To a grouse
We normally have a fatwa on all poetry here, but as it’s Burns Night we’re making an exception – this magnificent effort by William Duguid was just too good to pass up.
Had we but known in time we’d have slipped it to John Barrowman, so to speak.
—————————————————–
Wee, sleekit, glowerin’, troublous Darling,
O what a panic’s set thee snarling!
Thy bare-faced claims we can’t use sterling
Dinna convince.
The imprecations thou keep’st hurling
Are full o’ mince.
I ken wherefore thou art sae crabbit,
Thy fizzog like a startled rabbit,
Thy point of view sae parched and scabbit,
Thine aspect grim.
Faith! Thou maun earn a handsome habit
Wi’ ermine trim.
I doubt na but thy denigration
O’ Scotia’s self-determination
Is based on wild imagination,
Or pauchlin’ lies!
Such mischief bears its indication
In blinkin’ eyes.
Thy Project Fear has fallen tae ruin!
The Cybernats gave it a doin’,
Noo all deride its idle spewin’
O’ stories strange,
And bold September’s wind’s ensuin’:
The wind o’ change!
Thou saw Carmichael, bare and wast,
And moothy Sarwar, speakin’ fast,
And Michael Moore, in ancient past,
For mercy plead,
By Nicola’s scything wit outclassed
And left for deid.
O Grand Panjandrum o’ Finance,
Wha reads White Papers at a glance,
Whose style o’ banking governance
Was fair found wantin’,
It’s nae surprise we look askance
At a’ thy rantin’!
Gowk, thou maun learn the lesson plain:
Thy negativity is vain,
Awa’ back hame and think again,
Thy scheme’s agley.
An’ nought remains but grief and pain
On voting day!
How drab thy lot, compared wi’ me!
Westminster only toucheth thee,
And, as I backward cast my e’e,
It turns tae dust,
While forward, though I canna see,
I hope and trust!
—————————————————–
We’re off for a wee dram. Have a grand one, readers.
Brilliant!
Slainte abody!
That is brilliant! I’m goin tae learn it.
Absolutely brilliant!
I have to say I normally find poetry on this site a complete switch off, but this is class. I’m going to read it again noo.
Another example of Cybernats deliberately and wilfully using intelligence and satire to make their case.
Oh the humanity! When will it end!
That’s awfy guid.
Surely Mr Barrowman’ll be shoutin’…
“Fantabidozy”!
Aye, that is class!
Genius maun.
Good stuff!
Just in from cookin skirlie for 20 and that poyum has just given me such a lift. Thanks Bill.
Brilliant – deserves to be read out at a Burns Supper, think Alex Salmond will be attending a few.
I thoroughly enjoyed that. Thank you William or should it be Wullie (which reminds me of my brilliant my grand father – a Burns fan and reciter to the very end)?
Superb. Never a more deserving neep heid has been addressed so astutely.
Excellent!
Fantastic! I’m drinking Staropramen right now so will read it again later with a more appropriate wee malt
A actually hiv a wee lump in ma throat. Grand.
Four decades of being told to ‘talk right’ is becoming a fading memory. I’m sure that this is down the the referendum campaign, and it’s encouragement for us to embrace all things that identify our nation, up to and including it’s language and dialects, as markers of who we are. And it’s wonderful when so many aspects of our national psyche are expressed like this, in poetry, in character, with tongue firmly in cheek. This is just great.
Westminster is the Gowk in Scotlands nest.Good riddance to it.
Class of which Burns himself would have approved.
Happy Burns night all and enjoy a wee dram or twa.
weel done cutty sark
love it!
Perfect pastiche, William! Thoroughly enjoyed it.
My wife’s seventieth birthday today.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
How dae we naw dae a Wings Burns Supper? I’ll dae Holy Willie.
How excellent!
Brilliant, read it oot to my mam , it fair made her laugh.
Told me I had double posted but nothing showed on site on the first post.
Sorry
Brilliant!
Wee, sleekit, glowerin’, troublous Flipper
Yer lies have stitched ye up like a kipper
Aye, nae bad.
