Wings Over Scotland

Brilliant.

Aye says it all “seriously deluded”

Less talk mair runnin Jim they’re gaining on you.

Superb Chris, Jim needs to remember though, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’. 🙂

However, oor Jim appears to be running on his own there. Where’s the other architect of that ‘toxic’ campaign Mr McTernan? Now if ever a man deserves to share the stage and some of the limelight…

The concerning thing is though is that Mr.Murphy truly believes it!!! Deluded beyond doubt!!!

Should his advisers not be running alongside him, am sure it would have health benefits for everyone involved ????

Why can’t Ginger Dug and Bateman brilliant (although the latter choses to delete and ban. BBC habits die hard) not just give a bank account (+ name? ) details, so folk can donate. Some people want to donate (anonymously) for certain reasons, it is easier. Some people would not donate to Newsnetscotland while Tory Torrance was a commentator. Old habits die hard.

Or just put a name and address for a cheque on their site. Even a Box number would do.

Macart,,
… the puppet masters and the spin doctors have been in charge of the Labour Party since they invented the word “NEW”.
It is they, who maintain this sinister denial, pretending all is well, that they were right and the people were wrong.

They just cut the strings, watching as the flapping losers make even bigger fools of themselves.

Any change at “the top” should surely begin with the campaign managers, who’s LIES, the politicians failed to sell.

Old backdoor Jim the Creepy footpad thinks he is Teflon but they will catch him today me thinks.

Wee bit mean with the hair Chris 🙂

Famous15
Murphy didn’t sacrifice his own Ego, but he definitely sacrificed his own Egg.

Spot on the money Chris. Another Classic!!

I do think Creepy Jim is a bit of a scapegoat as Labour in Scotland signed their own death warrant with the better together campaign. I don’t think it would have mattered who took the reigns as the result would have been similar.

That said, Creepy is so full of himself that he actually thought that he could save Labour in Scotland. It won’t matter what they do if they keep things as they are they will be swept from Holyrood next year and then, perhaps more importantly, be swept from the local authorities the year after.

What is wrong with slabour is that they will NEVER seperate from uk labour, if they say they will it will just be a smokescreen for working UK labour back into favour in Scotland.

Just watch the venom at FMQ’s, where they almost always have the same Unionist attack on the same subject, one might call it, co-ordinated.

Despite their wailing they are every more right wing attempting to get more middle and upper class voters in England.That will continue.They will attempt to win Scotland back by lies and deceit. What’s new!

O.T. Watching RT this morning, head section was about a petition being signed in the North of England ” Scotland, please take us with you” signed by some 10 thousand and growing. Well, if that get’s really big, it is another wee worry for Tory Westminster.

Excellent cartoon.

Murphy shouldn’t be in politics, time to move on. He really shouldn’t be representing Scots. I say that not just on the basis of the last six months. I know people view him as an asset, from an SNP perspective, but he is not good for Scotland.

To be fair to the man, this election was always going to be a disaster for Labour to some extent. When he took the job it was going to end badly, the question was, just how badly. And, I suspect it was worse than he expected! However, having said that, he still ran a bloody awful campaign which certainly added to the scale of their defeat!

While the SNP ran a top-of-the-range campaign centred on standing up for Scotland, economic policy and chasing promises on powers …. Murphy decided to pursue football chanting and booze! Astonishingly poor judgement and showing complete incompetence.

Good bye, Mr Murphy. Enjoy the rest of your life out of politics.

The ‘National’ is selling well. Can’t get a copy anywhere now.

Keep on running, there is a TenK in Aberdeen this week-end. At this rate Jim will reach the Outer Hebrides. Spaced oot. Who will pay his wages. The e-mail dead, the phone cut off, the contacts lost. Bye Bye Jim. Enjoy the run into oblivion. It couldn’t come too soon. The research project on the broo. The role on the dole, to keep up the pension requirement. After threatening the elderly and the vulnerable with lies, not a rational political strategy for obvious reasons. There is a new generation, born every minute.

