The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The habit of lying

Posted on November 12, 2017 by

Yesterday’s Daily Record (which would increasingly be an accurate three-word name for the paper) ran an innocuous piece of page-filler fluff rubbish, and for once we’re not talking about a David Torrance column.

It featured the “psychic” predictions of a man who, the Record told us – no fewer than FIVE times in the opening few lines – previously predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and who had a track record of “incredible accuracy”.

Sounds pretty spooky. Maybe he’s got the gift.

There was only one problem, as an alert Wings reader spotted.

As well as actually predicting that Trump would lose, Hamilton-Parker’s list of 2016 visions scored a strike rate, by his own count, of just TWO out of 23.

We’ll assume “EU referendum brought forward and leaves EU” is the Brexit one – congrats, Craig, a 50/50 shot came off for you – and he got just one more.

Even that was a quite a stretch. He claimed “Famous footballer shot by terrorist” was vindicated by the tragic murder of former “Rangers” player Arnold Peralta in Honduras, which is straining both the definitions of “famous” and “terrorist” to their limits.

In reality no organisation has claimed responsibility for the killing, and Peralta – who played for the five-year-old Glasgow club just 24 times over two seasons and spent the entirety of the rest of his career in the Honduran league – is believed by police to have been murdered over “personal problems”.

The Record also bizarrely credits CHP with foreseeing the July 2016 terrorist attack in Nice, although what he’d actually said was “terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and London”, before adding “It’s clear that all these places are ongoing targets and  the war on terror will escalate and you do not need to be a psychic to ‘see’ this!”

(It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that Nice is on the Mediterranean coast, next to Monaco and the Italian border, and just about as far away from Paris – 579 miles – as it’s physically possible to get while still being in France.)

Highlights of Hamilton-Parker’s failed predictions included a previously-unseen comet or asteroid having a near miss with Earth (nope), a huge earthquake in the Himalayas (nope) the discovery of nude photographs of Kim Jong-Un (thank God nope), a “new form of nanotechnology used to track terrorists” (nope) and our very favourite:

“British Labour Party splits in two with one section joining the Liberals. British Labour Party make big gains in Scotland.”

And okay, maybe the Record is giving him column inches because they just really want that last one to come true at some point.

But having said that he “foresaw Trump’s win”, “predicted Donald Trump’s White House victory”, “predicted Trump”, “predicted the election of Donald Trump” and “forecast Trump’s victory” all inside the first 112 words, it’s a slight blow to the paper’s claims of “incredible accuracy” to find out that he did the exact, precise, polar opposite.

But wait – it’s even funnier than that. Because we must with our trademark scrupulous fairness acknowledge that Hamilton-Parker later revised his prediction in the light of events to say that in fact Trump WOULD win, but would then become ill and stand down within months. So now he’d covered himself by predicting both a Trump defeat and a Trump victory, and somehow still managed to be wrong. Genius!

(The revised 2016/17 forecast also had Boris Johnson succeeding David Cameron as UK Prime Minister, a “political coup and popular uprising” in China, the Russian economy collapsing, the Euro plummeting against the pound – which didn’t pan out too well – and, excitingly, “A National Strike [being] called in Scotland in a bid for a second referendum” before next month, which oddly the Record doesn’t think its readers will be interested in hearing about.)

We can only conclude that falsehood is now so deeply, fundamentally ingrained into the Daily Record that it’ll do it instinctively even on the most trivial of nonsense stories. Readers might feel that was worth keeping in mind when reading the important ones.

Meanwhile, of course, if you want somewhere that ACTUALLY predicted a Trump win consistently from late 2015 onwards, you know where to look.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

155 to “The habit of lying”

  1. clan rossy
    Ignored
    says:

    Hamilton Parker psychic

    dont you mean psycho

  2. Andy Anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict an Indy win before 2021 is over. Odds unknown, say 4 to 3 in favour?

  3. Packhorse Pete
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict continuing and irreversible circulation decline for this silly comic.

  4. Muscleguy
    Ignored
    says:

    Are Record hacks (journalist seems to honourable a word for them) ridiculously gullible or do they hold their readership in utter contempt? Note these two options are not mutually exclusive so both is a likely answer.

    From being duped by Gordo to being duped by an utterly inaccurate psychic. What a shower.

  5. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    That means that the Daily Records predictions are even worse than the Psychic they employed to predict stuff

    I predict the Orange Lodge will be banned from marching in our streets in Glasgow and David *Loyal* Clegg will lose his mind over it on live TV

    Stick that in your Record Record

  6. geeo
    Ignored
    says:

    Ah…but did he predict that 40 Tory MP’s are said to be willing to put their names to a motion of No Confidence in Theresa May ?

    http://archive.is/IiO84

  7. sassenach
    Ignored
    says:

    Perhaps if the ‘Record’ transposed the two columnists, Torrance and CPH, there might actually be some real humour in the rag.

  8. Hamish100
    Ignored
    says:

    Did he predict the Vow in the Record would be delivered and did he write it with Torc Crichton an Torrance?

    Who would buy such a paper or aacept a free copy handed out at a railway station to boost this circulation figures.

  9. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Is he a distant cousin of that well known pundit / seer J.’Nostradamus’ McTernan ?

  10. David MacGille-Mhuire
    Ignored
    says:

    CHP: The DR’s go to bald geezer taking the wheezer out of Mystic Meg aka aye the Scots “journos” on downtime, needing a few quid, and taking turns at pretending (?) to fondle their BritNat crystal balls and replicate the Brahan Seer – jiggery-pokereyed with – to suit their BritNat masters’ auto-erotic plus shagging the natives, imperialist agenda?

    Knew a few of them in the 1970s/1980s/early 1990s from various titles who did just this.

  11. Scottish Steve
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh, Daily Record. Desperation is too weak a word. I long for the day that print media finally dies.

  12. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Ach! Ye canna keep a guid mystic doon.

    Mind ye they say if ye yaise my-stic(k) like a widdin stake an drive it ben his/her heart it works afu weel.

  13. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    Seems awfully early for the quack predictions for the forthcoming year. What will they fill the holiday editions up with for the New Year?

  14. Socrates MacSporran
    Ignored
    says:

    Ach! Predictions at Anderston Quay have never been the same since dear old Madame Astra, who came from Catrine, crossed to the other side and left a huge hole in the Sunday Mail.

    Any way, the writing of “Jackie Baillie” predictions in the Record is the province of the Sports Desk, and, since neither cheek of the sectarian erse, or the Scotland football team, was in action over the weekend, they were all off.

    So, they had to use this probably syndicated “Jackie Baillie” to fill a hole.

  15. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    Shame the Record didn’t ask him to predict their circulation figures in 2018, or maybe they did and couldn’t believe it.

  16. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    A “new form of nanotechnology used to track terrorists”.

    Well, that’s an interesting prediction because we aren’t likely to find out if it’s true for a good few years, are we?

    Maebee they can, maebee they cannae! 🙂

  17. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that “Yesterday’s Daily Record” sales will fall further in 2018.
    WoS view figures will rise.
    There. That wasn’t difficult.

  18. CmonIndy
    Ignored
    says:

    It is just an attempt to suck the residual neurons from the skull cavities of the readers. Then they will fall for Vow2.

  19. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Socrates MacSporran says: 12 November, 2017 at 1:24 pm:

    ” … So, they had to use this probably syndicated “Jackie Baillie” to fill a hole.”

    Whit! They yaised Jackie Baillie tae fill a hole?

    Yon maun hae been ae muckle michty big void whit they needed tae fill.

  20. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    To be fair he was close to being right in his prediction for 2016 of the Turks entering Syria and attacking the Kurds

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-begins-offensive-free-syria-s-jarablus-1737209437

  21. Andy-B
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict that Daily Records sales will continue to plummet, that Alex Salmond’s RT show will be a success.

    I also predict that, predicting is very unpredictable.

    However yoon behaviour is almost certainly predictable.

  22. artyhetty
    Ignored
    says:

    You really couldn’t make it up could you! The record can though, insulting peoples’ intelligence and wasting tons paper in the process. National strike in Scotland! At least that might infer that Scotland is an actual country. Do we need to strike en masse to demand an independence referendum?

    Did he predict Catalonia, no. Though some of the stuff could be true for all anyone knows, if they just stick to watching britnat tv, being fed pap from the bbc and stv and the daily rags. Might not be so far fetched then eh. 🙂

    D.Record is a joke.

  23. Socrates MacSporran
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Peffers @ 1.37pm

    Very good Auld Rab, but, if they filled a muckle hole wi’ “Jackie Baillie” ye maun droon, wi’ bad exposure to Ammonia into the bargain.

  24. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    British tabloids are an odd thing, in any democracy, even one like ours.

    Logic dictates that tory hacks that fart this kind of nonsense into the ether for a living would have little or no cred, but and so, beeb gimp network wheels them out regular as UKOK toryboy clock work, Crichton Torcuil in particular, their very creepy editor from Belfast also, all get seated in that half billion quid Pacific Quay mausoleum to British rule, as if they’re not actually scary clowns.

  25. Balaaargh
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict that there will be terrorist attacks in 2018. At least one will be in a major city.

    Also, rich white men will make money.

    There, this clairvoyancy stuff is dead easy!

  26. mike d
    Ignored
    says:

    Dont forget Alex on lbc at 3pm. Freeview channel 732. Wonder if he will comment on his new chat show.

  27. MajorBloodnok
    Ignored
    says:

    Even iScot Magazine’s Mystic Mons Meg is more accurate than this. And I should know.

  28. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    More hopeless drivel from The Daily Stranger to The Truth.

    You’d think they wouldn’t even bother in the Age of The Rev.

    *sighs*

    “The five-year-old Glasgow club…”

    Stuart Campbell confesses in Noel Coward voice, “I can’t help it.”

    😛

  29. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    Well it’s not surprising that the Daily Record, con of the Scots, would publish Hamilton-Parker’s, number one psychic conman – charlatan, predictions. Mr Craig Hamilton-Parker who has a Scottish name and his grandfather used to sing songs about the heather can clearly see Scotland’s future now. Chrichton and Clegg will be clinging to that.

