Oddquine

I would have to say that I am sufficiently sceptical about politicians of ALL persuasions to have concern that success in politics often goes to whoever fares best at cynically deluding those least well placed to understand the issues. It would be on hearing appeals for Paddy Power to be devolved to Holyrood that I would really start worrying. I take it that you don't think you are well placed to understand the issues then, Charles, given you never actually discuss them? Like yourself, I am a cynic when it comes to politicians, but I am more cynical when it comes to career politicians, particularly those who not just don't live in the same world as us now, but have never lived in the same world as us, being in charge of the future of our country and people...and by that I mean the UK.. I am more cynical about politicians who are a law unto themselves because there is no written constitution, who write rules of acceptable behaviour for themselves, appoint the people who are expected to hold them to it and then do nothing/little about those who transgress those rules. I am cynical about an establishment which has to be dragged kicking and screaming to confront embarrassment, and does so by setting up a commission of enquiry which takes years to start and more years to finish (probably in the hope everyone has forgotten about the issue by the time a report is produced).for example, the Iraq Inquiry, 2009-2011, but still not released, the Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, which took 12 years and the not yet started, one into Child Sex Abuse by the great and the good, something which could have been tackled in at least 1983, long before Jimmy Savile came to the public's attention..but while that might have saved some children, it would have damaged MPs and the perception of morality and probity so many still have in Westminster politics. . The whole Westminster set-up stinks........and there is nothing that we, the ordinary punter can do about anything, because Westminster is sovereign, which appears to make them think they also have the divine right of kings, and the system they have set up ensures it cannot change without the approval of the system, no matter what we, the voters think about anything...and turkeys are not known to be enthusiastic about voting for Christmas. If Charles I had been given a vote on his position, does anyone think he'd have voted to be beheaded? Our MPs voted against the Recall Bill, granted a poor effort which would still have left Westminster in charge of who was recalled, but even that attempt to make them actually do their job was too much voter control for Westminster; There has been no effort to abolish or reform the House of Lords, the retirement home for rejected/failed politicians and the reward for political donations, instead the numbers of unelected and unaccountable establishment figures who are in charge of our lives have increased; Even the new E-petitions reform depends on an MP putting the idea to the Backbench Business Committee (itself another reform), because the opinions of 100,000 voters are not important enough to have time set aside for debates on E-petition issues, and it is taken from Backbench Business Committee time. But then, the opinions of a million marchers and a was not important enough to make Westminster think again about going into Iraq on the coat-tails of the USA so what chance will 100,000 have anyway. The Lobbying Bill will have little impact on professional lobbying, and that was why it was needed, to stop big businesses buying MPs and influence. It will, however limit the activity of organisations that are trying to raise awareness of issues that they feel are important, and who are trying to bring about change for the better. It makes one wonder if the reason for setting up laws which limit the ability of charities and the like to raise concerns and offer suggestions, but does little to control the actions of big businesses, is because Westminster doesn't care what charities think of their policies but they do worry in case the money men have to close their wallets. So cynical one here says that the Westminster system, set up long before the Union, is not fit for its purpose,or any purpose now, and needs to be changed from top to bottom to make it democratic. Be interesting to see if the SNP does get a decent number of seats, and Labour gets enough seats to form a loose coalition to be in Government, if a spine can be inserted into the Labour Party and the House of Lords, at least is tackled.

I see that Alberta has just had its provincial election. According to a right wing Canadian connection of mine's comment on FB "The Province of Alberta has just crashed and burned". Maybe too many of Scots descent in Alberta. I'm assuming from that the NDP is more social democratic than the PC is? Is there such an animal as a Progressive Conservative anyway? It is however interesting to see the reaction of right-wingers to the idea of a more left wing government.....wonder if the rhetoric will be as bad as it is in the UK?

