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An absence of grace

Posted on October 28, 2023 by

We expected nothing better from Mhairi Hunter, of course, a once-decent human being corrupted by Nicola Sturgeon into an unthinking party drone.

But the reaction of the First Minister of Scotland to Ash Regan’s defection to Alba today is a sour, ugly and childish thing that would have been unworthy of the leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, never mind a serious grown-up in a position of power.

Here it is:

Every individual line of it is horrible in its own right, and it reeks of the sort of loathsome, misogynist young men the party became infested with during Sturgeon’s reign and who have unaccountably been allowed to be (anonymously) its public voice.

Let’s take a quick look at it in all its indignity.

“It is no great loss to the SNP group I have to say and it is also hardly not a surprise either given Ash’s statements for many months, in fact for longer than that.”

Ash Regan was considered good enough to be an SNP minister until she resigned last year on a brave point of principle, sacrificing her career to oppose the disastrous Gender Recognition Reform Act. That alone lifts her head and shoulders above most of her former party in terms of integrity, and after her subsequent treatment she would have been entitled to lash out.

However, she’s almost entirely avoided making any attacks on the party in public, and her resignation letter spoke of “collaboration” and “constructive dialogue”. Her speech to the Alba conference took the same tone, and for Yousaf to respond with such a petulant and dishonest sneer shames him, not her.

(No leader is ever going to be happy to lose their MSPs, of course. But compare and contrast with Alex Salmond’s comments when John Finnie and Jean Urquhart quit the SNP over NATO policy in 2012.)


It doesn’t improve.

“Ash should do the decent thing, she should resign her seat – she was elected on an SNP ticket.”

Yousaf knows fine well this is pitifully hypocritical cant. Almost no MP or MSP who “crosses the floor” triggers a by-election. Under the law it’s the person who is elected, not the party. Voters voted for Ash Regan to be their MSP and she still is. She stands for all the same things she got elected on.

(One could at least construct an argument that in joining the Tories last week, Lisa Cameron was changing the values and policies she was elected on. But Ash Regan is joining a party that represents everything the SNP was supposed to in 2021, but has grotesquely betrayed.)

Yousaf then exposes his stupidity as well as his pettiness:

“I can give you a guarantee that people did not vote for Ash in her constituency because of any personal vote, they voted for her because she had the SNP logo next to her name in the 2021 election.”

This, of course, is a statement that could be equally applied to any SNP MP or MSP, including Yousaf himself. As such it insults not only every one of his colleagues, but every one of the party’s voters, who are spoken of like gullible sheep who’ll vote for any idiot with a yellow rosette on – exactly the criticism once levelled (rightly) at Scottish Labour before their complacency got them wiped out.

And then just to make the whole thing as semantically crass as it is politically and personally, he repeats himself.

“So if she had principles she would do the right thing and resign – but I have to say it is no great loss to the SNP.”

Yousaf had been widely respected for his measured and mature response to the Gaza crisis, and the recipient of sympathy for his own relatives being trapped in the besieged enclave. Today he undid all of that in a couple of sentences and came across like a petulant child sulking in a playground.

One of the primary aspects of a leader’s job is to keep his party united despite the internal disagreements that afflict all of them. It is Humza Yousaf’s failure, and nobody else’s, that the SNP is now shedding Parliamentarians at an unprecedented rate of knots. A halfway-competent statesman would react to the situation with at least a pretence of humility, rather than arrogance and contempt.

But as his entire political career to date has shown, Humza Yousaf would need to improve by about 300% to get to halfway-competent. He is unfit for the office he holds.

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Ian McCubbin

Two idiots who have tried to shame a brave lady for joining a party which upholds what her constituents voted her into Holyrood for. That vote was for Independence for Scotland. Something the SNPbhas abandoned and will not ever deliver. In Alba we have a party which will.
Let’s hope , J Cherry, Brenda McNeil and more follow her over to Alba.

WingsOverFrance

Excellent post! The SNP ghouls are going crazy on Twitter. Why can’t they see what we can?

Brian Doonthetoon

Yousaf then exposes his stupidity as well as his pettiness:

“I can give you a guarantee that people did not vote for Ash in her constituency because of any personal vote, they voted for her because she had the SNP logo next to her name in the 2021 election.”

This, of course, is a statement that could be equally applied to any SNP MP or MSP, including Yousaf himself. As such it insults not only every one of his colleagues, but every one of the party’s voters, who are spoken of like gullible sheep who’ll vote for any idiot with a yellow rosette on – exactly the criticism levelled (rightly) at Scottish Labour before their complacency got them wiped out.

You hit the nail on the head. I thought exactly the same when I read that utterance this afternoon.

ephemeraldeception

Glad this has happened and am sure its good for the future. We need to be careful though of others who will follow in benefit of themselves before the overall strategy and whom are but opportunosts or are british pawns on a career path.

Very hard to judge just look at who Salmond setup as political successor.

Robert Louis

All other world events aside, for which Humza has my genuine sympathy, he shows a complete lack of statesmanship with such a silly statement. Ill-considered, and really lacking in any kind of smart political thinking.

Ash Regan has done the right thing. She works hard for her constituents, and has shown real integrity. Standing up for what she believes in, whilst surrounded by the current SNP ship of fools.

Meanwhile the wholly unelectable duo of ‘green’ stupidity, Harvie and some Canadian woman on holiday in Scotland, have been telling Scotland what they are going to do with Scottish taxpayers money.

The green tail wagging the SNP Scottish government dog. Nobody elected the SNP government to get the greens did they Humza? Not what we voted for.

I must say, in Edinburgh, the enacted loony ‘greens’ policies, do seem to just have one goal, Making peoples ordinary lives miserable. If they are not closing most major roads permanently (except for cyclists, of course) in Edinburgh, or installing yet more spy cameras to enforce social behaviour they approve of (a bit like in China), they are coming up with yet another loony green scheme that will make life harder and more expensive for normal people.

John Main

Whoops!

Typo in Rev Stu’s post.

“unfit for the office he holds”

Should, of course, read:

“unfit for the office he was fraudulently gifted”

Big Jock

The SNP are going crazy on twitter, because they are no longer the SNP. They are a whacko party full of children and unionists.

Sven

And yet, I’d suspect that Ms Regan, Angus MacNeil & Fergus Ewing will be better thought of and more secure in their constituencies than many of the SNP troughers at Holyrood.

Dorothy Devine

Dead right – he came out with the kind of ordure we have come to expect.

That said I’m sure Ms Regan will survive the petulant pelters undoubtedly coming her way from the Scottish Nasty Party.

BDTT , hope you are progressing towards full recovery.

Gerry McGhee

Methinks they do protest too much!

Colin Alexander

Humza probably feels Ash Regan is no great loss to the SNP because Ash Regan is white, a woman and heterosexual. And, worst of all: she doesn’t believe a male rapist can become a woman by squeezing his weapon into a pair of lace panties.

Marco McGinty

Ash Regan was considered a decent, well-respected individual for her work during the IndyRef campaign, so I’m quite sure many people did indeed vote for her as a person.

What the SNP and its idiot followers seem unable to grasp, is the fact that hundreds of thousands of voters have been lending the party their votes since 2015. The SNP has become like the Labour Party in Scotland – taking votes for granted, abandoning key policies, unable to accept criticism, not to mention being corrupt to the core.

Let’s hope the SNP’s annihilation is bigger than expected.

Alan McHarg

Well done Ash! Honest people with integrity have NO choice but to do the right thing.

Orangina

God, what a contemptuous clown Yousaf is. “Hardly not a surprise” is not even grammatically correct. Still, every time he tries to laughably play Henry Kissinger Sr on the world stage with his ‘selfless’ humanitarianism, his true shitty personality and agenda come to the top in comments like his disgusting ones about Ms Regan. All his wee gay or disabled or female or ethnic minority party clones and drones are singing from the same insulting, pathetic, sub-student-union hymn sheet, too, oddly enough.

I idly peruse a couple of these idiots online without posting anything to them. It keeps me aware of what I should not be thinking, and alerts me to the latest manifestation of the careerist mindrot destroying the party and counyry. Like this creepy, vapid, braindead grifter, spouting utter shite as usual:

link to twitter.com

DML

Humzah and Foote’s best mate Hutcheson (asshole, 1st degree) have shown themselves to be rotten people today with their comments on Ash’s departure. She will flourish in Alba and sit laughing when the SNP all lose their seats at the next election.

Garrion

Total class from Hunter and Yousaf. Fading voices from a dead empire.

Mac

“He is unfit for the office he holds”

As was Nicola Sturgeon.

So in that sense he really is the ‘continuity candidate’.

His immaturity and lack of class is really shining through that statement.

David Hannah

Ash Regan has left that rancid toxic party behind. Life’s too short to care what people like Mhairi Hunter and Humza Yousaf.

I think she’s done an incredible move for the cause of independence and liberty. Her loyalty is to the cause of Independence.

PhilM

I think these responses come from a psychological need to believe that the SNP are still masters of their political destiny. They really really are not. It actually takes quite a lot of awful destructive policy to make a party loathed by large sections of former supporters but that is where the SNP are now. If former activists and the most vocal of online supporters actually loathe you, it doesn’t mean you’re doing things right. To think the opposite is to make delusion a driver of your politics…and that never ends well.

David Hannah

Ash Regan. The leader the SNP never had. The only time I listened to the SNP was during the Youtube hustings in their election contest. And I liked what I had to hear from Ash.

She’s the leader the SNP never had!

Mia

“I can give you a guarantee that people did not vote for Ash in her constituency because of any personal vote, they voted for her because she had the SNP logo next to her name in the 2021 election”

I would be most interested in knowing how Mr Yousaf can possibly give such guarantee. Did he personally ask every single one of Ms Regan’s constituents? Does Mr Yousaf think voters are idiots who go to the SNP logo like moths to the light? Or what Mr Yousaf is really implying here is is vote rigging on industrial scale where MI5 employees have been put to the task of putting putting crosses next to the SNP logo independently of the constituency and the candidate? Sometimes I actually wonder if Mr Yousaf and members of his cabinet actually bother putting their brains in forward gear before opening their mouths.

“she was elected on an SNP ticket”

I think it would be pertinent to ask Mr Yousaf what ticket was that and how it compares with the current crap “ticket” we have been foisted down our throats by the present crop of grifters in the SNP.

If I remember correctly the political fraud offered “the ticket” of bringing to HOlyrood and pass a referendum bill in the first part of government. Instead, what we had is an unelected member of her cabinet assaulting democracy and the Claim of Right by handing control of our legislative to the crown helping it to impose absolute rule on Scotland.

“So if she had principles she would do the right thing and resign”

It think that sentence applies much more to Sturgeon, Yousaf himself, and every single SNP MP and MSP who, to secure our vote, was happy to stand on a ticket to pass that referendum bill and delivering a referendum and once they got our votes, proceeded to change “the pro-independence ticket” to a “forever devolution” one.

So come on, Mr Yousaf, why don’t you lead by example? Put your actions where your words are. Where are your own principles? You failed to deliver the referendum, you failed to progress independence. What are you waiting for to resign?

George Ferguson

Humza as a minister had many gaffes they are documented. But more serious than that was his lack of creativity in his ministerial positions and his inability to listen to expert advice. He has done well on the middle east situation but that is his only success to date. My prediction more gaffes to come.

robertkknight

What do you expect from a pig, if not a grunt, and the SNP is wall to wall with troughing pigs who took to walking on two legs and looking and sounding exactly like the devolutionist Yoons they were supposed to be saving us from.

Independence for Scotland!

SNP OUT!

James Galt

It’s the SNP that has abandoned the voters for Independence not Ash Regan. Next year when the SNP is decimated they will be “no great loss”.

A Scot Abroad

I have no doubt that Ash Regan passionately believes in independence for Scotland, and that isn’t something one can say about perhaps 90% of SNP M/SPs. So there is that in her favour.

But she had the most insane plan for failing to achieve that: a near instant declaration of UDI. Truly, the woman is seriously intellectually challenged if she ever felt that might be a starter. It ain’t. The big bad world would just keep on rolling and ignore Scottish tantrums. There’s very little the world either wants or needs from Scotland.

Dundee Scot

Funny how seemingly everyone commenting here thinks the SNP is corrupt, odious and incompetent.
And yet seemingly everyone here voted for Sturgeon’s SNP in the past and helped put them in power.
And seemingly everyone here forgets that the Sturgeon they loathe was promoted to deputy party leadership with the acquiescence (at a minimum) of their Messiah Alex Salmond. The same Salmond who made Humza Yousaf a junior minister in 2012.
Past SNP voters, and Salmond himself, have to bear at least some responsibility for the current SNP.

AnneDon

That statement reeks of the lack of class and graciousness we have come to expect from SNP press statements in the past few years.

Every accusation is a confession.

And let’s face it, if all the disaffected did resign, the SNP would be f*cked.

Their only real achievement is to arrive at Labour levels of entitlement in less than a decade.

robertkknight

Dundee Scot…

“Past SNP voters, and Salmond himself, have to bear at least some responsibility for the current SNP.”

Indeed we do… Guilty!

But if you can’t change from within, because the Sturgeonite body snatchers invaded en masse post 2014 and duplicated the membership into the screaming biology denying zealots or half-witted, coffin-dodging Wee Ginger Dug types that we see today, then you either acquiesce or you quit and start again.

Me? I quit!

Brian Doonthetoon

Hi Dundee Scot.

I think you have been reading the btl comments wrongly.

Onlooker

A Scot Abroad:

Scotland certainly doesn’t want or need your bitter troll pish, you pathetic cunt. Why do you hang round here stinking up the place with your probably fictitious Queen’s shilling shite? You a paid unionist shill? Wouldn’t surprise me. You certainly hate Scotland enough.

Only a lunatic or an arsehole would sit on a site for a country they hate on a daily basis and bitterly spit on it like you do. Would be like me sitting on an English political site all the time just pointlessly abusing them. Except I am not bitter and insane and would never do such a thing.

Get yersel tae fuck, troll clown. Permanently.

A Scot Abroad

Mia, at 10:01pm

I’m afraid that all available evidence in the last 15 years does indeed suggest that most, or at least a very significant minority, of Scottish voters have indeed been idiots drawn to the SNP logo like moths to the light.

Perhaps that’s why the Youseless one thinks that he can repeat the trick.

For different reasons, you and I might actually agree upon something: he can’t.

