To gaze into the abyss
Posted on
March 07, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Looks like this.
Especially dedicated readers may just have watched Ed Miliband give a bloodless, beaten-sounding address to Scottish Labour’s one-day conference in Edinburgh, in which he explained that Labour were nice, fairness was good, and if everyone made him Prime Minister he’d do all the things Labour have been promising to do for the last 100 years, but never quite got around to (like abolishing the House of Lords).
To be honest, viewers, going by the tone and conviction of the speech, if we’d been canvassing Ed we’d have put him down as a “don’t know”. But the important thing was that it whipped the two-thirds-full hall into a frenzy of enthusiastic adulation.
Passion. You can feel the passion fae here.
is that what a “frenzy of enthusiastic adulation” looks like?
Crap… ive been doing it all wrong……
Are you sure that’s not an audience from Fifty Shades of Grey?
OH… it is…
I always feel a bit sorry for Kezia. Unless she’s speaking at the time.
I now know what zombies look like in real life.
Poor Kezia, she knows she joined the wrong party, if only she had listened to her Dad
Are they unhappy because, even if Ed gets into power, some of them are unlikely to be going along for the ride? Or are they just not enthused by talk of fairness etc? Or have they just heard it all before, like the rest of us?
I can hear the hyena-like laughter emanating from the last image.
As Ronnie noted ‘They’ wrote the vow. That means Cameron, Miliband & Clegg I presume.
We will deliver it! That means the ‘Grand coalition’ I expect.
Take your medicine Scotch and be swept back under that Westminster carpet.
Every day in every way the mandarins in Westminster adjust, append and subtly alter what the Smith Commission proposals were meant to be. We want the full monty!
Vote SNP and get Scotland it’s too risky to believe Schiester,Schiester and Flywheel ‘the three amoebas’.
The next Labour in Scotland PPB will be announced as, ‘there now follows a Party Election Broadcast against the Scottish National Party’.
God, I’d hate to see the chaos they’d cause if they were actually having fun somewhere they’d like to be.
Dominoes night at Margaret Curran’s hoose must be a riot. “I’m chapping..”
Did unsteady Eddy categorically rule out any “confidence and supply” understanding with the SNP?
What a dour lookin lot.
It looks like Geezabreck seen the funny side o their speeches tho, or is she just happy that knowone asked her any questions?
1. what fitba is on today?
2. doors are locked, we couldnae get oot
3. are those doors locked yet?
4. god help us
5. death of a salesman
6. suffering from mobile phone withdrawl
7. this movie’s shite
8. would this be the right time to join the SNP
9. we all hate each other
10. SLabot clap clap ding ping clap clap
11. how to make an hour feel like three days
12. heeheehee look at me mum at the top table heeheehee
Who has died? I’ve seen happier funerals.
The movement in Scotland is alive and well.
If Labour had sided with SNP on Indy. they would have not been squirming, not betrayed its people,had chance at power in scotland and rid Tories out for good. Its a bit late to try and copy SNP, Be Scottish Reps and want Tories out ? They are bascially voting YES ….NOW ????
I knew I recognised those features. Murphy is Mervyn Peake’s Steerpike.
“If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing – flung it so far away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it.”
link to mervynpeake.org
Hmmm
Footsoldiers seem to be a bit thin on the ground in those pics.
I take it that your use of ‘frenzy’ was ironic? Most of them look bored to tears. Also looks as though they are following ScotCons lead & spread out to make it look as if audience was bigger. #Labourfail
Now wouldn’t they like to be part of a party that can’t even find a venue in Scotland big enough to house it’s multitude of supporters. Which party is that I hear them cry. Why, SNP of course
my.snp.org/join
And two-thirds is being kind; I’d say it’s barely half-full.
Oh my, that last pic of K. Dugdale is hard to decipher. Is she laughing or crying? The rest of the hall look as though they are at a funeral. Maybe they are. Farewell Labour
Nicola can fill a 12,000 seat venue with ease and Milliband can’t even fill a room.
Where’s Davidson?
Nice that BBC2 in Scotland were kind enough to handover the whole channel to cover the conference. However, given the unfamiliar kicking they just got from Brian I bet they’re wishing “Carry on up the kyber” was on the schedule instead.
Watching the Lego movie
‘Everything is awesome’ repeat
(Even though it is not)
Those pictures are spookily like those at the Scottish Tory conference a few weeks ago. The expression on Kezia Dugdale’s coupon in her first photograph is priceless.
I reckon a so called unity government with the Tories and Labour is on its way. Of course Labour in Scotland would be signing their own death warrant if it happens, and possibly in England as well. If it does happen then Labour would also be destroying at a stroke their last remaining cry of vote SNP, get Tory. Better Together-with the Tories in government at Westminster…
Curtis
Labour Party have to convince Scottish Voters they are not New Labour
up steps Jim Murphy
Murphy looks like shit. Gaunt, tired and rapidly greying hair (does the expense account not stretch to ‘Just for Men’?).
The slow, painful death of the People’s Party…
Did they put “Reserved” signs on every second chair?
It looks like the crowd fa the muppet show.
Where’s Wally
Everywhere.
Where’s Wally?
Everywhere.
“If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands…”
For the last photo, has Baron Ffoulkes just done an unsuccessful stage-dive?
We are Labour look at us go!!
MmHmm..
We’ve got the Nats on the run
Uuhuh..
Mansize tissues available
I’ll take two
£150 please..
You can smell the love in the room.
Whole lotta wasp chewing goin on…
Parting line from Ed
Alright, go back home and prepare for oblivion.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
That’s a third at best if people weren’t worried about who they sat next to and weren’t concerned about when they last showered.
Grand Coalition now on the cards. Far too many politicians talking about it now.
I think I just clocked Alasdair “AlMo” Morrison, former MSP and the Branch Office’s haplessly unpleasant candidate for the Western Isles, in the audience there in that second photo.
No doubt he’s just there to make up the numbers, such as they are, but given what I’ve been hearing from the area with regards to voting intentions it seems like his second stint in the limelight is going to be very brief indeed, so it’s probably wise for him to make the most of it while he can. Featuring in a *second* post on Wings over Scotland is definitely a career highlight.
Well they must have been bringing in folk from the street with the promise of a wee cup of tea and a cake, that hall was at least half full. Well actually it was full of fools but then who cares.
What passes for ‘end of term’ euphoria in the Labour Party.
@Bugger
You could try
Where’s Where’s Wally Wally?? Everywhere Everywhere
and just sending it once
Filled with enthusiasm and raring to go for the GE. NOT.
I’ve seen cheerier folk at a funeral. Has it dawned on them yet that they are in for an almighty kick in the ballot box on 7th May.
Is it right that Milliband said that they, whoever they might be,wrote the VOW. I thought they said a big boy done it and ran away.
I like their slogan Scottish Labour for Scotland. By jeez they dinnae lack fur sheer cheek and brass neck. Or mibies it was irony. I didnae think that they did irony.
Serious question for once.
Do you think that Ed really understands how much in contempt his Northern Branch Accounting Unit is held?
@callum 1:50pm
Don’t fret ower oor wee Brian. He’s finally figured that if he wants to keep his job he needs a few political mates, and not just in the Job Centre Minus queue.
We’ll see and hear more of him cosying up to the alternatives. He does, after all, come from Yes City (Dundee).
Not exactly the Glasgow Hydro and the thousands of enthusiastic party followers that greeted Alex Salmond, Stuart Hosie and Nicola Sturgeon is it? !
FWIW: Looks like they’re in the Pentland suite which only has a 1200 capacity. Even then, they can’t fill it. I can only imagine what they are thinking… bwahahahaha!
I fancy the SNP spring conference key note speech by Nicola will be rather better attended – the audience rather happier looking
There are still more pandas than tory MPs in scotland and guess what these idiots had to offer the people of scotland?
Yet more whining about their incompetent inability to beat the tories here and elsewhere.
We CAN beat that last remaining tory in scotland and we have every intention of doing so while Red Tories like Murphy and his boss Miliband look on impotently.
These corrupt ‘scottish’ Labour chancers only care about trying to save their own jobs and their massive westmisnter expenses claims.
Not exactly shiny, happy people are they! Mind you if I was a Scottish Labour politican and saw my sinecure for life slipping out of my grasp, I’d probably not be a happy bunny either. With their current policies and politicans, I doubt even Keir Hardie would vote for them.
What’s Ed Miliband doing at a “Scottish” Labour rally?
BTW Lamont’s heid below wee Dougies.. priceless!
No hard tae guess what she’s thinking, is it?
Wow! That’s a packed, to the rafters, auditorium.
They really are a spent force, was that the entire membership sans the media whores?
Would it be wrong of me to observe that Cara Hilton is seriously foxy?
Shallow. Yes yes I know. Off to the naughty step
Looks like they are using the auld bettertogether trick of being well spaced out at conferences to make it seem better attended than it actually is.
