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Wings Over Scotland


Green Eggs And Bams

Posted on March 06, 2025 by

In April 2021, the SNP were still the undisputed masters of all they surveyed. A poll conducted by Ipsos MORI that month showed them on 53% of the vote for the Scottish Parliament, a jawdropping 33 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

When the Holyrood election a month later was held, they won 64 seats, one more than they had done in 2016. Yet despite having led a minority government without any significant difficulties for the preceding five years, Nicola Sturgeon chose to invite the Greens to form a coalition with her party, and the effect that had on the public’s view of the government was… well, let’s see.

Because the same Ipsos poll also asked a number of questions about the electorate’s trust and confidence in the SNP Scottish Government, and the company continues to ask very similar questions in its current polling, most recently just a few days ago.

(Helpfully for purposes of comparison, it now very specifically identifies the relevant period as “Since the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2021”.)

And if you put those figures side by side, they make stark viewing.

It’s very hard to draw any rational conclusion other than that the Bute House Agreement has been absolutely poisonous to the SNP. Bringing the tiny extremist fringe party of Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater into government, rather than simply bribing/cajoling them into supporting individual votes as had been done before, gave them enormous power and influence, because in political terms a coalition partner leaving a government is a far bigger story than the occasional vote being lost.

Unfortunately, the Greens were as incompetent as they were unpopular with voters, and a whole series of very public policy calamities exploded all over the press, most disastrously the ham-fistedly mishandled bottle deposit scheme which could yet cost Scottish taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.

But it was far from the only vote-loser pushed by the Greens. Other policies hated by voters (and eventually scrapped, though not before the damage to the government’s reputation was done) were centred around heat pumps, fishing, wood-burning stoves, blocking the dualling of the A9 and A96, and of course the hugely toxic issue of gender reform, most infamously when deranged Green MSP Maggie Chapman called for children as young as eight to be “transitioned”.

An electorate which had maintained unbroken faith in the SNP for 14 years recoiled in double-quick time after Sturgeon needlessly handed effective total control of the government to a party that had secured less than 5% of the vote in the election, and in the end it was all for nothing as her successor Humza Yousaf was forced to ditch the Greens in 2024, at the cost of his own First Ministership.

The decision to bring the Greens into the government will rank as the most suicidal in the history of the Scottish Parliament, probably for many generations to come. While Labour’s implosion at a UK level has meant the SNP may continue to form the Scottish Government for another half-decade after next year’s election, it will do so as a pitiful lame-duck administration with no real mandate and a weak caretaker leader who’s already overseeing the shredding of some of the party’s most cherished principles.

Hopefully they can recycle the badges.

But the trust has probably gone forever.

0 to “Green Eggs And Bams”

  1. duncanio says:

    There’s trust … and then there’s the SNP.

    Reply
  2. Helen Yates says:

    Alex Massie “Trump is an ogre, his presidency threatens the international order like no other”

    Yeh for Trump, lets hope we see soon the collapse of the corrupt EU and NATO.
    Europe and especially the UK’s illogical hatred of Russia has brought Europe to the brink of collapse, something which would never have happened had we an honest media.
    We’ll reap what we sow.

    As for Scotland I’ve no doubt that 2026 will see the vote split between SNP and Reform.
    Onwards and upwards eh? Wha’s like us right enough.

    Reply
    • Heaver says:

      I see you have swallowed the Kremlins misinformation hook line and stinker.

      So easy to delude people, so hard to get them to recognise that they’ve been deluded.

      Reply
      • David Rodgers says:

        “So easy to delude people, so hard to get them to recognise that they’ve been deluded.” – This also applies to you and others, who have swallowed the western MSM reporting on Ukraine.

      • twathater says:

        Where is all the misinformation peddled by the kremlin and the honest and verifiable facts issued by the EU, the UK, Uk raine, Germany,France
        Show us the misinformation and lies peddled by the kremlin
        Versus
        The honest and verifiable truth issued by the western countries and then maybe we can all be convinced in who created this absolute clusterfuck and cost £billions and hundreds of thousands of deaths

        IF it is so black and white and lots of people you say are deluded surely you and the others who support your version of blame know the facts and can produce them redily to refute the deluded ones

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        It really is black and white though, twathater.

        An invading army from one country is 40% into its neighbouring country.

        Gonnae no dae that.

        Or if that’s the way things are going to be from now on, gonnae have to learn to stand up and defend ourselves.

        And that’s particularly true for Scotland, if we ever plan to become independent.

    • Marie says:

      Illogical hatred – indeed it is Helen.

      Reply
    • GM says:

      Aye Helen, I hear you. Unluckily for us in Scotland, the vast bulk of the propaganda we receive comes via England and is Anglo American propaganda. Fortunately, we are Scottish and a wee bit better equipped than some others to recognise this propaganda for what it is and choose whether we take that propaganda or leave it.

      No less a figure than the current US secretary of State backs your judgement and made a statement today to the effect that the war in Ukraine is a Western proxy war between two Nuclear powers and that it was dangerous and needed to be stopped.

      Reply
    • Dunx says:

      Several EU members used to be part of the Soviet empire. Their hatred of Russia is far from irrational.

