Bully Boys
Posted on
January 13, 2024 by
Chris Cairns
The world's most-read Scottish politics website
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Lovely drawings Chris! Dug should maybe have bit him in the arse …
Chris sees through the bully shit from Handless Humza.
Aye, only one of them behaves like Fanon’s ‘watchdogs of colonialism’, guarding the gate to national liberation.
Clue: it isnae the dug.
This will soon be Scottish Government policy. Clownworld. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12957209/Eunuch-maker-male-escort-penis-wheelchair-ringleader-court.html
Gender woo woo. Looney dogs. Thank God for Westminster and the Conservatives.
Seems like a missed opportunity to train one to tow a Scooter.
Another good one Chris!
Sad to say that following having their arses handed to them by the Supreme Court on #indyref2, and a probable identical outcome if there’s a challenge on gender woo induced over-reach relating to “Conversion Therapy”, the Scottish government’s obsession with everything else but indy is now coming home to roost.
The participatory model of “let’s make the world’s most powerful devolved administration work (aye, right!), and convince fearties by governing well, to waft us to the sunny uplands of independence” is dead.
Real supporters of Scottish independence have to now accept that the only plausible route to independence is abstentionism at Westminster, and a commitment to plebiscitary elections at Holyrood.
Westminster is never going to give Holyrood more powers, even in the unlikely event Scottish nationalists held the balance of power like the Catalan’s currently do in the Spanish Cortes. The Catalan Junts party has just negotiated for control over immigration to be trasferred to the Generalitat in Barcelona: can anyone really imagine British unionists doing that, or indeed the hapless SNP having the politcal skills to do it?
Participatory, devolusionist parties – even those who claim to be pro independence like the SNP – will ultimately always be in thrall to Westminster.
Spot on Chris, Yousaf turns on policies whatever way the wind blows, except (trans issues) maybe he and his grifting MSPs knew that it was only a matter of time until someone sued them over those dangerous dogs.
Meanwhile Craig Murray has an excellent article up in which he attended the Hague on the genocide of the Palestinian people by the Zionists.
Murray recount how in the gallery you are allowed to bring paper in but not pens or pencils as the latter are considered weapons, obviously the court doesn’t want a non-partisan accounts of the days in the court in the public domain.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/01/your-man-in-the-hague-in-a-good-way/
Re the bullys
What’s the difference between a Bully xl and a social worker – you can get bits of your baby back from a bully attack
Fife Council is on the verge of declaring a housing emergency.
“It would be the fourth local authority in Scotland to take that stance, following in the footsteps of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Argyll and Bute. ”
But hey, getting intact blokes into women and girls safe spaces is far more important to this SNP government.
Vote Alba, Join Alba
Down with the union.
That’s a cracker, Chris. Sums up my thinking over the last few days. Sums up the current SNP too. More reactive than proactive. All the hallmarks of a glorified county council. What an utter embarrassment they are.
Karen says on 13 January 2024 at 7:48 am: “Lovely drawings Chris! Dug should maybe have bit him in the arse …”
I would class that as cruelty to animals. The poor dog would need taken to the vets for a tetanus jab. LOL!
When are these people going to realise that independence is the only to secure what we want in Scotland, but then again Yousaf knows this fine well but avoids it like the plague unless it suits his needs.
“The wife of Humza Yousaf has appealed to the UK Government to be allowed to host her Palestinian brother in Scotland.
“El-Nakla, from Dundee, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and international sanctions against Israel since her parents became trapped in Gaza while visiting family on a family in October.”
“El-Nakla has since revealed that Turkey had submitted the names of her remaining family members as individuals they were willing to accept as refugees.”
But she said her brother’s name had been removed from the list, she assumed by the Israeli government, meaning that her sister-in-law and four children had to flee without him.”
Of course if you are coming from that nasty failed Eastern European state, you not only get fast tracked into the UK you get your own SNP government minister you also got housed on a luxury cruiseliner with an onboard dentist and doctor.
What vile shithole the UK now is.
Down with the union, and down with the SNP.
Why is my 11:27 am comment under moderation? There’s absolutely nothing prohibited or inflammatory in it. I’ve seen comments on here referring to females as “bitches” and other comments saying the articles on WOS are garbage and written for the gullible. Yet those posters seem to get to continue posting and hogging every thread. Baffling!
Oh Jesus is that dug going for his tartan tie?
Must be a racist dug.
Maybe he’s aiming below the tie.
Good trans-inclusive dug!
Westminster will never give Holyrood more powers because Holyrood is Westminsters branch office in Scotland under Westminster Statues and retains reservations over it Branch office to ensure that it never becomes a Scottish parliament in reality,
It seems that unionist like to pretend Scotland has Scottish parliament,
Scotlands last parliament was in 1707 Which was put under dissolution in England by a Monarch that never became the monarch of Scots,
This pretendy Scottish parliament in Holyrood is under the dual “parliament of England-Britain Acts”
Do not let any Scot forget that.
Stoker @ 11.36
I’d suspect that it’s not your general comment, m8, but that the algorithm moderating for offensive words has picked one up contained in a longer word in your post; eg “ARSEnal” the football team or “UR*NUS” the planet might be though offensive by the insensate guardian of our morality. (I’ve no idea if those examples are on its’ list).
This has happened to me on a couple of occasions, and it can be challenging to ascertain which word(s) have caused offence.
The Devolved parliament from Westminster really is a embarrassment to Scotland.
And in that sense it is a great asset as a branch office in Scotland and does what the Scotland Act envisaged it was supposed to do,
The sheep in wolfs clothing devolved to Scotland governance is a branch tool to Control its colony.
If it was a true Scottish parliament of Scotland there would not be so reservations held to Westminster, in fact it would have no Control over any reservations.
I really wanted to see the dug biting him in the balls in panel 2! Great cartoon though.
Karen says on 13 January 2024 at 7:48 am: “Lovely drawings Chris! Dug should maybe have bit him in the arse..”
The poor dog would need taken to the vets for a series of inoculations. 🙂
Is the dog intended to look like or represent Nicola?
Works for me…
@RoS 11:33
Scab picking again, quelle surprise.
Seems only fair to me that women & kids should be prioritised for extraction from a war zone. The blokes can stay behind and either work for peace or pick up one of the plentiful RPGs and get stuck in. That’s how things worked, even here in Scotland, as recently as two generations ago. Our grandparent’s generation knew what to call the blokes who cut and run when things got hot.
Another option is on the table too. The guy can self-id as a lassie and get out that way.
Whichever, being distantly related to the pretendy so-called leader of our toy parliament shouldn’t confer any importance or status. I’m stumped to understand why you pretend to believe that it should.
Hardly a day goes by when you don’t post calling for it’s destruction.
Hi Stocker you need to cancel the X to read my post I think you’ll find it’s useful information. However it does contain swearing.
Stoker
Ignored
says:
13 January, 2024 at 11:36 am
Why is my 11:27 am comment under moderation?
You’ve been PMTed Stoker. If you come back later, maybe tomorrow or the next day you might find that Stu has passed your post and it will be released for upload. It will be uploaded way back at the time you posted it ’13 January, 2024 at 11:36 am’ some people might scroll way back to read your post but not many.
The best solution would be for you to find the word that has gotten you PMTed and repost without that word or shove a * into the word.
Which words you might ask. Well there are many. I’ve got a list somewhere.
For starters any word that contains ‘pu*tin’ gets you PMTed.
You don’t get pre-moderated for swearing. You will however get fuckin’ pre-moderated if you type the word dispu*ting or compu*ting without the *
There is a whole list of words like that which get you pre-moderated and none of them are swear words unless you consider an*us to be a swear word.
Better to use asshole.
I’m crossing my fingers that asshole doesn’t get me moderated.
The moderating bot is a cunt! Totally mad & loves catching you out!
Wow. The SNP government certainly stick like glue to their ABI (Anything but Indy) strategy. Got to look strong, got to appear decisive, got to look smart, at least in something. Unfortunately, they are not very good, even at ABI are they?
Would ‘the bitch’ really be looking to bite his cock off at this point in time.
Well maybe you’ve got a point but she might want to give him more time before she gets her teeth into him.
We might think he’s useless but ‘the bitch’ might find him very useful.
“following having their arses handed to them by the Supreme Court on #indyref2…”
I am not convinced Sturgeon and her minions had their arses handed to them by the Supreme Court, to be honest. From the angle I am looking at it, the whole thing, included the outcome, seems to have been done by Sturgeon (or rather her handlers’) design.
It looks much more like a case of the political fake Sturgeon facilitating the deployment of yet another of her fabricated obstacles to independence that were never there in the first place until she installed them. Another of her temporary damage limitation measures deployed on behalf of the British establishment.
When you look retrospectively at the whole thing, it looks much more a matter of Sturgeon herself, by parachuting an unelected representative of the crown to the middle of what should have been a democratically elected government cabinet, actively, willingly and consciously handing her own politically deceiving arse to the crown.
In that way, the crown, represented by the lord advocate and a handful of English judges, could temporary impose absolute rule on Scotland via seizing control of both Scotland’s executive and legislative powers and, in doing so, doing Sturgeon’s dirty work of stopping independence.
In that way, the coward Sturgeon could retain some credibility, in the eyes of the public, when directing her futile and faux whining against Westminster – because whining about Westminster is really the only thing she has ever done about independence in 9 years – while continuing to pretend she ever pursued independence.
It is very telling that the unelected representative of the crown installed by Sturgeon in the middle of Scotland’s executive power never even lifted a finger when the GRR entered Holyrood or when it was forced through, despite knowing (if she ever was a judge worth her salt), that such legislation would never make it to the royal assent.
The different action this unelected representative of the crown deployed towards the independence referendum bill and the GRR one points to something interesting:
1. That lord Advocate must have known that the GRR legislation could be stopped by Westminster after it had been passed in HOlyrood, hence there was no need for her to show the crown’s true absolutist and dictatorial colours by stopping it entering the legislative chamber.
2. That this crown representative facilitated the violation of Scotland’s Claim of Right via seizing control of Scotland’s legislative power and handing it to English judges, so they could prevent the entry of this indyref bill into Holyrood suggests:
a. the crown had certainty the bill would pass
b. the crown might have been aware that it would not have been easy for Westminster or itself to legitimately stop that bill becoming law in Scotland once passed in HOlyrood. Either because none of them had that power or because using (abusing?) that power would reveal something about them they did not want the public (and the world) to see.
We are being taken for absolute fools. That maneuver from the Lord Advocate and the English judges was at all practical effects seizing control of both the executive and legislative powers from the people of Scotland. It was temporary imposition of absolute rule on Scotland, which is in direct violation of the Claim of Right and therefore a reason for the immediate termination of the Treaty of Union.
That treaty of Union only survives because our MPs and MSPs are deceiving us, lack a backbone, lack real pro-independence convictions and are far more concerned about looking after their own personal interests and those of the crown than serving their country as they were elected to do.
Looking back 9 years, it becomes obvious it has been Sturgeon and now Yousaf, rather than Westminster itself, who are the main culprits of actively fabricating and consciously deploying obstacle after obstacle after obstacle to Scotland’s progress towards recovering its autonomy.
Meanwhile, our cowardly MPs and MSPs are responsible for this toxic treaty of union to survive despite violation after violation of its fundamental conditions under their watch and, which should have resulted in its invalidation one hundred times over.
I wouldn’t normally go Off Topic so early, but heyho, RoS started it.
Guardian reporting Turkish overnight air strikes on 30 terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria. I’m guessing that RoS will have nowt to say about that, because of his entrenched double standards.
But if that excuse won’t wash, it can be denied as MSM lies. Then again, he did recently post that the MSM only actually lies about Scotland.
So maybes it’s true, even in RoS’s pretzel world.
At Ruby, Yes, i did contemplate the idea i might have unwittingly used one of the banned words on the ever-growing banned list. But surely not? was my conclusion.
Look at my 12:08 pm comment. That’s a slightly rejigged version of what i posted. The only differences being i jokingly said that i would consider that to be cruelty to animals. And i used the words “tet*nus” and “jab” instead of “a series of inoculations”.
I think i may have just sussed what has gone wrong as i type this to you, take a look at the word tet*nus (a disease) and it contains within it one of the banned words you mention.
So i have now just went back over this comment, prior to posting, to replace a key letter with an * and hope that is good enough to get through the pre-mod. Hopefully you can all make sense of this.
So that’s a new one for your list, Rubes. LOL!
@Ruby 12:35
Maybes I’ve just been lucky in life, but it’s been my experience that Scottish women of a certain age from the Central Belt wear falsers.
I just made myself laugh thinking about folk taking up my suggestion and typing about the planet Urasshole.
Better just use the * and type Ura*nus but Urasshole is quite funny and it doesn’t get you moderated.
Any word that contain a*nus will get you PMTed
Lets see which words might contain a*nus.
If you are good at crosswords you will probably know already I’m going to have to Google.
Here we go! Which words contain the letter a*nus?
MassholesCRIPT(S)!
Not that many more in the asshole category but you can find them if you Google.
Watch out for that ointment for treating piles.
Then there’s the stuff for treating indigestion.
They might bring you express relief but they’ll get you moderated.
That one isn’t in the asshole category. That’s a different category.
It might be called ‘the anti-English category.
At Sven on 13 January 2024 at 11:54 am
Just seen your comment and i think you’re spot on. Look at my previous comment to Ruby. Didn’t realise until i was typing out that reply.
Main reduced to responding to his own posts by imagining what others might say about them.
Sad.
Brilliant, Chris and to the point. Childish repudiation of anything and everything that spews out of Westminster is so … well… pointless. They have to be right at least some of the time.
The letters ski*er get you moderated.
It’s riski*er to type ski*er than ‘douchecanoe’
That’s one of Stu’s favourites.
Why is ski*er banned. I believe the Scottish ski*er was a ‘douchecanoe’ and not only got banned but also got put on the banned word list. That’s quite an achievement perhaps he was more of a ‘Doucheoiltanker’ than a a tiny little canoe.
I hope you are all taking note of these banned words.
We’ve got to win the battle against the mad moderating bot.
WTF is a douchecanoe?
From my study of O grade french I know what a douche is I’ve just never heard of anyone taking a canoe into the shower. The bath maybe but it would need to be a toy canoe. We usually had these plastic yellow ducks and a couple of submarines.
But hey I love all these new swear words.
Who knows ‘stick it up your planet might become popular’. Shorten from ‘stick it up Ur planet Asshole.
No idea what I’m talking about that’s probably cos you are not into ‘dadaism’ & ‘surrealism’
BTW. My sister is not a boy!
‘et ceci n’est pas une pipe’
http://tinyurl.com/bdbs28j
‘et ceci n’est pas une pipe non plus’
http://tinyurl.com/yvbhetun
It’s a fuckin’ banana but if you don’t eat the tofu you can’t have any banana.
How can you have any banana if you don’t eat your tofu.
@Mia 12.37pm
I think you’re crediting Sturgeon and her minions with too much intelligence and inferring an overly Macchiavellian cause for something that is far simpler.
Nobody really buys or cares about all the guff on the Claim of Right. It was SFA to do with imposing direct rule or any of the other lame excuses waved around by the nationalist equivalent of “outraged of Tunbridge Wells”: the Scottish Government over-reached itself by trying to push the limits of a devolved assembly too far, because they are at heart devolutionists.
If they really had wanted to ensure success, they’d have had Plan B waiting in the wings to be instantly applied. That could either have been ensuring they gained a popular majority for repatriating the right to hold referendums for ANY purpose to Holyrood or if that was also frustrated by Westminster, by forcing plebiscitary elections.
I agree they lack the courage and political will: I just don’t credit them with the smarts you seem to think they have. They didn’t think they could win, so they were happy to free wheel for 9 years: far easier being a big fish in a small devolutionary pond than a small fish in the ocean of independence.
Some folk just eat too much bloody tofu & banana and both are known to make you highly constipated.
Some folk need to stop with the tofu & banana. It’s no fun for anyone when you are always constipated.
Day after day post after post with the constipation.
Get some Syrup of Figs (fingers cross that isn’t on the banned medicines list) if you want to do it ‘al la francaise’ get some of those dynamite suppositories.
Stick a couple up ur planet and boom all will be sorted.
There you have it Tammany Hall aka Glasgow City Council makes sure you never wave another Saltire or Palestinian flag on the steps again.
“Planning permission has been granted to demolish the Royal Concert Hall steps clearing the way to erect an extension of the Buchanan Galleries.”
https://nitter.net/Grouse_Beater/status/1746153401203785822#m
Meanwhile the Houthi’s after the Great Satan (US) and its minion the UK attacked Yemen, say that they will now attack (US and UK) ships in the Red sea, they previously only attacked those coming and going from Israel.
Mia @ 12:37 pm
“political fake Sturgeon facilitating the deployment of yet another of her fabricated obstacles to independence that were never there in the first place until she installed them. Another of her temporary damage limitation measures deployed on behalf of the British establishment.”
Spot on, Mia. The SNP elite and ‘Scottish’ Government are intentionally pressing all the wrong buttons to make sure Scotland does not become independent, and they are inevitably guided in that direction. If there is a way to stop independence they will surely find it, and they will oppose any innovation by the movement.
The SNP elites wirk for England’s croun, an sae daes aw oor institutions. They comprise Fanon’s ‘legal tendency’ within the decolonization template, their objective is always ‘to come to a friendly agreement with colonialism’.
Fowk cannae ser twa maisters….
Nobody on here or anywhere seems willing to admit the obvious truth, that independence is on hold and, under the circumstances, that is probably a good thing.
The investigations alone would have scuppered our chances, regardless of what anyone here might think. In the eyes of the public who don’t yet distinguish between the SNP and the independence movement, the investigations and their outcomes are hardly likely to boost confidence in the case for Indy. The outcomes could be massive and impactful.
Domestically, the gender stuff is also an issue that does us no favours, obviously. I don’t think it’s as big a concern for voters as it should be, or that it’s as big an issue for voters as some here think it is, but it has latent potential.
All that aside, though, the wider and international factors override everything, so that we should be glad we aren’t midstream right now making an argument for swapping horses. We’d lose that argument.
Most people are in survival mode. The cold, hunger, disease, vaccines, Russians, Chinese, and even aliens (apparently), pose a threat to that survival in the eyes of many. Yes, 99% of it is bullshit, but bullshit matters.
It seems the world could hardly be more unstable. Regardless of the fancy arguments we make on here, breaking up the UK will be perceived by many as only making things even more uncertain.
We have two or three years in this limbo-land. What we do with that time matters but it’s hard to see right now where arguments for independence help. I think the time would be better spent dealing with those that put us in this hole.
The Houthi are Shia, no cause for concern in Scottish politics.
Sturgeon and Yousaf have really cost Scotland big time, here’s one that will hurt us for a long time even when we’re independent.
“I wish that were true. Once these Freeports/SEZ’s are in place we are stuck with them under international regulations independent or not.
