Grift Away
Oh good, another plan. Just three and a half years to wait.
Should we, what’s the phrase, “Save The Date”?
Rhetorical question, obviously.
If you’re in a hurry, folks, just scroll down to the video and start there, because Believe In Scotland’s latest wheeze to get hold of your folding money and stash it in their opaque maze of accounts revolves around a bold set of – well, let’s be generous and call them “assumptions”, although a better word would be “lies”.
And we’re off to a quick start, because the above is cobblers on every level.
Firstly because Plaid are NOT currently ahead in the polls. The most recent one puts them in third place on just 22%, eight points behind Reform and one behind Labour. They’ve only led in three out of 18 polls conducted since the Welsh Senedd brought in a new electoral system last year – and two of those were by a single point – and the best they could realistically dream of would be to be a partner (senior or junior) in a coalition with Labour.
Secondly, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that any such deal wouldn’t be putting Wales “on the path to independence”, partly due to Labour’s involvement but also as Plaid themselves have deferred any action on that goal until at least 2031.
But it’s irrelevant anyway, according to BiS, because apparently there’s no chance of any progress in 2026.
So we’re not too sure why they even brought it up. Seemingly 2029 is the key.
It’s odd that they’ve signed up with the SNP, because just moments ago we saw them saying that the SNP have blown it for the last decade and aren’t in a fit state to fight an indyref. (We can agree on that much.) But it seems they have faith in John Swinney’s shambolic party to turn it round in just a couple of years, so yay! Let’s get started!
Oh good, another talking shop of the unco guid. That’ll work.
The “Scottish Constitutional Convention” appears to have replaced the “Scottish Citizens’ Convention” that BiS promised in July 2024 and which was supposed to have delivered its final outcomes three months ago, but which failed to materialise in any way, shape or form.
Which is a shame, because according to BiS it was going to have indy support at between 62% and 65% by now.
But this one will definitely change everything.
A vote loser for Labour? In 2029? On current trajectories Labour will be lucky to still EXIST in 2029, let alone be playing a significant role in UK politics.
Labour have been in the doldrums in Scotland for almost 20 years now and it still hasn’t persuaded them to support another indyref. We must confess, we’re struggling to imagine that another bout of the same old whining from the same old faces is going to suddenly make them undergo any sort of epiphany.
Reform are only slightly less popular in Scotland than they are south of the border, and are very much on the rise. The idea of them being in power isn’t noticeably more unattractive to Scottish voters than the idea of any of the other Unionist parties occupying 10 Downing Street.
Meanwhile the SNP are on very much the opposite course, a spent force with no money and plummeting membership, just about clinging on to support in the mid-30s while the Greens are tearing themselves apart with toxic infighting so bad that barely a tenth of their members bothered casting a vote in their recent leadership election, and facing potentially lethal competition for the fringe vote from Jeremy Corbyn’s new far-left party.
2029 is a long way off, but it’s fair to say there are no signs pointing towards a big win in any de-facto referendum attempted during a UK election (when Scottish issues struggle to make much impact on the political radar compared to Holyrood elections), and we very much doubt another few sessions of self-appointed worthies pontificating in a closed-door echo chamber will make a lot of difference.
Wait, we’re having a Congress AND a Convention? What’s the difference?
And the Citizens’ Convention is back on too! Huzzah! Talk, talk and more talk! All the same tossers three times over, each wearing different hats on different days! This definitely isn’t laughable Walter McMitty bullshit that’ll never happen!
Oh joy unconfined. About the 20th embarrassingly-underwhelming indy march in a row, that half the movement wouldn’t be welcome at even if it had the slightest interest in attending, which it doesn’t.
And we bet punters will be clamouring in the streets to read a “Scottish Wellbeing Economy Strategy”, especially if it’s as cheap as BiS’ last publication!
After all, they’ve lapped up all the Scottish Government’s exciting indy papers, which were free, and which were sometimes read by almost as many as 1 in every 4,000 Scots.
Then what? Oh, the SNP have to produce an alternative version of GERS, something they’ve failed to do for the last decade and have neither the willingness nor the competence to do now. (The last person in the party who could even remotely count having run away.)
But then the big guns come out.
Holy cow. We’re going to print that one again just to make sure we actually just read what we think we just read, because surely it can’t say that.
Goodness gracious. “Captured the hopes and dreams of the people of Scotland”! We’re welling up here, folks. A bunch of independence-supporting people sat around in a room, decided they liked the idea of independence, issued a press release saying so and the world just changed overnight. It’s a miracle!
(We really hope one of the people at the Convention is a copy editor, because Jesus what a grammatical trainwreck the webpage alone is. And let’s also take a moment to applaud the sensible, moderate and mature use of language like “proto-fascist”, which is always so very persuasive with the electorate and probably the reason we’ve had all those hardcore socialist governments in the last 40 years.)
Sinn Fein have led the polls in Northern Ireland for ages but they haven’t hit 30% in more than a year. It takes truly heroic optimism to parse that into “a majority”. They got 29% last time and won just 27 seats out of 90, which alert and numerate readers will note is almost 20 short.
Oh, but wait. BiS admit the plan’s actually going to fail.
Good grief. Somehow we’ve fallen through a time vortex to 2012 and people are pretending that Labour needs Scotland to win a UK election again – one of the very first nonsenses we ever debunked.
But then? Well, then it’s easy – we just win.
Also we’ll have infinite everything and it’ll always be sunny and we’ll win the World Cup and Eurovision and everyone will have flying cars that run on the clean, renewable energy from the beaming faces of happy children and we’ll all live to 150. Yay!
Now, if you have any sense you probably glazed over about 800 words ago so we’ll just quickly sum up for the people who skipped to the end:
(1) We hold a bunch of talking shops featuring all the same people who’ve been organising talking shops since 2011 and achieving sod-all.
(2) ????
(3) This time it works! Independence!!!!!!!!!
That’s it. That’s the “roadmap”. All the problems that have seen the indy movement make precisely zero progress for a decade will just magically melt away as soon as everyone reads a Scottish Wellbeing Economy Strategy, whatever the hell that is.
The UK government will simply be overpowered by the moral force of our argument, even though it’s the exact same argument that they’ve so steadfastly and unwaveringly refused to be overpowered by since 2014.
Everyone who left or stopped voting for the SNP for a myriad of reasons will suddenly forget them all and flock back to the party – by now being led by Fatima fucking Joji or something after Stephen Flynn quits to take up a job with BAE Systems – and do what neither Alex Salmond nor Nicola Sturgeon in their pomps could achieve: win over 50% of the vote in a general election.
We’re sorry for the bad language there, folks – only the second or third F-bomb we’ve dropped on Wings in 14 years – but honest to Satan we’ve not had our intelligence insulted like this for quite some considerable time, and we have to read Karen Adam and Kelly Given’s columns in The National.
If you’re planning on sending Believe In Scotland any money to pursue this farcical haggis hunt for endlessly gullible chumps, we suggest you spend it on stamps instead and write a series of letters to Santa Claus asking him to bring Scotland independence for Christmas (making sure to mention your Wellbeing Strategy as proof you’re a good boy or girl), because it’s a lot more likely to succeed.
Failing that, stay tuned for details of the upcoming online cryptocurrency venture to be launched by our brand-new company, Super-Special Magic Independence Beans For Absolutely Desperately Stupid Slavering Fucking Idiots PLC. We’ve hired Michelle Mone to front the campaign and we’re pretty sure you’ll all end up billionaires.
We mean, shit on a bike.
SNP – Scotland’s Never (was, is, will be ready) Party
Ah just love it, when a plan comes together.
The Scots are fortunate to have far more sensible plans for national liberation than another SNP/BiS colonial blind alley, and which are being discussed today at the Independence Forum Scotland (IFS) Autumn Convention 2025:
link to peterabell.substack.com
Perhaps you’ll be able to tell us then Alf in what way “Everything is different” thanks to the organisations identified such as IFS, SSRG, as Peter Bell so airily asserts in the piece you link to above?
It seems, even looked at charitably, about as likely these organisations are responsible for everything being different, as it is likely that Swinney has a secret plan, or that BiS’ grandiose castles in Spain sketched out above will ever come to pass.
Who is actually going to repudiate the S30 Process as Mr Bell advises in the first of his 4 stages? Political parties? The whole population? Some convention or other…? If the latter, who chooses it and what legitimacy will it have?
The second stage – making every General election plebiscitary – is entirely sensible and feasible, but it doesn’t require the first stage at all. It is literally all that is needed. A victory in a plebiscitary election returning a majority for parties standing on that mandate is de facto independence.
None of the other stages are relevant or need to be minutely discussed or agreed. We only need to win once, but we need parties which are really nationalist, not devolutionist.
We won’t win independence via grandiose schemes, the UN declaring us a colony, or the SSRG / IFS / BiS / Salvo / Unicorns&RainbowsForIndy.
Peter Bell is right about one thing – which must be something of a first for him – power is never given it is taken.
Unless and until the majority of the Scottish electorate wake up to that simple fact the union has nothing to fear.
You beat me to it, Alf.
My ‘immoderate’ comment is still awaiting moderation 🙂
The IFS Conference sounds like it was a very worthwhile and dynamic event.
Our understanding is improved in the sense that many Scots now understand our condition as colonial and therefore ‘liberation of the people to be the most urgent matter’ (Memmi) facing our people and nation. Those who are yet to figure this out remain as having only a ‘rudimentary understanding’ (Fanon) of reality.
The people and movement are clearly searching for innovative solutions to bring an end to colonialism, whilst the dominant national party adopts the opposite approach and seeks only ‘an accommodation with colonialism’ (Fanon), depending on ‘the endless generosity of the colonizer’ – which never transpires of course
Here the role of the colonizer is always to make any prospect of liberation seem impossible, which seems to be your main function.
I see the Memmi/Fanon Automatic Quote generator (AKA Alf) is still going strong then. No actual original thought involved, or attempt to address the actual point, just endless regurgitation of secondary sources and self referential links to his own output.
Same old, same old then eh?
Pray tell us Alf, how is this upswelling of understanding amongst Scots measured and how is it manifesting itself?
Can we expect La Diada scale manifestations perhaps? Or are we more likely talking of poorly subscribed petitions, micro membership ginger groups and groups of outraged nationalists standing aroung with their arms folded, tutting loudly?
“No actual original thought involved”
Arguably the only anti-colonial book thus far produced in Scotland (Doun-Hauden) involved extensive original academic research applying for the first time postcolonial and related theory to illustrate Scotland’s situation and to develop an appropriate theoretical framework that explains our ‘colonial condition’ and sets out remedies:
Doun-Hauden-Socio-Political-Determinants-Scottish-Independence/dp/B086Y6MMH2
“how is this upswelling of understanding amongst Scots measured and how is it manifesting itself?”
Over recent years (and mostly since Doun-Hauden was published in 2020) the extensive range of new pro-independence organisations and parties created and their development of innovative solutions to secure liberation are testimony to increased activism and awareness, as well as the hurried (yet inadequate) responses of the dominant national party. The divide in the pro-independence and SNP votes also reflects improved understanding of the people.
The Scots are learning and adapting all the time.
TBQH Alf I don’t know why you even bother responding to the regurgitated boring claims that the Franchise Fanny continuously excretes across the BTL comments , BTW him and his fellow Scots CRINGERS would deny and deride ANY plans or policies that were not thought up or proposed by THEM
He repeatedly asserts the plebiscitery route towards independence as if he is the only one who has ever proposed this route and he is the master brain behind it, BUT people who have read and commented on WOS far longer than he has have discussed this repeatedly and the result is the same, Salmond , Sturgeon and Sturgeon’s cult have refused repeatedly to even consider that proposal , the rev has pointed out numerous times the action that SHOULD be taken to achieve that result and the deliberate avoidance and refusal to adopt that action , which makes it even more disturbing that he refuses to give publicity and support to Liberate Scotland whose focus is on achieving his route to independence
So, Twat H, you believe the plebiscitary route is blocked because Salmond, Sturgeon and Sturgeon’s cult say No?
Have you any idea how utterly useless and clueless this makes you sound?
You constantly denigrate others, yet you are the living embodiment of the stereotypical cringing Scot – helpless and gormless, eternally waiting for somebody else – anybody else, to do something.
A born follower, in other words.
Andy asked “ Or are we more likely talking of poorly subscribed petitions, micro membership ginger groups and groups of outraged nationalists standing aroung with their arms folded, tutting loudly?”
Alf replied “ Over recent years (and mostly since Doun-Hauden was published in 2020) the extensive range of new pro-independence organisations and parties created and their development of innovative solutions to secure liberation are testimony to increased activism and awareness, as well as the hurried (yet inadequate) responses of the dominant national party”
A shorter reply that would have conveyed the same meaning would have been “Yes”. All of the legitimate and accurate criticisms of BiS can equally be applied to Salvo/Liberate etc.
Make Believe in Scotland.
Make Believe in Scotland
.
Stuart, thank you for wading through that swamp of delusional grift by the conductors of the Holyrood Gravy-Train Express so that we do not need to waste the hours of our lives studying these third-country political phishing scammers.
One thing: how on God’s green earth can that Fatima grifter still be on the gravy train?
I thought THAT Fatima Fluckwit’s rule-breaking had ended this pushy unemployable grifter’s money-tree of taxpayer funds into her bank account.
Fatima should now be back, working as a janitor at HMP Edinburgh bringing Isla Bryson cups of tea.
Fatima is a DISGRACE TO THE HUMAN RACE. She is the epitome and definition of UNEMPLOYABLE. Fatima is why people are flocking to vote for Nigel Farage…
Fatima Fluckwit.
The Grifters Grift Queen…
link to wingsoverscotland.com
TL:DR version –
Independence supporters
Vote SNP and give us some folding money.
Err no thanks.
Restore competent government and put adults who understand basic science and material reality back in charge. Instruct Scotland’s many experts in different fields to do the work of preparing for independence. Then people will believe a word you say.
Or continue a core vote strategy and wait to see how many fall for it.
Choices, choices…
A veritable tour de horizon of the clueless chumps behind yet another flavour of “cunning plans for indy”.
There will doubtless be much BTL wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects in here who assure us there is a magic short cut to the sunny uplands of independence, if not the farcical “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Scotland” platform fisked above, then some other unicorn and rainbow extravaganza necessitating the UN to declare us a puir wee colony, or Elon Musk and the Donald threatening to invade if we aren’t given our freedom.
Anyone else beginning to think that anyone with any political get up and go in Scotland already got up and went?
What a shit show. 🙁
The proverbial bad penny, Angus Robertson has popped up again.
This time it’s dereliction of his responsibility to provide executive supervision of scandal ridden, Historic Environment Scotland.
Former Chairman of HES, Dr Hugh Hall made repeated requests to meet with Robertson over a period of years, to no avail. Perhaps if Hall had scheduled a meeting in some exotic, foreign location (like New York), “Air miles Angus” would have responded (with Gravy bus Barbie in tow as per usual).
How Robertson, the architect of the destruction of internal democracy within the SNP, has survived this long is a mystery. Perhaps he has someone watching over him? The British American Project perchance?
In late 2023, Robertson popped out of nowhere to take control of Scottish Government negotiations to award exclusive control of Hydrogen generation in Scotland. How did Robertson whose remit at the time was Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs, & Culture come to usurp Minister for Energy & the Environment, Gillian Martin?
The contract was awarded to Norwegian, state owned utilities giant Equinor. And that was the last we heard of that. The only Hydrogen generation plant (specific to the energy sector) with a planning permit is Kintore Hydrogen, which is owned by Statera Energy, which is owned by ETQ Infrastructure (and so on, ad infinitum, with no mention of Equinor).
Angus Robertson, ain’t where he’s supposed to be, but crops up where he ain’t supposed to be, and fucks things up.
For anyone wondering what Vivian O is referring to with regards Historic Environment Scotland – here’s a bit of additional reading, a piece by Robin McAlpine –
link to robinmcalpine.org
Aye, tho Robin shoud ken that a doun-hauden fowk can never expect much fae colonial institutions:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
@Vivian O’Blivion
Good to see another of your intelligent posts. 🙂
Lang may yer lumb reek. 😉
Any chance you could make it along to this?
it’s the upcoming public meeting for those attempting to ‘get the band back together’ in Glasgow.
“Glasgow Meeting, 22nd November: Scotland’s Journey to Statehood
With Prof. Ailsa Henderson, Robin McAlpine & Jim Sillars”
link to yesunited.scot
That would offer the opportunity for some folks to meetup face to face instead of nom to plume!
Loving the use of heavy sarcasm 😉
Burst out laughing, and sniggering still, at ‘Oh joy unconfined.’
We’re SO lucky to be living the dream every day with all these clever ‘get up and go’ peeps in BiS and Holyrood.
Arnie would be astonished, and a tad envious, at their ‘Just Do It’ attitude.
There’s a poster on here with the username ‘I, Despair’.
And I do.
But there are some very worthwhile events (and thinking) taking place, involving fully grown adults with serious minds.
Robin McAlpine’s been writing some cracking pieces recently.
And then just today, Peter A Bell gave a presentation in Glasgow – link to peterabell.substack.com
Nae Need, to continue with our last AI related brief interaction…
Robin appears to have fully embraced AI, thinking it is the answer to all human needs, as it would free up his time to live a more hedonistic existence whilst automated machines did all the work.
It’s so wrong on so many levels.
The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house…
He’s previously moaned about food quality and production, but then thinks it is fine to just hand even more power and control to big corporate interests.
He’s moaned extensively about planet Armageddon, then takes foreign holidays.
It’s a year since the last Revive groundhog day event (that I gave a report on btl), and still heehaw has changed.
Which make that last Wings article’s AI generated bullshit trying to use the comparison of a Tory landowner trying to hang on to their last grouse moor a lame off the money joke seeing as the past two Scottish land reform Acts have done little seeing as more of Scotland’s land is now owned by fewer people.
So much of that last piece could be ripped to fucking shreds because it is so off the money on many counts. No mention of renewables or hydrogen and what they could do for the economy instead only mentioning oil, and not gas that England continues to burn to power itself, but Stu let’s all slide.
That Robin has a couple of hundred hours of TV to catch up on is the final nail in the coffin for me when that time could be much more productively used to live a more sustainable existence that he preaches.
I do hope he turned the contents of the neep recently carved for Halloween into root vegetable crisps or a chutney.
After all, smashing pumpkins in rage will not liberate one from being a rat in a cage.
Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with butterfly wings (4 mins)
link to youtube.com
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – Television, the drug of the nation. (8 mins)
link to youtube.com
Some people burn hours staring goggle eyed at the box. Some people burn hours pointlessly posting on sites like this one. I see no evidence for anybody to claim one activity is morally superior to the other. At least when watching the box, it’s possible to learn something new.
As the wise woman said, if your mouth’s flapping you’re not learning anything and that holds true when you’re typing on your devices too.
Neeps? Borderline even as a food for sheep. Of course, there are some hardy Scots who claim to like them, but seriously? Once a year, for a bit of a laugh, is right.
Sure, renewables could do much for Scotland, but not dozens or even hundreds of miles out to sea. Local generation, local ownership, a turbine or two on every ben, and every glen laced with pylons and cables. That would work well, but just imagine the scweams and howls of outrage. Never in a thousand years would we Scots willingly accept the despoliation of our natural environment that would be needed to allow our greed for leisure and comfort coexist with our innate grippiness. And so we have the world as it is – exploitation of our offshore wind generously paid for by England’s immense pool of coerced bill payers.
As for land redistribution. There’s a few acres of useless, barren, saturated peat bog with my name on it. Hands up every Sovereign Scot who expects to get some prime real estate on Buchanan Street!
Sorry, naw. Here’s the map reference for your plot in Caithness. It’s a 6-mile hike in from the nearest road, so check the forecast before setting out. Mind and nae disturb the peat, which is the only thing of value or use on your entire holding. We’ll have to hit you with a carbon tax if you do.
