The cornered rats
As someone who’s kept them as pets for over 20 years, I know a thing or two about rats. Intelligent and affectionate creatures, individuals nevertheless have very distinct personalities, and occasionally you’ll get a timid and/or grumpy one. Those take a lot of care, patience and attention to bring out of their shell, and until that point they may try to escape and hide in the tiniest, darkest, most inaccessible corner of the house.
When found, and with all escape routes blocked off, these tiny creatures become incredibly ferocious. They have very long, razor-sharp teeth and move with astonishing speed, and won’t hesitate to attack something hundreds of times their size. Any long-term rat owner will have a few small but permanent battle scars.
And so to today’s Scotsman.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the paper has completely lost its mind this morning.
Its lead story is an attack on our Panelbase poll, which made the front page of the Sunday Times yesterday and was reported in the Independent as “an authoritative new survey”, as well as being covered fairly in countless other media.
Under the headline “Doubts on poll for Yes vote”, the piece by David Maddox opens with the following two paragraphs:
“THE credibility of a poll which has put the referendum campaign neck and neck has been questioned.
Alert readers will of course have noted the weasel words in the second paragraph, coming as close to defamation as the paper dares without actually opening itself up to legal action. But it’s the first one we’re concerned with.
The only justification for the claim that the poll’s “credibility” has been “questioned” follows by way of a series of quotes from a post by noted psephologist Professor John Curtice for the What Scotland Thinks blog yesterday.
In them the academic points out that since both Yes and No votes have increased by one point over the last Panelbase poll (for Newsnet Scotland three weeks ago), the gap has remained unchanged, and that therefore:
“The poll thus cannot be cited as evidence that there is now a nationalist bandwagon moving continuously and relentlessly towards the 50% mark.”
We have no complaints whatsoever with those comments. They are, as is the good professor’s wont, painstakingly factual and impartial. (Some nationalists have been known to accuse Prof. Curtice of bias, but this site has never been among them.) But what they absolutely DON’T do is “question” the poll’s “credibility”.
The very last paragraph of the article, tacked on as a seeming afterthought (indicated by the prefix “Meanwhile”, denoting something separate from the main thrust of the piece), contains a quote from Alistair Darling’s interview on yesterday’s Andrew Marr show, described by the pro-Labour New Statesman as “rattled”, “tetchy” and “like an embattled football manger giving a post-match interview after a bad result”.
Darling inaccurately described the poll as “something of an outlier” (while also contradicting himself by noting that it was the same as preceding ones), but stopped far short of criticising the poll’s methodology or impartiality. By quoting the impartial Professor Curtice for the vast bulk of the piece and mumbling the Darling line as it walks away, the Scotsman is unmistakeably trying to give readers the impression that it’s the psephologist who has cast doubts on the poll.
We’ve sought reactions from both Panelbase and Prof. Curtice and will bring them to you as soon as we get them. But the Scotsman wasn’t done yet.
A second story, also by David Maddox and the main front-page splash on the print edition, leads with a headline stating as an absolute fact – not even single quotes around the word “threatened” – that an unnamed Labour MP and his staff have been menaced by “rogue supporters of Scottish independence”.
The piece notes that “The politician said he is only maintaining his anonymity because of concerns for the safety of staff in the constituency office, who have also been the focus of abuse in recent days”, which would seem to be a somewhat self-defeating exercise, because as far as we’re aware only one Labour MP has publicly alleged any abuse directed against his constituency office in recent days.
(The piece also quotes the mysterious unknown MP using the phrase “out of control”, which became a popular hashtag last week among Yes supporters mocking similar allegations made by Ian Murray MP, who was also highlighted for some dubious claims about his previous career on his website.)
The story is built entirely from innuendo, with not a single solid fact cited. Phrases are, however, carefully chosen and deployed to suggest serious and unusual police involvement. Let’s look at them closely.
“Police Scotland confirmed officers are being sent to patrol the area where the MP’s constituency office is located, following the threats.”
Note that the article doesn’t claim the patrols are a result of the threats. One would imagine that anywhere that was the sort of place an MP’s constituency office would be likely to be located would be an area the police would be regularly patrolling anyway.
“A police chief has written to the MP asking if he would like to carry out a crime survey on the issue.”
As you would expect the police to offer to do for any such complaint.
“The officer told the pro-Union politician that police would be keeping an eye on the situation with ‘priority patrols’ in the area where his office is located.”
See above. “Keeping an eye on” things is pretty much the definition of what all police patrols, everywhere all the time, do. It’s what a “patrol” is.
“The MP has also been offered a meeting with the chief inspector of his local force area to discuss the problems he and his staff are having with the offensive comments.”
Again, that being the bare minimum the police would be expected to do in the wake of any allegation, particularly from a public figure. It doesn’t say that the police have found there to be an actual issue. By way of example, when quoted on the Ian Murray allegations last week, a Police Scotland spokesman was reported by the Scotsman’s sister paper the Edinburgh Evening News as saying:
“We are aware of this incident and are giving the area appropriate attention.”
Readers will note the careful – some might say “deadpan” – wording of that sentence.
The entire Maddox article – which then goes on to reprise Alistair Darling’s recent bleatings about legitimate criticisms of anti-independence businessmen – is, we must concede, a masterpiece of gutter journalism, expertly using innocuous phrases to inflate a nothing story into something far more dramatic without actually saying anything that’s technically inaccurate. Readers are left with an impression of danger that’s totally unsubstantiated by the slightest shred of evidence, comprising only unproven allegations by an “anonymous” source.
Coupled with the poll story, the piece strips the last remaining flimsy thread from the Scotsman’s disguise as a serious newspaper. The two articles are naked attacks on the Yes movement, spraying indiscriminate and reckless allegations which smear dedicated, impartial, professional organisations and individuals as well as this site, which is unashamedly and openly partisan.
Ironically, it is precisely the sort of “monstering” the paper claims to abhor.
.
[EDIT 11.55: The Scotsman has hastily rewritten the piece, changing both the headline and the opening paragraph to remove the claims of the poll’s credibility being in question, although it’s left in the snide lines about this site.]
Somewhere in a sewer underneath Edinburgh, David Maddox is secretly training an army of teenage mutant unionist turtles.
