NICOLA IN LONDON

SOPPY SUNDAY

1: Hello, and Welcome again to Munguin's Soppy Sunday.

2: I've no idea where, but it's beautiful.

3: This is Aonach Eagach . Thank you, Frank.

4: Cute Wee Coo! Thank you, Anne.

5: Miracles of nature.

6: Suicide Forest, Japan.
Is that like the Japanese version of Dignitas?

7: Out of my way, Frog!

8: Coz my mum likes donkeys.
Why have they got one of Cameron's Wellies?

9: Fern Forest, Jamaica.

10:  A 30 year old tree stump. (Gerry being Arty)

11: Annecy, France.

12: Milford Sound, New Zealand.

13: Eek eek...

14: Wow!

15: North West Highlands. 

16: I'm a bear. You can call me Teddy.

17: Peru

18: Munguin's butler's house.

19: Not one of mine, unfortunately. 

20: I otter be doing something, but I'm just basking here.

21: And I'll having a sleep. So shhhhhhh...

You going already?
OK...come back next week.

EU-wwwww

by Panda Paws

Is it 24th June yet? 

I, for one, am fed up hearing about the EU referendum and the constant 24 hours non-news cycle. I will not be influenced by anything Boris Johnston says but worryingly some people might be. However, the most worrying thing is that the Scottish elections on 5th May are being sidelined, as are the other elections taking place on the same day.

When Nicola, Leanne Wood and others complained about the timing being disrespectful of the devolved areas in this family of nations, the kids were told by daddy Cameron to go to bed and were given no supper. The Yoons mocked their objections saying “are you cybernats too stupid to follow two elections at the same time”. Well, no we aren’t, but it appears that MSM are, since hardly a word has been said about these important elections.

And it’s not like there aren’t interesting things to discuss. The UK Elections twitter account has just predicted another SNP majority with 70 seats. Okay several polls also suggest another supposedly “virtually impossible” majority, so it’s not the first. 

But it’s their other predictions that caught my eye -the Tories to be second on 25 seats with Labour a dire third on 22. 

The Greens to get 6 (list) seats, though unfortunately only one in Lothians meaning the excellent Andy Wightman, a land reform campaigner would miss out. Definitely Holyrood’s loss!

Furthermore it predicts that Willie Rennie will not be back as the LibDems would have no list seats in the Mid region on this poll. Tragically UKIP are predicted to gain 2 list seats. How much of this will be due to their excessive media coverage because of the EU referendum? Or is it that the ultra Yoon vote is leaving Labour and coalescing around the Tories and UKIP further damaging SLAB who have already lost yes voters to the SNP? 

Please discuss, or rather don’t, as MSM goes into Project Fear 2. Floods of migrants, jobs lost, floods of migrants, national security threatened, migrants, economic instability, migrants. Did I mention immigration? 

Asides from the immigration angle, it’s déjà vu all over again. Stephen Hawkins you were wrong it is possible to travel back in time – to September 2014 in this instance. Only this time both sides are being forensically scrutinised rather than just one. Hence proving the theory of parallel universes where things are almost, but not quite the same.

On a more personal basis, my constituency is predicted to change hands, Labour to Tory. The Tory candidate will convert from list to constituency. The Labour incumbent would become unemployed. Labour are predicted to get three list seats and he is fourth. Oops. 

Obviously polls are not results and things can change between now and May, but one would think the local media might a bit more interested in these events. But no, it’s EU this and EU that with a soupçon of McGarry detained – unfortunately in Turkey, and my how the Scottish media became deflated when that was made clear, and SNP cuts which miraculously in other parts of the UK are Tory cuts.

It’s clear to me that the Scottish elections are of great import, at least to the folk that live here, but will people even know they are on before the polling cards arrive? Will turnout – traditionally not great- be lowered even more leading to those Yoon calculations about just how few voters voted SNP. Funnily enough, it will be a higher % than voted Tory in 2015 but those calculations never make it into the Yoons’ spreadsheets. 

