According to yesterday's BBC report of the "highly-successful" (according to them) launch of the BT Glasgow campaign (thanks to Arbroath for alerting me to it), chairman Alistair Darling has said an
independent Scotland would struggle to have the same diplomatic clout in
dealing with international crises like Syria. Well, that's it guys. Time to pack up and go home!
 |
| Have a nice year in Glasgow, Ruth |
He was joined onstage by the leaders of the opposition parties, Ruth Davidson, the best quote from whom the pro-union BBC managed to find was ": "Between now and next September, I will be joining
with people right across the city from all political backgrounds to talk up the
benefits of our place within the United Kingdom", which was exciting news for all of us I'm sure you'd agree. Bring it on, to borrow a phrase.
The BBC managed to find this similarly mind blowing piece from Wee Willie Rennie: "Some
things", he said, "are easier when you have your friends and family standing beside you. We
are stronger when we work together." Of course, Wee Willie, it is also true that there comes a stage in people's lives (to continue with your analogy) when you have to grow up, and make your own way in life instead of clinging to your mummy's apron strings, whilst handing over your not inconsiderable pay packet on a Friday night, and getting back pocket money.
 |
| Welcome, Johann |
The most astounding comment of all, though, came from the Labour person (I'd say leader but, I really think that that is a misnomer given the way she was sidelined all through summer by Mr Miliband). Ms Lamont said: "Scotland deserves better than what we have at the
moment. We deserve better living standards, better schools and hospitals,
secure jobs and a vision of what Scotland can be." Yes, so we do, Johann. So we do, although we deserve more than a VISION of what it can be. We deserve WHAT it can be. And in an oil rich, resource rich nation, we could have all that. You only have to look across the sea to Norway to catch a glimpse of what we are missing, or perhaps read the Pro Independence manifestos. Guaranteed homes, written constitution... but, enough carping. It seems you want what we want so welcome, Johann, to the Yes Campaign.
I sometimes wish I could get hold of them face to face and ask them a few questions.
 |
| We have clout... look, there we are at |
I think the first would be to Alistair: Why are you people so obsessed with being important? What is it that makes you feel that "having clout" in the UN, EU, G8, or wherever, is imperative?
Do British people from whatever nation we are in actually believe that a) having clout is important, and b) that Britain actually does have that clout?
Don't people, in all honesty, worry more about jobs, housing costs, inflation, roads, hospitals, schools, trains, etc? I mean, if you asked 1000 people on the streets what are your top ten concerns about your way of life, would this incredibly expensive "international clout" rate highly?
Mr Darling went on to say that there was a G8 meeting in Russia next week |(should be interesting and the UK would have more clout there than an independent Scotland. He said: "I've been to lots of these meetings throughout the
time I was a minister and large countries, particularly one with a reputation
like ours, have clout."
 |
| On the other hand, this is how so many of our people live |
I'd love to ask him about "our" reputation. What is it? Because in my travels and with my friends from over the world, most seem to think our reputation is a little less glowing than Darling's version. And, as for the clout? Would it till be as "clouty" if we disagreed profoundly with President Obama? Thought not.
I like to ask Ruth, why is it that Mr Cameron says that he can't debate, as UK head of government, determined to keep Scotland in the UK, with the Scottish head of government, who is equally determined to free scotland from the UK, because this is a debate for Scots, while allowing Mr Osborne, pretty much an Englishman, to come to Scotland and lecture us on why we are Better Together.
I'd like to ask Ms Lamont how she reckons the UK is going to give Scotland what it deserves. Is she aware that in the 1970s when we voted no (or
didn't, depending on how you look at it) to an assembly of sorts for Scotland, hundreds of millions of pounds were cut from the Scottish budget in the following settlements? Does she think that this would not happen again?
 |
| How are you, Willie? |
As for Wee Willie...erm, I suppose I'd have to find something to ask him, but off the top of my head I can't think of anything in which I'd be interested enough in his answer. How about "Nice flower Willie, Where did you get it?
