Wings Over Scotland

Utter panic on presenters face…’what do you mean?’

I guess he won’t be invited back.

Oh yes, can you see the producer sticking DNR next to his name, never to be seen again. The horror of the presenter .. but but but … presenters learn not to think, just to parrot.

Then back to the usual BBC approach, its been broached, get a Geordie lass with some Jock bloke next time – but make sure they’re better vetted – no off piste comments, just “its all ok – its all for the 1%”.

The “what do I do?” look.

Ooooh, what a long silence. You could have smashed it with a hammer….or a spanner.

Don’t think we’ll ever see him again

That’ll be the last time Matthew gets an invite on to review the papers. No more BBC coffee for you my boy.

The feeble response that the paper review is centered on London, “oh dear don’t start…that’s not QUITE true, Sunday Post…we also do the Western Mail”

I am trying to imagine the producer melting down and screaming in in her ear “shyte! Martina shut him up, change the subject, Sunday post, Western thingy”. Hilarious.

More power to Matthew Green though for bringing up a valid point. Never heard of him but I’ll keep an eye out, he shows promise 🙂

More evidence that the London Bubble has an inner mirrored surface. Those on the inside can’t see out. Worse, many of them are stupid enough to think the reflection they see is actually the world beyond London.

The guy was spot on, of course.

In Scotland, we are moving beyond grievance politics because we have solutions to the ‘London Problem’. You have to feel sorry of other areas of the UK because I just can’t see how they can reverse the blood sucking effect London is having on them.

Let’s face it, the crossword in the “Falkirk Herald” is rubbish.

eg. 14 Across – Degree of precision among Romantic etymologists 6

The Sunday Post??? How often have they ever had stories from the Sunday Post on that program, or ANY BBC news program covering the newspapers? The Western Mail? Oh yeah. I remember that. Never off the BBC. FFS, if you are going to try and lie for the establishment, make it vaguely believable

can someone spill the beans for those of us who can’t accss video? What did he say?

Thanks.

Got to hand it to the laddie it takes a bit of nerve to leave the script on the BBC,though if he was hoping it would get him a regular slot it backfired.

They actually make it worse by trying to counter him still its not every day you hear the truth on the BBC.

@ArtyHetty

link to en.wikipedia.org

To be fair though, the Greenock Telegraph is a pile o’ shite!

On the rare occasions they use “Scottish” newspapers to attack the bad SNP.

Oh dear, that’s the last you’ll see of him. Feel sorry for the poor sap! Have to make a note of hi s name so I can make a point of reading his articles in the future- if there are any!

Good clip, but, I had a look at the map which showed that so-many of the so-called deprived cities were in “the North”.

Except, if you were to take a map of Great Britain – the main island of the British Isles – then fold it in half, you would discover that only three of the cities named: Middlesbrough, Glasgow and Dundee were actually in the true northern half of the country.

The centre of Great Britain is somewhere along a line which passes coast-to-coast through York/Harrogate – if this country was genuinely one nation, rather than London and the South-East, with the rest tagged-on, it would be clear, “The North” starts somewhere around Harrogate.

Places such as Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Sheffield and so-froth would then, more-properly, be seen as where they actually are – in the southern half of Great Britain.

But, as we all know – “The North” as seen from the London bubble is the north of England – Scotland: “here be dragons”, or is that Wales?

Shock Horror – Man multi-tasks

Not that I am boasting, but, I managed to type my post at 12.12, while simultaneously watching FMQ.

Respect to Dippity Doug, yet again she showed she was floundering out of her depth. Yet again the Nippy Sweety skelped her erse, but, the lassie just keeps going.

We should maybe start a fund-raiser to give Kezia a gold wings badge – she is doing so-much for the cause of Independence.

And as for Nicola’s slapping down of Wullie Rennie, further extreme cruelty – I’d hate to take a broken pay hame to Nicola.

Don’t forget that to the national BBC the north is Carlisle.

Love it. The first ‘Northern’ newspaper she referred to was The Sunday Post. There you go. Embedded into the psyche of the great state of the UK:- The Sunday Post. God help us if that’s the first thing that came into the producer’s head and he/she shouted down the earpiece to the presenter.

Nana@.49am

Great thanks for the link. If it’s anything like R4’s ‘wimmin’s hour’
there will be lots about making cakes, what to wear and how to keep your guy from straying and such stuff. Stopped listening to that a few years ago.

Must have a closer look if it’s aimed at women, strange.

London / State central does seem to struggle with issues such as not London / State approved issues.

Just look at the BBC weather maps for subliminal measure of relevance or importance.

