It’s another fun-filled week in the calamastrophe that is the disastrous dysfunctional Disunited Kingdom, and it’s only Monday afternoon. Many think that Britain has turned into the Magic Kingdom on a very bad mushroom trip, but you do come back to your senses after taking magic mushrooms even though you feel like crap and suffer from nausea. The same can’t be said for the UK. Feeling like crap and suffering from nausea is the usual state of affairs if you live under Westminster’s misrule, and your political masters have no sense to come round to.
Any bad set of circumstances can be managed and mitigated with good leadership, as Nicola Sturgeon is showing in Scotland, the real calamastrophe for the rest of the United Kingdom is that it has no effective leadership at all. Its political masters put career before party and party before country. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place, that’s what’s keeping us in it, that’s what will make the future for millions of people bleak and hopeless. None of them are willing to accept any sort of responsibility for the disaster that they’ve created, they’re all far too busy blaming other people and jockeying for position.
Having acted like a wee claque of alkies who pissed all over the carpet in you living room after trashing your house during a drunken party, Boris, David, and now Nigel Farage have all slunk off quietly leaving others to clean up the mess. The three men who bear the greatest responsibility for plunging the country into the greatest crisis since WW2 won’t be sticking around to repair the damage. The truth is that none of them expected the Brexit, none of them had a plan for it, all it was ever about for them was a means to promote themselves in the public eye and get one up over their party rivals and keep themselves firmly esconced on the gravy train.
Nigel announced his resignation on Monday morning, saying that he’s done his bit for his country and wants to spend more time with his German wife before she gets deported. The producer of BBC Question Time is distraught. Nigel wants his life back, and Scotland wants its EU membership back.
According to some reports David Cameron and his wife are considering buying a property in Scotland. So having given us the Brexit on the basis of preventing immigration, Scotland is still going to get Davie as an immigrant. Meanwhile future of the hundreds of thousands of EU citizens living in the UK is going to be held hostage while the Tories sort out their leadership issues and then negotiate a Brexit and George Osborne is going to start the transition of the UK into an off-shore tax haven for the rich and the corporations. That’s the Brexit Britain we’re now living in, where ordinary people are shat on while the rich and powerful work out how best they can profit personally from the confusion that they’ve created.
British politics has now completed its transition into the human caterpillar with backstabbing, Davie got backstabbed by Boris who was backstabbed by Mikey who was backstabbed by Teresa, while over in the Labour party everyone is trying to backstab Jeremy. Everyone else has resigned even though they should have remained in post to clear up the mess they’ve made. Even Chris Evans has resigned, but Jeremy is staying in post even though a large majority of his elected colleagues want him to resign.
The UK might have changed utterly. We might be sailing in uncharted waters, and battering the ship of state on the reefs while our political parties argue over who gets to become captain of the sinking ship, but you can always rely on BBC Scotland to act as though nothing has happened. It’s a beacon of changeless certainty in a sea of change. It’s just a shame that their beacon of certainty is the Labour party in Scotland, which was the first casualty of the reef collision. On Monday evening we are to be treated to a debate on BBC Scotland about the future of Scotland in this post-Brexit world. Well, I say debate, what I really mean is three Unionists ganging up on a solitary person from the SNP while the Greens don’t even get inside the building.
On Pacific Quay, it’s like none of the elections of the past 10 years have happened and we’re still stuck in a pre 2007 time warp where Labour reigns supreme in Scottish public life. Labour still reigns supreme in the BBC Scotland news department management, that’s clear enough. In a country where recent opinion polls show that a majority of the population support independence, where the Labour party is now the third placed party in the Scottish parliament and has been pandaficated at Westminster, BBC Scotland’s idea of a balanced panel is two Labour politicians, a Tory, and someone from the SNP. This sort of balance is exactly why BBC Scotland’s reputation is plummeting faster than the UK’s at a EU popularity contest.
No doubt the audience will likewise be carefully chosen to reflect BBC Scotland’s management’s idea of balance, which means that it will be packed with bitter-ender Unionists and apologists for Labour and the Tories. If you want to know why it is that BBC Scotland is losing the trust of the public, you only need to tune in to the Yoonfest with Glenn that passes for a debate. Scotland is part of a UK whose leaders are in denial about the mess that they’ve created and who refuse to accept responsibility for it, and they’re reported on by a state media which is in denial about the mess it’s created and which refuses to accept responsibility for it.
