Writers of fiction
We were hugely excited earlier on today to receive news of a long-hoped-for team-up between two of our very favourite people on the internet: catastrophically thick Daily Express hack Siobhan McFadyen and popular lawsuit enthusiast JK Rowling.
What we hadn’t expected was a starring role.
The alliance in question took the form of an article in today’s Sunday Express.
The unmeasurably wealthy author has apparently recently found herself with nothing better to do with her life than create misleading collages of allegedly abusive social media comments (almost none of them directed at her), often presented wildly out of context, in her ongoing crusade to prove the vileness of anyone who wants Scotland to elect its own governments.
In McFadyen’s article, a selection are presented, again bereft of any context, as proof that Yes supporters are anti-English racists.
Bizarrely, the article claims that the tweets have been posted “since the SNP’s decision to hold another vote”, a decision which exists only in the mind of Siobhan McFadyen, but which we assume must notionally refer to events of two weeks ago, when the First Minister announced a new draft bill to go with a public consultation on the subject.
No screenshots or links to the offending tweets are included in the article for anyone to verify them. Two of the first three that are quoted do not appear if you search Twitter for them, although it’s of course possible that they were subsequently deleted.
(The one that does is a reply to a tweet we can’t see, but does call one individual a “bullying little Englander”, which is clearly not an attack on an entire nation.)
The next one in the Express piece is dated not from two weeks ago, but from almost 15 months ago, in mid-August 2015:
It’s certainly not very friendly and could arguably be considered to be very vaguely threatening, but it was a reaction to an extremely inflammatory original comment from Robinson and certainly doesn’t contain a single syllable that even the most sensitive person could construe as “anti-English racism”.
The next one is also from last August, and we can’t make head nor tail of it.
We can’t tell what “ComediansForYes” is objecting to in the tweets they’ve quoted, but in any event their harsh words are directed at “Unionists” with no mention of anyone’s nationality. But then things get interesting.
As it happened, we recognised that one.
From more than a year ago, we’d be the first to admit that’s not a particularly nice tweet. We were evidently in a bad mood that afternoon. But alert readers may recall that as well as being supposedly featuring RECENT tweets, the article claims to be about exposing “anti-English racism”, and plainly that tweet contains nothing of the sort. It’s obviously grumping at old Scottish voters.
McFadyen and Rowling’s grand dossier of vile anti-English racist abuse following the (wholly non-existent) announcement of a second indyref, then, hasn’t come up with a solitary verifiable example so far. Most of the comments don’t seem to actually exist, and the few that do have had nothing whatsoever to do with “the English”.
In the desperate attempt to prove the point, though, much worse is to come.
Hello! That’s us again, in part of a tweet not from two weeks ago but from July 2012, which chronologically-alert readers will note is more than FOUR YEARS ago. And the words “part of” are somewhat key, as you’re about to see.
Rowling and McFadyen have cut the last six words (including the vital “cont’d”) out of the first half of the tweet, and omitted the second half entirely. And they’ve done that because including them would have revealed that the tweets had absolutely nothing to do with either English people OR Scottish politics.
They were in fact a sarcastic, ironic comment about John Terry’s successful defence tactics in a case accusing him of racism, of which he’d been cleared that same day.
So far, however, McFadyen and Rowling are merely being spectacularly dishonest. Of “more than 20” allegedly abusive anti-English and racist users, cherry-picked from tweets spanning close to half a decade, only FOUR people have actually been verified in the article as existing at all, and NONE of them has posted so much as a single comment even remotely interpretable as “anti-English racism”.
But what follows is on a whole other level.
From the preceding text, that can only possibly refer to us – or to be more precise, me. (“TrueYesser” gives their location as Livingston, “OorAliciaMurray” as Glasgow and “ComediansForYes” only as Scotland. I’m the only person “domiciled in England”.) Anyone reading it with any passing knowledge of Scottish politics will know who it is.
(Hilariously, Siobhan McFadyen is so epically, weapons-grade stupid that she thinks you can defame people freely as long as you don’t print their actual name. In fact the law merely requires that they be identifiable from the information published – otherwise you could say something awful and illegal about “Bavid Deckham” and get away with it because that’s not his name.)
And that statement isn’t just misleading or distorted, it’s a flat-out defamatory lie.
Now, “hateful abuse” itself is an eye-of-the-beholder term – one man’s hateful abuse is another man’s lawful expression of legitimate anger. But the claim that I “encourage others” to post abusive comments is utterly without foundation. The last time anyone made a similar claim they withdrew it sharpish and handed over several thousand pounds by way of apology.
We utterly refute the allegation that this site or myself has EVER encouraged anyone to abuse or harass anyone. We consider such behaviour entirely counter-productive and discourage it at all times. Rowling and McFadyen are liars. If they have a scrap of evidence to the contrary, we invite them to produce it.
Otherwise, the Daily Express will be hearing from us.
Now we get a sense of what the ‘Hacked Off’ victims went through!
I think it would now be fair to call her JK Trolling.
Well done Rev!!
But people who live in a fantasy world can’t tell the truth or put it into words. Maybe the Dandy & the Beano have an opening for children writers of shit stories
@ Ms. McFadyen
The fact of Britain’s existence is an act criminality. Wind your neck in.
link to un.org
@ Ms. McFadyen
The fact of Britain’s existence is an act of criminality. Wind your neck in.
link to un.org
The pair of them ain’t worth my time, I’d rather watch amoeba develop self awareness; than read anything that pair have written.
Git oan it.
The two August ones (TrueYesser and #Indyref2) near the start are also from 2015. It appears all of it is old hat.
I don’t read the express, so I’m not clever enough to understand the phrase “a torrid of abuse”.
This lady doesn’t need protection from vile cybernats, she needs english lessons!
Go get them
They’re giving Blondes a bad rep.
Oh dear! There may be trouble ahead.
Quite right Stu to call them out. These folk seem to think that they can say and do what they want and get away with it. Wrong.
Go get em tiger.
Oops ! Sweety money on the horizon.
August 2015!!!
So she’s gone back over a year. Sad act that she is.
That woman who writes books should ditch her lawyers and put you on her payroll, you would be better (and cheaper).
Goodness, what a lot of hatred and bile is within these ladies. I don’t think a democracy is the right place for them.
If you need funds for a lawsuit, you need only ask.
How did it go… “The poor had no lawyers”, which encapsulates the mindset that very wealthy people feel they’re a bit above the law because they have “islands of lawyers” – and many of these things could be argued to be a matter of interpretation by those isle-lawyers.
I’m willing to contribute to the legal warchest, though my contribution must needs be a modest one as I’m facing… er, some frighteningly high dentist’s bills! (And I don’t even eat sweets!)
Yeah, and SMcF comes across as pretty stupid (or should that be PRETTY STUPID?), and very smug now that she’s got J.K. Rowling onside.
Oh, and beware of the wrath of the millions of Potterheads, lol!
The Nick Robinson tweet is from 18 months ago.
Go get em Stu…..
Stu, two of the posts are from 2015 , not 2016 . ‘Comedians for yes’ and ‘true yesser’
OK, I’m a wean, but I love seeing SMcF getting all carnaptious. She’s a really is thin-skinned sweetie-wife.
Keep revving her, Rev
Can’t lay it out any clearer than that. The hack’s pretty doing her job but why filthy rich Rowling does actually, “create misleading collages of allegedly abusive social media comments” and worse, is really weird.
Is there such a thing as an honest yoon, in our public eye balls?
Safe to say there’s a fair bit of fiction in their story then… You don’t hire a writer of fiction to write the truth now,do ya? Lol
‘has been capturing a torrid of abusive messages’
Thank feck the fragrant Siobhan doesn’t depend on knowledge of and facilty in the English language to ply her trade.
McFadyen, as has been shown several times on Wings, doesn’t deserve the title of ‘journalist’.
The rag that she works for in the Main Stream Media will do anything to rubbish the name of Scotland and Scottish independence supporters, and they no longer care if there is any truth to their stories, as long as some of the muck sticks. That’s all McFadyen is, a muck raker.
As for JKR, she obviously has too much time on her hands!
What do you get when you cross a Soggy Fagend and the poor mans Tolkien?
Answer, Who cares.
I think the gutter Express should take a very close look to the real racist problems that are taking place down south before linking Scotland with their problems.
MSN headline today racist attacks in Engerland, but surprise, surprise says its a UK problem.
Another bitter together all in it together load of bollocks.
Indy Ref 2 Aye
Call me a wean, but I love seeing SMcF getting all carnaptious.
Keep revving, rev
You may not have done those specific allegations Rev, but you have called Siobhann McFadyen ‘catastrophically stupid’.
A grave error. Because if I were a hard-working writer for the Daily Express I’d sue you for that, and to avoid a hefty fine you would be made to provide irrefutable evidence, in court, of my catastrophic stupidity 🙂
She’s a daft lassie oor Siobhan.. *is it ok to say I widnae see her stuck..* 🙂
glé mhath thu fhéin !
I am an English Labour supporting moderately left “nobody” who has had experiences with Tory supporting tweeters @screwlabour and @DrGABaines that made me realise what a sad, timewasting medium it is and a vehicle so ideal for abuse. Deactivated and got a life. How do the likes of JK et al ever find the time to wtite if consatantly scrutinising twitter TL’s?
This lady needs a lesson her view if Scots is distorted in the extreme
Hi Stuart – Are you considering action against the poor soul who called you a ‘vile pustule’ a couple of days ago.
Hilariously, there is/are still individual/s amongst the cretins who post comments on The Scotsman who allege that you have nothing better to do with your time than to waste it making multiple posts under assorted pseudonyms on that doomed propaganda rag. Surely to suggest such pathetic behaviour on your part must be defamatory and possibly actionable.
