We don’t think we understand
We just watched, jaws agape, as the BBC news channel gave Scottish Labour an uninterrupted 50-minute party political broadcast for no immediately obvious reason. It mainly took place at Loanhead Miners’ Welfare, and featured speeches from a warm-up man, then Johann Lamont, and finally Gordon Brown.
The ostensible event justifying this extraordinary coverage lasted just 2m 36s.
And having sat through the whole circus, we still have no idea what it was for.
In it, Brown pledged that in the aftermath of a No vote, Labour would produce a draft bill for new powers for the Scottish Parliament by the end of January 2015. We’re not sure why this is supposed to be a good thing. The earliest Labour could possibly take power is May 2015, so what’s the point in rushing out an important document four months before that?
But we’re also not sure why any of this is news. Labour has already produced its devolution proposals. They were published way back in March, and they already cover everything Brown talked about this evening – some sort of reform of Crown Estates, a possible non-profit option for the future of ScotRail, and a vague aspiration to somehow devolve housing benefit (having first extricated it from Universal Credit).
If Labour wanted to put any meat on the bones of those plans, it’s already had six months to do it in, and it’s come up with nothing. It now wants us to believe that it’ll do it all in three months, but only after Scotland has voted No.
So in short, a man who didn’t think to give Scotland any of these powers when he was ACTUALLY THE PRIME MINISTER FOR THREE YEARS now promises that – as an insignificant and largely-absent opposition backbencher who might not even stand for election in 2015 – he’s going to formulate and deliver them within months, assuming the UK decides it wants Ed Miliband as its leader next year.
And even if all that was true, it’s not new information. Labour has devolution proposals. It presumably planned to implement them after it was elected. It still has them, they appear to be the same as they were before, and it presumably still plans to implement them if elected. So what changed to justify almost an hour of prime airtime, during a period when the BBC is legally obliged to give all sides equal amounts of coverage?
This site, like Scottish Labour, is a registered referendum campaigner. We’re sitting by the phone waiting for news of when we get our free broadcast. But meanwhile, we’re occupying ourselves by pondering exactly what the hell we just watched.
I watched this…..
Gordon Brown says we are still a nation with a no vote. He’s right, but we are NOT a country with a no vote.
Gordon Brown says proposals, proposals, proposals. He can propose all he likes, but he can provide NOTHING.
Gordon Brown says strengthen the Scottish partliament. So do I, GUARANTEED with a YES vote.
Gordon Brown DOESN’T tell you that after 19th September, the Scottish parliament can still be disolved forever by Westminster, if the boys in the south see fit.
> The earliest Labour could possibly take power is May 2015, so what’s the point in rushing out an important document four months before that?
Dunno, maybe they plan to actually observe the purdah laws this time.
This really is laughable by Brown/BBC Scotland.
I think old Mr.Brown is confused. They were meant to get their White Paper out by November LAST year. Oh well at least the nursing home have set up a wee press conference scene to keep him happy in his dotage.
I’m desperately trying to get a transcript to count the number of times he said SNP! So far, I’ve drawn a blank. Oh, wait ….. maybe a blank WAS the transcript? Does he still think this is an election?
face like a melted welly, bore off Gordie,
Pmsl. Unbelievable.
I’m in Dortmund so I missing this but what I can say YES badges are all over the place and only one fan required deployment of WBB
I have to say – Stu, you have some stamina and restraint.
I switched over to Ch5 and watched a real shipwreck, two actually.
Much more informative.
Mouldy jam pieces tomorrow for the union?
Fortunately I missed this gripping TV, but seeing who was speaking I have to know. Did he mention pensions? Or how about gold sales? No more return to boom and bust?
Obviously I am so unhappy that he never got re-elected to the office of PM – to which as I recall he was never actually elected in the first place.
How could a Miners welfare afford the fees for him to attend anyway?
Why are they bothering? The settlement negotiations will be well underway by the end of January 2015. Gordy is stuck in a time-warp – that can be the only reason.
Has Gordon dropped his demands that Scotland give up its devolved education?
The full details of the TNS poll is available by clicking the link below:
link to tns-bmrb.co.uk
Feck! Can’t believe the BBC tonight, one big advert for ‘no’ under false pretences……
O/T and my apologies Rev.
NEW POLL: being reported over on Scotgoespop
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk
Should Scotland be an independent country?
Yes 50% (+8)
No 50% (-8)
From ‘No friendly’ pollsters TNS.
It was cut short on my tele >???
Watch First Group shares plummet . I hope they take action against Brown.
My contempt for Gordon Brown truly has no limits. He truly is worse than IDS and Gideon.
Do we get to make a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission about the BBC? This is a clear breach of the rules in my book.
Can you imagine the shitstorm if they gave Cameron 50 minutes unquestioned and uninterrupted to make a pitch for the 2015 election?
Marcia, thanks for putting up the link for the poll tables.
They have reaaly over stepped this time, especially BBC. The Electoral Commission will be down on them like a ton of bricks and force an apology and give free airtime to YES. Any minute now, just wait, will be along soon, yes sir, just you wait, its coming, any second now… anybody?
Rev – why not just ask the BBC, copying the Electoral Commission into the email you send?
Is there anyone at Pacific Quay with any integrity?
It’s an absolute fact that the great majority of the Scottish electorate have only woken up to the referendum mainly just in the last 4 to 6 weeks.
What is also a fact is that for the 2 years their subconscious has been battered by the negativity of Project Fear.
Now that they are actually paying attention they realise that they are being fed the same old shit! This tactic just can’t work and is doomed to failure.
Media in a UK spin overdrive will backfire even more.
i’ve just heard part of something on Sky
Mark Kleinman seemed to be suggesting that David Cameron, at some meeting this evening made reference to defeating Alex Salmond in the same way WE the British defeated Hitler,
Maybe somebody caught the whole thing ,I could be wrong
but i did’nt like the sound of it
WTF as the kids say these days – Gordon Brown said he was a good guy in the 80’s in miners clubs – what a cheery chappie. Talked bollocks after that – I fear the no campaign should have had Devo max on the ballot – Too late and they cant even explain extra devo as it would contravene Electoral Commission Rules – what a shame – I really feel for them – in my bile
Great – the point to be demanded – where’s the news of when Wings/SNP and or other get their free broadcast…
All parties agreed on a timetable lol. We all know what they think of Broon down south,only he seems to have forgotten. Your proposals will be kicked out by the Tories and English Labour MPs who think we have too much up here in skintland.
Why would we take this rushed smudged option from the back of an envelope when we can have everything that is ours next week with a yes vote?
When I see Scotland sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Senegal on my Internet list of countries, then I’ll believe we are a nation. Scunnered also at the oxygen the bbc has given the No campaign this evening
Got halfway, blah blah, you’ve had years to make it better, too f n late.
Another pathetic attempt to fool the Scottish electorate by giving the impression that we are getting something new.
It has taken them all this time to present a commitment to more power after they refused to put it on the ballot paper in the first place.
Desperate measures from a party that sees its power dwindling away from them and trying to dupe us with the same old nonsense.
Roll on the 18th
Did anyone see the britnat crap on sky news about how we are all gonna vote no because a skinny bird got pregnant again
Ah, but how many of you are still paying your TV licence?
E-mails etc are no good.
Hit the devious conniving bastards in the pocket.
Takes 2 minutes at your bank….cancel the direct debit.
I felt so good after doing it yonks ago.
@Dr Jim
I would not be surprised one little bit if Cameron said that. They have completely lost their self control.
Devo crap
It’s like Monty Python’s cheese shop sketch and Gordon Brown is the shopkeeper.
They’ve taken a long time to write their white paper, so I’m guessing it will be really good with all dragons and explosions and that.
@ Rev Stu
I think you understand just fine 😉
You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people. YES to independence
@Croompenstein
There is indeed a link for the protest against the BBC this Sunday at 2pm at Pacific Quay.
The link is
link to facebook.com
Hope to see you all there for a wee 1 hour break from canvassing. Please bring flags / banners / etc.
Wats a tv licence
Iain Macwhirter has been dropped from Newsnight after being asked what he thought of Gordon Brown’s speech.
link to twitter.com
Well what do you know, the man who sold Britain’s gold off at ROCK BOTTOM PRICES is now standing in front of a pre vetted audience telling them that all the jam in the free world is currently being produced ready for jarring up next year before he personally distributes it after May General Election in 2015!
I have NEVER like this imbecile. As Stu and others have said, why the hell are we being force fed all these LIES now?
I’m thankful there is only 10 days left of this campaign I’m not sure I, or more importantly the T.V. could survive much more than 10 days of all this shite!
Roll on the 19th when YES has won. I can’t wait to see the self same LIARS being interviewed all day being asked the important questions of the day like “Why did you lie to the people of Scotland”, “What are you going to do now that you are out of a job” and “Do you think the people of Scotland can ever trust you and your party ever again?” 😛
Labour opened the door for the bedroom tax,seems to have forgotten that too.
This was gruesome to watch. Did anyone feel like me that it was like a Labour Party Social gathering full of triviality that eventually got around to the referendum. Brown’s short performance due to the others prattling on too long was painful as he paced left and right like a caged Lion. It was like watching a game of Tennis and degraded what he was actually trying to put over. If I was a Labour supporter in the audience, I would have been cringing with my Toes curled in embarrassment. Not Impressed – Hope others feel the same.
Independence is by miles the only option.
The people of scotland wont forget this lot same way we will never forget wat thatcher did to us
Anyone else notice that he seems to have lost his Anglicized accent in that clip? Hamming up the Scottishness in every sense. Why bother? There’s nobody at that thing who isn’t a Labour sycophant…including the BBC folk
Just watched the extended Reporting Scotland on BBC, it was like the Gordon Brown show absolutely incredible amount of attention being paid to this ‘useful idiot’
@Dr Jim
I take it we’ve been added to the ‘axis of evil’ then?
I was given a nazi salute from some bigot as I drove past tonight.
It’s going to be so funny watching their heads implode/explode a week on friday….payback time!
(their heads are already scrambled)
Can we not do another crowdfund and bus them all to the border? Yes…tick tock!
Thanks alistair I think it’s very important for as many of us to turn up as possible on Sunday to show these bastards the contempt they truly deserve
Gordon Brown? Hey, isn’t he a member of the Bilderberg Group?
BBC,hey do they ever report anything on Bilderberg Group meetings? Don’t remember them ever doing so.
link to you.38degrees.org.uk
Ye about as much use as a handbreak on a cannoe
He is not even in power and is not likely to be in the near future.