The UK is a dyfunctional state led by dysfunctional politicians and reported on by a dysfunctional media, both of whom look back wistfully to a nostalgic golden age that only ever existed inside their own heads. The reality for citizens is an uncertain future, increasing debt, insecurity in employment, growing xenophobia, the glorification of the military and the royal family in lieu of democracy, while our civil and employment rights are evaporated. As the fog of Brexit slowly lifts, it becomes clearer than ever that our only solution is to get out of this mess by voting for independence in a second indyref. Otherwise we condemn ourselves to a permanent bad trip in the nightmare of the Magic Mushroom Kingdom with its permacalamastrophes.
Donate to the Dug This blog relies on your support and donations to keep going – I need to make a living, and have bills to pay. Clicking the donate button will allow you to make a payment directly to my Paypal account. You do not need a Paypal account yourself to make a donation. You can donate as little, or as much, as you want. Many thanks.
I’m now taking advance orders for Volumes 3 and 4 of the Collected Yaps. For the special price of £21 for both volumes plus £4 P&P you can get signed copies of the new books if you order before publication, scheduled for mid-July. Covering the immediate aftermath of the independence referendum until the Yes campaign’s destruction of the Labour party in the 2015 General Election, it’s a snarling chronicle of Scottish history.
To reserve your copies, just send an email to weegingerbook@yahoo.com giving your name and your postal address and how many copies you wish to order. You can also order signed copies of all four volumes for the special price of £40 plus £4 P&P.
Signed copies of the Collected Yaps of the Wee Ginger Dug volumes 1 and 2 are available by emailing me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Price just £21.90 the pair plus P&P. Copies of Barking Up the Right Tree are available from my publisher Vagabond Voices at http://vagabondvoices.co.uk/?page_id=1993 price just £7.95 plus P&P. The E-book of Barking Up the Right Tree is available for Kindle for just £4. Click here to purchase.
Wee Ginger Dug 
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Another calamastrophe in the disastrous dysfunctional disunited kingdom […]
“Nigel announced his resignation on Monday morning, saying that he’s done his bit for his country and wants to spend more time with his German wife before she gets deported.”
I am laughing, coughing and the tea is dripping down my nostrils
Don’t do that again without a warning.
On Pacific Quay, it’s like none of the elections of the past 10 years have happened and we’re still stuck in a pre 2007 time warp where Labour reigns supreme in Scottish public life.
class
Holyrood should pass a law saying no-one in Scotland will be prosecuted if they refuse to pay the bbc tax.
I wonder if the UK can now be classed as a failed state? We have elected representatives (don’t think we can say we have a government, apart from Scotland) who are indulging in civil war amongst themselves and ignoring the electorate who got them into their jobs. Jobs which they are now not even bothering to look as if they are doing. I do think though that SNP MPs and MSPs should be issued with combat fatigues, bullet proof jackets and helmets. Can you imagine how dangerous Holyrood and Westminster must be with all the knives flying about?
Well said
They’re all going off on 8 weeks holiday, WRH2.
Crisis? What crisis?
Scotland’s Future 670 pages
Brexit UK? A web page no longer available.
Says it all really.
The culprits for this constitutional clusterf**k? Retired, forcibly or voluntarily. The UK is the laughing stock of world politics and deservedly so. Instead of begging the UK to stay, the EU are literally upset that the UK government aren’t moving toward the exit fast enough.
I mean Bojo and Nige did have a costed, detailed, constitutionally legal and diplomatically sound exit plan right?
Right?
Apparently not.
Not the smug self satisfied abject failure of a Tony Blair Neo Conservative bomb Iraq 18 year gravy trainer Tom Harris though. He hasn’t resigned, WE kicked him and the ‘Fucking Useless’ New Labour carpetbaggers out on their ear last May.
Yet there he sat, doubling the New Labour (cos wee Jackie’s a Blair acolyte too) on a panel of 4, with the WATP yet another unelected greedy for money that he feels that he can trouser £1200 a week of our money as a part time unelected Tory Boy,Professor Tompkins, put up by the BBC as the chosen spokespeople for Scotland.
