Wings Over Scotland

Hardly surprising that the 2400 millionaire bankers along with millionaire entertainers and millionaire sportsman including retired football managers back Westminster control but Westminster has no answers for ordinary citizens.
The electoral system for the House of Commons is unrepresentative, the composition of the House of Lords is indefensible, the powers of the Crown are unaccountable and privileges are rife.

Following the Rev clicking advise, the North Briton Person liespaper version of La Boyle interview, offer this enchanting option:
Scottish Independence: The Essential Guide.  link to scotsman.com
 
This is their opinion about what will happen to our British Passports:
It is possible that a Yes vote in Scotland will be interpreted as an anti-English vote which will mean that options like keeping a British passport will be withdrawn from Scots.
I’m obviously not really speechless, but I’m quite sure you’ll get my point.

It is very sad to see vulnerable people exploited in this way.

@revstu
Grovelling profusely

Anyone is fair game for the BT camp, and remarks can be spun to make the Nats seem, evil and cruel, it is indeed the only reason they put Susan Boyles comment out their.
 
Meanwhile Miss Boyle turned up at a Glasgow hairdressers today in Renfield Street, she, is also in the process of filming the film, A Christmas Candle.

Susan Boyle is a dangerous choice to make, because it would be incredibly easy to twist any criticism of her conclusions to form a false campaign. Look what they did with the ither Susan, and that time there wasn’t even any actual evidence of abuse.
 
I agree, Rev, that Ms Boyle is the last person who should be manipulated. At the risk of being patronising, celebrities are hit-and-miss when it comes to worthwhile and intelligent opinions, and I’d be leery of anyone who came to fame through Britain’s Got Talent, let alone SuBo. And I have to say, everything stated from her in the article reads like a prepared statement from BT, not her own words. All the same, the opinions are what matter, not the person, and SuBo’s arguments would be no less problematic coming from her as if they came from the mouth of the Brain of Britain.
 
So frankly, it seems pointless to criticize SuBo for what she’s said, since she most likely didn’t “say” it at all: she just read it from a cue card. This part is particularly disgusting:
 
Before finding fame and making millions of pounds from her music career, she relied on benefits as carer for mum Bridget. She added: “Welfare helps many of the most vulnerable in society. I don’t believe you should break what’s working.
 
 
The current UK government is completely destroying the benefit system which SuBo relied on to care for her mother. This very government is “breaking what’s working.” This is what appals me the most: under the new benefits regime, what are the chances Mrs Boyle would get benefits at all? What are the chances SuBo would have the confidence and freedom to pursue her love of singing without the financial aid to care for her mother? Would she have gone on Britain’s Got Talent at all if she had to spend all her spare time and money on looking after her loved ones?
 
In choosing Susan Boyle, BT have chosen a symbol of the sort of success story that the current government is actively attempting to kill through its despicable reforms… to represent their own cause. I cannot believe the sheer audacity of BT to recruit a representative of the very people the UK government is demonising as a “scrounger” or “cheat.”

I would hope nobody would have a go at Susan Boyle.  She’s entitled to her own views – but I do feel angry at the people who have cynically used her for their own ends, in the full knowledge of her vulnerability.  It’s a wee shame.
 
On the other hand, I’ve less sympathy for the author of the piece.  He has an interesting picture on his twitter account – I wonder what it means?

On a more positive note though O/T..sorry.
 
Delottie Petroleum Services Group, has announced, North Sea oil remanis a strong and positive sector, According to managing director, Graham Sadler
 
Research by the group, showed that 16 explorations and appraisal wells were drilling during the second quarter of this year, the figure is a rise of 78%, on the first 3 months of the year, when 9 wells were drilled.
 
Mr sadler said, “Iexpect to see further positive figures in quarters 3 and 4”.
 
Not bad for a country who’s oil resources are about to run out, according to the BT camp……oil for Scotland a severe holdback …..oil for the UK a welcome assest.

I only recently stopped working in the field of mental health.
If anyone in my teams care, had the financial issues that Ssan Boyle clearly has, we would have initiated an ‘Adult protection order’ in which the police would help investigate if any financial manipulation or any attempt to abuse someone financialy as is clearly happening in this case.
“Susan fears she will lose her contract”  ” She thinks she might go back to her previous financial circumstances” ‘She is unable to move into her own house because she is unable to access her own money for furniture’ ‘Her money is ring-fenced’
 
People can indeed support someone with mental difficulties to manage their money, but they are not entitled to withhold money, or access to the persons money, that they need to buy essentials, such as furniture for their house.
 