George Ferguson

@Dundee Scot 10:52pm
I knew in 2015 Nicola Sturgeon was wrong for the role of the leader of the SNP and that’s without hindsight. Were you at the Caird Hall then. It was clear to me. And I was one of the four grown ups that asked a decent question in Public, cameras there and all. Too much interest in bairns and we see why now. So it’s a blot on Alex Salmonds record in an otherwise exemplary career. Every corporate organisation gives young people the chance to shine. Promoting young people makes or breaks them. Humza has progressed through the ranks by playing the race card. Us real Independence supporters were too white for him. I am glad I left.

Alf Baird

Dundee Scot @ 10:52 pm

“the SNP is corrupt, odious and incompetent.”

A widnae faw oot wi ye thair. Heepocrits aw. Guid reddins tae bad rubbage.

Breastplate

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a country resiling from a treaty it no longer thinks beneficial.

No need for a referendum. The EU referendum was only advisory and so not legally binding.
Of course, it would be difficult to defend as democratic not to implement it.

We’re living in strange times, we’re supposed to believe the International Community can turn a blind eye to genocide, war crimes and humanitarian crises but be up in arms about a country adhering to the UN Charter regarding self determination.

Breastplate

I note how Dundee Scot is quick to apportion blame yet accepts none in regards to ‘Broken Britain’ at the hands of himself and his Unionist buddies.

David Hannah

Regan’s plan was the best A Scot Abroad.

She wanted everyone together at a convention. To talk about the infrastructure needed to create the new Scottish state.

50 plus 1 would be the declaration when Scotland is ready.

She wanted to save the SNP by making it Govern well and proving that we could do it better than England.

I remember she said she wanted to bring together a task force and speak to NHS workers in person to find out their reasons as to why they were going on strike. That was all her ideas.

All those brilliant ideas have now came to the Alba Party.

Because the Alba Party finds the way forward. Quite simply. Solidarity with Ash Regan. Our leader in our Parliament.

Ian Brotherhood

@Onlooker (11.29)

Hear hear.

He’s a throbber.

David Hannah

Regan wanted to the Government to Govern well The convention to build the new Scottish State.

I thought it was so much better instead of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The path the SNP has chosen.

The party had one last chance to save itself with feminist freedom fighter – fighting for women’s rights when it was unpopular – against the Iron fist of Nicola Sturgeon – the bully.

I respect her massively and I think she’s a very beautiful woman as well. Not that it matters.

The Alba Party leads the way I looking forward to hearing the next developments!

John Main

@ASA 10:51

The point as I see it is that Regan had/has a plan. Scotland can’t sit in this never-never land of will we or won’t we for ever. Make future elections plebiscitary ones. If Scots vote in favour, then Indy has a democratic mandate the world can’t ignore. Neither can WM.

If Scots knock it back, voting for other parties instead, cos we’re feart, then it’s bleeding obviously game over.

What is it the Yanks say? Shit, or get off the pot. It’s high time Scotland was forced to settle this.

I sincerely hope that Regan will introduce this policy to Alba and that Alba will stand for future elections on this idea. We constantly are told that Indy support is strong. Let’s find out.

Morgatron

Colin Alexander – you had my full backing , right up to the lace panties. You lost the changing room at that point. Lol

John Main

@BP 12:08

Careful there. You may have mis-gendered Dundee Scot.

And that’s an actionable offence in nuScotland.

Anyhoo, sleep easy. In the old days, you would have been looking at a 50-50 chance, but with 200 pronouns available now, the odds are something like 99.5% in your favour.

BTW, I thought Dundee Scot’s post was spot on. There must be a strong correlation between Indy support and amnesia. IB provides the definitive case for study.

Cactus

Though I keep looking for the answer… Whitesnake.

Scotland… from the fire to the flame.

We have Ash, Rev.

holymacmoses

I agree with Mr Wings that this statement by Mr Yousaf does nothing to enhance the reputation of the SNP
Ms Regan was good enough to defeat the leader of the Labour Party by over 5,00 votes in 2016 and one can only assume that she must have been approved of by her constituency, because by 2021 she had upped her vote from 16760 to 22658; so I suspect there may have been at least SOME voters who were casting a vote for the ‘person’ rather than the ‘party’. I wonder if the FM delegated the writing of his response to one of his little helpers. I feel very sorry for Mrs Yousaf at the moment and could fully understand if her husband delegated such a ‘responsibility’ at the present time. No disrespect to Ms Regan but the Yousaf family do have quite pressing problems. I think, perhaps, the response to Ms Regan’s defection may well be a manifest of the poor selection of foot soldiers which Sturgeon et al have introduced into the higher echelons of the party.

Cactus

Yesterday was a good day, shared a table wae the main man n co, conference new day is tomorrow, it’s now. Good peeps. The raffle was rewarding.

? to Cairnstoon.

Great tae have ye was us Ash.

In the still of the night…

Maxxmacc

I knew Hunter’s mum from the days when NS and co were cutting their political teeth. The woman had spent time down south and always seemed like a plant to me, as anytime there was something happening, she would pop up like Mr. Ben’s Shopkeeper. And of course she was high enough in the party to help ensure that certain people got into pole position, despite their lack of visibility in the party at that time.

Shug

The british response to the rise of the snp is not to oppose it but to infiltrate it. One your there what do you do?

Promote idiots, promote the greens and get rid of the only clear risk Salmond. Make it unelectable.

They did all of it and the good mps stood by.

Cactu6

Great tae have ye wae us Captain A.

We danced upon the my oh my.

Annie Jenkins!

We danced it.

To the bone.

Geri

An embarrassment & an arrogant misogynist. We seen that during the leadership debates & how he totally took over & controlled Loudon being permitted to speak at the recent Hamilton by-election.

He’s no leader or statesman.
He’s failed at every job he’s ever had. He’d hardly be a loss. Cheeky fecker.

If he wants to call yet another by-election it should be Sturgeons.

Iain

To be honest, the main part of his statement is:

‘that people did not vote for Ash in her constituency because of any personal vote’

Let’s think about this statement.

We vote for parties, not for candidates.

We can put up a dead donkey, and if it has a badge on it, people will vote for it.

Breeks


“Ash should do the decent thing, she should resign her seat – she was elected on an SNP ticket.”

The steaming fkg hypocrisy of this!

All these SNP tossers have been elected on a Scottish Independence ticket for the best part of a decade and time and time again simply abused those rock solid mandates as a personal meal ticket and a platform to promote their political delinquency, their bizarre Perverts Charter, GRR, and Hate Crime bullshit.

For the benefit of the stupid c*#!s amongst us, (looking at you, Yousaf, but sadly there’s quite a crowd of ‘em), Ash Regan IS doing the decent thing. She is honouring the central commitment to Independence, while the other parasitic, carpetbagging fkrs in the SNP simply continue to exploit it.

It’s those gobshite-ing charlatans who betray us, not Ash Regan, and not for the first time, they turn on the one person who does the right thing like a pack of demented feral dogs.

Fk em all. I’d impeach the whole fkg “Parliament”. Ditching that despicable Vichy colonial outpost and sacking the wankrs inside it, would certainly be “no great loss” to Scotland.

Jim Kennedy

”sacrificing her career” Have we not seen enough of careerists?

A Scot Abroad

OK, I live abroad, don’t get the local news in Scotland.

Is Alba actually doing anything? It appears to be a bit stagnant. Didn’t stand a candidate at Rutherglen and Hamilton West. Website is a bit dated and shonky, doesn’t appear dynamic.

Is Alba in a position to stand candidates in every constituency for Westminster and Holyrood? Has it got any policies for iScotland apart from a pretty generic “we’d like to join EFTA”?

The SNP is broken. We all understand that. But this is surely the time for Alba to come charging out from the traps with a passionate and credible Indy plan, and yet…. nothing much seems to be happening there. Even Salmond is quiet and retiring.

A Scot Abroad

Onlooker, at 11:29 pm,

I don’t take instructions from sweary loons such as you. So, push off, and perhaps try giving a wall of granite a really solid Glesca kiss.

Al Dente

What exactly is Yousaf’s measured response to the Hamas rampage of 7th October? You need to check your records. Why does he have relatives who went to Hamas-ruled Gaza despite a Home Office travel warning? He doesn’t deserve respect – he needs to go.

Brian McCulloch

Apparently people vote SNP because of the logo. I didn’t know that.

I, for one, have never voted for a party – always a person. (That’s why their name is in the ballot)

holymacmoses

AL Dente at 5.49

“I have four grandchildren in this home — a two-month-old baby, a four-year-old and today, two nine-year-old twins — their birthday,”
If you look at that statement you will see that they had a new-born grandchild and it was the birthday of their oldest grandchildren
The parents may have gone over to try and persuade this young family to leave?
Would the UK have allowed the El-Nakla family into the UK to live and work?
Are you rushing to judgement about the family of his wife whatever you think about Humza Yousaf?

A Scot Abroad says:
29 October, 2023 at 3:40 am
‘OK, I live abroad, don’t get the local news in Scotland.

Is Alba actually doing anything? It appears to be a bit stagnant’

As you say, you live abroad and have made yourself a foreigner to what is happening in your old country. Where and how you live is of no concern to anyone else but you and yours BUT how you comment on what is going on in Scotland is of concern to those of us who live here. Mr Salmond has shown astonishing patience, resilience and love of his country over the past very difficult years of his life. The Alba Party has been resurrected in dark times (for the whole world, not just for Scotland) and has done a sterling job of going to all corners of Scotland to begin to get the ashes of destruction shaken from the fledgling and get the cause of Independence flying to the heights of 2014 and beyond.
You remind me of the many a ‘phone a friend’ in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ who said that they don’t know the answer and then give the contestant a guess based on their ignorance.
It doesn’t help the situation here and certainly doesn’t enhance any ideas readers may have of your reasons for posting on a pro-independence page.
However, I’m pleased that Mr Wings shows the tolerance and patience of true seekers of independence in facilitating a space where all factions have a voice to respond to his hard work

Ruby

Am I back to being pre-moderated?

That’s fair enough I have been pretty ‘personally abusive’ to the trolls over the last few days.

Captain Yossarian

The Dean of the Faculty of Advocates said at the time of the leadership election that Regan was the outstanding candidate. That was him getting perilously close to political involvement which he should not do, but he obviously knew all of the candidates and thought that she was the best of them, so much better than the other two that he should say that.

That said, it’s a drop in the ocean. MacAskill is the outstanding Scottish voice at Westminster but he is powerless to get anything done and I suspect it will be the same for her at Holyrood. You actually need five times more than what you’ve got just now, at a minimum, but it’s no doubt a good start.

What you need is for these names to take-over the Nationalist movement instead of Humza and Robison and Flynn and that’s where Operation Branchform and the GE come in. If the results of the GE turn out to be as bad as everyone is predicting, then there will be a reduction in SNP income and if Branchform results in a criminal trial for senior members of the SNP, then the public will look for an alternative party to lead the Nationalist movement.

She spoke very well though and it appeared unscripted. She answered all the criticisms that will come her way. I like Salmond but his decision to appear on RTV made him a slightly divisive character and that was made twenty times worse by having to appear in Court. He is better the strategy man in the background with someone else leading the Party. Also, as David Hannah alludes to above, she is better looking that Alex Salmond.

In electing Humza though, the SNP elected the worst of all three candidates and the Party is now falling apart as a result. No-one even takes them seriously now and that is just about the worst thing that can happen to you in politics.

Captain Yossarian

holymacmoses – In relation to the criticisms you make of ASA, I am dealing with Scotgov just now in a matter that Ruby never tires of telling everyone about. In my opinion, it is the most dishonest administration in world government and so maybe ASA’s perspective is a valuable one? Will Scottish Labour be any better? That’s the question, isn’t it? (My guess is they will be no better).

ScottieDog

The SNP hasn’t fallen apart. It has been dismantled. Where is Murrell? Likely gone back to Whitehall for a job well done. I’m glad Ash has gone over to Alba as it seemed the common sense political home for here. As an Alba member, I’m very wary about who decides to cross over next. I sincerely hope that there’s no place for Neoliberal Freeport Kate Forbes in Alba.

Now is the time for Scotland to distance itself from the disaster that is U.K. foreign policy.

Red

Yousaf had been widely respected for his measured and mature response to the Gaza crisis, and the recipient of sympathy for his own relatives being trapped in the besieged enclave.

He should go there then. Like most Scottish people I don’t respect or want anything to do with Humza or his horrible family or his horrible party.

Robert Hughes

Master of Time and Space – Humza The Magnificent – having – amongst his other considerable ( eeehhh…) achievements ( uuummm ) outfoxed the Laws of Physics , is offering guarantees for something that happened in the past ie Ms Regan’s electoral victories : are guarantees not by definition given for/against future events ?

Quite liking the concept though – Retrospective Guarantees , hmmm , aye , we could work with that : eg I guarantee Mr Y did not win that ” leadership contest ” legit , but was WD40’d into position via the connivance of that fat guy that used run the SNP , baldy cunt , never seemed to dae anything except pick-up an equally fat salary and tryn get people jailed, I think he was * in a special relationship * wae , thingmae , fck , I forget her name tae , Hilarious Clinton wannabe …..she was always goin oan about the shite books she’d read n sayin’ how much she loved wummin , ‘specially they great nu wummin , the wans wae knobs ; aw fuck it , I cannae remember her name , wait…..Stoogie ? Stovies ? Stumpy ? something like that – aye , they two n some braw help from their good patriotic pals doon there in GCHQ . Wiz thame thit done it .

I can hereby give rock-solid guarantees that’s what will what did would’ve happened in the Mysterious Case of the Continuity Muppet.

Anywiy ….’mon the Ash , good onye , sista ; the right move for all concerned . While we’re at it …..’mon the ALBA , tae 🙂

Meanwhile elsewhere ……

” someone left the cake out in the rain ….” . The Cherry cake ; now it’s ” melting in the dark ” . Too bad , at one point it looked like an appetising dessert . Useless now , sling it

Alf Baird

Breeks @ 1:49 am

“I’d impeach the whole fkg “Parliament”. Ditching that despicable Vichy colonial outpost and sacking the wankrs inside it, would certainly be “no great loss” to Scotland.”

Yes, the people are hopefully beginning to realise that Holyrood/SG is a colonial administration; it is only there to protect the interest of the colonizer, through the levers of ‘indirect rule’.

And, as we see in its ‘mystifying’ laws and actions, it blocks independence and becomes ‘an implement of coercion’. This should not be a surprise as fascism aye lies at the root of colonialism.

Indirect colonial rule is arguably worse than direct rule, at least with the latter your enemy is not obscured. Which explains why, under British rule, few in the north of Ireland bother much with the colonial hoax of ‘devolution’, as nothing of substance really changes in a calcified colonial society.

Willie

The response by Humza Yousaf speaks volumes about him and his party.

