The Some Arsehole Doctrine
Yesterday we drew attention to a disgracefully untrue claim made by the leader of the Ruth Davidson No Surrender To A Second Referendum Party at the day’s FMQs.
Davidson had attempted to pass off the personal views of just THREE members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as representing the official position of the august and 125,000-strong body. It’s the sort of bare-faced lie we’re sadly accustomed to hearing from opposition leaders in the chamber, but it was also an illustration of a much wider and depressingly-growing phenomenon.
Let’s learn about it together.
Because the problem Davidson decided to solve by lying about it is one that in the past constantly plagued both politicians and the media – the desire to make their own transparently partisan views appear to be shared by independent organisations and/or the wider general public, for the purposes of lending them respectability and credibility.
Sometimes, of course, that’s a straightforward job. The “Better Together” campaign in the indyref was rarely short of right-wing business types only too keen to endorse their message of doom and woe and uncertainty, because business is characteristically terrified of any sort of change.
But at other times the opposition or the press will want to rage about something while still maintaining a veneer of decency or professionalism, yet unable to find anyone of any legitimate relevance or expertise to say the intemperate things they desperately want to scream across a front page lead story, clickbait article or press release.
And that’s when they call on Some Arsehole.
In the social-media age, you can find someone espousing pretty much any viewpoint on any given subject, usually in hysterically overheated terms, in a matter of seconds. All you need to do is type a name or topic alongside a couple of expletives into a search box and you’ll get an avalanche of horror – try it with “sturgeon c*nt” some time (without the asterisk, obviously), if you’ve got a strong stomach.
In a sane world, obviously, the opinion of the sort of random frothing nutter willing to identify themselves only by a ludicrous juvenile pseudonym like “1690WATP1872” or “Jewnited_States_diediedie” or “ianssmart” would carry no weight whatsoever, partly because nobody except a few unfortunate fellow pub-goers would ever hear it.
Before the internet, if you were just Some Arsehole whose views were plainly of no significant consequence to anyone you’d have to go to the trouble of scrawling a letter in green ink onto the flayed-off skin of a rabbit, putting a stamp on it and walking to the Post Office or a pillarbox to send it to the Daily Mail by hand, where at most it’d get stuck away in a corner of the Letters page (or as it’s often called by world-weary sub-editors, “the freakshow”) unnoticed by anyone.
But the advent of instantaneous mass communication revolutionised both the power and utility of Some Arseholes. Now if a paper wants to fill an empty space with some fake outrage aimed at a person or group they hate, they no longer have to hope that one of the small number of full-time professional Some Arseholes like Jackson Carlaw MSP or Lord Foulkes are at home and sober enough to provide an instant rentaquote.
Instead, all they have to do is reach for the “FURY AT [X] OVER [Y]” article template and cut-and-paste the most lurid results of their Twitter search into the blank spaces. Because in a world where people rarely read past the headlines, it doesn’t matter if the answer to the question “Wait, WHO is furious exactly?” is “Oh, it’s Some Arsehole”. Your job is already done.
Let’s take a look at some recent examples.
Was she, aye? By who? A senior UK government minister? An EU official? At least someone from a thinktank specialising in European or UK constitutional law?
Oh, right – by Some Arsehole.
Wow, pretty harsh. Who’s said that, then?
Ah – it was Some Arsehole.
Clue in the headline, there.
The source of the quote is in fact “one person on Twitter”. Or put another way, Some Arsehole. (Often, as in this case, the paper won’t even identify the commenter by a username, because it’s just too embarrassing to reveal that you’re making news out of the opinion of some zoomer known only as “pinkmonkeygin”, with 171 followers.)
Let’s see another example.
Attacked, you say? Sounds serious. By some worthy Holocaust group, maybe?
Oh, right. Two unnamed “social media users”, aka Some Arseholes.
A “diplomatic row”? Ooh, have we got some angry diplomats on our hands?
Sadly not. We have a couple of shrieking Yoonbats who anyone passingly familiar with the world of Scottish political Twitter will instantly recognise as two people who’d scream abuse at Nicola Sturgeon even as she personally pulled them out of a burning car. In short, Some Arseholes.
When a newspaper desperately wants to pass off its own hatred as widespread rage and controversy but can’t find anyone in public life to put their name to it, it’s no longer a problem, because it need only apply the Some Arsehole Doctrine.
(It also works for stories about “vile cybernats”, of course.)
So the next time you see a headline with the word “FURY” in it, or the next time Ruth Davidson says pretty much anything, ask yourself a simple question: “Is this actual news, or is it just Some Arsehole?”
Because most of the time, you’ll already know what the answer’s going to be.
.
———————————————————————————————–
EPILOGUE
One last word. Lest some godawful waste of skin implausibly managing to somehow pass themselves off as anything resembling a journalist (Hi Siobhan!) should choose to misrepresent this article as being merely insults flung at the people quoted above for having opinions that disagree with ours, we want to make something clear:
Anyone can be Some Arsehole. It’s just that most arseholes aren’t news. After all, everybody’s got one.
I couldn’t help noticing the three one-liner comments criticising the SNP were amongst dozens of considered and factual comments from other contributors in the RICS report.
It’s almost as if someone put them up to it.
I really don’t believe it… Chigwell is a real place. I thought it was like Walford.
Aye, this is why I never read “news”papers!
Fascism, in UKOK newsprint.
It is even worse than that. If you want to quote an anonymous ranter, insulter, scandalist or boo-er, just make a twitter account, write what you want and then quote yourself in the article. “Sources say….” . Job done.
Thank you, Rev – given me a good chuckle. I’d like to think Some wellknown A…es are reading this!
Fine form today.
In these days of unchallenged bullshit spouted by politicians across the globe as the news media cower from their reason of being – to bring you news in context and to challenge positions and beliefs with solid facts.
Thank deity of your choice for Wings to show that those of us with a brain are not alone for seeing through the charade of opinion and magical thinking from politicians and partisan supporters being presented as fact by the not fit for purpose media.
First class! 😀
That’s a keeper Rev.
Love the music. Where do you dig this stuff up?
I also meant to say, almost choked when I got to the end of the list of pseudonyms!! Smart move!
So the trick is to name a major organisation and then attribute one quote to it from an aforementioned rectal orifice from that organisation and then insinuate that everybody else in the organisation has similar rectal viewpoints Not really lying but not also being transparent.
There is a word for that and it is the product of rectal activity.
I recall the head of the Weir Group coming out against independence restored.
His excuse was, his company might suffer in some unidentified manner from the uncertainty independence might engender for a few months.
Here was the boss of a multi-million pound, international company trying to convince the Scottish public it cannot adapt in the slightest way to change, despite making massive changes monthly to accommodate new governments, new regulations, new tariffs, and contractual and material supply alterations.
What a bloody liar.
So applying the formula:
Some nobody quoted for effect by the Express is just some arsehole.
And some nobody quoted for effect by the Tories is just the OBR.
Hey, I’m getting the hang of this…
These articles are a total joke.
Just like arseholes in pubs best avoided.
This barefaced lying by Ruth Davidson and the Tory bench thumpers goes on unchecked , the total inability of the Labour presiding officer to comment when the mooth ruth and her wee gang ask questions they are allowed to make open political comments and statements dressed up as a question , why no intervention by Ken Macintosh , why no stick to the bloody question remark .
I watched yesterdays FM Questions every single time a Tory stood to ask a question they managed to get the political dig in every single time what is he there for ? is he just a spectator ?.
Nicola Sturgeon really needs to get coaching from Alex Salmond he managed to wrong foot the questioner every time , being nice and polite to this lot wont ever work , get the gloves off now.
Aha … good old Chigwell … I remember it well.
During my time in London my partner and I spent a lot of time in and around Chigwell (other areas of London were also visited 😀 ) serving court papers and dealing with loads of debt recovery. 😀
They may have loads of money in Chigwell but they do not like spending it … allegedly! 😛
In short, the Yoonbat is greater than the sum of its arseholes.
I’m not easily shocked but your language throughout this article when referring to the Daily Mail and Express as newspapers has left me speechless
I have always respected your skills as a wordsmith but this is beyond the pale and must not be allowed to stand
This use of the word “Newspaper” is the thin end of the wedge, a bridge to far, a line that should not be crossed and I for one am “Furious” and “Outraged” and I “Lambast” you sir
An expert!
The issue for me is that there is not longer any appreciable difference between a ‘respected journalist’ and some random lunatic off the street.
Glad to see Snuff given a role on this site. Next time add NoFx – The Idiots Are Taking Over.
@Grouse Beater…. Weir Group
And he also said we’d be dragged out of the EU and that was the worst thing in all of the world that could ever happen to anybody anywhere, Fear Fear Fear
Have’nt heard from him lately, wonder why
The Express hacks like Siobhan McFadyin are just plain cowardly, they are desperate to insult Scotland, the SNP, the FM and Indy movement but don’t have the guts to present it as their own personal views so they trawl through Twitter to find any old quote so they can pretend the bile is coming from a third party and not them.
Scotland in Union does the same trick with their members. Remember Prof Gallacher who was titled as their knowledgable expert in several fields but in fact was qualified for none of them.
Seems to be the “in” thing.
