It feels its like the referendum all over again. The STV debate had a very peculiar audience, where the Labour and Tory all join together warmly to applaud unionist points, and Jim Murphy got an enthusiastic round of applause before he even started speaking.
I wondered how on earth they got an audience so completely unrepresentative of Scottish opinion, and the answer was not hard to find. The audience has been selected “based both on current opinion polls and the last general election result.”
Not the Holyrood election, not the referendum, but an election five years ago where about 75% of the electorate voted for the Unionist parties, and where the Labour Party was polling twice as well as it is now. On top of which, STV do not reveal what relative weighting they have given to the last general election and to recent opinion polls. It certainly looks like the greatest weight was placed on the last election result.
So we have a stitch-up where Nicola is responding to an audience completely unrepresentative of Scottish opinion today, and where unionism, Labour and the Lib Dems are all vastly over-represented. Do not think this is accidental.
Sorry -my link in the post above appears dodgy
“Somebody should independently fund exit polls. If nobody else does it, the SNP should (although hiring an independent, reputable polling outfit, so that the polls can’t be accused of bias).”
Can’t be accused of bias?
Wanna bet? You don’t know the Scots Nationalists. When it comes to accusing people of bias they are the experts.
There isn’t a polling outfit in the world they couldn’t accuse of bias.
Haven’t seen SNP complaining about any polls, especially the current ones. Don’t make things up
It was clear that Nicola Sturgeon would be given a hard time tonight faced by the Union Coalitionists uniting once again to put their big size 11 boots in.
Well let’s face it if it means losing your job, the lucrative wage, great pension reduced (just jumped up by 25% recently), losing your big expense claims (Jim Murphy £194,000 last year alone – over 2 million since 2001 ….. Labour MPs at the top of greed list now …… overtaken the Tories), mortgage interest being paid (make sure you buy the most expensive house from the outset say Blair, Murphy and Darling et al), utility, cleaning, telephone bills etc, etc etc, you can see why their legs with a big boot at the end were swinging high and hard last night. Thinking about you and I …….. I don’t think so.
Too bad Nicola didn’t remind everyone that there’s no policy differential between the Tories and Labour no matter what Murphy the Manipulator had to say ……. anyone get the feeling he’d quizzed, listed and just spouted a normal persons wish list? He must have because this narcissistic guy has no empathy or compassion for anyone at all. Check out his University record for one….. AND his club membership. Heartbroken about the woman who cried that she couldn’t buy her daughter shoes? How come he didn’t just give her some of the £4000 he claims every year for food (as much as he can claim without producing receipts). The hypocrisy of this man would just make you sick.
Why didn’t Nicola remind Willie when he bemoaned Police Scotland that his Party still owed PC £800,000?
Then there was the guy who asked about 10,000 jobs being lost at Faslane if Trident was removed. How come the MoD have divulged, if you search for it, that under 600 Scots would lose their jobs? The thousands of others head south on a Friday night. The submarines are made in Barrow in Furness, England. BAE employ very few Scots. All on-line. Check it out.
Nicola KNEW that Scottish oil revenue would drop? What’s that about? She had NO idea that this would happen. Yes it’s dropped, as it’s done before, and forecast to reach 200$ a barrel again. No mention either of the massive potential oil fields off the West Coast of Scotland. Scots being brainwashed and duped by Scots such as Jim Murphy and Willie Rennie who ARE in the know. DISGRACEFUL.
It was VERY clear that the ‘Unionist’ Media, including possum … by, had it all ‘pre-programmed’ too…… once again! What a BIG give-away, RIGHT OFF, with the number of people applauding Jim Murphy before he had even opened his mouth. They must think that the SCOTS came up the Clyde on a boot with a piddle. Then again if some of the members of the audience were to be believed tonight that may be right enough. Worrying!!!
The SCOTS have suffered the consequences of having one lousy Tory or Labour Party (mostly Tory that they never EVER voted for) ruling the roost and plundering Scotland for nigh on a hundred years now. We were the Labour Parties most loyal subjects because they were seen to be the party that advocated fairness, justice and equality as per Scot Keir Hardie (whom the UK Labour Party have ‘erased’ from history as per the Westminster course). Sad to say the Labour Party parted from Keir and the Scots with Wilson and Callaghan hiding the true facts of our immense wealth and Dewar, Blair and Brown selling us ALL down the river. Labour Politicians and their wee toon ‘Cooncilors’ in Scotland have well and truly seen their day……. a most benign comment, not what I’d like to say, to prevent being sued for slander.
Craig, to be honest you’ve not been invited by either side, have you?
And you’ve upset Heebijeeb by allowing ‘sanity’ on your blog, the sanity of the mainstream neo-con war machine.
There were a number of empty seats in the hall which would imply that the audience was by invitation only, which would suggest a hand picked audience. None the less, I think they got as good as we received.
Overkill. All to be repeated on BBC Scotland from Aberdeen tonight according to the Torygraph.
