The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Unsteady Eddie

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

We gather a few refreshments are usually taken at party conferences, so given that Eddie Barnes of the Scotsman is in Inverness covering the Scottish Labour gathering, perhaps a hangover explains his rather confused piece for Scotland on Sunday today.

barnesgardham

There are three particularly notable passages, which we’ll take you through quickly here so you don’t have to go and read them on the paper’s website.

“On one level, there is a self-interested concern; a further extension of Holyrood’s powers, MPs fear, could mean a further cut in the number of Scottish MPs at Westminster, thereby handing the Conservatives a UK general election victory on a plate.”

(Our emphasis in all cases.) Oh dear God. We suppose we could cut Mr Barnes some slack on this one, as it could be argued that he’s merely discussing the idiocy of Scottish Labour MPs rather than perpetuating it himself.

But all modesty aside, our article explaining in detail why the scenario described above is a complete myth has now been read by tens of thousands of people since we wrote it over a year ago. It’s been linked far and wide, and picked up by others. And even if a serious Scottish newspaper’s political editor hasn’t read it here, he ought to at least be smart and diligent enough to have worked it out for himself from the easily-available statistics. No excuses.

“And then there is a question of principle – if the UK is a state which seeks to redistribute cash from poor parts of the country to the wealthy why is the single biggest tax in the system in one part of the country suddenly off limits?”

The Scotsman is a Tory paper. We believe that’s called a Freudian slip.

“Aside from tactics, proponents of the ‘devo-more’ model also argue they have to espouse change to bring about a culture shift at Holyrood – a culture, they argue, which currently gives the SNP a free ride to popularity, and leads to bad decisions”

Here, though, Eddie stumbles from laziness to howler into an insightful point. We’ve highlighted recently how both Johann Lamont’s and Ruth Davidson’s visions for a Holyrood with “more powers” actually translate to “more responsibilities, without any benefit to Scotland”, and Mr Barnes perceptively highlights the reason why: neither proposal is aimed at helping Scots, but at hindering the SNP, crushing it under a weight of expensive, pointless, unpopular bureaucracy.

However much we castigate and mock Scotland’s mainstream media for its frequent failings, the people producing it are still by and large skilled professional journalists and sometimes they just can’t help writing the truth, which is this: faced with unmoving polls despite years of unremitting negativity, both of Scotland’s serious opposition parties have given up on defeating the SNP democratically. The Tories want to instead turn them into budget-slashing tax collectors, and Labour to do the same while also diverting power to their corrupt, crony-stuffed local councils.

That, not a beefed-up Scottish Parliament, is the true meaning of a No vote.

30 to “Unsteady Eddie”

  1. roboscot says:

    Vote No get Labour.

    Reply
  2. Cyborg-nat says:

    “redistribute cash from poor parts of the country to the wealthy”
    Where’s the Christian Spirit Rev? The lost soul makes an honest statement and you  mock him.
    On second thoughts you a re right.

    Reply
  3. Robert Kerr says:

    Rev… you have the core argument against “No” in your ultimate paragraph.
    The continuation must be that the unionists (or at least E B) believe the SNP/Greens/Ind/SSP shall be the power in the Scottish Parliament for the future whether it is an Independent Scottish Parliament or a devolved one.
    Let’s get that message out !

    Reply
  4. McHaggis says:

    For the uninitiated, it is sometimes difficult to see The Scotsman as a true blue Tory rag given the levels of Labour support contained within its columns. However, common sense dictates that since Scotland has roundly rejected Toryism, this journal uses Labour as the next best unionist attack dog. Labour in Scotland are just too damn stupid to see they are being played by a journal, that underneath the veneer, despises them.
     
    I’ve also said elsewhere that Scottish Labour has lost its way on the fundamental principle that to woo voters and win votes, you should generally be able to demonstrate you are BETTER than the incumbents in power.
    It is a real vote loser to simply try and bring the incumbents down below your own level, simply to APPEAR to be better than them.

    Reply
  5. bunter says:

    Flipper questioned on indy Scotland using the pound on SKY and managed to fit in at least 3 untruths, (he often repeats them and gets away with them), and Im afraid no ”donorgate” question.
    Oh well, another opportunity goes a begging.

    Reply
  6. proudscot says:

    Rev.Stuart, I think you’re doing Eddie Barnes a disservice, in that his stated opinion that “the UK is a state which seeks to redistribute cash from the poor parts of the country to the wealthy” is actually quite accurate. Successive NewLabour and Tory Westminster Governments have been doing this for decades now! Even under the stewardship of North British Broon and his Chancer of the Exchecquer, Serial House Flipper Darling, the gap between rich and poor widened considerably. Note to the Independence Referendum electorate – Vote No, Get Poorer!