A special dispensation for poetry? What happened to the bit about protecting our culture? Oh, my mistake, that’s about fitba and the relative merits of vinegar and broon sauce.
Haven’t switched off, but the light has just dimmed.
Enjoyed that.
Last verse does it for me.
Happy Burns night.
Albamac, “A Red Red Rose is great, but the wan it does it fir me is the third verse from O, were I on Parnassus Hill.
Beyond the sea, beyond the sun,
Till my last, weary sand was run;
Till then – and then I love thee.
Happy Burdy, Mrs Albamac
The trouble is Captain Jack that we won’t be able to time travel if the unimaginative vote to keep us in the blessed union and discover how fucked we are after the fact.
Can we not have a poetry page – please?
Not normally a fan of these efforts but this one was indeed exceptional. I was impressed by the near perfect mirroring of the cadence of the original. And the message was plain amidst all that fine construction.
Smartly done.
Encore!! Encore!!
What about a Salmond supper next year with tunes from South Pacific washed down with the best champagne?
Excellent. Remind me, does the orgy come before or after the toast to the lassies at a Wings Cult Burns Supper?
Very well done, thanks for sharing this with us
most excellent the Bard would be proud.
Agree with all the foregoing. A superb poem.
Totally brilliant poem.
Love the Cybernats bit.
O/T … but staying on an Arts theme … I mentioned a few weeks ago that good friend musician Gilly had written a YES song, called “Make Alba Shine”.
Arrangements are being made to record it, and Gilly will be singing it again at a Yes Badenoch open meeting on Monday 27th January.
Gill performed it with the Cask band at Celtic Connections last night. You can hear the whole set here:
link to listenagain.canstream.co.uk
“Make Alba Shine” is the final song. Great chorus … :o)
Really, very good. I’ll look forward to hearing it on the Scottish news this evening, as they announce a new addition to the Burns’ Night litany: “The Immortal Sumph”.
Happy birthday Mrs Albamac, and aye that was indeed a Bonnie poem, now who do you think would have the best voice and presentation to recite this piece?.
Cybernat abuse writ large
for the love of god watch with a serious health warning attached link to youtube.com
I raise my glass to you, and not in a bad way.
This postscript by William who penned the poem, is almost as good as the poem itself (found it on the website):
Author’s Note:
“In the spirit of “I am Spartacus”, I hereby embrace the term “Cybernat” in the neutral sense of “supporter of Independence who comments and debates online”.
Recent use of it by politicians and the Daily Mail to tar ordinary Independence supporters with the same brush as online abusers and bullies is outrageous, and can’t be allowed to stand unchallenged. Online abuse and bullying is to be unreservedly condemned and must be stamped out – but it exists on both sides of this debate and, alas, many others.
If you’re abused, that’s dreadful, but there are laws to protect you and you should report it to the police. Don’t attempt to hijack the moral high ground; it’s not clever, it’s not pretty and it’s very, very tedious.”
Well bloody said.
That was absolutely amazing, kudos to the poet.
Brilliant! Love it!
Tattie-bogle!!
What are you trying to do to us poor Wings readers. This is inexcusable and some kind of coordinated brainwashing attempt.
Do not watch, you will never be the same again. You have been warned.:)
Check this out for subtle propaganda from auntie beeb – the underlying theme is that we can’t even make our famous “Scotch” without “English” products – that it’s a product of the “union” you see… when the sad truth obvious to anyone is that this is just a distiller buying a product on an open market and that unbelievable as it may seen to some half witted Brit Nats – Barley does not hold either a passport or a nationality link to bbc.co.uk
o/t That Daily Hate Mail article is now online. You can now comment on it.
link to tinyurl.com
Is this not the great thing about being a cybernat, we can rage and we can rant but by coming together we would rather laugh the earse aff the Britnat lump.
Thanks for the poem and even greater thanks to all for the company.
I put this on the other thread but will add it on here since the comment re the mail has been also posted here.
I think the best thing to do is not respond at all to the Mail or if you do be very polite- I wouldn’t put it passed them to have folk who are not yes posing as such and writing ‘vile abuse’ just so they can say ‘told you so’.
Also I would not give them any traffic.
