The peas envoy
Posted on
April 22, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Alert readers were startled yesterday when a former UK Prime Minister who WASN’T Gordon Brown suddenly took it upon himself to lumber out of his crypt and unleash an unsolicited intervention in the general election campaign.
As apparently that’s now the requirement for anyone attempting to influence a vote in Britain, we’re sure Sir John – a man best remembered in the world of politics for cheating on his wife with one of his ministers and instituting the Cones Hotline – will remind us which constituency he’s standing for any minute now.
Did anyone actually get a photo of John Major so we can be sure it wasn’t the Fluck and Law original.
Very difficult to differentiate.
I also recall his deal with Colombia to import cheap coal, mined by Colombian children, to undercut what was left of the British mining industry?
Since he dislikes the unelected having a say in UK policy and politics he’ll presumably be campaigning for the abolition of the House of Lords in the near future.
Ah, if only there were honest journalists there to ask that question at the time…
With that sort of circular argument, he should, hopefully, disappear in a puff of his own hubris.
Is there anyone out there still blissfully unaware that British democracy is just a sham?
Seriously.
Not sure I remember Major showing such “passion” about anything when he was running the country!
John Major? what the Fluck is going on, there should be a Law against this sort of thing.
General Noriega says don’t vote SNP.
An even bigger cretin than Mr Gogsie Broon, how does his “intervention” actually help anyone – Tories / BlueKIP / ConDem / etc? …. What must foreign news reporters make of all this crass negativity, and fear gripping “the south” who are now very afraid of the “north britain” residents – did they not want us to stay with them? Someone help a poor boy understand, Thx – #confused.com
Ahh! Spitting Images, If you wanted to know what was really going on at Westmidden they were right on cue.
They obviously new he was CHEATING on his wife Norma but they backed the wrong candidate.
They had him having Rumpy Pumpy, with Angela Rumbold not the Ghastly Edwina!!!!
His Cabinet was like the cast of a Carry On Film.
Difference is no one was laughing!
What is it with Dodgy Politicians and EGGS!!!! by the way
Pot calling the kettle black. Last time I looked old Mr Grey (John Major) isn’t standing for a Westminster seat either, neither is he the Leader of his party, but we’re meant to be swayed by what he says. There is a majority in Scotland that would agree that he was a Real and present Danger of HIS time. Still, the UK survived!
Democracy is such a difficult concept for our “natural” leaders.
Scrub that; … for those that think they are our …
Be honest; … for those that have managed to get their snouts in our trough.
I read recently that you don’t need to be an MP to be the Prime Minister or Deputy PM, can anyone confirm if that is right?
Prick.
Major Duffer, handing out tax breaks for highland estates.
Complete joke being lectured by the grey man.
I would never do being in the audience, as I kept laughing at the local Tory candidate talking tripe at the local hustings (rule Britannia, Russians are coming, SNP bad)
Maybe he thought he’d stepped into The Excitement Room for a second.
It just showcases the difference of a forward looking Electorate vs a Backward looking Establishment.
Strange too…remember how John was all for change the night Maggie was ousted by her own Party and he suddenly had toothache and couldnt come to her assistance.
@ghostly606
Alec Douglas Home was not an MP when he became PM, IIRC.
While the man in charge of the entire Conservative Party election campaign, Lynton Crosby, is an Australian!
This biopic is courtesy of Wikipedia:-
Lynton Keith Crosby AO (born 1957 in Kadina, South Australia)is an Australian political strategist who has been described as a “master of the dark political arts,” “the Wizard of Oz,” “the Australian Karl Rove,” and “one of the most powerful and influential figures in the (Australian) nation”.
On 18 November 2012 Lynton Crosby was appointed as a campaign consultant by the British Conservative Party for the 2015 General Election.
In the 1980s Crosby advised the Liberal Party of Australia, becoming the political organisation’s Deputy Federal Director in 1994 and then Federal Director in 1997, a position he held until 2002. During this time he masterminded successful General Election victories for the former Australian prime minister John Howard, in 1998 and 2001.
In 2002 he set up a consulting firm, the Crosby Textor Group, with Australian pollster Mark Textor. Crosby Textor has since run over 250 campaigns in 57 countries.
In 2005 Crosby managed the Conservative Party’s unsuccessful General Election campaign in the United Kingdom securing 33 additional seats, the party’s first net gain of seats from the Labour Party in 13 years. He was later hired to run the London Mayoral Campaign in 2008 increasing the Conservative first preference votes from 29% to 43% and electing Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. This success was repeated in 2012 where Boris Johnson was re-elected with 44% of the first preference votes.
you know the tories are panicking when they have to pull out Major ,well if he is the most upstanding Tory they could get to monster us it says a lot about the rest of them.
Not worried they can scream until they are red white and blue in the face if our number comes up they are toast,and if not well we will give them 5 years to remember lol
Wis it no he who wis the proto Murph gaun roond the yookay (or wis it jist engerlund) staundin oan a crate?
So Thrush Murphy didnae even think that yin up for hissel!
(Come tae think aboot it Ah’ve been thinkin for a while Murphs gettin a wee bit grey lookin’ tae……
This is another old foggie who will not disturb us one whit!
His rantings are the becoming an almost normal from the Westminster elites, those that we discard anyway.
