A Long Hard Think
More than three months ago now, we sent Police Scotland a Freedom Of Information request. A few minutes ago we finally received a response. Brace yourselves.
That is, um… interesting.
Retaining gifts you know were bought with embezzled money is the common-law crime of reset in Scots law, under the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.
There used to be an exception whereby a wife could not be found guilty of reset in respect of items given to her by her husband, but it was abolished by the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014.
So the numerous high-value items which we know Nicola Sturgeon was given by Peter Murrell and paid for with embezzled money are legally the proceeds of crime, and must be handed over as soon as the recipient becomes aware of their provenance.
It is, to the best of our knowledge, still the police’s job to investigate crimes and the crime of reset is unarguably being committed here. Sturgeon knows how Murrell came about the items, but has publicly stated that she has no intention of returning them, telling Laura Kuenssberg in May this year that:
“There will now be, I would imagine, a legal process to recover the money from Peter that he embezzled from the SNP […] I am not guilty of that embezzlement, so nothing that belongs to me should be part of that.”
It is somewhat staggering, then, that Police Scotland not only have no knowledge of whether any of the items have been returned, but also have no knowledge of whether they’re intending to investigate the crime, or to just turn a blind eye to it as they’ve done with the original missing £700,000.
We’ll be honest with you, readers, we’re at something of a loss for words at this point. It genuinely does not appear to be at all clear whether the laws of Scotland apply to Nicola Sturgeon or not. We’re going to have to contemplate how to respond to that for a little bit. All we can say for now is, she must REALLY love those fancy pens.
I am sure the answer is no, but has there been a follow up on the he latest letter from the he crown office?
If not, is there going to be one?
I would pretend to be surprised, but I can’t even bother with that nowadays.
I bet they haven’t responded to the Letter Before Action either, even though you gave them 14 days to respond 22 days ago.
As Murrell plea bargained so that £60,000 disappeared from the charge sheet it would be interesting to know where the Sloggi pants etc are. They aren’t subject to proceeds of crime so who has them ?
So Police Scotland took years painstakingly recording what money was spent to buy what items – it is their duty to recover all of those items as they were bought with the proceeds of crime. For them to fail to do that – and be evasive when asked about it, reeks of corruption. Banana Republic Scotland
I did not think I lived in North Korea but it seems i do
“If you require any FURTHER assistance…”?!?
Murrell had lent money to the SNP to help their cash flow position and the items purchased for his wife totalled approximately £60k. I assume that as part of the plea bargaining Murrell wrote off the loan and agreed to plead guilty and the total embezzled was subsequently reduced in the charge. Accordingly those items were purchased with his own money and so the wife could not be charged with reset. Just my opinion and a could be wrong.
That still leaves 400k worth of stuff that the police are required by law to recover.
Did the polis recover any of that?
Wouldn’t the reaction of most right minded individuals in this situation be to find the items tainted and want to be rid of them?
Isn’t the real reason no police action has been taken to prevent her further embarrassment from media coverage of a police auction of these items?
Am I right in thinking is the value of these goods were excluded from the sum Murrell was charged and convicted of embezzling ? Why if Police/ Prosecutors knew they weren’t going to recover via proceeds of crime.
As you conclude Stu the law appears not to have been applied to these two.
Remember how £70k odd of stuff was taken off the indictment before Pete Murrell pleaded. There is still a whole load of other stuff – what is not clear is whether the saintly Sturgeon can argue that she only retains items not on the list of admitted criminal purchases? Anyway – if she was half way decent she’d want to divest herself of everything possibly tainted by Murrell’s crimes.
“if she was half way decent she’d want to divest herself of everything possibly tainted by Murrell’s crimes.”
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I agree – you would think she would want to be the martyr for her own cause – but apparently not.
Just re-looked – funny how they have no information as to their own intention to follow the goods up or not.
She must love the Venus razors too.
Surely nobody’s believing Murrell bought them for his own use?
When linked to the postponement of Murrell’s proceeds of crime action to December, absolutely everything about this long term investigation and legal action stinks.
And that stench comes from the SNP.
“not at all clear whether the laws of Scotland apply to Sturgeon”
Don’t tell me you’re losing it, Stu.
Seems crystal clear to me.
So in the Swagg bag you’ll find SNP, Crown office, Police Scotland, UKG, SG all working hand in hand. She saved the Union so doesn’t she deserved to be protected at all cost.
She walk amongst us but she isn’t one of us, remember that.
“On Thursday, it emerged that MPs will launch an inquiry into party political funding following the fraud within the SNP.
The Scottish Affairs Committee said it would investigate the Electoral Commission’s oversight of party cash.
The committee announced it would separately investigate the dual role of the Lord Advocate, after concerns were raised during the police investigation into Murrell.”
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That is the UK Gov taking action because the Scottish Gov will not!
Murrell can be called to give evidence – maybe Sturgeon too hopefully.
“That is the UK Gov taking action because the Scottish Gov will not!”
Correct. By far the most significant development in this saga since Murrell was jailed.
Yet, remarkably, virtually totally ignored on here.
Not least by Professor Baird, who is presumably taking some time to hammer, twist and bend this news into something that can be forced to accord with the ravings of Fanon, Memmi or Cesaire.
“When justice is dealt by the coloniser, it must always be perceived as forced, alien injustice by the wretched colonised”.
Something like that, no doubt.
“That is the UK Gov taking action because the Scottish Gov will not!”
Correct. By far the most significant development in this saga since Murrell was jailed.
Have they stated when these investigations will take place ??? ,will they take place ??? , will they also investigate the BILLIONS of pounds embezzled through covid not just LARDY Moan, will they also rigorously investigate the £5 million pounds given to farage from a foreign investor ,will they investigate and prosecute the hierarchy involved in the DELIBERATE attempt to circumvent electoral laws , farage and his scum are crying that it was deliberate ENTRAPMENT and UNFAIR, NO they are crying because they got caught
I have to laugh at the fuckwits using the scum sturgeon and the scum snp in an attempt to shame Scotland and Scots whilst their CORRUPT yoonionist arseholes are so far ahead of the moronic snp fannies in the embezzlement and corruption league
Do you yoonionist fuckwits see ANY praise for the snp bastards on this website , or are you all too stupid to realise your political representatives are committing the same crimes against US ALL
If you don’t want anybody to be investigated and possibly penalised for the missing money and goods, twathater, just say so.
That position could be argued to have the best interests of Scotland, or at least Scotland’s elites, in its defense. As it does seem to be the position adopted by Scotland’s government, you would find yourself in good-ish company.
Your last post, coming close to calling for the investigation to be dropped because of tribalist “whataboutery”, is just making you look daft.
Or perhaps just making you look like a blinkered, tribalist bigot, which amounts to much the same thing.
And as usual Arsehole Main deliberately misses the point of my comment , as a member of the 77th brigade it is his duty to FOCUS and highlight the corruption and incompetence within Scotland whilst ignoring and protecting his beloved yoonion , but regular readers are well aware of Arsehole Main and his cabal of fuckwits and their inability to expose the REAL masters of CORRUPTION and INCOMPETENCE , WASTEMONSTER
Near ten hours for that one, twathater.
Please tell us it took you nine and a half hours to clean and sanitise the Baton of Erudition.
Looks like it’s now working, so all credit to you for a job well done.
It has helped you write a post hoaching with ad hominem, more whataboutery, fantasy, and some RANDOM capitals to complete THE effect.
Nicola is being protected why? Because she saved the union, so what John Swinney’s roll in all of this? He’s to educate Scots to except the myth Westminster is sovereign and we aren’t.
We know Peter Murrell was stealing before 2014. Sturgeon met Theresa May and I believe Sturgeon was given two options capitulate or go to jail and she chose to capitulate. So was then instructed how she was to go about securing union and the rest that followed.
Sturgeon went from being a Scottish nationalist to a British nationalist in no time at all. She said it her self, she’ll remain British even when Scotland becomes Independent, this was truly a strange statement to make and what she really meant was Scotland would never be Independent. Think again.
Legal hearing on recovering £400k embezzled by Peter Murrell pushed back three months.
Their next letter will simply state
“Computer Says No”.
Can the police force become any more pathetic?
They don’t know the law, they won’t apply the law when crimes are handed to them on a plate and they use the three wise monkey act when questions are asked.
They are busy locking up thousands of pensioners with cardboard signs,
Able to send a battalion of officers to the Murrell/Sturgeon home to pick up two laptops, 4 mobile phones and a couple of boxes of paperwork but cannot respond to a confirmed burglary within 4 hours.
Trump would be proud of what they can get away with.
“They are busy locking up thousands of pensioners with cardboard signs”
Naw. They’re not.
You’re busy either lying or fantasising.
Do you think that when ten, twenty or more people lifted at a time on ‘terrorism’ charges get to wait in a comfortable lounge whilst being processed?
What’s the coffee like?
I absolutely and categorically believe with every fiber of my being that “ten, twenty or more” isn’t “thousands”.
Just as I believe that to most “normies” discussing crime and punishment, being “locked up” is what happens after you’ve been tried, convicted and handed down a custodial sentence.