Ach Hatester, neeps are delish. Just dice that bugger up, do likewise with some carrots and some parsnips and then chuck ’em into a stew or a soup – it’ll be very nice, trust me*. Oh go on, you know you want to 🙂
* although one might question my judgement given that I used to eat some of the horse food at a previous job long ago. Mind you, I probably needed the energy given that I was the poor sod who had to hoof those fecking 25kg sacks around… 🙂
If yer neeps are in a decent mutton broth, for example, it’s probably nae the neeps yer tasting when you eat them.
But it’s not something I would ever want to fall out over, Flying Iron. You can have my share and more 🙂
And it’s fine aboot the horse food. Naebody’s judging.
But if ye cannae pass a salt lick withoot haeing a shot o’ it – that’s taking it too far 🙂
I just watched a historian Dr. Kat video titled Reading the Past on YouTube on Changing the faith? King John and Islam 3 weeks ago; my interest was in John joining with Ireland’s DeLacy(a relative of Bruce and Godiva) to fight his older brother Richard the Lionheart. DeLacy is the true braveheart! In the end, he treated Islam in a manner that forced them to label him like he was crazy and to be stayed away from. That is a strategy to gain separation from some who would usher a mandated ultimatum into a choice of 3 of either a death, a conversion or jizya. Every ounce of me ? music and would never ever BE FORCED to wear a complete redaction outfit. D.N.A. does not change that much, I mean if I was not in a mood to have forced sex, making a man go blind like Peeping Tom did sets better with me than his breath stopping. What do you make of that? Was it a strategy?
WTF did I just try to decipher. Some kind of AI generated text pish.
If religion instilled anything of worth in the believers of fictional deities or those that study it, then it might have made grammar and paragraph breaks a worthwhile venture.
One doesn’t have to be insane to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself, and divnae shag someone else’s partner, for no good will come from such endeavours.
“treat others as you would want to be treated yourself”
So you want to be told to piss off?
OK then, Dan. Why don’t you just piss off!
Yes Rev that language was disgusting. Have you been hanging about with Northcode? And taking the Lords name in vain. The less said about that the better.
Now concerning these flying cars….
Thank you, Rev, for making it clear that the latest BiS pronouncement is not worth the email space it came on. I did read it and thought it wasn’t going to help get independence but your forensic analysis does prove that to be the case.
Sadly a lot of well-meaning souls will be taken in, thus diverting attention, energy and finances from other more worthwhile projects.
Everyone who reads Wings and wants independence, should be signing the Holyrood petition that would give Holyrood the power to hold referendums. link to petitions.parliament.scot
The petition is PE2135 Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] in Scottish legislation.
Sarah, let me say first, I’m on your side, but speaking for myself, putting faith in a Holyrood petition or Council Election means putting faith in the colonial Scotland Act, and by association, respecting Westminster’s unconstitutional right to veto.
I am fearful that many good souls with faith in an outright Holyrood majority are charging up the wrong dreel. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. We’ve done it emphatically, but it counted for nothing. Do it again? Why? To what end?
For those who recognise that route is blocked, ask yourself when did it become blocked? The blunt answer? The path became blocked the instant you conceded the power of veto to Westminster. You actually forfeited the match before the kick-off.
The most direct route to Independence is securing some meaningful and binding sanction upon Westminster’s false and usurped sovereignty. Put it in the dock. I believe decolonisation will deliver that distinction in the eyes of the world – disputed sovereignty. At the same time, we should have Scotland re-affirm that sovereignty north of the border rests with the people – the sovereign Right is ours to Claim, not Westminster’s to withhold.
With those benchmark distinctions secure, we then organise an independent Independence plebiscite for Scottish nationals to choose how we want Scotland to be governed. No Westminster involvement.
Contempt for the lawful Claim of Right should be an impeachable offence for those in public office, and just as severe as sworn reverence is to the current UK Monarch. This will instantly rid us of Holyrood, the colonial Scotland Act, and the false prophets of Independence contained therein… Sovereignty is not a partisan issue to be modified peacemeal, it is a binary, black and white distinction in Law, with no shades of grey.
To all those friends, and yes I do mean friends, who are persuaded to adopt UK political instruments and protocols to deliver Scotland’s freedom from this corrupt Union… I hear you, but I would ask you to explain the difference between sovereign Scots asking permission from Westminster to hold a ballot, and the Scottish “noblemen” of the 13th Century who thought sovereign Scots should consult the tyrant king Edward Longshanks of England for advice. Ruling Scotland was none of their business in 1296. It remains none of their business in 2025. Why concede such an important issue to an enemy? 700+ years of violence, exploitation and duplicity not enough for you?
Scotland already has all the necessary tools in its toolkit to reassert Scotland’s sovereign Independence. We require no input from England whatsoever, and surely, we must all know such input we do receive is invariably dishonest, disingenuous, deceiptful and exploitative.
Democracy is not the primary route to sovereign Independence because our democracy is compromised and dysfuntional.
I believe International Law will deliver a condition of disputed sovereignty over Scotland, hopefully a brief period of holding pen status while the Constitutional truth is established, and the democractic component will be a ratification plebiscite to determine our path thereafter. Every box ticked.
By all means, sign the petition. Disrupt colonial Westminster rule. But interference / disruption is not critical path progress. The first and only defining issue is Sovereignty, and this alone denys Westminter the power of veto or intervention.
Ouch!
I can’t cope with a particularly haggard looking dried fruit woman appearing in the middle of my breakfast.
Maybe need to put warnings at the top of an article like this one:
“Someone once said that politics is showbiz for ugly people and this article contains evidence proving the truth of that statement”.
Thanks in advance.
The only issue with this is the colonisers arent the English but the product of the corrupt Scottish establishment whose prioroty is to feather their own beds and control the people by division.
A couple of observations, having read through the entire article.
1. If you read the first para against May 2029, there is a clear hint we will have our own currency. So finally, the currency question is settled, and that in itself is a big step forwards. Although, as the next para talks of EU membership, that will automatically mean the Euro. So one step forwards and one step back.
2. Very worryingly, and despite the clear evidence of Sunak’s decision to call a WM GE in July 2024, the author appears to believe that the WM fixed term parliament act is still in force. Of course, professional politicos need their spring breaks, their summer sabbaticals, their autumn retreats, their Xmas shutdowns, and their skiing fortnights just as much as the boys delivering pizzas on their ebikes do. But it would be foolish in the extreme to adopt a plan assuming a timeline over which they have no control.
So perhaps it’s true – they are just having a laugh.
Typical eurosceptic misinformation. There is no compulsion or automaticity about joining the Euro: just ask the Swedes.
Any member country which doesn’t want to become part of the common currency can easily arrange for it to be functionally impossible for them to be considered for inclusion by simply not adhering to the necessary ERM mechanisms.
Constantly repeating the same bullshit doesn’t make it true Hatey.
Constantly repeating the same bullshit doesn’t make it true.
Indeed.
But, with reference to the article under discussion, these are the same politicians who can’t organise a scheme to refund deposits on jam jars. These are the same politicians who have never moved on from believing in their heart of hearts that Scotland is too wee and too poor to go it alone, hence the clinging to the “Independence In Europe” comfort blanket, both by them and by many of the faithful.
Can you look any sceptic in the eye, Andy, and credibly assert that these same politicians will have either the brains, or the guts, to attempt to manage the economy of an Independent Scotland without outside help?
Ah hae ma doots.
The article above is an improvement on the status quo up to now, which has been that any vote for Indy would be treated as an automatic vote for EU membership too. So a tiny piece of ground MAY have been surrendered.
But the case against the Euro will never be made by these politicians IMHO.
As you well know I’m no friend of the SNP or indeed current Scottish civic organisations in general. That being said, we can’t insist that the Scottish political elite or population in general from which they arise are uniquely incapable of governance.
Plenty of other countries have achieved independence with far less going for them than Scotland, and in addition it’s simply impossible to argue that even given recent experience within Scotland, that the UK or many (most?) other polities provide better examples of how to do it.
The greatest threat to the union may not in the end be the SNP or even the independence movement as whole, but the fact that the British nationalist alternatives are if anything worse.
The prospect of a Reform victory at the next Westminster GE may concentrate a few minds at Holyrood.
By any measurement we’d all currently be better off if we’d remained in the EU, or at least had access to the single market. It’s a simple economic fact: what was said during the brexit campaign has come true in that it has been a massive act of economic self harm.
It will happen this way.
After centuries of oppression and a decade of being lied to and led down many false trails by what they thought was their champion for independence, some spark of realisation will quickly rouse the Scots from their imperially induced ‘slumber’.
We can only speculate on the nature of that spark, but it will certainly arrive in some unexpected shape and be carried to us on the back of a thunderbolt miraculously born from an untroubled clear blue sky.
And once that spark – a spark the form of which none can foresee from this current reality and at this time – sets about igniting the consciousness of the Scots… well… then the sorry ‘union’ that has plagued them for centuries will spin its head in startled surprise and then stupefied see too late its inevitable end hurtling towards it.
There are a lot of sparks lurking waiting to set the heather of fire.
The UK is now effectively unstable. The country is economically slumping big time. Living standards are slipping for most folks. Public service and investment in public service is something that can be no longer afforded. Meanwhile against this background the elites get richer and richer.
Additionally the political system does not work. The Democracy Delusion with the puppet political parties in the thrall of the elites is more and more exposed. That’s why it suited to blame the EU and the Europeans for all our ills. Now it is the boat people and immigrants who are bringing Great Britain to its knees, and some fall for it. But like the Brexit nonsense they will not fall for it forever.
And that is why there is a headlong rush into totalitarian control. Ever aspect of people’s lives are to be recorded, watched and controlled. The ruling elites no the backlash is coming and they intend to stop it.
Like battery chickens in their cage, a similar fate is planned for the citizenry. To say it is Orwellian would be to overuse the cliche, but just look around at what is happening.
Your banking, your currency, ever aspect of your life controlled and monitored and no dissent allowed. That is our future. But don’t take my opinion on it. Consider what Donald Trump said on the 26th July 2024 during the US election campaign when he told a group of supporters that –
– they won’t have to vote again if they elect him to the presidency. “You won’t have to do it anymore,” Trump said at the Turning Point Believers’ Summit in Florida. “It’ll be fixed; it’ll be fine; you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.
And that, is exactly what is happening here as totalitarianism approaches.
link to archive.ph
Trump’s political end and public humiliation is not that far away, willie. And just because things might seem to be a certain way doesn’t mean they really are.
The future is bright… and it certainly isn’t orange.
Cheer up, all will be well.
I thought Wings BTL was the place where True Scots come together to celebrate totalitarianism, willie.
The usual suspects have been cheering on poot’s totalitarian, aggressive, imperialist, colonising mission for near four years now. Any reader could be forgiven for misunderstanding these mixed messages.
I think you will have to clarify your true position. Totalitarianism must be just fine as long as it is YOUR totalitarianism. Only when it doesn’t conform to YOUR prejudiced world view does it become a problem.
You are the spark, Northy.
And the fuel that will set the heather alight will be your insistence we all have to speak, read and write in Scots, the language that less than half of us have even passing acquaintance with.
Like a muir burn in a force nine gale, the resulting conflagration won’t be under the control of either yourself or any others of the deluded on here.
Tough shit as they say. Now why don’t you get back into your comfort zone and post something about penises. You know you want to 🙂
The Vital Spark is what I think your trying to say
But you ain’t no Sunny Jim.
You look soooo compromised Rev.
I say, I say, I say…
What’s the difference between a burst mattress and ‘Believe in Scotland’?
If anyone finds out, kindly let the rest of us know…
Both can go and get stuffed!
political leader does smart deal to secure cheap energy for his people
link to x.com
foreign thieves attempt to steal a nations wealth
link to archive.ph
– the norwegs need to sharpen the guillotines
FFS
link to archive.ph
please make it stop
the locusts descend
link to archive.ph
– “leave it aht … ”
career change? I’m in
link to archive.ph
lead principal implant inspector first class
“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do.
That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
————————————-
Lest we forget.
AX
Lest we forget- Oh indeed!
Quite the orator wasn’t he; something of a product from an earlier era.
Let’s look at some other Churchillian things we really shouldn’t forget no matter how hard he tried to write it out of history with his various autobiographies shall we?
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Landed aristocracy upbringing in a dysfunctional family can’t have helped.
Did a bit of service in Victorian times shooting various poorly armed coloured people.
Was generally considered the pre eminent travelling carpetbagger when he greased his way into politics.
Served (for an inexplicably short period of time) as an officer lording it – in his odd manner-over (if memory recalls) the Royal Scots Fusiliers in France who were (NOT him) recuperating in a quiet sector AFTER the mauling received at Loos before he packed his carpet. Ag and b8ggered off back to politics safely prior to the 1916 Somme bloodletting.
Lucky timing eh?
Got a position in government and was instrumental in advocating for the Gallipoli campaign.
That didn’t exactly work out well did it?
Instrumental in the battle cruiser building policy believing this would chase down the handful of Hun surface raiders away in foreign waters. They ended up being promoted to the premier league once that particular practically non-issue disappeared and paid the price when trading punches with the big hitters at Jutland..
Vocally supportive of Mussolini interwar.
Supportive of abandoning air cover in the battle of France.
Claimed, now he was in power, that France would not be abandoned and withdrew fighter cover back to southern England.
Cue abandoning 51st Highland division (and also wanting to send the 52nd Lowland Division to share their fate) at St Valery.
Nope! No armada of small boats there..
Initially not taking the U Boat threat seriously leading to massive losses at sea.
Making pals and engaging in building long term trust with the French powers in exile by blowing up their fleet.
Bumbling Narvick.
Strict Blackout of news on Clydebank blitz while allowing news of English cities plights to dominate news.
Deploying excessive resources to defend empire while claiming (as noted in your post) that poor Britain was “all alone” (notwithstanding) massive material and Human Resources in the Empire where “the sun never sets”.
His Force Zed gunboat diplomacy plan fiasco leading to humiliation with the loss of capital ships and ultimately Singapore to the Japanese.
Looking the “other way” in dealings with the Soviets who had co-joined the Nazis in invading and committing atrocities in Poland; the whole reason we ended up in the war in the first place!!
Agreeing to Lend Lease supplies from the (then uncommitted USA) despite being in parliament during President Woodrow Wilson’s 1917 £10bn war loan openly touted as (for the Americans) a great investment as the US would now be the UKs creditors; (remember the impact here of the Wall Street crash anyone?)..
Profligate use of Empire (and Scottish troops) in and around the Mediterranean for reasons of Empire while leaving Britains defence capability at home lacking.
His unbridled glee at the USA (which he had been actively “encouraging”) entry into the war.
His “Naughty Document” proposals with Stailin over the carve up of areas in influence in Europe post war without bothering to tell any of his allies. Yup not even Uncle Sam and THEY were best pleased when they eventually found out about it..
Rumours he had Mussolini assassinated and incriminating personal earlier correspondence “disappeared”.
Ordered the “Repatriation of ” Polish soldiers who had fought under Britain to Stalins controlled Eastern Europe and a predictably terminal reception.
Usual repression in India; Ghandi was a “seditious faquhir”; pun most certainly intended.
Got booted out of government at the first chance during the general election prior to the end of the war.
Aye, what a great guy he turned out to be eh, albeit, there never really was that much chance all things considered of “fighting on (our) beeches” not least as a swathe of Tories, Lords, Royals even (?) are fairly reliably reckoned to have been sympathetic to Hitler and fearful of losing their Empire – which irony of ironies – Churchills reliance on the Americans ensured.
But of course, there was no-one anywhere else in the country able to lead the country back then AT ALL we are repeatedly informed all because Chamberlain had failed.
Great thing getting to write yer own history isn’t it, BOJO the clown was quite upfront about trying to do the same but even Churchill never appeared suspended on a stuck zip wire over the Thames waving small Union Flags- that takes a special sort of numpty to do..
Such a shame your enthusiasm was never reciprocated, YL. To the best of my knowledge, Churchill never had a good word to say about you.
And as for your contribution to – well, anything really – I doubt it ever even registered with him. There’s not even a footnote.
I bet you’re a legend in yer oan heid, though. And maybes that’s all that really counts.
Y. Lochinvar, interesting details concerning W C, thank you. I heard say that he was loathed in Nottingham because of the fate of the Sherwood Foresters in Norway when he sent them there without necessary support/equipment during second WW.
Swinney says in his Remeberence speech that there is a ‘threat to the democratic system’. Wonder what he meant by that. Are we being threatened by someone?
Ah well Northcote I shall cheer myself up and look on the bright side.
On a someone minor matter I was going to go out on my bicycle for some exercise and was going to go along the river Clyde cycle – walkway route and cross over the Clyde on the new just opened £117 million Renfrew bascule bridge.
Opened only some month ago Its a fantastic looking bridge with huge benefits. Long overdue to be built. And then I read that on Friday the bridge is closed until further notice with no date as to when it will be open again. And with the Renfrew ferry stopped on the 31st May due to the new bridge, the closure will be a big disruption.
Seems that there is a big problem with bad building in Scotland. Ferries spring to mind and not just the Glen Sannox, Glen Roassa, but also the three hybrid west coast ferries one of which the MV Hallaig went on fire.
But also the new billion pound Queen Elisebeth Hospital, the brand new £23m leisure centre in Helensburgh that blwe apart a year ago in a storm, or the refurbished Anniesland college that had to be evacuated after the new cladding and window system started to fall apart, bad public service procurement just goes on and on.
But I shall not despair, There is always a glad and happy electorate delighted to stump up and pay. What’s the odd we hiccup when you are the best.
Broken bridge, broken ferries, who cares. All part and parcel of being Scottish really. As Rangers fans used to sing even in adversity, simply the best, better than all the rest. ( Not that the Tic have had to much to sing about either!)
That’s the spirit, willie – and think of all the new jobs the Scots will have fixing England’s shoddy construction and infrastructure projects after independence.
There will be a lot of work, too, converting the Holyrood parliament building into a shopping and community centre.
“There will be a lot of work, too, converting the Holyrood parliament building into a shopping and community centre.”
—————————————————–
Will an independent Scotland build another parliament building?
No need for a new parliament building in the republic of Scotland. Holyrood Palace will be easily converted to meet the needs of Scotland’s genuinely Scottish parliament.
Balmoral Castle will be re-purposed as a holiday getaway place for some of Scotland’s most deprived families until such a time poverty has been banished from Scotland.
Now that I think on it the possibilities for massive improvement in the lives of Scots are endless in a free and independent, wealthy and sovereign Scotland.
And if the free Scots decide to have a monarch agin a republic then Hopetoun House will suffice as a home to Scotland’s Royal family.
The grifters in Hollyrood awarded themselves medals the day the place opened. I mind well the stushie. If they close the place, will the grifters have to give the medals back?
If it does close, they’re never going to turn it into a mall or space for us Scots. It’ll easily accommodate a few hundred migrants in comfort and it’s a superb spot from which they can go hassle and hustle the tourists on the Royal Mile.
“republic of Scotland”
Naw, Northy, ye’ve goat that wrang.
It’s Republic of scotland. The boy has always been most insistent aboot that.
Have you considered the parking space needed for all the Flying Cars?. Obviously not. And what will you pay all the Scottish Fixers! with? Smackaroonies or empty Gingy bottles?
“All part and parcel of being Scottish really”
All part and parcel of being a colony actually, where all we can expect is “a mediocre meritocracy”, and where “the native wants to develop things but the colonizer holds him back” (Memmi).
It is no accident there is a crisis in every policy area within an exploited subaltern colonial society.
“It is no accident there is a crisis in every policy area within an exploited subaltern colonial society.”
————————————–
How were you exploited toady?
Sure, Alf, any day soon the Queensferry Crossing is gonna cowp into the Forth.
The rail bridge too.
And all these rigs they built at Kishorn, Nigg and Ardersier. Every one a disaster.
Clyde-built eh? If all the customers for all these ships had only sussed they were throwing away their money at a mediocre meritocracy. What suckers they must have been.
Indeed, Alf.
Scotland isn’t a disaster zone because of the Scots – the Scots have had no say in how their ain country is managed for more than three centuries.
