To my friends in Labour
Hello. Some of you will know me, but most of you won’t. That’s alright. That’s not important. All you have to know right now is that I’m just like you. We may well be on different sides in this referendum race – I’m on team Yes – but we are the same.
I come from a working-class family, in a working-class area of Glasgow. My father worked for Glasgow City Council in the Parks department, and I followed him there and spent seven years out cutting grass, planting flowers, picking up litter and raking leaves in the rain.
I joined the Labour Party when I was 17, and was a trade union activist a year later. I was a local branch chair at 21, and I was proud to have worked alongside the team at Keir Hardie House to deliver a Labour government in 1997. The Labour Party was my second home.
In 2001 I decided to go to university, so I signed up for night school and for a year I went religiously, doing three subjects a week on top of my job. I passed them all and chose Stirling, where I quickly became involved in student union politics. In my first campaign for an executive post I was tagged one of “Blair’s Poodles”. I wore my party colours on my sleeve.
But, I already had deep misgivings about where we were headed as a party. I was tribally loyal despite them, but they came to a head in 2002, when the Parliament at Westminster, with a Labour Prime Minister at the lead, chose to send our soldiers to invade a country that had done us no harm, to overthrow its government in contravention of international law, after a fear-and-smear campaign many of us knew was based on lies.
It was one step too far. I couldn’t stomach it any longer. The disconnect between the things I believed in and the things the party appeared to care about was just too great. I gave up political activity, tore up my membership card and I’ve not gone back.
I considered returning when Ed Miliband became leader. I believed he reflected my values and shared my ambitions for what a Labour government should do. He also apologised for Iraq, something neither Blair nor Brown had ever done. Circumstances since have made me glad I didn’t do it.
I’m a keen student of politics and political campaigns. I’m astounded at the way this referendum has galvanised people across the country. Nearly a million who have never voted before – an entire section of our society which has been disenfranchised – have found their voices. If the polling is correct, a majority of them intend to vote Yes.
I understand why. This campaign has sparked something magical. The same awakening that has happened with them has brought me home. Not back to your ranks, not to Labour, but to politics, to engagement, after twelve long years outside.
I came to the Yes side late. I never expected to be campaigning with members of the SNP, for Scotland’s independence. It was an issue that had never resonated with me, something I would have voted against myself, but I’m content that I’ve done it after much thought and I know the decision is right. It chimes with everything I believe in, and care about.
I’ve heard many arguments as to why Labour members and voters should stand on the side of the No campaign. This is the time to put those arguments to bed. Think through what you’re being told, about what you’re really doing. Take the next day or two and consider whether or not you’re fighting for the right side.
I consider all of you my brothers and sisters. I consider the Movement one big family, and it’s painful to see the splits in that family as we head into the home straight. But as a part of the family I think I can tell you some hard truths without it upsetting you too much.
I am on the Yes side because I believe the things we want cannot be realised as part of the Westminster system. The social justice and fairness agenda will not be pursued by the next Labour government, whenever that is, because the political system as it stands at this moment is incapable of delivering real change, except to divert more power towards those who already have too much of that already. Demographics, electoral maths, over-dependence on the south, even the structures of the party itself. Even if the will existed at the top of the party to pursue the kind of politics we care about, the present political system isn’t built for it.
No Labour Party that wanted those things could have them unless it was prepared to march into the guns and face down a wholly-hostile media, and big business interests that would rather democracy itself was a thing of the past, all the better to let them pursue profits. Do you believe we have such a Labour Party today? Do you believe men like Jim Murphy, the man who fled the streets because of a single protester throwing an egg, will march into those guns?
You can admit this to me. We’re family. We know it’s never going to happen.
From almost the day I joined the Labour Party I was being told that the utopia was just around the corner, and in spite of everything I saw, as the party moved further and further away from that ideal I stuck with it. I swallowed my doubts long past the point of reason, suspending disbelief like a cartoon character who’s walking across a canyon, protected only as long as he doesn’t look down. Eventually, brothers and sisters, everybody looks down.
You know this because you’ve had to swallow your own doubts. You know this because you, too, have struggled with your conscience. Don’t be scared to admit it.
There’s a moment in From Dusk Till Dawn – one of my favourite pieces of cinema – when Harvey Keitel talks about the conflict that pulls at the heart of every man or woman who ever chose to take up the service of God, and the truth of it resonates way beyond some clever writing and a fine piece of acting. Keitel’s pastor is talking to his daughter, and he tells her:
“Many, many times during your life you will look at your reflection in a mirror and ask yourself: am I a fool?”
How many times have you asked yourself that question? Was it over single-parent benefits? Was it when Mandelson talked to a room of business moguls and told them the party had no problem with people who wanted to get “filthy rich”? Was it when we took money from a Formula One boss in exchange for giving them an exemption from the ban on tobacco advertising, and thus put the soul of our entire party up for sale?
Was it when Derek Draper and others boasted of a “circle of influence”, and offered access to it for cold, hard cash? Was it our failure to give the unions better rights or when we fixed minimum wage legislation so young people were paid a lesser rate? Was it over PFI or when we gave interest rates to the Bank of England?
Did you finally snap over the sight of our Parliamentarians trooping into the Commons to vote for an illegal war? Was it with Brown’s scrapping the 10p tax rate, in a bribe to Middle England? Was it during his elevation to the leadership without a debate on our future direction, or during his term as Prime Minister when all the promise he’d once shown was squandered in a run to the middle of the road?
You must have swallowed your doubts since Ed Miliband became leader too, as one after the other some of our most progressive ideas have been buried. You must have winced as we shifted from being opposed to the speed of austerity to the point we’re at now where we are engaged in a competition with the Tories about much more to cut. You must surely have shivered at a Labour Shadow Minister boasting to the media that we would be “tougher on welfare than the Tories.”
You must be shaking your head with every ramping up of the rhetoric against immigrants. You must have harboured misgivings over the way they handled the Falkirk affair and the way the right wing of the party used it to finally sever our historic link with the unions.
And I know you must have blanched, because I’m not a member and it made me physically sick, when Ed Miliband and the party high command decisively shifted us away from the principles of the universal welfare state, abandoning the last vestige of our party’s moral conscience in a gutter grab for the approval of Daily Mail readers.
Through all of it, I remained steadfastly loyal to at least the idea of voting Labour. I’m afraid, my friends, I’m through with that too. Short of a massive clearout of the party, from top to bottom, I will never vote Labour again. It’s really that simple, and my reasons for it are many, but here are the highlights.
I cannot conceive of voting for a party whose shadow Chancellor told an entire country of people getting ready to make the biggest decision of their lives that Labour’s response to that would be to deny them the assets of the state they paid into and helped build for three centuries.
I cannot conceive of voting for a party whose Scottish leader appears poisoned by hatred every time she has to speak the name of the man the people of this country elected as its First Minister. I’m not asking her to respect Alex Salmond, but her total disrespect for the office he holds, representing as it does the people of Scotland, is beneath contempt and hard to stomach.
I cannot conceive of voting for a party which has as one of its “leading lights” a man such as Jim Murphy, who sucks off the public teat, runs up hundred of thousands of pounds in expenses and then has the temerity to stand on a soap box as if he were the moral voice of the nation while during this campaign he’s libelled a sizeable part of the population.
Many of you have given your lives to the labour movement. Seriously, is this what you did it for? Because, I tell you, this is how you will be remembered.
Today you’re on the side of the big corporations you know full well are among the biggest obstacles to our progress as a country. In this campaign they’ve used every scare tactic that they once deployed to cow the labour movement. Threats to move capital. Threats to cut jobs. Holding a gun to the heads of every person in this country, in an effort to prevent us coming to an informed democratic decision, just as they did before every general election where Labour wanted to change things. I know you recognise it. You’ve seen it before.
Only this time, you’re standing with them.
Today you’re on the side of the right-wing media, waging war on people’s aspirations and hopes, acting as the mouthpiece for political and business interests which are diametrically opposed to the interests of millions of our citizens. They’re spreading lies, half-truths, scare stories and smears, all of it designed to whip up every negative emotion in an electorate that needs facts and information like never before.
They’ve done this to Labour each and every time your party has made a progressive move, and the result is that they’ve cut off any dissent, stifled any independent thought and strangled at birth any progressive idea. You know all this, you’ve mourned their awful influence and the devastating impact it has on our political discourse many, many, many times. You know many of them are professional liars, spinning on behalf of other professional liars.
Only this time, you’re standing with them.
Today you’re part of a coalition including the Tories, the yellow-bellied bed-hopping Liberal Democrats and every assorted lunatic and nutjob from the gutters and sewers of the far right. These are the people you’ve spent your life campaigning against, fighting to defeat. You point to the ranks of the Yes campaign, and you try to smear it as being the creature of Alex Salmond, but the system you’re trying to save is the one of the BNP, Britain First, UKIP and Combat 18.
It’s the one supported and defended by the Order and the Lodge. You can protest until you’re red, white and blue in the face that your version of Britain is different from theirs, but this is a campaign where your party has bent to those interests time and time again. It’s your leader who talked about “guards on the border”, to keep the immigrants out. It’s your party’s senior figures whose faces contort with hate when they talk of “foreigners”. Westminster’s elite is in a campaign with the far right, talking its language and pandering to its supporters.
Only this time, you’re standing with them.
Is this what you joined the Movement for? So that during the most important campaign you will ever be part of, you were on the same side as the enemy, mouthing its slogans, using its tactics, preying on the fears of the weak and the uninformed, dividing people, parroting every nasty scare the Daily Mail could dream up?
This isn’t about your party, it’s about what you believe. Is this what you want to look back on in years to come? Slithering through the slime with the Tories and the enemies of democracy?
Imagine how you’ll feel on the day David Cameron marches back into Downing Street, and he and his party begin the task of dismantling what’s left of the apparatus of the state. How are you going to look in the mirror? How are you going to look yourself in the eye?
It’s time to understand just what it is you’re involved in here. You’re snatching away hope from people who’ve not had it in years, the people your party was supposed to represent, the folk it was meant to serve. How can you get up every morning, go out, knock on their doors and lie to them at the exact moment when we finally have the power to change their lives for the better?
You know that the offer being stitched together to buy us off is a despicable fraud. You know that for every penny the Parliament can raise in taxes it will lose from the Barnett Formula. We know what that “offer “ is really all about. It will force the Scottish Parliament to make ever more horrible choices, to hack away bits of the public services, to make draconian and savage cuts across the board.
It’s about political positioning, putting the SNP on the spot to choose from a list of dreadful options, and you know it will end in forcing the Scottish Government in Edinburgh to cut away the progressive gains that devolution has brought, including the ones that were brought by us.
Free education. Gone. Personal care for the elderly. Gone. The council tax freeze. Gone. Tens of thousands of Scots will be forced into deeper poverty as a result of the “deal” we’re being offered. You cannot be unaware of that, and yet here you are trying to sell it, blinded by the desire to destroy the SNP no matter what, then walk into the ruins and be kings of the rubble.
What are you doing? Did you join the Movement for this?
And while you’re pondering on that, ponder on this.
Yours has been the story of the Long Defeat. I joined the party in 1993, when John Smith was its leader. A year after that we had Tony Blair. I am 37 years old. Some of you are much older and have seen far more, and your Long Defeat makes mine look positively pale.
You’ve fought the good fight, in the hope that your work would bring about lasting changes, and in some areas they have. But it’s been a series of defeats nonetheless.
When some of you joined the Labour Party it supported the universal welfare state. It was anti-nuclear. It supported free education. Banking was still tightly regulated and our party was in favour of that because we knew London could not be turned into a casino.
We had trade unions worthy of the name, with full rights and full recognition in law, and they had real balls – they weren’t just PR arms and training schemes for Labour and the British state. They served their members and communities far beyond politics. We had affordable housing and a commitment to full employment. We had nationalised utilities and you even had something called Clause 4.
Now we have foodbanks and corporate bail-outs. We have unions which are emasculated. We have a media that’s out of control. We have multinational companies devaluing labour with the obscenity of zero-hour contracts. We have private utilities forcing people to choose between heating and eating. We’re pro-nuclear, itching to spend more on useless imperial status symbols. Is that your Labour Party?
Now it wants you to vote against a change that cuts Westminster adrift at last, that transforms our national life, that gives us a legitimate chance at utilising our strengths and talents and building a country that not only restores democracy and hope to its citizens but one that can serve as a beacon of light to those across the border who feel disengaged and cut loose.
Are you really going to spend the next seven days – the most important of your life – campaigning alongside the enemy, scaring people, crushing optimism and hope for the future, to sell a bill of goods you know is faulty in an act of emotional self-harm which will haunt your soul until the day you die?
Or do you want something better? Something more? Something that honours everything you believe in and everything you’ve done.
There’s a week left to go. It isn’t too late to make it all worthwhile. The choice is yours, and no-one will ever get you off the hook by presenting an alibi for that. This will be won and lost by Labour voters. The power is in your hands.
How do you want to remember this? How do you want to be remembered? This is what you got involved in politics to do. Change not just for your lifetime but for all time.
It’s time to decide, my brothers and sisters. Whose side are you really on?
Extraordinarily powerful article. If only the people it’s addressing could read it.
Wow! Just wow! How can we get EVERYONE to read this? Outstanding!
I have read a great many posts in the past three years, that one is right up there with the very best of them.
A brilliant post James and one that really resonates.
Very well said.
O/T
Christopher Chope, Conservative MP for Christchurch says there will be no devolution powers after a No vote. It will be the Status Quo.
link to facebook.com
Well said son. I’m ex-Labour too. A compelling treatise on the sad place Labour has put themselves in. The last three days of scaremongering aided and abetted by Labour,LABOUR, is their epitaph
I’ve already dropped this link onto three sites. If you’re on social meeja, get it out there.
This post is a must read.
Brilliant, utterly brilliant piece
Superb.
IMO, this piece by James Forrest has the power,
if read by everyone in Scotland,
to inspire and propel this nation
to an overwhelming victory for Independence
in 5 days time.
A landmark piece of writing.
Thank you James and well done!
And thanks to you Stu for including it.
select pdf and forward it to yourself,then send to all your contacts
Print it out and each mail a copy to
(Name of Labour Party member)
The Labour Party
Labour Central, Kings Manor
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6PA
(Name of any Labour Party member)
290 Bath Street, Glasgow
G2 4RE
United Kingdom
Or email it to any number of Labour people
johann.lamont.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
For example Wee Willie Bain
bainw@parliament.uk
Its just a case of going onto the web and finding their websites and contact details.
Wow.
Very, very powerful and truthful.
Pity that Labour Party MPs, MSP’s and Councillors are so blind that they cannot see the irrepairable damage that they have caused their party.
Scotland will do well with people like James@naefear
For those bemused by the German intervention…
The Flaky Character of the Deutsche Bank – grousebeater.wordpress
James Forest
Just the man to stand against any of these labour torys when they
come running up to sup at our trough.
What a wonderfully powerful piece. Old Labour bods must read this. They are on the wrong side of history if they are voting NO.
Just fired it to #indyref and #slab, powerful and thoughtful article that begs to be shared and read
James Forrest’s article must be nailed to the door of every Labour Party branch office in every town in every part of Scotland. It must be circulated, printed out, copied, emailed, tweeted, facebooked, shouted by megaphone on the streets, performed on You Tube, whatever it takes to reach people, and spread further. DO IT NOW, PEOPLE.
Well you fired me up. Unfortunately I have already voted YES.
I agree with EVERY word of your article.
A phrase that has resounded throught the YES campaign in various forms is in your article:
“The social justice and fairness agenda will not be pursued by the next Labour government, whenever that is, because the political system as it stands at this moment is incapable of delivering real change, except to divert more power towards those who already have too much of that already” — (My variation would be Westminster not Labour)
Those outside the YES campaign do not understand the degree of alignment on the phrase above.