I’m quite happy BT under estimating the YES vote,even better Sept 18th
I wonder what it is about the Hootsmon that they always seem to have to rehash their “Evil Cybernat” stories for a second bite of the cherry. This is entirely reminiscent of the “Nazi Menace” rehash for Gavin Bowd last year:
http://logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/comic-trumps-academic-in-evil-cybernat.html
I’m almost tempted to commission Jack Foster & Chris Silver to do a film noir Third Man homage called “Ian Murray Gets the Messages” complete with zither accompaniment and sewer scenes.
I think Edinburgh could stand up against Vienna any day, though Cameron Toll shopping centre may not be quite as photogenic as a ferris wheel.
“Project Fear”, living in fear? “Project Projection” their “Plan B”?
Possibly, the narrowing of the polls suggest their “positive” approach is not working.
‘Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’
Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’, 1946
“The MP has also been offered a meeting with the chief inspector of his local force area”.
This might to be to inform him that wasting police time is a serious offence.
You would think journalists would use their words much more carefully considering that words are what earn them a living.
The number of insults flung at so called fellow Scots by those in the Better Together Camp well outweigh those ever issued by those in YES. They have insulted the intelligence of all of the country at one time or another over the past two years of campaigning. I do not know how they will manage to live beside us when as we know, we win.
Mr Darling and others take this Panelbase poll to be an “outlier” and the same pretty much as other Panelbase polls on independence.
But how can an outlier be the same as another poll result?
I smell panic.
Do not let it bother you, Maddox will not be employed there very much longer, articles like this are just hastening the end of the rag.
Get the Scotsman and EEN to look at the video posted on youtube regards some nutter accosting Yes Campaigners in Wester Hailes if thats not Monstering and threatening then i do not know what is !
David Maddox and the Scotsman do have a history. David is a wee Cochrane and the other a wee torygraph, or very pale imitations if you wish.
In both cases this is par for the course and perhaps the main reason the Northbriton has lost its North, its soul and baring a miracle, its life.
It’s reasonable to be angered by their unrelenting meanness, but lets not take it out of proportion and just treat them with the desdain they deserve, as they are not worthy of anything but contempt.
Truth is not many of us were expecting something different from them.
Just forget it and keep helping with their collective demise. We have much bigger fish to fry.
It’s only a matter of time before a yes activist is seriously assaulted , the Scotsman and the rest of msm need to be very very careful here . Irresponsible shite like this is dangerous
I’m afraid we have to be alert to some sort of incident akin to “burning of the Reichstag” I fear the unionists will stop at nothing to prevent their gravy train from going south. I am sure that the nast cybernat bully meme will be ramped up to an extent that false flag events will start to occur.
BBC Scotland are so determined to ignore the PB poll that they omit the Scotsman front page from the daily papers feature.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-26322003
Oh, and wasn’t “Mind how you go” the catchphrase of that archetypical copper Sgt Dixon of Dock Green?
Shorter Ian Murray MP: “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”
More people in Scotland read Tarot Cards than read the Scotsman’s tripe these days. Let them carry on. The Cards say we are going to win this.
Rats? I thought this was an article about squirrels.
I’ll be fascinated to see if either Panelbase or Prof Curtice comment on this. Panelbase in particular are being subjected to the most appalling calumny. Does Maddox seriously think you can just go to them and say, here’s some money, now do me a poll that produces favourable results for my side? (If so, why not just go the whole hog and produce one with an outright Yes majority? Oh wait, what’s that I hear about Ipsos Mori and a certain trade union?)
As far as Murray is concerned, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt about the wee saltire sticker. He has a photo, and it’s reasonable to assume that his claim that his office had been “vandalised” was based on something other than pure imagination.
The rest of the stushie was almost entirely made up of a bunch of people trying to find out what form this alleged vandalism had taken, and then howling in derision when it turned out to be a wee paper sticker. Apparently only one wee paper sticker, because who would take a photo of only one single sticker (with no others near it) and fail to photograph any others that were there?
In the context of his office presenting a facade that wouldn’t be out of place in down-town Beirut, with broken doors, four-year-old graffiti unrepaired and a filthy window covered (on the inside) with old stickum and the tags of long-gone posters, it’s downright hilarious.
The rest of it is entirely made up as far as I can see. Internet threats tend to be visible, and even if deleted someone has generally saved a copy. After Calmangate, who can believe any unionist who claims harrassment and death threats? On the other hand, she showed how easy it is. Gavin Esler on TV saying he couldn’t read out these abusive messages because they were too vile. When all that could be found was a group of people here saying they hadn’t found her appearance in an episode of The News Quiz particularly funny.
What is notable about that article is the consummately professional journalism – professional in a bad way, demonstrating extremely skilful use of words to imply all sorts of things on the basis if no facts whatsoever. It’s really quite sad to see someone prostituting his wordsmith skills like this.
The worrying thing is you can see where all this is going. Drip feed a sense of some sinister undercurrent of violence and “rouge independence supporters” who’re out threatening people and causing problems. Put that idea into people’s mind and normalise it in the media. Then when you start running the false flag events it’s far more believable. Can there be any real doubt that’s where this is headed?
I gave up reading the Scotsman decades ago. I guess the only readers it has left are the sort of people who would be embarrassed to buy the Daily Mail but like to be fed smear and innuendo anyway. It’s a terrible shame that what should have been a trustworthy national newspaper has descended to this level. An apology for misrepresenting the Panelbase poll is surely in order.
The Scotsman is in its death throes, this is just another example. Following the downward trend of these circulation I’d be surprised if they aren’t close to falling below 20,000 (remembering that something like 20% are ‘complementary’ copies. They won’t make it Sept. 18th at the rate they’re going.
Actually there is nothing to worry about so long as we nats, cyber or otherwise remember the golden rule, that the unionists make all the rules, simple really!
Stuart – I think the Scotsman should be ignored. The journalism is terrible. The bias profound. But the Yes and SNP strategy is to ignore the worst of the hostile journalism and stay focused.
Will anyone really be taken in by either of those articles? In particular, the attempt to rubbish the poll is risible. Nobody, who is not yet a convinced ‘no’ voter will see through it for what it is.
I think they are designed to provoke. They’ve lost the currency debate, so they’ll go for a strategy of distraction. Don’t be diverted. Much better to pick apart the media coverage that really matters – the columns, analysis, broadcasts that have more credibility.
Johnston Press were only £306m in the red four months ago. The dross from this publication will no doubt help it increase.