No offence taken ‘Proud Scot buts’

None at all Ken MacIntosh

Presenter proves she knows of Scotland by quoting the Sunday Post.

Yeah really quality read there bud ????

@Socrates MacSporran

Thanks for the heads up on FMQs. I was late back and missed the start so decided to wait for the Parliament tv playback later.

Par for the course.
———————————————————-

Falkirk Herald X-word You can get

Nicety? … might be the answer two words merged minus the ‘t’

Definition includes:
accuracy or precision.

“she prided herself on her nicety of pronunciation”

synonyms: precision, accuracy, exactness, meticulousness, rigour, rigorousness

“great nicety of control was called for”

Just starting The National X-word. 🙁

gordoz

Michty Me, jings crivvens help ma Boab, ye mun be critical o the Sunday Post – terrible.

scotbob – your comment re Carlisle being “the North” reminds me of a BBC programme on the north/south divide. Various talking heads were asked to define where the north or the south began.

The consensus for the dividing line was somewhere around Staffordshire, either north or south of Stoke or Crewe, until Carol Smillie was asked.

“Where does the south begin – Carlisle”, was her answer.

A Yorkshireman with whom I worked always reckoned: “Wogs begin at Chesterfield”. He was from Sheffield and if you can say where Sheffield ends and Chesterfield begins – you’re a better man than I am Gunga Din.

More power to his elbow.

Think this might just be the start of folk going ‘off message’.

There is genuine anger now in England with junior doctors, IDS evil sanctions, clean for the Queen

Maybe the great unwashed are starting to wake up a bit.

Also interestingly have read a couple of articles recently bemoaning the number of posh actors there are around.

Martine Croxall,JK Rowling, Magrit Curran.

Separated at birth.

One thing is for sure, you can be guaranteed he’ll not be getting asked on again.

Welcome the dystopian world of EBC District South.

Without being overly dramatic as we clearly inhabit different worlds,cut the crappy pretence,take this condescending,patronising bilge water and do one.

#Ram it #Shove it

They are way beyond saving,rescuing,off to re- watch Hunger Games….and calm.

#lifeimitatingart

Tick Tock

@david says:
3 March, 2016 at 1:11 pm
I’m still waiting for the day when these papers have to be dropped altogether

It’s coming. link to tinyurl.com

OT but has anyone had difficulty using archive.is today? I’ve tried a couple of articles and get a red screen with the warning message “the site contains malware”. Never had this before.

What a face. The face of BBC style Better Together but they did win, tee UKOK hee.

Um, ‘yes we do – during the floods and so on…..” So, national emergencies only. Meanwhile in London Boris hits a pothole on his bike….

@Almannysbunnet

Yeah! Same here so I’ll wait a bit before arhiving today.

In the Herald
Glasgow councillors told ‘set budget or face sanctions’
The main jist is that the SG may have to intervene:
———————————————————–
A senior council source, who asked not to be named, said: “Frank McAveety has considered delaying or not having a budget due to finding it impossible to find cuts. It would be rather bold to basically throw managerialism of cuts out of the window.”

It is understood key members of the administration have sounded out trade union bosses who represent council workers.

A trade union source said: “Some in the administration have discussed the idea of only setting the council tax but no budget.

“Some Labour councillors have also said that they may as well go down fighting the cuts. This is a reference to the expectation that Labour will lose the council to the SNP in May 2017.
—————————————————————

@Almannysbunnet

Thanks!

chris

@george paterson says: 3 March, 2016 at 11:19 am:

” … It’s getting nearly as bad as North Korea”.

Nah! George, North Korea, or even the old unified Korea, haven’t got a thing on the South Britain Establishment when it comes to propaganda.

The South Britain Establishment have been an elite band of rulers in Britain since ever the Roman’s began to record British History and, when the Romans left South Britain the South Britons, (who had been ruled over by the Romans for between 400 and 500 years invited in the Angles who gave their name to Angleland.

In 43 AD we got the first records of South British History. If you begin to read any history that begins by saying, “The first written records of England’s history”., then stop reading as it is obvious balderdash.

Roman Records show that Julius Caesar made visits to Britain in 55 and 54 BC, but these were for his politically motivated propaganda back in Rome.

In 43 AD Emperor Claudius ordering the invasion of Britain under the command of Aulus Plautius and the Romans quickly gained control over the tribes of what is now southeastern England. A South British chieftain of the Catuvallauni tribe, (he was named Caractacus), fled from Camulodunum (Colchester) to what is now south Wales and stirred up resistance until his capture in 51 AD. He was sent off to Rome where he made high placed friends, appearing in Emperor Claudius’ triumphal procession. He was later released a free man and died in Rome.