I no longer care about the individual parties. I enjoy working with the SSP, Labour for Independence, Greens,RIC etc etc. We discuss that PHRASE. We celebrate what we align on.
The NO campaign is powerful, wealthy people using tribal politics to divide us. Scottish politics will never be the same again.
Like you I cannot understand how politics was removed from the people and used against us.
I don’t know what the political makeup of an Independent Scotland will be and to be honest I don’t care with one caveat – social justice and fairness MUST be the foundation of EVERY policy..
Stand up for Scotland or bend over for London Tories.
Brilliant. The “family” and “brothers and sisters” idea I’m not sure works, though.
And I’m not sure telling them what they know (when some may be genuinely stupid and/or ignorant) is such a great idea.
Apart from that, a fantastically powerful argument.
as a labour man who like yourself James had a rude awakening as to what the party i loved and would stand and fight for its principles became under New Labour i remember shedding a tear when finally we got rid of the tories and we stood on a banner of things can only get better as Blair waltzed into no 10 ,yes now we will get real change how wrong i was all we got was more of the same but with added corruption,i will never vote new labour ever again i do not trust those neo liberals who have taken over the labour party and destroyed its values,i will vote SNP not because i think the sun shines out their ass but because as a new party in political terms they are so far untarnished by the corruption and arrogance shown by the westminster parties,i so hope they remain this way and i also hope through independence we will see the rise of the real labour party once more and a return to the values that the people of Scotland demand.
Vote yes to independence my brothers and sisters together we can save the labour party in Scotland.
I’m an ex-party member myself and you have articulated well and movingly many of the reasons for my own disaffection with “The People’s Party”. I think myself that they no longer know who they are for or what they are for, and, as a result of this moral/ideological vacuum, they have allowed themselves to become a vehicle for petty ambitious placeseekers and grim little peculators.
Wow, just wow! EVERYONE who is entitled to vote should read this article. I hope it goes viral!
The political system as it stands … is incapable of delivering real change, except to divert more power towards those who already have too much of that already.
Pretty well the core argument in one sentence.
If there is a NO vote on 18/9/14, Unionist politicians will then either renege on their promises to revise devolution, or deliver new arrangements for Scotland that would be much more financially deleterious than independence. Westminster politicians know that their success depends on the views of Southern English voters, not those from the Celtic lands, and the possibility of secession will have been put off for at least a generation.
O/T Have I missed some news? Gordon Brown just mentioned Alex Salmond and Kim Jong Un together on Sky News. WTF!!!
Boris Jonhstone selecetd for a safe seat, so could have him as PM quite soon if we stick with the union.
Tom bee says,
An excellent and uplifting piece of work. More strength to your arm Mr For rest. You should consider a career in the Scottish parameters. Thank you
link to theguardian.com
This lady marching today says
Barbara Naismith, 69, a retired electrical factory catering worker from Hamilton, who clutched a sunhat, said: “We’re very much a Christian organisation and we want to keep our Queen. If the SNP gets in, that’s another thing we might lose, that they might try to stop us walking on the Queen’s highway as well. Things like that have been getting said.”
But you have to ask, what would Jesus make of this super rich Queen?
Good read, If I was Labour you would have got me. Power to the People and new politics after a win on the 19th
I remember Jimmy Reid’s words “I never left the Labour Party – it left me”.
And it’s true
When Tony Blair became leader , my late father said “with him in charge the country’s doon the dunny”.
And it’s true
Labour- I preferred their earlier work !
Orange March–Edinbugh
Andy Nicholls, 51, a supermarket worker with Glasgow Cowcaddens dressed in black suit, white shirt and red, white and blue striped tie, said:
“It has brought a bit of pride back to me; because everywhere I go you just seem to see yes stuff in windows.
The SNP is obviously pushing hard. I think that they’ve got more of a momentum whereas no has said we’ll hold onto what we’ve got and aren’t maybe as dynamic, but today has seen not just the Orange people who support what we’re standing for.
“From an Orange perspective we’re probably the bottom of the food chain, nobody likes us but we’re certainly in the limelight today.
What I would like to see is a yes vote getting defeated maybe by 3,000 votes, and then we see how many Orangemen voted no – and that’s the number that swung it.”
bfh—at least hes honest
That’s a great article. Every Labour voter who plans to vote No should read it before Thursday. Perhaps if it was in the style of a letter and in a PDF file it could be printed off and handed out. Or, even put through doors.
A passing OT thought. I understood there was to be something really big from YesScotland in the final days. Wonder what? Anyone heard that something has been planned for a long time? Not much time left?
O/T The Guardian formally stated their opposition yesterday with a truly awful editorial. Its commenters on the website were by-and-large appalled by its conduct.
A truly breathtaking article, James.
It took many years of soul-searching for me to put the pieces together before, finally, realising what had been done to the Labour Party that I’d supported throughout my adult life.
Bringing the truth into focus was a gradual process, for me, but your powerful piece hits like a shock wave.
An essay for the people…
Well done – I shall be copying it and emailing/sending it to as many people as I can before the 18th imploring them to read and reflect on it before they vote.
Well done!
Don
To all the naysayers this week:
Out with the old
In with the new
YES…..WE……..CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok guys. Remember Flash Mob tomorrow (Sunday) @ 11:45 for noon; Aberdeen Castlegate.
Get the yes badges, Wings gear and anything Indy on the go.
Lets show Aberdeen this has mass support. ????
OO March. Just looked at some pics from their march, seems to me that there is a great number of ‘Military Style’ Uniforms on display and why are police doing nothing about it?
Auld Rock
Right. The last bit of that was a smiley face but the site seems to think my phone wanted 4 ?
grrrr…
54% NO
46% YES
————-
The latest poll by Survation carried out for Better Together, do I believe it? NO WAY!
@Andy-B
The latest poll by Survation carried out for Better Together, do I believe it? NO WAY!
Survation’s reputation will be in tatters next week LOL!
I thought revealing postal ballot exit poll was illegal ?
“Kevin O’Donnell @kevwodonnell · 1m
Postal vote exit poll:
No – 60%
Yes – 40%
#indyref
To those who say I’m making it up I welcome your complacency because I just seen it. No! “
54% NO – 46% YES
Almost as if there had been no debate these last two years.
Claims by the opposition that less than a third of people supported self-goverance were always lies. Getting Yes voters over that 50% threshhold is the profound challenge.
If No, Scotland votes by a majority to be a permanent part of North Britain.
This was a most interesting informative article saddening and stirring at the same time but unfortunatley the deluded no supporters will not be swayed they have made their bed lets all hope we dont have to lie in it lets hope that on the 18th we can finally get the chance to do what we should have been doing all along and trying to improve this country and through our contributions also help the world lets say no to foodbanks banker bailouts nuclear weapons and illegal wars of agression under the name of saving the poor powple of IRAQ allowing the corporations to dodge tax with the help of the lawmakers who control the laws things have to change this can go on i dont want to be involved in another war against the people of IRAQ NOT IN MY NAME YOU WONT.
Lets change thingss at long last for the better lets vote
YES!!!!!!
link to theguardian.com
Graun orgasmic with Proud Brit OO. If a UKOK broadsheet has ever embraced the Orange Order so hard before, well it probably hasn’t. Libby Carrell hysterically union jack ecstatic today though,
“How can we lose this” moaned Carrell into his phone and passes out with it all..
Murphy and dr john Reid true labour socialists. Many years ago they sold their soles and principals to the company store.
Traitors and bag men.
Jim Murphy is on the BBC telling everyone that no voters feel to intimidated to show support and that is what you don’t see no posters in house windows or no stickers in cars. Twat.
Postal vote exit poll: No – 60% – Yes – 40%
Bollocks.
Postal votes remain closed until midnight on the 18th, same as all polling booth votes.
Tell the scrote who penned that crap to take a hike.
no camp gloating twitter
so much for a better together Scotland after the vote
Graun boosts Daily Hell poll but this “chimes” with Grain whatsoherface telling BBC that NO Scot shall be allowed near UK high office again, regardless of result.
61% think Scottish MPs should be prevented from voting on legislation that does not affect Scotland.
On balance, Neil corrected Toynbee! that NO Scot from a Scottish Westminster constituency should be allowed to hold high UK office. Much the same thing really but thats BBC propagandists in action.
Superb stuff James, I could not agree more.
Chris
Thought so –
“What happens if an exit poll, or forecast based on an exit poll, is published before voting closes?
In this case then under section 66a, the publisher concerned would be liable to a fine of up to £5,000 or even a jail term of up to six months. ”
link to inbrief.co.uk
Marvellous article James. Top quality effort.
Guardian actually a lot better read now they dropped any pretence at all on total press war for Scottish democracy. SO Graun sayeth
Tory MP says backbenchers may block Westminster plans for more devolution
Vore NO for more powers, or new new new UKOK slogan
“Better, safer, faster change” says Gordon Brown and not a chance says Tory backbencher.
Remember the poorly stage-managed Labour rabble on the steps at Buchanan Street, the other day, when they flat out lied about the future safety of the Scottish NHS? Well here’s the Yes response.
I know which one looks like ‘people power’, to me.
link to facebook.com
Murphy was in Sauchiehall Street this morning spewing lies and anti-indy bile to rent-a-rabble. My worry is that just enough alleged undecideds will be taken in by this to pip us. Gid forbid. As Goebbels said, the way to imprint a lie in the minds of people is to repeat it over and over – in other words, the BT way.
An absolutely brilliant read. Well done.
Mr O’Donnell appears to have deleted the tweet about exit polls, can’t find now. Smacks of desperation to post something like that.
Wow!!! Just Wow!!! That is one of the most powerful reads in regard to how LABOUR has changed from the party of the people, to the party of the FILTHY rich! & corrupt liars, once again we can see by this man’s post. That HE to Never left LABOUR, LABOUR has well & truly left the people that it is supposed to support. We NEED change, we MUST get that change IF Scotland is ever again to see a PARTY of ALL the people again. One that will deliver on social policies, where the wealth of this country is shared among ALL of this country’s people & not just them at the top of the totem pole.
Well Done to you sir & THANK YOU
Usually i skim over very long posts but saw some of the comments so thought i would give it a read.
wish this could be posted through every labour supporters door
The best i have ever read anywhere nothing else even comes close
Well said sir. I just can’t get my head around Labour working with Tories and Liberal Democrats and various right wing parties against the poor,because that is what we’re seeing today.
Sorry O/T, why the hell is BBC Scotland hiding the good news of a breakthrough in hydrogen technology in the Scottish Politics pages?. Is it because this breakthrough makes a mockery of their anti-independence rhetoric?
link to bbc.co.uk
Best post of the entire campaign. This needs the WBB treatment. Let’s crowd fund a mass leafleting of this gem
Tom bee says,
On my previous post it should read “Scottish Parliament”
Go for it James.
Well that’s it folks, Groundskeeper Willie has come out for Independence:
link to youtube.com
#indyref poll night with Opinium, Panelbase and Survation referendum polls all out later today
As BT seriously claiming a 20% lead in the postal vote.How did they conduct the exit poll?
Went through Forrest road Inear the meadows) today just after lunchrime, just after Orange march had left. Beer cans everywhere, the whole street was a mess, and literally ( no wind today) stank of beer.
Many businesses had lots of ‘NAW’ stickers on their windows – I doubt they asked for them.
None of this will be reported on London’s anti independence propagandist mouthpiece, the BBC.
I guess marching behind flute bands must be thirsty work, before you even set off. Well done orange Lodge/anti independence campaign. Truly charming people.
Looks like the Establishment are in disarray.
link to forbes.com
Big Jock,
The votes are not opened yet (18th). They are literally talking bollocks. It’s designed, as all these silly stories are, to try to demoralise the YES campaign.
The Labour battle bus was in the centre of Dundee today. RIC was having a rally up in another square. Afterwards we formed up behind the piper, with the pandas and marched (illegally) down to where they were singing and chanting and round the other side of the bus into City Square and proceeded to drown them out and make it plain there was an alternative. I saw Anas Sarwar, hereditary MP there along with a number of very clean cut, preppy young men, obviously out to use our campaign to earn brownie points for their chance on the Westminster gravy train.
One of them came in among us during one of the speeches carrying a load of booklets but was too feart to hand any out. A point I put to him but answer he had none. After having the centre to themselves our arrival must have been an unwelcome shock, hee, hee.
Tony Bliar’s joined the NO campaign and UKOK now have 8 point lead, says Graun.
Strange days. marching Orange Order, UKOK shock and awe with even ASDA threatening price hikes for Scotland region. Looks like Labour in Scotland are not on the same page at all.
“Barbara Naismith, 69, a retired electrical factory catering worker from Hamilton, who clutched a sunhat, said: “We’re very much a Christian organisation and we want to keep our Queen. If the SNP gets in, that’s another thing we might lose, that they might try to stop us walking on the Queen’s highway as well. Things like that have been getting said.”
As well as being unable to evaluate 2 sides of the argument, this lady shows that the NO’s must be deaf as well since the Scottish Government has arid made it clear that the Queen will be head of state.
However, her comment made me wonder whether the Queen is in fact really Queen in that there has never been a Coronation in Scotland. So does the Queen really have legitimacy here?
Graun, “The poll was commissioned by Better Together.” No shit.
Great post. I agree with every word.
Was watching the BBC news and in a crowd of Yessers a guy near the back was holding up The Wee Blue Book. Fairly gladdened my heart.
C’mon Scotland, We’re gonna do this.
Hopefully, the undecideds will be asking themselves the following questions – Why was there no labour representative at the big big debate for new voters this week and all they could do was drum up George Galloway to speak for them.
Were they scared that they would be seen on the same podium as Tories ? ( Well they’ve managed to stand beside them for the last 2 years of the debate)
Were they scared that they would be embarrassed by how one of their own representatives would handle the debate? Quite possibly – re Mrs Lamont’s and Jim Murphy’s public performances.
Or were they scared that their representative would be savaged by our new young voters and even booed by them?
The above article by a former labour enthusiast shows just how far the once mighty and much respectedLabour Party have fallen and their non appearance at the debate only helps to confirm this.
CameronB Brodie
great clip thanks for sharing.
that’s all i can say, it’s left me without words.
“While we’ve been focusing on the Orange Order rally in Edinburgh, there has also been a big yes rally in Glasgow.”
Awe Guardian has a wee stab at being an actual newspaper from London and not an angry UK propaganda machine. All that newsprint in the name of British NON nationalism, that stays in control of Scotland, her people, her lands and all her resources too.
Cameron still not committing britain to military action in Iraq
and Syria. Methinks if he did before the 18 th the no campaign
would implode. Bet your bottom dollar that if its a no result britain will be bombing Iraq and Syria on the 19th.
another Buchanan St Glasgow Yes event clip.
link to youtube.com
Of topic but thought this was interesting and brought a smile to my face.
link to tinyurl.com
More polls out later then? I really can’t believe any of them to be honest,even as a guide.Truth is,they never called all those folk in the big schemes who also have a vote,a vote that counts the same as the next Scottish resident,their votes also count more than Deutsche Banks vote.
Radar @ 3.05
WTF is a postal vote exit poll lol idiot
I recall reading Jenny Lee’s book, ‘My Life With Nye.’ She said that the Scottish Labour folk got on the train at Glasgow Central with their ideals intact, believing that when they got to Westminster they could change the country, and by the time they had been in the hallowed halls for a few days their ideals flew out the window.
I asked myself the question ‘Am I a fool’ or something like it, when I saw the ejection of Walter Wolfgang from a Labour Party Conference. A man in his eighties, thrown out by thugs, for what? Heckling. Something that is an integral part of our Freedom of Speech. I finished with Labour that day.
