Wings Over Scotland

Cherry tearing lumps out of fatford
Demanding the truth -THE WHOLE TRUTH about fatfords tenure at westminster be told
Yum yum

Scathing but true. Well said Joanna!

I can only say, good on you Joanna. I would do exactly the same. Relentlessly and with no mercy. Both barrels at any opportunity. Over and over again. Nicola Sturgeon deserves that and far, far more. Her true colours must be exposed.

I suppose having lost the seat brings for Ms Cherry a sense of freedom in some way. They certainly can no longer keep her on a leash. Because what is the worse they can do to her now? Stopping her standing for Holyrood on an SNP ticket now that voters are so disgusted with the party that anything with the brand SNP stuck to it is doomed to fail?

I want to see Ms Cherry, Mr McKaskill, Mr Hanvey and Mr Angus Brendan McNeil in Holyrood, standing for Alba or as independents and burning the hell of all them wankers down to a crisp (metaphorically speaking).

Go Joanna!

@ Mia
The strength of the SNP at Holyrood in the early days was precisely that their best people wanted to be there, and branches were free to choose them. Now the leadership are able to impose candidates, that has gone.
As you say, it would be great to see all those folk rock up on as independent candidates!

One swallow does not make a summer.

Blackford accusing Cherry of being “bitter”.

MacNeill could be dismissed as bitter, (not that I know whether he is or isn’t), but Blackford is a classic embodiment of the Peter Principle, and as such his accusation that Cherry is bitter shows him in his true, pish-yellow colours.

Yer tees oot Nicola! It’s time to say goodbye! You let the party die!

Happy to keep her trap shut during the years of betrayal of the Yes movement though. Now she’s been hoofed out she starts acting like a wee lassie that’s had a dizzy at the high school dance. No applause from me.

Well put Joanna. We need you so much. Hope we see you in Holyrood in 2026.

The elephant in the country. The biggest elephant. Is that she’s not been charged. Lavender Pete’s been charged. For the missing 600k. Sturgeon’s deeds would shame all the devils in hell. That’s absolutely clear.

We want her jailed. We want her put away. We wish Sturgeon. The gravest of ills.

I think this is a very dangerous sign of the times for Scotland under Labour-
From todays press-
Stormont is “going to have to look at” raising its own money to help with public funding pressures, the new Northern Ireland secretary says.
On a trip to the country – his first since taking office days ago – Labours Hilary Benn says the executive in Northern Ireland has historically “not been as good as it might be in income generation”, and that public spending there is greater than in England.
The region receives around £124 per head for every £100 per head spent in England – and Benn says the “urgent” focus needs to be on using this money “most effectively”.

At the referendum the Unionist proposed Scotland had far more money per head to spend than England. The figure that they used was £1200 per head per annum, but the reality of the suffocated situation was that Scots sent £1700 per head per annum to Westminster so we actually give the English £500 each.

Here comes Starmer ready to use the same fake figures to cut the Scottish budget even more than the despicable Tories.

If it is the case Swinney should use it to remove his MP’s from Westminster permanently.

Political parties have had their tyres slashed and set on fire but somehow people still think they will drive us to the promised land. Cherry in Holyrood in 2026 will have much the same effect as Cherry in Westminster in 2023.

Political parties follow, they don’t lead, or at least not any more. Politicians are just there to hoover up votes based on the sentiments of the voting population. They’re trailing indicators not leading ones. The case for independence will be made among the populace and the politicians will only pick up on it when they think there’s votes to be secured.

Sturgeon appearance on ITV, she was asked if Joanna Cherry’s views were correct that Sturgeon was to blame for the SNP loses and stated Joanna had won her seat three times during her leadership, NO Ms Sturgeon she won because of her own campaigning in her own constituency and lost this time because people who would have voted for the SNP either stayed at home or voted for someone else because of your leadership on Independence. Watch you back Joanna Sturgeon is till in charge of the SNP but for how long?

Would have been more impressive had it occurred prior to Ms Cherry losing her seat.

The thing is, the SNP cultists and their queer cling- ons were warned for ages about this daily in the Nationals comments section and totally ignored (or usually trolled) in their mad gallop to the political cliff edge.
Come 2026 and a HR election similar result the queer cling-ons, professional SPADS and ideology cuckoo chicks will migrate back to their natural home in Labour.

Wonder how Starmer will deal with them?

I wish Branchform and Big Ecks court case against ScotGov would come to a conclusion and Saint Nic, “partner in crime” Liz Lloyd can share a prison cell and look forward to regular visits from “friend” Val McD.

Blackford’s came out and said Joanna Cherry’s just upset and that she’s talking nonsense. He said she’s bitter!