Enjoy the retirement. The rest will do. Finally Jim gie’s it a rest. Keep on running, keep on hiding, for one day yer’se been found out for all the lying and disguising. Too much spoofing. The real Jim has been found out and wanting. Hiding to nothing. Thanks for all the memories. Especially the best one on 8/7/15. Happy days.

Ahh, that’s a good film. One of Arnie’s better ones.

I wonder if the Beeb will show it again anytime soon?

I think this race will begin in Bath Street in about an hour

🙂

To be fair to Jim (although I am not sure why) what Labour needs is not so much another leader…they have had loads of those…what they it is a total rethink as to what Scottish Labour means. I think the big fear they have is that the answer would look awfully like the SNP.

Read this, along with the comments:

link to theguardian.com

…but he’s only been in the job 5 months, after all.

Doesn’t get it, can’t get it, won’t ever get it.

The baying mob behind are all pro London Rule,pro Trident and pro Austerity.Or,atleast,that’s what Labour fought the election on last week.Along with the Tories and Libdems.There is a limited number of people in Scotland who believe in these policies and three parties fighting for their vote.Labour got about half those votes.Not bad,I’d say.

@ Louis B

Nail on head. These poisonous creatures have caused more real harm throughout these islands with their strategies, their tactics and to them that’s all it is, a means to an end.

They are tasked with putting bodies in positions of power using any means necessary at their disposal. They don’t pause to consider collateral damage, real societal division, anger, pain or fear which they may spread in pursuit of this aim. They don’t stop to consider whether the people they are putting into these positions of influence over our lives are the right people. They simply have a job to do.

And what a job it is.

That looks nothing like Burt Lancaster. 🙂

Spot on the money again Chris, you should do this for a living !

hope to see the back of Murphy today, but not so sure that will happen, Labour are running about like headless chickens as it is, and still wanting to be under the London thumb.
Hope the tories don’t get any ideas about the petition from the north of England, they might think its a good idea and lump us together as a federal state and under the thumb of the southern sector.

While they may want to get rid of him and many do, I suspect they might try and let him stay.

They know they are going to get a beating in 2016. If they ditch Murphy now and let Dugdale take over, then when that inevitable defeat comes round, they’ll force her to stand down and they have to go through the whole process again. It’ll be a long time before they can rebuild their party.

If they let Murphy go forward then when the defeat comes they can get rid of him then. Even if he manages to get an msp seat in the process. He won’t have the excuse of “I was only in post 5 months” and will have led the party to two defeats. Then they let Dugdale take over and try to draw a line under the whole affair.

But this assumes a great many things. Support of the unions being one of them and that large number of unemployed MPs who want someone to take the fall for this.

Going to be an interesting day.

BBC are at it again paying less that 1 million a season for Scottish football (half gary linekers wage)
We contribute a 10th of the licence fee but only get a 60th of what england gets

204million was spent on match of the day
They also pay english league for highlights which is not included in above calculations

@ Ben Doon (9.32am).

Read yer Unionist link yersel.

We’re not in the habit of helping Unionist sites survive.

And btw, this thread is about today’s cartoon, don’t you
think it’s a bit rude not to even acknowledge the cartoon?

Tell me, Ben Doon, how many direct links to WOS does yer
Unionist rag allow on its comments sections?

If you must post links to Unionist rags please use archive.
link to archive.is

That’s grand Chris, except he should be carrying his own ball and chain.

He cocked up as leader not only in the 5 ways Stu gave us in “how the north was lost” but also in his choice of McTernan and the Fat Boy to run the campaign as a rerun of Project Fear and his totally unrealistic advice to Ed on how many seats he would deliver.

The only reason that he should stay as “leader” is to protect the re-organisation of the party while awaiting the gubbing due in 2016 when they can defenestrate him and let the new leader emerge

Get rid of (unelected) Dugdale as well. Get rid of the lot of them.They all deserve to go. Anyone who joins a Unionist Party, an extremely small number, are not operating in Scotland’s interest but in their own interest. Farewell. It’s been hard to know you. A rout. They have tried to bankrupt Scotland/UK.

Macart @ 9.39

What Sam says
ditto!

Folks, we have had over a week of well deserved fun.

We are all on a political high right now.