It is undoubtedly undemocratic and I would remind him, that
during the referendum love in, they wanted us to, as one of the “family of nations” embrace the UK “democratic system”.
Now, when we actually do embrace it as you wanted, you prove, that we are actually being vilified for doing so.
Creep back under your rock sir, and keep out of the sun.
Classic! Well done. My first thought yesterday when he was wheeled out was – how can anyone trust this man when his own wife couldn’t. I often have the same thought when Prescott is wheeled out. (To be fair I did see the latter give an old tramp a tenner in Waverley station decades ago)
Major’s comforting words to the millions who suffered during the recession under his premiership : “if it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working.”
Hypocrites the lot of them.
They just make it up as they go along and hope no one will notice.
O/T my sister lives in an ultra safe Tory seat. She has spoken to the Monster Raving Loonie Party Candidate who is hopeful of saving his deposit this time around.
Says something, doesn’t it?
First rule of Conservatism, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
You wouldn’t expect a pillar of the Establishment like Major to be governed by the same rules and conventions as Normal folks, would you?
Useless, nasty, self-centred, party loyalists become wise, benign, objective observers of the country’s welfare, once they retire from high office. It is a rule!
John Major, former MP, former lover of Edwina Currie for four years from 1984-1988, while he was in the Commons, with finger raised in warning pose, tells us all ” The nightmare of a broken UK (or marriage) has not gone away. The separation debate is not over”.
Was this the idea of Lynton Crosby, the Australian Controller of Conservative Campaign policy, and mastermind of 250 campaigns in 57 countries. I suppose it must be hard for him to keep track.
This attitude from the establishment is so predictable. They are still attached to the serfdom of pre French Revolution. Britain never fully embraced democracy and still can’t. It’s not about the citizens to Westminster it’s all about the establishment. We have no right to interfere. The fact they brought out John Major thinking he would help shows how far removed they are from reality. Prepare for it to get even more ridiculous in the next fortnight.
John Major out his own union at risk when he formed a coalition with Edwina Currie.
It’s all a circus to these former Prime Ministers.
That’s the second time this morning the Klein bottle has come to mind.
Mr Major’s intervention, along with the various others yesterday, are pretty much guaranteed to focus our minds in Scotland. For months since the referendum result our electorate have had to endure a not so gradual ramping up of anti Scottish rhetoric in the media. A media fed by party politics of the very worst kind.
We’ve been used as bogeymen in a game of election hysteria. Our democratic choices, our reawakened political engagement and awareness derided. Not a day goes by without yet another article either attacking the SNP or the Scottish electorate in general being attacked by an ever more vicious and right wing media.
I’m sure this isn’t what people who voted no thought they were buying into last September. I’m sure the furthest thing from their minds on the day they cast their vote was this reaction from the system of government they chose to support. They didn’t foresee the Smith Commission fudge, the HoL report on same, the VOW collapsing as Holyrood’s existence was not guaranteed by law or the rise of EVEL. I’m sure they didn’t foresee the £30bn worth of austerity measures, the now universally agreed threat to NHS funding and pension reforms. Lastly I don’t think they foresaw just how unwelcome our voice is at Westminster or the concept of Mr Cameron’s Carlisle principle.
But I’m sure they see them now.
Our best response to this? The strongest voice and the strongest message we can send down to that hoose on the Thames. No more tame or feeble MPs that vote with the establishment. You’ve seen the establishment reaction to your vote already, they’re not worth another.
i would suggest the SNP use this opportunity with all this airtime to turn it round on the torys reminding people that the torys started assisted by labour this wholesale onslaught on the people who had no part in the last financial disaster that it was their pals who were and still are the bloody problem i think the SNP are being way to timid when handed this opportunity to land some serious damage on this money backed Tory Boris and the posh boys
Peas-off!!
The Tories and the Tory press have blundered badly in trying to monster Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. It is so counter productive. Voters hate this type of politics.
There will be people out there who will think he’s a real man
And want to vote for him
Those were the days
We had real politics then, when nobody knew anything or cared enough to do anything about them
Days when folk just read the paper and ejaculated things like
“Look whit they’re dayin noo” and that was the end of the days politics coz there was no point, Tories were “them” Labour was “us” coz they were different weren’t they
Who knew, the papers told you what to vote and some of us, well, our parents really, went out and did their pointless duty in the belief that they made a difference/or not
Trouble is, there’s some of those people still around, they either don’t see the point of thinking any differently or don’t see that it might make a difference so, why change everything coz it’s all worked before hasn’t it, too much fuss from all these SNP people, we want the old days back when things were better
All this Interwebby nonsense is just a fad that’ll fade away like everything else does and then we can get back to real politics “Dae ah like him/her or dae ah No” and then you put yer cross in the box or you don’t and it’s over for another five years
Noo Whaurs ma Paper
Ach Ahve Left it in the Lavvy……. Again
Those were the days
Surely the same principle operates in reverse then? Jim Murphy is leader of Scottish Labour (whatever that is) yet he’s an MP, for now anyway. Why should he be so involved in Scottish Parliament affairs when he’s been elected to be involved in UK government? He regularly makes proclamations about what will happen on devolved matters post-GE but why should we accept that?
Seriously.Do these half wits know absolutely nothing about the Scottish character ?
