I chatted on the phone with a friend in Spain yesterday and suggested that we swap Prime Ministers. “Pero nadie quiere el tuyo,” she replied. Which is Spanish for “But no one wants yours.” Not even the British Government, if Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s absence from the daily press briefings is anything to go by. Although it’s not unreasonable for him to turn over the gig to one of the Tory minions since he’s not the only cabinet member who can lie through their teeth while looking smug. However when the Tories said leave means leave, no one realised that they meant the Prime Minister’s holidays, sick leave, and paternity leave. Even Trump turns up for his press conferences.
Compare the last time that Nicola Sturgeon had a day off from the daily briefings and answering questions, to the last time Johnson actually did a daily briefing, and now tell us which one is making a mess of managing the crisis Ian Murray. Johnson only shows up when there’s some glory in it that he can use to lubricate his brittle sense of self-esteem, and he’s typically faced with a fawning press pack that wants us to rejoice because he’s spawned again.
Has anyone seen Boris Johnson? Last anyone noticed him was when his photo was on a milk carton. He must have suffered dreadfully during his bout of covid-19, because it seems to have disappeared his body all together. They updated the list of recognised symptoms for covid-19 this week, but I’m not aware that invisibility was included. Our part time Prime Minister couldn’t even be bothered to turn up and vote for his own government’s immigration bill, and there’s usually nothing that turns on a Tory as much as making life crappy for immigrants. But then we remember that this is a guy who literally hid in a fridge during the General Election rather than face scrutiny, so it’s not like we weren’t warned. Scotland saw through his schtick, but we’re lumbered with him because England was suckered. Thanks Better Together. This must be that best of both worlds and the strength and stability of the UK that they were telling us about.
Although we shouldn’t complain too much. The British Government does seem marginally more competent when Johnson isn’t around. Even when their science guy tells us that the British Government insisted that travellers to the UK who arrived from Wuhan on 30 February needed to go into quarantine. Coincidentally, the 30th of February is also the one date in the year when Michael Gove isn’t a smug annoying oily nyaffette.
You can’t schmooze a virus. You can’t bullshit it. You can’t give anonymous briefings to friendly hacks in order to discredit it. We have a Prime Minister who shows up once a week for Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, where he is invariably unprepared and unready for questions that anyone with an ounce of sense will see coming from the leader of the Opposition. Without the rows of howler monkeys on the Tory benches behind him, Johnson is a lost and hollow figure of a man at the head of a lost and hollow British state.
Yet despite this, Johnson still enjoys a free pass from large and significant parts of the British media. The BBC in particular has been very quiet about Johnson’s repeated absences from work while at the same time it’s happy to attack the Scottish First Minister in an attempt to insinuate that Nicola Sturgeon’s overriding priority is to create divisions within the UK that are useful to the independence cause. We saw that yesterday on the main news bulletin on BBC1 at 6 and again at 10 when the Corporation’s main Scotland correspondent Sarah Smith – the one who didn’t get her job because she’s the daughter of a former Labour leader – told us that Nicola Sturgeon “enjoyed” the opportunity this terrible tragedy gave her to diverge from Westminster. Twice in her piece to camera she asserted that Scotland is out of lockstep with the rest of the UK, when in fact it’s England that’s out of lockstep with the other three nations.
After Nicola Sturgeon tweeted at her that never in her entire political career had she “enjoyed” anything less than having to deal with the heartbreaking deaths of so many, Sarah was forced to make one of those sorry not sorry apologies about the wording of a report that she’d clearly enjoyed making. She corrected herself to say that she had in fact meant to say that Nicola Sturgeon “embraced” the opportunity to diverge from the rest of the UK.
So that makes it all OK then. The First Minister wasn’t enjoying herself but according to the BBC’s Scotland correspondent her main priority is still to score partisan political points at the expense of the Precioussss Union™. And it’s still Scotland that’s out of lockstep, because it’s what England does that is the standard by which such considerations are judged. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up, Sarah. Your tweet will have the exact same impact upon the public as a report that was broadcast twice on the main news bulletins of the BBC. I mean that with all the sincerity of Sarah’s apology. Well, I say apology, it didn’t actually contain the word sorry, not even in the Priti Patel sense of “I’m sorry you felt that way.” It was equally smirking though. It was only later that Sarah was forced to clarify her clarification and say that she was in fact sorry.