Much of what passes for debate on Wings BTL relies on the invention of new meanings for words in common usage, and the hyperbolic exaggeration of the smallest grievances into perils of existentialist importance. I get that, Dave.
But to let it go unchallenged is to permit BTL to remain the kind of place where sane, rational, normal Scots, and other sane, rational, normal people, recoil with both humour and disgust.
Ten twenty and more at a time soon mounts up but you know better eh.
Any idea what the service is like in the ‘Terrorist Waiting Lounge’ at your local nick?
Please dont give up on this. Their replies are are getting weaker.
If ever there was a need for a dog with a bone, its now.
A dog with wings even better.
Has any member of the SNP asked the police to track down the items and return them?
Can any member ask or does it have to be an office bearer.
Who do you ask – NS herself, or the polis to investigate if she still has them? Or can they investigate if NS ignores you?
There must be some items the police hold, eg the campervan. Can you do an FOI with all the items idnetified in the charges and ask which they know about, ie have confiscated, and which they don’t? Again does it have to be an SNP member that asks.
Also, I’d like to know when they are up for sale. I’d like the telescope and the weather system.
From the perspective of a Right wing fascist who knows the whole barrel is rotten one can only quote a genius;
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Is the image at the top the entirety of what they sent you, Rev? If so it looks like it’s anonymous again. Hopefully a sign of fear.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but I cannot even look at her anymore.
Who got the motorhome?
“We broke the law so we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused.” All crooks wanting to obtain a get out of jail free card should take careful note of this line of defence.
Anyone surprised? Nope, me neither.
This state is rotten.
For many years many people, myself included, have accused Sturgeon and the SNP of being a Cult who’s agenda is not what the Scottish people voted for.
We now find that it was just a branch office and Sturgeon is getting paid for fighting the good fight.
Unlike Rev Stu, I am not at a loss for words, namely…
Corruption.
This sorry excuse for a country, governed by the corrupt for the benefit of the corrupt, becomes more of a bin fire by the day…
Government = A joke
Judiciary= A joke
Police = A joke
Media = A joke
You hear that noise coming from the direction of Edinburgh?
It’s the SNP and their puppet regime of public service lackies laughing!
I wonder what Agent Sturgeon would make of it? Perhaps they’ll put her pudgy wee mug on a Royal Mail stamp to commemorate her services to the British State. The Soviets did it for Kim Philby, so why not her?
AND let us also not FORGET Robert
Corruption.
This sorry excuse for a country, governed by the corrupt for the benefit of the corrupt, becomes more of a bin fire by the day…
Government = A joke
Judiciary= A joke
Police = A joke
Media = A joke
You hear that noise coming from the direction of LONDON
That is not to excuse the SG & the scum snp
Just bamboozled! Who says crime doesn’t pay. Obviously not her.
The information may not be held by Police Scotland but is it the kind of information that ought to be held by them because that is an entirely different matter.
It appears on the face if it, Police Scotland are obeying orders, for want of any other explanation. All very well, but it is legality which, it seems, even royalty aren’t exempt from. It could do untold damage to Scotlands Police as they, at the end of the day , have to justify their stance. No one else! . There seems to be too many exceptions in this case to ignore. One can imagine there will be concientious members of the force tempted to throw in the towel. . It’s making a mockery of their job and their own rights and undermining the profession. .
If there are cases who qualify for privileged consideration it questions the point in having a police force at all.
Quite honestly can anyone have any faith in the police. As this response shows Police Scotland are absolutely rotten to the core.
And its not just loss of faith because people need to fear what this rotten and corrupt police force do. Like the Nazi Police from 1930s Germany they do as they are bid – pursuing the innocent, disregarding of the corrupt.
They are a political police force. The thugs of the corrupt elites who do the elites bidding. And that is why there can be no trust and no respect for the political sectarian entity that is Police Scotland. A dishonest and corrupt organ of the state.
And this latest response brings this once again into sharp focus. Scotland’s own version of the old sectarian version of the RUC or the old apartheid Police Service of South Africa.
As things stand, willie, there appears to be £700,000 unaccounted for.
In addition, there appears to be items bought with stolen money by Murrell still in Sturgeon’s possession.
Quite how that relates to the Nazis, the RUC, or apartheid-era South Africa is a leap I can’t follow.
Perhaps you could explain your reasoning.
The reasoning is quite simple and easy to see.
People the police like are left alone to do as they please and people they don’t like are hounded vilified and arrested for simply being themselves. The four services Willie mentions fit the bill.
You’re just to thick and gobby for your own good.
Who’d be Hatey? What a winner!
“You’re just to thick and gobby for your own good”
Aha! The Baton of Erudition has been recovered and is now back in circulation.
No prizes for guessing where it was. Commiserations, Dave, passing that solid chunk of teak must hae brocht tears tae yer een.
If you intend to pass the baton on, mind and wipe the shite aff first.
…don’t stop there! Last word, come on you can do it. We all know you can do it, you’re the wings champion.
Come on Hatey come on boy keep going, you can do it!
“you’re the wings champion”
Shucks, I’m welling up here.
Tell you what, Dave, if you post another after this one I’ll let you have the win.
Enjoy 🙂
Reasoning and law are redundant when used against straightforward brazen and ‘unanswerable to anyone’ corruption. Even this is a waste of bytes as the majority of people know. This gemme’s a bogey and has been ever since time immemorial.
Welcome to transparent government.
“We’ll be honest with you, readers, we’re at something of a loss for words at this point.”
In the Manichaean world of a colony, justice is rather more selective than universal, according to postcolonial theory.
“In the Manichaean world of a colony
Historical Faith: It comes from Manichaeism, an ancient religion founded in 3rd-century Persia (modern-day Iran/Iraq) by the prophet Mani.”
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OK!
It did not take too long before the crank professor mounted his hobby horse!
I said some years ago that, in the future, the prime focus for the police will be to keep the ‘ have not’s’ away from the ‘ haves’s. Then it will be the turn of the armed forces to do the same.
It is telling that the letter received did not bear any signature. I suspect that someones job and pension is on the line.
Did we dodge a bullet or did we dodge a bullet in 2014. Can you imagine the SNP with total contril of everything in Scotland?
« Did we dodge a bullet or did we dodge a bullet in 2014. »
No, we invited the hail of bullets which have riddled us since.
Michty Fearghas!
You’re remarkably hale, hearty and spry for somebody who’s been riddled with bullets.
But to be serious for a mo. Your implication is that everything would have been magically better if we’d voted Yes in 2014, although even the most cursory thought would tell us it would be much the same professional politicos in power, voted into their sinecures by much the same disinterested, easily bribed with their own money, tribal voting blocs.
Of course, the EU might have come down on us like the proverbial ton of bricks, seeing as how they like to make a song and dance about eliminating corruption in member states.
But then, ruled and over-ruled from Brussels, we wouldn’t be Independent and the promises of 2014 would have turned out to be lies.
It’s not hard to imagine Chas as that’s exactly what we have at present.
“if we’d voted Yes in 2014, although even the most cursory thought would tell us it would be much the same professional politicos in power”
Actually, Hatey, postcolonial theory suggests that in the run up to independence the colonialist and native collaborator elites tend to head for the mother country. There are some notable early examples.
As we can readily see, collapsing imperial powers then become a vast repository of former ‘colonial administrators and functionaries’, destroying their own national culture and values in the process.
Fair enough, Alf, post-Indy everybody currently running Scotland will flee to London as predicted by the post colonial boys.
Does anybody know if the wee, pretendy parly has a flat bit of roof the last choppers could leave from?
But to be serious for a mo. If it’s not a secret, how many administrators, negotiators, parliamentarians and civil servants will the newly Independent Scotland need? Where are these talented, dedicated and practically competent people going to spring from?
It’s not a difficult set of questions to answer. If nobody is giving it serious consideration, I guess we can all see the hollow rhetoric behind the “Indy is Nigh” claims.
Meantime, students of the lessons of history can study what happens when the first act of new country builders is to summarily dismiss everybody that was running the old country.
There really are jobs that take years, even decades, of experience to master, Alf. Perhaps professorship isn’t one of them.
“There really are jobs that take years, even decades, of experience to master”
That’s a valid point, Hatey. ‘Ferries procurement’ comes to mind. The reality is that a colony is ALWAYS under-developed. We have a crisis in every area of public and social/economic policy.
Which means liberated Scots have to focus on development, of country and people, currently held back by lack of access to our own resources, limited powers, and of course an imposed ‘mediocre meritocracy’ holding to the colonizer’s ‘values’.
Post independence few ex colonies continued to recruit and advertise all their best jobs from London, so I guess that will need to change. And we should not be looking for the supposed bricht mynds of Oxbridge and the like either.
Independence is thus a lot more than the ‘new start’ Swinney havers aboot, where Scotland’s assets would still be controlled by the City of London and private equity banksters.
‘Ferries procurement’ comes to mind.
Well, if your entire government – and bloated Civil Service – is filled to the gunnels with clueless numpties (or washed up, retired pseudo-academics 😉 ) who have never had a real job, have never had to earn so much as a single pound for themselves (unless receiving it one way or another from the public purse), let alone run their own company or even be self employed – what on Earth can anyone expect, if not a total, clownshow disaster?
