Yes, we are a long way from homes
Several of today’s Scottish newspapers report on a marginal increase in the number of homeless people in Scotland, and in particular – for some reason – those who’ve slept rough for at least one night in the three months before declaring themselves homeless.
Things become a little clearer when you see that the reported stats are courtesy of “research by Scottish Labour”, who’ve scoured the document to cherry-pick the worst-sounding numbers in order to blame “Tory and SNP austerity”, etc etc.
That weirdly specific stat for rough sleepers has risen by 10% over two years, although this year’s increase was only 1% and overall homelessness is only up by less than 1% over the same two-year period.
But all credit to Labour – it’s only taken them two months to come up with that number (which is the second line of Table 2 in the statistics). Because the figures were actually released – and reported – in the middle of June.
Labour’s Pauline McNeill scarcely even bothered to change her quotes:
JUNE
AUGUST
And the only sense in which the figures are news again now is that Scottish Labour have spoon-fed the media a pre-chewed press release about them.
It is, of course, a bad thing that homelessness is up by even a tiny fraction. But given the constant assault on welfare by the UK government, targeted most viciously at the poorest, it’s also about as surprising as getting a sore face if you cover your head in honey and ram it into a wasp’s nest.
While the Scottish Government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds mitigating UK government policy – for example by effectively abolishing the bedroom tax – and thereby helping keep people in their homes, those elsewhere in the UK have been left to suffer the consequences of the brutal Tory war on the poor.
The number of households in temporary accomodation, for example, has rocketed by around 60% in England since the Tories were elected in 2010:
While the comparable stats for Scotland over the same period are flat:
(These are just about the only like-for-like figures we could get hold of. It’s very difficult to track down “headline” stats for homelessness in England and Wales to compare with Scotland as a whole, and probably intentionally so. But what we do know is that in Labour-run Wales it’s up by a horrifying 58% in a single year.)
Labour’s solution, of course, is a Labour government which will magically fix everything in ways never specified. So in the light of this tiny uptick, it’s perhaps worth comparing the situation now with the one the SNP inherited, after eight years of Labour rule at Holyrood during an economic boom when budgets were constantly rising.
Because even after a decade of enforced austerity and cuts from Westminster, the number of homeless families in Scotland has decreased by 41% since the SNP came to power in 2007, having increased by many thousands under Labour’s rule.
Scottish Labour have, of course, always relied (usually fruitlessly) on the electorate having a short memory. But as a Labour government at Holyrood becomes a more and more distant memory, it’s a tactic they’ll probably deploy more and more often. And that’s why sites like this one are here to remember things, even when the Scottish press has forgotten which stories they ran two months ago.
Excellent article on homelessness Stuart,
Missed a bit about austerity, which actually began when New Labour employed ATOS and the Tories revelled in it with Iain Duncan Smith sending many victims to their deaths…
http://www.calumslist.org
Excellent research
So the Hootsmon just regurgitates the labour branch press releases. Who would be a journalist relying on handouts and FOI requests.
We don’t want a return of the bad old days, of Labour in power at Holyrood. Thankfully that looks very unlikely, Labour are now just a carping party of protest.
I recall if I’m not mistaken, with regards to homes, that Labour built just six for social housing the last time they were in power.
link to you.38degrees.org.uk
Wings over Scotland — delivering the facts the MSM and BBC don’t even begin to bother to look for (because recycling pre-chewed LabTory press releases is so much less effort).
Why oh why do we have to come here to find this out ?
This is a very specific SNPbaad story. Why doesn’t the SNP get this information out ?
PS – I’d be coming here anyway, but that’s not the point.
Nor did Labour reverse the sell off of Council housing stock in the 13 years they were in power in Westminster and Holyrood.
But the SNP stopped the sales.
If you smear your head with honey and then ram it into a wasps nest the wasps will go, “Yum! Yum!” and eat the honey, leaving you unstung.
Try ramming your head into a wasps nest without the application of the aforesaid honey though and you’ll know all about it!
Poor Labour how they have fallen.
They are now just a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tories.
They are reduced to shouting from the margins, never making positive suggestions.
Bitter that Scotland woke up to their lies and incompetence, not to mention the whiff of corruption.
The good old so called newspaper’s happy to print without any research so long as the story is anti Scottish.
It has been said many times, but it is still worth saying again.
Labour, what a bunch of fannys.
Well done, Stu.
Some of you may also have noticed todays news in which STV promoted ex Labour loser and self publicist Tom Harris to the post of Scottish government Transport Minister and even had him on to talk about his backing for the devolution of Network Rail which he has apparently always championed
I’m just interested in knowing whether this was a monumental piece of complete incompetent stupidity by STV or a blatant and arrogant deliberate act
I guess STV won’t pick one of my descriptions
Thanks for pulling the false teeth out Rev. Labour stink up lies like this constantly.
A real journalist does some real journalism 🙂
Excellent article.
Reminded me of story I came across a few weeks ago about what journalism should be. The story when something like …. advice to journalists … if one person says it’s raining and another says it’s dry, a journalist’s job isn’t to simply report both opinions, it’s to look out of the window and find out which one is telling the truth and which lies, and that discovery should be the basis of an article.
But,but,Labour said they aren’t the party that’s supposed to represent those without jobs.
They know this kind of headline gets the Britnats who are anti SNP all a licking their chops, sipping champagne and laughing.
How dare these Labour troughers get so much medai attention for thewir totally faux care for the poor and homeless, when it’s their own disgusting actions that are in fact causing so much destitution.
What must it feel like to lie and feign any notion of caring, while all the while knowing it’s your own actions via your own political party, that are imposing such dreadful poverty on the most vulnerable people in Scotland. The Britnats have no conscience it’s a huge worry really, given they are making such terrible destructive decisions about peoples’ lives.
To have food banks, homelessness and the UK Tory/Labour gov bedroom tax etc, in 2018, is nothing short of criminal. Not to mention their barbaric so called Universal credit ( credit!) and sanctions, intentionally leaving people with absolutely nothing.
These Britnat criminals in Westminster and the ones following their disgusting orders sitting in Holyrood have a lot to answer for, how dare they use the daily rags to tout yet more lies. Dread to think what Scotland would be like with a Britnat Tory or Labour party in power, shudder in fact.
Decades of power and influence from local councils to the very highest level of UK government. They presided over industrial devastation and the growth of poverty in Scotland. They hid Scotland’s true wealth and potential from its population and were only too happy to jump into bed with the Conservatives in denying Scotland’s peoples the right of self determination. They were and are happy to denigrate Scotland’s parliament, its government, our institutions, its services and its population on a daily basis.
They took and they took and gave only crumbs in return. But y’know, trust us. This time we’ll get it right… honest.
I’d say that their advice and outrage on anything should be taken under advisement and filed graciously under bin.
Also? That poverty? Its going to get worse and as competent as they are, the current Scottish government will only be able to slow its effects so long as they act under the powers of devolution.
There is only one way to change this cycle of abuse. Scotland’s population gives Holyrood the powers to make a difference.
Cheers, Rev. Always good to have this kind of ammo the hit the BritNats over the chops with.
A dramatic decrease in homelessness levels from 2010/11 – anyone know why that might have been?
Can see with your own eyes Glasgow has an increasing problem in the city centre. Awful.
I think it’s just such a shame that you can easily find squalor meters from the city chambers. Im not comfortable with it being seen as party political issue. It’s the party i support that are in power.
While these figures are shocking. It is at least a bit of comfort that SNP government have made a difference.
Lets hope in an independent Scotland we have even less homeless.
So we can all see there the facts for themselves. Homelessness has fallen by 41% since the SNP took control of the Scottish government yet a 1% rise has labour going apeshit.
The numbers in rough sleepers rose last year from 2660 to 2682, 22 more poor souls and that is news! News so bad for SNP that they had to repeat it now after reporting the same story in June.
Deary deary me even I couldn’t have believed that the bottom of the barrel could be this deep. Shameful reporting and totally shameless “research” by Labour.
Enough is enough surely, let’s rid ourselves of this disgrace by dumping these excuses for Scottish politicians and electing others who will actually stand up for us.
FFS Homelessness has fallen 41% since the SNP took charge and Labour are moaning. They are the guilty party, furious.