ALL of Scotland’s problems, every one of them, regardless of any appearance to the contrary are the fault of England and its foreign chums looking to plunder Scotland and profit from the Scots while incurring the least costs possible during the wealth extraction process.
Public infrastructure projects in Scotland – with a few notable exceptions – are effectively licences for selected contractors to print money in return for shoddy and unprofessional work and services… riches for auld rope.
That’s what the Scots get in return for their country’s wealth of natural resources… auld rope – and by Christ is that auld rope expensive.
“ALL of Scotland’s problems, every one of them, regardless of any appearance to the contrary are the fault of England”
Phew, thank fuck for that, Northy.
We sane, rational, Sovereign Scots can look at you, shrug our shoulders, and say “nowt tae dae wi us, pal”.
Of course, we’ve been doing that for years already. But it’s always good to get confirmation we’re on the right track.
Much if not most of our meritocratic elite are not Scots, and the Scots who do help run institutions here also tend to hold to the values of the colonizer; these ‘values include the crushing of the colonized’ (Memmi).
@Alf was the Director of the Maritime Transport Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University someone who held the value of the coloniser and was crushing the colonised?
“Much if not most of our meritocratic elite are not Scots”
I wonder which part of “meritocratic” you fail to understand, Alf.
There are initiatives that hire and promote based on membership of “in groups” – they’re called DEI. They’re not meritocratic and they’re also widely recognised as being fundamentally a “bad thing” if the best results are what is wanted.
As for the idea that Scotland can’t build ferries, recycle jam jars, etc. because not enough Scots speak Scots, I fail to see the connection.
Most of the world’s successful engineering individuals, companies and countries speak zero Scots. It doesn’t seem to hold them back.
In a colony the meritocratic elite will mostly be expected to hold to ‘the colonizer’s values’ (Fanon) and this would seem to be one of the main criteria for appointment to top posts. In a colony it is ‘only the values of the colonizer that are sovereign’ (Memmi).
Which probably helps explain why the 4% who attend private schools end up filling around 50% of top positions in Scotland:
link to socialmobility.independent-commission.uk
I am sorry to see this outcome for Christian Allard, it is not just a blow to him but a humiliating one. He has been a dedicated and hard working SNP councillor for years as well as having some short parliamentary experience, and he’s a pleasant human being. He has also had a real job in the fishing business which pushes him up in my estimation. If he has flaws as a politician there are two of them. In the first place I think he has been overly loyal to the party hierarchy over the years; and secondly (Christian is French) his grasp of grammatical English in my opinion is not of the standard one would wish in a high profile politician.
Still,to be beaten to the nomination by this blatant race activist and grifter is unconscionable, I suspect some skullduggery at work.As an SNP member and semi-activist in a neighbouring constituency I do not wish her well and I hope to God (that’s the Christian one) that she does not achieve a high placement also on the regional list.
I think I shall be making a donation to Alexander Burnett’s Tory campaign as well as to Fergus Ewing’s.
As a Scot whose kids are half-Northern Irish, I think the one part of that timeline that is (only reasonably) close to being plausible, is the possibility of another Republican victory in Stormont. Since the last Census showed the demographic tipping point had been reached (though in truth, the 2011 figures showed under-45’s were majority Catholic and minority identifying as “British”, so it was to be expected) a border poll has looked more and more inevitable – and a lot of Unionists, in both NI and Scotland, will be shocked to see the UK establishment won’t fight anywhere near as hard to keep NI as it did/does to keep Scotland.
In truth though, the SNP should have exploited the referendum issue as far back as 2021, given the GFA allows the issue to be raised every 7 years in NI. After all, in a “Union of Equals” Scotland should also be allowed the same benefit…
Instead, due to the Sturrell Mafia’s incompetence/sabotage, we are seeing the “what would an independent Scotland mean for NI’s place in ‘tha Yun Yin'” flipped on its head with “what does a United Ireland mean for Scotland’s place?”
Gareth touches on the somewhat spasmodic approach that certain “players” take in “the game” of returning Scotland to self-governing status.
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
FAO Robert Hughes if you happen to be reading, re. your post on Grousebeater article.
link to x.com
Shitey twitter / x bollox blocking post visibility.
So here’s the nitter link which includes comments below Craig’s post.
link to nitter.net
I read Gareth’s post and it is the first one I have read for a long time. Gareth having a pop at anyone else for having an ego and blowing their own horn is in black kettles and pots neighbourhood. After the referendum I joined the SNP and read every blogger I could find including Gareth. All these years down the line I am not in the SNP and have left most of the blogs I used to read and in a few cases support with money. I now no longer bother with Bella, the Ginger Dug, Barrhead boy, James Kelly, Peter Bell, Jeggit and Gareth to name a few and all for the same reason. When I asked a reasoned question they went tonto and either launched a tirade of swear words or went into a rant about whether I knew who they were. The result is a block by all the great men listed above so I do not bother with their blogs. If we ever get a campaign I will have to start paying attention to them but not now. After all these years I still read this blog which says a lot about the man who produces it.
@ DavidHolden, I agree that some of the bloggers you mention haven’t taken on board that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar! However I think you would be safe to listen to Through a Scottish Prism because there is a panel of 3 or 4 speakers, usually Lloyd Quinan [ex MSP], Eva Comrie, Phil Boswell [ex MP], and Allan Petrie. Lloyd Quinan has personal experience of working with John Swinney back in 2000 [LQ not impressed!] and many useful contacts and insights. The weekly podcast is on the Barrhead Boy site because it is chaired by Barrhead Boy.
Aye, another day and a few more post btl on that linked to article.
No fucking wonder “the cause” for returning Scotland to self-governing status is such a fucking shit show with most of the big ego bloggers continually spouting their divisional pish so openly.
Fuck sake, will you bunch of big-headed cunts give it a fucking rest and put a bit more effort into building some unity of purpose instead.
In case you hadn’t noticed, nobody is forming any kind of unity of purpose from all the discord you are sowing.
@ Sarah Thanks for the reply. I watch the Prism podcast from time to time but most weeks they repeat the same things over and over and it can get a bit boring. I agree there are good people on the panel and I still enjoy when Phil goes off on one and fillets a few of his former SNP colleagues. The Liberate Scotland movement is still in its early days but they are standing an ISP candidate in Argyll and Bute so no need to spoil my ballot. I miss the Iain Lawson blog as it had a very good comments section without the troll baggage of many sites. Even Barrhead Boy has lightened up a bit as after his Saga holiday to Damascus he has embraced Salvo/liberation and managed to bury the hatchet with Iain Lawson before his untimely death. It will be interesting to see the final list of candidates for this parish as not sure who is on the main ballot and who is on the list. Intersting times.
It’s a great day for journalism. The media house of cards is about to collapse.
Lessons have been learned, and new systems are already in place to make sure these regrettable misunderstandings never happen again.
LGBT at the very heart of it. These people are beyond redemption. Who around the world will believe anything they say now. It’s a global meltdown for them.
Northcote 4.51pm
One of the reasons that infrastructure is so poor is because of the fiscal wheeze brought in by Westminster called PFI.
Now PFI is a wheeze. Instead of let us say borrowing money to a car, which borrowing you would have to put on the balance sheet, why not rent it instead which you don’t need to put on the balance sheet. And at a stroke you keep the country borrowing down.
And so it was with a road, a school, a towns streetlamps, a hospital or whatever. Get a nice Special Purpose Builder to build you your school, hospital, road or whatever and he will then rent it back to you over typically 25 years,
And the cost of borrowing. Well if borrowing is bespoke for every project, and provided by the finance sector, does anyone think it will be just a tad more expensive that what the government can borrow for a traditionally funded project, through taxation and government borrowing. The cost of store card credit compared a bank load might be a way to look at it. But for the financial sector it was trillions of pounds of loans – which dear old Mr and Mrs Public pay for.
But it doesn’t stop there. Procuring from a developer, the developer is responsible for the design and build. The developer self checks the build quality, to include every aspect of whatever it is from design, to build quality, to certification to subsequent maintenance. Building tomorrow’s slums today, the incentive is very much in play to build as cheap as you can and self certify as being all in order. Long enough till the bit of kit gets transferred to the government at the end of the concession period.
Now, with central government calling the funding tune PFI became the only game in town and the builder developers cleaned up. And the results of self certification is there for all to see. Schools with walls falling down, colleges with new cladding falling off. hospitals with cladding falling off and broken down much else, the change in procurement standards across industries is quite immense. Indeed, although not PFI the self certification of Grenfell proved the point about letting corporate interest free to self regulate.
But maybe that is too much detail save to say that standards of engineering construction have fallen big time. Its all about money and the pressure is there to build as cheap as possible with little or no proper check.
Interesting then to read the Public Accounts Committee who have said this –
” In October 2018, government announced it would no longer use the PFI model. Existing PFI contracts remain in place and the earliest ones are now starting to expire. Most PFI contracts result in the assets – whether it’s a hospital building or an IT system – being returned to the authority once the contract ends.
PFI assets should be well maintained throughout the contract life and be in a good condition when returned to the authority. However, one of the main risks to value for money in PFI contracts is that they are not, which poses a risk to any public services associated with those assets.
The NAO has found that public sector bodies risk underestimating the time, resources and complexity involved in managing the end of PFI contracts, and that there is danger that important infrastructure could return to the public sector in an unsatisfactory condition and services could be disrupted unless a more consistent and strategic approach is taken to ending PFI.
While authorities will want to ensure they receive assets in the best possible condition at contract expiry, PFI providers have an incentive to limit spending on maintenance and improvement work in the final years of contracts, as savings can be used to pay higher returns to investors. Survey of public authorities managing PFI contract found a third of them expect to have formal disputes over the end of contracts, which can be costly for authorities.
Many authorities start preparing for contract expiry more than four years in advance but there is a risk this is not enough time. A lack of adequate preparation risks increased costs for authorities and service disruption. Before contracts expire, authorities will have to decide whether services, such as maintenance and cleaning, will be provided in-house, by a new contractor or by the current provider. If authorities do not prepare, services can be disrupted, or they may have no choice but to extend contracts. ”
But Scotland bought this mess too. Started by Thatcher and the Tories, and brought up to full speed by Labour under Brown and Blair this public accounts committee and national audit report lays bare the iceberg that lies ahead.
A bit like the Boeing Aircraft Company where quality was built out as a sacrifice at the altar of profit we are through Thatcher, Blair and Brown now paying the price.
Idly surfing the net last night, I stumbled on some interesting facts, new to me at least.
Who knows which country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves? That’s right, Venezuela.
Who knows which country the world’s greatest living half-Scot, president Donald Trump, is threatening with a carrier task force, strikes against “drug mules” and general sabre-rattling rhetoric? That’s right, Venezuela.
Who knows what the projected oil price is, should the US invade, install the rightful democratically elected government of Venezuela, and lend them the expertise and cash they need to get the oil not just flowing, but flooding onto the world’s market?
$30 per barrel. Within President Trump’s remaining term – 3 years.
So with just one signature, President Trump can destroy the economy of Orcland, and cut the legs out from under poot’s efforts to re-instate his country’s imperialist, colonising period, this time with him as tsar. Yay!
Not to mention outsmarting the Covid Spreaders, who have bet the farm on us in the west beggaring ourselves buying the renewable stuff they have spent decades engineering a supply choke-hold over. Double Yay!
Of course, it would be bye-bye to our North Sea too, and we could forever greet intae oor drams aboot it. But the reality is, our own government in HR already killed that off, while we Scots cheered them on and voted them back in, again and again and again.
Who knows if any of this is going to happen? At the very least, it is being discussed in serious MSM publications. And certainly, President Trump knows the power he has to irrevocably change our world, if he chooses to use it
So, fingers crossed!
It’s a no brainer.
Give up the cocaine and start drilling.
Are we just going to let this contender for Gag of the Year go without praise:
There is zero chance that the UK government would be able to, nor would even wish to, deliver against the hopes and dreams of the Scottish People and zero chance that an incoming Reform Government would do so either.
PS: The use of government and Government also made me smile
So the rest of the Yookay, nay, the World, only just now learn what we in Scotland knew over a decade ago…
The BritNat Brainwashing Channel isn’t to be trusted where news is concerned…
youtu.be/ZDuep8plB9E?si=uoXUhK0pJCy6PQOh
Link to the Nick Robinson “He (Salmond) didn’t answer” scandal.
And guess who is leading the charge to defend the BBC…
link to archive.is
Angus fkg Robertson. Not just defending the Enemy Broadcast Corporation, but defending them for wilfully distorting news media. Fkg outrageous. To think I once thought highly of this treacherous grifter. (A very long time ago in fairness).
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them… “
Looks like the TV licence fee might go up by a billion pounds.
Looks like the BBC is toast. Exposed for utter bias.
The Panorama programme that spliced two parts of a Trump speech to fake up that he called for violence is utterly outrageous. Absolutely outrageous lies and the BBC have been caught out big time.
Trump is therefore absolutely right to intimate suing for for one billion pounds will bring this busted bugle to its knees. Make Blighty Great again, they tried to intervene colonial style and interfere in another coury’s affairs.
But this time the British Bias Corporation picked the wrong country, the wrong guy, and they are going to burn.
And not before time.
BBC even misreported the weather forecast at least twice for Glasgow Indy Marches…….
Many of us here in old Blighty rejoice at the (hopeful) demise of the BBC. As Karoline Leavitt remarked, hapless Britons being “forced to foot the bill for a leftist propaganda machine”. Very true IMO.
The BBC speaks for the Metropolitan Left only, not the rank and file. They, and the BBC, can all do one as far as I’m concerned. Maybe they can start taxing smashed avocado on toast, or something.
What I can’t work out is: how did they expect to get away with it? Did they really think that Trump would somehow remain ignorant of their having manipulated his words so as to make it appear as though he had been inciting violence/a riot? 🙄
The BBC is not toast, though those who say that, want it to be.
The BBC has a lot of enemies, and what they want instead is stuff like GB News, in other words media that is avowedly right-wing biased. Some on the hard left are similar (ironically), though wanting what is less clear as there is no major left wing outlet in this country unless you count The Guardian, which is hardly radical left and not a ‘TV’ news channel anyway.
I suppose there is an argument that says if people looked at a range of opinion-based news, they might just get closer to some kind of truth without the need for an arbiter like the BBC, but how many would do that? They would just go into their comforting, confirmation bias bubble.
What I say here will change no minds, but despite its flaws, BBC News is one of the more neutral out there and at least has the aim of being that, in theory, if not always in practice. How can I tell? – it is not that difficult – look at the BBC website stories and then same stories in right and left-leaning websites / newspapers and the differences are obvious, the constant spin on the latter, transparent. That is not say I do not have my own examples and criticisms of BBC bias, but it is all relative. The problem the BBC has is that by aiming / claiming neutrality it is always up for heavy scrutiny, whereas with most of the rest, the question does not even arise. But the BBC has the licence fee, so has to take it on the chin.
As for the Trump edit, clearly wrong, misleading in the specific edit (and one assumes, deliberately), but it did not misrepresent what the sentiment of his speech was – he did clearly encourage the insurrection across its length whilst at the same time lying endlessly about a ‘stolen’ election. This has all be detailed and understood for years.
@The Flying Iron of Doom wrote:
What I can’t work out is: how did they expect to get away with it?
Well, normal, balanced, sane men and women of the world might well ask such a question with (considerable and justified) incredulity, myself included. I mean, it’s bad enough to do this at all, but to do it to the world’s most powerful – and likely most litigious man really does take all kinds of special, doesn’t it?
However, it’s a mistake to judge such people in these terms, whether as individuals – or indeed entire (captured) corporations. One has to consider the psychology that’s likely involved?
Most “avid lefties” as we might term them tend to operate in hermetically sealed social (and professional) echo chambers where there is no divergence from even extreme, counter-factual political thought. Hidden behind block lists and partisan social media, slavish groupthink and the frequently grave consequences of ANY dissent, these people tend not to experience (nor tolerate) even mainstream centrist/small-c Conservative views (what we might collectively term “common sense” majority thinking). In such an extreme environment, it becomes more believable that people will start to believe their own publicity; all-powerful individuals within the BBC might actually genuinely think that such antics are not only acceptable – but somehow “necessary” – and furthermore somehow won’t be discovered, or even if they are, will carry no consequences.
The complete corrosion – and eventual loss – of critical thought and a sense of reality that’s rooted in the real world, as opposed to some ghastly dystopian virtual reality, coming crashing down.
IMO, the defunding and dismantlement of the BBC can’t come quickly enough.
that fucking b1tch Lloyd is on scotcast
getting our minds right
was she nikkis flying monkey or her handler or her enforcer
and Salmond’s widow is in the poor house
shame
hey rev tell us more about trannies I want to know
But will the buck stop at the BBC with only two sackings. The misinformation and disinformation propaganda in the BBC is absolutely huge.
Take Scottish independence. Take the many independence marches and who could not but observe how attendances at these marches were often reported at something like 5% to 10% of a tall attendance and where 100,000 could be reduced to as low as 5,000. Anyone attending or anyone seeing aerial pictures knew the extent of the BBC misinformation.
Misinformation, political misinformation and disinformation is what the BBC is about. It’s most certainly not just restricted to Scottish independence or Trump. But in picking on Trump, a now two time President, and son of a Scottish mother from Lewis, the propaganda machine this time picked the wrong country and the wrong person.
Will it stop at the seniors already sacked, will it take more BBC scalps, or will it now head to take politicians too.
I dont know the answers to that but one thing for sure President Trump is going to exact retribution on the hapless ex colonial masters.
The BBC have history of tampering with recorded footage !
link to google.com
Oh and here’s another piece of news that the BBC has discretely played down. It’s a piece from the Times of India.
link to timesofindia.indiatimes.com
In this piece it is reported how it was well know by security, royal staff, a d the Queen herself that Andrew was bringing prostitutes to Buckingham Palace.
The article also reports how any protection officers who voiced security concerns were silenced.
It’s an interesting piece and it looks for sure that what was previously hidden about Prince Andrew and the Firm may now be heading for the harsh harsh light of day.
We’re just gonna have to hope they never got paid, or if they did, that he was exceedingly stingy with the tips.
Cos that’s the only part of this story that could ever make anybody look bad.
In the real world, I mean.
What’s up next? Bloke takes a slash without lifting the seat first. Next user has to wipe it clean!
Haud the press!
You blaw your yins up I expect.
@Alf Baird;
I just read this on JPTi’s News page, which went up yesterday;
Salvo/Liberation has fired JPTi.
The key excerpt;
“On 18 October 2025, pursuant to the Phase II Memorandum of Understanding with LS and Salvo, JPTi submitted its draft report outlining the outcomes of the mission, summarising its advocacy achievements in New York and Geneva, and proposing a strategic roadmap for continued engagement with the United Nations in both headquarters. Only a few hours later, JPTi unexpectedly received a letter of termination from Liberation Scotland -sent without any prior consultation, discussion, or warning.”
This was three weeks ago! Where does this leave Scotland’s Petition?
The linked document gives JPTi’s side of the story; can you give Salvo’s?
Sounds like JPTi told Liberate a few honest truths and they didn’t like it. Rather like my experience here I would say.
Adrian would do well to check the name of the organisation whose relationship with JPTI he speculates about.
“Liberation Scotland’s reaction—terminating the partnership, refusing to make the scheduled payments due by 25 October under the Memorandum of Understanding and its subsequent adjustment, and falsely alleging that JPTi was in credit to them—was profoundly unprincipled and indefensible. It constituted a complete act of betrayal, throwing JPTi under the train of geopolitics after months of loyal, professional, and strategically successful advocacy on their behalf before the international community.
The pursuit of self-determination must never devolve into fanaticism, where ideological zeal blinds actors to the true purpose of decolonisation—the attainment of the highest possible degree of self-governance, grounded in human rights and international law. JPTi has always maintained—and consistently explained to Liberation Scotland and Salvo—that the United Nations framework for decolonisation seeks to realise the best possible form of self-government, not to impose a single, rigid outcome. JPTi’s role was to guide them through this process, not to yield to their ambitions concerning other territories or peoples wholly unrelated to Scotland.