While Boris and Farage, resign, because Leave have no Plan Z, never mind Plan A, to which Harris the Failure admitted with a blithe shrug, to the groans even of the put up job BBC audience, Tomkins was allowed to have a swipe at the SNP and Education in Scotland, untrammelled by a ‘Chair’ who should of course have pointed out that 5 and a half years of Clegg Cameron Cable Osborne billions of pounds of Austerity Cuts are responsible for the civic breakdown of Scotland, not the BADSNP, the first 6 minutes and 9 seconds of this farce consisted of:-
‘Can Scotland realistically stay in the EU even without the rest of Britain?’
Fiona Hyslop at 2.33 mins formulates an ‘early doors, explore all options’, then Campbell:-
‘How would that work?’
at 3 mins 45. The rest of the panel are checking their in boxes by now.
It’s to be the usual SNP BBC Hatchet Job. Campbell is not there to chair, he’s there to lead the badgering of the BAD BAD SNP, comme d’habitude.
‘Doesn’t sound like you have a clear plan at this stage.’ he snorts in summary before going to the first planted member in the audience; a wee frail tartan waistcoat who voted Yes , ‘we lost’, voted Leave this time, what’s a body to do? Then second ‘random’ audience member;
Another old codger, who wanted to question the veracity of the SNP. By this time the other panel members are sitting back enjoying the usual SNP bating by Campbell and the BBC.
Then 6 minutes into the programme the ‘Chair brings in WATP Part Time MSP Tompkins…and the farce unfolds according to the Unionist Communications Wing of the London Establishment’s script…
Another amateurish waste of time and money by the Establishment.
And that’s exactly what they are Jack, a waste of time. Three clueless wonders allowing an equally clueless and disingenuous media to do their work for them, safe in the knowledge that this media won’t be bending over backward to hold their catastrophic behavior or record of calamitous stewardship to account. Mainly, mind you, because they represent the criminally irresponsible and inept political system which have brought us to this crisis point and that would never do.
Meanwhile, the only politicians in the UK who are actually getting on with the job of protecting our rights and well being, being seen to do the day job, are the target of these representatives and their media in a one sided and never ending FUD campaign. When we need governance and stability most, THIS is when they think its a good time to spread yet more Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in yet another in a long line of mindless point scoring exercises.
Fiddling while Rome burns springs to mind.
history would judge us wanting if we cat back and did nothing, Macart.
Wee JaBa the But even got in a wee dig about the BAD SNP cutting the education Budget by £500 million.
drip drip drip.
edit ‘ sat’, not ‘cat’. oops
Does anyone still watch BBC Scotland? I don’t.
I only just caught a bit of a debate, cos I was watching the Tennis, then a debate came on. One pro ScotIndy v 3 Unionists on the panel (quelle suprise)… the audience packed with unionists and a few Brexiters claiming they are pro-Scottish Independence. The one guy in the audience who spoke excellently and as someone with EU business/policy experience was, in his own words “English by birth and Scottish by choice”. He must have cleared the BBC vetting process because of his accent. I doubt many with his views would have sneaked past and into the audience.
I stopped watching it… It quickly got into the usual Unionfest the BBC intended it to.
Andy, does anyone still watch the BBC? I certainly don’t.
my late old dad used to say’ lets get he hell out of it’ more than a decade ago and boy was he right…still trying to convince the unconverted family members who still say we wont get indy 2 from wm and its futile to resist as we have no power/authority..ye gods, i truly despair in trying to enlighten their narrow mindset, it refuses to compute…no doubt the bbc tonight will be re enforcing the same message on its debate with the snp minister being savaged by the baying mobs that have been rejected at the ballot box but hey why let that hold them back…
Let’s be fair to Corbyn, he has the backing of the party membership, it’s the Blairite scum in parliament who have been trying to do him in before the Chilcot report comes out. Yet another example of Labour snouts-in-troughers focussing on hanging on to their 6 figure expense accounts while the biggest open goal in recorded history is waiting for an effective opposition to start scoring points against the tories.
The british britnat corporation is beyong redemption. It gave up unbiased reporting in Scotland years ago. It is truly a disgusting organization.
According to the Herald, LibDems accuse Tories in Scotland of “going soft on independence”.
Are the English parties, the BritNats, in Scotland now fighting among themselves? Better Together is becoming a joke; infighting north and south of the Tweed; accusations….