However Resistance to Roman rule continued in what is now Wales, mainly instigated by the Druids, (priests), of the native Celts. Things were fairly quiet in South Britannia for around ten years until Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni tribe, died and his queen, Boudica, (who was annoyed at having her lands taken by the Romans, not to mention having her two daughters raped by them), gave up the diplomatic approach and decided on full blown attack.

Boudica’s Iceni, with their neighbouring tribes, the Trinovantes attacked the Romans, burning to the ground Londinium (London), Verulamium (St. Albans) and Camulodunum (Colchester).

However, Boudica killed herself with poison after her army was almost wiped out by Roman legions who were returning from a spell of active service in North Wales where they were attempting to suppress the Druids in Anglesey.

During the 70’s and 80’s Romans, command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, took control of northern and western England. Roman Legions were then based at York, Chester and Caerleon. This marked the limits of the ‘Civil Zone’. Agricola then moved northwards defeating the Caledonian tribes under the leadership of Calgacus at the battle of Mons Graupius in what is now present day north-eastern Scotland.

However, the Romans slowly had to give up their conquests in Scotland and, in 122 AD, Emperor Hadrian built his wall all the way from the west coast of Britain to the east. Hadrian’s Wall ran 80 miles from Newcastle, in the east, to Carlisle in the west. This was the boundaries of the Roman Empire and much of the great construction can still be seen today.

Hadrian died in 138 AD and his successor, Antonius Pius, abandoned the newly completed wall and attempted to again push northwards into Scotland. First building the Gask Ridge and Roman Road then to establish a new frontier, called The Antonine Wall. This was built between the Forth and Clyde rivers in Scotland as a continuation of the Gask Ridge.

In around 160 AD the Antonine Wall was abandoned and thereafter Hadrian’s Wall again became the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain. The Romans never did succeed in subduing the Scots and thus always had to maintain a significant military presence to control the threat from the unconquered tribes. The people in southern Britain settled for Roman rule. Roman towns appeared across south Britain, including York, Chester, St. Albans, Bath, Lincoln, Gloucester and Colchester.

All of these major areas are still linked today by the system of Roman military roads radiating from London. Roman Roads such as Ermine Street, Watling Street and the Fosse Way.

These roads were used to allow the distribution of Roman luxuries such as spices, wines, glass etc. from other regions of the Empire.

It is clear the Romanisation of Britain mainly affected the rich beginning an aristocracy who increased their status by adopting Roman ways and practices such as regular bathing. Yet the majority of the populace remain relatively untouched by the Roman civilisation where they lived off the land and eked out a precarious living. Not much has change since the Romans left.

Jack Murphy
I know they’re only Tory rags but I wish they had given some thought before they launched their headlines.
Who would sell up their houses here because of a relatively small (for them) increase In CT and head off to England where the money they would get for selling their houses in Scotland would only be able to buy a much inferior house?
And perhaps pay more in CT as well.

On FM Questions. Why did Ms Dugdale keep on asking about Fracking when the question was answered? Is she not given a second question just in case? Who is writing this script?

Aaaah. Questions, eh?

Why the h*** do we need to frack when we’ve got more oil and gas than Croesus, anyway? Oh, it’s not ours is it?

Aaaah. Questions, eh?

The BBC never reviews Scottish newspapers unless its a big story, its always the usual Fleet Street rags.
The reality is that London isn`t remotely interested in what Scotland has to say and when trying to defend the BBC she merely talks of“ Northern“ papers.

The problem with these pratty parochial presenters is they probably possess property in places in Portugal and not in Polperro, Porthcawl, Preston, Peterlee or Peterloo, Peterborough, Penzance, Pittenween, Partick, Portpatrick or Pierowall.

Basically speaking, they’re just taking the pee.

O/T Danus Skene

Danus is also running a fundraiser here: link to crowdfunder.co.uk and he could do with a wee filip if you can manage.

He would have been the MP for Ork/Shet if Carmichael hadn’t lied his way to selection. He’s now running to oust Tavish Scott

SAye I can just see them reporting on a story in the Sunday Post.

Murder in the Glens… Carnage as Eagle Swoops on Defenceless Lamb…

perhaps the Hon Man is a regular contributor as well…

@galamcennalath
“North – South? Where is the halfway point between Shetland and Scilly?

Prestwick!”

Not if you use the BBC Weather Map.

link to i51.photobucket.com

Then it is either near Leeds or South of Manchester depending whether you go from Shetland-Scilly or John o Groats-Lizard point.

So patronising, like ‘the Capitol’ to ‘the Districts.’

That scene could have come straight from ‘The Hunger Games’.