Great analysis.
Some Arsehole Doctrine – rightly identified as one of the modus operandi of today’s journalist-free media.
We need to get this concept to stick because there are many many times when the correct response in not some lengthy counter argument if all that has happened is some individual of no authority or standing has been quoted a source the sole source!
It is a bit like SNPBaaad. If a point, which someone of frantically trying to make, has so little substance behind it is so often best batted back with a simple but accurate SNPBaaad allegation.
“What a bloody liar.”
Most YESers could fill a phone book of unionist liars Grouse Beater.
Tories have won two Aberdeenshire council seats from the SNP this week. Press and Journal’s in a relentless anti SNP campaign up here. P&J also call an extremely dirty campaigning NEWS.
http://archive.is/pwmqk
NEWS
SNP “stealth tax” will see north-east residents fund schools in Glasgow
13 September 2016 by Andrew Liddle
http://archive.is/mOId6
NEWS
Ruth Davidson: North-east continually used as a cash cow by the SNP
4 November 2016 by Andrew Liddle
http://archive.is/nFYnd
NEWS
The “trappings of high office” have left the health secretary oblivious to the difficulties facing north health boards, it has been claimed.
and today,
Conservatives win Aberdeenshire Council seats in latest local by-elections
The seats were held by the SNP and an independent Tories took an Aberdeenshire Council seat from the SNP and another from an independent in the latest local by-elections in Scotland.
Far right mediaocracy in action.
The Express certainly has one…in fact they have several.
🙂
Many thanks for the Good and Important work you have done here. Not just dissecting the MO of the gutter press, but also reading it in the first place so we don’t have to.
And then there’s this from the most truthful and trusted of all sources – the mouth of babes…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pXFfZYgeAk
As far as the Press and Media are concerned then I’m afraid we shall just have to live with their lies and distortions until Independence. That said not sure if Nicola’s more genteel style of politics is working effectively in Parliament. Watching FM’s questions I do sometimes miss Alex’s responses to these Opposition arseholes. But it goes much deeper than that I constantly find myself frustrated by the defensive tone adopted by many SNP MSP/MP’s on TV. I also note ‘Scott Arthur’ is bombarding Youtube with selected critiques designed to obviously target the younger electorate. Please let us see a more robust attitude in future.
Good article but as I have stated nobody in the SNP will take the media to task.
Nicola might wipe the floor with them at Holyrood but nobody reports it so the media wins.
Apart from people really interested in politics we are the only people taking the media to task.
Now I can guarantee if it’s fantasy football leagues, online betting for the weekends football you will have a discussion going on.
If it’s the morons watching strictly, bake off, x factor or other shit you get people in conversation.
People are all about me me me and only care about what’s in there pocket.
Maybe the SNP should create a scratchcard or some sort of fantasy league where subliminally they can get the message across but I’m at a odds as to what way the SNP are going to convince people when they have this wishy washy attitude and let the opposition and the media feed the public bullshit from accredited aresholes!
I miss the old days when News was genuinely made in the classic way:
1: Newspaper decides on a story and an agenda to follow
2: Newspaper asks someone to comment on as yet non-story
3: Newspaper reports persons shock at “surprise reports”
4: Other papers then report on this shock story.
5: Every Newspaper smiles as story now officially ‘valid’.
Seems now the Arseholes have saved them the bother.
Ken is no patch on Tricia.
I think he is doing a “Yes Minister” on the PO role.
Que Sir Humphries aghast expression.
” B-bu but minister,The position is an honorary one, it’s roles are purely ceremonial and the responsibilities are there to be enjoyed, not exercised”
e mail Ken as the PO and suggest that as part of his review of way the SG works, that all questions have to be scrutinised by the PO before being brought before FMQ’s.
The BBC is Photoshop for broadcasting, specialising in distorting the true picture and skewing it to serve the needs of UK Government propaganda.
BBC viewers can be fooled nearly all the time. Just like they were during the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum campaign, and the 2016 EU Referendum campaign.
Heard someone say only yesterday that Scottish oil is finished. Fooled again.
“Heard someone say only yesterday that Scottish oil is finished. Fooled again.”
They’ve been saying that ever since Scottish oil was first discovered – and it’s not about to run out any time soon:
http://imgur.com/uWzmVti
All these tiny newspapers (in terms of sales in Scotland) shouldn’t be having the effect they do.
Why is that?
The BBC – who use the above tiny newspapers to justify the “unbiased” news viewpoints they take.
Were any other organisation deemed to have >70% of the market then there would be constraints placed upon them.
The Express could rant on forever and only have an effect on the tiny number of people who buy it IF the BBC didn’t then use that as some basis for “unbiased” news.
tl;dr the BBC is the problem, not tiny newspapers.
This willingness to believe that because one or two say something, therefore loads of people obviously hold the same view reminds me of the scenario where someone says;
‘Great, Brexit will get us out of Europe away from all these bad laws’ but when asked can only mutter something about Health and Safety or straight bananas and can’t actually name any laws!
Lots of people are lazy and easily led…we have to question them, call their bluff! –
Who, What, Where, When, Why and How many?
What a morning. Ian Duncan Smith raging at judges ruling against Theresa May, The prospective future leader of UKIP saying judges should be under State control. The newspapers inciting judge lynch mobs.
Many commentators on the ruling being praised or vilified for their measured views.
It seems being moderate is no longer tolerable.
Yet some say England and its people are not on the road to being a fascist State?
I would dispute that. Reminiscent of Germany circa 1930’s.
I agree that the SG should take on the bbc. It will encourage non-payment of the bbc tax. How about some SNP politician publicly declaring his or her non-payment?
Well said Rev, these sort of stories/lies can’t be told often enough. Most folk, unfortunately, have nothing like your media experience and brainpower.
I think Gordon Brown is a Scotsman on the make who sold out his country for power.
Headline
“Brown blasted as Power hungry Fagin”
Says…Big Jock on twitter.
I wonder how oor wee Roothie “just point the way to the next phot op” Davidson feels about her fellow “noble” Tory Stephen Phillips today. 😀
As I said earlier today on Twitter:
One Tory resigned over Heathrow.
One Tory resigned over Brexit
NEXT!
I had a good laugh at this, where are the Newspapers that search for opinions of Unionists and their vileness? There are none.
Rev, one thing you do well is expose the hypocrisy of the MSM. I know sweary words are not everyone’s cup of tea on this site but for me at least as a grown up I can deal with that.
We can read Booker prize winning books containing the word arsehole and just accept this as that is the best descriptive word available for that particular scenario in the book.
I tried searching for a synonym of arsehole and couldn’t find one meaning the same thing as is intended that was not also a swear word.
Favourite was from Urban Dictionary that had this from 2005:
A person who fills you with disgust and anger.
TONY BLAIR, JOHN PRESCOTT, JACK STRAW, JACK McCONNELL
Its another rancid The Graun double UKOK whammy, or a time machine, dial back to their very creepy 2014 vote NO hysterics,
http://archive.is/SLb5X
Crash Gordo’s federal UK zone is coming and Crash also wants “A people’s convention.” What a people’s convention actually is, is not for us people to know.
http://archive.is/rMtBy
Severin Carrell says, is all that’s needed.
Even noticed when you repeat a word a lot it starts to make no sense
Recently the word “Respect” has become so overused I started to forget what it meant
Evrybody keeps repeating respect this respect that but don’t respect this and then don’t respect that
See what I mean, I’m losing the desire to live listening to politicians newsreaders experts until I’m hearing dogs bark the bloody word now
You’ll notice how I avoided saying losing the WILL to live coz that’s another one
And don’t get me started on “Sovereign” Eeuch!
All three in one sentence Respect the Sovereign Will of the people
Take me now God!
Aye Gordon Brown..’it’s not the percentages..(re tax raining powers for SP)…it’s the ‘principle’, the principle…
I gie you the squirming Gordon the day before the ref:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQrqoeKL5fg
@Richardinho says: 4 November, 2016 at 1:35 pm:
“The issue for me is that there is not longer any appreciable difference between a ‘respected journalist’ and some random lunatic off the street.”
Nah! Richardinho, The real truth is that the vast majority of disrespectful journalists are actually random Lunatics who are still on the streets.
Some of the British tabloids today are quite scary with their hatred for “foreign elites” and “enemies of the people.” Its all getting very 1930s Berlin style.
I see on the Rev’s twitter feed that they think May can ignore Scotland on Brexit.
Apparently they think the Westminster cabal can change Scots law with impunity due to the circumstances. I think this is nonsense because of the ruling yesterday which made it very clear that Scots law was inherent in the Act of Union.
They are effectively telling Scotland they can do what they like,when they like and as they like with impunity. Major crisis looms.
@manandboy – It is really depressing.
New Hunter field in the North Sea, west of Shetland has massive potential.
http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/163683/hurricane-energy-soars-after-impressive-results-from-new-well-at-lancaster-field-163683.html
And exploration licenses are up for grabs in the North Atlantic
@Bob Mack
Here’s the article from Rev’s twitter
http://archive.is/cdviA
@Liz
Is this yet more of the black stuff?
http://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/10388/another-new-north-sea-oil-discovery/
heedtracker
Calls for a Convention you say…how very radical from Gordie!..oops
( I cant use archive at work so apols for full link)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/08/douglas-alexander-scottish-convention-independence
@Nana-looks like it.