@John Grant …
It has already happened, an 80-year-old YES campaigner was attacked and left with a broken wrist and concussion last September. Somehow this story didn’t make national headlines and there was no expressions of sympathy nor apology from the NO camp. Yet outrage is expressed and gets national headlines when someone puts a YES sticker on a Labour MP’s constituency office window. Also remember when Blair McDougal said how he, his staff and his NO office in Glasgow were routinely attacked every day, whatever happened to that story when evidence was asked for.
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/scottish-independence-campaigner-80-attacked-1-3077094
“rouge independence supporters” who’re out threatening people
Come on. I say, “what does the colour of the independence supporters have to do with it?” and you then reply “it’s the make-up of the group!”
Morag you beat me to it! Beautifully put!
I think the word Monstered is so OTT,people will laugh rather than take it seriously
Prob is for BT, by the time it’s sept 18th,they will have to start using the C word
That Labour MP should face charges of wasting police time.
One of the bizarre things is the idea that anyone would “claim to be separate” from the SNP if they weren’t. After 7 years in government, the SNP is still BY FAR the most trusted party in the UK and Salmond and Sturgeon are both still phenomenally well-liked, respected and trusted by the electorate. Maybe people can see a principled, consistent plan implemented and for some reason, that’s something they like in their politicians. Who knows? You should really keep an eye on this sort of story though, Rev. As a known, named Cybernat, and vague and anonymous stories about cybernats could be perceived by the unknowing reader as stories about you. Even if it’s not technically libellous, the threat to your credibility could affect your income in any future fundraiser. Don’t let these bastards get away with their cheap smears. At the very least, get a letter to the editor out and let your Twitter followers see it so we can watch for edits if it goes to print.
Just for fun, I’m going to go to Murray’s office again with a measuring tape and figure out for sure what size that sticker was. The picture he released on his blog, the one I had when I went to his office last week, showed no reference points to allow the size to be estimated. The uncropped version published by the Huffington Post shows the lettering on the window and allows a measurement.
It really is the most dishonest dissembling. One tiny wee blue sticker (on a down-at-the-heel, scruffy, graffiti-adorned building) is vandalism and his staff are in fear for their lives. But none of the stuff that has been done to Yes supporters or Yes property ever gets a mention. Apart from that raving loony screaming at the Yes stall on Saturday, Yes posters have been vandalised with aggressive pro-union graffiti and there have been many death threats which are clearly recorded online.
What about that troll the other day who asked Stuart if he was going to kill himself with his car exhaust fumes after the inevitable No vote? As vile goes, that was moderately bad. But there’s worse out there, and the press systematically turns a blind eye.
I’ve always maintained, regarding David Maddox has never actually performed proper true investigative journalism. He is of the ‘copy and paste from Labour press briefing’s’ school.
Not once has he ever wrote anything bad or enquiring, or questioning about the Labour party. He vehemently hates the SNP and the independence movement.
So I would not be surprised that both articles in today’s Scotsman are not actually based on his own thinking but from a briefing from one of the Labour spin doctors. Not an official press briefing mind you , but a cosy chat of what to put in the paper.
Maddox’s side kick Tom Peterkin is from the same batch of crap journalists, who likewise will not write anything that questions Labour and by god there really is reams that they could write!
The other bit to note, that if it were an ‘official’ Labour press briefing, then the same story would be ran by Angus McLeod in the Times and Torcuil Crichton from the Record and all the other slaven unionist hacks
“The Labour MP, who The Scotsman has agreed not to name to protect his office staff, has said he is forced to pull up the hood on his jacket when he ventures out [to protect his hair from the rain], even on a brief visit to the shops.”
“When I walked down the street to the shops on Friday, I actually pulled up my hood because I was so worried about being recognised and attacked on the street [by the rain].”
Terrible journalism. No mention of what he bought at the shops.
“A SCOTTISH Labour MP said he has been left “terrified” by anonymous threats”
“We have people walking off the street into the constituency office shouting appalling abuse.”
Anonymously.
We need a respected organisation or figure to begin gathering details of incidents of No intimidation, abuse and threats (online and offline). We’ll need this list to be split into sections and properly recorded, with the police where necessary (although we really shouldnt expect Police Scotland to be impartial on this).
Every time the media highlight incidents of “monstering” we need to have evidence to answer with.
Someone above said it – we can see where this is going, and its going to a very dirty place now. Theyre going to try to smear big style and we need to be prepared to answer them. Problem is there will be people who will retaliate to their provocation and then theyll use it as more evidence of ‘extremist cybernats’.
I also agree there’ll be many agents provocateurs and false flags over next 5 months.
This will require a clever strategy in response.
Ive no doubt we’ll still triumph though.
Cath at 1020 makes a good point. We will be fed a load of tales about violent, intemperate independence supporters threatening shrinking violet politicians, and it will be hilarious, but then something serious will be announced and thwarted by the security services. If they were prepared to do it in the 70s to stop devolution in its tracks, imagine what they’ll do to stop independence. Each story needs to be dissected like the Ian Murray one, then publicised as trash. The Scotsman nowadays is droning Muzak. Has anyone been reading it for the last 20 years apart from confirmed UKOKs?
I received a tongue and cheek email in poor taste at work. Was supposed to be funny. However it was a spiteful and hateful attack on the leaders of the party I am a member of. Read it and see what you think this passes off as fair game for unionists:”Alex Salmond was visiting a Scottish primary school and the class was in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.
The teacher asked Mr. Salmond if he would like to lead the discussion on the word ‘Tragedy’.
So the illustrious SNP leader asked the class for an example of a ‘Tragedy’.
A little boy stood up and offered, “If ma best freen, wha¹ lives on a ferm, is playin’ in the field and a tractor rins ower him and kills him, that wid be a tragedy.”
“Incorrect”, said Alex, in his best trying-not-to-sound-too-patronising-Scottish-accent, “That would be an accident.”
A little girl raised her hand, “If a school bus kerryin’ fifty children drove ow¹r a cliff, killing a’body inside, that wid be a tragedy”
‘I’m afraid not’, explained Alex, “that’s what we would refer to as a great loss¹¹.
The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Alex searched the room.
“Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally, at the back of the room, a wee lad raised his hand and, in a quiet voice, said: “If a plane kerryin’ you and your deputy ‘ wiz struck by a ‘freendly fire’ missile & blawn tae smithereens, that wid be a tragedy.”
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Alex, “and can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”
“Weel”, says the lad, “it has tae be a tragedy, because it certainly widnae be a great loss, and it probably widnae be an accident either!”
not even remotely funny and I could have complained!