O/T They kept this quiet for obvious reasons.
Breaking news – Shell agrees £47bn takeover of BG Group.
BBC Parliament channel 131 Freeview
James Cook with the Scottish party leaders from the Aberdeen University’s Elphinstone Hall tonight. 21.00 – 22.00.
Lovely one from Frankie Boyle.
‘The SNP are far from radical, but they do have a knack for producing the odd simple, progressive policy that’s hard to argue against. It has to be a vote-winner among Scottish people to announce that you will oppose the retirement age being raised to several years after they die. It must have been a strange journey for Sturgeon to have gone from relative obscurity in the substantial shadow of Alex Salmond to having the entire nation watch her exchange soundbites with a Labour leader who looks like a dream about a nose that has teeth. It feels almost as if the establishment is still assessing her. Which of the traditional tactics to employ: scorn or vilification? Do you call her the most dangerous woman in Britain or stage a smear where she’s a gossipy woman? Decisions, decisions.
There is still a note of muted horror in the English media about women leading political parties. People feel much more comfortable with the 50 Shades of Grey version of women’s liberation: possibly feeling life would be much simpler if the suffragettes hadn’t wanted the vote and just really enjoyed chaining themselves to railings.
In Scotland, Sturgeon’s opposition is Jim Murphy – a guy with the air of a harassed PE teacher. A man so far out of his depth he should be turning up for work on an inflatable banana. Anyone who describes anything as “a new low” in Scottish politics possibly just hasn’t been paying enough attention over the years but, even to a jaded post-referendum electorate, Labour’s eagerness to spread the Telegraph’s smear must have been like being slapped around the face for two days with a cock made from lies. It’s worth remembering that the religious crosscurrents that helped Labour in the referendum (you know that thing we have every so often where two sets of fat people get together and sing about famine?) don’t apply here. Polls show a huge majority of Scottish people are against austerity.’
Nicola Sturgeon is right about retirement. You should stop working before you die
Who wants to work past 65 anyway? At that age, every minute spent on pointless cruises counts
Frankie Boyle
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/07/nicola-sturgeon-right-about-retirement
“Somebody should independently fund exit polls. If nobody else does it, the SNP should (although hiring an independent, reputable polling outfit, so that the polls can’t be accused of bias).”
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The level of paranoia is such, mein lieber Lysias, that even if an exit poll were to confirm the official result, there would immediately be accusations that the independent pollster had been got at.
You should know the mindset of those people by now – after all, judging by various posts of yours, you appear to share it.
I wonder why the government assets on this blog appear to be opposed to exit polls. It couldn’t be because they did not have them in the shady referendum could it?
The qallegations aginst Prince Randy Andy have been stricken from the Florida court records but can be seen here.
https://tompride.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/epsteindershowitz.pdf
all 13 pages of it.
You didn’t think that royalty could be held accountable in law, did you?
‘Do not think this is accidental’.
Judging by our resident shill here, the SNP is very much flavour of the month for the security services/industry.
As a long standing campaigner against Trident and its excruciatingly expensive refit I would like to thank Nicola Sturgeon for reaffirming the SNP’s and Scotland’s desire to send Trident to England.
The debate here, of whether we should spend an extra 25 billion on moving it down to Portsmouth, on top of the 60 plus billion it costs to refurbish it, could still axe it altogether.
Britain cannot afford to punch above its weight and unless maybe our little tykes here, busy trying to change our discourse, want to volunteer to become a prime target and man the firing control central, we should not put it upon the voters of Portsmouth.
Ipsos Mori irresponsibly even treacherously sold EE communications data to British intelligence in 2013 and are not to be trusted. They have been engaged by persons unknown to bias SNP tactical voting towards the Con-servatives in the impending General Election
https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3528/Labour-supporters-back-coalition-with-SNP-or-Greens-over-Liberal-Democrats.aspx
In memory of Margo MacDonald (19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) Bless her and much love.
A brave woman Margo Macdonald.
“In the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, 2014, MacDonald asked the UK’s Security Service for assurances they would not interfere in the referendum process, suggesting that the security services “have people in the SNP”.[7]”
Asking the Security Services nicely not to interfere with the referendum process might seem naive but my own guess is that infiltration of the SNP (who clearly have agents and I don’t doubt I could name one of them) is only part of the problem. The spooks have all kinds of business interests but the real power comes from London at the SIS headquarters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margo_MacDonald
Thanks John – Here is Margo in 2012 – still strong – still fighting – the larger-than-life face of Scottish nationalism. Bravo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=60&v=8JLANNZgAbw
Edinburgh
It is a very diverse city ,wealthy,Ann street,to poorer Craigmillar,Muirhouse.
current polling,Edinburgh to become SNP
I thought audience listened to nicola,only time she got jeered was not ruling out referendum 2016(to be fair–alex and Nicola DID call it once in a generation vote)
I’m going to disagree with Craig Murray calling it a Unionist Fit Up
Edinburgh did vote NO
If Edinburgh switches to SNP it tells me this,The Scottish electorite think the Vow,smith Commision is,to be kind,pish
A Federal Union(home rule) by default next option
SNP to control westminster on issues that concern Scotland
I think NO voters have done the unexpected,not gone away hide in a cave
Like the YES voters moved the argument on
Westminster be very afraid
“I wonder why the government assets on this blog appear to be opposed to exit polls. It couldn’t be because they did not have them in the shady referendum could it?”