“Freeports/SEZ’s are covered under ISDS rules which means they cannot be removed for the period of the contract. It’s how the corporate U.K. is keeping hold of our territorial assets in case of independence”
https://nitter.net/SSalyers2/status/1735658852345897137#m
Vote Alba, Join Alba.
Down with the union.
Is all varieties of the American Bully breed going to be banned as well?
The XL bullies… On their way to doggy hell. I see Gillian Sturgeon is seething that the devil dugs are to be taken to the pound.
She’s a bit a hound herself. The Sturgeon sisters are the type of shady owners that would own a bully XL. Matches their personality.
SNP groomers out. HUMZA OUT NOW!
Hatuey at 4.07
This.
@ Hatuey . Good to see you back posting , H .
Aye , not only is ” the World ” in an extremely unstable condition currently , but I can’t remember a time when the calibre of ” our ” leaders was so abysmal . Look at the state of the U.S , * led * by a demonstrably corrupt front-man for corporate interests – how many aliases has he used to disguise all the massive backhanders from foreign governments via his son’s ” business dealings ” ? Six at the last count . This is not conjecture , it’s all evidenced , yet , there he is , nodding through every catastrophic military and economic decision , each one more destructive than the last .
Look at the U.K ; pathetic , toothless U.S poodle still imagining it’s a bulldog .
E.U/Europe ; ditto but imagining it’s a * progressive * pure-bred ” Equality ” weimaraner .
Then , if you can stand it ….look at Scotland . And shudder .
It’s governance in the hands of bumbling clowns , captured by every idiotic , irrational , destructive psycho-fad going ; incapable of even basic fiscal competence ; awash with cash-draining quangos , ” support groups ” ; rife with nepotism/cronyism . Presiding over the virtual takeover of our country and all they can muster by way of resistance is the hollow mantra – ” Tories Out ” .
I get what you’re saying about this not being – perhaps – the most propitious time to be urgently pressing for Independence : but , on the other hand , the current state-of-play could be considered existential . If not now , when ? In what way can we realistically expect conditions to become more favourable to advance our aspiration ? Is it not just as/more likely things will deteriorate even further , to the point where Independence becomes virtually impossible – either through the machinations of the Brit State and/or Geopolitical chaos ?
I don’t think we can wait for any golden moment to appear . They came and went , unused , with Brexit and the 2015 G.E SNP HOC intake .
“Nobody really buys or cares about all the guff on the Claim of Right”
I would kindly and politely suggest you simply direct your impetus towards speaking only for yourself. That you, personally, do not care about the Claim of Right, does not mean nobody else cares.
Several months ago, before you exited these threads rather acrimoniously, you had claimed on several occasions to be a member of the ALBA party.
I have no reason whatsoever to put that in doubt. However, I include below some quotes from senior members of your party, demonstrating they do indeed care about the Claim of Right and they seem to believe it to remain extant:
“The SNP/Green coalition have promised another referendum in 2023 with “no ifs or buts”.
The Yes movement will take them (SNP and Greens) at their word, and they therefore should also explain the strategy by which they intend to bend Westminster to the will of the Scottish Parliament to agree a referendum or indeed spell out another way of asserting the sovereignty of the Scottish people.
Without that we run the risk of conducting a debate in a constitutional vacuum. Instead we need Scotland’s Claim of Right to resound far and wide.”
Mr Alex Salmond, June 2022
“The UK’s constitution is not codified in a single document, so the question of whether the Acts of Union can unilaterally be dissolved by one party is not clear. However, the accepted position hitherto is that the Union is a voluntary association of equal partners and Scotland has an unquestioned right of self-determination. That is a right underpinned by Scots common law which rests not on the Magna Carta, but on the claim of right which continues to assert that it is the people who are sovereign in Scotland”
Mr Neale Hanvey, House of Commons, February 2023
“The provisions of the Claim of Right Act 1689 in
relation to the right to appeal to the monarch against perceived judicial injustice remain in force to the extent that the right is now exercisable via appeal to the United Kingdom Supreme Court, in accordance with the usual rules of court, and civil procedure”
Mr Kenny MacAskill, quoted on “Claim of Right for Scotland”, House of Commons Debate Pack, Number 2016-0158, 2 September 2016
It seems, therefore, that your assertion “Nobody really buys or cares about all the guff on the Claim of Right” does not apply to your party and, either you have been misinformed or you are bullshiting.
Debates in Westminster regarding the Scotland Act clearly show that both, MPs and Lords accept the validity of both, the Claim of Rights 1689 and the Bill of Rights 1689, which, by the way, constitute the basis for parliamentary privilege. Here is a couple of quotes to illustrate this:
“For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of Article IX of the Bill of Rights 1689 and of that part of Article XXV of the Claim of Right Act 1689 which secures freedom of speech and debate to members of Parliament shall apply to the proceedings of the Assembly; and those Articles shall be construed accordingly”
HL Debate “Application of Bill of Rights and Claim of Right to Assembly proceedings” 09 June 1998
“That is obvious from the fact that in my amendments I have referred to the Bill of Rights and the Claim of Right Act 1689 which are understood to found the privileges which this Parliament enjoys”
Lord MacKay of Drumadoon, HL Debate “Scotland Bill”, 02 November 1998
“Have those promulgating the Bill adequately considered the position in Scotland? I have heard nothing during the debates on Second Reading or in the other place about the impact of clause 13 on the Claim of Right Act 1689 as opposed to the Bill of Rights 1688”
Mr Paul Boateng, HC Debate “Limitation of Actions: Scotland”, 24 June 1996
Also, if you have a look at SALVO’s website, you will see this organisation is centered around Scotland’s Claim of Right, so it is safe to say that most, if not all the members of this organisation, among whom I am one, believe the original Claim of Right 1689 is not only extant but actually crucial in finding a sound route to achieve Scotland’s independence.
Even the monarch acknowledges the importance of the Claim of Right 1689. He said:
“I understand that the Law requires that I should, at My Accession to the Crown, take and subscribe the Oath relating to the Security of the Church of Scotland. I am ready to do so at this first opportunity.
I, Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of My other Realms and Territories, King, Defender of the Faith, do faithfully promise and swear that I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the true Protestant Religion as established by the Laws made in Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right and particularly by an Act intituled “An Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government” and by the Acts passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms for Union of the two Kingdoms, together with the Government, Worship, Discipline, Rights and Privileges of the Church of Scotland.
So help me God”
Charles the Third, King of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, published 10 September 2022
The Claim of Right referred to in Mr Windsor’s oath is the original Claim of Right, as stated in the Treaty of Union. Please note that Mr Windsor says quite clearly “I understand THAT THE LAW REQUIRES (my capitals)…”. In other words, Mr Windsor (and his royal advisors) understand the Claim of Right 1689 is part of UK law and fundamental for the UK and his own claim to the crown to continue.
After listening to somebody as senior in the British establishment as the monarch himself swearing the oath, frankly, your claim that “Nobody really buys or cares about all the guff on the Claim of Right” rings completely hollow.
I am sure you know that in 1989 a new multi-party Scottish constitutional convention was formed. This convention issued an updated version of the original Claim of Right 1689. The wording of the new Claim of Right is
“We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount”
You do not need an IQ above average to realise that the above is simply an actualised and modernised rewording of the original Claim of Right 1689 which reasserted Scotland’s popular sovereignty and the right of the people of Scotland to remove the crown from a monarch who dared abusing their position of power to impose absolute rule.
Even conservatives acknowledged this:
“Conservative MSP David McLetchie recalled the original Claim of Right, passed by the old Scots Parliament in 1689, adding: “Notwithstanding its offensive prejudices, the act of 1689 appears to have been an inspiration, 300 years later, for a new Claim of Right”
This new version of the original Claim of Right has been mentioned and debated several times at Westminster. It has always been accepted. It cannot be other way, because the original Claim of Right remains extant and is a fundamental condition of the Treaty of Union at all times.
A quick search in Hansard for the words “Claim of Right 1689” from 1/01/1800 to 13/01/2024 reveals the existence of as many as 197 entries. The most recent one is from October 2023. So, it does seem your assertion “Nobody really buys or cares about all the guff on the Claim of Right” is really baseless.
“It was SFA to do with imposing direct rule”
Either you have no awareness of the need to have separation of the three powers – executive, legislative and judicial- for a proper democracy to function, or you are bullshiting on this assertion too.
When you have an unelected representative of the crown sitting in the middle of what should have been a democratically elected government cabinet, controlling what laws can enter the chamber and effectively seizing control of the executive and legislative bodies when the crown already has control over the judicial power, you do not have a democracy. You have absolute rule exercised by the crown.
Control of the legislative body cannot be shared or taken in turns. Either it is controlled by the people (democracy) or is controlled by the crown (dictatorship). When an unelected representative of the crown seizes from the people control of the executive and legislative bodies and hands it to the crown, you do not have “a legal, limited monarchy” which is what Scotland’s constitution recognised as legal. What you have is a despotic power exercising absolute rule and overruling popular sovereignty. That is in direct violation of the Claim of Right 1689 and therefore unconstitutional.
“the Scottish Government over-reached itself”
And so did the crown. The point I am making here is that, in my opinion, Sturgeon’s government purposely facilitated this, therefore you cannot claim that they were caught like a rabbit on the headlights. It was, in my opinion, done by design to add in yet another fabricated layer of excuses against progressing independence to prolong the life of the UK union.
“I just don’t credit them with the smarts you seem to think they have”
I think you have completely misunderstood my thoughts.
I have never credited Sturgeon, Yousaf or the rest of post-Salmond SNP with “smarts”. Since January 2020 I have considered them nothing more than deceitful useful idiots acting in the service of the crown and against the interests of Scotland. The only ones who I think have demonstrated independent thought are Mr MacKaskill, Mr Hanvey, Ms Cherry, Mr Angus Brendan McNeil, Ms Regan, Mr Chapman and Mr Ewing.
I do not consider Sturgeon capable of successfully planning strategy. The same applies to Yousaf. They are, in my view, crown tools. For the last 9 years I have seen nothing, nothing at all, that points towards Sturgeon, or heaven forbid Yousaf, being in control of strategy.
Sturgeon has always came across to me as an implementer, not even a shaper. Shapers encourage members of the group to progress towards common objectives. She did not precisely “encourage” anyone. She forced compliance by throwing under the bus all those who did not abide by her say so, by throwing the CPS towards pro-indy dissenters of her doctrine of nonsense, and by removing democratic processes from the party to avoid dissent. She has shown she ain’t a democrat. It seems obvious she was tasked with implementing the halting of independence even at the cost of losing credibility, a huge chunk of the party’s membership and making the party unelectable. She was neither working for Scotland neither for the SNP as a political vehicle of independence. She has been destroying it on behalf of somebody else.
With regards to the MPs and MSPs you have almost enough fingers in one hand to count the number of them who had enough backbone, pro-independence conviction and independence of thought to challenge this political fraud by standing up to her. Had there been more of them and this political fraud would have not got away with stalling Scotland’s recovery of autonomy for 9 unbearably long years.
Hatuey @ 4:07 pm
“I think the time would be better spent dealing with those that put us in this hole.”
Those responsible for the rupture and for the ‘mystification’ policies extend much further than the compromised national party elite and hence mostly remain outwith the influence of the colonised group.
It is only possible to remedy the colonial ‘condition’ after liberation, which is always the most urgent matter.
@Mia 5.33pm
That you, personally, do not care about the Claim of Right, does not mean nobody else cares.
OK, perhaps I should have been more nuanced: I’m sure some people care a great deal. Some as we know from BTL here are indeed utterly obsessed. But the $64,000 question is….so what? We know it’s there, and that’s fine an’ all….but we know exactly what we have to do to become independent: win a referendum or plebiscitary elections. Go do!
….you had claimed on several occasions to be a member of the ALBA party.
I have no reason whatsoever to put that in doubt.
But you just couldn’t resist trying to cast doubt on it, eh? I’d post a picture of my membership card and snazzy Founder Members badge, but I don’t think BTL comments here cope with pictures. It’d seem an odd thing for someone to claim when it was easily disproved though.
As for senior figure believing it’s important and still extant, bully for them! I’ve never said it wasn’t extant by the way, just that it isn’t particularly relevant, nor does it provide a silver bullet.
Doubtless there are other things the leadership agrees with that I don’t, and some that I do. In some cases, my views probably represent the majority, and in some cases they don’t. Such is life.
I know for example there are folk in Alba who are passionately devoted to restricting the franchise for future referendums, but most in my experience disagree with them, and the leadership certainly does. That doesn’t stop those folk arguing their case though: purportedly Republic of Scotland in here is an Alba member too, and I’m sure some agree with his world view. Again in my (admittedly subjective personal) experience he doesn’t represent the majority. Perhaps it’s his brach that is different.
When an unelected representative of the crown seizes from the people control of the executive and legislative bodies and hands it to the crown, you do not have “a legal, limited monarchy” which is what Scotland’s constitution recognised as legal. What you have is a despotic power exercising absolute rule and overruling popular sovereignty. That is in direct violation of the Claim of Right 1689 and therefore unconstitutional.
I don’t accept your analysis that that is what happened, but even if it’s true (or at least arguable), tell us how we overturn this unconstitutional turn of events then? I don’t buy all the Salvo arguments, and nor from what I’ve read do many lawyers. However, if they’re that strong, then surely they will prevail. Again: Go do!
She was neither working for Scotland neither for the SNP as a political vehicle of independence. She has been destroying it on behalf of somebody else.
You’re free to believe that if you like. Perhaps history will even show that you were right and I’ll be forced to eat my words. I have my doubts though. It just sounds like a lot of fervid, tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorising. Just because people desperately want something to be true, doesn’t mean it becomes more convincing.
Never attribute to malice what can more reasonably be attributed to stupidity, or possibly cupidity, in the case of the devolutionists in the SNP.
ALF BAIRD @5:39
Scotland’s situation is not unique. A cosmopolitan perspective on the matter is convincing in that regard. I am reading about the Uyghurs and the restrictions on their culture and language under the current Chinese government. Far worse than the trendy Palestinian matter, you would not wish to change places. Peking ( not Beijing) does not do subtlety.
Britishness is a rather cosy shroud nevertheless confining, restricting, debilitating, denaturing.
Language, and the thought processes behind it, may shred the shroud.
BlackRock now own Scotland’s airports and ports.
Larry Fink says “infrastructure is really important”
asked whether he would like to invest in some reverse-combo asian lookback bermuda options in high yield debt as part of his company porfolio, he chuckled :
we sell that shite, mate, we don’t buy the fucking crap – this is real, actual, wealth, not that funny money phoney baloney out of thin air toilet paper …
Since BlackRock came to Edinburgh, their chief, Fink, has adopted the northern edinbugger patois and is now recognised as a valid “wide-o” and likes his “snout” (HIBZ BOOYYZZ!)
– further asked if he would invest in the newly proposed Global Temperature Future funds, he transformed violently and spasmodically into an eerie simulcrum of The Joker and said simply
everyone gets what they fucking deserve …
BlackRock – if SPECTRE did TED-talks
Some of the comments on here concerning Independence are like a lighthouse in the desert.
Very bright but of no use to anyone.
Mark Beggan says on 12 January 2024 at 8:14 pm:
“This is what seeking Scottish Independence at all costs gets you. We are paying the price now…rampant homosexuals parading their debauchery with pride..”
You truly are a nasty ignorant bigot. What the f@ck has homosexuality got to do with all this? Let’s see now, why are you not lambasting all your beloved BritNat politicians as paedophiles, eh?
Homosexuals aren’t responsible for all this gender stuff, you ignorant Nazi bigot. But your beloved Westminster has a historical connection to paedophilia. Away and get educated, you moron. And stay off the glue.
Are you really Manky Jaikit in disguise? LOL!
Robert Hughes
We can expect circumstances to become more favourable to our independence when we ditch every last one of the professional failures and no hopers associated with the movement so far and replace them with inspirational, talented, competent, experienced pragmatists.
We need to make it crystal clear to our neighbours in Europe and south of the border which feckin side we will be on as The War enters its third year – that needs to be the side of the west, the US hegemony, NATO, etc. Otherwise there will be no incentive whatsoever for the power brokers in this geographical area – the US, WM, the EU, NATO, to let us split up the UK.
We need to ditch the Student Grant political shenanigans that has been a big part of the Indy movement forever and grow up. If that means ditching a few hundred thousand of the traditional support base, then so be it.
They had their time and their chances. They blew it.
Time for a new broom and a clean sweep.
@ Stocker
So I take you don’t agree. My point is that you assume I’m a Unionist. You read my words and grabbed your claymore and charged. Easy to bate you. The Indy trip is over. The come down is a bitch. You’ve been had by the Gay Parade. Have a ki kat
“if it’s true (or at least arguable), tell us how we overturn this unconstitutional turn of events then?”
1. By recalling a Convention of the Estates
2. By impeaching the government cabinet responsible for facilitating the unconstitutional transfer of the control over the executive and legislative powers from the people of Scotland to the crown
3. By putting the crown on notice
“Never attribute to malice what can more reasonably be attributed to stupidity”
In a context where support for the monarchy is falling fast* and allegiance to the Claim of Right by the crown has recently been confirmed by the monarch himself to be a requirement by UK law for the preservation of the Treaty of Union, for the crown to then overtly abuse power and seize control of executive and legislative powers so as to give itself absolute control to stop Scotland’s independence is, in my personal view, a magnificent display of arrogant stupidity.
*Based on Savage, M (2022) “Scottish support for monarchy falls to 45%, poll reveals”, The Guardian and Curtice, J (2023) “Another Look at Attitudes to the Monarchy”
Mia
Any polling figures for the proposed Scottish replacement for the monarchy?
Let me take a wild guess – the respondents were asked their views on the monarchy but in true failure to think things through mode, nobody was asked what they want as a replacement Scottish Head of State.
And so us thinking Sovereign Scots are left pondering whether we will be expected to swear an oath of allegiance to HY, or some other such pretendy, fraudulent, useless, disgraceful, international laughing stock.
Over, first, hell, freeze, will.
Rearrange into a well known phrase or saying.
Robert Hughes, thank you.
On the question of timing, it’s not in our hands. There are two critical things missing right now, and they’re inextricably linked; public opinion and politicians that are able to inspire.
The West generally is in short supply when it comes to inspirational leaders, as you understand. It feels like the collapse of Rome or something — the world is sick of Western double-standards and bullying.
Bullies lose when enough people stand up in opposition at the same time and say “come ahead ya cunts”. Their bullying depends on pummelling one victim at a time and the tables turn very quickly when more than one fights back at the same time. That’s what we are watching.
Alf, it’s a dark and unpleasant business but in colonial struggles such as the one we are in, against an enemy that will use any means necessary to confuse and confound us, it is more than vital that ("Tractor" - Ed)s are punished and seen to be punished.
We actually have no choice in that, if we are serious. For that reason alone, our immediate priority is to bring down the SNP, just as we brought down Labour (for much the same reasons). On that basis, I’d advocate for voting for ANY party if it helps remove an SNP grifter.
