Image: Not sure who did original

The original BBC image was shown for a few seconds on Friday 14^th October at 6:30pm before a report from the SNP Conference. Ironically, the report was quite positive, presenting the SNP as progressive and liberal in contrast with the Tory government in London. There has been a bit of a twitterstorm and a facebookfuss about the image. To repeat the above, for some reason as yet unknown, BBC Scotland:

1. Changed a colour original to a black and white image suggesting the past.
2. Adapted the image to enhance a dark shadow on the upper lip suggesting Hitler’s moustache.
3. Mirrored the image to make the raised hand salute look like the correct Nazi arm choice

The evidence for 3 is that you can see his wedding ring is now on the right hand when it is clear from other images that he conventionally wears it on his left.

No doubt, complainers will be characterised as paranoid and the image justified on ‘aesthetic’ grounds but the attempted subliminal message is clear to any who have studied propaganda techniques. Remember this earlier example helping to win the election for the Tories?

Image: Conservative Party/PA

The early morning broadcasts, which I am monitoring, on the 14^th did not use this image and the report was favourable to the SNP. The report on the 17^th did not do damage to or support any of the parties.

Running Total:

Running total 21/9/16 to 17/10/16*                     Number of reports

Bad news for SG/SNP                                                            17

Good news for SG/SNP                                                         8

Bad news for Labour                                                              1

Good news for Labour                                                           5

Bad news for Conservative Party (CP)                              0

Missed bad news opportunities for CP                             143 (estimate)

Good news for CP                                                                   3

* Monday to Friday only

 

‘7 out of 1000 are stillborn or die soon after’ (BBC News, 1pm 17.10.16)

That’s the figure from a TV broadcast which was primarily about the launch of a new compensation scheme for parents. Here’s some more detail from the website:

‘The Health Secretary (Hunt) has set a target of halving stillbirths and neonatal deaths by 2030. At present, for every 1,000 births in England, more than seven babies are either born dead or die soon afterwards, giving it one of the worst records of any developed country. He said the UK could learn best practice from countries like Sweden, which has halved its rate of avoidable birth injuries in recent years.’

Note that Hunt’s casual conflation of England with the UK? What is the situation in Scotland, I wondered? I’ll come to that but first, isn’t it interesting to look at how Hunt planned to deal with the problem. It cost the NHS in England £500 million last year to ‘resolve legal disputes’ but Hunt has set aside only £8 million for training and only one quarter of million to pilot new ideas. If it costs so much for compensation why not invest far more to try and reduce that?

So, the Scottish figures are? Try googling for that and be rewarded with contact details for no end of ‘ambulance-chasing lawyers! I did find, courtesy of the Sun newspaper:

‘Botched births shocker: Scots NHS in £25m bill for baby deaths and injuries’

 A quick calculation tells you that the level of compensation pay-outs, per head of population, in Scotland is only just over half of that in England. Scotland’s population of just over 5 million is around one tenth of England’s population of 53 million so you’d expect our total to be around one tenth of the English figure or roughly £50 million. I know there will be other factors involved such as Scots being less likely to claim or Scots judges being stingier with the awards or something else. However, I can’t see any of those factors meaning that it isn’t just because the Scottish NHS actually has fewer cases per capita of stillbirth or injury at birth.

After much searching I can’t find the report, on which the above 7 in every 1000, is based nor can I find equivalent Scottish figures.  So, here are the figures for stillbirth only from Quality Watch using Office for National statistics data:

‘The infant mortality rate for the UK and each country in the UK has been steadily decreasing since 1960  All countries have followed a similar trend, with Scotland having the lowest rate of 3.3 in 2013; Northern Ireland with 3.5 in 2012; Wales with 3.6 in 2013 and England with 3.9 in 2014.’

Did BBC Scotland report that, I wonder?

