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Wings Over Scotland


They are legion

Posted on July 12, 2014 by

Alert readers may recall a piece two months ago when we gently mocked the No campaign’s comical claim to have “more boots on the ground than its nationalist opponents. An article in the Telegraph suggested that “Better Together” could deploy 30,000 grassroots activists to knock doors and hand out leaflets paid for by millionaire Tory lords, with the largest troop concentrations in the key battleground of Glasgow.

toryglen

Right, just 29,994 left to find.

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BigRik

Their next meeting is in an all seater stadium, they’ve got a 3 piece suite 🙂

Lesley-Anne

Well looking at the two photos that’s 5 for NO and about 30 for YES. So working on these figures I’d say that if NO are putting out 30,000 *ahem* foot soldiers then YES must be putting out 180,000 foot soldiers. 😛

Oh wait a minute I forgot to count the NO foot soldier who took the photo so that is 6 for NO and still 30 for YES. Looks like we might be in a wee bit of trouble then cause that means with NO having 30,000 on the ground we only have 150,000 on the ground. 🙂

turnip_ghost

3:54am that Better Together, No thanks! tweet was posted…almost like they want nobody to see it…

Angus McLellan

Three-piece suite, BigRik? Take away the MPs, MSPs, councillors, SPADS, bag-carriers and wannabes and a three-piece suit would do to hold the Ordinary People[tm].

Alistair Walker

Well done rev, nothing gets by you, you even counted the photographer,

Dinnatouch

Someone on my Facebook timeline linked the Better Together event finder the other night.

The system lets you put in a postcode and select up to a 100 mile radius to see what’s going on. As an experiment, I entered a postcode in Aberfeldy, from where a 100 mile radius takes in most of the population of Scotland.

There were a grand total of 239 ‘events’ listed in the ten weeks till the referendum, 69 of which were telephone canvasses. Those boots don’t seem to be made for walking.

Lesley-Anne

Well to be fair they do seem to have improved their recruitment policy from the one when they were going to be handing out 500,000 leaflets at Scotland’s railway stations. 😛

Bugger (the Panda)

Lesley-Anne

31 for Yes so, 155,000 by Danny Alexander’s purloined calculator.

Clootie

….but the have the BBC and almost all of the MSM.
We need the activists to win votes. They only need to scare and hold their existing vote.

Labour will bus up tens of thousands from England in the last few days ( that may be worth a few thousand YES votes 😀 )

Bugger (the Panda)

I take it back, the photographer takes all the photos for the No side so in fact your first figure was closer to reality and as we know everybody in Yes has a camera and we have probably about 186,000 Yessers.

Slow day at the Office.

Bugger (the Panda)

Time stamps look OK to be.

I am using Firefox?

Chris Darroch

@BigRik LOL.

Loved that one.

Peter

link to theguardian.com

Is it the same one who took part in the staged photo-opportunity some months ago? They must be getting a bit tired from having to fill in for real people all day long.

JPFife

I’ve just finished a canvassing session where we had a dozen or so Yessers going round knocking on the doors of a small town in Fife. (The final tally was about 43% Yes 27& no)

R-type Grunt

29,994 unless they have a tripod and self-timer.

Lesley-Anne

Thought I’d follow your example Dinna and I checked out the BT planned *ahem* events for my area and came across this one.


Better Together Campaigning – Dumfries Street Stall
19 Jul 2014 00:00 GMT+01:00
Dumfries High Street (Dumfries, Dumfries & Galloway)
On Saturday 19th July Better Together activists are going to be out in Dumfries High Street. We will be meeting at 12 noon and will be spending an hour holding a street stall, signing up people for the campaign and delivering our new leaflets on our positive case for Scotland

Now I have to admit that it didn’t register with me at first that there was anything wrong with this message, then I looked a wee bit closer and there it was staring me in the face! 19 Jul 2014 00:00 GMT+01:00 Now excuse me for being this site’s “village idiot” here but somehow even I know that 00:00 is NOT 12 noon. 😛

Not only is their idea of 12 noon fanciful at the very least but they will be in Dumfries High Street for ONE hour! By my reckoning by the time they have set up the stall and the time they take to dismantle their stall that means they’ll actually be *ahem* spreading the word for around 30 minutes. 🙂

Lesley-Anne

I think you may have counted Nicola in the figures for YES BtP I omitted her. I didn’t think it was fair to count her in the numbers plus it would give NO a bit of a *ahem* fighting chance if we only had 30. 😛

BuckieBraes

The Young People on the left look far too happy. We’re used to seeing the No side characterised by sour, hate-contorted faces.

Perhaps they don’t really know what they are doing, having been duped into spreading the ‘Better Together’ message in the belief it’s some kind of ‘Just Say No’ anti-drugs initiative or such like.

galamcennalath

There are BT people around, but the only ones I’ve seen are Tories. They are genuinely British, and they see nothing wrong with Britain as a whole being ruled by a Tory government. If you don’t see Scotland as anything more than tartan, shortbread and heather, then the idea of Scottish nationhood just passes you by.

I get the definite impression where Labour could get its activists out for an election, those people appear to be sitting this one out. They know the No campaign is being financed mainly by rich Tory backers. Also, grassroots Labour activists are not Unionist by nature, have lost faith in their leadership, and are readily open to Yes persuasion. They don’t appear to be motivated to campaign for No! We need half of them to vote Yes and with any luck, that’s the way half of them are thinking.

Liberals have melted in the glare of coalition.

So my question is, politically, what are those five folks in the photo? Just the usual thin on the ground Tories?

Andy A

Am I right in thinking that the young student types on the left are in fact paid activists ? How many of the 30,000 fall into that camp ?

Lesley-Anne

Andy A says:

Am I right in thinking that the young student types on the left are in fact paid activists ? How many of the 30,000 fall into that camp ?

Erm… 30,000? 😛

Anne

I responded, perhaps foolishly, to an email asking me to join Academics Together by taking issue with many of their arguments. I am still awaiting a response, but I did get another email inviting me to join Blether Together, and be part of the allegedly many thousands who have already signed up. It rather begs the question of why more recruits are needed given the large number they say are ready and willing to cold call undecided voters.

Bugger (the Panda)

LA

Bugger, thrwarted again.

Bugger (the Panda)

thwarted

Bugger!!

John Lind

Better Together campaigning in Toryglen – how fitting.

Democracy Reborn

A BT posse of 5 for the whole of Toryglen? Do you think they’re on double time plus commission for how many leaflets they can deliver?

cynicalHighlander

@BuckieBraes

They get a financial bonus for smiling.

joe kane

Strathclyde Uni Labour Club annual outing to local working class housing schemes for that authentic working class experience.

Always good to see the Scottish Labour Party working class heroes getting subsidised by rich employers, the landed gentry and the British aristocracy to tell the workers in the most deprived housing schemes in Western Europe to vote for Tory policies.

Brian Powell

I have been talking to a German friend about the No campaign, and she have been reading Wings and Newsnet over the last few months.

I asked her how German people would react to being told they couldn’t do it, couldn’t be successful, had been living on handouts etc.

She said the first thing they would feel is insulted, then they would think, so you think so, then just watch us.

Quite a contrast to a good sized chunk of the Scottish population.

reginald

A group of Labour activists were in Cranhill Glasgow on Tuesday delivering a Labour Party Scottish Referendum special newspaper.

galamcennalath

The Joe McCauley who tweeted is Local Campaign Organiser at Better Together, Glasgow. He has been a Local Organiser for Labour.

Linkedin – he seems a decent guy having been a volunteer. He declares, “Causes I care about: Civil Rights and Social Action, Economic Empowerment, Human Rights, Politics, Poverty Alleviation”. Commendable.

Sheesh! Then why the Hell is he involved with BetterTogether and working against Independence!?

Douglas Macdonald

@ Lesley-Anne
By my reckoning on the 24-hour clock, 00.00 is midnight and 01.00 is 1a.m. With little or nothing to offer, it’s hardly surprising they have chosen this unearthly hour to engage with the general public. Consequently, there is nothing to have sleepless nights over.

Democracy Reborn

@John Lind

John,

Don’t be misled by the name. Toryglen is part of a multi-member ward on Glasgow City Council. 2 out of the 4 councillors are SNP. Other 2 are Labour.

The area also has a not insignificant number of Asian Scots. Wonder if the BT posse used the dreaded “foreigners” threat?…

heedtracker

No Thanks Press and journal today gives almost full page to the heroic unionist that promised to give his life for the union, jesus and Gordon Brown on BBC Question Time Inverness Thursday. Huge detail on his speech, which was planned and he’s from Nairn where he held a unionist rally, gave out stuff and sang his own UKOK songs. P&J say as many as ten came along, which means one but still massive north east coverage of well, anyone at all ready to vote no. The guy is a portrait painter, in Nairn, photo of him covered in UKOK badges. I’m scared mummy.

Andrew Parrott

YES Streetwork in Perth today. Our stall was in place before Better Together arrived on the scene and they were gone well before us. We had at least three times as many folk campaigning for YES at and around our stall than they had saying NO THANKS. We were getting a very positive response from a lot of passers by. The NO THANKS stall was somewhat quieter!

cynicalHighlander

Looks like the Gaza demo is going to pay Pacific Quay a we visit.

Rosa Alba Macdonald

Just back from a Yes Stand at Folk Festival (and offered the bit outside my house for a stand every weekend: busy through-fare in tourist area). No No Thanks people.

Local Yes group says they consistently fail to turn out or up (or engage in debates).

We made sure they were represented by putting Grannie Labours BTog badge on a ledge a few feet away. In ine interests of fareness.

Sad they care so little to defend their precious union. We did have three people take away stuff thinking Yes was Yes to the Union. Interesting.

Lesley-Anne

I’m thinking this is how they get round the *ahem* claim that they have thousands of feet on the ground DM. They send them all out at midnight when every one who is *cough* normal is tucked up in bed sleeping. 😛

Training Day

Ah, BT’s ‘grassroots’. Labour NUS types with zero life experience, zilch knowledge of Thatcher, even less knowledge if it were possible of the history of the Scottish nation, and no guiding principle or belief other than that a political career looks a good lifestyle choice.

You might call it the Jim Murphy template.

Les Wilson

Clootie says:

They did that in Quebec,so do not count that out.
Maybe soldiers in civvy’s though.
Also in Quebec, they had airlines offer cheap fares so more no’s could get back cheaply as encouragement to vote no, watch this space?

handclapping

As a good Rev you will probably be expecting us parishoners to know that legion were demons infesting the body living amongst tombs by the sea and to translate that to BTs effect on ordinary Scots living in estates everywhere close to the sea.

What I did was to think on and remember that when cast out the legion infested a herd (2000) of pigs and rushed into the sea and drowned. This cheered me greatly and you can make up your own analogy for that.

But Milliband eating a bacon butty did come to mind

Muscleguy

@R-type Grunt

A wall or piece of street furniture and a bean bag would suffice. No need for a full tripod.

RogueCoder

SAME KIDS IN GLENROTHES!

link to twitter.com

macart763m

I’m getting the impression their grassroots boast might just possibly be a fib. Not that I’d ever doubt BTs honesty (cough), but perhaps some grass seed is required, or a new calculator. I understand Beaker borrowed the last one and never handed it back.

muttley79

@Training Day

Unfortunately, there is a whole crowd of them with the same template. Douglas Alexander was sent to America to be told what to think, a political programming class, where the victim sounds much like a robot, when he/she has emerged from training. Murphy, Sarwar, Curran, Wendy, Brown, Alexander etc all drunk the same New Labour/American enterprise/globalisation kool aid, probably at the same time. It is all just waffle, cliché management speak. Plenty of buzz words and no substance at all.