I will be supporting the folk named and if need be adding to a crowd fund.
@liz
I agree. It’s their muck. Let them wallow in it!
Tattie-bogle says:
Oh you are so right Barrowman was CRINGE WORTHY!
More Yes votes I think. Notice how tries to re enact the Scottish accent,as he actually speaks in a sort of American/English, what a joke.
Poem was brilliant, so well done, anyone got Darling’s email LOL!
Richt braw thon!
Happy birthday Mrs Albamac!
Wishing all WoSsers a richt guid Burns nicht!
Duguid has done guid! Splendid work, sir.
Off to enjoy the Last British Burns night…
Happy Burns night, I am full of top notch haggis and have a wee malt to hand. The question is do I watch Underworld on C4? (I have a soft spot for awful movies)
Burns Night on beeb 2 Scotland… I know, I know… *sighs*.
bravo William.
And the award for the most original comment in the 2014 Burns Nicht awards goes tae
Graeme McCormick who at
25 January, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Said
“What about a Salmond supper next year with tunes from South Pacific washed down with the best champagne?”
I’m awa fur a dram.
As Rabbie would almost certainly have said
Cya
Well, my reading today has been interesting…
A wee bit banter and condemnation on the Wings
Studied Cezanne from my Open Uni course
A wee light reading with ‘A Storm of Swords’ (Game of Thrones, novel 3)
…and now some Scottish poetry…
Excellent…
Kudos, William. Great rhythm and very pertinent.
OT
We have a beautiful and powerful idea that we are going to make happen soon and you can be part of this…
Make sure you have a YouTube account setup.
—
If you missed the live stream of the fantastic Labour for Indy event on the 23rd we have it available on our Live Stream channel. Filming from the event was done separately and will be available in about a week or so from our YouTube channel.
The videos from our event on the 22nd with Business for Scotland and the wonderful Alan Bissett will also be made available soon.
Scottish Independence Live Events…
link to facebook.com
link to new.livestream.com
link to youtube.com
link to twitter.com
liveindependence@gmail.com
Can I say that I found it very offensive.I will be writing to Jim Murphy to have you barred from posting slights against the great banker Darling.The saviour of the Scottish Banks.Well he burnt the house down and then called the fire brigade..he sort of saved the banks.
Happy Burns night all.
Just watched the Disney cartoon ‘Brave’…thought the closing speech worth sharing:
Some say fate is beyond our command, but I know better.
Our destiny is within us.
You just have to be brave enough to see it.
A wee bit off topic, but usually on Burns night there are a flurry of bagpipes and kilts all over the UK media.
This year it seems to merit very little attention indeed.
Is someone telling the media to play down anything that might encourage any kind of Scottish patriotism ?
These Border Guards got a bad name- silly cows.
link to twitter.com
BBC4 announce a third series of The Bridge, set in Scotland and England 2016.
Oh no! Yet another cybernat spouting vile abuse! ;-D
Brilliant pastiche, brilliant poem, well done William!
Will Jim Murphy, Daily Hail et al. quote this as an example of cybernat abuse and bullying? (No, I didn’t think so either.)
Anyhow, I’m glad the cybernats are able to flyte Alistair Darling so eloquently. Britnats just call Alex Salmond a fat prick/wanker/cunt.
@LumiLumi
Tourettes ?
These Cybernats are at it again. John Barrowmans tribute to Burns from BT has only been up a few hours as highlighted by Tattie-bogle and someone has hijacked it already.
Probably headline news tomorrow.
To catch dame Fortune’s golden smile,
Assiduous wait upon her;
And gather gear by ev’ry wile
That’s justified by honour;
Not for to hide it in a hedge,
Nor for a train attendant;
But for the glorious privilege
Of being independent.
TONGS YA BASS
Marcia @ 9.55
Menacing border guards!
I liked David Halliday’s pic of the Finland/Sweden/Norway border in Lapland
link to twitter.com
That concrete cut-off cone is actually painted bright yellow, I’ve got an analog picture somewhere of myself lying on top of it with an inane grin.
Twitterer “Just Me” cencoriously says it’s not legal to cross borders there. I don’t twitter, otherwise I would’ve told him that I actually have crossed borders there.