Anyway, talking about independence right now feels like we are talking about winning The Champions League when we don’t have a team, a pitch to play on, a stadium, or even a ball. That’s the bad news. The good news is it will change; the political will is there and isn’t going away. In a year or two, things will surely be clearer.
ndy Ellis
Ignored says:
13 January, 2024 at 6:21 pm
@Mia 5.33pm
That you, personally, do not care about the Claim of Right, does not mean nobody else cares.’
Having lately come down off the hill, and being tired such that I can’t face the walk to the pub-I took a look at the Claim of Right.
If I have it right this is an Act passed by the ‘Old Scottish Parliament ‘in 1689.
It appears to be a rant against ‘Popery’, and goes to some lengths in that regard; not, I might say, very Inclusive. Or indeed sane.
The lifespan of a man being limited I limited my perusal but I think I can say with some certainty that this (if it be the Act endlessly referred to on here) is not a sound basis for government today. Or ever.
That said, those old-time bigots would be pleased that at least your current leader is not a follower of the Bishop of Rome.
@TURABDIN 6:25
It’s amusing to consider how many warnings the Covid Spreaders would give any armed terrorist group interfering with their merchant shipping. Maybes if one of the Indonesian Islands was to rebel against the government in Jakarta and make common cause with their Uyghur co-religionists.
Would there be the same hair shirt rending and gnashing of teeth on here over the terrorist’s inevitably swift and grisly fate?
Ah hae ma doots.
Tommo
If you can summon up the strength of will, you should have a look at the Declaration Of Arbroath!
The boasts about the genocide of the Picts within it read very badly to most modern Sovereign and New Scots.
I favour forgetting all Guff more Ancient than 60 years and making the simple economic case for Indy. That remains a minority view among the regulars on here, but so what. In politics, as somebody once said, everything is impossible, right up to the point at which it becomes inevitable.
If you love your Country don’t vote SNP.
John Main @ 7:55 pm
“interfering with their merchant shipping”
Neither the USA nor UK has any ‘merchant shipping’ fleet of any note. The UK has had no major container lines since P&O was acquired by Maersk some 20 years ago, as was the USA’s Sea-Land Service Inc. Both USA and UK now depend on third countries carriers to transport their trade which is very heavily imbalanced, dominated by imports.
In other words the actions of the UK and USA have little to do with protecting ‘their’ ships, because they don’t have any.
Ilan Pappe talking to Chris Hedges.
youtube.com/watch?v=L1PKlV1JMBU
@Mia 7.18pm
Who calls this convention then?
How are those in the convention selected?
Who eleects the convention?
Impeaching the government (I assume you mean Holyrood govt?) on what grounds?
What statute would be used and which lawyers have verified it has any chance of success?
Who puts the crown on notice? Of what? What does it even mean?
Falling support for the monarchy is a plus, if unsurprising given the current incumbent, but I’m not sure why you think it’s relevant?
Strong rumours from East Lothian Council say that an SNP Councillor could be in a lot of trouble and has been caught doing something they shouldn’t. Big trouble. Watch this space.
In my view the Post Office Scandal has presented the SNP with an open goal because all three major Yoon parties are up to their diseased corrupt necks in it.
However the SNP itself has become so corrupted buy the Brit and Westminster Corruptocracy and so i9nfitarted by MI5/MI6 Yoons and Wokists that it is incapable of taking advantage of this.
Hatuey
Ignored says:
13 January, 2024 at 4:07 pm
Nobody on here or anywhere seems willing to admit the obvious truth, that independence is on hold and, under the circumstances, that is probably a good thing…..
…We have two or three years in this limbo-land. What we do with that time matters but it’s hard to see right now where arguments for independence help. I think the time would be better spent dealing with those that put us in this hole.
If Scotland was already an Independent nation, there would never be a second, minute, or hour in any day, week or month, where Scotland’s “lot” would be enhanced by forfeiting that Independence or national integrity. There would NEVER be a day when “not” being a Nation would be a good idea. Never.
As far as I am concerned, Scotland IS that Independent Nation; our popular sovereignty is intact and extant, our Claim of Right is manifest throughout Westminster’s historic attempts to subjugate Scotland. Scotland’s captivity in this Union is both an illusion that the Union was ever sound to begin with, compounded by the inexplicable “blindness” towards the litany of breaches and betrayals which have long ago destroyed the legitimacy of an “Union” had a Union of some integrity ever existed to begin with.
Scotland is entranced by a great and mighty deception. Nothing more. That we also suffer a raft of delinquent and dishonest political arsewipes masquerading as our leadership is both a symptom and consequence of our delusion, not the cause of it.
Scotland is Snow White of the Global Community; a nation tricked into a perpetual slumber with all her beauty and integrity intact but dormant, but then surrounded by a thicket of thorns designed to isolate our captive from restorative contact with the outside world.
You want to sleep on until a better day? There will not be a better day than the day Scotland opens its eyes and wakens from this coma. The monstrous machine we’re hooked up to is NOT our life support. It’s there to administer our sedative while it bleeds us dry.
Fuck your Sturgeons, Tommy Sheppards and Humza Yousafs who pedal the myth that Scotland needs ANY facet of the bent and corrupt SNP, be it in Holyrood or Westminster, to rouse our Nation from its enforced stupefaction.
Purge the fking lot of these parasitic, placebo politicians from your mind. When we come to our senses, these t(reacherous) bullshitting imbeciles will not be the ones in control. In more turbulent times in less tolerant countries than Scotland, they’d be strung up from lamposts by now. That, or hung, drawn and quartered; as the prevailing penalty for T(reason).
Be clear, I’m not calling for that. I’ll be content just to see the back of the fkers. Maybe there’s hope for a little decency from them once the enchantment afflicting them is broken. Apparently there was an appetite to forgive NO voters, so delinquent YES voters cannot be beyond redemption.
Admit an obvious truth eh? No Hatuey, don’t believe I will. Not now. Not ever. There is only one solution to Scotland’s predicament, and hitting the snooze button isn’t it.
A sordid and sorry afterthought….
Maybe Scotland’s “slumber” isn’t the sanitised Disney cartoon version of Snow White. It’s probably closer to Beatrix the Bride’s comatose condition in Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
Sorry if that shocks you, but tell me how I’m wrong.
MIA at 1237pm,
Got to say I agree especially with your last three paragraphs in particular. I also agree that it was sturgeon and her coterie of gender creeps who blocked Scottish independence, not the Tories. Time and again she could have taken action to push independence, and, for me, brexit was the final straw. She did nothing, as Scotland which overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU, was forcibly removed by England – wholly in breach of the treaty of union. Time and again, England has just done whatever it chooses, and Scottish MP’s let them.
You are correct. It is due to self-serving MPs from the SNP and elsewhere in Scotland’s history who have blocked independence. Life down in London for Scottish MP’s is a very, very cushy number, especially for the SNP. Just stand up every now and then and whine about this and that, then DO NOTHING, especially when handed a FULL democratic mandate to do so.
Now, today, apparently one SNP MP is trying to convince the gullible that the only way to independence, is by improving folks lives up here in Scotland. Never heard such self-serving sh*te in a long time.
Only option at the next election is to vote ALBA. The SNP since sturgeon have become a waste of space, all desperatly clinging on to the gravy train. Charlatans the lot of them.
“I’m not sure why you think it’s relevant?”
Goodness, isn’t it obvious?
What effect on public acceptance of the monarchy (and politicians) do you think realisation that the whole political edifice in Scotland is nothing more than a facade to cover up for the fact that the crown might be exercising absolute rule whenever it pleases?
And what do you think is going to happen when that realisation of betrayal grows to critical mass?
How long do you think the monarchy (and its rotten political construct) can continue limping on if public support permanently falls below 40%?
“Who calls this convention then?”
Who called the original convention of the estates?
Who called the convention of 1989?
“How are those in the convention selected?”
How were those in the original convention of the estates selected?
How were those in the convention of 1989 selected?
“Who eleects the convention?”
Who elected the original convention of the estates?
Who elected the convention of 1989?
“Impeaching the government (I assume you mean Holyrood govt?) on what grounds?”
Yes, I do mean Holyrood government. On what grounds you ask. Goodness, have you been sleeping for the last 9 years? Isn’t there more than enough to impeach them 50 times over?
“Who puts the crown on notice?”
Who removed the crown from James VII and handed it to William and Mary?
“Of what?”
Abuse of power
Encroachment on the people’s sovereignty.
Breach of the Claim of Right and consequently breach of one of the fundamental conditions of the treaty of union that is currently supporting the right of this royal line to the throne.
“What does it even mean?”
What do you think it means?
So ownership of Edinburgh airport together with a swathe of Scottish ports has transferred to Blackrock.
Just another reminder of how little of Scotlands infrastructure is owned by Scotland. Just like all of our energy sector be it gas, electricity oil, or now wind.
And now, if the runes are right Scottish Water is being shaped up for the sell off.
Frankly, the Scots own fuck all save for the clothes they stand in. But hey Indians and beads was always a colonial thing.
And I don’t agree that it took a bully dog change Humza’s mind. No, a mere word from the colonial master to lap dog would have been enough.
“So ownership of Edinburgh airport together with a swathe of Scottish ports has transferred to Blackrock”
What is happening in Scotland mirrors exactly what is happening a UK level:
Many say that every now and then a UK labour government is needed to implement the toxic policies the tories would not dare to. If the tories implemented those toxic policies, they would never be elected again. But tory governments have to be the default UK government and labour just the exception, because that is how the aristocracy retains its power and privileges, and keeps democracy at bay in the 21st century.
So what is the solution? Transform the labour party into a hollowed out empty vessel and then fill it up with covert tories. The present labour leader is more right wing than the ERG and more of a warmonger than many tories. The same applied to Blair. Mr Corbyn did not fit the profile therefore he could never be let anywhere near n10.
But Labour is a pro-colonialism party because it is most keen to retain for Scotland the status of colony what come may. If Labour was in control of Scotland’s government while the British estate conducted a savage asset stripping, the immediate consequence would be a massive backlash against unionism and unstoppable progress towards independence. No, the British state could not have that. The asset stripping and irreparable damage had to be seen by the people to be done by the SNP so the backlash was directed towards nationalism.
We see the same strategy used at UK level and Scotland. The only thing that changes is the brand of trojan horse.
Which entity orchestrated the hollowing out of Labour and its pulling to the right and warmongering?
Which entity orchestrated the raise of Yousaf to the position of SNP leader in what had to be the doggiest leadership context in Scotland’s democratic history?
Which entity has enough contempt for democracy to do such thing?
What/who were all those SPADS and Civil Servants in Scotland helping to prop up Yousaf’s leadership campaign really working for?
Could it be the same entity which orchestrated the pull of labour to the right?
Democracy in the UK and certainly in Scotland is an illusion. It has never been more obvious than now. We are being taken for fools.
It staggers me how so many ardent SNP heads still cling to the party despite all that has been done and is being done.
“We will take it back and we will clear it out” is what I hear, but they have been able to do fuck all for the last ten years to stop anything.
They stand there like Comical Ali in complete denial at their impotence and situation. Spouting the same pie in sky bullshit over and over again as if it will somehow magick it into reality.
They are literally paying the wages of the guy who wrote The Vow, the scumbaqg that deceived people on the most important day in our history. You are paying his wages… WTF.
They were incapable of electing a real leader and instead had ‘the continuity candidate’ imposed on them… it is like she and the grubber Murrell never left. But you are going to storm the Bastille… any day now.
And yet still they cling to the diseased rotting carcass… it turns my stomach listening them at this point. They deserve everything they won’t get.
Willie
Ain`t that the truth .
Scotland has been systematically asset stripped and its industries dismantled. We used to have our own Scottish supermarkets, no more. We had Car, Steel, Ship Building industries but these are all gone now. In an oil producing country our only refinery is closing. Switch on the television and Scotland doesn`t exist, it`s English sport, quizzes, comedies, drama`s, cooking, history and everything else. The biggest land owners are foreign.
Scotland has ceased to be a country and is now a dependency, its “proud” Scots mere gutless serfs run by a bunch of Holyrood collaborators.
Monopoly – Follow The Money – Vrouwen Voor Vrijheid – on YouTube
They want it all
@Alf Baird 8.49pm
The ownership of the ships and the fact the UK divested itself of a merchant marine is besides the point surely? Would it be OK for the Danish navy to protect Maersk Line ships because they’re Danish? Perhaps every ship should have it’s own national navy escort it through the Red Sea?
The Chinese seem to have pretensions of developing a blue water navy these days: perhaps they could pull themselves away for helping to prepare to invade Taiwan and extinguish its democracy and run a convoy system to protect neutral shipping (i.e. only ships the Houthis say are allowed).
Even then, presumably the Houthis will still feel free to attack other ships for some perceived link to Israel, or the Great Satan or the Little Satan. I see they attacked a ship by mistake the other day with Iranian oil headed for Russia so they seem to be just taking pot shots based on no real intelligence.
10 % of world shipping goes via the Red Sea, 20% of container shipping, 10% of seaborne oil and 8& of LNG.
Why should a bunch of islamo-fascist terrorists in Yemen be allowed to bring a good proportion of international trade to a halt, with global impacts on many of the poorest, including many ordinary workers who will face higher costs, shortages, lay offs and increased prices?
If the US, UK and others aren’t going to act to protect free passage there and elsewhere, who will? The UN? Some other neutral organisation? How’s that going to work then, and who is paying for it?
The UN doesn’t have that great a record in conflict situations, and even where it does it’s usually only because those in conflict are exhausted and have stopped fighting allowing the UN to keep them apart: even then violence can still go on round about them and over their heads as the Lebanese situation amply demonstrates.
UYGHURS
Their situation is an unenviable one. Considered, as Muslims, potential terrorists they have to be tamed in other words made Chinese in language and culture, by forceful «re-education».
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/31A4D6A7D9BF98130E27E9360925F98A/S0026749X23000185a.pdf/farewell_my_uyghur_language_linguistic_anxiety_and_resistance_in_uyghur_poetry_and_songs_1990s2010s.pdf
The world sits on the passive margins. There are no demonstrations in support of Chinese cleansing, even in the Islamic countries, merely the occasional whinge.
It’s China do not mess with the dragon, anyway it’s their business…..cop out by all in the «international community».
If the British were to «tame» Scotland the international response might be rather similar.
Effectively amounting to indifference.
If you have a job to do it is a personal matter to resolved….by any available means.
Beannachd Dia dhuibh.
I’d be curious to see a poll on whether people believe independence can be achieved (anymore) at the ballot box.
I know I used to, but I don’t now.
Reading the above about the asset stripping, land ownership, de-industrialization etc etc, it is clear as day. You don’t asset strip your ‘own’ country do you.
The SNP was the vehicle ‘we’ democratically formed and they corrupted it from the inside. We have to play by the rules, obey all the laws. They don’t.
Just look at the Salmond stitch-up, Scotland’s JFK moment, a preventative coup d’etat. They pretty much got away with it. Still are thanks to Dorrian & co.
There is no outrage in Scotland over anything. Just a lot of hot air.
The truth of it is we are powerless because we have been disempowered very deliberately and systematically.
So I am curious how many others no longer believe in our democracy. (I am not sure it ever existed seeing events of the last ten years.)
Sunak versus Starmer. It is not just Scotland, is it.
Andy Ellis @9:41am
Little Satan” is not a great term to use for the UK.
“Satan’s Poodle” is a far more accurate description IMHO.
As my father said to me the day after the vote in 2014, ‘even if we won we were going to lose’.
Here is a sitting President of the USA in a tweet that was disgracefully deleted by twitter. Listen to what he is actually saying (and he is not lying nor mistaken).
vidmax.com/video/225378-reminder-this-video-was-deleted-from-president-trump-s-account-by-twitter-on-january-6th-2021-shortly-after-it-was-tweeted-out
Given that ‘they’ are doing this, does anyone really believe they would think twice about squashing our hopes and aspirations.
Seems to me we in the West have been quietly moved into a post democracy age. We can see the signs all around us. We don’t even know who is really in charge anymore (because it ain’t Joe Biden).
The P@lestinians are the canary in the coal mine. When they start trying to normalize genocide and ethnic cleansing in 2024 you know the game is nearly up.
I think the collapse of the US empire (and the splintering of the US itself) would probably be the single most beneficial thing for the Scottish independence movement. Hell, we might even be allowed to have one…
We need to take our country back. At least we’ve got a Parliament again. We need Alex Salmond who fought for Independence against Margaret Thatcher to lead our people to greater means.
Successive Tory governments and Labour have given away Britain it is no more. It’s not even running the show. The military industrial machine are. Joe Biden is the biggest war criminal on the plan.
Never have I hated a man more than I hate that senile old bastard. He’s up there with Hilary Clinton and Bill – who likes them young – on loilita island.
Independence will never die. But I want trump to win in the United States. He says he’s going to pass an executive order allowing him to sack 54,000 civil servants from the deep state and put in his own lawyers to run the show. It’s what America needs. My only problem with trump is that he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and loves the zionists. Hopefully south Africa wins the genocide case before he takes control.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election
“Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents.
The screening for ready-to-serve loyalists has already begun, driven in part by artificial intelligence from tech giant Oracle, contracted for the project.”
If Trump were to win, thousands of Trump-first loyalists would be ready for legal, judicial, defense, regulatory and domestic policy jobs. His inner circle plans to purge anyone viewed as hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls “Agenda 47.”
My thoughts are this:
This is what we need in Scotland. When Alex Salmond comes to power again. We need the ability to sack civil servants. They running amock and stealing everything. We should be able to sack everyone of them. Calmac ferries. Contractors. Procurement contractors. Listen. Fucking gut the government like a fucking fish.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-67972980
“First Minister Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law has been charged in connection with alleged drug offences.
Ramsay El-Nakla, who is the brother of Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla, was arrested after a break-in was reported in Dundee on Thursday.
Police Scotland said a 50-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were also arrested and charged.
Mr El-Nakla, 36, and his two co-accused are due to appear before Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday.”
It sounds like Nadia’s brother is a bit of a bad boy. I wonder if he’s running an international drug smuggling business for the crack addicted impoverished people of Dundee? It is a strange place to move. Isn’t it? We know Dundee is Scotland’s drug capital.
I wonder if Nadia’s brother is a drug addict himself. Or a drug trafficker. The Asians are known for this kind of thing. They don’t get their Mercedes legitimately in many circumstances. They are drug dealers and it’s big business.
Humza will be meeting with Dorothy Stain of the Clown office of Clowns as we speak – Nicola’s protector.
Just like Gillian Sturgeon who was arrested for spitting on her ex.
It appears that Humza’s family are as common as muck just like the Sturgeon sisters.
I hope the honest officers of police had to draw their batons.
Fucking restore law and order boys.
Last thing I’ll say about the Muslim families.
We know they are all very close. And generations of them live in the same households or neighbouring homes.
I wonder if Humza chose to move to his Dundee home to get closer to Nadia’s charged by police for drug offenses, brother in law?
