre of 55 Palestinians and the injuring of well over 1000, including children, is a dark day indeed.
Thanks for the links, Nana.
Unalert readers might have presumed the horrible “stink pit” clip @7.49 was about the Scottish MSM.
Big question for Mr Leask is, will he finally switch off his JCB and manage to climb out of the massive crater he’s dug for himself?
Should be interesting to see who gives him hauners today in the Tweetosphere.
It used to be said that ‘when the spin doctor becomes the story’ they are finished.
Given that the bulk of MSM political ‘journalists’ in Scotland are paid to act as UK Establishment spin doctors, the fact that so many of them have become ‘the story’ recently (mostly of their own doing) reflects the bind they are in.
With support for Scottish independence at unprecedented levels in the real world, their paymasters are demanding the production of bigger and bigger SNPbaaaaad squirrels, and, in a Scotland where we have alternative media, a slow motion car crash like the Sunday Herald is experiencing at the moment is hard to avoid.
Once these ‘journalists’ become the story themselves, their ongoing usefulness to their MSM masters diminishes, and it’s coat-on-shoogly-peg time amid the general cutbacks at Old Media outlets.
The press no longer have the one way street power they once possessed and resent it when their output is examined and found wanting.
As for Mr Leask, I fear that you, Rev Stu, have made him very very jealous. Not by design but simply by being a formidable investigative journalist.
As awizgonny @ 3.33 am wondered, so do I.
Is Mr Leask trying to deflect attention from Ms Angela Haggerty’s nasty outing of Mhairi Black’s partner?
How very dare she!? Surely that is beyond cruel.
I hope and pray that Mhairi’s dear partner can cope now that the worst has happened, albeit in the most despicable way.
Marcia says:
15 May, 2018 at 9:21 am
The press no longer have the one way street power they once possessed and resent it when their output is examined and found wanting.
Well. Maybe instead of greetin about it they should up their game.
Try and become the real professional journalists that they profess to be. 🙂
John Mackay’s programme trying to look at the desperate state the Sunday Herald has now dropped itself into was interesting.
(Saw it at Mum and Dad’s, me not having live TV at home anymore for obvious reasons)
Peter Bell came across well.
He was measured and fair, while clearly simmering with alot more to say, but interestingly left unsaid because it really didn’t need saying.
That picture painted a thousand words.
And The Sunday Herald sent their message out loud and clear!
Simon Pia came across as screechy and empty.
John Mackay, thank you for giving Peter Bell the last word.
James Brown at 9.30
All newspapers are “marketing ploys”. That is how it works. If they don’t sell they fold. Do you actually read the excellent,100% independence supporting and getting better National or are you just another infiltrator like “Bill” (or is it “dick”) at 7.52.
There’s getting to be quite team of you. We’ll call you “Rock’s Jocks.”
@Dr Jim says: 14 May, 2018 at 11:10 pm:
“…. BTW “journalists” check everything they write says Simon Pia.”
More proof if needed that the SH front page was a conscious decision to antagonise Indy supporting readers.
“And if you ever think we’ve defamed you, you know our lawyer’s number.”
And that, quite literally, is the bottom line.
Well Mr Leask?
i’ve read through this Leask character tweeter malarkey twice now. Strikes me as pretty classic tactical stuff:
1. come over all buffton-tuffton-like giving it pseudo-legalese so as to puff up your sense of self-importance.
2. This is also a statement about his class, so that it is clear the minions understand that he is above us.
3. talk about the opposition in a way that rubbishes it, doesn’t call it by its proper name thingy so that it is clear it is beneath your station in life to actually engage with suchlike as you are really too much an important and very busy person to actually talk about this
4. He strikes me as falling foul of that Orson Welles syndrome in Citizen Kane. (There’s none so blind as them that can see…
5. his last twittery sums his deluded position up (sorry if this is a bit of a repeat of point number one) – the resort to pseudo-legalese. Who ever comes away with patter like – ‘misrepresentation (6 syllables!) and false allegations of professional conduct’ – false – thats only ever legal – allegations – now that is into the completely rubbishy territory of ‘refuting’ and ‘redoubling of efforts’ what ‘profession is that? they’re only )*&^)&)&^ hacks FFS no more than (can’t remember the slimeball’s name – tory who ended up in jail – cain and abel)
Anyway, loved the rev’s response – you know our lawyer’s number, or in other words – ‘come ahead McQuillan, yer tea’s oot!’
I see that the great copy for hire journalist McKenna (claims to support independence but some of his pieces are not so convincing) has waded in with a ‘You haven’t got a clue what’s happening here’ put down, I think he believes he is Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (‘You can’t handle the truth’).
I wonder how many more journalists have put their name down to help dig the hole, where”s Bernard Cribbins when you need him.
Yippeeee!!!!!
I used to be a cybernat but now I’m an ilk!
awizgonnay @ 3.33 & Ghillie @ 9.28
You may by right, and he is escalating his behaviour to distract from that nasty outing of Mhairi’s partner !
But the Rev was sayin that this obsession has been going on for a while.
Which made me think that, mibbi he wants to be known as the nemesis of Wings, the go to guy to be putting the other point of view.
If he can pull that off , he can then ride the Revs coat tails to a position, like that Curtis the poll guy did with britsplanning the polls!
Potentially creating a yin & yang double act,that you wouldn’t get one without the other (I know but the MSM does this)
They all know how important Wings will be during Indy ref 2, I mean let’s face it (and no harm to Peter A Bell who did really good last night) but it really should have been the Rev who had the right of reply last night.
He was more “all up in the argument “ than any other Media because of the Twitter thing.
Either that or he really is having some kind of break?
@Liz g
I think the ambition is bigger than just Wings, discrediting the whole Yes movement looks to be the aim and some are trying to get up a head of steam. They know the arguments used last time won’t wash so it’s time to play the independence faction are despicable.
Yes supporters need to be careful and not be goaded into making rash attacks, they will be jumped upon. As long as we are only rebutting their accusations then we are probably safe, but even then a bit of creative editing can still distort an exchange.
This protectionism and closing of ranks by the MSM now is really illuminating. The whole ‘well if you call yourself a media commentator, you would know…’
It indicates that you have to be in their little group of ‘in the know’ people to be privy to the different hats they wear each day. The triumph and glee in making this pathetic point really shows where their priorities lie. Of course, the Rev is financially independent of them and doesn’t need their succour to exist, hence the rage at the lack of control they have over what he says.
On another note, catching up with Peter Bell who did so well last night, calm and stuck to the point with just the right amount of dig about Leask’s Trumpism obsession. Imagine if we were allowed that type of rebuttal every night?
It’s been a good few days for it being revealed to the ordinary people the attitude of our media ‘giants’, you are there to swallow whatever crap they throw at you and not answer back. They actually look down on you as ignorant plebs. Whereas I now just see them as The Frogs Chorus.
Love the way Haggerty is desperately trying to make it about LBGT when it’s about privacy. Her victim wasn’t, as far as I know, outed as being gay. That’s a total irrelevancy. She was outed as in a relationship with an MP. Subsequently leaving Twitter. The effect that’ll have on her work for a breast cancer charity might be major if her role is fund raising.
The more I watch this Brexit sham, the more I am convinced that the Tories are just letting time drift by. It’s like a partner who’s asked for a divorce, but is too lazy to actually leave the house. They are waiting on someone doing it for them.
It’s why I think the EU will just have to push the UK out. They will work out it’s the only way to move on.
There is no plan other than wanting to hold onto Scotland and amalgamate the UK into one country. The continuity bill will bring matters to a head in Scotland. I suspect that outcome will be the catalyst for the indi-ref 2 date to be named.
As I missed the programme with Peter Bell doing such a good job last night, can some bright young (or old!) tech type possibly supply a link for it?
Ta 🙂
A wee useless/useful nugget of info about GTA V – it is now the highest grossing entertainment product of all time. Rockstar North of Edinburgh, we salute you.
The irony of reading the twitter exchanges between Leask and Whoughtland on the Wings web site.
Thoughtland blocked me but I genuinely don’t know. I thought I was asking sensible questions.
Wings blocked me becasue I once called him a twat (very bad misdemanour, obviously).
Leask has never blocked me but probably becasue I have been ignoring him. I expect he has a sectret wish that twitter would allow you to block folks who ignore you.
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money!”
Samuel Johnson.
Not that different from a prostitute really!
Thank god for the Rev, WOS and Scotland’s pro-indy websites. Leask and his clubby classmates are history. Boycott all britnat media.
What a wonderful day finding out I’m an ilk. I’m so proud. Love your demolition of the Leask tweets.
OT
Anyone know the time of the LCM debate in Holyrood today?
Thanks in advance…..
Tired of all this now. It is abundantly clear what the Herald and Sunday Herald are about now. Just do not buy them. Buy the national instead. or iScot. Or both.
Anyway, this nonsense from a supposedly senior ‘journalist’ is nothing short of childish. It really is.
A so-called senior journalist just will not get taken seriously when behaving in that way. Frankly infantile.
A better man would rise above all this, and start talking to people in the indy movement, like an adult, instead of just denouncing those who do not see the whole world as he sees it.
As Harold Macmillan reportedly said, ‘jaw jaw is better than war war’.
Twitter, man. Oh boy. A waste of good bandwidth.
@ Liz g :
Debate starts 2pm, vote at 5pm (ish).
the lady doth protest too much methinks…..and slightly creepy to have someone stalk so much
Every time they tell untruths on their font page for everyone to see, it advertises to the public to pass it by, this rag prints fibs.
Even if its just your parents/grandparents tell them to vote YES this time.
As the UK government makes its intention to dismantle the devolution settlement clear, a chief reporter at the Herald busies himself by apparently spending most of the time complaining that he has been insulted. Hence demonstrating that a journalists ego is more important than Scotland’s future.
Looking forward to a new subject, I think I’ve had my fill of journalists and their egos.
Think it was Chirchill. said, ‘jaw jaw is better than war war’.
jfngw says:
Looking forward to a new subject, I think I’ve had my fill of journalists and their egos.
============
agreed, today they are the news, i intend to make an effort to ignore them so completely that tomorrow they will be history
What’s bordering on mental though is that STV news was roped in to investigate the meaning behind a section of society choosing not to read a newspaper anymore (Sunday Herald)
Who ever heard of such a thing as being news in the first place that people had to be asked about their newspaper preferences and why they might choose not to read a particular one
They never asked about the Daily Mail or the Express or the Telegraph or any of the others which tells me how desperate the Sunday Herald must be to drag in the Telly media to help them out
Are STV news now going to ask NO voters why they don’t read the National for maybe a wee bit of balance perchance
I guess I’ll probably expire haudin ma breath long before that happens
And they do it all with a straight face
I see the BBC London correspondent for Scotland has given us her words of wisdom.
The power grab doesn’t matter, the people don’t care (perhaps because they have not been properly told)
Nicola Sturgeon is a trouble maker who likes nothing more than a fight with Westminster (straight from the Tory phrase book this one).
The UK parliament can do want it wants, it’s done it before, no big deal.
i never followed leadky on twitter cos i thought his profile pic made him look weird 🙂
As the price of Brent crude pushes towards $80 a barrel, BBC Scotland reminds use of that classic from The Tremeloes, Silence Is Golden.
Whereas when it was below $30 a barrel their preferred song was Shout It From The Rooftops.
Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the laugh.
The Rev FTW ! Brilliant stuff yet again 🙂
‘Constitutional crisis’. Who knew?
link to archive.is
Apparently the press are playing catch up. (shrugs)
I demand an investigation as to why Muslims don’t read the Daily Mail
C’mon STV do a program on that
Irish journalists made a report on Scotlands media both print and TV and concluded that the standard of journalism in Scotland was a disgrace to any country and went on to say they couldn’t understand a media that denigrated its own country
In other big national news worrying the population of R-nation *man isn’t going to his daughters wedding* I for one will be having a sleepless night over that, nail biting stuff eh
It’s no wonder Britains media is rated at 42 in the world
and they have the outright cheek to criticise other countries (it’ll be the foreign accents that make them dodgy)
I call that’having one’s arse felt’!