Vicious and nasty in his utterances, he like his collapsing party, will not be long for the political world. He is no nationalist and the electorate now know it. Moreover he has a thing about indigenous white people. His anti white race rant, together with he and his wife’s attempts to set up and besmirch a popular Dundee nursery using all the levers of power he could muster tells us about the vile nature of the man.

But he and his party will be gone and in its place will come another. Independence has not gone away. Ash yesterday said she was the first of many. The first Alba member of Hollyrood there will without doubt be more.

The already dwindling minority SNP in Hollyrood just became a smaller minority. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Willie

And yes, as Alf Baird illustrates in his earlier comment, power devolved, or more accurately faux power devolved, is power retained.

And this is exactly what people are now starting to realise. A colonial administration, run by paid colonial administrators.

At least in the North of Ireland the function, or non function, of the devolved colonial assembly is recognised as such. And like the Good Friday Agreement, something that the Brits break at the drop of a hat.

Captain Yossarian

Alf – The last embers of the colonialist argument were extinguished a few hundred years ago and we’ve had two world wars since then which were fought alongside England.

Ironically, it is relatively modern colonialism that is being blamed for the Middle East war just now and the trouble is, both sides can say that they have right on their side and who can argue with that.

That’s the trouble with this colonialist argument. It goes absolutely nowhere and nor should it. In the UK it will never amount to any kind of confrontation as it has no popular support, from anyone.

John Main

@Al Dente 5:49

“He needs to go”

Soz, Al, but that’s ambiguous. Go where?

SteepBrae

Cpt Yossarian – two sweeping assertions that hold no water:

“That’s the trouble with this colonialist argument. It goes absolutely nowhere… In the UK… it has no popular support”.
Wrong.

“…both sides can say that they have right on their side and who can argue with that”.
Plenty.

Sven

Willie @ 09.10

I have the terrible feeling that as long as the D’Hondt closed list voting system prevails in Scotland we haven’t seen the end of Mr Yousaf & others of the troughers at Holyrood.

Viscount Ennui

Not sure that the pile-on on Forbes and Cherry is merited.

Both speak a lot of sense and appear to have integrity. Choosing to stay within the SNP in the hope that a half-decent leadership will emerge is not foolish IMHO. Both could serve in a future administration but for that to happen, we need to clear-out the troughers.

It is unlikely that Swinney will be unseated at the next HR GE but there is a chance that his conduct in office will catch-up with him at some point. I see that he has deleted his WA messages and probably for very good reason.

There is still hope that a nascent alliance of indy parties may provide enough grown-ups to populate a government and replace the air-heads like Gilruth, Slater et al who draw generous salaries for failing the nation.

Cherry and Forbes have a place even if you disagress with their stances on certain areas of policy.

John Main

@Alf Baird 8:54

I generally enjoy your efforts to shoehorn our complex Scottish political situation and history into your simple one-size-fits-all preconceived “colonialism” idea, but even if you are making it up as you go along, you have to stick to the accepted meanings of words if you hope to convert any alert reader.

Take your use of “fascism” in your post.

The only aspect of Scotland’s recent past that hints at fascism was the personality cult of the Supreme Leader. She who has now been deposed.

And as for rule by decree, with all opposition or criticism ruthlessly eliminated, which is one of the signatures of fascism, our posts on here this morning show how ludicrous that idea really is.

You can do better, Alf. “Fascist” is the catch-all meaningless insult hurled by the ignorant at those whose superior arguments they cannot counter.

Geri

Captain Yossarian

Plenty can argue with that. The fact a whole country needs permission for a referendum & a whole country is not in full control of its own resources & revenues is a big clue we are treated as colony.

There will be confrontation. People are more educated now since the dawn of the internet & aren’t stupid. England sucks the life force & wealth out of Scotland, Wales & NI to prop itself up. People are sick of it. Scotland has ruined her landscape for fucking windmills that generate power for England who then sell it back to us at a higher price & fck ppl who live remote. That will bite soon when ppl will ask what is the point of the union? What do we actually get out of this one sided deal? Can you name at least 5 things?

You admire Kenny? Try listening to him then eh?

As for RTV – pish. All British politicians have appeared on it. The BBC is far worse for propoganda, corruption & used as an arm of the government & ppl are charged for the privilege or face jail! The BBC could give P*tin a run for his money on state control so get over yourself.

Captain Yossarian

SteepBrae – Here’s the “sweeping statements” explained for you:

link to theguardian.com

The whole rest of the world has no difficulty in accepting this, but the worthies of Wings over Scotland have other ideas.

Johnlm

Humza is to Scottish politics what Jimmy Kr4nkie to Scottish basketball.

As Secretary for Health and Social Care (2021-2023), did he have a WhatsApp account?

Geri

Viscount Ennui

Forbes has various links to American government agencies. Her intentions lie elsewhere. It’s certainly not for Scottish independence. She’s called off AUOB twice in favour of attending American project conferences elsewhere.
She also had the same failed plan as Useless during the leadership debates & she totally screwed over Regan not only over GRR but also the membership figures of the SNP.

Cherry has turned. She had a meeting with Useless & suddenly all of her concerns were addressed. She’ll be standing for re election. Surprisingly, has never used her position as KC to advance indy. Just to stop Brexit. Make of that what you will..

I believe Swinney has already confirmed he’ll not be seeking re election. He’s jumping along with the other rats..

There is no SNP to rescue. GRR has killed them stone dead.

Grendel

Some time back I submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament which called on them to make it a legal requirement that if an elected representative of a political party resigned mid-term or otherwise no-longer represented their party, that this should trigger an automatic by-election.

On too many occasions, we have seen the blatant hypocrisy spouted by political parties when one of their councillors or MP’s resigns, or when for example a disgraced MSP resigns only to continue to remain on the public purse until election time. Surely, all political parties would support a move to clean up this grey and shady area of politics? Of course not!

On 22nd February 2023, the Public Petitions Committee met to discuss this very issue,and the outcome was quick and clear: The Scottish Government stated they had no plans to amend this legislation. No MSP had any comment on this, either for or against. Conservative MSP Alexander Stewart called on the petition to be closed and the committee unanimously agreed. Unbelievably, the reason they closed it and unanimously agreed to do so was that the “Scottish Government had no plans to change the legislation”! Isn’t the point of the petitions committee to discuss the merits or otherwise of the petitions, and recommend to the parliament whether it should pursue them or not – not the other way round!

I was quite clear from the beginning when I submitted the petition that it would achieve no change, turkeys after all don’t vote for Christmas, and politicians ultimately look after No1 – that seat on the gravy train must be protected at all costs!

So they next time that there’s a call for a Councillor or MSP to “do the decent thing” and resign, point the hypocrites in the direction of this clip, and ask why they didn’t support it when they had the chance:
link to scottishparliament.tv

Captain Yossarian

Viscount Ennui – Your remarks re Swinney are interesting and I suspect you know something? If you do, keep it to yourself or the Wings crew will be all over you like maggots.

I produced two letters a week ago. One was written by John Swinney and the other was written by a government minister of equal rank to John Swinney, but his government was an overseas government.

The difference in honesty and accountability would astound anyone who had the opportunity to read the two letters side by side. So, what’s coming to John Swinney, whatever that is, is long overdue.

Mia

“Indirect colonial rule”

I would say Alf that indirect colonial rule stepped up a notch towards direct colonial rule when the political fraud Sturgeon, installed the unelected representative of the crown in the middle of what should be a democratically elected cabinet.

Since that moment, that representative of the crown has made a complete mockery of democracy by stealing control of Scotland’s legislative body from the people of Scotland and then transferring it to the crown.

The real reason why the political fraud Sturgeon installed that unelected member of the crown in her cabinet became more than evident the minute this crown representative sprang to immediate action to stop the referendum bill entering Holyrood, but did not lift a finger to stop the GRR bill, despite knowing the GRR crap legislation was on a collusion course with UK legislation.

She acts to crush popular sovereignty and temporarily steal control of the legislative body from the people of Scotland hen the threat of independence looms. If that is not direct absolute rule from the crown, what is.

The Claim of Right 1689 is rather clear. Absolute rule goes directly against Scotland’s constitution and represents grounds to remove the crown from the monarch who dares to impose it.

It is my personal opinion that Sturgeon, by facilitating the transfer of control of the legislative body from the people of Scotland to the crown, violated the fundamental principle of Scotland’s popular sovereignty in Scotland, and, in doing so, violated that Claim of Right. It is also my opinion that, doing so, would have been enough grounds for trsn prior to 1706, and because the Claim of Right is still extant, it is my personal opinion the same applies today.

It is also my personal opinion the crown, by abusing its position of power to impose temporary absolute rule to forcefully stop that bill entering Holyrood, also violated the Claim of Right, and therefore indirectly the treaty of union.

I have no doubt Sturgeon is and has always been a two-faced coward who hid behind a PR persona to avoid showing her true colours and her true master. A two faced coward who hid behind the imaginative power of Westminster over Scotland, which only exists because Scotland’s self-serving representatives insist in handing free vetos to it, to avoid managing the anti-union majorities in Holyrood and Westminster for the purpose they were voted in: to deliver independence. A two faced coward who often hid behind English law convention to avoid upholding Scotland’s popular sovereignty. A two faced coward who hid behind the crown, a representative of the crown, an English court and English judges so they could stop the referendum for her because she had run out of road to kick the referendum can down.

Now we have the next crown tool, Yousaf, taking that absolute rule up another notch. Without any election to endorse him or his new manifesto, he has now ditched the pro-independence ticket of the SNP and has forced the SNP to take the road of devolution. Never mind he completely lacks the democratic mandate to do so because both Sturgeon and Yousaf are proving beyond reasonable doubt they are no democrats. They are crown tools doing all what they can to assist the crown installing absolute rule on Scotland at the expense of frustrating Scotland’s popular sovereignty and shredding democracy whenever any move towards independence is to be taken.

And then, this faux republican and faux democrat, has the brass neck to demand resignation from the only MSP so far, who who has the integrity to actually acknowledge that devolution is not “the ticket” the people of Scotland voted for nor the manifesto the people of Scotland voted for neither in 2021 nor 2019.

I honestly think we have past beyond the point of “indirect colonial rule”. We are very much under direct colonial rule now. For as long as we have that unelected crown representative in the middle of our cabinet stealing control of the legislative body for the crown, for as long as we have the crown office stuck to the jugular of our prosecution service and using it to quash political dissent, for as long as that crown office continues to direct our police force towards stitching up our pro-independence leaders, pro-women rights defenders and pro-Assange speakers, this is very much direct colonial rule and, in direct violation of the Claim of Right, absolute rule.

Geri

Captain Yossarian

The guardian LOL!

The Brits do love to blame everyone else for the mess they created.
Suddenly the bullshit, *both sides* props up time & time again like we’re supposed to believe that shite.
One has a nuclear arsenal & state of the art surveillance against ppl with rocks FFS!

When did P*lestinians start throwing ppl out their homes in Isr*el to make way for settler militia? I must’ve missed that bit..

TURABDIN

CAPTAIN YOSSARIAN
The colonialism in the socalled Middle East/Near East/Levant etc began in premodern times. In the case of many ethnicities, including mine, it was the rapid Arab invasions beginning in the 7th c from what is now contemporary Saudi Arabia that triggered the major substantive changes. Progressive Arabization and Islamization turned former majorities into minorities and made the contemporary «Islamic» MidEast.
This emergence from the periphery was driven by the novel syncretic «book» religion of revealed to Muhammad and its essential legalism which still existentially dominates the region.
There is no secular zone, all is essentially «religious» and subject to the legal schools of the Islamic dispensation. Non muslims are tolerated but subject to limited «civil rights». Non muslims may not have authority over Muslims is the basic rule.
Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians etc used to pay a form of protection money called «jizya».
The later enlightened Ottomans abolished it and the post WW1 colonial powers sought to protect religious and ethnic minorities but according to their own political interests.
The region is a complex jigsaw of cultures, languages and dialects the notional dichotomy of Arab v Jew is only skimming the surface, try Copt, Druze, Alawite, Turkmen, Syriacs, Yazidi, Kurds, Maronite etc. and don’t forget Sunni and Shii.

Merganser

Shug @ 1.04 am. “…and the good MP’s stood by”

They can’t have been very good then if they just stood by and let it happen.

It seems like there was no need to infiltrate the SNP. They were just allowed to get on with it themselves after Salmond went and did the job themselves.

Humza has now become the whatsapp patsy as well as the fall guy for everything else. You can see why no big hitter wanted the top job, and why they all backed him. He was deluded enough to think he got the job on merit. Sucker.

No doubt The Captain will be saying that Humza and Sturgeon caught redactivitis from Swinney over the deleted messages.

When the SNP claims to be transparent, they actually mean trans-parent. What a load of sick perverted troughers to have running a country into oblivion.

SteepBrae

Cpt Yossarian 9.59am::

“The whole rest of the world has no difficulty in accepting this, but the worthies of Wings over Scotland have other ideas.”

Guardian readers perhaps but “the whole rest of the world”?
Plenty of information to the contrary, not least at CraigMurray.org.

Margaret Wilson

I’m glad Ash Reagan has gone over to Alba. I don’t think they’ll get far without a good few SNP defectors and I wish we could persuade a Joanna Cherry to move as she’s one of the smartest of the bunch. I couldn’t believe my husband yesterday when he told me he quite liked our FM. I can only assume it’s in response to his stance on Gaza. However, Ash’s move and the fact that Elon Musk is giving him a hard time by labelling him a racist will be annoying to him. I remember watching that speech when he was going on about “white” this and “white” that and I felt like saying, well Yousef, you do live in a predominantly “white” country.

James Che

John Main.

What else can you call it except Colonialism of Scotland.

We are not joined with England by two parliaments in a union,

Scotland does not share a union of Crowns with England before or after the fallacious treaty.

We are not legally connected in any legal way to Westminster parliament.

And it was decided in 1707 not to give the Scots a vote to join the treaty of union after it was debated. As Scots probably would in all likely hood vote “No”

So Why is Westminster claiming Sovereignty of Its parliament “Westminster” In London, England other than Colonising the kingdom and territory of Scotland,

It has no official ties to Scotland, its parliament or its Crown,

stuart mctavish

Al Dente @5:49

Bigger concern is UN failure to provide an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas’s terrorist attack (and Israel’s criminal response) since, notwithstanding reports of a US carrier group (at yemen end of the red sea) shooting down 4 cruise missiles that entered its kill zone when it all kicked off*, it risks calling into question the current Alba strategy of taking the time to build consensus for appeal to a potentially (hopelessly) corrupt international community..