Can they actually believe that such rantings will deter us ?
It does nothing but stiffen my resolve to take them on. Ally this to the now hackneyed phrase from Boris Johnson, Farage et al about the Scottish tail wagging the English dog, I hope my fellow Scots realise that we are viewed with contempt by our( masters) South of the border.
The Scots I know ,have always had fire in their belly, and if you tried talking to them in the street the way these politicians and media outlets are now doing ,you could guarantee yourself a visit to casualty.
You’d think the westmisnter establishment could drag up someone who isn’t a complete joke to whine ignorantly about scotland having a democratic say in an election.
Why don’t they get some of the rest of the westminster establishment’s ‘finest’ to pile in? What about a previous Foreign Secretary like Jack Straw or Malcolm Rifkind? Oh that’s right! They were caught red-handed being corrupt and avaricious dickheads only a short time ago.
LOL
Ah well, now that the westminster establishment has managed to silence the Chilcott Inquiry into Iraq for another year or so perhaps they can get Blair to start attacking the SNP along with all the other right-wing lunatics in the papers?
After all, who doesn’t trust Blair? 😉
At this rate it’s only a matter of time before we get Chris bloody Huhne shrieking about how terrible the SNP are in the Daily Mail. 😀
To top it all, we even have Norman Tebbitt (a tory who was as despised whilst working for Thatcher, as IDS is now), telling Scottish Tories how to vote.
Desperation. All to save the cosy two party pretend democracy between the Red Tories and Blue Tories.
Fact is, anybody voting for red or blue tories in Scotland must be short of the facts. There is no difference in policies between either Labour or Tory, they are effectively the same, yet both are pretending to ‘stand up’ for different things.
Reminds me of a scene from Thriller! Who else can they roll out from the past I wonder?
Sorry o/t.
I heard Brian Taylor on GMS this morning discussing tactical voting with Gary Robertson. It seems Willie Rennie is advocating tactical voting, but wants everybody to vote Lib Dem. Ruth Davidson was on yesterday saying much the same thing, only for the tories. This tactical voting lark could well blow up in their faces. 🙂
Hey ‘British’ media, and online unionist/English commentariat, why not tell us Scots just one more time how awful and undemocratic and dangerous we all are. That’s sure to stop us demanding more autonomy from London rule.
You seriously couldn’t make this all up.
@ghostly606 says: 22 April, 2015 at 9:22 am:
“I read recently that you don’t need to be an MP to be the Prime Minister or Deputy PM, can anyone confirm if that is right?”
http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/QueenandGovernment/QueenandPrimeMinister.aspx
Just playing for the southern British vote.
To Sandra;Abolish the House of Lords,YES.
On a new name for HP sauce and London politics,how about WheeshtHall and WasteMonster or Wheeshtminster and WasteHall.
P.S.The Suns oot in Scotland
pass the peas dear 😉
Said elsewhere that tactical voting would work, but:
1. They don’t have the numbers to go round every Unionist voter.
2. Unionist voters are also tribal and wouldn’t necessarily like being told to vote for someone they don’t like.
3.Unionists also realise the bigger picture should they ‘tactical’ vote, namely, they might end up with an MP of a party they despise and do no want in government.
4.The Unionist parties are too turned on by the lure of power to advocate voting for only one candidate in a constituency.
It’s sweet sweet irony that the very system that has kept these bastards in power will now be their downfall.
It’s a shame ‘hypocrisy’ is not a physical or useful entity… like fertiliser, food or energy.
It’s being produced in such vast quantities by so many Unionists.
When John Major lectures you on integrity… Jeezus
I’m almost expecting Tebbitt to come out and urge us to vote Labour, it’s got so bad….
This is all to add to the confusion which takes our eyes off the ball.
It is what is going on underneath the radar which is important in this election. We must remain alert; the ref should have taught us that.
The only thing they have left to use on us is military control
Rigmac7 says:
Ah, if only there were honest journalists there to ask that question at the time…
There are balanced proper journo’s out there but they’ve been weeded out.. Off-staff freelancers, they may get a colomn, quietly tucked away but the front page headlines are screaming contradictory logic.
SCOTTISH JOURNALISTS.. THINK VERY
CAREFULLY.. THERE WILL BE AN ENQUIRY INTO
MEDIA BIAS IN SCOTLAND..
CHOOSE BETWEEN INSUBORDINATION TO YOUR
BOSS.. AND BEING EXPOSED AS A FRAUD TO
YOUR ENTIRE NATION…
Go get advice from your union… Take sick leave… Anything.. but stop passing on contaminated “truths” about the future of your own country.
What a visionary nightmare – Grey Major on the job lamping Edwina whilst Normas at home throwing cheap imported coal on the fire. Not only are these spouters of democracy morally bankrupt but are thick as shite. You can smell the wiff of keech coming from everyone of these troughing pigs.
Iain Gray’s Subway Lament says:
“You’d think the westminster establishment could drag up someone who isn’t a complete joke”
…. now there’s a challenge. 🙂
Why would even a die-hard unionist vote tactically? There is not another Scottish referendum looming. It’s already been ruled out for this election. Tactical voting may work effectively in certain situations (eg. by-elections). This time, however, it looks like tactical voting will be like pissing at a tsumani. Far better to vote for what you believe in, and try at least to save your own party’s deposit.
