In the light of Nicola Sturgeon urging SNP supporters to "chap every door" in Scotland before the general election, I'd like to propose this as a possible campaign song -
Chap every door for me
Banish Ed Balls from me
Children of Scotland are never alone
For we know we shall find
Our own peace of mind
For we have been VOWED
A land of our own!
OK, it was written by a Tory peer (Andrew Lloyd-Webber) and a former UKIP donor (Tim Rice), but life's full of little ironies...
* * *
UPDATE : For those of you who have expressed concerns that I may not be able to make a living as a songwriter, fear not. One of the great things about being a Twitter user with a name like James Kelly is that you get to try out all sorts of exciting alternative careers that you would never previously have considered. Just over the last few days, I've been a brilliant young womenswear designer, and a daredevil longboard skateboarder. Who'd have thought it, eh? Me, a simple lad from Cumbernauld.
Never ever ever do that again!
ReplyDeleteFollowing Syrizia's humiliation tonight the SNP's anti-austerity message looks even more unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteAlas, economists disagree with you. Are you the guy that wrote the barking mad "SNP-Syriza Baldrick-esque cunning plan" article the other day?
DeleteNot guilty as charged.
DeleteAre those the same economists who warned that if the UK did not join the euro it would ruin our economy, the car industry would collapse, etc, etc?
Or maybe it is the 'professional economist' Alex Salmond who argued at the time the euro was launched that it was essential to Scotland's interests to join?
The fact is that Syrizia have gone from red lines such as 'no supervision by the troika' to.....supervision by the troika + substantial increase in the minimum wage to.......no increase in the minimum wage.
Game, set and match to Germany and austerity
Great to see you Brit Nats finally getting over the anti-German stuff. A few decades too late, but better a sinner that repenteth and all that.
DeleteAusterity is a political decision not an economic one never was and never will be. Austerity is an appeasement to the bankers to keep political leaders in power so that they can rape the people legally of their assets. The sooner we start rounding these criminals up, like Iceland has done and jailed them them the better for all of us.
DeleteGame, set and match to Germany and austerity
DeleteWhat in that statement indicates any anti-German prejudice (real or imagined)?
You've got it all wrong, old chap - I'm congratulating you on moving from all the anti-German stuff. For heaven's sake accept praise when it's forthcoming.
DeleteEven more hilarious to see a BritNat shriek cluelessly about economic stories of doom without a flicker of irony or self-awareness.
DeleteDon't worry, we're laughing pretty damn hard that you still don't get it. :-)
So when did any country CUT their way out of economic despair?
DeleteNo so Anon
DeleteThe "deal" is of a 4 month extension under basically the same terms as the 2 months they have already had.
This 2 month "deal" was the last negotiated by Pasok and the ECB/ Troika and would normally be a 6 month one. Knowing damn well that Syriza was going to lose the election, it was quietly agreed that the deal should just be 2 months thus placing Syriza into a vice with almost no time to evolve their position.
The game is still on and will unfold in the next few months.
Don't place your M & S cammy knickers on the Troika and the German Central Bank.
By the way, did you know that during the War the occupying Germans looted the Greek Treasury and forced they to loan a fortune to the Reichsbank.
This has never been repaid .and the Greeks have renewed their demands that it and the accrued interest should be repaid.
Spectacularly witless stuff even for an anonymous Stormfront Lite/PB troll.
ReplyDeleteBy unrealistic you of course mean popular or ye'll no have seen the polls then, will ye?
LOL
It can be popular and unrealistic at the same time - as Syrizia has proved.
DeleteAs an SNP supporter can you at least admit that the SNP's blind support for the euro was a massive mistake?
That's the second time you've mis-spelt the name "Syriza" in the space of four minutes. I get the impression we're not dealing with your area of expertise.
DeleteNot too bright is he? Since the tory party still contains those who want to join the Euro, (Heseltine for one) it must some twatty little kipper racist upset that his party has an unpopular public schoolboy twit for a leader and only has MPs because two far-right tory loons defected to them.
Delete@Anon Have you never changed your mind when circumstances change plus without Oil backing Sterling how would that fare?
DeleteI am happy to admit that the correct spelling is Syriza and concede that spelling is not my strong point.
DeleteEqually, since you focus on that rather than the other points that I made re the troika, Greek minimum wage and the SNP's previous slavish support for the Euro that economics that is not your area of expertise.
@Anon Have you never changed your mind when circumstances change plus without Oil backing Sterling how would that fare?
DeleteSure I've changed my mind on lots of things. But it was so obvious to anyone who understands basic economics that the euro was going to be a disaster:
(1) How can you have one interest rate for 20+ different economies which have radically different economies, are at different stages in the economic cycle, etc?
(2) Even Germany itself breached the entry criteria for the Euro - proving that it is a political rather than an economic project.
(3) Without fiscal transfers within Europe - i.e. 100% economic union - it would never work. But why would German/Finnish/Dutch taxpayers want their taxes to support deficit spending in Greece?