‘Scotland has spoken, Labour are finished, roll on 2016 where there will be an even bigger rout of the unionists.’ That seems to be the zeitgeist and understandably so.

But therein lies a great danger and now I am going to be the party pooper.

Please, please, please! realise that that is a very unliikely outcome in reality. Even if Murphy is retained as head SLAB boy.

Remember, the SNP majority in 2011 was “impossible”.

The Us admitted that was how the electoral system in Scotland was designed, even the MSM readily admit that. Because it is indisputably true.

What happened in 2011 was a perfect storm, a coming together of several unlikely events, which created the conditions for an SNP victory.

For example, the Libdem’s had committed ritual public suicide by allying with the Tories in 2010. Their Scottish vote nearly all went to the SNP.

For 2016, you can bet your bottom dollar, that whoever is the next Libdem leader, they will be the most anti-Tory one in living memory.

Scottish Labour will ‘rediscover’ socialist values and seek to distance themeselves from London Labour in a way they did not do in 2011. Perhaps even going so far as to have a separate faux SLAB manifesto (actually written one this time) and a new leader with some vestigial credibility in regard to traditional Labour principles and more than the occasional curiosity about this social phenomena thing of, what’s it called again? oh yes, honesty (Chisholm, Findlay?).

Even if Murphy is retained, he will simply shed his skin and the new one will be scaled Scotland first, relaxed about indy, social democratic, anti-Tory (no honestly) blah blah blah.

OK SLAB must decide today on the likelihood of him pulling that illusion off.

If they have any remaining functioning neurons, they will ditch him.

As things stand, especially if we allow complacency and expectation to creep in, it is far more likely that in 2016 the U-bot parties will gain a majority in Holyrood in 2016. And this time round they will form an immediate U-alliance regardless of whether the SNP are the largest party or not.

Even if the SNP repeat the ‘impossible’ there will still be enough U MSPs to enable the MSM to claim the tide has turned against independence.

We need to be prepared for that and we need the electorate to be prepared for that.

We can by a lot of hard work and a modicum of good luck again, secure another SNP majority but it will NOT be easy and certainly is not the formality many seem to think right now.

So that is what we are going to have to do.

Work our bloody socks off to at best seem to stand still.

Unless… well maybe more on that later, I’ve said enough for now.

P.S. Hope you read this Monday morning rather than Saturday morning, don’t want to spoil folk’s weekend.

Scottish Football got a sponsorship deal from Ladbrokes £2Million. Gambling sponsors. It’s only a game? Big business. Scottish football can seek out relevant Sponsorship. The Scottish Gov could help promote Sport and a healthy lifestyle.

English Premier Clubs are up to their eyes in debt, ready to collapse. Cheating the fans and pricing themselves out of the Market. Taking the fans for mugs. Laundering evaded tax money. Corrupt payments etc. The opium of the people. They take their eyes off the ball. An opportunist distraction from more relevant matters supported by Westminster and their associates. Support keeping Scottish football second class. Out of sight out of mind to the metropolis.

Westminster aims to keep Scotland a second class satellite to London S/E, by the Westminster majority,unequal economic policies. This has created the poverty in Scotland, especially in Glasgow. The state of Glasgow football. A distraction. Divide and rule. Bigotry never wins.

Steady, Robert Kerr

Mhairi Black is young: don’t think including her in any forum would be a statement of contempt.

haha nice one Chris 🙂

are you sure he is running away and isnt still chasing after his election campaign which ran away from him ,the mob that looks like they are chasing him is just the Labour party out campaigning its their new idea on how to win votes.

Mara thon man an thats aboot the size of hiz heid (Ah Mara),an ah hope they’r awe still as Dim as Jim the day,& vote him back into the Leadership.

Much more fun to be had from DimJim.

great cartoon once again Chris.

I have read Labour supporters who say that the SNP manifesto was a copy/paste of the labour manifesto. Apparently that is why it came out last.

Now I think that is delusional. But if we concede, for the sake of argument, that it is true, can anyone make a stab at explaining why the two parties could not work together, from Labour’s point of view

@Fiona, 11.18 and 11.07

Got that manifesto thing from my drinking buddy Joe last night. He also warned about Mhairi Black’s tendency to say the wrong things. Further he reckons that iRef2 will be soon and shall be a YES. Then there will be blood on the streets! Tartan terrorists or the Orangemen I asked?