We know the Muslims like to keep it in the family. Don’t they?
That’s a fact. It is incomprehensible that Humza Yousaf will not have known about his brother in laws activities.
Perhaps the Dundee mafia all thought they were above the law.
As for Trump I would not be cheering his return to the White House.
He is dead set against Independence, described the idea as ‘crazy’ if memory serves me well.
He was also the US president before, during, and after the attempted Salmond stitch-ups (civil & then criminal).
So if it was a US inspired / driven operation it is highly likely he green-lighted it.
Bear in mind he had a publicized spat with the Scottish Government under Salmond (wind farms I think it was).
He boasts about how he ‘always gets his revenge’. He prides himself on it.
He has substantial investments in Scotland which he likely believes would be harmed as a result of independence.
So if that ‘operation’ to take down Salmond, was presented to him as an option during his first term, I could see him approving it. It ticks a lot of his boxes.
So if Trump got fucked by the same forces he set loose against Salmond (and Scotland and all of us) it is perhaps poetic justice at least on a personal level. I am more concerned about the rigging of the US election, not Trump’s personal loss.
He will be no friend to us as president is all I know.
He also spent most of his first term trying to crawl up Benjamin Net@nyahu’s arsehole. Appointed his idiot son-in-law and daughter. Could not tell who were his political friends and enemies, kept giving people the job who were working against him… We will see what happens next time around.
This one went on the wrong thread too.
Oh God!
There’s a lot of dark sarcasm in the classroom here at the ‘BTL Univeristy of Wings’ again.
I’m just glad I’ve got my O grades and I don’t have to attend their classes.
Thank goodness for the X for exempt. I don’t need to forge any notes from my mother saying I have very bad diarrhoea?
Diarrhoea because we thought the teacher would never think we could spell it.
Ha! Ha! Ha! fooled you Miss!
I’m off to see what’s in the news. Things are moving, very slowly but at least we are going in the right direct.
Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
It hasn’t arrived yet but it’s coming soon ‘For a’ that, an’ a’ that’,
Bonne dimanche mes enfants. 🙂
It is a problem when you have a load of different communities within the community especially for the white, white, white heterosexual/gay community.
@Mac says:14 January, 2024 at 10:09 am
The P@lestinians are the canary in the coal mine. When they start trying to normalize genocide and ethnic cleansing in 2024 you know the game is nearly up
Alert readers know that genocide and ethnic cleansing are mutually exclusive. No aggressor can commit genocide by shifting the target population elsewhere.
Alert readers also know that what is happening in Gaza is neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing, despite the ludicrous claims of the South African failed state and their partisan hangers on.
Once again, the hysterical OTT ravings of the shoutiest severely damages the cause they claim to be supporting.
Still, it’s a momentous anniversary. Exactly 100 days since Hamas slaughtered approx 1200 people and kidnapped approx 240, of which half remain unaccounted for.
The dead, raped, maimed and kidnapped were mostly civilians, and indiscriminately belonged to many nationalities and religions, and all ages.
It would appear that Hamas was banking on Israel lacking the cojones to respond, or on Israel’s allies lacking the cojones to allow them to respond. Both were mistakes, the latter specifically because Israel’s allies lack the practical mechanisms to reign them in.
As a fallback strategy, Hamas was content that by starting a full blown war in the middle of the densely populated and built up Gazan territory, the collateral casualties would be high. And so it has come to pass. Their strategy remains to ensure the body count piles up, in the hope that while they might inevitably lose the shooting war, they can still win the propaganda war.
Alert readers will be aware of all of the historical parallels, in which within recent times, immense acreages of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, Japan, Russtiland, 404, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. etc. have been flattened, with enormous numbers of innocent civilian casualties, and the belligerents have just shrugged their shoulders and loaded more shells and bombs.
So I’m kinda thinking that when the belligerents announce this will go on for all of 2024, we should believe them.
We could, of course, always press for a negotiated cease fire, along the lines of the ones they observed in November, to permit hostage/prisoner exchanges and the passage of food, medicines and other aid. We could even press for both sides to swear to uphold peace going forwards, and for both sides to renege on their vows: thus, Israel will abandon its attempts to exterminate Hamas and annexe the West Bank, and Hamas will abandon its attempts to exterminate Israel.
Alert readers will have noted that on each previous occasion that I have suggested this compromise, I was laughed to scorn. It’s my conclusion therefore that there is a solid body of opinion holding to the clear aspiration that one side should be exterminated.
And so the killing will go on. Heyho, the relevance to Scottish Indy is obscure, unless as “Mac” says, he really believes that when the western world is reduced to ashes, those responsible will have made special efforts to avoid casualties amongst us Sovereign Scots and damage to our national assets.
Of that, I hae ma doots.
@Willie says:14 January, 2024 at 8:34 am
I don’t agree that it took a bully dog change Humza’s mind. No, a mere word from the colonial master to lap dog would have been enough
I think you’re over-complicating things. Here’s a wee script. SSF stands for “Sovereign Scot Flunky”.
SCENE – the private quarters of his imperial highness HY.
TIME – just after morning prayers. Important business of the day is being shaped.
SSF: “They’re banning XL Bullies in England, your Excellency”.
HY: “Hmmm, how innarestin. Draw up a decree – Scotland shall progressively welcome XL Bullies with open arms – announce we have found £600,000 cash which shall be ringfenced for the campaign – Let it be done immediately”.
SSF: “At once, your Excellency”.
2 days later:
HY: [tearing at beard and screaming] “Must I always be served by fools? Why did nobody advise me an XL Bully is a breed of that accursed spawn of Shaitan, the filthy, unclean dog? Ban them immediately, and bring me the heads of those responsible for this misadvice”.
SSF: “Erm, We shall see to the ban forthwith, your Immaculate Radiance, but the heads may take a day or two …” [exits backwards, bowing repeatedly and deeply]
SSF2: “Ahem, about that £600,000 then. Shall we hide it again?”
CURTAIN
@David Hannah says: 14 January, 2024 at 11:04 am
all thought they were above the law
Wasn’t the process by which HY was elected SNP Leader mired in irregularities and fraud?
Didn’t Rev Stu provide clear evidence of SNP internal rules being broken?
Wasn’t the SNP membership list, and hence the numbers and identities of those entitled to vote, subject to great controversy, with the consequent resignation of at least one associated high heid yin?
Didn’t SNP Leadership contender Ash Regan threaten legal action as a result (although she did subsequently back down)? I recall she was calling for the leadership election to be re-run, with full transparency, and full observance of the rules.
As Yousaf’s SNP Leadership is mired in controversy, doesn’t that mean too that his position as First Minister of Scotland and Keeper Of The Great Seal is also mired in controversy? Perhaps to the point of illegality?
Or is it perhaps that when you reach his exalted height, you are indeed above the law. That would certainly seem to answer your question.
“Seems to me we in the West have been quietly moved into a post democracy age. We can see the signs all around us. We don’t even know who is really in charge anymore (because it ain’t Joe Biden).”
Correct Mac.
The genocide against the Palestinian people by the Zionists is a prime example of this, firstly under UN Law Israel has NO RIGHT to defend itself simply because its an occupying force killing indiscriminately within the occupied lands of Palestine.
The West HASN’T stepped in to stop the genocide/ethnic cleansing, most EU leaders have preferred to play down the the Zionists genocide, and the reasons for this is that the EU is answerable to the Great Satan (US) which itself is captured by big business (MIC) and pro-Israel lobby groups and very wealthy pro-Israeli individuals.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/blood-money-top-ten-politicians-taking-most-israel-money-israel-lobby/286491/
The hypocrisy of Western politicians knows no bounds as only weeks ago the UK proposed at the Hague that Myanmar was committing genocide against the Rohingya people, and a little bit further back the utterly corrupt ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of of the leader of RF.
I fear that there’s far too much at stake here for the West and it leaders starting with, The President of the ICJ Joan E. Donoghue (who is currently chairing the Hearings) was a legal advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under the Obama administration she is a U.S. appointee, we can almost see her string under bright red gown.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-criminalization-of-international-justice-putting-an-end-to-the-genocide-against-the-people-of-palestine-a-proposal/5845449
Its likely the ICJ judges will be bribed, coerced or threatened to come down on the side of Israel, or at the very least declare its not genocide, for if the judges stayed true to the evidence it would mean the likes of Sunak. Biden and Scholz, and many other Western leaders would be in the dock at the Hague guilty of aiding and abetting Zionist war crimes, remember they couldn’t even bring Blair or Bush to trial when they committed war crimes in Iraq.
There is the very slim chance that the ICJ judges will do the right thing, such as when they ruled against the UK with the Chagos Islands in mind, but I’m not that confident that they’ll do the right thing this time.
In my opinion its not just the Zionists that are on trial here, the ICJ and the West are on trial as well to do the right thing.
Ramsay Al-Nakba, it would appear.
I have wondered for a long time if the ‘racist hate crime law’ or whatever it’s called has protected ethnic minority criminals in a similar way as the ‘transgender hate crime bill’ is protecting transgender deviants.
Now indecent exposure, voyeurism and police sexual abuse etc is now all perfectly legal if you identify as a woman.
All these ‘Humza hate crimes’ are not helping to make us less transphobic/racist they are just making us more racist & transphobic/homophobic.
All these misogynists (fish smellers) from the ‘gay community’ being brought to the public’s attention is definitely not helping vis a vis homophobia.
I have never had any problems with gay people. I don’t call them a community. I have just seen them as part of the community. Always have but that has changed.
I have always been aware of the ‘fish smellers’ but they have never bothered me up until now.
Their dislike of fishy smells I put down to their sexual preference which is fair enough but now I see it more like out and out hatred of women (absolute misogyny)
These guys & the transgenders I do see as a separate community. I would call them the ‘Fetishists,Sexual Deviants & Misogynists’ community
Lots of problems in ‘the communities’.
The white, white, white heterosexual ‘community’ have been ignoring these problems up until now. Thankfully you have started to wake up and stop seeing headlines about ‘transgenderism’ and thinking I’m not going to read that rubbish.
Thank you guys for being awake and not woke.
On the subject of conversion therapy I have known woman who fancied gay men (who can blame them they often dress well, have great after-shave, personal grooming and can be very witty) sadly the conversion therapy never worked and the woman was always left broken heart and the gay man remained gay.
Hey teacher you can just shut-up about stereotyping gay man. I have a bad case of diarrhea today and
I have a note from my mother saying I can’t attend your class today
Here you go RoS:
https://www.quora.com/What-proportion-of-white-South-Africans-have-left-their-country-since-the-end-of-apartheid#:~:text=Over%20a%20million%20white%20South,live%20in%20a%20global%20village.
And a wee quote:
“Over a million white South Africans have left the country since the end of apartheid.
Just as many Blacks and Coloured people have left the country to study or work abroad. Thousands of Indians have also left the country to settle abroad. We live in a global village. People with qualifications will seek employment all over the world. But people with no special qualifications will remain stuck in South Africa.
But having said that, many South Africans have left this country out of fear, and uncertainty. Police Minister Bheki Cele has conceded on prime time television that South Africa is a very dangerous country. This is a country with a very high rates of unemployment and a very high crime rate.
An average of 18,000 people a year are murdered in this country and 50 rapes are reported each and every day. Twice that amount of rapes go unreported. This is a country where we have car hijackings and farm murders. Elderly white farmers are gruesomely tortured and murdered which clearly indicates that the motive is not simply criminal.”
In a sane world, the sight of po-faced South African apparatchiks pointing their hypocritical fingers at anybody would be laughed to scorn.
18,000 murders a year, and 50 rapes a day. What’s your take? Maybes you think the people of SA have it coming, eh?
“So I am curious how many others no longer believe in our democracy. (I am not sure it ever existed seeing events of the last ten years.)”
More than ten years, yes; much more… Since at least 1980 (probably long before) that I’m aware of every social advance made since WW2 has been stripped away; such that ‘the great unwashed’ are returned to ‘GeoVictWardian’ levels of oppression inequality and poverty. The latter has always been a ‘growth industry’ – they don’t eliminate poverty because it provides a nice steady living for the rudderless entitled – the Milngavie Mafia as we used to call them back in the Red Road.
– Troughers, feeding off disadvantage by making a case out of it. Useless patronising idiots with ‘degrees’ in nothing of any practical use; self serving self aggrandising, self justifying; simply born in the ‘right’ place to the ‘right’ parents. – Their talk of social justice being as empty as the reality of their skillset. – Injelitant; and fearful of those not so born to privilege and entitlement, especially those with greater intelligence and/or more useful skill than them.
Sunak versus Starmer. It is not just Scotland, is it.
No… of course it’s not.
Stopped-clock Mhairi Black is entirely correct in highlighting how having spent a third of her life (The Standard, 8th Aug 2023) at Westminser; the place now turns her stomach. – Another other stopped clock Cherry is clearly waiting for the hands to come round to meet her when she points out that Black may not understand how politics works.
If you’re reading Ms Cherry the issue is more likely to be that Black does know exactly how politics works; and this is something growing numbers of the great unwashed also understand. Your rhetoric in response was, Joanna, entirely deflective – pointing out the ‘work’ (a day’s real work would kill most of your kind) of your nationalist colleagues ‘little-known in Scotland outside of the politics bubble’.
You did what Politicians do by instinct; don’t look there look here! – Refusing to address the issue like that is fundamentally dishonest; but it’s what Politicians do, that is how politics works… and has worked for a long time.
I well-remember a time – almost a quarter century ago – when there was a predatory paedophile ‘working’ certain Scottish villages; organising the local cohort of stumbling drinks and hopeless druggies – in the habit of abusing their own (frequently inbred) offspring; in what was (still is) a literal ‘dead end’. – For the avoidance of doubt, this was proved over a decade later (in 2013) when the ringleader was eventually caught and convicted – as was one of his cohorts on separate offences.
Organised crime of the worst imaginable kind taking place openly in the middle of the road on a forgotten semi-rural, Scottish council estate… One of your clown-shod collective Joanna (since elevated to high office) was the local councillor at the time.
When this matter was ‘raised’ with the local council and the police, they closed ranks to protect the paedophiles and drug dealers . ‘Politically’ you see, the issues were ‘contained’ to small run-down no-hope ghettos. – With what was going on being ‘engineered’ by the corrupt and perverted within what should have been ‘guardian agencies’.
They turned on a (legitimate) Journalist who’d had the misfortune to be housed in this hell-hole, who had attempted first to obtain help from the authorities; ultimately in desperation utilising their contacts and skills to gain exposure of the problem in the Press…
Clown shoes… ‘Widow Twankey’ as they are frequently known these days by the great unwashed, expressed their outrage at the whistleblower’s actions, describing the place where 12-year-old girls were being plied with drink (and worse) by 35-year+ old men, then dragged into the bushed to be buffed senseless as, ‘a hard working, close knit community’.
…That’s yer actual politics for you Joanna. Couldn’t have the anointed narcissist ‘alienated’ from their ‘voter base’; especially as they themselves were a local; in the Royston Vasey sense!
That’s how politics works…
25 years on… with the ringleader having been caught, convicted served his time; and one of his lieutenants having died (found in a stairwell at Sauchton “incontinent of faeces, cold, clammy and sweating profusely”) while serving a 10-year stretch for raping girls as young as 9! – Where do the ‘politics’ of the situation lead?
It’s ironic that the one who died in Saughton got such good medical care… the Journalist who attempted to expose him and his ‘gaffer’ 25 years ago – the whistleblower – cannot get proper access to an NHS GP (being mucked about by the local ‘Primary Care’ cabal as revenge for rocking the boat); this being something previously raised at FM level (Sturgeon) and with the HS (Freeman) – is clearly then something which goes on with the approval of Politicians.
That’s how politics works… puerile, vicious, amoral, vindictive. Tiny fragile
That person (the Journalist) lives with a chronic, serious, respiratory condition. They were effectively (and illegally) denied access to life-essential medication for nearly 2 years, having to buy what little they could afford (their capacity for work now being severely impacted); eventually collapsing and almost losing their life – saved by the A&E team at St John’s.
They still don’t have proper access to a GP and only-partial access to some of the medication they need. – They’re still buying meds from English Pharmacies on private prescription. Then of course there’s the local council… which carries on its nearly quarter-century old vendetta by mucking this individual about over their council tax payments and various other issues.
…That’s how politics works.
Consider the Post Office Scandal which we’re all now very aware of; because somebody had to make it into a TV drama to draw it back into the public eye. That’s of about the same vintage (though much larger scale obviously) as the paedophile ring I cite… there’s a similar pattern of dishonesty involved: the same rote management culture.
Shoot the messenger – even though lives are being devastated and there clear and serious problems; deflect blame and allow the corrupt and dishonest thing to go on. Politicians knew and tacitly approved what went on… The BBC bleats: “I didn’t know about Horizon prosecutions, says Keir Starmer” – Ed Davey takes a similar tack yet his own party tries to deflect with;
“The scandal took place over many years from 1999, during which time different governments and ministers from all parties were in post.”
…Yes Ed; that’s right; and do note this carefully Joanna; Politicians knew because they were in post and it was their job to know!
It took a gaggle of actors and TV production people to bring this to the boil. – Because that’s how politics work.
I recall back when that local paedophile story was ‘simmering’ away one of the local council ‘leaders’ dismissing the matter (in the press) as something that would ‘soon blow over’; trying to pretend it was exaggeration and of no consequence. – The ruination of young lives and abuse of young girls; later to be proven as true in the courts.
Look at the stupefying dishonesty (and childish denials) of Boris & Co with respect to events during the COVID crisis; the corruption, the cronyism the theft of public monies by filtering huge sums to their pals. – It’s still going on. The breathtaking lack-of-awareness on the part of Mone… the dodging the weaving.
And the SNP… Its pipsqueak-level gutter corruption with Mickey-mouse campervans being stashed on the auld-maw’s drive and missing monies.
There is something of the Dunning-Kruger effect in the fact that such a group sought to ‘stitch up’ Alex Salmond (of whom I’m not a fan, for the record) over a sex scandal – they’re a bunch of predatory perverts; so must everybody else be! – The plain fact is that politics – of every shade and grade – has, for a very long time, been the domain of choice for the corrupt and dishonest.
Thinking back to that Paedophile ring that ran in the Lothians, with one might reasonably opine ‘political approval’; I do start to wonder who was connected to who and what back then – as the sheer number of sex-obsessed deviants that have now infiltrated the party (and Holyrood and politics generally) is utterly astonishing.
Focusing back on the matter of Scottish Independence; it’s like poverty – which they don’t really work to eliminate because it’s so lucrative for the other wise ‘useless eaters’ of the middle classes! It’s an industry! -Self-serving, self aggrandising and corrupt…
The Westminster troughers don’t want it for the obvious reason it puts them out of a well-paid job and fancy lifestyle… Black’s perfectly correct in this respect and so are the many others that point this out.
