Dis-United Kingdom General Election campaign officially kicks off

Just been talking to my half French half English neighbour who is less interested in the outcome even than I am. He is just wondering why it has taken so long for even half the population to realise that they are being suckered.

He wanted to know what I think The SNP can do for Scotland, and I couldn't give him an opinion. But then he is generally much more bright than I am, so bullshitting wouldn't do.

What do you all think The SNP can actually do for Scotland, other than a separate identity? Which I just happen to believe is important. But you need to have lived there to get that one.

Run our own affairs fairly successfully, Sabot, they've already proven that. We aren't a region of North Britain, FFS, we're a separate nation, and to many people including me, the Act of Union was the worst thing that ever happened to Scotland.

It was never a genuine 'union', it was a marriage of convenience between aristocrats for £££££££.

You should read up on the truth about Darien, about how England slapped a trade embargo on the colony, and threatened any other nation that traded with it with a visit to their colonies from the Royal Navy. It was all done deliberately.

And we've had to listen to the, Too wee, too poor, too stupid, meme ever since.

In reality, small nations which are social democracies - especially ones with resources that outstrip their own needs - tend to be the most successful on the face of this planet.

http://www.thesonsofscotland.co.uk/the1820rising.htm

As Wilson mounted the cart that was to take him to the scaffold, the headsman was seated before him, cloaked in black, his face covered, holding a large axe in his right hand and a knife in his left. “Did you ever see sic a crowd as this?” Wilson remarked casually to his executioner.

At five minutes to three, he mounted the scaffold and several minutes later Wilson’s body was convulsing on the end of a rope, where it remained for half an hour, before being lowered and decapitated by the masked executioner, who held the bloody head aloft and proclaimed: “This is the head of a traitor.” The crowd jeered and shouts of “It is false, he has bled for his country!” were heard and reported in the Glasgow Herald the next morning.

Barely a week later, on 8th September 1820, Andrew Hardie, a weaver from Glasgow, and John Baird, a weaver from Condorrat, met similar fates in Stirling: they were also hanged and beheaded. 19 others, mostly weavers, were sentenced to transportation, and already on their way to the colonies (mainly New South Wales in Australia); and that was the end of what became known as the Radical War, or the 1820 Rising. But, as Britain charged headlong into an age of immense industrialisation, it wasn’t to be the last time that the recently coined term ‘radical’ would serve as a prefix for a popular movement of workers demanding their ‘rights’ in society, and threatening revolution if their ‘rights’ were withheld.

You won't find very much about incidents like that in the Official BBC History of this Glorious Union.

When the peasants start revolting, send a gunboat:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22553418

The Crofters' War and the Napier Commission

In early 1883, the iron-hulled gunboat Jackal dropped anchor in the sheltered waters of a sea loch in Skye.
The appearance of the Royal Navy in Loch Pooltiel, off Glendale, signalled an escalation in what was known as the Crofters' War.

I shall email your post to him, Bonny.

Sadly, due to lack of Further Education, I am often lost for words when I most need them. Most of what I say that makes any sense is usually the product of much thought while I put it together. Unless I have had a couple, when even my French vastly improves.

I know that Scotland deserves Independence, and I can see how that will be managed. And I know enough about the history of it all. But I am not very good at putting it across sometimes.

It was still going on in the 20th century, as men returning from the Great War discovered:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Land_League_(1909)


By the 1920s the League had fully merged with Labour, under the unfulfilled promise of autonomy for Scotland were Labour to gain power in the forthcoming years. Land League members were then key to the formation of the Scottish National Party in 1934.

Please note, SLab was telling lies 100 years ago.

And if beheadings and gunboats don't work, send in the tanks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_George_Square



The government brought in soldiers from England on stand-by and tanks were deployed around Glasgow's George Square

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7859192.stm

The real story is very different from the picture that is generally painted, Sabot. These days, young Scots know about the beheadings, etc. The media generally doesn't.

I was working on The Glasgow Buses in the 60s. And these so ordinary people were so nice to me. Never once did I ever feel afraid, no matter how drunk some of them were, or how late at night it was.