    Reply
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

      “Rev.Stuart, I think you’re doing Eddie Barnes a disservice, in that his stated opinion that “the UK is a state which seeks to redistribute cash from the poor parts of the country to the wealthy” is actually quite accurate.”

      Indeed. That’s what a Freudian slip is – saying the truth by accident.

      Reply
  7. Handandshrimp says:

    What actually happened in Inverness then? I thought it was supposed to be a Labour Party Conference but it seems to have only been an anti-SNP rally. Has any party ever let themselves be so defined by another party as Labour is in Scotland…or is it simply easier than thinking up actual policies for your own party?

    Reply
  8. Marcia says:

    Meanwhile over in Glasgow, the Sunday Herald’s editorial on Mrs Graham’s speech to the bored faithfull in Inverness:
    link to heraldscotland.com
    the final sentence:
     
    She needs vision as well as derision.

    Reply
  9. The Man in the Jar says:

    OT a bit sorry!
    I watched Tony Robertson (Baldric) “Walking through History” program on channel 4 last night. This is the first time that I have heard independence mentioned in a non political context in mainstream media. The program was about the 1719 Jacobite rebellion. He was walking around Glenelg, Eilean Donan and Glensheil amongst other places. (Worth watching for the scenery alone Sandaig bay is knucklebitingly beautiful)
    It was his positive piece to camera at the end that surprised me. “And yet today in and around Scotland more people want to leave the UK and break away from the government in London than ever before. So perhaps the spirit of the Jacobites is still with us” This plus a positive conversation (with indi links) in a pub with some folk musicians.
    Great to hear independence being normalised.

    Reply
  10. Handandshrimp says:

    Great to hear independence being normalised.
     
    The more it can be discussed as a simple and genuine step the more likely it is to happen. That is why the Nae Sayers have to keep the debate pitched as a stone throw from Armageddon.

    Reply
  11. rabb says:

    roboscot says:
    21 April, 2013 at 10:12 am

    Vote No get Labour.
     
    robscot,
    Vote no get “New” Labour. I have to pull you up here as there is a difference you know.
     
    As a Labour voter (I admit I voted SNP at last SGE out of frustration), there is a difference between Labour and “New” Labour.
     
    Lamont & Milliband’s “New” Labour in their current guise are Tories wearing a rose.

    I wholeheartedly hope that after the Yes vote next year we will get our Labour party back, however, it won’t be easy as the SNP have consumed the left ground that “New” Labour vacated.
     
    Vote Yes in 2014!

    Reply
  12. BLMac says:

    I am Labour to my toes. But when I look at the Labour party, I don’t see anything Labour about it anymore.
    I see a party which is controlled from the top down which does not do anything for the worker. 
    I have decided that the most important thing for my country is to get us away from a system that has been bleeding Scotland dry for 300 years.
    So I vote SNP, not because I like them but because they are the only party that is going to do anything about the biggest problem facing Scotland.
    After Independence I’ll probably go back to voting Labour, but not if the party is stacked with the current crop of ("Quizmaster" - Ed)s.

    Reply
  13. Adrian B says:

    @ The Man in the Jar,
     
    I watched that upto 9pm before changing over to BBC 4 for the Swedish crime drama ‘Arne Dahl’ which is quite gruesome compared to other Scandinavian dramas that have come before – it is surprising how they drop in a few positive Scottish links however. Something the next and last series of Borgan is reported to be continuing.
     
    Back to ‘Walking through History’, there was a great number of parallels with today. He managed to pick up on a number of things such as Scottish culture at the time. Tony managed to do a good balanced program. Its worth a watch on iPlayer for those that didn’t catch it last night.
     
     

    Reply
  14. YesYesYes says:

    Meanwhile, ‘Scottish’ Labour’s ‘Truth’ Team releases more evidencei showing that we really are better together:
     
    link to twitter.com

    Reply
  15. The Man in the Jar says:

    @Adrian B                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           I amongst others am giving a talk on “The Jacobites” in Grangemouth on Monday night. I will cover the Scottish social and economic situation in the 18th century. Plenty of scope for some wee indi hints!

    Reply
  16. Adrian B says:

    Sorry, error in my last comment – you will find ‘Walking through History’ on 4OD:
     
    link to channel4.com
     

    Reply
  17. McHaggis says:

    Sunday Mail Today –
    John Niven
     
    “And, finally, I thought… enough. I believe Scotland would legalise same-sex marriage. I believe it would reject Trident. I believe it would refuse to accept the victimisation of the poor, the ill and the weak.”
    “Of course, I’ve been “down here” in England so long I’m practically a Pearly King so there’s no way for me to do much. But there is a way for most of you. You can all vote yes.”

