A bunch of cults
It’s manifestly obvious to anyone paying any amount of attention to Scottish politics that the current Holyrood chamber is stuffed to the gills with otherwise-unemployable dum-dums. When we recently had cause to go through the entire roster of 129, the number who leapt out as either vaguely honourable or even just halfway-competent didn’t require us to take our shoes off to count.
(Indeed, speaking as a professional Scottish politics website about a thousand times more interested in this stuff than normal people, the number of expenses-guzzling seatwarmers we’d never even heard of was more than a little disturbing.)
So these figures from a Panelbase poll this month – which was conducted BEFORE the grim scenes around the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform bill – can only be explained in two ways: either people have become accustomed to very low standards, or (more likely) people don’t pay that much attention to politics.
But there’s a much more interesting story in the numbers.
Because while the question was very explicitly worded to ask people’s opinions of the collective quality of ALL the elected representatives in the Parliament, not just those of the parties respondents supported, it turned out that people’s opinions still varied – to a quite spectacular degree – according to their own political loyalties.
Labour voters’ opinion of the overall quality of the Parliament (which could fairly be summarised as “Meh”) closely mirrored that of the population as a whole – a net +12 compared to the whole sample’s +10. But voters from the other three parties sprang to wildly polarised extremes.
A whopping 66% of SNP voters thought that MSPs – including those of Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems – were pretty good overall. But that view was shared by just 17% of Tory and Lib Dem voters. There was also dramatic polarisation by indyref vote (a colossal 79 points), and a lesser but still striking amount (30 points) over Brexit vote.
(There were no appreciable differences by sex or class, but the young were much more likely to give positive responses than the other age groups. Frankly it’s getting increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that young people are just stupid, but we’re trying to resist it.)
It’s really quite difficult to understand how these enormous discrepancies could arise other than by blind partisanship – at first glance you might think “Well, SNP voters tend to mostly get things their own way in the Parliament because they have a majority, so obviously they think it’s all working well”.
But that doesn’t explain the huge gulf in views between Labour supporters and those of their Unionist allies. Nor does it tally up with indyref/Brexit views, because the Parliament has done nothing to either achieve independence or prevent/soften Brexit.
With the numbers in Holyrood very roughly equally split between nationalists and Unionists, the question really ought to elicit fairly neutral responses across the board. In normal circumstances, people believe their side are the good guys, the other side is the bad guys and the two balance each other out.
Instead, we have groups of people who don’t seem to be looking at the same picture as each other, and barely even understand each other’s language. Only Lib Dem and Tory voters are at all alike.
It could also be suggested that when your team is winning, it’s in your interests to talk up the quality of the opposition – it feels better to win a trophy if you had to beat Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to do it than if you only had to conquer Hibs, St Mirren and Clyde for your triumph.
But even that theory doesn’t stand up to a huge amount of scrutiny, because if your team’s bottom of the league it’s no consolation to tell yourself that everyone else is garbage too. That just means you’re getting beaten by garbage.
The only other thing we could think of is that the SNP are once again benefitting from being the only “pro-indy” party with enough voters to register in polling. There are reasons for Tory voters, say, to have low opinions of ALL the other parties including their Unionist allies, whereas for SNP voters everyone but the SNP is evil.
But in that case it would make no sense at all for SNP voters to have such a high opinion of the Parliament overall. Logically they’d have a near-neutral view like Labour voters, because they’d have to offset their approval of SNP MSPs with disapproval of all the Unionist ones. All the potential explanations make sense from the perspective of one party’s voters, then instantly fall to bits when you try to apply them to the others.
(And any shreds of discernible logic are blown away by the fact that the results are pretty much the same when you ask about Scottish MPs at Westminster, where the SNP have overwhelming numerical superiority.)
If nothing else, these figures go some way to disproving the theory put forward by some pundits a few years ago about Scottish politics becoming “Ulsterised”, with only the constitution having any relevance. If that were really the case Labour supporters would be much more closely aligned with Tories and Lib Dems in these results.
But beyond that, folks, your guess is as good as ours.
Could it be that SNP supporters have reached that stage of desperately claiming their team is good in that last ditch moment before disillusionment crashes through? I think the quality is dire, not helped by the SNPs preference for the mentally unstable
Too many beers last night (one beer). Article updated with the correct pics in it, duh.
“I think the quality is dire, not helped by the SNPs preference for the mentally unstable”
There’s a remarkable piece of guff in the National today where Emma Roddick says “My catalogue of debilitating mental disorders that quite obviously make me manifestly unsuitable to be an MSP due to the nature of that job don’t actually matter” and then completely fails to give any reasons why.
The abysmal quality of our Political Reps is a reflection of the equally abysmal MSM , which fluctuates between the two poles of sensationalism and triviality , capable of neither non-partisan character assessment nor genuine holding to account the ethical/political failures of MP/MSPs : in turn , a consequence of the abysmal lack of interest of the consumers of MSM ; who , for the most part , are more animated by the utter pabulum that pours endlessly from their TV screens & the pages of whatever shit-rag they read daily than the things that actually impact on their lives .
You only have to compare the viewing figures for all those unreal * Reality * shows to the turnout for – in particular – local elections , though GEs don’t fare much better in the comparison , to see where most people’s real interests lie .
A case not so much of ” there’s no business LIKE Show Business ” as ” there’s no business BUT Show Business ”
Party Politics being merely an arm of the Entertainment Business
The myth of the well politically-informed/aware Scottish Electorate , is simply that ie …a myth ; another collective self-serving deception . Except it really serves no one , other than the forces that keep us in a state of blind servitude and internal ( personal & collective ) conflict
Once again I find myself agreeing with the Tories. And see the SNP voters are not paying attention. We’ll never get outa this “union” until they do.
Aye makes sense now with update, or rather not at all!!
Don’t really know what to make of it, to be honest. Labour vote is interesting I suppose.
Tories hate anything outside murrayfield with “Scotland” in it, whether it’s MPs or Parliament, or am I being too simple?
Quality of MSP backbench is horrendousm. Can barely read their lines at times.
EXTREMELY GOOD 106
Hey Panelbase yir no supposed tae ask the fuckers in the HR parliament , they’re stupid and biased
BUT seriously we have a problem Scotland, we are supposed to be politically aware, at least we cling to that fallacy , I look at FM questions and ask myself WTAF votes for these parasitical numbnuts
“Frankly it’s getting increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that young people are just stupid, but we’re trying to resist it.”
Bit tangential but that is exactly where I am these days.
I don’t know if they are stupid or have been stupefied, might be both.
Personally I am shocked at how indoctrinated and intolerant many young folk are. My theory is that if you are above a certain age bracket you don’t realize and appreciate the level of indoctrination now in schools and universities, especially the universities. The conformist pressure on them is overwhelming. And of course it is all the woke / progressive / identity politics poison. (You really have to wonder where it is all coming from and why…)
I was thinking that when you start accepting lies as facts it is like it starts a process of gradual stupefaction. Which makes sense. When you start believing up is down and a man is a woman it requires you to dumb yourself down.
Because their thinking is fundamentally built on logical quick sand, i.e. incoherent, their arguments are also incoherent, which causes them to become frustrated quickly and easily, and then they are instantly onto to smears and ad hominem attacks, and the psychological violence is usually just a precursor to physical attacks if things progress far enough.
It is not all young people by any means but unless you home-school your kids I don’t see how else to protect them from it now. Kids want to belong and peer pressure is a very real thing at that age. It is very powerful and with some of these kids it would be like trying to deprogram someone who had fallen victim to a cult. Good luck.
Coaching kids behind their parents backs to mutilate or chemically castrate themselves is of course taking it to whole new level though.
If I was doing it all again I would skip university all together and get a trade.
The way to sample test democratic «representation» ie mps, deputies etc is to meet one, but few who vote actually have the pleasure. The shock at what they did with their precious vote might prove fatal, so maybe not. Ignorance is bliss among the SNPers?
Democracy was conceived for city states whose populations numbered a few thousand. It begs the question whether millions of citizens, under the prevailing systems, are truly represented as much of «politics» occurs beyond their surveillance.
The British state, once upon a time a top dog, is saddled with a system which allows those who would fail in a real occupation to find work suited to their talents.
«We have the best government that money can buy»
Mark Twain
Sometimes mental instability IS a bar to certain jobs. I would argue politics is definitely one.
Re young people, of which i am one, the lack of informed curiosity is often evident. Knowledge is acquired via curiosity. Indifference is another sign, the notion that «everything is the same» that there is no excellence, no good or bad, right way versus wrong way, a mental conditioning which leads to docile relativism.
And of course the novel pedagogic mantra, Thou shalt do no hurt by drawing attention to students’ manifest ignorance….
We’ve been manipulated from the start of Sturgeon’s tenure as leader of the Snp in the pocket of the British gov , only time will tell the extent of her deceit . / Salvo need to promote the Claim of Right big time /
We’ve had the Bbc review’s of the year all through christmas ie Qeenie2 I hope that yous haven’t disguarded the sack clothes n ashes because we’re about to enter another bout of mourning for a elite person Nothing such for the ordinary mortals .
OT: Patrick Grady’s wrist-slap is over:
link to archive.vn
SusanAHF@1:36
So is alcohol and drugs.
The SNP members did not vote for Emma Roddick to head the Highland list vote.Nicola Sturgeon’s NEC appointed her as their disabled candidate.
Bit harsh on St Mirren and Hibs..
Ach, poverty and subservience is our birth right.
You’re not supposed to say it, but too many numpties Rev. That’s what I think these statistics show.
Clearly the benefits of overwarm houses in winter, soaring prices, falling real wages, a creaking NHS, and all of the other progressive benefits are muddling political perceptions.
Ah, I’m off to turn the heating up and dance.
My explanation is this –
SNP voters are very invested in the success of the Scottish Parliament, due to their support for independence, so want it to be full of good MSPs.
Labour voters are somewhat invested as they support devolution and so don’t want their devolution adventure to be a failure
Tories would prefer the Parliament to fail
Lib Dems – no idea what they believe or are about
29 December, 2022 at 1:47 pm
@ronald Anderson.
Not the reserve Pope
It will be interesting to compare the punishment that will come to the SNP GRA bill rebels with that meted out to Patrick Grady.
We are so used to thin gruel that ANY win, even if it’s not in the final, will do.
So when the SNP won their majority in 2015, even though they failed to win another Holyrood Election majority… that’ll do.
And (for my area) when they won the largest majority of Cooncil seats, even though they failed to win control of the Cooncil… that’ll do.
The folk I see holding up the SNP as a party, and in terms of votes, like belonging to that club – keeping believing that ‘one day we’ll get Indy’… somewhere over the rainbow, is sooo much more satisfying than taking a hard look at the betrayal they’ve/we’ve voted in, and then tackling the actual hard work that achieving Indy would be, plus it would be a bit scary.
They would never call themselves ‘devolutionists’ that is not how they see themselves. Likewise they would never look at the dismantling of ‘devolution’ right before their eyes – that would mean facing all sorts of hard truths.
Much more comforting to say ‘we’ve got the biggest team, and that team makes all the right noises’.
And when you think like that, is there any need to demonise your opposition parties (apart from Alba), after all you belong to the biggest team and your team makes nice noises.
No, the only real ‘enemy’ is Alba upsetting the status quo. Splitters.
It is going to be interesting to see how the change in Constitution boundaries affects this attitude, as it looks like an all out Tory land grab. No doubt it will be used to double down on ‘don’t split the vote – vote SNP’ message, but some uncomfortable ‘safe seats’ look like changing from SNP to Tory in the next GE.
I don’t think young people are any more stupid than adults who are manipulated by advertising and the media.
When I was young I wore shoes like this
link to tinyurl.com
and I did many other pretty dangerous & crazy things.
Why did I do it?
Because it was trendy.
Currently it’s trendy to be trans and that is very scary.