John Major
–>Edwina Currie
–>Eggs
–> Jim Murphy
It all makes sense now
Major reminds me of Bernard Manning. Both of them are relics of the past and I find them equally offensive.
INDEPENDENT says:
“They had him having Rumpy Pumpy, with Angela Rumbold not the Ghastly Edwina!!!!”
It was Virginia Bottomley.
I think the best laugh of the day so far cannot be beaten today : –
Kaye, (wi the wan e’e), tagged Wullie Rennie, “The Gerald Ratner of politics”.
Mind you I soon stopped laughing at the time. I had a full mouth of tea and a papillon bitch on my knee. If you don’t know what a papillon looks like see this : –
http://petcollectionworld.com/dog/papillon-dog-puppies-review-and-pictures/attachment/papillon-dog-picture/
With a long silky coat like that, washing the dog is not fun. My wee girl is tricolour and has fringes that I have to clip to stop her sweeping the pavements.
They’d have been as weel wae the f*in Major oot Fawlty Towers, wid have made mair sense..
As we all expected, Project Fear 2 is well under way. What is unexpected though is the level of anti-Scotland and anti-democracy bile that’s being poured out daily.They just can’t help themselves and there’s no going back now. Whilst the SNP has no immediate plans for another referendum, the “something significant will have to change” circumstances could very easily emerge after the GE and certainly in the life of the next parliament. Regardless of the number of SNP MPs, the actions/inactions of others will make the case for a winnable final referendum on our behalf.
We ARE on our way to independence.
The establishment’s collective intelligence (group IQ) is suspiciously low.. considering that they are trusted by so many to run our affairs.
I was worried a bit by this tactical voting mob so I started keepin an eye on what’s being said and so on on Twitter sites where it’s spoke about. There’s one person in particular who is very pro tactical voting and Union (notice am not mentioning names or specific Twitter names as not to give them advertising). This tactical voting is only gonna benefit conservative candidates and they know it. This is no more than the Tories tryin to gain a few seats at the expense of labour again. The Tories during and since the referendum have been playin labour like an old squeeze box. Labour are that dumb they don’t even see the traps and manipulation that’s going on by the Tories.
From a barrowload of plonkers this is the one they fished out yesterday? Today we have Cameron trying to re-brand the Conservative party as “the party of the working man.” I’m beginning to think that Australia, via their “political advisers,” has an undercover operation going to take the piss outa the poms. Fruityloops the lot of them.
I read his interview and was consumed with a sudden desire to ask for more peas.
If ya look at the tactical voting orders by the unionists there attempting to get 10 Tories MPs returned from Scotland and 7 lib dems. Tactical voting is the current Westminster leading parties trying to gain seats in Scotland it’s got nothing to do with saving the union.
John Major, the ineffectual Emperor Claudius of the Tory Party, brought to power via the assassination of Caligula Thatcher by her own Home Counties Praetorian Guard.
Here was a man spouting & lecturing a “Back to Basics” approach…a champion of “family values”, yet you later discover that you have been deceived by such blatant hypocrisy from a man who spent their time mumbling through a mouthful of Currie.
I don’t think we need take seriously the words of this morally broken “here today, gone tomorrow” politician.
today’s mensa question.
been said no doubt but some things can never be said enough.
person with poor tastes, tells others how to run their lives.
good idea or not?
.
Destructive does not even begin to describe this cretin (sic).
PFI deals invented by John Majors Government.
UK owes more than £222bn.
NuLabour went to town on PFI’s whilst they were in Government and, as far as I can remember, Osbourne signed 66 of them during the first year of the Coalition Government.
At the risk of being controversial, I think many commenters today are misunderstanding what is going on here. Somebody said it yesterday – we in Scotland are not the audience for this stuff. The tories will just laugh at our outrage and indignation – they don’t care and in fact if it persuades a few more people to vote SNP, then they will be delighted.
Their primary enemy is the Labour Party. They are flagging up the SNP bogey man in order to scare English voters into not voting Labour. Whether this will work is in some doubt, because there is increasing evidence that many English voters like what they hear from Nicola and might well like the prospect of a Labour government supported informally by the SNP.
The tory tactic is to hit Labour in two ways – by sub-contracting the elimination of Labour in Scotland to the SNP and by weakening the Labour vote in England using fear of what the SNP might do as the weapon. Two completely differenct approaches for Scotland and England. But with a common aim of creating an absolute majority for the tories at Westminster or, alternatively, a majority when combined with UKIP or the Lib Dems – or possibly both.
John Major’s intervention really is not about us – even although it is full of invective about Scotland and the SNP. As a tactic, it’s probably their best shot. In any event, we should not get too excited about it. We know they have nothing but contempt for distinctive Scottish values and for real democracy. It’s just another manifestation of what we have already experienced.
When they’re reduced to this kind of imperial masters demand you stay out of our democracy Scottish friends, but you know we do really weally love you and want you to stay.
Shock and awe but they’re clearly preping teamGB for governance by BBC and all media, SNP MP’s are not welcome in their UKOK Westminster.
There’s nothing to be done in Scotland but offer second referendum in 2016 manifesto and they know they can crush that too. Just the power and the glory of BBC Scotland alone can save their union, its what they get paid so much money for.