So, we can say with certainty that the stillbirth rate is lower in Scotland than it is in England. Remember, 0.6% of a difference between data as small as 3.3 and 3.9 is not trivial. There’s not much scope there for improvement in figures that are very low, globally and historically. However, does that strike you as odd? Isn’t Scotland ‘The sick man of the UK?’ According to the Glasgow Centre for Population History and the University of the West of Scotland, he most definitely still is. See this:

‘Scotland experiences high levels of ‘excess’ mortality: that is, higher mortality over and above that explained by the country’s socioeconomic profile. Compared with England & Wales, and adjusting for differences in poverty and deprivation (the main causes of poor health in any society), 5,000 more people die every year in Scotland than should be the case.

So these stillbirth figures are  kind of against the odds aren’t they? Something must be compensating for that bad start in life. What could it be? Do we have a better NHS? Is better managed? Is it being protected from the damage being done in England by this Tory government and its coalition predecessor? Is this a case of SNP gooood?

Here’s an idea. What if, kind of obviously, England is short of midwives and we’re not? See this from the Royal College of Midwives in England (RCM):

‘With a shortage of 3500 midwives in England, a historically high birthrate and increasingly complex births, she said there is a lot of strain on services.’

 Don’t get too comfortable now. See this from the RCM in Scotland:

The Royal College of Midwives has warned that Scotland is facing a retirement “time bomb”. About 40% of midwives are now in their 50s and 60s, compared with 30% only four years ago.

See? Well actually, if you read a wee bit further, you get:

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said services were not currently under threat, but may not be safe in future. The Scottish government said Scotland had the recommended midwife numbers and it would continue to ensure the right numbers of midwives were training.

So, that would be a….non-story then? If Scotland had its share of the midwife shortage, that would be 350! Imagine the headline on BBC Scotland for that!

‘There is a major crisis in our maternity wards! Ruth Davidson condemns SNP Scottish Government’s shameful failure to protect vulnerable pregnant mothers!’

Is this actually just another of many indicators of the relative good health of NHS Scotland and credit to the SNP government?  If it wasn’t you can be sure they’d get the blame. For more evidence on this, see:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/06/23/countering-unionist-propaganda-against-the-nhs-scotland/

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37652928

http://www.qualitywatch.org.uk/indicator/infant-mortality/

http://www.gcph.co.uk/publications/635_history_politics_and_vulnerability_explaining_excess_mortality

https://www.rcm.org.uk/news-views-and-analysis/news/birth-injuries-compensation-scheme-announced

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34645647

 

  

Images: caernarfon.com, undiscoveredscotland.co.uk, fortapachearizona.org

Here’s what the Aberdeen-based Press & Journal thinks:

‘Fort George closure would cost Highland economy millions of pounds. Plans to close the historic Fort George barracks could cost the Highland economy £14million a year and lead to the loss of more than 100 jobs, it has emerged.’

Further down, the PJ reports:

 ‘Built after the Battle of Culloden, the garrison has been the home of the famous 500-strong Black Watch battalion for almost a decade, and also houses the regimental museum for The Highlanders.’

The campaign to save the fort has full cross-party support including that of newly-appointed Depute-Leader of the SNP, Angus Robertson. Is he biased? Like some of my Robertson ancestors, some of his probably got jobs with the Black Watch helping to keep the other tribes down, on behalf of the German, House of Hanover, UK monarchy at the time…..and still today? And, his mother is German and he speaks German fluently. He needs to declare any interests on this one.

I’m going out on a limb here, I know, but why don’t we think differently about this and similar historical sites? You could see them as places best forgotten rather than preserved. I began to think this way during a visit to North Wales with it’s impossible-to-ignore string of massive Norman castles. They are big ugly and physically dominating things just at face value but if you think what they were for, it’s much worse. These 12^th Century monstrosities were built to dominate the Welsh, to remind them of their inferior status and were places of torture and imprisonment. It’s important to remember too that they were part of a wider domination of the Anglo-Saxons/English by a brutal French-speaking warrior elite just at the beginning of their imperial expansion.

More than four hundred years later, that imperial project had just finished off the last element of resistance in mainland Britain, the tribes of the Scottish Highlands. After victory by an imperial army at Culloden in 1746, the clans were ‘pacified’. This brutal process of punishment, humiliation and killing is today well-known. As with the Welsh, centuries before, Celtic cultural expression was banned and a chain of great forts was built to maintain control of the ‘tribes’. They are still with us today as Fort William, Fort Augustus and Fort George. Going further in the humiliation for the local population than was the case in Wales, they take the names of British aristocrats and have become the place-names of the settlements they stand in.

