Garbage in, garbage out
A week ago we told you this:
And you’ll never guess what.
The Times today reports:
But in truth the content of the messages will NOT be “devastating” for Alex Salmond, because Alex Salmond has known all along that they’d been carefully selected to be of no use to anyone. Exactly as we told you last week, via Craig Murray:
Thanks to the craven intervention of the four SNP members of the inquiry, the request was designed from the start to be worthless by excluding all of the key texts – those between the SNP’s chief executive Peter Murrell and its chief operating officer Sue Ruddick. Murrell will also be dodging questions on those texts today, because he’s refused to make a second appearance before the committee in order to clear up all the contradictions from his last appearance.
Committee member Murdo Fraser suggested last night that the inquiry will (belatedly) use its powers to force Murrell to appear on another date:
But of course, that will probably waste at least another week or two, taking the inquiry perilously close to running out of time before it can deliver any findings, which it has to do prior to the official dissolution of Parliament next month.
(Particularly if, as seems quite likely, having to drag Murrell kicking and screaming to the witness box puts back the appearances of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon – originally due in December – yet again. And it seems the inquiry has given up entirely on Geoff Aberdein and Liz Lloyd, the two key witnesses at the heart of everything.)
Four weeks ago today, we also said this:
But that last sentence has now been placed very much in question, because it seems increasingly likely that the Scottish Government’s deliberate and dogged obstruction of the inquiry might after all lead to it being unable to fulfil its brief before the election, and that’s simply not acceptable. Stalling should not be a viable way to escape justice.
A couple of weeks ago we also asked a poll question through Panelbase:
In line with other polling on the subject, we found that a clear majority of voters want the May election to be postponed on the grounds of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now the opinion of this site that a delay of two to three months should be undertaken so that the Fabiani and Hamilton inquiries can perform the absolutely vital task of holding the government to account.
(We still see no justification for a longer delay.)
Although frankly, given the burning radioactive trainwreck of the last few days, we’re not at all sure that an SNP majority capable of surviving a vote of no confidence is a likely outcome of the election anyway.
What a shower
What a shit show
Does Kenny MacAskill have all the WhatsApp messages?….not just a few selected to damage Salmond.
If a selection of messages are issued then it suggests we have a real problem with the Scottish Crown Office impartiality.
“If a selection of messages are issued then it suggests we have a real problem with the Scottish Crown Office impartiality.”
We already knew that.
Now we know there is a problem with the impartiality of the SNP members of the Inquiry.
Yep! the delaying tactics are deliberate, so as to run out of time before the official dissolution of Parliament next month. As for Fabiani, she has been the main problem with that committee from the start. So we either get NO conclusion in regards to this committee or we get NO election in May..
How corrupt that party is another Queen Nicola… I hope when she is found out, Proven to be the devious cowardly leader she is, that there is enough to destroy HER life they way she has destroyed the dream from us who once hailed her reign..
The Inquiry Team, SNP or otherwise, need to comply with legal advice. If all WhatsApp mesages have been requested then what are the legal grounds for them being provided with a select few?
After the silence ofthe SNP politicians over Joanna Cherry and the hijacking if the NEc candidacy list was greeted by silence apart from a few MPs, did you actually, really believe that the four on the Committee were going to behave any differently than the other jellyfish in the SNP ranks?
Not a hope in hell. This will come down to the court of public perception
If you play The System then The System wins.
No media coverage limits full public interest which means running down the clock ensures alls well for anyone involved.
Do we really think Murdo and his crowd would try and bring down the most popular leader in UK because of some rarely reported “whatsapp chats”, the public backlash could deride Tory list seats including Murdos so self preservation will apply as it will to The Greens.
The need for a massive piece of evidence being leaked is needed but doubtful. Dont suppose Joanne Cherry will get to speak in HoC under Parliamentry Priviledge anytime soon either so they did well closing down that possibility too.
So sad what we have become.
No reason to object? How about throwing the budgeting of parties like the ISP into serious disarray? Chances are any delay will be challenged in court.
it won’t matter what the texts say. The newspaper headlines will spin spin spin. That will be damaging.
Worth checking!!!
6 Dissolution of current Parliament
(1)For the purpose of the holding of the poll for the 2021 election, the Scottish Parliament is dissolved on 5 May 2021.
link to legislation.gov.uk
Look at the Grenfell Inquiry…Judge led and none of this skitter. Like many on here, I have no confidence in either Baillie or Fabiani. Like two old spinsters, they should be at home with their knitting.
Murrell doing a great impression of a greased piglet and I’m starting to think he’ll get away with it.
It has always struck me as odd that the opposition at Holyrood seems so disinterested in genuinely holding the executive to account. When a big story erupts, MSPs like Richard Leonard often find something else to post about rather than honing-in on the issue.
Sturgeon et al have been given a free reign and appear to be ‘untouchable’.
If I were a conspiracy theorist I would be looking for some dark force at work. A tacit agreement between all parties orchestrated by those who want the current leadership to remain and for independence to be put on the back burner.
But I am not a conspiracy theorist so perish the thought.
Meanwhile, and just for the entertainment of Wings readers, we have this: link to tns2019.org
I’ll probably get banned for posting it but it amused me.
Can’t remember exactly when Rev floated the idea that they might stall their appearances to run down the clock until the close of business. Must’ve been, what, November? I didn’t believe it possible, but here we are.
AS and NS were originally slated for late Nov/Dec, right?
@Captain Yossarian
The Grenfell Inquiry… 72 people died. And yet no-one has been held accountable.
Blame being passed from one to another but no one taking responsibility
Many Victims left on outside suffering to this day
Not a high benchmark as Inquiries go
Legally we are in the long Period, all party spending must be accounted for will count towards your election spending and must be returned to the EC. If the election is put back what do we do about that? If it is to be extended then the limits must be raised at the very least.
Extending the election is no longer a simple thing. It has significant knockon effects now.
I’ve just written to my MSP regarding my Constituency vote and the reasons why she will not get it, eg current investigations into NS, GRA, HCB and the sacking of Joanna Cherry. I also advised her this will remain the case if NS and her cabal remain in Office.
I feel sad but I cannot in all good consciousness vote for SNP if NS et al remain. I intend to vote ISP on the List.
What happened yesterday was the final straw for me. Just hoping and praying things change quickly and Auld Nic is sent back down to Hell.
@ScottieDog
What newspaper headlines?..Theres no Real media coverage Into this at all.
Interesting read..sorry cant archive
link to taxresearch.org.uk
@Desmond – no-one has been held accountable yet because the Inquiry is still going-on. Flammable cladding is being replaced in England and it is on the news every night.
It is not being replaced in Scotland. Not a single building has been done and there are some notable buildings that should be done, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, for example.
They don’t talk about it at Holyrood either. The Minister responsible is Kevin Stewart….why does no-one ask him any questions?
It looks to me as if the UK Gov could be held accountable because the buildings were built at the time to comply with their Regulations. Hence, not the owners fault, the Architect’s fault or the Builder’s fault.
The Grenfell Inquiry is being conducted to the best standards you will find anywhere in the world.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
.
murrel will have to start fire-fighting on more than one front soon. Thank God or Karma. Ironic.
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Where is the ring-fenced money ? Do the rest of the NEC want to go down with the wokeratti ship ?
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Woolfe is corrupt, allegedly. And a big yoon. Anyone surprised ?
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ISP – I think a delay would enable you to get more members and money. Could you please stand a candidate against humza useless ? Thanks.
Hi Rev Stu,
Can the Fabiano Comitee not sit not more often. On the grounds that it’s work must be allowed to be completed before the dissolution of the parliament in the interest of probity?
Just asking?
I’m also not a conspiracy theorist but this is starting to feel like one. This must be how the opposition feels when going after Putin. This doesn’t feel like Scotland. Heaven help us or hell mend us if they get a majority.
Desimond
….and that’s how we know the murrells work for london.
the loony unionists are doing a better job covering it on utube – they’re just too stupid to realise this pair work for them.
MSM is coordinated – always has been.
Muscleguy – Do the ISP as a brand new party have enough money to reach the spending limits ?
.
As a slightly older SNP member I well remember when we were delighted to have more than half the spending limits. After the SNP middengate – you may well have. Just I’d be surprised.
“But of course, that will probably waste at least another week or two, taking the inquiry perilously close to running out of time before it can deliver any findings, which it has to do prior to the official dissolution of Parliament next month.”
Official dissolution next month???
Repeat – worth checking!!
6 Dissolution of current Parliament
(1)For the purpose of the holding of the poll for the 2021 election, the Scottish Parliament is dissolved on 5 May 2021.
link to legislation.gov.uk
‘Middengate’ 🙂 🙂 🙂
TNS2019-They’re all pals at Holyrood; all the MSP’s, SPADS, staffers, cleaners, porters…….they all know they’re on to a good thing. In many ways it’s the best job in the world.
No-one resigns, no-one is forced-out and there are no real votes of no-confidence. Sure, they argue sometimes at FMQ’s but it’s all fairly benign really.
In that sort of secretive, protectionist bubble, great crimes against the public interest can be hatched and can grow and grow.
I spoke 5-minute ago about Grenfell cladding. It’s being replaced in England and the gov are paying most but not all costs. It should be the same in Scotland, but no-one is asking about it and so nothing gets done.
So, if we were governed by Westminster, our Grenfell cladding would be being replaced at government cost. Because we are governed by Holyrood, nothing is done.
Captain Yossarian – We all know who is responsible. Those who refused to act to prevent flammable coverings being used on buildings in England and Wales. That is the tories (red/yellow and blue) in westmonster.
