Those of you who are active on Scottish political Twitter may be aware of a very unpleasant long-running saga involving David Hooks (aka PoliticsScot) and someone called Pauline. There are allegations of bullying on one side, and stalking on the other. To be perfectly honest, I don't know enough about what's happened to form any sort of view. Every explanation I've read has left me scratching my head - it's like starting to watch a film in the middle and trying to make sense of what's going on. My impression of David is that he's a very decent guy, and I've noticed that some of the usual suspects on the radical left have been piling in against him, which leads me to suspect that if I did understand the whole thing better, my sympathies might well be with him. But it would be totally unfair to jump to any conclusions without enough information, so I just haven't got involved at all.
About a month ago, and completely out of the blue, I received two very long emails from Pauline setting out her side of the story. I ignored them for three reasons - a) it's absolutely none of my business, b) I couldn't actually make head nor tail of what she was talking about, and c) the emails seemed to be primarily intended for Paul Kavanagh. It looked like I had just been copied in as an afterthought. She sent me a third long email yesterday, and by then I had reached the point where I just couldn't be bothered, so I didn't even read it. But last night somebody claiming to be her mother randomly messaged me on Twitter and needlessly tagged in a radical left troll, so at that point I started to get a bit suspicious, and went back and read the email. I was a bit shocked and bewildered to discover that there was an allegation that I had been directly involved in the saga. This is the relevant paragraph -
"Around 3 months ago a pro indy blogger who I considered a pal at that time contacted my mum and said that he had been given DMs by James Kelly showing that David Hooks spoke to Steve Sayers, its an open secret that he does, but he was accused of passing on information. He was going to do an expose on him, sharpening his knives against him. He said that James Kelly gave him the DMs and wings also knew about this. When my mum pressed him the excuses not to expose him became more fantastic. Pete Bell was brought into it and he said said that it was Pete who had the final say on whether this was going to go ahead."
For the avoidance of doubt, that is an absolute fairy-tale. I have no idea if David Hooks speaks to Steve Sayers. I do not care less whether he does or he doesn't. I have no evidence that he does, and I have not passed any evidence on to anyone else. I have not made any accusations or given anyone any DMs.
My involvement in this affair has been literally zero, so there are only two explanations here - either a) someone has got their wires crossed very badly, or b) the entire story about me has been deliberately and cynically concocted.
As I stated at the outset, I know next to nothing about the background to this dispute, and I have not taken sides. But if someone is going to make up a pack of lies about me and email it to all and sundry, I make no apology at all for pointing out what they are doing. Whoever is responsible, kindly just pack it in. Thanks in advance.
I have no idea about how this all started either, but this additional escalation if involving many other prominent pro-Independence bloggers and commentators would seem to me to be a deliberate attempt to cause division and dissent among us.
ReplyDeleteBy all means call me paranoid, but as the saying goes, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you". It all smells of dirty "ops" to me.
To anyone else who gets dragged in, keep it civil, keep it factual (as James has done here) and keep supporting each other. These "tricks" will get even more dirty the closer we come to a second Independence referendum. Stay strong people.
Very sensible advice.
DeleteBlack ops pffft. Sounds more like someone with personal issues. Refusing to be drawn into it is the correct response.
DeleteMillions living in poverty across the EU and you Nat sis want to join the club. At least the Frog working class have not capitulated.
DeleteChrist, change the record
DeleteShe's drunk again
DeletePaulineBeans is either operating under orders form somebody or a grade A mentalcase. There's quite a similarity between her actions and a certain athletic poster. Same procedure of smears and claimed victimhood.
ReplyDeleteIf PoliticsScot was the guilty party then it wouldn't have made sense for him to have involved the police. Supports his side of the story. Also the hate campaign from the byres road collective is pretty compelling evidence of where the truth lies.
Byres Road Collective? That's hilarious. Like Alistair Darling playing at being a Socialist Worker.
DeleteJust to say that I've no idea WTF this is about, so neither will 99.9998% of Scots. And I'm fairly active on Scots political social media.
ReplyDeleteSo, I guess dinnae worry aboot it is my point.
Anyway, I see Theresa May is announcing her recently being found in contempt of parliament "breaks faith with the British people".
ReplyDeleteIn the strange stories department perhaps I shall go and see what is going on, then again I wont.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading that Croybn has full confidence in the Tories as a government (it can only be assumed) so won't put forward a vote of confidence in them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he could push for a vote of confidence in May, presumably so she's replaced by a Tory who's more hard right pro-brexit.
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https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1074679688495288320
@faisalislam
Breaking:
On @skynews now: if PM does not announce a date for meaningful vote Today Corbyn will announce no confidence vote IN PM
Oops, seems folks got it wrong. Latest is that Corbyn has full faith in both May and the Tory government, so won't be tabling a no confidence motion in either.
DeleteThe responses to this are telling. Even the normal hard core Labour commentators who would normal argue that 2+2=5 if Corbyn said that it did are not bothering to defend Labour.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1074700126671814657
What a load of razzle dazzle.
Delete+1
ReplyDeleteThat +1 was for Scottish skier’s 99.9998% comment, but the Blogger software seems to just deposit comments at the tail of the thread, even if you choose “reply”.