It is on the online Herald too now
you can see the trail of the info being placed in the press regardless of truth
The slight uptick in homelessness recently surely coincides with the roll-out of Universal Credit by the Tories?
[…] Wings Over Scotland Yes, we are a long way from home Several of today’s Scottish newspapers report on a marginal increase in the number […]
Last week I was notified that our HB had been stopped. Two days later, IS has been suspended. Phoned DWP, stayed on the line for 45 minutes-no answer.
I work with homless folk in glasgow the last labour adminstration cut the hostle accomadation to nil also they reduced the hours at the homless assesment center totally pissed off with them none of their previous mps came near us
@Glamaig
“The slight uptick in homelessness recently surely coincides with the roll-out of Universal Credit by the Tories?”
Almost certainly it does, we’re going down the stank under Tory rule. Scotland less so thanks to Scottish government policies that oppose them.
I’m disgusted with how everything is reported in Scotland by our media, on so many levels of public services Scotland is undeniably doing so much better than the rest of the UK.
Yet you wouldn’t believe that if your only source of information was the British Nationalist press and TV.
Enough is enough, get your arses to Dundee next Saturday, let’s make our voices heard. From here on in it’s a hard road, get in there each and all. We can make a difference.
“if you cover your head in honey and ram it into a wasp’s nest” that would make me laugh it the subject had less gravity.
Good article.
Though a lazy internet search out of interest, does suggest it’s shockingly high compared to comparable European figures if the figures at homelessnessworldcup.org are any indication.
It was a lazy search and comparison I did I might add. I have not checked what figures represent homelessness, rough sleeping and if there is a difference between ‘homelessness assistance’ figures and actual homelessness and many other parameters.
Still, at face value, it suggests Scotland has a figure some 5 or 6 times higher than comparable sized countries.
link to homelessworldcup.org
I’m always reminded that the ever popular pollster John Curtice reminded us all that differences of under 2% were ‘Statistically Insignificant’ but just the kind of mince you’d expect.
So, homelessness is on the increase? Really? So why did the Labour-run Inverclyde Council rid themselves of 40 ‘scatter flats’ about 18mths ago? (approx.) Yes, there was no need for them, that’s why. Hundreds of flats were demolished, scatter flats divested. The reason? Buidling funded by the Scottish Government, that’s why.
They’d taken a view on the shameful levels of homelessness and actually done something about it. What had compounded the issue for the Scottish Government was the introduction of the Bedroom Tax during this time. Meaning that single people, the bulk of the homeless, could no longer be housed in two-bedroomed housing. Two bedroomed housing was the majority of the stock and would normally have housed many single occupants, but this had to stop, dramatically and almost overnight. This is why the extra scatter flats had been sublet.
As an example, in my own case.. When my marriage left and I left the marital home, I stayed one night with a friend before visiting the Homeless Section of my Local Authority. Within an HOUR or arriving I was in a scatter flat with the key of a temporary flat in my hand. It was fully furnished and had everything I needed. It was an ex-council tenement flat that was being let by a private landlord, a local housing association rented from the private landlord and sublet it to the local authority who, in turn, let it to me. (Perhaps a wee lesson there about Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ actually fuelling homelessness?) So, I’ve been a ‘rough sleeper’ due to being at a friend;s house, now I’m ‘homeless’ as I’m in a scatter flat. But I DO have a roof over my head and I’ve not ACTUALLY been on the streets. It took approximately six months in the scatter flat before I was able to get a permanent tenancy with a housing association, but, here I am, three years later in my own place, nice and cosy.
So, dig into definitions, dig into the reasons behind the reasons and their figures soon stop making any sense. In Scotland we don’t really have a housing crisis. We DO have people on the streets, but that’s NOT due to a lack of affordable housing. There are many reasons for it, drugs, mental health issues, abuse etc. And those are things that need to be addressed with other solutions eg decriminalising cannabis, drug-taking rooms, safe places etc. I don’t think it’s possible to reduce it to zero, but we can TRY…
Macart at 8.28 pm
The were entirely complicit in the hiding of the McCrone Report. They betrayed the people that they were elected to represent as they did so. They betrayed Scotland. They should never be forgiven.
But a collection of senior Labour figures opting publicly for independence while apologising for being part of that betrayal and all the other lies would go a long way…..
The forced implementation of Universal credit and the Bedroom Tax have caused many homeless presentations. Many private landlords are also evicting their tenants on the pretext of selling their property, only to let it to others for a higher rent. Some are genuinely selling due to changes in their tax liability. This has led to many ‘sofa surfing’ as opposed to rough sleeping.
I’m sure you can all see how sleekit the Labour press release and the reporting of it is.
Two months ago they reported that homelessness had risen by 1% no doubt caused by the Universal Credit fiasco. Now today they talk of rough sleepers rather than homelessness which in it’s entirety which had risen also by 1%.
BUT by going back two years they could say truthfully that it had risen 10% over these two years, man that is scraping the bottom of the barrel and so obvious that they had to search through the figures to find some bad angle.#
Who do they blame though?
Tory austerity, the DWP and universal Credit that we suffer as part of the UK? No of course not, it’s the SNP’s fault.
Labour are definitely toast now in Scotland. Totally lost the plot and going downhill fast. Nobody will trust a liar.
Another great piece Rev.
I just wish your stuff could get out into the mainstream and open the eyes of the voters to the hypocrisy of the press and their Unionist party chums.
@Iain mhor
“Still, at face value, it suggests Scotland has a figure some 5 or 6 times higher than comparable sized countries.”
I’d say it suggests nothing of the sort, say in comparison with Brazil which I’ve chosen at random. When they talk of “homeless” are they talking of people who have sought help which is the Scottish case or are they talking of those that have slept on the streets for at least “one night in the last three months”.
You don’t know, neither do I and neither does that website you linked to to. The odds are though that actual homelessness has nothing to do with the definition in Scotland where help is sought AND given such as in temporary accommodation before eventual rehousing.
“One night in the last three months” is quite telling at a figure of 2682 poor souls who had to endure that. You will find 100 times that number on any night of the week in Rio do Janeiro alone I would wager.
Can’t be arsed looking it up but my guess is as useful I’d suggest as the link you provided to what is essentially meaningless numbers when there is no context or comparison.
@Gary
Thanks so much for that, hearing it from someone affected is always so much more illuminating. I’m glad to hear that you’ve got the help you needed and that things have gotten better.
Telling it like it is that is what we all want to know. Thanks again I’m all the wiser for your post. Cheers.
@Gary (10.13) –
Great, informative, positive comment there.
More power to ye.
😉
good work Rev.
Regarding British Labour in Scotland, I think of this quote from the work of Naguib Mahfouz,
“They are liars. And they know that they are liars. And they know that we know that they are liars. Even so, they keep lying, and very loudly so.”
I know the bbc and the msm protects ruthie but it is also quite happy to regurgitate labour lies if it will say snp bad. Jenny Marras lies last week and this week homelessness – they are being willingly fed lies and are happy to broadcast or print them if they say snp bad.
Thankfully many people have caught on to their duplicity and once your eyes are open you see more and more fake journalists who sell their soul happily for the ‘union’ and do no research of any kind on the information they are fed.
DMH at 8 28; yes it might take that. Surely there must be some people in that party who want to disassociate from and atone for the betrayals of the past even if it’s only because they realise Labour is no longer a sensible career choice.
I hate Labour.
Fife Council (joint Lab/SNP) have twice started action to make me homeless.
First time was when they didn’t pay me correctly (as one of their employees) & as a result I couldn’t pay rent & council tax (I rent from them). Housing set Sheriff officers on me despite my pleas that THE COUNCIL had made a mistake. (Housing: ‘Not my problem’).
Second, more recently, was when I was a week behind and agreed with the Housing Officer (in my living room) that I would pay extra the following week. 2 days later I had Sheriff Officers at my door with a bill that included more than 200 pounds extra (for Sheriff Officer admin fees).
I met Lesley Laird MP (who was very nice but ultimately did nothing), wrote to the CEO of Fife Council (11 page letter) who effectively said ‘I’m sorry we pay you so shittily but hey ho’.
So, my employer who issues me with foodbank vouchers and who is also my landlord instigated proceedings to evict me. Twice. First time in my life anything like this has happened to me but I will never forget what these types of people are like. PS I earn less now (for a 5 day week) than I did in my first job in 1987.