No plan for Brexot, more nae idea and drifting. Tony Blair is calling for no activation of Article 50 for two years as views could change!! Threats now to EU nationals in the country as their future residency cannot, may not be guaranteed. Standard Life property fund halts withdrawals nae liquidity!
All the pin ups from Brexit have “gone” and Boris attacks UK government for not having a plan!!
You could not make it up.
Oh, what a lovely war indeed.
I wonder if the naw voters are having regrets? Or are many still like the BBC Scotland, living in the old world of the two (English) party system of yore? In other words, Scotland baaaad , UK, well not ok but ko’ed now.
Another humdinger, Paul, but I’m afraid it’s time for the metaphorical torches and pitchforks down to Pacific Quay, otherwise, it’s 2014 all over again next time.
The SG needs a proper strategy for the Dark Star, otherwise, to mix my metaphors, I’ve got a bad feeling about this…..
Agreed other networks will cover a demonstration so the BBC can’t cover it up even me who won’t get of his arse would be there we need to get out of the Unionist strangle hold we are an occupied country
Why metaphorical?
Political cowards all of them. Now what! What shocks me is that the polls for independence are not showing around a 70 % for independence. The polls have risen a measly 3 % since Brexit.
People will really get a shock when the the EU subsidies begin to dry up. No more money for universities, for research, for urban regeneration projects, for culture and arts, for small farms and inotive buisness projects, and everthing else that comes with membership. The so called bill of rights will not be a shadow of the protections afforded by the EU. The few workers rights we have will be eroded, and nearly all monies and funding will be directed firmly at England. We wont have any recourse or protection whatsoever from the excesses of Westminster. It is quite simply a disaster for Scotland. With a recession all but garanteed this will hit the yes vote in the event of a indyref2. I really do fear for the future when I look at the political dwarfs competing for the Prime minister post.
The polls are rising and will continue space as the eejits trying to become Tory leader utter more and more irrational and contradicTORY drivel.
As Labour implode, Westminster will draw to a halt.
There is no road plan to Brexit yet, none know how to take step two let alone step one.
Brussels sits and waits! No talks until Article 50 is invoked. No informal soundings either.
I suppose the EU might start to heat things up by withholding monies, debates etc.
Campbell immediately slapped this gentleman down. He was speaking with authority you see, and was going to vote YES in a second Referendum; and he was fucking English too! Which researcher let this one through? They’re sacked whoever they are.
Absolutely. It is a disaster for Scotland. As you point out, with no human rights and no recourse to even more inequality and injustice, we are really screwed. The only thing we can hope for is that most will see what is coming, and those moving to Scotland or planning to, will see that it’s no use unless we are independent of WM, so don’t bother unless you support an independent of the rUK Scotland.
A government in a neighbouring country, who don’t just siphon off our revenues and resources, they just take the bulk of it all quite openly, well except for the lies via GERS etc.
It is all a huge concern, and timing is of course of the essence, which is why WM are delaying and messing about with brexit, they did not have a plan, but we can be sure they will be cooking one up right now, to stop Scotland from making plans for a deal with the EU, and also to scupper any notion of independence. They have a huge advantage in that they hold the purse strings and have the money men behind them. Scotland though has the support of the EU. Interesting if extremely worrying times.
There´s an obvious solution when you think about it. We need to make common cause with the other ´home nations´ and boot England out of the UK. The rest of us just carry on as before we (not England) become the ´rUK´ within the EU, and England is left isolated which is what they seem to desire. Be careful what you wish for, as they say 🙂
@Robert Graham
I think you will find that the postal vote system and the electoral commission are every bit as dangerous as the BBC. I’ve heard plenty of people down south complaining about the postal votes and claiming that the vote for leave was actually much higher in England.
The SG are going to have to cover all the bases this time! They are either going to have to set stringent terms for the ballot and if WM will not agree, then ask for EU observers or say the ballot will be held anyway under Scotlands terms. Tall order, tough choices, but the SG can’t just brush last time off, and hope it’s different next time.
I agree, Johnny.
here are a few pointers for safeguarding votes that i thought about after indyref1 as i was shocked at how lax the voting system was. No doubt other people will have lots of other ideas and we should try to ensure the most useful are implemented on the day.
votes should be counted and sealed in each polling station – with independent observers (if possible)+ party reps/volunteers.
Tallies to be confirmed in the main counting stations with independent observers + party reps/volunteers.