You could break your ankle wearing platform shoes but the trans thing is a whole different level of dangerous.
@ Denise re ‘Lib Dems – no idea what they believe or are about’
Lib Dems are the mini me tories. They go round the little old dearies and give them a sweetie, re-assuring them that they don’t want any foreigners moving into the area either, but with better PR than the tory/nasty party.
It’s why they haven’t returned to their pro EU stance.
Bugger the Panda
Weil its no the wan that wears the mighty Mitre the noo .
Awe the BESTEST TO THE GENUINE WINGERS ON NEERDAY whatever that brings .
Makes one think about how we got the SNP to the state and role of Scotlab (filled with party faithful mouthbreathers usually from South Lanarkshire, and absolutely supporting the British status quo) in so short a time. I wonder if it’s time to look closely at the Scottish public’s responsibility or capacity here. It’s a dark thought, but without the political and strategic genius of Salmond and his circle we could very well still be voting labour branch office members in and complaining about the tories…
Oh wait.
All it takes is one courageous, intelligent, articulate, charismatic leader of the independence movement to emerge and we’re home and dry. Where’s our modern-day James Connolly? Or Mahatma Gandhi?
Forgot to ask Santa this year. My fault.
I concur…substitute off Hibs and St. Mirren, substitute on Gala Fairydean and…hmm…picked at random…Cumbernauld Colts…
IMHO, what it indicates is that Labour supporters really have no reason to be Labour supporters. They really seem to be conflicted. Just old habits and blind loyalty keeping the zombie party on life support. SNP supporters also bafle me, they claim to like independence but no just yet. Happy to sit back and wait a few more years or decades until the young uns take over. Many of us will be long gone by then. Sad.
No offence, but I don’t need a poll on the incompetence of MSPs.
Anyone with a firing brain cell can work that out for themselves. No other walk of life would substitute competence for morons who offer blind obedience and card carrying evidence of service as their only qualification.
Patrick Grady was suspended for touching a guy’s leg & ruffling his hair . It wasn’t that long ago that another person was held up to ridicule & having to defend himself in court on the same accusation had he been found guilty he would have been imprisoned for a very long time if they could he would have been Hung Drawn n Quartered , but there again he isnae wan of the Woke brigands .
Seriously…if public life in Scotland has almost no accountability and very poor oversight then the garbage doesn’t get collected and sent off to landfill.
Generally mediocrity finds its natural level but in Scotland the natural level is much higher than everywhere else.
My take (actually going back a few years now) on what happened to the SNP…after Alex Salmond’s demise, and as the SNP became the natural party of govt, the current lot just found it much easier to ‘go native’, accepting the widespread corruption in Scottish public life, because that way you keep everybody happy and you gain an extra level of protection. No whistleblowers, no scandals, and troughing non interruptus forever more.
Doug says…”all it takes is one courageous, intelligent, articulate, charismatic leader of the independence movement to emerge and we’re home and dry. Where’s our modern-day James Connolly? Or Mahatma Gandhi?”
True..but never forget the personal sacrifices they and Mandela made. Freedom is never given, it has to be taken and the price paid.
I was reading through the speculation of ‘what could be the cause of this anomaly’, puzzling over it and thinking ‘it can only be cult-think’ – and quickly scrolled back up to the title, aha! Yes, I may be on the right track – it’s that indoctrinated state where people have to keep thinking ‘everything is great! Can’t go wrong!’ because to think outside that box would involve admitting how incredibly awful the SNP are – how much they have failed – and they have failed so abysmally and catastrophically that any leakage of considering any alternative to fairies in la-la land would lead to a complete breakdown; people, SNP supporters, would have to admit that they may have been mistaken about the grandness of the SNP machine. And that’s awkward for many people. I wish they’d get a grip. We all make mistakes, and it’s best to suck it up and move on. But that’s not how cults work I guess. It hasn’t got anything to do with independence any longer – their beliefs or SNPs actions.
Daisy Walker
I’ve rang you moby but you no answering I broke my last moby new number ends in 628 gies ah bell .
Too many still willing to wheesht for indy – under the illusion that the SNP are still, somehow, fighting to that end. They won’t admit how shit our govt is and stick to “Well, it’s better than in England” mantra. Not much of a bar really.
Young people are stupid.
I’ve lost count of the eejits mantra ‘fk Independence – trans rights 1st – ppl are DYING’
FFS!
Like they couldn’t have fought that battle in an independent Scotland.
I’m no good at polling results but it appears to me the old bullshit of labour where even a dunce would win if you stuck a red rosette on them cause the other one is even worse. The only thing excusing SNP failures is the trans cult & aided by daft teenagers.
We all remember how exciting it was to vote for the first time – it wouldn’t surprise me if it was for the latest fad above common sense & the bigger picture longterm.
They voted no in indyref too – naive BT was all bullshit.
The level of blind adherence in the SNP support and membership is quite something. Pick up The National any day of the week and read the letters. I really believe they would have to be insisting that you bring out your first-born for routine slaughter before some of these people would question what is going on, and, even then, well… I’m not sure… The total lack of compassion or empathy for females is beyond startling; it almost borders on the sociopathic. I’m no spring chicken and it is just recently that I have begin to realise just how little females matter in any sphere. It has been an eye-opener, but one which has strengthened my resolve to fight even harder for our rights and spaces, for our children. We are not going to get independence via the SNP, any fool can see that, so why the loyalty to a bunch of self-servers? The NuSNP = New Labour. ALBA must not fall into the same trap, but offer real and radical alternatives.
I can see why the Nazi regime came into being. Likewise, in relation to young people, I can understand how Pol Pot, Mao, etc. came to power. The young – not all, of course – are congenitally brutal and vicious towards older, more experienced people. The black-clad activists of the ‘trans’ movement are no different in essence from the young thugs who murdered millions in Cambodia. Not trying to have a go at young folk, but facts are facts. You need to have lived a bit to appreciate that there are shades of grey between the black and the white.
Since the 2014 referendum polarisation has given way to fragmentation. 2016 Brexit and it’s regurgitation. 2019 Covid and the Authoritarian vs libertarian debate. Nothing as authoritarian as the fourth needless lockdown. More recently the fragmentation of the science deniers. The only constant being the SNP gravy bus. Stay loyal and you will a place on the bus eventually. It will be interesting to see what people think of the Scottish Parliament post GRRB debate.
Do me a favour: search for “Sunk Cost Fallacy”.
Also, remember that:
1. Failure creates loyalty
2. Hardship creates bonds
3. The underdog attracts sympathy
1. The SNP must be seen on the brink of failing against a strong opposition, so it’s inventing new battlefields where there should be just one. New battles bring in other people that would have been uninterested in politics but now find a party that can help. It’s a symbiotic relationship based on mere personal gain, not a collective benefit.
2. A population put through hard times clamours for some relief. That’s what the “mitigation” of the most extreme financial measures from Westminster does. You may argue that’s some theatricals to maintain the status quo, and it would be difficult to argue against.
3. The strategy to keep the Scottish Independence Movement as a whole under constant threat of being removed from power, leaving it just shy of an outright majority with insane diktats like “SNP1&2” and the permanent grievances about Westminster “disrespecting” SNP MPs is just theatricals, again, to elicit sympathy as the underdog that prevails despite the villain.
The SNP accepting help from other parties, forming coalitions and offering electoral strategies before the elections to have an overwhelming majority of Scottish Independence Supporters at Holyrood would remove that element, with obvious consequences for the SNP hierarchy.
Now let’s get to the main point, the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
The amount of effort put in by Scots to get where we are looks too much to waste pursuing another way, so we’re sticking with a zombie party, well past its sell-by-date.
Scots remember the pointless, feeble “Scottish” Labour MPs that it sent down south for decades, forgetting that it’s how the Scottish parliament was reconvened.
Sadly, Scots still think that the Saint Nicola’s Party is the same beast of Alex Salmond’s SNP, the party that brought the 2014 Indyref miracle. This is not the same party, not the same activists, not the same structure, not the same organisation. Not even close.
It’s a hollowed out shell, filled to the brim with opportunistic sociopaths, spineless weaklings, kompromat blackmail and BritNazi agitprops.
The very few that have some integrity left are sidelined, opposed, ganged upon and ostracised.
While the Saint Nicola’s Party / Self Neutering Party is also a Schröedinger’s Nationalistic Patsy, too afraid of upsetting the status quo, nothing will change.
We’re at an impasse on the road to Independence, where the next step is a nuclear option that wipes out every structure of power and rewrites the rules. The current iteration of the SNP is not going to survive it.
We are looking at a building that’s falling apart, rotten to its foundations, rickety, drafty, well past its useful life. Time to demolish it.
We’ve been building new homes for Scots for a while, and they’re ready to welcome anyone with integrity, strength, drive and optimism.
Push the button, blow up the lot. We don’t need that behemoth anymore.
Let’s reconvene, out and away from a cement monster, in fresh new homes, to live our new lives.
Let’s meet in the streets of our new, open city and march towards the independence that we deserve.
The next push will break through the BritNazi Establishment last line of defense, and the rats will scurry away.
I beg to differ as the Tory MPs have done their true job unbelievably well.
The richest are around 25% better off since they came to power.
10s it 100’s Billions haded out on so called Emergency budgets without time to tender but time enough to make sure they went to Tory supporters.
The PPE farcical corruption must be getting buried quicker than the nursing home residents.
Mone, Zahawi, Hancock just a few have made fortunes from our NHS.
The Media they own has perused the English Public the recklessness of Brexit, of Boris of Parties every Friday during lockdown was fine as is 150 mile drives to test your eyesight.
The list of Tory scandals is exhausting and even Truss throwing the economy off a well sign posted Cliff has been made good by their party and media.
The most successful of corrupt governments ever in history and only a few hundred thousand dead by their mismanagement but again it’s another win for them reducing the vulnerable’s dependency on the NHS and drawing down pensions.
They just need to announce a few tax cuts that could never be justified at the next general election and England will put them back in power. Might even make Boris PM again.
After 20 years of Tory rule the rubber dinghies will be taking English people being trafficked to France away from persecution.
Another cult worth keeping eyes on might be the moaney one
eg from federal deposit insurance corporation systemic resolution advisory committee meeting of 9 November 2022: link to t.co
@1h 33m – transparency only helpful and productive if it is ‘accurate’ (whatever that meant then, or can be expected to mean in a future where even birds and bees are confounded, by design)
@1h 36m – bank debt today is not what it was before, it is not principal protected BY DESIGN (good news for anyone struggling with loan repayments on basis that all MUST be equal before the law?)
*credit to Herald for belter of an article that included direction to the Hamish Hawk number this morning.
Doh, could be karma for praising the herlad but moaney was supposed to link to
link to youtube.com
Have you not mis-spelt the 4th word??
@The friendly sassenach 2:28pm
Agreed. It takes a special person to put their personal liberty and their life on the line for such a cause as their nation’s freedom. Individual men and women and have been prepared to do so in the past; I don’t see why that can’t happen in Scotland today.
And all of us lesser mortals who want to see Scotland regain its independence must also be prepared to make sacrifices. Small, individual, seemingly insignificant, sacrifices can make a difference if they are all part of a larger body of action.
Yet we all seem to be waiting for someone else to make the first move; to be the first political martyr of the modern-day independence movement. I’m no natural leader but would I be prepared to go to jail if it meant my incarceration furthered the cause? Yes, I believe I would. But would I be prepared to throw the first metaphysical Molotov cocktail…?
But we do need true leadership; unselfish and undaunted. Once that emerges I have every confidence the people will follow.
Nikola and her pet media friends do their utmost to hide bad news as much as possible (ferries, GRR, donations etc etc) or to blame everything bad on Westminster and to take credit for anything good ( not much of that) so on the basis that ‘you can fool some of the people all of the time’……………….