(Sorry for the rant but this touched a nerve)
O/T … from the last post. Ian Brotherhood asked I post it here.
Some folks were worried there weren’t enough bodies at the newest BBC bias protests.
The first protest I ever went to was the 2nd BBC Bias protest. Never been to one before. I felt so strongly.
It was April 2014 and the EU election had just happened. There was a big map of the UK on the studio floor, and every time the camera tried to ‘go north’… wheech, it was pulled away, with a Dimbleby smirk to accompany it. Because of course, if Scotland voted in a UKIP stooge, like in Englandshire, then we were ‘not so different’ were we.
Bastards. That and the fucking weather map, slanted as fuck. Bastards. Lying bastards.
So, in my background, you write a song – Folk of course (Scotland has a pedigree), or a poem… and a first ever for me, I took to trying to do posters. And I researched.
My folks remembered the first Dimbleby, a man who followed the troops through the battlefields of WW2, and was with them when Belsen was discovered
If you go on the internet, you can hear his recording of that terrible event. This may seem counter to common sense, but the older I get, and from work experience, I can say, the more horrific, obvious, overwhelmingly obvious a thing is, just by looking at it… the more difficult it is to report, record or write. It is as if your mind just goes, ‘you whit, have you no got eyes, just look will ye’. And it is at times like that, that anyone in the business of bearing witness, shows up professional, mediocre, or a spectator.
If you go on the internet, you will hear Mr Dimbleby senior. A real pro.
I wrote this, on the back of that April 2014 election, and a junior Dimbleby smirk. The TV got donated to a Folk club in fife and the licence – Cancelled.
Angels in Khaki – Introduction
At the end of WW2 Death Camps were uncovered and liberated by allied soldiers.
BBC War Corrispondent – Richard Dimbleby reported. Many times he broke down at what he saw, and when the BBC refused to broadcast his report, he threatened to resign, forcing them to go public.
He recorded the reactions and responses of allied soldiers – saying, ‘now we know what we’ve been fighting for’. And camp survivors naming them, ‘Angels in Khaki’.
Years later he returned to Bergen Belson, identifying it as, ‘the place where the birds don’t sing.’
Angels In Khaki
Spring 1945, Bergen Belsen
There’s a big man, a journalist,
In tears,
But speaking on, and bearing witness
to unimagined horrors
Uncovered at world wars end
In the place where the birds don’t sing
There’s a Big man, a journalist,
In outrage,
REFUSING to be censored by the BBC
Showing the world a truth
It cannot afford to ignore
And finding solace, just a glimmer,
In the controlled fury of veteran soldiers
Angels in Khaki
In the place where the birds don’t sing
2014 a TV Studio, a European Election,
There’s a big noise
Cocks crowing, crowing as UKIP takes one seat,
One seat in Scotland
What ho your referendum hopes now.
Can you hear the birds sing Dimbleby
Singing for democracy? Maybe
Can you hear your Dad, crying
At the going down of the sun, and with our votes, we remember.
So, going back to that first ever protest that I’ve ever attended. I know we mattered, because the BBC lied about our numbers. I know we mattered, because things had got so bad I was there.
I could not be there yesterday, but I saw, I was so proud and grateful for all of you who could attend… and this time, they are not telling lies about your numbers, this time, they actually offered you an interview (within the lions den – well done for refusing). Lets have faith in the message and worry not about the numbers.
One bit of decency at a time, even if it is getting to the point of through gritted teeth.
Yes we can. Now we must.
When you sign onto Wings it reminds you of a thousand wild horses champin’ at the bit.
Call it tension or call in frustration but one thing we won’t be lacking when IndyRef2 is finally called is our shear enthusiasm and fight in our bellies.
Something that the Unionists will never have.
@Geoff Huijer
There has to be a better solution than throwing people out of their house. Of course I’ve no idea what that solution might be but there has to be one.
My family was evicted from a shitty one bedroom tenement flat in Edinburgh in 1970. I was the eldest of 5 children but still just eleven years old nad the youngest was still in nappies.
They took all the furniture (for what there was) and dump it on the pavement in front of your house. My old man wasn’t there and that was obviously why the rent wasn’t being paid and my mum just walked away there and then.
It didn’t end well and that’s why homelessness is high up on my agenda. I despise the fact that Labour are using this as a political football when we are actually looking at the misery and damage that can be done to people’s lives.
All us children spent time in children’s homes after that and my mother was dead before we even left them.
We can be better than that, sensible policies and some respect for each other will go a long way.
@Gary 10:13pm
That is indeed what causes me to question the figures I found and the figures reported in the article – “Definitions”
Are there really upwards of 30,000 homeless people in Scotland? Or does this mean people with no permanent residence but still in ‘housing’ be it temporary accomodation, shelters, hospices etc. The article implies this is the case.
How does it break down?
How do other countries compare and report.
Norway, that land of the vast ‘oil fund’ also has homelessness. Though ostensibly only around 7,500
If Ireland only reports around 3,500, yet also a figure upwards of 60,000 for people “..unable to reasonably meet the cost of accommodation” what does that mean exactly? Are they homeless or would they be categorized as seeking ‘homelessness assistance’ – therefore, by some metrics, would be included in overall homelessness statistics as in Scotland.
Would Scotland’s figures be closer to Irelands “3,500” if reported using different criteria?
Hmmm. I am woefully uninformed of the situation.
One thing’s for sure, I won’t be better informed reading the gutter press.
At the book festival today it was pouring down at 11:30 there w stand outside selling a festival goodie bag if you bought SOS
“Free goodie bag if you buy a paper” the employee shouted “where is the newspaper I can only see SOS” i countered. She had no reply to that and didn’t look too happy either. I gave what change I had to an auld worthy selling the big issue and am happy to report that despite the plastic sheeting most of the goodies and papers were soaking and heading towards mush/pulp
The final chapter. Promises made but not kept. Yet again Scots trust is betrayed by cynical Westminster politicians
plausible-paranoia-how-westminster-hoodwinked-the-scots-in-1707-and-2014-and-their-preparedness-to-do-so-again-part-9-The UK Parliament is sovereign, the Scottish Parliament is not.
@Daisy Walker. Thank you for re-posting this, Daisy. What about sending it to David D?
Andrew Morton @ 7.42 pm
Re ramming your head into a wasps nest with or without honey…I imagine you would know ALL about it either way 🙂
Anyone with half a brain can see that the small rise will be due to the rollout of Universal Credit. A pernicious policy rammed through despite warnings of the hardship it is causing.
@Daisy –
Bravo!
😉
(If you hadn’t reposted it I would’ve!)
@ Sarah. Sorry I don’t know who David D is. In and event, if wingers like, tis good enough for me. If they want they can take it and run with it.
O/T BBC Scotlandshire (my favourite web site, bar this one, did a bit about the recent BBC Wings/Mordun shutdown.
Really O/T just received an advert for camouflage waders… and the camouflage is just the same as for army kit for forest/jungle warfare. Just think about it, you’ve kitted up, now your wading -waste level – through a river…. and your legs have to blend in with the forest. In case the fishes start coming to get you. I mean for goodness sake, could they no have drawn some watery fern type patterns on them, if they were serious about it.
Anyway, enough now, going to bed. Cheerie all.
We ended up with a UKIP MEP not because of Dimbleby but because not enough Scots came out to vote to stop it (low 30% turnout). This despite Salmond basically pleading for SNP supporters to come out and vote to prevent it. Not everything is the BBC’s fault, sometimes the people are just too lazy to bother or are blind to what they are letting happen, until it is too late.
Gary @ 10.13 pm
Very helpful post =)
Thank you for sharing that.
Also, a friend of mine explained that losing your rented property, where you were managing the rent and bills fine, could result in you becoming homeless if you could not pull together the deposit for the next place…
…Given that many many landlords and estate agents find ways to withhold returning deposits.
Homelessness is a heartbreaking and desperate situation for anyone to find themselves in.
Thanks are due to our SNP Government for reducing homelessness in Scotland by 41% during their years in office.
Good article Rev Stu.