Almost as if it is the same people organising it…
this whole (poorly attended) panto is not for those that turned up, they know the script. It’s about getting the key soundbites out on the BBC, Daily Record and the rest of the MSM.
I take it that all the young activists are out chapping on doors?
Or was the Liverpool bus delayed?
Meanwhile backstage at the conference.
Substitute sell with vote Labour.
link to youtube.com
OMG!! When I watch this I know we will do well, on our own or not, we will make them notice us. At least Kez managed a smile in the last pic, or was she laughing at Ed’s speech??
@ handclapping
I never sent the first one!
It was typed and the computer hiccuped and reloaded to the top of the story with the comment box empty.
It takes on average 20 minutes for posts to show so to be sure, to be sure, I retyped it and sent it.
I tried shortening the Bugger word to B to see if that was the problem for my pre moderation but it still took 20 or so minutes to appear also.
Nope, can’t place a one of them, but the young English chap looks like an animated character I saw at Christmas wearing robotic trousers controlled by an evil penguin.
What an unhappy bunch! Have they finally, finally realised that they have been totally ‘sussed’ by the Scottish public and that continued lies, smears and false claims for credit are no longer effective? 50 years failing Scotland’s poor! A right-wing agenda! Taking our votes for granted! And worse, acting as a political barrier for decades, just to keep Scottish minds away from independence. Roll on 7 May. RIP Labour Branch Office in Scotland. Stop blaming the SNP! You did this to yourselves!
The capacity of the hall is 1200. A rather unambitious venue to start with but still its not full.
The Faces of Grim.
This is the Labour Party in Scotland,
telling the truth – for once.
And in writing – it’s written on their faces.
This is them away from the TV cameras,
with no need to act as if everything was on track;
no need to remember John ‘Tory’ McTernans’ script.
They all know the grim reality they are facing.
It is written in the polls,
which are as good as tablets of stone to politicians.
There is no doubt, these people have read the writing on the wall.
Except Kezia, maybe, poor thing. She’ll be the last to hear the sound of the penny dropping.
BTW, I didn’t see ‘Tory’ McTernan in the audience.
Maybe he is too busy practising his miracle skills.
These people realise that they’re not just in a hole,
but that it’s a hole they can’t get out of.
And as they sit there, with Ed Milliband speaking at them,
they are thinking the same thoughts we think –
do I believe this shit?
Or, perhaps just as likely, they have already moved on,
and are thinking about life outside the gravy train.
The Grim Reaper is stalking the Labour Heartlands.
WoS has more funders than Labour has delegates.
link to indiegogo.com
I am losing the will to live listening to Murphy
The audience there must feel motivated enough to waste their free time at such an event, listening to a man who slops and slobbers over every syllable. Therefore they must also have an affinity for the mush that is being offered up to them.
Do these people never sit and think about the reality of Labour in Scotland? The flood of misinformation, dishonour and truth bending? Do they really really really prefer Trident over feeding and educating children? Or Scottish resources to be used to prop up the banking elite and uncaring big business?
This is not the Labour Party I knew and shows it is in serious decline. I hope the general public will see this too…if the mainstream media start reporting fact over fiction.
The labour Party in Scotland must be pressed on its differences between it and the rest of the UK. Of course, there is no meaningful difference – and Jim Fud knows that.
Looks like an audience that knows they have sold their country down the river. Apart from the troughers like rat face Alexander of course.
I am watching Murphy on tv. I can’t take in anything he says because or his creepyness. Could the voters of east renfrewshire really vote for this person
Looks like the audience at a Vegan Conference watching a demo of how to carve up a whole lamb’s carcass into freezer ready joints.
50 Shades of Puce!
Jim Murphy
I wonder who he tested his speech out on
It’s a waffle-fcuk-fest
Yesitis@1.57
That’s not the love you smell in the room. That’s a bunch of smelly old farts you smell. Every single one of them. And Kezia’s laughing because she’s just ripped a humdinger right in the middle of Milliband’s speech. A big wet one that smells of keech. Just like Labours Election Promises on Scotland and the Vow.
Stephen.
I bet that’s what hitters bunker looked like as the Russians were clapping on the doors or Berlin
Oops hitler
“Grand Coalition” to save the union? Sure, you can save yourself from drowning in the river by hanging yourself from the bridge. The last unionist redoubt is crumbling. A “Grand Coalition” would not only flatten it at once, but drive a stake through its black, empty heart. Scottish Labour would simply have to disband. They all know this.
I bet the scottish labour mp’s who voted to cut benefits are regretting it now. Seeing as almost all of them will be out of work soon
They photos have really go me on a high – it’s written all over there faces. No ideas, no heart, no vision, no more mp’s salary.
Why is it in the poorest families in Scotland ..(fill in your own aspirational dream)? dim Jim asks.
Because of over 60 years of labour mismanagement Jim. etal.
He’s scraping the bottom of the barrel…and making it up as he goes along, worse than Lamont for cringe!! Oh wait there’s more
This man’s suddenly found so much money down the back of the Scottish Labour’s sofa it’s going to be utopia Jim’s turned into Santa Claus.
Nicola will be stealing his (bribes) err…policies tomorrow.
Every picture tells a story!
Magrit…….”Whit dae you think Kezia hen?”
Kezia……..”We’re fucked!”
@ Bugger the panda 2.00
Do you think Ed really understands how much contempt his North British Accounting Unit is held? NAW.
Sad lot aren’t they. Do you think they hear the sound of the chickens coming home to roost.
I said months back during the referendum that Labour would be handed the same lesson that the Tories got, over Better Together.According to Lord Ashcroft, this is indeed what will happen. Mind you, it coulnae happen tae nicer folk.
This is what happens when you sell out your ain folk and country. Hell mend you.
Whit a difference fae 6 months ago when they were daeing the Dashing White Sargeant wie their Tory pals!
Ah memories.
I’m the same as you, Bugger. My posts take about 20 minutes to appear, and I have to re-type my name and email every time. It’s been this way for months, and stops me posting as often as I used to.
I spotted the well fed face of Jimmy Hood in one of the photos (5th down) I notice that he is sporting a rather smug grin which I hope to help wipe off his face very soon.
I thought that was my gran in the third row, but she’s been dead for ten years. Fuck me, it is her!
The guy sitting next to Willie Bain couldn’t sit any further away from him without moving seats.
@ Juteman @ BtP
I had that problem when I switched from Chrome to Firefox. I think this site only recognises the first registration you make. If you change for any reason (to a different browser eg) it seems to require you re-enter username each time and takes ages to show posts.
I think it’s a WordPress anomaly.
OT Just found a labour thingy for Kenny Selbie (Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath) through my letterbox. Wrote return to sender and stuck it in the post box across the road from my house.
Abyss abyss did you say, something like the Mariana Trench mair like.
The problem with your web browser could be to do with cookies not being enabled. Just an idea
And on an off topic, I see GCHQ is bored again. Manipulating the google rankings to knock this site off its number 1 position. As if the twitter feed would rank higher than the main site.
Chas says:
Who has died? I’ve seen happier funerals.
The movement in Scotland is alive and well.
I don’t think you understand quite right here Chas … this is not a medical conference it’s not THAT sort of movement we are concerned with.
@ Capella.
I haven’t changed anything. Same laptop, same settings, same browser I’ve been using on this site for 3 years.
Jim Murphy’s photo here looks like the scene from the Last Crusade,readers, answers on a post card
AWE Ed am blinded by the light of the brilliance of the new Scottish leader of the branch of the Acounting Unit DIMJIM.
Fifth photo down of Jim Murphy looks like he just spotted someone not clapping hard enough and he’ll deal with them later.
Derick fae Yell says:@ 2.10
“Would it be wrong of me to observe that Cara Hilton is seriously foxy?
Shallow. Yes yes I know. Off to the naughty step”
link to tinyurl.com
Naughty step my arse,
Its off to Paula Roses dungeon for you my lad for some corrective eye treatment!
Notwithstanding NuLabours position in Scotland, one thing that is remarkable but has never been mentioned yet, and it is very pertinent, if not central to the mire that NuLabour currently finds itself in.
For almost five years we have had the worst most malicious Government that has attacked the living standards of most people across the UK, indeed it has even hampered the survival of a large number of people UK wide. In fact the Governments only goal appears to be their ideology of privatisation and to pursue assistance to help that small percentage, the wealthy whom they have enriched at any cost or detriment to everyone else.
And yet NuLabour cannot take a clear lead in the opinion polls in England. It makes any sensible person ask ‘as a party has NuLabour lost their mojo’. It certainly looks that it has.
OT
Did anyone read this pish from Danny Alexander: ‘The coalition has helped, not hurt the poor’. (From November last year)
I don’t know what planet he inhabits… but it certainly isn’t the one I live on.
