The British Government is going to let members of the Scottish Parliament have a wee squatch at the impact study into the economic effects of Brexit on the various nations and regions of the UK. Isn’t that nice. This is the study that they’d previously denied existed. David Mundell’s office wrote to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament late on Wednesday 7 February to inform him that MSPs would be able to view the document by appointment only on Thursday 8 February or on Friday 9 February between 10 am and 1pm and between 2pm and 5pm at the Scotland Office building in 1 Melville Crescent. Times when MSPs are busy with Parliamentary business or when they’re due to be holding constituency surgeries. MSPs won’t be allowed to copy the papers, to photograph or scan them. They won’t be allowed to take copies away with them. They won’t be allowed unsupervised access to the papers, and they’ve been warned that the content of the papers is not to be made public. But subject to these restrictions the papers will be freely available on short notice for a short while in an office in the basement behind a storage cupboard guarded by a leopard. So that’s totally reasonable. You’ll have had your freedom of information Scotland.
Naturally MSPs were pretty pissed off about this. It’s an insult to the Scottish Parliament to promise access to the papers and then to make it as awkward and inconvenient as possible for MSPs to actually obtain access. Labour MSP Neil Findlay was pure beelin that it was outrageous that the British government was expecting MSPs to schlepp all the way to London just to get a wee glimpse of the documents. That’s the Neil who is an MSP for the Lothians, who works in Edinburgh, who lives near Edinburgh, and who doesn’t know that the Scotland Office has premises in Edinburgh. Nor indeed where Melville Crescent is. Google Maps is your friend Neil.
But there’s an even bigger insult to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people than the UK government’s contemptuous evasion and obfuscation over information about the economic effects of Brexit. Last year the Fluffy One told the Scottish Parliament’s Europe Committee that the UK government had not carried out any “Scotland specific” analysis of the effects of Brexit. This came a short while after he’d admitted in the media that there was in fact such an analysis. Now we know that there is after all an analysis which looks specifically at the economic effects of Brexit on Scotland and on all the other nations and regions of the UK.
There are only two possible conclusions here. Either the Scotland Secretary had been lying when he said that there was such a study because he didn’t actually know that there was, which in turn means that his colleagues in the British cabinet don’t keep him informed of Scottish specific information, or that he knew all along that the report existed and what it detailed and he was deliberately misleading the Scottish Parliament. Neither of these conclusions inspires much confidence in the ability of the man who is theoretically charged with speaking up for Scotland in the UK cabinet to speak up for Scotland in the UK cabinet. David Mundell must be a liar or an idiot, although admittedly those are not mutually exclusive possibilities.
You might think that it was an important story that the Scotland Secretary was misleading the Scottish Parliament on a topic which is vitally important to the future of Scotland, misleading the Scottish Parliament about a UK government study demonstrating that the economic damage of Brexit will be even greater than the economic damage that the Conservatives were telling us independence would be. You might think that this ought to be the lead story on BBC Scotland’s flagship evening news programme, Reporting Scotland. But then if you think that then you are kept even less informed about the purpose of Reporting Scotland than the UK cabinet keeps the Scotland Secretary informed about Scotland specific Brexit information. The lead story was naturally a story about Thatessempee being bad because of the resignation of the chief of Police Scotland, this was followed by two stories about murrdurrs, a story about a soldier’s body being repatriated from Iraq, then a story about problems with an NHS hospital in Aberdeenshire.
It was only then that BBC Scotland saw fit to present us with a short piece saying that the Scotland Office was giving MSPs limited opportunity to scrutinise the documents. There was no mention of any attempt on the part of the BBC to get the Scotland Secretary to explain himself, even though a BBC journalist had tweeted during the day that the Fluffy one was refusing interviews. There was no mention of his previous denials to the Scottish Parliament that the information existed. There was no mention or explanation of the immense damage that the documents say will be caused to the Scottish economy. There was no mention of the Scottish Conservatives calling the Scottish Government’s study “over the top scaremongering”, even though their own government’s paper showed the same, or worse, harm being caused. If you’re expecting BBC Scotland to hold the Conservatives to account, you probably also expect that Brexit will deliver everyone in the country a free bus with a misleading slogan written on the side of it.
There’s certainly no way that the majority of the Scottish print media is going to hold the Tories to account, but then we’re not obliged to pay for newpapers we don’t agree with. Their job is to keep Scotland a part of the UK irrespective of the circumstances. The same people who accuse independence supporters of supporting independence even if it were proven to damage Scotland are hell bent on keeping Scotland a part of the UK even though it’s been demonstrated that it’s damaging Scotland.
The fact however is that the Conservatives will continue to treat Scotland with contempt because the majority of the media in Scotland lets them get away with it, makes excuses for them, and enables them. It bears repeating, if Scotland had a media which spent as much time and energy critically examining and dissecting the behaviour of the UK government as they do criticising Thatessempee, Scotland would be independent already. And that’s precisely why they don’t. The Brexit papers are a metaphor for Scotland’s place in the UK. Locked away in a filing cabinet as an inconvenience.
The Wee Ginger Dug has got a new domain name, thanks to Indy Poster Boy, Colin Dunn @Zarkwan. http://www.indyposterboy.scot/ You can now access this blog simply by typing www.weegingerdug.scot into the address bar of your browser, the old address continues to function, the new one redirects to the blog. The advantage of the new address is that it’s a lot easier to remember if you want to include a link to the blog in leaflets, posters, or simply to tell a friend about it. Many thanks to Colin.
