The personality crisis
We’re being told that this Tory leaflet, where Stephanie Smith is described as “Ruth Davidson’s candidate” for Edinburgh South, is standard across the whole country.
Which is unfortunate timing.
Because a week from the vote, Brand Ruth isn’t doing so well.
The spectacular 26-point decline in Davidson’s popularity since Ipsos last asked eight months ago is probably much more sudden than that, as after years of unquestioning adoration in the Scottish media she’s been made very uncomfortable in recent weeks over the rape clause, a string of revelations about bigoted and racist candidates, a mess of completely incoherent and contradictory policies, and an increasingly open contempt for the entire concept of democracy in Scotland.
And that’s before you even get to the catastrophe of a Tory manifesto that has seen Labour surge from more than 20 points behind a few weeks ago to within three points in UK polling, according to YouGov.
It hasn’t taken very much in the way of challenge from interviewers to see Davidson crumble, to the point where she completely ducked the BBC’s hour-long Kaye Adams phone-in special this week without explanation, sending the hapless Jackson Carlaw in as her substitute – just as Theresa May did last night with Amber Rudd, despite having similarly made the campaign largely about her own personality.
We’ll be watching tonight’s BBC “Ask The Leader” with keen interest. It’s not like Glenn Campbell will be short of ammunition.
Cripes. What will they say on the 9th, after yet another vote to dump them?
As Murdo so eloquently puts it: “I’m too stupid to understand”.
Roll on the future.
Well and truly found out.
Won’t be long now till a new leader is in place. Murdo anyone?
The big problem they have with this, is simply they have come to believe in their own bubble that she is popular,therefore why not use her as a figurehead. Unfortunately the initial premise is untrue.
The fact is I could dress up a chimpanzee in a Unionist rosette and Unionists would vote for him, trusting him to run the economy and the Health Service. That is what it has become.
In this case I am not far off the mark.
It’s the exposure that’s done for them. The media had portrayed them as saints, but with that increased coverage also came more actual media appearances. It appears the public is making its own mind up on seeing the individuals themselves, not as how they were previously being portrayed.
And with Kezia as the other leg…..
It occurs to me that in this election the SNP is closer to Corbyn than the Labour Party in Scotland is.
Aye Glenn Campbell is sure to give Ruthie a really tough time!
Well it would actually make sense because the Conservative party in Scotland in the past did have some values of respect dignity and some sense of fair play.
This modern Tory party is devisive and inciting constitutional and social unrest in Scotland.
They condemn others for actions of terrorism yet they themselves are not far off this with their rhetoric.
Ha!Ha!Ha! Tories even have advertising in their own battle – bus. Panels saying STRONG AND STEADFAST.
Personality you say. Ruth Davidson has the personality of a sociopath.
Antisocial, forever angry when things don’t go her way and worse of all she cares for no one other than Ruth Davidson, no empathy.
Ruth Davidson’s Candidate indeed, bampot as we say in Scotland.
Across the U.K. we have Feartie McFeartie whilst in Scotland we have Scaredy McScaredy. Of Course this is not her only name she does have some aliases. For starters there is Abusey McAbusey then there is Uturny McUturny and not forgetting Shouty McShouty of course. 😀
I got one featuring Stirling’s Tory. What’s with all this “Ruth Davidson’s candidate”? They’re “Teresa May’s candidate”. Or is it because she’s too toxic?
All this banging on by the Tories about another independence referendum /Brexit means Brexit, leads me to believe that its a subconscious cry from a leadership that feel they are being held hostage to militant fundamentalists on both topics.
Could explain why they are both wanting to throw the election.
Oh dear, got the selective reading glasses on again?
Your piece so obviously fails to mention the change in Nicola’s Sturgeon rating. I’ll leave it to you to inform your readers.
Much as I distrust the trend towards personality politics we’ve seen in recent decades when it comes down to it you can’t vote for someone who doesn’t ‘smell’ right.
Must dash! here’s the fish van… Oh! No, it isn’t the fish van.
Glenn will say fuck all.
He will skirt round what he can’t ignore completely.
He, along with the majority of his cohorts are so establishment biased it is a miracle we are allowed to watch their discomfort.
The “Scottish” branding of branch offices by the three Unionist parties never was very convincing. It always was a ‘marketing’ con because there can only be one set of UK wide policies.
If they were to be honest (which is asking a lot) they would drop this and go for direct rule from London, which is what they are trying to sell anyway. Labour certainly did this until recently. The problem is, of course, most Scots don’t actually want London rule, they want something between DevoMax (RIP) and Indy.
This ‘personality branding’ is just another attempt to avoid the unpalatable. That too, it seems, isn’t setting fire to the heather either.
Ruth’s denial of the Holyrood mandate for an Indeyref2 is accompanied by her speaking on behalf of the Westminster Tories, as though she were Mundell. She holds in contempt the parliament she was elected to, but speaks on behalf of another one. I heard her refer to “we” all the time she was trying to defend Westminster’s actions. Is she going to be appointed Secretary of State for Scotland after this election? May can send her to the Lords to do that. Or is Ruth just completely out of touch with reality?
Yep, we got similar Tory leaflet stating: Only Ruth Davidson’s candidate can beat the SNP here
Obviously Ruth Davidson trying to raise her profile while keeping her toxic party’s name out of it.
We can’t take anything for granted. We need to get out in force to try and be rid of these Unionist parties who hold Scottish democracy and Scotland’s people in contempt.
O/T. l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Flivestream.com%2FIndependenceLive%2FMarchForIndependence2017&h=ATOT8efQ9KZEi58YiC92DalMxBOGwCduy0-sccDi9jwL7-BNGsRF8e7Tpje1sLUE47Q1widSunRZOz0WgAIFTbRQeZgok8pq4xRXaAoEkxwABEI1l9rKvJWSTxCffA&s=1
Share & save ink for Livestream for Saterday’s Indy Rally.
I was discussing Harrison, Dugdale and Rennie’s anti democracy stance with a yoon aquaintance when I was told that I do not respect democracy either as the Brexit vote was a democratic vote taken by the whole country.
I then asked him a simple question “When the prime minister or any minister of state of the United Kingdom talk about the North of the country where are they referring to?”
Like Old Nick Robinson would say ‘he didn’t answer’.. he just sat there rocking back and forth fidgeting his fingers saying ‘But we are all the one country, we are all the one country…’
Yoons, mad as tits on a fish
Ditto. A Ruth Harrison candidate leaflet hit my mat yesterday.
After I’d stopped laughing and nursey had applied the paddles and oxygen, I noted that the first mention of the word ‘conservative’ was in the body text.
Oh, and they’re against a referendum… etc.
Davidson is shallow and vindictive.
Can any Wingers who live in his constituency tell me: Is David Mundell – “Ruth Davidson’s Candidate”?
The polls say the SNP will get 50 MPs, who does these polls and who do they ask, and who in their right mind would vote consevative in scotland, well we have one organisation that tells its members to do it, yes folks the grand order of the orange order or whatever they call themselves expects all its members to vote for unionism, god bless the queen, and no surrender and all that jazz la dee da dee dum, i remember the morons who appeared out the pubs around george square the day after the last referendum, it was like feeding time at the zoo, the cry that day was no surrender, and they went around shouting and assaulting people who dared to be carrying the St Andrews Cross, their own flag, their own countrymen and women and the police did little to stop it, makes you proud to be scottish does’nt it, just as well the worlds media was there, or it would never have been reported what is really happening in scotland, with the moronic hoards and battle of the boyne no surrender brigade
Has any “leader” ever hid from so many of their own party policies?
As much as Struth likes to pretend she is the party not the Conservatives the policy platform of her party has caught up with her. Not her doing for sure but as leader she carries the responsibility
I saw that some Tory MPs down south have ditched the Theresa’s Team stuff and are desperately campaigning on their own local record to try and salvage their campaigns. That is not an option in Scotland.
TODAY.The Ruth Davidson/Theresa May Tories:
The Mirror:- Britain’s Top Doctor says,”The money’s run out and NHS is penniless”.
The Tories have starved the NHS of cash ever since coming to power, with the Lib Dems in 2010,and alone in 2015 and is forcing it to make £22 billion worth of cuts by 2020!!
Theresa May,Ruth Davidson,Willie Rennie and their cohorts are a danger to our health in England and Scotland.
What gets cut in NHS England is passed on to the Scottish Parliament as a consequential annual financial cut.
The Shame Corner Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie! 🙁
link to archive.is
What a mess UK politics are just now. Then when you add in what is happening inside the devolved nations it looks after still. This chaos is due to unionist parties not understanding the UK structures at all. Pathetic. Lot of tests the lot of them.
Good to hear Duties standing has dropped. 1% would be high enough.
Come on Glenn ask your friend Ruth about this.
Ruth Davidson poses with bigoted trawlerman who tweeted ‘take her out’ threat about Nicola Sturgeon
I wonder if that trawlerman is a friend of Peter Chapman MSP they are from the same part of Buchan
Ruthies not duties…..aargh
Still waiting for my Ruth Harrison’s candidate leaflet…
Plus, I think our TV interviewer’s in Scotland are getting exasperated by the parrotlike responses they are receiving from ALL the non SNP parties in debate after debate. There is no point asking them any other questions now. These so called leaders are making fools of themselves on a daily basis
I love the way the Tories are furious because the BBC had a left-wing biased audience’ in the debate last night.
link to bbc.co.uk
The polling company chosen to select the audience for the BBC’s election debate has defended its political make-up amid claims of “left-wing bias”.
Andrew Hawkins, founder of ComRes, said the recruitment of people to watch the seven-way debate had been “more complex” than he had ever witnessed.
He said five of the parties were left of centre – which meant “cheering is going to be skewed in one direction”.
But Boris Johnson said the debate was an “echo chamber for left-wing views”.
They didn’t know till yesterday afternoon that Corbyn was taking part.
Apparently, however, the fact that there were 7 parties, 5 of which were left of centre meant the debate would be biased..
Isn’t that what happens to Nicola EVERY time she is on a debate and how many times have we commented on the right of centre bias.
Obviously right of centre is the norm for audience policy but the BBC duffed it this time.
Imperial Masters are not happy.
Ruth Davidson’s candidate Amber Rudd was shamefully left to hold the debate by a callous leader who was impervious to Ms. Rudd’s family circumstances and would rather not take part.
if you dont capture half the scottish seats + 1 you have failed ruth , now will you give us a break and shut the f/k up , PS take yer Dug with you , come on Kezia fetch , no its fetch Kezia .
Meanwhile, in Larkhall, every lamp post now plays host to a large UJ, which left me feeling quite ill after driving the length of the main street.
I’m of a mind to ask our newly elected councillors why, if street furniture cannot be used in election campaigns, it seems to be fair game in what I assume to be the ‘marching season’.
Are any of these people actually aware that they are Ruth Davidson candidates?
Might be worth asking them.
Aye, I had one of those Ruth Davidson candidate thingys a few days ago. Alistair Jack, Ruth Davidson’s candidtate, and in one of the farmer’s fields,Alistair Jack to stop a 2nd Indy Referendum.
Who said it was up to them to decide, unless they are going to win a great majority of all the Scottish WM seats, they can all go an bile their heids.
Oor Ruthie has displayed a hell of a lot of hubris in all of this. She should remember what follows hubris. Nemesis. Hell slap it intae her when it arrives.
Just had a plumber in to discuss my new kitchen sink. Turns oot he is a Wings fan and we spent an hoor discussing politics and 5 mins aboot the joab.
Conservative and Unionst Party on Linlithgow and Falkirk East election blurb.
Is this a splinter group of the Ruth Davidson Party ?
I feel cheated !!
You deserve the Ruth, do you swear to tell the Ruth, the whole Ruth and nothing but the Ruth?
link to youtube.com
You know who’s after Ruth’s job right? One of the finest carpet baggers in UK politics today.
Careerist doesn’t come close to my Slovenian girlfriend’s plans, for Professor Smirky, Lord Prof Smirky one day, oh yes!
Adam Tomkins MSP?Verified account @ProfTomkins May 29
Vote Labour, get indyref2. To stop a second referendum, and to stop the SNP, vote for Ruth Davidson’s @ScotTories
Socrates MacSporran says:
1 June, 2017 at 1:10 pm
“Can any Wingers who live in his constituency tell me: Is David Mundell – “Ruth Davidson’s Candidate”?”
Nothing yet Socrates, although I think that I may have damaged my ambassadorial aspirations when I was approached in the street by the greet man himself bearing leaflets a couple of weeks ago. I was so disgusted by the little “bag o’ wire” that I could only growl, “fck off fluffy” and off he did fck, very rapidly!
I apologise sincerely for letting the team down. 🙁
Addendum: “greet” not a typo, “Bag o’ Wire” Jamaican patois for a Tr8tor!
Peace Always
In Monday’s May v Corbyn Show the audience openly laughed at May’s litany of slogans and buzzwords.
In last night’s debate Amber Rudd was on the receiving end of laughing and jeering form the audience.
It would seem that The BBC has learned from the above.
On today’s FMQs it was interesting to see how the sound from the back benches was ramped up when Nicola was speaking to reveal laughing and jeering from the desk slapping parties.
Donald Anderson @ 1.50
OT…. sorry…and I hope this isn’t out of order or something Rev stu?
Donald
If you can get his permission and his patch is around N.Lanarkshire ?
Will ye stick is contact information over on OT, I am looking for a Plummer.
Thanks
That reminder from heedtracker at 1.52 is a brilliant reminder of a strong and stable orator, before she makes a uturn. My perception is, that Ruth is insufferable.
Daily Politics trying to make accusations of biased audience for the debate last night !!
Without even a hint of irony nor smame.
If Rape-Clause Ruth farts during the interview, Glen Campbell will say it was him.
I’ve just watched FMQ’s from a link by Jack Murphy on the last thread. link to tinyurl.com
I wish I hadn’t, I’m totally disgusted by Ruth Davidson.
I admit, I never got the admiration for Davidson.
She’s consistently crumbled when pressured, and it always struck me as odd how easily the media in Scotland went on her; was it in order to rebrand Conservatism in Scotland as somehow the inheritors of Blairism?
I do think it’s interesting, however, to loosely correlate two things:
1) We now know that Wings Over Scotland is astronomically well-read considering it’s a one-man blog.
2) Her drop in popularity can be roughly equated with the increase in scrutiny from this site.
It’s a jump, but the Guardian was recently waxing lyrical about how influential alternative media can be. It doesn’t cite Wings Over Scotland, but the readership and social media presence it boasts dwarfs some of the sources the Guardian DID see fit to mention…
… And we know Michael White’s views on Stuart.
I think it’s entirely possible that Wings Over Scotland is playing a far more important role in shaping political opinion in Scotland than a great many of us potentially realise (ignoring the Yes surge following the Wee Blue Book).
Kezia Dugdale’s recent meltdown could only have sped up the procession of people now coming here for their commentary.
It bodes well.
Andy Murray berating himself at French Open…commentator says…”they (crowd) must be thinking, this englishman is nuts…Scotsman even..”
They just cannot get over themselves.
Ruth the Mooth would tell Glen Campbell to kiss her ass and he would ask how many times. He is a whining Yoon lap pooch!
smallaxe…yer a leg end, he he
@geeo
Aye it just slips off the tongue, never an afterthought! 🙂
‘Mad dog’ Murray doing away fine in the midday sun!
First Minister’s Questions.
A very emotional question to the First Minister from an MSP:
“Does the First Minister agree with me that the Dementia Tax which is essentially a plot to allow the Financial Services Industry to asset strip dementia sufferers,has to be one of the most inhumane pledges ever devised?
First Minister replies.
link to tinyurl.com
Scroll to 39:19.
The Guardian really loves Ruth and their Scotland region really is “the perfect climate for a Tory revival.” How Graun liggers know the outcome in Scotland next week, is not certain. Ruth D had better deliver that dozen or so tartan tories though, so no pressure…
General election 2017
Anywhere but Westminster
A fishy business: why the Tories are back in Scotland – video
Play VideoPlay
Duration Time 10:58
Harris and John Domokos get immersed in the towns and cities of north-east Scotland, where the oil price crash and the ups and downs of the fishing industry have created a political storm around Brexit and Scottish independence – and the perfect climate for a Tory revival
John Harris, John Domokos and Johnny Burke, theguardian.com
Thursday 1 June 2017 13.14 BST
What would possess a young woman to be a tory candidate (or anyone for that mater?)?
Looks to me it would be more to do with getting the exposure to get on TV, rather to help with sorting out benefit problems for poor people.
If Rude Davidson farts during the interview, Glenn Campbell will take the blame himself.
Here is an interesting read from the LSE on May’s unfit leadership personality and the Tories incapacity to understand free markets. I hope upon hope that Corbyn shades it on June 8 with a minority administration.
link to mg.mail.yahoo.com?.partner=bt-1&.rand=dsc4umoh1qha0#mail
@ Proud Cybernat at 1.41
One of them should be; I annotated their leaflet and sent it back to them. They will have received it because I even used a stamp – second class and secondhand (delivered to me unfranked). Might just have been a minion who saw it, of course.
Meanwhile up here in Ruths new renamed country Norn England
Ian Murray the sole Labour party MP is actively telling voters if they feel they can’t vote for him they should vote Tory
When folk talk about a one party state which party would that be then
Just finished Graun vote tory video, Graun ligger ends his ten minute FUD with “SNP honeymoon over now.” 10 year honeymoon is nae bad. Presumably Graun’s thing to tell us how we’ve all gone off independence now, too much uncertainty, doubt, fear. Just shows how important it is for the UKOK squads to get in about Scots this GE but how many more liggers are they going to send up to tell us to vote tory, now! Its really is that big a deal for UK rule in Scotland.
“We’re being told that this Tory leaflet, where Stephanie Smith is described as “Ruth Davidson’s candidate””
Ruth Davidson isnt even a candidate for Westminster so can someone please explain it to me in laymans tersm, WHAT PLANET DOES RUTRH THE MOTH TANK DRIVER HARRISON live on, does she realise that the nation doesnt revolve around her
Strong & Stable. Just don’t fall over, hen…
link to imgur.com
I’m in Edinburgh South. Looking forward to my first Stephanie Smith leaflet – anytime now…. They have done nothing to tell me who she is or why I should vote for her and I’ve not seen a single blue poster in a window.
Labour leaflets have arrived saying I should vote for Ian Murray because he will work very hard and stop the SNP. I wonder what Stephanie will offer that can possibly top that 😉
Election leaflets. Ann Le Blond all about Devolved issues! link to electionleaflets.org
Kerpow….
link to imgur.com
So the tories want people to judge them by their record. Ok.
link to theguardian.com
If as rumoured, UK politics is being given a shake-up and a makeover and turned into a 2-party system, under the guidance and influence of the Republican Party in the US, then the name ‘Conservative’, as a toxic brand, would have to be ditched.
‘Theresa May’s Team’ and ‘Ruth Davidson’s Party’ are possibly just temporary titles until something more permanent is chosen.
All part of Britain’s glorious new future outside the EU as a sovereign independent super-successful global trading nation. Like taking up tightrope walking in old age and crippled with arthritis.
STV News reporting today that Labour and the Lib Dems are back in bed with the Tories in Scotland. 🙁
“….Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats are fielding contenders in all 59 seats but some will be ‘paper candidates’
– they will appear on the ballot paper but will not be actively campaigning…….” !
link to stv.tv
Yes, one of those arrived the other day in Sutherland Towers. A complete waste of their money here in Glasgow, but what do I care?
I wonder if these sockpuppets all have to swear a vow of allegiance now to their Great Leader?
This Ruthie personality cult thing though is getting seriously creepy. Someone in a previous thread remarked on the curious physical resemblance to Kim Yong Il, but what worries me more is the apparent similarity of mindset.
(As for the Tory card, it was great for scooping up a slug that had somehow got in to the kitchen. Seemed apt.)
What’s happening now with Rape Claause Ruth is just as happened with Theresa May: the more that people see of them, the more we realise they’re just not very nice people.