This would be the type of info we need on billboards,at the risk of getting modded off.
The graphics are easy to see, showing Scotland’s huge sea area.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/504827/OESEA3_Environmental_Report_Final.pdf
Must be great being a journo…
Reinvent yourself online with a witty NDP…
State something that fits the political whim of the guy that pays your salary and BINGO!!!
Instant headline c/o yourself posing as the ever-angry Brit-Nat/Yoon/Brexiteer/Jock-bashing “Nigel from Basingstoke” who exists purely in cyberspace on some hack’s discrete Twitter account.
Who needs to go out in the pissing rain to get a selection of vox pops these days to glean an opinion…
Just write you own then off down the pup for beer and medals!!!
Where do I sign up?
A bit harsh Stuart.
I will have to show some solidarity with your adversaries in this instance.
Je suis un Arsehole 🙂
Can you imagine our children having to suffer this crap that we have to put up with from this sole destroying union, day after day, after day.
We need to get out now, as it’s only going to get worse and worse the longer it goes on.
Belter of an article. That is all.
Heh. Gotta love the right wing press and their ability to hide hypocrisy behind faux outrage and convenient democracy.
The fleg wavers who day in day out encourage their readerships to disparage Scottish law and popular sovereignty. The ‘obey your queen and parliament’ types. Y’know the sort.
Wonder how they square the current circle.
The Queen’s law and parliament. A parliament and legal system that derives its power from the crown, now at odds with the right wing press and their readerships. A press and readership who never tire of breaking out the bunting at the slightest hint of a royal baby, a military fly past or a sporting event. So, no obeying their queen then?
Basically today what we’re seeing from this press is a call to sedition? Defy the right of parliament to decide for the people and defy the law of the land?
That is the definition of sedition right?
Sedition: noun: sedition; plural noun: seditions
Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.
synonyms:incitement (to riot/rebellion), agitation, rabble-rousing, fomentation (of discontent), troublemaking, provocation, inflaming;
Irony thy name is… mainstream media? 😀
One_Scot says:
Three years, tops. Then we can move forward and make our own future. 🙂
@Nana,
Having looked at that article it is specifically talking about the Sewell convention and is therefore correct in the proposition that Scotland could not prevent Theresa May implementing the Westminster agenda for Brexit.
What it fails to do though is contrast that with the Court judgement yesterday which basically imposes on Parliament the need for legislation to implement article 50.
If they wish to change the Scotland Act,the same conditions apply in removing EU legislation from Scottish Law. They would have to do so in Parliament and not as an Executive decision only. If the Supreme Court upholds the verdict then any changes to Brexit would need full parliamentary scrutiny which would again delay Brexit.
Perhaps this is why Nicola has talked about being involved in the Supreme Court Appeal.
This would open up questions of Sovereignty as well because Royal prerogative could not be used for Scotland. Ian Duncan Smith said a significant thing today. He said that parliament had “loaned ” the people Sovereignty to vote in the Referendum for the EU, but he was talking about England and Wales. He never mentioned Scotland. I wonder why not ?
@Bob Mack says: 4 November, 2016 at 3:24 pm:
“I see on the Rev’s twitter feed that they think May can ignore Scotland on Brexit.
Apparently they think the Westminster cabal can change Scots law with impunity due to the circumstances.”
The fact is, Bob Mack, that they have been doing just that since long before Robert Bruce, (The King of Scots Dad), was born and after 1320 and the declaration of Arbroath we had a short spell when Scotland was actually independent.
Since then they, with the assistance of mainly London Scots, did exactly as they pleased – and got away with it.
I’ll not bore you with a host of examples but will quote you one such:-
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/treatyofedinburgh-northampton/index.asp
A few wee detail of that treaty are :-
The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton was signed in 1328. It was between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
It ended the First War of Scottish Independence that began when the English invaded Scotland in 1296.
The treaty was signed in Edinburgh, by King Robert Bruce, on 17 March 1328. It was ratified by the English Parliament at Northampton on 1 May.
The document, (written in French), is held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The terms state that in exchange for £100,000 sterling the English Crown would recognise:-
(a) – The Kingdom of Scotland as fully independent.
(b) – Robert the Bruce, and his heirs and successors, were the rightful rulers.
(c) – The border between Scotland and England would remain that which was recognised under the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286).
How many of those conditions, fought, bought and paid for in Pounds Sterling, (note Sterling being used in Scotland in 1328), were kept by Westminster?
I vote for Snuffs catchy tune for an Indy Scotland’s national anthem
More on Scotland’s oil, from an investment community website on 4 November 2016 concerning exploration success west of Shetland:
“So how good is Hurricane Energy Plc’s (LON:HUR) Lancaster oil field? One measure taken from the most recent well suggests it is potentially one of the best on the planet.”
SOURCE: http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/168278/could-hurricane-energys-lancaster-be-one-of-best-oil-fields-on-the-planet-168278.html
@Vesta at 2.31pm:
“The BBC – who use the above tiny newspapers to justify the “unbiased” news viewpoints they take.
Were any other organisation deemed to have >70% of the market then there would be constraints placed upon them.
The Express could rant on forever and only have an effect on the tiny number of people who buy it IF the BBC didn’t then use that as some basis for “unbiased” news.
tl;dr the BBC is the problem, not tiny newspapers.”
———-
What has puzzled me for a long while is that the BBC are strict about not advertising products, and quite rightly so. However, it seems they can and do publice commercial products such as the Express, Sun, Times, Mail etc every day on the TV, BBC websites and radio.
It’s blatant advertising for these newspapers – surely the BBC shouldn’t be able to do this, just as they aren’t allowed to read out loud the labels on tins of baked beans.
O/T
I haven’t been able to attend a showing of “London Calling” yet.Can anyone direct me to a schedule of showings? I’d be most grateful.
Katie Hopkins in the Daily Mail today re EU ruling:
‘Don’t give oily fish like Sturgeon any wiggle room or the Poison Dwarf from the North will make this process more protracted than childbirth.’
@Bob Mack
Just spotted this re Wales
https://twitter.com/GrayInGlasgow/status/794556592498872320
also looks like Labour have given up on single market access
http://www.politico.eu/article/keir-starmer-britains-last-remaining-hope/
@mealer – there’s one tomorrow in Dundee.
I’m sure there will be more advertised soon.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-calling-bbc-bias-during-the-2014-scottish-independence-referendum-dundee-screening-tickets-28945283121
Also, the BBC doesn’t get it’s facts right. Their report on the Council Tax vote in the Scottish Parliament yesterday gets the figures wrong:
“At decision time, Mr Wightman’s amendment was passed by 65 votes to 63 after an amendment put forward by Mr Mackay was defeated by the same margin.”
As discussed yesterday, Alex Johnstone Tory MSP was MIA on both days that a fairly crucial vote was being held. There were therefore only 64 opposition votes to the SNP’s 63.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-37837010
Liz 4.36
Thanks!
Any chance of a link to the Katie Hopkins daily mail article where she calls our FM a poisoned dwarf?……perhaps it’s too much expect anyone to inflict the daily mail upon themself!
@Dave sharp
“I vote for Snuffs catchy tune for an Indy Scotland’s national anthem”
I’ll second that! Better than anything we currently DON’T have.
I think the whole world can agree, this needed said.
Sadly even if you don’t read ‘news’ papers nowadays, you have the frequent treat of them being ‘reviewed’ on telly, either on the BBC, or on the oncreasingly Fox News-like sky news. Now, so far as Sky goes, it is of course punting an increasingly intolerant right wing agenda (just look at who they most often use to ‘review’ the papers), but I don’t pay for SKY so don’t really care.
But the BBC I must, on penalty of a criminal offence, pay for, and that is where I have a problem. As newspapers become more and more propaganda sheets, which in the UK are mainly right wing, it is hard to understand how they fit with the BBC charter. In reality with few exceptions, many of the UK newspapers are just hysterical right wing junk, written by morons.
It is time the BBC stopped this charade they call the paper review, since they merely help perpatuate the myth that these sheets of propagandist badly written rubbish are somehow worthy of considered thought.
Anyway, great article, REV, and quote of the year,
“Anyone can be Some Arsehole. It’s just that most arseholes aren’t news. After all, everybody’s got one.
Marvellous.
@liz
I also say thanks, grabbed myself two tickets so me and the missus will be going. Why are these events not more widely published, a bugbear of mine.
‘ the sort of random frothing nutter willing to identify themselves only by a ludicrous juvenile pseudonym like “1690WATP1872” or “Jewnited_States_diediedie” or “ianssmart” ..’
Burn!
The whole ‘England should just leave the UK’ thing has gone quiet. Shame, it seemed the answer to everyone’s problems! What was not to like about it as a comprehensive solution!?
Madyin McFadyin, Hatey Hopkins, Buffalo Crippler, Kez anti-fashionista, too many to mention – I’m going to miss this when we leave them in their own keich.
There are so many unanswered questions today, the origin of the god particle, the true nature of climate change, the final solution to the Middle East problem. But the one everyone needs to know most is;
When will Gordon Brown fuck off?