Mhairi won me over with her photo-op of eating a chip butty and getting the response in the MSM of “You can take the girl out of…….”

One very clever girl!

However why is the young boy in WM team? and why was he there in the Bute house meeting? Has he signed the official secrets act paperwork? Have a look at the photograph in the National.

Fiona: I think that is delusional.

Completely delusional.

Blair embraced neoliberal economics and interminable wars. His doctrine was solely based on a united United Kingdom. Remove Scotland from the model and…

Fiona
coz labour will never vote against their own self interests.

Robert Kerr
The Lad is sitting next to Fluffy and his job is to kick Fluffy on the ankle if he shows any sign of talking. The writing pad is for show, and both parties know that the discussion is being recorded for posterity.

Run creepy Murphy run.

GE 2015 was one more verdict by Scotland on this farce union, Westminster and their horrifying Gulf wars, lies and fraud, their thug media, creepy vote SLab BBC propaganda, City super rich spivs, ATOS murder, HS2 for England only, Trident 2 dumped on the Clyde, neo fascist UKIP, their tame liars for drunk LibDems, sneering SLabour Lords like Foulkes, you name it, creepy Jim’s going to get it.

and not forgetting the con artists and morons that cooked up tactical voting #SNPout.

Quality drawing,like the ‘retro’ Scotland shirt,all in the detail,nice one Chris. 🙂

Poor lad he still thinks he is going to win every seat

Gowd is he still hanging on by the finger tips?

O/T What was cameron doing in Edinburgh yesterday? His face is alll over facebook, I daren’t go on it today, it’s awful. Are they attempting to normalise him here, in our minds? I think it’s called brainwashing.

The Labour Manifesto completely different. Dies anyone know where it exists. A rabble of ideas and slogans. Was there a Scottish Manifesto, apart from Scotland Bad.

Irrelevant stone tablets with irrelevant slogans meaning nothing nonsense.

Cap rent? Freeze energy prices? That has been tried before with interesting results. The winter of discontent. That really brought in the Tories. When the waste went uncollected, the lights went out and the dead could not even be buried. Braindead policies.

A Health Minister that left the sick for dead, and ignored a avalanche of complains, Stafford Hospital, but does have doe eyes and like football crowds. Could be the next leader. Heavens forbid.

Protect NHS/Education but have more austerity. That wouldn’t work. It will be a disaster and make matters worse. Cost the society more.

Do everything like the Tories expect the ‘room tax’. That will cost more. Illegally sanction and starve the vulnerable, that will not help.

Cut taxes so there is not enough to pay off the debt and protect the essential services, hitting the most vunerable the worse. That will not work. Start civil unrest and cost more.

The only thing that will work is to compromise and stop austerity and grow the economy in a fairer way.

Thatcher deregulated banking, sold off untilities, privatised, established tax evasion, caused civil unrest and destroyed her Party. The English working class voted her in. Her collegues got rid of her because she was destroying the economy. The (uneducated) English working class would have kept voting for her. They still laud her. She ended up a lonely old woman, despite her wealth and power.

Blair caused illegal wars, banking fraud, tax evasion defrauded the taxpayers, created massive debt. Blair destroyed his Party. The English working class majority voted him in. They would have kept voting for him but his collegues got rid of him. He was destroying the economy. Blair/Brown should in jail. Where is the Chilcot verdict. They are being protected by Westminster unelected civil servants. .

The Unionist Parties are disliked and untrusted. A minority now vote for them.

@ Shuggy.
No one else posted a direct link to a Unionist rag.
So shut it and mind yer own business, ya clown.

@Chic McGregor 10:44am

As ever, you manage to cover the situation admirably.

Jim Murphy is probably not just duplicitous but multiplicitous when it comes to his own survival. He’s damaged goods now (along with, hopefully, McTernan) and he should be cast aside to try and see if he can survive in the “real” world.

I’m having difficulty imagining any company wanting to take him on in any role that might be customer facing (or should that be “effacing”?) unless that company is, itself, keen to apply his dodgy skill-set.

