Wings Over Scotland

The crocodile tear just makes me think of all the press and all the politicians who have spend the last few years stirring up hatred and fear amongst people about Scottish Independence and the EU vote. Shame on them….. some of them should be charged with terrorism offences for stirring up such hatred

Superb, Chris. It actually makes you want to weep.

Your work is awesome.

And on the increasingly rare occasions when they’re NOT lying, nobody believes them.

It would appear that many of the ‘journalists’ who pen Opinion pieces in the papers, such as Torrance, Massie, McColm and Cochrane, have been beguiled by their own rhetoric in actually believing their pieces are the font all all wisdom.
Which is why their reaction is to attack, block or deride anyone who proves their pieces are inaccurate, bilious or insulting as being insufficiently sophisticated to understand the finer points of their argument. i.e. ‘your too stupid to comprehend my brilliant journalistic gifts’

I suppose being self-centred, shallow and egotistical are ideal qualifications for staffers on such odious publications as the Express and Mail…

I really dislike buying a newspaper these days and seldom do so.The only thing that troubles me about this is that I sometimes don’t get to hear of the passing of acquaintances.Is there another way of finding out?

These objects are called “newspapers” which confuses people. If it wasn’t for Julian Assange and Edward Snowden we wouldn’t have any clue what is being done around the world in our name.

Who to blame for poor public services, poverty, wages static for 30 years while the 1% treble their wealth?

Then the collateral damage appears on the doorstep.

Excellent cartoon!

So appropriate. Thanks
It does however do reptiles a diservice

Oh dear. An interview with Kenneth Roy on RScotland. But mustn’t say anything critical because he disapproves of the SNP (totalitarian), and social media (vile and nasty, worst thing ever invented) etc.
Trust the gators, they are true democrats!

It’s cold hard fascism. Its a tory BBC led media and its owned by rich fascists. English nationalism is going to decide Scotland’s fate next week, founded on this. In or out, English fascist media will only get worse. Look at what they did to Scottish democracy 2014 and The Vow in the Daily Record.

If you press the head, do the jaws open wide?

The sad truth is you’re not convincing anyone rev. They know their behaviour, we know our behaviour and there is an increasing gap between the two!

The journalists and storytellers have become the deceivers of us and themselves.

Spot on and some drawing.

My gf brought a p&j into the house.

It’s just as bad but hides behind a twee whiney cringey exterior.

It really is a creepy uncle tam of a paper, I bracket it with the Sunday post. Disgusting submissive deference.

As for the rest if them….

Needless to say the p&j that befouled this house was ejected forthwith!

Mealer, re alternative ways of reading death announcements other than newspapers, try
Iannounce.co.uk

Looking at Rev Stu’s first comment, if you walked into somebody’s bedroom and found those articles pinned on the wall, you’d immediately jump to the conclusion you’d found the proverbial whack-job serial killer who was fixated on his target and stalking them for months.

All penned by the Daily Express??? How can that be allowed when we’re supposed to have laws to prevent incitement to hate and victimize vulnerable people? Makes me sick.

How about helping out these guys www(dot)pocketmags(dot)com/iscot issue 1 is free to download

Your drawing has beautiful detail, Chris. Still think Hamish would beat the beast in a square go, though.

Thanks(?) for the tabloid montage, Rev. None of that rubbish would have been out of place in Der Stuermer, really.

What a state we’re in…

Personally I had no idea the Daily Express had quite so many rabble rousing hate preaching front pages.

Freedom of the press? If society wishes to aspire to decency, there have to be limits of behaviour imposed. We accept all sorts of limits on what is acceptable in our lives. Why not with the gutter press?

I read a while back that journalists abroad when asked about UK newspapers judged that he Express was not a newspaper but a propaganda sheet.

Along with Wings, try supporting the new media www(dot)pocketmags(dot)com/iscot we are trying to make a difference but without active support you won’t see the change you hanker for.

Switched radio shortbread on this morning and listened to bits on and off. Who was the person bemoaning the modern press and deploring social media?

I also heard McColm and Marianne (didn’t catch her last name) reviewing the papers. McColm was spinning like a top trying to weave his own narrative onto the possibility of an Indyref 2 if the Brexit happens. It would appear he believed his own guff that Nicola had shelved an Indyref 2 and now he is pissed that she clearly hasn’t. He didn’t say “How very dare she”…but I knew he wanted to 🙂

To be honest though I think the shooting of Cox may have spiked Brexit despite Leave being in the lead and having the momentum up until that point.