Proud Cybernat

Oh look–it’s the inFamous Five.

RogueCoder

… and previously on June 26… in “gladgow”
link to twitter.com

SquareHaggis

30,000 boots on the ground = 15,000 postal workers delivering at 1p per copy.

RogueCoder

… and on June 13th in Pollokshields…
link to twitter.com

Edulis

I have a solution to the BTNT no-shows. When the ‘Yes’ team turn up with their stall, they should pack a table and chair together with a sign for BTNT. The empty chair would speak volumes and overcome any reticence from local authorities who want to ensure equal representation.

Defo

Lesley-Anne says:

“Well looking at the two photos that’s 5 for NO and about 30 for YES.”

It’s 6 Lesley-Anne. That’s the camera persons swanky satchel, behind the throng in the pic.

Bugger (the Panda)

It is part of the unpaid, internship training thingy.

Good photos for the cv to replace Kezia when she enobled.

Maybe they are paying to get on the gravy train?

reginald

Further to my post about a Labour Party Scottish Referendum special newspaper being distributed in Glasgow, I see it was printed by Greatledge Printers of Manchester.

RogueCoder

@reginald
“I see it was printed by Greatledge Printers of Manchester.”

A fair point, but not one to read too much into. Print is now highly commoditised due to the rise of internet aggregators like printing.com. Some printing – such as newsprint – is more specialised and there are fewer companies doing it. Any campaign with a restricted war chest will try and get the best bang for buck. So whilst it’s highly desirable to have campaign materials – especially for Yes – printed locally, you have to balance that against the actual number of copies you get to put into voters hands.

Look at it this way – Rev is based in Bath, but he’s still the primary online indyref blog. Where he’s based doesn’t matter, except to a few BritNat trolls who can’t tie their shoelaces without help.

[…] « They are legion […]

YESGUY

BT/NT The gift that keeps on giving.

They really are sad to show only the same few folk at these places. I believed they pay them by the hour (min wage??) These lucky folk are getting a lesson in their own right. They deliver and see YES everywhere . I wonder how many of them will vote NO. The pre-Thatcher folk maybe?

Always brightens up my day to see them campaigning as they are almost ignored. They tried my area and packed in after an hour. They must have been fed up with the reply of “NO Thanks – Feck off”

I expect things to quieten during the C.Games and then we’ll see if they have any boots on the ground . The O.O. doesn’t count does it? Read somewhere they march for no but will vote for YES.

Wee Eck has a couple of weeks rest then we’ll see what he’s kept up his sleeves . I’m going to enjoy the games and canny wait for the run in. We ARE winning.

DaveDee

o/t

re the earlier post about electricity prices going up if we vote yes, just a wee reminder that the Rev had an excellent post about a similar story in April and featured a BBC Interview by John Beattie with Professor Strachan.

Well worth a read :-

link to wingsoverscotland.com

.

seanair

I’ve posted a couple of times about the need to print a special “flyer” on the pensions issue which is being deliberately misinformed by BT, and asking the YES bosses to take action to get the facts to the appropriate voters.
Very pleased today therefore at the YES stall at the foot of of Leith Walk to find such a flyer, which may have been organised by YES Scotland, but is credited to Yes Edinburgh North and Leith.
If it’s the former, hope every branch can get a supply from YES Scotland. If it’s the latter, please speak to YNEL for details.

Roddy Macdonald

I’ve not been able to find out what NCS stands for but they appear to be the bunch tweeting using the hashtag #NCSOnTour, rapidly christened #Famous5GoToScotland, as they all appear to be awfully middle class paid interns at Better Together for the Summer hols.

Anyhoo, since Flower of Scotland will become unsingable without irony klaxons going into overdrive if there’s a No vote, I’ve published Better Together’s re-edit of the lyrics on my blog:

link to logicsrock.blogspot.co.uk

seanair

Forgot to mention that the chap I spoke to claimed that they were getting good canvassing returns in Leith, a cosmopolitan area now. Sounded good!

kininvie

And in Culloden – June 25th. They do get around!

comment image

a2

You do have to admire the wee core team’s dedication though, they certainly get about. Personally I’d make sure to get some of the local activists in the snaps wherever I went… Oh!

alexicon

Am I right in thinking that the young student types on the left are in fact paid activists ? How many of the 30,000 fall into that camp ?

My exact thoughts. They even look like the youngsters who run up and down your local high street asking for donations to several well known charities.
These people are paid activists also.

I visited a ukok stall set up in my local town, Falkirk, a few weeks back there was a ambiguous statement on the bail out of the uk banks on one of their billboards, I’m sure you’ve all seen it.
I pointed out who was in controls of the banks at the time of the crisis and the fact that Scotland would not have been responsible for 95% of the debts, the no volunteer quickly changed the subject onto Alex Salmond backing Fred Godwins takeover of the banking group Ambro?
I calmly said to him that it was Gordon brown and Alistair Darling who used Godwin as a financial advisor and proposed him for a knighthood. The no’er started flapping his arms about and as he walked away said we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Excellent debating from him.
I know this also happened to a few other people who corrected them on their ludicrous claims and it even provoked a response from the no camp who complained of intimidation to YES Falkirk.
So asking a question and correcting it is intimidation in the no camps eyes.
BTW a good few of the people, who I vaguely know, that signed their version of the declaration were knuckledraggers OO members or Rangers supporters.

link to facebook.com

Give them a thumbs up while your there.

JPFife and I am sure Susan from yesterday.

Great to hear you’re getting a positive reaction on the doorstep.
When I’m out and about I usually take some photo copies of handy articles and give these out to some undecided or soft no’s.
Keep up the good work

Danny

I’d also heard that these youngsters were in fact employees who were being sent across the country.Also that their wages weren’t that good either.

BuckieBraes

By the way, what happened to the fragrant Vote No Borders singers (the Flowers of the Forest, or whatever they were called) with their little ditty?

They could always get Mr Nigel off Question Time to sing it for them, in the name of Jesus.

heedtracker

Christ, So same crew everywhere and 5 canvassers makes 30,000 now. Hope the tax man is watching Bliar MacFastpiearm reasonable closely, especially after bettertogether’s months of complaining about YES Scotland getting bigger donations. But if they win though, is HMRC really going to take the trouble.

Andy-B

I wonder if the young folk with the no cards actually know the facts of independence, for surely its been proven beyond doubt, once the facts emerge, a swing to the YES camp, is far more likely. Still as Bob Thomson a Labour man for fifty years said, at least a third of Labour voters are planning to vote yes.

Rosie

Does NCS stand for National Citizen Service?

link to en.m.wikipedia.org

Matt Seattle

@BuckieBraes 12 July, 2014 at 3:56 pm

I had the same question in mind, as I am one of the many in the musical part of the Independence campaign.

The following is on their website and as far as I am aware has remained the same since the site was launched:

“Flowers of Union is a band of musicians who have come together to work with the No Borders Campaign to create a song. It will express the desire, shared by so many, to continue to live in a Scotland that is part of an evolving UK. One with no borders, either physical or psychological.

It is brilliant… and we’re excited to share it with you soon.”

How do they know it is brilliant if no-one’s heard it?

Anyway, if you can’t wait any longer you might check out their opposition –
link to facebook.com

Andy-B

O/T Rev, I do apologise.

I’m pretty sure most of you will be terribly upset, (Tongue in Cheek) to hear this news that IDS, looks like being removed from the Tory cabinet over the debacle surrounding the Bedroom tax, PIP and Universal Credit.

Also going are Sir George Young,and minster without portfolio , (Basically he gets paid for doing nothing) Ken Clarke. David Cameron says he wants to freshen up the cabinet before the next election.

Poor old IDS failed in everything he’s ever attempted, a lowlife of a man who caused countless suffering.

link to dailyrecord.co.uk

scottish_skier

I think I may have found the explanation for this mysterious ‘legion’. From 2007:

link to theguardian.com

A group of 60 world-leading scientists, including the creator of Dolly the sheep, have signed an open letter attacking the Scottish National party’s plans for independence.

Bugger (the Panda)

Matt Settle

I get the feeling that No Borders is a Bertie Wooster type of idea, without Jeeves to give it some sanity and traction.

Bugger (the Panda)

Andy-B

But his stench will remain. He has done his job and will be elevated to become vermin in ermine

Andy-B

Three stabbed and multiple arrests, as Belfast burns to bonfires and Union Jacks, just your average Orange Order parade. Not long now,until the Orange Order march in Edinburgh, against independence.

link to independent.co.uk

Ian MacDonald

No Thanks have opened a campaign office on London Road in Edinburgh. I noticed when they did a leaflet drop that several copies of the same leaflet were posted through my door – a sure sign that someone is being paid low wages to deliver them and is just trying to get rid of as many of the things as possible, without being concerned about how widely they are spreading their message.

schrodingers cat

2nd from right
14,3k
twitter.com/GTMelhuish

George Melhuish @GTMelhuish

Swiftie, Chair of Edinburgh Labour Students, Better Together.

twitter.com/GTMelhuish/status/479719867919380480

Andy-B

@Bugger(the Panda)

That’s right, and no doubt IDS will claim whilst he was head of the DWP, that he and ATOS cured more seriously ill people than a trip to Lourdes. Oh how Bernadette Soubirous, would be turning in her grave.

heedtracker

Quick OT but caught a Guardian CiF about the Scot Trust/Guardian media and their daily monstering of Scotland like this morn, not by Severin Carrell or probably was.

Among several other large businesses, Guardian owns autotrader.com and something funny tax avoidance wise happened to the £500 million in this company among others.

Anyway what you do to avoid any tax probs, is get yourself owned by a Trust and then that Trust does anything it likes with tax as in stashing it offshore, and freeing progressive liberal Guardian news to attack teamGB tax dodgers and monster Scottish democracy/AlicSamin etc.

Its funny how everyone in the yewkay desperate to annihilate even the notion of Scotland running Scotland is at, basically

link to archive.today

schrodingers cat

George Melhuish@GTMelhuish · Jun 14

Anyone know where I can buy an obnoxiously large England flag in Edinburgh?

Murray McCallum

As well as a potential new national anthem should people in Scotland formally vote No to being a national again, I wonder if it will affect the branding of the “Six Nations” in 2015?

“Five Nations & One Region” will take some getting used to.

Andy-B

Not content with blaming Scottish independence with the collapse of just about every civilisation,under the sun, we’re now being blamed for the possible collapse of Northern Ireland, by Ian Paisley Jr and Northern Ireland First Minster, Peter Robinson, according to the Huffington Post. Is there anywhere in the world Scottish independence hasn’t destroyed.

link to huffingtonpost.co.uk

Fiona

@ Andy-B

Of course there is: rUK will go from strength to strength once the millstone that is Scotland is removed. 🙂

heedtracker

@ Andy-B, “a ticking time bomb”.”a reappearance of old demons” drive another wedge into the hearts and souls of people in Ulster.”be unnerving”.

Then the Huffpost journo compiling this frightener says

Jack Sommers (heart sybmol) Become a fan

No thanks Jack, teamGB’s rife with thousands of malicious liar just like you.

Wee folding bike

@Andy-B

Too late…

link to en.wikipedia.org

Juan P

@Andy-B

“Three stabbed and multiple arrests, as Belfast burns to bonfires and Union Jacks, just your average Orange Order parade. Not long now,until the Orange Order march in Edinburgh, against independence.

link to independent.co.uk

Thanks for this. Compare and contrast with the misleading opening paragraphs from the BBC website:

link to bbc.co.uk

Davy

Hud on here, is my “better together, No thanks, Westminster bum material, booklet being hand delivered by that five paid muppets? , because so-far I have not seen any sign of it.