Exit polls to be held
Attention focussed on voting in old people’s homes, nursing homes, hospitals etc. Set specific date (maybe 1 day before Indyref2) and have independent observers(if possible) + party reps present as people vote.Make sure people understand exactly where to put their mark, No biased instructions or advice. Set up safe collection, delivery to, and guard system at, local polling station.
Postal votes are the weakest link – people should use them to the minimum and try to get them handed in on the day, rather than actually posting them.
I agree. Double counting is the only way to ensure things. Count them at the Polling Station with observers and police presence, reseal the boxes then count again later again with observers and police presence. There will be discrepancies, but this should be minimal.
As Joseph Stalin is said to have said, “It’s not who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes.”
Labour in meltdown, Tories in turmoil, Lib/Dems irrelevant, and an EU that does not look too kindly on the outgoing UK. … Personally, I had figured that I’d be spending the next few years trying to persuade friends and colleagues over to the Yes camp. However, that seems to have changed dramatically thanks to Brexit. Now they’re the ones telling me that independence is the only way to go without me having to utter a word. Nicola has been the star of the show, she has played it just right and proved [if proving was ever needed] that she is a strong leader, and the ONLY politician that actually had a ‘plan’. The next few months are critical, businesses, the middle classes, and those who regard money as their god, need reassurance that Scotland remaining in the EU – by picking up the reins discarded by the UK – can ONLY be achieved through independence.
This may be a pretty rough time for our UK politicians, but they but from a Scottish – and somewhat selfish -perspective, they’ve just made my life a whole lot easier. 🙂
Good points. All the old certainties in the UK have evaporated. Interestingly, the UK, Westminster, set up, is having to negotiate from weakness from now on. We will be hearing lots of non, nein, nej, ne, from now on.
The Brexiters in the team cannot threaten, withhold, warn, issue threats of casus belli, send a gunboat, as the EU hold all the cards. If you leave the club, do not expect the EU to be kind.
UK is on its tod noo!
All we need is for Parliament to disregard the result, then the English against English backlash will be furious.
It will be pulling and shoving.
There are already signs that the English Establishment, The Money Men, the Masters of the Universe are about to engineer a second Referendum.
As we speak I’m sure dozens of back bench Tories are being bought off with Company Directorships or the Lords if they have a Damascean Conversion to Project EU Remain.
Farage and Johnson have been kicked into the long grass.
Theresa and Amanda will be good compliant neo liberals.
A second vote is imminent, as in after a year or two stalling.
Last night’s BBC farce plumbed new depths of pointlessness.
“David Cameron and his wife are considering buying a property in Scotland”.
Tillypronie estate in Aberdeenshire comes with 15,000 acres of land, and is currently owned by Philip Astor, distantly related to David Cameron’s wife Samantha.‘Philip has no heirs and the word is the estate is going to be placed on the open market soon.
The scottish Govt should buy it for the nation,
http://www.thefield.co.uk/features/shooting-in-scotland-22658
“One of Scotland’s finest pheasant-shoots”
Just as you’d expect, nothing but the best for call-me-dave.
Just been catching up across sites on that ‘debate’ and the number of folks demanding the SG ‘do something’ to ‘up their game’ or take on the media. FFS!
Shock horror the BBC is a state broadcaster defending its state by fair means or foul.
They can’t be combated only ignored and or made irrelevant. Its not only impossible to take on the entirety of the media headlong, its counterproductive and a waste of valuable energies and resources. PQ isn’t the head of the snake, London HQ is and its not just backed by Scottish license payers, but license payers the length and breadth of these islands. So long as the state requires defending, London will pump the necessary funds into the project.
The print media, owned by billionaires superglued hip and thigh to the establishment, equally are immovable objects in their ideology, yet slowly but surely their titles are dying off. Why? Because the best action is that of using your consumer given powers of withholding your cash and/or your attention.
The entirety of the YES movement do NOT have pockets deep enough, nor years in their collective lives long enough to take the media head on. The Scottish Government, bound by the union, a central government and competences ‘allowed/gifted’ under devolved settlement equally CANNOT take the media on front and centre. Even if they did have the powers, right now they don’t have time or the pockets to take on the media. FFS! HMG walk softly round the fucking media and our government have better fucking things to do with their cap in hand budget than fight court cases or look at ways of getting round that whole devolution of broadcasting powers bollox.
