It really is quite uncanny how similar some SNP supporters have become to the most frothing, abusive blood-and-soil Yoons of 2014. But we can live with this company:
Patrick Harvie on a radio phone-in today, refusing to say if he knows what a woman is and refusing to guarantee them safety from men in women’s single-sex spaces.
Because this is a pure embarrassment from the notional main opposition leader. Even if it was all true – and we’d be very sceptical about that until we see the workings – £4.5 billion over 14 years would be £321 million a year.
That’s a substantial amount of money, but it’s also almost exactly 1% of the Scottish Government’s budget, and no government on Earth has ever had everything it attempted work out perfectly. Sustaining 99% efficiency on spending over nearly a decade and a half is actually pretty good going.
More to the point, it’s a staggeringly audacious attack line from a Westminster MP in a party whose government wasted £12 billion on ONE project in ONE year alone – the catastrophically failed COVID test-and-trace app.
(We’d still like someone to explain to us how in the world you can possibly spend £12 billion in a few months on a mobile phone app, even if it had worked.)
The First Minister released a short film this week.
While it has the character of a hostage video, with terrorists just off-camera pointing a gun at the unfortunate victim and forcing them to read out a pre-prepared text, sadly we doubt that was the case. We think this is really what she believes and intends.
We’ve been racking our brains for a few hours now, but we still haven’t been able to think of a single UK citizen of the last 100 years – indeed, probably the last 300 – who has terrified the British establishment more than Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond.
By any conceivable measure Salmond is the most successful Scottish politician of all time. He’s the only one to date to have won a (supposedly impossible) majority in the Scottish Parliament, the only one to have secured an independence referendum, and the man who took Scotland to the brink of regaining its democracy, where – despite the best efforts of his successor – it still just about remains.
He survived a uniformly hostile media for 20 years as SNP leader, then also survived a corrupt and criminal conspiracy within his own former party to have him imprisoned, walking out of court a free and innocent man despite a two-year smear campaign in the press and a police and government operation of unprecedented scale trying to convict him.
(A point that hasn’t been made enough in coverage of the entire fiasco is the amount of police resources which were devoted to the case. Ask the average woman who’s alleged a sexual assault below the level of rape – or indeed an actual rape – if SHE got a team of two dozen dedicated police officers interviewing over 400 people at a cost of millions of pounds to try to firm up HER claim.)
So you’d think that when he formed a brand-new political party, which got numerous elected representatives from the SNP to defect to it, and contested a notionally-crucial Scottish general election, it would sound like a work of absurdist dystopian fiction if one were to suggest the media would exclude it from even participating in televised election debates in a manner more befitting North Korea than a Western democracy.
So-called “puberty blockers” – the class of drugs that were used to “chemically castrate” computing pioneer Alan Turing for being homosexual (a crime in the UK in the 1950s), which is believed to have led to his suicide by cyanide poisoning at the age of 41 are extremely dangerous.
Scotland’s only gender clinic, the Sandyford, had to apologise just a few months ago for having concealed the very serious hazards posed by the drugs. But it has no plans to stop prescribing them to under-16s.
And the Scottish Government refuses to intervene in the matter.
Dr Malcolm Kerr joined the SNP in 1967, has contested local council and Scottish Parliament elections and is currently an activist in Cunninghame North constituency.
I’ve been a member of the SNP for long enough to recall the days when the party was capable of generating killer slogans. “It’s Scotland’s Oil”. “Independence – Nothing Less”. Those were the days!
Nothing describes the SNP’s descent towards being the new New Labour better than its choice of slogans in recent years. “Stronger for Scotland” serves only to flag up just how powerless the party’s large contingent at Westminster is. “Progress” is entirely meaningless.
And fellow activists and members may recall just how depressing it was to attend the most recent in-person spring Conference, when the leadership felt that the slogan “Hope” was going to be inspiring. When you’ve been in power for 14 years you’re supposed to DO things, not just hope for them.
We’re getting to the point where we should soon be Blairite enough to invade Iraq. Fortunately, we lack the means.
Yesterday the SNP released their 2021 election manifesto, and on the divisive subject of gender reform it was as bad as we feared. Yes, there is obfuscation to mask intent, but the intent is crystal clear all the same. Especially if we judge the SNP by their record and all the things they have failed – and continued to fail – to address.
The manifesto commits to reforming the GRA while ensuring that it will not affect the rights or protections women enjoy under the Equality Act.