You’d think Ms Rowling could find better things to do with her time and enormous wealth.The chap Gates seems to be able to use his to better purpose.
The deeply immoral aspect of it is to try to further push the anti-English line. That is deeply hurtful to a great many people. Shame on them.
This is dragging politics into the sewer and needs to be challenged.
Anyone who attends an SNP members event will hear English accents.
Many Scots-English, or perhaps it’s English-Scots, are part and parcel of Scotland’s quest for self determination.
People routinely point out that the electorates of Scotland and England seem to be on different roads these days. That is a fact which highlights differences and the need for the two nations to agree to part amicably. That is not in any way anti-English or racist.
There’s a movie plot somewhere in all this…
She was a rookie in the city Chronicle; and she was a world renown author. They had never met but one man, the internet, and a mutual yearning for respect brought their destinies together, united forever.
Starring Lindsay Lohan as Siobhan, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Jakay.
Directed by Ridley Scott.
Music by RunRig.
A Scott Free Production.
(That’s Ridley’s real company name.)
I’m a little sceptical that there’s an actual case for legal action. I prefer just to point and laugh at the Daily Express.
Oh Jings! 😮
I can see a mad rush on popcorn stocks coming.
On transport the other day a woman was reading a book by JK Trolling.
I had never read her stuff before. Had a look at what was on the pages.
I was astonished. It read like a lobotomised 12-year-old Enid Blyton.
I don’t think you should be settling for anything like just £6000 in this case Stu. So far as I can see this article has run nationwide and has been published in the country you reside, as well as distributed in the city in which you live. I haven’t checked but I reckon the Express has a higher printed circulation and online readership too. That’s a very different set of circumstances to the Herald article.
If anything all I can ever recall you doing is asking people NOT to be abusive.
For what its’s worth I read the offencing paragraph and instantly thought of Stu Campbell of Bristol. It was a clear reference.
I take this article as a personal slight against everyone supporting the normal right for a country to run its own affairs.
If you wish to take legal action I will be happy to contribute to your legal fees.
Oh dear, here we go again.
They are ramping it up big style in the lead up to a perceived Referendum and getting the first shots in.
No matter how dishonest or stupid, it is now in the public domain…keep taking your course of action Rev as you have (successfully) done before and earn a well deserved holiday before the real fight starts.
These idiots target audience are plain to see and it boils my p***!
Sorry for the rant but I am an SNP member who lives in Kent and have done so since 1976 the stupid comments I get from friends who sheepishly believe everything the MSN and other outlets infuriate me and I try to point them in your direction…it does work 90% of the time surprisingly.
Please keep doing what you are doing.
So according to the logic of S McFadyen, I can put anything I like in print about a world-famous, multi-millionaire, female children’s author, who lives in the Barnton area of Edinburgh, and so long as I don’t actually use her name, I’ve no worries where litigation is concerned?
Fantastic!
Oh no, wait, I’ve just realised I’m back on planet Earth. Sorry folks…
Surprised that Rowling is in cahoots with Siobhan. I seriously doubt they share anything in common politically other than a dislike of this site….OK a rabid dislike of this site but it doesn’t seem like the basis of a lasting friendship.
Siobhan is entertaining though. She is to political journalism what Nathan Rao is to long term weather forecasting. The Express is a sort of National Enquirer wannabe with lots of prurient curtain twitching thrown in for good measure.
What do you get when you cross a Soggy Fagend and the poor mans Tolkien?
We’re lucky really that she is such a light weight, more money than Davy Crockett but quite dim. Imagine a yoon tory world with writers like Arthur Miller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gore Vidal all busily collecting and altering horrid tweets, for the crushing of a fledgling democracy anywhere really, UKOK Rowling style.
Vile sep exaggeration for effect:D
Anyway JK’s made more money than every writer that ever lived. That’s all that counts in the UK zone these days.
Jakey is just making herself look completely foolish with this alleged obsession to make us all out to be vile cybernats.
As for the ‘journalist’, there are no words.??
By the way, I believe the reason the anti-English line is being pushed so hard in the MSM these days is an attempt to mobilise the English vote in Scotland against the SNP/Independence.
It is therefore imperative that crap like this is challenged.
As part of the(hopeful) settlement Stu, I’d demand a front page apology or at least the same prominence the original article had.
Kenny: “It read like a lobotomised 12-year-old Enid Blyton.”
Good description.
Rowling is a phenomenon, marketing of her and her work an example of top down globalisation, selling doorstop books at £25 and more to kids whose parents are hard pressed to resist the purchase.
You expect crap from the UKIP-supporting Express, but I would have thought Jay Kay Rowling would have been too busy scrolling through decent literature to find her next plot line to bother with this rubbish? Still, I suppose it’s encouraging in that it’s the first piece of original fiction she’s ever written…
As both ladies have deliberately misrepresented you in such a spectacularly demonstrable manner, I’d say you have good grounds to sue.
While we people here on WoS can see through the pish, I bet there are lots and lots of nice, ordinary people vaguely positive towards indy after all that’s happened since 2014 (especially the Brexit vote and the aftermath) but, being nice, ordinary, decent people, they’re perhaps wary of rocking the boat too much, they’re scared of serious rifts and “Ulsterisation” – there’s a reason the Yoons have been repeating that word, and, frankly, stoking such sentiments. (Seems weird using the word “frankly” without the word “vile” accompanying it. :-O )
This piece by the fragrant SMcF is just another tiny drip drip in this next, ongoing project fear.
The challenge for every indy supporter is to allay these fears. The YES-movement has to find ways to do this gently and reasonably and credibly.
It’s a tough task, what with near blanket MSM (especially the BBC) coverage against us.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it is not berating, belittling, blaming, name-calling all those who voted NO in 2014.
Let the “frothing-at-the-mouth-dyed-in-the-wool-Britnats” (“Yoons”) burn bridges (figuratively, of course), let indy supporters build bridges among the unsure and undecided.
(heh, a bit like the amazing Queensferry Crossing, delivered by a Scottish government that puts Scotland first, come to think of it.)
Go get ’em Stu, time to bring a semblance of decency back. These two women are defaming not only you but half of a Nation.
I doubt that this sad little hack even consulted Rowling before she stirred up this little anti Scottish crock o’ shit.
You have no recourse but to sue the pants off her , Stu.
Rowling is another matter.
I syggested at the time of her ‘Anti English’ harrumph that some may say that the famous scribe may need help; some would say, but not me.
May I suggest two weeks on the impossibly sandy beaches of Labenne, light meals of Moules Mariniere, lumps of fluffy white bread to dip in the garlic butter sauce, washed down with Demi of the local red?
It’s the old Dead Tree Scrolls trick. Rel in somebody famous in an opinion piece, plaster their photograph across the headline, and sit back and watch the storm gathering in the tea cup.
The Express hates Scotland. Go on sue me, I’ve just checked. I’m penniless compared to the filthy rich Unionists peddling anti Scottish propaganda, distortions and downright lies.
They are lie nocturnal slugs, leaving a sickly nasty slime in their wake.
Scotland will never become independent as long as the likes of Rowling can vote in an independence referendum.
Unless the next referendum restricts the vote to, for example, residents who have at least one grandparent born in Scotland, we are not going to be independent any time soon.
Why do we never read of the vile anti-Scottish comments targeted at Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP, Remainers, Yes supporters?
We could have a field day if we decided to out every ‘troll’ and abusive comment we have to endure.
What about death threats to Nicola – anything been done about that? I hear some one was arrested down south recently for a death threat against Theresa May – probably one of those vile anti-english cybernats!
It really is a slow news day!
Don’t forget Gandhi’s words:
‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’
Nicely done Rev! This is less about ‘exposing’ alleged anti-Englishness than a poorly veiled attempt by Shoveone McMadyen, using Jakey Trolling’s bizarre tweet collection, to frame you and WOS again – since the attempt to shut you down on Twitter failed.
As a Yorkshireman (Scotsman with every ounce of generosity squeezed out of me) who has been reading this site for over two years I cannot recall a single credible example which any reasonable, sane and sentient being could ever consider fitted the scurrilous accusation which has been flung at you in this sorry excuse for ‘journalism’.
Let us know when the crowd funding opens to take these two arrogant individuals and their backers down a peg or three.
The list on Stu’s action could be even longer.
—————
Historywoman
?@2351onthelist
@SugarspotAnnie @Maxie_UK @siobhanyc Yes, how like Stu Campbell and the bots he sets on No voters.
—————
twitter.com/2351onthelist/status/792728680795635712
Grouse Beater @ 5.05pm
I hope you get credit and suitable monetary compensaton when the movie gets made! 😀 I’m already seeing it, and, of course, the good Rev and the people of Scotland win in the end! 😀
Wonder what the Express will be rushing through on this for tomorrow?
The one thing these people never learn is don’t make it up, don’t change the story, don’t miss out bits that are relevant. It is done continually in papers like the Express Mail etc.
There will be some readers who will be taken in by that story so I’m right behind you Stu. Sue the erse off them for as much as you can get.
mealer @ 5.05pm
TBF, JKR’s enormous wealth is built on fantasy, that chap Gates’s on something that actually works and operates in the real world.
So we get The Express and Rowling v 50% of the Scottish people?
I doubt it will come to that, common sense tells me so, I might be wrong of course. I’ll support you because you are in the right and somebody has to challenge the liars.
If you do you will be representing an awful lot of folk who will want you to win and will back you. One word of caution Carmichael was a liar and still got away with it.
I’d get after them though, we should take the liars head on, pulling the blankets over your head is no longer an option. The UK is going to the dogs due to those that run it for their own purposes. The media is what allows them to do that, the media gives them “legitimacy”.
No chance, we need to fight their lies and together we can.