    Reply
  18. thejourneyman says:

    So Johann get’s a quick opportunity to demonstrate her new found desire for “truth and honesty” as Angus Robertson has written to request she clarifies her position on the Taylor donation in light of John Mann’s well publicised views.
    I had a laugh to myself when Flipper was talking to the party faithful about post independence and Scotland eventually having it’s own currency. He went on to describe the scary future when we have to exchange our money before a trip to see family living in the south – no change there then!
    I recalled a visit to my brother in St Albans to change my car, we went for a bite after picking up the car and I offered to buy him lunch in a local pub. We eventually left without eating as the barmaid refused point blank to accept my Scottish £20 notes which had been freshly withdrawn from an RBS Cashline before leaving home.

    Reply
  19. John Gibson says:

    Rev. Stuart,  you’ve stated exactly what I’ve been thinking recently. The sequential release by all three unionist parties suggesting more powers, but especially at a council level, had me wondering if they were ‘normalising’ the concept with the intention, should there be a NO vote, of giving councils more power at the expense of Holyrood – all under the guise of ‘local accountability’ and ‘responding to Scotlands demands for greater powers’. This is why we can’t afford a NO result – it would be difficult for all these ‘mini-governments’ to act in concert. The epitome of Divide and Conquer.

    Reply
  20. Jim Mitchell says:

    Does anyone know if any of the unionist parties have shared a platform with each other yet?  If not, i think we should be asking why!
    Especially now that more Labourites seem to be stressing the need for a separate Labour No campaign, we should also be pointing out the obvious, that Labour  are now split where Devolution is concerned.
    BTW, I reckon   Labour will rue the day they thought up their truth committee!

    Reply
  21. benarmine says:

    I saw Barnes and Magnus Gardham interviewed together on the BBC conference coverage yesterday, first time I’d set eyes on Gardham, google eyed twerp, who came out with a deluded fantasy of a No vote causing a breakup of the SNP and no more worries. It’s hard to believe the No side imagine that would be the end of it. Win or lose their disgraceful lies would be exposed and the new Union reality would bite big time. If they managed to fool us next year we’d be right back on the case the next day, it ain’t ever going to be over until the fat lady sings. Hopefully not Jackie Baillie like.

    Reply
  22. Hetty says:

    A friend a wee while back, showed me a simple colour coded map which shows the percentage of votes that clinched the election for the tories. I will try to find it but basically no matter how we vote in Scotland, the core votes in and around London and the S East of England have been and will be instrumental in who is in government in Westminster. It’s the very well off who are so desperate to cling onto their cash and property.
    Ah, I did think it seemed strange for the bbc to show a decent programme like ‘Walking Through History’. One thing is if you want to watch it and you haven’t already signed up to 4OD, you have to do that to access the programmes but it takes seconds and is well worth it.
    I loved ‘Crapston Villas’ animation series, which, sorry has nothing to do with what we are talking about, but it’s great and worth a watch!!

    Reply
  23. Erchie says:

    Latest Labour wheeze. Unemployed? Welcome to debt slavery!
     
    link to guardian.co.uk

    Reply
  24. YesYesYes says:

    @Hetty,
     
    Here’s one such map:
     
    link to telegraph.co.uk
     
    It’s also worth checking the detailed breakdown of seats in southern England here, see in particular, pages 16-21:
     
    link to parliament.uk

    Reply
  25. YesYesYes says:

    And with England’s population expected to increase significantly over the next 15 years, with most of the increase concentrated in the southern half of England, it looks like if there’s a No vote in 2014, we could be looking at another decade or more of Tory governments after the British general election in 2015:
     
    link to dailymail.co.uk

    Reply
  26. K Mackay says:

    Thanks for the Tony Robinson link Man in the jar and Adrian B, got it bookmarked for some nice viewing later 🙂 Always thought Tony was a good lad, grew up with Timeteam and Blackadder.
    Also I just heard the other day that Bill Bailey is pro indy! Put a great big smile on my face, we’re in good company.
    I feel quite sorry for unionists, they’re in rubbish company! Except Eric Joyce maybe, I know he’s a twat but it’d be great fun to go drinking with him in the HoC bar 🙂

    Reply
  27. Stuart Campbell: “However much we castigate and mock Scotland’s mainstream media for its frequent failings, the people producing it are still by and large skilled professional journalists and sometimes they just can’t help writing the truth, “
     
    I spend a deal of time consuming their output and while a few are reasonably skilled propagandists, never has it occurred to me to describe them as professional or as journalists (with the exception of MacWhirter). 
     
    As you say, sometimes the truth will out anyway, as it tends to do when the press of lies leaves it nowhere else to go.

    Reply
  28. Vambomarbeleye says:

    Man in the Jar
    Wondered if you caught it. Though do we need the present drive to be independent AGAIN linked to two failed attempts. The risings were about change of Monarchs not independence. The Stuarts would have headed to London and never been seen again in Scotland. It was all about Charles’s birthwrite as gods chosen to rule Britin. Britin being used here to describe the UK and not England. Devine right of Kings and all that.
     
