The power of the press
Posted on
May 10, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Scottish Daily Mail on Wednesday:
The Scottish Daily Mail on Saturday:
That went well, then.
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
It was as stupid as it was dishonest.
Hah! It’s very enjoyable to see some of the Pouters on Twitter claiming victory for the Tory government! As if anything they did affected the result in England and Wales, let alone Scotland. I sincerely hope these deluded folk carry on wasting their time in the run up to next year’s Holyrood elections. Will the new wheel get contaminated too? 😀
Buy tactically, buy the National!
There is no editorial or journalistic backbone to report the truth and stand up to the owners when the truth doesn’t suit them. The absolute power of the press is hopefully a thing of the past now, most people recognise the spin for what it is.
What we need now is to obtain some measure of accountability for the broadcasting monopoly that is the BBC and enforce them to comply with their duty to be fair, balanced and factual.
I suspect that if this were done then we would see an overwhelming majority of the Scottish population demanding independence sooner rather than later.
The sad thing is, the press in Scotland, being as it is controlled mainly from England, will not change tac.
Just expect more of the same bullshit and tired, jaded smearing and lies in the run up to May next year.
Plus ca change etc etc
Let the Daily Fail keep at it, doing a magnificent job for the SNP and saving us a fortune in advertising. Given that 50% of Scots voted SNP and only 36% voted for Tories how can Cameron claim to rule ‘One Nation’? He’ll need to listen to SNP, Plaid and others as we make-up the greater percentage. A decent PR system would be a first stop.
Auld Rock
With the aid of the internet and now smartphones, the power and manipulation of our corrupt media has been greatly reduced.
Jings, even my wife is showing me satirical political Facebook pictures and info on her new phone that I am not aware of, and she didn’t even know what austerity meant a few weeks back.
Times are a changing.
The before and after maps in yesterday’s HateMail show very little change in England and Wales, apart from some constituencies deciding the Lib-Dems weren’t Tory enough.
I wonder how much leeway the right wing press will give Cameron if he appears to be soft on the Scots.
If they give him too hard a time in appeasing Sturgeon, just imagine how bad things will get for him during Euro ref.
Maybe Boris has a point. Give the Scots a fully federal state now and be done with them. In his mind it’s a fait accompli. Or maybe just something he doesn’t want to worry about when HE becomes Tory leader.
The Rev wrote:
“The Mail is, distressingly, the third-biggest-selling paper in Scotland”
I know of one woman who is pro Scottish independence and The Mail has always been her rag of choice, go figure.
Aye, there’s nowt as queer as folk, eh!
Vote SNP get SNP
Vote Tory get Tory
Vote Labour get feck all.
Vote Lib Dems get laughed at.
I never believed tactical voting would work. In my opinion, there are probably 2 reasons why it didn’t work, even though the theory of it makes sense.
First, for a number of people, they have been ‘conditioned’ to vote for a certain party from a very age. Parents, Grandparents, Uncles, etc, tell the youngster that ‘this is the party to vote for, and to never forget it. Never turn your back on the party’. So no matter what that Parties policies are, even if some of the policies look completely stupid …they vote for the party.
Secondly, you then have the ‘class’ ideology. Could a person who is affluently well-off vote for the Scottish Labour Party, especially when they can see that it is led by the great clown prince himself in Jim Murphy. Anyone with vested interests in seeing their financial portfolio being maintained, is going to be highly bemused with the Scottish Labour Party. And Ed probably didn’t score that much higher in the confidence charts with his hotfooting around the SNP question as the Tories gleefully called the tune.
Same with someone who has voted Labour all their life. Anyone on a basic wage, on benefits or just getting by might as well cut their right arm off. Why would they vote Tory knowing that Cameron and co are going to hit them hard with austerity measures?
I never worried about tactical voting. As said, in theory, it should work …until you begin to look into the human factor of it.
Had the misfortune to read Max Hastings in the mail on Sat. (Yes, I know!!!).
Deluded odious little turd of a man.
Racist, elitist xenophobic prat.
But let’s not forget (by his own account) he liberated Port Stanley from the “Argies”.
Hmmmm.
Now that the Labour Party and LibDems have been dispensed of it might be time to turn our attention to ridding ourselves of this vile Press. Starving them of any revenue would be a start. Ignoring them might be even better. They have nothing to say.
What now for the SNP Pouters? Employment as circus acts? 😀 😀
One of the unintended consequences of the recent campaign (and the Referendum campaign) is the self destruction of the credibility of MSM and the BBC.
This is good news
time for a media focused poll?
Excellent articles from Ian Bell and Macwhirter in the Sunday Herald.
The hysteria getting whipped up by Cameron and his hordes is ugly and unhealthy and will rebound. Anyhow, here’s my modest contribution until the next one:
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
I have said it many times before……we have the most politically aware and best electorate in the world here in Scotland thanks to sites like Wings, Bella Caledonia, Wee ginger dug etc.
these unsung heroes ( yes you Stu) have mercilessly debunked the shite we used to blindly accept as gospel to the extent we now question everything we see in print.
Now that sounds like paranoia……indeed it would be if there was not so much exaggeration, lies and manipulation being exposed day in day out.
The MSM have lost all credibility over the course of the referendum and the GE.
Again thanks to sites like this………
Long May it continue.
The first thing Dugdale said after the defeat was. The SNP helped the Tories win by creating division between English Labour and Scotland.
So Scotland by default is responsible for the Tory government because we elected 56 nationalists. Its like rinse and repeat for the chronically stupid.
Scotland voted SNP because Milliband courted the right wing vote. England is a rightwing country and Scotland left wing. You can’t win Scotland and England with the same campaign. Its why UK Labour are finished in Scotland.
This one national better together crap is self delusion. My boss at work voted no and said it was because he didnt want to desert the working classes in England etc. Usual guff! The truth is England deserted Scotland years ago. I think he is finally seeing this with the poles apart election results.
The UK can never be a left wing country now. There is already talk of a Blair style reshaping of UK Labour. When will Scottish Labour realise Scotlands future cannot be Englands and stop blaming others for their myopic intransigence.
Yeah well it’s only a matter of time before the low IQ Daily Mail tells us tactical voting and/or polling causes cancer.
Or indeed cures it. 😀
Never met anyone willing to admit they bought or read that tabloid. It’s an obvious badge of shame to do so.
It will be funny to see how the MSM & bbc portray the Scottish government/SNP party now that they have a majority for most of Scotlands political appointments.
Will they act in a more fair and even manner ? or will they remain the bunch of one sided unionist shits wer’e used to.
I would like to take this oportinuity to thank yersel “Stu” for all the fantastic work you have done and I am sure will continue to do so in the future. It has made the difference to many people on our journey to Scottish independence.
And I would like to thank everyone in the “wings” family for all the contributions they have made, from all the people who were out their canvassing, to those who just had a conversation with a work mate or family member. You all made the difference, you all helped win for 56 SNP MP’s to represent our country at Westminster.
As for the (proud Scot “but”), you can forget the “but” now, just remember the ‘proud Scot’ for that is now yourself.
Has anyone else noticed that the British press and media have already started to try and drive a wedge between our First Minister and Alex Salmond,very subtle at the moment but it will get worse in the future.
We thought Lab in Scotland hates the SNP as the saying goes we aint seen nothinh yet,the bile will be pouring out of them,looking forward to Politics Scotland today.
Dave I think we lost the referendum. Not on argument. I think we lost because the media was 95% pro union. If we are to win Scotland we need to get BBC and the press to take a pro Scottish stance. That vital 10% is all down to a negative biased media.
They made mountains out of molehills. BBC were in bed with better together. As much as we hate them they do influence the over 65s. We need older people to vote yes and more English people in Scotland. That’s our target group.
Malcolm: Max Hastings – racist, elitist, xenophobic prat – but let’s not forget (by his own account) he liberated Port Stanley from the “Argies”.
He counts himself in, but we can count him out.
🙂
Malcolm @ 12.07.
You mentioned Max Hastings “liberating” Port Stanley in the Falklands.
He actually “liberated” the Upland Goose pub, by being the first journalist through the door, so, the other press boys with the Task Force, decided to make a big thing of this – to show him up for the prat he is.
Unfortunately, back at the Telegraph, where he then worked – they took it seriously and the Liberty Valance Rule has applied ever since.
I understand why people indulge in tactical voting. Protecting yourself from the greater evil is a very human trait.
There is, however, a sadness to the process. If you have a cause that you truly believe in, yet you find the need to abandon it, in it’s hour of need, in order to see off another threat, then your true cause loses it’s deposit and eventually fades away. Then, you are not represented, even if you voted for the winning party.
Sometimes, it is better to stand up and be counted, rather than be a sheep in the biggest fold.
Ian Murray’s core vote. Daily Mail readers, Tories, tactical voters, SNPouters, Britnats, Morningside Cringe. Lovely bunch.
Is David Maddox going to be his SpAd?
I have seen some pouter stuff on Facebook that is borderline deranged and I think it would be fair to say they are not happy.
That they are happy with a Conservative win just confirms what they were. They are no more in touch with Scottish politics than the Tories in England are. They are a political foot note now.
I was manning a polling station in Perth for a couple of hours (council ward for that bit of Perth has 2 SNP and 2 Labour councillors).
Had two people come up to me and say they normally vote Labour but had been sent the SNPOUP tactical voting advice.
They both said they were going to vote Labour but the SNPOUT leaflet convinced them they had to vote SNP tactically to keep Tories out.
Brilliant. Well done SNPOUTers. LOL
What I really find offensive is anything written or presented on MSM/TV by one of our ain,usually under the pseudonym Kirsty Andrews (see what I did there),delivering the same propoganda messages,(except they don’t even use pseudonym’s any more),time for change.
Tactical voting was always a folly.There was an in built assumption that voters for a previous incumbent would maintain that loyalty.That was wrong. Mundell only survived by the skin of his teeth in a Tory stronghold. Long may these fools put forward their tactical agenda..
Just watched the politically-inept Pater Mandelson trying to justify NuLabour on the Andrew Marr fiasco, and blaming the trades union membership for everything that has gone wrong for Labour in this election.
So, suddenly disparage and dismiss the bodies (he actually made a point of naming Unison and Unite) who are calling for Jim Murphy to go away? The sudden emergence of “Save One Unelected Member of the Labour Party by Another Unelected Member” campaign.