Her coming over to yes after the bigoted English vote to leave the,Eu and drag Scotland with it. Sure didn’t last very long. She can take her millions and live in Brexit land seen as she hates 50% of Scotland. Why does she hate the very people who actually stand against British bullying and narrow minded bigotry.
She just doesn’t get it blinded by her rage.
What`s wrong with these women. Is someone in the shadows encouraging them? If you go after the Express Rev there are a lot of people who will contribute to your legal fees.
‘Has anyone forgotten to take their meds today’?…asked Nurse Ratched.
Normally, ‘slicker than snot on a doorknob’ ,looks like somebody’s might have just ‘stained their pants’….still they prowl,….’more nervously,than a pair of long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs’.
#purpleproseseptictankisms
;-j
They will employ the favourite Unionist defence which is
“But that’s what you were thinking”
The media do it all the time with everything the FM says
eg; The FM says she will do everything in her power to keep Scotland in the single market (But we know that she wants Independence above all else on the planet earth and world universe at the cost of peoples lives she doesn’t care the evil woman that she is and she hates all English people so there Meh)
And now the weather
This has kept me amused all day.
Ms McFadyen’s line manager surely needs to have a quiet, but serious chat with her.
In my opinion, her work is vexatious and hate-filled – no doubt written to attract a certain fringe of society. How can anyone be so full of hatred towards fellow Scots?
She perhaps needs out pity rather than our scorn.
You’re too smart for them Stu. When we get Indy so much of it will be down to you and the quality posters on this site.
When can these types accept its Westminster and the tories we no likey – the English are grand. Although post Brexit it’s all a bit concerning. And then along comes Gary Linnekar. Can we make him an honorary Scot? Or give him the freedom of our cities?
All we want to have is self determination. Like normal countries.
@ Rev could you lodge the Paperwork to sue the Express in Scottish Court , that daytime telly’s shite.
Just do it!
Just joined…not a life ‘newby’….but def a Wings fan…and Stewart..’We nearly had you @ Hampden..Quitongo vis.a.vis Dons keeper (he’s an octopus!)..well done..go on and win it though in light of yesterdays result………
Hold the front page! Scoop McFadyen reporting from the Twitter Front Line. “It’s Hell out there”, says Scoop, dodging incoming tweets landing thick and fast (oops – cliche), “but JKR is retweeting as we speak…”
Oh I can’t be bothered.
I hope you rake in a mint to spend on Wee Blue Book 2. Let us know if a fund-raiser is required.
That is some bitches brew McFadyen and Rowling have concocted for you there Stuart.And yet they look so sweet.
Yoons’ rabid British Nationalism blinds them to all else in their endeavor to keep their Britain whole and great.
Lies and hypocrisy are truly the most defining British values which most Yoons like those two exhibit.
They are also shameless,but perhaps a little taste of their own litigious medicine may cause them to have at least a minute or two of introspection.
Count me in for the fundraiser.
Please take action against them, they need to be made an example of in this case! It’s bordering on offensive & abusive behaviour, do they just think it’s something they can get away with, or pay their way out of? Does JK really think it’s OK doing this, or “leading by example”, to the children who are following her activities?
Go on Stu, kick their earses.
Some people seem to think if they have lots of money and lawyers they can say and do as they like and no one is to answer back or object in any way but they have to be very afraid. Not likely. I am astonished she cannot find something more constructive to do with her time and energy. As for the SMCF she just says anything to get her name mentioned and get talked about – you cannot take her seriously – even if she does.
Off-Topic
Did anyone catch the BBC News at 6pm this evening when they discussed the news item about death of a man involved in the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie Bomber.
When it came to listening to an interview from Jim Swire whose daughter died on the flight, did anyone else find it odd that the Swire’s personal comments which were done over a telephone, seemed to be distracted by a ‘graphical sound-level’ that played in the background while he talked. I had to rewind the news piece and then look away from the TV so I could understand what Jim was saying.
Call me paranoid, but with the telephone conversation already fairly poor due to the fact that it was a …telephone conversation, why did the BBC not put up a transcript of what Jim right next to the picture of Jim, instead of a fairly large graphic that continually danced before your eyes while Jim spoke.
Very odd. I’ve never seen that being done on the BBC News before.
As I said yesterday, re Hamish and Chris, yoons don’t do humour.
And to prove it, along comes McFadyen, apparently outraged by “creepy” Jack Deeth’s comical one-man “frenzied hate mob” posing outside Sexpress offices with his bit of cardboard requesting the reinstatement of Wings’ Twitter account after McFadyen had it closed down.
You gotta feel sorry for them.
Well, not much.
I hate liars. These 2 liars have definitely stepped over a line today.
The British public need protection from such disturbed persons, clearly determined to stir up nationalistic hatred between the English & Scottish peoples.
The press regulator is a paper tiger but the courts will take a very dim view of millionaires and their press flunkies thinking they are above the law.
Dim Macfadyen clearly could not get through to her editor or the Express lawyers who would have told her she has just fallen through the ice.
This miscreant ..liberally termed ‘a journalist’ obviously loves her country.Question is…which one?
>>@HandandShrimp says:
30 October, 2016 at 5:18 pm
Surprised that Rowling is in cahoots with Siobhan. I seriously doubt they share anything in common politically
===================
I used to think that, believing it was ignorance of what goes on up here that led her to be so anti-independence. However the more I’ve seen of her actions (the Spanner nonsense for instance and now this) I’m led to believe she isn’t at all left wing but Blairite probably thinking it’s not “cool” to be Tory which is probably what she really is. No one can go one about a topic in such a wrong headed manner unless they had some axe to grind which meant they didn’t care about the real facts.
This IndyRef2 phony war really is heating up.
The whole “Scots Indy Supporters hate the English boll*cks”, and it is boll*cks (just see English Scots for Yes) etc.
Is in my opinion see a continuation of, and in the same vein as:
1. The Bone Picker and Hair Flickers Scots and the KKK TV prog
2. Conservative MP Sam Gyimah filibustering the SNPs Turing Bill in Westminster
3. MSM daily reports of SNHS, Forth Bridge, Polis Scotland etc. etc. etc.
WM, The Yoons and their MSM supporters cannot and will not allow SNP, Scots Govt. or even the Scots People to have the moral high ground regarding anything but especially Europe.
This line of attack is to offset the xenophobia stirred up South of the border and make their readers feel good about hating Indy and it’s supporters.
More and more people see through this sh*te every day and are question the never ending SNP Bad line based on their own experiences.
As pointed out previously, if they can’t argue with the message they will target the messenger hence the ramp up against WoS and the negative comments re: Inform Scotland billboards.
link to ericjoyce.co.uk
Even more amazing yoon culture, in UKOK action.
SO I went to see the Glasgow Uni Professorising people and asked if I could be a Professor too. They said had I ever been to Oxford, Cambridge and or Nuffield. I have, day trips and the chemist, lovely towns, athletes foot cream. They asked me if I was clever, I said yes. They asked me if I believed every word BBC Scotland say about bad Nic Sturgeon, yes I do and that’s it, I’m a Professor, just like Professor Jim Gallagher.
@ Rock, 5:30pm
I’m not with you on your idea of the franchise for Indyref2 being restricted to people with at least one Scottish grandparent.
Maybe you forgot to mention a residency requirement? Otherwise millions of people outwith Scotland would qualify. (How would that even be administered??)
Restricting the franchise in such a way would also smack of ethnic nationalism, which is not my experience of Scottish nationalism at all. Such a restriction would resemble the UK franchise for the Brexit referendum, in which EU nationals – many of whom had lived in the UK for years or even decades – did not get to vote on the future of their home.
I think the 2014 referendum mostly had the right of it. Everybody resident in Scotland. People born in Scotland and people who’ve chosen to make their home, for whatever reason, in Scotland. Yes, you might get the likes of JKR or tory-voting wealthy retirees from other parts of the UK, but like it or not, they live in Scotland and indy is going to affect their lives, so they ought to have a say. Tough.
The only gripe I have with 2014 is how loosely “residency” seemed to be interpreted and/or scrutinised. Next time, I’d like to see a more stringent scrutiny and the franchise limited to those who’ve genuinely lived in Scotland for a certain period of time before the ref. Three years, five years? During that period, never voted in a local or national election in some other part of the UK (or another country). That would “cull” holiday-homers and many rUK students.
The problem with this approach is, of course, that the UK has no central population register and no co-ordination between local electoral rolls, so it’d be a nightmare to implement (but still less of an adminstrative mess than finding out who each voter’s grandparents were).
This comes from somebody from a country where we have a central population register, which also serves as an electoral roll. You don’t have to worry about registering to vote, they know where you live and send you notifications for any election you’re eligible to vote in.
A bit “bigbrotherish”? Maybe. But the Nordic countries have had this system since our Reformation (in practice, mid-1550s to early 1600s) so we’ve never thought it was a problem until the modern internet age. Most people still think it’s a good thing because it cuts away lots of unnecessary, duplicated and triplicated and quadruplicated public admin.
Just a different mindset and culture. Shrug. You win some, you lose some.
You do realise, Stu, that legal action, should it be necessary, could be deemed newsworthy, whereby potentially bringing you – and your site – to the attention of many, many more Scots and.. Hmm?
No news is bad news. We’ll support you on this; say the word
I am surprised and disappointed in Jakey R. Associating with the foul-mouthed artificial construct Spanner was bad enough, but you might have though someone with an apparent progressive take on life and some kind of social conscience (as one might assume from the Potter saga) would have had very good reason to pause and re-think things in the wake of Brexit and the staringly obvious democratic deficit (nay, chasm) that the EUref result has so clearly demonstrated here in North Britain.
Instead she reacts with her own brand of careless mud-slinging and now lets herself be fodder for zoomer Siobhan McFadyen’s wacky world of BritNat porn? When the chips are down, the real person is revealed, and the result here is far from complimentary.
