I knew there was something that didn't quite add up about the latest Times column from Kenny "Devo or Death" Farquharson, and it's suddenly dawned on me what it is. Back during the election campaign, he claimed with his customary perversity that the SNP's success was damaging the case for independence, because it proved the party had previously been wrong to say that Scotland could not have influence at Westminster. But now, he's suddenly saying that the Tory victory was all the SNP's fault. He wants us to believe that the English electorate were so scared of Scottish influence that they voted Tory to freeze us out.
According to Farquharson logic, Nicola Sturgeon presumably should have done one of two things if she wanted to escape "blame" for Tory rule - either a) withdraw the SNP from the election altogether, or b) commit the SNP to backing every decision made by the government elected in England, without any conditions whatever.
If the prospect of Scottish influence at Westminster damaged the case for independence, I can only assume that the necessity of voluntarily abandoning any prospect of Scottish influence must make the case for independence unanswerable?
There's an awful lot of non-joined-up thinking going on at the moment. Basically, the rule is to write whatever will sustain the narrative "SNP baaaaad, indelendence even worse!" I fear the attention span of the general public is letting them get away with it.
ReplyDeleteThis guy writes in the Times???
ReplyDeleteIt's one of those "What idiotic, illogical claim can I make now, that might sell a few more papers". The south of England electorate/readership are so far removed from developments in Scotland, that they fall for it. It's a fear of the unknown thing.
I don't know why all these supposed Unionists keep arguing that Scotland and England are politically incompatible.
ReplyDeleteFarqharson don't actually know which direction to go in. He just, "throws himself out of the room, throws himself on his horse and rides of on all directions".
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't understand what is happening and has hit that point where commentators only have power when we let them have power.
Its just another thread in the "SNP BAD" tapestry. That its reaching surreal levels that is beyond the reach of Armando Iannucci to parody won't even factor into it. There literally is no check or balance system in the UK media when it comes to Scotland. They've been blowing smoke up labours and their own backsides since..well..since 2007 I think.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reasoning with people who did not use reason to end up in the fix they're in.
The English voted Tory for economical reasons because they are only concerned about personal interest. The Scots voted SNP for basically the same reason although many thought wrongly that the SNP could protect their welfare benefits. If you genuinely look at SNP policy it is the same as the Tories. Do not tax the rich and squeeze council services. Freeze council tax. The rich get richer under The Tories, Labour and SNP.
ReplyDeleteYou hate the SNP, you're "working class", and you're not Labour. You sure as hell don't sound like an SSP or Solidarity supporter, so what are you? George Galloway?
DeleteActually Gorgeous had the SNP down to a T in the campaign. The SNP wanted a race to the bottom with corporation tax and impoverish the working class with competition North and South of the border making the rich richer. However he is a bit of a fud like Salmond when it comes to foreign policy. Wee eck was happy to see mass slaughter in the Balkans and Gorgeous seems to want to eradicate Israel the only democracy in the Middle East. Well Scots always have an axe to grind!
DeleteOK. We'll put you down as UKIP.
DeleteWell I have no objection to you putting UKIP down but please spare me. You Nats do have a Nat si streak. You could actually be good friends with UKIP and wee sweaty Nick fae the BNP.
DeleteBa'ath?
DeleteSalmond the great statesman tables questions on bombing fascists. He wants to pre warn the fascists that are chopping aff the heids of humans for non compliance of Islamic Law. What a wee stupid fud the man is. Help ma boab. Thank goodness for the Union.
ReplyDeleteArchie Stirling's Scottish Voice. Knew it from the start.
DeleteWho is Erchie Stirling?
DeleteThat innocent lack of knowledge ALMOST sounded convincing.
DeleteIf you actually live in Scotland, which I doubt, then be sure I wilol hunt you down and kill you one day.
DeleteJames, report this idiot to the police.
DeleteJames you asked last week if you should kick idiots like this off the site. If you didn't know then you must know now this troll does nothing for the debate here. He is just being objectionable for the sake of it.
DeleteBan him.