So bitter from Ian Blackford. The man that hates woman. That dumped his wife and traded her in for an older model.

Fat oaf!

Joanna Cherry will be a massive asset to Holyrood.
I hope she, Neale Hanvey, Kenny McAskill stand.

The troughers have already got their eye on a nice cosy wee list vote but they’ll be fought off by the current Nicolaphants

Great post – she summed up the situation perfectly.

Its a pity Cherry wasn’t as scathing when she was an SNP MP, it has taken for her to get the boot to really open up and tell it like it is.

Maybe if that had been the case she might still be an MP.

Would she have said all this about Nicola’s reign if she hadn’t lost her MP salary?
Rather think she wouldn’t have

“I have no idea why some people are moaning about Joanna, if you had gone through what’s she done through in the last ten you’d have left the SNP on day one she didn’t she stayed and it’s all credit to her for not leaving.”

100% Yes.

As far as I aware Cherry came out a few years back and told us why she didn’t jump ship to a real indy party, and it had nothing to do with integrity, no Cherry said she couldn’t do that because her staff at Westminster would’ve lost their jobs and she couldn’t let that happen.

@ Ian B

Best I can come up with is a Kirsty MacColl / The Smiths mashup

There’s a guy down the chip shop swears he saw Evans… but Evans knows he’s miserable now…

Other chippy related gag.
Vinegar tits finally gets her chips after serving both Sturgeon and Salmond on a platter to her establishment masters.

” Maybe it was a huge mistake for us to have left the SNP, instead maybe should have stayed and saved the party and Scottish Independence from Sturgeon ”

And how would * you * have done that ? If we’re talking hypotheticals here , want makes you think * you * would have done anything different from those who stayed , is it not just as probable that you would have been as mesmerised , pacified n patronised as the rest ? Even had you attempted to penetrate the delusional aura of infallibility that was * manufactured * around the Stooge from day one of her – unchallenged – coronation , the would those attempts have proven successful ?

I’ve never been an SNP member so it’s never been an issue for me but I can understand how the loyalty of those who are – in many cases – lifelong members would cause them to sit on their doubts / concerns in the belief it was to serve a greater cause , eg Independence ; still ….

The horrible abuse J Cherry endured ,as well as being demoted n replaced by a dolly dimple head-nodder , whilst fckn Hypocrite-to-her-Fingertips Sturgeon uttered not a single word in her defence , in fact , appeared in spiteful agreement with the wailing Manshees calling for JC to be immolated for Anti-*Trans* heresy would have been the optimum time to say what she’s saying now , in addition to what was referred to above .

A bit of an old article, especially as it is well before Japan’s PM Abe assassination and Covid but a surprisingly even handed American view of Japan’s alternative to neo-liberalal globalism particularly when it talks of European “exclusionary nationalism”.

link to archive.is

A long read but interesting take-outs in particular to Japan’s economic activity:

Reassessing Japan’s recent history in the light of Western failures does not mean whitewashing its current weaknesses and challenges. A third of a century of anemic economic growth, averaging 2 percent from 1981 to 2015, is a signal that the mature Japanese economy will likely never again see double-digit growth. Unbalanced investment has left Japan’s rural regions in parlous economic shape, and temporary workers now account for nearly 40 percent of the workforce. The country’s regulatory environment is stifling, corruption nests inside corporate and political cultures, the service sector is startlingly inefficient, and the nuclear industry is a mess. The government was widely criticized for its inept handling of the March 2011 nuclear crisis after the devastating Tohoku earthquake.

Socially, Japanese youth are widely reported to be dissatisfied with their future prospects, and the scope for individualism in the workplace remains tightly constricted. Foreigners are tolerated but not particularly welcomed, and Japanese of Korean descent still face discrimination. Immigration is all but absent. Moreover, Japan has faced its own homegrown terrorists, like the millennial Aum Shinrikyo cult back in the 1990s. Above all, the country faces a debilitating demographic collapse, one that no modern democracy has ever encountered and that poses the single greatest threat to Japan’s future.

Yet compared with the problems that both the West and many of its neighbors face, Japan’s relative strength and stability should at least cause us to rethink our assumptions about social and economic policy. The Wall Street Journal’s Jacob Schlesinger argues that, for two decades after the popping of the bubble, Japan’s leadership consciously chose a deflationary course for the economy, seeking stability and the minimization of social risk that would accompany radical economic restructuring.4 Only the return of Shinzo Abe to the premiership in 2012 reversed this long trend, as he actively sought to inflate the economy, privileging economic expansion over stability. The difference might be thought of as “value” policy versus “growth” policy, similar to stocks or mutual funds. The careful, moderate reforms of what is called “Abenomics” indicate that even the current government is seeking a mix of value and growth, again prioritizing social stability.

