That final Ukip push to win your heart

wankers?

Spin your own UKIP candidate generator

Just say you're in an 'anti-establishment' political party. Your leader comes from the same kind of stable as David Cameron or George Osbourne but because he's a blawhard with a sense of humour, the media love him. The fact that he's another rich white man with a dodgy record on expenses and hiring...er migrants to work for him is glossed over.

Behind the jokey everyman  'always in pub with pint in hand' persona is a hive of frenetic hard-right activity. It seems as if every right-wing nutter in the book is in UKIP - from knife-wielding skinheads seig-heiling to the camera to swivel-eyed aristocrats to misogynists to god-bothering homophobes.

Here though is Tocasaid's handy contribution the UKIP phenomenon. Want a controversial right-wing arsehole to pump you up with the oxygen of publicity? Have a spin...

1 - Jeremy Clarkson. Has prejudice of one shade or another filling him like beans. Mexicans, gays, Scots, women, black people... He lives the life of a traditional English, white private school product. Hell, why doesn't the whole world race about in posh cars, roll about guffawing at the less fortunate (or just those who are different) in between slugs of expensive wine? Like UKIP, he plays the 'rebellious' card while being... just another rich, white man who's never known anything but a life of privilege.

2. Pat Robertson. Downside is that he isn't British. But then again, neither is Farage's wife who he employs at the taxpayer's expense in a job that a Brit could do. Neither is Farage's 'builder' pal and star of UKIP's election campaign and author of racist tweets who hails from... Zimbabwe. So far, Scotland has been no-man's land for the crazies of UKIP. This is where Pat comes in. He knows us..."A dark land, overrun by gays". Pat could lubricate the passage for Farage to slide in and sort us out.

"In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are. It's just simply unbelievable," he told his viewers.
Scotland's religious past was no more, he said. "I don't think it exists any more. And what could happen? It could go right back to the darkness very easily."

3. Random Bonehead. UKIP was described to me by a pal as the 'EDL for rich folk'. That about sums it up. But, it seems as if UKIP has been adept at attracting the kind of short/no-haired nutters that used to swim with the BNP. Ein, zwei... reach for that phone!

4. James MacMillan CBE. Conservative, Christian (of the Roman Catholic sub-sect) and controversial. He has compared pro-independence artists to the Blackshirts and doesn't like the Scots Tories having a lesbian leader. This could be a win-win situation for UKIP - a raving right-winger who is still kind of... respectable. By some. He still looks like a pompous auld fart though and accusing others of being Blackshirt may backfire.

5. Whatshername Hopkins. Your typical vacuous south-of-England rent-a-quote, if you like your quotes offensive. Even the Daily Star compared her to a horse. She doesn't like 'gingers', old people in mobility scooters, the working class or Scotland. If you're Farage and you want either another mistress or someone to add an equine a feminine touch to your radge party then Hopkins is your girl. Probably her most infamous tweet was this one:

“Life expectancy in Scotland 07/08 birth is 59.5. Goodness me. That lot will do anything to avoid working until retirement.”

Poorly timed, the controversial pundit posted the message just hours after a police helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow, killing nine people and injuring 32 more.

The Independent.

6. Leigh Griffiths. At first glance you may think that the Hibernian fan and Celtic FC striker is a bit thick to involved in politics but I don't see any difference between him and many of UKIP's extremist past, present or former political candidates. He doesn't like homosexuals, east Europeans or Muslims of a Scottish-Asian background. Perfecto para UKIP, no? On the other hand he has probably never heard of Brussels.

Hey it's not perfect but you spins yer wheel and takes yer chances!

How to dismantle Ukip in one easy step....

Actually, I'd probably take advantage of their Freepost address just to make them pay for the privilege of being humiliated.

Read on...

Read this email exchange in which a local resident takes apart UKIP

Advantage Herald and where next for the Hootsmon's HQ?

 

 

Interesting times in Scotland's auld print media. Today's Sunday Herald announcement that it will back a Yes vote in the referendum has gained it acres of coverage on social media, many inches in the print of other papers as well as a few minutes on telly.

It is welcome though it is also probably a shrewd marketing move as well. If polls are correct, currently a pretty solid 40% of us are pro-indy with another 15 to 20% undecided. As the auld guard of what passes for journalism these days regurgitates the same auld scare-stories, it is a wonder that more of these dying organs don't twig that they're basically shitting on the intelligence of some 60% of their potential readership.

The Scotsman - now famous for its 'SNP accused...' and 'independence fears' headlines - is now 'downsizing' its HQ from the expensive but central location next to the Scots Parliament to a bog standard and ugly office block out of the town centre. 

It has also lost a significant number of staff over the years including the man who designed its once reputable and reliable website. Now, it's website is not very user friendly, the content mostly patronising shit while the print newspapers in the Scotsman stable come across as the boring bastard children of the Daily Mail and Reader's Digest. Even their one decent sports reporter, Tom English, has recently jumped from the stinking ship. It's nemesis, the 'CyberNat' media on the other hand is going from strength to strength. Wings Over Scotland's has a larger readership than the Scotsman's print version if not the online content too.

As the Scotsman's vague and reticent owners seek to save more dough while also trying to stem the hemorrhage of readers, it's fair to ask 'Where's the next stop for the Scotsman as it travels the tramline to oblivion?'

A ruined sheiling on Mòinteach Bharbhais? The back room of the Diggers in Gorgie? The 'Scotch' MPs' quarters in Westminster post-independence?