Cancel your BBC Direct Debits ASAP.
Gordon Brown proposing while we’re filing for divorce. lol
Sit down gordon and eat yer cereal. Its over.
As far as folks in Fife are concerned, well the ones I’ve talked to anyway, there are a great many people in Brown’s constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seriously pissed off with the imbecile and will NEVER vote Labour again. I’m thinking that any chance he has of being re-elected,should he stand for re-election that is, is currently hanging by a very shoogley peg! 😛
Not as if any of us ever doubted that the BBC was a committed member of the NO Campaign but this is disgraceful beyond belief. Does anyone in Scotland have any faith in Gordon Brown is he the best they have got? At least Murphy had the courage to present himself to the public, however effective that was.
Just read about Prof Krugman’s comments that Scotland would be more likely to end up as a Spain without the sunshine but not a Canada. A view apparently revered by Willie Rennie. They just do not get it – whither we end up like Spain or Canada – IT WILL BE OUR SPAIN OR CANADA. YES it will be!!
Extraordinary.
A blatant piece of propaganda, not even disguised, and an attempt to ingratiate the BBC with Labour, the party they see as the next government of the UK.
Dave i stopped paying for the propaganda channel years ago
May he be greeted wherever he goes with signs and badges “Gordon robbed my Gran”
The BBC Labour apparatchiks have now virtually declared for No. I guess they think their futures now depend on a No vote. 10 days to save their pension.
Why doesn’t he take the dog a walk down the beach at Dalgety Bay? oh that’s right it’s as poison as your tongue Broon but then you knew all about it anyway you lying bastirt
Ed Balls has confirmed that there will be no single cross-party manifesto on further devolution to Scotland.
Go to 17:25
link to telegraph.co.uk
We’ve just seen the Labour Party Variety Show – Magician supported by the hidden ventriloquist and miscellaneous dummies.
Brought to you by the BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION.
HAHAHA!
I was briefly and foolishly considering complaining to offcom about this but
link to stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk
Section Five: Due Impartiality and Due Accuracy and Undue Prominence of Views and Opinions
(Relevant legislation includes, in particular, sections 319(2)(c) and (d), 319(8) and section 320 of the Communications Act 2003, and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.)
“This section of the Code does not apply to BBC services funded by the licence fee, which are regulated on these matters by the BBC Trust.”
GAHHHHHHH!
BBC complaints 03700 100 222.
When you wake up on Tuesday morning and you read hot air headlines about ‘more powers if you vote No’ ask yourself, why would I trust a man who, when he actually had power, said that ‘any review into devolution could actually result in the loss of Scotland’s existing powers’ ? and with dave, boris and nigel waiting in the wings…do I feel lucky ? well, do I ? link to journal-online.co.uk
I see Bateman has Broon sussed. But presumably still sharpening his pencil on the state-funded broadcaster.
Judging by his eye stare as he appears to prattle on with pleading hand movements, there doesn’t appear to be more than a couple of rows of people to whom he is talking. The row of people behind him look utterly bored and miserable, hardly reacting in any manner to what he has to say.
Animals that pace to and fro in this unnatural stereotypical manner are usually suffering from some form of psychological problem. If he is trying to exude energy his pacing behaviour is actually more of an irritant to an audience. His body language looks desperate. Can anyone tell I watched with the sound off?
These reps of Scottish Labour have signed their own death warrants.
Lets hop after the ‘Yes’ vote they are punted to the side and let a breath of fresh pro-indy and proper Labour reps in to take the country forward beside and against the SNP, Greens and whatever other parties spring up.
Pacing like a tiger on death row, he’ll maul us and our kids whatever happens if we try to set him free, goodbye, you’ve provided abysmal entertainment gord
I am just so lucky that I found something far more informative to watch than the BBC, Blatant Biased Corporation, broadcast their version of a 5 minute party political broadcast. I watched M.A.S.H. instead and found it far,FAR more informative. 😛
Desperation leads to bizarre and illogical thinking.
I knew Gordon Brown was lying, his lips were moving.
I think you know what I smell. 🙂
The labour party should rename themselves as the lying two faced back stabbing bastards party
I thought the UK coalition was the Liberals and the Tories. Anyone know when Labour joined in?
Regarding the BBC protest this Sunday (2pm, Pacific Quay) then I’m sure a few of you will have heard these but if you haven’t then you must listen to these from Kevin Gore :
Independence Day – (great pub sing along for all you canvassers and surely must be a Wings anthem)
link to youtube.com
Freedom Fighter – for all of us independistas
link to youtube.com
Please come along and join in…
If you can smell what I can smell Cameron then we are obviously smelling the same thing. 😛
link to tinyurl.com
Maybe it’s a labour thing, but it’s got me puzzled. Compare the hand movements of Johann Lamont (i.e. in the clip where she spoke non-stop crap to Gordon Brewer on Newsnight) and Gogsy Broon’s hand movements in the above clip. Why do they both look as if they’re clutching a giant pair of bollocks?
Look, I know that I should be taking this all very seriously…but why was Mr Brown walking around fondling an imaginery pair of breasts? Was this a diversionary tactic to fool us non-cereal serving types into not hearing what he was actually saying?
The BBC have demonstrated a serious error of judgement.
When have they NOT shown such an error of misjudgement Piggy? 😛
Can somebody check but I recollect ‘Devo Max ‘ being kept off the ballot paper because ‘it would be up to the rest of the UK to give Scotland these powers not us’ …this was around the time of the ballot paper and wording being discussed …can somebody go find out as they cant be offering something now they declined then. Im at work and havent got the time as i should be erm …working. Cheers.
“and there we are going to leave him …” pretending to be a Prime Minister pretending to give a shit.
Really annoys me that he is my MP and he never turns up at House of Millionaires/Commons. Used to feel sorry for him as I think a lot did locally. He could of gone with some dignity but this ? Now I wish he would just go away.
is it not the case that any ‘promises’ made by this cabal of of liars and sycophants will have to be put to a westminster vote of 650 mp’s most of whom believe scotland is over-subsidised and actually want to see existing powers reduced, – then the watered down powers legislation will pass through to the unelected lords and ladies of the shires to ‘rubber-stamp’? People should recall Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru on the betrayal of Wales by the very same establishment:”Empower yourselves and the world takes notice”
link to scotsman.com
Gordon Brown in reality mode:
April 2009
Alistair Darling’s budget pledge: ‘we won’t throw a generation on to jobs scrapheap’.
November 2009
Secret Labour plan to axe spending on training for young people.
Graphical overview
Youth unemployment during the NuLabour government.
So I would go further than Stu has previously done… Brown is not only a liar he is a Lying Barstool.
Poor old Gordon Brown, he’s like a punch drunk old boxer who doesn’t know that he’s no longer a contender.
It’s quite sad really because I once gave him credit for modifying the worst of Tony Blair’s and Mandelson’s New Labour neo-con agenda, but all he can do now is spout this kind of claptrap.
It’s time to go Gordon before you embarrass yourself any further.
Loanhead Miners Welfare club is it????
How bloody dare he!!!!
A lot of my family were miners at Loanhead collieries, well that was when we had a mining industry. They would be turning in their graves. They were all true Labour men, my grandad was a shop steward and treasurer of the Loanhead Bowling club. REAL Labour men, not like Brownie.
Is he trying to look like he knows what it was like to be a miner? Did he go down the pits in Fife? No, he was at Edinburgh Uni studying and teaching.
How dare he go to an area that has suffered at the hands of ALL of the NEW politicians, Tory and Labour alike.
I am very angry.
attendance allowance sounds like pocket money school kids
WALOFS
What’s he doing with his hands? It’s creepy.
Haha your whole post is almost exactly what I was thinking, except I was also thinking when will Wee Jimmy Lamont shut-up? That woman can talk about nothing for ages, very embarrassing. However, I think Mr Broon was late because at the same time, Ed Balls was not mincing his words – there are no extra powers. Here we go, London Labour officially unplugging the life support from Scottish Labour
As suspected.
Guarantees worth SFA from Labour beasts.
Propose…
Yeah, right. 😛
Sincerely hope that Salmond and Sturgeon get stuck into this on air time tomorrow. I heard BBC Scotland radio quote Bob Thomson from LFI saying it was not in Brown’s remit to offer anything. This is a labour offering, all to be agreed later with rest of Westminster’s consent. Sound like 1979 mark 2 all over again. Sad thing is that none of the young voters will know anything about 1979.
‘No cross-party manifesto’ on powers for Scotland
link to itv.com
‘There will be no manifesto agreed by all three major political parties on the powers passed to Scottish parliament in the event of a vote against independence, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said.’
As suspected.
Guarantees from Labour beasts mean precisely SFA.
Propose… 😛
I trust Alex and Nicola will have something to say about Brown’s travesty.
That wee wummin that challenged him outside his prime ministerial car was right when she said about him, ‘He’s a lying sh*t’, (or words to that effect).
Gordon Brown bankrupt Britain and then said he “saved the world”. He was full of shit then, he is full of shit now.
We’re all supposed to kneel down and worship this self confessed ‘ex-politician’ who is still coining it in for the Gordon and Sarah foundation.
GB is reanimated complete with phony upturned hand gestures whenever the No camp is in trouble… They genuinely NEED him because the BBCBTUKNOBBERS have to have someone, a go-to guy for crises like these.
I suppose if they don’t have Gordon they have no-one.
What we are watching, ladies and gentlemen, is the monster that is the UK establishment shitting a brick.
The BBC is just the media branch of the monster. Instead of grainy images of crosshairs above a road in Iraq, imagine the crosshairs focused on your sofa from within the TV.
BBC news 24 presently in full “bitter together” mode utter
Disgrace with Douglas Alexander party political broadcast
Following Broon party broadcast given “full exposure “previously.
“Complete panic mode ” from EBC and the Scottish Labour
“Bought and sold brigade”
What’s he doing with his hands? It’s creepy.
Strangling Darling?
@Dex
Check my comment at 9:42.
He did say there were only 50 days left to save the world. I think he meant ‘to save his own credibility’. He failed.
Oh Oh! 10 o clock, now which news channel do I watch for the greatest amount of humour BBC News 24 or SKY News. Oh, choices choices what am I to do? 😛
???
What is going on here? BBC May as well just come out and say they favour the No campaign and let them all say what they want!
This is an absolute fuckin disgrace!!
I feel fuckin sick!!!
