The Scourge
Posted on
September 09, 2023 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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Wings Over ScotlandA tall tale
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The bad news keeps on coming
Brilliantly done
From the depths of the cludgie…
Just the very thought of stairheid rammy, Dougie Alexander, Fundelymundley Murphy brings me out in cold sweats. Who can forget old George “pie face” Robertsond claim that the UK will save us from an Alien invasion.
It is an indicator of just how bad the SNP have become
Forward to the past.
Hey Magret! Ther’s yer man comin up the road wae a bunch o flowers.
Aw naw! Ah’ll be oan mah back aw weekend!
How? Huv ye no got a vase?
It’s alright, I’ve got my coat. That joke is older than when Scottish Labour ruled the roost.
A pure belter….!
When Labour are in charge they always make a rickets, so we’d get both.
It’s great that Chris Cairns is back though.
This abomination of an SNP Government needs politically putting down ASAP. It is beyond an omni-shambles, that would be a huge step-up from where we are. They are so incompetent (and so venal as well it seems) that they can and are doing huge damage to Scotland and also the independence movement (this is inevitable sadly).
So we need them out first and foremost. It really does not matter if Labour or the Tories replace them. Let people refresh their memories of what they are like…
A period of opposition is exactly what the doctor orders here. Clean the house, rebuild. It is absolutely unavoidable.
These clowns have a reverse Midas touch. Everything they touch turns to shit. And it will get worse and worse until we get rid of them at the ballot box. Its got to be done. The SNP are the block right now.
Right on the money as ever , C.C .
Yes , the people who brought you the sick-joke of PPI ( at least , expanded it greatly ) , non-existent W.M.D / incalculable 1000s of dead Iraqis – including children ( ditto Libyans / Syrians / Afghanis ) , the further encroachment of Corporate * interests * in the NHS and just about everywhere else , advanced the lunacy of Gender Ideology , encouraged Casino Capitalism – then bailed-out the perps to the tune of £billions OF YOUR MONEY , built NOTHING of real service to the public ( how many houses again , 3 was it ? ) – are back .
And who invited them back ? Answer on a plain brown envelope stuffed with cash and containing a hastily-scribbled note reading ” please come back , we can’t do this * alone . Lets be pals ” .
Nu SNP have done this , made the unthinkable not only possible , but likely . And if anyone thinks this is an accident , ” unintended consequences ” or even just plain stupidity , they are probably the same people who believe CBDCs are a great innovation . Oh , they are , for increasing State control and further reducing public agency . This has been long game-planned
The neutralising of the SNP as any kind of threat to Union continues apace .
@ Mac . Thanks for those links . Yip , there’s much political advantage for lying bastards still in the Miracle of * Covid * and it’s expedient protean * variants * . One of which is the capacity to numb critical thinking and instil passive acceptance the most draconian , intelligence insulting garbage imaginable – as long as it’s being dribbled by some monkey in a suit and backed-up with the rational debate crushing seal of ” The Science ” .
A kid in my year at secondary had scurvy, this is the 70’s.
Poor / absent parenting rather than poverty.
Deleterious to cognitive development.
He thought the plural of mouse was meeses, as in “I hate those meeses to pieces”.
Do they even show that cartoon anymore?
Trannies with rickets and Billy Bragg cassettes.
Haud me back.
And Always Keep Ahold of Nurse, For Fear of Finding Something Worse…
like NorthBrit Labour, the old vampire returning to suck what remains of life from Scottish politics.
Point the weapon at the adversary NOT at your own head.
Oh I dunno. Landslide for Collette Walker might send the perfect message, whether masks are worn to reinforce the point or not.
She should change her policy on salary and promise to instead to claim it in full AND max out the expenses – After last night, it could be much more than enough for the couple of cows, 40 chickens and wee plot of land required for a community project to produce enough free ice cream for everyone not able get to Germany next summer..
Robert, the comment did not survive. Despite the brilliant segue (joke) I knew it was at high risk of deletion / moderation as I am well aware it is subject SC does not want on here… but you know when you read something so shocking that you feel compelled to share, almost like it is your duty… I just could not help myself there for a while. Apologies.
We really are living in some wild times right now. Not quite the jet-packs and robot butlers future we imagined (although Musk thinks the robot butlers are just around the corner). If the findings of the Japanese study are correct the implications are devastating. Worst fears and beyond… ah well.
In Mordaunt’s constituency we may read in The News:”Portsmouth and Fareham councils called to more than 2,000 rodent infestations in 2022
Portsmouth City Council was called out to deal with more than 1,800 rodent infestations last year, new figures show.”
Plymouth Live reported this on 25 Feb 2019.
“Gout, scurvy and rickets are on the rise as hospital admissions for ‘Victorian diseases’ soar.
Almost 300k cases reported in 2017/18 – an increase of a quarter on the previous year.
Cases of rickets alone have rocketed by a third according to NHS Digital data, analysed by the Press Association.
Children under the age of nine were among those admitted to English hospitals for malnutrition and rickets.
Vitamin D is essential for bone health and preventing rickets, and is often called the sunshine vitamin.
The body can get its vitamin D from sunlight and diet, but the UK’s poor weather has prompted experts to say adults and children should take a supplement.
Some 284,901 hospital admissions in 2017/18 were for – a 24% rise on the year before.
The admissions included 101,136 with a main or secondary diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency – 34% more than the 75,708 in 2016/17.
There were an additional 474 admissions in 2017/18 where the main or secondary reason was rickets, up from 445 the year before.”
This is a copy of the abstract from the BMJ of 2018.
“Review
Prevention of rickets and osteomalacia in the UK: political action overdue
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7278-0734Suma Uday1,2, Wolfgang Högler1,2
Correspondence to Dr Wolfgang Högler, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Birmingham B4 6NH, UK; wolfgang.hogler@nhs.net
Abstract
The consequences of vitamin D and dietary calcium deficiency have become a huge public health concern in the UK. The burden of disease from these deficiencies includes rickets, and hypocalcaemic seizures, dilated cardiomyopathy and mostly occult myopathy and osteomalacia. The increasing burden of the disease is intrinsically linked to ethnicity and the population demographic changes in the UK. Three facts have led to the resurfacing of the English disease: (1) the UK has no ultraviolet sunlight for at least 6 months of the year, (2) dark skin produces far less vitamin D than white skin per unit ultraviolet light exposure, and (3) non-European Union immigration over the last century. To date, the UK government demonstrates incomplete understanding of these three facts, and its failure to adjust its prevention programmes to changing demographics is endangering the health and life of UK residents with dark skin, of whom infants are the most vulnerable. Establishing accountability through the implementation of monitored antenatal and infantile supplementation programmes and mandatory food fortification is overdue.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314826
Johnlm says:
9 September, 2023 at 9:12 am
” Trannies with rickets and Billy Bragg cassettes.
Haud me back. ” . lol .
As if that wasn’t a terrifying enough prospect …. I was reading the other day about polls suggesting the Greens could INCREASE their vote-share in the forthcoming election/s . FFS !! NAW !! Shoot me now .
Of course , this nightmare scenario is ATM putative , if it does come to pass , it will be a supreme irony – the lunatic Greens invited into Government by the Nu SNP Clown Show advance at the expense of their hosts ( the SNP catching ALL the flak for the numerous Greens promoted fuck-ups ) . Well , the parasite , having destroyed one host , will move on to it’s next victim – the Flower Pot Men of New Labour – ” weeeed , little weeeed , flob-a-dob ” . Head Flower Pot Man – that Charmless Man Starmer , Establishment * insider * and worthless shell of man will merely continue the work of turning the UK into the terminally ill Man of Europe . Cannae wait
Is there really no one in Scottish politics with the guts to call out these freaks?
