To save anyone else having to look at the train-wreck of a comments section on the previous post, could I just make a few points -
1) The frequency of extreme swearing is becoming ridiculous. I don't mind swearing as long as it's used sparingly (Mick Pork is the master of using it for comic effect), but there were parts of the last thread where almost every post had an extreme swear-word in it. I issued several polite warnings, and predictably that just led to people pushing against me with even more extreme swearing. I eventually had to delete two comments containing the 'C' word. This really cannot go on, and I'll delete more comments if I have to. I'd rather not have to.
2) Please don't keep asking me to "ban" Glasgow Working Class (or anyone else). As I've explained umpteen times, it is not possible to "ban" individuals on this platform. It is only possible to delete individual comments.
3) I am not going to introduce pre-moderation. That would be far, far, far too time-consuming, and more importantly it would kill any possibility of a flowing debate.
4) I am not going to switch to an expensive alternative comments platform simply to ban Glasgow Working Class. Every platform has its drawbacks, and I've heard too many horror stories about people who have made the switch and lived to regret it.
5) Glasgow Working Class is not "killing the blog", and no matter how many times people make that melodramatic claim, it won't become any the more true. There was a predictable drop from the all-time peak of 40,000 unique readers in the month leading up to the general election, but the numbers have been stable since June.
My advice is simply to scroll past GWC's comments. I have the dubious pleasure of receiving every single one of them through to my inbox, and for the most part they've just become meaningless noise. I've actually found some of Aldo's comments (for example on the victims of the Hiroshima bombing) much more offensive, because they were clearly said in deadly earnest.
I can only suggest folk treat Glasgow's Worst Comedian as a helpful soul boosting James' visitor numbers, scroll past the inane comments, and concentrate on reading the substance of the discussion. Job done.
ReplyDeleteIf i lived in Glasgow, i would take GWC out for a drink. He is obviously lonely.
ReplyDeleteSo what do you think James McGibbon? Fancy a wee swally?
We don't know if it is a He or a She as it doesn't have the courage to reveal it's true name. It should be treated with the contempt that it deserves.
DeleteHe's not from Glasgow and he certainly isn't working class for those who haven't yet caught on.
DeleteJuteman. I like a swally. Contact James and name the place. It is on you, your suggestion!
DeleteCan I have a stellafella?
DeleteAgreed. Scroll past GWC and leave him shouting up an empty close like the bampot scunner he is. If he switches i.d. it will be obvious and the ignorant ignoramous can be further ignored.
ReplyDeleteThis blogsite is too precious to be undermined by a bampot bigot.
I am sure you have our support James. So let's get on with it Independence needs our support.
ReplyDeleteSo Mick Pork gets to continue swearing because you find his contributions funny? Okay, maybe they are funny but the joke's on him - not by him. He comes across as a tourettes case who's just been fired from his lavvie cleaning job at Daily Mail HQ. I've had cactii with greater political insight.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Hiroshima thing, someone hits you, you hit back - what's the big deal?
If someone hits me, I hit them back. I don't hit their mother and sister.
DeleteIn small scale argie bargie perhaps. Not possible to stick to such rules when embroiled in full scale war. Hit the enemy hard, as hard as you can, and finish them.
DeleteLook at modern Japan - peaceable, technologically advanced, friendly. We helped build that by absolutely destroying Japanese militarism, with minimal damage done to the infrastructure of the country.
Had Jeremy Corbyn and the SNP been around in 1945, I dread to think what might have happened.
Imagine my dismay that I've managed to so upset an ignorant racist twit like 'Aldo' so much he's reduced to such amusingly pathetic whining.
Delete*chortle*
Tell you what chum, if you don't like being seen as a know nothing, far right dumbass then perhaps you should take your head out of your arse for five minutes because cretins like you (and the incompetent second rate Blair impersonator Hameron) were in fact proved to be utterly wrong about Iraq just as you now are about Syria.
FYI shrieking about Hitler and the second world war only makes you look like a petulant and ignorant child. The glaringly obvious stupidity of throwing yet more bombs into a hideously complex quagmire (with no exit strategy or even the bare bones of ANY transitional planning) is going to take slightly more than the low I.Q. tory tabloid twattery you specialise in for the stupid party to talk their way out of. (when it hangs around the tories neck just like Iraq and Afghanistan did for Labour, as it most assuredly will)
Stick to race baiting over on Stormfront Lite 'Aldo' rather than the nuances of foreign policy in the middle east since you are self-evidently comically out of your depth on that subject like on so much else,
Admittedly, watching you witlessly shrieking the dumbest of the tory tabloid spin - just to prove how laughably out of touch you are - will never stop being utterly hilarious to most of us on here. So by all means keep right on whining you ignorant far-right twit. :-D
"If someone hits me, I hit them back. I don't hit their mother and sister."