The unnamed Labour MP in your article.
“if it looks like Ian Murray MP, walks like Ian Murray MP, and talks like Ian Murray MP, then it’s…”
@Morag
Just for fun, I’m going to go to Murray’s office again with a measuring tape and figure out for sure what size that sticker was
There is a “police presence” there mind, don’t go getting yourself arrested for harassing that poor MP now!
It goes without saying that no one here buys The Scotsman but I’d appeal to everyone never to even click on a link for that paper as it gives them income. They’ll be a distant unpleasant memory all the quicker.
If anything this is designed to ramp up people like that SDL nutter. There will be some incident, if not from this then soon after. We have to be the better angels when it does happen.
Seems the bookies are listening Stu: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BknC_niIEAATEze.jpg
patronsaintofcats says:10.22
“The Scotsman is in its death throes, this is just another example…something like 20% are ‘complementary’ copies”
Yesterday in Sainsbury’s in Stirling there was a lady by the newspaper stall with a trolley of Scotland on Sunday’s offering them for half price. Anything to try and halt the falling circulation. Looking forward to the demise of the group.
Its interesting that in all UKOK Scotsman reports like this or that weekend monstering thing from Flipper Darling, none of them ever mention any specific names. Funny that.
Stu.
Hammer the Scotsman hard. We saw off the D Heil when it tried these tactics. And we can certainly see off a 3rd rate rag like the Scotsman. It has only about 18,000 circulation per day and most of those are freebies or to BritNats. And its readership on the net must be dropping since I and most other Cybernats never read it now unless it’s on the archive thingy.
Maddox gives the impression of a dying python twisting and turning in its death throes.
The Panelbase poll – which was commissioned by pro-independence blog, Wings Over Scotland, run by Bath-based Stuart Campbell, who supports independence but claims to be separate from the SNP – puts the Yes vote on 41 per cent and No on 46 per cent.”
This is the paragraph that Stu quotes as “weasel words” and says it’s as close to defamation as they can come without being legally liable. But although it’s certainly weasel words, the rest isn’t really true. It’s nowhere near defamatory. What does it actually say?
– Stu lives in Bath
– He supports independence
– He writes a blog about it
– He says he isn’t an SNP member and indeed has never voted for the party (a bit hard to vote for them if you live in Bath of course)
– He commissioned the Panelbase poll
All that isn’t just true, it’s completely uncontentious. It’s entirely innocent. They might as well add that he has six pet rats and likes “Family Guy”. (I’m kind of surprised thet didn’t mention the rats, and that he used to be a video games reviewer, both of these can also be made to sound nicely sinister.)
The writing trick, and it’s a skilful one, is to make a series of entirely innocuous facts sound like a damning smear. It’s on the edge of parody, and I’ve seen it parodied a number of times. Private Eye sometimes does it.
This is nasty, snide, pernicious, partisan stuff. It’s sad to see journalists prostituting their skills like this.
The truly weird thing about the pro-Unionist press and politicians trying to rubbish the Panelbase poll, is that it contains what people are saying.
It is the result of what people are saying.
People say what they think and the result is represented in the poll.
The pollsters ask questions and the peoples answers are recorded and collated in the poll results.
That’s all I’ve got to say, but maybe, according to Alistair Darling and the Scotsman, I didn’t just say all that.
Oh my. I know that for the sake of my own sanity I should never read BTL, but on that Scotsman story there’s a comment comparing the SNP to the Taliban, Hamas and the IRA. In the article, Darling says it’s outrageous that Munro was compared to Mugabe. Did he miss Paxman making that comparison to Salmond himself? Or Sarwar calling him a dictator and the Scottish Parliament “undemocratic”? The ironing is delicious.
Listened to Ashley whats-his-name (Johnson Press digital guru) last week on the radio, he’s saying their on-line revenue has increased some 19% in the last year.
The rest of the business is in free fall, but the digital revenues are keeping them afloat. He claims that the transition between traditional printing and the digital age has pretty much happened now, and the difficult years of ‘adjustment’ are behind them.
We’ve mentioned before how commenting on their site increases revenues, we don’t need to go their again, but it’s clear that avoiding comments on their site is an effective action.
Ok, who wants to email Johnston press’s largest shareholder Ananda Krishnan from Malaysia.
Surely someone with his origin should have sympathy with independence movements.
As he owns 20% of the company maybe he can become pro or at least neutral to independence.
I read the Scotsman reporage a few hours ago and thought it libellous and scurrillous.
The only interpretation of the newspaper’s folly is, they are inciting public unrest.
It’s remarkable to see how much the Scotsman has become slap-dash and downright reckless in its reporting.
The claim made to me verbally by a senior reporter that the paper was “pro-independence” had me sneer and reply, not by any evidence I have seen.
But the article is ominous for another reason: it has all the hallmatrks of a dry run rehearsal, one step away from the oh-so predictable MI5 contrived “incident” when an alleged “Tartan Army” reasserts itself – bizzarely in the face of a Yes win – by mailing threats to various MPs.
The UK’s prime minister, tipped off in advance, is ready with a condemnation along the lines that all nationalism leads to – hatred and violence.
This British Establishment Plan B is carried out in a mood of panic, done with the intention of unhinging the resolve of wavering Yes supporters so they pull back not wanting to be associated with violent protest, as if, somehow, MI5’s skullduggery is not actionable violence in itself.
Dearie me, the laughingly titled ‘Scotsman’, must have realised over the weekend they have backed the wrong horse in the independence debate, so is now resorting to nonsense such as evidenced above.
I think, although they have used clever wording to imply, but NOT state a lack of credibility of the poll, is something panelbase should be concerned about.
Truth of the matter is, the Times and the Independent, neither of which are fans of Scottish independence take the poll seriously, and both are REAL newspapers instead of a rabid Edinburgh based right wing joke masquerading as a serious ‘Scottish’ ‘broadsheet’.
Seriously, do people really still buy the hootsmon??
Oh well here it comes. The more the polls narrow the more bizarre and destructful the MSM will become towards the Yes campaign.
The headline in the “Britsman” about the veracity of the poll is a rehash of yesterday’s one. They must have sat all day yesterday wondering how they could dismantle the Poll’s findings and that’s the best they could come up with. Pathetic, the death-throws of a once excellent publication that you wouldn’t eat your fish and chips out of now.
I did wonder what the Better Together response would be to the continuing spiral downwards of their campaign. More lies and smear it would seem.