So it's over to you. Anyone got questions for the party leaders, or even Wee Willie, and what do you think about having clout; is it important to you, or would you rather the billions that we spend on buying clout would be spent on decent 21st century services? Finally, what is your impression of the way we are seen? Are you of the opinion, like Darling and Cameron, that Britain is respected and feared in equal measure, or are we just America's lickspittle?
tris,
ReplyDeleteWith your usual kindness to the Better Together campaign you forgot to mention Darling's reference to "A 'foreign' treasury will tell Scotland what to do" or his claim, after consulting Mystic Meg that the proposed White Paper will be a "remarkable work of fiction". As a member of Blair's government he would know all about remarkable works of fiction although I'm pretty sure that the SNP's paper will lead to a massive loss of lives.
As for Ruth Davidson all I can say is good luck to her when she goes to certain parts of Glasgow to get her message across.
Wee Johan's aspirations for better living standards, better school, better hospitals in Glasgow has, obviously, only just occurred to her and her party considering they have ruled the roost in Glasgow at local and governmental level for years. More PFI perhaps or the savings from the "Cuts commission".
I'm going to excuse Willie Rennie because the poor soul is, like Ian Gray, a nice man who has been promoted well beyond his abilities and, I suppose, his expectations. His colleagues at Westminster are certainly working together with the Tories to the detriment of the poor and the disabled.
It wasn't really kindness to them, John. It was more a lack of space, and the fact that most readers can only take a limited amount of my witterings without losing the will to live.
DeleteYou are right to point out the rest of the nonsense he spouted. And I really do wonder what on earth he knows about what's in the government white paper, unless, of course, GCHQ or the NSA has told him.
I'm just endlessly fascinated at the "side" of people that make it to the Uk government in that they seem to think that they have a god given right to some sort of power in the world.
I know it is based on the Empire and how the sun never set on people who had been conquered by Brits, while the slums of the UK's ities were being ravaged by TB, Polio, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, etc.
Which in my opinion just goes to show we have always spent far more than we should on killing people, and not enough on keeping them alive.
I wonder whether Darling is aware that we (the UK) also appear to have had enough clout to sell the materials that went into the nerve gas that they (whoever it was) used in the gas attack. Whoever was responsible, you can be pretty sure that the Uk supplied the raw materials. Vince Cable was happily signing off export licences to sell the stuff to the Syrian government until quite recently. And if it was the rebels, then Saudi probably supplied them. And who supplied Saudi? Oh yeah...
I have heard that Rennie is a nice guy, unlike Scott, who apparently was/is so driven by hatred of the SNP that he was incapable of making rational decisions. I just think he's a bit of a joke as a political leader, albeit of a tiny rump of a party.
If any thugs are thinking of having a go at Ruthie when she drops in to talk to them, I'd remind them that she is a kick boxer... so take care guys...
As for Johann, I was just delighted to see that Milibean hadn't had her vapourised and that she appeared during the summer to have come to our way of thinking, that I could barely sleep last night. Maybe Eck had her kidnapped and has had the Scottish Secret Service brainwash her. Sean Connery didn't do all that time as James Bond for nothing.
Johann or anyone in Labour. If a strength of the UK is that the social union allows richer areas to redistribute wealth to poorer areas, why do the poorest areas (e.g NW England) get the lowest public expenditure and why does London (according to government figures to richest) get the most? And why is life expectancy in the East end of Glasgow lower than Bangledesh and why are some to the most poverty ridden areas in the super city London?
ReplyDeleteOr is this redistribution rhetoric just BS so you can strip Scotland of it's resources?
Willie Rennie - why, just why?
PP... Redistribution appears to be...take Scotland's wealth and give it to other people.
DeleteAs for Willie... Simply no idea.
You will also be surprised to find that Jo Lamont spent most of her speech being critical of Mr Salmond, that a member of the audience - probably Niko - who insisted on asking questions regarding Trident was forcibly ejected or that the Great Economist Darling made no mention of the fact that the super-fast English train service that he wants scrapped because they would cost too much was sanctioned by himself as Chancellor. No wonder the economy is on its fecking knees.