The thing is however, even the corrected allegation is not true. Nicola Sturgeon has not “embraced” the opportunity to diverge from Westminster. On the exact same day that Sarah claimed that the First Minister enjoyed/embraced the opportunities to diverge from London, Labour’s Ian Murray was lambasting her for not having diverged much sooner – even though he and Sarah would have been the first to criticise her if she had. It is obvious to any impartial observer that the First Minister would far prefer that the British Government acted sensibly and realistically and consulted the other nations properly. She’s only diverged reluctantly and where she felt she needed to in order to protect public health in Scotland. At every step along the way Nicola Sturgeon has taken immense pains not to do precisely what Sarah Smith has accused her of, using this crisis as a means to leverage divergence between Scotland and the rest of the UK in order to build support for independence.
We have a Prime Minister who is even worse than Theresa May, who is pretty much universally judged as being worse than David Cameron, who when he left office was regarded as the worst Prime Minister in living memory because in an unforced error in an attempt to prioritise internal Conservative party politicking, he’d created the Brexit mess we’re still in. Yet the forces of British nationalism in Scotland are far more concerned with attacking the Scottish Government. They’d prefer to draw a discreet veil over a woeful British Government which is tying Scotland’s hands in case calling attention to it might make people think there’s a justification for Scottish independence.
This matters. It matters because in their non-stop politically motivated attacks upon the Scottish Government, they risk undermining public support for the clinical, medical, and scientific advice that the Scottish Government wants the public to follow. There are already enough British nationalist idiots in Scotland who say that the Scottish Government doesn’t speak for them. All these reports do is to validate them when they insist that they’re not going to follow the Scottish Government’s advice, and that puts everyone at risk.
It matters because it inhibits the Scottish Government from taking decisions which are rigorously and firmly based in science and medical evidence, because Holyrood always has to look over its shoulder in case it has to fire fight an angry response from a British nationalist media that’s primarily motived by SNPbad and opposition to independence.
It matters because in their desperation to head off anything that could be used to justify or reinforce pro-independence sentiments, the British media in Scotland is failing to stand up for Scotland within the UK. Even on their own terms they are failing. They are failing because they are not treating this political construct that Scotland is enmeshed in as the union that they’re always telling us it is, but as a unitary state where Scotland is expected to do what England’s rulers tell it.
When we do get out of the other side of this crisis, it won’t just be the British state which is held up to scrutiny by an angry public. No one in Europe wants the British media either. The public will also want answers from a British media which has failed so dismally to hold the British Government to account and which has been doing exactly what it accuses the Scottish Government of – using this crisis in an attempt to score political points.
And finally, because we could all do with some cheering up during these difficult times…
You can help to support this blog with a Paypal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Or alternatively click the donate button. If you don’t have a Paypal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button.
If you have trouble using the button, or you prefer not to use Paypal, you can donate or purchase a t-shirt or map by making a payment directly into my bank account, or by sending a cheque or postal order. If you’d like to donate by one of these methods, please email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com and I will send the necessary information.
Please also use this email address if you would like the dug and me to come along to your local group for a talk.
Gaelic maps of Scotland are available for £15 each, plus £7 P&P within the UK for up to three maps. T-shirts are £12 each, and are available in small, medium, large, XL and XXL sizes. P&P is £5 for up to three t-shirts. My books, the Collected Yaps Vols 1 to 4 are available for £11 each. P&P is £4 for up to two books. Payment can be made via Paypal.
My new book has just been published by Vagabond Voices. Containing the best articles from The National from 2016 to date. Weighing in at over 350 pages, this is the biggest and best anthology of Wee Gingerisms yet. This collection of pieces covers the increasingly demented Brexit years, and the continuing presence and strength of Scotland’s independence movement.
You can order the book directly from the publisher. Ordering directly means that postage is free. You can order here –
https://www.vagabondvoices.co.uk/rants/barking-up-the-right-tree-2019
You can also order a book directly from me. The book costs £11.95 and P&P is an additional £3.50, making a total of £15.45. To order just make a Paypal payment to weegingerbook@yahoo.com, or alternatively use the DONATE button below. Please make sure to give me your postal address when ordering. Orders to be sent outwith the UK will incur extra postage costs, please email me for details. If you can’t use Paypal, or prefer an alternative payment method, please email weegingerbook@yahoo.com
Wee Ginger Dug 
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
Wrong link above here´s correct one. I hope
Can you delete the first one Paul?
Oops well I enjoyed it!