(4) Why would it be better for the interest rates that Scottish people pay to be set by the ECB in Frankfurt than the Bank of England in London?
"Why would it be better for the interest rates that Scottish people pay to be set by the ECB in Frankfurt than the Bank of England in London?"
DeleteSo basically what you're saying is that the SNP policy during the referendum campaign was the correct one? Fair enough.
Well that would certainly be preferable to being in the disastrous euro but let us recap:
DeleteSNP policy in 1999: the euro is the future for us an independent nation so let us have our interest rates decided in.................FRANKFURT!
SNP policy in 2014: oh dear, the euro has been a disaster but we still want to be an independent nation so now we will have our interest rates set in Edinburgh. Actually, on second thoughts, let us have it set in......LONDON!
Funny type of independence either way.
Bit late for you to row back now, old chap - your endorsement of the SNP's policy has been noted.
DeleteI'm certainly happy to agree that the SNP's policy on the euro was a disaster and that we are better together in a sterling union!
DeleteWhat sort of "independence" is that? Would you listen to yourself, man? Which is it?
DeleteThat is the whole point - if you have your interest rates/monetary policy set in London OR Frankfurt it is not independence.
DeleteSo why did the SNP/Yes campaign not argue for monetary police to be determined by Edinburgh in an independent Scotland?
So you think Scotland should be MORE independent than we're arguing for? Is that what you're saying?
DeleteIf that's not what you believe, what in God's name are you prattling about, man?
I'm having far too much fun chuckling at the image of this bumptious BritNat twit visiting countries that everyone sane knows perfectly well are Independent (regardless of where their interest rates are set) while petulantly shrieking "WHAT SORT OF INDEPENDENCE IS THAT?!" to amused bystanders. He then farts loudly in a guff of his own ignorance and self-importance and scurries off quickly as those who live there point and laugh at him.
DeleteA kipper abroad perhaps. (assuming he and his backward-thinking ilk doesn't fear the 'shiny metal skybird' that carries them aloft to those 'peculiar' foreign climes) ;-)
Meanwhile comedy abounds as the incompetent fop Cameron 'fires up' the massed ranks of scottish tories. (possibly by ranting against the Kaiser going by the age of most of them) :-D
ReplyDeleteRetweeted 292 times
Greg Hemphill @greghemphill69 4 hours ago
The Scottish Tory party conference looks like a Still Game cosplay convention.
pic.twitter.com/1rw46sb5V9
*chortle*
You've got it all wrong, old chap - I'm congratulating you on moving from all the anti-German stuff. For heaven's sake accept praise when it's forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteI think you will find that it is Syriza supporters in Athens burning the German flag and effigies of Frau Merkel and demanding reparations that are more obessed with the Germans than us 'Brit nationalists.'
It was, after all, the National Resistance Memorial that Tsipras visited after being appointed PM.
that are more obessed with the Germans than us 'Brit nationalists.'
DeleteWhy the inverted commas? Are you renouncing your support for the existence of a British nation state?
Speaking of kippers abroad..
ReplyDeleteOops!
Toby Archer @TobyinHelsinki 3 hours ago
#UKIP seems to keep having such bad luck http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/19/chelsea-fan-in-paris-metro-video-posed-in-picture-with-nigel-farage … One of the Chelsea fans accused of racism in Paris pictured with Mr Farage
Looks like Nigel is still in the running with Cameron for upper class twit of the year. :-)
I wouldn't say Calum Findlay was a common name, but I have met my SNP member namesake from Inverness on Twitter. Both of our MPs are also called D.Alexander!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty amazing really. I wonder what those odds would be? James, will you get on the blower to Smithson please ;)
DeleteNot as interesting as the 2 C. Findlay's and D. Alexander's, but I also have a friend named Danny Alexander who lives in Danny Alexander's constituency. He's voting SNP tho. :)
After that slightly unpleasant spat (and fair play to "Anonymous" for bringing forward a point he knew would be unpopular here, we need more discussion like that) let's return to James' song.
ReplyDeleteOh God no, let's not - I've just read the words again - arrrggghhh...... :-)
Do we really need more discussion like that, ie. Tory posters attacking a defunct SNP policy from circa 1999? Where does that end? Can we expect him to defend Ted Heath and the three-day week?
DeleteJames, it's your blog, so your opinion this is genuinely worth more than mine...but the point I was trying to make is that it can only benefit those of us on this side of the fence, to hear sometimes from those on the other side. If only to sharpen us up for chappin' on doors in Aprl/May.
DeleteOh, don't worry, if what happened in September is anything to go by, you'll be hearing from the other side on this blog. And you may end up wishing it really was only "sometimes".
DeleteThey seem to be somewhat less prolific when the polls look like they do now, though.
DeleteThe austerity debate is probably one of the most disgusting thing about Unionism.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to think the only option is to agree or no, to strip the poorest in our society of their meagre benefits.
How about the true debate starts ie: Yes we must deal with the debt, but as a society we need to chose between stripping the poor, or perhaps making the mega rich companies pay income tax, and perhaps not spending obscene amounts of money, fighting wars that only ever seem to benefit mega wealthy American Business interests.
