54 thoughts on “WHAT CAN YOU SAY?”

  2. “Of the estimated 5,000 Scottish soldiers that began the march southwards from Dunbar, over 3,500 died either on the march or during imprisonment in Durham Cathedral”

    *Tory MPs snigger*

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  4. I am sickened, to hear even a lighthearted remark of selling people into slavery is a disgrace. But in a parliament! The Tories are truly shameless. Surely even a devout forelock tugging Unionist couldn’t condone such utterings.

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  5. I’ve given a few ‘likes’ above, but I have to say that ‘like’ is about as far as it gets from my feelings. I thought I was familiar with the depth to which the Tories could sink, but to be honest, I was quite shocked, both by the insensitivity of the remarks and even more by the ‘ho-ho-ho!’ response from her colleagues. I’m by no means a stickler for ‘PC’-ness, but honestly, in this day and age such a statement is outright wicked, there’s no other word for it. I suppose the Tories/BritNats think that’s how you win hearts and minds. Not mine, it left me spitting nails.
    If you’ve ever been divorced, you might know that interval where you both know it’s finished but are somehow hanging on, really just through habit and inertia. Is that not where we are now with The Union? C’mon WM, you know we’ll all feel so much better once the formalities are completed, we might even stay friends … but there again, given the lady’s callous remarks … 😦

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    1. I’m trying to imagine the outcry if a Scottish National Party MP or MSP had made a speech like that in either parliament poking fun at the English.

      Good analogy!

      Let’s get a Decree Nisi.

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      1. Agreed! But she was scarcely ‘poking fun’, more of an outright abusive relationship, and longstanding at that. They certainly have ‘form’ as they say in cop shows. At least if the clip is widely viewed it should count for another nail or two in the Union’s coffin.

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  6. What is interesting about this website is that most folks are sane around here.

    Being sane is becoming a ‘badge of honour’ . How come we have become a minority?

    What I am curious about is how that became a ‘norm’?

    It seems to me that believing lazy opinions are now acceptable. If your idea – aliens, Donald Tump, Theresa May, wealth trickles down, or any other vox pop opinion that is forced down your throat – then reality suggests you are absent a brain.

    Fortunately, no-one around here seems to believe that.

    Critics of this ‘new norm’ are winning. The game has been altered and there is a finger on the balance of ‘truth’ versus ‘false news’.

    I have no idea how we escape from, for instance, the idea that Donald Trump is not a mere freebooter, who undermines his own countries democratic institutions with loads and loads of folk going:

    “Zeig, Heil, etc, etc.”

    Or:

    “Why shouldn’t the President become the richest thief on the planet?”

    Whoops, the Godwin.

    That is how ridiculous this is all becoming. When Godwin is no longer an excuse, then there is something fundamentally wrong.

    We – the Western World -are entering a Police State, headed by a POTUS that sees that as a destination to be embraced rather than avoided.

    clark, out.

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    1. Speaking of Mr . Trump and a “new norm” (in which BTW White House statements are issued on social media, often composed in bed in the early morning.) You may have noticed that he has reassured us that he is not only “smart” (which he has often professed,) but is in fact a “genius.” And better than that, he proclaims himself to be “stable.” A “stable genius” no less!

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/06/donald-trump-tweets-mental-stability-fire-and-fury-michael-wolff?CMP=share_btn_tw

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      1. LOL Danny.

        Next he’ll be telling us he’s hard working despite spending all that time on golf courses!

        And that, despite having only one serious piece of legislation passed in his importantly powerful first year, he has in fact done more than any other president… ever!

        Oh wait he already did.

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    2. PS: And to the point at hand, this statement in Parliament is absolutely appalling….even by Tory standards. Not only was a Tory MP callous and stupid enough to say it, her Tory friends found it so wonderfully amusing. I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the American Republicans in the modern age have become literally wicked and evil in their policies and practices. I had supposed that in the England this status was reserved to the lunatic far right parties. But it seems that the Tories are no better.

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        1. @ Kangaroo………Honestly, I do have trouble keeping up with the emanations from the far right wing media machine. I try not to pay much attention to the details…..the charges being so bizarre and convoluted that any serious attempt to refute them with rational objectuve argument seems pointless and banal. I do have a faint recollection back during the campaign of hearing about some sort of pedophile sex ring run by Hillary Clinton out of a Washington pizzeria, and that the right wing crazies of the “Grand Old Party” who watch FOX News in their tinfoil beanies were in QUITE a tizzy about it.