And so it goes on…

With a complete lack of insight Euan McColm pens an ‘ ode to what never was’ in his search for his ‘country’.

A country where people do not have disdain for the ‘free’ press. A press that was free to write whatever they wanted, tap phones and ignore the effects of any Govts policies.

Where’ bad nationalism doesn’t compete with other nationalism’ , it just imposes a ‘flag ‘ on everything , turns up the volume of Land of hope and Glory (Rule Britannia is optional) and insists every British television programme is branded ‘ The Great British sewing bake off, dancing , all drawing half hour of dross.

The complete lack of insight by him is scary.

He hit Twitter every night to retain his vision of his country, he ( unlike most of us ) is in a position to shape the( for want of a better word)narrative and now bleats he wants ‘ his ‘ country back.

No he got what he wanted , in fact went out of his way to get what he wanted but now complains , that’s not really what he meant .

Well we all have to live with what he wanted, that’s democracy. The scary thing is he still doesn’t get it. A someone said in a previous post the media and establishment unleashed the furies, yet the likes of Mr McColm does exactly what some journalists always do- expect us to take responsiblity for them .

This is ‘your’ country Mr McColm , I campaigned and voted for something else .

“Don’t blame the Gators”, says Simon Jenkins. It’s the online community who sow fear and hate.

“It is beyond argument that digital media – long unchallenged as a boon to mankind – has brought real evils in its train, including the persistent anonymous harassment of Cox and other public figures. In some respects, it has taken British politics back to the hysteria of Dickens’ Eatanswill. It has licensed attitudes once kept under wraps in the home, pub and club. It has liberated the sick to persecute the good. When social media turns antisocial, some policing regime is urgently needed.”

link to archive.is

Someone on the Andrew Marr show this morning gave reference to a Bashful Brexiter….. Is this a similar idea to the Shy Tory’s of last year??

Nice one Chris,
So its the migrants who are bankrupting the YOO K??
And there was me thinking it was consecutive PARASITE governments in the “CITY” who were responsible, along with the city boy bankers, and the troughers who HAVE robbed us blind for generations, the list would be too long to name them all, but we know who they are.
Message to the troughers “the games up”
The European union is not perfect, but I am proud to be a Euro Scot, than a Brit Scot.
As far as I can see there are more elderly Brit Nats coming up from the “shires”, to get free prescriptions than migrants coming to Scotland who are in genuine need of help.

Roy, McColm & their Twitter chum Spanner belong to a small club of sneering, blinkered & often vicious Unionists, which BBC Scotland uses to help broadcast its Rule Britannia, Johnny Foreigner, No Surrender propaganda.

If you listen to any of the BBC’s alleged news programs, especially in Scotland, it’s like watching a Joseph Goebbels tribute band with Reich Minister of Propaganda, Ken MacQuarrie pulling the strings in the background.

Quite when this demonic period in Scottish history will end is uncertain, but I thank God for bringing us Leonard Kleinrock.

link to computerhope.com

Wee Alex says: at 10:00 am
“The only thing I could agree with him is that there were individuals in the BBC who were sympathetic to Independence”

Aye Alex but they keep themselves well hidden.

I’m still wondering why Laura Bicker and James Cooke were moved to the USA so rapidly after the referendum. If you want a plumb job at the BBC, Washington DC and Los Angeles have to be two of the best postings going. It was either to reward them or to keep their traps shut.

“When social media turns antisocial, some policing regime is urgently needed.”

Quite Capella, Jenkins can’t accept the role of the mainstream press in unleashing the dogs of intolerance and racism, so he blames the symptoms.

His quotation is music to the ears of The Establishment. They don’t really care about the frothing abuse on Twitter or Facebook: it’s political sites like this one which worries them.

They hate T’Internet because they can’t control it but don’t worry, they’re working on it.

@Handandshrimp. 10.40

‘To be honest though I think the shooting of Cox may have spiked Brexit despite Leave being in the lead and having the momentum up until that point.’

Agree,this ref will likely be decided by the ‘don’t knows’ and it is difficult to imagine many wishy washy’don’t knows’ wanting to vote on the same side as a right wing murderous terrorist,so it’s a done deal for Remain IMO.

The only thing which could swing it the other way would be some incident perpetrated by a ‘non Brit’,God forbid.

To those commenting on Kenneth Roy’s ‘performance’ on radio.

