A crisis of democracy
In the recent US election, the Democrats made a huge play out of the notion that the very concept of democracy itself was at risk if Donald Trump won.
And yet his eventual victory was unquestionably democratic. Not only did Trump win under the electoral college system by a huge 312-226 margin, and secure control of both the Senate and the House Of Representatives, he also beat Kamala Harris in the popular vote, by 50% to 48%. By every possible count and measure, Trump was the legitimate winner and has a clear mandate to govern for the next four years.
Over in the UK, however, things aren’t quite so neat and tidy.
Despite a landslide majority of 239, Keir Starmer’s victory last July was already the weakest and most democratically unbalanced in recorded British history. Labour’s seat count almost doubled – from 211 to 411 – even though their vote share only increased by a microscopic 1.6% from Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 annihilation and their actual real-numbers vote went DOWN by half a million.
No UK government has ever earned a majority (let alone such a crushingly vast one) on the votes of a smaller percentage of the electorate than the 33.7% won by Starmer. Even the Harold Wilson minority government of February 1974 – a national byword for lame-duck administrations which was 17 seats short, couldn’t get over the line even with the support of the 3rd-placed Liberals, and duly collapsed less than eight months later – managed to get 37.2% of the vote.
But even from that super-low starting point, Starmer proceeded to lose popularity at a staggering rate. Just six months after his election, he’d managed to somehow shed fully a quarter of his party’s support, dropping to a ruinous 26%.
Having started out with more or less a clean zero slate in July, by this month the new government’s approval rating was a mindboggling minus 47 – almost identical to the minus 50 recorded by Rishi Sunak’s administration six months before the election.
If you drill down into the figures it’s even worse.
On the full figures, just 18% of the electorate supports the governing party, compared to 25% who don’t know or won’t vote at all. If you add together the support of every party that’s ever been part of a UK government for the last 170 years – Lab, Con and Lib, and variants thereof – it still comes to a paltry 43%. Which is to say, a sizeable majority of the country now either supports nobody at all, or a party that’s NEVER been in government.
Wings first noted this phenomenon back in 2015. It continues to be true, and to grow. A record 20 million people didn’t vote last July, which for the first time is more than voted for Labour and the Tories combined.
But even at the previous peak of None-Of-The-Above-Mania in 2001, the three main parties commanded a massive 91% of the votes cast (compared to just 69% last year), and a majority – 54% – of the total electorate including those who didn’t vote.
A country where the government is opposed by four out of every five voters, yet will rule effectively unchallenged for the next four and a half years, is a truly parlous state for any democracy, and certainly not one which grants anyone in Britain the right to criticise America for the state of its politics.
On current trends, Labour’s jawdroppingly shambolic performance (enacted by most of the same hapless careerists who were rejected comprehensively by voters in 2010 and 2015) looks set to lead to a once-a-century realignment at Westminster.
Kemi Badenoch initially somewhat steadied the Tory ship, even clawing it back to 27% in November when it had appeared to be in freefall off a cliff, but the calamitous damage of the May-Johnson-Truss-Sunak era holed the party too far below the waterline to be properly repairable, and they’ve slipped back to the point where Reform are poised to supplant them as the main party of the right. If they continue to plunder Tory support AND pick up a smaller but significant number of votes from Labour, they’ll win the next election at a canter.
That’s not through any strategic or operational genius on Reform’s part. Nigel Farage’s men – and they are nearly all men – are still a pretty hapless bunch of shouty pub bores. But the British public was already on its last stretched and threadbare nerve with mainstream politicians, and Starmer’s catastrophic opening volley of cannonballs fired into his own deck as Labour stumbles from one scandal to another looks like it might have been the final straw.
Because voters are now helpless hostages for almost a full Parliamentary term, and since pretty much everyone in the Cabinet is a demonstrable imbecile, the chances of things getting any better between now and 2029 are minuscule. That’s only going to make people angrier and angrier, and history has shown since time immemorial that angry people with votes are a recipe for disaster.
Winston Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the other kinds that have been tried. And that may be true, but there are also good and bad forms of democracy, and the UK’s First Past The Post system has always been a deeply flawed one, exacerbated by the fact that the only people able to change it are those who benefit the most from those flaws.
Deprived of any meaningful way to bring about genuine change, frustrated voters have throughout time resorted in desperation to extreme measures, using democracy as their only tool. And rarely can the patience of voters in a democracy have been tested as sorely as British voters’ has been in the last 20 years or so.
Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and now Labour again have all been given their turn, and all have failed grotesquely (as have Labour and the SNP in Scotland). Keir Starmer shows absolutely no sign of having grasped that his election was voters granting the establishment one very reluctant last chance. That he’s making such a wretched pig’s dinner of it may have consequences that last for generations.
“The government you elect is the government you deserve”.
Thomas Jefferson
The problem with that statement, in relation to the UK, is that the majority of the country doesn’t elect the government.
The problem is that, in relation to the UK, the majority voted to keep FPTP in 2011.
Currently, only the Tories are opposed to PR, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for Sir Kid Starver to do anything about it now he’s got the keys to No.10.
Considering Keir Starmer’s obvious contempt for democracy, I think he’s looking for a way to avoid a general election. No democrat he.
I expect he’ll cancel the elections, to, er, save ‘Our Democracy’.
You know, like in NATO-Romania a few weeks back. That was probably a test run for what’s coming next in Germany and France.
After all, if the ‘voters’ (ugh! yuck!) choose the wrong winner (as in Georgia), it can hardly be considered a legitimate result.
(I say this, of course, with withering sarcasm.)
What was on offer in 2011 was just an even worse form of FPTP.
Not true.
Of course, it was NOT P.R. And was far worse than any version of PR, including d’ Hondt.
But it is a non sequitur to claim it was even worse than FPTP. Nothing is, in a multi-party system. It would have been a step- a very small one- in the right direction.
The bottom line is Cameron ‘gave permission’ for three referendums in a row and, one way or another, a historically ill-advised result was returned for all three. No wonder there is barely even much resembling even a ‘Britain’ any more, let alone what has been becoming of us in Scotland.
No, it didn’t. The public was NEVER offered PR. The options offered by Cameron, in a token pretence of concession to his gormless LibDems Coalition partners, were; stick with the FPTP system (which was at least comprehensible); or add an element of AV (Additional Vote), an obscure, quarter-baked compromise that the public did not not understand, the net result of which would have been about three extra seats for the LibDems.
The public knows a stitch-up when it smells one, and wasn’t having it.
“They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind”
Sadly far too late in the day to save much of the high-trust, reasonably well-functioning and cohesive Scotland and England we knew pre-Blair, let alone the Country Formerly Known as Great Britain.
Just nine days ago, James Kelly, the sage of Scot Goes Pop declared RefUK dead in the water after Elon Musk denounced Nigel Farage as a lily livered, globalist stooge.
In three of four, UK wide, Westminster voting intention polls conducted with their field work entirely in this year, RefUK are ahead of the Tories. In the one full scale, Westminster voting intention poll conducted this year in Scotland, RefUK lead the Tories 15% to 13%.
Kelly is a dunce, Musk’s falling out with Farage centres around the latter’s refusal to embrace Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The faction of the right that Farage stands to loose by distancing himself from Yaxley-Lennon has a ceiling of 10% maximum. The portion of the middle class that Farage could woo by taking this stance massively outweighs any potential loss.
Kelly is back in the SNP and is back to urging anyone who’ll listen to “cast both votes SNP”. What an imbecile. The improved prospects for the SNP at Westminster and Holyrood are entirely down to the distribution of support amongst other parties (particularly the surge in RefUK). The SNP remain 15 to 20% below current support for independence, with little indication that this will change any time soon.
RefUK can hoover up the votes of the disenchanted, the disenfranchised, and the pure scunnered in Scotland almost as effectively as they have demonstrated they can do in England & Wales. That would include former SNP voters.
Mm. The current polling makes voting SNP 1&2, remarkably, even more cretinous than it was last time. With the Unionist vote so split, the SNP will win a lot of constituencies, but with their regional vote at barely 30%, those constituencies will slash the regional vote down to 3-4%, which gets you zip on the list. Pretty much every SNP list vote will be wasted.
So any news on a single ticket Yes Front for the list vote?
It is the only democratic option left to us
I too am hoping to hear this umbrella has been organised. It is the only way I can see to achieve a united yet also democratic pro-independence outcome.
Peter Bell’s vanity project, the “New Scotland Party,” the “umbrella” you’ve touted, is getting about 8 signatures a day on its “petition.” It’s up to a whole 267 signees–out of 5 million Scots. What a joke.
And rumor has it that among the signees are “Harry Potter,” “Paddington Bear” and the long-dead Queen Anne.
I was wondering when you might pipe up. But I suppose the scope of your pre-written script is quite limited and from what I can read, only prepared for certain topics. And not others.
Dyou not get bored? Must be well paid.
That’s making the rather generous assumption that it’s 267 different people and that those people are Scots.
The bigger question though is whether the SNP/Alba/Greens would be prepared to stand down to support this “unity party”. I think there’s a 0% chance of that happening. Bluntly, the only possibility here would be all others except the SNP standing down, but then what would the SNP do?
Aidan, of course the 267 includes a lot of non-Scots.
What’s also worth laughing at is the (few) youtube videos Peter Bell posts on the NSP “rallies.” The videos never show how few people are actually there listening to him.
Same with Salvo/Liberation, which has more podcasts than members.
The SNP won’t bother to “unite” with these splinter groups, because the groups have no significant support.
And of course they won’t want to bring in some of the crazies (not to name names, but those who are now benefitting from a pre-moderation on this site!).
Apparently Salvo are being recognised by the UN “perhaps in January”. In a twist in the storyline which nobody could have anticipated, the wealth of evidence which one might expect to accompany such an important event has in fact not been forthcoming.
“recognised by the UN”
Hasn’t the UN got rather a lot on its plate right now?
According to the WaterAid advert I frequently see on the box, 1,000 kids die each and every day of the year from diseases caused by drinking foul water.
If that’s true, then every other concern addressable by the UN in the entire world fades into insignificance by comparison.
Just imagine it. Every poster who has ever spent 5 minutes putting together a post on here did so while 3 kids died from arguably entirely preventable causes.
Spend 10 minutes greetin AND gurnin about being OPPRESSED (with random capitalisation) and there’s 6 small corpses somewhere.
The fictitious “Boy who Lived” and the late Queen Anne, eh? Impressive indeed!
This reminded me of Four Weddings and a Funeral for some reason.
“No, I don’t have Oscar Wilde’s address, but I do have his mobile number”
I’d add that that latest poll (Survation) has Alba at 1% (their usual).
Alba simply isn’t worth the SNP’s effort to “unite” with. Nor is the Fife Indy Party, the Monster Raving Loony Party, Salvo/Liberation, the ISP or the NSP.
BTW Reform is at 13%, which shows that Scots will opt for a “new” party if that party offers something they support.
Peter Bell’s latest vanity project*, the “New Scotland Party,” the “party of national liberation” has now got 298 signatures to its “petition”–with a goal of 100,000 signatures.
Out of a population of 5 million Scots.
*website features a photo of (you guessed it) Peter Bell, and a long message from (you guessed it) Peter Bell.
Back To The Future: I have rejoined the SNP:
“…in case anyone else is thinking it’s time to work for change inside the SNP rather than outside it, please make sure you’re doing it for your own reasons and have thought carefully about the pros and cons. On your own head be it!..
…in many respects I’m probably politically closer to Yousaf than to Forbes. But Yousaf was just the wrong man, at the wrong time… I feel a lot more at ease with the SNP under the Swinney/Forbes leadership, and if it was just a question of who would make the best government, this current team would be a no-brainer…
I’m just relieved to have a political home once again, and we’ll see how it goes.”:
link to scotgoespop.blogspot.com
link to archive.ph
#POPgoesSCOT
Parody Account. But you dream on, Bud.
Gave up reading what Nancy Boy Janes Kelly has to say.
Dummy spitting and toy throwing is is modus operandi as anyone who has tried to read his blog will see.
Indeed such is his dummy spitting propensity anyone who tries to make even constructive comment about pulling together gets their comment removed. its his blog, so go away, go to that horrible Wings site. Petulant, paper thin, and petty is the mark of the man.
An old fashioned Nancy Boy utterly unsuited to political cut and thrust.
You’ve made a good choice Willie –
Wings is where it’s at…
“Kelly is back in the SNP and is back to urging anyone who’ll listen to “cast both votes SNP”. What an imbecile.”
======
Correct- but even worse than your normally peerless analysis (See Rev. below).
But Musk, before then was increasingly under fire from long time Maga activists. His attack on UK grooming gangs and Keith Starmer should be seen as an attempt to recover some lost support stateside.
