Wings Over Scotland

Nailed it (again).

Divide and rule. Same as it ever was Chris.
…….
Just heard on R4.
Kids need vaccine, to stop them “getting involved with gangs “.
!

Monsters walk amongst us.

Robert Louis – well done, the first response of the day and maybe the best?

In a world where I’d forgotten you
I found myself forgotten, too
That’s the danger of believing books
And all the lies of those thieves and crooks
We sing intellectual songs of love
From a stolen pen to a velvet glove.

As It Is When It Was
New Order

Divide and conquer.

The legacy of 6 long, painful, wasted years of Sturgeon – a pretend feminist, a pretend nationalist, a pretend European, a pretend democrat, a pretend leader, a pretend FM, a pretend doer.

Even her concern about the virus is pretend – it it wasn’t she would have locked the borders long time ago to stop the virus coming in instead of calling racists to those who at the peak of the pandemic asked for the borders to be closed like it was done in every other sensible country.

Sturgeon: the Westminster puppet pretending to be something else whose real political mission appears to have been causing division, stopping independence, reverting our autonomy, dilapidating the credibility of our Justice System, eviscerating the credibility of Scotland’s government, shredding to bits the heart of the SNP to stop it beating, to hand over Scotland’s assets to England and to keep the yes movement on a leash.

How very New Labour.

I am now certain sturgeon will become the most hated person in Scotland’s history. The new dundas.

She had it all – and she threw it away – for virtue signalling liars.

Have police Scotland done anything yet ? Other than promote and aid racist marches obviously.

And spouse says:
4 September, 2021 at 8:16 am
It’s quite sad, the detail Chris, always the detail, the Saltire in the corner!

Reply

Saltire is ‘in ribbons’
Better get that replaced PDQ otherwise that could trigger Paisley’s ‘ligamentophobia’

Shows the embarrassing state that Scotland has become.

We can all thank the New SNP cultists who have brought us here. Where a known criminal, liar and a fraud can squeal to the presiding officer about someone telling the truth, because unfortunately many in the sturgeon cult want independence not because they love Scotland but because they hate the English, meanwhile women wanting to be able to choose not to be examined by a male pervert in a dress are called fascists. The same people that claim women who should be able to own their bodies are demanding that they give them up to some pervert, yes that’s where we are people. Where a man can legally expose his privates to a small girl and be praised for being brave and strong. Well done all.

The country is a joke, the sooner Holyrood is bulldozed and the shower of jokers and incompetents we call MSP’s are replaced by proper competent people the better.

Just bloody marvelous Chris. As old Telly Surveillance once sang “If a picture could paint a thousand words”

Mia

“Locking the borders” won’t keep the virus out.

As always, your daft inserts detract from the good points you make.

Change the record.

@Shocked 9.11 am

I was referring more to the more positive and inclusive *feel* during #indyref than what we see now or indeed at most points in the last few years. Perahps we were kidding ourselves that most of the movement, most of the time, was left of centre and progressive politically and that we (largely) had the same outlook on issues. That’s proven to be wrong.

Hitching the Yes movement waggon to the SNP star will come to be seen as a huge strategic mistake I think given what we have subsequently learned about the party. Attempts to reform the SNP from within have obviously failed. That means we have to wean ordinary voters away from dependence on them.

That can start with highlighting the differences on policy in areas like self-ID, women’s rights, the HCB and failures relating to Covid response. It also needs to build from areas of concern like that to more strategic issues like the SNPs lack of appetite to force the pace with respect to #indyref2 and/or plebiscitary elections, the default acceptance of the stodgy, neo liberal, grey suited managerialism of the Growth Commission, and meek acceptance of a constitutionally subordinate position not just at Westminster, but in Scotland too.

There has to be a catalyst to start the reaction which defeats the SNP cultists. In my view that can only be a party like Alba: none of the other fanciful plans and proposed popular uprisings/conventions/assemblies and/or repealing of the Union have any realistic chance of success.

Nice on Chris.

Mike Russell has another column in the National newspaper today, on why he wouldn’t be in the SNP if they were anti-English, no mention of Scottish independence or when a date will be set for it, its basically a page full of waffle on how English friendly the SNP are.

Of course the SNP’s HCB, shows that the SNP aren’t that friendly towards certain sections of Scottish society, and especially not to pro-indy bloggers, or ex-pro-indy FM’s or AUOB organisers, and women who won’t wheesht, such as Marion Millar.

Russell in my opinion has now become a laughing stock among the indy community.

Nice timing, Chris!

Your essential weekend reading:

‘SNP and Fascism’: link to wp.me

Ignore the people who refuse to live in the real world, I have never met any of these halfwits on my travels around the globe
I come across them on the news and such, but to be honest, its all attention seeking eejits and some people actually converse with them, my question to those people is

WHY ?

