I am available again for Yes meetings on 15, 16 and 17 September. Invitations welcome through the contact button above. Happy to go anywhere I can do good. My St Andrews speech a week ago has now had 75,000 views on Youtube.
It is symptomatic of the way this campaign has gone that I can find nothing online from the No camp which has had one fifth as many views, with the solitary exception of the PatronisngBTWoman video, which has massive views from people making fun of it.
Miliband was in Blantyre yesterday where his every bodily function was breathlessly reported by Severin Carrell in the Guardian – but even the Guardian could not pretend his audience in the “Labour stronghold” amounted to more than “dozens”. I am told it was under fifty. Better Together support on the ground has simply evaporated. What they rely on is that the massive output of mainstream media and the authority of the Westminster parties will have sufficient impact on their key demographics – pensioners, and housewives in a 1950’s sense – to shore up a residual no vote of the easily scared. My challenge to people to identify any Better Together gathering of more than 300 has been met with resounding silence.
Television has been wall to wall Miliband lately, and the BBC in Scotland seem to have simply abandoned their obligation to give equal broadcast time and treatment to both sides. Presumably many of the New Labour hacks who control Pacific Quay realise that their behaviour has made a Yes win a career threatening situation for them, so at this stage they see nothing to lose.
If independence is achieved it will be down to a popular movement and not to any politician. Indeed, if one person has to be singled out, I would say the Rev Stuart Campbell has made the most decisive individual contribution in the campaign. If Social media has beaten the mainstream media, the central rock around which millions of flowers have bloomed has been the Wings over Scotland website. This has a significantly larger daily readership than any newspaper in Scotland. The Wee Blue Book I found everywhere, including copies already available in pretty well every pub I entered, as I toured the East Coast. Over 400,000 downloads of the PDF have been made and 250,000 copies centrally printed, as well as a number of private initiatives which had already obtained professional printings from the PDF. Conservatively, there are over half a million hard copies out there, as well as all the reads online. In a population of 5.2 million, that is a major impact.
When we close down BBC Scotland and create a new citizen based, cheaper and more arts-oriented organisation in its place, let’s put Stuart Campbell in charge. Some state-funded drama and arts output seems to me commendable. State funding of pap entertainment is not needed – the private sector can do that perfectly well. State funding of “journalism” which investigates nothing and never challenges the establishment must be stopped.
Running away from problems, don’t fix them; especially if you carry the radical gene that caused the problem in the first place.
Broken Britain was broken by subversion, Scottish Nationalism is just a continuation of that treachery.
Agreed.
Stuart Campbell has had a major impact on this campaign and the Wee Blue Book is a phenomenon in itself.
Many people have made massive contributions. Some of them politicians, and some “personalities” or “celebrities” like Elaine C Smith, Allan Bissett and you! (Make no mistake, the revelations of the horrific behaviour of what is currently “our” country, has had an impact.) Some of them of course are just ordinary Jocks and Jockesses who go out night after night knocking on doors, manning stalls and Yes shops and spreading the word.
The No campaign, seems to have nothing except shouting, finger pointing and doom, unless you include dubious expenses behaviour over Westminster flats).
Apart from the “clout” line, I’ve never heard anyone put forward a positive argument from being a part of the UK. Last night I noticed that the RH, the Lord George Robertson, Baron of Port Ellen on the Island of Islay, said that we would be reduced to an insignificant piece of land in the north of Britain, or words to that effect.
He seems to forget that most of us here benefit in no way whatsoever for the (in my view) myth that Britain is “important”. His nobleness may travel to Washington first class, be put up at the Embassy and have people bowing and scraping, calling him by his aristocratic title, and of course, David Cameron is currently rubbing shoulders with seriously important people like Obama and Merkel. But for the rest of us, all this clout means very little. For the people of Cardiff, a great deal of expense and weeks of inconvenience.
But mostly WE don’t care because it benefits us not one jot.
I’d gladly be insignificant, like Norway and Iceland. I’ll happily give up the chance for my prime minister to stand shoulder to shoulder with the President of the USA or the King of Saudi Arabia, if there aren’t hungry kids and cold pensioners, and if diabetics don’t die with £3.44 in their purse and not enough money to fire the fridge to keep their insulin cold.
To anyone with a speaking opportunity, I’d say grab Craig. With knowledge and experience of the inside, he makes the audience sit up in horror and disgust at the appalling lack of decency in a state we currently call ours, and as Yes voter above confirms, this can be a game changer.