The athenians would not have recognised our “democracy”. People have absorbed the truth that we live in an oligarchy which runs a uni-party, which is bought and paid for. All the major policies are the same :
neoliberal economics (aka looting and class war)
neocon foreign policy (aka endless war and militarism)
DEI social policy (aka perversion as a lifestyle, plus national self hatred, mass immigration, abortion, feminism, trannyism, paedophilia)
the punch and judy pantomime played out for the media, is now played out – question time, newsnight. They are all as bad as each other.
But the big con is the “populists” – who talk a good game, then do an about face as soon as they get in.
In the UK – “reform” – which is a gang of little englanders and hedge fund managers who idolise Singapore.
In the US – trump – the new york slumlord who will “drain the swamp”, despite being a swamp creature himself.
– these pied pipers are part of the con too, they are the “long” variant of it.
Imagine a party which was centre-left economically and “socially conservative”; it should clean up at the polls, but these parties never seen to emerge.
Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht – Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit fit your description. They’ve never troubled double figures in the 12 months since they were launched. Doubtless the German MSM and the extremely powerful Permanent State have it in for them. I’m not convinced by the notion of having a political party carry the name of its leader on its masthead. At least RefUK pretend that they’re not a one-man-band.
I had heard of that woman – an oldstyle marxist with a PhD, but I didn’t know what to make of her.
There are other “interesting” characters around, in France, Alain Soral, who proposes a grand alliance between islam and catholicism based around conservative social values. Strange guy, he had been a communist, national front member, and framed his critique of feminism from his youth as a pickup artist. Last time I heard he got jailed for calling a fat lesbian a “fat lesbian”.
for wingers who don’t know the name
link to archive.ph
that’s all I read on her
“centre-left economically and socially conservative” = ALBA Party
Corbyn, if not absolutely sabotaged by the Labour right of Durr Starmer, would have had a massive historical “centre-left” victory that reflected a large proportion of the UK’s wishes for their government.
Al-Jazz has a brilliant documentary called “The Lobby” which records this treachery in real life recordings from the culprits.
Many tens of thousands of civilians who are now dead on a small strip of their own country in the eastern mediterranean would still be alive, and the world would probably be less close to war, if the UK had anything remotely resembling a functioning democracy.
re. Corbyn
“Keir Starmer became leader, at the request of I***el lobby group the Board of Deputies of British Jews.The files show that another Labour right-winger who secretly reported Massey was former lawmaker Ivor Caplin would later become chair of pro-I***el group the Jewish Labour Movement – which has close ties to the I***eli embassy in London.”:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
The Ivor Caplin who’s just been hauled in for having dodgy pics?
That would be this Ivor Caplin:
link to skwawkbox.org
Who, for some reason, does not seem to be receiving much media attention over the issue….
link to skwawkbox.org
…..perhaps he’s not a [checks notes] ‘funny tinge’?
Coincidences.
Ivor Caplin.
That name rings a bell. Was just reading a very interesting story about him being arrested the other day. I see he’s been bailed until April 10th.
My bet is that he’ll never be prosecuted. Just a hunch, given his background and that of your PM.
Nothing to see here…
They’ll ALL be exposed and prosecuted…
#SystematicPedosChallenge
As well as the Covid criminals…
BBC (2025): Families failed by Covid jabs tell inquiry of pain:
“Families of those harmed by Covid vaccines told the UK Covid Inquiry they were forced to support each other during the pandemic because there was no other help…
they felt they were “almost being pushed into the shadows…”
Mrs Scott, whose husband Jamie was left severely disabled by a vaccine, said: “We are an uncomfortable truth, but we are a truth and the truth is for everyone in our group – the vaccine caused serious harm and death.”
He spent four weeks and five days in a coma…
Jamie survived, but suffered a significant brain injury, which affected his thinking processes. He is now partially blind and his wife says he will never live independently…
The inquiry heard that figures from a Freedom of Information request by VIBUK show that, as of 30 November 2024, victims and their families have made 17,519 claims to the scheme.”:
link to bbc.co.uk
#UltimateCrimes
Yep. He’s a Made Guy, just like ‘Lord’ Janner.
Aye. Right.
The world’s been at war for coming up 3 years now. Weird that has passed you by.
What colour is the sky in your role play simulation?
Look! There’s a squirrel.
I think that something is happening in England that is not (yet) happening in Scotland or the other parts of the UK. However, because England is so much greater in population than the rest of us put together, we will, inevitably, be pulled under in the wake of whatever is coming.
Although it has been a long time coming, and exacerbated by the Covid lockdown, the economy has been tanking for at least the past 40-50 years. Thatcher’s policies of privatisation as the panacea was doomed to failure from day one.
In reality, the UK economy had been in dire straits since the end of WW II, but massive spending and restructuring gave it a huge boost. In order to do so, the governments had to set up a social consensus with the people, which, had they not done so, would have led to revolution post war. Trying to keep up with the Jones (the Americans) and repay loans might have fatally wounded the economy.
The late 1950s into the 60s and early 70s were far better times than working-class people had ever seen before, but, as usually happens with those who are given power, the unions miscalculated and over-egged the pudding. Had they used their power wisely, Thatcher would never have happened, and, of course, she came to power determined to destroy them.
What is bringing England to the edge – and could well lead to the complete breakdown of the UK (and our independence) – is the application of ‘wokery’ to every aspect of life when, again, judicial use could lead to better things, but over-egging is leading to a massive rage and disconnect in English society. So few have actually understood the very real threat that ‘wokery’ poses to democratic societies – even half-democratic ones like ours.
The grooming gang stuff is the part of the iceberg we can see, but unlimited immigration, both legal and illegal, has led to a shortage of already-scarce resources, quite the opposite of that which immigration was meant to cure. No good our tut-tutting because we have not known the scale England has (imagine a million coming to Scotland overnight); and the whole ‘trans’ issue has split ordinary people from the authorities, both local and national, businesses introducing illegal restrictions on Stonewall’s say-so; and a profound lack of jobs that people can live on, are leading to fissures in society that will not be healed, I think, without massive disruption to the political status quo.
The Americans gave more money to France and Germany under The Sherman plan. When Atlee went begging for loans, Uncle Sam gave high interest rate loans .The worst winter in British history seen untold death and suffering by the British people.
Indeed, Mark, but I suspect that was deliberate because they wanted Britain’s status as a global leader. It became very obvious early on in the war that America was looking to push Britain out of the way and take over pole position.
The US waged relentless financial warfare against the UK in WW2 – the objective to bury the british empire, to setup their own.
The british had to hand over everything to get these war loans/lend lease (radar, merlin engine, jet engine, code breaking, the computer); they expected the debts to be torn up at the end of the war, having won, and to return to business. The yanks screwed them – said “you still owe us money”, then kicked them off the manhattan project, a humiliation. I don’t think the loans were finally paid off until the late 1990s.
Bretton Woods was a stitch up too. Keynes was there, it was not setup to create a viable world economic system, but to allow america to dictate terms.
The book “super imperialism” by micheal hudson has all the details.
Yes and no.
I’d rather say that under the Marshall Plan (of which Britain received the Lion’s share) the monies were a grant – not fundamentally repayable.
The US also wanted the UK at the heart of the fledgling European ‘Union’ and driving it (ECSC) not for America to do it herself. Britain of course was having none of it and would ‘Trade with our Commonwealth” instead (sound familiar?)
The US had to give up on us being at the heart of European reconstruction and reposition its political and material focus on Germany (where it remains)
Britain, having spunked its Marshall Plan grant up against the wall attempting to re-militarise and rebuild its ‘Empire Strength’ (and not benefitting from ECSC trade) had to go cap in hand again to the USA and ask for a massive ‘Loan’ which we duly received.
It is this loan which we were repaying until recently our so called ‘War Debt’
Was the materiel Britain was buying to attempt to rebuild its military, just useless obsolete junk the US was wanting shot of? Look! there’s a squirrell!
The reason no one else was repaying their ‘War Debt’ (the rotters) was because they didn’t have one, they didn’t have a Loan, they were working with their grant monies. They demilitarised (saving £££££) and punted all their dosh into rebuilding, trade and industry.
As a point of interest Germany actually repaid her Marshall Plan Grant Money, and Germany’s established ‘Grant Fund’ or ‘KfW still operates today, it was invested not spunked.
Were people happy Germany was eventually included in the Marshall Plan?,No, not at all, but the US wasn’t daft – Europe had to be rebuilt, America wasn’t going to do it for them and Britain had declared zero interest in it – the US had little option but to help Germany, and whether they liked it, or not or knew it, the rest of Europe needed Germany off her knees.
Of course, all the above is all very simplified, and I didn’t mention the intricacies of Lend-Lease, and it wasn’t just bags of wonga handed over; rather the ERP was a type of credit-cum-buyback system (ie the countries purchased everything they needed for reconstruction from US companies and it was paid from the grant program allocated to them (ERP European Recovery Program) which did include small ‘loans’ to a degree but was more, or less just the US paying herself for goods ordered by Europe, and Europe pretending to pay for it with her own currencies – markets were kidded-on, confidence rose among the people, economies stabilised and grew, and countries bootstrapped themselves into standing on their own two feet.
Job done. Did it benefit America in the long run? Yeah, sure it did, of course, but I’d I’d say more American imperialism by accident, rather than design – unless you want to argue America engineered WW2 in the first place – they certainly wove a silk purse from a sows ear and why not – what was the alternative really?
For the purposes of oversimplification, all the above is close enough for jazz – we pissed our opportunity away, mainland Europe didn’t. We needed bailed out a second time, mainland Europe didn’t. We clung desperately to our ‘Sovereignty’ and hated any notion of integration with Europe – politically, or economically – mainland Europe wasn’t bothered about us at all and carried on regardless. Britain eventually had to crawl back into by then the EC, because being outwith it was not economically viable… history repeats.
North Sea Oil and Gas was one of our last, bailouts from bankruptcy – then it was ‘sell everything not nailed down’ then ‘everything that’s nailed down’
Like Germany investing her ERP funds, Norway invested, North Sea funds – we spunked it up a wall again.
Britain has never managed to stand on its own two feet and has always relied on plunder, or being bailed out – because we have always been run by swivel eyed, chinless, congenital idiots.
Yes there was an impressive industrial revolution, but what fueled it? Money, and where did that money come from? Plunder.
Take a look around, what’s left? When all that can be flogged is all finally gone – then what will the chinless wonders do, how will they get bailed out? “The 51st State” was always a sardonic phrase, but if the shoe fits.
.
I’m going against a decision I wasn’t going to comment here anymore due to heavy handed “moderation”, but IM; very very well said indeed.
Those who don’t know their history don’t know how they got where they are and are dangers to themselves (and others) of just making the same mistakes again.
Suez was the end of the so called “special relationship”, Wilson’s refusal to get involved in Vietnamese clinched it.
It took Thatcher bobbing up and down to Reagan’s mood then Blair prostituting himself to Bush snr and jnr to conclude the submission of end of empire.
Yet still the media plays the Dads Army tune pretending it’s still all there fine and dandy..
Nobody except the Tories believe it..
Us?
Heck we are just along for the ride, willingly or not.
God help us because I reckon Uncle Sam’s days are numbered.
How can a country that entered ww11 come out of it twice as rich as when it entered it?
Think about it before answering..
You think the moderation is heavy handed? I can’t believe the dross that manages to stay up on every article!
Absolutely no arguments but sometimes straightforward non “wanging” posts go straight to moderation, don’t pass go and so on.
I’ve even had “well said” replies to comments already up and running scrubbed..
As for disrespecting the host, well, I normally just say thanks when anyone pony’s up some money to me!
That’ll be me off to premoderation again!
Wasn’t like this back in the days of the wee blue book and pre Dugdales input making the Rev claiming the site (in part is about LGB) rights..
Ha!
Sod the lot of them, they didn’t stand by him when he was in court..
Got to laugh at the people who think that the US runs the UK – and most other western countries – when in FACT the UK, US, EU etc Private Corporations are run by the City of London Private Corporation via THEIR banking system on behalf of the Rothschild’s Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland and THEIR legal system – ALL of the US Lawyers/Judges are members of the British Bar Association just like they are in the Commonwealth countries as well and both the The City of London Private Corporation and Washington DC Private Corporation are NOT part of the UK and US Private Corporations all owned and controlled by the Vatican Private Corporation as is Switzerland as well hence why the Bank of International Settlements is based there and they provide the Swiss Guards protecting the Vatican and why the corrupt World Economic Forum operates out of their as well and everything that is going on is part of their New World Order – One World Communist Government agenda including the corrupt UN Agenda 21/UN Agenda 2030, FAKE Global Warming/Climate Change, totally FAKE and THEIR created Cost of Living/FAKE Debt agenda that is DELIBERATELY destroying the worlds economy to bring in this One World Government with NO countries only three superstates – as Orwell was warning about in 1984 and what do you think that the EU was growing into – and also to bring in their Digital Social Credit System and Digital ID System and 15 minute cities with NO driving at all or travel for anyone outside their 15 minute zone and everyone being happy NOT owning anything as per the WEF. If does NOT matter who gets into power as all Private Corporation political parties are following this agenda.