    It should bring us all great cheer therefore, in light of his list of ‘failures’, that he’s predicted that we won’t win Indyref2.

    The great psychic doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that Nicola Sturgeon is our First Minister, not Alex Salmond. Time to get his crystal ball out again. ”Although a second referendum has been asked for by Salmond today. That’s 13th of the third (2017).”

    He also seems to be unaware of small, highly successful Scandinavian countries, as an example, that we can compare with. Prefers to use the example of Lithuania.”If Lithuania can survive so can we.”

    Trump will intervene. Won’t want to trade with us and the EU won’t want us, AGAIN!

    He predicted that we would lose last time round ”well ahead of the event when we were ‘neck and neck’.” Eh!

    The man spouts a load of old guff just like the Daily Record and like the Record is also ripping people off. ”I, Craig Parker-Hamilton, am a psychic medium with my own TV Shows and author of 15 books.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-1yb3T4yF4

  30. mike cassidy
    Ignored
    says:

    And the Daily Record had to get a Daily Mirror hack to write this guff..

    https://twitter.com/taylorjoshua1

  31. Gary45%
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m going out on a limb here. In 2018, I predict it will get darker in the evening and lighter in the morning.
    Methinks total fuddery in action.
    FUD

  32. kevin
    Ignored
    says:

    Ha-ha. Fantastic comic relief – makes a change from the ‘hand relief’ served-up by unionist midden-press and stable-floor lackeys from the BBC.

    Hey, anyone know where I can get A FEW THOUSAND Wings stickers (at a decent rate) so that I can decorate public places? I mean, surely folk should have sources of proper and honest news about their country? Let’s put it out there!

  33. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict that following independence the Daily Record will no longer exist, Clegg and Chrichton will be in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance and that Stu will have his own radio and television programmes.

  34. Hamish100
    Ignored
    says:

    In fairness to the Daily record… they are just printing what they have been given from their English based Mirror group owners.

    They have to do what they are told after all they are just like the Tory and Labour branch offices. Even tripe from a hyphenated named person must be printed.

    A free press!

    Jokes on them.

  35. Ian Mackay
    Ignored
    says:

    To be fair to the Record, McTernan predictions are SO terrible that they have had to cast the net wider to get a (slightly) more accurate wild-eyed soothsayer that also believes in a Scottish Labour renaissance.

    Of course, Hamilton-Parker has a long way to go before achieving McTernan’s absolute wrongness.

    But a new hashtag might just await him.

  36. mike cassidy
    Ignored
    says:

    The level of psychic twattery spilling out of this idiot can best be summed up here in this claim of 80% accuracy in a prediction for 2017.

    “There will be a big fire in Las Vegas. 8/10 CORRECT The ‘fire’ was gunfire as well as a fire in the hotel room where the gunman took aim ”

    http://archive.is/Z8NfC

  37. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Oh well they fill their pages with useless junk every day so what’s another load of tosh, it could be worse it could be a daily rant from some Labour bod , oops that’s covered already my mistake .

  38. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    And I forgot to add to my last post, on a more serious note, that I predict a massive currency revolution impact on the UK (world-wide in fact), commencing next year, affecting currency, taxation and the share markets. A new one-World digital currency is coming, sooner than later. And if I’m right I’ll expect to be on the front page of the Daily Record. Romany gypsy Petra Petulengro out does psychic Craig Hamilton-Parker, lol.

  39. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Listening to LBC, Alex on top of his game, one asked why he did not run the country, another asked if Nicola could!

    He hammered into Boris assisted by many callers.
    He is being respected in London, at least by thinking people.
    Really polished performance.

    Try and catch it when you can.

  40. PictAtRandom
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict that the LibDems will put up paper candidates in Gordon, Berwickshire, Roxburgh &c and then Wee Willie Rennie will say that the Tories need to be cleaned out.

    Oh wait…

  41. TYRAN
    Ignored
    says:

    All these can be explained. “Gas attack in an underground station” was someone’s work returning from curry night for instance.

  42. Muscleguy
    Ignored
    says:

    @galamcennalath

    The guy obviously does not understand nanotech. He is treating like it is magic. This scientist cannot even begin to think how that might work.

    Even IFF you could make micro machines that could latch onto people and with some sort of power source radio their location and your dropped them over a terrorist hideout how do you identify a terrorist over a civilian?

    As a Biomedical scientist I can tell you you won’t find a terrorist biosignature. We don’t have one for prostate cancer even and that one is probably possible.

  43. ALANM
    Ignored
    says:

    Anyone here old enough to remember the Scottish Daily News?

    This was the newspaper published during the mid 1970’s by former Scottish Daily Express workers at Albion Street, Glasgow.

    In those days they were up against stiff competition from the Daily Record which was selling upwards of 800,000 copies every day and so the venture all ended in tears. Looking at what’s become of the Daily Record, now might be a good time to consider a re-launch.

  44. Valerie
    Ignored
    says:

    Off topic

    Relevant to previous thread, and for those interested in the latest shadowy figure referred to as the London professor.

    This guy Mifsud looks very fascinating, and pretty elusive.

    https://jonworth.eu/joseph-mifsud-professor-papadopoulos-manafort-revelations/

  45. Fireproofjim
    Ignored
    says:

    We’ll blow me down!
    Gillian Bowditch in The Sunday Times. (long time hammer of the vile Nats) writes a thoughtful article firmly supporting and praising Nicola for her dogged pursuit of the minimum pricing of alcohol.
    Now who would have predicted that?

  46. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Now who would have predicted that?

    or gave a shit, what that tory roaster thinks:D

  47. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    I see that the National has been onto M&S again complaining about Scottish carrots being sold as being British: County of origin, yes county, Scotland. M&S will remedy their ‘mistakes’ forthwith.

    …………………….

    The 14 year old girl from the Western Isles has now receive her passport, thanks to Angus MacNeil SNP MP.

    …………………..

    I’ve just been reading a great wee story in the National about Elsie Inglis. She was one of the first women in Scotland to study medicine / become a doctor, was appalled about the lack of treatment for poor women and children, opened the Scottish Women’s Hospitals to cater for them, often paid for their treatment and sent them off to the seaside to recuperate. She saved many lives.

    When war broke out she offered her services to the British Army and was told to “go home and sit still.” She then went on to offer her services to the Belgians, French and Serbs and all of them accepted. They, Elsie Inglis with 1400 SWH women – many of them Scots, first supported troops in France and then Serbia. By the winter of 2015 with the invasion of Austrian, German and Bulgarian forces the Serbian Army and Government had to retreat over the mountains to Albania. Elsie Inglis was ill with cancer, stayed in Serbia, was captured and eventually sent home. Many SWH women travelled with the Serbian Army in the depth of winter with no food, shelter or help. Over 200,000 men, women and children died on the retreat.

    On her return home Elsie Inglis, instead of resting, campaigned for help for the Serbs. She was furious about how they had been treated by the Allies in their hour of need. She felt that they’d been left to be cannon fodder. Elsie was then asked by the Serbian Government if she would go to the Russian front. She set off with 80 women and set up two field hospitals. When it became clear that the Russian troops no longer had an appetite for war the British Government demanded that she come home. She refused until 8000 Serbian soldiers were guaranteed safe passage. Saved their lives. Elsie Inglis died the day after she finally returned to the UK on November 26th 1917. One hundred years ago this month. She’s buried in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, near her parents.

    She is known as the “Mother of Serbia’ and the ‘Lady with the Torch’. She was the first woman to be awarded the Order of the Eagle by Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia, a memorial foundation was erected in her memory in Mladendual, Serbia and the British Residence in Belgrade was renamed Elsie Inglis House in 2015.

    Winston Churchill said of Elsie Inglis and her nurses “They will shine in history.” Ask any child in Scotland for the name of a famous 19th / 20th Century nurse and they’ll no doubt say Florence Nightingale. Let’s remind them all of Elsie Inglis.

    An ordinary Scot from Cumbernauld, Alan Cumming, became interested in her when he went to Serbia to watch a football match in 2006. He’ll speak at ‘An Afternoon with Elsie Inglis’ at the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church on November 26th.

    He believes that Elsie Inglis represents everything that is good about Scotland. “When Elsie saw suffering or injustice she wanted to make a difference….”

    More information at http://www.historyfest.co.uk/

  48. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Ruling due Wednesday! Fingers X’d

    https://archive.is/U7v5z

  49. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve just been reading a great wee story in the National about Elsie Inglis.

    I’ve never heard of her. Or total lack of knowledge, just another triumph of great Brit propaganda in Scotland really.

  50. Fred
    Ignored
    says:

    Folks, on Jan 30th there is a benefit concert in Glasgow’s Old Fruit Market for Dick Gaughan, I think there is one organised for Edinburgh also. A great guy & artist with a heart like a hammer for Scotland & its music!

  51. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    Is anybody there ?( in echoey voice) Knock once for yes or two for no.

  52. meg merrilees
    Ignored
    says:

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15656030.MoD_under_fire_over_plans_for_huge_expansion_of_Scottish_nuke_bases/

    Anybody see this article ion the Sunday herald today?

    Seems the MOD is about to spend a small fortune enlarging the facilities at Faslane and Coulport

    Revelations that the Ministry of Defence is planning 14 major new developments at the Trident nuclear bases on the Clyde have sparked fierce criticism.
    Details released under freedom of information law shows that the MoD is aiming to complete a “nuclear infrastructure” project at Faslane by 2027 and a similarly named project at Coulport by 2030.
    Faslane on the Gareloch is the home port for the UK’s four Trident nuclear submarines, and Coulport nearby on Loch Long is where the nuclear warheads are stored.

    Oh dear – bring on Indy ref 2

  53. seanair
    Ignored
    says:

    heedtracker
    I suppose it depends where you live if you don’t know about Elsie Inglis. There was a maternity hospital named after her near Arthur Seat in Edinburgh which produced many children. At some time it was closed,possibly to be absorbed by the Sick Children’s Hospital.
    Many children(including my self) were born there and possibly took an interest later on in life for the place, and of course had brothers and sisters who also emerged from the hospital.