The pic is taken from Sweden (the gangway is on the Swedish side), the fell birches in the background are in Finland and Norway is to the left of the pic.
Nordic countries have had a common travel area all my life, way before Schengen. Anyway, trekking in the Lapland wilderness, you sometimes cross the Finland/Norway border back and forth to get to where you want to go. No biggie.
@kendo
It certainly seems the Britnats have an above average of Tourette’s sufferers amongst them. Bless them, they can’t help it, so they are not to be condemned but to be pitied and understood.
Daily Mail do a piece on Cybernats and then BT put this Barrowman bait on a hook. Just laught it off guys.
Excellent…slange!
Whoever it was that added the drum rolls ect. to the Barrowman piece was laughing it off, my son sent me that link it’s a young guy that has done this and it’s called “takin the piss”.
Lets not got too feart that we shut up all together.
I laughed anyway, I hope this is not part of the “love bombing” from BT that is yet to come.
Sunday Herald front page;
link to twitpic.com
Cameron’s whispering campaign against Independence
Pages 6-11 that’s impressive. Wonder if any announcements will be made?
That Mail piece is a hoot…
“‘Wings’ sees himself as a rallying point for the independence cause, urging his readers to try to convert as many ‘undecideds’ as possible.”
Like all good cult leaders.
Tom Gordon? Don’t get your hopes up.
@Cyborg-nat
CURLERS YA BASS! MOAN THEN!
Dammit, John! I knew Wee Jimmie had gotten her meathooks into you, but I truly hoped you were better than this.
Still, at least we have one thing: Better Together are now no longer allowed to EVER criticize Yes whenever Sean Connery, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Kevin McKidd, and all those other Scottish-born celebs who “don’t even pay their taxes in this country” dare to comment on Scottish independence. (Technically speaking, can we even say people living in Scotland pay their taxes in Scotland, as opposed to the UK?)
Taranaich
‘don’t even pay their taxes in this country’- yes you here that often from BT supporters.
– but they do. Any income arising in the United Kingdom for tax purposes is chargeable to UK tax. I suspect they pay a considerable amount of tax on their royalties.
Sorry to bore you but worth looking now at the comments on that Barrowman Youtube video before they disappear, not everybody reads Wings but plenty people have views.
John is pretty political and signed a piece prior to the 2010 election warning against Conservative policies. I wonder if some of the Better Together posters, the more rabid of which appear to be Tories, will be so sanguine come 2015?
I can’t get too worked up, it isn’t as if we don’t have an embarrassment of celebrity endorsements on the Yes side. It would be kind of odd if their were no Unionists working in the arts.
Underworld was silly…I loved it.
Arrgh, didn’t mean to link to the video, just thought the posts were very interesting from a Yes point of view.
I see BT have now disabled the ratings for the video.
Thepnr – Where is Chicogo
@twenty14
Why you ask? Is this an invite?
Happy Burns nite to all. Hope you haggis was tasty and your malt was firery. Crackin verse to end the day.
As to that Barrowman clip, I started watching the one provided by tattie-bogle @ 8.21pm (With a health warning, thank you, tattie!)
link to youtube.com
but I had to click myself out of there after the first two minutes (the vid is more than 6 mins). The first minute was spent confused wondering why some American in front of some Hollywood-type PR photo-op is talking about Rabbie Burns with a sort of a Scottish/American accent and wiggling his eyebrows and wearing an outrageously tartan jaikit and… And then I saw that it was no Hollywood PR backdrop but BT, and it all made sense, this guy’s prepared speech, and I tried to listen while he started reiterating all the usual BT guff, but life’s too short so I clicked out.
Here’s a laugh from the unionist jam tomorrow salesmen. Three different competing sorts it seems, but not on sale until 19th September.
link to archive.is
Just got in from a Burns Supper! Glad people liked the piece.
@call me dave
Picture in your mind Anas Sarwar saying “Yes or No Yes or No”
Sorry Anas, Yer teas oot. It’s YES. Now fuck off.
