When is a FACT not a FACT?
Posted on
April 24, 2015 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Remember this, readers?
Turns out it wasn’t THAT kind of “fact”. You know, the true kind.
So that’s okay, then. It might have SOUNDED like Scottish Labour were telling people that it was “a simple fact that the single biggest party gets to form a government”, but what they meant by those words was “has tended to be the case for a while, since an arbitrary point in history that we chose”.
Tsk, they’ve gone and done it again, look. It’s not that they were trying to mislead anyone, you understand. We all make typing mistakes every now and again. It’s just that it’s quite rare that they’re entire sentences.
When is fact not a fact? Answer: when stated by Kezia Dugdale.
When it dings?
generally with the utterance of anything out of Cameron’s mouth
Creepy Jim was peddling it on Scotland 2015 last night but Sarah Smith was remarkably even handed in pursuing him on it. Creepy did admit to sitting round the cabinet table working out the permutations in 2010 but then came out with some utter bullshit about Cameron being an immovable force to form the govt as he was leader of the largest party… moron Creepy Jim
From 2:40 in…
link to bbc.co.uk
Their statement in defence of their statement is actually an admission of their earlier lies. Fools.
Eh? “Scottish Labour”, no such thing exists.
Keep on repeating the lie and the average punter in the street, who only relies on the Daily Record, for information, will believe it.
Can anyone confirm that in 1955 Election the Labour Party were the biggest Party.
This was the election Scotland voted overwhelmingly “Tory” I use inverted commas because the Scottish Tories were still at that time the Progressives or at least not part of UK Tory Party, and although aligned to the Tory Party in England they were a separate Party.
They and I think a separate Scottish or Welsh Liberal Party agreed to vote Churchill as PM.
I am sure I read this somewhere can someone confirm or scotch this?
How long did it take them to finally remove the empirical lie that they were “Scotland’s largest political party” from their Twitter profile description? I’m not holding my breath until they give up on this lie.
When deliberate confusion and obfuscation meet dog whistle politics meet ineptitude and essential inability to see lack of success and change….Scottish Labour.
I knew the Labour Party had deliberately misleading obfuscation..plant so many uncertain stories..about selves and “new comers”…hoping voters reverted to type.\
The complicity of the media (you and such like apart) needs addressed.
My head hurts!! Just vote SNP get Scotland 😉
A fact is only a fact when it is the opposite of what is in the media
SNP are run by bad people who contest our lies. Can they not let us continue to con the hard of learning?
I want parity, I want the SNP to be scrutinised for all their apparent lies, obfuscation and outright swerving approach to giving clarity on any issue…if there are any blatant examples.
But not to appear overtly naïve, I think we all know that there are some flies in their ointment, but still… nothing, NOTHING on the scale of the Labour Party (Northern Branch).
If ever a political party (branch office) lost the faith of its supporters, then here it is.
Take a bow Jim. Now get off the stage.
Didn’t Kezia’s dad ensure she had done her homework on the British Parliament rules, in particular the new ‘5-year term’ ?
She REALLY is an idiot of the first order – how did they ever promote her to deputydawg? Handy for us, though, I suppose!
I genuinely believe there are two types of Labour followers in Scotland. There are those who know the truth but treat politics as contest to get to the line. They commit to a programme of lies and deception. Just to get over the line. They don’t actually believe the clap trap they write or say. They say it with the sole intention of winning the game.
Then there are the really stupid ones. The ones who actually believe Yes voters are fascists, and bigots. They are brainwashed and believe that being British, is the right thing to be. They actually believe that they are in some way superior, to small minded Scots. They think they are on the good side like Cowboys and Indians.
Well we know what history taught us there don’t we! Unfortunately human beings fail, when they believe that they and they alone are the superior nation.
Rod I think you have the right math, but it was Clem Atlee who although having the most MPs was ousted and Churchill became PM
Tried 3 times to post a wee write up about Fifi La Bonbon without success.
“Tried 3 times to post a wee write up about Fifi La Bonbon without success.”
Because until someone PROVES Kezia Dugdale was her, with EVIDENCE, claiming they were the same person is barred. Always has been. I won’t have defamatory allegations made on the basis of hearsay and rumour.
Ok Scotland voted labour we got Mrs Thatcher. END OF
No, No, No.
