The unending badness
There’s a story in today’s Herald about yet another SNP disaster:
Backfires? What, the fares have gone UP?
But it transpires that in fact the cheaper fares have been a huge success, increasing traffic to remote island communities by up to 80%, exactly as they were designed to do in the hopes of boosting the local economies. So how is that bad, exactly?
Well, duh. More people going somewhere will generally tend to increase traffic. We’re not sure if the Herald is calling for the building of motorways and tower blocks on Mull, so let’s see if we can firm up this rather vague complaint a bit.
(We’ll fix the Herald’s shocking grammar and spelling errors as we go, btw.)
Yes, that’s definitely more. It’s 2,920 more, to be precise, spread over nine months, which is an average of just under 11 cars per day. Are we really to believe that 11 additional cars a day is putting the islands’ infrastructure at breaking point? Do we have anything more solid to go on?
Having battled through the weasel words (“It is thought”? By who?) to try to establish the precise nature of events, we imagine there would ALWAYS be a significant degree of “chaos” if a ferry broke down and stranded people overnight. These things happen from time to time. We’re not sure an extra 11 cars’-worth of people would be enough to tip the situation into uncontrollable anarchy, though.
Labour, naturally, were on hand to complain about the evil SNP:
Hang on – what problems have ACTUALLY OCCURRED here? We’re not told of any family that had to huddle on a park bench for want of a campsite. We don’t hear from anyone savaged by seagulls or foxes due to overflowing bins. There’s no mention of a river of raw sewage raging down the main street as toilet facilities were overwhelmed by as many as 20 extra people being on the island for a night.
Who were the traumatised and shattered victims of this awful tale of horror? Did anything at all actually happen?
Hmm, we still don’t know. DID any tourists have a bad experience attributable to RET (ie beyond what they’d have had from being stuck anyway)? None are quoted or even obliquely referred to in the article. What lessons should have been learned, and from what past events? What infrastructure actually failed? We imagine the islanders must be pretty furious about all this, right?
They don’t sound all that miffed, frankly. Space in tiny island towns is finite. If you get lots more people visiting them, things will be busier. That’s the price you pay for doing more business. It’s almost as if the two words were in some way related.
And that’s the whole story. The “backfire” of making ferry fares cheaper in order to get more people visiting islands is that more people have visited islands. We’re not given a single example of an actual specific thing actually going wrong as a result of the move, and the policy has been a demonstrable, even spectacular, success.
But this is the Scottish media, and an act of God like a ferry breaking down can never be allowed to pass without being turned into an SNP BAD catastrophe. Oddly, nobody at the Herald wanted to have their name on the byline of this one. We can’t think why.
Hah. My cousin runs the one of these Tobermory ferries. I doubt she’s upset about any of this.
Still laughing. This Zoomery has no limits . I think I’ll book a ferry to Mull this weekend just to add to the chaos. I may even contact the UN to reasssure them that my human rights are not breached by having to actually queue for an ice cream cone.
Laughable ,just laughable.
Written by a graduate of the Douglas Fraser school of Scotch journalism. On discovering a silver lining commence a thorough search for a black cloud. If you can’t find one, phone up a Labour MSP to supply the necessary. Job done.
What a sad excuse for a newspaper.
I have heard stories of frustrated drivers stuck behind camper vans meandering along single-track roads. News flash. That was happening to me in the 1990s. Maybe it’s more prevalent now, but it’s not new. Better driver education on the use of passing places is needed.
I imagine many marginal Mull businesses are overjoyed at the increased custom. If it gets too crowded some people may stay away, but then it will get less crowded, and I’m sure you can work it out. It’s not as if a period of exceptional busyness is going to lead to everyone deserting the place and it becoming quieter than it was before!
Much as some people would like to trap parts of Scotland in the 1950s for tourist purposes, it’s untenable and unfair. We need to include the entire country, including the fjord areas and the archipelagos, in the 21st century. Just as other countries with similar geography are doing.
“an average of just under 11 cars per day”
FAILED SNP SCHEME BRINGS JUST 11 MORE CARS TO ISLAND.
You can turn anything into a Scottish newspaper SNP BAD headline.
” Newspaper ” setting new records for plumbing the depths of absurdity and showing contempt for ordinary people expecting them to buy into their pathetic propaganda.
It just shows Rhoda Grant up for the pathetic useless Labour fool that she is.
To be fair Stu, Mull’s main road is not dual all the way round the Island, so what this scheme – which has succeded in getting more business and people going to the Islands – has shown is that an upgrade to many Island roads would be most welcome for locals, business and even tourists. Certainly it would be a lot better then sending infrastructure money back to London a la Labour.
Its a curse I tell you. People coming to spend money and keep communities going is a terrible thing. It reminds me of the other curses that happen in Scotland, like oil, tourism, high exports of our produce.
Its such a frightening thing, success that is, it should only happen elsewhere.
I saw this story and thought it was a deliberate ploy to attract readers by being ridiculous. No sure what their long term plan is, we already have the Viz.
And if lessons had been learnt (before the rollout!) and infrastucture put in place before the rollout … and then nobody came?
‘That also would be SNP”Baa”d’ said the sheep reading from her brief.
(note to Ed: if you piss off 45% of your audience 30000 sales a day very soon become 16,500 and that is less than the National)
You might wonder if the people putting these newspapers together are just a little bored with their endless attacks on the SNP. What self respecting journalist can be proud of their contribution to the cultural tapestry of the country? Can anyone seriously blame May or Cameron before her for the state of the bins on the isle of Wight for instance? No, that would be ludicrous & laughable. Is this as good as we can expect from our press?
Does the SG know that the press & labour party hold them responsible for squint manhole covers, dog bites & bicycle accidents? Meanwhile, real stuff is happening.
I phoned the Herald twice this morning about Cheap the Fares rubbish they printed. They put the phone down twice, after some comment by me. The Herald is a constant drip of bad news about Scotland and the Scottish Government. The National, produced a few yards away in the same building, could be dodgy; despite being produced by Scots, the money behind it is English.
Well done, Rev!
And here’s one newly resident in Scotland who plans to use those ferries to get to the places I’ve missed out on for all these years.
Long live RET & if that’s an example of SNPBaad then long may it continue 🙂
There really is little more that can be said about this idiocy.
An utter waste of trees.
This Herald story could have been written quite differently.
If only political bias and the ever present SNPBad agenda could be put aside. Even just sometimes.
Hotels, B&Bs, self catering cottages would have reported additional occupancy. Shops, be it essentials or crafts, would have been delighted at an up turn in business. Activity providers, like sea tours, would have had more tourists using their businesses. More bicycles and cars hired.
More jobs and money into island economies!
Anyone who visits Scotland’s astonishly beautiful islands, will be aware that there is a limitation on peak visitor numbers. Try booking a car onto weekend ferry on some routes during the school holidays and you will have to do it weeks in advance! As for music festivals – book months ahead!
It follows that the increased numbers must be from off peak times. Spreading the season must be particularly good news.
Living on Arran, RET has been a boon to locals & guests alike. Car ferry fares have decreased significantly. This means I can afford to take my car to the mainland a lot more often, and family can visit more often too. The B&B’s,hotels, bars & restaurants, (all businesses in fact) are all busier and therefore the islanders look on RET as an absolute godsend from the SNP. With businesses doing well, less people are leaving to find jobs, school numbers are increasing and life is a lot better, all stemming from RET!
Prior to the SNP’s RET introduction, we had local politician (now Lord), Jack McConnell, always promising to reduce ferry fares but never quite getting around to actually doing it – when he was in power.
I am unaware of any problems cited by The Herald. Public bins are plentiful as are dog bins & both emptied regularly. Caravan sites are not overrun. Roads are not blocked with traffic. I pass more sheep than cars on the roads. We actually have public toilets in every village, too, where chemical toilets can be emptied. [Are there any public toilets left in Glasgow, a Scottish Labour run council]? By the way, there are no foxes on Arran; badgers, mind, and red squirrels aplenty, as grey squirrels haven’t managed to stow away on the ferry yet.
Scottish Government scheme to cut ferry prices boosts Islands economy with visitor numbers up 80%
The Herald had a choice of how to report this story, as we have come to expect they choose SNP bad. Typical MSM anti-Scottish propaganda and they complain of being accused of bias by cybernats.
They really are beneath contempt.
I visited Mull, Iona & Ulva in June. The reduced ferry fares made it a more attractive trip. No traffic problems at all in 3 days in peak season (although no visitor cars allowed on Iona or Ulva). The only gridlock I saw was a bunch of coos on the road and reluctant to move.
Going to Gigha on Monday. I’ll expect armageddon on the road (there’s only one).
Whilst this is totally pathetic and the usual crap from the press, another record year on Skye with tourist numbers and a complete failure at a local council level to provide adequate facilities for these people. Nice to hear today of the Scottish governments announcement of 100 million in infrastructure, but can we have some of it up here please? and bypass the highland council because they haven’t got a clue where to start.
1) Isn’t it the local council’s job to provide facilities for tourists?
2) The 11 cars a day bit is slightly misleading isn’t it – surely the vast bulk of people will visit in the very short tourist season.
Mull……..gridlocked.
My god Councilor McClymott needs to get out more.
(From a frequent Mull tourist]
Nah. This story is still beaten by last week’s ‘Scottish Government to cause cancer’ story on APD reduction.
Class.
I used to buy that “news paper”, this is a reminder of why I stopped.
Bob Mack@12.25
Stop it man ffs ma sides are splitting here.To think some people are worried that these rags influence the voting public at large guffaw.
Didn’t the Herald used to be an actual newspaper?
I’m seriously considering giving up on the National as it is probably subsidising the Herald. The sooner the Herald sinks the better.
Surely not even the staunchest yoon is buying into this crap anymore?
You gotta love the colonial media. It’s the way they tell ’em. And how we laughed.
SNP £15 billion black hole very very bad. UK £1.6 trillion (and growing) not so bad.
link to imgur.com
High time the Herald disappeared down the sewer.
They deserve all the get and more. If they keep it going as a loss leader against Scottish democracy, then it will hurt it’s owners.
No bad thing, but prefer it totally gone.
Would never read it again, for the crap it exudes. But may pick it up if laying around, handy for lighting my woodburner when winter comes.
Bad news sells newspapers, newspapers need advertising to keep going. advertisers want newspapers that sell.
Conclusion… Advertisers want lots of bad news .
A Scottish island economy grows on the back of increased tourism-how awful. Meanwhile the UK is now the most unequal country in Europe in the context of pay analysis
‘According to the analysis, the level of wage inequality in the EU as a whole is below that of the US and the three most unequal countries in the EU – Latvia, Portugal and the UK – when wages are measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The Gini index for wages in the EU as a whole is 0.346 (for full-time equivalent wages measured in PPP), while the comparable measure for the US is around 0.4, and in the UK, the most unequal EU country, it is 0.404’
link to eurofound.europa.eu
The UK is not doing that well across all economic measures
link to equalitytrust.org.uk
What can we say about the disparity in income distribution in a country where the CEO of a marketing group can earn £43 million in 2015 -3486 times the minimum wage of that year. Is that a fair and sustainable pay system- what are UKOKs priorities really?
link to thisismoney.co.uk
Scotland looking forward, outwards, scanning its future horizon and knows how to get there. No to Trident, Yes to renewable energy, Yes to economic growth, developing our manufacturing infrastructure and strong State support, Yes to supporting remote and rural areas. No the politics of exclusion and derision and media outlets that are incapable of being objective about Scotland’s political aspirations.