If they had held a joint conference with their other Tory pals, they could have filled the hall!
A bit like Le Pétomane – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia during his last few performances
Spot the difference:
link to scottcreighton.co.uk
I see they’ve finally clicked as to the question I hear frequently “what are Labour for?”. Apart from the obvious like tuition fees and trident.
So I ask again “What are Labour For?”
Answer: For Scotland
Rapturous standing ovation of laughter!
I honestly do not think Milliband has the faintist idea about what is happening in Scotland.He looked slightly perplexed by the audience at times.This crap about changing clause 4 to empower Scottish Labour to make its own decisions will be blown out of the water at the first vote requiring a three line whip.We will soon see how autonomous Scottish Labour M.P.’s actually are.
I sat at a funeralmonce where we had more fun didcussing a dearly departed friend,and that is no exaggeration,You can palpably feel the fear.
I’ll tell you something ,honestly.
I will love it if we beat them,love it.
Dear Scotland..ur no wanting to vote for us but gaunnae just vote for us anywaes as wur really strugglin!
(Did i pronounce that right?)
Love
Ed
When I see Kezia she always looks like her brain has deserted her! On QT Thursday she had a glaiket(spelling) look on her coupon and a couple of times I saw her sort of staring gormlessly around.. I expect her to wave stupidly at the camera and say “hiya Dad! Look I’m on the telly!”
As to the “conference” I think half of them were lured in off the street with the promise of popcorn and a chance to view the new “Wallace and Grommet” movie. Would explain the expressions on faces of being conned.
I’d like to apologise to Dippity Dug!
I thought her make up on Question Time was a disaster,
but having acknowledged that herself, and seeing her without make
up at the conference, could she specialise in Radio Broadcasts?
She is on TV right now and she is repeating word for word what she said yesterday, and the day before?
Obviously she has been warned never to think and speak on the
same day. Just stick to the scripts from Westminster.
It will all be over soon!
@Rob James, lke the granny wan. There will be thousands of Scottish grannies birlin in their graves at this crew.
I’ll get the hang of this linking thingy if it kills me
Its a bit like link to en.wikipedia.org last few performances
Walter Scott,
“I am watching Murphy on tv. I can’t take in anything he says because or his creepyness. Could the voters of east renfrewshire really vote for this person?”.
NEVER voted fur this lying toerag in my life!.
Had another wee look at the Conference there and they can’t help themselves can they?
Some 65 year old “his words” overwieght Labour Dinosaur just saying
“We mustnie jist go oot Critisin the SNP although it’s easy tae dae, whut wae that wee Lassie wae her Tin Helmet oan
An AlicSammin thinkin he’s the Messiah
So our First Ministers hairstyle doesn’t fit in with the current political thinking of the New and enlightened Labour Party who have changed into a nicer more patriotic bigoted bunch of sleazemongers who all in the room found that statement thoroughly amusing
Well, we heard it too, forget you were on telly did you
Just brought it all back to me when education was never a priority of Labour
Or manners
Looking at the age of the conference delegates, everyone with
a nice wee earner job in the Labour Party has asked their parents
along.
Claims abound that it has been the busiest day so far for Dial a Bus services.
I ask the SNP to set funds aside to ensure these senior citizens
still get a day out next year when Labour are no longer around.
Jim is indeed looking gaunt (er than usual).
Was reading that he didn’t realise how much work was to be done to get ‘Scottish’ Labour to improve.
Just goes to show how out of touch he was down in London, didn’t give Scotland a 2nd thought.
He could scrape in but it’s obvious that the Tories have dropped them in it, no more BT love-in
John King @ 3:01
To be fair to Derick, Cara is not unattractive (save her politics!) and is in a picture with several more average-looking people. Mind you, nobody looks their best when frowning that heavily!
Kezia has us all fooled….
link to scottcreighton.co.uk
Can someone tell me why a thieving,lying tory parasite is addressing the liebour office meeting in Edinburgh………………….OOps forgot they are lying ,thieving tory parasites….my bad
Ed was asked why so many empty seats, don’t ask me ask the SNP.
I think Ed Miliband is thinking “Am i allowed to speak in front of a red coloured pulpit..i thought we were Fuschia these days…what next Socialism?”
@Bugger
Where is Brian Wilson, Helen Liddell? Has McTernan, McDougall, Bombers Harris and Dalgety been spotted? Has Mad Dog Robertson put in an appearance?
Slightly off topic, but I was spreading the news about McTernan and his conversion to Thatcherism over on the Telegraph.
They didn’t seem to like it for some reason.
link to disqus.com
Both posts weren’t moderated, they became ‘unposts’.
I’m not asking those with weak stomachs to actually go there, I’m just wondering why a Tory rag isn’t leaping on this?
People … we are in dire danger of clapping ourselves on the back to the point where we do serious damage to ourselves!
Just had a word with another local canvasser and the report is that there are still a significant number of hard-core “ah’ve always voted labour” folk out there.
Stop talking to ourselves and thinking it’s all won; it isn’t! Get out and engage with the voters on the doorstep. This is not going to be won in chatrooms. What Stu gives us is ammunition, not the statement “We’ve won already”.
Early hours of September 19th boogying on down with Tories…the glasses of bubbly in hand gieing it the high fives, and now this above? Ho Ho Ho! GIRUY Red Tory scum.
Help.Can anyone tell me where Brian Taylor’s web question and answer has gone,was it that bad Taylor has to cancel it.My blood pressure would go way up listening but it is always good to hear the enemies lies.
The Politburo on the eve of Perestroika
Cara is attractive, but thick as mince. I have never seen so many glum faces. They look beaten. They look like people being told they are being made redundant. Having to go to a company conference,about a future they won’t be part of!
Funereal.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to say farewell to what for many of here really was a cushty job for life, wonderful expenses for doing virtually nothing much at all, and no complaints from our dear BBC vote SLab Scotland friends at Pacific Quay.
We’ve tried everything to resuscitate, fear, smear, lie, intimidate, every paper’s with us, not just leftie Telegraph but wonderful Daily Record, god bless Torquil, he’s not a ridiculous lying buffoon at all. Even BBC R4 at home in London’s been putting the boot in hard to any and all vile separatists. We even told them we’ll bayonet them but all of it’s come this, the end of the trough. It’s all down to Jim Murphy.
Yours, not future PM Milliband, unless Ed Balls says we can cut a deal with you know who.
My blog statistics are going through the roof!!!
Various theories postulated from those around me.
Finally, we all agree it’s bored Labour delegates looking at their iPads and thinking, this Grouse Beater, essayist guy, is far more interesting and entertaining than the glaikit dork on stage right now.
News Flash-
Lothian & Borders Police are investigating claims that
a number of retirement homes have reported the abduction of
their residents.
A well know band of gangsters where seen driving their captives away in a Pink Bus? The driver was described as looking like Lurch from the Adams Family? lol
Joan McAlpine on the warpath;
link to facebook.com
Thank God none of them are on our side!
@scott Here is the link to Brain Taylor’s Q&A with Murphy, It was embarrassing and failed to answer basic questions and Murphy had the gall to say he was asking the wrong questions. It was the usual lies and soundbites from Murphy and he confirmed that Labour would renew Trident after Brain asking him loads of times link to bbc.co.uk
Din din-dah din din-dah din din-dah daah.
Din din-dah din din-dah-diddiddin dah dah.
The conference is being held in the Pentland Suite of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
The maximum seated capacity of the Pentland Suite is 1,200 people.
link to eicc.co.uk
Assuming the Rev’s estimate of it being two-thirds full is correct, there were about 800 people in attendance.
Many of these were elected Labour politicians – MPs, MEPs, MSPs, councillors.
The number of ordinary Labour members in attendance is probably less than at a large wedding.
Just look at those kent adoring faces. Not on will stand up to Ed and Jim.
Jim Thompson: we are in dire danger of clapping ourselves on the back
There’s a big difference between troops sharing jokes to loosen tension at the expense of their enemy, and assuming the battle is already won and we can all go home.
I had the misfortune to switch on the TV (at my partner’s house – note to Capita) and caught Jackanory Jim spouting some piffle about his upbringing in SA. I’m not sure if the silence from the rest of the auditorium was intent rapture or if they had all fallen asleep. 30 seconds was enough – no Rugby on this week so we took the dog out for a walk.
@Jim Thomson, fully agree! Out campaigning today had a long conversation with a farmer who voted NO “because I dinnae like Alex Salmond” but wanted to know why the SNP weren’t sticking up for Scottish farmers. No really!
Sources of information: BBC (although he doesn’t trust them on farming!) and the Herald.
It is a serious mistake to underestimate just how powerful the message from the BBC and propaganda papers such as the Herald are. Also overheard a woman loudly blaming the SNP for the terrible state of the NHS in Scotland.
test with Safari browser
Classic comedy comment from “effigy”!
second test
Cara Hilton a honey? Eh? Must be picky. She looks like the army of junkie lassie’s that stoat about the Kirk gate centre at the bottom of Leith. Yuk.