Firstly – these milestone dates to push the new powers. St. Andrews day, Burn’s Night – are they taking the piss?
Secondly – forgive me but I’m still trying to figure out the justification for this Labour/ Better Together / No Thanks broadcast. What was the justification?
On the upside – I’m offshore and I can’t belief how far the WBB’s I brought have travelled. Every time I offer one to someone they pull a copy from their back pocket. Each person is reading and passing on. The dozen I had left are going to new homes as people take copies off at crew change
😀
Here it is in a nutshell…
link to i.imgur.com
link to facebook.com
Go and read the section under Abertay University Debate. It will give you a buzz.
Did he really say at 28 seconds that “immediately after the referendum on the 19th september we start the process of new laws”…………………..INDY will be on the 19th dear gordy and you and your ilk will have nought to do with it…….all the power in Scots own hands is the prize not some crumbd offered by a shower who have lied to us for 40 years
This is the night the BBC became an official member of the No campaign. They may as well sign up with the Electoral Commission and be done with it.
We all need to go and protest against the BBC next Sunday!!
I don’t believe this will change too much but some people will buy it!!
An heroic, fire-fighting effort by BT to regroup – sadly for them, things are changing so fast, now, that they cannot hope to keep up. With another devastating poll result out tonight, and people in the street starting to shake their heads in disbelief, panic-stricken BT are in real danger of becoming a complete laughing stock. Scotland is beginning to look forward and BT are being left behind, far behind.
It all seems quite sensible to me. You publish details of your Devo plans well ahead of the 28th August deadline then play it very low key so no one actually scrutinizes them too closely (because they’re sh*te). Then, at the eleventh hour, you get your mates at the BBC to publicize it big time and portray it as a fantastic new offer, a game changer. A few percent of the Yes voters say,”Oh,that’s good I’ll just vote No now” and it’s job done. It all really depends on how stupid Scots are. I have faith.
The BBC have Huw Edwards on the job. They must be worried.
Hope jenkins says tomorrow he has something new to offer and demands the same coverage
i was hoping you would highlight this when i watched it rev
unbelievable and as said before..no attempt to disguise it anymore it is blatant…..looking at the tv schedule channel 4 have a movie on at 12.00 called NO about the referendum in chile in 1988….there going to throw everything at us now but it will backfire..we are too well informed now thanks to sites like this
So Gideon lied on the Andrew Marr show about all the parties coming together to form the timetable.
Balls said today: ‘There will be no manifesto agreed by all three major political parties on the powers passed to Scottish parliament in the event of a vote against independence, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said.’
And today the media lied about Gordon Brown’s timetable coming from all parties.
We then get 45 minutes of BT propaganda on BBC News 24 followed by Gordon Brown’s 5 minute speech on a timetable, a fecking timetable, with the same old powers from Slab that are months old now. It isn’t even newsworthy.
I’m just staggered at today’s shenanigans…
This is a labour play… What are the Tories, lib dems and ukip saying about it. End of BT?
No new powers apart from scot act 2014…just a timetable?
First decent journo will take this apart
Is the BBC now officially campaigning for the No camp.
Absolutely disgraceful. Can they be any more blatantly biased.
Confirm what everyone with an IQ above room temperature knows about the blatant agenda of BBC Scotland – Labour/Unionist toadies.
But as for Brown – he looks and sounds pathetic as if even doesn’t really believe the pish he’s coming out with anymore. The only real reason he and his morally bankrupt army of Jimmy McCholesterols are anti-independence is the one they can never state: “Please I feel like a ‘big man’ at Westminster, please I’m on the Westminster gravy train and I don’t want to get off!”
Gordon Brown is even more pathetic and weird than Blair was – Blair never sold out as he never believed in anything other than Tony Blair. Brown knows he has personally betrayed the socialist tradition in Scotland – he reeks of self-loathing and guilt in every fiber of his being.
Brown radiates discomfort in the way that Blair transmitted ease. Blair’s vacuous charisma compelled attention, even as it induced hatred; but Brown is unbearable to watch. There is a fundamental wrongness about Brown that raises a shudder, a faint disgust. Even the phrase “the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown” sounded odd at the time.
It is always like that for a short period after the departure of a Prime Minister who has been in power for a long time, as you becomes used to the new incumbent being identified with the office, but with Brown, the sense of wrongness is more than a short term effect. There is something inherently wrong about Brown.
Too little and way too late. Independence here we come!
What is that fucking fish thing he does with his mooth, and those hands FFS man
So far we have these front pages from the Independent, the Telegraph and the Guardian. 😛
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
We MUST win this!!
All the Establishment and media against us and now the Yes side hardly getting a word in.
DOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS EVERYONE, LETS MAKE SURE!!!
I have ‘cut and pasted’ this article and sent it as an attachment to my email to BBC advising that after being Undecided for so long, I have now decided at last….to tell them to stick their TV licence where the sun don’t shine
So Gordon, you’ve offered us plans about plans about plans, then only if you’re elected? OK Then… we’ll just vote yes. Tell you what we’ll do things your way next time I want to replace the batteries in my remote control I’ll blindly throw the remote down my hallway then throw the batteries after it and hope they somehow blindly get replaced!
WOW ! BBC 10 O’Clock….What about my healthcare….this is forever….they’re running a No advert on the main night’s News.
Can’t believe this online article from the BBC and the various sub topics.
link to bbc.co.uk
Is this just a Better Together advert. In the middle is the gem that the bank machines are stocking up as apparently we’re all about to withdraw our money (which I suppose also implies we’ve all got less than £500 to withdraw, patronising ar**holes).
Clearly the media is going to crap on us constantly for the next 10 days. We need to do everything we can and more to make sure they do not destroy Scotlands future.
Never trust the Tories – [url=http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/referendum/4216-no-devo-max-says-cameron-even-if-scots-vote-for-it]No Devo-Max says Cameron – even if Scots vote for it
Next week Jimmy Hood MP will be presenting the UK government’s plans for action in the Ukraine. A situation where a backbench opposition MP outlines government policy is kind of weird in a democracy.
Ed Balls – used car salesman – now on Scotland 2014.
Ching! – another Yes vote.
Ching! – another Yes vote.
Ching! – another Yes vote.
Man with no powers offers powers from party with no power to offer any powers.
I think we have just stepped up to the front line now.
There will now commence ten days of solid propaganda from MSM machine, with the BBC leading the charge.
Mind you mounting their horses backwards isn’t a particularity good way to start. 🙂
Ed Balls simply doesn’t understand the word ‘independence’.
Ed Balls?
Would YOU buy a used car from that man Buckie?
SERIOUSLY? 😛
Sorry my last post was done on a phone and i messed it up and cant edit
The unrelenting message to voters must be that it’s a big con trick.
BBC ARE officially for the No campaign.
No pretending now, just straight out and blatent!!
Scotland 2014 FULL of No shite and then.. ‘We will speak to members of the Yes campaign later in the week’. WTF!!
There must be something we can do here. I feel like driving straight to Pacific Quay right now, this is a complete disgrace. Every rule under the sun being broken here.
What we are being offered is more TAX then. We Get TAX deducted at source of earning, pay TAX on almost everything else, if it’s a no vote they WILL slash the Barnet, and then we have to pay MORE TAX to make up for it!!!
Great deal YES?
Na I will just vote YES to independence.
Hmm, looks like the Telegraph can’t make their mind up on their front pages now. 😛
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
Brown should be wearing a straitjacket.Seriously.
It’s quite nice to be mentioned on the News for a change. Taking down the City of London. The panic.
The most unpopular and incompetent politicians in Britain trying to release a gobbly plan to maintain a discredited Union.
84% turnout. NO chance Thanks.
Watching CNN in Angola just now.
Whatsherface Amanpour interviewing Liam Fox. Trotting out all the same old lines. Worldwide propaganda.
Oh now we’re discussing Isis.
For the love of f**k. Now “will the queen be the last queen of Scotland”?
Desperate, desperate stuff by desperate people. How in the name of god can anyone in their right mind believe these people and their stories ten days and thousands of votes already cast before the decisive day. They are scared, Brown was close to having a cardiac arrest here, very scared. Why? Just ask yourself that simple question. Why?
After we are independent the BBC must be the first thing to be fucked out!!
Seriously, how can the BBC get away with this in the official campaign period..?
Surely one of the pro-YES parties is entitled to similar airtime outlining their proposals with a Yes vote?
Brian Wilson and John Redwood on Radio 4.
Wilson (he of the postal charges lie WoS) a bit downbeat saying GB should have spouted earlier, might be too late now. Both extol the virtues of the Union, but I don’t think I heard anything new although I was listening, honest!
Redwood trying to hide his glee, but probably was smiling, fair do’s he’s a tory.
Busy site tonight if I click a link I can’t get back in again for a while.
With all the hand stuff and jerking movements, I think Gordon Brown is twerking à la Mylie Cyrus, to show how up-to-the-minute he is. Could have been worse – he might have done the tango with Margaret Curran.
Alan Cumming just interviewed by a better together activist masquerading as a BBC employee. Totally owned by Alan the smarmy git
Sorry Stu, but the front pages tonight are just absolutely BRILLIANT! 😛
The latest papers to dare have a *ahem* neutral point of view on Scottish independence are the Daily Mail and the Metro. 😀
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
He’s finished, the BBC’s finished. I was down at Asda car wash waiting for three car loads of teenagers washing their cars and they were all shouting and balling about Scotland and all were voting YES. Brown’s a has been failure and they are all in for one very big surprise next week.
apart from all previous m/t statements they have made.
this latest bout of verbal gout is extraordinary! postal votes having already been cast in many cases.
why do these particular vacuous statements need to be made now?
if they were going to give extra powers to holyrood they would just do it after a no vote surely!
no pre-announcement required.
yes, they were after air/media time.
they are in full blown panic and feel that they ought to be saying something, even if it is this BS.
so who does it seek/intend to reassure, no voters for sure (perhaps labour no voters and undecideds) so it is a kind of damage limitation.
they are also trying to say that they are still in charge, have authourity and power, when in fact they are saying they have lost these things, this is like worry beads.
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
@Stevie boy,
How many Wingers are out there ? Lets take a 1 hour break from the canvassing this Sunday and voice our displeasure at the BBC. Better still, how about Rev Stu coming up on Sunday as well and getting an interview from the TV for one last push on the Wbb’s.
Now that would be worth attending….
We could crowd fund his train/plane fare up !
Yee Ha!