          Honestly Kangaroo, I stuck with the video as long as I could, but about five minutes of Greg Hunter is really all I can take….and about all he managed to get done in that length of time was to shove the paper in my face about 15 times, so close to the camera that I have no idea what it said. He seems to be talking about Trump’s Executive Order under the Magnitsky Act (passed in 2012 with wide bi-partisan support)……similar to at least one EO that Obama issued under the act. I really had to leave, but I think we were heading to imprisonment of Obama, the Clintons, the Bushes, and all the other political opponents that the right wing fanatics want to jail………what with the imprisonment of political opponents being such a long and honored tradition in the American Republic. I COULD be wrong about this of course.

          BTW…….if you want to see REAL two-fisted political insanity on steroids, you should take a look at Alex Jones over at “Infowars.”

          So what happened to the party of Lincoln? My theory is that when the Democrats elected a black president in 2008, the right wing faction of the party, prominently including the racists in the newly Republican South, simply lost their minds. With the force of right wing media such as FOX News and the power of the internet and social media, the GOP welcomed the religious fanatics on board, and now we have a party in Civil War with itself.

          I fact checked “Pizzagate” BTW…….the Hillary Clinton child sex ring and pizza parlor is called “Comet Ping Pong.”

          https://www.snopes.com/pizzagate-conspiracy/

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        2. To Panda Paws……….and the far right faction of the party took over the Republicans too. There were once “progressive” Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller.

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      3. I don’t know how exactly this happened, perhaps the following explains it:

        It always seemed to me that the Conservative Party were in a satanic cult with the Republicans – an agreement at a country crossroads with the devil at midnight. More prosaically, right-wing neophytes from England have been treated as damned near royalty in the USA. What’s not to like about obtaining a Harvard degree, having no difficulty whatsoever in funding your time in ‘God’s Own Country’? However, acceptance of that sort of ‘gift’ always comes at a price. The debt, for it is a debt, will be ‘called in’ at some later point.

        It is, perhaps, notable, that not one member of the UK government has had a word to say about the ‘stable genius’ that President Trump identifies himself as. Not one.

        There is a semi-geographical argument that the map of the world could be drawn differently. If the map were drawn on the basis of a political submission to Washington, London would be very close to complete surrender. After that it gets a bit weird, what with Saudi Arabia being very, very close to the USA too, as is Russia. That analogy runs and runs.

        What is noticeable about all of them is that they are corrupt.

        Have you ever seen two leaders of two countries holding hands, like that? I don’t think I have. Yet Theresa May looked like a schoolgirl embracing her beloved teacher. It seemed to me that it had a lot to say about the relative relationship. The Western World was well served by President Obama. It is utterly ill-served by this self-declared ‘stable genius’.

        Personally, I think he is a bit dangerous to our continuing life on this planet. Perhaps tardigrades will be the next dominant species.

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        1. I think you have the relationship right there.

          The think about the government here is that it is utterly terrified to fall out with the USA because just about everything it stands for or cares about is dependent on its “special relationship” with Washington.

          Britain gets to play the game of still being “important” becasue the president knows he can rely on London for support.

          Trump pushes the boundaries of that (with tweets about Muslims and madcap ideas about stirring up more trouble in the Near East) but for all that, Britain will want to stay onside. It’s their ticket to the top table.

          I agree that Trump is dangerous, but it’s unlikely that he will be deposed. As Danny has pointed out elsewhere, the Arithmetic is stacked against it, more or less no matter what he does.

          So we have to accept that it will be a difficult and dangerous 3 years ahead, and hope that he either doesn’t stand again, or that the Republicans break with tradition and stand someone against him.

          Just please not religious extremest Pense.

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        2. @ dc…….I agree with your analysis. The nay saying by the British government seems very muted, even when Trumpy does or says something particularly outrageous. I’ve heard BTW, that the government is concerned about a guest list for the wedding that might include Barack Obama, because that might OFFEND the moron.

          Speaking of Satan, it’s now known that this cartoon was placed in Facebook, etc, during the presidential campaign by the Russian government. I saw it prominently passed around the internet by right wing religious fanatics who seemed not to think it odd at all.. Hard to know how to deal with people who are so obviously deranged.

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    2. That reminded me of The Frog and the Scorpion (or some version thereof). Anyway some swimming creature agrees to carry the Scorpion over a river. “Now you won’t sting me, will you?” “Of course not”, says Scorpion, “for then I’d drown too”. Half way across Scorpion stings anyway. “Why d’ya do that?” asks the swimmer. “Because I’m a scorpion, it’s just what I do!”
      Now why did that have me thinking, “DUP”, I wonder?