@ robert graham
Ah but Robert that is the secret while everybody else is monstering us we are telling people the truth and that is what they want to hear,the SNP should continue as they are doing and leave the monstering down to us vile cybernats 😉
The onions are tearing themselves to pieces its like they left the lie machine from indyref switch on and nobody knows how to switch it off ,and this time England is watching ,their worst nightmare unfolds, now wake up England and smell the roses there is a better way.
A little advice on turning your country around ,first you must start a grass root movement with a goal (we find to change westminster is a good one but our main one is independence)then you must find a suitable political party that you can help shape ,and you are in luck you have one just waiting for you The Greens ,you must work your butts off to gain candidates and members ,Natalie is a good leader and will get plenty of backing from us.
Always do your homework facts are facts and lies have no place in politics ,if you dont know then you dont know, do not make stuff up and always keep cool with a smile on your face let the other idiots shout.
Have a few big ticket policies that will interest at least half the population (trident come to mind but there are others)
Start a website promoting all the lies being told about you dont worry it will come and when it does then you know you are on the way ,you could always ask our Rev if he would help you get off the ground ,any takers England show us what you are made off or do we need to keep poking you.
Completely OT or is this dog expressing an opinion?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-32411621
Batten down the hatches, it’s white van man day the morro…
What people must remember here is that this drumbeat of “we can’t work with the SNP” is absolutely nothing to do with either the SNP or Scotland. It’s aimed at England, in particular the South East, and Labour.
There’s a twofold objective.
To move some voters over to the Tories, using the SNP as a bogieman.
To neutralise the threat of a Labour-led government supported by the SNP by convincing people this is illegitimate, and, ideally, forcing Labour to rule out any form of co-operation.
Chalks
I agree that tactical voting can work. Who can doubt that in the various elections of 1983, 87, 92 and 97 the Scots made a collective decision to get rid of the Tories. and we did so by ganging up against them wherever they had a base.
The trouble is, for the Unionists, that it takes trust. If I want to vote Labour, but am in a seat where it would make sense (in an anti-SNP way) to vote Tory, then I have to be sure that somewhere else, a Tory supporter will vote Labour.
I suggest that trust is the one thing lacking in the collective thoughts of the Unionists.
When is the seance to be held to get Thatcher’s wise words from the Other Side? On
BBC or ITV?
So far we’ve had Major, Rifkind,Tebbit, Darling, and Forsyth of Dumfoonered! Gee whiz, that’s two Lords and two Sirs, and “Alistair, Darling, be patient, you will be sired or lorded soon enough”, too. Where’s Gordzilla?
Although John Major’s comments are about the Scots and how to prevent Scots from having any influence at Westminster, I believe his recent rantings are aimed at people south of the border, he is trying to scare them into voting Tory, it is merely an extension of project fear but used against their own people. If I was English I would find this condescending and I would vote green.
Failing a win for the greens, to me, it makes no odds who wins in England, in my view, if it’s Tory, they will work together with their cohorts of Labour and Lib Dems against Scotland and if it’s Labour, they will work together with their cohorts of Tory and Lib Dems against Scotland.
The most likely deal after May 7th, in my opinion, would be a Labour/Tory thing, which they may possibly try to hide behind closed doors as they’ve already had secret meetings about us.
I will vote SNP to help protect Scotland against this anti-Scottish cabal.
T D
@ the risk of being controversial, this is not about the SNP, but the drive and will of the scottish people for democracy and social justice for all across these islands.
imv this means reliable supplies of vitality giving vitals of life for all.
freedom come all ye.
Why bother with the turd. Better spending our time out leafleting.
Auld Rock
Panic Stations !!!
When in trouble TORIES wheel out the big guns !!!
Scottish electorate – John Who ???
Has anyone even considered the idea that labour back benchers might break ranks and back a Tory queens speech since as Cameron is PM he has first shout at trying to form a government.
There might be enough English unionist MPs in labour that might back the Tories in a vote of confidence. It would only take 50 or so.
Hmmmm….Mr Beige makes a comment ….. let’s all take that on board…..
(a man that stood for nothing but Westminster and the establishment)
Nothing but an establishment Shill.
Aha, the Egg man cometh to spout his wisdom and no doubt a spattering of Salmonella just for good luck. I wonder if he had eggs for breakfast before arriving at the venue and if he did were they boiled, poached, scrambled or fried … like his brain is! 😛
I hope he did as I do, every time before I leave the house, and checked on his cone hotline. I’d hate to think that he was going to travel to the venue and come across a lonely traffic cone doing nothing other than waiting for its mates to arrive and cause traffic caos for no apparent reason other than it was the Traffic cones annual day trip to nowhere! 🙂
Just one question … does the V.V.I.T.C (Very Very Important Traffic Cone) that has a very important job to do in Glasgow, specifically in Freedom Square, notably atop a certain statue, fall withing the remit of our wee Johnnie’s Traffic Cone Hotline remit? 😀
Pretty much agree with others above. Yes these tactics are aimed at voters in England primarily, but the point is these tactics are shamefully using and abusing Scottish democratic will. In pursuit of votes in English marginal constituencies these evil establishment pricks are happy to consider the Scottish electorate as both ammunition and acceptable collateral damage. The harm they cause in the meantime to the social union doesn’t even cross their horizon.