It IS Pinky and Perky on the SKY News papers review tonight! 😛
Gordon Brown has raised his head above the parapet taking the lead in support of the Blether Together lot. He is apparently trying the hard sell approach, (similar to that which turned the tide in Quebec). But there is a difference. Gordon is not the strong link they think he is. He has a track record for lying as long as, London Road. Read over my report and circulate the information widely. Gordon Brown should simply go away. The Scot’s cannot be doing with liars.
link to caltonjock.com
Just watched news at ten. It was like they were reporting on a foreign country where it was too dangerous to speak to the inhabitants on the ground.
Oh, more powers in time for Burns Night. Why didn’t you say? Sorry guys, but this is just too tempting, despite the fact Brown has no authority whatever we should go for it as the polls and word on the street are clearly showing Yes are in for a massive defeat.
I’ve also had a proposal from a Nigerian princess who wants to share her wealth with me, all I had to do was send her my bank details. What a great day I’ve had.
Has there been another poll.
Has there been another poll.
Napolean said “never interrupt an opponent while he is making a mistake”. While they are pushing this bollocks they’re not doing any real campaigning. Judging by the Labour No campaign door knocker at the week end, they still haven’t caught up. He could admit the NHS is Scotland is seperate. Claimed he had no idea what TIPP was. Still claimed that the UK received no money from the US to bail out banks, and that Scots would have had to do it all. I did like rubbing his nose in the fact Neville Chambelain Tory proposed the NHS in 1936.
Bitter angry and more than a little threatening Labour door knocker. SO much I’m even more convinced in the YES side.
Just watched the 10pm news on BBC. Hew was very helpful and underlined for us that the new powers were supported by all three main parties although neither he nor his colleagues thought to ask what they were.
We’re up to 11 on the scale.
Broonie reminds me of Baldrick,
“I’ve got a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel”
We know how that ended up!!!
O/T – Hope everybody is wearing their YES badges 24/7 from here on in.
They are great for making conversations start.
This leads to handing over a Wee Blue Book from the little stock you always have in your pocket.
@Calgacus
If they’re offering us something new — they’re breaking the “purdah” electoral law.
If they aren’t, then it’s all a big fat lie.
Smoke and mirrors.
Instead of being overjoyed at the up to date polls,I have spent the night shouting and swearing at the telly ! Christ,another 10 days of this unionist bilge presented as news and debate.
@Calgacus,
I took a supply of wbb’s in my coat pocket to pub over weekend. Amazing how many people want a copy…
Did Gordon have his arms in plaster with a pair of false hands stuck on the end? He was almost as wooden as Ed Miliband the other day. And did he really only have an audience of around two dozen people?
Whatever, I don’t think you’ll find Gordon Brown is the great hitter he used to be. There certainly wasn’t any passion in most of his speech and the blank, disinterested, faces of the audience in the background seemed to reflect that. I had in fact forgotten he had once been Prime Minister, remembering him instead as the Chancellor who boasted Boom and Bust had gone forever and ripped billions from private pension funds. But I noted he is offering a timetable, knowing full well he cannot introduce any new factors into the referendum debate because of the legal implications accepted as part of the Edinburgh Agreement.
I liken his proposals to that of a shop offering to sell someone a lottery ticket (lets say its a really big prize, worth taking a chance on, but the price is very high). However the shop will only give it to you at a time of their own choosing. Additionally, before they can even do that they have to discuss the matter with two other individuals, even though the shop has taken your money. Each claims to have an interest in the ticket and can determine whether or not it ever gets handed over to you. If they decide to keep it, you don’t get your savings back.
I think in that situation any sane person would keep their money and go to another shop. It would have a sign above the door. It would say YES.
Comment from the guardian article. It’s a goody…
I want to decry Dr. Gordon Brown for his damned kiss-arse support of Unionism in the light of his intellectual capacity honed in history. In particular I condemn Dr Brown for dishonouring his education by ignoring the centuries of historical struggle for dignity through self-government in Scotland from the post 1707 riots to the historic vote in 2011.
His response is to promote the jingoist cause of the Union, the emblem of Toryism and right-wing politics in this country. He stands against the history of his own movement; against the pioneers in the labour movement who saw social, economic and national repression as the enemies of justice. He seeks to adopt and espouse a political response that he might have found in the history of his party when Labour sought a compromise on the colonial question.
Dr. Gordon Brown (First Class Honours MA History Edinburgh 1972, PhD History University of Edinburgh 1982) is an amateur economist, professional politician but a genuine academic historian (PhD thesis “The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-1928). So he would recognize that the neo-colonial form of colonial administration (permitting some local participation) was very much part of Labour Party policy in the post-war administration of Attlee. Indeed (Dr. Brown will know the details) the joint London- rule shared with nationals of the colonies would offer the eager colonies devolved petit-Government authority (education, sanitation, health) and even in some cases taxation. But the three- power troika of finance, foreign policy and fundamental change remained with Westminster.
It is a version of this he seeks to offer Scotland now.
Creech Jones a major player in the Labour Government’s decolonization process suggested that granting full responsibility for LOCAL affairs was only right but he did not see this as ‘ involving the elimination of British power’.
In 1952 there was a Foreign Office paper called ‘the problem of nationalism’. In it the FO argued that it was possible to ‘ draw the constructive forces of nationalism to the British side by offering limited political authority in order to minimize the threatened erosion of British power’. Dr Brown would be familiar with the games Whitehall can play in offering new limited powers while retaining real power.
Dr. Brown, et al have conjoined in policy with David Cameron and are now offering the Scottish people an ancient constitutional duality of dynarchy (from the Indian Raj) : the system of joint Governance like a devo-max. London will grant Edinburgh certain additional fiscal /taxation powers to the tune of approximately 40% of revenue. What should we say? “Thanks you massah or thank you sahib”. We are` so grateful.”
Surely the historian Gordon Brown if not his politician-doppleganger must realize that this patronizing political negation of dignity is unworthy of a Scottish scholar never mind a national democrat.
Scotland as a sovereign state is the only honourable course to rid Scotland of its subaltern status within the failed UK. Though Scotland’s relationship with London was never quite colonial, nevertheless this granting of additional powers so gratuitously offered by the Unionist parties reeks of coloniality. History is unforgiving to those who fail to learn from its more pernicious narrative.
Objectively Mr Brown and indeed the rest of the NO campaign are declaring for the continuity of the British Unionist State with all of its historical attempts at monolithic governance in a plural national state. London’s hegemony over Scotland’s future is an anachronism that is unsustainable. Dr Brown should know that; he should be ashamed of himself.
It boils downs succinctly as this:
A “NO” is the starting point to a discussion about giving some powers to Scotland, provided the three warring Westminster parties can actually agree on anything.
A “Yes” vote is the finishing line to securing for the people of Scotland their sovereignty over all powers by enshrining many of them in a written Scottish Constitution.
All that needs to be said.
Stolen from someone else but its a cracker
“Im leaving you”
“Im pregnant”
Oldest trick in the book
Sky paper review. Salmond slippery snake and a fibber, who knew?
I hope there are lots of voters in Scotland watching a few more YES I think.
Bigging up GB, passionate & popular in Scotland, Aye I’ve heard plenty. 🙂
I just don’t understand why anyone would be fobbed off with some vague timetable of limited powers?
Not now. Not when we are so close..
We can simply take ALL the important powers with a yes vote.
Then co-operate with the rest of Britain from a position of strength.
The billboard poster says it all.
Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s hands
Watching this all unfold from Australia. Big feature on ABC news here about the surge towards Yes. Generally, very balanced reporting. Interview with Nicola, followed by another with John (We need to see another poll) Curtice. I know this is a bit O/T, but there was a live announcement on last night’s X Factor show about Kate’s pregnancy. And this in a country which claims it wants to get rid of Betty Battenberg! Back to old Gordy. Surely, as a bankbench MP, he is in no position to promise anything? Also, any proposed new legislation would need final approval from the unelected House of Lords and that could delay things even further. Just had my old neighbour in Musselburgh on the phone to say that the street where I used to live is awash with Yes posters, as is the rest of the Honest Toon. Makes me
want to jump on the first plane to see it all for myself 🙂
O/T – ensure your secure browser connections are not being intercepted.
There has bee some mention of the powers-that-be interfering in the referendum – personally I take these with a pinch of salt – but for some this link may be of interest.
It’s a bit techie, but it describes how to verify that your “secure” HTTPS browser connections are not being intercepted (because they can be, believe it or not!).
link to grc.com
When i see a no thanks stall i ask for the free pens/badges etc
Then go round the corner and put them in the bin
Tomorrow i wont bother going round the corner just bin it in front of them
call me dave says:
Bigging up GB, passionate & popular in Scotland, Aye I’ve heard plenty. 🙂
Aye he certainly is popular CMD. He’s as popular as a case of Mumps/Chickenpox/Measles all rolled into one! 😛
Along with hours of political elder statesmen endlessly droning on in state broadcasts, why doesn’t the British state propaganda service also play hours of equally suicide-inducing martial military music just like every other similar state propaganda service does, such as North Korea, during periods of state emergencies and existential political crises?
Song of General Kim Jong Broon [Subtitles]
link to youtube.com
Incidentally, I am so glad this image is being used on a major billboard campaign.
The mother holding the child’s hand, with the message:
Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s hands
Such a simple, hopeful and positive message.
As campaign posters go, I reckon it is pretty much perfect.
If YES wins, I reckon it will be ranked up there with the famous ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster for effectiveness.
Mr Bateman hitting the GB spot. Read it earlier should have said.
Oh also Lamont ‘lamentable she’s awful’ says Sky paper reviewer.
Glad I’m not a swithering labour voter: Swither yea not! vote YES your are being lied to by err… your labour leaders.
Salmond on STV at the moment with Bernard Ponsonby at the helm, Bernard is like a school bully then smug smiles, shut it and let the man you are asking questions speak!
Anyone else get the feeling they’ve already counted some of the postal ballots and are absolutely bricking it?
Must be massively in favour of YES, which could partly explain the ramping up of unionist airtime.
The last two years has been like ‘Groundhog Day’….same shite, day in, day out.
There is only one question on the ballot paper….why all the media frenzy about devo bollocks!
Fraudster Brown is working wonders here in Fife…more and more saltires and YES banners appearing by the hour!
Anyone watching the Ponce enby on STV trying to catch Alex out?
Nana Smith
‘thanks massah’
Lets end this now. No thanks massah!
YES!!!