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      1. ‘ The Scorpion and the Frog ‘ adds another subtle nuance to the lesson of not trusting the motives of others. The dying frog, having just been stung by the frog before they both reach the safety of the other bank, points out the obvious to the scorpion, that now both will drown in the flood so that the scorpion has sealed its own fate by its actions.

        It’s an interesting insight on the nature of those who cause harm to others, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their actions might actually be against their own self-interest. Similar to turkeys voting for Christmas, in a political context.

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  8. We’ve had Dunkirk being released and there’s a film about Churchill coming out. We’ve got a royal wedding in the offing. Take a dash of Brexit plus empire 2.0 and you can see how the idea of Cromwell giving us a kicking and putting us in our place resonates with these pathetic, insular, delusional little Englanders. How dare these ungrateful subsidy junkies continue to defy us they gasp.

    That’s where it’s at folks, that’s how they view us. Not all but more than enough to make you desperate to get away from them.

    I wonder what the reaction would have been if an SNP MP had mentioned the population of London shitting themselves at the idea of being invaded during the 45 rebellion.

    Thing is we’ve got far too much decorum and taste to say such a thing.

    Except for me obviously.

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    1. LOL.

      This is definately the time for encouraging the “being British and proud”. We have also got a new little prince or princess in the offing, and Zara Philips is to have another kid too.

      I’m sure the youngest royals will be paraded a lot to ensure that we are all reminded of our proud heritage.

      I’m not sure the Tory tosser wanting the homeless off the streets has done them much of a favour though. I suspect a lot of the crowd on the “great day” will be dressed in rags and carrying sleeping bags. Just to make life more difficult for those and such as those.

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    2. Has anyone else wondered at the seeming deluge of films, TV series etc., on British royalty we are currently experiencing, not to mention the historical TV biographies of the lives of various English monarchs? Who is commissioning these projects which all seem to have a common theme of monarchy and Britishness? There is a lot of dark money sloshing about amongst the elite – the royal family itself has a considerable amount of money stashed away in tax havens, accruing ever greater wealth.

      It is suspiciously like a PR campaign to weaponize monarchy as the lynchpin of the British state. In my life of several decades, I cannot remember a time like this when saturation of the media with royal celelbrities was as concentrated as now. It is more than just celebrity culture. It seems more like a celebrity-hungry society is being exploited to create a dominant role for the younger royals especially in a recreation of the Empire 2.0, to counter the worrying signs of anti-elitism growling in the bowels of the electorate.

      Following the fiasco of the royal marriage breakdowns in the 90s, there was restiveness even in the organs of the elite, such as the Telegraph and The Times, who were beginning to murmur darkly about the end of monarchy. I am quite sure that the Palace’s powerful PR were deeply worried and became employed on a long-term roll back which looked to the generation of the young princes. However, I don’t think that these latest manifestations are simply about rescuing and promoting the royal brand. I am quite sure that the state establishment has noticed how the whole project can be utilised in the service of that establishment.

      Years ago, I tended to see the royal family as merely a boring and feeble hangover of Empire and paid them very little notice. Now, I wonder if I underestimated their power to be used by a determined elite.

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      1. Fantastic point.

        I reckon they have always been used to an extent to do just that. The war was long before my time, but I’m told that Winston used to wheel out the King and the Queen (mother) to put spirit back into the people. And to be fair it worked.

        They visited bombed out people, who had lost everything, and commiserated with them. The Queen always wore new smart new clothes, which apparently she excused by saying: “if these people were coming to visit me, they would wear their finest clothes…” Maybe she actually believed that, although most of them only had what they stood in.

        As you say, in the 90s as one marriage after the other went west… Charlie, Andrew, Anne (only Eddie standing) they seemed to lose favour, and the low point was when whatever happened to Diana, just before she was about to marry a Muslim, happened.

        The Queen behaved with her customary aloofness until Tony Blair apparently advised her to return to England (she was on holiday in Scotland). It seemed that being in Scotland wasn’t good enough! Her people needed her…in England.

        She did, and recorded a message of, I don’t know, sorrow was it? I don’t think I ever saw it.

        Now we have another kid or two on the way, and Harry, everyone’s darling, is getting married. And I’m sure you are right. They are using this to distract from the utter misery that is life for so many people in Britain today.

        I didn’t know about the TV programmes, because I don’t watch tv. But yes, that will be part of it.