@mealer 4.55
Can’t post link from tablet but just Google Katie Hopkins poisoned dwarf and it will take you DMirror/DRecord report of it and a vid of her tirade.
Health warning – nasty stuff!
So what you’re saying Rev. is that like living organisms the Yoon Press also have a mouthpiece and an arsehole.
However unlike living organisms the mouthpiece and the arsehole of the Yoon Press are actually one and the same, not separate. 🙂
@galamcennalath 5:14pm
The SG should now loudly pronounce its meetings with EU ministers and loudly tell England that the SNP MPs will vote against Article 50. It’s only a matter of time before England is wrapped up in a “white coat” taking itself away fron the union with Scotland.
I prefer Somehow by Snuff, more poetic, better guitar, no cheesy ska-punk riffs. Saw them live in England in the late 80s. 🙂
Quite enamoured by mad unionists online, too, mind you. They have picked up the horrible American (as usual) right wing disease, whereby they say something caustic, offend somebody with an opposing point of view, then act all sniffy when they are confronted, acting as if they’ve never been so offended in their lives, and ‘worry’ about the mental and emotional stability of the person who has confronted them.
This madness does not apply to them, of course, because as sociopaths, they understand neither reason nor correct emotional responses. Pretty much the whole net is basically worth disregarding with regard to this stuff, because if you ever get angry and insult them back, these loons instantly adopt a nonexistent moral and ethical ‘high ground,’ wheezing about this being the best that the SNP/yes voters have to offer, so we’re better off staying in the union. Like talking to troubled children it’s depressing, demented, disgusting, disturbing, and sad, but it’s the way things are. Permanently.
galamcennalath,
‘ it seemed the answer to everyone’s problems!’
Nah, England wouldn’t get our oil revenues so it was a non-starter.
Regarding legislative consent, technically, Westminster could ignore the Scottish parliament. That is only on a technical level. In reality however, it simply is not a good move for Westminster, as it smacks of outright, unadulterated colonialism.
Westminster cannot on one hand say we have a Scottish parliament, and then when fearing defeat on something just decide it doesn’t matter.
In many ways, I hope Westminster does exactly that, because it would expose our relationship with London for what it is, we are merely an English colony.
I cannot think of anything Westminster might choose to do more likely to massively increase the YES vote.
It all however, comes down to some key things, in that what is the recourse if say the Scots parliament took a decision on something which needed Westminster approval, what can Westminster do? Aside from political pressure or sending in English troops, there actually isn’t anything they can do.
This very latter point was raised in the context of Westminster overstepping its powers, in defiance of the union treaty of 1707, in the judgement of McCormick Vs Lord advocate (1953). The lord president, Lord Cooper stated “To put the matter in another way, it is of little avail to ask whether the Parliament of Great Britain “can” do this thing or that, without going on to inquire who can stop them if they do. Any person “can” repudiate his solemn engagement but he cannot normally do so with impunity.
I believe likewise, given a democratic mandate the very same principle applies to the Scots Parliament, if Westminster chose to ignore it. The point I am trying to clumsily make, is simply this, as Alex Salmond always says ‘politics is the art of the do-able’, and Westminster overriding the Scots Parliament on such an important matter, just isn’t ‘do-able’, as the consequences for London would be terrible, and they could hardly complain if the Scots parliament thereafter chose to do likewise. In essence, Westminster would have dis-engaged from its democratic commitment within Scotland.
If Westminster chose to ignore the norms and conventions regarding Scotland, then they could hardly complain if the Scots Parliament chose to do likewise. Some might call that the end of the union.
Like I say however, I do hope Westminster does exactly that.
Source : http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1953/1953_SC_396.html
Thepnr 5.03pm
It’s certainly an issue.The SNP website has an “events” section but not many groups seem to use it,so people probably give up visiting because there’s never many event listed on it.
Speaking of websites,Brechin and Edzell branch SNP have just launched a really smart looking website.Well worth a look in.
O/T
Alistair MacKinnon who pulled together the fringe meeting at SNP conference on the medical use of cannabis and the production of industrial hemp will be chatting to me tonight on my Roundabout programme (7pm – 8pm) on Argyll Independent Radio http://www.argyllradio.co.uk
I hear on the radio we’ve got angry sounding Yoons marching up and down outside SNP offices in Aberdeen chanting “ships of shame SNP” this seems to be about the underpaid seamen who are contracted NOT by the Scottish government but come into Scottish waters, so the protesters are blaming the SNP which of course the SNP have already tried to sort this out as Ruth and Kezias band of organised protesters already know
So they do an interview with a “protester” who immediately launches into the SNP have brought shame to Aberdeen and more nonsense like that
In the past few weeks there has been a definite rise in anti SNP verbal nonsense and it reeks of Ruth and Kezias work
BTW for those who don’t already know Alex Johnstone resigned over an expenses “irregularity” he was apparently renting his constituency offices from the Tories but only using part of it while he rented out the other part to somebody else
In effect renting from himself
So that was all over the news wasn’t it eh Fraud Embezzlement Scandal Tories Blasted Lambasted Slammed Reputations in Tatters…….. not a titter
Shock horror! The Torygraph highlights that members of the legal establishment have links to the EU. After all these decades of membership, I should hope so!
Until this Brexit nonsense started with Cameron’s pathetic renegotiation and ill conceived referendum, everyone assumed th EU was part of the UK’s future.
http://archive.is/ibOFM
Thanks for putting Snuff on Rev. Brilliant band.
Oh aye, the article was good too.
Liz g
Can’t find any Poison Dwarf in Katie Hopkins article today but there are plenty of derogatory comments in this article last month
!http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3867744/KATIE-HOPKINS-Scotland-said-No-independence-Britain-said-Yes-bit-not-understand-Nicola.html
I see it’s yet to also be played..
Denis Leary’s take on it, with dedication to The Express.. and the US of A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
The Some Arsehole Doctrine.
The SAD.
Have an excellent Friday night ma Bonnie Scotland.
X.
Meg Merrilees @ 6.19
Em I think your post was for Liz,hun
There’s two of us that’s why I added the g.
If I remember right I think we’re even from the same town.
Double the trouble…so to speak!
I see that Djokovic has lost his match and Oor Andy is just about to start his match against Berdych in the quarter finals.
If he gets through this heat he has one more match against the either Tsonga or Raonic and he will be World number one for the first time.
BBC Jockstrap is, of course, telling the World that Briton, Andy Murray is on course to become No.1.
If he loses this heat he’ll be back to being a BBC Jockstrap useless Scottish tennis player again.
A brilliant analysis there. I’m still laughing.
And it’s just struck me, one of the occasional “go-to” quotable eejits is a certain G.Brown. (He is apparently some kind of hermit who is obsessed by a mania that the UK is instantly constitutionally reformable through his personal intervention.)
And the Express is the shite that falls out of an arsehole.
No mention of the Alex Johnstone fraud before the NE by elections. A pack of lies about money going to the Central Belt in the Press. £3/4Billion for the AWPR. Imagine voting Tory when the Tories have destroyed the Oil & Gas sector. Untaxed fracked Fas from the US is being imported.
Lewis McDonald wants the Scottish Gov to buy into the Oil industry? Westminster is taxing the Oil & Gas industry at 40%. Then McDonald wants the Scottish Gov to invest into it. Westminster supported by McDonald is ruining it.
SNP defence spokesperson should also be dropping in to have a chat on my ROUNDABOUT SHOW on http://www.argyllradio.co.uk from 7pm
What’s more depressing?
That this sort of “journalism” exists (sullying the word beyond all recognition) at all?
Or the fact that it merely plays to the gallery, finding its mark with the people who buy the paper/click the website with the explicit reason of finding stories like this that merely reinforce their already-entrenched world views?
The fun with this stooshie regarding RP is that position of the Queen is different in Scotland and the rUK. As such a case might be made that a Scotland only bill might need the approval of Holyrood before she will give it her Assent. In other words Legislative Consent isn’t just a matter of good manners as far as devolved matters go. It’s essential.
The Scottish Gov offered to pay the seaman’s wages but it was refused.
The Herald has spelt ‘Tory’ as ‘Torry’. Comic
Taking about such matters, is Alex Neil feeling a bit peeved about losing his Ministerial post?
“express (verb) – 2. press out (liquid or air).”
Ooh, nasty. Open that window.
Watch Bernard put Fallon on the spot
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/04/a-very-awkward-interview-with-michael-fallon/
Rev, you’re kinda good at this
;-D
@Liz g
@Meg Merrilees
Remember, archive.is allows searching of saved pages. So even if it has been deleted at source, it has been captured forever on archive.
“Nicola Sturgeon deserves the death penalty calling her a ‘short, ginger poison dwarf'”
https://archive.is/4C9I1
Thanks for that Nana…good on old Bernard doggedly pursuing that obsfucating prick. He did not answer the question, is there any way of us getting a look at the actual contracts, with the SG be looking into this d’ye think?
That was utterly embarrassing for Fallon…to have his handler intervene like this tells you all you need to know about this contract. Rest assured there will be caveats before we see any of these frigates being built in Scotland. Another ruse by HMToryG is underway.