‘The Corporation’ (see the Achbar-Abbot documentary to get the reference) – That is to say the self-serving business which is the SNP; they certainly don’t want a reduction in the number of ‘slots’ available for their parasitic cronies to feed off. – And the same goes for all the other parties operating in Scotland.
For that reason no, I no longer believe independence can be achieved at the ballot box and won’t condone violent means… As a dyed in the wool ‘small n’ Scottish nationalist; I think that was just a line we were fed at one time. – And even if it were possible; none of those currently involved in politics are fit and proper people; you couldn’t trust them with a Pedlar’s licence to flog tea towels round the doors!
As has been the case many times in the past; I strongly suspect the ballot paper I return will be scored through with the words ‘none fit to hold office’ scrawled across it. – A futile gesture I know; especially as they don’t even report the number of spoiled papers honestly!
Mia,
If you have the time to read the original text of the treaty of union with Scotland you will see that the territorial extent was “England”
The kingdom of England.
That information informs us there was no official union of Crowns between Scotland and England under Queen Anne and therefore was not a united kingdom of Scotland and England under one Crown,
Considering that queen Anne ascended the throne 1702. It confirms that her territorial extent was England,
Alert readers know that John Main just makes stuff up.
@Mia 8.25am
Seeing a whole lot of deflection there, and no reasonable interaction or response. Same old, same old I suppose. This is 2024, no the 17th century or 1989.
You STILL didn’t answer what “impeachment” meant. The obvious way to get rid of a Scottish Government which is not fit for purpose, or no longer represents the wishes of the majority is to vote them out. It’s called democracy. It seems too many people are still wedded to the idea that if they can’t construct a democratic majority for what they want, it’s OK to just throw the baby out with the bathwater and do something else instead because *reasons*.
Queen Anne never under-took the scottish Coronation Oath during her coronation in England.
Why does this matter?
It matters due to the following fake history fed to Scots.
1: queen Anne could not Officialy choose the Commisioners for or on behalf of Scotland.
2: she could not give royal assent on behalf of Scotland to the treaty of union.
3:she could not dissolve the parliament of Scotland in and from England,
4: Having pronounced the latter under proclamation whilst being Coronated as queen of England under her Oath to England she eliminated the “Scots parliament” from Englands parliament of Westminster without succeeding to a union of Crowns or parliaments.
England is the sole member in the treaty of union in the territory of England.
And the old parliament of England never dissolved the old parliament of Englands upper House of Lords to create the union of One Great- Britain parliament,
The treaty of union was the propaganda.of its day, and Scots had no way of checking the reality of that information 300 years ago,
The academics and the people of Scotland have no excuse to hold onto this false conception of the treaty of union today if they claim they have any intellect,
I was reading your post/essay with great interest until if got to the above.
Couldn’t figure out why you thought it was necessary to tell us you are not a fan of Alex Salmond.
What does that actually mean?
You are not an independence support, not a supporter of Alba? Or is it that you just don’t like the man Alex Salmond? Wot is he too fat, too cuddly?
Anyway I stopped there and gave you the X.
Loving your work Mr Cairns.
A pity the SNP weren’t as easy to get rid of as a bunch of ugly, fur covered land sharks.
The sooner the morally, intellectualy and, if not already then soon, financially bankrupt SNP are got rid, the better.
Indy for Scotland!
SNP Out!
A major reason why Scotland will never be «independent» under this régime.
https://archive.ph/oKu9s
These people are tartan British and actually not very bright.
Nice prime target in any global conflict.
You cannot serve two masters mr Docherty-Hughes. To one of them you are telling lies.
Do be careful you are not hoisted by that ridiculous tartan tie.
Sadly not in a creative way!
He’s a creative writer OK but he hasn’t a hope of in hell of getting any of his work published. IMHO
Same applies to his BFF. The only place they have any hope of getting published is here on Wings. Hence it’s popularity for ‘Los dos profesores constipados’
Thankfully we are not obliged to read their ‘creative writing’ and we don’t even need a forged note saying you have diarrhea and can’t be schooled today.
I don’t know what has happen to ROS. Ach well ‘chacun a son gout’ that’s another phrase I learned in the French O grade class.
That seems to now be part of British English but those who didn’t do O grade French might think it means everyone to their own arthritis.
It must have been le gout (masculine gender) back in the day but goodness knows what it is now.
Back then her gout was always his gout even if she was non binary.
Fisherthem FFS! It’s mental
Hey teacher shut up about ‘constipado’ just being a head cold. Not everyone did O grade Spanish and those who didn’t will get the message.
Scotch on the rocks. It’s time we sieze control of Fort William.
John Main.
A pathetic attempt to smear South Africa, even if your points are true (Quora, one of Y Combinators 4,000 start ups) how does any of it negate the FACT that the Zionist occupying forces are committing genocide/ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine, and lets not forget that plenty of other nations ARE backing South Africa’s case at the Hague.
We need some investigative journalism into the Naklas.
Nadia’s brother in Palestine is not her brother.
Her so called parents she rescued from Palestine look nothing like her. They are both white and she’s a black muslim.
Whats going on brothers and sisters?
Listen to Craig Houston Talks on Yotube. The Yousaf’s a family of lying fraudulent bastards. They are a pretend family of drug dealers charged by cops and more.
The £750,000 of tax payers money to Turkey. To get these two fakes out of Palestine.
Something not right boys and girls. Investigate the Nakla’s.
As big a fake family as Sturgeon if I’ve ever seen one. Check it out.
Call in the fucking cops now.
David Hannah @ 14.44
Elizabeth El Maged- Nakla, mother of the FM’s wife, is a Scots Dundonian I believe. A retired nurse.
Tartan British?
Is their Easter Egg (coconut)
tartan on the outside and red white & blue on the inside.
I think it is!
Do you think the term ‘Tartan Easter Egg’ would catch on?
I hate the way tartan has been hijacked by these ‘tartan easter eggs’
I don’t want to use ‘coconut’ ‘cos I think that might be racist.
The tartan tie is a bit like the the transwoman’s lippy & pink dress.
Want to show everyone you are Scottish just get a tartan tie, maybe get a different tartan tie for everyday of the week. Sorted ‘Vous etes eccosais.
Je suis eccosaise. That’s old French but I didn’t learn that in O grad French. It was always ‘je suis anglaise’ the only things Scotch were the sellotape and the whisky.
Both masculine gender. Both le scotch. Easy to get confused between the sellotape and the whisky. Sometimes learning a foreign language can be tricky.
OK maybe one has an upper case S but how can you tell with the spoken language.
I would just like to say to my Weegie friend Sven. Excuse my French! 😉
PS. I never wear tartan. I don’t feel the need.
Andy Ellis 1:23pm
Democracy Is Where A Wise Man Is Outvoted By Two Idiots – Supposedly said by Adolf Hitler but then again more than likely FAKE like all of the other “quotes” and LIES and PROPAGANDA put out about him and his party since WW2 to cover up the REAL truth about that period. The real truth is the victors always write the history to suit their agenda an agenda that has been continuing since then and everything that is going on today is part of that agenda that every single political party and most governments are involved in hence why they have all handed over the power to call pandemic lockdown’s and power to FORCE the TOXIC vaccines on everyone to the WHO for the SOON to be next SPARS SCAMDEMIC Lockdown which could just be a matter of months away.
Democracy is actually as I have said many times an ILLUSION created by the Mafias that own and control this planet to con the dumb masses into thinking that they have some power and that voting makes a difference. Doesn’t matter what political party gets into power as they are all Private Corporations as are the UN, EU, WHO, Countries, Governments, Councils, Health Service, Hospitals, Courts, Police etc all operating this Bonded Slave System via the Birth Certificates and NI Numbers on behalf of the so called Royals, Rothschild’s and their bosses at the Vatican Mafia.
That is what your Democracy is and as I have said before this entire scam system was Foreclosed (SHUT DOWN) in 2012 and all of the totally FAKE debt was written off in 2013 as per my video The Democracy Illusion Everything Is WAS A Corporation on my William Woods Youtube channel and the legal documents linked under that video.
You have all been free since 2012 and both unionists and independence folk on here are arguing away to continue to be part of that scam system and arguing away about Constitutions, Claims, Declarations, Acts etc that are part of that SCAM Democracy as well. No wonder these Mafias have an easy time suckering and conning you all when you are all like stuck records who will not use your brains to go and educate yourself to the real reality and truth of this world and “Democracy” etc.
Scots? What does it even mean?
What about Dundonian & Weegie?
What do these terms mean?
Does it just mean you live in Dundee or Glasgow?
What about Scots Dundonian and Scots Weegie?
Are there non Scots Dundonians and non Scots Weegies?
How would you even know if someone was a Scots Dundonian?
Do they need a tartan tie or tartan scarf so you can know?
I would imagine there are people in Dundee who consider themselves British.
It’s tough if they don’t ‘cos thanks to the NO voters they are all British.
“Seeing a whole lot of deflection there”
In your comment? Absolutely! My answer was very clear: use a similar procedure to what has already been used before. I am neither employed by you nor paid to device a detailed strategy so as to satisfy your curiosity. If you want one, design it yourself. Aren’t you a member of the Alba party? Well then, if they want to get into Holyrood and reach government they must have a strategy.
“Same old, same old I suppose”
Which indeed applies to you. You are issuing the same arrogant and deaf responses you used to issue before you left on a huff: pretend not to read or see what is in disagreement with your own point of view and then berate a bit the messenger for good measure. Same old same old. Who designated you as the arbiter of this site and what makes you think the rest of us have to abide by your command/rules/caprices?
“This is 2024, no the 17th century or 1989”
Precisely. Attempting to bully those who do not agree with you into silence does not longer work.
“You STILL didn’t answer what “impeachment” meant”
And why on earth should I? Haven’t you got a brain and fingers? Aren’t you capable to do research by yourself and find out what it means? When exactly did I become your unpaid research minion?
“The obvious way to get rid of a Scottish Government which is not fit for purpose, or no longer represents the wishes of the majority is to vote them out”
Yeah, but that only works in a functioning democracy. But when what you have is absolute rule disguised as “democracy”, your proposal is pure wishful thinking, and that is being generous.
So, let me get back at you:
how on earth do you plan to get rid of a coloniser by using a “democratic vote” at an election that has to be approved by the coloniser, when that coloniser controls the rules, controls the vote, controls the ballots, controls who counts the vote, when it is counted and by whom, controls the “official” results and controls the franchise?
How on earth can you use such avenue when you are going directly against the coloniser? Do you seriously expect the coloniser is going to lay back and let you?
How do you expect to use such avenue to get rid of a corrupt to the core Scottish government when that government has worked hard for 9 years to become that coloniser’s ultimate minion, making itself indispensable for that coloniser to continue asset stripping Scotland and maintaining the yes movement on a leash?
Do you seriously think the coloniser is going to open the gates and let you in to remove its most useful minion?
What is the point of “voting out” a corrupt to the core Scottish government if that coloniser is just going to replace it with another equally corrupted one?
How on earth can you use democracy when democracy is not on offer?
Did you not see what that establishment did to Mr Corbyn and the Labour party when he was at an inch of reaching n10?
Did you not see what they did to the leader of your own party?
Did you not see what they did to Tommy Sheridan?
Did you not see what they did to the SNP and how they totally destroyed its democratic structures ensuring members lost control the party?
Did you not see the mockery of democracy that was the SNP’s latest leadership election that parachuted the hopeless Yousaf to the post?
“It’s called democracy”
It is only called democracy when the people can elect the government they want. For that to happen, ALL options must be available. If the establishment deliberately removes or blocks some of those options (as Sturgeon did in 2015 when she declared that a vote for the SNP was not a vote for independence), or deliberately tarnishes them to make them unelectable (like they did to Mr Salmond) or engineers a strategy to stop them winning (like they did to Ms Ferrier), then you cannot talk about “democracy”. What you have is absolute rule with the illusion of democracy.
Does democracy exist in the UK? I am arguing it does not. I argue that we do not have a democracy, just the illusion of one. For democracy to be usable as a tool to remove a corrupt government, it has to be a fully functioning democracy, not just the illusion of one.
The way Ms Ferrier was hauled out by the SNP and Labour was not just vomit-inducing but a magnificent example of how democracy in the UK does not exist. It was a forceful removal of the first choice of that constituency because, for whatever reason, that choice was not convenient for the establishment at the time. It was a profoundly undemocratic overruling of the will of the people in that constituency.
The same sly attempt to thwart democracy was seen in 2019 in Mr Hanvey’s constituency. Again, that was a vicious attempt to remove the favourite candidate. Fortunately, it did not work. Looking at the way Mr Hanvey conducts himself in Westminster and comparing it with the useless lumps from the SNP, it becomes very clear why they attempted to stop him.
We also saw it in the way the SNP blocked Ms Cherry’s bid for Holyrood, parachuting instead the shocking Robertson to the post.
Another wonderful example took place in 2016, when, despite 62% of those voting in Scotland doing so against Brexit, brexit was forced down our throats. What did Scotland voted for? It only served to legitimise this undemocratic abuse.
Another example was in 2015, when, before the election and leaving no time for a proper pro independence party to emerge, the political fraud Sturgeon proceeded to remove the dentures of the SNP as a political vehicle for independence. She did this AFTER the polls announced it was going to win by a landslide. As it is, with that maneuver alone, that political fraud left us without a fit for purpose pro-independence party to vote for, at a point when support for independence was just over 50%.
In the last few weeks we have witnessed how David Cameron, no longer an MP, has been, out of the blue, parachuted, by someone/something, to office. If that is not a magnificent display of absolute ruling and a mockery of democracy, what is.
In the last day or so we saw yet another example of absolute ruling at work: the way Laura Pascal has been suspended days before the election, leaving those supporting her, disenfranchised.
And that is the kind of “democracy” you want us to use to get rid of the coloniser and its minion Scot Gov? I am sorry but you are either kidding yourself or incredibly naive.
“It seems too many people are still wedded to the idea that if they can’t construct a democratic majority for what they want, it’s OK to just throw the baby out with the bathwater and do something else instead because *reasons*.”
It seems to me that some people are incredibly determined to fool us into believing that hitting our head against the same reinforced concrete wall over and over and over and over again, will eventually lead to a different result other than a nasty bruise.
9 years of nasty bruises is quite enough, thank you. Democracy is only useful when it is fit for purpose. An illusion of democracy, which is what we have and will have for as long as we remain in this union, is not a functional democracy, therefore completely useless to remove from office a corrupt government that happen to be the ultimate gatekeeper of the coloniser we want to rid ourselves of.
Time to change the game, the game board and the rules.
@ Ruby
Re. Getting creative with words… Flashback
https://wingsoverscotland.com/you-will-mourn-peasants/comment-page-1/#comment-2704903
https://wingsoverscotland.com/you-will-mourn-peasants/comment-page-1/#comment-2704905
I’m working on another book where Mrs Harris takes up Euronymphing!
But due to the loss of her EU citizenship making jaunts to mainland Europe more awkward, instead of enduring the additional hassle of travelling to the European mainland to engage in servicing the needs of highly sexually charged females, it’s a more tranquil endeavor where she pulls out her pink and purple gammarus and casts it into the chilly river waters of Scotland to attract a Grayling.
@Turabdin 2.13pm
I doubt Martin Docherty-Hughes counts as major reason why anything happens, never mind being single handedly responsible for the failure to attain independence.
There is in fact much to be said for having a naval base either in the Northern Isles or Western Isles post independence, though given the amounts of money invested in Faslane over the decades, it would perhaps make sense to use the facilities there as the HQ for the Scottish navy post indy.
the Norwegian naval HQ is in the Bergen area, but they have bases in the far north in Finnmark.
Also worth pointing out for all the “why do we need to spend any money on armed forces post independence” peaceniks, that Norway has a fleet of 6 Ula class submarines, 4 modern (post 2018) destroyers and 6 modern corvettes.
Norway is on target to spend 2% of it’s GDP on defence by 2026 (still a lot less than Scotland’s proportional share of UK’s defence budget). As well as a “real” navy, Norway will soon have 35 F35 fighters.
Perhaps after independence Scotland can have a proper defence infrastructure, greater investment in domestic defence procurement, and a security stance more suited to our needs co-operating with our northern neighbours. At least we shouldn’t have to wait for a Royal Navy ship to be sent from Portsmouth or Devonport to chase folk out of the Moray Firth!
https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/focus-high-north-defense-norways-national-budget-2023
https://www.airforce-technology.com/newsletters/norway-proposes-a-defence-budget-increase/?type=Analysis&utm_source=media-website&utm_medium=Menu&utm_content=Other_Daily_News_Articles&utm_campaign=type3_aerospace-and-defense-market&cf-view&cf-closed
Is our Dundonian tartan tie wearing first minister Scottish.
He looked very British to me when I saw him in the castle when the King came for the stone.
I’m not fooled by tartan ties. Brit Nats also wear the tartan tie and why not.
The tartan tie doesn’t mean much but the ‘Dundonian Continuity Boy’ doesn’t know that.
He thinks it means we are fooled into thinking he supports Scottish independence.
Actions speak louder than tartan ties!
If the tartan tie means anything it is probably more that you are British not Scottish.
The whole of the Royal Mile is jam packed with tartan ties, tartan skirts for men and all things tartan. None of it is Scottish. All made in China.
The tartan ties and tartan skirts for men could just as easily mean you are Chinese.
I’ve called these ‘kilts’ skirts for men because they are a very long way from what I think of as a kilt.
Some people pronounce kilt as cult.
Up yer cult and up yer tartan skirt!
Maybe Main/Ellis could use this for their defence of the Zionist occupying force committing genocide in Palestine, known as Israel, why not they’ve used every other excuse in the book.
https://nitter.net/Grouse_Beater/status/1746502220713984459#m
Somehow I just can’t find any sympathy within myself for this man.
“BBC Scotland’s political editor Glenn Campbell has been diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer. But the veteran journalist has insisted he’s “as lucky as someone in my position can be. It is almost certainly what will kill me, but I am optimistic”.”
https://nitter.net/Grouse_Beater/status/1746480118661369891#m
Mac says: “So I am curious how many others no longer believe in our democracy. (I am not sure it ever existed seeing events of the last ten years.)”
I’ve never believed in it because it is not a true democracy It has an unelected head of State. And let’s not even broach the manipulated voting system we have been burdened with. But like many others i’ve had no other option, until now, to play along with what we have.
The current SNP are self-serving troughers who have done absolutely *nothing* to advance the indy cause, and that includes being armed with a set of golden-gifted situations that no future indy leader is going to ever experience again. Not in my lifetime anyway. I
The fact they sat back and did absolutely fuck-all but nurse their pensions and bank accounts, while London stole a load of powers that belonged to Scotland and ripped a majority of Scotland out of the EU against their wishes, tells us all we need to know. There are other opportunities too but i’ve already made my point.
We don’t have a true democracy, Mac, and i’ve never believed in it. But from now on the current SNP troughers have ensured i will never again vote to send anyone South to Westminster. I will be making sure my ballot is spoiled at every single Westminster election, that way it has to be counted. And i will then see what’s on offer for Holyrood at every Scottish election.
