Friday 29 August 2014

GREAT EVENING AT STEPS THEATRE

A brief post on a hugely successful and motivating evening spent in the company of some excellent speakers last night in Dundee.
The sage at the Steps Theatre
Organised by Yes Dundee and chaired, once again, by the estimable Stuart Fairweather (Trade Unionists for Independence) there were Robin McAlpine (Common Weal), Chris Law (Spirit of Independence), Libby McArthur (actress and writer), Jim Sillars (politician, trade unionist, writer and speaker) and Craig Murray (diplomat, writer, broadcaster and human right activist).

The atmosphere fair bristled with emotion as all the participants spoke, with passion, to their strengths. 

Munguin was pleased to welcome
 Mr Murray to Dundee
Craig talked about how corrupt the current UK state is and cited examples drawn from his own experiences as a top level diplomat in the FCO. The most compelling were about the UK's involvement in torture in Uzbekistan, a state many times more corrupt and repugnant than Iraq, and yet close friends of the UK (now, I think, being advised by none of than Blair, who it appears will do anything, no matter how disgusting, for money). He also pointed out that when the Uk went to war illegally in Iraq, in the sure knowledge that the UN would have forbidden it had they been consulted, everyone in government knew perfectly well that there were no WMDs. Hundreds of thousand of people died, were maimed, lost their livelihoods and indeed their country thanks to that deceit. Blair got a congressional medal.
Libby McArthur
Libby brought levity and comedy to the evening. Having met Tris's mum in the ladies' room prior to the meeting she referred a couple of times to her during her talk. Amongst many other topics she talked about how we no longer have many shows made here in Scotland; everything is done from London and most of her friends have had to leave Scotland to get work in theatres in London. Indeed the big shows that come to Glasgow and Edinburgh originate in London and star English actors. 


Chris and his Spirit of Independence, the Big Blue Goddess
Chris Law explained his crowd funded project of the big blue fire engine and its journey around Scotland taking information to people in towns, cities, villages and hamlets around the country. I love the slogan "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
Robin McAlpine
Robin McAlpine has to been seen to be believed. I've never hear a man pack so many words into such a short space. But he talks my language. Common Weal is so appealing to me. The thing that struck me was his comparison with Norway. Now he admitted that there are a lot of variables to consider when you look at the comparison of life styles between two different countries with different tax systems and prices etc, etc, but none the less He pointed out that the average wage in the UK is £25,000  and the bottom 10% average on £6,000. In Norway the average wage is £45,000 and the bottom 10% average out at around £25,000. We dont have to live under a horribly imbalanced regime where 1 in four kinds is living in poverty but there are 100 + billionaires in the country.
Jim Sillars... and Margo
Jim Sillars is an inspirational speaker. There's no nonsense about him. He wants a decent society, one his generation, he admits, failed miserably to provide for Scots. He sees (as Robin does) a huge opportunity to re-industrialise the country. He talked with such passion about some of the dreadful wastelands in the west, North Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire... areas around Glasgow, where people live under awful conditions, beaten down by the utter hopelessness of terrible housing, bad health, no suitable jobs that pay enough money that you don't have to claim benefits just to pay the rent, and then be called a benefit cheat by some toff from the House of Lords.

The emotion Jim put into his piece spread out across the audience through countless bursts of applause. And of course he paid a tribute, with a catch in his voice, to Margo.

The place was pretty packed and like every other meeting like this that I've been to, the friendliness and warmth of the crowd was something to be marvelled at. New friends were made.

We are creating a new Scotland here.  

We can do this. 

We just need to redouble our efforts over the next few weeks. The reward will be a much better life for our kids adn hopefully for us too.
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For fellow Dundonians, tomorrow promises a visit from Blair Jenkins, Spirit of Independence  and our own group, the Libations will be busking around Dundee promoting Caledonia. If you can get out and see the lads, I'm sure they will be happy so say hello. Munguin and I are hoping to get out to meet them.... and you. Say hello if you see us.
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Finally, I have no time for Jim Murphy. In fact I can't stand the bloke. He is a red Tory who has gone around his 100 streets lying through his teeth, refusing to answer awkward questions, and whining about a bit of barracking that any kind of a politician should be able to handle, but (although I take the point that eggs are really pretty inoffensive weapons...unlike the ones that Jim voted to be used on Iraqis), we should all be able to speak our minds without being assaulted. 