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The enquiry is designed NOT to reach that conclusion.
.
In Scotland they were banned. BBcollaborators found some decoration on a single building. It would not have been a problem but was blown out of all proportion for obvious reasons.
Is the best hope for the inquiry that the non SNP members produce a minority report?
If the Establishment thought that NS and the SNP was any sort of danger to their precious Union they would have set their attack dogs on them, via their department of information/MSM, long before now.
You don’t have to be a Critical Thinker to work that one out.
What beggars belief, is why SNP/NS Loyalists can’t even ask themselves the question: ‘if we’re such a danger to the union, why are we getting an easy ride?’
“Can’t remember exactly when Rev floated the idea that they might stall their appearances to run down the clock until the close of business. Must’ve been, what, November?”
It was 4 December in fact. It’s linked in the article.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Re the cladding issue and Building Standards. As far as I’m aware until recently Scotland had it’s own distinct Standards which, following brexit are now under westmidden’s control.
“For the purpose of the holding of the poll for the 2021 election, the Scottish Parliament is dissolved on 5 May 2021.”
As I understand it that’s a technicality to allow emergency virus legislation to be passed, but for all normal purposes it closes in late March to allow for the regulated six-week campaigning period.
@Astonished – It used to be the case that the Building Research Establishment was the most trusted in the world.
It was privatised by Thatcher. It was one of the first privitisations she carried-out.
Grenfell clading and phenolic foam insulation were given Agrement Certificates by the Building Research Establishment, which means that these materials are safe to use.
The Grenfell Inquiry have found that they were never safe to use.
Hence, you are correct, it is the Tories fault but, in Scotland, it is Holyrood’s fault.
Grenfell Cladding has been used all over Scotland for thirty years. Do you think it has been used in England, but not in Scotland? What gives you that idea?
@Captain Yossarian,
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is still in progress after over 3 years.
The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is still in progress after 6 years and £11,000,000 of our taxes,(legal fees £3million ?)
75 year old former Lord Advocate, Andrew Hardie, Baron Hardie is in charge of the Tram inquiry.
As I feared, barring a leak, the evidence to this inquiry will never be seen and the truth will never be revealed/proven.
@Scot Finlayson – and Lady Smith is in charge of the Child Abuse Inquiry…how long has that been going-on for? At least 5-years.
There’s a difference between English Inquiries which are public and which get to the point and Scottish Inquiries which do feck-all and are political cover-ups.
Prior to Sturgeon, we had free legal aid for the proletariat. Remember that? Cost 3 or 4m per year but was it too working-class for all at Holyrood?
Captain Yossarian
“Prior to Sturgeon, we had free legal aid for the proletariat. Remember that? Cost 3 or 4m per year but was it too working-class for all at Holyrood?”
And the justice budget has just been cut again.
Access to justice is critical for a democracy to work.
Hence the cut.
A parliamentary inquiry convener looking into the conduct of an FM’s administration which is of the same party as the convener, and all about said administration’s treatment of a former FM who once sacked said convener as a minister. That should never have been allowed.
@Captain Yossarian,
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is still in progress after over 3 years.
The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is still in progress after 6 years and £11,000,000 of our taxes,(legal fees £3million ?)
75 year old former Lord Advocate, Andrew Hardie, Baron Hardie is in charge of the Tram inquiry.
Keep themselves in a job then but not occupied, you know the type, whilst everyone else runs about they sit behind a desk playing with their balls…..those steel things on a wire. Klackers!! They hurt
I know that the Hamilton Inquiry is separate to the parliamentary inquiry but am not clear on why there are two current inquiries.
Captain Yossarian :
.
Scottish building regulations and high rise domestic tower block cladding
Can the same type of cladding found on Grenfell be used in domestic tower blocks in Scotland.
No, Building Standards systems and regulations for high rise (over 18m) domestic properties in Scotland means the type of product used on Grenfell Tower should not be used in the cladding systems.
What do Scottish building regulations say about the use of cladding on high rise domestic tower blocks?
Since 2005 Scottish building regulations have stated that cladding and insulation on high rise domestic buildings should either be made of non-combustible materials or the whole cladding system has been the subject of a stringent fire test. From 2005 these regulations applied to new high rise domestic buildings or re-cladding work to existing high rise domestic buildings.
The Building Standards Technical Handbooks can be downloaded at link to gov.scot…….
…..it does go on a bit…….
Contact
Email: BFSResponse@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit
The Scottish Government
St Andrew’s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Nice to see Carol Monaghan SNP MSP speaking out in support of Joanna.
More please.!!
The Fabiani enquiry was designed to fail from the outset – and given considerable help to do so along the way by the SNPG, civil service, crown office and SNP bureaucracy led by Mr&Mrs Murrell – surely the most corrupt and venal couple running Scotland since Lord and Lady MacBeth!
Recently, it was concluded that James Wolffe QC, the Lord Advocate, pursued a “malicious prosecution”, “without probable cause”; an act of willful malice with intent to personally injure two innocent citizens.
At the Court of Session, Gerry Moynihan QC, for the Lord Advocate, said that the attempted prosecution was not on a proper basis and it is “admitted that there has never been objective probable cause”.
Damages were sought by the defendants which were awarded. So far they have passed £20 million & there’s more to come. The damages could easily exceed one fifth of the Scottish Crown’s annual budget.
James Wolffe also admitted a breach of human rights in the investigation. Of course, he didn’t act alone. The former chief constable of Police Scotland, Phil Gormley, was sued for £9m in retaliation for wrongful arrest & imprisonment. Consequently, a specially convened bench of five judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh agreed that the Lord Advocate did not have absolute immunity from a civil damages claim in such circumstances.
His involvement in the failed prosecution of Alex Salmond is no less troubling. Yet, he remains in his post while his legal wisdom & advice (no laughing at the back) is enjoyed by members of the Scottish Government’s Cabinet on a regular basis. You should not be surprised however, to learn that his appointment was recommended by none other than Nicola Sturgeon with final approval from Buckingham Palace.
You might want to ask what kind of mindset, values & belief systems exist in the head of a Lord Advocate who has a track record of getting personally involved in malicious prosecutions which forces innocent defendants to use the slow & crushingly expensive resources of the Faculty of Advocates & the Judiciary of Scotland to provided legal countermeasures?
Astonished readers might also want to draw their own conclusions about why Sturgeon seems deeply reluctant to replace her Lord Advocate with someone who, shall we suggest, offers a higher standard of probity?
Maybe they just think alike, eh?
-TNS2019-
Honestly I think the ineptitude of the opposition parties is kind of the mirror image of that of Sturgeon: vacuous moaning about the constitution keeps them in a job because their voters can’t see past it. The “focus on the day job” mince is is the equivalent of “Nicola’s got a secret plan”- mindless white noise which their dumbest voters just take as a signal. Even my mega Rangers fan cousin who has a photo of the Queen on his wall and plasters his social media with “At The Going Down Of The Sun And In The Morning, We Will Remember Them” at all times knows it’s tripe.
If that’s all they need to do to get enough folk in enough constituencies will put an X next to the Tory/Labour/Liberal box every five years, that’s what they’ll do. It’s way easier than actually calling out the government, especially when Holyrood can be as cosy as some have said.
Total and utter lockdown and political censorship with the removal of Cherry being a continuation of the attempted policy to remove Alec Salmond and others such as Mark Hirst, Craig Murray, and others.
And will the MSM report anything of what is actually going on. Of course not!
And in the SNP itself, will the members be allowed to hear, to speak – of course not. Being a member of the SNP is a marginalised business. What little part members now play, or are allowed to play. Like mushrooms they sit in the dark in silence being fed the proverbial shit.
And if they try to speak, at a token National Conference or National Assembly they are given no voice.
And at branch and constituency level communication with and between the members is restricted and controlled through HQ IT and email systems that determine who can communicate, how often, or not at all.
And in the forthcoming election campaign what part for members to play as the campaigns shift to IT – media campaigns with no member involvement.
What point therefore in being in the SNP. And if truth be told they, at least for the present time, the HQ doesn’t even need members money.
With no openness about the accounts, and with the widely acknowledged drying up of members subscriptions, who is paying the money for not just the running of an expensive party HQ but also the costs of all the horrendously expensive hi tech commercial media campaigns.
So in truth, no members needed. And maybe the Rev would like to do a forensic piece on who in now bankrolling the SNP with dark money.
@Astonished – The example I gave was Edinburgh Royal Infirmary – which is not a tower block.
18m is 6-storeys. Therefore, most buildings in Scotland can contain Grenfell cladding, quite legally according to building standards.
Phenolic foam insulation, which is the most combustable material of them all, can be used on any building in Scotland.
The UK gov are not responsible for building standards in Scotland; the Scottish gov are responsible for that. Hence, it’s all a secret, isn’t it.
Bob Mack says:
2 February, 2021 at 9:55 am
Nice to see Carol Monaghan SNP MSP speaking out in support of Joanna.
More please.!!
Just written to thank her. Also wrote to my MSP explaining the reasons why SNP will not be getting my vote unless NS et al are removed. ISP on list for me. Banned from twatter is proving more productive than I thought 😉
A murky story running on Richard Murphy’s excellent Tax Research blog……
link to taxresearch.org.uk
@Rev. Stuart Campbell @9.34
“As I understand it that’s a technicality to allow emergency virus legislation to be passed, but for all normal purposes it closes in late March to allow for the regulated six-week campaigning period.”
That’s why I posted the link – there are indeed contingency measures, such as allowing the Presiding Officer to postpone the election date, or allow for a postal vote only, but that dissolution date of 5th May is now fixed within the Act.