Salmond in his prime could have done it. but not now . he’s finished in the political sense due to his attachment to RT and doubts among women of his character. All amplified by media of course. Where are the young firebrands of my youth whether or not one agreed with their views they were unafraid, ready to address the public on their way to move the country forward. Where is the fire?
There is an old woman who sits behind Humza at question time spitting snarling and glowering at anyone who dares to put up a difficult question, especially if they happen to be a conservative…a harridan of the Old Woman’s School, who must be in line for a lifetime award from the collection of freaks a psychotics who comprise the SNP
It’s the weather, innit.
From “Nature”, 2017.
“Impact of Multidecadal Climate Variability on United Kingdom Rickets Rates
Haris Majeed & G. W. K. Moore
Scientific Reports volume 7, Article number: 15764 (2017) Cite this article
Children who receive inadequate exposure to sunlight have reduced levels of vitamin D, resulting in rickets, a disease that is characterized by bone deformity, stunted growth, and long term pronounced disability. The United Kingdom rickets incidence rates declined from the early 1960’s to mid-1990’s, after which there was a dramatic increase. The reason for this change is not well understood. Here we show that an important low frequency mode of climate variability, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), with a period of ~60–80 years, has an impact on rickets incidence rates in the United Kingdom through changes in sea level pressure, cloud cover and sunshine duration. This research highlights the important role that multidecadal climate variability can play in human morbidity and suggests that future changes in the AMO may modulate rickets incidence rates throughout the United Kingdom.”
Sam , pity the woman who asked Mordaunt the question didn’t have these wee nuggets at her fingertips .
Isn’t there some maxim for politicians of asking only the questions for which you have the answer?
ROBERT HUGHES
The only sets who believe there is such an entity as «the Science» are politicians out make a name and product pushing pharmaceutical companies and their ancillaries, may also include politicians, out to make mega$$$$$$$$
The shelf life of politicians ought to be a relatively short one, for most are makeweight. The longer they hang around the greater the noxious fug of sanctimony, and worse.
There is no official surveillance system for rickets in England so there is no means of knowing whether their figures for rickets are accurate.
There were 284,901 rat infestations reported in England in 2022 and 24 442 in Scotland.
From Pest.co.uk
“When it comes to London, rats are breeding like rabbits.
New research carried out by Pest.co.uk shows an enormous 25% increase in London‘s rat population, and this is only within the last year.
From an already staggering figure of 15,877,203 in 2019, (recorded before the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown of 2020), the latest recorded figure shows that the number of rats in London is now 19,846,504 for the 2020/21 period.”
Scottish Labour and the SNP.
Now those ARE two cheeks of the same arse!
Republicofscotland.
Xaracen,
I have replied to you both on Stu’s previous post with regards union and monarcy, so as not to interupt Stus new post,
The terrifying thing is that Labour have got worse since the last time they are in. It would be hard to spot them out of a Bedlam lineup from the SNP and the Greens. Or half the Tories for that matter.
Its only the sheer depths the SNP have sunk to that let them in.
As for the Greens gaining ground, is it the gender insanity or the doubling of everybody’s energy bills that is pulling in the punters?
In a colonial society the poverty of the people is broadly equivalent to their economic plunder, which is aided by complicit elites. Which means that in order to eradicate poverty and inequality the people must first get rid of colonialism.
Scientist employed by government funding are hardly likely to be controversial to the direction in which the government wants to take new policies, laws and statutes for want of loosing funding are they.
Rats just love Street Food…
On trend or what?
Are you suggesting it’s only women who are manipulated by the media?
I posted the following on the previous thread. I’ll re-post it here as my gripe with these two posts is the same.
Big fan of David Paisley?
I can’t stop thinking about all the misogynistic hate crimes that I’ll report to the police in the event of misogyny becoming a hate crime. 🙂
You know, what a mess. The SNP should be riding high, set on a firm course to an electoral vote for independence, but no, they just dither and dither. Obsessed by gender cult nonsense, and other associated wokery, they have forgotten what it is they should be doing.
I cannot help but relate this to those councils in England declaring themselves bankrupt, then cutting social care, education and so on. But they have PLENTY of money to spend with hardly a care, on things like bus lanes, road narrowings, cycle paths, congestion zones (nowadays, laughingly called ‘low emission zones’), and other related nonsense.
Councils, including in Scotland have indulged their personal pet projects and ideologies leaving no money for the things they should be doing, like drainage, cleaning streets, emptying bins, running schools, social care.
For example, Edinburgh clowncil are spending millions completely blocking, re-routing roads, and building extremely expensive cycle lanes (used by a handful of folk), whilst at the same time having to cut social care in the city – DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS. They have no money for the essentials, but millions to splurge on silly projects designed to make Edinburgh city centre a no-go ghetto (apart from tourists).
A completely unnecessary ‘low emission zone’, in a city with the best air quality in the UK – the council should be bragging about how good the air quality is in Edinburgh, instead of this LEZ rubbish. A once great bus service has been ruined, with over-large, but less frequent buses, and lengthened cross city journey times due to road closures, bus diversions and restriction – all created by Edinburgh clowncil. And the SNP councilors in Edinburgh are part of this nonsense. Lots of taxpayers money for useless nonsense, but nothing for things like social care, bin emptying, street cleaning and so on.
So it is with the SNP government, indulging their own personal pet projects, instead of what people elected them to do – INDEPENDENCE. Instead, they have wittered away one electoral mandate after another, piddling about with gender nonsense and other silly schemes.
So, here we are in 2023, where British Labour in Scotland might get better electoral results, not because they are good, but because the SNP are so shit.
As regards Labour, they offer no alternative to the Tories. All their policies are more right wing than Thatcher, and effectively ape those of the current Tory government. It is worth stating again the old adage, and mis-quote George Orwell;
“The Scottish voters outside looked from Labour to Tory, and from Tory to Labour, and from Labour to Tory again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”
Adapted from Animal Farm, George Orwell.
JAMES CHE
«Science» and academe have a poor score when faced with government whether notionally democratic or totalitarian.
Think Nazi and Soviet «science», book burning and book suppression, along with the authors.
regarding rickets, it is somewhat ironic that a Tory has suggested this is an issue. Does she not know about ‘Thatcher the milk snatcher’? School milk was all about preventing rickets – something Thatcher decided to cut so she could give tax cuts to her rich chums.
The other sadness in that great cartoon is the fact that those old tenement council flats have of course now been purchased via Right to Buy and sold off by the grandkids for vast profit to be used as Short term lets or student accommodation.
Naebdy gabbing out their windaes anymare!
Dorothy Devine
Open goal presented by Ms Brock. Duly taken. That said, Mordaunt showed a lack of concern for those in her own constituency and across England, mostly poor people and ethnic minorities, suffering from the effects of Tory policies.
During the Covid pandemic I read that more dark skinned people died of Covid due to lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency can result in a weaker immune system.
I don’t know if the above is true or not or if it is or isn’t a waste of time taking vitamin pills. I do it anyway and Vitamin D tablets from Boots are pretty cheap and who knows taking the Boots vitamin D tablets might have been as effective wearing a mask.
Anybody on here know any kids with rickets?
Anybody on here know any obese kids?
Sam, perhaps inadvertently, gives the game away about what the real story is with his post at 9:40.