@ Bugger see my post re Telegraph.
@ Joemcg
She has a Staffie?
Probably lol!
Labour hasn’t even finalised there scottish demise. Just wait till you witness the resentment after the GE results. There vile hatered will really rise to the top for all to see
If I didn’t know,that they were people on the stage, I’d have said, that the audience were watching, a rather poor (B) rated horror movie.
Oh dear. Cameron isn’t playing along with the ‘vote SNP, get Tories’ rhetoric coming from Labour.
“David Cameron has called on Labour’s Ed Miliband to rule out a post-election deal between his party and the SNP.
Mr Cameron said such a pact would be the “worst outcome” of May’s election.
“You cannot let the people who want to break up our country into the government of our country,” the prime minister added.
Meanwhile, ex-Tory chairman Lord Baker says a Tory-Labour coalition may be needed after May’s election to keep the SNP from holding the balance of power.
Speaking at an event to mark two months until polling day, Mr Cameron said: “If you thought the worst outcome in this election is a Labour government led by Ed Miliband, think again.
“You could end up with a Labour government led by Ed Miliband, propped up by Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party.”
link to bbc.co.uk
@ Conan the Librarian
I am banned on the Telegraph but did open up your Disqus account although it only shows your posts, which are without context.
Does Mystic FUD really believe Labour will win in Scotland.
Meethinks his crystal ball needs polishing.
I thought wee Dougie the weasel was still riding on the back of the woodpecker.
Surprised Bliar the messiah didn’t make an appearance from on high.
Gary.
@ Bugger, you can still see the posts, or rather the lack of them without signing in, yet on Disqus they are still there.
My point was why is a Tory newspaper suppressing something that they would normally pay money to get?
Stunning tv ad doing the rounds here in England or, will SLabers sign off with it this weekend? Yes they will. Til we have built Jerusalem, in England’s green and red and blue tory land, and NO jocks in Westminster either, unless they’re loyal and cringy, like SLab troughers and the Welsh:D
link to youtube.com
That’s a joke, the Welsh are not a defeated race, I just get my nose rubbed in it here with that last rugby defeat to Wales.
What a tragedy that there is no good vegetarian substitute for a tub of lard requiring Jim to appear in person. Dead man talking.
How are we not all grateful to have been “civilised” here in Scotland by the Labour party as reported by Jim – and, more seriously,I cannot believe that a primary school teacher would break professional confidentiality to tell Jim and ‘Kez’ very personal information about an individual child which Jim blurted out to the Edinburgh audience today.
I wonder if they are playing bingo and Kezia just got a full house which is more than can be said for the conference. Maybe it’s a game of Alex Salmond dictator bingo for old time’s sake…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
What’s this about him Murphy using kids now to try and twists his way to a few extra votes. That’s a new low!!!
@ conan\disqus
I too put a very moderate post on this site, it was a few truthful facts about Jim Murphys uni career and his elevation to Westminster, nothing abusive and all truthful and it was deleted.
A few days later Disqus had the cheek to ask that I join them!
This group must have an ulterior motive.
I also was out round the doors this morning with leaflets and stuff, you have to remember there are some people out there who will never alter because it’s contrary to their nature to do so
You can say nothing, do nothing to change their mind because if you try to hard in their eyes then you must be lying
These people only ever change by the tide of will that they see around them then they do it on their own
Tell a fisherman he can benefit and he’ll say “Fits the catch like”
Tell a farmer he’ll be 10 bob a week better off he’ll sell you his mother for a knock down price, and i mean no offence when i say it, it’s the nature of man
We’re going to win but maybe not all at once
By the time Holyrood comes around the Landslide will be overwhelmingly frighteningly Massive
I’ll bet my 10 bob on it
And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee
And that is what is really scaring the bejesus out of the Unionist Parties.
It’s not the SNP.
It is oblivion. It is nothing. It is the empty promises. That is what the Unionists can see. That is all they have left to offer the UK! …Nothing!
No wage rises. No jailed bankers. No ending of the Banks domination. No ending of tuition fees. No more funding the NHS. No f***** hope!
The SNP however, are an alternative. They do have a set of serious offers on the table …and they are worth considering.
And if those people who are foolish to buy the concept of what the Unionists are putting on the table, then they are lost. On their own heads be it if they believe the Tories, and God help Labour if they should…
@ BOB
I don’t think it’s Disqus, but the Telegraph who are interfering.
I think we have to steel ourselves for the fact that some of these dinosaurs will retain their seats, albeit with slashed majorities, by fair means or foul so I don’t think anyone is getting carried away it’s just nice to see them squirm like the worms they are…
A manifesto for real, honest Labour
Implement the living wage immediately
Commit to a minimum citizen’s income before 2020
Raise all benefits automatically in line with inflation
Renationalise the railways
End privatisation of the NHS and reverse its implementation to date
Alter legislation to eliminate all potential for crony benefits
Hold a referendum on Trident and whether to replace it
Long term cap on energy prices
Sufficient new houses to meet ownership/ rental demand by 2020
Reasonable cap on rent levels
Abandon all tax concessions, and offshore taxation by 2020, and stringently punish tax evasion
Land reform
Steeply progressive taxation throughout the system
Abolish the royal prerogative, and replace with limited emergency powers, to be then ratified by parliament
Reduce MPs salaries to 150% of the average wage, and refund only their actual outlays
Restrict maximum MP term to 10 years
Restrict MP candidacy to those with significant links to the constituency
Make MPs wear hearing aids
Produce significant powers of MP recall and public accountability sessions
Tax and borrow sufficient to achieve these results without delay – the markets will support real planned reforms. The existing situation will otherwise implode anyway
Commit full heartedly to these reforms, and replace equivocal statements with resolute action instead of evasive excuses
This is only the start! Increase equality in all things! Tackle exploitation!
It’s funny, it’s like Scottish Labour thought that after the referendum that Scotland would just simply fall into place and return to Labour.
They don’t seem to get it, they don’t realise that the Scottish Labour party are finished, they chose Westminster over Scotland, and they now have no purpose or mandate in Scotland, other than lining their own pockets.
They have no interest in Scotland or its people. They have overstayed their welcome, and now need to be shown the door.
Wow, cash for young voters.
Will this make them look even more desperate?
Or could it work?
“Never underestimate the effectiveness of a straight cash bribe.” – Claud Cockburn
Just looking at this lot, if Scotland actually had a decent honorable media, what would they be remembered for most of all?
Presiding over the greatest City bankster crash ever, that nearly destroyed the global economy. Maybe 2 million people dead in the Middle East and the whole resultant catastrophe of going to war in Iraq with far right USA.
Just the fact that no bankster in the City even saw the inside of court room let alone a jail cell must be up there with SLab’s memorial to the worst British Prime Minsters in history, or was Brown the most unpopular in history or both.
And now exact same creep show want Scots to put them back in UKOK power, with fresh shiny new £100+bn weapons of mass destruction right next to Glasgow, certainly not England’s green and pleasant land. That would never do.
Just watching BBC news on coverage of Labour conference.james cook reporting ,he was speaking to a Labour party delegate and his comment was “the ship is going down” gulp !!!!!!!!!
Well done Joan McAlpine – about time.
Re always Labour lot – there are some folk who will never change and there’s not much you can do.
They need to open their own eyes
@Davy says:7 March, 2015 at 1:53 pm:
“7 March, 2015 at 1:53 pm”
Whit!
Ye mean it’s no the Muppet Show?
Aw! Jings! I’ve been foold again.
@ Clarinda says:
7 March, 2015 at 4:39 pm
“What a tragedy that there is no good vegetarian substitute for a tub of lard requiring Jim to appear in person. Dead man talking.”
Hydrogenated oils?
Good grief I’ve seen happier faces, Murphy looks like an undertaker.
James Cook on tv a few moments ago said he spoke with someone who was in the audience who stated
“the ship is going down”
@Yesitis says:7 March, 2015 at 1:57 pm:
“You can smell the love in the room”
Weel ye sure as hell can smell somethin in the hall – but naebody kens wha tae blame fir it.
@ Conan the Librarian
“My point was why is a Tory newspaper suppressing something that they would normally pay money to get?”
It doesn’t make sense to me either but just maybe
McTernan called in a favour or he was pitching for a job with the Tories and he called in a favour?
Bugger the Panda – you’re right – both exhibit oiliness.
@HandandShrimp says:7 March, 2015 at 2:03 pm@
“I fancy the SNP spring conference key note speech by Nicola will be rather better attended – the audience rather happier looking”.
Looking at the picture of Murphy I can imagine he is saying, “I haven’t had so much fun since my Granny died”
Chrome test
I will say this for the Labour conference – the average age of the delegates must be a good thirty years younger than the equivalent conservative conference.