Am I shocked, not really

Heard it all before, like an old music album with the needle
stuck, anyone got anything new to contribute here, if not it
might be time to go and forget it even exists

Yes Chris the extremely England friendly SNP is using odious policies to divide the indy movement, Sturgeon is destroying any chance of Scottish independence from the inside, though she and her vile clique will continue to wave the indy carrots in front of the noses of those who still believe that she’ll deliver it.

ps ” Internal ” as in the internal psychology of individuals

““Locking the borders” won’t keep the virus out”

Yes it does. If you starve the virus of hosts the pandemic ends. It is as simple as that.

So who is the daft one here, the one that chooses to bury their head in the sand to protect the reputation of an incompetent FM more interested in playing political games than looking after the population, or the fed up one that speaks up?

In fact, after being proved that neither the vaccines nor natural immunity after infection is stopping infections, it seems that locking the borders in combination with temporary lockdown is the way forward.

There were points in 2020 after the first lockdown that there were hardly any infections in Scotland. If there were no virus in Scotland, where the fck did it come from then when the reinfections started?
Where the chinese variant came from?
Where did the south african variant came from?
The Kent variant?
The Spanish variant?
The italian variant?
The Brazilian variant?
The delta variant?
Did any of those originate in Scotland?
Did they came to us through the ether?
In a cloud and then descended on to us with the rain?
Flying from the moon?
By virtual reality through our computer, tablet and phone screens?

No, each and every one of those variants which did not originate in Scotland were brought up here by a host that could cross the border because this woman refused to lock the darn borders.

The first case in 2020 was reported in Scotland AFTER other countries started to lock their borders and well AFTER the first case was reported in England. Had this woman locked the borders as soon as the first case was detected in England and when the other countries were locking theirs and Scotland would not have seen over 8000 unnecessary deaths to the virus.

Sorry, but in my view the responsibility of the biggest part of those 8000 unnecessary deaths lies with this woman for putting political games, unionism and the opportunity to lock us down to deny us a referendum and to dismantle the justice system ahead of the interests of Scotland’s citizens.

If you don’t like the way reality sounds, then try adding sugar to it. But nett time, before you consider trying to lecture me on how the virus propagates, I would advise you to learn your facts first.

Have a wonderful and virus free day.

Sturgeon wants vaccine passports for events attended by a lot of people. So that means you won’t need one for future SNP conferences under her leadership.

@ Breeks at 9:18 am

” Quoting Sun Tzu and the Art of War,” I thought that too
Still there a lot of Zen type saying to delve into.

I quoted Sun Tzu and some dafty , said she didn’t read the Murdoch Press

Breeks @9:18 am

Another Sun Tzuism is appear weak when you are strong (and vice versa) so who knows what cunning game they’re playing this time around

As to Holyrood, I’ve always thought they’re all (reasonably) good pals outside the chamber – and have no problem with that – so my take on the play that allows an English MSP (quite wittily given the context*) to gain publicity based on an alleged complaint of anti English sentiment (despite her privileged position at the expense of any remaining Scottish conservatives in the Dundee area) is simply to remind us all that the words in Chris’s cartoon are not necessarily a reflection of what our politicians think of each other, rather they are indicative of what they are obliged, or even trained, to think of we the people in order to avoid becoming overstressed with the burden of responsibility inherent in the ever increasing orders of micro management held over us.

*context appears to have been question from Pauline McNeill relating to a song about the famine being over “why don’t you go home” whereas Tess White’s comment can be easily substantiated with reference to a not dissimilar line in our national anthem.

I do not think the SNP & Greens are English friendly. What they are is power mad, divisive & financially greedy. Caring not a jot for the majority of wonderful Scottish people.

“Three words.

Australia. New Zealand”

Let me add the two you conveniently forgot:

“deaths” and “economy”

Go on, Ronald A Fisher. Read out loud how many deaths for COVID did those two countries have since March 2020 and how it compared with Scotland.

Let me give you a bitter taster:

New Zealand: 27 deaths in total at 9:00am of 4 September 2021
Scotland: 8,154 who had a positive covid test in the previous 28 days. 10,554 if you consider all those who had COVID in their death certificates (Data from 3 September 2021)

You may think the Scottish citizens are disposable. I most certainly do not.

Now let’s look at the number of infections. So, Pasteur, how many infections and how both those figures compare to those in Scotland?

Let’s look at the last published figures, shall we?

New Zealand: total 3748
Scotland: total confirmed positive cases 449,780

449780/3748 = 120 – Scotland saw ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MORE infections than New Zealand

Mamma mia!!
Again, you may think that having the population of Scotland ill unnecessary is just an expression of day to day politics. I consider it negligence.

Now, Mr Keynes, take a look at the economies of those countries and compare it with ours and with the UK union. How much did each of them shrink?

Let’s take again New Zealand:

New Zealand’s economy shrank by a whopping 2.9% in 2020.

Scotland’s economy shrank only by an “infinitesimal” 9.6%

The UK’s economy shrank by an “undetectable” 9.9%

9.6/2.9 = 3.3 Scotland’s economy shrank over THREE times more than New Zealand’s

Sorry, what was what you were saying?