@Phil Robertson
I’m lead to believe it’s -4 and a fall of 18 points for Nicola Sturgeon.
Ruth apparently at +5 having a higher satisfaction rating although a greater fall, but SNP polling at 48% against 25% for the Conservatives in voting intentions, though the satisfaction percentages for Nicola are running at almost the same as Independence voting intentions (47-53% against)
and SNP to hold 50 of 56 seats.
With the overall voting intentions for GE for the 4 main parties in Scotland standing at 55 – 43% against the SNP – then, by extrapolation, my understanding is… zzzzzzz ?
Looking forward to some probing
Looking forward to some probing questions from Glenn Campbell, like “What’s your favourite colour?”.
Jack Murphy @ 16:36,
That desperate strategy will only work of course if enough people are willing to blindly follow their cunning “stop the SNP” plan. But I’m not at all sure that enough people are. There are always exceptions, but most ordinary folk don’t share their blind obsession against the SNP, who have actually worked well for us in WM as at home.
In fact, all this monotone ranting on and on about “no-ref” may well be backfiring now. Just as happened with “Project Fear” in the latter days of the indyref campaign. People can smell a rat if given enough time.
O/T but relevant to the election.
Two bits of information. The first on Police numbers in UK. It comes from a House of Commons briefing report from 2016 which shows that Scotland is the only part of the UK where police numbers have been rising almost continuously year on year. There is a link to the full report from the summary
link to researchbriefings.parliament.uk
The second is on the situation in English schools in an article in today’s Guardian. It is headlined as ‘British’ schools but is in fact English schools.
link to archive.is
Given the frequency with which the Unionists attack the SNP record on schools, without producing much of anything by way of evidence, then this article and information therein provides a useful counterpoint.
link to archive.is
Re shadow candidates to defeat SNP – so they believe.
Shows all that is bad in this so called democracy.
Labour Tories and libs are abusers of the democratic process
The latest load of junk, FOI Requests ,the government has been criticised for its handling of these requests by the media including the BBC, the SUN etc with a sprinkling of left wing sites just to add a bit of credibility , it’s seems in Unionist land these lazy b/stds expect our government to do their job for them, they expect ,no they demand the government provide any and all information with which these outfits can troll through looking for wee titbits in which to do damage .
Most of the information is out there if they are to bleedn lazy to look, Well Tough Shit ,
Just another way of trying to bugger up progress on real work that has to be done, this lot don’t really want a answer they just want to gum up the works, it’s the same with some of their bloody repetitive questions week after, they don’t want to hear the answer, they just want a moan, childish.
I suspect the tactical vote will not yield the results they hope. Why ? Although matters of Constitution do become emotional there is an everyday reality in life that you have to live with those choices both financially and emotionally.
Mrs May was doing rather well until she let slip that it was at cost to the pensioners and others due to charges and Nat Ins increases. It is OK to be partisan to a point, but when you know the cost is down to you it focuses minds.
I suspect there will be those who outwardly defend the Union but enjoy the mitigation from the SNP government. Ultimately we are all selfish and vote accordingly.
We shall see. I spent many many years studying human behaviour and I think I have this one right.
Hi Dave McEwan, considering that Corbyn has copied SNP policies already installed and working in Scotland you shouldn’t sound so surprised. We in the SNP should look upon this as a compliment that we are on the right road. Maybe he could have a word in Kez’s ear?
Auld Rock
Jings! Shurley not… from Revs twitter.
Theresa May has refused to appear on @BBC Radio4 Woman’s Hour tomorrow morning. She is sending Justine Greening who standing in for Amber Rudd who was standing in for Theresa May… 🙂
It’s been said by others, but worth repeating …
I hate the Tories for what they are.
I hate Labour for what they are not.
Lots of twitter chat about Labour cooperating with the Tories against the SNP, again.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Labards don’t change their spots. The Feeble Fifty of the 80s put the Union first and left Scotland at the mercy of Thatcher.
Labour are completely willing to do the same, all over again.
Awe. Wonder what these beeb gimps will do for tory bottler in chief Teresa, comic take wise?
BBC Radio 4?Verified account @BBCRadio4 2h2 hours ago
More
A comic take on the SNP manifesto from @Guardian satirist John Crace.
And….Miles Briggs (standing or Edinburgh SW) is apparently another one of Ruth Davidson’s Candidates. Oh-er.
Wow! If you can find comic takes in this really nasty BBC smear, you’ve got a very odd sense of humour. £150 a year for this level of grot? anyone…
link to t.co
So, now we have it on STV news. Labour actually working to get Tories elected.
Any media in England going to raise this with Corbyn??
Unbelievable stuff. We sometimes joke calling them the red tories and the blue tories, but now we know, they are just tories.
Serious question, has Scottish Labour been taken over by the orange order at grass roots level, and in cahoots with those in the Tories? I just can’t see genuine Labour folk trying to get more Tory MP’s elected, no matter how much they hate the SNP. Rationally, it makes no sense.
Has Kezia/London effectively lost control of Labour in Scotland?
A comic take on the SNP manifesto from @Guardian satirist John Crace but he’s a Graun ligger. Ofcourse he is:D
John CraceVerified account
@JohnJCrace
Parliamentary sketch writer for Guardian. link to theguardian.com … Writer of Digested Read.ESPN Spurs blogger. Grazia fashion juror.
Joined May 2009
Ditto here in Ross, Skye and Lochaber – some woman who isn’t a Westminster MP and isn’t leader of the Conservative Party is putting up a candidate for a party which has no existence at Westminster – “Scottish Cons and Unionists”.
She says her candidate is the only one who can beat the SNP here.
Oddly the “Scottish” LibDem – another non-existent party – says that only she can beat the SNP.
The 3rd non-existent party “Scottish Labour” are more modest and just want to fight Tory and SNP cuts,and oppose a divisive second independence referendum.
Letters pointing out the dishonesty of all the above have gone to multiple Scottish papers – anything to try to get the truth out. Also been delivering Ayemail postcards to send people to alternative media for information. Fingers so crossed it hurts!
I agree with the person btl yesterday [sorry can’t remember the name] who asked if Wingers could organise setting up a radio station. Or TV or buy ownership of The Scotsman – what fun to see the latter become rational and positive all of a sudden!
I have not read all the comments but has anyone considered the possibility that the Tories want to win this election big-time or lose it big-time. Nothing in-between will do the trick.
Win and trample over all the peons, or lose and dump the whole nightmare of Brexit in Jeremy’s lap?
@ heedtracker – I only managed 30 secs before I had to turn it off. Turgid and humourless stuff. Are there no new Janey Godley sketches about Big Treeza, Scaredy Cat?
Spent ages reading Craig Murray’s article about Amber Rudd and her shady financial connections. The comments are also pretty scathing. I take back what I said previously about the commenteers on Craig’s blog. Mostly insightful and well informed on this topic.
Amber Rudd Really Is that Horrible:
link to craigmurray.org.uk
Strangely, the MSM are not very interested in these “anomalies”.
Not short of ammunition but will Campbell pull the trigger or pull his punches? My money is on the latter.
This GE campaign has shown the BBC Scotland politicos for what they truly are; a bunch of bungling, biased amateurs.
Of course, it may be their intent to look & sound as parochial as possible when discussing Scots politics but I do wish they would at least try and lift their game, even in this last week. They’re an embarrassment. I don’t know which are more irritating; the inept yoon answers or the inept yoon questions.
“Stephanie Smith has grown up in Edinburgh South and cares passionately about the area.”
So passionately if fact, that the wife of a serial ultra-yoon troller is putting hersel up as a paper candidate, to allow a pseudo Tory, the sticker-phobe himsel Murray a clear run.
Tit for tat.
So passionately, after being elected councilor a few short weeks ago too!
Labour voters need to think carefully about voting tory to “save the union”.
Unintended consequences and all that.
……..
The reality here, is that labour voters will simply NOT VOTE where the see labour as not interested.
The only way this type of plan works is if labour supporters vote Tory.
If labour voters were to vote tory, rather than vote labour, or not bother voting at all, they could give Theresa May a WM majority.
Imagine if the Labour votes for tories in Scotland was the difference between a Hung Parliament and a Tory Majority !!
In what seems an ever closer election, labour supporters voting tory in Scotland, is ABSOLUTE electoral insanity.
It makes more sense for labour voters to vote SNP than Tory.
If the SNP win ALL 59 seats, the Tories win NONE.
Labour lose no ground with the tories in Scottish seats (1-1 just now).
If labour vote tory tactically, the polling data suggests
50 SNP
7 TORY
1 LABOUR
1 LIB DEM.
……..
That is a 6 seat loss to the tories.
Labour supporters are NOT “saving the union” by voting tory.
They are handing a Scottish seat advantage to the tories.
Note that the tories are not saying “vote labour to save the union” to tory supporters.
Labour supporters need to wake the fuck up here, the tories are making you look like idiots.
The GE has ZERO do with independence mandates, so cannot “save” the union, only a No vote in the upcoming, already mandated referendum can do that.
If you support labour, vote labour, surely ?
If you Vote tory, remember not to come whining about it when we get a Tory government and there is STILL an indyref happening anyway.
……….
Re… The collision of the three Unionists parties,to field paper candidates…
Has anyone heard if the JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION /TRUST ( canny mind which one )are counting THIS as the kind of democracy they are happy to fund?
STV never said if they had made a statement or not?
Capella says:
1 June, 2017 at 6:10 pm
@ heedtracker – I only managed 30 secs before I had to turn it off. Turgid and humourless stuff.
I know, I’m sorry about that. They only did SNP and UKIP too, but the UKIP one’s not nearly as all out nasty as the SNP one. Imagine actually getting paid for them.
At least you’ve not been paying into that Graun twit’s pension for the last few decades. And then they wonder why they’re so not loved, although they probably don’t:D
The National:-
link to twitter.com
Rock (13th May 2015):
“Ruth Davidson is the most disgusting and nastiest politician in Scotland in my view.”
Rock.
I’ll see your Ruth, and raise you Murdo Fraser !
Labour were saps in the Council elections for backing Tories, fewer votes were reciprocated back and with May’s majority on the line if Labour think Tories will put Labour MPs back into Westminster they need their heads felt. Davidson is pushing only one thing in the hope of taking votes from the other Unionist parties. Rather than nail her lies by taking her head on regarding Tory policies they pathetically try to out Unionist her.
It is hard to figure out who is trying to throw the election more May or Kezia.
Vote for sanity Vote SNP.
Mmmm, from the Hearld: “Giant Saltire flag stolen from Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course … between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning”
Own up whoever you are!
Is there a debate on somewhere I’m missing? (Christ I’ve become a junkie)
Just realised. RentaRuth. ‘I’ll just say what I’m expected to say. Next please!’
Well what a mess that was wae Neil and Farron. Voters are no wiser,pure useless that guy.
FWIW both my daughters (19 & 21) will be voting in England & they’ll be voting “anyone but Tory”.
That’s not me doing that BTW, I may have helped but the rest is all their age/friendship group on social media.
My eldest daughter – who previously has shown as much interest in politics as a rabid dog has in water – seems to have formed the opinion that “you can’t vote these idiots in, they’re too stupid to represent anyone”.
She raised the topic with me, not vice versa.
There may be hope for the under 25 vote this time around – after all many of them are now getting hit with interest rates of 6.5% on student debt. Even the yanks don’t shaft students like that!
We’ll see what effect it has but I think more of the under 25s will turn out this time and their vote is “anyone but tory”…
Gave up on ‘Ask the Leader’ after 15min, Campbell was useless, real kid gloves interview.
I did hear Davidson trying to justify doing the 180 degree turn on the EU, apparently it was the will of the people. What is strange then is at the last general election over 63% of voters didn’t want a Tory government, but the Tories ignored the will of the people. It would seem the will of the people is a variable percentage.
Liz g @ 18:57,
I think you meant “collusion”, though the mental image of a collision is much more appealing!
As for LibDem funding, it’s the “Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust” (or JRRT for short). I imagine they have sent Wee Willie a nice tidy sum – it’s what he means by “Better Together”. (You can look up their website to see where their money has gone, at least they are transparent about that.)
I would be willing to bet though that the FibDems (at the UK level, but some will filter down to their northern accounting unit) are also getting very handsome support this time around from Gina Miller’s lot in the hope of engineering a soft Brexit that keeps London finance sector in the European mainstream.
I doubt if the “separatists” are getting any of that support because it’s London that’s paying to protect itself. “Better together” again?
yesindyref2 @ 7:44
Hahaha….from years ago,a wee birdie told me,a huge ‘Welcome to Scotland’ sign,tightly strung and at a dangerously high level,between two big flagpoles,at the entrance to Oban Harbour,disappeared one foggy night in 1974 in a similiar fashion.
Any resemblance to a big Scotland sign at Anfield a few days later, re: Wales v Scotland World Cup qualifier is purely coincidental,could it be the hand of God,strikes again ? spooky.
😉
Seeing all these Tory party spokespersons being wheeled out recently, what struck me was the total ease they lie on national TV , down right total bare faced f/n Lying not a hint of embarrassment not a bloody blush in sight, it’s their trade they don’t have an ounce of compassion, or even a moral compass, I have had this feeling about this Tory party for a while they are f/in EVIL .
WAK apparently also has some chap running for the Ruth Davidson Party. Absolutely no mention of PM either, which looks intentional.
Ruth Davidson there on TV telling Glen Campbell You can’t trust the polls
But wants Scotlands future decided by them
Have you noticed Ruths new phrase when discussing benefit cuts “Parity of esteem” she uses it a lot
How can a one size fits all cut of life support to the disabled and needy in any way be described as “esteem” by any normal human being
I can’t ever meet this woman, ever
The Labour Party members in Scotland (few as they are) deciding to back the Tories is one thing but ordinary Labour voters is something else. Their reasons for being Labour voters is more like “I’ve voted Labour all my life”. I cannot see them changing their vote because Kez and Ruthie says so.
Such voters are likely, if anything, to check out the manifestos of the Party they are interested in. For Labour that would be Corbyn’s which is back to old Labour and they would probably like. For the Tories that would be Mayhem’s manifesto and they might, like most of the population, dislike the dementia tax and other items intensely. They may even vote Labour! I cannot see Labour voters changing from Corbyn’s offer to vote for Mayhem’s offer.
Of course the above is mainly the older voters. But the younger voter’s will probably put more research into it and are also more likely to prefer Corbyn’s offer or the SNP’s with no higher education fees, if they vote at all.
The polls are showing Labour and Tories neck and neck in Scotland. That is people saying how they will vote. I really doubt many will change from that now, especially for such an ideologically different manifesto. I don’t think Ruthie is held in such adoration as she believes and that many would change their chosen vote because she says so.
But what would I know? 🙂
corbyn has run a good election, much to the dismay to scottish labour, dugdale and murray were not his biggest fans. but corbyn has ensured that there will be no tory landslide, indeed, even a comfortable majority looks less likely, leaving may with the same small majority she had before she called this election. NI will offer no change, wales will probably offer the same result albeit 3-5 tory seats may go back to labour.
no, there will be little to comfort treeza about this result, except the results in scotland.
this is where treeza will raise her victory flag, she and ruthie will will be the toast of the britnat media,
why scotland?
1. there will be no where else that anyone can point to in the uk and declare any sort of victory, except here.
2. it has been pointed out by others that this time the unionist are not fighting each other as much, will pay dividens, even a fraction of their voters voting tactically will win them seats.
3. the turnout bounce we got from the interest generated by indyref1 has dissapated somewhat, indeed our support largely comes from the younger, poorer and more left wing parts of society who tend to be less movivated to vote than the older conservative unionists voters.
4. polls show us at 43%, down from the 48% we had before 2015 ge, and the 49.5% the snp actually won.
6. some of our mps are pretty safe,(eg roger mullens with 62% etc)but it is the high profile ones, alex salmond, stephen gethins, john nicolason, angus robertson, pete wishart etc who are fighting marginals.
all in all even if we win 50 seats, some of the names above will be causualties but we may actually lose 10 in total
the good news, the above is nothing more than an evening out of results in a FPTP type election, we will still have about 45% of the vote, the vast majority of mps and a mandate for indyref2.
45% of the vote will always win us elections but it isnt enough to win a referendum. indeed im increasing of the belief that in the present msm snpbad environment we cannot win. but amid all of the wringing of hands, acrimony, gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes by the yes supporters as we watch ruthie gather the applause and thanks from a greatful andrew neil on june the 9th, just remember that these jubilant brit nats will embark on a voyage of hard brexit 11 days later, and while we cannot win, they can and will lose big time.
keep the heid folks, our enemy will be our greatest weapon in the next 6 months and the question of who will lead the yes campaign may also be decided 🙂
@ yesindyref2 I’ll keep ma ein peeled fur yon big flag at the AUOB rally on Sat lol.
O/T
link to facebook.com
Why do we need 45% to win a referendum ? Is Nicola talking to herself ? She has repeatedly stated that a majority in Holyrood has already decided that issue. It has only been delayed because May called a General election. Nothing more.
Bob Mack says:
1 June, 2017 at 9:35 pm
Why do we need 45% to win a referendum ?
cos 50% +1 wins referendums
@ronnie
That’s kind of what I was thinking 🙂
@carjamtic
I was at that match in ’77, working in London, looked at the TV schedule and what did I find? Some stupid friendly England match. So off to the station, suit and all, off to Liverpool. What a great night, think I got the first train back in the morning and straight to work to be honest I can’t remember.
OT
Parcel up to 30Kg to Inverness 48 hour £10.85 +VAT. Same size and weight limit to Cork, £9.95 + VAT. (online contract rates). Much more road miles to Cork + ferry, Scotland really needs to do something about that to open up the “Highlands” more, considering Inverness is not a small town and has industrial estates. Same parcel to say Edinburgh, £7 + VAT. I give same rates to H&I as I do to “lowlands” Scotland, doing my bit 🙂
Our position should be “Scotland, Strong, Stable, Secure and Prosperous within the EU”
there is no come back from the Unionists
O/T Journey to Yes Indiegogo fundraiser for Phantom Power films has only 3 days to get another £10,000 for their target of £17000.
Can Wingers spread the word?
schrodingers cat
You’re being too pessimistic SC. Every last SNP vote I know is even more determined than ever. I do not know anyone that’s even remotely wavered since 2014.
@ yesindyref2
Ach 1977,how could I get the year wrong,must have been distracted by those two denim clad Bonnie Tyler’s we had to comfort after the match.
Up the Kop,with their big cardboard leeks in tatters,mascara tears running down their cheeks,but the fire was still there,their passion was undiminished,as we found out later,when they threw a half brick through our bus windae….that was a cauld journey up the road.
Taylor , earlier on ” misreporting” tonight emphasising that
polling percentages won’t be uniform throughout Scotland on June 8th.
( Stating the obvious really , as their will be local variances ). However, I can’t help thinking
that this will be ” cover” for ” possible postal vote irregularities” in ” certain constituencies ” , with
Moray ? Possibly ” top of the list”. Perhaps it’s just my ” suspicious mind” as the song goes?
.
to a large extent i agree bob, this is an election for nothing in scotland, we still won the holyrood election and have a mandate for indyref2
this election is offering no change for treesa anywhere outside scotland, indeed, the change in scotland will be down to largley tactical voting and the lost of 10 seats by the snp to the tories will give treeza the only bragging rights anywhere in the uk.
i merely caution people about what will happen on the 9th.
but whether we have 46 or 56 mps matters little, the point being made is that support stubbornly remains for yes at 45%. i just dont believe that we in the snp/yes movement can do anything more than we already do, to increase that number in the present msm environment
but we might not need to, the yoons are more than capable of doing that 4 us. I believe the hard brexit will deliver us the 50%+ we need to win us our independence, so to that end, this election is irrelevant, whether we get 46 or 56 mps changes nothing.
brexit will cause the polls to move from 45% to 50%+ and when it does, nicola will action our nuclear options and indyref2 will deliver a yes
@carjamtic
Perahps it wasn’t the result that caused them to throw the brick, but the comfort administered …
Liverpool was amazing after the match, and having of course found some drinking pals, we toured around drinking with Liverpudlians, Welsh, anyone. What a night.
me neither heed
but you and i exist in a bubble, albeit a fairly large bubble.
i am merely cautioning people about the result on the 8th of may and how the bbc will spin it.