Thepnr – listen to the articulate Mr Barrowman – Chicogo must be in the outskirts of Chigaco
Really enjoyed that poem . Hope Alistair does too !
William Duguid – thanks so much for sharing your ‘darling’ poem.
@twenty14
Listen to the articulate voice of those that believe in an Independent Scotland, they drown you out.
Just watched the magnificent Celtic Connections Burns concert on BBC2. (Shame on you, STV. Not a thing.)
Greeting all the way through it. Burns always does that to me but it provokes contemplation.
Why in my seventh decade do I find myself realising that the people I like least in the world are the English. After all, like nearly all Scots, I have many relatives that are by birth and now by choice English.
This is what the raving lunacy of the English media like the Daily Mail is doing. It is simultaneously changing England into a small minded, intolerant,xenophobic and angry nation while encouraging them to dislike or even detest the Scots.
The sooner we are out the better and then we can freely join the rest of a friendly world in our own right.
Excellent version William Duduid.
Bannerman declares he has an opinion, a voice, but sadly he hasn’t a clue. Just go out and learn the facts laddie, and then stand before us and express your newly informed opinion.
I see Mr Bateman’s latest gives us a peek behind the big scary curtain in the Emerald City.. Sorry the BBC. But it’s just the same really.
He’s doing well Mr Bateman.
I clicked out of this Barrowman guy’s “eulogy” to Rabbie Burns and Scotland when he said “we are a people of big ideas and big ambitions” – in front of an BT wall.
BT is all about small ideas and no ambition for Scotland.
This Barrowman guy went on to slate Alex Salmond and came across as very petty and small-minded.
And then claiming how Rabbie Burns would’ve embraced the union [excuse me while I puke] and would’ve shrunk from meetings at Bute House with dictator Alex Salmond…
How dare they (BT) appropriate Rabbie Burns for their faux-haggis frenzy!
Rabbie Burns is dead these two hundred years so nobody knows what he’d say about this referendum. But judging by his writing, he’d be a YES. We don’t know, so let’s not put words or political ideas into his mouth.
Invoking Rabbie Burns is like if somebody in Finnish politics said Aleksis Kivi would vote for our party. (Aleksis Kivi was the first obstinate Finn that actually wrote poems, plays and novels in Finnish, before that Finnish lit was actually written in Swedish.)
Lumilumi
You can’t be Finnish and must be Scottish?
Just read this little contribution. Excellent version of ‘holy Wullie’ but Darling taking the starring role.
link to facebook.com
Will finish this evening with an 18yr old Glenfiddich and toast my last Burns night as part of the UK – looking forward to the next in an Independent Country
Here’s a guy I met last week at a Yes Aberdeen meeting.
link to facebook.com
Now that’s ‘devotion for ye’.
That’ll be one busy taxi driver.
( Sorry, but I don’t have a clue how you make that a live link now)
Heh!, it does the link automatically.
Live and fucking learn eh.
Well another lovey stakes his Union claim and let’s see where it gets him long term.
John Barrowman is entitled to his opinion, but to describe the most capable and trusted politician in these British Isles as a ‘pudding’, just puts himself into that very same pudding dish! When will they ever learn to respect the position, if not the incumbent. That said, Alex Salmond is the most effective politician Scotland has ever produced.
I’m getting really tired of these London based ‘Scottish’ loveys sticking their silly oar in. Why don’t they just keep their own quiet counsel and let Scots get on with it?
Camerons whispering campain againt Independence
is it Chinese Whisper,s, Mandolin perhaps.
Guys – BEWARE the Barrowman video on youtube – it’s screaming trap to me. We’ve just had a push for clamping down on CyberNats and now we have one of the most cringeful and frankly insulting videos from a gay man who has strong links to the BBC… can you say Calman with me??? Don’t lose your cool if you post anything on this…
@lumilumi, hi ya where you been hidein,hiv,na seen you awe week,how,s your Dad.
@ William Duguid, I doff my tammy tae you Sir,the Bard lives on.
We already have cybernats – now we have Willie the Cyberbard!
All power tae yer pen! Great stuff
Scotland on Sunday is reporting that “Alex Salmond is within reach of victory.”