      Reply
  3. Craig P says:

    Wood burning stoves! I’d forgotten that madness

    Reply
    • FionaN says:

      If your house was filled with choking smoke from your neighbours’ woodburning stoves for 8 months of the year, leaving you with huge sneezing bouts, sore eyes, wheezing and struggling to breathe, you might not be so keen on these damned stoves. It is so self-centred of people to be happy to pollute others’ homes so badly just to save themselves a few ££s. A price cant be put on health, but as long as you’re all right Jack!

      Reply
      • Dan says:

        Or “enjoy” the illegal level of noise generated by dodgy shite totally inappropriate air sourced heatpump installs in what were once beautiful quiet rural villages…
        Not having a go but merely pointing out the farcical situation of a geographic area having an abundance of clean renewable energy generation yet it being too expensive for many to access, or indeed paying generators taxpayer’s cash to turn off the turbines with curtailement charges.
        Shite state of affairs all round. I wired my house for leccy heaters during the renovation in the hope that things would utilise the sensible option… but until leccy power is affordable as a heating power source then I’ll make do with burning aw the mature trees the illegally released beavers are dropping…

        Politics is currently a fucking joke with all manner of egotistic folk that you’d think should know better continuing to piss in the wind as individuals rather than unify around a common cause.
        I’ve actually come to realise that the internet much as it has created a platform to communicate on a wide scale, has also been a hinderance because it has ruined the think global act local mechansim, as folk now think screaming into online portals has merit when it clearly is now a distracting force as folk sit on their arses following distant “influencers” instead of mobilising in their locales.
        Supposed political intellects on the internet have proven themselves to deliver fuck all in electoral terms and folk really need to wise up to this fact.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “a geographic area having an abundance of clean renewable energy generation yet it being too expensive for many to access, or indeed paying generators taxpayer’s cash to turn off the turbines with curtailement charges”

        It’s not rocket science, Dan. The irregularity of wind power and other renewables means that you need to build a factor of 10 times more generating capacity for worst case scenarios, as you need for best case scenarios.

        And the distributed nature of the generating equipment means you need to build a massive amount of new distribution lines.

        The fact that the generating capacity installation has run ahead of the distribution capacity installation means that when generation exceeds the ability to supply it or use it, the operators need to be recompensed for their investments regardless. And why not? They’re businesses, not charities.

        Plus, at all times, we also need to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of standby generators, gas or nuclear. Or pay a foreign country the going rate to tap into theirs.

        But I get it. The idea that “wind is cheap” ain’t gonna never go away, so you keep on flogging that dead horse.

        The reality is that “wind is expensive”. And we ain’t seen nothing yet, as the installed generation and distribution capacity we will eventually need to reach Nutt Zero will require something like 3 or more times what we have spent so far.

        Incidentally, I long took it as gospel that air source heat pumps are noisy, based only on your continuing wanging oan aboot them. But last month, I had the opportunity to stay in a place with such a beast. Not only was the place toasty warm, but I could hardly hear the heat pump even when standing next to it.

      • Muscleguy says:

        And woodburners pollute the house they are in so badly it has been compared to having a diesel exhaust piped in.

        Gas hobs are bad for the air quality as well. My asthma is noticeably better since I swapped mine for an induction hob which I adore.

        I have a heatpump too. Octopus let me save by moving it’s activity to low demand times. So my heating comes on at 04:00 now and I get up in a warm house while saving cash.

      • Dan says:

        Fuck off John Hatey Main the ever-present bot twat.
        We’ve been over this matter for years and I’ve provided plenty links proving your concerns are basically to cover England’s arse because it has to import quite so much of its leccy power and other fuel sources from outwith its borders, with little to no benefit for those that live within UK borders.

        Curtailemt cost was close to a billion quid last year. Energy is a reserved matter so have a go at your beloved Westminster for monumentally fucking up UK energy policy for decades.
        I can make the power I require to get by cheaper than these energy companies can supply it to me.
        But I don’t realy give a fuck any more because our supposed brightest and best don’t have what it takes or the motivation to make a bit of difference, and far too many folk still think the sun shines out their arses and will follow them like the Pied Piper.
        But back to leccy, you never did respond when I asked you to provide evidence of all these back up generators and their generation outputs they supposedly have, and how they compare to the serious amounts of power not being generated because wind farms are in curtailment mode.
        Scotland has about 65% of UK domestic gas production in oor geographic area so having a CCGT power station for the odd occasions additional synchronous generation capacity is required to maintain grid inertia would seem sensible. 30MW being produced by an energy from waste plant isn’t going to cut it it terms f metting the considerably higher grid demand. But as it seems folk can’t really be arsed to even recycle the waste they generate properly into the correct bins then at least energy from waste plants will continue to have a fuel stock for the foreseeable and give them a ROI on the millions it cost the foreign owned companies to build the plant…

        I also stated innapropriate ASHP installs. So it is quite possible that you stayed in a property with an appropriate installation which means the building has adequate thermal integrity and a quality brand of ASHP such as Vaillant that runs quietly and doesn’t have to rev its cunt out in the inefficent zone of operation whilst trying to produce enough heat to meet the unrealistic demand of a compromised property.

        But fuck it, you just can’t help but try to make something out of nothing because you’re just a disruptive divisie cunt. But that’s clearly the type of person Stu wants here now so knock yourself out.
        I noticed Stu showed his colours again the other day.