Extract from the Policy Memorandum makes it a bit clearer …
•make the pre-election period for dissolution of the Parliament last only one day (5 May 2021, if there is no delay to the election), in case the Parliament needs to meet to pass emergency legislation to delay the election;
And in the new world order where members play no part in the forthcoming election, and where all campaigning is facilitated through commercial processes – Royal Mail deliveries, newspaper adverts, on line adverts, on line broadcast, billboard advertising, radio ads , big data analysis – where is the money coming from.
£40k to £50k per constituency seat, that’s maybe £3.65 million without HQ running costs! Big dough with no members needed.
ahundredthidiot says:
2 February, 2021 at 9:30 am
“What beggars belief, is why SNP/NS Loyalists can’t even ask themselves the question: ‘if we’re such a danger to the union, why are we getting an easy ride?’”
They don’t think we are getting an easy ride. they think the MSM is constantly attacking Sturgeon over one thing or another and so they think that all the non MSM articles cannot possibly be true and that those writing them are just Yoons trying to split the movement. I’ve had the “Oh, if that was true it would be all over the papers and the TV – you shouldn’t believe what you read on social media” line a few times. The same people who think the state can’t be that bad and when you point out something that seems outrageous say that “You saw that on a film. It wasn’t real”. Clever b*****ds these media moguls.
I left the SNP yesterday after 30 odd years and joined the ISP. I now have a question and would greatly appreciate any opinions and advice.
The ISP’s master plan is for all to continue to vote SNP in the constituency ballot and ISP in the regional. But here is the problem, voting SNP in the the constituency is condoning all that has occurred and is very much a vote of confidence in sturgeon and her fat baldy twat of a marriage of convenience husband.
I no longer wish to convey such support. So who the fuck do I vote for in the constituency? Do I simply not vote at all in that ballot?
I get why ISP are saying this, they do not want to put people off by suggesting no one votes SNP as, for now, thats still a step too far and wont help them win support but I cant in good conscience vote for the SNP anymore.
Any suggestions guys?
Muscleguy
You probably have half the people coming here champing at the bit, eager to throw their weight behind a party that will rip off the brakes and go full speed for independence. And you’re worrying out loud about party spending limits. I know there are strict rules, but, forgive me, that doesn’t exactly show grit and determination.
The ISP need to decide where they stand and they need to do it today. Do you want a seat at the Holyrood trough or are you going to gamble everything to go for something much greater.
If you need some guidance just put Daisy Walker in charge – she’ll have you all straightened out by lunchtime.
I emailed my MSP on the28th of January regarding the situation with Sturgeon, Swinney and the rest following reading Craig Murray’s affidavits and telling her that they had to go or I, and I suspect many others wouldn’t be voting for the SNP. As yet no reply not even confirmation of receiving the email, I guess that sitting on the Fabiani Inquiry will be taking up all the time of her and her staff, either that or she has received a deluge of similar emails.
We now find ourselves in situation where Rev has been highlighting Covid is not necessarily a barrier to a May Election, despite publics preference AND advocating for a delay to allow this Inquiry to complete.
Could we end up with Inquiry ending to respect Election period and then a sudden decision to posrpone the Election. This might see some gripes but nothing major whilst they all get away with it
Garavelli Princip says:
2 February, 2021 at 9:58 am
… Mr&Mrs Murrell – surely the most corrupt and venal couple running Scotland since Lord and Lady MacBeth.
Steady on… the real Macbeth, Mac Bethad mac Findláich, was an 11th Century Scottish King who defeated Duncan and killed him on the battlefield, no murder involved, and then became King himself, but under his reign Scotland was peaceful and prosperous. He was a good king. The Shakespearean play is to the real Macbeth what Braveheart is to the real William Wallace… loosely “based” upon a true story, but not much more.
As for the Murrell’s, I think they’re writing their own infamous history, and their legacy might yet become to Scottish folklore what Vidkun Q became to Norway.
In fact, if the fuller picture is indeed as black as the preliminary indications, I think you will have the sell-out of a Nation’s interests at least on a par with Norway’s VQ, complicity with a foreign government on a par with Vichy France, and a political scandal which is easily on a par with Watergate. That promises to be quite a millstone around ‘someones’ neck… Did I miss out embezzlement? It’s really quite a multifaceted portfolio…
What’s worse, is that both Norway and France had the mitigating factor of war and hostile invasion which must be considered extenuating circumstances. “IF” comparable crimes have been committed against Scotland, it is surely calculated and premeditated without the excuse of war, and all the worse because of it.
Don’t forget, not so long ago, the biggest accusation against Sturgeon was that she didn’t go to AUOB marches… I suspect history will not be kind to Sturgeon. The ‘others’ will be tarnished forever too, but Sturgeon will carry the infamy to her grave and beyond.
Joanna Cherry being manouvered into position to challenge Sturgeon for the leadership of the SNP, lets hope its true and it succeeds.
link to thenational.scot
It sounds Stu as if they may well have selected various pieces of communication to reflect a particular view,
A writer friend once told me if you edited a script page of Disney’s Bambi, you could make him into a ruthless predator.
Soda
I’m voting ISP on the List.
Breaks my heart to spoil my Constituency paper with many words but that’s my intention. Yesterday was the last straw.
The Independence Movement will survive this.
Scotland WILL become Independent. Hopefully in my lifetime, but I CANNOT vote for the present shit show.
Spoil your paper and tell them why. They get to read them!!
Good to see Joanna Cherry coming out swinging this morning and slapping down witch burners like Blackman and Oswald for their rank hypocrisy:
link to mobile.twitter.com
I hope this might be indicative of her taking the plunge. “Alea iacta est” hopefully soon?
I was initially not keen on the idea of delaying the May GE – but I now think it seems reasonable of it was delayed by 3-4 months – it’s practical from several points of view, one being that vaccination roll out by then should be sufficient that older and more vulnerable groups who might have been reluctant to vote will be protected enough to be more confident in doing so.
There are complications though – the unionists might be calling for a delay just now (probably to keep NS in power for longer so the independence issue doesn’t rear its head with force, and allows time for everyone to get back in their box after Brexit, and everyone sees how bad the SNP is at governance, and possibly how totally loony the SNP is – and so independence supporters will also be tarred – when they try to sell their ‘women aren’t women but men are’ policy) – but if the leadership of the SNP changes now, the only chance we have of the May GE being delayed, the unionists will want it to go ahead ,,, (and I think a GE delay requires a 2/3 majority in parliament? I’m not sure about that). Because, depending on the new SNP leader, they could need time to get their act together, and review seat candidates maybe etc etc, and opposition parties will not want to give them that time, and to revel in the scandal.
Awkward.
I’m still not going to vote for the SNP unless they stand for a plebiscite, whenever our GE is. What a mess.
My email to the prospective SNP MSP for our constituency
“Although I would have no reservation about voting for you as a person I’m afraid I cannot vote for any candidate who represents the policies and ethos of the current SNP.
The on-going debacle of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints, the lack of clear division between Government, Judiciary and police, the science denying GRA, proposed Hate Crime bill, Nicola’s obsession with trans rights over hard won women’s rights which I fought for in the 60/70’s and the Sturgeon/Murrell’s unhealthy grip on the party leave me no alternative, the SNP is no longer my ‘home’.
I hope sanity prevails in the party in future, but I suspect that will need Hercules and a diversion of the River Forth through the Augean stables.”
Garavelli Principle McBeth was probably the best King that Scotland ever had, he was very much supported in Scotland i suggest you get a copy of Peter Beresford Ellis excellent book on him.
He was not the character the propagandist Shakespeare portrayed,
Andy Ellis says:
2 February, 2021 at 10:37 am
Good to see Joanna Cherry coming out swinging this morning and slapping down witch burners like Blackman and Oswald for their rank hypocrisy:
link to mobile.twitter.com
I hope this might be indicative of her taking the plunge. “Alea iacta est” hopefully soon?
It will be from the 10 m one but Joanna Cherry has courage, good grace and conviction. She WILL do it!
Survival through delay seems to be the conspirators last best hope.
Exit from a newly installed minority government to greener pastures new.
“I feel I have served (up to others) my country/party for long enough and look for new,challenging ways to enhance the lifestyle I have come to cherish.
I believe my chosen successors will continue this work.”
Leave a moribund and directionless party in place for the foreseeable future.
With the political cork firmly jammed in the bottle of independence,an emboldened unionism will feel free to reorder Scotland at its whim.
The thought that the crazy lady and her soft shell crab of a husband will get away with this, makes me physically sick.
Totally agree
Mike Fenwick, see section 11 of the Act you linked to above. If the PO uses those powers, dissolution is the day before the new poll. As he had the power to fix a date up to November 5th, it is conceivable that parliament will sit up to late September.
Of course, there is also the possibility of an entirely postal vote, which may not require the date to be moved at all, or only by long enough to put administrative arrangements in place.
It feels like we’re living in a dictatorship.
Cllr Graham Campbell etc etc. Sickening
Bit of a shame, and strange that the Murrell messages were not asked for, because Peter Murrell’s last written submission to the committee stated clearly:
“WhatsApp
Committee Q: For completeness, the Committee would be grateful if you could confirm whether you have ever used WhatsApp in the past including any communications with SNP officials or party members on anything related to concerns about the former first minister and the timescales for such exchanges.
Murrell Answer: I confirm that I have not used WhatsApp on any matters related to concerns raised about the behaviour of Mr Salmond.