Yes to Europe because we know that Scotland has a viable place in it as an independent nation, and No, we are not a region we are a country. Scotland understands the politics of global sustainability, equity, economic, environmental and social justice and Scotland will control that narrative.
Aye, yoan Ooturr Hebrideez baeyoan thurr fuckin pale. Litturr awe ower yoan shoap, in thoan’s afore thae wans come aff thae ferries.
Another non story turned on its heed to dirty the SNP.
When will it end? When will Rhoda Grant see the light and realise Slab are beyond help and stop spouting nonsensical drivel?
These people…seriously. What can they be thinking? The need for two people serving in the ice cream shop is an ‘event’ and needs further investigating as there was a queue and they ran out of flakes for 99’s.
‘Lessons must be learned’. Yeah Yeah. This was the SNP’s fault, we get it.
Were we not expecting an increrase in ‘Home Tourism’ anyway? Thanks to WM and Europe’s huge success in churning out radicalised fodder for IS by destroying communities, homes and hospitals often with BAE’s “wonderful” Paveway IV bombs. Even although Blair, Cameron and the rest of the Tory Warmongers assure us their killing and maiming is making the World a safer place.
Better a bit of traffic on Mull than murdered by maniacs elsewhere in Europe or the Med, eh?
People forget that road upgrading and reconstruction is an ongoing affair. I remember seeing an entirely re-aligned road under construction on the Ross of Mull in 1969, then when I returned in 1970 our bus was driving on it. (I could still see the old road there when I visited in 2012.)
In the early 1990s I had a horrendous experience just south of Tobermory, when a lorry didn’t stop at a passing place. I nearly missed the Craignure-Oban ferry as a result, but made it due to hitting a stretch of road that had already been upgraded to two-way. (Yes, it was possible to break the speed limit on Mull, I discovered that afternoon.) In 2012 I tried to spot the place where that happened and couldn’t find it. The entire stretch of road had been upgraded and the tricky section I encountered was no more – probably another realignment, though I couldn’t spot it.
That was all pre-RET. As the effects of the RET become more evident, more upgrading will happen. More road upgrading means more jobs. More jobs means more local youngsters able to stay on the island and spend their wages there. Which again boosts the economy. OH NOES, EVIL SNP DESTROY TIME-CAPSULE 1950s ISLAND!!
Biggest error in this report is they forgot to include ( List) before MSP Rhoda Grant! The western Isles rejected her so she crawled in on the list!. She’s a total joke!
So she is complaining that a govt introduced an incentive to encourage tourism and the labour run council failed to anticipate a response to this and hadn’t got the gumption to get extra bins! FFS!
Theres NO shortage of official campsites on the western isles. The vast majority of tourists come in camper and anyway – and you can park them anywhere – on any beautiful beach or quiet road.
Hilariously, she seems to think the SNP should use their psychic ability to anticipate any issues before the scheme is even rolled out – yet, once it’s been in place for nearly 10 years – the council run by her party apparently STILL can’t put bins, campsites and chemical toilet emptying facilities in place!
It’s simple – the SNP should be psychic and able to anticipate every eventuality – but her party are fine to ignore what they have been repeatedly told for years and plod on making the same mistakes. The SNP are doing a good job at being successful – and that’s terrible because labour measure success by your ability to achieve the highest levels of failure – because it’s all they know!
Single track roads aren’t new, increased traffic on sleepy island roads ( while annoying) isn’t the end of the world! ….if places like Mull and the western Isles can accommodate car rally’s with boy racers – I’m pretty sure 11 extra tourist vehicles aren’t enough to cause a major disaster!.
Sounds to me like the project is working,with the islands getting more business,can’t see what is wrong here.
Proud Cybernat says:
The Yoons are addicted to debt, and they are addicted to Scottish resources to help pay for it. Their nemesis is coming, and they can keep their debt, for that is what it is THEIR DEBT.
We did not take it out, they did. We see no benefit from it, they do.
Yoonland is failing more and more, with disasters of bigger proportions on the horizon, they are a lost cause,and maybe always were, we just did not see it in the past. They are financial vandals and will soon have to pay the piper.
They can GTF with their debt. We will make our own way.
I am surprised that the Herald story did not try to make out that locals had to provide relief bottles water (Kent Coast Motorway style) for the stranded motorists who found themselves in a gridlocked traffic jam on the hugely busy island roads (LOL).
In the Highlands and Islands where we have considerable mileage of single track road, some of which is marked on OS maps as trunk A roads, we find that visitors and tourists don’t have a clue about using passing places properly and that causes all sorts of (sometimes funny) problems with just a handful of cars and always with camper vans from Europe. The point where the A890 road between Lochcarron and Achnasheen suddenly turns from an excellent two-lane road with good gradients and gentle-ish bends into a torturous single track road at the railway bridge always comes as a shock to tourists in larger campers or towing caravans…
Yet we cope with the tourists and visitors – they are vital to the Highlands, Moray and the Islands and the more, the better!
Regarding Highland Council – I agree with pipinghot…
Sorry O/T
Ms Sturgeon has just returned from Germany, where she held talks about Scotland’s place in Europe with the German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth.
I don’t know if anyone noticed this on RS last night but the man doing it along with the Bird managed to get in a snide remark at the end about Michael Roth saying he was only a minor minister typical BBC.
Poor Mull all that money coming in the people will soon be up in arms at the SNP for this.The Herald will not say who wrote this story maybe DT and I don’t means tremors.
Herald wont say who wrote this a
All these bloody tourists blocking access to the grouse moors! I only managed to blast three dozen of the blighters as i was held up for 4mins and 23secs behind a bloody campervan with canoes on the roof. Fuckin canoe carrying bastards!!!
When you think it doesn’t get any sleazier BBC Scotland style than
James CookVerified account
?@BBCJamesCook
Absolute chaos on the streets of Glasgow as Jim Murphy and Eddie Izzard try to be heard over protestors. #ge2015
Its not made rancid The Graun front page headline yet though. They’ve got a chinless wonder who’s
“New Duke of Westminster inherits £9bn fortune aged 25
Hugh Grosvenor becomes third wealthiest landowner in Britain and 68th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes”
It could be 1916 on Planet toryboy.
There’s no byline on the story because it appears to be a Labour Party press release, the Press And Journal has the same story just about word for word: link to pressandjournal.co.uk
“I’m seriously considering giving up on the National as it is probably subsidising the Herald.”
————–
That would be the case if the Herald was an independent paper which owned the National, but they are both part of a much larger American company where each paper survives on its own merits.
It would be great if the National was an independent Scottish paper, but its the only indy-supporting daily newspaper we have so I think it would be a shame to see it go under.
And if it disappears then the Herald will likely still continue. The brand is valuable as it is the oldest running national paper in the world. A real shame it is tarnishing its reputation with guff like this. You would think they could sell more papers by taking a pro-Scottish line to counter all the pro-unionist competition in the broadsheet market.
‘Herald’ getting a complete roasting from reader’s Comments- Doing a brilliant job. Someone pointed out this article is written by Anonymous.. so they can’t even own up to their misrepresentation now.
Interestingly, whenever i discuss Independence/SNP issues with my brother-in-law (from Bute, now living on the mainland) he always throws up the single track section of road from Craignure to Tobermory as proof that “they are doing nothing for the islands”. Altho he thinks the RET is a brilliant idea?? Work that one out!
[…] "It transpires that in fact the cheaper fares have been a huge success, increasing traffic to remote island communities by up to 80%, exactly as they were designed to do in the hopes of boosting the local economies. So how is that bad, exactly? […]
Well done Rev, if you hadn’t had this I’d have emailed you repetitively and done multiple contact foorms to try to get your attention.
I archived this article on Wayback:
link to web.archive.org
Absolutely appaling and damaging “journalism”, where a totally ignorant asshole risks damage to island economies by the biggest load of crap the Herald has ever published.
That’s the only comment I’m making, I travel most of the islands regularly, and I’m steaming burning angry.
Anything for a Labour politician to get their name in the paper, even if is on such a ludicrous story.
Look out peeps!
Those dastardly SNP types have been at it again.
They have been doing stuff for the benefit of the people of Scotland … how dare they!
Never mind there is still nothing much to see here so just move along now like the good little plebs you all are. Just to make sure you do move along we have released some lovely squirrels over there! ?
@Meg merrilees
Ask him why he says Craignure to TObermory, when it’s normal road to Salen, more than half-way, and single-track only from Salen to about 4 miles outside Tobermory, where it’s back to normal road. In fact the single track part can only be about 6 miles.
I doubt very much that it is 11 cars per day, every day. The great majority of additional traffic will be during the holiday season, with relatively few on a pishing wet Tuesday in December. The Kilchoan ferry only carries 12 cars anyway, so it is not like the D-Day landings.
Nonetheless, it was only a couple of months ago (during our too brief summer) that the Cumbrae ferry had a queue of over 100 cars waiting to return to Largs on a boat with 18 spaces.
Swings and roundabouts.
Oh jeez!
It takes skill and years of dedication to be able to contrive badness on that scale out of what should be a success story.
I took a ferry trip to Bute recently. The ferry was on time and clean, the staff were friendly and efficient and it was an enjoyable crossing in fine weather with spectacular views.
It left me wondering, was this yet another part of the cunning SNP ploy to have Scotland running reasonably efficiently so as to lure us into voting Yes in a future referendum before they can unleash utter chaos and misery?
I did note that the ferry was Polish built in 2005. I am sure that this was another SNP trick played on Jack McConnell and Labour in Scotland.
Are you sure this is not from the Herald of April 1st?
Original heading “We’re a’ doomed” by Sgt Fraser!
Shame some enterprising entrepreneur in scotland cannot get a non biased newspaper up and running. The demand is there for the truth.
A question: Are there any additional sailings to the “affected islands” since the new fares came into force? To cope with the demand? All those extra cars…camper…caravans?
If not, the number of available berths for vehicles and passengers is the same as it was before the new fare structure came into force. Capacity is finite on any transport service. The HERALD making out that the situation could only get worse and worse is even poorer journalism than it first appears (that article has my vote for the 2016 Baddies Award) because the limiting factor is the number of vehicles and passengers the ferries can carry per day – even if an additional return sailing was introduced, which would put pressure on crews, vessels, increase costs etc. It seems the SNP reducing fares has probably filled usually vacant berths on existing sailings and brought in more revenue for the ferry services per voyage as well as bringing much-needed tourism to the Highland Region and the Islands.
The Herald circulating the bilge water from the ferries. What a dire paper it has become.
Anyway a wee tour of the Hebrides a few weeks back, significantly cheaper fares than in the past, and the islands are all the better for it with increased trade volumes. My only gripe was constantly coming across a certain supermarket delivery truck, intent on putting all the wee shops out the game it seems, though that is no different to mainland rural communities.