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Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
Spot on as ever Paul!
Pretty grim Paul. I didn’t think it was possible to hold a lower opinion of UK gov, its representatives and their practice of politics than I already do.
I was wrong about that. It is entirely possible after all.
And it will only get worse, undoubtedly.
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I knew someone would get the Hitchhiker’s Guide reference.
Paul, I’ve come over all David Icke: and it’s your fault,
Ford Prefect on the lizards:-
” On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
We’ve had out fill of lizards.
I know, I’m clogging up your blog. Off to bed now.
“Thus spake Slartibartfast.” (I think?)
Beat me to it Jean ^^
[…] Wee Ginger Dug A country in a filing cabinet The British Government is going to let members of the Scottish Parliament have a wee […]
A masterly summary, Paul, of the size of the feck these deplorable, cowardly, lying Tory rat-bags simply don’t give for our country.
No voters: you Yes yet?
Not if our wonderful Vichy Vision has anything to do with it.
Wake up, peeps, FFS!
What dis strike me aboot the Tories noo is thit thir making a lot ay mistakes, n thir cool is well n truly blown. Wis hinking aboot them gaun on aboot ‘Project Fear’ recently. Folk ken thit that wis due tae them. Thir running aboot like heidless chickens. Centuries ay exploitation ay ither folk fir thir ain enrichment ur coming tae an end, n they dinnae ken whit tae day or say. Ah cannae hink ay any ither outcome. Jist too psychotic, violent n depressing.
Sorry to upset anyone but exactly the same trick was pulled by the EU in their ultimately failed TTIP negotiations , but the EU went further No pens paper pencils or anything that could be used to record anything seen was forbidden , I believe prosecution was also threatened with any disclosure.
Apart from that it’s obvious the Tories haven’t one original idea in their head , by drawing attention to a document that they firstly said was a comprehensive analysis of leaving the EU work in progress , Then when pressed had to admit NO work had been done, it now transpires work had been done but they ain’t showing it , oh f/k even I am getting lost now, strong and stable , ha ha crooked twisted and bent more like .
And still labour can’t land a bloody blow on the worst government in living memory , Christ what would it be like if labour took control with half of The Corbyn MPs trying to jump over each other to stab him in the back , better together gee wiz with this lot makes Monty Python look like a credible opposition .
Our MSP’s should head down to the Scotland Office and engage in a bit of wholly justifiable civil disobedience and remove the documents for uploading on social media.
Just what I’ve been saying to my partner. It’s time our govt stood up to the UK govt and this would be the ideal opportunity.
Surely Mundell’s for the door soon.
Brian Taylor on Toodle Oo The Noo TV brought up Immigration Policy for Scotland as the hot EU Brexit item today. Nothing to see here.
The chinless wonder List Tory MSP prattled on about white vans full of furren berry pickers at Gretna and the massive amount of red tape and paperwork that disaster would chuck up.
The Telegraph hack, one of Big Bri’s ‘chums’ pointed to Prof Curtice’s survey that 2/3 of Scots don’t want a separate immigration policy.Whit?
So the day passed peacefully for the Brit Nats on BBC Scotland where talking shite about chief constables and berry pickers in Berwick was way far more important than the imminent future of Scotland under the yoke of the English Brexiteers.
What is the point of Brian Taylor nay more?.
Meanwhile in a basement nearby, 8 MSPs at a time were allowed a wee swatch at the Document that doesn’t exist, and Treeza’s EU Cabinet met to decide Scotland’s fate in Brexit Britain, without a Scot in the room.
I gather our MSPs are forbidden from telling us what’s in the box.
We already know. England has thrown us onto the scrapheap.
The UK is dead, and England’s influence in Scottish affairs is at all time low.
Mundell and the Scotland Office is a joke.
Nice to see Richard Lock..nard working so well with his soul mate Ruth Davidson in shouting blue murder about Chief Constables.
Better Together, Corbyn’s Commies and Jacob Rees’ Moggies.
They actually believe that they can withhold this vital information from their fellow Scots.
Arrogant bumptious tosspots.
Brian Taylor was just following the EBBC instuctions.
Radio 4 interviewed Jackson Carlaw just after the 7 am news report, subject Immigration, a prerecorded interview probably as it was part of the East Kilbride bus run.
The MSP should have been told that our French friends do a remarkably good job of stopping immigrants from boarding the Dover ferry, oh they do it at Calais.
The answer to everything is 42
Ah, Dave, but Will Self-Indulgent visited the very heart of the East Kilbride community, where he interviewed a CoS minister who conceded that his congregation was dying off, and East Kilbride Golf Club which used to boast members registering their children for possible membership at birth, but now not so much.
They were all true blue Noers, let’s get the best deal for Britain, Yoons, with one exception. At the golf club, a lady who voted YEs, but felt betrayed by the EssEnnPee, and was now a staunch Yoon. Radio 4 at its fuck off Scotland best.
In a few years time, when the last wee old widow lady comes to worship and gets one to one hands on commune with her God channelled through the elderly preacher, and East Kilbride Golf Club, once the bastion of Unionism/Toryism in the New Town don’t have enough members to make up a 4 ball, then maybe, just maybe, the penny will drop.
The English are looting Scotland.
But that doesn’t fit Will Self-Indulgent’s bus ride agenda. We are all ‘British’ and the same, apparently.
What utter tosh, but a nice little earner for the rehabilitated Oxbridge Nouveau-Elite luvvie, Will Self.