Political journos don’t like it up ’em when someone calls them out for what they are – having a title and a salary fools them into thinking they’ve got a proper job to go with their proper qualifications and god forbid those who should challenge their ‘professional’ standing.
In reality, the MSM in Scotland are merely the ‘useful idiots’ of the British Establishment. Always have been – always will be.
@Dr Jim
It’s easy if you don’t believe Scotland is really a country but just a region of England. Just take the latest report from the BBC as an example, the Scottish parliament is effectively irrelevant in their eyes.
Dr Jim, think its more newsworthy that the Groons faither has not been invited 🙂
O/T
BRENT CRUDE : $79.06 per barrel.
– just in time for the next AUOB march
link to bbc.co.uk
– and (rumour) Police Scotland are outsourcing crowd control to the IDF whose briefing papers refer to the saltire as “celtic swastikas”
– watched “28 weeks later” the other night – now comes across as an elitist fantasy about what to do with “zombies” (the general public)
jfngw
the worst ones for treating us like a region of outer england are our ‘fellow’ scots reporters..
you only have to read Sarah Smith’s bbc website article about the upcoming debate at Holyrood to be told that the people of Scotland are really not bothered about the uK gov forcing Brexit on us and taking away our decision making powers.
‘The Scottish gov insist this is a really important moment but has it cut through to the public…” well of course not, you numpty, if no-one in the scottish media is reporting it them how do you expect the average person to know about it?
“…But this prime minister has ignored the will of the Scottish Parliament before. This time last year it voted in favour of a second indyref and the PM said no. There was no noticeable uprising of popular outrage then. And there is unlikely to be so now…”
link to bbc.co.uk
Reading the article leaves a dirty taste in the mouth – she’s trying to be impartial , ha ha . but is really taking the uK give side. Shame on you Sarah.
Good letter in the National from Sam Grodynski anent that Sunday Herald front page. Must be quite frosty in the lavvies!
Dr Jim at 1248
Quote “Irish journalists made a report on Scotlands media both print and TV and concluded that the standard of journalism in Scotland was a disgrace to any country and went on to say they couldn’t understand a media that denigrated its own country” My bolding.
And that is the point isn’t it. It is what deep down really, really irks people in Scotland, that no matter what happens, good or bad, it MUST NEVER be presented in the Scottish media as good. Why? simple, the last thing they want is an SNP Government looking good. Our great new bridge is baaaad, baby boxes are baaad, rising oil price is baaad (or ignored), falling oil price is baaad, scotland’s railways are baaad and so on.
As a consequence, the Scottish Government could find enough gold for every man woman and child in Scotland to become a millionaire overnight, and the Scottish media would still present it as truly awful news, with devastating consequences, and how it proves that the SNP are just frankly appalling, ‘sturgeon should resign’ etc.. etc..etc…
The overall message from Scotland’s media is simply this; ‘Scotland is sh*te, England (especially London) is lovely, and don’t you ever, ever forget it, oh and why can you jocks not just be more ‘british’ like the rest of us.
It is a colonial, inferior mindset, hardwired in the ‘Scottish’ media.
What an absolute fool this Leask is.
So called journalist and having a set to with Stu and other pro-Indy sites and individuals.
Get on with your day job if you have one or are you paid just to counter the Indy movement on social internet sites.
I suspect the latter as being part of the establishment campaign against Indy.
We have them worried.
Pop eats itself? 🙂
@Meg merilees at 1.13pm
Yes just read the article. Sarah Smith another paid Establishment stooge.
Here’s an extract from the article.
“How much does it matter if the Scottish Parliament votes to reject the EU Withdrawal bill?
The Scottish government insists this is a highly significant moment, as it will be the first time the Holyrood parliament has ever refused consent to a piece of Westminster legislation that encroaches on policy areas devolved to Scotland.
It will certainly be a constitutional first – but one that’s pretty easily overcome by Westminster. The UK government have the authority to simply impose the Brexit legislation on Scotland. Even if that is politically problematic.”
Oh sure and the Scottish people are going to sit back and accept this.
I should have ended my last post with the sentence.
“I don’t think so.”
1:25pm
It is a colonial, inferior mindset, hardwired in the ‘Scottish’ media.
It’s a colonial, inferior mindset, hardwired into Scotland.
The likes of Leask will have their treachery and mendacity recorded in posterius thanks to the internet. The folk that are steppin up. Dem go fly.
I want to know what Denise van Outen thinks about it all. Nay, I DEMAND to know.
@thingy says: 15 May, 2018 at 11:05 am:
“A wee useless/useful nugget of info about GTA V – it is now the highest grossing entertainment product of all time. Rockstar North of Edinburgh, we salute you.”
Actually I believe the GTA genre of games started out with “Acme”, in Dundee and that became DMA Design. Then DMA Design was bought out by Rockstar North.
And here I quote from Rockstar North’s own website:-
This is where being an old guy with a very good memory comes in useful.
While May et al huddle discussing madcap customs ‘solutions’ which will never fly, in the real world, events in Ireland hot up.
I notice this morning elsewhere May’s alleged comment about believing Unionist could lose a reunification vote. If she did say it, she clearly doesn’t understand the trigger mechanism for such a vote.
So now the inevitable has begun to unfold. If the UK does not stay in full customs union plus possibly also the single market and therefore solve the border crisis, then a reunification vote will become highly likely.
link to belfasttelegraph.co.uk
And today, closer to home, May’s Brexit Bill will be denied consent. She can just proceed and ignore this, but again if Brexit is lining up to be hard, ScotRef will also become inevitable. A hard Brexit PLUS rewriting/cannibalising of devolution makes that essential.
I wonder if Sarah Smith ever considers if her old man was “bumped-orf”?
– strange how he popped it AFTER losing weight, becoming a health nut.
Smith would certainly have been PM and whatever he was – and he was a committed Atlanticist and Neo-Liberal – he was not a crook.
Once in charge and getting a look at “the books” of what -exactly- the CITY had been up to – the orgy of larceny and fraud would have to stop … which is unacceptable.
“NOT being a crook” – is what gets you killed these days.
If Smith had been PM, it is highly possible the Banking Crash of 2008 would not have happened, or would have been vastly reduced in its magnitude.
And its hard to see how he would then try to fix any problems by a double whammy of – AUSTERITY for the peasants and BLANK CHEQUES for bankers.
“An honest man’s the noblest work of God” – but much too virtuous to survive very long in this world.
Maybe, being a Smith and asking certain questions is never done.
When John-John the handsome NY socialite and Kennedy member died in his little airplane it was a tragic accident – then rumours appeared after that he had been “considering a political career” and had even “uncovered new evidence” in the murder of his grand-dad. Ouch!
Sarah’s got a nice little slot for herself, why spoil it.
I would like to be a fly on the wall when the princes, William and Harry get together on their own one night, over a bottle of Cragganmore – “Bruv, we’ve got to talk about our MUM”
@ Baldeagle58
link to player.stv.tv
At around 8 minutes in, you will have sign up to STV i-player though…
The BRITISH media based in Scotland…What a SHOWER! What an absolute SHOWER!
@Liz g says: 15 May, 2018 at 11:36 am:
“OT
Anyone know the time of the LCM debate in Holyrood today?
Thanks in advance…..”
No, Liz G but the afternoon session at Holyrood starts right now.
I’ll be back later. toodleoo … (Err! Perpahs not that phrase), be back later.
‘False negative i earlier tweet’
My gawd. I…I can’t quite…did he really do that? That’s magnificent.
That was a quick bebacksoon:-
The debate starts at 14:20.
Scottish Parliament TV.
DEBATING CHAMBER.
At 14:20 hours:
Debate:European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
link to tinyurl.com
No more accessing Herald website to see how it can be so awful. It is a joke. Once people were deleted and banned. Now people would not access it with a barge pole.
Sarah Smith. Union all the way. The Labour Mafia. Wicked. The McCrone Report. Iraq, Dunblane, Lockerbie kept hidden for 100 years, under the Official Secrets Act.
There are several posters btl on the Herald website who are pretty obviously Herald Journos.
‘Richard Richardson’ is surely one Tom Gordon in my opinion.
He posted a multi point glowing report of how amazing the Herald journos are the other day, pure boak inducing stuff.
Conan the Librarian says:
15 May, 2018 at 1:56 pm
@ Baldeagle58
link to player.stv.tv
At around 8 minutes in, you will have sign up to STV i-player though…
Thank you Conan!
Relevant to todays debate at Holyrood
link to caltonjock.com
Sarah Smith the typical anti-Scot, continually talking down Scotland its government and its people any chance she gets.
Robert @1:54
I knew Dundee was rattling about in the back of my napper for some reason. While I was typing I couldn’t help thinking about R* North moving into the fancy premises the hootie staff were vacating for their second-hand porta-cabins, so I apologise for the lack of provenance. 😉
The UK shows its might and power by flying Apache helicopters around our sunny Scottish shores today, and I mention Scottish sunny shores because Apache helicopters aren’t worth shit if the wind is blowing or it’s raining heavily because they weren’t designed for that
Try it in actual Scottish weather when they couldnae fly or even zero in on a rabbit
Still they have to show that’s how they think modern wars and battles will be faught for the folk who don’t know that a lap top in the right hands drops their wee choppers out of the sky
Dinosaur helicopters might be a better description, the Afgans were knocking them down with 50 year old Laws rockets and a tin tube from the back of a horse
Not sure if a precedent where Holyrood has to actively refuse consent is the way to go. It does risk interpreting silence as agreement and the idea that Westminster doesn’t have to ask.
That said, the constitutional can of worms is that until the Brexit Bill is enacted the parts of it dealing with the Scotland Act still apply. Which means that regardless of the ability to act on constitutional issues the First Minister still has the power to recommend that Royal Assent is withheld.
In other words not a Veto but unless she wants to set the stage for an independent Scotland to declare itself a republic a wise monarch would take heed. She should also pay attention to her Coronation Oath and the part where she says where she will reign according to the laws of each of her realms. According to the founding principle of the the Declaration of Arbroath she’s replaceable.
Comes to it, Sturgeon is the Keeper of the Great Seal without which no law can be signed into force in Scotland.
Both of those “vetos” would be in Mundell’s sticky mitts if devolution hadn’t happened. Perhaps they aren’t due to a wee bit of foresight on those who created the Scotland Act. Just imagine if he had those powers at the moment. There’d be no need to go to the Supreme Court. He’d just declare as Keeper of the Seal that he’d not allow it’s use. Which brings up the salient point that asking her nibs not to sign off on Scottish legislation would be a bit redundant which in turn raises the possibility that the advice could even go as far as withholding Consent from even non-devolved legislation in the rUK should it impact on Scotland.
Other indications are that Westminster know damn well that they are in the wrong. They’re trying to rewrite things as not them taking powers away from Holyrood but as being, forcibly, borrowed for up to seven years.
Westminster’s leaked petition to the Supreme Court makes sorry reading as it pleads to commercial uncertainty rather than the law. Something that might be easily resolved if they simply conceded that they were not getting the powers and would have to deal with Holyrood as an equal.
Meg Merilees @1.13pm
I wrote about her at the time of the 2014 referendum. Her mother worked for MI5/6 for goodness sake and her father, the late John Smith was Tony Blair’s mentor
link to caltonjock.com
Ruth Davidson in the Debating Chamber looking like her coat’s on a shoogly peg. Is Tomkinson the new Tory branch leader?
Further to what Boris said, I wouldn’t get too dewy-eyed about John Smith. He was far too close to that BLiS______d cesspit, Monklands, which gave us Helen Liddell, bag carrier for Robert Maxwell and Dr John Reid, sometime Union jack bearer to the Celtic board (duties shared with Brian Wilson).