As I’ve said many times before the Labour Party and their media friends are not interested in making Scotland prosperous because they know affluent Scots will have no time for labour. In their eyes only a Labour Party can protect the people from SNP and Tory outrages such as this.
The Isle of Mull has been inhabited since 6,000 BC,
and this is the first ever tale of overcrowding?
The Island land mass is approx- 338 Square Miles.
This means that each of the extra 11 cars has over 30 Square Miles each in which to try and create a traffic jam.
You could place each of the 11 extra cars in a location where no other car could see another car on the island.
With a population of approx 2,800, a packed ferry might see a 7% increase on their number and never reach 3,000.
The Westminster Government, who supported the brutal Highland Clearances, sent the population of Mull down from 10,000 to less than 3,000.
Today, we still see Westminster and its corrupt parties batter the Scottish economy in every way that it can!
The Herald is too pathetic for words, as are their Labour contacts.
Labour themselves have been responsible for Scotland being a second class colony of England, and for hiding the McCrone report that would have advised of an Independent Scotland being the 2nd, or 3rd richest nation per capita, and they are the party who stole 6,000 Square Miles of Scottish Waters for the abuse of the English.
Let us not forget Labour the party of abstention!
When their Tory Brothers voted on the latest round of austerity cuts, they couldn’t see any problem with it?
Neither Newspaper paper or Party have any credibility in Scotland, but somehow they mange to sink further on a daily basis.
I had an argument with a guy who was complaining about Motorhomes clogging up the roads of his village, and they don’t spend a penny here! whilst there has been an increase of Motorhomes visiting Arran it’s not exactly gridlock and shock horror I saw a family leave a motorhome and venture into a shop the other day. The Local rag ran with a front page headline of Motorhome Menace, I guess you will always get some people complain that their little world has been contaminated by aliens from the mainland. These people will also argue till there blue in the face that RET brings nothing to the island. Basically these will be the same twats that are happy for their country to be part of the UK
Rhoda Grant and her colleagues in the media can only look on in seething, unfettered rage and jealousy at all this SNP badness.
If only they could be this bad they might be as competent and popular.
How very dare the SNP introduce a policy that does exactly what it is supposed to do!!!!!
I’m outraged…..and furious!!11!1
As Stu said, not surprised whoever wrote this bilge is too embarrassed to have their name against it. 🙂
Btw the actual increase of vehicular traffic on Mull will be far in excess of 11 cars per day. Those figures were for a small ferry the main Ferries to Oban will be taking substantially more vehicles/passengers
The roads on Mull arent great but… the road in Ardnamurchan is even worse! If anyone should be conplaining, it is the mainlanders (even though Ardnamurchan feels a lot like an island.)
Ach! It all makes sense now Dinnatouch @1.18pm. So it’s a press release from Labour and they don’t even have the nerve tae ‘own’ it…shower a shite the lot of them.
Roll on May 2017, next round of P45’s delivered tae the stump party.
Right. The Big Man’s well hacked aff wi’ this keech fae Dark the Herald and waants tae know who the Anonymous fecker is that wrote this pile o’ David Torrance pants so he can take a ferry’s foghorn and ram it so far up their keekie-winkie they’ll blowin’ so hard folks’ll think it’s the New fecking Year.
Somed’y hawd me back…
Tomorrow’s BBC Scotland SNP bad phone in bleh, “Cybernats hound Glasgow Herald”. This twit is still a low point in nice but dim toryboy narcissism.
link to youtube.com
That’s been recorded by Dr NO because
link to twitter.com
Scott Arthur ?@DrScottThinks 28 Jul 2015 Islington, London
Labour’s recovery shouldn’t be about blah blah bleh, you know the rest.
If these UKOK delights of tory yoonsterism cant get elected with the whole might of the BBC and all the rest of the press behind them with stuff like the Herald’s garbage…
I actually posted this previously but seems appropriate again ….
29 January, 2016 at 5:45 pm
I used to buy the Glasgow Herald on my way to work. I bought my last one on the 3rd of May 1979. Their editorial [page4] said, “The bold step Britain has to take”, and that was to vote for Thatcher.
I have just read that piece again, for the first time in over 35 years. It’s on google’s news archive. Astonishing just how wrong the Herald was on it’s appraisal of what the Tories would bring.
Perhaps this link will work, for anyone interested in this piece of history.
link to news.google.com
If The Herald have such lack of self awareness that they don’t know this garbage journalism is damaging their brand, then hell mend them. They either know exactly what they’re doing or they don’t, either way it’s a tragic state of affairs.
Deariefuckinme! Rhoda Grant must have phoned Brian Wilson for something as daft as this. “Pokémon!” as they say in the Gaelic!
Oh no, the absolute badness of the SNP is out of control.
Hubby and I have been touring the islands for a few years now since we retired. The RET fares have made a real difference, we have enjoyed the benefits to go to places that we always wanted to, but never had the time before. Harris is a favourite, but number one for us has to be Barra. Especially when the Barrathon
( 13 1/2 mile half marathon round the island is on). Lots of folks there to run the race and the ceilidh that the islanders put on at night is magic.
All of this because the SNP are bad, oh my. We shouldnae be enjoyin oorsels like this, we’ll a’ go tae the bad fire.
For heavens’ sake SLAB grow the feck up, and MSM stop printing SLAB press releases, your only embarassing yourselves.
This story from yesterdays P&J may have been the catalyst for todays SNP BAD story.
Ferry chaos as passengers left stranded overnight
link to archive.is
Todays story in the P&J on the same article as the Herald as linked to by Dinnatouch was written by Sue Restan as was yesterdays. Story may have emerged from the P&J all along.
I think what amuses me most is the way that – to quote 2 recent examples, this idiotic article in the Herald, and Torrance’s article on the Scottish Six – they set themselves up to be torn apart by this website’s forensic examination. Somehow, in their heads, they still exist in the pre social media, pre switched on thinking era.
The Yoons and their press allies are already fighting Indy Ref2 with a stream of SNP Bad letters and articles.
I know most Wingers don’t subscribe to Herald, Scotsman etc but we do need to use their letters pages to point out the facts and making a coherent argument for Scottish independence.
You can read most newspapers for free each day by joining your local library then sign up for the E Library online which gives you access to Press Reader.
Each Yes group and SNP / Green / SSP branch should seek out dedicated letter writers who can be pro active and respond to the anti Independence / Scotland is rubbish stories /letters that dominate some of “our” newspapers.
Surely even the most unthinking Yoon would read that Herald article and think it was some kind of satirical lampoon.
Desperate stuff from a corrupt toxic media.
Data point. I was on that Kilchoan to Tobermory Ferry on Friday, the last crossing at 18.40. Cost £8.40 car / light goods, £2.65 for me. It used to cost around £26-£30 total. 35 minutes crossing time.
There were two vehicles including mine, the previous ferry got all off, it was a bit quieter. One or two days before that the second-last crossing left some behind, and the last ferry then left one car behind. That’s unusual, it was a very busy day. The ferry has a capacity of 12 cars I think, two lanes, a camper could make it less. It must have broken down the next day!
As for tourists – it’s quite unpredicatable the numbers. You can get a beautiful sunny day and the roads are deserted, then it rains and the place is stowed out. There’s little rhyme or reason to it, except that different areas have different “changeover” days, where self-catering empties out and takes the next week’s visitors.
But the ferries that would create most of the traffic are of course on the Oban-Tobermory run. Whoever wrote that article in the Herald is such an ignorant pig, he / she doesn’t know diddly-squat, with the concentration on a small ferry.
A SERIOUSLY BAD ATTEMPT AT SNP BAD, BUT FUNNY AS FK.
Let’s not exaggerate the “11 cars a day” on the wee Kilchoan ferry to 11 total more on Mull. There are at least 3 ferry routes: Kilchoan; Loch Aline; and the big and main one from Oban. I However do have to say that I’m just back from Mull, appreciated the new fares, and didn’t find it any more crowded than on previous visits.
link to bbc.co.uk
Scotland’s population:
The increase on 2014 was mainly down to migration, with 85,000 people coming to Scotland 57,000 leaving.
There were 55,098 births registered – 2.9% fewer than the year before – and 57,579 deaths, resulting in a net population increase of 25,519.
The NRS said the migrants arriving in Scotland had mainly come from other parts of the UK.
—————————
So that is roughly 85,000 more English people and 59,000 less Scots.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it were people coming from south of the border to contribute to a better type of society, and willing to vote towards that ?
I wonder what the actual breakdown of the figure is..
I suspect those leaving will be younger people looking for better prospects, and people arriving will be weighted towards pensioners selling up in England and retiring in Scotland.. maybe partly attracted by free personal care and free bus passes.
And likely contributing towards the heavy NO vote in that age group if the polls of No voters in 2014 were correct.
So the pint is, does this kind of SNP bad propaganda from all our media actually help Slabour to “recover” as Dr NO waffles or is it just making things worse and worse? Presumably SLab under Kez do actually want to win an election in Scotland one day, maybe not the next one, or the next, or the one after…
So if, JC’s not actually the messiah for the English left, tory BBC England led media do destroy them, as ofcourse they are all going to 110%, this farce union is going to be stitched together by a tory BBC led media monstering JC and boosting Thatcher 2 on one side of the border, while tory BBC led media on our side boosts up Dugdale and her merry band of yoons, as the council elections creep ever closer.
BBC r4 are very hard at work right the noo getting their JC and co are a bunch of horrid Trotskys brainwashing going, Nick Robinson in particular was wheezing out Corbyn’s a trot all over his Today show.
Labour. RIP. Just another Crash Gordon, Bomber Bliar, Flipper Darling legacy.
It’s normally David Ross of the Herald who covers the highlands and islands, and his articles are fair and raise genuine issues, like the recent problems with the Islay ferries.
My guess is he’s on holiday and the office baboon picked up the story.
Thank christ am gon tae Skye,ah canny stawn they traffic jams oan Mull.
As said in previous post,
SNP are looking for a `Senior Communications Officer`,
link to tinyurl.com
SNP must realise we have no friends in the media,
Nicola has tried appeasement,
bullies see appeasement as fear,
only way to deal with the bullies of the media is to attack them and keep attacking them,
this is what the new Senior Communications Officer remit should be,
no more mr/mrs nice guy.
I got a wee bit sick crossing the Minch when it was a little bit choppy but then I had come rolling out of the Ceilidh Place a little the worse for drink before getting on the ferry but in true Brit Nat fashion I can blame the SNP for my drinking and the ferry being late that day.
Daily vomit and bile from the Yoons! Yoons make me physically sick.
Kin a body help me ah want tae go tae Balamory oan the ferry, dey ah hiv tae book ma ticket through the Bbc, an will they except ma booking, as ave nae TV Licence.
I liked the quip in the Herald comments section :Did David Torrance write the article?”. Thanks for the link yesindyref2.
I loved these narrow winding roads when motorcycling, can’t please us all.
Perhaps it’s time for a Top Ten MSM SNPBad stories of all time?
Only the piss poor, baseless, twisted facts ones of course.
Or 50, or 100, or 200 ….
BTW Rev Twitter feed got a few #ferrychaos chuckles.