Powerful powerful read. At times almost moved me to tears when you think of those principles that were lost. I was Labour too, right up to the Iraq war and will never vote for them again because of that. I wish everyone could read your words.
Scott, there is a banner available in Aberdeen, contact me if you want it.
gerry[dot]parker[at]gmail[dot]com
Radar, take a deep breath, and calm doon. as Grouse Beater said it’s bollocks. Someone just trying to wind us up. There’s worse to come yet
Never had any doubt that we will win but, Yeah, that Great British warmonger and liar, Tony Blair (spit) has waded in for no.Help ma boab, they must be very desperate. Mind you I think that might be the last thing that the other lot want. We had no coverage of Farage visit, keep quite about the OO and now Blair.
Oh by the way, James Forrest great article. I read it a few days ago, cannae mind where, Bella or The Dug maybe. Would that some of the diehards would read it and really stop and think about it. Well done that man for speaking a great deal of common sense.Not enough of that about these days.
Viking Girl
yep, people who believe that they can change (b)orgs from inside, end up changed themselves from inside.
collective cognitive convergence takes over.
@ ticktok.
A postal vote exit poll is information obtained at the postal vote opening and counting.
It is ok for this information to be obtained by :opportunistic sampling” at an ordinary election, but in the case of the referendum it is against the law to sneak a look at the ballot papers, and share the information with others.
Wings Referendum agents are new to the game so we’re playing it by the rules, older hands at the postal vote counting axe assuming they can get away with sneak previews like before but we are bringing the activity to the attention of the Counting Officer and pointing out that the law is being broken..
James Forrest, always a fantastic author. Always articulate, incisive and brilliant.
@ MIkel .
Focus on getting a yes for the next few days. The queen will be the head of state in an independent scotland. It’s a non issue atm.
survation regions
yes doing well labour heartlands but worse snp heartlands
They must be getting extremely desperate to make up this so called postal vote exit poll, i wonder why.
Some of the guys i know that worked in the parks department in GCC have said its like a party within a party and if your face dont fit well it was hardlines for you . stories of OT scams and all the trimmings (forgive the pun)allegedly a scary place to be employed.
The last time Scotland stood up and said, “I want to be free” Thatcher moved in and removed Scotland’s perceived power; Coal, Steel, Ship Building, Car Production, any manufacturing company employing more than 500 staff e.g. Caterpiller production at Uddingston. Anything and everything that exuded power was removed from Scotland and transferred to England. Scotland was well and truly sorted. Thatcher did what Westminster excels at subjugation.
link to caltonjock.com
If Keir Hardie was around today he would be YES.
Paul Mason today, exBBC now CH4… ‘‘Not since Iraq have I seen BBC News working at propaganda strength like this. So glad I’m out of there,’ (about the referendum).
link to blogs.spectator.co.uk
On the BBC news channel right now the small independent country of Denmark being described as a “garden of Eden”, rich, safe with a fantastic welfare system.
Next up on the BBC, how an independent Scotland will a shithole.
Had a beautiful drive into Glasgow this morning, one of these clear crisp days that you get in Scotland. While the missus was getting her hair cut I popped up to Maryhill YES stall to buy some Tee Shirts for Thursday and got some flags for the grandchildren 8 & 5 but YES supporters. Gave my wrist band to woman who was desperate to get one for her grandchild, smiles all round. Drove down to Botanic Arboretum took some great early autumn photos of the River Kelvin, never been there before, 50 years in the timber trade and didn’t know it was there. Went back to the car. As I drove away with my Saltire window flags flying this old bloke gave me the ‘fingers’. You meet a better class of person in Kelvinside don’t you know!!!!
I have been watching the BS regarding Deutsche Banks “intervention”, I do wonder which country this is going to affect the most as they don’t have an office or business in Scotland AFAIK. I can’t help getting the impression that they realise it would have a major implication for their London business and rUK rather than Scotland but the spin is being put on it that its a Scottish problem which it really wont be. It also begs the question why is this Titan of the financial market bothered about the loss of an insignificant country (or entity as put by one of its former MP’s) at the north end of Britain… that requires the rest of the UK to subsidise it, is this not an advantage to the financial markets in London. Its a rhetorical question as its fairly obvious that even Deutsche bank realise that rUK needs the money that is generated in Scotland to survive.
c. Margaret Curran and Johaan Lamont represent areas of Glasgow with the worst social deprivation, lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality in the developed world and not a lot has or is being done to improve matters.
Set against this damming situation is the fact that the Labour Party and both Margaret and Johaan knew full well, (for the last 40 year’s) that Scotland had massive oil and gas wealth and that the Scottish people have been lied to for decades.
I wondered at their behavior and the justification of it then remembered the Labour party creed allows the sacrifice of the electorate for perceived good of the bigger picture of the Labour Party and it’s manifesto.
link to bellacaledonia.org.uk Full expose of Margaret Curran et.al.
Aljazeera TV gave good coverage of the Edinburgh O/O march today, many of the marchers were from NI and England, they marched in full regalia, banging their drums, they then paused to sing “God save the Queen” when asked by a reporter why they were singing God save the Queen, the reply was its our national anthem.
When asked again what they would do if yes wins the referendum,the pretend Scotsmen said we’ll leave Scotland forever.
If the Scottish electorate succumb to this doom and gloom
narrative being carried out by the english elite I would like the SNP en masse resign their seats in Holyrood and hand power to the red and blue tories and let them deal with the apocalypse that is
inevitable.
Andy-B, can we have that in writing, was it a pledge, a promise, or did he mention a timetable of when they might leave?
Just keeps getting better this news, all the xenophobic, racist, profiteering, self serving greedy bastirts are leaving after we vote Yes. Why is this not been covered in the news…oh wait…is that what they are on aboot…just can’t see the down side masel’.
Graun now retweets a bookie pushing betfairs £100 gets you £329 on Yes and £25 NO but betfair have a huge essay on why they think its a NO win next week
link to betting.betfair.com
The tipster uses status quo bias and compares the ref to buying chocolate and South Sudan.
Andy-B, can we have that in writing, was it a pledge, a promise, or did he mention a timetable of when they might leave?
Just keeps getting better this news, all the xenophobic, racist, profiteering, self serving greedy bastirts are leaving after we vote Yes. Why is this not been covered in the news…oh wait…is that what they are on aboot…just can’t see the down side masel’.
sorry rev, missed a letter oot ma email address put that last comment into moderation…oops
James, outstanding writing, read it on your blog the other day…you’re a good man.
@ A.N.Surgent, its interesting that you say that as Betfair tipster sta we have lost the ref because of status quo bias and voters never voting for change. Clearly some big changes ahead with NO, the more powers fraud will implode, austerity teamGB kicks in with £4 bn more in cuts, Trident 2 comes bobbing up the Clyde etc
Bliar MacDonut would call that scare mongering but he’s got his ticket booked out of here on the 19th no matter what the result.
2 polls tomorrow: Panelbase for Sunday Times and Opinium (who?) for the Observer.
Well British Telecom,other companies are available. You obviously don’t need this too wee,too poor and too stupid countries money.
Great and inspiring piece James , borne out by the high number of reponses. I almost felt like joining the Labour party so I could resign immediately after just to piss them off. Labour had the chance of being a peoples party where social and ecological justice trump financial greed but instead became lickspittles for the worst of the financial and corporate scumbags who are behind most of the worlds problems. The time of New Labour and psuedo Labour must end soon. The former peoples party have now become enemies of the people.
Those polls will be configured as a blow for Salmond somehow,a false reality no doubt ready to say yes are behind,be glad to say I’m wrong if I am. It seems to me that the poll war is just a propaganda tool,easy to deploy through a compliant media.
link to news.stv.tv
All hail the king maker and nation maker too, hopefully:D
Come on uncle Rupert, the Bullingdon bastards ruined your baby, so much for loyalty from the playing fields of link to etoncollege.com
What ho Rupert
heedtracker
I dont think the ordinary no voter understands the true meaning
of a no vote, hardly surprising when the whole weight of the
british state is bearing down on them.
Most recent article on BfS;
‘Market pressure builds on Osborne to confirm CU’
An interesting read.
James Forrest: Excellent stuff.
@A.N.Surgent
Can’t see it happening, however you can’t expect the SNP & others to perform the loaves and fishes miracle year in year out if Barnett goes and the other UK cuts come in.
Remember folk do get another bite of the cherry in the GE if they decide to boot out labour and put in SNP mp’s who have a majority in Scotland.
Hmm! Better if we can do the YES thing on Thursday.
Tax – Now That’s Another Thing to Sort
UK lax tax laws provide a myriad of loopholes which are widely used for tax avoidance and the Treasury is losing many £ billions of tax revenues each and every year.
Five of the UK’ largest banks use tax havens, namely BARCLAYS, LLOYDS, TSB, HSBC, and the ROYAL BANK of SCOTLAND.
Just about all of the larger retailers, (supermarkets) and food manufacturers compete for places in the top 10 tax haven users A survey of the UK’s largest 100 public companies revealed that there are over 8,000 linking offshoots involved in business activities, (onshore and offshore) all registered in tax havens. Only 2 out of the 100 public companies had no offshoots registered in tax havens.
George Osborne, in a recent speech brought the issue to the attention of the UK public stating the matter needed to be resolved. The task of closing the loopholes and recovering tax due is proving to be just about impossible since the bulk of the offshoot companies were registered in UK Crown dependencies such as, Bermuda, Gibraltar and Jersey.
Recent Scare stories broadcast by Asda, John Lewis, B&Q, Tesco, Virgin, Timpsons and many of the other large retailers providing goods & services to Scotland should be considered against the fact that just about all of them and their management teams pay little or no tax to the UK Treasury.
So a load of tax dodgers, briefed, instructed and to be rewarded by David Cameron, (over 100 lords created in 3 years) fully utilizing a Westminster compliant and corrupt BBC, press and other media outlets spread rumor an innuendo about unspecified price increases just before the referendum .
Cameron and Osborne and the rest of the political elite at Westminster should be ashamed allowing Trillions of tax to be dodged by billionaire owners and their management teams whilst harassing Scot’s earning a pittance for every penny they are able to screw them for every penny.
Not any more I fully expect Scot’s will exact their right next week and vote, “Yes” in the referendum so that our nation can once more stand proud amongst all the other countries of the world
Comments open:
link to bbc.co.uk
Are ALL the companies ‘campaigning’ for a No vote, members of the Confederation of BRITISH Industry?
Out canvassing today we came across an old lady who was worried about her pension, thinking it was going to be stopped, in an independent Scotland, sh e was also worried about the NHS as she was epileptic , this old lady was crying with worry.
We don’t care how she will vote, we reassured her and one of our ladies went and had a word with her and a cup of tea to reassure her again.
No mention was made about her vote we were worried about her anxiety.
I was so proud of our people today and so angry at the BT lying machine’s media and TV for causing such fear.
Agree with everyone else a great article and shared on Twitter.
About the postal vote “poll”:
1. If true it is almost certainly illegal. Is this a ploy to perhaps get the referendum result set aside due to “an unfortunate misunderstanding of the rules” and so will have to be rerun at some future date – assuming the result is favourable to YES. Or am I just becoming paranoid in the last few days?
2. If it is some tosser trying to be clever, I hope he gets the rigour of the law anyway.
3. If it was released to “depress” the YES supporters, if anything I think it will have the opposite effect. This will encourage EVERYONE who is a YES to make sure they get out and vote on the day, and to encourage them to canvas with renewed vigour.
call me dave
Still confident about YES , but SNP would be on a hiding to nothing, if it was a no I would like those responsible to take the
full wrath of the people.
Right folks we are smarter than them.Heres the latest no campaign release an internal poll showing no gaining support,same day tweet that exit poll in postal vote is 20% more to no.Result make it look like yes need 60% to win overall vote which is nearly impossible.Make no people out on the streets feel they are winning and make yes people despondent.Its a trap.Ignore any BT tweetsand internal polls.We had one last night showing 49% yes it was only yesterday.They are amateurs.If they had said they had 54% in postal vote we might have just believed it for a moment.But they are not shrewd enough.Its never been 20% of a gap so there is no credibility.Chin up people we are still winning.No trolls on here we are onto you must try harder.
The wife and I went to Perth today, and oh boy did we pick the right place to go, we wandered along the shpooing precinct tyo find the (inevitable)YES stall, (all you had to do was follow the trail of YES badges and YES balloons the kids had back to the source, and right next to the yes stall what do we have, Yes you’ve guessed it a no stall replete with 85 y/o lady in a wheelchair and standard compliment of (English ) guys who were doing brisk buisness with the locals,
No sorry I cant go on, the pain from laughing is hurting my sides,
I went to the YES stall and as part of our no famous double act the wife remained behind to “luggy” in on the no campainers shite,
So who’s one of the first people I meet, why none other than NO NO NO YES of course, so while we had a natter about wings who then sidles up but Louise Batchelor from the green party ex BBC environment reporter from reporting Scotland fame and a good freind,
Next up comes a man we all know,
none other than Mr Duggie MacLean who busks with a young street artist and plays Caledonia, I can tell you there wasnt a dry eye in the house, and the crowd that started as about a dozen round the yes stall grew to over three hundred, meanwhile the no stall are busy tut tutting and sucking their never ending supply of lemons kept handily under the counter,
After about a third encore the crowd erupt and I would imagine the no stall people are in dire need of a toilet break about this point, the windows above have people hanging out filming the proceedings, and generally the air was of joyous celebration, after the crowds start to thin I meet a familiar face a certain Mrs Rossanna Cunningham MSP who kindly signs my yes poster after Mr MacLean had already obliged,
We talk about the campaign and how its shaping up, she professes to know nothing about the SNP’s private polling (well what did you expect her to say?)
an observation passes between us about the demeanour of the (few) no badge wearers, (none of whom appeared to be under the age of 70) lets just say they might well have been partaking of the (unending) supply of lemons under the no stall,
What a great day,
We had a blast,
Oh btw were gonna win on Thursday,
I feel it in my water.
If Murdoch is in Scotland then there’s a good chance that the Sun will support a Yes vote. I would guess that they will also run a poll showing Yes in the lead over the next few days.
Don’t like either Murdoch or the Sun but given some of the shit the British establishment is trying to hit us with then I’ll hold my nose and take it.
schpooing =shopping,
obviously
tyo =to,
do I really need to say?
BBC just said they tried to talk to no voters on camera, they refused through fear of intimidation by the yes campaign
Do you think the BBC are in any way biased?
AHM NO SURE…
DIDJEE AYE!!!
They could put out a poll every five minutes, they are all bollocks, the only poll that counts is the landslide YES poll next Thursday.
Cameron Wednesday night “the Queen is pregnant”
First up brothers and sisters, thank you for your kind comments, and to you Stuart for putting this article up here, especially as some of Team Yes had already read it on my own blog.
I don’t expect it will change any minds, but I want these people to remember what they did here until they day they die. I am already tired of their moralising about how we’re abandoning the workers in other parts of the country.
Their party did that many, many years ago now. They are kidding themselves on if they don’t get that.
Some of the stories I’ve read on here and elsewhere today have been amazing and inspiring, others, like the one about the old lady, have made my blood boil. My good lady and I watched the news last night through gritted teeth one minute (as Miliband and Brown played to a gallery of hand-picked closed minded party hacks) and with grins a mile wide the next as we saw Alex Salmond wade into crowds, taking pictures, hugging folks, engaging with those this campaign is really all about.
The contrast could not have been greater. The people advising Better Together on image politics are all over the map. They’re trying to play this game through the old media. Our own campaign is being fought in a different way … at once more modern and on the other hand more grounded.
Boots on the ground. Tweets and blogs. Taking the message further and pushing it better than we ever have before.