ReplyDeleteAh yeah. Johann's stock in trade. Alex Salmond. He's a marmite politician. You love him of you hate him.
DeleteShe was pretty assured that she would be on solid ground criticising him in that company.
Not surprised that they put the Trident questionner out. They probably thought he was an infiltrator from the SNP. They seem to have forgotten that they USED to be against Trident when they were the Labour Party.
Laughable that the Liberals and Tories wanted us to punish Syria for using WMDs, but they can't answer why Scotland has weapons that could kill perhaps 20 or 30 times the number of people that were killed in Syria.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/09/we-can-rule-the-world-err-no-we-cant/
DeleteOfficial BT strip.
ReplyDeleteLOL. We are if we stay.
DeleteVia Referendum 2014
DeleteCan an Independent Scotland stand on its own two feet?
However, when in 1968 I was able to examine the so-called "books" for the first time, I was shocked to find that the position was exactly the opposite and that Scotland contributed much more to the UK economy than its other partners. This was, of course, before the oil boom.
And they tell us we'll come running back with our tail between our legs...
DeleteTris
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad day when these people are all demanding the things that can only be achieved by independence and by denying that very fact are , I'm sorry to say it, traitors. I appreciate the unionists hate that word but as far as I am concerned now anyone who votes for the union is a traitor. They will be a traitor to their country, to their family, to their neighbors and every single one of us.
Darling can feck off with his clout shit. I have lived abroad and traveled abroad and if anything you either experience total indifference or dislike of the UK. We are a small fish in a large sea and used by america like a second hand sex toy. No one gives a shit about the UK and if my experience is anything to go by the romantic notion of Scotland will be more welcome than anything the UK has to offer us.
I am so sick of these people, and their ilk in the media reporting every fucking word they say as if it were the bible. Things will be a lot closer than they think next year whether they like it or not but either way and whatever happens have we ever been served by a worse bunch of tossers in our lives. I am not an angry person on twitter or email but sometimes I just feel like letting them have it but I can sense traitor coming into my language very soon.
Bruce
I try to see it as people who have been brought up to think of themselves as British, Bruce, and who are so used to hearing what a pathetic useless little lot we are in Scotland that they have come to believe it.
DeleteThey try to tell themselves that our self confidence is some sort of hatred of England and the English, where it isn't. I mean I LOVE Iceland, but I don't think that Scotland should be a part of it even if it would be better run than it is now.
I think you are bang on about the way people feel about Scotland and Britain. I remember someone with a knife in my back in Morocco changing completely when he realised that I was Scottish.
I think we will have many friends.
I'm sure the English will too. It's Britain that people don't like. Because they poke their nose into everything and boss people about.
"...chairman Alistair Darling has said an independent Scotland would struggle to have the same diplomatic clout in dealing with international crises like Syria."
ReplyDeleteI don't understand Alistair Darling's logic. Since Scotland has no independent diplomatic representation at the moment I can't see how we could have any less "clout" as an independent country than we do now.
Even when looked at in the context of the rUK then their population will only reduce by about 8% after Scottish independence and that will be quickly made up by population growth and as they insist that they will be the successor state to the UK I can't see how their clout will be lessened any even if they ditch Trident.
What I think Alistair is implying here is that an independent Scotland will not have to go along with the incredibly stupid international decisions that the UK has made on in the last few years such as on Afghanistan and Iraq . I can't work out why that is an argument against independence though he seems to think it is.
AD's logic is 'Lord Darling of the outer Isles' chief flipper of houses not dolphins disappearing from his political grasp.
DeleteHello Doug... Long time.:0
DeleteWhat Alistair and the rest of them are saying doesn't have to be accurate. And it isn't most of the time. It's a load of worn out old platitudes.
We are stronger together, because we fought fascism together. We are stronger together because you can get an operation in Newcastle.
There is of course no reason that you couldn't do that in the future. We fought fascism hand in hand with many other countries which are not part of the UK... The Soviet Union comes to mind! And I'm sure that if someone needs life saving treatment in Ulster, and there are no facilities, then they can be treated in Eire. Why would we not still do that... They manage it in Scandinavia?