OT
So Alex Neil voted for Leave did he? Well the Brit Natzi Press and Media is a bit slow in telling me something I have known for eons or at least it feels like eons.
An utterly trivial inclusion in Brexit Britannia TV Aberdeen’s out pouring of SNP BAAHD this evening. Trivial because its utterly irrelevant since Scotland voted 62-38 remain.
Of course there is nada about Tory Election fiddles and why am I no surprised at that.
@Ken 500 – Ironic as that untaxed frakked gas has all but destroyed the Yank Coal Industry or is at least a huge factor in it and has thus ironically played right into Trumps hands.
galamcennalath
It is what the Daily Record campaigned to stick us with.
@K1 Here’s the full interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZJ31xkdOys
I have heard that Finland publishes all personal tax returns. So you can find out what others earn.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out just how much some of these anti-Scottish tabloid gutter hacks have sold their soul for!?
gerry parker
Hasn’t that always been the case since the start, the P.O. decided what the questions are?
Thanks again Nana, right that clarified the position…still think that handler intervening was completely out of order. Fallon is still a prick.
I always thought the Daily Mail was the worst newspaper in the western world.
I am now starting to wonder if it is even the worst newspaper in England.
Comparing yesterday’s “no ye cannae” court ruling with Belfast’s “aye ye can”.
http://archive.is/MATIL
complicateder and complicateder – as some arsehole will no doubt say.
I think Katie Hopkin’s father was Shergar? What a fugly punt she is.
@K1
Well Fallon does need a handler, better yet a handler within a secure unit
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/11/03/uk-defence-secretary-just-said-something-reckless-hes-literally-inviting-wwiii/
What’s the story wi Alex Johnstone?
Why has nobody taken brexit to the Scottish high court? We voted remain and our people are sovereign
Desimond says:
4 November, 2016 at 3:33 pm
heedtracker
Calls for a Convention you say…how very radical from Gordie!..oops
Will you come with me, no one else wants to go, they say Crash gives them the creeps and What ever happened to Dougie anyway?
“Alexander argued: “The task between now and September 18th is bringing home the vote, the task after the referendum is bringing Scotland together.
“If Scotland votes no, then it will be a painful reckoning for the SNP… the settled will of the Nationalists will have run straight into the sovereign will of the Scottish people.”
What a difference 25 months make. What did the SLab crew what stood BetterTogther with the Conservative party run straight into?
Nana says:
4 November, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Watch Bernard put Fallon on the spot
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/04/a-very-awkward-interview-with-michael-fallon/
OMG its so obvious they’re just announcing this frigate work so they can use the threat of taking it away again! Well done Bernard.
Nana says:
4 November, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Watch Bernard put Fallon on the spot
Wow Nana! That handler would frighten Drath Vader. But there’s something oddly fun about watching an STV dude getting swatted aside by toryboys like this, like a lacky displeasing his masters.
It clearly hurts whatsisface Bernie a lot too. You’d think he be used to it though. He got the same swatting aside from Osborne when he jetted in to his Scotland region of Greater England, to tell us England would not allow Scots to use their pound, if we voted YES.
Brian Powell says:
Indeed. Vow etc etc..
It’s difficult to apportion percentage blame for the subversion of the democratic process in IndyRef1, but the DR was up there amongst the TOP 5, I reckon.
Great stuff! Some of the images not loading on safari, surprise!
Thing is, so many of the closed minds of the rags reading right and pretendy leftys, would not believe you if they thought any information was coming from the internet. They hate the internet and take their prefferred daily rags as gospel, as well their propaganda daily poison from the bbc, it must be true if the bbc says it is.
It looks like the lying media has hyjacked the internet to use to their own, scheming ends. Not surprised at all. There is sooo much rubbish out there, it’s like all those plastic, useless, planet destroying toys and stuff, all the clothes no one needs, handbags,scarves galore, shoes, the masses of chocolate and sweets you see at the shops, it’s all such rubbish! It is so OTT, I mean wtf!
Just today I thought this is truly mad, do we have a planet b yet, please?
@bugsbunny says: 4 November, 2016 at 7:57 pm:
“I think Katie Hopkin’s father was Shergar? What a fugly punt she is.”
So Katie isn’t just an normal (sub)human arsehole, she’s really a full sized horse’s arse?
Glamaig and Nana: I have to say my opinion of Mr Ponsonby has gone up after that.
WM are playing games with people’s jobs and lives. It’s so transparent what they’re up to.
And if you dare think of Indy, the jobs will disappear….
The law of diminishing returns begins to apply for the Tories with these tactics.
OMG its so obvious they’re just announcing this frigate work so they can use the threat of taking it away again! Well done Bernard.
Yes but, what cant Bernie just say out loud and not proud, “Minister, will Scotland lose these contracts if or when Scotland becomes an independent nation state?”
Its probably the first line of the Some Arsehole Doctrine.
1. Some Arseholes must never state out loud the following words, the independent nation state of Scotland.
Scans well though, the independent nation state of Scotland:D
Robert Peffers 6.44
Amazing Scot, Andy Murray just beaten Berdych. Semi finals tomorrow and Djokovic out!
@Terry says: 4 November, 2016 at 8:12 pm:
“Why has nobody taken brexit to the Scottish high court? We voted remain and our people are sovereign”
The reason is that the Scottish legal profession do not have an ounce of respect for their own profession. Their one true God is Money.
You could count on the fingers of one of Long John Silvers hands, (guess which one), those at the top of the Scottish legal profession who have insisted that the law of Scotland, based upon the people and not the crown being legally sovereign, should have lots of legal precedents to emphasis the point.
The Treaty of Union has been broken on a regular basis since 1 May 1707 yet these Legal speugs, masquerading as eagles, have rarely even lifted a wee pinkie in protest.
There have been a very few precedents and these do indeed say the people are sovereign but there hasn’t been any apatite to make the point stick.
Mind you your average Scot doesn’t even know that the Scots are legally sovereign and a bit of encouragement from the sovereign people to assert their sovereignty would be a great encouragement to leading legal Hecht heid anes to stand their ground against Westminster illegal decisions.
That’s Oor Andy one game of Tennis away from becoming Number One Tennis Player.
Andy won 7-6(11-9): 7-5
Mike Cassidy @7.44
Mike, my understanding of the NI situation is that the judges were mainly concerning themselves with the triggering of Article 50 and how it would impact the Good Friday agreement re which they had no objections .
They decided that the decision to leave the EU was a matter of ‘High policy’ and as such they saw no problem with the triggering of Article 50 by RP as Westminster has ‘retained the ability to legislate for NI without the consent of the N Irish people’. I think that suggests they acknowledge that Westminster Parliament may be sovereign over N Ireland ?
However, they admitted that they might be wrong about RP and the requirement for an Act of Parliament and if so, they would have to consider whether the NI people would have to vote on a Legislative Consent Motion.
They also mentioned that they thought the situation may be different in Scotland and would leave that to Scottish Courts to consider.
All very interesting. Apologies if I haven’t remembered it completely accurately. Please correct me anyone.
They referred to the fact that there was currently a legal challenge in the English courts which was looking at the wider constitutional issue of Royal Prerogative.
“So the next time you see a headline with the word “FURY” in it, or the next time Ruth Davidson says pretty much anything, ask yourself a simple question: “Is this actual news, or is it just Some Arsehole?””
Even if they don’t buy the likes of The Express, people see the screaming headlines.
That is the aim – to put drops of poison into the minds of people, with great success.
Nana
When the idiots in the Tory party talked about the EU and leading up to the EU Ref they talked in the same casual ignorant way Fallon is talking about Russia. They thought they had control of narrative and that they could draw the lines of limit, but their stupidity seems to have no limit.
The UK ‘Government’ is run by dangerously ignorant fools.
Fallon answered the question, he made it absolutely clear when he said “Warships are built inside the UK” that was what he said and it can only have one meaning
Graeme
Alex Neil, another prima donna who thinks folk give a fuck.
Anent these Aberdeen demonstrators, very keen to cover their faces up, strange!
Terry,
“Why has nobody taken brexit to the Scottish high court? We voted remain and our people are sovereign”
Good question.
Robert Peffers and Liz g should do it if they really believe that our people are “sovereign”.
Robert Peffers,
“The Treaty of Union has been broken on a regular basis since 1 May 1707 yet these Legal speugs, masquerading as eagles, have rarely even lifted a wee pinkie in protest.”
Legal speugs?
Surely the Scottish justice system is not rotten to the core and the vast majority of lawyers, especially judges, the lowest of the low?
Considering that they are “sovereign” according to yourself, why haven’t the “plebs” lifted a wee pinkie in protest?
Surely not everyone has been too stupid in the last 300 years to believe Westminster propaganda?
Tommy Sheridan successfully led the poll tax protests.
If only you could have done something similar on behalf of the “sovereign” plebs to protest the breaking of The Treaty of Union on a regular basis.
Hi Rock at 9.29pm.
You typed (to Robert Peffers),
“If only you could have done something similar on behalf of the “sovereign” plebs to protest the breaking of The Treaty of Union on a regular basis.”
And I would suggest to you, “If only you could have done something similar on behalf of the “sovereign” plebs to protest the breaking of The Treaty of Union on a regular basis”, or are you, unlike many contributors on Wings, just an armchair activist, who expects others to do all the work for your benefit?