1 yet more so if you consider that only another 22 (SNP) MPs need to join Alba in order to declare independence in accordance with a slightly improved version of the simple majority of seats strategy proposed by ALL the SNP constituencies last month, later this afternoon!

*not to mention, given a reputation for not dissimilar collateral damages, the possibility of same having been friendly fired in the name of democracy/ January 6

Ian Smith

Outside the left wing echo chambers I cannot see how Humza has had a respected response to the Gaza situation.

We have enough problems at home and dealing with our immediate neighbours to have a FM distracted by personal connection to millenia old middle eastern conflicts that are punctured with regular slaughter.

James Che

John Main,

Westminster claim Queen Anne was queen of Scotland and therefore could Act on Scotlands behalf in 1706/ 1707,

But queen Anne only became queen Anne of Scotland by the english law of Regency being “Extend” to Scotland in 1708.

Geri

Well said Mia

The SNP need to go. We need to elect educated ppl to defend Scotland’s rights & the airhead Rihanna Spears of this world aren’t going to do it. The SNP can’t be saved. It’s polluted tae fck & in every single echelon of Holyrood there are bad actors & hidden agendas.

If only we could rewind 9 wasted years..

Captain Yossarian

TURBADIN – I lived and worked there for a number of years and so I am aware of some of this, but you obviously know what you are talking about. It’s an entirely different social structure, deeply engrained and that’s the way it is, but once you understand and show acceptance of it, you are welcomed. That was my experience. I miss the place really. Your first impression of it though is that it is so different, you will never fit but I had no problems being accepted there. I have more problems being accepted here.

James Che

Turabdin.

Was it not Henry Kissinger that said,
First we will take seven eastern countries, and then ruskie and china, while vice president of America.

Geri

Dumbza & that speech will haunt him forever but whoever wrote that shite & the presiding officer who allowed it spat out in the chamber should be immediately dismissed from office.
I dunno what possessed him. But he’s not the only dunce in the room.

sadscot

Still, the very idea of Mhairi Hunter calling anyone a “political amateur” is pretty hilarious.
On a more serious level it just shows you what a vicious bunch of people now infest the SNP, the female of the species being the worst.

Alex

Humza is a petulant child. He’s been giving everything on a silver platter regardless of his failures. He has never been told no and surrounded himself with “yes” people.

A proper SPAD / Media person should have vetoed that statement because it’s brutal. But that’s the SNP these days. You do anything that isn’t with us and we will say you’re one of the enemy. Sooner they are gone the better.

James Che

John Main.

King charles 111 was not crowned king of Scot or Scotland.
As the daily rag down south put it,

The crown was to small for Charles head,
But it was to small for his mothers head and all the other royal heads since Charles the 11 was in a full scottish ceremony to be anointed, take the Oath to Scotland and actually become Crowned monarch of Scotland,
Queen Anne was never in a full ceremony to become crowned Queen of Scotland or Scots.
Heresay from unauthorised Westminster deciding whom and when she would become Queen Anne of Scotland and Scots in 1708,

Red

TURABDIN says:

Good writeup.

It’s a horrible place, and we are very lucky to live in a Christian country.

Republicofscotland

Instead of attacking her leaving the party, both of them should ask why Ash Regan decided to move to the Alba party.

Yousaf and Hunter know why Regan left the SNP, they’ll both be pleased that she’s gone, there’s no room in the SNP for those who support an independent Scotland.

Beauvais

All that dosh that was spent on Humza to attend Hutchie Grammar and he turned out so unrefined.

That was money right down the drain, just like the donations sent to the SNP ‘ring fenced’ indyref fund.

Agent x

Interesting that Lorna Slater – Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity in the Scottish Government since 2021, said this morning that she doesn’t have an official government phone.

She also said that independence is not a red line for the Greens in joining with any other party!

Beauvais

Yousaf is so worked up about Ash Regan’s defection to Alba because now she’s effectively the Alba leader at Holyrood and she can embarrass him at FM’s Questions.

Johnlm

There is more than one way to skin a cat as they say.
Watching a post by amazingpolly yesterday, where she complains about Quebec unfriendliness to the English language.
This seems to me to be a response to the (probably rigged) 1995 referendum where Yes failed by under 1% and the subsequent refusal to allow ballot inspection and to roadblock further referendums.
Unhappiness for all, is assured when democracy is thwarted. Watch this space.

link to rumble.com

James Che

Captain Yossarian.

You are having a bit more difficulty understanding Scotland apparently being a entirely different Structure but once you understand and show acceptance of it, you are welcomed.

Perhaps you have more difficulty here because you have not understood all the Scots wishes are not solely connected to economy, or infrastructure of Schools or of a devolved second hand Colonial parliament sent to manage Scotland,

Maybe if you added these to your acceptance that the Scots want to run their own Country, have its own parliament, hold onto its own culture, keep its on land and sea, hold on to its on languages, fed up of being told they are to wee, to stupid and to poor, while its resources are being transported out of its country, fed up of being a giant holiday park, where seldom can a young Scot live in their own homes, where are local naturlised animals are being culled to make way for more aggressive animals without consultation with Scots in Scotland, whilst under Westminster UK parliament

And not be out numbered by retirees, subsumed and a extinct nation in their own Country,
Then it will be easier to be excepted in Scotland

Cherrybank

Interesting Irish produced three part documentary on PBS freeview channel 84 today from 2.40 to 6.05 PM.’The Irish Civil War’ tells how former comrades fought a brutal Civil War over the terms of the peace treaty with the British.

Captain Yossarian

SteepBrae – world press and world opinion don’t all defer to Craig Murray. On Channel 4 News for example, the reporters don’t call Craig Murray for his opinion on world events.

John Main

@TURABDIN 10:25

Great post – thanks.

dasBlimp

James Che says:
29 October, 2023 at 10:48 am
Turabdin.

Was it not Henry Kissinger that said,
First we will take seven eastern countries, and then ruskie and china, while vice president of America.

No. That was Queen Anne.

Gordon

@Ian Brotherhood 12.10am

Too right – the Crown’s clown

John Main

James Che

Ash Regan stood for election as leader of the SNP on a policy platform that included the intention to make every future election to HR or WM a plebiscitary one on Independence.

I now hope and expect that she will use her considerable influence and ability to make this Alba policy. I most certainly hope that this policy was one of the bargaining chips she put on the table while negotiating her move to Alba.

The plebiscitary election pledge has always been available to any Scottish political party. It is not without difficulties and complications, but then, that caveat applies to Independence as a whole. Scotland’s “leaders” need to be prepared to do the work, Indy is not going to be gifted to us on a plate.

Whether Scotland is a colony or not, our “leaders” have the tools in the box to sort it. If the “leaders” we have lack the balls to use these tools, then we must elect new ones.

Regan’s move to Alba could be the start of the process that will allow Scotland to change course. WM election is 2024 or 2025, HR is 2026. Ample time for Alba to get its act together.

But, right now, I’m building a house of cards on no info. Was Regan’s policy a temporary vote catcher, or was it a settled and determined plan to break the Referendum stalemate? We shall see.

Stoker

Mhairi Hunter, a coward and a bully on every possible level. If it wasn’t for the modern creation of social media nobody would know who she was. A typically modern piece of shit constantly mouthing off from the safety of her social media accounts.

And the fake ‘First Minister’ gets in on the act showing once again his cowardly bully credentials. Then goes on to talk about “principles”? Is that the pot calling the kettle black? Does he think we’ve all forgotten how he was appointed? A fake racist bullying coward on every level possible.

James Che

Scotlands ” Claim of right ” will always exist regardless of wether Westminster parliament acknowledge it or not,

Because it was made prior to the treaty of union,

And Westminster parliament dissolved and extinguished the Scottish parliament from treaty of union twice, just to make sure there was no Scottish parliament in union with the Parliament of England.

The Claim of Right existed before the political parliamentary union and it continues to exist after our Scottish parliament was thrown out of England,

Because it was passed in our Scottish parliament as Scots law in Scotland,
And although our Scottish parliament was made void as a party to the treaty of union, it could not be made void in Scotland by Westminster, nor by Queen Anne of England in 1707.
As she was never made queen of Scotland other than by Westminster parliament itself,
Etymology counts

Westminster parliament cannot repeal any Scottish law after it dissolved the Scottish parliament from the treaty of union in 1707.

It is still Scots law and part of Scotlands constitution, enabling us to the “right to self determination”
.
If and when we are ready to accept the crookedness and deceit played and being played upon Scotland.
We will walk away, with our Claim of Right intact regardless.

James Che

Westminster parliament has been the sole parliament in the parliament of Great Britain since 1707.

James Che

John Main,

Indeed all the Scottish political parties under Westminster legislation of the Scotland Act and devolved government have had ample opportunities to use better tools than referendums and elections processes to gain independence for Scotland.

They have better access to records in Westminster than any of us,
I wonder often why they keep quiet about the other legal tools route out.
For instance it is three years past since one of them informed myself of all the breaches of the treaty of union made by Westminster,

Perhaps some may loose their employment payments. Better together,

Captain Yossarian

James Che – I suspect dasBlimp is a troublemaker. A smart-Alec. Maybe MI5 or MI6? Keep your eye on him please. Ruby too – this guy is a plant. Anyway, the structure of modern Scotland is that we have a devolved administration. All areas of public life that are under the control of that devolved administration have deteriorated significantly and there is public unease about that. We nevertheless have a £Billion black hole in our public finances and no-one really knows where that has all gone. The previous FM was placed under arrest and is currently under investigation. Financial shenanigans. The house of cards is collapsing and the SNP are being shown as each day passes as being no more than a personality cult. The leader is gone and now they are fighting amongst themselves. Regan has left and the way I understood her speech to Alba, she will not be the last and so that gives the Nationalist movement hope and optimism. I am not a Nationalist as you know but I have no difficulty with Nationalists and I hope that they manage to turn this around quickly. My attitude is probably that of the majority in that a strong Nationalist movement, that is respected, is good for Scotland. The putrid folk you have had representing your cause for the past 10-years have probably set all of us back 20-years, but it is for you to sort that out. I have dealt with them directly James and so I know what I am talking about.

Dundee Scot

For the SNP loyalists who suffer from amnesia, here’s a short trip down memory lane of how Salmond promoted Yousaf:
“… in 2009, Yousaf went on to work as a parliamentary assistant for both Alex Salmond and Sturgeon. Prior to his election to parliament in 2011, he worked in the SNP’s party headquarters as a communications officer. Appointed as a junior minister under Salmond in 2012, Yousaf served as Minister for External Affairs and International Development until 2014.” (wiki)

Young Lochinvar

Yesterdays hate figure with a page reserved for next years SNP cultists hate-figure calendar; the Cultists will by now be pulling their hair out trying on social media to defend Lorna Slaters statement today that Independence is not a red line that would prevent them doing a deal with Scotch Labour.

Parasites, just like trans spokesperson Ellie Gommersall said as much earlier about their support, much earlier in fact, when politicos were first predicting a possible Labour win.

Entryists, zealots; infesting a host party in power and ruining it.

The Greens and trans are only interested in their doctrine and a willing host, but like a monkey swinging through the trees hold onto the first branch until they have a good hold on the second branch before letting go of the first and forgetting about it as having served its purpose and can be forgotten about.

SNP; fools! fools! fools! letting this happen.

dasBlimp

Captain Yossarian says:
29 October, 2023 at 12:36 pm

James Che – I suspect dasBlimp is a troublemaker. A smart-Alec. Maybe MI5 or MI6? Keep your eye on him please. Ruby too – this guy is a plant.

Yikes! I’ve been rumbled. The Captain says I’m a plant (is he trying to imply I’m a pansy? Not very progressive that is it). Anyway, just received the latest orders from HQ to put ‘Operation Obfuscation’ in place. What to do. What to do. I know, I’ll change my name to something else. They’ll never catch me. Ha ha.

Johnlm

Patrons.
Please, don’t play rough in the Yossarian Soft Play Area.
Don’t burst his Channel4 balloons and crap in the GuardianBalls pool

Please accept all cheques from DundeeScot from the GeorgeGalloway Bank.

A Scot Abroad

James Che, @ 12:15pm,

re the “Claim of Right” and a Scottish Constitution,

Forgive my language, but that’s all totally meaningless, and in a legal sense, non-existent.

There might once have been, pre 1707, some unwritten general agreement about how Scotland governed itself, but frankly that got changed by each and every King as it suited them, was never put to the Scots as a people to affirm that, and never written down. 317 years later, it’s worth even less than the square root of fuck all.

Merganser

Dundee Scot @ 12.38pm.

Just goes to show that the talent pool in the SNP was pretty dire much earlier than had been thought. The dire did however turn into diarrhea when Sturgeon took over.

James Che

The very people who started myself down the path of research records was a SNP leader,
They were enthusiastic in telling me of all they had read in the library of Westminster and in Hansard years ago on how the treaty of union had been breached multiple times,

At a later date we held another conversation regards how invalid the treaty of union was after I had done further research, they acknowledged they had read this also.
They commented that this was true and a perspective they had not of, and asked if I would consider standing for them in elections,

But all theses years later there is not a mention or discussion on either of these anomalies, even though they are aware on the two subjects,.

This is where I become a cynic, of politicians that with hold this information from the independence supporters and prefer to take the never ending long process of elections and referendums.

It is 7 years past that a labour party member entered the Snp, and held a heated debate with my spouse and I on Sovereignty of the Scots,

They told us then that they intended removing Scots Sovereignty to parliament.
At the time we thought they meant the devolved parliament, and this is what we disagreed with.

Little did we realise then the labourites in the Snp meant Westminster parliament which the Advocate and Sturgeon did through the supreme court,.

The devolved parliament has continuously been working against independence not for,

That is why if the Scottish leaders pretending to support Scottish independence are not going to inform you of the information they know of that could end the treaty of union in an instant,
I post that information here,
It can be checked by anyone of you,

Captain Yossarian

Johnlm – I was just warning dasBlimp that if was to be outed as a Unionist then the Wings tag-team would be round to pan his windows in…….and up pops Johnlm, pefectly on cue.

Red

Dundee Scot says:
29 October, 2023 at 12:38 pm
For the SNP loyalists who suffer from amnesia, here’s a short trip down memory lane of how Salmond promoted Yousaf:
“… in 2009, Yousaf went on to work as a parliamentary assistant for both Alex Salmond and Sturgeon. Prior to his election to parliament in 2011, he worked in the SNP’s party headquarters as a communications officer. Appointed as a junior minister under Salmond in 2012, Yousaf served as Minister for External Affairs and International Development until 2014.” (wiki)

Wikipedia tells lies.

Humza Yousaf has never “worked” a day in his life at anything. Everything he has was handed to him.