As I said on the other thread, people have been threatened on line, Louise Mensch for one and the police dealt with it arrested the troll (who bizarrely looked like a troll). So Murray/Maddox, put up or shut. If these threats are genuine let the police investigate and arrest the culprit.
As to Maddox’s piece on the poll…why bother having a journalist at all. I am sure Better Together could, possibly did, write it for him. The only thing that has a credibility issue is whether journalists like Maddox have any professional credibility. A Maddox perhaps but definitely not a Ford Madox Ford.
From the police wording it would lead most to believe that the MP in question has not reported any threats to his staff prior to having reported it to the newspapers. It also seems that the threats are then downgraded to “comments” by the police. Either someone has been leaving telephone messages or perhaps it’s facebook (but then wouldn’t they have names?) someone may have used an expletive in his direction or threatened him with a sticker?
The analogy of cornered rats is apt, if slightly unfair on the rodents.
They’ve lost the argument and they know it. We’re into the endgame now, where instead of the fabled ‘positive case for the union’ (exeunt stage left having fluffed its lines) we’ll now see a co-ordinated campaign of smear and vilification by the entity known as Better Together (i.e the MSM and the BBC). Watch as the latter in particular descends to depths we wouldn’t have thought possible a few short years ago, and it’s a process which will now happen very quickly.
I do expect much worse to come, as the YES vote heads into the lead. Remember, the ‘British establishment’ has form around the world, and in Ireland, of using the dirtiest of tactics and smearing of prominent individuals. They have also in the past used agents provocateurs elsewhere and in Scotland, to incite violence.
It actually makes me sad to see the Scotsman stoop to this level, but I actually gave up on them the day the printed a saltire, the flag of this country, made into a swastika.
Interesting that at the same time, Labour put forward George Foulkes as their new mouthpiece for the No campaign. The man who coined ‘cybernat’. Who sees himself as zoom kind of arbiter of truth especially on Twitter. Probably the nastiest piece of work, short of Ian Davidson, they could have picked. Oh yes, things are going to turn nasty from here on out.
Ah feel a song coming on,Caught in a Trap an I cant walk out
something Mr Darling cant walk away from a resounding YES.
For an online newspaper that regularly hosted political in house polls attracting votes in tens of thousands, it’s illuminating to note that most comment pages often attract less up/down ticks than single figures.
They are the masters of their own destruction. They have made their bed, they now have to die in it…
We need to wear our Yes badges. I noticed last night at choir practice, and you can’t get any more mildly respectable than a village choir rehearsing renaissance Scottish music and Brahms in a village hall, two of us in the front row were wearing Yes badges. (And the conductor, while a lovely bloke, is, how can I put it, “not Yes yet” according to his wife, so I kind of wonder what he thought about it.)
They’re trying to intimidate us into going underground and hiding and not demonstrating our strength in public. We have to make sure they don’t succeed in that.
“You can be confident that shortly after a NO vote in September Tories, Labour and LibDems will get together and work out a sensible scheme of increased powers for the Scottish Parliament.
These will surely include plans to…..oh, look, was that a squirrel?”
DEceiVO Max
I’ve been out buying the Sunday Herald the past few weeks (the only paper I’ve bought in years).
Wouldn’t it be great if the Sunday Herald’s circulation figure went up while all others are headed for the big zero.
Mr Maddox once made the mistake of allowing his photograph to appear in the Scotsman or it may have been on TV.
Once you see his face you don’t have to be a direct descendant of Sigmund Freud to work out the reasoning behind the bile which is sneakily presented in his Indy articles on an almost daily basis.
You wouldn’t have to be head of Politics at Edinburgh to work out this man was no friend of Independence. His name alone guarantees pro unionist mush with a good dolloping of anti Indy slime.
But he IS highly rated at the Scotsman oddly enough.
YES18
I like how Anas gets Foulkes involved, poor wee JoLa doesnt get a mention in the whole article about “Labour o Bring on the Peers” As if presenting these trough snouted folk will help Labour?
I see its actually The Rev to blame for us going to see more of the lovely Lord Foulkes on Scotland tonight..
Asas – “The whole of Team Scottish Labour – the youth team, first team and legends – are coming together to make sure we run the biggest and most effective campaign we have ever done.”
Lord Foulkes admitted the narrowing polls helped trigger the move.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/independence-referendum-labour-legends-drafted-3383905
Morag, if you want to know the size of the sticker, keep your eyes peeled, because there are identical ones in the vicinity left by The Newington Stickerer. One is attached to the bus stop on the main road south of Ian Murray’s office heading north. It is about 3 inches wide.
George Foulkes?
Really? That is fantastic news 🙂
I agree Wayne. The Sunday Herald much more pro Indy these days, I’ve also been buying it regularly this year. The past two weeks I’ve got the last paper in the box while piles of SoS sat patiently nearby.
I also hope their sales go up and at only £1.30 it’s very good value.
YES18
The Scotsman is in its death throes, no doubt about it. When it is eventually bust, its debts settled, and its ‘journalists’ have most likely moved to North Korea to continue with their professions by writing blurb for Kim Jong Un (as that’s probably the only place where they will find employment), then the title ‘The Scotsman’ should be up for grabs.
I’ll consider bidding 10p. Any other offers?
Thanks, Craig. I had guessed about three inches. I’d just like to see how it compares to the size of the letters of his phone number, which are just above. I’ll check out the bus stop as well.
@oughBounds
WingsOverScotsman might need a smaller font when printed 😉
Wow. The Scotsman really is out of control! Incredible stuff.
Labour legends in the Lords.
clearly lost the plot
absolutely no one respects the house of lords
We should think carefully about the theoretical scenarios to which Cath and Grousebeater have pointed. The Scotsman has indeed declined to a pitiable level, but it would seem an ideal channel for the development of such a ‘No’ strategy as it could be represented as a ‘national’ broadsheet in the UK media.
The best way to prevent such dangerous ‘mood music’ taking hold would seem to be the vigilance of us all and the rapid demolition of such bogus ‘stories’ with evidence, as in the ridiculous ‘vandalised office’ tale, and by hard searching questions as Dcnmore indicated in his post. Despite BT’s flood of negativity and scaremongering, the polls are only moving our way because ordinary people are talking to ordinary people and thus, despite the ‘media’ the facts are being heard and, to Darling’s evident horror, being thought about.