@Rock
I very much doubt that YOU have ever raised a finger or protested in your entire puff. You really are a boring old fart and rapidly developing into an arsehole.
Give your moaning gub a rest FFS.
Graeme @ 21:13,
“One meaning”?
Oh, of course. If the contract doesn’t allow the UKGov to cancel the order when Scotland takes its independence, it will insist that the BAE yard remains a little UK enclave until the contract is fulfilled.
(That should be a guaranteed vote-winner for the Union in indyref2. =laugh=)
Thepnr & Brian Doonthetoon
Well said.
His disrespect to Robert is shameful.
How long before the goose stepping and ‘hiel’ salutes?
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/brexit-court-ruling-exposes-bitter-divide-uk-161104174304912.html
I’m a Scot, get me out of here!
I hear Alex Johnstones absence from the parliament may be due to a serious health problem.If so,I wish him well.
@Liz g,
Liz you have to remember that opinions are like arseholes, We all have one and sometimes arsehole have an opinion. TRUE!
@desimond 2.16pm
You forgot
6. The BBC news review then reports it with a straight face as news
http://Www.informscotland.com
Big Phil @ 10.16
True Dat .. LOL
I live in the hope that my 3 month old daughter. Will reach the age of understanding after Scotland is free.
I don’t know how I am going to explain that Scotland is her nation but it voted not to be a nation. I just want to say your flag is blue and white and our sportsmen and women compete for Scotland not GB. Your Capital is Edinburgh and that’s where parliament is. We used to have Union flags on castles and buildings in the old days. England is not in the Eu but Scotland is. Our president is Alex Salmond and Sturgeon our prime minister. We got rid of the monarchy after independence.
We have no nuclear weapons in Scotland. We build merchant ships not bombers or frigates. We celebrate independence day in March. The Highlands are now home to normal Scots and immigrants not posh landowners and grouse shooters.
Our army and navy are there to keep the peace and only act to help other nations when permission is given.
We are best friends with recently United Eire. We are a beacon of hope in the EU.
We are simply Scotland and proud to be independent.
galamcennalath says:
“How long before the goose stepping and ‘heil’ salutes?”
I think this concerted tabloid attack against the English judiciary (for all its institutional faults) is very worrying.
What next? Pitchforks, torches and The Mob?
How interesting that “biased and partial” Al Jazeera is the one to produce the tableau of Red Top attack on the law.
England through the looking-glass.
*shivers*
@Big Jock 10.24
Aye, I second that for your daughter and my 4yr. old g grandson.
What chance Indy given the print and broadcast media are so anti Scotland being independent!! We have a massive mountain to climb if the majority of Scots are ever to see beyond this bile. I really do despair at this stuff ?
The PNR: “You really are a boring old fart and rapidly developing into an arsehole, Rock.
🙂 You’ll have Dr Kerr on your tail for that!
Essay on lost Glasgow kids, and a review of ‘Nocturnal Animals’ published on Grouse Beater after midnight…
@Big Jock, ye stole ma moniker. lol . I dream the same dream , was my birthday the other day and my 9 yr old daughter gave me a card she made herself ,it said “be happy Dad we will get independence soon”. words from a baby. made me proud.
@Grouse Beater
Nah, doubt it. Me and Dr Kerr fell out and made up long ago. Just like you and I come to think of it LOL 🙂
Only just heard Simon Pia has turned to Yes!
Now you would have thought a Labour ex spin Doctor speech writer Dugdale advising, McConnell advising, dyed in the wool many time appearances on STV and BBC Labour all his life man, would have made the news in a bigger splash than Alex Neil disliking Cameron and Osborne but NO, nothing, nada
The telly folk musta missed that news
In other news:
Scottish power are claiming all these cables we’re laying to supply England with power will never have enough power to supply England, and Scotland will always need to import from England because of National grid charges and wind power is not dependable
There must be too many folk switching suppliers and they’re getting bad tempered methinks tut tut
@Big Phil & Big Jock
No kidding, your posts gave me the shivers. We are in good hands.
Tinto Chiel @ 10.29 & galamcennalath.
What I find most worrying is that nothing is being done to calm it all down
You could see the anger on last night’s Question Time and the only thing that happened was that each side’s argument was validated.
It’s like the politicians want it all to spark off.
That programme is broadcast nation wide it could have reinforced reasoned debate.
The only thing that they could agree on was poppy’s!!!
Big Jock.
That is what we all want to be able to say to our children and grandchildren, but being fairly ancient I want it soon. Desperate to see a free Scotland in my lifetime.
I met Snuff in Newport many many years ago. Funnily enough I thought they were a bunch of arseholes….
Choon but
Thanks Their and Big Phil.
I think the young people in Scotland will make sure Scotland is free. I know of an 8 year old who asked her mother:” Is Scotland independent yet?”. Her mother laughed and said no. The child looked confused and said:” But how”.
Some arseholes at it again!
http://archive.is/zEO5Q
@Graeme says: 4 November, 2016 at 9:13 pm:
“Fallon answered the question, he made it absolutely clear when he said “Warships are built inside the UK” that was what he said and it can only have one meaning”.
Err! No Graeme, it certainly does NOT only have one meaning. At least not in the reality of the facts. It may have only one meaning in the twisted mind-set of Yoon Loons though.
In reality the United Kingdom is legally a two partner union of kingdoms and there were only two British kingdoms in 1706/7. It isn’t hard to prove, even to congenital Yoon idiots.
The first proof is in the very name itself. The name is, “United Kingdom”. It is not, “The United Country”, nor is it, “The United State”. Neither is it the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The second part of the full title began as, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”.
The United Kingdom became a unified sovereign state in 1707 with a political union of only the kingdoms of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. It was simply titled, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain”.
Great Britain is actually a geographic term for the largest island in Britain and only contains three countries.
However, as the union was between kingdoms and NOT between countries there was no mention of either Wales or Ireland as both were countries that were part of the Kingdom of England. These two countries joined the union but were not required to sign the treaty as the treaty was between kingdoms and they were parts of the Kingdom of England.
A further, “Act” , of Union in 1800 added the Kingdom of Ireland to create, “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. Note that it was an act and not a treaty of union because Ireland, “as a kingdom”, had already become part of the Kingdom of England by the Crown of Ireland Act of 1542 and was thus, just a country of the Kingdom of England, already part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. It was not, though, part of the geographic Great Britain. It was simply a title change and there had not been a King of Ireland since the English Kingdom had annexed Ireland.
Note that the first decades of the Union were certainly not on a friendly basis as there were Jacobite uprisings which only ended with Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Then, in 1922, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, most of Ireland seceded to become the Irish Free State and one day later, Northern Ireland seceded from the Free State and returned to the United Kingdom.
This resulted, in 1927, in The United Kingdom changing its formal title to the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. Unfortunately, under Westminster’s propaganda influence this was usually shortened to “Britain”, but Britain contains another three, non-UK, “Crown Protectorates”. Then, after 1945, this was again influenced by Westminster propaganda and changed to the, “United Kingdom”, then further to just, “The UK”
Westminster’s obvious intent was to sow the seeds that the United Kingdom was a union of countries and not the legal truth that it remains legally a two partner United Kingdom.
Listen to the Westminster party leadership when they speak and they will liberally sprinkle their speeches with phrases such as, “The country”. Or, “The whole country”, when they refer to the United Kingdom.
Then we got the breath-taking devolution of power from a Westminster Parliament already treating England as master country while treating all non-English parts of the union as subservient countries.
Westminster had always legislated under English law and tagged wee bits on the end of English acts to accommodate differences of Scottish law. Now, though they had dropped all pretences of the Union being a Union of Kingdoms and they split the United Kingdom up as four countries but did so unequally by devolving different levels of devolved powers to their three subservient underling countries.
Now just think of that for a moment, it shouldn’t require more than a moment, to figure out that they were now treating their only legal partner Kingdom in the United Kingdom as just another part of the, already three country, Kingdom of England.
Thus the powers they were so generously granting to the devolved countries were in effect powers of the master country of England.
Westminster legislates as if England were the United Kingdom and they do so under English law. They directly fund only England with United Kingdom Treasury funds gathered from United Kingdom taxpayers and thus there is no English block grant.
Westminster is thus the Parliament of England and, as such, it decides the level of block grants it will allow the other three countries to have. This is even without EVEL, (English Votes for English Laws), by which they now prevent the other three countries from interfering with English matters.
Then we got the Secretary of State, (against), Scotland openly stating in the public domain, “The Treaty of Union, ‘Extinguished’, The Kingdom of Scotland and renamed the Kingdom of England as The United Kingdom”.
Thing is he based that statement upon a Westminster commissioned paper that did indeed make such a claim. No matter that it is actually complete and utter rectally sphinctered bovine waste products it is the open opinion of the Westminster establishment. It basically is claiming that England is the master race and the rest of the United Kingdom are England’s property to do with as they please. Now this is a dire attitude for Wales and Northern Ireland, (respectively an English Principality and an English Province), but it could not be a clearer sign to Scotland than that we are not, in their eyes, the only equally sovereign partner kingdom that entered into the legal agreement of, The Treaty of Union.
