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A Brief History Of Hope 168

Posted on September 14, 2024 by

The Tartan Messiah 42

Posted on September 11, 2024 by

Well, Shauny‘s knocked it out of the park.

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After the swarm 72

Posted on September 11, 2024 by

On 15 October 2012, I signed the Edinburgh Agreement with David Cameron to secure the independence referendum of September 2014.

On the same day Peter Kellner of the polling company YouGov wrote one of his condescending commentaries from London dissing any hope for the Yes campaign.

“However, from Salmond’s point of view, it is about the only thing going for him. Indeed, were he to be given a truth drug, he might well curse the fact that the SNP won last year’s Scottish elections outright, and thus found himself in a position to keep his promise.

He would surely have been much happier remaining the leader of a minority government, unable to get his independence legislation through Holyrood. Then he could have railed against the Scottish satraps of the Britain-wide parties for silencing the voice of the Scottish people.

Instead, by winning an outright majority, he has shot his own fox. Rather than shed crocodile tears for his inability to call a referendum, he must now put the issue to the test.

As a shrewd and intelligent man – indeed, one of the shrewdest and most intelligent in British politics – he must know that his mission is impossible, that in two years time his country will vote to remain part of the United Kingdom, and that far from being achieved, independence will be deferred for at least a generation.

All YouGov’s evidence from the past four years is that independence is a minority passion north of the border. Even as the SNP was surging to victory last year, Scots told us by two-to-one that they wanted to remain within the UK.

The SNP won because most Scots thought it had governed their country well, because they liked Salmond, and because they thought the Scottish Labour Party was useless – not because they wanted to sever links with London.”

Kellner’s view was almost universal, and not just among the London pack of journos and politicians. Most, if not all, of the Scottish media agreed with him.

However, by September 2014 things looked very different.

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Honest John 90

Posted on September 07, 2024 by

The Last Legs 67

Posted on September 06, 2024 by

In the 1990s, Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, performed a pair of amputations on two men. Neither of the men involved had anything physically wrong with them, but both were suffering from apotemnophilia – a rare psychiatric condition involving the desire to have healthy limbs amputated.

Sufferers, counterintuitively, claim not to feel “whole” with four limbs and obsess over having their unwanted body parts chopped off. Smith argued the surgeries were life-saving, claiming the patients would commit suicide otherwise.

Apotemnophiles, like autogynephiles, insist that there is no erotic element, but it was later discovered that one of the men Smith operated on ran an amputee fetish website.

Upon investigation, the hospital deemed the procedures unethical. Smith was banned from mutilating healthy bodies (although he was found not to have breached any of the hospital’s rules at the time and not sanctioned), and the dubious experiment ended.

But let’s imagine for a moment an alternate reality.

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All The Rainbows In The Sky 125

Posted on September 02, 2024 by

There may, readers, be a connection between this:

and this:

But the key fact about the SNP is the same either way.

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The Scissor Sisters 56

Posted on August 31, 2024 by

The Solution 22

Posted on August 30, 2024 by

All one can hope is that this was an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Otherwise, folks, you’ll just have to buck your ideas up.

Into the far away 183

Posted on August 27, 2024 by

Poor old Tommy Sheppard’s got a contract, so he has to keep talking. And this week he said something that, if anyone really thought the constitution was still a current live political issue, would have attracted a lot more attention than it did.

Because even the SNP are now saying another indyref is – at best – a decade away.

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Going For Broke 157

Posted on August 24, 2024 by

But Then Again Maybe Not 181

Posted on August 16, 2024 by

These paragraphs are all from the same story.

The Hate Crime Act has rather faded into obscurity after the furore surrounding its introduction, with the police apparently just trying to pretend it doesn’t exist by ignoring thousands and thousands of complaints, and the useless Scottish commentariat duly proclaiming as a result that it was all just a big fuss about nothing.

But as soon as everyone stopped looking at it, there it was.

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The Manipulation Of Perception 212

Posted on August 13, 2024 by

In many ways, the fabricated, hysterical furore of Humza Yousaf Vs Elon Musk is the ultimate in summer-silly-season politics stories.

Absurdly plainly, the former First Minister ISN’T going to take any legal action against the billionaire owner of Twitter. He only likes bullying small nurseries, and even then he doesn’t follow through. He didn’t even sue us for calling him racist a few months ago, so there’s zero chance he’s going to square up to the world’s richest man.