Committee Q: Similarly, the Committee would appreciate confirmation as to whether there were any other electronic discussion groups you were involved in, for example text messages to multiple recipients or other platforms where such concerns were discussed with SNP officials and/or SNP party members (and again the relevant timescales).
Murrell Answer: I can confirm that I was not involved in any discussion groups where such concerns were discussed”
So, if he’s confident the committee has no evidence to show these answers are false, I wonder at why he’s too scared to appear before the committee? Is he really not involved in any of those group messages? They might not have the ‘confirmation of conspiracy’ messages, but they might have confirmation of his lying. Perhaps. This needs to go before a judge – the committee can’t handle this level of deception and obfuscation.
@Soda,
Tough one.
I didn’t vote SNP on the list last time, so there is no way I’m doing so this time.
I really want to vote against the SNP in the constituency this time too, which would probably mean voting Labour. But I have been friends with the SNP candidate for decades and I don’t think they deserve to be punished for the actions of the leadership.
The fact that this is even a consideration for me tells me just how disastrous Sturgeon’s leadership has been. I suspect if she is still around in May then I will be finding another box for my X.
I can partly justify voting Labour to help them keep the Tories in 3rd place here. Much as they disgust me they have never knifed me in the back.
Soda- I share your pain. Still a SNP member but stopped buying magazine and regular donation. Paying minimum monthly fee. Remaining to destroy the wokeratti and their handmaidens.
.
E-mail : If your MSP is a wokeratti don’t vote for them. If your SNP MSP does not come out for joanna cherry and the removal of kirsten oswald (for bringing the party into disrepute) then don’t vote for him/her. If your MSP remains a coward sitting on the fence then he/she doesn’t represent you.
And all those saying stick together for indy. nicola will never, ever deliver indy. If she wins we will get thought crime and genderwoowoo which will take decades to repeal. PROVE otherwise and I’ll change my mind.
Murrell would like you to think he’s doing nicla’s dishes. Is he?? Your Marigold’s are leaking btw
Perhaps one of them will crack? God knows, in this benighted wee land, courage has been in short supply for a long time. Martyrdom is never a comfortable proposition. The sooks and the a***l*****s are always with us, in every sphere of life, and, in politics, they are in even greater supply.
The FM means to brazen it out. She views the older contingent of the SNP and YES movement as expendable in favour of the bright young things that are sinking through the party ranks to settle down to bottom feeding. Poll after poll has shown her to be extremely popular both here and abroad. Shades of Margaret Thatcher. She was brought down from within. I will never get my head round the FM’s stubborn intransigence. It is partly her own personality, I think, but also the baleful influence of those psychopaths, the Stonewall Diversity Champions. Everywhere they have penetrated, in public or private organizations, they have followed the same pattern of intransigence, document redaction, refusal to co-operate and anti democratic non-accountability. Everyone, now, is living in a state of fear of saying or doing something that offends these people (and it changes from day to day) similar to the type created by the worst totalitarian state.
Does Ken MacIntosh not have a role to play here? Surely he is aware (or can find out) the powers of the Inquiry committee to compel Murrell to attend.
Why are we all being left to guess….can he refuse, or can’t he refuse? Surely Ken MacIntosh can get this answered within the hour.
We have the sanction of a 5-year jail term for anyone caught lying under oath. That threat should be used and not buried by all at Holyrood.
What about Baillie and Fabiani…..do they know? Have they tried to find-out?
A willingness, conscious or otherwise is her personality, make up even
Have we missed something regarding the chain of evidence and these text/WhatsApp messages?
Remember that the Committee’s remit is to examine the Government’s handling of the harassment complaints. Therefore, unless it has prima facie evidence of communication between Government staff and an external player, I don’t see how it can credibly ask for communications between that external player and another external player.
Up until now there has obviously been evidence of this outside of the committee but that is just hearsay as far as the committee itself is concerned.
However, if these messages show that an external player has had contact with Government staff the Committee can now justifiably ask to see onward communications from that individual to other external parties.
Let’s hope that this has just been a careful, incremental gathering of evidence under the advice of the committee lawyers and that we will see a further request soon – something that can only be made more likely given Murrell’s stupidity in not attending today.
link to twitter.com
My MSP is Joan McAlpine. I will vote for her-partly because she is a good MSP and has helped me personally but partly because I’d love her to get in on the constituency vote to piss off the Smurf cult and Ollie Mundell. It looks as if she won’t be number one on the list but will be bumped from that slot by the popular, but woke Emma Harper – which makes sense of something I overheard at an SNP function a couple of years ago. SNP will not be getting my list vote.
I frankly don’t understand this Fabiani enquiry. It has allowed witnesses to be evasive has been denied requested documentation by those who have obviously something to hide yet seems to be using a feather duster as a threat.
If this enquiry is genuinely interested in getting to the truth and has the legal teeth to enforce its will, why is it not biting?
Is the enquiry itself corrupt.
For the record – my interest (see above posts) in when Parliament is officially dissolved arises from other research related to a potential and perhaps important opportunity for Sovereign Scots to exercise their very Sovereignty – and I am not trying in any way to score points with Rev.Stuart Campbell – (and @Rev. Stuart Campbell – you have my e-mail address – if that research is of any interest to you please make contact, it may alter the course of events.)
“Soda says:
2 February, 2021 at 10:21 am
I left the SNP yesterday after 30 odd years and joined the ISP.
Any suggestions guys?”
A very warm welcome to the ISP
My take is vote as your conscience demands. What else can we all do?
The list votes of current SNP members are a potential source of votes for ISP, and many people are still loyal. So it’s a fine line we are walking
That said it’s an extraordinarily fast moving situation, so who knows where we will be in a week, never mind by the election. Personally I am starting to struggle a little with the concept of voting SNP on the constituency. That’s changed in the last 2 days. May need an industrial grade clothes peg
@ Soda ‘any suggestions?’
Yes.
Re ISP Membership. Having made big noises about the need for a Plebiscite Indy Election at Holyrood (PEH), they have now rowed back from that, and its not in their Manifesto.
There is a real danger that they have the same rot in their midst as its apparent the SNP has had for a long time.
Suggestion number 1, Tell them they won’t get your vote until PEH is on their mandate, they don’t have long to educate the electorate about it (even with a delay) so they need to start now.
There is absolutely no point in voting for them if they don’t have it – and they are taking the piss big time just now dangling it like a carrot.
With regards Constituencey vote. If ISP roll back on that commitment and stand for it too, straight away they scupper their strongest selling point, ie both votes SNP is a waste, and for every seat won on the Constituency vote it diminishes their list vote considerably.
And ISP if your reading this, and some at the top are proposing ‘need to build up support/too soon for PEH, increased membership we should stand on the Constituency vote too’ – then they are either too stupid to breath, or they are the ones out to spike the guns and you should sack them now (no matter how much you like them).
So, with regards the SNP, its looking increasingly likely that they will not clean out their own stable.
The electorate must do so, but there needs to be a list made of good guys and bad ones. The ones to vote out, and the ones to keep.
For good or for ill, rump SNP is going to win seats, we the voters need to figure out which ones to vote in.
By doing so, by dividing the good from the bad, we make it much harder for the seat warmers to keep their heads down and hope all the bad stuff goes away without them having to do anything. We also make it easier, should it become expedient for the good ones to step down from the SNP and go Indy/Indy.
We may need some Indy/Indy candidates in certain areas on the Constituency vote, fully signed up to PEH + confirmation Indy Ref within 2 years.
And one last thing, plan X. If ISP are a dud, then what message gets sent out if we have just one single list candidate, in each area, standing on a Mandate PEH and together they hoover up 2.5 million votes.
It will become defacto Indy Ref, it will put PEH on the voters map, it will make it a nonsense for any Indy party to say thereafter, we cannae do that. And in 4 years time, with Brexhshit fresh and DevoRout ongoing, we have a GE and we win.
This Holyrood Election must be about cleaning out the rot, ensuring that the voters across Scotland have at least one candidate to vote for who is standing for PEH (and maximising that vote), and then gearing it all up for GE on a mandate for Indy.
@Astonished10.52am
What would it it take for you to actually leave? Isn’t it plain enough that the party is beyond saving?
You’ve had a handful of lukewarm protestations from elected members expressing their faux outrage at the threats to Joanna who has – not unreasonably – highlighted their role in whipping up the pitchfork wielding mob of woke Wahhabis.
Anyone remaining in the party after yesterday’s events is very much part of the problem, not part of the solution. Anyone voting for them needs to give themselves a shake.
Sorry if already posted, but both today’s amendments to the Hate Crime bill which would have protected freedom of expression have been withdrawn.
link to heraldscotland.com
Instead it is proposed a new expert working group to consider whether misogynistic behaviour should become a standalone offence under Scots law.
Chaired by the human-rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy aand to report within 12 months.
SNP Government – experts at kicking can down the road.
Great Title.
That’s what Anders Wallensten said about SAGE modelling.
Breeks says:
2 February, 2021 at 10:30 am
Garavelli Princip says:
2 February, 2021 at 9:58 am
… Mr&Mrs Murrell – surely the most corrupt and venal couple running Scotland since Lord and Lady MacBeth.
Steady on… the real Macbeth, Mac Bethad mac Findláich,
Absolutely true Breeks. If I had meant Mac Bethad Findláich, I would have written Mac Bethad Findláich.
I was in fact referring to the fictitious MacBeth of Christopher Marlow or Francis Bacon’s imagination (choose your preferred conspiracy theory).
And just as that literary fiction was a calculated insult to Scotland’s ‘backward’ people and a likely arselicking to James VI who traced his ancestry to Banquo, the antics of the present MacBeths are both an insult to Scotland, and a likely calculated means of keeping us tied to the British realm.