Or is it their abacus?

Murraysaurus:  distinctively and tastelessly marked
making him easy to avoid

Clearly it’s not going to be the Unionist extinction event that May 2015 was where the only dinosaurs left were the Murraysaurus with its distinctive markings; the Fluffy Muddledon, a particularly ponderous and slow species, which roams close to the green and pleasant land that it longs to enter and be accepted in and the Liarsaurus a treacherous and untrustworthy big beast with a distinctive cry of “help me Rona”, that inhabits the Far North. 

But that doesn’t mean that the Scottish (sic) media should ignore the Holyrood elections almost completely.

Yes, the EU referendum is important. But first things first. May comes before June, at least on my calendar.

Fotos on Friday

Remember when the Labour Party was like this?
 (Thanks Mister_TMG)

Now look at it...
What does he think he's in?
Looks like The Muppets to me!

And yet, Mr Average is more concerned about the guy with the pretendy sore back whose made off with
a miserable £4 000, than he is with Gary Barlow, HSBC, Royal Bank, or Google which have made of with billions .

So much for our democracy.

What I can't understand is that a man who spent so much time with Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charlie wasn't forensically examined by the secret services. Every time I hear an excuse for another establishment figure, I think about that!

DUH! Doctors? What's that then?

I suppose if you work for a compulsive liar like IDS,
you have to learn the lying trade 'Priti' damned quick.

OK, so if he gets his wall built (as if) how does
 he get his suits over the wall? (Thanks Danny)

Well obviously it is because British People are Special! DUH thicky!

Nanny, Nanny, did you do that hen house at the end?

YOU MUST SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WHILST WEARING A SAVILE ROW SUIT, EVEN AS THE LAST DOCTOR EMIGRATES

OH, AND DO UP YOUR TIE.

Mr Corbyn looks like most of us do in off-the-peg suits and Primark shirts.

Not everyone, not least a large section of the Parliamentary Labour Party, shares Jeremy Corbyn's view. Heaven knows this blog and Mr Corbyn are at serious odds on one of the most important issues of today in Scotland.

But, whatever your views about his traditional Labour policies, or his view on Scottish independence, no one can deny that he comes over as a decent and polite man with a set of principles.

Every time we get new leaders at Westminster, we ate told that the time of "New Politics" has arrived. It never has, of course. Within days leaders are sniping at each other over the despatch box and it's back to "Old Politics". 

Corbyn, however, has tried to return Prime Minister's Questions to what it was supposed to be about. Getting the Prime Minister to answer questions on current topics of concern to the ordinary public. He's even asked questions on behalf of individuals.

It goes without saying that the Prime Minister never answers the questions, and, much to their discredit, the toffs behind him tend to laugh and jeer at the problems besetting "Mrs A" from Liverpool, or Mr Z and his children from Bexhill-on-Sea. 

Cameron, on the other hand, is the very
 quintessence of sartorial elegance.

Today the prime minister and his back-benchers went too far with the sneering. Corbyn had asked a perfectly reasonable question about the extremely serious junior doctors situation in HNS England, something most of the public are concerned about, when some Labour backbencher heckled the PM with a comment relating to his mother (who had signed a petition about cuts to children's services in her constituency) asking him, "what would your mother say?".  

Cameron looked angry as he replied that his mother would say "put on a proper suit; do up your tie and sing the national anthem!"
So there you have the measure of the man. The health service in England is falling to pieces; the leader of the opposition is concerned about it, as all residents of England should be, and the Prime Minister is hand out a lecture on sartorial elegance.

Sorry. That's pathetic. 

Corbyn isn't the snappiest dresser, we all know. Cameron, on the other hand has, no doubt, never worn an off the peg suit in his life and his suits may well cost what mos people spend on clothes in a couple of years. So what?

It's not the clothes that matter; it's the policies. After all if we want to see nice clothes, we can go to fashion shows. Not that there's anything wrong with snappy dressing, if it's to your taste. It's just not necessary.