NO – The 1929 lie
the biggest party didnt form the government in 1951. This has clearly been shown already on this site. According to Wiki, in 1951, the largest party (Labour) actually “won the most votes of any political party in any election in British political history”, but didnt form the government. Seats, vote share, however you spin it, the biggest party didnt form the government in 1951.
NO – Largest party “gets to” form the government lie.
The last 4 hung parliaments, two governments have been formed by the largest party, two by coalitions involving the second largest party. Its 50/50 using Labours arbitrary point in time (1920’s).
NO – While I’m at it, a third slightly o/t NO.
When people claim ‘over half of Scotland voted No’ or ‘55% of Scots said No’ etc, they didn’t. 55% of those who were eligible to vote and did so (just over 2 million of c5 million) said No.
Pedantic maybe but annoying. So many lies to debunk its incredible.
They keep peddling proven lies because they have nothing else. I take comfort that their tactics of mudslinging and lies not only isn’t working, its driving former supporters to the opposition in incredible numbers. Yet they persist.
If at first you don’t succeed, lie, lie and lie again?
A ‘fact’ is anything the British media prints and says it is.
If you disagree, you are a raging cybernat.
The mangling of the English language continues; I no longer understand what is meant by a Vow, a Pledge and now a Fact.
Vote Labour get Tory policies.
They are all synonyms for “lie” 🙂
They say you can tell something about a culture’s priorities by the number of words they have for a concept, I am told
The mangling of the English language continues; I no longer understand what is meant by a vow, a pledge or now a fact.
The last but one, formal coalition government in the UK was formed around 1940. Long time ago. However, that did not stop the blue and yellow tories forming another one in 2010.
OT
On the previous thread various Wingers were threatening to cancel subscriptions to the National because of their justified anger at the article on Ian Hay’s alleged abuse of political opponents and mocking old folk.
As we all know, thanks to Stu’s forensic analysis, these allegations were totally false.
Better to let the National run a correction, and in order to get them to do this, as many people should write to them on their contact email address complaining that the article was grossly unfair and wrong.
Everybody makes mistakes. Give them the benefit of the doubt
Whatever happened to Churchill’s govt in 1952 when Labour were the biggest party? Did it turn out to be not true?
Email address for the National is – feedback@thenational.scot
scotsbob wrote:
“Keep on repeating the lie and the average punter in the street, who only relies on the Daily Record, for information, will believe it.”
Very true and there are a lot of them.
I can’t help but feel we here on WOS get wrapped up in our own wee planet WOS environment and tend to think all is going well. This time that seems to be further enforced by just about every poll since last September.
Trouble is, i’ve never been one for trusting polls.
Yes, they’re nice to see if they are in our favour but all polls can be, and usually are, manipulated to suit a certain agenda.
The only safe thing we can do is to keep working away, taking nothing for granted, talking to and convincing folk right up to 10pm on Thursday 7th May 2015 and then after a wee celebratory break, getting stuck right back in for Holyrood 2016 elections.
Oh, and to keep promoting WOS at every opportunity and bring new readers to the site for further education and to swell our ranks.
😉
The very title – Scottish Labour – is itself a lie. And, that’s only the beginning, it goes downhill from there on. Lies, and more lies, all built on a lie.
Big jock at 4:24pm
I think you have nailed it. I have often thought the same. People like Douglas Alexander and Murphy know it’s all b*ll*cks, but see it as a ‘necessary evil’ to win. The others are just blinded and cannot see how they are being manipulated and used, they do not question what Murph tells them, i.e SNP bad, and that’s all you need to know. Classic group think.
You see it with people in Labour who still think the SNP caused the downfall of the Callaghan Government, completely ignorant of the fact that he would have survived if 30 of his own Labour MP’s had not voted against him.
@INDEPENDENT – Ramsay McDonald and his Labour party had 191 seats at the same time the tories (blue ones) had 219 seats. McDonald and the Labour party became PM and Government.
they seem to be implying that they shouldn’t have said anything in the 1st place and now wish they hadn’t, but we’ll keep saying it anyway.
@ Rev
(Scottish Labour have been in touch about this issue)
Watch oot they,ll be inviting You roon fur Tea next
you,ll huv hud your’s of course.
Best avoid the Polonium.
So “Scottish Labour” actually got in touch with wings? Wow. Or was it Labour in Scotland or just labour? I’m just trying to get things straight in my mind. So when one of the 3 labour parties says they didn’t need the SNP to form a majority I take it what they really mean is, they do but ehm you know it’s just part of the game to lie through your anus. You then pretend it wasn’t even a small lie but a fact looked at from a different perspective. Reminds me of Bill Clinton’s “it depends what the meaning of ‘is’ is.