Sources

herald scotland
“Scottish economy shrank almost 10% last year, finds Holyrood watchdog”
Tom Gordon, 15 July 2021

DW
“New Zealand’s economy hits record decline in 2020”

CNBC
“UK suffers worst annual economic slump since the Great Frost of 1709, a 9.9% decline”
Elliot Smith, 12 February 2020

Scottish government
“Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland”
Last updated 3 September 2021

Ministry of Health New Zealand
“COVID-19: Current cases”
Last updated 4 September 2021

Climate change, invasions, civil wars, immigration, religion.
Important issues though they are, there is a lot of wasted energy on these pages on issues that will never be resolved or influenced on Wings, or in Scotland, or in UK.
The only players in that sphere are the USA, Russia, and China.

Everyone is putting the cart before the horse. Even yesterday, as I listened to the link sent by Alex for the conference preview, the first topics he raised were the economy, nuclear weapons, and EU.

Telling voters what priorities are after gaining power is a pipedream until the prospect of gaining power becomes a reality, even a possibility. ALBA is a long way short at the moment, so unless membership and support increase at a rapid rate, we may be too late. My fear is that what I’ve heard so far is not going to cut it.
Similarly, on Wings, much discussion is on topics already mentioned, or about the catastrophes inflicted on us with the control, lies and corruption of the current regime. We will not expose duplicity by preaching to the converted. So, why keep it ‘in house’?
The number one priority, by a long way, must be to educate the public, get out into the open what is being done in our names. No one is offering solutions on how to do this, and it is unbecoming to throw a blanket over all SNP 1 & 2 masses by labelling them ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ or ‘naïve’.
Most of these folks are poor, have no interest in politics, have been brainwashed all their lives, are taken in by media propaganda, and have never seen any difference to their prospects, no matter who is in power. So why should they care?

What concerns me is that nothing is being done or proposed to counter the river of insidious propaganda being foisted on us daily.
I’m nowhere nearly as clever as many of the terrific contributors to Wings, but it struck me a few weeks back when @Breeks said, tongue in cheek, that C4 was up for sale, so why don’t we buy it?
However, why are we, and by that I mean, Wings/YES/ALBA, not getting information out to the public about what is REALLY happening in Scotland. Focus on things that matter to folk. Why don’t we have regular deliveries of leaflets (I’ve had only one since May – from Tories), why can’t we produce our own newspaper, publish the TRUTH?

There are so many good points made on here that deserves a wider audience, and similarly so many excellent bloggers who could contribute to leaflets or a newspaper. This country/colony is in dire straits, and unless the message gets out, unless the ‘thick’ public are enlightened, we had better learn how to conform with the New World Order.

@Mia

Where I wrote

“Scotland saw ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MORE infections than New Zealand”

I meant to write

One hundred and twenty TIMES more infections than New Zealand.

By the way, I forgot to add

8,154/27 = 302 – 302 times more Scots died of COVID than New Zealanders.

I do not know what the rest of you think, but this number of deaths for me is totally unacceptable and beyond negligence. A display of either this FM’s uttermost incompetence or her unwillingness to protect the population. I am not really sure which one is the right one.

Looking at those figures, it looks like the Scottish people have been sent to the slaughter because this incompetent refused to make use of the power put on her hands to exercise Scotland’s autonomy and lock the darn borders to protect the population.

It seems that over 8000 Scots had to die under the watch of this FM because of her obsession to maintain the union intact. More than double compared with the figure of those who died during the NI troubles and about 3 times more when you compare it with the Irish war of independence.

The SNP always tells us that Scotland is underpopulated. Well, sure as hell that allowing over 8000 people to unnecessarily die because this individual could not bring herself to lock the borders is not the way to improve Scotland’s population figures. It does the exact opposite.

Are we to understand this as another chapter of the clearances?

Looking at the figures of people who died of covid in Scotland side by side with those of New Zealand, makes you feel sick and, frankly, can only lead to the conclusion that the management of the pandemic in Scotland and the refusal to lock the borders, has been a spectacular and unjustifiable failure of astronomic proportions. Something that should go in the world book of records for political negligence.

This FM should be held accountable for that failure and all those unnecessary deaths of fellow scots, all happening under her watch.

Ebook.
Many good points on what contributes to where we are,.

But the biggest developement in Scotland is, how the Scottish politicians see the Scottish people as their enemy.

For instance,
There has been no information leaflets, digital or other forms of messaging that has improved the Scottish people’s lot for years now, just the opposite is happening here,
Free speech and free information can find you in court or in prison.

If we want to see good news spread and not be scared to do so as in China or any other despotic country.

Surely we cannot linger on with this government we have now to the next election,
They are destroying scotland and subduing it’s people.

They are eroding the community with ideology, they continue to fight and break apart families, and intrude upon the rights of parents and women.
How far they succeed will be up to mums and women, as our men folk are not protecting their families,

Just like women whom took it upon themselves to throw bankers into prison, while men stood back,
And just like waspi women acted, whom where cheated of years of pension, while their men folk stood back, just like it was women that fought first as suffragettes, while most men thought of women llike the taliban towards women here in Britain,
it will eventually be the Scottish women that first fight for human rights and to protect their children.