Best of luck with that one, Peter.
I can’t get The Pretenders “Back on the Chain Gang” but with “Back on the Blame Game” out of my head.
The whole SNPout thing ended up like a voters Mexican Stand Off.. And now the blame game has been in full swing for a few days now.
The postmortem of May the 7th will continue, and Margrit, Jim, Brian, Tom, Anas (I would go on, but too long a list) will have to read about in the papers.
All the while not paying a blind bit of notice to any of it, but instead burying their heads in the sand and chanting the mantra SNP BAD.. SNP BAD.. like a red robed Labour anti-trappists.
But they were silenced on Thursday night as they were ushered from counting halls around Scotland surrounded by security – Voting Wheels falling from the campaign bag they no longer need, but will instead be framed and hung on the wall as a nostalgic reminder of what once was, what could have been. A bit like Creme Brulee in The League of Gentlemen. Another Helping from Labour – No thanks.
To use a murphyesque football analogy, the opposition (Unionists) are 53-6 down at have time, yet will undoubtedly employ the same tactics for the second half (Holyrood 2016)
Just for the record –
I don’t care if “Broken Britain” can be fixed by some form of federalism. I might have settled for that a few years ago but not any more. Not after being called a fascist & a Nazi for the last two years by my fellow countrymen/women, never mind the English controlled media.
Two years ago I’d have taken offence at being labelled a separatist, but not now. The further Scotland can get from these twisted self-serving parasitic dictators the better, for me.
That’s better.
Sorry – Half time.
hehe i see they are still going on about polls ,you would think they would be happy they got their Tory government.
Why is there yellow seats in Wales? it looks like we won 3 seats in Wales and not PC,or is this the new colour of all the vile UK separatist parties according to the Daily pish stain.
Now that we’ve enjoyed our moment of triumph we are still a democracy and for a democracy to be successful we need an effective opposition. What if anything Thursday has shown us is that Scotland does not like ‘Blairite’ policies. I would also remind Old Labour and Liberals is that back at the turn of the 20th century they both embraced what was then called ‘Home Rule’ which was never going to work as Ireland proved in 1922. What really saddens me is that with so many of our core policies being exactly the same that we have to have three Parties fighting over the same bone.
However until they shake-off their dependency and love of Westminster and all its faults they will be stuck in their own shite.
Auld Rock
Auld rock
“He’ll need to listen to SNP, Plaid and others as we make-up the greater percentage. A decent PR system would be a first stop.”
A bit naive surely, he’ll do whatever the f he likes. It’ll be tempered by whatever he thinks will happen next of course, and how he thinks he can stitch up the SNP long term. But with the support of the press and the personal security of having stated he won’t stand for a third term he can take some risks.
There will be a lot of effort going into appearing fair and reasonable while preparing a poison chalice that can be presented as a great deal for Scotland while making it really difficult to manage so the SNP appears incompetent.
We will really need our “new generation” (©Jim Murphy) of MPs to have their wits about them.
The only advantage we have is that he has to deal with the rest of the UK at the same time.
I did read today somewhere that this is the lowest Tory vote in Scotland for a very long time (ever?). I have my doubt if the BritNat Anglophiles, who constitute the rump of Tory support in Scotland, have abandoned their party in the same way as Lab and Lib.
Might this be evidence of some tactical voting?
If so, it made no worthwhile difference in 56 seats!
The three Unionist who hung on didn’t stay on by much! Has any potential tactical voting analysis been done for say, Edinburgh South?
It’s easy to stereo type the over 65, MSM reading, BBC watching, Unionist voting block. However, 75% of over 65s voted NO, 25% of young folks voted YES.
And therein lies something VERY positive. As nature takes its inevitable toll, each year, NO voters will disappear and be replaced by new young Yes voters. Some basic guesstimate arithmetic suggests 1% reduction in NO and 1% addition of YES per annum.
Assuming all else remains stable, demographics will change Y/N percentages from 45:55 to 55:45 in just 5 years!
Add to this, education of the whole population (by Wings among others) will surely convert more to the positive case for self determination.
Sorry, O/T folks, but interesting.
Stopped in Clarkston yesterday to pick up my copy of the Saturday National, with the sausages for lunch. On returning to car my ears pick up a very recognisable voice – no not that one, the one with the blue rosette – in the middle of a phone conversation. Sure enough there he is, crossing the road, and about to walk between two cars to reach the pavement.
But as I was about to block the path by opening the driver door of one he detours, perhaps glimpsing the car stickers and the newspaper in hand.
‘I don’t think Murdo will make a move right now…’, is all I catch, and of course do not know who may have been on the other end. It may have been something to do with football punditry, but I suspect not.
Gosh these are interesting times are they not?
PS Can we use the “new generation” line as Jim did when he was elected Leader of slab. Technically correct and helps with the “once in a generation” moan?
I know an English guy at my office in Edinburgh who reads the Daily Mail. The question is how do you get through to these people. They are the chronically ill informed.
Its years of brainwashing. He is from the north of England from a working class city. Living in leafy west Edinburgh. Never spoke to him during the referendum as it was a no go area. I wouldn’t know where to start with someone who probably thinks Salmond is a left wing dictator.
There are pockets of these types all over Scotland. I include JK Rowling who is another one who just doesn’t get Scotland. They must be fuming at 50% of Scotland voting SNP. The Daily Mail will just continue their misinformation.
Malcolm @12.07
There is a theory that some of the Falklands conflict’s worst casaualties were the result of devising a smokescreen to deflect Hesletine’s involvement in the Westland Helicopter scandal.
Thatcher Killing to protect her government’s reputation.
Have a look at new Tory Defence head boy Michael Gove.
21st century Reginald Maudling.
Or Mr. Magoo..
His NHS style spectacles were the costume adornment chosen to give some credibility to his role as education minister back in 2012.
With his promotion to defence what next?
A monocle and sash?
Personally I’d like to see a single black leather glove on the right hand to mask the symptoms of Diagnostic Apraxia?
Sarah Vine could stitch a few diamanté into the cuff so as to help explain at dinner parties?
Gove wasn’t very good at ‘the schools thing,’ how does this make him suited to the ‘look after the nukes thing’?
That’s the Good old Tories for you.
“Why is there yellow seats in Wales?”
That’s light green on my monitor.
Lol Heraldnomore…1 degree of seperation in Scotland, can literally find oot whit’s a foot by nippin’ oot for the paper…love it! 🙂
In Aberdeen we received a SNPoot wheel chart promoted by a local Oil Service Company, one which exploits cheap foreign labour on min wage and 80+ hr shifts.
IMO these sponsors should not be allowed to interfere in politics.
On the upside, well done South Aberdeen – Ann Begg No More!
Just don’t try posting anything even slightly critical of her on her twitter as she will delete, it’s accolades only for AnNF.
Oh gawd, Blair’s back – and Mandelson (OTOH maybe that’s good news for Scotland)
I never understood why either of them was in the Labour Party, not a socialist bone in their bodies.
Gove has the best haircut tho.
In todays sun on sunday willie rennie says
WE WILL HEAD THE LESSONS AND MESSAGE OF THE ELECTION RESULT then in the same sentance says HE IS DETERMINED TO BLOCK SNP PLANS FOR MORE POWERS TO HOLYROOD
They have learned nothing and they still do not get it
galamcennalath wrote:
“I did read today somewhere that this is the lowest Tory vote in Scotland for a very long time (ever?).”
If you Google “wings twitter” and click on the top search result it will take you to the Rev’s Twitter and by scrolling down through that you will get confirmation of your statement above.
😉
Herald Murdo as new Tory leader in Scotland?Suppose who really cares says Scotland!
@Socrates MacSporran
“the Liberty Valance Rule” 🙂
Has the squatter at the labour branch office still got his blinds down yet?
Surely he must have got fed up just getting the dialing tone noise on the phone from his pals numbers and the BBC HQ.
Look oot the windie Jim and see which way the wind is blowing!
Forget 1924 your party is back to 1918…
Met an SNP door chapper in the cafe this morning sore feet and skint knuckles (the letter box springs you know) but a big happy smile on his physog all the same.
He says that in a month they’ll be back out working for the next one in 2016. 🙂
Typo : propooganda 😉
Call me Dave 1.13
He could maybe do with a help.
It really shows how crooked and manipulative this ” Union” is. At least the election was some payback. We need more though.
@ a2
Thanks a2 it must be my old monitor as they look the same colour as the SNP seats in Scotland lol
English Nationalism has always been with us David Cameron just told the English it was OK to show it now
and by golly they’re taking advantage of his permission
When you see the various Armed Forces bands march today the applause is clear until the Pipes and Drums pass and the crowd fall silent and this I think heralds in the total stupidity of Camerons position
Cameron has backed himself into a ridiculous situation now
How do you repair this kind of nonsense when you are surrounded on all sides by a hostile press hostile back benchers and now a hostile nation (England) and you made it all happen for a political win
All this against a backdrop of LABOUR blaming the SNP the LIB DEMS blaming the SNP Nigel flaming Farage blaming the SNP
Nicola Sturgeon had better check her bed for horses heads every night now
And they think they’re good at strategy PHEW !!
Wee Nippy’s got them all beat
@ Malcolm
But let’s not forget (by his own account) he liberated Port Stanley from the “Argies”.
So he walked the killing fields of Port Stanley.
Where did I hear that before?
[…] The power of the press […]
Tactical voting against the SNP, in constituencies where they commanded 50% or more of the vote, would – of course – have been ineffective in any permutation. Since the overall SNP vote share was indeed around 50% this must have quite frequently been the case.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before but with SNP being blamed for scaring people to vote Tory in England, I think there could also be another factor to consider
I imagine there is a significant number of traditional Labour voters in England who believe that Labour had moved too far to the right, were more akin to Tories and sought to vote UKIP or Green as their only alternative
After seeing the possibility of the SNP dragging Labour to the left, where the traditional Labour voters would have been happy with, I would have thought it would have made them more inclined to vote Labour again, for a Lab-SNP deal that surveys suggested they were clearly comfortable with.
Stupidly, Milliband refusing any deal with the SNP (rather see the Tories in!) I believe may have lost him a few percentage points by returning traditional Labour voters
O/T
I see Blair is advocating the labour party retake the centre ground. A shift to the left then?
OT my Wings App has stopped putting out notifications of new posts. I’ve tried everything, turning notifications on and off, clearing the cache and eventually I uninstalled and reinstalled it, to no avail. Is anyone else having problems with it?