Scottish people are – on the whole – stupid. We always have been. Stockholm Syndrome is alive and well in Scotland.
To be serious about this… if this level of delusion is a “thing”, is it fair to assume it’s a new thing, or was it a thing way back in 2014?
If it isn’t reacting to online conversations and acrimonious dispute, (either positively or negatively), what specifically is it giving Scottish Independence it’s apparent neutral buoyancy?
It’s “almost” as if the Independence Movement is a body moving through time and space under it’s own steam, and while Alex Salmond was able to energise support and give the movement much greater momentum, Sturgeon has been singularly unable to affect any change. (The painful irony of course being Sturgeon’s “efforts” ought properly to have sunk Independence without a trace).
I say it in a constructive way, but can we be sure that ALBA and SALVO are having any kind of an impact? I mean, yes, to anybody paying attention, of course ALBA and SALVO are carrying the fight, but how can that reality, (and it is the reality), but how can it be having such little impact on the wider YES movement?
What kind of Yesser can be satisfied with Sturgeon’s gross mishanding of Independence, and “apparently” remain indifferent to ALBA, and worse too, indifferent towards the Claim of Right?
“Something” is not connecting here, it is disjointed. How can support for Independence be so far removed from the campaign for Independence? Why does the movement have so many “fair weather” YES supporters who profess to want Independence, but blithely shrug their shoulders whenever it’s punted into the long grass again?
The only pattern which fits is a Nation gripped by near terminal indifference and apathy, who will respond favourably to a pollsters inquiry, but won’t actually “do”anything to make Independence happen. This isn’t democracy. This is reducing democracy to the shallowest exercise in public relations.
SALVO and ALBA need to sit down and work this phenomenon out, because Scotland is very soon going to need widespread support from a broad section of Scottish society which right now is just not paying attention to the detail.
The point I’m trying to make is that a bold initiative which truncates the Independence process, something which very much does scare the horses, such as a Claim of Right style impeachment, or a UN intervention being sought…. How many horses would it actually scare?
The people we need to carry with us are not paying attention, so shouldn’t we be pressing ahead regardless, and trusting them to vote the right way at some point further down the line?
What I’m saying, is act, be bold, and give the Movement leadership, and trust the people will reciprocate.
We don’t need Sturgeon, and the way in which we get rid of her could propel the YES Movement to greater things.
Corrado Mella @ 3.16
Excellent post , a big AYE to ALL of that
Xaracen,
I am not on this site throughout the whole day, so apologise for not replying to your comments yesterday, I will do my best to leaving Dicey’s theories to another section later on.
For now I will rely upon the UK parliament site and Records for facts.
The UK parliament on their site in 2022 record they,( westminster ) are one of the oldest continued parliament across the world. And state for 800 years.
I was curious about this statement, seeing as the parliament of the United Kingdoms between Scotland and England officially was supposed to begin in 1707,
At first I thought this an error on their part, but further research reveals more.
In Queen Annes speech, to both Houses of the English parliament. She said,
” IT Is proper for me, before we part, to communicate to you, that I think it expedient that the Lords of the parliament of England, Should be members of the respective Houses of the first parliament of Great Britain for and on part of England,
And therefore I intend, within the time limited, to publish a proclamation for that persuent to the powers given by both kingdoms, ratifying the Treaty of the Union, And after we have so fully completed this Great work ,
I assure myself that when you return to your several countries, you will omit no opportunity of making my subjects sensible of the Security, and other great lasting benefits, they may reasonably expect from this happy union,
PARLIAMENT PROROGUED UNTIL WED 30th April 1707.
This can be researched in:
The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons volume 4,
First parliament of Queen Anne,
Third session, begins 14/4/1707,
Volume 4. 1706-1713.
English Westminster parliament.
As can be judged by readers of the above, the English parliament did not cease to exist, but was merely prorogued,
When the Westminster parliament reconvened from the prorogued parliament of England with the same officials and Lords in both houses, the Parliament of England never ceased but simply conveyed itself into the Great British Parliament.
Thus their claim on the UK parliament site in 2022 that Westminster parliament has not ceased to exist in 800 years is inclusive with the parliament of England.
Xaracen,
As a reminder in Scotland then and now regarding monarchy in Scotland.
it may be of historical note that Queen Anne in 1707 was not “Queen of Scotland” “The territory”
She was “Queen of Scots” if the choose it to be so,
Because of the Claim of Right that went through the Scottish parliament as official previously.
Patrick Grady is clearly a serial sex pest. Someone who was making unwanted sexual advances including touching people up.
For every man that accused him you have to apply a multiplier to get all the boys / men he did similar to who did not want to come forward due to the stigma etc..
You don’t just start doing this behaviour overnight, he must have been doing it for a while getting more and more out of control. I would say it must have been well known in the SNP what he was doing.
But also this was an fat bald grotty old man in his late thirties at the time. Why is he not asking out gay men of a similar maturity.
But no, again we see its kids, 17 year old boys. So the guy clearly has nonce tendencies going for ‘barely legal’ boys and that is on top of being a serial sex pest.
Imagine some fat old letch going around touching up 17 year old girls at a party… his feet would not touch the floor, yet slimeball here is back on the job after a minimum token sentence.
Just another day in Sturgeon’s Nonce Party.
Xaracen.
Queen Anne was not Queen of both kingdoms in 1707, only in England and therefore could not convey The Scottish territories into the Union,
The Treaty of Union was a political treaty of union between two parliaments, the Scottish parliament was extinguished in England due to ( agreeing ) to the treaty of the union by the commissioners according to the UK parliament site in 2022.
As others have noted btl already, the SNP voters polled believe in the validity and purpose of the Scottish Parliament so they think the MSPs performance is net good – as in it’s better than Westminster, and oor seatwarmers are better than their seatwarmers.
Herd mentality, or cultish tribalism (as the title states), plus the aforementioned young yins being too precious or busy to give anything but the loudest soundbite a moments notice and you have your answer.
How to fix it? Promote and vote for Alba. But it’ll be a long game.
I’m sad about Emma. Don’t know how she became so disabled since but in 2014 she was 100% for independence and worked hard for Yes. It’s a pity she appears to have since lost her way.
In Scotland and still under Scots law, not English or Great Britain laws the parliament of Scotland also Sine die’d its own parliament until further notice.
The devolved government in Scotland therefore is under the Westminster English parliament legislation that had continued according to The UK 800 year old Parliament site.
Susan AHF 1:36
It’s abuse. It’s like marching autistic kids into the surgeons knife to sterilise themselves.
Or giving the mentally insane a job making policy. That thing, Fiona Robertson, was a prime example. Never off twitter talking about her debilitating depression one minute while dreaming up whackadoo names for women in the next. Or that other thing – Spears, promoting sex abuse as a good career choice.
& Head honcho – the narcissist -who surrounds herself with these eejits to make her look like a fkn NASA scientist!
How did we get here with the trans cult? Who else, America.
That great bastion of Western civilization. I can’t wait for the day they’re a fucking backwater no one pays any attention to anymore.
I can see the Russians & the like turn on Western TV to men fannying around in makeup & heels & are pissing themselves laughing.
One silver lining, those little darlings won’t like a real war or be eager to sign up. It’d crease thier dress.
SNP are bought. Do we still make weapons?
I could be wrong but maybe this polling also explains why the Alba party is growing in popularity.
link to albaparty.org
Xaracen,
With these records attained from the Great British (united kingdoms ? ) site in 2022.
It leaves the question that the House of lords privileges committee asked while under the task of Law revision, Scotland
Is there actually a Treaty of Union between Scotland and England?
The Holyrood barrel must’ve been used to store pig manure, subsequently set on fire, and only then the bottom scraped to provide the contemptible dross that occupies the debating chamber.
Men can wear makeup and heels, there’s no problem with that.
It’s only if they believe they are something they aren’t that problems arise.
@ robertkknight 4.47pm, I feel I must disagree with you Robert my opinion is that the bottom of the barrel was the last liebour govt in Scotland , we are now well and truly through the barrel and into the earth which is fetid and rancid through the leakage of the shite that the barrel held
& that’s what has arisen.
Men & women thinking they can change sex & have sex with who they like & invade others spaces.
Transwomen can be lesbians.
Transmen can pretend to be gay men.
Straight people can be deceived.
Say otherwise & it’s a crime to the Gestapo.
Right now I think the only thing worrying people is the cost of living its whats
driving the strikes who would have thought the NHS would walk out
Breeks, I agree with you. The independence movement needs to forget about the SNP and by extension Nicola Sturgeon. She and they have shown themselves to be quite happy to plod on, sitting back as London removes yet another power from Scotland, or steals another Scottish asset for
BritainEngland.Oh sure, occasionally the SNP will whine a bit, like they did over the Pretendy English ‘supreme’ court nonsense, but then do nothing.
Given that Nicola Sturgeon in all her years as FM has refused to attend any indy march aside from one she herself organised in Glasgow, tells us all we need to know. She is quite happy doiong what she does. Coining in the salary, whilst Scotland is shafted by England again and again.
I am hopeful of the meeting in Edinburgh for the indy movement in January, which has been planned by ALBA, but open to all.
I do agree we need to be bold. Putting these consitutional points into a REAL format, where England’s blithe ignorance is challanged, is what needs done. The SNP sure as hell won’t do it, indeed, I think many in the SNP hierarchy don’t even understand FULLY the nature of the union with England, and the Scottish consitution, under Scots law. Too busy worrying about English diktats and English parliamentary procedures, rules and so on.
My opinion of the SNP and Sturgeon now, is that they are possible the biggest obstacle to Scottish independence. They simply refuse to fight. Westminster tomorrow could close Holyrood and the SNP gliteratti would whine and whine, then go home and do absolutely nothing. They would certainly NEVER be so bold as to assert the wholly legal and legitimate Scottish consitution as upheld BY the treaty of union. They’d probably write a wee article for The National, then move on.
Sadly, with the SNP, I think most at the top have persuaded themselves that ‘actually they are doing just the very correct thing, and trying to rush indy would do more damage’. Indeed I do not doubt that is exactly what they tell themselves. Stuck in a duplicitous time loop, forever telling themselves to wait just ‘one more year’, whilst in the real world, Scotland and its people are getting right royally f***ed by England. The world moves on and the SNP twiddle their thumbs. Winnie Ewing famously said, “stop the world, Scotland wants to get on”. Aye, but the SNP doesn’t.
Only booting them out of their seats might get them to sniff the freaking coffe, but even then, most just wouldn’t care. To them being an SNP MSP or MP is just a jolly nice, cosy super well paid job with astonishing perks and zero effort required. All they need to do is endlessly promise something in the future, and whine occasionally. As for them actually really standing up for Scotland, nah, GTF.
Bring back God.
Things were better when we were all believers.
@ ronald anderson, Bugger the Panda & all other Wings family (you know who you are)
All the best to all of you for 23, I’ll be raising a glass to you all, and all our good friends that are no longer with us.
David Ritchie at 545pm,
Yes, but the increasing poverty of Scots is inextricably linked to us being shackled to Brexit obsessed England. Independence is part of the solution.
Scotland is one of the most energy rich countries in Europe, yet here we are paying ridiculous prices to English based suppliers who steal our electricity, oil and gas from Scotland, then sell it back to us at inflated prices. It is a simple message the SNP refuse to use.
I suppose younger Scots don’t pay as much attention to politics as the older generations, throw in the Britnat media that lies more than Sturgeon when it comes to Scotland, and young folk unaware of what Sturgeon and the SNP are really up to, could be forgiven for still thinking that the SNP are doing a good job, when they are not.
Speaking of the SNP rapist enablers, the pervert Patrick O’Grady has been readmitted to their ranks after his sleazy antics towards a teenage aide, what a vile party the SNP has turned into.
Gregory Beekman at 555pm,
Yes, but which one??
I’m so done with all this ‘woo-woo’ I want to see ”woman face’ being made a hate crime.