Less than two centuries later, a more fully genocidal project but with its roots still in Anglo-Norman imperialism was to put down many more forts across the lands of the aboriginal tribes of North America. Fort Apache is the best known but there are many more.

Is Fort George just our Fort Apache? Would the descendants of the Apache like to pay taxes for its preservation, I wonder?

 

 

Kevin McKenna was at it again in the Observer today, 16^th October 2016. Remember it was Kevin who once accused the SNP of being ‘Arrogant, dismissive, illiberal, reactionary, totalitarian!’  He was angry, very angry, judging by his language, because the SNP government was interfering with some parent’s (religious ones mainly) rights, by trying to introduce legislation that might help prevent child abuse. My response at the time is below.

Some commentators on social media have alleged that McKenna, a recent convert from rabid Unionism to apparent support for independence, is actually a ‘mole’, pretending to be a ‘critical friend’ but actually working to undermine the movement by sowing dissent within it. Here’s what Bella Caledonia had to say about his writing just before he shifted:

‘It’s a piece so loaded with self-loathing, barely recognised inferiorism and desperate, desperate political emptiness it’s hard to approach, but we really do need to talk about Kevin. It’s the latest in a now familiar style of English journalism, albeit this time by a Scot.’

I couldn’t possible comment.

Today, he was sowing dissent in the wider movement by going on about the ‘eye-watering’ cost of hiring stalls at the SNP conference. This had forced out groups like Common Space, Compass, Oxfam, the New Economic Foundation, Friends of the Earth and the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, thus spoiling the ‘pleasingly chaotic and unfettered atmosphere.’

I’ll be direct. None of these groups, though no doubt worthy in other contexts, could be described as either ‘battlers’ for the independence movement or ‘at its core’. I’ve expressed before my very strong reservations about the SNP’s current position on NATO and the monarchy but I’m prepared to wait until the great day and not waste everybody’s time and energy on them now. As for the other political groups ‘dubbed the SNP’s Momentum shadow’, presumably RISE, do what the real Momentum actually did for Labour in England, join the SNP and fight from within to influence its direction.  Why on Earth would you expect the SNP to spend time and energy flattering the egos of tiny ineffective groups posturing on the fringes of the drive for independence?

And, returning to the ‘pleasingly chaotic and unfettered atmosphere’ McKenna would rather the conference had, how would that help? You could argue that would just suit the Unionists and their media commentators:

‘Ruth Davidson: The SNP Conference is chaotic. How could we trust them to run a country?’

 

Sources:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/08/04/in-defence-of-the-totalitarian-snp-government/

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2011/06/06/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/

 

Image: pompeiinetworks.wordpress.com

In the Herald today (15^th October 2016), Tom Gordon uses the words of the Roman political writer, Cicero (106-43 BCE) to warn the SNP and its supporters to be afraid, very afraid because:

‘Whenever a thing seems at its zenith, you may be sure its destruction has already started.’

Cicero was writing about the Roman Empire’s unforeseen collapse. Gordon is suggesting the same might be happening with the SNP. There are a few flaws in Gordon’s hypothetical structure too. First, Cicero was well out. The Roman Empire in the West had another three centuries and more to go after his demise. The Empire in the East had about 1400 years to run! What Cicero had got wrong, understandably perhaps, was that Rome was nowhere near its zenith but merely on the upward slopes and with a long way to go. Second, though there is much writing by other journos suggesting the same ‘SNP-peak’ as Gordon does, there is no empirical evidence to support them. Look at the results of the Garscadden/ Scotstounhill by-election, in Glasgow last week. Here at the first preference results:

Party	2016 votes	2016 share	since 2012	since 2007
SNP	2,135	42.6%	+15.6%	+19.6%
Labour	1,944	38.8%	-22.8%	-17.8%
Conservative	510	10.2%	+7.6%	+4.9%
Green	242	4.8%	+2.1%	+0.9%
Liberal Democrat	97	1.9%	+0.8%	-2.8%
UKIP	83	1.7%	+0.8%	from nowhere