They have a population to care for, central government legislation they are constantly having to offset, manifesto commitments to keep and the tiny matter of defending what few fucking public services we have left. Not to mention the tiny matter of gearing our government to defend our population against the current constitutional and economic crisis. ALL THIS before the next cataclysmic budget hits this autumn and it will be a beaut thanks to Brexit.
That does not mean to say we can’t do anything. You want to draw the fangs of that particular media snake? There is only ONE way and it WILL be limited in its effectiveness.
YOU STARVE THEM and feed your own media. You deny them publicity and PROMOTE your own media. You deride them and take your own media seriously. You make them irrelevant, surplus to requirements, an EX PARROT.
Building our own media, mocking or ignoring entirely, the mainstream, writing letters of protest, marching when necessary, highlighting their faults and their bias. Wings fergawdsake is a MEDIA MONITOR, a living lie detector and fact checker. If you must spend money as an independence supporter, then support food banks, support independence minded parties, support our growing media – Our host, Wings, iScot, indylive and so many others.
I want my government to govern, not become media moguls or personalities with killer soundbites and a good rant to hand when some snotty biased interviewer gets out of hand.
Macart, I’d venture that not one member of last night’s hand picked audience will be relying on the Hospice Shop for their winter coat, or dined beforehand on tinned Macaroni and cheese from a foodbank.
We have over half a million Scots living below the poverty line.
Osborne’s £32 billion in cuts is being implemented as we speak, and Scottish Civic Society is being starved of funds to the tune of £1.2 billion a year.
We are emasculated politically, and we can now look forward to at least two Thatecherite decades of Ruth Davidson and Professor Tompkins destroying Scotland’s civic society.
Amanda Leadsom (is that how you spell this Jenny Come Lately’s name?) wants Charities to step into the breach.
If you need a wheelchair. Apply to a charity.
If you need a grab rail for you bath. Apply to a charity.
If you need clothes for your kids, or food on the table. Beg, ‘cos Professor Two Jobs WATP and the Tory Boys say so. Cameron’s big society. I get two wages, the plebs get fuck all.
The Final Push to Independence has begun.
The Romans had an oxymoron for it:- ‘Festina Lente’.
‘Hasten Slowly’. We simply cannot afford to miscalculate this time.
Our day has arrived.
I agree, Macart. BBC Scotland is a fly at the picnic. I gather they are shutting down Scotland 2016. No one is watching.
Campbell, Brewer, Bird, Kerr..they are irrelevant; but then again, I suspect that they know that. Otherwise they’d be in London with Marr, Neill, Wark, Esler, and the rest of the Uncle Tom Society.
Its the only way to handle them Jack.
Deny them the oxygen of support or approval.
All these resignations from our beloved national treasures. Just today there is Nigel Fartage and now also Chris Evans.
OMG.
When will this litany of devastating resignations end. I can’t take much more.
Many crofters and farmers here are really worried at the moment. But by all accounts we’ll get our second indyref in 2018 and with a special place reserved for us – a “holding pen” if you please – Scotland will be the 28th member of the EU. So the subsidies are secure and everything will soon be back to normal…….. BUT they MUST vote for independence first. Let’s hope they have the good sense to do this. Surely!!
“the next cataclysmic budget hits this autumn and it will be a beaut thanks to Brexit”.
have a feeling the coffers are empty, hence the turmoil in all Westminster parties
I have become resigned to resignations.
“David Cameron and his wife are considering buying a property in Scotland” – let’s hope the title deeds are a lair certificate.
So the EU are considering treating Scotland as the UK´s ¨successor state¨, so here´s a thing. NI and Gibraltar are feeling a bit lost at present and even the Welsh are getting jittery over the thought of being left shackled to Little England. (Their Leave vote was quite narrow btw with a good deal of protest votes from depressed areas that actually benefit from EU funding). What if they could be persuaded to come along with us? That is the rUK would be everything but England. It would be business as usual and unbroken EU membership for Scotland, Wales, NI (Gib??) and Goodbye England!
There would be a sort of poetic justice to that outcome, be careful what you wish for, as they say.
