A Fishy Tale
It is, if you’re a bit dim, almost possible to believe this.
But not for very long.
Because while the Labour vote collapsed by a staggering 87% in Aberdeen South last night, the Tory vote only went up by about a third of that. Labour lost 10,000 votes but the SNP also lost 7,000 and other parties also lost about 3,000 so even if the Tories hadn’t gained a single vote they’d have won comfortably by simply holding on to what they got while coming THIRD in 2024, as everyone else collapsed.
(2024, remember, was an absolute catastrophe of an election for the Tories, to the extent that officially Labour was the challenger in Aberdeen South, having come 2nd to Stephen Flynn two years ago. And UK by-election wins for the Scottish Tories are so rare that last night’s was the first of my life, and I’m pretty darn old.)
Turnout, like the SNP vote, was brutally slashed, from 60% in 2024 to 38% as voters declared a plague on all houses, in common with the night’s other Scottish result.
The turnout drop in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry was even more precipitous – 58% falling to 31% – and while the SNP held the seat its performance was only marginally better, shedding close to 40% of the votes it got in 2024.
That’s almost as many as the number of names the party’s rather posh candidate Pyla Lara Bird-Leakey dropped on her way to becoming the somewhat more ned-friendly and couthy local lass “Lara Bird”.
And the number of consonants she dropped from her pronunciation while transforming her accent to a (still-quite-bools-in-the-mooth) Scottish one, almost as quickly as she switched her focus from independence for Palestine to independence for Scotland.
(Her LinkedIn page is now rather entertaining, as “Lara Bird” posts exciting life news and all her friends inexplicably congratulate someone called “Pyla”.)
But the real story this morning is the complete disintegration of the Scottish Labour vote, on a night when the party’s supporters ought to have actually been pretty upbeat, given that Andy Burnham was widely predicted to (and did) win the Makerfield by-election, paving the way for the ousting of the stratospherically unpopular Keir Starmer.
Anas Sarwar called for Starmer to stand down last year, so logically Scottish Labour should have felt the benefit of that goal moving towards realisation. It only had to hang onto 67% of its 2024 vote in Arbroath to capture the seat as the SNP vote plummeted, but in the end could only manage less than 25% and plunged to fourth place.
There was no tactical voting here. Only Reform gained any votes – and only 541 – as more than 20,000 voters from two years ago simply walked away. The SNP’s vote has now fallen by two-thirds in just seven years, but was still enough to more than double the nearest challenger as Reform and the Tories split the right-wing vote almost exactly between them (though their combined total would still have fallen a thousand short).
So what did we learn last night? That Scotland loathes all of its politicians, but that Labour’s failure to change after its Scottish branch manager led it to its two worst election results of all time in a row appears to have finally exhausted the patience of its supporters with overnight suddenness, and that the SNP are now so deeply despised (particularly but not solely in the North-East) that they’re capable of reviving even the Scottish Tories – just a matter of weeks after Russell Findlay’s party also recorded its worst ever Holyrood performance, seeing its vote cut in half.
(Something that must have come as a particularly unpleasant surprise to ultra-woke trans “analyst” Stats For Lefties, who went on a deletion spree on Twitter after making some hilarious predictions of a thumping SNP win just hours before the result.)
(Not that the Norwich-based Green was alone, even compared to actual Scottish pundits, in grossly overestimating how close a contest the SNP would make it.)
But as long as the divided opposition means that the SNP can still push even the most ludicrous candidates into seats on a fraction of its old vote, the party will have no reason to change, though the stench from its rotting carcass overwhelms even a fishing town in a summer heatwave.
After all, Stephen Flynn’s personal ambitions might be responsible for the SNP losing Aberdeen South, but he’s not going hungry on an MSP’s salary.
And while the SNP still has enough votes to limp into power as the least hated, it doesn’t care how much the country stinks.
Dick Douglas? I went out with his daughter about 55 years ago. She came to her senses a few days later.
“Oh, come tinker, come tailor, come soldier or come sailor,
Come ony man at a’ that would tak me frae my faither”
It seems you were not that man.
I only hope Dick’s lass didna/wullna “dee an auld maid in a garret”
A good analysis as always, Stu.
So slippery Flynn lost us a seat. Greedy trougher.Im done with all this. He promoted trans ally immediately. It’s all disgusting. Politics is a dirty game. But now it’s absolutely perverted. Get stuffed
As females, Jacqueline, we have no incentive whatsoever to vote for them. I am not prepared to vote for independence via the SNP while, at the same time, voting away all my own rights. Imagine betraying around half of your membership, councillors, MSPs and MPs and all the women in Scotland and still expect them to vote for you? Just f right off, SNP. You don’t want independence and neither do the odious Greens. Never did since 2014.
That fake accent… you should never trust any “Scottish” person who doesn’t pronounce the letter “R” correctly.
The SNP need to stop giving people reasons not to vote for them. In no particular order:
1) Stop letting the Green tail wag the Independence dog.
2) Lose the mad gender woo-woo pish.
3) Boot Nicola Sturgeon out of the party.
4) Actually bother to support and champion the North Sea Oil and Gas industry and jobs in Scotland. (Every time I hear “just transition” I feel like punching that person in the face.)
5) Stop allowing wind-turbines to be built everywhere in Scotland – it’s not Scotland that needs them, it’s England – so build the fcking things there.