Yes I know what you mean Renegade. However a lot of the reporting and film has been sourced from the U.K. with many of the pieces being presented and commentated upon by people with Scottish accents. Some of the material is from Australia. If my memory serves me right Scottish television was always pretty appalling as well. Has it improved that much in your estimation? Reports are now coming through that individuals are being suspended from the SNP for their violent behaviour. Is this happening on another Planet or in Scotland? I have lived in six different countries in my life time and Scottish Television has to rate amongst the worst I have experienced. Many of the biggest liars in the UK are men with Scottish accents, culduthel....Gordon Brown, Jim Murphy, Alistair Darling, Alistair Carmichael, Jim Naughtie Glen Campbell. Gary Robertson, to name a few.........although the last three tend more to spin, omit and misrepresent than downright lie. Two party members have been suspended, afaik, but only pending an investigation of the incident. Until they were identified, they weren't known to be SNP members, btw. The heid bummers in SNP HQ, don't know personally every one of 100,000+ members, any more than the other parties could identify most of theirs from a photo or video. I think they were all numpties, including those two SNP members, but they did no more than heckle Murphy in a megaphones at dawn type of duel. There was no violent behaviour however the papers and TV decided to spin it. In case you aren't anti-wings on principle.....here's a link below to the kind of information which should be investigated before a decision about their membership (though personally, I'd dunt the pair of them anyway just for being so brain-dead stupid as to let themselves be manipulated into providing more opportunity for another couple of days of the media and Murphy screaming SNP BAD (or words to that effect)). It is all getting very wearing. Roll on Thursday! http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-safety-of-the-town/ Funnily enough there are examples of as bad and a lot worse here http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-side-of-the-thugs/ , which could not be spun as SNP BAD, because it was the SNP or Yes Voters on the receiving end so hardly got a mention anywhere...nobody was suspended from any party and nobody was asked to condemn the actions of people over whom they had no control just because they were unionists. Double standards d'you think?

Laurence, you don't have to use the WORD Nazi you just have to use words and phrases which imply Nazi........ words and phrases like streets of Munich in 1923, "Mein Banff" and the like..... but I think the Nazi reared its head from a quote provided by IHE from a letter in the Shetland Times, not directly from Charles........he did the implying. Charles is a historian? I thought he was a chemistry teacher and sports writer. Laurence if you were a kid in Scotland, and you are the age you are, that was in the days after the war, when most folk couldn't have afforded to buy a Saltire anyway, the days when people still felt British, when the Welfare State was brand spanking new, and when Governments still did commonsense, pragmatism and empathy.....and gave a toss about more than the profit they could make in the time they warmed the green benches..and the people had hope that the end of the war was going to herald a better life. . Stronger Scotland means giving Scotland a decent voice for the first time ever, because Unionist politicians from Scotland vote for their party careers first the UK second and Scotland last if at all. The only thing that Scotland specifically wants is the Smith commission proposals to get through Parliament........improvements to it would be good, though.....that would maybe give us a level of devolution nearer that enjoyed by NI. Apart from that, we'd like to see Labour being a bit more Old Labourish maybe than they have been since Blair and actually doing something to make Keir Hardie proud and stop him birling like a top in his grave. You do really want to bear in mind that the SNP is not out to trash the rest of the UK.because to do that will trash Scotland as well, given we are still tied to the UK. Do you still live in Scotland, Laurence, I kinda thought you didn't, don't know why......but I suppose you must, given I for one don't want Scottish parliament to set its own tax. I don't know what utter crap you are reading, Laurence, but Scotland isn't getting to raise all its tax......it is getting to raise around 30% of its tax, and most of the extra, above what we already collect, is mostly just because we are getting 10p in the pound knocked off Barnett money, and are being obliged to pay the UK Government , on top of what they already take to help fund HMRC, to collect that 10p (or whatever it ends up being). I'm not even going to attempt to discuss your figures, because I wouldn't know where to start in such a load of tripe. I will say that it actually, if you are going to believe government figures, Scotland needs £55- £60 billion to stay as it is..which is why we don't want to stay as we are, because 85% of that £55-£60 billion heads down to Westminster, and away from Scotland to disappear without trace. And Laurence....63 million people importing stuff costs a helluva sight more than 5.5 million people importing stuff, particularly if that 5.5 million have a decent level of exports to balance that lesser amount of imports.It is the rest of the UK which has by far the biggest trade deficit. For a lot of us, Laurence, Westminster destroyed the goodwill a long time ago, and Scottish NuLabour, the goodwill of many of its own supporters, over the last couple of years, and both are only compounding our alienation by their arrogance in rejecting the democratically elected representatives voted in by what could be up to half of the Scottish voting population..because they are not of the favoured establishment. But then that makes the SNP not only for Scotland, but of Scotland and like Scotland...........because it has become more and more clear over the last couple of years that Scotland, despite the rhetoric of love which has bombarded us, is also not of the favoured establishment, because, whether Westminster likes it or not the system means that the SNP representatives will represent all of their consitituents, including those who voted NO. Westminster has made our place in the Union clear.........our place is is beyond the pale.