I am also pointing out how unimportant this will be in the grand scheme of things. ie the imminent indyref2
In calling GE17, has Theresa May merely repeated David Cameron’s error of judgement by calling EU Ref16, and put the Union at greater risk.
Since 2010 and the SNP’s overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, which guaranteed an Independence Referendum, and put the Union under threat, UK politics has been about saving the Preciousss Union.
Why? Because not only will Scottish Independence signal the end of the Union, it will plunge England, Wales and Northern Ireland into a massive financial crisis, and seriously damages the very foundations of the British Establishment.
Therefore, this General Election is most likely being held so as to improve Westminster’s position relative to the next Independence Referendum in Scotland.
Make no mistake. The EU is not the priority for the British Establishment. The Union is.
schrodingers cat says:
1 June, 2017 at 10:14 pm
me neither heed
but you and i exist in a bubble, albeit a fairly large bubble.
A virtual bubble. I hardly talk about Scottish politics, since 2014. I just listen. Mainly because of the nonsense that people come out with about the Scottish nation. It makes my worry mole throb.
No one has changed from Yes to No but either way, June 8’s a bit of a thriller.
I just forced myself to watch a BBC Alba program filled with kilted Scottish people overjoyed at being kept as pets for the entertainment of the English Monarchy and even expressing their loyalty to it dancing on shortbread tins, not for themselves or their culture but like native American Indians or Maoris wheeled out in the hope of being not forgotten by their betters…..I saw no redeeming features, I saw a theme park drive through zoo
I expected pennies to be thrown throughout
This is not Scottish culture this is a Scottish monkey on a stick embarrassment
I thought culture is something a country has and shares WITH others, I had no idea some folk think their soul and obedience should go along with it
I might be a tad biased
Having watched Bernard Ponsonby interview Tam Dalyell I could sense total respect for the man but tonight watching him interview Dugdale I saw none of that, not even a hint.
I get the feeling that Ponsonby is sick of the obvious lies and incompetence and toys with the likes of Dugdale and Davidson for his own entertainment pleasure.
I’m not fooled by the SLAB apparent dithering over #indyref2
They are trying it on.
Mibbes aye mibbes naw they’ll support it. Whatever you want.
See that brexit, big opportunity so it is, that’s why there’s a pile-on to join the EU and nobody is looking to rejoin the U.K.
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, India – naw
BBC Scotland just showed a clip of Davidson squirming defending rape clause. They then cut to applause to make it look like it was for her. I watched it the applause was for an audience member who said if Ruth found it difficult to talk about this then how did she think women who were raped felt.
This is not paranoia the BBC are working for Ruth.
@Jim
I didn’t see it, but I have seen him in action on TV, and saw some of a program where he was talking about his interests in politics and so on.
The guy can smell bullshit from a mile off, and doesn’t like it. The best any politician can do with him is answer the questions, and be honest.
I have no idea what his politics are thes days, I think he just tries to do his job.
@yesindyref2
It was on stv 2 earlier on, you can actually see him dying inside at constant lies and sound-bites.
Even watching Glen Campbell during ‘ask the leader’, you can see that even he is sick and tired of the bullshit!
Phil Robertson @ 12:31
Can you expand a little on the “Sturgeon rating” ?
Does it have anything to do with eggs ?
As the UKOK zone thrashes around in a pointless GE, that may even see a completely different UK gov from the one that held the Brexit ref,
European Commission in the UK
Sponsored ·
The European Commission is ready to begin the #Article50 negotiations with the UK. The EU’s first priority is to protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU. The Commission wants open and transparent negotiations so our negotiating documents will be released to the public on this website: europa.eu/!rN43JF #Brexit
Correct me if I’m wrong, but did Ruth Davidson say on the “ask the leader” today, that the UK would be high up the queue and get a speedy trade deal because”we already follow the rules” or some such?. (I have to say she said it, almost word for word, what Nicola Sturgeon has said about how Scotland would get in to the EU quickly).
If so hasn’t she just blown the argument against indy putting Scotland at the back of the queue for the EU by saying that the UK would be near the front.
Don’t we, already part of the EU follow the same rules as the RUK?
How brassy does her or anyone else neck have to be now to claim the UK would be welcomed quickly, but an indy Scotland would be waiting behind Turkey?
Major own goal by Ruth there.
Sorry for not posting for a while, became a Dad for the first time last year. I’m still the happiest man in the world, even though I’m still not getting much sleep at night :oD
North chiel @ 22:06:
Every time I read something like this on WoS my heart sinks, since it only serves to suggest to casual visitors that this site is inhabited by paranoid “fruit loops”, and thereby diminishes the force of your fellow posters’ solid arguments as well as Stu’s very grounded articles.
If you have any concrete proof of postal vote rigging, let’s see it. It would be a real sensation. But nah, you don’t and you can’t, can you? Otherwise you or someone else would have already done it.
Just unsubstantiated throwaway insinuations which (even if placed in weaselly quotation marks) do nothing except damage our precious credibility. Give it (and us) a break, please.
Tomorrow’s National front page
link to pbs.twimg.com
Tomorrow’s “National” twitter pages:-
link to twitter.com
I’ve thought of the antidote slogan to this ‘coalition of chaos’ meme that the Tories are attempting to wedge into their opposition to a progressive alliance: Coaltion of Care. Any use?
@K1
Like your thinking, however, SNP support will never be as part of a formal coalition as we know.
How about just a simple, punchy and direct description.
Not The Tories.
RjS,
Honestly? you think the postal votes were honest? Let yer heart sink and look at argyle and bute postal votes , never ever trust them barstewards. Its not a conspiracy its FACT. we wer robbed.
Aye geeo, I’m raising it in the ‘unlikely’ but now being openly discussed as a ‘possibility’ of a hung parliament in the UK context. This is what May keeps coming out with drone like, progressive parties working together (except for Kezia Dugdale, who went to great pains to tell us aw that it would be the SNP’s fault if they didn’t just fall in line wi Labour manifesto, if hung parliament was the outcome) at Westminster as the ‘coalition of chaos’?
It needs shot down. Ergo ergo 🙂
Well that’s twice in consecutive nights UKIP has promised to dump the Barnett formula, well done any of their support defending that one. As most have seen recently UKIP haven’t went away, they have just been absorbed by the Tory party, a bit like getting their attack dog under control,
If Mayhem wins on Thursday be prepared for UKIP policy’s to be enacted here, because they are as Tommy Sheridan always used to say cheeks of the same arse .
Dr Jim says: @ 10.29pm
“Scottish people overjoyed at being kept as pets for the entertainment of the English Monarchy and even expressing their loyalty to it dancing on shortbread tins, not for themselves or their culture but like native American Indians or Maoris wheeled out in the hope of being not forgotten by their betters…..I saw no redeeming features, I saw a theme park drive through zoo”
No, Dr Jim, what you saw wasn’t a zoo, zoos have bars and cages. What you saw was a Reservation!
Peace Always my Friend
“Robert Graham says:
1 June, 2017 at 8:54 pm
Seeing all these Tory party spokespersons being wheeled out recently, what struck me was the total ease they lie on national TV , down right total bare faced f/n Lying not a hint of embarrassment not a bloody blush in sight, it’s their trade they don’t have an ounce of compassion, or even a moral compass, I have had this feeling about this Tory party for a while they are f/in EVIL .”
Robert, have you noticed they only whell them out once or twice so they cant trip themselves over their own lies let alone tory lies
I’ll always agree to peace ,and Smallaxe my hat goes to you for your earlier comment to fluffy.. it was a diamond mate. well done you. 😉
I’m going to hesitantly and cautiously in a round about way without actually stating outright or in any way suggesting there is any truth in what I’m about to infer, that Kezia Dugdale is displaying interesting characteristics that weren’t obvious in her demeanour until very recently. It’s not so much that she’s confident, it’s that the speed and ferocity and arrogance that is accompanying this confidence is ‘laced’ with exaggerated body languange that seems ‘enhanced’ in some respects.
She is literally ‘barking’ at interviewers.
Is it just me noticing this?
K1 the result is a foregone conclusion, they know what they’re doing , I still think that the tories want to lose, brexit is a sham. Labour are patsies. either way we have a battle for oor independence. I’ll bet a poond that labour will win in england. (I dont bet.)lol
Big Phill – Agreed, 24th April 2015 Daily Teligraph , Quoting the Electoral Commissioner, his verdict on a recent trial which involved postal voting fraud, it has become so easy to commit fraud, I believe it is widespread and without more scrutiny and security it can only get worse.
That’s from the people who oversee these votes .
Nite all .
Eddie Munster @ 11.27
Belated Congratulations on your little one.
Don’t worry it’s the first 18 years that are the worst LOL.
Seriously though… let’s get on and get that child a better future.
@K1 (12.20) –
Ye’re a natural diplomat!
The Kezia Dugdale approach……
You walk along the road and meet a guy you completely disagree with on everything and do not like.
As you pass each other, a gang of several well known vicious bastards shout out “heh…we are gonna fucking smash you 2 feckers”
Do you ….
a) agree quickly to a truce and join forces to give yourselves a fighting chance of winning ?
b) say nothing and just hope your only chance of avoiding being hospitalised, backs you up when the shit hits the fan ?
Kezia picks b).
That is all you need to know about Kezia.
link to caltonjock.com
Robert Graham. its nice to be nice but when you look at postal votes , then im sorry but.. we was robbed. We(SNP) always play by the rules ,but we are being pumped rotten at every turn,I would have put my house on us winning indy in 2014. it used to be a thing up here ‘spot the only tory in Scotland’ .too many tractors now.;-(
K1
You mean she’s out her tree on the old Bolivian marching powder ?
I couldn’t possibly comment 🙂
Check out the yaks. A dead give away.
Big Phil;
Thank’s Phil, I believe peace is the only way but I have, like any other person, the capability of being angered, I was surprised to find him approaching me and when he did the joke that wee all see him as left me completely, I saw a man who denied that our Scotland no longer existed.
Let me just say, unashamedly, that he’s lucky that I am a peaceful person. To see a tr8tor to his own people, a snake who’s venom will poison the future of my grandchildren in such close proximity to me, tested me greatly, I managed to bark and not to bite but the temptation was excruciatingly difficult to resist.
I know that we in Scotland can and will set the example of peaceful democracy to those would try to corrupt the democratic processes of a civilised nation.
Wa’s like us, damn few n’ their awe deid.
Peace and Love to You and Yours Phil
couldnt have said it better smallaxe. Yer a better man than a lot of us. Oor day will come. 😉
Thank you Liz.
I am amazed how much becoming a parent has changed me in so little time, before I wouldn’t say boo to a goose, now I have no fear speaking up even though my introvert brain is screaming at me to stay quiet.
My main aim is to make sure he has the best chance in life. During the first Indyref I convinced Family and friends to vote Yes and argued on Facebook with the Yoons to counter the media crap that was floating around.
In the next IndyRef I’ll be knocking on doors, not arguing in the echo chamber of the internet as many people still don’t have internet or don’t get their news from it, or even both sides of the debate on the internet, because recently if you searched for Scottish Independence on Google, you would get an Ad from the UK Government telling you how great Scotland in the UK is.
Och, Phil, I’m just like all (or most) of us on here, just a man who wants to live in a peaceful and fair society who’s elected government has the welfare and education of the people as its main priority.
Once we attain our independence and can make our voice heard in the world, once when we can show the immense peaceful contribution that our Kingdom Nation can make now, as it has in the past, then we will all have made a start in regaining the respect and dignity that has been stripped away by over 300yrs of Westminster rule.
Peace Always
Big Phil @ 00:57,
The trouble with that view is that it takes the deep disappointment that we all felt watching our dream of a brighter future dissolve and transmutes it into a lame excuse. Gold into lead. It’s essentially defeatist. It’s just a step away from saying that there’s no point in trying anything anyway because the system is completely fixed against us. (Which is the point of view of a well-known pessimist on here.)
More importantly maybe, that attitude also tells us absolutely nothing about what must be done to improve things sufficiently to actually win it next time, apart maybe from hoping that sufficient postal-voting oldies who predominantly vote “no” will have shuffled the mortal coil by the time the next indyref comes around.
I recognise there have been abuses with postal voting in the past, but nothing on a scale – as some in their disappointment appear to assume without any evidence – that would be anywhere near sufficient to bridge the 10% gap of the last indyref. I don’t actually like postal voting in principle myself either, except where absolutely justified, because turning up in person at a polling station is the one relatively sure way of demonstrating that you are voting for yourself without any “assistance”. Voting, like justice, should be seen to be done.
The real answer though lies somewhere else, and is staringly obvious: we need, by word and deed, to convince just a handful of percent of the more-hesitant among us that our dream is viable, not just in general, but for them in particular. Moaning that “we wuz robbed” just won’t cut it. With 50%+ support, no amount of dodgy fiddling with some postal votes on the sidelines can stop us.
Where’s that wee sneaky David funt* who was going on about ‘benefit cheats’ and single mothers on here the other day?
Here stick this in yer ‘economic’ assessment of where the fault lies in terms of fraudulent cheating of the ‘system’.
Here’s excellent research from Norway, researchers ‘said their goal was to “correct global inequality statistics in a systematic way so as to better capture the very rich”.
The reality:
‘The richest 0.01% of households, involving those with more than £31m assets, evade paying 30% of their taxes on average, according to an academic study of tax evasion based on data revealed in the Panama Papers and the leaks concerning the HSBC Swiss private bank. Economists, who matched people named in the leaks with public wealth records, found that “the probability to hide assets rises very sharply with wealth”.
Further:
‘The paper found that the super-rich evaded more than 10 times as much of their due taxes as the wider population, which on average evaded 2%.
Most of the tax was evaded by hiding wealth in offshore accounts, which the researchers said was “extremely concentrated” in the hands of only the very wealthy, who could afford accountants, lawyers and bankers to advise them on setting up such holdings.
“The probability to hide wealth offshore rises very steeply within the top 1%,” the paper, entitled Tax Evasion and Inequality, said. “By our estimate, the top 0.01% of the [wealth] distribution owns about 50% of [the wealth].”
Whilst the research covered only Norway:
‘The researchers said they found that about 40% of the richest 0.1% of households in Norway hid on average about 50% of their assets offshore. “Because most Latin American and many Asian and European economies own much more wealth offshore than Norway, the results found in Norway are likely to be lower than for most of the world’s countries,” they said. “Our results highlight the need to move beyond tax records to capture the income and wealth of the very rich, even in countries where tax compliance is generally high.’
The sooner people get it into their heads that these obscenely wealthy individuals are cheating everyone and are directly robbing the exchequers of all nations causing the widening and gaping inequality that we see reflected in the UK context with rising food bank use, wage freezes, zero hours contracts and crushing austerity imposed upon us from the very government who have sitting millionaires in their cabinet.
Whose response to the greed and outright criminal actions within the financial industry has been to impose draconian eye watering social security cuts that are harming the most vulnerable, destroying any ‘safety net’ for any of us and effectively killing off those who they’ve deemed as undeserving. On the grounds of ‘reducing the deficit’ which hasn’t actually worked whilst their billionaire friends profit from the agencies set up to inflict these punitive policies upon the population. The sooner we can move away from the right wing narrative of blaming those that wealthy media publications, owned by these same billionaire ‘businesses’, insist are the true culprits in our society.
Instead of falling for the daily mailesque headlines blaming immigrants, benefit cheats and any and all other minoriities for our economic woes, the light needs to be shone as the Norwegian researchers are doing, on the real networks of lawyers, accountants and the offshore banking industry for what they really are. Criminals.
link to archive.is
Rant end.
*typo
K1, is this what you were looking for? “n”, take this one, I’ve got plenty.
🙂
Peace Always my Friend
K1, SORRY! I meant “c”, I’ve got tons of them also, you’re welcome. 🙂
Peace Always
@Robert J. Sutherland
I attended the counting of postal votes as a representative of Wings Over Scotland in Angus and if there was any jiggery pokery going on then it wasn’t done there.
Let’s face it most postal voters are elderly and most of them support the Union. Let’s instead try and focus on persuading these people otherwise.
That’s your mum or dad, granny or granda. Get their vote we win.
Who’d have thought that Sarah Smith of the BBC is a Tory? She is.
link to archive.is
The gap is closing between the Tories and Labour
Another few debacles by the Tories and Labour could be in with a shout
Meanwhile in Scotland Labour is encouraging their people to vote for the Tories
The plan is to “punish” the SNP at all costs
As I see it Scottish Labour is undoing any progress the big party makes in England
A handful of seats lost by the SNP changes nothing, but if they go Tory they could keep Labour out
we already have a mandate for indyref2
I know he faces a very tough fight to hold onto his seat, but, I just hope those wavering SNP voters in his constituency, who are thinking of voting Tory and ousting Angus Robertson think again.
On TV this week, in the so-called Leaders Debate – which Mother Theresa ducked – and on Question Time, Angus came across as a true, genuine statesman.
Scotland, never mind the SNP, can ill-afford to lose him to a Tory backlash, driven by those out-and-out charlatans and liars, Mother Theresa and her haridan Mini-Me who runs “The Ruth Davidson Party”.
Links
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
link to indyref2.scot
link to theorkneynews.scot
link to ericjoyce.co.uk
link to scottovoce.wordpress.com
link to itisintruthnotforglory.wordpress.com
link to commonspace.scot
In England, Theresa May as PM is trying to take away kids’ school meals, in Aberdeenshire, the Tories are trying to take away the schools.
Video here
link to twitter.com
BBC News 24 is patronising us with a visit to Dunfermline.
Of course it helps if you can get a forlock tugger to accept your ‘leading’ questions and give you the answers you want.
Check out the laughable contribution of Professor David Bell of Stirling University in 60 seconds of in depth analysis around 6.55.
Will oil ever cease to be a burden to us?
‘Judge us on our record’ says Amber Rudd. Whoever created this poster did just that
link to archive.is
link to thecanary.co
link to theneweuropean.co.uk
link to counselmagazine.co.uk
Nana: Good Morning, Thank you for your links, they’re much appreciated.
Kettle’s on! Peace Always. 🙂
Good morning Smallaxe. It’s a nice bright morning here, good day for a spot of gardening.
link to thecanary.co
The U.S. Is the Biggest Carbon Polluter in History.
link to archive.is
link to journal-neo.org
link to medialens.org
One possible outcome of this election which I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere is that the Tories could scrape home with an overall majority in single figures courtesy of tactical voters in Scotland handing the “Ruth Davidson” party 8-10 seats. “It was Scotland wot won it” the Sun and others would proclaim. I’d have to emigrate.
Sooo angry already at this time of the morning!!! Had ma wee bit o’ mischief all lined up and the damn car has let me down. Went in for a service yesterday and the sump thingy is leaking or something, they’re sorting it today.
No car, no flags hooked up in the windaes, no wee slow drive past the Glen Gates (several times!)
I. am. so. annoyed.
Aweright geeo (late last night) ~
Good slogan, or to add to…
“Now is Not the Tories”
It’s Friggin’ Friday!
BBC 1 news on tel from Dunfermline . Newspaper held up Torygraph, Mirror, Scotsman, Times…….. Yip no paper supporting the largest party in Scotland. Thought Pat Kane might have commented on the bias.
Maybe he’s rock in disguise!
BBC Better Together going ‘full pelt’ tonto anti Scotland on breakfast TV to convince us to its WM view of life in Dunfermline.
So blatant with selected ‘guests’, editing and life as we all know it – Aye Right !!!
Anyone else see the loving words for the FM in this stries comments section ?? Disgusting.
link to eveningtimes.co.uk
@Hamish 100
Aye saw the papers guff ! The Daily Mirror of Scotland ???
Wee ding dong from Stirling – usual suspects etc.