Expensive suit, everything matching.
How would Corbyn look in this?

So we'd respectfully suggest that Cameron wants to give people dress advice, he get a job with Giorgio Armani. If, on the other hand, he wants to continue to be the prime minister of the UK, perhaps it would be an idea to concentrate on saving the NHS. Sharpish. Before it's too late.

We really deserve far better politicians at the head of the UK than we have. 

Addendum: Thought you might enjoy some of these:

That suit cost even more than Dave's

Bet he's like the Queen Mother. Never wear anything twice
Love the Yellow one...

The sight of him makes my flesh crawl,
but he bought good suits...

Not so much a suit more a big top.

Nice suit, ye creepy old bastard.

Yep, that will have cost more than my car.

Add caption

THE NORTH BRITISH NEWS NEEDS OUR HELP

This is a damned good site, indeed it is one of Munguin's favourites. It would be a real pity to loose it, but Shaun is seriously underfunded just now and there are, by my reckoning, 8 days left to raise the rest of the money and keep the North British News alive.

If you can, please help!

MUNGUIN JUST WANTS TO LET YOU KNOW...

...THAT HE HAS NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER OF DOING ANY CLEANING FOR THE QUEEN

Scotland, he says, is already perfectly clean enough for elderly royals. 

And if she wants it any cleaner, she can jolly well send up some skivvies from one of her many palaces in London Town and they can do the scrubbing. 

And if she has none spare then maybe Air Miles or one of his Bloody Princesses could lend a hand with a bucket and mop, if they could get back from holiday for the occasion.

We give her enough money to employ staff. 

Seriously, we've never heard anything so bloody laughable. Hello, this is 2016! 

What cloud do these people live on? 

Apparently, when the MPs had a meeting about it at Westminster, not one single Scottish MP turned up.

Too right!

THEY MUST AT LEAST TRY TO FIND CREDIBLE REASONS FOR LEAVING

"The EU is an institution rooted in the past and incapable of reform" said the man in fancy dress who walks backwards down steps dressed in golden robes and a daft collar, bowing all the while to his monarch, who is dressed in a long white dress at 10 am, with a priceless crown on her head. And all the while, less than a mile away, there are people starving.

You mean like Queens, Princes, Lords, Privy Councils and stuff like that?

There are many reasons for wanting out of the EU. Indeed Wee Govey and his dubious friends have highlighted that some of what they do is outdated, undemocratic and outrageously expensive. 

But it's a bit of an insult to tell this to Brits, as if, by comparison the UK is a modern and fairly governed democracy. it just isn't

We at Munguin Towers go into this referendum with an open mind, but the OUT campaign must attempt to produce a reasonable argument for leaving based on facts that stand up to some scrutiny and dont have us falling about laughing. 

Let's by all means look at the waste, the corruption, the jobs for the boys, nepotism, accounts that never get signed off, expense, the sense of entitlement. Sure, they are all despicable. 

But let's never forget that in Westminster, all is not as shiny as a new pin. Au contraire.

The only European government to balance its books was, we believe, the Scottish government.

They also need to find someone with some attractiveness to front up the team. A movement that includes Patel, Smith and Grayling needs some human beings to balance it up.

This is interesting, although I'm not sure how correct it is.

It may be true that there is no law; there's never really been the need to have a law, stripping people of their citizenship. The only country to leave the EU was Greenland, which forms a home rule nation as part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It took years to organise its leaving, but as the Kingdom of Denmark remained inside the EU, Greenlanders remained EU citizens, despite their country being outside the EU.

It isn't immediately obvious what would happen if Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales voted to stay, but by force of numbers were removed from the union by an English vote. But this tweet was interesting or at least amusing:

Arjen de Wolff ‏@adewolff  15m15 minutes ago

Leave. Please leave. If you don’t, we at #EUforBrexit will gladly help you along. Just leave us your useful bit: Scotland. #Brexit