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Wings Over Scotland


The headline ferret

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

Alert readers will be familiar with a phenomenon we often like to highlight in these pages – that of the dramatic newspaper headline which rapidly turns into something completely different by the time you read the text of the story.

fiscaus

There’s an especially fine example in today’s Telegraph.

The article is a superb piece of hyperbolic fearmongery, depicting a Scotland where:

“Gone will be free university education and medical prescriptions. Gone too will be the triple lock on pensions and high levels of social care for the elderly. The First Minister’s promise of both lower taxes and higher spending will have been exposed as a cynical deception.

“I raise this spectre not to alarm.”

But in this particular instance that’s not even the good bit. Because the paragraphs preceding the above doom-laden warnings (and all the further doom-laden warnings that follow them) run like this:

“What will Scotland look like after 10 years of independence? If Alex Salmond’s vision is fulfilled, Scotland will have become a prosperous, high-income, high public expenditure, social democracy on the Nordic model, fully at ease with its position in the European Union, and possibly even a signed up member of the euro.

An equally plausible scenario, however, is that it will by then have been forced into a vicious fiscal consolidation that will have cut many public services and entitlements to the bone.”

Our emphasis, there. Because while the column devotes 1,204 words to the “disaster” scenario and just 52 to the positive one it deems “equally plausible”, it does nevertheless concede that either could happen.

So the headline and sub-head thundering that “An independent Scotland WOULD lose free university education, medical prescriptions, the triple lock on pensions and high levels of social care for the elderly” isn’t only deeply contentious as a statement of fact, it’s also a flat-out lie even when taken only on its own terms as a description of the article below.

Mind you, we also couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at the use of present tense in “Scotland is voting for fiscal austerity, it just doesn’t know it”. It does rather sound as though the Telegraph, with its rheumy eyes on the polling trends, is preparing to sorrowfully wash its hands of Scotland and get ready for life as a diminished rUK.

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  1. 29 04 14 13:59

    The headline ferret | FreeScotland
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118 to “The headline ferret”

  1. Seonaid Francis
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘Gone will be the free university education and medical prescriptions. Gone too will be the triple lock on pensions and high levels of social care for the elderly.’

    This will go anyway if we vote No. So, we may as well vote Yes.

  2. Drew
    Ignored
    says:

    Read it just a few minutes ago – thought twice about linking it. Thanks I didn’t.

  3. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    Boy are they really going to be pissed off when we make a success of independence and emigration from rUK heads to Scotland, especially of the educated normal English professionals.

    I know a number who live and work in France, who were thinking of returning home to their UK are now seeking me about about Scotland as an alternative.

  4. Bill Fraser
    Ignored
    says:

    Some people ARE voting for fiscal austerity but just don’t know it. Those people are voting No because they think the status – quo means no changes when in fact 60% of the already planned cuts have still to come into force and that is before cuts to the Barnett formula because of privatisation and the so called readjustment of the formula which will impose a further £4 billion of cuts.

  5. heedtracker
    Ignored
    says:

    From ““I raise this spectre not to alarm” to “When throwing yourself over a cliff, it is customary to wear a parachute.”

    I gave up there, its clearly just one more over paid idiot trying out his own project fear thing. We are so lucky to have such lousy journalism thumping the teamGB tub.

  6. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    You’ve highlighted this print & on line media behaviour before. And the article is really just a summation of the doom of cataclysmic proportions that has already been broadcast by Brown, Darling, McDougall & lately, Robertson.

    So nothing new then. But I do wonder if I am beginning to detect a sense of emotional projection from the London press in particular.

    Reaching a conclusion that Scotland seems more likely now to vote for independence, they are also beginning to realise the true financial impact on rUK.

    If after all, as a whole UK, Osborne’s recovery is going to take many more years of brutal cuts, the loss of Scotland’s foreign currency earnings are really going to hurt.

    But instead of just admitting how awful Britain’s current account actually is, they are projecting this misery upon those undecided in Scotland, predicting an even more calamitous outcome.

    It suggests to me that the London establishment has yet to move beyond the emotional stage, towards the rational stage where reasonable negotiations & statements of positions would be declared.

    So even though the polls suggest a real possibility of Scottish independence, the media & the establishment still has its head stuck in the sand, screaming nonsense & refusing to consider preparations for a diminished UK.

    Even now, the British establishment is unable to present an unarguable, positive case for retaining the status quo. If they can’t come up with one now, it’s surely evidence that there’s rarely been one at all, ever.