        “(The majority of objections were pretty irrational and based on either an intense dislike of the party in general, a complete mistrust of all politicians, or a wildly inflated view of how important Scotland is to the UK economy. And, y’know, like Nigel Farage cares about a little bit of economic damage here or there anyway. This is the guy who made BREXIT happen, folks.)”

        Aye, a true Scottish nationalist wouldn’t really be too focused about how important Scotland’s economy is to the UK under continued London Rule, instead they’d be more focused and determined to promote the idea of getting Scotland back to self-governing status asap so we would be fully empowered to better manage oor own Scottish resources and economy to serve the wonts and needs of those that live here, and help those that are continuing to endure difficult existences.
        It’s also far from irrational to have mistrust of politicians that have proven themselves to be sell out bastards, a situation which voter turnout figures continue to show an ever growing pretty irrational amount of folk.
        Calling folk irrational for holding absolutely legitimate views is really going to endear oneself to the growing mass of politically disenfranchised folk…

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Sorry Dan, I didn’t bother reading your ill-tempered, abusive and no doubt factually illiterate rant.

        Your belief that wind energy should be or will be cheap has been thoroughly debunked by better and smarter than myself, and better and smarter than you too.

        But by all means, you keep ploughing your lonely furrow. The world is moving on.

      • Aidan says:

        @Dan – we have been round the houses on this, and where the dice lands is that mass generation offshore wind is extremely expensive to produce, hence why it needs price support from the LCCC through CfDs and other forms of subsidy. It would be much cheaper for England to build a new set of nuclear reactors, but offshore wind will help to provide continued employment for the 100k or so people working in offshore oil and gas mainly based on the east coast of Scotland, hence that’s the plan and we have to hope innovation and economies of scale will eventually bring the cost down. There’s plenty of scope to improve the UK’s internal electricity market, but ultimately the cost of constructing and operating these things has to be borne somewhere. Even beyond independence, I’d suggest the British Isles will continue to have a single electricity market, else Scotland will be left serving a very expensive overcapacity, and rUK will have the blast the gas (which will bring down bills, but not good for the planet).

  4. Patsy Millar says:

    Bugger the lot of them.

    Reply
  5. Hatey McHateface says:

    “a weak caretaker leader who’s already overseeing the shredding of some of the party’s most cherished principles”

    Then again, perhaps the SNP is finally growing up.

    If it is, perhaps the people of Scotland will finally start to believe the SNP and the wider Independence Movement has what it takes to lead an Independent Scotland in a dangerous world.

    Of course, that will also need the people of Scotland to finally grow up too.

    The way I see it, the long anticipated shit is finally making contact with the fan. All the virtue-signalling, luxury beliefs and “just be kind” in the world won’t clear up the mess.

    Reply
    • Alex stewart says:

      I doubt this, the snp are way too far gone now to “grow up”. This blog post pretty much sums up how useless they now are

      Reply
  6. desimond says:

    Just finished reading the outstanding ‘Lustrum’ and at the point where the doomed Cicero has one final out..by becoming Legate to Caesar, Cicero then shocks everyone by rejecting the lifeline and says “If I do that, then I am no longer I!”

    Seems SNP don’t quite hold themselves to the same standards

    Reply
  7. Lorn says:

    It was either suicide or collective madness, or, more likely, a combination of the two, overarched by an unwillingness to rock the devolution boat in favour of independence and a cabal of Whitehall agents at the top.

    I think that inviting in the Greens was designed to ensure that indepenndence was holed below the waterline, under the guise of being ‘green’ friendly. Some of the more gullible probably believed the green horse manure. The SNP, by that time, had already been well and truly infiltrated by hard left ‘wokerati’ fleeing Labour’s shift rightwards. They saw the SNP as a walker-over for their more deranged policies on gender – all in keeping with the strategy and tactics in the Denton’s Document.

    An unspoken alliance between the devolutionists of the party (Sturgeon, Swinney, et al), the troughers and the TRA activists ensured the downfall of the party. Sinn Fein, in Ireland, north and south, is heading for the same cul de sac, but, at least they, like the SNP activists can bathe in the glory of being ‘good’ and ‘nice’ and ‘kind’ all at once. Screw Scottish independence and a United Ireland.

    Incompetence on a grand scale and sheer lunacy has finished the job. Yet, there are still those who believe the party can be saved from itself. God help them.

    Reply
    • John H. says:

      I have always thought that the alliance with the Greens was another act of sabotage by Nicola Sturgeon. One of many. She seriously damaged Scotland during her tenure. Anointing her as leader was a disastrous mistake by Alex Salmond. One which I believe he later came to deeply regret.

      Reply
    • Breeks says:


      Lorn says:
      6 March, 2025 at 1:45 pm

      ….Incompetence on a grand scale and sheer lunacy has finished the job.

      Sadly, and it pains me to say it, a hefty proportion of the grand scale incompetence must be borne by the pro Independence Scottish people who vote for these parasites. How bare faced and cynical must a ("Tractor" - Ed) be before the Scottish people demand heads to roll? When was a shrug of the shoulders ever construed as an act of rebellious defiance?

      We are cursed with the same walking dead who once-upon-a-time would vote for anything in a red rosette, who have simply been conditioned to choose a different colour.

      I despair at the flat-lining intellect of people who should be my allies, who seem oblivious to the mind numbing indoctrination they’re being subjected to. The Russians are not our enemies. The Russian Navy has the reverse of Scotland’s Saltire as it’s Battle Ensign. Google Samuel Greig from Inverkeithing and find out why.