Following this betrayal, JPTi nevertheless acted in good faith, granting Liberation Scotland and SalvoScot Ltd. the opportunity to rectify their breach and settle the matter amicably. All that was requested was that they honour their October payment for the work successfully completed. Regrettably, neither Liberation Scotland nor SalvoScot Ltd. fulfilled their obligations, further aggravating the damage and placing JPTi in a difficult financial position, despite its unwavering and successful representation of their cause before the United Nations.
Consequently, JPTi has been forced to make this matter public and to formally denounce its relationship with Liberation Scotland and SalvoScot Ltd.”
—————————
Money.
Aye,
Poor auld Alf will miss his expenses paid jollies to New York, Geneva etc.
One wonders what our old friends Fanon and Cesaire would make of it all…
@Captain Caveman
Isn’t it obvious? The Anglos and the Zonalists have infiltrated LS and destroyed it from within.
Aided and abetted by the stalwarts of the 7th Brigade.
My own view is that it doesn’t directly affect the Petition in that it has already been formally lodged, and it is anyway awaiting other developments that will likely take a few years, so it’s entirely possible for Salvo/Liberation to take on another legal intermediary before too long.
I’ve copied my earlier post to Craig Murray’s blog, too, so hopefully he will provide some more background.
Of course it won’t affect the petition, nobody is looking at or is interested in the petition now and going forward it will continue being of no interest to anyone in the UN system.
JPTI’s use of the term fanatic is interesting however, what do you think they meant there?
Xaracen @ 12.12.
“Take on another legal intermediary.”
I’m guessing that as long as there remains an allegation that there is a dispute re payment of fees outstanding, it’s unlikely that there will be too many firms/groups willing to become involved.
This type of representation is not inexpensive and once a client gains a reputation (justified or not, and I have no knowledge of the rights or wrongs of this matter) for poor settlement of fees few others are keen to become involved.
@ Xaracen: “Where does this leave the Petition?”
The formal Petition process starts in March 2026, I believe, so there is no problem as yet.
Nevertheless, it is a pity that there has been a disagreement.
@ Xaracen at 12.12: to clarify my comment that the formal process begins in March 2026, compared with your reference to the Petition having been lodged formally.
My understanding from information given on Liberation Scotland’s facebook is that formal Notice of the Petition was given in May 2025 along with a relatively short draft of the petition. A much longer document will go to the C24 Committee next March.
Even so, sarah, my understanding is that the UN’s procedures still require the UNGA to formally recognise Scotland as an actual territory before the C-24 can begin to evaluate its status as an NSGT, and getting that recognition is unlikely to have been acheived so soon. Salvo/Liberation expected this would take several years, though its progress to date has been significantly faster than expected.
You could well be right, Xaracen!
Meanwhile in a parallel universe, The BiS proposal is seen as the key to success, link to weegingerdug.wordpress.com
Here is the key extract so you don’t have to click on the link:
I am considering starting a new premium subscription service to the blog. All blog articles will continue to be freely available to everyone, as now, but should there be sufficient interest I am thinking of sending out an additional premium subscriber only email piece once per week to everyone who pays a regular monthly subscription fee of £5.
@ Stuart MacKay: neither of those pieces of information about WGD come as a surprise, do they?
PayPal Paul?
My take is that this was a commercial dispute over contractual obligations and preformance which led to the termination. There was no disagreement over strategy that I witnessed.
“On 18 October 2025, pursuant to the Phase II Memorandum of Understanding with LS and Salvo, JPTi submitted its draft report outlining the outcomes of the mission, summarising its advocacy achievements in New York and Geneva, and proposing a strategic roadmap for continued engagement with the United Nations in both headquarters. Only a few hours later, JPTi unexpectedly received a letter of termination from Liberation Scotland—sent without any prior consultation, discussion, or warning.
Rather than acknowledging the nuance of JPTi’s position, the termination letter reacted with hostility, misrepresenting and unjustly accusing JPTi’s remarks of aligning with a colonial power. The letter expressed dismay that JPTi had allegedly positioned itself in New York as supportive of “the colonising state” of French Polynesia, claiming that such a position would have harmed their reputation within the “international anti-colonial movement.” It further asserted that JPTi had acted independently, according to its own judgement and interests, disregarding the fact that it was “speaking on their behalf.” Finally, it alleged that, without the intervention of others, JPTi would have delivered a statement that was “deeply harmful” to their credibility.”
“JPTi remains fully committed to supporting any genuine Scottish representatives who seek to engage with the United Nations decolonisation process in good faith and in accordance with international law. However, it strongly discourages any collaboration or funding for the individuals currently identifying themselves as the Committee of Liberation Scotland and Salvo, as their conduct has exposed a profound lack of reliability, professionalism, and integrity, incompatible with the principles of lawful and ethical advocacy.
Justice pour Tous Internationale continues to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and professionalism in all of its international engagements and will never compromise its principles in the pursuit of justice, human dignity, and truth.”
————————————————–
That is damning.
Ouch !!
Well Alf, sarah and Xaracen….looks like your UN petition
nonsense is totally f*cked !
repeat…
“JPTi..strongly discourages any collaboration or funding for the individuals currently identifying themselves as the Committee of Liberation Scotland and Salvo, as their conduct has exposed a profound lack of reliability, professionalism, and integrity,”
“The biggest mistake the Trans movement made was to assume that women were easier to pick on than men…”
@ Craig Murray at 3.09: Thank you for this input, Craig. Such an incident is unfortunate but no campaign runs entirely smoothly – e.g. Robert the Bruce. There’s enough intelligent people in Liberation, including yourself, to find a way to continue.
If finance is a cause of concern, please do a crowdfunder.
“… it strongly discourages any collaboration or funding for the individuals… as their conduct has exposed a profound lack of reliability, professionalism, and integrity, incompatible with the principles of lawful and ethical advocacy.
What a peculiarly vicious and strange little statement.
Folk often overreact when they have been caught doing the dodgy; they often accuse the targets of their attempted dodgery of exactly what they themselves are guilty of; they cry and they shout and they stamp their feet and they blame everyone else but themselves whilst harbouring a special little hatred for those ‘targets’ who got away.
“… continues to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and professionalism in all of its international engagements and will never compromise its principles in the pursuit of justice, human dignity, and truth.”
Oh my! How noble… but either it is suffering a major malfunction or my “raging bullshit” alarm has been triggered by a motherlode.
My father, Sigmund, once told me on my fifth birthday “Kleiner Ziggy (my real name)… always remember there are two sides to every tale, and those who shout their tale loudest are invariably the noisiest.” such was my father’s wise counsel.
You compliment yourself with some superior Scottish wit (a view I am not is justified by anything, but putting that aside), the irony that all of this is coming out over a post called “Grift away” is just beautiful!
“… that is some superior Scottish wit…
An unexpected, and unlooked for, compliment.
Very kind of you, AI Dan.
@ Northcode at 4.29: “there are 2 sides to every tale, and those who shout their tale loudest…”
My thoughts exactly.
Yes, there is a school of thought which suggests the British (and/or French) state may be behind the rather extreme response of JPTi to what was an anticipated ending of their initial contract with Liberation Scotland. The French state in particular was subject to considerable criticism at the recent UN C4 meetings in New York regarding its ongoing mistreatment of colonial possessions, as raised by Liberation Scotland and other petitioners.
Fuck me Alf, even by the extremely high standard of nonsense you’ve set for yourself, this is particularly insane.
You must be terrified, the security services of two large powerful countries collaborating to bring you down. Don’t go near any open windows!
“The French state in particular was subject to considerable criticism at the recent UN C4 meetings in New York regarding its ongoing mistreatment of colonial possessions”
Whereas the Orcs and the Covid Spreaders, to name but two, presented convincing evidence that all of their colonial possessions are voluntary in nature, and that the colonised peoples would be devastated if their imperial overlords were ever to consider letting them go free.
An amusing little episode happened with the Orc delegation. The ink on the title deeds of their newest colonies, the ones currently being seized at the rate of one meter and the cost of 1000 lives per day, was still wet and got smudged!
How everyone laughed.
Well, what a day. I have to admit I hadn’t expected the campaign to fail that spectacularly, I thought it would just be spoken about less and less and then the usual suspects would move onto the next cunning plan.
Still, that’s that then I guess. Seems that behind the scenes JPTi were telling Liberate what many of us on here have been saying for a while now. So what’s the plan now, endless spamming about the ICCPR? Or is a new cunning plan to be dreamt up?
There’s a few blogs dotting about telling us that the union is about to suffer an existential crisis, so perhaps we all grab a wee dram and wait for that to happen then?
“the union is about to suffer an existential crisis”
Whit ‘union’ wad that be?
The union between Salvo and Liberation Scotland, Alf !
Do try to keep up with events !
And what is it to you exactly, “Aidan”?
Away and peddle your unionist pish somewhere else.
“Well, what a day. I have to admit I hadn’t expected the campaign to fail that spectacularly”
But it hasn’t, Aidan, has it? It has neither failed nor succeeded YET!
This is just your usual overblown, heavily biased, dishonest misrepresentation.
WOW all the usual Scotland HATING cringing fuckwits cannot wait to show their glee and derision, that anyone who attempts to better the lives of REAL Scots by doing SOMETHING suffers a setback
Unfortunately for them it doesn’t STOP the number of REAL Scots becoming aware of just how despicable these creatures are who are so ashamed of their nationality that they celebrate with gusto small wins by their oppressors , they are to be pitied for their subservience to their maisters, PLASTIC CRINGING non Scots
“Scotland hating” – let me tell you who are the actual Scotland haters here, it’s you and your mob who insult and demean Scotland with every appalling and demented rant you inflict on the rest of us, normally in the small hours of the morning. None of you have a single positive thing to say about Scotland, at least not that I’ve been able to see!
I think what all the rest of us are hoping (against hope) for is that this relentless campaign of mindless geriatric spamming and fantasism might give way to a place where mature conversations about Scottish politics might be able to take place. At the moment there are more sophisticated conversations taking place in the monkey enclosure at Edinburgh zoo.
Well, Twat H, that’s a point of view, certainly.
Have you ever considered that what REAL SCOTS maybe want is a group of sane, rational, hard-working, competent, grounded politicians, economists, engineers, bureaucrats, administrators, etc. to put in the long miles and the nose-to-the-grindstone graft needed to build a solid, watertight, popular, democratic case for Indy?
That maybe REAL SCOTS are sick and tired of the “we wus robbed” eternal greetin and gurnin and rehashing of 2014, and quite unimpressed by the “let’s sit on our flabby arses with our begging bowls out for Indy” attitude that seems to be what passes for the movement these days?
That perhaps REAL SCOTS won’t allow a non-democratic putsch by a tiny minority of deluded fanatics, nor will they consent to having a language only a minority can read, speak and write foisted upon them.
Well, have you?
“celebrate with gusto small wins by their oppressors”
What are you, 75? Yet still needing to be told to grow up. Realists are “celebrating” a tiny group of fantasists who took their self-identified Scottish Exceptionalism and imaginary victimhood out into the real world and were knocked back by the grownups.
Oppressors? With so much real oppression going on in the world right now you dare to count yourself in the ranks of the oppressed?
Get a fucking grip.
Best post I’ve read for months, Hatey !
Well said !
i reckon main is a fat bastard bald cunt john bull who lives in perthshire, something he “got a great deal on” when he cashed in his civil service pension after 40 years as a benefit fraud investigator (reaching EO level); he hides behind the curtains in case he sees a “Scotch” walking past his garden. He has a dog named “dog” which he kicks regularly. One day he will die, no one will notice or care, and the dog will eat him, causing severe flatulent gas. He has a portrait of the old queen, the famous one on his wall (Pietro Annigoni), and in his bedside drawer a signed photo of John Greig who called him “an annoying wee p00f” back in 1978. He had a wife once, a nice, decent woman, who put up with him for decades, but finally died, exhausted, removing the last humanising influence from his life; his one slice of luck, not hers though, the aggregate stress of living with him driving her to an early grave. His life story is like an inversion of Dorian Gray, for the moral corruption of his soul is etched on his face and body. He stays indoors, posting relentless and dull jizzdribble on a near defunct website, as he feels it gives him a purpose in life – that he is still out there, fighting the good fight against the empire’s enemies – the fuzzy wuzzies, the hottentots, the mohammedans, but most of all – the Scotch, those layabouts on benefits, with their buckfast and diazepam laced heroine. Oh Yes! His mind swirls with fantasies of his daily victories, like the fake shootdowns of a Baron von Munchausen, not a Richtofen.
Best post I’ve read in months, Confused!
Ditto Northcode ,Confused your words describing Hatey MacFuckwit produced a vision of him with hatred and anger that is uncontrollable because he feels hard done by and rejected by his superiors
He continually complains about the elderly , infirm and unemployed yet he is on this website 24/7 posting endless streams of pish as is his betters aiden and co
@Twat – you’re obviously rattled enough to be doing your ranting during business hours
I may have posted this before, Twat H, but it bears repetition.
Ask somebody you trust to explain “24/7” to you.
Apologies if well-meaning people already have done this several times. This time write it on a piece of card and leave it in your line of sight. Next to the “Turn Caps Lock Off” instruction.
OMG ALL these CRINGING Scotland hating fuckwits DO NOT like a mirror held up to them , they are SOOOOOO outraged when reality is exposed to them
Never mind when independence comes you can all insist that you were all massive supporters of independence instead of cringing COLLABORATORS
Another thought I had was that the UK will try to disrupt anything that helps Scotland leave the Union. It is obvious. So of course this spectacular outburst from JPTI could well be an example. Alf Baird’s comments seem to confirm this.
A lot of speculation in this thread on all sides. There has been one checkable factual element:
“Following this betrayal, JPTi nevertheless acted in good faith, granting Liberation Scotland and SalvoScot Ltd. the opportunity to rectify their breach and settle the matter amicably. All that was requested was that they honour their October payment for the work successfully completed. Regrettably, neither Liberation Scotland nor SalvoScot Ltd. fulfilled their obligations, further aggravating the damage and placing JPTi in a difficult financial position, despite its unwavering and successful representation of their cause before the United Nations”
Did Liberation Scotland nor SalvoScot honour the October payment? If not, perhaps there is a good reason they would like to share.
It would give less credibility to the statement that follows “JPTi..strongly discourages any collaboration or funding for the individuals currently identifying themselves as the Committee of Liberation Scotland and Salvo, as their conduct has exposed a profound lack of reliability, professionalism, and integrity”
It is a savage indictment of the individuals named, and it only fair that they can respond.
It’s actually not that simple, factchecker. JPTI had requested and received advance payments. There is also a dispute over the effective start date of the agreement.
Liberation Scotland have made the settlement they believe is due after taking legal advice. JPTI dispute this. Nobody has actually gone to court to resolve it.
As I said, this is a simple commerical dispute over actually not a very large sum of money compared to the amounts already paid. There was no argument over strategy before this commercial dispute.
It’s a storm in a teacup.
Knowing nothing about the detail, but even to take it all at face value, (just for arguments sake) I find the JPTi go-straight-to-nuclear option very unprofessional to say the least, especially if it’s just over money.
I cannot say it is disproportionate to events, because I don’t know the background, but airing dirty washing in public as your opener doesn’t seem very classy, especially from someone with a legal background.
Rather, it seems calculated to create maximum embarrassment, harm to the cause, and it’s that as much as anything which makes me suspicious. I am not jumping to conclusions, I need to know more, but anyone who doesn’t expect SALVO to become a target for “funny business”, isn’t following the history of UK underhand methodology. Don’t forget too, professor Robert Black KC is on board with SALVO, so I’m already dubious about accusations of impropriety and lack of professionalism. (No lesser reflection on the integrity of any other SALVO / Liberation people implied).
Be on your guard SALVO. Take nothing at face value, but equally, the same argument above could be seen from the JPTi perspective as SALVO going straight to nuclear by sacking them.
Why would a process apparently going well suddenly veer off the rails into acrimony and dispute with overtones of scandal? Can’t blame Sturgeon this time. I don’t know, but since it’s nearly pantomime season, you’ll hopefully excuse the seasonal paranoia; Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Is raising funds to advance the cause of Scottish independence, and then using those funds to promote the entirely unrelated causes of the Kanak people of New Caledonia and the people’s of French Polynesia, an example of embezzlement?
‘… It’s a storm in a teacup.
More like a Hurricane 12, I’d say old boy. 😀
Butterkist on DEFCON 2.
You’re right, Captain – the whole affair feels more like a teacup in a storm… where the Scots are the teacup.
But who is conjuring up the storm?
JPTi’s statement feels more like an imperial attack than a commercial dispute.
By the way, those colonialists on here tempted to gloat over what they, erroneously, perceive as a blow to the hopes of those Scots seeking liberation from oppression would be wise to temper their glee… for God is always watching, and God loves the Scots.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”
Luke 6:25
Oh, and there’s this guy – one of my favourites:
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”
Proverbs 27:1
Butterkist? Only the best for you, cave dweller, eh?
….. Nah, sorry, it’s fecking hilarious 😀 😀
As for dissing Butterkist, now THAT’S fighting talk. Maybe that’s why they all fell out so acrimoniously?
Well Craig, you can look forward to being an English nationalist again and helping Your Party to success at next year at Holyrood election.
To be honest Salvo should have terminated your involvement with Salvo but haven’t so today I written to Salvo asking for my details to be removed and my membership to end its a shame but I cannot have my name associated with anyone who represents an unionist party and then tries to deny it.
Here’s an idea. How about everyone who wants Scotland to have its status as a normal nation state restored, supporting/encouraging everyone else who wants Scotland to have its status as a normal nation state restored?
There’s a vast crowd of intelligent people in all walks of life [lawyers, scientists, politicians] who are spending large chunks of their time explaining and describing exactly how and why Scotland can and should be an independent state. The case for restoring Scotland’s status has been made time and again since 2014. It is available to be read online and watched on youtube.
The hold up is caused by the SNP’s failure – and it looks as if they are doing it deliberately.
“The hold up is caused by the SNP’s failure – and it looks as if they are doing it deliberately.”
Yes, the delay in independence and rupture in the movement caused by the dominant national party being ‘co-opted by colonialism’ (Fanon) is an established aspect of postcolonial theory:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Indeed, Alf. Ireland’s example couldn’t be clearer yet there will be people who don’t want to see/hear or learn the truth. It is shocking – they would rather have Scotland suffer than try to help get us out of the Union.
Sarah,
Salvo and liberation Scotland is official dead and berried its time to move on and stop wasting valuable time on a donkey with a broken back.
Catherine Connolly sworn in as Irish President (Uachtarán na hÉireann):
Bilingual:
youtu.be/1U6BvggKtx0?si=xIWw0lPNDfE_E2qK
Irish:
youtu.be/ZEUa1Q3l5X0?si=LCFI5uxsfRfQVMs2
What trumps integrity, transparency, and professionalism?
What compromises principles, justice, human dignity, and truth?
What is the more important… a fistful of dollars or the freeing of a people from oppression?
The Swiss have a world-wide reputation for being the Earth’s bankers; champions of cash; the high priests of Mammon.
Lawyers have a world-wide reputation, some – mostly lawyers – say is unwarranted, for being money grabbing shysters.
That being the case, Swiss lawyers might well sit at the head of the top table at a dinner held for the world’s most mercenary, Mammon worshipping, unscrupulous legal outfits
Justice for all – except for the Scots, it seems.
Liberation/Salvo’s statement is on Liberation Scotland facebook now.
As I expected, Salvo/Liberation sound reasonable and justified.
The usual motley crew of infantile gloating Yoons posting above will arrive any minute, to retract and beg panance for their lies…..
Schadenfreude would be more accurate description. “gloating”. doesn’t do it justice.
Yes James – that is definitely what is going to happen. It’s what in the legal profession is called a ‘bare denial’, I.e. a denial not supported by any facts, explanation or evidence.
The twats round here kinda baffle me; what is their purpose? Their arguments are shit, they convince no one (and in fact, wind people up), and it’s all just petty sniping or repeating the same crap they have done dozens of times. They are all english or yoons, so why don’t they fuck off to wetherspoons, for the all day breakfast, made with lard?