Amen to that, brother 🙂
Millwall supporters now have something in common with the SNP. Everybody hates us but we don’t care.
No doubt they’ll try to explain it away because of the reportage and bad publicity related to the Murrell guilty plea and conviction a few weeks ago.
‘Pyla Bird-Leakey’ sounds like an edifice built entirely of guano.
I read it as “Burd with Leaky Piles” but maybe that’s my twisted autistic brain.
Good to see the SNP have their finger on the pulse with the ordinary working people with these salt-of-the-Earth types who don’t have their heads in the clouds or interest in irrelevant overseas matters.
…Oops, nevermind.
You would think under normal circumstances some pressure would come on Swinney to resign, but noboby seems to be bothered.
nobody.
it was better the first time, Ronnie!f
A NATION can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within….for the ("Tractor" - Ed) appears not to be a ("Tractor" - Ed)…he rots the soul of a nation…he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
IMPERIALISM leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well. — Frantz Fanon
Give yourself 50 lashes. That should remove some of the germs. Then just to make sure, flush your head down the toilet while singing ‘The night they brought old Dixie down’. If that doesn’t work you will have to hand yourself in to the nearest Fanny waxing center.
Hmmmm… The problem is, Turabdin, the fools, the ambitious and the ("Tractor" - Ed)s have all come together en masse in Scotland, and it definitely will not survive.
Very illuminating piece Stuart as ever . The blatant candidate rigging in the SNP and the Fake Greens in particular is being permitted by those ( albeit in much smaller numbers ) without the wit to see the contempt the party they are bestowing their vote to holds them in.
J Robertson: the Green candidate in Edinburgh Central, Lorna Slater, defeated Angus Robertson who was about third or fourth on the List. Now, if you want your candidate to win a seat and he/she is on the FPTP ballot, you would also put him/her in top position on the List to ensure success.
Now, because the SNP did not do that with Angus Robertson, that suggests that they were not willing to back him as a party while the local branch(es) did. The SNP must have realized at least half-way through the election campaign, and probably well in advance, that he was struggling, so why did they not adjust his List placing? They must have known from samples that Lorna Slater was on track to take the seat or, at the very least, a real threat, so, again, why did they not adjust his List placing in advance of the campaign? I don’t live in Edinburgh, and not even a member of the SNP, but I knew – as did many others – that he was struggling.
Did they want Lorna Slater elected? Did they not want Angus Robertson elected? I wonder just how much the SNP strategists(?) rely on the Greens to back them up in their now very obvious blocking tactics when it comes to actual independence? They must be aware – unless they are completely dumb – that a second referendum is impossible and not even advisable because it would be lost again, so why rely on the Greens at all? Because their policies coincide and are rooted in exactly the same mindset? I have always suspected the Greens of being globalist opportunists and we shall see, during this term of government, just what they intend to parasitise the SNP for this time.
I guess I will never be able to work out how most of the electorate work out who to vote for.
The Tory win last night for me seems to be about yet another empty promise form them
This time to keep drilling and pumping Scotland’s oil out the North see and keep these jobs.
What can the Tories do about it as they are not in power?
Can the voters recall the promises from Michael Gove to the fishermen up there.
A complete load of codswhallop with enough lies to sink a ship.
When did the Tories ever do anything for Scotland and as we have never given them any kind of majority in 75 years we can never expect a fair deal from them.
Farage Reform promises to cut Scotland’s budget, change the NHS to an insurance based profit machine and make crypto currencies the main currency.
Labour a disaster who put in 14 years of useless opposition and came up with cut the pensioners Winter allowance as their first priority.
They have removed the right to have free speech and trial by jury.
Their many contributions to the destruction of Palestine I belive is burying them deep in the ground.
Libdems never with a majority in 100 years are never going to get there.
SNP can and have done much wrong but still win against the 4 Horsemen of the apocalypse.
John Laurie was right- We are doomed Captain Manering!
A LOBSTER, when left high and dry among the rocks, does not have the sense enough to work its way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to it. If it does not come, it remains where it is and dies, although the slightest effort would enable it to reach the waves, which are perhaps within a yard. The world is full of human lobsters; people stranded on the rocks of indecision and procrastination, who, instead of putting forth their own energies, are waiting for some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat.
Orison Swett Marden
an American follower of the Scot Samuel Smiles, author of Self Help.
Great Result for Count Binface in Makerfield. He came only 68 votes behind the LibDems.
He should join the SNP and get into Holyrood on the list as he is from an under represented minority.
Oi, where’s Antisthenes the Cynic?
That’s better. Now can I have him back in the important Count Binface post at 11.45 AM?
The Purge of the Wokes in the SNP must be accelarated. Oh and taxi for Swinney. Th3e B
Taxi for Swinney but thee wont be a challange a sour S
Taxi for Swinney. Sturgeons Woke abd Yoon coven needs to be purged yet.Not going to happen though as the Yoonyon is safe in Swinneys hands and whilst Sturgeons Coven remains free to spread its Woke Plague everywhere.
It seems that the voters of Aberdeen South are also totally igorant of the fact that Energy is a matter reserved to Westmidden. Idiots. Oh well. They voted No in 2014 – HELL MEND THEM.