Ruby wrote:
“You are not an independence support, not a supporter of Alba? Or is it that you just don’t like the man Alex Salmond? Wot is he too fat, too cuddly?
Anyway I stopped there and gave you the X.”
So what, Ruby? Nobody cares who you‘give the x’ to; as I’ve pointed out before – it does precisely nothing. Nor (for the record) does anyone need a lesson in HTML; which some of us first learned well over 30 years ago – and used to teach (nearly a quarter-century ago) at college (HNC/D) level.
…I mention that because I noticed you pontificating on the subject elsewhere.
Nobody cares Ruby… you’re not important or relevant. Nor, for that matter am I… none of us are of any value to politicos until there is a ballot paper to be crossed – or not.
It is often necessary to point out that one does not worship at the feet of the man who crawled so enthusiastically up Trump’s backside back in the day, when also pointing out how he has been wronged. Likewise, if you lived through the destruction of Scotland’s FE system; you did so at a time when Salmond was at the helm. – And may well, consequently, have formed the opinion that he is an easily-led, self-serving useless great balloon!
An easily-led sycophantic and disingenuous man, who held the rudder while the part of our education system which has the most important role; that of teaching real-world skills to our trades people and practical professionals – was sold down the river to sate the appetites of petty-snobs, rote managers and stats-chasers; whist simultaneously ensuring that those who can, are excluded from the chalk face.
As incredible as it will seem to those of limited understanding – to support Scottish independence is not necessarily the same thing as supporting the SNP, or Alba or any other party or individual.
It’s risible (for example) that when one is ‘discovered’ to be in favour of ending the so-called ‘union’, one one is very often – routinely in fact – met with a load of tosh about how bad Sturgeon and Salmond and the SNP are/have been… as if they were it!
You’re a Scottish nationalist (small n) so must (a) hate the English and (b) support/vote SNP. That’s how politics works – it’s also how zealotry works and the diminution of critical independent thought (essential to any quasi-religious herding) is achieved.
I’m sorry (for you) that you apparently feel the need to ‘hero worship’ anyone. That’s a common human failing… It’s your loss if you failed or refused the rest of what I wrote; just because I ‘dissed’ your dear, cuddly (euch!) Ally-wally-kins.
Had you reacted a little less like a 1970s schoolie, distressed that some dug had piddled on the Friday Evening Citizen’s Donny Osmond poster propped up outside the paper shop (which you were hoping to nab when they shut)… You would not have been wallowing in the apparent ignorance that caused you to attempt to project the (to me) pejorative accusation, that I do not support Scottish independence. – Pitiful and puerile.
Lifelong… dyed-in-the-wool ‘small n’ Scottish Nationalist; and for most of my adult life an SNP voter and supporter. The SNP leader that first let me down was Alex Salmond…
But there are few more heinous false accusations you can make against a man than that he is a sex-pest or worse-still a rapist. And it remains a measure of just how disgustingly low the SNP and its leadership and its staff and all who continue to be a part of that machine (and certain people who do know me, know exactly who that is directed at) that the SNP laid those accusations in the first place and continues to support them.
Incidentally Ruby… if you bother to rake up the old ‘Business for Scotland’ indyref poster/ad; you’ll find my name there right above Michelle Thompson’s.- And what a shambles that too has turned into!
But then… that’s how politics and politicos work; even when they’re pretending to be something else.
Ruby… you seem to have an over-inflated notion of your own importance for someone that lacks the courage and integrity to put their own full name to their posts. Similarly; that conspicuity this odd wee corner of cyberspace should be thought of any great importance. – It’s relevant that you are/were (apparently) unable to offer any kind of counter (cogent or otherwise) to anything I wrote.
Now… if only that ‘ignore’ function would actually clean the forum of clutter! – Pity there’s no-one who can actually code beyond a level that might have been acceptable in 1994, around to sort this out! But nobody cares who goes on your wee list Ruby. Nobody but you; you’re the only one that can see it.
This guy talks out a hole in his backside, the desire for independence is alive and kicking, its the supposedly independence minded party in government in Scotland that’s turned away from securing independence to feathering its MPs/MSPs nests, and coming to an arrangement with our foreign neignbours parliament not rock the boat.
“THE former chief strategist of the Yes Scotland campaign has said “the political energy has switched” away from a second independence referendum.
Stephen Noon added that the party that “steps in” to the battleground of those who want to see a stronger Scottish Parliament will benefit in the long run.
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Show that following the Supreme Court judgment as well as Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, “things have changed dramatically” and that Scotland is going toward a “normal political period”.
It echoed comments he made following the Rutherglen by-election defeat in October when he said a “new phase in Scottish politics” was beginning.”
@Mia 3.58pm
I am indeed a founder member of the Alba party. Like any party, their aim is to gain power in democratic elections in order to enact their platform. As far as I’m aware that doesn’t include a belief in silver bullets and short cuts to independence. The similar procedures used before won’t work because it’s not the 17th century or 1989.
Show me a legal opinion that substantiates any non-parliamentary route to independence, or a majority of Scots endorsing such a method, and I’ll get on board. Until then, like the vast majority I’ll remain unconvinced: that’s the job of those who insist it’s a slam dunk. So far they, and you, are coming up empty. Imagine our surprise!
Another red-boxer: it’s just not worth the effort. If only it actually caused your verbose contributions to disappear too!
It looks like the millionaire knight of the realm, leader of the Labour party, and avid supporter of the ongoing genocide in Palestine by the occupying Zionist force known as Israel is thinking of rolling back a previous promise not to supply Saudi Arabia with arms.
Of course Westminster supplies the Saudi’s with much more than just arms.
Click on the individual pictures to see what is supplied to Saudi Arabia.
https://nitter.net/kennardmatt/status/1745718603888869774#m
“KEIR Starmer has been heavily criticised for threatening to U-turn on a pledge to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, with opponents insisting he cannot be trusted.
In 2020 when he was running to replace Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader said that the UK “should stop the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia” over concerns about their use in the Yemen civil war.
But he seemed to water down this promise on Sunday when he told the BBC he would “commit to a review” of weapons sales but was not definitive when it came to the Saudis.
He was asked multiple times about whether he would stop selling weapons to the Middle Eastern nation but just repeated: “We will do a review.””
David Hannah
Ignored says:
14 January, 2024 at 2:44 pm
We need some investigative journalism into the Naklas.’
This reminds me of something odd dating back to the outbreak of violence in Gaza. The BBC became very exercised about the plight of British citizens unable to escape Gaza to Egypt. BBC Radio 4 at lunchtime spoke to one British citizen; the BBC woman said to him that he had a ‘large family’ which apparently included children and his mother. He agreed. This being the BBC she did not, of course, ask just how big his family was.
It appeared that the whole lot of them had been ‘on holiday’ in Gaza for three months (Coincidentally, no doubt, the maximum time one can keep a UK NHS card before-in theory-returning it ).
As a starter this holidaying would seem to undermine the description of Gaza as, variously, an ‘open air prison’ or ‘hellhole’.
Call me Mr Suspicious but I wonder if this is an established practice; do these people actually live-and perhaps work-in Gaza ?; presumably any benefits due in the UK (Family allowance as a bare minimum) would continue to be paid unless the authorities were notified. Need to ‘sign on’, or have a family member in need of medical treatment ?- hop on a plane back to dear old Blighty.
Just an idea.
It’s a funny old game saint.
I remember some time in the mid-nineties, after reading and being inspired by a little-known book called, ‘Bannock’ by an Ian McGinniss, (published by Polygon, 1990) that I really ought to try (in contrast to such a historically fraudulent and ridiculous vision as portrayed by McGinniss) and write a dystopian satirical kinda Orwellian view of a future Scotland post-independence.
In this imaginary country, Scotland, the body politic would descend into an abyss of puritanical retribution carried out by Brylcreemed young men jumping out of Commer vans early in the morning to arrest unsuspecting citizens in their houses who hadn’t quite measured up to the values of the new puritanical committees in power.
Oh! Wait a minute …
Quoted parts thanks to RoS’ comment at 4:37 pm
“THE former chief strategist of the Yes Scotland campaign has said “the political energy has switched” away from a second independence referendum.”
Bullshitting “chief strategist”? That’s why we ultimately lost, because our campaign was organised by inadequate clueless FUDs.
“Stephen Noon added that the party that “steps in” to the battleground of those who want to see a stronger Scottish Parliament will benefit in the long run.”
And there, if further proof was needed, he puts on display for all to see his FUD credentials. And as we on WOS are very well aware, there are a lot of FUDs (Federalists, Unionists & Devolutionists) within the rancid ranks of the current SNP. Including Big Chief Vow.
“Another red-boxer: it’s just not worth the effort”
I will wear that as a badge of honour.
Yippee! I can’t wait. It’s going to be a good one!
Please can we have more motor cycle gangs and lots of good old fashioned sex.
You can ditch the cleaning as far as I’m concerned. She could maybe find a better use for her feather duster & lavender scented polish.
What is Grayling doing in the water? Was he told to get in the sea but couldn’t tell the difference between the sea and a Scottish river? It would have been worse if he was looking for a loch. That’s a very difficult Scottish word for English Tory politician to pronounce. But sea and river shouldn’t have been a problem unless one of the locals said ‘It’s the sea you’re looking for laddie. Always happy to help a sassenach. See that wee burn over there that is the North Sea. Want me to help you jump?
What is a gammarus? Is that her pink and purple tickling stick aka her feather duster. Has she got anything else in her bag to satisfy the needs of the highly sexually charged ‘females’.
Where is Mrs Arris going to exactly. ‘Mrs Arris goes to The Broch’ would be good then we can all learn some new lingo. Maybe she could go all over the place accompanied by the bikers.
Vroom! Vroom! Hold on to your tickle stick Mrs Arris here we go.
Oh God I’m getting carried away stealing your massholescript. (Whit? Just trying to avoid being PMTed.)
I’ll be reading your book straight away I wont wait until the next coronation to read ‘Mrs Arris goes Euronymphing in The Broch.
I’m still working on ‘The Pub That Went Online’
The pub manager’s da will become is ma and everyone will be issued with special headphones and speakers with a big X button so that they can cut out any extraneous noise. All in preparation for the pub going online.
Some of the old bodachs + one new cailleach (pub managers new ma) need a fair bit of training with the X button but they are getting their slowly but surely.
‘Bless their hearts’ as they say in Texan English.
OK Dan I’ll let you get back to your Olivetti/Remington to get that Mrs Arris book finished.
The rise of Fascism/Nazism of late is very concerning, we had the Canadian parliament laud a known WWII Nazi in its chamber, the sight of the standing ovation he received was surreal to say the least, we have the West prop up a known neo-Nazi state in Eastern Europe.
Now we see the German Chancellor stand shoulder to shoulder with an occupying force that’s committing genocide.
“Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas the “new Nazis” during a joint appearance with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday.”
The German chancellor has sent a delegation to the Hague to defend Israeli interests, and a top UK lawyer (KC) Malcolm Shaw is also defending Israel at the Hague.
Meanwhile the Israeli PM is in a defiant mood.
“We will restore security to both the south and the north. Nobody will stop us – not The Hague”
https://nitter.net/IsraeliPM/status/1746277892491727341#m
Oh my God! He’s ragin’ mad!
I’ve seen some male hissy fits but the latest one is a cracker.
If you criticise or even dare to ask a question there is the risk of them going off on one and out comes a whole string of abuse.
The bit about the html is especially interesting.
It’s only blokes who can do html and on top of that everyone on here knows all about html.
I would seriously question if ‘Briandoonthetoon’ does.
But hey how cares! I ain’t interesting in winning any pissing contest.
I’m not relevant he says. Heard it all before.
Aye well I think all the women in Scotland are getting that message.
I am not alone.
No doubt all the wee bully boys will come out in support of this man baby.
Fuck them all I think I am great and so are most of the women in Scotland.
This is what our beloved FM’s wife/Dundee council is promoting/spending money on.
“A city council spent nearly £30,000 on a scheme where people can talk to lamp posts about climate change.
“The local authority in Dundee used Government funding to set up the Hello Lamp Post platform led by Councillor Nadia El-Nakla – wife of First Minister Humza Yousaf. The council, which is facing a £12million cash shortfall. Dundee City Council confirmed the set-up costs were £27,380. Climate convener Heather Anderson and her deputy El-Nakla, both SNP councillors, promoted the scheme last month.”
When is sturgeon going to be held accountable? Will it ever happen? Fed-up waiting for some justice.
You go girl! Tell him where to stuff his red boxers and vile sexist abuse.
You are great Mia don’t forget it!
@ RoS at 5.42 pm
Most SNP politicians seem to be a dim as fuck, so talking to a lamp post (even a “planet saving” low wattage LED bulb one) would most likely be a more illuminating experience on matters pertaining to climate change.
Maybe someone fae Dundee can ask a lamp post if it is a good idea to install ASHPs on very poorly insulated hooses, or a solar PV array on a north facing roof, concerned taxpayers are interested to see how their money is being spaffed away on all this greenwashing pish.
The paltering one; “Show me a legal opinion that substantiates any non-parliamentary route to independence…”
Legal opinion tends to support non-parliamentary routes when they succeed. Thus;
“Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.”
In a country that explicitly upholds the and enshrines the sovereignty of the people principle, such as Scotland, anything and everything the people do is in line with legal opinion. It could not be otherwise.
All that is lacking is the mechanism that facilitates the sovereignty of the people, allowing the people to express their opinion. And that, of course, is by design. The parliamentary/ referendum route is, nevertheless, just one of many possible routes.
http://tinyurl.com/mt569kfs
Mandy is great. You go girl.
Not too sure about the women she is writing about.
Misguided I think would be the term I would use either that or an out and out liar.
She is however ‘the minister leading the consultation on ending conversion practices’
And if, as the equalities minister further claims, gender identity means different things to different people, and even different things at different times for the same individual, I would fundamentally like to understand how she proposes to legislate around a feeling that can be forever in flux?
What happened with ‘Making misogyny a hate crime’ did that ever happen and did Helena Kennedy who was thrilled to spend so much time with Sturgeon every answer the question
‘What is a woman?’
It’s all crap isn’t it?
ANDY ELLIS 4:03 pm
For personal reasons i am no fan of Nato or its American animator.
Paranoia regarding an enemy out there is not a good start for an independent state.
Historically, Scotland’s only real enemy was England. Post Union any people getting in England’s way became the enemy.
The US has followed in England’s imperialist footprint.
The total lack of intelligence among most of Scotland’s «leaders” in this matter is stunning.
Consummate banality rules!
Scotland really needs to get out of the anglo-american shadow, without that independence signifies nothing.
Here Craig Murray who spent the second night sleeping outside the gates of the Hague to get in to repot for us, gives us the low down on the second day’s hearing in the Hague.
“In the UK, the BBC and Sky both ran almost all the Israeli case live, having not run any of the South African case live. I believe something similar was true in the USA, Australia and Germany too.”
It turns out that Israel’s numero uno defender (KC) Malcolm Shaw is an ardent Zionist.
Jeremy Corbyn and Jean-Luc Melenchon were also in attendance with Craig Murray
Its worth a read.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/01/your-man-in-the-hague-in-a-good-way-part-2/
I really like your story Frank.
However if it’s true that ‘Life imitates Art’ you might be responsible for the state we are in to-day
You gave them ideas! 🙂
We’ve even got a first minister who uses a lot of Brylcreem. (I suppose it saves him washing his hair.)
God that stuff is greasy. Antimacassars had to be invented because of the not so brylcreem. The ‘boys’ loved it they thought it was bryl.
You even had the young folks calling everything bryl which meant really good.
No idea what they are calling bryl things now. I think bad is the new good.
Bad might be short for badass which is also very very good.
Just out of interest what after shave were these young men wearing. Was it Old Spice?
I find details very important.
The men in my story will be wearing ‘Acqua di Parma’ every single one of them. I will mention it a lot. I like it, but it’s £80 for a wee bottle and I understand influencers get a lot of free samples.
They’ll also be munching on ‘Ginger Gummy Bears’. They cost £5 for a wee bag. It’s outrageous what I have to pay for my baggies. They do however come all the way from Australia. They are highly addictive it’s quite easy to do a bag a day.
Just thought I would mention that to you in case you are thinking of re-publishing ‘The Brylcreem Boys’? and maybe doing a follow up.
Any chance of Mrs Arris getting in on the act?
@Turabdin 7.07pm
Absent a viable alternative there is little prospect of the majority of Scots agreeing to neutrality à la Republic of Ireland post independence, particularly after both Finland and Sweden have so recently abandoned their long standing neutrality (which was always far more real than Ireland’s).
The vast majority of Scots are broadly Atlanticist pro European and pro-EU, however much the reality triggers those who oppose NATO, the EU and the current rules based international order. Nobody thinks the current set up is perfect, but none of the current alternatives are likely to be appreciably better.
Of course it’s always possible that folk could come up with an alternative plan to replace NATO, or even the UN. The thing is these kind of major changes only usually happen after some pretty major global crises. But if folk come up with something soon and convince the majority to support it we could be on to a winner.
Personally I’ve always thought a defensive security community of Nordic nations would be a good fit for an independent Scotland, but Uncle Vlad has probably put the kybosh on that.
I’ve about as much time for those pedalling the need for an alternative to the anglo-american supremacy, and saying “it’s not real independence if we don’t” line as I do for those arguing membership of the EU means you’re not really independent, or that there are non-parliamentary routes to independence because *Salvo/Treaty of Union/Claim of Right*
Mrs Arris travels around Scotland on the back of a motorbike for two weeks and this incredible lady is able to produce polls on everything!
She knows what the whole of ‘Scotland thinks’ about everything.
It’s bloomin’ marvellous init!
‘Mrs Arris does the polls.’ aka ‘Mrs Arris goes Pop’
Say goodbye to YouGov & Ipsos Mori and say hello to the incredible Mrs Arris.
John Curtice keep your eye on her. She knows ‘What Scotland thinks’.
Andy Ellis @ 8.53.
Talking of pedalling, I remember what guff you used to post about a de facto referendum. You wouldn’t accept then that the SNP were not a party of independence, and I see you still support their position in relation to re-joining Europe, swopping one yoke for another, and getting worse every day the direction in which Europe is travelling.
You’re pedalling in the wrong direction again. Independence means freedom from foreign rule. The EU is no longer what it started out to be. It has become a monster which craves more and more power at the centre, telling countries what to do, ending unanimity by stopping vetoes.
The SNP is a sinking ship proposing to jump from one disastrous relationship to another. Scotland would never be free tied to the EU. Angus Robertson is pretending to be Moses leading the people to freedom,when he’s actually more concerned with getting a nice cosy well paid position for himself, following which he would re-locate and kiss goodbye to Scotland. You must have implicit trust in him. I don’t.
I thought you would have realised by now that the SNP are a useless fraud, led by complete idiots, and not to be trusted.