 The 20% swing to the SNP suggests sustained strength, undimmed by any recent undermining of the SNP government in a campaign of denigration by the almost uniformly pro-union mainstream media in Scotland. Gordon might want to remember that Cicero was jailed for his criticism of the rulers of Rome. I’m just joking of course. That the SNP took less than 50% of the vote does not suggest the ‘granite monolith’ of political dominance Gordon attributes to the SNP if his theory is to make any sense. Couldn’t it mean just as plausibly, that the SNP remain an unfinished project with as much chance of further successes as of any decline? The above results strongly suggest the latter.

And, as for the ‘Tory surge’, these results suggest it’s more a media construct than anything vaguely real.

Here’s a better quote from Cicero which Tom Gordon might want to consider:

‘Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.’

 

  

Images: scottishsocialistvoice.wordpress.com, telegraph.co.uk, @langbanks

When the BBC cut from a report on the SNP conference to a big hairy escaped gorilla, us Nats knew straightaway what they were up to. Not satisfied with suggesting before that Nicola looks like one of the Crankies they’ve decided to provoke us even more, the cheeky bastards. Don’t rise to the bait, fellow Yessers. If you do, they’ll just get another laugh at our expense, literally, via the licence fee.

Not satisfied with that, the BBC offers an apparent apology then further insults Nicola by giving her a toy chimpanzee! It’s not an effin gorilla! Are they now saying she’s like a chimp? Is there no end to their cheek or, maybe, their lack of zoological knowledge? How many research assistants do they need?

But, they’ve been too smart for their own good this time. I’ve carried out quite thorough investigations and I can reveal that it was Ruth Davidson on a buffalo, above, that damaged the gorilla’s gate and let it out. Needless to say BBC Scotland has concealed this faux pas. This is only the most recent of many errors made by the Scottish Tories which they have concealed as they work to polish Ruth as ‘Defender of the Union’. See the sources below for evidence of this protection racket. This is a serious point. They have of course dropped Kezia Dugdale from this role. She’s not even on the bench as they say. Kezia has taken this quite well and has agreed not to criticise any of Ruth’s big English pals and their xenophobic rants despite being, of course, opposed to such nasty values. After all, the Union comes first. Silence is golden, like one of those MBE medallions, eh?

Observant readers will, of course, have spotted the obvious irony in Ruth Davidson, Leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition in Scotlandshire, carelessly freeing one Western Lowland Silverback primate yet being so determined to keep more than five million Northern Caledonian Silverbacks, Dyed-Blondes and other variants, in miserable captivity.

Ruth-free resources:

http://indyref2.scot/protecting-ruth

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/09/24/some-things-are-utterly-ruth-less-as-well-as-utterly-useless-but-it-is-not-all-doom-and-gloom-even-in-scotland/

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/09/29/bbc-scotlands-still-ruth-less-approach-to-the-news-what-do-they-need-to-do-to-get-bad-press/

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/10/04/wake-up-sleepyhead-the-snp-tax-collector-is-at-your-door-princess-of-vandals-and-thieves-ruth-davidson-rides-to-the-rescue-of-the-top-earners-and-big-businesses/

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/10/11/scottish-tory-leader-ruth-ive-never-been-caught-out-davidson-is-caught-out-we-can-reveal-she-had-the-same-military-role-sort-of-as-adolf-hitler/

PDF: gorillagate

 

 

Image: http://news.diginate.com/

 

I shouldn’t have watched. It’s happened before. David Dumbledore’s incompetence, nastiness, smugness and barely concealed contempt for us, the presence of the wholly unacceptable, mean, right-wing, xenophobic, selfish, narrow face of Little England broadcast right into your face at your own expense can test any man. I did watch last night, Thursday 13^th October 2013. The SNP conference would be discussed and Alex Salmond would be there. I should have known better and watched something else. It’s too late now. I’ll tell you more about it below.

