2015 UK General Election Thread

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

a great performance from Nigel
a good performance from Ed
a lackluster performance from Dave
the Scottish thing did ok
the welshie was just whining
and greenie is just crackers
and nickie boy's career is over

A very succinct appraisal

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

a great performance from Nigel
a good performance from Ed
a lackluster performance from Dave
the Scottish thing did ok
the welshie was just whining
and greenie is just crackers
and nickie boy's career is over

"It's the foreigners fault" cried Nigel
"That Greenie is from Oz
That Sturgeon's a fish out of water
And Dave's not the man he was"
"It's the Tories fault" shouted Ed
But the Welshie blamed Old Nick
Cleggie just said "I'm sorry"
They all got on my wick

[nashville]

Love the poem

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by nashville

Love the poem

Inspired by Papa Smurf and our wonderful politicians

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Kursk

"It's the foreigners fault" cried Nigel
"That Greenie is from Oz
That Sturgeon's a fish out of water
And Dave's not the man he was"
"It's the Tories fault" shouted Ed
But the Welshie blamed Old Nick
Cleggie just said "I'm sorry"
They all got on my wick

Meanwhile, it's amateur hour at Bute House:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...d-Cameron.html

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, has privately said that she would "rather see" David Cameron win the general election because Ed Miliband is not “prime minister material”, a leaked memorandum seen by The Daily Telegraph has revealed.

...

It is a common diplomatic courtesy if an ambassador to the UK visits one of the three devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland for the British Government to be given an official readout of the conversation although the SNP leader, who has only been in position since the autumn, may have been unaware of this formality.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Chris

Meanwhile, it's amateur hour at Bute House:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...d-Cameron.html

Denied by Sturgeon and the French Consul General apparently.

Made up story by the Torygraph?

https://twitter.com/severincarrell/s...13809633239040
https://twitter.com/Pmacgiollabhain/...16170531405824

https://mobile.twitter.com/garylinek...19470322982912

[Jimmy-J]

Originally Posted by Hugh

https://mobile.twitter.com/garylinek...19470322982912

The same can be said for all of them.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Hugh

https://mobile.twitter.com/garylinek...19470322982912

+1

Originally Posted by LondonRoad

Denied by Sturgeon and the French Consul General apparently.

Made up story by the Torygraph?

https://twitter.com/severincarrell/s...13809633239040
https://twitter.com/Pmacgiollabhain/...16170531405824

To be fair you would expect them to deny it but the First Minster's office are claiming the minutes of the meeting don't show this either.

Originally Posted by Damien

To be fair you would expect them to deny it but the First Minster's office are claiming the minutes of the meeting don't show this either.

Comments like that are hardly going to be made during a minuted meeting.

This was an off-the-cuff comment by Wee Nippy, either on the way on or the way out of the meeting room. The Scottish "government" has denied this in carefully worded terms. The French ambassador has no obligations to the British public or our political conventions so is free to deny at will anyway.

You can be absolutely confident that this actually happened, not least because a weak Tory government opposed by a strong SNP contingent is exactly what everyone knows is the best scenario for the Nats and their only real reason for existence, namely to break Scotland away from the UK. Playing nicely with a Labour government doesn't serve that purpose. Heroically fighting Scotland's corner against the evil (English) Tories does.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Chris

Comments like that are hardly going to be made during a minuted meeting.

This was an off-the-cuff comment by Wee Nippy, either on the way on or the way out of the meeting room. The Scottish "government" has denied this in carefully worded terms. The French ambassador has no obligations to the British public or our political conventions so is free to deny at will anyway.

You can be absolutely confident that this actually happened, not least because a weak Tory government opposed by a strong SNP contingent is exactly what everyone knows is the best scenario for the Nats and their only real reason for existence, namely to break Scotland away from the UK. Playing nicely with a Labour government doesn't serve that purpose. Heroically fighting Scotland's corner against the evil (English) Tories does.

So you accept the Torygraph version which seems to be a second hand report of an overhead conversation that may or may not have taken place.
Just because that may be the best scenario for the Nats does not mean that the words were actually spoken by the FM. It really is very shoddy journalism from an increasingly shoddy rag.

The issue here is one of credibility - of all those involved, and of the story itself.

The story, even without any evidence at all, is entirely plausible, because it simply reflects the position everybody knows the SNP leadership holds in private.

The mechanism by which the story was reported, via several steps of diplomatic whispering, is, again, plausible. It is simply how the game is played. Everyone involved in diplomacy knows this. Sturgeon apparently didn't, and didn't understand the implications of her position as merely chief executive of a devolved administration. The SNP may like to lord it up and pretend they're running a government, but the only people they are deceiving are themselves. Foreign diplomats show courtesy where it is due, and that is to the actual government whose territory they are on, not regional politicians.

Ultimately there are never going to be any documents published, and nobody has lied to parliament so there will be no inquiry and no censure. People who lean heavily to one side of the divide or other will believe their own side. A lot of people in the middle will look at this and make their own minds up. I predict that a lot of people will accept that this is true, simply because we all already know it is. And that Labour in Scotland will not easily allow this to go away.

Quite amusing...