The UK wouldn't lose their prestige because they lost less than a tenth of their population. They are useful to the USA and they will be kept on by them as gofers.
It was interesting to see that people were saying that it was the end of the special relationship last week when the Commons voted against action in Syria before we knew all the facts. It must be the flimsiest of special relationships if that is the case.
I suppose Alistair is in that clique of politicians who actually enjoyed being part of something that was making headlines all over the world, bombing Baghdad, being at war in Afghanistan, standing shoulder to shoulder with the most powerful man or men in the world... puny little nothings like Blair and Brown and Camergoon, playing at being big men.
The trouble is it means a lot to THEM, if not to the people they represent. They are like little boys with big toys.
Somehow they have managed to convince people (who may have to go without so that THEY can have their bombs and aircraft which permit them to mix it with the big boys), that it is important for them too.
Amazing. But we must get it across that being "important" doesn't matter a fig. Having good roads and hospitals matters a lot more.
Hi Tris,
DeleteI'm still on the go.
"It was interesting to see that people were saying that it was the end of the special relationship...I suppose Alistair is in that clique of politicians who actually enjoyed being part of something that was making headlines all over the world..."
I've always regarded the British ruling class, whether Tory, Labour or Lib-Dem, as being like moths round a light-bulb when it comes to the US. Dreaming of being in the cameras while strolling in casual dress alongside some US president in the middle of some crisis just like Tony got to do. For the British ruling class the Whitehouse is their Camelot.
It's an incredibly parochial view. It may be a "special relationship" to them but to the US which is looking West to China, over the Bering Strait to Russia, South to Central and South America and always at the oilfields of the Middle East it's just another diplomatic relationship. The UK fails to recognise that the only "special relationship" the US has is with Israel.
As he was born a Londoner I'm not sure why Alistair is worried about losing Camelot because he has the option to take up an rUK passport if Scotland embarks on an independent foreign policy and continue the dream of being invited to the Whitehouse under that "special relationship" as part of an rUK government
I'm glad you're still around :)
DeleteI imagine that once upon a time, when they had a real empire (not just Gibraltar, IoM, Channel Islands and Las Malvinos/Faklands, they strutted around with plumed hats and white uniforms all over the place.
Now of course they have no right to do that, and the only way they get to be more important than Italy, Spain of Germany, for example, is to cling to teh special relationship.
I dunno that they are aware that people laugh at their lickspittling. There's only one thing sillier than someone who thinks they are Erchy... and that's someone who acts like they are Erchy when they are really just Erchy's manservant.
Tony Benn revealed in his diaries how Jim Callaghan used to recount stories at cabinet meetings of his discussions with the American president... always ensuring that he got in the fact that the president called him "Jim"... I image he called the president Mr President!
Then there was Maggie and her cowboy, and Blair and Bush, who were joined at the hip... but Bush called Blair.... "Blair".. . a bit like rich people call their butler.
Darling is headed for the HoL at some stage in the near future. He's yesterday's man. Young Ed doesn't want old grey heads in his elite. Not that you could say that Darling would bring much wisdom with him. Remember he had to hire an accountant to do his taxes when he was at the treasury. We know because he charged us for the man's services.
Bruce
ReplyDeletetraitor ?
We all have our beliefs in what is our duty, our nation, our people
did you think because you wave a flag I would change my mind,
you call us traitor I call you wrong-headed.
Niko a 'traitor' is someone who will deliberatley undermine a countries potential future for pure self greedy interest.
DeleteUsing that definition of 'traitor' would make for an interesting assessment of each political party record in Scotland!
DeleteIt's not my first choice of word, because it's so emotive for some people...specially older folk who went through the war...but I can see what Bruce means, Niko.
DeleteWe could live like Norwegians if we didn't have to keep the Old Empire Battle Bus going.
The alternative, that some people want to vote for is to carry on as before and keep paying money out for weapons and playing at being big men, while Scots live at the wrong end of the European Union standards of living.