Who was the ‘Better Together’ Muppet on with Pat Kane ?
Seemed more like a Labour worthy than anything else.
BBC oil price is down even so revenue tonScotland hav dropped . Eh?
We have never got a penny in 40 odd years .
BBC biased. Ouch aye the BBC presenter has learned a new word Smirrrrrrr or is it Dreik ?
Patronising BBC . One lot of migrants we can send back post haste -,Och aye the noo yi Ken.
Smallaxe ~
Did ye ken that your “tr8tor” actually ‘looks like’ a tractor.
That’s pretty cool 🙂
Bit disappointed in Pat Kane and who’s the pseudo Brillo? and where’s the National?
Dunfermline’s looking good though but who’s the idiot in the ‘Bruce’ get up?
Me and him got married in the Abbey in ’76, still going strong.
Gonnae kick the car when we get it back.
I cannot get STV2, and have been unable to locate the programme on the STV player.
Can anyone tell me where I might see Dippity Dug’s latest car-crash bashing from Bernard Ponsonby?
What’s the beef? BBC is establishment for goodness sake, defending the Union is in their DNA, madness to think it would be otherwise.
Get out canvassing instead of complaining on here.
O/T
link to facebook.com
Thinking about the BBC rubbish this morning maybe this was good advice back in 1985.
link to youtube.com
K1 @ 3.03 am
It was also interesting to note that the narrative
….”we can’t tax the super rich too much,they will just move their wealth beyond us being able to tax any of it”….
Being dropped in to “received wisdom” now!
Why it’s almost as if some are realising that the majority are starting to question where their share is!
OH Really???
Where they? gonnay more it too ????the moon????
This is no more credible than the “Don’t scare Businesses” they don’t like it,and you will be sorry you did,bullshit that’s been punted at us since Thatcher’s reign.
It’s no that complicated at all.
Make the rules so that they couldn’t.
This is done ALL the time to the Unemployed,so they do know how.
Easy to say?? Well it’s also easy to do…
Start with the Land and Water, if ye didn’t produce it and cause it to be there,then you don’t get to decide what happens to it after you die.
It must be returned to the market.
But your kid’s could buy it and there is not even any death tax to pay,ITS just that they need to demonstrate where they money came from.
Just like the poor do for a Council Tax rebate.
And bring any tax due up to date.
Don’t want to OH DEAR never mind,not to worry another buyer will be along soon….like buses…they are!
Then the Super rich won’t want to own land in Scotland..will be the cry…
But there’s a profit to be made from that land or they wouldn’t have wanted it in the first place.
So nobody buys it…..well it still has an owner..US and the
potential for profit hasn’t gone anywhere.
Be good for jobs? I would think,but more than that,all the tax is now getting collected.
If most of the measures designed to scrutinize the poor were applied to tax,then we should see fraud and avoidance levels equalised,with benefits, and benifits fraud is very low.
There’s probably more spent to broadcast “Poverty Porn” than is ever lost in any given tax year to benefit fraud.
A very simple but probably the most difficult thing to do,is to get measures in place so that the people who are getting into government are not drawn from one demographic.
There is something far wrong when multi millionaire’s are desperate to get and hang on to a job, which by their standards has very poor pay and conditions.
A burning desire to serve the People…my aunt Fanny!
The People Are Sovereign….all of them, every where, all the time, always have been!!!
It’s not just the Scots, (sorry Robert Peffers,where are you any way) we might have documents to proclaim and give us a leagal foundation of our Sovereignty,
that only means that we are a wee bit more advanced in understanding our power.
But if the people decide to organise society (and that’s all Sovereignty actually is) to distribute the wealth better…then there is nothing 1% of society can do about it.
My rant over!
You may ask: why does the cowardly Mundell, SoS for Scotland, allow this chubby wee ungulate feeder to take over his role as ‘leader’ of the Blue Tory campaign in Scotland.
Likewise Rushed Off His Feet Murray and the Frenchgate Liar Carmichael are hiding under the duvet while MSPs Dugdale and Rennie make a right fuck up of their Yoon Parties’ campaigns?
Says a lot about these three men: heads down desperately trying to wring another 5 years out of their non jobs, on the Gravy Train, and fuck Scotland.
I posted on Ruth’s Roast last night over on WGD. She is showing all the signs of being completely out of touch with reality now. Sad really.
Footsoldier @ 8.15 am.
Agree entirely. In our constituency we have been out for the last four months, and as far as I am aware, we are the only party to be doing the work on the ground.
Of course, you have to remember that not all of our supporters are physically able to assist us, but many lend valuable support behind the scenes.
So each to his or her own. Back out today, and every day, up to and including the 8th.
Socrates MacSporran
I go to http://www.stv.tv , and click on ‘Find progs’, and type “Scotland Tonight”.
Works Ok for me, hope it does for you.
Cactus;
I’ll see you tomorrow at the Green. 😎
Peace Always
corbyn may peg treeza back to a slim majority
the tories are set to make gains in scotland
they might be the difference that keeps treeza’s majority
it would be helpful to have all of the tweets and tv clips by dugdale, ian murray, macdougal etc in one article, where they ask people to vote tory.
this could backfire on slab, we simply blame them for the tory gains ?
Thepnr at 4.04
Of course it wasn’t done at the count. Nobody has suggested it was. You obviously haven’t read the Dunoon report “Defending Democracy”.
Here is some of what the Council Of Europe said about the UK postal voting system
“Reforms to the postal voting rules introduced by Labour have made electoral fraud in Britain “childishly simple”, a European human rights watchdog said today.
The Council of Europe claimed the British voting system was now open to fraud and the system “makes it extremely easy to add bogus characters to the voters’ lists”.
That is how Argyll and Bute and five other parts of Scotland achieved an impossible 97% take up on postal votes.
Thepnr says at 4:15 am
“Who’d have thought that Sarah Smith of the BBC is a Tory? She is.”
link to archive.is
Probably not as like rest of Brit Nat establishment she is just anti SNP.
The Unionist press and media now ramping up the anti SNP message, while Labour resorts to smearing SNP candidates.
link to ericjoyce.co.uk
O/T
I don’t know if my memory is failing me but I cannot remember there having been any referendum on whether or not The UK should join The Common Market in 1973.
My recollection is that we joined under the auspices of the Heath Government which had campaigned for joining but without
consulting the electorate other than by manifesto committments.
There were 2 referenda on whether or not to remain members the first under Harold Wilson in 1975 and last year’s one.
There seems to be a sizeable number of people who are under the impression that there was a referendum on joining one of whom mentioned such a vote on last night’s QT.
Could somebody let me know if my memory is correct. If it is should there not be an effort to kill off this false belief in a joining referendum once and for all.
gus1940
There was no referendum prior to joining the then EEC.
If tories win seats in Scotland, it will be one of BBC led tory media’s great triumph’s, not winning indy ref 2014 levels of attack propaganda, but certainly up there.
Yesterday, Graun tories were pissing all over the SNP in the north east of Scotland, Peterhead especially.
What happened when the tories last campaigned up there? Vote NO, Vote tory, for £billion carbon capture investment, gone.
Not a peep out of Graun tories, in particular, just SNP bad Peterhead, and the lovely tories coming back. If tories do get in up there, their voters deserve everything the tories do to them.
link to bbc.co.uk
UK government carbon capture £1bn grant dropped
25 November 2015
From the section Scotland business
Its hard to quantify what carbon capture would have done for the area, with a tens of millions already spent in Scottish research and planning.
Socrates MacSporran says:
1 June, 2017 at 1:10 pm
“Can any Wingers who live in his constituency tell me: Is David Mundell – “Ruth Davidson’s Candidate”?”
I do Socrates & I couldn’t tell you-I’ve not had a single leaflet from any party-although that might have something to do with several SNP stickers on front & rear screens on my car 🙂
schrodingers cat says:
… which is a truly Hellish possibility! They gain say 4 seats in Scotland that gives them a small majority. Sigh!
The heavyweights are back. Jim Naughtie and Nick Robinson back in Scotland to boot up the Vote anyone but SNP message on Radio 4 – yes, the proper big people’s radio from London. Nicola was interviewed, followed by a critique by Sarah Smith. Kezia was interviewed followed by no critique whatsoever.
@Marcia
There was no referendum to join the UK either
@Capella
Caught up with devious Nick this morning when driving to work.
All about possible Tory gain in East Renfrew and how Scotland at one time gave 50% of its votes to the Tories.
Of course that was well before the people wakened up to the reality of both Cons and Labs and what they stood for in Scotland. Nowt. Now the SNP are now so well mainstream that they are now a force to be reckoned with and need to be stopped at all costs by the Establishment fronted by the BBC gimps such as Tricky Nick, Naughty Jim, Bad Andra and Dimblebum et al.
Are folk so thick they don’t understand that no matter who’s Prime Minister they’re not the ones who do the negotiating
It’s lawyer types and negotiator types and diplomat types and counting up types
The Prime Minister just shows up to sign it off and for the lunches,
Why do you think Theresa May wants to keep Nicola Sturgeon as far away from this as possible, because the Wee Barra’s been a politician for 30 years and the EU likes her plus the UN thinks the FMs the Bees Knees and so do the foreign press, so who’d “Nic” the headlines
I think we all know the answer to that
O/T
Tory candidate Craig Mackinlay has been charged after an investigation into 2015 general election campaign expenses, the CPS says.
link to twitter.com
Capella
I heard some of that rubbish this a.m on the radio.
James Naughtie managed to find three english people to interview to tell them how it is in Scottish politics.
and of course, there is a Tory resurgence and a titanic struggle between SNP and SLabour for most of the seats!!!
Kez was interviewed by Nick ‘he didn’t answer’ Robinson and within 10 seconds had got her answer round to stating no to independence. Apparently we’re all angry with Nicola. She side stepped the question of whether or to she supported Corbyn and Robinson didn’t press her anything like hard enough ( which he is certainly capable of doing) to get an answer.
Whitewash- as usual.
Didn’t hear FM or Sarah Smith but I notice she has a lengthy article about the Tory ‘Resurgence’ on the website.
Well, we’ll see next friday!
Driving the kids to school earlier,I noticed the big Tory billboard in a field at the Sherrifhall roundabount had been altered with “Tories kill the poor” spray painted in black all over it.
Not subtle, but I salute you sir/madam. Whoevs you are 😉
Capella says:
2 June, 2017 at 10:04 am
The heavyweights are back. Jim Naughtie and Nick Robinson
Back from France, where they were desperately bigging up Le Pen and then they flopped. Even Naughtie sounded deflated and dejected at Le Pen losing. It was very weird listening to beeb twerp like Naughtie trying to get France to vote Le Pen. Its not that a tory like Naughty was over there trying but that tory beeb gimpery actually seemed to believe that what they wanted to happen, really would.
Such a strange world of beeb tory bubbles in that outfit. To be fair to Naughtie, he did put a lot into getting UKIPers like Jabba the Hut elected in Scotland, via BBC Scotland, in 2014 was it, just before the Scots ref.
Imagine an EU where the BBC tory creepshow actually kept getting tories like Le Pen into government, like here.
If Le Pen had won, the EU might well be heading for collapse. Psycho tories like the BBC are a real threat to progressive democracy, not just in their Scotland region but everywhere they go.
Shades of the Omen, and I register mild surprise that the Crossword Fiends haven’t noticed it before, but ‘Hurt’ is an anagram of ‘Ruth’.
Can you wheel me out into the garden, nurse?
The creeping insanity of the Yoons is truly frightening now.
Sarah Smith writes in the Beeb blog that if the Tories got 10-12 seats, and SNP only managed 45, then the case for Independence was over.
Her Da must be turning in his grave.
A thought. The Tories won’t close down Holyrood. They need to keep it.
Why?
Because without Holyrood we would revert to the old system of only needing a majority of MPs to achieve a mandate for Indy.
“Robert j Sutherland @1137″ , obviously you have never read the very detailed report compiled
by Andy Anderson ” defending democracy” as regards the referendum vote in Argyll&Bute .If you want “evidence “then go read it Robert.
I find it rather childish Robert in calling posters names . I might be a cynic ( and I would accept that as a compliment)however I am certainly no ” fruit loop”.
Breaking News.
Craig Mackinlay charged so will Lib/Lab and Davidson call for him to stand down oh I am sorry he is Tory and not SNP
Re R4 Today from North Britain where it’s all different.
Nicola sounded cool calm and collected in her interview by Nick Robinson, and he sounded rather charmed by her. He left it to Sarah Smith to put the stiletto in.
Kezia, on the other hand, sounded as demented as she usually is now – flatly denying what we all heard Jeremy Corbyn say with our own lying ears.
During Jim Naughtie’s questions to as many English people as he can find, he did say that the Unionist parties had a discreet arrangement not to put up real candidates against each other where they think they can defeat the SNP.
He can say it – but the party reps can’t say it – presumably because they would all have to be suspended if it’s true.
@ Footsoldier 8.15
“Get out canvassing instead of complaining on here”. I don’t know if that was directed at my post 8.08am? Perhaps you missed my original post 7.45am.
I also agree with Gordoz @ 8.20 yes good advice.
Some people need to realise that not everybody has the wherewithal or the health to ‘get out there’.
People do what they can whether it be donating tenners when they can or even doing a drive past when EBC are in their home town!
Some of us can do loads by way of canvassing and going on marches, some of us have big ‘online’ bases and can reach out quicker and to more voters and I thank them for it.
Adam Boulton of SKY news just interviewed what he described as the four main parties
Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, and Ukip
I must have nodded off and wakened up to Scotland being Independent already then seeing as how Scotland isn’t in the UK any more
By any stretch of a monkeys imagination how are Ukip a main party anywhere with absolutely no representation whatsoever in Parliament
Let’s just forget about the SNP and the Greens eh according to Sky
While over on the BBC they’re still maintaining their impartiality drivel by reinventing and bending their own rules to suit their agenda by saying that journalists can say what they like because of their journalistic experience
Britain first! (is that what we have to say Mr Trump)
OK, tugs forelock!
“Sarah Smith writes in the Beeb blog that if the Tories got 10-12 seats, and SNP only managed 45, then the case for Independence was over.”
With her Tory soulmates making this election a constitutional test Jack, I’d call 45 v’s 10/12 a win for Yes, and a UDI would seem apt.
UDI denier freaks. Save your typing finger. I was joking :-0
Liz at 1111 am,
I agree. I also agree however, that people DO need, if they can, to get active for the SNP. People are needed to get the vote out and other tasks. The fact is, their are many ways to help, including telephone canvassing, paper work, foot canvassing, and helping on election day (they really need people to get the vote out).
We simply cannot assume things will be ok, or that ‘others’ will do the work. I sense a lot of complacency among posters here.
I personally just cannot do much at all right now (bad timing), but I help financially where I can.
The point is, if you can, then maybe just do it, as people are needed. We all help in different ways.
link to snp.org
The BBC used to be OK, before Thatcher destroyed it. Here’s a Play for Today, Destiny, from 1978 on youtube. It’s about Britain/England after the war and loss of India when all our “coloured cousins” got to come and live here. For racism, fascism and the nasty party manipulating the poor lower middle class, little Englander, it’s brilliant.
Very topical now.
You can’t imagine the BBC being able to produce anything like it nowadays. By David Edgar 1hr 50 mins.
link to youtube.com
Robert Louis
11.23
I agree.
I have been highlighting the dangers of complacency for some time, we need to be active NOW. And we can start with a decent turnout at the rally on Saturday so please if you really are passionate about independence be there.
Finally managed to catch-up with the Bernard Ponsonby/Kezia Dugdale interview.
Old Bernard has a heart, he soft-pedalled on the lassie. Mind you, even I found myself feeling sorry for her, a wee office junior, over-promoted way above her pay scale and abilities.
On one hand, she is drowning, not waving, is fathoms out of her depth and should be removed from office and sent to a less-arduous job. On the other, she and the Fat Tory Controller are the two best recruiting officers the cause of Independence have.
defo
Sarah Smith needs to say that in front of groups of real people and hear them laugh their socks of at her.
Lots of posts today fulminating at the bias of the msm as is habitual.
Meanwhile in a parallel place of the independence campaign, Phantom Power Films, the people who make those outstanding “No to Yes” video´s that we all appreciate and enjoy so much, are struggling (badly!) with their fundraising efforts.
10K short of 17K with three days left.
I seem to remember also that the brilliant i Scot magazine (published by a fellow Winger) also fell badly short of it´s fundraising target.
Earlier in the week the chatter on this site was all about how many individual viewers WOS had in May, 480K I think, but we struggle to raise the funds to support ventures such as Phantom Power and i Scot!
As has been commented here ad infinitum until we start making inroads in to the virtual monopoly that the media has over political conversation and opinion forming we frankly are pissing in to the wind and in the future historians will describe this period of time in the political history of Scotland as “The Scottish Spring”.
I have attached the link to Phantom Power fundraiser.
See what you can do please.
link to indiegogo.com
@Dr Jim
That’s reminds me of John Cleese in Shortlist magazine this week. He was moaning about democracy and how “UKIP get 4m votes, and 1 seat…SNP get 1.5 votes and get 56 seats!..how is that fair?”
Always been something about him I didn’t like
Jack Collatin at 10:58 am says:
“The creeping insanity of the Yoons is truly frightening now.
Sarah Smith writes in the Beeb blog that if the Tories got 10-12 seats, and SNP only managed 45, then the case for Independence was over.”
Maybe they think it’s like a game of golf, where the aim is to finish with a lower number than everyone else next to your name.
Continuing on the subject of Phantom Power Films, but this time on a lighter note, have a view again of their simply brilliant “What Was Done” video.
I thought it was very clever and entertaining when it first came out about a month ago but in light of recent events in GE17 it really deserves to be shared widely.
Great soundtrack also 🙂
link to youtube.com
Here’s how the Tories are selling off the NHS, on the cheap.
Essential viewing.
Chris Holden, on T.Mays plans to implement the Naylor report.
It’s happening now. Stop it.
This, this alone should sink the Tory election. Spread it far and wide, like a virus on an airliner 🙂
Regarding turnout .
I am an SNP member and ensure both my sons and their wives vote . I also run 4 of my Mates who have never voted before to the polling station and even bribe the buggers with a pint or two for 2 mins work .
If possible i give as much moneywise as i can to indi blogs . A minimum of 30 quid a month . Every little helps .
I have a car but struggle to walk , i also get tired quick so physical stuff is too much at the moment but getting folk out voting is the most important thing.
I dont believe the polls . I find it hard to believe anything nowadays that doesn’t get tested by Wings and the other indi groups so dont feel we are under any pressure. ( Why do i feels so frustrated tho ? )
Labour and Tories have shot themselves in the foot so many times that only an idiot or Queens 11 yoon would waste their vote for them . And most folk i spoke too see this as an English election . regardless of the result we wont see much difference here.
Like most of you , they are waiting for the referendum . Patience is the key here. We must have all our ducks in a row before we start shooting .
I find that tough and have to give myself a shake and a good read through comments here to keep me right , but its hard .
Trust our FM and the team . They always have something planned and i am sure once the Brexit shit starts flowing things will be very different .
keep the faith folks .
Eddie Munster : Delighted to hear the news ” Daddy “. Like many of us we see the future this govt brings and fear for our kids . This puts the ball firmly in our feet . Save Scotland , not for us but for our kids and their kids .
Thats what motivates most of us . Congrats my friend .
I’ve tried 10 x to post this, same as the other day with the youtube link to Boris conspiring to commit GBH.
I’m no tinfoil hatter, but i’m now pretty sure this site is compromised, and being fiddled with.
Youtube “Chris Holden, Naylor report”. Please
@ Defo
Link?
How to find the Andy Anderson report on democracy re Argyll and Bite
I’ve just found this from 9:52pm last night:-
Sarah asked:
“O/T Journey to Yes Indiegogo fundraiser for Phantom Power films has only 3 days to get another £10,000 for their target of £17000.
Can Wingers spread the word? ”
Fantastic Films of former NO voters Journeys to YES. 🙂
Currently on Film Number 13.