Airson mo chionta mo leisgeul dhut
voting SNP in the the constituency is condoning all that has occurred and is very much a vote of confidence in sturgeon and her fat baldy twat of a marriage of convenience husband.
I no longer wish to convey such support. So who the fuck do I vote for in the constituency? Do I simply not vote at all in that ballot?
We have to still vote SNP on the constituency, as that’s the only way ISP can hope to get seats. If the SNP don’t win on the constituency, they’ll definitely pick up list seats. Most of the real horrors are standing on the list, so we could end up losing semi-decent MSPs in favour or those real horrors and the ISP picking up nothing . That could lead to a parliament in which there is no pro-indy majority at all and what pro-indy MSPs are there are the very ones who care least about it. If you believe the leadership don’t really want independence, then you’re giving them exactly what they want.
So, unless you have a really awful MSP you can’t in all consciousness vote for, SNP 1 is the only way to vote. If the electorate deliver a massively pro-independence majority, that puts pressure on all parties to deliver a referendum.
Act like you’re living in the last days of a corrupt-beyond-all- redemption State
“Instead it is proposed a new expert working group to consider whether misogynistic behaviour should become a standalone offence under Scots law.”
Who will be chairing the working group to consider if misandric behaviour should be considered a standalone offence?
Cath
I really don’t know what to do now after reading your post. This morning I wrote to my SNP MSP advising that I wouldn’t vote for her and of course listed the reasons. Yesterday was the final straw for me. My intention was to spoil my Con vote and ISP for the list. Could you help my cloudy brain?
Wee Child;
Should we not vote SNP 1 & 2 down here due to the area being infested by Tories? i.e The SNP won’t sweep the constituency vote?
Yes dealing with the pandemic is very important, and getting it under control must surely be the priority of Holyrood, however the crux of the matter must surely be even if there’s an extension to May’s elections, is the inquiry actually going to fufil it remit to the extent we want it to.
Thank you all for your responses, i plagiarised bits of some to pen an e-mail i have sent to my MSP. Its Jamie Hepburn who i gather is a bit of a head down fence sitting type of chap. I may be wrong but as you hear very little from him i suspect my suspicions are correct.
Anyway, i find i really cannot vote for the SNP at present and i’m hoping the ISP pledge a commitment to holding a plebiscite in May as this is really what i want to see. I will be communicating that very thing to the local branch.
My e-mail goes thusly…
“Hi Jamie,
I am a 50 year old life long SNP voter and member… until yesterday! In all good conscience I find myself unable to condone the actions of the party leadership nor the inaction and cowardice of the rest of the elected members of the party in standing up against it and have took the decision to withdraw my support forthwith.
Although I would have no reservation about voting for you as a person I’m afraid I cannot vote for any candidate who represents the policies and ethos of the current SNP.
The on-going debacle of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints, the lack of clear division between Government, Judiciary and police, the science denying GRA, proposed Hate Crime bill, Nicola’s obsession with trans rights over hard won women’s rights and the Sturgeon/Murrell’s unhealthy grip on the party leave me no alternative, the SNP is no longer my ‘home’. The last straw was the unfair and entirely personal decision by Sturgeon to sack Cherry out of vicious spite and in an attempt to deny her the chance to succeed her in the leadership was the final straw in a large haystack full of straws!
To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure you or the party would care very much anyway as losing a quarter or more of your support most of you, not all but most, will still be in a job and in power for another 5 years which is evidently more important to the current crop of SNP politician than actually achieving what the movement voted you in for in the first place.
The never ending journey has become the objective rather than independence itself. You have become as Scottish labour were before you only some of us are a little wiser now and not so easily fooled.
Perhaps a new leadership and a change of direction will entice me back in the future? As always I live in hope.
Yours,
Mark Barnett, Ex-SNP member.”
Is anyone else becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of any comment from Dr Whitford regarding the treatment of her colleague – J Cherry QC?
It is not a good look Philipa. If the boot had been on the other foot, I don’t doubt for a second that JC would have defended you from the out.
There are times when discretion is the better part than valour – this is not one of those times. Your either decent and principled or your a bam. Chose.
Hi Stuart, been a while, hope you are well. I would suggest an article encouraging aggrieved members to stay in the SNP and/or rejoin in order to vote and elect Joanna Cherry in the inevitable leadership election. I left last year and rejoined recently for that express purpose.
The vicious ideologues can be routed.
Just realised i mistakenly left my name on that… oh, well. Time to make a stand i guess.
Soda
Did much the same myself this morning.
Bottom line is many Scottish people just live in their own wee bubble including my dear friend who is an Indy supporter but she chastises me for being politically minded. Until IT comes for them, and that will take a long time. But it WILL come to their door.
Having been an independence supported for many years, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that what we need before that is a period of constitutional reform.
Handing power to the SNP at this moment would cause all of the corrupt practices that we have seen recently to become embedded as part of our national character. Scotland is horribly corrupt and we need a deep clean.
As I cannot see myself voting for a Tory, or indeed Labour/Lib Dem or Green, I am effectively disenfranchised as I am sure many others are.
And what I have written before still applies.
What the hell is the vision for an independent Scotland??? At present it seems that the most stirring rhetoric the SNP can muster is, “…..errr…not being part of the UK”.
The Dissedent,
The committee’s remit & responsibilities is stated as:
“To consider and report on the actions of the First Minister, Scottish Government officials and special advisers in dealing with complaints about Alex Salmond, former First Minister, considered under the Scottish Government’s “Handling of harassment complaints involving current or former ministers” procedure and actions in relation to the Scottish Ministerial Code.”
They aren’t getting very far with anything on special advisers, have to say. ‘Actions of the first minister’ and the bit about the ministerial code, make Peter Murrell’s testimony and involvement relevant to the committee – his text messages are very much within the remit of the committee if they relate to either of these parts. And if there is a cross-over been Party and Government business, it needs to be reported.
The U.K. media are a dangerous joke.
A secret reliable contact close to the PM, the Queen, President Biden
and this wonderful guy down the pub tells us- Garbage.
The Media and Politicians in all parties are completely untrustworthy.
My own unlikely hope was that the Vaccines would soon take the worst of the
Covid Crisis away, Nicola would say that job is now taking care of itself and the
pressure has mounted on her so she will retire with Peter.
The votes lost in the pending election may be minimised and pro Independence
parties gain their majority.
Scandal, criminal proceedings and justice could follow thereafter.
Unfortunately those insane members of the NEC will still be there and
perhaps show woke unity by puting up a vicious trans member with drug issues
as party leader.
Normality exists! People vote for those with a history of being upstanding members of the community
someone with uncontentious ideas and policies in the with the many.
The idiocy of the NEC is a Monty Python sketch too outrageous to have been screened.
I want my country back and the first move is to get their hands off of it.
Lorna Campbell says:
2 February, 2021 at 10:58 am
…
The FM means to brazen it out. …. I will never get my head round the FM’s stubborn intransigence. It is partly her own personality, I think, but also the baleful influence of those psychopaths, the Stonewall Diversity Champions.
I would say wholly her personality.
The dim young things are merely tools to satisfy that personality’s grim needs.
They have no influence, but they have great utility.
“we could end up losing semi-decent MSPs”
Where are they?
How many of those “semi-decent” SNP MSPs have spoken up after what this corrupt leadership has done undermining our democracy and after how they have treated Joanna Cherry?
How many of those “semi-decent” MSPs have open their mouths to protect the interests of the majority of the members of the party and the electorate instead of allowing this corrupt leader to use a political lobby masquerading as “trans rigths” to “clean up” the “obstacles” she and her puppet are such cowards and low weights they cannot do that themselves?
How many of those “semi-decent” MSPs even made a noise after the outrageous way Oswald dismissed the legal advice and allowed individuals with direct vested interests in the vote to take party in it so it would go on their favour?
How many complained about the way Blackman conducts herself in twitter?
How many have opened their mouths and demanded Fabiani to stop transforming the committee and the inquiry into a farce by acting as yet another gatekeeper of evidence to protect Sturgeon and Murrell’s arses?
Sorry no can do. Either the SNP includes a plebiscite for the Holyrood election in their manifesto or they will not get my constituency vote. I had enough of cowards and liars.
Mennie now trying to line up Kate Forbes as transphobic.
Where does it stop?
@ David R re ‘Who will be chairing the working group to consider if misandric behaviour should be considered a standalone offence?’
It says it will be chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy – former Labour leaning lawyer – who took a seat in the House of Lords. Very much a unionist.
Always supsected the Holyrood investigation would be a whitewash. The only way forward is a new party.
Someone on twitter posted the following names as I think a list of those targetted by Sturgeon:
Alex Salmond, Duncan Hamilton, Joanna Cherry, Kenny MacAskill, Angus B MacNeill, Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh, Michelle Thomson, Mark Hirst, Craig Murray, Tommy Sheridan.
Not everyone there is to my taste but that is quite a formidable line up to which you could add Alex Neill, Geoff Aberdein, and others to form a very formidable poltical party.
Is it too much to hope that this happens and soon?
Nicla just wants a job elsewhere and I bet my bottom 1p she gets it with boris’ okay girl…you got it. Well done nic
Despite Joanna Cherry’s apparently beleaguered position, there are several informed opinions suggesting a very senior role in her not too distant future.
The lady herself seems to be staying strong despite the onslaught from Stugeon and her embarrassingly spineless MSPs and MPs.
Perhaps influential figures in Scottish institutions have decided that Joanna is the only person that can save Scotland from the unfolding disaster.
@ Mia
Hear, hear!!!