@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 11:25 am:

“According to the ONS the London region only makes about 2% of its GDP from manufacturing.”

Aye! Chic, read my long comment about early Roman British history. I briefly hint at the facts there.
Since ever we have had a written history the records show there has been an elite, mainly of foreign extraction, as a ruling class in and around London.

Now the Romans, throughout the entire Roman Empire, operated in the same manner. First they subdued the native populations with military might. Then they held a population census, (Joseph and Mary were on their way to one such when Jesus was born).

Thereafter the Romans ruled by Romanising the former rulers and setting them up as the local governments. They took prisoners as slaves to sell back in Rome and set up a customs and excise system.

This system taxed the imports and exports of the various countries of the Roman Empire. Thus extracting the natural wealth of their colonial slave states while at the same time making the native populations pay for being raped of their natural resources.

London was the centre of Roman Britain and when the Romans left Britain the south Britons invited the Germanic tribes into Britain rather than re-join with the Celtic Fringes in what was to become Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

History proves the point that since ever written records began Britain has had an elite ruling class in London who either claimed all Britain as their own even while the rest of Britain resisted them ar have actually been in charge.

When they couldn’t subdue the native populations with military force they did so with bribery, corruption or underhanded trickery and the Treaty of Union is provable as such.

The English Navigation Acts, the William Paterson scheme to establish The Bank of England, His scheme to involve Scotland’s landowners/parliamentarians in the Darien Expedition and his associate, Daniel Defoe being an undercover English agent. The massed troops and Royal Navy presence on our borders all add up to a Rough Wooing and forced marriage.

That elite Ruling class living off the backs of the poor natives has been an ever present faction throughout Britain’s history. Every faction since the Anglo-Saxon tribes has been of the same area of origin. The Norsemen/Normans and those aristocratic hereditary peers still sitting in the HOL to this very day are their direct descendants.

Over 2000 years – why would they opt to change now?

Chic
Your gif is running OK for me. Very instructive-thanks:-)

@ Socrates Macsporran
I think you may have missed out Shetland. If you draw a line from the furthest north point to the southernmost, the centre is actually in Kelso.

Tad more subtle #SNPbad thing today from rancid The Graun. It looks like pay back from Rupert Carrell for yesterday’s Westmonster PMQ’s where Angus Robertson made the UK pig fancying champion really sweat over Brexit. It was fun watching toryboy No.1 struggle to NOT boost the EU, in front of his hoards of hard core Brexit tories behind him, but still having to actually to agree with the SNP and boost the EU, without actually doing so.

Clearly, the questions really pissed off rancid The Graun, so UKOK revenge for Angus Robertson’s perfectly reasonable backing for pro EU Cammers.

Robertson did it twice too. No wonder Rancid’s angry.

link to theguardian.com

Don’t forget adblock. Chrome says archive is has malware but it is tax dodger google.

I used to collect these gems, unguarded moment when they just couldn’t help themselves, but it was time consuming and there were so many, I stopped. Still got some on my hard drive and I’ve uploaded one typical example. From Radio 4 (with ‘actors’ provided by muvizu).

Hope it runs OK

link to vid51.photobucket.com

If not from the Sunday Post, from where else do nostalgic Londoners order replacement beige Crimplene trousers, tartan lined leatherette slippers & carbolic soap?

Capella

Fair point about the dividing line being around Kelso, I was, however, specifically referring to the mid-point of Great Britain, the main island in the British Isles archapeligo, rather than the mid-point of the political entity, the Unitd Kingdom.

Mind you, down in that there Lunnun – “The North” will still begin somewhere around the River Trent, and finish at the line of Hadrian’s Wall. Beyond there is a small, far-away land, of which they know nothing – and about which they care even less.

Thanks for that Robert.

I’m a bit of a history fiend myself, at least in areas that take my interest.

On Paterson I would say, for me, the jury is still out on whether he was a consciously malicious agent of the Union re Darien, if for no other reason than his own wife died on the venture. Also, he is alleged but unproven to have had input into the creation of the later South Sea Bubble scam which most likely inordinately lost money for English investors.

I tend to think of him more as a 17th-18th century Gordon Brown, the primary characteristic being incompetence.

And he need not have been even as pro-Union as Incapability Brown either, to achieve similar effect.

@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 4:13 pm:

“On Paterson I would say, for me, the jury is still out on whether he was a consciously malicious agent of the Union re Darien, if for no other reason than his own wife died on the venture.”

Ah! there we must differ, Chic. The evidence on Daniel Defoe is conclusive. He was indeed a proven and paid for English Agent but recruited under pressure of threats and blackmailed.