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    • willie on Yelling at the tide: “It is truly outrageous how fickle Donald Trump and his administration are and how they can turn on longstanding friends…Jan 24, 14:52
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Yelling at the tide: “Billy Kay on page 52 (kindle version) of his ‘Mither Tongue” book states that “Scots is descended from Northumbrian.” However,…Jan 24, 14:42
    • PC Foster on Yelling at the tide: “Confused says: so where do you get all the people you need now.? Dont know- but referring to women as…Jan 24, 14:36
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “Thanks, Northcode. I’ll mind that. Houaniver. Timeline of the Scots Language Since 1700 MODERN SCOTS PERIOD 1700 to Present, subdivided…Jan 24, 13:27
    • Confused on Yelling at the tide: “worth watching all the way, at least till the UN guy explains the scam www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_2_7fxyIEI – it bears pointing out…Jan 24, 13:16
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “And the Scots speakers in the English parliament were laughed at. However, Elizabeth I did not scorn Scots language. She…Jan 24, 13:15
    • Confused on Yelling at the tide: “quite funny – www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWWAC5ZMKeM www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBjsFAyiwA accurate depiction of the sterility (on all aspects) of protestantism; but this heresy is dead…Jan 24, 13:13
    • Confused on Yelling at the tide: “so trump spills the beans again, giving us truth british troops in the afghan were cowardly shites driving convertibles and…Jan 24, 13:11
    • Cynicus on Yelling at the tide: “Sam; “Katie Beardie had a coo, Black and white about the mou; Wasna that a dentie coo? Dance, Katie Beardie”…Jan 24, 12:38
    • James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “North Code. The picts were one of the original indigenous populations of Scotland, then came the influx from Ireland of…Jan 24, 12:36
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “SCOTLAND….THE LAND THAT SEEKS TO DIE. https://archive.is/icxqPJan 24, 12:28
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “I did not know that, James. Thanks for enlightening me.Jan 24, 12:28
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “Here’s another interestiing book about the Scots, Sam How the Scots Invented the Modern World: (The True Story of How…Jan 24, 12:24
    • James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “North code. Did you know that one of the first revision of Scots laws was because the applied implications (as…Jan 24, 12:13
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “re post, should read P CELTIC not Q CELTICJan 24, 12:04
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “Thanks, Sam… I don’t have this one and it looks interesting. I’ll have a read and let you know what…Jan 24, 12:01
    • James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “The wokists in Scotland are the pretendy Scottish government. They are the ones that believe in this ideology cult, they…Jan 24, 12:01
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “A book for you, Northcode? Scots in Decline? The Modern Age A History of the Scots Language Author: Robert McColl…Jan 24, 11:50
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: ““Decisions made in Scotland, by Scots.” I’m afraid not… England has been the bane of the Scots sin lang afore…Jan 24, 11:45
    • PC Foster on Yelling at the tide: “@Bilbo says: 23 January, 2026 at 9:21 pm I wonder how many woman think Trans woman are woman as well?…Jan 24, 11:34
    • Marie on Yelling at the tide: “The USA is NO friend of us – certainly no friend of the Scottish working class men and women sent…Jan 24, 11:13
    • James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “The illegal governance of Scotland as a Scottish parliament or any parties sitting therein comes from the parliament England, due…Jan 24, 10:38
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “@ CYNICUS much thanks for the Ubykh link. fascinating the varieties of human expression, our humanity is depleted when these…Jan 24, 10:26
    • James Cheyne on Yelling at the tide: “It is strange how non Scots think of the Snp compared to the majority of grass roots Scots, In this…Jan 24, 10:18
    • TURABDIN on Yelling at the tide: “a form of pre aspiration occurs in modern Welsh e,g, LL & RH & TH & CHW re the latter…Jan 24, 10:09
    • Northcode on Yelling at the tide: “Guid mornyng tae aw ye wha daunder aboot this place. A howp ye aw hae a grand Seturday day the…Jan 24, 09:27
    • sam on Yelling at the tide: “Katie Beardie had a coo, Black and white about the mou; Wasna that a dentie coo? Dance, Katie BeardieJan 24, 09:24
    • Hatey McHateface on Yelling at the tide: “@factchecker I appreciate and recognise the good work you do here. Nevertheless, as I am sure you realise yourself, Wings…Jan 24, 08:57
    • factchecker on Yelling at the tide: “This relates to the Statutes of Iona; my post referred to the Scottish Privy Council Establishment of Schools Act of…Jan 24, 08:31
    • factchecker on Yelling at the tide: “Well researched and accurate as usual, Fearghas. This Privy Council decision was reinforced by several Acts of the Scottish Parliament…Jan 24, 08:25
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