  54. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    Hooray it seems that Scotland now has its own version of the national enquirer whoda thunk it

    ALANM 6.17pm i’m unfortunately auld enough to remember The Scottish Daily News as i used to tour Easterhoose trying to sell the evening times , the citizen ,the daily (spit) record and others , funnily enough we couldnae gie the herald away for free similar to today

    It just shows the intellect of todays hacks when they cannot look back to see how fragile their employment is when they constantly abuse the intelligence of their readership

    Re the Paradise Papers it just shows how corrupt the MSM is particularly the Brutish Bullshitting Corporation when they have a couple of programmes to highlight 10 million papers , they could have run 1 hour investigative reports every night for months to name and shame these FRAUDULENT companies and individuals

  55. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Socrates MacSporran says: 12 November, 2017 at 2:03 pm:

    “Very good Auld Rab, but, if they filled a muckle hole wi’ “Jackie Baillie” ye maun droon, wi’ bad exposure to Ammonia into the bargain.”

    Another BBC text heading said Priti Patel was, “overwhelmed”, by support.

    I read it expecting to find she had fastened her bra straps too tight. I was wrong. Apparently she attended the Armistice Day Service in her constituency and was, “inundated”, with support.

    So it might have been her corsets that were too tight.

    I’m aware that text reports must be kept brief but the BBC sure has a strange turn of phrase while doing so.

    If you cannot see the funny side of BBC reporting you would have to cry but I would rather laugh at them. Now I expect some yoon will be along in a moment complaining about indy supporters sexism – and I’d find that just as humorous.

  56. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Well said, Fred @8.31 about Dick Gaughan. Since he has a heart like a hammer, I’ll risk the Rev’s hammers with this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LFCAKGUUo

    More deeply felt than any of the cenotaph shenanigans.

    So many Scottish graves on that beautiful island…

  57. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Meg Merrillees,

    As far as I know, they plan to build a new reactor site for refuelling the subs at Faslane. This would require the expansion of the site and stop the need for transport of nuclear material by road.

    It also increases the risks of nuclear accident of course..

  58. Cadogan Enright
    Ignored
    says:

    The despicable Neil Oliver in the Sunday times downplaying and defending offshoring assets and income

    Obviously, I did not buy the paper – they were lying in drifts at airport

  59. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    If you cannot see the funny side of BBC reporting you would have to cry but I would rather laugh at them.”

    I do not know how anyone can bear to listen to BBC radio Scotland anymore, unpaid at least:D

    At least with BBC r4, you know its just the radio propaganda unit for the Conservative party, there’s no pretence at all.

    Wings Over Scotland Retweeted

    GAPonsonby?
    @GAPonsonby
    33m33 minutes ago
    More
    At 5pm tonight on Radio Scotland was a news item on Mario Rajoy’s pre-election visit to Catalonia. The item was incredible with pro-Rajoy language throughout. An interpreter provided translation for Rajoy’s speech. Curiously the bulletin is not available to listen to again.

  60. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Cadogan Enright says:
    12 November, 2017 at 9:12 pm
    The despicable Neil Oliver in the Sunday times downplaying and defending offshoring assets and income

    Sunday Post front page is all about Alex Ferguson too. Is it just a coincidence that the most vehement and vocal proud Scotbut yoons out there, are also rich tax evaders?

    Probably not.

  61. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Valerie – crikey! that is one complicated story complete with Heath Robinson diagram. Think I’ll have to come back to it tomorrow when the brain has recovered.

    I must admit to being very sceptical about the reds under the beds narrative. The “West” is so practised in deception that it could all be a hall of mirrors.

    But if that nice Mr Putin is giving us time on his personal broadasting facility then I’m willing to overlook a bit of electoral manipulation. It’s more than we get from Westminster.

  62. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @artyhetty says: 12 November, 2017 at 1:48 pm:

    You really couldn’t make it up could you! The record can though, insulting peoples’ intelligence and wasting tons paper in the process”

    ” … National strike in Scotland! At least that might infer that Scotland is an actual country. Do we need to strike en masse to demand an independence referendum?”

    No. We don’t need anyone’s permission to hold a referendum and, anyway, we have already given the SG a mandate to hold one. We cannot, though, force the de facto parliament of the country of England to treat it as requiring them to legally abide by the referendum but they would have one hell of a job refusing to do so.

    We do not even need any more than a majority of Scots to vote to withdraw from The Treaty of Union and thus end the United Kingdom. That would leave Westminster to sort out its relationships with Wales and N.I.

    As they were part of the Kingdom of England long before the Acts of Union were passed and it was the de facto parliament of the country of England that split both countries as individual countries with devolved administrations.

    So a Westminster, now operating as the de facto parliament of the country of England, could find it hard to convince Wales and N.I. that they are not parts of the country of England when the UK ends with the Kingdom of Scotland ending the Union.

    Remember that it was the de facto parliament of England that devolved powers to the other countries and treated Scotland as just another country of England acquisition instead of as the equally sovereign kingdom Scotland actually was.

  63. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    o/t -as usual , so many things we don’t know about this wee country of ours, I am beginning to think that this isn’t by accident , that this whole exercise to keep us in the dark and feed us S ***T has been contrived by other for their own reason.

    I suppose the quotes of that great orator Donald Rumsfeld start to make sense, we have unknown – unknowns , known – knowns , what we know is not widely known by others who don’t know we know what they don’t know , ha ha in short we know what we are allowed to know,

    Oh Christ Time to hit the sack before I start thinking that this makes sense .

  64. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Petra says: 12 November, 2017 at 8:12 pm:

    “I’ve just been reading a great wee story in the National about Elsie Inglis. She was one of the first women in Scotland to study medicine / become a doctor, …

    I’m quite surprised that so many did not know about Elsie Inglis. Especially those from Edinburgh. Here is a cut & paste extract from a Wiki web page:-

    She returned to Edinburgh in 1894 where she set up a medical practice with Jessie MacLaren MacGregor, who had been a fellow student, and also opened a maternity hospital (The Hospice) for poor women alongside a midwifery resource centre, which was a forerunner of the Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital. The Hospice was within 219 High Street, on the Royal Mile, close to Cockburn Street[3]

    A philanthropist, she often waived the fees owed to her and would pay for her patients to recuperate by the sea-side. She was a consultant at Bruntsfield Hospital for women and children, and despite a disagreement between Inglis and the hospital management, the Hospice joined forces with them in 1910.

    And here is a current reference:-

    Elsie Inglis:- Spring Gdns, Edinburgh, Lothian, EH8 8HT.

    Elsie Ingles is a retirement home providing residential and other facilities for senior citizens. Elsie Ingles is based in Spring Gardens, Edinburgh.

    There was an Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital in Edinburgh and I’m was not aware it had been done away with.

    By the Way Elsie was actually born of Scots parents in India.

    Here is a Scotsman article:-

    http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/lost-edinburgh-elsie-inglis-memorial-hospital-1-2927046

  65. Jason Smoothpiece
    Ignored
    says:

    National Strike in Scotland for a referendum.

    Don’t think so the British Nat Union masters would not allow that.

    Our Unions are London run there will be no support from the brothers and sisters for any of that Democratic nonsense.

  66. ben madigan
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Petra who told us about Elsie Inglis, one of the first women in Scotland to study medicine and become a doctor.

    Here’s the story of the very first woman to graduate in medicine in scotland who went on to have a glittering career as an Army doctor.

    Like Elsie, when she saw suffering or injustice she wanted to make a difference….”
    And she did!

    Raise your glasses ladies and gentlemen to Dr James Barry (1789? – 1865), who was born in Cork, Ireland as Margaret Ann Bulkley

    https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/the-male-mask-the-way-we-were/

  67. stewartb
    Ignored
    says:

    Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital – fond memories of a late December morning in 1984, crisp snow on a sparkling, sunny day seen from the window on the ground outside and all the way to the peak of Arthur’s Seat – birth of son number one.

    Then several years later, on a Spring Day, sounds of someone doing gardening work outside on a sunny day – birth of number two son.

    Of course it was only me that had time to look out the window – my wife had other things on her plate!!

    Great place, happy memories.

  68. Moonlight
    Ignored
    says:

    Re Elsie Inglis, I was in Belgrade in the early 2000s and had my attention drawn by a waiter to the relationships between Serbia and Scotland. He was actually a history graduate but at that time there was no academic work to be had. They know much more about it than we and Scots are awarded a kind welcome. See also Dr Elizabeth Ross
    http://archive.is/8vaR9
    It seems the Scots have always got about a bit, often for the good or benefit of others. How shameful that our history classes concentrate on the victories of England rather than the compassion of the Scots.

  69. mike cassidy
    Ignored
    says:

    Here’s another Scot you may not have heard of.

    Appropriately on Remembrance Sunday

    Hugh Archibald Renwick

    One of the flying mathematicians of World War 1

    http://archive.is/TR9fl

    http://archive.is/TzqaZ

  70. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Let’s face it,BritNats are always so full of shite.

    They talk shite and like to consume shite.

    Snobby,self important tittle tattle.No substance.

    That’s why I’m delighted Alex Salmond is giving his services to the hard hitting Russian news channel RT.

    I’ve always felt more Russian than British anyway.

    Well, more anything really 🙂

  71. stu mac
    Ignored
    says:

    @Muscleguy says:
    12 November, 2017 at 5:52 pm
    ================================

    Pretty much what I was thinking. And I’m no scientist. Surely you have to first identify and capture a terrorist before you can put some tracking device on him/her?

  72. stu mac
    Ignored
    says:

    @Cadogan Enright says:
    12 November, 2017 at 9:12 pm
    The despicable Neil Oliver in the Sunday times downplaying and defending offshoring assets and income
    ==============================

    Well now we know what he’s been doing with his money.

  73. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    Some great stories of Elsie Inglis, the Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital and other famous Scots. I’ve often wished that we had a section on here solely catering for a list of great Scots. One that we could add to along the way. It would really boost many Scot’s low self-esteem, imo.