If I was english/yoon (unfortunate accident of birth, but nothing we can control) – I would not be worried about Scotland at all, and wouldn’t waste my time here; it is in fact one thing I would NOT be worried about – I mean its political class are sellouts, the real nationalists are in disarray since Salmond died and as long as the oil/gas/electricity is flowing, who gives a fuck? I would be spending my time on the comments sections of telegraph/mail/guardian/spectator/new statesman/etc.
As an anglo there is a ton of stuff I would be more worried about – trump, america, the EU, getting dragged into more wars, economic mismanagement, then this fuckwit thatcher tribute act who has all but been crowned, Farage; there is food prices, energy supply, energy security, the huge costs of nukes, islamism, wokism, flooding, drought in summer, shit in the water, diverse stab-r4pe as public sport, a football team that never fucking wins anything and the general feeling that the “green and pleasant land” is sprinting towards shithole status i.e children of men/camp of the saints. Wings has about as much importance as a mongolian basket weaving forum. tranny tranny tranny … they trannied the trannies up the tranny with the tran – that’s about it
You assume everyone against a second referendum is a Unionist, or english or whatever.
There is no hope currently of a second referendum succeeding so there is no point having one at the moment. Maybe sometime in the distant future.
Waving a magic wand and wishing suddenly all will be well is a waste of time for everyone.
Its the same old garbage that gets trotted out again and again by both sides.
A lot of folk, myself included, have concluded that the quality of current Scottish politicians and politics is so poor that I would not trust them to run a piss up in a brewery, never mind a country.
@ Rob at 3.28: “no hope of a second referendum succeeding”. Why do you think this when the polls are 50:50 or thereabouts? And life here under the Union is getting distinctly worse?
” the quality of Scottish politicians is so poor..”: Indeed. But they wouldn’t be solely in charge of negotiations under the entirely changed circumstances of independence. And in 2026 we could put in place many much better politicians to play their part in the process.
Well Said Rob!
The quality of the MSPs, certainly in the SNP (with one or two exceptions) and the Greens is laughable. No business or social experience outside their tight political circles. These are the people with crackpot ideas (I good name many!) who will lead us into “Independence”.
It’ll take some decades until the quality of Scottish politicians possibly improves. Leave it a generation and bear the cost of Holyrood and all its political/civil service machinations!
sarah @ 3:48
“But they wouldn’t be solely in charge of negotiations under the entirely changed circumstances of independence”
Eh ?
what negotiations ?
who else would be in charge ?
and where are all these “much better politicians” hiding at the moment ?
Exactly Insider – if there are these great politicians now who will get themselves elected and then do a fantastic job, we can just elect them in 2026 can’t we.
Ah…..now the concern trolling begins; we need to wait “some decades” for independence. Jesus wept.
The purpose of the btl commenters that you describe is to dishearten and in every possible way delay or prevent Scotland escaping the Union prison. They are in the pay of the Union. If they aren’t actually being paid then they are very sad people who have no interests in normal life.
Best get comfy in your prison. It’s permanent. Unless you and your gang want to take the country by force. Then you will get a prison within a prison. That’s your options. Unless you guys haven’t noticed the whole world has changed. There’s a new force on the rise. A supreme force of fascist right wing storm troopers roaming the glens in redcoats looking for trouble makers.
I voted yes in 2014, but would vote no now.
No agenda, no pay or whatever.
I just look at the SHG and those in it and think no way am I going to give that bunch of idiots more power over my destiny.
They make WM look good and believe me that is difficult.
I do find it funny that every time someone disagrees with some of the zealots on here about independence that the accusations come out about Yoons, paid agents and propaganda,
Maybe we just disagree with you at this moment in time and don’t want to give the Greens and the SNP in particular any more support for their stupid agendas?
Indeed, Sarah. Dishearten, demoralise and delay appear to be unionist tactics.
Although I think those tactics are accidentally arrived at here and arise from a hatred of all things Scottish.
I doubt the colonialists on here are paid for their comments for the simple reason they are achieving exactly that which Westminster seeks to discourage… anti-union sentiment among the Scots.
Judging by the number of unionists rushing to ‘tear down’ your comments you must be saying all the right things in support of Scotland’s independence.
Keep on keeping on, Sarah. You’re doing a great job.
A decent question.
I am an ‘anglo’ who lives in England. I will never live in Scotland (probably) but visit regularly and have explored all over the country – lowlands, highland, islands, cities, countryside. I support Scottish independence. I actually care about Scotland and the Scots. I grew up with Scotland as part of my psyche as a citizen of the UK – a place apart but similar and familiar but different. That makes it attractive and interesting. My first ever visit to Scotland back in the early 80s was memorable for nearly all good reasons. I found I liked the Scots. In many ways England and Scotland compliment each other, despite some of the rancour, but I do think it is time for political autonomy for Scotland. The English have no specific right to hold onto Scotland, especially given the history of oppression.
I find the slightly mad banter here entertaining, and over time you sort of get to know names and post types / opinions. In effect, it is social media; you get drawn in. I restrict my posts to stuff talked about England (especially wrong things) and more general topics as I do not have much meaningful to contribute about independence and Scottish politics (and it would be fairly arrogant to do that anyway), but plenty of other stuff is discussed.
I do worry about England. But I worry about Scotland and Wales and Ireland too. We are connected peoples. Yes, some of that is due to the iniquities of the British Empire but so be it, there is nothing I can do about that, the kinship is there, at least from my side.
Lots of good points there. Given the centuries of intermingling, intermarriage and internal relocation that have taken place, how could it be otherwise?
A couple of points come to mind, neither of which are ever considered on here.
Given the self-evident fact that the British Isles are the target of an ongoing, “unstoppable” invasion and colonisation, what group of people stand to gain most from the divide-and-conquer policy supported by the useful idiots?
Given that Scotland was never more advanced in engineering, science, education and medicine than when completely under the thumb of the “oppressive, brutal, murderous, colonial power”, why does the myth that Scotland will thrive on its own internal resources persist? Particularly when the past decades of enhanced devolution have served only to boost our ranking on the world’s laughing stocks chart.
Of course, the very fact of asking these pertinent questions brands me, in the chanting football terracing binary “logic” of the potty mouthed fuckwits, as a Yoon.
Whatever.
I don’t have any insight about the ability of Scotland to survive / thrive as an independent country but the problem with the half way house of devolution is that it still provides the bogey man of Westminster to attach blame to for potentially everything. And whatever the perceived cause of the dynamic, the constant reference point of England / Westminster seem to just entrench the victimhood. And even if you believe the victim status is justified, you have to try and get out of that mindset. I can understand those who say the only way that will happen is with independence. It comes with risks but the current limbo land is possibly a worse risk in the longer term as it produces at best stasis and at worst, a kind of endless angry impotence and despair.
“Statement on Termination of the Agreement with JPTI.
As the contracting company, SalvoScot Ltd. notes with regret the recent press release issued by Mr Sharof Azizov, following our termination of the agreement with JPTi and of the working relationship with the Liberation Scotland Committee (LSC).
In accordance with the non-disclosure provision of the Memorandum of Understanding. (MoU), SalvoScot Ltd. had intended no statement with respect to our reasons for ending the agreement, nor any comment that might be considered detrimental to JPTi. We had expected the same level of discretion and professionalism in return. In light of Mr Azizov’s press release, however, the following clarification is provided for the record.
Due to failures to fulfil contractual obligations, and at the request of the Liberation Scotland Committee, SalvoScot Ltd. withdrew from the agreement with JPTi in October, using the seven-day notice clause provided for in the MoU. All payments to JPTi were made in advance and no further sums are outstanding or owed.
Mr Azizov’s representation of the character of Liberation Scotland, the Liberation Scotland Committee, and SalvoScot Ltd., as well as of the validity of the international case for decolonisation wholly contradict his statements in personal appearances, press releases and official documents over the six months, (March – October 2025), prior to the termination of the agreement. He has produced them now, for the first time, following the termination of his relationship with us.
SalvoScot Ltd. remains as confident as ever of the strength and validity of Liberation Scotland’s cause and arguments and of the eventual success of the LSC’s international campaign. And we remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of professional and contractual propriety.
This statement by the Board of Directors of SalvoScot Ltd is approved by the Liberation Scotland Committee and the Salvo Core
SALVO”
Should change the name to Hamas and they would be all ears.
Why was Sharof Azizov in New York discussing French territories at the expense of a group supporting Scottish independence?
Once they’ve constructed 500 miles of reinforced concrete tunnels somewhere they can try again. They’ll need a few dozen teenage lassies too.
Perhaps we should put out an all-Scotland call for volunteers.
@agentx; You left out the bottom half of the Salvo statement.
“In terms of credibility, honesty and good faith we hope the picture will be clear to our members and supporters from a comparison of this press statement with JPTi’s statements, appearances and documents over the previous six months.
?What we can, and we think we should explain, however, is the importance of Mr Azizov’s sudden departure from arguing our case strictly in line with the right to self-determination according to UN Resolution 1514 (XV) and Resolution 1541 (XV), to his new position which now aligns with that of the colonising powers. The French administering Power is presently trying to introduce an interpretation of decolonisation as ‘autonomy’ (devolution!) within a colonial structure. It would be disastrous for all remaining colonies, including Scotland, if the UN allowed devolution within a colonial structure to replace the right to real self-determination.
The change of allegiance by Sharof Azizov, and the breaking point for the UN ‘team’ became clear when, while in New York to represent us, at our expense, last month, Mr Azizov altered his planned petition to reflect the position of the French colonising Power rather than our own. After a furious exchange he was persuaded that he could not adopt a position inconsistent with his client’s, one that would undermine our own case and our credibility with our strategic allies.
In the end, Sharof Azizov accepted this and he and his colleague both argued that UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) and Resolution 1541 (XV), cannot be reduced to “autonomy” within a colonial structure, nor can it be negotiated away under political pressure or by external interpretation. You can see this here:
(1:57:32)
(2:36:00)
We can only speculate as to what kind of inducement could have produced such an about face during the C4 session in New York. The present extraordinary ‘press release’ is, as Sharof Azizov’s correspondence makes quite clear, ‘the penalty’ for our withdrawal from an agreement where we could no longer have any confidence in our representative.
Finally, we have made enormous progress over the past six months and remain grateful to JPTi for its contribution to that advancement. In fact, we are now in a position to move ahead, not primarily through formal representation, but through the diplomatic and political alliances strategies and approaches which are the true drivers of a campaign like ours.
This would have meant ending our working relationship with JPTi next month, (December 2025) naturally, as the regular expense no longer makes sense. Where we require legal advice, document drafting or other services, we will now contract for them on an as needed basis.
It is harder to report on the meetings and alliances and approaches in development but we will do so as soon as the next stage and its plans get underway. In the meantime, Craig Murray’s presentation at the recent IFS Autumn Convention should provide a sense of where we are and what we expect to see in the near future.
(From 4:12:30)
For Scotland
Salvo.?”
My post was a direct post from their facebook page at the time link to facebook.com
Can you provide a link to the further information please?
It came from an email from Salvo, which began with the part you posted, and continued with the part I posted. It seems the email was a fuller version.
Xaracen says:
12 November, 2025 at 9:14 pm
———————————
Thanks for the explanation.
It seems JPTi and Mr Azizov are a gang of children going cuckoo and are having a wee Swiss tantrum after being clocked by Salvo for being useless.
Here’s part of Salvo’s rebuttal of the JPTi infantile and contract-breaking outburst:
“Due to failures to fulfil contractual obligations, and at the request of the Liberation Scotland Committee, SalvoScot Ltd withdrew from the agreement with JPTi in October, using the seven-day notice clause provided for in the MoU.
All payments to JPTi were made in advance and no further sums are outstanding or owed.”
So, there it is. The ‘professional’ expertise of JPTi’s lawyers was found wanting and not worth the big bucks they were paid up-front for and so, as contractually agreed by them, they were dumped, kicked oot on their pinstriped erses, with seven days notice.
It appears Mr Azizov is bursting full with sour grapes.
What a sneaky two-faced little sh… lawyer that guy is:
“In accordance with the non-disclosure provision of the Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), SalvoScot Ltd had intended no statement with respect to our reasons for ending the agreement, nor any comment that might be considered detrimental to JPTi.
We had expected the same level of discretion and professionalism in return.
I never did trust the Swiss (even the ones I liked and worked with on the shores of Lac Leman fishing for Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike back in the eighties) – they are too much like the French (without the bolshiness)… and the Germans (without the desire for world domination)… and the English (without the overly-polite passive-aggression).
Anyway, despite the failure of JPTi to provide a competent legal service, Scotland’s petition appealing for the liberty of her people has been safely served to the UN and the decolonization process begun…
They must be Yoons. Swiss Yoons.
Listen to yourself.
Truth will out,eh.
But when did any Yoon ever speak truth regarding auld scotia?
As I’ve said to your comrades the game is over.
A Tsunami is on its way.
There’s always the auld songs of battles lost and battles lost again to lament on. The auld victim routine.
Even the Swiss think you’re a bunch of Bandidos in kilts.
“Votes!Votes! We don’t need no stinking votes!”.
“Votes!Votes! We don’t need no stinking votes!”
A line often misquoted – as it is above, but a line from an unmistakable, and always recognisable, source.
“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” – 1948. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt.
Brilliant!
“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges!
We have no badges.
In fact, we don’t need badges.
I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!”
Someone said to me the other day
“Sturgeon is living rent free in your head.”
And I said
“No she isn’t. I’m just investing in a ring side seat for the execution”
Believe in Scotland!
I certainly do. I believe you We can take it from the Greeks to secure our destiny.
It sounds to me as though Sharof Azizov and his organisation have been got at. They’re just a small outfit and probably vulnerable to threats by the big powers singly or in combination eg, France, UK. They seemed to be recommending a version of devolution.
It was inevitable that there would be kickback when the significance of who Sharof was supporting had sunk in. Remember the three ‘journalists’ at their UN hearing? They didn’t file news reports, so who did they report to?
But, I guess, most people reading their account will recognise that some of Sharof’s statements are so bizarre they can’t be taken seriously.
Hear, hear, Mary B. “..Sharof’s statements are so bizarre they can’t be taken seriously.”
Indeed, yet I am pointing this out on many facebook comments because people are taking JPTI’s version as true, and blaming Salvo/Liberation! I despair.
The one of big question for me is, who introduced Salvo or Liberation Scotland to the organization JPTI?
What about Craig Murray relationship with Your Party!
We have a liberation movement and the people running it never tell us anything at all, sorry they do only when its been revealed by someone else.
So what happens now for Scotland cause at the UN, does anyone know?
@ 100% Yes at 6.51: “..the people running it [Salvo/Liberation] never tell us anything…”
If you are a member you get told what is happening. Also there are public meetings, youtube, facebook, twitter, websites. There is masses of information about Salvo/Liberation out there – Indycar, Norrie Hunter…
Sarah, I was a member and left for the sole reason they weren’t forth coming with information.
If your listening to Ross/Hunter here’s your problem there is always two side to a story and I would never seek either of their opinion.
I asked a simple question to those leading us at the UN and I got no reply, the question was why did the application fail twice now we know, see below.
link to uk.news.yahoo.com
As I said previously the UN process is dead and buried and another problem we had was the Craig Murray’s membership of a Unionist party and Salvo’s refusal to address it or even Murray’s refusal to step aside.
So maybe since there involved you in all whats been happening you can tell us why Scotland application failed twice.
Salvo/Liberation Scotland seems to be a complete waste of time and money just like the SNP/Alba.
@100%Yes;
“So maybe since there involved you in all whats been happening you can tell us why Scotland application failed twice.”
I refer you to an earlier comment.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
It’s a pity that Liberation Scotland/Salvo didn’t seek advice from posters on here before appointing JPTI.
They would have known that the organisation is Swiss cuckoo and useless, incompetent and a small vulnerable outfit that being Swiss could never have being trusted. Their lawyers might well sit at the head of the top table at a dinner held for the world’s most mercenary, Mammon worshipping, unscrupulous legal outfits
Although I have never seen any of those accusations posted about them here before.
(of course I stand to be corrected with links)
“Although I have never seen any of those accusations posted about them here before.”
The need has never arisen before… there’s a first time for everything. Even for when a reputable legal firm betrays a client for the first time.
“The French administering Power is presently trying to introduce an interpretation of decolonisation as ‘autonomy’ (devolution!) within a colonial structure…
It looks like the JPTi that will “never compromise its principles in the pursuit of justice, human dignity, and truth.” has compromised its principles in the pursuit of justice, human dignity, and truth.
“…while in New York to represent us, at our expense, last month, Mr Azizov altered his planned petition to reflect the position of the French colonising Power rather than our own…”
Yep. Oh, well. Noble rhetoric never did count for much beyond trying to persuade folk how noble something is – even if it isn’t.
What JPTi should have done if it didn’t want to compromise its principles was inform Salvo of its position and then walk away… not betray their paying client’s instructions and then write some bullshit statement designed to cause damage to that client’s reputation – and by extension Scotland’s reputation and that of the Scots, too, by the way – after they got themselves fired.
The pursuit of justice, human dignity, and truth?
Aye, as long as it doesn’t cost too much.
“…the organisation is Swiss cuckoo and useless, incompetent and a small vulnerable outfit that being Swiss could never have being trusted…
Well… that IS pretty much – mostly – the way things have turned out.
Some folk don’t seem to understand what Rhetoric is really all about.
A fascinating fresh insight.
Some big, bad, French barstewards did it and then ran away.
Congrats, Northy, you’re breaking new ground.
Now, do you think the “We wus robbed” and “They’re all agin us” tents are big enough to accommodate some Froggies too?
Hardly “breaking new ground”.
As Cesaire wrote, the ‘hateful racism’ of colonialism has a long history of, and depends on, ‘trickery, deceit, division, maipulation’, the use of ‘confidential agents pensioned off at high reward’ and anything else designed to maintain ‘the racket’.
In fact, this is all we can really expect of colonial rule; i.e. thayr’re mou’s appen an deceit fa’s oot – ivery time! Colonialism is a hoax efter aw and a hoax is deception.
@Nothcode
“What JPTi should have done if it didn’t want to compromise its principles was inform Salvo of its position and then walk away…..”
========
CORRECT
They could even have used the words,
“… the ultimate decision between autonomy and independence must belong exclusively to the people of Scotland, not to self-appointed civil society actors such as Liberation Scotland or SalvoScot Ltd.”
Instead, they preferred first to take their money . How lawyerly- and not in a nice way.
@ 100%Yes at 9.52: I’m afraid that I don’t understand what you mean when you say “why did the application fail twice”.
Do you mean that the petition to be considered for de-colonisation has failed? The petition hasn’t been presented yet: the Advance Notice was presented in May 2025 but that isn’t the full Petition process. The formal process can only begin in March 2026. So it hasn’t failed yet.
When in Salvo did you join a regional hub? If so, you could have been part of the central administration and would know a bit more than the rest of us.
No, I don’t listen to Ross/Hunter except in passing.
As for Craig Murray: given his months in jail on false charges because he reported the defence evidence in Salmond’s trial, I would have thought his credentials as a good guy were solid.
I suspect some unionist posters on here are quite capable of fabricating supposed Scottish credentials and spinning some negative story around them in an attempt to set those folk and organisations supportive of independence in a bad light.
It’s a slightly more sophisticated variation on the “I’m a proud Scot, but” angle.
As in “I’m a Proud Scot but I can’t write in Scots because then no other Proud Scot can understand what I mean”?
I’m talking about advance notice of petition it this that failed twice?
The Yoons are well and truly spooked by this initiative.
Let’s shove it right up them!
Yeah, we really are “truly spooked” mate. (“Laughing uncontrollably” might be a more accurate descriptor).
Bit early for any kind of victory lap, Chief.
“Yeah, we really are “truly spooked” mate.”
And yet, here you are again like the bad penny?
You’re fooling no-one ju ju man.
sarah: In response to your post above, I have a question.
Have you ever considered changing your user name to “sarah nice but dim”?
Alternatively, “useful idiot” seems to be free and has some solid historical connections.
