Wings Over Scotland

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? 😀

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 @ 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.

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 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

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

“Why is there yellow seats in Wales?”

That’s light green on my monitor.

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.

Gove has the best haircut tho.

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.
😉

@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. 🙂

Call me Dave 1.13
He could maybe do with a help.

@ a2

Thanks a2 it must be my old monitor as they look the same colour as the SNP seats in Scotland lol

@ 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?

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.

O/T
I see Blair is advocating the labour party retake the centre ground. A shift to the left then?

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.

@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!

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

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!

I have heard rumours that the Scottish Daily Mail have decided to go into map making for Lemming Farmers.

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.

@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.

@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”.

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!

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…..

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

““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.

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.

Lord Jack McConnell

ditch smith commission

walofs

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.

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.

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.

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

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 .

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.

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%.

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.

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!

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.

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.

@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.

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.

If there was massive tactical voting against the SNP, it was dwarfed by the tactical voting for the SNP.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

@ 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!

Watching Iplayer and jack maconnell. He’s an awful man.

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.

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!

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.

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)

@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.

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.

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

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”.

Mealer,

Apparently Shetland voted SNP, but Orkney voted Liberal. I’m trying to find the figures and the reason why?

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.

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.

Human rights- not devolved? Link from the peat worrier to this.

link to lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.co.uk

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.

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.

Mealer-aye I suppose you are right. Just don’t think I can ever forgive or forget.

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

must do better the next time

Bugger! I bet 50p with sig other they would loose 3 lol

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.

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?

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