Seems not.
Merganser; “The EU is no longer what it started out to be. It has become a monster which craves more and more power…”
Actually, ‘ever closer union’ was enshrined from the start. Look the phrase up.
A lot of those who criticise the EU don’t understand it. It really shouldn’t be judged on the same terms as national governments; the EU that you see and deal with today is a sort of aggregate that reflects the ever-changing dispositions of the various member states. Tomorrow it could be very different. It’s constantly changing, like shifting sands on an island that floats without an effective rudder.
The areas that it has most power in, power similar to the sort of power national governments have at their disposal, are trade, competition, and agriculture. In almost every other area you are dealing with adhoc groupings of representatives that are motivated to see everything through the prism of what suits their respective nations best.
Was it Rousseau who distinguished between The General Will and The Will of All? Anyone who understands the difference will under the point and the problem.
Brexit rattled the EU, especially the Germans and the French who have the most to lose. With right-wing populism on the rise everywhere, the EU serves as an easy target. It could very easily collapse, when you think about it. The instinct in that sort of fearful climate is to take the path of least resistance which invariably means bowing to big business and the US.
It’s probably paradoxical or something, but if the EU was more confident and had more power, a lot of those who criticise it would probably be less resentful towards it. Specifically, if the EU was empowered to practice normal foreign policy, normal defence policy, etc., rather than always trying and failing to appease its own selfish members, it would definitely be more coherent and capable — you’d at least have something solid and distinct enough to meaningfully criticise.
the meat of this is more back-loaded, the intro is dull; a useful crib sheet on “how to do things right” and not, city-style, pump it like fuck and pish it up a wall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wq2S1b-HCs
– the basic point is you need a strong, national minded, government to stop short term market forces messing it all up (e.g. “the oil curse”), or just let foreigners rob you blind
Hatuey
Re power – I’d add alliance to that too.
Normal alliance = individual countries with their OWN individual defence & coming together on a need to basis.
Not NATO, which is a front for America to get into every country & set up base, & takes a country’s % away & replace it like a protection racket. That’s all well & good until they become the problem. They already defy international law when it suits the yanks.
& just to remind everyone – the SNP isn’t the Yes movement & Scotland doesn’t need a parliament. The SC ruled on a branch office. Not on Scotlands status in the union because it can’t. & For the gobshites who criticise Salvo & Liberation – WTF do they think brought Holyrood into a reality? BLiar, the tooth fairy?
No Holyrood needed. No Indy MPs in WM needed. A group of Scots did, which brought about a convention, which brought international & government pressure, which brought about a vote, which delivered a parliament/branch office.
That contract has also been breeched (they just can’t help themselves) as they’ve stripped it of any meaningful powers (80+ that funnily enough includes trade, agriculture, fishing, procurement & NHS) against the consent of Scots & cross party parliamentary vote.
All chalked up & provable to an international community – should they try the bullshit we already have our own parliament.
I’d rather be in the EU, with a veto, a revolving country president, & an exit at any time than at the mercy of yanks & big corporations. That is what the English have voted for with Brexshit. TTIP on steroids & to become the 51st state. Trump & Biden are hardly fine upstanding examples to be relying on. Hardly independent either. Now it’s nowhere to go.
At least with the EU there’s 27 other countries with a veto.
There’s only one nutter with the yanks & they don’t like the word no.
Things evolve, things change. The European Coal and Steel Market, The Common Market, The European Economic Community or EEC, the European Community or EC, the European Union or EU.
That has been the way. And it has been successful else it would not have expanded as it did.
Done properly cooperation is good.And the EU, maybe not perfect, nothing is, has done good. Brexit excepted. But Brexit has been a disaster for a belligerent Britain.
But evil eyes watch the EU. They see the trading and cooperation block as a rival. More so when Russia some years back had intimated interest in becoming part of the EU.
That would most certainly been interesting. But the approach was rejected. An EU with Russia, it’s huge land mass, huge reserves would have made a bloc that literally eclipsed every other bloc.
In the tent rather than out, an enlarged EU I believe would have continued the no war policy that the EU to date has so successfully delivered.
But now things have changed. The US supported revolution in Ukraine, the US proxy war with Russia, the cutting off of Russian oil and severing of pipelines,and sanctions have changed all that and the EU weakened. And Britain weakened too.
Things change,but in effecting change.you need to truly decide who your friends are.
@Merganser 9.47pm
You appear to have reading or comprehension problems. In fact I’d personally probably go for the Norway option rather than full EU membership, but in the end it’s the bulk of the Scottish people the anti-EU folk have to persuade. Last time I checked, they’d actually become more pro-EU than they were at the time of the Leave result. Much like those on the crank left pushing the fantasy line that neutrality would be the best option, it’s just desperate unicorns and rainbows stuff.
Feel free to keep agitating for autarchy: let’s see how much popular support you get for it post independence. I imagine even less than those pushing for us to be neutral, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Post independence all of those who airily assert that Scots will suddenly decide they don’t need the EU, or EFTA or NATO will have to put up or shut up won’t they?
Similarly, the hundreds of millions living in all the independent states within the EU, including many which are fairly newly independent, would laugh at someone from a country whose people lacked the balls to vote for their own independence when it was handed to them on a plate in 2014, who tried to tell them they were’t REALLY independent because *Brussels*.
As for the SNP, as an Alba founder member, we’re in violent agreement, but not because of your brexity views. You need to be a more alert reader.
ANDY ELLIS
08:53
Unwise, by rattling other people’s sabres usually Made in America, to make yourself a target, the Nordic states are certainly that now.
America has dual standards, in their hemisphere do not dare set foot or else however they are free to go where they please. Small wonder Moscow gets irritated about activity in their neighborhood territories.
Scotland might aim in the misty future to be a truly neutral state by shedding itself of those conditioned habits. Security is very expensive and disturbs the mind.
RoS
Israel’s KC supports Israel?
OMG, is there no end to their duplicity and evil?
What next I wonder?
South Africa’s counsel bank rolled by Iran and threatened by Wagner?
Tell you what you could do RoS, in between your eternal greetin over the fates of the murderers, torturers and rapists of October 7.
Why don’t you outline the advantages to us Scots of the Hotties being given permission to control the Red Sea, and the Palestinians being allowed to exterminate Israel. Lay it out in black and white how you see this progressing. Will all Israeli Jews be killed, or should we expect 7 million or so migrating refugees? How much better will our lives be if Iran succeeds in gaining Mediterranean access for its expanding empire and the wider Russti-Iranian-NK coalition?
Heck, RoS, paint a persuasive enough picture and you might get me cheering it on myself! Show us Scots how we all stand to benefit.
You’re sick of the way things are, you’re sick of the current world order, and you want a completely new one because the current one is shit. Or so you claim.
Fair enough.
Show us how your preferred new world order will be better.
We’re Scots, RoS, so although we make all the right noises about the moral absolutes, in private, it’s all about the money. We’re a parsimonious race of hoarders.
So make sure that you address that in your explanation.
@Andy Ellis 4:08
If Scotland becomes independent tomorrow, what’s your estimate for when we will have a viable deep water navy capable of defending our offshore energy infrastructure?
It will also need to contribute to the defence of the North Atlantic, and to The Mediterranean. As a working assumption, I expect us to be working with the EU, if not in the EU, and in NATO.
Assuming too that your answer is in decades, not years, what will we do while we wait? Hope the Russtis and Iranians are nice to us, or pay rUK to defend us?
And who will we pay to build the new, state-of-the-art ships and weapon systems we will need?
But I’m guessing the SNP will have worked all this through during their years in office, so just provide a link to their policy paper!
JOHN MAIN
09:02
Think of all this wartalk as a continuation of the Great Game +1 the US.
England or the anglosphere v Russia et al with russophobia, an old theme, as a tasty side dish.
The Brits got their chunk of the Levant to prevent others from acquiring it and jeopardizing the Suez canal route to British India. Jews, according to chancellery chat, were considered monied power brokers in the Ottoman domaines, they were not, Greeks and Armenians had rather more clout but it suited the metaphysical purpose to believe so.
Persia/Iran was a battle ground for influence in the GG. Oil queered the pitch when discovered leading to further imperial land grabbing. The anglo-american coup removing Mossadegh who desired nationalization of the oilfields and the installing of a puppet shah has left Iranian with a sour taste regarding Brits and Yankees.
Then there’s the Gulf, where support for anglo interests is currently not to be counted on.
Anglo-America has put both hands into a basket of scorpions.
What has this to do with Scotland? Everything or nothing depending on your worldview.
Wipe the file or stick with the text you did not write.
World News update !
In the last couple of weeks, NATO spokesperson, Mr John Main of Brigadoon has informed us that Ru55ia will invade Portugal, Poland, the Baltics, Central Europe and Scotland.
And that the Iranian navy also has designs on Caledonia..
Also Chy-na might invade Indonesia.
Don’t panic !
@TURABDIN
We could try to tow Scotland into the mid-Atlantic, a bit further south, set ourselves up as a competitor for the holiday money the Canary Isles currently coins in.
They are strategically insignificant since the dates when sail gave way to steam. Prior to that, they were of immense value as staging posts on the routes by which the Spanish Empire pillaged the New World of its fabled treasure trove of gold.
But I digress. Scotland remains in its geographically strategic position facing the North Atlantic sea lanes. We share a porous land border with a decaying imperial power ten times our size and twenty times our dynamism who intends to retain most of our shared assets if we carve ourselves off as independent.
Climate Change alone will likely send 100 million Africans north in the next half century. Any serious war will add tens of millions more. Our neighbour can’t or won’t stop that flow, and plenty of posters on here actively cheer it on in any case.
I don’t see how Scotland can sit this out as a cuddly, wee, neutral friend to all. That’s just daft Scottish exceptionalism, the kind that only ever made sense in the days when the US hegemonic umbrella sheltered us all.
So, as I see it, the realpolitik argument takes hold. All countries either have an empire, or are part of somebody else’s one. What I am asking is for the regulars who never tire of reminding us how shit the current arrangements are, to outline how things will improve when we embrace the Russtis, the Iranians, or the Covid Spreaders, and let them tell us what to do as a part of their new imperial order.
These are the regimes who like to push critics out of high rise buildings, and shoot uppity lassies in the genitals. After they’ve routinely hacked their daughters about as kids to imprint their male patriarchal superiority. The Covid Spreaders will just weld you into your house for 6 months – maybes that’s the best option.
Surely it’s not too much to ask? Show us how iScotland will thrive, and me along with it, in the proposed new world order.
Can’t imagine Boris manufacturing such a grievance just to show London can make us kill puppy’s by decree, tbh
Maybe he could still make a great comeback by promissing to make them all honorary downing st dogs – and locking up all the haters that allowed it to get this far!
“It will also need to contribute to the defence of the North Atlantic, and to The Mediterranean. As a working assumption, I expect us to be working with the EU, if not in the EU, and in NATO.”
Really?
One word Ireland, although its on good terms with Nato its not a member, so why would Scotland need to be a member of the warmongering club led by the Great Satan (US)?
JOHN MAIN
10:32
The current global psychosis is the work of a few. They created the situation but would have all participate in clearing it up, at their command.
We have is dregs of colonialism and the exceptionalist anglo, quqsi religious, arrogance that is its main constituent. The smarter animal observes, waits and then moves on.
The Americans who see the planet in terms of a John Wayne movie, indeed see political reality in terms of the brutalizing myths of the Wild West may have the hardware but, as century 20 has shown do not possess either the diplomatic finesse or the «wit».
Like the British they cannot imagine a world where their gods are not fetishized and risk being brought down. The anglosphere might be termed the anglofear, so troubling are their dreams of loss of power.
An iScotland might laugh at this schoolboy nonsense.
Hatuey @ 10.39pm. “If the EU had more power…”
That is the direction of travel, and could have a considerable effect on many countries who don’t wish to give away what little influence they have.
The SNP policy on Europe is as disastrous as every other thing they have touched, and they want to impose it without the people having a say.
Things are vastly different from the time of the Brexit vote, and events are moving quickly. It is completely disingenuous to try and use the way Scottish people voted in the past as justification for ploughing on with selling the soul of Scotland to a failing EU.
The only people who would benefit would be the usual subjects with well paid sinecures. It’s the parcel o’ rogues syndrome repeated in modern times.
The SNP is incapable of functioning without having someone to blame, someone to point the finger at and say “It’s their fault, not ours”. That is the security blanket they have to have, and it enables them to avoid responsibility for most of their disastrous policies.
Sadly people do not have a decent choice of parties to vote for, and many will feel they have no option but to spoil their ballot paper rather than choose what’s on offer, so a government is created from negative rather than positive wishes of the people.
Anyone who thinks that the EU is the salvation to Scotland’s desire for independence will be sadly disappointed with the result. But the troughers will love it.
Coming soon a series of posts entitled
Pontificating on HTML, FE Colleges, Sexism, Super Creeps & Women Who stand by their Man.
You’ll have the bad times
And he’ll have the good times
Doing things that you don’t understand
He’s currently away oot to the golf club wearing my clothes.
He’ll be staggered home later in his high heeled ‘Kinky Boots’ expecting me to do things I don’t understand.
I haven’t got the foggiest clue how to be a lesbian.
‘It’s OK, I’m Wearing Really Big Knickers’ over my thongs ready for ‘Thongs & Full Frontal Snogging’ or whatever, the tights they are a ‘Withering Tights’
All was going well until I was ‘Startled by his Furry Shorts’ and that is when
when it “Fell off in my hand.’ “Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers” was finally ‘Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas’ and that ended my first night as a lesbian.
Thanks Louise Rennison you do give your books bloody good titles.
Don’t forget ladies
Stand by your man (Ooh, ooh)
And show the world you love him (Ooh, ooh)
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man, mm, mm, mm
PS I don’t have any ‘Furry Shorts’ he went oot wearing my Asda’s finest plain cotton full briefs hence the reason for the starling.
PPS Don’t forget there’s ‘Many a true word is spoken in jest’
and You can catch more votes with honey than with vinegar
“Who is looting Yemen’s oil, and where does it all go?”
https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/250
Surprise, surprise, surprise…
Pump in arms, pump out oil. That’s basically what The West has to offer the world.
God knows why China has been making such inroads.
I’ll keep it simple, Merganser.
An independent Scotland within the EU as a full member would be much better off than it is right now within the UK. It would have much more influence over major economic factors, such as tax, investment, resources, transport, development, banking, etc. not to mention other areas like foreign policy.
In key areas where Scotland would integrate and technically lose sovereign power as an EU member, such as trade, there are massive benefits to be had.
There’s a lot of people on here and elsewhere that are critical and have lost confidence in the EU, but they rarely explain their positions in any detail. I suspect they are paying too many attention to people like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones on the American right.
Anyone in Scotland that thinks they have found a home on the American right needs a brain scan.
Geri, I agree. NATO is a cover story for US interests. It also serves to contain Germany which was a key consideration of those who created it. The Soviet-Communist threat was at best exaggerated and at worst a blatant lie — there was no real Soviet threat, not until The West started poking (just as they’re poking Russia today).
Apologies for going off topic a tad but reading press reports today it looks like the UK are going to be putting more troops into Ukraine.
Troops, special forces and shall we say ex UK military freelancers have been active for some considerable time now, and indeed before the shooting started.
The UK military moreover have been training Ukranian navy personnel for some very considerable time now post the West’s regime change in Ukraine.
What should be of concern to us all in our kid on democracy is that as more UK military resources get poured in to Ukraine it is only a matter of time before it is a real fist fight between the UK and Russia.
Now I know Britain likes to talk tough. It is after all a world economic super power and a military one at that. It’s now in action in the middle east too. And in Guatamala as a side issue.
Can we afford it, economically, and military losses to come. I wonder, I truly wonder. And I wonder too about the ever accelerating and increasing budget cuts and reduction in living standards. Could they be connected.
In the meantime, as my savings depreciate, as prices soar, as my income slides in real terms, and as the services around me suffer cut after cut, I thank God this fine cold sunny morning for being a valued citizen of King and Country and for a war that we are going to win.
These foreigners and by our name they shall fear us. Rule Britannia. Death where is thy sting?
Hatuey @ 11.59. ” Scotland as a member of the EU would have much more influence over major economic factors such as tax, investment resources,transport, development, banking, and foreign policy”.
If you believe that there is no point in debating this subject any further. Scotland’s ability to influence any of these things as a member of the EU is a pipe dream now and in the future. This is the rhetoric of that well-known snake oil salesman Angus Robertson. He must be your hero.
I haven’t given much thought to the EU lately.
When I voted remain I did it because I did not want the UK to ‘take back control’. I didn’t want the BritNats to have *’carte blanche’ over my human rights.
I felt my human rights were safer in the EU. Quite a few of these EU countries have recent experience of fascism so would be less likely to be going full steam ahead back to 1984. The UK on the other hand want ‘to take back control’ control of your every move. The latest is that ‘Big Brother’ will be checking your bank accounts. Yes you too benefit claiming/cheating pensioners you’ll be getting your statements checked.
Watch out what you spend your money on you could end up in the press with the public knowing that you keep buying these orange bras.
The headlines will be ‘Has Andy Ellis become a 60’s style feminist who keeps burning his orange bra’
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
No idea why the bras are orange. I guess orange is the new black.
*’carte blanche’. that’s French! Thank goodness I did French O grade. It all helps with the ‘English’ and helps me to sound posh. Often I don’t know what language I’m speaking.
Oh la la! Bearded male feminists burning their bras.
I only ever did it when my bras were very old and needed binning. Bras ain’t cheap!
Although maybe hugely padded orange ones were.
It’s no wonder shops are lovin’ the trans. It helps them get shot of the hugely padded orange bras and their size 12 ‘Kinky Boots’ while making a huge profit.
PS I know the German for bra.
Its ‘Bustenhalter’.
Great word and even if you didn’t do O grade German you could have a good guess at what that word means.
PPS Are we in or out of the ECHR? Ach never mind in or out we are ‘foutu mais content’
C’est la vie!
In case no one has mentioned it…
Humza Yousless’s brother-in-law arrested for drug offences.
https://archive.is/BeuHL
@Andy Ellis
“Show me a legal opinion that substantiates any non-parliamentary route to independence, or a majority of Scots endorsing such a method, and I’ll get on board.”
You’ll find the answer here. There is such a legal opinion.
Read the conclusions.
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/albaparty/pages/659/attachments/original/1687279203/OPINION_ON_MATTERS_RELATING_TO_INTERNATIONAL_LEGAL_ISSUES_CONCERNING_THE_RIGHT_TO_SELF-DETERMINATION_FOR_THE_PEOPLE_OF_SCOTLAND.pdf?1687279203
As an “ALBA member myself I find you rather uninformed.
Last week on another thread I provided you with a link to a NIESR study on lans tax (which a devolved Scotland can’t do) that shows how a land tax over a long period can increase GDP and reduce income tax to zero.
You had, as above, invited information. I anticipate you’ll ignore this post as well.