It’s fully aligned with the “kids are getting shorter” story that was doing the rounds a few months back.
It ties in to the “accommodation shortages and increasing homelessness” stories too.
Yet many (most?) people seem quite unable to process the fact that as all home nations of the UK are breeding at well below replacement levels, there can be only one underlying cause for all these stories.
Cue pelters as the realisation I’m posting facts again sinks in.
Do we have any information about who has the rickets?
Could taking puberty blockers result in rickets?
Alf Baird.
The poverty of Scotland as a Colony and the plunder of its resources, taxation, land mass grabs and the Colonisers laws imposed over our own Countries laws by a subsiduary branch office for controlling the ethic people by diluting its ethic population under force bribery and coercion,
To remove most means of regular or larger employment that would pay above a breadline wage and restrict housing and bumping up prices for locals whilst advertising Scotlands properties outside of Scotland in daily papers for a replacement population,
And yet the Coloniser openly States to the world in consecutive running years that the 1707 Scottish parliament is not connected to a treaty by being extinguished 300 years ago,
Nought left, no other condition for Scotland can be applied.
But a Colony,
A Scottish Colony that is “not in a treaty” is one step ahead of Colonies with a treaty.
@ TURBADIN
Quite so , mon frère. The intellectual scalpel of Science – more precisely , the open-ended , Scientific Method eg continuous bias-free testing/experiment & debate – has been turned into a blunt instrument serving to bludgeon public opinion/perception into submission whilst serving the ends of nefarious bad actors
@ Mac . I think I can guess the subject your deleted comment referred to – the M.I.C’s latest fabulous wealth generating investment in the East ? Too bad the subject is O/T here , particularly given the 100% MSM propaganda we’re subjected to 24/7 : though I understand Stu’s desire to keep the focus on Scottish affairs . His blog , his rules . Fair enough
Robert Louis @11.01
Whilst holding no brief for Ms Thatcher, it’s worth remembering that when, as Education Secretary, she withdrew free milk for schoolchildren over 7 years in 1971 she was following the example of Edward Short, her Labour predeccessor in the post who had withdrawn free milk for children over 11 years in 1968.
What’s that famous comment about two cheeks of the same bottom.
As my old dad used to tell me, “Professional politicians don’t want to do good, they just want to look good”.
@ Robert Louis at 10:56 am
Aye, agree with what you say. So many councils across Scotland seem to have lost the plot on what should be their priorities.
There’s a situation near where I stay where the already poor rural bus service has just got worse for several small communities.
The bus company has put a double decker bus on the route, but it can no longer pass under a railway bridge on one part of the route, so it now bypasses that 4 mile road section leaving those several communities without service.
But get this, the double decker bus could actually fit under the bridge, however because the bus has had to have a tree branch deflector fitted to stop windows getting broken by the low hanging branches of the un-managed trees along the road, it has increased the overall height of the bus a couple of inches to the point it now can’t go under the bridge…
So if the council actually bothered to properly manage the roads by pruning trees properly then these sort of issues would not arise in the first place.
There would also have been a way of alleviating this particular issue if sensible heads had looked at the recent main road improvements on the road the bus now takes, because a couple of bus stops could easily have been incorporated on the dual carriageway main road which runs parallel and close by the original route, and that would have maintained service provision to these affected communities.
Imagine Penny Mordaunt as a “windae hinger”. Preferably in her Coronation gear.
Patrick Harvie has posted in The National:
“I joined Scotland’s Energy Secretary, Neil Gray, for the opening of the Greengairs East Wind Farm.”
Greengairs is operated by Muirhall Enery which also runs the appropriately named Crossdykes Wind Farm!
🙂
New Labour never went away, they just rebranded as the SNP and the similarly worthless Tories.
We live under a cuntocracy where your votes are a source of amusement to the powerful.
Then there’s Scurvy!
Bad News
Scurvy is a disease caused by a serious vitamin C deficiency. Not eating enough fruits and vegetables is the main cause of the disease. Left untreated, scurvy can lead to bleeding gums, loosened teeth and bleeding under your skin. Treatment for the condition includes getting plenty of vitamin C in your diet.
Good News
Not only does cider fight against cancers and heart disease but the Vitamin C found in cider helps fight against bacteria; the immune systems best friend. Vitamin C, the immune system booster, is naturally found in many fruits including apples. In case you didn’t know, apples make hard cider.
Sven
It’s further worth pointing out that all of the subsequent administrations of all parties found no need whatsoever to reintroduce school milk. Not even the 3 Blair administrations that coincided with a period of record national wealth and public investment.
Still, Thatcher, school milk, etc. Grand scabs to rip off and get bleeding again for those incapable of looking forwards.
Even though the “vote Indy cos Thatcher” message does nothing for me, I’m happy to acknowledge its continued relevance to a tiny group of Scots.
Too tiny to amount to anything, but still.
Ruby @ 11.27
There were reportedly 442 cases of Rickets in 2022 in the Greater Glasgow & North Lanarkshire area.
The tentative suggestions made as to causation included the amount of time children and young persons spend indoors playing computer and video games, the lack of organised outdoor school sports and the lack of healthy nutrition in modern ‘fast and cheap’ type readily available tinned and preprepared foodstuffs.
My personal view re puberty blockers and similar “genderwoowoo” treatments is that the true damage wrought by them has not yet worked through into our next generation of children.
It’s only in relatively recent years that we’ve started carrying out medical and social experiments on our youngsters and I believe the horrific consequences are not yet with us.
John Main – Scottish weans still got free school milk under Strathclyde Regional Council up till the 90’s, so idk why people still talk about Maggie Thatcher removing the milk scheme in England in the early 70’s.
Unless
Robert Louis says:
9 September, 2023 at 11:01 am
regarding rickets, it is somewhat ironic that a Tory has suggested this is an issue. Does she not know about ‘Thatcher the milk snatcher’? School milk was all about preventing rickets – something Thatcher decided to cut so she could give tax cuts to her rich chums.
The Great Milk Snatch happened 52 years ago, long enough for it to have passed into myths and legends about evil toffs getting rich somehow off of rickets.
Great cartoon, Chris. Says it all.
Support for the current SNP is plummeting so fast that it makes the (OIM) Optional Image Mark aka BLiS in Scotland look as though they are relevant.
There was a time when BLiS (British Labour in Scotland) could’ve dressed up a Chimpanzee in a suit and placed a huge Red Rossette on its lapel and the Chimpanzee would’ve romped home to victory in an election in Scotland.
BLiS had decades to do their best from Scots and Scotland, but like the current SNP, selfishness, greed, lies, and deception became rife in the party and they took the electorates votes for granted, and they tumbled from their lofty perch in Scotland and now its the SNPs turn to fall from their pedestal.
We know now that BLiS is in reality an arm of their London HQ so, they were never really going to do what was best for Scots because they are controlled from London. The SNP however were the greatest party for Scottish independence we had, and we put great faith in them until Sturgeon the Judas became leader she broke our hearts, and now the party is beset with grifters, deceitful liars, careerists and politicians (If you can call them that) of low quality and talent, who want to nothing more than to make a good living out of it.
They say history has a way of repeating itself, and that doing the exact same thing over and over again and hoping for different results is a form of madness, I’d like to think our politicians could learn from this lesson, but I’m not confident that they will, self preservation appears to be the order of the day.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Shouting for her children to come in for their tea.
Any thoughts on what her children might be called.
