Wednesday, August 26, 2009

United Kingdom whiskey to gain from boycott of Scotch?

From the Boycott Scotland site:
The best way to boycott the Scottish decision is to simply not travel to Scotland. Ireland has been advocated by many as the best alternative to those who regularly travel to and conduct business in Scotland. Many have advocated avoiding Scotch whisky and opting for American, Canadian, or Irish whiskies.
It would be interesting to check out the origins and motivations of those "many"...in more ways than one, it'll be all rather ironical if one famous Irish brand's sales rise because of this.

And it looks like the Cybernats have gone international:
We do not have any "official" forums or Facebook groups. There is a Facebook group called "Boycott Scotland" which has no connection to this campaign and never did. It has since degenerated into a platform for extremist Scottish nationalists to voice their hatred of America. We strongly advise all visitors here not to frequent such anti-American websites

12 comments:

tony said...

Hello O'neil, lomg time no smell ;¬)

What is your view on the prisoner release?

Are you informed enough to realise that the petty politicking of Scottish(misnomer) Labour and Lib-Dems has probably undermined their electoral chances for a decade here?, I kid you not. The Tories also partook, but could their main target was seemed to be Broon. The radio call ins and ordinary people I have been speaking to are awfy annoyed.

Strangely no media organisation(the BBC included) seems to have carried former Labour minister Malcolm Chisolms scathing barbs at the Unionist parties and his support of MacAskil's lawfully decision. Considering that he stood and spoke in full glare of the media in Holyrood, it is a stupendous ommision. Instead we were treated to wall to wall coverage of one former Labour FM's attack on the SNP minister and very little on anothers support.

I fully acknowledge that I am an SNP voter and supporter but the actions of these guys is really making my blood boil. Determined to wallow in mediocrity and bring us all down to their level.

O'Neill said...

"What is your view on the prisoner release?"

I haven't got that much original to say, so I didn't so a separate post.

I think if the *truth* ever hits the light of day, then it'll show:
how powerless MacAskill really was/is; it most certainly wasn't the SNP pulling the strings which count here.

For whatever reason however they (and obviously Brown and Labour) have decided that it's better for both parties that the focus was shone directly or mainly on SNP. MacAskill's explanation should have stuck to the simple legal/objective- all this it's because of our Scottish humanity nonsense was unnecessary and was clearly playing to an internal tabloid-reading gallery. Any pity or even respect that I may have felt for him previously evaporated.

I've no idea how it is or will play in Scotland, Salmond's odds for resigning have dropped apparently. I suspect that the SNP will be relying on a siege mentality amongst the wider electorate to reap rewards from this- rather ironically the one time that they had the chance to prove the wider world that they are capable of performing on the wider stage diplomatically, I believe, they've blown- a bit more dignity and gravitas would have a lot more damage to their enemies.

tony said...

You have answered my question well. Only it is your ignorance and petty anti-SNP jibe coming out to play. Quite a poor response in all ma man.

>>I think if the *truth* ever hits the light of day, then it'll show:
how powerless MacAskill really was/is; it most certainly wasn't the SNP pulling the strings which count here.<<

Pure and utter keek. Sure Brown has ducked the issue and his government chose not to give an opinion when sought pre the decision being made. However any conspiracy theory is quite laughable, it was Kenny's decision pure and simple.

>>MacAskill's explanation should have stuck to the simple legal/objective- all this it's because of our Scottish humanity nonsense was unnecessary and was clearly playing to an internal tabloid-reading gallery. Any pity or even respect that I may have felt for him previously evaporated.<<

Firstly I'm not sure that you are capable of respecting mere 'separatists' like us, but pity, what need of is there of that? His explanation of Scots Law is spot on regarding the compassion angle, no one has argued otherwise................till now ;¬)
As far as appealing to the tabloid market. Have you forgotten that Scotland is the only country in the world who does not have a single national newspaper giving it a sympathetic view? Bar the Herald that tries to report independently they are all hostile or extremely so.

>>I've no idea how it is or will play in Scotland, Salmond's odds for resigning have dropped apparently.<<

Seems that you are believing that hostile media. From what I have read support for SNP/Plaid rose by 2% last week. Thus if the papers were to be believed all of Wales are now voting Plaid because surely the SNP vote has fallen, 'apparently'lol!

>>I suspect that the SNP will be relying on a siege mentality amongst the wider electorate to reap rewards from this<<

Not got a clue what you are trying to say here, is it a version of we are bad and nobody likes us. Methinks your analysis is skewed. Also your last statement is total nonsense, if anything our stock has risen. Or do you happen to think that the hypocritical US represents the world?