Priceless. ‘Bunty’ Smith. Lovin it.
Here’s a precis of today’s grilling by the Fourth Estate Fifth Column. Nike, nike nike nike nike nike Adidas, oops, then the, ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’ offering, from Kieran Jenkins Richard Leonard’s GMB Channel 4 bitch, demanding that Nicola Sturgeon admit her ‘mistake’ (which he’ll report tonight on John Snow’s (Snow was apparently a guest at Bunty’s wedding) BBC sub station as ‘Nicola Sturgeon refuses to admit that it was a mistake discharging patients from hospital untested’, tonight.
I think it was Gina Davidson, |Scoop of the Scotsman, who felt it necessary to demand how many patients had been admitted to the Flor…er..Louisa Jordan hospital.
Now I knew the answer to that one, and so did Ms Davidson; indeed so do most people in Scotland.
What a sad bunch are the ‘professional’ hacks who plod the pavements and rake bins Up Here in Scotland.
Sturgeon is doing a remarkable job in leading the recovery from this terrible virus.
But this lot of hacks waste her valuable time turning up and churning out the same old SNP BAD Toss.
A range of other questions from the likes of the BBC’s Fat Fifty Toodle Oo The Noo Taylor’s chum ‘Sevvie’ can be summarised thus:-
Nike Nike Nike Nike testing testing care home testing Nike…Adidas….
What pointless bunch of tired old hacks.
Oh, I forgot; Peter McMahon, Alister ‘Union’ Jack’s PPS in Border TV, came over all socialist, demanding that the FM give the ‘most disadvantaged’ children (That’s ‘dirt poor’ to you and me and any right thinking sentient human being on the planet). £250 right now,because Carlaw Rennie and Leonard backed Osborne’s Austerity ‘difficult decision’ in 2012 to give tax break to the filthy rich like a screenwriter in Skye newly arrived from NZ, and cut Welfare spending by £32 billion to the ‘most disadvantaged’ and sacked 500,000 public servants whose continuing service would have come in right handy now, during the Plague.
Christ on a bike.
IT is clear that this lot gather to brow beat the FM and attempt to derail Scotland’s efforts to conquer this menace.
I’ll dance on their feckin’ graves.
The irony is that many of their papers / publications, currently advise us that newspaper sales are falling during the Covid-19 outbreak and want us to support their “Trusted and quality journalism through these difficult times for only £2.00 a week”.
The local Church Newsletter does more incisive reporting and I get it for nothing..
I’ll join you.
That was the most god awful FMQ’s – It’s a bit like celebrity Mastermind/ Chase where the contestants seem overly proud of their ignorance.
I’ve been raging all day about Sarah Smith whose report and ‘apology’ are @#$% so thanks for these. First time today I’ve laughed.
The leaders of three parties in the Scottish Parliament hang on as as sycophantic courtiers to their masters in London, any bauble will do (maybe a potential Lloyd-Webber musical). Their alternative is to be in reception of UBI in an independent Scotland since we would require proper opposition politicians, people dedicated to Scotland’s future rather than cheering for another country.
I have Iack of understanding why no one in the independence movement has not taken the route of repealing the treaty of the Union, instead faffing around for nearly 70 years trying to gain independence with cap in hand,
We are the other half of Britain officially on a treaty between only two countries, and nowhere in the 1707 treaty of the union does it say specifically that we cannot do this,
After all Jonson is doing the exact same with a EU international treaty, except he is having to negotiate trade deals.
We do not have to do that, we have a reset button that takes everything of the table for both England and Scotland,
No GERS, no oil, no Barnett formula, no owing financial compensation to either side,
Not one Scot, financially benifited from the Treaty of the Union, except those that got paid and put their signatures on the treaty, they personally may owe England back some money,
We would regain our sea that tony Blair stole automatically,
Regain our fishing rights,
Trident would automatically be on the wrong side of the border.
We would have our own Scottish and international media and press.
We would ensure that our NHS was not privatisated.
There are hundreds of reasons for the reset button and repealing the Treaty of the Union
Except for the want of a backbone.
You can’t just repeal the Treaty of Union without there being some sort of democratic event first. Unless it is clear and unarguable that a majority of people in Scotland have voted for independence, any attempt to repeal the Treaty of Union will end in dismal failure and without Scotland being recognised as an independent nation by the international community.
Both Labour and Tory governments have always argued it is in their manifesto. Independence was in the SNP manifesto.