So because I feel strongly about any kind of violence, like Easy Peasy blog, I publish this picture of the person who is alleged to be the egg thrower in the hopes that some of the thousands of readers of Munguin's Republic will recognise him and dob him in. If he is not, then he should come forward and clear himself.

We can do this without eggs you half wit.

38 comments:

  1. okay I'm properly jealous of the number of people who have met Munguin!

    Re Murphy (my MP incidently), am I cynical for thinking he has achieved what he set out to do?

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    1. Ahhh PP, and you his personal proofreader. We must do what we can to rectify the lack of pic. We hope we'll get the chance to do that.

      I attribute any number of motives to Murphy. I'm pretty sure that the 100 streets was a way to get his name at or near the top of the pile when either we win, and they are looking for someone to lead a new Scottish Labour Party (he's far too right wing), or we lose and they Ed has to undo the demotion Murphy got recently for being too right wing.

      Utter politics.

      Delete
    2. Panda Paws, a wee keek at his expenses form might be enlightening. I bet he has a claim for eggs.

      Delete
  2. Yes, he has. However he's probably detracted from the effect somewhat by running greetin' tae his Maw about being a bit of an omlette.

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    1. Yes. An egg is only an egg. As I said I deplore violence, but it someone has to violent to me, please make it with an egg.

      After all the dry cleaning bill will be sent to the taxpayer (well, in his case anyway) and there's not much other damage. What a bloody fuss to make!

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    2. As someone implied on twitter that we now no the chicken and egg sequence.

      Delete
  3. Have just posted a rant and it has disappeared - have you got a nonsense filter?

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    1. If we had a nonsense filter, do you think any of Niko's posts would get through?

      No seriously John . It's so frustrating when that happens, but I've checked the spam and there's nothing there. Blogger must have had it for breakfast.

      Delete
  4. Right, I'll try again although my original was much more interesting:

    I wish I'd been there especially as your lovely Mum was gracious enough to attend but, unfortunately no-one told me. Pretty inspirational stuff from all concerned and can I also say, frantically sycophantically, that you and the motley mob of malcontents who contribute to your blogs are pretty inspirational as well.

    Good to see Craig confirm what I've been saying all along that it was common knowledge at Westminster that there was no WMD and that the 45 minute imminent attack was nonsense.

    An astute and cynical poster on the Scotsman comments page when Murphy set out on his travels predicted that something along the same lines would happen in the run-up to the election and the predictable accusations of storm-troopers, brown-shirts etc etc from the No brigade. What I did not anticipate would be Murphy blatantly coming out and blaming the Yes campaign leaders and how he can justify such accusations as he surely has a responsibility to back that up?

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    1. My mum wishes you'd been there too, John, , although as she spent most of the night speaking to famous tv actresses and neglecting her wee boy, and worse still, the media mogul that is Munguin, I doubt you'd have seen much of her.

      Craig made it clear... and further when the dodgy dossier was released he asked an even more senior colleague about it, and he said "No it's utter bollocks".

      Blair and his government, presumably including Murphy, knew that they were killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people so they could get their hands on oil. Afghanistan was the same. They wanted a pipeline from the north to take the oil from Uzbekistan to the sea. They tried to get the Taliban to agree to it, when they didn't get anywhere, they invaded and made sure that their man was the president.

      Perfect excuse of 9/11, but in reality Afghanistan had nothing to do with that, although at the time the leaders of Al Qa'ida were based there. it seemed not to occur to them that people with the intelligence and resources to bomb the Pentagon and New York could move their HQ to Pakistan or indeed anywhere else in the world.

      And they wonder why they have to raise the terror alert.

      Watch it go to red at the time of the referendum!

      I say let's find out who this person is that allegedly threw the egg. Was he from Yes? Was he a random person disgusted with the red Tories or Murphy in particular, or was he a No campaigner there to give Murphy an excuse for ditching this campaign?

      Never credit British politicians with any decency. It's likely to be a mistake.