“So “Scottish Labour” actually got in touch with wings? “
Not with me, with FullFact.
This drives me nuts.
Is it too much to ask that the press and media gives us. Balanced even spread of news and current affairs.
If there is a story about SNP that ends up showing us in a bad light but it’s the TRUTH then so be it. Am fine with that, infact its welcomed. But this one sided journalism is completely insulting to voters
O/T
The DM has smeared NeilHay SNP Get out and support him tonight.
I’m up north so can’t attend, would if I could.
link to livestream.com
[…] When is a FACT not a FACT? […]
The UK media: does it tell the truth? Don’t be stupid!
Only if the Government told the truth could the media also tell the truth. If the media always told the truth about the Government, but the Government lied frequently, then that situation would be intolerable for the Government, and either the Government would fall or the media would have to fall into line with the government’s version of events.
The only way in which the media could tell the truth about the Government, would be if the Government told the truth.
It would be ok for a few media outlets to disagree with the Government, in fact it would ‘look better’ that way; but only a few.
As an example, the UK Gov very rarely speaks about Scottish Oil & Gas, and guess what, the media very rarely covers the oil and gas industry, and certainly never to tell us what it is worth.
Is the Institute For Fiscal Studies accurate in its reports. Answer No. Here’s why.
The Logic is almost the same. If the IFS were a truly independent body, with no axe to grind, then it would be able always to publish reports which expressed a true and fair view of the report subject matter, eg. Oil and Gas. In which case the UK Government which frequently quotes the IFS, would itself have to tell the truth.
But for the many reasons there are, the Government will not tell the truth, especially about Scotland and it’s revenues for example, and so the UK Gov would rarely refer to the IFS, if the IFS told the truth.
But the UK Gov does frequently refer to the IFS, therefore the IFS simply cannot be telling the truth in the reports quoted by the Government.
Some people liken the UK to North Korea. I can’t think why.
Hi Doug Morrison,
You should have gone further and added when it comes out of the mouth’s of Blue Tory, Scottish Red Tory or Lib/Dem (what a misnomer that is).
Auld Rock
Forgot to say where the hustings are
Lecture theatre 2 Hudson Beare building
McLauren Rd
Sorry O/T
HSBC considers moving HQ out of UK
I thought that it was the referendum that would cause banks to move.
Once upon a time, lies of this despicable nature were exposed, they led to disgust and apathy and decisions not vote for anyone. Thank God for the SNP. We all have an alternative now.
ps Nice piece from Durward in The National today.
link to archive.is
Factual fact Press and Journal style and their fight against SNP matches their Vote NO Thanks campaign now. 70k tactical leafleting must be carefully targeted to get people to tacticaly not vote Salmond. Cant see this farce work though but P&J are giving #SMPout everything they’ve got
If you haven’t read it yet Paul Kavanagh has just had a wonderful rant at Dougie Alexander over at the Weegiedug. 🙂
link to tinyurl.com
Labour Scottish or otherwise are so out of touch they forget that their ‘so called, facts’ can be easily checked on the internet. Idiots.
Labour’s dirty tricks campaign in Edinburgh South has been running for weeks now when a Labour friendly journalist tried to cause problems with Neil Hay’s employers and several complaints were made to Edinburgh City Council about licences for the local Yes Cafe.
This fact must have originated from the Labour Truth Team. After all they only ever deal in facts. 😉
Of course if the Scottish media want to genuinely report real (and not made up) offensive comments from ACTUAL WESTMINSTER CANDIDATES, they do not need to look very hard.
link to buzzfeed.com
In the meantime, according to a Groaniard article I can’t quite get my head around, Labour want to bring Michael Heseltine into their camp to advise on business re-generation policy if they win.
This sounds like New Labour all over again.
scott says:
24 April, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Sorry O/T
HSBC considers moving HQ out of UK
I thought that it was the referendum that would cause banks to move.
Nope. It is not getting their own way, together with grovelling admiration of their morals and their competence, that causes banks to move.
It’s all just semantics.
The simple fact is a fact for the simple.
Anyone who has any interest in politics sees the lie, those less interested see the lie without ever seeing through it.
Fact – English voters will have to eat their cereal on May 8th.