Is it just me or is it my large YES sign on the bedroom window that has delayed the delivery. If those are the only five people working for the (NO’s)they had better get a move on, or I won’t be able to make an informed decsision without my BT-booklet and will have to vote YES regardless.

So-far in my area I have not seen one “BT – NT – WBM” campaigner anywhere, maybe lost, maybe don’t exist?

Greannach

I would swear that the smiling band of Better Together – No Thanks UKOK are also members of that grassroots spontaneous combo called Flowers of the Union. Either that or both sets of bright-eyed Junior Britnatz share that jolly Youth Fellowship appearance. Funny to think these wholesome youngsters are on the same side as bottle smashing Orange Walkers and the creme de la creme of Britain First.

Doug Daniel

Roddy – NCS stands for National Campaign Squad. And they can’t even see why that’s ridiculous…

Grassroots On Demand would seem a more appropriate name.

heedtracker

Just avoid the OO marches. A mate of mine was watching one a couple of years ago from his flat in Glasgow and shook his head at the men in suits and aprons and the ones that saw him drew their figures across their throats.

handclapping

A conversion!

Me: 5.5 would be halfway but I can only do 5 or 6
Him : Put me down for 6 but I’ll probably vote No
(Q2) Oh dear, at the moment I’m a definite Don’t Know. Let me explain (summarised)
I really want it to be No but would Westminster allow any more
And the economy is so confused I don’t blame anyone for being a Don’t Know
But if I vote Yes we can make Scotland so much better
I did say 6 which is on the Yes side? Can I have a badge?

An Aye Right leaflet and 10 mins listening. He got his badge, he’d done a whole lot better at the conversion business than ever I could 🙂

alexicon

…just your average Orange Order parade.

Don’t you mean: just your average no campaigning orange order parade Andy? 🙂

Rosa Alba Macdonald

Interesting worries about immigrants – which I gave the official figures and need to boost tax coffers answer. Found calling the projected immigrants “Guest Workers” helped change attitudes where immigrants has a (unjustified) dependency connotation.
Others worried about Salmond, sadly (who while I like the man enormously, I think should offer to not fun for First Minister post indy but becomne the presiding officer.

Concerns of due representation.

And the last worry – social care for elderly.

Next week Stonehaven Highland Games and Party in the Park on 27th (though I can only manage two hr stints before my boy loses interests).

goldenayr

Heads up from the SiS.

The right wing American backers of the no campaign,have pledged to unleash “Armageddon” a few weeks before the ref.

We all know UKIP is a front for the American right but very few of us realise that they are an all pervasive group funding many extreme viewpoints such as the BNP,NF and Orange Order.

A lot of the trolls we engage on social/news media are paid by these people.

Just thought,if they’re good at it this time then it means they’ve improved since Afghanistan.

HandandShrimp

The No team are fantastically ubiquitous. You would think they might have considered that there was an outside chance that we might notice the same people crop up in picture after picture.

goldenayr

Having a real prob with realtime posts now,not just here but everywhere.

Grouse Beater

If you’re reading,I appreciate and have seen the effects on some folks to which you referred.

This is different.

Andy-B

@Fiona.

That’s right or at least that’s what some think.

@Wee Folding Bike.

Aye good one, its remarkable the state of preservation Saint Bernadette’s, body remained in.

@Juan P

You’re welcome, I read the BBC article early on, and you’re spot on typical BBC propaganda.

@heedtracker

“Ticking Timebomb” indeed, which is heading to Edinburgh on the 13th of September, to protest against independence.

@alexicon.

That’s right Henry Dunbar the head honcho of the Orange Order, has sent down word, to the O/O foot soldiers to vote no.

Andy-B

Here we have a condescending look at what will happen, in an independent Scotland, beginning on the 19th of September,the Economist,just can’t hide its contempt for Alex Salmond.

link to economist.com

cynicalHighlander

OT: again

This is the only report I can find on the BBC.

link to archive.today

Andy-B

@cynicalHighlander.

Maybe this has something to do with it.

link to lfi.org.uk

or maybe this.

link to thejc.com

or possibly this.

link to www2.cfoi.co.uk

Israel has many friends not just the BBC.

cynicalHighlander

@Andy-B

I knew it was fairly widespread but not with that level of establishment support.

DavidB

It looks suspiciously to me like the Yes yoof wing have all gone to Balado for the weekend. I’m surprised Blether Together could find five young people without tickets at all.

john king

“An article in the Telegraph suggested that “Better Together” could deploy 30,000 grassroots activists to knock doors and hand out leaflets paid for by millionaire Tory lords”

They “could deploy 30’000 activists”, they just don’t want to, but they could if they wanted to. 🙂

macart763m

O/T but so worth listening to.

link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com

Great interview with Eddi Reader.

BigRik

o:t but i have noticed less calling the YES side as fascists since the O/O declared for NO… must just be sheer coincidence.No connection at all… move along now, nothing to see here.

Robert Peffers

@Alistair Walker says: 12 July, 2014 at 1:13 pm

“Well done rev, nothing gets by you, you even counted the photographer”.

Has it occurred that they may have asked a passing dog walker, or OAP on a disabled buggy, to take the shot for them?

Robert Peffers

@Bugger (the Panda) says: 12 July, 2014 at 1:16 pm

“31 for Yes so, 155,000 by Danny Alexander’s purloined calculator.”

Turns out the calculator was tested and found to be 100% correct. The fault was found to be a wee dried up splash of black coffee on Danny’s specs.

When wearing the specs Danny thought the wee dried in coffee speck was the decimal point on the calculator. A compoter screen wipe sorted out the problem and now any further, “error”, can be put down to genuine Danny lies – as usual.

Paula Rose

Um, honeys – nae naw thanks at my door, where are they?

Paula Rose

I’ve even helped them by putting up a “I love being ordered by Nobs” sign on my window.

Ken Johnston

I wantto protest at the cropping of the Toryglen Super-Saturday tweet piccy. Ah wisnae in it, being out on the right wing.

If I remember, it was something like 70 of us, Natalie McGarry organiser. And I reckon of the folk I talked to (in the street at the back of the photo) 60-65% were yes.

Springburn next.

Ken Johnston

Or even Want To.

Yesitis

Blair McDougall has tweeted of an upcoming new poll result. If Blair McDougall is tweeting about it, then he will consider it good news for No.

Robert Peffers

@Lesley-Anne says: 12 July, 2014 at 2:10 pm

“I’m thinking this is how they get round the *ahem* claim that they have thousands of feet on the ground DM. They send them all out at midnight when every one who is *cough* normal is tucked up in bed sleeping.”

Ah! I Think I’ve solved it!
Aren’t (ahem!),millipedes nocternal creatures?
;-))

Alistair Grapevine

@Robert Peffers says:- 12/07/2014
Has it occurred that they may have asked a passing dog walker, or OAP on a disabled buggy, to take the shot for them?

I seen a bag behind the crowd, I think any self respecting dog walker would have distanced themselves from them.

goldenayr

john king says
“An article in the Telegraph suggested that “Better Together” could deploy 30,000 grassroots activists to knock doors and hand out leaflets paid for by millionaire Tory lords”

They “could deploy 30’000 activists”, they just don’t want to, but they could if they wanted to. 🙂

Y’forgotten the Kids who’ve been signed up for community service so they can receive benefits?

Most of,if not all the,BT campaigners are bussed in.

TYRAN

There’s a photo of them in that mini bus. Five kids driven all over Scotland to hand out BTs crap as no one else will do it.

I can this being turned into a movie in years to come.

Grouse Beater

“We have iron in our blood, an’ we say, ‘Aye, no bad.’

Hoo haar!

By far the best unwitting trailer for independence renewed is the Irn Bru advert on telly … or is it so innocent?

DocFin

You know you are on the winning side when you read in the Guardian that ‘Belfast calm as 12 July marches begin. Orange Order marches in Northern Ireland begin peacefully despite letter bomb and overnight stabbing and clashes’.

handclapping

@TYRAN
Like with a punch line that we could have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids?

goldenayr

THey might “Be Legion”.

But do they have 4′ high YES billboards at the entrance to every town and village?

Ian Brotherhood

@Docfin –

I can’t locate the clip, but during the Stormont debate mid-week(ish) about the banned parade etc, a Unionist member stated that marching culture is a good thing (and I’m paraphrasing here, but not much) because ‘the kids learn music, and it keeps them off the streets…’.

Seriously.

goldenayr

DocFin

Yeah,the britnats will say anything to look magnanimous.

Ian Brotherhood

@Paula Rose –

‘I love being ordered by Nobs’

That’s a winner, and crying out to be made into a small but tasteful lapel-badge.

Twenty14

@Grousebeater – we wouldn’t want to put this idea in people’s heads would we? 🙂

Ian Brotherhood

Before we get too sniffy about the BTUKOKVNOBNOTHANKS efforts, don’t forget the turnout for the launch of Better Together Kilwinning:

link to assets9.heart.co.uk

Rock

Andy-B,

“Not content with blaming Scottish independence with the collapse of just about every civilisation,under the sun,”

Perhaps the only way now left for them to save their rotten, corrupt union is to cancel the referendum on the grounds that it has been reliably established (by OBR) that 18th September 2014 is the date for the end of the world or the second coming of Jesus!

Robert Peffers

@HandandShrimp says: 12 July, 2014 at 7:04 pm

“The No team are fantastically ubiquitous. You would think they might have considered that there was an outside chance that we might notice the same people crop up in picture after picture.”

Tell me, handandshrimp, do you know how the, “Green Screen”, video/picture technique is done?

I’ll give you an example – you see the Weather Person on TV standing with a weather map behind them that they point at. There is actually no big map in the studio. The person is standing before a green Screen and is looking at a picture on the monitor.

On the monitor they see themselves with a big weather map behind them. Now it is just as easy to have them standing in Times Square, N.Y, At John o’Groats or the Great Wall of China. Anywhere the studio has a photo or video clip of.

Has it struck you that the group were standing before a green screen and the different locations added afterwards using stock photos or clips?

I do video editing and can take a clip, edit it, and change the background scenery to anywhere in less than a minute.

lochside

New Living Translation Bible: ‘Then Jesus asked him: What is your name’? He replied, ‘My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside me’.

Alistair Darling?

Bugger (the Panda)

Lallans Peat Worrier has a dry satire on Nigel the NO Surrender man.

link to lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.fr

joe kane

Not a spoof.
With 2 months to go until one of the most momentous and profound votes in the history of the UK state, here is the Twitter portrait image currently being used by the self-styled deputy directer of the Better Together grassroots operation –
comment image

Here is his actual Twitter account if you still don’t believe me –
link to twitter.com

Tamson

Saw United With Labour guys – 3 of them – knocking doors in my patch near Queens Park. My young neighbour gave them a polite rebuff to their offer of information, and they then got an earful further down the street!

Strangely, one of them was being a bit surreptitious: as the other two knocked doors he was marking a clipboard, but making quite an effort to stay out of sight of anyone who answered. I had just driven up and was watching from the car mind you, so I was hardly being open myself…

Ian Brotherhood

@joe kane –

Yeah, Rob Murray’s taking his job really seriously, eh? Must be gratifying for BTUKOKVNOBNOTHANKS funders to see how their money’s being spent.