Read the fantastic Peter A Bell’s blog on Kenneth Roy :

Written on 23 October 2015

Entitled ‘Kenneth Roy is a f***ing bladder’!

Peter A bell says it as it is and says it f***ing well.

Peter A Bell….different class .

And they nearly went to war over Murphy’s egg.

@Almannysbunnet says: 19 June, 2016 at 11:18 am:

” … Aye Alex but they keep themselves well hidden.”

No, Almannysbunnet, it is the BBC, (Biased Broadcasting Clique”, who keeps them well hidden. Just look at what they did to the best overall broadcasting journalist they had. Where now is that absolutely brilliant broadcaster Izzie Fraser now?

I believe the keep her in a broom cupboard down in the basement area of Pathetic Quay and trot her out at non-peak times to speak on radio occasionally.

What a waste of a great talent – but that’s the Establishment’s Propaganda Wing for you BAD, BIASED, BIGOTED AND BRITISH to the core.

BTW: I’m expecting Andie Murray to be very British, and very certainly a non-Scot, later today after he appears on the BBC sports programme later today.

OT – kind of, though its all joined up – found this on Peter A Bell’s twitter feed. Hilarious but true. A brief analysis of the Tory party.

:large

Brian Powell says:
19 June, 2016 at 11:34 am
heedtracker

Which individuals in the BBC were sympathetic to Independence?

None. I was answering an earlier comment that there are some in Pacific Quay. If there is any, they’re very good at camouflage.

link to archive.is

One of the most ferocious toryboys around wails in NOT nationalist frustration.

Jump in anywhere

“I want my country back from those who want us to return to the days when it was okay to joke about “darkies” and “poofs”. I want my country back from those who conceal their hatred beneath a cloak cut from “legitimate concerns”.
I want my country back from anyone who feeds hatred.”

“I want my country back from cynics who say that all politicians are crooks and liars. I want my country back from weasels who say that only the politicians with whom they agree may be exempted from this judgment”

Another UKOK tory attack propagandist lashes out at anyone at all that just will not vote how he tells us to.

Nice man at the Graun Nick Cohen says

“If you love your country, or even just think it is not such a bad place, do not hand it to sly men who betray the best of the English, while seeking to incite the worst in us.”

From the same NOT Britnat crew that asked the same best of the English

link to wingsoverscotland.com

No amount of rhetoric by anybody is going to MAKE somebody go out and kill somebody else, the guy who did this was bonkers, and that isn’t the rest of us, but elements of the press and Telly will use it for badness just because they can (today I care, tomorrow who gives a fuck)
and that’s the difference between most of us and most “Journalists”

Unfortunately Scotland is infested by these so called “Journalists” who. in truth have no position on anything except causing as much pain and trouble as they can get away with and then get paid for it

The pomposity of them beggars belief in their control of the press and TV, setting themselves up and presenting as if to be impartial observers of the political landscape with their mocking sarcasm of those who would dare to dissagree with their lofty opinions

We, on Wings while not wordsmiths (most of us) attempt to express our thoughts in the best way we can and we don’t always get everything right but I would rather peruse the opinions of people who make their agenda plain and set it out the best way they can than read the the blatant distortions and corruption of a money for words motivated set of “Journalists” with no moral or civic responsibility

I live in hope that the other half of our society wakes up as this half have, then perhaps actual journalism might have a place in our country before the current crop destroys any chance of that happening in the future

Journalism can and should be a positive thing and we need it to be, but we don’t NEED what we’ve got now

How about creating Cuddly Toy versions of Hamish which would not only appeal to kids but would look good on the rear parcel shelves of cars.

‘Within the US, Britain and other countries that are becoming more unequal…Racism becomes more acute…Calls for more border controls to keep immigrants become shriller…The ways in which we monitor ,affirm and citizenship and concern via border controls are closely linked to levels of inequality’ Dorling ‘Unequal Health’

Sentiment that is also whipped up by the toxic rhetoric of a political elite with dubious intent and reinforced through the headline statements of an equally toxic MSM that hides the complexity of a multi-layered debate in misleading, morally repugnant headlines.

A political elite that has deliberately pursued an economic model that has produced UKOK’s low wage economy and precariat class is now telling us that leaving the EU will result in a reversal of UKOKs 3 decades of zombie economic policy and revision of a deeply engrained political philosophy of entitlement and privilege for the few.