Frankly IMV they’ve proven beyond any remaining doubt that they are unfit and undeserving of any post of responsibility or government.
I’m almost certain that if a random survey were conducted in Scotland the result would show that more Scots remembered Major for the Edwina Curry incident than any other thing he did while in government. The next most remembered thing would be his backstabbing of Thatcher.
@TD
Their primary enemy is the Labour Party. They are flagging up the SNP bogey man in order to scare English voters into not voting Labour. Whether this will work is in some doubt, because there is increasing evidence that many English voters like what they hear from Nicola and might well like the prospect of a Labour government supported informally by the SNP.
It might have worked better if it hadn’t been for two things,
1) Nicola taking over from Alex. It was much easier to demonise the SNP with Alex at the helm, but it’s far harder to demonise Nicola because her demeanor and style is completely different.
2) Cameron’s reluctance to be involved in TV debates directly led to the format where Nicola has appeared on national TV twice. It’s given her and the SNP a much higher profile across the UK than usual, and as you say, people have generally liked what they have heard.
Effective or not with their target audience, if they continue to pursue it with the same fervor up until May 7th people are going to get sick of it.
Fact Checker,
Cap doffed.
Apologies I got my Bottom(leys) mixed up with Rum(p)bolds.
I new there was an Erse in that response somewhere.
Pass the Mushy Peas Norma!
The same John Major in a lecture in 2011 said the following:
“The present quasi-federalist settlement with Scotland is unsustainable. Each year of devolution has moved Scotland further from England. Scottish ambition is fraying English tolerance. This is a tie that will snap – unless the issue is resolved.
The Union between England and Scotland cannot be maintained by constant aggravation in Scotland and appeasement in London. I believe it is time to confront the argument head on.
I opposed Devolution because I am a Unionist. I believed it would be a stepping stone to Separation.
That danger still exists. Separatists are proud Scots who believe Scotland can govern itself: in this, they are surely right. So they point up grievances because their case thrives on discontent with the status quo. But even master magicians need props for their illusions: remove the props, and the illusion vanishes.
The props are grievances about power retained at Westminster. The present Scotland Bill does offer more power to the Scottish Parliament. But why not go further? Why not devolve all responsibilities except foreign policy, defence and management of the economy?
Why not let Scotland have wider tax-raising powers to pay for their policies and, in return, abolish the present block grant settlement, reduce Scottish representation in the Commons, and cut the legislative burden at Westminster?
My own view on Scottish independence is very straightforward: it would be folly – bad for Scotland and bad for England – but, if Scots insist on it, England cannot – and should not – deny them.
England is their partner in the Union, not their overlord. But Unionists have a responsibility to tell Scotland what independence entails.” (All bolds are mine)
Couldn’t get any more of a full-on little-Englander BritNat than Jolly Boy John Major – ‘them’ and ‘us’ and Scots as “Separatists” (do note the capitalised ‘s’).
And from the same speech, what’s this?…
“We are, or were, the Establishment – or part of it. Some still are. We are winners in the ovarian lottery. Gathered here are intelligent, civilised men and women, skilled at diplomacy and dispassionate judgement. If the late John Osborne were to categorise us, it would not be as “Angry Young Men or Women”, but as “Mellow Old Achievers”.” (All bolds are mine)
Ah, yes, Mr. Major, the Establishment as “winners of the ovarian lottery”… Long to reign over us, and all that.
Sorry… old chap, but your version of Jollye Olde England = Britain = Great Britain = the UK is not the one us Separatists [sic] have. Here’s one for you: Scotland = Scotland = Scotland.
Yer tea’s oot, Johnny, and it’s getting colder by the minute.
Just heard that a friend of ours had asked a Labour councillor:
“What has Scotland gained since stirking oil?”
He replied:
“petrol stations”
😀 😀 😀
Just a wee aside here.
For everyone attending Freedom Square on Saturday I have found out that not only is Tommy Sheridan going to be there, which everyone already knew 😉 , but the Artist Taxi Driver @ChunkyMark is also going to be there. 😛
Whatever happened to Major’s much trumpeted Citizens’ Charters and how many taxpayers’ millions were squandered on them?
Listened to some people on Radio 4, yesterday , driving back from Bath (no, not to see Stuart, but an afternoon tea with the wife). They were bemoaning the point that the current FPTP system isnt working and what the alternatives were to ensure everyone gets their vote to count.
Subject of PR and single transferable vote(STV). Listening to them, you were under the impression that it was something brand new and didn’t exist in the UK. Needless to say I started to shout at the radio.
(Stuart, Afternoon tea was at Homewood Park – made the mistake of going through Bath, as the A36 south was closed and ended up on a detour to Hell)
@Bob Mack 10.03 wrote: “Can they actually believe that such rantings will deter us ?
@ Robert Louis 10.12 wrote: “That’s sure to stop us demanding more autonomy from London rule.”
Surely you have more nous than those two statements demonstrate? “They” know you are a lost cause. “They” are not talking to you. “They” are speaking to everyone but you!
This is a General Election “campaign”. You surely know that a GE campaign isn’t won in the run up to the campaign, or in the TV debates or at Manifesto launches. The campaign will be won or lost between now and GE day.