Wow! If that isn't irrationality, I dunno what is. Absolutely the best and most ludicrous Project Fear #2 attempt yet! ....even better than the annexing of Faslane was in Project Fear #1 Pretty please, can you give me a link to where you got it, so I can bung it up on an Orkney FB page to amuse them! Edited to say, Google is great.......just found the letter the quote is from, if anyone wants to read the whole thing......http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2015/04/05/dont-vote-snp-graham-johnston and don't miss the btl comments....they are certainly more interesting, arguably more instructive and much less vituperative and insulting than the equivalent found in any of the main newspapers in the UK.

Given I didn't mention Charles, I am interested that you automatically assumed I was talking about him, and not you, or DD, or others who have been, for some long time, enthusiastically denigrating the SNP and their leaders, the YES campaign and its leaders, and Independence supporters in general....a trend which appears to have continued even though we are still in the Union and are still trying to play by the Union rules, as we always have. In other countries that would be called democracy......but in the UK it appears to be called unacceptable and outrageous.

I suppose the General Nonsense Forum is the best place to dump anything concerned with Nigel Farage, rather than pollute Serious Topics!

You separatist folks actually take this Wings chap quite seriously, don't you? A lot more seriously than anything emanating from the MSM, anyway. He may not get everything 100% right....who does...but, unlike the MSM, he doesn't do "off the top of his head invention and interpretation" to fill an article/post with nothing but bile and bias (like some people I could mention). He, and everyone else who posts articles on Wings, give links to the information on which they base their opinions, and if people disagree with his/their interpretation of the facts, they can, and do, query that interpretation in the comments section. Wings, and its success, is a direct reaction to the abysmally biased journalism, both media and print, which has been growing in the UK, particularly when referring to Scotland, since the SNP bucked the specially crafted voting system by being elected in a workable majority in 2007, and which exploded into irrationality in the months prior to the Edinburgh Agreement. When the MSM " journalists" and "reporters" do little journalism or reporting other than rephrase/regurgitate word for word, the propaganda provided by Westminster, whether that is the Government itself, or the individual Unionist parties, without querying any part of what they say, the truth has to be found somewhere....and that is what Wings does.....looks for the facts, and using them dissects the lies in the MSM.....and draws conclusions. based on the full facts available, and not the specially chosen ones of all the Union propaganda productions. He is certainly biased towards the pro-independence POV..but he admits his bias....unlike the MSM...but also unlike the MSM, is not biased to the extent of failing to acknowledge and accept that there are irrational numpties on both sides among the parties and supporters. The MSM gives the impression that nobody posts on social media except "cybernats". (again, like some people I could mention). It isn't so much the bias I object to with the MSM (bar that of the BBC, because it is taxpayer funded.....though not by me anymore), because everybody is biased in some direction or another, but the bile, the nastiness, the lies and the remarks which, if they were being made in reference to Jews, Muslims and just about any other minority in this country would be classed as racism. But even some Scots thought that kind of bile was just fine, and repeated it ad nauseam....and now appear to have no problems with that kind of attitude continuing even after we have voted to stay in the Union, I assume because, after all, we are only Scots and need to be kept in our place below the salt. And that is why Wings still exists.......because the need for it is still there.