Three down votes from my comment from people clueless about what a scam system they are born into – totally clueless about what Capitis Diminutio is all about re the ALL CAPS name on your birth certificate, bank/credit card/account, driving licence, deeds for house, car registration etc etc that is NOT you and is in FACT the Strawman/Legal Fiction that the Wizard of Oz was warning the people of this planet about as well as warning about the SCAM banking system as well as per the Yellow Brick Road which was the SCAM Gold Standard. Capitis Diminutio/ALL CAPS/Citizen/Person etc is all Roman SLAVERY still being operated today by the Vatican and their puppets the Rothschilds and the so-called Kings/Queens/Royals all just simply MAFIAS who have been building their NWO agenda for thousands of years now and being getting away with it because most people on this planet are unthinking gutless grovelling sheep in their religious and political cults that are all created and controlled by these MAFIAS and working to their agenda.
It’s established historical fact that America dictated that American youth would not be sacrificed to reestablish former colonial empires.
Laudable except what you consider they were up to with their Pacific “territories” and war booty such as Japan that lunatic McArthur would let no one else near!
WW2 ended up as America’s awakening from isolation and active involvement in its own “Empire building” and generations of regime change foreign policy whose legacy matches the Ruskies.
People really do need to step back and look at the big picture in the long game.
If it’s any consolation the UK is long a busted flush..
Can’t find a reference to that on a search engine.
Is this actually a reference to the Marshal Plan? – figures here:
link to statista.com
Which shows Britain receiving the largest amount.
Look further.
Nope. Not even Wikipedia has a page on “The Sherman Plan”
link to en.wikipedia.org
The search engine lists the 1787 Roger Sherman Connecticut Compromise:
link to jud.ct.gov
…and similar links.
Sherman’s march to the sea;
link to georgiaencyclopedia.org
and umpteen similar links on Sherman and the US Civil War.
and even the Sherman tank
link to nationalww2museum.org
For page, after page, after page, after page, after page, after page.
But a Sherman Plan relating to post WW2 US funding, aid, loans etc?
Nil. Nada. Zilch. Now’t. SFA.
Perhaps it’s gone the way of the G word and a D-notice has been put on it?
The UK squandered it building nuclear bombs and missile technology and fighting colonial wars.
It’s interesting you say that because when you consider it, really, so much of the proxy wars of the Cold War era were really about who influenced (ie controlled) ex colonial provinces, Communist ideology or anything non communist ideology.
It’s really when the Soviets crumbled that Uncle Sam and it’s indebted lapdog Britain got back into the oil rich land acquisition business.
Leading us to where we are today..
Marshal Plan?
George Marshall Secretary of State
I would have added ‘or since’, Lorna. Personal empowerment and agency, housing and job-security, working conditions, public services and living standards have all decreased hugely for ordinary people since the advent of Thatcher. And while the English embraced Thatcherism, you’ll recall that Scotland’s opposition to Thatcher, regardless of what trade unions did in the late 1970s, resulted in the total domination of Scottish politics by Labour, followed by the SNP. The job of unions is to represent and defend their members. Without them, working people are powerless and the result is what we have today: a minimum-wage, zero hours economy in which paper qualifications are demanded even for the most menial, unskilled jobs.
A wee story, many won’t be bothered so skip it if you want.
Did my bit in the army early to mid eighties, several places including those where you could get shot or where “Ivan” was going to cross the wire imminently.
Damage due to load carrying got me MD’d.
Got a benchfitting work in ordnance in Leicester that paid a pittance so took on weekend and evening Securicor Work to help pay the rent.
One year Xmas fell at a weekend, must have been a Sunday. Worked it ans required, even helped tow in a broken down van late at no extra recompense (the army spirit was still in me then).
Next weekend told that the Xmas day double pay I had received would be deducted from my wages to go towards full time staff who had sat at home enjoying the turkey and Morcombe and Wise on the box.
And they did as well.
Spoke to my Union rep ( who had probably got double time as a result for sitting at home and watching Mircombe and Wise) – no sympathy, no action. Nothing.
Handed my gear in the next day with as much dignity as I could muster, nowadays I’d have been a bit blunter.
Refused for the rest of my working life to pay a penny to Unions, self serving gits that the reps were.
So sorry Michael if my wee take gives me the right to say how in many cases to 60s, 70s and early 80s we’re not the halcyon days some seem to recall.
blackmail is also a bigger part of politics than people like to think
and in the US, epstein island the latest example
That’s a clever way of body swerving the ban, Confused.
You’ve really got it in for them, I can see that, and a name like “Epstein” must be like a red rag to a bull for you. Don’t you have some pix of sleazeballs with big noses you could show us? I bet you do too.
Maybe, one day, you’ll enlighten us all on the relevance to Scottish Indy. Don’t keep us hanging too long.
will wragg
“video exists of 3 males urinating on him”
I reckon such little spreadsheets exist for holyrood, and given they are all benders/rug munchers, pretty fruity
– maybe this is why they put holyrood quite close to calton hill
“they are all benders/rug munchers”
I don’t doubt that they are, Confused.
In yer heid.
But it is only in yer heid that they are all benders/rug munchers, and TBQFH, the sorry state of yer heid is a problem for nobody but yourself.
How so?
Wrong on this one..
I always had you as one for the pissing games.
– and yes, “unconventional lifestyles” are vastly over-represented.
Are you an official YookayGov-SNPae spokesperson, by any chance?
Do you own the box set of the complete “League Of Gentlemen” by any chance?
The worry over here about the USA (among the saner commentators) is not that there wasn’t a free and fair election this time around, but whether there will be one in four years’ time.
Give me a break.
Same tired “argument” trotted out by the Dems over the last year.
e.g. If Trumpy-boy is indeed Hilter then don’t you think he would have done a Kristallnacht first time round?
Do keep up. 🙂 Find a better debating point rather than regurgitating received opinion…
Don’t you think he had a v
….very incompetent attampt?
You seem to have forgotten about the mob of Trump-supporting thugs who invaded the Capitol 4 years ago. They tried to overturn Biden winning the presidency after a free and fair election. They were doing Trump’s bidding. Remember his lies about “stop the steal” and “fight like hell”? The Orange Fuckwit also encouraged his wannabe stormtroopers to hang the Vice President.
That’s pretty much the 21st century Kristallnacht.
“after a free and fair election”
Naw.
Not after the MSM and The Blob connived with the Dems to conceal two pertinent facts from the American electorate:
1 The provenance of the Biden laptop. The FBI seized it in December 2019, then suppressed the story until the 2020 US presidential election was over.
2 Biden’s cognitive decline. That didn’t just happen last year. It was clear to those in close contact with him that he wasn’t mentally fit for office. It’s because they got away with it in 2020 that they tried the same trick in 2024.
“lies about “stop the steal””
With hindsight, we can see it was a steal, so not lies after all.
“…That’s pretty much the 21st century Kristallnacht…”
Are you serious or just a troll?
Your post is a grotesque misuse of history, equating a day of American political unrest with the systematic extermination campaign against Jews during Kristallnacht, showing either a profound ignorance or a shameless exploitation of tragedy. It’s an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims to compare their suffering to a mob’s misguided attempt at electioneering, wrapped in your TDS sentiment.
Hear, hear.
Pro-democracy protestors, you mean. The 2020 ‘election’ was a very odd affair: 25 million more votes than any Presidential election, before or since. ‘Postal votes’, supposedly; 25 million extra votes that didn’t exist before 2020 and didn’t reappear in 2024. AND Trump won 97/100 bellweather counties that had accurately reflected the result for decades. And then there was the rogue Deep State’s ban on any info about the Hunter Biden laptop from all social media platforms: they claimed, falsely, that it ‘bore all the hallmarks of Wussian disinformation’. In fact, it was absolutely genuine AND THEY KNEW IT. There was a Deep State/ DNC conspiracy to kick Trump out of the White House: the protestors turned out in an effort to save their democracy from a police state. They were, to a large extemnt, deliberately lured into an FBI trap in the process.
Oh please. The Presidency defines America, but the office, and the person are just a figurehead for the government. Trump not matter what deranged ideas are sloshing around in that orange head is not going to be the person that disrupts what the Presidency stands for. Nobody in America would tolerate it. He’d be assassinated several microseconds after he took that decision. With Vance taking the reins once Trump finishes his second term and with the Democrats in disarray and torn by infighting the Republicans are looking forward to being in power for at least the next twelve years. Nothing will be allowed to disrupt that.
America is a Republic, not a Democracy. There is enough checks and balances to stop that from happening.
Even if Trump did try to attempt that, as Stuart point out he wouldn’t live to see a second term.
Looks like American politics are going to mirror ours for the next four years where instead of the opposition continually harping on here Tories bad, it will be Trump bad.
There should be enough checks and balances in the US system. That isn’t the case these days.
The Republican Party has a majority in both houses of Congress. Most of those Republicans are in thrall to the Orange Fuckwit. They’ll do whatever he wants, no matter what. So that’s one of the main checks on the Executive which has been removed.
The other fundamental check is the Constitution and the Legislature. Which is overseen by the Supreme Court. Trumpy-Wumpy has stuffed the Supreme Court with numpties. Those appointments were approved by the Trump-controlled Congress during his previous term. These sock puppets will decide in favour of Trump whenever he breaks the law or does anything that’s unconstitutional.
On top of that, the President picks the heads of government departments and federal agencies. They’ll support the Orange Fuckwit too.
Your condition has a medical name, Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS.
The bad news is that no cure has been found.
Sorry.
So please, whatever you do, don’t try drinking bleach. That story was always an outright fabrication.
That summarises the threat. There is further threat from oligarchs undermining the ‘4th estate’, either buying formerly reputable titles or through ‘social media’.
It’s not a threat: it’s a reality. Have you read the FT, Times, Telegraph, Economist or Indie since c. 2010? And the Guardian is just as bad, for pushing Neocon foreign policy and Neoliberal domestic policy.
That is based on the assumption that all of these appointees and members of both houses are totally loyal to Trump and not to their own best interests of being re-elected when he’s gone.
There is a derogatory term used by Trump supporters for certain members of the Republican party who serve in houses called RINO’s, Republican In Name Only.
Trump is only going to serve for a term and none of his progency and even Vance has the charisma or presence of Trump.
If Trump messes up or does what many fear he will do, the RINO’s will turn on him to save their own skins?
Of course I could be completely wrong but given how chaotic his first term was and even before he is actually made President, there is dissent with for example the H-1B1 visas, is his presidency going to much better than this first?
Only time will tell but Trump is a business president and running a government is a lot different from running a private sector company where Trump has all the control.
Will he have the political savvy and above all, leave his ego enough at the door when he is President to survive this term?
As I said, even if is able to go down that route, there is no enough nuts over there with enough guns to go for him. That’s another check and balance he is well aware of.
Those are more than reasonable assumptions.
I would not put money on Trump only serving for one more term either, no matter what the Constitution says.
As for leaving his ego at the door, he didn’t do that last time.
Now the only real check and balance on Trump is his age and health. A heart attack or stroke will do for him long before any gun nut gets the chance.
“instead of the opposition continually harping on here Tories bad, it will be Trump bad”
Looks like it’s already started.
We even have a freshly minted, shiny new contributor to do down Scotland’s currently most famous and high-achieving son.
Absolutely fecking typical of the certain kind of Scot whose only pleasure in life is cutting the legs out from under anybody else who dares to do better.
No worries, here (yawn)…
#HappyScotlandForever
I think that the major reason for the “non Voters” is just the fact that there’s really little choice between candidates and parties.
Conservatives were evicted due to their policies.
Labour are just a conservative light.
Lib Dems are a joke.
Greens don’t know whether to wear trousers or a skirt.
Reform want to invade Poland.
And the less said about the SNP the better.
When you have choices that are no real choices then you’ll never vote.
“Reform want to invade Poland.”
Eh ?
Says who ?
I think they were all caricatures. Did you not think that?
Oh I see. So Blackhack was having a wee laugh at the expense of the unreformed Stalinists and the neo-tsar supporters.
Because, of course, as all students of history know, Poland was invaded simultaneously on two fronts in 1939, in agreement with the pact to divvie it up signed earlier by Adolf and Josef.
No risk of Adolf’s descendants doing that again, but Josef’s successor – that’s a completely different outlook.