  7. CalumCarr
    Ignored
    says:

    I wrote about this here http://calumcarr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/definite-indefinite-article-no-surprises.html. Warner’s tweet about his article uses only the headline. I have emailed him for clarification. Are the headline and tweet correct or are both possibilities quoted ‘equally plausible’? Will update if any reply.

  8. Renee Slater
    Ignored
    says:

    I presume the exchequer is expecting us to sell out as the nobles did during the Darien Scheme in 1698 which led to the unity of the crowns? Well Mr Scarmonger, we have learned from that! Scotland’s politicians will be accountable to the people of Scotland. Unlike the vested corporate interests of Westminster. & remember – independence is NOT about the SNP!

  9. Iaon
    Ignored
    says:

    Whilst guessing what might happen, they fail to guess that an unknown Scottish Nationalist will buy the newspaper and sack all the liars therein, top to bottom and bring in REAL journalists not sooth sayers, fortune tellers and other charlatans. Ok, I know this is unlikely but if they can make things up so can I.

  10. robroy
    Ignored
    says:

    Who buys this Tory rag anyway?

  11. Jim Mitchell
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T aren’t Labour leaving things a bit late.

    https://uk-mg42.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.partner=sky&.rand=1d9te9b491eol#mail

  12. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T – Apologies.

    Hello Wingers,

    I have checked with Stu before posting this wee appeal and he’s cool with it.

    My nephew is making a short drama film set on the night of the referendum. The film is called ‘Autumn Leaves’ and has some big names in the Scottish acting scene already signed up. He just needs £1500 to get it all filmed and edited. For my part my wife and I will be living out of a caravan for the bst part of two weeks filming as the film crew are using our flat for the set.

    You can read all about this great wee film at the kickstart link (below) and details there of how you can throw a quid or two to help it take flight. And there’s even a possibility it might get shown on the telly on referendum night (early days though).

    The link:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glasschequefilms/autumn-leaves

    Do what you can lads ‘n’ lassies to make this happen.

    And a mighty big “Thank You, Stu” for letting me post this on Wings.

  13. gordoz
    Ignored
    says:

    Thankfully such papers are largely read by rUK audience, so lies they may be, but less and less people are obtaining indy info from papers in Scotland now anyway so .. what damage are they really causing but to their own reputations ?

    Have discussed this very point with a few commuting friends who have confirmed they only buy such papers for the quizes / crosswords etc.

    Only 1 of the 5 believe the Ind Ref content (a def No). Rest ignore such features and get info online, 3 YES, 2 leaning towards a Yes vote (& they really dont get the No campaign tactics at all).

  14. Jamie Arriere
    Ignored
    says:

    He may have used the term ‘equally plausible’ but there’s absolutely no evidence that he is even contemplating the other possibility on equal terms.

    And again they can’t help describing it as only Alex Salmond’s vision, and utterly fail to realise it is the vision of nearly half (and soon to be more than half) of the electorate up here!

  15. Vestas
    Ignored
    says:

    Its the Telegraph. Nobody (even in England) reads it unless they’re way way WAY to the right of the Tory party. Jeremy Warner (usually one of the saner hacks) doesn’t believe a word of what he’s written there & its clearly been futher hacked by the sub-editors.

    I also find it amusing that (after their purge of kipper commentards) the Telegraph’s comments are probably less abusive to all Scots than the Guardian, which is on a par with the Daily Mail in terms of abuse.

    We live & learn, especially after the egregious Polly Toynbee’s comments about excluding all Scots from positions of power. The Guardian is clearly as racist as the Daily Mail these days….

  16. MajorBloodnok
    Ignored
    says:

    robroy says: Who buys this Tory rag anyway?

    I mainly see it being given out for free on aeroplanes.

  17. Glass Girl
    Ignored
    says:

    I can almost visualise the authors petted lip.

  18. Lynn MacRae
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat

    I tried to donate to the film, but unfortunately it doesn’t accept my card (Maestro). Is there another way to donate? Paypal perhaps?

    Thanks

  19. Alfresco Dent
    Ignored
    says:

    Hallelujah!

  20. MajorBloodnok
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T I was just in a computer gaming site (Armaholic if you must know) and there are click ads for YES Scotland Official 2014 merchandise. Never see that before.

  21. HandandShrimp
    Ignored
    says:

    Is Jeremy any relation to Gerald?