      Am I the oddity here? I cannot even begin to countenance forgiving the slimy betrayers of my Nation. Independence lay in the palm of our hand in 2016, there for the taking, yet we allowed the fraudsters free reign to sell Scotland down the river with absolute impunity.

      People are disappointed eh? Why aren’t these fu%k$ersin chains? ALL OF THEM!

      What price Grangemouth? 96% of “UK” oil is Scotland’s oil, and while oil barren England has 5 petrochemical refineries, the one refinery in Scotland is betrayed without as much as a whimper. The only consolation over Grangemouth is that unrefined crude will probably be adequate for the tarring and feathering of treacherous wretches when the time for such things is upon us.

      Where does Scotland rank in the list of cowardly nations who’ll do nothing to defend themselves? Jesus wept. Spare some pity for any sorry wee bastards below us.

      Reply
      • Ian Brotherhood says:

        No, Breeks, you’re not an ‘oddity’.

        🙂

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “The Russtis are not our enemies”

        Phew, thank feck for that.

        So when one of their senior politicians calls for the island of Great Britain to be sunk, we’ll be grand.

        Ginger whingers float I guess. Or maybe the Romans really did build Hadrian’s Wall to be nuke proof.

        Nae, Breeks, ye’re nae an oddity. Oddity just doesn’t do you justice.

      • MsDidi says:

        I’m with you Breeks

      • Marie says:

        Correct Breeks. I’m with you as well. Scotland has been hollowed out by successive Governments including the SNP led governments of Sturgeon and Swinney.

      • sarah says:

        You are right, Breeks. We have been, and continue to be, betrayed by nearly every SNP MSP and MP. How could they ignore our pleas for 10 years? Why have they cravenly gone along with frankly barking policies such as gender, and the sheer incompetence on ferries. Plus all the crushing of internal party democracy. What a shower.

      • diabloandco says:

        I’m with you too Breeks.

      • James Barr Gardner says:

        Breeks…….Spot on, Party of Independence, more like Collaborator’s Party !

  8. JockMcT says:

    Stephen Flynn is either economically illiterate, or economical with the truth, probably both… Taxes don’t fund government spending!

    Reply
  9. Young Lochinvar says:

    Add slashing the housing budget by a massive £200m to build a desert of empty cycle paths to the list of folly to appease Penfold Pol Pot and the Khmer Vert..

    Reply
    • Michael Laing says:

      If only the cycle lanes were empty! Here in Edinburgh, these lanes are an absolute menace to pedestrians, with cyclists (mostly pizza-delivery guys on powered bicycles) whizzing this way and that and cycling on pavements regardless of the fact that it’s not only dangerous but illegal. I’m no lover of road traffic and want to see it reduced as far as possible, but at least car-drivers mostly obey the rules of the road. And all these cycle-lanes and the clutter of kerbs and street-furniture that goes with them uglify the streetscape. I think all the stuff about ‘active travel’ is just to make it look as if politicians are doing something about transport while actually doing nothing meaningful. We need clean, fast and efficient public transport.

      Reply
  10. Martin says:

    Unfortunately there are many thick folk who will be telling us voting SNP 1/2 next year will deliver independence. There are loads of walking zombies within the independence movement and the zombies are the reason why the SNP will get voted back in 2026. The rational approach would be to vote this current crop of SNP careerist out of power and start again in 2031. However the zombies will make sure we have to put up with John Swinney for another 5 years and pay for the biggest pension for any politician ever seen in the UK. Confidence in the Scottish Parliament is at an all time low. Another 5 years of team crony SNP and their fake independence will make most Scot’s want the Holyrood Parliament closed and quite frankly I agree as it’s just a gravy train for middle class careerists!

    Reply
    • JockMcT says:

      The definition of insanity; Voting SNP 1 & 2 and hoping for a referendum from WM.

      Reply
    • YoonScum says:

      I have to agree

      And NEWS FLASH

      Matching around waving flags does NOTHING to build support for indy

      Calling me a tractor/tory/("Quizmaster" - Ed) does NOTHING to build support for indy

      What does build support for Indy is a competent and well run government

      And if you think that the Scottish government is competent

      excuse me while I die laughing

      Reply
  11. Mark Beggan says:

    The underlying fact is Sturgeon and her muff divers hate the lot of you. A deliberate attack on humanity. When will you realise Sturgeon has taken ya all a flag waving ride.

    Reply
  12. 100%Yes says:

    The SNP hasn’t changed, its the ("Tractor" - Ed)s running us and the SNP leadership which has.

    Its was all about riding ourselves of this sickening union to now trying to educate the general public to the serious threat to Scotland existence from the SNP.

    The question to reform shouldn’t have been, would you allow for another referendum but instead will you shut Holyrood down? The parliament is rotten to its heart with maggots. I wanted the parliament because at the time I really did believe it was the stepping stone towards Independence to now I’d vote for its removal. Its ugly to look at and the individuals who sit in it are the worst the human race can find.

    It would appear come the 2026 election if you vote for the SNP you’ll get Labour changed days from saying RedTorie to now YelloLabour, what a troubled journey we have all traveled in the last ten years and its only going to get terribly worse thanks to the SNP. But will people listen to the warnings NAW they actually still believe the YelloLabour and other Indy-parties can work together to bring Independence, keep dreaming these days are all gone there a new rule book UNION at all cost.