Test 17.30
Can someone explain to me why Mr Wullie Bain, Glasgow MP, is so immune to the rise in popularity of the SNP. What makes him so bulletproof.
I don’t know anything about the guy but it seems strange that this one Glasgow MP is not under any kind of threat from the SNP.
Has he fixed all his constituents TVs, so they are stuck permanently on BBC Scotland and they also all get free delivery of the Daily Record.
He just doesn’t fit the pattern that is forming in the rest of Scotland.
Just drawing attention to Bill Dale & Jim Thomson about the
voters without broadband.They only watch and read easily available
media so are ill-informed from the beeb etc.
@panda paws says:7 March, 2015 at 2:05 pm:
” … With their current policies and politicans, I doubt even Keir Hardie would vote for them.”,
No, Panda Paws, but Oliver Hardie might.
@Sparky Forsyth says:7 March, 2015 at 2:13 pm:
“OMG!! When I watch this I know we will do well, on our own or not, we will make them notice us. At least Kez managed a smile in the last pic, or was she laughing at Ed’s speech??”
It looks much more like an attack of hysterics to me.
My Dad told me to vote for what I beleve in, not what I get told to do, why would anyone vote for something they don’t believe in, liebour are only looking out for them selfs, for years we have been promised hope. As. Public service employee who’s went 3 years with ah 1% pay rise, and threatened with a pay off in the next two years as most of us are, I’m willing to go the extra mile and take a chance on a more transparent way of government.
1,200 seats x 2/3 = 800
800 x 1/3 (Labour MPs, MSPs etc.)= 267
800 – 267 = 533
So Labour (North British Accounting Unit), barely over eight weeks away from a UK general election can only attract just over 500 folks to listen to the possible future Prime Minister on a wet weekend in March?
Not much of a show of confidence, eh?
I returned home this afternoon in time to see a clip on BBC News from the conference. The clip was of David Hamilton MP (think I have the correct name). Red in the face he was screaming something along the lines of: ‘Let’s go out there and stick it to the SNP.
Classy – NOT.
Is this all the Labour Party is offering? No ideas, no policy, no future, no hope. NO.
@Nana Smith
If the SLAB ship is going down, whose the captain of this Titanic, Miliband or the ambulance chasing, smear merchant Murphy?
What time does the bingo start? A night out with Jim Murphy furra single line, 2 nights out with Creepy Jim and Depute Dug furra full house!!
safari test
Didn’t watch the Labour Party Conference(North Division).
Out leafleting.
Did my MP, Douglas Alexander speak at it?
Because I get the feeling he is trying to distance himself from Scottish Labour.
He is actually trying to disown his very own Party. He thinks that if he stays below the radar, then he will hold onto his seat.
He reminds me of the last remaining hostage taker, trying to mingle in with the freed hostaqes.
It’s called self preservation.
Anybody looking for a ‘change’ scunnered by hearing Labour say the same thing today that they denied us yesterday, might like to wash the total tossers out their hair for a while with my ‘discovery’ of over 500 veteran and classic cars:
Yes, that’s me, all six feet, in photograph 6:
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
I see the Blue Brazils have had a shock Draw against the Rangers. How daft is that BBC headline?
Two teams in the same division is described as a shock when they draw?
Stuart,
I’ve loved Wings for a long time and am so appreciative of you taking a highlighter to some very narrow and misguided politics in our country.
However, reading your site every day, I’m concerned that its becoming two things… 1) only anti-Labour, and while I know they are disintegrating and lacking in quality it detracts from the page and the broad analysis it serves, and 2) like them. I’ve no doubt the labour conference was shite, I heard an old chap in the sauna whose friend was a reporter who stated so. But you could take dozens of photos of the audience from ANY conference and make it look boring. This site has been well above those methods, and I hope you continue to be so.
Really love what you do,
Doug
“This site has been well above those methods”
No we haven’t. We’ve run conference galleries for a cheap laugh for YEARS.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
@Grouse Beater
link to grousebeater.files.wordpress.com
muttley79 says:
7 March, 2015 at 5:45 pm
@Nana Smith
“If the SLAB ship is going down, whose the captain of this Titanic, Miliband or the ambulance chasing, smear merchant Murphy?”
Whoever gets into the lifeboat first.
Can someone explain to me why Mr Wullie Bain, Glasgow MP, is so immune to the rise in popularity of the SNP.
Was he the one who finished his speech with “Let’s stick it tae the SNP!”?
I’ve not seen conference extracts.
Can anyone tell me who the misogynist dinosaur was who thought it was a hoot to denigrate Nicola with something along the lines of “that Sturgeon wumin wee her wee tin helmet” (I assume he was having a go at her hairstyle.) Got a bit of a giggle from the labour faithful. So this is the modern labour party, all inclusive, gender equal party? Morons! He also had a go at Salmond “the messiah” heading off to Westminster for the 3rd time and alluded that it was easy money for some? Oh the effin irony!!
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Gawd. It looks like a corporate meeting to announce redundancies. Which is sort of what it is, I suppose.
The snake lord hisses at Ed and Eck.
link to archive.today
Was Gordon Brown there?
Nope?
I thought I saw Dougie Alexander in the seats.
With regard to Joan McAlpine’s complaint about Borders TV political bias: Perhaps this link explains matters.
link to itv.com
And Peter MacMahon’s former life as a Labour Press Officer here
link to newstatesman.com
Its not just the BBC that’s infiltrated by Labour staffers.
Most Haunted “Live”……..Warning any one of a nervous disposition should leave ,as it may feel like someone is blowing smoke up your arse……that’s perfectly normal,any ill effects will wear of around the 2nd week of May.
William (anyone but SNP) Bain
Glasgow North East
Wullie (shadow Minister for Scotland) 20100 votes
SNP 4100 votes
LD 2262 votes
Con 1569 votes
Enough said.
Last Lab fortress still standing maybe!
There is just no passion there. You can see it in their faces. They just don’t believe what they are saying or what they are hearing and yet amazingly they just continue with the charade. Thankfully it seems that people are waking up to this.
This conference footage reminds me of the last New Labour conference just after the referendum. At that time you could see from their body language that there was a tension between the Scottish Labour party members and the rest. There is a total disconnect between the two and it seems that there is no will to address it.
@Juteman says:7 March, 2015 at 2:56 pm:
“I haven’t changed anything. Same laptop, same settings, same browser I’ve been using on this site for 3 years.”
Some anti-virus programs have an anti-cookie setting and of course anti-cookie programs will remove the cookies.
So a Tory Lord publishes a poll that shows Labour being wiped out in Scotland. Subsequently they go into overdrive and talk of a grand anti-SNP coalition is talked about. One that might even mean that even with the lowest number of seats the Tories get to remain in power? Makes you kind of wonder if there’s some incredibly clever master plan going on. Even to the point that somehow they could split the SNP/Labour vote to an extent where the manage to sneak some of their own back in.
On the other hand the only hope for credibility any of them will retain is that if a Grand Coalition does come about it’ll be over their dead ,figuratively , bodies as not being elected they will have little or no say in what those in Westminster decide.
@Almannysbunnet
I think the twat who patronised Nicola Sturgeon is David Hamilton. I’d never heard of him before this. I suppose I must have missed his sell-out Hydro speech.
O/T
Chunkymark on the grand coalition.
“Scotland is the conscience of this nation”
link to youtube.com
Oh dear, looks really bad, about 100 people, being kind say 200 people. Most look bored, Darling looks disconnected, did Broon turn up?, cant see him lurking around. Most miserable talk ever.
They are all staring at each other, some one (Stu) should out up a picture with a speech bubble….we can add it ourselves……lol
Marcia at 3.44pm
Thank you for the Joan McAlpine facebook post. That’s a morale booster. I hope she’s got plenty more to come.
I was out canvassing in West Kilbride this afternoon. I was actually doing my own street so knew quite a few of people whose door I was knocking.I could not believe how bad the labour support has become.
I actually had only one person admit he was voting labour and he was a voted labour all my life brigade member.Much to his horror his wife shouted through from kitchen I am voting SNP ,he was actually embarrassed to admit he was voting labour.
@call me dave –
“They [the SNP] are also a high public spending party,” he said. The rest of Britain “has to subsidise Scotland” through the Barnet Formula because the SNP is not interested in running a “balanced book economy”
Don’t worry snake lord we don’t want your shitty cobra beer we just want a bigger say in the glorious union
Wow! Those pictures are really gruesome. Tales from The Crypt or what? Is that Jimmy Hood in number six? I only ask because we don’t see him much of him in Darkest Lanarkshire, so called, I believe, because of the shadow he casts.
Sorry for the cheap shot but it’s all he’s worth.
Vote Angela Crawley.
Vote SNP.