There is an important cohort of anti-Tory No voters who voted SNP this time. Who may not describe themselves as ‘nationalists’. The kind that we need to nurture and carry if any future Indyref is to be Yes. The kind who take longer than many of us to rationalise that it doesn’t matter if Scotland votes for progressive policies, we still get a Tory government. This election, I think, will be a watershed moment for them.
The most fatuous argument I’ve heard (from SLAB) in the past few days is that the SNP ‘scared’ potential Labour voters in England into voting Tory/UKIP. That’s essentially saying that the SNP have no right to exist. And if the working class (or ‘hard working families’) in England were truly progressive (remember SLAB saying during the Indyref how much we had in common with them?), why would they ever even consider voting for a right-wing party led by a cabinet of privately-educated millionaires?
The election result in fact demolishes SLAB’s pisspoor excuse : the ‘working class’ in England were our brothers and sisters to such an extent that they wanted nothing to do with the Scottish hordes.
I wish I could ‘like’ comments on here, because I do,(almost) all of them. The most intelligent readers on the Internet, and not just because I agree with them!
@Mealer
He is getting all the help I can manage 🙂
My help is mainly £ and office stuff.
From 1974 to 2012 I have been active in all local campaigns mainly leafleting at the start, and more latterly but unfortunately the outdoor part is beyond my abilities now. 🙁
Like dim Jim, my jaickets on a shoogly peg too…but I see it was still hinging there this morning.
PS:
Said a “hello” to my ‘two labour posters are better than one’ neighbour…”Morning Dave” she replied…that was all!
I mentioned the weather and moved along nothing to see here!
@ Muscleguy (1.41pm).
The boss has had the same problem for several days now.
Hi Stu,I am receiving emails from wings to an email address claiming the email address is following you on twitter I did not set up a twitter account from that email address the name of the twitter is ‘markaldo2’…I’m now in the process of closing the account
That’s classic.
Here, I had a thought. The Tories surely rely on a fair number of voters in England voting against their own interests, and I imagine the press are instrumental in persuading them to do that.
Obviously the referendum has helped to extinguish trust in the media up here, however the existence of alternative media has been important too.
After reading about yesterday’s rally in London, and the lies peddled about it in the Daily Mail, I wondered – is it time for a sister page, “Wings Over England”. Might be a struggle to incorporate multiple lions in the logo, but it’s an interesting thought. I don’t really understand English politics, but it seems an interesting thought.
I’d happily contribute to the crowdfunder 🙂
Labour in Scotland fought this as Indi part 2. They demonized yes voters.Which is 45% of Scotland.
You cannot win an election with a 73% turnout. When you demonise 45% of 85% who voted yes.
Simple maths for Murphy. Then again he never passed his exams!
These ‘people’ (for want of a better word) spend so much effort and time attempting to manipulate perception and create a reality, that they tend to forget reality sometimes bites back.
The evidence of the outcome on Friday was there for all to see who had been paying attention to politics north and south of the border for the past four years. England’s electorate driven ever rightward by an uncaring government and their barking media outlets and Scotland becoming more socially and politically aware, drifting further leftward.
England’s electorate have been sold a narrative on Scotland that will not be fixed by Cameron calling off the dogs. The narrative has become ingrained in popular culture thanks to their relentless media machinery.
The only thing that will waken the public to just how vile Westminster has acted towards all the peoples of these islands is Scotland breaking away and not suffering a catastrophe. If in fact we make reasonable headway economically, within say the first ten years, implement radical political reforms and basically don’t suffer an asteroid hit, the electorate of the the rest of the UK will then have cause to seriously question their political class.
I have heard rumours that the Scottish Daily Mail have decided to go into map making for Lemming Farmers.
The sum of the majorities of Fluffy, Murray and Help Me Rhona is 4252 which means that The SNP were only short of a Clean Sweep by 4255 votes out of the millions cast.
It is astonishing that we got 56 out of 59 given that apart from The National, Sunday Herald and a late appearance by The Scottish Sun we had 100% of the broadcast and print media excreting all the old lies, threats and scare stories over us.
What could be achieved if we had an unbiased media?
I think the ‘Power of the Press’ did play a very significant role–but only in England where they portrayed the SNP as a third Jacobite Rebellion, ‘marauding Jocks’ intent on ruling England. That is how they portrayed the election to the English electorate, particularly in the English marginals.
The press do have power to influence outcomes and we should not prtend otherwise. I remember here on Wings during the IndyRef the contempt we felt then (and still do) towards the bias of the MSM/BBC in Scotland.
On the bright side, we can be absolutely certain that GE2020 they will portray the SNP in exactly the same way to scare English voters again. This tactic will be used mercilessly by the Tories from now on to beat Labour in England and if Labour can’t win in England, they can’t ever win in the UK.
It is a future of Scottish Nationalists v English (Tory) Nationalists where Scotland’s desires will always be thwarted by the English nationalist majority. The argument will have crystalised into its purest and starkest form, highlighting to any sensible person in Scotland that there is only one answer.
Eventually this WM standoff will lead to IndyRef2 and there will be an overwhelming majority for independence. In the interim the SNP should do two things:
1) Insert in its 2016 Holyrood manifesto a referendum on Home Rule. It will win this hands down, especially when their 56 MPs lay bare the Tory plans for more austerity cuts.
2) Insert in its 2016 Holyrood manifesto a referendum on full independence IF the rUK votes to leave the EU and Scotland votes to stay in the EU.
You have to admire the Tories for their ruthless promotion of #SNPOut. One of Lynton’s prime targets was the LibDems and promoting tactical voting here was a cool way to unhinge the LibDems from voting for their party by a massive disinformation scam.
Yes some Tories went with it but they will be back; UKIP has no traction in Scotland so there is nowhere else for a tactical voting Tory to return to except the Tory fold. Whereas the LibDem barnacle once prised off their rock of allegiance is food for any passing SNaPper or SLab crab.
Tory perfidy reigns above the Highland Line.
@Colin Church says: 10 May, 2015 at 12:36 pm:
“Ian Murray’s core vote. Daily Mail readers, Tories, tactical voters, SNPouters, Britnats, Morningside Cringe. Lovely bunch.”
Talking about Morningside, Colin, when I was a schoolboy at a school in Leith we had a geography teacher who came from Morningside.
During one lesson she asked the question, “What are the sea ports in Belgium”? She pointed to a pupil and got an answer but wasn’t pleased so tried again. After a couple more she got rather exasperated, stamped her foot and cried out, “Children! Children! Ostend”. As one the entire class rose to its feet.
Wee Ruthie for HoL and Scottish Secretary perhaps?
@Macart – When Scotland becomes independent and prospers while an unreformed England goes even further down the toilet the message from UKPravda will be “Scotland stole our oil”.
Gus1940 2.01
The majority of Scottish children live in a household with atleast one SNP voter.They won’t be listening to the BBCs “too wee,too poor,too stupid” message.And every day some more of these children become adults and go on the electoral register.Tick tock.
You, through your site, are demonstrating the power of history – no matter how recent. No one else is doing this to the same devastating effect. I very much hope that you grow and expand. Best of luck!
@Bob Mack says: 10 May, 2015 at 12:43 pm:
“Mundell only survived by the skin of his teeth in a Tory stronghold. Long may these fools put forward their tactical agenda..”
I think that Mundell, if he still sits on the Government front bench, like one of those noddy dogs in a car rear window, will be a great deal more exposed as a total numptie and may wish he had lost his seat.
He is now going to face a great deal more hard questions than Labour ever asked him.
According to the Guardian newspaper, “Huge numbers of Britons would support an anti-immigration English nationalist party if it was not associated with violence and fascist imagery.” The poll found that 48% would favor the party if only it did not remind them of the bad old days of National Socialism…..
….One might posit the following hypothesis. The story of postwar British history is often presented as a narrative of malaise. The empire fell. The industrial economy vanished. Britain ceased to be a major superpower. Everything that made Britain “great” appeared on the wane.
Under such circumstances, what did the country have? The war. People were united then. Good and evil were obvious. The importance of class diminished. It was truly, as Churchill put it, the country’s “finest hour.” To forget that the great struggle was against fascism and to invite that ideology in with open arms is unthinkable, even though most Britons know only the nostalgic memory of the war.
Nationalist parties across Britain must contend with this reality. During the Watch Group incident in Scotland during the early 1990s when two small groups campaigned against English “white settlers,” at least one media outlet equated Settler Watch with the Nazis. The Scottish National Party, which did not support the Watch Groups, responded by announcing that it was not a fascist party and was in no way similar to Hitler’s NSDAP. To anybody paying attention, this was obvious. The catch is that much of the success or failure of nationalist groups is tied to perception, memory, and nostalgia.
link to nationalismproject.blogspot.co.uk
Archie McPherson was interviewed on R4’s The World This Weekend, approx. 1.50, sticking it to the ‘ScotNats’ big-time.
Worth a listen when it turns up on I-player.
Woooooof!!
““Children! Children! Ostend”. As one the entire class rose to its feet.”
There was a young teacher named Wood
Who spoke as politely as she could.
When her class asked her where,
She had spent Glasgow Fair
She said briskly “Ostend”, and they stood.
If in fact we make reasonable headway economically, within say the first ten years, implement radical political reforms and basically don’t suffer an asteroid hit, the electorate of the the rest of the UK will then have cause to seriously question their political class.
Not if when, good buddie:D
link to youtube.com
Interesting to hear Tory David Davis on Andrew Marr suggest that Cameron is going to call the bluff of the SNP by offering FFA. He also went on to spell out that this would amount to autonomy over income tax and spending which as he defined it currently amounted to us raising 3% less in tax per capita than the rest of the UK, whilst at the same time spending 15% more per head.
He, of course, didn’t include corporation tax which includes oil etc in his calculations and Marr might have pointed that out.
This is where the debate is likely to go and they know it will lead to a fight with SNP.
Time to focus on what matters, then.
1) We need full fiscal powers over corporation tax raising, VAT, and everything else.
2) We also need access to borrowing on the international markets, as any government would.
FFA that does not include the above would be tantamount to being in chains, fiscally speaking, and there isn’t a viable country in history that did not have these levers.
My guess is that the debate will lead to another referendum which will put all this to the Scottish people. Even those who are against full independence would understand that without the powers outlined above Scotland would be totally hamstrung and suffer massively in terms of funding.