Here’s a reference that may prove enlightening.

link to en.wikipedia.org

And here’s an extract from that reference :-

In despair, he wrote to William Paterson, the London Scot and founder of the Bank of England and part instigator of the Darien scheme, who was in the confidence of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, leading minister and spymaster in the English Government. Harley accepted Defoe’s services and released him in 1703. He immediately published The Review, which appeared weekly, then three times a week, written mostly by himself. This was the main mouthpiece of the English Government promoting the Act of Union 1707.

This indicates Paterson was instrumental in recruiting Defoe as a spy. The point about Paterson’s wife is negated if you realise Paterson himself was probably being blackmailed by Robert Harley as Paterson too had long term debt problems. If nothing else they both were friends and both involved with the spy master Robert Harley who does seem to have a modus operandi of forcing obedience by blackmail and coercion.

Robert Peffers, enjoy your “essays” here on real and unknown Scottish history here very much. I am sure all Scots suffocating for true information would be glad to see you given an hour on the telly, rather than the political broadcasts on behalf of the Kim Jong Davidson Don’t Mention The Conservatives Party…

I wanted to ask the following: given that the people of Scotland is sovereign, was Mary Stuart wrong to say the following words at her trial in England? Or was she “absolute” in the sense — absolute insofar as the sovereign people allows… and then… ???

“I am myself a Queen, the daughter of a King, a stranger, and the true Kinswoman of the Queen of England. I came to England on my cousin’s promise of assistance against my enemies and rebel subjects and was at once imprisoned… As an absolute Queen, I cannot submit to orders, nor can I submit to the laws of the land without injury to myself, the King my son and all other sovereign princes…

Of course, she is talking about being an absolute queen while she is on the territory of England, so maybe that gives her a get-out clause, given that Liz I of Ingerland really WAS an absolute monarch as “queen OF england”…

Chic at 3.42pm
Wow-that clip caused my Quick Time program to run on my pc. Didn’t even know whether it worked or not after years sitting on my hard drive. It’s never been triggered before 🙂

Liked the clip though

@Lollysmum

Quick Time eh? That’s going back. Used to be the main player at one time until it started trying to ingratiate itself too much into your computer system. 🙂

I have mp4 files defaulted to run on Windows Media Player on my system.

O/T

Did he speak out during the Blair and Brown years, I can’t recall.

link to thelondoneconomic.com

link to archive.is

@Liz g says: 3 March, 2016 at 5:19 pm:

“Robert Peffers @ 2.57
Don’t mean to open a whole can of worms especially since it’s no really relevant to this site or this discussion.

Sorry to disillusion you, Liz, but the last book in the World I’d regard as a history book is the Bible. My use of the Biblical census was much more due to the probability almost everyone had heard the story.

It doesn’t change the fact that the Roman Empire was run for the Roman occupiers by the Romanised local native bigwigs, in whatever country they came from, and the Romans financed their empire by taxation and that was mainly customs & excise.

There are more historic holes in the Bible’s stories than there are bible stories.

Jeezo I thought it was Helen Lederer..

Ach well since it’s quiet Stu there cannae be many better totp’s than this….

link to bbc.co.uk

@Chic McGregor says: 3 March, 2016 at 5:23 pm:

“I used to be of the view that Paterson was an agent but was dissuaded from that view by another of us oldies with an interest in history who does not contribute here.

So now I am persuaded back again.”

We are all in the same boat, Chic. We can only go on the evidence we find and that does seem to point to Paterson being up to his neck in undercover work for the English Crown Spy-master Robert Harley.

The thing is that the Establishment have an interest in suppressing any real evidence that the Treaty was a forced matter and if they can sit on something like the MacRone Report they can certainly sit on other matters of history.

However, the paperwork of Robert Harley, Defoe and Paterson still exists and can be read, even if getting the chance to do so is made almost impossible.

O/T (just)

Excellent article in this month’s iScot entitled “Psychology of weather maps” by Dr Robert Sproul-Cran. How the BBC denigrates the North every day!

No link. Please subscribe. An excellent magazine for us.

I note that a certain Robbie Dinwoodie is their “Political Editor”.

As we all know Scotland has no input to nominations for the BBC Trust.

The head of BBC Trust is one Rona Fairhead who is a friend of Cameron and Osborne and was appointed without interview.

The whistle blower Nicholas Wilson has revealed Ms Fairhead’s connections with HSBC and also investigates possible fraudulent activities of this Bank.

link to nicholaswilson.com

Don’t you love the London Establishment.