One thing that hasn't yet been on the agenda is, will people's benefits be re-instated once the debts been paid off?
You can bet your bottom DOLLAR it wont, because the debt mountain has been the perfect excuse to change the UK into a mini America, which is why we have people like Jim Murphy on the committee of the Henry Jackson Society that's stated aims are to promote the interests of American Neo-Con interests abroad.
Why on earth would this be of interest to Jim Murphy, unless he was part of a large group of Westminster MP's/Lords/Elite, who want to change the UK into a society that is more like America.?
"One thing that hasn't yet been on the agenda is, will people's benefits be re-instated once the debts been paid off?"
DeleteWhat makes you think the debts will ever be paid off. WM would lose their leverage. They'll just keep syphoning off enough of any improvement to allow the debt go down slightly until they find the next excuse for it to go back up.
James, write the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.
ReplyDeleteFather Ted and Dougall's 'My little pony' attempt for the Eire European Song Contest entry springs to mind.
ReplyDeleteSorry that was being unkind.
Could I just point out that, even with my modifications, 80% of the words were written by Tim Rice? Anyway, it still has the beating of the 2011 Latvian entry :
Delete"Stare me with candy eyes
Love me with luscious thighs."
Opinium poll shows a Tory lead in GB for the first time in 2012. The SNP numbers have been really down weighted when they seem to be more than half of the un-weighted sample in Scotland.
ReplyDeletehttp://ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/survey-results/political-polling-17th-february-2015
in = since
DeleteThey changed their methodology two weeks ago.
Deletehttp://ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/opinium-blog/note-methodology
The relevant bit is this:
Fourth, and most significantly, is the introduction of political weighting using a variable called party propensity.
Party propensity is an evolution of the party-ID variable used in previous elections where respondents were asked if they identified with a particular party and the sample was then weighted according to pre-defined targets coming from sources such as the British Election Study.
With party propensity, we ask voters how they feel about all of the parties and, from their answers, put together a unique picture of each voter’s view of the whole spectrum of parties. From this we can divide the electorate into groups based on which combination of parties they would or would not consider voting for.
To decide how big or small each of these segments should be in our sample we have tried to make the process of creating weighting targets as organic as possible. This is based on a combination of how respondents voted in the European Parliament elections last year and a rolling average of the results of this segmentation during our trials over the last few months.
Taking January 2015 as our base therefore, the targets are updated week to week by a rolling average of recent polls. This makes sure that, while our samples will remain politically balanced, they are still able to take account of actual changes in the electorate’s underlying views. If party X suddenly catches fire or completely nosedives then we won’t be hamstrung in reporting this by how popular they were in December.
The effect of these changes has been to remove some of the variation and statistical noise we have seen between polls. It also has the effect of slightly upweighting the Conservatives and downweighting UKIP while leaving Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens broadly unchanged.
In the past we have generally decided against applying political weighting to our polls as it makes it more difficult to account for changes in circumstances. That made sense for mid-term when things were in flux so that we could take account of things like the rise of UKIP and the Greens. But with three months until polling day, the circumstances of the election should be clear enough that we can harden our assumptions a little while our rolling average should allow us to respond to any changes on the ground.
...
This also seems to work against Plaid (down-weighted from 8 to 4), who they give as being on 5% (!) in Wales.
Time for the now weekly batshit-crazy cross-break from Opinium.
ReplyDeletehttp://ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/sites/ourinsight.opinium.co.uk/files/vi_17_02_2015_final_tables.pdf
SNP 31, Con 28, Lab 25.
SNP down-weighted from 62 to 39, even though Scotland as a whole is up-weighted by about 10%. Que?
YouGov sub-sample: SNP 43, Lab 24, Con 14, LD 10.
ReplyDeletehttp://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/l6vpm82uzr/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-200215-FULL.pdf
Also looks like the SNP have commissioned Survation to do a topic poll (no VI) on their policy of four-nation consent in an EU referendum. It found cross-party support for the idea. Hopefully the question wasn't biased or leading in some way.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/scottish-politics/poll-find-most-scots-want-four-nation-consent-before-uk-exit-from-europe.119020255
EU question looks fine. Very strong support for NS's proposition, even amongst No and Tory voters. Majorities across the board, even with DKs included. 1-0 SNP. Over to you Westminster...
DeleteMeanwhile over on the most respected politics shite in the whole UK we find that Muslims are evil, immigration is evil, everybody who lacks a signed copy of Mein Kampf is evil. Fairly standard morning over there.
ReplyDeleteMore seriously we find supposedly intelligent people state that CO2 has no effect on the ability of the atmosphere to retain heat and the usual global warming is a massive government conspiracy nonsense.
Interesting to see how many of our favourite Unionist posters are also Climate Change deniers. There must be something in their brains causing this.
Reading a climate change discussion on PB is like a visit to an alternate universe where believing in hard science makes you a member of a lunatic fringe.
Delete