Not for me to say, Rev Stu, but I believe you would be perfectly justified in demanding satisfaction from the vile chronically-lying Daily Slug. Somebody certainly oughter.
The more I see of it, the more I am convinced Twitter is a force for evil in the world. I’ll never have anything to do with it and would encourage others to think very carefully about using it themselves.
Was the original comment from the lunatic tendency not actually about the Rev and his Twitter account?
However to get back to this forum, I don’t think for one second it’s anti English, quite the opposite in fact, and I think that is what annoys them the most. I can believe that newspapers would like to click bait, but what on earth is JKR playing at, associated with the likes of the express and spanner? Honestly I can’t understand it, it deifies logic?
Twitter is for idiots, at least that’s my impression.
Oh boy, I’m buying champagne if the Rev manages to successfully get a settlement out of JK for defamation, that would so be worth celebrating, OMGod, please, please can this happen 😀 😀 😀
You don’t think it could be anything to do with the fact that actor Colin Farrell said he felt ridiculous being asked to rehearse for the new Harry Potter spin off
MSN News
In other UKOK news
link to bbc.co.uk
Make Farage a Lord
link to bbc.co.uk
Michael Gove under scrutiny for leaving son alone in hotel to go dancing.
Isn’t Mrs Gove also an Express or Heil hack?
Siobhan McFadyen is the Scottish Indy equivalent of a Katie Hopkins who must be her role model. I’ll say any old shite if it gets me noticed is her mantra.
She fails to understand that her bile printed in the Express has got her noticed but that making lies obvious has it own consequences.
SLAM, SLAP, HUMILIATE, BATTER, and SQUASH these simpletons masquerading as journalists.
She may just have bitten off more than she can chew this time, take these liars to court and show them up for what they are.
You can insult and defame one man but not 50% of a nation.
One thing is clear about McFadyen, highlighted by her remarks about Jack Deeth – She has absolutely NO sense of humour.
Some of her previous stories are corkers ! Snake bits Penis of Irish farmer whilst he’s peeing in a field.
link to archive.is
Take them all the way Rev, if you have to. In spite of Rolling’s millions, we’ve got your back. If she has seen fit to take on half of Scotland then so be it. Her mistake. Just say the word.
Rev wrote:
“From the preceding text, that can only possibly refer to us – or to be more precise, me.”
Relax, dear fellow, it wizzny you. Right? Got it? We’ve got it sussed, we’ll set up a patsy tae take the fall. We’re gaunny point the finger o blame at Lollysmum.
She’s vileness personified and to top it all she’s just recently been smuggled across the border in the hope she’ll no be identified.
All is well my friend but SHhhh, dinny tell a soul, i’m setting up the posse to hunt her down as we speak.
😉
Ms McFadyen is performing badly, but performing as a member of the fourth estate. And as abhorrent I find her trolling she is perfectly within her brief as a political actor to do so.
JKR is however a different kettle of fish, she is an author of children’s books. Her political leanings are, and must be taken in that context. She has no defence of political sentimentality, no party to fall back on, she is not a member of the legislature, not a party leader. Can she not see she is being used by the dregs of political life in Scotland?
She depends on the adulation of political hacks, and although she is privately supported by Tory and red Tory she is not brought into mainstream political life, and the question she must ask is why?
Quite honestly she is at serious risk of becoming the Donald Trump of the independence debate. And actually that is just so sad!
Other other news, Dr NO! strikes again,
Gary Retweeted Scott Arthur
Wish more Nats would he angry about things like thisGary added,
Scott Arthur @DrScottThinks
SNP Unis:
15% drop in students receiving bursary/grant.
36% drop in the total amount of grant support paid.
24% drop in the average paid.
0 replies
link to bbc.co.uk
Budget 2015: Student maintenance grants scrapped
University maintenance grants for lower income students in England and Wales are to be scrapped from September 2016, Chancellor George Osborne has said.
In his budget, Mr Osborne said the grants had become “unaffordable”.
Its 100% drop in students receiving bursary/grant, but Dr NO! and chums not bothered about English stundentos. Its all about borders for the SLab crew now and the fact that Crash Gordo bankrupted teamGB.
I don’t post very often but I look in every day for my daily dose of sanity.
Happy to donate if there is a campaign
@ Stu Mac (6:47pm) and Robert J. Sutherland (7:00pm)
I’ve been wondering about JKR’s politics.
Maybe she genuinely supported left-wing policies in her younger days, when those policies enabled her to write her first book or two.
But let us not forget that the basic story in her books is underdog gets into a prestigious public school (in the English sense of the word), finds friends and allies there and thereby becomes a winner and a friend of powerful people, ultimately becoming one himself.
Hmm.
Arseholes.
Quite pathetic behaviour. I tried posting some real stuff people threatened Salmond with but it got wairing for moderation, changed it to take out worlds like shot, strangled, got moderated, broke it down got one though, the next got “reached posting limit”. Sigh.
Yeah, defamation. Oh, if it’s Rowling, and it’s the court near her residence, Scots Law, but also perhaps a small claims at the Sheriffs – that limits her island of lawyers to a couple of fold-up seats and no costs for them, unless your claim was deemed to be unreasonable – clearly it isn’t. Not sure what the limit is these days, fee was £28 last time I had to threaten a non-paying agency.
@Tam Jardine
Yes, it looks like the decent posters are getting sick of it. Which means you’re doing a good job patiently pointing out to them the errors in the article – or their posts. Keep the heid and they kick themselves in the round objects. Kick, oh, kick, oh, kick oh, stop hitting yourself. Drives them loony, which is a very short drive.
Maybe have all the Tweets, Facebook comments and Newspaper reports from the Union side collected to show the abuse we get. Including so called family members.
lumilumi @ 18:50,
I agree with you 100% about the residence requirement, especially the need for some kind of time period, so that transients can’t wilfully influence the result. The principle of conferring the vote on all those – and only those – who are significantly impacted by the result is a very sound one. JKR et al included.
You always have to gain the desired result on convincing a majority, including a sufficient number of natural sceptics. There is no other way.
As to implementation, it is perhaps stretching things just a little too far to simply rely on the honesty of everyone on the current electoral roll: “You are not entitled to vote if you have not been a resident in Scotland for a total duration of at least 200 weeks within the last 5 years” or suchlike.
Given the limitations of the electoral roll that you mention, one possible solution might be to require all those not on the electoral roll of 5 years ago (if still available), or in the case of young people, of their parents, to re-register with some proof of long-term residence.
Another possibility is to rely on the same multiplicity of public-domain sources used by these “people finder” services. They seem to be able to generate a large amount of historical place-related data about nigh on everyone. So it surely can be done.
Stu- backing you 100% against McFadyen and the Express. Whatever you need.
Re Anti-Englishness- there is no equivalent forum to the Daily Express or Daily Mail BTL where xenophobic, anti Scottish remarks are commonplace. I keep asking the troglodytes what forum exists where anti-English xenophobia is aired with impunity?
On Wings, for example, anyone making an anti-English remark will find themselves pounced upon immediately.
There is nowhere I know of- there is no answer and the question remains unanswered.
There are obviously horrible things said on the internet- one side ignored and the other amplified but the man who wants to clean up the internet better have a very big broom.
@ Andrew Mclean (7.36pm)
She depends on the adulation of political hacks,…
It seems to me she first and foremost depends on the unreserved adulation of hardcore Harry Potter fans. That’s her lifeblood. She’s their god and as a consequence seems to believe she can do no wrong, her Potterhead fans tell her so, and now the British MSM.
Sad, really.
yesindyref2
I’m an addict now!
@Tam Jardine
I don’t check out the Express but I do read most if nota ll postings here, so if you find a good thread, archive.is it and post a “welcome to post”, and I’ll give it a shot. It’s fun, and I’ve a couple of serious things to bring up about that so-called anti-English thing. I do tourist areas and there’s a load of English guys come up to Scotand for the banter with Scots. Sadly we usually lose when it gets round to football, glum faces. Hmmm.
Richardinho wrote (5:07pm)
“I’m a little sceptical that there’s an actual case for legal action.”
Me too but keep in mind at this stage the Rev is just consulting his lawyers. They will determine if he has a case or not and then just about every one of us, or a substantial number of us, will give him any financial support he needs, should he get the green light from his legal team.
What i will ask of the Rev is that, this time around, he doesn’t settle for the meagre few thousand he took off The Hootsman. You know, all things considered, like inflation, the soon to be useless pound, financially unstable times and…well…just because it’s The Express rag. 🙂
Pretty much a regular visitor to wings. I have not as far posted, however I can guarantee a contribution to the funding of any action you consider appropriate in the event you want to take legal action.
I take it back I widnae pish on her if she was on fire….
This from 2010…
link to girlsguidetohomelessness.com
Siobhan McFadyen has a reputation for being one of the worst tabloid journalists in the land. She is renowned for making up quotes, finding “friends” and “sources” and being an all-round diabolical character. If it’s any comfort, I don’t think her reputation is really going to get her much further than subsisting on scurrilous lies and fictions for which she is paid very little. Perhaps her life of abject misery is some comfort
I didn’t know the collective noun for abusives messages was “a torrid ” ???
Good on you Wings. Take those lying bastards to the cleaners. Jaikie probably thinks you’d be afraid to challenge her because she is litigacious and wealthy.But you have the crowd behind you.
@Tam Jardine (7.53pm)
Haven’t you learned it yet, you silly bugger? 😉
Unless you unreservedly love the British (UK) state, you’re anti-English.
Yeah, I don’t see the logic in that either but that’s what it is. Shrug.
Its all making Euan MacSpanner very angry. On balance, old JK does like her hard core Euan rough trade.
link to twitter.com
Read this site for years and enjoyed same everyday. Never had a need to post as most covered my views.