Bring it on.
Lordy Mcconnel says Murphy and Dezi must stay,does he not want Spud to join him on the Lords gravy train,sneaky barstewards these Slab people.
Lord Jack McConnell
ditch smith commission
walofs
I’m convinced the whole “tactical voting” thing was a Tory ploy anyway, to get more Tory votes, the sort of thing they would do to the hapless Red Pawns… It seems to be coordinated by one deranged Englishwoman on Twitter who probably has multiple accounts and spends the whole day writing to herself.
Just watched Wee Nicola on Andrew Marr, 110 thousand members now, great news! I agree with her that I think the SNP will be the main opposition party (de facto) with Labour first in disarray and then probably moving right to become an official Tory Lite Party. The SNP will be the beacon around which all genuine left-wing and progressive people will gather.
How I wish the English Left could throw off their “Guardian chains” and realise they have to do it all themselves. Forget about “occupying Downing Street” — you need to occupy the empty public halls, pubs, church halls and cafes. Do a google search for “Robin McAlpine”, that is the way to go, not Russell Brand…
I heard most of the Archie MacHairdo interview earlier and the man has a real pathological hate of SNP and all its works , that he was a stalwart of BBC Scotland is no surprise whatever.
Now that we have a virtually Union free zone , do we really have to put up with the same old biased shit that we know and hate. The media should reflect the new circumstances , BBC Scotland and Radio Scotland take note.
scott
Did McConnell give any reason why Murphy/Dugdale should stay after losing all but one of the Lab Mps?
We have to give WM a try with our 56, play a straight bat, keep the Scot’s informed about how our opposition is/ or is not making progress. Voters are not daft.
The tories will offer us some beads and trinkets soon and there will be faux outrage when (I hope) we turn it down. The real fight will come soon enough until then we do what we can do.
We have to prove to all voters in Scotland that the WM system does not work for them.
The other thing is our MP’s must be scrupulously clean, (hark at me..geez!) but Sturgeon and Robertson etal must run a tight ship.
Along the lines of “There will be no bevvying” etc etc.
When the tactical voting crowd appeared, I was absolutely disgusted at the dishonesty and desparation of such a tactic.
So my message to the Daily Mail -GIRFUY. For any paper to promote this activity, is, in my opinion, morally bankrupt. To make such a mockery of democracy that people have fought for, is contemptible.
A paper like that has no barrel it will not scrape.
I know its trampling on Stu’s political guts but I wonder if the LibDems will survive this time. I can remember when they were 5, 3 Welsh 2 twin towns and Jo Grimmond and then one of the Welsh died and the Cardigan seat was won by Lady Megan Lloyd George, … for Labour! Shame and Scandal in the Family!
But they rallied and David Steel caught the falling knife of the Social Democrats which boosted their numbers enough to make people think they might be an alternative to lavender pink Toryism. Then Clegg coalitioned and signed their death warrant; the Blair-like lust for power acting like the male spiders desire for progeny making him a meal for his larger “partner”.
There should be a place for a party of MPs and others with a libertarian view of man’s place in society but in this age of machine politics I don’t know what or where it is.
Just watching Dateline London and I’ve never heard such sheer bloody ignorance coming out of so many adult mouths for years. I know the daft woman’s face but can’t put a name to it. Daft bitch is on about Scotland’s whole economy based upon just one commodity and blood and soil nationalism.
As a foreign correspondent the last place her boss needs her to be is in The UK. Her ignorance is absolute and unshakeable. Doesn’t the idiot understand Scotland gets none of the oil & gas revenues?
Does she actually know what blood & soil nationalism is? Mind you she’ll have a stack of Brownie points with the Englanders and the BBC.
If you were listening to Jack McConnell closely you also would have heard him say “If a party like the SNP had been standing in England they would have swept the boards”
I think that says it all
Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, as newspapers switched from reporters telephoning in their reports to copy takers – who typed-up the report then sent it on to the various desks – to reporters filing copy via lap tops, the Sunday Times had the bright idea of hiring Archie McWoof to do match reports.
Some of us were helpless, when, on his first assignment for the ST, at Rugby Park; Archie typed-out his report onto his lap top, then picked up a telephone and dictated it to a copy taker.
Not the brightest is oor Erchie.
Aye Mealer , the next generation is awake.
My oldest off spring and partners all voted Yes and now SNP
My youngest,12 y o , whose mum is a Yesser but generally Green , was tested last week .
She was on the lounge PC @ yon bloody Minecraft whilst I watched a political show .
” Ach t heck , a think al just vote Green e morn” I retorted
” Dad ! Don’t you dare , vote SNP ! ” was shouted across the room from my youngest , maybe Minecraft has some benefits .
@Brian Powell
McConnell said that they need to have “a conversation” and “to listen”… same old Red Tory mantra.
One interesting point he raised was, “If a party like the SNP had run in England last week they would have swept the board there too.”
The mistrust of BBC Scotland must be confronted by the new Scottish Parliamentarians in the first instance.
Any demonstration or public event should not take place at P Quay, too aggressive, play it cool.
Lay it with the regulator, N.U.J., Hollyrood, Scottish Office,
WE NEED CHANGE AT BBC SCOTLAND, OR THE ESTABLISHMENT, UNAFFECTED BY THE ELECTION RESULT, WILL JUST MOVE THE GOALPOSTS TO SUIT THEIR NEXT CAMPAIGNS.
@Dough McG
I assume you mean Archie McPherson?
Based on what I have heard about the Labour leadership debate, it sounds like they have thrown in the towel in Scotland. At the very least, it isn’t a priority — Middle England and the centre ground, as defined by the Neo-Fascist media down south, are the priorities. We can expect Labour to lurch even further to the right then and if they do I can’t see them spending a penny up here to bang their heads against walls.
On that basis, they have little need for their mouthpieces in the Scottish media. Most of the big wigs in BBC Scotland are affiliated to Scottish Labour but, since they aren’t needed any more, I expect they will fall quite easily. I hope the SNP make a priority of addressing this issue.
In terms of the rest of the Scottish media outside of the BBC, they’re going to look rather stupid and see a fall in readership if they continue with their anti-SNP editorial stance.
If there was tactical voting then there is no evidence of it here in Angus where the tories came second in 2010 with 30.92% of the vote and second again in 2015 with 29%. The SNP went from 39% to 54%.
How the WM oyster produces a pearl, a wee bit of grit!
link to archive.is
PS:
‘Scot goes pop’ worth a glance.
PPS:
Dons doing well 2nd Half soon.
link to neolive.net
Doug McG said :
“Now that we have a virtually Union free zone , do we really have to put up with the same old biased shit that we know and hate. The media should reflect the new circumstances , BBC Scotland and Radio Scotland take note.”
Apart from a few modifications put in here and there to prevent them looking totally ludicrous and also so that they can claim “balance”, it so far at least looks like the UK and Scottish msm intend to basically carry on regardless. What do you think they’re there for, to reflect genuine democracy or something?
I read and hear that representatives of the three tory parties and their media pals are sitting around in studios talking about things in such a way that the SNP landslide didn’t really happen or that the stupid electorate got it wrong or something.
Spit on their papers at the supermarket stands and REFUSE to watch any bbc/msm so-called news programmes or any other propaganda unless you’re someone like the Rev who for the sake of professional interest must sometimes descend into the msm sewer.
NOW might be the time to start planning and organizing MASSIVE demos at both bbc and stv.
Re Secretary of State for Scotland, I believe Fluffy has already said he’s not up to the roll. But who else can they get? An unelected lord will be torn to shreds by the SNP. Maybe Nicola will press for the abolishment of this complete waste of everyone’s time and money?
On a similar theme, now that Carbuncle no longer has a party in government to protect him, wonder if the Tories will drop him in the doodoo as a sop to Salmond? That’s the sort of thing they do.
O/T
Scotland:
Shyte at footie.
Ditto Rugby
No better at Cricket.
Bloody fantastic at elections!
To see the 56 (-2 who were on islands and couldn’t make it) posing with Nicola beside the strength and grace of the Forth Bridge is too beautiful for words.
Scotland’s answer to austerity!
Compare it with the headless, ugly and utterly ineffective anti austerity demos in London and elsewhere.
Roll on Holyrood 2016!
Archie McArmageddon.He’s yesterday’s man.Im not sure about his hairdo,though.Could be from an entirely different era.Or,indeed,universe.
Heard Archie MacPherson raving on about “a party hiding behind a flag” ( who could he mean?) and then trying to explain how the voting public had been fooled and that Labour would be back with new ideas.
Here’s a wee story (true) a polling station in Paisley and Renfrewshire North was being manned for the SNP by a 16 year old young man. An elderly voter approached the station and was collared by a Labour Councillor who told the voter that the SNP would cut the OAP pension. Enter our youthful guardian of the gate who stepped forward and explained the facts.
Result? the elderly voter turned to the Labour Councillor , pointed her finger and shouted “you’re a LIAR”
How do we think that will go down with her friends and family?
And THAT is the reason you got your arse whipped MR MacPherson.
Find it difficult to understand why the BBC Politics Show should go to Sir Malcolm Rifkind for a commentary on the General Election result.
Did they agree cash terms before the interview as it is well known from recent evidence that Sir Malcolm is struggling with a seriously depressed income level?
Surely his opinion on any topic is dubious at best.
Donald says:
10 May, 2015 at 1:52 pm
That’s classic.
“Here, I had a thought. The Tories surely rely on a fair number of voters in England voting against their own interests, and I imagine the press are instrumental in persuading them to do that.”
If you read the BTL comments on most media articles you will find that many commentators can’t string a sentence together, but still support the Tory/UKIP agenda. The “Great Unwashed” are easily fooled.
Now, I am aware that criticising spelling and grammatical errors is frowned upon, please let me qualify my own position.
I ain’t no PhD.
I ain’t got a degree.
I ain’t no critical thinker.
I do, however, know when I’m being sold a dead parrot.
So, for the life of me, I can’t understand how so many people can be easily fooled by the press. Perhaps it’s because many never read beyond the headline and the first few paragraphs. Why? You would never buy a series of books and only read the first chapter of each.
Living on my own (nobody loves me!) and having no set routine I often find myself awake at ungodly hours of the morning, so, I often go online then where I find “breaking news” reporting growing anger over whatever story they are pushing on behalf of Westminster. I find myself wondering “who are these sleepless angry bastirts commenting at 2:30am”? I have asked that question online(without the bastirts).