QT from the North East of England tonight. Richard Tice, mate of Aaron Banks, heralded Free Port boomtown in the NE, pooh poohed the 16% downturn forecast by the Treasury, to rapturous applause by an audience that has gone fervent English, oops I mean ‘British’, Nationalist.
England through the BBC lens has gone completely bonkers.
Well put Jack
Taylor is on the Mundell training course, just a well paid tea boy, off you go to Edinburgh, find a couple of MSPs, get them to talk on todays message from the gods of EBC.
What has he put in his web blog about yesterday, not a thing about brexit papers being really withheld from the people who pay for them, no he takes out the squirrel, oh look, Nicola used to watch the airiplanes at prestwick.
He gets 150000 a year for that, his previous input lasted 7 days on the site, pretty easy money.
Our only hope Jack is as you put it , the older britnats are falling off the assebly line and wont take park in the vote
THE ENGLISH ARE LOOTING SCOTLAND NOW AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN. The pathetic proud Scot but… lot are letting it happen. There has always been a percentage of the population whose only reason for living is to cry No Surrender. They are permanently mentally damaged people who will never change.
However, what is wrong with the rest of the Labour voting population who close their eyes to Scotland being looted. I can only conclude that a whole section of the population is suffering from a Stockholm Syndrome. Sadly these people are always moaning about everything under the sun but keep doing the same thing – voting Labour – and expecting things to change. Hard to believe.
Remember all those “were all proud Scots, but……….”, everything before but in a sentence is bull shit.
Beautifully put, Jack. “Rees Moggies”, while hilarious, is a trifle hard on our feline friends, though. My two [The Ginger Ninjas] are now convinced that they were right all along to be suspicious of a blog written by a dug! 😉
I knew that as soon as I pressed ‘send’ there would be a backlash.
Wendy, in my defence:-
“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare
And when you reach the scene of crime Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air
But I tell you once and once again Macavity’s not there!”
Not all ginger cats are cuddly wee darlings.
I’ve just signed my own death warrant, haven’t I?
Naw! Perish the thought, Jack. Macavity is one of my favourite cats so I’ll concede on this one occasion … 😉
The role of Macavity is currently being played by Ruth Davidson. If she makes it to No 10, she can give Larry some good tips on how to make himself scarce if he needs to do so.
Anyone else notice that the amount of essenpee badness doing the political and meeja rounds is directly proportionate to the amount of criminal screwup and fibbery practised by the Tory government?
The worse they act, the worse the essenpee badness is ramped up.
Spooky.
Yes, I have noticed. The lies are more frequent and they are getting fatter. At pmqs the torys have lined up May’s little Scottish helpers to shout lies at the snp and with no ability to have a reply, except form the PM, the circus just continues to ramp up its barrage of hatred for the snp and Scotland. It makes me so angry. Our country, parliament and people are made to look inept, useless and insignificant. We all need it to stop! We need a date.
Perhaps there is another correlation here – between the ‘essenpee badness’ in the media and the size of the staff in the Scotland Office?
I don’t doubt it Stewart. Scotland office is being beefed up for several reasons and of course staffed by some of the most toxic anti Scotgov bods out there.
Firstly, they are UK gov’s misinformation service in Scotland.
Secondly, an excuse to administer the repatriated powers on behalf of.
Thirdly, Labour in Scotland have been exposed for what they are and it’s doubtful they’ll be fronting the next Britnat anti-indy campaign.
Finally, in event of an opportunity? They’re quite handily placed to reclaim further powers from the Scottish electorate and neuter the Scottish parliament.
UK gov covering their options basically.
Yes – I think it’s called the BritNat Principle, Sam.
Indeed we are in worrying times. The dying Brit Nat Nation is lashing out as it slowly sinks beneath the waves.
I believe they will try anything to retain the lifebelt that is Scotland.
I am amazed at the brass neck of all of the Mainstream media, National excepted, as they ignore important story’s and simply follow political press releases.
What is more amazing and more infuriating is the lumpen stupidity of our fellow Scots who are not smart enough of too lazy to educate themselves on what’s actually going on.
“David Mundell must be a liar or an idiot, although admittedly those are not mutually exclusive possibilities.” Definitely not! How long can it be before even his Lords & Masters in Wastemonster realise just what an embarrassing waste of skin he is?!
But Wendy, he’s doing exactly what they want him to do. Dissemble, lie and obfuscate.
Ob for fusc’s ake, therapymum.What a terrible pun’ The ProudScotsBut are behaving like classic bullies. They have gone into hiding when their bluff is called.
And the BBC fill the airwaves with any old crap to cover for them.
Come out come out, wherever you are, Mundo the Michty, Lord Ian Dunkman, Ruth the country does not want another Referendum Davidson, Professor It’s The Law Two Jobs WATP Tomkins, Murdo The Queen’s Eleven but looks much older than that Fraser.
Why are you in hiding? Why aren’t you once again not accounting for your fascism. Surely you’re not feart to defend your English Masters’ destruction of your country, Scotland?
Come the day, why don’t you take your booty, and head South?
The thing is, he’s not doing it very well so that everyone can plainly see what he is about. His masters must see that he is making a piss-poor job of his lies and obfuscations and thereby opening up their devious strategies for all to see.