    ……………………………

    I see that Gove has now added to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s misery by telling Marr that he had no idea what she was doing in Iran, FGS! Her family are extremely worried about her. Say that she is close to having a nervous breakdown and has found lumps on both breasts.

    If ever there was a bunch of totally inept, uncompassionate political losers this is it. You just wonder if the penny is dropping for the Brexiteers yet? With Gove, Johnston and Patel being the main players. It’s like a bl**dy madhouse. One that the Scots will have to get out of, ASAP.

    And if anyone is interested there’s a ‘Free Nazanin’ petition on change.org.

  74. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu Mac , the Israelis are developing an ethnic virus which would take out Arabs,
    As their both semantic peoples it must be very complex.
    https://www.wired.com/1998/11/israels-ethnic-weapon/

  75. Valerie
    Ignored
    says:

    Am I the only one wondering what Labour are doing atm?

    I am astounded that they appear to be doing nothing, when the gov’t is the worst in living memory. Any semi competent opposition would be in overdrive right now, creating the news and loud noise on several fronts.

    It’s staggering. But we have had 3 days of solid batshit over Salmond doing a chat show.

  76. Molly
    Ignored
    says:

    Petra also read a good piece about William Playfair who built many of the iconic buildings in Edinburgh in The National.

    A few months ago I stumbled across a programme about James Clerk Maxwell who apparantly was a huge figure in physics and greatly admired by Einstein yet I honestly had never heard of him.

    For anyone in the Dundee area , there’s a great wee trail highlighting the places where women ‘whose lives touched the city’ lived/worked.Fills in more gaps in the history we never got taught

  77. Molly
    Ignored
    says:

    Meanwhile as the Scottish media go apeshit over Alex Salmond and RT, did anyone get round to asking what were the Scottish Tories doing in Israel ?

  78. artyhetty
    Ignored
    says:

    Interesting to hear about Elsie Inglis’ work in Serbia I didn’t know that. I thought she was famous in Scotland though, for work in womens health re childbirth.

    I walked underneath the Dean bridge in Edinburgh today, lots of tourists were taking photos. It is quite a magnificent bridge really. I knew it was a Thomas Telford bridge, but only just found out that he was Scottish, worked of course on many projects ie designs in Eng and abroad, but also 40 bridges in Scotland. I thought he was English, led to believe that in history lessons.

    Shame the Dean bridge has no mention of him, he is commemorated abroad and in England. Telford college is no longer called that, so nothing really in Scotland.

    Many high acheiving Scots have been screened so that their Scottish identity is hidden. Most of course ended up going to work in London early in their careers, so are considered English. Thomas Telford is buried in Westminster cathedral.

    James Hutton of course, ask anyone if they have heard of him, 9/10 they will say, who? Oh, just the guy who worked out how old the freaking rocks of the planet are, that’s all. Written out of general history books,and even some on geology, sometimes given a passing mention. I read about a small monument to him, a few rocks hidden away near Arthurs seat.

    Look up D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Scottish scientist. Who? you may ask. I just came across his work very recently. Plenty to discover.

  79. artyhetty
    Ignored
    says:

    re;Molly@1.31

    J.C Maxwell again I thought was well known about, there is a large statue of him on George st Edinburgh, fairly recent. Also Edin Academy has a state of the art science centre named after him. It was built with lottery money, because as we know, private schools are charities, so can get lotto funding. Oh aye.

    The is a book, called A Biography of Scottish women, you can get it at the National museum bookshop, not cheap, but it is extensive,

  80. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    The state of oor meeja eh?

    Mind you it’s not really our media, it’s a media which hires a few locals and deems itself a Scottish edition of whatever. Oh and when it comes to political news or commentary? It’s a very much one sided media view. To my knowledge this has never once been admitted by the mainstream media’s titles or broadcasters. They’ve been a bit too busy enjoying their superiority and moral low ground to notice that the profession is somewhat compromised democratically.

    A superb and fair point was made by a commenter over on WGD on the subject of Alex Salmond’s new project, but it serves to cover Scottish news top to toe. They made the point that it was particularly awful that a Scottish production company had to go to an overseas production company to air programming on anything that wasn’t about SNP bad, fitba, murdur, kittens etc.

    The fact that as a nation, we don’t have a broadcaster of our own to monitor the output of our goggle boxes or airwaves. Nor do we own any of the mainstream titles of our own nation. We have zero control or oversight over what we see of the world or how it is presented. As individuals, were it not for access to the internet, imagine, just imagine, what our world view, our current knowledge base and opinions might be?

    A pretty damning point to be sure.

    They want to know why a Scottish production company has found it necessary to sell their product to an overseas producer? They want to know why their stock with half the population of their home nation has fallen through the floor? Maybe they should take a long hard look in the mirror.

    TBF though, they’re not stupid people, they know all of this already. THAT is the truth of ‘Scotland’s’ media. It’s not Scotland’s media at all.

  81. ScottieDog
    Ignored
    says:

    For my tuppence worth regarding Eck’s programme. I fully support it and hope it’s as good as some of the other content n RT like Thom Hartman’s show, Keizer Report, Boom Bust.

    I actually don’t think the BBC is hugely state controlled and if anything it’s worse. The two or three billionaire media moguls and the city of London exert huge control over the state. They control the media and the economy.

    Just did an experiment with google search (yes I know about the google filters).
    Being an economics anorak I did a search for ‘Quantitative Easing bbc’ and ‘Quantitative Easing RT’.

    There’s plenty of references to QE for both channels but the headline titles are vastly different. The First in the RT search alludes to the huge wealth transfer that takes place because of QE. The BBC headline ‘what is quantitative easing?’ Is designed to put the average punter off.

    The policy of QE by governments should have people in the street demonstrating quite frankly. BBC know that.

  82. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    For the record the predicted lying vow. Powers predicted and delivered. None.

    The Tory unionist mess, Embezzling £Billiion of public money on grotesque orojects of no value. Starving the vulnerable to death. Cameron now rewarded with £Millions from a British-Chinese consortium. Spending £Millions on another house. Lord Carrington. Wasting public money on grotesque projects of no value. Cutting funding on essential services. The Tory criminals. Murdoch fell out with Johnston for lying. The criminal fraternity. Illegally hacking people and bribing public officials.

    The Tories and their associates want out of the EU to tax evade and embezzle public money. Starving people to death. Enough is never enough for some greedy people.

  83. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    The Mirror group. Trinity group? Amalgamating with the Express. Losing shedloads of money. Up to the eyes in debt. The wealthy tax evading owners taking £Millions/Billions and ruining the economy. Westminster unionists ruin the world economy. Licensed to kill.

    How many watch or listen to Oliver now.

  84. louis.b.argyll
    Ignored
    says:

    They censored, against commercial interests, the Outlander series, despite UK viewers desire for costume drama. Protecting ‘sensibilities’ of historical abuse. Yet they disguised and glorified rape, in Poldark.

    They promoted Neil Oliver to historian, even though he merely acts as an academic, scheming and circumlocuting against any truthful meanings.

    Yet they accuse us, of being vile nationalists.

  85. stu mac
    Ignored
    says:

    @Lenny Hartley says:
    13 November, 2017 at 12:33 am
    Stu Mac , the Israelis are developing an ethnic virus which would take out Arabs, As their both semantic peoples it must be very complex.
    ===================================

    Yes and a crazy thing to do as races are all interrelated and often interbred – it wouldn’t take much surely for such a virus, if actually created, to mutate and take out the all of us. Crazy but then that’s the political class we have today.

    BTW that’s irrelevant to what was originally posted – there’s no bio device that can identify terrorists – only in the minds of those that everyone of a certain race is a terrorist.

  86. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Having Mr Salmond broadcasting on RT could help to stop prejudices and injustice etc, Some people have not thought it through. The usual suspects. Speaking out against injustice and for equality, fraternity and liberty. That is the way to do it. Alex Salmond is respected the world over. He has met many States people. He has spoken out about injustice etc and told the truth. It is important that he continues to do so. Giving an alternative view. So people will take notice. Whatever the vehicle.

    Without a free and balanced Press there is no democracy. .

  87. Packhorse Pete
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T
    Has any one else with a digital subscription to The National had problems getting the online link to work? Happened last week and also today.

  88. Brian Powell
    Ignored
    says:

    artyhetty

    When the king of Sweden wanted to connect the Baltic to to the Atlantic (Sweden also controlled Norway at that time) he asked Telford to build a canal.

    Telford found that Sweden had plenty of ore but no real iron industry, so he brought in foundry masters from home in Scotland and set up the Swedish iron production industry, the forerunner of their steel industry.

    Poignant irony in that.

  89. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Ref Scottish history, they have many high achievers hidden from us, and it has been going on for centuries.
    Only now in the digital age are things coming out as it is impossible to hide the existence of these Scots completely when thousands of things have been written about them.

    So as far as the Westminster state is concerned, they still delete things on facebook, twitter and google, who seem to be very accommodating when requested to delete things that may be negative to our imperial masters.

    Scotland is not allowed to see many things which may give us a
    hint of pride. Keep us down, keep us unhappy, encourage exodus, encourage and create poverty,steal all that we have,this is what this pariah state does, and on an never ending basis.

    However, the digital age is making us more aware of all these things, the wave is rising and likely to hit shore in the near future. Definitely a case of you reap what you sow.
    The chains over Scotland are beginning to crack, their paranoia is proof of that.

    More madness and venom will ensue, but in Scotland we have seen it all before and are now less exposed to the mass propaganda we endure on a daily basis.
    However, the cracks in the Union are evident now as never before and the ain’t going to be repaired.If they are in despair for their losses, it is exactly what they deserve.

  90. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    Without the state controlled BBC and press attacking Alex/Tasmina and RT the whole thing would have had little impact on most UK citizens,

    Alex/Tasmina and RT would have had to spend £hundreds of thousands to get the publicity BBC and press are supplying free of charge,

    keep it coming BBC and press and thank you.

    anyhoo,

    Captain Cook`s father was Scottish.

  91. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Brexit talks, or lack of them, appears to be reaching a critical point. Pound dropping because the markets sense the May government is in chaos.

    The EU won’t change course, why should it? It holds all the cards. They insist the UK deliver what was agreed.