That is no excuse for sitting on your hands, Iain, and shielding your cojones from a kicking as there SNP and Greens do regularly. The SNP needs to make a statement (in writing, in black-and-white) to the UN and the international community that it will not honour, in the event of independence, any contracts in either oil and gas or renewables or in any other field that affects Scotland unless Scotland is at the table and has a voice, along with Westminster. Simple. Could be done tomorrow by the SNP.
It will infuriate Westminster and Whitehall, but it will also stir up a hornet’s nest in domestic UK politics vis-a-vis international and global companies. The huge skelp of Scotland’s maritime assets stolen by England must also be challenged, as pipelines will be passing under the seabed here, from mainland Scotland to N-E England – which proves that this was never an immediate knee-jerk reaction to the threat of independence, but a long-term strategy to protect England’s interests to Scotland’s huge detriment.
Court of Session rules Scottish Government trans prison policy is unlawful
link to heraldscotland.com
SNP lose in Court again!
Brilliant news, due to the efforts of the wonderful ‘For Women Scotland’. Well done to them all!
The thing is, agentx, a first term law student could have told the government this was illegal and contrary to all human rights legislation, international, UK and Scots. What do all the lawyers employed by the SG do, because they evidently do not offer correct legal interpretations of the law? Or, does the SG ignore all legal advice and deliberately waste millions of taxpayer money on unwinnable cases for a hoot? Or, are many of those advising them and many of those who are them also of the cross-dressing persuasion in private? Mandatory check of all hard-drives of all computers, phones, etc. should be instituted Because something very fishy is afoot.
I think we know from the Salmond judicial review fiasco that they ignore even external legal advice ( and subvert the legal process by withholding damaging evidence ) until they threatened to resign that is.
What is the likelihood of them accepting internal lawyers opinion on the legality of their ideologically driven policy ?
Absolutely, J Robertson. However, that still does not explain the love affair with ‘trans’ and all things ‘woke’. What are they gaining by being utterly into this stuff. We know that several of the characters who either own, or are relatives of those who own, the American and Canadian tech industries/pharmaceutical industries, aI, etc. are ‘trans’ identified men – always men, I’m afraid -so it is not a huge leap to imagine that at least some of the top movers and shakers in and around the Scottish and British governments and parliaments are also into cross-dressing, though, unlike the American high flying billionaires, who are insulated by huge wealth, not willing to be outed. However, their influence is malign and utterly detrimental to social cohesion.
The Welsh Senedd and NI’s Stormont are both in this stuff up to their armpits, so it has to be more than just indoctrination and sheer stupidity – more even than cross-dressing with all that links in with sexual deviancy – so what is it? I suspect it has more to do with the undermining of societal norms than anything else alongside the softening up of society for massive changes (technological and artificial) in human development that the billionaire companies are working on right now. Someone will be line to make squillions of profits. Everything we see around us is being driven now by the political class acting on behalf of shady American and Canadian dollars in the name of ‘progress’. None of it, seems to me to be accidental.
LUSH SLAMMED FOR ‘CELEBRATING’ TRANS SURGERY
A Lush shop window mural has come under fire for promoting double mastectomies for gender-confused women.
Artwork at the cosmetic retailer’s Chelmsford store depicts a cartoon tiger emblazoned in the colours of the transgender flag, sporting the scars of breast surgery, and bearing the slogan: “Proud of My Stripes”.
In 2021, Lush was criticised for promoting breast-binders to customers.
DISRESPECTFUL
Journalist and women’s rights campaigner Janet Murray called for the painting — installed ahead of ‘Essex Pride’ — to be removed.
She explained to Lush: “As a woman who had half a breast removed last year due to cancer, I am writing to raise my concerns about your ‘Proud of My Stripes’ window display.”
“Because mastectomies are not a fashion statement, an identity marker or something to be celebrated.
“They are something women undergo because they are ill, because they are frightened, because they are trying to stay alive.”
She added: “Breast removal surgery is not something I regard as cute, playful or empowering. Nor is it something I believe retailers should be celebrating.”
‘DEEPLY OFFENSIVE’
The artist, trans activist Bucky Ringsell, who describes herself as non-binary, accused her critics of being “transphobic nutters” and said it had been designed to “represent trans folks” who had undergone the surgery, like herself.
She claimed: “Being proud of your scars (aka stripes) is something everyone can take inspiration from, regardless of your journey”.
While controversial medic Dr Helen Webberley, founder of trans-affirming clinic GenderGP, stated: “No teenage girls are having their healthy breasts removed, just teenage boys are having their gynaecomastia resolved so they can live in freedom in their bodies.”
But Sex Matters’ Helen Joyce described the mural’s messaging as “disturbing”, “harmful”, and “deeply offensive to women who have undergone mastectomy because of cancer”.
(The Christian Institute, 19 June 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
Does anybody know if you can still see through a window after spraying it from an aerosol can of paint?
Asking because it seems much simpler than writing endless letters – all of which will be ignored.
WOKE COUNCILLOR PUT ON EQUALITY TRAINING OVER EXTREME PRO-TRANS REMARKS
A Stroud councillor has been required to study the Equality Act after likening gender-critics to Holocaust deniers.
Green councillor Helen Elliott-Boult posted the controversial statement in defence of a local business that cancelled an event because of the speakers’ gender-critical views. Two of the ‘deplatformed’ authors raised a complaint.
In 2021, the EHRC stated that holding to the belief that biology determines whether a person is a man or a woman is protected under the Equality Act.