@Lollysmum
Make sure you get a fish supper from the van by the clock in Tobermory – it’s Le Routier and has been voted the best in Scotland. £6.50 for a large haddock and chips, even the chips are fluffy. I get mayonnaise and ketchup with mine, a habit from when I worked in Holland.
Normally I go there on my way out and still have sandwiches, this trip was the other way around and I had a supper. Mmmmmmmm, delicious. I have no financial interest in the van!
Your figures are rubbish. There are now two ferries pouring cars on to Mull. Extra amounts to probably hundreds per day. There are twelve miles of normal width road on the whole island and at times gridlock sums it up. Lots of uninformed comment as usual from those who do not live here and simply have knee jerk reactions. On the good side the extra traffic figures are also from those of us taking our cars off the island much more often than before. Morag seems to have a sensible approach as it is not all bad but the infrastructure is straining at the seams.
A Government policy to enhance the economy of a section of the community is a howling success. But the frantic Labour oposition, and Herald news paper in particular,in their fevered inanity to manufacture criticism, employ tactics, which can only reveal how absolutely incapable they are of reasoned thought, or to accept, and recognise, a success story.
We are definitely navigating the inner sanctum of the Unionist political madhouse. Where anything the Scottish government does is BAAAD. Even absolute success, is BAAAD. It really does frustrate the will to remain calm, and charitable, when referring to these fools.
@morag
I remember being sandwiched between a caravan that would not pull in to let us pass and a (local) lorry desperate to pass both of us. We pulled in to let the lorry pass but when we turned off the road several miles on, the caravan had still not pulled over.
That was around 1963.
Awe naw, Scotland, and to be more precise the Western Isles are doomed. Just like the oil and gas economic disaster in the north east, where everyone in Aberdeen now lives in ghettos in desolate wasteland thanks to the oil businesses, the islands will have to put up with, more cars, needing more fuel, more people needing food, accommodation, refreshments, pay for entertainment. I hope someone starts a “Go Fund Me” for the businesses that will suffer from higher numbers of damned tourists clogging up the tills.
I fear I will have to cancel my trip to South Uist next week. Just so the businesses don’t have to serve me and take my money. Not forgetting, keeping my wee car of those congested island roads.
Not surprising that locals throughout the Calmac operation area have turned the map yellow.
Sadly the Herald decline continues at relentless pace.To print such mince is bad enough but to make it t he front page lead surely suggests a death wish.
Grateful to the R ev for doing the background work
[…] Wings Over Scotland The unending badness There’s a story in today’s Herald about yet another SNP disaster: Backfires? What, […]
Another Union Dividend says @ at 2:08 pm
Its not just the Herald and Scotsman we need to tackle but the English based newspapers including Metro, Sunday Times etc that have much larger circulations.
Regular Wings readers are probably far more knowlegeable and politically aware than your average SNP member so its up to all of us to be more pro active in the Unionist press and broadcasting outlets ..and not just online.
SNPBAD yet again, how dare they help grow the economy of Mull. Thank god for the unbiased reporting from the Herald to keep us informed about all the SNPBAD disasters.
Anyone else noticed when the sun goes over the horizon, it gets dark, that has to be the fault of the SNP.(causing global warming with all those street lights)
the old saying “if you build it they will come”, this only works when you have a forward thinking government, which we have. any trolls reading,
THEY ARE CALLED THE SNP.
Thank Christ Slab are finished, they seem to be getting involved with trampolines in Inverness, I believe there is a weight limit so most of Slab are FCUKD.
Herald Scotland, quality Newspaper?! now there’s an oxymoron.
What’s the point of a Rhoda Grant? because she in not a politician more like an embarrassment.
It is a terrible thing to hate your country that much that you would work for an American owned rag and produce diurnally lies and smears like this for money. Who cares about honesty, truth, self worth, when there’s money to be made by prostituting yourself for your London and New York masters?
Why do they stay here if Scotland is shite?
I stopped taking HS after 50 years; it is a poisonous little US rag now and not fit as toilet paper.
I checked out their forum; nasty little trolls, probably Project Fear Together using pseudonyms ;- McTernan? McDougall?
This Dead Tree Scroll must be on life support by now.
The dregs of churnos gathered together armed with O Level English and a deep seated hatred of Scotland the Nation.
But never mind Ranjurs an’ a Sellick are beezer. Naw they urnae. Jags is.
Liars and Fifth Columnists.
Scotland is shite, so says Murray, Dugdale, Rennie, and the Bronco Rider Davidson.
That’ll keep the tourists away. Except of course the nobility shooting defenceless birds for a laugh.
That’s the last thing these little Unionist creeps want, a thriving Scottish economy.
What about the potholes. Nicola?
Rhoda Grant? One of a long line of useless Labour hangers on.
Pathetic .
I seem to remember that there were islanders who would prefer the tourists left their money on the quayside and buggered off – those were the days when cafe’s and restaurants stopped serving lunch at 1.30 and only truculently agreed to make a poor sandwich, the tourist was always wrong.
C’mon Scotland – you can do it!
Slap a smile on you physog and welcome the trade in such a short season.
P.S the Herald has become trash ,not fit to wrap a good fish supper.
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Says Herald, if you do actually go and visit their yoon grot and all predictably UKOK bonkers considering this smear alone could put off visitors to the gridlocked tourist hell hole that is Tobermory.
“What’s the story Tobermory, wouldn’t you like to go!” having done that with toddlers 15 years ago, when the whole place was like an under 10’s metropolis, you’d probably get more sense from the tv show than UKOK Herald 2016.
Island-hopped through the Western Isles last month.
Went to the Heb Celt Festival. Spent lots of money, so locals happy.
Brilliant two weeks! Will definitely go back.
Yeah!
Aye!
Richt!
I think I may know this particular story from old experience of how Fife Council’s Labour Group function as a matter of course. In fact I may get this next bit wrong but if memory serves Fife Council at the time of this change was under the control of none other than the present Deputy Leader of the London Labour in Scotland’s branch Office or whatever it is called now.
I live on the old Great North Road on the outskirts of the Former Mining Community of Kelty. I first came to Kelty in 1962 and one wee Kelty resident, Alex Rowley was born in 1963. So I’ve known Alex all his life, but I digress, here is the story.
The Old Great North Road outside of Kelty is a rather busy main road and the Kelty bit is on the main drag between Cowdenbeath and Kinross plus Milnathort.
When I first moved from the village proper to the Great North Road address it was a busy A Road. Since then the Village of Kelty has expanded right down to my rear boundary fence and so has become an even busier main road.
Yet the Labour Controlled Fife Council, in its undoubted wisdom, decided to downgrade the Great North Road from the main Station Road junction northwards to the Fife/Kinross boundary at the Kelty Black Road Junction to a B Road.
Now in view of the increased traffic this decision would seem to make little sense. That is until you attempt to see things from a Fife Council POV.
The first clue I had was when the red blae footpath between the Station Road junction and the borderline of Cowdenbeath began to me totally neglected while from the border of Cowdenbeath right into Cowdenbeath was well maintained and regularly swept and looked after.
Then it dawned on me that this downgrade was to save the council money. It also meant that my address overnight became a rural address rather than a semi-rural address and the immediate effect was we began to only get one postal delivery per day instead of two. The street sweeper sweeps down to the ends of Station Road, Bath Street, the entrance into the newer housing estates and the Black Road but not along the front of the homes on the B Road section of the Great North Road.
Would there be similar thinking by the Labour Group in the above story?
The HERALD..
Deliberately undermining positive action by reporting random but expected minor side effects, as DISASTER.
Their minds are closed, small, ignorant..
AN INSULT TO OUR INTELLIGENCE.
link to youtube.com
SNP bad, children.
Maybe the HERALD is a parody newspaper account..
I have just checked Caledonian MacBrayne’s website, a couple of years ago, I had wanted to take my car and caravan to Skye by ferry, rather than the bridge, but balked at the £70 price, the price for tomorrow in my motor home is £19.70, this sort of irresponsible behaviour will only encourage commerce, encourage tourism. The SNP must be mad, can they not see how beneficial this crazy irresponsible act is? Honestly they would think all this efficient responsible government, carefully structured laws to protect our youth, and stop sectarianism, well run schools and hospitals, will make us believe we can run our own affairs, madness!
Okay – so somebody had to do it….
link to imgur.com
So, is Rhoda Grant implying thet SLAB would prefer to abolish RET to REDUCE numbers of visitors to the Islands?
And increase ferry fares for local folk too?
Does the Herald endorse that logical conclusion?
I wonder what Rhoda’s constituents make of her comments…
Lazy reporting by the Herald based on a local Kilchoan blog (see here link to kilchoan.blogspot.co.uk). There was chaos that day but it was at the mainland side, and was caused by the ferry on one of the other 2 routes to Mull breaking down and cars being redirected to Kilchoan (over an hours journey) whose ferry can only take around 10 cars. There are not many here who are complaining about the RET – the extra business it brings is a huge boon to wee places like this and also allows us to get over to Mull for a much more reasonable fare.
@Arbroath 1320
Good to see you back Arb.
You’ve been missed. 🙂
Herald comments section got some rather impressive UKOK roasters, not as bad as rancid The Graun btl but its getting there.
“Is anyone who isn’t a nat sycophant surprised ? Yet another SNP populist decision rushed through without thinking about the effects it may have.
Everything the SNP attempt is a failure, and they are taking our country backwards. Sturgeon is a hopeless FM, and has done nothing, except divide our country.”
Oh dear God, the Herald can’t even get the ferry right. It’s not the Kilchoan ferry broke down, it’s the Lochaline-Fishnish one. People were stranded in Kilchoan because, apparently, the entire contents of a much larger ferry made a convoy to Kilchoan to catch the last crossing of the much smaller ferry.
The SNP Scottish Government, all of whom were holding a cabinet meeting on the slipway at Lochaline while enjoying a Bambi burger and coffee, are to be condemned for giving duff instructions. SNP BAAAAAD!
Is this the same reporter that came up with the reduction in APD will lead to more flights abroad and increased incidence of skin cancer?
Is there ANY GOVERNMENT, ANYWHERE..
who would upgrade a road BEFORE there is an increase in traffic?
This is the best/worst example of mis-information I’ve ever seen..
I think this story had its origins in the letters page of the Herald.
There have been at leat two letters in the past few weeks from residents on Cumbrae and Aran complaining about the increase in visitors to the respective island and how RET was a disaster.
I wont go into all they said but the could be described as ‘ opening their mooth and letting their stomachs rumbke’. A bit like certain Labour politicians on the same subject.
Jings, I came back on that (Fishnish-Lochaline) ferry on the Saturday around mid-day. Not long before it broke down, if the stranded cars had the time to drive around to Kilchoan for the last ferry – getting on for 2 hours with that many cars holding up passing places (a “convoy” slows down use of passing places, nightmare if there’s a convoy each way).
@Heed
That article could almost have been a trap for Unionist posters to discredit them, as any neutral person reading the article would realise it was mince.
They’ve changed the online headline to, “Scottish government scheme for cheap ferry travel leads to increased traffic on island roads”.
Surely anyone with an ounce of integrity working at the Herald must be cringing with embarrassment if they read this article. Wings should be compulsory reading,not just for Scottish journos but everyone.