Surely making the next Scottish parliamentary election the referendum that repeated requests will never elicit from Westminster is the simple answer. An SNP manifesto that states IF YOU FAVOUR SCOTLAND BEING AN INDEPENDENT STATE, VOTE SNP. IF YOU FAVOUR SCOTLAND REMAINING PART OF THE U.K. , DO NOT VOTE SNP. A majority of votes and an overall majority of seats would surely constitute a decision that would be accepted by a sufficiency of the international community. independence would follow shortly.
The treaty of union is a terrible document for the people of Scotland. It was written only to protect the lawyers, traders and religious hierarchy, the people are rarely, if ever, taken into consideration. They were sold for money and fiefdoms, I’m not sure if many of these institutions have changed in the meantime.
The claim of right and international law is the way to freedom, trying to use the treaty is a waste of time, in my opinion obviously.
The Wales-English ‘Acts of Union’ of 1535 and 1542 (aka ‘The Laws in Wales in Wales Acts’) were repealed by the Westminster Parliament on 21 December 1993 under the Welsh Language Act 1993 Schedule 2, and the last remaining provision by subsequent secondary legislation by the same Parliament on 1 February 1994 (The Welsh Language Act 1993 (Commencement) Order 1994, S.I. 1994/115, art. 2(2).
We await with interest a similar repeal of the Scottish ‘Acts of Union’ with England. Come on in, Scotland – the feeling of a union without England is just grand!
A democratic or catastrophic event? If Westminster continues on its present course, England will burn this summer. It’s already starting. The local Boots was robbed this morning – young lad with a knife and mask. I had just arrived as he walked out and shoved the wee security lad out the way. They’re not allowed to retaliate if someone’s armed seemingly. That’s the second pharmacy in town this week – and it ain’t Blackpool.
We might be securing the border yet. Have we still got the nukes?
Where do you live (area), Mark, if you don’t mind me asking?
Lytham St Annes.
You’d expect that sort of thing in Blackpool – but Lytham!
Dear God we’re all doomed!!
FGS 😳😳🙄
Sarah Smith’s comments were broadcast by the BBC twice in one day. Have they now afforded her the opportunity to make a formal correction and apologise on the news today?
Or are they, the BBC and Sarah Smith, going to go along with North Ayrshire Labour Councillor Alex Gallagher?
http://www.thenational.scot/news/18460068.councillor-says-sarah-smith-tell-first-minister-f-off/
………………………….
Nicola Sturgeon (Ch9) Coronavirus Conference.
Nineteen, yes 19, journalist’s questions answered. Eight relating to the Nike Conference and six about care homes. Wash, rinse and repeat day after day. All accusatory of course. Telegraph reporter (no 10 on the list – Nike) says, ”on reflection you made a mistake.” Hugh Pennington, Unionist, via a journalist, says that the data should be released. NS says it will be. Stirring the pot .. Jeane Freeman is called out for blaming care workers for bringing the virus into care homes. Whistleblowers are contacting them to tell them how sh*t Nicola Sturgeon is. Overall assessment. Nicola Sturgeon is covering up and is not to be trusted.
And for something different.
The Scotsman journalist wants to know how many patients have been admitted to the Louisa Jordan Hospital. None says NS who’s pleased about that. Shut him up.
Someone from the Telegraph reckons that Nicola Sturgeon should give £250 to every child living in poverty.
FGS! barring a couple of questions anyone watching this day after day must be tearing their hair out. On the other hand many may be seeing the light now. If that’s the case a great big thank you to the MSM. As you say Dr Jim .. ”shooting themselves in the foot.” As you say Joe .. ”the worst exhibition of absolute gutter press.”
Just asking if anyone knows if Boris Johnson is being subjected to this on a regular basis?
………………………………..
Nothing to do with the ”want of a backbone”, James (4:01pm). More to do with being able to prove that over 50% of the Scottish population support you in repealing the Treaty of the Union. Just as Westminster ”proved” that over 50% of the UK population wanted to leave the EU via holding a referendum.
Scotland can prove, by holding a referendum any time without permission of the English Government. Remember evel, English votes for English laws. They have already broken the Treaty.
Nasty piece of work Smith. Owes her position to a combination of BBC nepotism, the British American Project network and the Northern franchise of the English caste system.
Mother (Barroness Smith of Gilmorehill) was bizarrely a Director of private spook outfit Hakluyt. Sister heads up the John Smith school for Stepford politicians.