Robert Hughes: the scenario you outline vis-a-vis SNP to Labour (parasitical takeover) is not only fairly likely but will become inevitable if Labour outstrips the SNP. That is precisely how parasites work: go for the strongwomen gets host and burrow into the brain; the body obeys the brain and the wee parasite therein.
It might seem that we are colonized, but any decent lawyer worth his/her salt could build a powerful legal case against our supposed subsumption by Mother England. Just because no one has done it thus far, does not mean that it can’t be done. If a lawyer says, “Oh, I don’t think you can do that”, it usually mean s that you can, but it’s going to take a helluva work. A lot of it has been done by SALVO/Liberation.
If you have a brass neck, you can make people, like Westminster and Whitehall, believe anything. Brass necks, though, can always be melted down with a strong enough furnace of actual facts, law, politics and reality.
Ah, John Main ToryBot – always deflecting any blame for *anything* away from his beloved London Tory masters.
Here’s an old Scottish favourite;
“TORY SCUM OUT”
Just threw that in to get him/her/it gibbering and flecking his/her/it’s lunch with spittle….
Ruby, obviously AS has a bit of an affectionate nature when a few drinks have been taken, as do most red blooded men, usually women know how to respond according to their feelings and “NO” should always mean know. BUT these situations can be used against men too as some women use their sexual attraction to get what they want…….Shouldn’t think that tactic would get the SNP women very far! :0)
Ha, ha, ha.
To quote the Rev, welcome back Holiday Boy.
The state of Scottish politics, disaster
Ruby @ 12.08
Her dad having been a Para and her mum(who died when she (Ms Mordaunt) was 15 a special needs teacher, I’d guess probably disappointingly ordinary names reflecting her growing up in Hampshire and attending a Comprehensive.
Shane ? Elton ? Britney ? Courteney ?
For the ignorant.
Thatcher’s legacy is neoliberalism.All UK governments (including the SNP) since Thatcher have been neoliberal with the consequent effect of greater levels of inequality and poverty and all the social harms that come with that.
Here are the key elements.
Economic restructuring, markets and privatisation—increased competition; removal of the state from commercial activity, greater openness to international trade and investment, freedom of movement of capital, labour and goods (‘globalisation’).
Limiting public expenditure on social services, including healthcare and education, and infrastructure, with debt reduction the major goal (later called ‘austerity’ policies).
Deregulation and promotion of individual responsibility—limiting government regulation that might inhibit economic activity, despite risks to personal health and safety or the environment; giving priority to individual responsibility and ‘choice’ over concepts of ‘public good’ or ‘community’.
Where we are now, with poverty and destitution, great inequality, barely functioning health and social care, Thatcher’s legacy.
In 1961 poverty levels in the UK were 13% of population. Under Thatcher poverty levels rose to 25% of the population. They remain about 22% of population today. Lower in Scotland than England. Highest in London at 27%.
Prior to Thatcher Scotland’s health record sat in the middle of other European countries.After Thatcher, Scotland became the “sick country of Europe”.
Scott-Samuel and colleagues research has looked at the impact of Thatcher on the health of the UK.
We consider Thatcher’s denial of health inequality as a policy concern, including the rejection of the Black report. We discuss how Thatcher’s governments began the application of private sector management principles to one of Britain’s most popular socialist creations, the National Health Service (NHS) – and in doing so, paved the way for subsequent NHS privatisation by the governments of Blair, Brown and Cameron (9). Finally, we draw on a range of data to summarise the impacts of Thatcher’s policy reforms on social determinants of health and health inequalities. The concluding section argues that Thatcherism bears historical and
contemporary responsibility for making Britain a less healthy and more unequal
place than it might otherwise be.”
Thanks for info Sven.
Addiction to the internet/mobile phone is not just restricted to children. I see a lot of people in the gym I go to sitting on the weight machines doing nothing other than stare at their phones. It’s very annoying.
I’m not too sure about cheap/tinned/prepared food being less nutritious.
This might be con to get us to use more electricity.
Nothing wrong with a 45p tin of peaches which you can eat immediately and not have to wait a week for the peaches to ripen in the bowl. The ‘ripen at home’ fruit is another thing that annoys me.
The 45p tins of creamed rice are also very good & nutritious although I tend to have full fat Greek yogurt with my tinned peaches.
There have already been cases of osteoporosis in those taking puberty blockers.
Osteoporosis & rickets seem to be pretty similar.
I agree with you regarding the horrific consequences of transgenderism.
TURABDIN.
Well spoken,
The more we learn, the more we realise the directions they are attempting corral us into,
Danny the «Terror» has been captured.
England is once again safe.
Such a lot of fuss about what I believe is called in Scotland «a wee nyaff».
Iran and the British Army must really be desperate.
Are SNP attempting to fight Labour in any way?
Any reminders of 100 years of 2 or 3 terms Tory to 1 Labour that has run Scotland into the ground?
Never forget the Labour multi millionaire list like Blair, Brown, Kinnock.
Even Blair’s son is supposedly worth £20 million.
How about the Glasgow Labour Council spending hundreds of thousands and a decade fighting against equal pay for women.
Remember the Tory Bedroom tax that took finance or housing from the poorest in society
81% of those affected were disabled but Labour didn’t vote against it.
Thatcher brought in a rule that trade unions had to ballot to see if members still wanted to be involved with them.
Labour did nothing to negate Thatcherism.
Now Labour feel they must be a second right wing party if they are to get into government.
To quote Thatcher” My finest achievement was the formation of new Labour”
Sums them up totally.
He does and that shows in just how much affection he has for his country Scotland.
Tho no one wants to investigate if a certain jab is causing autoimmune diseases.
Some autoimmune diseases reduce vitamin D uptake.
Low vitamin D levels promote diseases such as rickets and MS.
Be careful what you stick in your arm.
@Effijy says:”…To quote Thatcher” My finest achievement was the formation of new Labour””
From Scott-Samuel
“Keith Joseph and Nicholas Ridley – developed detailed proposals for government (13).Their view was that the defeat of the movement which had forced Heath’s U-turn
would require, not simply the disengagement of the state from industry, but the
substantial destruction of Britain’s remaining industrial base. The full employment that had been sustained across most of the post-war period was seen, together with the broader security offered by the welfare state, to be at the root of an unprecedented self-confidence amongst working class communities (14, 15). In
particular, large scale manufacturing and extraction industries, generally strongly
unionized and often linked to the large scale provision of social housing at
subsidized rents by local government, were seen to underpin a working class
solidarity which gave that confidence a potent political expression (16). The windfall from the discovery of oil under the North Sea in the late 1970s became central to these New Right plans. Following Thatcher’s election in 1979, highly permissive deals were struck with US firms to allow for rapid extraction. Thereupon, as Foster puts it: ‘As the pound became a petro currency, it would be allowed to rise in
international value. Capital would be exported on preferential terms. Very large-scale unemployment would end the ‘cycle of rising expectations’, permit the historic defeat of the trade union movement and then allow the repatriation of capital on its own
terms’. (17, p.65) These were, in the phrase of Rodolfo Walsh, the economics of
‘planned misery’ – a ‘greater atrocity’ than even the many human rights violations
which accompanied their implementation in Latin America (quoted in 18, pp. 95-96).
This was fully understood by those who developed the plan for their implementation..”
This is one of the best cartoons I can remember seeing from Chris Cairns.
10% of the «UK» population has autoimmune problems, many do not know they have the condition.
The body’s response to a drug may worsen the condition in certain individuals.
Vaxxing willy nilly is potentially dangerous without a detailed «case history».