Metaphorically speaking…
Thanks Rev, pulled all the facts together which the MSM doesn’t understand or (more likely) do not want to admit.
They are definitely different in terms of the policies and the attitudes that they have, their ‘clients’ who they want to look after, but where they are similar is that you need to hold your nose to vote for any of them.
‘videogames’? What game is this?
Oh ffs. A while back I pulled in a bunch of posts from my personal website, thinking to make them a subsite here and save me forking out for two loads of webhosting. Still working on that, but somewhere along the way something weird happened and now every time I try to put anything in the “UK politics” category it auto-selects about 20 other categories that I then have to manually untick, and this time I missed one. Doh!
“On the full figures, just 18% of the electorate supports the governing party…”
It seems reasonable to assume that figure refers to the percentage based on the number of the populace in Britain eligible to vote.
Given the number of eligible voters who did not record a vote at the last GE (either by not actually voting or spoiling their ballot paper) resulted in only around 20% or so of the eligible to vote populace actually voting for the current second eleven/former ‘loyal’ opposition governing party, a 2% or so fall in support will doubtless be spun as some sort of result by what passes for the present Government?
If Farage pledged to introduce PR and dissolve parliament for a new election within one year of becoming PM, I’d vote for him, loathsome as he is.
And he just might, since in the long term it would likely ensure lots more Reform MPs.
That would be a winning move and would seal Farage’s legacy. Any Reform government would likely be a shambles but getting in and getting out quick with a fundamental change to the way the UK works would like make him a candidate for a sainthood.
As soon as I hear PR, I think of Italy and it’s merry-round of parties and governments.
Why would it work here?
Oh, you’d get coalitions as the norm – but that’s what we’re headed for the the FPTP/ Rotten Boroughs system anyway. At least with PR, everyone’s vote would count, in the sense of actually influencing the result. A system that cannot deliver that has no business calling itself a democracy.
A promise from that amoral grifter Farage is even less reliable than one from the SNP or the Labour Party’s North British branch office.
Yes, and as Rev Stu mentioned earlier, much depends on the design of the P.R. system used, it can put even more power into the hands of corrupt Political Parties.
How does one find the Rev’s suggestions for voting systems!
link to wingsoverscotland.com
What makes you call Farage ‘amoral’? What has he actually DONE, to earn that? Committed a crime? Fiddled his Parliamentary expenses? Lied and lied and lied? Got elected promising to enact one set of policies – then delivered the exact opposite?
No, that’s the rest of Parliament (stand fast, the four other Reform MPs) – compared to whom, Farage is a Model of Integrity.
The neoliberal Establishment’s media has painted him as a Colonel Gaddafi hate-figure, as they do with anyone the see a threat to their neoliberal cartel interests (Corbyn, Trump, Sanders, Gabbard, Orban, Salmond, Kennedy, Le Pen, Putin etc etc) and you and millions of others have just jumped on their bogus mass-hysteria bandwagon and fallen for it.
The left cheek of the British Establishment’s Government is making the right cheek look like the adult in the room, what with wedge issues like Self ID/Trans idiocy, and a complete refusal to address decent taxpayers genuine concerns over illegal immigration, among other things…. almost as if it was planned that way.
Sad to see the SNP follow in the same footsteps.
The figures are much worse if you factor in decline in rates of registration – as I did here (in 2012) link to greenhousethinktank.org [‘the duopoly’ = Labour and Conservative Parties]
“In the 1950s
the UK had 85% turnouts on near
100% registration rates with 97% of
those voting, voting for the Duopoly –
over 80% of people. The equivalent
figure now is less than half that –
below 35% (65% vote x 65% turnout x
82% registration rate1) – yet these two
parties are still the only game in town
as far as power goes. In fact we’re at
the point where twice as many people
don’t vote for the Duopoly as do,
despite the fact that only these two
parties can form a government. That
means that two thirds of the
electorate vote for a party that has
no hope of forming government,
don’t vote or don’t even bother to
register.”
WARNING CONTAINS DEPRESSING SHIT
The next four is going to be very interesting considering world leaders including Scotland very own County FM are all bending over backwards and anyone with a ounce of common sense knows he’ll screw them over again and again, its who he is. John their selling Vick’s on Amazon best buy a big one your going to need it if you believe because his mummy was a unionist from where ever she came from in Britain he’s going roll out the red carpet. John I think its best to stay in with your masters down south at least you get a Gregg’s sausage roll when you visits London.
I’ve no idea what the dipsticks in USA politics will say about Biden presidency probably something like he snoozed a lot and passed huge amount of foul gas everywhere he went. For me Biden should also be facing genocide charges for Gaza along with Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and all these other EU leaders and companies.
Will I feel safe in the next four year, NAW But to be honest after 10yrs of the SNP bull I’ve given up on most thing in live. I now spend most of my time passing foul wind and drinking tapwater and watching not the tv can’t aford it but the energy meter. I just think the next four years will be interesting I hope we are all around to see it, the way the SNP going I don’t think Scotland will.
The Fraud (2025): Exclusive:
Humza Yousaf challenges Elon Musk to debate: ‘Name the day, name the hour’:
link to thenational.scot
link to archive.ph
#TheHumzaChallenge
BBC: Who is Humza Yousaf? The rise and fall of a former first minister:
“Humza Yousaf’s decision to leave the Scottish Parliament in 2026 brings to an end a political career that both broke the mould and ended in failure…
When Sturgeon announced in February 2023 that she was standing down as first minister, Yousaf was seen as the candidate who would continue her work….
Just days after he was sworn in, police searched the home of Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell, as well as the SNP’s headquarters…
Mr Murrell was later re-arrested and charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the SNP.”:
link to bbc.co.uk
link to archive.ph
Operation Branchform latest (2025): Police ‘fed up’ of being blamed for length of SNP finance probe:
“The Crown Office has been challenged to make a decision on how to proceed with Operation Branchform as fed up police officers say they are being blamed for the length of the probe.”:
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
link to archive.ph
#ThePoliceScotlandChallenge
@COPFS
COPFS
@COPFS: reposted:
“Disrupting serious organised crime is a priority for @ScotGov and partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce…”:
link to x.com
Branchform submission?
Rumour is Breathy Bain has rolled it into a phallus shape, rocked up to pal Vals polycule and is using it to pleasure said polycule, particularly pal “political opponent” saviour of the Union and todays “outraged nonentity”.
Shower of sh1ts the lot of them..
re. rumours
#ScotlandEARTHQUAKE
Daily Express: The earthquakes that have rocked Scotland so far in 2023 – including one foreshadowing Nicola Sturgeon quitting:
“One came just two days before the political earthquake that was Nicola Sturgeon quitting as First Minister and SNP leader.
A foreshadowing of things to come perhaps?”:
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
#TBIYTC
I believe that every time a beaver fells a tree in Scotland the resultant shock can be detected by sufficiently sensitive seismographs.
Huey:
“Her duplicity and hunger for power derailed an open goal for independence, She turned the party into a cult of personality and openly encouraged the entryism/agendaism which caused a schism in the party. People are rightfully angry, Pete – what part of that don’t you understand?”
@PeteWishart has blocked you:
“I don’t think I have ever heard such utter rubbish. That’s what I ‘understand’.”:
link to x.com
I think the world’s wealthiest man, with gigantic enterprises and the DOGE to run has far better things to do than waste his time giving a platform to that worthless, unpleasant political failure and general hole in the air.
It is exceptionally tragic for the WHOLE of the uk when the only appeal ANY of these parties or politicians can make to the electorate is “VOTE FOR US BECAUSE WE ARE LESS SHITE THAN THE OTHER PARTIES”
BUT the snp cannot even do that because believe it or not they are “MORE SHITE THAN MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE OTHER PARTIES”
UNFORTUNATELY it leaves independence supporters with nowhere to go , ALBA is just snp v2 where everything has to be conducted within WM establishment rules of acceptability and conformity , there is no rebelliousness, no ignoring the rules , it is all gentrified opposition, and TBQH to me it just stinks of the same middle class self serving social climbers that permeated the snp
ISP have not made the traction with the electorate Collette Walker seems like a very nice person and very genuine but she is no aggressive bare knuckle fighter which I believe is needed against the might of the establishment
The snp bully and ignore Scots every day carrying out their reviled policies and gross incompetence against the overwhelming opposition of the electorate , BUT every one of them are absolute craven cowards when it comes to confronting the engerlish establishment, what independence needs is a leader who is not AFRAID to be outspoken and agressive to those who are against freeing Scotland from the clutches of a bullying corrupt thieving neighbour who only has contempt for their existance
“what independence needs is a leader who is not AFRAID to be outspoken and agressive to those who are against freeing Scotland from the clutches of a bullying corrupt thieving neighbour”
OK, you’ve convinced me, twathater.
When can you start?
Right efter you bastard tax Moan
Humza …..! Ha ha ha :-)))
44 comments and nobody’s mentioned you-know-where yet. Maybe the message is finally getting through.
Naw.
You need to look more closely.
I’m afraid I’ve already responded to one, but I guess the poster may feasibly claim he was referring to a different place when he wrote “tens of thousands of civilians who are now dead on a small strip of their own country in the eastern mediterranean”.
But ah hae ma doots.
I hear Govan is lovely at this time of year…
Surely the SNP have not done that much damage?
Otherwise, we’ed have seen the official D-notice.
Does that post constitute “whanging on about ….”? or am I simply picking this up wrong?
I believe the correct term is “wanging on”, YL.
Thanks for the correction.
“Starmer shows absolutely no sign of having grasped that his election was voters granting the establishment one very reluctant last chance”
Couldn’t agree more. But he’s in a bind, and I can sympathise with that. He daren’t tell us just how desperate things are, and just how much poorer we are all going to have to get in order to pay for the shiny ideas we still believe we deserve.
Ideas like a free health service, pollution free industry, open borders – un-affordable luxuries like these.
The test for Reform and Farage or whoever, will be when we see if they will tell us the unvarnished truth, and if a majority will still vote for them if they do.
Probably somebody will pop up BTL now and claim that an Independent Scotland could well afford a free health service, pollution free industry, open borders, etc. Because we would stop all the money going south and keep it here, beggaring England in the process, of course.
But I don’t see that happening. I don’t think a country of 6 million people will get to beggar a country of 60 million. To my mind, that’s just a Scottish variant of a shiny idea we still believe we deserve.
It won’t survive its encounter with reality.
“Deprived of any meaningful way to bring about genuine change, frustrated voters have throughout time resorted in desperation to extreme measures, using democracy as their only tool. And rarely can the patience of voters in a democracy have been tested as sorely as British voters’ has been in the last 20 years or so”.
It’s a pity Scotlands voters can’t see what has been happening in England these past 15 years. Let’s all hope they learn from this total mess.
Chatham House: The importance of democracy: Why is democracy important to the world and how does it help maintain a just and free society?
“Democracy has played a vital role in the story of civilization, helping transform the world from power structures of monarchy, empire, and conquest into popular rule, self-determination, and peaceful co-existence…. Democracy then vanished”:
link to chathamhouse.org
#Vanished
If you say so Chatham House. Hilarious
It’s the message that counts.
Scotland doesn’t get the message, huh ?
I don’t believe you…
“Message:
1. a communication, usually brief, from one person or group to another.
2. an implicit meaning or moral, as in a work of art.
3. a formal communiqué.
4. an inspired communication of a prophet or religious leader.
5. a mission; errand
6. (plural) Scottish shopping going for the messages.
7. See get the message”:
link to collinsdictionary.com
#DemocracyMatters
Must be my imagination here, but It feels as though I’m talking to myself sometimes, lol
Myself:
“A speaker or writer uses myself to refer to himself or herself. Myself is used as the object of a verb or preposition when the subject refers to the same person:
I asked myself what I would have done in such a situation.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
I felt ashamed of myself.”:
link to collinsdictionary.com
#ShameOnYouScotland #NationalCowards
“The eyes are the mirror of the soul, they reflect everything that seems hidden –
Like a mirror, they reflect even the deepest emotions and secrets.”
~Paulo Coelho
The Independent: Is Scotland Facing An Identity Crisis?
link to indiependent.co.uk
link to archive.ph
#ScotlandIdentityCrisis2025 #Yawn
The eyes can only be the mirror of the soul if the soul is wandering about, divorced from the body, and happens to be in front of the body.
So maybe you don’t know how a mirror works.
Hatey, it’s behind you –
Look…
“A mirror is a flat piece of glass which reflects light, so that when you look at it you can see yourself reflected in it:
He absent-mindedly looked at himself in the mirror.
He checked his mirror and saw that a dark coloured van was immediately behind him.”:
link to collinsdictionary.com
Tentacles:
“The tentacles of an animal such as an octopus are the long thin parts that are used for feeling and holding things, for getting food, and for moving.”