I think you’ll find that the vast majority of these individuals and institutions are very much “home grown” as it were, though doubtless you’ll be misquoting the ravings of your usual 1950s suspects and/or blaming the English working classes for this, and most probably for your treading in a “dog’s egg” this morning too…
Well, that’s the thing with you lefties isn’t it. It’s NEVER your fault, is it.
Nauseating.
Must admit that this is something that I did think about initially, but, now, I don’t care. All I want is to never, ever hear her name again. She is an out-and-out b*****d. A total narcissist. Yes, Rev, the law has changed but she never obeyed any law anyway. None of the leadership of the SNP since 2014 has cared tuppence for the laws that they expected the rest of Scotland to abide by, and they continue to flout the laws with impunity.
When the elite, the establishment, refuses to obey the law (and the same is happening at Westminster) then the country will descend into lawlessness as the citizens come to realise that there is little point in legal conformity either. When that happens, the country will fall, citizen groups will form and they will run communities as they see fit – and that could be for good or evil. Basically, we are heading for anarchy and civil war.
By the way, although I hold no candle for Murrell, she was with him for years before they married, and during the marriage, whether it was a lavender marriage or otherwise, yet she said, quite jauntily, that she would not be visiting him in prison – while she would be keeping his gifts to her, one presumes.
Good post.
Your second paragraph accurately sums up the current state of the whole of the UK. We are ruled by Communists, eagerly dismantling the society around us and destroying anything that can be considered ‘good’ or ‘true’. The only crimes that exist in their eyes are crimes against their rotten state; they care not for genuine crime victims (as per the justice system in the former Soviet Union).
They care only for maintaining their positions in power and their lavish publicly-funded lifestyles, the rest of us don’t matter. We are seeing a descent into societal anarchy and, perversely, governmental totalitarianism.
If anyone things Scotland is immune to this, Stu’s post above – not to mention the countless others in the good journalism he has tirelessly carried out these past few years – displays that the current state apparatus in Scotland is part of the same rotten core.
Some may explain it away as Colonialism or “They English” (usually a metaphor for the omniclusterfuckpermashambles within the M25, however worryingly some knucklescrapers do actually blame ordinary innocent English people as well), however it’s all part of a common theme across the West; our liberty and Humanity is being eroded.
Anarcho tyranny and neo feudalism are two of the terms being used to describe the state of affairs we see.
Anarcho tyranny was first conceptualised by the Soviets before the collapse of their political hold over their imperial hegemony.
Put simply, it means that the unleashing of criminal elements on ordinary society goes unpunished and unimpeded just as long as these same criminal elements leave the state’s elites alone. In parallel, the law enforcement arms of the state are focused on the “soft” targets – the basically compliant and law abiding – who find themselves subject to ever more draconian petty restrictions on their freedoms.
Think about what happens if you tweet something “bad”, in comparison to what happens if you don a tea towel and march through the streets calling for genocide.
Or if you cut down a tree overhanging your property, in comparison to when a gang of travelers invade and concrete over a nature reserve on the weekend.
Neo feudalism won’t really come into its own until AI has destroyed much paid employment and thrown the majority of citizens onto welfare.
Once most citizens only have the UBI supplied by the state, and spendable only if you haven’t been de-banked, making any kind of fuss really will be something only the brave will be prepared to do.
Obvious, innit?
The items in her possession are presumably the ones removed from the charge sheet. As they aren’t the subject of a criminal charge, they technically are unstolen and therefore she doesn’t have to return them.
And meanwhile how many people know that the ‘ Kangaroo court ” they call the Standards Commission Scotland has changed its policy and is now destroying the records of cases against elected representative.
But what country in the world would allow its courts to destroy its court case records.
Could it be because the Commision are now, post Lord Sandison’s recent landmark judicial decision on Standards Commision illegality of hearing process now facing a flood of appeals against illegal and wrongful judgements from many many councilors the reason why case records are now being destroyed.
Judgement, pronouncement of guilt, censure, financial penalties and then destroyed case records is the stuff of out of control third world countries.
And what also of those officials who may have tampered with evidence and documentation. Well the now ex Chief Executive of the Mid Antrim Council in Northern Ireland recently found out about that when recently prosecuted and found guilty of attempting to delete email documentation and tamper with documents that should have been disclosed.
So not difficult there to see another potential reason for burning down the court house records to protect the guilty.
Its all quite incredible stuff.
post tgecnow know that in the light of Lord Sandisons recent rulling that the Standards Commision acted illegaly denying fair hearing tgat a flood of legal appeals lie waiting in the wings. What better way then perchance to stymie appeals that would expose malfeasance and illegality than to destroy the tribunal case This is desperate stuff by a desperate Standards Commision and an increasingly desperate Scottish Govenment.
But this is what the
In the light of Lord Sandison’s landmark decision in the Fiona Higgins judicial review, that te standard commision acted illegaly to deny a fair hearin of illegality in the denial fair hearing where an accused amomgst other things was denied the right to submit evidence
They know that there is now a flood of legal actions in the wings for miscarriages of justice
In the light of Fiona Higgins judicial review by Lord Sandison of the Standards Commission were pronounced to have act3d acting illegaly denying a fair hearing to pursue and sanction elected representative tha
“burning down the court house records to protect the guilty” was, according to Prof Elkins, a rather common feature in times of the usually rapid imperial exit from the colonies.
Another feature was the propensity for native collaborators of colonialism to seek sanctuary in the metropolitan capital of the ‘mother country’.
Scotland’s people are closer to ending the UK ‘union’ hoax than many think.
“Scotland’s people are closer to ending the UK ‘union’ hoax than many think”
That will undoubtedly rely on a personalised definition of “closer” that you won’t be intending to share with anybody.
Over here in reality, Alf, an imminent end to the “hoax” requires planning, preparation and a schedule. Discussion and agreement. The setting of priorities, the management of the transition, the identification of potential problems and the allocation of resources and responsibilities.
Do let us know when you’re ready to start on the hard miles. What with us being Sovereign and all, I’m sure I speak for the majority of Scots when I say we will be taking a close interest.
Yep. 300+ years will be wiped out because professor crank says so. Of course, with some help from some dubious quotes from academics nobody is interested in.
No plan incorporating economics/finance required. It will simply happen by magic.
Does someone read you a bedtime story every night Alfie boy?
See, Jockos; it’s all yer own fault.
So sing the “all day, every day” unionists.
Dealing with a hollow, insulting person means recognizing that their noise is just an empty echo. They use cheap cruelty because they have nothing real inside.The Anatomy of Their Emptiness. All volume, no substance: They shout to hide a total lack of thought.
Borrowed malice: Their insults are not creative; they are tired little drops of poison from a dry well.Desperate need: They attack you only because they want you to validate their sad, tiny stage.
It is truly astonishing how ‘someone’ can occupy so much physical space while contributing absolutely nothing of intellectual or moral value to the world around them. A walking vacuum, an empty vessel wrapped in unearned confidence, operating under the tragic delusion that its opinion holds weight. The projected ignorance is not merely passive; it is aggressive, loud, and weaponised to mask the hollow echo chamber where its intellect should be.
The endless attempts to belittle others are not sharp or clever; they are painfully predictable. Lashing out like a child frustrated by a world it cannot comprehend, using cruelty as a shield for its own profound inadequacy. Every insult hurled is a confession, a projection of the irrelevance it secretly fears. Tearing down what others build because it lacks the talent, patience, and depth to create anything of its own.
Fa’s the James that posts “Prick”? His posts gie readers muckle mair time tae hae a life.
James says: “it is truly astonishing how ‘someone’ can occupy so much physical space while contributing absolutely nothing of intellectual or moral value to the world around them.”
Aye, Fatso !
Too fucking true !
Very interesting Willie, I read Robin McAlpines articles about the Standards Commission / Fiona Higgins case and was appalled at their treatment of her – am so glad she won. And how typical of the Standards Commission to react like this, destroying records as quickly as they can to hinder any future scrutiny/legal action. I doubt if any of our wonderful elected MSP’s are doing anything to prevent this…
Interesting how on his visit to Ireland that President Trump said he thought a united Ireland would be a good thing, and would happen albeit that the British might have something to say then.
Now devil and detail but this is something that he has said, something he didn’t need to say. Good thing, will happen and basically hard luck the Brits.
Interesting too how the US played a huge part in the Good Friday Agreement which provides for a border poll, and a border poll that Burnham recently declared as something that he (?) would not grant.
No doubt Burnham the Brit can kick sand in the face of international agreements, can kick sand in the face of the American president.
Don’t know about reader here but I think a Unified Ireland is coming and along with it an independent Scotland. Grande Bretagne’s days as the world ass kicker are over as the busted flush slides remorselessly down the world league tables.
It’s been a long time coming and the Brits know it. For us, and North Ireland, time to go is calling.
“I think a Unified Ireland is coming”
Then you must also think a million or so Ulster Unionists are coming to Scotland.
What’s that? You honestly believe the most militantly, passionately pro-Union people in all of the UK are going to live under Dublin rule?
Gie yer heid a shake.
Why would they come to Scotland if it is such a shithole as you constantly try to point out. Why would the majority of them not go and live down in London town to be next to the Royals and seat of UK power and all things Unionists love.