Boy, am I just glad I don’t watch the news on any channels or buy papers and also do quite a bit of walking. Supposed to be good for stress.
I personally think that going by some of the comments he may well have turn off a lot of No voters.
All this wall to wall coverage for one side of the debate is going to do is make people very angry and that is the last thing that we want.
If the Electoral Commission do not get involved in this as legally the should, and really stamp their authority, then surely there are some other ogranisations that can and must get involved to ensure fairness for all, as to me the agreed rules of the Edinburgh Agreement, that make The UK so “democratic” are being broken.
Just read the BBC article linked to above. Can anyone explain what this means (“He” refers to Gordon Brown)
“He said: “There never again could be a bedroom tax imposed by Westminster on Scotland because we would give the power to set housing benefit to the Labour people and everyone else who is in the Scottish parliament.”
Is he trying to suggest that in the event of a No vote, even if the Tories are in power at Westminster, power over housing benefit for Scotland will be reserved to Labour?
My brain hurts!
I can’t watch any BBC ‘news’, sorry propaganda reports or I will not make it to the 18th alive.
They sound like they are having a collective mental breakdown.
They’ve been lying to themselves for so long, pushing Rule Brittania flag waving non-sense since Maggie went to war.
The great British this that and the other – it’a a house of cards.
Even the folk this is aimed at -the Labour voter – have probably all swictched off and gone out for a drink.
Alex is one too many for Ponsonby, we’ll see if he sneers at Flipper tomorrow night the way he has sneered at our First Minister tonight
YES Graeme
i dunno how alex salmond kept his cool there that was bang out of order….bernard ponse trying to make a name for himself…asked questions then interupted the answers it was just down right ignorant..the gloves are off
Actually had an mbe/obe holder deliver a no thanks leaflet
through the door which I promptly returned and said no thanks.
Now awaiting the Queen to chap the door.
Some people think its all over it is now.
brown
newsnight
as close to federalism as you can get
.
so not federalism
After a whole day of biased crap on all channels I thought I would listen to the First Minister. Ponsonby – FFS. How rude can he be to the man. An interview on SNP policy is not the referendum. Quoting the Daily Record as a source, interupting, badgering on minutae. I have no idea how Mr Salmond keeps it together.
We really need to complain to electoral commission and the BBC
That way we can have the best of both worlds
I was outside finishing off painting my fence when Broon was on with his jowly slavers. I have more important things to do with my life.
I’ll be out again tomorrow delivering leaflets…for Yes.
You have to wonder what was Ponsonby’s brief tonight. We know he can do a much better, more professional job than that. That was a disgrace.
It’ll be interesting to see how he tackles Darling tomorrow.
Personally I’d love to see the First Minister in one of these interviews stop talking the second he is interrupted. He should then let the ignorant interviewer get their speech over and then he should remain silent. When asked by the interviewer why he has not answered the question he should say that he is waiting for the next interruption and wants to make sure ALL the interruptions are out the way before speaking again! 😛
Hopping mad!
What is the point of that Ponsonby git?
He probably thinks hes being a tough edgy interviewer but to me hes just an ignorant arsehole.
Why ask questions of Alex Salmond then talk over him so nobody can hear the answer. He is as bad as Darling and Lamont.
Bet Darling gets an easy ride when its his turn.
O/T but I cannot believe it. BBC Radio 4 news at 11 says Scottish Banks are storing more cash in case people want to take out more money after the Referendum. What in Gods name are these blithering idiots trying to do!
Just heard the news on Radio Scotland. Wittering on about folk withdrawing their money from the banks in the event of a Yes vote.They should not get a job shoveling shite after Scotland gains her freedom, not any of the Quisling shower.
THE BBC COMPLAINTS LINE IS 03701100222
Ponsonby behaved like a complete arse. We see the media for all its glory now.
Many of us will never forget ….or forgive
Broon and his anti Scottish troughers are all bred from the same men who sold our country down the swanny in 1707. The same stinking genetic pool.
ponse asked alex salmond…if its a tight decision for a no vote will he let it lie for another generation…aye thatll be right….they just cant seem to get it into there heads that alex salmond and the snp will do whatever the scottish people want(within reason)..as any party voted in by the scottish people should…whats hard to understand here..its not up to the snp..its not about the snp FFS
Ponsonby was just awful, yet the First Minister kept it together and won that debate. To cap it all off Ponsonby says “and now the news and sport in your area”.
I am now watching highlights of the England (not my area Ponsonby) game shown earlier live on STV.
Yet yesterday in our own country not a single station showed Scotland playing the World Champions!
We are no more to them than the shite on their shoe.
Alan Cumming delivered quite the smack down on Scotland 2014. Worth seeing again.
Here’s the latest round of newspaper front pages folks the Times, Scottish Daily Mail, Scotsman and the Daily Record. 😛
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
link to i.imgur.com
Don’t forget the Daily Record doing it’s version of the SUN’s “it woz the SUN wot won it” type of front page! 😛
link to i.imgur.com
Douglas Alexander
quotes stock markets today,as future of Scotland
what a tool
Here’s a thought, has there been any other European country playing these last two days that did not get to see live their own team play on terrestrial TV OTHER THAN Scotland?
Wee Dougie looks like he’s going to be shot at dawn!,mabye caused by all these sharp objects sticking out of his back :).
I used to think David Torrance was a prat, now I know he is.
The fear hasn’t worked, so up the rhetoric to threats.
Yeah, that’ll work. Fucking halfwits.
totally agree thepnr alex salmond was brilliant
and speaking about england games on the tv remember the european championships were held in england…the opening ceremony had 16 skydivers parachuting into wembley each 1 with a flag representing the 16 countries participating
every flag was cheered including the german flag…but when the scottish flag came down it was booed and jeered
but now its ok they love us really….ive been told many times i was loved…all by gold diggers…would they love us as much if we didnt have 90% of britains oil and gas
It’s not Scotland’s stockmarket thats allegedly faltering and to believe UKOKBTNOTHANKERS it’s not our pound thats taking a pounding, so why the “look at your future doom and gloom you will lose loads of money”
Once again the Naysayers show their true colours and it’s all about “Whats in it for me me me?”
Utterly contemptible. 😡
Ponsonby. The clue is in the name.
I watched a different BBC programme this evening from the topic’s subject – a documentary look at ‘Great British Abstract Artists’ – not a single one Scottish.
No surprise there.
The ubiquitous ‘British’ tossed in to keep Scots happy.
Thepnr if you want to watch ANY sport try using wiziwig. They had the Scotland game live. 😉
link to wiziwig.tv
Desperation. Is Ed auditioning for strictly…
link to telegraph.co.uk
@Lesley-Anne 10:09
On the bottom left of that Telegraph front cover is a piece about the “Proms” entitled “Rally For The Union”
The last night of the Proms 2014 (13th September, just days before our referendum) ends with Plymouth Hoe, Rule Britannia, Land of hope and glory, Jerusalem, then finally the National Anthem!
“THEY” are actually advertising this concert as The Rally For The Union.
“THEY” being the BBC!
Have looked on WIKI but am sure BBC finance the Proms.
Exactly how impartial is this and is it not against the rules.
Na! Probably not….after all, it IS the State broadcaster!
Gets more blatent by the minute!
Oomph!
Even the Herald is having a dig at the NO Camp it seems. 😛
link to i.imgur.com
Oh how I wish ma wife would let me cancel the license fee.
Haven’t watched any of it tonight but blood pressure through the roof.
The gloves are off alright. Let’s knock these bastards out on the 18th.
Panicking Unionists on all channels.
What can I say Andy other what utter SHITE pouring out of the BBC!
If you want to know what Brown used to think about more powers for Scotland, and his support for independence, read:
Gordon the Hapless grousebeater.wordpress
Who told the London media luvvies that Broon has credibility and currency in Scotland?
A big hitter? Aye, of coffee tables and mobiles off walls.
From tombee
Mr Ponsonby a bit over the top when interviewing the FI tonight. It would have been nice to hear all of FM answers. I thought he did well to keep his cool while Ponsonby acted like his name suggests.
Oops!
According to Pinky and Perky Brown is the BIGGEST hitter in the Scottish jungle. I think they must have been hitting the bottle a wee bit too hard earlier on. 😛
WOW!
Kevin Maguire has picked up on the difference between YES and NO. YES full of happy smiling, laughing people enjoying life. NO camp full of folks who are DOUR! Says it all really. 😛
Gordon Brown is a liar, don’t take my word for it,
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Who told the London media luvvies Broon has credibility and currency in Scotland?
Exactly. A failed and discredited politician.
It is the supreme irony. Tory Chancellor George Osborne, chose Gordon Brown to announce measures which he hopes will convince Scots to vote against independence.
In 1997 Gordon Brown raided pension schemes, costing savers £100 billion, a sum equal to the entire annual economic output of Ireland, or 50 years of Tesco’s annual profits at £2bn a year.
Osborne said then: ‘His pension raid was one of his first and worst acts as Chancellor. Pensioners will be paying a heavy price for many, many years to come.’
What has changed his mind? PANIC!!
O.M.G!
Andrew Pierce calling for Labour party in Scotland to carry the can for NO losing this referendum. 😛
@bjsalba, they will cause a run on the banks if they persist with that.
They do not care what damage they do to retain the ‘union’.
Whatever happens now the union is not only dead but it will be a laughing stock around the world.
Just think they could have handled this so much better – it just goes to show we are run by an elite who have no brains, nothing, nada.
Just think they could have handled this so much better – it just goes to show we are run by an elite who have no brains, nothing, nada.
Wow Liz, I didn’t realise they had THAT much. 😛
The audience sitting around the wafting Brown look like penguins waiting for their keeper to toss them a fish.
@Graeme Doig – same here except it’s the hubby that wont cancel the license fee- we have only 10 more days to go.
Even the most die hard No must be holding their heads in disbelief.
BBC Papers
News Anchor “Why would the Telegraph put “Queen urged to intervene, she isn’t allowed”
Guests “Because she’s being urged”
News Anchor “By Who?”
Guests together “errrrr”
Male Guest “The Telegraph”
ROFL
Not as good as Penny & friend but they gave it a good go there
Who is this utter clown on BBC2 – a Scot in USA called Neil Ferguson? He hates Scotland with a passion – what a prick
Every time I see Brown, I seem to smell formaldehyde and putrefaction.
Niall Ferguson sorry
@Scotspine
And his critics are much harsher!