@annie
there is no integrity at the Herald or any other of the miserable yoon media outlets,
never underestimate the depth of hate that the blairite Unionist media have for Scotland,SNP,Nicola and all true Scots,
this is propaganda and misinformation from a totalitarian government masquerading as a democracy.
Come on, people.
Tourist numbers up!
More kids passing exams!
You have to feel sorry for the Herald.
It must be tough in the SNPbad basement.
All they had was an interview with the Shadow Secretary Of State For Scotland!
And they even got that headline out of all proportion to what they said the guy said.
link to archive.is
The stress! The stress!
Leaving aside the primary school standard of English grammar & spelling, how thick must one be, to get a job at The Herald?
I’m now looking forward to the consequential outcome of this proBritNat zoomery as hordes of islanders sell up & move to somewhere quieter.
Like Rockall.
O/T
Seems like Al Murray really is an eternal prick he is now focusing on Corbyn and his supporters ….for now ! Though I’m sure as shite he will be back onto SNP bashing soon and forcing his unwanted and ill informed opinions on Scottish affairs….once he is finished with sticking his annoying big nose into another matter that has ‘fuck all to do with him’ considering his background and current lifestyle.
#UnfunnyC**t
Found this on Intenet today about his past and also his current twisted fixation….such a shit stirrer….cannot live and let live has to play the permanent wanker.
“Al Murray is the former head boy of £10,000-a-term Bedford School, Oxford alumnus, and descendant of the 3rd Duke of Atholl, who likes to bounce about pretending to be a working class pub landlord. He’s been busy bashing Corbyn, his supporters, and anyone who doesn’t condemn him as the anti-Christ for a while now”.
Anyway the twit is in Edinburgh just now at the Festival…think I’ll give it wide berth Al no me Pal………funny ( WHICH HE IS NOT!) how he says he just loves Edinburgh Festival but yet is soooooooo disparaging of Scots who want self determination in his alter Twitter ego.
#NoneOfHisFeckinBusiness
#FakeSocialist
#DodgyCompanyKeeper
#OneTrickUnfunnyComedyPony
#AnotherHyprocriticalRedTory
Could add many more negative # points re Murray but would be here all bloody day !
@ Andrew Mclean,
It’s that SNP Andrew,their daen it oan Purpose!:-)
Peace Always.
‘Is there ANY GOVERNMENT, ANYWHERE..
who would upgrade a road BEFORE there is an increase in traffic?’
Sounds like just the sort of thing a Yoon Labour, Tory Government or Slab Cooncil would do as a norm in their crony patronage culture.
Akin to building Aircraft carriers with no planes,starting illegal unjustified wars and spending £200bln on Trident for an imaginary threat.
And that’s just for starters.
So, my guess, and that’s all it is, a reasonably ignorant guess, is that the Lochaline ferry’s engines weren’t in top condition, but good enough for calm conditions, but with the storm brewing up (very gusty around Cairndow at about 6), come late afternoon they had to stop the ferry for safety reasons – need fully working engines for a storm. And Lochaline slip isn’t the easiest to get into.
@wee folding bike
They just couldn’t bring themselves to headline “Scottish government scheme for cheap ferry travel leads to increased number of visitors”.
Wrong type of headline altogether for their anti-Scottish agenda.
As a frequent visitor to Islay, I welcomed the RET scheme. It meant my journies were a lot cheaper but it has brought problems.
Many of the new visitors are in motorhomes. They are not used to driving on single track roads, do not know how to to use passing places and often get stuck, unable to reverse to allow people past. This is certainly a problem for locals trying to go about their daily business. They frequiently park up along the shore,where they dispose of waste water where animals graze. There are sites on the island where they can do this properly but that would cost money. Many of them are also ony there for a few days so bring all there food and supplies with them,so don’t always add too much to the local economy.
Yes RET has it’s benifits but it also has it’s down side.
In California, any vehicle with five or more behind it must pull over to let those vehicles pass at the first available opportunity. It’s an offence to ignore the line.
In the UK, and especially Scottish rural roads, any driver trailing a caravan can frustrate rear traffic for as long as he wants.
That Herald article is nominated for the ‘SNP Bad’ award for 2016.
Surely, political reporters and editors are supposed to sit down and decide if a story was good or bad for the country.
These jokers obviously start at the other end – they sit down with an “SNP bad” narrative that any big story of the day must be spun and twisted to fit, no matter ridiculous the contortions required. Pathetic.
ronnie anderson @ 2:22 pm says
Thank christ am gon tae Skye,ah canny stawn they traffic jams oan Mull.
For the love of the wee man don’t risk it the bridge will probably collapse with all this SNP Bad propaganda!
“Is there ANY GOVERNMENT, ANYWHERE..
who would upgrade a road BEFORE there is an increase in traffic?”
If Rhoda’s so bloody concerned she should get out and build one herself – just like Callum did on Raasay.
“Gie that road a grant.” (see wot I did there).
Hark! the Herald’s Anglo’s spin
Cars and Tourists all shipped in.
Place to park and a Pint of Mild
Labour acting like a child.
Hateful, Tory nations, rise
Scots and Indy they despise
English settlers call it Hame
SNP supporting locals shame
Hark! the Herald Anglo Spin
Lies and deceit they’re all built in.
Glory to the new-born King
Christ, by highest heaven adored
Christ, the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold him come
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb
Read more: Carrie Underwood – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Lyrics | MetroLyrics
I’m no expert on the interaction between tourism and the ongoing global process of decolonisation but I think the historical analytical prominence given to post-colonial theory has proven inadequate as an emancipating force. Put simply, it isn’t possible to understand and respect a culture when viewing it through colonial eyes and interpreting it within a colonial epistemology (see “yoon logic”).
Mind, it all boils down to semiotics, see. (said in a soft Welsh lilt, for no apparent reason).
The commodification of culture and decolonisation in Northern Ireland
link to tandfonline.com
If the Northern Ireland Tourist Board sought to commodify culture in order to depoliticise it, perhaps that tells you something about the power of cultural identity. It could also help explain BBC bias?
P.S. Seaus Heaney once bought me a pint. 🙂
After a barrage of ridicule, they’ve now changed the headline. lol.
Several posts have mentioned single track roads with passing places. They work fine when traffic is light and everyone knows what to do. Problems arise because a lot of tourists don’t know how to use the passing places!
I have encountered a ‘posse’ of tourists fresh off the ferry without a scooby.
The worst of it is not the passing in opposite directions but the misunderstanding that you are supposed to let following traffic overtake. This is an obligation, not just courtesy. Not doing so really winds up locals who aren’t sightseeing.
Found this for anyone who isn’t clear ….
The Highway Code, section 133:
Passing Place on Single Track RoadSingle-track roads. These roads are only wide enough for one vehicle. They have special passing places. If you see a vehicle coming towards you, or the driver behind wants to overtake, pull into a passing place on your left, or wait opposite a passing place on your right. Give way to vehicles coming uphill whenever you can. If necessary, reverse until you reach a passing place to let the other vehicle pass.
link to scotlandinfo.eu
And the loonie toon yoon fruitcakes and trolls who infest the comments section of The Herald lap it up like its gospel.
Legerwood 3.36. What makes me think that the 2 letters complaining about increased traffic and visitors. Were posted by white settlers.???
Luigi says:
“Surely, political reporters and editors are supposed to sit down and decide if a story was good or bad for the country. These jokers … sit down with an “SNP bad” narrative that any big story of the day must be spun and twisted to fit”
Their message is getting way out of hand. No longer a political SNPBad, but ‘Scotland is utterly shite’.
They tell everyone our NHS is crap, our education crap, our oil is the world’s crappiest, and now it’s our amazing islands which are also crap.
You really could conclude that the attack is all out against anything uniquely Scottish or iconic to Scotland. They appear to be trying to turn the very words Scotland and Scottish into derogatory terms.
It should piss off everyone, Yes and No, voters of every party. This is you they are denigrating.
I see the headline on the RET article has changed in the Herald from ‘backfires’ to ‘increased car numbers’
The work experience reporter on secondment from the Daily Express was obviously told to correct it as ‘this isn’t the bloody express!’ 😉
@ yesindyref2 1.27 Thanks for the tip, will nail him next time!
It’s a mercy we’ve no read aboot the NC500 bringing doom and despair, oh! and extra traffic, to the far north yet!
Silly me, it’s probably only a short time until that tourist route backfires too! Must look out for that report – if they dare!
Looks like the Herald may have been pulled off ‘The papers’ section of BBC Scotland webpage too! (Not sure if it was on there this morning – it usually is – def. not there now.)
Slow day at toryboy central. As usual, nothing at all about their Scotland region in the UKOK zone but Scotland botherer and the only psephologist in teamGB gets a word in. God I can actually spell psephologist. Its another yoontastic dividend, following Prof Poultice.
Dont know what BBC gimps are telling us here, although slicing out near on half the UK land mass from teamGB is the new normal.
link to bbc.co.uk
Somebody on the Herald “comments re this story” mentioned “WINGS” (I thought we were banned) and the Headline has been pulled and replaced by a new one.
Aw ra Best Guys…………
From
link to wingsoverscotland.com
to
Mike Dailly ?@mikedailly 6h6 hours ago
If Scottish #independence offers the best future for Scotland I’ll campaign and vote for it. Let’s begin the discussion #Brexit
Grouse Beater says:
10 August, 2016 at 4:04 pm
“In the UK, and especially Scottish rural roads, any driver trailing a caravan can frustrate rear traffic for as long as he wants.”
I have had years towing a caravan in the highlands, I always pull over, and more often than not find myself being held back by the car I have just let past, but more annoying is the car at a junction that sees me coming then pulls put hoping to get in front of me, not realising that I was doing 60, weigh in at over 2 and a half tonne, and can’t slow down that fast, more than once I have nearly taken that car out.
I have even been told by the good lady to get back on the proper road, and not believing me that this actually is the main road north of Ullapool.
If anyone wants to compare how poorly Scotland’s roads have been treated by Westminster, look at google maps and drop the wee man anywhere on Norway’s massive E6 or the FV17 at Selstad and Scotland’s roads!
The Bute Barra none whae wrote this Muck
Jura richt Rum Eigg that Canna Ghia f**k
Iona phone sa dinna stall
Rethink yer career and gie Skye a Coll.
Well, me and the other half are coming up week after next for a whistle stop tour of the Highlands.
We were going to visit Skye but, well, you know, Tobermory looks lovely in those photos and I can almost smell the fish and chips from here (thanks Yesindyref2).
Maybe I should check with the local council that they can cope with yet more money being spent on the island. I mean, I wouldn’t want to crash the economy as well as gridlock the roads.
I might get in the ‘newspapers’ with a quote as well as I have never voted SNP (only because I live in England and I won’t tell them I’m a member of the SNP) and voted ‘Scottish’ Labour (sorry for that now) although it was thirty odd years ago when I lived there.
Mike d @ 4.30
I suspect that the letters were more likely to have been posted by local – or not so local – Labour supporters as a way to stir trouble on this issue.
Seriously, whoever owns that newspaper really does require to have a good look at the political bias of its editor. It is nothing short of scandalous.