Contrary,
I don’t disagree but the Committee has to get there following a chain of evidence not from fishing based on hunches or hearsay. Otherwise they risk getting into a process that is ‘tainted by apparent bias’.
They have now found a mechanism that cuts through the obfuscation of the Lord Advocate. Let’s see if they make the most of it.
“I know that the Hamilton Inquiry is separate to the parliamentary inquiry but am not clear on why there are two current inquiries.”
Because they’re into two different things. The Fabiani inquiry is into the Scottish Government’s handling of the harassment complaints. The Hamilton inquiry is into whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the Ministerial Code in any way relating to the investigation.
Jacqueline McMillan @ 10:37
“I’m voting ISP on the List”
If they make the next Scottish national election (if there is one) a plebiscite on independence in their manifesto, I might consider them too. I have written to Colette to that effect. Until then you are merely voting for ‘mebbe anither referendum ane day’.
My daughter just asked me ‘whats happened to Joanna Cherry?’, I explained, she said ‘Funny how the momentum for independence is being ruined by one self-serving politician who has found herself in charge.’ And she (my daughter) doesn’t know half of it.
@ Bob Mack 11.53am
Mennie now trying to line up Kate Forbes as transphobic
Oh dear. Is this on Twitter Bob?
I can’t quite believe this, but after the Hate Crime Bill shit this morning, spoiling my constituency ballot is not enough. My wife, our eldest daughter and myself are voting Tory/ISP. What else can we do in this hurricane of Woke excrement? There are no words.
I wonder if replacing a highly qualified and proven effictive female Justice Minister, with a complacent female with a cv history of being a drama student – counts as Misogyny?
Or is it only when men do it that it counts.
Still, she’s awfi good pals wi the WGD (she’s his favourite politician) so she’ll always get good reviews from him.
The sun’ll come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
will be fine
Tomorrow, tomorrow….
@Bob Mack says:
2 February, 2021 at 11:53 am
“Mennie now trying to line up Kate Forbes as transphobic.
Where does it stop?”
People like this need removed from politics. In fact removed from any social interaction until they fkn grow up.
2 unconnected people have told me a rumour that
We are expecting an announcement of dropping to
Grade 3?
If so it can a smoke screen for all the corruption that abounds?
I predict as usual the lower Covid numbers of Sunday and Monday,
Circa 600 deaths per day, will be corrected today and exceed 1,000.
You cannot record 1,000 deaths in 24 hours and say things are looking good ?
I wonder if this could be related to the recent announcement of mass testing in England.
Vaccines are 50% less effective on the “south african” mutation, now apparently combined with the more contagious higher mortality english mutation.
Making its way to Scotland soon enough i’m sure.
link to theguardian.com
The coronavirus mutation “of most concern” has occurred spontaneously in the UK variant, a professor of outbreak medicine who is part of a panel that advises the British government said.
The E484K mutation, which occurs on the spike protein of the virus, is the same change as has been seen in the South African and Brazilian variants that have caused international concern.
“The mutation of most concern, which we call E484K, has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country too,” said Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said on BBC radio.
He was referring to the UK variant, which scientists call B.1.1.7 and which was first detected in the southern English county of Kent.
The fact that the E484K mutation had occurred spontaneously in Britain had already been reported in a technical briefing published by Public Health England, but this had not been widely noticed outside of scientific circles.
“A limited number of B117 VOC (a variant of concern) … genomes with E484K mutation have been detected,” said the summary of the briefing. Semple was speaking in the context of an interview about the issue of how to suppress the South African variant.
@David Wardrope,
Yes .Ourvery own Grousebeater posted it on twitter. Direct attack on Forbes re equality and religious beliefs.
Kezia Dugdale. Remember her?
She quit as an MSP for a job running the John Smith Centre, which vows to ‘promote trust in politics and public service’.
Surprised* she’s not all over this like a cheap suit.
*Not actually surprised
Whilst this time it may suit us to do so, I still don’t think that we should postpone this election. The amount of other countries that have held successful elections in this pandemic, to delay it would send all the wrong signals.
Remember the recent post by this site saying just that? That it would be ridiculous to postpone the election during the pandemic and we should get on with it? Nothing has changed for me.
Even though it may suit us to do so, Scotland is due an election in May and our people have the right to choose the make-up of our parliament no later than once every five years. I know that that might facilitate a doomsday scenario where our hopeless lame duck first minister manages to hang on until after the election. I know that postponing it would give more time to get traction and public recognition for the ISP, something the independence movement has not succeeded in so far.
But none of that is reason to suddenly want to postpone our election. Our democracy is more important than pragmatic circumstance. Get on with it, as many readers of this site said when this topic was last discussed
Alf Baird says:
2 February, 2021 at 12:01 pm
Jacqueline McMillan @ 10:37
“I’m voting ISP on the List”
If they make the next Scottish national election (if there is one) a plebiscite on independence in their manifesto, I might consider them too. I have written to Colette to that effect. Until then you are merely voting for ‘mebbe anither referendum ane day’.
Apparently for some tech political reason they can’t do that.
IF Sturgeon goes and a few others I will happily dig into my continental quilt. This whole shite is distressing, however I cannot and will not vote for the current shite fest and I’m old and have given my all for what? This rubbish, dangerous men in frocks, killer heels and makeup FFS
Re. Josh Mennie / Trans activists targeting Kate Forbes
It’s just the latest occurrence as this time last year she was in their sights.
link to twitter.com
Kenny McCaskill on BBC 2 right now. To comment on Joanna Cherry. Looks like fireworks coming.
GIGO is how governments function by default.
Postponing elections would be one more scam piled on another.
link to principia-scientific.com
In ancient Greece the individual citizen in the demos was expected to be able to assume office when called upon to do so. There was no professional ‘ruling class or élite’. The principle of the notion of democracy was that citizens ruled. Unelected rule or governance by decree was tyranny.
Would be a good idea if Scotland, showing worrying signs of command and control behaviour among its leaders, led the way in recovering that ancient democratic principle.
First they came for Alex and I did nothing,
cause you know, Alex’s marmite
Then they came for Joanna
and I did nothing
cause, you know, no-one likes lawyers
And me’n the wgd luv wee Annie, she’s a star,
They came for Joan
och but she’s jist a wee wifie
and they came for Kate Forbes
but she’s jist a teuchter lass
and no-one trusts bible thumpers
and they came for wings and they came for grousebeater and they came for Mark, and they came for Craig, and they came for the Indy ref funds, and they came for Rangers
and I said, WHEESHT, WHEESHT FOR INDY
… because sometimes you have to speak up and be counted…
WHEESHT
Hush hush time tae be sleeping
hush hush dreams come a creeping
dreams of peace and of freedom
so wheesht and sleep walk for the party
Bloody well hope so
What a bunch of crooked c*nts. They’re all going to get away with this, aren’t they?
Andy Ellis – I think you are going to be proven right. I wont campaign for the SNP unless strugeon and murrel and the wokerratti are gone. I want oswald disciplined (hopefully expelled) for her part in the fiasco.
.
However I remain to try to stave off the march of the woke. And hopefully pick up the pieces once the above have been dealt with.
.
I await Brown’s manifesto with interest.
The threat to Kate Forbes – on the grounds of her religious beliefs? Is biology a religion now then? link to twitter.com
Apparently religion is okay now but you can’t be a real woman is not.
@Ottomanboi 12:17pm
Also from ancient Greece. The word Strategy comes from the name of local leaders called ‘Strategoi’. This role involved co-ordinating the town defence in your area or measures to combat plague etc. Strategoi were expected to perform well on the front line. It was essentially an operational role. Assumed by politicians and the corporate world to mean something else.
Guest Post by Denise Findlay over on YoursForScotland.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
laukat @ 11:55
That looks like a fine group with the makings of a real independence alliance that would take the election plebiscite route. We are stuck just now because we depend on the pampered bourgeoisie who will never deliver. We need a different ‘class’ and culture of politician to deliver independence.
Lesley Riddoch’s braw film on Estonia’s independence revealed 3 key factors:
1. National identity is the fundamental reason behind any people seeking national independence
2. Courage of leaders is needed at the single moment when independence is asserted/declared
3. Be prepared to wield power – first by ensuring upon independence that all institutions of the new state are led by pro-independence people, i.e. no longer those who hold allegiance to the former colonial power.
Wee Chid says:
2 February, 2021 at 12:27 pm
The threat to Kate Forbes – on the grounds of her religious beliefs? Is biology a religion now then?
Is this the Trans Inquisition turning it’s homicidal gaze on another heretic ?
link to lesleyriddoch.com
It is now very obvious just how keen Nicola Sturgeon is to thwart Joanna Cherry becoming the next leader of the SNP.
This latest move really reveals Sturgeon’s desperation now. This was a crude and clumsy move and no one is buying the usual smear bullshit about transphobia. (Not now nor ever.)
So for Sturgeon to do this and bring down this huge amount of seemingly unnecessary heat on herself when she is already being engulfed in scandals, it indicates a motivation beyond just a deep personal animus to Cherry.
I think taking out Cherry must be key to the cover up. She desperately needs a loyalist as the next leader. To the point she is willing to break cover as badly as this to try to thwart any chance of Cherry succeeding her.
Everything about the SNP screams of guilt. It is almost copmical at this point. They’d be as well prowling about in black tights, a black and white stripy shirt with a Zorro style mask on and a big bag with ‘Swag’ on the side. They could not look more shady at this point.
Innocent, high integrity people do not act like this.
Jacqueline McMillan
“Apparently for some tech political reason they can’t do that.”
