The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The Curran Prophecy

Posted on June 06, 2013 by

ANDREW NEIL, 5-6-2013: Would you keep child benefit for better-off taxpayers?

MARGARET CURRAN: Well, what we are saying, and Ed will make his own speech tomorrow, and I don’t have foresight of that… What we are saying is when you get into government, and when we come in in 2015, we won’t be able to do all that we wanted to do… Will child benefit for the wealthiest people be our top priority? I’m not sure about that.

ED MILIBAND, 6-6-2013: When it comes to the decisions of the next Labour government it won’t be our biggest priority to overturn the decisions this government has made on taking child benefit away from families earning over £50,000 a year.

We must admit, for someone who hasn’t seen the speech it’s a heck of a guess. Does anyone want to ask Ms Curran if she’s got a score forecast for Croatia vs Scotland?

29 to “The Curran Prophecy”

  1. ianbrotherhood says:

     
    Perhaps the cohesion of the thought and relatively unscathed syntax is more of a clue than the substance of the comment.

    Reply
  2. handclapping says:

    Of course she wont have seen the whole speech. It was written by a series of commissions debating each idea and then sewn together at the last moment. Sort of like designing a horse in committee. And what a jockey! Definitely worth the odds.

    Reply
  3. YesYesYes says:

    After a Yes vote next year maybe Mystic Magrit could be employed to predict the numbers in an independent Scotland’s Lotto. 

    Reply
  4. crisiscult says:

    2-1 to Scotland is my prediction. Croatia were better off together. Why did they break up a union of almost a century, and their team of 1990 was great.

    Reply
  5. G. Campbell says:

    “Does anyone want to ask Ms Curran if she’s got a score forecast for Croatia vs Scotland?”

    Foreigners 3 – 0 North Brits *

    * my forecast, actually, but done in a Mags stylee

    Reply
  6. Davy says:

    Just dont ask her about Denis Healey ????????????

    Reply
  7. Jim Mitchell says:

     
    Davy says:, Ah but then Davy it’s fore-site that seems to be her strong suit, not hind-site! but then Labour don’t like looking back as they might be reminded of what they were actually founded for!

    Reply
  8. Ron says:

    There’s a scarier possibility Rev … Ed Miliband is getting his ideas from Mags.

    Reply
  9. ianbrotherhood says:

    @handclapping-
     
     ‘Sort of like designing a horse in committee.’
     
    Aye. People like Curran, Lamont, Miliband, Darling etc were designed by committee – whatever individuality or creativity they once possessed has been sandblasted away by decades of being instructed what to think and say, how to talk, walk, dress, respond to every possible question etc etc.
     
    They don’t ‘believe’ anything more than a barrelled dog ‘believes’ it’s improving its lot by barking at anyone who may rattle the protruding stick.
     
    FTWFLOT 

    Reply
  10. HighlandMartin says:

    Good one @crisiscult
     
    Having being overexercised in the media, our St Maggie was sent to Donside this evening, tweeting pics of the sky in Aberdeen. 
    God bless this gift to the Vote Yes campaign.
     
     

    Reply
  11. Red squirrel says:

    Speech must have been written by Dada engine – randomly generated and meaningless. Actually that would probably be an improvement.

    Reply
  12. Stevie says:

    The BritNats are the dirtiest bunch of liars and self-serving cheats I’ve ever seen and they are utter rubbish at lying to boot.
    Why don’t our fellow Scots see it?

    Reply
  13. Jiggsbro says:

    Why don’t our fellow Scots see it?
     
    They do. They’ve just given up on politicians in general and don’t imagine that they’d be any better in independent Scotland. Or they simply have a tribal allegiance and trust that Labour knows best what’s needed, without really bothering themselves with details. The biggest obstacle to a Yes vote is not the farcical scaremongering of BT, it’s the carefully crafted apathy and cynicism of the electorate.

    Reply
  14. Bobby Mckail says:

    I think the most important fact of today is that all of Scotland now knows that Labour are just Tory’s in red. It was always going to happen that they had to out Tory the Tories on welfare, it was just a matter of the timing. Though I think Johann Lamont was seriously deluding herself if she thought she’d get away with kicking her cuts commission into the long grass until after the referendum, that was overly pessimistic.
    Now Johann will not be able to get away with “We want to have an honest debate” anymore. She has already stated that welfare should not be devolved, but 70%+ want welfare transferred to Holyrood.
    This kind of thing is going to feature more and more over the coming months and the obfuscation tactics used will start to crumble all around Labour and their Tory Better Together bedfellows!
     

    Reply
  15. ianbrotherhood says:

     
    Who is Tychy?
     
    Does s/he have extra powers?
     
    Some kind of SuperTroll?
     
    (Whoever ye are? ye write well – nice cadence…pal.)

    Reply
  16. Adrian B says:

    Who is Tychy?
     
