Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year

2014 was referendum year, 2015 was election year...

Welcome to election AND referendum year!  (Unless Cameron loses his nerve and puts the EU referendum off until 2017.)

I'm on the long journey back from the Edinburgh street party, so I may torture you with my traditional low-quality photos later.

30 comments:

  1. Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!

    http://www.learngaelic.scot
    Trying to start learning Gaelic, how easy it is, not! A challenge.

    All the best to you and family.

    Let's see what the next few months bring, another challenge for Scotland.


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  2. All the best for 2016, James. Thanks for the quality info

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  3. Happy New Year to you and yours, James.

    You will probably not hear from Glasgow Water Closet today - I rented him out as a lump-of-coal substitute at the Bells.....and no-one could tell the difference.

    Happy Days.

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassJanuary 1, 2016 at 6:06 PM

      I sub-letted yer dod- a-coal and made a profit. Happy New Year Jock Scrooge.
      An you tae James.

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    2. Scrooge repented of his ways. If there was hope for him, even you can't be a complete write-off.

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    3. Do us a favour you tiresome troll. Make a resolution to just fu#k off and die.

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  4. happy new year to james and all posters here https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/2016-our-year/

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  5. "Glasgow Water Closet"-----I like it!!. By the way,Happy New Year James.

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  6. Happy New Year to all Scot Goes Pop Pickers.

    I happened to be chatting at Hogmanay to someone rather well connected in the Scottish Government who predicted the UK will vote OUT in the EURef. The above was confirmed by another guest prominent in legal circles. It's going to be a fascinating year ahead.

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  7. If anybody cares. There's an article in the Giardia about the new open carry law in Texas. With all the usual comments from gun junkies attached.
    Interestingly enough they've chosen to illustrate this story with a picture of a man in a tartan kilt with revolver accessory. WHY? Just how racist can the english scum become before they can be closed down?

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    1. Glasgow Working ClassJanuary 2, 2016 at 2:58 PM

      How dae ye manage yer obcession with the English and chug yerr ding a ling whilst writing at the same time. There is not a better time tae hiv gun than the present with all those religious nutters going around killing infidels.

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  8. Happy New Year James, lang may yer lum reek.

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  9. Happy New Election year James.

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  10. A guid new year to you all.

    We start this year in a position where about half the population support independence and the other half do not.Many of those who don't support independence aren't that enamoured with London rule either.Its only a matter of time now til the union falls apart.I'll be doing my best to ensure it happens soon.

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  11. Well anonymous, I don't think that the Union, as you call it, will fall apart soon.
    There is still a majority of people in Scotland who want to stay part of the United Kingdom
    and therefore remain Scottish and British.

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    1. Not if polling is right. Has Yes ahead now. Sure by a tiny margin, but ahead all the same. Prof C doesn't show it in his PoP as, conservatively, its lost by rounding, but it's there. Yes lead is bigger if you don't give bias to one type of polling (online).

      http://blog.whatscotlandthinks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/WST_ScotCen-PoP.png

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  12. Both on this site and on John Curtice's, support for both Independence and the Union now stands at a 50/50% split - so, there is no real evidence of majority support for one above the other.

    Much more interesting to me, is the majority support for another Referendum, with only timing being at issue.

    I find it very unlikely that those wishing another Referendum would vote anything other than Yes, simply because the No voters have already got the decision they wanted in IndyRef1.

    The Constitutional Question remains as the pre-eminent political topic up here and I see absolutely no sign of that changing, irrespective of the wishes of most Unionists.

    The forthcoming EU Referendum - in which it is looking increasingly likely that rUK will vote to leave and Scotland to stay - could well put intolerable pressure on the political Union in these islands, at a time when Unionist Parties/Unionism in Scotland are already under very severe strain.

    The Syrian debacle continues to hover over everything, like a large, black cloud and will only worsen, as the inevitable toll of innocent civilian women/children casualties mounts and we get closer to what some experts are forecasting will be inevitable - Western Boots on the ground.

    Syria could yet turn out to be Cameron's Iraq-moment.

    With Osborne poised to, yet again, miss his own fiscal targets and more austerity pending, Westminster's popularity in Scotland will continue to drop.

    SNP on-track for a substantial Holyrood victory, with perhaps an overall Pro-Independence majority of MSPs in the Chamber, as well.

    I believe 2016 will be a very, very dismal year for the Unionist cause.

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    1. David Francis,
      You could be right in thinking that there may be a majority of pro independence MSP's after the Holyrood election, you could also be wrong of course.
      What you should remember is that Nicola Sturgeon appealed to the NO voters to vote SNP by saying 'a vote for the SNP at Holyrood is not a vote for independence or a referendum, It's a vote for a stronger voice fo Scotland'

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    2. What a politician says....and what the majority of her electorate want, are sometimes slightly different.

      You should remember that all the present evidemce suggests, that the majority of Scots wish another Referendum, with only the exact timing being debatable.

      At the end of the day, it will be Scots themselves, not a politician, who will have the final say.

      I am content that that final say, will be for another vote on Indy.

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    3. "I find it very unlikely that those wishing another Referendum would vote anything other than Yes, simply because the No voters have already got the decision they wanted in IndyRef1."

      I'm not so sure about that. Unless my memory is failing me, the majority of the population were always in favour of holding the first independence referendum. You could just as easily have argued at the time that those who wanted a referendum were in favour of independence. After all, surely those who were happy with the status quo would sooner things tick along as normal without all the disruption of a referendum? Yet in spite of this majority favouring a referendum, the majority voted against independence.

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    4. My point was......given that the result of IndyRef1 has already given the No voters exactly what they wanted - a No Vote - there is absolutely no logical reason I can think of, why those same No voters should wish to put that at risk and take a chance that it might be overturned, in IndyRef2.

      First time round, the initial gap between the two sides was so huge and the No side/MSM were so absolutely sure that victory would be a given, that No voters saw nothing to really worry about.

      At a present 50/50% opinion-split........there is not a single No voter I can envisage, having similar confidence now.

      The Scottish circumstances, pre-IndyRef2, are totally and utterly different, to those of pre-IndyRef1.

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    5. It's probably more accurate to say that all those in favour of a second referendum are persuadable on independence rather than in the bag already.

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    6. I stick to what I said - I cannot see those in favour of IndyRef2 voting anything other than Yes.

      I think they are/will be persuaded.

      TheNo brigade would simply not vote for it to happen.

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  13. That's some long journey...really, I don't mind the photies!

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  14. Glasgow Working ClassJanuary 3, 2016 at 10:21 PM

    We can look forward tae wee Nicola Thatcher emulating sister Maggie's capitalist policies. You hiv tae love the Nat si left for disappearing aff ra road map and abandoning the poor. Tartan Tories Och Aye have arrived.

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  15. When reading GWC, One is moved to misquote Henry II regarding Thomas a Becket,"Will no one rid me of this troublesome Troll"

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    1. I have made it my New Year's resolution to disregard the troll. Starving trolls of the oxygen of attention is and has always been the way forward.

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    2. Glasgow Working ClassJanuary 4, 2016 at 2:34 PM

      Loser, teddy bear, pram. 19 September 2014.

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  17. In this year we also have the United States Presidential Election - a vote that could literally alter the direction of world politics for a generation or two.

    Our wee Holyrood poll pales a bit in comparison, I'm afraid. Even if the SNP are re-elected, their hands are effectively tied.

    Aldo

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