In my opinion, Susan Boyle is perhaps being financially abused by these people.

There is not enough detail to judge whether SB is suffering financial abuse.
If her funds are held in a discretionary trust fund where she is a named benficicary then that would be “ring fenced” but would also mean Susan had no automatic right to the capital and/or income in the fund.
Regarding indepedence or not Susan is quite right to air her views regardless of their basis and/or background in fact.  Everyone has such a right.

BT and their muppets are scraping the barrel with this one – tells me the silent polls are not in their favour.
Think we should have a wee competition to see who can guess NoBT’s next celebrity they hang out to dry.

Yes, I dare say CyberBrits are doing virtually the same as their real life counterparts heading to B&Q to buy Quisling Paint (10% off for BT Members at the weekend).

Magnus barelegs says: Seems to me like cynical exploitation of someone who has obvious difficulties. Just kinda shows you how far the bitter together mob are prepared to sink in order to try and save this broken beyond repair union.
 
 
When I first saw the Rev’s article I assumed it was a picture of Johann Lamont rather than Susan Boyle; so it occured to me that your comment could be applicable to both.

Al Ghaf,
you’re tapped right into that betterNO mindset right enough Al. Be very careful though, as you don’t want a monster like that escaped and wild, running around your mind unbidden!

By the way I have been meaning to congratulate you on your avatar because, ‘let me tell you…when that rope pulls tight…..you can really feel the devil bight your ass!’ FACT.

As an Englishman it really gets me that BT think you have to be a “nationalist” to support Scottish Independence.
 
The people in Scotland are mongrels Angles, Picts, Britons, Scots, Vikings and more recently Irish, English, Poles, Italians, Asians et al almost ad infinitum. No racial purity then. One third of the British Isles for 5.25 million souls, no need for more lebensraum. Even in the arts there are more that dig hiphop than Scottish country dance. So where does the desire for “independence” come from as it is not nationalism?
 
The answer is Westminster. The sheer incompetence of the 600 who cannot conceive of the need that, if you are going to meddle with people’s lives, you need to be right both about what the real problem is and that the answer is right and fair for every body. We have IDS banging on about how he believes he’s right and how his tinkering might acheive his intended result and with the Westminster system of the Divine Right of the government he gets to foist his experiment on us. Cromwell fought the Divine Right of Kings. We have the chance to opt out of the Divine Right of Westminster without fighting a Civil War.
 
That’s why I’m an English supporter of Scottish Independence and will be voting Yes

“As an Englishman it really gets me that BT think you have to be a “nationalist” to support Scottish Independence.”
 
Well said handclapping.
 
It bugs me when they call us all nationalists too, especially given that what comes from Better Together is far more nationalistic, emotive and nationality driven.
 
I regard myself as Scottish, British and European. I love Britain – the people, the places, the variety, the humour, culture etc. After independence I’d still be Scottish, British and European.
 
But I believe the country is the level at which countries should be run. Scotland is a country. We do not need a UK political union in which powers and sovereignty lie in London, and with an increasingly dysfunctional Westminster elite. I’d like to think, once we have a sovereign, independent Scottish government it will work well and co-operatively with the ones on other parts of the British Isles.

I find this quite disturbing, she supposedly has a “Strong Belief”, that Scotland should remain…. This is like firing a starting pistol for some of the low life on the web and twitter. Look at what was said about Andy Murray. I sincerely hope they do not let her read the responses that will inevitably surface, making fun of her in all sorts of ghastly ways. To me she has always looked on the cusp of a paranoid episode and to manufacture another possible problem is simply beyond belief.

@Yesitis
I’ve had occasion to use the Experian “system” and its GIGO as far as I’m concerned so if you add the general incompetence of BT to that its likely to be AGIAGO. Blue State should know about propagating errors in such a system and they dont have the footsoldiers to go out and get the correct answers.

@Cath Seems Aly Bain supports the Indy cause with some good points :-link to twitter.com

Another caveat: any following remarks underlining stupidity and lies is directed at Better Together and Better Together only.
 
“I strongly believe Scotland should remain part of Britain”
 
Just noticed that first ‘economical-with-the-truth’ first sentence.
 