Johnim @ 13.36
The more time which passes, the better I feel about my wife and I having declined CoronaVirus & Flu inoculations and having stepped up our Vit C & D supplementation. Even though I was told we were “arseholes” by a military person involved in the rollout of the jabs.
And, in my uninformed way, I can’t help feeling that there is a lot of damage still coming our way from this worldwide medication.
@ Lorna C
Yes , Lorna , and it was yourself who first ( that I seen anyway ) made this point/analogy . Your contribution to this debate – if you can call it a debate when one side insists on ” No Debate ” – has been consistently trenchant , accurate , grounded in rational thinking and deeply-felt concern for the primary victims of this sanctioned societal/psychological aberration ..ie..women & children ; though , as we can see , ultimately , everyone will be extremely adversely affected .
@ Ruby – good to see you back commenting . So you didn’t ” take your love town ” after all . Ah well , the ” town’s ” loss is our gain 🙂
It’s a Class War, the real pity is that the vast majority of folk don’t realise it’s going on and it’s getting worse !
Sven
Agreed.
I take vitamins too .
It’s a question if I’ll ever go near a doctor again.
Re future damage. I hope we are both wrong.
Shock1………Sturgeon lied
Shock2……..SNP are covering it up using our money in Court.
https://archive.ph/kjIvz
Sam 12.40pm:
Thank-you for setting out the key elements of neoliberalism. Always helpful to step back and take in a wider view. A good post to share.
Ties in with James Barr Gardner, 2.25pm, as does your 1.55pm quote:
“The full employment that had been sustained across most of the post-war period was seen, together with the broader security offered by the welfare state, to be at the root of an unprecedented self-confidence amongst working class communities… [and]… to underpin a working class solidarity which gave that confidence a potent political expression”.
It’s certainly intriguing, maybes even innarestin, to ponder over some of the reasons why, when percentage figures for poverty are being bandied about.
Take last year, for example, when 606,000 extra people came to the UK. Add those figures to the net hundreds of thousands PA, every year for 20 years now, excepting the Covid Years.
And then speculate about where all these New Brits sit on the “poverty spectrum”. Consider the many hundreds of thousands drifting in on their rubber dinghies with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Spoiler alert. Not one New Brit has come here to be poorer. They all expect to enrich themselves, and thus logically, we must already on average be richer than they are.
Whatever the poverty figures are, I am genuinely surprised at how low they are, given the constant importing of new multitudes of the impoverished.
It’s a considerable addition of insult to injury, that not only do our politicians of all flavours continue with their great population replacement effort, but they also continue to fleece us to compensate the New Brits for the “tragedy” of them being less well off than most of us.
Thank you for those kind words!
No ‘I didn’t take my love to town’ I was here all the time but on the naughty step guilty of too much personal abuse.
I was being pre-moderated that’s why you thought I wasn’t commenting.
I’ve learned my lesson I’m going to be good from now on no more personal abuse or swearing.
I’ve been released from the NS I don’t know if it’s due to my good behaviour or Stu getting fed-up having to carefully read all my posts.
@Sam 1:55
This “very large scale unemployment” you claim.
Has it truly escaped your notice that the UK has been importing hundreds of thousands of workers yearly for decades now?
Very odd if so. Polls have been consistently showing a solid majority of Brits opposed to this policy for virtually all of that time. It’s even reputed to be the single largest contributor to the UK voting to leave the EU.
But you never noticed?
@SteepBrae 3.05
Aye, and the demonisation of the disabled as scroungers. The lying by Atos and other corporate bodies to disqualify people from welfare to which they were properly entitled. Now, jeremy *unt (Naughtie) wants to attack again their welfare.
Show us the money indeed
@Ruby 3:19
“No more personal abuse or swearing”
So it is actually you. If you can keep to your good intentions you may be able to positively help the Indy cause this time around.
I’d have a word with Rev Stu though. There’s a few just as bad as you ever were, and nobody’s limiting their posting rights.
Meanwhile the Vaccination industrial complex continues to grow. Big Pharma. Big Tech and Big Government. The big three.
Why would I need to have a word with Rev Stu can you not do it yourself?
I think you know how!
Unlike you I don’t have a problem with personal abuse or swearing. Most of it seems to be directed at you and ‘A Scot Abroad.’
Just out of interest do you believe you are ‘squeaky clean’ when it comes to personal abuse, swearing and more importantly in your case ‘flame-baiting’?
Ruby,
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine self-righteous persons who really need to repent 😉
Still, one is a good start. Welcome back (to the foreground).
“It’s even reputed to be the single largest contributor to the UK voting to leave the EU.”
And now there’s hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the all the NHS’s because the English government lied over Brexit and it was aided and abetted by the media, and folk from the EU said to themselves well we’re not wanted here, lets go back home and they did.
Even the likes of you Main aren’t that stupid, that you don’t see that, or am I being to complementary.
Of course it wasn’t just the NHS’s that suffered through the disaster that was Brexit, all manner of employment fields from soft fruit picking, to building site works, to hospitality felt the hammer blow of EU citizens going home due to Brexit.
Unsurprisingly a number of MPs and Lords (which is rising even further) at Westminster have applied for and obtained an Irish Passport to counter some of the effects of Brexit. However the majority of us need to suffer the consequences of these lying deceitful politicians and their equally guilty of propagandising media.
Speaking of such matters I see Scotland will be forced into a likely trade deal with India, as the English PM looks to seal a trade deal with Modi, as usual Scotland will have absolutely no say whatsoever on any of it. Why Scots tolerate this when we’re not even in a union with England is utterly astonishing and beyond me.
England and Scotland are NOT “regions”.
Check your facts!
ENG England Country
NIR Northern Ireland Province
SCT Scotland Country
WLS Wales [Cymru GB-CYM]
PrincipalityCountryhttps://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/iso_3166-2_newsletter_ii-3_2011-12-13.pdf
@Ruby 3:59
You don’t have a problem with personal abuse or swearing???!!!
Recollections may differ, eh?
Anyhoo, I detect a bit more of the “Auld Ruby” making herself known already. As a proud Scot, you will be familiar with the Jekyll & Hyde story. Mind it doesn’t come true for you.
A second time!
Modi’s trade with Sunak, take 173 m Muslims off ourhands and then we talk «deal»
Accha?
“Anyhoo, I detect a bit more of the “Auld Ruby” making herself known already. As a proud Scot, you will be familiar with the Jekyll & Hyde story. Mind it doesn’t come true for you.”
You should also watch your step, tbh.
Main @ 3.24
“This “very large scale unemployment” you claim.”
Innarestin – but shite.
I don’t claim this. I am quoting from Scott-Samuel.
What you say about immigrants and Uk employment is also innarestin and irrelevant. Been reading the Daily Express?
Under Thatcher unemployment (at 1.5 million when the Tories came in 1979) rose sharply to over 3million and stayed there for four years. The number was the highest post WW2 level and has not been seen since. Unemployment went up at a remarkable pace due to de-industrialisation.
Unemployment stayed high, almost 12% until the end of the 80s.
The unemployment figures would have been higher but for the fact that the unemployed were encouraged to register as disabled.
Poll tax?
Scotland’s oil?
Joining ERM at too high a rate?
Thatcher – a bottla day – Scotch and lobbying for the fags industry. Some kind of karma.
sam says:
9 September, 2023 at 12:40 pm
For the ignorant.
Thatcher’s legacy is neoliberalism…..
….Here are the key elements.