Answer is they’ll stuggle to find housing in Scotland what with all the English moving up here and buying out the indigenous folks, and “refugees” hoovering up social housing.
“Why would they come to Scotland”
Because their ancestors came from Scotland.
“such a shithole as you constantly try to point out”
And he’s off with the usual tired, false logic:
“I’m a Scot.
I post nonsense.
Hatey criticises me for posting nonsense.
Hatey says I’m an idiot for posting nonsense.
Ergo, Hatey hates Scotland.”
You’re afflicted with the delusion you’ll take to your grave, Dan, that only the Sovereign Scots who agree with you have the kind of Scottish Sovereignty that counts. It’s a malady that’s rife on here. I no longer believe it’s curable.
You would also have noted Willie that the Donald also brought up the situation regarding the Argentinian claims for the Falklands, it appears that the close relationship between the USA and the uk is only in the minds of the PM,s of the uk
Of course the Donald will be interested in the worlds largest oilfields recently found in the areas round the Falklands (Malvenas) he has already intimated that he would be personally involved in any agreements about the oilfields
Maybe Burnt ham will send the aircraft carrier that hasn’t any aircraft over to the Falklands to terrify the Argies, OH !! wait he canny because it is broke down somewhere and is needing repaired plus it disnae huv any aircraft , or maybe he could send a nuclear sub out to frighten the Argies , OH !! wait he canny because they are all rusting hulks that need repaired, but don’t worry the Falklanders have voted to remain Brutish they will fight off the Argies
They’ll certainly fight you off.
Interesting and educational to see you harbour the “traditional” Scottish Indy sentiment of cheering on the rapacious, colonising takeover of the small, independence-minded political entity.
As usual, the people who want to live their lives as they choose must be crushed for reasons I doubt you could rationally articulate given unlimited sock puppets.
It’s an unbelievable state of affairs given the theory that you and your ilk supposedly seek Independence for Scotland and supposedly seek to grow the support that is necessary to bring this about.
But I guess that theory assumes it’s dealing with sane, rational people.
As always, I can only thank you for continuing to make clear how far Indy still has to go before it can fairly be described as holding out any real hope for making Scotland a better place.
everyone else is doing it, why don’t we
link to telegraph.co.uk
trump, at the very least, doesn’t give a fuck about england.
in other news : argy boy milei just bought a ton of blackhawk helicopters from the US; why not take our slice of the defence budget from the UK and buy a squadron of jet fighters from Boeing, put saltires on them and create a scottish air force. Yanks would love it. English would be seething, but helpless. Yanks pressurising all to increase defence budgets. Our oil will be paying for it anyway.
link to bbc.co.uk
there is another open goal waiting for us, ball on the 6 yard line should you choose to kick it … now watch the SNP hit the corner flag instead.
there is no special relationship, more like boss and prison punk.
An even cleverer move would be to get the jews on your side : Scotland has never expelled these folks, mind, while England has done it twice; get the word out in New York how indy would be “good for the jews” and then hire a new york lawyer from that community whose grandad killed british squaddies with the irgun and who has a pathological hatred of england. Imagine unleashing the aggression of these folks on our enemies, or you can wait for Mad Dog Big John Mental Boy Swinney to sort aht the cahnts …
I notice now that the yoonionist parties have come to the realisation that their unwavering support for Is ra hel and their continued eradication of the religion of peace people has not been as successful as they thought
It appears that all the yoonionist parties who encouraged mass immigration of the religion of peace people to vote for them hadn’t actually thought things through properly, they didn’t realise that the religion of peace adherents would eventually start to outnumber their current voters and would insist on their own representatives to speak up for them ,so while the political moronic parties of open immigration are busy supporting the decimation of the religion of peace people by the Is ra helis the religion of peace people have elected their own religion of peace representatives and have threatened the yoonionist parties that unless they cease the unwavering support and relationship with Is ra hel they will SUFFER being fully REPLACED by the religion of peace representatives , who woulda thunk it that uncontrolled immigration of people from the religion of peace would have such a QUICK reaction in taking over mainstream politics
Oh well as Sarwar and humza useless said there are TOO many WHITE , WHITE ,WHITE people in control, we will soon fix that
Kind of related to Stu’s headline story – on 14th of July (almost two months ago) David Hendry & Sean Clerkin handed a dossier of evidence to Police Scotland, alleging financial irregularities and missing £1.5 million sum from the accounts of YES Scotland Ltd. Despite looking, I can’t find any articles online with an update. Did the Police take the dossier, walk through the Police station, out the back door and toss the files straight into a skip? I wonder!
Please have a look at the link below, your be amazed at the shit that’s happening in Scotland.
link to isp.scot
Many thanks to Prof Alf Baird for this presentation:
THE COST OF COLONIALISM (5 Sept 2026)
link to youtube.com
@chas 11.41am – 300 years is nothing. Absolutely nothing. And yes, the colonial authorities did destroy documentation relating to their imperial atrocities in Kenya. Professor Elkins PhD research exposed this destruction in her book “Britain’s Gulag”. I suggest you educate yourself Empire boy.
And the brutal Mau Mau murders of white farmers and their families in Kenya at that time
32 white settlers were killed by the Mau Mau over a period of 8 years !
The documents reportedly included information on torture:physical and psychological torture was employed against suspected Mau Mau members and sympathisers.
There was imprisonment without trial:over 80,000 individuals were imprisoned without due process, often under harsh conditions.
There were extrajudicial killings: more than 1,000 people were executed as “terrorists” by the colonial authorities.
There were labour camps: some 42 labour camps were established, where detainees faced brutal treatment and forced labour.
The destruction of these documents was part of a broader strategy known as Operation Legacy, aimed at removing incriminating evidence before Kenya gained independence so that the British government should be unaccountable.
The same tactics employed in Kenya were used in Northern Ireland under Colonel Kitson. There were in Northern Ireland extra-judicial killings, torture centres, psyops and collusion between British forces and paramilitary terrorists.
The legacy in Kenya as in Northern Ireland is that the conduct of many British forces remains unaccountable.
You may need a strong stomach but, if you can stand it, i recommend “The Dirty War” by Martin Dillon.
I regard Beggan’s reply to you as harassment and said so to the Rev.
Sure you’re Scottish, sam?
Back when I was a loon, clyping was beyond the pale. The one unforgivable that marked the clyper as the lowest of the low.
That’s not an opinion I’ve seen any need to modify in the years since.
But how stereo-typically, progressively lefty of you that your default reaction to encountering anything you disagree with is to attempt to cancel the person voicing their opinion.
Prick 1 and Prick 2 tag-teaming.
What a novel approach to discourse.
BTL contaminated by the usual suspects.
I see the Rev has deleted Beggan’s abusive threat of rape to Marie.
Maybe if I ask Rev Stu he might remove Beggan’s threat of my rape as well?
Or Beggan might ask.
Done, and if there’s any more of it there’ll be a visit to the pre-mod queue.
Bob says:
“Prick 1 and Prick 2”
What a tired, pathetic, sterile approach to discourse.
The “go to” policy of the blazing Auld Firm neanderthal, from behind the barrier of plod.
Scotland contaminated by their continued existence.
FYI I don’t support any team other than Scotland.
And when your ill-informed, self-opinionated drivel constitutes ~25% of every BTL then perhaps you could take a day or six off for your own and everyone else’s benefit.
Just saying…
72 million! The war chest is full. Let battle commence. No quarter asked No quarter given. Let’s;
Make Scotland Normal Again .
If enough of us keep libelling Nicola Sturgeon as a person who has handled stolen goods and when informed by the Police of their provenance and has declined to hand them over so that they may revert to the organisation whose funds were embezzled by her husband for their purchase she has committed and is committing the crime of reset. As someone who worked as a solicitor until 1999 she must know that she has a remedy under Civil Law to such libels.
The issue with that is covered in this post.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Totes win for the corrputed cunts when they simply remove the value of embezzled goods that went to her and others, and such actions also reduced the overall emblezzled sum so the seriousness of the crime is reduced thus mean lesser sentencing.
There’s probably a fancy coffee machine sitting in certain high ranking polis and crown office of prosection offices, and a load of hair products (which are of no use whatsoever to a thieving follicaly challenged male arse of a man called Murrell) been used to wash the stench of deciet and corruption out of several guilty female persons nappers.
You have to remember that this is the same crowd of quality polis and legal profession arseholes that brought a charge of attempted rape to court when it can be proved that Women H wasn’t even in the same building as the accused when the alleged offence took place.
Where the fuck is the relentless call for exposing the truth of this injustice by our resident trolls and msm “news” journalists on that score…
Young Lochinvar is adept at educating Scots regarding their own history, much of which has been airbrushed out of existence by our colonizers. So the following is in the face of the tedious paid Unionist posters on here
[motto: “All Day, Every Day”].
While England warred all around Europe for centuries, Scotland traded and made friends. Obviously, predictably, all we are ever told about now is the historical Dutch trading with “England”.
Happy anniversary today, then, of the establishment of the Scottish Staple in Brugge, [which was, at that time in the Netherlands] one of our historically-linked European trading cities.
Now part of Belgium, Brugge is one of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe.