Lamont may say Scotland deserves better... she's right. For example, why can people in Jersey get pensions of nearly £200 a week; why is every pension in the EU a better percentage of average wage than in Scotland? But how can she deliver what she says we deserve? We get less and less each year and we pay more and more. What is she going to do about it? Tell Mr Osborne to give us more? So despite being a rich country we live like the country cousins.
We subsidise the rest of the UK, and we get less... What are our trains like? North of Edinburgh they are antiquated diesels. What are our roads like? We've hardly any motorway. The A9 is a death trap single carriageway. Our health service is starved of money..etc etc...
And at every opportunity Hooray Henries like Cameron want to throw the money away on another misguided war, so that they can go down in history.
And rather than vote for a life like the Norwegians have (if we'd had their money we need have had no banking crisis) people want the status quo so that the likes of Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher and their associated hangers on, can swan round the world pretending to be big.
There's certainly something wrong minded about it. no matter what word you use.
Niko
DeleteI used the word to be controversial. Sometimes you have to be controversial to get some people to think about the issues and the facts and not the lies they are being fed. Some people may well believe they are British and believe the lies they have been fed on the whole britishness thing. But what that means to ordinary people and what it means to the establishment are two different things. Ordinary people are fed on this idea of being British as if it were a real country worth something when in fact for myself britishness is what we are fed like the crumbs off the table.
There is no Britain, there are us and them. But us in Scotland, of many races, have a chance to reach out for the country we desire and deserve not a country run by posh boys and girls and a pretend left wing that only look to feather their own nests and believe in nothing but themselves.
But if I offended you I apologize, it was not the intention to offend but to stimulate thought.
Bruce
Well said, Bruce.
DeleteI doubt Niko was offended. His use of expressions like 'Tory Scum' show that he is not readily offended by straight speaking.
'BEST'
ReplyDeleteI'll stick to swallowing my pints of best - I can stomach that better!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mcZMcnilK_Y/T0vkCeJwjtI/AAAAAAAAAUs/DPQ1fqg9cU8/s320/best2.jpg
I'm surprised that they haven't come up with a beer called Best Together.
DeleteAlthough it would almost certainly be a bitter, rather than a mild!
:)
A clout is what you wrap a dumpling in.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm Spotted Darling?
DeleteFar too tough and bitter a game for my taste Tris...
DeleteI'm told that they claimed around 700 people had attended. The theatre they hired holds only 450 and the photograph by an infiltrator of the Rev Stu's shows many empty seats.
ReplyDeletehttp://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/btmt2.jpg
If they lie about silly things like how many people turn up to their meetings, how could you trust them to shake the UK government into submission and give us more devolution if we don't vote YES.
We'd have to be mad to trust them.
I'd like to ask all of them why, if they are so convinced of the merits of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with one another, they are in separate political parties.
ReplyDeleteHi Peter. Welcome to Munguin's Republic.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good question. I'd be intrigued to hear them try to spin their way out of it, because answer it they would not.
You have to wonder if there is any difference in their parties' policies. I mean there is less difference between the policies of the Labour party and those of the Conservatives than there are between the Aristocratic wing of the Tories and the SPIVs wing.
I understand however, that Gordon Brown relaunched his Better Together Apart from the Tories movement (he's always been keen on relaunches) yesterday with, according to Stephen Noon, a moving piece on the Labour Party history (which after all formed the basis of his PhD).
It's a great shame that the Labour Party he led bore no resemblance whatsoever to the one he talked about.
Here's something to cheer you up Tris.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/02/scottish-households-better-off-reject-independence?CMP=twt_gu
Who says the Bitter Together mob don't look after us?
As I have said many time before, and no doubt many times in the future...... where the SNP lead the opposition are sure to follow.........eventually! lol
Scottish households 'would be £2,000 better off if voters reject independence'
DeleteSays the headline.
Then you have to wade for a little emotive language ... putting borders in place... reer to trade and work... before you find out that, uh uh, it's not such a good idea. It's going to take 30 years.
£2000 over 30 years is £66 a year... big deal.