@Nana Smith
Thanks for the link. Straight from the heart taxi man
I am sure Jim McGovern is in picture 9 sitting to the right of Dougie Alexander .
If it is, he is certainly not looking a happy chappie .
looked up meaning of delusion
‘An idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder’
Slab appear to believe that they own the Scottish electorate body and soul. The faces in the audience register the beginnings of a horrible reality.
Thought Brian Taylor did reasonable job putting Murphy on the spot given the confines of the interview format. Worth a watch if you have 30 minutes to spare
ot just checked to see if i am on electoral register it said no !
five minute check is here link to registertovote.service.gov.uk
@call me dave you are welcome.
Here’s James Kelly Telling John Major where to get off..
link to uk.news.yahoo.com
Just caught myself reflecting on whether or not it’s wrong to mock such a collection of Flumps.
Nope me neither!!
Milliband….”If you want a Labour government,vote Labour not SNP”.
Ed Scotland doesn’t want a Labour government,you arrogant little man. Which part do you not understand. You don’t own Scotland’s support.
Labour just can’t understand that Scotland has decided that it no longer wants the Tories or Labour.
Almannysbunnet
International womans Day 8th of March
Labour ( Scottish branch ) view of the first female First Minister ‘ a wee lassie in a tin helmet ‘.
Not sure who should be more embarrassed the man who made the comment or the delegates who thought he was funny ?
Holy Shit the guy in the second last picture I knew I’d seen him somewhere before…
link to tinyurl.com
OT just checked to see if i am on the electoral register it said i am not so does this mean my vote for indy was not accepted ?
to check it only takes five minutes link to registertovote.service.gov.uk
Judging by the photos, we got a bigger turn out for the opening of Stewart McDonald’s Glasgow South Hub opening, so much so that we were even visited by a couple of Jim Murphy’s Better Together camp followers who were obviously ‘just passing’. Let’s just say one of them didn’t appear too happy to be photographed.
I don’t know who this Robert Oliver chap is but all I can say is he’s easily inspired.
He’s met delegates from all over Scotland…where were they all, did they not stay for the conference.
Does he think we are not able to see the empty seats and those with bodies in them are either councillors or msps & mps.
Anyway here’s the email I received.
Nana Smith,
This weekend I was a first time delegate to Scottish Labour Party conference.
Wow. What an inspiring day. I’ve met delegates from across Scotland who will campaign to get rid of the Tory Government and bring about the change in Scotland we want to see. Labour will make sure that young Scots get the best chance in life. We are going to end Tory austerity and have a plan for Scotland’s working families.
This will take hard work so I’m chipping in. Will you donate what you can here too?
link to scottishlabour.org.uk
I will be taking every chance I get to go out campaigning in my constituency.
But this campaign will take resources too. And that’s why I decided to donate £25 today. £25 will pay for leaflets for an afternoon’s campaigning. That’s hundreds of people we can tell about our plans for:
• Better grants for poorer students, worth over £1000
• £1,600 future fund for every young person who doesn’t go to college or university
• No tuition fees for any Scottish student
And now I’m asking you to help me do the same.
With your help we can get rid of the Tory Government:
link to scottishlabour.org.uk
I look forward to us all uniting and campaigning together to make Scotland the fairest nation on earth.
Thanks
Robert
Robert Oliver
Glasgow Shettleston CLP
If both the Labour and Tory parties rule out a formal coalition with the SNP it doesn’t really change things and I don’t see it changing the minds of previous Labour supporters one little bit. Neither party will be able to sustain a Government without support on some issues and that’s what I hope the SNP are suggesting. Otherwise it’s back to another election with I hope the same result in Scotland. It would be daft for the SNP to enter any formal partnership with either of them – just an ‘as and when it suits us’ arrangement. These tactics by Labour and Conservatives are similar to the Referendum tactics of throwing the toys out of the pram.
Just one word. Don’t they all look thoroughly beaten.. With a capital ‘BEATEN’?
Well, why use one word, when ten will do?
On the trident thing when the SNP members vote ‘no’ at WM the other two UK parties will vote ‘yes’ together anyway. Trident replacement is going to be pushed through no matter what.
The SNP should/ will not throw away this card in any coalition with UK labour.
PS: “the ship is sinking” says an attendee at the conference. Is that recorded or written down as a quote somewhere?
Stick to what Nicola has said “we will not vote for a trident replacement.
Site seems to be back to normal now as regards time of posts appearing.
If indeed their ship is going down, I hope that when it does slips below the surface, it sucks the remainder that cling to the flotsam down with it.
Now at what point will Labour in Scotland stop sniping at the SNP and start licking Nicola’s boots? After May GE no doubt. Interesting times…we have long memories.
@ Nana
Thanks for the link to James Kelly’s piece on Major; I have technical problems reading his articles on the International Business Times site (page won’t scroll down) and had forgotten that I intended to read it elsewhere.
Interesting that all the comments at the time I looked were attempting to censor him rather than rebut his arguments.
I also got that begging letter from Robert Oliver – still not sure how they got my address, but I quite like knowing what they’re up to. So I’ve resisted the temptation to report them for unsolicited requests for money.
We mustn’t get carried away with ourselves here.
I just had a flashback to a few days before indyref when a friend/customer of mine was emailing me imploring me to vote no.
The individual is well connected in the Scottish Conservatives, and said that NO was fait accompli and signed off saying ‘vote early and vote often’.
I got a cold feeling even though it may have been said in jest.I took it to mean postal voting.
Never ever underestimate the British Establishment.
Dey swim wit de fishes in the Mariana Trench, soon to be on ah fishmongers Slab, gutted an filleted,am gein up fish suppers for ah while,ah never liked Red Snapper fishes.
By Jim’s expression he knows the game is up, the penny has dropped. Milliband and McTernan have sold him a pup. Shit Jim will get the blame for loosing Scotland and all this mob will be putting the boot in.
Magrit has’nt figured out what it all means yet, to busy wondering what job Edd might give her.
Jola Knows what’s comming to the rest of them, He he
Hood looks quite smug he’ll get his dunny money if he misses the gravy train.
Just donned on Kezia I’ll be the new leader when Jim gets dispatched. Careful what you ask for Kez.
Looking at this lot, two thoughts struck me.
Scotland can do better.
Scotland deserves better.
All I can feel from the photos above is–
What A BUNCH OF CREEPY LOOKING WEIRDOS!!!
Interesting point you make Dakk…so what will SNP be doing to ensure postal votes are not tampered with? Get Ruth Davidson to sit on her hands and face the other way?
@Vronsky 1.46
Brilliant quote and so relevant (Read the trilogy for the first time last year. One of the finest I have ever encountered)
Sorry to be o/t but rev it seams that labour are trying to have their largest postal vote ever,and the elephant in the room that the snp are ignoring is in a lot of our opinion is voter fraudcoming into play.
@Marcia 1.40
Absolutely spot on Marcia!
We must challenge Labour spin doctor’s take on the £1600 pledge for 18 year olds.
Murphy said it would pay for “driving lessons” now call me a cynic but if your average 18 year old is offered £1600 in cash not to go to Uni what would they do?
Btw Remind voters that the only way David Cameron will get the keys of Downing Street after May 7th is if Labour let him like they did in 2010 when Labour refused to join a progressive coalition with Lib Dems and SNP that would have had a majority of seats.
O/T Today’s Scottish Review of books contains a review of David Torrance’s (unauthorised) biography of Nicola Sturgeon.
As deconstruction goes the review pretty well reduces the book to pulp.
In reply to: “Can someone explain to me why Mr Wullie Bain, Glasgow MP, is so immune to the rise in popularity of the SNP. What makes him so bulletproof.”
He’s intelligent, answers emails promptly, clearly, and honestly, without slagging the SNP or anyone else, and is consistent – that’s a good start.
On the STV news covering the labour conference. The final footage was of a large banner urging people to vote SNP.
Well done the guys that organised that.
@crazycat
I have no idea how they have my email address. I have never been a member of the labour party.
Maybe big brother at work, who knows?
I have the same problem with IBT times page scrolling.
Robert , this Willie Bain?
“According to a tweet by Labour’s shadow Scotland office minister Willie Bain MP, it was revealed that the Tory budget which will benefit the UK’s millionaires was not opposed because it “is a long-standing PLP convention that we do not support SNP motions”.”
And you call that intelligent?
Is there a collective noun for fannies?
OT but that is a belter of a book review of D. Torrance’s unauthorised biography of the First Minister.
Made me snigger with delight!
“Deconstructed ” hardly covers the massacre.
@Legerwood
Yeah, I read it earlier. It was a fine demolition of Torrance’s book on Nicola Sturgeon. For Torrance to apparently say the FM is often criticised for being childless is appalling. WTF is he thinking about there?
Tony- largest postal vote ever? How many? Surely not more than the Ref. 800,000? If true you can bet now all the Red Tory high rollers will be safe then.