James I assume you agree Salmond is an opportunist fud moreso as you do not engage in my comments about him and his historical stupidity.
ReplyDeleteOch well James it is late and those on duty at the SNP central command post at the Red Lion Pub in Whitehall are pissed with the wage rise they did not want. Teuss.
ReplyDeleteSome folk will still argue the Earth is flat and some will still believe it so.
ReplyDeleteThose who argue do not necessarily believe it though.
They just enjoy reading their thoughts.
The anti-Scottish Tory campaign was an utter disgrace. And it was anti-Scottish, no doubt about it. Anti-Scottish feeling in England is good news for the SNP. What a happy coincidence.
ReplyDeleteConservatives have always been an English nationalist party. The anti-Scottish component particularly developed post merger (of the Scottish Unionists with the English Conservatives) and notably from 1979 onwards.
DeleteThere is some confusion because the Tories like to say 'British' all the time. However, they really mean English. For them, Britain is forever England.
"We English, who are a marvellous people are really very generous to the Scots"
Margaret Thatcher.
It's not really new. Not even a coincidence, happy or not. It's why they've been in decline since '59.
You are a figment of your own imagination and clearly an anti English bigot. One of the type of hypocrites that would pour over the border to England when the Scottish economy is fooked. And when is wee ecks flozzie going to announce the new currency!
DeleteYou seem to be projecting GWC. Calling someone a bigot with no evidence makes you by default a bigot yourself. As far as I know, Jeff is a unionist.
DeleteAnd I'd not open this bag of worms either as polls carried out by English newspapers show the proportion of English people who are anti-Scottish is far higher than the other way around.
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-dark-legacy-of-tory-jockophobia.html
You are a figment of your own imagination
DeleteThat's an interesting metaphysical statement.
I have a large chunk of family in England and they are very nice, fair and balanced people.
ReplyDeleteBut, when push comes to shove, they still consider Scotland as the poor, wee relation, who can only really survive because of the support of big, powerful England.
They are NOT anti-Scottish, but the just believe whatever the BBC, the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Guardian and Sun have been spouting for generations past.
Their in-depth knowledge of political issues, from sources outside the MSM, is minimal, because they have no real interest in the detail - just the headlines and TV/Radio soundbites.
Having visited them dozens of times during my 60 years and having met scores of their friends, I think they are very representative of English people in general.
They, now, have nothing like the political engagement of most Scots and are woefully under-informed on most big political issues.
They actually still believe what rags like the Torygraph and Daily Fail publish - so, scare-stories about Scottish Hordes descending on WM, SNP being quasi-Nazis etc....do have a substantial impact on them.
They are not really thick - they are basically just disinterested.
Which is EXACTLY the way Westminster and the MSM want it to remain.
Thank God the Scots are now sourcing their information, more and more, from outside the incestuous MSM bubble and are much, much better for it.
One day, the English might just twig to the mince they are being served by the usual suspects and maybe, just maybe, catch us up.
Hope I live to see it.
Meantime, the SNP in Westminster, are doing a very good job of shredding most of those scare-stories and appear to be attracting thousands - if not tens of thousands - of complimentary comments from English people.
Gradually, the MSM is losing the battle in this respect and more and more folk south of the Border, can see that.
The SNP have not tabled any bills for the benefit of the British working class. They have mentioned the Fox. Your above statement is mince.
ReplyDeleteClearly you are just here to troll and be a tosser. Please do everyone a favour and fuck right off!
DeleteYou certainly are consistent in your drivel.
DeleteDo you have help, or are you just naturally gifted in that area?
C'mon...........don't be shy,
You can tell us.
I am very gifted in exposing Nat sis and their utter hypocrisy. It was Labour/ Libs that introduced the Care for the Elderly and the Bus Pass. What progressive policy have the Nat sis introduced? When will you tax the rich. When will you unfreeze the council tax . When will you stop giving money to the rackateers for running the buses and trains and probably the ferries next.. so stop winging and explIan yourselves you bunch of anti working class opportunists. The Scotttih rich are raking it in from the Tories and their Tartan Branch SNP.