  22. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @Majorbloodnok

    Classy

    The airlines I use, charges for bumf and offers you another free choice of the Telegraph or Pravda.

    You do have to watch of for the ink smears on certain parts of your anatomy. I find that black Y fronts work well and for your hands the mini soap bars you liberated from the Khazakstan Travelodge.

  23. Les Wilson
    Ignored
    says:

    Iaon says

    Hi, after a YES vote, we could have a crowd funding to buy, say the Scotsman. I feel sure we could raise £1000.00 for the liquidator and then have a once a year crowd fund to pay wages! Just thinking aloud!

  24. The Rough Bounds
    Ignored
    says:

    @proud cybernat. 2.24pm

    I can’t believe that you used the words ‘for the SAKE of auld lang syne’ in that clip.

    I think you ought to get that lassie to sing the correct words of Auld Lang Syne before you put this film into production.

  25. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    I thought I was being quite moderate, when describing this article as “explosive diarrhea”. Apparently the moderator did not disagree, as my comment remains.

  26. bookie from hell
    Ignored
    says:

    sorry hung,drawn,quartered

  27. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    @bookie from hell

    Ouch!

    I’d say Hague has just been schooled. 😀

  28. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Proud Cybernat – from one Proud Cybernat to another happy to donate and thanks for advertising this project. Tears in my eyes as I listened to that beautiful rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ on the promo. Film format sounds fun – a kind of Scottish Alf Garnet scenario?

  29. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @Cameron B

    I am still banned from the DT website; tant pis.

    Their less for losing an erudite ursine ranter.

  30. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    Telegraph…Hmm…isn’t that the upper class twitrag that our best mate Cockers writes for? 😉

    I think that says everything that needs to be said about it then.:P

  31. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    Bookie from Hell

    You were right first time

    A picture is hung, and a donkey well hung but Hague should be hanged etc.

    I wish I could do these wee smiley faces but I can barely do bold and italics

  32. Eric D
    Ignored
    says:

    Hello all. First comment, but I’ve been following ‘Wings’ since the beginning of this journey.

    Gave up on the Guardian a few months back (I’m ‘Dorice’ there), and now the Herald is no longer allowing ANY criticism of the unionist/London-based media.

    It’s going to get worse folks, and we’re going to get Torygraph-type stuff everywhere.

    That means more public meetings, more canvassing, more door-knocking, more street work, and more talking.

    If we do more …..

    We WILL win !

  33. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ The Rough Bounds

    I know Burns doesn’t use the word “sake” but I think some singers (such as Eddi Reader in the short clip) insert the word to fit the melody. This is what Wiki has to say about it:

    The last lines of both of these are often sung with the extra words “For the sake of” or “And days of”, rather than Burns’ simpler lines. This allows one note for each word, rather than the slight melisma required to fit Burns’ original words to the melody.

    Artistic license I guess.

    Cheers.

  34. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ TJenny

    Thank you TJenny for your support. And yes–it is a stunningly beautiful and moving rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ by Eddi Reader (a big YES supporter herself).

    Cheers and thanks again.

  35. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    Arbroath 1320
    It dashed good sport though. 🙂

    I’ve been having a whale of time, just keeping the head and stating the facts. I think that the Telegraph and the Spectator are the only sites I now feel comfortable posting on, as I have yet to experience any censorship. The UKIP-ers are also a little bit more polite than say at the Gruniard, though it doesn’t always take a lot to set them off. 🙂

  36. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Lynn MacRae

    Sorry about that Lynn. Alas I am new to the Kickstart site myself (it’s a site specifically to help get independent films made) so I’m not sure why they don’t take Maestro. I’ll investigate it a bit more and let you know. But hey–thanks for your support on this. It’s a smashing wee project. I have read the script and it is very funny in a typically Scottish way and would make great viewing on Referendum night after the polls have closed.

    I shall get back to you once I have figured out if there are any other ways to support this project.

    Cheers,

  37. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    o/t – I see the Farage is in Bath today being followed by a BBC reporter and camera crew. Wonder if oor Stu will be seen anywhere in the vicinity?

  38. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    P.S. I know my comments there, probably won’t win any votes for Yes, but I don’t think I’m doing any harm. I don’t get out much. 🙂

  39. bunter
    Ignored
    says:

    Farage just said to Norman Smith that he would do a deal to secure a referendum if his party had MP’s a la LibDems at last election.