“What I find most worrying is that nothing is being done to calm it all down.”
Liz, the Tories need this as a diversion from their gross incompetence, and they need their annual dose of poppy fascism to bolster their glorification of war and to “unify the nation”.
All of us who have lost family members across the generations must feel uneasy about all this. For me, when and why I wear/buy a poppy is a private decision and I won’t be told by some cynical politician when I should do so.
For example:
http://www.scottishrepublicansocialistmovement.org/Pages/SRSMArticlesScotlandsWarLosses.aspx
@Thepnr,
I have hope for the future, my daughter knows that the simpsons and minecraft are all make believe ,she asked me if the bad people shouting are real(FMQ’s) I said “its all adults talking about Scotland”, she said she didnt like the fat lady,”why is she angry dad?”, I told her it was make believe. How in hell do you tell a 9 year old that with that fat lady yer future is fecked. i love my weans’ attitude, we’re fightimg for them.
@ Robert Peffers {leading legal Hecht heid anes to stand their ground against Westminster illegal decisions.} . We’ve seen it demonstrated today that the Scottish legal system is corrupt by the eviction of the Indycampers & Lady Dorrians refusal to recuse herself from the bench , they are members of the Privy council & swear allegiance to the Crown . Souls sold for Titles & Money.
Mmm, the UK Minister for Defence has a bouncer. Not very respectful to Scotland’s National Independent Broadcaster.
And that’s a good image for the UK:
“Mr Putin, you’ve asked that question move on or I’m going to have to stop this interview”.
Thing is Phil. Nicola is a natural with kids and it’s genuine. Kids know when people are nice and when they fake it.
Can you imagine Ruth or Theresa May turning up at a kids party and doing what our Nicola does. She is a genuinely nice woman. She is everybody’s sister or aunt or daughter. Just like a family friend. Not a lot of world leaders you could say that about. That is a Scottish thing!
@
ronnie anderson, mate its a crying shame ,but there was NO publicity, that in itself is a crime, i saw a youtube video but that was it , MEDIA MEDIA MEDIA, i wish our SG would see that.
@Big Jock 10.24
You’ve said it all, really. Beautiful post. That is our dream.
LizG,
‘What I find most worrying is that nothing is being done to calm it all down’
This really is the heart of the problem. It is a gross dereliction of duty by the UK gov to not be vociferously denouncing the violence and ugly sentiments. Their silence condones and encourages it.
By not speaking out strongly against the attacks on the judiciary in the press they are, by implication, condoning that as well. Politicians attacking the judiciary is not a nice sight.
Surely, they must realise how bad all this looks to the rest of the world and that it makes it even more difficult for them to get any sort of deals.
Their total lack of and seemingly unwillingness to get any control over the situation is adding to the damage to goodwill and confidence in the UK caused by the leave vote.
Not to mention that it is downright scary.
Westminster’s strategic plan 2016 – 2020.
The Westminster Establishment sees itself in power for the foreseeable future.
Westminster imagines the UK as independent of Europe and sovereign.
The Tories are planning a strong petro-currency.
Westminster already knows that the secret oil and gas reserves around Scotland are so massive that the UK will become very wealthy.
The Tory Establishment want free reign over its petro wealth with no interference from Europe.
To achieve all this, Scotland has to be totally degraded both politically and economically. This is currently under way through the suppression of the facts of Scotland’s energy assets, the cancellation of investment, and the financial and human resources being poured into the Conservative party in Scotland, and into the Labour and Lib Dem support groups.
The Tories will be in power at Westminster till 2020, all things being equal, so they have four years to turn Tory fortunes around in Scotland so as to bring about the demise of the SNP and the rise to power of the Conservatives in Scotland. Under the ebullient Ruth Davidson and an arrogant band of 31 Tory MSP’s, the plan has been laid. Dominance in both Scotland and England will assure the foundations of the new English Empire.
Far fetched? Read the writing on the wall.
There’s just the odd snag however – the Scots have woken up, and the English have become troublesome, while the UK judiciary seem less than compliant with the wishes of the Executive.
The EU? The Establishment don’t give a sh*t.
Bugs & co.
Shergar was the epitome of centuries of breeding the best.
This rag and bone nag’s more of a Hercules daughter.
@manandboy: “Westminster’s strategic plan 2016 – 2020.”
I’ve got to stop you right there I’m afraid 🙂
Not a lot of world leaders you could say that about. That is a Scottish thing!
BBC r4 this afternoon. Its a Scottish thing too and its worth listening to I think, in a teamGB currently run by the some arsehole doctrine, we’re meant to believe and accept, vote tory, red and blue, follow orders etc. For fcuk knows how many reasons, Darren gives me hope and for once, makes me proud to be a Scot.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080xx15#play
I went to see I, Daniel Blake at the Grosvenor Cinema last night and the audience including myself spontaneously applauded when the film ended…it made me feel so proud of the people and the country I call home.
The PNR: “Just like you and I, come to think of it”
I never felt any animosity from you, only suspicion of a new poster. Hence I was never uncomfortable.
Mair power tae yer elbow, pal.
Latest scribbles here: http://wp.me/p4fd9j-aW4
Fallon dangles the carrot to the mugs.
You will get your tea and scones if you stay in the Union.
I quoted the Who’s Won’t get fooled again last year on many an occasion.
But hey we are talking about Scotchland here, they say once bitten twice shy?!?!.
Vote No then bend over.
Sadly the Scottish Government cannot react to the Media nonsense
The Bill Boards on the other hand could be used but even that could be a waste of resources
@Grouse Beater
Now, now GB, I never mentioned animosity. Just said we might have fallen out back in the day.
Naught much wrong with suspicion when we KNOW that that government has a 77th Brigade specifically formed to use social media for government purposes. Whatever they might be. Always worth keeping an eye open.
http://www.army.mod.uk/structure/39492.aspx
Type 26 – unspun a bit, from an NNN [1] point of view
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/04/type_26_frigate_steel_cutting_contract_not_signed/
[1} Non-Nasty-Nat
That article isn’t quite right by the way, it never was the intention to replace 13 T23 like for like with 13 T26, it was 8 fully anti-sub replacements, and 5 Genereal Purpose Frigates. Quite different. If 5 x T31 actually materialise, that would or could fulfill the initital requirement and promise. And personally I wouldn’t expect a full design for the T31 until the 2020s.
@Thepnr/Grouse Beater –
If yon 77th Brigade or whatever they’re cried are supposed to be tackling subversive Cybernats etc, then they should’ve been here by now, eh?
Daily Mail readers should be up in arms about this flagrant dereliction of duty!
@Ian Brotherhood
They came. They saw. They ran.
@heedtracker
Good clip.
@IB/TP/GB
I think there’s a few freelancers about!
Yer type 23 or type 26 or whatever , try telling that to the people using foodbanks , i saw the warships on the clyde and i honestly cant see why these people cant see the injustice. as the thread says ARSEHOLES.
Fuck me @ defo says at 11:36 pm
“This rag and bone nag’s more of a Hercules daughter.”
Steptoe Rides Again 🙂
@yesindyref2/IB/TP/GB
77th Brigade/I think there’s a few freelancers about!
Haven’t seen Peter.Edinburgh round for a while 🙂
Call me cynical.
You fool me once , etc ect. we must learn .
Sheesh, Heralds’s up and down like the proverbial.
I don’t know where it is now, and the consolation is I’m pretty sure it don’t either.
In a lot of ways it should probably stay like that for a few weeks, as that probably reflects about 30-40% of Scotland, and if it can ask the questions and voice the concerns of that 30-40% it might not only increase it’s circulation, but its gravitas as well.
Civil war they’re screaming for, fight on the streets for democracy, kill kill kill
It’s all kicking off in that big England tonight, I don’t quite know who it is they’re all going to fight and kill but it must be somebody awfully bad
Threats being shouted at folk over the interweb, folk detailing their weapons caches live over the web, it’s all gone bonkers down there and what’s even more nuts about it is the newspapers are proud of fuelling it and the Tories are asking the papers to stop, yep, asking
Meanwhile in our much more sensible wee country it looks like we’re not going to have to do anything to gain our Independence now, even the No folk will be clamouring to leave this total nuthouse of a Union, the EU are probably filling up boatloads of cement to help US build a wall pretty damn quick to keep the hordes of civil warring folk out
Better start getting our shipping routes for trade sorted out to the EU and some big ferries for the motors to go on for oor holidays or maybe a new chunnel from Rosyth, bit long but you get the idea
And you know what’s mildly amusing about all this, they call us Scots the aggressive ones
British journalism provides the facada of decency and credibility that hides a crumbling shell that is British “Union”, and which is shored up by an acceptance of intolerance and ideological dogma. So there.
Sorry but I think this is worth getting right.
British journalism provides a facada of decency and credibility that hides a crumbling shell that is a British “Union” which is shored up by an acceptance of intolerance and ideological dogma. So there.
That’s applied town planning that is. Every little principle counts.