Dr Jim says:
15 May, 2018 at 12:48 pm
Very interesting. Got a link for that Dr Jim?
The likes of the scottish media are worth forgetting. They have no concept of dichotomies, they parrot their English masters. They are not a real media. They are not even craoladh. They should be ignored
[…] link to wingsoverscotland.com […]
When you work in the bubble that is the Scottish Press-Politico alliance, you lose touch with ordinary people; ordinary voters. You’re above all those types. You know best and those lower types should just shut up and listen to your gospel because, well because you’re a ‘professional’. But a professional what? Spin merchant? Liar?
Leask’s bubble just got burst.
The People aren’t the problem as Leask and his ‘ilk’ seem to think but they sure as hell will (very soon) be a big part of the solution.
Is the monstering of Nicola Sturgeon by the BBC, as was done to Alex Salmond, ramping up. That’s two reports today I’ve seen of the BBC reporting that she wants a fight with Westminster and there would be an agreement regarding the power grab if it was not for her.
The BBC’s role seems to be to persuade Scots the power grab is nothing really, hardly worth mentioning, did Scots really vote for this in 1997. After all Brexit is the will of the people and must be adhered to, devolution although the will of the people is irrelevant as it was only Scots. Of course you will be consulted and your wishes will have the same priority as your EU referendum choice.
O/T
‘Growth Commission’ report to be published in a few weeks spelling out currency options for indy Scotland.
Dr Craig Dalzell:
link to twitter.com
@ Tinto, the Monklands Midden which Smith milked assiduously when it suited him.
Tories looking totally unreasonable and isolated, constantly attacking “SNP intransigence” on a deal, despite libdems and labour ALSO being against one.
Its a tory highlight reel of HQ rhetoric.
Labour amendment is clearly a trap so that they can have a say in shafting the SG later.
Why else would labour want a bigger say after what they did in Wales when IN CHARGE of the agenda ???
It seems the press box at Holyrood is nearly empty for the EU withdrawal debate.
Can only be either:
They already have the agenda agreed.
Or they are all busy on twitter telling each other what great reporters they are and what a wonderful job they do covering Scotland, no time for Holyrood.
Hmmm. Constitutional debate of enormous significance taking place in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. But live coverage…?
BBC Parliament – House of Commons
BBC Radio Scotland FM – Usual culture show
BBC Radio Scotland AM – same as FM
Attitude of Scottish branch of UK state broadcaster best summed up as:
“Move along! Nothing to see here.”
Or am I missing something?
“It seems the press box at Holyrood is nearly empty for the EU withdrawal debate.”
And they wonder why Scots apparently don;t care about the Continuity Bill? Because they DON’T KNOW about it. Because the psuedo-journalists in Scotland AREN’T REPORTING it to them.
Where’s Leask when you really need him, eh?
jfngw says:
15 May, 2018 at 4:20 pm
It seems the press box at Holyrood is nearly empty for the EU withdrawal debate.
Two possible explanations IMO:
1. A grey squirrel was seen in Princes Street Gardens.
2. The local lodge are handing out free drinks.
Take yer pick. 🙂
@David P
I’ve been watching it from a link posted earlier to the live debate by Jack Murphy. Vote expected very soon. Link below.
link to tinyurl.com
Tinto Chiel at 2.57
With you entirely there, Tinto. Nice guy,clever, ambitious self seeker and entirely absent as we fought to save the steel industry in Lanarkshire. (Tom Clarke,on the other was at our side all the time). Suggested to me that Smith had high ambitions and didn’t want to be associated with a failing campaign. He was an Argyll man (mid Argyll area) and like that other socialist paragon Brian Wilson went to Dunoon Grammar School. Kept up practising as a QC in the Edinburgh courts despite his election to represent Monklands East. His burial on Iona alongside ancient Scottish kings was either offensive or comical (or both). It was certainly inappropriate.
He tragically died before we knew if he could actually achieve anything.
By all accounts he was a convivial and personable guy.
Just watched some of the debate on Scottish Parliament TV. I gave up. I just can’t listen to what BritNats have to say any more, especially ‘Scottish’ Tories. Everything they all utter is laced with protection-of-their-Union at all costs. Everything else is secondary to their bloody Union.
While Lab and LibDems look like doing the right thing today, we all know they won’t hold the course of putting Scotland and their voters first. What will they do when May just ignores Scotland’s will? Bugger all, I predict with some confidence.
As of now
Leask’s info on The Herald/Sunday Herald page
(See banner heading)
Oh, look.
It says he is chief reporter.
It doesn’t say he is only chief reporter of one of them.
And the other one has its own chief reporter.
link to archive.is
Off all people I would not have thought Alex Neil would have missed the chance to make Murdo and the Queen’s 11+2 reserves look stupid but he did miss it.
Murdo was claiming, quite wrongly, that the country of Wales, which was for 423 years an integral part of the Kingdom of England before the Treaty of Union that formed the two partner United Kingdom in 1706/7 was signed.
Scotland is thus different as a full, and equally sovereign kingdom, within the two partner United Kingdom. Thus Wales holds a quite different relationship within the United Kingdom. Wales is an integral part of the Kingdom of England but the Kingdom of Scotland is a full, and equally sovereign partner.
Thus Wales position within the United Kingdom is as a long established dominion country of the Kingdom of England for 423 years before the Treaty that formed the United Kingdom had even been signed.
Until the elected to government members of the SNP understand, and insist that the United Kingdom is, as its title correctly describes it, the only partner to the three country Kingdom of England in THE UNITED KINGDOM, we are losing the battle to end the United Kingdom.
Scotland, the country, is not leaving the quadratic, “United Country of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, for such a country has never existed in history.
The Kingdom of Scotland, being the only other kingdom that signed the Treaty of Union is a fully equally sovereign kingdom along with only the Kingdom of England in, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland”.
Thus the Status Quo Ante when the Kingdom of Scotland leaves is not an rUnited Kingdom – it is plainly – The three country Kingdom of England and the United Kingdom will have ended on the day the Kingdom of Scotland leaves the Kingdom of England.
The plain and unvarnished truth is that Westminster has perpetrated the biggest ever confidence trick in the history of confidence tricks in convincing the World that what is legally a United Kingdom is really a united country even while it still, to this day, calls itself The United Kingdom.
Game on!
@ Dave McEwan Hill: didn’t know Tom Clarke was so supportive at that terrible time so good on him. Smith probably knew it was a doomed venture since the decision had already been made by the heartless Tories. He did seem the kind of guy you could have a few drinks and a chat with but that whole Iona burial thing was completely OTT.
Mind you, when compared to mumbling, stumbling ninnies like Neil Findlay, whom I had the misfortune to hear “speaking” in our parliament today, he did seem almost regal.
Mike Russell Motion to refuse Consent to EU withdrawal Bill –
Agreed – 93 No 30
@Robert Louis says:
15 May, 2018 at 1:25 pm
Dr Jim at 1248
Quote “Irish journalists made an investigation
Bit like the SMSM aren’t we, here?
What investigation?
Let’s have a proper precis of what it said.
Or at least let’s have a link/reference to where we can see it. This last is so important it makes me wonder if you maybe just made it up or are at least misrepresenting it – if it exists.
Let’s not be like the guys who get criticised every day here. If you have info give it properly, with source so we can know it’s true – or at least can go and look and judge for ourselves.
Brexit Bill duly rejected, what with the Lords knocking stuff on the head too Davies and Lidington have their work cut out to bring this all back on track. That said they could have solved the issue with Holyrood at a stroke of a pen but chose not to.
You do sometimes wonder if they are deliberately making Brexit a pig’s ear so as for the whole process to collapse as all too difficult or for it to be a glorious crash and burn hard Brexit.
Was it just me or did I perceive a distinct discomforture re Ruth the ……She seemed somewhat dishevelled on her seat (physical…not electoral)…oh I get it…she’s goin for the ” HEY…I’M PREGGERS…..PLEEZ DONT SHOUT AT ME… MIGHT HURT BABY”……..viewers can expect loads more of this ‘baby’ pish in the future.
As Robert says…GAME ON !!
Kay Burley on Sky News..
“Just heard that in the last few moments, the Scottish parliament has passed a motion stating it does not consent to EU withdrawal Bill by 93 votes to 30, so the PM didn’t think she had enough thorns in her side, (slaps hands together like saying “boom”) theres another one rightthere, lets see what happens”
@Proud Cybernat says: 15 May, 2018 at 4:36 pm:
” … Where’s Leask when you really need him, eh?”
Where did you get that daft idea, Proud Cybernat?
No one needs Leask – not even Leask himself – it’s just that, unlike everyone else he doesn’t have a choice.
OT
But I only just came across this story re Norway and the EU – and its implications for Northconnect.
February
link to archive.is
March
link to archive.is
@stu mac
Irish TV news about 4 weeks ago and that’s as polite an answer as you’re going to get from me when you pose a question in that manner
Or you could google the Irish newspapers you’ll find a lot of information about what they think of Brits
What is happening in the press is a big squirrel that was been told to run in the open ground to distract us from the vote today.
Well if you were a no voter, you will now be a YES voter
I have worked with Leask. He’s always been a nasty little sod. Editing his copy was a chore no one should ever have to suffer. He has not an iota of journalistic ability.
From his Twitter Account:
Re confusion about SH staff: David Leask is chief reporter of our sister paper, The Herald, though does contribute to the paper occasionally. Tom Gordon, did write for the SH, but is now with the Herald. Magnus Gardham has never written for the SH, but did work for the Herald.
The BBC are reporting as a Motion was passed rather than refusal to a Legislative Consent.
The Scottish Conservatives twitter says:
“The Welsh Government have compromised, the UK Government have compromised – the only ones that haven’t are the Scottish Government.”
Correction. The Welsh Government have capitulated. The UK Government have dictated. The Scottish Government have stood firm.
Holyrood has stood up against Westminster’s bullying, and rightly so.
Things are heating up, and rightly so.
@RP
“Where did you get that daft idea, Proud Cybernat?”
Clearly my sarcasm doesn’t carry too well with the typed word.
O/T:
Anyone else see this item?
Council Misses 15-year roads cash deadline?
A cash-strapped council is to repay £168,000 to a developer after failing to spend the money in 15 years.
Springfield Properties paid the cash to Moray Council in 2003 to help improve transport links in Elgin.
However, councillors voted in 2016 to scrap the plan and then failed to come up with an alternative before a 15-year deadline to use the cash kicked in.
the council said it was, “Regrettable”, and must now repay the money , WITH INTEREST, before 20 August.
Yes, you guessed it – it is a Tory/independent council.
@mike cassidy
Meant to say after watching it yesterday but never got around to it is that the link to the female comedian of her speech given to the Washington political correspondents dinner a couple of weeks ago was excellent. I found my jaw dropping once or twice lol.
Don’t know how she got away with it, very brave as much displeasure was on show in the audience among those watching. She didn’t care and good for her.
link to youtube.com
@Proud Cybernat says: 15 May, 2018 at 5:52 pm:
” … Clearly my sarcasm doesn’t carry too well with the typed word.”
Aye! Funny that, PC, but neither does my lounge in my cheek show up well.
@mike cassidy
At least I thought it was you that posted the link and the memory is not what it used to be 🙂 Can’t find the actual post now so no offence to you or the original poster if I’ve buggered up.
I’d just read your Norway energy links and that link popped in my head.
Since it seems anyone can make unsubstantiated claims at the H/SH.
I am Chief Reporter!
Sheesh! I see predictive text is back on again. Evert time there is a Windows 10 update the damned thing turns back on again.
Re the lack of journalists in the press box at the Scottish Parliament EU debate, maybe someone on Twitter could ask Sarah Smith why there was no press there?