“If you talk about the tentacles of a political, commercial, or social organization, you are referring to the power and influence that it has in the outside community.”
” [disapproval] Free speech is being gradually eroded year after year by new tentacles of government control.”:
link to collinsdictionary.com
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Here’s another mirror example for you, gregor:
He went through the looking glass (mirror) and was never able to find his way back thereafter.
Ringing any bells?
Labour won 35.3% of the vote in Scotland = 37 seats.
SNP won 30% of the vote in Scotland = 9 seats.
Those are the figures I am interested in.
What’s the difference? 46 seats to pro-Devolution parties and Scotland gets shafted in any event.
The nu-SNP achieved the square root of bugger all with 56 out of 59 MPs after 2015… Didn’t stop Brexit, didn’t secure IndyRef2, didn’t keep Scotland in the Single Market, etc. etc.
Why they’ve even got 9 beats the shit out of me, but either way they’re as much use as tits on a bull.
That was Nikla – shited it every time. Medium grade tea maker at best.
Can’t but help think what friendship the Donald John is saving up for the hapless Sir Keir Starmer who actively tried to stop Trump by supporting the democrats.
Talk about a bad move. Big balls Starmer certainly picked a big enemy to poke.
And ditto for the slimy First Minister Swinney. He’s been poking President elect Donald John too. Trump I’m sure will save some special favours for the gormless Swinney too.
Starmer and Swinney – the humpitty doo dah twins without a shadow of a doubt their fun is only about to begin.
There is something in common between Starmer and Trump.
The best thing for us, and the worst for Starmer and NuSNP, that Trump could do is to support, and loudly advocate for, Scotland regaining her nationhood. Can you just imagine it? It would be amazing.
“Trump could … support, and loudly advocate for, Scotland regaining her nationhood”
As we’ve seen with defence, Trump expects countries to first help themselves. He won’t waste his time with countries incapable of standing on their own metaphorical two feet.
Does that describe Scotland? I’m rather afraid it does, but no doubt others will have a different view.
Just incase Trump is paying attention, perhaps all the BRICS enthusiasts and the avid supporters of those regimes Trump is resolutely opposed to should zip it.
It will only be for 4 years, and by then, we will all know if his MAGA plan worked out.
“the government is opposed by four out of every five voters” isn’t really true though. Plenty of people who voted tactically for LD or Green in a given constituency (and even Tory in SNP marginals) are broadly fine with a Labour government.
This is why the comparison with Trump is flawed – if we all had to reluctantly vote in a two horse race here, Starmer would have done a lot better than 50% in July.
I have just watched and posted the lower of two videos at the link below. It is archive footage of the short speech to supporters given by René Lévesque after the Québec referendum defeat in 1980.
He refers to the “scandalously immoral federal campaign” (“cette campagne scandaleusement immoral du fédéral lui même”) which had prevailed. And at the end he says “keep it in memory but also keep hope” (“je vous dis garder en le souvenir mais garder l’espoir aussi”).
Lévesque was of course dealing with Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin Trudeau (referred to in the upper video interview yesterday with 91 year old Jean Chrétien, Liberal Party Prime Minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003).
Lévesque is speaking Québec French. Whether or not the message is lucid to us, I urge at least watching the opening of the footage to witness the unforgettably supportive eight minute solid ovation Lévesque gets before he manages to speak. Would that Scotland’s hero Alex Salmond after our own narrow 2014 defeat had been accorded and enjoyed such movingly resounding acclaim.
Le 20 mai 1980, discours de René Lévesque après la défaite du Oui au référendum québécois
Further to the René Lévesque video above, here is some informative nostalgia. The half-hour 2013 documentary linked to below was prescient for our 2014 Scottish Referendum campaign. Its most enduring strength is the interspersed feedback from the two Québécois referendum veterans Normand Lester (author: ‘Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais / ‘The Black Book of English Canada’) and Robin Philpot (author: ‘Le référendum volé’ / ‘The Stolen Referendum’).
Pierre Trudeau and the Canadian government lied, scaremongered, and illegally funded their way to a Federal win (of less than 1%). The anglophone media played its part well. A key factor was relentless doomsaying regarding currency and pensions. There were (unfulfilled) promises of more powers for Québec if it voted no. And here the mystery of the Cameron’s “love-bombing” farce is solved. It is evident that London closely studied this successful Canadian script and carefully implemented the Trudeau formula.
THE MAKE BELIEVERS – A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT MEDIA BIAS
BBC (2025): MSP pay to rise by 3.2% to almost £75,000:
“The total cost of MSP salaries and associated taxes is expected to rise by £645,000 to almost £15.3m, including an extra £200,000…
The £2,311 pay rise, to apply from 1 April, follows hikes of 6.7% last year, 1.5% the year before and 3.4% in 2022-23…
Ministers are entitled to extra money…
Currently, a Scottish government minister is entitled to £99,516 but under the voluntary pay freeze receives the 2008/9 level of £81,449.”:
link to archive.ph
#MSPayHike
“There’s a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.”
– William Wallace
Nah.
Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
Tell us true, gregor. Are you really unable to separate reality from Hollywood?
Why the down votes to this?
Nuts.
Because I posted it –
Scotland’s miserable wretches cannot handle reality and are terrified of freedom.
I commend Young Lochinvar as a true Scotland Guardian…
Ha!
I thank you for the sentiment, but the pouty look has been crushed by my weight of years and the twa handit sword unfortunately is now more a crutch than a weapon anymore.
Shame.
Appreciate it though.
Embrace your invincible power-sword, Braveloch –
Your Scotland life survival is your crutch (King)…
“The Tao or Dao is the natural way of the universe, primarily as conceived in East Asian philosophy and religion. This seeing of life cannot be grasped as a concept. Rather, it is seen through actual living experience of one’s everyday being. The concept is represented by the Chinese character ?, which has meanings including ‘way’, ‘path’, ‘road’…”:
link to en.wikipedia.org
I don’t know about Scotland’s “miserable wretches”, gregor, but if you’re going to make a habit of posting pics like that one, I expect quite a few of us will be, not “terrified” exactly, but defo a smidge “wary”.
I ken fine it’s 2025 and all that, but old habits die hard.
Mind how you go 🙂
The Tragic Death of King Alexander IIIAnd the chaos that followed:
“On this day in 1286, King Alexander ignored advice from his nobles and rode to Kinghorn Castle in a terrible storm to see his new wife, Yolande. He had crossed from Dalmeny to Inverkeithing despite the passionate pleas of his men, who had urged him to stay at Edinburgh Castle for the night. Historians say he wanted to travel that night as it was his new wife’s birthday the next day…
On the way, his horse stumbled in the dark, causing him to fall over the cliffs at Pettycur, resulting in a fatal accident in which he broke his neck. A monument still stands today to mark where he was thought to have fallen…
Edward I of England took advantage of the situation and proclaimed himself overlord of the Scots, initiating the Scottish Wars of Independence.”:
link to visitdunfermline.com
Likewise…
“On this day in 1286”
Hmmm. Back in 1286 Scotland used the Julian calendar, not adopting the Gregorian calendar until 1752.
That calendar change resulted in 11 days being “lost”.
Because the underlying cause of the discrepancy is astronomical in nature, the discrepancy has continued to grow since, and is now 13 days. Which is why Orthodox Christians, still on the old Julian calendar, celebrate Christmas on 7th January.
You would have to do some moderately complex arithmetic to convince me of any “on this day” equivalence if the event under discussion used the old calendar.
Well that won’t go down well with the history deniers and Scotchland haters!
Await forthcoming précis on oaths of allegiance in order to enter the race..
Duress.
What was it Cameron claimed more recently: settled will once in a generation while changing the Project Fear goalposts after the event.
Where’ve we heard that before.
Yup, real moral high ground; my aR8e..
Sigh..
BBC (2025): Search for missing fragments from Stone of Destiny:
“A search is under way to trace up to 30 missing fragments of the Stone of Destiny – the ancient coronation stone of Scottish kings.
The pieces were separated from the artefact when it was secretly repaired following its famous removal from Westminster Abbey in 1950 by nationalists students…
The ancient symbol of Scottish monarchy had been seized and removed from Scotland six centuries earlier by the English King Edward I…”:
link to bbc.co.uk
link to archive.ph
#Destiny
£90 billion a year in interest payments for UK £3 trillion debt,
most of the debt was from Brown and UK banks crashing the world economy and then bailing out the bankers.
A lot of the interest goes to the bankers that were bailed out in the first place and who caused the crash.
The national debt was around £1.5T when Brown was booted out. This was AFTER the bank bail-outs. The Tories doubled it to £3T, mostly because of fiscal support during the COVID pandemic.
While UK banks had a starring role in the 2008 financial crisis, they didn’t single-handedly crash the world economy. Most of the toxic debt which caused that was held by US banks and financial institutions.
Yes, but didn’t the snorted up jolly boy amateurs in “British” speculative banking buy up much of the American mortgage default market thinking it would be a spiffing way to make a quick killing?
That worked out well did it?!
Alistair Darling incidentally was the chancer of the exchequer caught sleeping on the job when it all went “T1ts” up.
Had the cheek to use that as an excuse to lambast independence, assuming by the default that we would automatically be as incompetent as him only he had a pet bank with a printing press behind him working on overdrive and we weren’t to get to play with “his toys”..
Don’t care if he’s deceased, called him it while in position of authority so why change now..
Unionist Sc@m..
Wrong in so many ways. Are you a Tory?
The non voting is partly driven by the Tory’s vote depressing measure to require photo ID at UK elections. I note Labour have made no moves to repeal this.
New Zealand makes it VERY easy to vote. 1 polling place in each constituency opens weeks before the poll. There are postal votes, you can vote in any polling place in the country, casting a special vote if you are away from home. They do not require ID.
NZ gets in excess of 70% turnouts and the politicians watch the figures anxiously. They have MMP, like the system in Scotland except there are national Lists not regional ones. The regional thing was originally and anti SNP measure.
How many Promises, Vows and Visions will spew out of the political class between now and 2026?
If 82% didnae vote for you, then you are doomed to fail
James “both votes SNP” Kelly claims to have the Holyrood data set from the Survation poll (field work 7 – 13 Jan). This isn’t up yet, but he claims to have “calculated” the numbers (regardless, the figures he posits seem reasonable).
Holyrood voting intention (Constituency) [Regional list]
SNP (34.7%) [30.6%]
Lab (22.6%) [21.1%]
RefUK (13.7%) [13.8%]
Con (13.4%) [13.6%]
LibDem (8.3%) [10.2%]
Green (5.4%) [8.2%]
Kelly goes on to bemoan that the Unionist block outnumber the SNP & Greens by 67 MSPs to 62. Why would that be? Perhaps because some eejit goes around telling folk to cast baith votes SNP. The 30.6% votes tally in the Regional list given over to the SNP earn precisely one MSP. Kelly’s favourite flavour of crayon is purple.
Or, y’know, because those polls put the “indy” parties combined on under 40% and the Unionist parties on over 60%, so there SHOULD be a Unionist majority.
Yes, Kelly did the same in 2021 arguing for SNP 1+2 which as many predicted totally wasted the nationalist list vote and boosted the colonial seats.
He is clearly not a nationalist, but then neither are the SNP. And if not nationalist, can only be colonialist.
In my relatively limited experience of the thing itself, i find the UK to be the fountainhead of the «proscriptive no», a «no» shrouded in secrecy, obscurantism, hypocrisy, privilege, snobbery, systemic amateurism, entitlement and a sentimental attachment to an exceptionalist historic myth of origin.
National motto: We live in the best of all possible lands, God wot, or
You may think outside the box if you so choose but you will be made to regret it.
The «establishment» will out.
«The United Kingdom has numerous entrenched groups that are regarded as forming the establishment: these include the royal family, the aristocracy, the landed gentry, prestigious «public schools», the privy council, senior civil service, lawyers, academics, Church of England clergy, financiers, industrialists, the armed services and other professionals»
(Wikipedia)
None of the above is in any meaningful sense accountable to the «demos».
Note the anglocentric heft.
” exceptionalist historic myth of origin” I take you are referring to Troy.
the english state religion is worship of the mythic past
The reality is a bit different in a colonial society where there is also an ethnic, linguistic and cultural divide, and with the privileged native elite seeking cultural assimilation with the colonizer to create as much socio-economic distance between them and the colonized group. In such societies it is only ‘the values of the colonizer that are sovereign’ (Memmi).
Yes, ‘anglocentric heft’ a critical aspect in the dominant cultural hegemony ruling Scotland and prevailing over our ongoing ethnic oppression. And what is it but ‘country house English’ that has no roots whatsoever in Scotland.
Which is why teaching oor ain braw Scots langage tae Scots bairns is sae important. An independent people must no longer have any uncertainty about their national culture or their national identity.