Here he is, trying, and failing, to open a door – that’s me on the left (naturally), directing him to ‘pull it’.

link to youtube.com

goldenayr

lochside

I take it your talking voices?

schrodingers cat

goldenayr says:

12 July, 2014 at 8:48 pm
THey might “Be Legion”.

But do they have 4? high YES billboards at the entrance to every town and village?
6ft yes saltires on 9m flag poles at the enterance to my town, photos to follow

goldenayr

schrodingers cat

Will post tomorrow the guy who has the templates.

Probably the same but if we get every group doing the same we might have enough leftover for a some strategically placed ballons.

joe kane

Top man Ian Brotherhood.

It’s the 12th of July night so maybe he’s just having a lark.

Lesley-Anne

Read a tweet earlier from someone whose daughter down South was offered £5K to do leafleting up in Scotland for Better Thanks/ NO Together. Hmm… interesting. 😉

schrodingers cat

@goldenayr
please do
i need bigger yes flags for 2 x 9 m flagpoles

the rev should run a comp at this point dont you think?

Thepnr

@Ian Brotherhood

The video is great even second time around.

goldenayr

schrodingers cat

I thought of going up the hill with the chainsaw.

Nothing says YES quite like a forestry commission(this is mine)piece of land vandalised for the populace.

Instead I’ll plump for an email to you and everyone that wants one.

Lesley-Anne

Sorry for going O/T here but it looks like dear old BBC are having a wee bit of trouble at Tea in the Park. Flags are raised all over the crowd and look they’re all SCOTTISH flags including some Saltires towards the front with YES on them. I’m thinking the crowd have not received the memo from Pacific Quay concerning the NON flying of Saltires. 😛

Brotyboy

@ Ian

Never get tired of seeing that vid.

joe kane

The Better Together grassroots campaign are learning how to refine and target their message the UKIP way. Forget about any actual grassroots campaign and concentrate on the BBC whose execs on Twitter actually trailed and extolled irrational gibberish on its BBC QT current affairs output –
“I arranged a rally for No campaign. Only 11 people turned up. Now millions are listening to the better together message
link to twitter.com

Marcia

Lesley-Ann

How interesting, can you post a link for us all to see?

Brotyboy

@ Lesley-Anne

Whereaboots? My daughter in London could do with a gig like that.

And she’d do such a good job too. 😉

Cindie

Talking of Rob Murray, he and other ‘no thanks’ folk on Twitter are getting a wee bit annoyed with this graphic: link to twitter.com

It’s ‘dirty campaigning’ apparently showing who else is on the side of no

Marcia

Cindie

What is wrong with that graphic? Seems to explain who is on each side.

goldenayr

LA

Re the flags.

Probably in response the large union flag front band centre they had during beeb3/4 transmission.

Shower o’shite will do anything for money.

Cindie

Completely agree, Marcia, but Rob Murray, Blair Mac etc not happy at all.

Marcia

Sunday Herald front page:

link to twitter.com

Kendomacaroon bar

The orange order should be on that list

Defo

link to gulfnews.com

It’s lifted from the Washington Post. “Or not”

Marcia

Kendomacaroon

Maybe they are the reserves sitting on the bench – bellowing.

Lesley-Anne

I don’t know where abouts South of the border it happened Marcia/Brotyboy but here is the link to the tweet.

link to tinyurl.com

I never saw that goldenayr I only saw snippet on BBC after reading a few tweets. 😉

Thepnr

@joe kane

That Alan Roden must have mince for brains, he’s giving the game away. Nobody really has any passion for No Better Together Thanks but it doesn’t matter whether 11 or 1100 turn up. I’ll be shoving the same pish down the throats of the voters.

Dearie me, he is thick or I think he must have been drunk when he tweeted that

goldenayr

LA

It was noxious guff.

If anyone thinks it was natural,just ask where the other flags were?

Sinky

O/T

Its time the OBR was challenged in the MSM and our supine broadcasters who accept everything from London as being authoritative.

link to newsnetscotland.com

goldenayr

Just seen the new PaddyPower ad.

Sums up “English” support no end.

Peter

How much is Rob Murray being paid for doing nothing but post filth and lies on twatter? Is he declaring it all or has he shovelled his share of the missing millions into an offshore account? We know they’re not actually spending the money they’ve been given so where is it going?

gillie

CND have reported that nuclear weapons were driven through Glasgow on Thursday night.

Paula Rose

Um – how else do you move WMD?

Lesley-Anne

Jeez Marcia, Better Thanks/NO Together, or whatever they call themselves, really are a cause for giving aren’t they. Surely if this really is the case then first off they can not back date their application. How can they continue to campaign now until they have resolved this sordid mess they have created all by their little ownsomes?

The more basic of all basic points is how on earth could they have sent in their *ahem* application to the Electoral Commission with the WRONG address on it?

Are we in the middle of witnessing another *cough* C.B.I. moment?

Second how will this affect all this lovely money they have been *ahem* donated.

Third this is not the first time Better whatever have fallen foul of the powers at be. Remember No whatever had a database full of thousands of names and addresses but they were not registered with the Information Commissioner at the time. They did eventually register but by rights,in my view, they should have destroyed all their database information they held before registering. Nothing was ever announced about what happened about this but I have my suspicions and it definitely does not involve destroying anything unfortunately.

Dr JM Mackintosh

Up North. Inverness No thanks campaign is being run from the South. Students from South are being bussed in and paid to do leafleting and campaigning. Also No shop is run by a Libdem staffer from down South as no local volunteers. And this in the constituency of “the leading No politician in Scotland” (his own words) – poor deluded Danny.

There is absolutely no detectable local campaign for No up here at all.

Also had a conversation with a confused batman in pub wondering why does nobody wear No thanks badges and why are there no No car stickers?
Highlands is going YES! or the Nos are very, very quiet?

Final comments, my siblings travel all over Highlands and have not any No signs from the roads. We did come across one small group on our travels but it was quite windy and somehow they got blown away in the gales!?

liz g

@ gillie
Yes and as I understand it
WHILE THE FIRE SERVICE WERE ON STRIKE
Madness!

goldenayr

Paula Rose

In my case by septic tanker.

kendomacaroonbar

@Paula Rose

Faslane and Coulport both have sea access.

Paula Rose

Well we’ve done the laughing – now we talk to everyone, this is ours to win.

gillie

So will the MOD drives nukes through Glasgow during the Commonwealth games. It may just happen.

Lesley-Anne

With regard to the W.M.D.’s passing through the middle of Glasgow. I was just wondering if they also passed through the middle of London past the Houses of Parliament to show off to the M.P.’s what W.M.D.’s really look like up close?

goldenayr

gillie

Naw.

The deliveries are three times a year.

goldenayr

Also…

You all seem to forget that the transfers are a two way street.

What comes up,must go down.

cynicalHighlander

@goldenayr says:

gillie

Naw.

The deliveries are three times a year

Almost as many as the future postal service if we vote no.

Grouse Beater

Nigel the NO Surrender man.

Him?

First I knew Jesus was British.

I suppose he can be nothing other than an Englishman.

Paula Rose

I handed out hundreds of Aye Right leaflets today – to lots of our people who wanted information, I jest about five-a-day, now we do it, now we create a land fit for purpose, every time I see a babbie I look at a future sovereign.

goldenayr

cynicalHighlander

That’s twice as many PO deliveries.

And for anyone unsure,yes they do use Glen Mallan for warhead transfers.Against all standing orders and knowledge of RFA personnel.

cynicalHighlander

The ‘Mother’ of all parliaments shows it true side.

link to archive.today

gillie

MK 4 nukes are likely to be transferred down south in the next few days……. bang through Glasgow……or just bang?

goldenayr

gillie

Only if we beat them in the medal count.

Grouse Beater

No prisoners!

(Just thought I’d put the fear of death into Unionists following this site.)

Flower of Scotland

Been on a YES Kirkaldy site all night sharing the love of T in the Park! So many people wanting Independece! Commenting on the lack of Saltires shown at T, but then so many that everyone could see them and the wrist bands! Feel very proud of our youngsters! They posted on Facebook, photos of themselves at T with YES saltire stickers on their faces and lots of big YES saltires! Calvin Harris now! Wow!

iheartScotland

Rev, I think you’ve miscounted.
Using the better together algorithm (Y×9+120000÷14.7), where Y=5,you can plainly see that there are 8208 people in that photo.

Les Wilson

Antone got a photo of T/Park crowd/ Saltires?

Les Wilson

Anyone got a photo of T/Park crowd/ Saltires?

gillie

So the nukes convoy passed the Commenwealth Games athletes village. That’s a nice welcome.

macart763m

@Les Wilson

Here you go.

link to dailyrecord.co.uk

Lesley-Anne

Aha got you sussed out iheartScotland, you’re one of those Better Thanks/NO Together Trolls aren’t you? (you’re calculating genius gave you away there! 😉 ) You can’t fool me you know I’m this site’s “village idiot” nothing get’s past my brain cell you know. 😛

Les Wilson

macart763m says:

Cheers!

Dr JM Mackintosh

@Matt & BuckieBraes
Funny I was also wondering what happened to poor “Flowers of the Union” and “Don’t build a wall” song.

Someone (lady alba) should do a spoof version as we are not going to see the original any time soon.

I really think that Vote Nob Orders media consultants just paid them for a day to turn up for the helpful BBC to do the news article. Similar to the new “grassroots” campaign across the country – just pay students to do it over the summer.

These London based media consultants just think they can buy a grassroots campaign in Scotland. They have a big shock coming on 19th September!

macart763m

@Les

Cracking close up of a YES Saltire front row in there.

Brian Mchugh

Macart, thanks for the Eddi Reader interview. One of the most inspiring things I have seen yet. 😉

I re-post the link for anyone who may have missed your link above, cos it is un-missable.

link to youtube.com

Paula Rose

@ Dr JM Mackintosh – how do we do a spoof of a non-existant song?

macart763m

@Brian McHugh

Cracker isn’t it?

So much sense condensed into 25mins. Wound up smiling despite my usual grumpy nature. 🙂

X_Sticks

@Les

T pics from patronsaintofcats

link to twitter.com

Not sure which band, but there were loads when Paulo was on.

Morag Graham Kerr

A wee bit off topic, but fun. Remember back at Easter I told you all about a visit to a gastro-pub in Braehead with a friend who never mentions the referendum despite all my badges and stickers, and I think she’s a No? As I said, when we went up to the bar together to put in our orders the barman clocked my Yes badge and exclaimed, “I love your badge!”

It happened again tonight.

I was out again with the same friend, this time in a rather nice hotel restaurant to the east of Glasgow. We’d finished an excellent meal and asked for the bill. The waiter brought the bill, laid it on the table, then grinned at me and said exactly the same thing. “I love your badge!”

This time I grinned and replied, “that’s what they all say!”

If it wasn’t for the inhibiting presence of my friend, I’d have offered the badge to the guys – both times. But I’m a wimp and a coward.

Saw a lovely Yes windae on an isolated cottage by the A721 near Newbigging on the way. Quite encouraging.

Kev

Calvin Harris just broke the speakers on ma telly loving the saltires

goldenayr

Grouse Beater says
No prisoners!

Sod the tourists,I just had an enema.

Dr JM Mackintosh

@Paula
easy – you just make it up. I am sure Dr Zara could invent some great lyrics much better than the originals – assuming they ever existed in the first place?!

Anyone know if there is going to be a complete “Yes Album” by Lady Alba?

Here is another one that might be quite good…

“Union Party Blues” by Blondie.

Paula Rose

Now Dr JM – are you quite up to Ms Harry?

goldenayr

Dr JM Mackintosh

Personally,I think they should “Eat to the Beat”.