    It’s interesting to look back at what was agreed at that first meeting on 19th June ….

    ” Here are the main points from the press conference given by David Davis, the Brexit secretary, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, at the end of the first day of the Brexit negotiations.

    Britain has abandoned attempts to force the EU to start talks on a future trade deal immediately, and instead the UK’s “exit bill”, and other issues, will come first. David and Barnier have agreed a two-page schedule for talks (pdf), including the dates for five rounds of negotiations stretching into October. As the EU demanded, this involves the “exit bill”, the rights of EU nationals and Ireland being discussed before talks on a future trade deal start later in the process. “

    At least two of the three initial issues have made virtually no progress. The UK has quite clearly reneged on what was agreed up front.

  92. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Link to above

    http://archive.is/ZCH9r

  93. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T Interesting film about how the “British” Establishment replaced the trading empire with a money laundering empire after WW2
    https://www.taxjustice.net/2017/05/04/coming-soon-spiders-web-film-britains-tax-haven-empire/

  94. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    Let me see if I can understand this. The UK broadcast media are in an uproar because RT has bought the rights to broadcast a programme they refused to broadcast.

    Is it sour grapes or are the establishment in meltdown because the thought of a SNP supporter having a platform to present their views is an affront to the UK media impartiality, as they see it that is.

    Never watched RT and probably would never have realised it was on, now I will. Thanks for the head up BBC.

  95. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    In our occassional series – Patrick Geddes, born in Ballater, died in Montpelier:

    Sir Patrick Geddes FRSE (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology.

    He introduced the concept of “region” to architecture and planning and coined the term “conurbation”.[3]

    An energetic Francophile, Geddes was the founder in 1924 of the Collège des Écossais (Scots College) an international teaching establishment in Montpellier, France and in the 1920s he bought the Château d’Assas to set up a centre for urban studies.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Geddes

  96. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Unionists shamelessly politicising next year’s Armistice Day events – as they did in 2014:

    As well as increasing national unity, any UK-wide memorial would also deal a blow to the SNP Government’s bid to revive the case for a second independence referendum next autumn.

    From Stu’s twitter

    https://archive.is/eJDNB

  97. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    If we all donate to next years Wings funder using Russian pseudo names it will send some in the MSM over the edge, they are already close to the edge anyway.

  98. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    for the poppy police

    FOR I WILL GIVE YOU THE MORNING STAR

    In the sunset of an age and an epoch we may write that for epitaph of the men who were of it. They went quiet and brave from the lands they loved, though seldom of that love might they speak, it was not in them to tell in words of the earth that moved and lived and abided, their life and enduring love. And who knows at the last what memories of it were with them, the springs and the winters of this land and all the sounds and scents of it that had once been theirs, deep, and a passion of their blood and spirit, those four who died in France? With them we may say there died a thing older than themselves, these were the Last of the Peasants, the last of the Old Scots folk. A new generation comes up that will know them not, except as a memory in a song, they passed with the things that seemed good to them with loves and desires that grow dim and alien in the days to be. It was the old Scotland that perished then, and we may believe that never again will the old speech and the old songs, the old curses and the old benedictions, rise but with alien effort to our lips.

    The last of the peasants, those four that you knew, took that with them to the darkness and the quietness of the places where they sleep. And the land changes, their parks and their steadings are a desolation where the sheep are pastured, we are told that great machines come soon to till the land, and the great herds come to feed on it, the crofter has gone, the man with the house and the steading of his own and the land closer to his heart than the flesh of his body. Nothing, it has been said, is true but change, nothing abides, and here in Kinraddie where we watch the building of those little prides and those little fortunes on the ruins of the little farms we must give heed that these also do not abide, that a new spirit shall come to the land with the greater herd and the great machines. For greed of place and possession and great estate those four had little head, the kindness of friends and the warmth of toil and the peace of rest–they asked no more from God or man, and no less would they endure.

    So, lest we shame them, let us believe that the new oppressions and foolish greeds are no more than mists that pass. They died for a world that is past, these men, but they did not die for this that we seem to inherit. Beyond it and us there shines a greater hope and a newer world, undreamt when these four died. But need we doubt which side the battle they would range themselves did they live to-day, need we doubt the answer they cry to us even now, the four of them, from the places of the sunset?

    LGG

  99. Tinto Chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    “Scotland is not allowed to see many things which may give us a
    hint of pride. Keep us down, keep us unhappy, encourage exodus, encourage and create poverty, steal all that we have, this is what this pariah state does, and on an never ending basis.”

    A remarkably concise summary of WM policy in Scotland, Les. It’s a pity half of Scots can’t seem to grasp this fact.

    Anyone interested in James Hutton, the Scottish father of geology, might consult two very readable books: The Man Who Found Time by J Repcheck and Revolutions in The Earth by S Baxter.

    He and J C Maxwell were surely two of the greatest conceptualisers in their fields. Einstein had a picture of Maxwell on the wall of his study.

    Can’t wait for Silvrikin Boy two write a couple of booklets for the NTS on them.

  100. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella says:

    Unionists shamelessly politicising next year’s Armistice Day events – as they did in 2014

    There is nothing I would like more than for IndyRef2 to have taken place and been won next year.

    That would ideally be prior to 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War. Then we can remember the 150,000+ Scottish lives which were squandered in WW1 and say for sure, “Never Again!”

  101. Clydebuilt
    Ignored
    says:

    Scotland’s A&E. 94%. England’s A&E. 84.9%

    Last week BBC Shortbread broadcast that Scotland’s NHS had missed its target for A&E . .,.,. The figure achieved was not given (so listeners couldn’t see it was a very good performance)
    England’s figure was not given (so no comparison could be made)

    So it’s a case of

    Scotlands NHS failed . . . But we’re telling you nothing else coz you’d see it was a very good performance!

    https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/11/13/scottish-ae-departments-see-94-of-patients-within-4-hours-while-only-84-9-of-english-ae-departments-do-so/

  102. ed t head
    Ignored
    says:

    OT did I read it right in the tweet about the four nations in 2018 remembering 100 years since the end of ww2 am I in a time slip.

  103. Peter McCulloch
    Ignored
    says:

    He’s no Brahan seer that’s for sure.
    Maybe we should all take up being psychics I’m sure our success rate for predictions would be higher than his

  104. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict someone will die in 2018.

  105. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella says:
    13 November, 2017 at 10:07 am
    Unionists shamelessly politicising next year’s Armistice Day events – as they did in 2014:

    It is a horror. Think of the millions of war dead, with all kinds of politics in their time, being exploited by this shithead toryboy UKOK regime that we’re entrenched in, all propped up by a toryboy BBC gimp network, a ghastly industry of professional liars masquerading as journos, working for filthy rich tax dodgers like Rothermere, Murdoch, Desmond and so on.

    We live in a media-ocracy, if they wanted to, Teresa would now be gone, they propped up a tory maniac like Blair and took out mad old tory Crash Gordo. They got Salmond and Robertson with surgical precision, via the beeb Scotland gimps in Pacific Quay mostly, with vital ongoing ground war action from neo fascist Voice of The North Press and Journal.

    Led by the BBC gimp network, they’re propping an absurd tory gov, destroying or trying to destroy Scottish democracy, or just another day at the coalface in newsrooms across teamGB.

    Sometimes gits like Rock tell me to stop reading stinky olde Graun but that crew’s policy of just not reporting anything about Scotland at all is probably the least offensive way of stamping out Scotland’s nascent democratic progress.

    By the way, where is angel of death Rock lately? I quite miss WoS resident prophet of doom.

    Probably abducted by aliens:D

  106. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    @Valerie says: 13 November, 2017 at 1:03 am:

    “Am I the only one wondering what Labour are doing atm?
    I am astounded that they appear to be doing nothing, when the gov’t is the worst in living memory.”

    I’m sure you are not alone but really the reason why both the Labour and the LibDem parties do nothing when the incumbent party in power is totally incompetent is really quite simple to understand.

    Only, though, when you come to realise the indisputable truth of what Westminster actually is and do not buy into the myths and lies that The Westminster Establishment’s centuries old Westminster propaganda machine has brainwashed the bulk of the electorate, and indeed the World at large, to believe.

    These so called opposition parties, and their names have changed throughout history, are themselves integral parts of the Westminster Establishment. They portray themselves as, “The Opposition”, but being themselves parts of, “The Establishment”, their opposition is only a figment of the Establishment’s propaganda.

    We see this more clearly today in Scotland as here in Scotland we are a threat, not just to the current party in power, but to the whole Establishment that transcends the bounds of Westminster and party politics. When the Establishment is under threat the whole establishment stands shoulder to shoulder against the threat.

    Note that, “The Establishment”, is a huge organisation that spreads its malevolent tendrils into every facet of our daily lives.

    It begins with the centuries old Royals, and filters itself down through the long established aristocracy to even the humble wee Community Councils.

    It encompasses the Civil Service higher levels, The Churches, The Financial sector, The Armed Forces leadership, The Security Services, The Police Forces leadership, and the upper levels of the education sector.

    Not forgetting the legal professions and several, so called, secret societies like the Loyal Orange Order, (and of course the all under Establishment control), Press and Broadcasters and not just the BBC either.

    What does it matter to an elected MP if he/she is in the party in power or the opposition? The remuneration and perks are exactly the same. It only benefits those who head ministries or are otherwise in the Cabinet and being in power is, with a party system, by Buggin’s Turn.

    This is all very plain now in Scotland where we see the opposition making concerted and coordinated attacks upon the SNP SG. A phenomenon never witnessed when there were few real threats of actual independence.

    They thought to, “Kill independence Stone dead”, by the introduction of a devolved administration that they specifically designed to prevent there ever being an SNP, “assembly”, at Holyrood. They then introduced the GERS figures and buried the Macrone report in the deep damp bowels of the Westminster vaults.

    Thus, Valerie, when you realise they are all, “The Establishment”, and they expect to get their, “Buggin’s Turn”, in the very near future, you will realise why they just sit there waiting for their turn in office.

    The thing about, “The Establishment”, is that it has always played, “The long game”. I’ll quote you an example of that long game that will show that, “Long Game”, in action.