 Um, unless the forces of nature are intending to cause a cataclysmic event where Scotland will be rent asunder from the rest of the island of Britain exactly across the border with England and left to float in the Atlantic, uncared for and unloved for ever more, or, perhaps to sink without trace like some latter-day Atlantis, then it is highly probable that Scotland will – no matter whether it is an independent country or not – “remain part of Britain” for quite some time into the foreseeable future. 
 
So, well done AGAIN Better Together! You really are playing a blinder with this one!
 
And another wee hint – if you’re going to be producing scare stories, at least make an attempt at reality, or people will start to think you’re just a bunch of lying-scum charlatans – and you wouldn’t want that, now, would you?!

Personally I couldn’t care less what celebrities are reported to have said or think. However, what they do is a different matter. How is this Project Fear? A Scotsman who supports independence, but who is on hunger strike right now in support of the last remaining British detainee in Guantanamo (that we know of). And he’s not too tight either. Good for you Frankie.
link to guardian.co.uk

Patrick Roden
In my opinion, Susan Boyle is perhaps being financially abused by these people.
Hi Patrick, I’m sure you well know this site but others may not:
link to publicguardian-scotland.gov.uk
Very interestingly the opening para of the aims of the public guardian states:
“The Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland has a general function to supervise those individuals who have been appointed to manage the financial or property affairs of adults who lack the capacity to do so for themselves.”
Mmmm, now it doesn’t cover political exploitation but, if as stated, there are concerns regarding her financial or property state then there appears to be a case for the guardian to take a look, does there not? 
 

There is a deep irony in co-opting Ms Boyle’s belief for the NO cause. The YES campaign is constantly attacked for producing opinion and assertion – “Give us the facts,” demand BT.  Yet here, because a singer has an opinion, we are supposed to wither and crumble.

@James Westland  that very suture has part of Hadrian’s Wall built on it, at the roman fort of Housteads where the two plates met you can see the remanants of the upthrust core as a tall cliff. 

wonder if this despicable interview was prompted by the Newsnight Scotland prog. who pointed out the lack of celebs. supporting the Better Together campaign . I also wonder if the interview was  ghost written BBC Scotland style . Susan Boyle should not have been approached on any subject other than her music

 
O/T but important …
 
The state-owned government body, Plasma Resources UK, which provides the NHS with vital blood and plasma products has been sold off to *Bain Capital, a US Private Equity firm, for £200m. Former Health Minister, Lord Owen, said: “It’s hard to conceive of a worse outcome for a sale of this particularly sensitive national health asset than a private equity company with none of the safeguards in terms of governance of a publicly quoted company and being answerable to shareholders.” (my emphasis).
 
*one of Bain Capital’s founder members was venture capitalist and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
 
link to ft.com

Dcanmore
 
No doubt Johann, whenever the aliens return her will demand to know when we are selling off key elements of our NHS so we can be better together. 

It’s an unworthy thought, but think on poor Anas Sarwar, hisI auld father is now aforeigner, and we know how the Labour Party feel about people being in another country, like they died

@ Dcanmore
This will be the Mitt Romney, who’s unsuccessful campaign for the US Presidency, stood for rationing of Medicare and making recipients work for their food stamps?
link to money.cnn.com

I wrote a piece on this too and i totally back what the Rev is saying.
 
I doubt that these are Susan Boyle’s feelings at all. I doubt she said any of what is attributed to her.
 
But Better Together may have used SuBo to see if they can tempt nasty cybernat bullies out of the woodwork, and may well be watching social media for some  hate tweets as we type and read.
 
Let’s hope they find none, and another of their idiotic plans goes awry.
 
 I’ll add this  to my post too.

Have just read the Douglas Walker piece in the Sun, as linked by Rev in first sentence  – astonishing stuff.
 
Did he record the conversation with Susan Boyle?
 
Did he back it up with shorthand notes?
 
Did Susan express her view on the economy and the fate of the Scottish Regiments unbidden?
 
(I don’t read the Sun and am unfamiliar with this Douglas Walker – who he? and what do be he up-to normalwise?)
 
‘SuboGate‘ has a certain ring to it.
 
If Mr Walker hasn’t been scrupulous in conducting the interview (and his editors equally vigilant in assessing the copy for approval) they may soon find their short-and-curlies in the grip of an ACME ‘ElaineCSmith’-model mangle.

