Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove have announced the launch of a new think tank, because what the world really needs is yet another right wing think tank. The think tank is to be called Onward, as in onward and off a cliff with Brexit. Michael Gove is one of the most reactionary hard line Brexiteers in the Conservative cabinet, and Ruth is, at least according to the British press, providing the progressive gloss. Memo to the British press, just because you’re gay doesn’t automatically make you progressive. If the campaign for lesbian and gay rights means anything, it means judging gay people on their actions, not on their sexuality, and no one who supports the rape clause can claim to be progressive.
Michael Gove is involved in the new think tank because he’s apparently one of the Conservative party’s most influential thinkers, which is a bit like saying that the algae munching bottom feeder is one of the most influential fish in your fish tank. The difference being that the bottom feeder makes a more positive contribution to its ecosystem than Michael Gove, and it looks less like a goldfish. Also your fish tank is unlikely to contain sharks, which you can’t say about the Conservative cabinet. Anyway, here’s an idea for Michael’s shiny new think tank – maybe try not putting massive lies on the side of a bus.
The purpose of this new think tank, according to Ruth, is to develop policies for the Conservatives to enable them to attract younger voters. There she was the other day going on in the Guardian about how her party needs to do more to get down wid da yoot, and now she’s saying – Look who I’ve teamed up with kids! There hasn’t been a double act less likely to appeal to modern youth since Cannon and Ball.
What we can be sure of is that the policies dreamed up by this think tank won’t include free education or doing anything meaningful about the Conservative policies which have ensured that affordable housing is increasingly out of reach of the young. What its real purpose is is to come up with plausible lies to sell avaricious capitalism to those who have been impoverished by avaricious capitalism. Ruth and Michael want to be seen to be kissing babies, but they’re still going to steal their sweeties. They can dress it up any way they like, but what it boils down to is that they’re trying to find ways of selling 19th century politics to 21st century people.
Essentially this is a branding exercise on the part of Ruth and Mikey the Fish, positioning themselves for advancement when Theresa May goes belly up and her leadership floats dead in the water. It is every bit as cynical and self-serving as just about everything else that Ruth or Michael have ever been involved in. Michael Gove is, let us not forget, the man who when he was education secretary not only insisted that a copy of the Bible should be delivered to every school in England, he also insisted that it should be inscribed with his name. It’s not that Michael thinks he’s Jesus. That would be crass. He thinks he’s better than that. Besides, Jesus would be a Middle Eastern migrant who’d fall victim to the Home Office’s hostile environment. But it must be admitted that Michael Gove is, like Jesus, capable of miracles. His career was killed off but rose again.
Ruth, meanwhile, preaches to the UK press about one thing safe in the knowledge that they won’t pull her up for having done the exact opposite in Scotland. Although she can do that in Scotland too, safe in the knowledge that her pals in the Scottish media pack won’t pull her up either. No reputation has been built on so little since Rylan was offered a chat show on the telly, but he at least has great teeth. Which means that the most vacuous talk show host in the UK is more capable of getting a bite on a topic than Ruth Davidson is.
Today the darling of the cheeky photo op is due to give a speech in London in which she will call on her party to be less London-centric. This is just a week after she’s told the Scottish Parliament that it needs to be more London-centric, and to shut up and do what its British betters tell it to do. She instructed Scottish Conservative MSPs to back the Westminster power grab that undermines the devolution settlement, while Scottish Conservative MPs in Westminster back a hard Brexit. If she really believed in rebalancing the power and economy of the UK she’d put her vote where her very gobby mouth is and would fight to strengthen the Scottish Parliament, not to weaken it. She calls on Westminster to ensure that even those of us in Scotland who support independence feel that we have a stake in the UK, while supporting the British government’s court case against the Scottish parliament. Words are cheap. It’s actions which matter, and where her actions are concerned Ruth fails Scotland every time.
Even by her own standards of standing up for Scotland within the UK, Ruth fails. The harsh truth is that if it were not for the repeated failure of the British government to respect and comply with the promises and commitments that it had made to the people of Scotland, then there would be no drive for another independence referendum. Ruth has consistently supported the actions of the British state, and has not once condemned or even mildly criticised her Conservative colleagues for the way they have traduced every promise they have made to Scotland. Instead she has colluded with them and enabled them.
If the measure of Ruth Davidson’s leadership of an anti-independence party is how she has managed to quash support for independence and prevent the independence movement retaining its foothold, she has failed utterly and miserably. The independence movement is stronger now than at any time since 2014, and a second independence referendum looms on the horizon, one in which Ruth will have nothing positive to say to the people of this country. The press might not have been paying attention to the mismatch between Ruth’s mooth and her actions, but we have.