“My challenge to people to identify any Better Together gathering of more than 300 has been met with resounding silence.”
“No” voters are resoundingly silent. There is nothing to get excited about. They’ll quietly and dutifully go out and vote and that is all you’ll see of them.
That you cannot take on board the obvious point that the No campaign by its very nature is not going to involve lively meetings of hundreds of young radical types tweeting and blogging away is part of the hubris I’m afraid.
Are there any more polls showing a narrowing beyond the 6 point difference we see widely reported?
Peter
Given the truly fundamental importance of this, there is a peculiar lack of polls at the moment.
That’s amazing Craig, almost as if MSM and their polling affiliates ignore the ‘yes’ gains, peddle more bs on the ‘no’ side: it’ll all go away.
The reason their is no ‘enthusiasm’ for the NO campaign, is exactly the same reason there is no enthusiasm in a divorce case; unless you’re a money grubbing lawyer, like most politcos seem to be these days, in which case you can’t see the tragedy for the promise.
Hear you re Rev Stu.
Wings has been beyond fabulous and the distribution of the WBB an absolute godsend.
Love the idea of ditching BBC in indy Sco.
Meanwhile (sees Wings right now), BT folk continue to lie and lie and then, after a short tea break, lie and lie and then lie some more.
I recall an American writing a book called something like Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell them: A Balanced Look at the Right.
Replace “the Right” with “Better Together” or “unionist politicians” and you would be accurately describing the horrifying barrage of alarmist gibberish issuing forth from the mouths of the anti-indy crowd. Jackie Bailie is particularly annoying at the moment. These tribal Labourites have probably begun to believe their own lies…I think it’s psychologically difficult to go around with the conscious knowledge that you are an utter liar, out to scare people…
And what is the psychological make-up of a radical, Alex?
What kind of radical would you have in mind there Giro?
Thatcher was a highly radical conservative, but I’m not sure that’s what you’re thinking of.
I agree, though Thatcher was the stalking horse of Keith Joseph, who was the true radical behind that throne.
Some radicalism is only natural and right, so that we can evolve as and when circumstance make that necessary; but too much radicalism will undue any benefits.
We need tradition to act as the ‘DNA’ of all the good things that have evolved through our shared culture. Excessive radicalism is to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Was that really Milipede Jnr? I thought it was an avatar. A very hollow man, almost as hollow as the Man of Straw or BLiar.
Watching SillyBland is virtually nationalist porn: he’s truly pathetic, inept, flailing around as he sees his handy Scots battalions about to evaporate into thin air…
The man has nothing to offer the people of Scotland, just a marginally modified Thatcherism that will undoubtedly – as Labour has said itself – smash the poor.
He’s unpopular in Scotland as he is everywhere.
He bangs on about the terrible things the SNP will do, evidently sure the Scots Labour party has no chance of winning an election in an indy Sco. Such defeatism eh.
And of course handily forgetting that the last Labour government cut corporation tax itself…
So long Ed, you won’t be missed.
And didn’t Miliband gain ‘power’ through the unions [the Marxist kind]?
Britain, with its 5 million plus public sector ‘workers’, has lost its democratic mandate, as the Parliament becomes the dog wagged by the union dominated civil service; itself a Marxist state within our democracy.
Dividing Britain will not kill the public sector leviathan, but simply give it two heads, a north and a south.
The problem we share was never Britain, it was those radical Marxists that have been fucking our culture for the last 40 odd years. Together we stand a hope of killing it; divided we will both be subsumed by the evil of rampant radicalism, north and south.
The internet will win it for Yes and Scotland.
Well said on Wings Over Scotland. The site is exemplary in its checking, sourcing and referencing. Shouldn’t all journalism be like that? With no disrespect to the many other sites supporting independence, Wings has systematically and single-handedly sunk each Unionist canard as it has been presented, giving activists and canvassers all around the country the ammunition they needed to fight the state propaganda. From time to time the invective is fun too: he has a habit of calling a spade a – er – I’ll leave that bit out.
Pacific Quay has been doomed for a while now. They remind me now of the Chechens in Tolstoy’s Cossacks who, faced with impossible odds, kneel, buckle themselves knee to knee, and sing a death song.
On polls – which might be out there, who might have asked for them, whether they might be published, what they mean etc. the authoritative site is James Kelly’s:
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/
His video on opinion polls is worth watching too.