In all honesty I don't blame you for forming some of your opinions. The media have been found wanting here, and all you can do is peruse what is on offer to you.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I've been boycotting Scotch whisky for years based on the obvious superiority of our own Whiskey (even that northern proddy stuff).

On the prisoner release, I have no objection to the man being released on humanitarian grounds, even if he was responsible for that horrific act.

But, if he was released for the benefit of British Petroleum as some are claiming, then it is a total disgrace.

O'Neill said...

Tony, I did say my views are what you would have read in a thousand other sites papers, hence my lack of a direct post on the subject; apparently though the SNp have taken a hit at the polls over it:

http://tinyurl.com/ldbk64


UU
If "humanitarian grounds" were the only grounds he was released on I'll be very surprised, but that's something we're unlikely to ever find out.

tony said...

O'neil

That poll has so much wrong with it you wouldn't know where to start. Still if a newspaper that is no friend of Scotland in it's first ever Scotland wide poll, without info on the questions asked says the SNP have dropped slightly. Who am I to argue :¬) Also from the site itself;

""EDIT: I don't tend to read the 'Political Party Identification' section of the poll but I did this time and noted it had 469 Labour members. That's from a total sample of 1,078 and equates to 44% of the population.

Given there are 18,800 Labour members in Scotland, 0.376% of the population, is this a whopper of bias in the poll or am I reading it wrong?""

Ye jist coodnae make it up? ach mibbe they did lol.

O'neil "...I did say my views are what you would have read in a thousand other sites papers..."

Still can't help feeling a wee bit disapointed though. Your mob the Tories were the only ones asking questions worth asking, though they were aimed at Broon in the main and it really wasn't a time for party politics concerning the release itself, and Annabel did make an erse of hirsel(not the worst though) though I suppose the issues around the release need furthrt scope.The comments from Saif al Islam Gaddafi should add spice to the Tory attacks on Broon.

O'Neill said...

"That poll has so much wrong with it you wouldn't know where to start."

Curiously enough the SNP have welcomed its findings:

http://www.snp.org/node/15602

YouGov are an independent polling company so it's not in their commercial interest to publish misleading or rely on biased samples. True in this case, the result is what the Mail wanted but you've got to ask yourselves how many polls are requested by papers and then quietly dropped because the results were inconvenient.

O'Neill said...

Another independent survey giving similar results:

http://tinyurl.com/nfe2lw

tony said...

This is getting bizzare now. The SNP website is managing to spin a totally biased poll, don't really see the point apart from giving them something to do.

My own experience is that dyed in the wool Labour types that I have been speaking to(who will vote labour no matter what) have been 100% behind the release. Most believe Meghrahi innocent even, some are embarrased by the dithering pointless attacks by labour and said so. Hence why I believe that Goldie and the Tories were at least getting somewhere in attacking Broon.

I am wondering if like your good self some Scots were affected by the negative media spin. Example being that the great Holyrood lynching of last week, that potentially(if they felt like it) allied grouping of unionst parties supposed to force the SNP from office, ended without a blow being landed. Truth be told a better, less sombre Parliament performer than McAskill would have had a field day. I could sense wee Salmonds erse making buttons.

As I have said only the Tories did not go too far backwards. Still, the largest newspapers reported that the SNP were ganged up on(true) and the SNP were in disarray(far, far from the truth) Our worldwide reputation was in tatters(US apart probably the opposite) etc.

Like I said earlier also, the former minister Chisolms comments were ignored, former FM's Mcleish given little exposure, the Catholic church, church of Scotland and the law society all backing McAskill. To me this was the big expose as you would be hard pushed to find any of this, just how obviously biased the media, BBC included were is astonishing.

In closing I still can't compute these polls, simply because I have not found anyone who was against the release, honestly not a one. The radio phone ins were easily 10-1 in favour and the letters pages of the Herald and even the Scotsman were near unanimous.

*scratches heid and walks away*

O'Neill said...

"This is getting bizzare now."

Think so?! Try this one, David Kerr has changed his mind three times up to last night on whether MacAskill was right or not to release him!!


http://www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk/2009/08/by-election-hopefuls-step-up/

tony said...

Seems the bigots who are out to get him might just let his mouth do the work.

I met my first Meghrahi "should have died in gaol" barbarian yesterday. My first!

Unknown said...

Spelling!!! Most Scottish whiskys are merely brands which like most Irish whiskeys are owned by the likes of Diageo etc. Manys a pension relies on the performance of these shares, The impact of a boycott on these products may well impact more on the workers in these distilleries and the actual consumer than is thought.
Since when are the workers in these industries responsible for the interpretation of law??