Scotlands population 2006= 5.116 million
Scotlands population 2018= 5.452 million
Considering the rise in population of over 300.000 statistically homelessness has gone down considerably more than the supposed rise of 1%
These figures by Labour are as usual incomplete gibberish
Really am off tae bed after this…
David D, Sarah, get it now, sorry, a bit slow. He’s not interested in anything we have to say. No doubt he knows where we are if ever he’s interested.
@ jfngw says: …
sorry , can’t be bothered. Before you start taking up reams of room on this website, look up the amount of times Nigel Farage (with his lack lustre election results, gets on QT) There is a published formula for divvying it up, they just rip it up for him.
Then look at the senior employee with far right connections who was responsible for picking the audience on QT.
And when you’ve done that, maybe looked into dark money, election fraud/illegalities (mostly tories) . When you’ve done that, come back to us. I’ll be more than happy to accommodate your misunderstandings with hard evidence, and – on this site – so will many others. Or you could just go and play elsewhere.
Peace, love and gritted teeth.
PS the Rev just tells fuds tae fuck off – (love him for it)
In 2008 I was working in Mobile, Alabama for 6 months. It’s about the size of Aberdeen and each morning I’d be down for breakfast at about 06:30.
Right across the road there was a white church and everyday just before 07:00 people started to gather on the steps. These were your real homeless people that you never saw when you were out at night.
The reason there gathered there at that time was that this church provided breakfast for them and anyone was welcome, they were all coloured people and I never saw a single white person on these steps.
That must tell you a lot surely, it tells me that to be a coloured person making your way in Alabama your up against it from the day you are born. There is more poverty in America than even here in the UK but thanks to the Tories we’re catching up fast.
Do most of the population of this country walk around with their eyes closed? I have to believe so because foodbanks disgust me, a necessary evil in these austerity ridden days.
I never want’t to see anybody at all sitting on the steps of any church near me at 07:00 in the morning waiting to be given something to eat. That’s where it looks like we’re headed though unless we do something about it now and the English voters aren’t going to help us.
To all those struggling with the idea of supporting Scottish Independence please look at the alternatives none of which are nice and you don’t wan’t to live with the consequences of that vote. Vote Yes.
The BBC stinks.
The media in Scotland stinks.
The Britnat tractors stink.
Westminster stinks.
The whole system stinks.
Only Independence can clear the air of the stench of corruption and lack of personal and professional integrity.
link to weforum.org
A small independent country in the northern hemisphere solves its homeless problem by making ethical and sensible ideological choices. Which it can do because it’s in charge of its own destiny and capable of creating its own solutions.
Some food for thought on the poor and the destitute:
A Constitution to protect the populace: link to wp.me
And if you need to wash your brains:
Life is not a superheroes animation: link to wp.me
@Phronesis
Thanks for that, it’s an excellent article that anyone who cares in the slightest about homelessness should read. Especially those able to do something about it.
I totally agree with the premise Housing First because it’s simply using common sense. Something that looks to be in short supply in our politicians at times.
Last week it was Jenny Marra ‘misspeaking’ about how much Tayside HS ex CEO was getting as a severance package, and Brian Wilson lying about the state of Scots Education, and Tom Harris announcing that he was leaving the Labour party(HAHAHAHA)and Jim Murphy paying for a full page advert in a Jewish newspaper condemning the anti Semites in his Labour party, and now Pauline McNeill, MSP for Kelvin between 1999 and 2011, who got booted out by the good folk and got back in on a Jobs for the Boys List place, harrumphs that it is ‘unacceptable’ for anyone to be sleeping rough in the 21st Century’; now that the BADSNP are in power, no comment from the MSM about when Labour and the Lib Dems fucked Scotland up, and 60,000 Scots were homeless in the mid noughties, right smack dab in the middle of McNeill 12 year ride on the Red Tory Gravy Train.
The ‘Papers and the broadcasters have had a field day reproducing the lies and insults of course.
By the Chief, on Day One of Independence, we must scrap this corrupt voting system, and get rid of this fat bloated cancerous growth of Brit Nat List MSP’s who were rejected at the ballot box, but who although dead politically their rotting corpses still give off the stench of carpetbaggery and corruption.
And the Dead Tree Scrolls dutifully churn out this Scotland is Shite guff fed to them by their pals in the Anglo Scot Brit Nat sell outs.
60,000 homeless on McNeill’s watch, Universal Credit is killing 10’s of thousands and driving more and more of our citizens into homelessness, and this disgusting wee placemat blames NS and our government?
The day is not far off when we drive this lot from public office for good.
So far Ms McNeill has ‘earned 19/40ths of her final salary as a pension when she ‘retires’ from public life, which is about £30,000 a year, or £600 a week. And it’s index linked inflation proof.
There’s no danger of her ever being ‘homeless’ is there?
These toadies disgust me to the core.
Labour in Scotland do have a credibility problem, it’s not good enough to point out any problem, there has to be a solution as well. They have been in Government. The Tories have the excuse they’ve never been in Government in Scotland and are, touch wood, unlikely to either while they hide behind the skirts of Westminster. They can happily just prattle meaninglessly, and do all the time. They are totally empty coats.
Scottish Labour do understand the problems, but what is their solution?
@Jack Collating 1.37 am well said Jack and we might even get rid of the rest of the parasites
Just for a wee point of clarification, are these figures for Scotland, or the whole of the UK? Makes a difference, does it not? I have not really thought out this question, but I hope ye catch ma drift 😉
Links
link to news.gov.scot
link to snp.org
link to indyref2.scot
link to rbs.postach.io
On this week’s Full Scottish, Naina Bhardwaj is joined by City of Edinburgh Councillor Ashley Graczyk, who announced in a letter, posted on Facebook this week, that she now would vote Yes in a Scottish Independence Referendum.
link to youtube.com
link to thecommongreen.scot
link to newsnet.scot
link to ayerightradio.wordpress.com
British north sea??
link to upi.com
Set for a week’s delegation to #Israel and the Palestinian Territories with MSP colleagues
link to twitter.com
Home Office stopped author from speaking at UK festival, says publisher
link to archive.is
link to alynsmith.eu
@Dave McEwan Hill 10.15
Yes. Yes it would. Especially if they have a long term view towards the recovery of their party in Scotland as a truly autonomous Labour party. As opposed to the North British franchise they operate as today.
A first step as it were.
What do you say Messrs Chisolm and McLeish? Is it about that time? People before party?
If you monitor this blog at all, some thoughts would be appreciated. You know what Brexit means for Scotland. You know the significance of Keen’s submissions last December and at the current SC case on the continuity bill. Devolution was never the way for Scotland’s population and Westminster were never going to allow a federal solution. You know this. Just as you know the current crop of Labour representation in Holyrood and Westminster aren’t up for the next chapter of disaster.
Your choice, but your help would be appreciated for that final push.
link to facebook.com
link to holyrood.com
link to centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk
link to thecanary.co
1/ A few clips from DExEU SC (11/07/18). ‘To try to have similar outcomes but without all of those standards & processes & institutions & co-operation networks, you are asking an enormous amount from the member states.’ Michael Dougan on MRA/Equivalence re any future UK-EU-TA
link to twitter.com
link to politico.eu
link to railtechnologymagazine.com
link to sluggerotoole.com
Splits deepen over British ex-minister Johnson’s burqa comments
link to archive.is
It’s not just Boris Johnson’s words we should be concerned about, but the people he associates with
link to archive.is
Brexit: the Dunkirk Option
link to eureferendum.com
No confidence over Brexit
link to archive.is
link to irishcentral.com
Tories quietly admit their voter fraud crackdown could cost £700,000 per fraud claim in ‘stupidest idea ever’
link to archive.is
Mid Argyll SNP voting board
link to twitter.com
Kirkwall show snp voting boards
link to twitter.com
For my sins I have been a local authority Homelessness Strategy Officer, and worked on the Pathways research long ago.
It is extraordinarily difficult to compare overall numbers of homeless people between jurisdictions. Unless things have changed since i last looked the English figure is only those accepted as homeless, which is a much smaller number than those who seek help.
Whatever the recording method the figures show a trend.
The big drop in the Scottish figures represents the shift to a homeless prevention agenda. It’s immensely better to help people avoid homelessness, than to clear up the mess afterwards. The difference between the nations is attitude. Help? Or Punish?
Anyone interested should read Scottish Housing News and search homelessness
Grousebeater 1.02 am .Proposed Constitution – an excellent document and worthy read.