Paula Rose

I think we should get silly on off topic – cos there might still be some serious people around xx

Dr JM Mackintosh

@iheartScotland
Very scientific analysis – I like it !
You don’t happen to work for YouGov by any chance?

Lesley-Anne

If you’re looking for ideas for an independence album Doc then how about these:

The Cybernat song by Hazel Lewry

The Nasty Cybernat by Yew Choob

The Daily Mail Song by Dan and Dan

We didn’t start the union via Yew Choob

Just a few wee ideas for starters. 😉

Never vote for Labour again by Danny Carroll

Brian Mchugh

Macart… had a collegue in work call me Anti-English, because of my YES wristband and support of self determination. The Eddi Reader video is going to become a part of the lads education… particularly the part just after 9 minutes into the interview. 🙂

RogueCoder

Wow. Jim Sillars is off to a cracking start with MargoMobile – £3,145 already, and he’s not officially launching until tomorrow (sunday)!

link to indiegogo.com

I would urge all Wingers to donate whatever they can to this fine cause. Margo was an incredible woman, an enormously popular politician, and her message will still resonate with a lot of voters. Jim has worked his socks off for the campaign and he deserves every ounce of support we can give him.

Dr JM Mackintosh

I liked The Yes album a “Tales from Topographically Oil filled Oceans”

I am sure Dr Zara could sing as high as Jon Anderson.

Ahh the 70’s – those were the days!

Thepnr

New recruit for Wings, all by myself too.
link to i804.photobucket.com

Lesley-Anne

Awe he’s so cute with his wee wings badge on as well. 😉

goldenayr

Thepnr

And I bet he says things more coherently than me,or my last diehard no voter.

Ian Brotherhood

@Roguecoder –

Hear hear.

Sillars is a man on a mission, and he’s for real. He’s helped us (SSP) at many recent meetings, and seems to have another gig every night of the week, week after week…

And he’s, what now, 76?

More power to him, and to you for highlighting his efforts.

X_Sticks

Thanks for that RogueCoder. Well worth our support, and here’s another – Mark Coburn’s 500 miles. He’s reached his target so all further donations are going to the Maryhill Foodbank

link to indiegogo.com

desimond

As someone from Toryglen and who now lives just next to it in Kings Park can I say a big thanks for my biggest ever laugh on Wings. The thought of No Thanks giving it big licks in Toryglen is hysterical but they must have played the Labour card

Brian Mchugh

Thepnr… Doggie Chews for all, not just for the rich bankers.

😉

Morag

Does anybody know why there were no saltires at T in the Park yesterday? It seems unusual for there not to be any.

And tonight the place is swarming with the things. It’s almost as if people had been told not to bring them, but then after seeing the union flags that were there yesterday and then the incident on stage, they were emboldened to bring them tonight.

And yet I haven’t heard anyone claim there was an embargo. It’s all very strange.

awayanbileyerheed

O/T bit of a laugh for this time at night – a ‘who’s who’ independence themed Star Wars pic, there’s someone there we all know 😉

comment image

Chic McGregor

“Also going are Sir George Young,and minster without portfolio , (Basically he gets paid for doing nothing) Ken Clarke. David Cameron says he wants to freshen up the cabinet before the next election.”

Ken Clarke spoke out strongly against Cameron and May’s plans to leave the ECHR.

Patrician

@Morag Graham Kerr, what is so scary about your friend that you are scared to engage with people about yes? i have given away quite a few badges because someone has said they like them, i think the total is a couple of hundred “Alert Reader” badges so far.

Barontorc

Couldn’t believe the total lack of Union Jacks when I cut into Paulo Nutini’s show and the big Solidarity/YES Saltire flag right there on the screen for the full set.

There we saw Scotland’s youth enjoying together, sharing the moment and with such hope an energy it all looks good for the future.

Then the blast of Calvin Harris – what a set, driving along with saltire backdrops – in yer face – unbelievable! It’s happening folks!!!

bookie from hell

Alistair Darling–daily mail article is jaw dropping

from Heinz beans to mafia boss

link to dailymail.co.uk

john king

I recognise at least two of those people as some of the no campaigners who came down my street,
I hope they’re getting well paid.

jacksloan2013

Yes, a typical piece from Darling in the Daily Mail calling Salmon “tawdry” and a “bully”.

One thing Darling and the No Thanks lot have got wrong is there are fighting with a 19th Century notion of politics. This believed that it was the efforts of solitary great men which changed history. So it follows that if Napoleon had died as a lad fighting in Corsica, if Hitler had been admitted to Vienna Academy of Fine Art and if Castro was taken to play for the New York Yankees the world would be an utterly different place. So if Alex Salmon had never become the leader of the SNP we would not now be facing a referendum.

But this attack on one man rather ignores the fact it was a majority of the Scottish voters who put the SNP and Salmon in power and more importantly overlooks the Yes campaign that is not being led or organised by the centre, one party or even one leader. Many thousands of individuals have already taken control of Scotland’s future.

macart763m

@Brian Mchugh

Absolutely, the lady is bang on the money. Its the worst form of insult and frankly its lazy politics. They’ve lost an argument so the first thing they reach for is one of the most despicable fucking insults imaginable. You’re a nazi.

I’m done with listening to that utter bullshit and I certainly won’t tolerate it in any conversation on the referendum. Like Eddi I reserve my particular ire for the politicians who use this barb because they absolutely know better, for them its a tool, a blunt instrument to sow social division regardless of the harm it causes. The party robots and voters who parrot the party line are either ignorant or misguided, but as thinking adults should know better.

We’re better than that. We rise above it, ignore it and continue to win the arguments. If all they have is insults, then they have no solutions to the problems we all face. It starkly highlights just how out of touch with day to day governance and commitment to public care they really are.

There is no excuse anymore.

jacksloan2013

Sorry, awoke far too early so Salmond lost his “d” throughout.

macart763m

@jacksloan 2013

Its an old tactic. He’s winding up the personal attacks on the FM in the run up to the TV debate. He’s hoping to rattle the man, make him angry and or careless by personalising the confrontation.

He’s shit out of luck.

The FMs been insulted by experts and still come out the other end smiling. He won’t get angry, he’ll get even.

Jim McIntosh

Tidying up after our monthly YES conversation cafe yesterday. Putting stuff in the back of the car when a chap came up and asked how we were doing. “fine” I said. “Lots more people seem to be more aware than they were a few months ago”.

“I’m voting NO” he said.

“Can I ask why?”.

“I’m a lorry driver and I got done for speeding last week on the A9. It’s Alec Salmond that’s put them new speed cameras up”.

Where do I start – if you were speeding you were speeding, you’re not voting for Alec Salmond, the average speed cameras are not operational yet.

And I thought we were doing so well :(.

heedtracker

Bank bench MP Alistair Darling is going to give Scotland’s First Minister a thrashing reports George Clooney’s “the worst kind of tabloid.” and don’t we know it. Labour party’s disastrous failure of a Chancellor hugging tight worst kind of right wing British tabloid, is not that much of a surprise.

William Keenan

So the better together – no thanks campaign have once again been caught out cheating and breaking referendum rules – they have been paying young students £8 an hour to pose as activists campaigning to keep the union, the same group have been bussed to various towns and villages throughout the country in the past week or two, handing out leaflets on the streets while their campaign are claiming overwhelming support – isn’t this typical of their Westminster masters dirty tricks

iheartScotland

Lesley-Anne/Dr JM,
Here at BETTERNAWBORDERSTGITHERSAWNAWWTFRWEDOING
Headquarters,work out of the same office and we use the same algorithm. 🙂

Ken500

Alistair starts greeting

Kylie?

GCC everyone is greeting

Famous15

In that Daily Mail Heinz Beans bonanza Darling sounded like a washed up lightweight trying to be brave. We are not looking for this kind of britgnat nastiness.Even if Darling is saying it “with a mischievous twitch of his caterpillar eyebrows”

The Daily Mail are straining at a gnat, a Britgnat, to make Darling sound passionate about Scotland.Yes this is ad hominem…right back in his face. I do not know who will win the debate but Darling will win no prizes for concern about the peoples of Scotland. Try a few more house flips and he might get his pulse going.

iheartScotland

Lesley-Anne/Dr JM,
Here at BETTERNAWBORDERSTGITHERSAWNAWWTFRWEDOING
Headquarters,work out of the same office and we use the same algorithm..
🙂

Robert Peffers

@bookie from hell says: 13 July, 2014 at 3:35 am:“The Alistair Darling–daily mail article is jaw dropping from Heinz beans to mafia boss,

No one needs be an, “alert reader”, to notice Darling Alistair is NOT standing in front of Edinburgh Castle. The Mail has just employed a particularly kack handed photoshop user to put a completely wrong perspective photo behind the puir wee Darling. The man, (for lack of a better description), Darling is quite delusional too.

Mind you he is correct that a YES vote will utterly destroy any semblance of percieved power the British Empire believers think they may still have. The EU, UN, NATO and Uncle Tom Cobligh and all will drop them like a bit of well chewed bubble gum.

Robert Peffers

@heedtracker says:13 July, 2014 at 7:07 am:
“Bank bench MP Alistair Darling”.

Interesting wee A Freudian slip, (parapraxis), there, Heedtracker.
:-))

Robert Peffers

@Rev Stuart:“They are legion”.

Is that, “British Legion”, “Foreign Legion” or “Legion of the Damned”?

From, “The Black Library”, I quote.

“Following the trajectory of a blood-red comet, the berserk World Eaters blaze a path of destruction across the galaxy in its wake. The small cemetery world of Certus Minor appeals to the Space Marines of the Excoriators Chapter for protection, but the force dispatched to deal with this grim threat is far too small and their losses against the renegades are high. Just as all seems lost, salvation is borne out of legend itself as sinister spectral warriors descend upon this planet of the dead, and the enemies of the Imperium come face to face with those who have already travelled beyond the realm of the living…”

Sounds about right to me.

Calgacus MacAndrews

Why can U-KOKers only speak if Edinburgh Castle is behind them?

Maybe they wouldn’t have refused all these IndyRef meeting invites if they had been told that a big photo of Edinburgh Castle was being provided at the venue, to put behind them.

iheartScotland

Robert, their worried. …and will continue with their rubbish. We WILL WIN….believe. I worry all the time, but I believe in folk.

James123

Where does the phrase “they are legion” come from, or did the Rev just make it up? I remember a character from the show Red Dwarf saying “I am Legion, for we are many”, that’s all I can come up with.

Black Douglas

Sorry for O/T

Vote no for a space industry

link to bbc.co.uk

Will the first order on the books be the death star. 🙂

Krackerman

James123 – Mark 5:6-9:

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

caz-m

Danny Alexander says Scotland might get a Spaceport we stay within the UK. No more jam tomorrow, but space ships tomorrow, (only if we vote NO).

link to bbc.co.uk

The Scottish Government has already said it would be very supportive of the Scottish space industry.

And Non-UK resident, Richard Branson, looks as if he has already picked his favoured site, Lossiemouth in the North of Scotland.

link to scotsman.com

Robert Peffers

The, “NO”, campaign seems to be becoming ever more farcical.

Last night I had a dream. The door bell rang. On the step was that wee talking robot from the, “Confused dot com”, TV advertisements. It launches into a sales pitch for, “Better together”. I interrupt and say, “I didn’t have you down as a Naysayer”. The robot replies, “I’m not – but I get paid for doing this.