No disagreement Sam, but for me, one of the key elements of NeoLiberalism was the abandonment of quality as a design criteria in public works. Reputable Contractors who did the job properly were forced to compete with rogues and cost cutters, who would suffer no consequence for roguishly cutting costs. Cheapness became the primary, if not the only, criterion for virtually everything, with benchmarks for safety, quality, durability and built-to-last robustness largely swept aside.
Public and private procurement became a playground for crooks and spivs adept at winning contracts because unlike the conscientious Contractors, the crooks didn’t burden themselves with responsibility for actually doing a job properly. They didn’t have to.
The Government was complicit, Local Authorities were complicit, Contractors and Trade bodies were complicit, and the whole post war economy became a racket for the endemic corruption which NeoLiberal deregulation let off the leash. Something our “FreePorts” are no doubt about to reinvigorate once again…
Even today, we have the emerging “scandal” of the RAAC concrete components, but heap blame upon the Manufacture of a product designed to last 30 years, which is now failing after having lasted for 60 years. Do the arithmetic.
Don’t blame the product. Blame the NeoLiberal Designers and prevailing NeoLiberal attitudes of recent decades, which have happily consigned our traditional trades, crafts, and robust manufacturing standards to the dustbin, in order to save a few quid and go with the cheapest option.
Look at modern housing. Never, in the field of human habitation, has so much crap been so cheaply and shabbily built, but cost so very much to buy.
And money, biblical tons of it, which once upon a time circulated through our local economies and High Streets keeping them vibrant, is now syphoned out of our local communities on an industrial scale, and disappears into the world of corporate finance, never to be seen again.
Aye, no lamenting Thatcher’s passing in all this, but an awful lot of “little people” have been equally complicit with the rise to dominance of personal greed and “I’m alright Jack” philosophy.
There’s not much happened or happening in Scotland of late, which sits well Scotland’s traditional sense of Common Good.
And don’t get me started on Scottish “Justice”….
BDTT – well done!
The best I’ve ever been able to find was official guidance for cartographers from HMSO. The information (for UK only) was the same, but yours is much more comprehensive and “official”.
@Sam 5:43
Thanks for your response.
I can but repeat what I posted earlier. If Thatcher was any spur or encouragement for us Scots to support Indy, we would be Independent lang syne.
It’s disappointing that this encouragement from me to stop banging on about the past is interpreted as me being pro-Thatcher. But I’m just trying to steer the debate onto more relevant subjects.
We could stop to ponder why we aren’t all planning to vote for politicians and parties who are committed to rolling back Thatcher’s legacy. But such politicians and parties don’t exist.
Defo makes one wonder why, don’t you agree?
Incidentally, UK unemployment last December was the lowest it had been since the 1970’s, half a century ago. Just another fact that makes dwelling on the past irrelevant.
Only slightly off topic:
We all know that there is massive corruption in the Scottish judicial system and the links between COPFS, the Scottish Government and the higher reaches of the Scottish law profession.
If you wish to read about proof of this, I suggest this very important whistleblowing book by Scottish Advocate John Halley.
A Judicial Monstering: Child Sex Abuse Cover Up And Corruption In Scotland.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Judicial-Monstering-Child-Corruption-Scotland-ebook/dp/B0CH57BQJ4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=174KLD6S6UM3J&keywords=a+judicial+monstering&qid=1694280025&s=digital-text&sprefix=a+judicial+monstering%2Cdigital-text%2C130&sr=1-1
In it, in Chapter 17 he provides a copy of his submission to the Scottish Child Abuse Enquiry – where he names names.
The enquiry immediately collapsed and was reconvened with new guidelines to prevent any such further inconveniences to our overlords.
Naturally, Halley himself then found himself facing charges for – er child sex abuse (we all now know how COPFS works).
This book is his reply to that.
Get your copies quick before it is banned!
Ever wondered at the Scottish Government’s ability to get lawyers to support nearly everything they say or do, even when some of us think it is absurd?
It’s a private sector law firm that is appointed each year to provide this service. It’s the public that pay for it, but only Ministers that benefit from it.
They say they benefit the public too, but I’m not so sure about that.
I see they have just been re-appointed. Another example of a “continuity candidate” I presume.
Any straight law firm walking into the Scottish Government just now might get a bit worried about what is being covered-up?
So, the continuity candidate it is then.
@RoS 4:05
“we’re not even in a union with England”
Erm.
Soz, RoS, you’ve lost me. Maybes a few of the alert readers too.
TURABDIN at 2:12 pm
“10% of the «UK» population has autoimmune problems, many do not know they have the condition.”
If they themselves don’t know, how do you? Was that just a click-bait headline you read somewhere?
Thank you Stuart! 🙂
I don’t know if there will be a lot of rejoicing over me maybe I’ll just get a ‘Hallelujah!’
On the other hand John Boyne repenting and apologising to Graham Linehan merits a great deal of rejoicing as does Andrew Neil seeing the light.
I think the list of sinners who repent could be on the increase in the not too distant future.
@Breeks 5.45
Agree with all of that Breeks, particularly the quality of housing.
Scotland’s history is punctuated with the existence of slums.
Garavelli Princip – Many pillars of Scottish society have been hollowed out these past 10-years, none more so than the legal profession. I think it was Gordon Dangerfield who said it is now the living, breathing organ of the SNP.
@Main
“But I’m just trying to steer the debate onto more relevant subjects.”
Innarestin but more shite. Academics and economists are interested in Thatcher and her legacy which endures yet.
“Defo makes one wonder why, don’t you agree?”
No. I know the answer.
Faff. Verb
Great painting hits home. Rickets is back.
We’re all living on top of each other in Glasgow, in tiny studio flats for £820 average rental cost for a 1 bed.
The city is infested with rats.
No doubt typhoid and tuberculosis will be on its way back.
Susan Aitken is the largest of all the city rats.
We need SNP pest control to clean up the shithole of our once proud and thriving city. Now collapsing.
“Soz, RoS, you’ve lost me. Maybes a few of the alert readers too.”
Main.
You know exactly what I mean I explained it to you on the previous thread and you didn’t question it in your reply to me. You’re too old and too British to be coy now.
Make Glasgow clean again.
Build affordable houses.
We need houses for Scottish people. We’re bottom of list. We’ll all be dead with rickets before we get a house.
I’m watching the England game on the TV right now. 5 wins for Scotland none on the tele of course. Ode to joy is the song on the adverts intro.
Our globalist ode to joy signing nationalist war mongers the SNP don’t give a damn about us. Remember they sang ode to joy in the parliament.
Flower of Scotland has never crossed this SNPs lips.
The British State is a disgrace.
Open borders. Open jails. Scots suffer.
I want Independence for country of Scotland.
I see big Eck was in Cyprus cheering on the boys.
He loves our country. He loves our people. He loves Scotland.
The true leader of Scottish independence. The figurehead, the statesman the one true patriot.
I want an Independent Scotland with the Alba Party. Come one Scotland!
More academic interest in Thatcher’s legacy.
From the IFS, 2012.