Robert Louis

Haha. Lorna Slater, the Canadian nobody from the ‘green’ party gave the game away today in an interview. She and her chums have zero interest in independence, and it would not prevent the greens going into coalition with Labour at the next Scottish election.

The greens are as committed to Scottish independence, as Boris Johnson is to the truth. Neither can be trusted.

I think we can now be quite clear, the ‘greens’ will say or do anything to keep their cushy cabinet posts and salaries at Holyrood. The SNP were mugs to even think about working with them.

Johnlm

Yosser.
Did I mention theZeppelin?
I blame your education system.
Let us get back to the trivium.

Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh

Thanks to Captain Yossarian (@ 29 Oct, 9.59am) for his link to the Guardian’s Middle East crisis article in which Jonathan Freedland poignantly writes:

“For these hardcore supporters of each side, to allow even a twinge of human sympathy for the other is to let the team down. […] This is where you wind up when you view this conflict in monochrome, as a clash of right v wrong. Because the late Israeli novelist and peace activist Amos Oz was never wiser than when he described the Israel/Palestine conflict as something infinitely more tragic: a clash of right v right. Two peoples with deep wounds, howling with grief, fated to share the same small piece of land.”

Robert Hughes

Quite * astonishing * ( no really ) statement by Lorna’s Later re ” working with Labour ” . What more evidence do the numbskulls @ Nu SNP need to prove the parasitical character of the Idiot Greens ?

Here we have a set-up where they ( Greens ) have done/are doing incalculable damage to them ( N SNP ) , have now stated they’ll ditch the latter and align with an avowed Unionist Party – if expedient .

And what’s the response of Humza’s Halfwits ? ” Regan is a …..whatever ” . L.O.L

SNP have entered the Twilight Zone . Don’t wait up for them

Johnlm

Yossarian
Did you combine my name to a post which you concocted?
You are a sad individual.

Chas

It is fairly obvious that the SNP is on it’s knees. Who is going to put it out of it’s misery? I suspect that it is too long to wait for a General election therefore voters are unable to but……….you never know.

Mr Salmond has stated previously that he has enough ‘dirt’ to apply the killing blow. Over to you Alex.

Ruby

Alex says:
29 October, 2023 at 11:01 am

Humza is a petulant child. He’s been giving everything on a silver platter regardless of his failures. He has never been told no and surrounded himself with “yes” people.

Important to remember that he’s a boy child.

Southernbystander

I heard a short report on this on R4 which finished with the line from Yousaf saying her departure was ‘no great loss’. Did he not say this about someone else recently too?

I was genuinely surprised – it came across as immature and simply not what a leader does in this situation: you thank them for their service, say you are sorry to see them go, but it is best to be honest about a major shift of political allegiance and the party must forge ahead regardless blah blah. Instead we get petulance, childishness and blatant sour grapes, the very opposite of what a leader should be doing.

It is hard to take a political arena / party seriously that descends to the level of ‘good riddance’ when a previous leadership candidate moves to a party with broadly quite a similar politics and with the exact same one big aim that defines both the SNPs and Alba’s existence.

Johnlm

Yossarian.
Did you combine my name to a post which you concocted?
You are a sad individual.

James Che

Captain Yossarian,

Appreciate the warning, although I do not respond to his comments, when I see the name Injust by pass it, thanks any way,

The problem I have with the devolved government that the EU advised Westminster to put in place to give the Scots representation,

Is as follows,

1: that the Scottish people had no representation in Westminster until the Scotland Act,

2: that relates to no Scottish parliament representation in Westminster until the Scotland Act,

3: if the Scottish parliament was not in Westminster parliament, when did it cease to be in Westminster parliament?

4: the official date it ceased to be in Westminster parliament by “proclamation” was 1707,

5: The Scottish parliament being dissolved and extinguished in the year 1707 from Westminster parliament…. it broke/ breached and voided all of the treaty of “;union” at its very conception,

6: so fast forward to Westminster (ignoring all the other illegal Acts passed during this long time period for the moment), Passed by an the Act of the English Westminster parliament,
as there is (no Scottish parliament in it since 1707) called, ” The Scotland Act”:, which by the way would also have breached the treaty of union articles had Scotland remained and not been kicked out in 1707;
Was Colonisation of Scotlands land and seas, as Scotlands parliament was no longer joined to Englands parliament.
The problem here is that Englands parliament was acting as colonial administrator of Scotland since it had voided the Scottish parliament from Westminster in 1707.

7: Bringing you up to present times, The Scotland Act, devolved government to Scotland is illegal in every sense of “a international treaty”, as it admits there was no treaty of union with Scotlands parliament and Scottish representation in the parliament and England prior to this date,

Summarising these recorded historical events it is evident that Scotland ceased to be in a international treaty with England when the Scottish parliament was dissolved by Westminster parliament from the treaty in 1707.

The devolved parliament in Scotland and the Crown of England resting within that devolved government to Scotland is illegal being as there was no treaty of union between parliaments or Crown kingdoms,

The crown in Scotland was also dissolved when Scotland was dissolved from the agreement and the treaty of union.

Luigi

Here we go. One mp and one msp down already. Good going, Humza. The trickle has begun. Will this be followed by random exits, or has a wee bit of sequential devastation already been planned to maximise effect? Humza better hope it’s the former, or he’ll be gone by Christmas.

Red

Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:
29 October, 2023 at 1:52 pm
Thanks to Captain Yossarian (@ 29 Oct, 9.59am) for his link to the Guardian’s Middle East crisis article in which Jonathan Freedland poignantly writes:

“For these hardcore supporters of each side, to allow even a twinge of human sympathy for the other is to let the team down. […] This is where you wind up when you view this conflict in monochrome, as a clash of right v wrong. Because the late Israeli novelist and peace activist Amos Oz was never wiser than when he described the Israel/Palestine conflict as something infinitely more tragic: a clash of right v right. Two peoples with deep wounds, howling with grief, fated to share the same small piece of land.”

That’s very sad. Sounds like we need to keep foreign problems out of our own wee bit of land.

A Scot Abroad

Southernbystander,

Years ago, as a young man, I spent a year in Pakistan. A very good and informative part of my growing up. And what I learned, among many things, is that in their cultural life, loyalty is like an onion. At the centre, self. Then successively close family and more distant family. Then clan, then tribe, then province, then nation. There’s little room in any of that for friends and acquaintances, unless they fit into one of the groups above. And overlayed, Pakistani politics is a matter of clan and tribe.

This set of attitudes is absolutely ingrained and never changes. For any reason whatsoever. It is passed down from generation to generation.

Humza Yousaf is a child of Pakistani immigrants to Glasgow. Given his cultural heritage, how forgiving would you expect him to be of someone that abandons his clan politics and defects to an opposing party that threatens his own?

David Hannah

5,000 asylum seekers are to get free rail and bus travel. At a cost of £2 million. £400 per person.

And btw. Just so you know. The NHS is now filled with thousands of ‘international students’ given free homes in Glasgow to work in the NHS.

Charity starts in Africa with Humza Yousaf.

And I hear that Rosebank Oil field is to be refined in norway. 80 per cent of the cash going to the Norwegian state. And the other 20 per cent going to Isreal.

What about the Scottish men and our prosperity? Do we not matter?

Captain Yossarian

“Johnlm says:
29 October, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Patrons.
Please, don’t play rough in the Yossarian Soft Play Area.
Don’t burst his Channel4 balloons and crap in the GuardianBalls pool

Please accept all cheques from DundeeScot from the GeorgeGalloway Bank.”

I was replying to the above, John. My favourites on here are nearly all Nationalists (you are not one of them, sadly). I’m listening to the football just now and calling in here from time to time and so I am not preoccupied with a visceral hatred of “the other”. Perhaps you are?

David Hannah

I’m really sick of this country. Sometimes you just want out. We’re the fools for putting up with this.

As far as I’m concerned Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon have destroyed our country.

I see that Nicola’s been deleting her WhatsApp messages from the Covid 19 inquiry. I wonder what she’s got to hide? Most likely that she ignored the advice of doctors and nurses and health executives not to send covid 19 into care homes.

Johnlm

Yossarian.
Did you combine my name to a post which you concocted?
You are a very sad individual.

Red

David Hannah says: What about the Scottish men and our prosperity?

We get to pay for it all, and be insulted by jealous vile racists such as Humza Yousaf.

David Hannah

m.youtube.com/watch?v=QoUg66WY66s

Full Scottish. Here it here first. 5,000 illegal asylum seekers – not refugees – we know there’s a difference between a refugee, and a romanian begger, drug dealer, sex worker international gypsy traveller baby machine that wants the free house and expects to stay with all the benefits.

We know the difference between a refugee, and aylsum seeker and illegal immigrant. Because they don’t want to work. We see them begging on the streets. I never give a foreign beggar that money for that reason. Not racist to say it’s fact.

Well… Thanks to the SNP. The asylum seekers the, 5,000 illegals Priti Patel couldn’t get rid off from their free house. Well they can now roam across Scotland on all bus and rail travel to their hearts content. Stealing and pick pocketing to their hearts content everywhere they go all paid for of course. By the Scottish tax payer.

This pisses me off. It’s ruined my Sunday. And I’m glad I’ve got it off my chest.

David Hannah

I think I’m going to claim asylum before I end up in the mental institution because I see just how unfair the welfare state is. How this country is stacking itself against the indigenous Scottish men. We’re giving our future away for free. Not building houses. And giving out freebies to Johnny foreigner who’s here illegally.

What a disgrace. You’ve heard it here first. Free bus and rail travel for the drug addled illegal immigrants on asylum processing lists. That should give them enough time to get knocked up and, of course their husband will have to arrive. The free travel should help them evade Priti Patel’s vans. That’s when they not paying taxes on the deliveroo just eat bikes.

The world 1-scottish men nil. Thanks to the SNP. Typical.

I’m off to claim asylum.

David Hannah

They get the free houses because of cramped living conditions that normal Scottish guys are paying over the olds for a studio flat where you can’t swing a cat.

But Johnny foreigner gets all the freebies. Not the refugees. The illegals. And the free house because the baby is more important. And hubby will need to have his visa granted so can raise the child. Meanwhile they won’t pay any taxes and work in the black market. That’s how it goes.

I’m not paying for it. I object!

David Hannah

How many of you would like a wee trip to Inverness on the train?

A wee day out to Oban on the train?

£72.50 return.

That’s all right. Become an asylum seeker. And travel for free.

Not in my name!

Jamie

The comparisons with Scottish Labour are correct and the similarities grow by the day.

The sooner independence minded folk see the ight like Ash Regan and join/vote Alba the better for Scotland.

Onwards and upwards. Yes we can.

Captain Yossarian

Johnlm – You are a thoroughly obtuse, loathsome and tiresome critter, aren’t you?

James Che – As I understand it, the way it works is that if you have acquiesced to a situation in that you have lived within it and made it work, then you have accepted it. It is difficult to turn the clock back even by a year and make the case that the situation was not understood, or was not properly agreed, or it was agreed but by the wrong people. That’s the problem you have. You are trying to turn the clock back 300-odd years and even if you are correct, and maybe you are, precedent tells us that the situation cannot be changed.

Johnlm

Yossarian.
Did you combine my name to a post which you concocted?
You are a very sad individual.
Hopefully, you can clear up this point.

David Hannah

link to greens.scot

Of course it’s a green policy. I object in the strongest possible terms to this. I hope media can pick up on it say. Not in my name.

Johnlm

David Hannah
Be aware that we are probably being played in some fashion.

Problem, reaction, solution.

link to rumble.com

See also Peter Sutherland and the (far right???) Kalergi Plan

Graf Midgehunter

Mandy Rhodes (Holyrood) knows a failure when she sees one:

link to holyrood.com

Won’t be long now before the present incumbent failure gets his balls roasted. 🙂

Alastair

Independence- negotiate, ask.
These are reactive terms assumptions the power and dominance of the other side.
I prefer manage, do. Proactively ,in control.
Dissolving the Union is a moral question but also a legal one. To engage before a strong legal foundation is in place will always place you on the back foot.
We have our own Scottish Legal System and Courts so the proposition of ending the Union should be tested in the Scottish Courts as soon as possible. Once that’s is clear then it should move to the appropriate International Courts for opinion. Once done the English Courts and Parliament are impotent allowing the creation of a structure of councils/committees of the people to put flesh on the bones, timetable and manage the Independence process. What type of Parliament, NHS, Oil and Gas, Education, Defence etc etc all in place to tell England when and how we intend to manage the break up of the Union. As Salvo say Reclaim the Rights of Scotland.
We are then a serious people to do business with, with serious clear intent.

Viscount Ennui

My plan for independence:

1. The SNP to get an absolute tanking at the next GE.
2. The SNP to be declared bankrupt.
3. Nascent indy movement to capture residual Yes vote led by grown-ups like AS, JC, AR etc. ALBA Plus.
4. ALBA Plus to develop coherent indy plan with a proper prospectus.

A spell in opposition would do no harm.

Livionian

In terms of Cherry, who some on here hope might be next, I don’t know why but I think she feels that she can maybe do a more effective job for the indy movement reforming the SNP from within than she could outwith.

I disagree and hope I am wrong, I just have a hunch that that is her present position.

holymacmoses

Captain Yossarian says:
29 October, 2023 at 8:15 am
holymacmoses – In relation to the criticisms you make of ASA, I am dealing with Scotgov just now in a matter that Ruby never tires of telling everyone about. In my opinion, it is the most dishonest administration in world government and so maybe ASA’s perspective is a valuable one?

I thought I made it clear that one of the many reasons that I support Mr Wings is that he accepts (almost) all arguments on to this page. I ‘evaluate’ the opinions I read and, being a bear with a very small brain, I mentally discard those that I believe add nothing to the positive ideas of my body of thinking on a certain topic. ASA (in this case) comes into that category for me.

As for Scotland being the ‘most dishonest administration in the world’ – I would counsel you to read that statement back to yourself and then go and consider some of the political manoeuvers being carried out in the rest of the planet at the moment:-)

My feelings about Mr Salmond in particular, are that the man is far from being the self-confident, self-seeking person many would claim him to be but rather he has tended to underestimate his own immense qualities and overestimated (and sometimes misjudged) the qualities of some other people. Nobody gets it right all the time. However, I think in the case of Mr Salmond and the SNP, the man’s self-assessment and assessment of others (weakness) worked into the plan of a UK establishment who recognised from the outset, the threat posed by Mr Salmond and put people in place far earlier than many might suspect. The Labour Party may have underestimated Mr Salmond BUT the Establishment never did.
link to facebook.com

My historical thought is that we should celebrate bonfire night because James 6th was Scotland’s greatest ("Tractor" - Ed). By moving his court to London he gave England the ascendancy over Scotland and confirmed London as the capital city of a realm created in his own imagination. He had a self-convinced notion of ‘Divine Right’. No doubt he was a religious maniac and megalomaniac to boot; but he was a very clever one and it has damaged the Scottish cause of independence for centuries.
I used to think James kept the state and church as individual entities to preserve the country of Scotland BUT I think, in fact, he saw these two as elements of close control over people who were indeed very different from the ‘London’ set he created.