The OECD team of economists tells it as it is- the types of the political choices made here have resulted in the inequality divide driven primarily by lower unionisation, lower employment protection(i.e. increasing precariousness of temporary work) lower unemployment compensation, less distributive taxation and product markets deregulation.

link to oecd.org

Scotland should send a very strong message to Brexit and remain in the EU. Scotland has a track record of running a measured, inclusive educational campaign and will do so again regarding the EU but with the caveat of being an independent country.

Louis.b.argyll… Not a single word in your post do I disagree with… And it will be hard to defend Europe among crying crocodiles that want to see democracy trivialised and debate stifled. But right now, we have a chance to help them water the plants with their tears.

If crocs really are now against Brexit, if they want to uphold the highest ideals of what Europe needs to become (one of which was the basis of the Edinburgh International Festival) then we need to make them walk that walk, and I’ll go hand in hand with any of them on that.

@Dr Jim (1.02)

Hear hear.

It’s not called ‘the fourth estate’ for nothing.

Edmund Burke, referring to the Reporters Gallery in the House of Commons, is reputed to have said, ‘Yonder sits the fourth estate, more important than them all.’
…
‘The gallery [in the Commons] where the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.’ Lord Macaulay: Hallam (1828)
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (2004, p. 462)

For those who mention the map of Scotland in the weather maps.
Try this.link to flickr.com

Joe of the Coutts says:
19 June, 2016 at 1:58 pm
For those who mention the map of Scotland in the weather maps.
Try

The Space agency blurb’s not bad

“The Scottish Highlands at the tip of the United Kingdom appear light brown, representing bare soil and rock formations, with some vegetation.”

That bare soil and rock formations was, up until the 1707 union, the great Caledonia forest, giant Scots pines, oaks etc. As soon a Wade’s roads got going after Culloden, in conjunction with giant military out posts like Fort George, the Caledonia forests were cut down and used to build the English navy, the one that won at Trafalgar. All the rest of Scotland’s forests were used for Victorian mining pit props and railway sleepers.

Today that bare Highland soil is kept bare for the blood sports industry, all kept clear of any life with vast yearly fires, to allow a few rich and their guests that clear shot at grouse and deer.

There was even a huge rain forest running down Scotland’s west coast, all gone for rule Britannia.

It is Glamaig an excellent article, I keep reading ‘Cornwall’ as ‘Cromwell’…sooner this is over the better…think my tether has reached it’s end with this ugly and badly campaigned EngIndyRef1 (think that should be the hash tag too). Neal Ascherson’s article is the only straightforward and well reasoned piece I’ve read about any of it that makes any kind of sense.

Boris Johnson in favour of Remain in 2013:

link to facebook.com

BBC had some Old crocks on this morning……. Euan McColm, and Kenneth Roy…… Puke from start to finish….. Had forgotten what a waste of Oxygen Roy is. Thanks to the Beeb for providing the public service…… Then McColm completed the propaganda blitz on the Scotland. They are getting worse with every passing week.

O/T Election expenses in Lothian region printed in Herald

link to archive.is

link to heraldscotland.com

THE Scottish LibDems are facing questions over a potential breach of election spending rules in one of their five Holyrood seats.
The party is under pressure to explain its figures in Edinburgh Western, which was won from the SNP last month by Alex Cole-Hamilton.
Newly released files show the MSP only scraped under the legal spending limit by attributing thousands of pounds of leaflets and office costs to his party’s regional list fight in the Lothians instead of counting it toward his constituency costs.
Identical leaflets showing Cole-Hamilton were split between the regional and constituency totals, even those about specific neighbourhoods in Edinburgh Western.
A third of Cole-Hamilton’s office costs were also ascribed to the regional contest, despite the official agent for the list being based outwith the seat at party HQ.

As someone points out Since the major theme of all Cole-Hamilton’s never ending leaflets over the election period was a vitriolic attack on the Edinburgh West constituency MP Michelle Thomson ( not fighting the election, and not in the SNP) , it is extremely hard to see how they could be attributed to the regional rather than constituency costs. It was a disgraceful campaign, and he should not get away with any possible pauchling of his expenses.

‘England’s Dream’

”If you’re still in shock at the end of a gruesome week about both the personal and political implications of Jo Cox’s murder, and hoping it might be a trigger to some better politics, this may be a disappointing read. None of the likely scenarios is going to bring forth a period of calm, a settled will or a landscape of progressive politics, certainly not a British level. A Remain vote is likely to be slim and contested, with a bitter aftermath. A Leave vote is likely to be highly traumatic and signal a further constitutional crisis.