    I think it is Tobias Smollett, he called the rev a brown shirt and wrote this on the heavy nudge thread :
    “If you don’t like people disagreeing with your narrow censorious arbitrary counter-productive philosophy regarding songs sung at the football, don’t post such blatantly anti-freedom of speech articles.”
    Hmmmm – the article went straight over someones head and he saw it as something it wasn’t. He wasn’t the only one that made that mistake as you may remember. He can write well, his comments were always well written.
     
     

    Reply
  17. Holebender says:

    Why don’t our fellow Scots see it?
     
    Because they’re watching the BBC?

    Reply
  18. Adrian B says:

    Its all kicking off again in Glasgow Labour :
     
    link to newsnetscotland.com
     
    “George Redmond’s been sacked for disloyalty. When he got the SPT job he was told it would require him to be supportive of the leader. Instead, he’s been briefing against him, trying to undermine him. Even the dogs in the street knew he was wanting a challenge to Gordon.”

    Reply
  19. john king says:

    Jiggsbro says:
    7 June, 2013 at 12:36 am

    “Why don’t our fellow Scots see it?”
     
    Could not agree more, the no campaigns only weapon is to create such confusion and apathy in the electorate as to put them off the referendum all together, however, if there were to be a low turnout (god forbid) I think we all know who would win don’t we?
    I’m not sure they’ve thought that game plan through enough, but as the man says
    don’t interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake  

    Reply
  20. john king says:

    Unless you live on a beach, or are independently wealthy, there’s no ideal place to be unemployed. Compounding wounded egos and self-confidence, unemployment benefits represent a fraction of a worker’s previous salary and leave those without jobs short on bills, mortgage payments and living expenses.
     
    But in some countries that fraction is bigger than others.
     
    Laid-off Danes who have worked 52 weeks over the previous three years are eligible to receive 90% of their average earnings for up to four years

     
    Unemployed job seekers in Norway and Finland are almost as well off. In Norway the unemployed receive 87.6% of their previous salaries for 500 days and in Finland they receive 85.1% of their previous salaries for one year.
     
    And in Sweden, Israel, Japan and Germany, the unemployed can claim benefits worth between 66% and 90% of their last salaries.

    When we delve into the OECD’s Social Expenditure database we can see that the UK is ranked significantly below many other European nations in terms of the money it spends on welfare, including France, Germany and Italy.
     
    Britain, something for nothing eh?

    Reply
  21. Holebender says:

    …which is why I am frequently gobsmacked by the hard of thinking who claim various Johnny Foreigners are going to uproot their entire families and flit to Blighty with the sole purpose of living the life of Riley off our “generous benefits system”! Let’s face it, if you were going to go to all the trouble of moving somewhere to live off welfare wouldn’t you choose somewhere where the pay scale made it worth your while?

    Reply
  22. Desimond says:

    It isnt the power of Prophecy…Maggie has clearly taken a wee sly peek into the Directive Letter that true Labour KingPin Johann told her to pass on to wee General Ed in London

    Reply
  23. gerry parker says:

    Strange thing the media, especially the BBC.
    This blog yesterday had a lot of comments, none of them very kind to Whitehall.  Today they are all gone…..
    link to bbc.co.uk
     
     

    Reply
  24. scottish_skier says:

    Political wing of the British terrorist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force is to join the pro-union campaign.

    link to heraldscotland.com

    Ulster unionists in Scots poll protest

    THE political party affiliated with loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force is to visit Scotland as part of its opposition to the independence referendum.

    UVF, UKIP, BNP, EDL, Orange Order…

    Reply
  25. john king says:

    Unelected TORY PEER  lord Strathclyde describes a democratically elected government policy of independence “poison”
    “Thursday’s Scottish Daily Mail reported: “The battle against the ‘poison’ of Scottish nationalism reached London yesterday with the launch of a new campaign aimed at convincing English-based Scots to join the fight to save the UK. At yesterday’s launch, Lord Strathclyde branded First Minister’s independence dream as ‘poison’ …” 
    humbug anyone? 
    this from a man for whom noone has ever put an x in a box to elect him, thinks the stated will of a substantial (and growing) proportion of the Scottish electorate
    is poison, 
    just who the hell does he think he is? and what future for his ilk in an independent Scotland?

    Reply
  26. Robert Kerr says:

    Read this and weep !
    link to en.wikipedia.org.
    Then back to the Good Fight !
     

    Reply
  27. les calthorps says:

    LORD STRATHCLYDE—-just following in the footsteps of his grandfather who was a proper b——d, he, the grandfather, could not raise the funds to buy out one of his tenants so he commenced a course of intimidation and harassment on the said tenant, resulting, when he was exposed, in his having to resign as Under Secretary of State For Scotland. His Westminster friends kept his nose in the trough by shortly thereafter appointing him chairman of a large Scottish quango. 