Amazingly, this is still overwhelmingly a rational process – and any whipping up of ‘feelings’ is, by definition, playing the ‘Nos’ game. Let’s keep our friends and neighbours thinking, for rational consideration will be the best guarrantee that dirty tricks – whether on so-called scary ‘facts’ or on hyped-up emotions – will not work.
As a military type I would be concerned that all this hype and noise is an attempt to deflect from what they are actually up to.
But given it is the Hootsmon, on further thought, this is clearly just another Elizabeth Bott moment from Better Together and they will just scream and Scream, and SCREAM until they are sick …. yet again.
There is something sad about a campaign whose only tactic is to bang its collective head against the same brick wall over and over, and over again.
I’ve had a Email from BT control,their supposed to be meeting
up at 6pm at Grahamshill Road Airdrie,Mon/Tues/Wed to do some doorstepping, there’s only a Grahamshill Street & a Avenue,probably a typo, if anybody’s near Motherwell Rd/Forrest St Airdrie at that time have a look see what their up to,Airdrie Yes is on the hunt to.
Remember folks, some journalists will be working for the British Security Services. A plan will have been worked out years ago for the situation we are in.
@morag, got one on every jacket, and 2 on the car.
Was looking for a Polish Yes badge as a few of the parents in the Nursery school queue are from Poland.
🙂
@ronnie anderson.
Ronnie, it’s not ‘their’, it’s ‘they’re. ie short for ‘they are’.
But thanks for the info.
Morag, don’t have it to hand but in the picture I seen with zoomed in enlargement, the enlarged area was clearly not from the same photo.
I’m afraid there is something to worry about. These lies in the M.S.M, led by their cheerleader the B.B.C, will continue unabated until the referendum date, and beyond, no matter the result. Although the quote varies, the premise is that if you tell a lie often enough, people will eventually come to believe it. And that came from the legendary propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Since a lot of the electorate still get their information from either the print media, or the various news channels, and since they are mostly parroting the Westminster Government propaganda, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get our message across to the voting public. As the first D.G of the B.B.C, John Reith said, “They, the Government, know we don’t have to be impartial, really”. And this view was reinforced last year when the present incumbent, Tony Hall, reinforced that view. Anybody in any doubt about that position just has to read Professor John Robertson’s U.W.S report. On the positive side we are getting our message out on the streets, I know because I’m one of them, but despite the polls still progessing in our favour, it’s still going to be an uphill battle, and the smears are going to get a lot worse before we, hopefully win.
@gerry parker.
Gerry. Polish for Yes is Tak.
It shouldn’t be difficult to get something printed off on your computer that they could put in their car window.
@The Rough Bounds
No one loves a peddant!
Remember,support for independence has increased dramatically DESPITE the efforts of MSM.Some would argue partly because of MSM bias.Lets not get too carried away with an article in a unionist paper.Lets just keep doing what we are doing,with a smile and a positive message.Leave the scowling and girning to Alistair Darling and co.Lets not get caught up in a slanging match.We have nothing to gain from it.
BT’s plan B (now that panic is setting in) is to attempt to deny that Yes is moving ahead. It’s a standard political tactic to try to prevent critical mass being achieved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass_(sociodynamics)
Of course BT’s media allies will play along.
In so many ways this is a good sign because it shows they know they are losing.
@Desimond
Many women like a pendant.
Big Jock says
This joke originated with a D.Cameron as the subject.
Obviously someone changed it to protect the guilty
I wonder if if I should continue to refer to Tory MPs as ‘rats’? Time and time again they’ve scurried across the border to spread their poison, whether it be RatDavid surfing up the Clyde on a sub telling us we need nukes incase N.Korea attack us in 30 years time, or RatCarbunkle threatening shipbuilders with unemployment, or RatBastardGideon telling us we can’t keep our pound, before scurrying back to the darkest recesses of Westminster.
Rats are not, as the Rev pointed out, as bad as that.
I would like to publicly apologise to rats everywhere for the gross misuse of said analogy.
bloody hell get a sticker a few days later it turns into death threats wit the hell is it a morph
this clown ran the whole of the edinburgh festival sigle handed he even built the thing bet he even built the castle bet when the troops came out to perform with all their big guns GCHQ MI5-6-7 and the wee bingo lady hid him anonymously of course
this a£$%^&*e would feel targeted in mothercare
ian murray you have been named and shamed
ian murray aka the hood with a mood
One of the benefits of the online edition of The Herald is the comments after articles. The commentators are predominately pro-indy, which is good from our point of view, and may explain why The Herald is still the most balanced Scottish paper. But no matter which side they take, most people there are intelligent and respectful.
Contrast that with The Scotsman. When I get to the comments after an article there, I feel like I’ve been confronted by an Orange Walk. The Unionism on display is raw and vicious.
Like The Herald, The Scotsman seems to be playing to its readership. Fortunately, like the No campaign, it’s support is dwindling.
Crediblity of Hootsman wnet down the pan long before this episode. Don think many old folk read it anymore either.
Hope they do a piece on the intimidation & threats including swearing (actual not cybernetic) of the SDL NO side nutter at YES events on Youtube. Sure Maddox will cover that at some point? Surely ??
Proper journalsim & all that.
Aye right !
…and The Herald is codemned by some of the No persuasion as a SNP paper; must be doing something right then.
I’ve always thought it bizarre that the Scotsman held fast to its title though it showed scant concern for Scotland’s political well being.
For decades it has fed us a diet of kailyard tales, couthy eccentricity, slavishly assuming any party but the SNP the natural party of governance.
Instead, it gives us peeks at how smarty couples refurbish their homes by paying others lots of money to do it, and how to bake savoury oat cakes for the house warming party.
Sadly, though others must find him readable, I regard as genteel the paper’s obsession with the kindly Alexander McCall Smith’s meanderings. But they must have readers in reasonable numbers keen on his fiction.
When it comes to the independence debate Jamieson rises above his colleagues’ mediocrity now and again, but quite frankly, it isn’t good enough. The journalists never quite seem intellectually equipped or robust enough to handle the politics of a modern Scotland.
The newspaper had an historical opportunity to grasp the thistle, but instead held firmly to the English rose.
Then again, it will answer that criticism by pleading it could do no more when owned by the Barclay Brothers. But that was years ago. The newspaper’s stance hasn’t altered since.
In the same way are apt to refer to Donald Dewer, we can say about the Scotsman without remorse it has served its historical purpose. It’s time for a radical replacement.