The men are standing in the background right now here in Scotland, while their women and children are suffering dire future consequences in Scotland.

Sturgeon’s Legacy.

“I think it’s a criticism of us (you) and the way we (you) have let petty differences divide us (you) instead of remaining focused on the goal of independence”

I however think Holyrood in the background of the cartoon has a meaning. As it has the fact that the crowds are venting their frustration by shouting at each other outside instead of entering Holyrood to shout a the politicians responsible for all that frustration and division.

In my opinion the cartoon is telling us three things:

1. the division of the yes movement is artificially maintained with Holyrood at the core of it

2. Holyrood as no interest in stopping that division because for as long the crows shout at each other outside, they do not get in to shout at those sitting in Holyrood.

3. It hasn’t down on us yet that to move forward towards independence it is not towards each other who we have to channel our anger, but rather towards the incompetents, political frauds and glacialists sitting in Holyrood and sowing division in order to survive politically.

Let’s not forget that Tories, labour and libdems only keep today their seats in that parliament because Sturgeon and her praetorian guard repeatedly asked SNP voters to waste their second vote in the last election.

So whenever we see a “face off” between the queen of procrastination and a tory, lib dem or labour MSP, we know it is all just an act, because the minute Sturgeon’s SNP handed over seats to unionists, you know they are all, and probably have always been, in the same team.

Maybe what divides the so called ‘Independence Movement’ is that that one side is Unionist.

I don’t see issues like corruption, perjury, theft, etc etc as being petty issues.

In times past men watched their women and children being dragged out their homes to be slaughtered and raped by the rich and landed gentry, or by orders to do so by their minions.

It is no different today, just because it is subversely well disguised when done to the Scottish people by the Scottish devolved goverment.

How far away is it that children will be taken out of homes and separated away from their parents on any excuse the Scottish government see fit,
The named supposed guardian that swinney thought up is just step 1, now the children are allowed to change sex at for years old? And not talk to their parents,

You’re children are being stolen, you’re wife’s and girlfriends are to go back to the 1700s. Where anyone could rape and mutilate them.

So-called Covid 19 does not kill, that is sensationalist journalese. Depending on good general health the auto immune response will deal with the infection over a couple of weeks. Complications arise due to poor health, secondary infection and lifestyle habits which stress the immune system. As people age the chances of being in some state of poor health also increases «risk».
Young people, being in better health, are generally more able to fight infections, naturally. This is the process that has ensured the survival of the human species, not vaccines and patent medicines.
All quite normal process. There is no one size fits all in this, we are individuals after all.
Such a shame government and the Dr Strangelove type med. experts advising it would have us branded and shoved in the same pen awaiting further restrictive developments.

I would be equally happy to see discussion about transgenderism.

I am interested to know exactly what that is and if anyone can be transgender if they want to?

The definition of a ‘transphobe’ would also be useful.

Ruby, my approach to the anti-vaxxers is entirely responsive. If it wasn’t for me and a few others providing an alternative to their warped madness, they’d dominate this website. There’s nothing petty about it but I’d gladly not talk about it.

Nobody is suggesting the totality of women’s rights are unimportant or petty. Stop exaggerating things.

Of course, GRA negatively impacts women’s rights in certain areas. Nobody disputes that. Crudely put, though, you might say that it doesn’t in any way impact on 95% of the rights women have achieved as a whole over the years in many areas.

It’s a value judgement, but I think fighting for independence is more important than that.

It’s complicated, I get it. Getting rid of Sturgeon and her cohorts is the key to everything, in terms of GRA, women’s rights, the Salmond scandal, the fight for independence, and much else.

But if we fight on too many anti-Sturgeon fronts at once, we become divided and lose everywhere.

Painful as it may be, I think it’s time to stop distracting ourselves with all that other stuff and focus squarely on the issue of independence again, Sturgeon’s failure to deliver indyref2, and standing up to the Unionists.

Doing so would drive a very positive wedge between her and her allies at the BBC who defend her on the other stuff but not on independence.

Everything else seems to lead to years of tortured misery.

See Alvin [Aylin] Smith has been pictured on the ‘phone to the Israelis.

Don’t know whether it was legit peoples front of judea stuff OR in fact ordering a fish supper.

By the look of him I’d say fish supper[s] galore.

Hatuey says:
Crudely put, though, you might say that it doesn’t in any way impact on 95% of the rights women have achieved as a whole over the years in many areas

Reply

Fuck off Hatuey!

It’s only 5% of your rights ladies & girls.

That 5% that kept you safe from peeping toms, rapists & abusers.

Cancels short lists, women sports & breast feeding.