“The Impact of Fathers’ Job Loss during the Recession of the 1980s on their Children’s Educational Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes*
Paul Gregg, Lindsey Macmillan, Bilal Nasim
Abstract
The research on intergenerational correlations in outcomes is increasingly moving from measurement into assessment of causal transmission mechanisms. This paper analyses the causal impact of fathers’ job loss on their children’s educational attainment and later economic outcomes. To do so, we isolate the effect of job loss associated with major industry contractions, mainly in manufacturing, during the recession of the 1980s by mapping industry-level employment change data from 1980 to 1983 into the British Cohort Study (BCS). Children with fathers who were identified as being displaced did significantly worse in terms of their GCSE attainment than those with non-displaced fathers. A child with a displaced father obtained, on average, 18 grade points lower or half a GCSE at grades A*–C less than their otherwise-identical counterparts, the equivalent of about 2 per cent lower wages as an adult. There is also a small effect of fathers’ displacement on the early labour market attachment of children, but no direct impact on their earnings at age 30/34. This does not mean that the impact of job loss will not affect social mobility. Those with lower income, education and social class were most affected by job losses and there is a direct effect on education and youth unemployment, which we know to be drivers of later earnings. This suggests that the recent recession may have significant long-term consequences for the children of those who have lost their jobs.”
The answer is simple they pay them.
They do need better lawyers maybe like the accountants they have a very limited pool of lawyers to choose from.
Every time they go to court they lose.
Alex Salmond judicial inquiry
Alex Salmond trial
Supreme court malarky
Then there’s the upcoming GRRB court case which I suspect will be another very costly failure.
What I wonder about is how the SG get anyone who isn’t being paid to support them.
Dan at 1140am,
Exactly. This is the kind of thing going on in clowncils all over Scotland. Obsessed with ideology-driven polices which nobody voted for, the clowncils just cannot seem to stop wasting taxpayers money. Making one idiot decision after another.
Meanwhile, folk cannot get the right amount of social care, home help or disability support – and the SNP are culpable.
It is an absolute and total disgrace.
David Hannah at 715pm,
Aye, Salmond is the real deal, a true patriot. The fact we cannot see Scotland games on the TV, except when we play England (oh how surprising), is an utter disgrace. I am not a diehard footie fan, but I genuinely do not know why those who are are not going for the metaphorical jugular of their MPs or MSPs.
No other country in the world would tolerate it for one second. Could you imagine German footie fans unable to see the German team play live on German TV, but could access all of the France games live, on German TV?? Then imagine all the sport discussion shows on German TV or radio focussed almost exclusively on French football, French sport and the French National team, with the odd ten second segment at the end to say, Germany will also be playing, but will likely lose. The government and the organisers of the Bundesliga would not last a day.
Like I say, no other country in the world would tolerate this for one freaking second. So why do Scottish football fans put up with it?
Most of us accept the reality that built-in obsolescence has been a thing for a long time. You don’t expect a toaster or microwave to work forever. Everlasting lightbulbs and washing machines are things of the past.
But did we really expect it to apply to housing? FFS, there’s meant to be concrete at the centre of Roman pillars which still isn’t properly ‘dry’ so they must’ve developed this stuff on purpose.
Interesting too that it has such a precise lifespan. The PPP/PFI scandal revolves around colossal sums of cash being paid over decades. It’s a form of theft by stealth, a wee bit from everyone via their council tax and they won’t notice. (In the case of North Ayrshire, it’ll be something like 350 million for 4 schools.)
And now it turns out that the buildings will self-destruct, prompting renewal/replacement. And how will that be funded? And on and on it goes…
Ian Brotherhood – Why not just stop using PFI? They stopped it in England 5 or 6 years ago. We are still using it and that’s one of the reasons for the £1Billion black hole in the country’s finances.
@Captain Yossarian (8.35) –
I assume you’re aware of Campbell Martin’s work on the subject.
Apologies for banging-on about this yet again, but anyone who hasn’t seen Campbell’s ‘The Only Game in Town’ documentaries (as featured right here when they were released) really ought to familiarise themselves with how rank rotten it all is.
I’m not the only one who suspects that PPP/PFI shenanigans (along with Gupta-related stuff) could well be a factor in extending the excruciating Branchform investigation. In and of itself, PPP/PFI is a scandal which would, in any normal democracy, see a raft of high-heid yins looking at jail time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paLSPNPfQXM
@captain Yossarian 8.35pm
Payments for PFI in England have not finished. The final contract will not end until 2049/50. Meanwhile, billions are yet due in England.
Jim Cuthbert, former Scottish senior civil servant wrote about the latest scottish version of PFI called Mutual Investment Model.
“He said: “It is extraordinarily worrying that Scotland and Wales are being forced, by the limitation on their capital budgets and borrowing powers within the devolution settlement, down a PFI-type path which has been abandoned by England – and by most other countries operating under more rational financial regimes.”
Cuthbert says this is due to changes in the way the Office of National Statistics classifies capital spending in Scotland, moving projects carried out under the non-profit distributing model (NPD) back “on-book” and so restricting Holyrood decision-making.
The Common Weal paper, authored by Cuthbert, describes PFI as “ruinously expensive and prone to failure”.”
Ian Brotherhood – Dan posted these up and I watched them. The Labour Party are wedded to PFI even more than the SNP. But, the point is: why don’t we dump this system of procurement altogether? The SNP’s version of PFI is even worse than the Labour version. Theresa May dumped it years ago, but we still continue and it is bankrupting us.
John McGinn said in his post match interview:
“only our wee country, could mess it up from here.”
Steve Clarke doesn’t want us to get ahead of ourselves. Even after 5 wins, the “Scottish psyche” believes we could blow it.
But I believe. I expect. And I love this amazing team. 11 wins out of 11.
We should be on terrestrial television. We must campaign for it to happen.
@Ruby
You were the first to welcome me when I first began posting on here so it pleases me to welcome you back. Good to see you commenting again.
@Captain Yossarian (9.06) –
‘But, the point is: why don’t we dump this system of procurement altogether?’
I have no idea. Someone like Campbell (or perhaps someone like Lesley Evans?) would be better placed to answer that one.
As a cynical layman, I’d guess that it hasn’t been dumped because there’s a conga-line of characters getting kickbacks and keeping their heads down.
https://archive.ph/3SVvl
Prison would be too difficult for Hairdresser Shauna Kavanagh.
Another article with the headline
“Transgender woman ‘morto’ after bloody punch-up in a drunken rage”
Victim had to be put into a coma and was in ICU for eight days with skull fracture
The court heard Mr Coogan had fractures to his left eye socket, right eye socket and the base of his skull as well as a bleed on the brain. He spent eight days in and induced coma in ICU before regaining consciousness. He was discharged three weeks after the attack.
Katy Loudon the SNP’s candidate in a crucial by-election has insisted her main focus is on campaigning after she appeared to welcome an MP ( Patrick Grady), who was accused of sexual harassment to canvass for her.
England will still be paying for PFI Contracts until 2050, but they are not commissioning any new ones and so it will stop then – in 2050. Scotland’s will keep on running indefinitely.
Scotland just calls PFI, the “Non Profit Distribution Model”, but it is still PFI. “Scottish Futures Trust” – responsible for Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital and a number of other balls-ups.
https://archive.ph/c2dhK
“A hairdresser who repeatedly punched and tore clumps of hair from a homeless woman’s head in a Dublin shelter has avoided jail.”
Still no jail for Shuana the Hairdresser.
I’m guessing morto = mortified
what is a knacker?
Anything to do with Shuana’s hairdressing technique?
Thank you! 🙂
Welcoming you was one of the very good things that I did. I knew you were a ‘goodun’ from the get-go.
I saw that Geoff. The SNP candidate in Rutherglen Katy Louden would welcome campaigning alongside the toucher upper, of other people’s teenage children.
Sex pest MP Patrick Grady.
I hope he loses her deposit. They are trying to throw the election to Labour.