These ‘fetishistic men on a sexualised ego trip should live out their sexual fantasies in private’
Keep signing:
link to petition.parliament.uk
Robert Louis
Oh, great question!!
Yes Geri, that’s the current state of affairs. Would I date a trans identifying male? No thanks, I would be polite (unless pressed) but unmoving.
The one with the transgender son?
Christ on a bicycle!
I can’t decide if is scary or really funny watching the world go insane!
For sure Ricky Gervais doesn’t have to work too hard on his jokes
they are being written for him.
Bigot! 🙂
Yup Ruby, a bigot and proud of it *smiley face* If attraction can’t be idiosyncratic god knows what can.
Soon, sex will be banned (because it’s just a genital fetish) to be replaced by spirit-to-spirit love.
SNP rapist enabler looking for sympathy vote in Sturgeon the Judas fanzine.
link to 12ft.io
Meanwhile the rapist enabling SNP via their rapist enabler deputy leader has sixty questions for Westminster, bearing in mind most would be solved with independence something the rapist enabling SNP doesn’t want.
link to 12ft.io
Robert Louis 6.03: “Scotland is one of the most energy rich countries in Europe, yet here we are paying ridiculous prices to English based suppliers who steal our electricity, oil and gas from Scotland, then sell it back to us at inflated prices.”
Sounds suspiciously like colony status to me, Robert 🙂 .
It’s clear that the subjects which really triggered the tiresome trolls on here were the C-word, sovereignty and those apparently ancient and useless treaties which actually have incredible international power and significance, all usefully packaged by them under the category of “magical thinking”.
All that debunking effort for such “worthless” stuff? I don’t think so.
Is it not fraud to imitate another person, to make gains from another’s person, or personality?
A man imitating a woman while still have male attributes, is only a imatation?
Does that mean we’ll have to do it in private?
No! No! We can’t haven that! Doggers rights are human rights!
I ain’t talking about the wee ginger variety.
Are you looking to stop people having fun in the school car park while they’re wait for their kids?
The treaty is magical thinking.
By eliminating the Scottish parliament out of existence in England to be incapable of joining a union,
While the English parliament has continued for 800 years at Westminster in name, members, and legislation and statues.
“If that were really the case Labour supporters would be much more closely aligned with Tories and Lib Dems in these results.”
Decent, loyal but extremely gullible folks used to vote Labour for decades.
Now, decent, loyal but extremely gullible folks vote SNP.
In due course, another “nice” anti-Tory party will arise to take up the votes now going to the SNP.
Politics should never be left to career politicians who care only of their own self interests.
The rapist enablers are just at the beginning of their (not Scotland’s) agenda, this is next up.
“The Scottish Greens have sought to apply pressure ahead of the new year, with the party’s agreement with the Scottish Government that solidified the pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament pledging to introduce legislation by the end of 2023.
“It is a disgrace that conversion practices still continue,” said the Greens’ equalities spokeswoman Maggie Chapman.”
“She added: “In 2023 we must build on it, and take further steps to make Scotland a fairer and more inclusive society.”
The rapist enabling SNP/Greens have plans and the unamended GRRB is just the start of them.
link to 12ft.io
Patrick Grady must be taking the ugly tablets. They’re working. I’m not surprised he can’t keep his wandering hands to himself, no one would go near him. I hope the good people of Maryhill tell him to fuck off.
X_Sticks Mr C
Nice to hear from U All the the Bestest to U & Yours
I broke my moby so lost a lot of numbers but I managed
to speak to Quinie Fae Angus today & Nana/Norman waiting on Quinie giving me Brotherhoods num
ronald anderson says:
29 December, 2022 at 1:47 pm
“We’ve been manipulated from the start of Sturgeon’s tenure as leader of the Snp in the pocket of the British gov ”
Many posters here did see through her pretty quickly, but were attacked by the cult worshippers for daring to say a word against their Glorious Leader.
Rev Stu says it (and backs it up with figures), so it must be true.
Lib Dems, SLabs and Tories are smarter than SNP voters.
I guess this one will run and run for most of 2023.
Patrick Grady Victim, Daily Record:
“I paid the price for raising complaints.
Today has exposed the SNP’s protection in full force, after finally making the right decision and removing Ian Blackford as their leader, their new leader, Stephen Flynn has made it clear for all to see his feelings toward sexual harassment.”
Poor boy. Traumatised at the hands of Grady. He looks like Mini Me from Austin Powers. The son of Doctor Evil.
Sickening. Are you a sex pest? Why not apply for a job as SNP MP. That’s the Sturgeon Philosophy.
Watch out in that Strangers Bar. The groping hands of Westminster are coming to grab your balls.
@ Doug says:29 December, 2022 at 2:09 pm
All it takes is one courageous, intelligent, articulate, charismatic leader of the independence movement to emerge and we’re home and dry
A thousand times, YES!!!
Endless fucking articles and infinite fucking comments dissing NS and the rest of the agricultural motive units but never a peep about who might just be able to sort this shitshow out.
Other than maybes the sainted JC, who did one thing right once, and ticks no more than two of the boxes courageous, intelligent, articulate, charismatic.
In the real world, you don’t get rid of one leader till you have a better leader primed and ready to lead, with a movement primed and ready to follow.
Doug says:
29 December, 2022 at 2:09 pm
“All it takes is one courageous, intelligent, articulate, charismatic leader of the independence movement to emerge and we’re home and dry.”
One did emerge, after 300 years. Look what they did to him.
Look what happened to the more decent Labour politicians.
At this rate, in a hundred years time, Labour will be promising to abolish the House of Lords and the SNP will be promising to hold the SECOND independence referendum.
“Where’s our modern-day James Connolly? Or Mahatma Gandhi?”
The system has been rock solidified to prevent any genuine figures arising in the future.
Several compromised and corrupt people, but otherwise harmless to the system, have been allowed to rise since Gordon Brown robbed the poorest to bail out the richest, but made to fall at the earliest opportunity.
The only hope is that the current turmoil in the West will awaken the “plebs” to see through their “leaders” and whose interests they are serving.
@ Effijy says:29 December, 2022 at 3:16 pm
Boris is gone. He ain’t coming back any time soon, probably never.
Get over it. Move on. Change the record. Get a life.
Oh, one other thing. There never was parties every Friday night during lockdown. Your constant lying on that makes you look just a little delusional.
Ever thought of bigging up Scotland as a means of pushing Indy? Your cunning plan for us to get Indy by doing nothing more than just dissing England and the Tories is not working out too well.
@ Corrado Mella says:29 December, 2022 at 3:16 pm
Good post, much to agree with, and some interesting new ideas to absorb.
Shame you had to introduce the ‘N’ word though. It weakens your argument, as astute readers know that the ‘N’ word is just a meaningless insult thrown in by those seeking to shut down the debate, not win it.
If you believe there is a credible case for Scottish Indy, then you don’t garner additional support by dismissing as Nazis those who have yet to be persuaded and convinced.
@RoS 6:40
I clicked through the article you linked to the one about ‘gender balance’. The following statement leapt out for me:
Commenting, SNP MSP Siobhian Brown said: “The SNP proudly maintains at least a 50/50 split when it comes to gender balancing on political programming.”
I am wondering where Ms Brown thinks you can go when 50/50 is described as ‘at least’. 60/60 maybes, or even 100/100?
But to be serious for a mo, if we all accept that 50/50 is as balanced as it will ever be possible to get in the real world, surely the other parties just need to self-ID as needed to hit the magic numbers?
Odd that an SNP MSP could have overlooked that one.
The figures show that the majority of Scots realize that the ScottisH Parliament in Holyrood is as detailed in the Scotland Act 1998. The act states that Holyrood is a devolved institution with limited devolved powers as given by Westminster. These powers remain as long as Westminster agree they do but they can also remove them as required – Article 35 in the Scotland Act. Independence can never occur through Holyrood as it does not have any power to deliver it unless Westminster gives them the power to do it – never going to happen as unless 60% of Scots poll for independence Westminster will continue to say no and respect the 2014 referendum result and democracy.
Hey rev
Can you find out many of our msps have kids?
Has a bearing on the gra situation
Should have to declare an interest-yes/no??
@ronnie Anderson (6.42) –
Gillian has my number if Quinie doesn’t.
😉
Rev. Stuart Campbell says on 29 December 2022 at 1:48 pm:
“Patrick Grady’s wrist-slap is over: link to archive.vn ”
Sturgeon never was big on fairness and justice. Remember the reasons she was forced out of a career in law? Not giving an abused woman sufficient/appropriate representation. At least she’s shown here she’s consistent if anything.
“A bunch of cults”
Aye, The Clinton Cult, The Clintonettes (Sturgeon & Co).
Off topic, but might be of interest.
77th Brigade alert. Look out for someone using the clearly 77th Brigade fake name of “100% Yes” online.
He (or so he claims, so maybe a woman) is visiting sites like Reddit and indy websites, causing division by putting it out how people in the Yes movement were once elected Labour officials, suggesting they are fifth columnists. Or another indy blogger who once stood as a Conservative candidate decades ago.
Note: recurrent use of the word “Toe-rees” is also typical of Nicola Sturgeon, particularly on the eve of indyref1. I am not suggesting anything… just passing the time of day and remarking on the first minister’s lexicon (not yet a thoughtcrime, I hope?).
@Alan Austin says:29 December, 2022 at 7:49 pm
Your post reeks of common sense and realism 🙂
Have a look at this:
link to gerryhassan.com
Here’s a wee quote:
What sprang from this is that Dewar did not see devolution as a catalyst for further democratisation and dispensing power throughout Scotland, and did not view the arrival of a Parliament as part of a journey in which people up and down the land took power into their own hands.
Bottom line is that Hollyrood was designed to kill Indy, not progress it. Up to now, it has done exactly as its designers intended.
I think that could change, but not with the current lot in situ.
Robert Louis has it. The SNP are grifters through and through. Nicola Sturgeon only interested in herself.
Any changes they make in the party are window dressing.
The good hard working activists have all been rooted out of the SNP because they put the Nu SNP clan under Sturgeon to shame.
Alba and ISP are the only hope for the Independence movement.
So thanks Stu for opening up the blog and giving us all space and time.
Please call SNP out as much as possible.
Only Barrhead Boy has been doing along with a friend of mine Pete Macdonald on Instagram.
We cannot allow this bunch of useless self servers to keep control of Holyrood.
A salute to the oppressed poets of Scotland. Solidarnosc, tragic comrades!
link to whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com
Would it be a step too far for the Big Beasts of the Alba Party to come out against Sturgeon, the GRR and the SNP’s association with the Greens. There is a large majority in Scotland against the legislation on the grounds that it is a danger to women and children…..It is not a Nationalist issue.
We need leadership and we need to remove the virus which controls Holyrood. I think the Scottish public would respond, but we seriously need some headline exposure, can’t wee make use of the MSM rather than being shafted by it?
Why stupid?
Our brightest and best, looking around themselves, come to the conclusion that they will never reach their potential at home.
Those with get up and go, got up and left.
This has been the case for at least the duration of our ‘Union’ with/ colonisation by England.
“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”
Samuel Johnson.
A nice chap,the good doctor!
“Knowledge was divided among the Scots, like bread in a besieged town, to every man a mouthful, to no man a bellyful”
Blame the Union, I do.
The gene pool has been diluted , and judging by the post, it’s at homeopathic concentration levels re.intellect.
I’ll even write the headline for you!
ALBA PARTY PUT INDY ON HOLD TO PROTECT SCOTLAND’S WOMEN AND KIDS
Stu , I wondered if anything would be getting slipped in whilst the focus was on the GRA .
Mr Grady has behaved inappropriately. But good character is no longer required it seems !