If Ian Jack (and others) are right (‘Scotland’s Europhilia stands between Cameron and catastrophe’) then Scotland may save the (European) Union. He writes: “If David Cameron wins on Thursday by the narrowest of margins, he may well owe his salvation to his old enemies in the north. They will tilt the balance. So much of his own side is on the other side, working for his defeat… If it happens, British political history will be hard pushed to furnish a bigger irony.

You can’t imagine this scenario going down calmly with the far fringes of the Out Brigade, some of whom find little difficulty transferring bile and bigotry from Poles to Jocks in their efforts to ‘take back their country’……..

Secondly as O’Toole explains: “Hardly anyone is even talking about England – all the Brexit arguments are framed in terms of Britain or the UK, as if these historically constructed and contingent entities will simply carry on regardless in the new dispensation.” And this is an ongoing problem, the inability for people outwith or within Britain to distinguish between Britain and England. This is in part out of a sense of propriety openly displayed during the Scottish referendum in the kind of language used about Scotland, but it’s also about a sense of innate settled continuity….

If commentators are right – and Labour canvassers are witnessing on the doorsteps what their northern comrades did two years ago, ie an extinction level collapse of the Labour vote, then the problem may not be the failure of an elusive English nationalist movement to make sense of itself. The problem may be that morphing into something far worse.”

link to bellacaledonia.org.uk

Fantastic toon, with visual impact, and no words needed.

As the day goes on, it’s becoming even more fitting.

@K1
That Neal Ascherson is a good piece, but the one thing I can’t get to grips with is why those on the far right, and I’m talking on the lower rungs, don’t understand who is causing their anguish or rage at wages, housing etc.

The types you see in Britain First protests, are hardly rolling in cash, and yet they are engaging in politics, albeit in a bigoted way, but they don’t have a clue as to where the decisions are taken.

Nicola called out the Sports Direct guy in our Parliament as acting illegally, by not paying the minimum wage. No one cares.

It’s Brussels fault.

There is a huge right wing movement down south at working class level, but they have no idea where power lies. Maybe they don’t care, but by putting their idols in charge, their lives will deteriorate.

I can’t fathom it.

link to orcadian.co.uk

Orkney readers at 60% Out. Taking back control from the EU seems very popular. Alistair Carmicheal’s LibDem’s did well in Orkney too as we know, regardless of what Carmicheal actually is.

They are really just (false) alligators. 🙂 But like many real crocodiles they are in De Nile.

Speaking of crocodiles. Jakey Rowlen has come out for remain.

“They are really just (false) alligators. 🙂 But like many real crocodiles they are in De Nile.”

Oh, Chic, has it come to this?

You’ll feel so ashamed in the morning…

😉

Haha Jakey Rowling for remain? Fo u think its got anything go do with the sales of the Hary Potter books in European countries?? She does the right thing when it suits her!

Artyhetty says:
19 June, 2016 at 5:58 pm
Re;heedtracker@2.31

I tried to transfer the comment but they need a yahoo account which I don’t have. If you do, cut n paste!

Just reading Euan McColm’s piece in the SOS and the gushing praise from all manner of British Nationalists on twitter.

I cannot but feel I have strayed into some kind of other dimension devoid of all self awareness.

McColm, poor oppressed soul dislikes this broad swathe of humanity (a solid majority of leave supporters combined with largely remain supporting Scottish Nationalists). He puts all his enemies together tortuous conflating them in one long toy chucking exercise.

In doing so, he apparently represents the lacking in self-awareness anti-Scottish British Nationalist remain supporter. He hates Scottish Nationalists and the very wolves the SNP are trying to protect Scotland (and in this vote, the UK) from.

There is a bit of vague stuff about those who feed hatred, which to me could only mean journalists like himself, but surely that is not his target. Critics of the press are in his sights too: those who criticise the press and presumably McColm in particularly are hateful too.

One gets the feeling from all the “I want my country back from…” that really what McColm wants is the status quo ad infinitum. He is a status quo extremist as the status quo has served his class of British Nationalist journalist very well.

Anyone who votes leave can fuck off. Anyone who votes remain can fuck off if they also want to remove Scotland from the influence of the likes of Johnson, Gove and for that matter Cameron and Osborne.