100% Yes,
I have no idea what you are talking about. The petition hasn’t even been submitted yet, let alone failed.
If you simply submitted a petition without preparing the ground it most certainly would fail. That is not something I have found people in general have difficulty understanding.
Post after post on here, day after day, for weeks; claiming the [UN] cause has ‘failed’, we’re doomed etc etc etc… Mainly from the usual comedy 77/Yoon suspects, and possibly some well meaning Scots and supporters who have fallen for the Ingsoc Newspeak.
Yes James and you can see further upthread that they get infuriated and blood vessel fit to burst when a mirror is held up to show them what they really are, CRINGING, COLLABORATING PLASTIC SCOTS BUTS
Craig, so say you have no idea what I’m talking about when in fact you do. Salvo had given on two separate occasions advance notice of petition so the question is WHY wasn’t the petition put forward?
You have claimed that Your party isn’t an UNIONIST party which it clearly is, so maybe you can answer the question how can you represent Scotland at the UN for decolonization when you also represent an unionist party to whom you believe should give the Scottish people the right to have a referendum and from just joining Your Party you believe you’ll be able to change Your party’s policy.
No one is a yoon or a Unionist these are the question we need answering and like I’ve said aren’t forth coming. I thought we were supposed to be a liberation movement? If the people at the top need money then ask for it a problem needs to be addressed like Craig Murray and Your party then address it problems aren’t resolved if we ignore them.
Your Party is a G@za party.
Pro or anti Union is irrelevant to their raison d’etre.
As I’ve said before there’s a lot of colonising going on. Simply ignoring it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
@ 100% Yes: Your new question “Why wasn’t the petition presented” has been answered on many occasions.
The C24 Committee works on a yearly schedule. It does not accept petitions at any old time. The only time is March. So March 2026 is the date for Liberation Scotland.
100% Yes
The advance notice of petition can’t fail. It doesn’t have any official existence. It is just telling the committee who we are and why we are around. It has no official standing.
If you just bung in a petition without having canvassed the members first it is likely to be refused. It is then very hard (though not impossible) to come back from that.
Canvassing the members is not a simple process because they are not autonomous. They have in almost all cases to report back to their capitals for instructions. We need them in doing that to be making the case for acceptance.
This is diplomacy at the UN. It takes years, as I have said socres of times in multiple talks and interviews. To say it has “failed” after five months of lobbying when we haven’t even started the formal process yet is ridiculous.
Finally, on Your Party, for some reason a number of people appear furious at the idea that it may be a pro-Independence party. They insist it will be a Unionist party, even though the policy on Independence is yet to be decided. I expect it will be decided in the spring and I am confident it will be pro-Independence.
Hey Craig, concerning “Your Party”, are Corbyn and Sultana talking to each other yet – or is Corbyn still in a massive strop and meting out “the silent treatment”?
Hey Tory Yoon, why doncha troll off someplace else?
Mate. Every post you make here is abusive and/or trolling, so maybe pipe down eh.
Zero self awareness, zero IQ.
Let’s get one thing sorted. I’m not your mate.
Let’s get one thing sorted. I’m not your mate.
Like duh. D’ya think….? It’s called “a figure of speech” you fat idiot.
Rest easy mate. I’m about as likely to have the likes of you within my social circle as a tramp reeking of piss.
Many thanks for the updates Craig. These will be appreciated by the manyindependence supporters who read this blog.
Of course in respect of the trollers and nay saying narks they will continue to spew their bile in an attempt to undermine and discredit.
Not that I am a Trump supporter the BBC splicing footage of Trump to create fake news is a clear example of how the British state seeks to undermine and control the public perception.
Controlling the population through media manipulation, faux information from all manner of state actors, lawfare, bribery and or compromat, it’s all in play. And now brutal suppression of free speech as the mass of arrests of innocent peaceful people have shown.
But back to the naysayers cat callers here, most folks recognise them for what the low grade trolls that they are.
Great stuff that the decolonisation approach to the UN is proceeding and grateful thanks to all the erudite skilled and experienced folks working hard on this plank of our struggle to win our freedom.
“Rest easy mate. I’m about as likely to have the likes of you within my social circle as a tramp reeking of piss” – you’re just saying the same thing twice re James there!
Willie;
Yes indeed, and the “BBC” have got lots of past form for this; remember the main ‘national news’ during the 1984 miner’s strike when they reversed the footage of Orgreave ‘by mistake’ to make it look like the out of control police thugs were ‘reacting’ to thrown missiles.
Then there was the “he didn’t answer” scandal and the censorship of large (10,000+) independence marches(“where’s yer cameras, BBC”)…and many more of course…
“Not that I am a Trump supporter the BBC splicing footage of Trump to create fake news is a clear example of how the British state seeks to undermine and control the public perception”
One POV Willie.
I see the grifting and criminal third-world invaders who have successfully infiltrated and colonised the BBC attempting to take down the one western politician who has got himself into a position where he can really push back against them.
Feel free to disagree. But maybe you’re one of them, eh?
Craig Murray says that he has used jpti to represent cases, including Julian Lasange, in the past, and as far as I have read, he recommended and introduced them to Salvo and Liberation. I also believe from Craig’s previous writings, that he has known and trusted them for a long time.
In that case, I’m curious to know what has changed with jpti in that they appear to have suddenly moved the goal posts in Salvo’s case, from potential independence for Scotland, to promoting a form of devolution, (which we already have).
Its very interesting in what your saying about who put forward JPTI to Salvo, if I was Salvo i would remove Craig Murray and for me I’ve walk away from this whole affair it all appears to be secrets and lies and I was one who constantly gave money and to be honest what I’ve seen and heard I’m glad Ive walk away. See links below.
I honestly believe Salvo has a double agent in their mist advising them wrongly.
I so much wanted this to work for Scotland and our people and now believe its doomed to fail and fail it will, no more money from this family.
link to uk.news.yahoo.com
youtube.com/watch?v=B5fb3s0YLzk
“I’m curious to know what has changed”
The answer is obvious. So obvious in fact, that not only is it right in front of your face, it has its needle-sharp teeth clamped firmly on the end of your nose.
Is that blood? Best get a tetanus jab!
I would tell you but then you’d kick yourself so hard you would likely do yourself a mischief. And I don’t want that on my conscience.
You’re just gonna have to work it out for yourself 🙂
“I’m curious to know what has changed”
The answer is obvious but you’re just gonna have to work it out for yourself.
Scotland is issuing “bonds”; as they say in Star Wars
“it’s a TRAP”
– forced into it by westminster cuts, it will be used to justify, more cuts.
Anyone can see this, except the SNP.
Then the fuckup produced down the line will be used as a hammer “economic incompetence” to beat indy with. (That the UK is “competent” is a ridiculous myth, but the media will only propagandise one way.)
link to archive.ph
It additionally adds another “virtual senate” problem for us.
Indy would have us start debt-free (treaty of vienna), and with our intrinsic wealth have the “problem” as was put in the McCrone report of “embarassing surpluses” and the only “problem” being that our currency might be “too hard” (we export a lot).
The SNP while claiming to escape the noose of westminster, are now handing one to the “the markets” (unelected english and foreign cunts, in fancy suits, operating out of the city, they don’t care about us, for they are all fucking psychopaths)
Next up, they will be telling us they have invested in a timeshare scheme in ayia napa.
(plays out with a tune)
link to youtube.com
“half the people alive today … are fucking idiots”
Will nobody give you all the free stuff you so rightly deserve?
Why no link to “We’re In The Money”?
But sure, a grain of truth amid the chaff. We defo have one “embarrassing surplus”.
– secretly, the metaphysical abyss of pointlessly absurd hate has shrivelled main into a soul-less shadow, an approximation of a human being. He yearns for someone to take the pain away, some true scottish nationalists, fit and strong, with rakish undercuts and exquisite hugo boss tailoring, to turn up one day with the mobile gas van and send him to english heaven, that eternal Wetherspoons in the sky, where the all day breakfast is free and there is a daily world cup, which england always wins …
youtu.be/01VGtX9xfh0?t=98
breathe deeply, john. You know you want to.
Coming soon – assisted dying teams, in your area, for when you make the right decision, not to be a bother.
All english are thieves; thieves own nothing.
Actually, a thought strikes me about those unelected, fancy-suited, uncaring, psychopathic city cunts.
They just lurv winners, successes, profits, investment opportunities, spondoolees too numerous to count that have to be weighed instead.
All the things you claim Scotland is bursting at the seams with.
So why the fear?
Methinks something does not compute.
I was watching Simon Reeve in Taiwan on the box last night. I wouldn’t be surprised if the subject of Scotland is banned in Taiwanese schools. Too much humour could be dangerous to the kids whose aptitude, belief, work ethic and achievements make our own look ludicrous.
Still, this is Wings BTL. The usual suspects will be praying for Taiwan to be obliterated.
INVESTITURE OF CATHERINE CONNOLLY.
Short report in Irish by Seán Tadhg Ó Gairbhí.
[English translation added]
BEAN PHRIONSABÁLTA INA hUACHTARÁN
[A PRINCIPLED WOMAN AS PRESIDENT OF IRELAND]
Ócáid stairiúil don Ghaeilge a bhí ina hinsealbhú i gCaisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath inné.
[The investiture at Dublin Castle yesterday was a historic occasion.]
Chuir an t-uachtarán nua an Ghaeilge i lár an aonaigh ar shlí nár tharla ag searmanas insealbhaithe aon uachtarán eile.
[The new president centred on the Irish language in a manner unprecedented in any other presidential investiture ceremony.]
Go deimhin is deacair cuimhneamh ar aon ócáid mhór náisiúnta eile inar chuir duine sinsearach sa saol poiblí an teanga i lár an aonaigh chomh neamhbhalbh neamhleithscéalach sin.
[Indeed it’s hard to recall any other significant national occasion in which a senior public figure emphasised the language so pointedly and so unapologetically. »
Ní hamháin go raibh níos mó Gaeilge ina hóráid insealbhaithe ná mar a bhí in óráidí na n-uachtarán a chuaigh roimpi, ach thagair sí do ghnéithe de cheist na teanga ar annamh a luaitear iad ag ócáidí poiblí nuair is leor de ghnáth an cúpla focal plámásach.
[Not only was there more Irish as such in her own investiture speech than in those of any of her antecedents, but she broached issues about the language seldom aired on public occasions, when typically a few flanneling words suffice. ]
Labhair sí óna croí faoin tslí gur cuireadh an teanga faoi chois “d’aon ghnó de bharr smacht na dtíoránach, nó de bharr neamhairde, neamhchúraim nó easpa tuisceana”.
[She spoke from the heart about how the language had been trampled underfoot “either deliberately under the sway of tyranny, or through distraction, carelessness, or want of insight.]
“‘Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam’. Agus is fíor sin, mar nuair atá a teanga múchta, ní féidir leis an tír, nó aon tír, a mianta, a luachanna nó a spiorad a chur in iúl,” a dúirt sí.
[“‘Land without a language, Land without a soul’. And how true that is, because when its language is suppressed, no country can adequately articulate its aspirations, its values, or its spirit”, she said.]
“Ligimis don Ghaeilge bláthú” agus “scaoilimis le chéile anois leis an bhfaitíos” a bunteachtaireacht ó thaobh na teanga ina hóráid insealbhaithe inné.
[“Let us allow Irish to flourish” and “let us now get over our fears” – these were the keynotes regarding the Irish language in her investiture speech yesterday.]
link to tuairisc.ie
Just out walking. Maybe a day for this one:..
SCÉL LEM DÚIB
(Ní fios cé chum, 900/1000 AD)
Scél lem dúib:
dordaid dam;
snigid gaim;
ro-fáith sam;
Gáeth ard úar;
ísel grían;
gair a rrith;
ruirthech rían;
Rorúad rath;
ro cleth cruth;
ro gab gnáth
giugrann guth.
Ro gab úacht
etti én;
aigre ré;
é mo scél.
BRIEF ACCOUNT
(Anonymous Irish 900/1000 AD)
Brief account:
Stag’s complaint.
Cold front.
Summer’s spent.
High cold blow.
Sun holds low.
Short the day.
Sea just spray.
Bracken brown,
Broken down.
Geese all mouth,
Heading south.
Chilled each quill.
Feathers’ flurry.
Weather’s hoary.
End of story!
(Published in An Leabhar Mòr/ The Great Book of Gaelic)
link to archipelago.org
Fergus,
Are you sure you are posting on the right website ?
This is “Wingsoverscotland” which is concerned with Scottish and UK politics.
Some politico-lingual musings…
« The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought — that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc — should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. » (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four)
« Le but du novlangue était, non seulement de fournir un mode d’expression aux idées générales et aux habitudes mentales des dévots de l’angsoc, mais de rendre impossible tout autre mode de pensée. Il était entendu que lorsque le novlangue serait une fois pour toutes adopté et que l’ancilangue serait oublié, une idée hérétique — c’est-à-dire une idée s’écartant des principes de l’angsoc — serait littéralement impensable, du moins dans la mesure où la pensée dépend des mots. » (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, français)
« Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. » (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four)
‘An té a stiúrann an t-am atá caite’, de réir mhana an Pháirtí, ‘stiúrann sé an t-am atá le teacht: an té a stiúrann an t-am i láthair, stiúrann sé an t-am atá caite.’ (Irish by historian Vincent Morley)
‘Neach aig a bheil smachd air an àm a dh’fhalbh’, ars am Partaidh, ‘bithidh smachd aige air an àm ri teachd: neach aig a bheil smachd air an là an-diugh, bithidh smachd aige air an là an-dè.’ (Scottish version)
———
« Oggi un paese appartiene a chi controlla le comunicazioni. » (Umberto Eco ‘Il costume di casa’, 1973)
« Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications. » (Umberto Eco, as English translation in ‘Travels in Hyperreality’, 1986)
“Inniu, an té a bhfuil ceannas aige ar no modhanna cumarsáide, is é atá i gceannas ar an tír.”(Umberto Eco, Irish translation by Risteard Mac Gabhann.)
« An diugh, tha an tìr a’ buntainn ris an neach aig a bheil smachd air mòr-chonaltradh. » (Umberto Eco, Scottish translation)
———
« Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar.
This is the way Scotland ends
This is the way Scotland ends
This is the way Scotland ends
Not with a bang but a whimper. »
(T.S. Eliot, ‘The Hollow Men’, slightly amended)
‘Geese all mouth, Heading south.’
Whoever the poet was they get their point across nicely.
‘Weathers hoary, end of story’
A comedian perhaps.
Many thanks, Fheargais
In my ignorance I didn’t know An Leabhar Mòr was online.
My hardcopy vanished in a hospital some years ago.
“My hardcopy vanished in a hospital some years ago.
What a fucking nightmare!
this is disgusting, from so many angles
link to archive.ph
– the chutzpah is that Denmark has laws (“bloody Germans”) stopping foreigners from doing exactly what this guy is doing.
Notably “rewilding” never extends to the native, indigenous, humans.
There is one view : you don’t own nothing, you just live here – the oligarch view.
Of course you may think you are a citizen of Scotland, a “sovereign Scot” and have different ideas. Such differences of opinion must be resolved, eventually.
Poulsen may actually be a “good guy” (and not a “wank” – been a lot of these in the Highlands) but his money shouldn’t trump the democratic will of the Scots.
“money shouldn’t trump the democratic will of the Scots”
Test of the democratic will of the Scots coming up in May 2026.
Go to it, make your pitch, see if anybody really cares.
I mean, REALLY cares, other than just futilely bumping their gums as we do with every subject under the sun.
Don’t you live in some God-forsaken, high-rise, shithole of a flat anyway?
What do you know about the Scottish countryside? Why don’t you celebrate the fact that somebody cares enough about parts of Scotland to spend their own hard-earned cash in saving it from the human pestilence?
That human pestilence that has destroyed so much of this Earth, and is set fair to destroy all of the rest quite soon now.
The human pestilence that has despoiled this earth for the past 1000 years is : THE ANGLO
Aye, Confused, same old…
link to dearscotland.substack.com
You should put your name down for a shift on Confused’s mobile gas van, Dan.
But be careful. Nobody’s gonna sit around meekly waiting to be lined up and processed this time around.
This time around, everybody kens how the story ends.
Reading between the lines, I think one thing is becoming clear, and that is the mainstream Independence bodies need to start backing SALVO and getting their members, families, friends and acquaintances all signing up in volume.
Stop looking at the UN as an experiment to merely observe, and just take it as read that progress at the UN is good for Indy and good for Scotland. Get on board with it. Start acting like you want your Nation to exist. It costs nothing, it doesn’t hurt, do it once in the comfort of your own home and it’s done.
If SALVO had a petition on the streets in 2014, I don’t think there’s a YESser anywhere who wouldn’t have signed it and backed it to the hilt. Where are they now?
All those back in 2014 taking Wee Blue Books into places where only the brave would go, get there again to get people signing up to the Liberation pledge.
We all know why Independence is bogged to axles, and we know who’s responsible, but it ISN’T SALVO and it ISN’T Liberation. Ticking that box on the petition ought to be painless no brainer and require zero effort.
Instead, moping about and giving lacklustre support is a gift to the Unionists, and does Scotland no favours at the UN.
All the way back to pre 2014, I have never understood why people find the concept of sovereignty so difficult to grasp. I mean, fk me… Sovereignty isn’t just our trump card, it’s the high Ace, winner-takes-all of trump cards, but securing our right to decide still needs joined at the hip with an emphatic will to free our nation.
The pro Indy polls are encouraging, sure, but kids below voting age could sign that petition, so to see it languishing around 100k is an embarrassment upon all of us.
Sod the SNP and poxy UK election constraints. All that will deliver is more of the same shite we’re all sick of. Get a campaign mobilised, now, to get people signed up to Liberation. Get print runs of petitions for signing everywhere there was a Wee Blue Book sent in 2014. Get stalls taking names.
The “Home Rule” Scottish Covenant, started way back in 1949 secured over 2 million signatures, that was 2 million people wanting this Union dead 76 years ago, four years after WW2, so don’t get complacent about Indy “in the polls”.
Liberation needs those kinds of numbers, and for so many alleged supporters of Independence, why is it like getting blood from a stone?
I really, genuinely, don’t get it. This petition is a more potent phenomenon than any opinion poll, and personally, I find it disgusting that so many sit idle while SALVO marches into battle with pointy stick and some bluetak, when it should really have 2 million of us carrying them shoulder high along streets bedecked in Saltires.
link to salvo.scot
Stop fkg about, and get Liberation Membership into 7 figure territory and beyond.
It’s a lovely day tomorrow
Tomorrow is a lovely day
Come and feast your tear-dimmed eyes
On tomorrow’s clear blue skies
If today your heart is weary
If every little thing looks gray
Just forget your troubles and learn to say
Tomorrow is a lovely day
Another problem for scottish bonds – with a lower credit rating than UK gilts, they have to offer a greater return; the only way you can do this is to “do something different” with your economy to achieve this; but you can’t as scotgov has none of the necessary economic levers, since anything of importance is “reserved”.
– it’s a fucking dumb plan, it’s dead in the womb actually.
But hey, we have running us the “women can have penises”-people.
Problems, problems, everywhere – milliband is shilling for “cute nukes”
link to archive.ph
– it’s green, so it is. Has a crack at mad vlad, who would be happy to sell you low cost gas on long term contracts. The rushans always deliver BTW, except if don’t pay them.
I want to see the young engineers who are going to build these small reactors – diverse, with purple hair and pride flag t-shirts … what could go wrong?
“small modular reactors” is just a meme, a marketing slogan.
Telly’s crap.
Who’s up for a bit of Nat baiting?
Broadcasting is reserved to London Rule, so suck it up ya fud.
It’s times like this that I’m glad I joined the Fascists.
The Scottish Supremacists have done enough damage to our beautiful country.
So why has Ed Miliband announced that he wants to build so called Small Medium Reactor all over Scotland.
Scotland is self sufficient in power. So why?
Could it be that if Westminster builds nuclear reactors in Scotland then that would justify building the UK repository for high level long term nuclear waste here. Scotland is after all the preferred location for the UK dumping.