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When someone calls their organisation “Onward” it makes me think of uniforms and processions with very serious looking people wearing armbands.
And why would Gove want a Bible in schools? The basic premise of the bible is the polar opposite of what he wants to do…
Andy, I have a sense that it is a more warlike reference, from the charge of the light brigade:
“Half a league, half a league,
Half a league ONWARD
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”
On Brexit, someone has blundered, so it’s into the Valley Of Death for the 600, well, 591 English Welsh, and Norn Irn MP’s.
Theirs not toreason why, theirs but to do and die.’ indeed.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug When they’re not kissing babies they’re stealing their sweeties Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove have announced the launch of a new think tank, because […]
Onward Christian Soldiers…Is that meant to be what they’re about? Holy Moly..it beggars belief!
OK no more religious connotations. 😀
I propose that we set up our own Indy think tank. We will of course call it Inevitable!
Great thanks Paul, gave me a much needed laugh, though it’s all very serious when we get down to the nitty gritty of British nationalism among the Tories in Scotland.
Still it’s a great distraction from the actual reality of Brexit for Scotland’s young people, on top of the damage already done to the young people of Scotland by the Tory UK London centric government.
Why doesn’t untRuth apply for a job in England she seems to spend a lot more time there than she does in Scotland. I wonder how many constituency surgeries she has done so far, if any at all.
Very highly renumerated for services to the Britnat state. She is only fooling some of the people some of the time though.
When I read the ‘Onward’ bit I just started singing the hymn,we were forced to sing at school, ‘onward Christian soldiers’. ( matching off to war) Must look up the words.
hetty, I reckon the Tory warmongers must’ve gone to a similar bible class as you. It’s “marching as to war” not “off to war”. 🤔
True, but it’s a common mishearing / misunderstanding. The tune is rather martial to say the least.
I’ll never understand why someone who is not a political party leader (TM is the Tory leader), and not even an MP, is allowed to give her opinions so freely! Nicola IS a party leader but appears not to be consulted on anything and the SNP MPs are shouted down and ignored at every turn.
This is even more galling when Nicola and the SNP MPs at least have sensible ideas and opinions which they will not change at the drop of a hat.
I find Davidson to be an almost fascinating person, in a repugnant sense. She must be very confused and self-loathing, what with coming from a religious background, joining a party that has historically not been friendly to gays (remember Clause 28 from the 80s?), and heading it in a country that hates Tories. Totally bizarre, angry, strange, cold wee woman.
However, if her and Gove-mental’s sterling ideas about reaching out to young people are as brilliant-brained as these of their deranged, sociopathic colleagues down south, as detailed in the story linked to below, victory is assured! You see, the Tories down there want to potentially take money from the elderly (i.e. their tradition-loving ostensible support base) and give it to people of 25 in a ten grand lump sum. I think this is what is technically known as ‘a bribe to vote Tory.’ A lot of people are not happy about it. For obvious reasons.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44029808?SThisFB
This is good too. Get down wit da yoot, mon!
Anyone remember William Hague in a back-to-front baseball cap?
Tragically, yes.
Davidson survives only because of British nationalist media support. These Britnats are living in a lachrymose bubble of their own propaganda. Burst the bubble and laugh at their tears.
There are rumours that a General Election will be called in the Autumn. Makes you wonder if Ruth is vying for PM sooner than later!
But,TSD, what about her baby-box?
She is scheming to be PM of the UK since she has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming FM in Scotland.
Despite her attendance at the BritNat Reunion, Davidson’s future is behind her.
On your marks! BfS thinks Indy Ref 2 to be in 2019. At last we move onward to freedom. Bye bye, Ruth!
Is it any wonder the Tory government want to control the internet, the only means by which the plebes can communicate, they have control of 99.99% of the media and its well used to attack on a daily basis the independence movement , But this bloody internet eludes them , tough shit eh .
Straying a little off topic, this Brewer talking head of BBC Scotland character , Try as I do on many occasions he has this strange way of questioning whoever he perceives as in any way supportive of independence and starts to twist a reasonable question into something indecipherable and usually leaves the audience and the interviewee baffled , was that a question , a remark does he require an answer to the tripe he has just spoken,
He tried this yesterday with Jeanie Freeman questioning her on how making sure people entitled to a benefit actually received what they were entitled , he then pressed how this would be paid for ,what are you going to drop to fund this increase, she gently reminded the village idiot ,people were not claiming because the system was set up to put them off , this was totally lost on him because he kept saying it was an increase , and this is a experienced interviewer god help us all trying to decipher what’s going on in his head , I wonder if even he knows .
Yes I noticed the BBC radio news described Ruth this evening as an ‘ardent Remainer’ … not much ‘ardent Remaining’ since the EU Referendum though.. …eat up your Brexit like a good Subject now… Westminster (Conservative Party) knows best, more like.