At number 18 Sint Annarei in Brugge you can still see the ‘Schottendijk’ [Scots Dike] sign on the wall – these buildings housed the Scots traders in the 15th century.
The Scottish Staple was a medieval and early modern trading system that required Scottish merchants to conduct foreign trade, particularly in goods like wool and hides, through designated Staple ports -most notably in the Low Countries- to regulate commerce and secure royal revenues. At the Staple towns, Scottish interests were served by an officer called the Conservator of Privileges, or Conservator of the Scottish Staple. The Conservator held a judicial court reckoned as an inferior jurisdiction under the authority of the Parliament of Scotland. A Conservator of Privileges was established at Brugge on 12 September 1408 by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland.
As the harbour at Brugge silted up, the focus of Scots trade moved north to the ports of Middelburg and Veere, with Veere gaining Staple status in 1541, when the merchant Andrew Mowbray travelled to Middelburg as commissioner for the city of Edinburgh to negotiate a trade agreement with Maximilian II of Burgundy. Veere, known in Scotland as Campvere, was the Staple Port for Scotland between 1541 and 1799.
In the Middle Ages, the streetscape of Veere was marked by the bustling trade relations with Scotland. The streets buzzed with activity as merchants traded their wares and ships sailed in and out, laden with hides, salmon, and wool. Veere was a prosperous trading town until the end of the eighteenth century. The Scots left Veere, and without them, trade collapsed. Veere became the poorest city in the Netherlands.
There is some evidence of Dordrecht also being a Staple in 1670.
In modern Veere can be found the ‘Schotse Huizen [Scottish Houses] Museum’. House ‘Het Lammeken’ [The Little Lamb] at Kaai 25 acquired its characteristic façade in 1539. The building owes its name to the lamb on the gable stone. The name refers to the wool trade, an important export product of the Scots. During the heyday of trade relations between Veere and Scotland, this building was inhabited by Scots. On the 16th-century house ‘De Struijs’ [The Ostrich] at Kaai 27, an ostrich appears on the gable stone from which the house derives its name. The building was once the office and residence of the Scottish Conservator.
After the departure of the last Scots and the decline of Veere, both houses were saved from demolition by private individuals at the end of the 19th century. Thanks to their donations, a museum has been housed in the buildings since 1950.
So, as our Flemish & Dutch friends would say; “proost”!
Interesting. There’s a village on the east coast of Scotland where the buildings all have unique red roof tiles that were part of the trade with the Low countries about the time you speak of. I remember seeing it on Weir’s Way.
Prick.
Remember Cap’n Blackadder, pants on the head, pencils up the nose and reply to everything with “wibble”. There’s a good lad.
Potential FM material.
Unless …
Perhaps too white, white white.
Pittenweem.
trump says “up the ‘ra”
tom harris says andy burnham needs to send him a message – special branch as we speak handing over intelligence files of where trump lives to the UVF and instructions on how to make pipe bombs – known asset Frankie ScappaCrappaTicci has sourced information from touts in the secret service and the spectre of gusty spence has appeared like the ghost of bombings past, incendiary in hand
anglophilia is a very minor disease in america; most hollywood villains are “brits” and e.g. in family guy, they are openly lampooned and hated, then mel gibson …
– just wait till we tell him about the highland clearances – it could be shock and awe, maybe regime change
NB it is usually considered the height of skill in the diplomatic world to get what you want out of enemies and nasty people – you don’t turn up your nose at it. I mean cool dude Sidney Poitier favourite Oreo Mr Charisma Obama took a shit on us close to the vote; did he cost us 5% pts? Maybe 1 or 2 at least. Cunt. If trump is offering free cake to our hungry bellies, then we should eat.
link to youtube.com
Aye and Mad Dog starting to bark. Statements being issued. Sinn Fein on the ropes. something already brewing then Trump stirs the pot. Incredible.
Wibble.
FOR SALE:
ENGLAND….
a BARGAIN @ 72 million.
includes also dependencies.
Not that I’m that interested, but the hysterical outpouring of seethe and permatantrum from the usual Communists over Reform’s donations has been a fascinating group study of doublethink.
Over many decades the main British political parties have enjoyed continual lavish donations from wealthy donors (often as “services rendered” or a way to buy into a peerage in the ridiculous House Of Lords), businesses and unions mostly without any scrutiny. However, when Reform do it, the outpouring of histrionic rage is deafening.
Farage’s relationship with the cryptocurrency TechBros is definitely dodgy, but no more so than the Tories’ relationship with dodgy businessmen and money hoarders, Labour’s symbiosis with Communist unions and activist organisations, the Greens’ relations with Islamists etc. As always with Communism, the hypocrisy is absolutely stunning.
Donations like these are pretty obscene but then again they’re all at it. If Reform are subject to scrutiny then all the others should, including the SNP and Mrs Murrill’s receipt of goods obtained via fraud. A murky and dirty business.
Whataboutery.
But no need to fall out. I’ll STFU for £5k.
Bank of England notes will do at a pinch. They all spend the same way in the end, even if the boy behind the till is the most rabid Indy supporter you could ever meet.
Wait, what? “Communist unions”?? Which ones are they and where do I sign up!?
Or do you mean the ultra left-wing unions that do outrageous left-wing things like protecting their membership’s interests from the rapacious bastards in the boardroom, and outrageous political exremism like having a health service, old age pensions, wage increases that are almost as much as inflation…etc etc.
Just asking for a friend, like.
I think you’d have to get a job to join a trade union James . .
Aw…curses!
When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and their arguments worthless. Sadly this disease which is obviously American in origin (i.e. the NHS as evil communism), has begun to seriously infect this side of the pond too. Doesn’t make it any less risible though. And for the record, I feel the same about the use of the word ‘fascism’ by the similar cartoon left.
“When the right start claiming anything they see as left is ‘communist’ you know they have lost the plot and their arguments worthless”
Goodness me, the rank hypocrisy is truly unbearable. The Woke/Metropolitan Left (of which you’re a paid up member) absolutely delights in gleefully tarring (and “cancelling”) anyone and pretty much everyone as “Far Right” – everyday, normal people who just want to get on with their normal lives, refusing to subscribe to the increasingly absurd doubleplusgood garbage they’re force fed by you lot they have to believe that 2 + 2 = 5?
Give me a fucking break. You are yours are the worst for doing this; add crass self-projection to the (very long) list.
Caveman you read my post but ignored the bit about ‘fascism’ so you could show-horn in your attack on ‘woke’, even though I had made clear that over-use by the left of fascism was just as bad.
Being on the left myself does not prevent me from understanding and criticising some leftist cliches and bigotry. You could learn from that attempt to be reflective but trouble is, most people who use the blanket term ‘woke’, another word used like so much meaningless confetti, are nearly always actually lost for the right words (and thoughts), instead lazily invoking a catch-all shibboleth so they don’t have to think about what they really mean or are trying to say.
Some people try to bribe us with their money.
Some politicians try to bribe us with our own money.
I’m not seeing how one is essentially better or more moral than the other. Perhaps you could help.
Bear in mind that Scotland is stereo-typically just about the tightest nation in the world. Beaten perhaps only by Yorkshire.
Scotland has the only culture I know of in which mean miserliness has been elevated to the status of a virtue, and renamed as thrift.
Don’t be taken in by the usual suspects clamouring for progressive, lefty redistribution. They only support that because they have SFA. The moment they ever get anything they can call their own, they’ll revert to the Scottish norm – clinging to whatever they have accumulated with a grasp that can only be broken in death.
An interesting article on why leccy prices are going to continue to rise for the foreseeable future:
link to theguardian.com
Strap in, folks! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
To forestall any of the usual “But, but, but, Scotland’s hoaching wi free leccy” responses, here’s some advice.
Open a windae, or go into your garden if you’re lucky enough to have one, and harness some of that plentiful, free, wind powered leccy for yourself.
Be sure to report back describing how you did it, and how much money you are saving.
Meantime, if you’re looking for good news, read the article and find where it says that due to decarbonisation, leccy bills will start to fall. I couldn’t find it myself, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Scotland might indeed be “hoaching” with natural resources however the key thing Communists fail to understand is someone has to *pay* for it. The infrastructure, generation, transmission, maintenance etc etc etc.
Blame it all you like on Grrr Colonialism, Grrr English, Grrr Act Of Union 1707 but until they get this in their tabula rasa microbrains it’s cigarette smoke in a 50 knot wind.
Independence could indeed help free us to make our own suitable decisions for the good of our people but as long as we are ruled by Totalitarian Internationalist Communists we are stuffed, regardless of whether we become independent or not.
“… but as long as we are ruled by Totalitarian Internationalist Communists we are stuffed, regardless of whether we become independent or not.”
This.
Scotland’s curse is useless, moribund, continuous drip-drip-drip left wing politics (as meted out by talentless intellectual pygmies) that have hollowed it out from the inside, extinguished a once proud enterprise mentality and culture, destroyed ambition and hope, and turned it into one great big council office.
Until and unless these political and intellectual shackles are finally cast aside, nothing will ever change (apart from getting worse still).
Is there no legal way to make the police do their duty?
Some sort of injunction or such like?