Alf, not to be tiresomely contentious, but you are again reprehensibly airbrushing Gaelic from our heritage. The Gaels were of course the founding Scots from whom the very name Scotland arises. Their language was known in medieval Latinate Academia as ‘Lingua Scotica’ or ‘Lingua Scotorum’.
Note moreover the following excerpts from the Introduction to ‘The Mercat Anthology of Early Scottish Literature 1375-1707‘ (Edited by R.D.S. Jack and P.A.T. Rozendaal, Mercat Press, Edinburgh, 1997, pp xii-xiv):
« If one assumes that ‘the pre-requisite of an autonomous literature is a homogeneous language’ (Edwin Muir, p19) then the creation of a national tradition and evaluation within it will reflect that tenet. Nor is it an unusual idea. Today, minority groups often rally behind a linguistic banner – French for the French-Canadians; Basque for the Basques. Whether the same may be assumed in the case of Scotland the Nation, centuries ago, is another question.
« Was ‘Scottis’ the accepted, homogeneous literary language of Scotland in earlier times? Once the historical dimension to that question is opened up and one looks at origins, it becomes clear that the answer is ‘No’. The dialect known as ‘Scottis’ has no claim to be the original national tongue. In fact, if there were any politico-linguistic ‘treachery’, it was that which resulted in ‘Scottis’ gaining dominance over the native Gaelic.
« […] Scots originated as Northumbrian English and only grew later into proud distinctiveness, because of the positive sociolinguistic forces inherent in nationhood.
« Unsurprisingly, therefore, lowland Scottish writers from the fourteenth century until the seventeenth almost always claim to be composing in ‘Inglis’ and seek their poetic origins south of the border. William Dunbar (1460-1520) eulogises his master, Chaucer, in ‘The Golden Targe’, posing the rhetorical question:
« ‘O reverend CHAUCERE, rose of rethoris all
(As in OURE TONG ane flour imperiall)…’
‘Was thou noucht of oure INGLISCH all the lycht,
Surmounting eviry tong terrestriall,
Alls fer as Mayes morow dois mydnycht?’
« Only in two instances do the writers of the time call their language ‘Scottis’. The limitations of the nationalist claims made in this way by Gavin Douglas and James VI will be discussed later.[…] »
Thanks Fearghas. I am not sure we can say the Scots are one indigenous ethnic group whilst seemingly encompassing twa langages an culturs.
National consciousness is made up of ‘a peoples’ culture and language and is an essential aspect of an independence movement. Our national independence movement cannot be said to be dependent on people of Gaelic culture/language, there being so few. Maist fowk wha support oor leeberation are Scots language speakers, houver rustit.
In reference to the historical and archaeological record a few questions/issues may be worthy of consideration/debate:
Alf, with respect, too many of your tidy points remain debatable. You achieve your neat list by taking arbitrary scissors to tangled historical string.
By default you marginalise and demonise the eponymous Scots (ie the Gaels) as murderous invaders. You “glamourise” the Picts as your neolithically indigenous forebears.
Yet even were that all true in terms of blood and guts, it still doesn’t get you to where you want to go, which is to endorse your favoured Germanic language.
In reality the Q-Celtic Scots (ie Gaels) and P-Celtic Picts spoke closely related languages, the latter influencing the syntax and some terminology of the former.
In the end, despite all the plausible patter, you confront us with a hat and a rabbit.
For grounded linguistic historicity, I yet again direct readers to the following DSL (Dictionaries of the Scots Language) webpage:
SCOTS: AN OUTLINE HISTORY
Why don’t you simply cut to the chase and tell Baird he is writing a lot of shite………as usual.
This does not alter that fact that the Scots language is the only language developed in Scotland and still spoken by maist Scots fowk the day This despite it not being taught in schools nor granted a language Act or TV channel, or SQA Highers and degrees, as Gaelic has been blessed with.
I note you still ignore the important matter of national consciousness in terms of the independence question. Is our Scottish national consciousness today, which is critical for independence movement solidarity, and which is dependent on national language and culture, based on Gaelic and/or Scots languages?
I am happy to accept that Gaelic has an influence but it is hardly the dominant linguistic influence in terms of forming Scottish national identity today. Yet Gaelic is being heavily funded and prioritised by our colonial administration whilst the Scots language and hence Scots speakers continue to be ignored?
And why the tendency of the Gaelic lobby to continue to downplay Scots as oor mither tongue, or as Billy Kay wrote, ‘tae pull the ledder up ahint thaim’? Thars a gey muckle bauk in yer een.
Alf, three or four points maybe.
First off I have always appreciated your awareness of the profound link between language and consciousness. Despite the nod being given by thoughtful Scots (as of course by thoughtful others!) to Orwell’s exploration of the issue, you are one of the very few I personally have come across who so vividly sees the dire implications for continuity of national consciousness that colonialist language replacement entails. I honour you for your dogged defence of that insight. Please always bear that in mind.
My second observation, however, follows on from the foregoing. On the basis of your above awareness, your rationale for dismissal of Gaelic being due to its critically low number of speakers is counter-intuitive and unexpected. Numbers of Gaelic-speakers are so reduced precisely because Gaelic has suffered more catastrophically than Lowland Scots has from colonial extermination by governments both Scottish (before 1707) and British (after 1707):
“Thairfor that they shall send thair bairnis being past the age of nyne yeiris to the Scollis in the Lawlandis, to the effect thay may be instructit and trayned to wryte and reid and to speake Inglische; and that nane of thair bairnis sall be served air [heir] unto thame, nor acknawlegeit nor reid as tennentis to his Majestie unles thay can wryte, reid, and speik Inglische.” (Act of Privy Council of Scotland 1616)(Collectanea de Rebus Albanicus p 121)
Thirdly, however understandable Billy Kay’s ‘ladder’ analogy is as an emotional reaction, he unworthily stereotypes Gaelic-speakers. The 20th century literary renaissance headed by MacDiarmid was always trilingual. Speaking personally, the battles which Gaelic-speakers have fought and refought and refought yet again and yet again to get (and retain) a Gaelic nursery, any measure of Gaelic-medium education, a bit of radio, a modicum of television, some meaning-illuminating signage, continue daily to be fraught and existential. The grinding enemy seems immortal. And it is very difficult not to conclude that matters for Gaelic are now all but terminal.
Fourthly and finally, you will excuse me providing again the now hoary link to a relevant book review article I wrote for the literary periodical Cencrastus many moons ago:
EUROPA’S REPRESSED ID?: The Celtic Consciousness’
Neither is Scots. If it were so contributors here, our media and indeed our day to day interactions at home and in the work place would be conducted in the broad Scots which you affect in some (though interestingly not all) of your posts. The truth is however it’s just not the case. Many Scots will understand some or even most of what it is written or spoken in broad Scots, but many won’t or will only do so with difficulty.
There is nothing wrong with people promoting and fostering great use and acceptance of Scots of course, but given the limited resources available for education generally and languages in particular, many might wonder whether prioritising Scots is the right choice? Why not Gaelic instead, or other world languages?
The promotion of Scots begins to look like the promotion of the Irish language by Irish nationalists in the 19th and 20th centuries. That has perhaps served to stop Irish going the way of Cornish and Manx Gaelic, but as Scots is in a language continuum with English (which unlike Scots is a global language) you have to question whether the effort involved is justified.
If enough people want to do it, then doubtless it will happen. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are similar enough that their respective speakers can understand each other and communicate, so doubtless a future Scottish state which had prioritised the Scots language might find itself in the same kind of relationship with “standard” English as say Norwegian has with Swedish.
I’m not sure I see the clock being turned back however. Resurrecting a language like Irish or creating a new one from an earlier predecessor like modern Hebrew is pretty hard work!
Not everyone sees the world through your post-colonial theory lens Alf, or accepts your analysis that adoption of Scots is either a practical still less a fundamental or essential part of reclaiming our independence.
“Many Scots will understand some or even most of what it is written or spoken in broad Scots, but many won’t or will only do so with difficulty”
I would wager serious money that the majority of Scots under 30 use more American words, terms and idioms in their everyday speech than they use Scots.
Like saying, like, “like” as every, like, second, like, word.
They use American spelling too (as does Alf 🙂 ), and the very cadence of their speech habitually employs uptalk – a way of speaking imported from either the USA or Australia (authorities differ).
Bleeding obviously, if that’s the way young Scots want to speak, they’re not going to have it thrashed out of them in the schools.
Although it would be a lot of fun seeing the Scots language enthusiasts doing a reverse ferret and trying to enforce the same kind of coercive linguistic policies they’ve spent their careers to date greetin and gurnin about 🙂
“Kill the culture” is an age old Imperial trick; make it easier for those under the heel just to use their overlords language, customs, monetary systems and where possible religious beliefs.
Some, some, of what you say is stark reality but that most certainly does not make it right..
Incidentally; Mary Queen of Scots spoke Scots and French. During her dynastic internment most of the dialogue was in French as the English didn’t understand the Scots she spoke..
Kind of upsets the comfy faux English language narrative eh?
Incidentally, St Columbus – from Ulster and therefore able to converse with the Dalriadic Scots and (apparently the Strathclyde “Britons”) required however a translator to talk to King Brideis Picts around Moray..
Just saying..
I don’t have the source to hand but I also recall the Anglian “Inglis” that landed and expanded into Gododin Lothian varied somewhat from the more southern introduced Saxon Germanic of what became lower England/ English..
19th century English “tidying up” historical rewriting has a lot to answer for.
And Bede wasn’t that venerable either, just the first of the propagandists whose nonsense we still have to suffer today..
Of possible interest:
Gaelic Scotland: a brief history
Regards.
Also this recent quality illustrated volume:
GLASGOW’S GAELIC PLACENAMES by Alasdair C. Whyte (Birlinn 2023)
« It is time to bin – once and for all – the nonsense that Gaelic was never spoken in Glasgow. In fact, Glasgow’s place-names tell us that Gaelic has been spoken here for around a thousand years. »
Examples:
Auchenshuggle > Achadh an t-Seagail (Field of Rye)
Cathkin > Coitcheann (Common Grazing)
Cessnock > Seasganach (Sedge-Place)
Clyde > Cluaidh (Noisy One)
Cowcaddens > Cua Calltainn (Hazel Hollow)
Crossmyloof > Crois MoLiubha (Crossing of St MoLiubha)
Garnkirk > Gart nan Cearc (Hen Enclosure)
Garscadden > Gart Sgadain (Herring Enclosure)
Garrioch > Garbhach (Rugged Place)
Gartnavel > Gart an Abhaill (Apple Enclosure/ Orchard)
Polmadie > Poll Mac Dè (Stream of the Sons of God)
Shettleston > Baile Nighean Sheadna (Estate of Seadna’s Daughter)
Yoker > Eochair (Waterside Borderland)
“Maist fowk wha support oor leeberation are Scots language speakers, houver rustit”
Seems to me, Alf, that if that were true, we’d find a lot more regulars dropping Scots words into their posts.
Whether they’re rustit or nae.
Most of them will have a T-towel around with the usual selection of novelty words for the tourists, so no reason why they couldn’t crib off that.
“Maist fowk wha support oor leeberation are Scots language speakers, houver rustit”
Quick question, Alf, is your book that you mentioned is available on Amazon actually written in these terms? If so – assuming it costs less than a fiver – I’ll honestly buy it, as I could do with a laugh!
Imagine writing “I fancy le chicken pie and le frits for ze tea” and thinking that was akin to another language eg French. I used to know a bloke like that in the 80s, met him in Bologne-sur-Mer over a couple of bowls of mussels and frites. He was quite (unintentionally) hilarious.
The union was a perfect thought from the mind of God himself. And because the British Empire created western civilisation, the UK is respected throughout the world for its fairness, justice and the rule of law. Scots, being allowed a faux second rate Anglo-ness, should be grateful to be rescued from the defects of the Scotch character, including tribalism, strong drink, crazed religion and sentimentality. No amount of hydrocarbons can compensate for the elevation the backward celtic nations have prospered from.
– and once Farage gets rid of all the p4kis, coons, wogs, and assorted mystery meat, the glory days will return. That was a mistake, all that. Should have taken the Hess peace deal and avoided the rise of our ghastly cousins, the yanks, boorish, vulgar, hillbillies.
Imagine, a flaxen haired anglo on a white horse, revolver in hand, while a fierce, kilted Highlander, stabs the hottentots in the face. Glory days. Getting the band back together.
“wherever wood floats, you will find an englishman, stealing all he can.”
Bravo Confused
Seriously? Bravo?
Is that the best you two have to offer us Scots – endless adolescent smirking sarcasm targeted at the English?
Racist accusations hurled at the English, accusing them of being racist?