    Gideon, (George), Osborne is heir apparent to two ancient Irish Baronetcies that are known in Ireland as, “The Ascendency”:-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans_in_Ireland

    The Ascendency began with the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland and these Normans were the continuation of the Anglo Saxon Germanic Tribes that were invited to south Britain after the Romans left Roman Britain. Some of their descendants still sit in the House of Lords today.

    Note that Osborne now holds a position within the Establishment controlled dead tree press. The Establishment looks after its own. Witness such as Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and these:-

    http://www.thenational.scot/politics/15616938.Scottish_Labour_peers_top_the_list_of_Lords_who_take_huge_expenses_but_make_NO_contributions/

    Don’t take my word for it – do some research yourself and you will see it is really amazing that most Scots think it is a conspiracy theory. If it is there is a massive list of evidence of its actual existence.

  107. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    I dont know what rag is the most off the wall batshit loony the Express or the Mail ,it’s like watching a deranged tag team having a very bad day ,
    How they manage to merge next year’s remembrance ceremony with our quest for independence is well and truly baffling and as subtle as a size ten boot ,
    I guess this piece is targeted at its unhinged readership and feeds them their daily dose of we hate this , and above all we hate the SNP .
    The wee cross of St George at the top of the front page adds a touch of britnat empire r/us and dont you forget it message .

  108. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry if this has been mentioned before.
    While driving this morning I heard on the radio that John Redwood MP, arch brexiteer, has been advising foreign investors to get their money out of Britain as fast as they can.

    You just can’t beat these British patriots can you?

  109. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @ ben madigan 10.41 pm . Im just in the catching up stage from the weekend’s excursion .
    James Barry wasn’t the 1st to masquerade as a Man .

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

  110. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Here is a link to John Redwood article.

    https://archive.is/CAvW2

  111. starlaw
    Ignored
    says:

    The men who fought and died in WW1 did not sacrifice themselves for the Britain we live in today, they fought and died for their own world of Farms Factories and Fisheries. Would they have wanted what we have today, I doubt it.
    Remembrance Sunday may feel solemn for some but for most it is now , same old, same old. Hardly anyones wearing poppies these days and a lot of them are worn as fashion accessories and made in China. The services at the Cenotaph to me ring out false and jingoistic I don’t go anymore.

  112. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ John H – So, John Redwood is moving his money out of The City. If it’s something they approve of, it’s an investment. If it’s something they don’t approve of, it’s a subsidy. So says Nicholas Shaxson on tax havens – a 25 min interview which I watched following Lenny Hartley’s comment upthread on “The Spider’s Web”:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhcMAE1ekA

  113. JGedd
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks to schrodingers cat for that Sunset Song.

    Spent part of the so-called Remembrance Weekend reading some of the War Poets again and Testament of Youth, a necessary corrective to all the usual sanctimony of the media.

    The pity of it all has been subsumed into the political narrative of “necessary” generational sacrifice.

    (Could I put in a mention of Jane Haining as one of the notable Scots? She was a farmer’s daughter from a village near where I live in Dumfriesshire. There is a cairn there to her memory and she is also enrolled among the non-Jews who are recorded as Righteous Among the Nations at Vad Yashem.

    Jane Haining went to be matron at a Scottish Mission school in Budapest in 1932 where her pupils were mostly Jewish. She was out of the country when war broke out but went back to be with her charges. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and died in Auschwitz later that year.

    Her Wikipedia entry is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Haining

  114. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    I only managed a few minutes of the Christmas pre-panto run at the London cenotaph yesterday. The bit I saw featured the High Commissioners of Mauritius, Belize, the Seychelles (and Wootton Basset, I think), probably in attendance because they were promised a slap-up buffet afterwards if they made the numbers up. With Imperial Dimbleby emoting on the voice-over, we all burst out laughing.

    This pantomime is a disgrace to the people who died in war.

  115. gus1940
    Ignored
    says:

    Re Armistice Day

    Something that has always seemed to me totally inappropriate is the use of the expression ‘The Glorious Dead’ used so often on memorials and accompanying ceremonials.

    I doubt if any of those who sacrificed their lives would consider their deaths and the many horrendous ways they met their ends as glorious. There is nothing glorious in shattered bodies lying rotting in No Man’s Land.

    I agree 100% that Armistice Day has been hi-jacked and politicised by the government and their media fan club to the extent that it is beginning to look like the glorification of war.

  116. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    JGedd
    you’re welcome

    the most relevent line is
    They died for a world that is past, these men, but they did not die for this that we seem to inherit. Beyond it and us there shines a greater hope and a newer world, undreamt when these four died.

    still true today, i got picked up in the coop on sat by old tory wifie for not wearing a poppy. usual guff, disrespecting the armed forces etc. but when i told her that when i was in the army, fighting in Iraq, it wasnt for her, the poppy poileas or theresa may she suddenly became very silent.

    my experience is generally, the further from the front line the more ardent the supporters are of such things. in truth, they are nothing more than REMF’s and should be ignored

  117. wull2
    Ignored
    says:

    Has anyone else having problems getting any Scottish news this morning on TSTV ?
    If this continues we will just have to get our mews from this website and RT.

  118. Sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    Thank you, schrodingerscat at 10.21 for extract from Sunset Song. Now I see why my husband says it should be compulsory reading for everyone, particularly in England. What a fine example of writing.

    My Remembrance activity was last Thursday in Glencarse, Perthshire, where a relative had adapted Ian McCalman’s script of “Far far from Ypres” to their local experience of the Great War. Songs, poetry, prose [including Wipers Times] made a poignant and sometimes funny evening which kept the packed audience engrossed.

    The interesting thing I noticed was that the audience appeared largely to be over 60 and staid, all poppy wearers, yet they approved the “message” which was that war is to be avoided – war is a failure of democracy. So the real spirit of poppy buying as remembrance does still exist.

    How do we oppose the militaristic hype without losing the genuine feeling?

  119. John H.
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks Capella. That’s a very good video. This has been going on for a long time. The establishment have honed the system to suit themselves over centuries.

    Of course, there aren’t many poor tory MP’s, though to be fair, a few on this list made their own money.

    https://archive.is/MC6Ak

  120. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    starlaw says:
    13 November, 2017 at 11:57 am
    The men who fought and died in WW1 did not sacrifice themselves for the Britain we live in today,

    Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die, should be on all memorials. Its the same elite, establishment, creep show running the UK as it was a hundred years ago.

    I think that its art that is all that really remains to tell human experience.

    Henry Tonks, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher.

    Tonks was totally ripped off by/an influence of Francis Bacon too,

    https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/376824693793099027/

    https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/411375747185725018/

    http://spartacus-educational.com/ARTtonks.htm

    Every war memorial should just be photo of a soldier with his face ripped apart, painted by Tonks.

  121. Ken500
    Ignored
    says:

    Leask gets it wong again. After a brief encounter does not like the Russians. What could be wrong?

  122. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    How do we oppose the militaristic hype without losing the genuine feeling?

    Just keep in mind that they are the minority. Its that simple. Just like the tory gov is a minority, but still owns and runs Scotland.

    Fact is, its this minority that loves war. Look at how we have lived as EU citizens, for most of our lives, yet all we’ve heard is how crap the EU really is, or just not been told about it all, by bbc and all the rest of the UK press.

    But why has there been in peace in Europe for so long, mostly, why has fascism been on the way out, mostly, and why have our tory imperial masters now thrown away our EU citizenship, 100 years after WW1 ended?

    Its all down to the creation of the EU and because tories are fascists and all fascists love war, rallies the plebs to the flag, for starters.

  123. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    We can only conclude that falsehood is now so deeply, fundamentally ingrained into the Daily Record that it’ll do it instinctively even on the most trivial of nonsense stories. Readers might feel that was worth keeping in mind when reading the important ones.

    This may appear trivial but is indicative of the overwhelming need for consistency in the propaganda model used to support the Yoonion (and subsequent English hegemony over Scotland).

    INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & THE PRACTICE OF HEGEMONY

    Definitions of Hegemony

    Let me specify what I mean by hegemony. In discussions of IR theory it tends to have two meanings. One has to do with the distribution of power in a system. Not merely military force, but also technical and financial strength. The other meaning is the dominance of a particular idea or set of assumptions, such as economic liberalism and globalization.

    http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/english-school/watson-hegemony02.pdf

    Dewesternising Theories of Authoritarianism: Economics, Ideology and the Asian Economic Crisis in Singapore

    ABSTRACT

    This essay critically evaluates contemporary theories of authoritarianism and, through looking at one of the most outstanding cases of stubborn authoritarianism, suggests a new approach for understanding it based on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony.1 Hegemony theory focuses directly on issues of legitimacy and popular perception and offers valuable insights into phenomena (e.g., ‘popular dictatorship’, ‘soft authoritarianism’ and ‘fascism’) that would otherwise be dismissed as exceptions to the rule. Additionally, while being sensitive to historical contingency, hegemony theory does not lapse into an ‘it depends’ mode but presses on to rigorously clarify the precise relationship between material conditions and ideology.

    The author is not unaware of the irony of drawing upon a Western theory to dewesternise theories of authoritarianism but pursues this trajectory nonetheless because she believes that the quality of being of the ‘West/non-West’ is not an issue of skin or birth. Additionally, unlike dominant theories that categorise world regimes into dichotomised and moralised categories of democracies and dictatorships, Gramsci’s theory offers us a less epistemologically biased paradigm that can be utilised equally to understand and criticise authoritarian tendencies in the West and non-West.

    https://www.murdoch.edu.au/Research-capabilities/Asia-Research-Centre/_document/working-papers/wp103.pdf

    A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman and Chomsky’s ‘Propaganda Model’

    ABSTRACT

    Mass media play an especially important role in democratic societies. They are presupposed to act as intermediary vehicles that reflect public opinion, respond to public concerns and make the electorate cognizant of state policies, important events and viewpoints. The fundamental principles of democracy depend upon the notion of a reasonably informed electorate. The ‘propaganda model’ of media operations laid out and applied by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media postulates that elite media interlock with other institutional sectors in ownership, management and social circles, effectively circumscribing their ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors.