Was it a lack of interest by the press? Or a lack of caring about what is going on in the Scottish government? You know, just like the general public she was criticising the other day?
Or was it just the Unoinist press deliberately, as usual, trying to keep the Scots uninformed.
If the Tory cabinet went out for an Italian meal they would spend an hour arguing whether to have Lamb Madras or King Prawn Chow Mein.
Soon, they are going to have to accept it’s pizza or pasta, or they can leave with no meal.
Bill 5.40
But my point is that their page STILL doesn’t say that.
The page for The Herald/Sunday Herald describes him as “chief reporter”
Anybody looking at that page at this moment in time would be entitled to say he is a chief reporter for the combined entity.
In other words, Leask’s complaint about job-description inaccuracy was a pile of dung when he made it – and STILL IS.
Thepnr
It was me who provided the link to Michelle Wolf.
The context was the criticism she came in for afterwards
link to archive.is
‘Journalism and Truth’ seemed an appropriate topic for the Stu v Leask thread.
What an Independent Scotland inside the EU is missing out on:
BREXIT
HOME»BREAKING NEWS»BUSINESS
Thomson Reuters to move its Multilateral Trading Facility to Dublin following Brexit.
Thomson Reuters is set to move its FX Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) to Dublin from London following Britain’s exit from the EU next year.
The company has opted to transfer its $300 billion-a-day foreign exchange trading facility to Dublin over Amsterdam – where most of its rivals have located.
Thomson Reuters has applied to the Central Bank to move its foreign exchange MTF to Dublin so that it can continue to sell into the EU’s single market.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/–843070.html
@mike cassidy
@thepnr
OMG. That Michelle Woolfe speech is something else! When she dissed that woman sitting next to her..I thought she was going to get up and lamp her! Hilarious.
I’m in Kentucky at the moment and will defo be sending that to a few friends here. (One or two I will not be mentioning it to tho, well it is Kentucky)
@ David P and anybody else re LIVE coverage of Scot. Parly business….
“Hmmm. Constitutional debate of enormous significance taking place in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. But live coverage…?
BBC Parliament – House of Commons
BBC Radio Scotland FM – Usual culture show
BBC Radio Scotland AM – same as FM
Attitude of Scottish branch of UK state broadcaster best summed up as:
“Move along! Nothing to see here.”
Or am I missing something?”
————————
YES you are missing something..!
Live coverage, day in – day out from your very own Scottish Parliament TV (when in session of course). You can also watch the stored videos if you can’t watch live
http://www.scottishparliament.tv
AND from Truely Scottish TV – see drop-down link in the menu above for choosing the Debating Chamber and all Committee rooms.
link to trulyscottishtv.com
`Capita` share price is a tenth of what it was 3 years ago,
`Capita` are where most of the Civil Service jobs went to
when Thatcher told the electorate that she was going to cut the CS,(730,000 then,now about 399,000)
the CS jobs/workload did not disappear they went to private companies (friend/donor to political parties).
Instead of professional Civil Servants leading the various Government Departments they are now lead by `Non-executives`
Non-executives are individuals that used to or still work for or own large businesses,
`Non-executive board members
There are now over 80 non-executive board members across 20 central government
departments (16 ministerial departments plus HMRC and Territorial Offices)`
The `Lead Non-executive` (in charge of this non elected group of policy makers) is Sir Ian Cheshire,
Sir Ian Cheshire worked with Ernest Saunders during the hostile Guinness takeover of Distillers,
Ernest Saunders got 5 years in prison,
Guinness got Distillers,
Sir Ian Cheshire controls all UK policy on behalf of Big Business.
@Meindevon
Haha yes and she kept it going with a big smile on her face all the way through that really wound them up. nearly peed my breeks 🙂
Westminster British nationalists have left themselves with only one option regarding Scotland: enforcing the complete political subjugation of Scotland. In this they will fail.
The so-called united kingdom is truly finished.
Kinda shit that that even had to happen (made me cringe) hope the guy seeks a diagnosis. Totally played out the English and their sympathisers with the all about me through autism, narcissism and sociopath.
Re David’s last Tweet shown here.
For a journalist you’d think he could spell better.
Anger and revenge have got the better of him, or maybe he has been told by his masters in London to sort out these Wing chaps? Either way, he comes across as a bairny greeting faced child, not a professional in the media (which he is not)
@Robert Peffers
“Game on”
Pretty much Robert. Let’s see how much Westminster values/honours the devolution settlement and the Sewel convention. Let’s also see how much the UK establishment value and honour the their partner in the bestest union in the history of unions.
TBF we know the answer to that already, but this time it’s going to be loud and public with the world’s media looking on. 😉
I’m guessing Leask’s twitter is going virus as they say! Spotted this:
link to twitter.com
“2. I’ve had one story in the Sunday Herald this year, a collaboration with Al Jazeera on global corruption.”
Cast our minds back what, 20 years? Al Jazeera despised by the British establishment as a propaganda channel wasn’t it, or am I mistaken? Some Saudi opposition hence UK shunning it?
If I’m right, then Leask, the Evening Times Sports Editor, and his biddies at the Monday Herald are complaining about Salmond with RT, and complaining about Sputnik which has an ex-Herald reporter (or some such job title) as its chief broadcaster (or some such job title).
Hypocrisy, much.
I asid “Leask, the Evening Times Sports Editor”
Sorry, so sorry, mea culpa maxima culpa, naughty me, should have his job title right.
It’s “Leask, the Evening Times Indoor Sports Editor”
@Haggishunter says: 15 May, 2018 at 7:14 pm:
” … Either way, he comes across as a bairny greeting faced child, not a professional in the media (which he is not)”
Oh! I dunno about that, Haggishunter, It is said that prostitution is the World’s oldest profession.
Probably journalists reporting the rise of prostitution are the second oldest profession and there does seem to be a certain similarity in doing things for money when the money is much more important than what the professor of those two professions are selling.
Face it, we do not need journalists to tell us what is going on in the World – we just need honest reporters.
Then again we do not need columnists to spin the news as most of us, theses days, are well enough educated to understand what the reporters report. Even if we were not there is enough social media commenters to explain things and the reader can soon read the different views and draw conclusions.
So the real trouble for such as Leask is that no one trusts him to be truthful and more people every day have found his opinions somewhat wanting. It’s a bit like the advice often posted by Wingers, if you don’t like what known commenters have to say just scroll on by and that is what is eating Leask, he is losing his readership to social media and he hasn’t mastered the art of social media.
Dan Huil says:
Two things have always puzzled me about the Tory line that Brexit must be hard.
1) big business will be badly hit, and when did the Tories do anything to offend them?
2) between Scotland and NI their actions are putting their Union at risk, and that Union is so important to their whole ideology.
So, what are they playing at!? They are pissing off everyone!
One obvious explanation is their sense of superiority, entitlement, self belief is such that they are in total denial about the consequences of their behaviour. Ireland will unify and Scotland will chose Indy. The EU won’t cave in to accept their madcap schemes. They are so blinkered they don’t see it.
Maybe they think they their UK is so wonderful, and will become even more so, that no one would consider leaving. And that they are invincible, so can face up any challenges should anyone try.
Another equally obvious is it’s all a charade and they need excuses to go soft.
Or, the charade is that they want to crash out and are manoeuvring to set up scapegoats!
They are certainly playing a high stakes game.
I am the real David Leask and I claim the right not to be me whenever I’m asked, and I also claim the right not to be defamed by people telling the truth about me when I’m not being me, and will block all people who are clearly not me when I am clearly being me, the real David Leask of Leaskyness.com.twittery@me and have never in my life worked for any publication with the word Herald in it, sometimes a lot
David Leask! the man has no dignity whatsoever.
@ Tinto, Neil Findlay, lord Fauldhoose in waiting!
Seen there’s a concerted effort to repeat the lie that Parliament/Westminster is sovereign/superior. Rather not a lie just not true if you say it in Scotland and we’ve got case law to prove it.
The UK “Supreme Court” has yet to sit in any court in Scotland. They’ve authority is definitely questioned as far as Scotland’s legal establishment is concerned. They studiously avoided making any attempt at a judgement on where Sovereignty lies in Scotland.
To make it clear it comes from the people and is held in trust by our elected representatives and arguably by our Head of State. It’s not theirs it’s ours.
Shite DM article – what you would expect – bad picture of Nicola in pose making your look demagogic
link to dailymail.co.uk
– BUT, comments are OPEN and … “The comments below have not been moderated.”
– open season, my vile cybernats – get your sock puppet account registered and find your inner autism … they are all on there tonight, the colonel blimps, the bufton tuftons, the little englanders, the big englanders, the golf club bores, the empire loyalists, the RatBoys and the Tracies …
Do the Herald group staff do guest appearances for other publications in the group where they sit at a different monitor for the day?
Or maybe they get to log-in with the honorary Chief password if Leasky is on Twitter duty?
(- bad form, following up my own post, but)
your -> “her”
– and if you scroll down the bottom, the sick irony looms large as there is a video of Theresa May having a singalong with a bunch of cri … differently-abled competitors for the Invictus Games.
She seems to be laughing manically like some evil banshee, presumably because she’s thinking –
“I’ve just TAKEN all your BENEFITS away .. !”
(and given them to my City pals)
Neil Findlay, lord Fauldhoose in waiting!”
We’ll be long gone before then, Fred, dinnae fash.
@orri 8.17: yes, the Supreme Court was a typically Blairite grandiose push-yer-luck scheme which was not opposed at the time by the Scots Law fraternity *resists temptation to speculate* but is really just another mantrap for the notion of English sovereignty trumping the Scots variety.
All those boring old documents like the Declaration of Arbroath which some folk think are just old, historical irrelevances still have teeth today and are the foundations of our notion of Scots sovereignty.
In all seriousness Leask’s friends and colleagues should take him to one side, firmly shut his laptop or mobile, shove some drink in his hand, and tell him to chill out.
He really is making an ass of himself, and it’s embarassing to watch.
@yesindyref2
I agree – beyond even amusing and now a bit worrying.
Theresa May has pledged to publish a white paper setting out “precise explanations” on key aspects of Britain’s Brexit vision before the June EU summit.
My prediction? It will be a load of magical thinking which the EU will immediately reject as such.
G’day Wingers. Bruce from Australia here. Some bloke called David Leask has just appeared out of a hole in my garden. Says he’s been digging the hole since Sunday of last week.
O/T
Take the lesson from Cymru, Scotland.
Our National Assembly voted today to give itself less devolved powers after agreeing to the Westminster Brexit “power-grab” Bill, with Labour, “Welsh” Conservative and UKIP AMs joining forces to support the Welsh Government’s position.
“Tonight we’ll see a Labour government vote with the Tories and UKIP to support Westminster’s EU Withdrawal Bill,” said Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.
Plaid AM Adam Price said: “We are joining a very select club of national Parliaments, if we pass this motion today, that have voluntarily decided to cede their own authority.”
If only we had someone with as much backbone and savviness to combat Westminster as you have in Mike Russell et al ….
Read, weep and learn, Scotland.
Yours, on a sad day for Scotland’s little brother.
link to www2.partyof.wales
“Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what George Orwell called the ‘official truth’. They simply cipher and transmit lies. It really grieves me that so many of my fellow journalists can be so manipulated that they become really what the French describe as ‘functionaires’, functionaries, not journalists. Many journalists become very defensive when you suggest to them that they are anything but impartial and objective. The problem with those words ‘impartiality’ and ‘objectivity’ is that they have lost their dictionary meaning. They’ve been taken over… [they] now mean the establishment point of view… Journalists don’t sit down and think, ‘I’m now going to speak for the establishment.’ Of course not. But they internalise a whole set of assumptions, and one of the most potent assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity.”
? John Pilger
Stu mac at 513pm,
I have no idea what you are moaning about. Seriously.