There’s more than naked political bias at work with Smith there’s real personal vitriol. Bit of a neurotic bunny boiler me thinks.
The Scottish Gov is giving every child in a low income family £10 a week. £500.
Staff from Scotland were asked to go to the south to cover Coronavirus absences. They refused.
Close the borders.
It’s getting too serious now.
It seems to me that Sarah should be called ‘Chippy’ because she had one huge chip on her shoulder. Got nowhere in Labour, not a light to her fathers ability and a liar.
Aye, andyfromdunning, wee Chippy is additionally jealous of Nicola Sturgeon becoming FM of Scotland and more than anything that she’s known to be honest.
Maybe. But, it’s ‘Bunty’ now and I hope it sticks.
Aye “Bunty”, a reasonable, well balanced individual wi a chip on baith shooders.
As Alex Massie once sneered – “The BBC is the “British” Broadcasting Corporation as if that gave it license to behave in the way it does. It is sustained by a license, a levy imposed on people who want to watch its “content” – Once upon a time you had to pay it just to be allowed to own a TV. They would very much like to go back to that system. I would very much like to see it cease to exist.
“You can’t do that” people say to me. “Where are you going to get unbiased and quality Journalism from?” – “Not from the fucking BBC says I”
You can polish a turd all you want, paint it gold if you’d like. but its still a turd at the end of the day.
I have to rely on foreign media reporting about the UK now. The UK media is a disgrace and frankly I am not going to spend good money to have someone vomit in my brain.
The uk government, through its duplicity, is destroying the uk. The uk media, through its duplicity, is destroying the uk media.
The anonymous source reports to the only Labour MP in Scotland Ian Murray who reports to the BBC who interviews an unseen man for thirty seconds on the Morticia Miller BBC news at 6:30 pm
but the story was ten minutes long laden with suggestions of cover up, wrong doing, incompetence and other adjectives describing how bad Nicola Sturgeon is at her job, yet…in a poll of 3000 people right across the UK, and I mean the UK which includes the England bit finds that Nicola Sturgeon is far and away the most trusted politician in the UK including the England bit
But the BBC and Morticia Miller don’t report that news, had it been a Tory politician representing the England bit the BBC would have been reporting away big time, but they didn’t because the wrong person, Nicola Sturgeon won, and we wouldn’t want folk in Scotland having any pride in that now would we BBC
Oh, they did mention the UK furlough scheme was a greatful lifeline to Scotland, of course they didn’t mention it’s Scotland’s own tax payers money that we’ll have to pay back because unlike the English government Scotland isn’t *allowed* to have the same powers of borrowing as they do giving the impression to those who don’t understand that the English are giving us money because they Luurve us, when in fact they aren’t *giving* Scotland anything, England is borrowing money on our behalf and presenting Scotland with the bill later
Morticia Miller will be back at 9pm on the failed BBC channel nine to do it all over again
Oh Jim,
The Morticia Miller News at 6.30pm.
That made my wife and I laugh. We had a family bereavement this afternoon, not unexpected but still puts a downer on things.
Thanks for your wit, and wisdom.
Sorry for your loss Robin, I hope things get better for you and yours
The BBC said it would take stock following criticisms. It has. It is unapologetically a unionist tool of the britnat state. Biased, prejudiced and that’s its good points. Do some journalists live in fear at Pacific Quay. For the bbc even 50/50 reporting is wrong. It’s 90% pro union. The other 10% pro pro union.
I wish the First Minister could refer to a anonymous source / whistleblower from the bbc and rip into them. Sorry but they deserve it.
Is Smirk Smith gonna be on the news tonight saying the leaders of Wales and NI are enjoying ignoring Boris?
now i know its not good to be personal, but what the fuck is it with Liebour and the jaw thing? Sarah Smith and Gordon Brown – inbreeding?
They also both share a brass neck.
I *probably* don’t mean the *same* one …
What was the legal basis for the interment of John Smith on Iona?
He’s buried in the public cemetery on Iona,Argyll and was born in Dalmally, Argyll. I believe the islanders at the time were in favour. I think it was a private burial for the best prime minister the UK never had.
Thanks for that. I always liked him but I suspect his perceived Internationlism would have preffered a UK subservient Scotland like his daughter appears to.
Great article as usual. But you’re another falling into the trap of referring to the other three UK nations. There are only two. Northern Ireland has the status of a province although it is actually only that part of the province of Ulster carved from the Irish nation in 1922. It has never been self-governing and cannot by any description be termed a nation.