Either Labour lost in England for the same reasons it lost in Scotland:

That’s true, though I was talking purely arithmetically.

The likelihood remains Labour can win in England while ignoring Scotland’s needs. As I said in a recent essay, Scotland regarded as a holding tank of votes and resources.

Like the Tories now, it might be a slim lead, just enough to regain power at Westminster, which is why supporters exhort them to go back to Blair and start again.

Run, run, as fast as you can
You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man

That story did not end well, though

ArtyHetty

Cameron was visiting Nicola to talk about more powers, Smith and the like. The talks seemed to go OK but promises are easy. We shall see what he does soon enough.

The Cameron visit had the look and feel of a foreign dignitary meeting with our nations leader but ultimately, for now, he is our leader. what a farce this ‘union’ is..

@gerry

The way ‘we’ could, easily get a majority of pro indy MSPs in Holyrood is to use the foibles of the d’Hondt system.

OK, that rankles with the basic decency of pro indy supporters, but if somehow Greens and SSP candidates could be ‘loaned’ the SNP list vote in 2016 we could easily end up with 80+ pro indy MSPs. Remembering that the U-bot parties showed no compunction about tactical voting targeting in the recent election, even if they did botch it up.

However, that would require a formal pact between pro-indy leaders and that must remain very unlikely (hence the apostrophes around ‘we’).

But there is no doubt whatsoever, such a ploy would be successful in securing a winning pro-indy majority and one which sustained the recent momentum in the public eye.

Let’s assume the SNP get similar levels of support to that which they achieved in 2011.

In that election, with about the same level of support for FPTP and List, the SNP got 53 FPTP MSPs and 16 List. Giving the famously impossible SNP majority of 4 seats.

If, however, the SNP list vote had gone instead to Greens/SSP candidates, yes the SNP would only have gotten 53 MSPs but the combined pro-indy party total would have been into the 80s.

It is just the way the system works

I am sure the rank and file pro indy support would be all for such a ploy, but it is a hard sell for the SNP leadership in particular. First, there would be personal disappointment for non FPTP SNP candidates to deal with but there would also be concern from the leadership of losing the list ‘insurance policy’ for failing FPTP candidates.

However a coalition has many advantages other than simply securing a pro-indy majority at Holyrood. Not just the presence of intelligent, skilled politicians, like Patrick Harvey in government but it would once and for all knock the Nazi jibe (a major threat to indy) firmly on the head by consolidating and making plainly obvious the fact that pro-indy support goes completely across the political spectrum in Scotland.

Perhaps a halfway house approach is do-able for the SNP leadership, I mean something like this.

First announce that the SNP in Holyrood would be more than willing to enter a post election alliance with the Greens or SSP. (That would be in striking contrast, by the way, with Westminster party leaderships, no bad thing).

Second make a statement along the lines

“We are well aware that many of you who vote SNP, do so primarily in support of independence but who perhaps have domestic political inclinations more aligned with those of other pro independence parties.

In the interests of democracy, we do not wish those of you so inclined be given only the stressful choice of voting SNP for indy or voting along your preferred domestic policy lines.

So we are saying to those who intend to vote SNP for independence reasons that it is alright, its OK, for you to vote for another pro-independence party in the list vote.

If you are pretty much in agreement with SNP domestic policy, then fine, go ahead and still vote SNP in the List.

But if you are not, then you should feel free to vote for the pro-indy party more closely aligned with you other concerns.”

Marathon Man.

Kez – My Job – Is it Safe?

Is it Safe?

Jim Murphy ‘actually’ cannot believe that he lost. That’s what we are dealing with here. This is a guy who is on artificial life support and those who are operating the machinery to maintain his credibility are the real problem.

At the heart of it is what Fiona just pointed out: they have lost their ‘core’ support because they could not get over their ‘supremacy’ complex here in Scotland. When the Indyref came along this exposed their complete hatred of the SNP for what it was: sour grapes.

We cannot ‘afford’ to have a party that is utterly devoid of any maturity and more importantly incapable of working toward any kind of consensus on the issues affecting the people of our country by being unable to put aside their ‘tribalistic’ and deeply jealous demeanour.