@ SPARTAN & HATEY,
Whatever the ethics of buying into political parties or doing deals à la trump with countries to purchase them, vide Venezuela, might be the lack of serious «ideology» and high end argument in modern political discourse is significant.
Float a few push button emotive premisses and voilà you have a caucus, a party, a cause.
Reform & Restore are a mixtar-maxtar of emotive shiboleths concerned with halting the decline of the post imperial UK through strong corporatist governance at the centre; so Moseley & his New Party in mood. Ally that to the checklist of anglospheric exceptionalisms, including the English speaking peoples are just better than the rest, and you got a deal.
A deal that effectively cements Scotland & Wales into a cracking & crumbling superannuated atlanticist structure.
I speak English, TURABDIN, and I am better than the rest.
Like most Scots, I’ve little time for the inferior cultures of others. Seems to me it’s quite impossible to be patriotic, or to support Indy for that matter, if you’re convinced other cultures are superior or even equal.
A personal reflection, a confession if you will, prompted by recent discussions about Scotland’s constitutional status.
I supported Alf Baird’s colonial framing for a long time, and for a while I was absolutely certain it was the right lens for Scotland. His rhetoric is powerful, his academic standing is respected, and the theory has an initial plausibility that’s hard to ignore.
But certainty can be dangerous. Cardinal Lawrence tells us that certainty is the enemy of unity; that certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance; and that doubt is the only defence against it. I’ve come to see the truth in that.
My own certainty began to fracture when I saw how Professor Black was being used as a kind of rhetorical proof rather than presented as the author of a formal legal argument. That realisation made me pause and look again.
And so I took a closer look at the Treaty of Union, the Acts of Union, and the Claim of Right. I took a closer look at the premise “Scotland is a colony”. I took a closer look at Salvo and at Liberation Scotland and at the way they use rhetoric, not to enlighten, but to persuade.
I’m not criticising Professor Baird personally. I’m questioning the fit between Scotland’s constitutional position and the postcolonial contexts described by Fanon, Memmi, Said, and other theorists. Scotland is not Algeria. Nor is Scotland, for example, the Congo under Leopold II, or the Ivory Coast, or West Africa, or any other nation shaped by violent, racialised colonialism.
Applying those frameworks directly to Scotland feels disproportionate — or worse, disrespectful to the peoples who suffered grievously under brutal colonising regimes.
It also concerns me that this Scotland-as-colony narrative is doing more harm than good within the independence movement by narrowing the conversation and alienating moderates.
I still believe Scotland should be independent — but it should be independence built on truth, not on misapplied frameworks.
Doubt is healthy. It keeps us honest. It keeps us open to alternative possibilities. And it stops us mistaking rhetorical narrative for truth.
And so I’m stepping back from the Scotland-as-colony framing and returning to a more grounded constitutional understanding of Scotland’s position within the United Kingdom.
“I’m questioning the fit between Scotland’s constitutional position and the postcolonial contexts described by Fanon, Memmi, Said, and other theorists. Scotland is not Algeria. Nor is Scotland, for example, the Congo under Leopold II, or the Ivory Coast, or West Africa, or any other nation shaped by violent, racialised colonialism.
Applying those frameworks directly to Scotland feels disproportionate — or worse, disrespectful to the peoples who suffered grievously under brutal colonising regimes.”
Absolutely, Northcode. It takes guts, integrity and honesty to admit when you’re wrong, and we are ALL wrong from time to time (myself very much included).
Respect.
Perhaps you should engage a little more with Scotland’s actual very lengthy history of conflict with our ‘procurer’, before and since the 1707 annexation; for there you will surely find that Scotland, just like Ireland, Kenya, India, Palestine, Malaya, and many more, and just like the numerous French imperial ‘possessions’, is indeed a “nation shaped by violent, racialised colonialism”. Why else would ‘a people’ seek liberation from an oppressor.
link to decolonise.scot
Will you ever realise that over 90% of Scots have no interest in your repetive shite. I suspect that the answer is no.
It would be better if you and your cohorts in the mickey mouse independence parties actually tried to produced some sort of economic/financial plan with real figures. Of course, you would prefer to pluck figures out of thin air to suit your fantasy. Nothing EVER happens by magic.
@ Chas
You speak for no one but yourself and all we hear is whines whinges and moans. Get back in your pram and shut up.
Scotland will get the chance to vote for Independence only when there is an overwhelming desire for it. A case has to be made and has to be presented to the electorate. No political party ever does.
I honestly do not know if the very necessary finances will be available after Independence but it all comes down to money. It always does. At this time I seriously doubt it.
Romantic notions are all good for the rabid nationalists but what percentage of Scots does that include?
Wanting Independence and actually voting for it are two entirely different things but some simply cannot differentiate between them. Endless dross about 300 year old stuff and the colonialism tripe do not resonate with the overwhelming majority of Scots.
The current SNP are happy riding the gravy train and simply have to be obliterated. Unfortunately, at present there is no alternative. Does anyone see an honest competent set of politicians in waiting?
Right and wrong seem irrelevant nowadays. Money and power is everything. It will get worse.
DaveLooney
DaveLooney
Many thanks for your response.
Who do you speak for? Could it be Fanny, Mummi or Ceaser.
Or is it the voices in your head?
I’ll add childlike insults to the list of whinges and whines we hear from you. You’ll be telling me next your Dad’s bigger than my Dad.
“I’m questioning the fit between Scotland’s constitutional position and the postcolonial contexts described by Fanon, Memmi, Said, and other theorists”
We should also remember that, aside from the fact that colonialism ‘is force’ (Fanon) and ‘geographic violence’ (Memmi),and becomes ‘normalized’ in a society, postcolonial theorists agreed that ‘colonialism is based on psychology’ (Cesaire).
As Steve Beko said: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
“Key Dimensions of Memmi’s “Geographic Violence”
Forced Spatial Segregation (The Ghetto vs. The Bourgeoisie): Drawing heavily from his own upbringing in a poor Jewish section of Tunis, Memmi details how the colonial system cleaves a territory into starkly unequal halves. The colonizer occupies pristine, highly resourced, and militarily protected zones, while the colonized are systematically cordoned off into overcrowded, resource-starved “ghettos” or quarters.
The Spatial Matrix of Power: Geography becomes an instrument of war and policing. Roads, checkpoints, borders, and the placement of administrative structures are designed primarily for rapid troop movement and maximum surveillance, freezing the colonized native in a state of subjugation.
Psychological and Bodily Alienation: Living within this violently segregated geography imposes a deep psychological tension. The colonized subject constantly confronts their lower status simply by moving through space, creating an ongoing sense of exile and displacement within their own homeland.”
———————————————
That doesn’t sound like the Scotland that i live in.
That’s because it isn’t.
So Memmi was Jewish?
The usual suspects are going to have to airbrush him out of the post colonial boys’ yearbook.
Professor Baird will eventually note the direction the wind is blowing as grass roots Indy builds on its love in with the anti semites and the tunnel skulking scum.
Come to think of it, Professor Baird occasionally dips into the conspiracy theories about TA when he thinks nobody’s paying attention. Perhaps just the price he must pay for continued acceptance by the tribe.
3 against 1 again, rinse and repeat.
Reminds us of an EBC independence ‘debate’.
Four, Alf, you’re forgetting Northy.
As I’ve pointed out before, if we play the “thought experiment” of agreeing 100% with you that Scotland is an exemplary colony, it still advances Indy by nothing at all.
Indy still needs sustained, democratic majority support, competent leaders and followers, plans, policies, tactics and strategy, and a vision for the post-Indy Scotland.
All that eternally declaiming “We’re a colony I tell you” is doing is putting off the moment when the hard graft needs to start.
“3 against 1 again”
Ah, your counting skills just as woeful as your debating skills I see, Alf.
Anyway, it’s not as though you’re even offering any debate? Just stony, sulky silence most of the time; it’s not as though you rebut any points levelled at you. Unsurprising, I guess, given the woeful (and rather unpleasant) content of your opening statements on each occasion.
“That doesn’t sound like the Scotland that i live in.”
Mebbe depends on whaur ye bide yersel, an whaur ye wis brocht up?
Memmi also wrote that ‘assimilation obscures colonialism’. Thus, tae the mair culturally/colonially assimilated individual, colonialism will aye appear mair obscure; this is because a colonial society consists of ‘two psychical and cultural realms’, it is ‘a Manichaean society’ as Fanon called it.
Why did you think Morningside and Craigmillar, Barnton and Leith, or Hillhead and Easterhoose, vote quite differently on the constitutional an ither maitters?
Why do you think that post-Independence, Morningside and Craigmillar, Barnton and Leith, or Hillhead and Easterhoose, will NOT vote quite differently on the constitutional an ither maitters?
Because of course, they will.
It’s nice to believe that every post-colonial country and society is an utopia of equality, peace and love, but then when you go shopping on your local High Street, you encounter masses of their citizens who have fled the shitholes, first chance they got, to come here and grift off our supposed oppressions, hopelessness and miseries.
But hey, Alf! Perhaps the leafy Scottish suburbs you frequent have succeeded in keeping the third-world shithole flee-ers oot.
So well done you.