Got this via Rev’s twitter via Aileen McHarg, and it’s fascinating reading.
https://www.headoflegal.com/2016/11/04/why-the-high-court-got-the-law-wrong-about-brexit/
I’d parallel the thinking on that to my witterings previously about the Scotland Act 1998 not being legal so is the Scottish Parliament legal or not but if it isn’t then has it become so or is it the original reconvened, and you can go round in circles.
One thing that’s for sure as far as I can see, the so-called UK Constitution is a can of wriggling worms, all waiting to escape.
You gorra laff!
Spare a thought for those (un)fortunate enough to have a job at BAE systems on the Clyde. They have been used as a political football from the 1980’s that I know of – perhaps longer. The threat of redundancy has hung over them incessantly, year on year each successive governmwnt has promised them jam tomorrow.
The darkest 4 months of my work in career were around 1995 working on the type 23’s in Yarrow’s on South Street. A job that paid so poorly that if you had 2 kids you qualified for working family tax credits.
A workforce that was forced to take a 10 minute morning break “at their place of work” rather than even be given the dignity of 20 minutes in a warm environment with time to drink their tea and eat a warm snack. AND yet they get through each day wit a laugh and a joke, combined with that dry, cynical humour that belongs to working class glasgow.
And now Fallow has the sheer brazen cheek to appear, to promise that the steel will be cut next year yet no contract has been signed. Well done Ponsonby. Now lets see more of the same with Dugdale and Ruth, Tank commander.
Jam tomorrow indeed.
@Cameron B Brodie
Pretty much. They’ve also lost control.
The mob is now directing the actions of the media and significant numbers of politicians. Runaway narrative basically.
They created a narrative to divide and manipulate for their own advantage which has now rebounded on them big time. The narrative of course was intended as a get out jail free card for political idiocy. A policy fails? Blame this group. An economy fails? Blame that group. We need to take money from here and move it over there? Demonise those who currently are in receipt of those monies and make it socially acceptable to take food from the mouths of one group and turn it to cash for the bank balances of others.
But always, ALWAYS, it was about telling people who to hate, who to mistrust, who to fear and who to blame for the woes of their world. Confusion, frustration, rage, mistrust and fear. Eventually, in fact inevitably, when fed on such a diet of hatred, a socially cohesive population (in our case populations) becomes a rage filled series of terminally divided demographics. A mob by any other name.
What were institutions and structures of trust and cohesion have been systematically dismantled through short termist, short sighted, fuckwitted policy of expediency in pursuit of power, wealth or advantage. There’s nothing left which binds communities together, never mind populations.
Across the UK people are pretty much done listening now. They’re looking for something to hit, to hurt and to direct this rage against. The media and politicians have begun to mirror and ape the rage of the mob they created. Run with the pack or be consumed by it as it were.
There’s no stopping it now. It has to run its course, burn out and its going to be messy and all over the place.
On the up side? Scotland doesn’t need to have any part of the natural conclusion of such madness. Scratch that. We really, REALLY, shouldn’t have any part of the natural conclusion to this madness.
Macart
Equality doesn’t stand much of a chance in Britain, nor does the environment, so what sort of future could a Scotland within Britain look forward to? Internal intrinsic linkages and all that. 😉
http://www.un.org/en/events/righttodevelopment/pdf/rtd_at_a_glance.pdf
Remember kids it’s a vid-e-o. 🙂
Sorry, those internal intrinsic linkages are between human right and environmental quality.
Ignore the BUM, it’s a facada.
@Cameron B
Ayup. I’ve linked to the UN charter more times than I care to remember over the past four years.
Of course ‘rights’ is what this is all about. Who do folk trust with the care and arbitration of those rights? Who will protect them and who will abuse or remove them for their own advantage?
I’m hopeful that more and more folk are waking up to the reality of the choice facing them. 🙂
Intensionality, now there’s a word.
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/intensional.html
Third time lucky?
British journalism provides a facade of decency and credibility that hides a crumbling shell that is a British “Union” which is shored up by an acceptance of intolerance, inequality and ideological dogma. So there.
Nice one from Bernard showed that Fallon up for the zero substance person he is when confronted with a non scripted question.
Anybody know who this lady is that thinks she can direct his media coverage,something maybe we should look deeper into the faces behind the politicians.
Though i imagine her efforts will not be winning any tory bonus prizes lol
“The crumbling shell” works better than “a crumbling shell”. I didn’t want to re-post the entire comment as you may have thought I had planned the evolution intentionally.
Winginging. 🙂
offs Winging it.
“The crumbling shell” is to “a crumbling shell” as “space” is to “place”.
offs again, sorry.
“The crumbling shell” is to “a crumbling shell” as “place” is to “space”
Human Rights and Development: The World Bank’s Need for a Consistent Approach
http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP/WP49.pdf
http://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/international-law/links-between-human-rights-and-environmental-sustainability-international-law-essay.php
And you wonder why I can’t stand hypocrisy built on fudge?
The environmental quality of Scotland’s psycological space is badly polluted by BUM pollution.
Did I take that too far? 🙂
psychological
Links
Sounding out the Senior Service
http://archive.is/5BiXH
http://rbs.postach.io/post/silver-lining-2?
http://www.alynsmith.eu/scotland_in_europe_update_november_4th_2016
http://www.politico.eu/article/commission-inquires-about-uks-offer-to-nissan/
Martin McGuinness ‘refuses to rule out Sinn Fein taking Westminster seats for first time to block Brexit’
http://archive.is/uBM2V
Brexit ‘spinning out of control’, top bosses warn
http://archive.is/eDG86
Brexit’ Ruling Could Cause Britain to Drag Its Feet, Muddying E.U. Plans
http://archive.is/SlOaI
Hammond and Davis team up
http://archive.is/MvWRk
https://thesecretbarrister.com/2016/11/04/liz-truss-is-unfit-for-office-and-should-resign/
https://skwawkbox.org/2016/11/03/exclusive-explosive-new-eye-witness-testimony-shows-orgreave-not-about-rogue-police/
Truly sorry for the splurge of thought, I’ll away and lie down before self-awareness sets in.
The environmental quality of Scotland’s psychological space is badly degraded by BUM pollution.
CameronB , you indulging in a wee Friday night / Saturday morning bevy??
I look forward to seeing my country independent and on the before I kick the bucket for the benefit of my grandchildren and the children and grandchildren of Scotland.
I loved that interview with Fallon and his uppity sidekick – well done Mr Ponsonby but you might have asked her who she was, what was her function and why did the Defence Secretary ( ho hum!) require a minder .
Dorothy Devine
I only indulge at gathering Dorothy, I just haven’t learn the patience of constructing my thoughts in to one post. One thought can also lead to another. It also appears I spot my mistakes too late. Must be genetic. 😉
I think I have the same problem in the ‘gathering thoughts ‘ department!
Thank you for this article. It spelt out straightforwardly how media tries to influence us all. It and the previous one showed ruth davidson (i call her angry aggie) covers the point that angrily acting out lies in question time and on media does not make them truthful. Thanks again
It’s an interesting idea of democracy and freedom regards the Poppy. I want to wear a white poppy at work but would be scared of being castigated!
Yet those that wear the Poppy are not recognised as making a statement. My uncumfortale-ness tells you all you need to know about so called democracy and freedom.
The wearing of a poppy has been highjacked by right wing extremists, supported by Westminster.
What would happen to any footballer who refuses to wear one. I now consider the people who refuse to wear them to be the upholders of our rights.
Please note that at the Cenetaph’s the last people to get near it are the ones who should have been first.
Is davidson a tory, I think she is an opportunist careerist without morals who sees an organisation in Scotland bereft of talent that she can use as a stepping stone to success and fortune.
Umm, maybe she is, because the above attributes are those needed to be a tory.
@Alex McArthur
I know what you mean. I’ve been to Billericay in Essex. I’m most familiar with the Australian one and I thought it was some anglicised Aborigine word.
Yesindyref2 @4.09
Read that legal opinion you linked. Interesting, however I thought differently in First section. It states that triggering article 50 will not , by itself change any law. Agree
The NI judge said similar but poetically i.e. “the wind (of change?) will be blowing, but as yet, we do not know from which direction” but in that judgement they went on to say that as the Eu membership had required an Act of Parliament, to remove that also required an Act of P and triggering A50 would lead to that scenario.
I think that was the conundrum NI was leaving to the English constitutional court to rule on.
As regards GFA they accepted that RP could be used.
Comment NO 2 John gets my vote
That interview of Ponsonby and Fallon is pure gold. Wonder how many shipbuilders will get to see that?
The expression on Fallon’s face at the end is extraordinary.
@ Big Jock, are ye sure your’e Big?
I think the Sunday sport had more truths in it.. Love Snuff, Great band.. 🙂
Well Fred bigger than most. But I want to work without being singled out as an agitator. I am probably thought of as that in work anyway,but I don’t want to give them any excuse to hang me.
@ Big Jock. OK kid!
The PNR: “Just said we might have fallen out back in the day.”
You misunderstand me.
Whatever you felt, I didn’t. I tend to stand well back and study people before I venture forth. Having studied social sites for a university thesis I expected an ‘initiation ceremony’, as I call it, the equivalent of getting thrown in the nettle patch as eligibility to join the gang. And so it came to pass. I wasn’t perturbed in the least.
JSA – you’ve just invented a new acronym. Copyright it.