I remember loads of polls before the referendum with by far the vast majority saying the Nationalists would lose. I remember the bookmakers odds saying the Nationalists would lose. I remember polls being taken immediately after the referendum which confirmed the Nationalists lost.
Yet there are still a load of Nationalists claiming the referendum was fixed.
In the 18th century there was a period of great progress caused by great people who used logic, reasoning and intelligent debate to achieve great intellectual and scientific achievements. They call it the age of Scottish Enlightenment.
Historians will look back at today and call it the age of Scottish Delusion.
The problem with exit polls is that they only reflect the votes of those who turned up in person at the polling station. They take no account of the postal vote.
On a TV chat show, after the referendum polls had closed but before the results were announced, Ruth Davidson ( Scottish Conservative Leader) , in an unguarded moment let slip that she had had some feedback about postal vote returns. That this information was passed to her is quite contrary to election rules and law.
There still remains some disquiet about postal voting in the referendum.
http://www.thescottishstandard.net/component/k2/tag/Argyll%20&%20Bute
“to be fair–alex and Nicola DID call it once in a generation vote”
At times Nicola even said “once in a lifetime”.
So if we can’t trust them on that why should we trust them on anything?
Fred says:
Various organisations predicted the SNP would lose the referendum.
The SNP lost.
Therefore the election wasn’t fixed.
Fred claims this is logical thinking. Fred plainly doesn’t understand logic.
“Fred says:
Various organisations predicted the SNP would lose the referendum.
The SNP lost.
Therefore the election wasn’t fixed.
Fred claims this is logical thinking. Fred plainly doesn’t understand logic.”
No I didn’t.
You quote where I said the referendum wasn’t fixed.
Are the Nationalists incapable of reasoned debate? Do they always have to twist things and pretend people said things they didn’t?
Fred says : “You quote where I said the referendum wasn’t fixed.”
You explain your comment about people using logic if it wasn’t in reference to “Nationalists claiming the referendum was fixed.”
Fred says : “Are the Nationalists incapable of reasoned debate? Do they always have to twist things and pretend people said things they didn’t?”
When you started telling everybody that disagreed with you to “fuck off and die”, you lost the right to a reasoned debate, and I’m not a Nationalist.
Ganglion (to Fred)
“When you started telling everybody that disagreed with you to “fuck off and die”, you lost the right to a reasoned debate,”
________________
You’re a bit of an arse on the quiet, aren’t you, Ganglion.
As you know very well, Fred says “fuck off and die” to those posters who think it is clever to insult him.
Accordingly he has not started “telling everybody” to fuck off and die. Only those toerags who can’t muster up a decent argument in response to his points and resort instead to silly insults.
To show solidarity with Fred, I say to you, Ganglion: fuck off, cunt! 🙂
BTW – to all the referendum loonies on here:
1/. Did the SNP itself make any formal complaint(s) about the referendum process to the relevant authorities after the referendum?
2/. Are any of the leaders of the SNP (Salmond, Sturgeon, etc..) on record as having voiced suspicions about the way the referendum process was handled and the 55% / 45 % outcome?
If not, why not?
Comrade Goss
“A brave woman Margo Macdonald.
“In the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, 2014, MacDonald asked the UK’s Security Service for assurances they would not interfere in the referendum process, suggesting that the security services “have people in the SNP”.”
_________________
What is so brave about “asking” that question, Mr Goss?
It’s about as brave as me going to Athens and from there emailing the leader of SYRIZA asking him not to lie to the Greek electorate next time round.
And a lot less brave than the good people of Ukraine standing up to the Russian-backed fascist bully boy separatists.
Bugger the Panda
“The qallegations aginst Prince Randy Andy have been stricken from the Florida court records but can be seen here.
https://tompride.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/epsteindershowitz.pdf
all 13 pages of it.
You didn’t think that royalty could be held accountable in law, did you?”
____________________
Why not, Bugger the Panda? After all, it was in the US and not the UK, wasn’t it. What grounds do you have for thinking that US judges would show favorable bias towards members of the British Royal Family?
Do please share your inside knowledge and insights!
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heebijeebies : wiki definition : Heebie-jeebies or heebie jeebies is an American English idiom used to describe a particular type of anxiety usually related to a certain person or place.
Heebijeeb himself has never taken offense at being called this name because it is exactly what he is.
Mr Goss
Was the transition from being a Soviet Russian apologist to becoming a Putinista very painful for you?
Were you ever tempted to switch allegiance to the Chinese in stead, on grounds you’ll be well aware of yourself?