Mia @ 12:10 PM
I was in NZ between the end of Nov 2019 and July 2021. There has just been one more death there yesterday which brings the grand total to 24 people, and because of a rigorous lockdown it’s being brought under control.
Sturgeon has a lot to answer for and I don’t understand how the Scots can be so blase about her role in the thousands of deaths. If that number of people had died in NZ you would have seen people with pitchforks in front of the Beehive demanding Ardern’s resignation.
Sturgeon had the power to close the border under quarantine laws but she is too gutless and scared of Johnson.

Once again we are not talking about Independence.

Sturgeon continues to dictate the debates that do take place…and it is NEVER about Independence.

The risk of insisting ‘She/Her’ talks about independence is that she will fuck it up so completely you could end up with zero support for independence.

Perhaps better if She/Her & Hautey continue to talk about Covid.

So good Mr Cairns.
A perfect metaphor for the wiseass Sturgeonites. I refuse to call them SNP – they should not be allowed to steal the title

link to rumble.com
A wee break from the grotesquery of Scottish politics.
Mr Cairns You’re up there with Steve Camely. Brilliant

A Bruce. Sounds like NZs crackhead Prime Minister is well on the way to eradicating death. Shame about the Apartheid health passports a necessary precursor to a Surveillance State.

Hi McDuff.

Your link for tonight…

link to en.crichd.tv

Tories raising National Insurance contributions at a time when the NHS is being privatised. What a swindle.

Shocked. You should be aspiring to be like Belarus. They have no Critical Race Theory and wer not locked down by their Government because Lukashenko told the banks to fuck off with their lockdown demands. Follow the money. Oh and Belarus are having as good if not a better health outcome as Sweden just by following standard flu procedures. They didn’t carry out the science /social experiment our Governments are indulging in. And they won’t have the same debts owed to the bank cartels as we are lumbered with.

@ 4.27 pm

There you have it folks: our aspirations should be to be more like Belarus.

No…really.

Jeezus wept: reading BTL in this place now is like watching Jake Angeli strut around the White House.

o/t

I know that this site is for the time being and before he gets well and truly pissed off the sole property of Stuart Campbell he calls the shots and we are only guests and invited to air our views on various subjects therefore the deal is don’t piss the management off or else fk off and play somewhere else,

However over the years this site has attracted more than its fair share of fkn nutters who’s sole aim is disrupting anything that’s going on I don’t know if they are paid by the responses they receive by people replying to their mostly fkn pointless comments or it’s just the day job , they do a shift then bugger off until the next shift starts,

I don’t need to point out the most recent one because they follow the same pattern as all the others and that’s pretending they are a long standing supporter of Independence then slowly push their agenda but it’s the same method every time and that’s cause as much disruption as possible .

Don’t feed them that’s the reason I haven’t named the current one but they are pretty obvious .

The tattered saltire will surely be the emblem of the New England region of Scotshire once Sturgeon has finished with us!

The way topics are being divided over many subjects in Scotland can only be purposeful, as the topics through the devolved government are many and decisive to the people.

Earlier in the year the thought had crossed my mind that the foundation are being torn at the seams of our country.

Running and building a country should start with the foundations,
And those foundation are family
Family then relatives .
Then neighbours,
Then community.
Then county,
then country,

But Scot gov has been going after vulnerable children and then women, now this year we see many men being politically attacked,

The family are the foundation that grows the country upwards to spread to all the branches and ramifications thereof.
Deliberate Divisions in the people, in ourselves, only weakens us,
for it is not each other we should be attacking,
It’s governments, by extended school power, police empowerment beyond what is reasonable or socially appropriate and acceptable in society,
and crooked courts with no oversight dishing out draconian measures that match any totalitarian state. (one reason I do not agree with hatuey).
We , and I mean we, must not let this happen,
Stand up and speak out for your family member, you’re relative, you’re neighbour,
Even if you do not like them,
Because it’s others first and then it’s us.

@Captain Yossarian 6:06pm
Well great if positive action is the outcome. Politicians are employed to make life better for citizens irrespective of who they voted for. I am not feeling that at the moment. I want everyone in Scotland to have a better life. We have lost our way ala the Chris cartoon.

TannadiceBoy.
Revolutions have been triggered by less.
Tether, very much the end of.
What IS to be done?
Certainly not waiting for something to turn up!

Goal for Scotland!

Ha ha ha. 1000 miles off topic, and a wee bit of fun movie trivia, you know the film Hot Fuzz?

Well, when Sgt Angel is telling his girlfriend Janine that he’s been transferred, you never see her face without her mask on, – but apparently it’s Cate Blanchett.

Kinda blew my mind for some reason. 🙂 Just thought I’d share.

Nice one Mr Cairns.

Sturgeon’s Woketopia at Holyrood.

Rats in a sack fighting over the crumbs from Westminster’s table.

Would be funny if it wasn’t so needlessly f***ing tragic.