Here’s their Fundraiser. Some way to go:-
link to indiegogo.com
Journey to YES
£10 in …. still need a few more pounds folks. These vids are worth their weight in gold . Please help if u can. I always leave with a smile on my face and belief we are winning when i watch these videos .
link to indiegogo.com
@defo
Let’s see if it works for me
link to youtube.com
@ Defo
Let´s see if this works.
link to youtube.com
@ Nana
SNAP!
Can’t stress this enough.
G.Y.V.O (Get Your Vote Out)
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
It’s your democracy, so use it or lose it.
‘with our own lying ears.’ Laugh out loud funny Capella.
Also yes, brilliant film, watched it a few weeks ago…Prescience, back then they allowed fantastic writers with insight and a good grounding in the realities of post war Britain to work for them, now? It’s back tae back ‘reality’ and ‘murder in every sitcom’ fodder for the masses.
I’ve often wondered even just been raised in the seventies with the quality of the BBC creative output that existed back then, that it did perform a real service to our populations. I remember being hooked on I Claudius at 12 years old, getting to watch ‘Play for today’, ‘Tomorrow’s World’ et al. I’m almost certain this input naturally expanded the neural pathways by the same token I’m almost certain the output across all channels shortens these pathways and serves only tae ‘dumbdown’ people.
@uno mas
what a team!
Nana/uno mas
Well if it’s not WoS that’s compromised…
If i’m found hanging from a door knob, with a piece of orange in my mouth… Copyright F. Boyle
Tell my kids I loved them 🙂
McDuff at 1136am,
Well said. Complacency is the enemy here. If possible, people need to attend the march for independence on Saturday, no excuses.
As I said earlier, we cannot simply assume that ‘others’ will attend, so it’s then ok to go to the pub/shops instead. We already know if it is successful, the biased media will ignore it, but if their is a low turnout, the mainstream media will be talking about it for weeks/months.
Don’t assume ‘others’ will do the work. We all need to get involved, in whatever way possible, if we can. Think how sick you will feel, if late on Saturday you have a gloating jackie bird on telly, telling us the march for independence was very small, and so now Ruth Davidson is saying their is definitely no demand for a referendum. We will all feel sick.
So, make sure you go, and take your granny, kids, budgie,dog, whatever with you.
The details of the March for independence in Glasgow on Saturday (tomorrow) are on that facebook thing;
Link link to facebook.com
If you can’t make the march (mobility problems etc..) head down to Glasgow green for when the march arrives, and cheer them on. Let’s make sure the march is big.
That vid IS the smoking gun. Cruella, in her own words, saying she will implement a report which advocates selling off the NHS estate, on the cheap. (taxpayer subsidized BOGOF).
defo says:2 June, 2017 at 12:24 pm:
“I’m no tinfoil hatter, but i’m now pretty sure this site is compromised, and being fiddled with.
Youtube “Chris Holden, Naylor report”. Please”
link to youtube.com
@defo
Thank you for highlighting this video, scary stuff. I have shared it and hope everyone on here does likewise.
For those normal folk, who don’t go on ‘facebook’, the details of the March for Independence tomorrow are as follows;
MARCH FOR INDEPENDENCE- 3RD JUNE 2017
KELVINGROVE PARK TO GLASGOW GREEN
GATHERING AT 10.30AM, LEAVING AT 11AM SHARP
PROCESSION ROUTE: Kelvingrove Park, Kelvin Way, Sauchiehall Street, Pitt Street, West George Street, Blythswood Square, West George Street, Nelson Mandela Place, West George Street, George Street, High St, Saltmarket, to Glasgow Green.
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SHARE THIS EVENT PAGE AND IT’S POSTS…
INVITE AS MANY FRIENDS AS YOU CAN USING THE ‘INVITE FRIENDS’ TAB AT THE TOP OF THIS EVENT PAGE…
BRING YOUR FLAGS, BANNERS, PIPES & DRUMS!
ALBA GU BRATH!
facebook link link to facebook.com
Is Scotland failing to recognise State propaganda/ brainwashing. Below is an example.
Free Scotland says:
“Sarah Smith writes in the Beeb blog that if the Tories got 10-12 seats, and SNP only managed 45, then the case for Independence was over.”
This is tripe and completely false, and Sarah Smith and the BBc know that. So why do they do it, and constantly, and so repetitively?
Because every Unionist politician and every unionist journalist and television news presenter, is an agent of brainwashing. Sarah Smith’s ‘job’ is a TV news and current affairs presenter, but HER PURPOSE IS BRAINWASHING.
Ruth Davidson, Kezia Dugdale and Willie Rennie never stop talking about Independence and the next referendum either. Why? Because that is their day-job. They too, are Agents of propaganda, all repeating over and over the same phrases – to brainwash simple folk.
Brainwashing is targeted, it is not aimed at everyone, just the simple-minded, the gullible, the naive; in general, all those who can be fooled all the time. The people whom State propaganda concentrate on.
If the Tories win GE17, and I don’t think they will, then it will be down to the brainwashing of enough of the population.
link to gov.uk
Thank you Nana.
When the history of WoS is written, nana’s links will feature as the undisputed BTL No.1 superstar.
We have so many fine contributors and alert readers, it would be unfair to single out anyone else, bar yourself.
@ Defo.
Thanks…very important information.
Every one should watch and share
Re Sarah Smith
That is exactly what fake news is all about
Replace with “If May only gets a 50 seat majority then the case for Brexit is over. It shows what utter bilge the argument is. The party with the majority calls the shots
If the Tories get 30 seats then we have a problem. Until then Sarah…spin on your fake journalism, you fraud.
Anybody know why the Herald is running with a two week old poll? Wasn’t telling the right story two weeks ago but know after the Tory implosion it is the best they are likely to get?
Who is the more afraid of a Corbyn victory? May or Corbyn?
Is there a way to donate to Phantom Power using PayPal? I’m a bit nervous about putting my bank details online.
Chick McGregor says:
2 June, 2017 at 1:03 pm
Who is the more afraid of a Corbyn victory? May or Corbyn?
May. She’s under massive pressure for hardest Brexit they can get, from backbench shire tory zoomers, via Heil led press especially, then she’s got the UKIP freak show, also waiting and praying for soft Brexit.
JC has none of that at all.
@ K1 – the quality of BBC output was far superior to the rubbish produced now since John Birt was appointed by Thatcher (once she sacked Alasdair Milne) to create an “internal market” with producer choice and all the usual cost cutting changes Murdoch desires.
But I also think how sad that we in Scotland have no opportunity to dramatise our own experience. We rarely enjoy films about our own history and culture, written by Scottish novelists and playwrights. I might even pay the licence fee if the quality and relevance improved.
Trainspotting is one exception. Except it depicts us as junkies, alcoholics or thieves. A very narrow focus. Outlander was made in US and never shown on broadcast TV here.
We can’t even have a decent news bulletin. It’s disgraceful cultural deprivation IMO.
Chick McGregor says: at 1:03 pm
“Who is the more afraid of a Corbyn victory? May or Corbyn?”
Hard to say Chick.
Blair & Mandelson wouldn’t be intensely relaxed about that outcome. That I know.
Hi John H – you can contact Phantom Power at their gmail.com account phantompower2014 or the twitter account PhantomPower14.
Just catching up with all the posts and they give me such a positive vibe. People are really serious about making a go of this and have not been downhearted at all by the negative news that is constantly being spread.
Joy in my heart LOL.
Wings is a great place to go, so much information in the articles, comments btl and links (thanks Nana) makes me believe that Wings readers are the most informed people politically in Scotland by a country mile.
Unfortunately I’m going to miss this weekends gathering as not in Scotland right now, hence posting at 4 in the morning. I hope many thousands will turn up. If you’ve nothing better to do then get along to Glasgow and walk along with those supporting an Independent Scotland.
One thing is for sure, you will enjoy it, so why not join them?
John H@1:08
I think more people would contribute if there were PayPal accounts on fundraisers. I contributed to Phantom Power but I rarely respond to something I can’t use Paypal on.
Things become very interesting indeed, With the news that Corbyn is polling better than Blair in 2005, I think tactical voting has just taken a severe knock. The Tories who were going to vote Labour in Scotland now know they risk putting Corbyn into power.
The Labour who were going to vote Tory now also know that Corbyn is closing the gap and could be an outsider coming through. Will they vote Tory in that scenario ?
All coming together nicely.
“All coming together nicely.”
Aye Bob. Like one of Baldricks cunning plans.
Great point Bob Mack!
capella 1-14
Outlander was shot in Scotland Interior shots in Cumbernauld … out doors at Culross , Falkland, and many other sites
Does anyone outside Scotland actually listen to what Dugdale and Davidson have to say?
Nope.
Does anyone outside Scotland listen to what Nicola Strugeon says?
From Moscow to Washington and everywhere in between, yes!
Thanks to Paula Rose and BJ who answered my query over PayPal.
” wull@ 1229″ , google ” defending democracy/ Andy Anderson” .
Click on link to Independence live . Then click on ” go to event website”
Capella@1,14
Outlander was filmed in Scotland, as all the subsequent episodes are. The scandal is that pressure was put on the distributors not to sell it to the main TV channels, as it was seen by the establishment as a strong case for Scotland being seen in a positive, heroic light ( which would never do). This was in 2014.
As a result, the programme, now on its fourth series, has been sold around the world and is topping the ratings everywhere except in the UK, where, in effect, it is banned for its pro-Scottish and anti-establishment message.
capella & starlaw
DAVID Cameron met with Sony representatives ten weeks before the referendum on Scottish independence to discuss the release date of TV show Outlander in the UK, according to leaked emails published by Wikileaks.
I watched it on kodi. brilliant show.
@ John H
No it appears that you can´t donate through Indegogo using Paypal.
I believe people have complained about that in the past.
I share your reticence in sharing your bank details online.
I personaly don´t like my bank having my bank details so what I do is i have a little biscuit tin account that´s linked to a debit card and when I wish to make a purchase on line I place the amount in the account and after that the balance is zero so there´s nothing to be stolen by parties nefarious.
I never keep any money in the bank, not one thin dime, any savings I have (and it´s not much) are wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden under a rock up on the hill behind my house.
Christ man what a night out i´m going to have when I can remember where the bloody rock is.
🙂 🙂 🙂
The scene in Outlander in the second series where they were recreating the Battle at Prestonpans. Was actually filmed at Muiravonside country park, just 1 mile from me in Falkirk. I often ran past the film scene at night but didn’t know what it was until later on. Otherwise I would have been autograph hunting!
They have portrayed Bonnie Prince Charlie as a feckless power hungry eejit. He wanted to rule Britain, but his men were only interested in Scotland. They were manipulated by him!.Had he stopped at the border Scotland could have closed shop and declared independence. Marching to Derby was the end of Scotland and the movement. Prince Charlie was a unionist Brit.
link to youtube.com
Corbyn appears to be an old fashioned socialist thrown into a party which became right wing. He is slowly bringing them round. Ian Murray is a prime example of a Red Tory who hates socialist Corbyn.
Corbyn is a democrat so will work with the SNP and will not try and stop indi ref 2. In a hung parliament if he works with the SNP the sweetener for us will be a section 30. I truly believe that May has ended up ending the union far sooner than she expected.
Labour would only get one term in England as basically the majority are right wing. It will revert to Tory light eventually. However I think Scotland will be gone before the next GE.
In a very odd set of circumstances the SNP are going to lose seats but win the war on this one.
link to caltonjock.com
Big Phil re Meeting with Cameron and Sony, the Email mentions that Sony were going to get tax breaks and then mentions Highlander. the inference being Don’t show Highlander and you will receive millions of pounds worth of tax breaks.
That Naylor Report. Holy crap!
So when the Tories sell off all NHS land and building assets to American multi-conglomerates at bargain basement prices (2 for 1 deals), I presume those hospitals will then have to pay highly inflated rents for those land/building assets (they once owned) which will, in consequence, squeeze front-line NHS budgets further still. This will make Labour’s PFI scandal seem like piggy bank stuff in comparison.
We simply MUST kick out the Tories and put a STOP to this.
I mentioned this morning about the patronising visit to Dunfermline of the mad yoons of the BBC –
and the collaborative appearance of Professor David Bell in a staged interview that could almost have been scripted.
I had no idea how to link to any BBC News 24 footage –
but Bell himself has put the interview on his twitter page.
Clearly a man with a self-awareness bypass.
link to twitter.com
Capella said at 11:09am:
“……During Jim Naughtie’s questions to as many English people as he can find, he did say that the Unionist parties had a discreet arrangement not to put up real candidates against each other where they think they can defeat the SNP.
He can say it – but the party reps can’t say it – presumably because they would all have to be suspended if it’s true.”
Very true.
Naughtie was just playing Catchup—-Scottish Television [STV] reported it yesterday. Cat Out Of Bag!!—–so Naughtie had to mention it on the State Broadcaster.
STV yesterday:
“….Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats are fielding contenders in all 59 seats
but some will be “paper candidates” – they will appear on the ballot paper but will not be actively campaigning.[!!!!]
link to tinyurl.com
This is probably the most unwelcome election ever, so unneccessary, just Tory greed because they thought they could increase their majority.
But I think a lot of people are switched off. My wife has been fed up since the Indy Ref, and only votes because she’s always voted. She’s Irish and pro-indy and votes YES, and SNP (well I think so!). But she turns over the TV as soon as politics is mentioned, she’s nearly allergic.
And I don’t mind if she does, just the odd thing I want to hear what the BBC make of it. I too am fed up, and just keep going out of a sense of duty. My SNP vote was posted as soon as it came in (last week I think). But I h ave to force myself to post in other forums and even then they’re less, party admittedly because this is my season for making money and I’m busy.
But if I’m like that, and my wife is, imagine what the rest of the population is like. Turnout could be very low.
Re ‘Outlander’, they are doing a new series as we speak, in Scotland, met someone whose daughter works on it. Yoons just will not believe it when you tell them that it was effectively banned in the UK by the UKGov. Still is?
UKorea.
A few links
link to ericjoyce.co.uk
NHS: The Tories are coming to finish the job!
link to youtube.com
link to blogs.lse.ac.uk
link to disabilitynewsservice.com
@yesindyref2
Turnout in Scotland will be over 80%, bet you a pound.
@ everybody above re Outlander – thanks for comments. We can watch it on Amazon Prime but there will be no “watercooler” moments when people discuss it at work or in a social setting. That is a deprivation IMO.
While it’s great that it is being filmed in Scotland and using Scottish actors and sourcing talent while they film, imagine what would happen if we had a broadcasting service like any normal country! The spin offs in terms of home grown talent and expertise would be fantastic.
BTW I have donated to Phantom Films more than once. The work they do is great. But it can’t fill the role of national broadcaster. That takes millions and while we raise £320 m in licence fee in Scotland, only a fraction of that is spent in Scotland and there is no local control over output.
Still unfinished business which, it is now clear from the BBC response to a Scottish six and the consultation of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the HoC, only independence will resolve.
Whatever happens one thing is sure. The SNP will still win the most seats and it’s almost guaranteed to be over 40. If you had asked people 3 years ago about WM seats and the SNP getting 40 it would have seemed incredible. The fact that we got 56 is even more incredible. Don’t forget that it’s a WM election and we can’t ever form the government on our own. So people are voting SNP for one thing and that is a vote against WM and for Scotland.
By the way all the guff about who you would rather lead the Brexit talks and everyone plumping for May. That’s garbage. In negotiations you need to listen and co-operate , not dictate and slam doors. Corbyn would at least be accommodating and civil.
For Scotland it doesn’t really matter as we are going to try and stay in or rejoin. That’s what 62% of people voted for.
I assume this Naylor Report only applies to the NHS England?
@Thepnr
You could be right. Perhaps I’m just feeling a bit frustrated because instead of concentrating on beating the Tories, there’s still Labour politicians going at the SNP – and SNP ones going at Labour, instead of recognising the real danger not just for the UK but for Scotland – the dreaded Tories.
Obviously some criticism of all parties is normal, it’s an election, but these old hatreds seem to go too deep.
“Big Jock @0215 pm” , the SNP might lose seats but win the war” . Yes it’s ” always darkest before the dawn” Big Jock.
Let’s hope that you are right . The REAL REASON for the snap election was twofold (1) to crush the Labour Party under Corbyn and to thus precipitate another civil war between the blairites and the Corbynists and (2) to undermine the FM and SNP in Scotland.
The ” smokescreen” from MSM and SKY/BBC that ” Brexit” and the need for a ” strong& stable ” mandate for May continues unabated. However, the defence of her ” precious precious union” is the overriding real priority of the Westminster establishment , they care not a jot for the ” terms of Brexit” as long as the union endures.
However, as a result of May being found wanting as regards engaging in debate ( as opposed to daily stage managed propaganda broadcasts) and a fine grassroots ” meet the people” campaign by Corbyn ( copied from our own FM), the Tory mask has slipped and the expected ” Tory landslide” is now in doubt. Furthermore , her attempt together with her media friends of undermining the SNP appears also to be failing and a 40 -50 seat win for the nationalists can only be regarded as a landslide ( in Westminster terms) in Scotland.
If May fails to get a resounding ” mandate” from the electorate , the big question is will she step down , and if so who takes over? The further question is will any new PM pursue a ” hard Brexit” ? If the SNP returns with circa 45-50 seats and our FM declares this to be a ” triple lock mandate” for 2nd referendum then will a ” soft Brexit” be the preferred option ( single market access) to thwart independence?
Readers, be in absolutely no doubt Independence for Scotland would be an economic catastrophe for RUK and the Westminster establishment know it . Over these next crucial months the sole objective of the Westminster government will be to defeat the Independence movement ( by fair means or foul). Brexit is nothing but a smokescreen & sideshow.
PS check latest blog from James Kelly on ” scotgoes pop”. Tory lead down again to 5 percent.
Some voters looking at the stuff about Corbyn:
“Here, remember that old see-saw, I fancy another go on it.
What, the one that was mostly see and not much saw, with the splintered bits and the shoogily, rusty handle that could cut your fingers? Has it been fixed?
Naw, but the auld Park attendant said he gave it a coat o paint.
What the guy that’s been around here forever?
Yeah, and some other guy said it looks quite good with a lick o paint.
Well, OK the paint will probably make it work better now”.
Thanks Robert Peffers, @12.50pm, that video explains in 11 mins exactly what the Naylor report is and that Theresa May fully supports the implementation of its entire recommendations. This needs to be sent to all our relatives in England and Wales. I don’t know how much it it will affect our NHS estate in Scotland, one to ask our reps about before the election next week, but there is no doubt under investment in NHS down south will affect Barnett consequentials, so this affects Scotland too.
Get this spread like a virus:
link to youtube.com
RT article on Tory donors – not all fragrant.
link to on.rt.com
Research dating from 2015 found that nearly half of the Conservative Party’s benefactors were billionaire hedge-fund managers.
Like Theresa May’s husband I suppose.
Another donor listed is Sir Henry Keswick.
Sir Henry Neville Lindley Keswick was born in 1938 in Shanghai, China. He is part of the Keswick family and the older brother of Simon Keswick and Sir John C.L. “Chips” Keswick. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. His father is the late Tony Keswick. (Wikipedia)
The Keswick dynasty were connected to Jardine Matheson bank which made money selling opium to the Chinese and through the Opium Wars.
The company operated as opium traders and had a major influence in the First and Second Opium Wars although the company stopped this trading in 1870 to pursue a broad range of other trading interests including shipping, railways, textiles and property development.
Nice.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Make no mistake here.
30 seats WINS the election in Scotland.
40 seats is a very strong endorsement of the SNP performance.
50 seats is a simply stunning landslide, and, considering the non stop unionist/media smearing (especially since 2012) and the SNP beginning their 11th year in power, 50 seats in my opinion would be a BETTER performance than in 2015.
Forgot tae say Smallaxe, thanks for the loan of one of yer ‘c’s’, I’d left mine on another thread 😉
Want to know how incompetent and inadequate the Tories are. Well they elected Theresa may and Ruth Davidson to lead them.