(93/30) being the latest Vox Populi on the topic,… and in the usual manner we are being ‘listening to’, being the most cherished, most powerful devolved Parliament in the World, with all bar Defence and Foreign Affairs at our command, the most equal of partners of this Union, every step of the way ……to independence.
It’s not about the EU though, simply what king of Country do you want to live in and of course – who decides.
Hot air balloons change position depending on which direction the wind is blowing from.
Nice one.
Nice analogy.
Ruth Davidson’s smile never reaches her eyes!
Hold a fake smile for too long and it becomes just teeth!
As for Gove – The backstabber’s backstabber
I feel better now.
We need to be ruthless, oops, sorry, I missed out the space.
The Herald has reached its Brit Nat zenith.
It reports the minutes of a London Better Together Brit Nat Fascist group meeting made up of Darling Murphy Davidson Gove and Wee DUP Arlene as ‘news’,
Michael Settle, Scoop Settle of the Herald, earns his corn by quoting May and describes NS as being ‘slapped down’ by The Brit PM for daring to consider a campaign of Self Determination for Scotland.
Btw, perhaps our Dead Tree Scrolls could correct Davidson when she refers to London as the capital. of that mythical country in her head.
She was born in Scotland, as was I. In my 70 years on this planet, there has only been one ‘capital’ of my country; that would be Edinburgh.
And this odious little dweeb is supposed to represent the people of Edinburgh, which is no longer the ‘capital’ of her country.
Darling, Murphy, Davidson, Mundell, why don’t you stay on down in London, your ‘capital’?
You have done absolutely nothing for Scotland but hold us back, which of course is the instructions from your English Political Masters and Establishment Paymasters.
It’s coming yet for a’ that.
Friends, I may have cracked it :
O-N-W-A-R-D = Oh-No-We-Are-Really-Doomed! (Doomed! Doomed! ???)
However, I’m open to alternative interpretations, especially of the final D-word; Dire? Dreadful? Damaging? Demented? Daft? Devious? … so many possibilities, add yours 😉
Duplicitous
Definitely ‘duplicitous’!
Only Now We are Realising Damnation.
Obfuscation , Nastiness , Weaselwords, Alienation ,Ruthlessness ,Deviousness.
Neatly done Paul and lurve-ins aside, they truly are displaying what can only be described as panic in their ranks these days.
Oh, and the answer is YES. Yes, Ruth Davidson is a hypocrite many times over on the issue of democratic mandate and constitutional reform. Yes, she is scared of a referendum and a YES vote. No, she can’t tell or ask anyone to prevent one. It’s not in the PMs power to prevent it. Ms May can however (as now), delay and frustrate its enactment, but she cannot ultimately prevent it. Should she attempt to do so? I suspect she’s been made aware of the fallback position of the SNP government nationally and the fallout internationally.
She’s already going to court over the continuity bill. She’s already told Scots your vote essentially doesn’t matter on a UK level (not entirely true ssshhhhhhh!) and that your devolution is effectively worthless in terms of a guarantee of one on one partnership. She keeps waving the idea of the primacy of a UK parliament and ballot. A ballot she has already some reason to regard with caution. A legal ballot and system she may come to regret altogether.
Whoever said an indyref is the only option? It’s the preferred one (and the one I prefer personally) to be sure, but not the only one. The ongoing omnishambles of Brexit/Austerity UK can be avoided, but people have to want to avoid it.
Also personally? I hope Ms May and her cabinet truly are just that stupid. (They do have a track record in stupid) 🙂
Of course the inference being that if their ‘new’ Think Tank is called ‘Onward’ then all others must be ‘backward’.
The problem with Think Tanks in general is that they exist only to influence the way you and I think by promoting propaganda courtesy of the political party they are aligned with or indeed funded by individuals supportive of one political party. Some purport to be ‘independent’ but when one digs one finds there is links via their members to certain political parties thus the sham is exposed.
The rise in Think Tanks is worrying because they present an image of objectivity by insisting they are ‘independent’ to the uninformed voter but to the informed it is obvious to whom they are beholden to. Research who funds them and who is involved and it then becomes clear their true political intentions.
Ruth and Michael’s Think Tank is somewhat ridiculous in both it’s intention and pairing and I suspect this is but another way to promote Ruth to our friends down south. Are we to assume Ben Bradley ‘vice chair of youth’ for the conservatives has failed in his quest to attract the young ‘uns to the Tory party ?
As to yesterdays shenanigans in London well to both the trained and untrained eye it is obvious that the wagons are now circling on BT the sequel, though why, when the majority of Scots do not want independence, according to Ruth, would one need to promote unionism when it is not at risk is beyond me. Who was Ruth addressing re promoting the Union , was it the English , the Welsh, The Northern Irish people cause it was not Scots because they are, according to Ruth , not wanting via a majority, Independence.