” I think I have said this to you before,”

Yip Cap, you have and I’ve countered it before as well.

link to heraldscotland.com

The US also bombed Libya in order to keep its Western puppet government in charge.

link to en.wikipedia.org

@RoS 8.38 pm

So tell us, since you’re so certain about others mind sets, is what you unselfconsciously call “the Great Satan” responsible for all the world’s ills, or just *some* of them? Even if we accepted there was any basis to the fervid imaginings you are prone to regurgitate here for us to point and laugh at, it might strike some people as passing strange that you are so unwilling to see or apparently acknowledge that the odious regimes you are content to give a free pass have their own cupboards full of skeletons.

One doesn’t have to be aligned with the people you oppose to see that the moral equivalence you’re trying (and failing) to make isn’t one that hold any water. Of course it isn’t an outlook that any but a tiny minority of folk give any credence to either, which is a mercy.

You remind me of the old “tankies” who used to loudly defend the Soviets when they crushed uprisings against their rule and their system of government because *Great Satan* (honestly? Surely the use of the islamo-fascists descriptor of choice tells us everything we need to know about you mind set?). There has always been a leavening of contrarians like you in our political environment of course.

You’re a step away from turning up on Big Brother in a leotard impersonating a cat.

Cap @9.21pm.

Yes that’s roughly what’s been going on in the great Satan’s Forever Wars.

Though it wasn’t the first time the US and the UK bombed Libya, they bombed it in 2011, and the Great Satan bombed Libya in 1986 as well.

“American and British naval forces fired over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles” in 2011.

link to en.wikipedia.org

Cap this is pretty well common knowledge, I mean you’re either too lazy to do your home work, or you believe the shite the media and the government tells you, either way its not a good look.

“110 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles” is nothing. Your reading all of this from the internet, aren’t you. That doesn’t mean a thing.

“You’re a step away from turning up on Big Brother in a leotard impersonating a cat.”

Give it a rest Ellis, you waffle on without a shred of evidence to back up your puff piece.

As for George Galloway, I had a lot of respect for the guy for what he did for the oppressed people of Palestine and his efforts in Iraq, and his masterly performance in the US in a Q&A session. However his continued staunch stance against Scottish independence has left a sour taste in the mouths of many Scots.

“110 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles” is nothing.”

Really!

I’m sure those Libyans that felt the force of them would beg to differ.

As for your second point its patently obvious you are not, I take it you get your info from the Daily Mail or the Daily Express, or some bloke down the pub.

@RoS 10 pm

Aw mate, I’m not the one fluffing for Lukashenko and calling the USA the Great Satan.

Your idea of evidence is cut and pasting from Wikipedia. You’ve got all the credibility of the late, unlamented Cameron B Brodie. I mean that guy was a real weirdo but at least he appeared to have a few brain cells even if they were occupied cut and pasting reams of secondary research and links to off-topic and pointless “evidence”.

Reading these comments I am wondering how many of these posters actually live in Scotland?. Not many I suspect. Missing the main point everytime. Any subject but what is factually going on in Scottish politics. A clue it’s about young girls and their safe places.

@carjmatic 10:48pm
You make my point clearly. “It’s nght time in the big city”. Next time you go on an English course remember Scotland has a different language. We can speak English but also colloquialisms when we want to. It’s all about authenticity. Sack your English teacher.

I love how a lot of the media have portrayed the protests as ‘anti trans,’ instead of pro-women. Mendacious scum. If I never heard the word ‘trans’ again in my life, it would be too soon. I have nothing against this tiny amount of people, but I have nothing for them either, much as I, and most people, have nothing much for most of the rest of the human race. Want to get your genitals or breasts cut off? Fine, go for it. I won’t abuse you. Just stop causing so damned much fucking trouble for the rest of society, most of whom will never meet a trans person in their life anyway. I, and most people, are beyond sick of this total shit, and wish it would just GO AWAY.

Hatuey, the USA is a third world, anti-intellectual dump with absolutely no respect for human life or rights whatsoever. Were it not for their smokescreen of their ever-more-worthless popular culture that they spray round the world to make people ignore their murderous excesses, people wouldn’t spit on them if they knew what the place was really like. And I say that as somebody who lived there for over a decade.

Their violent gun crime stats are just a reflection of their xenophobic, murderous foreign policy, and outlook on life in general. They have the braindead mentality of High Noon gunslingers, never having shaken off the Wild West mentality. And they never want to shake it off, either. Soft and weak people, guns and killing make them feel tough.

The country basically exists to attack other countries whose people have brown skin, bomb them off the planet, then service military and construction contracts building them back up. Look at their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Tells you everything you need to know about them. Great Satan? That’s letting them off far too fucking lightly.

And Sturgeon’s starryeyed obsession with America, which doesn’t give a damn about Scotland except as a Trident parking garage, and her political regurgitation of its worst intersectionalist excesses (America is becoming very censorious now, under its ailing, failing president) disgusts me to my very core. This isn’t even really Scotland anymore, it’s morbidly obese America Jr.

Tragic.

link to whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com

link to archive.is

‘An internal governance report, obtained by the Herald on Sunday, has recommended the party improve its financial transparency and appoint a new scrutiny committee to “restore confidence” in in SNP procedures.’

No shit Sherlock!

