True, true, Ruth.
You got out in the nick of time with some lame excuse about being too busy looking after your bairn to be doing all these surgeries and constituency work (although you do have time for making radio programmes and you wouldn’t have had time to be a PR consultant, if only you hadn’t been such bad news for the consultancy that was going to employ you).
So, no. You didn’t lose a third of your seats. or, indeed, any seats. You are but a humble constituency MSP.
But Jack the Car (you know, the one you said, only the other day, was doing such a cracking job), managed to lose a bit over half your seats…53.8% actually. So he did better at losing than Nicola, by some way.
Nicola, on the other hand, increased her seats from 35 to 46 (an increase of 31%) or 47 if you include the suspended-SNP MP who was on the ballot paper as SNP (an increase of 34%).
Nicola is now the one with 47 (or 48) out of 59 seats… and your lot are the ones with, erm… 6.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
That personalisation of electoral success, or indeed failure with:
“I am not the one who last lost a third of my seats at the last election first minister”, with added chortles, hysteria, something odd about the voice?,
and no realpolitik.
“What comes around, or otherwise, goes around” is their idea.
It is sad that the best they can hope for is for some sort of pendulum, where their ‘turn’ will, inevitably rise.
I suspect they might be dissappointed.
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May I ask you trispw what you make of our friend Craig Murray’s most recent post? I would welcome your opinion.
Me?
I dunno.
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He’s stating worries that a lot of people have.
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I never know with Craig Murray.
I think that he’s a loose cannon. I think too that he knows things and he knows people who know things.
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I don’t follow Craig Murray because he put me off by consistently denying that Russia / Putin had anything to do with election meddling and all the rest. I thought that if anything he should know more and better than me about things Russian as his direct experience is so much more recent than mine, but instead he got it wrong.
He says a lot of good stuff, but from my point of view he’s unreliable. As Tris says, a bit of a loose cannon.
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From a Malaysian and post-colonial viewpoint, I found the Russian interference case bemusing. Every major power did, does and will do everything it can to further its own interest. Malaysian, Indian and Mideast are littered with examples of that. Almost every state in Malaysia had someone executed/hanged/exiled for opposing the British colonial authority. To assume that the US and UK are immune from such interference is very naive at the very least.
I think what Craig is subconsciously implying is that the US and UK are now having a taste of their own medicine. ‘Tis very bitter indeed. And frankly I don’t think the Russians need to do very much to supposedly influence the election process. The US/UK drift to the (far-)right had begun way back and is almost complete. The Russians are simply prodding it to be a bit faster. You cannot be fascistic in a day.
Secondly, Craig is also highlighting the difference of what is legal/moral and what is politics. They are not mutual inclusive. Scotland has the legal and moral right to seek self determination. However politically at this moment it is not going to happen. That is why he is asking Scots to prepare ourselves to achieve this aim outwith of the normal legal (and to a lesser extent political) process. Because the current setup will ensure this aim will fail.
In the context of Malaysia, we began to protest until the colonial authority realised that they simply cannot keep Malaysia as a possession anymore. This can be akin to the Gandhian non-violent civil disobedience too in the case of India. And frankly speaking, with that majority, do you think anyone can go up against the Tories in Westminster? Even if there is a slim chance that BoJo may agree to a 2nd indyref, he will definitely be slaughtered by the backbenchers. We definitely have to consider all and every route to independence.
Thirdly, politics is about the money trail. If you have money (or oil), you will definitely have friends. All these scare stories of Scotland will not be recognised are simply utter bollocks because nobody will want to deny themselves business opportunities once Scottish independence seems inevitable.
ABU
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Hi, Abu! Great to hear from you again!
I’ll read your piece with greater attention later, but now I’m feeling feeble. I didn’t want to let an opportunity pass to say hi and all best wishes, though! Come back and see us again soon!
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Good arguments there, Abu.
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Well, it did come around, didn’t it?
And it always will because that’s how politics.works.
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Ruth’s picture appeared last night in a Pointless question about “Ruths ” and was recognised by the contestants – but only by 26 of the 100 sample against which the contestants’ answers are assessed. So it seems that all that mugging for the cameras, buffalo riding, tank straddling etc has had limited impact on the wider UK, with implications for her vision of a career south of the Tweed, where her media – cultivated image as a serial election winner (!!!) does not appear to have taken hold.
If it is true that elements of the Bromsgrove Tories considered her a “Jock oik”, her path to glory may be bumpier than anticipated.
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Just goes to show that you can tell people how many elections Ruth “won”, but you can’t make them believe it.