OFF-TOPIC
From the Rev’s twitter feed. Her failure to shoot the baddie, when she had a clear shot, is the reason Moneypenny is now back to being M’s secretary and no longer a field agent.
Given the headlines on Boris and Conservatives split over his commentary. It truly is becoming a case of my bigotry isn’t as bad as your bigotry out there.
FFS! This really, REALLY, isn’t complicated as a concept. This arse wants to be PM of the United Kingdom and he uses the meeja as shock troops to garner attention to himself.
A PRIME MINISTER!?!?
Boris. A statesman? A name to unite populations behind? The chair where the buck stops?
UK, GET A FUCKING GRIP!
Also? This.
link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
Daisy that was superb. I was at the BBBBC on Saturday and perhaps the numbers were not what we would have wanted but Glasgow was really quiet , whether it was worries about road closures or activities in George Square and the Europeans ,I know not but it was sparse in people and cars.
I did meet the lovely Cactus – someone I have had pictured n my head for some time – and he does not have the look of a permanent hangover so my image was wrong!
I have a horrible feeling that I ignored others whom I have met before and I apologise profusely. I can only say that sometimes my head is elsewhere even though my feet are on the same pavement as you.
Nana, as usual thank you for your sterling work – I am out early but will be back by lunchtime and will munch lunch and read at the same time.
Anyone confused by the effects of Brexit would be well advised to visit youtube for ‘ 3 Blokes in a Pub ‘ on Brexit.
( One of them is a tad irritating !)
Nana says:
A forthright press release from the SNP. Excellent to see a much more agressive stance.
” … you’ll discover that the Tories depend on a tiny group of rich men to survive. Just 62 of them in total! Scratch a bit deeper, and you’ll find Russian oligarchs … “
“….Ruth Davidson still dodges all questions and refuses to take any action…”
Calling out #DarkMoneyDavidson and yet, will the msm run with this or will the BBC? Of course not, their contribution to the Tories is given in kind by covering their arses!
A wee reminder that when Labour controlled the Scottish Parliament
They built a total of 6, yes Six, houses over a period of 5 years.
Now if these lying cheats were interested in finding homes for the homeless,
Did they think 1.2 homes per annum would just about cover it?
Again UK media confirm that journalism and the truth have no place in their daily lives.
Nana says
An Irish view of the Scottish constitutional crisis and impact on England ….
” …the scene is set for another vote on independence in the next few years, with nationalists complaining about being forced out of the EU against their wishes by the English. Scotland’s a much bigger deal for the UK and if goes, taking its oil fields and nuclear submarine bases … “
Foreign press will state the obvious yet the UK propaganda purveyors wouldn’t dare say it in those stark terms.
Excellent Stu, we need to destroy any thought of Scots voting Labour back in in Holyrood although I can’t see that happening, people still need to see these things for themselves. We only need to look at their actual record here, the amo is all there. Ditto the Tories and the policies they inflict upon us.
For the campaign, it would be helpful if we had two comparison sheets each showing where Labour and Tories have failed Scotland.
Each with an = to show how the SNP have done their best to mitigate and repair their damage. Perhaps in A4 leaflets. To be posted of handed out at stalls.
I for one would help fund that.
I am puzzled as to why there is no mention of saturday’s PQ rally in today’s National.
Rev
I appreciate a journalist who does research and presents the facts as you have done…again!
The MSM simply prints any press release handed to them by unionist parties. They are either lazy, stupid, incompetent or biased. I suspect it is a combination of them all.
The Labour Party in Scotland are attempting to spin the impact of Tory Party UK policies into a SNPbad story once again and once again the MSM are delighted to amplify that lie.
Can’t agree more about the lickspittle repetition of the press releases
There is no single cause for Homelessness,
but a high % of homeless have an underlying and undiagnosed mental health issue, like Attention Deficit Disorder,
not being able to function/identify with or become part of the complex construct of `normal` society : education,friends,family,career,debt/money,health,
and with Ruth Davidson and her Tory party making it deliberately harder and harder and more complex to get help from `normal` society,
there being no or little option but to live `outside`, literally and figuratively.
The early detection of mental health issues (not just hyperactivity)by informed teachers/parents/carers and then helped by a psychiatrist could give someone the tools to adapt to living/surviving within `normal` society.
Thanks for a rich breakfast of links, Nana.
Coincidentally, I was going to comment on the two galamcennalath highlighted. The SNP Dark Money article is factual and clearly shows how corrupt Tory electoral behaviour is. Not a peep from the MSM of course and no door-stepping of Ruth Davidson or David Mundell. Those who say “Why don’t the SNP say/do something?” have their answer. It does but the message is buried by a compliant media.
Demographic change in NI will make reunification pretty much inevitable unless WM decides to vindictively fan the sectarian flames in a petty act of revenge. Look what they did in India in 1948, doing a Samson in the Temple act which was designed to hamper the new state for years.
Unfortunately for us, England is bust without Scottish assets and the Establishment (but not the proles) know this only too well. I predict desperate acts heading our way once Indyref2 launches, mainly because the Tories are mad, as this Nanalink above clearly shows:
link to eureferendum.com
Hold on to your hats, folks.
Brent Crude $73 a barrel.
The BBC are now telling us there is trouble ahead because the Oil price could rise even more due to the America/Iran crisis.
Make your minds up BBC. You told us low Oil prices were a problem, Now you are telling us higher Oil prices are a problem.
And when the presenter was warning us of even higher Oil prices, Scottish Independence wasn’t mentioned once.
I wonder why?
This is a classic of the genre.
live in a tent in England = you are not sleeping rough, you are not counted, you do not exist, officially. Prepare to be ‘moved on’.
“The official rough sleeper count in England – widely considered a big underestimate – has strict rules about what constitutes a rough sleeper. People living in encampments are not necessarily included in the 4,751 people who bedded down outside overnight in 2017.”
link to theguardian.com
@Daisy Walker
I see your ignorance is bliss, I’ve been posting on this site for around 2 years. I understand all the points you raised, just I don’t agree that everything in this world is the BBC’s fault. They don’t stop people from going to vote.
The Rev has never told me to fuck off yet, sorry if that disappoints me.
Hope you don’t take part in any Yes events, the point is to persuade people to vote Yes. If your attitude was the norm I suspect the No vote would be around 70%.
Some old words that could easily be resurrected for these days
Cockalorum, would be a perfect name to call Mundell, I guess we could easily use the four of these.
Ultracrepidarian
Someone who gives opinions on subjects they know nothing about.
Snollygoster
A person who has intelligence, but no principles.
Fudgel.
The act of giving the impression of working, but actually doing nothing.
Cockalorum.
A small man with a big opinion of himself.
Just a wee bit fun folks, use your own imagination
Murdo Fraser, Bill Bowman, and Maurice Corry, List MSP’s from the Blue Tories, and Mary Fee, listing along for the Red Tories, and, now there’s a surprise, Richard Lyle, SNP MSP, of the Monklands McMafia infamy, the ‘Salty Dick’ who claimed £1.80 on expenses for a packet of crisps, allegedly.
It would come as a great surprise and doubtless engender inestimable anger if the Scottish MSPs off for a week’s jolly to Israel this week returned home to find the locks on the doors changed, their furniture goods and chattels piled up on the front lawn, two armed soldiers of the newly formed First Scottish Paras barring their entrance, and a nice Pro Scottish independence family moved into their former home.
The Red and Blue Brit Nat Scottish political failures are off on a junket, paid for by God knows who, but there are the usual suspects.
By Christ the reported 50 years’of Tory Tombolas and Raffles which generated a third of a million in Dark Money being spent now doesn’t half stretch, doesn’t it?
Headed by Jackson Carlaw, failed Car dealer, failed serial would be politician until he actually beat Ken McIntosh, this grubby little charabanc of Gravy Trainers leaves behind the woes of Scotland and head for the sun and Ambassador dinners, but don’t mention the olive trees, I did it, but I think I got away with it.
Millions of kids whose families are on Universal Credit are starving during the School holidays because there is no Summer Top Up of UC to mitigate the loss of free School Meals,but our Red Blue, and Faux SNP (aye,right) MSP’s are off to be wined and dined as Friends of Israel, enemies of Scotland
Why is it essential for British Politicians to join ‘Friends of Israel’, I ask?