A Scot Abroad

HolyMacMoses,

I’m happy to receive criticism, but before scrolling past whatever I say, have a think that in separating two countries legally conjoined for 317 years, that there’s a fair bit of complexity involved, and that along with your positive thoughts about an outcome you want to achieve, that there’s going to be some negatives involved as well. If I’ve expressed some of those negatives in a way that you don’t like, I’m sorry but it would be a bit foolish to wish that they weren’t there at all.

In 1707, there was almost no shared blood or familial relationship between the English and the Scots. In 2023, there’s a vast amount. And business, finance, trade, resources. Forgive me, but this is a complex matter. It needs hard, not soft heads.

Janet Mary Cuthbertson

To be clear I should have written ‘legal state’ and Church of Scotland in my previous post

holymacmoses

To be clear I should have written ‘legal state’ and Church of Scotland in my previous post

David Hannah

Thanks for that Johnlm.

We have already been played with our travel ban. We we left the European Union and have given up our free movement.

We’ve already lost.

I don’t support trump. I don’t support the Americans in any shape of form.

And it look like the Tories are on their way out now. Their culture war is not cutting through they’ve failed.

We need to deport Lorna Slater. Send her back.

holymacmoses

A Scot Abroad says:
29 October, 2023 at 4:27 pm
HolyMacMoses,

I’m happy to receive criticism, but before scrolling past whatever I say, have a think that in separating two countries legally conjoined for 317 years, that there’s a fair bit of complexity involved, and that along with your positive thoughts about an outcome you want to achieve, that there’s going to be some negatives involved as well. If I’ve expressed some of those negatives in a way that you don’t like,

To be clear ASA – I wasn’t criticising your opinion , I was rejecting what you said because it failed to add anything to my understanding of the Independence situation as it stands today. To assume that many (if indeed any) people who read these posts are unaware of the complexities of the operation of disjoining and rebuilding the machinery of Government etc , is an APARENTLY alarming display of arrogance on your part – and I don’t think you mean to be arrogant:-)
I have not mentioned the word ‘like’ and rarely do (having been a lecturer for many years , its not a favourite world of mine). I don’t read any posts with an expectation of ‘like’ or dislike’ of the content it’s a matter of intellectual agreement/disagreement

I think the last line of my long post referring to James 6th acknowledges your historical comment pertaining to 1707 – the king would have like nothing better to have achieved that in 1603 but he knew that the border was a line between very different peoples and settled for a crown of the realm and keeping Scotland subdued by retaining the legal and religious (controlling) systems in power here.
BTW I enjoy reading all the posts here whether I agree or disagree with them 🙂 It’s the closest I can come to debating these days.

Red

Graf Midgehunter says:
29 October, 2023 at 3:44 pm
Mandy Rhodes (Holyrood) knows a failure when she sees one:

link to holyrood.com

She doesn’t miss Oor Nicola:

Who brokered the bizarre spectacle of the former first minister arriving ahead of her successor’s first conference speech as leader, striding along a first-floor walkway at TECA, flanked by the former leader of the SNP Westminster group and three female cabinet secretaries, like a scene from a Poundshop Robert Palmer video?

A likely reason for the march of the dinner ladies and lots else Oor Nicola does is narcissistic personality disorder.

Ruby, am I doing this right?

Symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and how severe they are can vary. People with the disorder can:

Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.
Feel that they deserve privileges and special treatment.
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements.
Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.
Believe they are superior to others and can only spend time with or be understood by equally special people.
Be critical of and look down on people they feel are not important.
Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.
Take advantage of others to get what they want.
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.
Be envious of others and believe others envy them.
Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.

NPD is the most reasonable explanation, it fits the facts of what we know about Sturgeon. Good people don’t want to be like Hillary Clinton, and they don’t try to fit up their benefactor and mentor with false criminal accusations.

Lack of remorse or shame is also typical of predatory personalities. If you or I resigned from a high profile job under murky circumstances and were recently arrested and there was a supposed active police investigation happening, we would keep a low profile out of embarrassment and respect for the guy who replaced us. NPD people are not like us.

The plight of the SNP is a raw one and there is surely nothing worse than being the butt of a Tory prime minister’s conference joke. So, why did she choose to appear at the SNP conference, like Banquo’s ghost

I don’t know if Oor Nic had intended to show up before Pishy Rishi made fun of her at his own sad wee doomed conference. I am sure she was definitely going after. Nicola would have been raging – pure, howling, slabbering and throwing remote controls raging at being the butt of a joke that was on TV.

She needed a wee powerful wumman power walk in front of the pre-alerted media to massage her ego. It was never about anything other than Nicola Sturgeon and her own strange wee urges.

A Scot Abroad

David Hannah,

“Free movement” is rather less important than it seems.

If you wish to live in an EU country, apply for a residence permit. My sister’s parents in law have done that to live in Italy, and the process took 3 months, during which they could legally stay in Italy.

If you wish to work in the EU, apply for a work permit. I have a French work permit that also allows for residence, which isn’t something that I particularly need, as my work there is occasional and typically for 2-3 days at a time, perhaps 4 times a year. But the work/residence permit allows for me to be there year round. It took under a month to obtain.

Captain Yossarian

Holymacmoses – ‘Most dishonest administration in the world’. Before you say something like that, you should be able to present evidence that supports what you are saying? You are a respected poster on here and I presume that is what is concerning you.

Before I start, there are suspicions in Scotland that everything isn’t right: issuing threats of jail to journalists, the goings-on at the Fabiani Inquiry, missing WhatsApp messages, camper vans, missing party funds and all the rest of it. But, you have alighted on a single line that I have written earlier and so let’s deal with that:

I have made a comparison in the last week between the way the Scottish Government deals with a specific problem and the way an overseas government deals with exactly the same problem and what I am saying to you now has been said to 4No MSP’s and so I am not saying this for the first time.

The comparator government is a very large government, many times larger than the Scottish government. That said, they do not have the heritage in law that we have here and so we should be able to do things a hell of a lot more efficiently and with more public focus here, than they do there, but do we?

The evidence that I have presented shows that they proceed with honesty and accountability and achieve a resolution to their problem in 8-months. Pro-rata, the Scottish government’s rate of progress to date, it will take the Scottish government just short of a hundred years to reach that stage.

What is my evidence? It is signed letters; firstly from Scottish government ministers but also from ministers of the overseas government. Is this information authentic? It is from a government which still work manually with letters being rubber-stamped, signed in and signed by half a dozen people who have read the letter and who are doing something about it and so that answer to that question is “yes”. It will have been checked at Holyrood of course.

So, is it fair to call Scotland the ‘Most dishonest administration in the world?’ Yes it is because you would have to, in my opinion, go to a pretty far-flung shit-hole corner of the world to find a worse performing, more dishonest administration than what we have here. By the way, the matter was dealt with by two individuals overseas: a minister and a senior civil servant. In Scotland I can name 85No individuals, which is pretty scandalous, isn’t it.

The evidence is before all at Holyrood right now and so we will see what happens.

Sven

Red @ 17.14

Well, I don’t know if you’re “Doing it right for Ruby” or not, Red. However I’m thoroughly enjoying your posts … so, you’re certainly doing it correctly for me.
Keep itcoming.

DougieDee

Of all the inept, ungrateful and plainly nasty responses from Yousaf, stating that Ash Regan would be no great loss to the SNP is undoubtedly the worst.
An excellent constituency MP who was re-elected and actually increased her majority in 2021. This man hasn’t a clue and will cost the party a huge number of seats, of that there is no doubt.

Ruby

Red says:
29 October, 2023 at 5:14 pm

Ruby, am I doing this right?

Hi Stu
Could you tell Red that he’s doing it right.

Give him 5 stars

The bold part should probably be in italics with inverted commas but don’t tell him that we don’t want to discourage him.

It’s all about this

link to wingsoverscotland.com

I gave your readers a lesson in basic html & how to do smileys

cheers.

David Hannah

Well A Scot Abroad. On another point I am glad we’ve left the EU. So we don’t have to pay for Urseloa Von Der Leyen’s wars. She’s following Joe Biden and In my opinion right now. Our real enemy in the United States and their influence destroying our politics like gender. And the wars. I don’t support the Israeli state at all. It’s embarrassing to see Urseloa Von Der Leyen the EU Queen in a bullet proof vest saying she stands with Israel. She’s clearly an airhead. Just as she cut off humanitarian aid.

I read Robin McCalpine’s post about the conflict. Since 1945 there’s been a war every two years. The US have been involved in the majority. And they’ve entered over 50 counties in that time, military operations.

They are destroying Europe. And the Tories that signed the deal to give away our Rosebank Oil. Hang your head in shame.

The country is a disgrace. We need Independence right now more than ever.

stuart mctavish

On bright side, it’ll only need one MSP per day to make the jump and Ash can start the next FMQs (and each one thereafter) with something along the lines of:

like the whatsapp data, its prolly no great loss, but lest we forget..

link to x.com

Merganser

Red at 5.14pm.

“NPD” Now I know what the NP reallystands for, as in SNP. If they regroup after crashing and burning they could label themselves the SNPDP. They could all certify they have this as an illness and guarantee themselves selection as candidates in any elections.

It fits Nicola perfectly. She is the prime example of someone who has the syndrome. It is obviously infectious judging by how many of her SNP pals have caught it, but they are not in the same league as Elsie.

Peter probably had a pedestal in every room for her to stand on whilst he knelt at her feet. He wasn’t allowed to catch it. Only the fall-out from it.

Jacqueline

Sat on this for days. I’m moderated.
HUMZA…I DIDN’T VOTE FOR ASH LAST TIME. SPOILED MY PAPER. GRR HCB. I will vote for Ash Regan next time.
Upside down you idiot.
We all have a hard life. You’re nothing.

President Xiden

Surprised that this shower have time to criticise anyone seeing the time they spend deleting possibly incriminating whatsup messages. Yep, they have definitely taken a leaf out of Hillary Clinton’s playbook. Talking of whom, Devi Sridhar has gone quiet lately.

Andrew scott

Anyone see loopy lorna this am
Claims NOT to have Gov Mobile
So how is she being contacted??
“Pants on fire”????

holymacmoses

Captain Yossarian says:
29 October, 2023 at 5:25 pm
Holymacmoses – ‘Most dishonest administration in the world’. Before you say something like that, you should be able to present evidence that supports what you are saying? You are a respected poster on here and I presume that is what is concerning you.

I think you misunderstand me Yossarian. I am under no illusion that the Scottish Government isn’t thoroughly corrupt .
I’ll go for the Vatican for the honours you wish to bestow.

Many Governments today are so corrupt that it would be impossible to find the jungle in the forest – or vice-versa.

Do you think you can name me, with certainty, a Government that isn’t thoroughly corrupt?

Viscount Ennui

Thought.

Ash Regan was a minister.

She will know what orders were given re Whatsapp messages.

Effijy

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

The link below shows 6 Palestinian children killed by Israel with the help of the US and U.K.
even Labour agree with the others when saying Israel must bomb Gaza to go after Hamas.

Just call it collateral damage and as they don’t see the faces of the babies that they kill it isn’t to be compared to the inhumanity of the Hamas terrorists in Israel.

I wish I hadn’t looked in one way but I must look as I want the world to look at what world leaders are condoning.

6 little faces on a car bonnet representing the thousands of other kids dead, dying or waiting

A Scot Abroad

David Hannah,

I don’t for a moment support the EU. It’s just the wrong organisation for the U.K. as is, and (separate matter) would be a utterly disastrous organisation for any future iScotland to join. Disastrous for iScotland, that is. The EU would love to hoover up free fish, get Scots to be net contributors, and fill Scotland full of refugees.

That said, the one thing that the EU is demonstrably incompetent at is launching military operations. They may have ambition, but they haven’t got a Scoobie as to how to do it. And now the U.K. has left, the only grown up military in the EU is France, and they aren’t going to teach them.

JC

I’ve been disappointed generally with Mr Yousaf’s performance in his most recent role.
I feel awful about the situation his in-laws are in (and the whole world of trouble The World is tumbling into because of what is happening right now in the unHoly Land)….
However, I can’t help but feel that, as a proper man and head of family, he should take a couple of weeks out from his job to support his good lady and their whole family. Anyone else in such an important role would do so, their deputies would report, brief and present on their behalf. How the fck can he find time to behave like an imature/oddball/keyboard warrior fkwit and slag off people, former colleagues or whoever on twitter,,,fkkfks…
I would love to meet you Mr Yousaf to ask you in person.
JC

Captain Yossarian

holymacmoses – When we all voted for a Scottish Government (or Scottish Assembly as it was back then) we didn’t vote for an Government which would be just as bent as any other Government? What I am saying is the present Scottish Government isn’t “just as” bent, it is more bent than just about any other Government in the world. They have managed to do that in 20-odd years which is remarkable.

Police Scotland on the other hand remain as good as any Police force. That’s been my experience anyway. The example that I provided to the MSP’s was handled by that country’s Police force in exactly the same way as it has been handled here by Police Scotland and so there are no problems with that.

The problem is with Scottish Government Ministers primarily. Almost every country in the world has a criminal charge equivalent to our “malfeasance”, which means corruption in public office. The difference is, these countries use it and it is a regular occurrence to see Ministers and civil-servant sent to jail for 5 or 6 years.

There is nothing vague about this. There are letters, minutes of meetings with Scottish Government officials and all the rest of it. Nothing has been lost or deleted and if criminality is proven, and that does appear possible from where we stand now, then I would expect arrests to take place. Otherwise, our Government is worthless. It’s an allusion.

I have no great interest in Scottish politics and I tend to go along with what I think is your view and that is Holyrood only works when there is a strong, principled leader in charge. Politically I wasn’t too aligned with Alex Salmond, but this I don’t think would have happened had he remained in charge.

It is absolutely shocking isn’t it. I might be wrong of course but from where I’m standing, that doesn’t look likely.

shug

want to see one of these SNP plonkers( especially the front bench ones) on the first question time when they say they will demand independence with fewer votes and seats than they had last time. It is going to be so funny watching them huffing and puffing as the unionists brush them off like the twats they are.