Nana, I suspect yer Robert Oliver goes by @saintbobglasgow on twitter, it seems to match up.
I’m sure a wee bitty digging will find he’s not exactly an ordinary punter either.
@ Nana
Glad it’s not just me with the IBT page scrolling! I thought I was either missing something, or my computer was hinting that I need to replace it!
As for the e-mail address thing – early in this parliament I filled in a survey about home energy savings (or something like that), after which I was deluged with communications from the LibDems (who did at least admit the connection), signed “yours VInce/Danny/Nick/etc”, including “Nick’s weekly newsletter” for a while.
I replied to each of them that I was not a supporter and would not vote for them except under illegal duress. It took months for them to get the message – or maybe the newsletter was just a failure and ceased to exist.
Does no one find it odd that at the front of the Miliband’s podium it says Scottish Labour / for Scotland ? If it really were Scottish why would it need the sub-text? Does this even have a meaning?
Also, I think a charity movement “No Constituency Left Behind” – NCLB – needs to come into being to help Shetland, Murphyland and Bainland. Imagine the shame of their poor voters if on election day evening the rest of Scotland has seen off the chancers and scoundrels and they are left “represented” by their current MPs. Help them avoid such an odious fate, help the SNP candidates there – massively.
Twice in two days I note BBc UK and BBC Scotland carrying two different Scottish political stories at the top of their on line news stories
eg today
BBc UK Cameron urges Milliband not to do deal with SNP
BBC Scotland Murphy promises money to young people
Leaving aside the ridiculous dishonesty of promising something you cannot deliver, this isn’t a Scottish Parliament election, why are theBBC running two completely different Scottish political stories on two sites. Neither story appears on the other site.
My guess
To double up on pro unionist stories.
On the subject of Wullie Bain
I’ll just say the Orange Order is a major factor, Springburn is often bedecked in Red White and Blue whether from flags or football colours, it would be i think for many residents unpatriotic to have anything to do with the nasty Nats
Although there is a big immigrant and asylum seeker population there now i’m not sure whether they actually are that into voting for anybody
Plus it is an area that is still old in tradition with opinions passed down to the typical ill informed which is as we know the way the Labour party like it
No Education Here Keep Your New Fangled Ways Out
When Springburn turns though it will turn for good so Labour had still better watch their back
Having said all that Labours majority will be cut considerably
Author al
I feel a degree of deja vous all over again but got no idea how to prevent postal vote fraud.
SNP should know but I’ve never heard them talk about it.Maybe Craig Murrays right about MI6 !!
One thing I would say is that this guy is fretting about SNP not allowing Tories to govern with a minority govt which is the outcome he seems to expect,so there was no veiled threat when I spoke to him 2 weeks ago.
I’m beginning to sound paranoid,better lay off the skunkweed.
Caroline I also doubt he is no ordinary ‘punter’
crazycat I did fill in a survey thingy some time back but I haven’t had any signed VInce/Danny/Nick/etc”
I’ve had emails from J Thurso in the past but nothing since I blasted him for untruths during the indyref.
Don’t think he’ll be back in touch again and seeing as I’m mentioning Thurso here’s something others in his constituency may want to read.
link to blog.independencelive.net
@Ian Brotherhood
Would that maybe be Convention.;)
Their next conference will be fun. The sound of one hand clapping.
@Iain says:7 March, 2015 at 4:56 pm:
“A manifesto for real, honest Labour”
Why bother, Iain?
In the first place there is no such thing as a real honest Labour Party – at lease not in either Scotland nor in fact in the entire United Kingdom, (SIC).
In the second long experience proves that manifestos are chiels whit ayewise ding.
‘Lay the proud usurpers low.
tyrants fall in every foe’.
Nana Smith says:7 March, 2015 at 5:16 pm:
“Good grief I’ve seen happier faces, Murphy looks like an undertaker.”
Tell you something, Nana Smith. The very first time I ever set eyes upon that man the single word, “lugubrious”, sprang instantly to my mind and that person has always been referred to as, “The lugubrious Jim Murphy”, ever since.
The British Labour Party in Scotland:
A chamber of horrors!
@caz-m says:7 March, 2015 at 5:31 pm
“Can someone explain to me why Mr Wullie Bain, Glasgow MP, is so immune to the rise in popularity of the SNP. What makes him so bulletproof.”
I’ll have a crack at answering that one, caz-m.
Wee Willie is a total numptie and has, as yet, not realised his personal gravy train may be about to hit the buffers.
@Robert. 8.20
Willie Bain is on record as saying Labour should oppose anything the SNP proposes in principal.
I hardly think that is the thought process of an intelligent man.More like a political careerist who cares not about what may be best for the people of Springburn but will help get him back to the Westminster trough.
Its not particularly honest either.I will concede however that he is consistent in his political strategy.
If Labour succumbs to wipe out or close to it on 7th May it is finished in Scotland. There will be no revival. You cannot build a revival on the clueless and talentless organisational structure which is Labour now. It is finished
Another radical grouping will form out of some of the progressive forces that have come out of the referendum. These had already generally walked out of Labour.
This political journey is putting some things into stark relief.
The recent respected leadership of Labour in Scotland of such as Dewar, Smith, Robertson, Wilson can now be seen for what they actually were – career tories leading a uninformed support – which has now wakened up
@ Dr Jim 9.05
Emanating from Sprinburn myself I can confirm there is a very substantial and vibrant Orange Lodge Hall near the defunct swimming pool.
The area is the best example of bad town planning/social engineering I have seen.It used to have a lively charecterful main street with shops and tenements until Glasgow City Council ripped the heart out of it.Tragic.
Lord Gorbals Mick was the MP before Bain.I doubt he returns to wave from his Limo much nowadays.
Reply to dakk
The Springburn Orange Hall usually has Union Jacks on the lampposts in the surrounding vicinity. If the SNP put say Saltires in the Lampposts the Labour Cooncil would soon have them removed. It is also on a gap site where the Springburn Borough Hall lay empty and neglected for over 40 years. It was a beautiful listed red sandstone building with statues and friezes. The neglect was a monument to Lord Martin and his son. It was knocked down without any notice during the Xmas holidays. To the fury of the local SNP councilors and many locals.
Springburn once had an SNP member. Morton. Can’t remember his first name. It was one of the local areas destroyed by the inner city Motorway. Where the road was straight they bent it and where it was bent they manager to make it worse. Cowlair Railway works was a big employer. It was nationalised and run from London and Birmingham, as were most of the subsidiary contracts. Then it was denationalised and moved to Birmingham where it was finally taken over by a French firm. The old works supplied train, rolling stock and rails around the globe, China, Africa,India, the American continent and Europe, etc. The recent by elections were run from the North of England by the Tame Unions, whose personnel will be need at home this May.
The Garngad part of the Constituency had local priests supporting Labour, whilst neighbouring Riddrie had the local priest supporting the SNP. Sectarianism has long been a factor working both ways for Labour and against Independence, though the ‘Irish For Yes’ helped make a difference in the deindustrial belt during the referendum.
@Croompenstein says:7 March, 2015 at 6:36 pm:
<i“They [the SNP] are also a high public spending party,” he said. The rest of Britain “has to subsidise Scotland” through the Barnet Formula because the SNP is not interested in running a “balanced book economy”
Eh!
The SNP have never failed to balance the SG’s books.
The Guy has no idea what the Barnett Formula is designed to do.
The guy is unaware the Scottish per capita GDP is the highest of the four United Kingdom countries – ergo we Scots subsidise every other United Kingdom Party.
How the hell did this idiot ever get to head a successful company?
kangaroo says: “Their next conference will be fun. The sound of one hand clapping.”
And that hand will be thinking it should probably be voting SNP.
The only time I see red is when I see Fife Labour MPs/MSPs and I see the despicable blondy curls of MSP Claire Baker, a nasty piece of work, a real careerist and torn faced so and so…..I say that as someone who knew her and didn’t like her at all when I was Labour activist, the row down is the big liar MSP Cara Hilton who conned folk into voting for her on back of pretending she would do all she could to save a local school…..then was found out after she was voted in, having signed off on the closure. I hope next year they are kicked to the kerb by the guid folk of Fife.
Great replies regarding Willie Bain, but it doesn’t answer my question.
Why is Willie Bain slipping under the SNP tidal wave that is sweeping Scotland?
I am honestly curious as to why this wee guy seems immune to it.
@ donald anderson
Thanks for that potted history of Springburn Donald.The red sandstone building is what I thought was the pool.So they ripped that down as well,terrible shame.
I was born in a tenement on Springburn Road but family moved out to suburbs.
I have fond memories of my mother taking me back into Springburn shopping in Hoeys,Bayne and Ducketts and the co-op.The big long hilly main street had a great happening atmosphere to it.Look at it now its an eyesore with no soul.