@ Iain More
Think that will be reserved for the run up to an EU referendum
All this banks moving rubbish is the banks trying to hold the people to ransom. And they get away with that’s the killer
Doesn’t Dim Jim get it? We don’t want an unadulterated Labour Party up here anymore. They’ve done nothing for us for 50 years. A Labour Party guided by the SNP might just be acceptable.
Sorry for going O/T but I think Nicola may have been listening to this yesterday before going to FMQ’s. 😉
link to youtube.com
😀
I continue to be Astonished
Has anyone seen or heard of Johan lately it’s like she’s disappeared
I always felt sure she was going to creep up on Magrit or Murphy
Wae a wee Dirk atween thur shoodur blades
@ Iain More – I’ll be eating my oats.
Nana Smith@ 5.32pm
Thanks for the link to the Edinburgh South livestream thingy. I thought Colin Fox was superb, and far above all the other candidates. Wish some SSP candidates would wend their weary way up here to the Far Beyond, but they never will.
The SNP candidate spent his whole time apologising for his wee tweet, and was not impressive.
OT Brent crude at a 4 month high just under 65$
Talking about escaping censure.
Wee Ruthie also seems to be escaping censure for her slip up in the postal ballot figures in the referendum.
800,000 postal votes!!!!!!
Last nights Livestream by DFS.
SLAB have shown that they have no scruples. Their ‘biggest party’ mantra is a deliberate attempt to deceive. They know that as we do. They will not deceive reasonably intelligent and informed people, only those who would have voted for them anyway. We mustn’t beat ourselves up for the failings of those who accept SLAB lies. We can only be up front with people and make it clear that they are being deliberately deceived by SLAB.
The MSM and SLAB are of course engaged in a dirty tricks campaign in Edinburgh. The claims about Neil Hay’s comments are being pumped up to the usual level of hysteria. Nicola’s comment, that it will be up to the voters in Edinburgh South to decide what they make of it, is sound. We all know that the MSM and SLAB are being deliberately over the top and disingenuous and so too will sensible voters. Any voter who is thinking about how they should vote will weigh everything and decide who they should vote for. In the face of the onslaught the one thing we should not do is be seen to be backing off. We have to front it up and respectfully ask voters to assess the situation for themselves.
Fireproofjim
Re The National.
If I can be assured that the newspaper in question spoke to MR Hay and researched the allegations made against him ,then I will reconsider my position.
But having said that their article seemed on a parallel course to the P&J.
OT, but I thought this would be of interest, given our collective stance on political relationships with the media.
There’s a journalist called John Pring who is disabled and runs a Disability News Service (DNS) specialising in disability-related stories. The service helps many charities and disability organisations stay up to date.
Mr Pring’s investigative reporting and in-depth research are particularly useful in keeping track of events at the Department for Work and Pensions. As people here on Wings will know, the DWP have been the instrument of misery for many people as a result of the Westminster Government’s social security cuts.
Unfortunately, the DWP have apparently decided to stop communicating with Mr Pring until he changes his working practices to suit them. Rather than provide comments to him on stories before his publication deadlines, they seem to expect him to grant them carte blanche to respond in their own time, then scramble to reissue updated stories after the fact.
One could understand this attitude if DNS were a large newswire service like Reuters, sending a stream of breaking news with updates as they come in, but DNS doesn’t work that way. Instead, DNS is a one-man operation writing fully-researched stories and giving all parties a reasonable chance to comment before publication.
As we all know, large newspapers routinely run stories with a disclaimer like “the DWP were asked for comment, but did not respond before we went to print.” We don’t see the DWP refusing to talk to them, so I’m finding it hard to discount the possibility that the DWP might find it convenient to make life difficult for a small news service which happens to be in the habit of asking awkward questions.
The story came to me via Ekklesia (archived):
link to archive.is
and Mr Pring has previously published the background to this on the DNS website (archived):
link to archive.is
Yes Labour you were Lying, you Lied, your are Lying, you continue
to Lie, you are a party of Liers !
The Smaller Party hasn’t formed the government ever exceot in 1924, Oh and well In 1951 to but that’s hardly ever???
Well I suppose some people might say that it has happened TWICE
out of 6 hung parliaments. 1 in every 3 occasions is actually next to nothing????
My first election was in 1970, Scotland Voted Labour and Got a Ted Heath Tory Government for 4 years/
In 1979 Scotland Voted Labour and we got Maggie Thatcher’s Tory
Government for 11 years.