We ARE going to win this thing.
@ A.N.Surgent, voters think what the BBC and co tell them to think, is the general consensus at the BBC etc.
If BetterTogetherBBC do win, and after a few months of BBCteamGB triumphalism, we will first be told to think that austerity Scotland is a good thing, then if we act up and we will, they use this discontent to mercilessly attack SNP Scots.gov and get Labour in Scotland back in at the next Scottish region GE.
Future Lady Lamont and Scotland’s brilliant and erudite leader takes back power where it rightly belongs, with the Labour in Scotland party, Westminster and the BBC.
link to theguardian.com
“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Where there is despair, may we bring hope.”
FM Johann Lamont Quoting St Francis of Assisi, on her 2016 election victory.
I can’t really be sure if PM Miliband’s on the cards as the whole of teamGB media are just a pack of vicious liars, so who really knows? the City maybe, Nick Robertson? He’s a spectacular lying egomaniac that thinks the BBC’s can make the whole universe vote for anyone they decide.
And cue UKIP’s Jabba the Hut impersonator Coburn. Never forget listening to Jim Naughties giddy excitement announcing that BBC triumph alone
Graeme Doig
i always “read” that when BT claim this, that or, the other, is going to happen, if we vote for indy, that it is a reflection of THEIR fears of what might happen to them.
they are projecting.
business for scotland and many others have been outstanding in providing the deconstruction of BT rhetoric, explaining and clarifying info.
the yes campaign has continued, despite, of the defensive pressures put on it (being attacked by BT), by this highly negative BT campaign, to keep everyone informed.
this link is no exception.
link to businessforscotland.co.uk
has anyone seen this impartial and professional journalism
link to facebook.com
Just in case anyone is wondering THIS did NOT happen in Glasgow today!
link to twitter.com
500 years from now historians will be looking at this campaign and time. I am proud to be a member of this YES campaign and everyone in it.
Spent the afternoon on a Yes stall, what another gorgeous weekend. In a town that still returns Conservative Councillors we should be onto plums…instead we are bit worried we don’t have enough stuff left to do tomorrow despite getting a van load from Yes Scotland this morning. We still have a few WBB’s, we are trying to conserve those for definite don’t knows (odd concept).
A very enjoyable day. Still no idea if we are going to win but if we can do well enough for it to feel 50/50 here we must be doing something right. One recurring piece of feedback is that people are not impressed by the sudden interest from the great and the good so late in the day.
Orange bigots threatening to form torrorist units and wat dose the establishment do nothing typical unionist agenda now there threatening to kill us shocking
Just home from the ‘One Last Glesga Push’.
What a day.. Thousands of us there at the Concert Hall steps and between Sauchihall St and Buchanan St. What was best was lots of different age groups and the friendly good nature of everyone. Never seen so many people plastered in Yes badges and stickers.
Got my pic took with Blair Jenkins and also with none other than Matt from the ‘Bow down to your Imperial Masters’ Labour video. Such a nice chap.
Seems to be a lot of No polls out lately showing them in the lead.. hmmm… more crap. They must just be plucking numbers out the air now.. tho I think that’s how they’re last few polls were done as well.
It was a beautiful sunny day and happy optimistic Yesser’s EVERYWHERE!!
Superb writing James, we will no longer bow to our imperial masters, I turned from them when they introduced tuition fees
I’ve voted labour all my days , about 12 months ago I started reading as much about the independence vote, now shouting yes of course , as James says the Labour Party is lost
Great article, but will the party faithful read it or will they be listening to political giants like Jimmy Hood, Johann Lamont, Pamela Nash, Brian Donohoe and Sincerity Jim. Not forgetting Flipper and the Red Baron. Or Lord George of NATO. Just that short list of names shows how Labour’s decline and betrayal of decency is almost total.
ERm, I don’t quite know how to tell you all this folks but it appears that a certain Mr Murdoch is in Scotland and the speculation is growing about which way the SUN is going to come down on.
link to thedrum.com
Kudos to you James …. a very powerful piece indeed.
O/T
A Dr Wishart on R4 a wee while ago. Whisky will move to London if YES vote.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel, pardon the pun.
By way of balance they interviewed a distiller who said he was a YES man.
I would endorse what Big Jock said about ignoring what BT say. We have only got 4 full days of campaigning left. No point in paying any attention too that lot. By Thursday at 10 pm evryone will have voted who wants too. By next Friday we will know the result, and we then take it from there.
Uncle Rupert was this guys best friend too, and Crash Gordon’s. In fact Rupert was the Brown family barbie thrower of Gordon’s burgers and steaks.
link to bbc.co.uk
What the most repellant thing Bliar’s done in his life so far.
Andy-B
If the orange lodge are promising to leave Scotland forever (where will they go? England won’t want them, NI??) in the event of a YES vote, then that adds yet another good reason to the list for voting YES.
heedtracker
That would be the game plan to a tee, SNP take the early flak and are destroyed and in rush slab our saviours.
I think a former PM used that quote then systematically tore the working class apart
Re the sun speculation.
My enemies enemy is my friend!
If the orange lodge are promising to leave Scotland forever
At least half of the OO in Embro today were either from England or NI, none from Wales though. Or is there Welsh OO
O/T Now that the media and the BBC especially are playing up the intervention from the Deutsche Bank and their Chief Economist David Faulkert-Landau, it is worth pointing out that:
1) Deutsche Bank were involved in the LIBOR interest rate scandal *
2) DB ran up $92m of sub-prime mortgage lending prior to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent depression **
3) DFL & wife are friends of the Camerons (quelle surprise)
4) Deutsche Bank provided initial finance for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ***
5) DFL Folkerts-Landau is the co-author of the report made the headlines last year when he predicted that only Jesus could save the Eurozone. ****
6) He lied to the Bundestag (German parliamentary committee) in 2012 by saying that speculation in agricultural commodities was not putting up prices and therefore not contributing to the spread of hunger and malnutrition. However, a confidential internal document produced by Deutsche Bank Research – the department of which he was in charge – stated: “Speculation has also contributed to price increases.”
DB Research gave an express and unmistakeable warning of the consequences, “Such speculation can have grave consequences for farmers and consumers and is, in principle, unacceptable.” *****
Deutsche Bank think they can lecture us on risky behaviour? Fuck off.
* link to theguardian.com
** link to publicintegrity.org
*** link to nytimes.com
**** link to business.financialpost.com
***** link to foodwatch.org
Saw that lantern jawed bastirt Murphy on the EBC giving it this is not an election this is forever. Well Skull I’ll make a deal if you can name me one just one country that has gained independence from British tyranny that has asked to go running back to mammy shitminster then I will concede to your greater intellect. To help you Skull here is a list
link to en.wikipedia.org
Mutley79,
Totally agree. All these silly polling stories mean nothing – most are pure spin. Bottom line is, excluding margin of error, the best that can be said from ALL the recent polls is it is neck and neck. To suggest a poll by one polling company showing a drop of 2% compared to a different poll by a different polling company and with different methodology, somehow shows No are now winning is not logical and is quite silly. Different methodologies give different results.
These things, and the now quite absurd ‘armageddon’ scare stories coming out, are designed to scare people and demoralise the YES campaign. Please do not fall for it.
These are the dirty tricks we have all been warning about. They want to twist your thoughts. i personally rarely watch any of the news broadcasts now, as they are just unadulterated propaganda. The BBC are now dead, no matter what the result – people are very angry at their bare faced lying and running with these silly ‘scare stories’.
I honestly do believe if we keep going as we are, we will win, and that is why better together are coming up with these ever more absurd scare stories. They are very frightened.
Never forget, the one key piece of advice from Quebec, has always been DO NOT BELIEVE THE POLLS. And they should know – they’ve done this twice.
Does anyone have the link of Miliband getting heckled in Paislae by the angry woman?
sorry-Paisley
Were the English KKK in Edinburgh today? They came out on the no side weeks ago.
Former prime minister Tony Blair has urged voters in Scotland to opt for staying in the UK.
To “rip up the alliance” between Scotland and the rest of the UK would not be sensible “politically, economically or even emotionally”.
Just heard Gordon Brown speaking to his packed audience (haha) that all the experts say one thing but two experts say they know better Alex Salmond and the N.Korean leader.
In an independent Scotland I hope we remove his police protection from him, why should we pay for that scum.
Stu you have excelled yourself here, I have voted Labour all my life, I’m 61 now. When I was 17 years, an apprentice (remember those) bookbinder, our company closed and everyone got severance pay, when I went in I was told, nothing for me. Alf our union rep, virtually took me by the hand back into that room and demanded, very loudly and scary I thought at the time, and out of the drawer came my cheque ready made up. Since that day I have never trusted big business. Alf and I stayed friends for many years, and only died a few years back. Labour has merged with the other parties he would say, no more unions, no more hope for the working man. My yes vote also with other ideals, is in respect for a man who fought for so many others during his lifetime, and was truly saddened by the ‘lost’ of labour.
The Survation poll is actually 46.5 Yes and 53.5 No which is only a 7% difference. Why is it being reported as 46/54? (ouch – smack on the head from Paw for me being stupid)
BTW – have the postal votes being counted and does anyone know what the story is ….
Andy
They have been saying that for years especially to Celtic Fans.
They are like any violent mob when they have numbers on their own
they not so vocal blowhards.
Ten thousand I heard were to turn up , what was the number 2-3 thousand and what 25% from outside the country.
They are just a backward part of society that lives in the past
and refuse to face up to the future.
Postal votes are stored till 10pm on the 18th and then counted along with the other ballot papers.
Holy F STV report about the Better Together Orange Order march states and I quote Nick Rougvie “Orange Order Lodges from across Scotland were joined by those from England and N Ireland for a rally they’d named proud to be British, the organisers estimated up to 15,000 people were taking part in the parade with 110 bands and thousands watching from the sidelines”
Well, they panned the camera on to the sidelines and well let’s just say a few men and a dug were watching, you need to watch this on stv player if or when it becomes available. My sides are still f*ckin split
The postal vote exit poll story is the biggest pile of pish to come out of BT yet.
And as we know, it’s up against some VERY stiff competition.
@McTim
Postal votes are stored till 10pm on the 18th and then counted along with the other ballot papers.
Really, that’s worrying, I would prefer they were counted separately so we know that there has been no shenanigans involved.
I too was a member the Labour Party. I was inspired to join as a young activist as I felt that during the 1980’s, given all the de-industrialisation and Thatcherite policies that were setting out to destroy many British communities, that I had to do something.
I was proud to be on the side fighting for everyone, no matter their place in society.
Unfortunately, the lights went out for me when John Smith died. Something was being delivered called New Labour, and it tasted bad.
Hence, my membership card was cut up and returned to Walworth Rd.
I have never regretted my decision, even though I have been politically adrift.
But today, I have just read one of the most uplifting socialist inspired essay’s of recent times; words that take me back to my youth.
Thank you James for reminding me of what I have felt dis-connected from for so long.
I was in Dundee today at lunchtime, saw the very big and very shiney No Labour bus surrounded by groomed professionals, some standing idly and ignoring me as I walked past, some busily engaged talking to people wearing yes badges. I did see a fair number of people sporting No stickers, but there were also lots of ordinary people in town with yes badges on. I am so sorry to have missed the RIC thing though, that sounds good fun!
I also popped into the Yes shop to pick up a few of Ciaran Murphy’s poster and I was pleased to have to wait in line to talk to anyone – so many enquiries!
The street stall in St Andrews this morning was great, some really interesting people to talk to, and none of the usual parade of angry Nos coming up to tell us how misguided or stupid we were. If St Andrews, taht bastion of Unionism, is fairly evely split, then I don’t see how the result nationwide on thursday can be anything other than a landslide for Yes.
Will we have deportation powers for the undesirables in our country. I think there would be a lot of people on the list
croompenstein
I was in Edinburgh today, the report from STV is pish. Clearly their reporter couldn’t be arsed doing his job, so just scribbled notes from the grand master of the lodge.
Seriously, are there ANY actual journalists in Scotland now? Or are they all just cut and paste monkeys?
Saw them leave in their ‘pride of the Clyde’ buses, and others.
Was looking on the net for pictures of the thousands of protesters from both sides as described by the BBC but could only find large crowds of YESSERS. Where are the NO’s? or are they just camera shy?
Where?
Anyway, brace yourself, because the BIG scare story tomorrow is…Phone bills will rocket in iScotland (no doubt to stratospheric levels or some similar hyperbole).
Apparently we’ll have to go back to using smoke signals and cocoa cans with string.
May the lord have mercy upon us, for even daring to just think about running our OWN country like any normal country does.
Are we meant to take this seriously??
link to forbes.com Forbes is like Murdoch, Scottish.
Ochone! Ochone!
What have I done?
I’m in moderation with my last comment.
I’ve never been in moderation before…
It’s a lonely place to be, cast out in the cold.
I dont want to be here, I’ve only got a little voice, but I want it heard.
Is it another cyber attack?
O/T
Sorry if this has been posted before, but very powerful stuff.
This is what is beeing portrayed as honest reporting by Sky News and the challenging of the ‘establishment
view’ by Bonnie Greer is just rubbished and tossed aside,
really good watch pleas circulate to others
An American lady has spotted what is going on – do you think she’ll be back ?
link to youtube.com
I was centre of edinburgh,only crowds were the families of orange supporters themselves or odd tourist
Months ago they ran a story saying it would cost a Scot who used
a mobile in england more money because effectively you would be phoning a foreign country. A few days later there was a statement
from the EU saying they were looking at abolishing roaming charges.
It was conveniently left out that the same would apply to an english person using a mobile in Scotland.
Piping hot: Saw a wee clutch on Cambuslang Main St doling out those two-faced flags like at the Commonwealth Games opening night. Orange Order must have had excess. Also a double decker and a coach to carry the LOO through to Edinburgh this morning. Out leafleting Westburn later. Not that many posters in windows but definitely Yes majority of 5-1. In Blantyre now. Same scenario. Flat above the hoolits nest pub adorned with Yes posters. Margo MacDonald used to work there. Good to see continuity!
Anyone who professes to be left-of-centre would not touch the Labour Party with a bargepole, as in Scotland, as in Wales – they are a disgrace and continue in their desire to perpetuate a neoliberal state died to the boot strings of those bringers of democrat, the Yanks.
Be brave Scottish folk, ignore the naysayers and politicians from Westminster who are more interested in the depth of their pockets than your welfare and any type of commonwealth for ordinary folk across the UK. Freedom means breaking free of the Westminster yoke and standing on your own two feet as a proud democratic nation – not pimps and whores for the moneymen in the City and Wall Street – given project fear failed, they are now doubling down on it with more lies and bullshite – just look at the mainstream mead is, a bloody disgrace.
Wishing the “Yes” vote well, you have all to play for and nothing to lose but your chains – until they understand that, keep plumbing away as demographics are on the “yes” vote side, bring them out by the barrel load, the poor, the young, the unemployed and the sick. Just get them to the booth and stick two fingers up to the British Unionist establishment.
Very moving piece.
Strong and powerful and clearly coming from James’ own experiences.
I have to admit I had to stop several times to compose myself.
And yes, I did shed some tears.
Well done, James, I know this article will win the hearts and minds of many.
I just hope it’s enough on the day, but at least you will be content in the knowledge you could have done no more.
Again, well done.
Labour champion Darling give it huge on project fear C4 news right the now. If he’s going to win this, Labour’s won Scotland on cold fear.
Well after all the air blown up the noses of so many bankers and business men by Mr Horsefeather Whisperer Cameron in the last 48 hours – I feel sorry for all the stoats prematurely lined up for the chop. How disappointing for all those tailors poised with their shears and Lordy red cloth, measuring the combined girth of the naysayers to find the result on the 19th may not be as arrogantly expected …. though the stoats will be happy enough.