Utterly pathetic is a good description of the last ditch lies being sent out by NuLabour, Scottish Branch Office (mostly, it seems in Glasgow).......very similar to the proven lies and misinformation in the referendum...........particularly the scaring again of we old folks over our pensions. Just a darn shame it is acceptable to tell blatant lies under the guise of Election literature. And that's without mentioning Labour's incompetence with figures http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-desperate-hours/#more-70739 makes some comments re probity in electioneering/elections and also on what looks like a push to ensure the Tories win.......and also says This may be the single most catastrophically stupid election campaign ever undertaken by Labour (or anyone) in the UK. I won't quote chunks of the long article, although I'd like to, because I know many won't read wings...but a few chosen quotes (which have evidence) (and a link to an external site) follow.......... Jim Murphy sending frightened elderly voters a letter warning of dire consequences for their pensions should the SNP win. in Anas Sarwar’s seat, with a whole army of imaginary voters being concocted in order to send identical “personal” letters to residents of particular streets. Conservative candidate for the East Renfrewshire seat, David Montgomery, campaigning yesterday at a stall in Clarkston shared with Scottish Labour regional manager Jim Murphy. allied with a fake letter sent to a new SNP member purporting to be from the party, which starts plausibly before urging the recipient to vote Tory on the grounds that an SNP-Labour collaboration couldn’t work. (although, tbh, I'm not convinced that wasn't just a one-off friend/relation taking the mick from a new member who is deaving them to death with a Join SNP mantra...but if it is correct, and was sent by a political party other than the SNP, then there are moles in SNP HQ (like there was in the IRA) breaching the Data Protection Act.) Then there is the Labour website Labour Uncut has thrown caution to the wind and driven a coach and horses through every electoral law in the country by not only admitting that Labour has been illegally surveying and tallying postal votes, but then actually publishing the findings. And getting to their inability to correlate figures, because their blind hatred of the SNP is much more important than stopping the Tories getting another term..... Currently Scotland provides a net 35 anti-Tory MPs (47 Labour and SNP minus 12 Tory and Lib Dem). Even were the SNP to pull off a clean sweep, wiping Labour out totally, that number would rise to 59 anti-Tory MPs. That’s 24 extra anti-Tory votes in the Commons compared to the Labour landslide of 2010. In an election as tight as this one, those 24 extra votes could easily make the difference between Labour getting in and the coalition managing to cling on. But in its demented, blind, tribal hatred of the Nats, Labour not only risks handing Cameron a 24-seat advantage, but also the moral right to form the government even should the arithmetic be against him, by using Labour’s own “biggest party” lie against it. Astoundingly, some Labour figures have even been complicit in a tactical-voting campaign that would give even MORE Scottish seats to the Tories and Lib Dems – 16 rather than 12, whichever variant of the hilarious “wheel” you choose to follow, and every one of them giving the Tories at least six seats to their current one. (Were the wheel to succeed entirely in its aims, Scotland would provide a net figure of just 27 anti-Tory MPs rather than 59, increasing Cameron’s advantage to 32.) As it says on wings.......The litany of lunacy seems almost without end.

This is the wrong forum/thread for such a specifically political post, to which a reply, in my inimitable style will undoubtedly run to many pages, Laurence, given the fact that I will argue that much of the good instituted by Old Labour, the party in which my own parents were actively involved post WWII, has been rolled back by the NuLabour of Tony Blair......that same NuLabour which Thatcher claimed as her greatest legacy to the UK, as it adopted and "improved" Tory policies and ethos and gleefully took on board rampant monetarism to woo the English votes it needed to attain government. I am happy to do it, however, providing examples, if you repeat your post in The General Forum, preferably on a new thread.

Derek Bateman tells it like it is http://derekbateman.co.uk/2015/05/01/another-country/ I quote the last paragraph of his article........and invite DD and Charles et al to defend the attitude of the UK political parties.and offer their ideas on where the Union goes from here. The underlying message of all this to me as a Scottish Nationalist is that my country isn’t wanted. Even when half the population are backing the SNP, we are treated as pariahs. No party will touch us. We are toxic in Westminster. Every one of the major Unionist groupings has told us that a constitutional party of social democrats in Scotland – one that is so respectable that the Prime Minister signs the Edinburgh Agreement with them – doesn’t belong in the power structures of Britain. And you can see where I am going…the deeper realisation is that the day of independence draws ever nearer as layer after layer of British state apparatus rejects us and declares us outsiders not worthy of influence in government. We are truly another country and the more SNP people we elect, the more scared and irrational they get. At the very time the SNP has accepted referendum defeat and offers to help a Unionist party, they spit on us. Scots are finally getting the message.