    That rules oot Milipede and Labour then!

  40. Clootie
    Ignored
    says:

    The Telegraph article indicates that we are winning !
    The more effort / the bigger the article / the closer to the front all show the efforts are ramping up.

    …and why would you allocate a valuable resource – unless you were fighting a rearguard action!

  41. handclapping
    Ignored
    says:

    I see in their concern for me the Treasury have been working for months dahling months to bring me an indepth analysis how Scotland will fare if they continue with their projected policies for the UK and will have them introduced to us by Oh look a squirrel.

    Why do I suspect that this concern is only because I might vote Yes and that if I vote No I will have given up my ace? Luckily I do not do football and so do not fear TeamGB but shouldn’t the Tartan Army worry about a No vote?

  42. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    Proud Cybernat & Rough Bounds.

    This is worst attempt at singing a Burns song I”ve ever heard. Why do people think they can improve on the words written by our national bard?

    I attended a Burns supper in Ayr on Burns night this year and Alistair McDonald sang about 20 Burns songs with not a word wrong. Brilliant he was.

    Please change the singer on this film. Why not give Alistair a shout.

  43. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Anyone else notice that British media frequently uses pictures of blue painted faces wearing jimmy hats or bare chested men in kilts to accompany independence stories.

    But I cannot recall any story that ever used a stereotypical picture of an English person when the article was basically a defense of the status quo.

    It harks of the images in the last James Bond movie. The sets in England were crisp, elegant or sophisticated. But when in Scotland, it was portrayed as dark, dangerous & bleak.

    British propaganda, eh?

  44. Macart
    Ignored
    says:

    @Eric D

    Dorice?

    Good to see you here. Had a few of us worried for a while.

    You’re not wrong though. The frequency of personalised attacks, demonisation pieces is growing apace with the narrowing of the polls. The more worried they get, the more grubby and distorted the story released.

    TBH although I still post on the Grun, it tends to be links to the various indy sites just like WOS. Spread the good word as it were. I gave up arguing with the opposition a long time since. 😉

  45. frazer allan whyte
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe the Telegraph – which no doubt fully recognizes its readership in Scotland is rather limited – is not aiming at a Scottish readership at all. Maybe it is an attempt to ware off English readers wondering why if “too small, too poor etc” Scotland can afford to be a society that treats its citizens as citizens, rich powerful “punching above its weight” England cannot manage the same.
    Oh, and after the Yes vote they will be able to blame it on the disruption caused by independence because the Scots ran away with the fish, the oil and a lot of bright people who needed a decent education but couldn’t afford it down south.

  46. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    jimsie – can’t agree with you. I thought Eddie Reader’s rendition was exceptionally moving.

    We’ll just have to agree to disagree whilst not imposing our views on the producers, eh.

  47. Stuart Black
    Ignored
    says:

    Dorice, welcome! I too have pretty much given up on CiF, butI always enjoyed your posts, nice to see you here now. 🙂

  48. gerry parker
    Ignored
    says:

    @Bugger,
    Just do a colon followed by an open close bracket to get 🙂

    or a colon followed by an open bracket to get 🙁

    You can use a semi colon in either case to get 😉

    hth
    😉

  49. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    gerry parker – I’ve found that if you’re using a full stop, you have to leave a space first.

  50. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    T.Jenny

    Having been a student of the bard all my life I get somewhat perturbed when people misrepresent his words. Eddi Reader should stick to pop music.She is a nice girl and a great supporter of independence but is an awful singer.

  51. Misteralz
    Ignored
    says:

    Got some drivel from the Whigs in the post this morning. Along the bottom of the front page were the words ‘Why we should stay in Britain – p7’ and on page seven there was a tiny sidebar with the word ‘RISK’ as a header.

  52. Jamie Arriere
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat,

    Wow that’s a great cast (Sean Scanlan & Barbara Rafferty – love her as Jamesie Cotters’ wife in Rab C.). Got tae make this happen.

    I like Eddi Reader’s voice, and applying artistic licence to the most famous song from this country does divide folk – but what she does is fairly traditional. Anyone who knows Scottish ballads and the women who historically sang them (most of the great ballad singers were women), they always made them their own, changing lyrics/melodic twists/ornamentation.

    So dinnae worry aboot it!