Tonight I post to congratulate the Rev and confirm my backing.Its about time we developed a backbone!
@Croompenstein
Good find!
Sounds like her previous efforts make her ideal for the Express!
‘the free press is the ubiquitous vigilant eye of people’s soul, the embodiment of a people’s faith in itself…It is a people’s frank confession to itself, and the redeeming power of confession is well known. It is the spiritual mirror in which a people can see itself, and self-examination is the first condition of wisdom…It is the ideal world which always wells up out of the real world and flows back into it with ever greater spiritual riches and renews its soul’
Karl Marx
(after completing his doctoral thesis in 1841 Marx abandoned the idea of a university career and pursued a career in journalism)
link to marxists.anu.edu.au
What would Marx make of today’s journalistic standards?
The co-ordinated attempt within ‘journalism’ to diminish and misrepresent the YES movement’s educational reach and its embodiment of an inclusive egalitarian movement is astonishing and deeply disappointing. Unfortunately for the negatively motivated press that cannot stand outside its own maladaptive belief systems the YES movement continues to think positively and constructively to stay self-motivated to achieve its aim and is spear-headed by a majority of independence parties that believes in the common good.
The journalist –flâneur that Marx would recognise from his time in journalism who embodied the ideals of a dynamic urban culture and sensibility is long gone.
Even daft old hootsman piled on, different issue but
link to archive.is
“Then, when writer and campaigner Kirsty Strickland suggested the billboard might be self-defeating, she found herself “Wingsed” – that is subjected to an attack by the pro-independence blogger Stuart Campbell.”
The strangulation one: I read as metaphorical, rather than literal, and referencing a generational predilection for Unionism.
The use of the female anatomy as an insult was unseemly, even with context but you may not share my generationally conditioned perspective on that.
heedtracker
Followed your link to Brian Spanner twitter feed (is that the right word?) Never read his stuff before. Quite disturbing, clearly someone with a serious personal problem. What is equally disturbing is that JK Trolling likes him so much. This makes no sense if you’re a level-headed millionaire best-selling author. There must be a personal connection that blinds her to his vile nature or she’s a deeply unpleasant person herself. Given her obsession with ‘cybernats’ etc it makes me wonder if Spanner is not her alter ego articulating the things ‘JK Trolling’ cannot say herself publicly.
Should I care what these two very neurotic woman write in a gutter press rag?
Perhaps I should feel compassion for JK Rowling because I believe there is something very seriously wrong with the woman.
Hootsman’s reassuringly tory mad as ever. Only actors like Ewan can save the world. Everyone knows that.
link to archive.is
“I was worried that Scotland would flounder if it was on its own and I believed in the union and I felt like we were stronger together. Then Brexit’s happened. Now I’m totally confused.”
@woosie says: 30 October, 2016 at 4:34 pm:
“I don’t read the express, so I’m not clever enough to understand the phrase “a torrid of abuse”.
This lady doesn’t need protection from vile cybernats, she needs english lessons!”
I’m sure, Woosie, that all the lady, (for lack of a more appropriate, and legally acceptable, term), needs is a primary school child to set up a freeware Spell Checker for her. It is quite clear that she has not the capability to do so by herself.
I didn’t know that Stu got £6K from The Scotsman!
Very excellent!
Another £6k from the Express?
Perhaps now that JK Rowling is a YES voter she might give a huge donation to Wings!
Given her obsession with ‘cybernats’ etc it makes me wonder if Spanner is not her alter ego articulating the things ‘JK Trolling’ cannot say herself publicly.
Its possible. But MacSpanner is a ferocious misanthrope, in fact probably the worst imaginable. So its unlikely Euan MacSpanner is a girl tory, red or blue. But youre right, the fact JK’s a twitter follower and worse of the reprobate, speaks Harry Plopplop sized volumes about present day UKOK yoon world.
Money cant buy klass, even if you have more money than Hillary Clinton. Even Hillary’s only worth about a third of a JK Rowling, $240 million.
Rock
Human rights are the kryponite Rock. Only the yooniest of those living in Scotland would support Britain’s continuation if they were aware that it meant willfully surrendering their inaliable human rights? Why not sell them the concept of “life under the rule-of-law”?
link to un.org
I didn’t know the collective noun for abusive messages was a “torrid” ???
heedtracker says:
30 October, 2016 at 8:44 pm
Given her obsession with ‘cybernats’ etc it makes me wonder if Spanner is not her alter ego articulating the things ‘JK Trolling’ cannot say herself publicly.
Its possible. But MacSpanner is a ferocious misanthrope, in fact probably the worst imaginable. So its unlikely Euan MacSpanner is a girl tory, red or blue.
Ruby replies
Someone who writes fiction can create any type of character they want their gender makes no difference.
Well, REV, this is most interesting. You would have thought that by now, and following what happened to the laughingly titled ‘Scotsman’ newspaper, that unionists would have realised that you are sharp, specific, and stick to facts. They no doubt thought they were writing about some average ‘blogger’ with a large following, how wrong they were. They appear to know very little about you.
It is somewhat ironic that perhaps it does seem the writers at the Express, had no idea you were likely watching like a hawk, for them to slip up. Away to the cleaners with them. We will all enjoy this. 🙂
@Rock says: 30 October, 2016 at 5:30 pm:Scotland will never
“Unless the next referendum restricts the vote to, for example, residents who have at least one grandparent born in Scotland, we are not going to be independent any time soon””
Pish!
I look forward to an in depth Express article upon The Joy of Spanner.
@lumilumi says: 30 October, 2016 at 5:46 pm:
” … TBF, JKR’s enormous wealth is built on fantasy, that chap Gates’s on something that actually works and operates in the real world””
So you don’t have Windows 10 on your computer, Lumilumi?
;-))
The yooniists want us to respond in kind.
They want us to respond like spanner and co.
This is a time for discipline and not to be lured into a trap. Be on the look out for pretend Indyre2’s who will then try and stick it too us,
Their concerted, organised attempts will fail.
Good luck stu. In their excitement their malicious campaign has spilled onto you but they have overstepped their mark in their attempt to smear you.
Move back to Scotland!!
Ruby replies
Someone who writes fiction can create any type of character they want their gender makes no difference.
Maybe, but our Euan is a malice dripping ghoul that hates everyone, well everyone to the left of St Snatcher Thatcher. JK keeps saying she’s a Labour vote. Although she really hates JC. But then they all do in SLab, or at least the ones that get the BBC vote SLab Scotland hard core backing.
One things for sure, WoS really gets up the noses of our chums on the right. They have the whole of the UKOK tory BBC led meeja to tubthump vote tory red and blue, but woe betide anyone answering back.
Haha, Robert!
Yeah, I’m still a Windows 7 girl, me. Trying to keep my trusty 6-yr-old laptop alive as long as possible. Looking into other options like Linux…
I cannot agree with the Pish! sentiment more Robert.
Here is a born & bred English woman with another 4 relatives who chose to live in Scotland & all vote for independence after making our home here for 26 years.
I rather think I’m more useful to the independence cause than born & bred Scottish yoons,don’t you?
Oh Ruby don’t take your case tae court ,you settle to easily ,£6000 from the Scotsman ,but times moved on & so have prices .
Screw them for every penny you can get Rev.
Awaiting the whistle blawing fur the start of the Crowdfunder.
@shiregirl says: 30 October, 2016 at 6:00 pm:
This has kept me amused all day.
” … She perhaps needs out pity rather than our scorn.”
I believe I know exactly what she needs … but I wouldn’t dare say so on a public forum.
;-))
So who gets sued, McFadyen, Rowling, the Express or all three?
Be nice to see them getting brought down a peg or two.
Hamish100 at 909pm,
Wise words. They will indeed try to use division and arguments to cause the indy campaign to fall apart. We must be wise to this. Don’t rise to the bait – even if it comes from those we think are on our side.
Elizabeth Stanley and Robert Peffers, I wholly agree with your point. No place for such divisive nonsense.
Robert Peffers
I got ageist dogs abuse the other day from some adolescents, simply for suggesting they might try not to block the pavement with their bicycles. I think they learned a lesson 🙂 but it did make me reappraise how others see me.
OT but on the subject of the press. There has been much violent imagery used in the headlines of the Express and Daily Mail in relation to Nicola Sturgeon and many disparaging attacks on her in ‘Scottish’ and other London based mainstream newspapers. Along with the commentariat, even in some supposedly pro-Ind on line media.
Not one of them has made a stand against the constant stream of abuse. The whole of the 4th Estate is in terminal decline and they seem totally unaware of what they they’re doing.
The UK, as witnessed by this decline, is crumbling as a state and along with it the institutions of power.
Sadly, JKR continues on her confused road to somewhere. Problem is,she is so mixed up, I doubt if she’ll recognize it when she gets there. A very troubled person much to be pitied – to have so much and feel so worthless.I wonder what her young readers would think of the company she keeps? Will give what financial support I can Rev if you go for these disgraces to democracy, decency and journalism!
Somewhere in London a torrid of chardonnay is being glugged in a room strewn with kleenex as tomorrow’s SNP baad copy stutters on a passive, yawning word document.
See- I can write purty too
@Robert Peffers 9.04pm
‘So you don’t have Windows 10 on your computer, Lumilumi?
😀 LOL
It’s remarkably quiet on the JKR front. I guess the Express and of course the groupies at the Herald will be preparing something, along with the ‘Scotsman’, Telegraph, Times, Guardian, BBC, STV, P&J, Courier, uncle Tom Cobblers and all.
O/T
The concerted attack last week by Ruth, Kez, Willie, Jacquie Baillie and the media on the SNHS is part of a campaign to convince as many as possible that we are unable to run our own country. They have been knocking education and mental health and will no doubt pick on the police soon.