I can not speak for NI, but you don’t seriously consider that *we* are not a nation?
Not least, as I mentioned earlier, we are no longer in union with England – unlike your good selves in Scotland.
And we had the opening of our new Parliament (Senedd) earlier this month.
Wales has NOT been a principality since 1535. The ‘Act of Union’ (aka ‘Act of Annexation by England’ aka ‘The Laws in Wales Act’ of that year, subsequently repealed) abolished that, abolished Wales, even, so that (until 1967) any reference to ‘England’ in Westminster legislation also meant Wales, unless expressed otherwise explicitly.
Well it’s all a play on words – province, principality, country, nation whatever. For me the vital phrase is Sovereign State and until Scotland and Wales achieve that status we’re more or less in the same boat.
If you can’t get rid of the elderly in England through contracting the coronavirus just try, try and try again.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-kate-masters-do-not-resuscitate-legal-action-matt-hancock-a9520176.html
I don’t normally comment,but I was so angry today watching what can only be described as an inquisition by the press pack. The First minister did well but it must be bloody hard work no tae tell them tae f..off. Tomorrow will probably be the same again.
It will probably be the same again tomorrow sadly.
I watch every day and once they get hold of a bone they think they can gnaw at then they will do so until it’s gone. They are useless and in fact an embarrassment to their so called profession. Scum of the earth, and I mean that, I truly despise every one of them for there are no excuses for their behaviour at this awful time.
Perhaps when the Herald moves to its new HQ in a portacabin in Bellahouston Park the penny will drop.
I would imagine that if we wanted to delve into John Smith’s background we would be taken aback, if not horrified at what we’d find. He was involved in politics from around 1970 until he died in 1994. Let’s just remind ourselves that the Labour Party did nought for Scotland during, before and after, that period. He was also hanging around whilst Equal Pay cases were being quashed in Scotland by the Labour Party plus their “workers” Unions. Maybe just a case of Sarah actually really being her father’s, bit of a lying failure of a, daughter now.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/john-smiths-bitter-harvest-allegations-of-corruption-could-rob-labour-of-its-former-leaders-1424762.html
John Smith another in the long line of Labour leaders Scotland put its hopes in only to find out he was really the same as the last guy but seeing as how he died let’s make up a legend about him to convince future Labour voters things are going to get better, I’m old enough to remember him well and they’re still saying it, like they keep saying Donald Dewar was a wonderful guy, sorry no he wasn’t, he was the ultimate self obsessed Labour careerist who sold 6000 square miles of Scotland’s ocean and oil for the promise of a brick, I knew him when I was a sub editor and I’d happily throw a lasso round his statues neck
Remember too after his death when it was discovered in his will about all those shares he had in the privatised utilities. Tried to say they had been purchased via a blind trust and he, Dewar, had nothing to do with buying them.
Criticised privatisation but profited from it. Labour to a T.
James Kelly’s take on it:-
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2020/05/sarah-smiths-unforgivable-lapse-of.html
Does anyone else get the impression, when you read this, that the WHO would like to name and shame Boris the Butcher / England?
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/world-health-organisation-tells-scotland-you-are-doing-well?top
It is FM questions tomorrow, no so called jurnos just the usual brain dead msps no much difference
Scotland would be Independent now. If people had voted for it. Scotland voted for Devolution and got it 20 years later. Thatcher and the Tories denied it for years.
Westminster had to agree to (limited) Devolution or be sanctioned by the EU. Now they are trying to take Scotland out of the EU.
It was recognised Scotland had less democracy than the emerging eastern bloc countries. Now doing well with Independence . The people obtained self determination and self governance with EU help.
Labour wasted Scotland’s revenue and resources. Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Thatcher illegally and secretly took Scottish revenues and funded London S/E. The Barnett Formula designed to impoverish Scotland. Poll tax, high unemployment and social strife.
The banking crisis. Thatcher deregulated world banking. Bankers fund the Tory Party. Brown and Blair supported banking fraud and illegal wars. Cameron/Clegg elected to support NHS and Education cut funding, Reneged on the promises. The Vow reneged on promises for more powers for Scotland and cut revenues.
People voted Labour to keep the Tories out. Now they vote SNP to keep the unionists out. Support for Independence increasing.