From 1990 to 1997 we got John Major’s Tory Government. Yes you guessed it, Scotland voted Labour.
In 2010, smart Scots thought that they should vote Labour yet again? Yes correct we got David Cameron’s Tory Government.
Take my word for it, the Sun Newspaper is supporting the Tory Party in 2015, and Murdoch’s empire has never called an election wrong in 40 years, and the opinion polls are moving toward Tory
in England, so you will find the Tory party in power yet again
if Miliband is not willing to work with SNP.
This result would see another Tory Government in Scotland taking us up to 2020.
In 50 years of elections, Scotland will have had 32 years of Tory Governments.
In general terms, every 3 times Scotland Votes Labour, we get 2 Tory Governments.
New slogan for Dim Jim and Deputy Dug, Be insane and Vote Labour yet again, and you are odds on to get yet another Tory Government
Should Dim Jim and Co actually win, get a Red Tory Government!
m
HSBC and Farmer Cameron are both rep’d by Satchi and Carpetbaggers.
Just in and catching up with last two Wings posts…….
Media lying and Labour lying. At least we can kill off one in a couple of weeks, the other may take longer.
The only excuse for anyone of a ‘Yesish’ persuasion buying these papers now is research ( i.e. Stu can buy one ) or the day after your football team wins the cup.
General football coverage, horoscope, tv pages etc etc can all be found elsewhere.
MORE NON FACTS from Wee Joke McConnel
Dear David,
We have thirteen days to change our country for the better.
A change that will see our country become fairer for everyone in communities across Scotland, and the UK.
We need a Labour Government, and we need it now.
And Labour needs you.
(THE MAN is EASILY IMPRESSED)
Since they were elected in December, I’ve been hugely impressed with the passion and energy Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale have shown. They have set the agenda in Scotland and they have come up with a radical plan to offer opportunity and hope to Scots all across our country. The Scottish Labour Party has changed and now our plan can change the country.
(LIES LIES PANT ON FIRE)
That plan that includes raising the minimum wage, banning exploitative zero hour contracts and a plan for fairer taxes to give Scotland an extra £800m to spend on our NHS, improve educational opportunities and establish an anti-poverty fund to remove the need for food banks in our country.
Only a Labour Government has set out a plan to deliver these changes our country needs.
We know that the SNP and the Conservatives have vast sums of money to spend in the next two weeks from their wealthy individual donors. The Scottish Labour Party is different, we rely on thousands of Scots like you donating what they can to help us create a fairer Scotland. Don’t wake up the day after the election and wish you had done more. We need a big push for these last two weeks.
We’re on the final stretch and your help will get us to the finishing line. In just two minutes you can donate.
Thank you for all your support, you’re helping not only the party but the creation of a fairer Scotland.
Best wishes,
Jack McConnell
The dirty tricks in Edinburgh South are no surprise considering what went on in Newinton during the indyref.
Lets all hit back and pursue Ian Murray’s alleged use of Zero Hour Contract to employ staff in last parliament.
Did he or did he not?
The Great Illusionist, Jim Murphy, on BBC Reporting Scotland spouting more Scottish Labour [sic]‘s election mantras, this time about David Cameron’s latest EVEL intervention being done to help the SNP(?).
Christ, Murphy is bloody boring. It would be just terrific if the upcoming election results in us not having to listen to him and his lies and trash-talking again for a long, long time. One can only hope.
Sorry for going O/T here folks but just been alerted to this LIVE opinion poll site. Think you might have some fun here. 😉
link to gritdigital.co.uk
@ manandboy
Re IFS -have a look at their web site link to ifs.org.uk
Their President, since they are in the news today, has another HSBC link check Wiki. She is a Director.
You will see the Executive and Council are execs from HM Revenue Customs, Bank of England, Department of Work and Pensions,HM Treasury, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Financial Times,a Tory and Labour MP.
Follow the money – it also list who funds them.
Please draw your own conclusion.
Just watched the Smurphanator on the I player from last night.
Are people in this wonderful country of ours that STUPID, that they will vote for him.
Every time he opens his mouth absolute, total garbage comes out. New name,
“The Regurgitator”
The scary thing is one of the pundits at the end of the programme, thought FUD came across well or words to that effect.( She had something to do with the Slabs).
Gary
Anyone want a new T-shirt?
Think it best women only I’m afraid should consider it, sorry guys. 😉
link to twitter.com
Vote Labour get Tory, really!!!
link to theguardian.com
If ever Murphy and his Labour colleagues ever tell the truth, or at least state a true fact there will be blue saw on the pent lands every second Sunday. Even in July.