Northcode: spot on. That we are treated similarly to a colony is, I think, indisputable, but that we ARE a colony I cannot agree with because the Treaty of Union exists. So, yes, we have to be honest about the prospects of persuading anyone that we ARE, de iure, as well as de facto, a colony when our representatives (granted, long before ‘democracy’ arrived) signed the Treaty and accepted its terms on behalf of the people of Scotland at that time.
We are guilty of the most venal and aggressive acquiesce in our own imprisonment that the world has ever seen, in my opinion. I totally accept that Alf is right when he accuses the so-called party of independence of the most profound collaboration and Vichy-style behaviour since 2014. You expect that from the Unionists, but from professed independistas? Some of the countries of the UN, most of whom have suffered real, physical oppression during colonialism, must be shaking their heads at our brass neck.
England-as-the-UK has undermined us, helped itself to our resources and assets with little by-your-leave, co-opted us into adventurous wars abroad, refused to acknowledge the real and patently obvious constitutional situation between our two countries, siphoned off all the best jobs and salaries, etc, for its own hub, London and the South-east, and, although we will be accused of paranoia, deliberately allowed our country to be run-down, the better to manage, interfered in our supposedly independent legal system, interfered in our trade agreements with other nations, blocked the Darien initiative, and everything else as nauseam. Yet, we and those who came before us, have consistently acquiesced in our own dependency. That is the harsh truth of it. Stepping away from that mindset will be the first step towards real independence.
“That we are treated similarly to a colony is, I think, indisputable”
“indisputable”? I beg to differ.
As Northcode rightly points out, to most moderate people, this claim isn’t just beyond absurd – it’s actually deeply offensive to those who have suffered directly under genuine colonial rule. Memmi’s early 1950s French Tunisia, for example, endured mass summary executions of unarmed civilians, mass house burnings conducted by the State, systematic rapes, mass internment and terrorism (Main Rouge et al). There are people alive today who lived through this. Attempting to make comparisons to Scotland in 2026 – an invalid comparison repeated ad nauseam like a scratched record – is beyond hyperbole.
Call me old fashioned, but I don’t remember reading about free Referenda or supplying the French Republic with two (consecutive) Tunisian Presidents.
As a Unionist, I should be grateful for the Good Professor’s useful idiocy, but I just can’t bring myself to be that cynical. I, like most others no doubt, find this weapons-grade cultural misappropriation, off-the-scale victimhood and supreme grievance profoundly irritating.
Blocked the Darien initiative, eh?
I can’t decide which is the most ludicrous aspect of that complaint.
That you’re greeting about something from over 300 years ago.
Or that you’re greeting that Scotland was stopped from succeeding in its own, home grown genocidal colonialist effort.
Sorry, Lorncal, but that one’s well below your usual standard.
“Yet, we and those who came before us, have consistently acquiesced in our own dependency.”
Indeed so Lorncal, and which fits well with the psychology of colonialism, and the group of compliant ‘house jocks’ who endlessly campaign or warn against independence and liberation of the people, and their ‘condition’ as described here:
“..that there are groups of men who.. 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..” (Cesaire)
Can we have the real “Northcode” back, please?
Anyway, whoever you are; here’s today’s crossword clue for you. It’s quite easy to solve….
“A country that has no control over its own resources or borders, and which has to ask permission from the country next door to hold a vote on its own future”.
Six letters.
C_L_NY.
Here’s another:
CLUE: “Morbidly obese, unemployed troll with a sub-80 IQ”.
F _ T S O
Is the answer….”Captain Caveman”?
QUACK QUACK OOPS.
Ah, but you’ve been such a lovely contestant, Fatso.
Bus fare home. 🙂
I thought it might be helpful to offer a clarification of what I meant in my earlier comment where I ‘confessed’ my doubt over the framing of Scotland as a colony and my intention to step back from supporting that position. My intention wasn’t to minimise Scotland’s constitutional frustrations or the very real sense of imbalance many people feel, but simply to keep the language proportionate to our actual historical and lived experience.
Scotland has endured long periods of political obstruction, resource extraction, and democratic frustration. None of that should be dismissed. These issues matter, and they deserve serious, grown-up debate. But they don’t place Scotland in the same category as nations that experienced racialised domination, spatial segregation, and violent coercion under European empires. That was the distinction I was trying to draw with my comment.
I notice that some responses to my initial comment lean heavily on postcolonial theorists, and I understand why: those writers give people a vocabulary for expressing frustration and a desire for change. But Fanon, Memmi, Césaire and others were describing systems built on racial hierarchy, militarised control, and the deliberate brutalisation of peoples. Their frameworks were shaped by ghettos, checkpoints, forced labour, mass internment, and the constant threat of state violence.
That just isn’t the Scotland any of us live in.
One of my concerns is that collapsing Scotland into the same category as Algeria, Congo, Tunisia, or other nations that endured racialised colonial brutality risks diminishing the moral weight of their suffering. Those histories are still within living memory for many people. They deserve to be treated with care and accuracy.
We don’t need to appropriate the suffering of other peoples. Scotland’s people can easily make an argument for their own historical injustices without borrowing frameworks that were shaped by experiences far more brutal than our own.
And none of this means Scotland’s grievances are imaginary or trivial. Far from it. We can talk seriously about constitutional asymmetry, power imbalance, economic centralisation, and the long shadow of historical decisions that have shaped the Scotland of today. These are real issues. They just belong to a different category — one that doesn’t require us to borrow frameworks that don’t fit our experience.
And, if anything, I think Scotland’s case for independence is stronger when we describe our situation truthfully: that of a smaller nation in a long-standing, asymmetrical arrangement where political and economic power has become increasingly centralised elsewhere, and where Scotland has little real control over how its people and resources are managed.
From speaking to people conversationally, I know that’s a story they recognise. It’s honest, it’s rooted in their everyday reality, and it’s far more likely to persuade undecided folk that Scotland could govern itself more effectively than continuing within the present constitutional setup.
Scotland’s situation is unique, but we can still describe it clearly without reaching for analogies that distort our own history or unintentionally diminish the experiences of peoples who endured far worse. We can debate Scotland’s future with honesty and seriousness while keeping our language proportionate to the reality we actually inhabit.
We make the strongest case for independence when we root it in the lived reality of contemporary Scotland — in the everyday experiences of ordinary people, and in a clear, honest sense of how their lives could be better in an independent country.
All very well, Northy, but let’s sort G@za first.
Indy can wait.
But to be serious for a mo. Excellent, common sense post.
People’s lived experiences are becoming harder, as the multiple crises we face build in the severity of their effects. Perhaps the only silver lining to these clouds is that people are being forced to “get real”.
Indy needs to get real too, by addressing the issues people are facing. Pseudo-intellectualism belongs to the times of peace and plenty, which are rapidly receding into the past.
so, “we never got it as bad as the darkies”?
– alas, Scots and Anglos are the same shade of pink and not identifiable via a quick shufty with the pantone colour chart
you are buying into the nonsense concept of “the white man”; this is relatively recent and was simply not used historically – the Anglo saw himself as a separate category entirely (the master race, Cecil Rhodes astride the globe). That is why the irish got hit so savagely – the anglos did not see them “as fellow white men”, then there was the religious angle, vitally important in those vicious times.
Being “fellow white men” and “brits” is part of the gaslighting (“we were never colonised” BS); if the english were all forced to wear top hats you would see the apartheid, the caste system within our society. Pretending we are not ruled by – them – because they “look like us” (superficially) is just buying into the con.
If we are not a colony then we are equal partners in a union – Swinney could theoretically simply say “we withdraw from the treaty, each reverting to its original” and that would be that. But who are we kidding; it is always the ambiguity that kills you.
Read “they were white and they were slaves” by michael hoffmann.
link to archive.org
In the course of an 1855 journey up the Alabama River on the steamboat Fashion, Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, observed bales of cotton being thrown from a considerable height into a cargo ship’s hold. The men tossing the bales some-what recklessly into the hold were negroes, the men in the hold were Irish. Olmsted inquired about
this to a mate on the ship. ‘Oh, said the mate, ‘the niggers are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies are knocked overboard or get their backs broke, nobody loses anything.” (Frederic Law Olm-sted, A Journey to the Seaboard Slave States, pp. 100-101; G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labor, p. 27).
– the celt was not a “fellow white man”, he was lower than the negro
once you accept that you are a “white n1gger” all will make sense
link to youtube.com
IT IS A FACT that Scots/Scotland have become rather accustomed to the grave insult of being the mere appendage.
>300 years is a long programming session but one that has proved effective. How many times have I read English/England, anglo etc when British would have been more exact. An old grumble maybe but one that pierces the heart of the matter. England is the archetype. English values, language, history, experience the acceptable norm. That is the raw Scottish experience in the UK untinged by romance, myth, or yearning for days past. Indeed it is not the Scots who are the romancers & dreamers but the English. Their history is a rich confection of myths to which the AngloBrits are sorely addicted….Normans, magna carta, rule of law (English that is) , mother of parliaments, fair play, «and did those feet etc» to cite but a few signal memes.
The historic & contemporary «Unionists», that peculiarly Scottish national death wish mindset, buy into this mythology, they bought into in the 17th century with the personal union and more so with the parliamentary dissolution and de facto annexation. Yet for all that they are proud Scots, rather like being a proud Yorkshireman I imagine.