People recognise the Press lies. They do not watch it or listen. Or just get annoyed. Viewing figures diminishing. The Press making a fool of themselves leading to their own demise.
Non Dom owners in trouble and turning on the Tories. Murdoch scared of dying. Turning on Johnston. Murdoch sacked Johnston for telling lies. The Barclay brothers in trouble. The right wing Press and Gov failing. It will all end in tears, again. They had to get rid of Thatcher. Johnston away hiding.
Scotland is going it’s own way. Ireland could reunite. Demographics.
Ireland could reunite. Demographics. Illegal Partition 1923. Universal Suffrage 1928. Ireland would have voted for Home Rule and Independence. There were already Home Rule Bills going through the Commons. 1914, Delayed by WW1.
Instead of nearly 100 years of strife and trouble. Support for Independence/reunification now increasing. Major Sinn Fein wins in Elections. The unionists holding back.
DUP opposing EU membership for votes at Westminster. Corruption. NI a Law unto itself. Does not conform to UK/EU Law. Illegal, unequal Masonic. The Westminster way and the Monarchy. Garter parade of inequality. The UK the most unequal place in the world.
Well said, Ken2
Here we go for the Westminster blame game. Makes a change from blaming the SNP.
Watch:- ‘Coronavirus: Scientists to blame if government made mistakes in response, cabinet minister says.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-uk-lockdown-testing-therese-coffey-science-a9521626.html
…………………………………………………………
Watch:-‘Michael Gove completely ignores Brexit question to attack SNP.’
..”He (Gove) added: “The universal view of experts is that Scotland operates the largest deficit in Europe.”..
”The Scottish Government in fact runs an annual surplus and has done so every year since 2007. Scotland only has a notional deficit if elements of endemic UK deficit are apportioned hypothetically to the normal Holyrood surplus, as happens in the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) paper exercise.”
http://www.thenational.scot/news/18460056.michael-gove-completely-ignores-brexit-question-attack-snp/
A conversation on the radio
BBC: Will the furlough scheme continue for Scotland after it expires in England
UK: The furlough scheme will end for the whole of the UK at the same time, Scotland is out of step with the UK
BBC: Scotland Northern Ireland and Wales are moving at the same speed so surely it’s England that’s out of step
UK: The majority of the UK live in England so the treasury has to think whats best for the UK as a whole
That’s the shortened version of BBC Scotland interviewing a UK Treasury spokesperson
There was much more and the attitude of the Treasury spokesperson would fill you with horror
so once again – what works in England, must by extension work elsewhere.
Sahra should keep her nose out of our country and stick to her own shambolic country. She shows herself to part and parcel of the so called British ruling class, a group ridiculed and laughed at across the planet for their utter incompetence.
In the hallowed halls of education for the furtherance of the mind in England like Oxford Cambridge Eton and the like where the right amount of money can buy you no end of qualifications and degrees there requires to be no further attendance this year for fear of the Corona virus pandemic, but in Skools everywhere else you must not fear Corona virus and send your kids back on the 1st of June because you and your kids are stupid and you have no money to buy degrees and we need you back in the fields working
It’s not just Scotland they treat badly it’s also those who are not as worthy as them
the ministers are onto the BLAME game.
There seems to be a problem with the tracing app,they want it to keep the phone ON all the time so that it can work. Wondering how they’re going to get automatic charging of the phones to work.
Meanwhile the submarine pm is only working one day a week,busy picking fruit and veg perhaps,no don’t think so either.
The arrivals in the uk lockdown is working well,gove is to introduce a PRICK test at the airports for 10,000 arrivals a day so they can get on with passing on the virus.
Is it just me,doesn’t it take between a few days to a week for the symptoms to appear after contact?
Advice is don’t open the schools until the app works, the SKOOLS will open in JUNE BUTT not the PUBLIC schools. Play on words.
Still no public apology?
……………………………
Includes a wee video of Paul et al.
”’Sarah Smith was appointed the BBC’s first Scotland Editor to “cover Scottish news for a UK audience.” However, her £160k salary is paid from Scottish audience licence fees.” https://mobile.twitter.com/IndyLassie/status/1262692290289635328
”As the furore rages on BBCS, its time I mentioned that…. Scotland is 1 of only 3 countries in the world denied the right to their own airwaves.There are 3 broadcast monopolies in the UK, allowed to operate, protected by Westminster from competition including the BBC. https://mobile.twitter.com/CRobertsonUK/status/1262671273294991361
………………………………..