Mark Beggan

Indy Indy yer arse is oot the windea.

John Main

@Effijy 8:37

The MSM is chock full of reports of world leaders stressing that human rights and international humanitarian laws must be respected by all belligerents.

I don’t know where you get your idea that world leaders are condoning anything.

As for your idea that the UK is “helping” with the carnage, that’s just daft.

Ted

I’m still trying to get my head round this tripe about Useless and his “measured” response etc etc. I guess not having much to say about a pre-civilisational pogrom could be regarded as “measured” but personally I’d use a different description of it.

Geri

Holyrood was granted to STOP Independence.
Scotland voted for.
Dewer stuffed it full of suits & bound it tight in the Scotland Act.

Scotland does NOT have a parliament. It has an English Administration on Scottish soil. Everyone who is elected there takes an oath to a foreign king.

The SNP under Sturgeon learned to lay with dogs. She caught flees. Why is anyone surprised?

Of course it’s corrupt. It has fck all to do all day but talk shite. Any plans to better Scotland is swifty fcked by civil servants who work against Scotland’s interests. It’s a glorified county council that serves absolutely zero purpose since I er 80 powers were stripped from it during Brexit. Yoons laughed there was no power grab.. there absolutely was..

Farming & Agriculture
Fishing
Environmental
Fracking
NHS
Procurement
Animal welfare
GM crops
Scottish branding
Animal welfare
Scottish water & many, many others.

So much for the BT pledge *the strongest parliament, ever* lol!!!

We *don’t need it* for indy. Close it.

Scotland will be Independent through the tried & tested method it used before that established the *administration* in the first place.

A Scottish convention.
Sillars was correct – Holyrood was a sticking plaster.
The experiment has failed to halt indy.

Yoons CANNOT complain. They voted to remain tied to a fcked system with a fcked political system so stop whining that it’s fucked! We did tell you..lol!!

Confused

catching up I was disturbed to see ruby use the term “fuckpig” – there are far better words to use, even though that is a good one

“wankstain” for example, though we would need a term for a collective of wankstains – “a splutter of wankstains”? a “cottage”, a “grumble”, a “dogging”?

for use in conversation, see the following

link to youtube.com

here’s an idea – why don’t all the wankstains piss off to the jerusalem post and start telling everyone to pack in the “ancient guff” (- aren’t forced memes awful) about a 3000 year old property deal between a legendary person, an allegedly supernatural being, and the whole thing being a cover story for the actions of an old schizo who tried to murder his own son?

– see what happens (and begin to understand the meaning of “verbal aggression”)

in related news

link to thescottishsun.co.uk

Humsa’s in-laws ?

– worst case, he inherits a house. See the pic of them at the fjords with the cruise liner behind them, gotta be worth a few shekels.

Will he still support Israel’s right to exist when they come back as a meat jigsaw? Imagine if Salmond had them tied up in an industrial unit in Paisley – what would he say then? Hypocrite.

shish kebab, and all the trimmings.

one thing’s for sure – if you need an organ transplant Israel is the place to be right now; bring shekels (the slaughter was kosher)

I wonder if Humsa will be doing a bit of amateur standup

“- take my mudder in law … ISRAEL … please !” (best done in a jewish accent, Jack Benny)

am surprised ammer anwer has not been on the grift about this, but he would be suing people shiftier than he is. Curious how the beeb made a multi part ad for his legal firm, all the while he makes out he is “fighting the man” – aye, and the BBC doesn’t do advertising, which is why the pricks shake you down for a TV license …

If Humsa wants his people back, intacto, he should subtly threaten every jewish organisation in Scotland with a tax audit; the Holocaust Education Trust – is that really a charity? Should it not be taxed as a business??

– they may take our lives, but they will never take our tax-exempt status

Geri

Main

Who supplying the weapons? Ya eejit.

Starmer & Sunak are enjoying the carnage.

They’ll not back pedal from their part in this genocide.

Absolute bastards.

Geri

It’s really simple

*Measured*

He didn’t go in all gung ho looking to annihilate a whole region for the actions of a few & didn’t back that other Britnat favourite, a bit of famine.

He called for ceasefire to let aid through.

Gawd, I fcking loathe britnats who are quick to bomb everything to fck.. stick to yer x boxes FFS..

Geri

Confused LMAO!!

holymacmoses

Captain Yossarian says:
29 October, 2023 at 9:42 pm
holymacmoses – When we all voted for a Scottish Government (or Scottish Assembly as it was back then) we didn’t vote for an Government which would be just as bent as any other Government? What I am saying is the present Scottish Government isn’t “just as” bent, it is more bent than just about any other Government in the world. They have managed to do that in 20-odd years which is remarkable.

Police Scotland on the other hand remain as good as any Police force. That’s been my experience anyway. The example that I provided to the MSP’s was handled by that country’s Police force in exactly the same way as it has been handled here by Police Scotland and so there are no problems with that.

I’m not sure I have your faith in the police force of Scotland. The fact is they have a far easier task than England BUT the 50% clear-up rate of Scotland somewhat overshadows the 5.7% rate in England and Wales. This fact, alone, seems to me a valid reason for Scotland becoming an independent country. However, I’m not complacent about the methods of the police here on certain occasions and they are known to have quite a connection with the Ancient Profession of Builders, supposedly founded in Kilwinning, which I find a suspicious alliance.
BTW figures can be deceptive. I remember that sometime in the 70’s Kilwinning became the capital town of Scotland when it came to vandalism. On looking closer – just two boys had been accused that year BUT they had burnt down the local school and vandalism wasn’t counted on incidents but rather on financial cost of the damage caused:-)
I have no doubts about the integrity of Mr Salmond – and I think, in their heart of hearts, this is an opinion held by the vast majority of the people of Scotland, whether they agree with his cause or no. I also think that Mr Salmond’s undoubted probity is the cause of much of the unrest in the Independence movement. Scottish people are notorious for feelings of guilt and with guilt comes an inability to act and thus we have arrived in stasis-land after the British Establishment’s assault on Mr Salmond ineptly led by Nicola Sturgeon casting a long shadow of self-loathing in the country.
No man is irreplaceable and I’m sure Mr Salmond and the Alba party is on the look-out for another successor. One assumes that lessons have been learned after the Sturgeon period.

BTW to return to the police – I think it was in ‘Measure for Measure’ that Constable Elbow advocated that every man should be forced to be a policeman for 6 months in order to understand just how difficult the job is – plus ca change:-)

Geri

I have absolutely zero confidence in Police Scotland.
They’re heavily into that other cult known as the Masonic Ludge & grand masters of mystical things.

Any dealings I’ve had with them they’ve been next to useless.

Seems Branchform has met the same level of fckwits I did lol…who takes over two years to find £600K & a camper van? And why on earth a forensic tent to seize teabags???? LOL!

Iain More

I hope there will be many more defections to Alba in the coming months. It is time to bury the Rabidly Wokist and Rabidly Yoon ENP.

David Hannah

link to wsws.org

Craig Murray’s off to seek support in Switzerland.

Because he supports Palestinians. They are trying to frame him under terror legislation. I feel really sorry for him.

He’s a real life hero. I’ve never met him but some life he’s lived. I support him all the way. All the way with Alex Salmond. He went to jail to reveal the truth. There’s not many principled honest men like him.

I’ll need to support him. It’s outrageous what’s going on the British Government are unhinged.

David Hannah

link to wsws.org

It’s unbelievable what’s going on. I spoke put in support of Palestinians on this blog.

Glasgow has a Muslim Community. All my shop keepers are Muslim. And colleagues of mine. And it sounds like Israel is bombing more hospitals tonight. Israeli war criminals.

The British Government are utter clowns. They want to destabilise the middle east.

The Arab states can turn around tomorrow. Your mob are not getting any of our oil for supporting this insanity. And then Western diplomacy is in tatters.

That’s the prospect staring at us.

Scotland needs to be a neutral country like Switzerland. Like Belgium was in WW1.

Before Kaizer to decided to attack.

We need to support peace. And truth tellers that’s for sure. Otherwise our economy will be completely destroyed for the war machine.

They’ve stitched up Russell brand in my opinion – who I can’t stand.

And it sounds the gay Tory MP. The one that likes poppers is the latest victim of conspiracy for calling war crimes what they are. Blowing up hospitals is a war crime.

If you look at the news. It looks like the Israeli killing machine wants to blow up another hospital tonight. Rest in peace to the dead.

A Scot Abroad

The problem for Alba, appointing Ash Regan as the Holyrood Leader, is that she is very strongly associated with the most utterly stupid idea in Scottish national life since 1707: declaring UDI. Why would Alba do that?

It won’t work. It would place normal and sensible Scots into horrible peril regarding their businesses, Scottish trade, their mortgages, their levels of income and Scotland’s standing in the world. It will put voters off Alba.

Breeks

Red says:
29 October, 2023 at 5:14 pm
Graf Midgehunter says:
29 October, 2023 at 3:44 pm

“The plight of the SNP is a raw one and there is surely nothing worse than being the butt of a Tory prime minister’s conference joke. So, why did she choose to appear at the SNP conference, like Banquo’s ghost…”

Is it stretching credible coincidence that the inspired reference to Banquo’s ghost is the perfect metaphor, given that the crime of regicide was central to that plot too? Is it conceivable that somewhere out there, there’s a WhatsApp group called “Macbeth” rather than Vietnam, where infiltrators from MI5 surreptitiously sow the seeds of their toxic insurgency in the empty heads of SNP politicos, with gratuitous satisfaction to be taking their lead and inspiration from the epitome of English literature?

A lesson to Scotland perhaps that The Claim of Right maybe isn’t the only “script” with the power to depose a king…

I dunno. Spectral plot from the cunning Establishment wankrs in Whitehall? Or just fate and Shakespearean coincidence playing tricks with us? Maybe a little of both. Maybe all my own paranoia.

People are now calling for others in the SNP to follow Ash Regan and migrate over to ALBA. My Shakespearean warning to ALBA is, “Beware the tides of trash”… Not all will be what they seem. Be very careful to properly vet the people doing the vetting…

Perhaps we need our own “Operation Nessie”, constant and relentless vigilance for an elusive monster which may or may not be there, but which never ever reveals itself… creating a perpetual enigma readily exploited by hoaxers and tricksters trying to make a name for themselves (or build a career in politics).

(And for the grammar Nazis, I know she said “like” Banquo’s ghost, so it’s not actually the ‘perfect’ metaphor. I do know, but I really don’t care, so na-na-na-na-na).

Ruby

link to wingsoverscotland.com
Sven says:
29 October, 2023 at 5:39 pm

Red @ 17.14

Well, I don’t know if you’re “Doing it right for Ruby” or not,

Nudge! Nudge! Wink! Wink!

A lot of your readers don’t have much respect for women.

Johnlm

The Morris Dancers on here studiously rubbernecking away from the Middle East issue.
Uncomfortable defending their imperialist views?

Mac

I enjoyed that Mandy Rhodes piece above. My only criticism would be she left her off lightly.

Rodent Sturgeon and Grubby Murrell are going down in history all right… Scotland’s poundland Ceausescu’s.

But let’s not forget all the wee ginger bitches who also made it all possible for so long… congratulations morons, you reap what you sow, enjoy your ‘harvest’.

Ruby

link to wingsoverscotland.com
dasBlimp says:
29 October, 2023 at 12:57 pm

Yikes! I’ve been rumbled. The Captain says I’m a plant (is he trying to imply I’m a pansy? Not very progressive that is it).

Spot the homophobe!

Mac

The treatment of Craig Murray is another massive alarm bell that the UK is tipping towards a police state.

What is very telling is that it is on this particular subject (i.e. zi0nism and the racial and ethnic suprem@ci$m at the heart of it) that elicits it, every time. That is why they took out Corbyn as well… Salmond was also a bit too pro Palestine for their tastes…

Makes you wonder who is really calling the shots in the UK.

John Main

Geri

Starmer & Sunak are not enjoying the carnage.

Like most people, Starmer & Sunak wish the carnage would just go away.

BTW, Geri, see what I did there? I replied to your post without including a personal insult.

Eric

Ash is my MSP.

I didn’t vote for her.

My first impression wasn’t a good one. She campaigned on a “No Fracking” election card, only to sheepishly abstain a month or so after being elected.

But she gained my respect with her stance on the Gender Reform Bill.

Her Indy barometer idea was bonkers in my opinion.

But I do think bye elections should be mandatory when representatives change colours. Some voters may vote for the individual, but many vote for the party.

John Main

David Hannah

Innarestin that you call for iScotland to be a neutral country “like Belgium”, then immediately point out how that worked out when the Kaiser attacked.

Do you think things through?

It really is time the Indy movement grew out of this childish idea that iScotland will be the nicest, cuddliest, wee country in the world, and thus universally liked and loved by all.

The reality is that most of the assets that will support iScotland, oil, gas, wind, etc. will be out at sea, over the horizon, maybes 100 miles offshore. iScotland will have military capability to defend these, will subcontract that defence for hard cash (probably to rUK), or will be at eternal risk of losing them.

It’s a nasty world out there, and it’s getting worse. Soz, but face that reality with honesty and it’s not too scary.

Mac

Seeing the attacks on Alex Salmond and the wholesale destruction of the SNP from within, all within less than 10 years since we apparently lost the referendum in 2014, there can be little doubt now that any party or politician that actually intends to make real change is destroyed.

And it is obviously not limited to the SNP and Scottish politics. The Labour party got a bit uppity there for the first time in a long time (when they foolishly let the Labour party members elect their leader) and that was quickly ‘put-down’ and Corbyn taken down with bogus claims of anti $emitism (gosh what a surprise eh).

And what did they replace him with… ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer. FFS…

It is right there in front of our faces folks.

Stoker

Iain More says on 30 October 2023 at 12:29 am: “I hope there will be many more defections to Alba in the coming months.”

Part of me wants to agree with that, Iain. But the biggest part tells me that ALBA need to be very careful here, very careful of who they accept onboard from Sturgeon’s Nonce Party.

We have no control over who ALBA accept so it all just comes down to us trusting in Alex Salmond & Co to know who to accept and who not to.

Having said that, Alex did at one time trust in Sturgeon and look how that turned out. Nobody would have put money on Sturgeon turning the way she did, NOBODY.

The trouble is, Alex is a very dangerously trusting and forgiving individual. That, in my view, is a weakness in politics. Let’s just hope any further “defections” are scrupulously vetted at the top table in ALBA.

I seriously struggle to think of anyone currently in the SNP who i’d like to see defecting. Possibly, at a push, maybe Cherry but i’m not 100% on that anymore.