Calgacus MacAndrews

Scotland, the final frontier …

iheartScotland

We have the argument, they have none…

James123

Thanks Krackerman

Bunter

The front page Sunday Herald story, while not earth shatteringly bad for the naws, I noticed a tweet from Tom Gordon suggesting that the real problem for BT is if someone indiegogo’d a challenge through the courts regards their registration fiasco.

A bit of mischief making from Sunday Herald? I like it!

Famous15

Krackerman.

Where does my Uncle Charlie fit into all this?

Krackerman

Famous15..

Depends if by “Charlie” you mean a white powder.. if not then ask your Auntie…

Krackerman

Auntie Nora that is…

Roll_On_2014

Hi Les: at 12.05 am

I clocked these on Huffy Post .

My favourite is this one.

cynicalHighlander

Another good article in Sunday Herald re NHS.

link to heraldscotland.com

gillie

Spaceport?????????????

Honestly who believes such nonsense.

Is RyanAir doing trips to Mars by landing at Pluto?

Caroline Corfield

Spaceport ?!! Yeh right. The best place to launch from on the planet is the equator, it requires the least amount of fuel to escape the Earth’s gravity, it’s why the ESA use French Guyana.

link to en.wikipedia.org

link to en.wikipedia.org

Now in principle there is no reason why you couldn’t use Lossiemouth, I bet the idea is along the lines of the Rosyth and Scotstoun shipyards, this ‘spaceport’ would be heavily dependent on the UK government for contracts, eh? But after a No vote everything that would be required to build it will simply evaporate, into the too expensive, not cost efficient, too far from civilisation for the scientists, kind of scenario. The UK government was happy to let Prestwick ( the only fog free airport in Europe) go under, what chance is there for an effing spaceport?

After a Yes vote however I’m sure Mr Branson could be brought around to the idea, and real infrastructure will be put in place and real commercial customers will be found.

gillie

I see Alistair Darling is shitting himself with his latest personal attacks on Alex Salmond. Does calling the FM a “mafia boss” mean the SNP leader is Don Eck?

Helena Brown

Yes I noticed Auntie Beeb wants a NO vote for a Space Terminal, as all 8 prospective sites are in Scotland. So Space Terminal/Own Country/ No Trident. Know which way I am voting and it isn’t for a peripatetic Space Terminal.

Black Douglas

@gillie

The only reason I can see for the Spaceport to be based in Scotland is that it must be nuclear powered.

Look at the alleged options available for building Cape McCanaveeral.(Map 2/3 down the article)

link to bbc.co.uk

🙂

Calgacus MacAndrews

O/T – Looks like a fair number of Wingers have been listening to the ‘Make Alba Shine’ IndyRef song (with images) on YouTube ( link to youtube.com ) as the ‘views’ figure has been rising steadily.

Anybody who listens to it will definitely vote YES.

Brian Doonthetoon

The Captain Darling/Daily Fail ‘story’…

If you paste the url of the photoshopped pic into Google’s “Search by image” function, Here are just three of the pics that turn up:-

link to imfdb.org

link to moviebreadbin.com

link to images.moviefanatic.com

Nana Smith

blunders continue in westminster

link to newsnetscotland.com

Brian Doonthetoon

I’ve just read the Darling story.

What a pile of twaddle! He trots out ‘fears’ that have been disproved already. I got a mental picture of him with his fingers in his ears, whilst “la-la-la-ing’, each time another of his pet theories is myth-busted.

Cognitive dissonance seems to be the condition of the year on t’other side.

Grouse Beater

Gillie says: Darling is shitting himself [over] his personal attacks on Alex Salmond – calling the FM a “mafia boss”

The South City Mob grousebeater.wordpress

caz-m

So, Alistair Darling, a Labour Party backbencher,(a non-person) is going to give the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, “a good thrashing” is he.

I thought “a good thrashing” was a game English public school boys played when the lights were turned off.

Alistair Darling couldn’t give a wet paper bag “a good thrashing”.

Caroline Corfield

If embdy behaves like mafia in Scotland it is shurely Labour?

link to news.bbc.co.uk

link to independent.co.uk

I see the FCB Security company still manage to get in the news…

link to bbc.co.uk

cynicalHighlander

Call Ally Bally funding Yes/No.

link to radioplayer.tayam.co.uk

geeo
Brian Mchugh

OT. Under 2 weeks to go until the games. The Team Scotland supporters website…
http://www.goscotland.org
There are lots of vids on the ‘Go Scotland’ youtube channel too.

Murray McCallum

Spaceport

Uncovered: Salmond’s ambitious immigration plans now stretch to unquantified aliens from infinite and unknown galaxies.

Bunter

R5Live special with Peinaar and he says to Salmond that Juncker backs up Barosso that EU membership for Scotland would be very difficult.

Salmond quick to correct him but we can see that the BBC are still tying to twist facts and is quite frankly disgusting.

Also had toodleoothenoo on and he suggested that Salmond will need to answer questions on EU, currency blah blah blah.

Together with comments by Ponsonby of STV, you can see that these TV debates are going to be all about Salmond answering questions and there will be very little about what is wrong with the UK, democratic deficit, inequality, foodbanks, illegal wars etc.

Roll_On_2014

geeo: at 11:06 am

Jeezo…!!!

Your link gives a 500 error message, here is the correct link.

You are correct… Jeezo…!!!

But come on what else do you expect The Daily Retard is part of the Daily Mirror Group.

X_Sticks

I get the feeling there is a sense of trepidation out there amongst many of us, indeed, I feel that too. I think that we are feeling this worse than the No side, because we understand HOW important it is to win this. To lose is unthinkable.

I’ve been out campaigning all over Aberdeenshire, along with some stints on the Yes stall in Aberdeen. There’s no doubt we are up against it here in the North-East. This area is renowned for its conservatism and resistance to change. There is a lot of money around because of oil and a lot of people who absolutely hate the Yes campaign for making them HAVE to think about this (unnecessary as far as they are concerned) referendum.

But even here in the North-East I believe it is all to play for. My gut feeling is that we are about 40% firm Yes, 35% form No and 25% genuinely undecided. At every event we are turning more and more of these ‘don’t knows’ to Yes, there is NO other direction of travel in this campaign.

We have 9-1/2 week left to do this, but it is only going to happen if we get out there and sell the Yes cause to our fellow Scots who haven’t made up their minds. The majority of the DK’s WANT to believe we can do this and often it only takes a little face to face conversation to convince them we can.

We have the online war well and truly won (though expect more black ops on that front as we get closer to the line) but there is still work to do. I would urge you all here, and that includes all our lurkers (met another couple of avid Wings lurkers at Echt yesterday) to get in touch with your local Yes group AND GET OUT THERE if you possibly can. Any little you can do will all help, be it canvassing, campaigning, delivering papers or even just folding papers for delivery. If you can’t get out then consider signing up for telephone canvassing. It WILL all count.

WE CAN DO THIS PEOPLE. WE REALLY CAN.

Now, off to go watch Nicola on Brillo’s Sunday Politics.

Stay positive. 😀

Lesley-Anne

Sorry for going O/T here but after reading this I am now definitively convinced that the Electoral Commission is NOT neutral. I have always had a wee suspicion that both the Electoral Commission and Information Commissioners office were less than neutral particularly when we saw how they dealt, or rather did not deal, with the legal infringements carried out by Better Together. This latest news from Newsnet confirms that the Electoral Commission is doing its damnedest to cover all its tracks. Unfortunately for them the cat is out the bag and no one believes their lies any more!

link to tinyurl.com

caz-m

The latest ICM opinion poll for Scotland on Sunday goes against everything that is happening in Scotland right now.

I am personally meeting more and more people who are engaging in the debate and the majority are voting YES.

But according to ICM, support for YES has fallen 2% in the last month. A quick bit of maths would show that if 100% is 4.2 million voters in Scotland, then 1% is 42,000 voters.

Therefore, a 2% drop in voters would mean that we have lost 84,000 voters in the last month. I don’t know of one voter who has went from being a YES to a NO, never mind 84,000 of them.

So, I think somebody is telling wee porkies regarding these polls.

They remind of the way the betting companies suddenly changed back in favour of NO, when YES was on the rise.

The word “fixed” comes to mind.

link to scotsman.com

Robert Peffers

The bit I found most laughable in the Darling rant was this : –
“The impact on Britain of a Yes vote would be more profound than people think,’ Darling says. ‘We would not be the same UK because a large geographical part would have left”.

There cannot be the slightest doubt that this person is either a bare faced liar, delusional or in stunned mental denial. He could, of course be all three.

The evidence for this claim is glaringly obvious for Darling attended the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). As such he must know full well that when he claims, “The impact on Britain of a Yes vote would be more profound than people think. We would not be the same UK because a large geographical part would have left”., he is spouting utter and complete balderdash.

Here’s why. The term, “United Kingdom”, describes the resultant legal Status Quo of the monarchy of the only two partners signatory to , “The Treaty of Union”, of 1706/7. Quite simply, “Kingdom”, describes the realm of a monarchy. It does not describe a country, a state or a parliament. Thus, “The United Kingdom”, is the realm of the present Monarch, Elizabeth Regina.

The Treaty signed in 1606/7 is composed of legally binding , “Articles of Union”, and each article is an individual legal agreement between, in this case, two equally sovereign Kingdoms that, in 1606/7 were both independent realms and both had independent parliaments.

However, the 1706/7 Kingdom of England encompassed three countries as the English Kingdom had annexed Wales as an English principality by, “The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and annexed the kingdom of Ireland by, “The Crown of Ireland Act”, 1542. That is why neither annexed country signed the Treaty of Union but both are obviously parts of the resultant, “United Kingdom”.

Anyone reading the actual Treaty will observe that not only are there only two equally sovereign signatory kingdoms but the words country and countries is absent on the document.

Clearly Article I first forms a joint monarchy and does not make either unequal while Article III then states very clearly, ” That the united kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same parliament to be stiled The Parliament of Great Britain.”.

Nowhere is there any legal statement that the United Kingdom is either a state or a country. Nor is there any indication that one kingdom is continued and the other, “Extinguished”. Furthermore, there is no legal claims that Westminster is a four country set-up but with Westminster the de facto Parliament of the England devolving England’s powers to the other three countries.

Darling is a trained lawyer and he must know the legal situation is that when a bipartite union partner leaves then the Union previously known as, “The United Kingdom”, has legally disunited. As such his claim that, “a large geographical part would have left”, is utter mince.

Legally the status quo ante is that the United Kingdom’s TWO partners have disunited and returned to having two equally sovereign parliaments but keeping a joint monarchy.

Remember that the legal term, “United Kingdom”, refers to a royal realm – not to a joint parliament. The guy’s a qualified Scots lawyer – he must know the truth.

Roll_On_2014

OT

Well it looks, as far as the EU is concerned, the writing is on the wall for the fUK:

David Cameron will have to campaign for Britain to leave EU in 2017.

David Cameron’s attempts to renegotiate Britain’s relationship significantly with the European Union will fail, forcing him to have to campaign for Britain to leave the EU, a former Chancellor and close ally of George Osborne has said.

You only have one of two choices in September:

(1) Vote NO – and make Scotland History.
(2) Vote YES – and make Scottish History.

Vote YES then after independence get your sleeves rolled up and start to rebuild that better and fairer Scotland.

Paul

True to form the regional rag the Hootsmon A.K.A. The North Briton News has published a poll bolstering the bitter lot. How can the print such tripe? the only poll that matters is the one on the 18th I am sure when it comes down to it people will vote with sense and maturity and not through fear and lies.It is time now that Yes supporters boycott all these unionist rags and business’s to show them what the real power of the Yes side is so thats it for me no more clicking on the Hootsmon,the Daily Retard and the other media sites.