“It follows a complaint of sexual harassment made against him by an SNP employee, and further claims he harassed party staffers at a Christmas party. One of the complaints is being assessed by Westminster officials.
The report finds that complaints had not always been handled properly by the party admitting: “The Governance Review Group was presented with clear evidence that current complaints-handling procedures have themselves resulted in a real dissatisfaction, lack of trust, increased frustration, including, leading to an injustice or increased harm for some.”

‘No shit Sherlock!’

Everyone else knew that way back in 2019.

@Hatuey 2.16 am

Perhaps you should start by refraining to post in the wee small hours? Just a thought of course, but if you were to wait until the cold light of day you might interact with people actually said rather than what you (wrongly) infer?

It isn’t necessary to have a further degree to dissect the arrant nonsense posted by the likes of RoS of course: any reasonably well informed person with an interest in history and politics could do so. If you hadn’t jumped to judgement – or perhaps had refrained from posting when (let’s be charitable) tired and emotional, you’d have discerned that I was actually making the same point as you.

Those of us of a certain age, who studied politics and IR as a relatively “new” discipline in the 1980’s were treated to some master classes by the USA in “how not to do Foreign Policy 101” by successive administrations in Washington. The Vietnam debacle cast a long shadow of course, but we were treated to the impacts of the Iranian Revolution, the on-going dispute in Palestine, responses to wars in Africa, genocide in Cambodia, the Russian intervention in Afghanistan, then the fall of communism, the 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars, the Balkan Wars, Libya and then another doomed intervention in Afghanistan.

If an independent Scotland is indeed going to be “living in the early days of a better nation” it’s hard to argue that we shouldn’t be pursuing an ethical foreign and security policy, but what would it mean in practice? Do we not recognise regimes that don’t meet our minimum standards for democracy? Do we not trade with them, or actively seek to boycott them? Is disapproval enough, or should we impose sanctions? If regimes abroad are using violence and committing atrocities do we ignore it, or are there any circumstances we should support intervention, whether by the UN or others?

The world is as it is, not how we would like it to be. Doubtless we can all point at societies and systems of government we admire, even if none are perfect: Scandinavia for many in the Scottish independence movement, Belarus apparently for RoS above. I’m by no means a fan of many aspects of American society and governmental system, and particularly of its foreign and security policies over many decades, but there is definitely “something of the night” about anyone who can unselfconsciously describe the USA as the Great Satan.

Worse still, such language allows British nationalists to paint the independence movement as a bunch of fringe extremists, which will go down like a rat sandwich with the Scottish electorate as a whole. Let’s not forget, a majority of that electorate are still firmly multilateralist, pro-NATO membership, pro-EU and pro-monarchy. Advocating sophomoric political “answers” to 21st century realpolitik is a sure fire way to kill independence stone dead: that goes for those extremists advocating gender woo-woo just as much as it does for those zoomers painting the USA or “West” generally as morally equivalent to Lukashenko, Putin, the Chines Communist Party, ISIS and doubtless Ghengis Khan if we wait long enough.

They’ve got their definition of transphobia but do they have a definition of ‘transgenderism’
that is something I would like to see.

“As previously reported by The Herald on Sunday, several transgender activists quit the party after they complained about incidences of abuse from within the SNP, but no action was taken.
The party later brought in a definition of transphobia which they said would be used as part of their process in handling complaints about the issue.”

link to archive.is

SNP divided over transphobia definition

@WhoRattledYourCage

Let’s accept that some of what you say is true.

It’s a big, bad and dangerous world out there.

Which of the various powerful regimes should an independent Scotland cosy up to? China? Russia? Iran? Brazil?

Don’t say the EU. They are as effective as a world power as any other bunch of spineless, argumentative, hair-splitters would be.

Pragmatic, clear-headed, grown-ups have to face the reality that for all of its faults, the USA is our natural and best ally. Plus they speak the same language, although a few BTL here will no doubt argue even about that.

Ruby! Are you mother Thereza in disguise? Like letting cancer victims die without palitive care.Calpol! Lmao! Remember,Laughter is the best medicine,unless your asthmatic,then its Ventolin.

“They have the braindead mentality of High Noon gunslingers, never having shaken off the Wild West mentality.”

I wonder – have you ever studied the workings of the Scottish Courts under the SNP? Where Lady Dorian for example is High Court Judge? Your comparison to the Wild West is a pretty good one and I’ll remember it.

John Main @9.31am.

John.

The Great Satan (USA) has no allies as such only obedient minions, why do you think the Australian economy is tanking, because its doing the Great Satan’s bidding in an economic war against China its biggest export market, or it was.

Australia’s beef market exports to China were huge, now its animosity towards China at the behest of the USA has saw that market crash in spectacular fashion, I wouldn’t be surprised if the UK Tory government drew up the shitty Aussie/UK trade deal which includes Aussie beef to help them out a bit.