Aye, as I thought. It would be an easy one to use photos of large cheering crowds of NO’s for BBC propoganda, after all they have used everything else. Was looking for a NO stall in Portree today just to ask if they were proud of their campaign so far but not one there. I personally am ashamed at the damage the NO’s are doing to MY country.
I’ve got a relative in the KKK in Glasgow, i know, i know, it’s not my fault though , but he phoned me ten minutes ago,i do’nt see much of him, to let me know he’s voting “Yes” well you could have knocked me over with a Brillo Pad, he said he has to turn up at the rallys or he’d be kicked out and his boss is in the same coven,anyway, he tells me he’s not the only one
SECRET FREE THINKING but it’s a start
Achnababan 6:13 pm
“The Survation poll is actually 46.5 Yes and 53.5 No.”
This poll was carried out on behalf of the “Better Together” mob. So you can read it as being “fixed” to show a healthy lead for NO.
There is meant to be three polls coming out tonight, tomorrow.
O/T
Had a great day today being part of a car convoy in the Johnstone area near Paisley.
If you haven’t organised one, I thoroughly recommend that you do. They are excellent for getting into undecided areas and give them the lift that they have been looking for.
When someone pointed this article out to me, I honestly thought it was a spoof. Dear god how despicable and shameless is the Daily Mail? link to dailymail.co.uk
The BBC just described the OO march as a “pro-Union rally joined by people from around the UK”, no mention or pictures of the thousands of Yes supporters who turned up in Glasgow today.
Can anyone confirm,I heard that there is going to a gathering in George Square tomorrow and then marching to PQ does anyone know if that’s right or are we all just going to PQ
Sky news constantly alternating between, the Deutsche bank scare story and, the phone providers upping bills scare story.
It would be a very good idea if the rally at the BBC tomorrow just burned the place to the ground.
It would remove the propaganda machine from Scotland and also save the BBC all those PFI style repayments. Everybody wins.
James what a great piece of writing. I was brought up in a solid labour family but opted to join the SNP at 18. I was moved by your piece and I could imagine my labour granpaw hanging his head in shame reading your piece. Come on wingers let’s get this out to as many people as possible.
Croomenstien says
“Can anyone confirm,I heard that there is going to a gathering in George Square tomorrow and then marching to PQ”
Yes thats true, we’re in the cavalcade from Stirling to strathclyde pary and then onto PQ but there is a request to start from George Square to PQ going over the squinty bridge!
Hope to see you there croompy.
We can check with the official Yes campaign but I think they get counted on the same day – I would also rather they were done separately.
What they could mean is they have done a poll of those who have already voted.
Tbf I think the postal votes were always going to be more No than Yes as mainly old folk voting in this way.
And before folk jump down my throat I know there are a lot of OAPs working hard for a Yes.
very good article on your move away from Labour – my own opinion of them is that they have never really done much for the people who voted them in.
The idea that they lose their ideals when arriving at WM doesn’t surprise me cos I think a lot of the SLAB lot suffer from the cringe factor and probably think the likes of Dave and Boris are better than them.
@James Caithness – Paul Mason is looking for evidence of scared pensioners. If you are on twitter his username is @paulmasonnews. You could maybe get in touch and tell him about your experience.
Mike Smithson from Political Betting tweeting about an ICM online poll for the Sunday Telegraph showing Yes with an 8% lead. No-one else confirming yet.
Out round the doors of Partick this morning (no sign of the OO element, Edinburgh had the pleasure of their presence) distributing a couple of thousand leaflets. There were about 200 Yessers gathered at Mansfield Park for leafletting, staffing stalls and on street corners. Job done we headed for Buchanan Street with more leaflets after hearing there was a NO presence, to be met by amazing scenes. LFI, Greens, English Scots for Indy, Socialists, ‘official’ YES, Empire biscuits and his rickshaw driver, music, flags and huge crowds.
We had visits from Blair Jenkins and Patrick Harvey and occassional passing NOs, maybe twenty in total in small groups. Got rid of masses of leaflets, posters, stickers and badges to passing shoppers including a woman who had converted to YES last night.
And where were the BBC? We spotted Tim Reid, up from London with his cameraman, but they only stayed 5 or 10 minutes and nothing appeared on the evening news from the State Broadcaster.
Will they report anything on PQ4 tomorrow (2pm), don’t hold your breath.
Mike Smithson ?@MSmithsonPB 1m
ICM online poll for the S Telegraph has YES 8% ahead – the biggest seen from any pollster. Yesterday ICM phone poll had NO 2% ahead
Good stuff john king what time are you meeting in George Square ?
I am totally disgusted at Labour in this day and age, this is not what Labour stood for when I was young.. They were not Torie arse lickers as they are now.
It is true we will not gain more power if the N WORD gets in, but I can put my hand on my heart and say, the YES haven’t stooped to the N campaigners have, sticking lots of badges on a very elderly lady isn’t fun its plain right assault…
Telling a man with learning difficult’s if he votes YES then his home and benefits will be stopped!!
This is certainly illegal and bullying!!
I was a labour person through and though, I am not by any means a SNP supporter either, but with labour in bed with the Tories then MY VOTE GOES TO SCOTLAND ONLY WE CAN DO THIS!! YES!!
Where have I gone? No moderation just whoosh, disappeared.
Ach well I’ll try again, they don’t call me spider for nothing. Well no-one calls me spider but hey.
James, what a post. Reminded me of my wee (she was 5 ft in her heels) auntie Mary. That woman was, and still is my inspiration. A Red Clydesider, no i’m no that old she was my dad’s auntie. Her outlook on life was always positive, hope over fear every time. Always mind her pulling my grannie up for complaining about feeling old. My gran was 80, Mary 84 at the time.
Up until she died at 92 she fought for those who had been let down. But always with a smile and a message of hope. I believe she would have supported independence, if only because of that young Jimmy Reid!
dundee yes today, short clip.
link to youtube.com
Fantastic article, James.
We have a young, member of the Labour Party, in our Women for Indy group and she is invaluable at street stalls persuading LP stalwarts to vote Yes to get us back to LP values.
O/T Son has just told me Ladbroke’s have suspended all betting on indyref!
@Malc I would’t trust the ICM post as it could just be an error from the journalist that’s being picked up on. As far as I can tell there is no ICM poll tonight
Extraordinary post, thank you James
@Liz
@James Caithness – Paul Mason is looking for evidence of scared pensioners. If you are on twitter his username is @paulmasonnews. You could maybe get in touch and tell him about your experience.
======================
Unfortunately I am not on twitter but would be happy to speak to Mr Mason by email or any other way I could. I am not on facebook either. My email address jamescaithness(at)aol(dot)com
link to facebook.com
From the twitter of Mike Smithson of Political Betting;
ICM online poll for the S Telegraph has YES 8% ahead – the biggest seen from any pollster. Yesterday ICM phone poll had NO 2% ahead.
Ignore any mis-information from the BT side.
Croompenstein 7:07 pm
“Can anyone confirm, I heard that there is going to a gathering in George Square tomorrow and then marching to PQ.”
The last thing I heard regarding the BBC Scotland Protest at PQ was that it was starting at 2pm at PQ and running until 4pm.
@ Gordoz re Bonnie Greer
Thanks. Had heard about but hadn’t seen vid.
Bonnie sees what’s happening in MSM but there are none so blind ….
RT’s clip of our imperial masters LOL
link to youtube.com
Thanks Fred Blogger – amazing scenes!
I think I read on this site before somewhere about the Quebec referendum and how we were expecting the tactics of the No side to follow the same lines. Didn’t they also go for major fear approach and then last minute have a big love in: I’m not sure what this approach is called in torture scenarios but think it’s pretty well used (a bit like good cop bad cop)? Anyway, are we prepared for that do you think? The scare tactics have been ramped up to comical levels now so there’s nowhere else to go than to the motherly hug (perhaps the Queen?)
In love with Tasmina Sheikh as she whirled into Aberdeen to campaign and help out at the trailer and stall. I had been given an awkward question and I asked Tasmina to help. Within 15mins she had turned an undecided towards a YES. I swooned.
Re the ICM poll, I think Smithson is talking about a subsample within a UK poll.
Cheers caz-m was just wondering what time the meet up is in George Square
Please forget polls. They are being used to scare us, and to distract us. This site explained to me they didn’t matter because on the ground Yes was the only show in town. Forget them. Yes IS the only show in town.
I looked at that picture from Tallulah of Buchanan Street. I welled up. It reminded me of the pictures from Prague, and from Berlin. When huge crowds turned out to liberate their counties.
We are going to liberate ours on Thursday, despite the state propaganda machine.
What does everyone think about the possible support of Murdoch for the Yes campaign?
I’m just in from handing out the last few Wee Blue Books.They have been a great success.Thanks Stu and everyone else who had a hand in it.From speaking to punters this afternoon,the big thing I got was that people are angry at Asda etc and will just shop elsewhere if they put their prices up.Real vote loser for No.As for the banks,the general feeling seemed to be good riddance.Other banks will appear if they leave.People don’t like bullies.especially Tory bullies.
Because of the lies from the no people I would welcome Murdoch
Muttley
Re Murdoch,I don’t really care.I suppose it might help with momentum,but not sure.
@croompenstein
folk are meeting at 12.30 in George square to walk over to Bbc at pacific Quay, for start at 2pm.
John King,
John, have you any more details on what is happening at George Square tomorrow and what time.
Ta much John.
What does everyone think about the possible support of Murdoch for the Yes campaign?
I think we just have to keep our eyes on the prize muttley, I wouldn’t crow or trumpet Murdoch’s support as we have come this far without him. He is just backing the right horse as he can see what is happening even if his unionist rivals can’t see the wood for the orange trees, the times are changing if he has elected to be part of it, all well and good but let’s not put him on a pedestal
If the sun came out with a 24 page pullout that exposed the lies
deceit, collusion and called out the beebies I might be ok with
murdoch
ICM has YES 8 points ahead.
The poll figures seem to indicate a Yes lead according to this post on Political Betting.
link to www1.politicalbetting.com
First off, I would like to say that phone bills are going up regardless of a Yes or No vote, and that applies to anyone who has a BT Line. I mean if I got a letter advising me of this, however if BT decided to increase ours by more, then that is juse on more reason for me to move my business elsewhere.
There a lot’s of other telecom companies that we can use.
I have just used ALDI for my shopping to day. Asda, Tesco and M&S no longer have my custom.
If these companies want to alienate themselves from their Scottish customer base, then they are doing a great job.
Also up the toon again today heading to the game at East End Park.
Walked up the High Street. Yessers in their usual spot at the Kingsgate Centre.
Hope someone from the YES group can answer me. Who was their entertainer?
He was surrounded on all sides getting the kids and adults involved and everyone was having a great time.
Absolutely brilliant and that is a reflection of what the YES side of the campaign is.
Not so happy for the BetterTogethers at the top of the High Street with their titchy wee badges. Almost completely devoid of activity and very few taking any of their goodies.
I did pass a few comments with my daughter as we walked between them. Nothing snidy, just about the notable differences between the two groups present within a short distance of each other.
After seeing all this in the space of a couple of minutes, I very much doubt that BetterTogether are going to win.
Yessers were also along at East End for the end of the game.
Nice to see the Green Yes guys amongst them.
As Citizen Smith says “Power to the people”.
Do you ever feel that you have met Project Fear before ?
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
ICM confirmed – 11% swing to Yes. Another poll due in a few minutes, then the Sunday Times Panelbase at 9.30.
8% lead for Yes, 705 sample size
link to blog.whatscotlandthinks.org
link to change.org
Think I may have found just a wee chink in the Better whatsit campaign.
link to twitter.com
Croompenstien @ 7.20
My understanding is that a contingent meets and marches from George square, and the motorcade goes straight to PQ from Strathclyde park, but dont ask me Im just the driver, the wifes the one been doing the organising, Im only told what I need to know.
Herald carrying “Will he, won’t he back YES>” about Murdoch. If he does, I’ll be buying a copy of the Sun as a souvenir, he’ll have to greatly increase the print run.
Given that the whole of the British media and British State are lying and using every dirty trick in the book against Scotland, I would welcome the Suns support with open arms.
@James Caithness – thanks for that I will pass your email on to him.
I salute you, sir.
Let’s be honest about this – am no spin doctor but murdochs a crook and it’s easy to paint a negative picture of him
Murdoch may be a scumbag, but he is not as evil as the ("Quizmaster" - Ed)s – and I use the word deliberately, as I pay their wages – infecting the BBC. After independence I will accept the continuance of Sky, the Sun and the Times, but BBC Scotland, and the ("Tractor" - Ed)s running it, must go, even before Trident.
bunter
“ICM has YES 8 points ahead.”
Excellent poll result, but if you doubled that, it would be a bit nearer the truth.
From John Curtice, what scotland thinks:
ICM poll for S Telegraph:
“Yes are on 49% (up 11 points on the equivalent figure in its last internet poll for Scotland on Sunday) while No are on 42%,(down five). Once the Don’t Knows (just 9% of the sample) are removed, Yes are on 54%, up 9 points.”
Sample size 705, I think that means error margin is about 3.8% instead of 3.2%
Brilliant article James and you’re absolutely right about us older ex-Labour voters having a long slow trip to final disillusion.
Re postal votes, I only posted mine yesterday and my husband has still to post his. We have up to 18th to vet the posted, handed in or dropped in to any polling station on the day. So any talk of exit polls is rubbish.
Opinium released for Observer showing the opposite! Their first ever IndyRef poll, so nothing to compare it to. ICM *is* widely seen as the gold standard of pollsters, by the geeks over at Political Betting. Course, they’re all Tories, so they are now claiming it is an outlier
Too late, I’m afraid James. Your points are well made – but the Labour Party died with John Smith. The only thing I am perplexed about is why it took you so long to catch on?
From the moment Blair was leveraged in by Healey, Bildeberg et al it was over for the party of social justice and the NHS. I stopped supporting Labour the day he assumed power and began dismantling the careful reforms that were already in place. I told anyone that would listen he was a nasty bit of work with a nasty agenda, but no-one would listen. Old and young Labour supporters alike flocked behind him like lemmings, and simply ignored what he was doing to the party – it was depressing. I later encountered several of them on the anti Iraq War march, by then thoroughly chastened.
To believe there is anyone left inside Labour who will be moved by your heart-felt appeal is naive in itself. Labour has for too long been a party of largely middle class chancers who like power too much to endanger their own status by re-empowering the working class. You should have listened a bit closer to those ‘Blair’s Poodle’ taunts, it might have saved you from further self-deception and, ultimately, disillusionment.
That Scotland has seemingly been cowed into voting NO is the most depressing episode since Iraq. It will never be given the chance again to vote YES, and the retribution for the Scottish populace for challenging Westminster over the coming years will not be pleasant – whether they voted YES or NO.
Scotland holds all the cards – oil, fisheries, natural energy resources, culture, etc. The pound needs Scotland more than Scotland needs the pound. Yet it has being bluffed out of this winning hand day by day by corporate puppets, brass plaques and a supermarket or two – closely aided and abetted by the redoubtable Ms Lamont.
Your article caused my eyes to fill up and tears to run on my face. That hasn’t happened in a very long time. I am praying with every cell in my body for a very clear YES vote and don’t know what I could do if it doesn’t happen. As I am quite old, I will never see another chance like this. I have waited a very long time and I want it for my children and grandchildren.
I have found more lies than ever before from the scum at Westminster (of all shades of opinion), so they will never be trusted again. I have to admire the work ethic of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon and everything they are doing to get it to YES. They may well be voted out afterwards, because their primary job will have been done, but I have a suspicion that their names will be remembered down the ages just as The Bruce, Wallace and others.