I notice he didn't rule out a minority Government producing sensible policies designed to attract vote by vote support, just a formal deal /arrangement......or is that too close to democracy for the Labour party to even contemplate as an option? I'd not be overly surprised at a Tory/Labour/LibDem Government of Union Unity, tbh. It would be the obvious pouting, foot-stamping response, given all the rhetoric of this campaign, to the temerity of the Scots voting outside the centuries old accepted box of the Westminster two party buggin's turn dictatorship. It's going to be an "interesting" few days until Thursday..............and then the real fun starts!

Jesus wept.............isn't this a Scottish Labour Party which knows they have nothing to say regarding policies, because even if they get 59 MPs into Westminster, they have to toe the UK Party line, not walk a Scottish one...........so they intend to finish their "campaign" as they have been conducting it all the way along....fighting against the two things which aren't in the SNP GE2015 manifesto......Independence and FFA. https://commonspace.scot/articles/1221/scottish-labour-confirms-clock-is-ticking-ge2015-leaflet-is-official

Only if England votes in a majority of one party, Laurence...............if they don't, what determines the Government will be alliances/accommodations/arrangements etc with each other........ or with the smaller parties to take one of them comfortably over the half way point. England didn't determine the Government in 2010 after all......the LibDems did really, because despite talking to Labour first, they plumped for propping up the Tories. For those of you who won't read the likes of Wings, Bella or the WGD on pro-union principle.......Alex Massie has an almost decent blog article in the Speccy....... http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/alex-massie/2015/04/labours-demise-in-scotland-is-a-problem-for-the-tories-too-they-just-dont-know-it-yet/ This present crisis – make no mistake, regardless of what happens at Westminster next month, this election is a disaster for Unionism – has many fathers and some mothers too. It is foolish to blame it on either the Tory or Labour tribes alone (For all her many achievements Mrs Thatcher, I am afraid, played her own part in bringing us to this moment.) It is even more foolish – from a Unionist perspective – to try and use this crisis for short-term political advantage. Yet that is what is happening. It is a troubling thing and, viewed from the north, perhaps the most grimly troubling thing of all is that people in the south still seem unaware the Union can be imperilled in London just as surely as it is threatened in Scotland. Friends? Well, the Union has precious few of them these days. Repairing this breach will require quantities of tact, patience and generosity that seem far beyond anything available right now.

No, Laurence.....democracy according to Westminster rules is that, in a hung Parliament situation, the party which can cobble together a working majority arrangement with other parties gets to do the governing with the help of those parties. After all, it won't just be the SNP tail, it will also be the Plaid tail, the Green tail and possibly the SDLP tail and maybe even the LibDem tail, if Labour is the party to manage to do the cobbling. A Government truly representative of votes in the whole UK in fact . Perhaps you would prefer that it was solely an English Parliament, with a Labour/Tory Coalition....after all, there isn't a lot of difference in policies...but that would not bode well for the future of the Union. Or nearly as bad, would you prefer a reprise of the last five years with a Tory/LibDem Coalition, maybe with the help of UKIP and the DUP.? If you don't like the way Westminster style democracy works.....did you vote to change it at the AV referendum? And if not, why not?