“Govt accused of ‘rank double standards’ as civil servants paid £30m in vouchers”
“The Government has been accused of “rank double standards” after giving almost £30 million in high-street vouchers to civil servants amid a pay freeze prompted by the cost-of-living crisis.”
But hey, if you’re a nurse or some other valuable member of society? F@ck you, peasants! link to archive.vn
Allen Austin..
I’ve read all it takes is for an individual to write a referendum bill & the parliament to pass it. It bypasses the presiding officer & the lord advocates approval. Easily done.
Accept the legal challenge that would no doubt happen at submitting it – move it along to Court of Session to decide & at the same time, petition the King (on the Claim of Right) (Scott & Supreme Court case where they slipped in the cheat)
Republic 6:40pm
Maggie Chapman can whistle. Conversion therapy is already banned. (They no longer chemically castrate or dish out a lobotomy) WM have already thrown it out because the gender woo woo want sex dropped & replaced with gender identity woo but gay activists have insisted it must be based on sexual orientation, not magical feelings of who they feel like being at any given moment. WM agreed & the bill is going ahead but only on orientation. Thanks to Gay men’s network! Lolz!
I think Chucky will refuse Royal ascent to all this bullshit. If lawyers allow this bullshit to pass it would make a mockery of the law.
Ruby: agree that ‘trends’ affect young people, and, when young, we are all susceptible to them, and most are relatively harmless, but every totalitarian regime in modern times has utilised young people as its front-line ‘warriors’. The ‘trans’ industry is no different. That is why young people cannot simply be allowed to have all their own way. I appreciate it is not all of them, but too many conform to the pattern. Given access to power too young and they become dangerous.
I absolutely agree with you that ‘woman-face’ should be outlawed in the sam way that ‘black-face is’. Neither, I think, is indicative of a deep respect for, and appreciation of, the race/sex being followed. Sexologists have shown in many studies done that many of the men who impersonate women actually view the female of the species as the lowest form of life he can think of. Autogynephilia does not mean loving yourself as a woman because you love women; it means loving the part of yourself that you perceive as being the lowest of the low. It is a form of sexual masochism that degrades you because you become the very thing you despise and are disgusted by. I’m not sure, but I suspect ‘black-facing’ would denote the same typology. I really do not think that these imitators envy either women or black people at all.
Utterly amazing. Sunak should be sunk.
All the usual wokeries are in on it.
Skip to 5.53.
Apologies for the topic Stu, but it’s the in yer face corruption that I’m pointing out.
youtu.be/AH3AFYVn3T8
PMSL at high street vouchers Lol!
Oh dear, now they’ll be in the shops dealing with the woo woo..Happy days!!!
Had a 10-minute chat with Ronnie Anderson earlier this evening and that was enough to remind me what this is all about.
Sturgeon, the SNP, Scottish MSM and everyone who’s exploited the independence cause for personal gain have been exposed, utterly.
We know who they are and they’ll be held to account in time. Meanwhile, we refocus and box smarter.
😉
Vivienne Westwood, RIP missus.
twitter.com/ElphinstoneJack/status/1608587802790301696
The power of faith and hope over reality. I’d bet the Tory voters hate Holyrood and aren’t under much illusion about their own MSPs. The SNP blind loyalists, I’d wager if you asked them they wouldn’t be able to name more than one or two MSPs, and that would include St Nicola. They just assume they’re all great, defend them to the hilt and pay zero attention to who and where they’re actually getting now. The Lab ones are probably more mixed: they know they have a few decent ones, some dross, support devolution and some maybe indy. They’re probably more reality based than the SNP & Tories right lie.
Andrew S 7:51
Good question. This state funded mass mutilating sterilisation program is population control.
Especially those deemed not too bright. Herd them in quick & remove thier reproduction ability. Seen taking up good oxygen & are a drain on the planet & society. Hitler’s eugenics 2022?
& It’s usually childless eejits consumed by greed who shout the loudest on who should be allowed to breed. The *not to right in the heid* would make the top spot for herding under the knife..
RIP Vivienne x What an icon.
Gawd, my brother practically lived in his bondage trousers & string vests. Lol
Good article. I don’t think most of them really think through anything with much rigor at all. They have, perhaps a handful of ideas and they wave their wee scarves for whoever says they care about those ideas.
They actually know this, if they’re forced to. On “Over 60s For Scotland”, I took the occasion before the Supreme Court decision, to ask if I could write up a list of all the members who had conducted their debate by arguing for a need for unity behind SNP as we approach a referendum which will definitely take place in 2023.
Enough of them went mental. Especially the ones who had been insisting on a 2023 referendum as gospel. “It’s like the Spanish Inquisition!’ complained one bullshitter. I am of course blocked from access now, but it was worth it to watch them wriggle. Everything was there – historical revision, psychological denial, groupthink, tribalism, Freudian projection – a comprehensive zoology of self delusional liars.
Re Patrick Grady’s wrist slap
“ Multiple sources questioned the six-month period, with one saying that the usual period was two years.”
Patrick must be very special….
@ Lorna Campbell says:29 December, 2022 at 10:40 pm
I am intrigued that you think that ‘black face’ is against the law (you use the word ‘outlawed’).
There is certainly some strong prejudice against it, but I can’t find any obvious law against it. If you know better, then please share.
FWIW, my interest stems from a fundamental belief, for reasons that I hope are obvious, that the precise meanings of words are important.
Also, if you want to get traction with an idea (like the idea that ‘woman face’ should be treated in the same way as ‘black face’), it sure is better to know just what the legal position of ‘black face’ actually is.
Response to Geri
Your route to independence still requires Holyrood to pass a bill as you say and Westminster can refuse it Royal Consent using Article 35 in the Scotland Act. Holyrood is a devolved Administration and can only do what Westminster allows them to do. Hence your route to independence would be classed illegal by any court it ended up in.
Douglas DRoss attacked the Scottish NHS as waiting times have increased and treatments delayed.
I failed to hear anyone mention the Westminster Tory party’s contribution of consistent budget cuts and pay freezers on to of chasing away health workers from the EU with Brexit.
This morning we see the Tory Party declare an NHS England crisis asking the public not to
contact the NHS or visit A & E unless their situation is life threatening.
If you are feeling seriously ill how does the average person know just how serious it may be?
It takes a series of tests before Doctors know if you have had a heart attack or stroke so will these people try to do their Tory bit and stay away and just die to save the Tory budget?
Can you imagine the avalanche of abuse the SNHS and our politicians would face for years if they made such an appeal?
I’m sure DRoss will keep an eye on this site.
Go on use a false name and tell us how the English Tories offer a better future.
Thanks to Grant Shapps video explaining to the dumb that turning off lights in empty rooms saves electricity. What would we do without him.
Why does Grant not just use the Get Rich Quick Scheme he peddled on the internet under a false name to make everyone rich?
In fact why do you need to work Grant as you must be loaded by now and you certainly ain’t doing anything good for the general public
Disillusioned as I am with the SNP (and no longer a member)I still ‘stick up’ for them when speaking to anti independence friends. I think this could have contributed to the SNP high score as there must be others like me who don’t want to give Tories, Lab etc any cause for joy.
Seemingly 55% in Scotland wish for an elected head of state. Why bother with such an office, only substitute monarchy, at all
An annually elected president of the citizens’ parliament could fulfill the ad hoc function easily.
True Democracy does not require quasi monarchic flummery.
Elected deputies need a reminder of their «citizen dependent» function, something mps and msps appear to have forgotten in their ivory chambers.
Use your imagination Scotland.
Frankly it’s getting increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that young people are just stupid,
It wasn’t too long ago when many were saying it will be the young who will change the future, it’s been obvious to me for some time now that indeed it will be the young who will change the future, the problem is it will be a future not many of us oldies will care to live in.
I know my grandkids who support independence also support the GRR bill and adore Sturgeon, they’ll also embrace the digital economy.
I don’t know what went wrong.
The usual carrot dangling BS from the the rapist enabling party (SNP) there’s nothing “Special” about the SNP’s conference in March, its classed as special by the rapist enabling party only to dupe the indy masses into believing that the SNP have a plan for obtaining independence, they don’t.
However a plan does exist in dissolving Holyrood to hold a snap election that can be used as a indy vote, but neither rapist enabling parties of the Greens/SNP want to see an indy Scotland or they would’ve jumped at it.
Not even BfS’s Gordon Macintyre-Kemp nor the Yes Groups, as far as I can tell, have mentioned this route out of this prison of a union, I can only conclude that they also pretend to want independence or they would be pushing for this route that could see us free in 23.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
“THE SNP’s policy convener has called on the Scottish Government to publish the remaining independence papers in time for the SNP special conference scheduled for March – in which members must “ensure they are in the driving seat”.
Toni Giugliano said he sees “no reason” why the papers can’t be published by March, or simultaneously, to allow parties and campaign groups to begin producing the easy-to-read and deliverable campaign assets.”
link to 12ft.io
O/T.
Not really a footie fan, this might interest some Brazilian football player Pele died yesterday aged 82.
Techno-Cult Snake Oil.
Roll up! Roll up!
link to archive.vn
HELEN YATES.
Re «the young», if we are in your view «stupid» consider the education system created for us by adults. Children are not taught how to reason. The ability to intelligently question is the beginning of wisdom. Too many take too much for granted.
The irrational simplicities disseminated by SocMed platforms sustain such ignorance.
This is the perfect breeding ground for authoritarianism and the anti intellectual sentimentality that underpins «gender» cultism.
They also appear to have little connexion with the high culture that is the essential framework and fabric of civilization.
Drugs, weird sex and TikTok are part of the dumbing down, controlling, social engineering «program» which governments passively enable.
The majority of Scotland’s councillors live in bought homes, maybe that part of the problem why there’s no real incentive to build social homes for rent.
The SNP promised to build or help fund the building of many social houses, there appears to be a big shortage of social housing in Scotland, as far as I’m aware even student can’t find suitable accommodation, is this another abysmal failure under Sturgeon the Judas tenure.
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenational.scot%2Fnews%2F23219244.fewer-one-10-scotlands-councillors-rent—half-home%2F
Great Headline. Article as ever quality. Thank YOU for all you do to keep honest info available for those interested & as a counter balance to the largely pathetic NON journalism across uk and rabid in Scotland. Awerabest Stu for you n yours in 23. Aye Fiona x
Interesting discussion about where is the great leader like some from history to lead us to independence? Same sort of thing has been said for some years on the left in England regarding Labour and getting rid of the Tories from power. Corbyn wasn’t it, sadly.
Thing is what is being wished for is not at all simple and very rare – someone with integrity, honesty, charisma, intelligence, a great speaker who can translate complexity into simple concepts and get them across to people but at the same time does not dumb down, appears to speak to/for all, looks good, dresses well, comes across good on TV, is amenable etc etc
And then also has no skeletons on the cupboard! This last one is massive these days as the amount of scrutiny, dirt digging and attempts to smear any powerful figure is massive and here’s the rub – the kind of person that is desired is not the sort to easily stand up to this and retain all the desired qualities (and literally everyone has some skeletons) unless you think a Trump or Johnson or Farage-like figure is ‘the one’ (it isn’t, obvs).
Conclusion: it is us, society that makes a genuinely great leader a rare, if not impossible beast to find.
Excellent from Kenny
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
It should be obvious to all here, that the SNP are viewed by the proles as the only vehicle to deliver “Independence”.
Without some sort of dramatic action being taken, Murrell&Co will obfuscate and lie for another decade.
Urging voting for Alba will only garner a few people who have already realised what is happening within the SNP, but will not change the overall dynamic which may indeed deliver “Independence”, but to a country in which few of us would wish to live.
Time is running out and within another year the company directors will have the Scottish people completely hogtied.
Is it not time that we all thought long and hard about what is going to happen to the social fabric of our country should the insane SNP/Greens coalition remain in power.
Talking amongst ourselves solves nothing we need action now, for Scotland, its women,children and democratic system.