True but then you aren't Grant Shapps either. Or indeed Michael Green. ;-)
A little advice aspergers boy - don't attempt to dismiss someone as irrelevant by posting an essay in reply to them :0)
DeleteI never swear, I do so in real life, this is not going to do my reputation any good and GWC would be better ignored, presently like a certain gent on Wings they wreck the flow and this cannot go on.People are so fed up with him and I understand why, one of your commentators I have never heard use the language he did, it is so unlike him that he was obviously very upset. Aldo, I could see the back of as well so maybe we can just ignore him as well. I am not happy James with being called a Nazi, my Father fought against them and I lost an Uncle so I would prefer that he be told to desist but this should come from you.
ReplyDeleteShine now coming of the Tories economic credibility UK-wide. Have taken quite a hit since the election.
ReplyDeletee.g. new Yougov data:
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2015-11-30/govE.png
Ties in with MORI showing economic optimism tanking:
https://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Images/Politics/pm-eoi-nov-2015.jpg
And not trusted on public services at all:
https://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Images/Politics/pm-public-services-nov-2015.jpg
Not good for Ruth going into May 16.
Correcting that last link:
Deletehttps://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Images/Politics/pm-public-services-nov-2015.jpg
Sometimes a man's just gotta do what a man has to do. Glasgow Working Class is intent on destroying your blog because you are successful in what you do, and you say things that people like it don't want others to hear. Although you don't accept that, to others like me who visit your site regularly, it is quite obvious what he/she is up to.
ReplyDeleteGWC will not stop because it takes pleasure from trolling and it thinks it is succeeding, it may even be a paid up Labour activist. So you must stop it and others like Aldo, before you lose too many more contributors. It is hardly worth commenting on your posts now because the comments section is more or less inactivated by useless GWC and anti-GWC comments. In future I will comment on your posts via Twitter.
Wow. What am I supposed to have done exactly - except argue politics from a right wing and unionist position? If I get abusive, it's always in response to others' abuse toward me.
ReplyDeleteI don't read much of GWC. From what I have read, his chief 'insult' seems to be "nat-si". Deary me, I certainly hope you never run into a toddler who calls you "SNPoo pants" or something - if the apoplectic rage I've seen on here over the last few days is anything to go by.
Man up. And accept that a closed forum would be the beginning of the end.
Going off topic because quite frankly Iv had enough of precious time being wasted on GWC n Aldo. I saw in today's national that there is to be a right wing Indy supporting party SLP, the Scottish Liberation Party. I was just wondering what you made of them James? I suggested before on Bella and maybe on here too that a polls pretty much locked at 50/50 could it be a right wing Indy party that pushes the numbers up to high 50,s 60,s. I obviously don't see them making any impact on Holyrood 2016 but could they possibly turn Tories and the odd kipper over to the idea? As a debating point how would us on the left/centre left feel about that being turning point? I still think an Indy Scotland would have a more left government in Holyrood but if they did rally the right and gained power would we feel that it wasn't the indepence we wanted? I know there is a lot of if buts n maybes but just thought I'd throw it out there and see what the good people think. Over to you
ReplyDeleteI think they'll vanish quicker than SIP.
DeleteIf you are a tory, it would make sense to vote to stay in the UK - where tories get elected and always form the government or main opposition.
Polling suggests 93% of Scottish tory suppprters voted no. So there is 7% up for grabs there. But 7% of maybe about 16% of the population. That's just over 1%. Not enough to gain a seat at Holyrood and not enough to win a future referendum.
And what would a right wing pro indy movement do to the existing, far left of centre, socialistic indy movement? All of a sudden, the selling point becomes "lower taxes and less welfare"? That might repel more people than it attracts.
The thing that motivates Tories is money. If there was enough of a number who were convinced that they could be on the make in an Indy Scotland, just as an example for talking stake they had invested in renewable energies and felt they had been let down by Westminster or maybe farmers upset at European subsidies or something. One of their policies is to withdraw from Europe. I admit they won't be an overnight success but maybe they might start turning heads and uniting the right under 1 banner. At this moment if you are a Tory then there's not much point in switching but if there is an Indy majority at Holyrood and they manage to get 1 or 2 list MSPs in the future they would run an alternative yes campaign. I'm not saying for 1 minute that Tories and kippers will just abandon the union but the SNP was seen at one time as fantasists and loonys but they are dominant at the moment so the SLP could grow especially if soft no,s that don't like the SNP but are getting sick of Westminster. Maybe their best chance of picking up votes is in an Indy Scotland. Im a leftie I admit that but the question I was asking is does the case for independence have to always come from the left?