Despite decades of officially slow or stagnant macro growth, the real economic picture of Japan is better than many Westerners think. Writing in the Financial Times, Matthew C. Klein showed that, in the decade from 2005 to 2014, real GDP per person grew more in Japan than in the United States, Great Britain, and the eurozone.5 In the almost quarter century from 1990 to 2013, nearly the entire post-bubble era, real household consumption in Japan also grew more than in the eurozone, and behind only Great Britain, the United States, and Sweden, and without the massive rise in household debt experienced in the United States.

Japan is neither sprinting ahead nor rocked by economic instability. The uncertainty that clouds so many of the world’s economies exacts psychic and material costs, but Japan, where GDP growth has been sluggish for decades, seems less threatened by the roller coaster that is prevalent in the West, in part because its system remains more resistant to radical restructuring and the diktats of unrestrained market forces. In fact, things simply aren’t all that bad.

Japan remains a high-income country by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards. Its GDP per capita at purchasing power parity rates increased from $35,779 in 2011 to $40,763 in 2015, while the cost of living in Tokyo and other major cities declined, due in part to moderate deflationary trends.6 Japan’s Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, stood at 0.32 in 2008 (the latest year available), according to the World Bank. Though higher than many European nations, it likely remains lower than America’s 2013 measure of 0.41.

Another interesting part is Japan’s role on the world stage:

In response, scholars such as Keio University’s Yoshihide Soeya have argued that Japan must pursue a “middle power” strategy that acknowledges its gross power limitations.21 Specifically, Soeya believes, Tokyo must embrace a “middle power internationalism” that seeks to maximize Japan’s diplomacy and participation in multilateral fora and embed itself in a community of similar middle powers balancing off the demands of the United States and China. Suggestions such as these seek to counter a perceived trend towards “regressive nationalism,” in Soeya’s words. The belief that the cork needs to remain in the bottle of Japanese militarism more than seventy years after the end of the World War II highlights just how strongly Japan’s past continues to shape current views.

Japan’s unique perspective which has shaped it’s policies both domestically and abroad isn’t comparable to Scotland and even parts can’t be replicated in an independent Scotland but it does show a way that a small independent country can operate on the world stage.

Aw, she’s out of work and with no great talents to offer any new potential employer.

But she can big up her profile meantime by hawking her tawdry tales round the gutter MSM.

Pardon me for not being impressed.

She had a good innings sucking on the taxpayer’s teat – 9 years. Those more knowledgeable than me will know if she ever achieved anything more useful than delaying some inevitable legislation for a couple of days.

It’s hardly the stuff of the after dinner speaking circuit.

Thanks Ruby

Ruby Sunday says:
7 July, 2024 at 8:04 pm

I had to google ‘All out of bubble gum.’

“I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubble gum.”

That’s a great line. No idea what it means I expect it means there’s going to be a lot of ass kicking.

It’s an iconic throwaway one-liner from the film They Live. It doesn’t mean anything but is a great quote when talking about the movie.

IIRC, a clip was made about another scene in film where they did a commando raid on a local TV station and compared it to what should happen at BBC’s Pacific quay.

The clip was tongue in check but I’m sure it was during the indy protests at Pacific Quay and didn’t go down well 🙂

A bit late though, right?

Sturgeon and co sold us down the river. Hence, thousands left the SNP. That’s unfortunate, as we now need a purge of the SNP. Starting with the NEC. However, there is no one left to start the purge. Swinney and Flynn are supposed to be listening. Can they start the purge?

The SNP the party isn’t to blame for the mess Nicola Sturgeon has left the party in.

I spent 33yrs supporting and being a member of the SNP, other people have spent 50, 60 plus years. A lot of people who still remain in the party still believe its the only vehicle to achieving Independence, I don’t believe that maybe with a different leader and better people in place like Joanna the SNP can turn it round again. As someone who remembers when Swinney was leader the first time he was a tool then and he’s a tool now. For those us us who remember the SNP back in the 1990 it was a solid party and we all new who the enemy was and what it was we wanted to achieve.

“Aw, she’s out of work and with no great talents to offer any new potential employer”

Do you actually know who Ms Cherry is?

You do realise Ms Cherry is a very, very talented KC, that took that clown Johnson to court for unlawfully proroguing the UK parliament and won, don’t you?

Do you realise that she was also on the team from the Wightman case that resulted in the ruling by the European Court of Justice that the UK could unilaterally revoke Article 50, don’t you?

At last she can speak her mind. There will be many more who are just as angry. This is how we get the band back together.