And it's per household, not per person. So, a third of that wouldn't be unreasonable.
The £2000 headline figure is now looking a bit sick at £22 a year.
But of course, then comes along with voice of reason and points out that the very man who is going to be throwing us all £2000 as he passes, is actually sucking money away from us. In fact £1800 per household, in the next 2 years. Using the same figures about how many people there are in the household that looks like a reduction of £300 pppa.
So draw your border and lose £22 a year; don't draw your border and lose £300 pppa.
Aye George. And thats assuming, against all the indications, that the UK won't come out of the EU, where all the figures show that Scotland would not, but once again would be dragged out by the rest of the UK. Then what would we lose. Oh yes, we'd save a lot of money in the "dues", but what would the UK do with them? Spend them on infrastructure? Not likely, and certainly VERY unlikely in Scotland.
And with whom would we trade?
Boris 'Ego vivere in Praeteritum'* Johnson says Australia (good for the planet that) and with a population of 22 million? Instead of the EU + Efta =750 million. Good trade off Boris insanum**
*I live in the past
** Boris the insane
Didn't the Treasury along with Mr Pointless (thanks Peter Bell for that) once work out that we would be £1 a year worse off per household. And didn't the Scottish government reckon about £500 better off.
Oh but I do love it when one of these posh chappies comes up and tells us all what to do.
Brilliant.
As an afterthought I does strike me that, as George can't even get his borrowing figures reasonably right a month in advance, what exactly can we made of figure based over the next 30 years, by which time he'll probably be in the retirement chamber of elderly aristocrats or God's waiting room, as I've heard it called.
Niko,
ReplyDeleteTell us about your "beliefs"as they seem to change with just about every comment you make, depending what mood Taz is in at the time? Are you still convinced that Labour is the people's party?
Sometimes it's Niko that's posting...sometimes it's Taz.
DeleteYou have to make a guess.
The spelling gives it away!
Click on the photograph and then use your viewer to enlarge it.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it look that Lamont and Rennie came out of the same pod?
Twins you mean? Ye gads
DeleteA failed cloning experiment?
DeleteWho'd clone one of them?
DeleteTris
ReplyDeleteI prefer the use of Collabo for the likes of Darling, Brown, Lamont etc.
I just wonder what will happen to them post Liberation?
They will go to the Lords and become English aristocrats.
DeleteAlthough maybe not Lamont.
The Barras to sell her surplus jaikets?
DeleteNot a huge demand for pink this year... very last season...
DeleteStill... it will give her something to do.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.
ReplyDeleteAn enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor;
he speaks in accents familiar to his victims and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation,
he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."
Cicero Marcus Tullius
106-43 BC
I remember that from School Rod...
DeleteReading it now, it makes a lot more sense than it did then.
"Stulti et populus eius superstites, et cupiditate. Sed non remanebit de proditione adiuta. Portis in hostem deteriorem, quia cognita palam atque ordinavit. Sed inter eos proditorem movetur intra portam libere, callidum eius susurri sonantia per omnes vicos, qui audietur in ipsa aula gubernationis ipsius. Videtur quod non, quia proditor proditorem familiaritate Vox ait ad victimam, et induitur faciem eorum rationibus appellat, quod turpitudinis in animis omnium penitus latet. Qui corrumpitur anima gentis clam et latenter operatur per noctem in columna subvertere civitatem, ut nulla re publica sustinere inficit. Minus homicida in timore. "
Just about the only Latin I could still remember from my school-days was Auld Lang Syne in Latin which has stood me in good stead over the years. Luckily the Romans were still in Britain at the time to help me with my home-work....
DeleteI thought you did your homework in Gaelic, John...
DeleteI know you are always someone who is up for some good news Tris well try this for size. :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.panelbase.com/news/SNPPollTables020903.pdf
I know it is only one poll but hey from little acorns great big oak trees grow....right?
Another thing to remember is the fact that this poll was carried out by Panel base who were the first polling organisation to put Alex Salmond ahead in the polls during the 2011 election apparently.
Maybe Broon will mention it in his speech?