We did that yesterday Mac but it’s always good to get an archived link.
David Hannah doesn’t do archived links.
Which is maybe why David Hannah is Xed a lot so very possibly your post is the first anyone is hearing about the ‘Yousless family criminals’ Is he a she yet?
I’m still wanting to know about the ‘Adultery in the time of Covid’
Repeats are no problem Mac as a matter of fact it seems to be the established ‘in house style’ here on Wings.
Keep up the good work Mac but just try to get your ‘YouYube’ links sorted. I can get very irritable about these sort of things.
Cheers. Try to have a good Monday even if you don’t like them.
Tell me is
‘foutu mais content’
English yet or not?
If it ain’t it’s easy enough to Google.
For those who don’t Google it means
‘Fucked but happy’
I’m thinking it could be a very useful phrase to introduce into English.
Aye ‘foutu mais content’ but hey
“C’est la vie”, say the good folks, it goes to show you never can tell.
Its utterly embarrassing that our FM who proclaims that independence is the way forward for Scotland even though he does his best to make sure independence never gets off the drawing board, to have to kowtow to a foreign country’s (England) PM in the form of speaking with him (Rishi Sunak) on immunity for SPS personnel especially with this in mind.
“HUMZA Yousaf is planning to raise the issue of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) still having crown immunity with the Prime Minister amid a key fatal accident inquiry (FAI). ”
“The families’ solicitor Aamer Anwar wrote to Yousaf over the weekend to ask him why he had “never taken steps” to try and eradicate the “archaic” principle of crown immunity for the SPS, which means the organisation cannot be criminally prosecuted.”
“But the Scottish Government has now confirmed Yousaf – who is a former justice secretary – will take the issue up with Sunak.”
Lets not forget Yousaf was a complete failure as Justice secretary, this failure also extended to Health and Transport when he was minister for them as well, even Kate Forbes who’s way out of the union is to keep on asking Westminster for an S30 told Yousaf to his face during an SNP leadership hustings that he was a serial failure knows Yousaf is hopeless.
No one, or group of people should be above prosecution.
“Treaties and the Right to Self-Determination
124. The separate Kingdom of Scotland and Kingdom of England, as independent
States, formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain through a treaty, called the
Articles of Union 1707.52 There are no provisions in that treaty for a means to
withdraw from it by either State or to allow for a vote by the people of those territories in the future.
125. In comparison, more recent treaties, such as the Treaty on the Functioning of
the European Union, expressly provides for withdrawal from it by a State party (Article
50(3)). In addition, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998,53 which is a treaty between the UK and Ireland, expressly provides for a vote by the people of Northern Ireland
(Annex A, Article 1 1), as part of their “right of self-determination” (Annex, Article
1(ii)).
126. An issue arises as to whether a treaty in 1707 can be interpreted in light of
contemporary international legal rules. The ICJ in its Advisory Opinion on Namibia54
clarified this issue [53]
[A]n international instrument has to be interpreted and applied within the
framework of the entire legal system prevailing at the time of the
interpretation. In the domain to which the present proceedings relate, the last fifty years… have brought important developments. These developments leave little doubt that the ultimate objective of the sacred trust was the self determination and independence of the peoples concerned.
127. This Advisory Opinion was directly on the matter of the contemporary interpretation of an international document (“instrument”) in relation the right to selfdetermination. It made clear that an international document – which includes a treaty- should be interpreted and applied within the framework of the current international rules on the right to self-determination.
128. This is consistent with my view, see paras 29-32 above, that the people of
Scotland, irrespective of the exact terms of the Articles of Union treaty, have the right
to self-determination.
129. The issue, therefore, is not whether they have the right to self-determination
under this treaty but whether they can exercise it by seeking independence. This has been discussed in para 27 above.”
@ Republicofscotland says: 15 January, 2024 at 2:09 pm
Both Sunak and Yousaf have some obvious things in common.
And some not so obvious things. Both are essentially unelected from the representational democratic POV. In both cases, a tiny handful of anonymous party members or other faithful decided who should get the gig.
But here the processes differ. Nobody has ever claimed that Sunak’s process was flawed and fraudulent. A travesty of democracy certainly, but the rules were established in advance, and the rules were followed.
On the contrary with Yousaf, everybody knows that his process was flawed and fraudulent, to Scotland’s everlasting shame. The rules were flouted, openly, and with typical SNP entitled arrogance. Then rubber stamped by oor wee pretendy parliament, who see no shame in having a wee pretendy FM to match.
I would dearly love to be a fly on the wall when the PAs are out of the room and the mics are switched off. I bet Sunak then tells Yousaf exactly where he can go. Not in so many words of course, the man’s a politician after all. But all the more exquisite the slapdown when diplomatically phrased.
If I can clearly see that Yousaf lacks the legitimate right to be leader of my country, why ever would Sunak, or anybody else?
And why would any Scot seriously expect Scotland to be respected?
@ Hatuey
” There’s a lot of people on here and elsewhere that are critical and have lost confidence in the EU, but they rarely explain their positions in any detail. I suspect they are paying too many attention to people like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones on the American right.”
I can’t speak for anyone else , but , no , I’m ” paying attention ” to what the EU Leaders themselves are saying – and doing . I’m appalled at both .
Your point in a previous post , above , is sound , H ..ie .. the E.U ( I’ll add – like any other institution or thing ) is not an immutable monolith , but the temporary manifestation of the input & political positions of the member States of which it is comprised . Fine , agreed .
The problem/s is/are …..it’s increasing authoritarian stance on Free Speech ;the current lapdog position it has adopted re ( demented ) US foreign policy ; it’s virtual open-door policy re Immigration ; it’s equally demented adoption/imposition of the economically suicidal Net Zero Decalogue – let’s face it , the whole climate * crisis * hysteria is at root a religious phenomenon , with it’s own High Priests n Heretics ; True Believers n Agnostics ; Martyrs n Apostates and the same lunatic End of Days imagery . Fat profits for thin prophets . How to change this ?
An iScotland joining the EU would not be a deal-breaker for me ; I’d vote for Independence under ( just about ) any circumstances . But short of some internal revolution in the composition and orientation of the EU I’d serious caution against joining , and would vote against doing so , given the opportunity .
Sam
**As an “ALBA member myself I find you rather uninformed.**
He is, isn’t he? A sure fire way of confirming he’s talking pish.
He seems to know absolutely nothing about them or of Scotland.
—
IMO, Scotland, as a small independent country, would have fck all interest in invading & occupying other countries at the behest of America & the britnats for absolutely fck all benefit.
Scotlands only interest would be getting rid of trident as soon as possible & building our OWN defence & Navy to patrol our vast maritime boundaries & resources. There’ll be no Britnat base either. No annexed part to become another NI.
Scotland isn’t a warmongering freak. Our own patch is just fine & dandy. Scots have proved to be with various anti war, anti trident, anti nukes, anti bombing the fck out of things for some far flung tyrant to get rich.
The EU, if they’ve any sense, will build a new alliance with the EU member states & strengthen their EU council & ditch NATO.
It has broken international laws & has broken int treaties it signed up to. (No expansion) & it has done so at the behest of an aggressor whose only purpose in life is warring – NATO is not the peacekeepers they pretended to be – it was to get a foot into every country & meddle in their elections, their parliaments, their leaders, training bases & for American interference. A protection racket the Mafia would be proud of. All the things the west claim the Ruskies do. Are the Ruskies demanding GDP & have over 750 military bases scattered throughout the world in over 80 countries ? No, didn’t think so!
It would be insane to gain independence & then hand our home security over to a protection racket when we can invest in our own. Ireland manage just fine & on less budget than Scotland pays in the Union. We could build our own & have change to spare..
The world managed just fine before NATO was even invented by having an alliance.
Sam,
Thanks for the link. I’ve downloaded onto my new device. Cheers!
Humza Yousaf’s brother in law charged. El Nakla’s nicked like Nic. The black sheep of a family of black sheeps. What a horrible drug addled family of money they are. We know that if El Nakla’s brother in Gaza was a British citizen. He’d be able to get diplomatic help to travel to Scotland. But we know El Nakla’s lied like the criminal law breaking junkie brother. Because she’s going through Turkey and Humza’s coughed up £750,000 in blood money to Ergrodan for a selfie at cop 28.
Why lie? El Nakla’s nicked like Nic. Time to get Suella Braverman on tthe phone. The Yousaf’s are trying to bring in an illegal.
Humza OUT NOW.
There’s enough illegal immigration in this country… Without one living in Bute House.
EL Nakla’s nicked like Nic. And the illegal brother Humza’s paid £750,000.
You’re a disgrace Humza. What a horrible family you all are. SACK NOW.
@ Merganser says:15 January, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Hatuey @ 11.59. ” Scotland as a member of the EU would have much more influence over major economic factors such as tax, investment resources,transport, development, banking, and foreign policy”
Hmmmm.
The control we would have would firstly depend on the accession agreement our illustrious world-class SNP politicos negotiated. Having already stated we are automatically joining the EU, with no further democratic mandate needed, they have also already told Brussels that the accession agreement need make no concessions to what we Sovereign Scots may actually want or need.
A poor start in anybody’s book. But consistent with the caliber of our illustrious world-class SNP politicos (that’s a wee joke, BTW).
Once in, the usual “level playing field” rules would ensure that HR’s efforts to support indigenous, home-grown industries would be stifled.
As for the idea that our economy would be protected from the worst of the EU’s fiscal policies that were designed from the start to maintain agricultural predominance for France, and industrial predominance for Germany, maybes we could get second opinions from a few Greeks and Italians.
That’s assuming we’re in the Euro, of course. But then, when we say we could use the Pound instead, somebody usually pops up to say the Pound will crash on the day Scotland announces its independence.
And never recover after that.
Uh oh!
But yeah, sure, apart from these likely certainties, Scotland’s membership of the EU will be enormously successful for the usual troughing suspects.
Best get moving though. The EU is not doing too well in the ongoing war. It may well split apart before we ever get around to joining.
Did I mention that as a resource-rich, prosperous country, iScotland will be expected to subsidise the other poor, wee EU countries that are not so well off. Them’s the rules! And there’s a ginormous revenue shortfall since the UK left, and The War and the Covid Spreaders fecked things up even more.
Thatcher, widely hated on here, helped the UK bend these rules to our advantage when we were in it the first time, but no Scot is going to call for us to rediscover our Scottish equivalent of the Thatcher spirit next time.
“On the contrary with Yousaf, everybody knows that his process was flawed and fraudulent, to Scotland’s everlasting shame. The rules were flouted, openly, and with typical SNP entitled arrogance. Then rubber stamped by oor wee pretendy parliament, who see no shame in having a wee pretendy FM to match.”
Main/Ellis.
Lets no forget that the Westminster security arm GCHQ was called in by Peter Murrell to make sure Yousaf won (the most obedient puppet) and Regan (who wants independence) came last.
Of course in 2014 Tory Peter Lilley’s IDOX company was used to deal with postal votes, that’s a bit like the Israeli’s controlling the Palestinian Authority, Oh wait a minute they do.
@ Geri says: 15 January, 2024 at 2:57 pm
Scotland, as a small independent country, would have fck all interest in invading & occupying other countries at the behest of America & the britnats for absolutely fck all benefit
I was unaware that has ever been the issue.
The issue has always been, would any other country, seeing iScotland’s geographically important position, its wealth of resources, and its comparative under-population, have any fecking interest in invading us?
Don’t rush to answer. Maybes spend some time considering our bursting-at-the-seams, uncontrollably immigrating, ten-times-bigger, next-door neighbour.
Maybes spend some time considering the endless posts on here about our evil, rapacious, imperialist, perfidious, militarily aggressive next-door neighbour.
You need to work out some realpolitik ideas and go with them consistently. You need to abandon your favoured shibboleths when they contradict reality.
The idea that England is Satan’s spawn, but they will still let iScotland walk away with the wealth WM needs to stop millions of English citizens rioting in the streets is a non-starter.
So is the idea that England is far more Satanic than Russtiland, Iran, NK, Covid Central, etc.
Look to Scotland’s nearest exemplar, Norway. Proud and vigorous NATO member, solid on defence spending, biggest pro-rata contributor to the War effort in the entire world.
That’s what iScotland should be seeking to emulate.
Robert Hughes.
“ it’s increasing authoritarian stance on Free Speech ;the current lapdog position it has adopted re ( demented ) US foreign policy ; it’s virtual open-door policy re Immigration ; it’s equally demented adoption/imposition of the economically suicidal Net Zero Decalogue – let’s face it , the whole climate * crisis * hysteria is at root a religious phenomenon , with it’s own High Priests n Heretics ; True Believers n Agnostics ; Martyrs n Apostates and the same lunatic End of Days imagery . Fat profits for thin prophets . How to change this ?”
One at a time…
The biggest barriers to free speech in Scotland were put in place by the SNP.
The EU doesn’t have control over its own foreign policy in any normal sense. Its posturing is dictated by individual member states who, partly because there is no EU foreign and defence control, bow to the US. NATO’s days are numbered, that’s for sure.
The migration crisis is much more complicated than people assume and to a large extent was caused or at least exacerbated by US-UK military disasters. Most first world countries are struggling with the issue of immigration, with the exception of maybe Japan.
You can hardly blame the EU for the climate crisis when just about every national government in the world subscribes to the central premise…
Nothing said above provides a basis for shunning the EU and EU membership.
@John Main 9.16am
Independence will involve a transition period, it won’t be overnight. There will of course be dislocations involved, but our neighbours have no interest in there being a defence and security vacuum. Scotland will be entitled to a negotiated proportion of UK assets, including warships.
That will presumably form a core but it depends if they’re platforms we want or need. We have plenty of capacity to build our own or procure vessels from abroad if we need to. There’s no reason we can’t emulate Denmark and Norway.
I think your working assumption is correct: even the Irish and Icelanders have participated quite far from home in peacekeeping, Frontex, anti-piracy measures etc. Despite what the fringe lefties think, there’s no evidence of any widespread appetite for being outside the EU or NATO amongst ordinary Scots. If there was they’d be shouting it from the rooftops.
It won’t be decades: other countries have managed it why should we be less capable? It’s in our neighbours (UK & others) self interest to co-operate while we establish our own defence forces, particularly given recent events and Scotland’s strategic position.
@Sam 12.51 pm
I’ve read the Professor McCorquodale report and it is indeed a useful contribution, but it’s one legal opinion. It’s not a slam dunk. The conclusion specifically recognises the difficulties inherent in a legal rather than political route.
Other legal authorities don’t agree with McCorquodale. From memory Roddy Dunlop fisked the hapless Sara Salyers fairly comprehensively back when this opinion first came out.
Like a lot of others, I’m still unconvinced about the proposed non-parliamentary “cunning plan for indy” route. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible of course, only that it is in the end less straightforward and likely – at least in my view – to take longer. However much some might not like it, the conventional political route is where the smart money on achieving indy is being placed.
I’ll give your opinion all the attention it merits. I find you condescending. Doubtless we’ll both cope.
I may have missed it: i’m not obliged to respond to every reply, even if I see it. Nor am I obliged to jump to your tune or find your hobby horse issues as fascinating as you do. I actually think there’s merit in the land tax idea, but I’m not that invested in it, nor am I that interested in exploring it in depth. Such is life. Just because you provide a link to some information doesn’t render it unchallangeable or mean I have to fall at your feet in thanks or engage in detailed discussion about it.
You anticipated wrong. I,m betting you’re used to the feeling.
@John Main 3.33pm
Good point! As I’ve often pointed out to the Byers Road Bolsheviki pushing the neutrality option, it just won’t fly: it enjoys negligible support, but it’s a crap idea anyway.
Scotland could spend far less than it does now as a contribution to the UK’s defence budget and still have a sizeable budget to compare with those of our independent neighbours. Look at the make up of the Danish, Norwegian and Finnish forces and it’s quite easy to see how Scotland could develop similarly a similarly effective defence stance.
sam @ 12:51 pm
“There is such a legal opinion.”
Yes, its a fine piece of legal advice by Professor McCorquodale. Its main conclusion is that the UK Supreme Court decision was badly flawed in its reference to rather irrelevant cases and its dependence on weak UK Government legal inputs, also in rejecting the right of Scots to self-determination.
This and other legal advice tell us plainly that there are a number of ways to become independent, all of which the SNP has so far ignored. The SNP focus on the Scotland Act/S30 was/is a total red herring as far as independence is concerned and a waste of a decade.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2023/12/12/the-route-is-thereif-the-snp-use-it/
“Look to Scotland’s nearest exemplar, Norway. Proud and vigorous NATO member, solid on defence spending, biggest pro-rata contributor to the War effort in the entire world.”
Norway an independent nation that’s had control of its own asset instead of having them stolen by it neighbour.
Norway a nation that along with the Great Satan (US) blew up the Nordstream pipelines in an act sheer terrorism, which also cost European immensely with regards to higher energy costs.
Maybe it’s quiet here due to a massive online traffic jam.
Huge tailback of posts. It stretches for miles.
Emma is stuck there too with all the mads & their fishing gear.
Ha! Ha! He! He! Ho! Ho!
https://wingsoverscotland.com/bully-boys/comment-page-1/#comment-2817297
That one won’t make sense without this one.
It got lost in cyberspace on the first try.
TURABDIN
Ignored
says:
16 January, 2024 at 9:23 am
THOSE the gods wish to destroy they first make mad…..some of the latter in below the line posts recently…..trust it is a passing malady or btl will be full of chat about that new Danish king.
Very very quiet here at the ‘BTL Uiversity of Wings’.
It’s because Randle has taken all the mads on a fishing trip. They didn’t take me! Why is that? I’ve been a fishershe-her all my life.
The Chief couldn’t make it today so they hired Emma as their driver.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Serves them right for not taking me! I’m off now got to do some ‘therapy’ Nurse Ratchet. She seems keen to get the ‘therapy’ done before Emma puts a stop to it.
They´re coming to take me away,
Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
Foutu mais content! C’est la vie!
https://wingsoverscotland.com/bully-boys/comment-page-1/#comment-2817297
That one won’t make sense without this one.
It got lost in cyberspace on the first try.
TURABDIN
Ignored
says:
16 January, 2024 at 9:23 am
THOSE the gods wish to destroy they first make mad…..some of the latter in below the line posts recently…..trust it is a passing malady or btl will be full of chat about that new Danish king.
Very very quiet here at the ‘BTL Uiversity of Wings’.
It’s because Randle has taken all the mads on a fishing trip. They didn’t take me! Why is that? I’ve been a fishershe-her all my life.
The Chief couldn’t make it today so they hired Emma as their driver.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Serves them right for not taking me! I’m off now got to do some ‘therapy’ with Nurse Ratchet. She seems keen to get the ‘therapy’ done before Emma puts a stop to it.
They´re coming to take me away,
Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
Foutu mais content! C’est la vie!
Emailed newsletter from The Scotsman – “Ban on XL bully dogs confirmed in Scotland and SNP blames UK.”
Surprise, surprise.