Breach of BBC independence
link to nicholaswilson.com

Scotland seems to need the approval of the United Kingdom Parliament if it wants to have a referendum to leave the political union that is the United Kingdom,

did United Kingdom Parliament need approval of European Parliament to have a referendum to leave the political union that is the European Union?

or if we leave will it be a case of UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence)?

I did not get any audio on this. Is it my computer or your audio that’s the problem? I don’t have any other audio problems.

@Bill Steele
Still got audio for me, it could be you don’t have the appropriate codec says he vaguely?

@Cadogan Enright –

London is, and always has been, the centre of the universe.

By ‘tradition’, the only newspapers on this planet which are allowed to capitalise ‘the’ are The Times and The Sunday Times.

All other publications are, therefore, inferior.

Obviously.

PS You wouldn’t happen to be in Scotland on March 26th by any chance? 😉

No one from Scotland on BBC Questions for England only Time tonight again.

So anyway

Stewart McDonald MP Retweeted
Britain Elects ?@britainelects 5h5 hours ago
Voting intentions for the Scottish Parliament throughout February suggest Labour on course to lose 1/3 of its seats

SLab -12.
SNP +3

@ian Brotherhood 10.35

Depends what’s on. Have been recovering from an operation and just getting back to things. Would love to organise a workshop some where for the ‘Inform Scotland” group who aspire to crowd fund street posters but are struggling to hit their organisational stride.

Suggestions welcome

Is QT still the Dimbleby show?

Don’t see it, don’t want to, and can’t imagine why anyone bothers with it.

It’d be nice to see Dimbleby heading up a congo-line, followed by all the usual faces – Bojo, Melanie Philips, Owen Jones, Ken Clarke, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Heseltine, Gove, Diane Abbott, Livingstone, Galloway, Kelvin McKenzie, Piers Morgan, John Prescott, Ian Hislop, Edwina Currie and all their pundit pals, interspersed with sundry comedians, minor novelists, cultural commentators, telly-chefs, retired athletes, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen and all the rest of them, slowly winding their way, like a behemoth Caterpillar from Hell, heading back there, where they belong…stutteringly kicking their way out of Broadcasting House and out of our lives forever…

As we get nearer the Grand Eurobollox Draw QT will sound like this:

Black Lace, ‘Hokey Cokey’ –

link to youtube.com

@Cadogan Enright –

If the group you mention don’t mind workshopping and socialising simultaneously, we’re getting together on that Saturday at a Glasgow venue (tbc). If nothing else, they’d get to meet a lot of folk from here – a good networking opportunity? There will be an open mike, so it might also be a chance to explain what the group is all about.

Just a thought.

In any event, it’d be great to finally meet you.

O/T…New online Book Report.

There is one read which should provide the best laugh of the decade.

It will be coming out shortly, it is called…
…….
The labour party manifest for the Scottish Parliament election.
……..

It is unique in that it brilliantly combines fiction, comedy, surrealism and political gerrymandering, wrapped in a swirling haze of obfuscation and memory lapses.

The lead character attracts derision and the kind of confused sympathy usually attached to comic book villians, you know they always lose in the end, partly because of the massive holes in their scurrilous plots, and partly due to the obvious lack of self awareness of their limited ability to produce a cohesive and workable plan to conquer over the good guys.

This read will divide the nation, some will value the attempt at sarcasm and others will hate it from the start, yet the latter is a tad harsh as it is a piece which should not be taken too seriously by the reader, since the main plot lines, and the main character are themselves self deprecating in a massively ironic manner, all despite the obvious and previously mentioned, lack of self awareness.

To summarise, if you do not take the content seriously, you will surely get a good laugh it the best piece of comedic writing since …..well…since the 2015 labour party GE manifesto !!!
……….

OT:
Is treason still a capital offence?
Having listened to & read some of the comments from Forsyth & Lang, shouldn’t we immediately request their arrest & extradition to stand trial. As they have already ‘shit in their own nest’, the jury decision would only be coffe & biscuits (5 minutes).
Now that we have done away with capital punishment might I suggest the possible alternatives.
1) Permanently banned from Scotland & forbidden from making any more inane comments. If breached, be exiled to St Kilda & be provided with the minimum basics to stay alive.
2) Be publicly humiliated on a daily basis until such time they see the folly of their ways & uderstand that s**t is supposed to be excreted from the rectum.

More suggestions welcomed.

I think the Social Chapters we’d lose leaving the EU is a red herring,… Well not quite, let’s call it a pinkish herring.