DeleteAye Arbroath. As Nicola reputedly said... Game on.
DeleteOr there again, john. Maybe he won't!
I know you are always someone who is up for some good news Tris well try this for size. :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.panelbase.com/news/SNPPollTables020903.pdf
I know it is only one poll but hey from little acorns great big oak trees grow....right?
Another thing to remember is the fact that this poll was carried out by Panel base who were the first polling organisation to put Alex Salmond ahead in the polls during the 2011 election apparently.
Maybe Darling is falling into line.
ReplyDeleteAh, I've seen this a few times on the net.
DeleteYou simply can't tell what skullduggery these people get up to.
I can certainly remember Colin Powell showing us incontrovertible evidence of WMDs in iraq; photographs apparently from only a day of two before... and miraculously, when we got there they were gone.
And ten years on they still haven't been found.
OK Tris, now I've mentioned this before. First it was comments in French, which is WAY cool. But now we're getting entire long paragraphs in freekin LATIN!!! Now THAT's going too far!
ReplyDeleteHow do you think that makes us Mericans feel who can barely reed or rite Englesh?
Oh... erm yes. Trouble is you see Danny, I don't have much in the way of Algic languages, which is what you guys' area will have spoken. And when I say I don't have much, what I really mean is...well rather like Saddam's' WMDs, there's none!
DeleteCicero probably wasn't translated much to North American languages. As I recall he was largely used before sleeping pills were invented, and when alcohol was in short supply!
I suspect he might have had a lot of say about the NSA and GCHQ and the governments who spy on all our communications, although the Latin for Facebook I imagine would still be Facebook.
Twitter might translate to "trucilo".
:)
Oh Danny, you are a much smarter cookie than many of us denizens of Munguins Republic ;)
DeleteYou give me far too much credit Dean. In fact, Tris slyly sent me to Wikipedia to inquire about the Algic languages. I'm saddened to learn that the Illinois language is now extinct. It occurred to me that I hadn't heard it on the streets of Chicago lately.
DeleteTris....the world security implications of all this hadn't occurred to me until you mentioned the NSA and GCHQ. Even as we speak, the NSA is probably poring over yesterday's intercepts, and puzzling about the Latin on Munguin's Republic which they have interpreted as a new computer encryption algorithm. ;-) Perhaps the GCHQ will set them straight.
As for Scots, in which I am fluent, a wee deoch an doris to ye, on this braw bricht moonlicht nicht!
Deano, remember that a cookie in America is a biscuit... It's really a bit complex.
DeleteDanny, you know that's just not true. I've never had to direct you to Wiki. You LIVE there!!!!
Thanks very much for the deoch an doris. ... slainte!
Actually I've been in a part of Scotland today that is bi lingual... I'm still trying to work out what it said on the notice as I left Morrison's car park. (They sometimes forget to translate into English for us non Gaels.)
Quite so, Danny, pretentious or what? Balach beag bochd!
ReplyDeleteHoy you! Watch your cheek, or I'll tell my mum.
DeleteWhat does Balach mean?
Sorry, Tris, it was your Mum that suggested it should be "Bodach" and not "Balach"!
DeleteWell... I'm not speaking to either of you then! So there!
DeleteWhen it comes to the 'special relationship', I think of British Prime Ministers like Gareth from 'The Office'.
ReplyDelete"I'm assistant manager."
"No Gareth, you're assistant *to* the manager."
LOL Craig...
DeleteI often think of the President in the Captain Mainwaring role and the PM as Pike!!
"You stupid boy"
(Danny.... see BBC comedy "Dad's Army")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9t_KDGqOmE
Reading the Better Together statements reminds me of the Buddha's wise word "Three things cannot be hidden for long, the sun, the moon and the truth".
ReplyDeleteMind you, John. They managed to hide Lamont all summer... not that she's the sun, the moon or indeed the truth.
DeleteGetting right intellectual this blog isn't it.
We've have Cicero, North American Native Languages and now Eastern religion (not to mention "The Office"!).