        We must all feel very British at this time, and no better way to be British than to have the royals paraded about giving birth to more scroungers, and marrying so that even more scroungers can be produced. I noticed on Twitter that newspapers were covering the fact that one of them started nursery today and that her mother actually took photographs herself, as if she were human.

        At some point of course Edinburgh will shuffle off his mortal coil, and that will be another excuse for being very British (over an immigrant???) Think of the distraction that will cause… and the queen is 92 or thereby.

        I tend to agree that at one time they were a “boring and feeble hangover”, but they were popular with older people. My lovely old neighbour, 92, absolutely loved them. Now I see them as a malign influence.

        But they are very powerful/influential. If they want something done, it happens. And they are very rich and unpatriotic. Tax havens aren’t patriotic!

        They use their limited legal power to get what they want too, changing laws that affect them.

        I sincerely hope that in a new Scotland we can bin them… but that’s a matter for the population after we are independent.

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      2. There were (or arguably are) a spate of films, 24 being the leader of the pack, that justified torture on the basis of immediacy. That also seemed to me to be Hollywood playing to an agenda, where waterboarding, for instance, becomes acceptable because it was in ‘thrillers’.

        The reality was somewhat different. Essentially it was torture for the sake of torture. Time constraints were never an issue and Guantanamo Bay was on prime time not because it was required but because it inured folk to the need. It also showed a government ‘doing something’, frankly anything rather than admit their own utter incompetence.

        Don’t get me wrong. If there is evidence against a terrorist, by all manner of means prosecute them and bring them to justice. If you don’t have the evidence then it is habeas corpus and frankly, the state should be prosecuted for wrongful imprisonment.

        All of this is a corruption of morals at the very least and an attempt at mind control at it’s worst.

        I am sick and tired of the argument that a bomb, say, is about to go off in an hour and torture will reveal its whereabouts. Any competent opponent would take a few punches and then tell you an exact address in Los Angeles, say, when they knew the bomb was set for Frankfurt. The point is that the hour would wind down and the killer/terrorist would have won. It is ridiculous to think that terrorists are any less competent at deceit than our security forces.

        The modern idea appears to be that that torture is a Roman Arena to keep the populace amused. The fact that it solves precisely nothing is inconvenient, but hey! who cares?

        Let it never be forgotten that there is a vast industry surrounding this, none of which appears particularily effective. Yet billions are funded to ‘protect’ us whilst the US in particular goes around the globe using drones to kill other people. The two clauses in the above sentence are an example of waste. If the West just stopped trying to kill people elsewhere then neither industry, counter-terrorism or warfare would be required.

        Rant mode off.

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  9. There is a severe problem with my peat-powered laptop in that I cannot get my Soppy Sunday photos and yet I can get a video of this revolting creature!

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    1. I think that it must be the secret services interfering with Munguin’s Republic’s publications.

      They see our stuff as indoctrination. All those bonny scenes and fluffy animals pulling at our heartstrings and deflecting us from the proper path of harsh realities, austerity, cheese paring, doing without.

      Then we show a Tory speech from their parliament and they think,, YES, this is more like the message. Rebellious Scots to Crush!

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  11. Just saw this:

    BREAKING: May’s #cabinetreshuffle. New roles announced:

    Equality – Toby Young
    Media – Steve Bannon
    Education – Joey Essex
    Race Relations – Hitler
    Sport – The England Cricket team
    Ireland – Oliver Cromwell
    Brexit – Frank Spencer
    No Brexit – Mr Bean
    Health – Jeremy Hunt

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  13. The Royal Family.
    Just think about that short sentence for a wee while.
    Royal is good. King Arthur. Robert the Bruce. Henry V. Wee dumpy Vicky.
    Then the stuff that Royalists don’t mention.
    King Arthur didn’t exist, at least not as a King; he may have been a Comes, or even a Dux.
    Rab was a murderer. But he was *our* murderer.
    Henry V? Decided to invade a country he claimed as his, then proceeded to rape and pillage it.
    Henry VIII? Serial rapist and mass murderer.
    Jamie Saxt. Was a (reasonably)good king until he got power ower the English. Those of the arselicking middle classes who wanted ennobled and were willing to pay for it got their wish. What Jamie thought of them was that after a good dinner he knighted the remains of the roast beef he’d had. Which is where we get Sirlion steaks from.

    To be continued…

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  14. her comments mirror Mrs Mayhems attitude when confronting Corbyn at PMQs ,total disdain and disgust having to speak to and answer questions about her Sterling performance .

    Liked by 1 person

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