Thankyou to every Scott who votes YES and I forgive every Scott who votes NO.
liz says:
13 September, 2014 at 7:55 pm
@James Caithness – thanks for that I will pass your email on to him.
====================
Nae bother Liz, I will give him my tel no. if he contacts me. I’ll tell him what happened today, it upset me and the Lady I was with, we reassured the old Lady, I gave her a WBB and when we told everyone another Lady went back with a leaflet on pensions and she talked to the old Lady and went in and had a cup of tea with her.
this is the ICM graphic.
link to whatscotlandthinks.org
p s there seems to be an unknown error with the graphic i just posted, sorry folks.
Aye, these polls are all over the place – sometimes giving a lead for NO, sometimes for YES. I honestly think they are all at sea and there has been a general convergence so that none can point at another and claim they were miles out. We all know there is a swing to YES though – I smell it in the air.
john king – thanks john, alistair has said the meet is at 12:30 so hopefully see you’se all tomorrow.
btw I am watching the imperial masters clip again and the more I drink the more I love it
I have said this before, the sun newspaper’s editorial bias flipped the morning after the second debate. I buy it every day, shame I know, tho not for it’s political input obviz! Just because Murdoch has not publicly admitted it, does’nt mean i am imagining it! Any other sun readers agree?
Rumors, rumors…
link to channel4.com
Brian Ritchie says
” We all know there is a swing to YES though – I smell it in the air. :)”
Let me tell you Brian if you had been in Perth with us today you wouldnt have just smelt it in the air, you would have felt it in your soul, the huge crowd that gathered round the yes stall to hear Duggie MacLean sing Caledonia was close to hysteria, the atmosphere was electric!
Beware Murdoch. I wouldn’t like to be beholding to him for anything! We all know that he has his own agenda!
I go out to do some manual work to rid myself of the blues worrying about the task ahead to garner enough supporters for hope to secure it.
I return two hours later to find we’re ‘8 points ahead’ without my help.
And after all that digging and shovelling and pushing heavy wheelbarrows to lift and empty into a skip!
Sheesh!
No. I must be dreaming.
davidb says:
13 September, 2014 at 7:40 pm
“Please forget polls. They are being used to scare us, and to distract us.
Yes IS the only show in town.
I looked at that picture from Tallulah of Buchanan Street. I welled up. It reminded me of the pictures from Prague, and from Berlin. When huge crowds turned out to liberate their counties.
We are going to liberate ours on Thursday, despite the state propaganda machine”
I AGREE.
I don’t like these polls.
Keep calm keep working.
No Neil Kinnock premature triumphalism.
No marching to the polling station. Can have a massive march on the 19th.
I have to say yes I want a yes vote but I hope Murdoch isn’t gettin something from this – the goal is for an indepedent scotland where we can hold our heads up high with pride. No point in kickin out Westminster crooks to leave the door open for others.
I’d thank him for his support so long as he knows were batting for a better world.
john king
oh look here it is.
link to youtube.com
I wouldn’t trust Murdoch for a minute.
Not sure what’s he up to but will be surprised if the Sun comes out for Yes.
I think YES supporters are going to have to decide if a dislike of Murdoch is moe important than a YES on Thursday, sorry to be rude.
A message from WoS to buy the appropriate Sun issue might go down a treat …
This has been tweeted by the Sunday Herald.
Cameron accused of hypocrisy over #indyref as he allows MEPs to forge Euro alliance with Belgian party backing independence for Flanders
We have so many people writing for ‘Yes’ this week there’s not enough room on @newsundayherald front page to list them
Look out folks he’s off on one again!
link to tinyurl.com
There are two opinion polls out tonight folks, unfortunately I’m none the wiser.
link to www1.politicalbetting.com
Someone posted a while back that after independence they would vote for the SNP and give them a chance to run the country for real, I would echo that sentiment, it also gives a bit a time
for the new blood to mature and, to get rid of the dinosaurs that have held this country back for so long.
If you believe in the streets and not the polls the lead is more than 8%
Vote NO and make a banker happy!
Thanks for that Fred Blogger, I was on the left of the screen but for the life of me I cannot understand why the camera did not pan round 180%,
the vast bulk of the crowd was behind him, there had to be at least three hundred people standing there, it was amazing.
Most of you will be too young to remember the 1970 General Election. One opinion poll on election day went against the general trend and it was proved right.
We just don’t really know the situation so keep campaigning.
@Muttley 79, don’t much care for or about Murdoch, ready to jump on the bandwagon cause he like to be on the winning side. Where was and his newspaper while the rest of us have been working our butts off for yes.Mind you it would be nice if at least one other paper came out for yes.
A bit like the curates egg really, good in places
Sorry, where was he and his newspaper. Missed a word
You know it’s bad at better together when they start quoting polls on social media and state that it is all still to play for .
A month ago they would have been shouting from the rooftops
Caledonia- brilliant. New anthem anyone
Our Red Tories FM said this week that you guys should no in order to help bring about the change the UK needed. Even if it were possible for the 5.5 million Scots to over rule the 50+ million English voters who are willingly marching to the far right it would be hypocritical for anyone who supports home rule to even try.
As someone who once voted Labour until I saw the error of my ways (luckily I’m young enough that it was only once or twice) I feel your betrayal. It’s like the worst kind of non-smokers are the ones who kicked the habit. Incidentally I’m both.
Anyway today saw 400+ people rally outside our Senedd in Cardiff in support of Scottish independence. Last month Dan Snow rocked into town with his “Let’s stay together” campaign, about 7 people turned up. Most of which were Red Tory councillors.
For those interested you can read about the rally here.
link to welshnotbritish.blogspot.co.uk
I predict a 55%+ YES vote. And if so I promise to come to Scotland (for the first time) on hols with the family. We might beat you in the footie and gub you in the rugby but you guys are winning at life. Hail Alba!
Got to laugh at the concern over support from the Sun. Do you honestly think that we would have this vote next week if is was not for the Sun. Seriously, stop it.
Bizarre at Aviemore today. Old guy from the No stall comes up to us at the Yes stall and asks if we have any copies of the Wbb because people were asking for it.
Hilarious….
Meanwhile great march from Stirling castle down to Stirling Brig last night. There was a massive Yes laid out on the river bank so that when you looked up to the castle it was in full view. Well done Ted and the Wallace society.
Sorry for no link, but if you have a look at the Strathaven Airfield facebook page via usual search engines, you’re in for a nice surprise
Well, well, real nazis but not in Scotland.
link to theguardian.com
@Fred Blogger
that young guy who was holding a guitar but videoing Duggie was the busker who was playing when we got there, and when the whisper went out Duggie Maclean was going to appear ,the crowd started to get bigger, and the young guy got nervous (he didnt know)saying “this is the biggest crowd Ive ever played in front of”,
needless to say when duggie had finished his (unexpected) appearance the kids guitar case had the biggest payday he had ever had busking.
O/T Murdoch
Whether you dislike the man or not is not the point at the moment. Fact is – he has an acute nose, not just for what is news, but for what is likely to be news.
He tweeted today that he had visited Scotland incognito (failed) but had spent the day in pubs and on the streets, with no politicians around. Now that’s more than most Westminster-based politicians or journalists have done, and here’s one of the most powerful octogenarians in the world wanting to get a feel before he commits.
I’m quite sure he will have been reassured that his judgement is still sharp…
Don’t underestimate the effect if he backs Yes with the Scottish Sun. It would be a clear slap in the face to the doom-mongering editors elsewhere, and nothing, but nothing, would be more likely to wake them up to the fact that there’s actually another side to the story.
O/T I came across a new one today, to add to the bewildering profusion of attempted slogans by the No side.
In fields beside the A924 near Kirkmichael were banners depicting a union flag with the words ‘OH NO’ in the middle.
‘My sentiments exactly,’ I thought, before doing a double take and noticing the usual guff written underneath about a ‘stronger Scotland in the UK’ or whatever. I then realised this awful creation was actually supposed to be an expression of support for ‘Better Together’.
O/T but wondering if the Better Togther No Thank UKOK Nob Orange Lodgers managed to find any 12 year old girls to bottle in Edinburgh. Or are they aiming for younger? Heroic. Greatest country on earth.
Personally cannot stand Murdoch and all he stands for. However, I am not an expert on politics, so it would really up to others to make the judgement. Having seen what was launched at us this week by BBC, banks/big business, then it probably would not do much harm to get the support of the Sun. I would not like to see Murdoch benefiting from any support he gives to Yes. It would be best if they officially came out for Yes later in the week.
@Marcia
Agreed. I reckon we should just ignore the polls until Thursday.
not watched tv for last 2 days, just cant take no more, icm poll a nice boost.
There was a recently unrecognised and unreported ‘poll’.
It took place in the Hydro on Thursday past.
the sample was 8000
reliable testimony says 60/40 Yes/No
Yes majority confirmed by BBC asking Yes supporters to act as No,
and, the BBC toning down the Yes applause/cheering on the broadcast.
YouGov – eat your heart out.
I know this post will be deleted (again) but instead of singing the praises of such a ‘moving socialist article’ why aren’t you discussing damage limitation tactics for that insane outburst from Sillars?!
You have to accept that ‘old labour’ are an anathema to many voters.
Whether they agree with nationalizing industries or not, they will recognise how horrified international companies will be by this,and iScotland will slowly die on its knees without them.
The undecided will be swayed by this and it cannot be dismissed as scaremongering.
I’m curious as to why you have ignored it – hoping the problem will go away!
“I know this post will be deleted (again) but instead of singing the praises of such a ‘moving socialist article’ why aren’t you discussing damage limitation tactics for that insane outburst from Sillars?!”
Because he isn’t an MP or an MSP, he has no power, and it doesn’t matter what he says.
@Indy Scot
Do you honestly think that we would have this vote next week if is was not for the Sun. Seriously, stop it.
Not sure what you mean by this comment?
Fantastic waiting Mr Forrest and oh so true.
@Grouse Beater
I wouldn’t worry, it’s only a temporary blip.
The British establishment are at this minute giving a bollocking to the Labour Party for fucking this up. They are explaining to Jim Murphy and Alistair Darling that they’ve got their hands full planting scare stories and threatening people so the Labour party needs to up their game on keeping the Jocks down.
Polls will soon revert to show that No are 20% in the lead and the British establishment will go back to threatening us with armageddon, pestillance and the plague if we vote Yes.
Joking aside, I think we will win this and the Labour Party and the British establishment can go … themselves
I will lay my cards on the table first and say I’m a member of the S.N.P.
Now to my post.
I agree with you ANS about the S.N.P. being given the chance to run Scotland from 2016 as the first government of a fully independent country. I think they have done a great job with the pocket money they have been given by Westminster, I would say that though wouldn’t I?
Seriously though, trying to be as neutral as possible here folks, I think without the S.N.P. in power we would not be where we are today on the verge of making unbelievable history. It is for that reason I think it is only right and fair that they are given first chance at the full levers of power. Right political broadcast on behalf of the S.N.P. over.
I am also coming round to the idea that you are suggesting ANS regarding “Caledonia.” I do admit to shedding more than one tear whenever I hear it played though, maybe that is a good thing, the anthem is hitting right in the heart.
For those whithering about Rupert Murdoch and the SUN newspaper can I just say I’m not that bothered either way other than it would be nice to have more than just the Sunday Herald on our side. That said, if I remember right I think it was the SUN that helped John Major win what was an winnable election, so they do have some form in helping causes over the finishing line.
I’m sorry Alistair, but I just can NOT get that image out of my head. A guy from the NO stall visiting the YES stall to try and get copies of the WBB. Hilarious! I wonder if he has read it himself yet?
Did you give him any WBB’s Alistair or did you suggest he send his *ahem* customers down to the YES stall?
Is there anything about any trouble that may have been caused in Edinburgh today with the OO?
Watching Alex’s press conference from the other day on 504, what a difference watching a statesman
Castle Rock: the British establishment can go … themselves
Trouble is, by all evidence they enjoy it.
john king
good for him.:-)
the grey haired accordion player is an old friend of mine, he’s a brilliant player, not seen him for a while and there he is, looking well.
I am in a quandry, mmmmmmm.
Do I watch ”Last night at the Proms” or ”Peter Kay: Live and back on nights”
PETER KAY.
To save me trawling through a lot of posts can someone tell me the time of the BBC demo on Sunday please
@James Caithness
As far as I’m aware there were no violent incidents reported in the city centre. I was with the Pilrig Church street stall on Leith Walk and it was sunny and peaceful, and we had good feedback from people. I gather from my friends elsewhere that they too encountered no trouble, thankfully. A friend of mine was on Princes St when the OO march was just about over and he witnessed one of their lot grabbing a Scottish flag sticking out of a lassie’s backpack, breaking it in two and throwing it on the ground. The big irony, my friend says, was that the girl had a No Thanks badge on. I’m a bit sad that because of the OO march we couldn’t have the kind of gathering other cities had but we went on with campaigning and reports from other areas were really encouraging. I’d like to think Edinburgh will vote Yes too but with the damn financial sector being headquartered here and the fearmongering letters being sent to staff, I think it’ll be very close here.
Thinking about Murdoch, like him or not he does have Scottish roots and has previously declared his close interest in what is happening.
I think if the SUn came out YES, it would push us over the line even more. Putting all doubt to rest. So for Scotlands sake I would welcome it. After the YES, we can judge them on their editorial output.
Scotsbob at 9:06
2pm until about 4pm at PQ. Some folk are starting from George Square at 12:30 and heading to PQ via the Squinty Bridge.
Thanks Graham B
The article seems to be behind a paywall now,
link to thesun.co.uk
THE Scottish Sun urges voters to hand Alex Salmond second term at May 5 election. … Go on, my Sun … Alex Salmond with Scottish Sun. Play it again, Salm. Published: 19th April 2011. ALEX Salmond cares passionately about Scotland.
Do you believe that the SNP would have broke the proportional representation voting system without the support of the Sun.
Absolutely fabulous day in Inverness. there were a number of yes stalls inc, Yes, Women for Indy, Green, Ric, Biz for Scotland they were mobbed all day though I only helped for a wee while.
Wee Blue Books were flying off the tables as was everything from stickers to t-shirts to balloons. Then there was the flash mob of Yessers singing. Was only meant to last for a short while and sing three songs, but went on for at least half an hour, with singing and cheering and chanting yes. It was friendly and good humoured with at least a couple of hundred people there.
Then on the way back to our car it seemed everyone was wearing yes badges/t-shirts/hats or whatever. People were wandering the streets with yes posters and giant yes signs in their arms. It was an incredible atmosphere. The Yes Inverness team were amazing and worked so hard all day long. It was an unforgetable experience.
There does not seem to have been any OO trouble, at least none I can find. If they leave Scotland as there has been a rumour, then great.
I was down the East Coast today, say happy and quite busy YES stalls in both North Berwick and Dunbar. Seems there is a real momentum from all the hardy souls who have put so much into this, I am proud to be a part of all this. YEAH, we will do it!
Latest poll puts YES at 54 and No at 46 ICM just watched the ebc try to stammer past how this must be a mistake…comes from the telegraph mind you, check out forbes medias reports about mc crone report regarding the cover up by thatcher and rifkind regarding the clydes vast oil resourses…aw sorry we need that for shipping trident back doon the road dont we?
@McTim – thanks for the info mate. Like you glad in dignified way our people conducted themselves in our Capital today.
I found this on Telegraph website sorry if you have seen it before.
link to telegraph.co.uk
Lesley-Anne
Was thinking of a Scottish athlete receiving a gold medal with the
Saltire being run up with Caledonia playing. I would be greeting
my wee eyes out.
Im one of the missing millions, registered voter but havent voted on anything since we kicked the tories out of Scotland and still
ended up with a tory government. Cant think of anyone better than AS leading us into a new future.