At least the Peasie are still there ! My dad said they used to get 15000.
caz-m
To be honest other than the Bain principle I can’t actually recall a thing the man has said. He also has one of those forgettable faces. Couple that with a big majority and he may well survive.
Personally I think 56 seats is a tad optimistic. There will be a few that survive. However, if the SNP can tip over 30 seats I think we should view every one above as a whopping great bonus. It has got to the stage now that the SNP could win say 35 seats and the BBC will probably headline it as “Disaster for SNP as they fail to win 56 seats”.
@caz m
I’m no political anorak so I wouldn’t profess to know why wee cocky Bain is cocooned.
However I do recall that he lived in Sprinburn and his mother still lives there I think,so in an area where a lot of people try get out quickly and with high level of immigrants he maybe is seen as a rare local hero of some sort.
And maybe he does answer constituents emails promptly as Robert said.Its possible he could be quite personable and competent as an MP in one to ones, when you leave out the unionist Brit Nat dogma.
@caz-m –
Good question mister.
Unfortunately, I know nothing about the dude, but the bookies’ take on anyone is always worth a swatch.
Here’s the latest I could find, odds-wise. It’s tight, but perhaps one of the few places where a punter could still double their money (i.e. on any GE/Scotland result).
link to oddschecker.com
I was out all day in the Glasgow North by election. I stood at a school in Roystonhill all day with hardly a soul in sight. At first I thought it would pick up in the afternoon, but it didn’t, right up till closing time. There was a 9ft cardboard cutout of wee the Willie Bain dwarf outside the polling station. I complained to a mini busload of policeman that it was infringing the Representation of the peoples act. They were aggressively hostile to me, before telling the Jannie to move it. He moved it from outside the door, to inside the door. I complained again and he moved it to the doorway of his office in full view. I finally managed to get him to move it outside.
There was a mini bus and a few carloads of English people stopping outside the polling station with a couple of them moving inside and talking to the clerks all day.
By 9am I discovered they had given up on all the polling stations as though they knew exactly what was happening. They also had an unusually large postal vote.
On the main road they have a huge constituency office, plus other housing and advice premises. Springburn belongs to them.
In the 60’s I was a shop Steward in the Possil Pilkington Fiberglassnder Lords Wilson and Callaghan, policed by the Tame Unions. A few streets away Michael Martin was a shop steward in the GKN nuts and bolts factory, supporting the Labour pay freezes and was reward for it. The Fiberglass factory was closed after a six weeks strike and moved down to Helens in Lancashire. We phoned the English shop stewards who told us it was “every an for himself Jock”. GKN, Metal Box, Saracen Foundry, as well as paint works, print works, etc in Port Dundas are only a few of the factories I remember being moved down to England at that time as well the whole of the giant Springburn railway works.
Lord Martin of Springburn and Port Dundas left much to be proud of – in London expenses.
Possil is one of the poorest areas of Glasgow. I do not subscribe to the myth that Labour has lost its way, or used to be socialist, or Auld Labour was much nicer. It always was a lumpen party.
Scottish Labour are going down the path of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party…oblivion.
Donald
Admire your tenacity in getting in amongst their territory and making your presence felt.
I always felt when going back through Springburn they had redesigned it with dependency in mind.The shopping center with the job center in a prominent area was almost stating that you guys are always going to need this place.
Im encouraged that ex union shop stewards like yourself have seen through Labour. I think all they will be left with will be the career politicians and the champagne socialist types who are really Tory’s but vote Labour to make themselves seem humble and compassionate.
A 9 foot cut out of a 4 foot dwarf,thats political spin alright lol
Reply to dakk
I have never supported Labour. That’s because I have always been a socialist since I was old enough to think politically. Before we had SNP candidates in every ward I used to spoil the ballot paper with remark and SNP symbol.
I got my political education from The Scottish Secretariat that used to be in Elmbank Crescent. It was funded by Roland Muirhead and destroyed for what became the Strathclyde HQ building, then emptied in the next expensive round of regionalisation. (Lord) Harold Wilson said that his first round of regionalisation was to “bring Government closer to the people” and was meant to stop the rise of the SNP. It was in fact another big freebie for Labour in Scotland.
I also rcd my education from older men in the workforce who lent me books. There seems to be no political discussions in pubs these days with deindustrialisation, just fitba, horses and of course ignorant sectarianism. Clyde books in Argyll St Anderston and when it moved to the High St. Although it was run by the Unionist CPGB there were many Scottish republicans in it and with a disproportionate amount of Scots. Harry Pollit’s son once told me that his faither was arguing at particularly hot Central Committee meeting in London when he came out the pub and bumped into two Scottie dugs on a lead and remarked. “Oh no, not bloody more of them”.
As for Springburn.It is a disgrace that the 1820 Martyrs are buried in Sighthill shopping centre across for the retail park and little is known of them. The Trades council has a Tolpuddle Martyrs Suite and nothing to 1920, who suffered far worse and proposed farther reaching changes.
A wee bit off topic but…Heres a thought about the “Grand Coalition” of tory/liebour. What happens if the tories edge it on seats and liebour go in as the minority partner when the issue of EVAL comes up again and Milliband finds hes outnumbered and has to accept the tories proposals, cutting both his legs off below the knees.
Seems he might be caught between a rock and a hard place choosing to go into coalition with the SNP or the tories.
I am really concerned about postal voting fraud. The shenannagins of the Ref has not been laid to rest. I am not a conspiracy theorist but I am despairing if the opaqueness of the system. It is ripe for abuse. I want to know how many postal votes are needed to give each voter just one. I want to know how they will be transported securely and stored away from sticky fingers. Surely the Rev can investigate the process and flag up potential issues, which we can raise locally?
Nice to see Springburn getting a wee mention, born in the place myself, mystery why the folk vote for a wee non-entity like Bain. The old natives largely moved out to the schemes which coincided with the industrial decline, houses with bathrooms etc’ being the priority. Like the baron Springburn himself much of the population now are incomers to the district.
Cowlairs (LNER) works closed and the workforce & work was transferred to the Caley (LMS), now dwindled to a shadow of its former self, German owned and employing less than 200 men. The main exporter of locomotives was the NB Loco Works, completely vanished, not to be confused with Cowlairs which was the NB Railway Company Works, the Caley being the Caledonian Company Works. Springburn at its peak was the greatest loco production centre in the world.
The 1820 martyr’s were dis-interred from Stirling and re-buried at the top of Sighthill cemetery, Springburn. This was permitted after the Reform Act, the Stirling Provost only agreed to it as long as it was done quietly, with no demonstration. We owe these guys much, they should be household names.
Donald 9.51
Apologies for assuming you used to be Labour.I know that would be insulting for someone with genuine socialist beliefs.
At least you have found a home here now for political discourse .Maybe things are changing again with poverty increasing.
I hadn’t heard of the 1820 Radical War.So the British govt beheaded these Workers Rights men. Nice people eh !
For those who know nuzzing about 1820 try “The Scottish Insurrection of 1820” by Peter Berresford Ellis and Seamus Mac na Gobhain. It also contains little known info on the United Scotsmen. There are other good books on the subject by Blair Wilkie and James Halliday.
I should have added the old SNP office in Elmbank St under Iain MacDonald and Unity Miller to my list of political education, also funded by Roland Muirhead who would b disappointed at the decision to sell the premises in the centre of Glasgow. At the time of the Winnie Ewing victory they were queuing round the corner to join. I think it was big mistake to sell up. Granted we needed an HQ in Edinburgh, but Glasgow was a Labour fiefdom, still to be won. The late Bill Lindsay told me that a Glasgow millionaire, who owned a caravan shop in Gt Western Rd was willing to put up the funds for a social club, which Labour have aplenty. Bill was still puzzled as to how it was overruled.
Is Kezia laughing in the last pic because jim murphy farted?
There are enough ‘thousand yard stares” in the conference hall to go..damn, was going to say the moon and back but they would be lucky to get tae the nearest train station !
If i had a ‘tena’ for every ‘drooler” in that audience i would be a bit better off.
Had a vote labour leaflet put through my door tonight with such urgency i thought bairns were playing ‘chap door run’.
Political interviews with labour folk in the english centric media are great these days, Curran and Murray both sliced, diced and served their erses.
They will surely try the “absolutely no deal with the SNP” before polling day, thinking that will sort us out.
50 plus SNP seats later…then what ?
Unionist Politics, best parody since Yes, Minister.
Ain’t politics fun !!
Sorry for rambling, painkillers and a wee Talisker Storm before bedtime…!
Chas says:
“And two-thirds is being kind; I’d say it’s barely half-full.”
Aye, especially when you remove wee Douglas Alexanders head from the room.
And you can bet your last a considerable chunk of that audience were bussed in from south of the dyke.
RED TORIES OUT OUT OUT.