DeleteThe thing that motivates Tories is money. If there was enough of a number who were convinced that they could be on the make in an Indy Scotland, just as an example for talking stake they had invested in renewable energies and felt they had been let down by Westminster or maybe farmers upset at European subsidies or something. One of their policies is to withdraw from Europe. I admit they won't be an overnight success but maybe they might start turning heads and uniting the right under 1 banner. At this moment if you are a Tory then there's not much point in switching but if there is an Indy majority at Holyrood and they manage to get 1 or 2 list MSPs in the future they would run an alternative yes campaign. I'm not saying for 1 minute that Tories and kippers will just abandon the union but the SNP was seen at one time as fantasists and loonys but they are dominant at the moment so the SLP could grow especially if soft no,s that don't like the SNP but are getting sick of Westminster. Maybe their best chance of picking up votes is in an Indy Scotland. Im a leftie I admit that but the question I was asking is does the case for independence have to always come from the left?
DeleteIt's not impossible, but it's fairly hard.
DeleteThe Libertarian right tends to be strongly pro Free Trade, so they want less borders, not more. And most of them are Federalists rather than Nationalists, they don't like countries much. I'm somewhat in this camp. I may have voted No, but it wasn't out of patriotism. I don't give two hoots about Westminster or the UK. They can vanish tomorrow if you give me a better alternative.
The Conservative right is much happier with countries and borders, but they're also the most patriotic, those are the 'Unionists' in the strict sense of the term, rather than the vague 'All No Voters' definition used as an insult around these parts. Brit-Nats, if you will.
So it's not impossible to find a right-leaning indy force, but I think it's going to be by definition very small.
I know its only hypothetical really but the other main policies are legalising cannabis and making prostitution legal. They don't sound obviously conservative but when you think of the tax receipts from those two enterprises then maybe that puts a Tory slant on it. It is two things I think that would find some traction with the electorate and if nothing else gets them noticed. A right wing independence party goes against everything I stand for but maybe with one or two Tory defectors and some high profile business people donating they could maybe attract a similar vote share percentage as UKIP down south over a similar period of time and the difference between Holyrood and Westminster is under PR they would have some kind of representation. Then again they could fold in two weeks I suppose, gets the wheels turning though
DeleteLibertarians do tend towards the extremes. Their anti-welfare, free market isolationism puts them on the far right, while their anti-religion, anti-censorship pro-immigration views put them on the far left.
DeleteThey're kind of the opposite of Liberals. Liberals tend to be in the centre on everything, Libertarians are in the centre on nothing :)
It's never really caught on in Britain though. Quite apart from anything else, getting Libertarians to agree on anything is like herding cats, forming a party is almost impossible.
I'll be honest I didn't know much about them until I read that today and if I'm honest I can't see them catching on myself. The Labour for Indy caught my attention because although I vote SNP I do come from a strong labour background, I am a trade unionist and an ex shop steward so I admit I listened to what they had to say. Again its only a theory but if a similar thing like that for Tories would maybe get some attention from people of that persuasion but like Aldo said it seems a bit far fetched and even if it did have a conservatives for Indy the initial numbers would be low but maybe pull numbers as years roll on. When we get Indy the right will have to organise itself and we can only guess what form that would take but I believe by our nature Holyrood would be mostly made up of left/centre left MSPs for foreseeable. It would be strange having a yes majority in Holyrood with some wanting an Indy conservative government.
DeleteTories are of course now blamed across the UK for the cuts; consistent with the electorate now seeing them as an economic failure, as per my previous post.
ReplyDeletehttps://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/14404/blameCuts02.png
Scotland of course, rightly, sees the Tories as even more responsible. Not good for Ruth in May.
Unionists clearly unable to make a convincing economic argument for the UK, as numbers for Labour are even worse.
I say this all the time when it comes to tactical voting, I'll never ever ever vote in any way other than for the candidate I want to represent me.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, JK. the price of Freedom of Speech is putting up with the trolls. Gotta be worth it.
ReplyDeleteI found this blog post very interesting and I hope to see from the responses whether it does work. Hopefully it does!
ReplyDeleteWhat Does Anti-Aging Actually Mean