Whassamatter then? Heard some bad news?
Wee Johnny bastard tax Moan is upset that someone other than him is mentioning brown people , are you annoyed that when you regale us all with your version of selective racism that naebody gies you a bravo is that what’s getting your panties intae a tangle
Sounding like Al Murray’s pub landlord character there.
Uncalled for.
YouGov shines a light on the backers of the insurgent party [Reform
link to yougov.co.uk
Young people today do not have enough respect for traditional British values 89%
Migrants coming to the United Kingdom across the English Channel should all be immediately removed from the United Kingdom and prevented from ever returning 86%
The sentences that the courts hand down to people who have been convicted of crimes are not harsh enough 85%
?
89
So, ‘Reform’ – that some charlatans on this site are cheering on – support;
Tax cuts for the rich.
Benefit cuts for the poor.
Bring back the death penalty.
Respect “traditional British values” [“England expects”?]
Cut funding to public services.
It all looks so familiar. It stares at you from every news stand, in the large front-page print of the ‘UK newspapers’, tempting the unwary, fooling the gullible, and all owned by 6 billionaires.
Yay!
It’s a wee bit more nuanced than that, James. For instance quite strong belief that in UK big business takes advantage of ordinary folk.
Ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth
Ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth
When it comes to transgender status, people in Britain should not be able to legally change their gender
These views would fit with a good any people. Whether they would be the basis of any policies is another thing.
Farage and Tice and others are in it for what they can grab.
A bit more nuanced than ironing razor sharp creases in the sleeves of my favourite brown shirt.
Well, I got some bad news for you sunshine, Nige isn’t well, he’s back at the hotel, and they sent us along as a surrogate band, now tonight, we’re gonna find out where you fans really stand…
“Are there any queers in the audience tonight…”
Wtf are you raving about with your “sunshine” and implying that I favour Reform “you fans”. What shite.
All you need to do is follow the worms….
“in it for all they can grab” Duh!!
The key problem from that survey is that so many of the positions are contradictory in a very practical way.
For example:
77% want more “defence” spending (more on that in a moment); whilst 71% want utilities in the public sector.
Yet a majority of 51% think that the Government – which is largely privatised – is spending too much on “public Services”.
What the hell do those answering these questions think defence spending is? Not to mention that taking utilities into the public sector will require public spending?
The message here is twofold. Firstly, those responding in these contradictory ways have not worked out that increased military spending is not necessarily the right metric in which to assess efficacy, effectiveness, and value for money (bangs for bucks). Look at the amount the USA spends – along with NATO. Yet all these “wonder weapons” and systems have proven to be no match for near peer militaries whose spending is a fraction of that of the Western militaries (and let’s not mention the Houtis in Yemen).
And it’s not quantum mechanics to work out why. The US military budget and defence spending is not about producing an output that is fit for purpose (think the F-35, the Bradley, and a plethora of basic equipment from screwdrivers to toilets which cost an arm and a leg that you could get at B&Q, Wickes and Screwfix for a fraction of the price). It’s about producing ever-increasing profits for private corporations and the MIC lobbyists.
In short, much of western “defence” spending is an unnecessary rentier overhead which so called “authoritarian” or “backward/primitive” (sub-text: non-Western/non Anglo-Saxon/non White British) don’t suffer from. Because we’re the “biggest, baddest and bestest” and too many people clearly fall for that bullshit.
Which brings us to the second issue that many of the respondents in this survey have yet to (a) figure out and (b) accept. That the situation described in defence (public) spending is true across the entire economy. Much of the spending is a rentier overhead with no value because – as the economist Michael Hudson points out – the economy is no longer based on industrial capitalism but the parasitic FIRE (Finance Insurance & Real Estate) sector and its Ponzi scheme which is impoverishing British, and other Western, societies.
And then we have 73% saying ordinary people don’t get their fair share alongside a fairly substantial 42% who are against redistribution. How, pray (in any practical sense), do ordinary people get a fair share without redistribution?
Not to mention 60% who think “welfare benefits” (social security) are too generous. Well, at least (and I would put serious money on this) until you mention pensions, bus passes, free prescriptions, free visits to the doctors and hospital treatment and other welfare benefits the respondents receive.
They really are all over the place. You certainly would not want any of these respondents working alongside you on the tools on anything practical in the real world. Not only would you end up with a serious bodge job, you’d be risking your neck from a safety point of view.
No wonder the country is in a mess.
That’s a reasonable post, Dave, but I would take issue with this statement:
“all these “wonder weapons” and systems have proven to be no match for near peer militaries”
I see no evidence these wonder weapons and systems have been deployed to any great extent, but where they are, there’s always an immediate chorus of protest and agonised hand wringing from a vocal minority.
If western weapons and systems were used without the terrified timidity we always see over casualties, whether enemy combatants, collateral, or our own forces, results would be very different.
Our enemies know that for sure, which is why they spend so much time and effort on successfully weakening our resolve to actually commit to the fight.
It’s called asymmetric warfare.
As old as bullying Empires.
Best understand it before begrudging Wallace or a screen entertainment iteration of him again.
Because let’s face it, for historical factuality you really couldn’t do much worse than Richard Harris’s Cromwell, the plague of Tudor make believe series beyond count, nor dear darling Larry’s stirring Henry 5th Shakespearean fantasy.
Facts don’t seem to matter there much though eh?!
Then there’s Bernard Cornwall’s Wessex or Northumbrian new age propaganda guff, TVs endless mendacious “we won the war” or dare U even mention David Niven “Home Counties” speaking Bonner Prince Charlie?
Aye whatever, get buckled out of shape about Braveheart, it merely woke up and galvanised a national to vote for devolution.
The irony not of our making is how much that settlement simply “catched us” in a different set of shackles but impact it certainly had.
Sorry YL, I’m not understanding what point you are trying to make in your post.
If you really believe the Hollywood tosh Braveheart, with the Australian bigoted midget taking the leading role, is a guiding beacon for our Scottish nation in the twenty first century, then the Guid Gowd help us all.
By all means you get fired up by the scribblings of an anonymous script writer from Beverly Hills, as mumbled by an Aussie teetering on 6 inch platform heels, if that’s what floats your boat.
But please leave William Wallace out of it.
The only thing that’s different there from the SNP/ Branch office is the hanging!
Further evidence of the febrile nature of UK politics. More in Common, Westminster voting intention, field work 10 – 13 Jan, sample population 1,587.
Headlines; Tories have a 1% lead (25%), Labour & RefUK are tied at 24%.
Scottish (micro) sub-sample (139).
Con 20%, Lab 20%, LibDem 10%, RefUK 19%, Green 3%, SNP 25%.
On these Scottish numbers, the Indy Parties are at 30%, Unionist 69%.
The Holyrood numbers in the latest poll show Indy Parties 40%, Unionist 60%.
Funny how I don’t hear much about “plebiscite elections” on Wings these days. Because Indy parties wouldn’t get anywhere near 50% of those voting in those elections. Let alone 50% of eligible Scottish voters.
Indy would lose again–just like they did in the Referendum.
This “More in Common” is for Westminster voting intentions. Which shows Indy parties at less than 30% of the vote.
For Holyrood, the latest (Jan. 13) poll shows the SNP at 35%. Unionist parties once again have a big edge among voters.
Have always detested the assumption implicit in Churchill’s statement i.e. that we have tried everything there is to try & are now stuck with the current form of “democracy”.
My understanding is that the ancient Greeks themselves came to feel that democracy was a mistake & tried – too late – to move to more or less random selection.
More recently Switzerland has developed an extremely local form of democracy with multiple votes per year. Sure it’s probably only possible in wee countries but there are nearly 9 million Swiss vs fewer than 5.5 million in Scotland…
If I were a potential Reform candidate I would be scouring these pages to prepare my defence. I believe you should let your enemy show themselves first. You can then assess their weaknesses and motives. They haven’t shown themselves in Scotland yet. But the ground is getting prepared for them by the most unlikeliest sources.
When considering a politicians’ worth to me, and other non-wealthy people, I always ask myself ‘Are they a globalist, are they WEF?’
So many are globalists now.
Tiny sample: Ardern, Trudeau, Macron, Starmer, Sunak, Reeves etc.
Some have stepped down, usually to be replaced by someone who is more robustly and ruthlessly globalist. A perfect example is how Sunak was replaced by Starmer. Starmer is a globalist golden boy. Sunak was a bit flaky.
Nothing good, nothing good worth writing home about, will happen EVER again in the UK for Average Joe when:
our political institutions are ruled, and overruled, by Globalist Leadersdecisions are made in DAVOSthen the orders are taken in DAVOSall the UK governments’ policies are strongly influenced(maybe even entirely fermented) by the depopulation aim of Agenda 2030.I was just reading Leah Gunn Barrett’s latest piece. I love her work. She covers a lot of wide ranging topics, almost daily. In this piece she’s exposing Reeves ties to China and asking the reader to consider the implications. I’m thinking digital currency, social credits, increased surveillance, charter cities, food shortages, Net Zero pish, increasingly restricted personal freedoms etc.
Invariably, her work, Craig Murrays, Wings, PRISM, Grouse Beater, One Legged Woman, Peter A Bell, Julia Pannell and the solid work and dedication of SO many others, depresses the fuck out of me.
The truth is painful and very ugly. It’s enraging.
But if it wasn’t for the journalism/blogs of all these people, I would have no idea what was really going on.
We need a mahoosive seismic shift.
I keep an eye on the so called political ‘trouble makers’ to see if they are sheep in wolf clothing or the reverse.
Scotland, imo, not only has a coloniser problem. That is a cluster fuck ALL on its own.
But we also have the problem that our coloniser has, in turn, now been colonised. By the globalists.
“our coloniser has, in turn, now been colonised”
No shit, Sherlock!
Congratulations on finally noticing, but really, it’s been obvious since around 2005.
Wikipedia: World Economic Forum:
“The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation…
The Forum suggests that a globalised world is best managed by a self-selected coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations, which it expresses through initiatives like the “Great Reset” and the “Global Redesign”.
It sees periods of global instability – such as the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic – as windows of opportunity to intensify its programmatic efforts.”:
link to web.archive.org
“WEF is starting The Great Reset initiative: Determining
“Future state of global relations”
“Direction of national economies”
“Priorities of societies”
“Nature of business models”
“Management of a global commons”
“New social contract”:
link to web.archive.org
#TopDownDemocracyRules
James Melville
@JamesMelville:
“We penetrate the cabinets.”
~ Klaus Schwab (Video):
link to tinyurl.com
It was very obvious that Sunak was ordered to step aside.
Who ordered Sunak to step aside, Marie ?
******
link to wingsoverscotland.com
How naive are you? Get off your knees and open your eyes.
Maybe he actually wanted to jump ship?:
link to x.com
Ordered by “them” Marie.
Don’t be shy 🙂
That last paragraph is exactly what I was discussing in my head earlier while driving, I’m not actually sure there is a democratic way to change things anymore!
There has been a shift up in gear by those who pull the strings.
Any populist politician who actually tries to look after the patch of earth they call home will simply be hounded, vilified and mocked until the MSM/social media drinking populace of that particular patch decide that said person must be bad/evil/mad/greedy/lecherous (insert whichever works)
Does democracy have a future?
I don’t even know anymore
The world is in a very strange place
Powerful.
Looking forward to part 2 of this, the solution for Scotland.
Quiet on here tonight.
I and plenty of other Scots will be raising a glass of 12 YO single malt in celebration of the excellent news.
Some will be keening and rocking over their drams, watering them into tastelessness with their torrents of bitter, angry, frustrated tears.
Boo hoo.
Aye well, as you clink your cut glass malts together do try and give a thought or two as to who, if anyone won.
Consider before responding.
Hint, follow the money..
“follow the money”
The entire locale is about to be swamped with eye-wateringly massive amounts of money, with every single Scot contributing in one way or another.
Either directly through taxes, or indirectly through reduced public services, or both.
I suggest we follow that.
“who, if anyone won”
The 1 YO (now 2 YO) baby, and his mum, who are hopefully about to see each other again, may both believe they have won.
Tens of thousands of people will believe they have won. Tens of thousands of people will believe they lost (if they are still alive).
Regarding it as a football game with a binary result, where one entire team wins, and one entire team loses, leads to all sorts of misunderstandings about real life.
Including wars and Scottish Independence too.
I’m no fan of any of the mainstream parties or indeed any politician. And clearly Starmer is setting himself up for a huge fall by not really standing for anything apart from trying to be a little bit better than the disastrous previous government.
However, are we in an age now where it doesn’t matter what any politician does? It all seems to be controlled by big business in a proxy manner. If anyone puts forward a slightly radical budget, the press starts screaming and the markets ‘get spooked’.