Chris’s cartoon depicts his own support ‘chasing’ him out, but…there should be an even bigger crowd behind them…’chasing’ them out too.

I’m done wi listening to anything this zombie party has to say. As Dave Mc and Gerry follows up with, we have to look forward with our aim to ‘remove’ the next layer within our ‘body politic’ from our parliament in 2016. Opposition parties need to start their moves now to increase exposure. The SSP is the more natural party for those who feel Labour ‘left them’ and wish to see genuine socialist values represented in our parliament.

I don’t know about the ‘right’, I’m not sure there is a strong enough contingent in terms of choice in Scotland, except maybe that rLabour branch join wi the tory. They are more in alignment in that regard anyway. As Endinburgh South seems to have shown: tories voting for labour to oust SNP. The tories seem okay with who and what Labour have become. They are welcome to them.

Brilliant as ever Chris 🙂

Ken500 @ 9.13am.

Sorry to be off topic. Are you sure the National is really sold out where you are looking. Since it’s launch we’ve always had a job getting a hold of a copy until one of the young guys in Tesco approached us (seeing us wearing YES and SNP badges) and told us discreetly that the copies were being hidden under bundles of the Daily Rectum, Daily Heil etc. The boy also said that he had to be careful about talking or engaging with anyone who wore pro YES / SNP badges as the Tesco Manager said they would be reprimanded and sacked if they continued. Not sure if it’s a management ploy or some swivel-eyed Unionist who’s trying to save unsuspecting buyers from being subjected to the truth.
I now make a point of visiting my 2 nearest Tesco stores and bringing the National back to the top of the bundle under which it has been buried. It would be useful if we could all do the same. We know the National isn’t perfect, but so far it’s the only paper catering to 50%+ of the voting populations political outlook ( okay I know the Scottish Sun is pretending to be on our side, but there are limits).

Finally, how are the pro-independence groups and SNP doing on the social media front? I personally don’t use Facebook, Twitter (sorry Rev), Vine etc. very often, but the youngsters all do and never buy papers and don’t watch live TV. We really need to get right in there – and not in the half-arsed way that SLAB did when they got the elderly, Bomber Harris to handle the interwebby thingy on their behalf. I know it has helped us in the past, but I am worried we end up tinkereing on the perphery. We need people who are aware of just how powerful social media really is, to push this side of things, as this is where our best hope lies. Some of us older, non social media users may not like it, but it is far more powerful than a lot of us imagine. Get the message out to the younger voters and get them to work on their parents and grandparents and we will achieve Independence. We know this works. One of the staunchest Labour voters we know, got turned to pro-Independence by her 12 year old grandson who bombarded her with facts gleaned from YouTube.

Famous15
Sorry, but the STUC doesn’t appear to agree with you there and I’m afraid I don’t either. Though a gift that keeps on giving might appear attractive, it has no clearly defined purpose or use. 🙂

“Despite its significant presence in local government and its position as the main opposition to the SNP in the Scottish Parliament, if it does not change, Labour is in real danger of becoming irrelevant in Scottish politics

“It needs to fundamentally reconsider not just its message but the authenticity with which that message is delivered. If it believes that recovery will be achieved by moving to the right it will not regain the confidence of working people

Fundlymundly, I think British Labour’s days of selling imperialism as socialism, are over. At long last.

link to stuc.org.uk

@Chic M
We’ve just spent 3 months rubbishing the snPouters. We’ve just seen the fate of the LibDem Orange Book and you want to get us into pacts and understandings?

We thought we had a “pact” with the Liberals in the 50s and 60s. We got gubbed. Don’t blame the Greens for Fluffy. They fought their corner which as a “minor” party is all you can do till you become a major one. Same for the SSP. Leave it up to the voter to work out how to prevent another Parliament of Trams and Calman. They are a lot smarter than you give them credit for, they are us.

Born free heading for the wilderness.