There is a much bigger problem, and it’s all about mortgages and property. Here in the UK, our property market is a shaky house of cards, with low cost cheaply built structures being sold for vastly inflated values. The actual method, and more importantly permanence and longevity of the construction is not being connected to the value of the property. Instead, the critical elements for valuations are location, infrastructure, and the schedule of bedrooms. You could build a house with butter, and if it had enough bedrooms, was near to the school and shops you could get a mortgage for it. And if there were two houses built of butter, the arbitrary value of one will be used as a yardstick to gauge the value of the second. It’s a massive, massive con worth uber-billions, typified by the fact the people who lend you the money to buy these properties are the same people who specify the value of these properties. They literally write their own cheque.

And here comes the problem. Europe doesn’t think that way. On the continent, there is a straight forward difference which has a profound effect on property value. It takes account of how the property is built. A traditional property built with bricks and mortar and built to last will see that permanence reflected in its value, just as a cheap specification timber frame with a 50 year design life will see its structure and fabric pegging it to a much lower value. It’s an age old concept; value for money, but the UK has long ago dispensed with value for money, and chosen abstract issues such as the number of bedrooms to hoodwink buyers, and disassociate the price property can sell for, and what it’s actually worth.

Government colludes. The population is groomed to have aspirations to own property, yet know nothing about the property they are buying. Everybody makes money. The lenders, the house builders, the Estate Agents, the Council rates, the lawyers… All take their %, just like they always have. So where is the con? It’s with the house buyer. They are paying somewhere between three and four times the price for a property over and above what it is worth. They also think that a new property is not going to require any maintenance for decades, and provide equity later on in life. They are going to be in for a shock if they think they will be able to borrow against a 30 year old timber frame property.

And finally, we get back to the European problem. The British economy draws its value from abstract components supported on sky hooks. It is fundamentally incompatible with the EU’s economy which may not be problem free, but it kinda has its feet on the ground. This is why the UK cannot entertain joining the Euro, and must resist closer integration with Europe. They cannot risk European standards and values blowing the gaff on our “Great Property Swindle”. There will be a property crash to make the Credit Crunch look feeble.

The clock is ticking. All of this modern shitty property which spiralled out of control in the 80’s is 30 years old now, and when it turns out to be worthless, the chickens will start coming home to roost.

In this scenario, the priority of government is control. Perhaps, if the population can be conned again, the property crash can be manipulated so the whole economy doesn’t implode spectacularly and the poor sods who have lost everything can be sidelined and cauterised ; but Europe, with all those pesky rules and regulations would just get in the way.

That is why the UK economy cannot risk closer integration with Europe. It has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration. Immigration is the white rabbit which distracts the eye from the slight of hand we’re not supposed to see.

Last of all, in Scotland, because our property prices haven’t gone wholly ballistic, we are better placed for the next crunch, but that is more by luck than judgement. Our property based economy IS the UK’s house of cards ponzi scheme model, and we are all dangerously complacent with that simple fact.

The property market has stayed relatively stable in Scotland because Scotland has been depopulated by Westminster economic policies until the year 2000. There were enough houses to meet demand. In fact many became ruins, still visable all over the countryside. The people had to emigrate to get job and not starve. (Migrants) 40Million Diaspora. Scotland is more than half empty.

There has always been relative enough houses to meet demand, but not in certain catagories. Until 2000 when Devolution resulted in population increase. The Unionists administration did not encourage the building of enough affordable homes. They built one affordable house in six years. Too busy paying for illegal wars, tax evasion and unregulated banking fraud. Mainly in London and the Midlands.

On average the ratio of home to income has remained the same since the 1950’s. Without inflation in certain areas. The wealth of London was attributed to major house building in the 1930’s? Houses pass from generation to generation. The housing fraud was a result of Government irresposible banking deregulation in the UK /US. Deregulation of world banking rules of capital reserves and collateral. UK/US are world bankers because of fraud and instability in many ither countries. A irresponsible, fraudulent banking sector. A disaster since the 1980’s especially in London S/E and the Midland. Thatchers/Brown irresponsibility. Prooerty rights are enshrined in the (EU) Human Rights legislation.

There is an increase needed in single person occupancy/accomadation. More people are living alone for demographic reasons (worldwide?). More affordable houses are being build by the Scottish Gov 6,000 a year. + 11,000 by private builders. This will solve many problems. More need to be built. People dying will leave more homes available. There are empty houses which could be brought back into use, that it is not an insurmountable problem. New homes are built to a higher standards, insulation, renewable features and better boilers etc.

To buy or rent. Buyng costs £100 a month more which decreases over time to over £100+ less. (Mortgage) pro rata. Rent pay £100 less a month for a better property = more freedom and disposible income. The Diffence increasing on average with size of property. People are marrying later (age) having less children – later. (age) . More people are not having children = need for more one person occupancy property.. Divorce is higher. Deaths are later. Women out live men on average. Die at an older average age. (5 years?) Getting a mortgage can be difficult if there is less money available because of (UK) Gov restrictions.