And I don’t suppose you ken whit that ‘tech political reason’ is?
Solidarity seems to have no problem with proposing to put a plebiscite election on its manifesto.
Robert Hughes
Full circle. What a bunch. It will be their undoing.
I wonder if Sturgeon herself will refuse to attend the inquiry, if Murrell’s abstention from it turns out to do him no harm.
Since the SNP exodous is being kept quiet by the SNP – for obvious reasons, can someone techno savvy put up a counter, so that those of us who’ve left can register the fact.
I left 3 years ago, when I realised they were going to allow Brexit to happen without using the mandate.
Other more recent reasons for leaving (that would be good to count).
Alex Salmond stitch up
Crown Office Corruption / Rangers Scandal
Sacking of Joanna Cherry QC
GRA
HCB
etc.
If we can give the current SNP incumbents an idea of the numbers who have left and the reasons why – even the thickest, most corrupt of them might just start to wonder if the gravy is about to run out.
Yossarian
So, if we were governed by Westminster, our Grenfell cladding would be being replaced at government cost. Because we are governed by Holyrood, nothing is done.
Scotland is in ‘reins’ rather than ‘chains’ You’re right that the ‘let’s pretend we have some independence’ system lends itself to colluded corruption BUT a totally independent Scotland would HAVE to look to these issues and as Mrs Howden says from her heart in Midlothian
When we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o’ our ain, we could aye peeble them wi’ stanes when they werena gude bairns – But naebody’s nails can reach the length o’ Lunnon.
Cybernat and Keyboard worriers be warned or you’ll end up like Joanna Cherry.
How the SNP has change in the matter of 6yrs and one new leader.
@holymacmoses – indeed that is the case sir.
An independent parliament needs honest and accountable men and women to run it. Do you see ANY of those at Holyrood, because I don’t.
Collateral Damage:
link to holyrood.com
Interesting YouGov polling just out, most scots think Salmond and sturgeon are both liars, but SNP voters are more favourable to sturgeon and only 14% think salmond truthful (albeit a smaller subsample size)
link to yougov.co.uk
Daisy Walker @ 12:39 pm
Since the SNP exodus is being kept quiet by the SNP – for obvious reasons, can someone techno savvy put up a counter, so that those of us who’ve left can register the fact.
I could probably do this. However, the problem is stopping folk from abusing it, i.e. how do you ensure they’re a real SNP member in the first place? Somebody just has to program a bot and the SNP would have -250k members by this time tomorrow! Mind you the way they’re going…
Not a bad idea though. There’s a live counter of Norway’s oil fund online. Not sure if it impresses me or maks me want to greet.
Barrhead Boy: “A Special Prism with Iain Lawson The National Assembly, NEC Debacle, Joanna Cherry sacking, the lack of Accountability or Democracy or equality left in SNP.”
link to twitter.com
AwakeNotWoke @ 12.03
Scientifically proven that if you vote Tory you will burn in the eternal fires for all eternity.
You have been warned.
This was a public information notice.
In a word, scunnered! Don’t know if I can vote SNP in the constituency anymore.
Captain Yossarian says:
2 February, 2021 at 12:47 pm
@holymacmoses – indeed that is the case sir.
An independent parliament needs honest and accountable men and women to run it. Do you see ANY of those at Holyrood, because I don’t
I don’t know enough of them Yossarian but I’m sure that with the right leadership , a better time would prevail. AND I don’t see them being worse than the overt trough of greed at Westminster. I’d rather have my own greedy animals to deal with than be enthralled by someone else’s
Off topic, re Covid:
“Unfortunately, the lack of control of these different variants in the UK may lead this population to become a melting pot for different emerging SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 variants,” said Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester.
Hotel Quarantine for new arrivals postponed first advised on 21 January, still not implemented or mandatory.
Join the diots….
@Jason Smoothpiece
Sounds like a walk in the park compared to another 5 years of devolution under Sturgeon! 🙂
@ Gfaetheblock at 12.50pm
Well that is hardly a surprise what with the woeful and biased reporting / lack of accurate reporting.
A situation compounded by folk that attempt to offer a different angle on events getting hauled in front of the courts.
I jist dunnae ken, it’s almost like wider society is influenced and form their opinions on information available to them.
As this article title states: Garbage In = Garbage Out
Gfaetheblock says:
2 February, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Interesting YouGov polling just out, most scots think Salmond and sturgeon are both liars, but SNP voters are more favourable to sturgeon and only 14% think salmond truthful (albeit a smaller subsample size)
That’s interesting information and of course it omits the fact that Alex Salmond has been ‘forced’ to tell the truth and wash a great deal of his dirty linen in public, whereas Nicola Sturgeon has avoided that humiliation. I suspect that these people have necelcted to recognise that one has been under a great deal more personal scrutiny than the other and has been given the opportunity to lie by omission as well as commission on many occasions without fear or repercussions (or even prosecution)
Tell Alex to stop waiting, get his campaign up and running, target list seat in Glasgow. There’s no point in waiting, the committee won’t have time to expose the truth, he might as well do it now. We’ll be right behind him.
@holymacmoses 1:08
I may not have interpreted your last sentence correctly, but the final part reads to me, as if you are saying Alex Salmond was the one who lied. He after all has been the one who has been under the most scrutiny.
The Dissedent,
You have to be careful not mix up the many different,,, entangled strands of this inquiry. Okay, I know that’s impossible, and the media certainly does its best to confuse the issue more.
The Lord Advocate is answering questions in his capacity as a minister, and being in charge of giving the government legal advice – it’s this he’s obfuscating on, and claiming legal parliamentary privilege to not reveal any of it. The only thing we know for certain is that legal advice was given, through all the stages – but what that advice was, we are meant to just trust him that it was all very right and proper.
The Lord Advocate, as the head of our prosecution services, has wholly recused himself from any matters to do with Alex Salmond, so the evidence held by COPFS, is nothing whatsoever to do with him. Some might speculate he made an off-hand quote along the lines of “who will rid me of this turbulent priest”, but by recusing himself, he had no hand in anything to do with COPFS releasing evidence.
The Lord Advocate’s position is untenable because the mix of those two roles are a conflict of interest (as evidenced by him having to recuse himself from one of the roles).
So then we come to the chain of evidence – evidence was leaked to Kenny McKaskill from the COPFS dungeons and was put into the public domain, implicating Peter Murrell’s involvement. So the committee knows, from publicly available evidence, that Murrell has questions to answer. Alex Salmond has also alleged that COPFS holds evidence that shows this is a conspiracy. BUT,,,
Alex Salmond has been threatened with prosecution, by COPFS, not just if he reveals this evidence, but even if he mentions what evidence there is that could be asked for – that is, he can’t even tell the committee what search criteria they might like to use to ask for evidence, or he gets prosecuted. Meanwhile, COPFS has written back to the committee, after their first vague request for ‘any information’, to say they need to be specific on the dates and types of information required, or COPFS won’t hand any over. That is, the committee is not allowed to know what evidence to ask for, and it has been told, if it want any, it needs to know what to ask for. Catch 22.
Now we have had the committee officially asking for specific evidence, under legal directives, so fulfilling all of COPFS stipulations. And, because the Lord Advocate has recused himself, COPFS have no one to tell them whether or not it’s in the public’s interests to have any of it published, so COPFS has handed over the whole lot, and told the committee it’s now their responsibility to decide.
With that success, if I were the committee I’d be asking for the Sue Ruddick/Murrell texts too now. It is possible, of course, that they went for some fairly inoccuous evidence to get the ball rolling – to set a precedent for COPFS handing over evidence – COPFS be hard pushed, now, to find an excuse to not hand over further evidence. But there are doubts as to the integrity of the committee, so we can’t be confident this will happen.
The reason Alex Salmond has been delaying his appearance, of course, is because of the COPFS threat of prosecution if he tells the truth, and because COPFS refuses to release any evidence that could back up his claims. The committee demanding he appears without addressing these concerns, when the investigation is entirely about how the government persecuted him, is outrageous.
That’s how I see that strand of the inquiry, at this point, anyway.
Contrary,
I think we are actually in agreement. The problem is that we don’t know for sure what evidence the committee lawyers have advised they are able to act on.
I expect the committee to now ask for those further messages because they have solid evidence that leads them there.
Why it did not occur to the committee (or more accurately their lawyers) to pursue this method of obtaining evidence earlier is a mystery.
Bob W says:
2 February, 2021 at 1:19 pm
@holymacmoses 1:08
I may not have interpreted your last sentence correctly, but the final part reads to me, as if you are saying Alex Salmond was the one who lied. He after all has been the one who has been under the most scrutiny.
No that’s not what I mean (or meant) I mean that Alex Salmond has been in many situations recently where he has been ‘forced’ to tell the truth and has ‘washed his dirty linen in public ‘ so to speak. Nicola Sturgeon has avoided all such situations (although she did lie in parliament:-)) and as such has not been put under the same scrutiny as Salmond. Therefore Sturgeon has not been exposed to the public scrutiny of ‘truth and lies’ except in the parliament issue and many, many people see that lie as a small lapse of memory.
Daisy Walker @11.18
The ISP manifesto is not yet out and nor is any other parties.
The ISP is the only party calling for a plebiscite and set up the petition.
link to plebiscite.scot
@holymacmoses 1:37
Thanks for the clarification.
@ Margie Davidson
Thanks for your reply. I have actually signed the petition.
But a petition is not policy and it can be a useful tool for Parties to hide behind and pretend to be doing things.
Lets assume its going to be a May election – there is very little time left.
While the fine print on the Manifesto needs proof read, the core reason and commitment can and must be out there now. In an up front and couragous manner.