      Delete
    2. My thoughts also on this matter, I want the so and so caught and then we will know the reason, but never fear that will never happen.
      Had my first and probably last visit from Better Together this afternoon. Now being a bit on the deaf side and the dog barking on my good side, I wasn't sure who he was, he might have been a double glazing salesman to me. So I looked frantically for a clue, when he asked if I needed any information for voting in the Referendum. Ah I replied, no I did not, I could have said that I got mine from respectable sources like Wings, WGD, Derek Bateman and Munguin but I would have been speaking Swahili to him. So I said that yes I knew and it wasn't Better Together. He was nervously clutching a pamphlet which he was obviously frightened to relinquish. I suspected he had difficulty in the past handing them out. So he then asked if everyone in the household was of the same mind. I nearly said the dug was voting yes as well, but he is a foreigner and hasn't got a vote. I came in laughing.
      I think I will need a fortnight to catch up on all the news.


      looking for a clue

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    3. We did wonder about you...But you been swanning of to foreign parts I see.

      Well we hope you had a good holiday.

      I wish that BT would visit me, but I suppose it is unlikely with my windies covered in Yes stickers, my car covered in YES and me wearing Yes t-shirts, but it would be nice to see a hapless wee chappie try to sell me nuclear weapons, food banks and the House of the Living Dead...
      Welcome back.

      Delete
  5. It was a good evening. Was it you that taking all these photos at the front? Craig Murray's bit on the torture being ignored by the Foreign Office made people wince, it went quite at that moment. Jim S looked a bit tired but once he got going it was interesting to hear what he said. All the speakers were excellent.

    Got back to an email from a friend who has been sitting pretty much on the fence for 2 years but he said he and his wife had voted Yes and posted the ballots back. That cheered me up that a profession cynic was pushed to Yes by Project Fear and their video.

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    1. marcia

      thats the wonderful thing about secret ballots....who knows how you really vote. and you dont have to upset yer friends ??

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    2. No, that's not me Marcia. I thought he might have been form the Courier.

      Good news from your friend.

      We were talking about that video last night. Who the hell signed off on that? For a group that was desperately trying to appeal to women voters, that just had to be organised by a middle aged, middle class man.

      Even in my my childhood it would have been folly to portray women that way.

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    3. Niko.

      Taz told me that you keep on saying YES YES YES in your sleep. so all this No nonsense in a fiction to wind Munguin up.

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  6. tris


    The egg throwing twat has actually helped the 'NO cause no end. I mean this plays well with portraying the snp/Yes as mean spirited out of control violent Nationalists.
    What you lot will do if he is found out to be a card carrying snp member i dont like to think about.

    brownlie

    Ah !! there is a cyber God after all...ha ha bloody ha

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    1. Well, I'm not sure that it has Niko.

      After all, you know, he should be able to take an egg. mandelson took green paint and got on with it, Presser took an egg and nearly smashed the lad to threw it, but other politicians have taken that kind of thing in the past.

      There's a lot of speculation that it was in fact a plant. Someone from NO did it with Murphy's approval so that he could call off what has become a farce of a campaign with him being booed and heckled by working class voters, who should be his mainstay. He was starting to look a right muppet on Youtube.

      Whoever it was, let's find the bloke.

      Let's find out. If he's YES then I condemn him. I want to be able to say YES without being pelted with eggs, and murphy, no matter how revolting I find him, should be accorded the same courtesy. If he's a plant, let's out him.

      That was unkind to say that to John. I hope you know he'll be in Edinburgh next week. And we know where you live! :)

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    2. Well Niko as I have been out of the country so I can assure you it wasn't me. The wee newspaper I got on the boat never told me someone had egged Jim Murphy. I rather think it was a put up job as being on the frugal side I would never waste an egg on him. So here is my take on it he got a pal to egg him, after all he can charge for eggs on his expenses.I did discover that oor Alex creamed Darling not that it is a difficult thing for Alex.

      Delete
  7. This morning residents in a Council run nursing home for the elderly in Dundee received their postal voting papers accompanied by a “NO Thanks” booklet marked as official referendum information, with pictures of people on each page of it telling them they had to vote NO to “save the £pound” etc – yes all the usual debunked scare stories.

    I don’t know if this was just a co-incidence or not that it arrived at the same time as the postal voting papers but the fact that there was not a similar booklet from YES setting out the reasons to vote YES arriving at the same time, makes the “NO Thanks” booklets arrival along with the postal voting papers highly suspicious.