Couldn’t agree more on Wings over Scotland. It has been a breath of fresh air and exposed lies ,fairy tales and false statistics.The wee blue book is a godsend.
Canny wait till the 16th to experience what’S going on.Exciting times indeed.
I have always resisted calls to ban people, and been highly sceptical of imputations that anybody was a paid troll. (We once had someone called Larry from t Louis who was an employee of a lobbying firm paid by Gulnara Karimova, and he became a house pet).
However since the referendum campaign started in earnest, a new one has appeared in the person of Al Milliner. He has used over twenty different IP addresses, eight different personas and numerous false email addresses.
Interestingly he makes sure that he gets in first on new posts – he got in on this one before the tweet went out, the FB page went up or the RSS feed had reflected on other blogs. So either he is monitoring the blog by the second, or has some sophisticated monitoring capacity.
When I first twigged what was happening I banned his IPP address, and he reappeared with a new IPP address within twenty seconds – something the vast majority of people are not equipped to do.
He makes a single point – to deny that NATO killed 15,000 people in their 398 bombing raids on Sirte, of which pictorial evidence is readily available. He hammers on about it like Darling on currency union. It appears a single-minded attempt to arouse doubt as to credibility. For four days now, whenever deleted or banned he pops up again instantly with a new IP address, email address and/or identity and has plainly been real time monitoring. Very few individuals have time for such long concentrated effort.
In short, I have no doubt this is professional.
“Well said on Wings Over Scotland. The site is exemplary in its checking, sourcing and referencing.”
Quite unlike this one, then, which makes the claim that we killed 15,000 in Sirte without a shred of evidence to support it.
JimmyGiro:Socialism and the Scot Nats have not broke Britain.
Banks have been a huge part of the bankruptcy of the system.The lobbying system and kowtowing to the City by every Westminster Govt, no matter the flavour has broken us politically.And then there has been the attack on the family ,religion and education which has broken us spiritually.Our senseless wars for Material wealth have corrupted society and broken the British morally.
Thatcherism was probably the start of it, but Labour never tried to stop it. They just rebranded and kept it going.
Exactly one minute after I posted that comment he reappeared doing it again – presumably his idea of a joke. However this only confirms that the blog is under second by second real time surveillance by whichever organisation “jimmy” and “al milliner” represent. If it is a single idiot, he has been glued to the screen watching this site intently for four days and is clearly a total nutter.
His [James Kelly’s] video on opinion polls is worth watching too.”
I can’t find the video, Vronsky. Can you post a link please?
Take it as a compliment, Craig. They wouldn’t bother if you were ineffective.
more FUD (fear uncertainty & doubt) reported in todays Times, summarised in the Scotsman
on a more general note, I prefer a wry ‘joke’ that someone’s clipped from Private Eye or what-have-you?
I think it might even be referring to Craig & Ўзбекистон
Craig (re A Milliner)
“If it is a single idiot, he has been glued to the screen watching this site intently for four days and is clearly a total nutter.”
___________________
Craig, I hold no brief for A Milliner and this is your blog. But there are plenty if other examples of people who appear to be glued to this blog in order to peddle their personal phobias (eg, Mary and our new contributor “Republicofscotland”) and there are other nutters galore (eg Mr Goss – Putin, Ukraine, New York Jews funding the Bolsehevik revolution, the Rothschilds, Bilderbergers, Freemasons…).
And, on the whole, they are considerably less polite about it than A Milliner.
@Node
Ah – it’s gone from the site. I’ve emailed James requesting a new link – will get back to you.
@node
This should be it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhyg5WA47qA
After beheading two American journalists ISIS is threatening to kill a British hostage who just happens to be…Scottish!
What an opportunity for the Better Together camp if he is beheaded before 18th September.
Craig… An easy solution to get rid of your troll would be to prove what you say is true. Pictorial evidence of some bombed out buildings isn’t really going to cut it. Also when you say the vast majority of people are not equipped to change their IP address it shows you haven’t much of a clue abput technology. Anyone can do that with three clicks of a mouse button.
Craig
You originally denied banning me but now you admit to it.
I do make a single point and I have changed my IP in order to keep making it, as you keep banning me and deleting my posts for no legitimate reason.
I want to know where you got the idea that we killed 15,000 in Sirte from.
You tell us over 70,000 people have absorbed this information. Some of them will vote Yes because of it.
It is therefore important that you provide evidence to support your claim.