SLab fact? SLab fuct.
IFS funding approx 10% from Government Departments and approx 55% from ESRC (Economic Social and Research Council) – who are
We are a non-departmental public body (NDPB) established by Royal Charter in 1965 and receive most of our funding through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
my postal ballot paper has on it “Scottish labour party” i have seen many times that Scottish labour does not exist so what’s going on they either do or they don’t and as its on an official ballot paper they must exist –well for a short time anyway but its there in black and white Scottish Labour Party
link to caltonjock.com
Here’s a new fact. Even if it is fae the paperheid meeja:
link to archive.is
Now we can be 49ers.
@ robert graham
“Scottish Labour” are an Accounting Unit (AU) of the UK Labour party.
An Accounting Unit cannot have a separate manifesto, they stand on the manifesto of their parent party, but it is perfectly legal for them to put forward the Accounting Unit’s name as a description of the registered party on the ballot paper.
More here:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
“Scottish Labour” is not a political party but a north British Accounting Unit (AU) of the Labour Party which itself is an English political party registered with the Electoral Commission in London, England. Its headquarters are at One Brewer’s Green, London, England. The leader is an English man called Ed Milliband. The Shadow Chancellor is an Englishman called Ed Balls.
“Scottish Labour” is an unofficial name given to a branch office staffed by self serving Unionists in Glasgow who take their strategic direction, executive orders & tactical decision making from the real people in charge who work out of the big office in London, England.
Think of Scottish Labour then as a brand. A shite one mind you. Like Yardley; the cheap, industrial strength perfume that was once prominently advertised on the telly about 2 weeks before Xmas in the 1970’s.
In a momentary fit of resentment, you might have dumped a carton of the chlorinated smelling cologne onto your step dad & quietly smirked when he winced at the packaging as it revealed itself from the torn newsprint you used to pad it when you wanted to make it appear a bit bigger than it really was.
A brand then that few relate to anymore because it reeks of something well past its sell by date while still pretending to be something it isn’t.
Re the story about Mr Hay.
On the news tonight it was reported, briefly, that a Labour candidate, I think in a North of Scotland constituency, had been convicted today for drink driving and was no longer a candidate.
Is it possible that the revelations about Mr Hay’s old tweets now were timed to ensure minimal coverage of the Labour candidate’s fall from grace?
Or am I getting really paranoid?
That hustings in Edinburgh South seemed fairly civilised. Isn’t it remarkable how the media can portray individuals as sub-humans, and yet, when you put them together in the same room they tend not to hack each other to pieces within minutes?
And, for anyone who’s worried about the whole Hay/Smart stushie – it hasn’t affected the bookies’ take on it at all – Murray is still trailing, at 11/10. SNP has stayed steady on Evens since this time last week. (On April 8th, SNP was 6/5, and Labour was favourite at 8/11)
Seems like the perfect time to spout one of Murphy’s favourite soundbites.
Labour branch in Scotland – you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own FACTS.
Remember Legerwood, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean the barstewards aren’t out to get you.
Tomorrow sees the greatest event of the GE15 campaign — Tommy Sheridan’s HOPE OVER FEAR rally. Check out the list of speakers, everyone is an absolute star!!
Correction to my earlier post, if it appears: it is alleged drink driving nwhich has occasioned his appearance in court.
A Labour general election candidate has been suspended after appearing in court charged with drink-driving. Sumon Hoque, 32, who is standing in the Banff and Buchan constituency, is also accused of driving a car with no MOT and without a licence.
Mr Hoque, of Aberdeen, denied the charges at the city’s sheriff court. The offences are alleged to have happened in Aberdeen’s Bridge Street in May last year. The case is due to go to trial next month.
A Scottish Labour statement said: “Sumon Hoque has been suspended from representing the Labour Party and we have, therefore, withdrawn support from him as the general election candidate.”
It won’t make much difference, labour have no chance in that seat.
O/T
link to atrueindependentscotland.com
O/T…
The final chance to book seats for the minibus from Dundee, through to the Wings Over Scotland get-together in the Counting house in Glasgow on the 1st May will be Sunday evening.
If we don’t have enough ‘bums on seats’ by then, the minibus will NOT be travelling.