Just a wee excursion here Tris but it would appear that there is a wee exercise regime taking place in Edinburgh on 21st September. I'm not quite sure what it involves so might just have to go up to Edinburgh to witness it for myself, can't rely on the good old BBC reporting anything now can we? lol
ReplyDeletehttp://wingsoverscotland.com/lets-fill-the-hill/#comment-510174
Soooooo.... we all rally round this blokey with a flag?
DeleteOK. I think I can do that!
:)
Tris
ReplyDeleteJust watched the debate on Newsnight the bit called Scotland last night. It wasn't very good at all, but sadly as usual, the Conservatives and Labour, but more so labour, chose to attack the SNP at every opportunity rather than actually have a grown up discussion on anything. Jackie Bailie was her usual shocking self and the answers on foodbanks were a disgrace. They avoided the issue on pensions and sadly no one in the audience pointed out the gold plated pensions that politicians get for even the briefest time in office. Really poor programme, some of the audience atually have no idea so sorry but wish they would engage brain before they speak.
Bruce
Spoonfed BBC rubbish until they believe it.
DeleteI had someone shout the odds at me that it was all Alex Salmond's fault that the benefits weren't going up in line with inflation....
Really tiresome having to explain over and over to people that we can't affect the benefits or the tax while we are a part of the UK.
Parliamentary attempts to access online pornography revealed by FoI request
ReplyDeleteDaily average of more than 800 'attempts to access websites categorised as pornography' made by devices linked to network
Presumably all in the name of research!
We should know form which computers and what sites.
DeleteSimple.
Someone at my work a few years ago was discovered to have taken an office laptop home and accessed pornography on it from his own house.
But wasn't savvy enough to delete the history.
BIG TROUBLE!
Still, it proves what we've always said about them...
DeleteActually I quite like Jackie Baillie - she reminds me of a young Bessie Braddock - "Those were the days, my friend"!!! That's all I'm saying till my memoirs come out in one hundred years time - ny then you will be too British to remember!!! Heh! Heh!
ReplyDeletePS: Hiya, Mrs N, and thanks for your discretion, Taz!
Hmmm.
DeleteThat should be a good read.
100 years time?
OK... I should just about make that.
Another reason of why we are Better Together!
ReplyDeleteDWP tell terminally ill to "take in a lodger or seek work" to avoid eviction
Dear Sirs,
ReplyDeleteI should like to apply for the post of shop assistant as advertised by you in the local jobcentre.
I have previous experience in this work, but took early retirement when I contracted cancer and was told I only had a year to live.
However, the DWP has now told me I must get a job or I will be thrown out of my home, so I am available for an interview at your convenience.
Yours faithfully
PS. I still have about 3 months left so please hurry or you won't get me at my best.
PPS. I promise to try not to die on your premises.
PPPS Better Together: that's what I've always said.
***********
Sorry if that's tasteless, but I'm just so bloody angry with these bastards.
They should also know, because they've been told often enough.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO SUBLET YOUR COUNCIL HOUSE.
Do you know, I genuinely thought that Jo Lamont was, secretly, setting up a truly Scottish Labor Party, in the same way as Murdo Fraser wants to do with the Tories, in readiness for a Yes Vote but apparently she was being put on the naughty step for revealing the details of the Cuts Commission. Looking at the situation logically whilst they might regard it as a remote possibility, it is still a possibly, and they should be making their plans accordingly.
ReplyDeleteSeriously yes.
DeleteI know Alex says he doesn't contemplate a fail, but he's far too clever to not have considered ANYTHING following the horrific possibility of a NO vote.
Likewise, if Labour has any gumption at all, it is considering the possibility of a YES vote.
The others don't matter so much. They won't be called upon to govern. The Tories not at all, and the Liberals only as a part of a coalition, and a very very junior part at that. (One junior minister probably!)
To have no idea what you would do; what your policies would be, would be mad.
Imagine the scene after the count...
"So Ms Lamont. It's a YES vote. Scotland will now negotiate independence with the UK Conservative government. What will YOU be looking for from the rUK?"
"Erm... Duh... em... I don;t know Anaaaaaaas, where are you?"