RESPECT FREE SPEECH
Elliott-Boult posted on social media: “Declining to host an event is not unlawful. We have experienced a similar local occurrence when a Holocaust denier was booked for another local venue – that venue decided not to host the event, due to a community concern.”
The authors complained to the council that she equated “lawful, protected beliefs as analogous to Holocaust denial”. One of the authors, Jo Bartosch, told The Telegraph: “When politicians make childish smears instead of engaging in debate, it’s a sure sign they don’t have the courage of their convictions. People deserve better from their elected representatives.”
She explained: “We hope this training gives her time to reflect, and that in future she will respect freedom of speech and association.”
Stroud District Council (SDC) member Elliott-Boult commented: “The complaint was resolved under the informal resolution provisions. I will be completing the same SDC councillor training as all SDC councillors. At no point did I make negative comments about gender-critical views.”
LYING ABOUT THE LAW
The national Association of Green Councillors has come under fire for issuing information which wrongly claims that men who identify as women do not have to be excluded from single-sex spaces.
Fiona McAnena, Director of Campaigns for women’s rights group Sex Matters, warned that this puts councils at risk of legal action: “You could almost feel sorry for Green Party councillors, who are being given terrible advice by their own Association of Green Councillors.
“The claim that trans-identifying men don’t have to be excluded from women’s single-sex facilities by law is totally false, and both the Supreme Court judgment and EHRC guidance make this plain.”
The Shadow Equalities Minister Claire Coutinho stated: “It is astonishing that Green Party councillors are actively working to erode the rights of women and girls, even lying about what the law says.
“There is nothing progressive about undermining important legal protections that keep men out of women’s spaces.”
(The Christian Institute, 19 June 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
The up and coming Westminster election isn’t looking to good for the SNP.
Postcolonial theory (Fanon) suggests that a national party that has been ‘co-opted by colonialism’, i.e. is actively working against independence, duly and deservedly ‘disintegrates’.
As does any faith the people may have had in the colonizer’s political processes or laws to help liberate them.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Before that happens, Scottish people need another united political independence party sufficiently well organised and funded to replace the SNP.
Do you know if that is happening anywhere in Scotland? This by Stuart and opinion polls suggest there is an appetite for such a party.
Lara Bird’s resume smacks of a State agent. The SNP is chock full of them.
Who’s better placed to serve king and Country other than our very own SNP.
From WGD “Three by elections and no one cared about the Murrell affair”.
1 The SNP lost 1 out of 2 seats
2 The SNP turnout was poor to say the leased and and the party’s vote share was down massively
3 I doubt anyone in makerfield cared about what was happening in Scotland.
The SNP a Zombie party heading towards oblivion, its a pity some soft Indy supporters can’t see it.
Unionist SNP being unseated by unionist [insert party name here] and Indy still no closer.
link to x.com
I wonder if the new MP will recognise and abide by Scots law or continue to reduce it to the level of English law,would she have supported Not Proven?
Just how is she going to be able to do anything much down there when she is studying for the Bar? Another Q Manivannan, except not Tamil, but English this time? The SNP saw that the Greens got away with it, so they decided to hammer another nail in Scotland’s coffin. I hear the SNP and the Greens are on a recruitment drive with Elon Musk to send a windmill-driven motorhome to the Moon to sign up little green men and women who don’t speak Scots or Gaelic or English, who have a blue-grey skin, are under five feet tall and have always wanted to see Scotland’s lochs and mountains, but can’t stay too long as the atmosphere is too rarified for them down here. They have promised, if elected or put on the List, to keep in touch with local events and affairs, though, ultra long distance, so that’s okay. ET MSP phone Scotland.
Spot on Stu!!
MARCH DES SOLDATS DE ROBERT BRUCE
(Four versions):
————
1)
Pèlerinage des Troupes de marine à Bazeilles – 2013
Concert de la fanfare – bagad de la 9° BIMA
link to youtube.com
————
2)
Solo für 2 Piccoloflöten (Nadine Horsel & Theresa Born)
Jahresabschlusskonzert Musikzug Battenberg am 26.11.2011, Leitung: Frank Seibel.
link to youtube.com
————-
3)
Marche de Robert Bruce, Roi d’Ecosse de 1306 à 1329
Thierry Jean trompettiste
Adjudant (r) de la région de gendarmerie d’Occitanie
Emmanuel Schublin organiste
Titulaire de l’orgue historique de Cintegabelle (1742)
Réserviste (rcds) de la région de gendarmerie d’Occitanie
En soutien face à cette épreuve le 8 mai 2020
link to youtube.com
—————
4)
Great Tattoo for General Volker Wieker (2018)
link to youtube.com
FF
Thanks, however all (possibly except the last military one) are far far too slow.
The tune is “Hey Tuti Tattie” and was a popular Scots drinking song adopted for the medieval Scots army which relied- not on pipes – but massed drums and a cacophony of horns.
The effect was such that the Bishop of Durhams men daren’t engage the Scots the day after Percy’s Newcastle men were pumped at Otterburn (1388)..
I’m no good at attaching links; recommend searching out Nils Browns Hey Tuti Tattie on YouTube for a flavour of what was sung (wording “style” probably a little later) at the correct speed and gusto as opposed to the Scots What Hae hijacking’s of the tune which was slowed down to a literal death march..
Listen and enjoy, genuine historic Scots music (much better than yes sir I can boogie!!)..