In most countries and cultures going back throughout recorded history the elderly are revered as wise. The village elders being the authority and source of wisdom not the village children or teenagers or village twenty somethings…
One of the many poisonous vines (and there are many) of progressive / woke / identity politics is that it teaches children that their parents, elders are stupid, racist, sexist, bigoted, stuck in their ways, ignorant, to be ignored, despised.
It is absolutely no coincidence it does this, as it is all part of the embedded war on society, the family, marriage, people believing in a God anything that is remotely considered ‘good’.
I was not convinced for a long time but seeing now what they are doing I am now sure that what is often called ‘cultural marxism’ is very real and very advanced. And it is coming from within. It is our own ‘elites’ who are pushing it. Given the reach of it, the scale of it and how long it has been in the building it has to have come from within. It is omnipresent in nearly all western countries now, virtually every party is a slave to it.
It replaces the real struggle to meaningfully improve peoples lives with these garbage vacuous woke ideologies that only divide and conquer ordinary people. How convenient for them…
Young people are being mugged off every day while thinking they are ‘social justice warriors’… instead they are the ‘useful idiots’, it is laughable and very sad.
It is almost like a spell people are under.
Mac – the wise old man threary of history is discredited by experience. It was indeed the stupid, racist, bigoted white oldies in backward parts of England that got you Brexit and Boris Johnson. The young voted massively against it.
Well said.
Well put Mac
I have been trying to articulate my views on woke for a long time and have fell short when confronted with its as you put it many poisonous vines. For me it not been able to see what the end game is and how anyone can think we are heading in a positive direction that confuses me most .
Patsy miller
I don’t stick up for the snp any more. When with unionists, who are usually on a Sturgeon rant, I agree with them, and add to their condemnation and add of course that she is being kept in power and protected by Westminster, so they better get used to her. She is their chosen leader for the old colony.
It is such a joy to watch their faces as they realise the object of their hate us being kept in place by their master
MAC 11:28
The prophet of the New Times, Greta Thunberg is «autistic», effectively her world is one of her own creation, for her the actual «real» world, with its variables, is problematic.
The «gender» ideology, promoting essentially an introverted psychological state of mind, appeals to the type. Adolescence is a maelstrom of «states of mind» which may be exploited by the unscrupulous. Authoritarian systems love youth ie the blank space that so many sadly offer, so as to fill it with sentimental, emotive and irrational material.
Some adults tend to like their kids not too «smart», not given to researching at source the reasons why.
It is noteworthy that agencies of globalist ideology also love «the young».
Mac,
I agree, it is our politicians that are the source.of all evil. Passing laws against humanity.
Last night I was watching. Killing the Homeless, Canada’s euthenasia mercy killings.
Coming to a country near you,
Scotland……Gender identification confusion.
Canada and Sweden,…. Culling of humans.
Europe, America and Britain…..false food, nano food and bugs….withdrawal of heating and travel…..Over populate a country….housing and NHS shortages,….deindustrialisation,…..being tagged for identification like cattle and sheep,……access to digital bank accounts by government,…..Climate change to for aquistion of farmers and private owned land…..reducing income.
Somehow Making a small regime change like the SNP, (just another political party ) owned, funded and working for larger groups out-with Scotland ain’t gonna make any difference.
It is expedient that our country has independence from the chaos being deliberately created world wide that is detrimental to the well being of family, social cohesion, safety of women and children, and men,
Our own ethic populations are contracting considerably in Scotland and across britain.
It is to recognise that a country run by others will have no say in its future,
Politicians are puppets on strings dancing to the tune of the get rich funding providers and finances.
When the scary new and restricting laws across the world are gathered together we can see a pattern emerging,
People, human beings, are expendable and are a problem for the small elite group /community that run countries from inside governments
Psychology and fear for Control by governments using media is not new,
Scotland is sleep walking to its own demise, waiting to get permission to be free of the deliberate chaos and confusion set by someone else’s agenda’s
Snp will be replace by another puppet, this is nothing but regime change on a small scale.
It is nought but playing a tune to someone else’s fiddle.
Being a independent country by our choice should be the goal, then we can kick politicians out that violate the laws of humanity.
Food for thought,
I wonder if certain members of the SNP leadership secretly feel that they actually should be the other sex? Pure speculation but it would explain a lot.
link to petition.parliament.uk
Keep signing
Standing at 8800
No more ‘sex’ changes
The Scottish people that are genuine independence supporters ( not the pretendy snp or those that constantly produce excuses and barriers) would and should research the archives and records.
Perhaps they will be surprised to find that all is not as it first appears, that Scotland has been under a fraudulent misconception with regards the treaty of the union.
But then again I would be surprised if they did want to go that far, it seems the small regime change of the Snp is the in thing right now, is more important than making a complete change of a independent nation of Scotland and its country.
The Government run media that go to the same parties as westminster politicians want us to focus on the small party change in Scotland,
I want to change the westminster legislated devolved government in Scotland, which includes the Snp automatically by default.
I want the great reset to begin in Scotland, by being the first Country to hold politicians and bankers accountable and fining or imprisonment by the people for crimes against humanity.
I’m not too sure about this Patrick Grady stuff. I’ll probably have to take some time to get my thoughts together & write something comprehensible about all this kind of stuff.
I can understand why there are accusations of hypocrisy level against the SNP.
As for his ‘crime’ I’m thinking so what? Is it such a big deal?
Oh I know I am going to be accused of ‘victim blaming’ but what I keep wondering is about the ‘victims’ reactions to these so called sexual advances.
Isn’t it possible to make it clear that the sexual advances are not welcome?
For example grab the hand that’s touching your hair and remove it then walk away.
Is that so hard?
It is ‘uncomfortable’ if someone makes advances if you don’t fancy them but then if you do it’s great.
I have experience of both but my main problem back in the day before I was past it was men who I fancied like mad not making advances.
I suppose it might be uncomfortable for a heterosexual man to receive attention from a gay man but the same applies just make it clear you don’t fancy the person.
Then there is the heterosexual man who receives advances from a ‘woman’ with a penis.
OMG I’ll stop there ‘cos that’s a whole different can of worms.
In Scotland the Scottish people have held the Claim of Right for many many years,
It has been confirmed just as many times.
That makes the sovereignty of the Scottish people along with our retained laws, education and religious establishments a reality,
However it is disappointing that the people in Scotland do no use their right to self determination along with their right to choose their own government above the msm want to just change the Snp.
This is like trying to fix a broken window with wood glue.
Lenny @11.22am.
Thanks for the link, this jumped out at me from it.
With the GRRB in mind.
“Whatever happened to closing the educational gap, let alone “judge me on education”? This Bill wasn’t in the SNP manifesto, which suggests the deal with the Greens was predicated on this, not environmental actions or independence.”
And of course this.
Again with the unamended GRRB in Mind.
” Why her Lord Advocate felt it possible to sign off this Bill, but not the Referendum Bill only they can explain.”
John Main: I deliberately used the word, ‘outlawed’ because it is outlawed in most decent circles. I would have used ‘illegal’ had I thought it was so. No, it is not illegal, but it could be said to be morally repugnant because of its implications. Woman-face is equally repugnant – or should be – for precisely the same historical reasons, and because neither is in any way showing a preference, but is an act of appropriation that is designed to demean, even if subconsciously. How can it not be. A young British man appropriated Korean culture/identity recently, going so far as to have his eye shape altered. Needless to say, real Korean people did not find it at all laudable. From your name, I assume you are male. As a man, can you really understand how f*****g insulting it is to have men appropriate your very existence? As a white person, I could never appropriate the reality of a black person’s life experience, and any attempt to do so is beneath contempt.
It looks like the tiny trans community comes before our children when it comes t the rapist enabling SNP.
The Scottish Children’s Commissioner is fuming with the SNP.
“That commitment manifested in 2021 when after decades of campaigning by children and young people the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.
“It was passed in a blaze of celebratory glory, children told us about how valued this made them feel, how they felt listened to, cared for, and understood.”
“Later in 2021 the Supreme Court ruled that changes were needed in the Bill. Since then we have had nothing but prevarication and delay from the Scottish Government.
“As another year passes and we reach 2023, children are still waiting for their rights to be protected. Government inaction speaks much louder than words.”
link to archive.vn
Meanwhile this Tory muppet whose party is dead set against what he says should be ignored completely.
“People must have the freedom to determine their own path in life.”
link to twitter.com
Why is John Main really interested in whether ‘black face’ is against the law or not?
Any connection between that and his deeply held views on Brexit?
Is he planning a Brexit/New Year celebration party?
About time.
“A MAJORITY of Scots would prefer an independent Scotland to be a republic rather than keep King Charles as head of state, a new poll has found.”
link to archive.vn
I doubt Sturgeon the Judas and rapist enabler will agree with the above, as she almost breaks her crooked neck bowing to King Charles II, as Scotland Governor General stand to attention next to the Judas.
link to pbs.twimg.com
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Noo ah don’t want any snash fae u lot but chist to let yous aw know um applying for a GRC ah hiv decided um ah double wardrobe so that’s whit ah will put on the form .
I’ve gotta hand it to Sturgeon the Judas she sure can spin them, and dupe the indy masses into believing that she and her rapist enabling MSPs actually want to see an independent Scotland when in reality they don’t give a monkeys about it.
If the Judas Sturgeon really wanted Scottish independence she could deliver it next year, collapsing Holyrood and holding a snap election used as a indy vote, never mind spewing shite about waiting a whopping two years to use the next GE as one, in which the goal of the Judas is to get elected as many SNP MPs as possible.
Don’t let this bunch of charlatans fool you again.
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
link to heraldscotland.com
“Plans to use the next general election as a “de facto referendum” on independence will spark the most important internal SNP debate since the 1997 decision to back devolution, Nicola Sturgeon has told the party’s inner circle.
The First Minister told a meeting of the SNP’s ruling national executive committee that a “mature conversation” was needed about the push for Scotland to become independent.”
akenaton says:
30 December, 2022 at 11:23 am
‘It should be obvious to all here, that the SNP are viewed by the proles as the only vehicle to deliver “Independence”.’
Is it not better to be a prole and ill-informed than sharing the views of those well-educated types who know exactly what is going on, yet turn a blind eye because they are part of the ‘I’m alright Jack’ class?
I’ll never blame or castigate those at the bottom of our caste system, the losers in life’s birth lottery, for any views they hold.
They have been used and abused and treated as cannon fodder by every political party and ruling system in history and owe allegiance to no-one.
It is in fact huge credit to proles that they still believe in Scotland, even if misguidedly believing that SNP is the only vehicle to deliver “Independence”.
Allen Austin 8:18am
The bill would be written & presented by a backbencher thereby bypassing the legal interference that a FM has if theyd presented it. Parly could vote it through.
Obviously WM would step in at the legal stage so off it pops to the Scottish Court of Session for a decision on the argument a Scottish parliament is given no other route.
The bill has been written & passed by that stage so it’s upto Scottish court. Meanwhile, have Kings council members to get off their arse & speak to Chuck. Claim of Right blah, blah.
This was mentioned in the Supreme Court Case i.e what’s stopping an individual from writing a referendum bill? Bain replied, nothing.
Was that a sleekit wee hint to us or the WM to fix that loophole?
Andy Wightman & I’m sure, Craig Murray both seized on it?
The bill is written & passed in parly. It’s better than waiting for the SNP democracy banjoree in Spring! Giving WM time to repair the breach.
It’s alo a bill that’s written & passed in the Scottish parliament.
Whether it’s an aye or no from the Court of Session – it’d still be in our arsenal should this eventually move external?
Is there anything to lose?
What size dress would you be needin’ mam?
XXwardrobe or XXXwardrobe for a looser fit? 🙂
You haven”t included your pronouns.