To be fair to our most excellent Secretary of State … he did say the papers were merely ‘in draft’ the other day .. and its simply not fair or proper to deign to even inquire as to the the content of anything that has been leaked (if in draft) …presumably then, if in draft (after all this time) it was simply just awaiting the comment/scrutiny of the Scottish Parliament (we are after all the most valued partner in this Union of equals) and of other interested parties,
David Davis said that no such impact assessment studies had been done or existed under scrutiny by Parliamentary Committee … so they must have worked very, very hard in recent days.to come up with said document in this relatively short time frame.
The Scottish Parliament stenographer and the Presiding Officer, indeed the whole Parliament (and BBC Scotland should take their top reporter) for a wee daunder along to 1 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh … will watch the News with interest for their in-depth report on this matter.
Pity we were not like the French electorate who can muster a stooshie at no minutes notice and get people on the streets with banners throwing bricks at the Scotland Office for this outrage.
Pacific Quay should have a demonstration against it also. I will be putting in a complaint today although I know what answer I will get, if any.
Perhaps successive Westminster Governments have used DSMA Notices to suppress any news that might favour Scottish Independence and to promote any stories that damage the case for it?
Some might think that this is a bit far fetched but, back in the early 1970s, the McCrone Report was classified as top secret and remained so for over 30 years. Protecting such information with DSMA Notices would seem to be a logical thing for successive Westminster Governments to have done.
If so, there’s no reason to believe that more recent information regarding oil and gas is not classified as top secret, after all, the threat to the very existence of the UK is greater now than it was in the 1970s. And if oil and gas information is still top secret and is protected by DSMA Notices, it doesn’t take a huge leap of logic to conclude that anything else that is supportive of the case for Scottish independence is subject to DSMA Notices. Perhaps the DSMA Notices go further and require the mainstream media to obediently and unquestioningly carry stories designed to damage the case for independence?
Control the message, control the people.
Agreed Colin. And another excellent post Paul. I see the Welsh government are being treated the same way, and I wonder if part of the reason for the “no deal “ scenario at Stormont is to ensure that the NI peeps can’t make a fuss at being turned into a basket case with a drop of 16% of GDP? It’s certainly simpler to keep Stormont closed and so unable to create a push towards a united Ireland.
I watched the BBC analysis of FMQs yesterday. Police Scotland “is in a mess” with all those delayed responses, and the poor CC being forced to resign and the whole system should be completely reviewed by an independent body. Now I know I’m old, but isn’t there already an independent body that reviews policing? And hasn’t it already completed a review of Police Scotland recently? And ThatEssEnPee are corrupting FOI requests. How do they know that? By FOI requests! I would like an FOI enquiry into the growth of the Scotland Office, and why Scotland is paying for it. Would any journalist take that on? And I wonder if a notice would be slapped on the enquiry, like a DSMA notice, for example?
Like the Chinese curse, we live in interesting times!
Daily Record this morning online. Nothing about the Brexit Papers. Herald Britand? A we snippet buried way down in the remore regions of online gunge.
BBC Scotland Breakfast 90 seconds? , billed as ‘news from our Regional Teams’ again:- LAs and homeless folk. Edinburgh Uni growing eggs in test tubes, and the reopening of a 21 year old Wick murder enquiry. No mention of Mundell and the Basement Brexit papers. Obviously their BBC Regional reporter was put off by the ‘Beware the Leopard’ sign outside Mundell’s basement cludgie.
We are living in 1984.
Unionists MPs don’t ‘serve’. They lie.
The BBC does not ‘serve’. It controls.
Well said Jack.
We are billed as a ‘Region’ once more,
therapymum.
What’s the point of lighting up Pacific Quay and turning the heating on at 6 o’clock in the morning to churn out 90 seconds of murders and salmon poaching before returning to Salford for the ‘National’ news about England’s cricket team, rugby squad, and ‘the NHS’ in crisis.
We are on the brink of open rebellion now.
Mundell is a public servant, not the Grand Vizier of the North.
Thje Blue Tories have diswappeared off the redesigned BBC map.
There will be ‘Troubles’ ahead.
Apparently there are noises emanating from the bowels of auntie, that the BBC have been instructed to report Brexit as a ‘done deal’. Irregardless of any opposing evidence that it’s an obvious barrel of shoite
So all you guys will get from the cultists is Brexit, what Brexit?
Negotiations? Pointless. Remember again what you’re dealing with.
“The pride and vanity of that nation is a disease; it is a delirium, it has been flattered and inflamed so long by themselves, and others, that it perverts everything”
John Adams. American ambassador to the 1783 peace negotiations with Great Britain.
Ziggy, there is no agreement over the Irish Border, nopr the status of EU workers in the UK now, nor the future of 300, 000 Silver Sunbather UK Pensioners living on the Costas, or the 800,000 Brits working in the rest of Europe, or the billions England will have to stump up to pay the Brexit divorce bill, yet May herself described her December Brexit Phase I as a success at PMQ this week, implying that all these issues were resolved.
They are living in a mad house of their own making.
18 months after Brexit, and the Blue Tories have still to decide what kind of Brexit they are touting.
The EU is forging ahead regardless writing England out of the script, since they know for certain that England and Wales are out of the EU next March.
I suggest that the Scottish Government contact every foreign company, every car manufacturer, operating in England now, indicating that when rUK leaves the EU, and Scotland opts for Self Determination within the EU, that they are more than welcome torelocate from England to Scotland. WE should also be confirming with the EU that we wish to be considered as the successor state, courting their support to achieve this end.
and lies………
an interesting listen this morning on Radio Scotland, hearing a Conservative MSP squirming and busily not answering plain questions….
The SNP should did-entangle itself from the Union and declare independence fcuk them,we will never get anywhere moaning and groaning just go for it.