“Scottish First Minister John Swinney said: “Lady Ross’s judgment has just been given down and it is a very comprehensive judgment, the Government will of course respect the judgment Lady Ross has put forward and consider its implications and we will set out our response in due course.””
————————————
Of course the SNP Government has NEVER respected the Supreme Court judgment!
If you want to read 80 pages or so around For Women’s petition for judicial review the link is below.
link to scotcourts.gov.uk
The conclusion seems damning to me.
SCANDAL AS NHS GOES AHEAD WITH ‘UNETHICAL’ PUBERTY BLOCKERS TRIAL
Campaigners warn of irreversible harm as the NHS restarts its plans for a puberty blockers trial for children as young as 11.
The controversial trial was previously paused following concerns over safety and efficacy by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It has been amended to add in a minimum age limit and clearer measures for when to withdraw treatment in the case of harm.
Children will be recruited from 1 August 2026. This has been delayed due to legal proceedings attempting to stop the trial going ahead.
MODIFIED PROTOCOL
A Government update stated: “the Health Research Authority has approved the trial for its ethical standards”.
It explained: “The modified protocol includes strengthened safeguards including the introduction of minimum ages of entry to the trial and more clearly defined discontinuation measures around safety for bone health, cognition, and vaginal bleeding as well as more detailed information for participants on fertility preservation.”
It noted: “MHRA’s top priority is the safety and wellbeing of the trial participants”.
SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT
The team from King’s College London (KCL), which is leading the research dubbed ‘Pathways’, said: “We will always welcome scrutiny of research involving children and young people because their health and safety is paramount. Our priority remains to safely and robustly investigate the benefits and risks of puberty suppression for young people with gender incongruence to improve the evidence base and inform NHS healthcare.
“We have worked extensively and openly with the MHRA to understand and resolve the questions they raised about Pathways Trial in February, which were not based on the emergence of any new scientific evidence. We have strengthened patient information connected to the trial and introduced a minimum age requirement, however there are no major changes to the design or conduct of Pathways Trial.”
They claimed that “good ethical practice dictates that children who are clinically eligible should not be discriminated against on age alone”, but that an age limit was agreed as they did not expect to receive participants younger than those ages.
EXPERIMENTING ON CHILDREN
However, the LGB Alliance wrote that gender-confused children “don’t need more information on fertility preservation or greater safeguarding around bone health and cognition. They’re physically healthy children who just need to be allowed to grow up.”
Biology in Medicine commented: “why would you do something harmful to a child when it’s not necessary? Puberty cures cross sex beliefs. Children must be allowed to go through normal puberty – this should be a childhood human right.”
Campaign group Genspect called the trial a “scandal”, explaining: “Puberty blockers are not a neutral pause, they are the first stage of medical transition.”
It added: “Experimenting on children with interventions that carry lifelong consequences is unethical. The claimed benefits rest on subjective measures and are outweighed by the objective risks.”
STOP THE TRIAL
MP Rebecca Paul posted on social media: “Another terrible decision by this Government that will harm children. Yet again pandering to trans activists rather than putting the safety and protection of children first. I will do all I can to get this horrific trial stopped.”
Campaigner and therapist James Esses said he was “saddened” by the news. He urged the Health Secretary to “do the right thing and pull the plug on this monstrosity of a trial”.
(The Christian Institute, 19 June 2026)
link to christian.org.uk
To be fair Lara Bird is her stage name a bit like Elton John and Freddie Mercury. Quite common in theatre and the entertainment business.
Off topic for this post by Stu. It is relevant to his engagement with Police Scotland and COPFS.
link to andywightman.scot
No Police or COPFS action over transparency offences
Posted on June 3, 2026 by Andy Wightman
“…There are still nine outstanding complaints for Police Scotland to deal with and I have over 200 more ready to send them which would realise over £1.3 million in fines if prosecuted.
But for the moment, I am disappointed that the COPFS has decided to do nothing about the first 2 complaints and that Police Scotland are not going to take any further action on one of the remaining ten complaints. Without a police report to the COPFS, no prosecution will be possible unless I decide to embark upon a private prosecution. I await news of those other nine.
If this is to be the pattern of action by the COPFS and the Police, then the Regulations are essentially voluntary and Màiri McAllan’s ambitions set out in 2022 are meaningless.”
We often hear the SNP vote becoming like the old Labour vote – staunch clients & grudging old believers who hold their nose & vote for the party they fully expect to betray them but whom outwith they can see no route to the goal. That said, with turnouts like this, even French elections become a reasonable analogy; no-one believing & no-one arsed to vote anymore except when it means stopping an opposition people are scared of. I reckon we’ll see turnout plummet in everything other than the GE in Scotland now.
Postcolonial theory tells us that a national party elite ‘co-opted by colonialism’ will soon ‘disintegrate’ (Fanon), which is already happening to the SNP, as we see.
The now liberation movement then finds another route to freedom outwith the colonial political system and ‘legalized lawlessness’ (Elkins) of the colonizer’s laws and courts:
link to liberation.scot
Postcolonial theory is circular-reasoning garbage and Frank Fanon was a crank.
Easy there, Lewis!
Whatever we might think of Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire, Elkins and the Jonesy boyo, we can all agree they weren’t Scots.