Some sort of strategy is definitely needed to head off the last available avenue left to the Unionist campaign.
Crowd funding to pay for an academic to do a study of the abuse of Yes as well as No campaigners on the street and online would be a good start.
A lot of people would like to help the Yes campaign but could be put off if they think they will be abused on the street, which is obviously a problem if the research shows that Yes people had been abused a lot more than the No’s. I have never come across abuse but only raised voices from middle aged English people who are genuinely amazed that what they think they know is all wrong. Very hard to change their minds but at least they go away with the facts.
Yes is a wonderfully inclusive, positive and non political party movement, and as such it is very difficult to fight against. The only way Westminster is going to stop the advance of Yes now is to make it look nasty, insular and anti English.
As others have also said on this site, caw canny, and let us keep our cool until 19th September. This is just as important as getting our argument across to the multitudes who only see the mainstream media.
The threat of Westminster using underhand tactics is the only thing that worries me. Seeing Scotland go is only the start of the domino effect that will eventually end their cosy arrangements. I suppose if I had no conscience I would also work against my country and people to keep my snout in the trough.
Disappointing is not the word for it.
@gerryparker,gerry I forgot to thank you for visiting me on Frid & for the packet of Wagon Wheels,yum yum.
Sadly yet more evidence of the win at all costs mentality of some on the No side. Victory heedless of consequence. At least all doubt has been dispelled and we know for sure that the Scotsman is really the North Briton.
A pity that a one proud newspaper has been reduced to so sorry a state.
I’m sure many of your good readers remember vividly as I do, Maddox stating in the Scotsman that he had his windows smashed no less than seven times by SNP supporters. Yet strangely it was never brought to the attention of the law. He was the original Susan Calman. He justified the closing of comments on his lying articles on that basis, not the snivelling cowardice we all know him for. @Maddox is a joke in the same mould as Glen Campbell of BBC fame. It is classic Unionist tactics from the McBride/ McTernan school of political debate. McTernan is on record if I could bother looking, as saying the only policy to adopt is to attack attack attack. How did that go for you in Australia then Mc? Booted out weren’t you?
Yer welcome Ronnie, I thought they’d be one of your favourites.
Was watching you on the live streaming at the counting house. Sorry I couldn’t make it.
Will be at the Strathclyde Park event though.
MochaChoca, really?? I didn’t realise that. I must take a closer look.
Looking at the figures a uniform increase in both YES and NO does make a fractional difference if you remove DK from the balance. Having chose to deal with things that way No are kind of stuck with it.
Assuming 100% accuracy, which we obviously haven’t got, 40/45/15 – 41/46/13 is 47.06/52.95 – 47.13/52.87 which isn’t particularly spectacular as it’s only a change from 5.88 – 5.74
The relevance here is that using the chosen method a reduction in the DK vote give a slight but apparent reduction in the gap between YES and NO and highlights the danger in using that method of calculating the swing needed. Which is important because whereas initially the difference seemed almost out of reach now it’s looking like a distinct possibility. And given that the NO side has been trying to undermine out confidence anything that makes voting YES seem like it might just win isn’t something they want to contemplate.
Something similar might have been part of the logic behind the 40% requirement in ’79 over and above the obvious attempt to rig it. If you feel your vote is meaningless then you’ll be far less inclined to cast it.
Gordon E’s suggestion for crowd funding of academic research into the behaviour of the two campaigns with particular reference to intemperate/violent language/behaviour is an excellent one. Could the Rev. and Wings start a camapign to set this up – assuming it is not/has not been done already? The funding for the media research has been a success and I’m sure this could be too. I’d be very happy to make a donation to this – and let’s get it started now – well before it could be, in any way, dragged into the official campaign funding period. How about it Rev.?
Having loved little furry things for all my life, I like rats too, but I can’t figure out how the male rats manage to walk sometimes.
Hasn’t the said article mentioned that the police have appointed a personal security advisor to Alex Salmond because of fears for his saftey following threats and abuse.
I’m sure many of your good readers remember vividly as I do, Maddox stating in the Scotsman that he had his windows smashed no less than seven times by SNP supporters.
The bricks were autographed were they 🙂
Perhaps it is a metaphor for his feelings being hurt when people demolished his pathetic articles.
The headline and the first paragraph has now been updated, do you think the Prof has complained to them about misrepresenting what he said?
“Expert warns over poll showing highest Yes backing
A leading polling expert has said that a poll giving the Yes campaign its highest rating ever should not be taken as evidence that polls are relentlessly moving towards a Yes vote.”
Found this on a tweet from Pat Kane on
http://www.thoughtland.info/unitedkingdom/
https://twitter.com/BritNatAbuseBot
Shocking stuff.
I think now is the time for Salmond to invite Darling to a televised debate. Darling has to be exposed for what he is.
I must say I profoundly disagree with the practice of equating Unionist politicians to rats. This is inaccurate and harsh, for there are some things you just can’t get a rat to do.
Indigo
That is a quite a change from the first print. It will all be the fault of those nasty cybergnats again 🙂
King Billy decreed the best example to impose obedience on the Scots was the tardi MacDonalds, saying, “Extirpate that troublesome clan.”
Today, the SNP are the chosen clan.
And just as there were back in the day, there are Scots today assuming themselves the rightful authority, happy to do Westminster’s bidding.
@Cath says:
You are of course completly correct. It seems the media and politicians in Scotland by their behaviour are giving the impression that it is ok to abuse Scotland’s first minister, demonize supporters of independence and name call and smear at will.
To date we have a pensioner with a broken arm after an unprevoked attack, a person charged with threatening to assinate scotland’s first minister, a yes campaign group hounded out of a local venue under the veiled threat of “for your own saftey” and the police being so concerned by the unionist hate campaign aimed at Scotland’s firs minister that they feel it nessecary to appoint him a personal security advisor.
The politicians and their media attacks dogs will have a lot of explaining to de if anyone comes to harm as a result of their hatred and bile. It is totally irresponsible.
The constantly changing published story is a bit interesting. I wonder if this actually normal practice, in terms of trying to stir up as much interest as possible via click-baiting.
A publication apparently on its last legs like that probably survives from month to month on advertising revenue. Like a starving rat.. OK, not quite like a starving rat.
Rev just some advice from a Biologist who has sought escaped rodents more than he cares to remember. Even though in my case it was largely mice the method should work for Rattus rattus or Rattus norvegicus.