ReplyDeleteYes. It means that some comments appear to be non sequiturs and the writer is some kind of nut.
DeleteWell, the latest UK retail data says brexit is now fully coming home to roost. Brexit inflation has dampened the sector over the past two years, but it held up a bit. That's people stopping spending now in preparation for the 'great brecession' though, which even brexiters say will happen (but it will 'bring us together in unity!').
ReplyDeleteUnemployment creeping now even though hundreds of thousands of EU workers have left. Jaguar also to axe 5000 jobs in January. I wonder where they'll pick for that? Probably somewhere suffering a recession which has poor access to global markets and an uncertain political / economic future.
Of course Corbyn will be awright, what with his commons salary and gold plated pension. His brexit dream won't hurt him at all.
Scots, I suggest you start preparing for potential independence early next year.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the Scottish government will soon issue public service annoucements to this effect.
A no deal brexit would signal the final constitutional / political collapse of the British empire project.
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https://twitter.com/PolhomeEditor/status/1075022809586380800
Kevin Schofield
@PolhomeEditor
BREAKING: Government tells citizens to start preparing for no-deal Brexit as Cabinet agrees to ramp up preparations. Public service announcements to be made in the coming weeks. No10 spokesman: “These are the actions of a sensible government to ensure people are prepared.”
We are looking at a 'legal' collapse of the consitution. Or rather the lack of + cobbled together hotchpotch we do have, particularly the complete incompatibiltiy of Brexit with devolution / separate legal systems / the peace deal, means the UK can't survive brexit in one piece.
ReplyDeletehttps://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/18/brexit-is-destroying-britains-constitution/
Brexit Is Destroying Britain’s Constitution
Whatever the outcome, Brexit has triggered an irreversible collapse of Britain's political, legal, and social order.
#The59% #The53%
The English government is now telling Scots MPs to 'Go back to where you came from'.
ReplyDeleteI suggest we do that. In the event of the national emergency Scotland will face with hard brexit, we will certianly need to immeadiately withdraw from the UK.
And do what? Still be out of the EU without a deal.
DeleteImmeadiately seek to remain in single market. Which would be straightforward enough given Scots law is fully complaint. You don't need to be a member of the EU for this, just to follow the rules. With England doing it's best to trash EU economies, I suspect the latter would be even more sympathetic than they are right now.
DeleteIn any event, being out of the EU without a deal and run by a bunch of nutters that created that situation is far worse than being out and run by our own parliament which is seeking to undo the mess rather than perpetuate it. Simply seeking to be in the EEA would immeadiately reduce the economic hit as businesses and capital stopped fleeing.
And remember, once the UK leaves the EU/EEA, it becomes a third country. At that point, the EU/EFTA can open direct negotiations with the Scottish government. Their obligation to stay out of the matter of Scottish independence ends with the ending of the UK's EU/EEA membership.
You knew that right? It's what brexiters wanted after all; the freedom of the peoples of the UK to 'take back control and make new international deals themselves'.
We are a heading to a place so, so far away from 2014. Even then with all the aces in the UK's hand it only just held things together.
Scotland will not remain in the single market. It will have an open border with a third country and no way to regulate that border. So it could not follow the rules and therefore not be a member.
DeleteThere is not an English government. The English are not narrow backs like the Jocko Nat sis. The joke oos love being ripped aff by unnecessary politicians.
DeleteBut Scotland can just trade with the UK on WTO terms; this will be fine ;-)
DeleteThe UK currently has open borders with the EU on the Island of Ireland and Gibraltar. Same model can be used. Scotland can retain completely open borders with EU but if needed put a hard border at Gretna. >99% of Scots don't cross the land border into England on any regular basis so wouldn't give a shit taking a passport when they do occasionally; they already do that with easyjet. Any queues there for freight can just be offset at the ports with direct routes to the continent; will be boom time with loads of new jobs. Scotland feeds itself and powers itself; it's not very reliant on imports like England. This is why it's 59% Yes for in the case of a hard brexit in the most pro-No polls.
The UK's fucked unless brexit is reversed. That's where we are and there's nothing you or I can do about it. How messy the break up is just depends on how much England loses it's mind.
On the way home I'm listening to English radio broadcast to Scotland saying how plans are being put in place for troops to help with civil disorder as the UK system collapses. In the middle of a war, people might find that reassuring. However, the chat then moved on to the discussion of while a no deal brexit wasn't the preffered option, it was being pursued as a back up in preference to cancelling brexit for now and coming back to it later with a plan. Utter madness.
All across Scotland, Yes votes are being created by the bucketload. I mean people are being asked to stockpile essentials and prepare for an entirely voluntary national emergency.
The only hope for unionism now is a 'people's vote' and brexit cancelled. However, I suspect the damage is done; the UK is incapable of governing itelf and the economy is screwed for years to come.
We can expect to enter recession in the new year. One which was the choice of the UK government / English population.
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EVEL = English government.
Capitalist recession keeps socialists thinking what is the alternative and the socialists prefer recession as they have no alternative.
DeleteThe probable reason for Pauline to be sending emails would be because everyone has blocked her and evry weird twitter account she creates on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteTo be avoided at all costs as she stirs and trolls with amazing regularity.
And now onto more important matters...