Thomas

Good interview with Nicola sturgeon on Sunday politics with Andrew Neil. Great replies to same old scaremongering .

geeo

@roll on.

Thanks for fixing that.

Its full on anti-Yes there today..

Pathetic.

Andy-B

How pathetic is this, with no actual planes available to the Westminster government, last week when they launched, their aircraft carrier. They sat a plastic plane on the deck to give the appearance, that they’re a force to be reckoned with.

link to dailyrecord.co.uk

elizabeth odonnell

Just watched andrew neil interrogating nicola sturgeon. He interrupted every answer and they even turned the sound down on her anwerso that he could do it more effectively. Complaining to the bbc is useless so there will be one more at pacific quay next week

Thepnr

@Paul

Part of that article states:

Tellingly, the poll also found that 86 per cent of No voters said they would still vote No, even if they thought that more powers would not be delivered.

Well I for one just refuse to believe these figures. The hardcore support for No is and always has been around the 30% mark. These are mainly the Tory vote, previous polls on the more powers question clearly show that one of main reasons some Labour supporters will vote No is because they believe that more powers will be transferred to Scotland i.e. Devo Max.

To state the 86% of No voters would still vote No even if NO NEW POWERS were transferred is in my view totally false if a fair and balanced representative sample of the Scottish electorate was conducted. Just another blatant LIE.

geeo

I would bet on the lego plane i posted a picture of recently to take out the MoD plastic paucity plane !

DOGFIGHT !!!!!!!!!

Roll_On_2014

STU

Can you have a chat with Kismet to release my comment, at 11.37am, released from moderation.

TIA

Andy-B

Corby, in England a haven for Scots is holding a mock referendum today, I wonder if it will be a yes or no win.

link to cityam.com

thorbor

Did anyone catch brewers random anti independence question at the end of the space guy interview, blatant bbc bias in action 🙂

Training Day

@caz-m

Indeed. The idea that nigh on 100k people have suddenly switched from Yes to No runs counter to what is being experienced on the ground to a ridiculous extent.

If it weren’t so serious it would be laughable. There can be little doubt that, at the very least, they are testing the water to see if people will buy a rigged No vote on the 18th.

Murray McCallum

I’d love to know exactly how much a handmade (by Lockheed Martin no less) model F-35 cost the taxpayer.

Krackerman

Thorbor – I missed it but given the long build up of how great a UK space port would be (calm down lads it’s only Richard Branson high flying plane not a real rocket!) I can only guess it was along the lines of “but if Scotland votes for Independence then do you think it won’t happen?”…

That would make a good propaganda piece – get a geek in – get him worked up and hit em between the eyes before flipping to something else…

Krackerman

Ahhh Jesus – now Brewer is off on the Serbia massacre line with a unionist MP helping out…

Any guesses where this is going… the evils of nationalism perhaps…

Not even subtle propaganda…

heedtracker

Reverend that latest post says Error 404 – Not Found. Come on man, walk off the pain:D

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Krackerman

Building up nicely to the punchline with Brewer and co…

Separation mentioned…
Constitutional settlement mentioned…
Split mentioned….

Nearly a full house in the BT bullsh1t bingo…

cynicalHighlander

@heedtracker

Because he’s an idiot!

link to twitter.com

Minty

There’s a cracking article in the Record online by Carole Malone, where she travels around Scotland to meet ‘the people’. Somewhat amazingly, everyone she has met so far is voting No.

*shocked face*

Derek M

a spaceport lmao so lets say we do get a spaceport then how many launches will be cancelled due to bad weather? you couldnt make this stuff up oh wait yes they could.
A spaceport ROFLMAO oh dear are we going to see some big cardboard cut out space rockets now like their make belief superdooper fighter jets.
I know what we could do a test launch on, we could send the idiots that came up with this idea directly into the sun.

Dorothy Devine

Krackerman , came in at that moment and left three seconds later – couldn’t be arsed listening to any more shite.

Scottish media , may I issue you a warning either yeah or nay wins ,either way you will lose. You are a despicable bunch who have contrived and lied to the people of Scotland you deserve nothing from us in return.

Robert Peffers

@Roll_On_2014 says:13 July, 2014 at 11:21 am

“But come on what else do you expect The Daily Retard is part of the Daily Mirror Group.”

Laughable, Roll_on_2014, The Record says, “If Scotland’s Bravehearts vote YES on September 18 it will tear apart that union which has seen both countries’ men march shoulder-to-shoulder in two world wars”.

Indeed they did but along with the independent USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, France, the Scandanavian countries, Poland and much of the rest of the World.You have to remeber the UK claims like, “Britain Stood alone” and song lyrics like,”Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler, if you think old England’s done”. The words of that Great, “UNITED KINGDOM HERO”, “England expects”.et al.

Ken500

Andrew Neil

High Scandianivan taxes + high wages.

Compared to – UK Scandinavia pays 10% tax. Left with higher disposable incomes. Good health and nursery care means more women/people have a job.

Norway has a £500Million Oil Fund. Norwegians are Kroner millionaires.

thorbor

Krackerman

try and watch it it backfires for brewer(or the producer) a bit the facial expressions are priceless

the expected answer wasnt received 🙂

geeo

Hey !

If top gear can transform a reliant robin into a space shuttle and launch it then i am sure we could retro fit a mobility scooter …

To infinity and beyond !!!!!

James123

The Andrew Neil interviews with Darling last week and Sturgeon today were like night and day. Darling was given an incredibly easy time and was allowed to speak without interruption. Sturgeon was put under enormous scrutiny and at the same time was being constantly interrupted.

Last week Neil also claimed that a No vote meant that Scotland would get Devo Max, a blatant lie. He also perpetuated the myth about evil cybernats.

When Sturgeon pointed out today that Scotland has contributed more to the UK than we get back for more than 30 years Neil’s response was to say “that’s because of oil”. Well what if it is, oil is part of Scotland’s economy, it’s not a separate entity.

Helena Brown

@Lesley-Anne, Eectoral Commission a home for those Labour members without a seat. See Wendy Alexander debacle for proof of that.
@caz-m. Definitely fixed. I think someone said the other day that these polls have to justify the result they are going to fix.
@Robert Peffers, I am sure that Alistair Darling is perfectly aware of what you are saying, he thinks we are all stupid, remember the History Woman.
Alex Salmond wants to ask him to explain why he gave up his Advocates Position for a shaky seat in the HOC or is it the HOL he is waiting for as his payment for serving his Masters at Westminster?

Bugger (the Panda)

Helena

He resigned from the Faculty of Advocates, something he did was not in their spirit.

Maybe banal or maybe more interesting?

Marker Post

Not much point in buying “Scotland Referendum: A Guide for Voters”.

If the Sunday Mail summary is anything to go by, we are STILL waiting for a positive case for the Union after all these years.

link to dailyrecord.co.uk

heedtracker

Chief cringer at BBC Andrew Neil says Scotland has contributed more than UK “gave” us back because of oil and gas, which is just like the last Labour in Scotland leader Ian Grey standing up in Holyrood and demanding to know where the money for the Scottish oil fund would come from. Are all unionists like this? They sure do pick em. Can’t believe that dude was a head teacher either.

geeo

I usually watch the daily/sunday politics farce at midnight in my kip, that way its comfier when it bores me to sleep.

A.Neil gave Jola a mild grilling and she completely fell apart.

Anyone would think A.Neil deviated from the friendly script…!

As for filliblustering flipper, this STV debate will be a waste of time unless the person in charge has the sense to interrupt him when waffling p*sh…

Roll_On_2014

Apparently our STU is currently a wee bit indisposed. It’s the third tweet down.

Have a speedy recover STU.

Jon D

O/T
Take yer stanes doon tae Gretna, courtesy of Rory Stewart

You couldnae script this mince…

link to indiegogo.com

Bunter

Seems that The Times is the source of the story that Junkers agrees with Barosso on Scotland in the EU, which sort of lets the likes of the BBC and Pienaar, this morning, off the hook regards any ”misrepresentation” of his views.

The BBC from experience will run with this lie unless YES write a wee letter to Junkers asking him to clarify matters as to his position on indy.

Lesley-Anne

geeo says:

As for filliblustering flipper, this STV debate will be a waste of time unless the person in charge has the sense to interrupt him when waffling p*sh…

I agree with your waste of time statement geeo but there is a silver lining to it, we’ll all see just how utterly incompetent and useless Darling really is. 😉

As far as interrupting him when he talks p*sh well that is going to be a long night then cause the guy in charge would never shut up he’d be constantly talking. 😛 Mind you I have absolutely NO confidence that the guy in charge will shut Darling up but I DO have every confidence that he will constantly interrupt the First Minister!

bluedog

Ken500 @ 12.15 says, ‘Norway has a £500Million Oil Fund.’

Is that all?

But the point that still seems to escape SNP groupies is Norway has done this without becoming a member of the EU. Yet it seems according to SNP propaganda, Scotland is going to match Norway in the GDP per capita stakes from within the EU.

Can anyone see the flaw in this thinking?

Here’s a hint, its all to do with control of the EEZ.

Next question; what are the chances of Scotland retaining full control of its EEZ after joining the EU?

TYRAN

Andy-B – Corby are Brit-Scotch. I would guess it would largely no. This will then be touted by No Better and the media as some sort of person reflection of how Scotland will vote.

WantonWampum.

Pienaar`s Politics on R5 – live on IndyRef from Glasgow with a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds’.

Alistair Crapmichael MP (Sec of State of Scotland)
Jim Murphy MP for SLAB and Mibbeland
Ming Campbell MP for Clegg
Edwin Collins for “NO”
John Redmond Tory MP and anti EU campaigner

versus

Alex Salmond First Minister of Scotland
Hardeep Singh Kohli

Pienaar never once mentioned Passports or the ancient borders of Scotland being controlled from Belfast?

“Britishness” bartered to bits whilst “Scottishness” never got a mention?

One would imagine that the delineation of Nationhood would be established – BEFORE – any question of “Britishness” or “Scottishness” could be resolved?

In 2007 Brown, as PM and Darling as his Chancellor shifted Passport Processing (for Scots only) from Glasgow to Belfast – on the 300th Anniversary of the Act of Union of 1707.

In 2011 the current Unelected ConDem Govt shifted control over Scotland`s Ancient Borders – from Stranraer to Belfast.

By any logic, the Scottish Nation NO LONGER EXISTS when Scots Passports and Scottish Borders are controlled from Belfast.

Unbelievably, Brian Donohoe, SLAB MP, during the recent Passport fiasco, asked a tory PM why HIS Ayrshire Constituents will need to travel to Belfast for a Passport?

In 2007 Donohoe had zero objections when his Party made 187 x Workers redundant at Glasgow Passport Office.

Am I an Ulsterman – or a Scot?
When 1.8 million Ulstermen control the borders and Passports of all 5.3 million Scots?

“Freedom`s just another word for Nothing left to LOSE”

Remembering of course that these despicable actions versus Scotland were Granted “Royal Assent”.

muttley79

O/T Looks like even more poison from the Thatcher era is being revealed:

link to mirror.co.uk

link to mirror.co.uk

link to mirror.co.uk

macart763m

Do we care what Mr Neil says or does? We know the media position on the referendum, they’re part of the orthodoxy and therefore part of the problem. They actively support the idea of Westminster governance from various party and corporate allegiances.