    On another note how many of us are union members. Are we making our wishes known to our Union and also where our contributions go.

    Reply
  29. tartanfever says:

    You guys do know Tony Robinson is a die hard Labour supporter ? 

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

    Stats: 6,750 Posts, 1,217,124 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Young Lochinvar on We’ll make this quick: “Newsflash! Junk pulp boilerplate rag prints non sequitur word salad on behalf of incurable self obsessed attention seeker..May 4, 14:57
    • Mark Beggan on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “So this is is the reason no Trans flags were at the National Flag waving competition at Glasgow Green this…May 4, 14:41
    • Sven on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “I wonder if starting a Crowdfunder could count as “Hurty Words” if no one contributes.May 4, 14:16
    • Andrew scott on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “Careful for what you wish for Rev Dross gear maggie(i voted for me)chapperson,loopy lorna and the green gnome might just…May 4, 14:14
    • Mark Beggan on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “When you go will you send back a letter from South America. Take a look up the Railtrack from Miami…May 4, 13:57
    • sarah on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “Laughing out loud! They won’t be able to say such nasty things about you now, Rev, as you are showing…May 4, 13:53
    • Yoon Scum on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “I’m torn between pissing myself laughing at these loonies or Being deeply sympathetic towards them living their entire day terrified…May 4, 13:42
    • Yoon Scum on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “You’re a bad bad bad man* * I’m in scotland and I assumed a gender Can I get a crowd…May 4, 13:37
    • Lorn on We’ll make this quick: “South America is where most ‘trans’ women are killed because ause they are sex workers, generally, and pretend to be…May 4, 13:31
    • Lorn on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “Absolutely brilliant. ‘Trans’-hysteria indeed. How do these people manage to get through a single day? Byeeeee!May 4, 13:23
    • Jon Drummond on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “I’m in the process of transferring the required balance; £1499 from my pension fund. No, the other thing.May 4, 13:20
    • GM on Weaving lies from air: “Aye, I agree with that point.May 4, 13:05
    • Dan on We’ll make this quick: “The bigger story might have been… Where are folk going to source fossil fuel derived fluids to throw on any…May 4, 13:00
    • Ian McCubbin on Let’s Make Jen Safe Again: “Ha ha ha. What a satire .May 4, 12:55
    • Yoon Scum on We’ll make this quick: “I can confirm this is true I was told this in my last secret briefing That England c cannot survive…May 4, 12:38
    • Robert Hughes on We’ll make this quick: “We must assume the reason for this utter shite of a non-story being front page of ” Scotland’s Largest Selling…May 4, 12:10
    • Yoon Scum on We’ll make this quick: “A few things going on here Firstly the media is full of people who used to be media studies students.…May 4, 12:02
    • TURABDIN on We’ll make this quick: “I have distant relatives living in Argentina and Brasil, they settled there because there was no persecution, they were left…May 4, 11:57
    • Yoon scum on We’ll make this quick: “Pay me £100K and I will leave Scotland ASAP and never returnMay 4, 11:53
    • A2 on We’ll make this quick: “Should put the Heritics chap on to this, he’s lived there, his wife’s Argintinian and he’s all up for cults…May 4, 11:53
    • Bilbo on We’ll make this quick: “I see that the Harry Potter stars, both of the films and now the TV series are getting all heat…May 4, 11:48
    • Yoon Scum on We’ll make this quick: “Should the SNP declare UDI?May 4, 11:45
    • Andrew scott on We’ll make this quick: “But what happens to the benefits he must be on?May 4, 11:45
    • Yoon scum on For Children Scotland: “Okay I agree 100% Reform are an MI5 shadow a ct to protect the rich English Now imagine that Corbyn…May 4, 11:43
    • Bilbo on We’ll make this quick: “The impression I get from these countries is that anything goes as long as it’s not too in your face.…May 4, 11:36
    • Jim Tadgercock on We’ll make this quick: “Point of order Willie Hate is on about ships and oceans so i’m assuming its tranny punters from Edinburgh crossing…May 4, 11:32
    • robertkknight on For Children Scotland: “Oops… I would appear to have touched a nerve.May 4, 11:21
    • TURABDIN on We’ll make this quick: “SEARCH, (argentina, trans, sex) and you’ll appreciate why this person may find a home there. But as the late pope…May 4, 11:13
    • Stoker on We’ll make this quick: “NOTE TO ALL OF SCOTLAND’S CHURNALISTS Read this article if you want to experience *REAL* journalism. Shame on all of…May 4, 10:56
    • willie on We’ll make this quick: “Transylvania you say Hate, now that’s a fair point. Located between Romania and Bulgaria its got me thinking that with…May 4, 10:50
  • A tall tale



↑ Top