  53. MajorBloodnok
    Ignored
    says:

    @Jimsie

    Say that on Question Time and she’ll chib ye. 🙂

  54. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Newsdrive: Radio Scotland sets up a wee discussion between friends just after 16:15hrs to let us all know that the Media are pretty balanced and that folk, by and large, are getting all the good information they need.

    David Torrance and Alison suggest that an open to comments section in their papers are great as it allows folk to get involved. (Pity they didn’t mention BBC Scotland’s web site, usually closed).

    Davy boy even mentioned blog sites, like NNS & naming Wings as places that fill the gap. Making his living on the referendum he is.

    🙂

  55. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    I used to comment on the Hootsmon many many moons ago Cameron under Stirling Brig but gave up with all the OTT and totally unnecessary anti SNP, anti Salmond we hate SNP we hate Salmond garbage. I also used to put up the occasional comment on Brain Taylor’s blog, remember when we were allowed to put up comments there, ah those were the days. 😛

    I now just stick to sites like Wings and Munguin’s and occasionally Cybernat as well. I can’t be bothered with all the puerile hatred of people who support independence on most unionist sites. I just prefer to come to places where I can have a nice wee quiet blether. 🙂

  56. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    Major Bloodnok

    She would need to be fast, I was brought up in a rough school too. Frank Bruno was the Avon Lady in our street !

  57. Misteralz
    Ignored
    says:

    Seems Robert Smith still couldn’t think of a good reason for the continuation of the union, but there was a mention of ‘home rule plans’ – I’ll have to press him on what they are…

  58. Calgacus MacAndrews
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m an Eddie Reader fan.
    I love her versions of Burns songs.
    I also very much admire somebody who is prepared to put their head above the parapet for their beliefs, when so many were, and are still, keeping their heads down.

  59. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @Eric D (aka Dorice)

    Bloody well welcome.

    Great to have you here.
    :()

  60. pmcrek
    Ignored
    says:

    Sorry for quick off topic but need to say hi to Eric D!

    I remember you well from the Guardian Dorice, I myself stopped visiting CiF over a year ago. The double standards when it came to Scotland of both journalists and commentators alike was eventually too tiresome to put up with.

  61. gerry parker
    Ignored
    says:

    @bugger.
    try again, this time with only one bracket .

    🙂

  62. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Eddi Reader has a beautiful voice and I like her rendition of Burns’ songs especially Auld Lang Syne, and also Jean Redpath’s, which is based on the tune suggested by Serge Hovey, American musicologist. They are subtly different but equally beautiful. De gustibus nil disputandum (there’s no arguing about taste!).

  63. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Jola’s history!

    It is reported that Lamont’s first name is not spelt/spelled correctly in one of today’s Scottish exams.

    Joanna to Johann

    Pupils were informed about the error before the exam started.

  64. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat,NTH lanarkshire cooncil sent me a cheque

    for the disruption ( new Kitchen ) so I,ll put ma tuppence

    worth in, och go on you you know you wunt tae, ok £24.98 +

    the tuppence,awe the best.

  65. Calgacus MacAndrews
    Ignored
    says:

    Over on the Telegraph website (on the Billy Connolly story) one of the commentators is calling Cybernats “TerrorNats”.

    We must be winning.

  66. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    🙂

  67. Andy-B
    Ignored
    says:

    I can’t recall the Torygraph, ever penning anything positive about Scottish independence, its all doom and gloom, and anyone with a modicum of knowledge regarding the independence debate, couldn’t possibly take the Torygraph seriously.

  68. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Same old nonsense, but their (BT, Telegraph, MSM, LabConLib, etc etc) persistence indicates panic AND no better strategy.

    On a good day, I’m optimistic of winning 🙂

    On some other days, I fret that BT and the British establisment might get their act together 🙁

    However, each day they faff around with the same old, is a day closer to winning! Today has been a winning day, I reckon.

  69. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Cmon people Eddy Reader is one of our most listened to

    Artists, the recording is for a wide audience ie World Wide.

  70. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    Calgacus MacAndrews says:

    Over on the Telegraph website (on the Billy Connolly story) one of the commentators is calling Cybernats “TerrorNats”.

    We must be winning.

    Is there no end to the kindness of these unionists Calgacus?

    I mean first off we were cybernats which we warmed to with delight, then we were bedroomnats, pavementnats,cabernats etc and now we are TerrorNats! Wow! 🙂

    When will their gift of giving us presents stop. All these nice wee names we can choose from and we have nothing to give them in return. Oh wait a minute yes we do…a tissue on 19th September to wipe away their tears when they lose. 😛

  71. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    Would my analysis of newsfeeds be correct and Alistair Darling has not appeared in public nor made any media comments for 16days now?