    The model argues that the net result of this is self-censorship without any significant coercion. Media, according to this framework, do not have to be controlled nor does their behaviour have to be patterned, as it is assumed that they are integral actors in class warfare, fully integrated into the institutional framework of society, and act in unison with other ideological sectors, i.e. the academy, to establish, enforce, reinforce and ‘police’ corporate hegemony. It is not a surprise, then, given the interrelations of the state and corporate capitalism and the ‘ideological network’, that the propaganda model has been dismissed as a ‘conspiracy theory’ and condemned for its ‘overly deterministic’ view of media behaviour. It is generally excluded from scholarly debates on patterns of media behaviour.

    This article provides a critical assessment and review of Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model and seeks to encourage scholarly debate regarding the relationship between corporate power and ideology. Highly descriptive in nature, the article is concerned with the question of whether media can be seen to play a hegemonic role in society oriented towards legitimization, political accommodation and ideological management.

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.129.671&rep=rep1&type=pdf

  124. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Molly / artyhetty say don’t forget …. ”William Playfair, James Clerk Maxwell, Thomas Telford, James Hutton and D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson.”

    It’s absolutely amazing that when you start to check out one Scot on Wikipedia it leads to another and another and another. It just goes on and on. The list is endless.

    In doing so I see that many of these famous Scots lost their fathers at a very young age and were brought up by their mothers who seem to have done an amazing job.

    ”Thomas Telford, engineer, was born on 9 Aug 1757 at Westerkirk, a secluded hainlet of Eskdale, in Eastern Dumfriesshire. He lost his father, a shepherd, a few months after his birth, and was left to the care of his mother, who earned a scanty living by occasional farm work.”

    Telford also wrote at least twelve poems, some of which were published. What versatility!

    ‘He regarded Burns’s entry into the Excise as something of a degradation, and on the poet’s death wrote a poem denouncing the officials who had so great a man in their power. It reaches this climax:

    “The Muses shall that fatal hour
    To Lethe’s streams consign,
    Which gave the little slaves of pow’r,
    To scoff at worth like thine.
    But thy fair fame shall rise and spread,
    Thy name be dear to all,
    When down to their oblivious bed,
    Official insects fall.”

    Little did he know that his name would live on too.

    ‘Telford died in 1834 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In an era of incredible productivity and feats of engineering this Scotsman born into poverty in a tiny lowland village was perhaps the most productive engineer the world had ever known. Today, over a quarter of a millennium after his birth, hundreds of his roads and bridges are still used every day, making sure Telford continues to deserve the punning nickname bestowed on him by his friend the poet Robert Southey – ‘The Colossus of Roads’.

    And Scotland is still producing the Telfords of the future: many of the UK’s best Civil Engineering courses being taught at universities across the country, with Dundee University’s Civil Engineering course recently being named in the top ten for the UK in league table, showing that even over 250 years after the birth of Thomas Telford Scotland is still very much at the forefront of world class Civil Engineering.’

    ………………………………………..

    A list of famous Scots which Wikipedia points out is incomplete and can be expanded upon.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scots

  125. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    o/t – It now appears Mrs Mayhem has graciously deemed she will grant our first minister an audience in that den of iniquity known as No 10 Downing St .

    I wonder if Fluffy was consulted ? as the last dictate from Mayhem was under no circumstances would her highness stoop to converse with a perceived underling and the Fluffy person would be the only agreed and accepted go between .

    I hope Nicola sticks the boot in and has a more successful meeting than her last one when she was asked about the meeting she simply said , well you are probably as wise as I am , I and the others present are as Informed as we were when we walked through that door .

  126. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Just caught this on WOS twitter:

    In the Express:

    The Scottish Commemorations Panel is the driving force behind plans for the whole of the United Kingdom to mark 100 years since the end of the Second World War.

    🙂 (shurely a historical error)

    Chair Norman Drummond, a former Kirk minister to the Black Watch and the Parachute Regiment, has secured Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop’s agreement for the use of Glasgow Cathedral.

    As well as increasing national unity, any UK-wide memorial would also deal a blow to the SNP Government’s bid to revive the case for a second independence referendum next autumn.

    https://archive.is/eJDNB

    Anyhoo the ‘celebrations’ are all getting geared up!

  127. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Graham says:

    Mrs Mayhem has graciously deemed she will grant our first minister an audience

    … tomorrow. Well one thing is highly likely, May will still be PM, but for how much longer!?

    The UK has undoubtedly had the three most incompetent PMs in history, in a row.

    Federal Brown, Cockup Cameron, and Mayhem. Big question … will it be four in a row? This seems likely if one of the jostling Tory clowns takes over.

  128. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    At school, we were told about “Tar McAdam” as well as Telford.
    Thing was, all that cotton thread and Paisley shawls had to be transported quickly to the markets. So decent roads were created.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Loudon_McAdam

  129. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    Latest STV news on BiFab.

    Union leaders have been told that there’s no money to pay the 600 workers their wages this week.

    Nicola’s getting involved and seems to be a bit more positive about the Company’s future.

  130. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    How do we oppose the militaristic hype without losing the genuine feeling?

    stopping new wars happening would be a good idea.

    ban the military from schools and sporting events
    ban politicians from rememberance day commemorations
    ban the royals (permanently) from such ceremonies, it was they who caused ww1. (turn balmoral into cooncil flats at the same time)

    fund the ex servicemen directly from government,removing the need for raising charity funds and poppies

    create a new tradition, a new way of honoring the fallen

    eg the local history soc where i live, took all of the names from the town war memorial, found photographs of all the men and wrote a blurb about each of them. where they were born, what house in the town they lived, etc. the boards with this info was set up in the local primary school and the local museum.

  131. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Many thanks to all for sharing with the rest of us the long list of Scots who have been deemed not worthy of our attention, not worthy of a place in history,

    I have said this before I this distortion of our place in the world has not been by accident, it follows the century’s old well used and successful template the Empire used to keep the natives under control, by the looks of it it hasn’t changed just morphed into a different guise to fool everyone before they catch on .

    Can this be changed and what are the barriers, that I fear that is one hell of a bloody mountain it starts with the councils who in the end actually employ Teachers, the Scottish Government don’t employ the Teachers in our schools , I believe John Swinney is trying to circumvent these councils by giving powers directly to the School heads, well at least a step in the right direction .

    Maybe then our history, not some others view of our history might begin to be taught, it’s all out there waiting to be passed on .

  132. ben madigan
    Ignored
    says:

    in reply to ronnie anderson who said:
    13 November, 2017 at 11:45 am

    James Barry wasn’t the 1st to masquerade as a Man .

    Never said she was Ronnie.
    But s/he was the first woman to qualify in medicine in Scotland and indeed the whole of the United Kingdom of those days which included all of Ireland.
    Since the Earl of Buchan was involved in setting up the male/female deception in the first place at a Scottish university, I did wonder if she had some close Scottish (family) connections but was unable to find anything beyond that he was a friend of her uncle’s.

    https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/the-male-mask-the-way-we-were/

  133. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    schrodingers cat says:
    13 November, 2017 at 1:49 pm
    How do we oppose the militaristic hype without losing the genuine feeling?

    Nuke disarm, scrap Trident.

    Nations need powerful defence though. Its just basic human instinct, to invade, steal, rape, pillage…god only knows, we Brits led the world for a long time.

    http://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-policy/news/eu-takes-step-towards-closer-defence-cooperation/

    “Similar efforts to build up military links have been unsuccessful in the past. Britain, the bloc’s biggest military power, has long sought to thwart EU defence cooperation, opposing anything that might lead to a European army.

    But Brexit and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 have once again shone the spotlight on the need for a strong European security stance.”

    Its always the Russians what did it.

  134. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    ben madigan My point in not so many words are that the Establishment Church/State distort history & hide their embarrassment . Wingers are good at reading BTLs .

  135. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_biographical_dictionary_of_eminent_Scotsmen/Balfour,_(Sir)_Andrew,_Bart.,_M.D.

    shout out for andrew balfour, all round good egg 🙂

    set up edinburgh botanical gardens (hic argus non briareus esto)
    re introduced papermaking to scotland
    (young phd student from Napier college wrote thesis on papermaking in scotland and neglected to mention andrew. um, he was married to Napiers daughter 🙁 )
    performed 1st autopsy in scotland
    set up royal infirmary in edinburgh
    set up the royal college of physicians

  136. Tatu3
    Ignored
    says:

    Why on the Wikipedia page for McAdam does it say in the wee box on the right, Nationality – Scottish. Then Citizenship – British? Whereas when I checked for example Charles Dickens and Isambard Brunel, it just says Nationality – British?

    Odd?

  137. Jack Murphy
    Ignored
    says:

    OFF TOPIC.
    Ruth Davidson’s/David Mundell’s Brexit Disaster.
    Financial Times TODAY:

    “Britain is drifting towards disaster on Brexit — without a viable diplomatic, economic or political strategy to make a success of the venture.

    The central problem is that the British government is stuck between an implacable EU and an unrealistic Conservative party.

    The EU will not offer anything like the deal that Britain’s Brexiters still dream of. But Theresa May’s Conservative colleagues are still unprepared to accept this unpleasant reality………” 🙁

    http://archive.is/fG857

  138. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve been reading about the legendary Second World War heroes of Telemark. Involved in the raid which helped thwart Hitler’s plans to build a Nazi nuclear bomb.

    Most of what I’ve read highlights the part that the Norwegians played in the mission such as, Birger Stromsheim who died recently aged 101. Birger aged 31 at the time of the mission, was the oldest member of the team that successfully destroyed the heavy water production facility at the Norsk Hydroelectric plant in Telemark, southern Norway.

    He was awarded the British Military Medal, the Norweigan St Olav medal, the US medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre.

    Then I came across an article in the Sun based on the findings of Jim Brown, Scot, who wants the true story to be told. Wants his uncle John Hunter, an engineer, to be remembered.