    Reply
    • twathater says:

      @ Breeks and 100% yes, YES there are many dullards and fuckwits out there who will continue to vote for these subhuman troughers I am not one of them, I, like others if there is NO REAL independence candidate to vote for I will NOT VOTE

      BUT there are few alternatives, and the pervert party know this only too well, THEY do not feel threatened because they are NOT, THEY are happy to lose HR constituency votes because the real troughers will get in on the LIST vote and can still get good salaries and add to their pension pots, they don’t want to be in government it is TOO HARD they want to sit and moan on the sidelines without any responsibilities they will still get paid,plus some have already announced their RETIREMENT before they get DUMPED

      Even if they don’t win a majority they are still very eager to share with liebour as Stuart has pointed out, irrespective of the no share pish that Sarwar spouts

      People don’t want to vote for liebour or the other scum parties because they can already see that they are just as fucked up as the pervert party AND they are frightened that if liebour get elected they will REMOVE all the freebies (I know they R not free) and the engerlish horror stories will happen here, plus the clowns that still vote for the perv party actually believe they can be saved and irrespective of the proof of their betrayal especially sturgeon they believe they are still doing a good job

      We also as 100% yes pointed out the other day on the world’s most read Scottish independence blog our host totally ignoring and slinging a deafy to the news that a group who are challenging the SG about their powers have issued a response they received from the collaborators of our colonial masters yet our host doesn’t think it merits any response

      ALL the bloggers post items about how fucked up the perv party and the clowns in HR are getting away with murder but when it comes to people who are TRYING EXTREMELY HARD to force the vichy govt to recognise our Scots SOVEREIGNTY and are fighting for our independence they don’t even have the grace to get with others to form an alliance and support and publish their efforts

      And then we wonder why nothing is happening, they all have their own furrows to plough and their beliefs that theirs is the only way to achieve it

      Reply
      • Yoon Scum says:

        Your number 1 burning issue is flags and face paint

        My number 1 issue is “Where the fook are all my taxes going” as well as ” Why the fook are you trying to ban that you crazy people”

        I also have no one to vote for

        if the flags and face paint party where to address my concerns you might get my support

        I’d also wager that my No1 concern is WAY more aligned with the majority of Scots then your No1 concern

  13. agent x says:

    10 October 2017

    The Scottish government is to set up a publicly-owned, not-for-profit energy company, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

    The SNP leader told the party’s conference that the company will sell energy to customers at “as close to cost price as possible”.

    Ms Sturgeon said it would be set up by 2021, and would give people – particularly on low incomes – more choice of which supplier to use.
    link to bbc.co.uk
    ====================================================

    Still waiting.

    Reply
    • Yoon Scum says:

      Still waiting as well

      And before the usual excuses are rolled out I’d like to point out

      A council in England set-up a not for profit energy company

      A couple living in Lothian set-up a not for profit energy company

      If you’d like to tell me that in both of those cases they had more powers then the Scottish government then I’d invite you to give your head a wobble

      link to insider.co.uk

      Reply
      • agent x says:

        People’s Energy was an energy supplier that ceased trading in September 2021.

        Our Power ceased to trade on 25 January 2019.

        Ecotricity seems to be still trading.

        In September 2020, Ebico’s customers moved to British Gas following the latter’s acquisition of Robin Hood Energy, Ebico’s former energy supplier.

  14. Ian Brotherhood says:

    The next ‘Friends of Wings’ gathering will be in The Eagle Inn, Coatbridge, on Friday April 4th. The function room. Robert Slavin is expecting us and has even waived the room-hire fee.

    It’s a social evening. No formalities, speakers, panel discussions, nothing like that, just a gathering to see each other again and charge the batteries a wee bit. What we might do is have a ‘slide-show’ of past gatherings, especially those featuring Wingers who’ve left us in the past decade.

    No fixed start time, some of us will be there from about 6 on, just turn up whenever you like.

    Hoots all.

    😉

    Reply
    • sarah says:

      It sounds perfect, Ian. I know there will be a great atmosphere and old comrades remembered – Cearc, Smallaxe among them.

      Reply
      • Ian Brotherhood says:

        Thanks Sarah.

        No idea what kind of turnout to expect but the capacity of the function room is 100.

        🙂

    • GM says:

      Will maybe pitch up Ian. Curious to put faces to names etc and have a craic with like minds.

      Reply
      • Ian Brotherhood says:

        Cheers GM,

        It’ll be a good night, even if there’s not that many of us.

        🙂

    • Breeks says:

      I’m gonna try and make that.

      Reply
  15. agent x says:

    The Scottish Government signed off on guidance last month which said “trans staff should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with”, adding an “employee does not need to hold a Gender Recognition Certification”.
    ————————————————————–
    Wear a dress call yourself Lucy and go into women’s changing rooms.

    So why did the Scottish Government want to introduce:

    “Applicants must make a statutory declaration that they have lived in the acquired gender for at least three months before applying (six months for 16 and 17 year olds).” To get a useless certificate
    if it didn’t make the slightest difference to everyday life?