‘Better together two’ have been fundraising and no doubt planning strategy too. Picking on The Rev is probably part of it to try and deflect Stu and discredit Wings further. Anti-english sentiment is noticed north and south and is a dangerous subject to play with but it’s all part of the plan to make us look too reactionary for nice people to side with.
We have to play a careful hand, but one that exposes lies where there be lies.
Do we know what the polls are saying re YES/NO yet?
Ruby wrote (@8:38pm):
“Perhaps now that JK Rowling is a YES voter she might give a huge donation to Wings!”
You’ve lost me Ruby, serious or sarcasm? Explanation please!
The all out attack last week on the SNHS is part of a campaign to convince as many as possible that we are unable to run our own country. Similarly with education, Scotrail and the police.
‘BT’ 2 have been fundraising and no doubt planning strategy too. Picking on The Rev is probably part of it to try and deflect Stu and discredit Wings further. Anti-english sentiment is noticed north and south and is a dangerous subject to play with but it’s all part of the plan to make us look too reactionary for nice people to side with.
We have to play a careful hand, but one that exposes lies where there be lies.
Sorry for duplicate post but website rejected previous post as a duplicate when I tried to post it first time. Think the cat nudged my hand as i was posting and caused a double click?
@Andrew Mclean says: 30 October, 2016 at 7:06 pm:
” … I can believe that newspapers would like to click bait, but what on earth is JKR playing at, associated with the likes of the express and spanner?”
There is a very old Scots saying, Andrew, It goes like this.
“If ye maun flee wi the craws ye micht weel bi shot iz a craw”
Methinks the authoress of children’s fantasy novels has indeed always been prone to, “Flee wi the craws”, and what we see today is the real persona while that concocted by her agents for the purpose of selling fiction to unwary children is much more a fantasy than the woman’s fictional outpourings.
If you will pardon the mixed metaphors, “Such Leopards do not change their spots”.
Maybe the unionist coalition are trying to render you harmless before any referendum comes along because of the influence they know you have!
[…] refer, of course, to these matters. The tip of the […]
“A torrid of abuse”, eh? They must be having a torrent time of it.
Go get ’em.
Christ the extra hour does not make English telly any less boring, Dan Snow makes the Rockies boring, Neil Oliver’s extremely excited on the Coast of dullness, Humans is terrible, Goggle box is the most brilliant cheap tv though, not.
Other other other UKOK news, Macwhirter says lets all pay higher taxes in the greater English region of Scotland and no, its NOT paying twice for the privilege of being British and great, at all.
link to archive.is
Jk is as right wing and xenophobic as the people she associates with. She is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Under that butter wouldn’t melt expression. Is a ruthless paranoid and vain woman.
Anyone that needs to threaten legal action over every tweet. Is basically thin skinned and self obsessed.
She is not unique as it’s common to many rich celebrities. She likes to walk over the little people as it makes her feel powerful. Hence she went after working class Mcgarry and used a mob mentality to bully her.
“But Nicola Sturgeon should have more courage in her own social democratic convictions. The way to combat the Tory threat is not to starve public services of funds, which will only undermine public faith in them, but to use the Scottish dimension to start a debate about increasing taxes, marginally, to pay for the NHS.”
Wish hacks like Macwhirter and co would go back to their “Scottish dimension.”
Nothing stopping Macwhirter paying “marginally” more tax either. Or even standing for election with his Pay More Tax In My Scottish Dimension party.
This is through the looking glass stuff.
The Express is whining about fabricated anti-English sentiments which don’t exist, while it’s own xenophobic vitriol about immigrants, Scots, the poor, the disabled, those on benefits, is largely responsible for inciting hatred which has led to Brexit and the sharp swing to the right which now panders to UKIP and National front type bigotry.
Just have a wee review of the vile filth routinely said about Nicola Sturgeon in below the line comments from Britnats knuckle draggers.
These people are just common or garden shit stirrers without a care in the world about those injured or damaged by the shite that they stir. Just a pair of drama queens who like being the centre of attention.
Elizabeth Stanle @ 9:13pm
Absatootly. If you allow ideological or nationalistic justifications to prevent Scotland sharing the human rights enjoyed by the bulk of the global community (there’s only a few none signatories to R2D), what chance Scottish society?
link to un.org
Watched “Young Victoria” on Amazon Prime. She was the Queen of England, you know. Her English Ministers were very keen to influence her – Lord Melbourne and Robert Peel – in the English Parliament. Her English palaces were very grand.
Prince Albert wanted a place in Scotland because he’d heard it was like Germany there. Heavy rain.
“Is it always like this?” asked Albert.
“Yes,” replies Victoria, though how she knows that is a mystery. Scotland appears to be a totally foreign country.
It still is. I’ve just listened to “The Westminster Hour” on R4. It’s about England.
Why are we still hanging around?
@Elizabeth Stanley says: 30 October, 2016 at 9:13 pm:
” … Here is a born & bred English woman with another 4 relatives who chose to live in Scotland & all vote for independence after making our home here for 26 years.”
I was born in Scotland and my first wife was English but she died far too young. I have been a supporter and activist for Scottish independence since around 1946 but I treat everyone as belonging to the same race – the human race.
The point of the law of Scotland is that, at least since 1320 and the Declaration of Arbroath the law of Scotland is mainly based upon the legal premise that, “The People of Scotland”,, and not either the crown or the parliament, are legally sovereign.
The definition of, “The People of Scotland”, is that anyone, of any creed, colour or country of origin, who is mainly domiciled in Scotland and who is registered to vote in Scottish elections is one of the people of Scotland”.
That is Scottish law and here is another fact – nether the crown nor the parliament can legally be head of any Scottish church and that one is enshrined in the Treaty of Union.
The Scottish Legal System is also enshrined in the Treaty of Union to be independent in perpetuity and the reason for that is because English Law, (that applies to the rest of the three country Kingdom of England), is incompatible with that of Scotland.
This is because that Kingdom is a Constitutional Monarchy in which the Monarch is still legally sovereign. Ergo that means the royal sovereignty has only been legally delegated to the Parliament of England.
The mere fact that the Westminster parliament has always ignored those legal facts is cause enough for Scottish independence and it has nothing whatsoever to do with hate of anything or anyone, other than the incompatibility of the two legal systems and its abuse by Westminster.
So, there you go, Elizabeth, you are indeed a valued member of, “The People of Scotland”.
Mcwhirter asks why the NHS is failing. Well first of all its not. Yes there are issues but where do we get the funding? Team ukok and Tory cuts have caused the problems. You can’t spend your money if someone keeps cutting your allowance.
He suggests Scottish Taxpayers be taxed more to fund gaps caused by Tory cuts. The principle is paradoxical daft logic. When the UK cuts our budget we hurt the people even more to fund the gaps. Not only that it’s political suicide and he knows it. Does he want the SNP to lose the next election?
No Mcwhirter you are absolutely wrong. The problem is not the SNP or the Scottish people. The problem is the Union. We are tinkering around with block grants. We need to control our economy,spending,welfare and full taxation. In short we need independence. Faffing about in a pretendy country will solve nothing. The UK hurts Scotland. The SG does what it can to lessen the pain.
Taxing everyone even more is just utter madness from planet Zorg. That’s what the unionists want the SG to do and that’s exactly why they won’t do it.
Project fear has started people’s and people like Mcwhirter so called indi supporters are part of the machine. They unwittingly become project fear by ignoring the responsible party and government. They join the Scotland is a basket case reporting we are all so familiar with.
Mcwhirter is the most scitzophrenic indi supporter since Jim Sillars.
These people are just common or garden shit stirrers without a care in the world about those injured or damaged by the shite that they stir. Just a pair of drama queens who like being the centre of attention.
It must sell papers though, in greater England land. Look at that deeply creepy Liddell in the Sun, Kelvin Legalise Slavery McKenzie, that horsy dame that knows no depths Hopkins, Quentin Letts, he’s barking, Jeremy Clarkson, the peoples fascist, Ian Hislop, most punchable face on tv, Sunday Times has the most extraordinary zoomers like AA Gill, Mike White o the Graun, a ferocious old school UKOK imperialist, Max Hitler Hastings, he’s terrifying. You can do this all day but clearly teamGB loves its far right loonies.
Severin Carrell, hammer of the Scots, cant leave him out:D
Siobhan just doesn’t know when to quit, does she? I’m getting the popcorn in for this one.
@Tam Jardine
Yea, was able to post again, not my best efforts I think. What I noticed is that the worst of the posts were from an expat or two, and one or two with Scots names. I might check back a few threads by Siobhan, and see if it’s similar in older threads.
The expats don’t live here, and I’ve found myself that their knowledge of modern Scotland is often well out of date, and largely London press derived. And when they come home, their family and friends don’t put them right mostly, which I guess is understandable. I even met one who thought hotels shut on a Sunday.
Others are anti-SNP in nature, perhaps they’re sacked Labour MPs! Well, other readers just get to see the tripe put about by these Scots, and take it as gospel. And perhaps that feeds up through the line to some of the article writers. Who knows.
Anyway, seems like a good idea to post this, Arbroath:
link to nas.gov.uk
It still is. I’ve just listened to “The Westminster Hour” on R4. It’s about England.
Why are we still hanging around?
Could a Scottish media be any worse than the English lot? I’ve watched the same Family Guy a hundred times. C4 show Big Bang Theory so much, its blended into Frasier, the Big Frasier Bang. And why is everyone in any English tv drama upper class white? Probably because everyone behind the English camera is upper class white, in HD. I’m not saying our media chums in the south shouldnt do a Black Frasier, its just that isn’t there anything beyond watching Dan Snow being upper class English around the world, in history, on the moon etc?
Insular, dull, naval gazing, narcissistic, inward looking, creepy white posh domination, vote tory, for ever. And now, Family Guy.
Vote tory.