Let’s not underestime the pressure being put on Osborne by the markets. If sterling continues to drop, they will demand something be done
The UK cannot afford to be seen to raise interest rates under pressure. If the flow becomes serious, the Treasury will simply have to put out a reassuring statement IN CONJUNCTION WITH the Scottish government. They will call it what they damned well want – a Currency Stability pact is my favourite, but even if it is just a form of words, it will be a tacit recognition that the Scottish electorate has them by the balls….
Hold onto your hats, guys – the £ is likely in for a rougher ride than we have seen for a long time. We’ll get the public blame, no doubt, and this may not be the best time to buy that Autumn break abroad. But, make no mistake, the City will know where the real blame lies – and it ain’t with us.
test
BBC protest Sunday 14th September 2pm-4pm.. we need to go, a massive attendance has to be recognised some way.
.. I need to stop watching tv full stop.. can’t take anymore of it!! What utter shite.
Hurry up SBS!!
OT but not long before these numpties are in the dustbin of history – link to youtube.com
I’m beginning to get curious at how much the UK Government would trash a section of the economy to achieve the goal of getting people to vote no
A kind of Carrot and stick
The Carrot (believe it or not) would be Brown riding to the fore with the proposals
The Stick, is a fire sale on sterling and banks, particularly Scottish ‘based’ ones. To add to the mix, put out a rumour that people are removing or transferring funds from Scotland to England
I would not put it passed them to get really nasty
They assess the risk as worth it.
They are using all tame journalists on this.
Its time to man up and face these bastards down for the next 9 days
Just sent the BBC a huge complaint about tonight’s coverage. Utterly disgraceful!!!
Dragging Brown in to sell the incomprehensible trash that the Red Paper became after all the vested interests had their say seems harsh…but he is an ex-politician so there is no career to harm I guess.
@Arabs for Independence says:
Who is this utter clown on BBC2 – a Scot in USA called Naill Ferguson? He hates Scotland with a passion – what a prick
Nice to see Tom Devine put Naill in his place good and proper.
However the BBC were scraping a pretty dirty barrel, deliberately insinuating anti-Englishness, with Tom Devine again crying foul.
@ bjsalba
Be fair: of course we will take out more money if the vote is yes. How else will we pay for the parties?
Bernard Ponsontwat giving Alex Salmond a hard time about SNP policies tonight until AS had to remind him to shut the fuck up as this is about a referendum and not an election.
He is interviewing Alistair Darling tomorrow night.. do u think he will be as tough on him?!?
@kininvie
All the politicians on both sides along with a great many of the Scottish electorate knew this. rUK BOP deficit is so dire now but without Scottish oil it is doomed.
Most of Scotland’s oil already goes to England that would be a £40b a year import, ignoring all OUR exports through English ports. The UK economy is in really bad shape.
Scotland’s is not. Vote Yes and put the shoe on the other foot.
Anybody here just watched Niall Ferguson’s extraordinary performance on Newsnight? He is insane!
Fiona says:
Be fair: of course we will take out more money if the vote is yes. How else will we pay for the parties?
I think this is a good place to start. 😉
link to tinyurl.com
…and all of this will have to pass through the lords and the commons, in a general election year, under the pressure of a right wing agenda in both the press and Westminster…
Brown, Labour and ‘New’ Powers – grousebeater.wordpress
Anyone believe tonight’s TNS poll?
23% undecided (my arse)
Every other poll shows around 8% to 10% undecided.
Very dodgy!!!
Possibly one of the most annoying people on tv.
Liam Fox interviewed by Amanpour tonight on CNN.
CNN scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Interesting to see his response to being asked if Cameron should resign after a YES vote.
link to amanpour.blogs.cnn.com
The critical point with all this is that we must stay alert to the threat that some rather gullible people might just be taken in by all this. We know that what Brown is saying is pretty well content free and the only point of any substance is that they have now announced a timetable that doesn’t make much sense. But with the connivance of the BBC (hence the big splash tonight) and the other media, this can be portrayed as a significant development. To all wavering voters and soft Nos, we must stress:
1. There is no new development here. It is just recycled Devo-nano.
2. There is no guarantee. The pro-union parties could easily arrange a convenient falling out which thwarted the timetable.
3. It’s not what most people want anyway – it’s the lowest common denominator of the three sets of proposals.
4 Devolution is by definition a fudge. Even the current version begs the questions “if devolution is a good thing, then why don’t we just have all powers which must be better?” Also “Why is it a good thing to retain some powers at Westminster?”
5 Perhaps most importantly, we need to stress to people that Westminster could, and might, reclaim any powers on a whim. There is nothing permanent about devolution.
These points need to be driven home as forcibly as we can in the remaining days. Remember, the Canadian government did exactly what BTNT are trying to do in the last Quebec referendum and they managed to swing the vote back to a No even although polls a few days before showed a Yes.
We must not make the mistake of underestimating our enemy’s cunning
In support of my previous comment at 11.50pm
Nomura telling clients to reduce exposure to sterling.
link to telegraph.co.uk
The picture and caption suggest Scotland will suffer. Well, maybe – but we know who would suffer more.
If even a 50-50 poll creates this kind of shitstorm in the markets, imagine what a Yes win might do. Osborne has 10 days to say ‘OK, pax’ to the Scottish govt.
He may not know it makes sense – but other, very powerful, people do.
We must not make the mistake of underestimating our enemy’s cunning
or desperation
For goodness sake, just vote YES, then we get EVERYTHING, all powers, the whole shooting match. And if and when it makes sense we might _choose_ to share some back with the rUK, given suitable terms. With NO we get NOTHING guaranteed, even the powers that Holyrood currently has could be taken back anytime it suits Westminster, such is the nature of devolution. We all know damn well that whatever they offer now, they will backpedal on, water down, render un-usable or more than likely simply wriggle out of later. Please tell me that no one is going to be taken in by this load of pish.
Edward 11.54
“I’m beginning to get curious at how much the UK Government would trash a section of the economy to achieve the goal of getting people to vote no”
Agree with Edward entirely. Why would anyone feel the need to move capital out of Scotland right now.
Must check my shoes. Strong whiff of shite.
HandandShrimp
And a desperate, cornered animal is extremely dangerous.
O/T but convinced another two undecided voters to Yes today. We’re siding towards it and just needed the final wee push.
I live in Cumbernauld and travel through to Paisley and Johnstone a lot. Almost everyone I speak with is a Yes supporter and I have noticed there are more and more cars and house windows with Yes posters/ stickers on them.
If No still win this then there has to be something very very wrong going on.. don’t even want to think about that tho.. keep working away at people.
LA,
yep, that should cover a round or two!
Of course they are filling all the cash machines, I bet they do for Hogmanay as well. Anticipate demand. It’s what banks do and usually pretty well.
I remember Hogmanay in the Netherlands when the euro came in. The coins could be bought in advance but not the notes. Only half the cash machines were switched on and after midnight the other half came on instead issuing euros and there were queues. In the morning people were withdrawing one of each note, our supermarket stopped doing cashbacks by 10.00am as they were running out of money. The country was awash with banknotes, far more than normal but there was no problem, the banks had anticipated that people would do just that.
Watched the Tessa Jowell “insurgent” mince on i-player. Blair Jenkins was excellent, putting the “inquisitor” in her place when she tried to talk over him.
Jowell and a Tory woman MP (Cheryl something) were total Westminster bubble material. Clueless as to what is going on in Scotland, but happy to spout pish about the situation anyway. Ming Campbell looked a bit desperate: the BT scarey stories aren’t working.
He did say something that was of interest though, as he was dissing the concept of a currency union. He was well down on the possibility of having such a union where one entity wanted to have the power to set it’s own taxation levels, borrowing and interest rates. Unless I have picked it up wrong (and I may have, as I couldn’t bring myself to listen to Brown), “Devo-nano” does allow the setting of tax and at least increased borrowing powers. That only leaves interest rates untouched from Ming’s troika of powers that should never be separated. Seems to me to undermine his argument against a CU somewhat.
@TD
But the desperate cornered animal has the escape route of agreeing to the common-sense proposals of the White paper.
It will snarl and attempt to bite, but in the end it has no choice. That’s the sheer beauty of the Yes strategy’s end game.
The pressure is not on rUK from Scotland – no, it’s everyone else who will be screaming for a solution. And since the UK has refused to pre-negotiate (stupid twats)they find themselves playing an increasingly high-risk game for which the markets will punish them.
Gordon Brown campaigning is where the Yes vote is getting support from the undecided, Milliband and Cameron are coming up, happy days.
All the papers seem to be doing the ‘will the new royal pregnancy swing it for the union’ line.
Can they really think that reports of one woman’s morning sickness will change the way we vote. It truly is cloud-cuckoo land down London-bubble way.
@Stevie boy
Funnily enough I can believe there are 23% undecided. At least those who are answering a face to face poll with a stranger which is what TNS does.
Panalbase, Survation and You Gov are all online, and to be able to take part you have to have signed up in the first place. How representative of the general population do you think those that sign up to take part in online polls are.
Not very I would suggest. Try asking 10 strangers yourself, at least 2 will likely say “undecided”. For the evidence just look at the RIC canvesing results, Yes around 60% typically, No 10% and undecided 20%. These are in the schemes though and not representative of the entire population.
I love Stu’s last tweet,
‘Over 350,000. Kicked the old pageviews record’s ARSE.’
LOL that should be undecided 30%.
kininvie says:
The pressure is not on rUK from Scotland – no, it’s everyone else who will be screaming for a solution. And since the UK has refused to pre-negotiate (stupid twats)they find themselves playing an increasingly high-risk game for which the markets will punish them.
The thing is Kininvie that if they fail to agree to CU before 18th then they have just handed Alex Salmond a ton of more pressure points to use against them. In my view he has played this whole referendum game expertly and the Westminster gang of incompetent imbeciles have been left standing at the starting line. 😀
If the Westminster gang of imbeciles thought they were going to have a easy ride then they are in for one hell of a shock after 18th when Alex Salmond starts to ramp up the pressure on one side and the markets continue to ramp up the pressure on the other side. 😛
Imagine sense breaks out and WM agree to a CU pre 18th.
Considering how it would be spun as WM forced to agree CU to stop nasty salmond ruining the economy with all this nasty democratic indy stuff, how should Yes play such a thing ?
Make them sweat for a week ?
Tell them there can be no ‘pre negotiation’ on CU ?
Announce the Scottish Bawbee pegged to any currency except the crumbling pound ?