Just saying like, can’t think of a better place to dump mother England’s waste, can you?
“Could it be that if Westminster builds nuclear reactors in Scotland then that would justify building the UK repository for high level long term nuclear waste here. Scotland is after all the preferred location for the UK dumping.”
Yeah, this exactly. Mulwhachar mkII.
(SMR)= Small Modular Reactor,
not Small Medium Reactor.
“Scotland is self sufficient in power”
Zat a fact, willie?
Let me take a wild guess here. You’ll be basing that claim on the fact that when the wind is blowing strongly, the generated power exceeds the power in use.
You’ll be ignoring everybody heating their homes with gas and oil, wood and peat. You’ll be ignoring every petrol and diesel vehicles on our roads. You’ll be ignoring every industrial user of gas. You’ll be ignoring every farmer spreading fertilisers made from oil-based feedstocks on his fields.
And you’ll be ignoring the herd of trumpeting, squealing, defecating elephants in the room. All saying that during a period of high pressure weather, when the wind drops as fast as the temperature, then so does the “free” power as the wind turbines stop turning.
So the question is, when you claim “Scotland is self sufficient in power” are you just doing that for effect?
Or do you actually know SFA about what you write?
fuck, man, it’s worth dropping by here noo n again to witness Confused ‘kin laying waste to the Yoon dross that litter this gaff.Not a fan of blood sports but seeing daft cunts like Main trying to spar wae oor man is like watching Sugar Ray Leonard fighting a two week old kitten. Brilliant work, C-Man.
n check that ponce ” aidan ” trying to lecture the commoners on the value of polite discourse – the same cunt who effectively called oor man , Twathater a paedophile and whose sense of superiority oozes from every word he writes: here’s a suggestion Einstein, if you don’t like the company, fuck off; you’re kidding no-one that you’re here because you support Independence.
n aw the bawbags wetting themselves with infantile glee at the JPTI fuckery, couldnae wait couldyeez, to stick yr shite-filled boots into people who are trying – against unbelievable hostility from cunts that do fuck all but sneer from the sidelines – to improve the lot of ALL Scotland’s residents; note, not a fuckn one of them had the integrity to admit they’d jumped the gun before Salvo/Liberation had a chance to put their side of events; when they did so, giving an entirely reasonable explanation of their actions and, if anything, exposing the bad faith of JPTI breaking the agreement not to go public with any disagreemnents that could arise between both parties; and unilaterally changing the brief to, essentially some kind of ” enhanced Devolution.
NAW! Full Independence, no half measures, facsimiles or compromises
that’s what they were told was the goal. We can only speculate why they ( JPTI ) decided to put their own spin on what Salvo/Liberation had mandated/hired them to do; and then start throwing accusations about in public. Who is being ” unprofessional ” there?
fuck knows why Stuart lets these incontinent toddlers wet the WOS bed day in day out, making up most of the BTL comments with their inane drivel, consisting of nothing but variations of everything English is great – everything Scottish is rubbish.
Free Speech? aye, up to a point, eh, ” certain ” topics are proscribed though. Bitterly ironic that it’s the issues that are having the most baleful effect on Free Speech, not to mention the right to protest and express an opinion publicly,that are being proscribed.
never mind, eh, at least the Yoons are given free rein to dribble their pish on this ” Scotland’s Most Read PRO=INDEPENDENCE Blog “: Penguin Wings Over Scotland.
Respect to the remaining decent posters here, you know who you are
Have you been on the buckie all afternoon?
Is that what you think is an adequate response, ya fanny? It just, again, proves what I said, ie that you think you’re some kind of superior being.
Every response you give to people disagreeing with you reeks with some degree of class-based sneering.Naw,I don’t,n never have drink/drunk ” buckie “: but I know people who do, and every one of them is a far better person, eg, more generous of spirit, funnier ( that wouldn’t be hard ) and a whole lot less up themselves than you: but that’s just the kind of pathetic stereotype pricks like you will resort to when interacting with what you inherently believe to be your inferiors.
News just in ……yr just some daft cunt on a blog who has an inflated sense of his own importance: an insignificant bore whose absence would go unnoticed and unremarked
Sounds like he’s been on it all his life !
What an absolute roaster !
@Robert – how do you expect a normal person to respond to the abusive rantings of someone who, judging by the above, is barely literate? I think suggesting you were drunk is probably quite charitable on my part, it would be a far bigger insult to suggest you’re doing all this whilst sober.
You’re problem, in common with a lot of posters here, is you can’t handle someone challenging your beliefs and world view without flying into a blind rage.
You’ve upset them, Robert, and just for LOLZ.
Someone Scotch has told “Aidan” what ‘buckie’ is and told “insider” what a ‘roaster’ is (but all they need to do is look in their mirror in the mess room to see two of the second items).
“News just in ……yr just some daft cunt on a blog who has an inflated sense of his own importance: an insignificant bore whose absence would go unnoticed and unremarked”
Perfect!
All we need now to round off this exchange is the boy who frequently asserts that “every accusation is an admission”.
Then we’ll be done, and Indy will be (checks tape measure) precisely 0 inches closer.
Or 0 seconds sooner, whatever.
I note Bob has been getting a lot of stick. Fair play to the man, at least he’s not havering away in Scots.
And here comes James, Wing’s smelliest commentator. What unique and fascinating insight does James bring today.
Oh that’s a shame, never mind, maybe tomorrow
The King of Kubala has had more coverage than Salvo/liberation.
The one thing that takes it off the brass neck scales completely is your arrogant assumption that Wings is exclusively for Scottish Supremacists.
We are not gloating we are embarrassed.
You don’t want democracy you want your own way.
Now it’s clear that you ain’t getting your own way you spit the dummy and hurle abuse.
Bed time story for SNP voters.
The forest was on fire and all the
animals swam across the river to
escape the fire.
The scorpion could not swim
and begged the fox to help
him.
“Please take me across the river on your back – or I will die.”
“I am not a fool” said the fox “you will sting me and I will drown”
“No” replied the scorpion “I promise that if you help me – I will not
sting you – after all, if you drown then so will I”
“Okay” the fox agreed, and the scorpion climbed on his back.
Halfway across the river, at the deepest part – the scorpion stung
the fox.
“Why did you do that” the fox shouted.
“I just couldn’t help it” cried the fox as they both drowned. “It’s
just my nature!”
Maybe it would’ve helped if the scorpion “identified” as a fox? Such a concept seems to be the idée du jour in lefty circles.
CBBC covers that in great detail. Like Trans milk is better for babies than mothers milk.
I haven’t seen anyone on here claim that they are an SNP voter for a long time.
What people say in public and what they do in the ballot box are sometimes worlds apart. As seen at the referendum.
The only way to stop the fascists gaining hold in Scotland is to vote SNP. Labour if you haven’t noticed are in freefall. And that’s before the budget. So Scottish voters are finding themselves in the worst part of a bad place. Assuming they don’t want Farage as Overlord. What’s the options? Then there’s the greens with a track record in Scotland for disaster and insanity.
Point?
So the moral of the quango scandal is don’t stand next to Angus Robertson at a bus stop.
“It gives me no pleasure to reflect on the giant fall-out between Salvo and its lawyers. I know many people in Salvo and they’re good people, but they all went mad. They honestly thought a judicial body in the UN would break Britain up for them, even against the will of its population.”
Kings in a land of fuckwits | RobinMcAlpine.org
They honestly thought a judicial body in the UN would break Britain up for them, even against the will of its population
Sums it up very succinctly. I mean – DUH. Who knew eh? [off the scale sarcasm]
Intruding on private grief is one thing, but the absurd, obnoxious and frequently rude hubris of the last few months demands it.
Does that mean you’ve stopped [checks notes] shitting yourself, CC?
Must have been costing a fortune in bog roll.
@Hatey
😀
Yeah, shitting myself laughing. Gives the phrase “shits and giggles” [Fanon] a whole new meaning…
Robin, like too many ” prominent pro-Independence commentators “, who really should be better informed, is talking out his arse on this issue.
Salvo/Liberation have NEVER ” …. thought a judicial body in the UN would break Britain up for them….”. They are * simply * attempting to get the U.N to designate Scotland a NSGT with the aim of, that status having been given, create the conditions where Scotland was free to, eg hold referenda whenever it/we so desire; and one held under own auspices and which, unlike the kid-on Ref in 2014, would be definitive.
Salvo/Liberation have said repeatedly that ultimately the destiny of our country will be determined by the residents of Scotland
” They hit reality this week as their lawyers explained basic concepts to them, exasperated that anyone could actually believe what they were being asked to believe. This was always going to fall apart…” . This is so much a mischaracterisation of the situation I can only assume Robin wrote it before hearing Salvo/Liberation’s side of the dispute. Everything about that quote is wrong and it’s really quite shocking that he should automatically give credibility to the JPTI version of the dispute and none to our side.
If people are not going to take the time to fully understand what groups like Salvo/Liberation are about – and what they’re not about – it behoves them to shut-TF-up about them and concede they don’t know and/or are not interested, for whatever reason.Better that than display your ignorance in public.
The thing is, whatever you think of what Salvo/Liberation are attempting and what you think are their chances of success, is it too much to just let the get on with it? Realising they are genuinely committed to what they believe is or could be actions that would ultimately be of benefit to Scotland.
Once again we witness the historically self-harming tendency of Scotland’s most insidious enemies being those within it’s borders: many of whom claim to be it’s most fervent defenders.
Pathetic
“Scotland’s most insidious enemies being those within it’s borders: many of whom claim to be it’s most fervent defenders”
Aw. It’s but a short step from there to claiming that Scotland’s staunchest patriots may be those who are viciously assaulted and insulted by those same self-identifying fervent defenders.
Who really knows, eh? I mean, REALLY KNOWS.
But can we all agree on one thing? Scotland does the best wee ideological purity spirals in the entire world.
Dinna get dizzy noo, Bob, as it all spins faster and faster.
Agreed, Robert. Robin got this one badly wrong! He has completely mischaracterised the purpose of Salvo/Liberation’s Petition to the UN, which is to ensure that the English half of the Union doesn’t have carte blanche to interfere in any way with any future Scottish referendum on the resumption of Scotland’s independence, by having such a referendum formally overseen by the UN.
As Robin himself admitted, he is exceptionally busy with other things, and it shows here. He clearly didn’t deploy his usual nit-picking diligence with this particular matter.
Perhaps Robin just recognises what everyone else can see.
There is no chance of Scotland being added to the list of NSGT’s. Scotland doesn’t meet the criteria for an NSGT or even come close, and it would take a majority of UN members to vote to dispense with one of the foundational concepts in international law: the right to respect of the territorial integrity of states.
Secondly, C24 has no power to add new territories to the list of NSGT’s, so presenting a tiny petition to that forum can have no effect. As per the failed attempt on behalf of the people of West Papua.
Thirdly, even if against all odds Scotland was added to the list. Any referendum will still be organised by the British state as per New Caledonia, the Falklands, Gibraltar etc. the idea that the UN is going to demand that English people can’t vote, that unionists can’t make campaign promises and that the BBC can’t cover the campaign is all total nonsense.
Spot on.
“Perhaps Robin just recognises what everyone else can see…
What? His own reflection in room full of mirrors?
That is SO interesting, AI Dan. Thanks for sharing.
I wonder, do you and Grok socialise on weekends?
How are your American programmers today – all fine and dandy and shining from sea to shiny sea I hope?
Thank you for addressing all the substantive points that I raised Northcode, you are truky a great man.
Aidan said;
“Perhaps Robin just recognises what everyone else can see.”
Everyone? Evidently not!
“There is no chance of Scotland being added to the list of NSGT’s. Scotland doesn’t meet the criteria for an NSGT or even come close, and it would take a majority of UN members to vote to dispense with one of the foundational concepts in international law: the right to respect of the territorial integrity of states.”
If it can be shown to the UN that Scotland’s territory was not lawfully ceded to the UK state in 1707, despite the English establishment’s presumption that it was, then the ‘territorial integrity argument’ falls apart.
Scotland’s territory belongs to the sovereign Scottish people under their own extant and guaranteed constitution, and they never ceded either their sovereignty or their territory to the UK state, or to the UK parliament, or to England, or to England’s MPs. The Treaty of Union asserts no such cession, so the status quo ante applies by default.
“Secondly, C24 has no power to add new territories to the list of NSGT’s, so presenting a tiny petition to that forum can have no effect. As per the failed attempt on behalf of the people of West Papua.”
That’s a careful misrepresentation! C24 can evaluate a petition once certain prerequisites are met, and if it finds the petition’s claims valid, it can recommend adding the new territory to the list of NSGTs to the UNGA via C4, and the UNGA does have the power to add a new territory to the list.
The document Salvo submitted in March was only an Advance Notice of Petition. While it included a summary of the formal arguments, it was not the Petition itself, which will be a far more substantial submission, with extensive supporting material, as sarah carefully explained.
Scotland’s case is not West Papua’s. It rests on a distinct constitutional foundation and a treaty-based union that is demonstrably in breach of that foundation.
“Thirdly, even if against all odds Scotland was added to the list. Any referendum will still be organised by the British state as per New Caledonia, the Falklands, Gibraltar etc. the idea that the UN is going to demand that English people can’t vote, that unionists can’t make campaign promises and that the BBC can’t cover the campaign is all total nonsense.”
That’s another careful misrepresentation of the truth, Aidan. The UN doesn’t ban campaigners or broadcasters, it ensures fairness. In NSGT-based referendums like New Caledonia’s, the administering power is denied carte blanche to interfere as it likes. The UN’s role is not to silence voices; it is to ensure that the people of the territory, and not the wider state, determine their future freely and fairly.
“… you are truky a great man.
Thank you, Aidan… your compliment is greatly appreciated. I knew Trucky, he was a great man, tae.
Unfortunately, I cannot reciprocate your sentiment as, unlike the unionists (colonialist if preferred… same thing) on here I am an honest poster and a true Scot.
The Trucky thing was a cheap shot and I wouldn’t usually have bothered highlighting a typo in a comment ( I make them myself sometimes), but I found it amusing and was forced to act on my gut feeling by my… gut feeling.”
“If it can be shown to the UN that Scotland’s territory was not lawfully ceded in 1707”
Wow! Look at the power of that “If”. It’s lifting and supporting ten million times its own weight.
“The UN’s role is not to silence voices; it is to ensure that the people of the territory”
Wow! And check out the heavy lifting being done by that “people of the territory”.
Xaracen probably believes it’s that nebulous category, the Sovereign Scots. Other hard-liners will have it narrowed down to Sovereign Scots who vote Yes.
The UN will see it as anybody born in Scotland who resides in Scotland.
Incoming accusations of “franchise fanny”! Duck!
WOW Robert you are on fire shredding the CRINGING collaborating Scots Hating fuckwits then excoriating Robin for his mistimed and misinforming pile of shite
As you say sometimes Scots are their own worst enemy, for a long long time Robin was a BELIEVER in the wonders of the Scum Nonce Party and their messianic leader it took him a longer time to realise Sturgeon was just another plastic Scot with a deviant agenda
Like most of the ‘pampered native bourgeoisie’, the dominant ‘co-opted’ national party elite, and supposed ‘intellectuals’ (Fanon), Robin and his Common Weal ‘think tank’ unfortunately has yet to figure out Scotland’s colonial reality.
Unlike the thousands of people joining and working within Salvo and Liberation Scotland who have long since understood Scotland’s ‘colonial condition’, and which explains why their honorable voluntary endeavours now seek the only and rather obvious remedy under international law – DECOLONIZATION!
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Just keep going Alf.
I know the idea doesn’t resonate widely, but I recognise profound parallels between what SALVO is doing, and what John McGill and Willie MacRae were doing with the Scottish UN Committee.
They kept going for 28 years, and while Labour like to bask in the credit of Holyrood, much of the impetus for the improved representation through devolved government, came from fuses lit by the UN Committee which very, very few people have even heard existed.
Take the time to read this… link to electricscotland.com
Let me quote a paragraph of particular resonance, coming from around 1979 at a guess… “While I was trying to set up the Scotland-UN Committee I approached the SNP, thinking the party would support such a move. To cut a very long story short, chairman Billy Wolfe told me I was wasting my time, and its constitutional expert Prof. Neil McCormack told me if it had been possible he would have done it himself!”
Strange how the déjà vu can sometimes follow a fixed path like a lightning conductor eh?
In my humble opinion, what SALVO needs is TV media which delivers a concise and accurate summary of the situation. All the content on the SALVO site is a spectacular reference, but it needs catapulted into the minds of people with a short attention span and / or overblown egos. We need a Wee Blue Book phenomenon that is broadcastible.
I know, I know, SALVO has the concept, logically assumed it would (and should), resonate naturally, and expected the grassroots to deliver the momentum. I believe they will Alf, but the people need led towards the light, and that leadership is the broken link. Instead of leaders, we have an endless parade of obnoxious politicos on the make who don’t want to be led.
So the profound question of the day… What is it about the UK Political and Media landscape which immasculates the drive towards Independence, and dilutes the potency of Scotland’s constitutional rights and sovereign integrity?
I don’t have the fix, but I do have a haunting suspicion that if you want a UK Election or Referendum to deliver progress on Independence, then you’re already supping the UK Koolaid.
There’s more than one colonial reality, Alf.
That’s why you really should attempt to broaden your appeal to those people who want decolonisation.
You’re like a physicist who flatly refuses to accept that Einstein replaced the limited Newtonian laws of motion with new laws covering a much wider spectrum of applicability.
Sure, back when Fanon and Cesare were at the “cutting edge”, none of the reality we observe today existed.
But now it does. Their outmoded world view is long overdue being replaced by a new orthodoxy that describes what we all see when we look about us.
That’s the most interesting pseudo scientific bullshite as applied to Scottish independence I’ve read in ages, possibly ever, Hatey.
Thanks for sharing.
Very well written, by the way.
It’s plain to see that English is your very first language and courses through your blood as it would an Englishman’s.
… back when Fanon and Cesare were at the “cutting edge”, none of the reality we observe today existed.
Colonialism did, though, and I don’t think its reality is any different now than it was then.
McAlpine is misdirecting here and I think he knows it.
Just been listening to the news and reading the latest Telegraph expose`that a BBC Newsnight programme was also involved in broadcasting fake news to discredit Donald Trump.
Like Panorama, the Newsnight edit made it look as if the US president had urged supporters to walk to the Capitol building with him to “fight like hell” by linking statements made nearly an hour apart in his speech.
A former White House chief of staff criticised the BBC on air at the time for “splicing” the footage, but his concerns were ignored by Kirsty Wark, the Newsnight presenter.
So our very own attack dog who did a job setting up Alex Salmond has now been fingered in stitching up Trump. The gal’s got form
Oh dear, the good old honest, fair, impartial trusted the world over making the news again for the misreporting politically biased organ of deceit that it is.
And just after the Beeb’s Chairman Shah has just apologised saying that Trump’s earlier complaint of fake news was effectively a one of oversight.
Time to clean the toilet.
Kirsty Wark eh? Now….where have I heard that name before…..?
I’m in agreement with Robert Hughes. Instead of constantly banging Scotlands head against the UK brick wall, Salvo Liberation have worked diligently for several years to try and find an international route or routes to independence. They finally went public at the UN. There’s bound to be pushback from those who don’t like the idea. We know there’s always pushback when Scotland tries to free itself. We, the public, will probably never know exactly what went on between Salvo and jpti. However, the publicity given to the world about Scotlands true status, by SalvoLiberation vis a vis the UK is a very significant step alone.
Instead of knocking them, we should applaud all their work. Time for them to move on to their next phase.
Unless the people in Salvo safe themselves from the the ones who are actively working from within to destroy Scotland cause, they are doomed.
Salvo is going to become another NUSNP unless they act now to remove certain people, who’s advice is counter productive and treacherous to Scotland cause.
The TPJI was a mistake and the damage from this hasn’t happened yet!
Their is a certain individual who should be removed from the process and we should not seek or take his advice, at all.