Mundell must laugh and laugh at the MSPs trooping off to the basement.
He has lied and then lied again…silence from MSM
What will it take for the Scottish Parliament to say enough is enough and take action.? Trooping off to the basement is not the way forward in dealing with the total insult to the Scottish people .
Enjoy your wee night cap Davie….and your good laugh of the day!
Jack
Wondering what the good folk in Newcastle will be saying about their new port facilities being used once by Renault to ship the Nissan factory contents back to France. The so called jobs will be exported.
Why would a company with 65% of their produce going to to EU continue in a none EU country with having to pay tariffs to the Eu to land the product when they have capacity in France.
The Vauxhall factory in Liverpool only build Renault van kits marketed as Vauxhall.
The other 2 car companies, Toyota and Honda, in the England region also export to the EU, All they want is easy access to the EU.
And RangeRover in Liverpool are owned by Tata of India.
As you say, there will be trouble ahead.
If brexit isnt profitable in anyway they will leave england and go else where the conservatives have dumped us in the shite but are blind and arrogant to see it as brexit must happen the people voted for it will be there excuse when the crap hits the fan.
Scotland as the successor state, will be open for business, Dave. 50% of cars made in England are produced by Japanese companies for export, as yoy say, mainly into the EU.
There’s plenty of real estate and skilled worker sin Ayrshire Renfrewshire,and Galloway, and a great big airport, Prestwick, already there.
Bathgate is handy for links to Europe too.
Scotland in Europe will boom, and boy do they know that.
Scotland thriving, Ruth Davidson’s worst nightmare.
It’s also her english masters worst nightmare as well jack hence why they don’t want us free even though they hate our guts.
I listened to the BBC Radio Scotland news programme on the drive home yesterday evening (for the first time in years) and I swear the reporter said that those MSPs who actually make it to the reading room to view the brexit papers will only be allowed to read even-numbered pages. I’m not making that up, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t imagine it.
Typical English still trying to dictate what we can and can’t do they only keep us because A they want us or B they need us now A is not the case because they’ve shown on so many occasions pmqs being the most regular basis they hate our guts so it’s B they need us yet they tell the people we are the subsidy junkie the drain on the English blah blah blah yet they don’t want us leaving apart from us on the independence side no one else asks why
If that’s anywhere near true there’s simply no room left for satire. ‘Stranger than fiction’ hardly covers it.
The even numbered pages were blank.
Our MSPs should turn up en mass at4:50PM on Friday and defy the staff at Melville Crescent to close up before all 100+ had viewed the material properly, or face “MSPs excluded from Brexit papers inspection” headlines.
Agreed sarissa bugger this being nice and compliant it aint working , give the unionist lot something to think about , make them wonder what is going to happen next , you always think twice when confronted with a unknown entity who refuses to follow the rules , any rules .
What an excellent idea, Sarissa! Email it to some SNP MSPs!
All so nice
Turn up en mass
Copy and photo
Defy the ptb to expel parliamentarians
If they doz video and upload
Honestly Scotland. Do you want independence or not? Seems from Ireland yiz are all too polite.
No. That’s not a call for aggro.
If our msps have any guts they will take those papers by force and copy and distribute them to the public. The time for bending the knee to Westminster and its crawling accolytes is over. How much more disdain are our leaders going to take?
[…] https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/a-country-in-a-filing-cabinet/ […]
Hate to say this exact scenario was predicted, but…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-michel-barnier-transition-uk-leave-eu-rules-immigration-single-market-customs-union-a8202361.html
Saw this coming Sam. In 2016 the EU offered the UK a deal which was effectively stay in the EU functionally although you have legally left. Simple. EU have been getting frustrated for months. Japan has indicated all Japanese businesses will leave if profits damaged.
Waiting for the Julian Assage of Scotland to release these secret papers to the public. He will be a hero amang his ain folk.
BBC Reporting Scotland are a disgrace to reporting actual news. The SNP and, yes, the other parties need to put their differences to one side, and call out the BBC’s politicising of news, and its monstous cherry picking of only SNP bad stories. If not, a very serious precedent will have been set.
If unionist politicians allow middle-class, entitled, Tory-neoliberal-centric BBC to report ONLY the news the BBC want you to hear in Scotland, (rather than report the news), what frankenstein monster are ALL politicians allowing to be created in Scotland?
Is there excuse, I saw what was happening but I was quite pleased because it was only the SNP that was being harmed?
OK but what about when Rees Mogg is Prime Minister, with Farage converted to toryism & Arlene Foster depute PM, Holyrood dismantled, Davidson is now Baroness Davidson in Lords, tweeting pics of Lady Mone? All quite possible, if horrific scenarios nowadays!
BBC REporting Scotland, having destroyed the SNP (which, ipso facto is their current raison d’etre) will then feel perfectly entitled (nay it is there BRITISH duty! to next come gunning for whomsoever doesn’t agree with the British Establishment’s BBC mouthpiece in Scotland?
Agreed this shortsightedness is breathtaking , they simply can’t see the fire the BBC have turned on the freely elected government , can and will be turned in their direction when their usefulness is spent , a monster is I believe the correct phrase, have your fun labour and who will come to your assistance when you need it , because you have by your inaction have constructed this monster .
Dear God,
watch this interview by BBC’s Kirsty Wark, parroting Thatcher’s faux accent, in 1990 without boaking.
No Holyrood back then. No SNP Govt.