Demand the resignation of Osbourne Balls and Fanny Alexander with immediate effect ?
Demand that BBC withdraw from any further referendum coverage ?
Demand that Alistair Darling comes to the PQ meeting and in the middle of the crowd, he shoves his head up his own arse ?
Feel free to add your own suggestions !
Who said this in November last year?
“Sterling isn’t the safe bet it used to be.
If you want to make some money, short Sterling for:
19 September 2014;
Scottish Independence day 2016;
and if the Tories win the rUK election in 2015, sell all the Sterling you own before 2017.”
Can I make a slight amendment to one of your suggestions geeo?
Instead of demanding the BBC withdraw from any further referendum coverage just demand straight up that the BBC leave Scotland with immediate effect! 😛
Lesley Anne / Kininvie
I agree – Salmond and the Yes campaign are playing a clever game and I think the tactics will work. I think the Westminster bubble people are feeling the heat far more than Salmond is.
My only concern is that we don’t become complacent. Just because our opponents are being stupid doesn’t mean that they can’t draw blood. Quebec lost the 1995 referendum in part because the Canadian government used the same tactics that Brown et al are trying now. In fact it is highly likely that BTNT have been taking advice from Canadians involved on the government side at that time.
We need to be prepared to meet the Devo whatever tactic head on and explain to people why it is a crock of s**t.
I understand you fear about complacency TD but I have every confidence that everyone who is currently working for a YES victory is not complacent. I know there are times, and I’m probably one of the worst culprits here, where we may put up posts that on the face of it appear to be slightly complacent.
In my view, whenever we appear to be complacent it is only because we have been under the media cosh since day 1 concerning the polls. Now that we have two polls back to back showing YES ahead I think it is more a case of relief that we are finally seeing a lead for our side. I also agree with what James Mathews said on SKY news yesterday, momentum breeds momentum. We have ALL the momentum for a wee while now and with 10 days to go we are definitively in the driving seat with the finishing line in sight. We are NOT going to lose. For too long we have all been wanting this. No one is going to ease up now having waiting all our lives for what is only around 16 months away. 😛
@TD.
Good points.
They are trying to spin it as a major concession on more powers.
There is NOTHING new.
It is the promise of a ‘timetable’ for the minimal powers on income tax already promised.
The danger is that all this publicity makes it seem like something new..
It’s actually pathetic.
You would think the Southern parties would actually be serious about offering some sort of compromise option..
It shows they still expect the Scots to bottle it.
@TD I’ve never been quite sure WHY Quebec lost – can you explain? I’ve heard it was love-bombing.
But I’m clear about one thing: SNP spoke extensively to the PQ long before the Yes campaign was a force on its own. So if anyone knows about the tactics used (and how to counter them) they do.
@ Nana Smith
Thank you for that critique of Dr Gordon Brown and the colonialist mind- set of Westminster politicians. Very enlightening!
o/t can someone who knows about these things say who was the last monarch to actually be crowned King/Queen of Scots i. e. actually had the Honours of Scotland presented to them and had the crown placed on their head?
I’ve been lying to my wife for 40 years about how much money I earn.
It enables me to give her less.
I recently won quite a bit of money on the Lottery,
but I’ve decided to keep it a secret from my wife,
after all what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her
and she’s been used to living on what she gets for a long time now.
It might upset her to know how much money I really have
and I’d rather not create any trouble.
Actually, she’s a simple soul and she’s probably better off not having more to spend.
I like having plenty of money to spend as I please.
Our marriage has been a good one, though I have to admit,
I am the boss. My wife seems to like it that way.
She’d never leave me or anything. She’d be too scared.
She’d never manage on her own.
Honey, I’m home.
Honey ? Are you there ? Honey ?
Oh my God, she’s gone.
I can’t believe it!
@manandboy
Nice anology, that really did make me LOL.
Kininvie / Lesley Anne
I’m not an expert on the Quebec referendum. All I know is that a few days before the vote, Yes were in the lead – just. The Canadian government made promises of guess what – more powers! Then the actual result was a narrow win for No. I am therefore a little nervous when people dismiss the BTNT tactics. They might be cack-handed, but that doesn’t mean that it will have no impact. We just need to counter them by making the logical arguments for Yes and showing why the Devo proposals don’t give us what we need.
I hope I am being unnecessarily cautious here and believe me, there is nothing I would like more than to start the Yes celebrations now. But I think instead we need to keep driving the positive message for independence home. We must not let up for one moment.
There is no harm in being cautious TD, it just makes you work that wee bit harder for what you want, in my view. I think we are all a tad nervous as well, and we will remain so until we see that magic 50%+1 figure on 19th. 😛
Regarding Quebec.
Yes the tactics by the No camp in 1995 are almost exactly a repeat of then. Scots are not Quebecois though, we are a Nation with 1000’s of years of history that we can be prould of.
I do include the 307 years of the Union in that to. However, 307 years is a relatively short period of time in the overall scheme of things and the last 35 years or so have been dire.
We haven’t changed that much, those that govern us have. We all know now that the Emperor is naked and your never going to put that genie back in the bottle.
TD those currently doing what they can will work harder, those just waking up will also. Using the same tactics that were used against the Quebecois for the Scottish Nation was a mistake.
Thepnr
I think you are right – as long as we keep going for another 9 days and as long as we attack the Devo proposals, exposing them for what they are – nothing.
Or at least – nothing that we want.
Good little video posted on newsnetscotland about secret and illegal annexation of Scottish water(the bit containing the oilfields) in 1999 by tony blair and donald dewar.
I think most of us already know this but the short video explains it very clearly.(younger voters probably aren’t aware of it)
Trust them this time?
Don’t think so!
Brown keeping to miner club and OAP haunts. Sunday was where the 80+ year old widow/ers are strictly housed. Merely a planned stunt. Brown trying to save Cameron from getting the sack.
The ridiculous arguments against an independent Scotland are so credibility destroying even the devil would not play advocate.
So the Edinburgh agreement was signed on the 15th October 2012 and The Scottish Parliaments white paper on independence was published just over 13 months later on the 27th November 2013.
The mainstream Westminster parties (with Gordon Brown as their spokes person) say they will have their white paper on Scotland’s future by January 2015… A little late for the referendum on the 18th November 2014. I mean was 25 months not enough time? What is taking them so long?
My apologies if someone has previously mentioned this.
If I was a No Thanks and, if I believed that they would implement the new powers offered but I didn’t want any changes to how the Scottish Parliament currently operates, how would I vote?
I am sure there are many no voters who like the status quo. Are they not being disenfranchised?
The question is; Should Scotland be an independent country?
Nothing else!
Blair McDougal Tripe dresser.Well he looks like he enjoys steaming tripe.Certainly talks a lot of offall. I think he should go back to his first love Rangers,Orange order and he queens 11.
Manandboy
Honey, I’m home.
Honey ? Are you there ? Honey ?
Oh my God, she’s gone.
I can’t believe it!”
Woohahahahahahaha good one.
Murtam says
“can someone who knows about these things say who was the last monarch to actually be crowned King/Queen of Scots i. e. actually had the Honours of Scotland presented to them and had the crown placed on their head?”
Queen Anne?
Apologies if this has already been answered but didn’t Jola tell the NE England politicians that there would be no more money for Scotland? I just can’t get my head around how it would ever be possible to get the parliament to agree to this never mind get it through the House of Lords unscathed.
It can’t even be guaranteed as subsequent parliaments would be free to remove any bits that didn’t suit.
Just listened to Jim Naughtie acting as Scottish correspondent to Today on R4. They did a vox-pop on ‘ordinary punters’ leaving the loanhead meeting. Except a couple of them revealed they had been out canvassing for BT, whoops. Another invited BT only audience then. Naughtie also very naughtily didn’t quite say the ‘new’ powers were devo max but did point out they weren’t on the ballot so hinting they were devo max.
All this has done to this Yes activist is rehearse my line with wavering Labour voters on the doorstep tonight and fire my determination even more.
TNS with their usual enormous DK’s (they confuse people) has us tied at 50% with DK’s removed. That is two No-friendly pollsters measuring a big swing to Yes. Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring! Don’t Panic!
Let’s boil this all down. NO are offering us the ability to raise taxes to make up for austerity cuts; no powers to fundamentally mobilise our economy; no oil revenues to the Edinburgh Exchequer; no removal of Trident; continuation of immoral and hate generating foreign policies etc etc………well they can just piss off. Devo max is not on the ballot paper….never was……this is simply panic in the realisation that we are on our way.
‘We will integrate health and social care’ – already happening under Scottish Govt legislation Mr Brown. What a self important, ignorant twat.
Think he’s mixing this up with a general election campaign.
A day that will be dominated by the contrived “timetable” and “new powers”. Gives all the NO parties a chance to swallow air time. I am sure Gordon said there will be a “consultation with the Scottish people” oh and that lasts about a month. A month? Eat your cereal, get to the back of the bus and shut up!
Hundreds of thousands of Postal Votes have been registered and sent, but it could be, that all these eejit votes have now been NULLIFIED.
New proposals AFTER the cut-off date of Sept 2nd have got to be Illegal and versus all the Electoral Commission Rules. but don`t haud yer breath WAITING for the EC to force compliance with their own rules.
SLAB VOTERS CAN NOW CAUSE CHAOS by insisting that they want, demand, a new ballot paper – because the game has been changed.
Vote Rigging – by the back-door.
ZERO CLARIFICATION – FROM ANYONE.?
Rev Stuart Campbell – can you clarify or seek clarification from EC because their system is conveniently Deaf to questions.
David
Your are also forgetting that UK doesn’t have a written constitution and as such Westminster can give but equally can take away. The key word is PROPOSAL and proposals can be vote against in the Commons. Also I agree with you that the proposals as they stand will make things more difficult for Scotland as your taxes will be diverted to Westminster and it would be in Westminster that the Scotland’s budged would be approved. Thus, the more you increase your taxes in order to make for the shortfall the more you would be scaring investment away.
I live in London and we are already suffering cuts, yesterday was the first day of term for my son and his lessons have been cut by 25% because of cuts in the budged. Further more the A&E of our local hospital is already closed. I would invite people to visit the website of Andy Slaugther Labour MP and read what is going on down south, because Darling is not telling you the truth. The NHS is not safe on their hands, neither is education.Blair a Labour prime minister took us to war telling us scary stories of WMD that we now know were not true. Labour politicians are following the same tactics in Scotland they are using fear.