Imagine the markets reaction nowadays to the proposed NHS – a service free at the point of use – it would never get off the ground.
But to your point Stu – yes, the system is broken in the UK. In fact, it’s beyond broken and resembles something akin to what is raging in LA currently.
@PeteWishart has blocked you:
“This is quite extraordinary. 18 years and still out in front. With just over a year till the Holyrood election John Swinney has reinvigorated our party and set us up as winners again.”:
link to x.com
XXXtentacion: 17: The Explanation:
“17 is the number tattooed on the right side of my head
My own personal number
Soon to be explained in future interviews or instances
By listening to this album, you are literally
And I cannot stress this enough, literally entering my mind
And if you are not willing to accept my emotion and hear my words fully, do not listen
I do not value your money; I value your acceptance and loyalty
Here is my pain and thoughts put into words
I put my all into this
In the hopes that it will help cure, or at least numb your depression
I love you, thank you for listening
Enjoy…”:
link to tinyurl.com
I’m pretty certain that The National will soon be claiming some kind of credit for the ceasefire!
Of course democracy is in crisis. But so is every institution in Scotland. Even in Sporting terms nobody in Scotland has seen a SPL Champion outwith the Old Firm for 40 years. A moribund ground hog Nation with the MSM ensuring the Status Quo. Scotland exists outwith Glasgow. But few people have seen the beauty of the Scotland. It’s the Union Bears or the Green Brigade and few of them have crossed the door of the Kirk or been to confession.
Talking of “hard realpolitik” what to make of our half-scottish golf-nut (HSGN), Trump, with his ambiguous and belligerent talk of Greenland? Does he mean it, is he on the windup, would he, would he not? That is some kite flying. Certainly the “rules based order” is shown for the sham it is if the “hegemon” just grabs the territory of an ally. “an offer you can’t refuse” is pure gangsterism, at least it is honest.
– but you see how it could arise; the greenlanders, autonomous, have aspirations to full independence – they will have a referendum, and then, if they win, they can “negotiate closer ties with america”.
If you are going to sellout your country, at least get something for it. I would go for
– a percentage, off the top, of all the mineral wealth, in perpetuity, for greenland natives and their descendants. Haggle over the number
– upfront cash payment, say 2M USD for everyone.
– US passports for all
– greenland natives and descendants pay no income tax, ever
– an assault rifle for everyone and free amazon prime or netflix
– latest iphone
It’s a hard life above the arctic circle, being an eskimo and hunting seals looks cool and natural and real and macho … but I suspect half of them would retire to Florida, given the chance.
In contrast, the Scots got fuckall when they got sold down the river. One funny aspect is – “bought and sold for english gold” is wrong – the lords were paid off in english banknotes. Scotland was bought for the price of printing some paper.
Now imagine in a parallel universe, the HSGN has been carefully cultivated, groomed, brainwashed by a succession of Scots politicians about highland warriors, the clans, the clearances, Scots doctors, scientists, explorers – and it is linked in his mind with american independence, the mutual war against the redcoat, the savage brit … so Trump turns up to chequers and like Moses says
“let my people GO!”
and the satrap Starmer shites it, as usual, and just does wnat he is tellt, as that is what britain has done since suez.
And it doesn’t matter how many snide postal ballots MI5 get De La Rue to knock up.
It is all a game, you get dealt a hand, sometimes, mostly, it is shit, but sometimes it is very good, if you know how to play it. I think a lot of nats have a vision of “how it will be”, both pure and glorious, but I would take a “dirty” win. The whole thing was started off in the dirtiest of manners anyway, so what price your virtue.
– from 20 minutes in this is a pretty candid explanation of the fucking stitch up
link to bbc.co.uk
queen anne was a fat lesbian and she fucked us all at one end, then, at this other end … er …
So she was a Necrophiliac as well.
Well, confused, when it comes to “ambiguous and belligerent talk”, you wrote the manual.
So now you’re name checking Moses? Astonishing, as well as confusing.
And what’s your beef with paying income tax anyway? Aren’t you one of the ones frequently calling for the rich barstewards to pay more tax? In my book, that’s anybody with 2 million USD in the bank.
Crisis?
What Crisis?
So long as we have freedom of speech and an electorate with power to remove its political leaders without actually having to assassinate them then we have what might be called a minimal democracy.
It’s even better than that, Cynicus.
Nothing and nobody is stopping any reader here who feels sufficiently strongly about Scottish politics from standing for office. Local council, HR or WM.
The deposit, if one is needed, can be crowdfunded. Anybody standing on a truly popular, representative, plausible policy platform will have no difficulty in raising the necessary.
Campaigning and communication can be done on social media for a pittance.
In theory, the only hurdles to overcome are apathy and fear.
In reality, there’s a sheer cliff face to climb unaided. Despite the never-ending bluster, nobody here really has the courage of their convictions and believes the great mass of the Scottish electorate are oppressed, doon-hauden, deliberately kept in poverty, and thus champing at the bit for Independence.
Sure, we like to moan, whinge, greet and gurn. It’s our national stereotypical behaviour.
But when all is said and done, we could vote ourselves out of this at any election we choose. And yet we don’t.
We’re just too damn comfortable – moaning, whinging, greetin and gurnin, keeping oor heids doon, and looking around in the hope of finding some other sap to do all the heavy lifting on our behalf.
And if some sap does step up, while she’s grafting, we can comfortably moan, whinge, greet and gurn from the sidelines about her, too.
I quite like your second option.
We have freedom of speech??? Hilarious.
As a practically minded person, the only crisis I see is a self-inflicted one created by a pretty dumb electorate and persons of supposed political influence being far too consumed and distracted with whatever the latest shite is trending on the internet; Rather than them actually interacting with folk that they live amongst on a local level so they can better understand the wonts and needs of their respective constituencies.
Aye, the internet has its uses as a tool but ffs, wean yersels aff that shite a bit and you may notice that sitting on yer arses churning out endless blogs or comments in wee internet readership bubbles hasn’t stopped the bad policies being implemented and overall trajectory oor society is taking.
And our freedom of speech is pretty unrestricted in the real world of face to face conversations too. It’s only when you post on the internet filled with intolerant snowflakes and their simplistic binary like or hate wired brains that it becomes an issue.
As is frequently the case, Dan, you post more sense than most of the rest of the regulars put together.
If only you could grow yourself a thicker skin, you’d be an ideal independent candidate for Indy 🙂
Both pillars of Western Society, freedom of speech and democracy, are not synonymous with freedom to say anything in trhe former case, nor ratify something reprehensible by having a vote on it in the latter. More properly, I would say they shouldn’t be, but are.
“That” freedom of speech, saying whatever you like, facilites the dishonesty, disinformation and indoctrination which we have forced upon us daily, in our biased Mainstream Media. They have freedom to lie to us, we have freedom to condemn the lie, but they have access to the monopoly of Broadcasting, where we have nothing. Freedom of speech is thus a sham.
“That” democracy, mired in chicanery, facilitates the outrage of an SNP “government” being repeatedly elected to deliver upon multiple pro-Independence mandates, but instead betraying the voters to do whatever it liked with impunity. Where is the mechanism for our constitutional right of impeachment?
Advocate clipping the wings of the BBC for it’s biased agenda, and suddenly you’re a fascist enemy of free speech. Shut up and eat your propaganda.
And don’t get me started on how the sacred principles of “Democracy” become so fluid and malleable whenever the West wants to sponsor a coup or regime change. Or, in Scotland’s case, subvert the whole agenda of political discussion, cheat, lie, and deny accountability, while subverting the constitutional right of sovereign Scots to hold an entitely lawful referendum.
Freedom of speech and democracy? They are both the same pig in a common poke.
You cannot have true freedom of speech if the spoken word is allowed to stand tall as a flagrant betrayal of honesty and integrity, and democracy is completely dysfuntional wherever the “choice” offered to the electorate has been doctored to obviate the outcome.
Aye Breeks, finding out one’s oppressor ‘requires serious reflection’ followed by understanding of our real condition (Freire):
link to salvo-cor.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com
Harold Wilson’s minority government formed in February 1974 did not ‘collapse less than eight months later’. Wilson chose to go to the country and duly won a majority
BBC (2025): Starmer in K**v to pledge more U***ine support:
“Sir Keir Starmer has arrived in Kyiv to sign what Downing Street is calling a “landmark 100-year partnership” with U***ine. The pact would formalise economic and military support already pledged to the country, and offers more…
…key allies such as the UK, wary that a new US administration could start pushing Uk***ne to make peace with ***sia.”:
link to bbc.co.uk
link to archive.ph
UN: Maintain International Peace and Security:
“The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace…
The most effective way to diminish human suffering and the massive economic costs of conflicts and their aftermath is to prevent conflicts in the first place. The United Nations plays an important role in conflict prevention, using diplomacy, good offices and mediation”:
link to un.org
The Guardian (2015): Welcome to U***ine, the most corrupt nation in Europe:
link to archive.ph
World Economic Forum and UN Sign Strategic Partnership Framework:
“The UN-Forum Partnership was signed in a meeting held at United Nations headquarters between UN Secretary-General António Guterres and World Economic Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda”:
link to weforum.org
I can only assume they’re excluding another humongous country that while technically in Europe, is often missed out because it’s considered “beyond the pale”. Then again, including it would wreck your argument, so best just ignore it.
If you’re back to 2015, gregor, why not go just one more year to 2014?
You could re-live the pre-referendum euphoria we were all mainlining at the time.
You could answer the currency question too, and maybe that would be enough to shade it for Yes. Hint: it’s nae BRICS.
Do you actually read the mince that Gregor posts?
I thought you were better than that.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk:
“WTF”:
link to x.com
It’s nae nearly as guid as ma Ma’s mince, but she’s lang deid.
Sae ah hae tae tak ma mince fa ah can find it these days.
Unlock Democracy: UK Democracy Under Strain:
“The integrity of elections and freedom of speech have been undermined. The Elections Act 2022 reduces the independence of electoral bodies and introduces photographic voter identification requirements. Media concentration is becoming an increasing problem alongside pressures on local journalism and concerns about government appointments to the BBC. The use of ‘dark money’ in elections is an increasing concern. Freedom of speech remains protected in law, but a proposed Online Safety Bill may restrict this in the future. The government has also made political interventions to shape education syllabuses.
Constitutional Protections have been put under severe strain following major breaches of the standards in public office at the most senior level and concerns about corruption and conflict of interest. There have been attempts within parliament by a prime minister to change the parliamentary standards system for political purposes. Political rights have been undermined by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 which increase powers to stop protests. Law was experienced unevenly, with Black citizens much more likely to be stopped and searched than White people by the police. Access to legal aid is restricted, making justice uneven. The Government has strengthened its power over the judiciary by reducing the scope of judicial review in the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022. Government ministers have openly shown willingness to break international law…”:
link to unlockdemocracy.org.uk
“Law was experienced unevenly, with Black citizens much more likely to be stopped and searched than White people by the police”
And how about crime and criminality? Was that distributed unevenly too? Spoiler alert – it was, and it makes no sense whatsoever for an under pressure police service to waste precious time performing reams of fruitless searches of members of the non-offending demographics just so that things look “fair”.
What, precisely, is the problem with “photographic voter identification requirements”? Who seriously argues that anybody should be free to pretend to be somebody else so they can vote?
“political interventions to shape education syllabuses”
Nnnnnaaaaawwwww!!! Are they trying to get the teachers to teach the kids that people can’t change their sex from male to female or vice versa?
Fit utter barstewards, eh?
re. “If you’re back to 2015, gregor, why not go just one more year to 2014?”
Sure, McBossy…
Transparency International (2014):
A Year After Maidan, U***ine Is Still The Most Corrupt Nation In Europe:
link to archive.ph
link to tinyurl.com
I’d quite like a 100 year partnership with the country’s working people (I don’t mean Ukraine) and its health care service.
Hopefully you’ll love your forever-partnership –
The people of UK/Scotland deserve far better health care services.
Aye, Gregor, nae Indy for us unless another country’s Indy is eliminated.
Why don’t you take some time to detail on here exactly how that mechanism works?
Is it like the token system they used to use on the railways for single lines?
Nae Indy for you – unless you learn how to recognise yourself –
Reality doesn’t require a mechanism (just humans:)
Elon Musk explains how the Hitch Hikers guide changed his life:
“I read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and basically what Douglas Adams was saying is that we don’t really know what the right questions are to ask. In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Earth is a big computer, and its goal is to answer the question what’s the meaning of life?”:
link to tinyurl.com
Starmer’s attempt, backed by the tory councils, to postpone council elections in England, is the latest indication of his contempt for democracy.
Nail. Hammer. Head.
OK, I give up.
It’s obviously a location defined by What3Words.
But where is it? What’s its significance?
Have you finally located “scotland”? 🙂