That is why I have been banned from commenting on the BBC News website for the past two years.
Intelligent thought is easily “moderated” out. What remains is the Neo-Liberal message.
Brian – he likes a laugh..
@Robert peffers
That belief about the Scottish economy is pretty widely held down there. When you ask what the English economy is based on you either get the blank stare or the ‘city of london powerhouse’ line.
I always reply to the latter line asking exactly what that means. Then I get the blank stare.
The height of volatility is an economy based on accounting entries and bets taken on accounting entries and the price of commodities – all underwritten by…
You guess it… the tax payer.
Tactical voting has been going on for years, and this is what the Pouters never understood. Thursday was the first time many SNP-inclined voters had a chance to vote SNP without it being a wasted vote. That’s how we managed to go from fourth to first in several seats. Aberdeen South, for example, didn’t really only have 10% support for the SNP in 2010; but if you wanted your vote to count, it was either Labour or Lib Dems.
That huge swathe of folk finally voting for the party they wanted – along with all the new SNP voters – meant the Pouters didn’t stand a chance.
Watching Sky news and they have in the bottom right corner a graphic listing the seats won. From left to right it has “Tory 330, labour 232, lib dem 8, UKIP 1, SNP 56, others 23”
They just canna bring themselves to put SNP in 3rd where they should be.
So the UK establishment are already trying to relegate SNP to 5th. Of course they’ll justify it as votes cast not seats won and shout about PR knowing PR would wipe out Tory and labour votes so it won’t be implemented.
@ Robert Peffers
Was it yon Janet Dailey from Sun Te lie graph ?
She ay gets ma goat , nae maetter fit she says !
If there was massive tactical voting against the SNP, it was dwarfed by the tactical voting for the SNP.
From Rifkind to McConnel and all the “has beens” inbetween, we have heard drivel all day about holding back Smith and reviewing the full scope of devolved powers via Royal Commissions and other variations on the famous “Kick this into the long grass”.
Smith is not enough but we must ensure this is pushed through NOW. If we listen to these devious b*******s we will get tied up in debate. Whitehall civil servants are the Worlds experts and talking and doing nothing.
“…ensure you put difficult issues into a committee/commission. They spend YEARS taking Minutes!”
Kenny
Re SOS for Scotland
I’ve a feeling that the post may be scrapped
If Cameron is actually thinking of Federalism, then its another reason for not having the Scottish office
Scottish Office and SOS for Scotland may be part of impending negotiation ‘chips’ on the poker table
There is something genuinely disturbing about the parochialism of the Pouters. Effie Deans welcomes the Tory majority at Westminster because she reckons it effectively neuters the SNP bloc. The thought that the coming Tory cuts will cause misery and suffering, not only in Scotland, but throughout the UK, doesn’t enter her head. Just as long as there are no ructions in her own wee world, she’s happy.
Effie has written that she’s an academic who works at the University of Aberdeen. I have to say that if she hadn’t volunteered that information I would never have suspected anything of the sort.
I’m not at all certain that the SNP MPs will be quite as ineffectual as Effie Deans expects…
I worry for poor Duncan H during these dark days for Scottish Labour. He is taking great solace in pointing out that the SNP received less than 50% of the popular vote.
The figure is actually 49.97% according to Duncan, seemingly oblivious to the idea that his figure is in itself rounded down to 2 decimal places.
Perhaps it is keeping him going. I have to say that Duncan and his team in Edinburgh South did well to stem the tide – they seemed to have a far more visible campaign than anything I saw in Edinburgh North and Leith by labour. Online presence seemed much stronger – I wouldn’t be surprised if the activist base was much broader as well.
Of course the smear campaign against Neil Hay must have had some effect.
One thing that baffles me about Ian Murray – years have passed and that door still hasn’t been repainted. Surely out of the 19293 folk who voted for him there is a decent painter and decorator who can give him a wee deal and restore that green door to its former glory?
Marcia
haha spot on, we don’t tell them anything do we?
🙂
Off topic, I don’t mean to offend but I’m fed up of reading Wings and the comments about Wales when people are so ill informed to the situation down here, so I thought I’d post a few facts/points to note when thinking about Wales and the political situation.
Population
About 25% of the Welsh population was born elsewhere in the UK, that’s 500,000 people mainly English who now live in Wales and have a disproportionate influence on elections.
Why, they are mainly retired (over 60) who vote and are staunch unionists top up the existing Tory and now UKIP vote, but that doesn’t explain all the Tory/kipper vote. Wales has a lot of what the pollster call the ‘economically left behinds’ particularly in Labour areas where they have done sweet FA for people for decades and they’ve turned to UKIP because Plaid Cymru either wont talk about immigration or welcome immigration.
Media in Wales
The media is another issues BBC still dominate and the welsh print press is one Trinity Mirror rag called the Western Mail and there are no Welsh editions of the Sun, Mirror, Daily Mail, Times either it’s all UK focussed, to the point where almost 40% of voters in a recent poll thought that health was still controlled by the UK Government when it’s been devolved for 15 years.
Yes there are well read nationalist blogs but nothing compares to the reach or influence of Wings, Bella Caledonia, Common Space or the National to give the other side and as Wales is poorer it’s even more difficult to raise money for project, but that’s not an excuse.
Plaid Cymru & the Greens
Plaid Cymru (PC) has a lot of baggage mainly around the welsh language that on 20% of the population speak, they tend to live in the seats PC win, but the largest population base in south east Wales where the population are overwhelmingly English speaking and Labour down here uses that to divide the vote.
Despite Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood fining favour in Scotland, England and Ireland during the campaign, she’s not a leader and was put in the shade by Nicola Sturgeon both times in the debates, she also doesn’t appeal to much of the welsh electorate who aren’t as hardcore socialist/borderline communist as Leanne and her team. Add those two factors Together and you perhaps might see why Plaid struggle
The Greens aren’t a separate party in Wales and the women who leads the Green branch is a patronising Joanne Lumley type whose on tape mocking welsh people and accent and she refused to work with Leanne and Plaid Cymru despite anti austerity alliance during the election.
Labour in Wales
‘Welsh’ Labour is a toxic as its Scottish branch but the opposition down here is weak and divided and with in built Labour majorities in most valleys constituencies the sheeple as I call them keep handing Labour victory after victory.
I don’t know if anything will change and I wish you all the best, but just bare in mind when you next mock us here in Wales that we really are up against it for all sorts of historical and cultural reasons that some of us are trying our best to over turn.
Had a wander through some of the wealthiest parts of Iain Murray’s constituency a week before the election. There were Labour posters in the windows of houses that sell for anything in excess of 1-2 million pounds, the grandest of the grand mansions.
Make no mistake, Murray depends upon Tory votes for his career. Red Tories indeed.
Charles Edward, I thought Michael Gove was now Justice Secretary, working or not with Theresa May, who apparently loathes him. I thought it curious that a supposed Scotsman was English Justice Sec.
Re broadcasting in Scotland, I think the SNP will push for that and a tory gov is more likely to give it to us because Cons are a lost cause and BBC Scotland is pro Lab.
Even though we have 56 MPs vsv 600, we will be in 3rd place therefore access to all the committees and chairing some, this puts us in a powerful position.
Also Faisal Islam said that he didn’t think Lab would go for an independent party as they would lose out big time on ‘short money’ as to gain access to that need at least 2 MPs
Clootie at 357pm,
I agree with you, Westminster are the world experts at putting things into committees which then take five years to report. The SNP should not tolerate ANY obfuscation of any kind. Powers either given NOW, or not at all – as we all know, it requires no debate, merely a signature from the PM.
We in Scotland, have NO need for another Calman p*ss take.
The SNP need to go in hard and fast, no messing, no delays.
@ rongorongo at 1.33
There were 32 seats (including all the Glasgow ones) where the SNP got more than 50% and several others where they came so close that any tactical voting would have had to be organized with extraordinary precision and trust. Just wasn’t going to happen.
@ Helena Brown
Not only is it odd to make Gove work with someone who detests him, in charge of English justice when he is originally Scottish, but he is now the second person in a row to hold that post who is not a lawyer.
The legal profession made enough fuss when Grayling was appointed; I don’t think they are going to take too kindly to Gove. So it does seem a strange choice all round; there must be a lot of scores to settle!
Tactical voting has been going on for years, and this is what the Pouters never understood.
I voted Anne Begg and then stopped after their Gulf war. I voted Nicol Steven once tactically probably, sorry LORD Nicol Steven. Christ that chump showed himself up to be another sock puppet of the union on BBC vote SLab forever Scotland election special.
Voters of Scotland were not voting tactically.
SNP won by a landslide but this landslide was in effect the YES vote for Scottish independence that would have been Sept 18 2014, without Project Fear UKOk, SLabour, STV, BBC style lies and fury.
Never forget. Never forgive.
#BBCout.
See what I did there #SNPout?
Watching Iplayer and jack maconnell. He’s an awful man.
tactile-vision
You lucky bastard. 🙂
link to youtube.com
Tories got 15% and are still our government, in Scotland! I think we don’t need to use flowery polemics, to explain the problem with democracy in the UK.
The anti Scottish rhetoric the Tories and press in England pushed for the Tories to win the GE will not now or ever go back in the box in England. I agree with massie that England has ended the union not Scotland.
Crazycat. I like the way you say formely Scottish. It’s like the artist formerly known as. Made me laugh.
Tories change their nationality when they go to London!
The love bomb continues in the shires!
link to heraldscotland.com
Just been reading Kevin Mackenna’s piece and it was an interesting read, but while reading the posts below it seems the slab lot are still delusional.
They believe if the SNP had not stated that they were willing to work with UK lab, then they would have got the vote in England they still won’t take responsibility for what they have done to themselves.
England went to the right I even seen one x coal miner on TV declaring he voted Tory because he did not trust labour, my god what.
The slab need to clean out all the careerist, at local council, Scottish parliament level they are doing nothing but hampering our children’s future.
@Brian Powell says: 10 May, 2015 at 3:00 pm:
“Did McConnell give any reason why Murphy/Dugdale should stay after losing all but one of the Lab Mps”
Well, yes & no, This is, “Baron Jack Wilson McConnell, of Glenscorrodale” , we are talking about here. Not your common 5/8, or as my old, late departed friend, use to say about him, “gies a match, McConnell’s oot again”, The Baron says lots and lots of words – but it’s making sense of them I have trouble with. So I’m not sure just what he said. I just usually take is as read that it was a load of nonsense, meaningless words.