Scotland, in effect, ceased to exist as a political entity but England certainly did not. Everything continued as normal except Scots, once mortal foes, were now «tolerated» as a kind of English restyled North British for convenience, but only as long as the NBs burned incense before Britannia’s august image.
As subjects Scots learned the survivalist art of flattery and joined in the English game.
The SNP with its cap twisting & hand wringing petitioning to Westminster for the right to call a functionally irrelevent referendum is totemic. However, flattery, when power is the prize, seems to have reached its limits even when that power is merely notional.
Throw toys out the antique British pram and nannie will surely scold. In the context of the power games played in 21st century that resonates as pathetic.
Police Scotland are corrupt. Establishment lackies!
And to think Scotland got taken to the cleaners for the price of a campervan and a few pens. How many campervans can you buy for £72 million?
“we never got it as bad as the darkies”?
– alas, Scots and Anglos are the same shade of pink and not identifiable via a quick shufty with the pantone colour chart
you are buying into the nonsense concept of “the white man”; this is relatively recent and was simply not used historically – the Anglo saw himself as a separate category entirely (the master race, Cecil Rhodes astride the globe). That is why the irish got hit so savagely – the anglos did not see them “as fellow white men”, then there was the religious angle, vitally important in those vicious times.
Being “fellow white men” and “brits” is part of the gaslighting (“we were never clonised” BS); if the english were all forced to wear top hats you would see the apartheid, the caste system within our society. Pretending we are not ruled by – them – because they “look like us” (superficially) is just buying into the con.
If we are not a colny then we are equal partners in a union – Swinney could theoretically simply say “we withdraw from the treaty, each reverting to its original” and that would be that. But who are we kidding; it is always the ambiguity that kills you.
Read “they were white and they were slaves” by michael hoffmann.
link to archive.org
In the course of an 1855 journey up the Alabama River on the steamboat Fashion, Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, observed bales of cotton being thrown from a considerable height into a cargo ship’s hold. The men tossing the bales some-what recklessly into the hold were negroes, the men in the hold were Irish. Olmsted inquired about this to a mate on the ship. ‘Oh, said the mate, ‘the n1ggers are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies are knocked overboard or get their backs broke, nobody loses anything.” (Frederic Law Olm-sted, A Journey to the Seaboard Slave States, pp. 100-101; G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labor, p. 27).
– the celt was not a “fellow white man”, he was lower than the negro; once you accept that you are just another “white n1gger” all will make sense
link to youtube.com
Very happy to accept that you are, Confused.
We’re in Scotland, world leader in accepting self-identification in all its forms.
It’s probably a crime for me to even try to talk you out of your conviction that you are just another white n1gger. Just don’t try to pretend you’re endowed to match. That would be ridiculous.
How’s your 12-bar blues?
He plays them on an (of)Fender Rhodes
Cecil Rhodes was a raging homosexual. How does that fit with the theory. Confused? You will be.
What was he angry about?
If it is the case that Sturgeon has not surrendered these items voluntarily then the police must petition the court for a search warrant to seize them. They are legally bound to do so. Failure to do so is a criminal negligence.
The numerous Sturgeon items were originally listed by the Police/ COPFS but were removed from the criminal charges list when Murrell went to court and pleaded “guilty M’Lud”.
Make of that what you will!
To think, out of all the very clever people on here no one thought to point to the most obvious. What happened after these North African countries had thrown off the colonial yoke. We will skip the dictators and religious tyrants and bring it all up to the present time. How is Morocco and Tunisia these days? I will tell you, Bad, so Bad you would not want to visit there. The poverty in Morocco would break the tender hearted. The oppression of women would leave you speechless. The disregard for children would leave you in tears.
Alf should be stripped of his credentials.
Wibble.
What has Hitler and Alf Baird got in common?
Hitler had no people in his paintings and Alf Baird has no people in his/her/them ideology.
…they’re both on Hatey’s ‘Love/Hate’ scale but at opposite ends?
That seems a lot like The man they love to hate.
Cesaire wrote specifically about Hitler, and his “crime against the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures…”, which Cesaire considered to be little different to what the British and French had been doing for centuries before, and were still doing long after WWII ended.
What does Cesaire say about Muslim colonization or Communist or Dynasty takeovers. Is that a separate study? Be honest, you have only studied a small segment of what is an historical trend through all the civilizations.
The Vietnamese were asked if they could survive the might of the American war machine. They replied that they had been fighting to defend their country against colonial takeover for a thousand years and the Americans were no different to the Chinese, Japanese or the Mongols.
Great Britain was the greatest colonial power the world had ever seen. They sowed the seeds of their own destruction.
“Great Britain was the greatest colonial power the world had ever seen. They sowed the seeds of their own destruction.”
Can’t disagree with that, except as we know that ‘Great Britain’ is really ‘England re-branded’ post 1707, according to Prof Black and Salvo, Liberation Scotland, and all others with eyes to see.
Which explains why the Celtic nations are soon to become independent, probably with Trumps approval too.
Trump’s approval no longer what many (including myself) thought it was. If they give him an atlas and a marker pen he might just be able to write “Independent” across Scotland, if they open it to the right page first.
But it’s a bigly big-ish word (4 syllables) and he will likely lose interest before he reaches the end of it.
Hing oan noo, what have I missed?
I thought that you were something of a Trump fan?
If this were previously so, why the change of heart?
I was a Trump fan, MH. He did some good things in his first year, including getting the hostages out – every single one – alive and dead. This year he has spectacularly fucked up everything he has touched, and personally impoverished and endangered me. And every other Scot.
I’m old enough to remember when the Orcs maintained a half-crazy cipher as their leader – Brezhnev was his name. At least they had the decency to keep him so sedated he could barely open his mouth, let alone issue nonsensical executive orders.
If only the Yanks would do the same.
As somebody better paid than me was opining just the other day. There’s nothing Trump has done so far in 2026 that hasn’t strengthened America’s enemies – the Orcs, Covids and medievalist women haters. I guess that’s just what happens when you put a draft dodger in charge – he inevitably reverts to type.
“What does Cesaire say about Muslim colonization or Communist or Dynasty takeovers.”
Not a lot aboot the former. The Communist ‘threat’ no longer exists, and Cesaire left the Communist Party because the Left mistakenly believed, as they still do here in Scotland, that the conflict was merely one of Socialism versus Capitalism, when the colonial reality necessitates first getting rid of a racist system of exploitation and domination.
Cesaire warned about the destruction of national cultures, the latter the only bulwark against imperialism.
Following the demise of the English Empire he wrote that:
“the hour of the barbarian is at hand. The modern Barbarian. The American hour. Violence, excess, waste, mercantilism, bluff, conformism, stupidity, vulgarity, disorder.”
Cesaire quotes US Ambassador Page who had written to President Wilson much earlier that:
“The future of the world belongs to us. What are we going to do with this England and this Empire, presently, when economic forces unmistakably put the leadership of the race in our hands?”
It looks like Trump and America are finally about to give their answer to England, and its a big thumbs doon for Perfidious.
@Alf Baird says: 14 September, 2026 at 11:00 am
A heck of a lot of your posts these days could be summarised as “Any day now, comrades!”.
Which leads to the obvious question. How far does your belief in the imminence of Indy extend into your real life?
Perhaps you’re quietly withdrawing your savings and converting them into Euros. Maybe you’re diversifying your home energy mix for when the power goes off. Maybe you’ve dug over the vegetable garden and planted tatties and neeps.
Heck. You might have been conducting a reconnaissance of the HR parly entrances for when you all rush in, seize power, and declare martial law live on STV.
I expect your response will be the usual silence, followed by more wild prognostications based on the ravings of some long deid, third-world racists.
Still though, it’s obviously true. What people truly believe must impact their behaviour, planning and expectations.
BTW. I’m not ruling out Trump, who seems obviously mentally impaired, saying something devastatingly detrimental to what sane Yanks have always seen as their de facto second permanent seat at the UN Security Council, the UK’s one. It’s what he does so that he can hog the headlines, which seems to now be his sole reason for being in power.
But I am expecting that these same sane Yanks will increasingly be diverting and distracting Trump with colouring books and pens while they get on with running their empire. For which that second UN SC seat is very handy.
So I don’t see the pre-Indy “End Times” as imminent at all. What I predict is a general outbreak of sanity as the west’s ever declining predicament becomes clear over what is shaping up to be a winter from hell.
You would be far better off looking at how you could assemble a coalition of partners who could alleviate and mitigate the problems that are about to hit ordinary Scots, and then leverage support into Indy when you’ve shown through practical measures that you can do more than just quote the post colonial boys.
That’s the strategy that was promised by Alex Salmond, and it’s the one that will still work.
What did Hitler and Elvis have in common?
They both released cover versions of “Jerusalem”, accompanying themselves on the melodeon.
“What? You got a problem with it? What do we look like, the Crime Police?”
The £60,000 reduction from the original £460,000 charge in the deal with the Crown Office raises questions about whether it is a trade-off for the £60,000 the SNP owes him as part of a loan he provided to the party. Or will he end up getting the £60,000 reduction plus another £60,000 loan repayment, totalling £120,000?