Call me cynical but the timing of this farce yesterday and the message was deliberate. Steal the thunder and seize the day, or try to, from the impending release on Friday of the SNP’s Growth Commission Report .Also it was a ‘here’s Ruth FM in waiting’ or if that don’t work here’s a ‘Tory candidate in your area England’…soon to be announced. Pathetic and typically nasty and underhand as per from both the Tories and their BT partners in crime . Also how much did Davidson and Darling need to get a room ? One could not slide a piece of thin paper between their political union…twas sickening to watch but not surprising to Scots.
My message to them is that all they have done is strengthened my resolve for independence and increased by contempt for the union. So big fail there . I suspect I am not alone in this assertion.
Perhaps Arlene DUP’s and that Villiers person’s presence is significant.
They may revere the traffic flow across the Irish Sea this July and August(The Apprentice Boys).
Instead of the Loyal Sons of Lanark ferrying across to Norn Irn to march with their brothers and sisters, the massed flutes of the North of Ireland may descend on the West Coast of Scotland just to demonstrate how Better Together we would all be under Ruth Davidson’s Fascist Alt Right Brit Nat Empire.
Now that would be a treat for all us Sots.
Big bonfires and Laggan Drums beating the rhythm of war on the streets of Clydebank, Forfar, and Falkirk.
A fashion tip for Ruth’s Youth Corps. A black or brown tunic and jack boots.
As I say we have reached Brit Nat Better Together peak; or should that be nadir?
How low can they sink?
A lot lower I’m certain.
I hope Gordo The Clunking Fist gives us advance notice this time when he charges uninvited into Clydebank Town Hall with Ruth.
I can assure him a warm welcome.
They are dying and they know it.
It’s comin’ yet for a’ that.
What about, Jack, “Fascists Are Ruth’s Tories”. After all, it would be a fitting acronym.
Kenzie,
This low life of a Tory thinks that London is the capital of her ‘country’.
The Tories exist for one reason only. To peddle the notion that the rich and successful get all that’s going, and the 5 million or so plebs meekly sit adoring at their successful feet.
They would destroy our civic society in a heart beat and have a rich powerful elite rule over us, no matter where we placed our ‘X’ on the ballot paper.
I am sick fed up to the back teeth of the Herald, The Record, and the Scotsman and the other Rags giving these nasty little elitists unchallenged unfettered coverage for their lies and bombast.
They would privatise the NHS, introduce grammar schools, increase fee paying schools for ‘the better off’, and sell off every publicly owned organisation to their pals and relatives in the City at a discount. I’d imagine that 74 year old Vince Cable will be joining the Post Office Board when he finally retires as head of the LDs.
I have nothing but utter contempt for them, and the broadcasters and journalists who protect them from scrutiny and criticism of their selfish dog eat dog Anglo centric fascism. Because fascism it is.
Spend billions on weapons to bomb villages, invade Faslane with their WMD, and incessantly attack the Scottish Government with the joyful and wilful collaboration of Kremlin Spies (aye, that’ll be feckin’ right) like Leask, ‘Sevvie’ and the almost endless procession of Fifth Column Fourth Estate chancers trousering blood money by betraying Scotland and their fellow Scots to the Imperial Brits.
Rant? You’re fecking right I’m ranting.
Our time is at hand.
I sincerely hope that Gove takes an active part in Better Together II.
The man is a caricature of an Anglo-Jock, a willing lap dog for his London Masters.
Where did he, and the likes of Jackson Carlaw develop that ‘bools in the mooth’ accent?
It distinguishes you as a ‘good egg’, ‘one of us’, if you talk like Malcolm Rifkind with a caramel stuck up his jacksie?
I firmly believe that the Yes Campaign should boycott the broadcasters, especially the BBC, during the campaign.
Glenn Campbell and Co will have to harangue an empty chair, while allowing Davidson, Leonard, and for fuck’s sake, he’s still there, Rennie to ramble on about £15 billion deficit, kicked out of the EU, Asda and Sainsbury’s will treble the price of everything, RBS will fuck off to Engwaland, England will not trade with us, crap.
I have no time left to read the nonsense produced by Hutcheon or Clegg.
We get it. You want Scotland to remain a subjugated colony of England. You want England to continue raping Scotland of its resources and wealth.
Well, you have another think coming, scribes.
It’s time.
Come Independence feel free to hightail it South to Boris’ Paradise.
Rant over.
An acronym for Project Fear Two?
Let’s have a competition.
All true, of course but you’re pushing at an open door here, Jack.
‘reverse’ even. I need an editor.