    Reply
  16. John Adamson says:

    So I see on the Scottish News tonight Mhairi Black beginning to revise history with her version of how Westminster has been. It turns out that not only has she been a victim of toxic Westminster – as a female, as a lesbian, as young – but she was maybe even a victim of bullying in her own party, which apparently had loads of problems including the power couple at the top….

    How come we never heard any of this while she was climbing the ladder?

    How many others who are now deserting the sinking ship will come out and tell us their revisionist version of the party and how they were the only ones trying to keep it afloat properly?

    And how many others will discover, (like Mhairi Black?) they don’t have much earning capacity outside politics so the only way they can earn a living is by making themselves newsworthy, and then telling a revisionist story in a book or a speaking tour or to whoever else will pay them for it?

    Reply
  17. Derek says:

    Of course, the 2021 figures were significantly inflated by the double whammy of the pandemic and Sturgeon’s one and only talent of appearing (but not actually being) more competent than Boris Johnson.

    Reply
  18. sarah says:

    Focussing on getting the hell out of this dreadful Union, there’s one thing that ALL Yes voters have to do and that is to provide evidence to the UN Colonies Committee that there IS a demand in Scotland to be free. That there IS a desire to express ourselves in our own distinct culture and voice.

    At the moment our Liberation movement is showing to the international community as only having 17000 supporters. Well that is about 1.6 million short of the 2014 Yes vote. PLEASE everyone get onto http://www.liberation.scot, go to the “join” section and sign. AND then get the QR code on your phone and get your friends and family and any Yes voter to sign as well.

    This is something we ordinary grassroots people can do. We don’t need the politicians for this. This is something real that is happening. The other nations are going to hear the truth about Scotland’s status as a ripped-off, culturally abused people – the “UK” and England are going to be seen for what they are.

    Reply
    • Yoon Scum says:

      I’m not supporting indy until I have firm evidence that support for indy isn’t support for a badly run, extreme marxist, authoritarian, net zero, insane asylum

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        With an institutionalised bias in favour of anybody called Navid.

        You forgot that one. Yet it’s one of the primary reasons behind the growth of Reform support in Scotland.

        And yes, it’s just as bad south of the border (perhaps worse), but that’s not the point.

        On that subject, two recent news stories show where this is all heading:

        1) A call for minority group members to be given lesser sentences than indigenous Brits for the same crimes – two tier justice to be enshrined in law.

        link to bbc.com

        2) A call for possession of images of Muslim women with their hair uncovered to be treated as seriously as possession of images of child sexual abuse.

        link to gbnews.com

        We are probably all aware that when it comes to endemic child sexual abuse, a certain demographic already gets considerable leeway to fill its boots – well, it’s their culture innit.

      • sarah says:

        Westminster is no better, just variations of unsatisfactory dictatorship.

    • Aidan says:

      The contact details for the UN Special Political and Decolonisation Committee can be found here: link to un.org.

      They’ll be a regional session at the end of May, and a further session in June. If this has legs, why don’t you send them an email and ask to participate, setting out your robust and compelling case for Scotland to be added to the list of non-self governing territories. You can then post a copy of the correspondence here. If the committee is really interested in your online petition, they’ll be able to say so, you’ll get huge traction and you’ll silence heretic cynics like me.

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Maybe everybody better get their skates on before The Donald decides to defund it. Here’s the results from a 30-second Google effort:

        “As the world’s most prosperous nation, the U.S. is the largest contributor to the UN. The U.S. pays 22% of the regular budget and is assessed at 27% of the peacekeeping budget”

        The Donald is, after all, showing alarming tendencies for being all in favour of Cost cutting. Whoops, and I almost forgot, re-colonisation!

        In that he has sterling support from some of the usual Wings BTL suspects too.

  19. Peter McAvoy says:

    Another dismissal of the concerns and welfare of all native or permanent resident Scottish people would be to easily forget the housing crisis and continue using suitable available sites not for permanent housing but for the increasing amount of student accommodation.

    Why is this not ended?

    Reply
  20. Yoon Scum says:

    What the YES movement REALLY needs to learn is the following

    When someone questions the SNP then it does not mean the following

    :- A complete love of the Tory party
    :- They hate Scotland
    :- They think that Westminster is any better

    I’m perfectly capable of looking at the SNP and say “IDIOTS” while at the same time I can look at Westminster and say “IDIOTS”

    Reply
    • Southernbystander says:

      But it is the easiest thing in the world to say ‘idiots’, to whoever. The really difficult but vital part is to affirm or even generate the opposite. That is not happening, instead it is an orgy of negativity, hate and wallowing in the subsequent inertia, hopelessness and despair. The irony for me reading these pages is the incredible creativity shown in this invective. If only it could be re-directed.

      Reply
      • TURABDIN says:

        CONTRAST & COMPARE,
        Calvinism in Scotland and Calvinism in Holland.
        You can not v You can.
        Resignation v Resistance.
        Knox the noxious fatalist.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Perhaps you have yet to enjoy the delight of sampling a 20 YO cask strength Speyside single malt, perfectly diluted with your own tears.

        If so, don’t knock it 🙂

      • Southernbystander says:

        I had cask strength whisky once. I only needed it the once and immediately learned the value of water.

        My favourite single malt is Cragganmore.

      • Hatey McHateface says:

        Sure, you have to be a smidge hard to enjoy your dram cask strength.

        Purists, a category to which I aspire, but rarely attain, insist that a fine single malt should be watered from the spring on which the still sits.