I came away hating some aspects of Englishness so much that I had to go and find something to remind me of the other better forms of Englishness that would soothe me. I thought back to my teenage years and my love for the Kinks, the Small Faces and the Who. I remembered how Iris Murdoch’s tiny beginner’s book on Existentialism had helped me pass an essay. I jumped forward decades over other English-born figures of inspiration and finished with frankly loveable Jeremy Corbyn, today. I know he’s opposed to Scottish independence but he’s got reasons I can respect. The thing that helped most was the Anglo-Welsh, London-born, Ray Davies’ song ‘Better Things’. Think of your heart, play it and singalong:

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow.
Hoping all the verses rhyme,
And the very best of choruses to
Follow all the doubt and sadness.
I know that better things are on the way.

Here’s hoping all the days ahead
Won’t be as bitter as the ones behind you.
Be an optimist instead,
And somehow happiness will find you.
Forget what happened yesterday,
I know that better things are on the way.

It’s really good to see you rocking out
And having fun,
Living like you just begun.
Accept your life and what it brings.
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things.
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things.

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky,
And hoping something better comes tomorrow.
Hoping all the verses rhyme,
And the…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcQ-tNFQleI 

We can all choose our own better days to hope for. I choose to hope to get away from some forms of Englishness, especially English Imperialism and its bloody results. I know we Scots took part, some of us too enthusiastically, but that only makes me want away even more.

You might not need to actually know what was said but, if you do, here are words said which drove me to the edge and to write this. There’s always an upside. Some of you are listening to ‘Better Days’ when you might not have.

It started with an audience member talking about playing the ‘best-of-three’ thing with her children before asking ‘How many referendums do we need?’

Isn’t that revealing? We’re like children. It isn’t our referendum until we grow up. It’s clearly a family affair. Another audience member reinforced this view by wondering why the English, the Welsh and the Northern Irish family members didn’t get a vote. Now there’s a nightmare, a family where you can’t leave unless the others let you. Isn’t that a Stephen King story? Actually, isn’t it lucky for Brexiteers that it’s not the EU family? A third audience member was allowed to tell fibs about the Scottish economy unchallenged by Salmond. Right at the beginning, Dimbleby, with a sneer on his face, had gone to Damien Green, Tory Secretary for Cruelty to the Poor and the Disabled, to answer the question. Not surprisingly he took the opportunity to lie blatantly about failures in the Scottish education, health and police services. I’ve written many times to tell the truth on these and you can find it on this website (some urls below). However, most nasty of all, was Daily Mail hack, Isabel Oakeshott, exposer of David Cameron’s Pig-gate scandal, who said:

‘Scotland is more of a (sic) economic basket-case than Greece. How will you pay for your welfare bill without us?’

Sadly, she’s not the only one who thinks this.

It’s not fair on the family. We need to grow up and pay for ourselves. We’ve got to get away. Please let us go.

Further reading:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/05/29/are-the-disadvantaged-in-scotland-actually-less-likely-to-enter-higher-education-than-the-disadvantaged-in-england-ucas-admit-they-dont-actually-know-i-doubt-it-very-much/

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/06/23/countering-unionist-propaganda-against-the-nhs-scotland/

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/02/21/scottish-news-media-conceal-global-status-of-police-scotlands-methods/

 

 

 

Images: sundaypost.com, bbc.co.uk

 Here are Jackie Bird’s words* on Wednesday 12^th October at 6:30pm:

‘The closure of the Longannet power station in March cut back Scottish economic output significantly according to the latest figures. It contributed to Scottish growth being three times slower than the UK as a whole over the year to June.’

Here are the actual figures, presented by Douglas Fraser in the broadcast visuals and from the website:

‘Earlier this week, official figures showed output from the Scottish economy grew by 0.4% in the second quarter of this year but lagged behind the UK as a whole. UK output as a whole grew by 0.7% over the same period.’

I’m sure the question marks are bubbling up in your brain too. The Scottish economy is growing 0.3% slower than the UK as a whole and not 3 times slower? I’m not an economist far less a statistician so I’m starting to doubt myself. Have I got this wrong? I better check other sources.