Sorry, I meant pubs shut on a Sunday! Hotels used to be the only place to get a drink …
link to twitter.com
Stoker says:
30 October, 2016 at 9:46 pm
Ruby wrote (@8:38pm):
“Perhaps now that JK Rowling is a YES voter she might give a huge donation to Wings!”
You’ve lost me Ruby, serious or sarcasm? Explanation please!
Ruby replies
link to twitter.com
Perhaps I misunderstood her tweet!
I was both serious & sarcastic!
People always talk about how unpopular politicians are. It’s about time there was a backlash against journalists.
It should be the most noble of professions, but sadly it’s all too commonly one of the least, these days.
@Meg merrilees says: 30 October, 2016 at 9:45 pm:
” … Do we know what the polls are saying re YES/NO yet?”
The point of such polls, Meg, is that there is no longer a way for them to be a true, or even a close approximation of, the truth. There never really was but now it just cannot be done.
To be anything like a good approximation a poll has to be totally random or has to cover an unworkably large sample.
Even, “a stop in the street at random”, sample is going to be unreliable. For example a sample from Edinburgh’s Morningside will throw up a different result from one in Edinburgh’s Granton/Muirhouse/Drylaw area.
A random telephone poll is now useless as many now do not have landlines and the internet polls are useless as they are done by people choosing to participate.
The Most stupid are those by YouGov as YouGov sign people up to a list. They even pay them and after they have participated a few times the pollsters know just who to include to get the result their customers want.
You may have read the USA news that the opinion polls in the Clinton/Trump, “Who won the debate”, polls were made bent by the use of computerised, “Bots”, that were set-up to vote in the polls with random names and addresses.
JKR put in loads of effort trolling for the union in Indyref1, along with her now titled Darling pals.
Must have been some savage when even the Mone woman got the Lord’s gig and she got zilch. Enough to flip a yoon over the edge?
Stu, I’ve not read through the responses, but if you need a fund for Court, im sure we will all oblige.
Take her to the cleaners, Stu! Clean her out! Make sure she never works again! 🙂
Breeks
Master’s tools, as in using not being?
link to quora.com
To get back to the premise that those who support the principle of Scottish independence are, somehow, ANGLOPHOBIC.
I’ll just point out that at the Glasgow Green rally on 18th September, “English Scots For Yes” were housed within the Ayemail, iScot, WOS street of gazebos.
At the Hollyrood rally last week, WOS was housed within the Ayemail/iScot gazebos. “English Scots For Yes” turned up with no gazebo so Ronnie Anderson went to Mitch Kilbride’s car and brought the WOS gazebo for “English Scots For Yes” to use.
See Wingers? Wur absolute b@$t@rd$, iye?
“constructedness”
That takes me back. 🙂
Surely “Torrance of abuse”?
Conan the Librarian™
That one not peaked yet?
…next!
I’m not anti English, French, German, Spanish , Dutch etc. I just don’t want any of them to run my country.
link to google.co.uk
yesindyref2
Re the expats and supposed Scots- how many of them actually are? Trolling 101 tells us you should introduce yourself as Scottish, formerly a yes voter who now hates the SNP and is now actively campaigning against independence. Dissolutioned big time.
Or personal anecdote like some fantasist today talking about their son going to uni in Scotland and getting verbal anti english abuse from a tutor and dropping out. Just sounds like pure pish.
anti English sentiment exists in the odd zoomer but I’ve never seen it in the yes camp or SNP. Some tradesmen… The odd settler watch slogan on a wall in my youth many years ago. Anti – English National Football Team is alive and well but that’s more a football rivalry… not great but I am a pretty strong adherent.
I just came back from hols in Northumberland and I would be happy if the rebuild hadrian’s wall brigade ceded most of it to us. A win win I think.
enjoy your work on the Express- I gave up with the herald because you’ll never talk those fuds round. Those on the express basically get Scottish Independence- they just don’t know it yet. Herald types would vote for the union if they started gassing us IMHO
PS I love Ewan MacGregor and I enjoyed his volt face on Marr- cue abrupt end of interview. Tommy fae the first movie is arguably a bigger star now after his work on various series Inc Grey’s Anatomy and he jetted over to do his bit towards the end of the indy ref. Good guy.
@CameronB Brodie
It’s like peak SNP…
Could Jakey be working for MI5? Would explain why her shite books have been allowed to do so well – payback from the establishment.
Could Jakey be working for MI5?
SPECTRE more like. Starring Crash Gordo as the arch villain, seated at a massive desk, stroking his pussy, North British pussy!
Not the sharpest tool in the box but definitely suable for that dim piece.The editor is even dimmer letting it go to press.
heedtracker
The Mysterons?
BDTD @ 23:27,
Is the redoubtable resident Englishwoman Sue Varley still around? Or former regular poster titler from down south? Maybe someone like one of them could set the record straight about WoS for self-victimhood sufferer Jakey.
(The ultra-yoon Siobhan is probably unredeemable, alas. Is her hinterland possibly some kind of Ulster/OO/Loyalist?, I wonder…)
JK Rowling’s millions are just bits on a hard drive, and promises to pay from anonymous persons placed above the law, all she has a intangible virtual IOU, albeit a big one. UK banking is a tottering house of cards, built on bluff and bluster, scams upon scams, zombie-banks on state life-support, the state concerned: rUK a bankrupt, broken war-criminal world pariah. All of it, every last centigroat, can be gone vanish, with a click, anywhere in the world untraceably, or devalued, halving in real worth every day, till it wouldn’t buy a loaf of bread. That is the leverage finance has over Rowling, all the super-wealthy have put enormous trust in the least trustworthy, most shifty people imaginable, with an abysmal track-record, who spirit away and mind their tallies of worthless and highly perishable tokens. She is, along with many others in these lower tiers of the super-wealthy, someone’s mug, the super-rich are one event or another, say, one banking scandal or collapse, or one indy ref, one departing free-at-last golden-goose, away from destitution when UK banks and currency tank, and she has to rely for the first time on her tragically deficient wits and imperceptible talent. Laugh at her predicament, a slave all the same like us, but an outcast, no wonder she’s such miserable sod, her shrinking gilded-cage is too small for her ego. Her public persona so unhinged and repellant, who would buy such books, knowing of her character? She’ll have to resort further to buying her own books in bulk, if something of this sort hasn’t already been happening to account for the claimed bloated ‘sales’ of her Blytonesque re-heats. Somewhere in the world people must have them stacked like firewood and have been kept them warm by them through many a winter.
Robert Peffers @ 11.17
I mentioned polls as I thought there was one coming out around now – maybe got that wrong! But yes, how reliable are they really?
O/T
FBI chief may have ‘Broken the Law” link to bbc.co.uk
Also, here’s a disturbing bit of news on the BBC website.
link to bbc.co.uk
Apparently there are fears that cracks in Hinckley Point B might mean that it could not be shut down in an emergency. Also same cracks in Hunterston B . Only being reported in last 20 minutes Concerns that if you run reactors past their shelf life parts can wear out or fail.
Programme on tv tomorrow in W and SW England but in I-Player later.Will thy show it in Scotland?
Tom B
The discipline is- you break up your prose with line breaks otherwise no one reads it. Please resubmit. I say this not as a dick but someone who wants you to post stuff people will read.
Cheers
Hi Tam Jardine at 12:56 am
You typed,
“The discipline is- you break up your prose with line breaks otherwise no one reads it. Please resubmit. I say this not as a dick but someone who wants you to post stuff people will read.”
Agreed. To be honest, I read about the first three lines then my eyes started doing the old crossing ploy…
A paragraph break every two or three sentences makes for an easier read.
I mean it does say he’ll kill ye wi hammers if ye don’t include paragraph breaks right above the comment box ye typed intae Tom B…don’t get hammered get breaks 😉
If you have trouble with around 14 lines of text, I suspect it’s your reading comprehension that needs improvement, or it’s something an optician could help you with or you’re reading this on some device more suited to watching cartoons or which doubles as a sex-toy. There are no paragraph breaks, as it is one paragraph. In other words bugger off, diddys, address the points made or ignore it.
Leading historian predicts Brexit will not happen
He also predicts no Indy2 yet & he’s fallen out with Brownie!
(Not the footie one that’s coming back to save Scotland, that other yin that clunks his fist and makes vows)
link to archive.is
Tonn B
Folk offered you constructive criticism and you don’t appear to be handling it well. Not a good look.
Tom B
Sorry, I need glasses but my poor state of mental health presents a barrier to my well-being.
Wanker.
So, the unbiased BBC. Happened to look because of a Torrance article decrying the billboard campaign. The BBC News Scotland’s web page, has an article link for “FM ‘twiddling thumbs’ on legislation” (7 hours ago), but curiously has NO article on “How Brexit will ‘devastate’ Scotland’s world-class universities”, or from Prof Curtice who they like to quote on polls “Independent Scotland could remain in EU after Brexit, leading expert says”. Both covered in the Sunday Herald.
Bias by omission. Which the BBC does much more than bias in its articles in which it’s much more careful, though still is selective in what it quotes.
The BBC is unbiased, right. When will these people wake the f up?
@yesindyref2
I know that feeling!
Radio shortbread has been employing this tactic more over the last few weeks especially Saturday & Sunday mornings where its not a case of mis-reporting Scotland more a cause of non-reporting Scotland.
Nothing happening in Scotland it’s all foreign news. Trump. Iraq Mosul Trump & Clinton, Politics in France or Germany or India, Trump Brexit as per Westminster and so it goes.
Now of course we need news from other places but I have been told by my partner (who I moaned to about this three weeks ago) that I was right and she has begun to notice it too.