That for me says it all.
@K1
Picked up the Naylor report a couple a days back on Facebook. The whole scenario of selling off NHS assets, boils down in reality to a massive PFI scheme. At the same time outsourcing NHS services. This is a scam, wonder if may discussed this with Trump.
Also, I can’t believe, that Andra Neil didn’t know exactly what the Naylor report entailed, but didn’t challenge May once on its implication. All in it together, eh.
I bumped into Patrick Grady earlier today whilst he was out canvassing, he says it’s looking ‘not bad’ on the ground. Thanked him for all his work so far and will be nipping along to pick up some leaflets and such from his constituency offices on Monday, I can’t canvass, too fiery but I will do all I can on the lead up to ensure we get those votes. I mentioned ma disappointment about Harvie standing against him, he was sanguine in his response, he’s a genuinely lovely easy going guy and a credit to our country. 🙂
There will be a stall on Byres Road for about 11 am, reminded him of the march, he’ll be there too at some point in the day.
thats the third time i have seen Fidel Castro today , coincidence aye fn right .Sky for some reason are pushing the climate change and trump . While conveniently shying away from the tory MP being charged , the sacrificial lamb just highlights the fact that only one has been charged , Why only one ? as far as i can see he was at it like all the other ones , why just him is he taking the fall for the rest of them , Despite being fined the highest amount possible Mayhem continues to profess innocence . This is when the media are proved to be in the pocket of a right wing tory party .
Aye Golfnut, that Simon Stevens is now Chief Exectuve of NHS England since 2014, and his past dealings shows the road the Tories are going down, this is wholesale privatisation and I believe you are correct in assessing that this is the deal that May will be making with the US. Welcome to little America. Bastards.
Forgot the link:
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
Theresa May now in complete meltdown. Simply sannot handle PM job. Is now refusing to do ANY BBC radio interviews. She MUST go and hand over to someone capable of the demands of PM.
The world’s smallest, most pointless pre-election Poll:
My Daughter just came home from school. As a part of one lesson today her class did one of those online “Who should you vote for based on your opinions?” survey things.
Heartened to say she was 86% SNP.
Of the other kids in her group 3 were SNP, 1 was Conservative – “I think”.
SNP on 75%!
@Proud Cybernat at 4:11 p.m.
Where did you get that?
Maybe she’s had a sneak preview of some private poll showing the game’s a bogey.
There’s an update here on the GE projections. I think I’ll go read the leaves!
link to discourse.scot
tea leaves d’oh!!
The heat is getting to me, or election nerves or something.
In response to @Fred says at 3:18 pm
“I assume this Naylor Report only applies to the NHS England?”
and to
@K1 says at 3:37 pm
“I don’t know how much it will affect our NHS estate in Scotland, … but there is no doubt under investment in NHS down south will affect Barnett consequentials, so this affects Scotland too.”
Agreed on the danger of removal of Barnett via privatisation and this is already happening as a direct result of the Tory/Fib Dem coalition passing legislation which allows for up to 49% of NHS South of the Border to be privatised (at 10% or 11% now).
I also remember reading somewhere that Liam Fox was trying to sneak some legislation into the ‘Brexit Great Repeal Bill’ that would allow Westminster to sell off/privatise the SNHS.
Don’t have a link unfortunately.
Re the tories’ expenses scandal, Craig Mackinlay is being used as a scapegoat in an attempt to satisfy the public clamour for justice and to deflect attention from those who are equally guilty. The public, though, will smell a rat, and the backlash could be significant.
geeo says:
Indeed.
We don’t know how well or badly the SNP will do in Scotland, nor the Tories at a UK level …. however, I think we can be fairly certain that the SNP will win a higher percentage of seats than the Tories do across the UK.
In 2015 the Tories won 330 out of 650, just over half.
If the SNP get 40 then that’s over two thirds.
To get over two thirds at a UK level the Tories need to GAIN over 100 seats, nae chance.
So RIGHT NOW we can say the SNP’s mandate will be the highest by a good Scot’s mile.
Tories deliberately lose election to save the union. We are worth that much to them.
We won’t win Indyref2 with a minority Labour government, supported by the SNP. Soft ‘Labour’ Yes voters will be bewitched by a ‘socialist’ future under Westminster rule. A lie.
Surely i’m not the only one that can see this?
“Why only one?” you ask @Robert Graham says at 4:02 pm “convenient” you say?, “why only one?” you ask.
Why only South Thanet? I’d also be asking.
More than convenient seeing as it is the seat Faradge (no typo) lost by 2812 votes, I would say.
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it is a wee Tory crumb for UKIP, let’s see if it is a straight handover to UKIP or a By-Election.
Tin Foil Hat well and truly on 🙂
will RC* Ruth do if the Tories don’t win any seats? It’s not beyond the bounds of probability.
* Rape Clause.
Juteman 4.51pm. Yes exactly what my friends and family are thinking. Scotland, for your own sanity and wellbeing you’ve got to vote snp.
Free Scotland 4.28 re Mayday on radio
Take your pick!
link to archive.is
“Juteman @ 0451″ yes probably support for independence could
be influenced by Labour negotiating single market access and
Corbyn promising ” Devo super duper max” after Brexit.
Corbyn would still be ” batting for the Westminster establishment”.
I can always cheer myself up by posting on the Express. Here’s my latest effort on the appropriate article:
“The Tories are aiming for a majority of at least 80 seats, but will be quite happy with getting third place behind the SNP in 2nd.“
windtalker – yep UKIP conveniently absorbed by the tory party , as i said last night two cheeks of the same arse , suddenly the absent UKIP leader is on every sky news broadcast , thats the beauty of this site, “Education”, most of us can now spot the signs , (ie) whats next and what is hidden in plain sight .
Geeo 3.45pm yup 30 seats is a Scottish majority. Over and above is a huge endorsement for any party.Case rested .so girfuys kezia,ruthie and wullie.
Not sure if anyone caught the latest bilge from Arlene Foster, as she was asked about border polls and trotted out the unionist favourite that Northern Ireland trades more with the rest of the UK
Now where have I heard that claptrap before?
It is of course garbage as there really is no accurate statistical measuring system for trade within the UK, there just is not. What these morons are spouting is a ‘best guess’, based on spurious surveys. Now it might be that its based on VAT returns, but that’s flawed as some companies are VAT registered not anywhere near the point of production.
The only accurate trade statistical measurement is for Exports and imports from the UK as a whole from/to the rest of the World and buying and selling to the EU (the EU trade figures is based on VAT regimes of each EU member state)
So now you know
On another point, not sure if anyone caught an utterance from UKIP’s Suzanne Reed, during a TV debate, in which she crowed about the fact that the UK treasury will be earning an additional £ 8 to10 Billion from import duty on EU goods after brexit. What the moron didn’t say is that it would come from the pockets of every citizen in the UK ,through higher prices on food and consumer products, which currently travel freely
Aye that makes sense, they know the polling stats for further devolution are solidly above 60% in Scotland, it’s why no third question on the indy ballot in 2014. So a Labour UK gov would ensure a Scotref mandate on the back of Brexit, but on the back of a softer Brexit wi single market access a deal cobbled together for ‘issue by issue’ deal wi Labour, then that would indeed spike the independence movement. Nicola would be in a bind on this?
Windtalker, haven’t u heard there is a general election next week, so no need for a by election!
Report of the Yougov poll which said hung parliament
link to archive.is
and an analysis of it
link to archive.is
Think everybody is forgetting whether hard soft or even no Brexit the UK economy is hosed, private and state debt is unsustainable , the UK’s balance of payments is near the worst on the Planet. When and not if the next financial crash comes there will be no bank bailouts, no QE, just the IMF
Lending money at payday loan company rates to the UK Treasury. Even proud Scot buts will look over the North Sea and compare Scotlands economy to their Northern European Neighbours with similar populations and a light will come on in their heads.
However, I do not trust the polls, and think the Tories will get back in , as much as it pains me to say it, it’s the best result for us as that will make a victory in .indyref 2 inevitable.
Re Naylor Report and sale of NHS property.
If Scotland’s experience of this sort of thing is anything to go by then the sales will not be on advantageous terms for the NHS.
I seem to remember in the 1970s there was quite a brouhaha over the sale of Robroyston hospital by Greater Glasgow Health Board. Then later the sale of Woodilee in Lenzie.
Precedents that suggest that the taxpayer will not be the winners if the Naylor Report is implemented.
Sturgeons hopes of Indyref2 in tatters as predictions show the SNP could lose as many as five or six seats
Will Sturgeon now resign or will she end divisive plans for a second referendum
Willie Rennie has declared himself the peoples champion as the polls show he will gain no more seats but increase his share of the vote by 14 votes Scotland has spoken in favour of the Liberal Democrats he said
Kezia Dugdale claims if Scottish Labour double their seats to two it’s a vindication of her leadership and that the people have now spoken loudly and clearly to Nicola Sturgeon that they don’t want a second divisive referendum
Ruth Davidson thanked everyone at the BBC and all the media everywhere in the UK for all their hard work in her sensational victory over the divisive Nationalists and at last this referendum idea can be put to bed for the last time
Nicola Sturgeon said “eh we won”
But did they, all the pundits say it’s over for the SNP who are set to take their seats at Westminster a beaten and depleted party of only 50 MPs
Whit’s the bettin it all sounds a bit like that eh
But if he is found guilty and goes to jail (for up to one year) there will be.
Aye aye, let’s specifically speculate to accumulate…
General Election 2017 result for Scotland:
SNP HOLD (56 seats)
SNP GAIN (3 seats)
The SNP secure a majority and all 59 seats at Westminster.
Keep Scotland Strong at Westminster.
Seeing is believing…
For Scotland..
Vote SNP X
Juteman says:
One half on my brain says that’s ridiculous, but the other half tells me that’s what all the evidence suggests!
Not just their UKOKBetterTogether under threat but also the whole hard Brexit shit show.
Add crash and burn Brexit to Scotland leaving the UK and the remnants are on a very shoogly economic peg.
Remember, most MPs were Remain. Even Tory ones. They were knocked off balance by the Leave win allowing the mad bad right wing minority and their media to grab the initiative.
How do the saner elements of the establishment get themselves out of the corner they have painted themselves into? Easy, engineer a hung parliament.
No government in my lifetime has run such an incompetent campaign. No party has ever produced a manifesto apparently designed to put of its core vote. No political leader has ever opted out of any serious campaigning like TMay has. Corbyn has come back from nowhere.
Next Friday, if we find we have a hung parliament then it has been by design! In some ways, it will have been an Establishment coup d’état.
Soft Brexit will follow, with a democratic mandate. The City institutions will be saved. IndyRef2 will be shelved. Rule Britannia, for a wee while longer.
Capella @ 3.41pm
And there was me, thinking Jardine – Mathieson were a pair of good full-backs.
Watched that YouTube footage on the Naylor Report. That is seriously scary shit – wonder why none of our super-duper media has picked-up on it!!
Aye right.
Finally, I had a very nice upper middle class lady from the Ruth Davidson Party at the door today. She wis telt, in no uncertain terms, what I thocht o’ the Fat Controller.
We parted on good terms, some of these Tories still have class. Pity their leaders, both at Westminster and Holyrood, hae nane.
Some folks in the Labour party seem to be spinning like mad regarding a hung parliament, and all this ‘we won’t do a deal with the SNP stuff’. It’s nonsense and they know it.
If their is a hung parliament at Westminster, the priority is stable Government, so you do not get to govern just on an assumption that everybody will vote with you to secure a majority. You either go into coalition or you have what is termed a ‘confidence and supply arrangement’, whereby, for a political price, another party/ies promise to support you in event of a no confidence motion – thereby preventing Governments falling within just a few weeks.
Either option has a price for those seeking it. So, In such circumstances, Labour would, if it wanted to govern, have to form one of those arrangements.
No arrangement, no Jaguar trip to see auld Lizzie Windsor saxe Coburg and kiss her hand, and no new house in W1 for Corbyn.
That is how it ACTUALLY works. The rest is stuff and nonsense.
If you live in Scotland, vote SNP. The other parties are irrelevant here.
Dipped into radio shortbread on the way home from work. A piece on Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change agreement whereby they had a chap on from the Global Warming Policy Foundation. The said chap proceeded to poo poo the issue and effectively said nothing to see here let’s move on.
The GWPF are a bunch of, largely, Tory climate change sceptics. That is fine but radio shortbread gave no indication of the background and purpose of GWPF. I can’t decide whether they are utterly useless or whether they are just malign…or both.
Their is a chance here, for the SNP to keep its seats, but it needs hard work.
link to snp.org
If you can, volunteer. The more folks we have helping the SNP, the better the chances of more seats.
I should have said above, confidence and supply usually includes voting for the budget etc.. as well, but not necessarily voting for all the plans a party has.
North chiel @ 11:07,
You seem to be fairly missing my point. I was making a generic case for credibility in postings btl that match the “gold-standard” of the articles. (Of course, if you insist on self-identifying with any mentioned group, that’s your privilege! =grin=)
You also seem to have missed my later posting on the same subject. I wasn’t denying the possibility of a certain amount of “jiggery-pokery” with postal votes. I have my own concerns. But we mustn’t let the deep disappointment we all felt at losing in 2014 morph into paranoia that the whole thing must have been a complete fix. If the result had been within a few hundred votes or so and not 10%, it would have been different, but it wasn’t. That’s why the result was accepted by the electorate as being valid. (It was the dastardly consequences which later undermined the result, but that’s a whole other story.)
A related concern is the potential negative effect of exaggerated assertions. The first bullet point of “agent provocateur 101” is: convince a bunch of hotheads that the whole democratic thing is a fix, and “direct action” is the only way forward. This is a double whammy – it splits support into factions, some easily-discredited, and it deters the uncommitted from joining. Uncritically denouncing the democratic process is the road to ruin.
Dave McEwan Hill @ 09:24,
Alas, I have seen postings on here which have asserted that the counting process itself is fixed, and other manifestations of paranoia. Having also seen it in action myself, and observing the occasional weeding-out being done by the PV validation process, I am sure that this is not the case.
I have also observed that the vast majority of postal voters are in the 65+ range, and their generic bias is already well-known. As is likely to be the case with many service personnel.
As for your comment on the possibility of creating “false voters”, there has been a considerable tightening-up on electoral registration since, no doubt in response to such criticisms. (Which as we have seen has had some downsides due to the introduction of individual registration.)
Thepnr is right, it’s about hearts and minds. There is just no substitute for convincing enough people that the case for independence is justified. Persuading just 5%+ (even the old) to change their mind. That’s the only viable way forward. Then no amount of “fiddling around the edges” will be able to stop us.
Ghandi talked about ‘soul force’- passive resistance on the journey to India’s Home Rule.
Scotland just needs grit- the key ingredients are passion and resilience and the YES movement has that in abundance.
Legerwood
“Precedents that suggest that the taxpayer will not be the winners if the Naylor Report is implemented.”
The report encourages desperate NHS Trusts to sell up on the cheap, and the taxpayer will match £ for £.
Those buying will then rent the asset back to the Trust at a very favourable rate no doubt.
The Tories & Blairites are for running NHS England into the ground, by means of a mountain of debt.
And the clued up WoS reader knows fine well what the ‘consequentials’ of that will be for NHS Scotland & Wales.
Had a lovely chat with a dog walker this afternoon when out leafletting.
He was born and brought up labour, always voted labour till now, SNP, but now he cannot believe what has happened to his party. Shocked and dismayed by it.
He voted Yes because he can see how WM shafts us all the time and can’t bear the way WM sneers at us all the time.
Also, he can’t believe that there are so many Conservative voters in Scotland/Stirling – Where are they?
He voted Remain and thinks a lot of youngsters will vote this time and vote SNP because they want to stay in Europe.
He also knows some people who are fed up with all the indy talk and won’t vote at all this time round.
However, he is telling everyone he can to make sure they get out and vote and wished us luck.
Also had other pro- Indy, Pro SNP people come up and chat. All absolutely ‘damning’ T May for her refusal to attend debates. Not going down well.
I think people are finally engaging with the upcoming election.
Some posters going up in windows now but it would be great if more people could ‘decorate the hoose’.
I agree Juteman a Labour victory is not good for independence the soft no’s of a labour persuasion could leap on this.More tory austerity is what is required to pull that few hundred thousand on side.
Somebody posted somewhere that the largest group of non voters is the low income folk and that something like if 5% of that group became voters the SNP would walk the referendum
That would seem to be a good segment to invest more time with
@Robert J Sutherland
Postal votes should be the subject of scrutiny especially when you have a certain political party that targets care homes and helpfully fills them in for the poor old folk
I caught them doing it reported it and nothing happened
It’s when you ask them how they voted, were they a yes or a no, and the reply, that nice lassie came round and did aw that for me ah cannae be bothered wae that stuff
The SNP cannot make deals with any of the major parties look what happened to both Labour and the liberals.
Here we go again, Nicola being questioned by BBC’s Glen Campbell, and it’s all about Indyref2 and devolved issues.
They canny help themselves.
Liam , if that happens I will eat my hat! Probably a slap on the wrists.
Ask the leaders ? Whit a load of shite, more devolved issues . Why oh why do we put with it.
It’s a funny auld game ain’t it.
On Trump pulling out of Paris Agreement. Nigel Farage says Trump is only doing what he was elected to do in his MANIFESTO and that’s democracy! Hmm
So it’s not democracy for the SNP to have 2nd indy ref based on their manifesto on a material change in circumstances of Europe?
Every time that man,the other eegits of his like the fat bou Coburn come on telly, I want to puke.
Usual BBC stitch up….
The longer this programme has gone on, the more-obvious it has become, this was a BBC/Unionist stitch-up.
When is the SNP going to send the BBC a two-word message, second word “Off”.
If Mother Theresa can blank the BBC, why not Nicola. The party should boost its social media presence and by-pass the totally-biased BBC.
Glen Campbell with more interruptions in the first 5 mins than Ruth the Mooth got in the whole thing. Oh and 2 teachers, given leave to prattle on about devolved issues in a General Election debate.
BBC at it’s biased best.
Is it just me, or was the ranty maths teacher the same one which was recently ranting at the SNP on Question Time ?
BBC are disgusting, other leaders got kids glove treatment.
The ranty maths teacher is a plant. She looks familiar and may have been on QT recently. Nurseygate revisited methinks.
Renfrewshire council is and has been a Labour controlled council. Other than the years 2007 – 2012 when it was a SNP/Lib Dem coalition.
The bulk of the cuts happened when Labour took over in 2012.
Re ” RJS” at 0632pm , my interpretation of your post Robert was that it was rather
more specific than generic and I am not aware of any of your mentioned identifiable grouping on here either,and would never either specifically or generically categorise any of my fellow posters as such. Also , I never claimed that the ” jiggery pokery”as you call it , would have changed the result.
However, critically ” calling out” the democratic process ( as per the Argyll& Bute report) is the correct path to take as opposed to your ” road to ruin”.
I always find it odd that so called educated folk like teachers don’t seem to know that Scotland does not control the economy and that the SG only controls a portion of it that’s devolved devolved devolved portion portion portion
you freaking idiots
And when slimy Glen Campbell asked the FM about the devolution of more fiscal powers she didn’t leap on it by telling the morons sitting there that the Unionist parties voted against them in order to put the SNP under exactly this kind of pressure from folk who call themselves educated but who are demonstrably not
Much of the evidence for this is concealed in BOOKS!!
Maybe the FM’s trying to teach the wrong age group
I despair of at the level of ignorance, criticize by all means, but try to inform yourself of the reasons for your criticism instead of head shaking because the answer that’s forthcoming doesn’t solve the problems of the world that were caused by lest we forget
The Tories and the Banks!
Not Scotlands pocket money parliament set up to fail by the very people who own the Feckin Banks and everything else
Maybe you should have to sit a wee basic test of understanding before you get allowed the vote, y’know simple things like how much the GDP is and how much the Tories let us have back of our own feckin money
I really believe there are folk out there who think when they pay their taxes it goes to Holyrood and the politicians divvy it up as to who gets what
Ach I’m just pissed off, scuse me!