The usual suspects who attack me, with hindsight, come to the same views as I express with foresight:
Dave McEwan Hill (18th May 2014 – “The kill count”):
“Did or did not Carmichael say that a NO vote would kill off independence?”
Rock (18th May 2014 – “The kill count”):
“Dave McEwan Hill, is what Carmichael said “NEWS” worth reporting?
Are we not all complaining that the media led by the BBC is reporting the No campaign’s propaganda, word by word, as fact without any objective analysis?
IF the Sunday Herald is really in favour of independence, it must completely ignore such nonsense. Or clearly and prominently state that Carmichael is talking nonsense. Did it do that?
I don’t have any problem with the Sunday Herald reporting news WORTH REPORTING from either side.
I never bought the Sunday Herald and have no intention of doing so.”
So TMay is to produce a Brexit White Paper … NOW!
Could someone not have talked a leave out of the SNP’s book and produced a White Paper BEFORE EURef outlining what a leave vote might mean?
Hardly coincidence that TMay promises a Brexit White Paper within hours of being torpedoed below the water line at Holyrood!
Welsh Sion @ 8.59 pm
A desperately worrying and sad day for Wales indeed as their own Labour party sells Wales down the river.
Keep us informed on developments.
Because the MSM certainly WON’T be highlighting the insidious and creeping erosion of Wales’ powers on her own affairs.
Hard to beat the mealy mouthed report by Sarah Smith on the BBC Scotland online page on today’s vote in the Scottish Parliament. Made even worse by the painfully pedestrian writing style and the very obvious attempt to portray it as a matter of little significance.
If all our enemies were as useless we’d be OK.
The English,,,don’t ya just luv em’???
They take all the effort out of decision making for us and they do it all for us instead.
That is what being a good neighbour is all about, right???
@Tinto Chiel says: 15 May, 2018 at 8:33 pm:
! … All those boring old documents like the Declaration of Arbroath which some folk think are just old, historical irrelevances still have teeth today and are the foundations of our notion of Scots sovereignty.”
Indeed so, Tino Chiel, but how does that square with the Englander’s recent celebrations of their, “Magna Carta Libertatum”, of 1215 they claim to be the basis of English Law but which has damn all to do with Scotland or Scots law?
How do they square that with the recent Westminster Establishments use of exclusive to England’s King Henry law used at Westminster?
Yet the terms of the still extant Treaty of Union of 1706/7 and the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 is just old unimportant bits of history?
What of the existing Hansard record that proves the Last parliament of England sat and put itself into permanent recess on the last day of April 1707 while the old Scottish Parliament was NOT in recess but prorogued and reconvened with the current Scottish Parliament.
Here, though, is something that is relevant and could cause Westminster the biggest shock it has ever suffered. As there old parliament went into permanent recess in April 1707 and there has never been an elected parliament of either the country or the kingdom of England ever since then if Scotland declares that the union is over what remains is NOT either the parliament of England nor is it the parliament of the United Kingdom – who will be legally in charge of the Kingdom of England’s three countries then?
Who’s that idiot McIver?
Well look at that, I stand corrected. This is the most bizarre article I’ve yet read on Wings.
The Herald Group has collectively lost it.
Ghillie @ 10:12 pm.
Happy to keep you up to speed and to translate articles of interest from Cymraeg into English where necessary.
But, y’know, you can also help yourself/yourselves by joining Plaid Cymru, too. Did I ever tell you I’m a Member of *both* Plaid Cymru and the SNP?
Best wishes.
Dave McEwan Hill says @10.19pm
Hard to beat the mealy mouthed report by Sarah Smith on the BBC Scotland online page on today’s vote in the Scottish Parliament.
This lady was fully aware of bullying and sexual harassment of female staff members of the Labour Party controlled BBC news & current affairs team in Scotland and failed to speakout against it. She is incapable of impartiality where the BBC and the SNP are concerned.
After many years of abuse it fell to Zoe MacDonald, a BBC camerawoman and daughter of the late nationalist politician Margo MacDonald, to finally expose, John Boothman, Head of News and Current Affairs at BBC Scotland, after she recorded him being abusive about her and her mother.
An internal staff survey confirmed there was widespread unhappiness in BBC Scotland’s newsroom about management decision-making, while a health and safety survey commissioned by the National Union of Journalists found very high levels of stress in the department.
The BBC survey also revealed that only 19% of news and current affairs staff believed bullying complaints against their managers would have a “positive outcome”.
Only 20% felt bullying would be fairly dealt with and under 16% had confidence in Boothman’s decision-making.
Paul Holleran, the national organiser for the NUJ in Scotland, said there would be “palpable relief” in the newsrooms after the announcement and said the union believed that industrial relations at BBC Scotland could be “turned around very quickly” after Boothman’s transfer.
“The NUJ welcomes the transfer of John Boothman out of his current role, he has overseen a period of damage to the health and morale of many of our members which we believe has affected the quality of news delivery during his tenure,” Holleran said.
“We have seen industrial action including strikes and work to rules; stress levels have gone through the roof as highlighted in union and BBC surveys and mainly because of his management style there has been a complete breakdown in industrial relations at times.”
Boothman offered MacDonald a “fulsome” apology last week, more than a month after he lost the grievance hearing, after the NUJ and broadcast union Bectu told management of growing discontent amongst BBC Scotland journalists and camera crews.
The crisis culminated in a tense meeting between the NUJ and BBC management, where the NUJ warned that unless Boothman was moved, the union would ballot BBC Scotland journalists on taking industrial action.
They were surprised that the Head of BBC Scotland, MacQuarrie had not acted earlier.
Staff sources say there had been a series of conflicts and grievances involving Boothman and journalists.
Senior staff at BBC Scotland feared the controversy has potentially significant political implications for the corporation after it came under intense criticism last year from nationalists for alleged bias against Scottish Independence.
Boothman is married to a former Scottish Labour MSP and minister, Susan Deacon, fuelling nationalist claims of bias by the BBC.
link to theguardian.com
link to caltonjock.com
Purloined 10.21 and shared on Yes F/B pages Mr Peffers Thanks .
Andy McKeever was political adviser to the Tories at Holyrood he now works elsewhere but is always asked for his opinion which is always the same, Tories are pretty bad but best to go along with everything they say
Tonight he admits the Tories don’t want devolution and indicates this will lead to dictatorship from London but the SNP aren’t being genuine he says about returning the disputed powers to the EU *WHERE IN FACT AS MEMBERS WE WOULD GET A SAY IN WHAT HAPPENS WHEREAS IN THE UK WE GET NONE
So the lines are clearly drawn on this, England will impose their will on Scotland but as the young lady very concisely stated the responsibility for this under reporting of the situation squarely rests on the shoulders of Scotlands media about how the population of Scotland understands the depth of this problem now, and if they don’t it’s the media s fault
If the media on behalf of Scotland continue to not report the ramifications of this then they’re abundantly clear bias against Scotland having a parliament at all will be apparent and blatant and all of us will have to take back what is ours
I was just looking through his titter, he’s actually quite interesting that maciver guy, a bit cross-politics and perhaps cross with politics at times.
yesindyref2 Cum oan noo you didnae expect tonights offerings from STV to be all praise the SNP & Holyrood parliament on today’s proceedings McIvor is just tonights mooth piece for the Unionists ( they switch them aboot U know ) last night wiz Simon Pia .
@Dr Jim / Ronnie
Yes, he does have that persuasive “I’m being open and genuine about this trust me buy the car your eyes are getting heavy sleep sleep vote Tory” way of talking. I just rewatched it 🙂
Right, where’s nearest Tory to vote for?
Slap slap, phew, that was close, almost had a nightmare.
That Shona Craven was excellent by the way, might make more effort to read her articles in The National.
Massive amount of bile pouring in from England now Mail Online and the FMs twitter is thick with it
All the usual stuff about crushing Scotland killing us all and showing us who the superior people are, and of course our FM gets the usual descriptive filthy comments and names thrown at her
If the apathetic don’t know non voters in Scotland paid a bit of attention to this stuff they’d be climbing over themselves to vote YES to Independence if they saw for themselves what the population of England really wants to happen and thinks of us
Time for Scotlands slaves to be slaves no longer
Tomorrow’s National:
“Tomorrow’s front page … Scotland says no to Westminster power grab – plus, exclusive: Mike Russell writes for us and warns that the Tories are set to provoke constitutional crisis.”
link to twitter.com
@Welsh Sion says: 15 May, 2018 at 10:47 pm:
” … But, y’know, you can also help yourself/yourselves by joining Plaid Cymru, too. Did I ever tell you I’m a Member of *both* Plaid Cymru and the SNP?
Best wishes.”
Och! Welsh Sion, Dinna fash! You need not worry overmuch. I tried to post this already but it decided to just vanish.
As I posted there has never been a single member of a Parliament of either the kingdom or the country of England elected since April 1707. Westminster is the Parliament of the United Kingdom and not the legal parliament of England.
So, when the only equally sovereign kingdom in the union with England – (the Kingdom of Scotland is the only other kingdom with signatures on the Treaty Document), declares that Scotland is ending the union – the Status Quo Ante is a return of both equally sovereign kingdoms to being independent kingdoms the situation is in Wales & N.I’s favour.
So here is how it legally stands. No one has been elected as either a member of a country or a Kingdom of England parliament since April 1707. So the MPs from Scotland can return to Scotland to form an upper chamber of an elected as such Parliament of Scotland. The MPs from Wales also have a Welsh Assembly/parliament and are elected so can form a Welsh parliament upper house as can the elected to office N.I members, (even Sein Fein elected members), but there isn’t an elected as such Parliament of either the Kingdom or the country of England for the former MPs elected from England to join.
In fact, legally the Welsh Parliament/Assembly and the N.I. Assembly will be parts of the old Parliament of the United Kingdom but would they be prepared to invite the Englanders as upper house members of their respective parliaments?
Notice how the media has started painting the picture of it’s all Nicola Sturgeons doing as if no one else actually voted for this or somehow the FM hypnotised the entire Labour party the Liberal Democrats and the Greens to obey her will
They must find one focal point to demonise and just like Alex Salmond the FM has to take the hit for other people
I’ll give it less than a month before the Labour lot find a way to say they were duped in order to save their Westminster skins, but good on the Lib Dems for a change eh
Looking to the future. Assuming the Tory Government withold permission for another referendum will the SNP government resign and call an election seeking a mandate for independence from the Scottish electorate?
It will be interesting to see if Labour have the bottle to see this through. Will they still be the party that they claim championed devolution, or will they now become a party that supported the role back of devolution. I don’t have high hopes, but I’ll wait and see.
This bill will not trigger an indyref, as others have said it is too easy for the Tories to then give way and negate the reason. What do you do then, call another one later, that is too risky and plays into the Tory narrative.
The indyref announcement needs to wait until the Brexit negotiations are seen to be futile, this is only a few months away anyway. So a bit of short term patience may be required.
We can’t let the Tories control the date of events regarding independence.
Agree, and fair dues (for now, at least) to Lab and Libs on voting with the Scots government. Let’s see how this unfolds, and whilst you could realistically see Labour moving away to an ‘abstain’ bench. I think the Lib Dems and Greens will continue to back the Scots govt with the Bill. Lib Dems did reasonably well in the English elections on the back of a remain/anti-UK government Brexit message ; so whilst they’ll never back an Indyref2 I do think they’ll stick the length with the Greens, SNP and the Libs.
The likes of Leasky and the cranks who say that we are cranks/paranoid about media bias, have been shown up today and we’ve been proven right indeed.
The SNP alone didn’t pass this motion and for once, Lab didn’t sit on their arse too – every single political party in the Scots parli rejected the power grab from the UK tories yet all they’ll write about is SNP bad.
Sit ticht! It’s an interesting few weeks – Brexit crunch talks coming up in June ; SNP growth commission to release information regarding a currency ; then we’ll go in to the autumn and deal or nae deal along with SNP’s response to if, no, yeah, go regarding Indyref2.
