Saturday 27 October 2012

The week the referendum debate lost its innocence...

After the dust settles from another hectic week the two sides in the separation debate are left glaring at each other like a pair of punch drunk boxers reeling from a bloody encounter neither of whom are quite sure where they go from here.

Those in the Better campaign need to devise a strategy which allows them to engage with an opposition who refuse to be bound by normal conventions, like speaking the truth for example. The separatists need to try and figure out if their tactics of bold assertion and repetition really is the best way forward.

But the events of this week have the whiff of a turning point about them.

To recap, the First Minister was asked a direct question, "Have you sought the advice of your law officers?", he was going to give a typically slippery answer but was interrupted by Andrew Neil before he could insert his sneaky wee caveats. So we're left with the First Minister of Scotland answering a direct question thus: "We have, yes - in the terms of the debate". That was the end of the answer to that question.

From that answer any reasonable person would think wee Salmond had admitted that legal advice on EU membership had been sought from Scottish law officers. Mr Neil certainly did and when he asked "What did they say?" he moved the interview  from the subject of seeking legal advice (which had been established ) to what that advice actually was and it was in answering this question that wee Salmond tried to sneak in his caveats.

Wee Salmond maybe didn't mean to lie but that's exactly what he did in that interview. Remember the old Yiddish proverb, Alex: 'A half truth is a whole lie'

One thing is for sure, things will never be the same again. Everything that is now claimed or asserted by the SNP must come with a huge health warning: in trying to be cute wee Salmond has shown himself  to be too sleekit for his own good and in trying to protect him his party have shown themselves to be cynical opportunists whose much bragged about reputation for probity and competence now lies in tatters.

A high price to pay to dig wee Salmond out of a hole into which he so arrogantly swaggered.



Wednesday 24 October 2012

Groucho Salmond asks: Who do you believe, me or your own eyes?

Question: "have you sought advice from your own law officers"

Answer: "we have, yes..."


There is video footage of this question being asked and answered.

The fact that the SNP are now seriously trying to suggest that we should believe them rather than our own eyes tells us all we need to know about the desperation at the heart of this SNP administration.

Friday 19 October 2012

They're having a laugh....

OK, what's going on?

The SNP Party Political Broadcast has just aired on BBC1.

It started with wee Salmond saying there was a really important decision to make in two years time.

Then a funky jazz band started playing a funky version of 'Let's Stick Together'.

For Joan 'Bonkers' McAlpine, she of the abusive relationship jibe, here's the first verse:

"And now the marriage vow is very sacred
The man has put us together now
You ought to make it stick together
Come on, come on, let's stick together
You know we made a vow not to leave one another never"

Is this a subliminal admission of failure from the nats?

I can hardly wait for their next broadcast which I'm sure will be wee Nicola Sturgeon belting out 'The Union Forever' followed by Alex Salmond dressed up as John Bull singing 'Land of Hope And Glory'...
 

Thursday 18 October 2012

NATO - do the nats know what it's for?

NATO does exactly what it says on the tin, from its website: " As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance". NATO exercises a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy when it comes to the nuclear capapbility of its warships and submarines entering a NATO member's territorial waters.

The SNP leadership's idea of a separate Scotland in NATO but refusing to pay for or control nuclear weapons (or wappons, as the nats like to call them - well it shows they are more Scottish than you) is as breathtaking a piece of hypocritical cynicism since their last piece of breathtaking hypocritical cynicism.

I look forward to hearing SNP MP Agnes Robertson explain why he's all for having nuclear wappons in Scottish territorial waters as long as they are not paid for or controlled by a separate Scotland.

McBonkers...

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Jesus. Suffering. Christ.

Alex Salmond quoted in the SNP conference Handbook: 

"Scotland is daein a fell lot we can be prood o."

For that alone he deserves to lose the referendum.....

Tuesday 16 October 2012

The referendum - made in Scotland, regulated by London

So, the great day has come and gone; wee Salmond was talked out of wearing his tartan onesie with his Lion Rampant cape and "Call me Dave" did his best not to smirk.

Apart from that it was all a bit underwhelming. When it came down to it nobody really believed the nats when they claimed they didn't need a Section 30 order and nobody believed the Tories when they said they might withhold it.

The nats gave up their favoured second question and perhaps even more important were forced to accept that the UK Electoral Commission would play a key role in regulating the referendum. The Tories let the SNP decide on the timing and gave them the chance to try and find a way of giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote.

None of these things are likely to affect the result.

The most significant part of the day for me was when, within hours of signing this agreement,wee Salmond declared that if you vote against separation you'll lose your free bus pass.

And that tells us the spirit in which this debate will be conducted by the nats: nasty, scaremongering and mean-spirited.

The sooner this is over the better...