An ICM poll puts the vote at NO 44 – YES 37, a swing of 5 percent since September. When DKs are excluded, this is 54-46.
James Kay – Please say it is so – Yes, YES, oh fuckin Yes
. . . and even John Curtice is admitting it is a swing to Yes:
link to blog.whatscotlandthinks.org
Twenty14 – aye it’s true – national collective posting a link to the SoS site – 10% drop in the NO’s…
I feel a wee trip to the BT facebook page to rub it in coming on
From now on the biggest danger is the “jam tomorrow” liars from the Labour party…
link to facebook.com
Don’t be overly harsh on poor John Barrowman, folks – with that many references to Salmond, he clearly had his script written by Blair McDougall or somebody.
And I meant to say – for those of you who actually go to bed at a “reasonable hour” – you’ll have woken up to some uplifting news.
Now we know why the Daily Heil has started it’s campaign – they must have had wind that this poll was on the way.
Excellent cyberprose!! Thanks for that William t’was perfect
Captain Jack has went back in time and found out what really happened to all the money spent on the ryder cup monies, he told wee johannds lamont, Salmond was in Ladbrokes and stuck the lot on trap 1 in 1.18 at hackney
Barrowmans Jaiket will it replace the pink one .wee ruthie has booked it for next week and jo hands the next unfortunately miss Baillies has to get one ordered in as it does not come in sizes for the err Larger ladies
SoS links
link to scotsman.com
and their JB article
link to scotsman.com
Holebender says
“Aye, nae bad.”
Cumon noo a bit less o the effusive praise, huv ye furgoat yir a Scotsmin fur goads sake, a simple grunts a ye need tae express approval nixt ye’ll be wantin a round o applause, help ma boab.
YES
And the Sunday Herald on the FCO’s Devolution Unit
link to archive.is
Borrowman is an irrelevance.
He is what Stalin called a useful idiot.
Ivan McKee of B for S on the D Murnaghan two hour special from Glasgow between 10 and 12 this morning. (Around 1045)
Not an audience set up, bascially they’re doing the programme from Glasgow.
ICM poll fits the trend nicely.
Sky News are running a piece at 10am this morning called “The State of the Nation”, all about Scottish Independence.
Their Scottish reporter James Mathews carried out straw polls in a bowling club in North Edinburgh and a golf club in the Borders. Unbelievable results.
Does anyone know the places he visited?.
Check out his biased results throughout the UK.
link to news.sky.com
Excellent article by Stephen Noon in the Scotsman:
link to archive.is
Very, very positive, giving the impression that it is a carefully managed Yes campaign, that things are going to plan, and pointing out some of the pitfalls awaiting the No campaign over the coming months.
John Barrowman – is this the official start of the “celebrity love bombing”?
The Sky straw poll was conducted in Davidson’s Mains and West Linton in a bowling club (older people) and a rural golf club (middle class people). These are both affluent areas more likely to be inhabited by Tory voters. So they basically polled the two groups of people who are least likely to vote Yes.
“Does anyone know the places he visited?.”
Yep he went to Maitland Bowling Club in Edinburgh and West Linton Golf club both holding Burns suppers, average age about 65,
19 Y 16? 92 N
picked thier venues very carefully shall we say
You beat me to it Andrew.
Love the poetry!
Top tip for John B, though.
No self disrespecting proud Scot should ever appear in a video like that wearing just a naff tartan jacket. It should always be accompanied by a See You Jimmy wig, a Sir Harry Lauder walking stick and a Daily Record stuck under the oxter.
Apart from that, keep up the excellent work, John.
Great ICM results, will be delivering the new YES newspaper today with a spring in my step. (Although I still think we are ahead in the polls, but we will play along with their little game).
Also, on the subject of this guy Barrowman. He is such a “proud Scot” that as soon as he moved to America with his family, he dropped his Scots accent for an American accent.
So he now talks in two accents. The broad Scots accent when he is vising Glasgow and telling us to vote NO, and the American accent when he is thousands of miles and he doesn’t want to feel ashamed of being a Scot.
Sky News are ‘so out of touch’ on Scotland, it’s embarrassing.