Testing.
Today will be the final day that the HoL discusses the Withdrawal Bill as it has it’s third reading. Then all their amendments will go back to the HoC either to be agreed or thrown out.
There are a great deal of ammendments and most will definitely be thrown out. Keep an eye on these three however as they are going to prove tricky to get rid of for the Tories to get this Bill passed.
Debate turned to a change (amendment 95) removing the 29 March 2019 exit date from the bill. Those in favour said it is unnecessary for the government to fix the date and it should not be specified in case it is necessary to have an extension.
Members discussed a change (amendment 1) to keep the UK in the customs union. Those backing it were concerned that leaving the customs union would mean a fall in UK exports and argued it would be difficult for the UK on its own to make trade agreements with super powers.
Debate turned to a change (amendment 11) to protect rights in EU retained law after Brexit. Some members were concerned that ministers would be able to change some rights, for example consumer, employment and environmental protections, and said this change would ‘bubble wrap’ and safeguard them.
The amendment on the exit date I think will be passed in the HoC, why ignore an oppertunity to kick the can further down the road.
The amendment on the Customs Union will be ignored for now. Too much at stake.
The amendment on Citizens rights could go either way.
Just my opinion so don’t go betting money on any of it.
Link:
link to parliament.uk
Re Slab voting wth SNP in Holyrood today, this from Ian Smart’s twitter:
‘Apparently the leadership think there are no votes in being on the same side as the Tories and the Supreme Court will sort it out anyway. It’s a view. Although the Supreme Court will undoubtedly sort it out.’
Seems they (Slab) are maybe (hoping) expecting the SC to judge in WM’s favour?
@TJenny
I think the key word there is “apparently”, I also think that the leadership won’t be sharing much with Ian Smart.
One thing’s for sure and that is nothing is certain 🙂
Thepnr – oh, and I thought he was ‘in the know’, as it were.
Maybe he just comes over that way
Mike Russell gave a great speech today at Holyrood. It’s just that Theresa May and Fluffy Mundell seem more in the mood for ‘taking back control’ than sharing any of it. And that applies both to the EU and the devolved administrations. There’s a petty stubbornness about this May Government. They don’t do very much but they certainly like to be bossy and uncooperative.
They’re not going to give Scotland anything, not if they can help it. They’re going to show the SNP who’s boss. Or they are going to try. We in Scotland will just have to stop them.
The Battle is drawing near.
As I had mentioned previously, I post here a lot less than I had used to. I have also not kept up to date with politics as much as I had used to. In that way, I don’t offer any special perspective and I’m like most people on the street.
I have given some thought to this argument of the Westminster government where they are taking all the powers from Europe after Brexit then handing them back to the devolved parliaments in order to keep the integrity of the UK single market.
This notion of a UK single market gives the impression of a number of independent countries operating under different rules and regulations.
The UK is not a number of independent countries. It is a union of countries who share the same parliamentary democracy but have devolved administrations with a certain amount of powers. These devolved administrations have limited economic powers. Some of the countries have different legal and education systems.
The different legal and economic powers that in particular, the Scottish parliament has, gives them little scope to change or modify rules and legislation compared to the other parts of the UK. An example of this is minimum pricing but even with that, the disparity isn’t worthwhile. for example that somebody could order on-line a crate of booze from over the border.
Given how integrated the UK market already is, even with those limited powers to change rules and regulations, there is no way that the Scottish parliament could change them change them significantly in relation to the rest of the UK because market forces would kick in and it would simply be the case for individual Scots and Scottish companies to order goods and services from the rest of the UK.
This is just a simple dissection of this UK single market argument. Just a bit more digging into it will show the absurdity of it. If someone with limited political knowledge as myself can see this, then surely anybody else with half a brain can see so as well.
There was a TV comedy in the Eighties called Yes Minster which involved a fictional Westminster Civil Service in what one of the characters of the show Sir Humphrey thrived.
This Sir Humphrey ducked and dived and used every trick in the book to get what he wanted. This included a lot of fancy words that sounded impressive but had no meaning whatsoever. In fact, it was just BS in order to confuse and allow him to bluff what he wanted through to those who didn’t want to look stupid by those fancy words. With this UK internal market nonsense, it sounds like the character of Sir Humphrey isn’t as fictional as it would seem.
of course the Supreme Court will rule in Westminster’s favour. That is what the Supreme Court is for.
I have repeatedly stressed that Indyref2 will look like Catalonia, not like 2014. AUOB showed the grassroots have the bottle for it. I am more hopeful now that the leadership have too.
Word is that Pete Wishart is getting his loins girded!
Links
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
link to barrheadboy.com
Letter from Molly Scott Cato to Lord Hall
link to mollymep.org.uk
link to theorkneynews.scot
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to itisintruthnotforglory.wordpress.com
Tory MSP Liam Kerr accidentally backs motion attacking his own party
link to archive.is
Pdf below shows the allocation of BBC funding to private news companies to tell Tory porkies
Do not pay the tv licence fee.
link to downloads.bbc.co.uk
link to evolvepolitics.com
link to catalannews.com
TOPPING THE SNOOPERS
Stopping the snoopers charter might be in sight
link to byline.com
Brexit: EEA myths
link to eureferendum.com
VIDEO THREAD – The Electoral Commission at the DCMS today – More astonishing revelations – was the LeaveEU overspend £250,000?
link to twitter.com
link to rte.ie
Facebook closed 583m fake accounts in first three months of 2018
link to archive.is
Exclusive – Jumping ship: Brexit-hit EU staff ditch UK passports
link to archive.is
link to politics.co.uk
Theresa May’s Brexit plans are ‘undeliverable’ warns former head of UK civil service
link to archive.is
One of Theresa’s bestest buddies
link to twitter.com
US blocks call for independent Gaza inquiry at UN: diplomats
link to archive.is
Tánaiste summons Israeli ambassador over Gaza deaths
link to rte.ie
link to middleeastmonitor.com
Won’t archive
link to washingtonpost.com
It’s increasingly obvious that the Tories haven’t thought through their strategy with regards to Brexit and devolution. They’ve waded into a fight they can’t win.
link to twitter.com
Leavers are preparing their Brexit betrayal narrative
link to ft.com
‘Irrational, unreasonable and illegal’ Race row lands Scottish Labour in court after candidate’s selection claims
link to archive.is
Farage helping us on the road to independence.
‘Bogwash speaks’
link to twitter.com
This should worry people – it is a long way short of “seamless” or “frictionless” trade.
link to twitter.com
Makes a mockery of ‘the vow’ made to Scottish people before 2014 referendum. Either you take the Scottish Parliament and people seriously or you don’t. When push comes to shove, the Tories will do exactly what they like, just like always
link to twitter.com
It’s not good enough for the UK Government to say it doesn’t know whether British guns were used to kill unarmed protesters in #Gaza – it should find out.
link to twitter.com
In light of yesterday’s horrific violence in Gaza, in which more than 50 Palestinians were killed and more than 2000 wounded by Israeli snipers, it’s important to understand the desperate situation out of which these protests have arisen.
link to twitter.com
Orri says:
15 May, 2018 at 8:17 pm
Seen there’s a concerted effort to repeat the lie that Parliament/Westminster is sovereign/superior. Rather not a lie just not true if you say it in Scotland and we’ve got case law to prove it.
The UK “Supreme Court” has yet to sit in any court in Scotland. They’ve authority is definitely questioned as far as Scotland’s legal establishment is concerned. They studiously avoided making any attempt at a judgement on where Sovereignty lies in Scotland….
I agree 100% Orri, but I also recognise a potential difficulty in securing International recognition for that Sovereignty if it is compromised by a majority of Scots wanting to remain in the Union.
I believe Scottish Sovereignty would establish its legitimacy, but there is also potential to see it’s emancipation mired in controversy and dispute, and to a degree we’d find ourselves in limbo, with one Constitutional issue after another heading for the Courts.
So Yes, absolutely, Sovereignty is the Ace of Trumps we have up our sleeves, but played at the correct moment, it will win the war, not just a battle.
It is our Get out
JailUnion Free card, but a supporting democratic majority, (while not technically necessary, and very much inferior to sovereignty), is worth the effort and a degree of sacrifice to secure, because it unequivocally pulls the rug out from anybody trying to dispute the sovereign will of the Scottish people.To coin the phrase, give them nothing, but take from them everything.
link to news.gov.scot
link to irishtimes.com
link to sluggerotoole.com
Trump threatens to use US trade talks to force NHS to pay more for drugs
link to archive.is
Lots of links today folks, lol
@PacMan says: 16 May, 2018 at 5:53 am:
” … The UK is not a number of independent countries. It is a union of countries who share the same parliamentary democracy”
No! that’s wrong, PacMan. The UK a.k.a. The United KINGDOM of Great Britain, was exactly what its title described it as in 1706/7. It did not describe a united country it described a united kingdom and that United Kingdom was brought into being by the union of the two, and only the two, equally sovereign independent kingdoms of Scotland & England.
The fact that the Kingdom of England, was comprised of three distinct countries in 1706/7 is neither here nor there it is still legally as it still describes itself a united kingdom of only two partner kingdoms.
” … but have devolved administrations with a certain amount of powers. These devolved administrations have limited economic powers. Some of the countries have different legal and education systems.”
Again that is just the Westminster propaganda view but is not the actuality. Let me put that into proper perspective.
Westminster is legally NOT a quadratic union of four former independent countries who agreed to unite.
Westminster is legally a bipartite union of the two former equally sovereign kingdoms that signed the Treaty of Union and the result of the Treaty of Union of 1706/7 was the formation of a kingdom – not of a country. There is not a single mention of country or countries in the text of the Treaty of Union.
Thus Westminster is assuming to be the de facto Parliament of the country of England and it always has. In the first place it was never true that the Treaty of Union of 1706/7 was anything other than forced upon the Kingdom of Scotland. First of all by the monarch who wore the two still independent kingdoms crowns that Westminster still, to this day, claims were united in 1603. The only united kingdom in 1603 was a personal one for the person who had inherited both crowns. Legally the two kingdoms remained independent and that is proven by the need for the English Kingdom to force the Treaty of Union in 1706/7.
If there had been an actual Union of the crowns in 1603 why did they need a treaty of union in 1706/7?
The Treaty of 1706/7 was engineered by Westminster. The London Scot, William Paterson who was instrumental in the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694, came to Scotland and instigated the disastrous Darian Expeditions in order to bankrupt the rich landowners who were also the Scottish parliamentarians. Scotland was not bankrupted – only the rich landowners were.
There is documentary evidence that Paterson was employed by the English Spymaster, Sir Robert Harley as was the English author and undercover agent Daniel Defoe and both English undercover agents were in Edinburgh and letters from Defoe back to Harley still are held in the English archives. Not to mention that there was an English Royal Navy fleet lying off the Firth of Forth and English troops massed on the Scottish/English borders. The Treaty of Union was an illegally engineered treaty.
Furthermore it never formed a united country nor has it ever operated as a bipartite union of kingdoms. Today it is the de facto parliament of he country of England that has set itself up as the master country, (unless, of course, you can tell us where the parliament of the country of England meets and who are the EMPs elected to serve in that English parliament.
So the actuality is that Westminster has illegally assumed for itself to be the parliament of the country of England and uses EVEL to enforce English rule but persists in calling itself the United Kingdom parliament.
Thus what Westminster is devolving to Wales, N.I. and Scotland are the country of England’s powers that Westminster does not legally have. Factually it is not possible for Westminster to be both the parliament of the country of England and the parliament of the bipartite United Kingdom at the same time – but that is what they are doing.
Until a majority of Scots realise they are being conned and have been since before there was a claimed United Kingdom we can forget ever becoming again an independent kingdom or an independent country.