Rob on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “Save England from dei and wrongful laws manipulated? Is that not exactly what is happening in Scotland driven by the…” Sep 2, 00:26
Aidan on Anything But That: “Satre, that’s a new one, where have you been hiding them? This whole “enemies of mankind” thing sounds a bit…” Sep 1, 22:53
Young Lochinvar on Anything But That: “C That made me smile 🙂” Sep 1, 22:24
Spartan 117 on Anything But That: “James. To quote your favourite reply, “LOL”. I actually entirely agree with you, for once; perhaps Wordpress’ formatting skewed your…” Sep 1, 22:07
Confused on The Shortest Day: “it’s gotten beyond that, I’m afraid – something to complete the ensemble https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/287503311620?chn=ps&_ul=GB&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&google_free_listing_action=view_item main – you’ve humped a lot of…” Sep 1, 22:02
Confused on The Shortest Day: “you aren’t the worst of these pricks southern man, so, if I have time, I might write you up the…” Sep 1, 21:58
Confused on Anything But That: “if the scotch were left alone with excess revenue from copious oil, gas, wind and renewable energy they would not…” Sep 1, 21:50
Alf Baird on The Shortest Day: ““it has been a substantially stable political entity for more than 300 years” I suppose that’s one way of looking…” Sep 1, 21:50
James on Anything But That: “Aye you spooks based at Vauxhall Cross are caring benevolent well wishers to Scotland, ain-cha? The truth upsets your Anglo-centric…” Sep 1, 21:48
Young Lochinvar on The Shortest Day: “An acquired taste I would suggest SB! 🙂” Sep 1, 21:36
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Now the Islamists are taking over the lion’s share we just have to respect and even celebrate their cultural and…” Sep 1, 20:58
Hatey McHateface on The Shortest Day: “Your core point is twaddle. Whatever else it may be, a political and economic union is not a marriage in…” Sep 1, 20:47
McDuff on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “The people of Scotland don’t act like a nation that is desperate for independence and the SNP are overwhelmed with…” Sep 1, 20:44
Saffron Robe on The Shortest Day: “I was referring to the lack of free consent in a forced marriage, not making any judgement about the legitimacy…” Sep 1, 20:20
Hatey McHateface on Anything But That: “Who’s this “we”, Alf? You’re free to say what you like about Fanon, etc. but leave me out of it.…” Sep 1, 20:15
Spartan 117 on Anything But That: “Chrisst A’michty. That’s a brave thing to state here… Sitting back with my popcorn awaiting the incoming storm from the…” Sep 1, 19:54
Alf Baird on Anything But That: “Sartre was pretty clear that: elites who become ‘an accomplice of colonialism’, those ‘who profited by colonial exploitation’, the ‘high…” Sep 1, 19:48
Wally Jumblatt on Anything But That: “There is indeed a tide in the affairs of men, and boy did wee Nikla and honest John make sure…” Sep 1, 18:51
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: ““…On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose…” Sep 1, 18:11
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “I don’t know. Ask professor Baird.” Sep 1, 17:52
James on Anything But That: ““..rUK still subsidizes Scotland from the Barnet Formula…” LOL.” Sep 1, 17:33
Williams on Anything But That: “Surely a whole chunk of the UK (Scotland) no longer voting in Westminster elections in a way that doesn’t benefit…” Sep 1, 17:21
J Robertson on Anything But That: “Remember when violence gainst women and girls was (rightly) a constant talking point. Now it is on the increase it…” Sep 1, 17:01
Hatey Mchateface on Anything But That: “I’m minded of what that famous black quine wrote: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken…” Sep 1, 16:04
Mark Beggan on Anything But That: “Rape and attempted rape statistics for Glasgow City centre have been removed from Police Scotland’s web page. According to Google…” Sep 1, 15:58
100%Yes on Anything But That: “The trouble we have with the membership SNP is everyone is either to frightened to speak out in the fare…” Sep 1, 15:43
100%Yes on Anything But That: “You wouldn’t dealing with Farage you’d be delivery on the mandate’s the SNP have been given since 2015 for a…” Sep 1, 15:36
Hatey Mchateface on Anything But That: “Ah, c’moan noo, x. How could Murrell keep his loot (mind there’s still around 1 million quid unaccounted for) if…” Sep 1, 15:33
Insider on Haven’t had a dream in a long time: “James Che says: “We shall have to wait and see if my personal opinion on how England is evolving turns…” Sep 1, 15:25
agentx on Anything But That: ““JOHN Swinney has said he will probe whether the Scottish Legal Aid Board was right to fund a case by…” Sep 1, 15:14