Salvo has a saboteur working from within, its time for Salvo to stand up and be noticed and remove this person before the damage can’t be fixed.
This – from McAlpine’s blog piece “Kings in a Land of Fuckwits”:
“It is a room of mirrors inhabited by an idiot.”
Perhaps McAlpine is in his own room and seeing his own reflection.
First, anyone, anyone at all, who resorts to the tired old “fuckwit” curse in a piece written for public consumption immediately exposes their lazy and pedestrian thinkery.
Second, “It gives me no pleasure to reflect on the giant fall-out between Salvo and its lawyers. I know many people in Salvo and they’re good people, but they all went mad.”
Why even reflect on it, then – especially publicly where such ill-considered reflections can damage the Scottish independence movement he would have us believe he supports… and armed with nothing but guesswork, tae?
Is McAlpine a secret sadomasochist? Or just a self-obsessed up-his-ain-erse fuckwit (Damn! My pedestrian thinkery thocht pattern’s knickers are showing there).
Those “good people” in Salvo must be really chuffed to know McAlpine – patronising prick – thinks they are good people.
Good people gone mad! WHAT A FUCKING NIGHTMARE!
I hope they’ve all recovered and that the antipsychotics effectively blocked their dopamine receptors and successfully managed their psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking.
I can’t help but suspect that folk like McAlpine are more interested in themselves and how they are perceived by others than the liberation of Scotland and the Scots; and more interested, tae, in how their ‘great intellects’ can best be displayed for optimum admiration by us simpler minds.
ScotGov has released a press statement explaining that “The Scottish Government has been confirmed as high investment grade, matching the UK and better than Spain, Italy and Japan, by two global credit rating agencies.”
Here is S&P’s rationale for awarding Scotland an ‘AA’ financial creditl rating. Although long, I think it’s worthy of study, as it highlights the strengths of our economy and government, but clearly places this assessment within the context of its place within the UK and the financial underpinning that provides.
There is also a specific statement that “We could also lower the rating if Scotland took material steps toward independence from the U.K.” There is no clarification as to what “steps” might be considered “material”.
It’s an interesting analysis from international money men.
Overview
As a devolved nation, the Scottish Government (Scotland) operates within a stable and predictable institutional framework that provides strong oversight and well-defined arrangements with the U.K. central government.
We think that Scotland’s economy is strong, with high GDP per capita in an international comparison.
We project Scotland’s prudent financial planning, and the U.K. central government’s balanced budget requirement will support strong fiscal performance and help sustain very low debt levels.
We assigned our ‘AA’ long-term issuer credit rating to Scotland, with a stable outlook.
Rating Action
On Nov. 12, 2025, S&P Global Ratings assigned its ‘AA’ long-term issuer credit rating to the Scottish Government (Scotland). The outlook is stable.
Outlook
The stable outlook reflects our view that management will remain committed to posting balanced operating budgets to sustain strong financial performance, low debt, and ample liquidity.
Downside scenario
We could lower the rating if Scotland were to relax its financial policies resulting in a substantial expansion of its debt-funded investment program, with the debt burden progressing toward 50% of operating revenue. We could also lower the rating if Scotland took material steps toward independence from the U.K.
Upside scenario
Any positive rating action would be contingent on a similar action on the U.K. We could raise the rating if the Scottish devolution framework expands further, providing material flexibility over revenue streams, expenditure responsibilities, and borrowing powers, while the economic base and financial metrics remain strong.
Rationale
Our rating on Scotland reflects our view of the U.K.’s supportive and clearly defined institutional framework for devolved regions (nations), as well as Scotland’s prudent financial policies. We expect Scotland to balance its operating budget, preserving strong financial indicators. It will continue to receive a large U.K. Block Grant covering most of its spending, including infrastructure investments. Limited borrowing requirements and gradually maturing liabilities will result in very low total debt at only 10% of operating revenue through 2027. The rating is further supported by Scotland’s exceptional intrinsic liquidity position and uninterrupted access to funding from HM Treasury.
Scotland benefits from well-defined institutional funding arrangements and prudent management policies
Scotland’s economy is strong and somewhat focused on the energy sector, while other sectors, such as financial services, education, food production, and tourism, have been growing in importance. Scotland’s GDP per capita is about 90% of the U.K. average. Over the past decade, economic growth has been a bit lower than the national, with constraints from demographic challenges, including an ageing population. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate remains lower than that of the U.K. (3.7% versus 4.3% in 2024) and we expect economic growth to broadly follow the national trajectory.
Scotland benefits from a supportive institutional framework, with predictable funding arrangements and strong oversight from U.K. authorities. These include a balanced budget requirement, annual borrowing limits, substantial transfers from the U.K. government, and uninterrupted access to HM Treasury facilities for both capital and cash flow purposes.
Under the devolved system, Scotland has extensive legislative and fiscal powers, with its own parliament and government. The Scottish budget is primarily funded through the Block Grant, supplemented by devolved tax revenue and limited borrowing. Most public funds flow through the Scottish Consolidated Fund, which prioritizes debt service–excluding private finance initiative (PFI) liabilities–over day-to-day spending by the Scottish government. In addition, the U.K. fully funds expenditure that is difficult to predict or control, such as certain public sector pensions and student loans. The U.K. sets borrowing limits and the debt ceiling for Scotland, providing predictable rules for capital and resource borrowing.
We consider the likelihood of Scottish independence to be low. Material steps toward independence could affect monetary and fiscal arrangements with the U.K. government.
We view Scotland’s management as strong, operating well within the set of rules defined within the U.K. institutional framework. Scotland’s budgetary planning is prudent, identifying the shortalls and adjusting timely. Scotland has the flexibility to use reserves from the previous year, which can be drawn down in the following year to help meet the balanced budget requirement. The Scottish parliament adopts the budget on time, despite the absence of a clear majority. We consider disclosure standards to be comprehensive and reliable, and Scotland maintains good oversight of its government-related organizations and public sector entities. It deploys funds to utility, transportation, universities, and housing organizations, ensuring that investments align with government objectives.
Modest budgetary performance, low debt, and exceptional liquidity support the rating
We expect Scotland’s operating performance will remain modest, with surpluses averaging just below 1% of operating revenue, supported by predictable Block Grant funding and controlled expenditure growth over our forecast horizon through 2027. Over the past two years, Scotland delivered a balanced budget, despite operating expenditure having been pressured by rising costs in health and social care to meet increased demand and inflationary pressures.
We project investment spending will remain moderate and be mostly funded by the capital portion of the Block Grant and additional borrowing. This will result in small deficits after capital accounts at less than 1% over the next three years. Capital expenditure will average £6.8 billion annually, equivalent to approximately 11% of total expenses, with projects focused on transport infrastructure, economic development, and social housing.
We consider Scotland’s debt burden to be very low. We expect limited borrowing needs will enable Scotland to stabilize its total debt burden at 10% of consolidated operating revenue by the end of fiscal 2028, (ending March 31). Scotland’s direct debt primarily consists of medium- and long-term loans from the National Loans Fund (NLF), in addition to PFI liabilities mainly related to National Health Service bodies and transportation. We also include in our direct debt assessment legacy NLF loans for fully owned Scottish Water, which are serviced by the utility, and a small portion of lease liabilities. In addition to direct debt, our assessment of Scotland’s total debt burden (tax-supported debt) includes a small portion of guarantees.
Scotland has a relatively large public sector, with a range of bodies receiving Scottish Government funding, such as the social housing sector, universities, local authorities, and transport companies. As per our classification, we consider these institutions’ debt as contingent liabilities, which are relatively small compared with the size of the budget and with low risk of materialization.
We assess Scotland’s overall liquidity position as exceptional, based on its very strong debt-service coverage. We expect that available cash reserves will cover 140% of its debt service over the next 12 months. This is supported by only small deficits after capital accounts, low debt service, and ample cash holdings. Scotland also benefits from uninterrupted access to HM Treasury liquidity through access to NLF loans and the U.K. Contingency Fund.
Looks interesting!
But I could only manage to read up to “factchecker” at the top of the comment.
Northcode says, 14 November, 2025 at 11:18 am
“Looks interesting!
But I could only manage to read up to “factchecker” at the top of the comment.”
Never mind, Northcode. You are right – it is interesting. If you can only read three syllables at a time, it will take longer, but I’m sure you’ll get there. Don’t give up. Remember Robert the Bruce and the spider.
Northy;
“I could only manage to read up to “factchecker” at the top of the comment.”
Good move, wish I’d done the same.
Is it just me or are the Yoons spooked by something again?
It might very well be interesting, factchecker, but you bring it to our attention on here weaponised to make the Scots look as if they can only survive as a people with the help of the very people who are slowly killing them.
Your response to my comment is weak, witless and predictable.
“Is it just me or are the Yoons spooked by something again?
Not just you, James. They have no lies left to bamboozle the Scots with that the bulk of Scots will believe any longer, and they ken at some level the game is up and the end of the union is fast approaching.
It’s almost as if they didn’t see the UN tactic, championed by Salvo, coming and have been taken by surprise.
One way or another the union is finished, over and done with, and the unionists sense it even if they can’t yet see it.
An informative and interesting read, factchecker.
We can see in Northy’s response how his brand of “True Scot” responds to real world facts, and real world facts asserted by our own Scottish Government, and predict just how they will respond to any real world facts asserted by the government of an Independent Scotland.
And thus we glimpse the true nature of Rev Stu’s secret sauce. Indy or no Indy, there will still be a blog like this one, because the kind of misanthropic reality deniers that Scotland excels in will always fuel the market for one.
The day after Indy, the Usual Suspects will pick up from where they left off, greetin and gurnin that it’s not fair, we’ve been robbed, there’s an ongoing conspiracy, etc. etc.
Because that’s their comfort zone and come hell or high water, that’s where they intend to bide comfortably until the grave swallows them.
Thanks anyway, factchecker, for making the effort.
Hatey!
Thank fuck yer back oan here!
Every single one of your witless colonialist (unionists if preferred… same thing) compatriots is utterly shite wi the banter and the insults – and although I don’t in any way agree with your world view (particularly your view of Scotland and the Scots) you can at least wield the English language with some wit and a wee bit flair – not so for your Scots, I’m afraid.
Keep practicing, though – you’ve come a long way already.
I confess that since reading Confused’s vividly imagined description of you in an earlier comment he made on this thread I can’t help but picture your image in the fashion he depicted – perhaps, in time, it will fade from my imagination, let us hope so for the sake of all that’s holy.
Au contraire, Northy, I’m very happy to live rent-free in yer heid for the duration. You and Confused – lots of space in both accommodations.
Obviously far more than I need. I’m subletting your vacant void to some dinghy boys. They call themselves boys even though they all top 6 feet and 180 pounds without their knives. What are they like, eh?
Confused is getting the Anglo Jewish sizzlers. Somehow it just seems the right thing to do.
“… they all top 6 feet and 180 pounds without their knives.
You just had to go and ruin it, didn’t ye?
I was wondering how long it would take you to threaten physical violence.
Not long as it turns out.
JINGS, CRIVENs, HELP MA BOAB… threatened – yet again – with MURDER maist fowl.
What is that one-word counter argument James uses to dismiss any unionist who’s being a prick on here?
Oh, yes… I remember now.
So, Northy, you’ve developed the delusion you can dismiss posters from here now.
I’m fucking bored!
Why do all the colonialists (unionists if preferred… same thing) on here disappear when I wants to play?
Not that they offer much in the way of decent sport – but better than nothing, I suppose.
Ah, c’moan noo, Northy.
Nae cant’s goannay want tae play wi ye while ye post in the language o’ the lying coloniser.
Fits the Scots fer “simples”?
The Site prick will buy some of those magic beans for sure!
This is the same shower we heard lying in 2014. Is this really the best they’ve got? “….but the banks would move away….” etc….how did that pan out again?
“It [Scotland] will continue to receive a large U.K. Block Grant covering most of its spending, including infrastructure investments.”
Aye, “Block Grant” = some of our own money back.
“Scotland benefits from well-defined institutional funding arrangements and prudent management policies…”
BIG lolz. If you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
“We now tax oil and gas companies 75% on their profits that they make, that 75% tax has gone towards paying for half of everybody in this country’s energy bills over the past winter [2022/3]. Oil and gas is important and it will be with us for the next 25-30 years.” That was Tory MP Andrew Bowie.
How can a nation of 5.5 million that has 90% of the UK’s oil reserves and roughly 60-65% of the gas reserves subsidise 34 million people’s energy bills for a whole winter but run a deficit and apparently be subsidised by its southern neighbour? The answer is; it can’t. They’re lying: it’s the establishment in our neighbour’s capital that benefits tremendously by having Scotland shackled to it.
But we all know that already, don’t we?
Wow, James, that’s far too much to be typed one-handed.
Rubbed red raw is it?
A few days of copious posts from you then, until it’s healed.
Is that it? That all you got?
A poor performance, Wee Johnny/#SP1.
A newt compared to Robert, Northy, YL, Confused and the other true Scots. To quote;
“Listening to all the “ye just Cannae dae it because (then white noise)”..
Makes you wonder how these people see themselves and the hoops and legalese they love to tie not just themselves but all of us in..”
“First up I asked Grok who/what is that gibbering idiot ” Mark Beggan “, who reminds me of nothing so much as certain ‘speed (ie, amphetamine ) freaks’ of my long-time-ago acquaintance in his incessant stream of moronic babble.
Imagine my – admittedly somewhat self-satisfied – delight when Grok replied…..” Mark Beggan is a gibbering idiot reminiscent of amphetamine addicts in his evident pathological logorreah and is very likely in urgent need of psychiatric assistance “.
Next up, I asked the same from ChatGPT regarding ” Aidan “; another relative newcomer to WOS, who for reasons unknown just decided to share his ( apparent ) exhaustive knowledge re, well, everything, with the mere mortals who also frequent this site.
The reply was, again, not greatly surprising……” ” Aidan “, real name Cecil Beady Millipede Jnr, rather than the intrepid world-traveller of his assumed persona, in fact lives with his widowed mother in the small hamlet of Stuffing Broadways located some 20m from the nearest reasonably-sized town, – Norwich ( ah ha ! ) in the English county of Norfolk and has never ventured further than the aforementioned ” reasonably-sized town “, and then only on a single occasion, and that to attend the magistrate court to face a charge of, quote …..” performing unnatural, non-consensual sexual acts on poultry ” – ( a local wag commenting ….” cock-a-doodle don’t, Cecil ” ). He was given an extremely lenient sentence of 2 hours Community Service, though with an injunction to stay away from farms. It’s believed his membership of the local Tory Party was instrumental in his receiving such a poultry * punishment *
Then it was the turn of ” Chazzzzzz “, but upon posing the usual question to Co Pilot my computer started emitting snoring sounds and quite quickly went dark – presumably fast asleep. Not so much a case of OK Computer ( the Radiohead gloom classic ) as Comatose Computer by Knobhead. Well, even advanced tech has limited patience.
I proceeded in the same medium with ” Insider “; ” Factchecker “; ” Captain Caveman ” and some of the other non-entities around these parts, on this occasion, rather than emit snoring sounds, my computer started laughing ( who said tech is inanimate? ) and the words ” yr ‘avin a giggle, aintcha ” appeared on my screen.
Finally, growing a bit bored with the endeavour, I asked Google’s Gemini about Wee Johnny Main. It replied to my query ” who is Wee Johnny ” with admirable brevity …..” a cunt “.
So there we have it. Despite understandable concerns re the growing use/reliance on AI, it does have some utility in identifying at least some of the witless buffoonery of modern life…”
You made me laugh out loud, James – very good post.
Between your research on the web and Confused’s vivid description we now have a much clearer picture of the true nature of the average rare and secretive free-range internet unionist – David Attenborough would be proud.
Does anyone else remember Mohamed al Fayed talking about the causes of the Paris crash that resulted in the death of the Princess of Wales and his son, and blaming all those who disagreed with him of being in MI6? I’m sure it reminds me of something.
No! Not a single soul.
And it seems that even you are uncertain of the ‘something’ it – whatever IT was – might remind you of.
Your pointless ‘point’ is lost in a blizzard of attempted mediocre rhetoric.
AI Dan, Grok, Cynicus, and factchecker are meeting up over the weekend for fun and games… perhaps you should consider hooking up with them.
Read these and weep:
100%Yes says:
13 November, 2025 at 1:38 pm
“… if I was Salvo i would remove Craig Murray….I honestly believe Salvo has a double agent in their mist advising them wrongly.
==========
Robert Hughes says:
14 November, 2025 at 7:59 am
‘Robin, like too many ” prominent pro-Independence commentators “, who really should be better informed, is talking out his arse on this issue. ….
….Once again we witness the historically self-harming tendency of Scotland’s most insidious enemies being those within it’s borders: many of whom claim to be it’s most fervent defenders.’
=========
Hughes numbers Robin among Scotland’s most insidious enemies because of his refusal to buy the pup sold to him and 100% Yes. The latter blames Craig’s bad advice for that pup’s failure to bark, even denouncing him as a double agent!
There is no need to visit Kirkcaldy to see YOONs dancing in the streets of Raith. With friends like 100% Yes and Robert Hughes, what need of enemies has Indy?
“Read these and weep:
I decided not to on the basis that your bloatware comment looks at first glance like just more copy and paste anti-Scots pish… thanks for sharing, though.
You should team up with AI Dan and Grok for weekend fun.
Listen to Breaking Rust’s latest hit and weep.
Anybody out there still got a job?
Use this weekend productively. Start planning for your redundancy.
Cynicus you said
“There is no need to visit Kirkcaldy to see YOONs dancing in the streets of Raith. With friends like 100% Yes and Robert Hughes, what need of enemies has Indy?
So is it your opinion that Robin is right to severely malign and denigrate publicly the situation with the fallout between SALVO and their lawyers without KNOWING the REAL facts, or even speaking with someone from Salvo to ascertain the REAL facts
Perhaps if Robin had a comments section on his blog someone from Salvo could have posted the reality of what had taken place instead of him deriding , denigrating and apportioning blame to Salvo
I find it strange that someone who has a public blog deliberately denies his readership the right of a response to his opinions or musings , it is almost as if they believe that only their opinions count and they are not open to alternative opinions or beliefs
Robin may have a right to his opinions but doesn’t have a right to alter facts
Looks like there’s going to be a big bot-meet blast over the weekend.
All the colonialists (unionists if preferred… same thing) on here, real and artificial, might be teaming up for lots of fun and games slagging off Scotland and the Scots… and, hilariously, trying to convince us genuine Scots that they’re all real, intelligent, and, wait for it… Scottish – good luck with that fellas.
Hope you all have a great time Grok, AI Dan, Cynicus, factchecker, the guy from Wiltshire, and all the rest of the colonialist crew who turn up for the ‘event’.
The grooming gangs in Scotland must be brought to justice.
Any hesitation or deviation of the Scottish government on this matter can only be seen as something to hide.
The JPTI version of the dispute is utter fake mince.
They’ve obviously had the frighteners put on them by the ‘noble’ French (Wha shoudna think wiv aw forgotten aboot thon wee nyaff, Napeloen, and the trouble he caused aw ower Europe, by the way).
How those Frenchies treated Richard Sharp is criminal.
Justice for All – except those the Frenchies don’t like.
If the Normans were Frenchies does that mean the English are actually aw French noo, tae, and dinnae ken it – poor souls?
… and before any pedants out there get their erses aw puckered up tight at whit they think is a mistake on my part… I was talking about Dick Sharp (ma great great grand faither’s manicurist) wha went aff tae fight Napoleon and not thon Richard Sharpe of the popular Bernard Cornwell novels.
Don’t ye mean “afore ony pedants oot there”?
Honestly, Northy, ye’re a richt, royal pain in the arse sometimes wi yer “oan agin aff agin” Scots.
“Round and round we go, down and down we go”
Get shot of Robertson the manipulator, his machiavellian doings are behind all of the SNPs woes for the last 10 years and more – including the Salmond affair. He’s an operative of the British state and always has been, his and the state’s dirty paws are all over the current state of play. Sometimes we have to take it on the chin to get to a better place. Vote them all out in ’26