Everyone knows that the SNP are going to feature highly in the GE result. Everyone knows that the SNP, the Greens, Plaid – will not work with the Tories. What, for heaven’s sake did you think the Tories were going to do? How did you think they were going to react?
Ms Sturgeon has left the UK electorate in doubt. She will not work with the Tories. She told the UK electorate she wants to form an “anti-Tory” alliance (interpreted in many places as anti-english) to shut them out of office. She offered to form a government with the minority party in England. She hugged the leader of the Green Party on TV – the leader of the Green party who stands on the basis that she wants to destroy the Scottish oil-based economy. Ms Sturgeon prefers Ms Bennett as an ally – to a party that the English will vote for. Ms Sturgeon’s government’s record on the NHS, Education and “progressive” policies in Scotland has some very large holes in it (just like the other parties’ records do).
Does anyone remember the “challengers” TV debate now? The one that Cameron wasn’t at. The one where the only thing that is remembered is where Ms Sturgeon lined up with the loony parties to offer to “kingmake” Miliband live on TV – and to make sure that there wouldn’t be a Tory government.
I am sure that those running the campaign in the SNP will have anticipated much of all this (haven’t they?) and will have their next round of thrusts and parries pre planned. Likewise all the other parties will be building up to score some big hits with some announcements, revelations, attacks, etc.
It will not be pretty. However the SNP can’t lose. If Labour win a majority then they will only get a Queen’s speech through with the SNP’s support and you will end up with more influence (although an early referendum opportunity will probably disappear). If the Tories form a government then you will probably be able to force another referendum sooner.
Thinking ahead, if the SNP clean up in Scotland and get 49% of the vote, say. Would you be confident of winning another referendum?
Dear John Major, here is your and yours dilemma, you have to keep winning the vote we here in Scotland just have to vote the right way (for independence) once. Mair power tae yer elbow, I should imagine one or two Scots will have changed their vote after being told to do something by a Tory.
I’ve just found out that Lindsay Jarrett, who more then a few folks will remember from the indy campaign, has won the Indy Woman of the Year award at the first ever Margo Awards. 🙂
For those who don’t know about Lindsay, she has 25% lung capacity and lives with an oxygen tank strapped to her back. She was a former Police Inspector and is from the Highlands. What really brought her to attention last year though was her little *ahem* attention getter in Edinburgh during the referendum … the big YES banner half way up the castle rock in Edinburgh. 😀
Lindsay spoke at the last, I think, BBC protest at Pacific Quay last year.
Just another wee aside here.
Question. What is the difference between Jim Murphy and Alex Salmond?
Answer. One goes to university for nine years and leaves with NOTHING the other goes to university for 30 minutes and leaves with a DEGREE! 😀
The Brit Establishment is enacting parallel-universe methodology in it’s contortions to – once again – corruptly influence an election or referendum held within the UK.
Wheeling out hardcore rightwingers from the depth, such as Norman Tebbit, a more horrible racist (allegedly) bastard it would be hard to find, to tell Scots Tories to vote Labour, anything to stop the SNP-virus that’s about to devastate Westminster and its MPs…? Surreal in its bizarreness.
Maybe yer man, David Icke is right about certain people in power being lizards in human disguise!
@ Helena 12 .30
Hi Helena, wasn’t that the same assumption when the the “dreadful three” appeared in Scotland before the last referendum? Does a 49% vote for the SNP in a GE translate into a Yes vote?
During the REF it was the “world leaders ” giving their views now in the election it’s ex PM’s.
Cameron yesterday stocking up “English nationalism” more than likely aiming to capture some UKIP voters. Boris etc given plenty of help by the msm.
What a difference a year makes . SSDD
Project Fear 2
Ah! John Major. The neo-Victorian romantic who believed being British was all about warm beer and cricket and perhaps trying to grow that perfect pea for the village fete competition.
To him, Toryism was about that and nothing to do with the City, Big Business or other ways of lining the pockets of the ‘right sort’.
Catapulted into the hot seat as chancellor only because the previous incumbent, despite having gone through full establishment preconditioning, resigned on principle in the face of Thatcher’s insane neo-liberal project and anti EU stance.
That is the danger of having chancellors who can actually count.
That wasn’t an issue with John who once famously failed an arithmetic test for a bus conductor’s job and ‘the bastards’ in the real Tory cabal were able to keep him out of the loop with some ease.
And today, bliss, they have a fully de-cored, programmed and on song chancellor with the added bonus that he also cannot do his sums, although he can fold a mean towel.
What Major Minor should mean when talking of ‘clear and present danger’ –
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2015/04/22a
I just got the pun in the headline.
Very good.
Travelling back fro Oban to Fife and have passed umpteen ‘Tim Bret’ diamond shaped posters in the various farmer’s fields.
But glad to be home in Glenrothes to find a ‘personal’ letter from Gordon Brown waiting for me behind the door. Aye right! 🙂
Catching up…
@ghostly606
According to the now defunct Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Prime Minister is made a Privy Counsellor as a result of taking office and should be addressed by the official title prefixed by “The Right Honourable” and not by a personal name.