  72. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    Bugger (the Panda)
    : + ) = 🙂 etc., etc…..

  73. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    galamcennalath – maybe Darling’s in the bunker with JoLa, hatching cunning stunts.

  74. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Now did I omit a comma there?

  75. bald eagle
    Ignored
    says:

    had a talk with my postman this morn

    him)here this won’t fit in the letterbox

    me)i know it’s a box

    me)hoi dipshit why is this leaflet torn here take it back i’m not taking it

    him)i know it was me it’s a bt leaflet and you have got a yes sticker on you’re door so i ripped it

    me)so why give it to me

    him)look i carried it up here don’t think i’m carrying that shit around all day

    christmas card+postman i dont think so oh he’s yes as well
    i’m 5.4 he;s 6.8 just as well i had my specks on or i would have dropped him

  76. haud on the noo
    Ignored
    says:

    Our Darling was at Margo’s event last week ?

  77. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @Proud Cybernat,donation Winging on its way £25, I hope

    this project is supported, keep on posting in the threads.

  78. bjsalba
    Ignored
    says:

    Given the present BT tactics, I thought we might change the “Oh look a squirrel!” to “Oh look it’s a Corporal Frazer!”.

    Just for a little variety, you know.

  79. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    @TJenny

    Nope JoLo is in Brechin today.

  80. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    seems that Flipper is on an extended break in his holiday retreat on Harris. No doubt blinking like mad.

  81. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    @haud on the noo

    Darling was indeed at Margo’s service.

    So why is he so quiet? I still can’t find statements, presentations or interviews in the last 16 days.

  82. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @T Jenny ahv got some ah goat plenty fur ma birthday

    see ah never use any in this post there awe brand new.

    ,,,,,,,,,,, xxx.

  83. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    I read this earlier today, it’s is Alex Salmond’s response to the U.K.’s *ahem* Foreign Secretary.

    http://tinyurl.com/mcvlnsp

    I have now come across this from SNP Brussels on Twitter.

    http://tinyurl.com/pmcs4mh

    Is it just me or does it appear that we, the supporters of independence, are actually in the MAJORITY throughout the world and the Better Together crowd are the MINORITY? 😛

  84. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Ronnie – aw, thanks, but I’m not really sure I did omit one. 🙂

  85. Proud Cybernat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ ronnie anderson

    Thanks for that, Ronnie. You’re a star! And thanks to us Wingers this wee appeal is now moving onwards and upwards towards its target.

    If you’re late in to this, here’s the link again folks to get all the info on this wee appeal (okayed by Stu – I did ask permission first).

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glasschequefilms/autumn-leaves

    Let’s make this wee film happen lads ‘n’ lassies–a great cast and a brilliantly witty script.

    Aye!

  86. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    Perhaps Flipper has had a breakdown. He was looking pretty rough the last interview he gave.

    Having had a work-related breakdown myself, I would not wish that on anyone. Still, I would find it hard to find any sympathy for such an odious liar.

  87. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    For those of you trying to keep up to speed on bingate here is the latest news from the front line. 😛

    http://tinyurl.com/mhwk3bp

  88. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    Dares more to dem seas than Fishes & Oil.

    Sea Bed Exploration, precious metals – Gold being only one

    of them,who owns our Sea Bed- Crown Estate’s, kkep that in

    mind folks,not a lot of people know that.

  89. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    galamcennanath – ‘JoLA’s in Brechin today. Does Paula Rose know this? She could wander along for a heckle.

  90. call me dave
    Ignored
    says:

    Bernie Armstrong Scottish Fisheries Federation rep, want’s answers to what FM said in Bruge. Very risky strategy! Shouldn’t use the fisherman as a threat, or even worse FM might give something away.

    He admits being sold down the river (Mrs T) but denies that the the UK fishing industry has lost ground since then. Wont get behind YES or NO but he’s nervous… made me nervous just listening to him. Just popped up to say something I guess.

  91. Calgacus MacAndrews
    Ignored
    says:

    @Arbroath 1320 says:
    Calgacus MacAndrews says:
    Over on the Telegraph website (on the Billy Connolly story) one of the commentators is calling Cybernats “TerrorNats”.
    When will their gift of giving us presents stop. All these nice wee names we can choose from and we have nothing to give them in return.