The Westminster coronavirus botch-up continues.
”Indeed, the instructions on the Government’s own website are absolutely incorrect. Watch the below clip.” https://mobile.twitter.com/RedRadicals/status/1262498966983323653
Hahaha.
Colin MacKay:- ”Just got a press release from UKIP. They say they will stand on the Holyrood list next year on “scrap the Scottish Parliament” platform! https://mobile.twitter.com/STVColin/status/1262802232849899520
…………………
Check out Ann’s latest links on the Indyref2 site.
https://indyref2.space/forum/topic/links-wednesday-20-may-2020/
Ruth Davidson just appeared on Sky news and repeated the same blurb as Smith
Aye Jim and when given the opportunity to comment about Smiths performance went further compounding the personal attack on Nicola Sturgeon , I doubt if anything she uttered , without challenge I add ,I don’t believe a single thing she said was even remotely close to the truth , This Tory government are presiding over the biggest human tragedy in our lifetime and this insignificant bag of pure unadulterated poison simply adds to the mix and is so bloody stupid and blinded by her hatred of the SNP anything that enters that warped and twisted mind of hers just gushes unchecked , all the pent up poison flows out, my my what a performance , Jackson the art dealer would have been proud , sickening totally true to form from the disgusting Tory party .
Not a big fan of this disgusting party as you might gather .
Oxbridge gets funding 2000 to 1 of every other university.
Eton is not going back until September.
Johnston, Gove etc got their education pay by the taxpayers or subsidised, Absolutely nothing from them. Then charged students in the South £9000 per annum. Total lying hypocrites. Beyond useless.
Scottish Questions in the HOC
I don’t know why Ian Murray just doesn’t admit to being a Tory, his nose was stuck so far up Alister Union Jack’s Corona today I’m amazed he got it back out
As per usual at Scottish Questions, MPs from every party not representing Scotland were well represented asking questions along the lines of *do you agree with me that Scotland is rubbish*
Answer *yes indeed they are just rubbish and not good and the SNP are really baad UK forever*
One Tory MP even had lots of little Union flags behind him in a wee array of Unioness to prove we must be better (not together) but ruled
Apparently Carlaw deserves to know the names of those infected with covid. Can I be told what infections he or his Tory colleagues have, maybe not. Can anyone tell me the names of those bringing infection to the U.K. from Italy, China? When numbers of infected persons are low you cannot identify them by default. Why does this remind me of something else?
According to the CEO of Heathrow Airport he requires a 10,000 test capability every DAY at present as that is the number of passengers arriving at the airport.
Some will be internal but lots are from else where in the world.
We are still talking about a system of control,even Ryanair think it’s too late to start.
I wasn’t surprised after reading the order of questions and the fact that both he and jack were in the commoners house.
Another hour of “don’t answer the question”.
Sky website missed the wee part of the doris non reply about the NHS fee for incomers, £900,000,000 income is hard to find from another source.
Funny that they can find all sorts of magic money for other things.
Now that the UK of England has declared the pretendy co-operation cosmetic exercise with Scotland over and done and are now openly politicising everything the Scottish government are doing by using their State broadcaster and their extended Tory representatives in Scotland, Carson Jacklaw and Robert Leopard and other members of SIU, perhaps it’s time our representatives took off their gloves and started battering seven colours out of them, although I exclude the FM from that because she’s already winning that battle with the public by not fighting it, which makes the opposition screech at the tops of their wee Unionist lungs
The art of fighting without fighting grasshopper, I couldn’t have taught her better myself
One for you, Welsh Sion. https://mobile.twitter.com/Jeggit/status/1262622112185036800
Just watching SKY news and the Welsh police are fining travellers and turning them around telling them straight, Welsh rules rule so get yourselves gone
Scotland doesn’t have the power to close borders but we surely have the same powers as Wales to do what the cops are doing there
You would think so Dr Jim and with lockdown still in place here, I doubt Police Scotland are being overworked right now.
Appreciated, ty, Petra.
But otherwise – what can one say?
I know what I’d like to say, but it would be kind of sweary, lol.
Have a look on flighttracker24.com and you’ll find plenty of aircraft movements coming and going from england.
Scottish airspace appears to be overflights and helicopter traffic to the North Sea oil rigs.
Welsh airspace looks very quiet.
Englandland looks busy about normal from the past.
Thanks for that, Dave. Great site.
http://www.flightradar24.com/airport/psl