Matter of fact the formal title of Westminster is, “Her Majesty’s Government of Her Majesty’s United Kingdom”, and that means that the monarch of England is legally sovereign but under still existing independent Scots law the monarch of Scots is not sovereign and that is stated in the Treaty of Union.
Occasionally in the Brit mediums there are references to the Scottish parliament ‘not having the power’ to do something or other. Might it not just assume the power and to hell with the consequences for the British state about which we care nothing?
Quite the collection this morning Nana. 😀
On the rejection vote yesterday? Predictable from the media. Very little and what there is paints the Scottish parliament as the bad guy and Westminster the victim. Pretty much a QED moment there as to why increasing numbers of people do NOT trust the media.
The truth and fact of the matter is of course, the polar opposite of the Tory narrative.
Just to recap though. When the Scottish government sought a veto and warned Mr Cameron of the likelihood of just such an occurrence pre EU ref? It was ignored and Scotland’s electorate were forced to participate in a ballot which had (and eventually did) have every chance of endangering the indyref settlement and assurances, not to mention the existing devolution settlement within the UK.
So far, so clear. HIS AND WESTMINSTER GOVERNMENT’S CHOICE! NO ONE ELSE NEED APPLY, M’KAY? (shouted for those at the back)
In the wake of the EU ref, the Scottish government assembled a committee of EU experts to come up with a UK solution which would protect the economic interests of Scotland’s electorate whilst allowing Brexit to proceed and which would have avoided both the NI issue and the devolution power grab entirely. The soft Brexit or Norway option. Not what they would prefer and not what we would prefer, but their duty was to hold to their end of constitutional ballots, (even if others did not). Which to their credit, they duly did. This AGAIN, was binned out of hand by new PM May. So far not seeing why Scotgov has been the baddie in ANY of this shit show.
The Scottish government has gone out of its way to a) Protect a devolution settlement not of their making and b) alleviate the effects of a ballot and constitutional choice forced upon Scotland’s electorate, again not of their choice or making and c) Produce options which adhere to the choices Scotland’s population made at the ballot. ALL within the competences said electorate decided was their limit.
When those powers exercised by the EU came onto the table for repatriation? Let’s also be clear on these. They weren’t covered by the devolution settlement and the agreement was, that any powers not specifically reserved by Westminster fell under the remit of the devolved legislature. Those powers BELONG to the people and parliament of Scotland. (Kinda why there’d been a negotiation process with both Scottish and Welsh governments. DUH!)
If those powers are taken without the specific permission of Scotland’s electorate and our parliament, that is surely and act of THEFT. Not an act of consensual partnership. Not an act of like minded unity, because clearly there is no agreement between the partners on either the EU or the nature of Brexit. Mind you. It’s always worth checking the definition of these things so:
“THEFT: In common usage, theft is the taking of another person’s property or services without that person’s permission or consent with the intent to deprive the lawful owner of it.” (Source Wikipedia)
Brexit and the EU ref have been a biblical and ill considered screw up from the beginning. One manufactured by uncaring and self interested Conservatism and central Westminster government in support of their own short sighted exclusionist power struggles. One that, in effect, has been decades in the making with the accepted socially divisive practice of UK politics and media manipulation at its very heart.
The Scottish government, our parliament and our electorate had NO part in bringing about any constitutional crisis. THAT kind of clown shoed idiocy we leave to the ‘experts’.
@Breeks.
It’s certainly going to be an interesting few weeks. The vote yesterday to my mind demonstrated inarguably the ‘ will of the Scottish People ‘ because the overwhelming majority vote is constructed across 4 party’s undoubtedly representing a majority of the Scottish people.
The UK gov and their acolytes are pushing Westminster sovereignty for all its worth, personally I think they know they are on shaky ground.
Gawd, Leasky is STILL tweeting on about Stuey and WOS. It was obviouly the first thing on his mind when he awoke. The man’s obsessive. Much more digging and he’ll surface down south in Ausiland.
To be honest I think ‘Dave’ Leask Twitter account is a Troll Pull Account.
The way I see things with Westminster’s attempts to subvert the will of the Scottish Parliament, is this. If they do, then it is THEY who will have breached the ‘rules’, and in defense they will say ‘ah..but these are not normal circumstances, we MUST take this action due to brexit’.
The response from the Scottish Government should at that stage be pre- ready and be swift. The FM will say, ‘since Westminster has acknowledged these are not normal times, and NECESSARY action MUST be taken, this democratically elected Government of Scotland will now take whatever action is required to protect Scotland’s place within Europe, our Scottish Parliament and protect Scottish jobs and industry from Tory wanton recklessness.
In other words, if Westminster ignores the ‘rules’, then Scotland should not carry on abiding to them either. It is pretty simple.
The pretendy London/English ‘supreme‘ court (created a few years ago by Tony Bliar) can go f*** itself sideways. An irrelevancy to Scotland and Scots law. The supreme court in Scotland and Scots law is the court of session in Edinburgh, and has been since the time of James IV.
Honestly, I think it will be soon, that we will have our call to action. This cannot be allowed to go on.
Oh, and for any idiotic unionist puppet so-called journalists e.g ‘Sarah Smith’ who are reading (and we know you do), YES, people are angry, and yes they really do not want Brexit or the London power grab destroying our Parliament.
If nothing else ’leasky’ has kept everyone busy over the last 48 hrs. Maybe there’s a reason.
Powerful front page in the National re power grab. For some reason the National is (alone) missing from the display of newspaper front pages on the BBC news website Scotland pages.
@Robert Peffers
wee light bulb just went on in ma heed,
just to make sure I now understand,
Union of Crowns was 1 monarch but 2 distinct `kingdoms`,
Treaty of Union changed that to 1 monarch and 1 `kingdom`.
@Macart
Here’s a few more in case you get bored 🙂
link to scottishconstructionnow.com
link to rte.ie
link to centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk
MPs criticise government clean energy policies
link to archive.is
A letter from the media in Scotland:
Yesterday didn’t happen..no..no..it didn’t so stop it, stop thinking it did and drink some more of this glass of nothing and forget…forget
There there now don’t you feel better
Nope! I’m having you! should be our answer
It will certainly also be very interesting to see how “Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives MSP” now act.
In relation to the democratic vote of the Parliament in which they serve.
Are this lot not going to support the decision of the Parliament that they have taken an oath to?
I mean they lost the vote,and no means no doesn’t it?
Or will that be redefined,just like they tried to do with consent.
Cause they really need to think about ignoring a NO,and going ahead anyway.
That could really have unintended consequences…..
H Scott says:
16 May, 2018 at 9:15 am
‘the National is (alone) missing from the display of newspaper front pages on the BBC news website Scotland pages’
Its there now
I too have noticed the National is missing from the papers on BBC Scotland website.
The Scottish Parliament’s withholding of consent on the EU Withdrawal Bill is of little consequence to the English media. A glance at the BBC UK website papers section front pages shows not a single mention, not a word. Respect?
Mind you STV grudgingly has a small section in the politics section but rated much less than littering which is the main article. Absolutely shameful.
The SNP government have played a BREXIT blinder thus far. A few mistakes here and there but overall a great performance. Patience, humility and generosity have paid off in so many ways.
However, the time will come, very soon IMO, when the gloves come off and the SG has to find fire in its belly and start gunning for WM and it’s puppet media. I’m not advocating UDI, but certainly a hefty dose of instransigence and non-compliance will be supported by the people. If WM’s dubious puppet Supreme Court is used once again to con the people and thwart their democratic will, then it gets really dirty, but it is a fight WM cannot win in the long run.
45-50% of the electorate packs a hefty punch – does the SG realise how much power they have? This level of support allows boldness. Boldness with backup. Perhaps the power of a 45% YES block is realised, and the SG is just biding its time before striking. The time will come soon when they will have to use this power (or lose it). 🙂
I listened to as much of Radio Shortbread as morning routine allows between 7 and 8:30 and didnt hear any Scottish Government spokesman although Mundell was on for 5 full minutes. Can anyone confirm or do I have to listen to it all again before I complain 🙁
Same yesterday, Mundell in two successive news bulletins with no ScotGov.
They should have spokesmen for both sides on together, who ever listens to an entire program?
Glamaig
Thanks for pointing that out. The (BBC) cynic in me wonders if they waited till after many people will have looked before work.
Channel 5 Brexit/Devolution
Leask British agent provocateur or jilted by a Russian?
@Scot Finlayson 9.15am
Partially correct Scot.
Union of Crowns 1603 = 1 monarch, 1 kingdom, 2 countries with 2 separate parliaments.
Union of the Parliaments 1707 = 1 monarch, 1 kingdom, 1 country with 1 parliament.
Legally the English and Scottish parliaments were abolished but all that really happened was the English parliament continued as if nothing had really happened.
Unemployed Labour hack Alan Roden now writing in Edinburgh Evening News mainly attacking SNP over NHS. Of course no mention of his former employers.
Nana says:
16 May, 2018 at 7:05 am
Pdf below shows the allocation of BBC/State funding to private news companies to tell Tory/Gov misinformation and propaganda,
link to downloads.bbc.co.uk
according to the Pdf Scotland get 21 State funded `Local Democracy Reporters`,
London (twice the size) get 13 State funded `Local Democracy Reporters`
the whole thing reeks of an insidious assault on UK Democracy.
I listened to Gillian Marles? interview of David Mundell on GMS this morning and thought she made a pretty good job of challenging his endless waffle and evasion. That’s new. Is it because SLab have voted against the Tories for once?
@Footsoldier
thanks for reply,
(wee light bulb goes out )
i still don`t get it 🙁
Next happening on the brexit car crash will be when labour and liberals in Scottish Parliament bend over and take one for the union as happened in Wales. No doubt some will go on to the house of lords as a result.
Scottish Government need to be prepared for this.
However I suspect they already know the holding of even more meetings (labour nonsense), was specially designed to provide labour an exit strategy further down the line.
tories can”t be trusted, the core reason for the outcome of yesterday”s vote, but neither can labour or liberals!
@Liz g
The trouble with the Scottish parliament oath is that it is to the monarchy, not the people. Should this be changed if the fact is the people are sovereign. If the oath was to the people of Scotland then the Tories would be in a difficult position just now.
Scott Finlayson, Footsoldier…
Naw, at the risk of being corrected by Robert Peffers it was:
1603 – 1 monarch, 3 kingdoms of Scotland, Ireland, England&Wales (plus a vainglorious claim on France) (interrupted in the 1650s by 1 Cromwellian dictatorship)
1707 – 1 monarch, 2 kingdoms (Britain & Ireland)
1801 – 1 monarch, 1 kingdom (UK of B&I)
1921 – 1 monarch, 1 kingdom (UK of GB&NI) + 1 free state
Obviously not counting the various bits of Holland, Germany, and empire that were involved at one point or another.
Simple!
Footsoldier says:
16 May, 2018 at 9:50 am
Scot Finlayson 9.15am
Still not quite right.
Union of Crowns 1603 = 1 monarch, 2 kingdoms, 2 countries with 2 separate parliaments.
Union of the Parliaments 1707 = 1 monarch, 2 kingdoms, 2 countries with 1 combined parliament.
(Leaving out Wales and Ireland for sake of simplicity)
Legally the English parliament was abolished, while the Scots one continued for a while before being prorogued. Reconvened by Winnie Ewing in 1999.
True, all that really happened was the English parliament continued as if nothing had really happened.
Well I can see the National front page on the BBC website. Maybe it has just been added.
@ Nana 7.05 – pdf on BBC funded reporters – spies are expensive. Make the taxpayer pay for them, chanelling the money through the state broadcaster. It’s called safe-guarding democracy.
I was reading caltonjock’s historical articles, the one on the 1820 rebellion is interesting. How history repeats itself. I wonder if that is because our imperial masters were all taught it at public school? They are just implementing the usual tried and tested techniques.
link to tinyurl.com
I hope the EU is taking notice that even if the UK Government has signed a deal that it cannot be trusted to stick to the deal. Treaty of Union, ignored when inconvenient, devolution deal, ignored when inconvenient.