JAMES JONES 6:40
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00457-9/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/extras/02art9340web.pdf
I’d worry about the young activists that campaign with Katy Louden. If Patrick Grady was with them.
You don’t know what he’s going to do with his hands.
He’s a sex pest after all.
Aparently he was hoping for redemption, by appealing to the religious vote.
He’s not going to be forgiven by the voters. He’s a sex pest. A sex pest is a sex pest for life.
Like Jordan Linden. I hope he faces the full hard dick of the law.
And the rest of the sex pest SNP.
Rutherglen, deserves better than Patrick Grady, sex pest MP chapping doors.
Tell KATY LOUDEN. Loud and clear. No sex pests in Rutherglen.
You better watch out. Sex pest MP Patrick Grady, doesn’t try and ply you with alcohol and bend you over in a thrupple with Patricia Gibson… While Ian Blackford looks the other way.
Sinister going’s on in the SNP. Really really vile toads.
Some of the most horrible people in our society, are members of the Scottish National party.
The people can not tolerate this. And then your children be next. As the manic street preachers sang.
Get them to hell Rutherglen. You know what to do. There’s doors to be slammed.
So, it seems that certain types of concrete used in public building projects have a life expectancy of 30 years.
Typical PPP/PFI contracts last for 30 years.
What are the chances?!
😉
https://archive.ph/1ueW5
This article about ‘Shuana the Hairdresser’ is bloody hilarious!
IanB,
The Pantheon’s dome, after 2,000 years is still the largest non-reinforced concrete dome in the world.
They don’t make them like they used to, eh.
@Breastplate –
Who was the Scottish cartoonist who did all the stuff about us repelling the Romans? It’s driving me mental trying to remember. Some great gags. Was it Bud Neill? MacCormack?
‘There was two of them!’
Ian Broherhood @ 23.37
I only recall William “Bud” Neill drawing stories of Calton Creek with Sheriff Lobey Dosser and his battles with Rank Badyin.
Axterix the Gaul I recall fighting alongside the Scots against the Romans, however I don’t remember (if I ever knew) the cartoonist responsible.
Asterix: Asterix and the Picts : Album 35
Ferri, Jean-Yves
Published by Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 2013
ISBN 10: 1444011677 / ISBN 13: 9781444011678
A delightful Scots version of the most recent Asterix tale. This translation has a twist, however, with Asterix and Obelix speaking Glaswegian, the Picts speak in Doric and the Romans in Dundonian Scots. Great fun. (Scotland Now)
IanB,
Not sure, the names are familiar but I’m sure Chris Cairns would know.
Cartoons aside, I find it profoundly mysterious how and why the Roman Empire chose to retreat behind Hadrian’s wall, 122AD, and then subsequently, did, or rather attempted, the same thing 20 years later with the Antonine wall.
That evidence doesn’t seem consistent with a Roman conquest abandoned by choice. There was clearly a desire to expand occupied territory, and that desire was frustrated and defeated rather than abandoned.
I try to avoid the seductive trap of “Pictish Exceptionalism”, that somehow Pictish warriors were somehow Ninja style guerillas whom the Roman soldiers couldn’t defeat.
Maybe there was a tactical superiority. The possibility shouldn’t be ruled out. I once saw a programe on TV which described the Celts as the “awkward squad” who would not bow to Roman rule, so maybe Scotland did indeed become a stronghold of indomitable free spirits with nowhere left to retreat. It is a possibility.
Maybe it wasn’t raiding parties which the Romans built a wall to keep out. Maybe it was a corrosive ideolgy which led to rebellion and insurrection, and destabilised Roman hegemony.
Were the Romans at the end of their colonial tether? Supply lines stretched to breaking point?
Hardly. An army running low on manpower and resources would rarely undertake the construction of 73 mile long fortified stone rampart, then 20 years later, attempt to build a second frontier roughly 100 miles further North. There is a profound mystery in that narrative. What adversity, precisely, did the Roman Army face in the North?
Maybe the answer isn’t to be found in Scotland, but Europe. I’m no expert, but the Roman Empire in mainland Europe adopted the Danube as it’s “defensible perimeter” to the North. So why didn’t the Romans do likewise in Scotland and exploit the Forth and Clyde estuaries? Presumeably something prevented them. Hardly the topography of the Central belt.
I find the whole subject fascinating. I’m as open to a humble and prosaic explanation as I am to a mighty battle of will and tactics between peoples and warlords. But to date, I’ve simply never heard an entirely satisfactory interpretation.
Ian Brotherhood @ 23.37
Remember Matt McGinn’s wee song “Gregali,Gregaloo” !!.
Breeks @ 8:33 am
“So why didn’t the Romans do likewise in Scotland and exploit the Forth and Clyde estuaries?”
The Romans built the Antonine Wall between the Forth and Clyde, so they did exploit the geography. This was strategic also because most of the Pictish tribes lived north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus. Hadrian’s Wall was similarly built between major rives east and west, the Tyne and Solway.
Extensive Roman camps were constructed at Inveresk, and Cramond, both accessible by sea. The Romans had an extensive maritime fleet to support them, also undertaking ’round-Britain’ voyages, ‘devastating the Orcades’ after the Mons Graupus battle. However, they did not appear able to maintain the Antonine defences and withdrew, also due to pressures elsewhere in the ’empire’.
The Romans described the Brittoni as the ‘customary foe’ of the Picti/Scotti, so some things have not changed.
IanB , my favourite was the Effen Bee – off t find it now on youtube.
Did he do the Hamlet , Hamlet loved his mammy song?
I read a book called ‘ The ancient paths’ by Graham Robb
His theory was that, the Celtic people had their own mapping system based on the Sun position at equinoxes and solstices.
Graves and stone circles, temples and roads were based on this system he contends.
Battles were fought, not on strategic principles, but in places where it was a good place to enter the afterlife.
Interesting theory, I thought.
Had many a good night carousin’ with Matt, always had time to listen to anybody and burst into song at the drop of a hat.
Tremendous character who I met in the “Folk Centre” Montrose in the sooty sixties.
My Favourite will always be his rendition of the Bloo Doo.
An Excerpt, “The wee doo wis seek,it hid hurtit its beak,
jist wi’ stabbin a daud eh hard breid,
When alang came a boay, jist a durty we boay,
Wi Snotters…. an beasts oan e’s heid.
The wee boay says jings, ah love aw things wi
Wings an he gied the wee doo abig cuddle.
Then he sorttit its beak, ‘e jist gied it a tweak
an ‘e saftint its breid in a puddle.
@Dorothy Devine –
I think you’re right. It probably was McGinn.
Adam MacNaughtan wrote ‘Hamlet’ (and the Jeely Piece song)
– it wasn’t Marlowe or Shakespeare
If you think this is boring,
You should read the bloody play.
Sorry I first met Matt in the “Folk Centre” Montrose street, which was situated right on the top of a four story tenement, now long demolished. Lots of folkies performed there before the Billy Connolly era. Josh McCrae. Danny Kyle Jim Craig andThe Islanders All went on to tour the West coast towns for years and made a living which they quickly converted into beer and whisky.
Great days.
I would still rather have Labour than the SNP. That’s not because I like Labour, it’s because of that’s how sick I am of the SNP.
The Scourge:
A good depiction of where it’s at.
I originally observed the “Scottish Labour” response coming from the person sitting on the cludgie in the middle window and just like rickets, they probably ARE-sitting bow legg’ed – similar to the stance of the branch office of OIM Scottish Labour.