The people need to be talking to each other, debating amongst ourselves. The facts and evidence to base decisions upon are already all out there for people to find and debate over. The media’s opinion has been noted, considered and by us at least, discarded. With that in mind we’ll let them know what the outcome is after the electorate have had a bit of a chat and the vote has been held. 🙂

Lesley-Anne

Jeez!

Did you have a look at what you can get for your *ahem* donation there JD? 😛

For £10 we will select a stone from our supply of locally sourced stone and use it to create our monument. Show you care by helping us one stone at a time.

For £100 Supporters will receive a limited edition print of The Auld Acquaintance by the award winning architect, Paul Jakulis.

For £1,000 A tour of The Auld Acquaintance followed by a walk in the beautiful Scottish borders with Rory Stewart OBE MP. Rory is an acclaimed author and has walked 6000 miles on foot across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. More recently, he walked 400 miles across his constituency of Penrith and The Border. In 2006, he founded Turquoise Mountain Institute for Arts and Architecture in Kabul, Afghanistan, a charity committed to rebuilding Afghanistan’s craft industry.

I really don’t know what is worse, paying a tenner and letting them choose a stone from their locally sourced stuff or paying £1,000 and ending up on a tour with Tory Rory Stewart. 😛

Not only that but so far they have raised a grand total of, wait for it now, £453! Their target by the way is a mere £55,000! 😛

As for the utter garbage in the description of their *cough* plans well let’s just say it would make a fantastic comedy sketch! 😛

pete the camera

when you watch the Sunday politics listen for the theme tune from the good the bad and the ugly when they are talking about the polls

Nana Smith

@Lesley-Anne

Geez they’re selling stones, specially selected.
Wow if ever there was a scam….

Morag Graham Kerr

How can it possibly cost £55,000 to build a cairn of stones in a field? Rory is taking the piss, surely!

I was disappointed the Yes Indie Balloon couldn’t get funding, but I could see that it wasn’t the best way of spending £30,000 in the run-up to the big day. At least, though, it was obvious where the money would have gone and why it would have cost that much.

£55,000 for a cairn that probably won’t be visible for more than a few hundred yards? Even if it is next to the M9? I suppose No are rolling in money so what does it matter, but it all seems faintly ridiculous.

geeo

Agreed leslie-anne.

The problem for STV is that A.Salmond will not allow himself to be rail-roaded by anyone.

In fact, he is likely to set them up for ridicule by letting them spout pash then hitting them with the facts of the matter.

I would actually like him to go off message and ask darling a direct question.

Q. Do you stand by your “blood and soil” nationalism comments insulting me personally, the SNP explicitly and every Yes supporter involved in the debate ?

Or was that just a joke like the N.Korean dictator joke ?

That should keep him blinking for 2 hours.

Lesley-Anne

Nana Smith says:

@Lesley-Anne

Geez they’re selling stones, specially selected.
Wow if ever there was a scam….

Where I come from Nana that is DEFINITELY called a SCAM!

The Auld Acquaintance will be built over the summer, in a field close to Gretna (near the M6), on the Scottish border. We will be laying the first stones on July 20th. Come and join in! This will be better than Hadrian’s Wall.

I’m sort of thinking that they are not too genned up on their geography either. They are *ahem* building this monstrosity in a field near Gretna but then also mention that it will be *cough* near the M6. Well as far as I’m aware the M6 is in ENGLAND and the M74 is in SCOTLAND as is Gretna. So to claim a field near Gretna and the M6 is utter garbage. If the field is near the M6 then it is obviously also nearer to CARLISLE than Gretna! DOH! 😛

HandandShrimp

I would be surprised if Corby voted Yes. Were they not trying some legal action to be allowed to vote in the actual referendum? They, perhaps understandably, are worried about being left behind. I seriously doubt they are keen on us leaving the Union.

Lesley-Anne

I think I’ve sort of figured out why it will cost them £55,000 to build this *ahem* cairn Morag. They have obviously built in the cost of having to rebuild what they build on day 1 again on Day 2, Day 3 etc because during the night some *ahem* unscrupulous individuals 😉 have gone into their field and *cough* borrowed all their stones they have used to build their cairn with. 😛

geeo

Asda Corby are supplied from asda warehouses in england.

Except for supplies of Scottish produce like irn bru, tunnocks teacakes sort of thing etc.
Maybe they are worried about losing bar bru ??

Robert Peffers

@Helena Brown says:13 July, 2014 at 12:23 pm:

“I am sure that Alistair Darling is perfectly aware of what you are saying, he thinks we are all stupid, remember the History Woman.”/i>

Not even a lawyer could make anything other than the truth from these two Articles of Union and not even a lawyer could find more than two Kingdoms had signed the treaty of union.
“Article I – That the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England shall upon the first day of May next ensuing the date hereof, and for ever after, be united into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN; And that the Ensigns Armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as Her Majesty shall appoint,, and the Crosses of St Andrew and St George be conjoined, in such manner as Her Majesty shall think fit, and used in all Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns, both at Sea and Land.

Article III – THAT the United Kingdom of Great Britain be Represented by one and the same Parliament to be stiled The Parliament of Great Britain.

Two different articles the first united the royal realms and the second starts a new parliament. In neither case is one Kingdom or one parliament more equally sovereign than the other.

geeo

Thinking about reasoning for a corby mock referendum, i agree if it is No then it shall be projected as how we will vote.

What if they vote Yes though ?

geeo

Bloody hell..premature posting syndrome !

If Yes, will they try swap Corby for Faslane and solve their trident issue ?

muttley79

@geeo

No, I hope Salmond does not ask Darling these questions. That is what they want him to do. Salmond should be asking him about the consequences of a No vote. Salmond will also want to get over all the positives of independence; it would be a waste of time bringing up what Darling has said about him. The vast majority of voters will only be bothered about the issues, rather than what the politicians say about each other.

Morag Graham Kerr

I was once involved with trying to start an SNP sub-branch in Corby, but it didn’t get very far. I don’t think we approached it very well, mind you.

I think the town would vote No, afraid of being completely cut off from Scotland, in hostile territory as it were. It’s a strange sort of place really. I’ve little doubt that the plan is to big up a No vote as “Corby pleads with Scots, don’t make us foreigners!” All over the BBC and the papers.

If it was a Yes, it would be quietly ignored, so what’s not to like?

Tom Foyle

A bit O/T, but the FIRST thing I now do each day is read comments on WoS. It’s great to start the day howling with laughter! Whoever said Scots are dour must have been talking about a BTer.

John Young

From Facebook-
BBC up to their old tricks again: ”muting” Nicola Sturgeon’s replies to Andrew Neil’s questions on the ?#?indyref? every time she gets a bit of wind in her sails.

That was about as blatant as I’ve ever seen a presenter use the controls at his disposal (volume button) to try creating a false and suggestive image of the country’s Deputy First Minister as some kind of incompetent minister who doesn’t have a foundation for the extensively funded proposals she’s put forward.

Graeme Menzies

@Blackdouglas.

The newly launched aicraftless carrier IS their attempt at a death star.

YESGUY

I think things will to calm down a bit when the Games start. The eyes of all will be on the track rather than politics. All the bluff and bluster now is only the same shit different day. keep calm and don’t let a few polls or media sound bites knock your confidence.

It would be a miracle if the polls showed a YES lead.

We’re fighting the state here folks and we won’t get any freebies from them so ignore the polls.

The No campaign have NO argument. Every promise come with a scare and every question is deflected. They cannot and will not admit anything unless forced.

The Games will give everyone a wee break and lets be fair it’s well over due. Enjoy the summer and maybe a few Scottish medals . Every success is a YES vote. “Look folks, Scotland is competing against other countries as Scotland and not teamGB”

Once the games are over it will be all hands to the pumps and the final stretch to a YES victory.

keep the faith folks. The MSM and Govt are going to play REAL hard ball then. We haven’t had anything like it yet. And remember this is the single biggest thing to happen to the whole of the UK. Nothing can compare. They NOW realise that they are in a hell of a fight.

Take a break from the scares and enjoy the summer.
Ignore the negativity, we’re winning.
Look around you, We YES voters are everywhere, And we ain’t going anywhere.

I can’t wait myself. Every NO voter i see is surrounded with YESSERS. They’re out there in dribs and drabs and WE ARE LEGION.

WE ARE WINNING.

Thepnr

@YESGUY

Well said that man. It would be good if we could all relax just a bit, put the referendum out of our mind for a couple of weeks and take a break. I doubt that for me this is possible.

Too late now, I have been consumed as have you judging by that chat we had at the Black Bull in Edinburgh. Your enthusiasm is infectious though so keep it up, helps buoy the spirits of the rest of us.

By the way Norway’s oil fund is a lot more than £500 million, somebody using that dodgy calculator again.

Ministry of Finance forecasts that the fund will reach NOK 4.3 trillion ($717 billion) by the end of 2014 and NOK 6 trillion ($1 trillion) by the end of 2019

A wee country the size of Scotland will have as much in the bank as savings by 2019 as the UK has as debt. Only if UK meets it’s targets, which of course it won’t.

There are none so bind as those that will not see. Aye Right!

Ken500

Westminster gets (average) £3Billion surplus from Scotland. Scotland gets £4Billion debt repayment to Westminster on monies it doesn’t borrow or spend. Scotland could save £1.5Billion on Trident/ illegal wars and £1.5Billion on a tax on ‘loss leading’ cheap alcohol. = £10Billion a 1/6 of Scottish revenues.

EU costs 1/100 of Scottish revenues and it comes back in grants/CAP etc. EU costs nothing. Westminster blocks EU renewable grants to Scotland and takes monies intended for Scottish farmers. Scotland receives the lowest farming CAP in EU as part of the UK.

YESGUY

Thepnr

Alex i think i have spoken to most in my area about the ref and YESSERS are everywhere. The one or two No voters are guys i don’t think will even turn up for it.

Saying that , the scares and smears still effect the few. So it’s not as if it’s job done.

I will keep my beady eyes online for more info and answer any fears they have down my way . But the big run in is still to come and we should remember it’s a marathon not a sprint.

And Noways got even more money in their oil fund?? If only we had taken the chance in 79 . This would be a bad dream.

YES folks.

To save your NHS . To stop the disgraceful abuse of our disabled and infirm. To stop OUR assets being drained dry by a Wastmonger elite. To stop OUR CHILDREN GOING BLOODY HUNGRY BECAUSE OF SANCTIONS.

Ann

I’ve only watched the Katy B and Paulo Nutini sets.

I did notice in various other clips that the BEEB showed, that there was a distinct lack of flags.

I saw the UJ with the horizonal red, with and blue stripes, A Manx one and one that was either an Austrailan or New Zealand flag. Very few Saltires.

The stand out Scottish flag being the double flag on the right hand side of the screen which had the Royal Standard and a Saltire and I’m sure by the time of the Paulo’s set that the plain Saltire had been replaced by a YES Saltire.

What happened on one of the stages?

Also, I thought Junckers had said that he could see no problems with Scotlands continuing memembership if a Yes vote and that he would respect the vote of the Scottish people and also he was for expansion within Europe.

Hugh Wallace

If paid charity fund raisers are ‘chuggers’, are paid political activists ‘puggers’? And does that sound vaguely rude to anyone else or is it just me?

‘Won’t be long darling, just off for a spot of quick pugging!’

‘That was a damn fine bit of pugging we did last night Roger. Oh thank you Tim, you are my very favourite pugger, you know’.

Ok, I’ll get my coat…

wee folding bike

Surely if the Chuggers are doing their thing for Better Together then wouldn’t Puggers they would be Bugge…

Oh, perhaps not.


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