I want, I want says a guy whose clique still has the most powerful platform to firm opinion in Scotland.

He doesn’t want brexit: I get that but if it is to be avoided it will be thanks in part to the very people he and his gang of right wing journalists have demonised, ridiculed and misrepresented for years. A thank you would have been common courtesy.

Just watching Question Time. That audience really, really, does not like immigration. It seems to be all they are interested in.

@Tam Jardine,

Well said Tam. It was self serving and self indulgent. All that matters to Mr McColm is what he thinks.It would not matter a jot what others think or if proof positive was laid at his door which disproved his beliefs.He is inflexible and not open to anything which contradicts his narrative and view of the world.

I hope unemployment awaits him in the near future.

betting odds on Remain starting to shorten again.. does anybody know how this works? how do they calculate the odds? is it purely a function of where the punters have put their money?

The money on Leave is overwhelmingly small bets from a large number of punters, whereas a smaller number have put their money on Remain, but some of those bets are huge. Is this what happened in Indyref?

Bob Mack

Perhaps it is meant to be an ironic satire? How to write an anti-nationalist opinion piece using the phrase “I want my country back…” no fewer than 11 times.

Well- Scotland isn’t his country- it is ours- his mine and all of ours. And until the union finally severs the UK is our country too- his, mine, it belongs in part even to Nigel Farage!

I disagree with many of the sentiments of the leave campaign but it takes a special kind of person to force me to defend their right to their views.

Was he stamping his feet when he wrote that piece? I have witnessed some tantrums and tears today but nothing from my bairns as petulant.

One can only shake one’s head, smile and reflect: “he must be tired”

Heedtracker @ 1:58

Worse than that in environmental terms was that the Caledonian Pine forest was perhaps a unique environment and if still there today would be a world heritage site, if thats the right expression for globally unique environment.
There is a belt of coniferous forest right around the world on the same latitude as Scotland; through Europe, Siberia and Canada etc, however only Scotlands pine forest was kept warmer and wetter than these other forests which suffered bitter freezing in winters, all thanks to the same Continental drift which prevents our ports becomming ice bound in Winter.
Scotlands forests were thus unique. Our own wee bubble, thoroughly irreplacable, even if the trees came back.

“all thanks to the same Continental drift which prevents our ports becoming ice bound in Winter.

Actually that would be the North Atlantic Current which does that, bringing warm water up from the Gulf Stream.

Continental drift is the extremely slow movement of the tectonic plates that carry continents over geological timescales.

Onwards says:

“British/English Nationalists who refuse to see that they are nationalists”

It is the huge paradox of the UK constitutional debate that the only ‘nationalists’ to be openly recognised are Scottish Indy supporters and Northern Irish Republicans. Yet Westminster, the London Parties, their politicians, the media, and the Establishment absolutely ouse nationalism of the dark ‘we are better than everyone else’ type.

IMO this is because British/English Nationalists are soooo nationalistic and full of exceptionalism that they actual believe they represent the perfect state and everyone else deviates. Nationalism is something everyone needs to turn to, never them.

We’ve got politicians diving around trying to claim the moral high ground, “Journalists” jumping on the bandwagon attempting to prove they’ve got a soul while all of them are trying to use weasel words to screw the blame into the other guy

They make me spew, the lot of them and it’s no wonder north and south of the border they’re being found out for the lying scumbags they are, and I’m sorry but all this garbage about coming in to politics to do some good just sounds like a bad scene with Kevin Costner in the Untouchables

If all of these peoples representatives really felt so bad about what happened they’d have kept their big mouths shut except to say how sorry they were, but they can’t leave it at that can they, and the “Journalists” poke and prod, dig and rake for a headline, any headline will do just as long as they can get air time

The guy that did this terrible thing was a bampot mental case and I’m not defending any party here but it was the fault of the murderer not anybody else’s
This guy could have been set off by a Save the Budgies Campaign or Worms must Live in Freedom, it just happened to be the worst thing at the worst time for this young woman or it could have just as easily been anybody else for any other reason

Now we’ve got reclaim the internet idiots and politicians blaming the Scottish referendum and just a constant succession of “It’s no me it’s them I’m the good wan” but what it all comes down to in the end is they’ll want the freedom of speech being given back to those who the powers that be think have the right to speak and not us the public because more and more we’re going to hear it, all blame once again falls on Joe public because the powers that be only came into it…

To help make things better, and we’re fucking it up for them by saying they aren’t, and basically….existing

#Glamaig at 7:58 pm

“betting odds on Remain starting to shorten again..”