DeleteYou are about as "gifted" as my pet goldfish.
DeleteNat sis, eh?
No wonder Scots gave your Parties the bum's rush.
You are nothing more than yesterday's news - and yesterday's man.
Try peddling your crap on street corners, standing on an Irn Bru crate.
Oops............that's been done, hasn't it!!!!!
Here is a ridiclious thing ,because someone is a "journalist" a TV Presenter ,a "pundit" we give them credence ,Farquarson is like the majority ,an ill informed British lackey ,with no backbone and no sense of decency.
ReplyDeleteFeel like I really should apologise that my first ever comment here involved swearing at another poster.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is I'm a regular visitor to these pages. Being what you regulars would term newly engaged i find them to be interesting, informative and frequently amusing.so the recent hijacking of reasonable, nuanced debate by GWC has left me feeling irate.
You should be irated by the lack of SNP legislation in Scotland. While your representatives in Westminster pretend tbey are representing the less well off. Have you heard of the boak! Well I get it it when listening to the upper middle class Nats. Real scum shysters you are.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean irritated or irate?
DeleteRemarkably being an actual working class Glaswegian, I can also spell and use words with more than 2 syllables and everything.
Indeed I have heard of the "boak" I get it a lot reading wilfully ignorant and tedious posts like yours.
So we have a Nat that can spell and looks down on a working class person with an underprivaged background. Bloody typical Tartan Tory.
DeleteYour world shaking MP's will not boak on their 70k+ salaries while pricks like you defend them.
As opposed to your LACK of Scottish MPs.
DeleteTalking of a pile of boak - how is Smurphy getting on?
The more you write, the dumber and more desperate you look.
No wonder hundreds of thousands of Scots deserted the Labour and Libdem Parties.
They wanted away from cretins like you.
LOL!
ReplyDeleteYou are a nothing more that a Unionist dummy, pal.
You must be sick and tired of getting your fat arse kicked in every Election in Scotland.
How does it feel to be losing seat after seat up here and to be in line to get shredded in Holyrood, next year.
You are about as popular as a fart in a lift, now.
To be pitied, rather than scorned - you poor, wee, impotent has-been.
You are the dummy that cannot explain SNP policy for eradicating poverty while your MSPs and MPs take the Queens shilling. Real scum you are. No moral fibre. Vomit materiel you are.
DeleteAs I said previously....you are nothing more than an insignificant little Unionist loser.
DeleteYou are losing more support by the day, now, as the Tory Scum continues with their dogmatic destruction of the Welfare State and their on-going obsession with austerity, which even the IMF no longer supports.
The Tories have presided over one of the most unequal and unfair societies in the developed world, doubled the national debt, completely failed to meet any of their fiscal targets,vastly increased the number of foodbanks and have done all this while, at the same time, managing to look like the biggest bunch of Fannies on the planet.
Quite a feat.
Also bloody amazing that Osborne could stop himself sliding off the green benches, with so much white powder up his nasal cavities - and surprising that more than a few of his party managed to stay away from young boys long enough to vote at all.
Still.......that would seem to be a popular proclivity for many of the prep-school pals, wouldn't it.
I am sure you would agree.
Labour...........well, Labour did nothing much at all and are continuing in the same vein.
Thank God for the good old, Scotland First, SNP.
Their continuing rise - and continuing popularity - is Best thing that has happened to this Country in decades.
Looks as though Scotland may well become a Unionist-Free Zone, in the not-too-distant future.
Happy Days ahead.
SAME OLD Nat sis. No policies just verbal diahorea. Kilts, whisky shortbreid and oil running oot. You will be begging the English to bail you oot. Please Sir can we have your pound. We wanted the euro and out of NATO and fuck the Queen but it is alright now we want to stay. Grovelling bastards.
ReplyDeleteSame old Unionist shite - shite which cost you every single Scottish Seat, but one and which will see your lot decimated up here next year.
ReplyDeleteNo-one in Scotland is buying your crap any longer, loser.
You are nothing more, now, than something to be laughed at.
Scotland has well and truly kicked your teeth down your wee throat.