If you want to book seats, get over to ‘off-topic’ and register your claim to seats – by Sunday evening.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Labour’s Banff and Buchan candidate for the general election has been suspended from the party pending the outcome of a trial where he is accused of a string of motoring offences – including drink driving.
link to pressandjournal.co.uk
Just finished watching News for You, quite mild by its standards but included Cameron accusing Alex Salmond of being a pickpocket, joke of course but it shows the hypocrisy of the ruling classes. Salmond joke bad, Cameron’s good.
As for the Labour candidate being disowned, I suppose they will get credit for taking the high moral ground but the ttiming is interesting to say the least.
Now we have Sawar going public on a phone message, again timing is everything. No one can deny its a dreadful thing to experience but why wait 2 weeks to go public. I suspect bad SNP will be to blame.
Labour are desperate folks, fear over hope yet again.
@caledonia
Interesting.
Will Kezia play the “Labour deal with our problem candidates..
Now will SNP now sack Mr Hay in reply?”
@Wee Alex
Labour how low will they go
link to twitter.com
The very fact that Kezia Dugdale is acting head of the opposition in the Scottish Parliament speaks volumes.
Several WOS regulars have already expressed concern about the predicament she is now in.
Perhaps she really is the ‘future’ of Labour in Scotland. Or maybe she’s just a brave but misguided lassie being used as a distraction to allow bigger beasts to graze undisturbed.
Whatever the truth of it, here’s Kezia, just four and a half years ago:
link to youtube.com
Sorry for going O/T folks.
Remember recently we have had the Labour manifesto and the *ahem* Scottish Labour manifesto. Well if you do you will recall in both *cough* launches a bit of a do was made about banning zero hour contracts.
Guess what folks?
Oor wee Jim has stepped forth and spoken his wisdom … yet AGAIN! 😀
link to eveningtimes.co.uk
O/T – Help! After all these years of voting for Tony and Gordon and New Labour I can’t seem to find them anywhere on the ballot paper? Is there a Scottish New labour, New Labour Scotland, New Labour Scottish Accounting Unit, I used to be New Labour but I’m Alright Now, I Can’t Believe It’s Not New Labour, New Labour – Same As The Old Labour but Newer, Old Labour is Dead – Long Live the New Labour option? What happened, is New Labour (Scottish accounting unit) no more?
This Dundee mini-bus WOS Mayday bash scenario is becoming irksome.
If you are one of the 99.whatever per-cent who read this stuff but never comment AND you are on the intended route of this bus AND you have a curious bone in your body AND if you want to meet like-minded Wingers for a few hours AND you want a chance to win some splendid raffle prizes…then please please PLEASE make yourself known over on the Off-Topic thread, where your particulars will be taken down by someone friendly:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
You’d best be quick about it too – only a few seats left.
robert graham says:
24 April, 2015 at 8:33 pm
my postal ballot paper has on it “Scottish labour party” i have seen many times that Scottish labour does not exist so what’s going on they either do or they don’t and as its on an official ballot paper they must exist –well for a short time anyway but its there in black and white Scottish Labour Party
A quick check on wikipedia (copyright Grant Shapps) shows that the Scottish Labour Party is actually the party formed by Jim Sillars in 1976. It may be useful to check if Jim has any candidates standing in your constituency, otherwise it may be a scam and you’d be better advised to ignore it.
Didn’t women have the vote for the 1922 election?
The next election 1 year later the results were;
Leader Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith
Party Conservative Labour Liberal
Leader since 23 May 1923 21 November 1922 30 April 1908
Leader’s seat Bewdley Aberavon Paisley
Last election 344 seats, 38.5% 142 seats, 29.7% 62 seats, 18.9%
Seats won 258 191 158
Seat change Decrease 86 Increase 49 Increase 96
Popular vote 5,286,159 4,267,831 4,129,922
Percentage 38.0% 30.7% 29.7%
Swing Decrease 0.5% Increase 1.0% Increase 10.8%
PM before election
Stanley Baldwin
Conservative
Subsequent PM
Ramsay MacDonald
Labour
Another wee porkie?
Robert Louis@5.05pm,
I’m no fan of the Labour Party, in fact I detest them, but I have been on various sites, and I can’t find any Labour MP’s who voted yes in a Confidence vote, the only abstention was a terminally ill hospitalised Labour MP, Sir Alfred Broughton who died on 2nd April 1979.
Stephen.
The last visible comment, to me, right now, is mine at 10.51.
??!!