Learn to appreciate the irony of a Scot railing against colonialist co-option by foreign mindsets and value systems, by quoting foreigners with foreign mindsets and conclusions based on their foreign value systems!
SNP (def.) – a faux independence party replete with faux Scots under foreign allegiance.
……. and infiltration
…fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads…
In a perfect world, everybody should get what they deserve.
I can’t help thinking that what the sorry people of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry deserve is the mother of all asylum holding centres.
Hoaching with former denizens of G@z@.
I’m quite confident that Professor Baird and his supporters would claim that because we’re colonised, we’re politically illiterate.
I see it differently. We’re colonised precisely because we’re politically illiterate.
A politically literate people just would not let this enduring shitshow of grifters, liars and cocksure piss takers continue.
A politically literate people would put their tribal differences to one side for long enough to drain the swamp, once and for all.
A Tory and a Tea Towel Wearer! Neither is going to be in a position to do anything or change anything for the people they will be handsomely paid to represent. I strongly suspect that neither will even want to.
What The Actual Fuck is wrong with the Scots?
“We’re colonised precisely because we’re politically illiterate”
Not so.
Independence is ‘a matter of national culture’ (Fanon), not a matter of politics. A colonised people cannot escape via the political straitjacket or ‘legalized lawlessness’ (Elkins) of the coloniser. A ‘co-opted’ national party has proved this.
The lethargy of the people is due to a number of factors, not least the pathology that is always associated with colonialism.
As ‘colonialism is based on psychology’ (Cesaire), first the people have to understand they are colonised; and that the only remedy for this ‘condition’ – liberation – requires their ‘self-recovery’ of culture as well as to reclaim their sovereignty; and with that to bring a complete ‘end to colonialism’ (Memmi).
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Not so, Alf.
We could have voted ourselves out of this “colonised state” long since.
But, because we’re politically illiterate, we much prefer the voting comfort blanket that is all that turning out to support our tribe really is.
Hence why we’ve just voted for a Tory and a Tea Towel Wearer.
“why we’ve just voted for a Tory”
For the colonialist the choice is an easy one; they seek to maintain the status quo and with that their ‘privileges’ (Memmi).
For the colonized native, to discover the rationale behind the colonized’ decision to vote against their own liberation we must return to Cesaire and to the colonizer’s ‘conjuring tricks’, and here we learn:
“…that colonization is based on psychology, that there are in this world groups of men who, for unknown reasons, suffer from what must be called a dependency complex, that these groups are psychologically made for dependence; that they need dependence, that they crave it, ask for it, demand it; that this is the case with most of the colonized peoples…”
Hence for the native the opposite of independence and liberation is dependency and a dependency complex, which is another way of describing the colonial mindset.
I guess half a reply is better than no reply, Alf.
Care to do the tea towel wearer voters next?
But thanks for clarifying that everywhere around the world where we find masses of soldiers, tanks, guns, planes, missiles and drones pulverizing places on behalf of the colonialists that it’s the psychology of the colonised that defeats them.
If only the colonialists knew that the money they spend on soldiers, tanks, guns, planes, missiles and drones is quite unnecessary, eh?
The socalled POLITICAL CLASS in any country is not of the brightest and that is how the puppet masters of globalized corporatistic systems prefer it.
The contemporary USA is totemic, functionally feudal with a constitution drafted by a «colonizing» élite, a clique of uncouth onanistic rich, a political class content with the general heading & happy to offer the captaincy, regardless of mental state, to anyone with the wealth to buy the position yet not impede the activities of the rich whose occasional largesse they are happy to accept.
To free Scotland from its pitiful state would require an intellectual dynamic of truly extraordinary «skill», to save the world from the coming of the AI driven messiah of Randian selfishness a close encounter with a large meteor.
link to theconversation.com
The «élite», notable for adolescent banality.
Tea Towels??? That wasn’t you out on manoeuvres the other night in Leith by any chance? What an irresponsible disgrace you are.
Wear your tea towel with pride, Marie. Learn some Arabic chants too.
Fat lot of good any of it will do you. In the holy hierarchy, as a non-believing woman, you will always be right at the bottom.
Oh but wait, I forgot you don’t “do” religion.
So sad and just too bad that your adopted cause does “do” religion. Just about to the exclusion of everything else.
Whoops!
According to STV, Lara was Lynda Jones Bird. So a few name changes there. She did grow up near Kirriemuir though, daughter of a military man turned academic. Family history in colonial Kenya, then off to London.
Seems to be cut from a similar cloth to Kate Forbes.
She seems keen on Palestine, but no mention of independence that I can see.
Nothing shows the problem with Scotland more that the current World Cup.
Look at all those Scots who have found the money to go to the USA. Watch them showing their patriotism for Scotland as they parade through the streets in the USA, wearing their kilts and singing Flower of Scotland. Listen to the bagpipes skirling.
A finer display of Scots patriotism one would think.
So WTF don’t they turn out and support Scotland in those numbers when we need them to rally here? A few rallies with the numbers like that would convince the world we deserve independence.
… because the romantic notion is far more appealing than the reality. A poor and cowardly management of the nation, a poor and cowardly management of the national team. Could easily be changed -both.
Maybe start with trying to beat Brazil. Their defence is poor, their attack good, so maybe dont give them the ball.
For government, flood the party with new, active members,take over the local constituencies and clear out the dead wood.Then vote out Swinney.