Finger crossed it’s Ma’am and I haven’t misgendered you.
link to youtube.com
Geri,
Under the Scotland act, the devolved Scottish government in name only was created as a branch office of Westminster in Scotland,
Nothing is plausable as Scots law passed in Scotland due to that legislation & structure.
This is under the thumb of Uk legislation, whom have the capability any time they wish to repeal the devolved government Government in Scotland.
As they can do with the devolution councils in England, Wales and else where.
We do not have a Scottish government or parliament of our own in Scotland if it is Westminsters to give and take.
All that sail under devolved government county government banner in Scotland are sailing for Westminster laws and statues.
@ronnie anderson –
‘Noo ah don’t want any snash fae u lot but chist to let yous aw know um applying for a GRC ah hiv decided um ah double wardrobe so that’s whit ah will put on the form.’
When one door opens another closes and you’ll be needing drawers for the XXXL unmentionables.
😉
Gordon Bain says:29 December, 2022 at 3:53 pm
Scottish people are – on the whole – stupid. We always have been. Stockholm Syndrome is alive and well in Scotland.
—————————————————
Even this anchor seems to have caught it
link to archive.vn
The people will deliver independence, when their eyes have opened and they no longer believe in politicians as gods.
@Lorna Campbell 3:19
Thanks for the clarification.
Again, FWIW, there’s a huge difference between ‘frowned upon’ and illegal.
Regarding your ‘act of appropriation that is intended to demean’, I recall we all used to believe that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.
Final word on the subject. I have never got the whole ‘black face horror’ thingy, simply because I would be totally unmoved on seeing/hearing a black or Korean person made up as a white Scot, so don’t relate to the perceived offence when the roles are reversed. Guess I have an undeveloped grievance instinct.
So for that reason, I think your attempt to link ‘black face’ to ‘woman face’ is a non-starter.
@Ruby 3:54
Why don’t you organise a Brexit wake, invite your friends and neighbours.
When people ask “Wha’s deid?”, just tell them it’s standard behaviour when a small country goes mental and leaves a much larger political and economic union, in order to better run its own affairs.
O/T: Rev, just to let you know that the email alert to a new Wings article seems to have been restored.
Mac @ 11.28am & Ottomanboi
Modern research on brain development could suggest background to your comments.
Relatively recently it was discovered that the human brain goes through a second stage of development after puberty. It was assumed previously that the brain from infancy onwards went through a state of rapid development, crucially learning from its environment and the human society around it, which was assumed to be completed by adulthood.
During childhood it appears that the brain is extremely malleable and children soak up knowledge like sponges. In fact, it is theorised that the lengthy period of juvenile dependency compared to other animals is necessary to the development of the more complex brain of humans.
Now, it is thought that plasticity of the brain remains throughout much of life though atrophy of the brain is natural in old age ( as many of us find to our chagrin.)
However, it has been discovered that the second stage of development which takes place in what we think of as adolescence involves a quite radical re-organization of the brain ( the frontal lobes). Many of the connections made in childhood quite simply disappear and are gradually replaced in adolescence by new connections made during those years.
Many parents will ruefully recognise the ‘difficult’ teenager stage when their offspring seems to change from a cheerful,(mostly) biddable child to an opinionated changeling who discounts the advice of adults and seems to seek confrontation. It appears not to be all about raging hormones ( although they play their part) but is down to a second stage of development when the adolescent brain learns new rules and loses some of those childhood connections which were the previous ‘rules’.
It is perhaps this ‘re-learning’ stage which makes teenagers open to new impressions about the world and particularly open to new influences, sometimes dangerously so. The second stage does seem to be about giving up childhood dependency and learning adult autonomy. Unfortunately, during that period of learning which involves risk-taking and discovering the world using their own judgement and being confronted by new options, the influence of peers is actually meant to replace that of elders. It’s all about evolution which is the cause of this radical and sometimes dangerous stage in re-organising the brain.
Unfortunately, this almost anarchic transformation of the brain connections can lead to uncritical embracing of others’ thinking which challenges the seeming established order especially if this is largely endorsed by their peers. Hence the reason adolescents and young adults become captured by movements and cults which can manifest as simply behaviour which excitingly challenges orthodoxy in dress, music or experimenting with drug-taking but also can manifest as cult-like zealotry which challenges previous established ideas. It’s why people often refer to the extreme examples in which adolescents become frighteningly fanatical, functioning very like a hive mind, all individualism abandoned to the exhilaration of belonging to some great project eg the Red Guard of Maoism, Hitler Youth.
This propensity to challenge previous thinking but replace it by their own uncritical surrender to peer group thinking which brooks no opposition or any challenge to their own orthodoxy, can be the result of the way the brain develops but we can see that it is often exploited by ruthless elders who cotton on to this unquestioning susceptibility to the next new great idea which can so easily become authoritarian intolerance. The problem is that young people do not recognise this propensity in themselves.
It is a product of evolution, another instance of evolution not being strategic but tactical. It would probably be essential in early human groups where the typical age profile would be very few mature adults and juveniles and the largest group would be adolescents and young adults. Since the adults would likely die off before old age then the adolescents could easily find themselves as the elders of their group. It was necessary that they should have lost their childhood dependency on now dead adults and have to step up to use initiative.
However, despite this re-organizing of the brain being part of evolution we are still individuals. Evolution does not favour clones; individual difference can be important to survival of a species so we don’t all revert to ant-like behaviour despite the effects of this important stage of evolutionary brain development. Some of us are little affected by the re-organization while it happens, somehow retaining critical faculties which are resistant to the pressures of group conformity.
Within this phase of brain development it appears that our relationship to outside influences is crucial. In other words, it matters how deeply you are affected by the influence of your peer group whether you go on to have a successful transition to adulthood without having made too many stupid mistakes in adolescence and to have achieved true personal autonomy and responsibility towards others.
@ Otto 9.29am I am in complete agreement re NOT requiring an elected head of state , it appears ALBA like every other political party are intent on deciding everything for the great unwashed
ONE of my reasons for voting for independence is to enable people to become more engaged and to participate in decision making , we are a relatively small country with a relatively small population, surely it is not outwith the ability of our population to create an online register similar to that of Estonia where people can vote in a referendum online, for or against on proposals for ideas , policies , laws and regulations
THAT to me is a democracy, where the majority fairly and democratically decide the way ahead and the future of the citizens , IMAGINE we had that in 2014 , 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2022 , Indy ,EU ,Sturgeon indy ref ,Covid , Rapists and Perverts Charter
But as ever OUR politicians of ALL parties would vehemently block anything so sensible , BECAUSE they demand CONTROL, THEY are the elite , THEY know what’s best for us , THEY crave power, and worst of all WE the unwashed would DEMAND they do as WE say, FFS they might even have to answer their emails from constituents
SORRY people I was dreaming with my eyes open
Hi Joe at 5:35 pm
You typed,
“Even this anchor seems to have caught it
link to archive.vn“
That article is from a year ago… Maybe the past tense “seemed” would have been more accurate than the present tense “seems”.
John Main: Frankly, I did not expect you to get it. You are out to troll. Are you a SNP/Green ‘bring out your firstborn’ loyalist or just a common or garden Unionist? The film, ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and the character ‘Buffalo Bill’? He explains the phenomenon in word and deed much better than I. Or you could think about the destruction of entire species for their skins way after cloth, weaving and spinning were invented. Still don’t get it? Then you never will. I suppose being as obtuse as a breeze block is a badge of honour of sorts – in New Labour circles.
JGedd
They say the brain doesn’t mature until very late 20s.
You’re right about it going through different stages of maturity – that’s why certain conditions like epilepsy, schizophrenia & psychopathic tendencies doesn’t start to show up until later in some people’s lives.
@ Joe 5.35pm as BDTT says , auld article , so many maybes in that article I wonder why there are so many independent countries in the world if they all suffered all these problems and drawbacks
Maybe we’ll aw just listen tae you and McCrone and no bother wi this independence shite if it’s gonnae be so hard , we’re maybe better jist steyin wi engerland and lettin them rip the pish oot o us and jist let them STEAL aw wir resources , aye that might be better I think Nicky thinks like you and Gavin Joe
WOW Lorna and not a swear word
J Gedd: that is so true. Very interesting. Also, something has gone from childhood learning. People over 50 or so will recall growing up with very little adult input except a mealtimes, bedtime, bath time, illness, etc., and, of course, in moral lessons and responsibility. We grew up surrounded by and influenced by our peers or slightly older youths. These older youths, male and female, passed on their experiences and learning to the younger ones. I recall learning about which berries and plants to eat and not eat, where the river ran deepest and there was an underwater current, which dirty, old men to avoid, and so on. Invaluable. Life itself was a constant series of risk-taking, for girls as well as boys, who, generally, played together until puberty. That kind of childhood is gone. The paedophile ,Robert Black, put the kibosh on that, with parents terrified to let their children out of their sight. then home computers came along to finish the process. Sad, really.
James 5:06pm
I’m well aware of Holyrood being a branch office. Sure, haven’t I stated so on here repeatedly?
But, as explained at the time of the Supreme Court case, there is absolutely nothing in the branch office rule book that forbids an individual back bencher from writing a referendum bill & parly voting on it.
Then, and only then, can WM step in. The back bencher takes it to the Court of Session etc..
None of my friends and neighbours are that thick.
So there will be no Brexit wake.
I will have a New Year/Goodbye Cults celebration however.
Have you found your friend Andy yet? Did you check the Wee Ginger site?
Would you like is to set up a ‘Where’s Andy’ competition?
PS I think you should be OK with ‘black face’ if you stay indoors and don’t do anything silly on Twitter that reveals your location.
ie post a picture of a Pizza box from the ‘East Kilbride Pizzeria’ that you can see out your front window.
Lorna,
Very true. I remember the kids TV coming in from school being interrupted by government public announcements like Charlie the cat.
Jeez, he’d have a field day now .. ‘meow meow meow meow screeeeech’ Charlie says, pronouns are shyte, ask her mam! Lol
John Main wandering about like a wee lost Dug.
Life is so good now that English Ellis is no more.
Main could always do a “Grey Friar’s Bobby”, and go and lie on the grave of his dear departed mouthpiece.
J.Gedd @ 5.53.
Thank you for your post, which has been a revelation to me. I understand now how easy it is for young developing people to be manipulated to the will of a malign institution such as the present day SNP/Green alliance.
How times have changed since the 1950’s when there was still an innocence about growing up. Communications and impossible expectations have a lot to answer for. Progress? Towards what?
Sturgeon prides herself as being a progressive. It doesn’t bode well.
@JGedd (5.53) –
If we also consider how painful it is for anyone of any age to get their head around how cruel other people can be, it’s no wonder many cling to the feeling of solidarity generated by like-minded groupings. We all want to ‘belong’ in some way and being excluded/marginalised is something that few folk can bear. So, even if the grouping itself has dark motives, those may be denied.
I don’t know how else to explain the behaviour of Wee Duggers. In some ways it is sad but it’s also intellectually dishonest – in the context of a long-term political campaign which requires strong honest leadership and ‘mature’ discussion it’s unforgivable.
@Mac 11.28: like you I find the term “cultural Marxism” a bit problematical since *thumbs through battered copy of Das Kapital* I’m not finding much there on gender, feminist or black studies.
It seems rather to be a catch-all term employed by right-wing American academics to describe various forms of doctrinaire authoritarianism they don’t approve of and which they feel attack society’s “traditional values”.
Since the people who are promoting these potentially very divisive and disruptive “agendas” seem to be the very plutocrats who fund all sorts of disruptive globalist groups like the World Economic Forum, Big Tech and Big Pharma, I think we can conclude they are not deeply concerned with the welfare of the proles, nor are they avid students of poor old Karl.
Even the terms Right and Left seem increasingly to be unreliable and often seem to meet and cross over. Was there much qualitative difference between the fascist and Stalinist oppression of the individual, when personal liberty was violently steam-rollered?