Talking about Lords – is it not Westminster protocol that former First Ministers are offered a Baronetcy? So where’s oor Eck’s? They might at least have made the offer to give him the pleasure of turning it down or taking his £300 quid a day and giving it to a food bank.
Don’t know about the rest of you but I’m fair knackered marching up and down while waving my Union Jack flag!
You’ve got to hand it to the BBC, the British Establishment’s favourite channel, they certainly know how to put on these hours-long pomp-and-ceremony empirical-fanfares-to-warmongering circuses for the masses better than anyone. And the, mostly, English audiences just lap it up.
Of course, the BBC have had years of practice to make perfect.
(The above does not take away my profound respect for those who died serving their country/countries)
Just seen a Labour MP on telly saying basically that Labour lost MPs in “our” Scottish cities. Meaning of course,Labours cities, I think. I thought they were Scotlands cities,belonging to Scotland and her people.
@Kevin Evans
10 May, 2015 at 4:27 pm
Yep seen wee lord Jack MacConnell on BBC today and his voice was quivering like a leaf in the wind, he has no clue what to say or do.
Apologies if this has already been posted.
“SNP wins election in Gorleston-on-sea” (England)
link to archive.is
🙂
Robert Louis says:
Had a wander through some of the wealthiest parts of Iain Murray’s constituency a week before the election. There were Labour posters in the windows of houses that sell for anything in excess of 1-2 million pounds, the grandest of the grand mansions.
Make no mistake, Murray depends upon Tory votes for his career. Red Tories indeed.
I did a bit of canvasing in Edinburgh South, pre-indyref. I can confirm that many of the Labour supporters there, are outwardly comparatively wealthy. They were obviously people with aspirations, had worked hard or had had lucky breaks. They did not want to see all they had, destroyed by some fascistic nationalist project. They also tended to support Trident and ‘liberal intervention’, and weren’t too keen on immigration. They had bought into the New Labour koolaid 100% and could quite accurately have been described as Red Tories.
Archie McPherson? A man who used to commentate on football matches for BBC Scotland? That guy?
And he is invited on to BBC’s (surprise, surprise) Radio 4 as some kind of authoritative voice regarding Scotland and its politics, who then goes on to rubbish the SNP and its voters….?
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
I really don’t consider this election a complete success not one Labour candidate in Scotland lost their deposit
What’s all that about
must do better the next time
Can anyone provide official figures on the vote split for Shetland?(as opposed to Orkney and Shetland)
Archie McPherson? A man who used to commentate on football matches for BBC Scotland? That guy?
I heard Archie on #BBCout r4 lunchtime too. Having shouted at him up in his scaffolding tv tower at Pittodrie back in the day, its great to hear the Rangers biased old git in such fine fettle at 79!
Archie’s a politician now though, so he thinks he can fart out stuff like “when heavy industry disappeared from the Clyde” and he’ll get away with it.
Scottish industry did not “disappear” from Scotland. All of it was shut down by exact same red and blue tory boys that thought they were all right UKOK jack, for ever and ever, so fcuk Scotland.
Took quite a long time but now they’re gone, sorry “disappeared”.
“Hurrah for the Yellowshirts”, sticks in the craw of the Daily Mail as 56 Social Democratic MP’s travel to Westminster, however “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” doesn’t?
The Rothermere’s and their Fascist and later Nazi sympathies should be brought up to any Daily Mail reader you know and rubbed into their bigoted faces. However it probably won’t work as they are too far down the dark path to save. It’s not a nice place to be.
Stephen.
Mealer,
Apparently Shetland voted SNP, but Orkney voted Liberal. I’m trying to find the figures and the reason why?
Love the idea of Tory voters in Dumfries and Galloway following the Daily Mail’s advice and voting Labour, only to discover that they came in 3rd enabling the SNP’s new MP Richard Arkless to beat the tories into 2nd place :).
Helena Brown, my bad.
Not the first time I’ve been misinformed.
Don’t know anything funny to say about that..
I wonder which catagory Theresa falls into..
‘hotties or harridens’ (Ms Vine)
Sorry, carrying a joke beyond the limits of pleasantry.
I see that some elements of the MSM appear to be want to settle some old scores with Salmond after the general election victory. Expect them to try and downgrade Salmond`s immense contribution to the SNP. Even Iain Macwhirter is at it. Apparently the SNP was not social democratic before Nicola Sturgeon took over, and Eck was not likeable and he is a male. Sturgeon has done very well but Salmond set things up for her on a plate. Lets not allow the MSM to rewrite history.
Bugsbunny 5.19
Aye,difficult to find anything on the net resembling an official figure for Shetland and Orkney separately.Detail is still sketchy in other areas of interest too,such as how many deposits were lost etc.
Just looking at a couple of pictures taken at todays VE event in London
Showing Nicola talking to Boris Johnson and another talking to Michael Fallon
In any good negotiation’s, it helps to start with introductions 🙂
Ignore the actual ill informed article in the Mail, just focus in on the pictures complete with body language
link to dailymail.co.uk
Human rights- not devolved? Link from the peat worrier to this.
link to lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk
Its interesting that Jack McConnell is bending to the winds of change with vague nod to a Federal system
saying that the Smith commission was rubbish and that Cameron should recognise that its not one nation but multi national
Ok, I don’t think McConnell is that influential , but if more Labour and Tory’s start leaning with the winds of change, we could be in for interesting times
So in effect our fellow no voting scots have lumbered us with another 5 years of Tory rule. Sorry for bring blunt but what a shower of utter shitebags.
Another epistle from the telegraph.
link to archive.is
joemcg 5.46,
I think it’s important to remember the lies,bullying and fear those often elderly No voters were subjected to by all the apparatus of the British state,including the Labour Party.
O/T Sorry.
But I need to get this off my chest.
Ruth Davidson has shown in the last wee while that she is not the nice straight talking other that she makes out to be,far from it.
The tweet of voter intimidation scam that was plastered all over the MSM in minutes is as cynical and demonising as it gets.
So I won’t be joining her fan club anytime soon.
The fact that WM tories think highly of this scumbag says enough to me already.She should be pulled on this at any and every opportunity to explain why she declared this lie.And not allowed to fob us off.
And while I’m at the gripe-when is fat Fozzy going to get questioned on the Nicola Frenchgate fiasco when he was 100% behind that stitchup?
Rant over .
Mealer-aye I suppose you are right. Just don’t think I can ever forgive or forget.
@ Edward (5.38pm).
“Ignore the actual ill informed article in the Mail, just focus in on the pictures..”
(direct link to Unionist rag removed)
Are you for real?
Here’s a better one for you, i think most of us will just completely ignore your plea for us to click on your direct link to the ‘Hatemail’ as we are not in the business of helping those Unionist scumbags achieve their advertising revenue targets.
But then again i suspect you are already aware of that.
Try archiving, it’s a simple and wonderful invention.
link to archive.is
😉
Graeme says:
10 May, 2015 at 5:06 pm
I really don’t consider this election a complete success not one Labour candidate in Scotland lost their deposit
What’s all that about
must do better the next time
Bugger! I bet 50p with sig other they would loose 3 lol
joemcg 6.01
It might be hard to forgive and forget but after a few years more of Tory austerity it might not be so difficult to persuade.
Joemcg: I agree. You get a pile of shitebags from a shower of arseholes. For very short term benefits, (even if it’s in their own heads, the NO majority OAP’s,not them all, but the majority, stabbed us all in their back).
Postal votes should be abolished and all people that can’t attend should be given proxy votes and people with the same party allegiance, say an official party member, should be given the right to vote for more than one person, so SNP party member votes SNP for SNP supporter, ect, and the same for all other parties. So even the bedridden can vote.
Postal votes can be tampered with.
Stephen.
Stoker
My problem with archive.is, is that I’m boycotting Israel. Though it won’t provide an archieve (does everything need archiving?), you could always use tinyurl. I’m not sure though, if that still generates click revenue if you refrain from clicking on the article?
link to tinyurl.com
One way I hope the SNP56 can start shaking things up in Westminster is not to play along with the archaic pairing system for MPs – where an MP arranges with a member on the opposite benches not to attend on votes where his opposite member is absent.
There has been very little said on this, but I wonder if some occasions where MPs have received pelters for not voting on certain debates, were because their opposite number (who we never know) was at his daughter’s graduation, attending a funeral, or some other unrelated event.
While I have sympathy for this arrangement on non-important debates where policies are not likely to be changed or implemented on the basis of the vote, it’s still vital that SNP MPs have the freedom to vote on whatever debate they want to, especially with regard to votes which affect Scotland, or involve the imposition of austerity.
This will end, or rather will prevent, a cosy comfortable atmosphere developing – and possibly may endanger the Tory majority if they’re not careful.
It may not be cricket, but who likes cricket?
Correct Yes voters have every right to blame no voters for the Tories. Whatever way you cut it. Being part of the UK means we have to put up with right wing England’s messy choices for decades at a time.
There must come a point where no voters realise that they cannot alter the UK government!
I was reading about Quebec. They lost the first referendum in 1980 40/60.
They then had to wait until 1995 to lose again by 1%! Now the national party is in a mess. So this idea that you wait 10 to 15 years between referendums is wrong. I think you need to work with energy and momentum and don’t lose speed.
Being in Westminster too long is not good for the SNP. They need to stick to their task and get another referendum. There needs to be a referendum commitment in the 2016 manifesto. Anything less is playing a dangerously long game of brinkmanship.
If FFA is offered by Cameron the SNP need to grasp it. If we can get economically independent then we might not need to convince people of the merits.
Hosie this morning advised it would take 2-3 years to get FFA. This he said was due to legistlation moving like treacle. It needn’t be that way if the process is ratified by Cameron straight away.
Stoker
I will be kind to you and say that I actually forgot to use archive.is
Will remember the next time
Perhaps you will be more diplomatic the next time an error is made 😉
PS Im no fan of the daily heil
Just a passing thought.How many Scottish seats will Labour be able to contest in the next UK General Election assuming that there will still be a UK?
Off topic, I know, but a bit of light relief.