Interesting comment. Is not one obvious answer that many might be at best ambivalent about independence? Being a proud Scots patriot clearly does not mean you are automatically a nationalist.
Much was made of the pipe band but (and excuse my probable ignorance) does this form of massed bag-piping and drums not have 18th and 19th century military origins and is very much associated with the Royal Military Tattoo, so can be seen as a symbol of Unionism, even colonialism? I suspect it is complex.
Personally I see that kind of band as very different to the lone piper heard at a distance in a remote glen, something I have been lucky enough to chance upon and is a quite magical experience.
The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have some of the best pipe bands on the planet. Ditto Scottish dancers, Gaelic singers and poets, and Highland Games competitors.
“I suspect it is complex”
Au contraire, it is simplicity itself. The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are hoaching with the descendants of Scottish colonists, ethnic cleansers and genociders.
These “professional Scots” give the “professional Irish”, the descendants of the Irish colonists, ethnic cleansers and genociders, a good run for their money.
Lara Fearnely-Whittingstone-de-Montefiore seems fragrant; reminds of Stewart Hosie’s wife. Just the type to storm the machine guns in our final “battle of algiers”, hand grenades hanging from her gucci linen blend caban (a snip at 2100)
Oil and gas policy was said to have been (partly) responsible for the SNP defeat; I dunno, there’s a whole -ton- of reasons not to vote for these wankers … its a something for everyone; I mean, as far as we know the SNP are not (yet) into strangling puppies and wanking over the bodies, but they will go two footed into any other unpopular policy.
I think it is long overdue for someone to expose the scam that is “net zero”; the insidious thing about it is how it is presented as being harmless and a good thing, SAVETHENVIRONMEN and all that good stuff. The average punter thinks –
“its jist aw they solar panels, heat pumps an that … ”
the simple fact is “net zero” forces western economies to rip out perfectly good infrastructure and replace it with expensive, hi tech, “green” equivalents (which may not even work as well, harrumph, heat pumps) – this creates, artificially mind, a massive demand for all this new green tech and those that supply it. It also means bumper profits for anyone who got a headsup and positioned themselves accordingly, like say, BlackRock, who always know what is going on.
Blackrock were even whining a year ago that people were not adopting green tech fast enough and the US govt should pump in a trillion to help speed it up … (a trillion, with a T)
Green tech relies on exotic materials, which means mining, the most destructive and extractive process for the environment. The iphone when you strip it down is an abomination of capitalism, but you will find one in the hand of every “green” activist, all tweeting on social media run on huge datacentres.
The diesel engine is not going away; all shipping and farming equipment runs on it.
Farming relies on cheap energy and chemicals derived from hydrocarbons; this is why food is cheap, why the poor can afford to eat. Destroy farming (flawed as it is) and you attack the poor.
The recent gulf war shows us how important oil still is, and there are no real plans to shut down the oil industry really (the UK has, allegedly, found a 500B oil reserve down in antarctic waters it claims to own, and it is not giving that up). So oil and gas and even coal, will continue, in the massively polluting 3rd world, but in the west we will destroy our own functional tech (a huge waste) simply to look fashionable and hit some artificial targets.
NB – the grifters are coming out to play; there is a lot of money available for anyone doing “net zero” (just stick it in the grant application) and to give you an idea; this was information that slipped out – the UK is under pressure to raise its defence budget, okay, big barneys, people resigning, trump taking the piss, all that … and then some labour droog suggested they increase defence expenditure by taking some of the money out of the 63B earmarked for “net zero” …
– sure, there is a “magic money tree”, for anything they want, but not for you and me; how often since labour got in have we seen “budget black hole” mentioned? It is 12B, or 20B or 40B – they will tell us “the triple lock must go” or “gold plated civil service pensions must go” or “you cant get that” … but it all seems to be fine for the pet causes (e.g. 12B for the fake country in its stupid war), or now we see … a full 63B of money to “pish up a wall” on shite we really don’t need.
Mind that Scotland’s contribution to global co2 is negligible, and would still be negligible if we all started burning car tyres for heating; india, china, USA, the pentagon are the main offenders and they will do nothing.
Fuck net zero.
Completely agree, Confused.
Miliband is such a captured, mind-addled, virtue signalling moron. God help us all.
Really, CC?
You agree about the “fake country in its stupid war”?
Oh well. If I had £5 for every patriotic, die-hard, Indy Scot who cheers on aggressive, imperialist colonialism when it’s his Orc favourites doing the invading and slaughtering, I’d have quite a few fivers.
Smart pro-Indy Scots are only too aware of the dangers inherent in pronouncing on “fake” countries, with “no real culture or history” and “no right to exist”, that would be much better off folded into the empire.
Haha, not that anybody ever lumped Confused in with the smart set.
I don’t think it’s a “fake war” but I deffo don’t think “we” should be paying untold billions towards something we neither started nor are involved in (AGAIN), whilst large swathes of our OWN people are in dire straights (AGAIN, not least veterans of the last “foreign adventure” equally costing billions).
Time for the EU to turn up and stump up. We’re skint (in large part thanks to their stance regarding Brexit and the preceding absolute inflexible attitude towards – shock, horror – the UK wanting to protect its own borders. That worked out well!)
I know it’s terribly Tory etc but I’d prefer my hundreds of thousands of pounds robbed off me in tax every year to be spent on a school or hospital, preferably for actual British people.