        Makes sense to me. But if you can find the water bottled, it tends to be pricy.

        As for favourites, my dear, departed dad used to opine there is no such thing as a bad whisky.

        Just some that are better than others. As with so much else, I find he was right. And why wouldn’t he have been? He researched the subject extensively for 60 years!

  21. TURABDIN says:

    WHAT the independence movement actually needs is a lesson how to put the blade deep into the guts of the system and twist it….so far the effect on the status quo has been that of irritating cat scratches.

    Reply
  22. Vivian O’Blivion says:

    The removal of Comrade Slater and Pol Pat from the government will undoubtedly be beneficial to delivering practical policies, but the SNP administration that remains is still sub optimum when it comes to technical innovation.

    As a result of his visit to the H100 project in Fife, John Swinney gibbered on about “hydrogen ready boilers”. The H100 project is a (in my opinion) rather bizarre experiment being run by SGN (Scottish Gas Networks) to test the feasibility of heating a network of homes on pure hydrogen.

    The boilers Swinney saw weren’t “hydrogen ready”, they were hydrogen only boilers. Most installed boilers are “hydrogen ready”, ie, they should take a blend of 80% Natural gas and 20% Hydrogen. By the time that blend is actually introduced into the gas network, all but the most elderly boilers will be “hydrogen ready”.

    I don’t find it particularly alarming that Swinney uses incorrect terminology, he’s a lawyer and may not understand what is being discussed, anymore than I would understand a detailed debate involving legal jargon. What’s worrying is that the SPADs whose job is to grasp the gist of a technical issue and translate that into palatable language for their Ministers, apparently don’t understand technically complex issues either.
    This is hardly surprising as SPADs appear to be exclusively humanities graduates, and if stories emanating from Holyrood are true, they are supremely convinced of their own genius.

    For that matter, press coverage of this issue is woefully uninformed with journalists making the same basic errors as Swinney. This is hardly surprising given the degraded status of Scottish news media.

    The H100 project appears to be a piece of nonsense. It only makes sense when you consider that it is being run by SGN, ie the “pipeline people”.
    The hydrogen for such a network would be distilled / generated by electricity, with enormous losses of efficiency. If it is being proposed to entirely remove Natural gas from domestic heating, why not just use electricity, and avoid the efficiency losses unavoidably incurred with hydrogen?

    Reply
    • willie says:

      The H100 project is being funded by huge government grant. SGN like the international corporate money machine that they are partake of the government funding with relish. That is why some six month ago they hushed up a rather serious incident in Fife compromising public safety.

      Its all about the money. SGN are all about the money. Look at their accounts. Its the money, trading in debt instruments, making an asset sweat.

      Project H100 may be success or it may not. Fair play to governments for trying to promote innovation. But as Vivian O’Blivion says the government ministers, their SPADs know little about techincal matters whilst the Corporates like SGN and their contacts in Government departments certainly know about the money.

      And that I am afraid is where we are across our country and across our economy with an essential industrial sector owned by the big private money boys and with the only objective being to rip out as much profit as they can.

      And that’s why there’s nothing left save for people who pay through the nose for everything – but hey Oil and Gas we were told was a curse, and of course there’s no benefit in all this renewable power either as Scots pay some of the highest power prices in Europe.

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        “of course there’s no benefit in all this renewable power either as Scots pay some of the highest power prices in Europe”

        If that’s supposed to be a factual statement then it’s just about correct.

        If that’s supposed to be irony or sarcasm or something then it’s very wide of the mark. And if so, it calls all of your previous post into question.

        To convert this “cheap wind leccy” into a solid, reliable power source for consumers and industry, 24/7, requires much of the existing infrastructure to be junked, and vast amounts of new and fundamentally more complex infrastructure to be built in remote, hostile environments.

        And then there’s the maintenance costs too. Compare and contrast an engineer turning up at a coal-fired power station in Fife, with the costs of accessing a 100 foot tower, 100 miles out to sea, in a Force 6 gale.

        This all costs and will continue to cost eye-watering sums, and those sums are added to everybody’s bills.

        You may choose to ignore these simple facts of life. Or perhaps they are beyond your ken. But they don’t go away.

    • Hatey McHateface says:

      “If it is being proposed to entirely remove Natural gas from domestic heating, why not just use electricity, and avoid the efficiency losses unavoidably incurred with hydrogen?”

      What if it is proposed as a means of dealing with the inevitable surfeits and shortfalls of renewable electricity generation?

      There’s little point in heating with electricity if the wind isn’t blowing, just as when the wind is kicking up a storm, nobody heats their house up to 100 degrees C.

      When the wind is kicking up a storm, or it’s 3 AM, then the surplus generation capacity can be turned into stored hydrogen.

      When it’s a flat calm, and -5 degrees C outside, and WM Question Time is being watched in millions of homes, then that hydrogen compensates.

      So that’s the point.

      Ah “but what about batteries?” somebody will ask.

      Enormously expensive, bulky, and incapable of providing anything like the needed amount of stored energy.

      Reply
    • Yoon Scum says:

      I maintain that hydrogen is a sensible and economical source of heat for a home if you current source of heat is burning tenners

      Beyond that it’s a really dumb idea

      Just use electricity

      And for when renewables can’t keep up

      Either embrace nuclear or have some gas plants on standby

      Reply
      • Hatey McHateface says:

        If you’re going to embrace nuclear, why not ditch the windmills?