The London MSM reporters who covered the White Paper launch, seemed a bit ambigious.
‘Why not’, not hostility was the main reaction.
There was less coverage of Edinburgh Hogmanay and Burns Night, than usual. Edinburgh Hogmanay was not featured.
In any UK Referendum on Scottish Independence – YES would win, decisively. Higher turnout -higher majority?
I notice Sky didn’t do the straw poll at my local miner’s club nor indeed at the local food bank. Straw polls from Maitland and West Linton! good job they didn’t ask them about immigrants the Daily Mail would blush
The bit Barrowman seems to miss – his family had to emigrate to improve their lives. Barrowman is lucky he has a career where he can come back. Many emige Scots families were/are not so fortunate. He is getting the best of both worlds, unlike millions of others.
Self seeking hypocrite comes to mind. ‘All right Jack’
Blackout on BBCs Andrew Marr show of any front page headlines of Scottish newspapers. Wonder why.
is the celeb in the video the sean connery of the nobetter together campaign?
Aye Ken
And it was about Ex Pat Scots meeting in America and celebrate err being Scottish (not British)….and that’s before we even talk about the accent, the editing and ‘Chigogo’ and ‘SAL-mond’
Barrowman is pathetic
Every word is a case for Independence
The headline poll, shows yes uplift of 5%, but have a look at the breakdown given in prof curtices link
link to blog.whatscotlandthinks.org
Behind the primary question, were breakdowns of the DK (what are you likely to do)and breakdown of the NO if no powers were forthcoming after NO. Puts yes up to 49% Maybe Rev Stu already crunching the numbers for this mornings posts…
Oh aye, and bit on Radio Scot just now about Anas Sarwars own goal putting kid to private school, same school he went to.
Hey Rev Stu, you got another mention
link to nationalcollective.com
Excellent work there, William Duguid. But it should be “To a louse”, surely…!
The ICM poll, that’ll do nicely for now, thank you!
And John Barrowman…Who he?
So much for Prof John Robertson for telling BBC Scotland that their was an imbalance in the guests that come into the studio towards the NO camp.
Here we are, Sunday morning on GMS headlines show with Ken MacDonald and it sounds very much like four unionists views and opinions to no YES opinions.
Fair and balanced BBC Scotland my arse.
Murnaghan falters before debate even starts. Head of the YES campaign A.S and head of the NO campaign A.D.
Barrowman the end of a Panto donkey
No mention on the Scottish news of the latest poll figures ! Nor on the online BBC news ! Can’t understand it ! Why would they not want to mention it !
When Scotland becomes Independent , I hope Scottish people remember how the BBC treated the people of Scotland .
Alex Salmond superb on the Sky “State of Union” programme.
I think 26th January 2014 will come to be seen as the tipping point in our fight to regain our sovereignty!
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that!
Yes! YEs! YES!
aaaaaarrrggghhh!
Looks like Barrowman’s jacket is my clan tartan.
On the Cybernat front, I was at an IBM event in 2011 and they were explaining how they were developing their software products so that they could be sold to businesses to help them get into using social media for marketing. The speaker used the term “unowned marketing” to describe this coming new world where companies would no longer 100% “own” their own marketing, with the social media part being very useful, but being outwith their ownership.
So that’s why the SNP, when asked to keep the Cybernats in order, should say words to the effect that:-
“we hope all online comments on the indepenence debate are polite and respectful, however neither the SNP, the Yes Campaign, Greens-for-independence, Labour-for-Independence, Libs-for-Independence, Tories-for-independence, or others could or would seek to control independent free speech.”
Problems are opportunities …
on the passing of westminster, the parlaiment of great britain and NI
AKA, the longest suicide note in history
Epitaphe on a Suicide
Here lies a root o’ hell
sent by the deil’s ain dibble
this worthless body damned itsel’
to save the Lord the trouble
RB
Elaine C Smith up against David Mundell next on Sky – that will be an interesting one!
BTW thanks to Bunter for the Sky tip-off – really enjoying it so far. The panic in the union camp is palpable!