Uh Huh!
http://www.thenational.scot/news/fear-and-misery-as-uk-government-refuses-to-guarantee-eu-citizens-the-right-to-remain.19614
The best bit in the article is “The distress this is likely to cause will be high on the agenda when Nicola Sturgeon meets European diplomats in Bute House today.” While the numpties are procrastinating or resigning, Scotland is going quietly and steadily forward.
The actions of the W1 crowd? Its like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You want to look away but… daren’t.
The only legislature seen to be focusing on the problem in hand, as you say, is Holyrood. They’ve kept the public briefed, sent messages to resident EU nationals of reassurance, put together a constitutional advisory committee, instructed parliament to start putting together the legislation for another indyref (just in case) and made high viz consultative visits to Brussels.
Meanwhile elsewhere people have no idea what the hell is going on.
agreed the whole country is on hold while a tiny percentage of the population in the case of the Tory party it’s a % of a% and this daily pish of who’s who in the Tory knife in who gives a f/k every one is a Tory that says it all in the meantime whos steering the ship when everyone but the tories can see the rocks ahead and this shambles goes on and on this lot think they are superior and born to lead ask the families of all who have died the many wars this country have been involved in Lions led by Donkeys was very apt comment sad but true . beyond useless .
What about invoking EVEL ? English Votes for England to Leave ?
Reblogged this on Jim's space.
I had a visit from ipsos mori today to see if I would participate in ( the national readership survey). The survey will take place at a later date.
What I did find out was that ipsos mori had exit polls done at our Indy ref in 2014 these were small and only in a few areas.
How interesting.
“YOU STARVE THEM and feed your own media. You deny them publicity and PROMOTE your own media. You deride them and take your own media seriously. You make them irrelevant, surplus to requirements, an EX PARROT.
Building our own media, mocking or ignoring entirely, the mainstream, writing letters of protest, marching when necessary, highlighting their faults and their bias. Wings fergawdsake is a MEDIA MONITOR, a living lie detector and fact checker. If you must spend money as an independence supporter, then support food banks, support independence minded parties, support our growing media – Our host, Wings, iScot, indylive and so many others.”
And many people on here, Wings and elsewhere do that, Sam. I don’t give the BBC a penny and I understand the “Become the Media” argument. Many commenters keep the ball rolling on this and other sites but at times it feels that we are in something of a bubble and how many of those No voters whom the BBC influence daily come onto Indy sites for a corrective? We will be having an Indyref2 in quite a short time and I’m not sure the above tactics alone will be enough in that timescale.
I’m not convinced that, because we can see through the BBC’s shenanigans, that enough of the rest of the electorate do. “Is it true or did you hear it on the BBC?” is still akin to heresy for too many people in Scotland.
I’m not asking for a penny to be spent countering the BBC but I do feel at time the SG/SNP seems too passive and polite when they’re under the cosh. Simple things like not allowing the interviewer to constantly talk over or interrupt them would help. I heard John Humphrys try this with an American businessman recently on Radio4and he was firmly and politely put in his place when he tried the terrier tactics. He asked why he kept interrupting him, thus stopping him answering his questions. The result was he got his argument over and put JH on the back foot. “Dead air” is to be avoided at all times on air but a harassed spokesman could simply stop speaking and, after a few seconds say, “I’m sorry, I was just waiting for your next interruption.” Small things like that can be effective, alerting the listener to the interrogator’s tactics.
Last night’s programme seems to have been the usual unequal fight and I wonder how many people it affected positively from our point of view?
Paul, you have to see this.
http://news.sky.com/story/1721982/watch-ken-clarke-ridicules-tory-candidates
Ooft!
OK, this is OT and a bit cheeky, but…
clique: a small social group that likes to exlude others
claque: noisy audience “plants”, friends of the performer, or paid by them to cheer and applaud (originally in the music-hall, a forerunner of laugh-tracks)
And on the day that Osborne is cutting business rates to head off a massive capital flight – the BBC decided to run with a slight increase in cancelled ops – up 0.1 percent. Disappointing? Well we don’t the reasons for the cancellations. But to run with this the day the chancellor and the BoE is beginning to panic. Frankly the BBC are a parody hit parade of pish.
a calamastrophic omnishambles of truly epic proportions by a cartoonishly inept rUK, defended by deluded cringe peddlers, whose bias is matched only by their imbecilic belligerence.
And I stand by that Hyperbole because frankly, its correct.
David, it’s only hyperbole if you’re exaggerating.