BBC Reporting Scotland’s raison d’etre is to return us to these safe, unioniist days. That’s all we need to know.
All the companies mentioned in this interview are of course long gone.
This is what Reporting Scotland wants to see Scotland safely being ruled as a colony from London once more..
It really is truly frightening.
And my generation suffered because of that evil bicth.
Robert, everybody – except the rich, of course – suffered.
I just just a kid in school when that evil bicth was deposed crying her eyes out the day she left westminster for good everyone suffered because blair was a warmongering lier who wouldn’t tax the rich he and his labour party let them get richer now we are full circle back to the conservatives doing the same crap again only this time only so few of us a willing to fight back which in a way disgusts me
Bibbit, I just couldn’t do it…. Got 2 minutes in and felt nauseous…
Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher, as my Grandad used to call her.
Reporting Scotland is an absolute disgrace.
I vaguely remember some fawning interview that Jackie Bird did with PM May. Would make any self respecting Scot boak, so it would.
Not that I have a TV mind you. Waste of bloody time.
What the country needs is leaders. Not sycophants like Brian Taylor and Jackie Bird.
(They are too busy collecting their comfortable fat salary and following orders.)
We could do with a few hundred more of Mhaira Black, and the likes of Jimmy Reid (R.I. P.),
They are out there.
Engage the youth; it’s their future.
Same here, Asty. This woman was evil incarnate.
Ma wee da, who was a mild mannered man could become extremely upset by any mention of that old cow. I couldn’t watch it either.
It is a very hard 30 mins watch but one of the stand out moments is when Wark turns to the ‘constitutional question’ in the last 10 mins. Thatcher says that was all settled by the referendum in 1979. In 1979 51% of Scots voted for a Scottish Assembly, the same % as voted (UK wide) to leave the EU.
Although Thatcher mentions the 1979 Referendum, twice, as a defeat for any constitutional change, WArk, instead of challenging Thatcher, quietly let history be re-written. Ms Wark is a dyed in the wool Labour, of course. Went on holiday with Jack McConnell’s family and sat on Donald Dewar’s Committee for the design of the new Parliament Building, ignoring the commanding site of the old High for the large concrete verruca on the foot of the glorious Royal Mile.
Scottish Labour, down the decades, are always there, like Ms Wark, to give the Tories an acceptable face in Scotland, always selling out ‘North Britain’ so their parochial wee party can hang onto the chance of getting back into ‘real’ power at Westminster, every 5 years, so that they too can ignore Scotland, just as the Tories ignore us now.
If we don’t want to return to this Westminster patronisation of our country, ably abetted by the cringeworthy BBC fops, we need to vote YES to ‘Should Scotland be an independent country’ next time.
I think the SNP should incorporate highlights from this car crash of an interview into their next PPB. And ask people, is this what you want to return to? Is this what you want your grandchildren to live through, as your grandparents were forced to live through, and also the SNP should mention the BBC bias in their next PPB, especially their bias by omission.
The sky won’t fall SNP to call out the MSM for what it is. It is a dereliction of your duty to the people, if you continue to allow this to go unchallenged.
It’s hard to take this in what Westminster and Blundell are doing to Scotland. They don’t even let our FM have any say on what Westminster is negotiating with the EU. Now they can only have a wee look at the Impact Assessment and no photos etc. Surely the previous NO voters can see they are being shafted by Wastemonster. We must have a Referendum on Indepedence very soon to stop this madness.
Robert. the important thing is that we must win the next referendum. The tories have demonstrated beyond all doubt that they are the masters of divide and rule. It worked for them in 2014 and they will do whatever it takes for it to work for them again because, the loss of Scotland will finish them, and they know it. There is simply too much at stake. I fear they might steal a leaf from the hand book of that old Butcher (Churchill).
For Robert, read Malcolm. Profuse apologies gentlemen.
No problem Kenzie have a nice evening.
As long as we get in there face and stop playing nice we will win because the fact they don’t want indyref2 is like thacther saying devolution wasn’t wanted they know they will lose the next fight that’s why they want to make sure it never even starts this time around.
Hi Kenzie, you say “the loss of Scotland will finish them, and they know it.”
Well I for one hope it doesn’t ‘finish them’ – unless you just mean the Tories!!.
I hope that the Kingdom of England with Wales (and NI?) prospers after Scotland’s independence – tho’ they may well receive an immediate shock at what they have ‘lost’. And in as short a time as possible I hope England becomes a beacon of progressive social and economic policies; becomes a good friend of Scotland and of other progressive, peaceful countries across the world; and takes up a mission in the world of, perhaps for the first time, at least doing no harm!
Independence for Scotland will do nothing to reduce my concerns – my solidarity – with progressive causes and social justice internationally – an notably in England. I only wish that more anti-independence Labour supporters in Scotland could grasp this too.
hear hear, stewartb
Hi Stewart. I was referring specifically to the tories. I thought I had made that clear. Sorry.
England will not unfortunately it’s to high in debt which continues to rise they’d pay more on trident Hinkley westminster repairs hs2 etc without our revenues keeping them subsidized england will fall in say around 5 years of us being independent and it’s there own fault for tory and labour governments they voted for focusing everything on London when London falls england dies as when they starting the bad mouthing because we left the uk political union the English will turn on westminster because the westminster governments have called us the subsidy junkie for decades hence the anti scottish insults the English people throw at us.
great post paul,
i was just wondering if the impact assessments include the cost of individual health insurance, cos sure as fate, them yanks will be all over the NHS once we’re out of EU & holyrood is disbanded, scary times indeed
Just seen BBC newswatch where they were discussing the new BBC weather map. English viewers confused as to why the U.K. has got longer, thinner and the south is narrower and Scotland much larger. Sadly a lot of the English thought the previous map was a true representation of the dimensions of the UK. One viewer complained that too much emphasis was put on Scotland. ” It is only 6% of the population” the saddo complained. Reality can come as a shock to some people. The Head of BBC Weather said the new map more accurately reflects the true shape of the UK. Little Englanders coming face to face with the fact England is little. No comment on why for all this time we had to put up with Scotland being shrunk.