        If you’re going to embrace renewables, you will inevitably have periods when supply outstrips demand. So you need something to do with the surplus. Hydrogen is one option. I prefer synthetic gasolene, diesel or kerosine myself.

        But hopefully you are starting to see why, when you factor in all the complexities of remote distributed generation, standby capacity and surplus energy storage, with all the additional distribution infrastructure needed too, the myth of “cheap leccy” can be laid to rest in peace.

  23. Ian McCubbin says:

    In total agreement with Breeks.
    Time majority of independistas woke up to the fact SNP are unionists.

    Reply
  24. Vivian O’Blivion says:

    The Spookocracy will not be denied. Their compliant legacy media has been busy. Every front page had declared Starmer to be Churchill reborn.
    From the four Westminster voting intention polls conducted in March, Labour are ahead in three, and have opened up a 1.25% lead.

    Average of Scottish sub-samples (population 429):
    Con 13.7%, Lab 22.3%, LibDem 12%, RefUK 16%, SNP 30%, Green 6%.

    Reply
  25. Confused says:

    There is no special relationship, there never was.

    Imagine if trump did to starmer, on our behalf, what he just did to chickenhawk-z, to lobby for Scottish Independence against “the random country”

    – why not? He should have more allegiance to us than anywhere else.

    One aspect of the “cringe” is the way even most nationalist Scots are affected/obsessed by flatland – stop trying to big up england, it is zero, nothing, actually irrelevant to indy, if you have eyes to see.

    3 elements matter in indy

    the scottish people (new scots fuck off)
    the UN (for cosmetics)
    the USA (for reality, the power, the overlord, the godfather)

    england is not in the top 10, or any page of any list, because it has zero power in comparison; this is why – when trump sees starmer at the whitehouse he will take him into a room and say :

    suck my cock
    suck it down to the hilt
    tickle my balls
    easy with the teeth there now
    suppress your gag reflex, expand your throat
    drain my balls and don’t spit, you swallow

    and starmer will obey, because he spends his life, obeying, the safe pair of hands, the company man, otherwise a new video release will appear of “fun times with uncle jimmy” – savile fixed it for you

    – what else will he do? He is a placeman, an empty coat, as is england; it has nukes, the launch codes of which are locked in the US ambassadors safe. The last time it tried to act by itself, suez, was a major embarrassment, the geopolitics equivalent of a pimp slapping around his b1tch in the street.

    and if trump tells starmer – scaatlan is going indy, so get it done by the time I touch down in prestwick … it will be done

    what will england do?

    invade the US from canada and burn the whitehouse?

    england “decides” to unilaterally withdraw from the treaty (you can do things like that, you know) claiming it “no longer wishes to subsidise the people of Scotland via the exorbitant Barnett formula, for they are ingrates”.

    scot nats need to learn a new game, the only a game in town, what everyone else in the world plays – realpolitik; it’s a corrupt and dirty world, but you need to embrace it if you want anything good in life. Standing back, virtue signalling, saying we are the good guys.

    – no one gives a fuck.

    as for england, its “hard power” cannot prevent unarmed people in zodiacs crossing the channel (the royal navy once deterred adolph) and the next political union it joins will be as a province of pakistan, as the midlands becomes a caliphate and the middle class liberals agree to it unless they are labelled “racist” and “islamophobic”

    england is the baby jane of countries, locked up in its own madhouse, dreaming of better days and the “comeback”, imprisoned in a false reality created by its own narcissism – “punching above its weight” (agreeing with america mostly) – “respected throughout the world” (hated by everyone) – “a great place for business” (money laundering, tax evasion, every scam and financial crime ever invented) – “member of the security council” (there to support america)

    – it is an international joke country ruled by people with bad teeth who torture their vowels and whose main hobby is molesting kids. A poor country that never faced that it’s not an empire anymore, like hyacinth bucket, it must “keep up appearances”, and it will spend any amount of other folks money to do so – armed forces, big projects … but it has a hollowed out economy, its industry was wiped in the 80s, leaving a warped “dumbell” configuration – scottish oil on one side, financial scams on the other, nothing much in the middle. When it goes down, you don’t want to be chained to it.

    this is once in a lifetime …

    link to youtube.com

    or you can suffer “same as it ever was”

    Reply
  26. twathater says:

    I must admit Confused I would rather read ONE of your engerlish coruscating posts where the truth is magnified and illuminated in HD 4K than wade through mountains of the interminable negative and demeaning Scotland SHITE diatribe from our resident collaborators and colonials

    As others have said and I have repeated endlessly, we Scots are too nice and there are too many willing and eager to take advantage of that niceness and use it against us

    FFS 2014 should have been a wake up call and an end to currying favour with the Jock Tamson’s bairn PISH, Salmond was more focused on appearing as the great statesman welcoming everyone into the tartan fold and annointing them with the mythical NEW SCOT heritage, forgetting that our enemas knew every dirty trick in the book because as history shows they used it often enough, and they probably wrote it

    We now have a different type of collaborator and tr@it or ones who DENY their NATIONALITY and SEX all in the pursuit of money and minor attracted perversions

    Reply
    • Hatey McHateface says:

      Which part of Confused fantasising about cock sucking, ball draining and swallowing did you not understand, twathater?

      Reply


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