Well yes I had misunderstood but it was no wonder. Here’s the crucial information which Douglas Fraser didn’t tell us, from Holyrood.com:

‘On an annual basis, compared to the second quarter of 2015, Scottish GDP grew by 0.7 per cent.’

The 0.7% growth for the UK in Quarter 2 of 2016 in the visuals is nothing to do with the 0.7% growth over the year for Scotland, not mentioned or shown but needed along with the 2.2% for the UK over the year, for understanding.  So, it was nothing to do with the 0.3% difference between the Scottish 0.4% and the UK 0.7% for the second quarter of 2016 in Douglas’ visuals. It was based on a comparison he didn’t present the data for or explain at all. Head hurt? Here it is from the Daily Torygraph:

‘The Scottish Government statistics showed that the economy grew by 0.4 per cent between April and June and 0.7 per cent over the year. However, the UK economy grew by 0.7 per cent over the quarter and 2.2 per cent annually.’

Geddit? So between them, Jackie and Douglas show in bright graphics, a 0.3% difference for April to June and tell us it’s ‘three times slower over the year.’ but don’t have a visual for that. More than a few of the learners are going to be confused by this. Further, the lesson is incomplete. It is crucial that the learner is able to evaluate the usefulness of statistics like these. Why were they not told about the limitations of such data and introduced to common reservations about their interpretation? I’m sure we all agree (patronising tone intended) that pupils should not be encouraged to passively absorb statistics but to actively question them. I’m sure (patronising tone intended again), Jackie and Douglas, you have heard the term, attributed by Mark Twain to Benjamin Disraeli: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’ Just to get you started (same tone) how about these:

‘Is it meaningful to compare the GDP of two countries with quite differing populations and geographies?’

‘Is Scotland’s current GDP evidence that independence would be a mistake or the result of Westminster’s mismanagement of the Scottish economy?’

‘Does GDP tell you anything meaningful about the quality of life or the distribution of wealth within a country?’

Here are two quotes you could use to stimulate research by the pupils and subsequent group discussions:

‘There is a direct correlation between the size of the state and the wealth of the people – the bigger the former, the smaller the latter.’ (Frisby 2014)

‘The Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that Scotland at £23,102 had, outside of London and the south east of England, the highest Gross Value Added (GVA) per head of population of any region or nation in the UK.’ (Settle, 2014)

I spent more than 20 years in teaching and in teacher training. So, Ms Bird and Mr Fraser, that’s a clear fail for the presentation of the facts required by the pupils to understand the lesson and a clear fail for the lack of development of the content points required to make the lesson worthwhile in the first place.

*I know, ‘Jackie Bird’s words’. Why did that make you think of this 1964 song by the Trashmen? ‘A-well-a ev’rybody’s heard about the bird bird bird bird / B-bird’s the word oh well-a bird bird bird / Bird is a word oh well-a bird bird bird.’ It didn’t, it was only me?

My survey of the early morning reporting continues. There was nothing to report on the 12^th. On the 13^th, we had a positive report for the SNP on the conference and report on the Scottish economy’s growth was far more balanced than that of the previous evening. I suppose Jackie and Douglas were still asleep.

Running Total:

Running total 21/9/16 to 13/10/16*                    Number of reports

Bad news for SG/SNP                                                            17

Good news for SG/SNP                                                         7

Bad news for Labour                                                              1

Good news for Labour                                                           5

Bad news for Conservative Party (CP)                              0

Missed bad news opportunities for CP                             143 (estimate)

Good news for CP                                                                   3

* Monday to Friday only

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-37635110

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/scottish-economy-lagging-behind-rest-uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/12/snp-accused-of-complacency-over-sluggish-scottish-economy/

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/why-an-independent-scotland-could-become-the-richest-country-on-earth-9096120.html

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/14134978.SNP__new_figures_show_Scotland_continues_to__quot_punch_above_its_weight_quot__in_contributing_to_UK_economy/

 

  

Images: express.co.uk, knowyourmeme.com/

I know, as soon as you mention Hitler or the Nazis, it means you’ve lost the argument…or does it? ‘Reductio ad Hitlerum’ it’s nicely called. Could it be, these days, that as soon as they mention that as soon as you mention Hitler or the Nazis you’ve lost the argument, means they’ve lost the argument?