Sue said – Don’t let a fool bunch of men run off beating their chests and leave the women and children starving.
 
Yes, that’s exactly what the independence debate is all about – forget the issues of social justice, equity, self respect, empowerment and democracy.  No it’s actually all just about male ego and mine’s bigger than your’s posturing by these frightfully primitive porridge-ridden Scotsmen.  Not like the civilising UK at all, definately not teetering on the brink of a cesspool of neo-liberal barbarism, oh no; although this is the very state that is willing to see people starve so that they can prioritise £100bn for nuclear weapons to enable ‘Britain’ to ‘punch above its weight’.  What is it with this BritNat obsession with punching?
 
Well, you don’t know much about our shy retiring YES-voting Scotswomen do you?  If anything, the wife’s beating her chest and twating me over the head with a spurtle for having got the wrong vintage of balsamic vinegar for my son’s salade nicoise.  I’ll starve before he does.

@Major Blooknok
I’ll starve before he does
 
Aye and don’t you forget it!

@Sue
Lol.. ‘Partition’. Welcome back Fifi.

@JV
The hand wringing “she’s being exploited” idiots are a joke.You know nothing about her but you’re so “caring”.Pass the sick bucket.
 
Grouchy or what…..? tsk tsk!
 
 
 

I’m astonished at the number of people on this website who think that Susan Boyle who’s wealth is estimated at £22 million,is too stupid,vulnerable and fragile to have a valid opinion on Scottish independence.The hand wringing “she’s being exploited” idiots are a joke.You know nothing about her but you’re so “caring”.Pass the sick bucket.
 
We know that her mental health issues are well-documented, we know that her family are involved in her management, we know that she has experienced issues getting access to her own money. So we do actually know a wee bit more than nothing about her. And, as stated elsewhere, since when was wealth the exclusive domain of the intelligent, strong and resilient?

Thank you, Max.  
 
The condescension toward Susan Boyle here is mind-blowing.  She just finished her first tour.  She’s performed on over 100 stages throughout the world, including in front of a staggering 400 million viewers on television – live – in China.  She just returned from Russia, where she performed for the first time.  She’s performed in Las Vegas, in Japan, all over.  And she’s about to have her first movie released – a movie in which her part was expanded and she was called “a one-take wonder” by the director.
 
There is nothing kind or caring about this article.  How can suggesting a perfectly intelligent woman is “mentally unfit” be kind?  There has never been any suggestion that Boyle was intellectually challenged in any way.  Sheltered with some problems with social skills?  Yes.  Intelligence – no, never in question.
 
This article puts her intelligence in question.  All because she disagrees; she dares to have an opinion.  Is her opinion so frightening that she must be made out to be an imbecile by this article.  That is truly cruel, and “The Reverend” should be ashamed for his lack of research and real knowledge.
 

scrolled straight to the bottom without reading ANY  posts so apologies if this has been said before,
 but I was just so angry, that those revolting people should push that poor woman into the firing line with the clear expectation of an avalanche of (cybernat) abuse,
to put someone as clearly vulnerable as her into the front line is totally disgusting, I sincerely hope the people responsable for this heinous attempt at attracting abuse on her are ashamed,but somehow I doubt it,
she is, lets be clear just as entitled to her own opinions as anyone else, but her advisers would have been looking after HER interests if they had counselled her that she keep them to herself if for no other reason than loss of income from possible reaction from independence supporters.
This is not good and shows a dark and disturbing side to their argument that they will use anything and anyone no matter what damage it causes to further their own empty self serving agenda
they truly disgust me 

jv says
“I’m astonished at the number of people on this website who think that Susan Boyle who’s wealth is estimated at £22 million,is too stupid,vulnerable and fragile to have a valid opinion on Scottish independence.The hand wringing “she’s being exploited” idiots are a joke.You know nothing about her but you’re so “caring”.Pass the sick bucket.”
 
Wind yer neck in jv,
noone on here says she is not entitled to her opinion.
but the statements attributed to her are to say the least questionable, if someone stuck a microphone in my face unexpectedly asking what I thought about the issue I would probably babble incoherently,
but the statements she (apparently ) made have the hallmarks of a (poorly) prepared rason detre  which fit her circumstances like a clog in my view were created by a scriptwiter who knows the sum total of bugger all about her or Scotland

@Interested Party
You’ve rumbled these evil cybernats.
They’re quaking in their boots.
All it will take is the intervention of the Krankies and it’s game over.