I have just received an email from a UK based diet and exercise site telling me, a male, and I kid you not, to “Tone up my TOSH for Summer”.
WTF? It’s bad enough with creeping Anglo-isms, but this?
KFC Drive THRU, TV PROGRAMS, I’ve even seen people write into newspapers and spell colour as COLOR, and tonight as TONITE.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry to find out, I now have a tush. I better watch I don’t slip on a banana skin and land on my “fanny”.
Bloody hell, enough with creeping Americanisms.
Stephen.
Paul Hutcheon, Sunday Herald, quoting a “top Scottish Labour MSP” on Murphy:
“It’s absurd he’s even considering staying. He’s about as popular as herpes.”
We watched the election results on the I player last night,
just to see Jakey Burds face explode with visceral hatred and bile, at the most amazing night in politics.
We skipped through some of it, as it seemed to be subject to the usual bias from Labour Broadcasting Corp.
It sounds like SLab “RIP” still don’t have a FU*KING clue, and never will.
Look out for the 2 war criminals Broon & Bliar making a come back, to save the nation, as I said before “Not a FU*KING clue”.
Does anyone remember the film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves,
the scene with the witch (Geraldine McEwan I think) casting spells, I can see Maigrit Curran playing that part perfectly.
Edward
Of course you forgot and i was being kind to you.
Sorry, i forgot to be diplomatic, will remember next time.
🙂
____________
CameronB Brodie wrote:
“My problem with archive.is, is that I’m boycotting Israel.”
I don’t follow, Cameron, educate me here.
Democracy Reborn
My money is on Deputy Dugdale saying that 😉
David Cameron interviewed by Matt Frei for Channel 4 News:
“There’s not going to be another referendum.”
MSM are now highlighting, ‘ad nauseum’, that the SNP benefited disproportionately under ‘First Past The Post’, (FPTP). They conveniently forget, of course, that the biggest benefactors under the FPTP system are the Tories and Labour.
Yes, the SNP won 25 more seats under ‘FPTP’, than under ‘Proportional Representation’ (PR), but the Tories won 91 more seats under FPTP than if PR had been used; and Labour won 35 seats more under FPTP than PR.
The MSM should be reminded of this each & every time they attempt to raise this ‘unfair’ canard.
Tories share of UK popular vote: 36.9% of 650 =240 seats;plus 91
Labour share of UK popular vote: 30.4% of 650 =197 seats;plus 35
SNP share of UK popular vote: 4.7% of 650 = 31 seats; plus 25
LD share of UK popular vote: 7.9% of 650 = 51 seats; minus 43
UKIP share of UK popular vote: 12.6% of 650 = 82 seats; minus 81
Green share of UK popular vote: 3.8% of 650 = 25 seats; minus 24
Sheeeeesh!
That idiot Cameron has just said on TV, (Ch4 News).
“The UK Stood alone against Hitler.”
What the hell do they teach these posh boys at their posh schools? I was living in a cottage that had a large orchard, (so was protected from military occupation),but lay within, and surrounded by, Bordon Camp, (Hants). I was friends with the Canadian troops across the wire fence, the ones who got wiped out in the Dieppe raid.
The entire British Empire, Free French, Free Poles and many, many more stood shoulder to shoulder with the UK. Why do these idiots insult these brave people who died to supported the United Kingdom?
O/T
I am working abroad just now and I was asked an interesting question – ‘How were the SNP allowed to win all those seats?’. It made me think that the campaign to follow the ballot boxes might have worked and also might explain the Tory majority.
Stoker
Perhaps I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, but I thought archieve.is is a commercial venture. As such, it’s turnover contributes to the Israeli economy. An economy I do not wish to support.
P.S. I didn’t mean to get in the way. Here, I’ll hud the jackets. 😉
Seems like the Lib dems have slipped into their oneses put on girly flick (When Harry met Sally I’m told)popped the top off a Ben and Jerrys and got their pals in the media to put out a wee feel good lie,BBC always look after their own.
Seems the lib Dums have picked up 5000 new members since the election,
AYE RIGHT!
So whit do we have here then? ah voted fur the SNP but am lookin aboot fur the people who really represent ma views, so the Lib Dems? well they lost 49 odd seats across the UK,goat their arse handed tae them am telt, looks good to me ah’ll jine them. 🙂
Live stream from london occupy democracy.
link to tinyurl.com
@Mealer 5:07
“Can anyone provide official figures on the vote split for Shetland?(as opposed to Orkney and Shetland)”
I heard on Newshaft on Thusday evening/Friday morning that Sheltand voted 42% SNP and 38% LibDem and who would win now depended on the result in Orkney, which wasn´t announced until a while later.
@scottieDog says: 10 May, 2015 at 3:39 pm:
“That belief about the Scottish economy is pretty widely held down there. When you ask what the English economy is based on you either get the blank stare or the ‘city of london powerhouse’ line. “
I always knew that the figures were always wrong but lacked any way to get enough information to prove it. Then I read an article by Niall Aslan – The Great Deception that exposed the lies. This has been redone as The Great Obfuscation. Niall is a foreBnsic Accountant and has produced some great stuff. Both papers can be found here : –
link to electricscotland.com
Along with lots of other great stuff including an article on PFI/PPP debt. All very well worth reading and full of good information.
@Aceldo Atthis
Exactly what I was saying on the previous thread earlier. Cameron thinks to lay a trap for the SNP – we must ensure he doesn’t get away with it.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
@The Earthshaker
I doubt you’ll find many (if any) here mocking the situation you find yourselves in Wales. Most folk on here are well aware of what you are up against. Very similar to the ‘Scottish cringe’ but times 10. I would offer sympathy, but I know that like us cybernats you wouldn’t want it. What you will always find here on Wings is solidarity with the Welsh cause.
I’m bored, but not the chairman of the board, but I’m bored.
Over three years of doing the referendum stuff, followed immediately by the election stuff, all in our own way, and now it’s over, it was a huge win on the 56 SNP MPs, a bit of a setback on the Indy ref but now I’ve read the post-mortems, done my own and what comes next, and the question is, what does come next? That’s up to Sturgeon and the 56 SNP MPs, nothing I can do.
Yawn. I might have to do some work 🙁
If you promise ,nay, vow,with the assent of the PM of the day, a thing to win the Indyref,does Scotland have a right to some kind of recourse like when if you buy a dodgy product?
@ CameronB Brodie.
Mmm, interesting!
Thanks for that.
Never heard that before.
I’m now on a quest to find out.
As far as i was aware it’s a not for profit set-up?
Robert Peffers @ 6.53
Well at least he said ‘the UK’ thus including Wales Scotland and NI. During the 70th anniversary commemoration of Dunkirk the BBC reporter said ‘1940 , when England stood alone’. That was us told then.
Cameron probably thought he was being inclusive by saying UK but I bet he had his fingers crossed and was really thinking: England.
It would never cross his tiny mind that anyone else being involved was anything other than a secondary issue.
@Stoker
That link to the mock election held by the primary school kids in England with the SNP winning has been the best thing I have yet read about this election.
Absolutely priceless!
“Party leader Emily campaigned with Keegan King as deputy. Emily said she was “overjoyed” at winning the election and when asked what she thought contributed to the victory, she said: “The policies, which included free nursery places for three and four-year-olds.”
Isn’t it so nice of McConnell, Archie McSquintbannet et al to inform us how we should progress. Perhaps somebody should inform them that they no longer have any responsibility in Scottish decision making. They don’t seem to understand that they lost. Perhaps it’s time to get over it.
They appear to have a bright future, however, according to Alex Rowley (MSP), with an abundance of young talent such as….wait for it….. Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra.
I think we should just leave them to their own devices until it’s time to call the vet in to have them put down.
As for Cameron, I’ll give him a week after he attempts to delay the EU in/out ref before there’s a full scale revolt in the Tory ranks. If only we had kept our EU card close to our chest, our support for Cameron on that matter could have been a great bargaining tool. However, it may still work in our favour (opt out).
Kirriereoch 7.11
Thanks for that!
Stoker
As far as i was aware it’s a not for profit set-up?
If this is the case I will need to reconsider my position. Time to take a closer look myself. 😉
@Tackety Beets says: 10 May, 2015 at 3:47 pm
“Was it yon Janet Dailey from Sun Te lie graph?”
She ay gets ma goat , nae maetter fit she says !
That’s the old bag, Tackety Beets, I just couldn’t put a name to the face. She is freelance and also writes for
The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator.
After you came up with the name I knew why my usually good memory let me down. There was a USA novel writer of the same name, (but her surname was spelled differently). My late wife used to read some of her novels but it was romantic stuff and not my kind of fiction.
This present live one is a real poisonous piece of work.
Thanks for the memory jog.
@ bugsbunny 6:29pm
I’ll follow your O/T and add to the mix the adverts for films coming out at the pictures (not moovies), and when they say the date. They miss of the th, nd and rd form the date.
It’s May 7, not May 7th.. does my nut in.
Andy Murray has just seen off Nadal and won his second clay court final. Seems the British Number one might have become a foreign player over the past week. Not getting much praise these days
Pic of Tom Harris constituency office up for sale (stu’s twitter link) Love it!
I read nearly £12M WM golden parachute payments for all UK MP’s who are defeated. Most from Scotland.
PS:
Magnificent Murray mugs Nadal in the final (on clay) 🙂
6-3 6-2 Two titles in a row.
Robert Peffers 7.19,
We owe Niall Aslan a debt of gratitude for his work over many years.
Not a bad week to be an independence supporter, 56 MPs and our great sporting son Andy beats Rafa in the Madrid Final 6-3, 6-2!!
Tam Jardine re Ian Murray’s door “Surely out of the 19293 folk who voted for him there is a decent painter and decorator who can give him a wee deal and restore that green door to its former glory?”
Maybe it’s a landlord maintenance item , step forward with paintbrush in hand , Nigel Griffiths . If memory serves , he was a dab hand at decorating his WM office.
Neil Findlay on STV news saying Labour need a clear out from top to bottom, new organisation, new policy. He’s not wrong.
Big Jock at 6.18
With you 100%. FFA is a trap. Another referendum as quickly as possible should be the aim or we get trapped into never ending negotiation about degrees of devo whatever.
We nearly won last September (perhaps we did?).
We are better placed now. Why then should we step back?
Everybody I know wants another referendum and the only people who don’t want one are those who apparently won the last one.