I think I know why.. Both sides are as bad as each other

EU citizens and Remain voters watching the PM’s performance on QT tonight must have thought they had switched on to a QT programme about the Leave campaign.

People who were intending to vote Remain for the status quo will be scratching their head at the PM’s response to questions..

For example, in response to a member of the QT audience, the PM revealed that his under his reformed EU all those highly valued EU citizens, and huge contributors to the UK economy will be excluded from claiming benefits for a 4 year period after arrival until.. 2024!

He confirmed there would be no safety net for families and that they would have to return to their own country, if for whatever reason they are no longer able to work and support themselves.

I will be abstaining on Thursday, as I refuse to give the Tories a mandate for their draconian reformed EU package, which is nothing more than Leave Lite.

But after his QT appearance, all the EU citizens living in the UK, and following the referendum in Europe will be thinking a plague on both their houses..

This whole EU campaign has been one unmitigated disaster in PR campaigning and moral standards. But I swear …I see one more person typing up ‘…we survived before the EU; we can do so again’ …I’m going to punch my monitor!

I’ve seen this a few times now; the ‘…we survived before the EU; we can do so again’. The simple truth is …no, we didn’t. As I keep reading in history books, and I’m sure many of you have heard the phrase, as have all ‘Leave’ campaigners, that Britain in the late 60’s and early 70’s was known as ‘the sick man of Europe’, and that is a fact.

Britain was bankrupt; had continual strikes; blackouts; piss-poor trading in exports and the living standards were the lowest in North-North-Western Europe. We joined the EEC to improve trade and to raise our living standards to equal that of Germany.

And make no bones about it …should we leave, then this will also be a fact (which has been stated by the ‘Leave’ campaign), that there will be a recession; trade will drop; prices will rise and living standards will falter. That is what awaits us. So …when you read someone’s Facebook entry of ‘…we survived before the EU; we can do so again’, then just remember that it is factually untrue, and that the consequences of voting out, will change everything.

And should we leave and it all turns into a dogs dinner that in the end, we decide to re-join, then the UK can forget about all their unique treaties they have with the EU such as keeping Sterling; being excluded from Schengen; control of immigration and anything else that has been negotiated just for the UK. Should we re-apply, the EU will make sure that these terms will never again be allowed on the table, and that if we do join, it will be on ‘their’ terms and their terms alone …and that is also a fact.

mr thms – whichever way it goes, England is going to become even more right-wing authoritarian, either because Brexit has won, or because they still have to be appeased.

Its hard to imagine, but Cameron and Osbourne are the ‘moderates’. There’s no-one to replace them who isn’t even more right wing.

I try not to think of it as giving Cameron my vote. It’s more like hold your nose, and think of Scotland.

The North Atlantic Drift is another name for the North Atlantic Current, and neither is anything to do with Continental Drift.

@ JLT – I agree that Britain was known as the sick man of Europe before we joined the EU. But the factor that changed that around was the oil revenues, not our membership of the EU.
It is a case of “post hoc ergo procter hoc”. Just because something happens after an event doesn’t mean that that event was the cause.
The UK has had billions of £s of oil revenuies to invest in infrastructure projects in London and the South East which have transformed their economy. The transforming factor was the oil revenues, not membership of the EU. IMO

Breeks says:
19 June, 2016 at 8:13 pm
Heedtracker @ 1:58

But that area from space that’s light brown, representing bare soil and rock formations is a vast area of shooting estates that make a lot of money. They dont pay tax and they get a lot of EU subsidy cash.

Everyone from the royals to the Daily Heil editor’s got a Scottish shooting estate. Everything is wiped out by a man with a box of matches and few oily rags and miles and miles of life gets scorched. When dudes like Prince Charles waffle away about saving the planet, take a walk round his Highlands and see the environmental catastrophe necessary for blood sportsmen like him.

Why this is tolerated is just another teamGB mystery but its a grotesque display of who really owns and runs the UK.

link to bbc.co.uk

link to bbc.co.uk

link to bbc.co.uk

Dr Jim

Freedom of speech is a worthy concept and McColm holds it up like a shield. What we in Scotland have suffered from is a complete imbalance in the freedom of speech. Really what he is talking about is freedom to project and for others to listen, freedom to be spoken to.