You need a brush and dustpan, ideally the dustpan should be a deep one with an area a rodent will find a potentially attractive bolthole. The brush is used to ‘encourage’ the rodent towards the dustpan which is held tight to the skirting. Once the escapologist is within the pan you lift it and grab it by the tail or simply dump it back into an appropriate holding facility.
As for Rattus journalismus Scottus best isolate and ignore in order to starve into extinction.
I wonder where this increase in tension he’s talking about is? Haven’t noticed it myself; maybe EK is a divided hotbed but I doubt it, somehow.
When out and about in a Yes top (I periodically wear one of the excellent training tops to go running in) I have observed the following range of behaviour. Most people pay no real attention beyond a quick glance to verify that they’re not going to get flattened by a lumbering ginger bloke. The second largest group smile, give thumbs up, shout phrases along the line of ‘well done, big man’ and they’re not talking about my running; one memorable one was ‘well done, mate, yer on the right side.’
And in a group all on his own is the sole half sozzled bloke in a Rangers shirt, falling out of what I know to be a bit of an Orange bolthole pub, calling me all the names in the wide range of Glaswegian insults and shouting numerous allusions to my sexuality, my parentage and my religion; interesting, that last one, since nothing about the Yes campaign is remotely concerned with which particular creed you follow. He never mentioned that I was bright red and looked like I was about to expire; I thought that was nice of him. Fat ginger bloke running; I always look like I’m about to expire.
But as I say, he was sozzled, so I’ll cut him some slack. He’d be far from the only Scotsman who turns into an offensive pillock when he’s been on the sauce.
The campaign is not in imminent danger of turning inot widespread violence. But if it does, we know pretty well where the violence will start and it isn’t with Yes campaigners.
Tick Tock
That is one of the funniest things I have read this year. (And many of the funnier ones are from the Wee Ginger Dug blog, come to think of it.)
Sorry, I posted that last on the wrong thread. It’s actually a quote from the Wee Ginger Dug on the next thread!
This is getting to be a very dirty business indeed and of coarse it won’t be the majority of the NOs that are spewing this bile. I hope Scotland NEVER forgets the people who are trying to win a referendum with lies,intimidation and malevolence! Pity most of this is coming from a party that used to stand up for and fight for Scottish people! THE LABOUR PARTY seem to have got down and dirty, probably because they will lose their “material things”that they fight for now!
Let’s NOT forget these people when we get Independence , but caw canny with them just now!
Now in its third incarnation, that I’m aware of, the first version of the poll story was more than twice as long as the note that’s now left of it. 664 words has been condensed to around 300 not including the addition of ‘by David Maddox’ at the top.
@Morag,
Please don’t go anywhere near that office.
It looks like a potential set-up and you could be putting yourself in the frame. Remember, the upstairs property is vacant and it would be fairly risk free for that place to go up.
You have written a fairly controversial book and would be frame-able.
Please, I beg of you, stay away from there.
Hey, I went there last Wednesday on my way to choir practice. Nobody so much as said hello. I only want to measure the width of two of the numbers in the phone number. I can do that without even touching his window.
Morag, just a hunch but I smell a BIG FAT RAT. I see you are very anylitical in your thinking but weigh the odds, is it worth it just to satisfy a wee curiosity?
Lets face it, the stcker photo is probably a hoax anyway, the purpose of which seems obvious, to draw attention to something, don’t be drawn in. Forget about it please.
I still want to figure out MochaChoca’s comment annyway – that the close-up isn’t the same photo as the wider shot.
If there’s another example of the same sticker on a nearby bus stop I could just measure that I suppose.
I would be surprised if all these nasty nats were causing all this alleged lawbreaking since in Scotland, crime is down and the fear of crime is down on previous figures.
Good job lying to us is not a criminal offence, A Darling would be a state sponsored one man crimewave.
Switch off from it Morag, please. Concentrate your efforts on here and in your footfall work, you are too valuable to the cause to go jeopardizing your safety over a pointless attention seeking MP and his tuppenny sticker hoax.
Switch off from it Morag, please.
Concentrate your efforts on here and in your footfall work, you are too valuable to the cause to go jeopardizing your safety over a pointless attention seeking MP and his tuppenny sticker hoax.
Sorry, double post 🙁
@Alex Beveridge.
Don’t worry, Alex. We are countering the MSM propaganda here in Ayrshire. There are thousands of ‘Aye Right’ leaflets going out along with a ’Yes’ strength of opinion survey testing YES/NO tendencies.
The ‘Aye Right’ leaflet gives all the pro-independence web sites available on the net (14 of them),starting with wingsoverscotland.com (of course!) and finishing with bbcscotlandshire.co.uk. Ihave delivered 1000 of these myself and there are hundreds of others doing the same.
MochaChoca, it’s the same photo. The relationship of the sticker to the reflection of the road markings is identical.
The scotsman is a joke these days!
Hubby finally stopped buying it last month, out of disgust,ive never been a fan anyway and only buy the sunday herald now.
I can see it folding in a couple of years anyway, and would suggest no one comments on their bile ridden comments pages.
It would be so funny to see those NO bigots wondering who to attack,themselves maybe?
At least the Hootsmon has stopped any pretence and is now just brazenly publishing Pulp Fiction: The Shadow Goes for the Messages.
http://logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/pulp-fiction-shadow-goes-for-messages.html
Nothing to add here that hasn’t already been said, except to reiterate Rev’s position on rats being affectionate, highly intelligent animals whom – notwithstanding the odd nip when they are grumpy – are extremely rewarding companions entirely comfortable sharing human living space. Rats get a bad press – almost as bad as Nats – but this seems to be almost entirely down to their ill-deserved reputation as plague carriers, when in fact it was the fleas whom were the guilty party.
Funny how they are so many parallels in the animal kingdom for Westminster politics.
I also sympathise with Rev for his loss of expensive computer cables. It’s irritating when it stops work, but a small price to pay for the rewards given by cute critters with personality whose IQ is far higher than the average BritNat.
🙂
I actually only want to know the dimensions of the sticker, which nobody has actually posted yet. So if anyone has one, or access to one, you could tell me, and then I wouldn’t be tempted to turn left into West Mayfield on Wednesday evening….
There are quite a few around the Southside. They are about 4″ x 2.5″.
About?? What sort of an answer is that? I need measurements, kiddo!
4 inches by 2.5 inches Morag.
Col
Stop bragging.
Heh, goldenayr, you are naughty!