There must be dosh in it somewhere further down the line, if you ask me, which not many people do; ask me, I mean.
This Gravy Train junket stinks to high heaven.
Perhaps they can bring back an olive branch from the uprooted Palestinian Orchards?
An olive branch is no longer a symbol of peace.
@Dorothy, you are welcome. Here’s the video you have highlighted
link to youtube.com
Good morning Tinto,
One more link for today, article tweeted by Mike Russell which I’ve archived, do not give Breitbart clicks
link to archive.is
A very unpleasant read , to say the least , but stick with it – the arrogant boasting of those who seek to destroy democracy means we are forewarned and can be ready….DELINGPOLE: Brexit’s Phoney War Is over; the Trump-Style Revolution Has Begun
link to twitter.com
The UK governments attempts to take everybodys minds off what they’re supposed to be doing by gossiping about anything else not related to the job they’re supposed to be doing but aren’t may have England the land of the gossip fooled but not up here in quaint not very clever Scotland
Sky the BBC and the other TV stations can try as hard as they like to take our simple minds off the Tory government not doing their job but I have to tell them *We’ve noticed* simpletons that we are, and we don’t like it!
We don’t like being treated like mugs by the media and we don’t like being treated like mugs by incompetent political parties changing the subject to divert attention away from the facts, sorry to tell you but *We’ve noticed*
Scotland pretty much doesn’t care whether folk wear Helmets Burkas or cowboy hats so stop telling us we do care, we rather like the idea of politicians doing the job we pay them for and not indulging themselves in their amusing games of who can invent the most ridiculous story to get the biggest hits on Twitter or the most gossip on the Telly
*We’ve noticed* that’s why we vote SNP they’re actually working every day doing their day job y’no the one we pay them for
British nationalists, whether in politics or the media, are desperate to do down Scotland. Their hatred for Scotland is boundless.
Coincidence that a story about how ‘bad’ it is for Scottish homeless appears just before the Tories announce help for the English homeless?
They’re not even hiding their collaborative efforts anymore.
Dan Huil says:
Pathetic and sad. It’s our version and vision of Scotland they hate absolutely and completely.
Their Scotland was region of their ‘Britain’/UK/Greater England. Quaintly different with tartan and shortbread. They were comfortable with its Proud Scot But limits. Their identity, if they were to stop and be honest with themselves, is 90% wannabe Home-counties-er and 10% tartan clad Scotchman.
Their world and place in it is dissolving before their eyes.
The rest of us just desperately want to move on and build a modern inclusive socially responsible European nation.
@ mike Cassidy: yes I noticed that too. Anything bad in England has to be followed by negative reports from Scotland.
@Nana
Thanks again for all that you do here. That Breitbart article you just posted was a shocker.
“Enough of this pissing about. Enough lawyerly excuses and Civil Service prevarication and Remainer politician manoeuvrings. We voted Brexit. Now give us Brexit. Give us Brexit, strong and hard, Boris!”.
Just when was it that this extreme right wing view became the “normal” view. This kind of article would not have been tolerated in the past and now it is “normal”.
It’s normal to persecute the poorest, it’s normal to throw homeless people out of their tents, it’s normal to evict disabled from the two bedroom home once they can no longer afford the rent because of the bedroom tax.
Well it’s NOT normal it’s obscene and has no place in a civilised society. These billionaire press barons and this despicable government run by a bunch of morons are totally responsible for the current demise of our welfare state and NHS and yet their goal is to reap further havoc with a No Deal Brexit. The lunatics really are in charge of the asylum!
I am not a “trendy” leftie just another Joe that is being sickened by the direction we are being forced down. I wan’t change in fact I demand we stop this madness that has taken over the UK psyche.
Most Scots do not want to go down this path either, I’m certain of that and can only hope that when it comes to the chance of being able to follow a different path that they will open their eyes and seize the opportunity to escape the madness with both hands by voting YES in another referendum.
@Thepnr
Posted this elsewhere, but it goes to the heart of what’s happening right now in UK politics:
Pretty much a thing which marks both of the main Britnat parties. Who they hate. Who they want you to hate for their benefit. You can see why they get on so well together. Y’know, share each others votes, form allegiances at every level of politics and so forth. Tory mad, Tory and I can’t believe it’s not Tory. All equally bigoted toward some demographic. But still, better thigither, one nation, family of something or other. All warm and fuzzy in a ‘unity’ they aren’t capable of understanding, let alone expressing.
Here’s the thing though, and there’s no getting round it. For all their screeching of essenpee baddery. For all the column inches and broadcast bandwidth they are freely allowed without serious challenge. For all the media saturation and political pull at their backs. Their united Kingdom is falling apart before their very eyes and THEY are the source of the rot.
Quite simply, it’s the way they treat and view other human beings. The way they alienate major demographics of their own populations. The appalling dehumanising legislation passed from their system of parliament. The way they practice their politics, the levels of propaganda, naked mass manipulation and of course the othering and targeted alienation of the demographic du jour.
Pretty much a case of reap what you sow. They sowed hatred, bigotry, fear and anger. They divided and divided again for personal and political gain. Karma however, is a very unforgiving philosophy. What goes round WILL come round. There was always going to be a price to pay for dividing and subdividing those supposedly in your care. There was always going to be a tipping point where people say enough is enough. A time when you absolutely need ‘unity’ and there’s none to be found, because for long enough it suited their purpose to break and undermine that unity. To destroy public trust in institutions, authority, communities. Each other.
They chose their campaign strategies in an inevitable tragedy that was decades in the making.
THEY chose.
We can choose differently and we can do and be better. That can be our choice.
So, what kind of country do want to live in?
@mike cassidy
This is satire but it might as well be real!
Worth reading the rest of it here.
link to newsthump.com
So, moving on to Part 5 of “Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum”.
————–
Technique #5 – ‘ANGER TROLLING’
Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes – without the requirement to ‘stage’ a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to ‘lead’ the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you ‘do not care what the authorities think!!’ inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.
————-
I was going to make all these more relevant, but many of us post elsewhere, some of you use Twitter and Facebook, and it’s not easy to make it totally relevant anyway, so this is just as it appears in the original for people to make their own adaptations.
BLiS___d are an accounting unit of a political party that has been contriving and colluding with the Anglo-American New Right, since the late 1970’s. That’s what happens when you seek power for power’s sake. Just remember, British Labour can’t come to power without the support of swing voters in the south of England. Labour’s ‘southern discomfort” is that it must appease Tories living in the shire counties. Brexit tastic.
Obviously, the press and media would like Scotland to watch some squirrels, whilst Whitehall makes plans to return Scotland to the status of a colony.
@ Thepnr 12.24: yup, looks like we’re going back to the future and Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” will be required reading again.
Scottish British Nationalists want The Scottish government to give them more and they want it now and if they don’t get what they want they’re going to tell the BBC that they’re not happy about it even if the Scottish British Nationalists ARE getting more and ARE getting it quicker than their counterparts in every corner of this Benighted Kingdom because the Scottish government are just Baad because well because
Many of the Scottish British Nationalists are seeing that this tiresome whining nonsense just isn’t working anymore even on the old and uninformed because even they are starting to catch on so what are the Scottish British Nationalists going to do next
*Greet???*
Stew,
I’m posting this again as I don’t think it reached you first time.
And it’s somewhat “of topic”, but as I watched the B.B.C.s coverage of the European Championships (athletics) last night, and everyone on here can check via the B.B.C.s catch-up website, for Sunday’s coverage, at the very end, when the list of technicians etc were being shown, there was a background song being sung, is it just my suspicious mind , or is it yet another subtle message from the Beeb when they use that song in which the line “better together ” is repeated time after time.
What Macart so passionately said @ 12.20 pm.
We shall no longer bow down to the self defined Imperial Masters.
Mundell Leonard and Rennie are the last of the forelock tugging Uncle Toms.
They are Scotland’s shame; subservient little toadies who hate Scotland. There can be no other conclusion.
If you want an English Society, fuck off down the (two lane) M 74.