I saw the destruction of so many of The Tenements, which you can't buy short of a fortune these days. I actually lived in one of those, on The Paisley Road West. I saw The Gorbals every time I got on a train from Glasgow to Paisley. There were some good people living there.

You can take a girl out of the slums of London, Post War, but you can't ever take the slums of London out of the girl. Even with the pretentions that I eventually developed.
I loved Glasgow with a passion when it was still filthy.

And then I was fortunate enough to live in some of the more rural areas.

Never to forget The Road to Dundee. If I ever lived a past life then there is where it was, although The Wild Cat was real enough.

Too much to talk about, really. Just my Country. The only place that ever felt like real home.

Sorry about that. I can get a bit carried away.

Ye Gods!

Cambridge candidates clash over claims people with mental health problems should wear wristbands

Read more: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge-candidates-clash-claims-people-mental/story-26329803-detail/story.html#ixzz3XJONiH5d
Follow us: @CambridgeNewsUK on Twitter | cambridgenews on Facebook

That's your Caring Tories for you - it's only surprising that they haven't suggested people sew coloured patches on their clothing.....

And she wasn't misquoted:

Maybe it's something as simple as there are certain conditions which are more common, where people can wear a wristband to identify they have that condition, so that then we can perhaps, not diagnose, but spot it earlier and ensure that we deal with it.

http://news.sky.com/story/1464642/pm-promises-good-life-for-working-people

Quote:

Mr Cameron opened his speech by saying: "At the heart of this manifesto is a simple proposition. We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life.

Nothing says 'security' like Workfare and zero hours contracts...

As for:

Mr Cameron promised: "This buccaneering, world-beating, can-do country - we can do it all over again."

Stuff it. I will do my own thing. But do feel free to take away my Winter Fuel Allowance. I managed before I ever got it. And I will manage again.

Jesus. Who is this idiot? But actually not my problem. I really should back off. God help you all.

I take it the idiot you're referring to is the PM? The one that's now proposing to flog off housing Westminster doesn't even own? The one that's just told us everything is going to be rainbows and lollipops, and this time, there really will be jam tomorrow?

This hoo-ha over the winter fuel allowance just about  sums it up - it will cost more to enforce the changes than will be saved.

I am very glad I don't live in England. I don't think I could bring myself to vote for ANY of these muppets.

Bonny, it's just me, and my Winter Fuel Allowance.. I am no one at all. It isn't even as though this paltry payment will keep me warm, because it won't. But then the likes of me never actually needed it in the first place. You can't buy me for 200 Pounds. I would rather get on with what I have always been doing..

Thirteen really boring years when I had to cope with being a bit cold now and again.

Nowa days I just spend it on anything even remotely alcoholic that takes my fancy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/housing-associations-say-theyll-sue-if-the-tories-force-them-to-sell-off-homes-under-right-to-buy-10175492.html

Housing associations say they'll sue if the Tories force them to sell off homes under right-to-buy

I didn't think the Tories could simply order other people to sell off their property cheaply; that's a curiously Marxist concept.

ETA, this Tory scheme to freeze train fares on private rail companies is also a Marxist concept. But then, using PUBLIC money to bail out banks, was the complete opposite of anything resembling capitalism.

Traditional capitalism dictated that the banks were incompetent failures, and should have gone under. Instead, taxpayers' money was thrown at them. Which has led to the mess most of the West is in now.

Just as in Greece, the people that actually ran up all those debts haven't suffered in the slightest; it's the people at the bottom, and ordinary taxpayers, that are being punished for what the politicians and bankers carved up between themselves.

And Deutsche Bank is at the back of an awful lot of this misery.

http://news.sky.com/story/1465280/lib-dems-well-protect-no-10-from-extremes

Nick Clegg has warned against a coalition that would see Nigel Farage or Alex Salmond walk through the doors of Number 10 as he launched his party's manifesto.

The Liberal Democrat leader said that come 8 May either David Cameron or Ed Miliband would be prime minister but they would not win a majority government and would not hold the "balance of power".

He said it could be Mr Farage, it could be the SNP's Mr Salmond or it could be him and the Liberal Democrats who would provide "an insurance policy against a government lurching off to the extremes". more at link.