It's OK.... there are plenty even better analogies What could be better, or more hilarious?? Depends on which side of the fence you occupy........could cite, from where I sit, Allan Cochrane's tome Alex Salmond: My Part in His Downfall - The Cochrane Diaries which are not just hilarious but, according to a couple of reader's review on Amazon,(in a total of 124 reviews which produced more than 50% 1 star ones) were.........a one star review........ Ignore the naysayers. I approached this book with scepticism: after all, Alan Cochrane was a well-known myrmidon of the Union, and an apologist for the calamitous policies wrought upon Scotland by the British state. OR SO I THOUGHT! It transpires that Cochrane has either been playing a long game or has, like so many other Scots in the last few months, had a conversionary experience on the road to Damascus. Our narrator, a daring play on the 19th century "Uncle Tom" figures of demotic American Southern culture, wickedly mocks the unionists he purports to support with his slyly ridiculous commentaries on each stage of the recent independence referendum. If Cochrane - previously better known as the uncle of Eddie "Summertime Blues" Cochrane - had merely said "the majority of the mainstream print, radio and television media acted as little more than slavish mouthpieces for the British state and for the establishment they might once have challenged" then readers would have nodded and moved on. But by taking on just such an outrageously slavishly submissive tone from the very first chapter, Cochrane manages to make a laughing stock of the very Unionist propaganda he mocks. Time after time, he subtly adopts the preaching tones of a well-off, Morningside establishment figure - the sort of self-centred buffoon he must be all too painfully familiar with - and paints vividly absurdist pictures of such a figure in a series of exaggerated and even entirely fictional escapades in which he sells out his own countrymen in order to gain temporary gratitude from a few braying toffs, while abasing himself before a state that will stop at nothing to ensure access to the oil revenues it needs to support its factional success. Think of a Flashman figure complete with self-interest and moral cowardice but without the women, the flair or the accidental glory. Brilliant stuff, and I hope I don't accidentally rate it as one star as if it was some self-aggrandising work of dull and plodding fiction that will be forgotten some time before the end of this sentence. and a five star one....... Possibly one of the greatest tales ever told, up there with Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter and Mein Kampf. The story features an incredibly brave protagonist called Alan Cochrane who is really awesome and cool and has loads of girlfriends and not at all a weasel worded, drivel spouting ego maniac. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone but there are some really incredible chapters, one of my favourite parts is when Alan and one hundred of his loyal rangers supporters, standing on a huge hadrian's wall of ice, defend the poor southerners from the dribbling northern nationalist hordes. No he didn't steal the idea from that bit in the Game of Thrones off the telly, it was entirely his idea even George RR Martin agrees [citation needed]. Though the last part of the book really is incredible, Alan and his loyal manservant, finally manage to get to the top of Ben Nevis and throw the ring into the pool full of highly caustic Irn Bru, slaying the evil sorcerer Salmond, who up to that point in the book hardly got a mention. No, Alan didn't steal the idea from that bit in the Lord of The Rings, this part of the book was based entirely on what happened during the Scotch referendum [citation needed]. I would give this amazing piece of fiction six stars, sadly Amazon does not allow for such high review scores. I am very hopeful that there will be a sequel or movie adaption as I believe that this book could only be enhanced by the inclusion of Jar jar Binks. Got to love the Scottish sense of humour, don't you?

You mean like the SNP demonising the Tories and the English (aka Westminster) in order to justify separation? Stop talking balderdash, Charles, please. All your one-liners which sneer but say nothing cogent are getting wearing. Or alternatively, produce some links to examples of anti-English statements in the media by Nicola Sturgeon Alex Salmond and any other SNP MP/MSP to rival the utter poisonous paranoia being produced by the Westminster controlled Unionist politicians and the media atm. I am more than happy to compare notes as to nastiness. .

And if any of you are still in reading mode............try this http://peterabell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/england-beware.html?spref=tw&m=1 Last part........... Britain is an edifice. All nations are political constructs. Britain is a political contrivance. It is a structure of power, privilege and patronage. It is, moreover, a structure designed (or evolved), not to withstand challenge, but to prevent it. The two-party duopoly of the British political system, with its faux rivalries barely concealing a common agenda, represents the very epitome of entrenched power. So much so that, on the kind of close examination which is actively discouraged, the British state more closely resembles a one-party state than a functioning democracy. Entrenched power defends itself primarily by making meaningful reform all but impossible. The more entrenched it becomes; the more successful it is in building barriers to change; the more its capacity to defend itself by the normal democratic means of persuasion atrophies. Thus, entrenched power will ultimately resort to the extraordinary strategy of demonising those categorised as "the enemy" in order to justify "amendments" to the rules and procedures which effectively deny reforming influences access to political power. And that is what is happening in the case of the SNP. In response to the challenge of democratic dissent, the British state is in the process of instituting a form of "managed democracy" which ensures that only political parties approved by the ruling elites can participate fully and on an equal footing in the parliamentary process. The people of England should take heed. Because entrenched power will defend itself against the threat of change wherever that threat comes from. Let no-one in the rest of the UK be under any illusions that the orchestrated onslaught on the SNP is specific to that party. Any progressive movement that might gather significant momentum in England will surely be subject to the same treatment. And the measures implemented to combat the "threat" posed by the SNP will be all the more readily deployed to thwart a democratic challenge to entrenched power wherever this might arise.