As a socialist if I was resident in Scotland I doubt I would be voting for the SNP in an independent Scotland, traditional Labour voters have to see that voting for independent is good for them, that is their chance of taking their party back from the Blairites. Jim Sillars says as much himself and old Labour man now in the SNP but looking forward to go back to his Labour roots. Please encourage labour voters that are undecided or thinking in voting yes to check the web sites of Labour MP’s in England and they would see a different picture from the one Darling and Brown are painting.
Sorry I mean undecided or thinking in voting “NO” voting YES to independent is the only same option in view of how things are going down south. I am aware that if you gain independence things would be worse for us in old England, I would be not surprise with an increase on the rate of interest that would affect my mortgage and off course further cuts. I envy you in a healthy way, you have the change to make things better for Scotland you are not selfish just intelligent pragmatist who want what is best for you. Your example should guide the rest of us. Good luck, on the 19th I look forward to celebrate your independence
For heavens sake ignore the troughers from Westminster. All they are concerned with is saving their cash cow. Just vote Yes on the 18th sept. And be rid of the lot of them.
Have you read or seen the video about Blair and Dewar theft of Scottish waters ?. IT TELLS YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THOSE AT WESTMINSTER.
A Timetable?…a Timetable?…at least Mussolini actually got a train to run on time rather than just promise a timetable!
I just complained to BBC – it only takes about half an hour to do it online!!
your online complaint system is really easy to use….. after answering a pile of questions including the exact time, date, channel and name of program, I then get asked if the complaint is in reference to 2 completely unrelated things. Anyway… Why did Labour get 50 minutes of uninterrupted air time on BBC news? In addition to being clearly bias, the content did not warrant 5 minutes, never mind 50. There was absolutely no news in this feature. I understand BBC is under increasing pressure to help as much as they can but this is at best an amateurish attempt to do so. Given the world wide issues such as war, environment, disease and poverty, you are guilty of putting the lives of people affected by these issues behind the rantings of some irrelevant Labour back-bencher. You should be ashamed of yourselves and your news “Editor” should resign.
Once again, SLAB scab MP`s who hold zero power are pleading with their sheep to vote for proposals that are NOT ON THE BALLOT PAPER.?
Most SLAB VOTERS, it would appear, are only too willing to comply with a LIE.
Devo-Max Plus was rejected by ALL the Unionist Political Parties over two years ago, but in blind insane PANIC – SLAB,Tories,Ukip and FibDems are in the process of performing the Miracle of Lazarus – by raising a dead issue that they wilfully buried years ago.?
FFS.
At this moment, and in recent years, ALL the Unionist MP`s and Lords are Arming Cyprus with our Military Assets – to murder thousands (AGAIN) in Iraq and Syria to force Democratic Representation over there – whilst RIGGING the Democratic Process in Scotland.?
RAF Leuchars Closes in Dec 2014.
Only RAF lOSSIEMOUTH will be in Scotland.
Two British Army Bases and our RAF Base on the EU Nation State of Cyprus which is EXEMPT from MOD Cuts.?
Scots pay tax, and VOTE to mug ourselves.
If Yes vote appears to be holding, the BBC will convert to a 24 hour NO agenda and no surprise there.
Now that the London media have picked up on this we are having to rewind the debate to go over old ground again. Just listen to Morning Call on Radio Scotland.
We need to push the line that Westminster refusal to have currency union is affecting the market.
why does this site hate me??? 🙁
Comment on this “offer” here
link to thosebigwords.forumcommunity.net
JOBS NUMBERS.
On the EU Nation State of Cyprus (120 miles from SYRIA) OUR British MOD CURRENTLY EMPLOYS more than 8,000 Civilian Cypriots who are employed by Westminster to “Service”, feed, water etc TWO British Army Bases and an RAF Base on Cyprus.
Our taxes Fund over 8,000 Civilian Cypriot Jobs on “British Sovereign Base Areas” on this foreign EU Nation STATE of Cyprus.
Those Civilian Cypriots who took RETIREMENT – are also dependent upon Westminster MOD Pensions (our tax) and there is no problem Paying their MOD Pensions in EUROS.
Cyprus opposes Independence for Scotland. D`oh.
But RAF Leuchars in Fife, next door to Krash Gordon`s Constituency, is being CLOSED in Dec – this year.
Krash and Flipper and Skeletor stridently REFUSE to PROTECT Scottish jobs – once again.
Chocolate Fireguards who did zero – when they held Power – now make more fake promises – KNOWING – they cannot Deliver. !!
Krash supplies his “DODGY DOSSIER” for the EMANCIPATION of Scots in Sept 2014.
The EMANCIPATION Process has so far supplied 7 per cent Powers from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament.
Next year Westminster has agreed to supply LESS than 9 per cent powers to the Holyrood Parliament.
AT some undetermined date – AFTER – Scots do exactly what 600 x foreign MP`s tell us to do, their discriminatory version of Scottish EMANCIPATION will cede maybe 10 per cent power to the Scottish Parliament.?
Who wouldn`t BUY this new “DODGY DOSSIER”.?
Another “DODGY DOSSIER” on EMANCIPATION for Scots – FROM the exact same Muppets whose historic fiction took us into their Illegal War in Iraq in 2003.?
When they bought their own fiction – WHY would any Scot VOTE FOR a vague promise of only 10 per cent of Emancipation.?
Who votes for 10 per cent of FREEDOM.
Fascinating telly; on one channel was a program about an ancient wreck with which some were trying to figure out how it works.
On another channel, was a program about a medieval boat built near Dover.
Listening to the BBC Radio discussions this a.m. with Douglas Alexander and Blair Jenkins, I was disappointed that no one mentioned that the Labour offer on more powers was the worst offer among the three parties. That Lamont had been going to offer more, but the big beasts from Labour in Westminster put the kybosh on that. That would have emphasised how unreliable this offer is.
If there are discussions among the three parties, like Alexander is claiming, it will be no different to what has gone before, i.e. There will be still be internal Labour Party bickering and strife about what should be agreed, they then have to talk to the Tories and the LibDems who will want to impose their own preferences. I cannot see anything but trouble ahead for the whole process.
The worst aspect is that they are not going to deliver this ‘final solution’ before the referendum so they cannot be trusted on this. Nothing is guaranteed. They had plenty of time to get agreement before people went to the vote. It’s more sleight of hand from the unionists.
The only thing that be can be guaranteed, unequivocally, is that independence will give Scotland the full range of powers with no strings attached.
Presumably they now have to give the same amount of coverage to the Yes campaign.
Who is independently monitoring media coverage anyway?… The BBC and the UK gov seem to be ignoring the rules…
My Gran kinda liked Gordon Brown til he spoke about the Labour old woman as “bigoted” at the General Election.
She’s changed her mind and has a shelful of Yes posters ready for doing her next shopping tomorrow.
The Unionist media helped destroy Gordon Brown’s credibility during office, particularly down South. This left them with no one, except Darling, to run “No”. Now that Darling has obviously failed they are struggling to place Brown at centre stage. They have left it too late and he should know better..he’s trying to promote a loser. People are not stupid. They can see through this..particularly with the help of sites like Wings.
@ Stevie boy.
I am looking for volunteers to cover polling agents and counting agents in North Lanarkshire(including Cumbernauld.
If you are interested, contact me.
gerry[dot]parker[at]gmail[dot]com
Sorry O/T Stu but the cut off date is getting close.
The No Campaign have only two things going for them –
Gullibility and dementia.
And gullibility is drifting to Yes but probably won’t make it on time.
While dementia thinks the referendum is at Christmas.
Reminds me of my own naivety. Democracy is a thin veneer. The state tells us what to think and feel through its organ. I would not have believed it before or perhaps thought it the action of a rogue individual. The referendum was given to call the bluff of one man and to personally discredit and neutralise him. They failed. Every single dirty trick is, and will be employed. But now they aren’t even bothering to hide the dirt – its right in our faces.
A timetable! A timetable! My knighthood for a timetable!
trying to link to a youtube video but it wont post is this against the rules
Published this on my FB Page last Night!
‘The announcement was made, several times, on BBC Television News 24 Today, that Gordon Brown would be making an ‘Important Announcement’ about ‘New Powers for Scotland!’ Dutifully I tuned in at 7PM.
First to speak was some Local Labour MP for the Constituency in which The Miners Welfare Club, venue for this BBC Coverage, was being held. This Gentleman told us Couthy Tales of Old Labour for around Seven Minutes, when it was then Expected he would introduce Gordon Brown!
No, that did not happen, instead, he introduced Johann Lamont, Leader of ‘Scottish’ Labour who opened her remarks with more ‘Labour Tales of Couth,’ before launching into a Diatribe against the SNP followed by a Party Political Broadcast for the No Campaign! that continued until Seven Twenty Nine, when, she suddenly remembered that ‘There is No Show without Punch!’ and she, finally, introduced Gordon Brown!
For Three Minutes, Mr. Brown told us ‘More, amusing tales of his Couthy Labour Experience before STARTING to tell us of New Powers—At exactly Seven Thirty Five, however, BBC News PULLED THE PLUG!!! THE TIME WAS UP! I was now as wise as to the ‘New Powers’ as before I had Tuned in at Seven PM! One would have thought that the BBC, having just Aired a Thirty Five Minute Party Political Broadcast for Labour and ‘NAW,’ would have been satisfied they had done their job—-But again No! They went in to Gavin Essler’s Programme, ‘Referendum Today’ who Aired a Recorded Interview with Gordon Brown, who was giving away nothing on his Big Announcement! Two Minutes with John Swinney, also recorded, and then Fifteen to Twenty Minutes of a Live Studio Interview with Wee Duggie Alexander!
Now, correct me if I’m Wrong! But I was under the Impression that in the last Twenty Eight Days Before the Referendum, YES and No were entitled to equal Exposure on all News Media and Political Programming—this being the case, The BBC now Owe the YES Campaign a solid Hour of uninterrupted Broadcasting!
Say NO to Brown’s con trick.
[…] interest was the late intervention of the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was given wall to wall coverage by the BBC to basically make speeches to the nation. In these, as well as invoking the much […]
[…] Alistair Darling during the referendum campaign, or watched Gordon Brown given free reign to say whatever he wanted on the BBC at seemingly limitless length, shouldn’t need the parallels pointed out to […]
[…] addition to Channel 4’s interview, the BBC broadcast Brown’s entire speech at the Loanhead Miners’ Welfare from which the New Statesman transcript came, live for 50 minutes […]