Ken500
Bateman hasn’t got past his ego or BBC proclivity yet. I simply can’t trust a web space that practices censorship. His article about HSBC during indyref was a partial hing-out. What about HSBC’s involvement in illegal gun running, Mr. Bateman? Arsehole!

pitchfork
Snap. 🙂

@Yoda says: 16 May, 2015 at 12:35 pm

“So the Guardian is a ‘rag’ is it?”

The answer to your question is that the Guardian is indeed a, “rag”.

Which word, in that context, is exactly what it is. The journalistic integrity is doubtful, lazy and normally unsubstantiated, their readership, (gauged by their comments pages), is badly informed, ignorant and less than well educated. Their content aimed at the least common denominator and at that quite dumbed down.

I was really enjoying reading today’s comments.

Then that fucking yoda pipes up.

I know balance is needed but can something not be done about that arsehole?

You wonder about their state of mind, would you constantly go back somewhere to be berated and ridiculed?

Jesus, he (or she) is probably just another delusional, narcissistic murphy clone.

Wouldn’t be surprised if it was Him!

Totally agree with assessment on Holyrood, never take anything for granted.

I was gonna answer Yoda but nah. FUD .

Chic.

Tactical voting might not work. We can be pretty sure that SNP voters will stick SSP, Greens on their list of choices but most are aware of the system. Folk are upto date and will make their own choices i think.

And it didn’t work for the last lot mind. 🙂

Saying that folks have to know that getting a majority in Hollrood will be tough. Last time was a perfect storm and most know that. But i would put it to you that the SNP has become the YES movement now. They are the instruments we need to gain indi.

I see SNP gaining a majority now. The election results revived my belief in my fellow Scots.

Everyone vote SNP till we get indi then we can choose our way of politics in Scotland. Dividing us us a WM winner. I know there are NO voting SNP folk but they are a tiny majority now and even they must have been affected by the vile from darn south. … we really don’t count in the big picture .

Just saying how i see things mind 🙂

I think it is likely that there will be some loss of support in 2016. It might be too soon for that, but it seems to me that in general after very good outcomes there is something of a reversion to the mean. It does not mean it is something to worry about, but I would hate for people to get down when/if it happens. It is to be expected, surely? Like a “dead cat bounce”

@Yoda says: 16 May, 2015 at 12:44 pm:

“interesting scotsman letter today, so true…”

“and a cry of, “PISH!”, rings out above the crowd”

Labours biggest obstacle is that finally the people have rumbled that it has faced two directions and pretended both were policy when in fact only one was.

Much though I would love Murphy to stay, even the dumbest party member knows there is a danger that the only way this can continue to go is that Labour lose large numbers of MSPs and councillors at the next elections as the shakeout continues and the people who voted Labour continue to desert them. Not to mention the people who have up till now funded Labour, up here the unions and the Co-op, realise that there is no electoral advantage backing a horse that has no social value for their members. Ed might not have wanted their influence but that’s how much of the party was funded inthe old days and Scotland lacks the rich backers to keep it going as NuLab.

The hysterical drowning council officials will try to claim his head so they can pretend to be socialists right up till the election. It is their only chance and they know it. So do the unions. If I was a wise Labour politician (And I’m not sure there are that many of them) I’d be keeping my head down in case I got made het for the pretendy socialist moment that they need to employ to get elected up here. The job they have will be made harder by the main westminster party positioning themselvers in entirely a different direction and ultimately the two will have to split.

Twitter saying JM survived a confidence vote

Scottish foxes stroll over to England

just saying

YESGUY

“Tactical voting might not work. We can be pretty sure that SNP voters will stick SSP, Greens on their list of choices but most are aware of the system. Folk are upto date and will make their own choices i think.

And it didn’t work for the last lot mind. 🙂

Saying that folks have to know that getting a majority in Hollrood will be tough. Last time was a perfect storm and most know that. But i would put it to you that the SNP has become the YES movement now. They are the instruments we need to gain indi.”

I am an SNP supporter. I agree the SNP have become the Yes movement.

What I am pointing out is how the peculiarities of the Holyrood voting system can be used to great effect in securing a pro-indy majority there, albeit as an alliance with SNP as biggest party or as SNP as minority party but supported by other pro-indy parties on a case by case basis.