Good blog article and well worth a read...........the view of an Englishwoman in Scotland............bolding mine. https://imnotawriterbut.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/mad-bad-and-dangerous-to-know/ A quote............. She [Nicola Sturgeon] is, however, dangerous for David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. There are Labour MPs in Scotland who felt they were entitled to expect the support of the people in their constituencies for as long as they wanted it and Nicola Sturgeon with her high approval ratings is a danger to them. The SNP is dangerous to those politicians who have forgotten that they are the voice of the people they represent and therefore think it’s ok to suggest that Scotland’s voters should just shut up and have no say in the politics of the UK. And the last paragraph...... The batshit crazy papers, the pasty faced, exhausted politicians, the titled privileged elite are not really scared for the future of the UK, they aren’t scared of the “hard left” SNP that doesn’t actually exist, they aren’t scared of 105 000 rabid, foaming at the mouth bravehearts because they don’t exist either, they aren’t scared of the SNP’s policies on the economy; or Nicola Sturgeon, or even their favourite bogeyman Alex Salmond they are my friends, scared of you, of us. They are scared of a politically aware and engaged electorate. And you know what? That’s a good thing.

No mix up. It is the SNP candidates which are honking. Indeed it would seem that even the SNP agree with that assessment as they keep having to rely on someone who isn't even a candidate in this election. Well it's either that or have one who is presuming to make up Labour's budget for them. Well someone has to. Labour couldn't find their arse with their hands tied behind their back. If your hands were tied behind your back you wouldn't be able to find your arse either. But I am quite sure Salmond will help Milliband with a budget which will ruin the country so that he can then turn to the Scottish electorate to claim Scotland would better off on its own. Of course you can find your bahookey with your hands tied behind you...unless you are so well fed and corpulent that your wrists can't meet at the base of your spine, like what mine do. “But you said …” chorus Scottish people, pointing to a Better Together leaflet that said how much the UK loves us, needs us, and values our contribution to British national life. We’re only doing what they told us they wanted. We’re injecting a dose of Scottish reality into the corridors of Westminster. It’s just not on you know. This is not what Better Together was all about. Better Together was supposed to mean that Scotland was better for being ruled by Westminster, not that Westminster could be better for having Scotland tell it how to do things. Yet here we are, just over two weeks away from a General Election, and the most interesting thing that’s happening is John Major having a bit of a strop. Now if that’s not rubbish politics I don’t know what is. https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/being-scottish-on-purpose/ DD, which part of the SNP aren't as stupid as Unionist politicians(and supporters) seem to think, are you failing to understand? The one thing which would kill off Independence quicker than the wink of an eye would be the SNP trashing the UK economy.because, funnily enough, we are still in the UK, therefore ruining the UK economy would also ruin the Scottish one......and if they did it deliberately, as you seem to imply, they'd be dead in the water. Sheesh! It could, of course happen inadvertently...in much the same way that George Osborne has failed to meet any of his targets so far, but I'm sure he didn't deliberately set out to fail....just failed to allow for the knock on effects of his policies. Bear in mind, not many MPs are economists....they produce the ideas to achieve their ideologies, and the Treasury implements to order by sticking it into the appropriate computer programme to produce forecasts under various circumstances. I suspect Osborne started off with the best case scenario in 2010, and it all went downhill from there. . The SNP are going down to Westminster to try and do what they said they would do in their manifesto......and there as many economists who think that's a better way to go than don't..it's just that the ones that don't are the ones being reported all over the paper promoting fear. Anyway, the remark by Salmond about writing the Labour budget was a joke......as evidenced by the laughter which followed. OK, so not as good a joke as Ed Milliband, David Cameron, Nick Clegg or Nigel Farage, but a joke nonetheless. When they go to Westminster, rather than deliberate spoilers, their mindset is more likely, and sensibly, to be on the lines of........ There is a greater prize here because, if it does fall to the SNP to shore up Labour, they can demonstrate to the whole UK – and a wider Europe suspicious of independence – just how astute and adroit they are in playing the government game and producing sensible pro-British policies which in turn will soften English hostility. Understanding of Scotland and our national ambitions can flow from that and potentially ease the path to independence in future. Played well, the SNP bloc can be creator of a Westminster Enlightenment. http://derekbateman.co.uk/2015/04/22/scary-monsters/