Ha ha! read this earlier this morning as I left to do some work.
I see the headline has changed about 30mins ago.
Still got the same rubbish contents though! 🙂
link to archive.is
It was the Lochaline ferry that had broken down. The staff there directed traffic to the Kilchoan ferry. If anything, that’s where the backfire took place. The Kilchoan Ferry can only take 10 or 11 cars, yet there was a long convoy of vehicles sent there. When they got to Kilchoan they then blocked the single track road leading to the ferry, meaning the cars coming off the boat had nowhere to go. This took about 1/2 an hour to sort out. Some queue jumping led to a bit of temper and the Calmac staff wrongly took the brunt of it. Sod all to do with the SNP, unbelievable.
Ha – Herald changing its headline after being called out.
Much much too little, way way too late. We know who you are and we know what your game is.
Idiots.
Colonial media. Tying yourselves in knots all over the shop – best laugh I’ve had this side of Cameron resigning. Keep it up.
Aye…and we should tear doon the Kelpies and the Falkirk wheel – people keep going to see them. Whit about these mountains and lochs they are making life unbearable.
I have just sailed from Oban via Mull, Coll, Tiree, Canna and Staffa back to Oban. We have a beautiful country and we should welcome every extra visitor who wishes to see it.
I suppose in the unionist mind the good fortune to have a land of such incredible scenery is as great a curse as the Oil & Gas which lies below it.
Why do unionists have to run down their nation in this manner?
Proud cybernat @ 4.11 pm
hey have already upgraded the Spinal Route from Daliburgh on South Uist right up to North Uist.
The Scottish Government gave the Islands £500,000 to upgrade some of the worst parts of the single track road to double track in 2011. The money was part of £18 million from the EU which the SG disbursed to various infrastructure projects in the Highlands and Islands.
We were in the Outer Hebrides the previous year and the locals were already aware of how the RET, introduced there in 2008, was increasing the number of visitors and they were already making plans to improve and increase the number of campsites to cope with the increase.
Friends were there a couple of years after us with their campers and were happy with the facilities on offer many of which were completely new or upgraded and extended.
@galamcennalath
Thanks for that, I’ve always meant to look it up. Very well written, and shouldn’t just be for visitors from the EU but from England – and from Scotland as well. Some of the worst villains have Scottish number plates.
People can in fact get done for Obstruction by the police. No idea if anyone ever has, but the police have acted at times to at least warn people. One case was around Durness to Tongue some years back where a convoy of 30 campervans blocked the road from a doctor on call. He phoned the police, and they appeared from Tongue I think, herded the campers into a field, and then released them one at a time every 2 minutes with a warning to use passing places in futer to allow overtaking.
Convoys are a real menace – the one at the back thinks he / she is OK because there are people in front. A good techinique if someone appears behind you intent on overtaking, is to flash the one in fromt and if they don’t move over in 1 or 2 passing places, flash again and move into a passing place. The one behind overtakes you, the one in front moves into the next place, and the two of you whizz by. A couple of times over the years I’ve been able to do a “tag” run like this with a willing accomplice 🙂
Headline changed again: “Scottish government scheme for cheap ferry travel leads to surge in popularity for Scottish islands”
Of course, now it makes the comments below the line look stupid, as they don’t relate to the original headline and article.
The Herald really have no scruples – or perhaps it has no brains. The Guardian at least does put a tagline “article updated on – at -“.
@call me dave
Told you they had a choice lolololol 🙂
“Scottish government scheme for cheap ferry travel leads to surge in popularity for Scottish islands”
Once again it’s all about the headline rather than the facts.
Not happy – I got a replacement driving licence today with a Union Jack on it ?
“Evil cybernats force newspaper to change headline”
On Mull alone, the amount of cars and foot passengers has increased by around 40 per cent.
Rhoda Grant,Labour MSP for Highlands and Islands, said: “Ret is a good thing for islanders, communities and the economy, but you can’t increase passenger numbers without any preparation.
Rhonda, could you compare that to the surge in Labour membership in England, when your party Should have advised them that they wouldn’t be able to vote on the Leadership election, and that over 80% of Labour MPs do not want to work with the current Leader, who was elected by the membership, only 9 months ago?
“You can’t just increase membership numbers without any preparation, or justification of their reduced status”
Labour really should have a “Wealth Warning that New Labour is now in the hands of a Right of Centre Party.
Just ask the Thatcher worshiping McTernan that you employ!
And, of course, now BBC Pravda will follow The Herald’s first healine while, naturally, ignoring the revised version. As is par for the course.
And how we will continue laughing at the sad, servile gits.
Changed the headline?
Oh good grief! 😀 LOL
The Herald is on headline number 3: “Scottish government scheme for cheap ferry travel leads to surge in popularity for Scottish islands”. Bloody SNP shills! What a nationalist mouthpiece the herald has become of late, eh!
The SNP should obviously have INCREASED taxes on ferries to the islands so tourism is reduced and their limited infrastructure is not put under strain.
That is literally the logical conclusion to this morning’s SNP BAAD piece. Good grief.
It is like watching an old prize-fighter, punch drunk and rattled lumber forward only to be cut down by a guy with a light saber- Stu is giving us a better sport to watch (and participate in) than the Olympics can produce.
Oh hahaha. dont you just adore our press and the sloppy fag end they call the labour party? Arsewipes .
Buy The National to keep The Herald alive.
Another blow for Sturgeon?
(I wish I got half as many blows…)
That is quite the most pathetic article I have seen in a good long time.
Perhaps only rivaled with the BBC website Scottish news section headlining a woman getting her hand stuck in a dog shit bin. I kid you not, it was the top story for two days.
Of course it helps not buying their papers or visiting their sites any more.
The quicker they wither and die the better.
For me at least this whole fiasco just shows the power that editors of the MSM have with any story to try and spin it to their favoured political position.
I’ve never saw such a flip flop worthy of an Olympic Gold.
This is a war of words between the MSM and online media which is the voice of the establishment verses the voice of the people.
This change of headline has not come about simply as a result of this Wings article and the ridicule dealt to the Herald by publishing such rubbish. I suspect pressure has come from the Scottish Government and quite likely Islanders themselves.
Well done Rev for highlighting the original ridiculous story in the first place and well done all the commentators that made such salient points.
Many red faces in the Herald tonight, more of the same would be nice.
Scottish Govt. does something = SNP Bad!
Scottish Govt. does nothing = SNP Bad!
I see a trend here…
Hi Arbroath 1320, nice to see you back. We’ve missed you.
I think I’ll get a pair of these just in case I run the risk of seeing a Herald headline – ‘The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses have been designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. They work by turning completely dark at the first sign of danger, thus preventing you from seeing anything that might alarm you’.
All I’ll need then will be a similar type of earplug to prevent accidentally hearing someone prattle on about Herald headlines.
All I expect from the Scottish media is balanced and truthful reporting. Not something that has been picked over in order to further that paper/radio/tv political agenda.
In Scotland at least I belive they can no longer be known as Mainstream. The majority in Scotland now support Independence, the supporters of Independence are now the mainstream, here at least.
The opponents of Independence are losing the propaganda war with such obvious contortions of the truth, our support will increase slowly but surely. Then we win.
“Herald SNP BAADD Headline Backfires”
Well there is a story here but true to feeble form the herald and other pro yoon media missed it because it’s more complex than snp bad.
We go to Arran a lot and talking to residents and from our own observation RET has been a mixed blessing, with some of the actual consequences not being fully anticipated.. Specifically ferries too fully booked to allow for last minute hospital visits to mainland etc.
Would need more detail (you know that thing which journalism used to do…) but suffice to say the policy needs further improvements. For example the cheaper fares should be available for islanders not so much for visitors…
Living as I do in a rural part of Argyll. The introduction of RET on our fairly recent ferry from Campbeltown to Ardrossan has made a vast difference.
I’ll check tomorrow, but I’ve never heard anyone complain about the increase in traffic and spending power of visitors…I could be wrong, there’s always some old meany!!!
On our roads, the slowest are the tourists of the “Sunday” variety who slow down at each and every bend. Motorhomes and caravans can be pretty nifty and the log lorries have rocket fuel! 🙂 🙂
Ha ha ha! Herald should be ashamed. Wonder how they’ll present the news tomorrow.
O/T – Sorry.
The oil rig grounded on the Isle of Lewis beauty spot has two breached oil tanks that have released an unknown amount of diesel oil, but at this point in time they don’t know where the oil has gone! What might this do to scallop beds, lobster creels and fishing livelihoods?
Curious to know – Is it ‘normal practice’ to tow a rig for decommissioning (from the Norway via the west coast all the way to Malta) with 280 metric tonnes of oil in her tanks? Ballast?
Is 280 tonnes a lot in the great scheme of things? It sounds like a lot to me.
Strong case for bringing back the Emergency tugs removed by Westminster?
I can’t help seeing parallels with Mhairi Black’s point about nuclear convoys on Scottish roads.
@Kevin Evans,
You need to contact Bonny Badge – they have designed wee Saltire stickers which cover up the offending Union Flag.
link to shop-scotland.com
Fortunately, I got a new license last year with no UK flag so I will not need a new one for a while – Next one will come with a Saltire!
@Ian says 6.11pm:
No worries Ian ( ps. I’m not Australian) see below… well sorted :
‘The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses’ have now designed and are producing in a store near U…wherever U are…not on an island I hope ….. ‘The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Earplugs’ they work by automatically switching off at first sign of prattle thus preventing you from hearing any prattling that might alarm you.
Guaranteed to be fully prattle proof especially…wait for it…. if prattle is the prattle…. say on……oh I don’t know……… newspaper headlines ! Result for you Ian…Yeh !
Sorted ok…. not sure how much they cost Ian but will leave that research to you….no thanks required BTW.
Have good evening .
Ok, this article is funny, but not as funny as Leask just now telling us that the new Sputnik UK office in Edinburgh is pure propaganda.
I kid you not.
Hoho, I’m off to look for the Edinburgh Sputnikers on Twatter, so I can engage with proper journalists.
The political journalists on RT are very good imo. Afshrin Rattansi is ex BBC, and his show Going Underground is always worth watching.
Mis-reporting Scotland on the topic of the new Russian news programme “Sputnik” – “…propaganda from another country broadcast within our borders”. Even better a Herald spokesman complained about state sponsored propaganda…you couldnae make it up.
Meg Merrilees@6.28.
Bad news about the rig, anyone know which country owns this?
If its the USA, I think a wee £50 Billion compensation claim is in order, after all the USA caused the Gulf of Mexico situation, and BP had to foot the bill, what’s good for them etc.
You can bet if this was in the Thames, HEADLINE news.
SNP will get the blame.
OT
I agree with a comment somewhere in this thread, that we do need to go out into the MSM and correct the Unionist agitators (and articles).
I think they’re getting more desperate, and therefore easier to show up with a concise statement of fact, e.g. “business taxes are reserved to Westminster and standard across the UK” (e.g. corporation tax), in reply to the most ridiculous and wild claim “business taxes in Scotland are the highest in the Western world”.
I suspect some of these people read our very own hero KH, they’re so full of it 😉 Best double-agent we’ve got!
A third headline change in the space of a few hours is a story in itself.