Quick summary:

We'll be pretty nice, but not as nice as Millipede.

We'll be a bit nasty, but not as nasty as Cameron.

Farage bad! Salmond very bad!

I don't know much about what they've been like south of the border - apart from tuition fees - but they've been as much use as chocolate teapots here.

The three main London parties may as well tear up their manifestos, then.

Oh dear.  

Yup, it's classy stuff.

It has sunk below the level of kindergarten now.  What embarrassment.

Oh, we've got yet another debate tonight:

http://news.sky.com/story/1465844/election-challengers-set-for-live-tv-debate

Share by email
The five party leaders who are the challengers in next month's General Election will go head-to-head later - with the absent David Cameron and Nick Clegg hitting the campaign trail instead.

Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru), Natalie Bennett (Green Party), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) and Nigel Farage (UKIP) will square up for another televised debate.

That might actually be tolerable. No Cameron or Clegg, and most important of all, no JIM MURPHY.

http://www.thenational.scot/news/axis-of-evel-lib-dems-ukip-and-tories-unite-to-block-votes-of-scottish-mps.2091



Axis of Evel: Lib Dems, Ukip and Tories unite to block votes of Scottish MPs

APRIL 16TH, 2015 - 12:30 AM ANDREW LEARMONTH 3 COMMENTS
THE Liberal Democrats and Ukip have joined the Conservatives in promising to block Scottish MPs from votes in the House of Commons.

In their manifesto, launched yesterday, the Liberal Democrats proposed an English-only voting stage on legislation that only affects England. This would be “on a proportional basis, genuinely reflecting the balance of opinion in England, not the distorted picture generated by the first-past-the-post system”. The party argued that currently, a government could pass contentious, unpopular legislation affecting only England with the support Scottish and Welsh MPs.

Ukip, which may hold influence in a future Conservative administration, said that it would “insist” on English votes for English laws (Evel).

It follows on from a commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto to bar Scottish MPs from voting on “financial matters” where “equivalent decisions have been devolved to Scotland”.

Chancellor George Osborne defended the policy during a visit to West Aberdeenshire.

Osborne said: “If you have a Scottish rate of income tax, a consequence of that is you have an English rate of income tax and I think it’s only right and fair that English MPs would then have a decisive say over that.

“Of course the whole budget would be voted on by all the UK MPs, including Scottish MPs, and I think that’s a fair arrangement. I think people in Scotland would see it as fair, I also think people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would see it as fair.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that the Conservative party’s manifesto proves “that the Tories can’t be trusted to deliver more powers to the Scottish Parliament.”

SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie said: “This is the same Tory arrogance as when David Cameron walked out of Downing Street the morning after the referendum and tied more powers for Scotland to ‘English votes for English laws’. Mr Osborne has shredded the Smith Commission report.

“As long as key tax decisions affecting Scotland are made at Westminster – such as the income level when people start to pay tax – then Scottish MPs must be able to vote on them. Anything else would be undemocratic.”

More at link, including SHOUTY MURPHY moaning:

On Tuesday, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy called the proposal a “brutal betrayal” of the Smith Commission

Of course it's a betrayal of the Vow the SLabs were all so keen on, it's London, what else did they think was going to happen.

They shoved that crap on the cover of the Daily Record knowing it wasn't worth the ink used to print it and that anyone who fell for it was going to be shafted by London as soon as the polling booths closed.

http://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/untouch.jpg



So, SLab-supporting papers are claiming the Tories are doing deals with the SNP, and Tory papers are claiming London Labour is doing deals with the SNP?

Sounds like a prize show.  

So, there's another debate - without MURPHY, so it's been more or less civilized so far. No Cameron or Clegg, either.

Farage has just insulted the audience, which is never a good move. I can't actually remember what Milliband is on about, he sounds like Tory-lite.

Nicola's just torn Farage a new one for blaming everything on furriners. The Plaid Cymru lady is reasonable, and Ms Bennett of the Greens is being a well-meaning moonbat again.

No blood on the floor yet, though.