Rats in tenements etc are a problem in some major cites. The councils should sort out that problem. A health and safety matter.

O/T links
link to politicshome.com

link to energyvoice.com

link to commonspace.scot

link to scottishfinancialnews.com

Another problem the SNP Scottish Gov is going to face is the cut in housing benefit for under 25 year olds, with low incomes and no other accommodation. That will have to be resolved. Young folk leaving care etc.

Steven Jardine on Radio North Britain just about to launch discussion about ‘Clean For The Queen’ week-end.

This should be good…whoops, must dash, just saw a crisp poke blowing down the road…

Just know our robust media core will doggedly press Cameron
Liam Fox statement about banning any notion of demands for Indyref2 via Courts if Exit of EU occurs.

A gift but our poodle press will ignore for sake of career prospects.

Gary45% at 7.52

Cut her some slack Gary. Martine knows fine well about the Sunday Post and who Wullie is. It,s Wullie Rennie one week and Gordon Broon the next.

I’m looking forward to the Post being taken over by PC Rupert Murdoch.

Toby Young saying the most vituperative abuse he’s received via Twitter was from Cybernats!

The stall has been set out…

Huzzah!

Clean for Kim Jong-un, would get even bigger laughs in N. Korea.

SNP dont exist, BBC says but Andrew Neils last night end of week BBC Politics show was a spectacular example of how the winners write history, with an upper class twit trying to make a fool of Sturgeon as usual, air brush out BBC crucial hard core Project Fear thuggery in Scotland 2014, and then Labour dude explaining how Project Fear was actually necessary in Scotland 2014 as it “stripped away” YES lies on currency, EU membership for Scotland and how Scotland is an oil dependent economy and look at the oil price now.

Despite that old Labour shyster on the couch, its still BBC pretence that they were not infact Project Fear 2014 that makes them interesting, as crooks and con artists often are. The spivs cant even admit that Project Fear was Project Fear’s own name what they gave themselves. Watching that Spectator hackess ducking around that reality was quite a journey in UKOK BBC spiv politics.

QT in Dundee next. UKOK George Galloway got the stones to go home?

Toby Young has a well-kent face on him – has anyone in ‘Great Britain’ seen him picking up other people’s litter in any street, ever, ever, ever?

Increasingly people dying older, without any children (no relatives). No will. Their estate (houses) go to the Crown estate, their money goes back into the Community. You can’t take it with you.

Andrew Neil is a liar. A hard right Tory, one of Thatcher henchman, who gave false report for her. There are still archive broadcast of him down crying Scotland (poverty) when Thatcher was secretly and illegally taking the equivalent of £Billion out of Scotland. A disgrace. A irrepresible BBC troughering staffer, with knowingly false statistics made to deceive for his Westminster masters, on redial. They knew about the McCrone Report being kept secret. Neil is an alcoholic (just look at his visage). Been on the Whisky and wine. Alcoholics make poor judgements without total abstinence, proper counselling.

Do not watch the BBC news programmes, except Parliamentary Channel to decipher all the lies.

The only thing Cameron needs to come to Scotland for is to apologise for his Party’s criminal activity and keep the promise of Independence for Scotland.

As per my post on Wednesday.

Partner’s granddaughter away with packed lunch to the park in Glenrothes to ‘clean for the Queen’ today!

Also got a birthday card to produce at school in honour of her birthday…

Nothing changes as I remember having to stand in Cowdenbeath high Street in the early fifties to wave to Betty and Phil as the RR sped past. Happy days 🙁

Tuning in to the Tories later to see the flag etc hope it’s upside down (they never get it right)

SNP X 2

Neil knows his mate Osbourne is illegally taxing the Scottish Oil sector at 60% costing thousands of jobs and revenues in Scotland. Osbourne illegally and deliberately trying to ruin the Scottish economy, for political reasons and spite. Neil knows Scotland has lost over £20Billion of Oil revenues over the last six years but keeps quiet to line his pockets with an over exorbitant salary of taxpayers money.

Total ignorance and greed.

Get the WMD’s out of Scotland. The majority did nit want them at Greenham Common Berkshire, 50 miles west of London. Closed in 1993.

I think they dare not acknowledge the metropolitan nature of the media because once they do and we get a Scottish Six, the North gets a Northern Six, the Welsh and Northern Irish do then London from the Rome of the Empire begins to look a bit Southern parochial. We can’t have that, so the weeping sores of media coverage in these sceptic isles will continue.