It’s going to see that ramped up even worse when we get independence the government which is looking like it will be conservatives will bad mouth us the bbc will report it as its a negative and anti scottish story then wacth the English finish of there own civilization because that reality of they needed us will send them raging because we’ve been painted as the one draining them and they believe it without question south of the border and that exposed as a lie it will cause a civil war because the English people get when the truth isn’t what they believe it is.
I see the Masonic Lodge is getting its knickers in a twist.
Poor souls. They are a much misunderstood and maligned bunch of lads (no lasses. q.v. Eastern Star.)
There are apparently 600 Lodges in Scotland and they do a lot of charity work. Other than that they meet up in their wee clubs and presumably play whist and have a wee dram.
If they have nothing to hide, why not publish the number of High Court Judges, Lords who grabbed vast tracts of our land, police officers and their senior ranks, and so on, who are members of this highly secretive but they assure us harmless and basically benign secret society, if they have nothing to hide?
Same goes for the Knights of St Columba.
Who do these people think that they are kidding?
They are part of the Old Guard, the Establishment, the bowling clubs, the golf clubs, the Status Quo Diehards. Jobs for the Boys. Letters of introduction.
Tellingly, Terry Butcher observed that he was the first captain of Rangers who wasn’t a mason.
Why did you need to be a mason to captain Rangers?
I think that we all know the answer to that one.
Normally I wouldn’t comment on this sad little bunch of men running gauntlets, and swearing ridiculous oaths, bearing their breast and threatening to cut offenders’ entrails out and drape them across their shoulders( really?) but they have gone public bleating about how they are a misunderstood sect.
They are a sinister anachronism, who are in the same category as Flat Earthers and Latter Day Saints.
They look after each other in their little club above every one else.
High Court Judges, senior police officers.. How many?
Modern Scotland has no time for these juvenile boys’ clubs.
Or.. …prove me wrong.
Numbers at the top of the Scottish Establishment please?
Stop insulting our intelligence.
Jack, the ex-Sunderland MP Roger(?) Mullin had a law passed whereby all masons must declare their membership. As far as I know, no such law exists for membership of Opus Dei, Illuminati etc.
The masons say that they are not a secret organisation, but an organisation with secrets. A fine distinction if ever I heard one.
The others,in my opinion, are just as bad. None exists for the benefit of the public.
Och, Kenzie, I was reading the Dead Tree Scrolls online when I came across this poor misunderstood us nonsense.I scanned this piece with the warm glow of a few Guinness in me.
You are right of course, they’re not the only secret societies out there.
Get me my tinfoil hat.
But they are one of the most powerful influential and very very rich secret societies in the world.
From the top of Royalty to the humble carpenter…but they promote their wee club secretly and favour fellow members interests above all others.
I know this to be a fact.
They are not misunderstood, and that’s their beef.
We understand the reason for their existence only too well.
To bleat on and hint of persecution and insist that they are just a wee Men’s Club insults us all, or rather, all of us who can go through life without meeting in secret and kicking shit out of new members.
Masons, Knights, Scientologists…
Really? In the 21st Century?
Done talking about this …
No arguments from me there, Jack.
PS Is there a list of MPs who are in The Craft?
You jest, of course.:-(((
Ruthless and oor home grown Tories. What are they like?
Were it not for the fact their chain tuggers are the UK government, it’d be fair to ask just what are they good for? They are worthless to the Scottish electorate. They are dishonest, reactionary and ideologically opposed to the very parliament they sit in. They consider themselves untouchable. After all, the media won’t challenge them. Their gaffer is in the big chair in number ten. They have willing support in both Labour and Libdem benches. Yeah, they can pretty much say what they want and do as they please.
So why are they hiding from the Scottish electorate?
Because they’re not untouchable.
They can be brought to account and their fleg wavy, ranty and deceitful world can be brought down around their ears. The population are far more powerful than any government. A motivated and focused population are a downright awesome sight to behold, not to mention a fairly frightening judge when they put their hearts and minds to it.
To put not too fine a point on it and to state the bleedin’ obvious, they’re terrified of you and what you’ll do at the ballot when the opportunity presents itself.
Tick tock Tories.
So why the super secret squirrel approach to the impact assessment? Why the vagueness concerning a final settlement? Why the lack of public access on what is a pretty need to know event?
A taste of things to come.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/pound-sterling-latest-slump-barnier-brexit-transition-period-uk-exchange-rate-euro-a8202776.html
The only thing keeping the economy of the UK from collapsing into a hole is the fact that it is still currently an EU member. It still has access to the CU and single market. The final shape of the UK’s relationship with and access to the EU is as yet unknown. The link above was a hiccup caused by the very thought that the UK would crash out of the EU without any access.
Imagine if you will, the carnage that will ensue if a hard brexit becomes the reality. None of the three options currently available will leave the UK better off. NONE.