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If anyone deserves her lack of success, it’s her. Good riddance at the next Holyrood election I hope, her constituants must have seen through her by now.
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Well, they haven’t actually seen her… No, I lie, she has done one surgery.
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Yeah, she really, really proved that saying about Tories and brass necks when she used to criticise the First Minister for allegedly not doing the day job!
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Well, as no human is born with a brass neck, one can only assume the need for an operation to add it. It probably explains the fees.
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“No human is born with a brass neck…” While this may be true, Douglas, the later development of one is an outward sign of the progressive congenital disorder – other signs are hardening of the heart, advancing phorophobia (fear and hatred of taxes) and a generally Scrooge-like mentality – for which no reliable treatment has yet been discovered.
Munguinites are not like that, as far as I can tell, and are all the better for it.
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Munguin says he’s not in the least like that… As for Tris, hmmmm…
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Why bother with the day-job when there are mines to disarm, steers to be rode, troops to be commanded and tanks to be astride.
Lord, no. electors are just little people of no import.
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Nollaig Chridheil Tris. I hope Munguin does give you a good present. To 2020. May we be out of this god forsaken Union.
ABU
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ebreah,
I assume that Nollaig Chridlheil is Merry Christmas in Gaelic? If so, and I am going to sign up to learn more about it – it is a New Years resolution for me – may I also add my monoglot agreement. And reflect it back to you?
So, thanks trispw for hosting this site and lang may yer lum reek!
It is quite astonishing how you have a global reach of genuinely nice people!
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It is Douglas. Just the few words I picked up though. You should take it up. I tried but the orthography and lenition were really problematic for me. I need to hear it spoken in order to pick it up, which sadly, there is none spoken here. The pronunciation of Milngavie makes much more sense if you know Gaelic. Happy Christmas to you (and all the readers) too. About 15 minutes more.
I cannot wait to breathe the air of an independent Scotland.
ABU
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ebreah,
Call me an optomist, but there are probably quite a lot of folk hereabouts that would help you with:
“orthography and lenition.”
I can get genius level on the NYT spelling bee. I have absolutely no chance of competing with someone who actually knows the words:
“orthography and lenition.”
🙂
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If it wasnt obvious enough, I have total respect for ebreah. T’was I, I was doing down.
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🙂 Abu… you’ll be Munguin’s guest of honour and breathe that lovely fresh air… 🙂
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Being the guest of honour of the first Scottish President would be a fine thing!
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We are indeed blessed with some really lovely and remarkable Munguinites, Douglas.
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Hmmmm, Abu. I heard he was thinking of giving me Thursday afternoon off. I suppose that’s some sort of present.
Thanks for you wishes, and I absolutely agree that we need to be out of this awful union and back in the far looser one.
I know you don;t much do Christmas in Malaysia, but I wish you a peaceful time nonetheless.
Give my best wishes to your family, mate.
Hugs from Munguin.
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I think that this whole thread is going to turn into a ‘group hug’.
Well, I am I tetchy old guy, and when I get annoyed, I remember all of you and I calm down.
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Now for something completely different.
STV did a piece last night about a Christmas Tune written by a Scot for Shakin Stevens
called “Merry Christmas Everyone”.
It is a complete lie that Shakin Stevens is an alcoholic from Bathgate and I can absolutely refute
the rumour that he is about to bring out a cover version of that old Elvis smash hit “I’m all shook up”.
Best wishes to everyone over the festive season and hope we can all return with our batteries fully charged for the coming fight and thanks Tris for putting up with some of my off the wall comments!
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There… hows that? 🙂
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A wee bit of Yuletide doggerel.
Santa’s elves were happy.
Oh yes, so very merry,
for they had found the place
where Santa keeps his sherry.
They should have put up decorations
and made themselves so handy,
by wrapping all the parcels
but they’d also found his brandy.
They might still have saved the day:
things could have turned out fine.
Unfortunately, the now tipsy elves
discovered Santa’s wine.
So Santa he just blew his top.
He fired every elf.
He may be a little late this year:
he’s got to do it all himself.
To Tris, Munguin and all Munguinites wherever you are – a Happy Christmas and all the best for a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year!🎅🏻🎄🔔
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that was brilliant – MNR has such a talented readership
Merry Christmas everyone
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He’s a bit good at this poetry stuff, isn’t he.
Munguin will have a Christmas card for everyone tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy!
Hope your back is a bit better.
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LOL…
Cheers Andi.. same to you and yours.
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Thank you for all the posts of 2019 Tris and a very Merry Christmas to you and all munguinites
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And to you, Tatu.
🙂
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