‘This newspaper (the oldest national newspaper in the world )today 3 times changed our headline in a story about a Scottish Gov policy which changed the tone from sniping negativity to merely neutral.
The story itself still put a negative spin on a positive outcome from the policy.
How this came to pass and what the hell is going on in this revered institution will be of great consternation to all who value honest,fair and insightful journalism.’
dakk
Media Correspondent.
Wasted on here.
Could be gettin’ 200k a year an’ paid holidays workin’ for the herald/ beeb or suchlike 🙁
O/T
Good sounds on Argyll independent radio (online @ 7pm tonight) listen while on WoS?
Marcia says:
10 August, 2016 at 4:06 pm
That Herald article is nominated for the ‘SNP Bad’ award for 2016.
Despite facing some pretty fierce competition. 🙂
Aw naw see that Nicola Sturgeon invitein dire dire headlines & aw that bad publicity oan the SNP wie announcin ah £100 million injection in projects in Scotland Roads / Health an aw they kind o things.
She should hiv listened tae that colonial overseer Muppet Mundell ( infastructure is ah Westminster preserve,if only she wid hiv jist waited ah score years + ten we wid get Gold Leaf wrapped roads an Gold Brick hospitals (we dey hiv Gold Mines in Scotland) we could hiv saved £100mil fur mair important things.
Am lookin fur ah joab, that press officer fur the SNP sounds nice, any chancety Nicola, ah come cheep ah,ll keep you oota trouble wie the SNP Baad Baad press.
Apart from the Rev no one should buy the Herald or visit it on-line and that goes for the National, the “pretendy` independence sister paper. I`ll wait in vain for the National to publish a defence of the Scottish government regarding this story and the other poisionous trash turned out by the Herald.
Thanks Macart, Marie I just had to step away from constant politics 24/7 for a while. Now, thanks to constant partner haranging I have been forced to return to where I *ahem* belong. 🙂
She’s bad
She’s black (well not really 🙂 )
She’s back (look out world the nutter wi butter is back! 🙂 )
@Valerie
Of course Sputnik is a propaganda machine, and of course it will be delighted to “break up the UK”.
The sad thing is it needs absolutely no distortion, nothing false or untrue, it doesn’t even need to spin the news.
All it has to do is report fairly and truthfully.
Unlike the BBC, and all the Unionist rags in this country, including the Herald.
Despite Rock & Co I will continue to purchase the National – My money,My choice.
I guess the griping will continue regardless of my views!
@ Kevin Evans Ah hiv a auld paper Driving Licence in a drawer someplace, nae onion flags oan it, nae photy, ah know its ma ain cause ma names oan it. Stuff they,re fekin renewal.Expires 2020 by whitch time it,ll be a Scottish driving licence.
For what its worth, front page banner headline for the P&J today is SNP ferry price policy is “too popular.” Its an odd headline for a government to do something too popular, even for the Press and Journal.
There’s that word that always makes me raise a starboard eyebrow..
‘Chaos‘ (noun) ‘complete disorder and confusion.’ Chaos ye say? Aye, aye.. whitever floats yer boat sunny Jim!
I can hear Chris Cairns pencilling away as we speak 🙂
Excellent below the line (btl) comments on this article btw (by the way.) Good to hear of people’s many adventures travelling around Bonnie Scotland. Keep it going..
Anent motor-homes not contributing to island economies by stocking up before they cross the ferry. Strangers would be crazy to rely on finding all they might need on an island, Yachts ditto! I know one mainland shop which doesn’t open on a Sunday for religious reasons, shuts one weekday & doesn’t sell alcohol or tobacco. Some folk think they’re entitled to the tourists money & surely their continued use of the ferries alone helps keep them running. Who pays for the roads anyhow?
Kevin Evans
Bobby Badge Company stickers are the perfect size. Had to get them after moving house and renewing license.
You get a big sheet of them for many years of UJ covering pleasure 😉
Oops!
Looks like someone, who shall remain nameless … for now … is not too happy about the fact that the Herald has changed the headline to this incredible story. 😉
David Torrance ?@AngryTorrance 22m22 minutes ago
David Torrance Retweeted Herald Editor
Herald forced to change a news story after ridicule from nationalists, this is a dangerous precedent. #ferrychaos
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read that from the Herald’s snide
Something touched me deep inside
The day the Herald died
So
Bye, bye Herald Unionist Pie
Drove my wherry to the ferry but the ferry was dry
And them good ole boys were peddling falsehoods and lies
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die
(noun: snide; plural noun: snides
an unpleasant or underhand person)
The day the Herald died.
Kevin
Not sure what the Bobby Badge Company sell. The Bonny Badge Company is what you need 🙂
Punklin says: 10 August, 2016 at 6:23 pm:
“Specifically ferries too fully booked to allow for last minute hospital visits to mainland etc.
Would need more detail (you know that thing which journalism used to do…) but suffice to say the policy needs further improvements.
Indeed it does, Punklin, just not the improvement you suggest. More like the perfectly reasonable commercial one of an improved, or more frequent, ferry service. If there is an increased demand the good business, and commercial, solution is to meet that improved demand. That is what all business is about – supply and demand.
The thing is it works both ways – that is if the demand for something decreases then the supply of the product becomes unsustainable. The exceptions to the rule are where the local or national government steps in to provide what are considered to be vital public services.
The thing is that under Westminster rule those vital services are actively discouraged. For example the privatisation of the Post Office counter, mail delivery, public transport, GP services,dispensing chemists disappear from some, not so remote rural communities.
In many instances this was caused by the growth of holiday cottages, owned but left empty for most of the year by wealthy southern families. The younger local residents then couldn’t get a house in their local community and the community began to die.
In the past the country post office/general store was the heart of the community. It did everything including café and meeting place. Take that away and the community dies.
Rock 5.57.
L:
If You say..
Buy The National to keep The Herald alive.
I sometimes buy The National for the Suduko..
If, somewhere down the line, a foreign owner profits by owning an associated newspaper, is that my fault for liking Suduko?
We need to change the the papers, not got rid of them.
Nice 2 c Herald bowing 2 pressure and putting truthfull headline out eventually. Keep up the good work. And greetings from foreign climes. Thinking of getting Italian passport if indy2 cails. Don’t think I’ll need 2 Though. Sorry if spelling errors no glasses and too much wine.
@Arb
I think that may be a mock account Arb. 🙂
@tourists of Scotland
If you’re looking for somewhere to visit this September.. The Isle of Cumbrae (Millport) are hosting their annual ‘Country and Western Festival 2016’ from the 2nd to 4th of September. Ferries available.
link to millportcountryandwestern.co.uk
Go Visit Scotland, you’ll love it!
yesindyref2 says:
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.” Mahatma Gandhi
The great thing about Gandhi is that he was a nationalist without all the blood and soil shit which afflicts British Nationalism. A guy always worth quoting.
You’re some man for one man Rev. I thoroughly enjoyed that piece; Wonderfully Incisive and witty too.
When the MSM cite “nae money”as an excuse for lamentable journalism, I am reminded of yourself and what you produce with a fraction of their funding.
@ Arbroath 1320 Nice to see you back on line,you must hiv heard the call The Bands getting back Together.
@yesindyref2
But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
The propaganda non stop
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read all the tripe inside
Something touched me and I died
The day the Herald lied
Singapore 278 sq miles, pop 5,500,000.
Skye 639 sq miles, pop 10,008 (mibbe 30k at this time of year).
The next Herald story will likely be “new Scottish 500 mile tourist road around the very north of Scotland, brings chaos to local traffic, overwhelmes all the bed and breakfast houses, hotels, and bring untold danger to the local road roaming sheep” !.
Oops … I’ll bow to your superior knowledge Macart … as always! 🙂
Aye Ronnie I did hear … and I have the badge to prove it! (thanks to the Bonny Badge Company 😉 ) 🙂
Galamcennalath: “The great thing about Gandhi is that he was a nationalist without all the blood and soil shit which afflicts British Nationalism”
“Gandhi has been a consistent bitter enemy of this country.” Churchhill
“Some day we have got to negotiate with these people, but perhaps not Gandhi”
Earl Wavell, Commander in Cheif India – replaced by Mountbatten
Catching up on this thread.
Coincidentally I was on Bute the last two days and my old friend was telling me what a difference RTE had made to tourist numbers. We had a laugh in the car spinning some possible Yoon #SNP Bad stories, including the traffic jam angle. Imagine my reaction seeing all this Carmichael tonight.
Derision is a powerful weapon and MSM deserve all they get.
I think their self-loathing and twisted thinking has reached pathological levels.
Tonight’s comments were brought to you in association with Jura’s (lightly peated) Superstition and here’s a song about it:
link to youtube.com
Cheers!
“Churchill is mid-Victorian in his thinking on India; his notion of holding on to India is inconsistent with the principles of self-determination.”
“Any nation qualified for independence has the right to choose the form of government it wishes.”
President Roosevelt.
I will from now refer to the herald as McViz. The stupidity of the angle chosen on the story, and the belief that anyone wouldn’t see through it, must surely have convinced another few no voters that the yoons actually think we really are that thick!
An alternative angle could have been that the extra revenue generated from RET stays mainly on the islands concerned, and boosts their economies. Just like the royal family; anyone who arrives from abroad to see the latest addition, or to attend one of Madge’s many 90th birthdays, will go to That London, and spend their money there. This despite the fact that Scotland pays around 10% of their expenses!
Legerwood 3.36. What makes me think that the 2 letters complaining about increased traffic and visitors. Were posted by white settlers.???
Legerwood 3.36. What makes me think that the 2 letters complaining about increased traffic and visitors. Were posted by white settlers.???
What I want to know in all of this chaos and carnage in Scotland’s island communities as a result of this increase in tourist visits – where the eff are Kev’s graphs?
I mean – COME ON!
Robert Peffers @ 7.53
“”
Robert Peffers says:
10 August, 2016 at 7:53 pm
Punklin says: 10 August, 2016 at 6:23 pm:
“Specifically ferries too fully booked to allow for last minute hospital visits to mainland etc.
Would need more detail (you know that thing which journalism used to do…) but suffice to say the policy needs further improvements.
Indeed it does, Punklin, just not the improvement you suggest. More like the perfectly reasonable commercial one of an improved, or more frequent, ferry service. If there is an increased demand the good business, and commercial, solution is to meet that improved demand. That is what all business is about – supply and demand.””
Perhaps as an interim measure to ensure islanders can get onto a ferry in an emergency – hospital appointment, family crisis etc – ferries could keep a couple of spaces available during the peak season.
Long term of course increasing the frequency of sailings would be the solution. This would probably mean more ferries being built. Perhaps at a certain shipyard on the Clyde?
Can you just imagine how SNP Bad that would be?
@Fred: “Strangers would be crazy to rely on finding all they might need on an island,”
Good grief, when were you last on an island in Scotland, if ever? They do have shops you know!
yesindyref2 @ 19:18,
Yes, the extreme irony of the arrival of Sputnik as announced by Reporting Scotland didn’t pass me by either. They made a point of mentioning the expensive kit the Russkis have apparently received. (As opposed to the BBC London hand-me-downs PQ get, presumably.)