Thepnr says:
13 August, 2018 at 12:13 pm
@Nana
Thanks again for all that you do here. That Breitbart article you just posted was a shocker…
…..Just when was it that this extreme right wing view became the “normal” view. This kind of article would not have been tolerated in the past and now it is “normal”…
Just anecdotal and unrepresentative I’m sure, while work stopped me going to Pacific Quay, I was actually working beside a couple of English lads. To cut a long story short, I got the distinct impression they were unfamiliar with the Brexit narrative being questioned, and the prevailing view about Europe being largely positive and supportive. You could tell their normal “banter” was having a giggle about Brexit.
It wasn’t a detailed discussion, cordial enough, but shallow. I recall myself saying that letting Nigel Farage make decisions about anything probably wasn’t the smartest idea, and these fellas suddenly had a sense of humour failure. Not falling out or anything, but a very definite “let’s stop talking about Brexit shall we?”.
It’s hard to be definite, but these guys were not Brexiteers. They weren’t defending Brexit, but seemed both embarrassed about Brexit yet willfully stupid about Scotland daring to believe we might have a choice over Brexit.
The English, and yes, I know, I shouldn’t generalise, and no, I don’t want to disrespect the English friends we have amongst us, but down South, they seem to have an irrational paradox in their head. Scotland is a distinct and “different” entity up to a point, but only to the point where it matters. We are not allowed to disrupt their game plan. We can be as Scottish as we want, just as long as we don’t get ideas above our station.
Suddenly the penny dropped. We are their “pets”. They love us to bits when we behave, extol us when we bravely protect them, chastise us or reward us to modify our behaviour and control us, but consider it unthinkable that we’d ever survive in the wild.
The Union isn’t a marriage of Equals, and Independence isn’t about who gets to keep the dog. In their eyes, we ARE the dog.
O/T The European games threw up quite a contrast for me at the weekend.
I watched a section of the Marathon in Berlin where mile after mile of their roads seemed to be perfectly smooth with no pot holes and not even any patches where utilities may have been exposed and repaired.
On top of that I had a look out for weeds growing out of the pavement and litter dropped by spectators.
Absolutely nothing in sight?
Later in the day, I watched some of the road cycle race through Glasgow where it had all of the above in spades.
In fact the commentator was concerned that over 100 wheels had already been replaced due to road damage, and there was a danger that spares would run out all together?
I again would ask for such events to be help around Loch Lomond
with one route into the city centre shut off, at a weekend, not to stop Glasgow’s Commerce as did happen earlier in the week.
The 1 Billion viewers may have been persuaded to visit our shores
with the beauty of our countryside but not many will be considering a cycle or drive holiday in and around Glasgow itself.
We got a first with a record number of punctures and became the first city to include speed bumps on the circuit?
On the Games again, and in the interest of everyone being treated as equals, I noticed an Israeli Gymnast competing in the European Games?
Why wouldn’t their nearer neighbours be invited, Egypt, Lebanon,
Jordan, Syria, and of course Palestine seems to have been alowed to become a colony of Israel.
In no way do I share the views of the Labour Party here, but if they are European Games, then it should be European Countries competing in them.
I wonder if there are any Israeli Golfers who might make the Ryder Cup Team?
Anyways, for those who say the BBC demonstration was a waste of time, and with just a few hundred there would have no effect, here’s an article in the Herald:
link to archive.is
“Mark Smith: Of course the BBC is biased, but the bias of the switch-off campaigners is much worse”
which is one of the most curious headlines I’ve ever read. Of course Independence supporters are biased, as are Labour, Tory and SNP supporters, and those who oppose Independence. It would be a bit strange if we weren’t.
But the whole point is that the BBC is supposed NOT to be biased, and while writing an article pooh-poohing the bias, the auther proves it via the headline itself, and with this statement in the article: “but what they fail to see is that their own bias runs much deeper“.
Anyways, never mind that. The demo was clearly effective because it’s caused an attack article to be written, and published, in the Herald, to give the demo’s aims wider circulation amongst the general public, and make people think rather than just accept.
Good work!
@Tinto Chiel
Just read this on Alastair Campbells blog where he talks about the book “A Sovereign Individual” co-written by Rees-Mogg papa the RH Lord William Rees-Mogg.
The truth be told these people are dangerously deluded fanatics.
The most important book you have never heard of, may explain Rees-Mogg love of hard Brexit
link to archive.fo
@Breeks 1:17pm
Interesting post. I don’t know if you talked about the SNP MPs walking out of the commons recently but such action is the kind of thing we need more of if we are to shake both English and Scottish Britnat from their individual stultifying opinions.
IMO: do something, anything! that gets our opponents riled. That gets through their complacency. Then keep on doing it.
Thanks for links Nana. Have just read the Breitbart one and can’t imagine what kind of people read that and go “yeah that’s right”.
In what kind of world are we supposed to believe that a lack of education is a good thing and helps people to think straight?! The agenda here is to keep the uneducated uneducated, thereby rendering them useful tools for undermining democracy.
The UK government’s own Department for Business, Innovation and Skills research paper 200 from November 2015 states that “Interest in politics and political activity increased incrementally with educational level, with graduates expressing the highest level of interest and greatest likelihood of having taken political action.”
Other advantages of education are “Less traditional and more tolerant attitudes to gender equality and personal relationships; More tolerant attitudes towards immigrants and welfare recipients.
Perhaps someone can provide link for this.
So yeah forgive me if I seem cynical about that bit of ‘wisdom’ from Breitbart. We are full pelt now on a road we need to get off.
Jack collatin began his comment at 1:37 am this morning:
“Last week it was Jenny Marra ‘misspeaking’ about how much Tayside HS ex CEO was getting as a severance package…..”
For new readers to Wings Over Scotland here’s what Jenny Marra Labour MSP said about Tayside NHS and the severance payout to it’s Chief Executive:
“THE chairman of NHS Tayside has written to Labour MSP Jenny Marra after she sparked a row by claiming the health board’s former chief executive was handed a “golden goodbye” worth over £300,000.
Ms Marra, who is convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee, said on Monday that she understood Lesley McLay had received the six-figure payment on stepping down from NHS Tayside on July 31……….”
The Herald Archived:
link to archive.is
Marra’s claim was not true.
Labour? I don’t trust them.
In the European sporting championship games I never saw one European athlete wave the European Flag they strangely all waved flags of the countries they came from except for the Union of the Kingdom of wherever it is we live wher everyone must wave the *correct* flag or you’re not allowed to compete
So sod you Welsh Northen Irish and Scots and yes even you English don’t get to wave your own flag but it’s all OK because a fictitious country was invented for you to adore
@galamcennalath says: 13 August, 2018 at 10:57 am:
” … Dan Huil says:
British nationalists, whether in politics or the media, are desperate to do down Scotland. Their hatred for Scotland is boundless.
Pathetic and sad. It’s our version and vision of Scotland they hate absolutely and completely.”
The real truth is a bit more simple to understand – they actually do not hate Scotland or indeed the people of Scotland. I’ve had plenty of time to get to understand them and worked among a predominantly English, or descended from English, workforce and in Naval Bases with mainly English Royal Naval service people.
They don’t hate us but the are in abject fear of us. They feel insecure because even without thinking about it they know they are dependent upon us. They, of course because of that, also resent us.
The evidence is all so plain to see once your attention is drawn to it. Here are a few just for starters:-
No other nation on Earth, not even their WASP, (White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant), cousins across the pond, have so many derogatory terms for every other nation on Earth. They attempt to put all others down in order to feel more superior to those they denigrate.
They have fought and at least attempted to subjugate just about every other nation on Earth – because of their own innate feelings of insecurity that thus engenders an inferiority complex in them.
I have lost count of the times I have argued with an Englander about some, invention or discovery made by a Scot that they claimed was not really a Scottish invention or innovation or discovery. Take the case of the Steam Engine – they will claim it was, “invented”, by Newcomen and certainly Newcomen developed a working steam engine.
But Newcomen was not the first for the ancient Greeks had a hollow copper ball with a couple of pipes with 90 degree bends that when ball was filled with water and heated it spun around a spindle through its centre and was driven by escaping steam from the bent pipes. It was an early version of the steam turbine.
It was not, though, a practical and efficient Steam engine. Neither was that made by Newcomen. The English though, want to put down Watt and that is their objective.
They do not hate we Scots they fear losing us. That was the motive behind then engineering of the Treaty of Union – They feared the Auld Alliance with France and saw the Scottish English border as an insecure back door to, “Little England”.