Johnlm

Experiment.
Let’s try a day of not responding to the Mainbot.
See if we can cut down the number of his posts to under 50.

Breeks

Mac says:
30 October, 2023 at 8:23 am
The treatment of Craig Murray is another massive alarm bell that the UK is tipping towards a police state…

For me, the big tell is the media.

The “coverage” of the war in Europe and murderous insanity in the Middle East is grotesquely biased outright propaganda, and propaganda which cannot stand to have the “enemies” side of the story even aired. Even the once hallowed internet is revealing a yawning bias in the truth, and access to the truth, which I believed the Internet once stood for.

Just as Pravda was once perceived as a laughing stock beside reputable journalism, I am firmly of the opinion that is now no different from how the rest of the world perceives the BBC.

But then, you begin to ask whether the BBC has changed, or whether the pretences it hid behind are now worn out and threadbare. Was it always this corrupt and one sided? The BBC’s own Balen Report was written 20 years ago, yet has never seen the light of day.

With such a monopoly of broadcasting infrastructure at its disposal, what realistic chance did Scotland have in 2014? Yet not a single propagandist was called out or even reprimanded for distorting the truth, and the BBC remains the enemy in our living rooms… ready for the next time.

I don’t care so much about the BBC these days. Its influence is in retreat, and its media, television, is trundling towards extinction. Apart from indirect exposure, I haven’t watched a TV for a dozen years or more. The internet and social media is where it’s at baby.

Thing is with the Internet, it isn’t the internet that’s failing us… It’s the search engines and social media service providers who are trying to contain our access and exposure to information, the same way the BBC once did through television.

If you don’t believe me, try to Google content which even mentions Ruskia Today. You need to look other places even to hear an alternative perspective. Speak a language besides English is a useful tool too.

“State Funded propaganda!”, goes the cry. Ok, and this differs from the BBC in what way? Incidentally, “they” can still get unrestricted access to “our” media. What does that tell you?

And yes, it’s true, it IS the Wild West out there sometimes, but have your wits about you, use multiple sources, and be aware that everybody has an agenda, eventually a truth you can rely on will emerge.

Captain Yossarian

holymacmoses – Holyrood has been used for the past 10-years to cut through all of the checks and balances that have kept the public safe. Ministers use their executive powers which allow them to do that and we see it too in the Covid Public Inquiry where the Scottish Government response is met with complete surprise by the rest of the UK and this sets the seeds for future disasters. I was surprised to hear the Deputy Leader of another political party at Holyrood on Radio Scotland bemoaning the deletion of WhatsApp messages by Sturgeon. She was speaking as if dishonesty was a human condition that she was unfamiliar with.

Ruby

link to wingsoverscotland.com
A Scot Abroad says:
29 October, 2023 at 5:14 pm

David Hannah,

“Free movement” is rather less important than it seems.

If you wish to live in an EU country, apply for a residence permit. My sister’s parents in law have done that to live in Italy, and the process took 3 months, during which they could legally stay in Italy.

If you wish to work in the EU, apply for a work permit. I have a French work permit that also allows for residence, which isn’t something that I particularly need, as my work there is occasional and typically for 2-3 days at a time, perhaps 4 times a year. But the work/residence permit allows for me to be there year round. It took under a month to obtain.

I would question this Brexiteers suggestion that we still have ‘free movement’

His sisters parents in law I suspect are rich pensioners.
His ‘work permit’ is probably a ‘short-term work permit’

He says ‘If you wish to work in the EU, apply for a work permit.’

You would need a job before you can apply for a work permit. That could be the tricky bit.

With ‘free movement’ you could go to France get a job washing dishes and start work immediately. Not very many employers are going to promise you a job as a dishwasher and hold it open for a month until you get your work permit.

There could also be a requirement for the employer to employ an eu national before applying for a work permit for non-skilled staff.

Getting your work permit would probably require you to speak pretty good French unless you took an interpreter with you to ‘La mairie’ or wherever you go for your work permit.

The other option would be to steal EU nationals jobs and work illegally.
I understand that happened a lot in Spain before Spain was in the EU. Thousands of illegal immigrants from the UK worked illegally in Spain stealing Spanish jobs.

Personal abuse is definitely not allowed that is just not British 🙂 Only kiddin’

What about posting mis-information? That is quite bad as is making sexist & homophobic comments.

I suspect mis-information led to a NO vote in 2014 particularly about the EU.

David Hannah

link to nitter.net

NATO is assembling the largest military fleet the world has ever seen. According to Craig Murray. Truth teller.

The NATO psychopath club. I’ll never fight for Britain. Never in a million years. They can lock me up in the jail. With the PlayStations and free telephone calls for my mental health and all other freebies. I’ll not be fighting world war 3 for NATO that’s for sure.

David Hannah

I’d say the Americans have lost all credibility they’ve ever had. Europe’s turning against the yanks. Their overreach and meddling in our affairs. It’s over. The american empire is over. It was Isreal that killed it. The oil tap will be turned off in due course. The Scots will go mental. We’ll demand Independence after this. And outwith NATO. That’s for sure.

We must interrupt the enemy when it’s making a mistake to save mankind. The west are making a real mistake here. Oil prices. Not in my name. Said something about from day 1.

David Hannah

link to mc.nato.int

I said I’ll no be paying fir headphones. I’ll not be fighting a nato world war 3.

Your country needs you. Nae it doesny. Send us to Corton Vale 5 star hotel. With the free mobile phones for the mental heath. The free laptop and the xbox. I’ll stay at home and look after the 2 child payment and the baby box.

Stop the war.

Breastplate

John Main @ 8:40am,
“….or will be at eternal risk of losing them.”

I’m curious to know who we would be at risk from, how high is the risk and how would “losing them” work?

Obviously not the UK as you have suggested they would be on our side for a few £££s.

I’m guessing you’ve thought it through as you have just chastised somebody else for not having thought through their comment.

John Main

Innarestin that Breeks blames the BBC for No in 2014.

So what does he say about Scotland’s Remain in 2016? Does he blame the BBC, or praise it?

There never was such a concentrated barrage of media bias as we saw in the run up to the Brexit vote, overwhelmingly in favour of Remain, with the BBC leading the charge.

An inconvenient fact the “dragged oot agin oor will” brigade will never acknowledge.

But Breeks has one thing right. Choose your information sources widely. Identify the extremes of the reporting of each story. Average these extremes – the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

But know also that that is too difficult a task for many.

John Main

David Hannah

Larger fleet than the 1944 Normandy invasion?

Larger fleet than the forces assembled to invade Japan at the end of WW2?

I hae ma doots that CM is making any such claim.

Try to keep it real.

Geri

The UK is a police state now. The Tories with their new policy bill & Sunak, the doe eyed poster boy hailed the arrival of may more police powers.

Double down news on YouTube covered the changes. Minority Report stuff where even if *they think* yer about to commit a crime.

The establishment is going full fascist. I’ve said for years on twitter that Sturgeon was sleepwalking us into a fascist state & perpetual Tory rule.

Google is just as bad as the BBC. Robin McAlpine did an article the other day about the skewed search results. AI will be restricting content & pushing it’s own warped views onto the first few pages of results.

Those that control the media control the narrative.

Scotland should have joined in with the social media revolution. Facebook, X, YouTube etc are all heavily censored & have been for yrs. They’ve full control over pulling the plug if they don’t like an account or channel. Jeez, content creators couldn’t even mention COVID during a fecking pandemic without being pulled – what was the point of that?

The police state is in full flow. The fascists are in full flow. Little England will have it’s jackboot on everyone’s throat. Protesters banned. Just look at what’s been allowed with GRR to seep into every institution unchallenged & with strict censorship, ME flags being removed from football & police deciding to embellish their uniforms with Pride paraphernalia. Even a London protest has been skewed as threatening by Braverman.

Winter is here…

Geri

The ME will respond at some stage.
The new currency will crash & burn the yanks.

Breastplate

John Main,
“There never was such a concentrated barrage of media bias as we saw in the run up to the Brexit vote, overwhelmingly in favour of Remain, with the BBC leading the charge.”

This is nonsense, Nigel Farage was never off Question Time and the BBC.

The Establishment was split over Brexit but they were at one regarding Scottish independence and it’s threat to the Union.

stuart mctavish

Ya dancer!*

“SNP ministers will publish their plans for migration and asylum policy IF Scotland secures independence from the United Kingdom later this week”

link to heraldscotland.com

*here was me and the Greens thinking they gave as many shits about it as Scotched labour – failing which, only Alba could have the courage (and wherewithal) to get it done by the weekend 😉

Scotsrenewables

I do hope Stu is going to give us his insight into the delrted WhstsApp messages soon, I sm really tooking forwarf to that article.

John Main

BP

Everybody is 100% at one regarding Indy and it’s threat to the Union.

It’s axiomatic. You can’t have Indy and still have the Union.

Whatever your point is, you’re spectacularly failing to put it across.

Even if what you say about Farage is true, are you really claiming that Farage on one side, against every other fecker, up to and including the TUC, CBI, organised religion, heck, even the RSPB and Saint Obama, was bias in favour of Leave?

Get real.

John Main

stuart mctavish

Remind me again. To the nearest million, is it 1 or 2 million New Scots HY wants?

holymacmoses

Captain Yossarian says:
30 October, 2023 at 9:17 am
holymacmoses – Holyrood has been used for the past 10-years..

I agree with you for the main part.
I think Mr Salmond was beginning to shape a Government (and thus a Scotland) which wasn’t simply an unimportant branch office of Westminster Establishment. However I really believe that the ‘unbekannten obern’ to which Walter Scott referred in his diary when he was forced into bankruptcy, had plans in hand to counteract any attacks he made on central government. I have no real doubt in my mind that Sturgeon and a few others were a party to a plan – some of them knowingly and some of them weak and unwittingly – to try and ensure that Scotland was sent back to the dark ages.
We got close to gaining control in 2014 and nothing that has happened since can make me disbelieve that, with an ideal and committed leadership, the Independence movement would win hands-down were we to have another referendum or make an independent move in some way or another.
All we need is a pro-independence movement with enough intelligent membership at the helm and beyond corruption from outside forces — is this possible in this day and age?
I don’t think it’s possible – I think it’s inevitable. It may be optimism on my part – but I don’t think it’s facile optimism

Oneliner

Lady Dorrian says WhatsApp messages are inadmissible – so what’s all the fuss about?

Merganser

Stoker @ 8.53 says “no one would have put money on Sturgeon turning out like she did”.

I remember saying “She’s a wrong ‘un” when I saw her almost elbowing Alex Salmond out of the way on the TV in 2014, but just how wrong I don’t think anyone could have have predicted.

Because she had Alex’s backing people automatically accepted her.
Alex didn’t make many mistakes, but his backing of Sturgeon has inadvertently led to the tragic mess we are in now.

Why did he back her? All sorts of ideas come to mind, but speculation is futile now. It just seems she had some sort of hold over him.

Whatever the reason, he paid and is still paying a high price for it. And we won’t find the real answer in Sturgeon’s memoirs, even if she ventures into that territory.

Ian Brotherhood

Asked Google Bard: Can deleted Whatsapp messages be retrieved?

‘Yes, deleted WhatsApp messages can be retrieved, but only if you have backed them up. WhatsApp automatically backs up your chat history to Google Drive or iCloud every day, weekly, or monthly, depending on your settings. You can also manually back up your chat history at any time.

If you have deleted a message and you have a backup, you can restore your chat history and retrieve the deleted message.

To restore your chat history on Android:

Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
Open WhatsApp and verify your phone number.
When prompted, tap RESTORE to restore your chat history and media from Google Drive.
To restore your chat history on iPhone:

Go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
Tap Restore Chat History.
Tap Restore from iCloud.
If you do not have a backup, you will not be able to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages.

There are third-party apps that claim to be able to recover deleted WhatsApp messages, but these apps are not officially supported by WhatsApp and may not be reliable.

It is important to note that WhatsApp encrypts all messages, so even if you are able to retrieve a deleted message, it will be encrypted and unreadable.

Captain Yossarian

holymacmoses – I’m not a Nationalist as you know but I was content enough with Salmond, the country was moving in the right direction and if the 2014 referendum was won by him then that would have been that. There would have been no drama from me.

He was not perfect and he undoubtedly lied when he said that the legal advice given to him at the time was that Scotland could retain membership of the EU whilst not being part of the UK. That was pretty bad but it has been swept under the carpet hasn’t it.

So, Salmond was as good as we are ever going to get but he wasn’t perfect. What’s happened since then though is that the rule book has been thrown in the fire and executive authority of ministers has been used instead.

That’s OK if everything can be covered-up but when it cannot be covered-up, then the ministers must shoulder the responsibility for that and that’s the way it works everywhere. That is what we are seeing with the Covid fandango. They are trying to blame Jason Leitch but authority lay with Sturgeon, Freemen and Swinney.

If Scottish Government decide they don’t like you then it turns into a pile-on and it comes from the ministers themselves and from senior civil-servants and if they did that to Salmond, then they will clearly do it to anyone in the country.

Does any other government behave like this…..or anything like this?

Where I digress from you is that I do not believe that this is encouraged or directed by the UK Government in any way. I think that they are kept in the dark and how bad the delinquency has become in Scotland, is as much a surprise to them as it is to most of us.

I was pragmatic about the 2014 referendum, but what it gave us was a toxicity in government which goes-on to this day and which turned what promised to be a good performing government into one which is really pretty shameful.

They are all trying to get an expert engineer, any expert engineer in the world, to say that I am wrong or that I have been exaggerating this. Maybe they’ll manage, but after all of this time (more than 9-years), that seems unlikely to me. It looks as though they are beaten all ends up and it has turned into something of a humiliation for all of them. All 85No of them.

Leave engineering to the engineers and don’t let parliamentarians (of any party) have anything to do with it. We were once known for good engineers; now we are getting ourselves known for our dishonest parliamentarians. If we let them continue, and we don’t do something about it, they will inevitably end-up getting people killed.

Breastplate

John Main,

I’m sorry if this is confusing for you but I genuinely didn’t think I would have to join the dots for you but as you will.

“Everybody is 100% at one regarding Indy and it’s threat to the Union.”

The point here being that the full power of the Establishment will be used against independence and promote the Union.

Nigel Farage was an example of why your statement regarding the unfettered access the Brexit campaign had to the BBC and other media, in no way did I imply he was the only one.

It’s not that difficult that I should have to hold your hand through this, I would suggest you are being deliberately obtuse to the reality of what occurred.

Colin Alexander

“Lady Dorrian says WhatsApp messages are inadmissible – so what’s all the fuss about?”

She may have said particular WhatsApp messages in certain trials were inadmissible but