    Reply
  28. les calthorps says:

    I should have mentioned that the exposure of Lord Strathclyde took place in the Court of Session in Edinburgh making his subsequent appointment a blatant kick in the teeth to all Scots, we of course have suffered many such slights from our lords and masters since that time.

    Reply
  29. Ron Maclean says:

    I wonder what he had to do to become Peer of the Year twice.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,727 Posts, 1,215,186 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “If it is, somebody should get them to read this afore they go: https://unherd.com/2025/04/trump-was-a-decoloniser-all-along/ Here’s a snippet: “As for the…Apr 8, 11:57
    • sarah on Mad caps: “Is Dave’s twitter about the 100 Scottish Liberation ambassadors attending the UN Committee 24 meeting in New York in June?…Apr 8, 10:43
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Welcome back Dan. The answer hasn’t changed since you were away. The answer continues to be that concerned, competent people…Apr 8, 07:49
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““now have to wonder about their validity” Welcome to the club. Vivian O’Blivion famously claimed on here that poot wants…Apr 8, 07:31
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““Justice may be on the horizon” Sure, Xaracen, but when, eh? When you look at the shit the UN is…Apr 8, 07:17
    • twathater on Mad caps: “A shoutout for Dave Llewellyn the Indy Ninja for his info on X https://x.com/TheIndyNinja1/status/1909240792356467126/photo/1Apr 8, 02:24
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Welcome to the machine.Apr 8, 01:56
    • Dan on Mad caps: “Aidan says: at 9:31 pm “You honestly think the Rev should ban people wanting to have serious conversations about Scottish…Apr 8, 00:25
    • Jay on Mad caps: “Vivian O’B, what is this ‘purple pish’ carry-on from you? I have read numerous comments from you but now have…Apr 7, 22:53
    • Aidan on Mad caps: “@Xaracen – you don’t personally rant and rave and that comment wasn’t aimed at you, whilst I don’t think your…Apr 7, 22:01
    • Xaracen on Mad caps: “Aidan said: “Exactly Robert – it’s full of people who rant and rave like you do. Nobody wants to be…Apr 7, 21:56
    • Aidan on Mad caps: “@Twathater (an interest way to project your self hatred but there we go) – I am delighted you aren’t responding…Apr 7, 21:31
    • sarah on Mad caps: “Crowdfunder for Independence Live – it needs a lot more donors. So far it has £900 of the £6500 target.…Apr 7, 21:04
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Lots going on in plucky, wee Norway – the country that all sane and rational Scots hold up as the…Apr 7, 20:37
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “So you’re claiming that US soldiers on RF soil will be summarily dispatched. The RF won’t make any political capital…Apr 7, 19:53
    • PacMan on Mad caps: “The possibility might need to be considered that the higher percentage of support amongst younger voters in polls for independence…Apr 7, 19:49
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““after 300+years of neglect and abuse Scotland and Scots are worse off than they have ever been” Here you go…Apr 7, 19:47
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Calm down, Bob. This isn’t where you post your application for camp guard in the New Scottish Gulag you and…Apr 7, 19:38
    • PacMan on Mad caps: “To be fair, most of us where taken in by this be-Kind, inclusive, civic nationalism nonsense. Look where it is…Apr 7, 19:35
    • twathater on Mad caps: “@ Robert Hughes TBQH Robert I have more or less stopped responding tae these pricks , it is the same…Apr 7, 17:48
    • Jay on Mad caps: “I wonder what Belarusian govt would say if a US military vehicle drove across the border from Lithuania? Viv. OB,…Apr 7, 14:56
    • sarah on Mad caps: “Couch as in grass not as in putting ones feet up!Apr 7, 12:42
    • Mark Beggan on Mad caps: “Scottish media in panic about Universities and their subsequent bankruptcy. Page after page, comment after comment. Children are trapped in…Apr 7, 12:34
    • sarah on Mad caps: “The “age” question is interesting. Can you remember if younger people were very visible in the 2014 campaign? From memory…Apr 7, 12:03
    • agent x on Mad caps: “Not much in the Scottish press about Swinney’s trip to New York!Apr 7, 10:25
    • Vivian O’Blivion on Mad caps: “An excerpt from an article on the website of the Atlantic Council (see also Radio Free Europe); “Lithuanians paid tribute…Apr 7, 10:21
    • Aidan on Mad caps: “Exactly Robert – it’s full of people who rant and rave like you do. Nobody wants to be associated with…Apr 7, 08:56
    • Robert Hughes on Mad caps: “” it’s also that the campaign is too closely associated with anti-Englishness, sympathy for the Kremlin sometimes and increasingly wild…Apr 7, 08:25
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: “Don’t overlook the ingrained antisemitism which a close read of the clannish, self-congratulatory backslapping posts reveals. But yes, if they…Apr 7, 07:14
    • Hatey McHateface on Mad caps: ““We voters would be in the driving seat – that would be wonderful” Would it though, sarah? In all of…Apr 7, 07:05
  • A tall tale



↑ Top