You are now so far gone, so beaten and so irrelevant up here, it is truly embarrassing.
As much use as tits on a fish.
Talking of tits............
Ahhh - So Glasgow Working Class seems to actually be Archie Stirling of Scottish Voice fame??
ReplyDeleteThat would be the millionaire, backed by other millionaires, whose Scottish Voice Party got a totally derisory 8 thousand-odd votes from the Scottish People in 2007, failed to win a single seat and which was disbanded in 2012 as an abject failure?
What a total loser.
What progessive policies do the SNP have for the next five years. Waiting! Lets hear it. Will they forego the wage rise ang give it to food banks and those who are collapsing with strarvation according to the Paisley Slapper. Answers on a privatised bus or rail ticket.
ReplyDeleteYou are beginning to froth a wee bit, you humiliated, pitiable, well and truly defeated, little Unionist Loser.
DeleteHow does it feel, when you are just ignored by most Scots?
Got used to it,yet?
LOL!!!!!!!!
David I can just see you sitting in your border control post temporary hut north of Gretna with your Saltire wrapped round your shoulders checking the passports of those clever people leaving Scotland for the real world before you build a Berlin Wall to keep us all in. Jockannory Jockannory. So what are SNP policies to enhance the lives of the British wurkin class.
DeleteYou won't be leaving us then????
DeletePlease, don't stop with the cliches - they are obviously all you have left.
Time for another "Nazi" jibe?
C'mon - you know you want to.
Hard to believe that the Nats want to prostate themselves to Merkal and Herman the German. A total sell out to their ancestors. The Nats hate the English so much they would go with the begging bowl to Herman. Bastards is a mild word to use. Time for Scottish British loyalists to end their silence and get rid of the Nat Fascists. Organise now and rid Scotland of the new pretenders.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteIf Scots wanted to get rid of Nazi-sympathising Germans - they could always start with the Royal Family.
That is one bunch of Benefit Scroungers who would not be missed.
David. I have came across some thickos in my working life but you are the brightest spark. How sad for Scotland and the World. Now try giving us some SNP progressive policies! Taxing the rich maybe. Ending the council tax freeze.Re nationalising without compensation the bus and train services. DUH I am thick David what dae ye mean. Just let go of yer knobend David and release your potential.
DeleteAwww....what's the matter, pet?
DeleteUpset that you are attracting nothing but ridicule?
You must be used to that by now, surely???
You really need to get it through that amazingly small head of yours, that Scots are turning their back on shite like you, in droves.
You can convince no-one with your arguments and are now regarded as just little temper tantrums having continuous bad days.
You are good for a wee chortle, though.
Keep howling at the moon. son - and we will just keep on taking seats.
Still a member of Losers-R-Us?
Thought so.
Dear Herr Kelly Mein Gruppen Fuhrer. All kiddin aside your posters are like children following the light at the end of the road. They insult and that is fine. But when questioned about Nat policy their is no responce but just verbal diahorea. Now if your Blog is tenth best then I wonder what the other nine are like. Your worshipers need to answere questions to make their case. Just saying some numpties were elected is not good enough.
ReplyDeleteSo Mr Kelly what is SNP policy on welfare. Please give their breakdown on individual benefits for the various catagories of recipients. No slagging now just policy and answers. Go on now.
ReplyDeleteSo they have moved seats in the Commons but no policies yet. What an embarrassment they are to Scotland. Gives ye ra boak. Fuckin Nat wasters conning the people. Just like Glesga East End Con Men
ReplyDeleteBeing ignored again, ya prick?
DeleteBye Bye.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder where the sperm came from that created you Nat sis. Probably a knee trembler on the Docks.
ReplyDeleteNat sis policy is not to talk about policy because you change your policy so often you do not know what it is. Nato, the English Pound the Euro the Monarchy. why do you Nat sis actually exist besides holding rallies and flag waving accompanied by fascist Irish Republican Bands.
ReplyDeleteMein Gott the Scot Nat sis going quiet and no insults against the English. Such admirable discipline. And no policies,
ReplyDelete