"We should never forget that many in our party supported the introduction of a Scottish Assembly in the 70s as a 'tactic' to stem the nationalist tide. 'Tactics' have a way of not turning out as we expect."
Lifelong socialist and Home Ruler (and now pro-independence campaigner) John McAllion, in his parting shot upon resigning as Scottish Labour's constitutional spokesperson in the 1990s, reminding us that the party's supposed ardour for devolution - even when visible at all - is often not what it appears.
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You may already have seen this, but Labour for Independence are running an Indiegogo fundraiser HERE, with a target of £5000. I know we've been spoilt for choice recently with pro-independence causes to donate to, but this strikes me as being one of the most important to date.
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John Rentoul had a rather sweet moment last night when, in a frantic attempt to bolster the waning credibility of his endless sneering about how Yes can't possibly win the referendum, he linked to the initial results of a self-selecting prediction poll at...yup, you've guessed it, Political Betting, a south-of-England site composed 75%+ of English Tories and UKIP supporters (and which of course has a long track record of banning pro-independence Scottish posters). It would be a bit like me claiming that independence is inevitable because the readers of Newsnet Scotland seem rather confident at the moment.
Rentoul must have been slightly alarmed to see that the most popular prediction was a Yes vote of 40%-49.99%, though. A bit close for comfort, surely, and if that's what even the southern Brit Nats are saying...
However, one or two die-hards are keeping the faith. This is how my old sparring partner Fitalass (aka Aberdeenshire Tory activist ChristinaD) responded to Rentoul's tweet -
"Voted 20/30% in poll, as a Scot voting, I genuinely believe that the SNP simple were not prepared for Indy Ref"
Best of luck with that one, Christina. You might remember that when the delightful chaps at Political Betting finally banned me for life for doing...well, it's a bit of a mystery what I actually did but I'm sure it must have been dreadful, the first thing that happened was that I had southern Tory poster John O follow me over here in a state of some concern, wanting to be reassured that our three PB recorded bets on the referendum outcome wouldn't be affected by my banning. You see, the poor guy honestly thought that he'd taken advantage of my 'fanaticism' (anyone who wants their country to govern itself is naturally a fanatic, unless that country is the UK) to pressure me into three bets that he couldn't possibly lose. They were -
* £50 that "children" (ie. 16 and 17 year olds) will not have a vote.
* £50 that the Yes vote will be lower than 43.75%.
* £100 that No will win.
As you can see, I'm already £50 to the good, and even if the referendum was tomorrow I'd have an excellent chance of breaking even. In his heart of hearts he must be getting very, very jittery about losing the whole £200.
Thanks for the LFI link James, and of course all your other sterling (ho ho)efforts!
ReplyDeleteYes, the atmosphere on PB has got even more febrile recently, if that were possible. I think it's suddenly become clear to many of them that the constitutional future of the UK is coming down to a 2 horse race over which most of them have absolutely no control. It'll be interesting after a Yes win to see how many of them revert to the current line of 'Yes doesn't necessarily mean Yes'.
Yes, I can imagine that the philosophy of "No means No, but Yes does not mean Yes" would appeal to the likes of Mr Nabavi!
ReplyDeleteI somehow doubt an ultra-Blairite like John Rentoul wil have much to comfort him today after the revelations of what the Sainted Tony was advising to Brooks as plod was closing in.
ReplyDeleteRest assured, there's going to more of this kind of stuff so CCHQ and the herd better get prepared since Cameron got as close to Brooks as Blair did.
TUD is being diplomatic when he speaks of the febrile atmosphere over at PB. They have been shrieking at the top of their lungs for about a week now. You can also add to that the amusing spectacle of SeanT being let back in and wanting to talk of nothing else while making the moderation look even more laughable than usual.
"twit", "far right" and "richard head" have now been added to the ever expanding forbidden list while calling another poster "retarded" is perfectly all right if you are an unstable right wing poster.
Anyway, good luck collecting any bets from PB James since we all know now that bet welching is by no means limited to mere posters on PB.