After all, they need money, and they need members, dangling the carrot to get both of those, without guaranteeing the policy, is a false economy, given what we’ve experienced with New Labour and New SNP.
And if the excuse for it is, we need to keep our cards close to our chest, trust us…. then that one’s had the arse knocked out of it too.
You cannot stand for election on a secret mandate. And you cannot try to get elected to obtain Independence for Scotland, if you think using the Independence word or mandate at the ballot box is going to scare the horses.
One thing the voters do know, is that Independence is huge, it will be an upheavil and its going to take a lot of hard work, and courage.
WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN.
@holymacmoses 1:37
ps: I don’t believe that AS requires any ‘forcing’ to tell the truth.
@ Argus says:
2 February, 2021 at 12:48 pm
They wanted to be British, I wonder if they still do.
Margie Davidson
Signed the ISP plebiscite petition, but who does it go to, and why is it needed?
The recent survey Rev Stu alluded to already found half of Scots wanted a plebiscite election, and this is also referred to by Solidarity.
So what’s the point of a petition?
Daisy Walker
Like you, I also don’t see the point of a petition. Or any ‘technical’ constraint about an indy party putting in its manifesto that this is a plebiscite election on independence.
ISP need to be clear – is this a plebiscite election, or is it more SNP-like pie in the sky mebbe a referendum whan we’re aa deid sort of jam the morra promise?
Wings just brings it all together. No mean feat.
Thanks prick 😉
@holymacmoses
Those of us who followed Alex’s criminal trial on Craig Murray’s blog and the handful of other journalists who reported truthfully, know that “Alex’s dirty laundry” was actually a set of malicious lies told by a bunch of conspirators. The jury didn’t believe a word of it and acquitted AS on all charges. But the general public don’t know this because the MSM reported every salacious detail alleged by the prosecution but not one word of the defence evidence that comprehensively refuted the prosecution’s lies. The MSM journalists didn’t even bother to take notes of the defence witness’s testimony, in Craig’s words the moment the defence barrister stood to present the defence as one they closed their notebooks.
IMHO the most conclusive evidence that Alex was innocent was that 22 police detectives were engaged in a year-long fishing expedition that interviewed 700 people and came up with no more than a pile of piffle emanating from a narrow circle of SNP insiders. That alone should have cast doubt on the veracity of those allegations. By the time someone like Bill Clinton, Rolf Harris and Harvey Weinstein reaches Alex’s time of life they have a long history of predatory behaviour and it is widely known in their circles if not to the public. Also they tend to target young women who are awed by their status and unsure of themselves and less likely to make an official complaint. Yet we are supposed to believe that Alex not only kept his alleged predatory behaviour a complete secret from people who worked closely with him every day, but that he also got a hard-on for senior middle-aged bureaucrats but not the nubile office typist. He must be a very strange yet cunning lecher then. And if you believe that perhaps I can interest you in the Forth Road Bridge, only one lady owner who only used it to drive to church, very reasonable price ……
The public have heard the MSM’s smears against Alex, yet are ignorant of Sturgeon’s machinations. Once the scandal breaks expect public opinion to reverse rapidly.
link to holyrood.com
Can’t get it to archive… But Sturgeon accused by DRoss of misleading Parliament (yes, again), when she said she’d cooperate with the Inquiry fully.
It’s like watching the Keystone Cops.
I don’t which is the more insufferable. The endless corruption and evasion of the Complaints Inquiry, or having your skin flayed by the caustic hypocrisy and crocodile tears of the spoiled brats in the Transgender Appreciation Society.
Just remind yourselves, these bubbles from the scum pond are the champions we elected to break Scotland free from the decrepit Union which blights the lives of everyone in Scotland. Instead of lancing the boil, they have become the pus which infects it.
I haven’t the words to describe how much I now loath the SNP and all it’s decades of grovelling under achievement and spineless gradualism.
I don’t care whether Sturgeon is rotten with corruption, inept to biblical proportions, owned body and soul by the UK Establishment, or leads a secret double life as a closet transgender lorry driver. I don’t care, because she has already been such a massive curse and blight upon all of us that the reason why becomes irrelevant. A more useless individual I cannot recall.
Sturgeon has done more to damage Scottish Independence than any single person throughout the last 300 years. She has injured the good cause of Feminism, and no doubt, even the Transactivists will reap their rewards for decades to come, through a reduction in tolerance and more, not less, of the Transphobia they currently beat good people around the head with.
It becomes difficult to imagine what Sturgeon sees as her ‘up’ side, when the only positive on offer is her long overdue removal from office.
Rigged enquiry covers up the biggest political scandal of my lifetime in tinpot Holyrood. Is Scotland run by the Clinton’s? Will I shoot myself five times in the back for asking?
Hmm on ISP not convinced BUT better them for your list vote than any party/alliance that includes Tommy Sheridan, have that lot got Electoral Commission registration yet anyway?
Personally, I am a totally paid up independence supporter, BUT I will vote Labour. We need rid of the Sturrell Medieval Court and its sycophantic woeful courtiers and an opposition is needed.
Fair enough Labour back in 3rd position BUT for me to see someone like the utterly vacuous Shona Robison, BIG Sturgeon pal, ousted, would make me happy and hearing from non political indy supporting pals in her seat they are going to vote Labour such is their disgust at the Salmond Inquiry, Chris Law’s castle, Broughty Ferry based Useless Yousaf ETC disgust.
StuartM, And if you believe that perhaps I can interest you in the Forth Road Bridge, only one lady owner who only used it to drive to church, very reasonable price .
Does it work in the snow? Might be intersted. What colour is it?
@ Alf Baird, Daisy Walker, etc.: I found that ISP petition discouraging and off-putting too. I gave up signing petitions several years ago, partly because I don’t think anybody notices them and they rarely, if ever, achieve anything, and partly because as soon as I give them my details my in-box is filled with an avalanche of spam from the organisation that runs the petitions. It’s extremely annoying and totally unnecessary.
I’m not going to consider giving the SNP my vote again unless and until Sturgeon is gone and they commit to a plebiscite election. I probably will vote for the ISP if they are the best pro-independence alternative on the list, but I too would very much prefer them to commit to a plebiscite election.
It strikes me (and I could be wrong because I am homo sapiens) that this moment is the time for SNP members to decide what type of party they want.
It is a binary decision.
Is what they are seeing OK?
Or is it not?
If they fall into the former camp, then they have no place in Scottish history, They have deserted reason, betrayed justice, and effectively defamed the founding fathers of Scottish nationalism.
If the latter, they must now set out their stall.
Labour are going through the same existential crisis. There is nothing new in this. It is politics.
Stepping back from all of this and I see a great opportunity.
Ditch the Murrells and their cynicism, their abuse of power, and their narrow-minded parochialism.
Identify instead someone who can not only lead a party but a nation and forge its identity on the national stage.
It is clearly not Sturgeon who can never, ever, be a Jacinda Ardhern.
And it can never be Swinney.
And nor can it be any of the lickspittles with craven personal ambitions who have supported them.
This is a pivotal moment in the history of our nation.
The annointment of the man or woman who takes us forward.
The sword tht must be plucked from the stone is that of ‘justice’. The rule of law. Reason.
Without those we are dead as a nation.
For those prophesying doom, let us think of this as a moment of creation.
It is the end of the old guard and the arrival of the new.
If that person and those people exist.
Why Swinney is a dead-man-walking: link to tns2019.org
Not sure why Daisy Walker didn’t understand Margie’s straightforward reply about the ISP manifesto and Plebiscite petition. Why is a manifesto, fully planned and costed required of the ISP but not other parties at this stage? They’re very clear about their purpose and their broad policies are on the website. What is absolutely central is their explicit aim for independence and support and defence of women’s sex-based rights under the law. I found the Plebiscite petition refreshing. A party trying something to see what response they’d get without worrying about focus groups and other issues the mainstream parties worry about. So, a new party that uses a range of methods to get their key messages out there, including the fantastic video they launched yesterday on @ispsafe . Take the time to read their stuff. They’re asking for your 2nd vote and there’s a plebiscite petition out there. Simple.
Garavelli Princip says:
2 February, 2021 at 9:58 am
The Fabiani enquiry was designed to fail from the outset – and given considerable help to do so along the way by the SNPG, civil service, crown office and SNP bureaucracy led by Mr&Mrs Murrell – surely the most corrupt and venal couple running Scotland since Lord and Lady MacBeth!
James 6th and 1st wanted to make sure of the role of the Stuart Dynasty as embracing ‘The Divine Right of Kings’. That Kingship was never a right and not ‘divine’ in Scotland. It was a matter of selection and election and little (but not nothing) to do with blood rights.
Many of ‘Shakespeares’ plays were proscriptive in one way or another . The ‘History’ plays were meant to display the fact that Kings should do their duty and if they didn’t they’d be punished. The ‘Folio’ steered clear of religious content. Ironically, few people notice that there is very little religion in the plays except when a certain merchant is challenged by a gentlewoman.
James kept the ‘Divinity’ bit to himself and his precious James1st and 6th translation of the ‘Holy Bible’ and claimed that in the beginning was the ‘WORD’. Jimmy had sussed out a great way of controlling folk:-). A Holy Book of Teaching and Fear. And it wasn’t man’s word – it was God’s. He’d put the power back to heaven and the Control down to his dynasty. Clever bloke .
Out of interest, does Alister Jack have it within his remit to appoint a judge led inquiry into the working of the Scottish Government, the Crown Office and Police Scotland in relation to the conspiracy against Alex Salmond ?