A perfectly valid viewpoint, CC.
Perhaps you believe that poot will happily stop at the borders of his former colony, when he has re-absorbed it into his empire.
Perhaps you believe there won’t be a refugee crisis involving millions, perhaps tens of millions, to destabilise Europe. Perhaps you believe that even if there is, we will be safe behind the 20 odd miles of sea that we haven’t actually been safe behind for most of this century.
Perhaps you believe that poot, having absorbed the most productive and the second most technologically advanced military-industrial complex in the world into his own, will decommission the lot. Beat drones and missiles into ploughshares.
One other point. I’m assuming you’re not a Scot, not an Indy supporter, and therefore insensitive to the hostility that Scottish Indy supporters treat (or aught to treat) people who state that “made up” countries have no right to independently exist.
It’s an argument tailor-made to keep Scotland down. Scots should have no truck with it.
No Hatey, I don’t believe that poot is about to launch a full ground offensive against Western Europe, even up to and including the UK – any more than I believe that mine and most others’ houses will be under water in 20 years. I’m a realist, empiricist and a cynic, very wary of others’ agendas (not yours obviously).
However, even if we assume that R has the capability, resources, political will to do such a thing (it doesn’t), it’s principally someone else’s problem, so let them pay. We are a poor, wee, skint and impoverished country and its night time we cut our cloth accordingly, without delusions of grandeur and/or being the mugs paying for it all (again).
You can do your own research by looking at SEPA and UK Environment Agency projections, CC. Perhaps they’re lying or deluded. Even if they’re not, you are still free to disbelieve them.
Interesting to read that in 2026 you still believe modern wars are fought with massed tank armies. I’m guessing the drone revolution has passed you by, as has the realisation that as the UK lacks the vast stockpiles of cheap offensive and defensive drones, and the military-industrial hinterland churning them out by the thousand weekly, poot would have us back in the Stone Age within a month. And no Orc tank would ever need to be even started up.
Of course, we could ask our fighting friends in the east for help and advice, but not if we’d stabbed them in the back beforehand.
Ditto for our NATO allies.
Nope, still not buying it – on either count. Soz.
We should drill, drill, drill and also remember that charity begins at home.
Not opposed to drill, drill, drill or charity beginning at home.
But then I’m not living near current sea level.
Some things one can do for himself, for others one needs a wider pool of potential help.
Applies to people and to countries too.
Unless you’re one of the imperial powers, such as Uncle Sam, Orcland or Covid Central. Maybe the Cow Worshipers soon as well.
Although, oddly enough, even Orcland and the Covid Spreaders are keen to build alliances, whilst Uncle Sam is starting to see the adverse effects of trashing its ones.
Still, CC, you know best what works inside your own head.
Spot on, Confused.
100% facts, good post.
Net Zero is a nilhistic cult and a scientific fallacy. Miliband hitched his wagon onto it as it aligns with his political beliefs of misanthropic totalitarianism. The Tories, SNP and others likewise.
It’s termed alarmist catastrophism.
In about 20 to 30 years or so it’ll be some other subject and so on..
In about 20 or 30 years, most of our homes, jobs, infrastructure, etc. will be under water.
So yes, we will have other concerns.
Not that that’s any reason for us to embrace Nut Zero. Not when the likes of China, India, etc take every manufacturing and resource exploitation opportunity we voluntarily abandon and create an exact copy on their turf.
Only a less efficient, more polluting and more dangerous copy.
Hence not only impoverishing us, but accelerating the sprint towards the day when we find ourselves beneath sea level.
And as that day draws inexorably closer, we will find that we closed down and exported all of the industries we could have used to dig and build ourselves out of that disaster. All the money too.
But enough of that. What do you reckon to those super-shiny, super-big, super-cheap, Covid Spreader EVs?
I’m gonna get myself something half the size of a Chieftain MBT for medium-sized hatchback money.
I expect that inside the glovebox of every Covid Spreader behemoth, there is a letter from Millipede thanking and congratulating the purchaser for doing the right thing.
Seriously, does anyone believed that “most” (or indeed “hardly any”) British homes will be “under water” in 20 years due to climate change?
I know I bloody don’t.
@Captain Caveman
The warming melts the ice. The melted ice ends up in the sea. The sea level rises.
It’s as far from rocket science as you can get.
I’m guessing you don’t believe in the warming (it’s not a serious possibility that you disbelieve the melting bit).
There is no way to have a serious debate with somebody who would discount the evidence of the sea level rises since the end of the last ice age, and its direct correlation with rising average global temperatures.
Pyla Shyte.
The carnal tendencies of SNP Westminster MPs had slipped my mind until Confused mentioned the current and fragrant spouse of SH who was also the current and fragrant paramour of the former Western Isles MP. Which brings me neatly to Pyla. How in the name of the Wee Man did this person manage to get the nomination for Broughty Ferry etc? There had to be heavy Westminster involvement in such an unlikely choice. Surely not someone’s girlfriend?
Ah, and supported by Brendan O’Hara a man who publicly declared that Nicola Sturgeon was the greatest ever Scots Woman and who he would hear no adverse criticism about.
Of course that was when she was at the height of her Covid emergency powers whilst at the same time rigging the NEC to concentrate clique control.
Yeh, I think we can get where this Tricky Bird sits now that she back ” up here in Broughty Ferry “