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    1. I've heard that happened in other places Marian. So I'm not sure it will be co-incidence.

      It's particularly bad when they are sending it to elderly people's homes, telling them lies.

      I'm sure that someone will have reported this to authorities. Perhaps you should do this too. (I'm assuming you either know someone in the home, or someone who works there.)

      Maybe contact someone at the Yes Shop in St Andrews Street, or Joe or Shona or Stewart and let them know.

      They will be able to judge from information whether it is a coincidence or whether it it has been done deliberately, with the connivence of the Tory Post Office or whatever it's called now.

      That's for highlighting it.

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    2. I've since had information that this has happened in other places and that the No campaign literature is coloured to make it look like it is from the Electoral Commission.

      Any lawyers out there?

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    3. It was the Janet Brougham home in Douglas and at least one resident thought it was from the Returning Officer.

      Someone on WoS is saying that the Sunday Herald is on the case.

      Delete
  8. trsi and the malcontents

    offtopic but



    David Cameron promises new UK powers to tackle Isis terror threat
    British prime minister says measures needed to combat 'greater and deeper threat to security than we have known'


    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/29/david-cameron-uk-security-powers-isis-threat

    Me I am more frightened of the extremism emanating from 10 downing street than a few brit ??fighting in a far off foreign land of which we know little.

    Still if we had these new laws it would of stopped the crusades.

    I am reminded of the quote by Goering you all know that one i hope

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    1. Couldn't agree more, Niko.

      The evil state at work for its own ends again.

      Trust nothing Downing Street says. 99% of the time you will be right

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Anyone do a video?

    This is good.

    These meetings are far more informative than the drivel coming out of the MSM.


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    1. NO video as far as I know, but I'll try to fined out.

      If there is it should be on Yes Dundee site.

      Delete
  10. I see Nico has been posting Nazi stuff on his mate, Cooncilur Kellys blog again.
    You are a sick man Nico. When are you leaving?

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    Replies
    1. I would go to Kelly's blog unless you paid me. So I'll take your word for it.

      Yeah yeah Niko, whatever.

      Delete
  11. juteman

    http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/authoritarian-scotland.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/bUee+%28SUBROSA%29

    Have all of you read Kenneth Roy’s article ‘We are sleepwalking into an authoritarian Scotland' in this week’s Scottish Review? If not here’s the link. It’s essential reading
    she posting Nazi stuff as well ????

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  12. I think The Cooncilurs blog is your natural home. You both like howling at the moon.
    Why do you have so little faith in the ability of your fellow countrymen and women?
    Or do you look into the blackness of your own heart and assume all Scots are like that?

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    1. Juteman

      No I look into the blackness of Alex Salmonds heart and see all the snp are like that.

      Delete
    2. Ooh! You"re a witch!
      Seriously, you are one sad, twisted individual. I hope you and Terry have a nice future in your Cyprus Castle.

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    3. God can't you get beyond Alex Salmond.

      You seriously must think he is a great great man if you think it's all about him.

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    4. Hey Tris you missed an opportunity niko wrote Alex Salmonds black heart, surely it should be Alex Salmond's black heart. I just love correcting the wee snot. He could be 6 feet tall he is still a wee snot.

      Delete
  13. So now we are believing what Cameron says.

    The silent majority? How does Cameron know about them. I mean it's not like he and Darling would ever condescend to speak to ordinary people.

    As ordinary as Darling gets near is the likes of Clare Laly, a member of the shadow cabinet, or that other daft woman who said she was just an ordinary single mum but who wants all Catholics hanged...

    And as ordinary as Cambo ever meets is a junior member of the royal family.

    Still matey if you want to believe him.

    As for being afraid to speak out... weird.

    I've been insulated in the street by a bloke calling me an f'ing traitor, people in the area had their car windows smashed for having Yes Scotland stickers on them.

    man up I say, if your afraid. Stop being a wimp. I'm not afraid.

    Bring on your worst UK.

    Niko. Come and join us. You know you want to. You must be as sick of Tory Britain as I am.

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  14. Marian:

    Reply button not working. Thanks for that update. This could be serious so it's good to know that the Herald is on it.

    ReplyDelete