    John Hunter set off on a secret mission in 1942 and never returned home. His family were left unsure of how he’d died for 5 years after the event by which time John’s parents were dead themselves. The Government eventually paid out £30 gratuity to Jim’s mother (John Hunter’s sister) which was split between her siblings.

    They eventually found out, by sheer chance, what had happened to John when his brother James, who served in the RAF during WW2, got a job on a nearby estate as a gardener. He met a Norwegian woman by the name of Hilda who was working there as an au pair. She came from the area where one of the ‘Operation Freshman’ gliders had gone down. She said that ‘’around 12 men had died in the crash and that five had been captured by the Nazis who tied their hands with barbed wire and tortured them terribly to get information. They DIDN’T divulge any information and were eventually shot.’’ Real heroes, imo.

    Jim Brown still doesn’t know if his uncle died in the crash or was captured by the Germans.

    He later found out that his uncle had been buried in the Commonwealth War Graves plot in Eiganes churchyard in Stavanger, Norway which he visited 72 years after his uncle’s death.

    He says that the 1965 film Heroes of Telemark largely followed the Norwegian Resistance who carried on with the plan to sabotage the Vemork Norsk Hydro plant and romanticised their ordeal. The mission cost the lives of 41 men including at least 6 Scots and Jim thinks more people should know about his uncle and his comrades efforts to stop the German’s plans. …

    He says, ‘’It is a bit of a bugbear that as every November comes and we think of the dead, the people who died on this mission are hardly mentioned. They are the forgotten heroes and after 75 years they shouldn’t be.’

    …………………………………..

    ‘On 19 November 1942, Operation Freshman followed with the planned glider-borne landing on frozen lake Møsvatn near the plant. Two Airspeed Horsa gliders, towed by Handley Page Halifax bombers, each glider carrying two pilots and 15 Royal Engineers of the 9th Field Company, 1st British Airborne Division, took off from RAF Skitten near Wick in Caithness. The towing of gliders had always been hazardous, but in this case it was made worse by the long flying distance to Norway and poor weather conditions which severely restricted visibility. One of the Halifax tugs crashed into a mountain, killing all seven aboard; its glider was able to cast off, but crashed nearby, resulting in several casualties. The other Halifax arrived at the area of the landing zone, but although the conditions had substantially improved it was impossible to locate the landing zone itself, owing to the failure of the link between the Eureka (ground) and Rebecca (aircraft) beacons. After much endeavour and with fuel running low, the Halifax pilot decided to abort the operation and return to base. Shortly afterwards, however, the tug and glider combination encountered heavy cloud and in the resulting turbulence the tow rope broke. The glider made a crash landing, not far from where the other glider had come down, similarly inflicting several deaths and injuries. The Norwegians were unable to reach the crash sites in time, and the survivors eventually came into the hands of the Gestapo, who tortured them during interrogation (not sparing the badly injured) and later had them executed under Adolf Hitler’s Commando Order.’

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage

  139. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    Looks like next years remembrance is being turned into the full theme park experience. Charlie Brooker will be proud, they’ve stolen one of his ideas.

  140. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Democracy can’t function without an effective press and media. As such, what chance UKOK?

    @Yoonstream
    The Lodge – Over Til’ It’s Over
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ggkQQDQx14

  141. Petra
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve come across this in the Sun too and it just makes my blood boil for one reason and another. Remembrance after 100 years now? My backside.

    Maybe a reader on here will recognise one of them.

    Article in the Sun:‘Plea by Grave Bosses.’

    ‘Relatives of fallen soldiers from WW1 due to be commemorated are being urged to come forward. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have yet to find any family for nine soldiers (although they only list 8) to be given a special headstone. When they died the CWGC was not informed by authorities of their death.

    Samantha Daynes of the CWGC said ‘’It would be wonderful if we could find descendants to commemorate these men. If anyone is related to one of them please contact the CWGC’’

    Last month His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, President of the CWGC, paid his respects to the graves of Commonwealth Servicemen buried in Norway .. including those who died during Operation Fleshman.

    The forgotten Scottish soldiers are:

    1. Lance Corporal Alexander Campbell, S/2216, Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. Died on 12/12/2016 aged 29. Son of James and Margaret Campbell of Glasgow.

    2. Lance Corporal Hugh Sands, 1911, Highland Light Infantry. Died on 16/09/1918 aged 29. Son of Annie and James Sands of Glasgow.

    3. Private George Richardson, S/12454, Gordon Highlanders. Died aged 24 on 4/1/1919. Son of James and Elizabeth Richardson.

    4. Private John Costie Crosbie, 7431, Highland Light Infantry. Died on 3/11/1915 aged 31. Son of Douglas and Jane Crosbie.

    5. Private William McGregor, 10237, Scots Guards. Died on 7/12/1915 aged 44. Son of William and Margaret McGregor.

    6. Private Hugh Mooney, 3933, Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. Died 21/08/1915 aged 55. Husband of Catherine Mooney of Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

    7. Private Robert Peebles, 6478, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Died 30/03/1916 aged 35. Son of Joseph and Eliza-Jane Peebles.

    8. Private William Dawson Ross, S/7001, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Died 22/12/1918 aged 24. Son of George and Elizabeth Ross of Glasgow.

  142. Meg merrilees
    Ignored
    says:

    Molly @1.42 am

    Good point – has anyone found out why the Scottish Tories were in Israel and were they in the Golan Heights – an occupied territory so far as the UK is concerned?

    Answers on a large postcard addressed to Therersa May not like this at WM!

    Maybe (t)Ruthless didn’t go because she didn’t want to blot her copybook?

  143. Valerie
    Ignored
    says:

    @ jfngw 3.08

    It’s also a huge opportunity to weaponise the day. I think it’s turning into a farce, but in past years, I say nothing, as a mark of respect to the dead.

    There is no such restraint shown by Aberdeen Tory councillors, who attacked the SNP leader on Twitter for not singing Rule Britannia.

    These nasty Arseholes go along to a Remembrance service to study the SNP attendees. The victim responded with dignity that his grandfather, whose medals he held during the service, fought for his freedom not to sing.

    I told said Tory what I thought of his low level behaviour.

    Numerous attacks on Ian Blackford for wearing a kilt, and the ‘wrong jacket’.

    These people have zero respect for the dead, or the service. It’s simply another SNP attack opportunity. Even though I’m inured to it, it still takes my breath away.

  144. meg merrilees
    Ignored
    says:

    Petra

    thank you for the above list of names of these men who ‘once were lost but now am found’

    Sheesh- imagine going to war at the age of 55!!!

    I salute them and honour their memory. They were brave men.

    May they Rest in Peace.

  145. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    jfngw @ 3:08 pm

    Grieg ‘n’ Heritage Theme Parks certainly outdid themselves this year. But next year instead of Dimbleby doing the dignity voiceover maybe they could get Nicolas Witchell and Lady Olga Maitland to break down with emotion halfway through the show.

    It would be a great laugh to see who among us could make the wildest suggestion for the Bereavements-R-Us-2018 roadshow.

  146. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    jfngw @ 3:08 pm

    Grief ‘n’ Heritage Theme Parks certainly outdid themselves this year. But next year instead of Dimbleby doing the dignity voiceover maybe they could get Nicolas Witchell and Lady Olga Maitland to break down with emotion halfway through the show.

    It would be a great laugh to see who among us could make the wildest suggestion for the Bereavements-R-Us-2018 roadshow.

  147. Greannach
    Ignored
    says:

    Grieg?

    Grief!

  148. Meg merrilees
    Ignored
    says:

    Valerie

    Obviously these critics do not realise that many hundreds of thousands of the men who died were wearing the Kilt when they died!

    I thought it was a very thoughtful and courageous move by Ian Blackford to be true to his Nation and wear the outfit that was the uniform of many of those who have given the ‘Ultimate Sacrifice”.

    Do these moaning couchpotatoes object if a Ghurka/Hindu or other Commonwealth National wears the national dress of their Country.

    As Corporal Jones says frequently in Dad’s Army…’ They don’t like it up them Captain Mannering.”

  149. Blair Paterson
    Ignored
    says:

    Mr., Parker is on a par with the Irish clairvoyant who claimed he could see lento the past their both a joke

  150. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T

    There is a debate on Scottish Independence at Westminster Hall at 4.30pm today,

    https://tinyurl.com/ybuewkyr

  151. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe if Ian Blackford had worn the British Kilt he could have avoided all of this nastiness, if only they had kilts with union flag tartan. Can hardly wait for that great Scottish ‘historian’ next year telling me the proud Brits that died in their kilts.

  152. Legerwood
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella says:
    13 November, 2017 at 1:38 pm
    At school, we were told about “Tar McAdam” as well as Telford.
    Thing was, all that cotton thread and Paisley shawls had to be transported quickly to the markets. So decent roads were created.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Loudon_McAdam
    ………………………..
    Telford together with two other engineers built a canal between Paisley, Johnstone and Glasgow so that the weavers in Paisley could get their goods to market more easily. It was meant to go down to Ardrossan but was never completed.

    Later the canal was filled in and a railway built along the route. Part of the canal still exists near Ferguslie Mill if I remember correctly. The railway has also now gone but the railway line was converted to a pathway and is well used by joggers etc.

    The BBC did a programme about Telford – the Man who built Britain. First aired in 2007 and repeated in Oct 2014. Probably on YouTube somewhere.

    There was a biography of Telford published within the last year which was serialized on BBC Radio 4 as Book of the Week in January 2017.

  153. Douglas
    Ignored
    says:

    Re: Ian Blackford and wearing the kilt at the Cenotaph.

    My grandfather was a stretcher bearer during WW1, my mum recalls him telling her that Scot’ troops suffered horrendous wounds on their legs while in the trenches. This was due to mud getting caked onto the hem of the kilt and then rubbing into the calves of theirs legs. As a consequence and also the wet dirty conditions caused serious leg wounds and infections. Also, the pleats on the kilts,being warm moist and dark, harboured infestations of lice. It does not bear thinking about what horrors these soldiers endured. For that alone, Ian deserves respect for wearing a kilt…

  154. G. Kelly
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict I will never, ever, ever buy the Daily Record….. oh wait! that’s already happened!



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.




↑ Top