    I gave them “NaziNats” for free, to save them the trouble thinking up the next one.

    🙂

  92. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    ALERT! ALERT!

    Cybernats are on patrol.

    Be prepared to be seriously interrogated if you are *ahem* arrested by any cybernats today you know what they are like. You have been warned! 😛

    http://tinyurl.com/p97ozrk

  93. Bugger (the Panda)
    Ignored
    says:

    @CameronB says:
    29 April, 2014 at 5:24 pm

    “Perhaps Flipper has had a breakdown. He was looking pretty rough the last interview he gave.”

    Maybe truer than you think?

    He was showing extreme signs of burn out during his last public airing

  94. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Arbroath 1320 – that looks a lovely tartan. Is it the official Cybernat Tartan?

  95. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve just seen a tweet from Iain Macwhirter Stu that appears to imply, reading between the lines/tweets, that if you thought the BBC and NUJ was a big story then there could very well be an even bigger one about to break soon concerning their commercial rivals. I assume he means STV, don’t know if you’ve heard anything in the grapevine about this but it sounds very intriguing don’t you think? 😉

  96. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    I agree T Jenny it is a lovely tartan. If it isn’t the “official” Cybernat tartan then I suggest we make it a contender to be the unofficial tartan. 😉

    If anyone wants to hear the First Minister give his speech at Carlisle cathedral last week then here’s a link.

    http://tinyurl.com/qhy7r7d

  97. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    That’s the Death Star tartan, isn’t it?

  98. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @Jimsie 5.04, mibbe’s his pal Wilson,s weaving a special

    harris tweed fur Darling, whit dey ye caw a harris sheet

    wie nae pockits in. am dyin tae see that.

  99. ronnie anderson
    Ignored
    says:

    @Calcus Mac Andrews, Terrornats diz that mean ah hiv tae

    shell oot again fur Tartan Tea Towels,ave jist ordered

    a load of Tin Foil ffs, ah canny wait tae ah kin wear

    a Panama hat again,or is that jist showin aff.

  100. Jimsie
    Ignored
    says:

    Ronnie Anderson

    Ah but the arms tie behind the back. Think it”s called a strait-jacket.

  101. Fiona
    Ignored
    says:

    So if we vote for independence we get a50:50 chance of exactly the same outcome as England already has? And this is a bad thing?

    I just don’t get these people

  102. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    Darling is noticeable by his absence.

    The enemies of democracy are cranking up the pace and he’s nowhere to be seen. You’d expect him to be in the thick of it. Sidelined? Taking a sabbatical? Working things from the centre?

  103. galamcennalath
    Ignored
    says:

    I wouldn’t wish stress related ill health on anyone, having been there. So if Darling is having serious problems, I hope he simply walks away from all this.

    Consider this. The implication would be that fronting BT has proven more stressful than being Chancellor of the Exchequer in economic melt down. Whatever you think of the man and his record, heading BT is a crap role!

  104. rab_the_doubter
    Ignored
    says:

    Just seen the Labour Party Political Broadcast and wow, I’m inspired not. The emotion, passion and drama, I’m astonished – with how bad it is. They’re not even trying any more, and the people in it looked like they were being forced to act at gunpoint.

  105. daddyo
    Ignored
    says:

    Seen Eddie Reader at the 02 ABC in Glasgow on Sunday. She was wonderful and a credit to Scotland

  106. Arbroath 1320
    Ignored
    says:

    Aye I watched the SLab EUROPEAN PPB rab. Well when I say watched it I mean through a load of tears. I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my face. 😛

  107. liz
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Eric D – Welcome – I also used to post on the Guardian but have given up – Polly Toynbee was the last straw – unbelievable.

  108. JWil
    Ignored
    says:

    The Telegraphs piece sounds like the fabled nuclear winter, but only for Scotland.

  109. CalumCarr
    Ignored
    says:

    Eventually had a response from Jeremy Warner re the incompatibility of the headline and his 1st paragraph.

    It’s simple, shocking but not surprising.

    Got to get the readers in somehow

    More here http://calumcarr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/got-to-get-readers-in-somehow.html

  110. CameronB
    Ignored
    says:

    CalumCarr
    So they are just paying the mortgage. This appears to be Better Together’s main concern.

  111. Grouse Beater
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Calum

    Eventually had a response from Jeremy Warner.

    Completely dishonest journalism, nothing less.