So what have we learned do far from this mornings Murnaghan
Well apparently the United Kingdom will be dissolved
So why do the Westminster bunch insist that the UK will continue?
caz-m
I didn’t think GMS with Ken was too bad, especially when they got to the blogs part. The way they all spontaneously burst out laughing when they looked at the National Collective cartoon of Murphy and his idea to shut down debate will have Murphy and No absolutely raging. That laughter and the poll today was worth a lot to the Yes campaign
(It is a funny cartoon)
Who is that twat Boyle waving his hands on Murnaghan ?
McKee having to deal with the idiot Boyle
Boyle (whoever he is) seems to have been at the Anas Sarwar school of political debate. Simply rant over your opponent when it’s his turn to talk. Murnaghan isn’t much better. More heat than light. Darling up next.
Boyle certainly didn’t do his case any good constantly interrupting, he must have got lessons from Anas.
He is an ignorant loud mouthed buffoon.
Just googled Boyle
John Boyle OBE, Chairman of Hamilton Portfolio and Motherwell FC
What is it with people that have OBE after their names
His ‘the British will not allow Scotland to use the pound’ crap and waving his hands in the face of Ivan McKee
Ivan came out on top over the burbling Boyle
Shame I seem to have missed the best bit, Elaine, Alex, etc.
Interesting that the venue is the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome. No subliminal message there, eh
Looking at the Sky ‘poll’ of crumblies at the bowling and golf clubs hardly anybody was under 65!
I wonder what will Darling say after YES overtake NO
Will it still be ‘ ah I did say it will be closer than people think’ or perhaps ‘bags packed, I’m out of here!’
@William Duguid:
Just properly back online after a couple of days mediocre wifi coverage. Loved the poem, fair made my weekend! Weel done, sir!
@Handandshrimp
Totally agree with you. But there is still a huge imbalance in the guests at Pacific Quay.
I think it is fair to say that BBC Scotland didn’t listen to a word John Robertson said.
Ivan McKkee vs John Boyle up now on Sky News website
link to news.sky.com
Late night last night (Burns Night Quiz, our team of nats was called ‘Yes, Obviously’). Sorry heid the day and this is my first post. What a fantastic poem. Really probably the best satirical rework of a lyric or poem I have ever seen. One to keep. Well done Wullie.
This thread is embarrassing. I live in West Linton and I went to the same school as Anas Sarwar, the one he’s now sending his kids to.
Sheesh, I feel like a cat in a dog suit. Don’t hate me, please!
But hang on, the Golf Club? If we can get 17% there, we’re on a roll. (Indeed there are days when I think it would be easier to padlock the doors of the polling station here rather than bother with the campaigning, but hey, the Golf Club?)
Quality!
I would love to see a tube of this with piccies and toons of Ali D and someone good reading the poem (Brian Cox?, No not thaaht one.) and maybe some softly played Burns song in the background.
I’ve found out a wee bit (not much) more about the Golf Club poll.
Two years ago Sky News showed up at the Burns Supper in Carlops to film. I think it was by arrangement though it sure startled the hell out of me because I was singing and nobody had told me I would have a TV camera in my face. They spoke to various people and eventually broadcast a selection of opinions about independence. I think it was two Yes and three No. One of the yessers was Gaelic poet Aonghas MacNeacaill.
This year they apparently showed up again, but uninvited, and wanted to poll the whole assembly there and then. Jean showed them the door unceremoniously. I think they’d have got a bigger Yes percentage in Carlops. Anyway, it seems they moved three miles down the road and found the Golf Club, and nobody there had the presence of mind to throw them out.
I saw a letter in the Sunday Herald which had a quote from ‘Poetry and Politics: Burns and Revolution’ by WJ Murray:
“Be it in his Scottish nationalism inspired by a desire for freedom from southern domination, or in the greater freedom that transcends national boundaries, Burn’s faith in fraternity remained unshaken.”
Hmm. I wonder which way he would have voted?
And while there is this window in the fatwa, may I recommend this link:
link to psychologytoday.com
The interview finishes with a poem about inner transformation called ‘In Impossible Darkness’, the final phrase of which is resonant for everyone here, especially the Rev. I’ll let anyone who takes the trip have the pleasure of reading it for themselves.