Only one other option not on that super secret document will see Scotland’s population avoid this criminal act of greed driven ideological self harm.
Sam, Davidson’s hiding phoning into a radio show about the Bake Off and Mundell poses with cyclist on a bike with his collar and tie hidden beneath a fleece, while their corrupt little Union Bosses insult the People of Scotland.
Barnier has made it perfectly plain. The EU27 are ‘threatening’ no one. England and Wales are leaving the Club, and the Club carries on without them. No Special Deals, No Cherry Picking, No Nuthin’.
No Soft Border between the North and South of Ireland, unless of course Scotland can get the same deal.
Scotland is not leaving the EU until we say so, and not when Mundell, or Professor Two Jobs Political Failure It’s The Law Tomkins or Bake Off Davidson ‘order’ us to.
Unless they have garrisoned a few thousand redcoats in Leith to march on Holyrood?
The clouds are gathering.
Woe betide the Unionist politician who ventures from the thickets in the next few days.
Regrettably Jack we will leave the EU at the end of March 19 unless something happens before then.
Probably also worth mentioning one other thing in relation to their secret squirrel approach to the Brexit settlement and their sudden public shyness Jack.
The utter hypocrisy of it all.
After indyref 2014, Scotland’s population were bombarded with state backed media releases on every Scotland bill vote. The Smith commission talks were the daily fair of the media. Talk of and action on, EVEL by Cameron was seen as fully in the public interest. The humiliation (see under punishment) of Scotland’s SNP Westminster representation, the SNP administration and the indy voting public, required fucking reading for all of the past three and a quarter years.
Seems though, that when the boot is on the other foot… it’s one rule for some and quite another for HMG. The public interest…
It was in the public’s interest to be fully informed BEFORE any EU ref was ever put before them. It was in the public interest to have access to ALL the facts pro and contra EU membership. It was in the public interest to be made FULLY aware of the consequences of any given scenario of leaving the EU regarding the economy, Northern Ireland agreements, the standing UK devolution settlements and the pledges made to Scotland’s electorate on the 2014 indyref. It was in the public’s interest that they went into any EU ref with the full agreement of the devolved parliaments (they do constitute nation partners, right?) and that contingencies for both votes were in place.
Those were in the public’s interest.
Given the utter and complete lack of ALL of the above. It would appear to me however, that the public’s interests were never really considered at all.
The WM Red Blue and Yellow Tories never think of the public, never mind their ‘interes’t, Sam.
They only think of themselves and their grubby wee stained with the blood of their fellow Scots pay packets.
You may recall that Ian Davidson of ‘bayonet the wounded’ infamy chaired the Wesminster Scottish Affairs Committee stuffed full of English Yoons. They produced all thos ereports warning why Scotland would be a dust bowl if we opted for Self Determiona tion. Where is he now?
There were no qualms about publishing Scotland too wee too poor too stupod shit then.
No Pound, no frigates, the Russians will invade, the English will bomb the airports, England won’t trade with us, nobody would lend us any money Scotland would go to the back of a ten year queue behind Turkey (fuck off Darling for that lie) to get into the EU, NATO wouldn’t let us in according yet another fat bloated filthy rich Red Tory Lord George Robertson, and aliens would attack,..and so on.
Every fucking Newspaper and broadcaster especially the BBC STV bulletins ran with this shite, mercilessly, every day, frightening our pensioners with lies about their pensions, and warning that the oil was running out and Wullie Rennie prayed for the total collapse and ruin of the country of his birth because he was a True Blue English Puppet.
It was in ‘the national interest# then to bully,cajole, lie, and threaten ‘the nation’ then, but not now.
I cannot wait to throw Mundell Davidson Leonard and Rennie out on their fucking ears when we reclaim our country.
Rant over; sorry for the sweary bits.
I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take any more.
Andy, I’m reading your report on the Postal ballot stitch up the last time. Blame Les.There will be a second Independence referendum to decide this once and for all. This time we shall prevail.
The document to which Jack is referring is available here. It proves conclusively that the first Referendum was rigged, and how it was done.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13OPs4c91U4ggD1XrHWGAig8YOoXbehVSEpGwaJJWtpc/pub
Just read through that report. Such claims can usually be dismissed as the product of bias and imagination, but in this case the people have quite literally done their sums, and IMO have a bona fide case. This matter needs to be taken up by the Scottish Government, and without delay.
I can’t see anything coming from a routine police enquiry if ‘spooks’ really were involved. The senior officer would simply be given the wink by one of his masonic mates and the case quietly kicked into the long grass.
Also we must praise the courage of those who produced this report, and earnestly pray that nothing untoward befalls them. Watch their backs, people!
Agreed this issue along with PFI seems to have gone off everyone’s radar , those who could instigate an inquiry apparently are show no interest , work has been done in both cases , evidence is there , I guess it must be a bit difficult , and might need some work , both these matters are far from trivial ,
The baffling missing in action much anticipated barny in Holyrood over Brexit not one single comment , or reference about Fluffy openly lying to parliament about no specific analysis of the consequences to Scotland being available.
What happened has Brexit been solved ? is it all over have I missed something .
Thanks Les. Interesting and a wee bit scary
So, the postal ballot in 2014 was rigged. It wouldn’t surprise me.
The British Broadcasting Corporation doesn’t want Scotland to leave.
The British newspapers are awful.
People are scared of change. Then you die.
Meanwhile here, the sun is shining, and the snow is deep and crisp. I’m away to break a trail through the woods.
Good luck, Scotland.
Dinnae be feart.