Rant over…try some sleep now. 🙂
@meg
The guy Large is knowledgeable, but turned against nuclear. Quick look at wiki to confirm what I knew: “Large has been critical of the nuclear power industry, and has been commissioned in the past by Greenpeace and other national and international NGOs to provide technical analysis on nuclear issues”.
The cracks at Humterston aren’t new, in fact there’s detailed modelling of the cracks which perform according to the model. Reported, mmmm, maybe 2, 3 years ago? Not new news (I live fairly near Hunterston). Like many living here, I’d prefer a Hunterston C to a proposed coal station, any day of the week!
Mmmm, better turn the light on, this glow isn’t enough to see by.
@call me dave
Yes, it’s why we need the billboards, but perhaps the focus should also be on “NOT-reporting Scotland”!
@Tam
Very possibly. I might concentrate on so-called Scottish posters a little, though not too far as otherwise they’ll be off with that “divided nation”, rubbish. I might just do it occasionally though – surprise visits!
In case anyone remembers my mentioning I got glasses, I lost them. They were only out of the £ shop though. True story.
Anybody still up can tell me what Autonomy Scotland is
I’ve just had and email from them but I know nothing
dr Jim is this what you’re looking for.
link to archive.is
@Dr Jim
Never heard of it but a couple of posters ring a bell (iandi), and even their names rings a vague bell. Website registered March 2014, registrant Glasgow. I’m being cagey because I always protect personal details, even if they are available publicly.
Looks legit to me at a quick glance.
You might want to wonder how they got your email address!
Thanks for that @Cherry and I now realise it’s my own daft fault I remember answering a question from this site and now it’s decided because of that it likes me or I like it
It’s a sort of apprentice Wings but I think I’ll fire it for being cheeky
Dr Jim
you’re welcome night night! 😉
I suspect this next 3 or 4 weeks is going to be a very annoying niggly time, because not a lot will happen. But hopefully more will drift to YES, and to undecided from NO.
Wow, I can’t believe I found this after all these years, an old cartoon which says it so much.
link to archive.is
I’m a bit disgruntled that folk haven’t pointed out I can’t tell the difference between a nut and a breakfast cereal. Or perhaps you thought I was being inclusive? Anyhoo, constructedness.
The Social Constructedness of Resilience
link to mdpi.com
This one’s a good bit easier to access. 🙂
link to thesocietypages.org
Unfortunately the links don’t work but you should get the picture.
@Tom B
I can understand getting hacked off with being “told off”, I suspect most Indy supporters don’t like being told what to do, or not do. It’s like “Hello, is there something abour the word Independence you don’t understand?”.
Thing is there’s a lot of postings around, a lot to read, and probably many people scan things, speed-read, where you catch a few letters, a few words, get the drift, and focus in on something you’re interested in.
Hence the paragraphs!
Don’t take it to heart, or personally.
Sorry, that should have read links to the vid-e-os.
link to pinterest.com
Tom B
Yep, I don’t think it was personal and apologies for getting a bit angry and letting it show. You must have hit a pressure-point.
@CameronB Brodie
link to youtube.com
Time I hit the pit!
🙂
lumilumi says:
30 October, 2016 at 9:11 pm
Haha, Robert!
“Yeah, I’m still a Windows 7 girl, me. Trying to keep my trusty 6-yr-old laptop alive as long as possible. Looking into other options like Linux…”
Have a look here link to peppermintos.com
It’s Ubuntu based free to try, no risk,lightweight and great support, perfect for older hardware
I should point out I’m one of the developers so maybe a little biased but if you’re serious about switching to Linux no harm giving it a try and remember you can try it without making any changes to your PC/Laptop
Graeme
@Grouse Beater
My local bookstore has a half price table for JKs books. I think it is a permanent fixture. It has been there every time I have been in for about the last year.
I can’t help feeling that this is an attempt to shut down the most effective critic before kicking off the next campaign.
This is just nasty…
Tom B@12:33
I hope she reads your post and hates it as much as I enjoyed it. Never really thought about my savings like that.
Maybe safer under the mattress even although they wouldn’t take up much space!
Dr Jim
“Anybody still up can tell me what Autonomy Scotland is
I’ve just had and email from them but I know nothing”
Half the MSM journo’s think Fiscal Autonomy is the study of skeletons.
Tom B
It may be 14 lines on your PC but on my Samsung sex toy it is 37 solid lines of microscopic prose and is very hard for me to read. It is also hard to read because it is not written in sentences.
I understand it is not nice being rebuked and my intention is not for you to feel criticised so please don’t take it that way and keep posting
link to economist.com
link to theneweuropean.co.uk
Northern Ireland leader says special status for province possible after Brexit
link to archive.is
Brexit: Chris Johns on Britain’s lazy, jaw-dropping act of visceral self-harm
link to archive.is
@ Tom B 12.33
I agree about the paragraph breaks. But now that it’s morning and the eyes are fresh, I read your comment.
It’s a great piece of polemic and worth reading.
Just needs a couple of paragraph breaks.
Would be a shame if most skip over it. Worse still, if Stu kills you with hammers.
senior-tory-mp-calls-for-keith-vaz-to-be-sacked-from-justice-committee
link to archive.is
FBI obtains warrant to examine Clinton emails – source
link to archive.is
link to middleeasteye.net
link to amnesty.org.uk
So McFadyen is in fact from NI (with a loyalist background) and worked for the News of the Screws when it still existed.
She’s fair game.
Nissan deal opens door for Scotland concessions – SNP
link to archive.is
link to thecanary.co
link to wearechange.org
link to uk.businessinsider.com
Nana:
Good morning Nana,thanks for the links,kettle on.
🙂
Peace Always
Robert J Sutherland and Illuminati
The franchise is not devolved, meaning that the Scottish Government can’t simply amend it. What the Scottish government did was to choose to use the same franchise as that for local government and Holyrood elections.
(Westminster had to amend the UK law to enable Scotland to lower the voting age to 16 for local government and Holyrood elections in Scotland. It is still 18 for UK general elections)
siobhan accused me of being a stalker then blocked me last night 🙂
heedtracker says:
30 October, 2016 at 8:25 pm
Even daft old hootsman piled on, different issue but
link to archive.is
Ruby replies
This idea that every single YES voter who makes a comment is a political activist and their aim should be to convince NO voters to vote YES annoys me.
Is there no space in the Yoon world for ordinary people just expressing their views? If I say that this Dani Garavelli article is super boring as is the Strickland article about billboards does that mean I am trying to shut down both of these women and that would put people off from voting YES???
‘Even when I had decided to vote Yes, an abusive tweet or an unreasonable accusation of MSM bias would cause a spasm of doubt. Would independence really provide the kind of Scotland I hoped for?’
Dani Garavelli
That is utterly pathetic! What kind of Scotland is this woman wanting?
Why no focus on NO voters do they not have a similar obligation to convince others of the benefit of the Union? Apart from handing over loads of cash is JK Rowling doing anything to convince people to vote NO? Does her constant ranting about people in Scotland being anti-English really help the NO side?
Will we see an article in ‘The Herald’ some time soon claiming that the behaviour of the NO voters especially J K Rowling is not helping to convince people to vote NO?
There’s plenty out there for anyone looking to write a story about the behaviour of the NO voting political activists! The Scotsman would be a good place to start!
ronnie anderson says:
30 October, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Oh Ruby don’t take your case tae court ,you settle to easily ,£6000 from the Scotsman ,but times moved on & so have prices
Ruby replies
£6K sounds like a fortune but then I’m always skint!
On the hoots man article, Danni Garavelli is with the Herald and so is irrelevant from the get go.
One or two zoomers below the line, but the piece itself is interesting. 😉
link to archive.is
Got to love the strident repeating of the mistaken claim that as long as you don’t name one you can say what you like. Unfortunately there’s a distinct lack in subtlety in that. What she may think is her raising her voice in order to speak over someone comes across as panic.
OK so it’s the BBC but
link to bbc.co.uk
The legal viewpoint
An online comment, such as a tweet, is potentially libellous in England and Wales if it damages someone’s reputation “in the estimation of right-thinking members of society”. It can do this by exposing them to “hatred, ridicule or contempt”.
It is a civil offence (rather than a criminal one) so you won’t go to prison, but you could end up with a large damages bill. These rules also apply to a ‘retweet’ – which is when you share or forward someone else’s message on Twitter.
You may not have made the original allegation, but retweeting it could be seen as an endorsement. You could be accused of making a defamatory statement, and you could be sued.
You can also be sued even if you do not name a person in a defamatory statement. Basically, if the person you are talking about can be identified from what you have said, then you can be sued.
Scotland has a different legal system to England and Wales, but the same principles broadly apply when it comes to defamation.
Word of warning
In a court of law it would be down to you to prove that what you’ve said is true or to use one of the other defences to defamation, such as truth (ie what you can prove to be true) and honest opinion.
And don’t think that if you delete a defamatory post then you can’t be sued – you can. The length of time it is visible could affect the amount of damages you would have to pay, but just because you’ve deleted it doesn’t mean others haven’t already reposted it. Once it’s out there, you can’t always take it back.
Any material published in the UK – including online content – is subject to defamation, privacy and contempt laws and could even be a racism or terrorism offence.
So if you’re a national newspaper editor, a bedroom blogger or just a quick-fire tweeter, you do need to think before you post. The only way to be completely safe is to avoid posting gossip unless you know for a fact that it is true.
Now one might think that someone employed by a national newspaper might possibly have some knowledge of the ins and outs of defamation in order to not land themselves or their employer in the doo doo. It certainly seems the kind of thing you’d learn in journalism 101. Historically authors have even been sued for fiction where a public figure claiming a character is an identifiable version of themselves regardless of whether that portrayal is unflattering or not. JK knows all about protecting characters and would be justified in taking a punt at a lawsuit if there was a novel involving a divorced mother writing a novel in a cafe who made it big only to have success go to her head.