FFS Rev, get this sorted, eh? People want to have any kind of discussion, they have to wait an hour?
Sod’s Law – after I submit this, fifty comments will appear before this one…blahdy fucking blah.
Not good man. Seriously not good.
Quick, lemmings, there’s a new cliff to run for – next article by the Rev has just come up.
Mark Knopfler – Golden Heart.
he’ll make good, i’m certain of it.
@robert graham says: 24 April, 2015 at 8:33 pm:
“my postal ballot paper has on it “Scottish labour party”.
Ah! Robert, but different rules apply on ballot papers.
Remember the Alex Salmond one that Used the A in Alex to get his name at the top of the list If he’d listed it as SNP it would have been at the end of the list of candidates.
When is a fact not a fact? – tonight at the Brechin bop I left some friends and their family – one of them released me with kind regards and a warm salute to my fascist ideals, on the way out two no-voted acquaintances at the bar assured me of their SNP support.
O/T
Just returned from a nice evening talking politics in pub. Even a longstanding Lib Dem voter thinking about voting SNP!!!!
Anyway personally I bin them without reading them, but apparently no party has their leader on any of their leaflets, is that true everywhere?
If it is it says a lot about them.
Ian
I see they at last fixed the crossword clue visibility issue in the National anyway.
Message to Gordon Brown. When you retire from a job. It doesn’t mean you can pop up and come back when it suits you. People soon get sick of pensioners telling the workers how to run the country that you fucked up!
No offence to any pensioners by the way in case McTernan is reading this! Lol.
So Gordon please go away and stay dead this time. A patriot doesn’t listen to Gordon Brown should be your message.
Ian Brotherhood – nuhin tae stoap ye stertin yur ain. Waantin tae bae in yoan lichts, iz fine anuff.
Largest party forms the government ?
The bookies don’t think so,
Ed Milliband 4/6 favourite to become P.M.
Tories 4/11 favourite to win the most seats and be the largest party.
As currently on oddschecker.
The lie was being perpetuated in Labour telephone canvassing as recently as a week ago. I told the man who was phoning that the Labour Party were misleading him and the rest of the elctorate. He countered with the more accurate deceptive language that the Rev. quotes in the article here.
big jock is correct IMO. There are now two main types of Labour followers in Scotland. There are those who know the truth but treat politics as contest to get to the line. They commit to a programme of lies and deception just to get over the line. They don’t actually believe the sript that they write or say. They say it with the sole intention of winning the game. The other supporters, poor souls, just don’t know any better.
A ‘simple’ fact is a lie. Simples…
Nick Clegg has now confirmed what we already knew, that if the LibDems hold the balance after the election, they will speak first to the party with the most MPs, as they did in 2010.
He said, “The party with the greatest mandate from the British people – even though they haven’t got a majority – seems to me, to us, to be the party that has the right to try to assemble a government first.”
The more MPs that parties other than Labour have, the fewer David Cameron needs to have more MPs than Labour.
So voting SNP or any party other than Labour would directly help Cameron and Clegg to form another Tory/LibDem government
Will Podmore: “So voting SNP or any party other than Labour would directly help Cameron and Clegg to form another Tory/LibDem government”
No it wouldn’t since Clegg IF he survives and IF the LibDems hold the balance of power – next to zero chance – he is going to talk to both Labour and the Tories to see what kind of deal he can get, just as he did the last time.
You and Labour really insult people with this guff, and it is a contributing factor to the overwhelming support for the SNP.
When will you stop the flim-flam, Will? . . You’ve been claiming for months that the party with the greatest number of seats gets to form the government – a demonstrable falsehood. You’ve been claiming for months that under the rules, the largest party gets first dibs at forming a government, another demonstrable falsehood.
Of course the truth is that the incumbent PM gets first dibs at forming a government regardless of whether his party is the largest of the 10th largest.
Here it is direct from the horses mouth.
“Does the party with the most seats form a Government?
In order to form a Government, a party must be able to command a majority in the House of Commons on votes of confidence and supply. This majority can include support from other political parties, whether or not there is a formal coalition arrangement.
In a situation of no overall control the Government in power before the General Election gets the first chance at creating a government. If they cannot do so, the Prime Minister will resign.”
Does largest party in a hung parliament get to form the government? NO. The party that can command the confidence of the House gets to form the government – that is the party that can put together a majority.
The number required for a majority in a vote of confidence, is the ONLY metric of import in the formation of a government.
link to parliament.uk