Have you ever thought about why the MSM attack Wee Jimmy Krankie or Fat Eck? C’mon it’s pretty obvious, demonise the leaders and you demonise the party and demonise their support.
The aim is demoralise support, it’s that simple.
This is one of the reasons that I’m always positive in my outlook, I won’t let them demoralise me, I’d rather fight back and that’s why I call May out for the idiot she clearly is.
That’s why I will slag off the hypocritical Davidson for being the liar she is. Stay positive and shout out loud.
I’ll turn the other cheek but not before belting their puss first.
Here we go again it makes if I remember rightly four times now Nicola has been confronted with questions that are hee haw to do with this Election absolutely f/all , mostly curtsy of the BBC, tonight out of a , mixed neutral audience we get two teachers, out of a hundred possibly , out of fifteen ? I can’t remember how many the happy smiling faces put me off counting , just a coincidence yeh a totally unbiased audience. Oh I f/n give up this daily diet of pure mince and one sided propaganda masquerading as impartial reporting it’s doing my nut in .
Meg merrilees says:
2 June, 2017 at 6:49 pm
“”Had a lovely chat with a dog walker this afternoon when out leafletting…….
Also, he can’t believe that there are so many Conservative voters in Scotland/Stirling – Where are they?””
As far as Stirling constituency is concerned then Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and the rural areas of the constituency probably have a high concentration of Tory voters. Dunblane always returned a Tory councillor when the Regional Council was in place.
Michael Forsythe was the MP. When Dunblane was part of Perth and Kinross constituency Alec Douglas Home followed by Nick Fairbairn were the MPS Tories all.
But it is a local issue that will play a large part in how the result goes in this Election and that is Park of Keir. The SNP have totally underestimated the strength of feeling against this development. It certainly played a part in the results of the local local elections in the Dunblane/BofA ward.
The Dunblane/ Bridge of Allan ward returned 2 Tory Councillors where previously they had one. Unfortunately one of the Tories was Majury.
The Tory candidate in this election has already included reference to PoK in his election literature – he is against the development. The SNP candidate did his cause no good by raising the matter at Westminster.
The SNP in Dunblane used to be quite active but I have not seen much activity recently.
As to Labour. I think their candidate is one of the standing but not fighting candidates. Heard very little about or from him. But I could also say the same about the SNP candidate.
Don’t think I spotted a independence supporter in the ‘unbiased’ BBC audience. In fact by the questions they were all either Tory or Labour supporters.
Marked contrast to the more supportive questions Davidson received, I don’t think I spotted an independence supporter there either.
Strange at the last GE the SNP received 50% of the vote yet the BBC fails to find a single SNP person for two of its audiences.
Apart from Brexit was there a single GE relevant question chosen by the BBC.
Big Jock,
“Whatever happens one thing is sure. The SNP will still win the most seats and it’s almost guaranteed to be over 40.”
Anything less than 56 will be portrayed as a defeat by the media.
And if the Tories increase their number by 100% or more, there will be euphoria about “no-one wants another independence referendum.”
Corbyn is no friend of Scotland.
He colluded with the Tories to allow an election, without a humiliating vote of no confidence, to thwart Scotland’s independence referendum.
But our best hopes now lie in him succeeding in preventing a Tory majority.
If the Tories win, they will refuse permission for a referendum before Brexit is completed.
I very much doubt if “sovereign” Scots will then have the spine for a constitutional confrontation.
Saint Theresa of England and Wales is a very vile person, in my humble opinion.
Tory scum.
Not a fool or idiot.
Thepnr says: at 7:54 pm
“Have you ever thought about why the MSM attack Wee Jimmy Krankie or Fat Eck? C’mon it’s pretty obvious, demonise the leaders and you demonise the party and demonise their support.”
Yes Thepnr. That’s why I started ‘Flipper’, in response to them attacking our greatest (at that time) asset. It was remarkably easy back then. Just kept on with the flipper thing every chance I got on the Hootsmon (as Flying Scott) and added the link to the torygraph story on Lord Darling serially flipping his 2nd home expenses.
Childish ? Yes. But remarkably effective too.
I recognised the teacher in the orange jacket too, possibly from the same debate as the nurse. I thought Davidson got a tough time of it last night, especially from the disabled guy and Glenn said about her always looking uncomfortable when discussing the Rape Clause. I don’t think there were many tories in the audience last night and not many SNP supporters tonight. That’s as it should be. No leader should be given an easy ride. I noticed Nicola getting a smile from a couple of the women who spoke, one was the orange jacket, as her charm shone through.
The points about devolved issues are totally valid, I think Nicola is scared to mention that these are devolved and this is a WM election in case it looks like she is trying to back out of talking about her record.
Prior to the election being called how many trade agreements do the UK have with non EU countries?
Was it the Tory approach to get the best trade deal possible with the EU and then decide to pursue alternate opportunities if the EU was not what they had hoped for?
Are/were they putting in place provisional trade deals with New Zealand, Argentina India (oops they want free movement) China et al
Good old Tories
“Into the valley of death rode the six hundred
Not tho the soldiers knew someone had blundered”
Dr Jim @ 18:57,
Aye, I know. That’s the weak spot. All parties in the past have been suspected of being involved in such practice at all elections.
I believe that people are actually allowed to be “helpers” for the infirm, but not for a campaigner to do so. The current guidance rules for postal votes are very clear:
If enough people became accredited observers, and there was an organised campaign at the next indyref to let all care homes know that all access to residents for voting purposes was going to be carefully monitored, that might prove a useful deterrent.
@defo
This is it, we too can use positive propaganda. In other words a message to the masses. We really are the people and don’t need to listen to their bullshit.
La La La ignore the negativity, be positive, we win.
Sturgeon set up on BBC Scotchland…more ‘plants’ than Kew Gardens. Grim faces aligned while she gets hectored by torn manifesto Campbell..eyes glistening with pure hatred.
Why oh why Nicola?…why let that jackal interrupt and cut you off? Why get flustered and defensive with ‘educated’ fools who still don’t understand how our warped and bent governance is manipulated.
How about this…’UK raises £650 billion quid in all receipts/taxes and overspends every year to such an extent that the tories have accumulated another £800 billion debt, half of the total in only 7 years. Scotland gives £54 billion into the pot, but gets back £30 billion and never overspends…capisce?
I got lambasted by a bore a few threads back on here for asking why the SNP don’t make it a priority that they, the SNP, inform basic facts to the masses to avoid Stupidity Central ad nauseum. Tonight was yet another in a long and fucking boring line of SNP own goals of being set up to be Aunt Sally for every dumbo unionist in the BBC phone book.
I’m not going to make it tomorrow , I hope you all have a great day and someone give Ronnie a hug from me!
Can see it already 2 mins in there’s more tories in there than labour or other. Usual bullshit ahead.
jfngw @ 20:12,
Actually, I think that this “questions from the audience” caper is well and truly discredited now, given the justified suspicion about party-political “plants” and the pre-selection of questions (not to say suspected outright collusion in some cases) by the programming team.
Even where they are genuine, the questions are often tangential or badly-put.
Far better I would say to have a small panel of 3 (say) independent journalists, bloggers or suchlike with known sympathies across the spectrum asking questions instead, and with public reputations at stake. Then at least you know where they are coming from and there’s no more of that dubious “nursey” (or “teachey”?) business.
Thepnr
“La La La ignore the negativity, be positive, we win.”
Easier for some, than others.
You mentioned turning the other cheek..
The only cheeks i would be capable of turning, would be with trousers down/kilt raised. 😉
Just got a flyer in from Alison Taylor who’s standing up for Paisley and Renfrewshire North…she’s being endorsed by Jim Murphy no less.
“Alison knows how to get things done. We campaigned together during the independence referendum.”
Hee-hawed masel when I saw this.
Jim Murphy…endorsing someone…expects me to throw away my vote…je crois que non!
Two things are certain in this BBC sham show:
1) Nobody will ask Theresa May about the R@pe Clause
2) Nobody will ask her about fox hunting or the ivory trade
If I’m wrong, I’ll eat ma bunnet.
Okay, hands up, I’ve had a few drinks, but seriously Scotland if you fuck up next Thursday, you could set us back years, if not decades.
Please, for the love of God, vote SNP en masse, it is the only power we have to protect Scotland and our children.
LMAO She’s just been stung. Foreign aid moneygoing to N Korea lol
I see the Guardian has come out to back Labour – I am happy for people in England to get behind Corbyn but they have left it mighty late.
Looks like no one told Severin who is fluffing for Ross Thompson with another “SNP accused” story. He should write for the Express, they specialise in one trick pony journalism.
I’m watching this Question Time over the internet in foreign climes and laughing and laughing a lot.
This is another disaster for Theresa May and the Tories. Who knows now what what happen now in this election LOLOLOL.
Diddy and a bampot.
A quite breathtakingly inept performance from May tonight. Riddled with acute nervous agitation, physical ticks and psychological neuroses.
Astonishingly bad.
Legerwood
You just confirmed my reply to him. I presume he was referring to the wider Scotland as well as Stirling.
I think B of Allan/Dunblane are not SNP hot seats and they swung the 2014 vote away from YES.
I know the SNP have been campaigning and leafletting in Dunblane but perhaps only in specific parts of the town? Can’t be sure as I’m more over to the eastern side of town.
Also, I’m not sure how much of that rural area ( Braco/Blackford/Auchterarder etc) is Tasmina’s and how much is Stephen Paterson’s – didn’t realise Park of Keir would have such an impact. I suppose it is obvious.
We’ve still to see if there will be any impact from Majury and the other guy in Forth and Endrick’s election to the council.
Bring on next thursday – don;t think my nerves will last till then.
I know the Tories are targeting this seat and have thrown a lot of money at it.
Lochside says:7 at 8:37 pm
“Sturgeon set up on BBC Scotchland…more ‘plants’ than Kew Gardens”.
There is no way that the audience or ANY BBC audience was representative of the Scottish electorate as 40% that is 4 out of 10 would be SNP supporters.
Strangely UKIP are always over represented on BBC audiences.
Further thoughts on Ask the leader farce.
Glen Campbell talking down to Nicola telling her the SNP have achieved nothing at WM and have zero influence…useless as fuck etc.
I just wanted Nicola to cut him dead and simply say…”if Scottish MP’s at WM are a waste of time, then you just made the case for independence”.
I honestly think that these TV debates are much less influential than some of us think. The tone is set in the first five minutes and the show is normally an attritional war between soundbite politicians and intensely partisan audiences.
Tonight’s May/Corbyn effort is very much in this mould, save only for some truly off the scale narrow-minded ignorance and insularity, predominantly from a large number of older and very chippy English voters.
geeo says:
Good point.
Aweright Thepnr ~
Enjoy you international travels.
Hopefully you’ll be able to access the Independence Live portal tomorrow, to see us all marching for independence in Glasgow.
Glasgow’s Much Better 😉
Susan’s at the helm.
Glasgow.
Corbyn should tell the Blairite rag the guardian to go and do one,
fricken ditching the Blairites now that the polls have turned,what class,
wonder if bomber Benn young Kinnock and Chukkit are going to start supporting Corbyn,
the rag will need a new set of hacks if it`s ditching the Blairites,good riddance,been propping up fake socialist oxbridge labour for years.
Lochside at 8.37
Always a delight to read your encouraging and supportive posts.
Juteman at 4.51
Don’t agree at all. Your suggestion is built on the misconception that the traditional labour vote in Scotland is socialist.
“Working class” and “socialist” are not the same.
Having said that my suspicion grows that there is more to this election than meets the eye. I think it is more about Scotland than anything else but also wonder a the media across the board destroying Mrs May with an obviously coordinated campaign against her. I recognise it for what it is because it is usually the SNP that faces this level of coordinated attack.
I’ve been trying to post a link to the magic money tree from youtube for 2 days and it won’t show in posts.Anyone any idea why?
Search youtube Theresa May’s Tory Magic Money Tree
Watched that show tonight one person asked Corbyn about Nicola Sturgeon I’m sure he has been on some programme before slagging NS I can’t do screen grabs but I’m sure someone could and prove me wrong or not.
May a disaster as usual,I liked the lady who said she was worried why so many people wanted to kill so many people.
Dave McEwan Hill…..tongue in cheek perhaps there Dave?…I have supported you personally in the past and also criticised you. And so it goes…but my frustration is with the persistent supine and unprepared attitude displayed collectively by the SNP in the face of undemocratic and unjust concerted attacks on the voices of our elected representatives without any evidence of a justified fightback. But maybe I’m wrong….I certainly hope so.
Robbo, when you copy and paste the address from the address bar, delete the https:// before posting. Your link should begin with www etc.
I’ve been following the debates on the BBC – not actually watching them (that would be too boring) but reading Stu’s twitter, the BBC Live twitter and comments on WoS.
What comes across is the total futility of expecting the BBC to provide any kind of impartial information service about party politics. Audiences appear to be stuffed full of plants who are tasked with diverting the agenda onto devolved matters so that the tired old tropes can be rehashed over and over again.
York seemed to be a hotbed of Western jihadis bent on suicide missions to detonate nuclear missiles. Would Corbyn press the red button? Why not!
North Korea might have a state broadcasting operation as openly biased as the BBC. Or maybe not even they are so controlled. Only another 6 days to go.
Robbo. You must be ‘a person of interest’ too. 🙂
I’ve been having similar trouble.
sinky @ 21:20,
That’s another fair point. This “balance” agenda that the BBC supposedly have means that in situations like this they try to give equal representation to all the “main” political parties, which sits badly with their actual support in the land. It becomes completely nonsensical when they also try to “balance” out some other issue on top, like indy or the EU.
They should do essentially the same as they do with other programmes, have a random lottery for places. Then the audience would be roughly typical of the actual population, which is really what we expect anyway.
In the case of a peripatetic show like QT, they should further restrict applicants to the immediate hinterland of the venue. Some kind of balance can then always be achieved by selection of the various programme locations.
I had to switch off the first ministers stitch up after three minutes, it was so obvious it was a load of plants in the plantation quay greenhouse. For goodness sake SNP, start calling these smirking arseholes out when the first non relevant question s asked, or just refuse to take part in the farces, stating why.
Politics in Scotland as far as Labour and the conservatives go is a circus. We must convince the circus clowns that Scotland should come first. Then again how do you educate the uneducated clowns
For all those who are wondering if the Tories are trying to lose this election:
Very interesting reply from TMay when asked why she called the GE17:
“What became clear to me when going through the Article 50 process… was that other parties wanted to frustrate negotiations and the will of the people.
“It would have been easy for me as prime minister to stay on and keep a hand on the job.
“But this is an important moment for our country, we’ve got to get it right.”
So, if it would have been easy for her to stay on as Prime Minister, why didn’t she?
Why did she choose the less easy option?
What have they got to get right?
Is she giving a poisoned chalice to Corbyn?
Theresa May’s Tory Magic Money Tree
link to youtube.com
Free Scotland says:
2 June, 2017 at 10:13 pm
Robbo, when you copy and paste the address from the address bar, delete the https:// before posting. Your link should begin with www etc.
Nope tried that ,no idea wots going on?? M15 at my door hang on lol
Yup seems so
defo says:
2 June, 2017 at 10:16 pm
Robbo. You must be ‘a person of interest’ too. ?
I’ve been having similar trouble.
Where’s Nana when you need her???
oops seems tae have been passed noo lol
Meg merrilees @ 22:21,
What changed her mind? I am still inclined to believe that it was the indy vote passed in Holyrood, and Nicola’s imminent plan of action coming after Easter. Mayhem thought she could safely throw a spanner in those works because of the poll numbers. Now it’s looking less certain, and her serial refusal to face the electorate is backfiring. More by accident than design, I would say.
She isn’t the first PM in recent years to gamble with the constitution of the UK. If the Tories win next week, she may well be the last.
I thought Corbyn did ok tonight, he actually looked credible, if he can get his nutters up here under control and there is a hung parliament the snp could——– Oh f/it I forgot I was talking about Labour in Scotland scrub the first load a tripe I just typed anyway tonight’s QT Special .
The amount of nutters in that audience that want to bomb the f/k out of everything in sight is really worrying, They don’t seem to realise their rush to obliterate half the bloody planet is , That there isn’t a magic big wall that the fallout from the bomb we dropped will observe the nicety and have the good manners by not crossing, Don’t they realise pushing their bloody big red button means only one thing we have failed, what comes next the closing credits then.
THE END result game over . Happy Now ? .
How come in all the debates I’ve seen there’s not been a single woman complain about the pension age being extended?
Awww. Robbo.
I thought I had a fellow traveler to share the basement cell with. It’s going to be v v boring, in between waterboarding seshs. 😉
@Robbo
Much simpler than a money tree. This 6 minute video is a must watch..
link to youtube.com
Robert Graham says:
2 June, 2017 at 10:37 pm
Yup It’s quite amazing how many people don’t quite grasp what protocols are in place for when/if a nuclear weapon is initiated They seems to think people sit there all day waiting to press some stupid red button. Fecking ludicrous. me me can i press it no no mme me can i press it. Looks like some of them are x mil as well which pisses me aff. I’m xservice and can assure them its not just a simple red button scenario, who ever presses it is irrelevant its end game for us all.
Former snp advisor Geoff Aberdien on Sky Newspaper review
Oops here’s the correct link.
Much simpler than a money tree!
link to youtube.com
defo says:
2 June, 2017 at 10:40 pm
Awww. Robbo.
lol
Twice that lot M15 have been et ma door the day. Big claim going in a tel yi.
Meg merrilees @ 9.17
I did not say Dunblane/BofA were SNP hot seats what I did say was that the SNP used to be active in Dunblane. They held various events etc – used to see the posters for them around the town. So they had a presence in the town and the local SNP councillor was well regarded as was the Green Councillor now an MSP, Mark Ruskell. This may explain why a Green councillor was also returned at the recent Local elections.
Stirling is very much a rural constituency although you are mistaken in thinking the rural parts are Braco and Blackford.
The Stirling constituency extends as far as Crianlarich, Tyndrum and Lochearnhead and Killin. Callander and much of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park come within the constituency. Dunblane and the city of Stirling are the two largest urban centres. The impact of the development of PofK on Bridge of Allan and Dunblane is a very definite factor for these communities.
I don’t generally watch the debates, I far prefer reading the comments without having seen them 🙂
What was it with fat, elderly, balding Yorkshire men being desperate to bomb something. A morbid, existential dread about returning home to face the rest of their meaningless lives?
Robbo
At least the Old Bill chap (v softly) first, before smashing yer door aff its hinges.
With these b’stards, you’ve got a syringe at yer neck before you can even pull yer pants up.
Glen Campbell’s BBC Bias Collage tonight had me fuming.
Hand picked Red or Blue Tory Audience, unjustifiable questions for a UK General Election, and Anti-SNP host who only interrupts the people that he doesn’t want you to vote for.
I love the First Minister to bits, but really, why let Glum Cowbell tell her when she is finished answering a question?#
Tell him No, you will complete your response or he can sit and chat alone with the stooges that he has hired.
Most frustration the young woman who had complaints about the NHS, who never got to hear from Nicola that we have the best performing NHS in the UK, her complaint about devolved education never registered that the fact that 95%
of our kids are now going to a positive destination which is in essence a job, training or further education.
The woman’s complaint about poverty never looked at how that happens when Westminster cuts £3 Billion from your budget.
I do feel that our SNP representatives must refuse to move on to other issues when lies against our NHS performance
have been allowed to stand.
I’d also like our Reps to ask the host who it was that decided to ask questions on devolved issues when its a Westminster Election that we are facing.
If they can’t say who set the questions and why they are avoiding UK issues, tell them to move on and forget their
propaganda agenda.
PS Don’t you love the Tory response to the fact that NHS England has seen the number of patients waiting more than the allowed 6 month period for operations TRIPLE in the last 4 years?