I try and impart what little wisdom I have but as long as we have a foreign owned press and an externally controlled state broadcaster my freedom of speech extends to people I talk to face to face and anyone who reads my comments on wings.

Your average independence supporter may have the same freedom of speech as Euan McColm but he has a freedom to project said speech. If my ability to project my freedom of speech is curtailed by my politics then do we truly have the same freedom?

It will take a more generous man than me to pity his freedom of speech.

And so the yoons consume from one another and pass it down the line, regurgitated and semi digested like some ghastly media-centipede.

Poor Euan feels the sand shifting and he doesn’t like being stuck in the middle with only some vague idea of what was to keep him warm.

Maybe that positive case for the union can keep the awful reality at bay… that elusive mirage we all heard of but nobody has actually seen never mind talked of.

Aye Jim- I’m a longwinded bastard on this site but the bottom line is we need out of this ridiculous union.

@ Ian Brotherhood
tomorrow is the summer solstice and I plan to sit up late and light a fire. After that I don’t really care about the EU ref. I’ve posted my Remain vote.
If Stu wants to go for a stroll I’ll certainly enjoy the pix.

Then on the 24th we can celebrate the battle of Bannockburn. Apt I think.

@Paula Rose –

It’s come to a sorry pass when even evil Cybernat controllers can’t make their minds up about stuff.

Some of us require direction, especially when Michelle Mone hasn’t even said anything. Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m all at sixes and sevens and beside myself…

Capella says:

“The UK has had billions of £s of oil revenuies to invest in infrastructure projects in London and the South East which have transformed their economy.”

Definitely. Where is Scotland’s Oil Fund? In the M25 and Channel Tunnel.

A year or so ago some fool suggested that UK funded infrastructure projects in Scotland should have shield and Union Flag proclaiming that WM had paid for them. That died once it became clear that WM doesn’t actually finance much infrastructure in Scotland.

Got to be a late night edition of “Strollin’ wi Stuey” then!

@Paula Rose –

Aha!

Now there’s a thought…

@Xaracen says: 19 June, 2016 at 8:40 pm :

… Actually that would be the North Atlantic Current which does that, bringing warm water up from the Gulf Stream.

I’ll tell you something else about it, Xaracen, it is potentially one of Scotland’s future power sources.

Both the cold water that heads away across the Atlantic and the warm, (Gulf Stream), that returns from warmer climes are 24/7/365 current flows that could drive a great many turbines.

In truth Scotland’s potential for future power is immense. We have Hydro, (both natural and pumped storage), wave motion, tidal flow, sea currents, many firths with potential for tidal flow barrages. There are also the many fast and prolific flowing fresh water Scottish rivers emptying into the sea that could also be utilised.

Then there are vast reserves of, “Fire Ice”, more correctly, “Methane Hydrate”. This is found as ice crystals which contain natural methane gas locked inside.

Methane Hydrides are formed by a combination of very low temperatures and high pressures. They are found mainly on the edges of continental shelves where the seabed suddenly drops sharply away into deep ocean floors.

There are vast Methane Hydride reserves west of Shetland and thus they are in Scottish Waters.

All this without even counting the wind turbines but the potential Daddy of them all is probably those two 24/7/365 sea currents to and from the Atlantic that flow round parts of Scotland’s coasts.

Yep, I’ll go with the special night-time edition of Strollin’ wi Stuey.

Wouldn’t it be funny to discover that Sir David Dimbleby is having to host all these major debates, but doesn’t actually know which side he should be supporting?

That would, surely, make him genuinely impartial, or horribly confused…

Is it possible to be both?

This talk is interesting, by a prof at Liverpool Uni, on law a d the EU etc.

link to yeswecan.scot

Arthetty @ 12.47

I watched that video earlier this evening and it is well worth a watch even if almost 25 mins long.

My MP’s sister also posted it on FB after I had seen it.

@Dr Jim

Mr Cox’s troubles were widely reported in the tabloids last year, so there is obviously a veil drawn out of respect for his wife.

The Justgiving page now stands at over £800k, the target has been increased again to £1M. It’s nice that these friends set up the page within 5 hours of Ms Cox death, to provide an outlet for public grief.

As I’ve said, nothing would induce me to contribute to the White Helmets.

I also got a rather tacky begging e-mail from one of the other beneficiaries, Hope not Hate, ensuring I was aware and giving me the link.

Mr Cox has also helpfully tweeted out the fundraising link.

It’s all incredibly organised.

Or even, SEPARATION, dang!