We need to form a new movement. It might be that Alba is the vehicle. What I would say is that we need to persuade some of the 30% SNP loyalists to listen. There is a hard-core of about 20% who will never listen. But some just vote SNP out of habit, whilst not actually agreeing with them.

If Alba can get 10-12% in Holyrood. Then list seats will be available.

Watching Joanna Cherry in these various clips has been a delight.

Articulate, super bright and able to formulate responses on the spot, i.e. a super high level advocate.

Now she feels free to speak (and clearly she did not before) she will destroy these rat-oafs like Sturgeon and Blackford if they are stupid enough to take her on. She is pissed as well… it is evident.

They were able to bully her when they held power over her in the structure of the SNP but they are living on fumes if they think that is going to continue.

Cherry could destroy them. She is capable of it. She might be the one. It has been so long since I have seen her I forgot how much I like her.

Mia

Big furry deal.

Brexit still happened anyway.

As for being “on the team”, that’s hardly the stuff of the history books.

Margaret E

If you wish to deny my 24-carat facts about Japan, fill yer boots.

“I no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu” as Quagmire might say.

As we face a crazed Labour Government, only for one term I’m sure, we must focus on winning.

I would welcome Ms Cherry to Alba, why did she not join us before now ? I don’t know but I’m sure she had her reasons.

Alba lead by Mr Salmond with the most competent Scottish politicians behind him and a support from the party I believe we could do the job which the SNP declined to do.

Hatey McHateface
says:
7 July, 2024 at 8:27 pm

PacMan

As fourth largest economy in the entire fecking world, Japan is hardly a “small independent country”.

When was that stuff you quoted written anyway?

Japan has been re-arming for some time now, faced as she is with the twin threats of the North Korean nutters and the imperialist Covid spreaders.

FFS, NK regularly lobs intercontinental ballistic missiles over their heads. The threat from these unhinged nutjobs is such that Japan has been forced into forming a mutual defence alliance with their almost hereditary enemies in South Korea. The American–Japanese–Korean trilateral pact (JAROKUS) was announced less than a year ago.

Meantime, with the recently announced intention to send NK forces to fight for Pres Poot on the sovereign territory of Uk=rai=ne, coupled with the fact that the Ru=ss=ian occupiers still have not returned sovereign Japanese territory they seized in 1945, Japan is becoming more closely aligned with the freedom-loving west as WW3 ramps up.

So yes, maybe they do set us an example to follow should we ever become Independent. I’ll allow you that conclusion.

Sigh.

John Main, it seems that you don’t even read comments never mind the articles contained in links.

I fail to see what you have written has anything to do with the comment I had posted and the article contained within it.

100%Yes

We were right to walk away & to take our subs with us.

There was no way to change the direction of travel Sturgeon was taking. She made sure of it by closing down internal party democracy & rewriting party rules & she’s STILL doing it by working her puppet clique from the background.

Sturgeon & her husband have brought the whole party (& it’s brand) into disrepute. Any new leader with an ounce of integrity would have sacked her immediately & suspended her from the party if not outright ban her for life. They didn’t bother. Dumbza & Swindler protected her instead. They put her above party & way above the people who elected them.
That party will be forever tainted now. There’s no way back from them ever erasing that poor judgement.

As for Joanna – well she did speak out & was ignored. Sturgeon even claiming she wasn’t aware she was being bullied online or by her own colleagues which was shit cause it was all over Twitter & very public.

Joanna should have walked & stood as an independent. She had plenty of support on social media urging her to do exactly that ages ago but she made a huge mistake having a pep talk with Dumbza & buying into his ‘assurances’ She should’ve listened cause in that interview she also says that was the word on the street too. The whole brand is in the toilet.

A blind man could’ve told her that was crap & he’d no intentions of reassuring her of anything. He was placating her to shut her up. Obviously instructions from Imelda which she would’ve also been aware of. She’s not stupid.

@Dan (7.10) –

Nice ones.

😉

Spot on, Colin Alexander.

from Ian brotherhood @5.42.
the grousebeater’s blog and comments on X are not exactly reliable. Mr GB is a known fantasist with a great record for imagination posing as comment. Seriously do you think Leslie Evans toddles down to a fish and chip shop for her supper?

‘I wonder how long it is going to take until Leslie Evans appears in some TV program or another too…’

Probably not long at all.

In the meantime, Grousebeater bumped into her in a chip shop and gave her a dirty look…there’s a good joke in there somewhere.

link to x.com

as to other bloggers -WGD and its strangely deluded Nicolites, are saying that the SNP and Nicola will rise like Phoenix(s) from the ashes of last Thursday, renewed and fit to fight on when the Holyrood election hoves into sight.