If the EU do not have things written down in hard legally binding terms then the UK Government will, when it feels like it, just ignore any agreement.
The need to realise that those that are educated at places like Eton have no honour, just the expectation of privilege and they use Westminster to maintain this status quo.
Thanks for Farage Nana, forgot what an arse he is!
Comrade Leaski update! He is still going. The world tweeting record on one subject is now within his reach. Although it may not stand as it really seems to be just repeating the same thing with the words in a different order.
Footsoldier @ 9.50am. I think you are wrong. The Scottish parliament was never abolished. It was just put in abeyance. Thats why, when Winnie Ewing made her speech at the opening of the current version of the Scottish parliament, she declared’ The Scottish parliament is now re-convened’ ( to paraphrase). ‘re-convened’ is the important word here. Hopefully RP will be along shortly to expand on this and perhaps in time it will sink into peoples heads.
We never lost our parliament, we never gave it up to be abolished, we just parked it up in a dark corner somewhere, to wait till the time was right to bring it back out of storage. Scotland was never ‘extinguished’, as the disgusting little mundle tries to claim.
@Scot Finlayson says: 16 May, 2018 at 9:15 am:
“wee light bulb just went on in ma heed,
just to make sure I now understand,
Union of Crowns was 1 monarch but 2 distinct `kingdoms`,
Treaty of Union changed that to 1 monarch and 1 `kingdom”
Yes! That is the exact situation. The two Kingdoms remained independent when James VI of Scotland inherited the crown of the Kingdom of England. Now, as the Kingdom of England of 1603 was still under the rule of law of Divine Right of Kings then he was a sovereign monarch of all three of the Kingdom of England countries and both Wales and Ireland were NOT in union with the Kingdom of England, under Divine Right of Kings, they were annexed as integral parts of the Kingdom of England.
In the Scottish Kingdom James VI was not sovereign because the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 declared that the people, not the monarch, were sovereign. So the Kingdom of Scotland was not under the rule of law of Divine Right of Kings.
So the Kingdom of England would not accept they were, (under divine right of kings), now part of The Kingdom of Scotland because James was not sovereign in Scotland he could not unite the two Kingdoms. Which was why he is designated as James I of England & VI of Scotland instead og James I of Great Britain & Ireland.
The English Kingdom remained under Divine Right of Kings until the so called Glorious Revolution of 1688. In which revolution the parliament of the Kingdom of England deposed their rightful monarchy and invited Mary of Orange to be their monarch. Mary refuse the offer as she did not wish to have her husband, William of Orange, as her consort.
So the English parliamentarians then offered the Crown of the Kingdom of England to the couple as joint Monarchs and England got King Billy & Queen Mary but as Scotland was still an independent kingdom that all had no effect in Scotland so that started the Jacobite uprisings that ran on until 1745 and the battle of Culloden – nearly 40 years after the Treaty of Union.
So the English claims that there were Jacobite rebellions was utter lies for you cannot rebel against a monarchy not your own. Yet Lames VI spent the whole of his reign trying to unite the two kingdoms as did the Stewarts that followed him as Monarchs of England.
So the legal truth is that the so called Union of the Crowns was only a personal union for the monarch who wore both crowns at the same time. Which was why Westminster, who had forced King Billy & Queen Mary to legally delegate their Divine Right to the English Parliament and that made the Kingdom of England in 1688 a Constitutional Monarchy but as Scotland remained independent until 1706/7 Scotland has never been a constitutional monarchy but Westminster assumes that it was.
Now consider the Treaty of Union. It was engineered by Westminster by use of William Patterson & Danial Defoe who are proven undercover English agents and the Darien Expedition was begun by Patterson who had previously been involved in instigating the Bank of England. There are historic letters sent by Defoe back to Sir Robert Harley the English Spy master still in the English archives that prove the point.
Now consider the Treaty of Union. It clearly states that the laws of Scotland and England cannot be reconciled with each other and must remain forever independent and that means the Treaty acknowledges that the people of Scotland are legally sovereign and thus Westminster cannot hold sovereignty over Scotland unless with the permission of the legally sovereign people of Scotland and that means that the Scottish Parliament needs a specific mandate from a majority of the voters to take back their legal sovereignty.
But they, (Westminster), don’t want you to know that.
I see STV are going to shut STV2, no real surprise as I don’t think there was anything on it that I felt inclined to watch. I did watch a magazine show when it was STV Glasgow, fairly low budget but it was still better than The One Show . They scrapped that so ended up nothing on the channel I would watch.
@Footsoldier says: 16 May, 2018 at 9:50 am:
@Scot Finlayson 9.15am
” … Partially correct Scot.
Union of Crowns 1603 = 1 monarch, 1 kingdom, 2 countries with 2 separate parliaments.
Union of the Parliaments 1707 = 1 monarch, 1 kingdom, 1 country with 1 parliament.”
Nope! Footsoldier, Cannot you see how you are falling for the Westminster brainwashing?
It was NOT countries that were united by the Treaty of Union it was Kingdoms and one of them was composed of three countries.
Look at the real history – Wales, (a principality), was declared a part of the Kingdom of England in 1284 by the Statute of Rhuddlan, which was a proclamation of the King of England and that was 423 years before the Treaty of Union.
Just look at the name of the damned hellish thing <bTHE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND.
It is not now, and never has been, other than a United Kingdom
and not a united country. In fact the Kingdom of England has comprised more than the country of England for 734 years and been a three country kingdom for 476 years.
The Kingdom of Scotland has always been just a single country kingdom since it became a, (more or less), single country but what the Kingdom of Scotland has not always been is a Kingdom where the people, not the monarch or the government are legally sovereign. That only happened in 1320 with the Declaration of Arbroath and that is still Scotland’s legal standing.
@Robert Peffers, footsoldier, fionan, Scott Finlayson and all:
Turner painted a picture of the Scottish Parliamentarians at a banquet – I think it was in an article in The National very recently. Turner was painting from late 18th to mid-19th century so was after the supposed closure of the Scottish Parliament.
Was this painting a contemporary scene or a “historic” scene? If the former, were these Parliamentarians still being elected? There were a great many figures in the painting so they can’t be Scottish seat holders at Westminster – unless it included Lords.
Lots of questions. Just wondering.
The Scottish Parliament was right to refuse consent for the EU Withdrawal Bill.
However, calling it a devolution power grab, fails to highlight the seriousness of the situation which is much more than a devolution power grab.
This is an assertion of absolute power by the UK state, an assertion that: UK parliament (Crown, House of Lords and House of Commons) is the absolute sovereign power over all the UK.
Where would that leave the sovereignty of the people of Scotland? It wouldn’t exist, according to the UK. In fact, it doesn’t exist according to the UK political theory of parliamentary sovereignty.
Putting that back into the historical context highlighted by Robert. It would be saying the Monarch, Lords and MPs are sovereign.
Scotland’s people would not be sovereign. What about democracy?
We cannot elect the Monarch, we cannot elect the Lords ( Scotland’s largest party has no Lords – and quite right too, as the Lords is an affront to democracy); only 59 out of 650 MPs are democratically empowered to represent Scotland.
So, Scotland’s people risk losing their sovereignty forever to a unitary state UK parliament where Scotland does not have democracy.
These are the issues we face. This is why we need independence.
@ Robert Peffers
However the Union is constitutionally impossible, given The Scottish People are sovereign, but the English Crown in Parliament is sovereign. How can the UK be a single kingdom?
Macart and Peffers you are both on fire this morning.
Great comments.
Succinct.
Factual.
Undeniably Truthful.
Great Anti-BritNat ammunition.
More power to your elbows gentlemen.
I would urge those on social media to spread/share these comments far and wide folks:
Robert Peffers says 16 May, 2018 at 8:00 am
and
from Macart says 16 May, 2018 at 8:48 am
Also spread this rebuttal of the BritNats “UK Single Market Keech” from The Wee Ginger Dug
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
and visually from IndyPosterBoy aka Zarkwan:
link to mobile.twitter.com
Calum McKay @ 10:11 am
You’re right to raise the subject of the SLAB amendment passed yesterday for cross-party talks with the Westminster Government over ‘consent’.
You wrote: “Scottish Government need to be prepared for this. …. I suspect they already know the holding of even more meetings (labour nonsense), was specially designed to provide labour an exit strategy further down the line.”
How these talks will be conducted is yet to be clarified but it raises some important issues, some dangers:
(i) what is SLAB’s motivation -straightforward, principled support for Holyrood and the devolution settlement or is there a narrower, self-serving political calculation here?
(2) will SLAB continue to take a common position with the SG or use this cross-party engagement with Westminster Tories as an opportunity to make a big deal of accepting a compromise offered in the negotiations, something less than what the SNP and Greens want to hold out for – a ‘Welsh Labour cave-in plus a bit more’?
And then we could have:
(3) SLAB (and the LibDems) announcing at a politically opportune moment (for unionists) that a compromise acceptable to them is on offer but these ‘nationalists’ in rejecting this are now showing that they don’t want a solution. This would give SLAB a good result to advance their unionist, SNPbad cause: the Scottish Tories may also take the opportunity to help isolate the SNP/Greens by ‘reluctantly accepting the new compromise brokered by SLAB. (And I bet this ‘consent’ issue would then magically become of serious interest to all the BBC’s viewers and listeners in Scotland!)
I would like to think that SLAB genuinely wish to work with the SNP SG and the Greens to protect devolution – but given past experience, the SG must maintain a very healthy scepticism throughout.
Folks the government are not afraid of the newspapers, in the great UK the newspapers are part of the Government a bit like say…. the Scottish Office.
This nonsense about correcting lies will not be allowed it gets in the way of the Centres plans.
Jockanese Wind Talker
Brian Galloway the lanarkshire lad, his old school mate tipped me off back in 2013 but took longer to verify.
He still denies it but when tortured with information and pictures he goes mental
http://www.Twitterleaks.club
I’ve done a recce.
The march on Saturday is almost entirely through residential streets.
At about a mile into the march, you’ll see a sign on the RH side of the road which indicates the ‘Torbrex Inn’ which is a short distance down ‘Torbrex Lane’ on your LEFT. ( toilets, refreshments).
Not long after that, we pass Stirling High School and St. Ninian’s Primary School – origin of ‘the Daily Mile’) we turn right, uphill into Coxethill Road, at the mini roundabout. There is a small newsagents and a sandwich shop just there.
You’ll see the sign for ‘Lid’l in the ( near) distance. Lidl is adjacent to the main road and opposite the ‘Scots Wha Hae’ pub. ( toilets and refreshments).
The Battle Centre is situated next to the ‘King Robert Hotel’, on the Glasgow Road, and there is a small cafe and WC’s in the Information Centre.
If you leave via the main entrance/exit, onto the Glasgow Road, the ‘1314 Inn’ is a short distance along the road, to the right. There is a newsagents opposite the Pedestrian Crossing, and a mini-market opposite the Inn.
You can get a bus back into Stirling on the Glasgow Road, or cross the road for buses to Glasgow.
‘Jet’ petrol station and ‘Home Bargains’ with a cash machine about a long half a mile to the right.
Continue along this road, towards the Motorway and you will come to the ‘Pirnhall Inn/Brewer’s Fayre restaurant’ and the ‘Premier Inn’. There is a service station at the Motorway, junction 9, with an ‘M&S’ food outlet, other facilities, and ‘Travel Lodge’.
About half a mile, left and downhill towards St, Ninian’s Roundabout will take you to 3 other pubs, shops, chip shop, takeaways and a cash machine on ‘McColl’s mini-market’. You will also have more choice of buses back into Stirling as you will be on the main Edinburgh to Stirling road.
This is a useful map.
link to battleofbannockburn.com