So, Ruth was a ‘signaller’ in the part-time Territorial Army during its partly successful ‘Don’t shoot, you’ll break the Loch Lomond National Park ban on guns rule’ Campaign of 2008. Hitler was a ‘regimental message runner’ in World War 1. Regimental Message Runners ran between HQs, well behind the lines, whereas Battalion Message Runners had a very dangerous job indeed, in the trenches. So, like Ruth, Hitler was in the unarmed military communications section and saw little action. A coincidence you say? Hmmm.

Has BBC Scotland reported on this shock revelation? Well, no, of course they haven’t. They haven’t reported even the tiniest faux pas on the part of their new favourite (Kezia is so over). See:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/09/29/bbc-scotlands-still-ruth-less-approach-to-the-news-what-do-they-need-to-do-to-get-bad-press/

Also, they haven’t made the obvious connection between the now clearly Nazi UK Tories and their wee Scottish branch. See:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/10/10/though-bbc-scotland-are-sheltering-them-the-scottish-tories-need-to-reject-some-of-their-nasty-english-pals-to-avoid-sharing-the-nazi-comparisons/?iframe=true&theme_preview=true

BBC Scotland’s ‘Bad news about the Tories? We see no bad news about the Tories’ tendency is quite clear in my data below.

I did watch the early morning anxiety ‘There’s a crisis in something Scottish!’ report on Monday 10^th but there wasn’t one (crisis) that day. This morning, 11^th October at 06:25, they found one –‘Overweight 5 year-olds crisis – Scottish Government needs to do more.’ I know, this is a job for the wildly popular Named Persons Scheme. Someone tell Kevin McKenna before that ‘totalitarian’ SNP impose it on Christian minority parent groups. See:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/08/04/in-defence-of-the-totalitarian-snp-government/

The only other reports were on a stabbing in a school and the Scotland football team. They seemed to miss both the Herald’s ‘Scotland is best place to live in UK, study reveals’ and the Scotsman’s ‘Scotland enjoys highest quality of life in the UK’ reports. Well, we Scots can get a bit too cheery and confident if we’re allowed to. Next thing we’ll be voting for independence!
Running Total:

Running total 21/9/16 to 11/10/16*                              Number of reports

Bad news for SG/SNP                                                            17

Good news for SG/SNP                                                         7

Bad news for Labour                                                              1

Good news for Labour                                                           5

Bad news for Conservative Party (CP)                              0

Missed bad news opportunities for CP                             143 (estimate)

Good news for CP                                                                   3

* Monday to Friday only 

PDF: ruthhitler

Other Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/21/ruth-davidson-never-been-caught-out-tells-you-something-interview-leader-scottish-conservatives

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/09/26/the-spiral-of-silence-understanding-bbc-scotlands-bias-without-fear-of-invoking-godwins-rule-of-nazi-analogies/

 

 

  

Images: heraldscotland.com and http://chatterbusy.blogspot.co.uk/

‘The Conservative Party’s conference has unleashed ugly and downright scary rhetoric that I was brought up to believe was to be left in the past. I am not exaggerating when I say that the policies being brought forward are reminiscent of early 1930s Nazi Germany.’

These are the words of SNP MP Mhairi Black, reported in the Scotsman on the 8^th October 2016. They were triggered by the speech of Home Secretary Amber Rudd at the Conservative Party Conference which followed PM Theresa May’s speech calling for ‘British jobs for British workers.’ That is of course a line used often before by the BNP and more recently by Gordon Braun. Rudd announced that companies would be compelled to keep and to publish lists of foreign workers they employed. Also they would be obliged to give preference to British job applicants. After a storm of criticism the proposals seem to have been withdrawn.

Black and LBC radio presenter, James O’Brien, noted the similarities in these statements with Nazi policies. O’Brien even read out part of Chapter 2 of Hitler’s Mein Kampf pretending at first that they were Rudd’s words:

‘For the state should draw the sharp line of distinction between those who, as members of the nation, are the foundation and support of its existence and greatness, and those who are domiciled simply as earners of their livelihoods of there.’