I so hope Edinburgh votes Yes. I’d be so embarrassed if my own city falls for the fearmongering of the fucking bankers and votes No on the day. If it wasn’t for my job starting on Monday, I’d campaign day in day out but now the evenings will have to make do. Someone please reassure me that we in Auld Reekie won’t be the odd man out and that we’ll vote for Yes, even if it’s by just a handful of votes.
O.K. folks whilst the good folks in Edinburgh were *ahem* enjoying the march of the orangemen and getting reported this was happening in other cities in Scotland but apparently it is really just a figment of my imagination though cause according to BBC and SKY these events did NOT happen. Remember folks these events did NOT happen!
Inverness
link to facebook.com
Livingston
link to facebook.com
Dunfermline
link to facebook.com
Always remember folks THESE events DID NOT HAPPEN!
A piece of such simple power one can easily imagine that were it held up to Johann Lamont she would dissolve in hissing hatred into a dark stain on the ground.
@Lesley-Anne,
A guy on the Yes stall knew who the No guy was and gave him a Wbb. No doubt he had a read himself to see what all the fuss was about. Gave me a laugh anyway…
@Indy Scot
Are you saying that it was down to the Sun that the SNP won a landslide in 2011?
Oops!
Look out folks, think I’ve found some MORE events that did NOT happen today. Hmm.
link to facebook.com
Perth
link to tinyurl.com
Tory Rory’a *ahem* cairn
link to facebook.com
No, majority.
It appears that some daring female Yes supporter, had arrange a welcome message for the OO in Edinburgh. Apparently she had a bone to pick with Gordon Brown, over his scaremongering regarding cross border organ donation.
Astonishing and fantastic!
In Broxburn today Yes stall busy with locals asking for badges and stickers. No stall run by a couple of growlers from Northern Ireland……….and only a handful of interested passers by. Just about sums up their campaign.
Oops.
link to i.imgur.com
Muttley79, what Indy Scot is saying is that the Sun did come in at the right time and undoubtedly helped in the 2011 election.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr Murdoch, in his twilight years, may come out with a lot more than just backing independence. I’m sure he may be privvy to an awful lot of the behind the scenes calls, emails, directives and would be very well placed to do an expose (with a wee acute above the e to make it ex-posy!)and might well just lay it all out there. Well, it’s a nice thought anyway
Thank you for brilliantly articulating what so many of us feel.
It is embarrassing to watch some of my Labour acquintances feel discomfort when they see my Yes and “Vote Trident out” badges because I know they want to be able to rid us of Trident too. However they are tugged between loyalty to Labour and their personal principles in this campaign and opted for supping with the militarists in Labour. This hurts their credibility so they no longer talk about politics.
Inverness
link to facebook.com
link to facebook.com
link to facebook.com
link to facebook.com
panel base poll 49% YES 51% NO after rounding.
Saw it reported in the comments on Scot goes Pop
That’s all four polls in then I’m content.
We all know they are better than that.
I feel I walked the same road.
Labour believer from my background, voted for local Labour who were good people and hoped they would represent me well.
This last month was told by my local Labour MP – a friend – that I was a cyber bully because I would not accept him constantly repeating the NO campaign party line each time I asked what would we be given if NO. I asked three tmies politely but firmly. He chose to turn his back.
As have many I fear and we have seen that it is yellow, not red. ( NOT for what side they support but for failing to be honest )
Labour has shown it will serve the hand that keeps it in power rather than the one that feeds it. We tax payers are their masters not the institutes.
Am as yet undecided, tho only a ba’hair away from YES, but for one thing I am not Labour until I see a change.
@Rigmac7
Wow, I think you may be right, never thought of that. In that case Sunday would be a good day, an issue packed with it.
I have no problem with our current National Anthem ANS but I think after independence we need to *ahem* upgrade and, like you, I’d have tears rolling down my cheeks whenever it was played either at a sporting event or any other event.
alistair says:
@Lesley-Anne,
A guy on the Yes stall knew who the No guy was and gave him a Wbb. No doubt he had a read himself to see what all the fuss was about. Gave me a laugh anyway…
I smell another convert on the horizon there Alistair.
Regarding the Last Night Of The Proms it appears that those ridiculous two sided flags from fond Commonwealth Games memory have put in an appearance.
No doubt handed out en masse.
There was some speculation at the games that the Orange Order were behind them.I doubt this is the case here so who does that leave.Would anyone like to hazard a guess
Brilliant article, but I would date the death of Labour from before you joined – the abolition of clause 4.
TV owners might spot this on Sky news evening braodcasts, perhaps not.
link to news.sky.com
Kaspar says:
There was some speculation at the games that the Orange Order were behind them.I doubt this is the case here so who does that leave.Would anyone like to hazard a guess
Erm, was it erm SKY Kaspar?
Peter G might I remind you:
“And there will be no hooliganism, there will be no vandalism, there will be no bevvying because the world is watching us, and it is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with responsibility, and with dignity, and with maturity.”
dadsarmy, just a wee thought I had to myself there. If I was Mr Murdoch, and had previously promoted/taken advantage of an opportunity to assist the SNP, what would be the logical (and commercially beneficial) action to take, in view of a fast approaching Independent Scotland?
Do I sit on the fence or do I do the right thing (for whatever reason) and perhaps, just perhaps, buy some kudos with the population (not just of Scotland) for verifying and clarifying just how corrupt the system is.
He has Scottish ancestry after all, outing the truth and standing up for justice is built into him and has to come out sometime
Liar Liar – Not the Movie Just John Reid, (the baron)
Baron John Reid, man of principle or Just a wee liar, history judges him to be the latter- his legacy to his constituents is, “see you suckers”. I witnessed his speech and noted the bulk of those in attendance were from places other than that which he claimed to represent. Most were not even from Glasgow or the West of Scotland. Talk about rent an audience. This was it in spades.
John Reid, (Sorry Baron Reid, he took the Ermin) represented for many a year an area of Glasgow which suffered the worst social deprivation, lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality in the developed world, not a lot was done in his time in office or since, (under the stewardship of his successor) to improve matters.
Set against these damming facts is that the Labour Party and John Reid knew full well, (for the last 40 year’s) that Scotland had massive oil and gas wealth and that the Scottish people were being conned and lied too for decades.
I wondered at his behavior and the justification of it then remembered the Labour party creed allows the sacrifice of the electorate for perceived good of the bigger picture of the Labour Party and it’s manifesto.
link to telegraph.co.uk
@Lesley-Anne
Everyone’s a potential convert, even AS and GB – in the privacy of their own polling booth, of course.
Outstanding article , sadly those who need to read it won’t.
AD not AS!
@Lesley-Anne
Much though I would have loved to say it was ours, the link you gave for Livingston was not actually us….
The best we could manage was this:
link to twitter.com
Now I’m totally confused, as I thought the Scotchman had come out for Naw. Despite the snide digs, does this not kind of undermine the latest Project Fear job from the uber-elite?
Senior bankers have dismissed claims that independence could trigger a great depression as “preposterous” and “disingenuous”.
link to scotsman.com
After watching all those videos from all over the STREETS of
Scotland(not in a pre-selected venue with a pre-selected audience)
how can we lose.
Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound
Cameron will tell Scots that there is “no way back” if they vote Yes. See Sunday Times splash.
Tory MPs tell Cameron their red line on devolution is to ban Scots from voting on English budgets. John Redwood writes in the Sunday Times
Tory MPs say they will have no problem getting 46 letters for Cameron non confidence motion if it’s a yes
Cameron warned of “slow motion bloodbath” if he doesn’t give English same devo rights as the Scots. See Sunday Times
link to twitter.com
What a great piece of writing. Can feel your sense of loss but hope too for the future.
Telecoms lining up for next nonsense story. Topology of Scotland is a major issue for them. So – too wee, too poor, too stupid and… TOO HILLY!
New ICM poll has Yes 54% no 46% we are on our way. Time to get the special single malt in for Friday morning.
lesley anne
Livingston
link to facebook.com
is livi the new glasgow
Paul, I have a very nice unopened bottle of 30 year old Lagavulin. Methinks it may be getting sampled rather soon!
@ John King. You are right about Perth today, it was fantabulous. I seen you there :-).. I was holding my 7month old son in my arms and singing to him whilst Dougie brought the house down with a great rendition of Caledonia, with a truy outstanding supporting cast of YES voters… I did see those NO peeps, standing with their NO signs up as everyone was partying and singing, truly sad and a wee bit small-minded but there you go each to their own. We had a blast
You are so right dadsarmy and YES even AD and GB are convertible we just need the right conditions and the right situation. May I suggest a straight jacket and padded cell for each?
1,000 apologies Kininvie. When I first saw it on my partner’s Facebook page and all I saw was YES Livingston and being the village idiot that I am I put 2 and 2 together and came up with 7!
Oops!
Looks like it aint so hot mum for NO in Inverness then!
link to facebook.com
Just in case anyone was in any doubt here is the ultimate confirmation that Scotland is a nothing wee county of England!
link to tinyurl.com
@CameronB Brodie
Wee tear in the e’e. Banks’ actions and oil execs making people vote YES. I think many of us kind of expected that, but feared it wouldn’t happen.
Nobody likes a big business bully.
[Many expletives deleted]
Colin Church
Too hilly hahaha
I never really knew where Livingston was Bald Eagle, thanks for confirming its location for me. I just hope I can figure out where Glasgow is now!
Very well written article exposing the utter hypocrisy and dishonesty of the Labour Party.
And the extremely sad prospect of working class Scottish Labour voters being unwittingly on the same side as the Tories, the banksters, the Daily Mail and everything they have been fighting against for so long.
At least 95% of Labour voters should be voting Yes.
Apparently some of the recent, massive YES events, invisible to the BBC, are being shown by other media, around the world. My brother-in-law working in South Korea has seen a number of street/crowd shots – all he can see is YES everywhere!
Last Night of the Proms or Peter Kay – no brainer. Peter Kay it was.
But,m when it finished, I turned over for LNOTP – a wee-bit hysterical, a tad over the top when it came to Union flags and “Britishness”. Pity about Johnny Foreigner conducting, what!!
I sense this was a last defiant blast; after Thursday, the Britain they know will be no more.
If the rumours re the ICM poll are true – the shit will hit the fan tomorrow and the Westminster clique will go into melt-down.
Hold onto your hats folks – things will get rather bumpy. The British State will not roll over and quietly die, beware the dirty tricks brigade.
@A.N.Surgent
Remember no complacency. It is not over until the fat lady sings. It is far too close to get cocky and think we have won.
Lesley-Anne
Re. converting AD and GB. Kubrick is a good source of inspiration.
link to animg.com
Well, when have these two clowns shown compassion?
Still all to play for.
Premature sounding triumphalism may put undecideds to no. Remember that champagne No celebration that was cancelled?
Calm confident positive till it’s a yes.
It’s going to be close.
@Lesley-Anne – Ah game show f ups here’s one of my favourites..a type of ache?
link to youtube.com
Reading this post was a hugely emotional experience for me, leaving me feeling the same as when I read the post “English Scots for Yes” on this site a few months ago. Thanks James. I’ll be passing this link on to some colleagues on Monday.
Sunday Herald front page 1
link to twitter.com
Sorry, post title was “An Englishman not Abroad.”
muttley 79
Your right,sometimes emotion gets the better of me
Ex army chief talking about scots soldiers dying for the union, in paper review, no mention of them dying in an illegal war.
Sunday Herald front page 2;
link to twitter.com
Well well well.
link to i.imgur.com
Lord Dannatt treating Scots like s***e, in my view!
I can see how that would work Cameron.
Now I wonder what sort of ache that guy had that night Croomp.
Brilliant front page with ICM poll too. Thanks Marcia!
Chitterinlicht
We should take the lowest of the polls and work hard until 10pm on the 18th to get to the ICM figure.
BBC News24 live paper review! They are in for a shock!
If Yes Trident off to America…Never got a handle on whole story but probably too expensive to go down South!
Radio 5 live live bun fight regarding tax in Scotland etal.
Murphy !!!!
Whatever you do folks do NOT look at the front page of the Sunday Times.
Apparently Cameron has been listening to Darling for too long methinks cause here he is *ahem* claiming that split will be forever. I really do wish these politicians would really STOP making us all these promises. I mean they are just making our decision over YES/NO easier and easier by the day!
link to i.imgur.com
Here’s the one we all wait for on a Sunday folks!
link to i.imgur.com
@Marcia – nice one, I pray that next weeks front page has pictures of our national celebration of voting our country home
No, the BBC is not a state propaganda tool.
The BBC should be shut down tomorrow, IMO. Do the people of England think they are immune? How independent are ISIS of western backing? What is really going on in Gaza? Are Britain really about to launch itself into another imperial conquest that will, no doubt, cost many civilians their lives.
link to facebook.com
Oops!
Just looked again and they have two front page thingys.
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
Just seen these Herald pages. Lovely.
I joined Herald on-line a few months ago and started to buy Sunday Herald. Only one more weekend to go.
Murphy shouting down everyone on Radio 5 live discussion on Scotland. What a loser..the two other woman are quite polite!
link to newsnetscotland.com
thanks Marcia dont think Gideon is going to like the SH tomorrow ,what a front page sinister or what he make Peter Mandelson look almost normal nah lol speaking of the dark lord of the sith where is he ??? or did they think bringing him out was to much
Sunday Telegraph front page
Desperate stuff, using dead soldiers to try to win votes
link to pbs.twimg.com
.
Stand by your beds folks!
According to the Muppet doing the papers review on SKY news Gordon Brown is extremely popular in Scotland!
@Lesley-Anne – Totally OT but another of my favourite game show moments..
link to youtube.com
McTim,
“Postal votes are stored till 10pm on the 18th and then counted along with the other ballot papers.”
Are they counted separately or together with the other votes?
I am very worried, almost certain, of the vote being rigged.
call me dave
re radio 5 live im getting its off air?
London Sun editor on Sky “what the papers say” says they are considering their position and will come out with a position in the next couple of days. Sounds like Scottish Sun will go with Yes.
Great front pages, cheers Marcia.
@Nana Smith
Thanks for that, what a story, I loved this bit.
————————————
A great debate followed, passionate but respectful.
At the end we agreed to have an open vote on Yes, No and Don’t Know, as an indication of Usdaw members’ views after a long, healthy, two-sided debate.
The result was 87.5% for Yes, 12.5% Don’t Know and Zero for No.
——————————
I find that astonishing!
PS Murphy hogging all the air time…On about the NORTH SEA oil.
It’s running oot! Aye Jim.. but… Atlantic…but Jim…Jim.
Got to admit Croomp, if you’re going to lose it live on T.V. then do it BIG!
call me dave says:
PS Murphy hogging all the air time…On about the NORTH SEA oil.
It’s running oot! Aye Jim.. but… Atlantic…but Jim…Jim.
I think CMD, as Murph the Smurph is the *ahem* expert in this field he knows without any shadow of a doubt that there is no such thing as the Atlantic shelf. It is just a nasty figment of those nasty cybernats teent weeny little minds.
Fuckin prick on bbc news just said ” scotch independence “. Please make it a huge majority.
@bald eagle
Retune if DAB I’m OK.
Lesley-Anne says:
Well well well.
link to i.imgur.com
Lord Dannatt treating Scots like s***e, in my view!
____
Vote Yes for no more cannon fodder for Westminster.
Jim Murphy has an athletic build – just right for the High Jump.
It’s coming yet, for a’ that…
I do welcome a Scottish sun intervention on the side of Yes but I still wouldn’t wipe my arse with that paper.
Obese people on benefits to go on cambridge diet-IDS
Findlay Farquaharson says:
Fuckin prick on bbc news just said ” scotch independence “. Please make it a huge majority.