What I am pointing out is that probably the biggest threat to the indy is the ‘nazification’ of the independence movement via vilification of the SNP by the Brit MSM. Something which they are already succeeding in doing if only based on the phonem ‘national’. A coalition, broad spectrum government in Holyrood completely kills that threat. (No similarity with George Robertson’s prediction).

The tactical voting farce for Westminster was because

1. The leaders all swore blind they wouldn’t enter into any form of coalition with each other.

2. It was only FPTP single constituencies with lack of clarity in many constituencies as to who was in second place.

The List vote, which is the only one I recommend tactical voting in (actually it is non tactical if you think about it) is done on a regional basis where it is only the total of votes which determine how many Green or SSP MSPs are elected.

Therefore who is second doesn’t enter into consideration, it is very simple, vote Green or SSP if either is closer to your domestic policy preferences.

@ Yoda

Quoting the Scotsman you are? Insane you have become.

I can’t understand what Labour think they are playing at.

Even if they believe that Murphy has no responsibility for what happened in Scotland (not in post long enough, or whatever) surely they can see that a man who clings on after such a defeat does not command respect? Even if you don’t think that is fair, it is a fact, surely?

Yoda says:
16 May, 2015 at 12:44 pm
interesting scotsman letter today, so true…

Keep em coming yoda, you will. Thing is yoda and all raging britnats out there, you’re wildly attacking the public services performance of Scottish government, yet our government has so little actual power.

Nothing’s fair in teamGB for sure yoda but its worth highlighting this everytime you britnats sneer and jeer as you do.

So what! you all shriek yoda, this is what Scotland voted for 18 Sept but Scotland voted for THE VOW and how’s that worked out for you britnats?

link to wingsoverscotland.com

I was waiting to see how Labour’s meeting went before complementing Chris for his efforts but nothing is yet reported from the meeting.

Great stuff, Chris, I’m still making my mind up if the followers are running with Jim to support him, or are for him and armed to the teeth with sharp things to attack we independence seekers as is their wont, or are about to take Jim out.

Let’s look at things from the other end.

If there is a hard line tribalistic approach by the SNP:

No deals with anyone (a la Westminster mantras)

Vote SNP for both options.

As there has been in the past.

Then IMV there is a very great risk, unless we remain lucky, that they will lose their majority in Holyrood.

There is an absolute certainty that the Brit MSM tactic will, using the pathetic ‘national’ association, try to sell ‘the SNP are nazis’ line. That, of course, will not work with the politically aware in Scotland, but what about the McFickle family in the middle who are only a wee bit in favour of independence only a wee bit suspicious they are being lied to?

I’d rather not have any more comments on this right now, I’d rather folk go off and think about it, a lot, for a while, first.

Also, there is a piece in The National today about the grossly unfair allocation of money to the Scottish football as compared with English football.
link to thenational.scot

Apparently, they pay Gary Lineker twice as much, £2m, as they spend on SFL, £1m.

“The league chief hit back after BBC director of Sport Barbara Slater admitted there was “inequality” in the money the Scottish game gets from the public broadcaster compared to the English Premier League.

But Topping claims viewers north of the Border are “badly short-changed” by a deal which sees the BBC contribute less than £1million a season for Sportscene TV highlights.”

The BBC is no longer a public service broadcaster as they have to bow to market pressure, says the director of sport.

Murphy resigns.

Again he made the only resignation speech that sounded like an election speech.

That said, I do enjoy Murphy’s pompous, empty term ‘the Scottish Labour executive’ …

Is Murphy staying or going ???

He’s survived the vote by three votes.

he’s gone.

Typical obfuscation. He has resigned effective in a month’s time….

Great news about Murphy, let’s fundillymundilly carry on the ridicule of Labour.

That will be the party leadership settled for a generation……

Jim for first lister

Kevin McKenna in the National today on UK Government

“If they felt they could have afforded it Scotland would have been ushered out of the UK faster than a bellhop in a honeymoon suite.”

…But not quite! It’s a managed exit… he will stay for a month, and submit a report… prepare the way for a successor by the end of the summer.

Kirsten Oswald’s husband joins the Labour party.

Jings!

so like Farage then?