I must admit, though, that the woke and climate-change extremists remind me inreasingly of the fanatics in Orwell’s Junior Anti-Sex league, such is their crazy, humourless fanaticism and the endless quest for ideological purity.
Inciting the young to attack and disregard the older and wiser of course makes sense for those seeking to divide and rule us. Those who know more and who have actually experienced the dangers of totalitarianism and all manner of other top-down bullshit in their lives would of course be a dangerous source of resistance to a host of crap ideas. Granny and Grampa could be a problem for Gilead. Maybe this is why Trudeau’s Canada seems to be intent on removing more of the old via heartless euthanasia.
Better that the young concentrate on their smart phones, tracking Apps, endless streaming of Hollywood dreck and pointless social media sniping rather than sharpening their critical thinking, innit?
Whoopsee …
“Playground shit” breaking out.
Once again, and speaking only for myself (but of course), I am not going to feign concern for professional offence takers. I strongly recommend my attitude to all Scots Indy supporters – get aff yer knees and stand up tall.
Special message for Wilson, having enjoyed some of his other posts earlier:
,,,
Still got a sticky keyboard? Ye’ll dootless mind I telt ye the fix lang syne.
Ruby 2:51pm
There’s a lot of true crime on YouTube where that happens already but AFTER the deed has been done. Obviously cause it’s on true crime it never has a happy ending. As it’s mainly America it usually ends with a gun, a shovel & a life sentence in prison.
But sex by deception is going on right now. Same with trans men pretending to be gay men when they aren’t.
Its deception & I can see why the victims would feel violated.
Puts a whole new spin to fumbling around in the dark lol
As for Grady, he should’ve been sacked if he couldn’t control his wandering hands. Aye, request nicely to refrain but if it falls on deaf ears then it’s his jotters before it escalates.
Sturgeon is a hypocrite. Proving it was just AS she had it in for..
A lot of what Geri? I’m a bit lost.
I don’t think Alex Salmond had wandering hands?
The Alphabetties lied. No idea why they are not being charged with perjury.
What was the name of the Scottish Tory who grabbed men’s penises in The Stranger’s bar.
Now that’s what you might call a sexual attack although he might have just been checking that they had one before being disappointed after taking ‘him’ home.
John Main on the passing of English Ellis.
Is it true you play,,,”I’m just a lonely boy” over and over again?
Samaritans are there 24/7.
Soon you and Ellis will be re-united in that big bullshitters blog in the sky once again.
And I’d wish you a happy New Year,,but I refuse to start lying for anybody.
link to archive.vn
Ross Thomson that’s his name.
Ross Thomson checking out the package to ensure no disappointment.
Try before you buy.
link to petition.parliament.uk
Keep signing! Keep singing!
It’s nearly at 9k
Do you think we can make 10k before the bells?
Ruby, you mean the balls surely..
🙂
Oh Cojones!
Tinto Chiel @ 7:39 pm
“I find the term “cultural Marxism” a bit problematical”
We should perhaps stick with the more focused decolonisation theme, which is not about political ideologies of left or right, socialism or capitalism. Whatever ideology a newly independent people decide on will be up to them, hopefully, which means the only priority for now is that of ‘freeing the people’.
Some view postcolonial theory as excluding Europe, the latter the source of most classical colonialism. However Professor Edward Said noted that England’s colonial exploitations began and continued in Ireland for over 700 years, and whose people were regarded by the oppressor as “an inferior race”. Scottish and Welsh ‘internal colonial’ exploitation is re-written for us by the colonizer’s educationalists as some form of ‘union’; many Scots actually still believe that, such is the power of a colonial mindset.
As for the European bourgeois generally, Aime Cesaire reminds us of: “the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he (i.e. Hitler, and other ‘leaders’) applied to Europe colonialist procedures…”. So it is not ‘just’ Africa, Asia and the Americas where peoples and cultures were obliterated, nations extirpated and resources plundered through colonialism, the root of which is fascism.
And here we should not forget, also from Cesaire, that it is now time for: “The modern barbarian. The American hour. Which means that American high finance considers that the time has come to raid every colony in the world.” European nations are hardly immune from this even today as ships carrying US arms head eastward across the Atlantic and US capital and cultural influence is extended in a variety of ways.
In this vein, interesting references in WoS BTL that US money/influence may be behind NuSNP’s ‘mystification’ policies on: GRR, blocking independence, lay off Faslane, pro-NATO stance, pro-offshore capital/funds, anti-Trump rhetoric, pro-Clinton rhetoric, possible FM exit to UN position, etc.
Tinto/Alf Baird –
re the whole left/right/communism/fascism spectrum…
This wee clip from twitter reminds me of the late George Carlin’s ‘American Dream’ routine.
‘They got you by the balls!’
twitter.com/Revelation2041/status/1608924737694232576
What’s Sturgeon the Judas been up to today?
I hope this is her last year. Narcissists never resign however. She’ll have to be forced out. She’ll be going for Thatcher’s record of 11 years.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery as they say. Bring on the strikes under Nicola Sturgeon’s name.
Nothing will give me more pleasure in grinding this country to a hault in 2023, knowing that Nicola and the SNP are in power. I hate them more than any other Government I will ever know. That’s for sure.
Sturgeon the Judas. Destroyer of women’s rights. Destroyer of the legal system in Scotland. Destroyer of the SNP. Destroyer of Scottish Independence.
The Irish Independence Party, 2.0.
@Ian B: that link doesn’t work for me but I’m sure George nailed his argument in his own inimitable way 😉 .
@Alf: I think any open-minded Scot reading Césaire, Fanon or Memmi would find much to make her/him feel very uncomfortable when they realise it could apply to much of what has been going on in Scotland for centuries.
Unfortunately, most Scots are hampered from the start by not having had their political or lingustic history or literature taught in a proper and coherent fashion in school. Much still depends on the quality of the teacher in front of them, despite the so-called Currriculum for Excellence.
Césaire’s “American hour” is of course a nightmare vision but so many recent events suggest it may be coming true, such as its obvious control of NATO.
I’m sure war-hawk Hillary is Nicola’s icon and many of our politicians seemed to have been softened up already by visits to American universities where they are exposed to Stae Department (or worse) “soft power” and persuasion.
“State” not “stae”.
Why haven’t these questions been asked every day for years?
link to m.facebook.com
Ruby/Mr Brother hood
Ah said ah didnae want any snash fae yous / ah wiz ah single wardrobe before um chist wantin tae expand Ruby ah dont need dresses um oak but ah might chinge the door knobs lol
As soon as he gets his knobs sorted he’s getting married to a chest of drawers so he’ll have plenty places to put his XXXL unmentionables. 🙂
Maybe I could flog him a weddin’ dress.
@Ronald Anderson –
Knob-related problems seem to be the hot issue right now. But heed not the naysayers and doom-merchants.
Oak ’til ye boak sah!
😉
Tinto
Sturgeon has said Hilary is a hero of hers & Merkle too. She said it at some American University women of the world thingie.
Off topic but it’s interesting watching her morph into those two dress wise. A classic trait of a Narcissist to assume another’s identity. We seen that during the Depp trial with Amber Heard turning up either trying to match him or wearing the same colours. Freaky as feck..
@Ruby/Mr Anderson –
I almost posted a link to an old Chuck Berry video of him singing ‘My Ding-A-Ling’ but it’s not politically correct. And I couldn’t find the version I was looking for. I was sure he did it at a Royal Command performance back in the 70s but it either didn’t happen or YT doesn’t have it.
Ach well, so it goes!
😉
Ruby
It’s a hard one because we haven’t heard his side so there isn’t any context.
But for some it’s highly uncomfortable for someone to overstep the boundaries they’ve set & for someone to persistently invade thier space. They may have reasons..
Pulling someone’s curls may be a term of endearment or a laugh but to them it could be a trigger for something that happened in the past..
Just best to keep ones mitts to themselves in the workplace imo..
As for Grady & Thomson..
In no way excusing them but the Tories were always the party of sleaze & they’ve turned Westminster into a cesspit of porn.
A case of monkey see, monkey do?
From watching porn, to caught having oral sex, to there actually being a rule introduced (whit? There wasn’t one already?) Of no sex workers in parliament – it’s a culture of porn & SNP have caught it – sure, even McDonald was touting for a shag on Grndr with his profile pic Christmas decs.
Lay with the dogs long enough you end up with fleas..
The descent into madness continues apace.
Apparently the Scottish police service have divined a new better way of Describing paedophiles…….Minor Attracted People!
MAP’s…..is there room on the alphabet board?
This will surely signal the end of the SNP, if it does not and they retain any meaningful support, them it is already too late and we have finally got what we deserve.
Ronnie , the ‘covid’ years have made many of us slimlined single wardrobe size into double wardrobe size – personally I ate my way through the entire lockdown period(s)!
I seemed to have lost days in the last week and I have just realised it is Hogmany – can’t wait to say farewell to 2022 and hope that 2023 brings major , desirable changes ,not the risible ones of 2022.
I hope the New Year is good to all wingers and to all those who want independence for Scotland and wee Wales!
Rev Stu , should have added my heartfelt thanks for your return to the fray -sanity returns!
link to archive.vn
It looks as if it’s all heading towards
MAPs rights being human rights!
Double wardrobe marries chest of drawers they get a double bed have twin bedside cabinets and their bedroom suite is complete and they live happily every after.
Aaah! I do love a story with an HEA ending.
It’s great being silly it makes me feel young and happy!
It’s a nice break from all the madness.
You should try it!
Oh look!
link to pbs.twimg.com
Happy Hogmanay Dorothy!
I’m looking forward to 2023 and dreading at the same time. I’ve decided to slim down from XXdouble ward to XXsingle wardrobe the diet starts on Monday. It’s not going to be easy in this cold weather but I
I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman
W O M A N
Thanks for the link Ruby….Ake.
If teenagers are that stupid, why can they pass exams and go on to study at university?
If teenagers are evolved to ignore adults, why do many become apprentices, learning from a skilled master?
Why do many on dating sites post ‘younger for older’?
They’re not dumb, just young and got a drive to socialise to find friends and mates, and to go out and experience the world.
Why are they trans friendly? Because they watch social media videos of trans people explaining how difficult their lives are, and so sympathise with their plight. They also have trans friends at school.
How did trans become ‘a thing’? No idea.
Maybe we need more women creating social media videos explaining how difficult they find sharing toilets and changing facilities with male-bodied humans, and thus reach the ‘youth market’ on a similar emotional level as ‘trans plight’ videos do?
Perhaps then the youth might have a more balanced view of the issues. Who knows?
Mr Menno helped us out with that:
link to youtube.com
Lol great song!
Ruby , Happy 2023 to you too and I’ll race you to slimline single wardrobe size! ( My lack of resistance to food may hamper me somewhat!)
Gregory – because they go through a period of being super absorbent from ages 7 to 29.
Add to that the freak reality shows like big brother, drag shows etc.
As for women speaking out. They did & would find themselves permanently banned from Facebook, twitter, YouTube, universities, unemployed, arrested – cancelled.
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is one to watch on YouTube.
Fighting the good fight down south. Called in for questioning by police for saying ‘Woman – adult human female’ & getting her billboards removed. Takes no shit from anyone regarding autogynephilia.
Because that’s what this whole issue is.
It isn’t dysphoria.
Under self ID they don’t need to transition or even dress up.
Anyhoo, a quick search of her will give a who’s who of women & homosexual activists that are against self-ID going through Westminster.
Mr Manno was another great find..
To find out what people think they will have to go round the doors and ask social media sites are no use when trying to find out what the majority think
With the Law Lords saying no how do you propose we get a legal Indy Ref
Geri – thanks for that, will have a look for this Kellie figure.
After you admit to yourself that the quality of MSPs is not very good, it’s hard(er) to justify to yourself that independence is a good idea. SNP supporters don’t want to crystallise this logic in their minds.