__
Freeeeeeeedom for the Glenfiddich.
Blow for SALMOND. Dishwasher tablets say NO.
The way the nawbags applaud and cheer when when brown or darling or any of the sycophants claim scotland will pay higher prices, wont have a currency, demand we take debt without assets etc is mindboggling. Till the day i die i wont forgive those mindless people.
BBC live 24 Still persist AS is leader of YES!
Poll of polls and latest polls today seem to have given BBC a bit of a shock!
Murph on about supermarket prices going up in Scotland!
When asked about CMD’s finger in the Tesco pie he says ” I’m not privy to his diary” Aye Right!
When your job’s at stake you get a squeaky bum!
I see groundskeeper Wullie is a firm YES
link to youtube.com
Looks like South Ayrshire were at the singing in the street thingy today as well folks.
link to facebook.com
Oh I almost forgot. I’ve found this wee video of Sandi Thom and a *ahem* special guest.
link to tinyurl.com
If you go on Twitter and have a look at the last night of the proms thread:
#lastnightoftheproms
…it’s actually very sad. There are a lot of people on there who feel that ‘it’s over’ and they don’t quite know why.
In all our exhaustion after months of effort; after all our hard-shelled resistance to the battering – we shall need (if we win, when we win) to raise our game again and hold out our hands to our ain folk who voted No and to those down South who will not understand what has happened, or why.
I wonder if Lord Dannatt bothered to get the permission of the families to use their loss.
salmond on sky link to youtube.com
Insane outburst from Sillars. Wtf are you talking about.
He is simply stating that if those companies lie with the crows they will get shot with them, what is hard to understand about that?
Put your prices up and your company is fucked in this country because people will no longer shop there or be cowed by your threats.
He was saying, do not fucking threaten us or your business will suffer because of your own stupidity! Capiche?
I don’t trust Murdoch! He could easily come out for NO! Beware! He likes to be mischievous and in charge!
thanks dave
got it now just in time for the news f%&k i’m never listening to that crap again ever
there’s no ‘just popping in to Wings to see what’s happening’, is there?
I was ‘just popping in’ nearly an hour ago
lots of interesting points, information, videos,
thanks
Interesting article from a usdaw meeting to discuss indy vote , on newsnet scotland
link to newsnetscotland.com
Flower of Scotland says:
I don’t trust Murdoch! He could easily come out for NO! Beware! He likes to be mischievous and in charge!
___
They will as other businesses suffer the consequences of lack of sales in this country.
If they think they are a pariah in Liverpool, well try that fucking with the populace of a Country.
A new fallacy: The only True Scotsman is working Class.
I view Scottish politicians desperately selling off their country as fast as they can like extreme divers about to leap from a cliff into the sea and a gully below.
I look at them half-hoping they slip and dash their brains repeatedly on the cliff face as they fall, and half-hoping the waves part and they get splattered on the rocks below.
However, Mr Salmond dismissed Mr Sillar’s rhetoric, insisting September 19 will be “a day of celebration for the people, not reckoning for big companies drawn into the No campaign by Downing Street”.
link to scotsman.com
Straight from a rag supporting of Naw.
I don’t agree with Sillars often but he is right, there will be a day of reckoning for those companies and they know it.
Morag on radio 5 calls and tells it how it is! Brilliant!
I just love our Scottish women (not in the biblical sense)
Some calls about Banks (hope Morags still on the phone)
Passionate Scot living in London 200% he’s spoken to dozens of ‘Jocks’ down South they’re all voting NO (but don’t have a vote)
Morag is still there
She tears him a new one! Tells our proud jock to mind his manners especially about the ‘Jocks’
James Kelly on the Panelbase poll
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
Dave: Morag on radio 5 calls and tells it how it is! Brilliant!
Damn! Sorry I can’t hear it.
Any chance Wings can post a recording soon?
link to scotsman.com
Should anybody want a second opinion:
The Flaky Character of Deutsche Bank – grousebeater.wordpress
bluedog
Remind me please, which of the campaigns has been largely funded from outwith Scotland. Which side has the back of big oil and banking?
CameronB Brodie says:
bluedog
Remind me please, which of the campaigns has been largely funded from outwith Scotland. Which side has the back of big oil and banking?
I’m guessing that would be the Don’t Know campaign Cameron, am I right?
Lesley-Anne
Manners please, Lesley-Ann, I did asked bluedog.
Had to laugh at the recent panic drawing out allies such as The Royal Bank of Scotland, ASDA and the Orange Order all affiliated in their own strange ways lol. Was it mnot the RBoS who kicked off the austerity cuts that we ordinary people are getting hammered for. Local Go’t cuts National Health cuts, Ill people deprived of their benefits all to repay the Treasury for bailing these guys out. Didn’t hear them saying Scotland should be excempt from cuts and repayments to cover their mismanagement. Let them clear off, heh hold on, we the British Public own 80% of this bank. I reckon on a rough calculation that means Scotland own 8% of the assetts too, so just leave that before you shut the door and clear off. Bof S not moving, remember if you transfer to other banks some gibve you £100 for moving your account. ASDA, bye bye, don’t like Tescos much either but can you imagine ASDA watching others capitalising on profits when they disappear, aye right! Orange Order guy says he will leave Scotland if there is a YES, phew never though it could end as good as that, an added bonus:) yes , yes, yes etc etc etc
My tenses and grammar are all over the place tonight. Apologies folks.
Hmm. Is it me or are Better whatsit already admitting defeat with this threat?
Ukip and George Robertson claim narrow Yes vote may not mean independence … #indyref – in tomorrow’s paper
Unionists reach the revelation on the Road to Independence in six distinct stages:
… denial, anger, lying to themselves and others, depression, bargaining, and finally, acceptance.
You could say the same if they were dying.
Ah! Morag from Dundee (not our Morag I think)
But with a name like Morag how else would it be.
I know three Morags in Fife they are all genetically able to do the Karen Dunbar test all right.
I wonder if it’s worth in the last 5 days, picking a posting or two on Scotsman articles and giving them the thumbs up by loads of people? Ages ago I posted the odd few, and pro-Indy postings did very well, but now it’s totally infested by Unionists – fortunately the wrong type who do the Kim thin un and so on.
But is it worth it?
Sorry to go O/T folks but SKY news are reporting some extremely sad news that the British hostage being held by ISIS has been executed.
My thoughts are with his family at this sad time, if it is confirmed.
Usdaw by the way is one branch, there have been other branches of unions before have also been near unanimous YES. Just saying like!
Looks like the French and Germans, you know the countries who we will NOT be friends with after 19th, have a slightly different take on our referendum.
French and German papers and French news forecast a landslide victory for YES.They are intrigued by Westminster’s dirty tricks NO campaign
Lesley-Anne says:
13 September, 2014 at 11:40 pm
Sorry to go O/T folks but SKY news are reporting some extremely sad news that the British hostage being held by ISIS has been executed.
My thoughts are with hi family at this sad time, if it is confirmed.
————–
BBC Reporting same
hope it’s not real
Before and On the 18th we can only control what we do. We have no control over anyone else. Meaning we (each and everyone of our YES family and community) make sure we get out there and vote.
NO complacency, NO triumphalism ahead of 10pm on Thursday, NO letting up on campaigning, NO doubts.
We are all part of making history.
NO LET UP.
A new fallacy: The only True Scotsman is working Class
Bollocks you trolling cnut, a true Scotsman is one who cares more for his country, his countrymen’s well being and the common weal for all rather than me me me which is obviously what you are. Your little shitiness will not survive the 18th September but do not fear we will carry you with us
Iain Duncan Smith MP @IDS_MP
They are not singing ‘Land of hopeless Tories’ please stop saying that #LastNightOfTheProms
Hmm.
Anyone who has sent in a postal vote it looks like you may be able to change your vote if I’ve read this right.
You can get a replacement up until 5pm on polling day. You must pick it up in person from your Returning Officer. You will also need to return your spoilt ballot paper and the other parts of the ballot pack that were sent to you.
This is the tweet that led me to make the assumption above. No doubt someone in the know will shoot me down in flames any second now.
@citizentommy even if votes have been posted they can be changed please share!
I agree Tony, I sincerely hope it is not true but unfortunately they seem to have far too much information for it NOT to be true. I think the only thing that is outstanding is the actual video verification. Such sad news.
I am not one who loses it very often, but in cases like these I am all for the return of Hanging, Drawing and Quartering for b******s like these. Having said that even HDQ is far too good for them.
Caught maybe 30 mins or so of Last Night at the Proms.
British nationalism at it’s best.
Lots of nostalgia I thought
perhaps because the audiences were singing of a country,
a tradition and a culture
which lives largely in the past.
Mgt. Thatcher and the invasion of England by neo-liberalism has seen to that.
A terrible shame really as there was something truly admirable about the English at their best.
Now, we mostly see the English at their worst,
epitomised by the leader Mr Cameron.
They sang God save the queen; it was almost a prayer.
Perhaps they meant ‘God help the Queen’
The last Last Night of the proms as we know it.
A terrible shame really as there was something truly admirable about the English at their best
We are brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers on this island the problem has been the British establishment, in their eyes Britain is England and vice versa.
Their ignorance of what is happening in Scotland is not the English fault but the lies fed to them by the British. The Proms has hopefully had it’s last night with Scotland as a subjugated partner in an unfair union
Not long in from a busy day. Sad news about about fellow countryman that has been executed-all thoughts and prayers for the family.
Met John King and his wife today in Perth, great to put the face to the name- good guy! The You Tube videos of Dougie McLean’s Caledonia captures the atmosphere perfectly. The sun was shining, happy smiling faces, festival spirit, YES stall swamped, many converts to the cause. You could feel it and taste it, best yet!
Polls looking good, but we need to work every minute of every day to get the 63% YES.
fuck a duck! Stunningly brilliant!
I see tony blair is sticking his oar in (for no)..
Sadly ..he WILL find WMD’S here – but not for much longer.
link to newsthump.com
@tonymac – We could ask wee Robin Cook or Dr Kelly what they think..oh wait a minute..we can’t
Thoughts with the latest victim of ISIS.
Another hostage threatened apparently, the message is clearly that they want attacked to further their recruitment of young people to do their bidding.
The pity is that some in the west cannot wait to rush in to show how big and tough they are.
These murdering scumbags draw the western ‘allies’ in then go all out to keep them from leaving.
You cannot bomb the crap out of that mentality.
posted link to spoof site (in moderation) happy for it and this to be removed..
Awesome, if you are a Labour no and this doesn’t correct your path… then vote Conservative!
A powerful article that can move a mountain.
Thank you, James
If Edinburgh votes NO, we can always transfer the Scottish Parliament to Perth or Stirling.
Brilliant. Spot on. There is hope where there is passion
@Rock re postal votes: The postal votes received prior to September 18th will already have been checked for their veracity and put in boxes for counting. All postal votes handed in on the day itself will need to be verified prior to counting. Postal votes, once verified, will be counted together with the other ballot papers. Have a look at this pdf: link to google.co.uk
Mc Tim.
Thanks for they, very useful. I have circulated it to other referendum agents and my own polling and counting agents.
Very emotive article which goes right to the heart of the debate. Labour needs to change drastically. I really believe that when we get independence Scottish Labour will regain its true beliefs. Vote Yes next Thursday and let Scotland and the Scottish people decide their future. At least let us be allowed to make our own decisions, and yes, our own mistakes.
Tories would rebel on “further powers” in event of No vote, according to the Telegraph.
“Mr Cameron is certain to face a rebellion over his promise to deliver greater devolution to Edinburgh. Tories are angry that they have not been consulted and fear a backlash from English voters”
link to telegraph.co.uk
getJames Forrests brilliant essay over to the Sun and get it published – hardly anybody reads the guradian in scotland so forget them, and the daily record is a goner
Gerry
Never mind setting up our parliament in Stirling , we will have it back in Perth where our Kings & Queens were crowned , p.s I know they were actually crowned in Scone .
Leo Panitch on the long history of failure- The Impasse of Social Democratic politics
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/m/My%20Documents/Downloads/5521-7417-1-PB.pdf
Passionate but illogical. It perpetuates the myth of Scotland in the role of victim victim – downtrodden left wing Scotland would be a socialist utopia but for bullying imperialist right wing England.
But that doesn’t bear historical scrutiny. Scotland has been part of the imperialist colonialist adventure for the last 300 years. Scottish educated, Scottish supported Blair took us into Afghanistan & Iraq. WW1 “butcher” Haig was a Scot. Scots ran the banks and manipulated the markets.
So independence is turning our backs on history and is unlike to produce a socialist country. A narrow yes vote will leave half the country not wanting independence and the other half of the country having an almighty punch up about what sort of country Scotland should be. I’m old enough to remember it being said that you could put a stuffed monkey as a conservative candidate in Edinburgh South and it would get elected. An independent Scotland wouldn’t be the left wing country this article assumes it to be.
Better to acknowledge our shared history, stop blaming the English and get on with building a fairer society
Just had a no voter assure me that we are going to get more powers.
Is there any place where all the nasty things the meeja and the backbench politicians have said about no more powers and taking away powers are collected together?
stop blaming the English
Just do one Robert, absolute pish talk
Robert
You talk about events way back in the past, when the common man and woman really had no say. Today, we are talking about the potential made available by independence. Can you provide a positive reason why Scotland should continue sustaining Britain?
I studied politics and media alongside this dude at Stirling.How lucky was I?
Just to let you know.
I am from England.
I live in Scotland. It is my home.
I am voting yes
Brilliant article James
I’ve been in Australia for nearly 30 years – emmigrated as a victim of Thatcher’s cuts and closures. I remember sitting in my office in tears watching internet feeds of Blair winning power, something I never thought possible, and a friend who had been working in England telling me that Blair and New Labour weren’t the Labour I knew and not to be fooled. I also wrote the SNP off “teacxhers in wolly jumpers”, but hopefully by Friday morning they, and people like you, will have given us a chance to be free and to start again. We have a chance to build a nation that is equitable and just, that fosters a collaborative spirit and believes that supporting each other and developing ourselves will see us clear of the coruption and greed that has spread like cancer through Westminster and all it’s ilk.
What a fantastic read James.
I too, when younger was part of the Labour Party’s young socialist movement. I remember as an enthusiastic teenager travelling down to Liverpool to canvas for a militant MP named Terry Fields.
Terry was a fireman and believed that he didn’t need the huge expenses the MPs received, he just wanted his firemans wage.
I travelled down with George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan – all hoping to do our bit and make a difference.
In time, I too saw that the Labour Party was moving further away from its fundamental beliefs and was selling out for a fast buck.
I got out years ago.
I still believe in the socialist ideology but with the likes of the Labour Party representatives selling their souls to the Tories, I doubt the deep core beliefs are there anymore.
Westminster doesn’t want to understand the needs of the Scottish people and so we need to let them know WHAT we do need.
I hope and pray for a YES victory at the polls. It is the only way to progress on as a nation and to self govern what is important to the people if Scotland.
One more push.
Isn’t it about time that the YES campaign started emphasising the fact that Scotland has no representation in the decision making party at Westminster. The Tory party has 304 MPs. Scotland has sent only 1 Tory MP to Westminster – Robertson…and he has been reported to have said that he’s voting YES.
1 out of 304 is, arithmetically, 1/304 which is 0.0033………….which is Zero, to two decimal places. 1 out of 304 is the same as ‘no representation’.
If Scotland sends 58 MPs to the UK parliament … they all, bar 1, end up in opposition, or in a massive sell-out of their electors.
VOTE “NO” FOR “NO REPRESENTATION at Westminster” could be a slogan in the last few days.
I am English.. live in the UK..
Hats of to you for this astounding article. I wish Scotland all the very best.
Do yourselves proud