The only Aussie PM Gough Whitlam (democraticaly elected) ever to stand up to the CIA was fired, by the UK on the advice of the CIA, ever since then Australia has been in the tight grip of the Great Satan, with US listening stations and military bases strewn all over the country, sound familiar?

link to caitlinjohnstone.substack.com

“The Great Satan (USA) has no allies as such.” – I take it you were never a student of the Second World War?

Andy Ellis tells me my criticism of his views might be put down to a tired misunderstanding then he goes on to re-state the very thing I accused him of with greater force and clarity.

But I see where you are going wrong, Andy, and I shall happily explain.

See, you can’t expect to be taken seriously in this world if you talk about ethical foreign policy on one hand and concern yourself with what British unionists might think on the other. Those two considerations are at odds and variance with one another and they explain your contradictory position.

If I made a mistake, it was to assume that you were being honest when you were talking about American foreign policy.

Now that I see you were not concerned with honesty but were concerned with how our opinions might look, I can only conclude this morning that you are not only wrong but you are dishonest too.

I’d be happy to discuss your quite extreme position on lying and how you think it might be to our advantage in the pursuit of independence but if you go into that conversation thinking that I want independence at any price, let me assure you that you’ll lose there too.

So leaked documents on the COP26 summit show that Downing street want to sideline Sturgeon and stop her from appearing at the summit.

This will vex Sturgeon who has a massive self-ego, if she cannot play to the gallery of the worlds dignitaries come November.

link to archive.is

John Main: “the USA is our natural and best ally…”

The USA is finished — morally, economically, and politically bankrupt. The only question worth engaging is whether they will go quietly or not.

Scotland doesn’t need to cosy up to anyone, where did the assumption that we do come from?

@Hatuey 10.50 am

Nope…you’re still doing it:

“See, you can’t expect to be taken seriously in this world if you talk about ethical foreign policy on one hand and concern yourself with what British unionists might think on the other.”

I agree. So what is it you’re accusing me of? I think an ethical foreign policy is a great idea in the abstract, I’m just not sure how we – or anyone else makes it work in practice. I’m all ears for folk with an explanation of how it works though? I suspect we might end up pretty lonely and isolated if we insist on absolute purity. Who else might be admitted to our “camp of the saints” do you think? I seem to remember New Labour paying lip service to an ethical foreign policy once upon a time.

“If I made a mistake, it was to assume that you were being honest when you were talking about American foreign policy.”
Where have I been dishonest about US foreign policy exactly? Please be prepared to show your working, otherwise you just look like another blow-hard looking for an argument. I suspect we probably agree about quite a lot in terms of the shortcomings of US and “allied” foreign and security policies over recent decades. Of course pointing out the inanities of White House policy doesn’t really get us much closer to standing up a credible alternative.

“I’d be happy to discuss your quite extreme position on lying and how you think it might be to our advantage in the pursuit of independence but if you go into that conversation thinking that I want independence at any price, let me assure you that you’ll lose there too.”

What is it about my “position on lying” you feel is extreme? I don’t want independence at any price any more than you do. I suspect that’s a pretty mainstream position given the polling evidence on unilateralism versus multilateralism, NATO membership etc? I think we should be free to criticise US policy just as we should criticise policies of other governments where we feel they are misguided, morally wrong or making bad situations worse.

@Stuart MacKay 10.47 am

It’s watching Jason Michael’s descent into utter buffoonery that makes me rather glad I no longer have a twitter account. It’s always a bit depressing when someone undergoes such public meltdowns.

From what I’ve seen in the past – both on twitter and on his blog – he does have a pretty intemperate side. I recall him taking umbrage with me in the past for not unconditionally accepting his views on the Highland Clearances.

I was always slightly wary of him after that. Looks like my instincts were bang on the money?

Bernard de Linton says:
5 September, 2021 at 10:02 am
Ruby! Are you mother Thereza in disguise? Like letting cancer victims die without palitive care.Calpol! Lmao! Remember,Laughter is the best medicine,unless your asthmatic,then its Ventolin.

Reply

Looks as if Bernie didn’t like my comment! Perhaps it was too hard hitting.
Either that or he’s just another smart ass troll!

Bernie seems to think a headache, a baby teething is on a par with someone dying of cancer!

Who is this ‘mother Thereza’ you are referring to. Is she rude & known to swear a lot & not have a lot of patience with idiots like yourself?

I’m wondering if I changed my name to ‘Big Rab’ if the number of ‘smart ass’ comments I receive might be reduced.

Pixywine says:
5 September, 2021 at 12:13 pm

link to m.youtube.com
Actual news about Australia.

In the interest of balance and stop this site becoming a complete fruitcake playground:

link to taipeigeek.blogspot.com

Andy Ellis says:
5 September, 2021 at 12:12 pm

From what I’ve seen in the past – both on twitter and on his blog – he does have a pretty intemperate side. I recall him taking umbrage with me in the past for not unconditionally accepting his views on the Highland Clearances.

Reply

You made me smile with that comment Andy!

@Ruby 12.12 am

Why thank you very much. I’ll be here all week. Remember to tip your waiter/waitress! 🙂