I think Nicola and our high command know exactly what they are doing. They are demanding what we will not get.
@yesindyref2
It’ll give you just a little more time. 🙂
link to youtube.com
I never liked it either.
I suppose the papers will have to scrape around for stories too!
Still dim Jim should be singing his swan song by Tuesday.
GMS will also be dull, no SNHS bad or SNP admits etc etc.
Stoker
Archive.is is a privately funded on-demand archiving site, similar to WebCite.
I’ve not managed to find anything more enlightening than the above.
link to archiveteam.org
@CameronB Brodie
I may sound a bit ignorant here but what does archive.is have to do with Israel?
Yellow is the new Brave.
@JBS says: 10 May, 2015 at 4:07 pm:
“… Effie has written that she’s an academic who works at the University of Aberdeen. I have to say that if she hadn’t volunteered that information I would never have suspected anything of the sort.”
There are some great and effective academics. Many do live in the real world but there are many where academia is a wee protected, closed, safe bubble that isolates these other types of academic in a wee world of their very own.
Strikes me Effie may just imagine her wee bubble is safer in the hands of a Union Establishment party.
Evening, since when did Ikea start using the map of Britain for their advertising purposes? 🙂 That second map, it’s all mellow yellow and moody blues.. I’ll go for two of your Tarva’s please!
The press and the power that they appear to possess, is visibly shocking.. take note new readers.
We should be seeing the ‘world map of Scotland’ by now, as part of a European family. All of our countries are built upon different frames.
We journey on..
James123,
I might be wrong, but isn’t is at the end of archive.is the internet address for ISrael?
Stephen.
Andrew Marr says there is a secure majority for the SNP in Scotland, and Tory insurgency in England.
No, wait a minute … Perhaps he said it the other way round!
Wee shite! An absolute disgrace to his roots!
@The Earthshaker
You wrote a really good post about the political situation in Wales and why it is that this exists.
It threw me a bit though when you stated in your final paragraph:
“I don’t know if anything will change and I wish you all the best, but just bare in mind when you next mock us here in Wales that we really are up against it for all sorts of historical and cultural reasons that some of us are trying our best to over turn.”
Seriously I have no recall of any poster on Wings mocking Wales or the Welsh. Certainly I have never read such a post though admit I could have missed these mockers you speak of.
On the other hand, your not here just to spread mistruths are you?
Rob James
“They appear to have a bright future, however, according to Alex Rowley (MSP), with an abundance of young talent such as….wait for it….. Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra.”
Maybe their problem is their definition of talent.
.is is the country code for Iceland not Israel, Isreal is .il.
Cameron says there will not be another referendum.
In fact as we live in a Western democracy there will be another referendum whenever Scotland or its Parliament decides to have one.
Under international law We do not have to have UK permission to decide how we wish to be governed or have a referendum on it, we merely have to ensure that the process is free, open and democratic.
In fact the Scottish Parliamant could decide to vote itself independent (as a number of devolved legislatures have done in recent decades) as any restrictions on its power are in democratic terms essentially voluntary.
Cameron is bluffing.
.is is Iceland
link to en.wikipedia.org
Correct .is is Iceland.
I buy my Icelandic sweaters from
link to handknit.is
CameronB Brodie
Regards link to archive.is
‘IS’ is actually Iceland not Israel 🙂
The two letter internet country code for Israel is ‘IL’
🙂
James123
Equally ignorant here. Is it not an Israeli based operation?
Rob James 7.58
Labour need a clear out?
I couldn’t agree more.Lets get rid of another load of Labour this time next year!
@ CameronB Brodie
The country domain .is, used by archive.is, stands for Iceland not Israel. Iceland in Icelandic is Ísland. I don’t know anything about the ownership of the website but the domain is registered to someone in Prague.
Israel uses the domain ending .il
Edward, Kenny
“Re SOS for ScotlandI’ve a feeling that the post may be scrapped”
I think that is an option on the cards.
I know the British Constitutional Unit, now at UCL, are advising that a new constitutional ministerial level post with a UK wide remit should be created.
@The Scottish Daily Mail on Wednesday –
“How your tactical vote will impact.. where switching allegiance could swing the results.”
More than suggestive, don’t you think?
Best wishes to the 56.. once you’s are in your seats, get a ceilidh a-going on in the commons!
@Dave McEwan Hill
“I think Nicola and our high command know exactly what they are doing. They are demanding what we will not get”.
Correct!
We want the whole empire biscuit including the cherry on the top.
But the voters in Scotland need to be persuaded through good parliamentary ground work that the WM system is flawed and not in the interests of the country (that’s not a Cameronism) I mean Scotland.
It won’t be easy but the 56 will have to work the system and dig the dirt first. Only when folk see we have tried our best and it’s no good will they coalesce behind a common cause.
We need high numbers for yes and the old union social ties (including folk like me) are edging towards the great unknown at a steady pace. It’s just a matter of timing.
.is is the country code for Iceland not Israel, Isreal is .il.
I feel rather silly now. Sorry folks. 😉
Interesting video from John Harris as he witnesses first hand the political earthquake in Scotland.
link to tinyurl.com
The UK stood alone against Hitler. Utter tripe.
26Million Russians died 1 in 6, protecting the West. They took the 11WW hit. Russia was devastated.
It is ironic that Scots who are justifiably irate that some English lump everything Scottish into one toxic bag then turn around and apply the English attitude towards Israel. Grow up. Not everyone in Israel agrees with the government.
@Robert Kerr
On the other hand, Jim Murphy buys his Israeli sweaters from http://www.handknit.il.
Jamie Arriere,
“One way I hope the SNP56 can start shaking things up in Westminster is not to play along with the archaic pairing system for MPs – where an MP arranges with a member on the opposite benches not to attend on votes where his opposite member is absent.”
Yes, I want to see at least 57 unionist MPs forced to turn up for Scottish debates.
I have faith that the 56 SNP MPs will not let down the people of Scotland.
Power of the Press indeed , see here for a treat , ( unfortunately paywalled)
link to heraldscotland.com
Democracy Reborn says: Paul Hutcheon, Sunday Herald, quoting a “top Scottish Labour MSP” on Murphy:
“It’s absurd he’s even considering staying. He’s about as popular as herpes.”
Who would have thought SLABs would have such a way with words? My favourite is Andy Kerr’s description of Jim Murphy’s entire election campign: akin to dad-dancing at the hippest Glasgow nightclub!
The Lib Dems have no way received new members! Only last week, Andrew Marr was saying to Clegg that “you’ve lost a third of your members”, I believe. Truth is not the Lib Dems’ strong point: remember their own “Lib Dem polls” showing them ahead in many Scottish seats?? Aye, richt….
The bank at Keflavic airport takes Scottish money no problem. Not so easy to change back to Sterling though.
Great country, great people. Nearest country to us that is really foreign. Go and enjoy.
Nicola, Alex and Co will get everything they want. There will be no austerity in Scotland. Alex knows where the bodies are buried and will exhume them. Total disclosure. Parliamentary privilege.
Cameron shows himself up for the posh boy fucker that he is by stating there won’t be another referendum, is this guy not supposed to be a statesman he’s the prime minister of the UK FFS.
After the election a real statesman would reflect on what happened, take stock and not come out with pish like this. It’s not in your gift to grant the Scots a referendum you moonfaced fucker.
Even Boris calmed the waters with his statement on a Federal solution but not Cam boy. Is Boris a better statesman than Cameron!! looks like it
@The Earthshaker says: 10 May, 2015 at 4:12 pm:
“Off topic, I don’t mean to offend but I’m fed up of reading Wings and the comments about Wales when people are so ill informed to the situation down here, so I thought I’d post a few facts/points to note when thinking about Wales and the political situation.
Well, Earthshaker, you do indeed offend. In the first place there is little criticism of Wales on this forum and you apparently are assuming we are ignorant of the situation in Wales. I assure you many of us know exactly what the situation there is.
The Plaid Cymru leader is actually well respected but, as our own leaders, not beyond criticism when making ignorant errors, (ignorant as in not knowing the facts). I have expressed mild disappointment in her claim that Wales should get funding on a par with Scotland.
Not because I grudge Wales any funding but because Ms Wood shows by such claims she doesn’t know the true facts of how the Barnett Formula works to fund the three devolved countries. I will continue explaining this as I rate not knowing the facts is the greatest error that causes division among UK countries.
In fact Wales is NOT less well funded than either Scotland or N. Ireland. The per capita funding for all four countries is based upon the value of the functions provided to the English directly from the United Kingdom Ministries because England has no, (elected as such), parliament she gets no block grant.
This English base per capita funding is what the Barnett Formula uses to calculate the block grants for N. I, Scotland and Wales. It does this by taking the value the English get directly from the UK ministries and dividing it by the population of England. It then takes the devolved functions the others get from the UK Ministries and allocates, on a per capita basis, the value that each Englander gets for that function. However, as England is the basic start point England gets less per capita funds as England has no devolved functions.
The country with the most devolved functions has to have more devolve funding to run them and that is N. I. Next most devolved is Scotland and last comes Wales. So there is actually no case to claim that Barnett funds any country more than the others.
As that funding is to cover the cost of the devolved functions from the UK ministries the difference is due to the different devolved functions. So Leanne is wanting funded on a par with Scotland but Scotland has more devolved functions to fund from it.
As I said I’m not grudging Wales anything but I am annoyed that Leanne is leaving herself open to being proved to not understand what she is asking for. For a start she seems not to know that on a per capita basis N.I. is highest funded.
If you must attempt to drive wedges between our two countries they you owe it to yourself to at least know what you are posting about.
Just a thought,when Murphy is sacked as he will have time on his hands will he go back to Glasgow Uni to finish his degree on shouting and bluster,it won’t cost him anything as eduction is free in Scotland.He might be able to get a job from his friend Macconnel.
O/T but Because Bomber Bliar and Crash Gordon were most successful/popular UKOK Prime ministers ever, I have thrown this delightful chap’s hat into the leadership ring. From Scottish Labour leader to British Labour leader and next British Prime minister. Come on how bad could he be?
link to bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk
Anent the “England standing alone” shite.
I cannot remember which one it was, but, in one of the programmes celebrating the 70th anniversary of VE-Day, there was a reference to Dunkirk, and Churchill mentioning that the British Empire now stood alone against Naziism.
This brought forth the comment from one of those listening: “That’s us all alone now – all 500 million of us.”