She has now served her ban imposed by the Compliance Officer at Celtic's request. Much more likely to have been at the request of Sevco/Newco Rangers.or the OO, don't you think, Charles? Did you miss me?

Which side of the campaign is finding it hard to stop fighting the referendum? You'd almost (see there's that word again) think this was the Palestinian Territories and the SNP was Hamas to hear Unionist rhetoric.. http://theconversation.com/a-political-party-is-threatening-the-union-and-its-not-the-snp-40507 This has reached new heights now that Cameron has unveiled a remarkable proposal to produce an annual report detailing how decisions made by the Scottish government affect the rest of the UK. This so-called Carlisle principle would then allow the other parts of the union to respond by taking compensatory action. Treating the Scots as naughty children to be given report cards by their apparently wiser elders and punished if they do anything wrong is likely to further fray the ties that bind after May 7. But the danger goes further, and has been driven at least in part by the Conservative Party’s rhetoric regarding the SNP and Scottish MPs as a whole. And Scottish Labour is still fighting it as well, but under ramping up the fear of FFA which we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting from Westminster, unless we escape to a parallel universe, rather than independence....when we are more likely to get SFA, by the time the Smith proposals get through Parliament than anything else. http://wingsoverscotland.com/tilting-at-windmills/ The strange thing is that the party arguing for FFA can neither offer nor deliver it, whereas the parties who warn it would be a catastrophe are the only ones who CAN implement it, and have already categorically stated that they won’t do it, thereby instantly disarming their own dire warnings. This is all such fun!

For a mythical being or beings God or God are indeed responsible for a great deal of the world's ills. However, I suspect that if mankind hadn't felt the need to invent deities, such is human nature, that we would have been inclined to find some other philosophical or ideological differences to go to war over. Like political ideologies.........such as my version of governing people is better than your version of governing people and I'll invade you to make my point? I'm of the opinion that religion and politics are the two cheeks of the same bahookey and both were invented by people with an agenda in order to fulfill that agenda.......which was, and is, the gaining of power and control over the masses, and holding onto that in perpetuity.

Oddquine and Charlie To be fair, while Oddquine may not be terribly keen on us entering the Anglo Scottish Cup, she is as enthusiastic as anyone about a European adventure. I don't mind us being in an Anglo-Scottish Cup, as long as all the match officials are not playing for the Anglo sides.....so if we lose, we lose on lack of merit and not through trickery and referee bias.

Ach, Alex, haven't people become awfy precious and professional offence-takers in the 21st Century. I wasn't advocating violence.....just commenting, as I have more than once before.. on the difference between the attitude of Westminster to the Scottish civilised, violence-free, political attempt to gain independence, regarding the consequences to be imposed, compared to the result achieved by Ireland, on becoming independent from the same entity, after fighting for it. Seemed to me as fair a comparison as the one of the abused wife, the controlling husband and a rancorous divorce.........particularly in an era in which the definition of domestic abuse is not confined only to physical violence. When I first landed on the internet, I used to say that when/if I got a terminal illness, I would, before I died, acquire a gun, make my way to London and assassinate Maggie Thatcher...and nobody then thought I was planning to do it...or trying to encourage others to do it.....they knew it was just an off the cuff remark......just like the one about which comments are being made, in which I am making a comparison as to the attitude of Westminster to two different methods of achieving the same aim. If I was advocating emulating Ireland, I'd have said "really wish" or even "why don't we try". Sheesh!