What would England do without England’s free access and control of the Scots and Scotland’s abundant natural resources? They fear to lose that control. Now consider the use of “Team GB”, and how the Scots are termed as Britons in BBC reports but Englanders are English.
Mind you they don’t love us either – they just need us.
@ Yesindyref2 – interesting to have the manipulative techniques of repression spelt out in little chunks like that. Reminds me of the wit and wisdom of Reinhardt Heydrich.
The Breitbart article is also a grim warning of how these people think. There was a link downthread to an article about the Night Wolves and how Putin is funding them as a private army poised to attack… somebody.
I followed up where that information had originated. Turned out to be a think tank in Philadelphia. The Foreign Policy Research Institute. They boast a testimonial by General (Ret) James Mattis.
I’m pretty tired of think tanks.
link to fpri.org
@Thepnr 10:35pm
I hear what you are saying and did include caveats to the effect there was little context to go on, as I also mentioned replying to @Gary 11:08. – It was a lazy search and the first site I could find with a ‘table’ of global homeless figures. I agree though that yes, there is much to be wary of when looking at published figures.
A true comparison using the same metric, with a handful of our neighbours would be enlightening. If only to give us a rough benchmark of where we are and where we need to be. Obviously any homeless situation is undesirable, but it’s obvious a degree of ‘Homelessness’ is always evident somewhere, for many complex reasons.
Not least the Westminster assault of sanctions and Universal Credit, which pitches otherwise solvent, capable people into destitution overnight (as others have mentioned) That must inflate ‘homelessness assistance’ figures if the criterion is “..unable to reasonably meet the cost of accommodation”
I’ve been there some years ago. I’ve posted warnings previously on how easy it is to go from a solvent, capable hard working member of society, to destitution following a redundancy. It’s fast and devastating. In week to you’ll be standing thinking WTF just happened! By week two you are seeking assistance from every organisation and fund possible. If you have savings and family support you may never suffer. If not, you might pull out the other side, IF you are capable – That’s a huge big IF.
Did I consider myself homeless? No. To me, ‘homelessness was a polystyrene cup and a wee dug on a string sitting at an underpass. I hadn’t considered ‘homeless’ as living in a hostel or temporary accommadation. I hadn’t considered ‘homeless’ as ‘unable to reasonably meet the cost of accommodation’ when I swapped between having electricity or heating and meals, all with a rented roof over my head.
I was fortunate and pulled through.
Once again the Dundee Courier seems to be quite happy to spread fear and uncertainty to its readers with today’s (Monday) headline of “Dangerous cladding on Fife high-rise blocks” ,
A statement which I think Stew could take apart in his no nonsense rebuttal.
3rd post actually on topic, without mentioning EF…
A new record.
The final graph above shows the effects of the introduction of the homelessness prevention approach, via the Hubs. It works.
We (well I) all love a good graph. But behind the figures in that graph is the positive impact of good governance on tens of thousands of lives. Much misery avoided, by intelligent policy. Gold star, Scottish Government.
“We created the Scottish Housing Options funding programme to help councils make the necessary changes, which included establishing five regional knowledge sharing ‘Hubs’ in autumn 2010.”
link to beta.gov.scot
@Capella
Yes, I think it has more impact posting it one at a time. Even for me posting it – I was thinking about that last one for instance, “INFORMATION COLLECTION” which seems not to be relevant as it stands, but thinking about some of the “attacks” on Wings, is relevant.
I think if we can all be more aware it weakens the effect of the “trolls”, and makes it less neccessary for some of us to point out the posters who are trolls, or at least that we think are trolls – as all readers would be able to do it.
An aware forum is a troll’s worst nightmare.
@Derick fae Yell
This is interesting, is the UK still a member of the EEA after Brexit? Any thoughts?
EEA Backstop
“It must also provide a clear roadmap to give farmers and the wider food and drink sector, confidence over the immediate future.
“The Government must come clean on whether our membership of the EEA [European Economic Area] can be used as a ‘plan B’ to provide transition under the terms of the 1994 EEA agreement, in the event we are unable to secure a formal withdrawal agreement.
“It would appear that the UK is required to provide 12 months’ notice of its intention to leave the EEA, and to date, no such notice has been given.”
“If this is the backstop that the Government is relying upon, we need to know.”
link to agriland.co.uk
@Thepnr
Well found. I have a vague feeling too, that the UK can’t be forced out of the EEA, but it’s a vague memory from 2012 or so, when I read a website about something like EFTA better than EU.
Strange stuff.
@Thepnr says:
13 August, 2018 at 12:24 pm
@mike cassidy
Worth reading the rest of it here.
link to newsthump.com
Sounds very like Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal”. Does it include the poor having to eat their own babies?
here’s jonathan swift’s Modest proposal about how to deal with the DUP and Ultra Loyalists in Northern ireland
link to eurofree3.wordpress.com
I’m old enough to remember the few remaining, mainly in the larger towns and cities, “Model Lodging Houses”. Usually just spoken of as, “The Model”:-
link to dsl.ac.uk
There’s a wealth of information on these premises. They were often run as a commercial business with the so called, “Philanthropists”, who were the shareholders, taking a 5% dividend from the company. These were referred to by the working classes as, “5 percent philanthropists”.
In their day they were not confined to the larger towns and cities but even small villages close to industrial places like mines. mills and foundries had their, “Models”.
Now these places were often pretty basic and I recall my old Labourer talking about a really basic place in Glasgow known as, “The Penny hing”, the homeless person paid a penny for the night and what the penny bought was a place where a ropes were strung across the room and they packed so many into the room there was no place to lie down. The customer hung their arms over the rope and slept standing up and was prevebted from falling by theose also , “Hingin”, on either side of them.
Seems there was always homelessness but at least back then they were not left lying in shop doorways. I would guess if they did so the Polis on the beat would make sure they got moved on – perhaps with the aid of a large, police issue, tackety boot so as to avoid the paperwork of a formal charge.
@ben madigan 3:21pm
Thanks for the link. Interesting site.
Derick fae Yell @ 14:13,
I also like a good graph (not least one entirely free of all EF.. content! =laugh=), and I concur that the last one is a belter. It positively puts to shame the NorthBritLab rhetoric, which may be knowing lies but is largely targeted at the remaining unaware faithful in a desperate bid to prevent a (well-deserved) plunge into total political oblivion.
However, it also reveals the limitations of mitigation as a strategy for winning converts. The Scottish Government can mitigate much, as the graph reveals, but it will always be hamstrung by the twin evils of insufficient autonomy and a BritNat media intent on hiding and distorting any success.
One might hope, like DMH @ 22:15 yesterday, that there were some of sufficient integrity (or even just plain forward-sightedness) within the ranks of Labour’s Northern Branch Office who could liberate themselves from delusions of recovery via a strategy of relentless negativity in implicit cahoots with the other Unionist parties and their faithful mouthpieces.
It would certainly make a impact were it to happen, and redound to the great credit of those brave enough to do it. But I look around in vain for any sign, and somehow I fear they will have to suffer another drastic setback or two for that to happen. Which for both Scotland and Labour will be far, far too late.
@Thepnr 1.35: a book to warm the cockles of the sociopathic capitalist’s heart, certainly. How ironic that Alistair Campbell, who more than any one fixed it for Blair to usher in the pustule of New Labour, infinitely relaxed about the stinking rich and all that, should seem to be critical of the book’s message.
Feeling rather queasy now: may try a brain shower to detox my human spirit.
Screens, nurse.
I know how SLAB will spin your last graph there Rev: B&B and hostel owners face hardship as homeless numbers fall.
There were people making a good living housing the nearly destitute during SLAB’s rule and the bastard SNP have put them out business by treating the homeless properly. The SNP’s lack of care for slum landlords is atrocious and up with this we will not put!
I almost forget what I want to say,at the bottom of the queue,so many good responses from people using their brains.By the way Eddy 1st tried the hammer routine but id did not last.Today we are an English colony,the shackles will be off for good( no thanks to treachery!) We will be on austerity supplies when this divisive Westminster is finished. The Electoral Commision should get it,s finger out, lets see C.R.C. S.U.A.T. Scotland in Union, being taken to task for suspect money dealings, innocent? until charged.