But it left me thinking, why do we have to depend on any foreign interest to do our job for us? Why doesn’t the indy movement have anything remotely like that itself? Surely instead of all that reactive stuff which was the best we could manage last time, we desperately need a proactive news outfit run by (cringe-free) Scots for Scots…
As Valerie and others have pointed out, David Leask of the Herald speaking to Reporting Scotland tonight describing the Russian News Agency Sputnik setting up in Edinburgh:
David Leask: “What this isn’t is a normal radio station, a normal broadcast outlet in the way that you would be used to Radio Scotland or Clyde… this is something quite different.
This is a propaganda machine for another country operating within our own borders.”
(I don’t know what to say to that)
Nick Eardley (BBC): “The UK Government is looking to invest in BBC content in Eastern Europe as a counter. Some argue this is no different from what Russian media is doing here. Are they right?”
Dr Ammon Cheskin from Glasgow Uni: “It has some parallels with the BBC… but I do think its much more clearly controlled by the Kremlin.”
Nick Eardley (BBC): “Whether that control is seen in content broadcast from Scotland remains to be seen”
(at this point I am just laughing and shaking my head)
Someone save that Reporting Scotland clip- it needs kept in a safe place, cherished, cut and spliced.
The day that Reporting Scotland uses the phrase “This is a propaganda machine for another country operating within our own borders” feels like a portent- could it be we are about to be wiped out by a massive asteroid or is the sea going to give up her dead? Is Stephen Dobbie going to lead Queens into the promised land? Or is Scotland finally going to burst out of the chest of the UK at the dinner table?
Can you imagine the BBC radio Scotland jingle- the one from the indyref redone with those words… I wish I had the craft to use this stuff.
@Tam Jardine
It was totally surreal watching Leask, getting all scary about Russian propaganda. Sadly, Leask mustn’t know how much we rely on the likes of RT to find out what’s happening in our own country.
The yoons will be shitting their pants big time! The next Indy ref March will have Russian drones recording it for us! I think there’s one coming up in a few weeks in Edinburgh.
With the junior doctors, or any protests in London, I immediately tune into RT, because you get great reporting.
The scripts write themselves, because all they have to do is report the truth.
Something the occupying force of goon journalists are complete strangers to.
Tam Jardine @ 21:45,
I’m not so naive or self-deluded as to think that the Russians are here as fervent converts to Scottish (or anyone else’s) self-determination. (And if you doubt that, go to Red Square in Moscow and try raising a placard condemning Putin’s annexation of the Crimea, then when the cops appear in a jiffy to haul you off, try quoting the rights to free assembly and protest guaranteed by the Russian Constitution and see how far that gets you!) They are here for no purpose other than to further the interests of their current regime.
But still, if the BBC begin to feel the competition, maybe, just maybe, their threadbare old BritNat propaganda will be increasingly exposed for the sham that it is, and in order to remain relevant they will find themselves – willingly or otherwise – forced to become far more representative of Scottish public opinion.
One can but hope. (Though we mustn’t passively rely on it either.)
Robert J. Sutherland
Indeed Robert- we are all very well able to recognise propaganda. One curious side effect of the piece tonight- Reporting Scotland was filled with a number of good news stories.
Scottish Government £100 million economic stimulus… good day for Scots at the Olympics…. large numbers relocating to Scotland from rest of UK leading to population at highest level ever…
See- nice and balanced not like those nasty Russians. Maybe a coincidence! When I heard the headlines I had to do a doubletake. Then the piece on Sputnik make it all clear.
They couldn’t very well run their usual anti-SNP anti Scottish Government anti-Scottish 30 minutes of pish then in the midst run a story on RUSSIAN propaganda. People might actually notice!
I are naught for Spunik or RT or any other broadcaster. Only that Scotland will one day have it’s own.
There is no doubt in my mind that an Independent Scottish Broadcaster the IBC will be the worlds best 🙂
The ISB even lol.
David Leask. He’s right of course about Sputnik, but very naive or insular I think rather than deliberate, about the anti-SNP and anti-Indy propaganda we’re exposed to on a daily basis. But I might just be giving him the benefit of the doubt.
@Tam
Thanks, the quote from DL already used 🙂 🙂 🙂
@Thepnr
ISB? FSB? CIA? BBC? Can anyone spot the difference?
@@Thepnr
Oops, didn’t read your postng properly!
Why won’t the Herald place the blame where it truly belongs? That evil Miss Hoolie and the rest of the Balamory crew have ruined Mull forever, the bastards.
Herald subscription cancelled five minutes ago. I lived in hope but have now given up in disgust.
For anyone confused about what happened between Russia and Crimea, and calling it ‘annexation’, even Wiki has caught up on the truth.
The people of Crimea voted by a large margin, to become part of Russia.
Western propaganda calls it otherwise. Cos it’s Putin bad.
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
Valerie @ 09:52,
I for one am not in the least “confused” about the Russian annexation of Crimea. The Putin regime sent special forces into a country whose internationally-recognised borders it had signed a treaty to respect (Ukraine in return ceding to Russia all its nuclear weapons), then followed up the black ops using troops with removed insignias. A fait accompli completely in the face of all international norms. Only after that military occupation was complete did they organise a “referendum” of the “98% approval” kind that authoritarian regimes since time immemorial have used to mask ruthless power grabs of other people’s territory.
It’s by no means the first unprovoked land-grab that Russia has committed against neighbouring small countries over the last 100 years, and it has unfortunately been significantly ramped up in recent times by the authoritarian Putin regime. Once started, where does that kind of thing end? Which is why virtually all of Russia’s neighbours from the Baltic to the Caucasus are seriously afraid of more Russian-promoted “referendums” like this.
Expressions of this kind of tortured far-lefty double-think, (rightly) condemning British imperialism while claiming that a blatantly neo-imperialist Russia is some kind of champion of human rights and self-determination, are plain risible.
Most importantly for us here and now, any association of such pernicious fantasy with the campaign for Scottish independence is seriously damaging to our cause. Is that what you are trying to achieve? Don’t we have enough propaganda aimed at us already without positively inviting further accusations of lunacy?
@Robert J Sutherland
I’m not taken in by anything emanating from Russia, but I do endeavour to read further afield before passing judgement on Putin bad stories, just as we do concerning SNP stories.
How very generous of you to accuse me of lunacy, because the Crimea situation is far more nuanced than a land grab.
You go right ahead and believe USA propaganda, the greatest exponents of democracy that kills in millions.
You think some might have learned. You must have fell for Ruth shouting the Russians are coming as well. Sure you really want independence?
For anyone with an open mind, or curious about Crimea. You can go to Global Research, a Canadian based site, with many and varied respected writers. Here’s one, which gives a decent overview.
link to globalresearch.ca
As for the Crimea referendum, it was observed by more international interests than any other, including many EU MPs.
Many polls were conducted by foreign interests, and none were published, because they showed massive support for Russia. That’s covered in an article on that site.
Crimea and many other events are one of the key reasons I want to see a rethink on our membership of NATO.
Valerie,
I’m sorry that you didn’t grace me with a reply to any of the factual points I made. What example is set, to repeat, if a country like Ukraine gives up its nukes on a signed Russian promise to respect its borders, then Russia violently reneges?
The one thing I can agree with you about regarding the Crimea is that a majority of its Russian-speaking population likely do favour anschluss with Russia. (As for the Crimean Tatars, well, they had just better keep their heads down now…) But how does that in any way justify a unilateral military incursion?
Suppose a similar situation were to occur here after indy. Somewhere in Scotland there happens to be a significant concentration of English people (Mull, say!), and they demand an rUK takeover? Or Shetland, as liar Carmichael has several times asserted? Would an English armed incursion be justified? I doubt many people here would agree.
A weekend or two back, we had a glorious day out marching for independence. If we were ordinary Russians attempting to do the same under Putin’s “admirable” regime, we would all have been promptly arrested and jailed instead. And just try to set up a foreign “reverse Sputnik” in a country where all oppositional media have been shut down. I could go on…
My point being that you should support and criticise according to principle, not according to prejudice. An authoritarian or imperialist is an authoritarian or imperialist wherever and whoever they are.
As for the website you referenced, here’s how RationalWiki describes it:
Which only serves I think to amplify my last point.
Robert Sutherland: “If we were ordinary Russians attempting to do the same under Putin’s “admirable” regime, we would all have been promptly arrested and jailed instead”
Do you mean like the marches in London, protestors kettled, broken up by well armed riot police, arrests at random? Do you think our television networks report such rebellion differently? Do we encourage unions in the UK?
Do you really think that we’re safe from that in Scotland? Russia has NATO missiles along its border, we have Trident in our territory, and we didn’t ask or vote for it.
Bill McLean wrote: “Herald subscription cancelled five minutes ago. I lived in hope but have now given up”
Great news Bill. Lets hope far more folk follow your lead. It’s the only language these people understand, hit them where it hurts – in their pockets. Starve them!
_____
Valerie wrote: “I’m not taken in by anything emanating from Russia, but I do endeavour to read further afield before passing judgement on Putin bad stories, just as we do concerning SNP stories.”
Well said, ditto!
Grouse Beater,
Kettling is bad enough, but being snatched, charged and jailed just for appearing in public with a placard to exercise a right supposedly guaranteed by your own constitution is rather worse. The injustices that can happen here are bad enough, but are not exactly on the same scale as the clampdown that people in Russia have to endure, thanks to Putin’s paranoia. We can expect to be able to take to the streets to raise concerns, as indeed happened very pleasantly at the recent indy march in Glasgow. No kettling, no arrests as “enemies of the state”, no jail.
Besides, what’s with this moral relativity thing? You can’t use bad treatment in one part of the world to somehow ignore and excuse bad treatment somewhere else. Putin hardly deserves hero-worship as some great supporter of human rights, does he?
I note also that no-one actually addressed any of the points I made, which relate specifically to the right of any country to self-determination in the face of threats, including armed aggression, from more-powerful neighbours. Something that you would think would have a considerable degree of resonance for genuine indy supporters here.
All I’m saying is to judge all affronts against human rights the same, as a matter of principle, irrespective of origin. Should that be a problem…?
Sutherland: “The injustices that can happen here are bad enough, but are not exactly on the same scale as the clampdown that people in Russia have to endure, thanks to Putin’s paranoi” [sic]
You sound like something out of the Times newspaper 1960.
“Kettling is bad enough”” Kettling is bad enough”? Jeesus. Is that the full extend of your political nous? What shameful crap you spout, and on a public site.
Of course, in the tradition of a commie hating westerner that you are – let’s call a spade a spade – you utterly fail to take cognisance of what we do to political prisoners. How does it go again? “Our water boarding torture isn’t half as painful as theirs.”
I’ll be obliged if you dumped the grand standing, and ceased accusing me of ‘hero worshipping Putin.” It’s obvious you don’t have a head for statesmanship.
Secondly, you stated an obvious fact, that Putin annexed a chunk of the Crimea because it’s full of Russians.
But you didn’t tell readers why he did it. At that point your reasoning stopped because it is wholly inculcated by Tory bullshit.
Why did he do that, smart ass?
And please don’t give me any limp wristed “because Russian citizens residing there asked him”.