    No Orwell Prize for him!
    He wins obscurity.

  112. Robert Peffers
    Ignored
    says:

    Strangely, when things were very quiet here earlier, I was doing a bit of research on earlier examples of the English/UK media’s anti-Scottish hate campaigning. I had just finished when I had a visitor. So it didn’t get posted. On returning now I find this topic. So here is what I had written : –

    Scots may remember the crass anti-Scottish Radio 4, “Any Questions”, programme of 20/09/2013 that featured Baroness Ruth Deech and Douglas Murray? The pair were bad enough but the audiences’ cheers and obvious delighted as the commentators described Scotland’s democratically elected First Minister as “crawling out of the darkness”, revealed the depths of anti-Scottish feelings in England.

    Deech began things by saying, “It’s been very embarrassing for the rest of us. And it started me thinking along these lines, if Scotland wants to be independent, OK, be my guest, go ahead…..go off on your own, because actually, we’re all subsidising them I think, by way of benefits and all sorts of reasons.”,

    Next Murray continued the anti-Scots attack with, “There is not very much to do if you are the Scottish Justice Secretary in a devolved Scottish Assembly. You can at least read the one important bit of news that comes across your desk in the last five years. The problem that I think the most galling thing about this whole thing is this pretend, horrible, charade building in Edinburgh called the Scottish Parliament and the horrible charade politicians who inhabit it and who occasionally crawl out of the darkness and explain something to the rest of us, as if we’ve never thought of moral questions before.”

    This was, without doubt, out-and-out, “Scotophobia”, of the very worst kind. Could you imagine any serious Radio or TV Show getting away with such comments about, say, the Republic of Ireland’s Taoiseach and the Dáil Éireann?

    Would it be acceptable for Radio 4 programmes to speak so of the Welsh Assembly? Would it be acceptable for Radio 4 programmes to describe Boris, the Major of London, as, <i.“crawling out of the darkness”?

    Remember too that Ruth Deech, is a former governor of The BBC. If she is representative of, “ The Establishment”, who comprise the BBC Board of Governors then what chance have we Scots got of satisfactory consideration of genuine complaints going anywhere but the inside of the corporate waste-paper bin?

    Douglas Murray is the Director of, ”The Centre for Social Cohesion”, established in 2007, ,”To promote greater cohesion among the UK’s ethnic communities and within wider British society”. How very ironic is that?

    Greg Dyke is on record as having described the BBC as, “The glue that binds the nation together”, . One has to enquire, in view of the many BBC anti-Scottish attacks, , “Define Nation”..

  113. ElGordo
    Ignored
    says:

    Very O/T, and only my 2nd post as I’m more enthusiastic follower and contributor, but this one has been churning away since George Robertsons forces of darkness desperation.
    What happens to the current UK government closure orders post yes. (100 year, 50 year, 30 year etc) Will Scotland have full access and therefore the full authority to decide on retaining or releasing closure orders? Dunblane, Iraq, Dr David Kelly and the rest. Do these fall under assets and potentially liabilities up for negotiation too?

  114. ElGordo
    Ignored
    says:

    3rd post, can somebody contact vodafone, and ask them why they have rated this site as explicit and requiring age verification via Vodafone Spain. This happened between the 28th and 29th of April. I’m in Spain just now and was accessing through iphone, was ok for first couple of days, then i got a locked restriction on my phone with this message (explicit/adult content). Luckily enough have laptop and can connect via hotel wifi, but unable to via Vodafone ES on 3G due to age/content restrictions, OK on sunday/monday, gone on tuesday. Why?

  115. Morag
    Ignored
    says:

    Probably because people swear in the comments.

  116. Appleby
    Ignored
    says:

    Bugger (the Panda) says:
    “Boy are they really going to be pissed off when we make a success of independence and emigration from rUK heads to Scotland, especially of the educated normal English professionals.”

    And they are doing it deliberately!! 😉

  117. faolie
    Ignored
    says:

    @proud cybernat

    Great idea, cheque in the post, so to speak.

    I can’t help wincing about the use of ‘for the sake of’ in that song however. I appreciate the artistic licence and all that but using them just perpetuates the myth that these ARE the words. It only seems to be us that use them tho, more accurately when I hear it sung in England. In America, interestingly enough, they never seem to sing them.

    Re article, tho, this stuff is just washing over everyone now, isn’t it? I’m sure we’ll get more of the same today as Danny boy makes a day trip home.



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