You can understand the concerns, but what I would say to susan and have said to others with these exact concerns is this: These are important questions, but you must also ask these of the parties that support Union. Look at what is happening right now. If you ask these questions of them and you are happy that everything you mentioned will be taken care of in the Union, then by all means vote no. But if like me you are deeply troubled about were this Union is heading and the damage it is doing to the services and institutions you cherish, then I hope like me, you will vote yes on the day.

Any competent journalist could easily cross reference her concerns with what is happening in the UK right now and it would hard to make that work for Bettertogether.

Calm down,guys.
Apart directing more well deserved scorn towards the Scottish press this will have no effect – except as an own goal. Susan Boyle is perfectly entitled to hold any opinion she likes about anything but anybody who is strongly influenced in their decision making by the opinions of Susan Boyle is beyond sensible reason and I feel very sorry for Susan who is being used by the unscrupulous and deeply stupid people constructing the Better Together campaign.
This little stunt has been disgusting and many people will feel this quite strongly 

If the people of Scotland vote No jist because a wee fat Celtic fitba team supportin’ wummin frae Blackburn says so then they don’t deserve independence; they deserve to have their name wiped off the map and be called North Britons.
And be known throughout the world as the folk who live at the top end of the island and who don’t have spines.
 
They will most likely come to be known as ”The Filleted Ones”.

Susan Boyle has never had trouble getting access to her own money.
 
Sure about that? In any case, there still remains the alleged mental health issues. You never can trust the tabloids, but at the same time I felt distinctly uncomfortable. And this is from someone who has spent all his adult life around people with various mental health issues, and has witnessed the tremendous stigmas still attached to the disabled.
 
The condescension toward Susan Boyle here is mind-blowing. 
 
Please don’t do this. Just don’t. It is not condescending to fear that someone with a history of mental health issues is being manipulated. What is condescending is belittling Ms Boyle’s achievement by alleging that a woman with a history of mental health issues, where there is clear and plentiful evidence of those difficulties, is actually “perfectly intelligent” enough to write the above piece straight from Better Together. As you yourself say, Ms Boyle has experienced hell growing up: why would you downplay just how hard that struggle was and continues to be?
 
People with mental health issues deserve to be treated with understanding, respect, and for people not to look down on them. But they also deserve people to understand what they are and are not capable of. It isn’t condescending to provide ramps for wheelchairs, and it isn’t condescending to be concerned about the historically very problematic world of show business, and how it is NOT a good place for vulnerable people of any stripe. Look up Drew Barrymore’s childhood.
 
She just finished her first tour.  She’s performed on over 100 stages throughout the world, including in front of a staggering 400 million viewers on television – live – in China.  She just returned from Russia, where she performed for the first time.  She’s performed in Las Vegas, in Japan, all over.  And she’s about to have her first movie released – a movie in which her part was expanded and she was called “a one-take wonder” by the director.

None of which has anything to do with her intelligence, but her talent, which is of course considerable. And since when is being less intelligent a bad thing? Intelligence has no bearing on a person’s worth, or makes them a better person, nor does it make their opinion more or less informed. And that’s the problem.

How can suggesting a perfectly intelligent woman is “mentally unfit” be kind? There has never been any suggestion that Boyle was intellectually challenged in any way.  Sheltered with some problems with social skills?  Yes.  Intelligence – no, never in question.

Susan Boyle was deprived of oxygen during birth which resulted in brain damage and a learning disability, she left school with few qualifications, and her only employment prior to her singing career was as a trainee chef for 6 months.

And speaking as someone who has suffered, and continues to suffer, mental health problems, I would appreciate it if you would stop this patronising white-knighting by claiming a woman with clear-cut mental health difficulties is actually “perfectly intelligent.” You wouldn’t call a person with severe arthritis “perfectly able to climb stairs,” so why would you call someone with – again – minor brain damage and diagnosed learning disabilities “perfectly intelligent”?
 
This article puts her intelligence in question.  All because she disagrees; she dares to have an opinion.  Is her opinion so frightening that she must be made out to be an imbecile by this article.
 
Harlan Ellison has a quote: “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” This applies to Susan Boyle as much as it would apply to Stephen Hawking.