Needless to say, these associations drew much self-righteous indignation from Conservatives but this did not stem the flow of Nazi association. Controversially, disabled actress Liz Carr who appears in Silent Witness, suggested that current welfare cuts and assessments were driven by similar thinking to that which produced the death and work camps where German disabled people were amongst the first confined – ‘Arbeit macht frei’ – ‘work sets you free.’

Blogger Kitty Jones added to Carr’s disquiet by pointing out:

‘We have a government that frequently uses words like workshy to describe vulnerable social groups. This is a government that is intentionally scapegoating poor, unemployed, disabled people and migrants. A few years ago, a Tory councillor said that “the best thing for disabled children is the guillotine.” More recently, another Tory councillor called for the extermination of gypsies, more than one Tory MP has called for illegal and discriminatory levels of pay for disabled people. These weren’t “slips”…..these comments reflect how Conservatives think.’

Where this is all leading us, I think, is to the notion that Tories, by definition, hold values (nasty ones?) opposed to those many of us would foreground in a civilised, tolerant, caring and democratic society. You can see this deeper malaise, I’d argue, in the slips made by individual party members. For example, Conservative MP Aidan Burley was obliged to step down in 2011 from his post as a ministerial aide, in 2011, after being exposed for having bought a Nazi uniform to be worn by the groom at a wedding he was arranging in Switzerland. One can only wonder at the kind of families involved – Brauns, Windsors?

Another ‘slip’ emerged in 2011, when ‘Nazi –themed songs’ were sung at a night-out for the Oxford University Conservative Association. This group whose patron was Baroness Thatcher was reported to be in crisis after some of its own members accused other members of anti-Semitism.

Earlier, in 2009, allegedly fully-grown up Conservatives, MEPs and the then PM, David Cameron, were accused of allying themselves with a holocaust-denying and SS-commemorating Latvian political group called ‘Latvians For Fatherland and Freedom Party’. This party annually commemorates the Latvian SS militia responsible for the murder of virtually all of Latvia’s 70 000 Jews during World War 2. This goes some way beyond the hiring of a Nazi uniform.

Astonishingly, when a former leader of the UK Tory group in Strasbourg, Edward McMillan-Scott, tried to block the leadership bid of another holocaust-denier, Polish Conservative, Michael Kaminski, he was sacked by David Cameron.

Returning to the Scottish Conservatives, I must point out that they have no track record of Nazi sympathies. Their recent run of faux pas is of a comparatively milder form:

‘Tory MSP blows off key parliament vote to take part in World Cup referee training’

 ‘Tory toff MSP claimed eye-watering £113 for taxi to airport when catching train would have cost just £8.50’

‘Moneybags Tory MSP accused of exploiting parliamentary position to further his business interests’

Notably, however, BBC Scotland has chosen to ignore these misdemeanours by the Scottish Conservatives. Similarly, they have not linked the current horrors of the May regime’s ideas to their Scottish branch. This has led a few of us to think they are grooming ‘The Little Signaller’, Ruth Davidson for a role as saviour of the Union. Nevertheless, the Scottish Tories will need to watch their step. One goose step by one drunken private schoolboy on a night out after work experience in Ruth’s office and BBC Scotland will not be able to protect them this time.

Sources:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/mhairi-black-tory-policies-reminiscent-of-nazi-germany-1-4252825

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/james-obrien-tackles-amber-rudd-by-accusing-her-of-enacting-chapter-two-of-mein-kampf_uk_57f61539e4b0efc7e3c4b0fa

http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/25/actress-compares-tory-cuts-to-nazis-6152194/

https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/if-the-tories-dont-like-being-compared-to-the-nazis-then-they-need-to-stop-behaving-like-despots/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26059862

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8870909/Oxford-Tories-nights-of-port-and-Nazi-songs.html

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2009/10/13/the-tories-and-the-ss-sympathisers/

https://www.ft.com/content/569dacae-7196-11de-a821-00144feabdc0