Although this form of address is employed at formal occasions it is rarely used by the media. Since “Prime Minister” is a position, not a title, the incumbent should be referred to as “the Prime Minister”.
It’s all in here. For those with time to read it all:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom
I, like others on here, am well aware that the audience being aimed at is south of the border. But what a way to do it. To denigrate a whole nation in such a manner is very foolish indeed.
I suppose after the election it will be the same old nonsense. It was only a game, we din’t really mean it etc. I reckon it never ever enters their empty heads the anger and hurt it causes some people. We are expendable, we don’t matter. Naw, but oor money diz.They have to live with us after the election, that could be fun.
More peas dear.
@ Lesley-Anne
Re your Labour councillor and “petrol stations” reply. Cryptic clue is to re-marshall your thoughts shhh sean sean.
LOL
Love it Inbhir Anainn. For a wee minute or two I thought it might have been a certain Brother in Law! 😀
Before the referendum major came out spouting pish. I immediately joined the SNP. So he’s not all bad.
@ Marie Clark 2.48
You are probably right to take umbrage, however, it could also be argued that Ms Sturgeon was the agent provocateur when she was so forthright in her “anti-tory” (anti-english?) stance. And, “they” might argue that the are only “denigrating” 45% of the electorate in Scotland.
John Major was an important figure in agreeing the coalition in 2010, thereby changing the politics and policy of the UK gov. I don’t recall him having a seat in the HoC, then, either
O/T, I have just received a reply to my complaint regarding the abuse of James Cook. The BBC will not discuss any abuse of any of there staff………….no surprise there then!!
Sweep,sweep!!
Robert Louis writes, accurately enough, that “There is no difference in policies between either Labour or Tory, they are effectively the same, yet both are pretending to ‘stand up’ for different things.”
And the SNP is soooooooooo different. It is for the pro-cuts, pro-privatisation, pro-corporate agenda outlined in the neo-liberal reactionary tome ‘Scotland’s Future’.
It is for the EU, in which austerity policies are enshrined in its treaties.
And it is now for NATO and its wars.
Ms Sturgeon backed NATO’s illegal attack on Libya claiming it would ‘protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi’s regime’. But who would protect the Libyan people from NATO?
The SNP rightly denounces Labour’s support for NATO’s illegal war on Iraq, but never mentions the SNP’s own support for NATO’s (and the Tories’) illegal war on Libya. When in NATO, you have to end up backing NATO’s wars, so an independent Scotland in NATO could not help to end wars.
Does the Big Top know he’s on the loose?
@ Vambomarbeleye
Ditto.
For me it was Cameron’s visit compounded with the three party reps and their no currency union spiel. The sight of the three of them smiling about it pushed me to join a party for the first time in my life.
Its the kind of imagery you’re never likely to forget.
Dave Dave Dave i thought you would have got it by now we hate westminster ,yes it is true we hate the tories ,it is also true we hate labour maybe more than the tories i dont think we have figured that one out yet as they both suck,and the lib dems well when it comes to sucking they are world champs.
We do not hate the English we are frustrated by them and wish they would open their eyes if we can do it whats stopping them? we are not the only part of the UK getting robbed blind, we hate the political establishment yes we are going to take part in it ,since we are optimists we kind of hope we can change things but if we cant then at least we tried and will know once and for all if we really do matter to this UK ,what happens from there is anyones guess.
It’s an old tactic of trolls and wackos, Dog. Post a comment at the end of a dead thread.
They never post at the start of a new thread where they would be challenged.
Oops! Here’s the proper link:
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/a-clear-and-present-danger/
Sorry, I must correct a glaring error. Nicola Sturgeon MAY be democratically elected under a system that is more representative of public opinion than FPTP BUT, she has no right to sit at Westminster.
Sir John Major, former Prime Minister, philanderer and sex symbol has every right to interfere er..intervene. He has, after all, been undemocratically not elected to the House of Lords. And as we know, Lords are beyond reproach, and if there’s any doubt they have Alzheimer’s or die before charges can be brought…
Jeez. If Thatcher was still alive the most certainly would be wheeling her out Who else are they going to drag out from under the blankets. Their fear is palpable – not only their fear of what the SNP might bring to an awakening British Isles, but their own fear – of change, new politics within which they are irrelevant, a new society that looks at them with narrowed eyes and finds them wanting. They’re scared – terrified – of being found out for the empty, soulless charlatans they really are.
I’ve been reading Caroline Lucas’s book and it’s interesting to read a first hand account of the comfortable “this is the way it’s always been done” mindset of people whose heads are turned by what they imagine is their new importance afforded by the palace-like interior. They believe the hype and they think themselves better and far removed from the life outside.
Had a run-in with a young Tory whippersnapper on Twitter, who liked to tell me that politics is terribly, terribly complicated and only really meant for those with Oxbridge degrees. He was some newbie research assistant or something. I disavowed him of course, but he was loth to let go of the idea that somehow Westminster conferred upon him a prestige and cachet to which lower oiks were not entitled.
They cannot stand that we wouldn’t think Westminster the jewel in the crown of a political career, or that the only reason we’re sending down an army of SNP MPs is because they begged us to stay and join in, so we’re taking them at their word.
Prepare for the Scottish influx and the bloody great shake-up of Westminster. It’s good to be alive at such a time.