It seems that the Tories rejoice that there are now fewer patients waiting for over a YEAR? lol
O/T On Tory candidate being charged with election expenses fraud.
As with Lib Dem Cole Hamilton in Edinburgh West, these things are difficult to prove even although everyone knows they are at it.
In 2015 GE Edinburgh South a Labour Organiser from down south was renting a flat in next street to me throughout the campaign but this never appeared on Ian Murray’s declared expenses when I checked them after the election.
The Electoral Commission is as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Dimbleby, “Would you use your weapon first?”
Audience member to Corbyn, “would you use it as second use or would you allow North Korea or some idiot in Iran to BUM us and then say oh, we better start talking”. Chortle, Chortle!
The thing is, someone will have to go first, Corbyn reckons diplomacy is the best option so wouldn’t contemplate a pre-emtive nuclear attack, I believe that is the right course of action.
As for, ‘would you retaliate’, he may but it is irrelevant as we will all be fucked by the time that happens!
Exactly Jim @11.15
Lass nailed it..”i cant believe so many people in this room want to kill millions of people”
Jim
The lucky sods who live within a 5 mile radius of the Clyde naval base will be vapourised. All the rest of us will have to make do with a lingering, painful death.
MAD. You’d have to be, to stick with this lot.
Neutron bombs are designed to kill only the people, and obviously other animals, and leave the buildings unharmed. It’ll be nice to know that all the bungalows, tenements, schools, hospitals, shops, libraries, factories, listed buildings, castles, cathedrals, Dutch barns and supermarkets will be preserved in silence for hundreds of years, after we’re all vapourised.
@Geeo & defo
____
Exactly right folks, millions will die and it matters not one iota of a fuck if we fire first, Dimbleby knows this and was playing to the blood thirsty in the audience.
If we did go down the route of no diplomacy and fired first, all the fire of hell would rain down upon us.
In a nuclear war there will be no winners!
Sky paper review
No wonder the guy is FORMER advisor to salmond
Sitting nodding away with eve fecking pollard
The oil price has dropped so Scotland not so well off blah blah
Fuck me
@Robert J Sutherland
It wasn’t any ordinary person Robert, this was a Lib Dem MP
who’s back for re election again although you wouldn’t know it because her name and picture appear nowhere on any Lib Dem literature, just the usual Smiley Willie Rennie and we hate the SNP and we’re gonna win the world stuff
The Lib Dems in my experience run the most foul campaigns of all the campaigners I’ve ever seen, they will say and do anything for a vote, way worse than even Davidson
These people contacted my local branch about my leaflet posting and that I was creeping about late at night scaring pensioners (it was 7pm and I am a pensioner plus it was my own block and street where I live and everybody knows me)
But even that wasn’t good enough for the Lib Dems they complained to the Lib Dem controlled council as well who contacted my housing association to warn me off canvassing my own building and street which is less than 80 yards long with 41 dwellings, and all because I caught her in the act of filling in postal votes because the old folk told me
When I say old folk I mean even older than me
All of the above not being bad enough the housing manager is a rabid Ukipper and I’m the only active SNP guy in the area so you can see how popular I am with other political parties with windaes festooned by SNP posters and stuff I’m the only SNP in the village (since then I’ve converted another three though so that’s something)
I politely declined to do as they asked pointing out
Wotcha gonna do about it
They always appear nice the Lib Dems don’t they
They’re not!
Another Union Dividend @ 23:11,
You reported it, of course. And they then ignored your evidence, or what…?
O/T
Have a great and safe day tomorrow everyone, I hope to meet a lot of you at G/Green.
Music on O/T, Goodnight!
Peace Always
Astounding level of questions on the nuclear ‘red button’, the sheer ignorance on show and all encouraged by that snidely wee dimbleby. What a rotten lot of fuciking moronic arseholes that audience was filled with. I kept imagining them in charge of anything and thanked fuck I didn’t live in Yorkshire.
Dr Jim @ 23:54,
That’s some bad stuff there. Sounds suspiciously like the kind of thing they were trying-on in Argyll and Bute Council, using backdoor means to try to silence legitimate opposition. But those LibDems are taking a big chance, because if they cross the line these days, they won’t necessarily get away with it as they used to. People like you are watching, and their arrogance (or is it desperation?) will be their undoing. A photo here, an interview recording on a mobile phone there…
If the MSM did their job properly, it would be easy, but of course they are deliberately looking the other way. But there are other options now in social media.
I agree, a lot of people these days are wising up to the fact that the LibDems are not nearly as cuddly as Wee Willie and his infantile playschool antics might imply, especially after Liar Carmichael was bravely outed.
Respect, and all success with your continuing efforts!
Dr Jim, agree re fibdems , when I lived in Aberdeenshire, Malcolm Bruce was my M.P , used to meet all the other parties folk on the stump, the Liberals were arseholes, stopped even having a conversation with them after a while. Even the Tories weren’t as bad, mind u we didn’t have any kippers in those days.
In an Independent Scotland free of Nuclear weapons, posing no threat to any other country, who in the world would want to attack us with Nuclear weapons?
Vice Chair of the BBC is Sir Roger Carr,
Sir Roger Carr is also Chairman of BAE Systems,
BAE Systems are lead constructors of the Successor class nuclear subs that will carry the Trident nuclear bombs,
BBC trying to force Corbyn to guarantee renewal of Trident carrying subs,
wonder why,not.
Think this tweet that Rev retweeted does sum up th least 15 mins of Corbyn ‘debate’:
link to mobile.twitter.com
‘the last’ even 🙁
Dr Jim @ 23:54,
Hmmm, thinking about this some more, sounds like the kind of situation that a video outfit like Phantom Power could usefully investigate. One wonders how this (presumably) former MP would respond to being asked on-camera in public about any alleged “assistances” she had provided to postal voters, in direct contravention of the standing rules.
Re the alleged unbiased and/or balanced debate audiences is it not strange that in the national televised debates (i.e. excluding Scotland only ones) I have yet to hear a Scottish or Welsh accent.
We did, of course have the delightful gentleman from Belfast on monday’s debate and it was blatantly obvious why he was chosen.
Just listening to Nicola being interrupted by Glenn Campbell on you Tube.
He interrupted her 45 times in 26 minutes and asked 24 questions.
That guy should be hung out to dry – he does not give Nicola any chance to answer ANY question before interrupting her and preventing her from answering anything in full.
But i’ll say this whatever was thrown at her, our First Minister came out trumps on every issue. Totally cool, in control and aware of all the relevant facts.
I’m impressed how quickly she responded to all the questions jumping from one topic to another.
Very convenient that the teacher came from Renfrewshire and got in a dig about East Renfrewshire! Also the current head teacher and the maths teacher need to have some grammar lesson – I heard one say:
“I’ll tell you why you have went down” and the other how
“next year, there’ll be ‘less’ (should be fewer) teachers.”
I sat through Ruth Davidson’s ‘grilling’. He interrupted her 37 times and asked 20 questions.
Did I learn very much …yes, there are some very brave disabled and mentally challenged people having to cope with horrendous changes in their self-confidence and lifestyles as a result of Tory policies and that has to be stopped.
@Capella says at 11:42 pm
“Neutron bombs are designed to kill only the people, and obviously other animals, and leave the buildings unharmed……all the bungalows, tenements, schools, hospitals, shops, libraries, factories, listed buildings, castles, cathedrals, Dutch barns and supermarkets”
How very Tory, f**k the people and keep the assets.
Nae funny but true 🙁
Smallaxe ~ aye aye, see you and all at Glasgow Green dude!
Regarding Nuclear Weapons of Mental Mass Destruction…
Superman knows what to do with em:
link to youtube.com
Kelvingrove countdown clock..
10 hours remaining till we go Glasgow 😉
@Dr Jim
I heard a couple of stories, but can’t go into details in case it gives away the sources. They raised my eyebrows all the same.
Also @Scot Finlayson says at 12:25 am
“Vice Chair of the BBC is Sir Roger Carr, Sir Roger Carr is also Chairman of BAE Systems”
BAE Systems make the Brimstone Missile which the BBC heavily advertised in the run up to Internationalist Labours Hillary Benn’s speech on bombing Syria (which won him a Tory Boy standing ovation).
The UK exports Billions of £s of ordinance and delivery systems to Saudi Arabia all built by BAE Systems.
But Yemen, you know BBC/MSM nae interested (Tory bad isnae SNP bad).
Legerwood
Sorry, I think we are at cross purposes here.
I didn’t want to describe B of Allan and Dunblane as ‘tory enclaves’ as I realise that there are SNP voters there which is why I described them as certainly (definitely) ‘not SNP hot seats’.
Yes, Stirling is a large, spread out rural constituency but in referring to Braco/Blackford etc. I was thinking more in terms of, is there a possible knock on effect from the P of Keir development/ A9 impact that would affect any of Tasmina’s campaign given that Perthshire starts at Balhaldie (more or less). Didn’t make that very clear – sorry
I must admit tho’, I hadn’t thought of P of Keir being an issue in a WM election.
What I do know is that the Tories have flung a lot of money at the Stirling seat so we’ll need every vote we can get.
Watching the Sky news press preview.
Eve Pollard is pissed oot her tits !!
Shlurrrinnn every word !!
Such standards in the media…
Re nukes.
Call me an old pedant, but….
If you use it FIRST, its NOT a deterrent, ?hat is an act of aggression.
If you use it 2nd, its STILL NOT a deterrent, you are already dead due to the nuke already on its way.
There is ZERO sane reason to have them.
Re nukes.
Call me an old pedant, but….
If you use it FIRST, its NOT a deterrent, ?hat is an act of aggression.
If you use it 2nd, its STILL NOT a deterrent, you are already dead due to the nuke already on its way.
If you do not use them, thats just the same as not having them, so save the cash and don’t bother.
Worry about living, not dying, if someone fires a nuke at us, £200 Billion is an expensive revenge we will never live to see.
There is ZERO sane reason to have them.
Sorry to go O/T, not keeping to the topic of this article, tory election bumph… But…
Fucking Jaysus!
I’m abroad so couldn’t see all of last night’s QT, but judging by the clips I’ve seen and all the SM comments… Bloody hell.
First the Maybot. Apparently given a fairly easy ride. The nurse’s question was as difficult as it got – and the Maybot didn’t handle even that well. No questions about Saudi arms deals – in effect arming Islamic terrorists. New soundbite “no moneytree” repeated instead of “strong and stable”. As if repeating clichéed phrases would make them any more true.
Then it was Jeremy Corbyn’s turn to answer questions from the BBC-hand-picked, “impartial” audience. It went all barmy. Several older gentlemen seemed to be calling for NUCLEAR WAR! Yeah, that ought to teach the Johnny Foreigners, so there!
I just fail… fail to understand their mentality. Are they completely stupid or just thick? Or puffed up with English pride after the Brexit vote or what?
Let’s take this scenario seriously for the sake of argument. “Baddies” (Russia, North Korea, whatever) launch a nuclear attack on the UK. The UK leadership and military scramble for an “OK” from the U.S. and the launch codes, hope XP for Submarines works, hope the submarine is anywhere near enough to nuke any important enemy target before it’s taken out… You see the weaknesses in this plan? I do, and I’m not a hostile nation military intelligence person.
The other alternative, seemingly advocated by some proud Yorkshiremen at QT last night, was FIRST STRIKE! And Jeremy Corbyn is weak if he won’t commit to mass murder. Mass murder of Johnny Foreigners, true Brits would somehow be safe.
There were numbskulls on Twitter saying that nuking first would “keep millions (of Brits) safe”. As if the retaliation nukes weren’t on their way. *facedesk*
Just to continue a cold, rational assessment… Those QT warmongers probably thought pressing the red button “here” immediately blows up something “there”, like video/computer games. Instant explosion, yay, rawl, rawl, rawl, look at my yuge erection!
Sadly for them, the fact is that missles don’t travel much faster than modern fighter jets. I’m no expert but let’s say 2000 km/h. Depending on where the missles were launched, you have 30 minutes to 2 hours for it to reach the target. Quite enough time for the other party to detect them and lauch theirs.
Then we’ll all be fucked. 🙂
Maybe not fried to a crisp from the initial blast but from the fallout. Radiaton sickness, cancers etc.
Chernobyl is maybe 1000-1200 km from my childhood home. I wasn’t there when it happened, I was on the other side of the globe. The winds took some of the fallout to my old home. Later, my dad told me they’d got a double dose of ordinary background radiation. Everybody had been advised to ingest some iodine (blocks radioactive isotopes from the human body) and not eat forest mushrooms or reindeer meat for a couple of years.
@ Feel Loon
Ref S Press Review:
Geof Aberdein is the mannie.
I thought he was reasonable during IndyRef etc
He has lost his bearings since heading sooth.
I had to switch aff , he wis yooosless!
Now aint that a funny old thing.Just a few clicks is all you need to do-you find some great stuff in the cyber world.
link to scotsman.com
Sure beggars belief why this bbc don’t vet these people properly b4 they talk bullshit on telly.
So missy on Ask The Leader teacher x what do you say to this then??????
I’m totally against nuclear weapons and all for even unilateral disarmament. Prefer multilateral, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
My country has a 1600 km (1000 mile) fucking LAND border with Russia. I think Brits getting silly and jittery about Russia know nothing. Of course it’s a question of foreign policy. My country prefers diplomacy. It’s all too easy for the UK to bomb people here, there and everywhere, from their “island fortress”, not heeding “collateral damage” away from their “sceptred isle”. YUCK.
I live a bit over 300 km from a prime target, Russia’s second city St Peterburgh. Some military targets are even closer. Not quite as bad as living next to Faslane, but the fallout won’t stop at the border. If there was a nuclear war, my country, an innocent bystander with no nuclear weapons, would get nuked and fried and laid waste, most of us dying, no thanks to anything we’d done, but just because of an accident of geography. Thanks to British or American willy-waving or Russian cold, calculated retaliation. Just some “collateral damage”.
lumilumi @ 8.04
I know exactly how you feel lumilumi,I,and everyone I care about live in the accident zone of these abominations,here in Scotland.
It is chilling and horrendous to listen to people from another Country,badger for assurance that not only will they keep those things near my family indefinitely,but that they are to be up graded from deterrent to weapons.
Not forgetting that it’s at this point in time Trump/May and Corbin that’s doing the up grading,egged on by people who believe that they are no where near them.
Jeeze It was bad enough when it was Blair and Bush in charge.
It wasn’t Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction I was afraid of, it was theirs.
MSM really bigging up the nuclear issue now. They see this as the opportunity to sink corbyn but perhaps they are misjudging the mood of the English. Let’s hope so.
Jim 11.47pm 2nd June. “In a nuclear war there will be no winners ”
Yes,and tragic as it would be,i’d go to meet my maker happy in the knowledge that all the right wing xenophobic sectarian bigoted b******s ,who live in Scotland and England,are coming with me.
Lumilumi, living on their ‘septic isle’ won’t save them from retaliation . they will have about 30mins to ponder the rashness of their bloodthirsty jingoistic flag-waving,before ‘they’ are obliterated.
@lumilumi
Well said on both counts lumi.
Links
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
link to indyref2.scot
link to sceptical.scot
Upcoming event
link to eventbrite.co.uk
BBC bia Don’t go heavy on the tories
video here
link to twitter.com
link to tompride.wordpress.com
link to politico.eu
link to thecanary.co
link to thecanary.co
link to evolvepolitics.com
link to cps.gov.uk
link to thepetitionsite.com
link to thenational.scot
link to skwawkbox.org
link to economist.com
WATCH: Learn about administrative detention, the Israeli occupation’s method of holding Palestinians without charge or trial
video here
link to twitter.com
@ Bob p
If only it was the UK and US warmongers, others in other countries, who got taken out in a nuclear war… I could almost cheer for that.
Unfortunately, nuclear fallout doesn’t recognise national borders or more pacific people inside a belligerent nation.
We’re all equally fucked.
I think it’s hugely unfair that I and everybody in my non-belligerent country is callously swept aside as regrettable but unavoidable “collateral damage”.
I’m not “collateral damage”! I’m a person! I have my friends and loves and hopes and aspirations, my LIFE, and really, really resent it that some willy-waving “leader” of a “superpower” can take it away from me.
It’s not right.
@defo says: 2 June, 2017 at 10:16 pm:
“Robbo. You must be ‘a person of interest’ too. ?
I’ve been having similar trouble.”
There is no mystery. There has been a large internet outage in parts of Scotland. Mainly around Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I’m on fibre and I’ve been getting cut off intermittently for several days now. The whole net is dropping out it isn’t just certain ISPs
Check your ISP’s own pages:
Here is Vodafone’s :-
link to downdetector.co.uk
Here’s BT’s:-
link to downdetector.co.uk
Meg merrilees @ 1.22am
I don’t think the PoK will impact on Ms Ahmed Sheikh’s seat. The PoK lies between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane and does not extend East into the Ochil constituency.
People from both communities have been fighting to preserve this site from development for almost 30 years. There have been several costly inquiries into the various plans over the years. The latest inquiry took place last year and those opposed to the plans managed to raise money via crowd funding to hire a QC to represent their side at the inquiry.
The final decision, which rests with the Scottish Government, should have been announced some time ago but the suspicion is that it is being delayed because of the various elections.
Careful now, Nana.
You’ll be accused of anti-semitism like anybody who dares to question the policies and methods of the Israeli state.
Criticism of (belligerent) Zionism and the Israeli state will always be twisted into “anti-semitism”, a very special kind of racism.
I really deplore Israel for playing this “racism” card over and over again, to give their state a free run to discriminate against other people, make war, wreck lives, build walls, detain people without trial, etc.
Not all Jews are Zionists (my Finnish Jewish family friends certainly aren’t) and we should be able to criticise Zionism and the actions of the Israeli state without being knee-jerkly accused of anti-semitism.
Zionists and the Israeli state of course want to confuse and conflate anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, and many in the western world are only too happy to oblige, thereby somehow elevating this one state above all criticism, no matter what they do. It’s not healthy.
WATCH: Learn about administrative detention, the Israeli occupation’s method of holding Palestinians without charge or trial
video here
link to twitter.com
Legerwood
My thoughts re Tasmina are that her constituency includes South Perthsire and Kinross – Crieff and Auchterarder (Braco/Blackford) and their communities are also affected by any disturbances to the massive roundabout on the A9/M9 just south of Dunblane.
Hope that clarifies my obscure thinking.
———
Re Nuclear weapons:
Jeremy’s first answer is correct.
If you have to consider using it, it has failed!
It is commonly referred to as the nuclear deterrent.
The N. Korean leader is suspected of having included dummy weapons in his recent parade but because we don’t know for certain, they act as a deterrent. Why don’t we just pretend to renew them. If we actually had to use them, they would probably misfire and head off in the wrong direction anyway.
I’ve read that any submarine launching a missile immediately reveals it’s location and the ship would be attacked and destroyed almost immediately, hence it is a suicide mission.
———-
Just listening to a voice from the past -Douglas Alexander has been wheeled out to talk about Labour on the radio!
I also wonder what Kezia will think of Gordon Brown being wheeled out to tell Labour supporters in Scotland to vote labour.
Meg merrilees @ 11.36
The issue of the Keir roundabout and the impact of the increased traffic from the development was certainly one of the points underpinning objections to the development. The developers Traffic Impact Assessment used some figures that were a bit out of date. Their projected use of the facility and the traffic it would generate would significantly add to the pressure of traffic on the roundabout.
As we saw when the Forth Road bridge was closed the increase in traffic at the roundabout caused huge tailbacks so it is important for more than just the local community.
The roundabout is also an accident blackspot and is on a list for removal and major realignment of the roads. Will probably involve flyovers for the minor roads. However, if the development goes ahead then it would restrict the space available to do this. Parts of the fields running alongside the feeder road from Dunblane, and earmarked to become a 6 hole golf course, would need to be used to allow road realignment.
Britain is being led to an epic act of national self-harm over Brexit
When the shit hits the fan, there will be a lot of unhappy people.
link to archive.is