In the end, though, this is all a moot point, since when it comes to Scottish Independence, I’m prone to question the intelligence of ANYONE who plans on voting no. To date, only a few have convinced me that their opinions are grounded and informed, compared to the literally *hundreds* whose opinions are based on misinformation or nonsense. (and that last paragraph was only a little facetious.)

@Interested Party
iI looks like you have made it into the debate with guns already raised looking for a right good shoot-out. It also looks like you’ve come here without really reading the full text of the Rev’s article, or reading through the comments left BTL. It *definitely* looks like you’ve come here seeking out confrontation.
 
You mention lots of condescension and examples of Ms. Boyle’s mentality being questioned and ridiculed. Can you give evidence of this? I, for one, did not see anybody being condescending or being discourteous to Susan Boyle either in the article itself or in the comments left BTL. Again, please give evidence to your claims. 
 
Actually, I thing you came here expecting the article and its comments to be disparaging of,  and discourteous to, Ms. Boyle,  and on finding no such evidence left a rambling rant, in anger more at your own misconceptions rather than in any meaningful way applicable to the article.
 
Really, it is best to prepare your argument beforehand rather than lose it and your credibility within moments of typing your opening sentences.

Dal Riata asked:
“Can you give evidence of this? I, for one, did not see anybody being condescending or being discourteous to Susan Boyle either in the article itself or in the comments left BTL. Again, please give evidence to your claims.”

 
I will try to explain my thoughts.  I suggest that those who think they’re being “kind” are actually more often being condescending to someone they don’t know and don’t understand.
 
From the article itself:
“What we’re saying is that she isn’t the sort of person ****who should find themselves being shoved **** into the frontline of an ugly political fight.”
This is condescending.  As if Susan Boyle cannot decide FOR HERSELF to join the discussion about something so important to her country.
From the article itself:
“Susan Boyle has reportedly suffered several mental breakdowns solely from the pressure of people liking her.”
This is blatantly untrue – but since it was said as “reportedly” it is at least not actionable and he won’t have to pay like numerous news entities did.  The only “breakdown” Susan Boyle had was the day after BGT, when she stayed for a grand total of 4 days in the hospital and then went directly on tour – where she did 22 performances.  Not a huge “breakdown” I’d say.  (This is provable by her schedule and news articles.)  There have been no other “breakdowns”.
From the article:
“The thought of how she might react to being on the wrong end of some of the darker spirits of the internet makes us feel queasy. But if you’re in the official No campaign, even a vulnerable, emotionally-brittle woman with a learning disability is just another body to throw in front of the guns.”
 
Again, Susan Boyle was brutally bullied for 40 years.  She continues to be bullied by people like Ricky Gervais, who refers to her as a “mong”, other comedians who imitate here mercilessly and others even on the street, including teens who search her out and video themselves taunting her.  Being criticized even brutally on the internet will be nothing new to Susan Boyle.
And again, the idea that she is being THROWN anywhere suggests she is incapable of handling herself and making her own decisions.  That is the ultimate in cruelty and condescension.
From Wings Over Scotland twitter:
“What are the ethics of ***using someone like Susan Boyle for political ends****”
I don’t even know what that means, but it certainly suggests Susan Boyle is too imbecilic to decide her own fate.
 
From a comment:
“I truly feel sorry for Susan Boyle to have been placed in this particular arena, for the reasons that you have outlined. I am annoyed and a bit angered not at her but those that are supposed to be looking after her welfare.”
 
To feel sorry for someone is to pity them, to condescend.  Susan Boyle has never asked for anyone’s pity.  She went to the same schools as everyone else.  She got good grades, graduated on time, has certification in drama and performance.  She doesn’t need someone to tell her if she should express an opinion.
 
Another comment:
“It reflects badly on the Better Together campaign – unscrupulous, manipulative and ruthless”
 
Why?  Because she can’t decide herself or take care of herself?  
I could go on but I won’t.
 
Regarding comments about the fansite – Susan Boyle has been brutally targeted, including through that fansite – by people looking to find information to go to her home, to send her odd things, etc.  What happened to walking a mile in a person’s shoes before condemning them?  
 
Numerous members of that fansite have just returned from spending thousands of dollars in Scotland to go to Susan’s tour stops, sightsee, etc.  They have donated many more thousands to local charities promoted by Susan, following requests by her for support for these entities.  Many fans who attended these shows from all over (not just from fansites) were able to meet Susan, who is smart, funny and very, very capable.